Joan was taking an incredibly satisfying dump and smoking a joint when the police breached her apartment. She listened intently as a beer bottle hit a wall, a coffee table removed two men from the gene pool, a high powered rifle carried out a similar task, then rapid pistol fire took care of the rest.

She poked her head out to examine the carnage, the lit joint still between her ruby red lips. Himry lay collapsed in the hallway surrounded by bodies with a gaping hole where his heart should have been and a massive erection. She tried not to read too far into that last part, some people just died happier than others.

"Well, fuck." Joan sighed as she grabbed the drekan by the foot and dragged him into the bathroom. She tapped a few buttons to convert the shower to hot tub mode and unceremoniously tossed Himry in. He would heal naturally on his own, eventually. But Joan didn't feel like waiting. She would have to speed things up a bit.

Out in the living room Officer Greg Polonia coughed and sputtered as his own wetware brought him back from the edge of death. He looked down at the gaping hole in his stomach and screamed. The bullet from the smart rifle had made a mess of his insides.

He was disoriented, his legs didn't work, and something was coming towards him. Greg tried to grab for his pistol but it was missing. "Fuck." He swore.

Joan stood over him, still naked. He watched as her long flame red hair slowly braided itself into a ponytail then coiled like a snake into a tight bun. Lean toned muscles like a dancer's flexed under her milk white skin as she leaned in close to get a better look.

"It's just not your day, is it?" She asked, her green eyes shimmering.

"No." Greg sputtered, tasting blood. "It's not."

Casually Joan grabbed him by the throat and lifted the larger man up until they were at eye level. With no apparent effort she bashed him against the cement wall, smashing his skull.

"To think I used to be afraid of you people. What a joke." She said softly.

Then she carried the corpse over and tossed it into the half filled tub with Himry. Already the nanomachines in his blood were swimming in the warm water, looking for things to eat. He would need the nutrients if he was going to come back soon enough to be useful.

The hunds, being ever practical, had decided that the simplest way to handle combat losses was to just recycle everyone. Friend or foe, it didn't matter, into the soup you went. Biomass was biomass. So while everyone else's numbers diminished, the hunds would continue to gain strength.

It wasn't widely known but every hund contained within them the ability to make more of their kind, if supplied with enough raw materials and time. All it took was one hund, one little foot hold, one dragon's tooth planted in fertile soil, and they would be impossible to get rid of. Kill as many as you wanted, they would be back.

The nanomachines in their blood were capable of repairing flesh, so it wasn't a large leap for them to produce new bodies for the hunds if needed. And a nutrient bath of liquified corpses was the perfect medium for the Gravekeeper to paint with.

He could reach into a soup of dead conscripts barely worthy of carrying a rifle and pull out warhunds. They would rise from the dead with full recollection of how they died and a conscious desire to do better this time. For them getting disintegrated was a teachable moment.

"If you aren't dying, you aren't fighting hard enough." Was a popular saying among the warhund raiders who along with other nasty tricks were known to duplicate themselves en masse. There was no such thing as a hund volunteer shortage.

As Joan fed the other corpses into the rapidly thickening stew the thing that bothered her the most, was that it didn't bother her at all. She was dimly aware that she should have felt something. But she didn't. She just didn't.

Joan wasn't a bad person. She liked people, enjoyed their company, even helped them out from time to time. But she was numb when it came to violence. There was no revulsion, no joy, just a strange muted half-sadness when she killed.

When she took a life it was as if something precious had been wasted, like perfume poured into the ocean. She was aware of the value, but she didn't really care. She couldn't bring herself to care.

Gershwin appeared in the mirror, he didn't have much time so he kept things short and sweet. "The bounty has been rescinded, but there is a second team on the way with a gunship. My people can handle the gunship. Also, there is a kinter female named Kivu that has it out for Himry. Be on the lookout."

"Thank you." Joan said as the connection broke. She had heard the name Kivu before and it wasn't too far of a stretch to believe that the kinter would send one of their people after Himry. They wouldn't like the idea of a drekan joining the collective.

She didn't trust Gershwin, probably because he had told her not to. He was very adamant that people not trust him. But he did go out of his way to speak the truth whenever possible and always kept his promises. So it was really hard not to trust him.

The sound of shouting in the hallway brought her back to reality. Joan sighed and set her joint on the edge of the sink. "Here I go, killing again…" She said as she picked up one of the smart pistols.

*-----

"Drop the weapon!" Screamed Officer Jim Front as he aimed his carbine at the naked blood covered woman in front of him.

"Sure." Joan said, tossing the pistol on the floor as the other seven police officers surrounded her. They were keeping their distance, but at any moment they were going to try and tackle her to the ground. "The guys you sent before are all dead, just so you know."

Jim blinked. "What the fuck did you just say?" He demanded angrily as he approached.

"Your men, they're all dead." Joan locked her eyes on his. There was an eerie iridescent green metallic sheen to the edges of her irises. "It took about six seconds."

Jim felt his blood run cold. This was bad, this was so bad. Kivu hadn't told him that Joan was enhanced, much less spliced. He had run into demi-humans before and it was never a good time.

Back in the bad old days when humanity hadn't yet become the technological powerhouse that it was today, some had thought it was necessary to "improve" the species. The end result of that had been creatures like Joan, who presented as human but were engineered to go toe to toe with the nastiest of xenos and win.

Of course it all ended in tears. These new demi-humans had initially been instrumental in safeguarding humanity as it took its first fledgling steps among the stars. They would take on any threat the universe could throw at them and keep the torch of humanity burning bright.

But as the power of humanity solidified they had fallen out of favor, looked upon as not more than human, but as something lesser. Something to be feared. Something to destroy. Something that if not kept in check would threaten the purity of the human race and challenge what it meant to be human. So they had been hunted down and killed, one by one.

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Those that survived the purges had gone into hiding, suppressing their abilities to blend in better. They had scattered into the deepest darkest pockets of space, passing on their legacy to their children, biding their time. Multiplying in the harsh environments that they had been created to conquer. Improving with each generation.

"Guys… I need you to back away from her very fucking slowly. Do not make any hostile movements." Jim said as he lowered his carbine.

"Good choice." Joan said. Off in the distance there was the sound of some kind of auto-turret firing followed by several explosions. That would be the gunship meeting Gershwin's people.

Over the radio they could hear sounds of screaming and gunfire. That wasn't a good sign.

The other police officers did as they were told, their carbines still pointed at Joan. One looked over at Jim with confusion. "What's going on?"

"Look at her eyes! She's fucking spliced!" Jim shouted as he backed away. "We need to go. We need to get out of here!"

"That would be incredibly smart." Joan agreed.

"Fuck that." Said an officer with more balls than brains as he aimed his carbine at the back of Joan's head. His name was Kyle and he was new. "I'm not afraid of some lab grown freak."

"We're not lab grown. That's a myth." Joan said as she turned to look at him. "It's a mix of gene therapy and wetware augmentation. But he's right, I will kill every single one of you if you piss me off."

It was about then that Jim caught sight of the Joan's tattoo. It was massive, stretching from her lower back all the way up to her shoulders. It depicted a serpent eating its own tail with a long sword pinning its mouth closed. The handle of the sword rested on Joan's right shoulder, just within reach. It had returned when her wetware came back online.

The snake's sickly yellow eye opened and swiveled to face him. He could feel a malevolent presence as it looked him over, sized him up, then slowly the eye closed once more.

"Fuck that, I'm out." Jim said as he bolted for the door. Monsters with animated and possibly sentient tattoos were above his pay grade.

Joan watched him go with what might have passed for respect. "You know, I'm honestly surprised." She said, "I didn't think any of you would be smart enough to run away."

The remaining officers looked at each other. They had never seen Jim run away from anything.

"Shut the fuck up!" Kyle shouted.

"No." Replied Joan coldly. "You shut the fuck up and listen. You shit bags did nothing when I reported Rizz for stalking me. Now he's dead and so are the ones who came to avenge him. Maybe they were bad cops too, maybe they were good people with families, I don't know and I don't care."

"We're on a planet that is being rapidly destroyed. The government has already fallen, rule of law is moot, and the only authority you have right now that is worth a flying fuck is the gun in your hand." Joan continued menacingly.

"If you do manage to kill me, which you won't, I know a pack of warhund raiders that will have a delightful time hunting you down. No matter how many lifetimes it takes." She let that hang in the air.

"So rather than losing everything to literally gain nothing, I'd suggest you all kindly fuck off." Joan growled. "Because let's face it, you talk about duty and service but you're all just looking out for yourselves. That's all you're really good at."

Kyle had heard enough. He wasn't going to let this red haired bitch kill cops and get away with it. His finger tightened on the trigger. Nothing happened.

"She was stalling while I hacked your hardware." Himry snarled from the bathroom doorway, blood and gore dripping from his fur. The gold had crept in further this time, now not just his teeth and eyes were golden, but his claws as well.

"Interesting…" he said as he looked at the golden talons extending from his fingers. "That's new."

"How was Valhalla?" Joan asked, ignoring the police officers. "I hear it's nice but I've never been. Humans apparently aren't allowed."

"It was great. Ani sends her love by the way." Himry wandered through the gore over to the fridge for another beer. It was the last one. "I understand she's your grandmother's… adoptive grandmother?"

"Basically, yeah. How is she?" Joan asked, ignoring the cops who were too terrified to take advantage of the situation.

"Great. She hit me with an ax for a while until I got harder to hit, then she started stabbing me. It was fun. The tacos in Valhalla are absolutely horrible though. Too many olives." Himry popped the top off the bottle with his thumb and took a swig. "What's with the tattoo? You didn't have that when I left."

Joan shrugged. "It's an ancient evil that haunts my bloodline, yada yada."

"You can't just yada yada an ancient evil that haunts your bloodline." Himry said before looking at the assorted police officers in full tactical gear. "What do you chuckle dicks want? Get out of our apartment."

"Yeah." Joan said, taking a hit off her joint. "Get the fuck out of here." There was an explosion in the distance as a katzen with a missile launcher finally took out the police gunship.

The cops watched their last hope spiral uncontrollably through the air before crashing and burning on the street below.

"That sounded expensive." Himey remarked.

"Hey, fuck you!" Kyle shouted as he approached the drekan. "You think you can just-"

Himry grabbed Kyle by the throat and lifted him up to eye level. "Yes." He said softly. "I could kill all of you and nothing would ever come of it. But I won't because there's no point. You aren't a challenge to overcome and learn from. You aren't a threat to my continued existence. Killing you would be like killing a baby."

Kyle gasped and choked in Himry's golden grip but couldn't get free. All he could do was pound desperately at the drekan's arm as his vision started to narrow and go black. Himry inspected him coldly, his wetware scanning the desperate human and his gear. He was looking for something hidden, something Kyle didn't know he had. And he found it nestled in Kyle's pack where the trauma kit should have been.

"Why should I bother killing someone as useless as you?" Himry asked as he released Kyle. "You're nothing to me. Now kindly fuck off."

The two blood covered lovers watched as the cops retreated. All the fight had left them.

"That was suspiciously mature." Joan observed.

"Not really." Himry said as he observed the departing humans through the apartment building's hacked security cameras. "While I was down Gershwin warned me that someone named Kivu wanted me dead. Back during the war the kinter used a lot suicide bombers so I did a scan while we were talking and sure enough, there it was."

"How big of an explosion are we talking about?" Joan asked.

As if to answer there was a blast that rocked the building and dust showered over them from the open window. Himry smiled, he had found the frequency of the remote detonator in Kyle's assault pack.

"Pretty fucking big apparently." He laughed. "It looks like Kivu wasn't taking any chances. If the first team failed, the second one would finish us off with the bomb. I wonder why she hates us so much."

Joan frowned. That explosion could have killed her and she couldn't come back from the dead like Himry. Maybe there was more going on here than just a grudge match between the kinter and drekan. Maybe Kivu was after her too.

"We need to get going." Joan announced. "We need to get cleaned up, dressed, then head out before anyone else comes."

"As you wish." Himry said, looking down at the gold that was creeping from his claws up his fingers. It was spreading ever so slightly. "I'll try to contact the plant killer, maybe we can meet up somewhere safe."

"Yeah, do that." Joan walked towards the bathroom to wash up then stopped and swore. The hot tub was full of liquified corpses and she had no shower. She would have to wash in the sink.

"Let's just use the neighbor's." Himry called out. "They aren't home."

Joan stuck her head out of the bathroom. "I feel like that would be rude."

Himry shrugged and began shooting through the wall with the smart carbine Kyle had dropped. Eventually he had a hole big enough to climb through, the walls in places like this were thin and barely up to code. "It's the apocalypse, they'll understand. Plus it's probably a good idea to at least leave the apartment. Also, we're out of beer."

Joan grabbed their clothes and sighed. "Fine, but only because we're out of beer."

"That's the spirit!" Himry said as he expanded the hole he had made with another round of gunfire. "After you."

"You seem awfully cheerful for someone who just died and was resurrected… twice." Joan grumbled as she crawled through.

"Maybe I'm just a morning person." Himry joked. He was trying not to show it but he was actually terrified. He was afraid of losing himself to the collective, of being hunted by the kinter, of failing to save the planet, and mostly of losing Joan. He didn't know why but he was growing fond of her.

Drekan had families but they didn't really have lovers. The idea of personal bonds seemed like a weakness, and weakness was unacceptable to a drekan. Mutual interest was usually as far as things went, besides perhaps the bond between parent and child. But even that was muted for his kind.

Himry watched as Joan stood up on the other side, still naked. She did have nice flanks for a human. He looked around the ruined apartment one last time and made a conscious decision that if they survived this he would try and explore these feelings he had for Joan.

Being with her just felt right for some reason. It shouldn't have, but somehow they seemed to work. Perhaps this was what they called a pair bond?

"Are you coming or not?" Joan asked impatiently.

"Yeah." Himry said as he crawled through the hole. "I'm right behind you."