Asher stares out the window, the sky is more clear than he's ever seen before. It's beautiful, but he wishes so desperately to be one of them and disappear from this world. His watch beeps twice softly, he looks down at the watch. He swallows hard and shakes harder. He sighs and breathes in deeply.

He sits on the bed and hangs his head in his hand. "Are you sure?"

"Yes sir. DNA matches."

"Thank you Aria."

"Don't thank me for this sir."

"Let me know when you come back."

"Of course sir."

Asher takes a deep breath and rubs his neck, he hangs his head and breathes out slowly and shakily. The door creaks open, he looks back at Riley, she stares at him, but its hard to see her face.

"You okay? What are you doing up?" he asks and sniffles,

She clears her throat. "You just wake up?"

He raises an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"Asher...I don't want to die."

He frowns, "You make it sound like that's going to happen Riley."

She doesn't say anything. "Do you....want to talk about it?" He sniffles, he lifts he sleeve and wipes his nose,

"....Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah...um...Raegan...sh...she didn't..."

Riley covers her mouth after it drops. "Asher...I'm...I'm so sorry."

Asher wipes the tears out of his eye, "It's fine. Riley, that won't happen to you. They won't find us. And if they do, I'm gonna kill them. If they don't, I'll find them first, and kill them."

Riley stays silent, just shocked. Asher sighs, "Riley, I know you're scared, I don't know if anything I say can comfort or reassure you. But...I'm trying my best to defend us, right now you and Ryan are all I care about. I can't trust anyone totally. But I want to trust you both, so bad. I'm scared too Riley. I'm stressed too, scared too, pissed, angry. Honestly...blood hungry. I don't want the person who's doing this, I want them to bleed, they took everything, not just from me, but from people I'd like to consider as friends."

Asher looks at her and down at the floor. "I don't know what to do either."

She just nods, she turns and disappears out of the doorway. He rolls his eyes and sighs. Asher groans and sits on his bed. "Noctus, where the heck are you?"

He walks out of the room and finds his way to the living room. Ryan leans against the wall watching the fire place, but has a clear visual of Mia and Jessica. Asher smiles softly at him, he's thankful for him.

Ryan notices him and nods, as if saying 'Hey.'

Asher walks over and clears his throat softly, "How long have they been asleep?"

"Not long. Maybe an hour, Riley was out here too but she went to bed I think."

Asher's face turns dark. Ryan frowns, "What is it?"

"I don't like this Ryan. We're running right now. Whoever is chasing us, it's their game right now. Not ours. We need to find a way to get ahead of them. Otherwise we're screwed."

"Alright, so we just do what then?"

"I don't know yet. I got some ideas actually. But it's dangerous."

"I'm with you man."

"...Can I ask why? You have no reason to trust me right now."

"Honestly? The majority of why I side with you is because...it feels right. the rest of me is a mix of wanting to believe you're trying to help us, that you can help us. And if that's true, it's pretty selfish to sit on my butt while you take all the heat and pressure."

Asher rests his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "So much is uncertain right now, for me too, obviously. Thank you. I'm really scared man."

"Me too."

Asher looks into the living room. The only light is the fireplace, the yellow light tries to illuminate the room, but it falls short. Still, the heat from it seems to seal away and make up for the rest of the visible darkness. Asher looks at Mia.

"What happened to her? Who's Jessica? I have so many of my own questions."

"We'll find answers. I wouldn't recommend talking to Riley about those questions, she might just be trusting us right now because we outnumber her."

Asher nods, "I know, but I hope she's just conflicted. I'll watch them, you get some rest."

"Alright, thanks."

Asher rubs his eyes and leans against the wall, as Ryan walks into the consuming darkness of the hall. Asher follows after him with his eyes. He feels like such a puppet right now that he half expects some assassin to emerge after a minute, from the darkness holding Ryan's corpse by the collar of his shirt. This person is a pro. Asher has fled and hid this entire chase.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be different.

He stares at the two girls sleeping, tied at the limbs on the couches, motionless. He's thankful for the cracking fire, it breaks the bullhorn volumed silence. He must have passed out sometime during the night because Ryan came and shook him awake. He breathes in sharply through his nose and looks up at him through groggy vision and eyes.

"H-hey. What time is it?"

Asher rubs his eyes, "Time to untie us? Or are you still being a prick?"

"About 11. How you feeling?"

"Uh...yeah, okay. I'm okay. Sorry I passed out."

"No worries man. Everything's still good."

"He means we are still tied up."

Asher climbs to his feet and rubs his eyes. "Where's Riley?"

"On the jet. she didn't really want to be in the house."

Asher sighs, "Alright. Have uh, have you made breakfast yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Alright, I'll get something from the cellar."

"Cool."

Asher slips on boots and a thick jacket and opens the front door and swings it shut behind him. He starts around to this side and does a double take to the trees in front of him. He stops in his tracks. He just stares at it, a smile creeps onto his face. A huge moose, it stares back at him, frozen as if stuffed right in it's stance, maybe 30 yards away.

The only problem with this is he is really close to them, and they aren't exactly afraid of people. He takes a deep breath and takes a step away from it, it snorts and turns and starts away. Asher breathes out shakily and shakes his head. That was close. Asher walks to the cellar doors.

He pulls them open and starts down into the dark cellar. Gosh dang it! He forgot the flashlight. Eh he'll be fine. He explores it carefully, there's enough light from the open doors that everything is awfully lit, but outlined. He walks to one of the shelves and grabs a big bag off of it and walks to the cellar doors to look at it. Ugh Cocoa Powder. He grabs another bag that soft or looks different, Milk. Okay, but food is needed. He finds a third bag and brings it to the light. Eggs.

He smiles and starts out of the cellar and closes the doors. "Hey! You okay?"

Asher looks at Ryan and smiles, "Yeah! Hah! I forgot a flashlight so I had to find this crap in the dark. Powdered Eggs."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Ryan snorts, "Why does that just fit you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Asher scoffs,

"You're bland Asher. Just expected more." Ryan says laughing,

Asher lifts his arm and chucks the bag, it slams into Ryan's butt and hits the snow.

"Ah!" Ryan jumps and yells but it quickly turns into a laugh,

SHH! BOOM!

Asher flies and rolls through the air and hits the snow hard. When he comes too, its dark and quiet. He groans, but there's a cold breeze on his back. He lifts his head out of the snow. Pain and pressure explodes in his chest like he just got hit square on by a battering ram, full force. His whole body awakens with pain. He pushes himself to his hands and knees.

The world around him is covered in snow and smoke. He looks around him, the cabin is basically gone. Ryan! Where's Ryan!?

He jumps to his feet and tries to walk forward, he stumbles so hard that he face plants in the snow. He gets to his feet, slower this time but is more steady. He sees him, or at least he prays it's him, lying face down in the snow.

"Sir?!"

He jumps and turns, but no one's there, ugh Aria! He turns and hurries to the body. "Hang on!" he yells into the watch,

He drops next to Ryan and rolls him over. His arm and side are peppered with blood, but it looks like it's just a lot of blood from his arm, doesn't look too bad. His face is peppered with cuts and blood.

"Aria what the frick just happened?!"

He puts his fingers against Ryan's throat, he's breathing.

"You're captives took over the ship sir! We have another visitor as well! A Braven Hunter, I assume he came for them. I'm trying to hack back into the Hover Ranger. Your vitals show you aren't breathing."

Asher looks at the cracked screen on the watch, "Yeah well, Ryan and I both got hit pretty good."

"Can you hack in?"

"Doing what I can, they look like they are circling around for another pass."

Asher looks down at Ryan who groans, he opens his eyes, one of them swollen and gasps. "Asher! What happened?!"

"Easy! Can you move?"

Ryan swallows and breathes heavily for a moment, processing. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good, let's run."

Asher pulls him to his feet, "Argh!...You look like crap man." he huffs out breathlessly,

"Come on!"

They start further into the trees, away from the cabin.

BOOM! BOOM!

They stop and look back at the remainder of the burning and smoking cabin, blowing to smithereens. Asher grits his teeth. "Sir?! I can take control on your word!"

Asher thinks for a moment. Then holds up the watch close to his mouth. "Overload an engine, bring them back. Don't kill them if you can help it."

"You didn't say they had to be in one piece."

A vehicular scream fills the air, followed by an explosion. The Hover Ranger soars overhead and immediately begins crashing into the tops of trees. "Mia and Jess and an assassin stole our ship. That's what happened Ryan. We're gonna find out how and why. You good?"

Ryan nods, "Right behind you."

They hurry through the snow to the site of the crashed aircraft, it take only a minute at most to reach it. They hurry to the back of the ship, the door is broken open, lying awkwardly on the ground. Asher tells Ryan to wait, he walks in and picks up an automatic rifle lying on the ground. He lifts it and aims at the Braven Hunter lying near the front on it's back. It's body armor and suit makes it look like some super soldier.

"Ryan."

Ryan starts in until he's beside him. "Is it dead?"

"No. Not yet."

A voice groans, Asher bends down, pulls it's pistol and begins clocking the assassin in the head, knocking out the assassin again. He keeps at it until the visor on the helmet shatters. He stands and walks to the pilot seats. Mia and Jess lie unconscious.

"Aria, give me the sedation gun."

A drawer opens under the console. Asher pulls it out and hands it to Ryan. "Let's drag them out."

"What about him?"

"I'm not done with him. We're tying them up, can you do that while I deal with this?"

"W-what about Riley?"

Asher looks at her, strapped in. He didn't even notice her, so she was on the jet with them. Riley betrayed them too. "Tie her up too."

"Why not in here?"

"You don't want to see this."

Ryan gets a look of fear and clears his throat. "Asher? Just...be careful okay? Don't lose yourself."

"I'm not. But I am pissed."

Ryan and Asher drag Mia and Jess out, Asher just drops Mia onto her face while Ryan sets Jess down easy. Ryan looks at Asher worried and goes in to get Riley.

Once they are out, Asher ties up the Braven Hunter to the back of the pilot's seat and helps Ryan tie the others up outside to trees behind a big boulder out of view of the Hover Ranger. "Now what?"

"Now, I get some answers."

"Do you want me in there?"

"No."

Asher hands Ryan the pistol. "If they wake up and so much as fidget, shoot them. Threaten them with that first, then if they move at all, shoot their calves or feet."

Ryan is wide eyed, despite how swollen they are. "Okay."

"You got this Ryan. We're done hiding. I'm trusting you Ryan."

Ryan takes the Braven Hunter's sidearm. Asher walks back to the jet and checks the chamber, it's loaded. "Alright wake up."

Asher lifts the gun and unloads seven bullets into the Hunter's calf. He jumps and yells out, becoming conscious. "Oh good you're awake. Cool, I've got questions."

The man groans loud, "H-Hey! Excuse me! I'm talking, it's rude to interrupt. See you just bombed the crap out of my house, now as a soulless monster, I'm sure it's hard, but hopefully you can imagine. I'm pretty pissed and I reeeaaallly want to take my anger out on something. It's not good to keep all that in."

"Go to he-"

Asher doesn't even hesitate to take the butt of the gun and slam it against the bullet wounds on the man's legs. He groans loud and long. "I got all day and 3 loaded magazines we took off of you over there. But don't worry, you won't die, not until I get what I want."

He breathes heavily but says nothing. Asher nods, in acknowledgment, as if saying to himself, that he should have guessed resistance. Asher lifts the gun and fires seven more rounds into the untouched leg's ankle.

The man yells out again. "Oh wait, I just remember I don't like odd numbers."

Asher fires again and listens to the man scream. "Ugh! Idiot, seven plus seven is fourteen! My bad."

Asher fires again into the thigh, the first round to make it above the knee. "You know what? I can't convince you, you're right. Well, I'm not gonna waste ammunition on you. I'll just leave you to your thoughts for a while.

Asher turns and starts out of the jet, "Coward! You can't even finish me yourself!"

Asher walks away to Ryan, he stands, shaking in front of Mia and Jess and Riley. "They haven't woken up yet?"

"D-did-did you-"

"No, I'm letting him live with his decisions for a second."

"You don't think he can escape?"

"No, nothing breakable or sharp around him, arms, legs and body is tied good and tight."

"They haven't woken up yet."

"No rush. You okay?"

Ryan shakes his head, "I'm freaking out man. I've never heard someone be tortured before."

"I'm sorry. Hopefully he gives me what I want soon."

"What's the plan to get out of here?"

"I'll explain later? Just in case they are awake. But I got a plan."

"Okay....it's freezing out here."

"I know man. Almost okay?"

Ryan nods, "Hurry please."

"Let's give the Hunter a few."

After fifteen minutes pass, Asher heads back to the jet. The Braven Hunter growls, "Alr-alright! Alright! Alright!"

Asher bends down, "Who sent you, why? For who? All three of them? How did they know?"

The man groans and takes deep breathes, "Do you want me to hit your legs again?"

"Ugh! If you kill me fast...I'll tell you."

"I promise to end you humanely and quickly."

"I know her name is Kaela Bridge. Sh-agh! She doesn't exist. She wants you dead, You-agh! Your two fr-friends out there aren't even human...crack one open, you'll see."

Asher stares at him, Not Human?

"Kaela, What do you know?"

"Sh-she belongs to some organization...I-I don't know. S.S. She had that on her sleeve. That's all I know! I swear! Now end it!"

Asher narrows his eyes, not sure if he should believe him. "Anything that could give clues?"

"I told you everything!"

Asher, "Brainstorming off the top of your head. Take things she said to you."

"Ugh! Come on!....Sh-Shadow! She said the Shadow, like it was a physical thing!"

Asher nods, "Thanks for your cooperation."

Asher stands and lifts the rifle. He fires the rest of the clip into the man's chest. Asher then grabs the magazines, switching his empty one out. He takes walks off the broken jet and towards Ryan.

"Aria?"

"Already looking into it, S.S. organization beginning with or including the word shadow."

Ryan looks at him and sighs, "You got it?"

"Part of it. Hopefully enough."

"So he's finished?"

"Yeah, he's gone. He said something interesting about these guys."

"What?"

"That they aren't human."

Ryan frowns, "What?"

"I don't know, I think he meant it literally."

Ryan looks at them and then back at him. "You think they're what, robots?"

Asher shrugs, "I mean they hate us, tried to kill us, they aren't coming with us."

Ryan grips his sidearm a little tighter. "Uh...we just...shoot them? Asher."

"Not Riley, the Hunter said 'your two friends' meaning Mia and Jessica. I still question Riley. But we aren't killing her."

"I don't know Asher."

"We shouldn't bring them Ryan, We can leave them if you want, I won't shoot them unless you agree, I'll shoot one to see, but not if you're not okay with it."

Ryan gives Asher a horrified look. Asher nods, "Okay, we'll leave them."

"C...can't you just I don't know, cut them and see?"

Asher shrugs, "We can try."

Asher pulls a knife from the sheathe on his leg, it belonged to the Braven Hunter. "This is gonna be gross Ryan, they have blood obviously." Asher says gesturing to their marked and bleeding foreheads and arms.

"O-okay, we skin them?" Ryan asks, he looks like he'll pass out. That's about how Asher feels too.

"Yeah..."

"Oh gosh. I can't watch this."

"You're okay with it? We can leave them? But if I check I'll need to kill one of them so they don't wake up and you know...move around."

"Jeez! J-just do it! I'm not watching."

"Okay. This is gonna be gross."

Asher gently takes the pistol from Ryan and aims at Jessica. He takes a deep breath and fires one round into her head.

He walks over to Jessica and stabs the knife into the calf and begins to move to see the bone. He finds it fast, but it's not bone, some kind of metal. Asher gags and takes deep slow breaths as he looks away from the gore.

"It's metal, Jess's bones, I'm gonna check another place to make sure."

"Just hurry please."

Asher cuts open the shoulder blade to the spine. He gags again. He quickly checks and finally quickly pulls away. "Okay. I'm done. Jeez. Yeah....they...they aren't human."

Ryan looks at Asher in disbelief. "You're sure?"

"Yeah. metal bones, their veins are wires designed to looks like veins."

"Okay! Just stop! What do we do?"

"We can't take them."

Ryan sighs, "Gosh dang it....I need to see it Asher, I need to see the metal and wires. No I'm not sure, but I need to see it."

"Alright buddy. Slow deep breathes."

Ryan walks over with Asher and is shown, amongst the blood, and muscle imitations, wires and metal bones. Ryan sits down on a rock and takes deep breathes. "Holy crap. Holy crap Asher!"

"I know. Which means Mia is one too."

"Just kill her before she wakes up, it'll be hard to kill her like that."

Asher agrees, Ryan looks away and Asher shoots her in the head. "A-Asher? Why hasn't Riley woken up?"

"In the cold and from the crash, beyond that, not sure yet. Come on, we have another ship here, we can check for sure what she is on that."

"Okay, where are we going?"

"Home."