Moving Along Remastered

Chapter 37: Connections

Moving Along Chapter 37: Connections

What had I done?? Saved his life!! "Doing what was necessary to protect you, Ziro," I turned to face him. He had a horrified look on muzzle. I rolled my eyes. 'Here we go with the bleeding heart.' The most annoying trait about him by far. Through gritted fangs, I continued, "She was too dangerous to be left alive, so I ended her pathetic existence." As I said this, I could just feel the judgment coming off of him, though he remained silent.

Cool clouds of ash swept past us as we stared at each other in silence. Disbelief was the best way to describe his expression. That god damn look in his eyes appeared again. The hurt. Just looking into his sad grey orbs made me clench my fists. Unable to take the silence anymore, I growled, "if you've got something to say to me, then say it Ziro!!"

Grunting low, he rose to his feet, staggering back, but keeping his footing. There was a somewhat distant look in his eyes when he asked, "where should I start???" For a moment, he looked away at nothing in particular with a look of exasperation. He opened his muzzle as if to say something, but stopped before he could get a word out. He shook his head like all the thoughts in it would burst out if he didn't. They did when his gaze returned to mine, "how about the rage? Or lying to me! Hell, maybe even about the merciless kill you just performed!"

"We kill lizards all the time, Ziro!" I barked out in snap protest.

"In the battle to reclaim our freedom, we kill to survive, not to make a game out of it!!!!" He snarled back in response. "God, Atticus, it's like I don't even know you anymore! What's happened to you?? Why don't you even look like yourself anymore?"

'Why don't I-..what??' I looked down at my paws to see the fur was still dark crimson which could even be seen through the blood leaking from my healing paw pads. Suddenly it felt like I'd had a bucket of ice water dumped on my head. My anger dissipated, which gave way to a crushing feeling in my chest.

A voice gnawed at my conscious, 'it's alright kid. Look what you've accomplished. Your enemy is nothing more than dust now.' There were still small amounts of it stuck to my bloodied paws. It was no different than the raining ash of the smoldering structure behind me. I hurriedly tried to rub it and the dried blood off of them with little to no result. The voice spoke again, 'heeeeey hey, easy there. No need to be upset. Ziro is alive because of you~'

"Y-yes, but I-..." I had saved him. Simple as that. Why wasn't he thanking me or hugging me?? "I...." Anger rushed back up my spine. The heat of it spread through my fingertips. How could he not see that I did what anyone would have done? 'I have the power to destroy the lizards once and for all, why not use it??' It was my power after all. Who was anyone to tell me what I could or couldn't do with it?

'Yes, yes that's right Atticus,' he whispered in my head again. 'He fears your power. That's why he's upset. With the FIA gone, he's at the mercy of us and Zuboi.' Yes, that had to be it. It was the only logical reason. Once Zuboi was dealt with, I was free to do whatever I wanted, however I wanted to.

'Why else would he look so...so...' I met his gaze once more. My chest tightened up as I looked into his great grey eyes. He didn't blink once as he silently implored me for answers. '...heartbroken.'

"Atticus..." Ziro seemed at war with himself almost as much as I was. His eyes shined with a sadness that would make any onlooker's heart ache with remorse. Yet his lips fought the urge to curl into a snarl. His teeth shown clenched in an attempt to bite back the hurtful words he wanted to say. But I could already hear them. I could hear every word he wanted to say at that moment.

"Monster~" Fera hissed again. "Freak. Killer. That's what everyone thinks of those with great power. WE HAVE GREAT POWER." Every word scraped against my consciousness, threatening to take over. I could feel myself giving in to him. But was there anything wrong with that?