Corruption

Spilling blood

He woke up completely tied up. Fuck, he thought irritably as his headache got worse. He and Miranda were both captured and tied up to a tree with some type of green metal, facing away from each other. "You awake?" Miranda asked him quietly. "Yeah," he replied. "How long you been awake?" "I was never out," she told him, "I've been up, and they've been beating me for a while." "Are you okay?" He asked her. "I guess," she asked. "Did they set this up?" Nelson asked, "All the way from the beginning?" "I...I don't think.. so.." Miranda stuttered. "I don't think my dad would..." she trailed off. It was then that Trūhditz approached them from somewhere in the trees, his enslaved Artūghzian being dragged alongside him. "Welcome to the Black Forest of Artūghzia, humans," he said nonchalantly. "Why are you doing this?" Nelson asked. "We didn't do anything to you." "We need to put an end to this little 'human thing' going on, to be honest," Trūhditz shrugged, "You weren't supposed to be anything but an experiment. They're taking it too far. It was all fun and games when you were just stumbling around like a bunch of confused little.. genetically modified apes. But now you're flying around the galaxy with us?? I don't think so." He walked up to Nelson and uppercut him inconceivably hard in the stomach. Despite all his previous training and Urzuhg genes, he couldn't stop himself from vomiting. "So basically you're a bunch of bitches," Miranda scowled, "Two hybrids threaten you that much?" "Kurdìl was my son," Trūhditz replied shortly. "He...he a-attacked us first..!" Nelson stammered painfully. Damn fucking aliens man... he thought. "Shut up human," Trūhditz said, backhanding him unnaturally painfully. His blood spilled on the ground in a concerning amount. "You're definitely not as resilient as that female," The Urzuhg said nastily. "Looks like you'll die first. "Fuck..." Nelson muttered. He felt a variety of emotions; primarily fear, but also anger and disappointment. Was this really how he was going to die?
The Artūghzian squealed uncomfortably. "Fuck you," Miranda spat. "Oh?" Trūhditz asked, "Striking a nerve?" It smacked Nelson a few more times before pausing for a moment. Miranda struggled with the green chains but it was too strong for even her. It was just about to super man punch him but the Artūghzian managed to escape its grasp and run off into the forest. Trūhditz growled something in Urzuhg before chasing it into the Black Forest. "Are you alright?" Miranda asked him. "Kinda," Nelson said weakly. "Um.." Miranda started slowly, "Sorry about this.." "What do you mean?" He asked her. "I didn't know this would happen," she said, "I didn't think.." she trailed off once more.
After another moment of silence, he asked her, "So... Mari's your dad?" "Yeah," she told him. "So your mother must be human..? How does that work out? I kinda got the impression he wasn't really all too attracted to humans." "It's a long story," she replied. "I doubt I'll get to tell you everything before Trūhditz comes back to kill us... but fuck it... as they say. If we're about to die I might as well tell you. Honestly... I don't really remember anything about my childhood... at all. It's like it didn't happen. The very first thing I can remember about my life was waking up on a table in Mari's ship. My mom was there then. They told me they were my parents and that I had been in some terrible accident. Of course, I was already full grown by human standards." "How old are you?" Nelson asked. "Right now.. I don't honestly know. It's something like 1900 years old. At least that's kinda counting from the earliest year I remember. Urzuhg are biologically immortal, so as long as we don't get sick or aren't murdered or something, we don't have a lifespan per se. Apparently they developed that technology during the war when the Martians tried to make them go extinct by giving us a disease that makes all of our children come out as males. By now the Urzuhg woman is almost basically extinct." Damn..!" Nelson gasped. "I thought you were my age." "Sorry to disappoint," she said. "Who's the oldest living Urzuhg that you know of then?" "I would say Fuerzo. He's close to 320,000 years old. I don't think anyone actually knows how old he is though." She sighed a was quiet for a while. "Anyway, Im sorry you have to die like this. I'm sure this isn't what either of us had in mind.."
          It was just then that Trūhditz returned. The Artūghzian wasn't with him. Well at least it had more luck than us, he thought. He had been trying to control Nightmare with his mind to try to stab Trūhditz but he was too weak to concentrate enough. "I can't stand your ugly faces," It said, unsheathing a sharp blade with blue electricity cracking around it. "Especially the female one." It walked over to Miranda. "I guess I'll kill you first." "I bet," she muttered. Damn, we really about to die rn.. he thought, still unable to gather enough concentration to move Nightmare. "If it makes you feel any better," Nelson suddenly said with a thought, "You aren't ugly to me." Miranda didn't reply. "How touching," Trūhditz said sarcastically. "You Can continue this conversation in whatever afterlife you believe in."
           That was when he heard a loud, low pitched howling sound. What the fuck is that? He thought, Fucking space wolves? That was when the little Artūghzian that Trūhditz had chained up slowly walked out from the bushes. "No," Nelson whispered, "Run away little buddy..!" It howled again, its wings spreading out. Trūhditz said something in Urzuhg before charging at it, blade outstretched. Trūhditz jumped on in the air with the intent of crushing it with his weight and blade. Before anything else happened, two Adult Artūghzians flew in from the side and tackled Trūhditz mid air. Three more came in to aid the first two. The little one walked over to them and started fiddling with the chains. "Wow," Nelson commented. "You guys are awesome.!" "Thanks," It replied. "Huh?" Nelson gasped. "You Can talk?" "Sure," It said, untangling them. "Thank you, friend," Miranda said, limping over into his sight. They had beaten her pretty good. She was bruised and cut all over. "Are you okay?" He asked her. She stared for a moment, then said, "As good as can be." After a moment they smiled at each other.
"You two want a moment alone to mate?" The Little Artūghzian asked with a smile. "W-what?" Miranda stuttered, "We're just.. it's not like... that.. at all." The Artūghzian just smiled. Soon afterward, the five adult Artūghzians returned with only a few bruises. He one of them was chewing on something. "Did you... um... eat him?" He asked them. One Adult Artūghzian stepped forward. "I see you've revealed our ability to them." "What is that?" Miranda asked curiously. "By listening enough of a species' language, our brains automatically pick up on the structure of it. We can't always speak it, if we don't have the proper muscles. But we understand. Like those aliens with the six limbs... four up top, and two to walk on? We can't speak it. Too much straining on our neck. In this case it was easy." "That's... quite an evolutionary trait," Miranda replied. "And to your question, yes, we ate it. They came here, and starting poisoning everything. Our food source is getting less an less. So we might as well eat them. And one last thing. Thanks for showing us kindness. Out of all the aliens that have landed here, you're the first to ever have shown us kindness. My child thanks you for helping him with that fruit, by the way." Miranda smiled. "Of course," she said a bit quietly. "There have been more than one?" Nelson asked. "Yes," It replied, a couple hundred years ago, the Annunaki returned. Though we haven't heard from them in a while. They were particularly cold." "Actually a few species teamed up and locked them away in the Andromeda galaxy," Miranda told them. "How?" Nelson asked. "We found the technology they used to warp between space and time and figured out how it worked. Well, what button does what, anyway. All we did was wait until they left, cut off the technology, and broke it. Then we locked it in a sarcophagus on mars." That sarcophagus?? He thought to himself, the same one Jose was trying to open? "Good," The Artūghzian replied. "They were the worst." "Wait a second.." Nelson started, unsheathing Nightmare, "I got this from a sarcophagus when we were trying to stop Jose from opening it.. I didn't mess anything up did I?" Miranda shook her head, "I noticed that. No that's just the key. Unless you go up there and unlock it, we're safe." Nelson nodded, sheathing Nightmare again. "We still need the core," Miranda said quietly, clearly in great pain. "I've got an idea," The Adult Artūghzian said.
                               ********

      The Artūghzians let the badly bruised and beaten Miranda and Nelson ride back into ZuhTanga as they were badly injured, and Nelson held Trūhditz' head in his hand as a warning. Alongside what he thought were at least 30 Adult Artūghzians in a hers protecting them. The Urzuhg there seemed appalled and surprised to see them return. None of them approached them. They were able to get the core with zero interference. "I can't believe this," Miranda said to Nelson as they began exiting the building. "They actually seem... almost scared a little." "Let's make a good impression then," he said, and just before leaving the city border, he tossed Trūhditz's decapitated head to the floor in front of all the watching Urzuhg. "How did they beat you guys?" Nelson asked, "They certainly didn't try to stop us." "They snuck up on us. Murdered millions of us in our sleep," One Artūghzian answered. "Their military used GIANT bombs on us. I don't think their military is here anymore though, or least not in the immediate area."

       They thanked the Artūghzians before getting in their ship and Miranda set the coordinates to return back to the mothership. As they sat, Miranda told him, "Don't worry about your wounds. They'll heal us when we get back." Nelson nodded slowly, having a hard time dealing with all of the pain he was feeling. "Also," she added, "Thanks." "For What?" He asked her. "What you said earlier. It's nice to not be called ugly for once." She smiled a small smile at him before returning to piloting the flying saucer.