Cinco Storia Book One: Awakened

Chapter 8

As Katze was left charge of his Master's Pet, for some time, he had been trying to puzzle over what could have happened that day, sorting through the bits and pieces of all his recollections. He was there after all, when Dana Burn exploded and the mines destroyed Jupiter, and when the accident took with it these seemingly star-crossed lovers.

Katze witnessed the fall of a leader, the death of his beloved, and the loss of both beings he considered to be his friends. A year he'd quietly mourned, brooded behind the same practiced apathy, going about the schedules and business affairs of the Black Market, dealing rather effectively with all the painful blows of Trade even as Tanagura was falling to ruin above him.

What could have happened?

Then he got that call.

A Blondie who had been his master's colleague and confidant was asking for help. It was about them. It was about Iason Mink and Riki. His first reaction was obvious. He just couldn't believe it! Not until the Blondie snuck him into Eos and showed him the encased bodies.

We need to get them out of here.

But of course that hadn't happened. Tanagura wanted to keep its pivot in the end, and there was no one worthy enough to be it but his Master. But what will happen to Riki now? As he looked down Riki's slumbering form, he wondered, was actually fearful at the very bottom of his thought-to-have-been-unfeeling heart, of what might happen to this one.

What if Iason could do no more to protect him?

There and then Katze made it his responsibility to find ways to help his fellow mongrel. He will do his best for Riki's sake especially when worse came to worst for him here, although he would not have guessed that it wasn't necessary. If there existed Fate, well said Fate had other plans in mind...

As Katze was figuring in the darkness of the unit, there was a stir in the bed where Riki was asleep.

Baffled, the ex-Furniture drew its curtains aside and with wide eyes was taken aback by what he suddenly witnessed...a transformation!...wings as black as night unfurling from behind an arched, unconscious body, spreading like massive petals, curling mindlessly and folding into place. Then as quickly as they'd come, they were gone, retracted if miraculously into the form whence they had spun from.

Katze had perhaps stared for a full minute or two, an involuntary shudder caused by shock at the same time as he marveled at it, easing down his spine before parched, suddenly dried lips uttered a word, "W-Wings...?"

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Tanagura gleamed with its usual stars, rivaling those above in terms of brightness and even beauty, ironically. Iason thought however that if ever they'd move to Eos Two, he may end up re-arranging the bedroom so it faced the Ocean instead. Riki might love the open breeze, the better, more peaceful view. He would hopefully love the smell of the washing waters whispering with it its sirens' songs.

He shook his head, scolding himself, "What am I thinking?"

The Master looked back at his Pet. Riki was as he was, silent, unconscious with no sign as to when he will ever wake up...

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Three days and Eos Tower One was once again opened to its lower-ranking residents, the unexplained lockdown and mysterious evacuation having been charged to nothing more but unforeseen malfunctions.

The top level was still left sealed however, but every now and then a Blondie was seen accessing it and opening the doors, leaving everyone not in the loop to wonder. It had been a long-known fact that none of these golden-haired beauties ever lived there now, yet of course the other elites knew better than to ask why they seem to stray there again.

Raoul was able to arrange Iason and Riki's transport the evening before, and they were now both being examined in his personal laboratory, the other having convinced Jupiter's chosen that it was worth seeking some medical advice, especially for the Pet who didn't want to wake up. It was all made a secret of course, and all details of the tirade was placed on a need-to-know basis. Not even all the Blondies knew of Iason's coming into Raoul's domain, down into his laboratories where there was relative peace guaranteed. For now.

The Biochemist had handed down the results of his probing to Iason, who sat, naked from the waist up on his examination pod. Riki was rested on the other just beside him. They had unfurled their wings at least five or six times today, Iason noticing that whenever he pushed his pair out, Riki's would respond. They were indeed connected.

"This was unusual," began Raoul. "...we scanned you and Riki for any bodily anomalies the first time but didn't find these before. Now they've both completely re-structured.

"There are compartments beneath the skin of your back where your wings can be retracted into."

He pointed on the screen where the said hollows were visible.

Iason just sighed at that, "Jupiter..." was all that he uttered.

"You mean this was his design?"

He didn't feel compelled to hide anything from Raoul, "We received it when we went into Jupiter's Tower, along with some explicit instructions...I don't know if Riki had connected with it that day, but maybe he had, otherwise his own pair might not have been activated."

"Instructions huh? Can you tell me about it?"

Iason smiled. Ever the questioning one, his friend. "I'm sorry. I was told his Will was to be confidential."

Raoul of course, understood, "I see."

He looked at Riki whose wings were a marvel of sleek black feathers. Raoul couldn't help but stare at them for sometime before he carried out with the rest of the examinations.

"We need to observe this one. He's showing quite the different-"

"I'm taking him home," Iason didn't want to give Raoul the pleasure of poking about his Pet's anatomy any more than he already had today. Bottom line, he only had one concern and many reservations with having his Pet and another Blondie in one room. "I do not want to have you treat Riki like some experiment."

"But Iason..."

The look on the the once-Ice Noble's face made it clear that he would not change his mind even if all Tanagura burned to cinders in three minutes. He had always been attached to Riki, and was hell-bent on keeping him to the point of obsession, not only these last few days but ever since he's made him his Pet. Raoul guessed that he had to understand that. He gave, "All right.

"But give me your word that you will come back to talk with the Council. The Capital needs you more now than it ever had. You know it."

Iason did know it, and he has already decided that he would exploit that very idea to secure a future for them again, here in this damned cold city. He smiled.

"I give you my word. Three days and I shall be ready."