Wolf's Weakness

Chapter 16

"Well well, look who finally showed up."

"..."

"You know, it was bound to happen eventually."

"..."

"...You really think it's smart of you to show your face 'round here? After what you did?"

"Show yourself before you speak to me like that, ingrate."

"You haven't changed a bit you little piece of shit. Angry, temperamental... You're just like me. Why am I not surprised?" A voice spoke out and filled the hollow world around Wolf with sound. He didn't know where he was, nor how he got here. All he knew was that it was bright. Really bright. The world looked like it was made of nothing but light, blinding the canine as he tried to take in his surroundings. He winced and used his forearm to shield his eye.

"Maybe somebody stronger than you would have made it out." The voice continued to nag.

"If you're going to call me weak you can do it to my face, coward."

"Oh... You're in no place to call me a coward." The voice, the tone... It was all starting to add up. Wolf couldn't see, but suddenly it registered who was speaking to him. There was only one person who ever had the balls to get under his fur this way. Someone he hadn't spoken to in a long time.

"...You lecture a man you know nothing about, Father. You're as pitiful as you've ever been." Almost as if by command, the light began to wane. Little by little the dog's sharp red eye adjusted and the overwhelming bloom disappeared, world gradually trickling into focus. Wolf had to suppress a moment of astonishment as it registered where he was.

"Pitiful, huh? Well it looks like we both got what was coming to us in the end anyways." Looking around the room it was easy to tell that it wasn't well cared for. There was dirty shag carpeting under the captain's toes, stained a yellowish brown from many years of neglect. Everything was hazy, dirty curtains hanging in the small unwashed windows... It all culminated in a musky smell that Wolf's sensitive nose had all but forgotten. He was back at home. And not his normal home; his childhood home. The house he grew up in with his parents, somewhere he thought he had left behind.

"We're not as different as you think we are." A shadowy figure presented itself front and center, nothing more than a silhouette standing in the fully lit room. It had the outline of his father but none of the detail.

"I'm nothing like you."

"Well, not exactly. After all I still got both my eyes." Crass as usual, he let out a hearty chuckle. "You're under my roof again, pup. You don't get to talk back to me in MY household." Wolf growled through tightly clenched teeth, trying to contain his frustration. He took a step towards the unflinching visage and pointed with a sharp claw.

"I put an END to you under this roof and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if that's what it took to return to my team. I have unfinished business and I can't let vermin like you waste my time."

"Return...? Wait- you don't actually think you died, do you?" The man chuckled again. Wolf stared quietly, unsure how to respond. He didn't really know what he thought anymore. "Son, if you died the place you'd be right now would be much worse than here."

"...You don't get to call me that."

"Aww, truth hurt? You're my son, Wolf. You carry my name and my blood. In fact you're just like me where I was your age. Your temper, your patience, your violence... You and I are one in the same. It was obvious ever since you were a baby."