Still Around

"Wake up, it's your turn to drive," Cait said sleepily, shaking Fate by his shoulder as she kept one hand on the yoke.

Fate yawned, stretching his arms as he stood. He switched places with Cait, who fell asleep within seconds of sitting down. He gingerly pulled his Ex-Ear off of her ear then stuck it on his own. After using it to locate where exactly they were and where he needed to go, he made himself comfortable and watched space pass by in a blur.

Having swapped places a few more times, Cait woke Fate once more.

"We're here," she said gently. "Time to wake up."

Fate opened his eyes groggily, gazing out of the windshield to find a planet outside. It was around fifteen thousand miles wide and roughly forty percent water. The rest of the planet was expansive grass plains, pockmarked with large quarries and towns. True to what Samnul said, Ythmun's palace was easily visible, a sprawling mass of black stone big enough to be its own city set against the green of its surroundings.

It looked like a festering tumor, leeching the life out of the world.

Fate pointed to it. "There's where we need to go," he said sluggishly, going to the fridge and pulling out a can of coffee. He cracked it open and downed it in three large gulps, shaking his head vigorously as the caffeine kicked in.

Embodiment-made coffee would wake a person up from a coma and was so potent that mortals would die from a heart attack if they had even a sip. For an Avatar like Fate, though, it just woke him up completely.

He made his way back into the cockpit and leaned on his seat, watching as Cait skillfully landed the ship a few miles away from the palace. A glance at the control panel showed that she had the cloaking system up. When they touched down, Cait flicked off everything except auxiliary power, to keep the cloak up.

They donned their armor, Fate wearing his Styx armor and Cait wearing the armor from her Advanced days, minus the helmet. Fate had to admit, the white of Cait's armor went well with the black of his own.

They locked the Embodiment-made Shadow Jumper up behind them, strolling carefreely toward the palace in the distance.

"Friends of yours, Samnul?' Ythmun asked, the hologram in his hand depicting Fate and Cait walking toward the palace.

"People who see you for the monster you are," Samnul spat. "You may kill me, but they will make you regret signing your people over."

"Did you tell them of what I'm capable of? Because anyone with any semblance of reason would know not to trifle with one such as I. They'll die before they even step foot in my palace. My servants will make sure of that."

"How quaint. The coward who gave up his people to monsters hides behind more monsters. Whoever could have predicted this?"

"Sarcasm is unbecoming of you, Samnul. I much prefer the screams of pain when Griffith gorges on your life force. Speaking of which…"

Griffith lumbered into view, the flickering blue light of the hologram painting his ursine face in sinister shadows. He passed through the cell bars, treading toward Samnul with steady steps. Samnul backed himself into the corner, eyes trained on the bear.

"Enjoy," Ythmun said, turning his back just as the screams started.

Fate held his hand up to his brow, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun. "The gates are opening."

"They're sending people out already? We're still two miles out."

"I don't think those are people." In the distance, five colossal red smudges broke into a sprint in their direction, running surprisingly fast. In less than a minute, they were close enough to make out their forms.

They were dogs. Large ones, each over twelve feet tall and twice as long. Their legs and torsos were corded with muscle, so much so that they shouldn't have had as much range of motion as they did. Their tails were easily as long as they were, long and sinewy and ending in pointed black bone.

Saliva dripped down their opened mouths, wicked teeth each as long as Fate's forearm exposed in a canine grin. Each of their flanks had a gaping oval mouth with teeth just as sharp as the ones in their face, lengthy tongues flapping in the wind.

"If there was an ugly competition, these things would win it, hands down," Fate said, pulling his Miao Dao out of its ring and shifting into a ready stance. Beside him, Cait raised her hands, fingers splayed. Her Divine Intent was more than enough of a weapon.

When the hounds were close enough that Fate could smell their horrible odor, two of them leaped high into the air, sailing over the duo's heads and landing behind them. The five hounds circled around, surrounding them.

Fate caught a whiff of Divine Energy from each one. He had never heard of beast Embodiments, and yet here were five canine Exemplars.

"What nightmarish lab cooked you guys up?" Fate asked with a smile hidden by his mask.

"Our master has spoken," the dog in front of them growled, its voice sounding like rocks being thrown together. "You must die."

"You can talk?" Fate replied with bewilderment.

"Yes," the creature replied. "And soon, you won't be able to." It lunged for Fate.

Cait smacked it aside with her Divine Intent, throwing it into one of its companions. Fate leaped over, launching himself with his Divine Grasp and slamming his sword into the dog's head with the momentum.

He stood on the corpse as the dead animal's buddy tried to crawl out from under the body, flicking his sword to get the blood off. It hummed, its black blade growing blacker as his Divine Energy suffused it.

"I'm going to do things to you four that PETA would be appalled by, if they were still around," Fate told the beasts cockily.