Twilight's POV

I held him underneath me for quite some time, with Starlight on the other side of him.

When he explained what happened when he was young, he said it like there was not a single problem. As if he was used to such torment in his life. It felt disturbing the further he continued, and I feared if there was something wrong, since he didn't seem to shed any emotion.

That was, until he was done.

Once he finished, I could see it in his eyes that it suddenly caught up to him. When he closed that door behind him, I just knew what was going to happen. I've been there before too, but I believe this is from PTSD. The traumatic events that he's lived with since he was young, and then being forced to live on a planet such as this, has probably cemented those events so deep into his memory. And, each time he thinks about it in great detail, I'm sure this happens.

I've never seen, or felt Rex shake like this before.

I pulled him in underneath me, but since then he's pulled himself further into my fur. I didn't do anything except sit there. Moving, or pulling away wasn't the right thing to do, and it's not like I wanted to move either. The beautiful display of the sun coming up over the horizon was mesmerizing. I watched both Rex, and the sunrise.

Rex had stopped crying about twenty or so minutes into it.

I could tell it wasn't because he ran out of tears, or felt better. I could hear him choke from holding in his breath, to stop his crying. I knew what he was thinking at that moment. Rex was always the one to keep a straight-face, even if it meant suppressing his true feelings. I've heard himself mutter to himself all the time, about how he's a 'dumbass,' or an 'idiot.' He is thinking that right now. I know of it.

I turned to look at Starlight, who looked to me. She had a worried look in her eyes, a little confused on the situation, and concerned. I gestured my head back to the door, saying she could go back in if she wanted to, which she nodded and quietly went back inside. I'm sure it was uncomfortable for her. She doesn't know Rex, not as much as I know him. So, I don't think she's comfortable with this sort of open, and vulnerable side of him.

I've never seen it myself, but I don't feel uncomfortable.

After what seems to be an hour and a half, or around that time, Rex slowly pulled himself from me. I tucked in my wing, watching him as he sat up, looking at the sun over the horizon. His face was a combination of anger and sadness. Stains from his tears were dotted across his face, and his eyes were a bit red. He sat in complete silence.

And then, he began to chuckle.

I stared at him while he did so, my confusion growing. I simply assumed that he was experiencing a flurry of emotions, and wasn't letting any of them be suppressed any longer like he used to. Atleast, for the moment. Anything that came out right now, was genuine.

"God, I've lived a fucked life, huh?" He said, staring ahead. "I mean, the only good parts of my life I remember was when I was a baby, when I was working as a bartender, and when you arrived. Everything else has been shit. And, I can't help but think that I am partly at fault for that. You know?"

He sighed. "I know I'm not at fault for my father becoming the way he ended up. But, I feel like I could've done more, that I could've done better, but I don't know how I would've done any of that. It's like, I know there's an answer to the question, but I don't know how to get it." He turned to me. "I hate myself, Twilight. Yet, I feel like- I feel like there's a lot of reasons for that, but I just don't know what they are."

I gave him a slight frown, feeling my heart pinch a little. "You aren't a monster."

"What proves that I'm not?"

"You rescued me. You helped me, you helped Starlight when she arrived, and you protected your family against an abuser. Even if it costed you said family, you still protected them. You gave yourself up for their safety, and that's not what a monster does."

He chuckled lightly. "If only you knew what happened when I got here."

"I'm still willing to listen."

"Yeah, well-"

A gunshot rang through the open air, and a bullet whizzed just over my head, hitting the wooden wall behind us. I ducked instinctively, and pulled Twilight by her hair into the house as fast as I could. A couple more shots rang out, but none of them hit us, only the wooden walls and door that protected us.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, the adrenaline kicking in almost instantly. I rushed into my room, pulling my rifle into my hands from where it laid on the dresser. As I got out into the living room, I pointed to the storage room, where Twilight went. Starlight stared at the both of us, who was sitting in the chair.

"What's going on?!"

"People trying to kill us, no time to explain-" I said as I flicked the switch next to the front door on. I could hear the surge of power begin to flow through its cord and then-

Blackout.

"Fucking- god damnit!" This was worst case scenario. Our light's in the house were dead, and the turrets outside meant to help us defend the house were also dead. Plus, the food in the freezer? Without that power running through the cooler, it would spoil within a few days, and I know from experience that certain battles can last longer than that.

Twilight came back out of storage with a revolver floating in her aura. I was surprised that she knew what I meant when I pointed to the storage room, but there was no time to think about it. Starlight was defenseless without a weapon, and I never told her how to use a gun either. She would need to rely on her own wits if it came to it.

"Alright, those shots didn't sound close. Definitely wasn't anything that could rapid-fire. Snipers for sure."

"What does that mean?" Twilight asked.

"It means we can't go nowhere. They won't push, unless they got others. We can't push, because we'll get our heads blown off if we do. And right here-" I pointed to the door. "Is our only exit, and entrance. That could be good, because they can only get in one way if they don't tear down a wall. But it's also bad, because now we can't get out of here without stepping through that."

"So.. we're stuck..?" Starlight asked, to which I nodded.

"For now. We don't know if they got anyone else, but there's definitely more than one. They might decide to-"

The front door was kicked in, and I pulled the trigger. The man who was trying to get in fell to the floor with a thud, but there was a second behind him with some sort of rifle in his hands. I tried my best to pull the bolt back in time, but I knew I wasn't going to make it. A shot rang off, and the second man fell to the floor.

I turned my head to Twilight, who's revolver had a tiny bit of smoke trailing out of the barrel. Her eye's were concentrated, and her body was tense. I focused back on the doorway, before dodging out of the open view that came from it. A bullet whizzed past where I was previously stand. "Oh fuck-"

Starlight was in the corner closest to us, her eyes wide. She seemed in fear, but not completely still. I looked at the body that laid in the doorway. Bending down and grabbing the body by the arm, I pulled it out of the doorway's view. "Twilight, can you move that table to the door? To barricade it." Twilight nodded before the table and chairs were in her magical aura, and stacked against the doorway. It wasn't a good barricade, but it meant the snipers couldn't see us.

I looked down at the body that laid in front of me. I could see that it was a male, with a hole in his throat. He wore a black vest, with multiple white insignia's all over it, along with his clothes that were also black. I took the vest off his corpse, and began to rummage through it.

Multiple magazines for his rifle, and lots of... syringes?

Picking up the syringes, I could see that there were labels on each of them, each differently colored. I chalked them up to be enhancements for combat, and set them back inside the bag. I searched through his pockets, only to find a small knife, and a compass. All he had with him was some syringes, mags, and a gun. I reached over to pick up his rifle, and examined it closely.

It looked to be in rough shape, obviously used. It had a selection of firing modes, with semi, auto, and burst, along with a safety. As much as I love my rifle, this might be better for the situation at hand. I set my rifle down on the floor, and picked up the vest, slipping it onto myself.

"Rex, what do we do?" Twilight asked.

"I don't really know.. but we can't move. You think you can teach Starlight how to use a gun?"

"Why me?"

"'Cause I'm going to figure out if I can get the power back on somehow. If we can get those turrets on, we'll be good to go. Go in storage and pick a random thing up and teach her, alright? If you hear noise out here, don't come out. Barricade yourself, got it?"

Twilight hesitantly nodded before turning to Starlight. "Come on-" The both of them disappeared into storage.

"Fuck.." I said, looking at the floor. I grabbed the hammer that laid on the floor from the day before, and began to smash the floorboards. After getting it chipped, and pulling my hand through it to rip the plank off, I dug my hands in to reach for the cord.

The thing was hot.

"REX!"

Twilight and Starlight both came running from storage and back into the living room. "T-The room- it's- it's-" Starlight stammered.

"It's on fire!"

What?!

I immediately hauled ass to storage, and could see the batteries that were in the corner clearly ablaze. They must've short-circuited, and the power must've shot back through and killed them. That much energy making a loop back into them must've just... caused them to explode and catch on fire.

There was nothing in here that I could use to put the flame out, and it had already grown quite big. I turned to the both of them. "Do you both have anything that you can do to... to quell the fire?"

"I-I'll try.." Starlight said, stepping up close to the fire. Her horn began to spark a little, and I could see her concentrate on the fire. The horn began to fizzle still, before a giant blue wave was shot out throughout the area from her. The sudden wave scared me, and put me on my ass. She looked around, scared. "W-What-"

"That means it won't work. Same thing happens to me." Twilight said, shaking her head. "We can't do anything!"

"We can always do something." I said, standing up. I made my way back into the living room, which the both of them followed me into. I shook my head, trying to think of something, anything! There had to be something we could do in this situation, right?

If we stay inside, that fire will keep raging on and the smoke will get to us eventually. If we go outside, we'll get shot. We could try tearing down one of the walls, but the whole place could be surrounded, and we'd still get shot. We're stuck inside the house for now. As soon as I finished the damn thing, too.

My attention turned to the doorway when I heard something walking behind it, before the entire barricade was blasted by a large.. wave? It blinded me, and I felt myself hit the wall behind me with my gun raised. I didn't want to fire and accidentally hit Twilight or Starlight.

My ears kept ringing, but my vision slowly came back to me. I could see five men, all dressed in... advanced power suits? All of them were black with white insignia's on them. I saw both Twilight and Starlight on the floor, darts in their necks. I raised my rifle at them and prepared to fire, before I felt a sting in my neck.

I dropped instantly, but I was still conscious.

One of the men walked up to me. "Just what we were looking for." His voice was distorted from the helmet that he wore, coming off slightly robotic. "Hey Jake, look. Woulda' thought he'd be a bit more... special looking, huh?"

"Yeah, kinda' disappointing. But these two are matching the description, that being cool as hell."

"Why do you think Tarbo wanted 'em? I mean, yeah they look cool, but what's the point?"

"Asking questions like that gets you killed." Another man joined the conversation. "Don't let Tar hear you say that."

"Eh, he needs people like us. Now shitbags like him-" The man pointed to the body that I had taken the vest from. "-are expendable. Bottom of the bottom, the shitstain of the military. But us? We're important."

"Yeah, but Tar isn't one to be very forgiving. You've seen the executions. They're brutal, and I'd rather that not be any of us. As much as I hate you guys, I hate you guys the least."

The man that stood over me crouched down, getting a better look at me. "We still got a conscious one here guys, don't say anything stupid."

"It's not like we're leaking confidential shit. We're fine."

"Still, be careful. Tarbo listens to anyone, even prisoners if it helps him weed out the snakes in the grass. So, shut the fuck up."

"Did you radio off the snipers yet? I bet you they're still sitting there, thinking we got killed or some shit."

"Right, I'll do that right now."

I could see Twilight and Starlight laying on the floor, their eyes still open. The man that had just spoken pulled out a small box and set it on the floor, flipping up a small antenna, before picking up a small chip and inserting it into his helmet. "This is M-5, all members of the vernyy-vystrel unit are to return home. We've got it covered here."

A voice came from the box. "Ah, so you didn't die?" The man had a strong russian accent.

"Oh shut up. You have that little faith in us?"

"Nah, just think you're that dumb. I wouldn't be surprised if you accidentally shot your team."

A man from the back spoke up. "To be fair, he did shoot Klinsey in the leg during training!"

"Shut the fuck up Todd!"

My body was beginning to go to sleep.

"Ay- they're starting to doze off. Give it another five minutes and we can start hauling them."

"Do we really have to wait until they're asleep to start transporting them? That seems kind of dumb."

"If they're awake, they can figure out the path to base. Tar's tactical like that."

"Tactical, or paranoid?"

"You really like tempting execution from him, don't you?"

"Look- I'm just saying. The guy is a little fucking crazy, can we all agree on that?"

Another man, wearing the same white armor, but with red patches on himself walked in. "You might want to shut your fucking mouth before I report you. You think you can go around saying that shit when the higher-ups aren't around? That 'aint what we trained you to do. We trained you to be your best, always."

"Yes sir, sorry sir."

"Told you." The man laughed.

There was six men now in the room, all standing around and talking to eachother. I tried my best to keep my eyes open, and there were only a minute away before they fully closed. I tried my best to pick up as much information as I possibly could.

"So Patches, hows the-"

"The fuck did you just call me?" The man with the red patches said. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I transferred into this division, so no."

'Patches' walked up to the other man, pulling out a magnum and setting it to the soldiers throat. The soldier tried to fight back, but 'Patches' pushed him to the wall, and used what looked like a tazer in his other hand to taze the man. The soldier fell after a couple of seconds, dropping his rifle. He looked up and around at the others. "H-Hey, what the fuck?!"

"Stay still."

"Guys- help- he's going to fucking ki-"

A shot rang out.

Smoke billowed out of the magnums barrel. He turned to the other men. "I'm surprised none of you answered his plea's."

"That'd be against code, sir."

'Patches' laughed. "Ah, you lot are good soldiers. Sorry, I do like you guys alot. But this idiot was polluting your group. I don't like newcomers in my squad."

"Don't you have to approve them before they can get in?"

"Not if Tarbo assigns them personally."

"Don't you think he'll be mad if he.. you know, finds out?"

"No. He died in action. Isn't that right, boys?"

"Yes sir." All of the men said.

My eyes were fully closed now, and my consciousness began fading quickly. I tried to resist it best I could, but I knew there was no stopping it. I was going to fall asleep, and be dragged off by these random soldiers. It all happened so fast. How did the day turn into this in the past.. ten to twenty minutes?

Life really fucks you when you least expect it, huh?

Author's Note

I know the chapter is a little fucky, and I'll fix it later.

Just couldn't stop writing.

Also, interesting fact, Tarbo is short for...

Actually, I'll let you find that out on your own~

Love you guys, seriously. Today hasn't been a great day at all in my personal life, so that might've affected the chapter a bit. I'm hoping I can move past this, and past my injured hands.

Also, I know I upload my chapters pretty late. I find that doing that has made my story get a lot less traction than usual, since people aren't up this late all the time, but I could care less! If people find it and like it, they like it. For those of you that keep up with the story, you'll always be around, no matter if the like bar goes up or down. I don't focus on that.

Anyways, I hope you all have had a better day than I have had.. Ciao.