This was bad.

This was very bad.

Very, very much bad. A catastrophe!

Red sat just outside the closed doors of the infirmary, his face buried in his hands, while Purple was pacing around snacking on whatever he could get his hands on; up to now he had devoured five bags of doughnuts, two of chips and about six servings of trimisu.

There were more injured, but Ilk was given medical priority for obvious reasons. Meanwhile one single doc had to tend to the rest of the Sobr-beast's victims while the rest of the medics did their best to save Ilk and all her remaining body parts.

Why remaining? It's quite… disturbing.

That Sobr-beast turned to be much smarter than they anticipated; it pretended to be dead, somehow even holding its breath for minutes and slowing down its own cardiac rhythm to trick them so they'd lower their guard. And when they did, it dropped the act and made one last move.

Red thought it would go after him. At first glance it seemed like its purpose was to kill him, but though the Sobr-beast did lunge at him, he was not the target, he just happened to be holding the real one. Before he knew it, the monster had snatched Ilk from his arms, and then sprinted out the hangar and towards the escape capsules.

He didn't wait to be checked before going after the Sobr-beast on his PAK-legs. He managed to catch up just when it was somehow activating one of the escape pods; how the hell did it know how to operate one, by the way?! He didn't really care, his priority at that time had been to retrieve his smeet; but the Sobr-beast wouldn't give up its prey without a fight.

If only he had noticed its jaws had been holding her leg… If he had killed it on spot instead of playing tug of war as if Ilk were a mere rope… There were many 'if onlys' he wouldn't even know where to start.

The only thing that brought him out of it was the blood-curling scream that left Ilk's throat.

Everything after that was a blur; he remembered holding her in desperation as she cried her squeedly-spooch out, his hand pressing against the bleeding thump where her right leg had once been. He remembered the Sobr-beast fleeing into the capsule pod and escaping on it just when the rest of the soldiers arrived. He remembered Purple's panic-stricken voice when he saw what had happened and how Ilk was quickly put wound-closing gel and put in a medical capsule to be taken to the infirmary as fast as possible.

It had been two hours ever since. TWO HOURS AND NO ONE HAD TOLD HIM ANYTHING YET! WHAT IF SHE DIED?!

"Oh, Irk. Oh, Irk. Oh, Irk…" Purple was chanting as if it were a sacred mantra.

"Would you shut the hell up?!" Red snarled. "You're driving me nuts!"

"Well, sorry for being worried about my niece!"

"All you have been doing is eat!"

"Hey, don't you dare mistake my appetite with apathy! Besides, you know I eat when I'm stressed!"

"And then you throw up."

"It tore her LEG! Who wouldn't throw up after seeing THAT?!"

"That's the point, Pur! That monster tore a bloody LEG! What will become of her now, she's too young to have a prosthetic, she won't be able to become a soldier in that state! What if the Control Brains want to put her down! We have a situation here, we have a-!"

Before he could process what had happened, his he felt his right cheek hurting after Purple's free hand came into contact with it. After a few seconds, he found himself out of his panicked frenzy.

"Thanks, I needed that…" Red whispered as he rubbed the sore side of his face. "Ouch."

"Anytime, bud." Purple said with a shrug and then took a slurp of soft drink.

At last the doors opened, and one of the medics walked out with an unreadable expression. Red was instantly on his feet and looming over her. "HOW IS SHE?!"

"M-My Tallest, her l-leg…" she said in between stuttering.

"What about it?!"

"It appears… There has been quite…"

Seeing he wouldn't get a straight answer from her, Red pushed past her and rushed into the infirmary. The medics had gathered around Ilk's medical capsule; there were perplex expressions in their faces. If they were staring at the poor smeet's lack of a leg, he'd throw them out of the airlock!

When he saw the state Ilk was in, Red stopped in his tracks and stared at his daughter, aghast.

"So what happened, is she- holy Irk!" Purple stopped abruptly right next to Red as he looked down at Ilk, who was still heavily sedated.

Just then the Wonder Four and a Half-a nickname Purple had made up for the group of Invaders that saved Ilk; by the way, it's four and a half because Bob is very short and not a real Invader-found their way into the infirmary to see if Ilk was alright, but had the same reaction as the Tallest. "What on Irk…?"

Ilk's leg was back.

It was attached to her body as if it had never been gone at all.

Red stared at it in shock. B-But how… that Sobr-beast tore it off and took it.. How is this possible? He had held Ilk as she bled out(he made a mental note to send his bloodied robes to the laundry later), he had pressed a hand against the injury where her leg had once been, so he was pretty certain he hadn't hallucinated the whole thing.

Was this an hallucination? Red opened the medical capsule and tentatively reached to touch her leg, half-expecting it to vanish into thin air, but instead his fingers touched her skin.

Finally Purple could take it no more. "Could someone explain to me what just happened?! I mean, how did her leg come back?!"

The head medic from before explained. "It didn't 'come back', My Tallest. It re-grew."

"Wait, re-grew?" Tenn repeated the word incredulously.

"It regenerated, flesh, bone, muscle tissue and all."

"How is that even possible? Isn't that a Sobrekt thing?" Stink pointed out.

"It is, which is why it makes this more perplexing. Also, the scratches left on her by the creature healed on their own accord." one of the nurses tenderly stretched Ilk's arm, where the claw marks left by the Sobr-beast's claws were gone.

"Everyone, out," Red suddenly said, his tone dark. "I wish to have a word alone with Doctor Nee."

"Well, you heard him people! Out!" Purple said, shooing everybody out of the room, including the other doctors. "Okay, so what's the big deal?"

Red glanced at him. "You too, Purple."

"What?! Come on, it's as much my concern as it is yours-!"

"Now."

Purple muttered something about Red being a 'knucklehead' as he hovered out of the room; Red proceeded to lock the door after he left, and put a sound-proof barrier in case they tried to eavesdrop.

"So you imply she gained the limb-regeneration?" he asked Nee, his hands behind his back.

"Yes, My Tallest. We believe it has to do with the Moondrop flower we used to save her life; if our calculations are correct, most of Sobr's flora also possesses mild regeneration it one should snap a twig of a tree, but this flower species in particular is.. Unique."

No wonder the Sobrekt were so desperate to get it back. They wouldn't want the Empire to gain access to the genetics that allowed them to regrow their limbs.

Still, Red couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. At the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about Ilk having to be put down for being… he didn't even dare saying the word. Not for his Ilk. "In how long will she wake up?"

"A few hours, My Tallest."

Red nodded as he glanced at Ilk. "Take her to her room for the time being. Meanwhile, I have certain… issues to take care of."

Nee nodded. "As you wish, My Tallest."

Giving his daughter one last caress in the head, Red strode out of the medical bay. He had to make sure all traces of this event were erased.

When Ilk started waking up, she felt like she had slept for hours, maybe even days. Who knows? As her senses started to clear up, she felt like as if she were back on her bed and a familiar hand stroking her head.

"Daddy…?"

"Hey, there." he said, smiling.

"What happened?"

"You fell asleep on the kitchen. And speaking of which, young lady, what were you doing there in the first place? I thought we already talked about having sugar past your bedtime."

Ilk blinked. She had fallen asleep on the kitchen? She lifted her covers and found herself with all her limbs, with no signs of injury or blood.

"What's wrong?" Red asked, concerned.

"I think I had a bad dream, daddy…" Ilk said with a whimper, laying back down. "A big black monster tried to kill me…"

"There, there, it's alright," Red shushed her as he stroked her head again. "It was only a nightmare."

"I'm scared, daddy… Would you stay with me tonight?"

With a kind smile, he nodded and lay down next to her, allowing Ilk to snuggle against him, even curling up just like when she was a little smeet.

As he watched her relax and go back to sleep, he couldn't help but feel guilty. He had never liked lying to Ilk, but this was for her own good; he'd let her think that horrible experience had been a product of her imagination. He had already made sure nobody would tell her the truth (lest they wanted to be thrown out the airlock), and most of the proof had been cleaned up.

Red gently nuzzled Ilk's little head.

I will always protect you, my little Ilk. I promise.

Captain was not happy.

And we was pretty certain the Shuryo would not be delighted either.

On the other side of the screen, slumped unto his seat of mithrilium (a resistant and hard metal exclusive to the Sobrekt race), sat the Shuryo, leader of all Sobrekt. The old-looking crocodile had scars all across his torso, arms and face, but instead of hiding them he had them exposed proudly; they were the living proof of all his victories against opponents of any species.

If you don't believe it, just look at the heads on his wall. You'll even find a Digestor head.

Captain, and all the present crewmen, saluted and stamped their tails once on the floor, acknowledging him.

"If you have called me, I suppose your mission was a success." the Shuryo said with a deep voice.

Captain didn't even dare to look into his eyes. "I'm afraid it was a bittersweet victory, Shuryo."

"What do you mean?"

One signal with his tail was needed for one of the scientific Kryvtors to come forward, holding a capsule with a withered flower. The Shuryo's eyes widened.

"The Irken scum has killed the sacred flower, Shuryo," Captain said grimly. "There was nothing we could do to retrieve any of its DNA nor seeds."

The Shuryo hit the armrest of his throne, snarling. "They will pay for this sacrilege!" he said, his pupils gone to slits.

"It's not all lost, Shuryo," the Kryvtor stated. "The Indokuro we sent to retrieve the sacred flower showed some… particular behavior."

"What do you mean?" Captain asked with a frown.

A few buttons on the datapad later, a video footage appeared on the corner of the screen. It depicted what the Indokuro saw during the assignment thanks to a special camera lens put in its eyelid beforehand. After it retrieved the flower, it started going after an small Irken child.

"The Asset got curious with a smeet, so what?" Captain said dismissively.

"The Indokuro was trained to fetch the flower. Why would it go after the smeet unless it sensed something?" the Kryvtor explained. "Besides, if you recall the additional… prize it brought…"

"You mean the smeet's leg?"

"Yes, we took a closer look at it, and we noticed it possesses the sacred flower's DNA in it."

"Impossible!" Shuryo said.

"Actually, Shuryo, if you recall, around the time the sacred flower was stolen there was an outbreak of Drilo's disease, and as we all know the Moondrop Flower is the main ingredient in the cure."

"I see…" it didn't take long for the Sobrekt to connect the dots. The Irkens needed the flower for the cure to Drilo's disease, which they have to that smeet, and this in turn caused her to gain many of the Sobrekt's own genetic traits.

Just when they thought it couldn't get any worse.

"Captain, I have a new mission for you." Shuryo said with a serious expression. "Capture that smeet and bring her to me."

Captain gave a respectful bow. "It will be done, Shuryo."

The transmission screen went black.

Oh, dear. Looks like things will only get harder from this point on.

Okay, everyone, given this story turned out with so many twists and turns I've decided to follow it up with a sequel. It will also center on Ilk and the Tallest, but there will be more additional characters that will give it quite a unique twist.

See you soon!