Alexander pulled back the collar of his shirt to smell inside it. Sweat. He smelled like sweat. And, very faintly, like bird droppings, which he wasn't up to questioning. He sighed. Sakina tapped his shoulder. "What did I tell you about touching me?" he asked coldly.

"I thought you might want this." Sakina said, holding out something timidly. Alexander looked to see a rubber band in her hand. "I thought you'd want to tie your hair back because it's messy. Not in a ratty, tangled kind of way! I mean, your hair is tangled and messy, just not in a totally bad way–"

Alexander rolled his eyes, taking the rubber band and stretching it over his wrist. "Thanks."

They continued on walking when Sakina broke into the silence again. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Do you?"

"No, but I–"

"You said no. I don't really care to hear the rest."

Sakina ran in front of Alexander. Instead of tears shining in her eyes, he found anger. An emotion meant to intimidate. Had he not been tired and hungry and sick, Alexander could've laughed. It wasn't in him to be intimidated by a girl as young as she. "If we're going to be a team, you're going to have to listen to me whether you like it or not!"

Alexander snorted, his blue eyes cold and hard. "Listen, kid, we are not a team. Get that straight, okay? Unfortunately, we were locked in the same room and I wasn't up to ending my dying days in there just because I crossed a goddamn fence. We're only together because your sorry ass insisted on following me. And if you still want to, be my guest. If you don't, you can very easily go back to the room you came from and get free meals and water and other shit your friend probably scraped off the floor for you." Alexander pointed back down the hallway, beckoning manically. "Well?"

Sakina frowned, struggling to make sense of Alexander, silent.

"Yeah, I thought so." he muttered, squinting around the hallway. "Do you know any way of here?"

"No. Not one."

Alexander let his gaze cross through the long extension of the hallway. "Yeah, I expected that much but it's…as if we've walked through here before."

Sakina nodded. He liked it better when she didn't talk, anyway. Not that she did anything but say stupid shit and cry but still.

But it was strange. The walls and floors were painted white. The windows were cemented over, allowing in only thin slants of light. There were no guards patrolling the halls. No guard animals. No nothing. Alexander felt like he was walking right into something.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, a terrible realization hitting them.

"I should've known…" he grumbled.

Sakina turned to him, worried. "What? Known what?"

Alexander glanced at Sakina, shoved her to the ground before jumping away, albeit staggering, as a gust of steam hit the wall behind them, melting into the paint but not doing any damage.

"I didn't even hear that! How can he still move like that even at a feverish rate?" Sakina thought.

"I had a feeling it was you." Alexander muttered, glaring at the aggressor.

The same, gender-confused humanoid lizard, name he still didn't know, stared back. Its purple tongue slurped out of its mouth, sliding down to their chin before rolling sleekly back into their mouth. "You just don't seem to learn now, do you, boy?"

"It appears not." Alexander barked, staring straight into the lizard's yellow eyes. As he did so, his vision started to distort, turning into blobs of combined color and shapes. Alexander groaned, swiping a sweaty hand over his eyes.

"Well, look at you. Still got that bug, I see. Under that condition of yours, you'll be dead as a doorknob before the sun sets. This'll be just as easy as before."

The lizard lunged at Alexander and he dodged by stumbling. Alexander was too sluggish to raise his fists and he settled with basic evasion, but he was unfocused, tripping over himself. In the corner of the room, Sakina watched, shivering and terrified.

The lizard spat a plume of fog into his face, suctioning the oxygen out of Alexander's throat. He started coughing and tried to pull his shirt over his nose and mouth to breathe into it. His eyes were starting to water.

"Alexander, please, we have to get out of here! Stop fighting!" Sakina yelled, clutching the wall, one-handed.

The lizard swung its tail at Alexander and he caught it miraculously. It was heavier than he expected, a weight heavier than iron, and he clutched it to keep the lizard person still.

"If you don't let go, you'll regret it!"

"Sakina," Alexander called over, panting. "You…you have to get out of here."

Sakina's eyes widened, horrified by the suggestion. "But…but…I can't leave you!"

"Don't worry about me. You have to–"

"Not without you! I…I can't!"

"Shut up!" Alexander screamed. "I'm giving you a chance! Get outta here now!" The lizard's tail started dragging him, wrapping around his weak hands and scraping Alexander's feet across the floor. Scrapes from the calluses on his feet reopened and blood, red and brown, stained the floor, like ink.

Sakina shook her head again, defiant, until Alexander turned back to her, his eyes wide and watering, his nose running, the veins in his arms, burst blue. "Please."

If she expected anything from Alexander, it was not that. Not a desperate, genuine plea, not something real. Sakina nodded, tears in her eyes, and took off running. The humanoid lizard watched her, growling, projected its anger onto Alexander, and trapped Alexander's fingers with the strength from its tail. "You're gonna pay for that!"

The lizard unleashed a larger explosion of liquidized smoke into Alexander's face, which disoriented him further. He closed his eyes and tried to cover his mouth until the tail closed around his neck, choking the remaining oxygen out of him. "Maybe I should give you mercy. Maybe since you're sick, I should play nice. I do feel bad for you, though. That was a super sweet, half-hearted sacrifice."

"No, stop–"

"Say please, please, please! I bet you know how."

Alexander tried to wrestle an arm between his neck and the sharp, green-scaled tail, his struggling in vain. With all his power, he chewed the inside of his lip until he tasted blood, closed his eyes tight, and shook his head.

"I tried, friend. I really, really did. Can't deny me that."

The lizard lifted Alexander with its tail and flung him across the room. Alexander landed into a half-collapsed wall upside-down, spitting and choking. It was like before. He didn't stand a chance. He watched the lizard humanoid lazily wrap his neck again with its tail, raising Alexander to the feet he couldn't stand on.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you, little one." the lizard said. "That's Lord Macao's decision. He's the type that likes to play with his food before he eats it."

Alexander couldn't reply if he wanted to. Everything was sore. Everything was spinning. Everything ached. The tail released him and he landed on his head and was met with a familiar world of darkness.

Jefferson agreed to join Ellie and co. as they made plans to cross the fence but before he did so, he was deciding who he would leave in-charge of the clinic, namely Caroline. However, she wasn't exactly passionate on staying behind to miss the action.

"Caroline, it would be greatly preferred if you stayed beyond this point," Jefferson advised, pointing to the grass. "As you know, I had already tried to reason peacefully with Macao once before and was unable to do so. With all that's happening in town, there would need to be someone here to watch over the clinic, in case of emergency."

"I understand that, Doctor Jefferson. But what if Macao forces another storm upon us? I won't know what to do if then. What with all the potential danger–"

"We'll have to play it by ear. There are so many lives at stake and we can't risk anymore than we've already have." the doctor replied, shifting his gaze to the fortress standing inside the wire cage of fencing. He turned his gaze back to Caroline after a short moment, softly smiling. "Besides, no one else can manage the clinic as well as you can."

The worry in Caroline's face eased somewhat. "And I promise to manage it well."

They watched Caroline walk back into town and Ellie glanced at Jefferson. "One of us can always stay here, just in case one of Macao's minions tries to cause trouble to the town."

"That won't be necessary." he answered. "I'm sure Caroline has everything handled. We need all the help we can get."

"You're right on that, Doc."

A humanoid mutation of a buffalo stood near the front of the fortress. He had silver horns, brown fur, proud, pointed nostrils, and an amber center in his brown eyes. A scrap of burgundy fabric covered his midsection. At the attention of the four, he smirked. "You'll need all the help you can get. Macao got the better prize but, at least, I get to have fun with y'all first."

"The better prize?" Akane repeated, raising an eyebrow.

The buffalo didn't answer. He dug his hooves in the ground, kicked back dirt, and started to charge.

"What…where–where am I?"

The second Alexander opened his eyes, he closed them. He had never woken up with more pain, most of which was coming from his head and neck. He waited a moment to let his vision readjust before starting with more questions. There were glass tubes filled with gaseous chemicals across the floor, across the ceiling, across the tables. An infinite sound of bubbling. Wires like garden snakes covered the free space remaining on the floor.

Alexander tried to move his hands. Stuck. He looked to see his wrists bound with rope on an iron post. The back of his shirt was torn off.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Where am I?"

"You're in my haven."

Alexander turned as much as he could, which wasn't too far. A man, probably in his mid-twenties to thirties, was sitting on the floor with a book. He had dark hair, which appeared almost blue in the white glare of light, a perfect white suit, no shoes. Next to him, however, was what looked like a carry-around oxygen tank with a rainbow stream of wires connected to the veins in his hand. "I'm not sure I know what you mean…"

"Oh, you don't have to," he replied curtly. "After what you did, however, you have hell to pay."

"What I did?"

"You should know, foolish boy. I have no need to elaborate. What you should know is actions come with consequences and I hope that you're ready to face them."

Alexander blinked, still confused. As the man snapped his fingers, someone walked into the room holding a whip, their face obscured by a cloth mask. "Yes, Lord Macao?"

Reality dawned on Alexander at the name. Macao closed his book and raised his gaze to the faceless intruder, smiling. "Someone needs a lesson in penance."

"Yes, sire…"

Alexander's eyes widened.

The whip was raised.

"I don't like trespassers." Macao said.

The first scream shook the room.

I had a burst of inspiration and decided to just go ahead with it and ended up finishing this at long last. Thanks for your continued patience.

Alexander is sadly learning the consequences of his actions the hard way. Ellie and co. are in a new battle. Caroline has the clinic to herself in the meantime. R&R!