Across long distances and vast plains, my future lies nowhere.

The stars glinted high up in the sky, merely consuming most of the darkness which spread over the world. The moon, however, left a big gap around it, revealing its true, divine beauty to the shadowed face of the planet. The wind whistled through the long blades of grass, lurking, sliding around one's foot before letting it go and moving delicately on. Lights, coming from a large building, disrupted the dull obscurity which fell over this area, attracting the attention of anyone who would pass by here. Fortunately, no one did.
If you entered the building, you would be greeted by many, many tall, broad guards which badly-shaved beards, bushy eyebrows and small little eyes which would always suspiciously glare at you. They each held AK-47s in their large hands, some with balaclavas stretched over their faces. One or the other had a cigarette lazily poking out of their lips. Men in white accoutrement hastily paced around the area, with mobile tables, notepads or the sort in their hands. They each spoke to one another with low voices, as if suspecting they were always watched.
A stern-looking man, with small glasses which glinted at the smallest ray of light, walked superiorly through a corridor, arms behind his back. A few scientists were marching behind him, each with innocent, or almost, faces. The man looked old, with wrinkles which slashes through his face, making it even uglier than at first glance. Pointy ears, comfortable blotted against the sides of his head, poked through the short silvering hair, which had been combed in a messy way, flattened to the right side. His dark brown eyes glistened viciously behind the glasses he wore as he approached a certain door.
He stopped, taking a deep breath before turning to the others to show that they have arrived. Gulping quickly before turning back to the door, he shifted nervously from one foot to the other. It seemed confusing that such a man was able to become anxious at this point, and a few scientists did raise their eyebrow as an answer. The man chuckled hesitantly, and nodded once to himself.
"Room 2B-A48, where lives the experiment #3-4473. Male being, proved to be a..." The man lifted his hand, taking a sheet of paper up to his face. He flicked the sheet, readjusting his glasses with the other hand, before continuing. "Kuijin," he finished slowly. "Kuijins are creatures which have the ability to change shape into a known animal of some kind. Tests have proven that there can also be kuijin hybrids, which could reproduce the shape of some mythical creature, such as a griffon or a dragon, for example." As he spoke, the scientists took notes, putting the caps of their pens either by their ear or biting onto it. "He claims to be someone called Ar... Akr... Ahrka... It sounds Russian, I can't always remember..." The man takes a glance at the paper, trying to pronounce the name. "... Ahrach Lusari, excuse me." he finished, glancing at the door. "He was found some time ago, roaming in the mountains. We captured him and took him here for experimentation. He has the ability to transform into an eagle. We can't determine what exactly, but it seems to be more of an eagle, with a slight breed of... A crow." At that remark, a few of the scientists smirked or quietly chuckled.
"You mean," one of them called out, "this thing is the conclusion of a reproduction between an eagle and a crow?"
"Don't call him a thing," the man warned, glaring, "she could hear you."
"She?" another asked.
"I'll explain later," the man quickly replied, before turning to the door again, "so, as I was saying, we have experimented on him. After a small mess-up, when Ahrach here woke up in the middle of operation, our doctors committed an error and now Ahrach is not able to transform into his complete human form ever again."
"Next time you open your mouth, maggot, you're getting your arm ripped off," a voice called out harshly from the inside of the room. The man gulped, taking a step back. He hesitantly turned to the other scientists.
"That's... Ahrach," he murmured, "he and I never got with each other really well..." The old man gulped nervously, before continuing, "the last time we met, I was lucky he didn't bash my skull in with the office lamp." The man moved to the guard by the door, whispering something into his ear. The guard nodded once, took a key out of his pocket and inserted it into the door, quickly unlocking it. The old man beckoned the other scientists, opening the door wide, revealing another young person, chained by the right wrist against the wall. He lifted tired, golden eyes, glaring past the two brown fringes. Such an expression of hatred couldn't be reflected by any other in his situation.
"So, Dr. Melo," Ahrach muttered, tilting his head sideways, "how's the head?"
The man smiled nervously back at Ahrach. "It's fine, thank you." He quickly closed the door, letting the guard lock it. "Ahrach's been showing compulsive violent desires. He mostly threatens me." The scientists nodded slowly, noting it down on their sheets. "As I was saying," Dr. Melo continued quietly, "we have experimented and-"
A silenced gunshot was heard from far into the corridor. The guard who had just unlocked the door fell down, limp, blood slithering down his forehead to his chin. Some scientists screamed, and Dr. Melo quickly took a step back. A can appeared from the hallway, rolling into the area, spreading gas everywhere. Guards marched in, yelling. "Gas! Put your masks on!"
Each one of them grabbed a mask from a metal box situated against the wall. A black figure appeared from the depths of the corridor, walking quickly towards the guards. The silhouette pulled the masks off their faces one by one, leaving them to fall, coughing violently on the ground as we the others. One of the guards weakly sat up and pointed a gun at the shape, but it turned around and shot him through the head before he could pull the trigger. The figure knelt down next to the first-shot guard, taking the key from him.
"Thank you, dead boy," a feminine voice murmured teasingly, as she put it into the door. She slammed it open, pointing the gun inside before entering. She closed the door behind her, still wary. The figure then finally detailed itself, being a woman of young age with short coal black hair and black eyes. She smirked at the other figure which was still blind in the small fog which hovered over him.
"Well, well, Ahrach," she murmured quietly, "finally found you."
"I thought you'd come," he whispered back, "Erelx."
"Of course I would," she quickly answered, stepping towards him, and holding out a hand, "now, let's go before anyone."
Erelx stopped herself dead in her steps. Her eyes widened and she shakily took a step back. She dropped her gun, lifting her hands to cover her mouth.
"Ahrach..." she murmured painfully, "What have the done to you?!"
"The most horrible of things," he hissed, standing up. His golden eyes pierced the thin fog which soon faded away, unmasking a thing. A man, who wouldn't be recognizable as the Ahrach he had previously been. Brown feathers stuck out of his shoulders, forearms and head, striking backwards. A few fringes of hair merged with the feathers on his head. His fingers had no nails whatsoever, finished by thin, skeletal points.

Something scraped its way along the ventilation duct, not realising that someone had already unscrewed the hatch. A muffled thump followed by a long stream of swearwords in several different languages accompanied a large lump of black material falling from the ventilation. It distangled itself, showing a disgruntled looking Raven. She glared at Erelex.
"What part of 'Hang on a minute' don't you understand? Not to mention that you got to get through the fun part before me?" She said. She cast a bored, violet eye over the creature Ahrach had become, not recognising him. "Come on Erelex, I need to find Ahrach, no matter what you say about us being together!"

Ahrach lifted his eyes ever so slowly to meet Raven's form. His eyes, before having no emotion whatsoever lighting them, then were cast into a half-glare, half- surprised look. He stared at her before uttering a few words through his pinched lips. "Raven," he muttered to himself, "never thought I'd see her again."
Erelx, on the other hand, completely ignored Raven, and approached Ahrach, lifting one hand. She grazed the feathers on his head, gulping slightly. "These," she whispered, "these are real."
"What else would they be? Plastic?" Ahrach replied, lifting one eyebrow at his older sister. She lowered her hand, clenching it into a fist.
"We'll find a way to-"
"-change you back," Ahrach completed, "No, that'll be useless. This is permanent." Erelx looked away before clenching her hand into a fist, and regaining her normal personality. "We need to go. The guards'll attack us very soon. C'mon." Erelx turned to Raven. "Let's move, Raven. We've got heads to shoot and butts to kick."
Ahrach wanted to speak, but he refrained himself before doing so. He sighed quietly.

Raven blinked a few times before it sunk in. After all, she had never been the sharpest person in the clan. She's been hit on the head one too many times for that.
"Ahrach?!" She gasped. Several emotions flashed over her face. Love, pain, sadness, and then anger. Blind fury. Raven's eyes split, turning red.
"Who did this to you? They will pay..." She said quietly, although her voice had developed a rasping undertone.

"Raven," Ahrach warned her, glaring into her red eyes. Even his voice had changed slightly - it was more sharp, and more menacing than before. Impossible to know whether it was because of the time constrained here or because of the experiments. His voice lowered, slightly more gentle than what it was before. "Please control yourself. We don't have any intention to blow this place up. It would bring suspicion around the country, and if they find out, all of the races kept hostage here are screwed." Ahrach took a deep breath, sighing. "I'm fine, Raven. There is nothing anyone can do for me, so it'll just to stay that way. Now let's stop wasting time talking and get a move on."
Ahrach cautiously grabbed a pistole at Erelx's side, charging it and then briefly nodded to his sister and the demoness. Erelx stepped out of the room, grabbing three gas masks and throwing two inside. She pulled one over her face, and Ahrach had slight trouble adjusting his so he just had to hold it with one weak hand.

Raven flinched a little, her eyes melding together again, turning back to their original violet colour. She bowed her head, taking a shaky breath, bringing her emotions back under control. She looked up at Ahrach again with sad eyes, but nodded once, drawing a hand-and-a-half sword from a sheath on her hip.
"We're gonna get you out of here, ok?" She said. "I can't teleport out of these walls, but as soon as we get out of here, I'l take the pair of you somewhere safe, where you can recover as much as you can, Ahrach."

Ahrach nodded quickly at Raven, glancing at her. The mere glance that he cast upon her had only lasted a moment, but it showed multiple things. Such images in a flash of his golden iris would've normally been impossible for a blunt child to fathom or see. It was a flicker of nervousness, as if something was waiting for them, calmly, as they were about to trot on.
Ahrach turned away, placing the pistole in his hand as his body remembered. Erelx stepped out of the room, firing twice at incoming guards. Ahrach also stepped out, glaring forwards.
"We can't go back there," he muttered.
"Why not?" Erelx asked, frowning slightly as she pointed her gun to the smoked hallway.
"Multiple people. There are way too many coming from this side," Ahrach explained, "just look at the layout of the building and you'll understand. These hallways were made large as to fit in as many people as they could." Ahrach quickly turned to Raven. "We need to go to the labs. In those rooms, there are ceiling windows. If we manage to break them by shooting at them, we'll be able to fly out, considering Erelx and you can still use your morphing power, and that mine has remained the same."
As Ahrach spoke, footsteps plummeted down the hallways. Ahrach began turning around and headed for the swinging doors behind him. "Quickly!"

Raven turned her back on the departing Kuijin. She turned her head slightly.
"You two go on, I'll deal with this lot. Just get your butts out of here and to safety!" She said. Several more guards were starting to appear, but Raven pulled out a few throwing knifes, landing them in the mens' chests.
"GO!" Raven yelled.

Ahrach grunted, lifting the pistole and shooting down a man in the head. He kicked the lab doors open, quickly dashing through the different arrays of tubes, wires, mobile tables and others things which couldn't be recognized by the unexperienced eye. Erelx followed into the lab, and Ahrach shut the door behind him. Erelx stopped him from going any further by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"You sure she'll make it?" Erelx asked.
"I have merely seen the strength that is hidden within her a long time ago," Ahrach answered quickly.
"How can you know that?"
"She hasn't gone demonic yet."
Ahrach turned around and paced forwards. "Follow me," he snapped, hopping over a few of the tables and looking for the convenient door to choose for the right path. A few scientists stared at both of the kuijin, having only been alarmed earlier by the gunshots. They stood hidden behind other tables, shivering under their coats. Ahrach smashed the middle door open with a great kick.
Ten guards waited behind it, lifting their guns. "Oh-" Ahrach muttered. He quickly flipped backwards, tossing a table in front of him and using it as a barricade. The scientists fled the area hurriedly as Erelx joined her brother.
"Got any plan, Einstein?" she mused aloud.
Ahrach glanced around. He took a peek over the table, before ducking his head away from a flurry of bullets. He tried to breathe calmly, thinking.
"They're not the elite troops, but they've got tactic," he murmured, "improvisation."
Erelx sneered, before bending over and pulling her vest to her side. From it, she had multiple pieces of guns. Swiftly, she assembled the pieces and made a machine-gun. Charging the weapon, she lifted one eyebrow back at her brother.
"Right," she murmured.
"Left," Ahrach replied.

Raven grinned slightly. She was in her element there. Her blades flashed in the light, repelling bullets towards their firers, slicing through body armour and flesh alike. The grey floor was awash with blood, but Raven didn't notice it. She just kept on fighting the onslaught until the tide of guards thinned, and she had killed the last one who dared approach her.
"That was for what you did to Ahrach, I hope you rot in the void," She spat, turning and jogging along the passage that she had seen Ahrach and Erelex dissapear along.

Ahrach and Erelx each jumped to their sides, pointing their weapons at the guards. They both shot expertly like how they had taught each other to do when they were still in their childhood. Four men fell down, and the others rushed inside the lab, to find no one. Ahrach and Erelx landed on one each, breaking their necks as they followed to shoot the others through their helmets. Once they had all fallen down, Ahrach recharged his weapon and entered the next room. He aimed upwards, closing one eye and shot. It echoed throughout the room, breaking into the glass which fell like rain to the ground. Erelx smirked at herself, before turning her head to the other door, where she had heard footsteps. She fixed her gun at the door, wondering if it was Raven or other guards who had managed to get past her.

Raven burst through the door, breathing heavily, her clothes stained with human blood, but there was still a slightly battle-crazed look in her eye. She still held her blades in her hands, ready to keep on fighting.
"Go! Get out of here! I'll join you asap!" She ordered the two Kuijins, turning her back on them to face the door, weapons poised, waiting for any guard who dared take a step through.

Ahrach quickly nodded at Raven, before doing the same to his sister. They both stepped into the room. Ahrach tried not to place his bare feet upon the broken glass. They both looked up, and Ahrach threw the gun away. As he morphed into his animal shape, not many physical changes fit onto his body. Ahrach twisted and bent himself over, the feathers sprouting slightly longer and the beak appeared from his pinched lips. He jumped from the ground, followed by a large raven black crow. They both soared in the air, using great flaps of their wings in order to gain in altitude. They managed to reach the outside, and they halted on the top of the building.
"Raven needs to join us in order to teleport," Ahrach said briefly, "we have no choice other than waiting here."

A black raven shot out of the broken window before flairing its wings and flying rapidly over to the two Kuijin. She morphed back in mid air, landing in her humanoid form. She took a few seconds to get her breath back before grabbing their arms and teleporting.

The demoness reappeared in a forest, letting the Kuijins' arms go and closing her eyes, getting her breathing under control. It had been a long time since she had been involved in a battle like that. She sighed, leaning her head back for a few moments to ease her windpipe. She looked at Ahrach, her violet eyes bearing a hint of sadness. Hesitantly, she reached out a hand to gently touch the feathers on his head.

Ahrach turned his eyes to Raven, his golden eyes not showing much other than just mere appreciation for what both of them have done for him. He lifted one long-fingered hand onto Raven's, lowering it onto his lap and cupping it over with his second hand. He nodded quickly at the demoness, not managing to smile with the tensed lips he had. "Thank you," he murmured. Ahrach stood up, looking over to Erelx, who had unfortunately landed in a tree just after the teleportation. She hopped off, landing in a kneeled position, before falling down, tired. She struggled to get back to her feet and Ahrach helped her pull herself up. She then fell against Ahrach, who nearly fell himself, too weak to support his sister's weight.
Ahrach lifted his sister's head to look at her eyes and facial structure. He glanced at Raven. "You haven't slept much, have you...?" he asked quietly.

Raven said nothing, looking down at her hands. She snorted slightly.
"I'd guess you haven't had much sleep either." She murmured, lifting her eyes to lock gazes with Ahrach. She felt helpless, unable to help the Kuijin, and she knew that there was precious little the healers in her clan could do either. It had been a long time since they had been unable to do anything, since she had been seriously injured to her leg, and had kept the slight limp even to that day.

Ahrach laid the limp Erelx against a large stone, before crossing her arms over her stomach. Erelx was very quietly snoring peacefully, and it brought Ahrach back to the older times. He turned to Raven, noticing her faint expression of sadness. He approached her, tilting his head to the side. "With all the experiments they've done to me, I guess my sleep has gone. Too many horrors flash before my closed eyelids", Ahrach answered truthfully.

Raven, looked down fro a moment before lifting her hands to his head. She gently cupped Ahrach's face in her hands, locking gazes, violet to gold.
"Try, ok? You need your sleep as well. I'll keep watch." She said quietly. "You need to recover. We're a long way away from any experimental labs. You're safe."

Ahrach gazed back into Raven's eyes, before nodding hesitantly. He placed his own hands on top of Raven's pushing them delicately away from his face. "I've already tried many times. Although, it can't bother to try again." Ahrach sat down against a boulder, looking up at the leafy platform which separated them between them and the shining moon. He sighed quietly, wondering where his double-bladed scythe had gone, as well as his ointment. The lab had taken both of the items, but Ahrach didn't care now. He was permanently mutilated, having turned in some sort of monster. Although, he could not ever sleep again, he knew that. She was going to come. They will send her in order to get him.

Raven nodded and sat near Ahrach, taking out one of her blades and starting to polish it with a cloth from her pocket. She kept an ear out, listening to anything unusual in the forest, but also listening to Ahrach's breathing. She didn't know what the scientists had done to him, but she knew that he wouldn't want to talk about it. She bit her lip, remembering a part demon, an ice demon, the clan had met briefly. He had been through something similar, stuck between his humanoid form and his true form. They hadn't been able to do anything for him. He had died soon afterwards, in great pain, from the ice shards buried in his vital organs.

Ahrach stared at the sky, his face not showing much emotion. His eyebrows had disappeared, replaced by slick feathers which adorned his head and joined his hair. Fringes of his hair had turned white or light brown after the experiments. His lips had just begun transforming into a sharp beak, explaining the pinched and rigid position. Golden eyes swept the ground and surroundings, still alert. It served nothing to tell Raven and Erelx about her. Even if their alerts would be prodded, she would just use it against them. She can't be seen... Almost never. Ahrach crossed his legs and folded his arms on his body, trying to relax.

Something rustled in the bushes. Raven was suddenly on alert, her eyes scanning the woodland. She slowly got to her feet, still looking around. She knew something was there. She could sense it so near. A flash of red to one side of her caused the demoness to wheel round, searching for the culprit.
"Boo." Stated a child's voice from the bushed as they parted to show a crimson haired little girl.
"Oh, for the love of the goddess, not you Neku!"

Ahrach lifted an eyebrow at the newcomer, easily being able to see her traits despite the thick darkness of the night. His finger twitched on his hand as he noticed that the person looked like Raven, or at least had a similar facial structure at some parts. He assumed that this 'Neku' was a relation to Raven, although she did not seem of the best, considering Raven's reaction. The girl seemed well inoffensive, not counting the sadistic glint which was obvious in her eyes. But then again, Raven was much like that at times. Ahrach thought he'd just have to deal with the new one, as if she wasn't doing any difference to the day.

Neku just smiled and wandered into the clearing. Her eyes lingered on Ahrach for a moment before she sat down and started to plait blades of grass.
"Vrael's looking for you," She said.
"I know, I told him to get lost when he contacted me through our link." Raven spun aorund on her foot, her cloak twisting around her briefly. She settled down next to Ahrach, gently taking one of his hands.

Ahrach stared at the girl in a bored manner, sighing slightly to himself. He shivered at Raven's touch. His hand hadn't been grazed by another hand since long, especially after his transformation. He needed to tell Raven and his sister that they weren't safe. And this random girl, while he was at it. But they were tired, and wouldn't be able to do anything. Ahrach's long fingers rested against Raven's palm, but his eyes stood staring straight forwards, past the girl. The night sky was only darkening, and the moon slowly crawled up to the peak of the world. Ahrach's golden eyes glinted in the night, reflecting a sensation of cautiousness and concentration. He could not let her get to them.