Kayde watches as lightning splits the boat in half, separating him, Fore and Kali from the others. He hears Xander’s voice faintly scream something out, but he cannot hear him over the sound of the waves crashing into their half boat.

By some stroke of luck, or maybe just all of Fore’s luck, the boat doesn’t sink. Instead, a strong current pushes that hunk of wood straight to shore, landing it safely on the coast just as the storm starts to subside.

“That’s just creepy,” Kali comments, having witnessed this miracle first hand. She stares down at Fore, almost afraid of the power he has. The joyful wolf looks back up at her with trusting eyes.

“Okay, so that happened,” Kayde notes, starting to take his first looks up and down the coast. They drifted South of their intended destination and now find nothing, but trees along the coastline.

Kayde starts to walk forward, “I guess this must seem like home to you two”.

“Let’s just follow the coast, if we do we have to run into something,” Kali suggests, hoping that they will be able to find their lost friends.

As they walk the coast starts to move inward, the trees at the edge of the woods are partially submerged in water, causing them to enter the forest.

“Don’t worry we will find them,” Kayde assures Kali, noticing her concerned expression as they walk.

“I’m not worried,” Kali tries to seem tough.

“Yeah, go ahead and say stuff like that. I’ll admit it I’m worried about them. They don’t have Fore like we do,” Kayde makes it clear, the serious tone in his voice very uncharacteristic of what Kali has seen of him so far, catching her off guard.

Eventually, the water from the ocean flows into the woods, creating a river that impedes them from continuing along the coast and forces them to delve deeper into the forest.

They walk along this river until they start to hear voices, “Did you hear that? It sounds like people are walking near the water”. They hear a far off voice notice them over the sound of the slow trickling river. Kali and Kayde halt in place, silently trying to wait out the situation. Fore, however, has different plans; he suddenly barks, blowing their cover.

A group of five armored soldiers appear from behind the trees in front of Kali, Kayde, and Fore. They all start to smile, having found a cyborg whose corpse they can bring back to the capital for a little extra gold.

“Look what we have here, a desert girl, a mutt and a fucking rust bucket,” one of the soldiers spits in Kayde’s general direction. The soldier’s tough words are silenced as Fore doesn’t waste a second, pouncing towards the one in front and removing his throat from the rest of this body. The long bloody organ hangs limply from the wolf’s teeth as its owner’s corpse drops to the ground in a mangled heap.

The other four lose their composure at seeing their commander’s throat savagely ripped out. Kayde takes this opportunity to pull out a pistol and shoot another between the eyes. Meanwhile, Kali unsheathes her sword. She quickly dispatches the last three, decapitating all of them in one swing.

Kayde looks down at the three heads on the ground, lifeless eyes looking off in each direction, never getting the chance to comprehend the trouble they were in.

“Damn, that was badass!” Kayde gets excited at Kali’s display.

Kali flicks her blade twice, removing the gore from it before confidently slipping it back into its sheath, “They were just weak, if they were strong they would have dodged”.

“Anyway I’m glad you are on our side,” Kayde tells her, taking another look at the heads in the dirt.

Continuing upstream amongst the trees, they walk quietly, the sounds of their movement masked by the running water in the adjacent river. Eventually, they are forced to stop down in the middle of the vast forest, the last of the sun's rays blocked by the thick canopy overhead.

“We making a fire?” Kayde asks, wanting to cook something up.

“No, that would be the stupidest thing we could do. It will let every Sacrosanct soldier know exactly where we are,” Kali stops him, knowing the smoke that will come from the fire will give away their location.

“Okay, I get it. I was just hungry. And it's not like we have tents anymore so it’s going to get cold,” Kayde points out.

“Although I have Fore to snuggle with to keep me warm,” Kayde picks up the wolf and rubs his head against his grey coat.

“You know you can snuggle with us too if you have to, I won’t tell Drakthar,” Kayde offers, knowing Kali will be freezing as well.

Kali shrugs off his suggestion, “No, I’m fine, I sleep outside normally…”

“And it’s not like he would care if you told him,” she adds, mumbling under her breath.

“Yeah, okay, but usually you sleep by a fire,” Kayde points out, trying to make her agree to it without having to hurt her pride.

“Shut up and go to sleep, I’ll stay up for the first half of the night,” Kali orders, sitting up against a tree while the other two lay down a few feet from her.

Kali, surrounded by darkness, starts to contemplate her situation. She looks down at the ostentatious android and chipper grey wolf asleep beside her, causing her to question what she has gotten herself mixed up in. If the others died at sea, then that would leave only the three of them to carry out a plot that was way too ambitious for even the six of them originally.

Doubts start to creep into her mind; she begins to contemplate getting up and leaving. If the other three drowned in the storm then she has no reason to stay with Kayde and Fore anymore. She stands up, her knees creaking from sitting down for a while.

Kali draws her sword and points it at Fore, never able to forget he is the creature that ruined her life. She stands over him, frozen, unable to muster the courage to kill the plucky wolf that she has ventured with since leaving the marshlands. She falls to her knees dropping her sword at her side. The sound of it clattering to the ground rouses Kayde to his senses. He looks up at Kali, her head in her hands.

“Hey, I can take over now. Why don’t you get some sleep,” Kayde offers, seeing her distraught condition. He gets up and sits up against the very same tree she did, ignoring her crying as best he can.

Fore rolls over, waking up at the loss of his big spoon. He gets up and goes over to Kali. He puts his front legs on Kali’s thighs, positioning himself right next to her face. Kali looks up in confusion as she feels the wolf’s tongue licking up the tears streaming down her face.

A deep feeling of guilt washes over her, ashamed that she could even think of killing Fore in a situation like this. Fore pushes himself further into her arms, seeking another source of warmth for the night. The two of them fall asleep intertwined while Kayde watches over them.

As soon as the sun starts to peek through the trees, Kayde goes over and shakes the other two awake, “Hey, it’s morning”.

Kali’s eyes flutter open to see Kayde’s creepy expression over her. She rolls her eyes, remembering their current situation.

“I guess we should get going,” Kali comments after gathering the small number of things she has before starting to walk up along the river. They continue on for several hours before coming across something interesting.

A pack of wolves, with grey fur not unlike Fore’s, begins to surround them. These wolves are not like the ones that circled them in the marshlands; they instead seem more docile. Less like beasts and more like pets, similar to Fore.

“Oh hey, little guys, what are you doing out here?” Kayde leans down to pet all of them. As he gets closer, he feels the force from a bullet collide with the ground between him and the wolf he was going to pet first.

Instead of continuing forward Kayde’s hands shoot up, “I just like wolves, I’m sorry if I bothered you”. Kali starts to look around, her hand on her sword, but she is unable to locate the one who shot at Kayde.

“Who are you guys?” They hear a feminine voice call back from behind a far off tree.

“Just a guy, a girl, and a pet wolf,” Kayde stands up, his hands still raised above his head.

They see a figure appear from behind a tree, “Oh, that’s all? It’s nice to meet you. My name is Lunette, and these are my wolves: Scruffy, Dumper, Mattie, Eve, The Doctor, and Sam”. A girl with messy black hair and green eyes hidden behind thick glasses points down at each of the wolves as she introduces them.

Kali looks down at Lunette’s pale white arm as she reaches out with it. Kayde raises his own arm to shake that of the much smaller woman’s before him, but she instead moves past him to pet the head of Fore.

“Aren’t you a cutie,” Lunette starts to rub either side of Fore’s face with her hands.

“He is. His name is Fore and he is my friend, not to mention the luckiest being on earth,” Kayde is all too happy to share, trying to hype him up to someone else who is friends with wolves.

Kali nudges Kayde to keep him quiet.

“What?” He whispers, turning in annoyance to see what she wants.

“Don’t tell her about Fore’s luck,” Kali responds, her voice even more hushed than Kayde’s.

They both look down at Fore, who is now barking happily at the feeling of Lunette’s hands all over him.

“I wonder what you are trying to tell me cutie pie,” Lunette thinks out loud as she runs her fingers through Fore’s thick grey fur.

“What did you say?” Kayde asks, having only caught the second half of her comment.

“What… oh don’t mind me,” Lunette suddenly puts her guard up, starting to whistle to seem inconspicuous.

Lunette stands back up to see the hooded Kayde. She squints while looking up at him, noticing the metal all around his face. Kayde braces himself, thinking that she might not be the kindest to cyborgs given she is of the Sacrosanct Empire.

Lunette slaps Kayde on the shoulder, “Don’t get so stiff, I don’t have any problems with cyborgs”. Kayde and Kali both breathe a sigh of relief.

“You three look a little rough, why don’t you follow me back to my lab,” Lunette suggests, starting to walk along the river, flanked by her six wolves.

They follow her a couple of minutes until they come to the end of the river. It disappears under a stone structure, its slanted roof covered in moss. It is more of a shack than a laboratory.

Lunette opens the gate surrounding it, letting all of her wolves inside, “Come on over”. She waves them to follow her inside. She opens the door with a loud creak, the wood on the bottom scraping against the stone floor.

“Tada! This is my home and laboratory, I work on all of my exciting projects here,” Lunette gestures with her arms wide towards the open room. It’s fairly plain; just a table surrounded by a couple of chairs and a workbench in the corner. Scattered across the floor are different scraps of metal and wires amongst used cups and plates. She clearly doesn’t clean up much.

Lunette turns around getting up close to Kayde and Kali, “So… who are you guys, actually?”

“This is Kali, I’m Kayde, and he’s Fore. We came here on a very secret mission, but our boat got caught in a storm and we washed up onshore. We really didn’t know where to go, so we followed the coast and then the river before we ran into you,” Kayde is all too happy to explain.

The whole time Kayde was introducing them and explaining their circumstances, Lunette is staring right through him, drifting off into her own thoughts instead of paying attention to his answer.

Kayde and Kali look at Lunette expectedly waiting for her to say something. It takes half a minute before Lunette recognizes the silence and snaps out of it.

“Oh, I’m sorry I kinda spaced out there, I was just thinking of my current project… now how can I make it work without exploding someone’s brain,” she mumbles incoherently to herself as if they weren’t there anymore.

“Hello?” Kayde leans down waving and smiling directly at Lunette.

“Oh, sorry I did it again didn’t I? I don’t get people much, my bad; anyway, who are you guys?” Lunette asks again, not having heard their previous answer. Kayde repeats the same explanation as before.

“Okay, so you guys crashed here… but what are you two in relation to each other?” Lunette asks, tracing her finger through the air back and forth between Kali and Kayde.

“Comrades,” Kayde responds, not able to think of a better single word to describe it.

“Yeah, okay, but how?” Lunette asks, wanting further clarification.

Kayde starts to think, “If I really had to put my finger on it… I guess I would say she is my friend’s fuck buddy”. Kali’s face turns red, embarrassed by the explanation, but also stunned because she realizes Kayde’s statement is true.

“How forward of you,” Lunette starts to giggle, before breaking out into a slightly inappropriate cackle. Kali and Kayde both look at her sideways, not finding it that comical.

Lunette is finally able to compose herself, “It must be awkward for the two of you to be separated from all your friends”. Kayde and Kali both nod affirmatively.

“You two can stay here as long as you want, I don’t get to see people much these days, so this is a real treat for me,” Lunette cracks a warm smile towards them, offering hospitality.

“Thank you, we appreciate it,” Kayde nods, glad they found someone here that doesn’t hate his kind.

“Okay, well make yourself at home. I have stuff to do in my room,” Lunette tells them, before disappearing behind the only door besides the entrance in her hovel.

The second the door closes behind her Kali comments, “That girl is crazy”.

“Maybe... but I do really want to know what she is working on. She mentioned something about brains… you know I don’t have one of those, I’m a machine up here,” Kayde knocks on the side of his head twice.

“You learn something new every day,” Kali responds.

“Whether you wanted to or not,” she adds under her breath.

Kayde doesn’t hear the second part as he has already turned around and is headed towards Lunette’s room. He tries knocking a few times, but she doesn’t answer. He opens the door slowly and peers inside.

Inside Lunette’s room, Kayde finds a bed across from another workbench that Lunette is sitting at. She is staring intently at whatever is in front of her. Kayde walks into the room and gets closer so he can get a better look at what she is working on. In her hands is a plain metal bracelet or something that appears to be a plain metal bracelet.

“So whatcha working on?” Kayde asks, now directly over her shoulder. Lunette jumps out of her chair, losing her grip on the bracelet. It clatters on the desk after flipping in the air a couple of times.

“Woah, you surprised me there. I didn’t hear you come in,” Lunette points out, finding it odd he made it right next to her without her noticing.

“Sorry, staying quiet is a habit of mine. Anyway, what are you working on?” Kayde apologizes before inquiring about the bracelet.

“Should I tell him?” Lunette wonders to herself out loud. She crinkles her nose a bit as she starts to contemplate this intently. Kayde finds it slightly cute.

“Okay I’ll tell you, but only because you seem to like wolves just as much as I do. What I am working on is a means of communication between humans and animals. It’s a device that will help us understand their language while also being able to communicate to them effectively,” Lunette shares her current project, her eyes lighting up more and more throughout her explanation.

“That’s awesome!” Kayde almost jumps, unable to contain the excitement from the possibility of talking with Fore.

He watches as Lunette’s expression changes to one of sadness as she explains, “But I haven’t been able to get over this major hurdle. The processing power required to transfer that kind of information is too much for the human brain to handle. At the moment if someone tried to use this their brain would explode from the pressure”.

“When you say brains… you only mean human brains right?” Kayde asks, starting to think of something.

“I mean, any animal’s brain really, there isn’t one that can handle this sort of thing. What other types of brain are there?” Lunette ponders that idea, not sure what Kayde means.

“What about one that is made out of machinery?” Kayde proposes, thinking of his own brain.

Lunette gasps, understanding the concept he is describing, “But no one has invented artificial intelligence yet, I would have to wait way too long. I guess all I can do for now is keep thinking up ways to reduce the processing power needed”.

“But what if artificial intelligence already existed?” Kayde asks with a grin, almost not able to contain the excitement of breaking the news.

“If it did then… yeah, it should have enough processing power to be able to use my machine,” Lunette speculates, not actually able to determine such an abstract situation.

Kayde reaches over and snags the bracelet off her desk, “So how does it work?” He doesn’t wait for an answer to her question, slipping it onto his wrist.

“No! What are you doing!” Lunette screams in horror thinking Kayde has just killed himself.

Lunette’s initial shock dies down as she sees Kayde standing before her, his brain matter not all over her room.

“Wha… how?” She asks in disbelief.

Kayde winks back at her with a smile, “It’s simple really, I’m kind of an AI”.