Rangavar may have uncovered the secrets that the research facility worked so hard to hide, but what he chooses to do with that information will determine his and Arro's fate.

Surprise! I wasn't satisfied with the end of the "last" chapter of Kill, Marry, Fuck but it was getting weirdly long so I cut this part separate.
I debated just saving this part as a sort of "prologue" for the sequel, but that didn't really seem fair

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_{Some Fool: *invents the game Fuck, Marry, Kill*
Me: That honestly just sounds like a to-do list}

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The dark gray dragon lay on the floor, his chest a darker shade of gray, and his horns black as night. His huge, feathered wings were black, too. Or, at least they were black and feathered right now. They hadn’t been a minute ago.

He cracked open his eyes. He was hugging his arms to his chest, curled on the floor, his body aching and radiating with pain. He was breathing heavily in exhaustion and shock, his eyes falling on nothing in particular.

A towering shape stood over him. He looked up at her out the corner of his eye. The tall Darkal with the gold-tipped wings grinned down at him. “Since I’ve reminded you of your past, I hope you become more… convinced, to help fix the problems you’ve tried to run away from.”

Rangavar didn’t say anything. There was nothing he could say. He bared his teeth at her, his elongated fangs reaching past his bottom lip, but he was no threat to her, and they both knew it.

She watched smugly. “I’m going to lay it out for you, Rangavar, since it seems to take you a little… well, extra effort, to understand things.”

Rangavar glared, but she continued, “You’re a Glitarian. You need to work with us here. You’re obligated to, really. All of us have been working towards one goal.” She paused, and tilted her head at him, gauging his reaction. “We’re going to help the wraiths become dragons again.”

Rangavar looked away.

“Aw, you have to have something to say.” She leaned down, grabbing the side of his face, wrenching it back toward her until their eyes locked. “Why wouldn’t you join us? Is it loyalty? Who was your queen?”

“I’m from Noten,” he growled as she gripped his muzzle.

She released him suddenly, standing back up straight with an amused expression. “Ah, the little rebel town. No wonder you’re so… defiant.” She smirked. “I don’t care very much, then. I won’t even ask you to pledge yourself to me or anything, either. Too much effort for such an invaluable reward.”

That was an insult Rangavar wasn’t even upset about. At this point, he just wanted her to leave him alone.

She grinned again. She wasn’t done talking. “Now you can keep being… uncooperative, or you can join us.” She gazed at him steadily, and warned, “I guarantee that doing anything short of the latter wouldn’t be in your best interest.”

He lifted his head slightly. “Fine,” he growled. “I’ll join you. I’ll help. Whatever.”

“Excellent.” She reached down again to cup the side of his face in her paw with mock gentleness. He tried to pull away, but she turned him toward her again, and smiled. “I’m sure Arro will appreciate that, too.”

His glare softened somewhat. Arro would be safe. If she said so, and she ran this facility, then it would be true.

She straightened again one more time and finally turned away, towards the door. Rangavar realized that everyone else in the room had filed out at some point during their exchange. Or maybe during his transition, when he wouldn’t have been able to focus on anything else. Either way, they were alone right now.

Still curled on his side with his arms clutching his chest, he twisted to see her. “Wait, where are you going? What do I do now?”

She cast a final glance back at him. “Whatever you need to. Although you should probably turn back before you leave. Even though most non-Glitarians wouldn’t be able to remember, if they saw you, it would be a highly unnecessary risk.”

“I can’t,” he forced out, painfully rolling himself over, gingerly flexing his wings. Changing once was exhausting and painful. He couldn’t make it through another one right now.

She shrugged, unconcerned, and twirled her paw in the air as she walked out the door. “Figure it out.”

~

When he’d eventually picked himself up off the floor and stumbled his way out of that room, Jethe had been waiting for him. As a full Glitarian, Rangavar was taller than him, had broader shoulders, and more massive wings. It made Jethe seem smaller next to him, and Rangavar actually liked that a lot. Jethe kept his face calm and unfazed, but the Darkal detected just the barest spark of instinctive nervousness hidden away. He liked that even more.

The other employees down here didn’t pay him any mind. He supposed they were all Glitarians, too. That must be what happened; the queen moved the whole group of them out here to Karraden. He’d been surrounded by others all along without realizing it.
They’d noticed him because he was the outlier, though. He’d come alone. And of his own free will.

They were walking for a long time as Jethe navigated the way back to the ground floor. It turned out type five mutations made dragons immune to the mind-numbing effects of Glitarian presence. Rangavar supposed it made sense that he’d been made an ‘insider’ employee, then. After finding out what Glitarians were really like, he was just a liability to keep anywhere else; the last thing they’d want was Jethe deciding to tell the wrong people the truth about his employers. He was probably also getting paid a fuckton to keep his mouth shut.

When they finally reached the ground floor, it was still early morning, not quite dawn, leaving the building quiet and empty. Rangavar was absolutely wiped, but at least the pain in his body had subsided. He leaned a paw against the wall and glanced up and down the silent hallway that connected to the basement door from which they’d emerged. He turned back to the other dragon for a second. He felt like he should say something, even though he didn’t really want to.

Jethe spoke for him. He stared up at him with his arms crossed. “Now, if you’re finally done poking around and causing trouble, I hope I never see you again.”

Rangavar calmly stared back. “The feeling is mutual,” he assured him.

They stared at each other a moment longer before Rangavar turned back around and left him standing there.

Now here he was, a while later, still in the hallway as dawn broke outside. He’d gathered as much energy as possible before time ran out, but this was it. He was ready.

He braced his paws against a wall. He’d seen others sometimes crouching on all fours, but he just found it easier to stay upright. He focused, feeling his muscles clench, his back tensing up… His shoulders popped as he forced them back, and he stifled an exclamation of pain in his throat. He clutched at the wall as his spine also started to pop and contort. He wished he could say it got easier every time, but it really didn’t. He didn’t understand how other Glitarians could go back and forth and live a double life. He hated this. What he wanted was to go back to his normal life… and go back to Arro…

The bones in his feet cracked and shifted, the spread of his toes decreasing, his talons shortening. He dug the claws of his forepaws into the wall involuntarily, fingers curling with pain, dragging wide, long claw marks into the cheery yellow surface.

Rangavar growled at the sensation of his feathers flattening and pressing sharply into his flesh. They never shed. Not ever. He wished they would just fucking shed. The sensation similar to razors seeping into his skin was honestly the worst.

Suddenly, he found himself sitting on the floor against the wall with one knee bent against his chest, his other leg stretched out, both wings relaxed from his sides, and his tail peacefully curled around in front of him. Rangavar glanced around. He couldn’t remember how he ended up here, his mind blacking out for a moment as the pain overwhelmed him. Everything hurt, but he felt calm.

And exhausted.

He stared down the hall, which seemed lighter. Dawn was arriving. It was time to get out of here. He stood slowly, body aching, and put his paw against the wall for balance. He paused as his paw brushed over the grooves there from his claws. He wasn’t sure what to think of that for a moment. Then he smirked. There was only one maintenance worker to be tasked with fixing it.

Fuck Jethe.

Rangavar started down the hall, feet dragging and wings drooping with exhaustion, feeling quite like shit. He finally had his answers, though. And Arro’s safety assured. He would probably be thrilled, if he weren’t too tired to feel anything at all.

The early light of dawn fell on him as the sun’s edge just crested the horizon. It was time to go home.

~

Rangavar almost collapsed as he dragged himself through the door. He actually planned to collapse onto the couch right away—but there was a fat dragon lying there, taking up the whole thing. Rangavar audibly groaned. He’d have to force his body up the stairs. It was enough effort even just picking up his feet to walk.

The sleeping Faerian pricked an ear at the sound of Rangavar’s groan. Then he startled awake, glancing toward the door sharply. Arro’s face was full of concern as he forced himself up, worming his body off the couch and hurrying over as fast as his fat thighs would let him. “Rangavar.”

Rangavar looked at him tiredly. “I didn’t mean to wake y—” He was interrupted as Arro wrapped him in a hug. After a moment of his exhausted brain trying to process, he hugged back, leaning into the expansive belly to reach his arms around as best he could.

“The way you said goodbye last night had me worried, and you left so fast, and I waited up for you. But then you didn’t come back—”

“You didn’t have to wait up for me.” Rangavar hadn’t realized he’d made Arro worry. He’d been the one worried about Arro.

“Where did you go?” Arro paused. “You look tired. Have you been up all night?”

Rangavar stared around absently. Too many questions. “I am tired. I really just want to go to bed.”

Arro watched him quietly for a moment. He looked the ragged Darkal up and down. “Okay,” he finally said. The word felt like a lie, somehow. Arro obviously wanted to know what had happened.

“We can talk about it in the morning, you know?” Rangavar promised.

“It is morning.”

Oh. Right. “How about later-morning?”

Arro was anxiously on his heels as he headed for the stairs and weakly started up them. He really hadn’t meant to make the Faerian upset. He supposed it was a bit weird that he’d suddenly sprung up and stormed off into the night with what must have seemed like a pretty ominous goodbye, given that there’d been no explanation whatsoever. He winced. After the night he had, he was also pretty sure he still had no explanation whatsoever. He couldn’t exactly tell Arro the entirety of Glitarian history.

There was also the even weirder problem of admitting to Arro that, after all this time, he no longer wanted to dredge of the secrets of the ‘big bad research facility’, as Arro had teased. That rather, Rangavar… wanted to wholeheartedly join them. He couldn’t exactly tell Arro the reason.

Arro continued to follow him as he collapsed onto the bed. “Can I lie with you?” the larger dragon asked. He pressed his index fingers together. “I don’t want to keep you up or anything, though, so it’s fine if—”

“Of course you can,” Rangavar assured him. He scooted over to give Arro more room. “I really didn’t mean to wake you up, you know.”

Arro climbed into bed with him, shaking the mattress. “It’s okay. I’m glad I got to see you come home.”

Maybe he could come up with something after resting when he was less tired. Or maybe, Arro would readily believe that Rangavar had given up on his search, since Arro had done the same easily enough.

Rangavar naturally turned towards his own edge of the bed, but felt Arro wrap an arm over him and pull him closer so that his back was pressed against the fat dragon’s warm body. At least, no matter what, Arro was safe. That was really what mattered.