Growth and Lust Ch. 04 - Banished

Fenrar collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from his body, his legs unable to answer his commands. He drug in ragged breaths as he looked up from the ground, his last eye full of affection for his daughter that stood over his wrecked carcass. He didn't shake when she lifted her hand again, staring into his eye as she readied her final blow.

"I'm so proud of you." he said with love and understanding.

Ginrars hand came down, true and with unstoppable power, pointed just the way he taught her. Piercing his chest and tearing threw his heart, stopping the flow of oxygen and blood as his mouth coughed a crimson filled surrender. Then yanking the remnants of the torn organ from him, gripping it for a moment before letting it fall to the grass at her feet.

Roke watched in silence, seeing the love of his life stand above her final opponent, her body beginning to shake. Slowly kneeling down, trembling hands daintily touching the lifeless face of the man that raised her. Shaking breaths escaping as the tears formed in her eyes, the burning rings inside slowly dwindling down to hollow emptiness. Her eyes almost completely black as she felt the fire inside her being smothered as she tried to figure out what she needed to do now.

"F-father..."

Saffee sat in the trees, far enough away from the fight but still able to see and hear it all. She had been told to stay inside, to keep the doors locked and ensure she didn't go out. But upon hearing the rumors that Ginrar was coming back, she had to sneak out. Had to see her friend and ensure she was ok, she had followed Fenrar when he left. Knowing that he might be going to find his daughter and talk with her, but also feeling safer following the strongest Tallhee of the waterfall coven.

She had been ecstatic when she saw that he really did find her, Saffee had waited in hiding as far away as she could. Hoping Fenrar wouldn't sense her and staying downwind of him, but then when Ginrar came into view she had made her way closer.

Now her body rocked with fear, she had known Ginrar was strong, but she had not known she could be like this. She watched as her friend sat on her fathers cooling and lifeless body, tremors running through her as she gripped what was left of his face. Shudders and whimpers echoing in the night sky, Saffee felt she needed to comfort her, she needed to hold her and tell her it would be alright.

'You need to be fast.' Saffee remembered Ginrars words going through her head.

Saffee watched as the Ginrar she had grown with froze, her head slowly turning, one eye beginning to peer over her shoulder. Her heart felt like it stopped, fear banging off her conscious and reasoning mind, Saffee wanted to curl up and hide. To change into a rock, a blade of grass or even into nothing at all, she just didn't want to be next, didn't want Ginrar to see her as an opponent. She saw the fire in her eyes had dwindled to the smallest sliver, tiny rings in a pool of daunting blackness. She shook and tried to listen to her instincts, reaching a hand back behind her. Gripping earth as she pulled herself around, then pushing off with her legs and fleeing, running as fast as she could into the night.

Ginrar made it to the shuttle, she sat still as the nights events processed while the craft careened into the morning sky, taking her high and away from the village she had grown in. She stared at the console, only hitting the 'Activate' button and letting autopilot take her wherever it had been last programmed to. Her fathers voice still ringing aloud in her mind as she kept replaying the scene over and over in her head. Finally calming down enough to let the actions of her judgment slam into her psyche like a truck.

She fell to the floor, landing on her hands and knees, her body convulsing and spewing whatever bile and food was in her stomach. Painting the floor in front of her as she heaved her entire contents out, mixing with the blood of her wounds. Then falling to the side with a thud echoing through the shuttle, staying silent for a moment, her ears ringing from the lack of sound inside. She brought her knees to her chest, her hands twisted and held to her face. She began to scream, tears running down as she bawled and begged for her father to come back, roaring cries of pain shaking her core and hurting her throat.

"Father.... Mother...." her cries echoing off the cold walls of the shuttle as the lights stared down onto her. Wailing for tender affection from a parent, from someone who loved her, telling her it would be alright. To go to sleep child, and when you wake up you would be refreshed and new, she would see this was all a bad dream.

"Ginrar." a female voice said on the intercom of the shuttle.

Gin froze, her breathing hitched as she wasn't sure if it was real or she imagined it, she held her breath and waited.

"Ginrar, my daughter." Teloo said over the intercom.

Ginrar gasped, trying to push herself up as her muscles and entire body screamed with pain as the adrenaline wore off. Her wounds tearing and letting the blood slip again as she placed a hand on her stomach, feeling the closing holes that her father had gifted her.

"You are banished."

Ginrar froze again, her body too stunned to react.

"Return as you are..."

Her eyes went wide as her mouth hung open, agape with fear and anticipation.

"...And I will kill you."

Fenrar the guide watched as his daughter receded into the corner of the shuttle, balling herself up as small as she could get. Trying to shrink down to nothing and fade away, the guilt of his past choices wracking him with pain as he watched.

"There's more to her story." Fenrar said, "She walked alone for a long time, growing and molding herself. But our time has come to an end."

Roke stood completely in shock as he watched her in the shuttle scared and confused, face buried into her knees. His heart broke, 'I'll be there soon, I'm coming for you.' he thought, he just wanted to comfort her, to take her burdens away and let her rest. He watched her pained eyes look up at the lights, mouth silently moving as she tried to find words with trembling lips.

"Father...I'm scared."

"She's mine now." Roke said coldly, before looking at him again, "The path she takes, I take, and I will keep her as mine while I am hers."

Fenrar grasped Rokes shoulder, their time running out and getting ready to send Roke back to where he came. As he squeezed he could feel someone with him in the world he was pulled from. He turned Roke to face him, grabbing his face by the cheeks and then leaning down to press their foreheads together.

.....

Ginrar held Roke in her arms, rocking him as she cried into him, praying that her worst fears weren't coming to fruition. She felt him twitch, his body and its appendages seeming to course with the smallest form of life. She sat him down on the ground, propping him up where she had been sitting and leaning against the trucks tire. Trying to calm herself and put on a reassuring face, trying to show her kindness that she had learned. Preparing to beg him not to see her in the banished light she lived in for so long.

"Roke? Roke, wake up my love. I need you to wake up." she said as she turned his chin upwards to look at his face. She watched his eye flicker, slowly moving and spreading, she smiled and tried to calm her trembling fingers that held his chin.

Her heart shook as his eyelids peeled back, the knot in her throat choking her and stopping her breathing as she looked into the black eyes of a Tallhee. The inky black pools with a ring of fire looking back at her, the face of her love but his eyes had been taken. Then she knew who they were, her body shrieked as every sensor and nerve inside fired off at once, heat flashing through her as her very being screamed to retreat.

"Baba." the voice of her father said through the lips of her lover, the man she had taken as hers. The one she had tied to and promised to walk with forever, now speaking as the one she had cut down without mercy.

She let his chin go, letting it droop and his eyes shut, her body demanding to run, she fell backwards and flailed. Scurrying away from the one in front of her, then scrambling to her feet and stepping back. She saw Roke twitch again, then his eyes opening and him gasping for breath, he searched around him as she slunk backwards into the night. Retreating from the light of the fire and vanishing into darkness, seeing his fear stricken face as he fell to his side and began to cough.

.....

Veronica looked at the computer, waiting for a response from the one she had sent to retrieve Peter. Knowing 779 should be reaching the working planet soon, she would have to figure out how to deal with his red counterpart on her own though. Before landing and convincing him to walk onto the shuttle, to leave that world behind and return to the one she had been so gracious to gift him with.

Veronica smiled as the computer dinged and a message popped onto the screen:

"The Tallhee woman is leaving, I'll hold position until she's far enough away and then I'll move in, he's just waking up. Might be drunk so it should be easy enough."

Veronica read the words, knowing full well that she would have her man back and in the estate before the sun set tomorrow.

779 sat in her shuttle, far enough away that even the senses of a Tallhee wouldn't be able to pick up on her presence. Watching through the large screen in front of her as the two coworkers sat together in the night. Then the larger one setting Peter on the ground before springing back and leaving, she typed her message to Ms. Blackstar and watched the screen. Clicking the feed to show thermal so she could see the woman in the night, she watched with joy as the woman hit with a sudden burst of speed and covered a great distance. Pausing and then going again, 779 realized she must be jumping, she breathed a sigh of relief seeing her leave.

'If she can jump like that, how strong is she?' 779 thought.

Studying the display, seeing the red woman taking great leaps through the air and putting more and more distance between them. She reached over and hit the 'play' button of the recording she had, listening and watching it one more time, seeing the red face of her adversary on the screen..

"Roke and I are taking leave, we will be out for a couple weeks. We also request transport provided by the company, remove the fee from my wages."

779 watched the recording they had pulled from Growth archives after the last man sent couldn't convince him to leave. She tweaked her voice and ensured it was perfect, "Roke and I are taking leave, we will be out for a couple weeks. We also request transport provided by the company, remove the fee from my wages." she said with the stolen voice.

......

Roke rolled in the dirt, he tried to get his thoughts in order and stand, he needed to get up and go to her. The thought sent visions of her red face to the forefront, making him wince as his head pounded. He needed to find the woman who he belonged to, the one who gripped his cheeks with love, the woman who kept him safe when his dreams turned for the worse. The large red deity that had taken him as her own and promised to keep him safe.

He put one hand on the ground and steadied himself, reaching out and grabbing the tire with the other he worked his fingers in between the lugs of the tread. Then pulling as best he could he raised his upper body, slowly getting to his knees, then putting one foot on the ground. He pulled and pursed his lips, his head ringing like a bell as he slowly got up, putting both hands on his tiny home strapped to the back of his truck. He heard footsteps in the dirt, coming towards him and stopping a few feet away, his world spun as he slowly turned and rested his back on the camper.

His eyes felt like they were bouncing around in his head, unable to steady and let him center his attention.

"Hey baby, you ready to come to bed?" Ginrars voice asked.

Rokes head ached as he heard the words, they screeched through him as his ears rang in pain.

"Oh, Roke? You have a lil too much to drink?" Her voice said again with bubbled joy, a slight giggle coming out at the end.

Rokes head pounded like a drum, he steadied himself against the truck, "G- Gi..." he murmured as his head throbbed.

"Ya baby?"

"You're...not Gi-" he said as his eyes finally steadied and the world around him started to come into focus. He saw the silhouette of a skeleton in front of him, his confusion soared as he tried to make sense of what it was as his vision cleared.

"Oh you're just drunk sweetie."

"What the fuck are you?" Roke murmured out as his vision finally centered on the being in front of them. He could see her body was comprised of bionic parts, hydraulic actuators holding up a metal frame. A horror show of tubes and circuitry running around the steel skeleton as it caught the glow of the fire light. The face of it still looking human, bald with unhappy eyes staring back at him, he could see the head looked like real skin. But with everything else, he wasn't sure if he could believe that any part of this thing in front of him was natural.

The voice came out distorted and digital, "You don't recognize me?...Peter."

Goosebumps ran up across Rokes flesh, every bit of his senses telling him to run, telling him to flee from whatever this thing that conjured up in the night could be.

"If she put skin on me?" the voice cracking and sounding more human, "Like she did for you, would you recognize me?" a feminine voice asked.

Rokes blood ran cold, his eyes widened and he felt sweat beading up on his forehead as he finally recognized the voice and pensive stare. 'Not Three...Two..." he thought to himself as he remembered the question Fenrar had asked him at the beginning of the night.

"But it seems you gave yours up." 779 said as she looked at his left arm.

"GI-"

A silent shot grazed Rokes side, her bionic frame moving faster than he could see, leveling a weapon with him and pulling the trigger. The force of it slamming him against the truck before he sank to sit in the dirt, specs of crimson adorning his side as it coated the vehicle and tore into the sheet metal. Roke winced and looked at her, he could feel the side of his abdomen torn and the blood spilling, he felt the adrenaline firing through his system.

"I only grazed you, don't make this difficult, just walk on the shuttle Peter." She said.

Roke twisted his body rolling to the right and planting his hands on the ground, his legs lining up to lift him and propel him forward. Filling his lungs with air and moving with the quickness he could only attribute to pure carnal fear.

779 pulled the trigger again, the silent weapon dealing out another projectile of unstoppable fury.

Roke put his left leg forward and immediately tipped to the side and fell, something feeling wrong as he hit the ground. His right foot pushed into the earth again, his hands connected with dirt and he pushed off the ground, his right leg flexing as it worked to lift him. Then putting his left one out he fell again, his brain working in overtime to flee, he dug his fingers in the earth and pulled himself forward.

779 watched in silent angst as she saw him crawl, leaving the eviscerated left leg behind and trying to grab at the last bits of freedom. The meat and bone dotting the landscape as the body part seeped blood, she watched as the spurts coming from the stump that was his left thigh slowed.

"GINRAR!" Roke screamed as he felt rocks and grass clashing against his nails and claws. He pulled himself forward, creeping towards the darkness as he tried to get away, trying to hide from the nightmare that was coming to fruition.

"She won't like this." 779 said as she leveled the weapon with his left arm, "We'll just deal with it now."

"GINRAR!" he screamed with all his might, spittle flailing from his lips as his veins bulged in his neck and his face turned red with pressure.

The weapon fired off again, hitting the red skin, tears dotting the skin as chunks of flesh rained through the air. 779 looked at it, still working to grip earth and pull him, his cries screaming out in the night for a savior that had fled. She got near him, putting the gun closer, but aiming it at the seam of white and red flesh, then firing again.

"GINRA-" his cry cut short, his chest thumped hard against the dirt that he was sliding across, he looked to the left. Trying to reach his gifted arm forward, but only seeing bone and knurled meat in its place. He grit his teeth as tears poured, 'That's mine.' he thought as his red arm now laid in the dirt. 'That's mine, give it back.' he cried in his head.

779 watched as his right hand tried to grasp at anything it could, his right foot starting to slow its movements. She knew Veronica Blackstar had made it where his body could preserve itself, shutting off blood flow and working to heal as fast as it could.

"I'm yours." Roke murmured out.

779 tilted her head and looked down to him, wondering if he was really ready to give up.

His fist balled up, his burning eyes looking to the horizon, "I was supposed to be yours Gin," he said. "Where did you go?" he whimpered as he shook in fear, "you're mine, and I'm yours, please...please come back."

779 reached down, grabbing his ankle and pulling him, she could feel his limp body going into a comatose state. She drug him across the dirt, walking into the night as she made her way to her shuttle. Dragging him up the ramp as she went in first, then sealing it behind him, she started the engines, ensuring they stayed on the lowest setting. Then quietly gaining altitude and leaving the planets atmosphere, heading back to the Blackstar estate.

......

Ginrar sat in the grass as she watched the wind blow across the wheat, face itching from the tears that had fallen all night. She didn't even blink as she saw the sun rising for her, knowing that Roke was well into the morning since she had fled through most of the night. She couldn't bear to face him after what he had seen of her past, she was happy to stay away from her home. Now cursing herself for feeling the need to go back, the need to finish the tradition and tie them to one another.

Ginrar had thought she heard his cries in the night, she knew he was angry at her, angry that he had been tricked. Tricked into becoming hers, becoming a monsters play thing, he was ready to wake up and lash out at her for the way she had come to this life that they had decided to share together. She took a deep breath, feeling her stomach turn as hunger set in, she pushed herself to her feet. Feeling the wind whipping around her horns and pushing on the side braid she had from the night they celebrated. She grasped it in her hand, pulling it slightly as she remembered the joy they had shared, wondering if she could even dream of having that feeling again.

A chill ran through her, she looked to the east and slowly began to walk, wondering if she should drag out the trip back. Wondering if it'd be better to let him stay on his own for a day or two, to calm down and maybe not recoil in vile disgust at her sight.

She ultimately decided to head back at a higher than lax'd pace, she was fearful of how he would see her. But she didn't want to be away from him, she still yearned to be near him and share his presence.

'I can still be with him, I can walk with him but out of sight, keep him safe like I promised, I can do that much. Even if he wants to have another, even if he can't bear to look at me, I can give him that and let him live a life of joy.' she thought, but she had to fight back tears as the next sentence hit her. 'Just not with me.'

Ginrar stopped as she saw the truck and her travel box, both sitting where they had been when she had left the night before. The sun began to set as she walked to it, wondering if he would run in fear as soon as she came into sight.