By the end of the bath, Ruby was essentially transford. Her black hair gained a certain degree of healthy luster, and her ears and tail looked especially fluffy, enough to drive any cat enthusiast mad.
"This was so much better than expected!" Ruby proclaid as she exited out of the bath. A thin fabric of a towel wrapped around her shoulders was the only thing that hid her bare athletic body.
"See? Good things happen when you listen to !" Ava puffed her chest in pride. "And the scent that you were so worried about is nowhere to be found!"
Curious if Ava’s words were true, Ruby sniffed herself, realizing that she slled like roses, most likely due to the soap that had been put in the mineral water.
"It’s ti to dress up now." Victoria clapped her hands together.
As the girls began to put on their attires, they realized their oversight a mont later.
"S—Sorry, but aside from the clothes I wore when we first t, I don’t carry any other..." Ruby muttered in dejection.
"I—It’s fine." Claire reassured her with a bashful smile, giving her a spare. "It was our oversight to begin with. It’s obvious that you wouldn’t be carrying spares after escaping from confinent!"
Soon enough everybody was dressed, gathering in Michael’s room.
"Have you gotten comfortable here?" Michael asked softly, observing Ruby.
"It would be ideal if you could share your side of the story."
Ruby’s ears flattened, her tail falling to the side. After she took a deep breath, her lips pursed.
"Truthfully... There isn’t much useful information I can share with you, simply because we were kept mostly in the dark about how things operated..."
Her voice faltered for a second, though when she t Michael’s gaze, she felt safe enough to continue.
"We were kept in a colossal room. Padded white walls and light overhead that would shimr in different colors depending on the situation. A single entrance to go in and out of the place. A large gate, it didn’t sll like tal, yet it proved so tough nobody could crack it open."
Her limbs trembled slightly.
"There were a lot of us..." Ruby whispered, correcting herself a second later.
"A lot... Like . How many, I cannot say for certain. Maybe it is not even possible to know. Each day the gates would open and those tal monsters would erge. So brought food and water with them. Others brought more of our kind. But every ti they ca, they also took so of us away. We do not know what they do with us... But I have never seen anyone return from their clutches, so I can only assu they are no longer with us."
Her voice cracked.
"But that is not even the worst part... No matter how hard we try, we cannot rember a life outside the confined space. Our earliest mories are always of being escorted there, as if we were created only seconds before arriving."
A flash of anger crossed her face.
"So of us were small, full of energy, and hard to reason with. Children, the tal things called them. There were others with many whiskers on their faces. Since they usually cald us down when we were scared, we called them elders. Most of us, though, were like , neither growing nor wrinkling. Once, a friend asked the tal things why that was, and it said we were supposed to represent twenty years old."
Michael listened somberly. ’From what I am hearing, it seems that they were treated like lab rats for so kind of experintation.’
His fist tightened silently.
"How did you escape?" Richard asked once Ruby got quiet. "From the way you described the place, it seems impossible for you to have broken out."
Gazing at the floor, Ruby whispered.
"Eventually my turn ca. I was among the chosen to be led away. However, aside from , one of the elders was as well."
Her eyes turned moist.
"I knew her. We called her Nana. When we were chosen to be escorted, she proposed a plan to desert. We did not even know whether anything existed beyond the walls, but we hoped that it did. That is why, when we were led out through the impenetrable gates, we struggled to break free, and so of us succeeded."
Ruby halted for a mont, clutching the sheets of the bed she sat upon tightly.
"But then we were hunted down. By the end only I and Nana remained... That is when she moved to protect from a laser. A large gash opened on her abdon, and regardless of how much I tried to hold the wound closed, it was fruitless. Due to my weakness, the only thing I could do was watch as life slowly drained from her eyes."
A painted smile spread across her face.
"But even then Nana didn’t freak out. She simply apologized for leaving alone in this world. With her last breath, she asked to save my brothers and sisters if I find help sowhere. After that I rember running without stopping for a long ti, sneaking past the tal things and nurous labs..."
Lifting her gaze, she glanced at Michael.
"Until I t Michael."
"..."
The crew grew silent. Not only were there more like Ruby sowhere, but there were likely many other labs holding different kinds of altered humans for all sorts of experints.
"I see. Thank you for sharing; it was helpful. Rest assured each and every one of those tal things would be exterminated." Michael said.
In response, Ruby yawned, her eyelids getting heavy.
"I am glad." She uttered, settling over Michael’s lap before drifting into deep sleep.
Purr~
Despite her deep slumber, she purred quietly, clearly content.
’She is part cat, after all. They are known for needing a lot of sleep, and I doubt she has had a chance to rest peacefully in a long ti.’ Michael didn’t move, deciding to let her recover.
"We had our hands full with the aliens already, and now this... God, this world is twisted beyond asure." Leo’s shoulders slumped.
"That is why we fight." Enzo proclaid, rembering his brother. "We endure the horrors of the world ourselves in order to protect what we cherish. This is what makes us soldiers."
Since there were more than 10 hours before Michael was ant to et the ruler of the city, the crew used the ti to rest.
At the sa ti, high in the cosmos, close to the four inner planets of the solar system, the asteroid belt floated. At certain coordinates the mightiest powerhouses of humanity had gathered there, all wearing grim expressions.
A battle that would decide the future of mankind was about to take place...
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