The black form of the Hellboy seemed to waver as it once more reached the lands of Alacratia.

He hadnt meant to return here at all. Hadnt meant to survive the journey je had begun in the depths of winter. Having buried his only friend and his nephew in the same day, he had stumbled upon the frozen body of his younger brother as he had wandered the north. Baldur, always such a fool but the only one of them that had somehow remained so good, so bright despite everything that had happened to them. That light was gone from the world now, and as he had bloodied and blunted his claws chipping a hole in the frozen geound large enough to bury him Hati had made rhe unconscious decision to leave.

And so he had wandered again.

North, out of the lands of Alacratia. Into lands increasingly too familiar. The home that had never been home.

He had trespasses into the lands of the pack that was rightfully his without care, to find a pack in shambles but still holding together purely out of fear of the males who had been his uncles.

They ambushed him.

He tore them apart.

With Vili dead, throat torn and his lifeblood flowing as his older brother had died so long ago, Hati slowly dismembered a still-living, shrieking Ve. The terrible things Ve had done tore out of the mental blocks in Hati's mind to parade gleefully before him. All the enemy males Ve had tortured, the runaway he had punished so gleefully, and... Baldur's girl. Hati couldnt remember her name but he could remember the raid after Hroovitnir had learned of his pale son's supposed betrayal, could remember the girl's face if nothing else. Irrationally he blamed that moment for everything that had come after, and in a frenzy he tore into the screaming body of the wolf he had once called uncle.

As he stood within the gruesome aftermath he felt... gone. He had harbored the hope that he would be free of his demons having finally destroyed the last remnants of them. Instead he hust felt consumed by them, the mental barriers fallen and the memories all clamoring for attention, shrieking at him abd overwhelming him, all the while Ve giggled madly at him.

"I killed you," Hati had said fully, not sure if he cared. "Spectacularly," the other male agreed, then shrieked with laughter before vanishing. "Come with me," the whisper of his father's voice demanded, yellow eyes gleaming a moment in the shadows to the south before vanishing again.

Hati refused to obey the spectre but yet still inevitably found himself travelling south no matter how many times he changed direction.

And now he stood here.

For a moment the red fog in his mind lifted and he was dizzy with confusion. Why couldnt he remember reentering Alacratia? How had he gotten here? Perched on his back with his paws clasped around Hati's neck Ve giggled slyly, and Hati ducked his head irritably away from the hot breath in his ear, and the dig of the smaller male's claws into crusted wounds on his hips and back. Daegmar... she was gone. Her children were gone. Why was he here? Why had he been drawn back to the last place he had seen her?

Why did the deep, brassy call erupt from his throat, calling for her though he knew she was gone? The lonely, painful wail of an injured animal just looking for comfort and protection. He didnt even consider that his call might draw curiosity or unwanted attention. He hadnt considered the call at all, it had just torn itself free of his throat unbidden. Where was his mask? He had lost it sometime after he had killed his uncles, or had it been before? Without it he felt naked, exposed, as he paced the very edge of the territory with a kind of indecisive madness. Spittle frothed at his lips as he champed his jaws and swung his heavy head slowly and his bloodied paws tore up the ground. Where was he? He couldnt remember. "I killed you," he muttered blankly once again to Ve, who grinned at danced before disappearing with a cackle.

Does Hati have a girl worth fighting for?

The voice that rose over the knolls chilled him. Valentine's hackles rose and his head dropped out of instinct as he stared daggers in the direction of the howler. Hati. His Praetor. No, not that. There were more fitting titles for this masked man. Traitor. Deserter. In no time at all he was at the border and standing before the defector. Coolly he ran his gaze over Hati. To say he looked like shit would be greatly understating the shittiness of his appearance. He was, however, on the appropriate side of the border. So there was that. Actually, with the way he was moving and bleeding and yeah, frothing, Valentine wasn't entirely sure the maskless man wasn't diseased. It was for that reason that he kept his distance. What could he possibly want here? After Daegmar had died and Hati and the kids split, Valentine was sure he'd never see them again. And that had been fine with him. If they were without loyalty then they were no good to him. So why now was Hati back? "I suppose I should commend you for stopping at the border this time," he said dryly. ""

He hadn't expected his call to Daegmar to bring a response - she was dead. He'd seen her die. But he'd seen Ve die too, and the little asshole still continued to torment him with his constant singsong prattle, and he'd seen Hroovitnir die and the monster still lurked just out of sight, at the corner of his vision, so when the call brought a rustle his pulse quickened with just that faintest touch of stupid, insane hope, and he swung his heavy head in that direction swiftly.

"I suppose I should commend you for stopping at the border this time." As quickly as that his hopes were crushed and stomped all over, ground into dust. He stared at the taller male, confusion flickering through him like a concealing fog. Valentine? The alpha of Imperium? Why was he here? What was he doing?

"You... aren't Daeg..mar..." he croaked, his voice halting and more gravely than usual with long disuse. A whine rasped from his parted jaws, the sound a piteous yowl. "I can't find her Valentine. My dead, they won't leave me alone but her... I can't... can't find..." He trailed off, gnashing his jaws together soundlessly, staring off into Imperium. Daegmar had trusted Valentine. She'd chosen him because he was a fighter and stayed because he was a leader. She'd trusted Valentine. Valentine was... good. But Daegmar was gone. Hati had buried her.

"I buried her." His voice was low, dull, and almost rhythmic as he spoke not to Valen but to himself, reminding himself of the order of what had happened since she'd died. "I went north. Buried my only nephew. Her son. Buried my brother. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save anyone." He raised his eyes to Valen's in bewilderment. "How did I get here?"

"You... aren't Daeg..mar..." Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Hati was right, Valentine most certainly was not Daegmar. While Valentine was leaning towards a snarky response, the brute's demeanor silenced him. He was clearly off somehow. The words that fell from Hati's lips ate at the King's anger. This pitiful creature was not the Hati he remembered. The man Valentine remembered had been brusque and hostile, not...whatever this was. This was grief in its rawest form. That and maybe a pinch of crazy, but Hati had always struck him as slightly unhinged. Valentine sighed. Hati did not deserve his pity. What he deserved was a heaping helping of scorn and a maim that would forever remind him of his betrayal. Valen's jaw worked for a second and his eyes darted to the distance. If it were possible he'd kick himself in the head for what he was about to do. "I don't know," he said honestly. For a second he hesitated, then said, "Would you like to talk about it, Hati? Or maybe...I don't know. Are you hungry? There's a kill not far from here." Really, what could he do? If he tried to hug him or whatever he'd probably get his face bitten off. ""

Hati stared at Valen, but his gaze was unfocused and wandering. Go with Valen? Into Imperium? Daegmar was there. Daegmar hadn't come when he'd called, but Valen had. The hellhound felt a superstitious shiver crawl up his spine, and gold eyes snapped hard onto the alpha. "Why should you?" sneered Hroovitnir from the corner of his vision. "Why should you listen to this would-be emperor? You are the son of the greatest emperor this world has known." Ve cackled in his ear. "D'awww are you going to go eat din din with Valentine? Moving on from Daegmar so soonsies? Ickle fickle beastie, my nephew." "No." The word came in a deep, guttural growl low in Hati's chest. His spikey fur, gelled and spiked further with dried blood, raised along his spine, and he hunched in on himself as he glared in Valen's direction and tried, tirely, to ignore his father and uncle. "I don't need your help. You're not my alpha. You can't tell me what to do." His voice sounded like that of a (large, scary) sulky child, and he flinched away from Ve's sudden, shrieking cackle his words provoked. speech

OOC: permission to powerplay given by Tea.

The petulant words and the tone with which they were delivered reminded Valentine of a grumpy kid. Exasperated, Valentine sighed again. Normally words like that would piss him off, but the appearance of the one delivering them and the wording itself only served to pull more pity from him. Gone was the broody terror who Valentine trusted to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. In his place now stood a broken man whose cheese had clearly slid off his cracker. For a second he eyed Hati. "You're a mess," he said finally. "You stink - terribly - and I'm not too sure you haven't flipped your shit." His tail flicked. Really, he was talking for his benefit instead of Hati's; giving him time to think about what he wanted to do. A tendril of irritation lanced through the pity he felt. "I am your alpha, Hati," he said firmly, "And oh, yes. I can tell you want to do." Valentine lunged forward suddenly and dodged around Hati's left side. He sought to line the center of his chest up with the meaty exterior of Hati's left shoulder. This brute, this man child, wasn't going to come quietly, so with that in mind Valentine decided it was in his best interest to make the first move. He slammed his chest into the smaller man's shoulder and knocked him to the ground. The move stung; Valentine hit with enough force to rattle his teeth. Growling, he sucked a breath through clenched teeth as his annoyance grew and an ache started to pulse angrily across the whole of his chest. If this man wasn't such a proud ass Valen wouldn't have had to hurt himself. Then again, he also wouldn't have hurt himself if he wasn't so terribly soft. Looming over the man, the King was on the verge of parting with more biting words when it occurred to him that Hati was being too quiet and still for a man who'd just had his sovereignty trampled on. Shifting his weight, Valentine lifted a paw and tentatively nudged Hati's neck. When he didn't get a reaction the brute snorted a muted chuckle. He peeked over the top of Hati's head and sure enough, peeking out from under his ear was the edge of a large rock. Straightening, the King harrumphed. That certainly made things easier. Leaning down again, Valentine seized Hati by the scruff and began to drag him further into Imperium lands. Someone was in desperate need of a bath. ""

Sickened from wounds and half-starved from wandering so long without eating, too confused and on that downward spiral into insanity, Hati wasn't in the best shape to be picking a fight with anyone, let alone someone as much bigger as Valen. But he had, and when Valen rushed him he was too slow, too weak to counter it. The pain that flashed through him as Valen struck and reopened an infected wound high on his shoulder might have been enough to floor him if he'd been any less stubborn and enraged than he was, but obstinence and anger alone were no match for physics, and legs already shaky from exhaustion could not move fast enough to keep his paws under him. With a snarl and a vain attempt to snap his jaws at the alpha, Hati was sent tumbling to the ground. A sharp pain, the bright white of a hard hit to the head, and everything was dark. The ghosts that haunted him went silent. speech