By the time Chimera's paws stopped from sheer exhaustion, the storm overhead had ceased as well. The night was still dark and the land was wet, but he was out of that horrid place. Never again would the boy enter one of the strange structures. Blood coated his face from a busted nose. His ribs ached terribly. His tail was broken. He didn't even have anything to show for his efforts. It might have been worth it had the creature within the house rewarded him, but it hadn't. The giant boy looked around him. A flash of lightning illuminated one of the few trees that stuck out on the prairie. Chi made his way towards it and curled up beneath it. He was so tired. The events of the evening had been purely exhausting both mentally and physically. Now that he laid down and the adrenaline was waning, he realized just how much he hurt. Chi couldn't move his tail at all without being in excruciating pain. The pain in his ribs made it difficult to breathe. With a grunt and the quietest of whines, Chi put his head on his paws and sighed. The rain drizzled down upon him, soaking him to the bone. At the moment, he felt lowest of the low. "Speech"

Mort had been so busy with his duties and training that Siren managed to escape his watchful eye. After a while she couldn’t handle it anymore and she had to get out. Siren longed for things to go back to how they were, but everyday she lost her hope of that return. The young Klein didn’t know where she was going but she was definitely going somewhere. The girl walked as far as she could, but eventually the weather changed and she was quickly doused. Her long fur held the water and she looked a lot like a drowned rat. She quickly turned into a muddy mess.

When she was sure that her little paws were going to fall off and she was going to die of exhaustion or exposure Siren found Chimera. He looked broken beneath the tree, his fur disheveled. He smelled like infection. She whined softly as she approached, she had nothing to help him with but she would do her best to wash his wounds. Siren would use her long fur if she had to. (the clean bits!)

”Chi… Chimera?” She stuttered softly as she stopped in front of him.

At first he thought that the voice from the house had come back. Somehow it had learned his name. Chimera tucked his ears downwards against both the voice and the rain. If he was stuck with this voice forever, he was going to lose his mind. It wasn't until the small, pale form was standing in front of him that he realized that he had indeed left the voice behind. Raising his head from his paws, Chimera stared hard at the tiny form of his sister for a long while as if making sure that she was actually there. When she didn't dissolve into mist or wash away with the rain, he got to his paws. Moving forward, Chimera scooped his tiny sibling against his massive body... and cried. "Speech"

Siren tilted her head slightly and her ears were slicked to her head when Chimera finally looked up to her. There was silence and stillness between them for a very long moment. Siren wondered if he’d forgotten about her already with the way he looked at her. She lifted a delicate paw nervously, and as she stood there barely had any time to think before he surged forward and she was suddenly pressed against his chest.

Chimera sobbed, and for a moment Siren was stunned and frozen. This was not how her interactions with Chimera went, he wasn’t supposed to be soft like this. She quickly recovered and nuzzled into his neck with relief. She’d just wanted to be back here with him, and though she could hardly believe it he had wanted to be reunited with her too. Tear pricked at her bicolored eyes and Siren cried quietly into his fur. She didn’t want to go back, she just wanted to be with Chi.

Through the cold droplets of rain, he could feel the heat of his sisters tears. It had taken them being torn apart to realize just how much she meant to him. "I'm sorry," he whispered into the top of her head. "I'm sorry for hurting you." Should he offer an explanation? "You're all I had. We were abandoned and I'm still filled with so much anger... I shouldn't have taken it out on you." He should have been sinking his teeth into their parents or Venom instead. Chimera squeezed Siren tightly against him. "Can you forgive me?" It had taken Recluse chastising him to make him truly realize how awful he'd been to Siren. She was the only thing in the world that he cared about. Thunder rumbled in the skies as yet another storm headed their way. There really was no shelter out this way and Chi wasn't sure how far he could make it with his tail broken and his ribs as bruised as they were. Lifting Siren, he pulled her back beneath the tree with him. At least it would provide a little bit of shelter. "Speech"

Siren wouldn’t have thought she would ever hear those words come out of his mouth, an apology would mean that he’d done something worth apologizing for and Siren would argue that he hadn’t. He chewed on her and spoke gruffly with her but that’s what he’d always done. That was what he did to everyone, it was no oddity. He shouldn’t have been ashamed of showing how he felt. She’d healed, there was no foul done. Siren shook her head as he said it, but she could also feel the relief in him as he held her. He’d really missed her as much as she missed him.

”You didn’t do anything wrong.” She told him in a way that she couldn’t be convinced otherwise. He chose to use his teeth on her, she was the special one. He held her tight and scooted the both of them closer to the tree so they might have shelter from the rain. If the storm became too intense they were liable to be struck by the lightning that crossed the clouds.

”What are we going to do?” She asked him softly as she buried herself deeper into his dual colored fur. She’d been forced to think much more on the future, on their future, while she had been separated.

Ah, but he did do everything wrong. If he hadn't bitten Siren, perhaps they would still have a home. If he hadn't been rough with her, maybe he and Venom never would have fought. Even Recluse hated him for his treatment of the tiny girl in his arms. There were times when Chimera was so overcome with unbridled emotion that he had no other release other than to bite something. To belittle and demean something. Siren was the only one that had ever been there, so she had taken the brunt of his emotions. She was the only constant in his life, so why wouldn't she be the one to see what he really was?

A small voice spoke, asking him what they would do now. Chi's throat clenched tight as he continued to hold the minuscule girl against him. He tried his best to shelter her from the rain with his massive body, but it wasn't working very well. "I don't know. I don't have anywhere to go, but you do. Recluse would take you." This, he knew. His older sister had told him as much. She wouldn't accept him though. She'd told him that as well.

Chimera didn't want to be without Siren ever again. As they grew, no doubt she would want to go off and live her own life, but he couldn't imagine life without her. He had been nothing over the past few weeks. There had been an emptiness inside of him that only Siren could fill. The black and white young wolf buried his muzzle in the wet fur of Siren's cheek. His voice was a soft whisper. "Please don't leave me ever again..."

Unless he said it now Siren would never see their separation as his fault. Mort had come and stolen her away, even after she’d made it clear where it was she wanted to be. Siren had less chance imposing her will on the Fatalis boy than Chimera. He didn’t argue with her now, but she could feel the tension in him as he struggled internally. She could feel the difference in him from then and now and how much more meaningful this embrace was.

He was silent for a long moment after she spoke, now that they were together again it didn’t really matter where she went. Chimera’s suggestion wasn’t one that she wanted to take. He didn’t find it acceptable either as he begged her not to go anywhere again. She shook her head and pulled herself tighter to his huge frame. He was the one that she knew. Besides solitude she knew him, was most comfortable in his presence.

”I won’t.” She promised him softly, dual toned eyes closed tightly as she willed the future to reveal itself to them. Maybe in her next dream. Who knew. ”I don’t care what we do. I just want to be where you are.”