[Thunder]

Zears and Mira stood near the outskirts of Lamenolai, the moonlight turning their white fur a nice silver color. The feeling of war still seemed to resonate in the city, as well as in their own hearts. To be killed, to be saved, to spare an enemy...the memories were strong. Zears could not help but wonder where Rukaj and Darian were now.

"It's so peaceful," Mira whispered. "I can't believe that a war had been going on here." Zears nodded quietly in agreement. The Rexxel blinked at her friend. "Is something wrong?"

"I..." Zears stammered. "I recently found out why my brother scorns me so..."

"Karon?" Zears nodded again. "Why doesn't he like you?"

"We're actually half-brothers..." Zears sighed, looking down at the ground. "The sadness and anger of his parents got to him, and he felt he needed to blame someone. I guess he ending up blaming me..." The silence took hold of the two once more.

Meanwhile, a lone Doom Kitty was wandering the streets of Lamenolai. Broken thoughts swirled in his head. Why was he here again? A long lost memory had called to him, and his feet carried him here as if they were walking by themselves. He was pretty sure he had not been here before. Actually, he was definitely sure. So why did he have these strange thoughts, these strange memories?

The nameless Doom Kitty leaped into the darkness.

[Jaykobell]

Marble, Male Berry Kuhna

It had been so long since he had had the chance to go out of the Pen. He had been afraid for a long time to leave home because of his injury. Since it was still somewhat sore, Marble was reluctant to expose it to the outside, or to even move too much, for fear that it would get infected, or worse, re-open. But tonight was so pretty, so charming; he had had no choice but to come out to admire the wonderful scenery of the night.

As he walked along the outskirts of Lamenolai, Marble was reminded of the war. It had almost been a whole year now, but it was true: one could still feel the presence of the war in the atmosphere of the city. It felt... it was distressing, to say the least. The pets that had suffered because of it, the pets that had lost their family because of the war, those who hadn't come back alive... the small Berry Kuhna couldn't help but to feel empty inside at such thoughts. When would both humans and pets realize that wars are useless? If only...

As he was thinking of such things, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, which caused him to bump right into Zears. Marble's strength wouldn't be enough to push Zears down, but Marble was distracted enough to lose his balance and topple over. Ah, he should really look where he's going.

He got back up and shook his pelt. "I'm sorry," he meowed as he raised his head. It was then that he narrowed his eyes, curious. "A Purine Albie... I know you..." he whispered, tilting his head to the side. It was faint; but he definitely had a memory of this Purine Albie from the war. He had no idea who the Rexxel was, however. A friend of the Albie, he assumed?

[Thunder]

Zears was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he, at first, did not notice the touch of the little Berry Kuhna. In fact, he probably would not have noticed if Mira hadn't said something first.

"Hey, who's this?" she mewled, her voice startling Zears out of his slight daze. Zears turned around to find Marble picking himself off the ground. He blinked. This Berry Kuhna knew him? How? He searched the depths of his memory, wandering around in his mind until something clicked in it.

"Marble?" he whispered, eyes widening in disbelief. Was this really Marble? He had hardly remembered the name, but something caused it to return to him. Despite his doubts, he felt that he did know this Kuhna in his heart. "Yes...you're Marble. I met you at the training grounds during the war. This is Mira, and I'm Zears. Do...do you remember me?"

Zears hadn't seen any of his companions from the war until now. It was almost miraculous. He was worried that some of them might have died...

----------

And the Doom Kitty kept on walking, walking as he had done so many times before, a pointless wandering that somehow wasn't so pointless. Stepping into a patch of moonlight, he caught a new scent on the wind. It seemed so familiar, yet he appeared to be able to identify it. His whiskers twitched.

"Curious, curious..." he muttered to himself. He decided to follow the scent to see where it took him.

[Jaykobell]

The Albie seemed to be just as lost as Marble had been at first. The war had ended so long ago now; it wasn't surprising that the two of them had a hard time remembering each other. Even though their side -- the Purists -- had won the war, it was still a painful event to remember. Some things are better left forgotten.

Marble tilted his head to the side, his bell jingling softly from the movement. He blinked his eyes, his green one strangely blank and glazed. Was something wrong with it...? "Zears..." he meowed quietly, pronouncing the name slowly so that it would, hopefully, force a memory back to Marble. He remembered the Training Grounds; he had trained there, with... with a Purine Albie.

Oh, it all made sense now. "Oh... You are... the Hollowheart's friend... yes?" He remembered a Hollowheart from the depths of his mind, but not as much as he remembered the Albie. "Your name... rings a bell. And yes, I am... Marble," he confirmed, nodding his head. Zears would probably notice the strange inconsistency in Marble's speech, the way the Berry Kuhna kept on stammering without any specific reason. "It is... good to see you... alive," he meowed with a flick of his tails and a friendly nod to Mira.

How strange for destiny to bring back together.

[Thunder]

Zears was delighted that Marble had recognized him, but somehow the Berry Kuhna seemed...off. A bit more distant, perhaps? There was something in his face that did not look right. "Yes..." he said slowly. "I'm Zears, and the Paragon was Paryth. I remember you were with a Khimera and a Lucain, right?" How long ago had it been? Time was unclear in his mind...

Mira blinked at Marble. "I don't think I know you, but you say you were in the war? I was a captive at one point...but Zears found me. He bailed me out of the prison and kept back these two doctors...oh, what were their names?" She bent down her head to think.

Ah, Zears remembered those two now. A Doom Kitty and a Bleached Fellox, he believed. He recalled that the Fellox was named Darian...but who was the Doom Kitty again?

His memory of the war was slipping so quickly...

As they stood, the Doom Kitty was approaching them.

[Jaykobell]

[[ Paragon, Thunder? XD I hope you mean Hollowheart. ]]

At the mention of Paryth's name, Marble's ears tweaked. Oh, yes... the name seemed to be familiar. He nodded. "Yes... I remember now..." He sat down and tilted his head. "Oh, yes... Senervel and Sandford," Marble confirmed about Zears point about the Lucain and Khimera. "It seemed like it... happened so long... ago," Marble mumbled, almost too quietly for Zears and Mira to hear him. It seemed so far away now. So very, very far away.

"A captive?" Marble echoed, blinking as he turned his head towards Mira. "That must have... been terrible." He hadn't been a captive; he'd been lucky. He had died, however. "I wasn't captured... but I was killed... in a battle..." He had been brought back by one of the Gods. He'd always remember what happened that time when he died and was then revived. "I met... one of the doctors... I believe." Yes, he remembered getting saved by a professional doctor during the war, back when he was on the verge of death. Oh, so many memories...

Suddenly, the air shifted; Marble's ears stood on end as the Berry Kuhna opened his mouth slightly to smell the air. He distinguished Zears's and Mira's scents, but he could also smell someone else's scent. Whose scent? Marble got up and made a few steps in a general direction. "Is anyone... there?" he called, turning his head from one side to the other to try to spot someone. There was definitely someone...

[Thunder]

(FFFFF whoops xD Yeah, I meant Hollowheart. I guess I want a Paragon wayyy too much, eheheh...)

So Marble had died too, just as he did when he fought against his friend who had gone insane. Maybe that was why he was acting so strangely? Zears and Mira looked at each other, neither one understanding his behavior. Even Mira, who had just met the Kuhna for the first time, knew something was off about him. His speech was quite erratic, his actions like he was walking in a dream...

"They were very kind doctors," Mira mewled quietly. "They didn't seem to like all the fighting, though they did try very hard to chase us down. In the end, we agreed to not report them in return for my freedom."

"Yes, something like that happened," Zears added. "Though I can't remember their names. Darian and...and..." He desperately tried to remember the other doctor's name. How time ate away at your memory! He was pretty sure he would be able to find the Doom Kitty's name as that trip to the Interrogation Center was one engraved in his heart, but why could he not find his name? It was strange. His thoughts were interrupted when Marble called out into the darkness.

"Is anyone...there?"

Mira and Zears looked in the direction Marble was facing. Mira seemed to pick up the scent too, and she stepped backwards. "That...smells familiar!" she said, confused. "I-I'm pretty sure I know that scent..."

The Doom Kitty had been hiding in some shrubs, watching the conversation, also wondering why the Berry Kuhna was so...off. And he could have sworn he had seen these three faces before. But he was startled when the Berry Kuhna turned around and asked if anyone was there. He froze in place, unsure of what to do next.

[Jaykobell]

Marble's ears were pricked and attentive, trying to catch any sound coming from the darkness. The scent was still strong, and he wasn't the only one who could smell it; Mira had caught it as well. He didn't know whose scent that was. It smelled like a pet he'd never met before. But most importantly, why was this pet apparently stalking them? Why was it lurking around here? There were many possibilities as to what it could be. Maybe it was just a stray pet who had wandered away; maybe it was someone who had been sent to meet them; maybe it was something else altogether. Nonetheless, it made Marble restless and nervous; his tail tips tweaked in an unrhythmic pattern, and his torn wings would twitch for no specific reason. The Berry Kuhna was mostly afraid that it was a threat that was hiding nearby, because if it were a threat, Marble had no idea how he would proceed to fight against it. He had Zears and Mira with him, taken; but his injury was the problem. He had no idea how much stress it could take in before tearing itself open. The thought of his injury opening again and of his throat bleeding to death from an hemorrhage... The thought made him shudder.

He looked over his right shoulder to look at Zears and Mira. "Do you know whose... scent this is?" he asked them, looking from his right side even though he couldn't quite see them from where they were positioned. "We should try... to look for the... source of the scent," he proposed, flicking one of his tails in a general direction. "Many dark creatures... roam into the night."

[Thunder]

Mira sniffed the air again. "I'm not sure who it is," she sighed, "but it's awfully familiar..." Zears nudged her shoulder in an attempt to ease her tension.

"Come on," he said. "If it's someone out to get us, we can handle it." He cautiously approached the shrubs, tail flicking in anticipation. Mira followed a short distance behind, memories of her kidnapping swarming in her head. Meanwhile, the Doom Kitty that was hiding in said shrubs was shaking nervously. The Albie seemed tough. Really tough. He could see the lean muscles on his body and the battle-hardened look in his eyes...but he did not seem like the violent type. So the Doom Kitty did the only thing he could think of.

"Please, I don't mean to hurt you!" he mewled, shutting his eyes and waiting for the suspicious accusations.

The suspicious accusations never came.

Zears blinked, and he pushed away the leaves of the shrub. There was the Doom Kitty, tail swishing anxiously and body shivering. Something clicked in his mind.

"Ru...Rukaj?" he whispered.

[Jaykobell]

"It can't be helped," Marble muttered to Mira with a nod. "Let's try to... look for it," he proposed as he headed for a spot that was different from Zears's and Mira's. They'd get better results if they didn't look at each spot together. The idea of being separated from them unsettled Marble, but if he did find the pet they were looking for, he could run to Zears and Mira before engaging the pet in a fight. In any case, he started searching the nearby area while Zears and Mira took care of the shrubs.

He hadn't even started to take a sniff when he heard a loud mewl from an unknown pet: "Please, I don't mean to hurt you!"

"Have you found it?" Marble called, as loud as he could, to Zears and Mira, dashing for them. Training in the Training Grounds and doing errands in Nearby Town had payed off. The Berry Kuhna was now much stronger than he used to be. His frail, kit-like appearance had gone, to reveal the small male as a fully-grown fighting Kuhna. Oh, he wasn't so frightening, of course not; he still had that sweet attitude and his helpful nature; but he knew how to defend himself well, and despite his small stature, he wasn't a Kuhna you'd like to mess with.

As he reached the Albie and the Rexxel, Marble halted and tilted his head to take a look at the pet the other two had discovered: a Doom Kitty. And it looked really, really scared. He heard Zears mumble the name "Rukaj." It didn't tell Marble anything, but Zears seemed genuinely surprised to meet this Rukaj Doom Kitty. "Do you know him?" Marble asked, blinking.

[Thunder]

The Doom Kitty opened his eyes. "What?" he asked, obviously confused. Zears stepped back a bit.

"You mean, you aren't Rukaj?" Zears questioned. "But...you look exactly like him! The pattern of your coat, your eyes..." The Doom Kitty just looked at him like he was crazy.

"Oh, was Rukaj that other doctor's name?" Mira said, flicking her ears. "Yeah...I think it was." She faced the newcomer. "Zears is right, you do look like him!" The Doom Kitty dragged himself out of the shrubs, shaking a few leaves from his pelt.

"But I have no name," he pressed. "I...I don't know of this Rukaj you speak of." Now Zears and Mira were just as befuddled as the Doom Kitty. Zears's eyes darted to Marble's, wondering if the Berry Kuhna could provide any help on the situation.

[Jaykobell]

Marble watched as Zears and Mira interacted with the newly-found Doom Kitty. The Berry Kuhna was glad that the lurking pet wasn't a threat, in any case.

The conversation that followed confused the Berry Kuhna. Zears and Mira seemed to know the Doom Kitty; they even seemed to know his name, and yet, the Doom Kitty didn't know Zears and Mira at all, and he claimed that he didn't even have a name to begin with. As far as Marble was concerned, he couldn't really provide any input to the conversation; he didn't know the Doom Kitty, so he was rather oblivious to the conversation.

When the Doom Kitty turned to him, Marble blinked and wondered what he was supposed to say. Ah. "Well... Are you sure it's... the same Doom Kitty?" he asked Zears and Mira. "I think Doom Kitties... are all fairly... simlar-looking." He turned to the Doom Kitty, and he tilted his head to the side. "He seems genuinely... confused," Marble mewed, seeing the confused expression in the Doom Kitty's eyes. "Where do you come... from?" Marble asked the nameless pet, trying to put him more at ease.

[Thunder]

The Doom Kitty faced Marble as he approached. "Where I come from...?" he mewled in response. He thought for a moment, but all he had were jumbled memories that didn't make sense to him. "I'm...I'm not sure..." Zears blinked. How could one not know where one was from? It was strange.

"I could have sworn you were Rukaj though," Zears thought out loud. He shook his head. "This is so strange..."

"You smelled familiar too," Mira mused. The Doom Kitty looked around.

"But...somehow you seem familiar to me too. It is strange... Perhaps knowing your names would help?" He started fumbling with his tail, something he did to comfort himself.

"Zears and Mira," the Albie stated, looking sideways at the Rexxel next to him. The Doom Kitty nodded, now gazing back at Marble.

"And yours...?"

[Jaykobell]

Well, he had to admit he felt kind of left out, really. While Zears and Mira seemed to know who this Doom Kitty was, Marble had absolutely no idea who he was. He had met a single Doom Kitty in his life, and the one he'd met wasn't exactly a nice Doom Kitty, to say the least. But this one looked kind and gentle, compared to the other he'd met back at home. It's true that a species doesn't dictate your personality.

When he was asked for his name, Marble blinked. "Oh... Marble, Marble... De Plain," he replied as he tilted his head towards the Doom Kitty so he could manage to see him. So not only did this Doom Kitty have no idea what his name was, but he also had no idea where he came from. What a mystery that pet was, truly. "I think... maybe the trauma... of the war... might have caused... his memories to... lock themselves up," he proposed, considering the former Rukaj mentioned that he had the vague sensation that Zears's and Mira's scents were familiar to him. "We could try... showing him... something from... the war?" Marble proposed, for he had heard that, in some cases, seeing items from a certain event could trigger memories to come back. "Maybe it... will help?"

[Thunder]

Zears blinked. That was certainly a possibility. Trauma could do things to your mind... He and Mira searched themselves for anything that could possibly remind the supposed-to-be-Rukaj-Doom-Kitty of the war. Unfortunately, neither of them could find an object that would do just that.

"There's nothing on us that's from the war..." Zears sighed.

"Wait, yes there is!" Mira interrupted. "We could try telling him about where we met him!" Now that was something that hadn't occurred to Zears. Yes...yes, that might do it. Zears turned his muzzle towards the Doom Kitty, who looked even more confused than ever.

"I'm not sure if you remember this yourself...but if you ARE Rukaj, we met in the halls of the Interrogation Center when I was rescuing Mira." Something flickered in the Doom Kitty's expression. A dark, dim hallway. Keys. Flashes of white and blue fur.

"In...Interrogation Center..." the Doom Kitty thought out loud. Perhaps Zear's memory had sparked something?