“I thought we had you all locked up already,” Aidan spoke, slowly stepping backwards, his gun still trained on Zev's face.

“...What?” Zev asked, imitating Seth's voice as best as they could, even after only hearing a few words from the real Seth.

“Don't you “what” me,” Aidan demanded, “I know exactly what you are. Why don't you drop the facade and show me your true form?”

Zev froze. Did Aidan really know?

“James, get your ass in he-”

Aidan's beckon was cut off by Zev swiftly grabbing onto his wrist and wrenching it upwards, aiming the gun in the same direction. A piercing gunshot blasted from Aidan's weapon, firing straight into the ceiling.

Aidan grabbed Zev's arm with his free hand and tried to pry the alien off his wrist, but his human strength was nothing compared to that of a volon. With Aidan's arms up above his head, Zev lifted a leg in the air and kicked him in the chest, sending Aidan sailing to the floor with a loud oomph.

Zev took the opportunity to run straight out the front entrance as fast as possible. The door was still open; Zev ducked just low enough to pass through it as they bolted out of the building.

“VCF. Code white. Code white,” announced a nearby voice. “Karma's Gateway, apartment 88...” the voice trailed off as Zev ran farther away.

A sudden sting shot through Zev's back as they reached the other side of the street, submerging themself in the dark veil of a nearby alley. They staggered around for a moment before regaining their footing; whatever that sharp pain was, it wasn't going to stop them.

Zev did a quick shoulder-check – those humans could have been in pursuit, but no one seemed to be coming yet. Regardless, Zev kept running through the narrow, nearly pitch-black alley, trying their best to avoid stumbling over any obstacles hidden in the darkness.

VCF? Code white...? They had no idea what that human voice was talking about. But how did Aidan know exactly what I was? And...

Zev slowed their pace a bit.

And...

Their train of thought suddenly stopped. They couldn't remember what they were just thinking about. They soon noticed they were very short on breath. There was a wide alcove in the wall to their right – Zev ducked into it to take a quick rest.

They started taking some deep breaths. However, no matter how hard they tried to stabilize their breathing, both inhaling and exhaling was a very shaky process.

Something was wrong. A sensation of lightheadedness came over Zev, and they were forced to lean against a nearby wall to avoid collapsing. Their mind was slowing to a crawl, except for the vague sensation of confusion and fear invading their thoughts. Numbness was taking over their body.

A human walked around the alcove's corner, holding a long firearm in his hand. Just as Zev was about to speak, their legs gave out, forcing them to the ground.

“What did you do?” Zev hissed in their natural, growling voice, barely able to lift their head enough to look at the man.

He laughed, then took out a phone with his free hand and pointed it at Zev.

Reduced to a prone position, Zev tried to drag their body towards the human with what little energy they had left. Their breathing grew even heavier and their vision grew blurry in the timespan of just a few seconds.

“What... you...” Zev tried to repeat between gasps of air, but the words hardly came out.

The human walked up to Zev.

The volon's vision faded out.

When Zev woke up, they'd never felt so groggy in their entire life. Were they even awake?

Everything felt strange. The ground felt... grainy? Coarse? Zev tried to move one of their hands across the floor – a perplexing mixture of both rough and smooth met their touch, followed by an intense crushing pain in their hand.

Zev didn't have the capacity to react to the pain. However, they did manage to decipher a voice – an echoing, reverberated voice that sounded like it was an eternity away.

“Ah! Can't be having any of this, can we, mate?”

The words felt meaningless, but still managed to instill stress in Zev's spaced-out mind.

Another sharp sting hit Zev in the back. Within seconds, everything faded out again.

When Zev woke up, they'd never felt so groggy in their entire life. Were they even awake?

Everything felt strange. The air felt... biting? Frigid? The colour blue filled their head. Zev tried to move one of their hands through the air – but they couldn't. Something was locking Zev's hands in place.

Restraints...?

There was a loud mechanical noise. In an instant, the air's unforgiving atmosphere turned into something much more bearable. Soothing. Comfortable. The blue colour that was swimming in Zev's head quickly turned into beige.

“Who're you...?” Zev said to no one in particular, their speech incredibly slurred.

“It spoke,” someone whispered.

“Get it... before... wakes up,” someone else murmured.

Another sharp sting hit Zev in the shoulder. Within seconds, everything faded out again.

When Zev woke up, they'd never felt so groggy in their entire life. Were they even awake?

Everything felt strange. The ground felt... smooth? Clean? Zev tried to move one of their hands across the floor. Yes, it was definitely smooth. This much was clear. It was quite cold as well, but not unbearable. However, the perfect silence of their surroundings stuck out to Zev. Either they'd lost the ability to hear, or they were completely isolated in a quiet place.

It was a chore just to pry their face off the floor, but their vision seemed stable enough for them to see properly, and they'd managed to form at least a few coherent thoughts.

As soon as Zev's mental functionality returned to a relatively normal state, a growl from their stomach made it immediately apparent that they hadn't eaten in hours.

Irked, Zev growled back. They could definitely still hear.

One slow movement at a time, Zev lifted their arms and legs off the floor, pausing every once in a while to avoid a head rush. Carefully, they brought themselves up to their knees, and, with the help of a nearby wall, they eventually found their way to their feet.

Now able to stand, see, and think somewhat straight, Zev surveyed their surroundings. They were in a large, grey room with an exceptionally high ceiling. However, aside from what looked like a big door in the corner, that was it. There was nothing else in the room.

What... what is this? Where am I? Searching their memory for any clue as to what was going on, they distinctly remembered the human with the gun, the dark alley, and...

That was all they could recall regarding recent events.

Zev walked over to the door – the only discernible feature in the plain room – and inspected it in an attempt to find a way out. It was extremely heavy-duty with no doorknob to turn; instead, there was a small pad with a series of buttons and a thin slot right next to it, just like the one on Seth's ship. Zev tried pressing all of the buttons, but nothing happened.

They noticed a small window near the top of the door. All they saw on the other side was a hallway extending both left and right, and another door across the hall identical to the one they were looking out of.

Have I been... imprisoned?

Panic started to set in. Zev looked back at the keypad and mashed as many buttons as possible, yet the door remained shut. They frantically looked around the room for some way to escape, running around and touching each wall for anything to help them get out.

Zev's rapid footsteps and shrieks filled the room. They weren't looking for clues anymore, rather, they were bashing the walls and screaming out of pure distress. They ran over to the door and repeated the process, smashing it with all of their might, but it still didn't budge.

As fast as the frenzy began, Zev realized the futility of their situation. They hit the door one final time with both fists before sliding to their knees.

They knelt there for about a minute. The same few questions cycled through Zev's thoughts: why am I here? How did I get here? Am I going to starve?

Zev meekly stood up and walked around for a moment before resting their forehead against the cold, metal wall, pathetically drooping their arms down by their sides. Terrible thoughts continuously spun through their head: starvation, captivity, hopelessness. There was nothing they could do to get out. No food. Complete isolation.

Roughly five minutes passed. Zev remained still, their hat still scrunched between their face and the metal wall.

They had almost completely given up until a loud clunk blasted through the silent room.

Yes, very distinct and clear, it was the sound of a door opening. Zev bounced off the wall and prepared themself to run.

Just as they were about to bolt for the open doorway, a human walked in, and the door shut behind him.

As fast as the hope of escape came, it left. At least there was someone here now.

Zev stared at the human for a few moments, who awkwardly stared back. Without knowing why this person was here, Zev decided to greet their new guest.

“Hello... hello...” the volon muttered, their terribly dejected voice echoing throughout the room.

The human stepped back.

“No! Don't leave!” Zev cried. “I need...”

There was a long pause before the human eventually took a careful step forward and started approaching Zev, who crouched down with one delicate movement to bring themself closer to the human's eye level.

“What are you called?” Zev enunciated each syllable softly to not unnecessarily expend any energy in their low mood.

“...Damien,” the human responded.

“Damien,” Zev interrupted, caught between a smile and an exasperated sigh. “That's nice, Damien.” Zev wasn't looking at their new acquaintance anymore, though. Their gaze had drifted down to the floor by their feet, their head slowly tilting from one side to another.

“Damien,” Zev continued, distracted by their own thoughts, “I'm so hungry...”

No reply from the human.

“I'm so hungry,” they repeated, their voice quieting to a whisper.

Still no reply from the human.

“Do you have... food?” Zev asked.

After the human gave no response for the third time, Zev brought their head back up to look at Damien again, which quickly gave an explanation as to why he wasn't talking.

Damien's hands were shaking. He was afraid.

Zev couldn't help but crack a smile. “You...” they began, pausing to make room for a couple of sudden, quick breaths, “you fear me?”

“No,” Damien fibbed, evidenced by his shaky voice. He kept eye contact with Zev the whole time. “I have to get, uh... take a sample of...”

Zev breathed out a depraved chuckle, standing straight up with the same delicate motion they'd crouched down with, towering over the frightened human. “You're scared, Damien.” A drop of saliva involuntarily fell from Zev's feverish grin as they watched Damien's entire body begin trembling.

“Sit back down. The faster we get this over with, the faster-”

“Come here,” Zev insisted, stepping forward and reaching for the human.

“Hey!” Damien shouted while stumbling backwards. “Do not touch me.” He shifted his attention to the doorway he originally came from. “Guys, this is getting bad! Are you guys there?” he cried out before fleeing back to the door.

Interestingly enough, the door remained shut for the human, which only encouraged Zev.

“Come here, Damien, come here, Damien!” they chanted, their voice growing more aggressive and raspy as they pursued the human.

“Abort! V-97 is unstable!” Damien screamed.

Zev continued their madness mantra as they gave chase, which quickly decayed into incoherent growls and hoarse attempts at speech.

Damien quickly entered numbers on the door's keypad, and when that did nothing, he pulled out a card and swiped it through the slot just beside the buttons. Yet, the door remained shut.

“Open up!” He yelled, banging on the door. “OPEN IT!”

Zev had him cornered. With an excited laugh, the volon grabbed Damien's neck with a single hand and lifted him up in the air.

The human's screams were crushed into chokes.

“Damien,” Zev panted, drool oozing from their open smile. “I'm so hungry.”