With a huge gasp, Rat was back. The rush of air flooding in coated her tongue with the coppery taste of blood and overwhelmed her nose with a similar smell. She smacked her tongue, scraping it against her teeth to get the blood off. It all felt wrong. Like her tongue was remembering how to be a tongue and her teeth weren’t set right.

Then she started picking up noise. Whispering and murmuring and a good deal of footsteps. Pain was the next sense to register, as a headache bloomed across her head, both the result of the gunfire and the irritation remembering how she got here.

At this point, it was a toss-up as to which was more confusing, the fact that they’d all shot her to smithereens or the fact that she was alive. Honestly, given the past 48 hours, neither were even that crazy of questions. And neither were really the pressing issue right now. She needed to form a plan. She could just lie still and wait for them to leave and then sneak out. They’d probably drag off her body and burn it somewhere though. She could get up but they’d probably shoot again.

She cracked open an eye.

“Oh my god it’s moving,” a man’s voice whimpered and the murmuring grew even louder and more agitated.

Rat was still halfway between decisions when a new voice called over the din.

"Everyone back up! You're crowding the poor thing!" The voice was an odd croak, something that probably shouldn’t be able to speak a language Rat could understand but was able to anyway. This is why Rat liked imperial. It made everything easier. “Alright, let’s see what we have here.”

Through Rat’s slitted eyes, she could see something moving through the crowd. It was definitely a something, not a someone. It walked on four legs but was bigger than any animal Rat had ever seen. Ever one all fours, its head would be higher than hers. Behind it slithered three tails, each two-pronged and slimy looking. Its face was just human enough to really make Rat’s skin crawl. It had all the right features, short mouth with lips, curved nose, two eyes, but it was covered with slick rubbery blue skin and it had no hair or ears. Just that blue skin all over. The rest of its body was covered in dark green leather. Rat couldn’t tell if the leather was more skin or clothes. Neither seemed likely.

“Are you awake yet?”

“Depends on whether you’re gonna shoot me again,” Rat mumbled. She opened her eyes the rest of the way, squinting. As she expected, the ground around her was slick with blood and viscera. At least both eyes were in working order. “I swear, if I get shot again, I’m just gonna leave.”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want that. I promise you, no further harm will come to you. You’re very special, Rat.” ‘Very special’ sounded a suspiciously lot like the Butcher King’s praise of her survivability. Then again, she had survived that ship, so the Butcher King hadn’t technically lied about that. Maybe she could trust this thing. “My name is Wave Crashes on the Beach at Moonrise. Wyane if you don't have the time. I’m sure you have several questions. If you’ll escort me to a more private room, I'll see they’re answered.”

“You’re gonna have to carry me. I’m pretty sure my arms and legs are still putting themselves back together.”

“Hmm, yes, they do seem to be.” Rat was unsettled by how seriously he said this. “But,” he continued, “I don’t want you to worry about that.”

“About my limbs being mush?”

The alien crouched next to her, knees bending so awkwardly, that Rat was more hurt looking at them than she was by her shockingly painless extremities. “They’re on their way,” he assessed. “Do they hurt?”

“No-fuck!” As he’d been asking, one of his prehensile tails had snaked around and given her leg a squeeze. The relatively dull ache gave way to an explosion of pain.

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to harm you.”

“You fucking squeezed my leg after I’d been shot to shit. What did you think would happen?”

“What I ‘expected’ went out the door when you survived that barrage.” He held up a tail to halt Rat’s opening mouth. “Again. When we reach privacy.”

Footsteps hurrying over heralded the arrival of a gurney and soon Rat was being hoisted in the air by some rough hands that didn’t seem to belong to anyone concerned about Rat’s wellbeing. She let out an involuntary groan of pain. She could handle lying still pretty easily but apparently, there was a limit to her reduced sensitivity.

Rat’s overwhelmed senses didn’t pick up much of the base. The doctors wheeled her down a ramp, leaving the hangar. Rat occupied her jumbled mind by counting the lights on the ceiling as they gave her a tour of the various ceilings of the base. Sweat beaded on her brow and her stomach twisted. A ‘more private room’ could mean anything. Her hands scratched at her arms and she longed for a day when that feeling brought just the right mix of pain and satisfaction to comfort her. She could really do with some sharp clarity to break through the muddlement of all of this.

The doctors wheeled her into a small room with a cushioned table and a countertop full of tools that Rat was starting to recognize. There was no mistaking that sharp antiseptic smell either; she’d been in more doctor’s rooms in the past two days than she typically was in a year, even with all the accidents she’d survived.

She yelped as the doctors picked her up and moved her to the squishy table. They set her down before exiting, leaving her with only the alien. The table was cold under her skin and she realized that she was no longer wearing her scarf. Had someone taken it off? She started trying to piece together the events of the last hour. This wasn’t surviving a bus or being thrown against a wall. Getting filled with bullets was a few steps above that. Her arms prickled with goosebumps. What was happening to her? Were these people actually going to help her like they promised? Had this been an elaborate trap of Galela and Noha’s?

“Alright Wyane,” she said. Her teeth chattered in her mouth, despite her attempts to silence them. They were betraying something, nerves or pain, she wasn’t quite sure, but it was a weakness they didn’t need to see. The only people Rat had somewhat trusted, Galela and Noha, were gone. They probably couldn’t have helped her anyway. “What the fuck happened back there. I’ve survived some pretty lethal shit over the years, but that was…” To her horror, her voice choked up. When she spoke again, it was a whisper. “I can’t explain it anymore. Why I’m not dying.”

Wyane’s laughter normally would have filled her with anger but there was something about it, no malice or glee. It reminded her of how Ron once laughed when he first showed her how to flash grill a squirrel. He’d thrown her hard-earned meal into a fire and Rat, just a little girl at the time, had sworn and screamed, thinking he’d destroyed her food. Ron had just laughed and, after a few moments, speared the squirrel and removed it from the fire. She’d gobbled it up in a matter of minutes.

It was a good laugh, just familiar enough for Rat’s shudders to calm a bit. “So this is different than your normal accident?” he asked. The alien’s long tails lifted then, slithering across the counter. They opened boxes, sliding sheaths on them, and then moved to Rat. “How, might I ask?”

“I don’t know. I survived a cave-in cause rocks didn’t hit me. I got away from acid rain cause everyone else kicked me out of their shelter and I hid in something better suited for acid rain. There was a beast once-”

“Anything that you think should have killed you?”

Rat thought back. “No? I’m lucky, not invulnerable. At least, I wasn’t.”

“Or you didn’t know until now.”

One of the tails wrapped tightly around one of Rat’s arms. Her body jolted again, in pain, and she shrieked, clawing at it.

“Ow! Ma’am, I’m not going to hurt you. Or rather,” his face made its best attempt to mimic a human frown. “I’m not going to cause harm to you. I’m only going to test your blood.”

This took Rat aback, so much so that she relinquished her attack on his tails. “How do you test blood? What do you want it to do?” The more she thought about it, the funnier it got. She laughed, a hard sound. “Maybe you should get one of the doctors in here.”

Wyane’s face stayed in that frown position, but maybe a bit more confused and maybe even hurt. “I am a doctor. I’m one of the only doctors this base has.”

Rat scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, I need a human doctor. I’m not sure what kind of shit your blood can do, but human blood just kinda sits and smells.”

Wyane smiled at this. “I think I’ve got a video for you that might make you question that… but more on that in a moment. Rat, I’m talking about medical tests.”

Now Rat was even more confused. “Like what doctors take?”

One of his tails scratched the side of his face. “No… like the kind that tests what’s in your blood.”

“It’s blood. Blood is in bloo - fuck, get the other doctors in here, you’re crazy.”

“Blood,” he said, tightening one tail around her arm and pulling out a sharp, glowing needle, “yes, human blood, can hold all kinds of things. Germs, viruses, bacteria. Blood is actually made up of multiple kinds of cells, and the amount of each cell present in your blood can tell doctors a lot. Do I have permission to take some of your blood to run some tests on it, so that we can see if you have anything in you that might explain your inability to, well, die? This will only help answer your questions.”

It seemed far fetched but Rat did know slaves who practiced ‘bleeding’ rituals to get rid of disease. She’d always thought they were stupid, thinking that there were bugs in their blood that they could get rid of. Maybe Rat was the stupid one.

“Fine. But don’t take too much or I’ll kill you.”

“I have no doubt you could. Just a few vials.”

Rat glanced at the four small glass tubes beside him. She could spare that much, so she let herself relax. There was a lot to process here. Did Wyane think that Rat was sick? Could a sickness make you invulnerable? Seemed backward.

“This needle is special and should be able to pierce your skin. One of our chief engineers made it special.”

“For me?” Rat asked.

Wyane dug the needle in her arm. It was a relieving feeling, the perfect balance of string and heat. Her brain flooded with good chemicals and she let out a long breath.

“No,” he said, “for people… beings like you. Or rather, like what we think you are.” He drained enough blood to fill the vials, one after another, before he capped them. “That should be sufficient. Sorry it was so much. I want you to rest here and wait for my return. This could take very long or very short. I can’t promise.”

“Bit vaguer than people want in a doctor.” She craned her neck at the door, hoping the doctors who’d wheeled her inside might still be there.

Wyane let out a long sigh. “Rat, those were medics, not doctors. I’m the only doctor here. You'll have to get over your speciesism. It’s not going to suit you well here.”

With that, he took the vials and left, tails swishing a bit huffily behind him.

He thought Rat was speciesist? She’d never even seen another alien, so she wasn’t even sure if she knew whether she was or not. Unless the Deathless counted as species. And she did hate them, so maybe she was. The doctor seemed upset, though, so she’d probably have to hide it better. Unless he could find it in her blood ‘tests’. Who knows what that might turn up? Still, something about his comment, ‘it’s not going to suit you well here’. He foresaw her having a future here. At least, one long enough to piss people off. So that was reassuring.

She lay on the table, her body still feeling not quite normal. Moving was hurting less than it had before, so she did a status check. Her hands roamed her arms and legs, up to her chest, neck, and head. Everything felt normal. Too normal, though, for how many bullets she’d just eaten. There weren’t any scars or anything. She pulled herself up to a sit, wincing, and stared at the mirror in the room. A lot of blood but no entry wounds.

She had just swung her legs off the table to investigate closer when the door banged open. Rat jumped, a hiss in her throat. Her hands flew up defensively before her brain registered that it was only the doctor. She lowered her arms, still trying to adjust to the idea of trusting someone she’d only met recently.

“Good way to get fucking killed,” she said, heart still jumping.

“I’m sure you know quite a lot about death.” There was something in his voice Rat didn’t like. Maybe it was smug or sinister or something but if made the hairs on her arms raise.

“That took you ‘very short’. So what’s that mean?” He didn’t respond to her comment but instead turned behind him. Rat could hear him muttering to some people behind him and her misgivings deepened.

He entered the room, a cautious eye still on Rat. He wasn’t alone this time. First, a woman followed him in. Her flame-red hair was piled high on her head, so it was hard to tell, but she was so short, Rat might be taller than her. It was an interesting prospect, but just as she considered hopping off the table to test the theory, Rat noticed the man behind the redhead.

An older man, with sharp features and hard eyes, was standing in the doorway, calling out brusque commands behind him in English. Past him, Rat could just make out several guards, all armed, arranged in the hallway, before the man slammed the door shut.

Rat stomach seized. Soldiers outside. So they weren’t playing nice anymore. Didn’t they know shooting her didn’t work? What was their play? Who were the man and woman who accompanied the doctor?

“Don’t be tense,” the doctor said, his voice a little too soothing for Rat’s ears. “Ignore everyone else in the room. I just want you to focus on me.”

Rat didn’t like being scared. It was the worst kind of weakness. Worse than being cripples, mad, sick, blind, so instead she laughed, a gross hacking noise in the base of her throat. “You loaded up the hallway with soldiers. Like hell I’m gonna ignore them.”

He sighed and gave a long look at the sharp-eyed man in the room. The man just shrugged.

“Alright, can you just answer my questions?” Wyane asked. “Remember, I said you wouldn’t be hurt. First, Agent Galela said your name was Rat. Is that true?”

Slowly, Rat nodded, muscles still bunched and ready to jump. “It’s like a… I mean, I wasn’t named that by my parents. But I didn’t know them. People call me Rat, so I’m Rat.”

The redhead pulled out a tablet and started taping on it.

“And where are you from, Rat?” Wyane continued.

Rat struggled to avoid being distracted by the redhead. “Slave camp? New Hampshire? In America?” It was weird using these words to describe where she lived. It had always just been ‘the mines’ but these people meant business. But she was so out of her element here and she may have just armed her captors. So she was being as honest as she could. Keep them talking while she analyzed the room.

“Were you born there?”

Rat took a moment to think on this. “In America? Yeah, I think so. Not in the slave camp though.”

“And your parents, were they with you at the camp?”

The redhead was still scribbling furiously but the guard captain didn’t look any more on edge, so hopefully, Rat was putting their minds at ease.

“No,” Rat said. “You know, I told Galel-”

“Could she be a natural-born?” the redhead asked. Her voice was softer than Rat expected.

The doctor turned to her. “No… Look at the scarring. All over her arms, the burn on her face.” He looked at Rat. “Where did those come from?”

“Which one?” Rat asked.

“Any of them, I suppose.”

“A-a fire. For this one.” She rubbed the burn on her face, hands shaking. “The slaves tried to kill me.”

“Just regular fire?” the doctor asked.

Rat didn’t know how to answer that. “Just a slave with a torch. My bonds came loose and the fuckers left before I died so I got away.

Now her voice was shaking. She couldn’t place exactly what she expected them to say or do. This was a doctor, just a doctor, but if Rat was being honest with herself, she knew he’d been lying with his promises of her safety. Doctors didn’t travel with this many guards. The guards hadn’t accompanied the doctor to the room until they tested her blood and now…

Had they used her blood just to create a weapon that could kill her? Normally, this would be where Rat’s heart picked up to its action-hungry hum, but instead, her throat and eyes burned. She’d given the doctor her blood cause he’d said he could help her understand what was happening to her. She’d been so stupid. She’d trusted stranger after stranger, ever since the Butcher King’s mission and it had led her here.

The ship hadn’t made her stronger, it had made her soft. Weak.

Rat couldn’t see a way to survive this. Which didn’t mean she would die, but who knew? Either way, the next few minutes were going to be terrifying and painful. Her muscles tensed as she eyed the door. There was no other escape.

The doctor was still talking to the redhead but Rat ignored them. She kept one eye on the door and the other on the hard-eyed man, the one in charge of the guards. He’d be the one she’d go for. He might be armed. If she could take him down, get his weapon-

“Rat?”

She barely gave the doctor a moment of her attention. “What?”

“We… were discussing. Or rather, wondering, perhaps. If you… knew.”

“Knew what.”

“Rat-” the woman started, but the doctor hushed her.

“I’ve got this, Dainara. Rat, what do you think we found in your blood?”

Rat swallowed. “Not bugs,” she said. “No viruses or anything. That was just a lie to get my guard down..” Sweat trickled down her neck and arms. Her fingers twitched. “You used it to make your weapons work against me. Do you think I’m a fucking moron?”

“Rat, no.” Wyane’s odd, croaky voice finally took on a note of concern as he noticed, too late, Rat’s distress. “Rat, why do you think we want to hurt you?”

“The gunshots, maybe? Why the fuck did I trust the same people who just fucking obliterated me? I got wheeled in here on a stretcher after being blown to bits. I don’t need another flarging reason!” Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears, she could barely hear the room. She could feel everyone’s tension now.

“That was a terrible terrible mistake,” the doctor said. He was trying too hard to calm her. “Our bioscanners… they reported that you weren’t, well, human.”

“What?” Rat jerked her head at him. “You think-”

Her sudden movement spurred the older man, who had looked almost disinterested with the conversation, to suddenly draw a weapon.

“NO!”

Before Rat could react, the redhead was between them, one hand on the nozzle of the gun, one hand on Rat’s shoulder. Her grey eyes were unexpectedly soft after the outburst. They were the only thing that stopped Rat from ripping someone’s throat out.

“Rat,” she said, “you need to listen. We are not going to hurt you. We couldn’t, really, if we wanted.”

“You made those weapons-”

“In the last ten minutes? You flatter my engineering skills. But no, we did not use your blood to make those weapons. You need to listen to us. We tested your blood. They confirmed the bioscanner’s report. You aren’t human.”

“Then what am I?” Rat exploded on her. “What? An alien like him?”

The doctor let out a low, measured breath.

“No Rat,” he said. “You aren’t mortal at all. You’re a Deathless.”