Chapter 1: Error of Well-Meaning

The heavy air of the swamp clung to the dark fur that covered his back and arms. Unable to run further for fear of overheating, Grimley had taken to trudging through the muck of the swamp as far away as he could from the main road to avoid detection.

He had nothing to fight with. He couldn't remember where exactly, but he thought he dropped his gun somewhere in the factory or on the way out. And he cursed himself for it.

"You're so stupid!" He berated himself. "You could have helped them if you hadn't been so stupid!" He stopped his rhythmic travel to look back towards the coast. Through the cypress trees he could faintly see the black outline of the factory and in front of that, the portal where he had assured them they'd be safe. "Dad's going to hate you. How are you going to explain this without him shooting you?" He turned back to the swamp and headed for the closest tree with roots raised high enough for him to fit underneath. Exhausted in several ways, he slumped into the filth, not caring about the state of his trousers.

His moment of clarity was interrupted by a sharp ringing coming from his pocket. He felt about wildly as though he had been shot, frantically searching for the phone before a passing Human heard it. As soon as he felt it within his hand, he pressed 'accept' without knowing who the caller was.

"Where are you?" Came the voice of Xaviour. Despite Xaviour not being in front of him in person, Grimley clasped his hand over his mouth, dragged it across his face, and looked at his feet.

"I'm, uhh. I thought that we could-" before he could finish explaining, Xaviour cut him off.

"You took them out, didn't you? Answer me." The tone of his father's voice made him feel weak in the stomach. He always hated this part of guilt.

"Yes, sir."

"So where are they now?" Grimley didn't answer. He hoped his silence would be enough for Xaviour to understand it's implications but when another roar asking for conformation came through the speaker, Grimley was compelled to answer.

"They're dead! They're all dead."

"And where were you when they were dying? You're trying to recapture that factory again, aren't you?" Grimley turned his face away from the phone in shame.

"But dad, I-I thought that I could-I thought that I could do it." He almost whispered. "I thought that they wouldn't expect it, you know?"

"There's a reason that factory is a lost cause." Xaviour's tone was flat now. "Now get back here and apologize to your mother for worrying her." Then the call ended.

Grimley stared at the black screen of the phone for several seconds before clenching his hand around it in rage. He felt the screen buckle a little beneath his fingers before he flung it at least 15 feet into the swamp where it landed with a thwock. He leaned back against the roots of the cypress tree and felt his horns gouge into the wood. He rubbed them up and down against it to try and comfort himself with a pattern but it did no good.

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" he repeated to himself with each rub of his horns, gradually rising in ferocity until he was beating the back of his head against the tree.

He stopped once the pain grew to annoyance and just sat there, in the mud, with the deaths of seven men lingering on his shoulders. For the first time all day he was able to hear the swamp. The incessant hum of the insects, the gentle sigh of the trees, the rhythmic pounding of the factory in the distance, the sudden screech of the portal. "The portal?"

Pulling himself out of the mud, Grimley was forced to bend in half as he left the tree behind and made a steady jog towards the portal. "Did someone survive?" He only realized that his footsteps would alert whoever it was that just came through when he was within 30 feet of the portal. As he hid behind the roots of another tree, he watched as something small moved between the sparse gaps in green. He had no idea what it was, defiantly not reinforcements and it wasn't tall enough to be Xaviour. Grimley leaned ever so slightly away from the roots to try and get a better look but snapped a twig beneath his feet. It was a small sound but the small white thing clearly heard it as it spun to face his direction. Grimley flung himself against the tree, hoping that it would mistake him for just another part of the swamp.

"Is anyone there?" Called a voice.

"A Girl?" He thought. He waited a moment longer then heard light footsteps running away deeper into the swamp. "What? Why? Why is she here?" Grimly pondered as he gave chase as quietly as he could. "She's got an accent, where's she from? Why is she here?" He saw the same white shape again just up in front of him but something stopped him from calling out to her. Instead, he dropped onto a grassy mound and crawled through some reeds until she stopped just in front of the road leading to the beach.

He could see her a little clearer now some of the swamp gas had dissipated. She looked to be Human in shape, but not quite. "Something else? Another Xandrian? No, something's not quite right. What's that on her head?" He felt himself rise out of the reeds to get a better look, and she heard him.