chapter one
April 12^th, 173 NCY

Eight large gong noises echoed up and down the alleyways of Takhikis, proud city of the New Colonies.

All parties are to make their way back to their respective dwelling units. Repeat: all parties are to make their way back to their respective dwelling units.

The streets were deserted. A small black cat, scrawny and starved, crept behind a dumpster, her scruffy tail limp behind her. Tiny kittens had been there hours ago, mewing and wriggling. But nothing that small and helpless lasted very long in the alleys.

Eight gongs and a softer, more muted sound.

All parties are to have made their way back to their respective dwelling units. Any party found outside the boundaries of said unit will be punished as deemed necessary.

The cat curled up in her empty nest, head on her paws, tail curled around her haunches, dull yellow eyes gazing across the empty pavement.

And, quite suddenly, the pavement was not empty anymore.

A slender, muscular form dropped from unknown heights, lengthy silvery hair falling down his back, deep blue eyes dark with rage. In the moonlight he looked strangely surreal, the red blood on his skin sparkling. He landed, cat-like, on his feet, and whirled around, searching through the darkness for something he would know when he saw it.

Behind him, quiet as an owl, stealthy as a fox, another form appeared, a shadow untouched by the moon and stars. He too had the marks of battle, his chest covered in scrapes and burns that looked like they were on familiar territory, judging from the scars they surrounded. Long, silky black hair shrouded the stranger's face as he approached his adversary.

The silver-haired figure turned just as the black-haired one lunged. Snarling, the two locked together, more like a couple of dogs fighting for a piece of meat than men. Of course, they were neither, but the alleycat couldn't have known that. She pulled farther back into her dark corner, mewing as she retreated.

The younger, black-haired form jerked his head to one side, something flying beside his long, pointed ear, slashing the silver-haired across the chest, raking across already-opened wounds. Shrieking in astonishment and pain, the latter recoiled, clutching his stomach, knees buckling, like a toy doll being slowly broken.

"Poison?" he asked hoarsely.

The black-haired only smiled, swishing a sturdy, lethal tail back and forth. "You should know," he replied, twirling a long, dangling earring around his taloned finger.

The elder snarled, though he was obviously growing weaker and weaker as the poison worked its way through his veins. "He was not of your family," he replied. "He was not even of your clan. You have no right to avenge him."

The black-haired figure threw his head back in laughter. "I have no clan," he replied. "I have no family. These aren't your days anymore, old man. He was my friend, my teacher, and you'd be insane to expect me to sit back and watch you get away when you --"

"Foolish boy," the elder rasped. "You'll get yourself needlessly killed if you refuse to comprehend the rules the ancients set down --"

The younger man laughed again. "Don't you listen to the humans?" he asked. "We're demons. We don't have to play by the rules."

Whatever the elder wished to say to that was lost as his eyelids fell down over his blue orbs. He slumped down against the alleycat's dumpster, causing her to yowl with fright. The victor watched as she dashed off down the alley, his black hair waving in the wind.

As soon as she was gone, the young man turned to sit down on a pile of moldy bricks. His head sank into his bloodstained hands, and his shoulders trembled slightly, possibly from the chill.

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