He can easily imagine that no one likes being scared.  No one.  Not Athemes, not Ri, not even Chrodin.  No one likes being scared; it's... just not a nice feeling.  

Zabi gets scared often.  Not in the ways one might think.  He doesn't fear the loss of an eye or a limb, not even dying as he has often come close to it when Athemes gets more violent than usual.  Zabi gets scared at the idea of something bad happening to Ri, to the irken he holds most dear in his heart.  He fears and is scared that they'll be separated and horrible things will happen to his crimson-eyed twin.  And that is his greatest fear, the fear of the unknown for Lerrias.

He knows - on some level he understands - that Athemes and Chrodin treat him the way they do because they fear him.  He is the first black ever born, they don't know his limits, and Zabi himself doesn't even know them.  They don't know what he can and can't do; how much like a normal Irken he really is, what would truly enrage him, all of it they must find out.  They must push him.  

He knows this on some certain level, but Zabi is still a smeet and he's not as smart as Ri is (but not even Athemes is as smart as his Ri and no one ever will be) so when Athemes punctures a needle into his spine, or Chrodin orders that he and Ri be separated for a day, well, he can't help to fear and strike out because of it.  He still can't stop himself from retaliating against those who try to force him and Ri apart even for a few minutes.  He can proudly say, to this day it's been impossible to do so even when Chrodin was there witnessing the effort.

But Zabi can pretend to be brave when he has too, as well.  When Ri is scared about the treatment Athemes pressures onto the black, he can fake not being in pain and smile big for his precious Ri.  When Ri gets scared that he'll be discarded because he is not acting how a red-eyed irken should be, he holds Ri close and coos and whispers that nothing would ever happen to him.  But he fears it just as much as Ri does, and Ri probably knows, his twin understands more about him than any other.  But Zabi is scared too, at the idea of them killing Ri because he is not a strong fighter and is too smart for his color.  

He does get scared, don't get delusional, he still is so small and the universe is very big.  And if it should decide to crumble, he can't stop it.  He is a small smeet.

Lately, meeting the Irkens that he has, he has been getting scared much more often.  Or perhaps not scared, he doesn't actually fear them so much as he is frightened they might do something he can't stop.

He fears Athemes because he could never stop her, from anything.  He can't stop her from hurting him, from hurting Ri, and he definitely couldn't stop her from separating them if she exerted real effort and force into pulling him and Ri apart.

Chrodin is that sort of vague and constant fear he supposes every Irken has at some point.  The fear of a creature able to do anything they want and yet not suffer a single consequence for the action.  Chrodin could order his and Ri's death and after being killed it would just be another cycle for everyone else.  That Chrodin hadn't killed him yet is because he poses no threat, no real threat, not yet.

He does fear.  Those who claim to be fearless are lying, simple as that.  Everyone fears something, it could be small, or it could be big.  But Zabi understands that everyone feels fear - that everyone gets scared.

Like now.  

Right now, Zabi was scared.

He bit his lip and pulled Mercy closer to his chest, shuddering and hiding further in the corner and behind the table, trying to make himself invisible.

He shivered and tried to bite back a whimper when he saw the massive scaled and acid dripping hind claws of the Tyza shake and rattle the floor as it stalked around the room.  He couldn't bring himself to look up.  Because if he looked up, he knew that the sight of a long thin pale red neck connected to a sphere that was nothing else but a mouth filled with six rows of fangs longer than his arm awaited his vision.  The four of it's five arms trailed along the floor had the deepest glowing white and yellow eyes searching him out, seeking him out.  

As the Tyza lumbered and stalked about the room he could smell the rank and vile scent of its acid try to overtake his senses and knock him out, make it easier for the alien to find him, kill him, and eat him.  He closed his eyes and tried not to make a sound, even its bad hearing would pick up the sound in the nearly empty room.  He always had to suck in his breath and stop his panting when it got close.  His legs hurt so much from running from it.  But this was it, no more rooms, dead end.
  
He shivered and curled in tighter on himself, shaking, hard.  He didn't know how the Tyza had gotten into the space-station and he didn't at all care.  All he cared about was praying to the goddess for it to go away.  He bit into Mercy's ear when he heard it screech in a mimic of a pleased laugh as he saw the Tyza have a sharp yellow eye locked on his foot.  

He shivered and prayed and begged, not knowing what to do.  He just felt the ground shake harder as it came closer with each step.  The stench nearly did knock him out and he sobbed.  He was going to be eaten!  He was going to be eaten and the fangs would just slice through him and Mercy like a laser gun through paper.  

Another, single sob escaped his lips before he curled in tight, there was no escape.  He heard the crash of the table being shoved aside and crashing into the wall.  He heard the shallow screech of its breathing and all five eyes in its claws were focused on him, the mouth of fangs grinning and dripping spit in anticipation of the meal about to be had.

The single arm that came out from the exposed spine along its back scratched at the thin neck that would expand as it swallowed him.  The four other arms near its thick and bony hips reached out for him.  He nearly screamed when a claw yanked his antennae together and what felt like nearly off his head, he could feel the cold jelly of the eye press against his antennae and he let out a bitter shrill, struggling suddenly, not willing to die, not like this!

The Tyza's three other arms grabbed at his wrist and the other two his hips as Zabi was lifted into the air.  It screeched, pleased before the long neck bent to bring the mouth closer to its prey, the claw on its back reaching out to grab him and hit him if he tried to escape whilst it bit into him.

He shivered and screamed, refusing to let go of Mercy, refusing to be eaten.  He sobbed again as he blacked out for a moment as the foulest stench from its mouth slammed like a wall into his face.  

He was going to die and he would be leaving Ri all alone.

There was a bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!  A screech!  The stench got stronger.  There was a yank on his antennae, a loud curse, loud enough to compete with the screech.  And his name.

"ZABI!"

He was falling.  The Tyza was falling.  Bang! Bang! Bang!  The Tyza was being shot at!  He didn't feel any pain of falling, of being eaten.  He saw the Tyza get smaller as it fell to the floor but he wasn't falling with it.  Dazed he looked around and his eyes widened as he gazed into the firm red of Mothy's eyes.  He looked around again and saw Princey stalk forward, a look of disgust and rage and... something else in his eyes.  The grip around his and Mercy's body tightened as Princey shot the Tyza again and again in the throat until the sphere of its mouth was severed from its body.  

He shivered and felt hot metal pressed against his skin.  The smell of smoke tried to engulf his senses and destroy the memory of the Tyza's breath but failed as the stain of it imprinted in his mind.

Firm arms were around him, and he realized that Mothy was shaking, that the hot metal against his skin was gun that had just been used in Mothy's hand.  He held on tightly and just rested his head on his Mothy's chest.  He felt a third claw on his head, smaller, lighter.  It must have been Princey.  He shivered, cold despite the warmth surrounding him.  He felt a kiss on his head, and he tried to make out whispered words, they sounded so rushed, so calm and yet frightened.  Were they talking to him?  He didn't hear his name.  He couldn't make out was said.

Mothy started walking away, and Zabi glanced to see that Princey remained in the room.  

Bang! Bang! Bang!  Went the gun he held, lasers slicing through the Tyza's torso, severing it in half.  

They exited... just him and Mothy, and the room in which the Tyza had trapped him in after chasing him down the halls slowly disappeared from his sight.  

His legs stopped hurting and he loosened his grip on Mercy but Mothy never loosened his.  They reached Mothy's room, the one he had been asked to leave not two nights ago so Mothy could share special smeet kissies with Princey.  

Mothy sat down, never having said a word and he just held Zabi.  The little smeet looked up at him and tried to stand but the grip around him tightened.  Zabi winced and the vice lessened.

"Mothy?" he whispered, cooing softly, trying to find out what was wrong with his favorite adult.  

"Are you hurt?" Mothy's voice was strained, refusing to let him go so he could check.

Zabi shook his head.

"No... Not anymore," he tried to smile, but Mothy's face made him falter.

"You're sure?" Mothy's eyes seemed to scan up and down his body and eventually his big claw touched Zabi's antennae and he winced and whimpered, pulling them away.  Mothy instantly pulled his hand away while his eyes narrowed and his body seemed to shake harder.

"M-Mothy what's wrong?"

There was a long silence that followed his question, eventually Zabi realized the answer would never come.  He wanted to know why the Tyza had gotten in the space-station.  If there were anymore of them, but the silence from his previous question stilled his young tongue.  Mothy continued to just hold him and Mercy closer, eyes narrowed as he tucked Zabi's head under his chin.

"Do you have a boo-boo?  Do... you want smeet kissies?  Will that make you feel better?" Zabi tried to get his Mothy to answer something, anything, just... something.  

Mothy pulled away a little, locking eyes with him and Zabi bit his lip, shrinking back that he had upset his Mothy.  

Suddenly Mothy was pressing his lips to Zabi's, keeping his lips there much longer then he was used too.  When Mothy pulled away he heard a soft "Mweep" and he smiled as he was hugged tighter.

"I love you Mothy, you and Princey."

The grip tightened and Zabi's head was once again tucked under Mothy's chin.

"We...  I love you too, Zabi."



Fin