“Who is he?” Jae asked.

“No idea, but he can Focus.” the Maester said.

Kaster kept his Blade up as he backed to the doors behind him. The two Furies advanced spreading apart with their Blades ready.

“Well,” Jae replied, “that does make this more interesting.”

“I don’t suppose you’d simply tell us, who you are?” The Maester quipped.

Kaster couldn’t believe they were bantering. He understood instantly that they weren’t taking him seriously at all. His rage was overwhelming, and he acted on it exploding into action.

He lashed out at the Maester powering his swing with every ounce of strength. The Maester stepped aside widening the distance between himself and Jae. Kaster lashed out with a second swing that was easily blocked. He then spun and parried a disarming shot from Jae.

The Furies advanced at once, each making disarming stabs. Kaster’s blade was a whir as he gave up on attacking and focused solely on defending against two at once. He scanned the nave frantically, looking for anything that might help. The room was bare, with only a dais, and dozens of curved stone benches. There was nothing to throw at them.

Kaster pushed his Focus behind him throwing open the doors that led deeper into the temple. He backpedaled quickly, moving through the opening before the Furies could slam it shut. A long hallway led to a set of stairs going up. Kaster retreated backwards. He used his Focus to help guide him, unwilling to take his eyes off the Furies as they advanced.

The hallway was wide enough for the Furies to advance side by side.

The Maester taunted, “You may as well surrender, you have nowhere to go.”

“Drop your Blades, and I’ll drop mine.” Kaster said back. He made no effort to conceal his lie knowing they’d see it with their Focus for exactly what it was. It was his turn to taunt back. In these tight quarters fighting side to side was a liability.

Kaster lunged at the younger Fury, she ducked back as the Maester blocked the stab. It was exactly what Kaster wanted. He deflected the elder Fury’s blow, their Blades sparking furiously as Kaster feinted, twisted, and moved to disarm the Maester.

The elder Fury had seen this disarm countless times, his experience made him too sure of himself, dismissive that a younger Focus user would try such a routine move. When he countered Kaster reversed the move suddenly, with more speed and skill than the Maester had anticipated. The master jerked to the side coming into the tight confines of the hallway. Kaster’s Blade sliced through the wall of the hallway where the Maester had just been, shooting sparks through the tight space.

Their blades met, once, twice, Kaster pressing his advantage. The Maester was experienced but slowing in his older age. The small space of the hallway worked against the older man who had fought dozens of duels out in the open. Jae held back, wanting to leap in and help but unable to find the space to do so.

The two men’s Blades met a final time. Kaster used his rage to force the Maester’s Blade down, then he slashed up cutting diagonally through the older man’s torso. It was a shallow cut, not quite going through the body completely, but enough to hit vital organs and miss the heart by a whisper.

The Maester screamed and fell back bloodlessly, his wound cauterized by the WaveBlade. Kaster advanced standing over the Maester's fallen body. Touching it with his Focus he knew the Fury could no longer fight.

Jae lunged at him going for a killing blow. Kaster deflected it and blocked several others. With his Focus he could feel her losing control, succumbing to her emotions, her master had fallen.

Kaster wanted her alive and so he retreated, the Fury advanced swinging at him wildly. The arcs of her Blade struck walls and ceiling, destroying lights and sending showers of sparks everywhere. Her assault was furious and determined, swing after swing with no let-up. Kaster defended, waiting, looking for an opening, preparing a blow that would disarm rather than kill.

He blocked one of her wild swings and stepped into her to knock her down with a body slam. She was young, not completely trained, and fast. He barely dodged one swing then tried to avoid the next only to have the tip of her Blade slice across the right side of his chest.

Howling in pain Kaster felt his anger explode inside him. He returned her swing, letting his blow crash down on her with all his might. She staggered, her eyes wide. She’d been taught to fight opponents that were stoic, who thought their moves through. The unbridled anger he was unleashing was shocking to her, not something she was used to. She defended herself desperately as he battered his Blade against hers. Striking again and again until he could feel and see her arms weakening.

He paused just a moment, lining up a perfect disarming move. She didn’t pause. Instead, she lashed out desperately. Kaster watched as her Blade shot forward with a speed matching his own, up under his defense, to cut through his left bicep.

The pain was unimaginable. As his cut muscles contracted he screamed and fell backwards to the floor. His Blade pommel skittering down the hall as he clutched at the stump of his arm.

“Yield!” Jae demanded.

“I yield.” He said through clenched teeth.

She held up her hand and called his discarded Blade to it. Only then did she turn hers off and hook both to her belt. She rushed to her Maester.

Kaster breathed, rhythmically, slowly, steadily, forcing the pain away, calming himself. He felt the stump in disbelief. His arm had been severed. He’d been bested by a girl barely trained. Looking at her he knew she couldn’t be much older than her mid-twenties. Most likely she was an initiate. So young. And yet, he’d seen the footage of her robbing Hol Vydon’s casino. The galaxy was upside down.

Attendants came flooding into the hallway from both directions. First peeking around the corners, then when seeing the wounded they poured in to offer aid.

“Be careful with that one!” Jae said taking charge. She looked too wide-eyed and young to be in any position of authority. “He’s an unauthorized Focus user.”

Kaster couldn’t take his eyes off his new stump, his right hand still clutched it. Someone pressed a hypo-gun to his left shoulder. There was a hiss and the pain diminished, it didn’t completely fade. He rocked grasping himself, trying to breathe. A second shot sent him to oblivion. 

*****

Why? K’rra wondered. Why had Kaster stormed out of the ship as he had? If he meant to march into the temple, she suspected it would end poorly.

She wished she’d studied the Furies more in Academy, but they were a dead and dying cult, their numbers diminishing every generation.

What she did know was minimal, they had a special pact with the Federation, operated as diplomats, advisors, lawmen, but in a limited capacity. Starship commanders were to afford them every curtesy possible, but only so long as it didn’t interfere with the duties of the ship. The warrior monks of the order used archaic weapons that took ages to master, having to literally be trained from childhood to wield. They didn’t fit into an orderly world, they were an exception, irrational mystics, following their feelings rather than logic.

She reviewed the situational facts: Kaster was barely healed from a serious injury, he was acting against an enemy without proper preparation or reconnaissance, he was a lone man entering into their fortress, and he was acting irrational. Although very capable, she didn’t think his chances of survival were high.

Wasting no time, she slipped into the jump suit she’d recently purchased. In the cockpit she started the engines and set them to idle. She did a thorough pre-flight check making sure the ship would be ready to launch in an instant. She waited tapping blue fingertips against the flight console.

The comms light flickered, and a chime rang making K’rra nearly jump out of her skin.

She threw on her wire headset and answered the call.

“This is Outlander, currently in dry dock, go.”

“Outlander, this is Obeza Control. We have a situation here. We’re looking for any ships that have a full medical bay or doctor on board.”

Stars! She thought, Kaster had been wounded. “Roger Control, this is Doctor K’rra, Federation Officer,” she lied while telling the truth. “I’ll grab my kit, what’s the nature of the emergency?”

“A life-threatening injury at the Fury temple. I’ll let them know help is on the way.”

K’rra grabbed a utility box and went to the auto-doc. She transferred a medical scanner, set of hypos, and bandaging spray. She left the engines on idle not caring about the fuel consumption and left the Outlander.

Outside, she wanted to walk calmly to the temple, but ended up sprinting. In front of the temple there was a crowd of people gathered around two stretchers. As she approached her worst fears were realized, Kaster lay on one of them.

She slowed and walked to Kaster when a human woman in dreadlocks intercepted her. “He’s lost a hand, but it’s not critical. Maester Sule however, has serious injuries.”

K’rra looked at the young woman and recognized her immediately as Kaster’s target. She also noticed that the others were differential to her. They were all looking to her for direction. K’rra saw the two pommels on Jae’s belt and guessed that one of them was Kaster’s.

“I’ll triage the patients if you don’t mind.” K’rra said.

Jae meant to say something, then thought better and replied, “Of course, Doctor.”

K’rra went to Kaster and opened her kit. She didn’t need the medical scanner to see that his arm had been severed at the bicep. The wound had been cauterized leaving a darkened stump. She could see that muscles in the bicep were contracted and she was glad he’d been given enough sedatives to knock him out.

She wanted to throw her arms around him, but had a role to play. She reached blindly for the medical scanner and ran it over him. K’rra forced herself to remain calm, to focus on the steps for the scanner, to keep her mind focused on the mechanical. She wasn’t certain what a Fury’s capabilities were but from what little she’d heard Kaster explain they read feelings. Not thoughts, feelings. She forced thoughts of Kaster out of her mind.

“This one is stable,” K’rra said and stood.

Jae gave her a cock-eyed look from under the dreads. K’rra ignored it and moved to Maester Sule. His robes had been pulled away revealing a freshly burned slash across his torso, from hip to shoulder. The scanner sang a sad tale of burned organs, how his heart had been missed was a miracle. The scanner reported problems with multiple organs, the prognosis was death within hours.

“We need to get this one to my ship.” K’rra said. “Now.”

Jae barked orders and the attendants lifted both litters. They formed a grim procession moving down the main street quickly. A scattered few people watched from doorways.

“How bad is it?” Jae asked.

“He’s headed to total organ failure.” K’rra replied flatly. She was busy thinking of how to part the Fury from Kaster and the other wounded man. Outsmarting the Fury would probably be possible, but the woman had powers that K’rra was not well-versed in. She couldn’t afford any mistakes.

When they arrived at the Outlander the engines still whined in a low idle. As the procession moved to the ramp K’rra took the lead guiding them to the autodoc.

She moved to the controls while barking, “Get Sule on the exam table gently.”

Jae helped move the wounded man onto the table. Once he was on it the servo arms whirred to life, running scanners over the unconscious Maester.

As K’rra worked the controls of the autodoc she cast a side long look at Kaster. She had to figure out a way to get the Fury and attendants off the ship but leave Kaster. When she saw him unconscious, she felt overwhelmed with emotion. If only she had Kaster’s slyness…

*****

Kaster watched his arm get sliced away. Felt the muscles twist in agony. Saw his hand falling under the glow of a WaveBlade. Heard himself cry out. Heard himself cry out. Cry out.

He fell back into his own bed. His arm had returned only made of glass.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get that fixed soon enough.” K’rra said.

He looked over and there she was, kneeling next to his bed, a good little slave. Except she wasn’t naked as she should be, she wore a white dress with a bright red medical symbol emblazoned on one breast.

“I want my arm back.” He said wriggling his glass fingers.

“But you lost it.” K’rra said. She reached out and touched the transparent limb.

It shattered into many pieces, each fading like a mist as he watched. She’d diminished him, taken his means of agency. He longed for it back, it was his, his means of controlling the galaxy around him, but gone now.

“Help me,” he begged.

K’rra’s cold purple eyes stared into his, she slowly shook her head. “That is no way to talk to your slave.”

“Help me.” He hissed.

“Take charge of your destiny. Command it.”

“Help me.” He demanded.

“Yes, sir.” she said gleefully. She lifted off the floor and came to him naked, straddled him. Her pale blue skin glowed in the dim light of a vaguely defined dream room.

He could feel her under the dress, hot naked flesh pressing to his. She ground against him slowly, letting him feel her desire and need for him.

She leaned down and kissed his stump. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it, her lips touching the ugly burned part of his body. Then she rubbed it across her face.

“What are you doing?” he asked, trying to pull it away from her, trying to hide the ugliness from him.

“Claiming you.” she whispered.

Conflicted feelings raced through him, horror, disgust, and fascination. Would she do this with each body part he lost? He knew this was a dream, but could feel her presence with him, close by. Was she imagining this herself? Was he picking up on her feelings?

She moved off of him crawling up to him. He lay back looking up her kneeling body, bare breasts swaying above, peaked with her smile, white teeth behind purple lips. Gripping what was left of his arm she guided it up along bare thighs. His breath became ragged, and he felt himself stir, passionate fires kindling as she pressed him under her dress.

Through the charred flesh, where he should have no feeling at all, he felt her wet against him. She guided his stump along her lips, while she towered over him cooing in delight.

“I am the only one,” she whispered, “No one can ever have done this to you before.”

He pulled back trying to escape her grasp. She held him tighter, not letting him go, forcing his appendage to her as her hips rolled. Her eyes closed and she made a high-pitched sigh. Her hips pressed to him hard tribbing herself against him.

“You are mine,” he replied. She was his slave, not by choice… but this… was all her choosing.

“And you are mine,” she whimpered, then demanded “Let me cum.”

She thrust herself against him, rubbing him into her, fucking his stump. He reached up with his remaining hand and grabbed her hip, feeling her rocking against him, tight muscles working under smooth skin. She reached down taking his cock in her hand. He felt her gripping him, squeeze, and stroke him in time with her grinding. On their own accord his hips betrayed him and started moving. He fucked her hand as she rubbed him against her.

“You’re so close, Master. Even in this I am happy to please you.”

Kaster wasn’t sure what he felt. He wanted to search his feelings, trace them back to their roots, but her squeezing made him delirious with need. That was the root, he needed her. He didn’t want to need her, the more he resisted, the harder her fingers squeezed torturing him. It had all been so much easier when he was alone. But where would he be now if he were alone? Captured and at the mercy of the enemy. Instead, he was at the mercy of this needy woman stroking him to climax.

When the pressure inside him was about to burst he told her, “You’re going to make me cum.”

“Yes, Master, and you I.” her purple eyes bore into his, “We are entwined. Cum for me.”

And he did. He arched his back trying to thrust himself through her hand. She gripped him as he furiously rocked his hips. Howling he cried out, “Cum for me.”

And she did. She screamed out, her sopping mess of a pussy grinding into him desperately as she cried out a hundred peaked notes. Her thousand deaths melted into his grunting thrusts. He winced his eyes shut riding out the orgasm as she fucked him.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that the white nurse’s dress had ridden up her thighs displaying her cunt lewdly as she continued grinding on him. It glistened wetly as she sang her ecstatic song. From it, strands of cum stretched out in thin strands frozen in midair. There were dozens of them, connecting to his arms, legs, chest, face. And from his own cock he saw the same, strands of spunk creating a web of connections to her as well.

As he looked at the strands, more began forming from her mouth, eyes, and fingertips to his body. And he watched as new strands formed from him to her. They were two marionettes bound to each other through their desires and need, caught in a web of bodily fluids.

He woke with an angry yell.

First:

Rogue Fury – Part 1