You'd think that after all this time, a general would be rescued from an abandoned planet! Jinyue kept his expression smooth, but the thought echoed dryly in his mind. You'd also think that a general was more serious and competent than the one trying to get his attention currently.
"Five minutes," he asked.
For someone in a seemingly high position, he sure was unorthodox. Jinyue ignored the female once more. At this point, it had evolved into something almost entertaining. A quiet, controlled standoff, if you will. Both of them carried questions. Both of them carried secrets. Neither would move first.
Since that fateful day when his powers went haywire and apparently healed the female's mental scape, soothing as they called it, he was avoiding everyone on the ship. Even the now awake sub-female.
However, the leech just couldn't leave him alone.
"No one's even here, we can talk all we want," he continued to try to bargain.
Speak freely.
Jinyue almost scoffed.
If the roles were reversed, Jinyue was certain he would have interrogated himself by any means necessary, detention, torture and underhanded tactics included. Then again, how could he even understand a female's thought process? He barely understood his own anymore. Some of his impulses felt foreign, layered over instinct rather than reason. He would never voice that confusion. He was fairly certain that in this era, unexplained psychological instability in a rare male would end with permanent confinement.
He adjusted his sleeve instead.
Moving on, Jinyue continued to make himself as busy as he could. With the sub female just waking up the day before, he couldn't be happier. He had given them four days to get themselves together to leave, hence the others' scouting. The sub-female still had to stay in the healing room to rest, with Cody checking up on him constantly, and the general had to stay under watch near a soother…himself, which is why Jinyue was stuck alone with the general.
Jinyue stepped past the body blocking his path and headed toward the kitchen without breaking stride.
"Wait, please"
He stopped. Curiosity was a dangerous thing. He wanted to know what had happened during that incident. What exactly he had done. But curiosity carried equal parts risk. These were not civilians. They were military command. Whatever had occurred inside Kaerin's mind… if weaponised… if reported…
It seemed as if everything was tied to knowing what exactly happened, and the only way to know was the person behind him, who also had his own share of questions, if not more. So, he turned around slowly and stared at him blankly. He watched the zerg creep closer just enough for it to feel intimate yet not. He seemed desperate for communication; if not equally curious, Jinyue chose to hear him out.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to fight me,"
…huh?
Is he that desperate for stimulation?
Ever since the strangers' forceful occupation of his home, The general had constantly been asking for a fight and got more enthusiastic with every rejection. From his observations, he seemed to be the person who didn't like to be restrained in one place. He was always moving and fidgeting. His eyes would scan every corner of the room. He would also almost always offer to scout outside for the ever-increasing number of insects in the area. He obviously loved fighting more than anything else. But to this extent? To value fighting over information…it was definitely something.
He weighed his options and tilted his head as he did so. His hair fell on his face, and his tail swished lazily. He didn't notice the odd reaction evoked from the other, too busy with his thoughts. Finally, he chose to relent. He had never fought another zerg, and part of him got interested in the idea.
He wanted to test out how a male zerg body would fare against a female zerg. He was sure he would lose without his powers, but regardless, the appeal of the fight was starting to get to him slowly. His swishing tail got a bit faster. He must have zoned out for too long because he heard the other say,
"We can just talk if you don't want t…"
"Sure,"
"To talking?"
"Both," He answered quickly too preoccupied with his thoughts on strategy and what moves to use, till he realised what he had just agreed to.
The female seemed extremely happy. It reminded him of an overzealous puppy. He couldn't say that he was thinking through the best moves to use to defeat the female, now could he? Nor could he take back the acceptance since he'd look like a petty fool in doing so.
"Thank you…where?"
"Outside, the others went far right?"
"They took your rover."
They took my what? When did they get the audacity to…he was promptly side-tracked as the female started to usher him to the exit.
******
Fighting turned out to be exhilarating for him.
It must have been all the dopamine released from trying something new after four years alone, he reasoned to himself as he parried another kick. Jinyue barely had time to register the shift in the general's posture before he was moving. He parried, redirecting rather than blocking outright. The impact vibrated up his arm.
He seemed to be limiting his strength.
They circled.
"Why are you here all alone?" the general asked as he jumped back and recentred himself.
"Ship crashed." He said as he advanced more. "Been here a long time."
"How long?" Kaerin's eyes widened fractionally as he dodged, though whether from shock or calculation, Jinyue couldn't tell. "Alone? No rescue attempts?"
Jinyue's tail whipped out for balance as he pivoted. He only answered the second question. "My communications systems were damaged."
Another kick. Kaerin was testing him now, probing his range and reaction time. Intelligent. Jinyue filed that away.
"Your parents never looked for you?" Kaerin pressed, moving into the attack now. His strikes were precise and controlled, a trained warrior of his own might, not a brawler.
Jinyue sidestepped, feeling the air displacement from The general's fist. That question cut closer than he liked. Parents. Family. Things that mattered to people with normal lives.
"died in the crash. I survived." The words came out flat. He didn't elaborate.
He seemed to accept that, though Jinyue caught the slight tightness around his eyes. Instead, he shifted tactics, and the next series of strikes came harder, faster. Testing endurance now.
"Your robot," He said between breaths. "Have you been with him all this time?"
Jinyue deflected, blocked, and moved. His body was adapting faster than he'd anticipated, muscle memory from the body's previous owner, perhaps, or simply his own capacity translating across forms. "Not always, got him recently."
"He takes care of you, right?"
A low kick aimed at Jinyue's legs. He jumped, twisted, and felt sweat beginning to bead at his temple. The exhilaration was fading into something more primal…that burn of exertion, the slow depletion of energy reserves he didn't have in abundance.
"He does," he said.
"And before?"
Jinyue didn't answer that. Another kick was coming, and he'd miscalculated his landing. His leg buckled slightly, not by much, barely perceptible, but Kaerin saw it. Of course he did.
The general's movements became sharper, more aggressive. He was pressing the advantage now, driving Jinyue backwards. The questions had been reconnaissance. Now came the assault.
How much longer can I hold? Jinyue asked himself with clinical detachment, even as his body screamed for rest. His lungs burned. His limbs felt heavy. His not-so-frail male zerg body had limits, too, and he was quickly approaching them.
"Why did you help us?" The general asked in bid to change tactics, pivoting into a strike that came from an unexpected angle. "Why bring us to your ship when you didn't want us here?"
That one almost made Jinyue hesitate. His eyes narrowed. The real questioning had begun, it seemed, and there was no way he'd admit to anything first.
"I got lonely."
"Lies—"
There.
Jinyue tried to capitalise on the moment of distraction he'd caused by lunging forward. For an instant, he had momentum. For an instant, he thought he might actually land a solid blow.
Then he pivoted with infuriating ease, grabbed his wrist, and threw.
The world spun. Jinyue had a moment of inverted sky, of the female's face flashing past, of the realisation that he'd been too slow, too tired, that his body simply couldn't maintain the pace anymore after more than twenty minutes of fighting with an extremely formiable opponent.
Then his back hit the ground with a thud that drove the air from his lungs.
For a moment, all Jinyue could do was lie there, gasping, tasting dust and his own exertion. The sky above swam slightly.
"I'm sorry!" he was there instantly, his hand extended, genuine distress flooding his features. "I didn't mean to! Are you hurt?"
Jinyue took a moment to assess. No broken ribs. The chest would be sore tomorrow. His pride was decidedly battered, but that had never mattered much to him lately anyway.
He waved Rin's hand away without taking it, choosing instead to push himself up on his elbows. "It's fine. You won."
It wasn't the response he seemed to expect. He hovered there for a moment, still tense with concern, before slowly lowering himself to sit beside Jinyue rather than standing over him.
They sat in silence.
It was... peaceful, actually. The wind moving through the sparse vegetation around them, the distant hum of insects in the undergrowth, the simple fact of two bodies at rest after exertion. Jinyue's breathing gradually steadied. The burning in his muscles began to ease into something almost pleasant. Even with the ache of use, of effort, of being and all.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this much exhilaration…probably when forcefully acquiring his enemies' companies, but that was long ago.
"You're an exceptional fighter," he said quietly, still watching him with that careful intensity. "For a male, I mean. You could beat a good number of soldiers in the military, actually."
Jinyue's lips twitched. The compliment was genuine, which made the follow-up observation even more absurd. "Your military must be remarkably weak, then."
Rin's head turned sharply toward him. His eyes went sharp, calculating, and Jinyue watched the moment of realisation cross his face like a wave.
"You were listening in," he said. Not a question.
Jinyue didn't answer. Instead, he turned his head slightly to meet his gaze.
"You were healed , were you not?" His voice was steady, curious in that clinical way of his. "When I did…" he paused as he carefully examined his arms. His voice got lower and more guarded, too. " Whatever I did."
The topic shift was deliberate. A deflection, yes, but also a pivot to something Jinyue actually needed to understand. Rin's jaw tightened slightly as his red slitted eyes widened, then contracted like a cat's. For a moment, the moment stretched between them, full of unasked questions, answers neither of them seemed ready to give.
"You don't know what you did?" Rin finally asked, though something in his tone suggested there was far more to that answer than the single sentence contained.
Jinyue filed that away as well, he shrugged in non-answer then looked away. They sat together in the silence once more, the unspoken things hanging between them like suspended breath.