Transformation Tragedies [CoRIII]

Chapter 30 - Meltdown

[The closer the feline came towards the light, as she carefully approached, the more obvious the silhouettes became. Another force troop. She briefly remembers the previous wave of them having been unable to defeat her because of their poor weapon choice. A part of her conscious wishes for the officers not having changed it, yet she expects that won't be the case. But despite knowing well they want her dead, her body shows no resistance when she keeps walking towards the closest light sources, presumably lanterns. Partly being unbothered to get on her hind legs, she decides on keeping a low profile as much as she can and approaches an opened gate. The black and green stripes painted on the wallboards gives away it's Elmore's only military base. Since when had it been located in the forest?, Nicole thinks to herself. Although there's no time to be worried about that right now. She currently can only be glad about the fact she has her own five feet five inch silhouette, an advantage to her hiding. The blue cat peeks from the wall's corner next to the entrance and notices how the base seems to be less crowded than she expected. She dares to take a small sidestep into the gate's opening and her silhouette becomes painted with a yellow layer by the bright light. Large containers presumably filled with gasoline surround the middle area, which is completely empty except for two circling guards, and tall temporary buildings in the corners mark where the force spends most of their time. The feline would've wished she was able to identify some other silhouettes at the very back fence, but her aching head causes her to struggle with focusing.

Once the two guards turn their backs away from her direction, she takes her chance to take a look inside and sprints towards the nearest container as fast as she can. Crouching behind the large metal construction, she needs a moment to catch her breath and meanwhile tries to find out what's being planned here. Is this entire operation built simply to kill her? Too many questions evolve inside her head, but she doesn't know if she'll get any of them answered. A puddle of rain that didn't wash away yet catches her attention when she turns her head. Remembering when she first arrived at this forest in the first place, and having had a bad relapse by seeing her reflection in one, tears evolve in her eyes as she forces herself to take a look. To her surprise, her morphed structure hasn't worsened like she expected it would. But she can't feel glad about it either, since her mid-long fangs, tangled fur and distorted bone structure disgust her. She also never understood why she, and the Upper Limit in its physique, had gotten that skinny overtime. She knows her limbs and shoulders received their muscle from the beast's strength and all those feral episodes, but she never knew why the rest of her figure stayed so scrawny. Back during the conflict she had with her condition and her adoptive son Darwin, she found herself in that unhealthy state for the first time. And it never changed ever since. All those creatures she murdered, and ate... Shouldn't they have made her much stronger than she is now? Or wasn't it enough? Or... did they cause what she has become now?

Blood.

She interrupts her thoughts once seeing the blood on her face. No time to whine about an incurable physical sickness she only has to get used to. That blood has to get off. Nicole aggressively shakes her head to draw out any other thoughts that'd potentially well up and uses the water from the puddle to wash her face clean with her paws. The tears that were evolving earlier take shape further until they flow down her face. Like many times before. Crying has become so usual for her that she no longer bothers hiding it. Not like before. Most of her life the surroundings forced a mask onto her which she struggled with wearing. Barely a chance to be herself, just because of the fear of getting hurt. Or hurting others. She used to despise crying because of how weak it made her look, but she no longer cares. She, the past few years, only now realized how much pain she's going through and accepted that it is natural to cry because of it. She'll never forget how most people in her life told her how good she had it and how grateful she had to be, but in a negative way. Others thought she was living a fairy-tale for having been able to build up so much with so little. But barely anyone knew what went on before and behind that. It wasn't anyone's business, yet Nicole had wished more people showed more understanding for what actually could be going on. And once that eventually got revealed to the public, people turned their back on her, painted her as a monster or only wanted to break her further.