Aja rushed towards the sound of her brother's screams. The feeling of crushing dread that had become painfully familiar these days was pounding it's way outwards from her core, setting her nerves on edge. Luug was running at her heels, but he didn't say a word. How many times had she done this now? This running as fast as she could to protect her twin brother from imminent danger?

Life used to be boring, just living in a palace and doing royal stuff a royal was expected to do. But at least they were safe. Now, although life on Earth was pretty okay, she would give anything to go back home and go back to the way it used to be, even if that meant embracing her role as princess. One more bounty hunter attack and she was going to kill someone. Hopefully the bounty hunter, but who knew.

She burst into the house part of the ship and barely had time to evaluate what was happening. Varvatos was most definitely out of his transduction and fighting someone ferociously, and Krel was crumpled on the floor in his true form near the wall, appearing to be wounded. It didn't even take a second to decide who she would focus on first.

"Krel!" She cried, rushing to her brother's side. She activated her serrator shield, holding it up to protect him while she figured out just how badly he was hurt. Luug jumped into a defensive position in front of them, growling. The window was broken, and glass shards were scattered across the floor. That must have been what she'd heard earlier. Varvatos was struggling with the attacker, shouting his usual threats and battle cries.

Krel was unresponsive, his face scrunched up into a grimace, eyes closed. There wasn't any obvious injury, but something was hurting him. Seeing as she couldn't do anything to help him right that moment, Aja decided to try and identify their attacker. At first, she thought he was a troll. His build was strong and bulky, and his skin looked very hard. But upon further observation, she realized that his body was slightly too long, and his head looked more like a dragon. He was wearing a thick belt with various weapons, but he didn't seem interested in using them.

"GIVE ME THE ROYALS!!" He roared. So it was a bounty hunter. He swung at Varvatos with his huge tail, tipped with four sharp spikes, similar to a stegosaurus. The commander dodged, but only just. The dragonlike creature roared his fury, magma-colored light shining through cracks in his stone skin.

Aja risked leaving Krel unguarded, turning her serrator into a sword and attacking. The bounty hunter was charging Varvatos with his massive horns, giving her an opening. She rushed at him and plunged her blade into his back, and was grateful to find that it went in very easily. But the stone creature didn't crumple or cry out in pain. In fact, he only seemed slightly inconvenienced by the wound. To make things worse, the weapon was now firmly stuck, leaving her defenseless as he turned to face her with nothing more than a mildly annoyed frown. With the blade still sticking out of his back, he knocked the princess to the floor with a violent blow from his humongous claw.

Aja would have stayed down. The blow had sent such pain through her body, she felt she couldn't move. But something deep inside her had become fiercely angered by the attack, and she pushed herself slowly up from the ground. She saw the bounty hunter turn back towards Varvatos, resuming the battle. She grabbed the handle of her weapon with all four hands and, with strength that was not her own, gave a mighty tug that pulled the weapon free. The bounty hunter turned to look over his shoulder with surprise, just in time for her to swing the serrator as hard as she could squarely towards his neck.

There was a slicing sound, then a pause.

A flash of what looked like sparks spurted from the wound now becoming clearly visible across the stone, magma-like creature's throat. The next second, his head fell off completely. Aja was frozen, still holding her blade mid-swing. The bounty hunter's body slumped to the floor, leaving Varvatos staring at his charge, dumbstruck. One of his eyes was swollen, and he was bruised in several places. Krel was only just now pushing himself up, gingerly holding his side.

"Aja...?" The commander asked slowly when the princess still didn't move.

Aja felt her weapon growing heavy in her hands. Whatever force had given her such strength was now fading, and the pain from the blow she'd endured came rushing back like fire. She felt weak, and the serrator dropped from her grasp. With a soft moan, she sank to the floor.

~~~~

Aja awoke from a strange dream in which she'd been running through the woods, apparently on all-fours. She was momentarily confused, but the memory of the bounty hunter came rushing to the front of her mind, and she decided her weird dream would have been better than waking up here in her bed with every inch of her body aching like she'd been slammed violently to the floor.

Which, was exactly what had happened, she reminded herself.

"You were asleep for a long time. I was kinda getting worried." Luug's voice still felt strange to her. She sat up on her elbows and found him sitting on her legs, head tilted with curiosity.

"I'm still not used to hearing your voice." She said softly, wincing as her new position was quite painful. "Is Krel alright?"

"I think the Mother said he'd be fine. He's in his room sleeping. Varvatos has been pacing and pacing and pacing, I think that rock-dragon-lava-guy was apparently some indestructible creature and he's completely at a loss at how you killed him. That's what I gathered from his frustrated yelling." The dog replied, absently scratching an itch with his back leg. Aja gently pet his head, then laid back down.

"Oh no... What about school? What time is it?" She realized.

"You slept for most of the day. But the lady Blank robot called the Uhl man and said you and Krel were sick, so I think we're cool." Luug told her simply. Aja quietly laughed in spite of herself.

"I am literally having a conversation with my dog." She said.

"It's pretty great, though. Right? Right? I'm right. I know I'm right."

"Maybe."

"When are you going to tell everyone you can understand to me? I'm sure they'd love to know." Luug mentioned almost absently, rolling over onto his back.

"I'm not sure I want them to know. They might be scared of it. They'd work harder to stop my transformation." Aja admitted quietly, staring at the ceiling.

"...but isn't that what you want? To not be a werewolf?" Luug asked. Aja didn't say anything at first. She thought back to that horrifying moment, the red-eyed wolf, the pain of the bite.

"That's just it. When the bounty hunter hit me, it hurt so much...I felt like I was definitely down...but something... something took over. Something stronger than me. It was angry, feral..." She stopped, lifting her four hands to stare at them. "It was new. Powerful. It had to have been some werewolf strength. Without it, who knows what would have happened." She sat up again, ignoring the pain.

"I liked it. I don't know if I want them to stop it. It's like you said; I could protect everyone I care about so much easier. I wouldn't have to lose anyone ever again."

"And you can understand me! Double win!" Luug barked happily, wagging his tail.

"And I can understand you." Aja chuckled, rubbing his exposed belly affectionately. That's what I'll do. I can hide all the symptoms until it's for sure permanent. If I don't get them worried, maybe they won't panic into finding a way to reverse it.

Or just tell them I don't want to go back. But would they let me stay a werewolf?