The Four Broken Souls Of Atera.

by Sylif Daring Doo

Dark times.

_______*Apartment 192, the city of Atera.*______

"Oh." Syrin muttered quietly.

Ren walked back out of the room and looked at Syrin. "Let's continue this conversation after I go, ok?" She said as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Syrin walked to the couch and sat down in silence as she processed this. 'Five people, one apartment, three rooms, one bathroom and a small living room......what was Seth thinking?" She wondered.

A few minutes later, Ren walked out. "Why are you moving in here?......Seth didn't even ask us how we felt about it." Syrin asked.

Ren nodded and leaned on the wall. "The apartment I was staying in, turns out it was a nest for termites and other bugs, so Jack is having it gutted and then it's going to merge with some other apartments." She explained. "Seth was kind enough to let me stay here again." She added.

Syrin laid her head on the couch in silence.....until a thought came to mind. "Why did you move out anyway?" She asked.

Ren sighed and gained a look of regret. "Let's just say that I messed up, I did something I'm not proud of and it almost cost me my best friend." She replied sadly.

"I didn't mean to open any old wounds-" She was cut off as Ren held a hand up. "It's fine, you were genuinely curious about something, I can't fault you for that." The fox stated.

Syrin began reading her book as she idly asked a question. "So....how long was Seth without a roommate after you left?" She asked out of curiosity.

Ren chuckled, she walked to the chair and sat down, she then turned on the television. "One year." She stated easily.

Syrin blinked and looked at the fox as she turned the channel to the news. "Then I'm surprised she didn't throw us out." She muttered.

"Sethy has trouble with people she doesn't know, if it were up to her, she would have holed herself up in here." Ren stated.

Syrin turned the page. "So why did she let us stay?" She asked.

Ren leaned back in the chair. "I talked to her, told her that living alone in this city would drive her nuts......of course she assumed that I was asking to live here again, but I told her that she could just tell Jack she was looking for roommates." She replied.

After that, it was mostly silence in the apartment, Syrin had eventually fallen asleep on the couch, and Ren ended up sleeping on the chair.

It was about twenty minutes later that the door opened and Seth walked in with Shade and Karak, they noticed the two sleeping and were quiet as they spoke. "I'm going to go make sure Ren didn't break anything, try to be quiet." Seth said.

Shade nodded as he walked to the door to his room, he walked inside and allowed Karak inside before closing the door.

Karak looked around the room and sighed. "Well, first thing I'm going to do when I get paid, is get some decorations, clothes or something, anything to bring this room to life." He stated as he sat down on his bed.

Shade laughed quietly and sat down at the foot of his bed. "I'll help out, I can buy some paint, maybe a dresser or two." He added.

_______*hours later, 5:27 PM*_______

Karak was hard at work as he cooked dinner, it was a simple yet tasty dinner, chicken noodle soup, and once again, he refused to accept help, stating that this was good practice for his new job.

Seth rolled her eyes. "We work the same job Storm, you forget that little detail?" She asked with a sarcastic tone.

"I did not, but unless YOU forgot, only one person is needed to make this, and it's almost done." Karak countered.

Ren smiled as she watched the exchange from the small table. "Don't argue with the chef Sethy." She teased.

"Sethy?" Shade wondered curiously from the couch.

Seth grunted. "Shut up Shade." She said flatly.

Dinner was done in a few minutes, and everyone sat down to eat, as they ate the news could be heard. "A recent battle at the docks lead to the arrest of several of the instigators including known gang member Kila Jal, who has been linked to many assaults and smuggling of illegal contraband." The reporter stated. "In other news, Philip Kail, a member of the Ateran council was found brutally murdered in his home today, the police have been hard pressed to find the killer or even a single suspect." The reporter continued.

Seth stared directly at the television as the news continued. "Chief Hunter had this to say." The screen changed to see the police chief addressing the press, he was a tall light brown lion with brown eyes. "The death of Philip Kail is a tragedy, he was a good man who did what he believes was best for the people, we here at the Apd will stop at nothing to bring this killer to justice." He stated firmly.

Seth turned off the television and sat back in the chair. "Well that's just depressing." She muttered.

After the news, everyone ate in relative silence, Storm did notice that Seth was extremely quiet now, he didn't say anything however.

______*later that day, 8:00 PM*______

Seth sat quietly in the park, she watched in silence as people set up a memorial for Philip, they left flowers and cups of hot tea in his memory.

"Your one person I didn't expect to see here." Came Karak's voice.

Seth looked over and saw Karak standing next to the bench she was on, she sighed and moved over a little so he could sit.

Karak sat down next to Seth and watched as people mourned the council member. "Are you going to go over there?" He asked quietly.

Seth shook her head. "I'll mourn my own way, Philip would understand." She replied.

"Did you know him?" Karak asked.

Seth nodded slowly and took a breath. "Philip was one of the few politicians who truly cared, he was the one in charge of the slums, he did whatever he could to help us out, from finding funding for repairs to giving the homeless something to eat." She paused and looked at Karak. "He got me the job at the general store, we usually ate lunch together when I was on break at work, and we would just talk about things, nothing work related or personal, just about random topics." She leaned back.

"I'm going to miss him." She whispered.

Karak looked at the memorial and the people paying their respects, he also noticed a camera crew nearby. "I see not everyone missed him that much." He muttered.

Seth looked over and saw the camera crew, she sighed. "Leave them be, they aren't worth the trouble and going over will just make things worse." She said as she stood up.

"Anyway, let's get out of here, I don't want to be here when they show up." Seth stated as she walked away.

Karak got up and followed the rabbit. "Who is they?" He wondered.

Seth huffed. "Philip's wife and secretary, they are sure to be coming here, if only for the cameras, and they don't like me one bit." She replied.

The two almost left the park when a tall female Kangaroo and an earth pony mare walked into the park and saw them.

"Don't say anything, let's just walk by and hope they leave us alone." Seth whispered.

Karak nodded and they were about to leave when the Kangaroo stopped them. "How dare you show your face here!" She snapped angrily, grabbing Seth's arm.

Seth sighed and looked at the Kangaroo. "Listen Jean, Philip was a friend and your husband, go mourn him instead of shouting at me." She stated.

"After what you did, you have no right to be here!" Jean almost shouted.

Karak was about to intervene when he heard Seth speak with a tone he had never heard before, it sounded dark and empty, but filled with barely contained anger. "You think I killed him? maybe if you didn't have your head in your ass for the last few years, you would see the truth, now let go of my arm before I break it." She warned, her voice was low but the intent was clear.

The earth pony mare clearly didn't want this to escalate so she spoke. "Ma'am, please, let's just go, Philip wouldn't want us to fight like this." She said in an attempt to reason with Jean.

But the kangaroo was having none of it. "Was that a threat you insensitive witch!? you wouldn't dare, not with the cameras nearby!" She warned smugly, her face gaining a grin.

Karak quickly intervened and grabbed the Kangaroos arm, he then seperated the two. "Miss Kail, go and pay your respects, we were just leaving." He stated as he grabbed Seth's arm and piled her away from the park.

As they exited the park, Karak released Seth's arm and looked at her as they walked in silence, the rabbit still has that dangerous look on her face.

And right now, Karak wasn't sure what to say, he had just witnessed a very dark side of Seth, who went from passive aggressive and mourning, to hostile and bloodthirsty, and with the tone and look of his roommate, he truly believed she would have gone through with it.

The two walked in silence for about ten minutes until Karak finally spoke. "Seth, what was that?" He asked with caution.

Seth sighed and turned her head away. "Jean is one of the few people who can make me act like that, it's the same attitude I had when I beat up the gang in the docks." She whispered.

"Syrin told me about that, and Ren confirmed it." The hybrid said. "I'm guessing extreme anger makes you bloodthirsty?" He asked.

Seth nodded a little and looked at Karak with a questioning expression. "How did you know?" She asked.

Karak stopped walking and looked up at the sky. "I wasn't always like this, the sarcastic and kind hearted friend." He looked at Seth. "Years before I met my fiancé, I was a bloodthristy animal, I may have hunted like a wolf, but I was a demon, plain and simple, believe me when I say I know how hard it is to keep that kind of behavior in check." He sat down on the curb and looked at Seth, who then sat next to him.

"So what is she like?" Seth asked. "Your fiancé?"

Karak smiled and set his hands on the ground next to him. "She's energetic, creative and feisty, never afraid to challenge authority, she's nice too when you get to know her, hates to play music herself, but enjoys listening to it." He looked at Seth. "She's also a horrible cook, doesn't help that I never took the time to teach her." He smirked a little at that.

Seth looked up at the sky. "So where is?......how come you aren't with her now?" She asked.

"We......needed some time apart, she couldn't stand what the pills were doing to me, and it broke her heart every night." He sighed. "She wanted to stay but I refused to put her through that pain every day, so I convinced her to stay at her parents house until I was better, but when i checked in on her a few months ago, she wasn't there, her parents told me that she moved here to Atera, so I convinced Syrin to move here with me." He explained.

Seth nodded in understanding. "Now your trying to find her." She said.

Karak nodded. "No luck so far, but I'll find her, I know she isn't here in the slums, but I'm not sure where to search next." He admitted.

"So Seth, what's the deal with you and Ren?" Karak asked curiously.

Seth blinked and looked at Karak who had a grin. "We're old roommates, and I thought it would be nice to have her around again." She stated.

Karak's grin grew slightly. "Mmhmm, so that's why she is in your room, where you never let us three go, she can sit in your chair, call you Sethy, and you won't complain." He stated.

Seth buried her face in her hands as she blushed. "Shut up demon boy." She replied.

Karak laughed quietly. "Oh I get it, I spill the beans about my fiancé but you won't say anything about your girlfriend, rude." He teased, his face had a large smile on it.

Seth then rested her chin on her knee and looked at the ground. "She's not my girlfriend." She said quietly.

Karak smirked and crossed his arms. "Uh huh, denying it won't help." He replied.

Seth mumbled. "Alright you got me......I'm HER girlfriend, happy now?" She asked.

Karak chuckled and patted Seth on the head. "I'm glad you aren't denying it now." He said, he then looked up at the sky. "So how did you two meet?" He asked.

Seth looked at Karak. "What?" She asked.

"You and Ren, how did you two meet each other?" Karak asked out of curiosity.

Seth sighed. "We met a few years ago, it was only a month after I moved in to Atera, I was in apartment one three one at the time, and well, she moved in next door as a new tenet." She explained.

Karak was silent as Seth told her story. "I was a different person then, shy and reclusive." She started. "I met her one day when I went to throw my garbage out, we hit it off and started hanging out a week or so later, another month later i called her a friend." She sighed.

"When the opportunity to move into one nine two came up, we jumped on it immediately, it turns out it was open for a reason, the floors and walls were damaged and some didn't even have drywall." She chuckled. "We worked hard to fix it up, taking about five days to get at least the living room and the bedrooms set up for us to live comfortably, it took another week or two to fix the rest up so that there wasn't any holes or damage." She put her legs together and rested her head on her knee again.

"We were living together for a month or two before my sister started her spree." She muttered. "Ren suspected me at first when she saw what the Maniac looked like, but she was disproven, after that we had an argument about her not trusting me." She sighed. "We didn't talk for a few days, but we got over it quickly......it was after the end of that week that I realized something." She went silent.

"What's that?" Karak asked.

Seth looked away and wrapped her arms around her knees. "She was hired by my parents.......to find me and tell them where I was." She stated.

Karak blinked. "I.....don't get it, were your parents bad or something?" He wondered.

"They were strict and unforgiving, and they just wanted to drag me back to a life I hated, I confronted Ren about it immediately." She stated. "We argued and fought, I said things I didn't mean and at some point I.........I punched her to the ground." She shivered. "That was the first time I ever attacked someone, and I was horrified by it, I quickly ran out of the apartment and ran to an old storage building to hide, I was there for hours crying and berating myself, Ren eventually found me there." She paused.

Seth blinked and wiped a single tear from her eyes. "I wouldn't let her come closer to me, out of fear mostly, so she sat down and rested her head on the wall, she talked to me, telling me that I wasn't in the wrong, that I was right to be angry at her, that she did betray our friendship for a job, she told me how she sent a letter to my parents, saying that I had left Atera." She took a deep breath.

"I wasn't sure how to respond, so she kept on talking, she told me the truth about myself, everything that I had known but was afraid to admit, she told me how she felt about meeting me, the job, and how horrible she felt when she got to know me." Seth smiled a little. "Then she confessed how she really felt, and I could tell she wasn't lying, she's a horrible liar after all, and after everything she said, I just looked at her and said to her, 'come here', she walked over slowly and sat down next to me." She paused to take a breath.

"I told her that I didn't know what to think right at that moment, and that my mind was spinning from confusion." She looked at the ground again. "And then without a single thought, I kissed her........one reason being that my dad would never approve, but I really wanted my first kiss to be with someone I cared about." A slight blush came to Seth's face. "We went home and just talked.......about everything, our pasts, our interests and about where to go from there." She stopped and took a breath.

"The year passed kind of quickly from there, we experimented with a few things together, started dating around the end of the year, things were......perfect between us." She smiled.

Karak scratched his head. "Then why were you two living in seperate apartments?" He asked.

Seth chuckled. "Jack asked her to take care of a friend of his that was moving into the apartments, she had a bad medical condition that only recently was cured, she has a good heart, so she couldn't refuse." She replied.

"Wait.......what experiments?" Karak asked.

Seth's face flushed as it turned a slight shade of red from her embarrassment. "What experiments? who said anything about experiments? there weren't any! nothing to mention and nothing to hide!" She blabbed.

Karak grinned. "Well judging by the way you are freaking out, i think you two did find something." He teased.

Seth groaned and buried her face. "I'm telling you there wasn't anything!........except a small fetish." She mumbled.

Karak leaned in a little. "Oh? what fetish is that?" He wondered.

Seth at this moment felt like she was going to die from embarrassment. "I forgot you can hear very quiet things....." She muttered, she then looked at Karak with an unsure expression. "If I tell you, will you swear not to laugh or judge?" She asked.

"I swear I won't, I have no room to judge for hiding something." He said, holding his pinkie out.

Seth looked at the finger and sighed, she crossed her pinkie with his and spoke. "I......enjoy being tied up." She admitted quietly.

Karak said nothing as Seth continued. "Say what you will......but i get a weird thrill from it, sometimes I wake up with my hands and feet bound, then Ren will just tease me." She sighed and looked at the ground. "You think it's weird don't you?" She asked.

Karak knew that Seth wanted the truth, and he wasn't going to lie to her now. "To be honest? yes and no, while I can't pretend to understand it comepletely, I do respect and understand that you enjoy it, so I won't judge you on it." He then placed a hand on Seth's right hand. "Thanks for the talk Sethy." He said, with a slightly teasing tone in his voice.

Seth smiled a little bit and wiped her eyes. "Shut up demon boy." She countered.

After a short laugh, the two then walked home in silence, simply enjoying the quiet time of night.

Author's Note:

So there you have it, more backstory and questions answered, but it also raises a few other questions doesnt it?

With the death of the councilmember, the slums are a quieter and less upbeat place, and while the people mourn, gang battles and a murderer still cause havoc in Atera.

Till next time.