The Cost of Life pt. 1:

LOYALTY

By Victor Dachs

Jake rolled over in the bed to find that his wife's side was empty. She always did wake up earlier than him. He never understood how she could be active that early in the morning. He never did enjoy the mornings, and was especially rueful to wake up this day, as it would be the end of his leave, and his time with his family. Yawning, he kicked his feet over to the side and pushed himself out of the bed. Every part of him wanted to go back to the warm blankets and sleep more, but he wanted to get the most out of his last day home. Scuffing his footpaws on the floor, he slowly made his way to the kitchen, from which the inviting smells of breakfast that he didn't notice before emanated. When he finally reached the doorway to the kitchen, he saw his tigress in front of the stove.

"Morning Callie," He had to stifle a yawn to say anything, making the bed seem that much more enticing.

"Hey there, honey. Get good sleep?" She smiled up at him with the smile that he fell in love with. He had always said that she could probably get anything with that smile, but of course, she either never believed him, or was too modest to admit it.

"Eh, about as good as possible. Is Sasha up yet?"

"No, I haven't woken her yet. You know how she gets when she wakes up and breakfast isn't instantly on the table," She chuckled, turning her attentions back to the sizzling bacon on the stove. "Actually I'm about done here, so you can go wake her if you want."

"Alright, babe," He walked slowly up to Callie, putting an arm around her waist, and pulled her into a deep kiss. "Smells really good by the way."

Callie chuckled, "Me or the food?"

"Hmm. Both." Jake smiled at her, then started the slow shuffling down the hallway to their daughter's room, yawning almost the whole way there. He paused at her door, admiring the crayon coloring taped to it. She had drawn it the night before. It showed her rendition of them: three stick figures holding hands, with the stripes on each of them almost so dominant that they didn't even look like tigers much, even badly drawn ones. He had to smile. Despite the lack of artistic talent that it seemed to blare, to him it was one of the most beautiful works of art. Just by looking at it, he could see the innocence in the hand that drew it. Every passing day he thought about that. About the war, and about his daughter. She knew that he was a fighter pilot, but she didn't have a care in the world about the civil war that tore the federation in two, and promised to end many lives. She didn't even know the real meaning of war. She was uncorrupted by the world. It made him wish he could keep her that way. It seemed these days that joy was nigh unattainable. Yet he saw it every day in his daughter. Even when he would leave, she would still carry it, because she knew he was coming home, even if he didn't know himself. He shook his head slightly to interrupt his train of thought. He always did that when he was about to leave, would take everything and think about it. About how much would change, how much would stay the same. He always tried to take everything out of life, it made the prospect of dying a little less cumbersome. He slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open to look upon the face of his daughter, peacefully sleeping. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and with his paw, stroked her hair lightly. Feeling the touch, Sasha rolled over and blinked her eyes. She looked into his eyes and stretched out, yawning.

"Do you have to leave today, daddy?" She asked with that perfectly innocent and beautiful voice she had.

"Yes, sweetheart. They need me back on my base." He said softly, smiling. "Come on, mommy's got breakfast made."

* * * *

Jeremy poured the black coffee into the travel mug he had brought out. Mornings were always such a chore for him. Taking the mug, he went over to the table where his mate sat, reading the newspaper. Kissing the panther lightly on top of the head, he took the chair next to him, sipping lightly at the hot liquid in the mug.

"Morning hon." Jeremy greeted. Chris folded the newspaper he was reading, and set it on the table. He reached his arm around the tiger's shoulders and pulled him over onto his bare chest, kissing him on the forehead.

"Mornin. You going to see your brother?" The panther rumbled, holding his mate close.

"Yeah. Today's his last day on leave. Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"I can't, hon. Too much work." Chris complained.

"Bullshit. It's Sunday," Jeremy put his hand on the big panther's chest, and pushed himself up to look him in the eyes. "We've been together five years now. You've never gone to meet them despite all their invitations. Jake doesn't get leave much these days, and you're blowing the chance to finally meet my family."

Chris let out a deep sigh, and lowered his head in what seemed to be shame. "It's... Well... I know who they are, and I know they're not my biggest fans. That brother of yours, especially. I know how much you care about your family, and I don't want to be the thorn in that side."

"That's because they only know you as General Brightman, the unforgiving, hard, demanding commander of troops; not as Chris, the loving, caring, gentle love of my life." Jeremy laid his head back down on the panther's chest, nuzzling slightly.

"If you don't remember, I was there at the Medal of Honor ceremony for your brother. I shook his hand and he did nothing but stare at me coldly. There was no 'brother-in-law' sentiment behind those eyes."

"Yeah, because the whole reason he got that medal was because of the mission you planned that ended up killing half his team." Chris abruptly turned away, but Jeremy put his hand on the panther's shoulder, "Of course he was mad at you. But, Chris, that was three years ago. It's in the past. Sure, he may have disagreed with other things you've done too, but he's disagreed with me many a time over decisions I've had to make as Lieutenant General. I'm pretty sure that I'm not his favorite either, and I'm his older brother." He gave his mate a slight squeeze on the shoulder as the panther turned to face him once more.

"It may be in the past for him, but for me... It was the biggest mistake I had ever made in my years of service. I sent over two thousand troops to their deaths in one fell swoop. And for what? Nothing. A lousy piece of shit intel that gave me a hunch. I can hardly hear his name without thinking about what I did to him."

"It still haunts you," Jeremy could see the pain behind his mate's eyes. " Sometimes it's a wonder how you give off such a commanding presence at work, when here... You know you can talk to me. I know how stoic you can get sometimes, but it's better to let it out. I care for you. I love you." Jeremy pulled the panther close to him and gave him a deep kiss. The panther returned the kiss emphatically, putting both arms around him and pulling them closer together, pressing his mouth harder. Sometimes Jeremy forgot how much Chris needed him. He had always been an image of strength to the troops, but ever since he got promoted to Commander of Troops, his emotions became a wreck. To everyone else he was seen as an asshole, putting it lightly. Jeremy knew better.

"I love you too, Jeremy," Chris said once their kiss broke. "More than anything. I want to make you happy, but I don't want to get between you and your brother." Jeremy nodded reluctantly and went back to his coffee, keeping an eye on his mate, who seemed to be having a bit of trouble revisiting that memory. He may not have been there, but he made the decision.

Sometimes, Jeremy thought, that can be worse.

* * * *

Jeremy opened the door to his brother's house, peeking his head in. "Knock knock!" He said, pushing the door open the rest of the way.

"Uncle Jeremy!" An excited voice said, followed by the soft footsteps of his niece, running toward him. Jeremy picked her up in his arms, and gave her a hug.

"Hey Sasha. How's my favorite niece?"

"I'm fiiine," She said, blushing under her fur and smiling at him. He noticed one of her teeth was missing.

"Oh, did you lose your first baby tooth?" He asked her with an excited tone in his voice.

"Yep! I'm not a baby anymore!"

Jeremy chuckled, "You have to lose them all before you're not a baby," He teased, "but I guess you're on your way. I'm going to have to find another name to call you instead of baby girl, huh?" Sasha giggled in his arms. "Did you get a visit by the tooth fairy?"

"Of course she did." Jeremy looked up to see his sister-in-law standing in the doorway ahead of them, smiling at the conversation he was having.

"Hey Callie," Jeremy put Sasha down and walked over to Callie, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "How have you been?"

"Can't complain. Sasha's always glad to see you. You should come visit more often."

"Hah, I would if I could. Being second in command of the military and being married to the first in command is a lot of work, you know."

Callie chuckled at the remark. "I'm sure you could find the time. She always misses her father when he's gone, and it'd be nice to have you as a male figure for her at those times."

"Yeah, I don't know how great of a role model I'd be, especially trying to fill Jakes shoes. Speaking of Jake, is he around?"

"Oh I'm sure you'd be a good second-place. He's in the shower, should be out soon." She smiled at him. "Chris still being Chris?"

Jeremy sighed, "Yeah. He still thinks he'd be persecuted to no end by you two. Sometimes I think the guy's slowly shutting himself in to keep his leadership image, as much as I love him. He'll only go out with the people that approve of him, which seem to only be the ones directly under him. Well, and me of course." He snickered.

"One of these days you should drag him over here without his knowing. Sasha's been asking about her other uncle recently, and sadly I don't have anything to really say about the man. He's so distant to us."

"Well he's not very used to family. If you remember, he lost most all of his during the uprising, and the rest are with the rebels. I don't know if he even knows how to be in a family anymore."

"He can't be that out of touch with it. I don't think you're the one that'd stay with someone that's distant to you."

Jeremy nodded, "He's not distant with me at all, but it's almost like he doesn't want anyone else to be in his life right now. He's really hard to read sometimes, and I really don't know what all of this is about on his side. Maybe one day I can figure it out."

"Hey Jeremy," He heard his brother say from the other hallway, he scuffled in wearing a loose shirt and shorts, his fur still damp from the shower, holding a towel.

"Hey bro," Jeremy said, giving his brother a hug. "So excited to see me you couldn't dry off first?" He chuckled.

"Hah. No, just wanted to make you smell like wet fur, is all."

"Well thanks." They both laughed.

"So did General Brightman have something more important to do on a Sunday than visit his brother-in-law."

"Christ, you two are both so touchy about that, aren't you?" Jake only shrugged and laughed in reply. "Anyway, mind if I chat with you a bit, Jake?"

"Sure," Jake replied, "excuse us hon, but apparently what Jeremy has to say is too top secret for military intelligence."

Callie laughed, "Oh Jake, you know if it's anything big, I'll hear about it on duty tomorrow. Go have your little chat, I'll make up some coffee. Want some Jeremy?"

"Ah, no thanks. I brought my own." Jeremy smiled back at Callie, then followed Jake to the bedroom, where they could talk. "Jake, I just wanted to talk to you some. It seems you're going to be getting in a lot thicker than you're used to."

Jake's face grew more serious, "How thick?"

"Well it's not much of a secret anymore that the rebels are up to something new. What people don't know is that they're changing their tactics. They've taken the Silas moon system already."

"Wait. How did they manage that? And why hasn't everyone heard about it?"

"No one heard about it because the federation doesn't want people to hear about it. And they did it with a more organized force than they've ever launched at us. Black ops intel suggests that they've been training a new force for years. Not only that, there are rumors of these fighters being manipulated genetically. This is why we don't want people to know. Not even Headquarters intelligence."

"If this is so secret, why the hell are you telling me?"

"Because soon it will be released. Maybe not to the public, but reports are probably going to start trickling down the ranks soon. Also... Well, Chris is thinking about sending your unit, so I thought you should know."

Jake looked at the floor, "Thinking? Or practically already sent."

Jeremy knew better than to sugar coat with his brother. The two had been close most of their lives. He let out a small sigh, and sadness started to sneak out in his voice. "Practically sent."

"I knew it. He never stops with us. I don't see how you can be with someone like that."

"Hey, Your unit is the best group of fighter pilots we have, yourself included. I can't blame Chris for choosing you for that reason. And you don't know him like I do. The main reason he doesn't ever want to come with me here is because he doesn't think he can face you for what he'd done to you on Kaldraga. He's a caring man, Jake. You just can't see it while he's playing General."

"Well excuse me if I don't jump for joy about his caring." Jake replied, almost snarling.

"Jake, please don't talk about Chris like that. I'm not asking you to love him, but please, I do love him, and he loves me. I don't want your distrust of him clouding our relationship as family."

Jake sighed, "I'm sorry, I just can't see him in that light like you can. Maybe if he'd visit, I could know what he's like normally, but I guess he's too much of a chicken shit to face his past."

"Jake." Jeremy replied loudly, "I asked you to please stop saying shit like that about him. I'm not going to sit here and have my husband ridiculed in front of me by my own brother. Now," he tried to calm his voice down, "if that's all you have to say about the matter, we can go in and join Callie. I just wanted to warn you of what was coming to you. You're not going to have much time to prepare once the decision is finalized."

"Yeah, I guess I'm done. And thanks, Jer."

Jeremy stood up and hugged Jake tight, "I love you Jake. I don't want to lose any more family over this war, so be careful."

Jake returned the hug, "I love you too bro. I'll be as careful as I can. You visit Callie more while I'm gone. It's hard on her when she knows I'm going into something more dangerous. And if she does find out about this, she might have a heart attack without someone here."

"I will, Jake. I promise."

* * * *

Chris turned from his computer at the sound of the apartment door opening. Jeremy walked through the door and set his keys on the nightstand. He walked over to the living room couch and seemed to almost fall into it, never saying a word to his mate.

"Jake leave already?"

"Yeah." Chris could tell that Jeremy was distraught over something, and he thought he knew what it was.

"You told him, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"And Callie?"

"No, she'll find out later. She probably wouldn't let him leave if she knew now."

Chris moved over to the couch and sat next to his mate, pulling him down to his chest in a soft embrace. He nuzzled his mate to try to comfort him, "What did he say about it?"

Jeremy paused a few moments, and Chris could already tell where it was going, "Well he insulted you for a good spell, then once I finally got him to stop he really didn't have anything else to say about it."

"I figured. I told you that he's still holding on to his distaste of me."

"It's not even that, Chris. They just don't know you like I do, and they want to. They keep dwelling on the fact that you've never come to meet them, that's their main problem with you."

Chris felt a sharp pain of guilt when he heard Jeremy say that. He had always avoided them due to his mistakes in the past, and now he was making it even worse, "I'm sorry, hon. It's like there's nothing I can do. If I don't go over there, they resent me for being cold to them, and if I do, they'll resent me for being the asshole I am."

Jeremy slammed the side of his fist into Chris' chest, who grunted with the shock and pain. He might have been stronger than the tiger in his arms, but that tiger could still pack a mean punch. "You're not an asshole. You've never been an asshole to me."

"Yeah, but I've been an asshole to your brother, at least that's how he sees it. I don't have the capacity to be an asshole to you, I love you too much, but send your best unit on too many dangerous missions and you're an asshole. Maybe I should just retire, there's too much 'please the people' politics nowadays. Even in the damn military."

"I don't think you made the wrong choice this time. They are the best unit we have, and this is going to be a hard mission, we need the best. As far as retiring, forget it. You're one of the best leaders in the military, at least one of the highest rated. Plus, you've been in so long, I doubt you could make it as a civilian," Jeremy leaned up for a deep kiss, "Keep doing what you're good at. You can't please everyone, but you could help us win this damn war."

"I'm not sure if I know how."

"You'll figure it out, I'm sure."

"You're way too optimistic for me sometimes, you know that?" Chris hugged his mate closer, rubbing his back slowly.

"Well one of us has to be. You're too pessimistic for me sometimes, too. We balance each other out," Jeremy smiled up at his mate, then rested his head back on the big panther's chest.

* * * *

"Welcome back, sir," Lieutenant Gardener said to Jake, popping a salute. Jake returned the salute to the vixen before taking the documents that she was holding.

"Thank you Tracy," Jake read over the orders that were passed to his unit, they were exactly what he expected to find. "We've got some work to do. Get all the pilots and copilots in the briefing room."

"Roger that sir." She smiled. Jake watched as the wolf sped away to muster everyone for the brief. It was going to be a long day, he could feel it. He had only been back on duty for three hours, and already had been visited by just about everyone in his immediate command. It sucked being well known around here sometimes, everyone wanted to put in their own salutations. He walked over to the briefing room, where he knew everyone would already be. He led some of the best pilots to ever fly, and they knew it, always ready for a mission. Entering the doorway, he was greeted with numerous 'Good morning, sir's, and 'Welcome back's. He took his spot behind the lone podium.

"Good morning, everyone. As you can tell I'm back, and it seems I'm right on time. We have a new mission. The information I'm passing to you is top secret, so you all know what that means. Earlier this month, the Silas moon system was taken by the rebels," Jake saw all the eyes in the room widen in shock, "The moons have become somewhat of a forward operating base for the rebels. According to the intel I had received, they're boasting a much more lethal force than we've seen before. They have two Battlecarrier class ships, which each carry sixty fighters. These are the older X-88 fighter models, with no stealth, so the command believes we can take them easier with our XM-25 fighters. There is one large difference. Black ops intel is telling us that the pilots are genetically enhanced," Jake paused as excited murmurs crawled around the room. Genetic enhancement had been illegal for use on sentient beings for about a century in the Federation, but it seemed the rebels decided to create a new war machine with them. "The efficiency of these pilots have yet to be seen, but their responses will most likely be instant, like we're fighting extremely intelligent machines. This is why we were chosen. We are the best pilots in the Federation, we should be able to match the skill of these genetically altered ones. The intel we have right now is very fuzzy on what they have as far as a base on the moons, but our task is to raze everything. We'll be taking with us one AE-22 bomber to help us with that task. Fifty fighters and one bomber in our hands should be adequate for this task. Moonside defenses will probably be fairly sparce and weak. The Battlecarriers are equipped with SS-550s, which won't do much damage to our shields. It should be an easy run for us. We move at 1300 sharp. Hyperdrive will be activated at 1315. You know the drill."

Once Jake had finished, everyone scrambled out of their seats to change into their flight suits and go to their fighters. Jake lingered on, knowing that his would already be prepped for him. Gardener, his copilot, always prepped it before he could get there. He knew she was interested in him, but she never really advanced upon him. He guessed that since he was married, she would content herself with doing everything she could for him. She quickly became one of his best friends in the unit, but of course, that always happened with pilots and copilots.

After a moment, he decided to head over to Gardener and his fighter. It was prepped and ready for flight just as he expected. Gardener was climbing down the ladder from the cockpit when she saw him and smiled.

"Everything's ready for you, sir."

"It always is," Jake chuckled. "What do you think about the mission?"

"Well it seems simple enough, though those genetically enhanced pilots... We'll have to see if they work as well as they're hyped up to. It seems your brother-in-law's got a hard-on for you, what with all the crazy missions he always puts us on." She laughed, having been one of the pilots that survived the fiasco at Kaldraga, and being intimately familiar with the type of operations they always seemed to be sent on.

"No," he laughed in response, "his hard-on's for my brother, you should know that. He just wants to get me out of the way."

Tracy laughed even harder at that, "Aw, you know as well as I do that nothing in this war can take you down," She said jokingly. "Of course, that could be why they made the genetically enhanced pilots. Just for you."

He smiled and just shook his head, "You've got a twisted sense of humor, you know that?"

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Anyway, you gonna get in or am I gonna have to fly this baby myself?"

"I'll fly," he chuckled, "If you fly, you won't have my invincibility protecting you."

She laughed back and stood aside as he climbed the ladder up to the cockpit and strapped in.

* * * *

Jeremy sighed as he read the intel documents on his brother's mission. He knew that a few minutes ago they had passed it to the other intel sections throughout headquarters, and knew that very shortly, Callie would be coming in his office about it. It happened almost every time Jake was sent on a dangerous mission - not that he could blame her, he would probably do the same thing if it was Chris going out there. True to word, he heard a soft knock on his open door and saw Callie standing there, worry seemingly plastered on her face.

"Come on in, Callie; close the door if you want." She did so, walking to the seat in front of his desk and sitting in it after she closed the open door to his office.

"So what's the catch?" She asked simply.

"What do you mean?" He replied, somewhat bewildered by her question.

"I mean, it seems too simple."

"Ah. Well, it is fairly simple, really. The only big factor is the genetic manipulations, and the unknown efficiency of the pilots in question. That's why we had to send his unit; they're the best at what they do."

"I know they are, but the thing that's worrying me is that they were able to take over the Silas system by themselves. That system was heavily guarded."

"Heavily guarded, yes. Efficiently guarded, no. The automated turrets at that outpost were quite dated and slow. We never thought of upgrading them since that route had long since been regarded as the worst possible entrance for the rebels. I'm sure that just Jake's pilots could get through those without much damage done to their fighters, much less a genetically enhanced force. How they managed to fly around to get in that position I'll never know, but now that they have it, they have a strong foothold on attacking us."

"I know... It just seems a bit much for a unit of that size to be able to pull it off. Taking over an outpost isn't the simplest job ever."

"True, but you have to think about the force we're fighting. The rebels themselves are idealists, not only ready to die for their independence, but taking huge risks to try to root us out of power. Add that to the fact that these pilots were genetically altered, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they would have been bred to conquer fear and hopelessness, making them able to perform missions other men would think of as suicide, and not care at all if one or more of them falls in the process."

"I see... Still wish it wasn't Jake doing it. Let me guess, it was Chris' idea to put him down there."

"Callie, you know Chris had to send them. I actually agree with the assignment, as much as I, too, wish that they could have gotten someone other than Jake to go. He's one of the finest fighter pilots we have here, and one of the few to receive the Medal of Honor in this war. He's accomplished much, and because of that, we expect him to excel in not only the smaller missions, but the big ones too. That's how it always works."

"I know, I guess I'm just worried about him on all these dangerous missions. Your mate's going to give my husband gray fur before he does himself, even with the seven year age difference."

As serious as she was, he had to chuckle a little bit, "You'd be surprised, Chris already has some gray fur as it is. Look, it's not easy on me or Chris, but your husband has handled himself extremely well at everything he's done. I don't suspect he'll do any worse with this."

Callie nodded, clearly without anything to say to that. She loved his brother much, he could tell easily. She was always worried about him, even though she knew he could handle himself. "Thank you, Jeremy." She said as she stood up.

"Not a problem, Callie. Oh, by the way, would it be okay if I stopped by a few times and visit while he's gone? He told me that you and Sasha would get lonely out there."

She smiled, weak though it was, the worry still showing on her face. "Yeah, that would be nice."

* * * *

"All units, activate stealth." Jake commanded over the radios shortly after their hyperdrives slowed down. They flew low to the surface of the small moon that the rebel outpost had been established. "Target approaching horizon, ETA one minute. Fate, take point." He called. Fate was the codename for the AE-22 bomber they had with them. Jake saw the bomber quickly fly to the front of the V-shaped formation. The enemy outpost started to show on the horizon, luckily much smaller than he expected. As far as moonside buildings and defenses, he saw almost none. A few expedient domes were the only things that actually stood on the surface. This would make the job much easier.

"Fate, on my signal, break off and bomb the left carrier. All others, direct attention to the right. Radio silence in effect now." If the bomber placed it's attacks right, which he knew it would, one carrier would cease to be a threat, leaving the rest of the fighters with only the task of the right carrier, odds that were much more in their favor. He looked at the small picture he always kept on his control panel, a picture of Callie and Sasha. Ritualistically, he kissed two fingers and pressed them to the photo. He kept a trained eye on the target ahead, slowly getting in range.

"Mark."

The bomber flew sharply and quickly to the left, reaching the carrier and releasing a payload of twenty jet-propelled bombs. They hit directly on target, the launching bay. Aside from a few turret defenses, all threat from that carrier was blocked. The fighters opened fire on the right carrier, breaking their stealth. The laser turrets of the fighters were doing much less damage than the bombs, but they were still doing an adequate amount of damage. From below he could see rebel ships starting to take off.

"Damn that's a quick response!" he heard Lt. Corban, another pilot, say over the radio.

"Remember, these guys are genetically enhanced, their reaction time is probably going to be quicker than we expect.

Once the enemy fighters took off, the battlefield was ablaze with red lasers. So far none of his fighters had taken damage, but three of the rebels' twenty remaining fighters from the attacks on the carriers had already fallen.

"Wraith down! Wraith down!" He heard over the radio, turning quickly to the explosion to his right, looking for the escape pods. He saw both of them eject and start the small equipped hyperdrive toward base. Jake sighed a breath of relief knowing that both of the pilots in the Wraith were safe.

A few minutes later, it seemed they were going to make quick work of the remaining three fighters. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a green laser emit from the carrier and slice quickly across the battlefield, cutting it in half, hitting three Federation fighters and one rebel fighter at the same time.

"What the hell was that?" He yelled over the comms.

"Fuck if I know, but we just lost Hellfire, Zeus, and Madcat!" he heard Corban yell back.

"They've got a few tricks up their sleeves yet!" another pilot yelled, though Jake couldn't tell who it was. He was looking out for another one of those green lasers.

Just as the last fighter went down, he got what he wanted. And more. Four of the green lasers appeared streaking the sky in a seemingly erratic pattern. Thinking quickly, Jake saw that they would never last long enough to destroy the remaining carrier, this was something entirely new to them, and it scared the hell out of him.

"Abort! Abort! Activate Hyperdrive immediately!" He said to the other fighters, "Gardener, get us the fuck out of here!"

"I'm on it!" She said, quickly punching in the hyperdrive code, while Jake saw four more Federation ships downed.

"Hurry the fuck-SHIT!" The fighter jerked upwards as it was cleaved in half by the laser. Both copilot and pilot quickly pulled the ejection levers, shooting the two pods away from the ensuing explosion. Turning back, he was just in time to see Gardener's pod get sliced by the laser as he heard the small hyperdrive engine begin to rev up.

Then the hyperdrive stopped, and as he saw the last fighter jump into hyperspace, he felt his pod moving in reverse.

* * * *

"General Brightman." Chris said, answering the phone in his office.

"Sir, this is Captain Freedman," The female voice on the other end, "We have a videoconference call in reference to the Silas Moons mission set up in the conference room."

"Alright, I'll be down."

He walked briskly down the hallway to his mate's office, peeking in.

"Jeremy, videoconference on your brother's mission."

Jeremy looked up, and quickly stopped everything, almost running to Chris, and walking even faster than him further down the hallway to the conference room. When they arrived, the room was empty save for the large screen in front showing an old wolf with the rank of Major.

"Major Lanos, we hear you have some news on the Silas Moons mission."

"Yes sir. The team got back approximately thirty minutes ago. In their debrief, they informed us that the mission was unsuccessful."

"Why was the mission aborted?" Chris said firmly, not hiding his irritation at the matter.

"It seems that the rebels have invented a new weapon." Chris' eyes widened. The rebels hadn't made a significant technological advance in weaponry in years, since their science divisions and resources were very limited. "This weapon is a very powerful laser turret that instead of firing short bursts, it fires a constant stream, able to change directions quickly and effectively 'cut' anything in its path. Four of these turrets were mounted on one of the rebels' battlecariers. Fortunately, the other carrier, and all rebel fighters were destroyed during the mission."

Chris mulled it all over in his head. Clearly this weapon was extremely effective, to cause Jake to call an abort, something he never did unless failure was unavoidable.

"What were our losses?" Jeremy asked while Chris thought silently.

"Sir, we lost ten XM-25 fighters, five deaths among those, and one capture. The rest made it back to base, be it by fighter or escape pod." The wolf responded calmly, obviously having memorized the numbers before making the conference.

"What were the names of the pilots that were KIA or captured?" Jeremy continued.

That question made the wolf look down at a sheet of paper. "KIAs are Lieutenants Brian Tensik, Jeffrey Beaurigard, Kyle Tallard, Sheila Hammond, and Tracy Gardener. The captured pilot was Captain Jake Kearny." The wolf looked up and instantly made the connection between Jeremy's startled face and the last name. "I- I'm sorry sir."

He couldn't believe it. His brother was captured. He tried to stay standing until the meeting was finished. It took all his strength.

Chris quickly saw what the news did to his mate, and hurriedly tried to end the meeting. "Ah, thank you, Major Lanos, that will be all."

"Very well sir." The wolf replied, quickly ending the call.

"Jeremy-" Chris said, looking over at the tiger, visibly shaking while his face was still in shock, silent tears welling up in his wide eyes. Chris rushed over to him, barely catching his mate as his knees gave out, his body collapsing into the panther's arms.

* * * *

About an hour after receiving the news about Jeremy's brother, Chris was able to get the tiger calmed down enough and get him home, but there was one other person who would have to hear the news. He never really met Jake's wife, not usually dealing with the other sections in headquarters directly. Jeremy was usually the one to do that, but since he was home, it fell on Chris to break the news. Picking up the phone, he dialed the number to the front desk of his office.

"Captain Freedman, this is General Brightman. I'd like you to send Captain Kearny from intel over to my office. Thank you."

Chris spent the few minutes it would take her to come mulling over what he was going to tell her. It would be a hard task, he was never used to breaking bad news to people. Of course, he wouldn't like to meet anyone who was used to it, if anyone did. The movement outside his door caught his eye as the female tiger walked in quickly to the front of his desk at the position of attention.

"Good evening sir. Captain Kearny reporting as ordered." She recited the typical procedure perfectly, and he could tell that she was somewhat confused as to why she was sent here instead of Jeremy's office.

"Sit down, relax." He said, trying to keep his tone calm. "Captain, I've never really met you before, and I would be lying if I wasn't regretful of that. I know that my husband really cares for you and your husband." She nodded at him slowly, still obviously very confused at this meeting. He knew he had to try to sound caring at this point, but aside from with Jeremy, he had never really had much practice with it, honestly. "We recently received the reports from the Silas Moons mission." At the mention of that, the look on her face completely changed. She was afraid of what he was about to say, and although her husband was not dead, it was still quite horrible news. "The mission was unsuccessful. Most of the team was able to return safely, although there were five fatalities, and..." It was almost hard to say it to her, the fear of the coming words was almost palpable in the room, "Your husband, Jake, was captured." He let out a sigh after finally saying it, her eyes already starting to tear up, but he saw that she was doing her damndest to keep her composure. "I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, truly I am. Meetings are being arranged in the coming days to find out what exactly to be done with this situation. If you need to, you may take the rest of the day off today. Also, if you feel the need, I won't require you to come in tomorrow either. I know that this will be hard on you, probably harder than it was on my husband. That's really all I needed you for, I wanted you to know. I'm sorry."

Callie nodded slowly, her chin wavering, trying to hold the tears in as best she could, as she got up without a word and headed to the door. It was painful for him to see how much this affected her, and how it affected Jeremy. They probably knew as well as him that a rescue attempt was not like to happen, but he couldn't let them know that. He knew the pain for them would be that much greater to know that Jake's capture meant the same death as the other pilots that died during the mission, only achieved much slower and probably much more painful. After the tigress left, he reorganized his desk and told Captain Furlong that he was taking off for the day. Jeremy would need him, he was sure.

He couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning.

After he got back to his apartment, Chris noticed Jeremy sitting on the couch, head in hands. He walked up behind him, putting his hands on the smaller tiger's shoulders, giving them a small squeeze. He lightly kissed the top of his head and walked to the bedroom to change out of his uniform into a pair of pajama pants. Walking back out, he noticed that Jeremy was sitting in his boxers, too distraught to even change into any kind of sleepwear. He sat next to his mate and put an arm around him. Almost instantly, Jeremy leaned into the panther's chest and cried.

"Shh. Shh. I'm here, Jeremy. I'm here." He said comfortingly, holding his mate close.

"He's gone, Chris. I- he's gone." Jeremy's voice was muffled against Chris' fur, "Oh God!" he yelled into his chest, gripping the panther's fur in his fists.

"He's not gone, love. Not yet." Chris pulled his mate in tighter, wanting to cry himself seeing his mate like this, but also wanting to be strong for him, as hard as it was.

Jeremy looked up into Chris' eyes, his own eyes bloodshot and the fur around them matted with tears. He must have been crying the whole time he had been here. "You honestly can't believe they'll send in rescue. You know what they'll say." He said, sniffling.

"I'm going to try my damndest to get him out of there, I promise." Chris replied, nuzzling into the tiger. He knew that the chances would be slim to get approval from the Federation Council, the deciding members for all of the big decisions in the Federation, and he knew he had to get approval for covert infiltration and rescue missions such as this would be. He just had to try for Jeremy, he couldn't let his own mate down.

"Please, Chris, please bring my brother back. I- I can't lose any more family." Chris remembered what Jeremy told him about his family before they got married. His parents and sister were killed in the violence that marked the beginning of the civil war, very much like how Chris' family died, and ten years later it continued. Jake, Callie, Sasha, and Chris were literally the only family Jeremy had left, where as far as Chris was concerned, Jeremy was his only family. It was something in common that brought them a little closer together; having little to no family made the bond between them that much stronger.

"I'll try, Jeremy, I'll try." He rubbed Jeremy's back for a minute, silently trying to calm him down more. "Now, let's go take a shower and get to bed early. You need to get some rest tonight, and I have a long few days ahead of me, okay?"

Jeremy nodded weakly, slowly easing himself up from his partner.

"I love you Jeremy, I'm not going to stop pushing the subject until this gets resolved." Chris pulled him in for a kiss.

"I love you too. And thanks." Jeremy said weakly, his voice still cracking from crying so much, as they both got up from the couch to head toward the bedroom.

* * * *

"Wake the fuck up," Jake heard one of the rebels yell, followed quickly by a kick to his stomach. Jake doubled over, groaning. Once they captured his escape pod the other day, they proceeded to beat him until he passed out from the pain. The pain was still sharp, his mind growing more conscious of his injuries.

"It's time to meet the interrogator," the rebel laughed. Jake looked up to see a young fox, he didn't think he could have been older than twenty years old. He was smiling a sadistic grin, obviously knowing what Jake was in for. The rebels were known to torture Federation members for no reason, or to turn them to the rebels' cause.

"Well let's go meet him then," Jake sneered, trying to push himself onto his feet. The fox grabbed him by the arm and yanked him on his feet. Jake was dragged through what seemed to be a maze of hallways until they stopped at a solid steel door. The fox typed the code on the keypad, effectively blocking Jake from seeing what it was. The door slid open revealing a single chair in the middle of a large room. Tables lined the walls, covered with hundreds of miscellaneous tools- pliers, hammers, knives, and tons of other tools Jake had never seen before. The fox dragged him toward the chair, throwing him into it. Jake was in too much pain already to squirm out, and the fox managed to strap his arms and feet.

"Just wait here," the fox sneered at him and left, closing the door. Jake swallowed. As much as he was trying to be strong and defiant, he was truly scared of what was to come. He wished they would just kill him and get it over with, knowing that it would be the logical conclusion of it all. As high up as his brother was in the military, he knew that there wasn't a chance he could get approval for a rescue mission. After a couple minutes, the door slid open again to admit an old wolf, who looked at Jake and grinned.

"What exactly are you doing this for?" Jake asked, "I don't know anything that would be useful to you, so this torture shit is a bit pointless."

"Ah, that is probably true," The wolf replied, nodding. "The military never tells the fighting men what's really happening. Although, we have here a 'hero' of the Federation. Yes, we know that you were there at Kaldraga, and the people love you, don't they? No, we're not looking for information today." Just then Jake noticed that the wolf was carrying a small camcorder. They were going to send all this as a scare tactic. The wolf set the camera up, facing Jake, then walked to one of the tables.

"Smile, your on TV." The wolf smirked, taking a pair of pliers and gripping one of Jake's claws. "This will hurt. A lot." The wolf pulled, ripping out the claw; excruciating pain shot through Jake's entire body.

All he could do was scream.

* * * *

"General, there's something you should see." Captain Freedman said over the phone, "It's about the captured pilot."

"All right I'll be down." Chris could only think of one thing that it could be, and knew that Jeremy wouldn't want to see it. Sighing, he stood up from his desk and walked through the hallways to the conference room once again. He passed Jeremy's office, but saw that the tiger wasn't at his desk.

"What's going on?" Jeremy's voice shocked Chris, turning around to face him, "What's got you in a hurry? Is it about Jake?"

"Yeah," Chris couldn't lie to Jeremy, as much as he wanted to, "but I don't think you'll want to see this." Jeremy's face darkened visibly as he looked at the floor. He knew what it would be as well.

"No, no I don't." Jeremy's voice wavered. Knowing his brother in that much pain was like to start him sobbing again, something that had only stopped intermittently these past few days. He couldn't bring himself to tell him that the rescue mission was denied; hope seemed to be the only thing Jeremy had to deal with this.

Chris put a hand on his mate's shoulder, and continued to walk down the hallway to the conference room. Seated there were two majors from his command, one fox and one raccoon. They both stood to acknowledge him when he entered. He motioned them to take their seats.

"Just play the thing." He said, sounding irritated. He never liked watching any videos of this sort, much less one depicting someone so close to Jeremy.

"Gentlemen," a voice outside the camera started, Jake in the center of the screen, "as you can see we have here a hero of the Federation. I would say that we would release him over some terms, but I can honestly say that we need nothing of you aside from the cessation of this war. I doubt those terms will be met, but you've already had a run in with some of our new toys. Now, I guess this video is now merely an informative recording of how your pilot is faring here."

Chris could only watch as he saw each of Jake's claws ripped out one by one, his screams piercing even to his ears. Grimacing, he stood up before the last claw was ripped.

"I've seen enough, Majors. I'll be in my office." He walked out the door to the conference room to Jeremy's office. Stopping by the door, he saw Jeremy look at him with tearful eyes. Chris couldn't tell him what had happened on the video; he just looked at Jeremy and nodded. Jeremy's face strained, trying to keep the tears from flowing again.

"I'm sorry," Chris whispered to him, trying to control the urge to tear up himself by seeing his mate in so much pain. He slowly closed the door to Jeremy's office; he would want some privacy now. Walking away, Chris thought about how he was going to break it to him that there was no way they would be able to get his brother back.

* * * *

"They rejected the rescue, didn't they?" Jeremy asked, making Chris stop dead in his tracks as he made his way to the couch to sit with his mate. He hadn't told Jeremy anything about the meeting that he had earlier in the day- not even that there was a meeting. Chris hesitated, trying to think of a way to skirt the subject. He knew he couldn't lie to him, and even if he tried he'd be called on it instantly. Chris let out a deep sigh before continuing his movement to the couch, sitting next to the tiger.

"Yeah, they did. I'm sorry, hon." Chris looked down, not wanting to see the pain that he knew would be there on the tiger's face.

"It's ok. I knew it'd get rejected." Jeremy put his hand under Chris' muzzle and lifted his head up so Chris was looking straight at him. "You did your best, that's all you could have done. Besides, we can still get him out."

Chris jerked back, startled. "Wh- What? The rescue was rejected, there's nothing we can do about it."

"We got some intel that he's being moved to their base on Sindraga. We have a man on the inside there." Jeremy smiled slightly, a gleam of hope in his eyes.

"What are you saying? You want to go against orders? That's insane! I won't have any part of that, I'd lose my job-and you could lose yours just by talking like that." Chris looked at his mate in shock, not believing what he was hearing. Jeremy's face quickly went from a look of hope to one of anger.

"Goddamnit Chris, he's my brother, I'd do anything for him. He can't die there. I won't let him."

"Do you hear what you're saying? You'd get charged with God knows how many violations and go to jail yourself! Or you could be executed, it's not unheard of." Chris started to worry. Jeremy had never talked like this. He always kept calm and cool, looked at everything with an objective view. What he was hearing now wasn't the tiger he married.

"He's your family, too Chris." Jeremy growled, looking at Chris with an icy stare of pure anger-an anger that Chris had never seen before.

"Hey, calm the fuck down, Jeremy." Chris responded with an equally firm voice, "There is nothing I can do about it. What you're talking about is insane- not to mention suicidal. I know you're angry about the rejection, but you have to accept it. These things happen sometimes, Jeremy, and often to good people like Jake, but there's nothing we can do about it." Chris reached over to put a comforting arm around the tiger, but Jeremy shoved him back hard enough to knock Chris off the couch and onto the floor. Pure shock covered Chris' face.

"Don't fucking touch me you son of a bitch." Jeremy growled, standing up and stomping into the bedroom. He slammed the door behind him and locked it.

Chris laid there on the floor as he felt his eyes fill with tears. He had never seen Jeremy act this way, and was afraid of what was happening to him. He wanted to send a rescue team for Jake, but didn't want to lose his job over it. Pushing himself off the floor, he settled himself on the couch for the first time since they had been together. He began to sob as he thought about the tiger in the other room. He hated hurting Jeremy like this; he was the only thing he really cared about. The only family he had.

* * * *

Jeremy woke up to the alarm clock ringing. He turned over and turned it off, his mind going straight to what happened the night before. He couldn't believe how angry he got at Chris, and wanted it all to be a bad dream. Sadly, he knew it was real, Chris not being in bed next to him made him realize that everything he remembered really did happen. He felt horrible about it all. He heard Chris start to sob again in the other room, wondering if the panther had gotten any sleep that night. Jeremy slipped on a pair of boxers and headed into the living room to see his mate lying on the couch crying. Chris looked at him, the fur on his face soaked and matted with tears. He quickly rolled over on the couch, facing away from Jeremy, obviously not wanting the tiger to see him like that.

"Chris," Jeremy said, walking over to the couch to put a hand on the panther's shoulder. Chris shied away from it slightly at first, then slowly started to lean into the touch. "I'm sorry."

Chris didn't say anything in response, just stayed in the same position while Jeremy rubbed his shoulder wanting him to say something, anything. Chris had always been the strong one to Jeremy; he never knew he could hurt the panther like this. He tried to make excuses in his head that he wasn't thinking, but he knew he was. He was angry at the time, and angry for no reason it seemed. Chris couldn't help Jake anymore, he knew that, but something inside him wanted to fight that fact. Whatever that was came out the night before and managed to hurt the one man that meant the most to him.

"I can't help you, Jeremy. I can't." Chris finally spoke up, his tears choking his voice. Just hearing his mate like that made Jeremy start to tear up himself.

"I know. I-I don't know what got into me last night. I never meant to hurt you like that."

"It didn't hurt." Chris replied, slowly turning to look at Jeremy again, "What's happening to you?"

Jeremy understood then. Chris hadn't been crying because he yelled at him, or even that he pushed him. The whole time it was for him, what this whole ordeal was doing to him. Jeremy looked into Chris' eyes and saw the sadness behind him. It was too much for Jeremy; he broke down and cried himself.

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing anymore." Jeremy said, sobbing. "He means so much to me. I don't want to lose him, but I can't lose you either."

Chris leaned in to place his hand on the side of Jeremy's face, "I won't leave you, Jeremy. You don't have to worry about losing me. I'm just worried about losing you." Chris pulled Jeremy to him and hugged him as he sobbed. "We can get through this. We will."

* * * *

Jake slowly woke up in his new cell, trying not to move too much and have the guards find out he was awake. Since they moved him to this different place, wherever it was, he had been treated a little bit better, which wasn't saying much. The torture sessions stopped, but the random beatings continued as if nothing happened. There were different guards, too. His whole body still hurt when he moved, the cuts and gouges from the tortures still fresh enough to be excruciating, and of course the new bruises and scrapes from the beatings didn't help much.

"Ah, I see you're finally awake." A voice said from outside the cell. He had moved too much. He looked over his shoulder to see a big bull standing outside the bars to his cell. Jake slowly sat up, wincing at the pain every movement seemed to bring. He wondered why the bull hadn't entered the cell and started beating him senseless yet, as all the other guards were apt to do. He stared at the bull for a moment, and felt almost as if he'd seen him before, even though this was the first time that the bull had been guarding him.

"Don't worry, I'm not like the other guys here. I'm not too much into senseless violence." The bull smiled at him, surprisingly warm. "You don't remember me, do you?"

Jake gave a start when the bull asked him. He had no clue why he should have any memory of him, but strangely he seemed familiar to Jake. He scrutinized the bull, trying to think of where he could have seen him before.

"Ah, you remember. Basic Training, December 2145. Come on, you should remember me."

It finally clicked with Jake. He lowered his ears in anger at the traitorous bull. "Haldman."

"See, I knew you would remember me."

Jake did remember him. Jerry Haldman had been his rack mate all through basic, and the two had become fairly good friends at the time until their jobs split them up. He didn't think the bull could have ever turned.

"What the hell are you doing here, you fucking traitor!" Jake growled at him.

"Hey, hey, no need for name calling here. I was only following orders." Haldman replied, holding his hands up as if in defense of himself.

"What do you mean, orders? You're in the fucking rebel army now, how the fuck does that follow ord-" Jake cut off as he thought about it further. He was covert ops. "Why the hell are you telling me this?" Jake asked, lowering his voice almost to a whisper.

Jerry laughed. "Don't worry, man, no one is listening at this hour. Everyone packs up and goes to sleep. The unlucky ones get to sit and watch the cells. I just happened to be the unlucky one tonight. Lucky for you though."

"What do you mean lucky for me?"

"Well, I didn't know anything about who we had down here. I usually stay away from the prisoners; don't get many chances to guard them. A lot of the other guys here love watching prisoners just so they can let out some aggression on them. I'm the opposite, so I usually just try my hardest to stay away from the prisoner guard duties. Lo and behold, the day I finally do get it, the prisoner happens to be my old chum from basic."

"If you do anything you could get compromised."

"No doubt about that, but I've been here for quite a few years already, and I don't think that the Federation would mind one of the rebel bases going down, no matter what the cause. I know every weak point in this place. Plus, I can't just sit here and let my old friend go through what they put every prisoner here through."

"Go through what?"

"Well, frankly, they draw and quarter you. It quite archaic if you ask me, but the shock factor is there, and that's what they go for here, it seems. Not a great way to go."

Jake had heard about the ancient execution style before; hanged until almost dead, disemboweled, dismembered, and beheaded. It was quite a horrible way to go. He didn't know what the bull was planning, or how it could ever work if they really were on a main rebel base. The odds had to be astronomical.

"So what exactly are you planning?"

"Ah, you'll see. I can't let you know everything, y'know." Jerry smiled warmly at Jake.

"So, I know we were friends and all. But that still doesn't explain why you'd be willing to help me and risk everything you have here. We haven't talked in over ten years. I'm surprised you even remembered who I was."

"Yeah, well, shit how do I say this." The bull suddenly looked awkward and almost embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck thinking about what to say. "Well, believe it or not you've been the subject of quite a few wet dreams of mine." He chuckled nervously.

"What!?" Jake was obviously shocked by that bit of information. He never even suspected that Jerry was interested in men, much less him.

"Yeah, I thought I was barkin up the wrong tree, heh." Jerry continued looking a bit awkward sitting there, smiling at Jake.

"Yeah, wrong tree. Maybe I should have introduced you to my brother back then. He looks a bit like me. Hell maybe it would have prevented him from marrying General Brightman."

Jerry reared back laughing, "Your brother married that douche? Wow, I feel really sorry for you. I guess civilians don't see those guys like we do."

"Actually, my brother is a Lieutenant General."

"Damn, man. I think your brother's insane." Jerry kept laughing, and in spite of everything, Jake couldn't help but smile as well. "He must have known how bad Brightman was. Some guys, I guess." Jerry shook his head, smiling.

After a moment, Jake's face took a darker tone. "I should have been a better brother to him."

"What do you mean?" Jerry started to get serious again.

"Well, I always argued with him about his choice. He always said there was a softer side to Brightman than we ever got to see. I've been thinking a lot about him recently. Him and my wife, actually. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but Jeremy has always been really cautious with his life, and if Brightman is really as much of an asshole at home as he is at work, my brother would never have married him. We almost never got to see each other without arguing about it. Now that I think of it, that probably hurt him more than I thought it would, to have his own family against him in a way."

"I doubt he thinks you were really against him. You're not that kind of guy, I can tell. You'll get a chance to talk to him soon. I can get you out of here within a few days."

"A few days? Wouldn't something this big take months?"

"You don't have months. I've been planning something like this for a while, now, actually. Everything is in place for me to escape if my cover was ever compromised. I'm not about to just let myself get captured and have to pop off this cyanide tooth and swallow it if I can help it."

"They still use those?"

"Yep, they're a pain in the ass, too. Anyways, you'll have to deal with a few more days of the shit they give you here before I can do anything." Jerry looked at his watch, "My shift's almost up, they're going to start watching us soon. I'd go back to sleep if I were you."

"Thanks, Jerry." Jake smiled at the bull. Jerry just smiled back warmly and nodded slightly. Jake heeded the bull's advice and laid back down to try to sleep, keeping as still as he could. In a few days he'd be out of this god-forsaken place.

* * * *

Jeremy opened the door to his brother's house and walked in. He saw Callie sitting on the couch, looking up to him.

"Hey Jeremy," She said, the pain in her voice still evident over losing her husband.

"Hey Callie," Jeremy sat down close to her on the couch, "Did you get a hold of them all?"

"Yeah. It took a while, but I found them all. We've got twenty pilots under his command willing to go."

"Good. We'll leave in two days time. That'll give me enough time to draft up the orders to take the ships. We'll have to wait until we're close to the base to get contact with our covert op inside. We'll be stealth all the way, and just hope that they haven't developed new stealth detectors along with those lasers. I doubt they'll have those lasers on the base, since none of our coverts had ever seen something like that."

"Alright." Callie was nervous, Jeremy could tell. She had never been on any kind of missions. Jeremy hadn't been on one in many years, but he was used to it back in the early days of his career. He put his hand on Callie's shoulder.

"It'll work out. We'll get him back."

"What about Chris? What are you going to tell him?"

Jeremy sighed, looking down at the floor, "I really hate going behind his back like this, but I just can't let him die. I know where Chris is coming from, and I understand why he can't do anything about it. I just can't sit here and do nothing. I don't know what I'm going to tell him. I don't think I could face him with this, really. It'll hurt him a lot. I'll figure something out I guess. Speaking of which, I hate to be short, but I have to get back to Chris before he suspects something. He knows I'm still not over it, as much as I try not to be so soft near him."

Callie stood up to hug him, "You're not soft. You're stronger than most."

Jeremy hugged Callie back and headed back out the door. The majority of the planning was done. He was going to get Jake back no matter what he had to do.

* * * *

Chris woke up and noticed that Jeremy wasn't in the bed. The last couple days the subject of his brother hadn't been broached once. It seemed that he was starting to accept the cold truth. It still hurt him, Chris could tell, but he seemed to be accepting it. He sat up in the bed and rubbed his eyes.

"Jeremy?" Chris called out with no answer. He stood up and saw a folded piece of paper on the chest of drawers next to the bed. He noticed that the small picture frame on the dresser was missing its photo. It was their favorite picture of them both. Chris' mind reeled over what the note could say, afraid of opening it. He slowly unfolded the paper slowly, and read what it said:

Chris, I'm sorry I couldn't have told you this before, but I couldn't face you

with this. I've gone to help Jake. I couldn't sit around and do nothing. I hope

you can understand. I know how you must be feeling after reading this, but

I never meant to hurt you. I love you so much I can't write it in words. By the

time you read this, I will have been gone a while. Please don't try to stop us.

I have to do this, love. If I didn't try to help him, I wouldn't be able to live with

myself. I love you with all my heart, and I'll come home to you when all this

is over.

Love,

Jeremy

Chris crumpled the note in his fist as he dropped to his knees. He had failed his mate, the only thing in his life that he truly cared about. He didn't know what else he could have done for him. He thought that Jeremy was beginning to understand, but the whole time he was plotting behind his back. If only he had tried harder to get that rescue team out, this could have been averted. Chris screamed as he punched one of the drawers in front of him. His fist splintered through the wood. When he pulled his hand back, his fur was already becoming matted with blood from the cuts. He began to sob violently. He wished it was anyone else out there. He didn't want his tiger to get hurt. He wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to him, but if that note was right, it was already too late.

* * * *

"Jake." A familiar voice called from beyond his cell, waking him up.

"Wha-" Jake rolled over to face Jerry standing there, the cell door wide open. Jake noticed the body of the unlucky rebel sent to guard him during the night. The fox's eyes were still open, lifeless. A pool of blood stained the floor under the fox's slit throat.

"It's time. Get up. Quick."

Jake jumped to his feet as quick as he could. A part of him never thought that the bull would pull through, but he did. He walked up to Jerry, stepping over the still warm corpse of the guard, and took the knife that the bull held out to him.

"We'll have to stick to these until the blasts start going off. I've rigged a series of explosives along the weak points of the structure. I have a fighter ship already started up for our escape, but we'll have to move quickly. Once the first set of explosions go off, we'll have ten minutes until the second set, which will collapse the building on itself. The first set will destroy all the outer defenses. Luckily, the only interior defenses are soldiers, most of which are asleep. They should be taken care of with the first blasts, so we should only have to hack through the night crew. You ready?"

Jake nodded, trying to absorb all the information. He had no clue what Jerry was planning these past few days, but it seemed like all the bases were covered. He grabbed the blaster off the guard's body and slung it across his back. He followed the bull, alert to every movement.

Down the hallway, a guard turned the corner to face them. At first he just noticed Jerry, and nodded toward him. Once he saw Jake, though, his eyes widened, "What the-"

The guard was cut off as Jerry deftly ran his knife across his throat with an almost sickening ease. The only sounds the guard made were gurgles as he slowly drowned in the blood pouring into his lungs.

Soon after, the explosions went off.

* * * *

"We're approaching Sindraga. Maintain radio silence until we get close enough to hail the operative inside." Jeremy announced over the radios. So far they hadn't been detected during their travel here, but he didn't want to risk being discovered due to radio chatter. "We're close, Callie," he turned toward the tigress sitting next to him in the combat transport. "We're going to get Jake out."

The base ahead of them grew bigger as they neared. It was still a fairly small base, so infiltration wouldn't be hard. Most likely they only had a skeleton crew this time of night as well. The hard part would be finding where they kept Jake. When they neared the base enough to contact the operative, Jeremy set his comms to the frequency they used to contact him.

"Guardian six, guardian six, this is eagle talon. Guardian six, guardian six, this is eagle talon." The only noise on the radio was just that - noise. "Come on, come on, respond, damn it." He whispered, holding the speaker close to his ear. "Guardian si-" Jeremy's eyes widened as he saw half of the base explode in fireballs. "Damn it something's happening, get the fuck in there!" He called out to the other fighters. The transport accelerated toward the base, and all her passengers grabbed their weapons, readying themselves for the fight ahead. Jeremy saw the opening in the side of the base.

"Right side, right side, get in that docking bay. Eagle two, eagle three, lead the way, clear out any rebel trash." Jeremy watched as the two fighters accelerated past them and flew into the docking bay.

"Bay's clear, sir. The place seems empty."

"Probably those explosions. Let's move. Two, Three, offload and set a perimeter. Talon will follow. Eagle One, Eagle Four, follow Talon into the base. All others, set up air patrol tight around the docking bay."

The transport ship landed, and they filed out, blasters at the ready. The sirens were going off. Just like the pilots said, the bay was empty.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jeremy scanned the bay and pointed toward the only door out. "Move out."

They opened the door into chaos.

* * * *

"Jerry, right!" Jake fired his blaster to hit the rebel closing in on the bull. The explosions may have killed most of the sleeping rebels, but it either didn't get them all, or there was one hell of a night crew here.

Jerry and Jake made their way through the labyrinths of hallways, mowing down as many rebels as they could. The surprise of the rebels was a clear advantage to them. Neither of the two had been injured at all - aside from the already existing injuries on Jake.

"I'm out!" Jake yelled, pulling out his knife and slashing at the rebels. His vision narrowed, it was almost like he lost control of himself, even his hearing dimmed in the chaos. The only things were his knife and the bodies he created. Slashing and stabbing, Jake blazed a trail through the rebels. He felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull. He spun quickly, thrusting his knife forward into the culprit.

"Jake! I-"

Jake let go of the knife quickly once he saw the face - his wife's. It was too late, the knife was already plunged to the hilt in her chest.

"Callie? CALLIE! NO!" He huddled over his wife as she started to cough up blood and gasp. He wasn't dreaming; it was her. He started yelling uncontrollably as the realization set in. "Callie, fuck, no! What are you-no, Christ!" He started sobbing. She looked at him with surprised eyes, and reached up to touch his face.

"Jake I- I-" She choked, blood starting to flow freely with every cough.

"Shh. Callie, I know. I know. I'll get you out of here. I-" Callie's arm fell limp from his face as he watched the life flow out of her eyes.

"Oh god, Jake! Callie!" Another voice yelled as Jake looked up to see his brother staring at his wife's corpse.

"Jeremy?" Jake said, shocked. He looked back to Callie's body and started trying to lift her when a strong hand grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground.

"She's dead, Jake! We gotta get the fuck out of here!" Jerry pulled him along, past his brother, who snapped out of his shocked stare as they passed.

"We got a transport in the bay, move!"

They advanced closer to the docking bay, the other fighter pilots covering them from the rear. Jake saw the transport ahead of them and loaded up with Jerry. He turned back to see his brother shouting orders to get the pilots to load the jets. He grabbed on and hoisted himself into the transport.

"Let's get the fuck out of he-" Jeremy was cut off as an explosion in the bay sent a large piece of shrapnel flying into his abdomen. He collapsed into the transporter as the door closed and they started to take off out of the bay.

"Jeremy!" Jake rushed to his brother's side, trying to figure out what to do.

"Jake," Jeremy looked up at him and spoke weakly. "Jake, you're safe. We got you out. Thank God."

"You did. You did." Jake said tearfully. He had just watched his wife die in front of him, and now his brother...

Jeremy reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a photo. He put it in Jake's hand, and started to shake.

"Tell... Chris... I... I love him." Jeremy said shakily. Jake looked down at the picture in his hand. It was of Chris and Jeremy. Jeremy was behind Chris with his arms around the panther's neck. They were both smiling, so happy. He now understood what his brother had seen in his husband. There was a softness and love in Chris' eyes that he'd never seen before. It was what Jeremy had seen every day. He looked up from the picture at his brother, still. The shaking had stopped. Jeremy's eyes were closed, his face seemed peaceful, at rest.

He put his forehead on his brother's and cried as they flew out of the base's airspace.

* * * *

"Sir we've picked up the signatures of the ships, they're almost here." The tower operator turned toward Chris. He'd gotten a flight to the forward base as soon as he read the note Jeremy left him, but like the note said, he was too late. He just hoped they were alright.

"Sir, they're on the radio now. They have three injured on board." The radio operator paused for a moment, "And one body."

Chris had to put every ounce of himself into keeping his bearing as he saw the jets land with the transport and the medical team move in. He didn't want to disturb what they were doing, any disturbance could mean a life. His mind was only on Jeremy.

After the team had dispersed, he rushed to the medical wing to see who was among the injured. He recognized Jake in one of the gurneys, IVs running through his arm. There were large gashes and cuts all over his body, likely from the tortures. He slowly walked up to him.

"Jake." His voice seemed to startle the tiger as he looked over at him, slowly recognizing him.

"Sir." Jake replied, simply. Chris could see that he had been through a lot, and a pain in his gut said that not all had gone well.

"Jeremy?" Chris asked. At the mention of his husband's name, Jake began to sob. Chris froze for a moment, then all but sprinted toward the morgue.

Upon reaching the morgue, he saw a single table with a corpse on it, covered by a white cloth. He pulled aside one of the medics.

"Who was it?"

The medic flipped through a clipboard in his hand. "Uh, Lieutenant General Jeremy Kearny."

"Get everyone out."

"Sir?"

"Get the fuck out!" Chris yelled, trying to hide the shake in his voice. The team in the morgue quickly shuffled out the doors, leaving Chris behind alone. He walked up to the table slowly, not wanting to believe who was under the sheet.

He slowly pulled the sheet down to reveal Jeremy's face. He seemed at peace, strangely. Chris' knees started to shake as he stared at his lover of over five years. The only thing he cared about had just been taken away from him. He staggered back as he tried to keep himself calm. It was too much for him. He had no family anymore. He was alone again. The situation took a hold of his body, making him shake uncontrollably. His consciousness slowly began to waver, his head swimming. He tried holding on to the counter behind him, which offered no more stability as he doubled over and retched. He looked back toward the body of his husband and fainted.

* * * *

Jake stood silent as the memorial service drew to an end. It had been two days since he got back, but it did nothing to help his pain. The past days were filled with debriefings and trials. Chris had issued a command that all parties involved with the rescue were to be acquitted of all charges. Jake wondered if the soft side of him that Jeremy saw was beginning to show outward. As the crowd began to disperse, he noticed a few still remained staring at the coffin his brother laid in and the marker for his wife. Jerry walked up to him and put a hand on Jake's shoulder.

"Whenever you're ready, Jake. Sasha and I will be in the car."

Jake nodded slightly as the bull walked off holding his daughter's hands. Jerry had been staying at their house due to the fact that he had no place to go here, and to keep Jake from having to be alone through this. Jake looked up at Chris still standing at the edge of Jeremy's grave, the pain of loss clear and evident across his face. He walked up to the panther slowly, trying to find the words he wanted to say.

"Sir, I know you loved my brother very much, and I know that he felt the same way about you. I wasn't able to give you this earlier, but Jeremy wanted me to give it to you." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the picture that Jeremy had given him. "He told me to tell you that he loved you, and I can vouch for the love he did have for you. In his dying moments you were the first thing on his mind." Jake handed the picture to Chris, who took it and shifted his gaze from the coffin to the photo. The panther's face contorted as he tried to choke back the unrelenting tears.

"Th-Thank you." Chris replied shakily, tears flowing from his eyes despite all his efforts. Jake paused for a moment before continuing.

"Twenty-three soldiers believed that saving my life was worth risking all of theirs. Two paid the ultimate price for that belief. I honestly can't say that I agree with them. As much as people lift me up and say I was a hero, I can't believe that my life is worth more than these two. I can't change their decisions, but I'll be damned to let them die in vain. I want to make their beliefs right. I have never been kind to you, even in mentioning you to Jeremy. I see now what he saw in you, and I feel that I wouldn't be any kind of brother to him if I didn't try to help you through the pain I know you're experiencing. I have the same pain. I know that Jeremy was the only real family you thought you had, but I want you to know that even though he's no longer here, you still have family. I'm your brother-in-law, and it's about time I act like it. If you'd like, I have a spare bed in my house. I don't think that this is a good time to be alone." Jake looked up at Chris, who was still staring at the photo. A moment of silence stood between them before the panther spoke again.

"I'd like that. And call me Chris." Jake put a hand on Chris' shoulder. Surprisingly, Chris pulled Jake into a tight hug and started sobbing. "Thank you."

After getting home, Jake showed Chris the spare room and set Jerry up on the couch before going to tuck his daughter into bed. Sasha looked up at Jake with those still innocent eyes.

"Is Mommy coming home?" She asked, causing Jake to have to choke back more tears.

"Shh, honey. Go to sleep." Jake hugged her while she lay down. He looked at her face, the innocence it held. She looked remarkably like her mother, a trait he had never really paid so much attention to. It was like Callie was still there, still with him. She was the only piece of his wife he had left. "I'll always love you, Sasha. Always."

Jake silently closed the door to Sasha's room, and passing the spare room, saw Chris sitting at the foot of it holding the picture that Jake had returned to him. "Will you be ok?"

Chris looked up at Jake tearfully, "Yeah."

Once Jake left the doorway, Chris looked back down at the picture. It was taken at their honeymoon. Jeremy's smile had always warmed his heart. It was something he'd never be able to see again. He traced a finger over his lover's face as the tears continued to soak the fur on his face.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy." He whispered, "I should have tried harder. I'll keep an eye on your brother for you. I know that's what you'd want. You'll always be in my heart." Chris wiped an arm across his eyes as he stared at the picture.

"I'll always love you. Always."

~Fin~