The wheelchair glided silently along the tiled floors and stopped outside a small room with no window in the door. It was unlocked for the royal family, but as Razz struggled to his feet, Eva suggested that only one of them enter at a time.
Jazz remained in the room for only about ten minutes, but when he came out, his eyes were glassy and he muttered a curse under his breath. "She's asleep," he said, "Looks just like mom," he said, "I can't believe it. How old is she then?" He collapsed on the bench beside the door as though he had run a marathon, and Eva put her arms close around him. Razz looked at Spaz, but Spaz shook his head. "You go on," he said.
So for the second time in as many days, Razz entered an unfamiliar room, feeling like an old man as he walked gingerly through the carpeted, neatly furnished room, to the small divan upon which lay the pale yellow body of his sister. Her hair and body had been washed and though she appeared malnourished, she was clean, and a machine attached to an IV in her arm clicked regularly. She lay on her back, the sheets to her waist, her eyes closed but her body shaking like when Razz had first seen her. He lowered himself to the chair beside her head.
"Hey, Larh'ii," he said, softly, still weakened by her beauty. But though he had spoken quietly, her eyes opened, they're misty purple staring straight ahead of her. "Hello?" he repeated. Her head jerked towards the sound, almost imperceptibly, and instinctively Razz put his paw on hers, to alert her to his prescence. She froze, but her other hand stretched out to him, groping the air, and he knelt beside her. Her paw found his face and stopped there, stroking the fur and feeling his features.
"My name is Razz," he said to her, and though shaking like an aspen leaf in the wind, she lowered her head til it was resting like before, on the blue fur of his shoulder.

Spaz said nothing about seeing her for the first time, but rejoined the others in the hallway quietly.
"Razz," Jazz said suddenly, "What is her name?"
Razz answered slowly. "The L'zrd called her Larh'ii." He pronounced it the way the Chief had said the name, 'Lor'ee.' Eva repeated the name in her own Carrotian, "Laurey?" but Spaz shook his head and spoke up.
"No," he said, "Lori."

--
As soon as Razz was permitted to leave the medical facility, he flew to the GIA headquarters on Medivo, where the Chief was stationed. Razz had never spoken with him in person before, nor seen him aside from the hologram projection. Stringent security took a while to get past, but Razz found himself standing outside a black metal door with a plain silver placard reading 'Rubicon, Chief First Order. Number 39.' His knock was answered by a grunt which Razz took to mean he could enter, so he did, doing his best not to limp. The Chief was sitting in a high backed chair, only the tips of his ears visible with his back to Razz, looking out of a one-way window into the mezzanine of the headquarters. Razz cleared his throat.
"Officer MaTazz requesting an informal audience, Chief, sir."
The serval did not move for several moments, and then he revolved in the leather chair, regarding Razz with his deep-set, heavily lidded eyes.
Razz did not make any external movement, but inside he was shocked. The cat was not just well muscled, he was huge, his double paws draped casually over the arms of the chair. His tiger striped face, shown in blue and white pixels on the hologram, was indeed patterned, but with gouging scars as well as dark fur. They traced down his throat and into the collar of the black uniform he wore, but the uniform did not hide the serval cat's legs, and neither did the Chief make any apparent attempt to. They were both robotic, shining brushed chrome and black titanium in stark contrast to the neutral colors of the serval's fur, and ended in huge metal paws, easily twice the size of Razz's own, claws protracting slightly and the metal squeaking against the floor.
When he spoke, it was the same smooth growling purr. "Very well, MaTazz. You may speak."
"I wish to extend my apologies for acting out of order, sir. I am here to offer my resignation before I am discharged. I am... I am here to thank you, sir, for what you did for me, despite my behavior. I wish to offer you my services at any time if you should need them, despite my nonemployment." He stopped speaking and lowered his head respectfully.
The serval cat did not hesitate. "Your actions, soldier, were a horrible dereliction of duty and a blatant disregard to orders. You have endangered this entire galaxy and you have shown you cannot be trusted to follow even the simplest orders. I have told Captain Delphi for years that you should not be allowed to work in my facility but he has continued to undermine me and insist that you continue your work for us. I am forced to conclude that he was absolutely right in keeping you here and that as such I will not be allowing you to leave this operation, or stop working for this government facility, at any time in the forseeable future, and you will be recieving a promotion to commander."
Chief Rubicon scraped his metal claws on the floor as Razz stared at him.
"How is she doing?" the Chief asked, more quietly.

--
As the months passed, it was Spaz who Lori came to trust the most and he seemed to understand her better than anyone. She did improve greatly as time went on and the two of them would often be seen in the Palace grounds or in the castle, Spaz grinning with delight as Lori, dressed in a light purple gown, chased a butterfly or just spoke a hello to a guard walking past. Her mental state was not damage, but merely a response to the conditions she had experienced, a natural shutdown that had probably kept her alive all the years with the L'zrd. They had never mistreated her, quite the contrary, but the species difference had been too dramatic for her lapine system to handle; even though she was exposed from birth, she could never adapt. Her body was weak but she strengthened physically as her mind grew, and before a year had passed she was indistinguishable from any other rabbit her age, which was by now sixteen. She learned fast and grew faster, and under Spaz's skilled training, she learned weaponry and fighting skills. Razz returned to Carrotus monthly to see her, and he and Lori spent long hours together, talking in subdued voices. He always left troubled, although he smiled to see her practicing her fighting in the courtyard, her new muscles flexing under her purple top and short, comfortable pants, her fur shiny and her eyes sparkling.
The L'zrd did not attack Carrotus as predicted, although the tension between the two tribes grew stronger and more strained each day. They could not prove that their princess had been taken from them by Carrotian military because they themselves had done their best to deny her existence.
And then, one day in late July, she was gone from the castle.
Jazz was in a rage. He demanded to know of Razz what he had been telling her, if he knew where she was, what she could possibly think she had to do away from the castle. But Razz was silent, and though he did not know where Lori was, he guessed she had figured out for herself what she had to do.
"It's not my fault, Razz," she had murmured to him the last time he visited. They walked through the grounds, beneath willows through courtyards. "I don't have any idea what I'm supposed to do to fulfill a prophecy. I don't see how there's anything I can do. But can't I try? If they revere me as a goddess, will they not listen to anything I say? If I have any kind of power to quell the bloodshed, I want to try." And Razz had not tried to dissuade her, but listened in silence.