Crack narrowed its eyes at Scorch. It didn't care about this child. It was furious. Furious about its failure to keep the plague under control. And now they had lost three cycles and the body had been near death. That was unforgivable. Still, chaos flooded its mind. That's all it wanted, all it craved. Whatever the owl said was irrelevant. But perhaps it could start here. Have a bit of fun.

"I am what they call Crack." Its voice was cold and uncaring as it looked up and down the chick. It didn't need to use a full blown attack. Probably just a simple passing of the virus would do. Besides, the vector was dormant and weak, fought down by the chrysalis. An incubated bite wouldn't do much.

It continued to stare at Scorch, its eyes glittering. "Questions, questions. You ask questions because you want answers. I don't care who likes me and who doesn't. I don't care enough to like or dislike others. There is only one thing that matters to me." Crack reached down with his consciousness and grasped at the disease vector lying dormant in his gem. But as it tried to pull away enough to infect the owl, it resisted and it couldn't scrabble enough to cast a spell. It wasn't ready yet.

Instead, it glared at the owl as magic was sent pooling towards the disease. Hopefully, soon, it would be ready for a cast.

"Crack, no! You're going to infect us again!" Caliante's voice was desperate and pleading, but Crack paid it no head. It would not make the same mistake again.

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack." "Tarragon." "Ripple."

Crack was barely listening to the owl. It had better things on its mind. The first being that it could feel its control slipping. Whenever it had taken the body by force, it found that its powerful bursts of control were unable to be fended off, but terribly short. How was it supposed to spread chaos with such a weak grasp on the body? Perhaps this was fate's idea of a joke - make him ambitious and craving for chaos, perhaps even evil if it could be interpreted like that, but it did not have a body of its own. Instead sharing it with three others. No, five others.

But that wasn't important now. The magic it had been sending into the vector was starting to work wonders. It could feel the plague rolling around, the bacteria begging to be released into new blood. Not the body of Umbra again, no, its host would be the owl.

With a sudden movement, as fast and graceful as a bat could be, Crack lunched forward, teeth bared, aiming for Scorch's chest. The plague, surrounded by a layer of magic, had made its way into a bundle of saliva that Crack collected in its mouth. As soon as it was passed into the owl's bloodstream, the magic would fade and the plague would be free.

Spread pain...chaos...let the world be consumed.

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack." "Tarragon." "Ripple."

Crack thought that the hit would land, but the owl managed to dodge out of the way. Of course, it should have known better. Immediately, it reinforced the magic surrounding the vector and landed, turning to face the owl again. It could feel the others starting to fight against it, feeling the end of its time in control. One more chance.

It wouldn't go for the same thing, no, that would be stupid. There was a better way to do this. It wouldn't be as strong, but it was better then nothing. Besides, it could feel the disease trying to fly out of control. It couldn't risk another infection.

It subtly surrounded a pocket of air in its mouth with magic and released the bubble around the saliva. The disease's bacteria spread to the air around and it released it towards the owl with a chuckle. "You're an idiot. Of course I know that. I know what I'm doing. But sure, I won't do it again, I promise." Its eyes glittered with malicious humor as it watched the owl, waiting so hungrily for them to breath in the plague.

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack." "Tarragon." "Ripple."