Cold.

It wasn't something you had felt since you were a thin, weak infant. But this wasn't a normal cold. It was a cryogenic cold.

Memories flashed across your mind. Views of beautiful groves powdered in snow, faces of friends and family, all just out of sight.

They vanished like the passing clouds of your homeworld.

You were a Criai, a creature made for the glacial chills and icy waters of any frozen planet. You had six ears - three on each side of your head. They were large and leaf shaped with fur dappling the insides. You had two thin, cat-like tails to steady yourself. Quite some time ago, you had braided your long, unruly hair into two braids that now hung behind your head. You walked on two, strong, digitgrade legs that were built to wade or dig through compacted snow. Your eyes were very dark, your pupils enlarged to see in the near endless nights of your homeworld. Your body was covered in a thick layer of fur - snow white with streaks and dots of icy blue.

Suddenly, the door to your cryochamber was shattered. You fell to the floor in a daze. In front of you stood your... captor? Rescuer? You heard his voice before you fully grasped what his body looked like.

"You're free. Get up."

His voice was cold and detached.

"I need your body. I have a requirement no sane creature would agree to. I am not taking yes or no for an answer. I need your unquestioning compliance. Mindless devotion. Defend yourself, if you wish. Otherwise... Break."

You froze. He didn't sound like someone you wanted to fight. And he didn't sound like he was preparing for a normal fight, either. A psychic duel. Here, the consequences could be worse than death. From his words, succumbing would be a fate worse than death. A slave. You got up and took your respective side in the hallway of the craft.

He was a fox-like creature, but nothing that the natural world would have condoned. His fur was ash black with hard lines of glowing crimson through it, forming a rhombus on his chest and various other shapes across his body. His eyes were pure red except for his thin, white irises. His ears were unnatural, also shaped like rhombuses. He had a long and bushy fox tail, untrimmed for a long time. His legs were digitgrade and very slim. As too was his body, seeming to have gone without proper sustenance for quite some time. There was a hard, determined glare on his face.

He wasn't going to back down easily.

And so, the fight began.