Mal's voice echoed in the halls.

"Mercy is the mark of a great man."

The new presence in Bo’s head drowns out the sense of Mal's voice.

"But what, child, can a beast like you do with mercy?"

Teeth flashed and claws tore into flesh and blood poured through open wounds onto his hands. Guards, doctors, and others fell at his feet as he wove his way through them to the corridor where he smelled the captain, River and Jayne. The smell of blood and fear flooded his nostrils. He savored the taste of iron, feeding the beast they had somehow housed within him. The blood, however, seemed to make the beast more hungry rather than satiate its appetite. He smelled the other patients, their anger, fear, and aggression. He moved to where the aggression and rage seemed to flood his senses. He smelled it, tasted it, and even heard it in their heartbeat. His body pulsed with their anger. He grabbed the throat of the nearest doctor and snapped his neck with a quick flick of his wrist. He growled as he surveyed the carnage around him. Blood sloshed on the floor as his feet moved through the crimson river. He began to run, noticing as he did the odd way his feet arched now.

'What are you?' His mind asked.

'Not who.' It growled.

'What then?' Bo asked with a growl of his own.

'What you needed. I am what they made you, except I have no inhibitions. I'll kill only to kill. No reason, no want. Just the thrill of bloodshed.' The creature snarled.

Bo shuddered as he rounded a corner. His clawed feet scrabbled on the tile as he skidded to a stop. At the end of the hallway was a barred door. From behind it emanated the scent of rage and aggression.

"No." Came Bo's sigh.

The door slid open with a grating hiss. Stepping from the door way was a creature, not human, or any other creature Bo had ever laid eyes on. Its skin was pale and the spines growing from its back were nearly a foot long. The creature’s teeth stuck out from its mouth almost four inches. It had no eyes, but looked more like a horse’s skull that had been