Very simply put, Ampere was wrong.

She didn't know it yet, at least not this very moment as she stood before the Moon, blue gaze peering up with resolve and anticipation as the darkness spoke sweet. Although she had not paused nor even hesitated, Ampere knew the weight of the words she had spoken, but she truly felt them too, which is why they weren't difficult to say. To Ampere, what was worse than this daily hell of living alongside such willfully ignorant slave drivers? What was worse than being utterly powerless to stop the increasing greed and ruination of tiny, fragile lives? So yeah, test me she had said, and she kept saying it as her body stood at the ready, muscles tense, senses on alert, heart hammering in her throat. Test me - because Ampere either needed to pass or fail at this point, she was done with continuing to study.

We never really stop learning though. Something Ampere would be reminded of, among other things, as she watched with a quiet gasp the movements of the Moon that revealed the precious egg. Transfixed, Ampere's gaze followed every movement of the unborn soul, a half-step even taken forward at the first instance where it seemed the revered life would roll free into oblivion. When it was pulled back instead she paused, mouth still agape in silent wonder while her gaze flicked back to the Moon, trying to find understanding in the lines of her lilac features. Instead Ampere's focus was sequestered again by the unborn creature as it gently rapped on the thin casing that saved it from the cruel world. Absorbed, Ampere crept closer, shaking her head gently and murmuring a soft, pleading "No, no child, stay in there, where it's safe..."

The Moon's sterling words cut across her own however, and in response her ears twitched, head lifting, turning, falling. For a moment Ampere was at a loss of words, and several times her lips parted before swiftly clamping shut once more. All the while her heart beat like a wild jackrabbit tangled up in her ribs, and she felt just as terrified as one. After a final pause she seemed to decide on a soft smile, one proffered to the Moon with equally kind eyes. A thank you, for she was given this opportunity that Oxy had stolen from her; this long awaited chance to save a life instead of just condemning the ones already damned.

The smile became a grin, as wild and confident as ever. The jack rabbit kicked free, soaring inside of her with rampant exaltation. The notion of salvation was so fierce inside of her there was nothing left to splinter away into doubt, and so the thought never came, even as she knelt down before the emerging soul with the devil as the backdrop. Ampere didn't know it then, but the first moment of this being's life would be the last of hers - the last of the life she knew anyway.

"Go on then, if you must," she whispered, laughing, smiling, crying at the beauty of it. Retribution blossomed inside of her like a spring flower, so full of hope and opportunity. "You can do it little one, push your place into this world." Too large to physically assist, Ampere nonetheless reached out with her unseen magic, plucking at the minimal electricity that lived inside all things, but particularly the current that hummed within the shell fragments. Gingerly she tossed them aside, helping the chick hatch its way to freedom. She was careful not to tug on what wasn't ready, and let her words be the encouragement rather than rush or force the process that belonged to this new life - only it could truly decide when and if it would hatch, to provide any further pressure would surely soil this beautiful, singular moment in its existence.

As the creature finally, strongly, tumbled free of its shell remnants Ampere cast them away with a laugh. At its level, she could see into its barely opening eyes clearly, and there her own large reflection peered back from the reflection of its new, impressionable gaze. Shuffling her head to her knee Ampere wiped away the saline that had collected and poured free. It let loose a complaining "raaaawk" to which she laughed once more. "There, free at last."

Ampere leaned back, admiring the feat she had managed, glowing at the prospect of what it all meant. As she had told everyone, you could help them but not- What's that? She felt something like a tug inside of her, something that she had only ever experienced on a few occasions before, and only then when magic was invading her. Defensively Ampere's head flung from side to side, blue eyes glistening with bliss sharpening into a rebuke as she searched for whatever unseen foe dared assault her now. All the while the tug, now a force inside of her grew.

"WHO'S THERE!?" she finally demanded when her lighthouse-sweep of a glare divulged no one aside from the hatchling and the distant presence of the goddess. Abruptly the force became so strong she felt pressure on every empty part of her body, as if something were manifesting internally, filling up all the space that her innards and her emotions always drifted amongst. "STOP!" she snarled, tail cracking against her flanks in agitation while she shook her head repeatedly, eyes pinched shut against the building sensation of her own being shoved aside by something unseen and unknown.

Then, just as she reached a moment of desperate panic, it subsided into a dull weight inside of her, there, but not so overwhelming. In its seizing wake, she felt a gnawing hunger. Bewildered Ampere stood, her four legs spread as if only their sharp angle was keeping her upright. Her flanks heaved as evidence of the physical (and mental) toll the experience had taken on her, while her bleary-eyed gaze, appearing nearly sedated, revealed the discontent that still writhed inside of her.

The chick squawked in its own agony, drawing Ampere's attention. "You too!?" she asked breathlessly, doing her best to collect herself and return to its side, to see if she could stop the assailant before it took this child under siege as well. Her presence created an instantaneous relief, a sensation that flooded all of her senses and erupted in a calm blue within her mind, tumbling like the ocean across all her thoughts. What? she had the wherewithal to wonder, because as strong as Ampere's emotions always were, she never remembered them being accompanied with color and rarely were they soothed by herself.

Then the absolute hunger came again like a slap in the face, rough and insistent and orange upon everything she saw behind her eyes. The bird's cries had subsided now to a particular mewling that she'd heard occasionally - the sound of baby birds begging their mother for food when she returned to the nest.

Bit by aching bit, Ampere put the pieces together.

With an agonizing slowness her head turned back to the chick on the ground. As her gaze locked upon its naked body, she stared in horror as its head thrust up, beak parted, screaming hunger - the same hunger that ripped through her own body.

As if electrocuted by the infant Ampere leapt back, shouting out "NO!" The chick unleashed a shrill, terrible shriek accompanied with bursts of red and black fireworks inside Ampere's mind. That confirmed it.

That's when she finally realized she was wrong.

That's when she realize she had bonded.

Baleful, Ampere's gaze shifted to the Moon. The stare she bore was terrible, not for its anger, not for its grief, but for its haunting, gut-wrenching exposure of fear and despair. "What?" was all she managed to whisper, and then it was a barely audible rasp on the verge of an utter breakdown.

All the while, Ampere was hungry.