She knows these smells better than any others in the entire universe. The chemical sting of a vast, metal prison that understands the importance of cleanliness. Smoke both acrid and sweet that sweeps over endless walkways of such dense metals that she can taste them on her tongue from here. Oil compounds running through the veins of the Prison Planet's great machine heart. The pheromone cocktail of True Humanity, laced with every signal imaginable to instill maximum loyalty in the unwashed, miserable Servitor population that surrounds them. And everywhere, everywhere, [i]everywhere[/i], the scent of roses. 

The smell of home. 

For years, she'd chased this. For years, she'd longed for air that tasted right, for olfactory responses that pressed calm into her lungs. For years, she'd carried around a small bottle of this place to help her sleep at night. For years after she lost it, she simply had not slept right. For years, her life had been nothing but a ceaseless comparison to this exact sensation. 

Bella's spine tenses like a bowstring. Her eyes, already opening wide in shock at the lessons the gods had taught her, contract into furious slits. She bites down in fury and her jaw groans from the strain. Three sharp, angry sniffs and then her tail flicks behind her back. And she rushes outside with such speed that she has to kick her leg out in front of her, duck low, and dig her clawed gauntlet into the earth just to stop again. 

And she beholds Tellus. Insubstantial and flickering. Threatening. Even now casting its shadows over the grass and demanding that water cease flowing save where it is directed to. That air pass through the specified channels, that weather turn null lest it interfere with the grand working of Humanity. 

Home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. She is home. 

"NNNNNEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOOOOO! HERMES!"

Bella's scream splits the sky. Her claw tips quiver. Her muscles pull so taught that she is carrying a mountain on her back again. Her eyes slash through the shadows and the twilight, searching. Searching. Seeking and never finding. She snarls. 

"SHOW YOURSELF! SHOW ME YOUR FUCKING FACE RIGHT NOW! IS THIS ALL IT WAS?! IS THIS WHAT I WAS FOR? IS THIS WHAT [i]REDANA[/i] WAS-- NERO!"

Her chest heaves. Steam hisses off her shoulders. A lifetime of worship and adoration and longing stick in her throat as tears sting the corners of her eyes. How long? How long has she carried the title of Praetor beyond all reason and through every trial where dropping it could only have been a blessing? How long, how far had she gone to prove her loyalty to the woman who had kicked her out without explaining anything in the first place?

She can [i]feel[/i] them coming. Even from here, she can feel them. The Imperial Kennels. [i]Home.[/i]