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About a minute and a half later the door at the top of the building creaked open a sliver. A single yellow eye scanned the space outside the door and, seeing nothing there, tentatively opened it further. What Alec was unable to see was that Zach had a finger hovering over the panic button the entire time. Satisfied that no one was going to ambush him right in front of his own home, he crept out. The sunlight didn't shine off his scales in any way. The stress was making them dull and even a little flaky, like some kind of terrible skin condition.

He let out a hiss-like sigh of frustration when he looked down at where the yell had originated from. Alec. Damn it, they just didn't leave him alone, did they? He put a couple claws to his forehead near where the eyepatch covered his missing eye. At least the fact that the shark couldn't make it up the stairs meant it wasn't as likely he could attack again. Once he'd bottled up the majority of his anger again, Zach took several light steps down the stairs and stopped halfway down. His tail zigzagged down the staircase. "What do you want?"

Zach continued to stare angrily down at the shark, giving no polite greeting whatsoever. While he was trying to be a little less bitter toward people who had some hope of seeing reason, he'd written off those who'd attacked him as lost causes. Alec was one of them. If he attacked once, it wasn't beyond the limits of the imagination to assume it could happen again.

The words surprised him, and immediately he was suspicious. Gaius had apologized once with an ulterior motive before, and went into a raving fit shortly after when faced with the obvious. The shark hadn't just tried to take a chunk out of his wing, though. He'd accused Zach of statutory rape. Having an ego as large as he did, he wasn't going to stand for the verbal abuse he took. He showed his teeth a little as he scanned the shark-like face for a hint of human expression to go by. He didn't accept any apologies quite yet. "Took you long enough to figure that out."

He rested an arm against the safety railing and leaned against it. "Somehow I doubt you or anyone around here is that sincere. Apologizing because you were wrong? I don't think so. What do you really want?"

Zach cut Alec off in mid-sentence. "Someone tried apologizing to me before once, but not until after they'd been... punished for something. He wasn't sorry at all and never has been."

"I'm supposed to take your word for it? I've got no reason to trust you or anyone who attacks me. You were the one who accused me of- you know, I don't even want to say it. With Amaya. You bit a hole in my wing. And you nearly murdered Aubrey once." He was pretty certain everyone had forgotten that he himself was guilty of the same, though not intentionally. Losing his eye had made him disgusted and even more hateful than before. He'd heard no word on whether there was hope of growing it back and had to assume the answer was no. It would be this way the rest of his life. He'd lost that eye to an islander like this shark, and he loathed them all.

"Why," he growled, "should I even stand here and listen to this?"

Zach's anger dissipated somewhat when Alec claimed he'd learned not to mess with the labs. This was something he wished more people would figure out, but he didn't have that kind of luck. His tail writhed on the stairs in a mockery of a cat's flicking. He sounded approving, even if he was still a little bitter. "Good! You're already miles ahead of almost everyone else here."

So far, there didn't seem to be any ulterior motive on Alec's part. If he was completely serious, Zach could perhaps eventually help him to embrace his new life and disregard the old completely. It was too bad no one seemed capable of it right away, not even the shark. A life devoted to hating everything around oneself seemed hardly a life at all to him. Sabin had chided him when he'd been like that, and the doctor had been right to.

"To convince me? Not a lot of things would, given your record. Although I think I might have something in mind." As though a little more reassured of Alec's good intentions, Zach went down a couple more steps, his wings fanned behind him. He had to admit, it was difficult to stay on top of what was going on in the village now. He was sure that many people were, in their own small ways, drawing up plans for escape. It was catching them at it that proved to be difficult. He'd never seen so much as a shred of evidence of any escape plans. He'd only heard various people claim they'd find a way to escape. If such plans were being made, they were beyond him to discover. Perhaps he was just paranoid, but people had certainly tried before. There was no telling when the next time could be. Unless... "I... haven't been able to get out as much lately since I seem to get ambushed everywhere I go. I lost an eye last time, and I'd rather keep the other. I know you were one of those people who've gone after me, but I can forget about all of that if you'll just agree to do me a favor. If you could, I don't know, find out what's going on around here for me? I'd like to stay informed."

Besides, even if this didn't work, Alec still had the potential to be an ally. All he needed was some guidance.

"Wonderful," he grinned. It wasn't the friendliest-looking smile, but without substantial lips he wasn't able to vary them much from their usual predatory appearance. He didn't want to think of it as taking advantage of the kid, but as an opportunity for him to redeem himself. And if he tried anything stupid, well, he seemed perfectly aware of what would happen. Zach wasn't feeling up to his usual level of zealousness, so not having to explain it all over again was good.

He looked away from Alec when the subject returned to his eye, glancing over the side of the stairs instead. He placed a few fingers lightly over his left eye and noticed that he had completely forgotten to put the eyepatch on that morning. He hadn't expected to go outside, and he still wasn't used to the lack of an eye. Strange how he never got a break on missing body parts.

"Some people around here aren't content with being miserable themselves. They like to make sure everyone else around them are, too," he said quietly with a hint of a growl.

"I wish it wouldn't. I can't live like this, waiting for the next damn attempt on my life." He paced along the stair he was on, tail lashing nervously. He still hadn't heard anything from Sabin about growing his eye back, and it was dawning on him ever so slowly that he wasn't going to get it back. But those kinds of thoughts weren't fitting and he shoved them away as quickly as he could. He shouldn't be asking too much from the doctor.

"They are taking care of things, though," he added with a little more enthusiasm. Zach unclipped the panic button from his waist and held it up between several clawed fingers. While it wasn't something he'd show to most of the islander population, he figured Alec wouldn't get angry at the sight of it, nor could he just leap up and snatch it away. "If anyone tries to attack me now, I can get them zapped at the press of a button. At least preventing them from getting a shot in at all is something. I'd just like to find some way to keep them from even wanting to. I don't understand why they get so... so crazy."

Zach nodded, displaying a flash of teeth with a crooked grin. He replaced the object at his side, taking care not to accidentally press the button with his claws as he snagged it back on his belt.

"So," he started slowly. He'd been somewhat suspicious the entire time as to why Alec was apologizing. He was wrong, obviously, about Zach having done anything with Amaya. But, seeing as it hadn't been himself, it must have been someone. He'd have to be careful though. He didn't want Alec to break their little deal suddenly over this kind of personal grievance. "If you don't mind me asking, what did happen to Amaya?"