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Zach recoiled immediately, realizing what he had just done. There was no sense of regret for having smashed the pegasus in the door. Quite the opposite, it had felt justified. But that didn't mean Sabin would see things the same way. And that... he didn't want to think about that. At least Gaius wasn't moving around so much now. Was that good, or bad?

He tried to stay calm, but that calm was interrupted by sharp pain in his foot. He stumbled with another snarl and landed on his knees with a large dog hanging off the back of one of his feet. Zach was unaware of the dog having any special significance, and didn't even know of its lab origin. He'd transgressed once already, a second time couldn't make a huge difference. He kicked, trying to knock his bony, scaly heel into the dog's nose and snout. It failed, only serving to allow the dog to draw blood. Cornered in his own duplex.... After knocking against the dog's head with his tail, he tried to pry it off with his clawed hands, not hesitating to scratch or claw as he dug into the animal to pull it off. Given the way he was twisted to rid himself of the dog, Gaius was now entirely out of his visual range.

Zach shook his hands as casually as if the blood was no different than water, sending a few droplets of blood flying. He stood up again, hissing when he had to put weight on his bitten foot. Rather than lunge at Gaius, he backed up quickly but carefully until his wings brushed against the door, then turned sideways so that he could slam it shut and lock it. Gaius was not getting away that easily. The panic button remained unused for the time being. He was afraid to call this being threatened, but he could probably twist the situation in his favor in the end.

"Huh?" he questioned idly, not realizing he'd done anything much to the animal. When he saw the blood oozing from its scratches, he grinned and let his tongue run across his sharp teeth as though indicating he had no hesitations about finishing it off. He waved a bloodstained hand at the cowering dog. "Oh, that? Your goddamn dog bit me. I guess I was careless getting it off for you, since you were a little preoccupied stealing from me."

It appeared Gaius was after the eye Zach had showed off to him a while back. At least he hadn't touched anything else important or valuable, like the letter Kaveri had given him nearly a year ago. Even if it was a symbol of the idiotic desperation of his early days on the island, he couldn't bear to get rid of it. Odds were the pegasus would be too thick-skulled to realize what it was anyway - an attempt to confuse the cameras with a secret code. They'd never thought it out all the way, of course, and the code was nothing more than a stupid diversion that probably hadn't caused the staff to bat an eyelash at the time. He glanced back at the dog once more to confirm it wasn't going to leap at him, then back to Gaius. He was getting consumed by nerves now, afraid that Gaius would attack him if this continued. But the eye rightfully belonged to him. Sabin had given it to him. He wasn't about to let Gaius run off with a real, physical piece of evidence of what was done to those who crossed him. He stayed where he was in front of the door, shielding it with partly outstretched wings. "Now... put that down."

Zach saw Gaius glance around the room, but assumed he was merely in the process of discovering that the door was the only way out of the room. He felt slightly more confident that he'd get what he wanted in the end. Gaius had intruded into his personal space, was trying to take his personal property, but he had a plan...

"Its rightful owner?" he snorted disdainfully. "That would be me. Lucas cost me my eye, so it's only fair that he never sees his again either. Why should it be any of your damn business anyway? Just... Put. It. Down."

He was rapidly running out of patience. Was Gaius crazy? What would it take to show him that he was powerless here? As long as he continued to delude himself into thinking he was some kind of hero, fighting anyone who disagreed with him before sizing up the danger, he would continue to be crushed. Evidently he didn't value his own life. Zach couldn't imagine living like that. He took a couple of steps toward Gaius with his wings still spread, trying not to wince when he put his injured right foot down. Blood was dripping down it onto the carpet. He reached toward his side slowly, ready to use the panic button if any sudden moves were made at him. He grimaced, as ready as he could be.

"You're in no position to tell me what I deserve," he growled, about to share the usual rant about having lost his arm before. It wasn't even necessary, though, as Gaius was already trying to escape. But Zach was once again expecting something that didn't happen. Instead of charging him, Gaius had taken off toward... the window? As he watched, he unclipped the panic button so he could hold it in his hand instead. The audible thud as the pegasus slammed into the window was given five seconds of stunned silence before Zach burst out laughing.

He laughed all the way to where Gaius was sprawled, glancing at the dog only once to confirm it wasn't going to strike again. Zach's tail was swishing back and forth in amusement, and even the pain of his foot didn't stop him from letting off the grating laugh. This certainly couldn't be blamed on him. All Gaius had to do was put the jar back down and Zach would have let him leave. "I have to admit, you need to run into windows more often. It suits you."

Still holding the panic button lightly in one hand, he bent down to try and pry the jar out of Gaius's seemingly limp grip with the other.

"Agh!" Zach hadn't been expecting Gaius to move, and especially not to kick. The hooved foot hit him square in the knee with a crack, and it buckled from the pain. Not being particularly good at balancing anyhow, he crashed to the floor right next to the pegasus, lying on his side. The panic button fell out of his grasp and bounced on the floor once before landing just within his reach. He cradled his injured knee with both hands, hissing angrily. It wasn't broken, he didn't think, but it had taken a hell of a hit to a nerve or two on the way down.

Swearing under his breath, he tried to see about moving his leg, but the numbness of hitting a nerve made it too hard to move for the time being. He threw a hand over the panic button to reel it in before the dog could get to it, though that left his back, wings, and tail wide open to attack. He didn't need Gaius to know about it quite yet, and he did want the damn dog swallowing it or anything stupid like that. If only he'd kept his door closed...

Just as he'd managed to reclaim the panic button and some feeling returned to his leg, he was attacked once again. He let out a roar that was mixed with the unbearably high notes of a bat's screeching. This really wasn't his day. It was far worse than getting kicked by a regular foot. Whatever hoof material had grown on his feet was as hard as a rock and certainly felt that way when it slammed into his wing joint and his back. He could feel it even under the hard scales, knowing that there would be some degree of invisible bruising. That was a strange thing about the scales. They hid his injuries from others quite well, things like cuts disappearing against the blood red of his scales and bruises being nothing more than slightly swollen areas. But in the end, the injuries remained, even if he was the only one who knew about them.

Zach turned around and reached out to grab Gaius's trailing ankle with a snarl. He didn't bother to be careful, letting his claws dig into the skin hidden under the coarse hair. The clawing, in fact, almost seemed intentional. He'd always ignored the fact that he was a pawn, a pet, following someone else's orders explicitly. It had robbed him of a certain amount of freedom that only now could he express. He was going against Sabin's order not to take matters into his own hands. Despite the injuries, the fact that he was doing something himself combined with a long-buried urge to hunt made it an almost intoxicating power trip to have the advantage literally at his fingertips. He was the predator, he had the teeth and claws, and was he ever close to using them this time. But Sabin had said not to... what was Zach supposed to do, just let Gaius run off with something that was rightfully his own? Maybe the doctor would understand. He had to. And Gaius had to give the jar back if he didn't want to risk some lovely gaping wounds across his back. "Damnit! Just drop it!"

Zach let go of the ankle quickly once the hoof collided with his forehead, causing bright flashes in his vision and losing him another significant chunk of self-control. He still had the panic button, or did he? Had it fallen? It hardly mattered. He cradled his head in his hands, the pain from all his injuries continuing to fuel his insatiable animal wants. His wings were spread like a fallen parachute along the floor. "It's mine..."

He couldn't let Gaius get away. He wasn't weak. He couldn't let it come into question. This was his territory. His. Gaius knew what he was getting into by coming here and bringing his attack dog with him. He was looking for trouble and he was damn well going to get some. He stayed silent, peering out with his one eye from between his fingers. Gaius was still making a getaway, was still trying to be the hero. Taking from him once again. Making his life hell. No. NO. "Fine! I'll make you give it back!"

He knew he was hissing, but that was pretty much the extent of his awareness. He moved to stop the pegasus from getting away with the jar. It might have been a hobble, something that spared him having to use his injured leg. But with the mindless focus of a predator he'd crossed the gap of space between himself and the crawling half-horse. A set of sharp claws dug into the other man's back, and his long jaws clamped down on a bony, feathery wing. He swore he could taste blood. It wasn't enough, though. He wanted a kill. He wanted Gaius dead, and he wanted to be the executioner. He wasn't sure whether his sudden lapse in judgment in favor of his instincts was sanity or insanity, but whatever that feeling was didn't last long. Whoever had been careless enough to leave them alone that long had finally realized their mistake and made their first move, zapping the dragon before he could do any more damage. Even unconsciousness didn't dislodge his jaws after they had been snapped shut, though the rest of him had crumpled down at the will of gravity.