Flashback - [So, this got longer than I intended. It probably needs to be cruelly edited. But, nah. I’m just going to throw it into the void!
@badthingshappenbingo [Original Characters and content for - Reopening an Old Wound]
Whumptober Day: No. 6 - Please - “Get it out!” No more. “Stop, please!” [Sorta all three]
Ten Trails: Heart and Soul (2)- Repressed memories [@yuckwhump]
CW/TW: Uncomfortable invasion of the mind. References to interrogation, captivity and potential torture. Reference to implied bullying in the OC’s past.
[Please let me know if I missed anything]
[I don’t think there is anything triggering about the abstract art, hopefully, so its just out here. FYI-That is a man casually ‘caught up’ in his brain.]
Zach drummed an arrhythmic beat against the edge of his table, when the door to his office slid upon and the framework framed Akira like a painting,
“Ah, good! You’re here. I’ve been led to believe you possess a unique set of skills and are the perfect candidate to... solve a little problem I’ve chanced upon. Shall we?”
She wasn’t given a chance to make her way into his office. Within a moment, he was already crowding her. Zach shepherded her towards a vehicle. They rode in uncomfortable silence. There weren’t too many people who could set Akira on edge, but Zach was definitely one of them. She assumed it was because she couldn’t get a read on him. And the tenebrous past he shared with Jared.
The vehicle pulled up and she almost opened her side of the door into Zach’s crotch, accidentally. She stopped herself just in time, leaving the door slightly ajar. With a soft huff of disappointment and impatience, Zach opened it all the way and waited for her to step out. Akira really wasn’t accustomed to this level of archaic chivalry. The silence continued to loom as they walked past the wired fence, to the decommissioned lab. It was marked for repair and rennovation. As they rounded to the door, he went on to warn her, with feigned concern, that did fool her.
“This is not going to be easy. It certainly isn’t for me, but I trust you know, that as Amity Enforcers, it's our duty to defend the goals of the Global Confederate. ”
Her brows knitted and her eyes narrowed, but she nodded. They made their way inside. Their footsteps echoed in the vacant reception area and continued to click as they walked through the lobby and the labyrinth of corridors. The first couple of floors had already been revamped and restored. From the corner of her eyes, she noted the silhouettes of wrapped equipment. She recognized them with ease, some were bots for medical procedures, others were devices typically used for research… on human subjects. They were flush against the walls haphazardly.
He led her into a softly lit room, and stopped by two-sided mirror. The other side was dark. Akira stared at their reflections. In retrospect, the sincerity in Zach’s expressions, would surprise her. Another guilty reassurance followed. It felt like he was setting her up for some kind of a climax,
“I assure you, I’ve done my due diligence, and grave apologies that I wasn’t able to get to him before the others. He’s a little roughed up. Needless to say, he’ll be fixed up. Perhaps you can help with that too…”
Zach fiddled with something that looked like a keypad touch screen. Bright fluorescent lights illuminated the room beyond the mirror.
Akira did a double-take and didn’t realise she was holding her breath.
Jared.
She didn’t need to see his face to recognize him. He didn’t have a shirt on and his pants looked scruffy. Angry, fresh bruises covered most of the skin that she could see. Cuffs cinched his wrists behind his back. His cheek sat in a small pool of blood. Crimson that leaked from a cut lip and from his nose. His chest rose and fell erratically. Jared didn’t react to the lights. He was either asleep… Or just unconscious. Zach’s little roughed up didn’t exactly do justice.
She couldn’t tear her eyes off Jared, but she found her voice and addressed Zach in an indignant hiss,
“What the fuck is this?”
Zach ran gloved fingers through his silken strands,
“I told you this wasn’t going to be easy. I recognize that your relationship, predisposes you to defend him. To take his side. And that’s good. Because-”
Aki interrupted him through grit teeth,
“Get to the point damnit. What reason do you have to hold him like this?”
She found it very hard to maintain composure. Her eyes still riveted on Jared, till Zach’s fingers found Akira’s jaw. He held it to force her to turn and look at him. She did turn, but also jerked away from his hand. He didn’t press for contact.
Zach’s voice darkened. It got colder and softer with a bridled rage,
“I’m going to let that tone slide. Compelling evidence has surfaced, that declares him responsible for the death of my mother… and my subsequent capture. And that he either is, or was associated with SpecSyn.”
His tone reminded her of the chilly one that Jared assumed, when he had reason to truly mean whatever threat he was uttering. The comparison was unsettling. Zach went on,
“And I’d like very much to believe this evidence is bogus, because I don’t want it to be true. As much as you probably don’t. We grew up together, him and I. We trained in G.C.A together, served in Sector Nine together… ”
She noticed a sort of hurt in Zach’s eyes. The kind of pain that screamed betrayal. For the briefest of moments it made her trust him, as he went on talking,
“And I’m doing my very best to not fall prey to my anger… Akira. So please… help me. Help me wipe these allegations once and for all. You convince me, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Akira sounded hesitant, she was processing everything a little too slowly to immediately recognize what Zach wanted. So she defended Jared rather simply,
“Look, I don’t know what to tell you, he never told me anything-”
Zach’s voice changed to something practical and detached again, like this was just any other mission detail. This also reminded her of Jared.
“No, of course he didn’t. Despite how intimate you two are, I doubt he would’ve trusted you with anything important, or too personal. He’s always been an agent first… Apparently, just not for G.C.”
She could sense that he was provoking her now and instilling doubt again… Somewhat successfully. Jared had always been rather tight-lipped. Even more so around the subject of the events that led to Azrael’s death and his missions. They’d argued about it on more than one occasion. Now was not the time to get hung up on the way the truth of his words stung.
She turned her back to Jared and leaned against the two-way mirror.
Zach went on,
“Frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t simply-”
She challenged with another interruption, eager to defend the relationship he sounded so dismissive about.
“What? Just read him? Relationships don’t work like that, Zach... I trust him. Still do. Always will.”
Her heart sank when she finally realised what the man wanted. And he made quick work of confirming Akira’s assumptions,
“Well, push has come to shove. And if you trust him so much, you shouldn’t find anything in there-”
He rested one hand against the glass of the two-way mirror and tapped it.
‘-In there, that’s too alarming. I say you- and by that I mean we, because we’re running out of options. So, convince me, he truly doesn’t know anything. And I’ll make sure he’s free to go. And you.”
And me?
She folded her arms across her chest,
“I didn’t realise I was not free to go. So what, I’m a prisoner now too?”
Zach stepped in closer and placed his other hand on the surface of the mirror behind Akira. Her face was between his palms and she felt a little trapped, by the situation and literally by Zach’s proximity, but she did her best to not show it. He shrugged,
“The Jared I know, would’ve worked alone, but the others would not hesitate to assume your involvement by proxy. And it doesn’t help that you’re a Niner. But, like I’ve said before I’d like to stay on your side, on his side.”
She drew in a long shaky breath, her voice fell to an uncertain whisper,
“It…. My power doesn’t work like that. It’s not so perfect… I can’t just give you what you want.”
He smiled, realising that she’d understood that her options were limited and was at least, considering compliance.
“I know how your power works. And I’ll guide you. We’ll have to find a way, for his sake.”
Nonetheless, she obviously had to check if there was in fact, any other way. She wasn’t too keen on breaking that sacrosanct trust,
“What if I say no?”
Zach huffed brusquely,
“Then I’ll have no choice but to give the two of you up. I can only buy so much time. They’ll either force a confession false or not... or kill both of you in the process of doing so… So, Akira, I really don’t want to spend our time constantly reminding you, that I’m the only thing standing in the way of a very… very bleak future for both of you.”
So, no real choice indeed.
A small part of Akira rejoiced and then recoiled with guilt. The part that did want to know all of Jared’s secrets, just so they could clear the air once and for all. The part she’d leashed, with difficulty and upon his insistence- out of respect for what they shared...
Another part of her curled up in fear of what she’d actually find.
And how she’d hide it from Zach, if it was indeed incriminating.
“How do you expect me to convince you?”
Zach looked beyond her, presumably at Jared, as he laid out the plan,
“To make sure you aren’t lying, I’ll first have you dredge up memories of his time with me, details that I can confirm. Things you’re unlikely to know about, at least not in all their specificity. Then we can work towards the rest. It’ll be a process… But hopefully, Jared gets out of this absolved and we all walk away unharmed. I’ll have Mark monitor your stats when we get to the important stuff. So I’ll know if you’re lying. You know Mark right, I believe you’ve worked with him? That should make all this a little easier...”
-
Carrying a glass of water, painkillers and some tissues, she walked into the cell alone. Her SmartNeura was connected to Zach’s, so he could instruct her without Jared’s knowledge. Jared was still curled on the floor. He had not moved almost at all. His knuckles were unbruised. But his wrists bore evidence of struggle. She gathered that Jared had not resisted arrest and that they’d hurt him after he was already cuffed. Presumably to get quick answers. Knowing him, he must’ve chosen silence. She assumed he was in some drug induced stupor now, she was wrong.
“Jared…”
He sat up so quickly, she and her heart jumped.
“Shira? What the hell are you doing here?”
Why did his tone sound accusative?
“Z-”
Before she could tell him, Zach interrupted her sharply,
“No. Don’t name me. He doesn’t need to know of my involvement yet. Tell him someone else asked you for help with the interrogation-Better yet, tell him you heard and volunteered. Keep it vague.”
Akira chewed the side of her lips and looked at Jared as intently as she could, she wasn’t sure if he could see truth in her eyes. She went and flopped by his side, cross-legged. And put the water beside him, along with the painkillers and tissues. He picked up the latter to wipe away the blood. She repeated Zach almost word for word,
“I… heard they caught you and volunteered to help.”
She was hoping Jared would recognize the foreignness of her words. Unfortunately, given his current state, he either didn’t, or did a damn good job of hiding it. His eyes widened. She knew he was definitely closing in on her intent. And desperately hoping it wasn’t true, just like she had been, just moments ago.
“Help how?”
She was at a loss of words. Aki jerked her chin towards his head. She really didn’t want to spell it out,
“You know… I’ll just… Read and confirm you innoc-”
Jared shot up like a spring, and was on his feet. He staggered as he backed away from her. He sounded uncharacteristically flustered, his words as choppy as his faltering steps,
“Why the fuck would you- We’ve gone over this… We agreed- It’s the one thing I’ve asked for- Wait you told them about your- Just…Just… Get outta here and let them do what they want. You don’t need to get involved. Why would they believe you anyway?”
He kept shuffling away as he talked, to literally stay out of her reach. Till he had nowhere left to go. Akira didn’t move towards him, she remained on the floor and stared at it. She wanted to yell. To let him know in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want any of this. That she had no choice. That it wasn’t going to be a damn walk in the park for her either. That she’d been summoned.
And that she was glad that she’d been called. At least she could buy them some time to figure this out. That she couldn’t, in good faith, just… let them do what they wanted.
She sat frozen, screaming internally till Zach was compelled to intervene. He sounded impatient… but Aki could swear, he also sounded mildly delirious,
“Tell him, it's too late and you’re already involved. Tell him, he doesn’t have a real choice. Then ask him about Erebus at the C.T.F we did for training at G.C.A. Read the memory that comes up. I’m staring us off easy.”
In his impatience, Zach was revealing himself with every suggestion and Akira was glad that he was. Though she wasn’t sure if Jared was truly catching on, or not. She’d heard him speak of Erebus - now an Acer himself, working in the resources department- and not too fondly. She had nothing specific enough for her to fib her way through this. Akira cleared her throat and repeated Zach’s words, paraphrasing just enough to change the perspective, and couch her question as a memory-trigger,
“Look, I’m already here. So this is happening, whether you like it or not. Let’s talk about Erebus. You two were in G.C.A together, right? Did both of you participate in the capture-the-flag game? Were you on the same team?”
She hoped that the confusion that flitted on Jared’s face was a sign that he was starting to catch up. He had to have figured out that they were being watched by someone, if not specifically Zach.
Jared asked,
“Erebus? Why? I’ve barely mentioned him”
She made up a lie, now improvising without Zach’s direction,
“He’s... A suspect too...”
She was grateful that Zach needed to confirm her compliance with… hopefully benign memories. But, with the way Jared tensed up, perhaps even this was not as benign as she was hoping.
It’s just C.T.F… How bad could it be?
Jared sighed, like he’d curtailed an exasperated warning,
“Shira… please just...”
After one last look of what she perceived to be despise- aimed either at her, or at the very least at the situation, he closed his eyes. With a dark, heart-rending resignation, he slid against the wall, till he was sitting on the floor with his knees pressed against his chest. She knew he wasn’t the sort to protest once he realised it was futile. She sat there feeling a little paralyzed.
There was no going back once she crossed this line.
Zach prompted her into action,
“Go on! Remember we’re still time-bound.
Wordlessly, she inched closer to Jared and set his hands on his exposed arms.
-
Lying on the ground, stomach first. The wetness of dewdrops against the cheek. The chilly breeze against a bareback. The smell of damp earth and grass. The blurry sight of the green blades and the soil - shuffling shoes and ankles in the distance. The recently-cracked awkward husk of a pubescent voice,
“This’ll teach you to fucking play decoy for Pixie-dust!”
The sound of vague, bitter and cruel jeering. Shoes sliding closer. Fingers curling around wrists and ankles, tightening with a certain envious sourness. The soles of shoes against the back of the knees… and the elbows, with the wobbling, inconsistent, but hurtful pressure.
The body, contorts and twists to see the sneering face of the kid who spoke. A raspy, baleful protest, claws out of the throat,
“Get your lackeys off me ‘Rebus!”
An unavailing struggle that ensues. Another soul pressed against the lower back, with a pathetic finality.
And then the sound of the marker, shot at point-blank range.
The smarting slap of the bullet splattering between the shoulder blades. The strangled roar, interrupted by another shot… and then another.
The headache-inducing grit teeth and set jaw. The metallic tang of blood and the annoying stab of a bitten tongue- completely overshadowed by the aching throb of the back. The burgeoning tenderness and the blooming bruises.
Finally, after half a dozen shots, the deafening silence. The splattered, viscous paint, that felt as good as blood, rolling down the sides of the torso.
And a soft, defeated whine.
The vague thought that this must appear rather comical to an onlooker… but sure didn’t feel that way.
-
Jared’s quieter whimper met Akira’s louder groans, they tapered to an uncomfortable silence, first him, then her. She blinked away, the tears that collected on the side of her eyes. When she let go of him, she noticed her fingers had left a print on his pale skin, blanching through a bruise.
She had just experienced his memory in first person and forced him to relive it too. Aki could still hear the echo of the shots and feel her back smarting. He probably felt the same lingering effects. She knew it’d fade soon enough, but it left her heaving for air. Her emotions were mingled with young Jared’s- contempt for this Erebus kid who pressed him into the ground and shot him. Despair... that it happened. And her instinct was more violent than his,
“What a fucking tool. I’d have kil-”
She cut herself off when Jared opened his eyes. The dejection in them tore at her. And Zach’s voice broke the moment,
“Why did you stop? Tell him you want to know what happens and go back.”
Akira hesitated, till Zach made the order in no uncertain terms,
“Do it, now!”
She echoed his suggestion with a slight startle, like a spurred horse,
“I… I want to know what happens next-”
He let his fingers lace with her approaching hands. A plainative squeeze followed,
“No! Stop it… Shira… Please. Please no more… Not again.”
@badthingshappenbingo [Original Characters and content for - Dehydration]
Whumptober Day: No. 4 - Running Out of Time - Failed Escape [Art+Drabble]
Ten Trails: Death Trap (9) - Burning Building [@yuckwhump]
CW/TW: Reference to captivity and tortrure. Drugging and Fire. [Let me know if I missed something, I can’t think of anything]
Art under ‘keep reading’ (attempts to) feature a woman stuck in a burning building and guy outside.
The day was just fluorescent lights and the night the pitch darkness of her cell. In between that white and black - Was the dull grey blur of text, test tubes and the torment etched on Jared and copied onto her. At least she had more freedom than Jared.
She was convinced Red wasn’t himself anymore and she feared he was never going to be. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself that she was only doing what she had to… That she was doing her best to keep Jared alive, to buy time, not compromise the mission and navigate Zachariah’s expectations, she couldn’t help but blame herself for… Everything.
A soft cradle for his chin and an apologetic and concerned whisper forced him to stir,
“Jared…? Red? Sweetheart, can you hear me?”
Sunken eyes, stared up at her vacantly, from underneath the thicket of shaggy, dishevelled hair. He held her wrist in a tight grip, which despite his best efforts was much weaker than it had once been. It didn’t hurt, not physically, but she recoiled because it felt like a fearful attack by a cornered animal. He pushed her away and she let him. She repositioned and knelt at arm’s length. Akira couldn’t blame him, on instruction, she had used the affection they had shared to attempt pretentiously disarming him before… He had no reason to trust her and she desperately needed him to. Simply because she selfishly hoped she wouldn’t be forced to use plan B.
She blinked away guilty tears as she scanned the scars, the cuts and bruises she had been forced to leave on him. Not unlike the ones that she bore, except hers were covered by the lab-coat. Worse than the visible evidence, was all the pain and anguish she couldn’t really see, except in his tired eyes. There was a flicker of hope in them, perhaps because she called him Red. She had made sure to never do that through everything they’d endured over the last few months… Maybe more, maybe little less…
“Shira?”
Yes!
Akira cleared her throat to stabilize a quivering voice, so she could assuage the fear she knew had to be bubbling up inside him.
“Yeah… It’s me. I’m not here to ask questions or to hurt you, okay?”
But the spark died and was replaced with the same, dead and wary caution. He hissed,
“No! Stay the fuck away from me...”
He curled into the wall he was already pressed up against. She didn’t have the time to haggle with him. Not if she was to succeed in saving him.
Time for plan B.
It took so much from her to swiftly break the promise she’d just made. Aki stabbed him with the tranquilizer. He wasn’t really in a position to put up a fight. The drugs… the lack of adequate nutrition and the repeated exposure to Akira’s power had left him quite weak and vulnerable.
After he lost consciousness. Akira dragged his form to the fortified underground lab.
A lab within a lab is both genius and hilarious.
This was left off the blue-prints. Very few people knew of its existence and luckily Zach wasn’t among them. The only friendly she’d seen was Mark’s, who had been guiding her. He was the one who provided her with this knowledge. The rest was up to her.
There weren’t as many people monitoring them. Zach had kept this whole thing underwraps… So Akira had exploited the freedom she had to sneak and survey the hidden lab on a midnight excursion. The underground lab was equipped with a single D.P.S.C - Damage-proof-stasis-chamber.
Now, her shaky hands, prepared Jared and put him in it. The hope was that he’d be presumed dead after the explosion she was about to set off. The lab was unlikely to be found unless someone knew where to look. The chamber would keep Jared alive… and in time they’d be able to go back for him. All she needed to do was get out of there after the accidental explosion…
They had to let her out. None of this was her fault. At least not in any verifiable way.
All she had to do was convince Caius.
-
[Credit: A shot from the movie Om Shanti Om, is used as a reference for the art and inspired the fic]
It was Zach who noticed that the surveillance footage from the lab was on a loop. So he made his way there, only to witness an explosion. He had been losing patience with the two of them steadily. While Jared was just a little more than a husk, Akira still had her wits about herself… And he had not gotten anything significantly useful from them. Their deaths would not be a favorable outcome, but it was a fitting consequence for their continued lack of cooperation. Afterall, Zach couldn’t risk anyone else finding them either... He dismissed Caius and waited for Akira at the locked entrance.
The fortified door and the thick laminated glass between them, muffled Zachariah’s question,
“So... You finally gave up on trying to save him? Gave him the death he’s been pleading for?”
Not enough for her to feign deafness. She responded in a cry that sounded foreign to her. Her shrill plea was desperate and panicked. Akira didn’t typically allow herself to get this way. She had not expected Zach to stop her from leaving the damn building,
“No! Zach…”
“Ok, go fetch him then.”
Even with the panic clawing at her, she still had the sense to lie… After all, even if she couldn’t make it out, he’d survive. Mark would wait and he would know where to look.
“I don’t know… I don’t know where he is.”
But even the sheer fear was not enough to cloak that fact that she had to know something. There was no way that there wasn’t some foul play here. An out of commission lab, didn’t simply explode. And security footage didn’t scramble itself. Zach would have to look into that later. Someone had tried helping them. At least the list of suspects was a short one. Not many people knew about this venture,
“I’d say this is overkill, the building didn’t deserve this...”
She lied again,
“I didn’t do this. Please! Please let me out!”
He watched with disinterest as Akira slammed her flattened hand against the glass. He was safe on the outside. But it’d be unkind to let her flirt with death alone… So Zach drew a cigarette and lit it, which was as uncharacteristic for him as screaming for help was for Akira. It felt like a fitting way to honor Jared… Given he had to still be somewhere in the building that was slowly getting consumed by flames. The Knight deserved a better death... A part of Zach wanted to save his friend. But that cat had run out of his nine lives… and all the second-third and several chances that Zach had given him.
Aki left bloodstains on the glass. But she could barely register the sharp slices of pain that ran through the cut on her palm. Another accident… Like the explosions were meant to be.
The flames roared and cackled behind her, she turned with a snap, as an explosion on the first floor forced heat and fire to billow into the grand reception lobby.
With one final question,
“Did you actually think I’d let you live?”
Zach walked away.
She held her breath. Her lips were already chapped and her eyes stung. A sputter, followed a helpless surge of hacking coughs that wrecked through her. She stumbled her way to the back. Her lab-coat caught a lick of flame and soon it’s arm was ablaze. She screeched as she swiftly tried getting rid of it. She succeeded, but not before it seared her elbow. She used the charred coat to bat away the flames in her way with her uninjured arm, as she headed back towards the underground lab. Stuck between death by active fire… or presumably by dehydration… Akira couldn’t help but buy herself a little more time.
She dropped into the lab with barely a minute to spare. Within moments, the exit was buried in rubble. Her breathing was laboured, she was certain soot lined her throat… Aki crawled towards the stasis chamber, as a futile attempt to prevent feeling the stab of loneliness. She sat against it, chuckling at one small silver-lining- that at least she wasn’t claustrophobic. She sat up, till she couldn’t hold up her weight any more. And fading into unconsciousness felt like a gift.
