This Is a Test, Part 2
Mar. 7th, 2010 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
contract_starAuthor: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quirkypeanutblu
Character/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 017: Long Hours (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 4,455
Summary: Hei becomes a temporary PANDORA guinea pig.
Author’s Notes: Blood. Violence. Torture. Drug abuse. General unpleasantness. It’s kind of gross at times. Attempts at hallucination!Ladon.
His water was drugged. His food—rice only—was drugged. One time they’d pumped some kind of gas into the room. Hei wasn’t sure what its intent was, but it had had him convulsing on the floor for several minutes. He was starting to think that the air itself was drugged. At this point it wouldn’t have surprised him.
At first he’d refused to eat or drink, but then they’d sent in Stone, who had smacked him around a bit before literally forcing the food down his throat. When that hadn’t worked, they’d sent in Snake.
It really just wasn’t worth it. His energy was better spent trying to stay sane and working on an escape plan.
------
Reynard tipped out a cocktail of at least five different pills into his hand.
“Do you want to guess, Hei?”
Hei said nothing.
“Come on, now. I know you’ve seen this one before.” He prodded an oblong blue pill. “Don’t you remember? Immunosuppressant, your second day here, I believe.”
Hei said nothing.
“Fine, then, I’ll tell you. This one’s an antipsychotic, this one’s a painkiller, this one’s a muscle relaxant…and I won’t tell you what this fifth one is. It’s the mystery flavor! If you can guess the mystery flavor when I come back, I might let you take a break. How does that sound?”
Hei said nothing. Stone took hold of his hair and yanked his head back, then Reynard deposited the pills into Hei’s mouth. Stone poured more of that odd sweet water down his throat to force Hei to swallow.
“Get them all down. We’re very interested in how these will interact. Don’t worry. This would kill a normal person, but the water will keep you alive. Isn’t that lucky, BK-201?”
-------
He had no idea how long he’d been here. They kept the lights on at all times and there were no windows, no clocks. Every once in awhile he’d catch a glimpse of someone’s watch, which wouldn’t help much. He slept when he was tired, when they let him sleep.
He was pretty sure he had spent a good portion of his time here unconscious, and he wasn’t sure what they did to him then. He would black out and wake up strapped to the bed with a new ache, or would wake up back in the chair with his ears ringing.
This time he woke up in the bed, his limbs restrained, the heart monitor beeping much slower than was probably healthy. He felt odd and slow, and sounds came at him deep and drawling. People were moving around him, but they were all blurs. The ceiling shifted from white to purple to yellow.
There was a sensation like a knife in his stomach and he screamed, or thought he screamed. The blurs swirled. There was a dry, sweet scent and—
Darkness again.
-------
Ladon and Bai were sitting at the end of his bed, talking to him. He had nothing better to do, so he talked back.
“When’re you getting outta here?” Ladon demanded, glaring at him through glittering eyes. Oh, those eyes.
“Doctors say I can leave tomorrow,” Hei said, his voice barely a whisper and raw, always raw. He got the laugh he’d been hoping for from Ladon. Bai didn’t laugh, because Bai never laughed.
“Brother,” she said. “You can kill them. You can kill them all. What are you waiting for?”
“Not that easy.”
“If you die on me again, I swear…” Ladon made a low noise in his throat, a dragon noise.
“Be better,” Hei said absently. “Might wake up back in Cicero. Like you.”
“Yeah, and you might not. Then what the hell am I gonna do?”
“Not…planning on dying.”
“You need a plan, Brother.”
“Working on it.”
“Work faster, yeah?”
Hei closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Ladon and Bai were gone.
-------
He was in the chair, limp, tired, bleeding from when Hei had tried to scoot his chair toward one of the electromagnets and Stone had come in to stop him.
The door burst open. Hei flinched, and there was a shout—Stone and another scientist were dragging in a third man, while a fourth carried in a second chair and a pair of handcuffs. The struggling Contractor—he could be nothing else—kicked and thrashed and yelled in what sounded like English. Hei could only pick out a few words.
He watched with mild interest as the three scientists dragged the Contractor into the middle of the room, forced him into the chair and handcuffed his wrists behind him. The Contractor spat obscenities and tried to break his way out to no avail. Once he was secure, the three scientists left. The Contractor yelled after them for about a minute, then fell silent. He looked around the room, eventually turning to glare at Hei.
This was the second time they had brought in another prisoner. The first hadn’t lasted long. Hei studied him vaguely, wondering why they’d brought him here.
The Contractor snapped something in English at Hei and spit on the floor between them. Hei shrugged and returned to ignoring everything. He drifted.
Eventually there was a scraping sound. Hei glanced up. The English Contractor was wide-eyed as his body began to convulse, bucking up and down in the chair. The force of his movements made the handcuffs bite through the flesh and soon blood was pouring down behind him to the floor. Hei watched impassively as the man bit through his tongue, through both lips, listened to the pops as the seizure jerked his arms out of their sockets. The man was trying to scream, but it came out as one long animal groan, cut through with gurgles as he choked on his blood and what was left of his tongue.
It took him quite awhile to die. Hei never once took his eyes off of him.
Once the Contractor had gone still, Snake and Stone came into the room. Stone took hold of the back of the chair and started dragging it out, the legs leaving trails through the puddle of blood. Snake clicked his tongue.
“Nope, still some bugs to work out.”
-------
Rose was back. This was her third time.
They did this sometimes, sent in other Contractors to test their powers on him, or in Rose’s case, to facilitate their obeisances.
He was strapped to the bed, half-blind from some kind of light test earlier. She crossed the room to him and drew a small knife from her pocket. She came to a stop beside him with a faint sigh.
“Sorry,” she said. She apologized every time, but it was a Contractor’s apology, half-hearted and meaningless.
She dragged the knife across his arm and he hissed a little. Then she leaned down and closed her mouth around the wound, sucking and drawing his blood into her mouth.
It occurred to him that not long ago, this might have horrified him.
A few mouthfuls was all she needed. Then she stood up and wiped her mouth, making a face. She walked out without another word, leaving his arm to bleed. Someone would be in eventually to wrap it up.
All those drugs in his system. He amused himself by wondering what his blood did to her.
-------
The pain was unbelievable. It felt as if his stomach was literally trying to burst out of his skin. He was throwing up and he couldn’t stop, not even long enough to scream or cry out. His stomach kept emptying itself, until the mess had turned red, until it had turned an ugly black. Everything hurt. His stomach and throat and chest burned and the mess was everywhere now.
He passed out. When he came to the room smelled of disinfectant and the pain had faded. He’d been moved to the bed. His stomach churned and roiled, but nothing more came up. An IV had been threaded into his arm.
They left him alone for a good while, the longest they’d ever let him rest. Hei savored every second.
-------
He was on the floor, the tiles cool against his cheek, watching Reynard drift through a red haze. There was blood everywhere.
“It was a chemotherapy pill,” Reynard was saying, though his voice sounded distant. He gave Hei a thoughtful look. “You don’t have cancer, Hei, do you?”
Hei closed his eyes.
“Well. Once we’re done with you, who knows?”
-------
“The hell is the point of all this?”
Ladon was pacing back and forth in front of Hei’s chair.
“I don’t know.” Talking hurt. Hei swallowed to try and wet his throat. “I don’t know half of what they’ve been doing. Science shit.”
“Fuck.” Ladon aimed a kick at one of the electromagnets. “I was actually here, I’d rip the bastards apart. I’d get you out.”
“How long have I been gone?”
“Dunno, yeah?” Ladon tugged the brim of his hat down. Hei wanted to tell him to take the hat off. He wanted to see Ladon’s eyes. He wanted to see all of him, even if he wasn’t real.
“S’ hard to say. They took the watch, didn’t they?”
Hei felt distantly ashamed. “Yeah.”
“I’m gonna kill them.”
“Race you,” Hei said.
“You’d damn well better get out of here.”
“Working on it.”
-------
There were certain things. Clues. Patterns. A rotation of who came in, in what order. There was Reynard, Snake, Stone, and one other scientist. Then Rose and two other people, Contractors, probably. People tracked in dirt and gravel on their shoes. Slush. The vents came on periodically to pump warm air into the room. He’d checked Reynard’s watch once, and realized they came on once every three hours. Then they stopped for a long period—at night, maybe. They clicked and whirred for two minutes beforehand as the furnace kicked on. Occasionally people brought in scents. Car exhaust. Food. Perfumes.
They were all pieces of a larger picture, and Hei was beginning to understand it. Understand the scientists, the Contractors, their motives and intentions. Understand where he was. He was still in Shanghai, probably only a few miles from the EPR headquarters.
He also knew that his Cicero key hadn’t been destroyed—not yet. Otherwise it would have found its way back to him by now. Which meant they were likely holding onto his things, somewhere nearby.
It was coming together, slowly.
-------
Stone was struggling to force the pills down Hei’s throat.
“Why the resistance now, Hei? You’ve taken these before.”
Hei’s feet scuffed and kicked against the floor. He tugged uselessly at the handcuffs. Stone was grabbing his chin, fingers trying to pry his mouth open.
“N—”
“Behave, Hei. Just take the damn pills,” Reynard said boredly.
Stone got a finger in his mouth and Hei bit down, hard. He heard a crack, felt his teeth hit bone and sink through cartilage. Stone yelled and jerked back so Hei bit down harder. There was a crunch and something gave. Stone fell backward to the floor, clutching his hand to his chest, screaming and cursing in French. Hei spit out the tip of the finger and it bounced off of Stone’s shoe.
Then Reynard’s hand was around Hei’s throat, his face furious.
“Bad dog.”
He shoved. Hei tipped over backwards in the chair. His head cracked against the floor and he heard something snap in his wrist, pain screaming up from his hand to his shoulder. He snarled and rolled to the side to get the pressure off his wrist.
The door opened and Snake and the fourth scientist came in to help Stone to his feet and out of the room. Snake reached down and picked Hei and the chair back up with one hand, setting him up straight. Reynard picked up Stone’s finger and examined it.
“A lost finger and a broken wrist,” he mused. “Was this really worth it, BK-201?”
Snake’s outline was glowing blue as he collected the pills again and picked up the glass of water.
“Open your fool mouth, boy,” Snake growled.
Hei opened his mouth, not even bothering to fight it. Snake dumped the pills in and then raised the glass.
“Drink. Swallow.”
Hei did so and felt the pills slide down his throat. It didn’t matter. He’d learned what he needed to.
“Knock him out. Have someone set the wrist.” Reynard was already heading for the door, rolling the finger around in his hand. “I’ve got to get this on ice.”
“Go to sleep, Hei.”
-------
A forest had grown in the corner of the room, and strange shapes were moving through it, monstrous shapes. He felt weak this time, weaker than ever before, his limbs unresponsive, his eyes barely able to stay open. His heart was thunderous in his ears and he thought it might be slowing. His wrist throbbed in time to his heart.
Ladon looked angry. Hei tried to remember why.
“You never really trust me, yeah? Won’t even let me help you.”
“You’re not even here right now,” Hei said reasonably.
“So maybe Aza’s been right all along,” Ladon said, and then he wasn’t Ladon, he was Aza. “I asked if there was any happy aspect of this relationship, why every time I see you together, something awful is happening. He already has enough to deal with, don’t you think? And a child now.”
“I know. I know, I know.”
Aza leaned forward and he flickered, turned into something long and scaly before turning back. “So maybe you should just die here. He’ll get over it eventually.”
“I don’t…” He was too tired to argue this right now. “Don’t…want to hurt him.”
“Too late,” Aza said. “And you’ll keep hurting him, over and over.”
The forest shivered and Hei smelled the sea. He closed his eyes.
-------
He timed it, counting in his head.
He spent one three hour period between clicks of the air vent inching closer to one of the electromagnets, moving as slowly as he could, one inch every few minutes. He was halfway to the magnet when someone came in to drag him back. Four thousand, three hundred and eighty-one seconds.
He spent another period moving a bit faster. Again, only halfway. Six hundred and four seconds.
In a third period, he lunged, moving as fast as the chair and his weakened body would allow. He made it all the way to the magnet before someone came in. Thirty-two seconds.
He tested the times again at night, or what he assumed to be night—when the vents clicked off. The times almost doubled. Understandable.
Useful.
-------
His limbs were twitching on and off, in between coughing fits. He felt like he was bleeding, but he couldn’t find the source. It had to be inside somewhere. Somewhere near the odd muttering creature that had curled up in his chest. He could hear it, talking to itself.
“Hei…” Yin’s hand was on his head, as if she was trying to steady him.
“S’…alright.” He spit out another mouthful of blood. “I’ll be alright.”
“Liar.”
“I’ll get out.”
“Liar.”
“I will.”
Yin’s hand shifted, coming to rest on his forehead. Her hand was cool.
The thing in his chest growled at Yin and muttered obscenities.
“Please, Hei…”
-------
He was on the floor and Stone was kicking him. The world was bright, too bright, and it shook and resonated. Epinephrine, probably, to keep him from passing out. Stone wanted him to be awake for this. Hei had done something to anger him, but he couldn’t remember what.
Stone grabbed him by the collar with a hand that was missing a finger. Hei heard the fabric tear and then Stone hit him in the face, knocking him back to the ground.
His heart was going so fast, so fast, like it was trying to run away.
-------
“How do you feel, Hei?”
Hei said nothing.
“Snake?”
A blue glow. “Speak, dog.”
“Like shit,” said Hei.
“Eloquent as ever. You know, it’s to your benefit to cooperate. You’ll be released a lot sooner.”
Hei said nothing.
“I want to know what has changed since your star fell, Hei. Has anything felt different?”
“No.”
“Do you experience the five senses differently now?”
“No.”
“Is your experience of pain any different?”
“No.”
“Is your ability any different?”
“…Yes.”
“Oh?” Reynard leaned forward in his chair. “How so?”
“It comes easier. I can use Bai’s power without the Meteor Fragment.”
Reynard smiled. “Interesting. Why don’t you explain this power to me? In detail.”
-------
It felt like he was sinking under a dark ocean. His breaths came shallow and quick. Ladon swam in and out of his vision. His eyes were the only things that stayed constant, bright and glittering and beautiful, even with the snake-slit pupils.
“I’m not good with words.”
“Hei.”
“There’s a lot I wish I’d said to you.”
“Don’t.”
“I’ve always loved your eyes.”
“Idiot.” Hei thought he saw him blush. “You’re not making any sense. Can tell me when you get back, yeah?”
“Oi…if I don’t get out of here—”
“Shut up.” Ladon took hold of his shoulders. “You shut up. You’re gettin’ out of here, yeah? Don’t go talkin’ like that. I’ll have to kick your ass otherwise, yeah?”
He leaned down and kissed Hei on the forehead. Hei almost believed he felt it.
-------
Rose wore hairpins.
It might have been a hallucination, might have been no more real than the severed heads sprouting from the floor, but he didn’t care.
They glinted in her hair as she lowered her head and closed her mouth around the cut in his arm. Hei made a grab at her hair and yanked. She yelped and pulled back, but he tightened his grip, not letting go even as he slid the pin out and let it fall to the bed. She knocked her head against the railing of the bed and screamed.
Stone and another scientist came rushing in only a few seconds later. Hei held on, shifting to hide the hairpin under his arm.
“Let me go,” Hei rasped. “Or I break her neck.”
It was virtually impossible at this angle, and the scientists either knew that or didn’t care. They crossed the room and Stone wrapped both hands around Hei’s broken wrist while the second pried his fingers off of Rose. Everything flashed white at the pain and Stone squeezed harder until Hei cried out and released her. Rose and the scientist stumbled away, but Stone didn’t let go. Hei forced himself to stay still. The hairpin was still hidden under his other arm.
Finally, Stone let go. Hei tried to curl up and protect his wrist, but his limbs were still bound. Stone leaned down over him and snarled something in French, probably a threat.
“No, I’m fine, get me the fuck out of here,” Rose snapped, straightening her hair and throwing Hei a dirty look. “Nice try there, Reaper boy.”
The three of them left. As soon as the door shut Hei rolled his arm, dragging the hairpin backward as fast as he could, while there was a chance no one was watching the cameras. It took a lot of odd maneuvering, but finally he got the hairpin to slip up over the edge of his shirt sleeve. Once he was sure it was firmly attached he flopped back, breathing hard and trying to ignore the pain of a freshly broken wrist.
He lay still and waited.
-------
He needed clarity, or at least a semblance of clarity. The cocktail they’d given him right before the vents clicked off was pretty benign this time. He had no idea what any of it was, but something was making his heart race again, and something else was making him throw up. No hallucinations for once.
That was clarity enough. This was the only chance he was going to get.
He had never seen more than three people at any given time after the vents clicked off for what was presumably the night. Snake, Stone and one of the other scientists. He couldn’t be sure where the others were, but it was the best he could do.
He waited until the silence had gone on for several thousand seconds, till he hadn’t seen or heard anyone for that space of time. Then he took a few deep breaths, trying in vain to calm his heart down. Exertion might kill him. He had to count on the sweet water, whatever it was.
Once he was as ready as he could be he lifted his arm, bending them at the elbows and crossing them at the wrists. He reached for his sleeve with his bad hand and he felt the blood drain from his face as the handcuffs dug into the broken bone. He kept reaching, stretching the chain as far as it would go until he could reach his opposite sleeve. He fumbled around for a moment, his fingers already starting to go numb.
Then he felt metal. He hissed in pain as his fingers worked to pull the hairpin free. It slipped and almost fell from his fingers but he tightened his grip and caught it. He let his hands fall back and focused on breathing for a moment. Then he shifted the pin into his other hand and moved until he could slip the hairpin into the keyhole of the handcuffs.
It took longer than normal without the benefit of his eyes, and he could already hear someone running down the hall. The door burst open and Stone came rushing in, shouting in French.
Hei heard a click.
He surged upward, cracking Stone under the chin with his head, then stood, the handcuffs dangling from his broken wrist. His legs wobbled but he didn’t spare any time wondering how long it had been since he’d used them. Stone came at him with his fists. Hei ducked, grabbed the chair with his good hand and swung it straight into Stone’s face. A leg broke off and Stone went down.
Hei dropped the chair and ran for the generator against the wall. A second scientist had run into the room. Hei grabbed the generator before the man could reach him and heaved it upward, snapping one of the wires to an electromagnet. He slammed the generator upward into the man’s throat, flooring him; then he threw the generator at Stone, who was getting back to his feet. The machine hit him in the chest and bounced off, rolling across the floor until it hit the wall.
The lights on two of the electromagnets went off.
Hei drew a slow breath and crossed the room to Stone, who was groaning and trying to pull himself up. Hei reached down and laid a hand on the back of his head, his movements almost casual.
Stone didn’t even have time to scream before Hei electrocuted him.
Hei stood up straight and breathed for a moment. His legs were shaking, barely able to support his weight. His heart was going so fast that he could no longer feel the individual beats.
The other scientist uttered a squeak. He was bleeding from the chin and mouth where the generator had hit him. Hei moved over to him and crouched down. His legs shook violently, so he switched to a kneel, then grabbed the man by his throat.
“Where are my things?”
The man babbled something in French. Hei shook him.
“My things. Mes choses. Where are they?”
The man pointed a shaking hand off to the side, down the hall.
“Merci.” Hei stood up and kicked the side of his head, knocking him out.
There was another set of footsteps coming now. Snake, judging by the sound; Hei had practically memorized all of their footsteps. Hei threw himself back against a wall and pressed both hands to the outlet where the heart monitor had been plugged in.
It was hard, harder than it should have been to reach deep enough into his power, to see and feel the currents running through the whole building. But they were there, and he could grab them as he always had, grab them and use them. His outline glowed blue and he heard Snake walk into the room.
All of the lights went out and the room went pitch black. Hei flinched away at the sudden darkness, startled after all that time in permanent light.
He heard Snake click his tongue and Hei moved further into the center of the room, or where he thought the center was.
“This is ridiculous, Hei,” Snake said. “You’re weak, drugged out of your mind. You’ll likely pass out if you use your ability even one more time. Even if you don’t, you can’t kill me, and you can’t escape. Be reasonable. We did say we would let you out once we were finished, didn’t we?”
His voice was moving, shifting around toward where Snake had last seen Hei. Hei moved in the opposite direction, moving as far as he could from Snake until he hit the opposite wall.
“And didn’t you know that darkness is Reynard’s specialty?”
There was a blue flash, but Hei was already moving. He spun, slammed an elbow into Reynard’s chest before he had even finished appearing behind Hei. Hei saw the gun before the glow faded and he grabbed it, driving his nails into Reynard’s wrist until he screamed and let go.
There was a glow on the other side of the room and Hei saw Snake’s hand rise. Hei spun and raised the gun, aimed.
”Down, d—”
Hei fired in the same instant that Snake’s power hit him. The bullet hit Snake in the shoulder and he screamed. He collapsed backward and his glow faded.
Hei stood up straight and looked around for Reynard, but the other man had vanished. Hei turned back to Snake. He could only just see him now, his outline faint in the darkness.
Hei walked over to him. Snake tried to raise his good arm, his glow slowly flickering back to life. Hei stared down at him, expressionless.
“I’m not your dog,” Hei said, and he shot Snake twice in the head. The man twitched and went still.
Hei didn’t have time to savor it. He headed for the door, no longer able to see or walk straight, his head light and his whole body shaking now. His heart was going to give out if he kept this up any longer.
He stumbled out into the hall and braced himself against the wall, dragging himself off in the direction the scientist had indicated, listening and watching for Reynard. But no one came. The building was silent.
quirkypeanutbluCharacter/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 017: Long Hours (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 4,455
Summary: Hei becomes a temporary PANDORA guinea pig.
Author’s Notes: Blood. Violence. Torture. Drug abuse. General unpleasantness. It’s kind of gross at times. Attempts at hallucination!Ladon.
His water was drugged. His food—rice only—was drugged. One time they’d pumped some kind of gas into the room. Hei wasn’t sure what its intent was, but it had had him convulsing on the floor for several minutes. He was starting to think that the air itself was drugged. At this point it wouldn’t have surprised him.
At first he’d refused to eat or drink, but then they’d sent in Stone, who had smacked him around a bit before literally forcing the food down his throat. When that hadn’t worked, they’d sent in Snake.
It really just wasn’t worth it. His energy was better spent trying to stay sane and working on an escape plan.
------
Reynard tipped out a cocktail of at least five different pills into his hand.
“Do you want to guess, Hei?”
Hei said nothing.
“Come on, now. I know you’ve seen this one before.” He prodded an oblong blue pill. “Don’t you remember? Immunosuppressant, your second day here, I believe.”
Hei said nothing.
“Fine, then, I’ll tell you. This one’s an antipsychotic, this one’s a painkiller, this one’s a muscle relaxant…and I won’t tell you what this fifth one is. It’s the mystery flavor! If you can guess the mystery flavor when I come back, I might let you take a break. How does that sound?”
Hei said nothing. Stone took hold of his hair and yanked his head back, then Reynard deposited the pills into Hei’s mouth. Stone poured more of that odd sweet water down his throat to force Hei to swallow.
“Get them all down. We’re very interested in how these will interact. Don’t worry. This would kill a normal person, but the water will keep you alive. Isn’t that lucky, BK-201?”
-------
He had no idea how long he’d been here. They kept the lights on at all times and there were no windows, no clocks. Every once in awhile he’d catch a glimpse of someone’s watch, which wouldn’t help much. He slept when he was tired, when they let him sleep.
He was pretty sure he had spent a good portion of his time here unconscious, and he wasn’t sure what they did to him then. He would black out and wake up strapped to the bed with a new ache, or would wake up back in the chair with his ears ringing.
This time he woke up in the bed, his limbs restrained, the heart monitor beeping much slower than was probably healthy. He felt odd and slow, and sounds came at him deep and drawling. People were moving around him, but they were all blurs. The ceiling shifted from white to purple to yellow.
There was a sensation like a knife in his stomach and he screamed, or thought he screamed. The blurs swirled. There was a dry, sweet scent and—
Darkness again.
-------
Ladon and Bai were sitting at the end of his bed, talking to him. He had nothing better to do, so he talked back.
“When’re you getting outta here?” Ladon demanded, glaring at him through glittering eyes. Oh, those eyes.
“Doctors say I can leave tomorrow,” Hei said, his voice barely a whisper and raw, always raw. He got the laugh he’d been hoping for from Ladon. Bai didn’t laugh, because Bai never laughed.
“Brother,” she said. “You can kill them. You can kill them all. What are you waiting for?”
“Not that easy.”
“If you die on me again, I swear…” Ladon made a low noise in his throat, a dragon noise.
“Be better,” Hei said absently. “Might wake up back in Cicero. Like you.”
“Yeah, and you might not. Then what the hell am I gonna do?”
“Not…planning on dying.”
“You need a plan, Brother.”
“Working on it.”
“Work faster, yeah?”
Hei closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Ladon and Bai were gone.
-------
He was in the chair, limp, tired, bleeding from when Hei had tried to scoot his chair toward one of the electromagnets and Stone had come in to stop him.
The door burst open. Hei flinched, and there was a shout—Stone and another scientist were dragging in a third man, while a fourth carried in a second chair and a pair of handcuffs. The struggling Contractor—he could be nothing else—kicked and thrashed and yelled in what sounded like English. Hei could only pick out a few words.
He watched with mild interest as the three scientists dragged the Contractor into the middle of the room, forced him into the chair and handcuffed his wrists behind him. The Contractor spat obscenities and tried to break his way out to no avail. Once he was secure, the three scientists left. The Contractor yelled after them for about a minute, then fell silent. He looked around the room, eventually turning to glare at Hei.
This was the second time they had brought in another prisoner. The first hadn’t lasted long. Hei studied him vaguely, wondering why they’d brought him here.
The Contractor snapped something in English at Hei and spit on the floor between them. Hei shrugged and returned to ignoring everything. He drifted.
Eventually there was a scraping sound. Hei glanced up. The English Contractor was wide-eyed as his body began to convulse, bucking up and down in the chair. The force of his movements made the handcuffs bite through the flesh and soon blood was pouring down behind him to the floor. Hei watched impassively as the man bit through his tongue, through both lips, listened to the pops as the seizure jerked his arms out of their sockets. The man was trying to scream, but it came out as one long animal groan, cut through with gurgles as he choked on his blood and what was left of his tongue.
It took him quite awhile to die. Hei never once took his eyes off of him.
Once the Contractor had gone still, Snake and Stone came into the room. Stone took hold of the back of the chair and started dragging it out, the legs leaving trails through the puddle of blood. Snake clicked his tongue.
“Nope, still some bugs to work out.”
-------
Rose was back. This was her third time.
They did this sometimes, sent in other Contractors to test their powers on him, or in Rose’s case, to facilitate their obeisances.
He was strapped to the bed, half-blind from some kind of light test earlier. She crossed the room to him and drew a small knife from her pocket. She came to a stop beside him with a faint sigh.
“Sorry,” she said. She apologized every time, but it was a Contractor’s apology, half-hearted and meaningless.
She dragged the knife across his arm and he hissed a little. Then she leaned down and closed her mouth around the wound, sucking and drawing his blood into her mouth.
It occurred to him that not long ago, this might have horrified him.
A few mouthfuls was all she needed. Then she stood up and wiped her mouth, making a face. She walked out without another word, leaving his arm to bleed. Someone would be in eventually to wrap it up.
All those drugs in his system. He amused himself by wondering what his blood did to her.
-------
The pain was unbelievable. It felt as if his stomach was literally trying to burst out of his skin. He was throwing up and he couldn’t stop, not even long enough to scream or cry out. His stomach kept emptying itself, until the mess had turned red, until it had turned an ugly black. Everything hurt. His stomach and throat and chest burned and the mess was everywhere now.
He passed out. When he came to the room smelled of disinfectant and the pain had faded. He’d been moved to the bed. His stomach churned and roiled, but nothing more came up. An IV had been threaded into his arm.
They left him alone for a good while, the longest they’d ever let him rest. Hei savored every second.
-------
He was on the floor, the tiles cool against his cheek, watching Reynard drift through a red haze. There was blood everywhere.
“It was a chemotherapy pill,” Reynard was saying, though his voice sounded distant. He gave Hei a thoughtful look. “You don’t have cancer, Hei, do you?”
Hei closed his eyes.
“Well. Once we’re done with you, who knows?”
-------
“The hell is the point of all this?”
Ladon was pacing back and forth in front of Hei’s chair.
“I don’t know.” Talking hurt. Hei swallowed to try and wet his throat. “I don’t know half of what they’ve been doing. Science shit.”
“Fuck.” Ladon aimed a kick at one of the electromagnets. “I was actually here, I’d rip the bastards apart. I’d get you out.”
“How long have I been gone?”
“Dunno, yeah?” Ladon tugged the brim of his hat down. Hei wanted to tell him to take the hat off. He wanted to see Ladon’s eyes. He wanted to see all of him, even if he wasn’t real.
“S’ hard to say. They took the watch, didn’t they?”
Hei felt distantly ashamed. “Yeah.”
“I’m gonna kill them.”
“Race you,” Hei said.
“You’d damn well better get out of here.”
“Working on it.”
-------
There were certain things. Clues. Patterns. A rotation of who came in, in what order. There was Reynard, Snake, Stone, and one other scientist. Then Rose and two other people, Contractors, probably. People tracked in dirt and gravel on their shoes. Slush. The vents came on periodically to pump warm air into the room. He’d checked Reynard’s watch once, and realized they came on once every three hours. Then they stopped for a long period—at night, maybe. They clicked and whirred for two minutes beforehand as the furnace kicked on. Occasionally people brought in scents. Car exhaust. Food. Perfumes.
They were all pieces of a larger picture, and Hei was beginning to understand it. Understand the scientists, the Contractors, their motives and intentions. Understand where he was. He was still in Shanghai, probably only a few miles from the EPR headquarters.
He also knew that his Cicero key hadn’t been destroyed—not yet. Otherwise it would have found its way back to him by now. Which meant they were likely holding onto his things, somewhere nearby.
It was coming together, slowly.
-------
Stone was struggling to force the pills down Hei’s throat.
“Why the resistance now, Hei? You’ve taken these before.”
Hei’s feet scuffed and kicked against the floor. He tugged uselessly at the handcuffs. Stone was grabbing his chin, fingers trying to pry his mouth open.
“N—”
“Behave, Hei. Just take the damn pills,” Reynard said boredly.
Stone got a finger in his mouth and Hei bit down, hard. He heard a crack, felt his teeth hit bone and sink through cartilage. Stone yelled and jerked back so Hei bit down harder. There was a crunch and something gave. Stone fell backward to the floor, clutching his hand to his chest, screaming and cursing in French. Hei spit out the tip of the finger and it bounced off of Stone’s shoe.
Then Reynard’s hand was around Hei’s throat, his face furious.
“Bad dog.”
He shoved. Hei tipped over backwards in the chair. His head cracked against the floor and he heard something snap in his wrist, pain screaming up from his hand to his shoulder. He snarled and rolled to the side to get the pressure off his wrist.
The door opened and Snake and the fourth scientist came in to help Stone to his feet and out of the room. Snake reached down and picked Hei and the chair back up with one hand, setting him up straight. Reynard picked up Stone’s finger and examined it.
“A lost finger and a broken wrist,” he mused. “Was this really worth it, BK-201?”
Snake’s outline was glowing blue as he collected the pills again and picked up the glass of water.
“Open your fool mouth, boy,” Snake growled.
Hei opened his mouth, not even bothering to fight it. Snake dumped the pills in and then raised the glass.
“Drink. Swallow.”
Hei did so and felt the pills slide down his throat. It didn’t matter. He’d learned what he needed to.
“Knock him out. Have someone set the wrist.” Reynard was already heading for the door, rolling the finger around in his hand. “I’ve got to get this on ice.”
“Go to sleep, Hei.”
-------
A forest had grown in the corner of the room, and strange shapes were moving through it, monstrous shapes. He felt weak this time, weaker than ever before, his limbs unresponsive, his eyes barely able to stay open. His heart was thunderous in his ears and he thought it might be slowing. His wrist throbbed in time to his heart.
Ladon looked angry. Hei tried to remember why.
“You never really trust me, yeah? Won’t even let me help you.”
“You’re not even here right now,” Hei said reasonably.
“So maybe Aza’s been right all along,” Ladon said, and then he wasn’t Ladon, he was Aza. “I asked if there was any happy aspect of this relationship, why every time I see you together, something awful is happening. He already has enough to deal with, don’t you think? And a child now.”
“I know. I know, I know.”
Aza leaned forward and he flickered, turned into something long and scaly before turning back. “So maybe you should just die here. He’ll get over it eventually.”
“I don’t…” He was too tired to argue this right now. “Don’t…want to hurt him.”
“Too late,” Aza said. “And you’ll keep hurting him, over and over.”
The forest shivered and Hei smelled the sea. He closed his eyes.
-------
He timed it, counting in his head.
He spent one three hour period between clicks of the air vent inching closer to one of the electromagnets, moving as slowly as he could, one inch every few minutes. He was halfway to the magnet when someone came in to drag him back. Four thousand, three hundred and eighty-one seconds.
He spent another period moving a bit faster. Again, only halfway. Six hundred and four seconds.
In a third period, he lunged, moving as fast as the chair and his weakened body would allow. He made it all the way to the magnet before someone came in. Thirty-two seconds.
He tested the times again at night, or what he assumed to be night—when the vents clicked off. The times almost doubled. Understandable.
Useful.
-------
His limbs were twitching on and off, in between coughing fits. He felt like he was bleeding, but he couldn’t find the source. It had to be inside somewhere. Somewhere near the odd muttering creature that had curled up in his chest. He could hear it, talking to itself.
“Hei…” Yin’s hand was on his head, as if she was trying to steady him.
“S’…alright.” He spit out another mouthful of blood. “I’ll be alright.”
“Liar.”
“I’ll get out.”
“Liar.”
“I will.”
Yin’s hand shifted, coming to rest on his forehead. Her hand was cool.
The thing in his chest growled at Yin and muttered obscenities.
“Please, Hei…”
-------
He was on the floor and Stone was kicking him. The world was bright, too bright, and it shook and resonated. Epinephrine, probably, to keep him from passing out. Stone wanted him to be awake for this. Hei had done something to anger him, but he couldn’t remember what.
Stone grabbed him by the collar with a hand that was missing a finger. Hei heard the fabric tear and then Stone hit him in the face, knocking him back to the ground.
His heart was going so fast, so fast, like it was trying to run away.
-------
“How do you feel, Hei?”
Hei said nothing.
“Snake?”
A blue glow. “Speak, dog.”
“Like shit,” said Hei.
“Eloquent as ever. You know, it’s to your benefit to cooperate. You’ll be released a lot sooner.”
Hei said nothing.
“I want to know what has changed since your star fell, Hei. Has anything felt different?”
“No.”
“Do you experience the five senses differently now?”
“No.”
“Is your experience of pain any different?”
“No.”
“Is your ability any different?”
“…Yes.”
“Oh?” Reynard leaned forward in his chair. “How so?”
“It comes easier. I can use Bai’s power without the Meteor Fragment.”
Reynard smiled. “Interesting. Why don’t you explain this power to me? In detail.”
-------
It felt like he was sinking under a dark ocean. His breaths came shallow and quick. Ladon swam in and out of his vision. His eyes were the only things that stayed constant, bright and glittering and beautiful, even with the snake-slit pupils.
“I’m not good with words.”
“Hei.”
“There’s a lot I wish I’d said to you.”
“Don’t.”
“I’ve always loved your eyes.”
“Idiot.” Hei thought he saw him blush. “You’re not making any sense. Can tell me when you get back, yeah?”
“Oi…if I don’t get out of here—”
“Shut up.” Ladon took hold of his shoulders. “You shut up. You’re gettin’ out of here, yeah? Don’t go talkin’ like that. I’ll have to kick your ass otherwise, yeah?”
He leaned down and kissed Hei on the forehead. Hei almost believed he felt it.
-------
Rose wore hairpins.
It might have been a hallucination, might have been no more real than the severed heads sprouting from the floor, but he didn’t care.
They glinted in her hair as she lowered her head and closed her mouth around the cut in his arm. Hei made a grab at her hair and yanked. She yelped and pulled back, but he tightened his grip, not letting go even as he slid the pin out and let it fall to the bed. She knocked her head against the railing of the bed and screamed.
Stone and another scientist came rushing in only a few seconds later. Hei held on, shifting to hide the hairpin under his arm.
“Let me go,” Hei rasped. “Or I break her neck.”
It was virtually impossible at this angle, and the scientists either knew that or didn’t care. They crossed the room and Stone wrapped both hands around Hei’s broken wrist while the second pried his fingers off of Rose. Everything flashed white at the pain and Stone squeezed harder until Hei cried out and released her. Rose and the scientist stumbled away, but Stone didn’t let go. Hei forced himself to stay still. The hairpin was still hidden under his other arm.
Finally, Stone let go. Hei tried to curl up and protect his wrist, but his limbs were still bound. Stone leaned down over him and snarled something in French, probably a threat.
“No, I’m fine, get me the fuck out of here,” Rose snapped, straightening her hair and throwing Hei a dirty look. “Nice try there, Reaper boy.”
The three of them left. As soon as the door shut Hei rolled his arm, dragging the hairpin backward as fast as he could, while there was a chance no one was watching the cameras. It took a lot of odd maneuvering, but finally he got the hairpin to slip up over the edge of his shirt sleeve. Once he was sure it was firmly attached he flopped back, breathing hard and trying to ignore the pain of a freshly broken wrist.
He lay still and waited.
-------
He needed clarity, or at least a semblance of clarity. The cocktail they’d given him right before the vents clicked off was pretty benign this time. He had no idea what any of it was, but something was making his heart race again, and something else was making him throw up. No hallucinations for once.
That was clarity enough. This was the only chance he was going to get.
He had never seen more than three people at any given time after the vents clicked off for what was presumably the night. Snake, Stone and one of the other scientists. He couldn’t be sure where the others were, but it was the best he could do.
He waited until the silence had gone on for several thousand seconds, till he hadn’t seen or heard anyone for that space of time. Then he took a few deep breaths, trying in vain to calm his heart down. Exertion might kill him. He had to count on the sweet water, whatever it was.
Once he was as ready as he could be he lifted his arm, bending them at the elbows and crossing them at the wrists. He reached for his sleeve with his bad hand and he felt the blood drain from his face as the handcuffs dug into the broken bone. He kept reaching, stretching the chain as far as it would go until he could reach his opposite sleeve. He fumbled around for a moment, his fingers already starting to go numb.
Then he felt metal. He hissed in pain as his fingers worked to pull the hairpin free. It slipped and almost fell from his fingers but he tightened his grip and caught it. He let his hands fall back and focused on breathing for a moment. Then he shifted the pin into his other hand and moved until he could slip the hairpin into the keyhole of the handcuffs.
It took longer than normal without the benefit of his eyes, and he could already hear someone running down the hall. The door burst open and Stone came rushing in, shouting in French.
Hei heard a click.
He surged upward, cracking Stone under the chin with his head, then stood, the handcuffs dangling from his broken wrist. His legs wobbled but he didn’t spare any time wondering how long it had been since he’d used them. Stone came at him with his fists. Hei ducked, grabbed the chair with his good hand and swung it straight into Stone’s face. A leg broke off and Stone went down.
Hei dropped the chair and ran for the generator against the wall. A second scientist had run into the room. Hei grabbed the generator before the man could reach him and heaved it upward, snapping one of the wires to an electromagnet. He slammed the generator upward into the man’s throat, flooring him; then he threw the generator at Stone, who was getting back to his feet. The machine hit him in the chest and bounced off, rolling across the floor until it hit the wall.
The lights on two of the electromagnets went off.
Hei drew a slow breath and crossed the room to Stone, who was groaning and trying to pull himself up. Hei reached down and laid a hand on the back of his head, his movements almost casual.
Stone didn’t even have time to scream before Hei electrocuted him.
Hei stood up straight and breathed for a moment. His legs were shaking, barely able to support his weight. His heart was going so fast that he could no longer feel the individual beats.
The other scientist uttered a squeak. He was bleeding from the chin and mouth where the generator had hit him. Hei moved over to him and crouched down. His legs shook violently, so he switched to a kneel, then grabbed the man by his throat.
“Where are my things?”
The man babbled something in French. Hei shook him.
“My things. Mes choses. Where are they?”
The man pointed a shaking hand off to the side, down the hall.
“Merci.” Hei stood up and kicked the side of his head, knocking him out.
There was another set of footsteps coming now. Snake, judging by the sound; Hei had practically memorized all of their footsteps. Hei threw himself back against a wall and pressed both hands to the outlet where the heart monitor had been plugged in.
It was hard, harder than it should have been to reach deep enough into his power, to see and feel the currents running through the whole building. But they were there, and he could grab them as he always had, grab them and use them. His outline glowed blue and he heard Snake walk into the room.
All of the lights went out and the room went pitch black. Hei flinched away at the sudden darkness, startled after all that time in permanent light.
He heard Snake click his tongue and Hei moved further into the center of the room, or where he thought the center was.
“This is ridiculous, Hei,” Snake said. “You’re weak, drugged out of your mind. You’ll likely pass out if you use your ability even one more time. Even if you don’t, you can’t kill me, and you can’t escape. Be reasonable. We did say we would let you out once we were finished, didn’t we?”
His voice was moving, shifting around toward where Snake had last seen Hei. Hei moved in the opposite direction, moving as far as he could from Snake until he hit the opposite wall.
“And didn’t you know that darkness is Reynard’s specialty?”
There was a blue flash, but Hei was already moving. He spun, slammed an elbow into Reynard’s chest before he had even finished appearing behind Hei. Hei saw the gun before the glow faded and he grabbed it, driving his nails into Reynard’s wrist until he screamed and let go.
There was a glow on the other side of the room and Hei saw Snake’s hand rise. Hei spun and raised the gun, aimed.
”Down, d—”
Hei fired in the same instant that Snake’s power hit him. The bullet hit Snake in the shoulder and he screamed. He collapsed backward and his glow faded.
Hei stood up straight and looked around for Reynard, but the other man had vanished. Hei turned back to Snake. He could only just see him now, his outline faint in the darkness.
Hei walked over to him. Snake tried to raise his good arm, his glow slowly flickering back to life. Hei stared down at him, expressionless.
“I’m not your dog,” Hei said, and he shot Snake twice in the head. The man twitched and went still.
Hei didn’t have time to savor it. He headed for the door, no longer able to see or walk straight, his head light and his whole body shaking now. His heart was going to give out if he kept this up any longer.
He stumbled out into the hall and braced himself against the wall, dragging himself off in the direction the scientist had indicated, listening and watching for Reynard. But no one came. The building was silent.
