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Gaibriel lowered his small chin, tucking Camiel's head into the warm cocoon of his throat. She whimpered again, and he felt her fear, her terror skittering there between them. She was sending him waves of distress, that worked to heighten his already tight, distressed muscles. So he tightened his arms around her, trying desperately to calm her and to hide from the reality of the meandering discussion between the two wealthy men across the expanse of the courtyard.
He glanced up towards the sky, watched the path of Ch'hodos' red sun moving slowly across the seemingly burning sky. His arms still burned from the so-called medicine their owner had injected him with yesterday, but it didn't stop him from clasping his sister even closer to him. He wanted to scream, to rage and cry. But he manfully bit his lower lip, bit it hard, until he felt the wash of blood against his tongue.
Anything was better than showing the lunatic that continued pumping his body full of … whatever it was … well, showing him that it was having any discernible effect on his body couldn't be allowed. He wouldn't give Borias Tirk so much satisfaction, not when his skin felt tight and tingly. Not even when it seemed like fire sizzled up and down his spine. He sensed that bad things would happen if the man thought there was anything like success coming from his efforts.
Listening to Tirk talking to the stranger, though, success was far from his consideration. Gaibriel could hear him almost chanting the words "abysmal failure, is all they are", in fact. It sent a perverse thrill through him, to know they'd managed to hide so much from the cruel monster of a scientist who'd purchased them from their last owner earlier in the year.
Just five months it had taken them, moving so carefully every time the man entered the room. Communicating only in that special way they had over the years, with Camiel whispering into Gaibriel's head rather than his ear for anyone else to hear. And otherwise presenting themselves as the supposedly normal children they'd always seemed to be. Just so long as Tirk never realized how extraordinary Cam really was.
He had to keep his sister safe, Gaibriel thought. So long as their master relied upon their unique genetics, the way he could safely experiment on one twin and use the other as a comparison specimen, then Cam would be all right. He'd bide his time, endure the pain and the upset that came when the supposed scientist played around with some new and increasingly fancy drug, fascinated as he was by the mutations occurring among the local wildlife on the planet so much he wanted to see what the changing atmosphere would do to humans. He'd stay quiet no matter how hard it was, no matter how long the jerk left them to rot outside in this tiny cage, he swore to himself.
He snorted, looking over towards Tirk as he spoke earnestly with his strange visitor. Gaib was confused at the way the man looked over at them, the way his gaze slid up and down their small forms huddled there in the cage, the one Tirk used to study the effects of the growing levels of radiation from the red sun overhead. The stranger looked hungry when he looked at them. It made worry join the fired-up anger thrilling through his young body. He didn't like the stranger.
Camiel tugged against his back, where her arms were wrapped tightly. "He's a bad man, Gaib. He wants … I don't understand … but it's bad. It's bad."
Gaibriel felt every one of the muscles in his body tighten even more when her words whispered through his mind. He thought feverishly over what he could do, how he could protect her. But there wasn't anything, nothing. An image flashed in his memory, of home, a dark world, rain sleeting down while an explosions filled the air and took his family apart, killed his mother. Killed his sister. Kastiel. She would've fought the man, as hard as she possibly could. She wouldn't have given up, not for anything. It's why she was gone, he agonized.
Gaibriel peeked over Cam's head when Tirk grunted from where he stood just in front of the cage. Tirk was a big man, a burly human, with skin tinged grey from neglect, from hours spent bent over baking chemicals and concoctions in a lab. His black hair was thin and long, gathered together into a tight ponytail along the back of his head. His eyes glittered down at them like green jade, maddened, "They're a matched set, Rend. Look at them. Such delightful toys, hmm?"
The stranger smiled at Tirk tightly. "I have no interest in boys, you know that."
Gaibriel felt himself start to pant, as he realized they stood to be sold yet again. Sometimes they were lucky, and they went to masters who only paraded them around like pretty decorations. Other times they went to a master who wanted small, slight figures to work in cramped spaces. They'd worked at several constructions sites scattered on various worlds of the Empire. But Tirk was the worst yet, using them as mere fodder in his efforts to study the changing atmosphere of this red world.
Every new master was a gamble, a potential terror. Camiel usually studied them, so that they might cozen their way out of the notice or attention of a bad one. And this one scared her. Gaib's mind spun crazily as he tried to figure the best way of saving them from the man, this "Rend". Rend. Like ripping apart, tearing to pieces. He shuddered lightly as his sister whimpered into his throat again.
"Oh, but the boy's eyes - look at them. So pretty. Like sapphires, don't you think?" Tirk smirked at the man.
Rend gazed at Gaibriel critically, sliding his gaze down and over his thin, lanky frame. "He's already becoming too old, starting to fill out. How old is he? Ten? Eleven? Soon, he won't even be worth a glance, no matter how pretty his eyes are." He squatted down, leaning closer as he tried to see Camiel. But her face was buried against Gaibriel's neck, and she managed, somehow, to twist herself even closer to him. Rend snorted. "I can't even see her. Pull her out of there."
Gaibriel huffed, as he watched Tirk nod towards the guards, who almost cantered towards the cage. He spun around, thrusting Camiel into the corner of the cage and using his own small body to block them from reaching her. She was whining loudly, almost squealing. Gaibriel grasped at the cables that made up the rungs of the enclosure, trying to anchor himself against the hard fingers that grabbed at him, tried to rip him away from his sister. Camiel started crying, hard, until her tears made his neck feel cold and wet. Gaib hissed, biting at any fingers that came too close. Someone smacked him in the back of the head, viciously hard. He started yelling, screaming threats, swearing he'd bite their fingers off, tear out their eyes, anything, if they even touched her.
Useless. The men began kicking him, hard and solid along the lower part of his thin back. Until his skin was mottled with new bruises and he started seeing stars. He felt blackness gathering along the edges of his vision. He yelled one last time, just as he felt Camiel yanked away from him, screaming. He cried, "No! No! Cam! Nooo!" But she was gone, and he could only lay there, blinking tearfully towards the men who held his sister up into the air, high enough the man called Rend could view her comfortably.
"Pretty enough. Her eyes don't match his. Pity, that. It cheapens her value," Rend meandered in a circle around the girl child, who dangled there in the hard, steely grip of the guards, there in mid-air, crying great gasping breaths as she tried desperately turning and twisting her small body, tried to get back to her brother. Gaibriel was the one whimpering now, watching her from where he lay sprawled.
"Come now, Rend. Take them both, the price is good."
Rend glanced back at Gaibriel. The little biter, he thought to himself. The last thing he wanted was to fight off a vicious little monster during his trip. Alderaan was such a boring locale, regardless. So little time for excursions, for spots of fun. Best to get real entertainment along the way, rather. And once the toy is broken, toss it out an airlock, he supposed. He mentally shrugged as he turned back to face Tirk again, "No. I'm not looking to break in a fighter, Borias. I simply don't have the time, nor the inclination. You're lucky I'm willing to buy the girl, she's so small and tired-looking. How long has she been kept out here?"
Gaibriel felt painful distress pulling against his body as they argued over prices, wondered if something was broken, bleeding inside of him. He tried dragging himself closer to the door of the cage, whispered desperately, "Camiel ..." She looked over, saw him fighting with everything in him to get to her. Fear trilled through her, terror over the sense of doom filling her, knew there was no way to stop whatever bad thing was coming. But her brother would keep trying, fighting until he was killed right there on the sandy, red ground of this world. She whimpered, beyond horrified at the thought. She'd rather die herself than let her brother lose against such terrible odds.
"Please, Gaib. Stop now." He looked at her, shook his dark head tiredly. She bit her lip, looking at the weasel face of the man hoping to buy her, knew he was the worst man she'd ever known. The sense of wrong-ness coming from him was immense, incredible - it almost overwhelmed her. Gaib would not give up, and she knew it. She depended on it, dug deep down into herself and whispered the promise to her future self, that she'd survive, that Gaib would survive. Even if survival came at a heady, awful price. And it would, she knew it, felt it.
She looked towards her brother again, felt tears edging down her dusty cheeks to leave wet trails against her face. "I love you, Gaib. Don't ever stop, just find a way back to freedom." She felt the horrible realization rip through him, just before she reached out to him through their bond, and wrenched hard. Hard enough he jerked back against the pain, and fell down into the darkness of unconsciousness. She was still sobbing, still watching him lying there in the dirt of that cage as they dragged her away. And then she couldn't see him anymore.
His mind was a dark place, full of the darkest, most terrible quiet, broken only by ugly moments of panic, fear, and pain when she wouldn't be able to stop from screaming out against whatever was happening to her. And even then she didn't let him see, didn't let him know what was so awful and terrible. He hated it, screamed aloud the way she was screaming into his mind. Hours passed. Days. He felt himself splintering, threw himself against the walls that surrounded him until his skin was covered in bruises and lacerations and the guards pulled him down and tied him up.
But he couldn't stop. He cried endlessly, over and over, sobbing pitifully there in the cage he despised, alone. Until she finally broke. He felt it happen, felt her mind starting to snap. But she stopped, stopped it all, just stopped everything. She threw up one final wall, one single last and desperate defense against the pain. Then everything was dark, everything in his mind just ... silent. She was gone, far away from him, so frightened, so terrified that she'd closed her mind off from anything, everything. She didn't even hear him anymore. Just lost herself in blessed, comfortable silence far away from it all, even him. She saved herself at the last possible moment. Saved him, even more important, she felt.
But he was still left there. Alone.