With his eyes closed, Krayonder's damp brow furrowed, his fists clenching and pulling the sheets beneath him. Specs was woken by a fearful shout, over half an hour before, and had discovered him curled on his side mumbling worried nonsense. Now she tentatively whispered, "Baby?", touching a tensed arm. Met with no response she shook him, "Krayonder? Krayonder!"
That twisted robot's screeching voice rang in his ears, shouting his name through the cacophony of exploding wreckage, "Kray-on-der! Kray-on-der!" These bots were emotionless, but they certainly understood payback. Each step it took shook the already rumbling room, dust falling and not quite settling, chunks of the white walls and what remained of his chains littering the floor and bouncing with every shake. It's piercing red eyes glared down at him. He was backed into a corner, every path blocked by its hulking metal frame. Nowhere to run and not a hiding place in sight. Exhausted and outgunned as he was, resistance was his final option; Daniel Krayonder did not go down without a fight. "Are you prepared for extinction, puny inferior?" He was mere feet from death, when from the corner of his eye he spied a flat metal bar, slightly bent. It was solid enough; it had once held his chains to the wall. He glanced at his captor, then at the bar. He could do this.
"Are you ready, hu-man?
Krayonder's hand inched toward the bar, keeping his eyes trained on the inhuman limbs swinging ever closer. "No", he muttered.
"What?"
Fingers wrapped around the cool metal. Yess! Eyes still on the robot, his arm was a blur. "NO!" Metal grated against metal, his bar slicing through the air to connect with the robot's "skull". The blow caused its head to cave, shattering glass eyes. The hateful glow dimmed and flickered into black, "KRAY-on-drrr", the entire machine sputtering to a halt.
"Krayonder? Krayon-"
"NO!" His fist collided with her jaw with an audible smack.
"OWW!" He sat up abruptly, wide awake and seeing Specs cradling the side of her face, which had already begun to swell. His eyes widened, immediately realising what he had done. "Ooh, Specs, are you okay?"
She glared at him, "What do y-OW!" She could barely speak, her jaw too sore to move.
"I-wh- Hold on!" He leapt off the bed, running to the kitchen. He returned with a frozen blue gel pack in hand, his eyes apologetic and worried. She softened at his concern and removed her hands from her face to let him gingerly hold the pack to her jaw. He brushed her hair away from the unhurt side, trailing along her jaw line to caress her cheek with his palm. Her eyes closed and she sighed, tilting her head to lean into his touch. It had been barely three weeks since Krayonder's return and therapy hadn't done much to help the nightmares. They both knew it would be a long time before they were gone completely, but for now each one was just as bad and just as real as the last. He kissed her forehead and whispered, "Thank you. I'm sorry." Specs shook her head and winced; he knew she understood, even if she couldn't say it.