(A/N: I hope you guys really liked the first chapter and I hope you guys enjoy this one. :)
But before we get started, I should probably warn you that some time in this chapter, and others, XL will be both physically and verbally assaulted a lot later on. So, you might wanna stop reading this story if you're sensitive to this stuff, as much as it pains me to say. If you guys want to be troopers and brave what'll happen then be my guest, but consider yourselves warned.
That's all I really have to say. Enjoy.)
0-X-0~O-V-O~0-X-0
Antoine had come back to check up on Xilo just like he had told him, but he was fast asleep. Not wanting to disturb him, he just left the room in silence.
He checked up on him again in about an hour and by that time, he was wide awake. Antoine walked up to him and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"No pain, I am hungry," he replied, his words were somewhat broken.
Antoine smiled and walked out of the room again, telling him, "I'll be right back."
He came back a couple minutes later holding some kind of red fruit. He handed Xilo the red fruit and he politely thanked him, "Thank you."
Antoine chuckled, "No problem."
Xilo bit into the red fruit a bit hesitated, he started chewing and was surprised at how crunchy and sweet it was. The crunchiness wasn't nearly enough to hurt his teeth, but bits and pieces would get caught from time to time. The sweetness was almost overbearing, but he was convinced that it wouldn't have much of an effect on his stomach later.
Before he knew it, he could see red seeds going around the center of the fruit. Suddenly, Antoine snatched what was left it from his hand before he could even finish swallowing his last bite. Xilo looked at him oddly, not understanding why he had done that.
"You don't want to eat those seeds," Antoine told him, trying to explain his actions, but it only succeeded in further confusing him. He notices this and not knowing how to exaggerate it, he just decided to tell him dryly, "Apple seeds have small amounts of cyanide, a very dangerous chemical, in them. I'm just worried that your body will react to it badly like with the ibuprofen I gave you earlier."
Xilo understood this of course and he was thankful that he had taken the apple from his hand. Truthfully, he, himself, was terrified at what all of these human foods and medications could potentially do to his body.
"Are you still hungry?" he asked. Xilo just shook his head.
Antoine was about to walk out of the room again, when Ethan ran in and started tugging on Xilo's arm, obviously wanting him to get up and probably play a game. "Come on, let's play!" Ethan shouted, both happy and a little angry, probably because Xilo was wondering why he was so persistent in getting up and out of bedrest.
Tyler walked into the room and dragged a hand down across his face. "Ethan," he sounded very stressed and disappointed, "this isn't what I meant by 'ask if he wants to play'."
Ethan let go of Xilo and turned to his father with a pout, "Sorry Daddy."
Tyler picked him up and smiled, "It's okay." He then looked at the confused alien and asked, "Do you want to play with us?"
Xilo cocked his side to the side, not understanding what he means by 'play'. But he decided to get up anyway. As soon as he tried to stand up, however, his legs gave out on him and found himself sitting on the floor.
"Are you alright?" Antoine asked, helping him to his feet.
"Yes," he answered, before starting a coughing fit.
Tyler placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Are you feeling okay?" He nodded in response, although he did not look at him, his eyes were glued to the floor, not wanting to take any risks in case he starts coughing again.
Then Antoine did something unexpected, he picked up Xilo and held him in a similar way to how Tyler held Ethan. He was surprised by this and briefly struggled to break free, but soon calmed down after he remembered that he couldn't walk anyway; his legs still felt numb.
All four went out of the room into a much larger space. Xilo was in awe of the new space that he had been carried into. He saw several small wooden tables, a flat, wide, black electronic on a wall, identical bedding to what he had been laying on, and various rugs and blankets that all appeared to be hand-woven. He turned his head and saw a well-lighted area that had a stone surface over a wooden rectangular structure and many rectangular and square shaped devices that looked like they were used for cooking.
He was carefully settled into a chair, thanks to some help from Antoine, who sat in an adjacent chair. Tyler sat in an opposing chair with Ethan in his lap. On the table in front of them was a brown and tan square pattern board with red and black circle-like objects on the board.
"Game?" Xilo questions, very confused.
Tyler nodded, "Yep, it's a board game called chess." He placed a finger on one of the flat, black, circular objects on his side of the board and moved it off to the side. Xilo did the same to one of his red objects and looked back at Antoine, who nodded, telling him that he was playing it the right way.
They continued to play for the next couple of hours, often times, Tyler would allow Ethan to play. After finishing the first round Xilo let Antoine play a round, but he was eager for it to be his turn again. He couldn't explain why, but he found these board games to be strangely entertaining.
It wasn't long before it he was his turn again and he greatly enjoyed watching Antoine beat Tyler and Ethan like a true master. Just as they started a new round, a large, gray canine started to sniff his leg and jumped up onto the table. The canine licked his hand and arm, then started to nudge his hand with its nose.
Antoine got up and stood behind the canine, he placed a hand on top of the canine's head. The canine leaned into the sudden contact and got down from the table. The canine got into almost a begging pose while laying on it's back on the wooden floor with it's long tongue sticking out. Antoine chuckled at the canine's silly position and started to scratch and rub its abdomen.
Ethan jumped down from his father's lap and exclaimed, "Doggy!" He got down on his knees and started scratching the 'doggy's' abdomen.
"Easy there, buddy," Tyler chuckled as he got up and stood in front of the 'doggy'. He then noticed how confused and almost left out Xilo looked. He got a little closer to him and helped him onto the floor.
Xilo looked at Antoine, pondering on whether or not he should do what they were doing. He just smiles and reassures him, "It's okay, Hunter is perfectly tame."
He lifted a shaky hand and slowly placed it on Hunter's abdomen. He was surprised at how soft and fluffy his abdomen was and suddenly found himself scratching and rubbing Hunter, much to the canine's delight.
It had been several months since Antoine and Tyler found Xilo lying in the snow and since then, he had become almost apart of their family. Antoine treated him like a grandson, Tyler and Yvonne treated him like a son, and Ethan treated him like an older brother and sometimes even went as far as calling him as such. He spent quite a bit of time as a playmate for Ethan and Hunter.
They took their time before asking any questions about him, his people, and planet, and when he was ready, so were they. He told them stories that his parents had told him and his siblings. He laughed at their reactions when he told them that he had ten older siblings. He told them about the various fauna and how his brother, Vilo, was digging sand out of his ears for weeks after he was slapped by the tail of a rock whale while attempting to milk it.
As soon as his strength returned, he made an attempt to find the area where he crashed, so that he could recover anything that survived the fire, but all he ever found was scrap. He was hoping that his family heirloom - a necklace that can increase and decrease one's abilities - had survived, but never found it.
He thought that things were going well for him, he enjoyed playing games with them and liked learning about Earth's various cultures and history. He liked helping them out with things around their home as best he could. He thought that nothing could go wrong.
However, he found out the hard way that not everyone was accepting of him. It started out innocently enough...
One day, he came down with something and none of the medications or herbal treatments they had could treat his symptoms. After a long discussion, they decided to take him into town to get checked out by a doctor.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
As soon as they got to the town, Xilo immediately began to notice all the odd and dirty looks he was getting. He almost cried when he picked up whispers of what they were saying about him, "What is that?" "Why is it with Mr. Redfeather?" "Where did it come from?" "I don't like the looks of 'em." "Stay away from that freak!"
He wrapped his arms around Antoine, burying his face in his side. He stops in his tracks and looks down at the sad, young alien. He gave him a reassuring rub on his shoulder and they continued walking.
They made it to a clinic and Antoine told Xilo to go sit down in one of the chairs while he talked to the receptionist. As soon as he did, he noticed some parents with their children leave their chairs and sit as far away from him as possible, making him very sad.
Antoine came to him and sat down next to him, some of the patients and parents of patients shot glares at them. Xilo tried to ignore them, he stared up at the ceiling and passed the time by tracing shapes in the small, gray dots.
Eventually a nurse came over and said that a doctor was ready to evaluate him. She led them to a room at the end of a hallway. She gave them a split second dirty look before shutting the door.
Xilo was unsure about how long they had been waiting, but eventually the doctor did come in. At first he felt a little intimidated by the doctor's height and tattoo of a bloody dagger going through a heart on his left wrist.
The doctor introduced himself, "Good afternoon, I'm Doctor Milovich, I'm here to examine you." He sat down in a chair and asked, "Now, what are your symptoms?"
Antoine answered for him, "He's been throwing up a lot lately, he can't sleep very well, he often claims to be dizzy and gets headaches many times throughout the day."
Dr. Milovich wrote down everything and said, "Well, that could be anything, it could be food poisoning, vertigo, or just insomnia. It could also be a virus."
"What does that mean?" Antoine asked.
"A virus is something that just appears and it doesn't go away," Dr. Milovich replied.
"It also cannot be treated," Xilo finally spoke, something he hadn't done since after he started vomiting after waking up.
Dr. Milovich was a little taken back by him talking, but brushed it off and cleared his throat, saying, "Right, so if he's not doing any better in the next few days, come back and I'll do some tests. Be sure he gets plenty of water."
Antoine nodded, "Come on, Xilo, let's go home."
He nodded and jumped down from the bed. As soon as did, though, he felt a sour feeling in his stomach and could already taste bile and bitterness.
Antoine was talking to the receptionist again when Xilo tugged on his sleeve. "What?" he asked.
"I have to go to the bathroom," he replied sickly, both arms on his stomach.
"Just back there," the receptionist said, pointing in the direction of the bathrooms.
He ran off, clamping a hand over his mouth and shoving the door open with his shoulder. He went to the nearest toilet and emptied out what little was in his stomach, it was mostly liquid.
It was starting to get far beyond comfortable at this point. He was practically hugging the toilet as he vomited and spit out what was left. His eyes watered the entire time due to the small blood vessels in and around them bursting. His throat was hurting from the acid in his stomach forcing its way out of him.
He was so focused on getting the bile taste out of his mouth, he didn't even hear the door open or whomever walked in. He thought he was alone until he felt a massive, heavily calloused and cracked hand hold his head down in the vomitus filled toilet bowl. Why his antenna didn't start twitching when the assailant walked is a mystery to him.
He struggled to get away, his hands on the tile floor and his feet kicked up while his knees were still on the floor as he tried to force his attacker off of him. No matter how much he struggled, his attacker applied more pressure to his head, forcing him so deep into the vomitus that only his antenna and the tips of his ears were the only things not submerged.
Under normal circumstances he wouldn't be panicking since he can breathe underwater, but the water in the toilet was contaminated with his stomach contents, which he can't breathe in. If he attempted to breathe in the water in the toilet it would make his already sick condition much worse.
He felt another hand on his head, this one wasn't nearly as big or as cracked but still heavily calloused. He then felt the bottom of a boot on his back and another on his ankles, he could no longer defend himself. The boot on his ankles felt longer and wider than the one on his back. The different sizes led him to conclude that there was at least two assailants.
Since his ears were mostly submerged, he could hear very little, save for the sounds of his own muffled grunts from his attackers punching his back and the back of his neck and the tainted water getting wild like an ocean from his struggles. He could, however, make out some of what his attackers were saying.
"How... fuck... son... bitch... alive?!"
"...fuck... I... to know?!"
"Drown...!"
"We... have... gov... here!"
Realizing what they were attempting to do and the motive behind it, he expelled the air from his lungs and allowed his arms and hands to go limp. As soon as his assailants saw that he wasn't moving, they left, but not before kicking his sides.
He lifted his head out of the toilet, deeply inhaling and exhaling while spitting out some contaminated water then cleaned up. He cleaned up his face and the floor with toilet paper and paper towels. He straightened up his clothes and hid the bruises on his face and neck caused by the toilet bowl. He flushed the toilet and walked out the door as if nothing happened.
When he walked back into the reception area, he saw Antoine and the receptionist still talking. He tugged on his sleeve, getting his attention. "You sure took your time," he joked.
He didn't appear to notice any of Xilo's bruises, which relieved him greatly. "May we return home?" he asked, somehow without any strain in his voice from the assault.
Antoine nodded and they left the clinic to return home; ignoring the whispers of the townspeople. Though, perhaps they should've paid closer attention, a tall man watched as they walked in the direction of their home. They walked right by him and didn't even know it. What they also don't know: he saw something that others did not.
Xilo kept quiet about the people who attempted to murder him, though he was certain that the family had their suspicions. In order to hide the bruises on his face and neck he wore a scarf. Whenever he was asked why he wore it when the house was fairly warm, he just said that he was cold or still sick, even though he started feeling better a couple of days after seeing the doctor.
Yvonne had suggested taking him back to the doctor, something he didn't want to do again; not at all. He assured her that he was fine and that he was just cold from all the playing he did in the snow with Ethan and Hunter.
The bruises that plagued his face, neck, back, ankles, and sides took close to two weeks to fully heal. The bruises on his back and ankles had left footwear impressions, it just showed how many risks the perpetrators were willing to take. As soon as the last of his bruises vanished, he stopped wearing the scarf and claimed that he had finally gotten used to the cold.
Even so, he often refused to go into town with them, not wanting what happened to him to happen again to him or the family. When asked, he would just say that he didn't feel comfortable being around so many people.
The incident had traumatized him to no end and it caused so much fear, he considered leaving the area for their protection, but reconsidered after he scared away some vandals.
Despite that it didn't mean that he slept peacefully at night, he often did rounds around the house every couple of hours. He would often go on with only three or four hours of sleep, worrying both the family and him. Occasionally, he would shine a flashlight outside and look for shoe impressions similar to the ones that were imprinted on his skin.
One night, after finishing a round, he awoke to Hunter barking and the sound of hard objects being thrown at the house. At first he assumed that it was just another hail storm until a gun went off. Hunter ran up to the window, jumped up and started barking and growling at the people outside.
The gunshot and Hunter's barks had woken up everyone and they all ran into the living room, where Xilo slept, and looked out the window. He joined them and when he saw two men out there with large pieces of wood, rocks in their hands, and one of them held a gun.
Even in the pitch blackness of night, he could see the same shoe impressions on the icy ground that he had memorized from his injuries. He narrowed his eyes and growled, he moved from the window and ran out the door. His anger had gotten the better of him. It was this anger that kept him warm in the cold temperatures of the outside. He wore only a pair of sweatpants and very old, thin socks with various holes in them. Although his skin was cold, it penetrated only the surface, and, internally, it felt like boiling water keeping him warm and giving him the freedom to move as he wishes.
One of the men smirked when he saw him, "Well, well, well, look who finally decided to come out."
They held up their weapons and pointed them at him. "We're gonna beat your ass unless you get outta town!" the other man shouted.
His eyes were now sharp like knives, "That is never going to happen."
"Well, then I guess you say 'goodbye' for the last time," the man holding the gun said, pointing it directly at him.
He cocked the safety trigger with his thumb and had his pointer finger on the trigger. Before he could fire the gun, Xilo rushed him and tried to grab the firearm from his hand.
"You little fu-" the other man lifted the wood in his hand over his head and was about to bring it down onto the young alien, but it never happened. Xilo grabbed his elbow and squeezed it so hard he dropped the wood and rocks he held in his other hand. The man's arm felt numb to him and it went limp as if it were asleep or broken. It was quite painful, despite the numbness.
Xilo and the man with the gun continued to fight over it. He had his hand tightly gripping the man's wrist, in hopes that he'll end up dropping it. But the man was much bigger and stronger than other and ripped his wrist from his hand. He threw him to the ground with his forearm.
He landed on his bare back in the snow and it was only then that he realized that it was freezing. Before he could pick himself up, the man with the gun put his large boot on his chest, preventing him from getting up. The man put so much pressure on his chest that he was certain that if it were any harder, his sternum would crack for sure.
He grabbed onto the man's boot with both hands, trying, unsuccessfully, to get him off. "Get off!" he managed to hiss, his voice very low, weak and almost a squeak. The man, however, didn't hear him or perhaps he did, but is choosing to ignore him.
He bit down on his lip while gritting his teeth and growled up at the man like a rabid animal. He gritted his teeth so hard to the point where small amounts of blood started to burst out of his gums like a flood. It also caused some blood to come from his lip due to biting down on it so hard. Some of it trickled into his mouth while most of it puddled into small pools on both sides of his face.
His blood, unlike human blood, is blue, but it's a very subtle, deep, almost midnight blue. It glistened quite beautifully as it seeped into the sparkling snow and the full moon above gave it almost a majestic look. Although some might consider it to be beautiful - as long as they didn't know where it came from - the two assailants, however, had the opposite view.
"Ugh! What the hell is that?!"
"How should I fucking know?!"
"Wait a minute," the man with the gun touched the alien's blood and started playing with it. "It's blood!"
"Are you sure?" the other man asked.
"Look," he lifted his boot off of Xilo's chest slightly then brought down roughly. Blood erupted like a volcano from his mouth as he felt the air being knocked out of him when the boot came down. He was certain that he now had a collapsed lung and perhaps a cracked sternum and broken ribs.
"Should we finish him off?"
"Neh, he's close to death anyway, besides, we can't leave any witnesses."
Xilo knew what that meant: they were going to kill his family! He wanted to push them off of him and tear them to shreds with his bare hands. But he couldn't do that; he wasn't strong enough.
The two men started walking in the direction of the house. It was a great relief to have the man's boot off his chest, or at least it would have been. His lungs felt like they were on fire and he was practically choking on his own blood. Even though there was nothing stopping him on the outside, it felt as if everything was stopping him on the inside.
He closed his eyes and cried, his tears streamed down from the corners of his eyes and mixed with his blood. The mixture was a river of what keeps him alive and what he lives for.
He felt himself standing up and walking away from the sounds of his family dying. He was no hero, he was a coward, a coward who can't do anything but cry and bleed to death. He could hear them, he could her his family screaming, calling out to him to save them. What was he doing to help? Nothing. He was walking away.
"Where are you going?" someone asked, it sounded very assertive and ghost-like.
"Who is there?" he asked, looking around for the source of the voice, but could see no one.
"Someone you know," the voice said.
"Who?" he asked, slightly louder and a little angry. Truthfully, he felt quite anxious and nervous.
"The one to be feared by only you," it said darkly and almost tauntingly.
He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain, and shouted, "Show yourself!"
"I am here," it replied calmly, as if they were having a normal conversation.
"Where?!" he shouted angrily.
"Here." Black water erupted from underneath him, knocking him off his feet and causing him to fall on his back. A figure emerged as the water began to disappear and he found himself looking up at... himself.
"Why are you- I-," he couldn't find the right words to say.
"You will go back and save your family!" he ordered.
"I... I cannot!" he yelled back, he couldn't stop himself from weeping.
"Yes you can!" he yelled back in protest.
"I cannot!" he finally snapped. "Can you not see?! They are dead! I... I... I am a failure!"
"No, you are not and they are still living," he says in a much calmer and quieter yet reassuring tone.
Everything went black and multiple figures began to form around them in a circle. He immediately recognized twelve of the figures: they were his deceased family. His father stood tall and strong, he was extremely muscled and his growth suit and armor only helped to show them off. His mother was a beautiful, youthful woman who didn't let being a woman get in the way of doing what's right. His siblings were there, staring him down like they used too; all ten of them: Ilo, I'ilo, Ii'iana, Ivana, Vana, Vilo, Vi'ilo, Vii'iana, Ixana, and Xana.
Five more figures began to take shape, they were very easy to identify: Antoine, Tyler, Ethan, Yvonne, and Hunter. The five of them stared at him in a similar way to his parents and siblings. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be encouraging or supposed to bring him guilt.
"They are still living. They are what is keeping you going!" He thought it was the other him saying that, but it was him. The real him.
0-X-0~O-V-O~0-X-0
(A/N: Much darker than even I was expecting, especially the end. If you guys think it's not that dark, fine. It's just my opinion.
I originally planned to have the dialogue at the end in XL's native language (the language that I used in the first chapter), but I'm tired and didn't feel like translating all of it.
I did put quite a few references to the novel "Night" in this chapter. A warning ahead of time for those of you who are lazy, themes from that story are gonna be heavy in the next chapter.
Please don't start saying all these shitty things, I did give you a warning ahead of time, didn't I?! I really don't need another "Dark Secrets" on my hands. Speaking of, I was going to delete it on Friday, but I'm just gonna delete it either tomorrow or sometime this week.
The next chapter of my Scooby-Doo/Teen Titans crossover is almost done. I'll be updating either tomorrow or later on this week.
Before I go, Happy Father's Day!)
