Warning: This chapter does deal with dark themes so I'm just warning you now.
Chapter Three
Shifted
A few days after Sam and I returned from Gotham, we were called into the hanger. When we arrived Queen Bee was waiting there, her guards behind her. We came to a stop, waiting for her to speak. "Nightfall, Blackout, I'd like to introduce you to your new… partner." The guards separated and two came forward, holding a struggling man.
I raised my eyebrows. He was dressed like one of the guards, what on earth did she mean by new companion? The queen rolled her eyes and a guard pulled on a baton. He flicked a switch and electricity crackled up it. He slammed the baton into the struggling guard's side. My eyebrows rose even further as he let out a rather feminine whimper. Then the guard did a very odd thing.
He transformed into a teenage girl.
It looked like his skin was peeling, but instead of falling off, it just changed the caucasian man into a dark skinned girl, who looked around fifteen years old and was wearing a dark blue shirt and grey shorts. My jaw tightened. She had brought another person into this, a girl who was younger than I was when I was brought here. It was hard for me, but for her it would be much worse.
"Aurora Barton, a shapeshifter." Queen Bee explained. "You two will be training her, while the scientists…...adjust her to life here." That didn't sound good. I seemed to remember words like that when I was brought here. Words like that meant experiments.
"Now," She turned to the guards, "Give them some space. Form a ring. I want to see how the girl fights." My back stiffened as the guards stepped back, creating a circle.
"You want us to fight her?!" Sam exclaimed, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. Queen Bee turned, giving him a cold glare. No one dared to question the queen.
"I do." She replied as the guards placed hands on their guns. He shrank back, not wanting to be punished. "Do you have a problem with that Blackout?" She asked.
"No, my queen." He replied, his voice now cold and indifferent. Pretend you are indifferent. Pretend you don't care. Then you will keep your life. Those were the words Sam told me when I first arrived.
"Then hold your tongue." She said, the venom dripping off of her tongue. "Shall we get started?"
"No weapons." I said in a quiet voice.
She turned to face me, an eyebrow raised. "What was that?"
"If we fight her then we use no weapons." I replied. "It's unfair." But then again, when have you ever been fair?
The Queen considered it for a moment before doing something that I didn't expect. She agreed. "Interesting. I'll allow it. Oh and Nightfall? If you go easy on her, I won't be pleased." She walked out of the ring and stood behind the guards, who had given her plenty of room to see. "Nightfall, you go first. Now begin."
Sam and I exchanged a look, not sure what to do. Aurora was trying to claw her way out of the ring, grabbing and pulling at the guards. They barely batted an eyelid at the girl and instead kicked her back into the centre of the ring. Tears ran down her face as she gave a terrified look to Sam and I.
"I said begin!" Queen Bee's voice brought us to attention.
I took a wary step forward towards the girl and she scrambled back. "Please, please." She begged. If we refused then this meant punishment for us, including Aurora. None of us wanted that. I advanced forward as the girl scrambled backwards, sobbing and clinging to one of the soldiers.
"Please, I'll do anything, just take me home! I just wanna go home, please!" Aurora begged, after the soldier shoved her off him. The girl had landed on her stomach, sprawled out on the ground.
Even though I couldn't see her, I could feel Queen Bee roll her eyes. "Oh for God's sake, don't just stand there!" She called, sounding annoyed. Aurora clenched her jaw and sniffed, before scrambling to feet and hitting my arm. It was like a gentle tap.
I sighed as she hit me again, barely moving me from the spot. The soldiers started to laugh and jeer, telling me to 'teach her a lesson' and calling the girl a 'stupid bitch'. My eyes flicked up to Queen Bee's, noticing that she was becoming agitated. Time to fight back.
As Aurora brought her hand up, I caught her wrist. It wasn't a tight grip, like the grip I had with the man on the street. She brought up her other hand to hit with and I caught her wrist. She started to struggle and scream. For the first time, I had a proper look in her eyes and I didn't like what I saw. The same terrified look I had. My mind flashed back to when I was first brought here.
Scrambling away from the soldiers. Get beaten down by an opponent who managed to appear when I wasn't ready. Laughter and catcalls filling my ears as my opponent sliced my skin. Vicious words and jeers as I lay bleeding on the ground.
I snapped back to reality and swept her legs out from under her, making Aurora land with a cry. The soldiers roared with laughter as she curled up on the ground, trying to become smaller. "Pathetic." Queen Bee spat. "Now you Blackout." Their fight had the exact same results: Aurora on the ground, sobbing quietly. The soldiers enjoyed the show, their smiles cruel.
"You tried, my dear, but there was no way you could beat my assassins." Queen Bee said, patronisingly petting Aurora's head. "This is why they will be training you. To become as strong as they are. Take Aurora to her room." She commanded the soldiers before turning to us. "Nightfall and Blackout, you are dismissed."
"She's a child. This isn't right." The Doctor snapped. I stared at the bright lights above me, the only thing I could make out through my tears. The pain from my last injection still seething in my veins.
"She's hardly a child, and we can't go against this! This is orders from the Queen." The Doctor at my side replied calmly.
"Please….stop." I begged, managing to stop choking on my own blood. ""Please."
"I'm sorry." The woman said in a voice that didn't sound terribly apologetic, brushing my hair off my sweat soaked forehead. "We can't."
"We saw what happened to Samuel, why are we letting this happen again?" The Doctor hissed.
"Do you want to keep your head? This is the Queen's orders, we can't go against them." The woman replied. "Besides, she be better after all of this."
"Better, better?! In what world would that count as better?!" The Doctor snarled.
"You'll see." She replied, her voice dripping with contempt. "Now relax, it's time for your next injection."
"No, no, no, no,no please don't-" I begged, using whatever energy I had left to squirm and wrestle out of her grip. I felt the needle pierce my skin. I started to scream again.
I sat up with a gasp, feeling air in my mouth and not blood. I swung my legs off the bed and sat there for a few minutes. That wasn't the worst of the treatments and it definitely wasn't the last. I went to the sink and splashed my face with water. There's blood, there's so much blood on my hands and on my face and in my mouth-
SNAP OUT OF IT!
I pull on my uniform, eager to feel the knives on my fingers. To turn robotic again. Suck it up Archer. Don't be weak in front of them. A soldier knocks on the door. Well, more like he punches it, before shouting that training was starting now and to hurry my ass up. I walked out of the door and the soldiers marched me into the courtyard. Aurora was on her knees, a split lip and scowl marking her features.
"So what are we going to start with?" She called. "Are you going to beat me up again or are you just going to kill me?" I raised an eyebrow at words, which quickly turned into a frown as she was hit with the butt of a gun.
"Don't speak out of turn." He snarled at her. Aurora shrank.
A snort makes my head snap up. My eyes flicker to Pablo, who was leaning against a pillar and watching the exchange. "[Will you not be helping?]" I asked, earning a chuckle from him.
"[Ah, I'm afraid not parajita. You're on your own.]" He replied. I narrow my eyes at the man. He finds this amusing. Bastard, bastard, bastard.
I turned back to Aurora, watching her closely. "Get up." I ordered before turning to the guard. "Let her go." He releases her, but not before shoving Aurora forward. She's wearing grey scrubs, the same thing I had to wear when I first arrived. I could see the bruises on her arms, little pinpricks that indicated where they had taken blood and where they had injected her. "Hit me." I ordered.
She froze. "What?!"
"Hit me." I repeated. She gave me a wide eyed look before attempting to slam her fist into my face. I caught it easily. "Your alignment is wrong." I corrected it quickly. "Do it again."
We continue at this for hours, her trying to hit me while I correct her form and show how to make the moves deadlier. She looked ready to collapse. Aurora must have managed to gain some spirit in those hours because she snarled in a mocking tone "Why are you training me? Shouldn't you be off killing people like the big badass assassin that you are?"
I raised my eyebrows in amusement and the girl actually manages to slam her fist into my chest plate. She sprung away, clutching at her hand. "Jesus, what are you made of? Steel?"
I smirked and shook my head. "Good try. We will continue training tomorrow." Aurora gave me a surprised look at the words.
I'm not as cold as I seem.
"Kill the woman." Pablo ordered, making the woman howl louder through her gag.
"No." I replied, my eyes fixed on the shrieking and squirming woman.
Pablo grabs my hair and yanks me towards his mouth. "Do it. Do it or its back into the lab for another training exercise." He hisses in my ear. I let out a frightened sob. I don't want to do that. I don't want to go back. But my eyes keep seeing the woman and there's a voice in my head screaming at me not to do it.
But there's a whisper that's saying to do it and it's getting louder and louder and louder.
I throw the knife and it slices through the woman's throat. She falls with a gurgle.
I wake with a scream.
Her eyes are forever imprinted in my mind. A desperate, pleading look. Don't do this, please. After, I had fallen on my knees and screamed into my hands that smothered my mouth. Pablo turned to the guards and said "A first kill can do that to someone."
I tug on my uniform and clench my jaw. Suck it up Archer. It was about a week after the first training session with Aurora and we were moving onto weaponry. I still hadn't had the chance to speak to Sam alone yet about a topic that we really needed to talk about.
Aurora couldn't stay and, at the first chance we had, we would get here out of Bialya. The question was how?
I frowned when I walked in, catching sight of Aurora. As the week had went on her condition had grown worse steadily. Her tanned skin now looked grey and her cheeks were sunken. That only made me more determined to get here out of there, but first of all I had to find out if she was getting a steady supply of food. Sam and I had mush pushed in on trays, through a flap in our door. The mush had the perfect nutrition count to make sure we were healthy.
I closed my eyes as Sam showed Aurora how to use the gun. While I was good with my throwing knives, you should see Sam with a sniper rifle. When I first arrived they had tried to get me to use them. I refused and was punished. Queen Bee agreed to my request to not use guns, thankfully. Sam was left to use them.
Sam made sure she was holding her gun at the correct angle, murmuring words of encouragement to her. Aurora still was uneasy around us but she preferred our company over the soldiers.
We change soon after. It was my turn to show Aurora how to use the throwing knives. "So what do you think my super-secret codename will be?" She asked, her voice sounding more like a wheeze. It amazed me how she could still make jokes.
"I don't know, how about silence?" Sam teased.
"Might be good actually." She replied. "Introduce a little irony, since I don't shut up." I chuckled and she shot me a surprised look. "I didn't know you could do that." Aurora said in a teasing tone, making Sam laugh.
"I feel like I should be offended." I replied.
She shrugged but smiled slightly. "Probably."
In the weeks that follow we steal food from the kitchens and give it to Aurora. She looks slightly healthier.
It's at the beginning of February when Sam and I finally have a moment alone. We had been sent to pick up the cargo being delivered by boom tube, in the Bialyan Desert at night. Sam and I stood around waiting for the arrival of said cargo.
"She can't stay." I said, breaking the silence. I crossed my arms, trying to get some warmth. The desert was colder at night.
"I know that." He replied. "But how do you suggest we get her out? We can't exactly get her to run away from the palace."
I bit my lip. I hadn't thought of anyway to get her out of there, I just knew in my mind that I had to. "I know this is a really bad idea." Sam added. "But maybe it would be best if she did stay, just until we figured out a way to get all of us out of here." I shot him a glare. "It was just a suggestion, I want her to get out as much as you do!"
I sighed. "I know Sam, but just….. I don't want her to get hurt. I don't want her to be treated like we were." I can't help it, but my mind flashes back to three years before.
Someone had slammed me against the wall and covered my mouth with my hand. I'm trying to fight back but it's just after another experiment and my body feels heavy and I can't breathe.
There's a man burying his face in my hair and trying to force a knee between my legs and I'm screaming, screaming, screaming, until-
Angry shouts greet my ears and the man is pulled off of me. I slide down the wall as another soldier punches the man before sending him on his way. He turns to me and crouches down. "Are you alright?" He asked in kind but broken English.
My answer is a sob and a nod. He nodded and helped me to my feet, before bringing to my room. He tried his hardest to comfort me in broken English as we walked down the halls. That memory would always be with me, one of the few moments of kindness shown to me by someone who wasn't Sam.
My mind snapped back to the present when I realised that Sam was speaking to me. "Wait, did put the information about the cargo shipment on the USB drive?" He asked. My eyes widened when I realised what he meant.
"The team might come to investigate." I said, as Sam nodded. "We could get to go with them somehow, that's brilliant!" I exclaimed.
Sam smirked. "I try my hardest." His expression suddenly hardened. "But what if they don't come?" He asked.
I shrugged. "We just got to hope, that's always what we have to do." He nodded, just as the boom tube opened. We jumped to attention, professional mode on.
A week after we decided, Sam, Aurora and I were sent into the desert to pick up another delivery arriving by Boom Tube. We weren't wearing our uniforms as some higher up didn't want us to look suspicious. Yes, because there was nothing odd looking about two adults and a teenager, driving in an armour plated truck, and picking up a delivery in the middle of the desert.
We had stopped now and were leaning against the hood of the truck. "You can't stay." Sam broke the silence this time.
Aurora whipped around to face us. "Wait what?" She exclaimed. "Oh my God, you've brought me out here to kill me, you assholes!"
"Calm down!" I cut her off. "We're not here to kill you."
She froze and asked "Then what are you going to do?"
"There's a possible escape for you." I explained. "I have friends from….before this. They can get you out."
"Okay, do you want explain more of that really vague answer?" Aurora asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Look, she knows superheroes kid. There is a possibility that they may be coming to investigate the Boom Tube signatures. Hopefully we can get you to go with them." Sam explained.
"And how do you know them?" She asked.
"It's a long story, but basically you just have to hope that they come." I replied.
"And if they don't?" She replied.
"Then we find another way out." I replied.
Aurora suddenly softened. "I never got to tell you guys this, but thank you. For everything." I smiled and Sam gave her a curt nod.
"Will you not be coming with me?" Aurora asked.
"Don't you think it would look a bit suspicious if Queen Bee's two pet projects suddenly disappeared?" Sam asked.
"But don't you want to leave?" She replied.
"I would give anything to leave, to see my family, my friends….." Kaldur. I trailed off.
"Why do I get the feeling you were going to mention a guy?" Aurora asked.
I laughed. "Yeah, his name is Kaldur and I would give anything to see him again."
"You love him?" I nodded. "Aww! What about you Sam? Got any lady friends you want to see?"
"Nah kid, I'm a lone wolf riding solo." He smirked.
"Cause he can't get a girlfriend." I muttered. Aurora and I laughed as Sam swatted at my head.
OH MY GOD GUYS I AM THE WORST PERSON EVER. I'm so sorry about this really late chapter but I was away most of easter break (spring break to you Americans) and didn't get time to write. Chapter updates will get even slower I'm afraid, as it's getting close to my exams. Sorry:(
Korin- Thank you! I hope you enjoy this story as much as Shade!
Velociraptor121- You'll have to wait for that!
nikkali44- Thank you! Nightwing does know that it's Lila because if you remember in chapter one she left him a message.
Koren Flashblade- Reunion in a few chapters! :)
murdercrowther- I'm glad you enjoyed it! This chapter is darker though, but I hope the lighter moments mixed in were okay!
SinistrousDelirious- Thank you!
Katie Loom- Thank you!
LadyFelton1994- Thank you!
LadyMorph18- Thank you! She doesn't know yet but that will change in a few chapters! :)