Sorry for the long wait, but between school finishing and vacations and you know...real life in general, I've been a little pressed for time. Never fear, however, because here is the next installment of Marchin On!
Chapter 5: There Isn't a Flag I'd Wave
Martial law was not easy to live under, Jimmy found.
No groups of more than five people were allowed to assemble. Guards wandered all the cities to enforce the law. Food was being strictly rationed; food stamps were sent out to the colonists weekly, and depending on their familial status- single, married, family with children- they were given careful portions of various foods to last them the week. Those who stole or attempted to steal food were shot on sight. Those who were caught creating food stamps were beaten. Any protests about the soldiers' behavior was ignored, and usually the men and women were vindictive enough to find some imagined offense to punish the offender with. The entire planet was on the cusp of being uncivilized, and no one seemed to be able to control it.
Not that anyone dared to, of course. Even Jimmy didn't dare say what he was thinking aloud- that Kodos had finally shown his true colors. Though he seemed to be a kindly and well-meaning gentleman, he made no efforts to stop the men and women under his command from doing as they pleased. There was a wildness to people's eyes now, a sort of animalistic quality that had Jimmy avoiding everyone's gaze, half wondering if he looked as wild to them as they did to him. Even in the face of all that however, Jimmy didn't dare speak his thoughts aloud.
Because if he did, he would likely disappear too.
Not that anything could be proven, of course- especially during the time that everyone was rioting. Two hundred people were confirmed dead, that was true, from the thieves and guards and mobs, but another three hundred people were missing.
Just…missing.
Gone.
And it wasn't like there was anywhere for them to go. Tarsus IV didn't have warp capable ships, so it wasn't like even if they stole the ships they would be able to go anywhere in a reasonable amount of time; they would get faster relief if they just waited for Starfleet to respond. Besides, even if they had stolen the ships someone would have noticed; the ships were heavily guarded both with man power and with technological security, and had been even before the famine. Any theft would have been plastered all over the newsfeeds. It was unlikely that the missing people gone to another city, either, since the situation wasn't any better there. It was equally unlikely that they were simply out in the wilderness, surviving on their own. Not that the terrain was particularly hostile, but it simply wouldn't make sense- why give up the chance that the scientists would be able to resolve the issue or that Starfleet would respond earlier than expected?
Even more than the fact that it didn't make sense to disappear, Jimmy couldn't help but shudder because of who had been reported missing.
The elderly.
The lame.
The two people that Jimmy knew- that everyone knew- would be the least likely to survive the famine. Literally anyone over the age of sixty or so- or whatever the species' equivalent was- and anyone who was in some way unable to physically bring aid or help the others in the community had disappeared either during or within two days of the rioting.
There was no way to confirm, no way to tell for sure, but everyone had their suspicions about what had happened. It was hard to be sure, however; the elderly and the lame were also the least able to get away from the mobs, from the rioting. In fact, nearly ninety percent of the victims that had been found had been either elderly or lame as well. Even so, simply the fact that no one had been able to find the bodies, or had been able to identify the bodies was enough to make most people uncomfortable. Though the theories differed, the one thing that everyone agreed on was that it couldn't be good.
Yet so far no one had raised a voice in protest. They didn't quite dare- it was one thing to have suspicions, and quite another to accuse a man of essentially murdering his colonists. And if he had done it, how could he have possibly gotten rid of all the bodies? There were simply too many unanswered questions for anyone to be able to say anything.
Even so, Jimmy made the journey to the labs each day with trepidation. They were located near the edge of Kodos's grounds, an enormous and well stocked complex. Kodos had asked the geniuses in his Colony Outreach Program to help work on solving the problems the colony faced. About half the members of this year's program had some sort of background in biochemistry, organic chemistry, math, cellular physiology, engineering and the like. Jimmy had been assigned to a group working on re-creating replicator technology based some of the partial designs that were in the databank. Big J, Karrin, O'las, Savik, Memeki, Gretchen, Yana, Roshaun and Ebenezer were all working to ease the effects of the famine in some shape, way, or form.
It seemed as if the colonists were heedless of that fact, however. In the last two days, six of the scientists and their families had been killed in their homes. They had been brutal, bloody affairs, without cause or reason. Since the murderers were still at large, Kodos had insisted that his guards escort all the scientists to the facility with their personal belongings; they were to remain either in the facility or the rooms that Kodos was giving them for the duration, so as to prevent the scientists from being killed and ending their ability to do the critical work.
Jimmy swallowed, eyeing the guards around him with a certain anxiety. He knew they were there for his own protection, but they were huge, hulking men that could probably flatten Big J with a couple of blows, let alone Jimmy's own increasingly skinny frame, or that of the others that were being herded along. He watched them warily the entire trip, making sure they didn't come too close. He knew that he was acting ridiculously skittish, but couldn't help his response to the sheer strength present in the frames of the men and women around him, a strength that far exceeded his own. Though they hadn't behaved in the least threateningly- the one guard had even told Memeki and Karrin that he would hold their things, if they desired- Jimmy couldn't help but recall the brutalities that had been committed in the various settlements, the rumors that were still flying around.
But Jimmy never gave up, never surrendered- not to Frank, not to his mother, not to the aching hole his father left and sure as hell not to these goons that didn't have so much as two brain cells to rub together. So Jimmy scowled the entire trip to Kodos's residence, scowled as the guards directed both the other scientists and the kid geniuses to their rooms in a sort of elegant organized chaos. He even managed to scowl through the better part of the meager meal that they were all served and the idle chatter that came with it- some sort of bluish corn, chicken, and sheesh, a sort of starch product from Andoria. Simple, plain fare.
The next two days didn't do much to improve Jimmy's mood. Not only had he hit a roadblock in the replicator equations that neither he nor the other scientists on the project had been able to resolve, but Kodos had been by to visit every day. He'd lurked in the corner, claiming that he simply wanted to observe genius at work. Jimmy could feel his eyes on him, and just barely resisted the urge to either say something about it or attempt to escape to his room. There was a weight and sense of ownership to Kodos's gaze that made Jimmy sick to his stomach.
Jimmy breathed out a long sigh of relief after Kodos was gone both days. The second time, a young, pretty scientist by the name of Dr. Ingrid Smith laughed lightly at his response. Jimmy gazed at her in appreciation; she had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes and a brilliant white smile. Like with Dr. Jameson, he had the strangest feeling that he knew her from somewhere, felt like he shouldn't be calling her by her first name as she had instructed him when they'd first met.
"If you want to get into the scientific field, you better get used to having your boss looking over your shoulder," she teased with a smile. "Everything is about results."
Jimmy returned her smile half-heartedly. How had Ingrid not seen the darkness in Kodos's gaze, the presence of a man who had been pushed to the edge- and possibly over it, if the rumors that were growing every day were any indication? Kodos's smile had been predatory, cool. It hadn't been quite lustful as he'd gazed as Jimmy, at least, he didn't think so, but there was something wrong, completely and utterly wrong about him. It was clear that Ingrid hadn't seen it at all, didn't even have an inkling of what Jimmy had seen. It made Jimmy doubt himself, wonder if he was just projecting his emotions onto the governor, seeing his own inner torment about the situation playing out across Kodos's face.
So Jimmy kept his mouth shut, and continued to work, hoping it would keep his mind off of Kodos's dark eyes.
He was done for the day, feeling a sort of creeping exhaustion flowing through his body when he heard a knock at the door. He frowned for a moment, wondering who would be knocking at his door this late. As he was walking over, he heard the rhythmic thunk thunk thunk that he'd heard a thousand times. It was Memeki, shifting her weight from one set of legs to the other, something she always did when she was nervous.
"Yeah?" Jimmy asked as he pulled the door open. "What's up, Memeki?"
Her dark eyes gazed at him in supplication. "I forgot!" she moaned, shifting her weight even faster now. "I forgot my scroll!"
Jimmy immediately sighed, exhaustion making his limbs feel even heavier. "Memeki, how could you have forgotten your book? Didn't Abby say like, four times to check that you had everything with you before we left?"
It was the wrong thing to say. Memeki's species wasn't able to produce tears, Jimmy knew that, but somehow she managed to make her large, dark eyes go glassy, her mandibles tightening. "I know!" she replied in a quavering tone, voice thick with embarrassment and worry. "But my dapi gave it to me! I hid it under my bed for safekeeping, and I left it there!"
Jimmy couldn't help the slightly petulant tone to his voice. "So why don't you tell Big J, or one of the guards or something?"
Memeki's quavering tone got worse, and Jimmy felt like a complete jerk. "Big J is still working, so are Yana and Gretchen and the others! I can't go to them. And I don't wanna go to the guards! I'm scared! I just want my scroll. Please, Jimmy, can you go get it? Please?" Memeki stared up at him, dark gaze sorrowful and anxious. "Please, I don't trust the guards. They'll do something to it, or steal it, and my dapi gave it to me. Please, Jimmy, please!"
"You can't just wait until tomorrow? Maybe Abby can bring it over."
Jimmy's words didn't move Memeki at all. "I already tried calling her." Now slow, shuddering heaves were wracking her body, and Jimmy knew they had to be the equivalent of tears, and felt himself caving. "Please, Jimmy, something could happen to it if I wait until tomorrow. Please, please, please."
Jimmy let out a long breath, a headache beginning to pound behind his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and listen to some music for a while, to do anything but move. Somehow staring at numbers all day, revising set after set of equations was more taxing than being out in the sun, hanging out with friends and running around. A small part of him was pleased, glad that Memeki trusted him enough to ask such a favor of him. Jimmy ran a hand through his hair, tousling the gold locks, tapping his foot absently while Memeki gazed up at him, hope in her eyes.
"Dammit," Jimmy finally growled. "Memeki, you owe me one. I'll run down to the program's building and see if I can snag the scroll from your room. Hopefully Abby's still awake to let me in. I'm not making any promises though, alright?"
"That's fine!" Memeki said fervently. "Thank you, Jimmy, thank you!"
Her arms wrapped around him tightly for a long minute, nearly squeezing the breath out of him before she let go of him and headed back down the hallway to her room. Jimmy rubbed at his face, eyes burning. "How do I get myself into these things," he grumbled as he closed the door to put his jeans and his jacket back on. Actually, he did know how. He was always a pushover when people genuinely asked for his help, wanting to give others the support he'd sorely missed during his childhood. He cursed under his breath, feeling like a ridiculous sap.
He made his way out silently, slipping past the occasional guard. The scientists were still in the labs or asleep, worn out from the day's work, and the guards were too busy making sure the settlements didn't begin rioting again to pay attention to Jimmy's slim figure; the governor's house was nearly empty. Even so, Jimmy didn't get the feeling his return to the program house would be easily accepted, but he'd told Memeki he'd go and wasn't interested in being forced to break the promise. Therefore, he was exceptionally careful to avoid being caught, taking the winding path to the edges of Kodos's property that was almost never used and then cutting down towards the house. It only added an extra fifteen or so minutes to the journey, but kept him out of sight of the governor's house, mostly behinds the large bushes and trees that lined so many of the paths. Twilight had completely spread against the sky, and by the time Jimmy actually reached the program house, it was pitch black.
He shivered, his coat not quite warm enough in the fall chill that had been taking over the planet for the last few weeks. Maybe Abby would have something he could borrow; he could always return it to her later when he had the chance. As he came around the ridge, however, phaser fire rang from the program house.
Jimmy froze for a pair of heartbeats that seemed to stretch on forever.
Then he was off, darting forward through the underbrush heedless of the scratches he was getting as the branches smacked his arms, his face. He nearly stumbled several times over rocks and old tree stumps that he couldn't see, but his entire focus was on what he was hearing. His own breath, harsh and ragged already with fear and exertion, and constant whine of phasers. There were shouts too, which sounded almost flat in the dark, omni-directional and full of pain and worry. Jimmy ran a little faster at that, breath wheezing in and out of him.
He barreled down the hill, towards where he could hear at least three phasers shooting blast after blast, each impact throwing up a shower of sparks. When each blast hit, whether it was the wall of the house or something else, the cries rose again briefly, gaining a level of fear that had Jimmy running a little bit swifter. He came careening down the hill, knocking aside the branches that got in his way. He saw a figure racing towards him.
It was Abby, holding Ianto in her arms.
One of the guards stopped, at the base of the hill, and Jimmy froze in the bushes, heart fluttering, going absolutely still as he wondered for a breathless moment if this was it, if he was about to be captured and killed. Horror welled up in him, making him breathless, and it wasn't until he saw the spray of blood, black in the night, that he realized that the guard hadn't seen him yet, that he hadn't be aiming for Jimmy.
He'd been aiming for Abby.
The spray of blood also told him that the guard wasn't using the normal phaser, but something else, something that did massive damage- enough damage that when hit, Abby's arm looked like it had been mostly torn off, a big, gaping wound that turned the left half of her body scarlet. Ianto let out a shriek, a wild, terrible thing, but from Jimmy's vantage point, he couldn't tell if the younger boy had been hit.
Despite her wound, Abby kept moving forward with almost shocking speed. Somehow, her clever eyes located Jimmy, hidden in the shadows. She let out a hoarse cry, moving even faster even as her body began losing blood faster in response to the increased pace, attempting to outrace the guard who was starting up the slope behind her, lazy smile on her face, for she knew her prey was dying. Abby didn't so much as look back, thundering through the bushes and trees, each step leaving a bloody footprint, every iota of her being focused completely on Jimmy. For his part, Jimmy stood frozen in shock, rooted in the tiny niche where he'd stopped, leaves and shadows hiding his form from view, transfixed by the horror that was playing out in front of him.
"Abby?" he croaked, and his voice nearly failed him.
Abby just kept running towards him, face growing alarmingly pale, blood spurting from the ruin of her left arm. Ianto continued to shriek, drowning out any response that Abby might have made. Jimmy was careful to stay in the shadows, ghosting towards the wounded woman, freezing if he thought he saw the guard so much as glance in his direction.
It was no more than a minute or two before Abby disappeared into the same set of shadows that Jimmy was in, immediately collapsing with a cry of pain. Ianto shut up, eyes enormous and uncomprehending. He pulled himself out from under Abby's body, entire body trembling as he scrambled away. Jimmy placed a hand on Ianto's shoulder, and the boy started, looking frightened. Jimmy ignored him for the moment, moving past him and towards Abby, gently turning her over.
"Abby?" He whispered, heart thundering. Her breathing was almost nonexistent, the shallowest rise and fall of her chest. A black puddle was spreading beneath her, and though Jimmy knew the human body contained about five and a half liters of blood in it, it looked like more, so much more under the shimmer of the moon and stars. At his words, Abby stirred weakly, blood leaking out of her nose. Her breath began to rattle in her chest, and Jimmy just barely resisted the urge to yank his hands off of her and run, run away from her and from this and just forget, because thirteen year old boys weren't supposed to see someone who had shown them kindness bleeding out on the ground.
Then he glanced at Ianto's shaking body and his mouth tightened.
"What happened?" he said in an undertone, expecting any moment for the guard to come bursting from the shadows and kill both him and Ianto.
"Came after us. Told me…told me I could live. But…I couldn't…give…" Abby gasped, voice thin and quavering. Her mouth moved several times, and the face that Jimmy had always considered to be simply matronly now looked indescribably ancient and fragile. Abby's mouth moved but produced no sound. She coughed, blood splattering her face, a few flecks landing on Jimmy's face. He jerked back and nearly left her, but couldn't. She had died to save Ianto.
"It's okay, Abby," he soothed, and his voice was too calm. He knew that, knew his voice sounded wrong, and also knew that there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. "Ianto's here, and I'll keep him safe. You got him out, Abby. I promise he'll be alright. It's okay, Abby." Mindless platitudes poured out of Jimmy's mouth in that same distant tone. He dimly noted that a drop of the blood that Abby had coughed up was sliding down her cheek.
Abby's eyes looked past Jimmy's face somehow, though, despite his effort to reassure her. Jimmy began to panic, unsure of what to do. "Abby, Abby, stay with me. What happened? Who sent those people!" He demanded, knowing his voice was getting too loud. He couldn't stop himself from shaking Abby, like this was her fault, like somehow she had done this to him on purpose. " You have to be okay! You have to! Please!" Now that damn burst, at least partially, and he started to sob, burying his face in Abby's chest. She'd been kind to him, treating him like an adult for the most part, not just a worthless kid. She'd tried to help them, tried to get them all to get along.
And Jimmy had taken no more notice of her than he had of a wall fixture.
"Keep…safe."
Abby died.
Jimmy stared at the body that had housed the woman who'd been kind to him, and inhaled a shuddering breath, that cold and distance snapping back into place as if his outburst had never happened at all. "Come on," he said to Ianto.
Ianto stared at him for a moment, and Jimmy knew he probably looked like a nightmare, scratches on his face and arms, blank eyes, the blood from Abby's body covering the front of his shirt and his face like war paint. He stared at his own hands, blood already crusting over in dark globs. With an empty smile, he rubbed his hands against his jeans, hating the way they immediately made his pants feel tacky. "Come on, we have to leave," he said in a stronger tone, but it still had that haunting chill.
Ianto refused to let Jimmy touch him, but followed him easily enough. They didn't dare talk, though, moving through the darkness as if they were shades, careful to avoid even the slightest hint of sentient life for fear that they would be discovered and killed with the same brutality that had characterized Abby's death.
When Jimmy had left Kodos's house, he'd thought the governor a fool for keeping such low security around the house. Now he was grateful, because it made their entrance that much quicker. They slipped past the guards and biometric sensors without a single pause, and Jimmy ushered Ianto into his room before shutting the door.
Jimmy looked at his bed, the pajamas he'd discarded when Memeki has asked for his help, his PADD, his belongings, the things that had seemed so ordinary when he'd left, but now looked like they belonged in another galaxy. He moved as if in a dream, stripping off his clothes and throwing them in a corner where he wouldn't have to acknowledge they existed. He showered, then, careful not to look in a mirror, careful to not look at the pink water under his feet. He scrubbed until he was an unhealthy red, his skin as raw as his nerves and soul.
When he got out, he just felt…empty. He could see what he had to do stretched in front of him like a line: He needed to get the full story from Ianto, tell the others what happened, and figure out how to get out of here, away from Kodos.
Because he had undoubtedly ordered their murder.
The thought send Jimmy into a screaming rage, and he punched the wall, hard, letting out a sound that was purely bestial. He screamed every curse word he knew, though it never quite progressed to insults to Kodos. As far gone as he was, Jimmy wasn't stupid, so he kept his ranting general. Pain swelled in his heart, threatening to choke him.
Or perhaps it was just the sobs.
He didn't realize the racket would bring the others however, and Big J was pounding on the door within minutes. Ianto must have let him in, because Jimmy hadn't even heard it over his own screams.
He definitely noticed when Big J entered the room, however, because those enormous, powerful arms wrapped around him, preventing him from moving, and one large hand clapped over his mouth. Jimmy had just enough presence of mind not to bite the hand out of instinct.
"What are you doing, fool boy?" Big J hissed into his ear, sounding furious. He stiffened in Big J's arms, struggling to get free, to bite, to punch, to kick, anything to prevent him from thinking about it. Jimmy was half of Big J's weight and half his size, however, and he didn't get very far before he sagged in his friends arms, going completely limp as he began crying in earnest. Another set of wails joined his, but Jimmy barely noticed it when Ianto crawled into Big J's arms too.
It's not possible to cry forever, though. Eventually they had both run out of tears for the moment, lying in Big J's arms completely lax despite the fact that they were sitting on the bathroom floor with a giant hole in the wall above them from Jimmy's attack. Big J just ran his hands through their hair, lulling them towards sleep.
"Jimmy, what happened?" Big J finally dared to ask. "Why is Ianto here?" His hands kept up the steady motion through their hair. Even if he hadn't, however, Jimmy was still too numb to react any further. "Actually, wait, lemme get some stuff to take care of your hands first."
Exhausted, Jimmy looked at his hands, noting that the knuckles were bloody and swollen, and if the pain was anything to go by, cracked at the very least, but Jimmy hadn't noticed. "Okay," he murmured. He followed Big J back out into the main room, taking the opportunity to pull on some pants while Big J carefully sat Ianto down on the bed. The elder boy then returned briefly to his own quarters before returning with a dermal regenerator and some gauze while Jimmy examined his hands.
"Where did you get that?" Jimmy asked with some surprise when he saw what the other boy had gone to fetch.
Big J shrugged a little. "It never hurts to be prepared," he murmured, and then set to work healing Jimmy's injuries to the best of his ability. It was the better part of twenty minutes before Big J was satisfied, and Jimmy's hands looked rather like a mummy's, they were so heavily wrapped in gauze. Jimmy made a sound of irritation, but Big J was not placated. "Better safe than sorry. Infection can do nasty things."
There was a darkness in his tone that made Jimmy believe it.
"So what happened?" Big J asked again.
Jimmy, who had successfully been pretending the events of earlier in the evening hadn't actually happened, blanched. He swallowed, looking at Ianto. The boy had fallen asleep, curled up on Jimmy's covers, looking too small. Jimmy knew it was selfish of him, but he shook Ianto awake, unable to face telling the truth of the matter by himself. I don't know the entire story, he justified in his head, but it didn't make him feel any better.
Ianto let out a little cry as his awoke, huddling under the covers. Big J wiped at Ianto's cheeks with a piece of cloth that he had wet, and Jimmy wondered when he'd gone to the bathroom to do so. "Shhh," Big J soothed, quieting the boy. "Come on now, the both of you, tell me what's happened." The older boy was beginning to look as ill as Jimmy felt, imagining the worst thing that could have happened.
Jimmy didn't want to speak, didn't want to shatter Big J's illusion that whatever he was thinking could be the worst possible scenario, but he couldn't stand to be alone any more either. He needed someone to fix everything.
So he told Big J what happened, Ianto's tiny voice filling in the details, until the picture they'd painted was so bloody and horrific that Big J had to stop them just as they told him of Abby's death so he could go to the bathroom. Jimmy could hear him vomiting, and though he didn't blame him, it somehow made the little twisted portion of him happy, because at least he hadn't thrown up, and he'd seen the body. He immediately felt guilty about thinking it, but he couldn't help it.
The water ran for a few moments, and Big J came out wiping at his mouth. Jimmy couldn't look at him, but a warm cloth was shoved in his face. It was only then that Jimmy realized he'd been crying silent tears for the entire conversation. He hadn't even noticed. "And then we came back here," he finished, throat sounding dry to his ears.
Big J was silent for a long time, long enough that Ianto fell asleep and Jimmy was feeling pretty drowsy himself, desperate for the oblivion of sleep.
"Jimmy," Big J sighed, "This ain't good."
Jimmy let out a startled, if mocking, laugh at that. "Tell me something I don't know," he returned, and if he sounded a little more bitter than he should, Big J would understand.
Big J looked pale in the darkness. "Listen, I've got to tell the others what happened. If what Ianto says is true, and Kodos really sent his people to kill the Colony Outreach Program members that weren't actively helping…" he trailed off, and swallowed heard, the sound clicking loudly in the near silent room. "Look, I'll tell the others. If he killed them, we're probably next on the list. We've got to get out of here ASAP, alright? You get some rest, if you can. I'll get everyone up and tell them what happened, and we'll make some plans over the next couple of days to get out of here, alright? Maybe we'll be able to disappear in one of the cities until Starfleet gets here." Big J licked his lips, and Jimmy was struck by how off balance Big J seemed, how worried and afraid.
"Yeah." Jimmy murmured. He was silent as Big J tucked him in next to Ianto absently, brushing back his hair before leaving the room.
Though Jimmy's eyes burned for sleep, though he was so unimaginably tired, he found himself unable to completely fall asleep. Instead, he teetered on the edge, shifting back and forth, though careful not to disturb Ianto. Daniel's face kept staring out at him from the darkness, his excitement for language and linguistics practically visible. Nawat and his simple, pure interest in art, his sculptures that even Jimmy could tell were something special, expressing movement without movement. Andrelinna, whose talents lay in architecture, on being able to make the images she saw in her mind come to life. Deshtom had simpler interests; unlike the others, he didn't have a particular talent, but had confided in Jimmy just the other day that he liked medicine most of all, because you had to be good at a lot of things, to understand how things are interconnected, and because medicine would let him help people. Gim and Gam and their innate understanding of psychology, successfully drawing parallels between the mind sets of entirely separate species in an effort to make people understand each other. Rukia's beautiful singing voice was gone too, and Jimmy had liked it when she had sung, for her voice had the ability to make even this outer colony on the far reaches of the universe feel a little like home, even if her songs were from another world entirely. Izoivo, someone for whom diplomacy was everything; he had always felt that if you understood a culture, it's history, it's beliefs, if you truly made the effort to guilelessly connect to another species or group, you would be welcomed with open arms. Donna's more subtle brilliance too. Her talents lay in being able to take something that wasn't working, a language or an equation, and simply ask the right questions, which resulted in the entire situation being re-imagined, re-worked, until it was something more than it was before.
All brilliant in their own ways, all able to understand the things around them in a way the others couldn't.
And Kodos had thrown them all aside like they were trash.
There mere thought that Kodos somehow had the right, the authority to do that, that he somehow believed that what he was doing was reasonable, made Jimmy see red. He flung back the covers, stalking around the room with fury boiling slow and hot in his stomach. He spotted the clothing he'd worn earlier, still shoved in the corner and absolutely stinking of blood, and Jimmy wanted nothing more than to burn it.
The desire welled up so thick and hot in his throat that Jimmy had scooped up the clothing and left his room before he had the time to really think things through. All he knew was that the clothing absolutely could not remain in his room. He retained enough presence of mind to slip through the halls silently, heading without fail towards the incinerator that was attached to the kitchen, the one that was generally used for spoiled food or for trash that wasn't bio-degradable or recyclable. The incinerator would be able to handle his clothing easily, and would even burn the ash away, until there was no trace that his clothing and the blood staining them had ever existed.
The kitchen was silent- well, the entire house was silent, but the kitchen seemed to be particularly so- and Jimmy padded silently across the floor, holding his hands as far out in front of him as he could in an effort to keep the clothes as far away as possible. He swung open the incinerator door, ignoring the blast of heat and shoving his clothing down the chute. He heard them hit the bottom with a satisfying hiss, and the heat flared a little more as fuel was added. There was a little swell of vindictive satisfaction in Jimmy's heart, as if somehow what he'd done would help him outwit Kodos. Jimmy stared at the metal grate for a long moment, staring without really seeing it.
Footsteps sounded out in the hallway.
TBC