If there is any question, this is NOT slash! Just wanted to clear that up. ^^
Okay, here's where I left off, enjoy!
Thanks to Narcotics for Ien's revenge!
"Purple?" Desperate fingers sought for a pulse. "Purple!" Finally the blood thumped against Red's fingers in irregular beats. "Don't do that again," he told the air, "it hurts." He picked up his injured burden and raced to the base camp in hopes that they would be able to save him.
Far ahead the Soldier could see the orange glow of fires. "I must be at the alien camp." He murmured, holding Purple tighter and skirting the boundaries, speeding up the dunes. Irk he was tired, his head was throbbing again and it hurt to even breath. Red's steps were becoming uneven and his vision blurry. "A concussion, that's what it is..." the metallic legs slipped in the sand and he almost fell, his headache became worse. It was becoming increasingly harder to function, now that his body was no longer driving endorphins through his blood all his minor hurts were flaring tenfold and he couldn't keep concentration. Again Red slipped, going down on one metal knee, and Purple moaned, struggling vainly in his arms.
"No...stop it...help...hurry...'Dai, please..." 'Dai? Red's mind thought vaguely, who was that? Now he could see the artificial lights of base camp, which meant Irkens were awake...
"Medic!" Red yelled, pulling in his metallic legs, surprised at how weak he sounded. "Medic..." Even as his body hit the sand he could see his fellow Soldiers all around him, placing Purple on a hovering stretcher and helping Red to his feet. He was assaulted with what seemed like millions of questions but he was too tired to answer or even comprehend them.
"Back off! Give 'im some room!" Red winced as the booming voice of his CO rang through his head. "That was some fine work Soldier." He slammed Red across the back and he staggered. "Good job."
"He saved me..." Red spoke quietly, odd behavior in a Soldier.
"What?"
"I ran off and he saved me..." The "Tallest in Training" was finally understanding the situation.
"You attacked that camp?!" The CO was aghast. "You disobeyed direct orders?" Red didn't hear, he was gone in the direction of the ship. Purple would be in a medical unit, he hoped.
The medic on duty was a short light-red-eyed female, much the same color as Red's. She was taking notes while Purple, suspended in the thick bluish liquid of a med unit, was worked on by small instruments closing the torn muscle and healing the burns.
"Can I see your head?" She asked, pulling him over to a table and checking him out before he understood enough to give an answer. "Your friend was in severe shock when we got him, it's a good thing you got him here when you did. You saved his life."
"He saved mine first..." He was no longer tired, too much had happened.
"The Student saved you?" She paused in her work, "Why?"
"I ran off..."
"If you weren't going to be a Tallest you would have been executed."
"I know, ow!" The young Soldier was finally coming back to reality. "That hurts!" A siren on the tank began screaming out a warning.
"Well, if you'd sit still, I'm done, go!" She yelled and ran to the tank. Red didn't leave but stayed and watched. Purple was awake and thrashing around. He was screaming, sound stifled by the thick breathable liquid, and blood clouded the fluid when he ripped open old wounds that the computer hadn't been able to fix yet.
"What's going on?" The medic made no motion that she had heard him, she was shouting out commands.
"Computer, sedative to match body weight and condition! Enough to render subject unconscious for thirty-two hours!"
"Processing." This computer's voice was much softer, probably so it doesn't scare the patients, Red thought to himself. Two robotic arms dropped from the top of the tank, one with a needle, one to grab Purple and make him still. Soon enough the job was done and Purple was unconscious again.
"Tell me when he's out of the tank." It was an order not a suggestion and the short red-eye merely turned from her electronic notepad and nodded, tipping an antennae in salute to her superior.
"So why'd you rescue that Student anyway?" Hours later Red was surrounded by his friends in the conference room re-telling the story of his battle. But with the way the others twisted it around it sounded like Purple had run off and Red had saved him.
"I don't know, he was my partner, you know "keep your partner's life as if it were your own?"" He quoted the CO's words.
"Yeah," a different one said, "but you could have been the one and only Tallest, not have to share the position with that unworthy thing." Whether Red liked it or not those words stung, his ass had been saved by a Student, not the other way around, and now, openly, he was agreeing with his friends.
"Well," one named Ien said, "that piece of filth shoved me in the hall, I would a left him to die." Red knew that story and had concurred with his fellow Soldier, but now that he looked back on it Purple had had every right to shove him. A knock on the door startled him, it opened and the same medic as before gestured to him. He pulled away from the group and walked up to her.
"He's awake?" Asked Red, she nodded. His manner had changed, he had grown older during that night. The Soldier now walked with a calm, mannered grace that commanded respect. He wasn't as loud or brash as his fellows anymore. With all that, combined with his height, he had become quite the imposing figure.
Somewhere during the trek to the medical bay the medic disappeared.
"Probably to tell the CO." Red mused as he walked through the sliding door into the white environment. "Computer, where is Student Purple?" The word no longer had the demeaning tone as before, now it held a quiet reverence. No Student he'd ever known or heard about had ever done anything quite that valiant before, especially not for a Soldier.
"Intensive care unit." The soft, tinny voice said. Red winced at that, usually the tank would put you right into recovery. Quietly the Soldier walked into IC, it wasn't hard to find Purple; he was the only one in there but he was asleep again.
"Geez..." The Student was a mess. He was a limp mass of Irken who seemed almost unable to lift the sheet draped over his chest when breathing. Tubes were running in and out of the slender body and they freaked the Soldier out. Guilt, something he was not in any way accustomed to, ran through him. This was because if him and there was no way around it. Purple's eyes twitched and Red kept his gaze steady on the wounded Student, making sure it wasn't his imagination.
"'Dai...?" It was almost too quiet to hear. The violet eyes opened slowly and focused on Red's. Suddenly he convulsed and jerked away, antennae and body shaking. With a yelp of pain he fell out of the bed and alarms sounded. "Leave me alone!" He was hurt and the only logical explanation Purple could come up with was that this Soldier had caused it. Without thinking Red ran to the other side and heaved him up, carefully putting him back in the bed, the alarms stopped.
"Don't do that!" He yelled, panicking Purple further. "No, no, stop," Red said delicately backing away before Purple could throw himself off the bed again.
"Where am I?" the Student panted.
"The ship, don't you remember?" An uncertain shake of the head. Now it was embarrassing. "I left to attack the other aliens and you kind of rescued me..." By the expression on the other Irken's face Red assumed it had come flooding back.
"You moron!" Purple yelled with what force he could rally, which was not much, any terror-induced respect or fear he held against Red was gone, replaced with a sense of extreme disapproval. "You, and I, could have been killed..." the energy from before was fading off and now he was exhausted.
"I know, okay! I came to, um, thank you and say, and say, I'm sorry this happened to you." He stalked away in indignation leaving a very surprised Student. "And tell anybody I said that," he turned around and left it hanging, holding a fist in the air for emphasis, then left.
"That was odd..." Purple reflected quietly and drifted back to sleep before he could dwell on it further.
They left. Planet #37.5 was already being invaded and with their small numbers the Irken invaders had no choice. All the Soldiers were disappointed, they had wanted some action, but, they would live, there were always other planets to conquer and rain doom down upon. Red, though, seemed ready to go. He had become very withdrawn and no one, except for himself and Purple, knew why.
It was a few days before Purple could go back to his room. The Student still ached from his close encounter of the spiky kind and was leaning against the rail that lined every hall on his way.
"No," he groaned as he saw Ien standing against the wall, waiting for him.
"Hello Student, have a nice recovery?" The red-eye asked with false sympathy. Purple limped to the other side of the corridor.
"Please Ien, just let me by." He pleaded, if he couldn't get this Soldier to leave him alone it would end in bloody conflict. Ien of course ignored.
"I just wanted to help you, seeing as how you helped me to the other side of the hall last time we met." The last part ended with a sadistic snicker. Purple held a hand in front of himself.
"Look, I'm sorry." The pitiless Irken shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry, that just isn't good enough." Before Purple could blink the Soldier was on his side of the hall. With all the glory and prowess of a well-trained fighter he ripped Purple's hand off the rail and kneed him in the gut in one simple movement. Midway during the Student's descent Ien's elbow slammed into the small of the lithe back, forcing him to the floor faster. Confronted by this new pain Purple could do nothing but gasp and curl into a ball to attempt to protect himself.
"Stop..." he moaned. His vision was swimming and he couldn't breath.
"I don't think I will." Purple braced himself for the next blow but it never came. Instead, Ien's face appeared in front of his own, bloody and missing teeth. Strong hands flipped Purple over and shook him.
"Are you okay?" Purple coughed and nodded in response, looking up at his savior, none other then Red.
"Why?" He croaked out, gulping in oxygen. Red pulled him up with a gloved hand and propped him up against the rail.
"Now we're even. You saved my life and now I saved yours." Purple wiped away the blood trickling from his mouth.
"Thanks." He extended a hand. Red stared at it. "What, afraid of a me?"
"No," he laughed and took the hand, shaking it firmly. "You're pretty brave for a Student."
"Yeah, and you're okay, for a Soldier."
***End Flashback***
Purple jerked awake, sitting bolt upright with the blankets pooled around his thin waist, it had seemed so real...his body actually ached with imagined injuries. He looked down at the silvery scars threading their way around his sides touching them lightly with a finger. By the time they got back to Irk, Red and Purple's friendship had grown, along with their story. Purple was the bravest Student any of the Soldiers had known. But now, he thought, where has that gotten us. Neither of the Classes had liked the fact that Red and Purple were both Tallests. But, after countless measurements and tests they had both been proven to be the same height and would work well together. They each processed qualities needed for rule, but, only when with one another.
"I wonder if this will ever end."
"It won't." Purple looked up surprised.
"Where'd you come from? How did you get in here?"
"The coalition has tried to kill Red, with no success. Until that happens I don't think this will ever end, at least, not until a compromise, however small, is made." The golden-eyed female was peering through his door.
That was short...still enjoying it so far? I hope so, I think it's almost at an end, but I'm not sure. It will probably end up never ending, eep! Please R&R!
