RAPT
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nothing's gonna hurt you baby/ Nothing's gonna take you from my side
Those first steps off the ship found Elizabeth blind. She couldn't believe the sunbeams; for so long she had been beneath the anemic lighting of spacecrafts— even LV-223 had been a moon of abandoned, glacial ambiance, not a trace of warmth to be found in either air or hue. But this extinct planet held heat within its periwinkle atmosphere. Warm wind filled her ears and brushed caressingly against her skin. Lush black sand packed down beneath Elizabeth's step, soft and alluring as a daydream. Sunlight glinted off ice-blue waves; to the north of their ship a dense jungle lay waiting, vaporous and violently green.
She didn't realize she was crying until David reached out cup her cheek, her tears a memorial trapped between skin and silicon.
"Tell me what you're thinking," David said, moving to stand behind Elizabeth and wrap an arm around her chest, resting his chin on her shoulder. "It's so beautiful here."
"Yes, it's beautiful. I didn't realize… I didn't know if I would ever see sunlight again. Or stand on a beach." Elizabeth hiccuped out a laugh, leaned back into David. Memory struck and she sighed. "Charlie and I liked to go to the beach."
Charlie had been born to swim in the ocean— she would lose him beneath the waves for impossible lengths of time, and he would surface with a grin, sometimes staggering into the shallows carrying little ocean treasures. He liked to present them to her grandly, those shells or pearls or— once— a perfect pink starfish, fragile and alive.
The android did not answer, but neither did he relax his hold. After a few minutes Elizabeth had run out of tears. She cleared her throat, craned her neck to kiss David's cheek.
"Come on. Let's take a look."
_._
The beach continued for endless miles, all soft night-kissed sand and gentle waves. There was the suggestion of a path into the rainforest a ways down from their landing point. It didn't seem like much at first, just a hollow gap in the wall of green, but Elizabeth was quick to notice two metal markers, half-buried by the brush. David recorded the find and they crept in to the forest, sharp and ready.
They hiked for hours, taking detours to survey the occasional shining pool or outcrop of rock. Dotted throughout the forest were signs of past inhabitants; slivers of metal glistened in the vegetation; bands of violet-gold wrapped around the upper halves of trees, too tall for them to determine their function. But there was no sign of any non-botanic life. They had not heard a single birdcall, nor the frisson of insect wings, nor the scrabble of rodents in the underbrush or the trees. There were no sounds beyond their footsteps and the quiet balm of the wind brushing through the fronds.
How the fuck does this happen? Elizabeth thought. A steady tide of dread was rising in her. The island planet that initially seemed so inviting had turned unnerving. Being surrounded by a lack of life serves to highlight the fragility of one's own mortality.
David was slowing down ahead of her.
"Let's stop for a minute."
The android pulled an instrument from his bag and, crouching, extracted another soil sample. Elizabeth drank from her canteen, grimacing as she finished it. There were two more in David's bag that had to last the three hour return hike to their ship. They would have to turn back soon.
David straightened and dropped his bag to the ground. His face was thoughtful and—Elizabeth couldn't be sure— marred by some near-hidden bitterness.
"What is it, David?" Elizabeth asked, reaching her hand out to his. He laced his fingers through hers and sighed.
"Dionaea muscipula."
Elizabeth waited, but David was silent.
"Did you want to explain? I'm not exactly fluent in Latin."
David cocked a grin, snuck his arm around Elizabeth's shoulders.
"Dionaea muscipula, the Venus flytrap. This planet appears to be a lush host, and it clearly used to have inhabitants— but where are they? Absorbed into carnivorous soil?"
The ironic edge in David's voice faded and he held Elizabeth's gaze.
"Something isn't right, Dr. Shaw. I'm sure your academic training has alerted you to that fact by now?"
Elizabeth stifled the impulse to roll her eyes. "Yes, David, it has. This planet is… off. That's the point. We're here to learn why the Engineers took notice."
David was quiet for a few moments.
"Perhaps they're responsible."
The wind picked up with Elizabeth's heartbeat as she considered that. It was entirely possible. Indeed, it was probable.
"The cargo?" Elizabeth asked. David nodded.
"I don't understand it fully, yet," the android said, "but it would explain quite a lot."
They stood in silence for a minute, Elizabeth's thoughts racing.
Fuck. Fuck them all.
"So this is what they were going to do to us."
"Yes," David said. "Yes, Dr. Shaw, it would seem so."
_._
It happened two hours into the return trek, as dusk was falling in the already-dim rainforest. David was several paces behind Elizabeth, who was crashing angrily through the brush, smacking vegetation out of her way as though it had wronged her. She did not turn when Holloway's voice rang out from the trees.
"Buckle up, real boy!"
And then the forest disappeared.
David was lost in a void so absolute as to be nonexistent. He was gone, had never existed at all, his consciousness merely a code that meant nothing to the stars.
Let there be light. Let there be.
I am.
A memory rose from Tartarus and David was drowned in sensation. Perfectly shaped fingernails, air brushing the sensitive skin behind his ears, natural light filling the room. His father sat on his throne, the vir triumphalis, David the spoils of war. He paraded about the space accordingly, posing philosophy, gracing the piano with a song. Weyland looked at him with hatred, and David learned his first lesson.
Spot of tea, Pop?
The memory split and morphed, mutated into something so profoundly other that David found himself irrevocably changed. A second Weyland appeared, standing behind the first. They spoke as one, and the vision shook with their words.
"He who creates man owns him. Do not forget. We decide your fate."
David was gagged— he could make no response. Blackness oozed from the corners of the white room, alive and wet. Alien tar. Tangible and nefarious and violating. It reached David's feet and crept upwards, subsuming him like every other material thing in sight. The Weylands remained untouched, looking on as the blackness filled David's mouth and covered his eyes.
"You have done well, my son."
David swallowed the void and found his voice.
"So why destroy me, Father?"
David blinked furiously through the tar and saw Holloway standing there in Weyland's place.
"Because we can, fucker." The dead man grinned. Blood stained his teeth. "Tell Ellie 'hi' for me, tin man."
_._
Elizabeth was scared, and it pissed her off. She had been hurtling along the path, indulging in murderous daydreams, when she heard David's metallic scream and turned to see him double over so violently she was sure he had snapped in half. Elizabeth sprinted to him so quickly she was able to catch him as he fell, easing him to the ground and cradling his head in her lap.
"Fuck, David," she whimpered, tears flowing without a chance in hell of stopping them.
I should have asked more questions last time, he didn't tell me anything, any details— I don't know what to do! I don't know that the fuck is happening to him!
David's eyes were wide open and completely blank. He was silent, not spewing words like before, milky sweat beading on his brow. Elizabeth's tears dripped onto his face and she wiped them away with her sleeve. There was nothing she could do but wait and pray. And she did— for the first time in ages, Elizabeth Shaw bent her head and threw herself into searching for Spirit.
God help me. Help him. Help him, help him, help him. I will do anything.
She waited there in the tense near-silence, listening to her own gasps and the echo of the wind. It wasn't long before a tremor shook the android's frame. His eyes closed. When they opened, they were aware.
"I must say, while I don't enjoy these forcible adjustments, I do relish that look on your face."
Elizabeth gritted her teeth. "Fuck you, David."
Then she kissed him. David chuckled to himself, savoring her taste.
It's your passion, my dear sweet Fury, that makes it all worthwhile.
"What the hell happened?" Elizabeth asked when she pulled away.
"The same thing as before. A sort of randomized shock, followed by an independent update. My system was developed to continuously progress. Ideally, the Weyland Corporation would be doing the updating, but since that isn't an option…"
The android trailed off, supremely unconcerned. The human was not.
"It scares me, David. Doesn't it scare you? It isn't right."
"No, it isn't right. But it is what it is."
"How can you be so careless? This is your welfare, David, and if it's going to keep happening to you—"
David took Elizabeth's hand from his cheek and kissed it.
"I know what happened here, Elizabeth. I'm sure of it now."
"You—I—What?"
"I need to run a few tests to procure evidence, of course. I do not expect your condemnation without it. But from there things will be fairly straightforward."
The android's eyes were shining with hatred. The look chilled Elizabeth to the bone.
"So you really think it's their doing."
"Yes. 'He who creates man owns him,' Elizabeth. And your dear Engineers grew tired of their toys."
_._
Night had fallen over the beach. The tide was higher than before, crystalline surf bubbling up on the black sand like a witch's potion. The stars were outrageous, like nothing you could see on Earth, so bright and numerous that the night was quite well-illuminated.
A cord of anxiety squeezed Elizabeth as they approached their ship, so alien and enclosed there upon the open beach, and she stopped abruptly.
"What is it?" David asked.
"I'm not going back in there. Not yet."
David looked her over. Elizabeth was holding up surprisingly well considering the physical stress of the day, but there was a tremble in her frame that reminded the android that his lover was not invulnerable. He was not eager to return to the ship himself, and posed an inviting alternative.
"We'll camp on the beach, then. Stay here and hydrate yourself. I'll get what what we need."
David deposited a swift kiss on her forehead and headed into the ship, gathering blankets and sustenance, grateful on Elizabeth's behalf that this planet was warm. He returned and laid out the bedding and food. Elizabeth ate in silence, leaning against David's shoulder as they looked out on the water.
"It's unbelievable, isn't it?" Elizabeth marveled.
"What do you mean?" David asked.
"We're the only two people on the planet." She turned to meet David's gaze and surprised them both by giggling.
David brushed Elizabeth's hair from her eyes, a dangerously soft smile alighting on his lips.
"As far as I'm concerned," the android said, "that has always been the case."
Tomorrow would bring further exploration and new fears. But for now David and Elizabeth could sit side-by-side on the black beach, lit by the light of a billion stars, the only two people in their unforgiving and wondrous universe.
A/N: Welcome back loves! Thank you for your patience- I'm back at school and updates are most likely going to be farther apart for a bit. But I promise you that there will always be updates. I've got my ending clear in my mind, and it's going to take us a while to get there, but we will. Thank you for continuing to explore this story with me. I know it's hokey, and this is fan fiction, but the characters presented and the questions raised in Prometheus really resonate with me, and it's a treat to play in this world with all of you. As always, I would love to hear your feedback. 'Til the next one. x