Sounds of Silence Chapter Eleven
Characters: Serena, Critic, Rob, Linkara, Linksano, The Warden
Rating: PG 13 for implied torture
Warnings: EXTREMELY Pissed Off Critic(and not in the funny way, either)
Summary: Critic has found the woman of his dreams. She just happens to be from beyond the stars.
Chapter Eleven: I Will Always Find Her
Serena squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering at the unholy glare of light that flooded her cell. She knew what was coming next, and she fervently wished that she could plug her fingers in her ears. But she was strapped tight to the bed frame, its cold, sharp metal biting into her skin. The guards had taken her clothes and "forgotten" to give her a prison uniform. Her body was a mass of gooseflesh, and what wasn't numb from cold was throbbing dully from pain.
The sound started low at first, a thrumming that made the bed vibrate, but it built up and up into a high humming sound that penetrated into her soul and mind. Higher and higher, until she was screaming in silent agony, writhing and twisting wildly as she fought to escape from the horrible screeching.
Then came the next torture. The temperature in the cell dropped even more, and Serena shivered so hard her teeth chattered. Her arms and legs felt like blocks of wood, and she could see ice forming on the walls. She panted in the cold, and the tears that poured down her face iced over.
"Okay, that's enough for today." The Warden looked in at the Defect. Two weeks of Rehab seemed to be making an impact. It no longer fought back, instead curling up on the floor of its cell and whimpering, or simply sitting cross-legged on the bed and staring with dull, beaten eyes at the glass. "A few more weeks of this and perhaps we'll be able to move you out of here into the General Population." The Defect gave no indication that it had heard him.
Serena pressed herself against the wall and sobbed, as much as from the pain and cold as from the ache of missing Doug. She cried herself to sleep every night, and every morning that she woke up and he wasn't there sent another pang of pain through her body. She hugged herself, hoping against hope that...but another part of her said it had been almost a month, his time. That she was foolish to think that he had any way of finding her, and if he did, how could he save her?
Linkara looked over at Critic in worry. Normally, the man commandeered every expedition they had gone on, making himself the de facto leader without so much as a vote or say so from the other producers. He made his presence known, and generally made sure that he was the center of attention.
But now he just sat there, eyes almost vacant as he stared past the window to the blackness of space. Occasionally, he would look away to listen to Linksano and Rob discussing where they were and how long it would take to get to where they needed to be, but then his attention-or lack of it-would return to the stars. He had hardly spoken a single word since they had left Earth almost a month ago.
Rob walked over to Linkara, following his gaze, and sighed. "Has he moved at all?"
"No. I'm really getting worried about him. Linksano, would you come here?"
Linksano joined them. "I'm going to guess this is about Critic."
Rob nodded. "Can you...you know, give him something? Or at least try to find out what's wrong?"
"What's wrong?!" The three men jumped at the sound of Critic's voice. Rob blinked.
"Doug, um..."
"Gee, Rob, I don't know what could possibly be wrong. That's a real puzzler! What could it be...oh, right. My lover has been kidnapped by sadistic assholes who imprisoned her on a hell world simply because she couldn't speak. A place where she was tortured, beaten, raped, and treated like garbage. She was forcibly dragged back to a world of people that don't even think of her as a her, but as an it. So, yeah, I'd say there's something VERY FUCKING WRONG!" He slumped against the chair. "I just...God, I want her back. I want her back."
Linkara gently squeezed his shoulder. "I know. We're close, though. Nimue found the planet that Utopians use for a prison. But there is one slight problem. Linksano?"
"Right! The prison planet, or just The Planet, as it is known, has an atmosphere that consists mainly of ammonia and carbon dioxide. In other words,"
"It's poison." Rob finished. "Great. Don't suppose you have any oxygen masks lying around?"
"You won't need them." Critic's quiet, determined voice made them all look at him once more. He took a breath. "Don't worry, there will be oxygen."
Linksano and Linkara looked at each other, puzzled, but Rob looked horrified. "Doug, you can't!"
Critic looked into Rob's eyes. "No. I can. And if it means saving Serena, you better fucking believe I will."
"Can what? Critic, what are you talking about?" Linkara asked.
"I'm talking about tapping into a part of me that I've had buried for a while now. It won't be quite as potent, since I'll retain my...human shape, but it should give me enough power to turn ammonia into oxygen."
Linkara's eyes widened. "You...you're going to use your Plot Hole powers? But I thought...they were gone."
Critic shook his head. "No, just suppressed. But it's been a long time, and this is probably going to hurt like Hell. How long until we reach the Planet?"
"About an hour. Can you...how far in range do you have to be?"
Critic stood. "I can do it now, I just need a picture."
"Nimue, bring up the Prison Planet on screen." Linkara watched as the image filled the screen. "Ugh. That's not a very friendly looking place."
"Hence why it's a prison, genius." Critic said. He took a deep, deep breath, closed his eyes, and went stone still. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes again. Much to Linkara's shock, they were a blank white. Critic walked over to the window and pressed his hand against the glass.
Linkara watched in awe as the muddy brown and reds of the planet below them slowly changed into deep blues and greens. He looked over at Critic, and saw that he was shaking, his entire body pale. "Critic?"
Critic broke contact with the glass and fell to his knees, panting hard. "I...I'll be okay. Need...minute. There's...umm...oxygen enough for...day, day and a half. Oh, god, my head..."
He swayed, and Rob caught him as he fell. "Easy, little brother. I've got you."
Critic smiled weakly. "Rob?"
"Yeah?"
"We're going to get her back."
"Yeah, we are."
"Rob?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for coming."
"You're welcome."
Linkara spoke up. "I hate to interrupt this riveting conversation, but we've landed."
Critic smiled, and Rob felt himself shiver. "Doug?"
"Yeah?"
"Never, ever make that face again."
"I make no promises."
The Warden could hear strange sounds in the halls. He recognized the sounds of the guard's pistols, but there were other sounds he had no reference for. But then he heard a sound he did know. Footsteps. And they were coming closer and closer to his office. He quietly opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out his gun, sliding it into his lap and cocking back the hammer, then pointed it towards the door. A squeeze of the trigger, and the bullets would punch through the door like a battering ram, easily taking care of whoever was unlucky enough to be on the other side.
Before he could move his finger, the door was blasted off its hinges. The Warden dove just in time, and blinked up at the two men who walked in. He recognized the one as the Earth man who had been duped into a physical relationship with the Defect, but the other one, who was holding what looked like an old fashioned pistol, was a stranger. The Warden shuddered. How could humans stand it, looking so different from each other? That must have been why the Defect felt she fit in. "What in the name of Utopia do you want? Who are you?"
"Name's Linkara. This is Doug, or Critic, as we sometimes call him. We're here to...request that you return something that belongs to Critic." Linkara smiled, his pistol aimed directly at the Warden's head.
"I'm afraid I don't have anything that belongs to this gentleman." The Warden smiled, trying to avoid the furious gaze of the one called Critic.
Critic nodded, then reached down and grabbed The Warden by his shirt. He lifted him off his feet and slammed him hard onto the desk. The Warden struggled, and Critic's hand moved to his throat. "You struggle again, and you will regret it. Where is she?"
"I do not know what you are talking about!"
Critic reached into his back pocket and pulled out his gun, pressing it against the Warden's forehead. "I'm not going to ask you again. Where. Is. Serena." He cocked the hammer.
"Sere...The Defect?! That...thing is why you're here?! It's where it belongs, in a cell over in the Rehab Ward!" The Warden laughed. "Let me guess, it had you believing it was in love with you! You do know Defects can't feel things the way we do, right? They're not like us. They're low, despicable, vile..."
"Shut. Up." Doug was shaking in fury, and it was taking every effort to not pull the trigger and blow this asshole's brains out. "You...shut up about her."
The Warden blinked, then laughed again. "Oh, oh, this is too good! You fell in love with it! Oh, that's just priceless! It's an animal, you honestly think it returns your feelings? It's defective. It can't feel!"
"I said SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Doug reversed the gun and brought it crashing down on The Warden's face, breaking his nose. He raised the gun again and pistol whipped The Warden across the face, smiling sadistically when he heard his jaw break.
"Critic, that's enough!" Linkara ran forward, pulling Doug off the bleeding Warden. Doug growled and tried to break free. "Enough, you've done enough! We need to find Serena."
Doug nodded, then walked over and yanked The Warden to his feet. "You're going to take us to her. Try anything, and I will kill you."
Serena pressed herself into a tighter ball, barely aware of her surroundings/ The cold, pain, and hunger(for she had been given no food and very little water) had left her weak and dazed. She barely registered the sound of the door opening. She could hear footsteps, but couldn't move her head so much as an inch to see who they belonged to.
Linkara had seen some pretty bad things in his time-Eldritch horrors, Lovecraftian demons, Vyce, Holy Terror. But the sight before him was up there as one of the worst. Serena was completely naked, and what wasn't covered in blood was a mass of gooseflesh. She was curled up on a threadbare mattress, her eyes vacant. "Oh my god..."
"What...No." Doug stumbled forward, collapsing in front of Serena's bed. "Serena? Baby, it's me. It's Doug. Serena, please..." He stroked her hair, speaking in a low, pleading tone. "Serena, you can wake up now. I'm here. I found you. I love you. I love you so goddamn much. Please, my angel, look at me. I'm here. I found you. I will always find you. Please, look at me. Please, my love."
Serena could feel someone stroking her hair. She could also hear words...she focused every bit of her concentration on the words. They were...it was...oh gods, could it be?! She slowly lifted her head, forcing her eyes to focus, and what she saw made her heart start pounding.
Doug. He was there, right there, and she prayed that she wasn't hallucinating. She reached out her hand, and he grabbed it in his, and he was real, he was solid, she wasn't dreaming, and she fell into his arms, too weak to even hold him, but his arms came up and held her tight, and she sobbed in relief and joy.
She felt something on her back, and dimly realized that Linkara had draped his jacket over her. Doug kissed her gently, then looked over at The Warden. "Remember how I said I wouldn't kill you?"
The Warden nodded frantically.
"I lied." Doug pulled the trigger, and the Warden fell back, a bullet in his brain. Doug picked Serena up and carried her out of the cell, not even glancing down at the body. After a moment of silent shock, Linkara followed. Luckily, they met no resistance on their return to the ship.
The second they came on board, Linkara and Doug raced for the Infirmary. Linksano was there, and he leapt into action, examining Serena. "Evidence of torture, extreme cold, she's been starved, and she's lost a lot of weight. But I think with what we've got on board, combined with my skills and her resilience, she should recover by the time we get home." He looked over at Critic. "If you like, you can take the empty bed next to hers. I'm sure she'd like for you to be the first thing she sees when she wakes up."
Doug nodded, then leaned forward and kissed Serena on the forehead. "I'll be right here, my love."
"You found her." Rob said from the doorway, and Doug nodded. "Good. Now, let's take her home."
