Thank you to those who are sticking with me down this windy as shit road. Here we go!

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Chapter 14

"What the fuck is going on?" I didn't bother with pleasantries. No "Hi, how are you? How was slavery?" But I did regret how scratched up my voice sounded.

Ben just stared at me, his eyes dead, a very low level hatred brewing in their depths. He looked terrible, the worse I've ever seen him. His back was pressed up against the wall, one leg bent up while the other swung off the edge. He looked almost casual, but I knew it was just a front.

His clothes were more like stripes of cloth tied together, the skin beneath covered in mud and dried blood. His blonde hair stuck up in every direction, its color muddled.

I waited for a response as he did his own assessment of me. I hated the man but he may know something about where we were. And I needed to hear it.

"They are going to help us. Well, help me. You are only a pawn to assist me." His words were sharp but tired. His mouth moved awkwardly, his jaw dropping unusually low, as if it had been previously broken.

"Who are they, and what do you mean?" I couldn't fathom what he wanted from me. Not anymore.

He swung his hand in a lazy circle, as if bored by the conversation. "I need you to tell me what you've seen. I'll need you to describe the species you saw, so I know which we have yet to investigate and hopefully, how we could infiltrate that planet all together."

I paused. He was acting surprisingly aloof given his situation. But the idea of him, anyone, disturbing the place I now called home was horrifying. "I don't have to tell you anything. And you know, you're in this cell with me. You're not exactly in a position of authority here. Whoever took us looks at us the same."

He chuckled darkly, his head shaking. "You were always so naïve Luna, too engrossed in your own world to bother looking at the one in front of you."

I rolled my eyes, Ben had always been like that. Round about answers and cryptic jargon to satisfy the public and keep his family placated. I had never bothered to look into anything he did, I hadn't cared.

"Where are Barbra and Jane?"

"Sold, as it were. We won't be seeing them anymore I don't think. I could only negotiate you because they want your Master. Not that it matters, they always say a tragedy garners more public sympathy."

His face broke into a grin, demented with the crooked jaw and lifeless eyes. Ben had been a lot of things, crazy hadn't been one of them. Whatever happened to him, did something to his mind.

My mind on the other hand felt like an icicle. They, whoever they were, wanted Cetanu. It was obvious when I thought about it, but it made me feel sick. I didn't like being his weakness.

I didn't get to debate much longer because the door swung open and in walked a Yautja. My jaw dropped, not expecting them to be my captors.

The Yautja was a dark brown, but more noticeable, were his scars. His entire forehead was unrecognizable, covered in marks that ripped down the front and sides.

His body was missing whole hunks flesh and muscle, making him look like some grotesque puzzle piece. He was missing one tusk, the mandible deformed and lax.

He was a Bad Blood, he had to be. An honorable Yautja would never have taken a pet, not from the arms of their Master. And they certainly wouldn't be working with the likes of Ben, who experimented on their kin.

The Yautja turned, striding up to me. He reached out and grabbed my arm, tugging me so I tumbled forward, my knees at the edge of the cot.

As I stared up into the black eyes I was surprised how ready I was for anything. I was scared, of course. But I wasn't as helpless as I used to be.

"You reek of him, dru-ke." The voice that came out of the Yautja was broken, the sound permanently scarred. His English was rough and barley understandable.

I took comfort in that I still smelled like Cetanu though. That I was still his. Even now, the bond that connected me to him still beat hard in my chest.

I stayed silent, not willing to provoke anything. He wasted no time in pushing me back, my arms barely catching myself from hitting the wall.

The male looked over at Ben, "We arrive soon," he growled, "we expect what you offered." With that, he left, the doors crunching in place behind him.

Ignoring the pain in my arm, I eyed Ben, a lazy smile never leaving his face. "Wanna explain?"

"Not particularly."

"Ben." He rolled his eyes and let out a long, dramatic sigh. The vein in my head squeezed and I fought to keep calm.

"Getting those Yautja to help me required quite the catch for them. You see, they talk a lot, at the auctions where they sold me. A lot about the Yautjas, lot about the Elders, lot about Cetanu. He's a big name you know? Real respected, even by the low lives who held me captive. And those guys," he tipped his head at the door, "they want him. Once I told them about you, well, they knew exactly how to get him."

"And what's in it for you? You're just as stuck in this room as I am." I said, trying not to let any of my emotions show. Cetanu was smarter than he was giving him credit.

"Yes well, once we get back to Earth, I'll get my freedom, and you'll be of temporary use, a little interrogation, and then who knows what they'll do to you."

I looked down at my hands, the world shrinking in on me. The idea of returning to Earth was an unwelcome one.

I pulled my legs into me, my arms folding around them in a sad effort to comfort myself. I'd have to wait and see what I could do to escape from them.

The question was, if I did escape, did it mean from Cetanu too? Hadn't that been what I wanted originally, before all this happened?

I would be on Earth, I could start over, never be a slave. Maybe I could even be happy. The thoughts made me shudder, the inner conflict my only company as I zoned out.

…

I didn't have to wait long. I must have been passed out for a while because in a couple of hours I felt a giant lurch and crash, the whole ship shook, knocking me and Ben around.

Seconds later, a group of Bad Bloods stormed in, I let them manhandle me into metal wrist cuffs, focusing on the leather collar wrapping around my neck so I didn't snap and try and fight back.

Getting hurt here, and they'd have no qualms with that, would only make things harder. Ben, the asshole, was left free, if a bit roughed up.

We were shoved through a small, dented up ship. Compared to the one I was brought on, this was laughably damaged with grey crusted walls and rusty gears.

I was roughly shoved off a steep edge, falling face first into the ground, my bound hands doing little to cushion my fall.

"Urgh, stairs wouldn't kill ya, you know." Several pairs of feet landed next to me and I was quickly hauled up by the loose dress I wore, the material almost ripping from my body.

Once on my feet, I took a deep breath, only to double over and start choking. The air felt wrong in my lungs, I gulped it down desperately but my lungs seized, trying to breath but somehow not being able to.

My eyes watered painfully, my head lifting to meet Ben's eyes, a silent plea to not actually let me die yet in my gaze.

He had a satisfied smile on, slowly walking towards me and grabbing a syringe from one of the Bad Bloods.

Before I could react, the needle was driven into my neck and I screamed, lava travelling through my arteries. I felt like a machine, the cells that's made up my body shifting and twitching.

A minute passed, my lungs slowly gripping the air and passing it through normally. I rubbed at my throat, raw form the choking.

With no breaks I was pushed forward, a lamb in the middle of a lion pack. I looked at Ben, a question in my eyes, my throat not willing to work quite yet.

"Don't worry, it was a chromosome shocker. It caused your chromosomes to stop expressing a gene that allowed you to breath on their planet."

My eyebrow furrowed, and he sighed. "Really Luna, their atmosphere contains a significant amount of Nitrogen, no human could survive long there without a gene insertion or in your case, a blood transfusion from a native. How do you think your skin didn't rash and burn under the radiation from their sun? Or how you unwittingly react to his emotions and physical sensations?"

I swallowed several times, my throat flexing and trying to relax. "I knew his blood changed certain things I just didn't realize how much." My voice was hoarse but there.

"Pets would be pointless if they died upon landing on their planet," Ben said, his words laced with sarcasm, "but all the better, maybe I could study you before they take you." His eyes lit up, and I fought the shiver that threatened to take over my body.

Instead, I took in our surroundings. We were certainly back on Earth, the moon being the only source of light so I could only tell that we were surrounded by tress and vegetation. The rest a dark mess of landscape.

It seemed so minimal compared to Home Planet. Ahead of us came a single glowing light and as we approached I realized it was a building.

Or maybe a bunker would be a better word for it, all metal with no windows. It was reasonably large but as we came closer, a small panel slid upward into the structure and we were ushered through, the Yautja having to scrunch down to fit.

Once we were all in the panel closed and another door swung open, light flooding in. We stepped through and I was in a nightmare.

It was a lab, glass walls separated the rooms and almost all of them contained scientists, working over the bodies of comatose creatures, ones the same kind as the ones I'd seen on Home Planet.

They were hooked up to monitors and tubes, some of them even dissected, others not even whole creatures, just limbs and organs.

The scientists who all wore pristine lab coats and goggles, barley acknowledged our arrival, all of them quickly returning to their observations.

I really couldn't hold in the scream that violently ripped through my throat. I shouldn't have been massively surprised by the bash that came to the side of my head.

I wish I could get used to pain, because a strike from a Yautja, Bad Blood or not, really fucking hurt. It knocked me to the ground, made my vision swirl, and my spine freeze.

I was quickly being picked up and hauled off somewhere. I just closed my eyes, refusing to see anymore and not totally being sure I even could with the ache in my brain.

My body was quickly thrown onto a metal table against the wall, it clattered and bucked under my weight. I felt like a fish out of water, my limbs flailing in a panic.

Large, hot hands strapped me down, removing the metal cuffs and replacing them with cool leather ones that tied to the table.

I tugged uselessly at the binds, my breath fast as I fought off the oncoming panic at not being able to move.

I groaned, turning my head to the side and peering up just as a cinder block door closed, Ben the only one left inside with me, a small knife in his hands.

"You're not serious?" I know he said interrogation but he was going to torture me? Somehow that seemed incredibly disappointing, even it is caused a wall of fear to settle over me.

"Very, I'm afraid. All I need is your corporation Luna, and trust me, it's in your best interest not only because pain is a particularly unpleasant feeling, but because right about now your Master is trying to locate you, using your bond. And as you know, you can feel each other's pain. If I am forced to hurt you so that you comply, the pain will cloud the bond you two share, and his hunt for you will take longer, and may even fail completely."

His lopsided grin was that of a killer, someone crazed and obsessed. As I stared into his now black eyes, wave after wave of paralyzing fear crashed through me, the only lighthouse in sight was the bond, and I clung to it like I never had before, praying Cetanu would feel me. Come for me.

"Now, let's begin."

Yautja Translations

Dru'ke – whore

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