Year Five- Chapter 26- Before the Dawn

Koschei sat on his bed scanning the pages of a book, but hardly reading it. Ushas was sitting at his desk, tapping at the wood incessantly. The noise was driving Koschei up the wall, but he bit his tongue to keep from hissing a frustrated comment to the girl. After all, she had done his chemistry report that had been assigned over the break, and he was thankful for that.

"He should be here by now," Ushas complained, standing up and starting to pace.

"His dad probably just kept him home for longer than usual," Koschei offered, closing his book with a loud snap. He stared at Ushas, his mouth etched into the frown that he had worn every day since Theta had left for his father's house. She was wearing her usual orange shirt and brown skirt, but it was obvious that the latter had been hemmed to be longer than the standard issue.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing much," Koschei retorted and raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up."

"You can't sew." Ushas rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I can't, but Ghost can. I complained that the skirts were too short, and she took it upon herself to fix them for me. It was nice. And I did her maths homework in return. Of course, she put my work away and fully intends to turn in hers, which is almost entirely wrong… Well, she does understand the concept of inverse tangents, but when it comes to the concave representation of…" Koschei had learned through his many years of being friends with Ushas that once she started on a speech, it was better to block her out than try to stop her. When the door opened, however, Ushas stopped talking and her eyes lit up. "Theta?" she asked, moving to where she could see who had opened the door.

In the entrance stood the boy, but he hardly looked to be himself. Both of his eyes were blackened, and he wore a long-sleeved robe with a high neck, obviously to hide bruises. His lip was split and his hair was trimmed back to a military-style cut. Koschei stood up from his bed and walked over to the other boy.

"Thete, what happened?" he asked, still holding his book in his hands.

"Nothing," the younger boy responded tersely. Theta walked over to his bed and threw down the bag that he had brought with to his home.

"I'll be right back," Ushas said, edging out of the room, looking intent on something. Koschei was about to tell her not to do anything stupid, but dropped it. He knew that she would do what she wanted. She always had. She left with Theta standing, looking at his bed with his back to Koschei. The older boy was standing just as tensely, trying to get a better look at Theta.

"I'm okay," Theta muttered, pulling books and clothes out of his bag. "It's nothing." His voice was rough, as though he was trying to hide back more than just his thoughts. Koschei put a hand on Theta's shoulder, very aware that he could be hurting the younger boy.

"What happened?" he asked again, this time more forcefully.

"Nothing!" Theta yelled back, spinning around and glaring at his roommate. "Leave me alone! I don't want to talk about it, and if I did, I wouldn't talk about it with you! You don't understand anything about me or my family."

Koschei pulled his hand away, stung by the well-aimed barbs. Theta looked nothing like the boy he had laughed with not two months ago. That boy had been wide-eyed, giggly, and full of jokes, but the boy that had replaced him was angry, hurt, and filled with malicious intentions. His eyes were even changed. Instead of being bright, they were hooded and sunken in.

Anger rose within Koschei, as it often did, within seconds. His hands balled into fists and his eyes narrowed, matching those of the boy in front of him. "I don't understand," he said evenly. "But I want to know what happened."

Theta pulled up the sleeve of his robe and held his arm out to the side. It was covered in purple and black splotches. Scabs and cuts were etched up and down his skin in the sickest of ways. "That's what happened. My father does so hate the Mekail family that he decided to take it out on me. He demands that I get a new roommate, one that doesn't poison my thoughts. He demands that I return home every break now, every day that is possible.

"Is that a dog bite?" Koschei asked, noticing odd marks around Theta's wrist.

"Shut up!" Theta said, swinging his hand out to smack Koschei. The older boy, who had been in many a fight in his lifetime, grabbed Theta's arm, not caring about what bruises he hit in the process.

"I'm sorry about your father, but don't be angry at me."

"Don't be angry at you?" Theta demanded with an infuriated laugh. "How can I not be? You showed me a world where I could be myself, where I could have fun and think of my own ideas. And then you throw me back to him! And he reminded me that all of my ideas are worthless, that there is no world other than the one he built me! You made me think that I could do anything in the world, when all I am is a failure, the child that deserves to be locked away and thrown the scraps!" The silence that fell between them lasted no more than a few seconds, but it settled deeply onto both of them. Koschei's snarl, which had been rising to his lips, faded away and his fury was replaced with an even expression. He let Theta's arm go and shook his head.

"You're not."

"Excuse me?"

"You're not worthless. And you're not a failure. He can't rule your life. You can. And the moment you gave into him and believed what he said was the moment that you lost yourself." Koschei walked over to his own pile of clothes and rummaged around. He pulled out a book that his father had given him when he was young. He had tried to read it for years, and often asked for help, but his father would never read it to him. Mekail had told him that one day, it would mean more if he read it on his own.

Koschei held the leather-bound, ancient tome to Theta. "It's a history of the black hole." He shrugged slightly. "Which seems stupid, but… It's really a book of theory than an explanation of how we made black holes." Theta shook his head agitatedly and looked away from the other boy.

"Leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you."

Koschei took a deep breath and set the book on Theta's bed. "Just read it," he said before walking out of the room. Beneath his calm demeanour, he was plotting murder. Epsilon had taken his best friend from him and he knew more than one way to get revenge on a military man.

Rallon and Millennia stood outside of the door to the room Theta was holed up in. The two were staring at Ushas uncomfortably.

"This isn't a good idea," Koschei hissed from next to the girl.

"You shut up," Ushas demanded dismissing him quickly. "I need one of you two to get in there and talk some sense back into Theta. He won't listen to Koschei, and I'm worried about him." Millennia looked to Rallon and frowned.

"Ushas, I don't know that this is a good idea. He probably needs some time to adjust back to being here." The girl glanced to Koschei, knowing that there was more she wasn't being told. Koschei had come stomping into her room, muttering about the military. He had pulled out a message box he had hidden in Ushas' room months previous and sent something off to a higher ranking official in the Northern Gallifreyan government, putting it under his father's name. Afterwards, he had a smile on his face, a malicious and content smile.

"All of my ideas are good," Ushas reassured. "So who wants to go in?" Rallon shook his head quickly. He knew what Koschei had sent off; he knew what had happened to Theta.

"I'm not brilliant with… emotions. I think it'd be best to leave this one to Millennia." The three kids looked to the blonde girl, who seemed altogether reluctant.

"Fine," she acquiesced, "but I'm not promising anything." Koschei opened the door for her and let her go in, his grim satisfaction still playing across his face.

Millennia was shocked when she stepped into the room. The younger boy had taken off his robes and was sitting on his bed in a long shirt and pants. She saw the purple and black bruises first and winced in sympathy. Theta's eyes met hers and he looked up from the book he was reading.

"Let me guess, Ushas sent you?"

"Yes," Millennia said softly, moving closer to Theta. She sat down on Koschei's bed after moving some papers and clothes away. "You know, we care about you. All of us in the Deca." Theta looked back down at the page in front of him and made no comment. "And Koschei does, too, even if he doesn't seem like it. You're one of the best friends he's ever had, you know, and he just doesn't quite understand how to show that…"

"Mm," Theta responded noncommittally.

"You… You should ice that," she said, motioning to his arm, but mostly to his entirety. When he refused to respond, Millennia sighed. "Theta, won't you talk to me?"

"I did, and I am," was the concise reply. She sighed. Theta reminded her so much of Koschei when he was hurt or mad. No wonder they got along so well, and could get on so horribly on occasion.

"Theta-Sigma," she avoided using his last name, his father's name, knowing full well who had caused the boy all of his pain, "just remember that we're here for you."

"And what does that matter?" The younger boy looked up from the book, his eyes peering emptily at the girl. His anger was well-hidden, but still Millennia saw it with ease.

"It matters because we are your friends. And if you can't talk to us, who can you talk to? A book?" She raised her eyebrows and continued, "We'll help you with whatever you ask us to do, but if you sit there and keep quiet, how will we know what to do? We were all worried about you while you were gone, Koschei most of all, and now he just wants to help you. So just say what you need, and we'll get it for you."

"Do you really want to know what I need, Millennia?" Theta asked slowly. She nodded, not knowing what to expect.

"I need you to leave me alone. I need Koschei to leave me alone. And I need Ushas to mind her own business. If you think you're helping me by staring at my bruises and giving me words of comfort, you are very mistaken." Even if he tried to hide it, Millennia heard the pain in his voice. "You can go back out there and tell Ushas to go away. You can tell Koschei that he has never really suffered, and that he can very well go about shutting up about everything, or I will request a new roommate immediately. And you," he locked eyes with her fiercely, "can tell them that, word for word, after you leave. Now."

The girl stood up slowly and took a deep breath. She wasn't mad at him, she told herself. She wasn't upset at him. She was sad for him. She spared Theta another glance before walking out, down the hallway.

"I'm sorry I bothered you," she whispered before heading out of the room. When she closed the door behind her, the expectant gazes of the three were settled on her. "No luck," she admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, that's okay." Millennia looked to Koschei quickly, surprised at his uncaring tone. "By tomorrow, I'll have had my revenge upon the bastard."

Next Chapter: The Dawn

AN: I forgot how fun it is to write for the Deca. So sorry for the hiatus. I'm going to try to update regularly now, but no promises. If one of you lovely readers would like to sign up to be my personal alarm clock for this story, that would be fantastic. I just need a little pushing to get things done, I suppose.