Hello and welcome back to chapter 14! Woah! Has it been this many chapters already? That's pretty intense, actually, and I'm so happy that you guys are continuing to review and give your opinions here! I will never, ever get tired of reading your reviews, and I appreciate them more than I could ever write in words! Thank you so much to each and every one of you out there, I love you all and I really, really mean that. This project couldn't happen without you!

CHAPTER RATED VERY STRONG M (PLEASE READ THIS PARAGRAPH)! This chapter deals with very, very sensitive subjects this time around, and I want to explain that I in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM condone sexual acts without clear, enthusiastic, coherent consent. Rape is a very serious topic, and one that is unfortunately all too real around the world, and if you are a victim of sexual violence in any way, please reach out to your authorities, local crisis line, or a trusted other to help you through these difficult times, and remember that it isn't your fault and you can get help. Please, stay safe, and I love you.

Chapter rated strong M for obvious depictions of rape/non-consensual sexual acts, allusions to PTSD, talks of suicide/suicidal intentions, suggestive themes, brief heavy language, perilous themes, and general adult content.


THREE MONTHS IN THE RECENT PAST

Just don't focus on the sensation and it'll be over soon.

Lay back, set your lips to habituated autopilot, and go to your happy place in the middle of the very nebula you'll find one day as he rides out the high of whatever he demands be taken that you know you'll never get back. You'll be ok…right? You'll survive this, no matter how much you think you won't in the heat of the terror folding in around you and pinning you into your own mattress. Think about how amazing it'll feel to finally break away from this hideous place and walk through the escape chute before you jet out into the cosmos to find someplace new…someplace safe.

Safe.

This wasn't safe.

This hurt…t-this hurt more than anything he'd been subjected to. Maybe if he stopped struggling, the authoritative hand over his mouth would ease up and let him take a sharp, shuddering breath or the firm, writhing sensation against his delicate heat would pull back and finally let him sleep. Irk, no! That only made it worse…n-now he…now he thinks everything is alright. It's not alright. It isn't alright anymore and it never will be. No one would ever know what he had been forced to do against his perilously sobbing will, no one would ever know that his disgusting, demonic advisor had grown too riskily impatient with what little he could touch or push into without getting caught in the act and reprimanded. This time was so terribly different; this time he stole away what he claimed was the property of the Empire nobody knew was deeply ingrained with morally unstable evil. He was short and stocky, unfortunately small enough in size to take him without causing physical damage that would undoubtedly be noticed by the Control Brains and Callnowia, but the pain of it all was still too real.

The physical pain of being forced open by someone he didn't love for the first time was numbing.

The emotional pain of being used and manipulated like a ball jointed doll was agonizing.

Purple stared forward when he felt himself dissociate as all sensation faded and left him with the familiar deadweight feeling of sinking, nodding on conditioned command when Lire asked him to move to his hands and knees before situating himself again and maneuvering him down into the mattress with a sigh of excited approval as words of praise echoed in the near background. Had he said something? Asked him to moan louder into the silken comforter beneath them as his quarters filled with the nauseating, irreparable creaking of the officer's box spring? He didn't know anymore, feeling his white-knuckled fingers go limp as he submitted completely and willed himself on to his happy place with every pained hiss and blatant whimper of tear streaked discomfort trying to force the officer away with the idea of mercy that he could never come to comprehend in his devious, malicious mindset. What time was it? How long had he been here and why couldn't he speak? It was if Lire had taken his voice and contorted it into something unusable and hidden, chucking it far into the rancid, molded abyss of self-loathing he was becoming. He didn't feel right in the mind and his knees hurt from the dig and pull of the woven fabric burning him with every motion, slamming every syllable that he never wanted to admit into his psyche as he tried not to think about everything that was happening. Purple knew what this was, but he never thought it would come this far. He couldn't do anything to stop it, counting the despicable motions when their hips would meet as his advisor increased his pace before squeezing his eyes shut and bursting into hot, unfettered tears when he felt something warm invade him from the inside and brand him with the mark of servitude.

Ah, yes, that's it. Making love to you is so much better than I could have ever imagined.

Making love? This was not, and would never be, love.

This was breeding.

Cold, exacting, calculated breeding.

He shivered away and clawed desperately at his warped face when Lire hushed him softly and laid down beside him to pull him close into an unwanted embrace from behind that only solidified Purple's boiling terror, forcing him out of bed in a fit of unsightly, blind panic as he grabbed for sheets and pillows and chucked them back with scream after scream of violent instinct to defend himself. Why did everything hurt? Why did he feel like he'd just gone through the beating of a lifetime? He hated this place, he hated the man who continued to do terrible things to him, and he hated himself for letting it happen. No more. No more of this madness! Lire tried to reason through his revolting, damaging actions with the promise of hot chocolate and tiny gifts here and there as an obvious payment to keep him quiet about what had happened, setting alight the undying need to run.

Run.

It didn't matter anymore. If Del wanted to kill him, he would let him.

Purple cried out when Lire hopped up and ruthlessly pursued him, threatening to throttle him by the throat if he said anything about the forced agony he'd felt or how appallingly dangerous his advisor's actions had been to the sanctity of the Flesh Treaty, launching himself over pillows and dodging feeble punches to the stomach when his prize went on the brutal defensive. Purple snatched viciously at his face when Lire knocked him back against the wall, biting down hard on his gloved fingers when he reached out to administer an open-handed smack upside his jawline and kicking him back a few feet with as much strength as he could muster. He wiped at his foggy eyes when he threatened to fall into a harrowing, unforeseen mental collapse, careening towards the hatch and fumbling with the latch before he was able to sling it open and immediately let loose a torrent of stifled screams for help before something hard and metallic collided with the back of his skull and dropped him to the pristinely polished floors of the ship that had become his prison. An intense, sharp pain ricochet down his neck and ate at his PAK as he dug his fingers into the floor and gasped for breath, squeezing his eyes shut when a blackened, horrifically excruciating lapse shuddered over him like an earthquake.

Huh? W-Who…..what happened? Was he bleeding? No…Lire wouldn't…he wouldn't be that careless…Irk, everything…where…? Why was he on the…the floor? This wasn't right. He was running, wasn't he? What was he running from, again? Lire…Lire had…

The hatch closed with a soft click followed by the sounds of the wall pad being jiggled open and Purple could barely remember hearing the faint ping of an override code being entered in the panel, effectively locking him in his own quarters from the inside and out until someone with enough authority had enough compassion to slip food into his room or bring him something to drink. He had messed up, hadn't he? He was going to be stuck here for the rest of his days, unable to go on nightly walks in his hooded cloak and stop at the observatory for a quick glance over where they had ended up in the vastness of the Universe. He slurred something out in disoriented protest when Lire's harsh hands landed at his ankles, heaving and dragging him back before struggling to hoist him up into his bed when he ragdolled and nearly slipped out of the threadbare consciousness he was somehow still clinging to. His advisor promptly set the titanium lamp he'd used to crack him in the back of the head back up on his nightstand before ordering something he didn't understand, forcing Purple back down with calloused hands when he labored to push up before taking his leave and flipping off the lights.

Silence.

Purple didn't remember much after that, knowing that he'd slipped into a comatose state of trauma induced insentience, catalepsy burning at his eye sockets and dragging him in and out of an unwanted state of reoccurring blackouts from the steady damage he'd seeping deeper into his head. He tried to get up a few times through the night, finding that he was completely unable to move between the deep ache between his legs and the intense bruise in his skin that his PAK was desperately trying to tend to, sedatives coursing through his thickening bloodstream and singing him back into a state of swooning oblivion when he slung his feet over the edge of his mattress and promptly slammed into the floor when his knees buckled. He still couldn't wrap his sluggish mind around what had happened, part of him repeating on a hushed loop in his thoughts that it was all just a terrible nightmare. Lire would never be so careless as to connect them both in such a disgusting way, tying Purple to him for the rest of his days and permanently imprinting him with the label of uninvited bondage he couldn't seem to leave behind in the dust. He had been chosen for this life for a reason, one he still didn't understand, but one he also didn't care for. Maybe he was on the path to destruction as a scientist, thinking back to his happiest days in microbiology as he grew tiny cultures and watched hideous diseases destroyed by PAK technology and medicines of his own design. He wanted to provide his planet with a cure to it all, digging his hands into pond scum and watching tiny creatures flit about on microscopic slides filled with gooey substances other Irkens could only dream of. They had no care in the world, eating up chemicals and working together to form massive swathes of intensely powerful bonds that could devour any and everything Purple threw their way. They were so small but so infinitely powerful, something he couldn't find a way to relate to no matter how hard he struggled to make the connection. He felt small in a different way; a discarded hunk of sentient flesh used for the political advancement and flippant, fleeting pleasure that would only last mere minutes for Lire but would etch a lifetime of horrible nightmares into Purple himself, scarring him deeper than any physical agony he could endure and turning him off to the idea of ever being intimate with anyone in the future.

Was this sex?

He'd been taught in the Academy that sex was something to be cherished between two individuals who cared for one another, and should only be done when you felt loved, welcome, and safe with your partner. There was a brief talk on non-consent, but it was so rare on the planet as a whole that it was overshadowed by the glory of what intimacy could do to a bond, claiming that once you agreed to be with someone in that way that the two of you would forever share something beautiful with one another. Beautiful? Was what he did with Lire supposed to be beautiful? Was the feeling of being forced open against his will righteous? Why, then, did he feel like he had been battered through a storm, stripped of every shred of dignity in his soul, and stepped on by the deceiving wedge heels he had come to be nauseated by every time he heard them click down the corridor in the evening. He had so many disgustingly repulsive questions and not enough culpable answers to quench the flood attacking his shivering form as he tried to push up to his raw knees once more, tears of overpowering shame taking hold of him and pattering to the titanium between his shaky hands. This was his fault, wasn't it? He had somehow tempted Lire in to take him for everything he was, somehow enticed him beyond recognition with his gorgeous beauty and enthralling charm he somehow couldn't turn off, paving the way for his eventual…h-his eventual…

He couldn't say the word. No. He wouldn't say it. Not here, not now, not ever.

Purple curled into himself when he heard a faint knocking at the hatch, covering his face with clammy hands and preparing for the worst, hoping with every fiber of his being that it was Del come to examine the evidence Lire had injected into his body before taking him straight to the airlock and shooting him into the peaceful vacuum of space itself. He was ready and he needed the sweet release of knowing this awful existence was finally over, that no more hands and squirming appendages would slap across his cheeks and use him without his permission to fulfill unsolicited, damaging acts of passion that were supposed to be preserved by the one he would eventually fall in love with. Love? Pfft. That didn't exist in this place…it didn't exist anywhere. Purple had asked the Universe for his white knight, someone compassionate, strong, and gentle to come and take him away as they lazed through the galaxy in their own ship and watched the Massive crumble and burn under the weight of its own immature insanity, but he was beginning to realize that there wasn't anyone like that out there. No one would love him like he dreamed, no one would care for him and support his decisions as a functioning adult, and no one would ever find him as anything more than a pretty face destined to be used by everyone he was passed to like a trading card.

The hatch finally popped free, setting Purple to jolt and instinctively clamp his jaw tight, his pulse escalating dangerously in his chest and making him woozy when the telltale crack of faint midnight starlight glittered across the metallic floor and hit him square in the eyes. He willed his rapid breathing to calm out of fear that he would pass out, clamping a hand over his mouth when the radiance disappeared once more with a tender click and lock of the powerful mechanics keeping him hidden away from the crew followed by two unfamiliar footsteps that he didn't recognize. Those weren't Lire's shoes, nor were they the opulent leather of Del's sharp heeled boots traipsing almost cautiously in his direction as the sound of vigilant breathing could be heard from behind what sounded like a respirator. Purple ventured a peek, blinking in the gloom when he caught sight of the rigid, guarded motion of someone he didn't recognize sweeping the area and rummaging around in his closet to ensure that they were alone, forcing him up to an overly curious sit before the sting in his back caused him to lay back down for some semblance of relief. The warming scent of sugar overtook the whole of the room and set his mouth to water deliciously as the tall stranger approached, setting something aside on his nightstand before clicking on and dimming the lamp to a soft glow and flying down to stoop to his level and hoist him up under his arms. Who the hell was this? Purple was stunned and confused, glaring back at the cloaked figure helping him to sit up in bed and propping pillows up behind him to keep him comfortable, the man's set of bug-like goggles concealing his eyes while an Elite respirator kept the remainder of his face hidden from sight. He had shrouded himself in a traditional advisory silk that treaded the floor, keeping the rest of his form swathed in billowing folds and cascades of opulent fabric that showed off his status as one of Del's closest cabinet members. He smelled divine, a strange resonance of spices that captivated Purple and comforted him in their balmy embrace as the mystery officer slung his woven comforter up over his lap and reached up with a gloved hand to turn his jaw to the side. That scent…it was eerily familiar but he couldn't pinpoint why or where from, quickly forgetting the stringent orange and delicious citrus to wince over the pinching tenderness left behind in his neck when the tender hands of his unexpected visitor turned him too far.

"What did he do to you? I heard you screaming but I couldn't get away to come without them noticing."

Purple weakly batted the intrusive touch away out of fearful mistrust, turning back and catching his bruised reflection in the radiance of the officer's lenses and grimacing, diverting his gaze to his lap out of sheer disgust for how shattered he'd become. There was an urgency to the voice fluttering over his limp antennae, distorted on purpose by turning his respirator up to the highest setting and sending a shiver down Purple's sore spine when he tried to tug away. The man let him go, scooting back to give him space when he threatened to cry once more, holding himself perilously together and hoping he wouldn't fall apart again, not that it mattered at this point anyway.

"Are you here to kill me?" He mumbled hoarsely against the dry scratchiness in his throat. "If Del sent you to make it look like a suicide, just do it already. I don't even care if it's painful at this point, just choke me or something."

The officer shied back and brought his hands together momentarily before rubbing nervously at the back of his neck through his thick hood, pulling free his antennae to scent at the terrible smell of fight or flight pheromones lingering over Purple's bedsheets and mixing in with the undeniable twinge of mating.

"Kill you? N-No, I'm here to, eh…it's complicated." He reached forward and grabbed at the cup he'd generously brought by, pulling his respirator down just enough to blow away some of the steam and reveal two thin lips before replacing it and passing it on. He cleared his throat and made sure his voice had distorted once more before speaking, helping Purple to clasp his erratic hands around what appeared to be a cup of simple herbal tea. "I wanted to bring this to you from my own personal stash. It'll help with your nerves."

Purple wasn't buying it, staring down at the mixture of strange plants and honied sweetener before narrowing his eyes in horrid distrust. "Poison? Del thought poison would be the way to go? Irk, what a total idiot, that'll take ages to kill me off!" He sniffed at the substance, using his scientific scrutiny to try and figure out what the strange man had brought him. "I don't smell anything weird in here, though. Is it an experimental drug they're trying out on me again, or is it something worse this time?"

The casual acceptance of his own sudden death in Purple's exhausted voice obviously made his guest incredibly nervous, setting him into a fit of twitchy claws and restless squirming as he listened. "N-Neither. Del doesn't actually know I'm here so if we could keep this discreet, I would appreciate it because this could be bad for us both if he found out. D-Don't worry, though, I promise I'm a friend!" He added quickly, fumbling into the pocket of his robes and plucking free a chocolate candybar before setting it gingerly on the bed and standing to pace. "I wanted to come in to say that you're not alone and this will all be over soon. I can't tell you who I am or what I'm doing, but I promise on my life that you'll be safe as long as I'm here."

Purple shook his head and rolled his eyes, tracing the lip of his piping hot mug with his fingertip as he wearily listened to the rushed lies spouting back in his face. Safe? Bullshit. He would never be safe as long as he was stuck on this ship, and by the strange erraticism of the concealed advisor hastily explaining his situation before inching back forward, he didn't believe it either.

"Who are you? I know you can't tell me, but do you work for Del as part of his cabinet?" He asked flippantly, giving up on any formality out of sheer tiredness for what he'd been through. "I'm guessing by your expensive taste and all your shiny new equipment that you're one of his favorites; maybe head of Defense or Strategic Command? If you came here to sweet talk me into giving you a blowjob, then let's get this over with already."

The officer reached up and tugged on his antennae out of frustration, staring up at the ceiling through his tinted lenses with a heaving, exasperated sigh of irritation. "Dammit, I'm not here to take advantage of you! I'm here because I know what happened to you and I couldn't stay in the shadows any longer without giving you hope that this is almost over!" He moved back forward and took Purple by the hand, holding tight when he tried to pull away and running across his knuckles with a tender thumb. "Please, drink the tea and eat the chocolate and I'll make sure that idiot, Lire, gets the point and leaves you alone. I've been watching him and I'm itching to get into his head and make him hurt, but I don't think I can kill him without putting suspicion on you instead so I'm gonna make him sick for a while. I have big plans for you, but you have to hold on just a little longer and be brave for me. Please, just hold on a little longer, alright?"

"Woah, woah, woah." Purple slurred, holding up an unsteady hand when he had trouble following along with the mountains information pouring back at him. "How can I trust you if I don't even know you? Or maybe I do and you're one of those gross assholes who comes by and uses my mouth all the time!" A pang of vicious anger shot up through his chest as he reached out and dumped his tea over the edge of the bed, listening to it slosh to the floor before setting the mug to the side. "I don't want or need your fictitious help! You're just like the rest of them, and I know you're only here to get on my good side so you can get in my pants and fuck me like Lire! What, are you jealous that he got that far and you didn't so you have to play the role of the masked 'hero' so you can have me go down on you to?!"

The officer began to panic, bringing a shaky finger to the front of his mechanized respirator and standing to wipe up the mess on the coattails of his robes, hiding away the evidence before snatching for the mug. "N-No! I-I promise it's not like that! Watch what happens over the next few days and I promise that Lire will get sick enough to put him out of commission and trap him in the med bay for a while. I want to take you away from this place now, but I…I-I can't. You're going to have to trust in me and stay tough like I know you are inside, Pur. Once our plan falls into place you'll never have to do any sick favors again." He paused, thinking long and hard about what words he was allowed to use. "I won't let him rape you again."

Purple's gaze snapped up, staring with an undying hatred back at the teasing intrusion taunting him with the promise of life and freedom that he knew would never come. Instead he jabbed a harsh finger at the hatch and watched as the advisor wavered where he stood. "Get out. Get out of here and never come back." He kept his answers short and simple at the mention of the word he was too afraid to say, finally peeling his gaze away and tossing the generous chocolate across the room in a fit of shattered anguish. "You have the nerve to come in here and….just…get out."

The officer trudged to the frame, swallowing thickly behind his mask and reaching for the unopened chocolate to gingerly lay it atop a wall shelf dotted with pointless gifts that Lire had given him in hopes of keeping him quiet for the rest of his days about their little arrangement, acknowledging the sheer discouraged pain in Purple's voice before entering his access code and taking his leave. He glanced back, watching through the sliver of light pouring in to slice through the depressing shadows before shutting it once more and rushing off in the opposite direction. Purple waited until he heard his footsteps deteriorate into the night before relaxing and letting loose a terrified, horribly deep shudder of a sigh he'd been holding back and waiting to succumb to for the short, perplexing meeting with the stranger he wasn't even sure if he'd hallucinated in his bizarre fugue state, letting it eat at him until he couldn't stand it any longer and decided to try and gain some semblance of horrible, unrelaxing sleep.

He would never get out of here…no matter how hard he tried.

The morning came and went and, as Purple waited for Lire to appear, he grew concerned. His advisor hadn't shown up for their usual early morning routine of tea and cakes to practice his eating etiquette, an unlikely change that set him alight with fretful worry now that he'd calmed down from his suicidal thoughts the previous night. Had they been caught? Had Lire decided to pin the whole thing on him? What if Del decided that Purple wasn't fit for the Flesh Treaty anymore and decided to actually murder him when he least expected it? He'd wanted it in the moment but now, after a heavy-hearted rest, he decided he still had a bit of fight left in his exhausted soul to batter Lire to a pulp should he come back again. Only, he didn't.

News had spread quickly of Lire's sudden deterioration with an unknown foodborne illness, giving him the worst food poisoning he'd had since his admittance to Del's council and putting him out of commission for an estimated two weeks time. Purple couldn't believe it when the stand in advisor came by to tell him the strange, unexpected news, glancing across the room to where the phantom visitor had left a sweet, midnight candy bar for him during what he thought was a mirage, a pang of excitement bubbling in his spooch when he realized that it was still perched on the edge of his shelf. Someone really had visited him from within Del's cabinet and, even if his words weren't true, at least he had hope.

Hope…maybe his estranged visitor could be his white knight.


PRESENT DAY; IPI'S MANSION; CALLNOWIA

Purple took a deep breath and stepped forward, extending his arms out to be shackled and refusing to give up a fight when two burly Callnowian guards strode forward and yanked him along. Red wasn't far behind, still stunned silent and white as a sheet as he blindly followed his friend's motions and stared blankly down at his feet. Ipi continued to dig through her candy dish, selecting a few things and following closely behind as her pure white robes fluttered with every step, stopping at the main hatch and popping a sweet in her mouth as one of her guards took her by the crook of her arm to lead her sightless eyes on through the metal frame and into the stairwell with their prisoners in tow.

"You two will still serve a purpose for us, as you may have already figured out." She explained, heels clicking against the grating of the stairwell as she continued along and listened to the devious clink of shackles and metal cuffs rubbing wrists raw. "Your Tallest and I are…how do I put this delicately…involved with one another. My sweet Del, bless his soul, is unfortunately an idiot but I love him nonetheless."

Purple lurched forward when he was ruthlessly shoved into a steady gait, watching with mounting concern to where Red refused to respond, holding his claws together with a timid lack of resolve that set him on edge and alerted him to the idea that Red may have finally given up. He'd lost everything he loved to this mission; his girlfriend, his teammates and family, the five thousand others he'd worked so hard to free, his citizenship, and his will to keep going with it all…everything was lost and completely annihilated before him and Purple was growing uneasy with the lack of light, powerful determination shining back in his eyes as he followed along without so much as a raunchy protest or insult to the Prime Minister's wrinkled skin. He looked hollow and worn down, sick even, as he trudged a few feet behind Purple and dragged his polished dress boots against the rusted metal of the transport stairwell. Ipi's obnoxiously kind voice wasn't helping, grating on both of their nerves and causing Red's limp antennae to twitch with every step he took and word spoken, mouth hanging slightly agape and flaccid as Purple faltered and fell into line with where he struggled to keep up with his guard.

"Red?" He mumbled under Ipi's narcissistic ramblings as they descended back into the dark belly of the mansion to whatever fate awaited them. He glanced up when one of the guards stared back in confusion, obviously straining to pick apart his Irken accent as he spoke and buying him a bit of time. "Red, look at me, I have an idea."

Red refused, shaking his head with a depressed despondency that reminded Purple of how broken and abandoned he had felt after his molestation and rape from Lire, taking a deep breath and fighting off the shivering sensation of nauseating flashbacks trying to consume him. He didn't know what to say to get his comrade's attention, sweeping over his face and blinking when a notion hit him that he'd almost forgotten from his recent past. Red…the Elite cadet posing as a General and hiding amongst Del's cabinet to whisk him away from the terrors and toils of abuse…Red, the gruff but incredibly kind man who had been there for him in the shadows from the beginning. Wait, it couldn't be, could it?

Purple stopped in his tracks, dumbfounded when he finally made the connection before he was painfully shoved along by the heavy hand of his captors, falling back in line with the very same mystery man who had appeared in his room months ago to bring him the kindness and warmhearted touch he needed in the moment to survive.

"It's…it's you?" He breathed, stopping once more and glancing back when the guard barked something in annoyed Callnowian and caused him to jump in his boots. "You…Red, you're the one who came and talked to me after all that…um…stuff happened? You're the one who made Lire sick?"

Red gave a tiny shrug but kept his despondent gaze averted, refusing to acknowledge the glimmer of final understanding ripping through Purple's amethyst vision and allowing him to look upon his bizarre friend with a lens of profound, blistering appreciation he never thought he'd feel for another. He saved him from two weeks of torture that gave him a reprieve from the painful, internally agonizing rape he'd kept hidden from the world. He'd thought Red was clueless to his darkest secrets and most despairing times but he had risked his very life and the sanctity of their now defunct mission to brew him a cup of tea he refused to drink, bring him something sweet to eat to take his mind off of the sting between his legs, and checked his wounds before he pulled away. The devotion and care put into everything he'd done from the essence of mint and traditional calming herbs wafting over his once terrified antennae to the remembrance of his favorite candy bar was meticulously put together and, even if Purple didn't appreciate it in the height of his own downhearted fear, he had come to wonder who it was that had come by and given him everything he needed to keep going.

Red.

It was always Red.

"Look at me." Purple whispered, reaching out when the guard looked away to examine the carnage down a few flights and brushing a slow touch over Red's elbow . "Look at me right now."

Finally, Red looked up, meeting his fervent, awed stare with a muted, hopeless one of his own. "Why? What's the point, Purple? I know what you're gonna say but nothing matters anymore." He peeled his gaze away when they passed the mangled body of Zim being slowly swept and mopped away by a dutiful cleaning crew. "Everything I've done, I've failed at. I failed at graduating from the Academy, I failed at keeping my family safe, I failed at keeping you safe, and I failed at finding the five thousand lost Irkens that this whole mission was about. I'm nothing more than a dumb, pathetic failure!"

Purple felt his breath hitch when Red raised his voice, drawing Ipi's attention from afar and drawing a chuckle from her thin lips. "Oh my, you've finally just now come to the realization that you're trash? How pitiful for you to take so long and think that you could be a hero." She sneered lightly, renewing her hold on her escort's arm as they neared the end of the stairwell. "Don't worry, love, you'll have a chance to redeem yourself by donating what's left of that brutish blood for our research."

"Don't listen to what she says." Purple pleaded under his breath, waiting until Ipi's attention was called away by the blown in hatch as she carefully stepped around the mangled metal. "We're gonna get out of this and we're going to put an end to all of this bloodletting so it doesn't happen to anyone else. You and I are all we have now, but…I'm actually kinda happy I ended up with you, as stupid as that sounds now that I say it out loud."

He didn't really know where he was going with this, turning back to Ipi and bracing himself for the run of a lifetime. First, he needed more information.

"So, you said you're taking my friend's blood for research? I used to be a microbiologist, as you probably know, and I studied blood a bit on my own." Reel her in, be careful with your wording. "I'm actually curious to know what exactly it is that you're doing with all of this, and why your work extended to my own people. Five thousand Irkens is a lot of pints, and I'm not understanding why you'd need so much."

Ipi continued down into the frantic, half destroyed corridor of her science wing, picking up the scent of her daughter's blood from afar and stopping in her tracks. "Oh, darling, this isn't my work. This is your Tallest's work! He commissioned my men and our technological advancements to pull off an experiment he'd been itching to start since his own time in the Academy." She explained, voice dulling to something hushed when a team of scientists rushed by toting medical equipment by the armful. "You see, my Del fell in love with me hundreds of cycles ago when he was a Commander in the Armada and I was merely a translator for Irk before I became involved in politics. I was eventually relieved of my duty when my planet grew uncomfortable with Tallest Miyuki's expansion through this quadrant of the Universe, but Del continued to find me on his yearly vacations. We decided to elope and have been married ever since."

Purple stayed close to Red , taking him by the elbow and gingerly leading him on as he listened to the confusing change of subject. "I don't care about your creepy love life with my Tallest. I care about what you've done to purple-eyed Irkens like me. You've hinted at our blood giving you life, but I still don't see how that's possible." He was growing irritated at this point, glancing apprehensively into rooms and watching as jars of organs were transported to and fro to escape what little remained of Zim's perilous fires. "No one can live forever."

"That's just it, dear, no one could live forever." A twinge of sadness vibrated through Ipi's voice as she shook it free and kept on with the deepening conversation. "You'll die because I say you will. But Del and I, we shall live forever. We've chosen our few to pave the way for the new regime that will never end, a beautiful utopia of policy and relationships never dying out. I'll never have to attend my husband's wedding and he will never have to attend mine. I'll never lose my daughter, our friends, or our council. Do you understand?"

Purple listened intently, disgusted and disturbed by the encroaching finality of the conversation. He opened his mouth to speak before a guard clamped a hand over his mouth and ushered him into a side room as he thrashed and kicked, watching in terror as Red gave in to the very torment he'd escaped from in the first place. They were quickly led past an operating table, Purple moved to the sidelines as the guard patted the steel top and urged Red to lay on his back. He complied without a word, letting his depressing misery get the best of him as he slung himself up onto the table and rolled up his sleeve to thrust himself back into the routine he'd known so long ago when the hatch was locked. Purple fought violently against his captor as his pulse lurched and thrummed a mile a minute through his veins as one of the guards sat alongside his friend and too rolled up his own uniform to expose a dark, scaled arm to the bustling team of scientists and drones skittering about and grabbing for gloves and vials.

Ipi remained near the door, nodding slowly and licking her lips in anticipation for the transfer that was to come. "Del noticed something in his youth when he was engaged in combat, watching your people die around him in droves and becoming terribly affected by the pain and horror of it all. Every explosion, he told me, killed hundreds more and showed him the liminality of life itself. It was then that he decided something needed to be done to preserve what the Universe had given us so we would never have to say goodbye." She strode over and took Red by his weakened jaw, setting alight a fire deep in Purple's spooch to reach out and hack her to pieces. "He first noticed the oddities in purple-eyed blood when his friend was shot and bled out slowly, taking twice as long to die as the others. It's strange, the thickness of the blood pumping through your body, so we decided to take a look into why you were different and what we found was absolutely delicious. You both have an enzyme in your bloodstream that is unique to your hatching that allows your tissues to repair at an exponential rate. That alone, of course couldn't do much more than an Irken PAK could in terms of medically induced healing, but we began tampering with it."

Red hissed in pain when his PAK was pried open by expert hands and the crook of his arm was pricked by a thick needle, every blood cleansing system in his precious hardware being worked off as Purple watched helpless from afar. He attempted to elbow the guard in the stomach, hoping to get away without having to resort to drastic measures, but knowing he wouldn't get far as Ipi spoke up once more.

"We began adding chemical after chemical of whatever we could possibly think of into your sweet, sweet blood, hoping that it would somehow give us the answer to rapid healing and keep us youthful forever, but we couldn't ever find anything that was plausible or added that special kick." She sighed, watching with intrigued silence as her chosen guard was also pricked. "One day I became so irate with the whole silly venture that I broke a vial of test hemoglobin on the ground and cut myself in the process, dripping a tiny drop of my own blood into what we were hoping to achieve and, let me tell you, what we noticed was immediate. The color change, the texture of dust crumbling and caking over the tile, it was so strange to me. So, Del began running his own tests in our lab with the help of our good friend, Lire, and we found that when Callnowian enzymes are mixed with that of specific Irkens born with the violet birth defect, we are given a concoction that heals at an immediate rate and eradicates pain."

Red slumped forward and gritted his teeth, clenching his fist with a grumble of agonizing frustration when his PAK was tampered with once more. "G-Get on with it! If you wanna take my stupid blood, then take it already!" He barked, holding back the urge to go offline so he wouldn't feel the pain to come. "I don't have anything left to live for and I don't care about your reasoning anymore! J-Just…just take it."

No. That wasn't eternal life! The zombified, rotting visages of disturbing flesh and mangled tendons slowly healing themselves weren't life! That was unnatural and morally wrong in every way! Purple felt his alarm escalate to sheer panic, biting down hard on his captor's hand and drawing blood into his mouth before Ipi could finish explaining her still somewhat shady motives and crying out for Red's attention as he squirmed.

"No! Y-You can't! Please, Red, I didn't save you from that tree I found you in for you to die! Y-You've saved my life so many times and I didn't even realize it and I don't wanna see you throw it all away for nothing!" He begged as he hyperventilated, the fear of death overcoming his senses when he realized he no longer wanted to give up his soul to the devils threatening to take it. "You've shown me that I have a chance, no, that we have a chance to fix this and create a world where we can decide for ourselves! I want you in that world! I-I need you!"

Red froze, Purple's words slapping him upside the face like a brick as he repeated the damming phrase in his mind as the medically induced tap of blood letting began, filling vial after vial of his warm liquid life as Purple fought to get away from the authoritative hands holding him down like Lire used to.

"Please! I need you!" Purple repeated once more with a bit more urgency, hoping to break through the terrifying wall that Red had thrown up between them as he thought and deteriorated. "You're the only guy who's ever been there for me, and…and…you make me feel safe!"

Safe? Purple felt safe with him? But…he said he was a creepy stalker. He was upset that he went on a tangent and hit him like he didn't mean. He didn't need him to survive, did he?

"Red, I'm serious! C-Cut it out and-!"

Red finally made eye contact when the powerful hands of Purple's captor clamped back over his mouth to restrict his erratic breathing, clamping down on his PAK to keep his mechanical extensions from bursting free as he struggled for breath and clawed at the gloves slowly suffocating him. No…No! Every cell Red's body was set ablaze at the terrible, mind-numbing horror staring back at him from the one person he had left in this sickening excuse for a planet and pathetic blip of a universe. Purple did things to him; beautiful, disturbing, unconventional things, and watching him labor and writhe under the hands of those who wanted to destroy the very glimmer in him that made him who he was and allowed him to be unique broke Red out of his despondency and drug him into the undying need to maim everyone threatening his sanctity. Purple was a saint. He had saved Red from his darkness by captivating him with his soft hands and even softer voice, bringing him back into his heavenly radiance and showing him what it meant to have purpose over the past six months. It was about him. It had always been about him.

Red nodded discreetly in his direction and sucked up his wounded pride before swiveling and ripping the IV from his arm, allowing a thin trickle of blood to ooze to the operating table and startle the medical drone as she skittered back.

Alright, let's do this.


Thank you for reading this chapter! The next chapter will deal with, ehem, the now obviously budding relationship between our two broken heroes as they attempt to fix themselves, so stay tuned!

Next Update: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 10:00 pm CDT (UTC -5)