MINE

Pain.

Searing, white, hot pain.

It was everywhere. Unrelenting, unbearable, and merciless, offering no escape from the constant torment. Lyra's eyelids felt as heavy as cinderblocks as she slowly regained consciousness. Her stomach churned; bilious and sour as her nerve ending it up like fire. Her mind attempted to take stock of her newest injury, but it was just as slow and uncooperative as her body.

The seven dwarves were currently hi-hoeing it her brain with their pickaxes, and she was waiting for the mariachi band to join in with their maracas and kazoos. Her lungs weren't able to expand properly without intense pain causing her breaths to come out shallow and painful. Even the smallest of movements lit her body up with searing agony.

She was officially fucked.

All she wanted was to fall asleep again and Leave the agony for later, but she had to know what they had done to her.

Lyra forced her eyes open. For the first few moments, all she could do was stare at the roof of her cell, the sound of her harsh panting ringing in her sensitive ears, filling the silence. The redhead braced herself as she slowly lifted her head from the floor, clenching her teeth to ward off the strain of that simple action. The breath she had in her lungs, left her in a rush as she gazed down the length of her body.

She was bleeding.

She watched with disbelieving eyes at the red stain spreading on her white robe, pooling around her hips.

"What did they do to me?"

The words barely left her lips, brokenly whispered. She barely realized she had spoken her shock was so great. Her panting grew sharp and ragged as her body shook with every exhale. Lyra barely registered that her body was going into shock, the pain overloading her system. With trembling hands, she reached down to lift her gown.

She had to see with her own eyes. Had to know.

Inch by inch she drew up the flimsy material until the extent of what the scientists had done was revealed. Gods, she wished she hadn't looked. She should have left it alone. Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes as she gazed forlornly down at the row of neat stitches that circled her hips. A perfect fucking circle.

They had cleaved in her half.

Did they sever my spine? The thought was panicked and erratic, but she wouldn't put it past the mad scientists to do such a thing.

Lyra was crying now. Tears streaming down her cheeks, her body shaking with each sob. She couldn't stop, even if she wanted to. Once the first sob clawed its way out of her throat, she was in too much pain to stop.

Pain.

She had wanted to die, but not like this. Not with this torture. Lyra wanted to go quietly in her drugged sleep, not with panicked noises watching blood leak from her stomach.

A deep rumble broke through her erratic sobs. For a split second, her agony was forgotten, replaced by sudden surprise. Lyra turned her head towards the foreign sound.

It was the alien.

He sat crouched at the divider, facing her, his hands on the glass for balance as the low rumble tumbled out of him. A deep bass rumble. Another rumble joined the first and Lyra turned her head to see the smaller alien standing, facing her, making the same noise.

What were they doing?

It sounded like they were purring at her. No. They were purring to her.

Lyra let her head fall back as her red-rimmed eyes searched out the larger alien, the one whose warmth she had stolen earlier in the day. His molten gaze locked with hers, and she had the feeling that he understood what was being done to her. That it was wrong. He seemed to like what was happening to her even less than she did.

She wasn't quite sure how she managed it, her body felt almost like it was on autopilot, but Lyra found herself dragging her body towards the divider, a trail of blood following in her wake as she crawled to him. The redhead collapsed against the glass, facing him.

His purring increased, filling her head with wonderful vibrations. It calmed her in a way she never thought possible, enveloping her in a warmth she had long forgotten. Lyra remembered reading once that a mother cat's purr to its kittens released a cocktail of hormones that calmed and sedated. Maybe that was what they were doing.

The pain was pushed to the back of her mind as she reached out her hand, resting it gently on the glass over his. His purring seemed to grow even louder. Lyra took a moment to study the differences in their hands. She had always been a curious person and being locked up hadn't changed that.

His taloned palm dwarfed hers, the skin was lighter than the rest of his arm, not unlike a human hand. The talons were sharp and curved, similar to a hawk. There was no mistaking that he was a predator where he came from, built to kill, yet Lyra couldn't find it within herself to be afraid. He wasn't a mindless beast. All she saw when she looked into his eyes was intelligence—and safety.

"You know I'm dying, don't you?" She whispered to him. The purring faltered for a second, his amber eyes hardening as they bore down into her purple ones with more intensity than she could honestly handle at the moment.

He knows.

She wondered if he understood her. The sudden stutter in his purr told her he probably did, at least on a basic level, but she doubted he would be able to speak English very well. Not with his mandibles and without any lips. Lyra found herself wondering about his language and how his people communicated.

It only took a moment for his purring to resume at its loud octave again, making her smile despite the pain. The movement felt foreign to her, she hadn't done it in years. She had no cause to.

"You'd be easy to love," Lyra whispered sleepily. "I could easily give you my heart. Even if we are so different." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. When it finally registered with her brain what she had said, she froze, her eyes searching his face for a reaction.

He blinked a few times, his head tilting to the side regarding her with what she realized was a frown. Had she confused him? It was possible that he hadn't understood her words or the context behind them. His purring softened somewhat but didn't stop. Lyra took that as a good sign.

"I hope they don't hurt you as much as they hurt me," She whispered sadly. "I wish I was strong again, then I could protect us both. I used to be strong, you know. I wasn't always this pathetic and weak."

The alien's purring grew in volume again, his wide forehead smoothing. So, he wasn't frowning anymore. She thought with a small smile.

"Can you actually understand me?" She wondered with a small sigh. "I see so much in your face and your expressions. That intelligence in your eyes. I feel like you can understand me, at least on a small level. You have an interesting mouth by the way."

When she said that, the alien's bottom mandibles flared while the top drew in. If she didn't know any better, she would say he was smiling at her. The thought made her giggle.

Lyra had taken note that the pain in her abdomen had begun to lessen; if only a little. Looking down, she realized the wound had finally stopped bleeding.

"Maybe I have a little longer after all." The alien's purr picked up again, the rumbling even louder now. Whether that was meant to reassure her or confirm her statement, she was sure, but the comfort it gave her was worth more than her weight in gold.

Until she saw the trickling of yellow gas begin to fill the alien's cell.

"No!"

Lyra was on her feet in seconds, ignoring the searing pain that shot through her body. She should have known something like this would happen. Two aliens of the same species were captured, and they only needed one. The young one. The one who was most likely to survive the longest.

Why hadn't she thought of this before?

"You can't have him!" She screamed, her small fists battering against the glass divider. The alien jumped to his feet as soon as he heard the gas. His head swiveled from side to side, his dreads fanning out behind him, as he searched the cell for something she knew he would never find.

A way out.

The gas kept coming.

"Stop! Please!"

She was banging as hard as she could on the glass now, using every ounce of strength she could muster, trying to break the divider between them.

Calm yourself, Lyra. It will all be over soon.

Damn that fucking voice.

"The fuck it will bitch!" She screamed, throwing her body against the divider. Lyra ignored the pain and the blood, pushing it to the back of her mind as she focused on the task at hand. A scraping noise caught her attention, and her eyes snapped up to meet the aliens. Their eyes locked as the gas continued to fill his cell. In that moment they both knew what had to be done.

Lyra had managed to shift the divider.

The alien's massive seven-foot-something-tall heavily muscled body smashed itself against the glass at the opposite end to hers as if instinctively knowing that the counterweight would help bring it down. He roared like a beast, his mandibles flaring with every push of his massive body. Lyra could hear the other alien pounding on his own divider, roars of protest and outrage.

Calm yourself, Lyra. It will all be over soon.

"Fuck. Off." She roared. "He's mine and I'll be damned if I let you kill him too!"

The divider was creaking more with the strain of the combined bodyweights. It gave a sudden lurch and Lyra had never seen anything more beautiful than the cracks that had started to form in the wall. Like a spider's web, they stretched out across the divider, growing in numbers the more they pushed.

Lyra found herself screaming, her own war cry rivaling the aliens.

Then the wall came down. Glass shattered as she fell forward, the resistance gone. Lyra coughed as the yellow gas surrounded her, but when she tried to move, she found that she couldn't.

She was paralyzed.

The pain she had been holding back hit her full force like a semi, making her cry out. She barely noticed the yellow gas was clearing, replaced by the all too familiar white haze. It was unnecessary really, though she doubted it was for her. Lyra's head felt fuzzy, the sudden blood loss from her torn stitches causing her to become lightheaded and nauseous, a feeling she was all too familiar with.

Lyra's body jumped instinctively when she felt two large hands fall on her, pulling her close to something warm. The body was hard and muscled and with a small smile, Lyra realized the alien had picked her up. As she battled with the inky blackness of unconsciousness, she felt a small smile form on her lips.

If she was dying, then this was how she wanted to go.


A/N: Getting to the meat of it now! THank you for the reviews and the follows and the favs! Keep it up. A lot of the back story will definitely be changing here soon! Can't wait! Please review!

Till next time...