Chapter 26

Garden of Minos

Deathtrap

Even after he had flown away in disgust, Deathtrap hadn't abandoned Gaige. He'd flown a ways away feeling a mixture of anger and disgust at her behavior, even though he knew that she was uninformed of the whole story.

Still, he couldn't believe what she'd said, he couldn't imagine that she really thought that about Artemis, not even in the moment and had been so taken aback by it, that he had to separate from her in protest.

But that didn't mean that he was leaving her.

After he flew away, he had waited, hoping that she'd come to her senses and rush after her friend, to beg her with an apology, but he knew her temper and that him leaving had probably made her all the angrier, so she was probably stomping off on her own, determined that she didn't need anyone.

Deathtrap had been frustrated by the situation from the beginning. Even when they had first met, he had known about Artemis's persuasion, going so far as to confront her about it the first morning on her ship. But even then, he'd done his research, investigating her home planet in an attempt to find out more about her and the culture that had shaped her views. So, he made sure when he laid out what he knew, to keep her beliefs in mind, and they'd come to an understanding, he wouldn't tell about her and she wouldn't betray Gaige.

Still, he'd been amazed at Gaige's density on the subject, it seemed that no matter what evidence came her way, she just turned it into what was convenient for her belief about the other girl. It got to the point that he genuinely believed that she had to know deep down and was hiding it from herself for some reason, but he couldn't figure out why.

Things had seemed to be going fine otherwise between them, barring a few misunderstandings and the fact that Artemis seemed to have some other deep-seated issues that he thought might stem from her sexual orientation, but everything seemed to be going smoothly, the girls were growing more comfortable around each other, learning to rely on the other, but then things had gone wrong.

It all started, like they always do, with something stupid, in this case, that jerk at the party. Deathtrap knew that he should've thrown him out earlier, but he hadn't wanted to make a scene, a decision that he regretted ever since. Then again, even what he said wasn't that big of a deal, just the usual bitterness from a guy who got snubbed. But what had really set things down the wrong path, was Gaige saying the worst thing she could to try and cheer Artemis up.

After that, at least Gaige had been aware that she'd done something wrong, but every attempt she'd made had only made things worse, mostly because she refused to think about it. Deathtrap had been so sure that she'd come to the right solution, all she had to do was look into it. He'd gone so far as to download all the info on Salvation to her ECHO just so it would be there when she finally got it through her head to look it up, but she never had.

She was so convinced that she knew the other girl that she wouldn't even look into her past, which had made Deathtrap want to bang his head into a wall in frustration.

But then things had come apart. He couldn't figure out what had happened, no matter how many times he replayed it in his memory banks, he couldn't find the exact moment where things had fallen apart.

Looking back, he could see that Gaige had been acting odd for a while, but nothing that would explain how she reacted. Maybe it was the frustration of not knowing how to make things right, only to find out it was something simple that she'd overlooked and she couldn't figure out why the other girl hadn't told her something so important, but that didn't explain the anger, the venom that she'd spewed at her friend.

So, Deathtrap wondered if it was something else, something that he didn't know about. Maybe something that had happened to her before he'd been made. Or some conversation that had happened while he was off taking care of something else. Whatever it was, she wouldn't be telling right now, so he'd left her behind, hoping that everyone would cool off.

He had wished there were two of him, so he could follow both girls and make sure they were alright, but even as well-built as he was, he couldn't be in two places at the same time and as much as he felt that Artemis needed having an eye kept on her more than Gaige, he couldn't abandon her, not after so long spent together. So, he'd made the choice to follow her from a distance.

It didn't take long for her to find the fanciest ship around and break into it. Deathtrap couldn't figure out what she wanted inside, but hoped it was just that she was looking for a place to calm down, maybe take a nap. Then again, he'd never seen her rest when she was pissed off at something. Most of the time she threw herself into work or went around breaking things. He honestly hoped that was what she was going to do, go into the most expensive ship, the one most likely to have breakables onboard, and go to town on them. But he was afraid that wasn't what she was going to do. He knew the other thing that she used to do when she got mad, something that he never approved of but didn't know how to tell her. Something that Artemis had called her out on, and since then, she'd gotten much better about, but deep down, he was pretty sure that was what she was going to do.

She was going to get drunk.

And not just drunk, but absolutely black out, have to be carried home, no lights in the afternoon when she woke up, hammered.

Still, he waited, and waited. After an hour he checked the door and when he found it locked, took the risk to leave her alone for a little while. He set his sensors to alert him if her ECHO moved and set off to find Artemis, feeling that Gaige would be staying put for at least a little while.

He flew back the way he'd come, checking where her ECHO was, and in a worrying development, he found it was quite a ways away, and inside the walls.

Putting as much speed on as he could, he flew into the space between the walls, keeping his sensors on high to try and pick up anything from inside and the next thing he knew there was a hideous keening sound coming from within.

He slammed the brakes, and waited. The sound kept going from within, allowing him to pinpoint where it was coming from.

Worryingly, it was coming from the general direction that he needed to go, so with a bit more caution, he started flying around the wall, making sure that he was well above where the noise was coming from.

As he came around the corner, his sensors picked up something else.

Bandits.

Making a snap choice, he flew to the inside of the creature's cage, and after a few moments, was certain that they hadn't seen him.

With his new found confidence, he tracked where they were going, as well as kept an audio sensor on the keening. The bandits were moving down, headed for where the ECHO was still broadcasting its location from, and the creature seemed to be moving back towards the center of its habitat.

After calculating the risks, Deathtrap flew down, easily beating the bandits there.

What he found made him understand what humans meant when they described their stomach dropping.

His first indication that something was wrong was the level of destruction that the ships had taken. Claw marks everywhere, bent deck plating, long gouges that he had no idea what they were from. In all the ships he'd flown past to get here, none of them had anything like this done to them.

Then he spotted the stuff strewn everywhere. Clothes and canteens, bits and bobs, a couple of parts that he was sure were from guns.

Hurrying now as the sense of dread rose, he suddenly found something that made him feel sick.

Blood.

Not just a little of it either, but a great splash across the deck. It looked like something had landed there and bleed out, before pushing itself up and moving away.

In the mess he found two discarded Insti-health vials. And an ECHO.

The ECHO's case was battered, but the machine itself was still working, and a simple glance told him that it was the one he'd been tracking.

Taking as much hope as he could from the discarded vials, he held onto the ECHO and started tracking the trail of blood, only to lose it when it hit the edge of the area.

Searching around, despite the fact that he could hear the bandits getting closer, he found a fair amount of blood on one of the blades that kept the creature in, and judging by the way the blades were bent, it seemed that the creature must have slammed into them, meaning it was chasing something. Or someone.

Clinging to that slim hope, he twisted his way through the opening between the blades and continued down, scanning the ships as he went. Eventually finding another spatter of blood, and nothing else.

He kept searching until the bandits were almost upon him, but never found any sign of where Artemis had gone. Considering the amount of blood he'd found, he doubted that she'd made it away herself, even with the Insti-health vials she'd used, and since the bandits were looking for something or someone, and didn't get down there ahead of him, he didn't think that it was them who'd found her, so he sincerely hoped that whomever had found her, was at least a decent sort and had taken her with them to protect her.

Still, he wished that he had found her. Or at least knew that she was alright. If something happened to her, if she wound up dead because of this, he really didn't know if he could go back to Gaige. He loved her, but this had been a step too far. But deep down, he knew, or at least really, really hoped that Gaige would come to her senses, that the irrational anger would pass, that she would find out more about why Artemis had hidden this part of herself, and that they could reconcile.

Well, after what had been said, he didn't know if that was even an option anymore, but if they could at least get back on speaking terms, he felt that things had a chance of working out.

After all, he enjoyed the time they'd spent together, and he knew Gaige well enough to know that she felt the same way. Or at least she had.

Letting out a digital sigh, he flew his way back up, avoiding the bandits on his way. As he went, he checked on Gaige's ECHO location and to no surprise, found that it hadn't moved.

He considered what he should do for the next while. Should he go back to the Bear's Den? To the Hunter's Moon? Keep searching for Artemis? Go back and wait for Gaige to sober up? Find somewhere of his own to stay and keep his batteries topped off? Or keep exploring?

In the end he did a bit of each of the last two, taking his time charting around and figuring out where useful looking ships were in case things went wrong, while taking time to keep his power high.

Eventually he headed back to where Gaige was. He'd grown worried since her ECHO hadn't moved in days, but about the time he started back, she began moving and by the time he got back to where she'd been staying, she was no longer there.

Cursing that he'd gone too far away to make it back quickly, he nonetheless set out after her, following along her trail till things went bad.

Her trail suddenly turned a different direction, which was normal enough if she'd found something interesting, but when he got there and found scorch marks and signs of a fight, he sped up, trying to catch up to her before whomever she'd tangled with did.

It didn't take long for the bandit camp to come into sensor range and him to realize that he'd been too late, she'd been captured.

He flew up and around, trying to find her in the place, while getting himself acquainted with its layout. It was all that he could do at the moment, since an all-out assault on the place would no doubt result in him being totaled, there were just too many bandits around. Maybe if he could distract some of them, or get them to leave he might have a chance to find Gaige and get out, but unless something happened, he would have to wait and observe.

So he continued to float near one of the ships above the camp, keeping his energy levels topped off and all the supplies that he'd gathered at the ready for the moment when he decided to take action.

It took more than half a day before any real change could be seen in the camp, but when it did, the activity level went crazy.

It started with a number of them filing into the large area built between the ships and before he knew it, a few hundred bandits and psychos were filling the stands. He couldn't help but getting a bad feeling about this, so he prepped himself for combat while waiting to see what would happen.

Soon a crane on the deck of one of the ships started moving, slowly picking up boxes out of one of the ships and depositing them into the spaces around the central area. Once the second one was set in place, the crane went back to its original position and someone walked out onto a platform and started speaking.

While his audio sensors weren't as sharp as Artemis's ears, they were still sensitive enough to pick up what was being said, and that was enough to fill him with a sense of unease.

He was sure that Gaige was in one of the cages that had been moved, and knowing her, he knew she'd fight, and while he didn't have much doubt that she'd win, he couldn't help but worry for her, even with the way they'd left things between them.

At some signal, he saw the cage doors open and he prepped himself to dive if something went wrong. It didn't take long for him to see that he had been right when he spotted the familiar red ponytails Gaige wore, but to his surprise, her opponent didn't emerge, not until everyone in the crowd was getting restless and Deathtrap was starting to wonder if they were playing the crowd, but then they emerged and he nearly fell out of the sky in surprise.

It was Artemis, he'd recognize that purple hair anywhere, but even from this distance, he could tell that something was wrong with her, it seemed that she hadn't recovered from her injuries, and in fact, they might be worse then he'd figured considering the way she limped before slumping to the ground.

To his surprise, Gaige ran to the other girl and crouched down next to her, giving him hope that she'd come to her senses. He was also grateful since it made grabbing them easier. He dug out the few Insti-Health vials that he'd been able to find while scrounging around and carefully held them in one hand while starting to dive.

He heard the announcer declaring that he would drop the bottom out of the arena and Deathtrap wished he'd placed himself underneath the ships. He could've just caught them as they fell instead of having to fight his way through, but there was no way he could get around the ships in time, so he did what he had to and aimed for the arena's ceiling.

Even as he plummeted and charged his deathlaser, his main concern was to not catch the girls in the blast, but he knew that he needed to hurry and get them out, so he had to time this just right, though how they were going to get out afterwards, he didn't know, especially since there were some pretty severe complications, Artemis's health obviously, but in addition to that was the fact that it didn't appear that they were armed, and he hadn't thought to grab any weapons on his trip, which in retrospect was a bit foolish since he'd found most of Artemis's stuff scattered about, but then again, he hadn't really expected to find her right away either.

Putting that aside, he fired, carefully calculating the exact placement of his shot to get the effect that he desired.

The red blast hit the cage and a second later, it exploded, throwing shrapnel into the crowd, killing a number of the bandits gathered there and injuring more. Not that he cared, he kept falling, even as the crowd's screams ramped up.

Without missing a beat, he dove through the opening he'd made and pulled up just before he would've hit the floor.

Darting over to where Gaige was looking at him with teary eyes, he kept things moving by ignoring her "Babe! You came back for us!" And thrust his hand out, depositing the vials in her hand even as he scythed his caustic laser around the crowd.

Gaige seemed to take the hint and stabbed both of the vials into Artemis's neck, injecting as much of the healing elixir as she could in one go. Almost instantaneously, the other girl's face gained some color back, even as she protested weakly.

Gaige just ignored her and pulled her to her feet while looking around and asking "So how're we getting outa here?"

Deathtrap took a moment to look at her, even as he fired another swath of caustic energy across the stands, and pointed at the opening that he'd made.

"Right. We're gonna need a hand." Gaige said with a nod, even as she tugged Artemis along.

Deathtrap didn't even bother trying to sigh, instead grabbed a girl in each arm and flew out the opening. Just as he cleared the bars, he spotted the obvious boss getting back to her feet and pulling a familiar gun.

"Thas mine." He heard Artemis wheeze out, looking at her backup piece in the hands of the psycho. Deathtrap on the other hand knew that he couldn't close the distance between them before she could pull the trigger, especially not with the two girls weighing him down, and he really knew that he didn't want to be on the receiving end of that thing, so he did the only thing that he could and dove behind the nearest piece of cover.

The instant he did, he heard the shriek of anger from the boss at losing her target and couldn't help but feel a little better about things.

He wanted to take off straight up, but knew that he would be inviting them to get shot by everyone, including the boss, so that was out and now that things had taken a second, more and more of the bandits were starting to get it together and were looking for them, so he set Gaige down with a little less care than usual and punched a bandit as they rounded the corner.

Gaige seemed like she was about to say something, but held back, instead grabbing the dead guy's gun and giving it a quick once over before bringing it up and asking him "Right, which way?"

Deathtrap quickly nodded in the best direction and as soon as Gaige started moving, fell in right behind her, still carrying Artemis.

That worried him, usually she would've made some complaint about it by now, telling him that she could walk on her own, but she was being unusually quiet, so he spared her a glance only to find that she was burning up. Her face was pale and covered in greasy looking sweat. In fact, she looked a bit green, and not just from the light.

Noticing that he was looking at her she weakly said "Drop me and go, I'll jus slow you down."

He shot her a glare and shook his head, while firing off another laser at an oncoming psycho.

"Can you shoot?" Gaige suddenly asked, popping back around the corner and not waiting for the other girl to reply shoved a DAHL assault rifle into her hands.

Artemis looked at it and sighed, but still brought it up and put two rounds into the next bandit that popped their head up.

Deathtrap was worried, she was firing left-handed, and judging by the way she was curling, it seemed that the slightest jiggle caused her nearly unbearable pain. Still, she fought on, even though on more than one occasion she nearly threw up immediately after firing.

They continued to move rapidly out from the arena until suddenly Artemis gasped out "Wait."

Gaige was a ways ahead, covering the next corner, but Deathtrap slowed and looked down. The girl motioned limply to the nearby cage where a dirty older man was crumpled up on the floor.

"Break the lock." She said, so Deathtrap shrugged and did as she asked.

Artemis put one hand out and gripped the bars of the door and as loud as she could whispered to the bloody man "As soon as it's clear, get outta here."

Deathtrap saw the man's head bob slightly and heard the whispered "Thanks" before they took off, leaving him behind. He wondered who the old man had been, but it didn't seem the moment to ask, so he let it drop for the time being.

As they rounded the corner and caught up to Gaige, Artemis spotted an irate bandit jumping from one shack to the next and whipped her rifle up, firing at her only to miss and wince as she doubled up in agony, but still managed to get the bandit to dive off the roof for cover.

Gaige fell back as soon as she saw how bad Artemis was. Rushing over she took one look at her and nearly shouted "What's wrong with her, I gave her both Insti-health vials, so why isn't she getting better?"

Deathtrap looked down at the girl he was carrying and spotted for the first time the nasty looking blackish bruise that she was clinging to and realized what was wrong, the Insti-health vials would only work on closing wounds and repairing damage, not on grievous injuries like punctured lungs or ruptured organs, which was undoubtedly what Artemis was suffering from, not necessarily one of those two, but something just as severe, which meant that she needed serious medical attention, now.

He told Gaige this as she slapped a shield on the other girl and snatched the rifle from her hands, the look on her face grave.

"You need this more than I do right now." She said while firing the shield up and then put a pistol in Artemis's left hand "You can still use your off hand, right? You should be able to fire without the recoil hitting you too bad. Stay with us, alright? We're getting you outta here."

With that she turned and ran up the nearest ramp and shot three more bandits while motioning with her head for Deathtrap to get going, and the second he cleared the outer wall of the bandit camp, she jumped after.

Even as they cleared the wall, they could hear the shrieking rage coming from behind them as the entire camp was roused and chasing after, with nothing else to do, they ran, and soon enough, Deathtrap noted the first psychos landing on the ship behind them and chasing after.

Artemis did her best, lining up shots using his shoulder as a brace and was slowly picking their pursuers off, she even managed to hit two of them as they were jumping between ships and while neither of the shots were fatal, they did cause the psychos to lose enough momentum that they missed the next ship.

Just as Deathtrap was impressed by her aim, he felt the girl go limp and heard a clattering as her pistol fell out of her hand. Glancing down in concern, he found that Artemis had passed out, which considering how bad she looked, might have been a blessing for her.

Her eyes were sunken, with dark bruise-like shadows under them, her cheeks were similarly sunken and gaunt. Her skin was covered in oily sweat and she seemed to be both freezing and burning up at the same time and she was making rapid thin wheezing breaths.

He called out to Gaige in concern, and she came rushing back. One look at the girl in his arms caused her to go pale and declare "We need to get her to a med-bay, and an advanced one at that. I mean, first we have to ditch these guys, then find a ship...I got an idea, but I'm gonna need your help." Deathtrap nodded and followed along as she kept muttering to herself "Up, need a way up."

Realizing what she was after he took charge and led her to a launch point.

As soon as she saw it, Gaige smiled a little and said "Can you fly her up?" As soon as he nodded, she continued "Right, so as soon as I land on the upper level, I need you to take this pad out, and then fly her up. Can you do it?" He nodded and she took off running, placing her full faith in him.

As soon as she stepped onto the pad, it launched her straight up. The moment she landed he fired a beam into the pad, and watched for a second as it crackled and overloaded, before it popped and hissed. As the light in it went out, he took off flying straight up, even as shots started to wiz around him from the chasing bandits.

They must have fully expected to be able to chase them up, because they ran all the way to the pad before they realized it was out, and once they did, a number of them started arguing loudly about who was to blame, while the rest started running for the nearest ways up, which he knew where some distance away, buying them a little breather.

"Right." Gaige said looking at them "You seem to know this area a bit better than me, do you have any idea where there might be a ship with an advanced med-bay?"

Deathtrap had already been running through all the options that he'd seen while scouting around and quickly settled on one.

"Urgurr" He told her motioning with his head.

Gaige followed his indication, but probably couldn't see it from where they were, but she didn't question him on that, instead asking "Can you carry us both? If not, get her there quick and I'll manage."

He shook his head to that idea, his power levels were still fairly good, they'd run more than fought, so he could carry them all, plus it wasn't like they had a lot of gear or weighed much. And he needed Gaige along to get the door open once they got there, so leaving her behind wasn't an option.

He easily scooped her up and as soon as she was partially settled, he took off as fast as he could, flying straight up and dodging between the ships till he made it to the top level. From there he motioned to Gaige which ship he had in mind and as soon as she saw it, she nodded, indicating that he was right, so he flew over to it, depositing her next to the door.

She quickly began examining it and reached for her belt, only to freeze up. "Uh, babe?" She said without turning "You wouldn't happen to have any tools on you by some miracle, would you?"

He reached over and pulled the control panel off the wall, exposing the wires for her.

"Thanks, gonna be a might hard to hide that we're in here like this, but we'll worry about that when they get here." She said even as she had already got to work "Damn it, work. Why won't you open. Stupid thing."

Realizing that her hands were shaking, Deathtrap reached out and patted her shoulder, and as gently as he could told her "Urrrgrr"

"I know, it's just...well...you know. I'm scared." But even as she was saying that, her hands steadied and in a few more seconds the door slid open. Gaige wasted no time rushing through with her gun up, scanning the area and finding it clear, motioned for them to follow her in. As soon as they were through the door, she had it closed and locked.

It didn't take long to find the med-bay, and just as they were hoping, it was super advanced.

Deathtrap quickly slid the unconscious girl into one of the open machines as Gaige powered it up. A few button presses later it sprung to life, starting to scan it's patient.

It got to work immediately, even as the scan continued, all kinds of medical terms scrolling past the screen and small robotic arms sprung forth to start treating her. Gaige looked away in embarrassment when they started cutting the girls clothes off.

They stayed nearby, in case the system needed them to input something or make a call, but other than that it was entirely automated, meaning they didn't have anything to do but wait.

Gaige wanted to pace, but this wasn't the place for it, so she dropped into a chair and waited.

After a few minutes of listening to the whirring and the sudden hiss of an electro-scalpel slicing, accompanied by the stinging smell of singed flesh, Gaige spoke softly, not lifting her head. "I screwed up...really, really bad."

Deathtrap didn't respond. If she was waiting for him to counter her, she'd be waiting for a long time, but the way she'd said it made him think that it wasn't a question.

Eventually she continued "Do you think there's any chance of, well, I know we can't go back to the way things were, but maybe finding a way to move forward?"

Deathtrap looked at her, waiting for him to give her hope, to tell her of a way to make everything right again. Instead, he was honest and just shrugged.