Chapter 27
Garden of Minos
Consciousness came back slowly for Jinx, the first thing she was aware of was the awful, familiar smell of hospital. She hated that smell, the way it clung to you, the way there seemed to be death and decay and ionization and some strange meaty food-like smell barely detectable beneath that overpowering disinfectant smell. She never wanted to smell it again, and here she was, smelling it again. Though at least this time it wasn't so bad, it smelled old and a bit dusty, but without dust being in the air.
She tried to open her eyes, to see where she was and why she couldn't remember anything. In fact, that was the worst part, she had no idea where she was.
Searching her memories, bits and pieces floated together, her being at Mentes's place, Gaige breaking her spirit and her heart.
Gaige. There was something else there. Some other fragment, but it was like something out of a dream the night before, she knew it was there, but the more she tried to grab onto it, the less she knew if it was real. There'd been metal. She knew that, though she couldn't see it clearly. And the feeling of being watched, like she knew there was a crowd there, even if she couldn't remember seeing it.
Giving up on trying to piece the fever-dream like fragments together, she tried once more to open her eyes, figuring that if she saw where she was, things might come back faster. They cracked open, but everything she could make out through the slits of her barely open eyes was blurry, so she tried to rub the sleep out of them, only to find that she couldn't move.
Panicking as she suddenly remembered the bandits, she'd been captured by bandits and now she was bound to a table or something with no idea what kind of horrible things they were about to do to her, so she started struggling against her bonds, but a soft hand gently pressed against her and a familiar voice spoke up.
"Easy, you're safe now. Just relax."
"Why?" She managed to croak out before she swallowed roughly, noting the lack of saliva in her mouth, still she tried again "Why are...you here? Where's...here? Why'm I tied down? And can I get some water?"
"Well, it's not water, but, um, the machine told me to give you this. It's supposed to have, um, electrolytes and sugars and salt and other stuff to help you, uh, recover."
Jinx didn't say anything, she just cracked her eyes open again and took the blurry straw in her mouth and took a sip. She wouldn't admit it, but she was glad that Gaige had warned her that it wasn't water, especially since the liquid was slightly slimy feeling in her mouth. But she drank it down gratefully and after a few seconds, she started to feel better.
This time when she opened her eyes, things were clearer. She could make out the strange room that she was in, as well as the other girls face. Unable to look Gaige in the eye, she looked around the room and behind Gaige, she could see Deathtrap floating in the corner, keeping an eye on them. The rest of the room was dominated by cabinets, many of which had glass fronts and contained an array of medical looking stuff, from vials to tools. On the floor she could make out what looked like a combination movie sleep pod and operating table and looking down, she realized that was what she was being held in.
"Uh, why're you here?" She asked again, and then followed it up with "Where is here anyway? And why am I strapped down?...AND WHY AM I NAKED!?"
"You're wearing a sheet." Gaige said, studiously looking away.
"That's barely any better!"
"Well, the machine had to get at you and before we knew it, it had, well, started to, er, cut your, um, clothes off, so, uh, I would've found you some, you know, new ones, but I, ah, didn't want to...leave you alone."
Jinx didn't know how to respond to that, so she just moved on and asked "But why are you here? I thought you found me disgusting and never wanted to see me again?"
"Oh boy, we're gettin right into it." Gaige muttered to herself, then louder added "Look, I, uh, we, uh, that is to say..." She trailed off, trying to get her thoughts in order. She looked around as if to find help, but was only met with stony silence from Deathtrap. Sighing, she continued in a soft voice "We need to talk."
"We already did." There was an emotionless detachment to her voice that caused Gaige to shrink back.
"No, I mean, we did, but I, well, why is this so hard? Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I said. I was wrong, I didn't mean it."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't."
"You did though, when you said it, you meant it."
"I was an idiot. I didn't know. Look, I'm sorry, I wasn't..." She stopped and slumped down "I finally understand something. When Gabe tried to apologize to me, back on Eden, I finally understand. There are things that you realize only after you've done them, sometimes minutes, sometimes years, but you realize what you've done is unforgivable, that there's nothing you can do to make things right, but you still have to try to apologize for them, even if you know that you can't be forgiven. You need to make things right, and the only way to do that is to face the person that you've wronged, and tell them you're sorry, even if they have no reason to believe you. You can't move on, can't move forward until you do. You're right. I meant it when I said it. I can make all the excuses for why I did it, but that won't change what I said."
"So try."
"What?"
"Try making them, try explaining yourself, try apologizing."
Gaige looked up, for a second hope flashed in her eyes, but it quickly died in the face of the blank expression on Jinx's face. Still, she nodded.
"I was...tired. Irritated for some reason. I mean, I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in days. I was too worried about what might happen while you were away and I had no one to watch my back, and then I was doing all that repair work, which I usually like, but this was heavy lifting and tiring and nothing was working quite right, and like I said, I was irritated by something that I can't even remember. No wait, it was a lot of things. Little things here and there. Like you not telling me what was bothering you, not that I'm trying to blame you for this, it's all my fault, but I was still ticked off that you wouldn't talk to me about it and that everyone else seemed to know and that I was the only one that didn't and it was like everyone was smarter than me and I couldn't take it. And then there was this place, the endless green light and no nights and that we were stuck here. Again, my fault. Oh, and there was the fact that I'd forgot your birthday. And there was the story that my dad told me about me liking Marcie when I first met her, though in retrospect, I guess he was trying to give me a hint. And there was the fact that you kept calling yourself a monster no matter how many times I told you not to, but wouldn't tell me why. And the fact that I kept screwing things up, like getting us stuck here and getting you injured all the time. That you always seemed to take the brunt of whatever went wrong. So there was all that, and then I find out what was wrong, and it turned out to be nothing.
"Well, nothing to me. I know that it was major to you, but in that moment, I couldn't figure out why, why wouldn't you tell me something so simple about yourself? You knew that I hung out with plenty of gay people, hell you met Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright, so that couldn't be it, and then my mind went outta control, trying to figure out why you wouldn't say anything about it to me, and I guess that all that irritation and tiredness just went down the darkest path it could, and as I was yelling at you, you just seemed to be taking it, like you weren't fighting back or correcting me, which just pissed me off more and I kept getting madder and madder till I didn't even know what I was saying anymore and my mouth got ahead of my brain and then I said things that I couldn't take back and that were completely unforgivable, and you didn't argue with them, you just accepted it, acted like I'd found you out and I know now why you didn't say anything, why you didn't want me to know, but in that moment, I didn't. I wish you'd said something before, even told me where you were from, but that's not right either. I should've asked. Should've shown more interest in your past, got you talking about it. And even now I don't know why it never occurred to me, I mean when I asked you all those questions when we met, the answers you gave should've tipped me off, and like I just said, it wasn't like I didn't know any gay people, so why didn't I think that you were? And the only thing I could think of was that I didn't want to. For whatever reason, I didn't want to consider that, and whatever the reason was, it kept blocking me from thinking about it.
"Looking back at it, it was kinda obvious. And now that I know a bit more about where you're from and the messed up thinking there, I get it, and I wish that I could undo all the things I said, the spiteful, hateful, things. But I can't. The only thing I can do is to try and make things right, in whatever way I can. It's just that, well, I...don't know if I can be what you want me to be."
"A friend?"
"What?"
"That's all I ever wanted from you. It was more than I could hope for."
"I thought you weren't gonna lie to me."
"It's not a lie. You being my friend was more than I deserved."
"First, no it's not. You deserve so much more, you deserve a much better friend than me. And second, you can't expect me to believe that you didn't want more."
"First, why is it that you think that just cause I like...what I like, that I'd want that from you? How vain do you have to be to think that everyone automatically wants you? And second, even if, and only an if, but if that was true, it wouldn't matter since you're not like me."
"You're...right, it was wrong of me to assume that. I just thought...you're right, never mind." Gaige berated herself "But you're also assuming things about me aren't you? What makes you so sure that I don't play both sides?"
"You've never shown the slightest interest in other girls."
"And you based it on just that? Maybe I'm more picky, or I had a bad experience with a girl, or even that I'm willing to try with the right girl?"
"And is that the case?" She asked, again reverting to the same flat tone.
"Maybe, or maybe I've never really thought about it. Look, my point is that I don't know if I can be that for you, or if you even want me to. If you want though, I'll try."
"You think I want that?" There was a hint of anger in her voice, which was much better than the blank tone she'd been using, though it did make Gaige flinch a little. "You think I want you to try and be with me because you feel that you owe me? What's that say about how you think of me? Would you want to be with someone if they'd resent you for it? That they'd feel like you forced them into something that they didn't want?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Isn't it? Weren't you the one that warned me against making you feel trapped? Or resentful? And now aren't you putting yourself in the position to feel that?"
"No you...you're right, it's just that, well, I don't know what to do to make things right. If you want, I can just leave. I'll leave you the gun since you'll need it more than me, and I'll get outta here, figure out how to shut this all down and then I'll, I donno, claim one of these ships as salvage or something, but I'll find my way. Or if that isn't what you want, I could stick with you for a while, like just until we get this all settled and then take one of the ships. Or if you'd rather, I could move to the cargo hold until you want me gone. It's your call."
"And what do you want."
"Huh?"
"What do you want? It's a pretty clear question, but, what do you want to do? If you got to pick?"
"I'd...I'd want to stick with you, I've come to realize that I'm no good on my own. And that even though I'm not good with you, I'm so much worse by myself."
"And why should I let you stick with me?"
"Um..."
"Not very convincing."
"I can't really think of anything. Or rather the only things I can think of are selfish. Like how you were the only one that told me what I was doing wrong, the drinking, the cutting the stuff I liked out of my life and all that. And how I've liked myself better when you're around, well, at least until now.
"But that's all how you make me better, that's not a reason for you to let me stick around is it? So, what can I say? I'll try and be better? Just hollow words. That I'll do whatever you want? That just seemed to disgust you. So what can I offer you that would convince you to let me stay? I have no idea, I truly don't.
"But I will tell you that I regret everything I said. No, that's not it, I mean, I do, but what I really want to say is that I screwed up. I destroyed the only good thing to come into my life in years. The only thing that made me a better person, that gave me hope when I was down. And I burned that bridge. I know that there's no going back, not even a good way forward. How can I convince you to take me back, how can I ask you to be around me when I can't even stand to be with myself? You wanna know what I did the instant you walked away? I crawled back into a bottle and drown myself for three whole days. Three days, while you were out there nearly dying, I was getting plastered, that's what kind of waste of life I am. You asked earlier what I wanted? I want to go back to how things were, before we went to Eden 5 and everything started going wrong. I want to go back to having someone that I trusted with my back no matter what. Someone that I could laugh with, cry with, watch crappy movies with, even if they don't really like them. I want my friend back. And I know that I can't have that, and that it's my fault and that I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. So why should you take me back? I can't think of a single good reason."
Jinx sat in silence as Gaige wound down. After an excruciatingly long pause she spoke softly, but without any discernible emotion. "It's hard isn't it, knowing that you're the monster. That no matter what anyone else tells you, you're irredeemable. You know that others will try and convince you to not think of yourself like that, but they don't really understand, you're tainted inside, and there's no way of cleaning that away. That no matter what they tell you, that sin will always be with you.
"You want me to take you back, but how can I? How can I when I know that you thought of me that way, even for a moment? What kind of masochist would I be to consider that? You broke me in a way that I don't know if it can ever be fixed. How can I trust anyone again? I finally let you know the real me, even if it was by accident and you tore it apart. And the worst part is, I want you back. I yearn for it with an intense illogic that I can't even figure out. I know that you're serious about feeling bad, but I can't help but think that the next time things go sour between us, that this side of you will rear its ugly head again. You said that you want to go back to how things were before? So do I, more than anything, but I can't. So I just don't know."
Gaige spoke up softly "If we can't go back, is there any chance of starting over?"
"And what guarantees would I have that things wouldn't go right back to this?"
"None. But know that I know that if I ever do this again, it will well and truly be over, that I know that there will be no other chance at this, so I'll do everything I can to not screw it up."
Jinx sighed and laid back, eyes closed and whispered too quietly for Gaige to hear "I'm such an idiot."
After a while she opened her eyes and said "Look, all I can do is offer you the chance to stick with me for a while. Just until we deal with a few things around here and then we'll see, based on how that goes." Seeing the other girls' eyes light up she continued somberly "Don't be too eager, that'll put me off. And don't be formal either. Just act like you used to."
"Thank you thank you thank you." Gaige looked about ready to kiss her but stopped herself "I promise that I'll do everything I can to make things right."
"Eager." Came the warning.
"Sorry. And I swear that I'll think about it. I mean what I want with you, I mean, where I want us to go from here and all that."
"Look, I'm only doing this cause I'm an idiot. And knowing what I know now, I don't think I...well either of us actually, can do this alone."
"Wait, what?"
"What what?"
"What'd you learn? And from where? And what're we talking about?"
"Wait, how do you think I got these injuries? And for that matter, what was all wrong with me? And why does my side feel...weird, wrong, something, I donno? Different?"
"Uh, I have no idea how you got beat up so bad, I mean, the bed said that you had layers of injuries, like from multiple incidents or something, but I just figured that you'd tangled with those bandits or something and they beat you up."
"Ugh." Jinx groaned, realizing that she'd have to tell her story and the sudden remembrance of her failure brought her down. "Let's just say, you weren't the only one to mess up. But before I get into that, what exactly did this thing do to me?"
"Um, you were really bad off when Deathtrap got you in here. Oh, he rescued us from that bandit camp, don't know if you remember. Anyways, he figured that this ship would have the best med-bay around so he brought you here and got you in the bed. So it does its thing and scans you and it says, what was it?"
"Urgurrraggr"
"Yeah, that, plus septa-something-or-other."
"Urgurr"
"That, and it has to cut you open, and I saw way more of you then I wanted to, I mean your insides, like internal organs and stuff cause I needed to help it, and it seemed that at some point you got hurt and your rib got broken and then you must've used a Insti-health or something cause it was mostly forced back together, but some fragments were too far away and didn't get reattached and the bones didn't line up properly or something. And then something hit you in the side again and re-shattered your ribs and those fragments tore your guts up bad and you were leaking on the inside. So, it had to cut you open and fix it. The ribs were too far gone to be saved so they had to be removed. Oh, and in addition to that, you had, let's see, three cracked ribs, additional ones I mean, dehydration, bruising to some internal organs and a miss-set leg that had to be re-broken and reset. All in all, you're lucky to still be alive."
"Don't I feel it."
"So what happened to you to get you in that state?"
Jinx sighed and looked away before starting "After our...you know, I was in a, well let's call it a daze, and I went walking, and I find myself at the wall, so I figured, this is my business, I should take care of it myself. And that you wouldn't want to have any part of it, so I went to confront the creature."
"You what!?"
"In my defense, I wasn't exactly in my right mind and you don't get to complain, but anyway, I go in and start looking for the Ranger's Iron, but I'm just kinda on auto-pilot, not thinking at all, just completely blank. No, that's not quite right, but enough of that, so anyway, I was in a daze and I'm just moving forward into this place without my guard up and I think nothing of it, until I get to this ship and there's these, I donno how to describe them other than naked people sitting there, and you'd think that'd be odd, but it just felt natural, like I was going there to meet them or something, and everything seems dark, like it's night or something, and I didn't notice it or think it was odd. But anyway, these naked people are beckoning to me, like they want me to join them or something, and I want to, but something's wrong, like deep down, I can feel it and well, uh, my instincts take over and ..."
"Wait, you just skipped something."
"Wha?"
"Urgur"
"Yes, fine, part of it was the guys were calling to me and I felt nothing for them, but there were women too, so that's not the point, the point is that my instincts took over and I shot one of them."
"You shot a naked guy? Was he ugly or something?"
"What? No, he was, well, each one was, um, perfect for people who like that sort of thing, alright. So, if I can continue, I shot the naked guy, only when I did, the music stops."
"What music?"
"That's just it, until it stopped, I didn't even realize it was there. Like it was just part of how the scene should be or something. But as soon as it stopped, it was like coming out of a dream, or a fog,"
"Or off a drug?"
"Probably. But can you stop interrupting?"
"Sorry."
"So, like I was saying, everything suddenly starts becoming clear again, like the fog over my mind's rolling back and suddenly I see that it's not night, that there's something wrong with these people, like they aren't as beautiful as they looked."
"Like beer goggles. Sorry, last time."
"Whatever, where was I?"
"Urgr"
"Thanks."
"Wait, he gets to interrupt but I can't?"
"He didn't screw up, did he?"
"No, sorry."
"Plus, he wasn't interrupting. Anyway, like I was saying, these people suddenly look a lot less attractive, and that's before they turn inside out and I realize that they're the heads of a Luring Orochi."
"An Alluring Orochi? What's that?"
"No, a Luring Orochi."
"That's what I said, an Alluring Orochi."
"Not alluring A, space, Luring."
"Oh, got it. But what is it that I got?"
Jinx tried to bury her head in her hands only to find that she still couldn't move them and let out a groan of frustration, both at the situation and the conversation.
Gaige wisely kept her mouth shut this time, and after a few moments the other girl started back up again.
"Before I continue, can I get let loose from this thing? Or are you gonna keep me tied down so that I'm forced to have this conversation?"
Gaige looked away guiltily but got to work on the straps as Jinx continued. "A Luring Orochi, also known as a Singing Orochi, the Temptress of Death, a Incubus or Succubus Orochi among other names. It's often mistaken for a member of the Hydra family, but is considerably different, namely in the fact that Hydras regenerate and the shape of their heads are quite a bit different, but that's beside the point.
"The Luring Orochi was the thing of myth, a hunter's legend. The kind of thing that they told around the campfire to scare the younger hunters' type of thing, not that I'd know about those, never got invited. Anyway, the Luring Orochi is a mythical variant on the Orochi. Legends tell of its ability to 'sing' it's victims to their deaths, though the exact details vary from telling to telling, but what they all agree on is that if you hear its song, you're already dead."
"Wait, if that's the case, then who told the stories?"
"That's exactly why I never believed in them. I mean, past the obvious problem with the story, there was the fact that no one had killed one, or even could tell what they looked like, but I can tell you that it's real, and that it's song is deadly.
"Having seen it, I believe that it uses sound-waves or subsonic tones to basically hypnotize its prey, drawing them in close while it hides its body out of sight, which is what this one did. The instant I shot it, the entire ship seemed to be torn apart as the Orochi's body emerged, but when it did, the 'singing' stopped allowing me the chance to flee. Unfortunately, it chased me, and after being forced to sacrifice my pack in an attempt to get away, I wound up getting nicked by one of its bites. Oh, and it smashed my rifle, still upset about that, and hit me with its dead head, which hurt. But I managed to get away from it, though I passed out just after getting past the wall, so I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but I woke up in Mentes's house."
"Who?"
"Mentes."
"Urgurr"
"Yeah, I think I remember that, it's a bit fuzzy, but I think he was in that cage in the bandit camp. Anyway, it seemed that he found me and took me home. Even tried nursing me back to health, but now that you mentioned it, I was having a lot of lingering pain in my side, but I just thought that it was my body healing.
"So a little while passed, have no idea how long since I wasn't conscious for most of it, but the bandits must've followed him or something, cause they attacked. Well, I wasn't in any fit state to fight them, though I tried. Got kicked in the side for my trouble and that's when it really got bad. Anyway, the next thing I knew I woke up in a cage not feeling well. Actually, that's a lie, I was barely conscious for most of that time because of the pain, and after that, I don't really remember much from there to now."
"Wow, you had it rough."
"Rough? I completely messed up. What kind of hunter am I that lets my prey walk all over me like that?"
"Sorry."
"Stop apologizing. I went into that fight fully aware that I shouldn't, but I didn't care, so that's on me. But I guess it worked out in the end cause I now know how to beat this thing."
"The Orochi thing?"
"Well that too, but I was meaning this place in general and whatever's at the bottom of it all."
"Wait, you know what's going on here?"
"More or less. It was something that Mentes said in passing while trying to convince me that we couldn't get out. He talked about how the clouds down there reflected the energy weapon that the settlement in the debris field was using, but I don't think he got it right, especially when he talked about another group that went down, all the way down and tried to assault whatever's down there. He talked about an explosion clearing the clouds for a brief moment, but if they absorbed or reflected the energy of the energy weapon then how'd that work? I think it wasn't the clouds that reflected the shot, but something underneath that did. That and he talked about seeing strange creatures while the clouds were clear, creatures that looked thin, hunched over, faceless and were firing strange smooth rifles that shot blue energy. Sound familiar?"
"Eridians?"
"That's what I think, and if it's Eridians, then it makes a lot more sense. It also means that we have a chance of shutting this field off."
Gaige sat back and thought about it, but the more she worked it over, the worse she felt. Hanging her head, she muttered "And while you were risking your life to find that out, I was drinking myself into a stupor."
Jinx didn't respond so Gaige kept going "It's just that I was so thirsty. Not the kind of thirst that you've ever encountered, but a burning one, one that no amount of water could quench. I'd tried to ignore it, to tell myself that the drinking wasn't doing anyone any good and that I didn't want to disappoint you, so I tried to stop, to hold off. And then you weren't there anymore and I couldn't think of any reason why I'd denied myself what I so desperately wanted for so long, and then I found the bar and I didn't care anymore, I just wanted a drink. And the next thing I knew, it was days later, and I really can't handle being on my own I guess."
Suddenly her head shot up and she nearly shouted "Wait a minute! My drinks!"
"Huh, wha?" Jinx said, nearly falling sideways.
"Aw man, I'd found this really rare bottle on that ship I was on and it was in my pack when I was captured." Catching the disappointed look from the other girl she quickly added "I wasn't gonna drink it, I mean, sure I wanted to taste it, but in this case, if I sold it on the open market I could've paid you back at least half of what I owe you, if not more."
"How big was this damn bottle anyway?"
"Bout this big."
"Seriously? Someone would pay that much for one bottle of booze?"
"Yeah, and it's now in that bandit camp. Arg, those bastards wouldn't know how much that bottle's worth and are probably just chugging it down without any sort of appreciation. The thought of that just makes me sick. I wish I could just go in there and get it back."
"You want to? They still have my guns in there and I'd like them back."
"Yeah, no. Appreciate the thought, but they've probably already drunk it. And we can't exactly waltz in there, I mean, we've got like one gun and only a few rounds for it."
"So, we need more guns."
"Yeah."
"That's not all we need."
"Your right, we need food and water, not to mention something to carry them in. Plus we need some way to communicate with each other, too bad we lost our ECHO's."
"Urrgu"
"You found what?" Jinx said in surprise "What were you even doing there?"
"Urgurrgu" Deathtrap said, a bit embarrassed while handing the ECHO back to its owner.
"Well, thanks for trying." She said, looking the device over.
"Alright, so we've got one, which should still have a map and other things. Would be nice if we had a second, but we'll make do with what we've got. What else did we need? Oh yeah, tools. Definitely need to get some tools, and something to use in melee, though that might count more as a weapon. Hmm, can you think of anything else we need?"
"Yeah," She said sitting there holding the sheet against herself "can I get some clothes?"