Chapter Fifteen: The Darkest Night
After the date had gone completely wrong, Timmy had departed from Tecna's suite with great resistance. He wanted desperately to hold her in his arms forever, to continue to keep the promises of their song. Unfortunately, he couldn't, but he would do anything else to keep Tecna safe. As he walked back to the workers' sleeping quarters, he was met with Brandon and Helia.
"Musa told us everything. What happened, buddy?" Brandon asked, and Timmy was trying so hard not to break. The brunette would have heckled his ginger-haired friend about chickening out of his chance to show Tecna all that he had learned, but the expression on Timmy's face said that it was something far worse. Despite Musa's heightened hearing, she had dismissed herself after Timmy gave her the signal to stop the music. So, she only told Brandon and Helia what she could gather from Timmy's gestures and expressions, which wasn't much. In a few seconds, Timmy got the strength to look his friends in the eyes, sighing deeply.
"Mrs. Faragonda thinks I've become too possessive of Tecna. She doesn't want me to spend as much time with her anymore." He finally said. His explanation was quite vague, as he only had the emotional strength to get out so much.
"There's a lot more to this, isn't there Timmy?" Helia pressed, and that told Timmy that he had to elaborate further.
"Mrs. Faragonda also said that if nobody comes to take Tecna back to Zenith, she will put her in Alfea's relocation program." Timmy continued, "Don't get me wrong, it would be a great opportunity for Tecna if it weren't for the fact that the threat to her safety is still out there. With no means of defence and no way of warning, she could be taken back into those life-threatening conditions while she's all alone and I… I just can't stand by and allow that to happen. But that's exactly what I'm being forced to do. I don't want to see Tecna paralyzed by these fears, but right now I'm the only one she trusts more than even herself." Before Timmy could say anything more, Helia stopped him.
"Take a deep breath, Timmy, we understand." He assured him, "It's not possessiveness, you don't want to keep Tecna from achieving independence. You know wholeheartedly that she won't feel that independence if her fears are keeping her from it. And you just feel that you are the only one she knows can help her to reach that goal."
"Exactly." Timmy breathed, "I… thank you." Finally, someone who would listen to his own fears and acknowledge that they did, in fact, align with Tecna's. Without thinking, Timmy gave Helia a brotherly hug as Brandon patted him on the shoulder.
"We're here for you, man." Brandon told Timmy.
Timmy had a feeling that Mrs. Faragonda suspected that his feelings had gotten in the way of him doing his job. It seemed to be okay for Brandon and Stella, so what made Timmy any different? Brandon was encouraging Stella to plan out reclaiming of her place as crowned Princess of Solaria. Stella had love and joy in her life. It just so happened that something disrupted all of that and put her in a terrible predicament. Timmy was even betting that she and Brandon would actually get married once all was said and done. Similarly, Timmy wanted Tecna to have a life of fulfillment and purpose, but unlike Stella, her life was a complete unknown to anyone up until the news of her sacrifice. Tecna didn't have loving parents to go back to, and no one but Timmy knew that.
He had said to Brandon and Helia that he thought Mrs. Faragonda was trying to break his attachment because he was being too overprotective. Possessive, even. Considering the very idea that Timmy could become possessive of Tecna the same way that Mr. Err had, it made him grit his teeth in seething anger. Tecna wanted to give herself to him because she felt safe, and paradoxically free. Her heart belonged to him, but she felt freer with that knowledge. At least, that's what she had told him.
Nevertheless, Timmy didn't care if Mrs. Faragonda believed he had gotten too attached to Tecna. It was true, and it was for a good reason. Mrs. Faragonda had expanded all her resources to try and find Mr. Err, but to no avail. Timmy knew it right in his very core that letting Tecna go before he knew Mr. Err's whereabouts would be a fatal mistake. Unfortunately, he had no power in that decision, and that fact alone terrified him. However, he did have the power to continue his search for Mr. Err by himself. Tecna feared that he was more than willing to face the man head on for her freedom and would most likely be killed in the process. Timmy didn't care, if he couldn't do anything else for Tecna, at least he would rest easy with the knowledge that the threat to her life was no more.
As he reached his room in the workers' quarters, he could see the broken laptop on his desk, and the sticky note that Tecna had written the IP address on the night that she had been hurt. As Timmy replayed the events of that night in his mind, he shuddered. It was a constant reminder of what Mr. Err was capable of doing to Tecna, and the things he had done to her already. He balled his hands into fists and gritted his teeth angrily, wishing desperately to be with Tecna, not knowing if she was scared of being alone or not. He had to keep his promise to her, and so he took the sticky note and sat down at the new laptop that he ordered.
"I'm going to find that psychotic man," He vowed under his breath, "and I'm going to kill him for everything he's done to you." So, Timmy devoted every waking moment of that night and all the hacking ability he had at his disposal to find the location of the computer that Tecna used for her coding sets. Then, he would be able to track down the location of Mr. Err.
After Timmy left Tecna's suite that night, all that she felt was numb. She knew she couldn't keep him for long and didn't want him to get fired if she begged him to stay. Tecna was aware that Timmy felt the same way. Now that she was truly alone, she didn't want to do much of anything, not even her coding. So, she lay down on her bed, also not wanting to fall asleep. The nightmares would return, and Tecna could sense it. Without Timmy's strong arms around her and his soothing voice lulling her into tranquility, she felt vulnerable and endangered. As she sank deep into her thoughts, it dawned on her just how much she'd changed. Before four months ago, she wouldn't dare show emotion. There were severe punishments for doing so. But now that's all she could do. Timmy showed her that it was okay to feel and taught her what it was like to love and be loved. He brought to her the feeling of joy and admiration and encouraged self-love. That was something Tecna was still struggling with because of all those years of being convinced that she was worth nothing. Now, she was everything to somebody. Not to mention that after all the nights Timmy spent with her, she feared being alone. Three months ago, being alone was all she knew. It was at that moment that Tecna figured that the only way she could go on was to accept the fact that she was never going to see Timmy again. It wasn't completely true, he was still going to escort her to the fairies' cafeteria for mealtimes and assist her if she needed him, but she felt that the less interaction she had with him, the better.
"Alright, Tecna," She whispered to herself as she continued to lay there on her bed, "you've been acting completely illogical. In order to achieve independence, you have to do things on your own. No one is going to take you by the hand anymore." With those words fresh in her mind, she slowly lifted herself up to get ready for bed.
Just as expected, the nightmares did return. However, what Tecna would soon discover was that this would be the most traumatizing, paralyzing nightmare she had ever experienced. As her vision cleared, she realized that she was strapped to a chair, wrists and ankles bound. Awareness overcame her, and a heavy, yet familiar weight could be felt around her neck. The shock collar.
"No, not the collar." She thought. but was stricken with fear of letting it show. Then, a shadow emerged from the darkness, coming quickly towards her. Luckily, as light revealed the figure, she was relieved to see that it was Timmy. He thrust himself forward, reaching out his hand as he ran for her.
"Tecna!" She could hear the absolute agony in his voice as he called out her name, seeing with his own eyes the torture she had to endure. As Timmy continued to run to Tecna's aid, a gunshot fired from a distance, directly hitting him. Seconds later, he fell to the ground, motionless as blood began to seep from the wound.
"Timmy!" Tecna's scream was heart wrenching, and she couldn't stop the tears from falling as she fought furiously within her restraints. She knew that showing her emotions would lead to unmeasurable pain, but she was in more than enough pain already. The utter horror of seeing the one man who gave her any value be killed right in front of her eyes was worse than the pain of the electric shock. Timmy was worth the punishment that awaited her.
"Now, you're mine once again." An all too familiar voice echoed as another figure stepped out from the darkness, gun in hand, "And you'll live out the rest of your miserable life, completely worthless… with the one person who bothered to tolerate you… dead." And as Mr. Err loomed closer to Tecna, he raised his other hand, with the remote. This time, Tecna accepted the pain as the electricity coursed through her body, and her captor thoroughly enjoyed listening to her scream.
The screams continued as darkness surrounded the technology fairy. Then, consciousness set in as she acknowledged her tear-filled eyes. Tecna dared not open them and was too emotionally drained to do so. Once full awareness set in, every sensation, both physical and emotional, overwhelmed her. She felt the warmth of her blanket and the softness of her bed, and yet she still was weakened by the shock of seeing Timmy be killed, even if it was just a dream. Before Tecna knew it, she was trembling uncontrollably and didn't have the strength to compose herself until fifteen minutes later. At that time, she finally got the courage to open her eyes, and that was when she noticed her cellphone on her bedside table. She could call him; it wasn't like she wasn't allowed to. But she knew that if he did come to comfort her that he wouldn't want to leave, and she would beg him not to. If Mrs. Faragonda found out that he had fallen asleep by her side just to comfort her, she might fire him. That would be the end, and Tecna felt it. So, she took a deep, shaky breath, and decided that she needed to tough it out.
Some more inspiration was taken from An Unlikely Pair and the companion series The Resistance Chronicles. Timmy believing that he would have to die but be at peace if Tecna was safe is something I took from The Resistance Chronicles, and the whole thing about the shock collar, remote and Tecna being forced to do coding sets and being treated like a machine without meeting her basic needs was inspired by her circumstances in An Unlikely Pair. Can't say enough about how much it impacted and inspired me for this fanfic.