I'm free! Exams are OVER!!! More time for Gundam!! Wahoo!!! –Lady PhoenixDagger
Gundam not mine. Everything else is. Capice? Good.
ALARYAN'S KEEP
PART I
"FREAKS"
Chapter V
The life of Dulcet Anderman had once been a normal one. He had lived in a normal little red brick house in the suburbs with a small flower garden in the front and a hammock strung between two maple trees in the back. He'd had a wife, two teenage children and a dog named Kipper and his medical practice was moderately successful. All was well for him and although life wasn't great, it was good and Dulcet was content with the way things were going.
At least until he'd heard of the Black Hood.
Dulcet's children had gone to of their rallies for genetic experimentation and were immediately ensnared by the smooth talk and promises of a bright future ahead. Intrigued by what he himself saw and not pulling in what he thought he should be at the clinic, Dulcet had decided to go to work for Black Hood as a doctor. The horrors of that place still haunted him today, seeing the misshapen freaks being created from racks and racks of vials and test tubes made only to be used and then thrown away like so much uncomplaining trash.
"Dr Anderman?" the orderly had asked him when he had gotten there on his first day, looking quizzically at a plastic clipboard in his hands. "Oh, yeah. You're working with models 25708A and B, just down the hall in C ward."
Before he had met his new charges, Dulcet had been warned time and time again not to nurture any feelings towards these patients. He was to study them and see to their medical needs and that was all; the relationship was not to go any further than the business end of a hypodermic syringe. But all at once upon meeting them, he had fallen for these tiny children known as 25708A and 25708B with their big eyes and dainty bodies like a father to a pair of newborn sons. They were emotionally silent towards him, of course, not even capable of returning his smiles, but he had loved them all the same. He'd even go in early some days when time allowed to play with them, tossing balls he brought for them to catch or use a bandana he usually brought to play tug of war. The boys were surprisingly strong and agile for two so young and they caught on quickly to things, making up new stratagems as the situation called for them. He regaled his wife and children with tale after tale of his charges, whom he secretly named Walker and Darien after his father and grandfather until they had gotten sick of them. Dulcet secretly delighted in flouting the rules under his new bosses' noses and his love of "his" boys grew ever more each day.
And then Black Hood had found him out.
From that day forward, Dulcet's life was destroyed. He came home one day to find his family murdered and his home razed to the ground. He was captured and his body used as a guinea-pig for a human/lynx dihybrid cross-genetics experiment, leaving him with a head that looked almost exactly like that of his more feline half, and a thick pelt of reddish-brown fur that covered his whole body. Then he had been thrown out into the world all alone to face the lions. Alaryan's Keep had taken him in and later on they had accepted his tiny charges when no one else would.
And now they needed him.
"Give me a sheet!" he snapped, snapping on rubber gloves and a facemask. It was an unnecessary thing, really. 25708B, or Walker as he was now legally known, could not be affected by infection or foreign matter in the blood stream, but this small ritual helped Dulcet do what he needed to do, so there was no real harm in doing it. "I can't see past all the blood!"
Tama grabbed a relatively unstained sheet and gingerly began to dab at the wound. Walker's moans became shrill screams as the arm –now exposed to the elbow- flailed violently to fend off the alien sheet. A dull thud past Dulcet's line of vision told him that the pain had finally proved too much for Darien, dropping him like a poled ox to the stone floor. Fine. One last person to get in the way.
Muttering sharply under his breath, Dulcet had yanked a hypodermic syringe from his sub space pocket and began to prep it. (Author's Note: Though I don't like putting AN's in this fic, it's necessary right about now. Like Hammer Space, this world also has the phenomenon of outer-world pockets in which objects ranging in size from the head of a pin to about the size of a large pizza box can be kept.) A low moan issued from Walker's lips caught Dulcet's attention. Carefully, he leaned in and cocked a fuzzy triangular ear. Walker was trying to speak between tortured moans and gasps of pain.
"T-t-t-t-tell them…" He gasped suddenly, cutting himself off as the arm shifted. A low guttural growl came from somewhere underneath Walker's pelvic bone.
"Yes?" Dulcet probed gently, lifting the sodden bangs from his charge's forehead. The trick was not to look worried and rile his patient any further, though to tell the truth Dulcet was screaming in rage inside as he watched his beloved charge die just a little more before his eyes. He fought to remain calm and even managed a watery smile. "Who?"
"…new…children…tell…everything…" He paused, trying to form the words from under his personal veil of pain. "…about…us…"
Solemnly, Dulcet nodded and clasped Walker's sweaty hand. The young man sighed and closed his eyes. "Do…it…" he gasped.
Drawing in his breath, Dulcet drew back and plunged the needle deep into Walker's jugular. Grimly, he injected and waited for the part he hated most.
A shrill, horrid cry erupted from Walker's torn chest, much like the keen of a dying banshee. The arm writhed and contracted and, with a sound that never failed to twist Dulcet's stomach, sucked back into the wound.
When it was all over, Misty sucked back a draught of air and sat back on her heels, Darien's shaggy head still cradled in her lap.
"Good lord." Darien stirred and stiffly sat up. His hands went to his head as though he wanted to touch the mental bond he and Walker shared. "It's never been this bad before. It was like our nerves were on fire."
"Mmmmh," Misty said absently, running her weary finger's through his raven hair. "Sit still. Rest a moment."
With great care, Dulcet pulled the needle from the now-unconscious Walker's neck and tossed into the wastebasket by the nightstand where it clinked against at least ten others. He frowned. Of course, he would be the one to look into getting someone to empty it. Sighing, he turned back to Walker. As usual, the wound was already closed, a rapidly fading pink mark showing where the limb had burst through.
"What the hell was that?" Wufei's voice cut shakily through the brittle silence of the room. He, Duo and Trowa huddled around Quatre's still form, mixtures of fear and hatred blazing in their eyes. Belle was kneeling close to them, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Loops of rope were still around the Chinese boy's wrists from where he had torn them from the mattress.
"That was a little gift from Black Hood," Dulcet said grimly. His gloves snapped loudly as he pulled them off, making everyone else in the room jump.
"Nice guy," Duo remarked quirkily. One would guess there was a mood of total fearlessness in this one, had his hands not held each other in such a tight death grip.
"Corporation, actually." The lynx-man sighed, passing a hand over his weary face. "They're the cause of most of the bad shit that happens around here."
"Ah, of course." Duo's eyes glazed a moment as the absurdity of the situation hit him all at once. "Being chased by a giant geyser and then again by some weirdos with swords through some giant medieval castle, only to wake up to some freaky-ass lady who can read my thoughts offering us scones and tea and then seeing some sort of giant zombie hand bursting from some guy's chest and waving itself around before being fended off by some guy who looks like he's half housecat? Silly me! Who else could have caused that but big business? Ahahaha."
"Lynx," Dulcet smugly pointed out.
"Huh?"
"I was crossed with a lynx, not a housecat. Besides," he sniffed, "I'm much cuter.
"Right. Sorry." Duo looked like he was ready to cry.
Shifting slightly, Belle knelt at his side. "It's been a long afternoon and you have seen much," she murmured gently, wearily. "Go on back to your room and rest. I will have supper sent up to you by and by. Everything will be made right in the morning." She put her slender hand on the small of Duo's back, feeling the tense muscles beneath the material of his nightshirt. Duo tensed further at her touch, but even his resolve to refuse contact from this strange, motherly woman dissolved as she began to stroke his back much like a child would stroke the soft fur of a newly born kitten. The barrier broke and he softly began to cry. "Come." Belle gently took his hands and stood. "You all need some food and rest."
"What about Quatre?" Trowa murmured in uncharacteristic stubbornness. He held Quatre now like a baby in his arms, his pallor still a sickly green. Trowa's own body seemed to sag from the inside as the emotional fatigue caught up with him.
Smiling softly, Belle brushed back the boy's straw blond hair. "Ah, my little empath. He needs only some rest and he will be fine in the morning." She looked critically at him. "You need rest as well, little harlequin. You can see Catherine soon. It will be better for everyone's nerves if all of you shared a room tonight, I think."
Trowa nodded, still cradling his friend in his arms.
Wufei stood, shoulders back, spine erect. Aside from the obvious evidence of what he had eaten earlier lying forlornly in a puddle on the cold flagstone floor, one could almost believe the previous event hadn't even remotely touched him. "Let me cut my bonds," he demanded quietly, a murderous glint in his onyx eyes. Shrugging, Belle flicked a tiny penknife from her sub space pocket and tossed it to him.
"Suit yourself, child," she said. "I will have the girls and two more beds sent up to your room soon. Have something to eat and try to rest as best you can after witnessing such as sight." Three pairs of eyes involuntarily slid their gazes to the still-unconscious form lying on the blood-stained bed. "Try to get a good night's sleep," Belle said in a cautionary tone. "I shall come to collect you in the morning. Walker has requested you learn about what has happened in the past to cause this horror to grow within him and there is much to cover."
That's all for now, but never fear!! More chapters are being born faster than I can muster up the energy to get up off my ass and post them! More to come soon!
Ja!
L.P.D. *//.^*