Part XII
The oddly pleasant dream -- wrapping his fingers tightly about the throat of some half-seen stranger in a room of glowing white -- was interrupted by the sound of something being smashed over and over again into the steel door of the Keep. Darien jerked into a pain-filled consciousness with his hands tightly balled into fists, his head throbbing in time to his heartbeat, and his legs aching from all the time spent vertical the previous day.
He pushed himself into a sitting position, wanting to yell at the idiot who was making the steel door ring like a cracked bell over and over again. Bad enough he was awake; no need to disturb Alyx, who'd fallen into an uncomfortable slumber only a few short hours ago. He shook his head, trying to clear the last vestiges of the dream and to push back the pain enough to be able to think. He slowly uncurled his fingers, which had been so tightly clenched that they had cramped; his neatly trimmed nails leaving crescent shaped marks in his palms that were nearly bloody. Looking about, he realized Alyx, who had been curled against him when she fell asleep, was gone.
"Alyx?"
The whimpered sob that answered him was easily recognizable and he forced himself upright to go in search of the owner of the voice. Alyx was slamming one of the lab chairs into the door, over and over again, hard enough to put a noticeable dent in it.
"Hey, what's the problem?" He was confused as to why she would be hysterically beating on the door when she could simply trigger the remote and open it.
She spun about and threw the chair at him, causing him to dive to the floor and wince at the sound of the chair smashing into the shelves behind him. "Stay away from me!" she shouted at him, much to his astonishment.
"Alyx?" He painfully got to his feet and walked towards her, hoping he wouldn't set her off again.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Her back was against the door and she was looking about in fright. "Please, just let me go home." she pleaded. "I need to get to my kids. I can't leave them with him."
Her kids? Was she talking about her husband? "Alyx, your kids are fine. Jess...." He had trouble saying the bastard's name. "Jess is dead, remember?"
She burst out into hysterical laughter that devolved into a snarl. "You bastards. You just won't stop, will you?" Anger coming to the forefront, she stalked towards him. "Why are you doing this to me?"
When she had closed the distance between them, she swung at him. He grabbed her by the wrists and tried to restrain her as gently as he could, but it wasn't easy. She was very strong on a normal day, and now she was being driven by some unseen need to escape. Add onto that the fact he was still not very steady on his feet and it was like holding a wildcat while trying to give it a bath. A near-impossible task. Then he let his irritation surge to the front. Spinning her about, he trapped her hands against her chest and held her in place -- one of the few occasions where his size was to his advantage with her. Backing slowly, dragging her unwillingly along, he ended up leaning against the metal stanchion between the two halves of the Keep. "Alyx, damn it, calm down. Jess is gone and your kids are safe."
Her body shuddered and relaxed after several minutes of struggling. "Well, well, Dare, so you got me back here did you? You gonna do something with those hands or not?" She shifted her own arms so that his fingers, which were wrapped tightly about her wrists, rubbed suggestively across her breasts.
Darien had two reactions to that voice, the smooth seductiveness that flowed from her, that sudden boneless relaxation in his hold. Somehow she'd gone from wanting to escape to just wanting, in a heartbeat. A good portion of him reacted to the shift with a surge of pure desire that bordered on lust. The rest of him recognized that tone for what it was; this wasn't the Alyx he knew, this was the one Arnaud and Heilburg had created. What the hell was going on?
She squirmed back against him, tried to free her hands without any real force, and turned her head to look up at him. "Something you want?"
With those words, in that seductive, resonant tone, the gland in Darien's head spoke up with its desire to come out and play with the temptress he now held in his arms. Turning her around, he trapped her hands behind her back this time. Leaning in, close enough to feel her breath on his cheek, he whispered in her ear, "Oh, yes. I want."
She laughed, low and throaty. Rubbing her face lightly against the side of his, breathing in his scent, she purred, "I can tell." She bit down on his earlobe hard enough to make him growl and release her. She stepped away, laughing, as his hand went to his ear. He was amazed that it didn't come away bloodied. "So, why are we here? Planning on stealing the QS files from the Keep?"
"Been there, done that," he said, going along with whatever game she was playing. "We're here because you were a bad girl." Pacing closer to her, he was inordinately pleased that she failed to back off from him. She held her ground and just looked up at him, licking her lips.
"Then perhaps I should be punished," she teased in a low voice. One of her hands grabbed a belt loop on his jeans and tugged gently. "If you think you're up to it, that is."
"Oh, yes. I'm up for a lot of things." He took her hand and moved it to show her exactly what he meant. She had no trouble taking the hint and making him groan with her practiced manipulation. While she was doing her best to drive him to distraction, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into a lust-filled kiss that made her chuckle in animal pleasure.
On this occasion, he wanted no part of hurting her, at least not intentionally. It had been nearly a month since he'd had her this close, in this position, and he was so damn close to the madness that his common sense was overwritten, tossed right out the window. He didn't care that she was off in the land of megalomania and was only using him to get ahead in the situation, whatever situation her drug-fogged mind thought she was in. Didn't care that his sometimes harsh hold on her shoulders, the fingers pressing into her back or breasts, was leaving marks and bruises on her overly-sensitive flesh. Didn't taste the blood he'd drawn when he bit her tongue in a moment's insane urge to get her to react to pain.
All he could think of was her hands leaving a heated trail on his flesh, digging in and scratching hard enough to leave marks, reminders of this bout of crazed passion. Of fingers deftly unbuckling his belt and then the top button of his jeans, before stopping and teasing him with fingers dipping delicately inside and making him groan and shift in reaction. He could only respond to the insistent commands of the gland, which wanted her as badly as he did, just without the gentleness and quietly whispered endearments he usually took the time to lavish upon her. Instead he lavished her with his teeth and tongue, making her laugh and cry out in reaction.
Curling one hand in her wild hair, he tightened his grip hard enough to cause a grunt of actual pain. Pulling her head back, he bit her on her collarbone, revealed by the shirt having shifted off her shoulder.
She froze.
Somewhere in his gland-flooded, lust-filled brain, he registered the change.
"Please don't do this," she whispered in a small, terrified voice.
It was as if someone had thrown ice water on him. He instantly felt his control rushing back. Though that voice in the back of his head complained bitterly, he eased his hold and shifted to look at her. Her eyes may have been open, but she wasn't really seeing anything. He recognized the look for what it was, finally. She wasn't even here, was probably still in some weird dream-state, and had been the entire time. "Alyx..."
"I'm sorry," she whimpered, sounding contrite and fearful. "I won't do it again, just please don't."
Somehow he knew she wouldn't respond to him, no matter how many times her called her Alyx, so he tried something else, used the name he'd heard her brother Michael call her. "'Chele, what's wrong?"
She slid out of his grasp and went to her knees before him. "Please, Jess. I... I'm sorry." He was staring at her in utter confusion when she grabbed her head and fell over onto the floor with a quickly stifled scream. Darien was about to bend down to help her when the door to the Keep was forced open and an irritated Bobby stuck his head in. He dropped the crowbar he'd been holding and shoved the door open about halfway before it wedged firmly in place thanks to the beating Alyx had given it.
Claire forced her way past Bobby and went to her knees next to Alyx, who whimpered and tried to get away from her. Claire looked up at Darien, who did his best to explain.
"I woke up to find her beating on the door. She's... I'm not sure, but it's like she's reliving parts of her memory and combining it with the present." He was thankful his shirt was untucked and hung low enough to hide the fact he was not entirely dressed at the moment.
"Bloody hell, I thought those tests were wrong." Claire was trying to calm Alyx. It wasn't easy, since she thought she was somewhere else, thought Claire was someone else. "Bobby..."
"Yeah. The usual one, or has she adapted already?" Bobby moved towards the cabinet where they kept the sedatives they stored for the occasions Alyx needed to be sent to the land of Nod.
"No, the usual one still works," Claire answered as she looked over Alyx. Claire glanced up at Darien and he knew she'd figured out something more had happened than just him watching Alyx go a little loony -- her lips swollen from being kissed, the passion-tousled hair, the clothes in a noticeable state of disarray -- but she made no comment, for which he was eminently thankful. He was saved from having to make any explanation by Bobby returning with a clean syringe and a vial.
Bobby knelt down and took over holding Alyx, who wanted no part of being restrained by a male, much less him, and began to struggle and beg in a pitiful voice to be released. She alternated between asking for forgiveness and pleas to not be hurt.
Bobby was instantly sympathetic. He knew just enough about what had been done to her to at the hands of her first husband to understand her reaction. He talked to her in as soothing a voice as he could and held her still as Claire prepared the sedative and then injected her with it. The site would be yet another bruise to add to the burgeoning collection her far-too-sensitive skin was sprouting. It took longer than normal, but she did finally relax, though she was not completely unconscious. At a guess, Claire just wanted her calm, not out cold.
"Keep?" Bobby asked, wanting to know where she wanted the kid.
"The chair, Bobby." With some help from Claire, they got her moved and secured to the chair. Her hands were placed in the padded cuffs to prevent her from fighting them as Claire did what was necessary. "I need to take another blood sample."
Darien took advantage of their distraction to put his clothes back into proper order and run his hands through his hair, before joining them in the other half of the Keep. Claire was already pulling out the needle from taking the blood and he shied away from the sight of the bruise already forming in the crook of Alyx's elbow to match the one on her other arm. Setting the test tube aside for the moment, Claire gently lifted up one of Alyx's eyelids to find a frighteningly blue eye looking out at the world.
"What the...?" Darien wondered.
"Side effect," Claire said coolly, as if it was expected. Leaving Alyx to rest, half-conscious, she took the blood sample and prepped it for testing. This was going to be a rush job by the looks of it.
Alyx moaned pitifully while both Darien and Bobby hovered over her protectively. "What happened, Fawkes? This was not just her sleepwalking." Bobby knew the signs of desire taken too far, especially since Fawkes was showing some of the same signs. Hell, it hadn't been too hard to figure out he'd been less than fully dressed, even though the shirt tail had disguised it for the most part. Fawkes must not have realized he had a hickey the size of Delaware on the side of his neck, or that his hair was even more unruly than usual.
Darien shrugged, not wanting to admit that he needed a shot, a shot that he didn't want. "One of the... memories was from when she was with Arnaud. She was a bit aggressive."
"Ah," was Bobby's only comment on the subject, though it was painfully obvious that he knew there was more to it than that. "The son of a bitch hinted there might be more to the drug." There were days he wished things were simple, but given his two partners, as well as the agency he worked for, simple was something that rarely happened.
"Bobby, what the hell are you talking about?" This was news to him. As far as he knew, the Director was still unconscious in the padded room, waiting while they figured out what the hell they were going to do.
Bobby sighed and moved over to snag one of the rolling chairs to sit on. He'd been sound asleep when the agent standing guard outside the Keep had informed him that someone was beating the hell out of the door and that they couldn't get it open. He'd gone and found Claire, who had fallen asleep at her desk in Lab Three while waiting for some test results to come back. Once they had confirmed the door was indeed jammed shut, Bobby had gone hunting something to open it with and eventually found the crowbar in a storage closet among some deteriorating mops and cleaning rags.
"Fawkes, the mook implied there was a limited amount of time that the counter would work, so the Keep figured there must be another effect to the drug, she just didn't know what." Bobby ran a hand over the top of his head.
"Damn it. What now?" Darien complained. He wanted to sit, but settled for leaning against the exam chair and running gentle fingers up and down Alyx's arm. She shuddered at his touch, but didn't flinch away. Her eyes opened, and she stared about the room sightlessly for a long moment before sighing and then closing them, the sedative working to keep her reasonably calm.
Claire came back over to them, "Well, I have some idea of what is going on."
"Don't hold back now. This is need-to-know for us." Bobby got to his feet and moved over to her. Claire was looking even less rested than last night.
"Her pineal gland is flooding her system with melatonin, and she's lapsed into a state similar to that of a sleepwalker. I think that she was simply supposed to hallucinate, not get caught up in past memories the way she seems to be doing." Claire's brow furrowed slightly as she thought about it. "These people are such fools, to create something like this with little or no practical information, and then to test it on someone who doesn't come close to falling within the norms...." She trailed off, sounding frustrated.
"Claire, it's done; what do we do to fix it?" Darien could hear the frustration and subtle anger in her voice.
"Nothing. The Official has decreed that I'm not to give her the counter. She has to fix this on her own. Much like you." She looked from Alyx to Darien, pleased to see he was finally rejoining the human race, finally reconnecting with his friends that he needed, no matter how much he refused to admit to it. Maybe together they would both heal, but first Alyx had to get past this stage of the drug.
"Bullshit," Darien snapped causing Alyx to flinch and fight the cuffs on her wrists for a minute. "That son of a bitch has the information, or can get it. We just have to make him give it to us."
"Not gonna happen my friend. The Chief won't trade her services for the info. Says it's too risky." Bobby was hoping to calm Fawkes down, but the look of rage that crawled across his features was unmistakable.
"Maybe he needs some persuasion." Darien kept a tight rein on his emotions, not wanting to give away his true state of mind to Hobbes just yet. A rather wicked idea had come to him and he didn't want Bobby to ruin his fun. "Stay with her. I'll be back." He moved swiftly towards the door of the Keep.
"Fawkes, it won't do any good." But Bobby was too late; Fawkes was out the door and gone. Turning back to Claire, he shook his head. "Good thing I told the guards no visitors. They won't let him in."
Claire nodded her agreement and tried to get Alyx a bit more comfortable as she muttered and mumbled to whatever images her drugged mind was conjuring up.
Darien swung the door shut behind him, feeling little or no remorse for knocking the two agency guards unconscious to gain entry. He had one of their shock sticks in his hand and, as he waited for the Director to notice his presence, stuffed it down the back of his pants and covered it with his shirt. Suddenly he laughed -- he'd actually forgotten he was invisible and that the bastard wouldn't see him until he wanted him too.
The Director had heard the door open and shut, but didn't move until he heard the laughter. Getting to his feet, he looked for the source of the sound only to see nothing at all. "Agent Fawkes. Come to pay me a visit, have you?"
Darien opened his mouth to deliver a witty comeback on the obvious intelligence of the man, only to have it come out as a grunt of pain as the gland reasserted its control over him. He was driven to his hands and knees, one hand one the back of his head in a vain attempt to ease the pain. By the time it had passed, leaving him curled on the floor panting, he was visible and in a very, very different state of mind. "A visit? Yes, I suppose so. I would like a few questions answered, as well." Darien said as he slowly pulled himself to his feet. Once standing, he kept his head tipped down so that the Director could not yet see his eyes.
"Has the Official agreed to the deal?" The Director knew that was wrong assumption the moment he said the words. The Official wouldn't agree, not this soon, not until he saw there was no other choice, that in this situation there would be no backing from the other agencies. And the Official wouldn't send Fawkes. No, Fawkes was here on his own, here because his woman, his lover, was in trouble and he knew he couldn't fix it on his own. So he was here to beg for the solution, for the cure that would return her to normal, to free her from the interesting changes the drugs had done to her.
The Director was not about to give up his control. "So, she's begun hallucinating. Her metabolism must be a bit faster than those we tested the drug on. No matter, you still have some time to give her the counter before...."
Darien moved then, surprising the man into taking a step back. "Before what? Before your little attempt at control kills her? She'd rather that happened." Darien paced slowly around the man, making him rotate to follow his movements. "You mentioned Kev being successful, and I guess he was." He raised one hand and let the quicksilver flow, giving an impromptu demonstration of his talent. "But someone like you thought control would be nice as well. Care to see how successful it was?" He lifted his head so that the Director got a good look at his fully blood-red eyes. "The side effect is interesting. A little extra ingredient secreted from the quicksilver gland acts like a cerebral disinhibitor. I lose my conscience and become a bit irritable and impulsive." He moved closer, causing the Director to back away until he collided with the wall, leaving him with no where to go.
"That's interesting, Fawkes, but does nothing for Miss Silver," the Director countered, hoping to turn Fawkes' mind back to the girl and away from himself.
"True, but it'll feel awfully nice to throttle you while you beg for help that won't be coming." Darien wrapped one hand around the Director's throat and squeezed, just enough to feel the heartbeat pounding on both sides of the man's neck. The smell of fear was a heady intoxicant, nearly as pleasurable as the scent of a desire-filled Alyx before him.
"Fawkes, I'll get you the information you want," the Director lied, hoping to forestall this. When Fawkes only smiled at him, he knew this was going to be a problem. He'd be unable to bargain with the man in this condition, or even distract him from the useless need to cause pain. Bringing up one knee, he attempted to gain at least a momentary freedom only to have the move expertly blocked.
Darien pressed up against him, immobilizing the man and preventing another pitiful attempt like the last. "Sad. So very sad. Alyx has taught me more than a few tricks since she arrived and, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a lot stronger than you at this point." He grinned at the look of fear that was evident in the man's eyes. Pulling the shock stick from behind his back he waved it so that the Director could see it. He gave one last squeeze before stepping away. "Alyx has found electricity very effective in getting perps to spill, though she doesn't need a toy like this."
"I won't tell you anything," the Director said as he swallowed around the pain in his throat and tried to catch his breath.
"Fine with me. I just want to hear you scream for a while." Darien flipped the switch to charge the thing and jammed it into the man's stomach, causing him to double over and then go to his knees. The scream was not nearly enough to satisfy Darien, so he repeated the action. This time he got the man in the small of the back, making him arch backwards and fall to the padded floor.
That's when the lights in the room dimmed and went out.
Claire was attaching electrodes to Alyx's forehead when the air in the room suddenly seemed to get heavy, almost thick.
"Keep, what the hell is that?" Bobby asked as his skin began to crawl and the hairs on his arms stood upright, almost as if he had a bad case of the goosebumps.
Claire backed away from Alyx. "I... I'm not sure." The lights in the room began to flicker and then go dim, until they were left in pitch blackness.
"Claire, don't move." Bobby froze as well, listening. Maybe the SWRB was making a move to break their boss out and had cut the power to the building. Though he had to wonder why the emergency generator hadn't kicked in. Moving carefully, he pulled his gun and flicked off the safety. He was hoping his eyes would adjust, but it was pitch dark in here even in what he thought was the direction of the door.
"Bobby..." Claire sounded more than a little worried.
"Maybe trouble," Bobby answered softly.
"Bobby." She was more insistent now.
"Claire." He turned and realized the problem with the lights weren't from an outside cause. "Oh, crap."
"What the f..." Darien didn't get a chance to finish the word as the Director somehow managed to get to his feet and plant a shoulder into Darien's stomach. It caused him to grunt in pain, double over gasping for air, and drop the shock stick.
The Director took advantage of the situation and, with only a moment's struggle, got his hands down past his feet and in front of him. Feeling about, he found the shock stick and held it ready to give Fawkes a taste of the caged lightning inside.
Darien got to his feet with a silent snarl and quicksilvered his eyes. It was almost too dark in the room to make anything out, but there was just barely enough ambient light to allow him some limited quicksilver vision. "Now, just where are you hiding?" Darien slowly searched the room until he saw the figure of the Director making his way along the wall, one hand trailing lightly against the padded surface. "Tsk, tsk. Trying to get away are you?"
The Director continued his movement, hoping to encounter the door, which should be unlocked now that the power was out. He didn't bother even trying to 'see' anything -- his sight was not nearly good enough -- but his hearing... that was just fine. Even though it was obvious that Fawkes could somehow see, the Director could hear him; he was being exceedingly noisy, even though he was walking on a padded surface. As soon as Fawkes was near, he swung the shock stick and connected solidly with Fawkes' side driving the man to his knees. The Director didn't let up until the screaming had stopped and Fawkes was out cold.
Reconnecting with the wall, he made his way around until he found the door. With a shove he got it open and was pleased to find no resistance; in fact, he practically tripped over one of the agents who had been guarding him, but that Fawkes had kindly taken care of for him. Searching the man's pockets, he found the keys and, with a little creativity, had his hands freed in seconds. Getting to his feet, with an increasing feeling of confidence, he made his slow way down the hall, heading for the exit of the building.
"Claire, tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing." Bobby's gun hand had dropped to his side, he was so stunned by the sight before him.
Claire managed a dry chuckle. "You're seeing it, Bobby."
Alyx was sitting cross legged on the chair, her eyes closed, her hands freed from the restraints and lying loosely across her knees, her head tipped slightly to one side. He had no idea if she was conscious or not, but the machine hooked to her was glowing with an eerie light and showing far more normal waves moving across its screen. Claire moved over to her and tried to take her pulse, but received a shock instead.
"Damn," she muttered, sticking her shocked fingers in her mouth for a couple seconds.
"Is this good, Keepy?" Bobby didn't move closer since he wanted no part of one of the kid's infamous 'zaps.' He'd been told exactly how much they could hurt, and they tended to be worse when they were unintentional.
"I hope so, Bobby. I think she's fighting back." Claire's mind was racing, based on the look she was wearing. "Maybe being on the inhibitor before helped her to figure out how to deal with this. If I'm right, she's adapted far faster than I could have hoped. I was figuring a week at least to reach this point."
"Okay, Keep, but why is the power off?" Bobby had remembered the gun and brought it back up, scanning the shadows around them for possible threats. There was no way he'd let anything happen to the girls.
"Alyx is doing it. They mentioned something like this happening when they gave her the Phase II drugs." Claire seemed to find this most fascinating. "She seems to draw off the energy for some reason."
"Keep, we kinda need the lights," Bobby pointed out. "Think you can wake her or something?"
His request turned out to be unnecessary. The lights came back on with a rush, causing several of the bulbs to explode with a flash of sparks, not only in the Keep but in the hallway as well. Claire moved over to Alyx who now appeared to be sleeping peacefully on the chair. Looking at the machine, Claire was pleased to still see a healthier waveform scrolling across, which meant Alyx was functioning normally for the moment. Whether or not it would last was anyone's guess.
"She okay?" Bobby checked the hallway and found it clear, then returned to where Claire was examining Alyx.
"She's fine, Bobby. Just sleeping. Her body has to burn off the excess melatonin." Claire was smiling, pleased with the situation for the moment.
"Agent Hobbes." A voice gasped from the doorway.
Bobby turned to find one of the agents who were supposed to be guarding the Director leaning on the door with blood running from his nose. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Fawkes happened. He cold cocked us and went in with the prisoner." The guy straightened as Claire came around the divider with a look of concern. She immediately pulled him inside to examine him. "When we came to, he was alone in the room and really bad off."
"What do you mean?" Claire asked as she gently cleaned away the blood and handed the man an ice pack to hold against his nose.
"Well, it looked like he'd been nailed with one of the shock sticks, he was all red-eyed and everything." The agent answered as he gingerly placed the ice pack to his face.
"Ah, shit." Bobby snapped, holstering his gun quickly. "Keep?"
"On it." She rushed to the cooler and retrieved the counteragent, filling a syringe as swiftly as she could. "Watch her," Claire said to the agent as she and Bobby ran from the room.
Darien was lying dazed on the floor of the padded room with some annoying suit jabbering at him and trying to reassure him he'd be all right. Just about the time he'd regained enough strength to seriously consider snapping the guy's neck to shut him up, Bobby and Claire showed. Claire was hauling that big honking needle he hated with a passion.
"Well, if it isn't the cavalry come to the rescue, late, again," Darien sneered at them as he pushed himself to his feet.
"Hey partner. Just sit back down so's the Keep here can give you your shot." With a slight hand motion he signaled for the other agent to vacate, and quickly.
"And if I don't want to?" Darien asked, sidling towards the door of the room, intent on escaping but not wanting Bobby to shoot him in the leg to stop him.
"You don't have any choice, Darien," Claire said to him, in a tone that normally did a reasonable job of convincing him to behave.
"We always have choices, Keep, we may just not like some of them," Darien responded as Bobby moved to block his way to the door.
"You sound just like the kid," Bobby commented. He remembered Alyx saying something similar that night they broke into the SWRB lab. That statement got Fawkes' attention in a way nothing else could.
"Alyx," Darien said, mostly to himself. Oh, how he wanted to finish what they had begun earlier. To strip the clothes off her body, to feel her doing the same to him, to.... His thoughts trailed off as Claire moved up behind him and injected the counteragent into his neck. "No fair," he got out before passing out and falling onto the padding of the white room.
Claire went to her knees next to Darien and checked his pulse. She looked up at Bobby, who signaled the obvious question with just his eyes. "He'll be fine."
"Well, it's a start anyway." Bobby knew fixing the madness was simple compared to what was yet to come for both Fawkes and the kid. There was a lot of healing and recovery to be done all the way around, for both of them.