A/N: As always, I wanna give a big THANKS out to my reviewer. You guys make me wanna keep writing. That and my insatiable urge for angst.
Also, someone asked where Rev was. Answer, this takes place after he left the crew in the second season. Let's just say this story takes place before the last episode on season two. So ignore all of freaky weird season three. How's that work? Ok, enough rambling, go enjoy the angst!
Chapter 14
Sobs still wracked through Harper's aching body as he felt the cool metal of the door on his arched back. A quite whisper of "no" kept slipping from his quivering lips as tears raced down his face, all hoping to be the first ones to fall off of this tortured creature. Breaths only escaped in convulsion-like movements which sent waves of pain from the still healing broken ribs.
Inside the weeping creature's mind, the battle for control raged on. Harper's mental self was feverishly chasing down all the loose emotions: self-doubt, self-loathing, despair, paranoia, loneliness and massive amounts of fears. He ran after the emotions-made-real, captured them and shoved them in his new larger, stronger, black box. This one had a triple lock on it and reinforced walls. It was a good buy.
One by one, he shoved the feelings down into the void of the box. He kicked down despair, whacked loneliness over the head, and smashed self-loathing's desperate hand into the box as he slammed the heavy lid close. The second the locks clicked, the sobs stopped instantaneously.
Harper's head lifted off of his knees. A blank expression filled his face and a deep void filled his eyes. Slowly he stood up on trembling legs and reached an equally trembling hand out to the door controls. The hiss from the door opening sounded like thunder echoing through his ears. Zombie-like, Harper entered Medical to begin his work.
The void of a human first put so many overrides on the doors that even Andromeda herself could not enter. Next, he reached into his blood coated Bag-O-Carnage that still hung around his chest. That bag had become part of him over the past few days. Only when he had to crawl through the smallest area did he take the bag off, even then it was still griped in his hand. He reached into his pouch, pulled out a small device, and attached it to his belt. This was one of the random gadgets he had made earlier. It would surround it's wearer in a protective energy field that the energy based life forms couldn't pass through. Harper pulled out four more of these devices from his bag, one for each of his friends, and placed them on a nearby counter.
Harper yanked his trustful bag off of his weary shoulder and threw it against the wall where it hit with a thud and crumpled to the ground like an old discarded favorite childhood toy. Harper felt naked without the weight of the bag, but part of him never wanted to see the Bag-O-Carnage again.
The bag-less Harper now got down to business. He ransacked Medical, grabbing various instruments, chemicals and other assorted items from the copious cabinets. He grabbed a cold metal tray and started putting together his Tray-O-Torture. Right now he would have preferred his Bag-O-Carnage. He continued to throw more items onto the tray which laid on top of a cart. Electrical stimulants, poisons, micron-sharp surgical blades, and even a dental laser drill landed with a clink onto the cart. The hairs on the back of Harper's neck stood even straighter with each clink. He added an extra lock onto his big black box in his mind.
Soon the clattering stopped and the tray was complete. Harper stared at his collection of pain. He had to do this, he reminded himself. Quickly, as to get the whole thing over with, he grabbed the cart with his still only functioning hand and started pushing it towards his first friend...he meant, victim.
Tyr.
******
Andromeda's systems slowly filled with information, data strings and life as more and more of the AI once again took her place in the vast computer of a ship. Only a few more hours to go until life once more flowed through her impressive circuits.
******
Harper's cold blue eyes stared down at Tyr's closed eyes. No muscles were tense on the Kodiak's face, no fear could be seen anywhere on his body. He was in a deep bliss, completely unaware of the pain that was about to enter his life.
The blue eyes broke off of the body in front of him as he searched for a syringe on his tray. Once he found it, he moved decisively and injected the larger man. The plan had begun, it was too late to back out now. By the time the syringe was back on the tray, Tyr's eyelids had shot open to revile the shocked dark brown eyes. A second later, rage replaced the fear as realization hit the brain. Stolic tried to order Tyr to move, to kill the human, but he could not. The child had restrained them. The same child who now stood over them, staring at them with the coldest eyes either had ever seen. For a nanosecond, fear once again flickered across those brown eyes, even though Tyr nor Stolic would ever admit it.
Mixed with fear for himself, Tyr also felt fear for the boy. That was not the same Harper he had known. There was no smirk on his dirty face, no sparkle in his sunken eyes and even less color in his already normally pale cheeks. Fear for Harper quickly turned back into fear for the mighty Nietzschean. He had no idea why the psycho had him strapped to a bed in Medical and why he was looking at him with such despaired filled eyes. Tyr forced Stolic to struggle harder against the restraints.
Stolic was glad to oblige Tyr's request and struggle he did, but the metal restraints were just too strong. Unable to strangle the boy, Stolic resorted to yelling at him. "I am Nephew to the Ruler of the Calastors! How dear you treat me like this!! Un-strap me now so I can show you great pain!"
Tyr shook his non-corporal head at the alien's reasoning. Oh, the idiocy that spreads through the universe.
But Harper barely heard the words. His mind was locked onto Tyr's body as his only working hand hovered over the tray. "That's not Tyr," he whispered under his breath as his hand neared the dental drill.
"What did you say?" Stolic asked though Tyr's annoyed angry voice. "This IS Tyr you silly boy. And you can't hurt Tyr, so just let us up from the table so I CAN KILL YOU SLOWLY!!!!" The veins on Tyr's neck became writhing snakes as his blood pumped up to his increasingly redder face.
"That's not Try," Harper repeated louder this time as his hand felt the cool metal handle to the drill. He brought the device up in front of Tyr's face and yelled "YOU'RE NOT TYR!" Quickly, he activated the laser drill and placed in near Tyr's temple.
Stolic's words had been whisked from his mouth as his eyes had become huge. The kid was completely psychotic. Both Tyr and Stolic could feel the heat from the laser on their collective temple. Slowly it was getting hotter and hotter, then suddenly it stopped and a scream filled their collective ears.
"NOOOO!" yelled Harper as the drill fell from his hand as he reached for his temples. Gripping his head tightly he hunched over and started to tremble so hard that it looked like convulsions to Tyr. What the hell was wrong with that boy, Try questioned himself.
Memories were what were wrong with Harper. Memories of the hum of the drill, of the warmth he felt radiating from it. Memories of the intense pain a certain Pytho had caused with that type of drill on his temples. The thought that he was about to share the pain with Tyr made him scream even louder.
"GO AWAY!!!" the human yelled as his inner self kicked and shoved the ragging memories into the dark chest. He slammed the heavy lid close and reinforced the box with one more layer of denial.
Again, the instant the box was closed, the pain was erased from his face and the blank stare returned. He picked up the drill that had landed on the floor, stood back up and faced his torture victim.
A wordless Harper activated the drill again and started where he left off before he was so rudely interrupted. As the heat increased, Stolic became too scared for words. When the emotionless face had first reappeared from beneath the table, a cold chill had ran up his adopted spine. The engineer had lost it and was quite willing to cause his friends pain. This turn of events was bad, very bad. This meant none of the Calastors were safe and that for the first time in Stolic's life, he would not get what he wanted.
As the heat on his temple increased, Tyr had to finally admit that he was actually scared, quite scared. He had no idea of what Harper was capable of in this condition and sad to say, but Harper was his only chance of survival. Tyr really, really hoped that the genius had some plan here, because if not, he was going to have to kill the little psychopath.
Harper stared at the drill as it closed in on the soft mocha skin of Tyr's temple. "Not Tyr, not Tyr, not Tyr," he whispered to himself to block out the screams of pain that were beginning to escape Tyr's mouth.
The screams grew louder and louder until they could even be heard corridors away.
*****
Rommie's eyes shifted back and forth under her artificial lids. Her system was slowly coming back to life. In a few hours, the ship made flesh would be up and roaming the corridors of her home once more.
*****
Terrifying screams filled Tyr's ears. Screams of pain, screams of great agony, screams that he soon realized were coming out of his own throat. Were they his screams or Stolic's screams...or both? They should have passed out by now, into sweet unconscious bliss, but the heat from the laser was still vivid in his mind. It would appear that the little professor had injected him with a drug to keep him from passing out. Tyr could even feel the battle between the chemical and the urge to pass out ragging throughout his body. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the blank expression of their torturer, Harper. If, no, when Tyr survived this, Harper was going to experience the full furry of an enraged Kodiak. He would enjoy watching the boy beg for his own death.
A fresh scream escaped Tyr's now dried lips as the laser hit a new nerve. Fire ripped through his brain and continued to tingle throughout his entire body. To make matters worse, Tyr could also feel Stolic's pain. True, it gave him a small pleasure to feel the intruder in pain, but in also meant that his own pain was doubled. What should have been a pin prick now became a massive stabbing sensation. The universe wasn't all bad in that Stolic could still block Tyr's pain so there was no expediential increasing cycle of pain between the two beings. Curse the universe and it's sick sense of kindness.
Kindness that it now showed itself as Harper finally stopped the drill. His emotionless face stared down at the writhing body waiting for something, for some sign.
The pair locked within one body felt the intense heat from the laser disperse. Some residual pain was still present, but the severe pain was now lifting. Tyr's mind was clearing and a massive realization was knocking on the door to his brain. He opened the door and discovered that the horrible sick screams belonged to him, Tyr Anasazi out of Victoria by Barbarosa. Not just in voice but in mind. As the pain was lifting, he could feel Stolic getting stronger and regaining control. That little sick genius DID have a plan! Pain weakened the alien's control on the bodies, but how to permanently expel the invaders was still a mystery to Tyr.
Stolic was quickly regaining control as Harper continued to look for his sign. Tyr saw the yearning in the boy's eyes and knew that Harper needed a sign to tell him that it was working and that he should go on. Tyr was going to give him that sign.
Tyr grabbed hold of Stolic's presence and struggled to push him back down long enough to give Harper what he was waiting for. He struggled past Stolic and ordered his tongue to obey his commands. "H-H-Harper...k-keep...go..g-going...." Tyr was surprised at the hoarseness of his own voice.
Harper's empty eyes widened as Tyr's words reached his ears. For the past few minutes he had been watching with hope as electricity dance across Tyr's eyes as Stolic and Tyr battled for the body. He had been keeping track of the current owner and it was HIS Tyr that had just spoke. A tiny spark lit deep behind his eyes.
Even through the fierce battle ragging inside himself, Tyr did see the recognition in Harper's eyes. That's my boy!, he thought. Wanting to give the engineer a bit more hope to go on, Try fought once more to control his own mouth, "I-I-I....un..understand.......h-h-hurt...m-m-me....." Tyr smiled deep inside as the spark of hope grew brighter behind the boy's eyes. The spark was now joining the two tortured souls, but all this hope was making Stolic rather sick to his stomach. He violently pushed Try down deep within himself and took back the body his Aunt, the Ruler, had given to him.
Harper noticed the now cold harsh eyes that no longer danced with electricity. Tyr was gone which meant Harper was once again alone.
The still rough hoarse voice spoke but this time there was no sense of struggle behind the words. "Silly human, your friend is lost and I am back in control. He will never overcome me no matter how much pain you put us thought. And may I say that he really is hurting here, and all thanks to you." A sick grin grew on the familiar face.
With Tyr's understanding and permission, Harper finally found his voice again. "Oh, I never expected him to take control back from you. I expect that once I'm done with here, you will be more than willing to leave on your own accord. Now, let me show you something else I learned from spending my time with the Pythos." Harper gave an intimating smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and held up the micron sharp surgical knife which shimmered under the bright lights of Medical.
"Ha! A itty bitty knife does scare me!" Stolic shouted behind a shield of false bravado. Tyr could feel what the stupid young lad was really feeling. Fear. Fear of pain that he had never experienced before. Luckily for Tyr, he had experienced this type of pain before, he had lived through it and survived. And that was exactly what he planned on doing this time.
Do it now Master Harper, Tyr encouraged from beyond his void. As if reading his mind, Harper's began to move the shinning scalpel closer to Tyr as the tiny young sparkle died out behind his now empty blue eyes.
Once more, deep screams of agony could be heard corridors away.
TBC....