Disclaimer: see chapter one
a/n: Thanks for reviewing!!! Really! Very much!! And thanks of course to my beta reader!
The end is near...
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Malcolm gave a quick look in both directions before exiting the cell.
"Do ya know where we're goin'?" Trip wondered aloud, as they stumbled out together in the nearly blinding darkness.
"Well, maybe not exactly, but we'll manage," Malcolm answered, sounding as uncertain as his statement. Trip exhaled a little more loudly then he had intended to, not liking the Lieutenant's response.
"A little gratitude for my rescue efforts would be more appropriate then your complains," Malcolm snapped. He hated not being able to plan this type of thing out.
"Hey, I'm not complainin'," Trip said weakly, still leaning heavily on Malcolm for support. "It's just I have a feeling this thing is probably watchin' us pretty closely. I doubt it will be long before It notices I'm not frozen in that little room."
"I know," Malcolm sighed, regretting the displacement of his frustrations, and proceeded to tell Trip about what he had seen happen between the two entities earlier.
Trip, though he kept his thoughts to himself, was confused by the fact both Diluculo and Parialter had been seen at the same time. Something struck him as odd about that. His gut told him there was more to this situation. What had Parialter told him about being partly seen by imagination...? Even while Parialter had turned into an ally of sorts; the similarities he'd felt between the two...made him suspicious. Parialter certainly hadn't really tried to prevent Malcolm from coming after him, and odds told him this could end very badly. Now they were both cornered.
Continuing further away from the room that had been holding Trip, they moved deeper into the darkness.
After what seemed to Trip hours of wandering in near total darkness, trying to be as silent as humanly possible, he let out a soft gasp, trying to stifle a cough. "I don't think I can keep this up much longer without resting' Malcolm," he said, trying to push away the guilt he felt at holding them back. It'll just be for a moment, he tried to convince himself.
Malcolm squinted at him in the darkness, trying to make out exactly how much more Trip had been injured, but it was impossible in this light. "Okay," came the Lieutenant's bland answer. He did not liking the idea of stopping, but he knew he couldn't keep it up much longer either. They slumped down leaning against a dirty, once elegant, wall.
"You never told me what happened to you when the Diluculo took you. Why was It torturing you? Did It ever say what It wanted?" Malcolm queried, once Trip caught his breath.
Trip swallowed. He didn't like this conversation, but now was not the time to worry about what didn't happen. Malcolm had gotten him out, he reminded himself, chidingly, and now they had to get out of here. "I don't know, well yes sort of," he started a little hoarsely. "Mostly It wanted to know what was goin' on I think. It is convinced that we are the descendants of this planet's former inhabitants. I couldn't convince It otherwise. It probed for information, It is obsessed with knowin' what Parialter is doing.
After It finally figured out I didn't know anything, and wasn't gonna help, It started doing the physical stuff. I don't remember a lot... I think it was just testing, comparing, not exactly torturing, but not attempting to making the experience... pleasant." He made the understatement casually.
Malcolm was well aware of the obvious concealment, but continued the conversation, "Comparing you to the aliens who lived here."
"I understand the hot cold tolerance testing, and the light sensitivity, apparently we are similar to these people; but there were a few things It did to my head, or mind, I just..." he gestured helplessly, then coughed hard into his hand. There was a metallic taste in his mouth when he was finished.
"Your mind?" Malcolm asked sharply.
"It was during those sessions that I kinda, lost touch with, well...me."
The Lieutenant waited patiently.
"It made my mind hurt. I-it's kinda hard to explain."
"What did It do to you physically, if anything, during this test?" Malcolm asked slowly, thinking his question out carefully.
Trip drew a breath, frowning in the darkness, "That stuff seems so foggy now. I remember something heavy and cold- like metal -on my neck... the back I think." He shook his head, "But I can't remember much of it. I felt like there was no reason for..." he stopped at a loss for the correct word, "anything I guess. It was trying to tell me something at this point, but with that thing on my neck I couldn't understand, and the more It tried, the more my mind ached."
"Hmm," Trip heard Malcolm say in the darkness next to him.
They rested in silence for a few moments, the creaking and groaning of the structure making them jump every now and then.
"I really wouldn't mind some lights," Trip muttered.
"I'd second that," Malcolm said wryly.
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Somewhere in the darkness that engulfed the innermost rooms, the two creatures spoke.
"If you would just listen to me," came Parialter's silky voice floating on the darkness that enveloped It. The tone was close to entreating.
"No. It is too risky. They are to die."
"Diluculo, they could help us."
"What they could offer is not worth the risk. We would be too vulnerable. Too defenseless. I remember what those times were like. I worked too hard to keep things from reverting to those ways."
"Killing every living thing has done very little to help you."
"I fail to see how you can arrive at that conclusion. I have prevented a great many possible disasters from befalling us in the future. What I did was only to ensure our survival."
"Your survival," came the soft correction.
"Semantics. You, I, there is little difference." Not entirely picking up on what Parialter had meant.
"There is difference enough. You long to be rid of me as much as I long to be rid of you. I despise what you have done. Such disregard for intelligent life."
"Such ignorant benevolence for the intelligent. You would have us serving the creators. Doing what we were created to do."
"I would not."
"There is nothing worse in this life, Parialter, then to be moved through it without true awareness."
"Do you think I do not know this?" Parialter continued, "Do you wish to be free of me?"
Silence.
"Admit you do," Parialter pressed.
"We cannot remain as we are. Of that much I'm certain."
Parialter seemed to purr, "Then you will help me. We can seize the opportunity at hand, and employ the assistance of our visitors. You know we cannot do this on our own. They trust me now, they listen to me; and are much less afraid then the creators."
Diluculo growled, "They are naïve."
"All to our advantage."
"And if we succeed, what do you propose we do with them afterward? How do I know you do not wish to be independent only so that you may destroy me? These, descendants may want revenge. Perhaps you have already sided with them."
"They are not our creators. They are not of this world. I do not side with them in anything save the right to be."
Diluculo made a frustrated grunt. It knew that Parialter was voicing true beliefs, and found it incredibly irksome to be stymied by them in this manner.
"This may be the key to far greater things then even I have dreamed, and you may find that in the end the threat you fear so much from others is not as great as you envisioned."
Diluculo, sensing how much these 'far greater things' dwelt so obsessively in his counterpart's mind, had presence enough to amend the truce more to It's liking. "I see this as a worthy endeavor. However, if I am to do this, once these...others...have finished their part they will be destroyed. And you will not stand in the way."
Quite.
Then finally, "If it works," the smooth tones rippled through the velvety darkness, "no, I will not."
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'If we continue in this direction, it seems likely that we will eventually end up in the center of this place. That may be where the communications...'
Malcolm's train of thought was abruptly interrupted by Trip's voice. "How's yer head anyhow?" he said more loudly then what Malcolm thought the current situation warranted.
He squinted through the thickening darkness, attempting to make out the Commander's form behind him. "I'll be fine," he bit off in a whisper, and continued to creep along the wall, hand out stretched in the inky space in front of him.
"That bad?" Trip asked in a slightly softer voice, but evidently it was not significant enough for the Lieutenant to notice.
"Shhh! Would you tone it down, or keep your bloody mouth shut! You'll bring It right to us, and frankly I don't feel like I could run anymore even though my life would depend on it."
"Come on Mal, you don't honestly think were hiding from It. It knows were we are."
"Then why hasn't it come after us yet? Or killed us?"
"That is the question," Trip pondered.
Malcolm exhaled. "Look, I just think we shouldn't go around asking to be found. And should the need arise, you're in no condition to go bolting off either," he noted. He'd been listening to Trip wheeze in the darkness behind him for the past hour, and it worried him how little the Commander had recovered since his capture.
Trip shivered in the blackness, he still hadn't been able to get warm, "I'll be able to scoot, when we gotta scoot. Don't ya worry," he said annoyance evident in his tone, as he felt his way along the wall behind Malcolm. "What is your plan of action anyway? Wander around this pitch black labyrinth until we either happen upon a communications room or die in one of these musty hall ways?"
"Do you have any better ideas? Because if you do I'd love to hear them."
"Well if we had a little more light, I might be able to guess the general direction of this place's power source by lookin' at fixtures and such."
"Well that's bloody terrific! If I had a little more light I might actually be able to prevent us from going in circles, and could keep from bumping into things," Malcolm said sarcastically.
"Now look here Lieutenant," Trip started, getting ruffled, but that's as far as the statement went. Across the long empty room they had evidently entered shone a tiny pair of violet eyes gleaming at quite a distance. Both men went stock still, breathlessly watching.
"Very slowly," Malcolm just breathed, beginning to inchhis way along the room's perimeter, Trip close behind. The creature began its pursuit windingly, weaving, with snake like motions.
"Too late, run!" Trip hissed.
They tried to move quickly, but that is something very difficult to do when one can't see. It was more like they were franticly scrambling about while tripping clumsily over little obstacles, and their own feet. The creature did not seem to be moving quite as fast as they both seen had before, yet at the moment it was not a detail they noticed in their desperate attempt to flee. Suddenly, a dull stream of light appeared, cutting across the room.
"This way," came Parialter's gentle voice.
They darted the direction that It beckoned, following the light. Malcolm's heart was in his throat as he ran towards the door ahead, from which glowing light leaked through cracks around the frame. He heard Trip give a funny gasp behind him. As Malcolm raised his hand to open the door with a thump, it slide open without his touch. He stumbled into the blinding light.
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TBC
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