Skrill Queen
The knowledge of exactly who was sitting before me crashed through my link. Liam's shock, relief, happiness, anger, and a whirlwind of other emotions swept through rapidly leaving me confused. And what Liam felt was quite a bit worse since they were his emotions and therefore he lacked the emotional detachment that I profited from when it came to analyzing his heart. However his overwhelming feeling of joy almost covered over the other less distinct feelings swirling around in his soul. Joy that his mentor was not gone. Well gone completely.
I put my own feelings aside.
For all his responsibilities Liam was still a young one. And because my own emotional response was not so jumbled as my bond mate's I could not risk him feeling it.
Before me was one of my captors. Maybe not the one directly in charge of my cage but a Taleon- or former Taleon nevertheless- who had held me for so many turnings. The great love for my bond mate was all that kept me from acting on my impulse to remove this 'Da'an' from this plane of existence.
It helped that the form of this Da'an was no longer Taleon. It helped a great deal.
Da'an
He was wearing blue. That was the first thing that impinged on my mind. The second was that I was glad for his sense of timing. He had jut burst through the door when two seconds before I wouldn't have recognized him at all. The third was that he looked rather flustered. His eyes latched onto Liam and he opened his mouth as if to talk but nothing came out.
"Liam.." He started but seemed at a loss for what to say next.
I frowned as one of my newly reacquired memories pointed out a rather disturbing fact to me. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
Boone started and looked at me as if he just noticed I was in the room. "I got better," he murmured to me. The he turned back to look at Liam his whole face contorted in sympathy. "Sandoval's CVI-"
Boone never had a chance to finish. Liam almost knocked him over in his rush to leave the room. I couldn't move. I wanted to jump up and wrap myself in around Boone. I wanted to feel safe in his arms. I wanted a thousand things I couldn't put a name to but desperately felt. 'What's going on with me?'
Boone glanced at me one more time looking frustrated then disappeared through the door. Which I heard lock with a click.
Boone
The scene before me was eerily familiar. Sandoval was strapped down with monitors clipped to his forehead. The only new addition was Liam's tense form standing over his father listening to the steady sound of the heart monitor. Liam looked up from Sandoval's still form and sent a pleading look at the base doctor.
Dr. Georgina Sampson motioned for us to step away from Sandoval. I didn't see much point. Unless she thought that getting Liam away from Sandoval would help him get a handle on his emotions. Liam glanced down at Sandoval's sweat covered face then followed us to the far corner of the room.
The doctor gave Liam a sympathetic look. She didn't know why Liam was so affected by Sandoval's condition. She was a new recruit, but she could read the pain and hope Liam was feeling. "I'm sorry Major. There's nothing that can be done. There isn't enough of his CVI to even consider administering the anti-CVI virus. This breakdown has been very through and very slow. His synaptic pathways are already collapsing. He has under twenty minutes before he starts hemorrhaging to death."
Liam stood stock-still. He couldn't seem to bring himself to say anything as though if he stood still and didn't say anything it wouldn't be true. The awkward silence stretched on. Liam refused to say anything but if I were in his shoes I wouldn't want this young doctor there gawking at me as I watched my father die. So I nodded to the doc.
"Thank you doctor." I said in a clear dismissal. She hesitated glancing at her patient then returned my nod and left the room.
I gripped Liam's arm trying to communicate my sympathy and support. Liam looked up at me with wounded eyes. "Sometimes noting can be done." I turned to look at Sandoval. A memory drifted in from the past and I found myself echoing Dr. Belman's words. "You can't unfry an egg."
"Watch me." Liam growled out and I whipped around surprised at the resolve and challenge I heard in that growl. Liam had lost his stricken look and replaced it with hard-edged determination. A bright light flashed almost blinding me then dimmed and I looked down almost unsurprised to see his palms lit up. He turned and moved to stand by Sandoval's bed.
"Liam.." I called worried. Quinton flashed through my mind. If he tried and failed.. Liam glared at me then placed his hands on either side of Sandoval's head.
I stared at the still form bent over his father and felt my heart beat with sympathy. I too had a father at one point. 'I'd better get Augur. If Sandoval doesn't make it he's about the only one who might be able to pull him back from the edge.'
Augur
I didn't go on the raid. One: I had no Skrill. Two: I wasn't suicidal enough to want one. That would put me in the fighting corps. Not my scene. I may be willing to do a lot for my friends but I'm no fighter.
I also wasn't there to se the triumphant hunters because waiting around anxious and trying to hide it made me feel way too much like a mother hen. I stayed in my tech room waiting like a mother hen watching for her chicks to come home safe and trying to hide it. Waiting for Liam to come in and tell me he was alright and that he'd been a good boy and shot a bad guy for me. Therefore I missed the prisoner parade and ensuing shock.
As I stared at Liam's statue impersonation I couldn't help but think back.
"I was the first person he ever did that for you know." I whispered. I wasn't sure why. Like a guy working with a bomb I couldn't bring myself to talk in a normal ordinary voice. Boone turned to look at me a question written across his face in big blazing letters.
"He was going to kill himself." I tore my eyes away from the tableau of my young friend working himself to the bone trying to save his father. Boone looked positively run over. Me, I wasn't sure why I was telling him this. Liam protects secrets fiercely, sometimes I think ashamedly, and respecting his wishes I don't usually talk about the things that happened. I stared straight at Boone. 'Maybe I want to play confessor for once. Maybe I want someone else to know all the stuff he's given up. Maybe I want someone else to see him the way I do.' Whatever the reason I felt the story bubbling up inside me unwilling to stay untold. "He thought he was going to go crazy and slaughter everyone. The Taleons developed this device to disrupt brainwaves and they had it aimed at the kid's head. He didn't know I faked his profile." I looked back at Liam. "His brainwaves were to different. I used Doors. Thought it was a great joke." I shook my head.
Damit. The kid was so scared! He thought he was going to be a murderer. For Christ sakes he was only days old and he thought dying would be the best thing! I still have the note he wrote me. I know why. Because I knew how dangerous his job was. The man beside me certainly proved that. It was kind of my lucky charm. If he could survive his best efforts then everyone else was going to have a heck of a worse time.
I was pulled out of my memories when Liam suddenly spun around and folded up, his head and hands resting on his knees.
Margsath
*Boone is only concerned for you.* I myself felt apprehension over my bond mate's actions. However I could feel the deep intertwining of Liam's soul with his father. My bond mate was not the type to embrace the Dark but I could feel if Sandoval were to leave this plane a large part of my bond mate would be ripped away with him.
As a race my people long ago embraced the ties that bind. Even if they did not share bonds like we do humans invest large amounts of their souls to others just as Skrills do.
Liam's inner voice was affected by the strain he was putting on his body. *I know Maggie. But it's not like I haven't done this before.*
I quickly grasped the memory he was sending along our link. I analyzed it. *True. However Augur's energy was only disrupted and his heart stopped. Your father is much more extensively damaged.* I could feel sweat forming on my bond mate as he forced his father's brain to change from the consistency of churned mud into it's proper springy *mertix*- I searched Liam's mind briefly for a human comparison- sponge like form.
*I have to-grunt- try!* Liam was faltering. His energy flowed out of him in an effort to salvage his father's life.
I thought of my children. Of all those I had lost and what I would do to save those I had left and I found my decision to be an easy one. The only one in fact I knew I would be able to live with.
*I know you do,* and I joined my energy to his.
My mind flooded with images as I flowed along the path of our joined energy. It could have been hours or days before I was thrown back into my own mind. I felt spent as if I had fired my deadly blasts one too many times. Liam's exhaustion mirrored my own but it was also filled with a sense of satisfaction. He turned and let gravity pull him to the ground slouching forward having no energy left.
*We did it.* He whispered. His was mind pushed to the limit and he didn't bother putting forth the effort to send more clearly. *We-* he stopped as a million thoughts cascaded in his mind forming a pattern.
Liam straightened and faced the two men, Boone and Augur, I had not even realized was in the room. "I have a plan."
The knowledge of exactly who was sitting before me crashed through my link. Liam's shock, relief, happiness, anger, and a whirlwind of other emotions swept through rapidly leaving me confused. And what Liam felt was quite a bit worse since they were his emotions and therefore he lacked the emotional detachment that I profited from when it came to analyzing his heart. However his overwhelming feeling of joy almost covered over the other less distinct feelings swirling around in his soul. Joy that his mentor was not gone. Well gone completely.
I put my own feelings aside.
For all his responsibilities Liam was still a young one. And because my own emotional response was not so jumbled as my bond mate's I could not risk him feeling it.
Before me was one of my captors. Maybe not the one directly in charge of my cage but a Taleon- or former Taleon nevertheless- who had held me for so many turnings. The great love for my bond mate was all that kept me from acting on my impulse to remove this 'Da'an' from this plane of existence.
It helped that the form of this Da'an was no longer Taleon. It helped a great deal.
Da'an
He was wearing blue. That was the first thing that impinged on my mind. The second was that I was glad for his sense of timing. He had jut burst through the door when two seconds before I wouldn't have recognized him at all. The third was that he looked rather flustered. His eyes latched onto Liam and he opened his mouth as if to talk but nothing came out.
"Liam.." He started but seemed at a loss for what to say next.
I frowned as one of my newly reacquired memories pointed out a rather disturbing fact to me. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
Boone started and looked at me as if he just noticed I was in the room. "I got better," he murmured to me. The he turned back to look at Liam his whole face contorted in sympathy. "Sandoval's CVI-"
Boone never had a chance to finish. Liam almost knocked him over in his rush to leave the room. I couldn't move. I wanted to jump up and wrap myself in around Boone. I wanted to feel safe in his arms. I wanted a thousand things I couldn't put a name to but desperately felt. 'What's going on with me?'
Boone glanced at me one more time looking frustrated then disappeared through the door. Which I heard lock with a click.
Boone
The scene before me was eerily familiar. Sandoval was strapped down with monitors clipped to his forehead. The only new addition was Liam's tense form standing over his father listening to the steady sound of the heart monitor. Liam looked up from Sandoval's still form and sent a pleading look at the base doctor.
Dr. Georgina Sampson motioned for us to step away from Sandoval. I didn't see much point. Unless she thought that getting Liam away from Sandoval would help him get a handle on his emotions. Liam glanced down at Sandoval's sweat covered face then followed us to the far corner of the room.
The doctor gave Liam a sympathetic look. She didn't know why Liam was so affected by Sandoval's condition. She was a new recruit, but she could read the pain and hope Liam was feeling. "I'm sorry Major. There's nothing that can be done. There isn't enough of his CVI to even consider administering the anti-CVI virus. This breakdown has been very through and very slow. His synaptic pathways are already collapsing. He has under twenty minutes before he starts hemorrhaging to death."
Liam stood stock-still. He couldn't seem to bring himself to say anything as though if he stood still and didn't say anything it wouldn't be true. The awkward silence stretched on. Liam refused to say anything but if I were in his shoes I wouldn't want this young doctor there gawking at me as I watched my father die. So I nodded to the doc.
"Thank you doctor." I said in a clear dismissal. She hesitated glancing at her patient then returned my nod and left the room.
I gripped Liam's arm trying to communicate my sympathy and support. Liam looked up at me with wounded eyes. "Sometimes noting can be done." I turned to look at Sandoval. A memory drifted in from the past and I found myself echoing Dr. Belman's words. "You can't unfry an egg."
"Watch me." Liam growled out and I whipped around surprised at the resolve and challenge I heard in that growl. Liam had lost his stricken look and replaced it with hard-edged determination. A bright light flashed almost blinding me then dimmed and I looked down almost unsurprised to see his palms lit up. He turned and moved to stand by Sandoval's bed.
"Liam.." I called worried. Quinton flashed through my mind. If he tried and failed.. Liam glared at me then placed his hands on either side of Sandoval's head.
I stared at the still form bent over his father and felt my heart beat with sympathy. I too had a father at one point. 'I'd better get Augur. If Sandoval doesn't make it he's about the only one who might be able to pull him back from the edge.'
Augur
I didn't go on the raid. One: I had no Skrill. Two: I wasn't suicidal enough to want one. That would put me in the fighting corps. Not my scene. I may be willing to do a lot for my friends but I'm no fighter.
I also wasn't there to se the triumphant hunters because waiting around anxious and trying to hide it made me feel way too much like a mother hen. I stayed in my tech room waiting like a mother hen watching for her chicks to come home safe and trying to hide it. Waiting for Liam to come in and tell me he was alright and that he'd been a good boy and shot a bad guy for me. Therefore I missed the prisoner parade and ensuing shock.
As I stared at Liam's statue impersonation I couldn't help but think back.
"I was the first person he ever did that for you know." I whispered. I wasn't sure why. Like a guy working with a bomb I couldn't bring myself to talk in a normal ordinary voice. Boone turned to look at me a question written across his face in big blazing letters.
"He was going to kill himself." I tore my eyes away from the tableau of my young friend working himself to the bone trying to save his father. Boone looked positively run over. Me, I wasn't sure why I was telling him this. Liam protects secrets fiercely, sometimes I think ashamedly, and respecting his wishes I don't usually talk about the things that happened. I stared straight at Boone. 'Maybe I want to play confessor for once. Maybe I want someone else to know all the stuff he's given up. Maybe I want someone else to see him the way I do.' Whatever the reason I felt the story bubbling up inside me unwilling to stay untold. "He thought he was going to go crazy and slaughter everyone. The Taleons developed this device to disrupt brainwaves and they had it aimed at the kid's head. He didn't know I faked his profile." I looked back at Liam. "His brainwaves were to different. I used Doors. Thought it was a great joke." I shook my head.
Damit. The kid was so scared! He thought he was going to be a murderer. For Christ sakes he was only days old and he thought dying would be the best thing! I still have the note he wrote me. I know why. Because I knew how dangerous his job was. The man beside me certainly proved that. It was kind of my lucky charm. If he could survive his best efforts then everyone else was going to have a heck of a worse time.
I was pulled out of my memories when Liam suddenly spun around and folded up, his head and hands resting on his knees.
Margsath
*Boone is only concerned for you.* I myself felt apprehension over my bond mate's actions. However I could feel the deep intertwining of Liam's soul with his father. My bond mate was not the type to embrace the Dark but I could feel if Sandoval were to leave this plane a large part of my bond mate would be ripped away with him.
As a race my people long ago embraced the ties that bind. Even if they did not share bonds like we do humans invest large amounts of their souls to others just as Skrills do.
Liam's inner voice was affected by the strain he was putting on his body. *I know Maggie. But it's not like I haven't done this before.*
I quickly grasped the memory he was sending along our link. I analyzed it. *True. However Augur's energy was only disrupted and his heart stopped. Your father is much more extensively damaged.* I could feel sweat forming on my bond mate as he forced his father's brain to change from the consistency of churned mud into it's proper springy *mertix*- I searched Liam's mind briefly for a human comparison- sponge like form.
*I have to-grunt- try!* Liam was faltering. His energy flowed out of him in an effort to salvage his father's life.
I thought of my children. Of all those I had lost and what I would do to save those I had left and I found my decision to be an easy one. The only one in fact I knew I would be able to live with.
*I know you do,* and I joined my energy to his.
My mind flooded with images as I flowed along the path of our joined energy. It could have been hours or days before I was thrown back into my own mind. I felt spent as if I had fired my deadly blasts one too many times. Liam's exhaustion mirrored my own but it was also filled with a sense of satisfaction. He turned and let gravity pull him to the ground slouching forward having no energy left.
*We did it.* He whispered. His was mind pushed to the limit and he didn't bother putting forth the effort to send more clearly. *We-* he stopped as a million thoughts cascaded in his mind forming a pattern.
Liam straightened and faced the two men, Boone and Augur, I had not even realized was in the room. "I have a plan."