Part 31
Beka had resumed her position, supporting Harper's head and shoulders with her own body as he remained suspended painfully above the ground. Now naked she could see that he was perspiring again, all over, and his pain seemed to be getting worse as he groaned and moaned with discomfort. Unable to talk for the strain it put on his back, Beka simply talked softly to him about what she was planning to do to Buz the first chance she got.
Buz appeared from behind a door and slowly walked over to them both. "Beka, I'd like to talk to you, if I may?" he gestured away from Harper.
"I'm not leaving him," Beka spoke with a low voice, staying close to her friend.
"We are going to talk, elsewhere," Buz matched her tone with his own.
"Go," Harper managed. "Please?"
Beka knew Harper's intentions were good, and he was thinking of her, but she feared what they might do once she was out of sight. "What needs to be said can be said here," Beka decided.
"Don't make this harder on your friend," Buz now warned.
"Beka," Harper's voice carried strength, and it was enough to make Beka move away, and do as Harper wished.
"I'm only doing this for Harper, not because you wanted to talk to me," Beka stated pointedly, as she followed Buz.
Harper had managed to withhold the cry of pain he had wanted to release once Beka had moved her support away. His shoulders took the strain once more, and his head felt like it weighed a tonne. All too soon he felt the familiar restriction around his chest, as his heart struggled to function in the position he was in, and his breaths became short and laboured again.
Closing his eyes, Harper tried to quell the panic that was rising inside of him. His body was not dealing well with this form of torture, and he knew this, he knew his body well and he knew all about torture. Pain he could deal with, but this was unlike anything the bone head ubers had ever done to him, this was just cruel and inhumane, and Harper found a smirk, remembering that his torturers were not human so that at the very least made sense.
Suddenly he sensed movement around him and there were at least three men around his head and arms. The chain connecting his wrists to the ground was released and the sudden give caused his body to painfully jerk up. Hands now reached under him, as they took his weight and before Harper could react, the chain connected to his middle was also released and the sudden loss in tension caused fresh waves of pain to crash through him. By the time he had regained his senses, Harper found that he was upright, but he also found that he was still hanging and it took him a moment to realise that his wrist cuffs had been secured once again, only this time to the ceiling chain, whilst his feet remained chained to the ground that he was now barely hovering above, his feet only a foot from the stone flooring below. The binding around his stomach was then slowly removed, offering a small relief, and Harper then focused enough to see the three men circling him.
"What now? Do I get to watch a film?" Harper wearily asked, using all his strength to keep his head up, and unsure what they were waiting for. His shoulders and wrists were already sending shots of pain around his body from supporting his weight.
Harper then closed his eyes as the first strike landed across his back, suppressing the cry of agony he knew they wanted to hear but he had learnt long ago how to suffer in silence. A second, third and fourth strike soon followed and Harper still remained silent to the pain. They moved from his back, and began to strike him all over, and he wished they'd raised the chain higher as the men were able to reach anywhere from his head to the toes, and they hardly missed an area, relentlessly striking him until he could take no more. When tears began to begrudgingly fall, and he had unwittingly screamed out a number of times, they stopped and released Harper's wrists from the chain above, watching as the human crumpled to the ground below, barely conscious and in fits of pain.
"Welcome to the Gilads, brother," one of the men spoke, before walking away.
"Yeah, you're welcome," Harper managed hoarsely between heavy breaths whilst trying to focus, the sudden shift in weight and positioning throwing him for a moment. With unsteady hands, he attempted to get to push himself up, but fell back again and rolled onto his back painfully.
"Harper!"
"Beka," Harper responded, relieved to hear her voice.
"I have the keys," Beka quickly spoke and wasted no time in unlocking the cuffs around Harper's wrists and ankles. As soon as she was done she pulled Harper up into an embrace, and Harper knew she was crying.
"You saw it all, didn't you?" Harper asked into her shoulder taking the comfort, already knowing the answer.
"Buz held me," Beka sniffed. "He made me watch, his hand over my mouth prevented me from saying anything," she added, clearly distressed.
"I'm ok," Harper assured her. "Just a few scratches."
"Stop it," Beka returned with force, and she pulled back to look at Harper, just shaking her head. "Not the time for jokes," she stated, barely controlling her emotions, but embracing him again as if scared to let go of him.
"Best time for jokes, Beka," Harper returned with a frown, unsure how to take Beka's mood. "Trust me," he added and this time he pulled back, and he gently brought a now free hand up to her face to wipe away the tears from Beka's cheek.
"I'm ok, it's ok, and everything is fine, ok?" Harper insisted and he needed to see her agree. "Ok?" he repeated firmly, and reluctantly at first, Beka slowly nodded her head. "We can get through this, me and you," he then offered a crooked smile.
"Shouldn't I be saying this stuff?" Beka then asked, with her mood finally lightening.
"Technically yes, but I don't mind, takes my mind off the unbearable pain I'm in," Harper stressed with mock exaggeration.
"When the hell did you get so wise?" Beka asked, appreciating his words as she relaxed some more.
"You just haven't noticed it before, or maybe I didn't want you to see that I can be, sometimes, when no one is looking," Harper grinned. "How about getting me some clothes so I can be a little less humiliated here?"
"Oh," Beka suddenly realised Harper's state of undress and quickly moved. "Of course, they're over here." Beka took a moment to collect her own things, and then the clothes, before returning. "Let me clean you up a bit first though, you're losing blood from some of the breaks in skin and there is not a huge supply of the red stuff on this rock," she frowned, and Harper offered no complaint as she prepared her medical supplies.
Harper could find no position that was comfortable, so opted to just sit on the stone floor with his legs drawn up, as he hugged them tight to his chest. Allowing Beka to patch him up on his back, arms and legs, and giving him an ounce of dignity as she did so. They didn't speak, as Beka concentrated on her work, and Harper concentrated on not making a noise every time she was a little heavy handed, which was most of the time.
He felt a little light headed after his torture, his whole body felt as though it still being suspended from the ceiling, and hadn't had a chance to readjust yet. From what he could see however, the actual damage to him physically was minimal, a handful of the strikes against his body had resulted in breaking the skin, leaving a couple of deep cuts, but the rest of the damage was sores, bruising and annoying aches. Harper flexed his hands and then moved his feet, both were painful actions but he took solace in the fact he could still feel and move them after what he had been through. His stomach was unrecognisable, with purple and black bruising nearly covering the whole area where the binding had secured him to the ceiling, and he guessed that his lower back looked pretty much the same.
The pain however was something that he was quickly able to dismiss, his years on Earth had taught him well, and his mind instead concentrated on the care and concern he was now getting from Beka, and he realised it was all he needed in that moment. Beka had been there for him at the moments he needed most, and had lived the torture with him, and he had gained some strength from that. Never before, on Earth, had he had someone to help him through the pain, this was new territory and it had helped him to focus on something other than his own self, and now he found he had seen in Beka something he had never seen before.
Finally Beka felt she had done enough, and she busily helped Harper to stand before offering him the clothes, which he readily took. "I don't mind," he then spoke, whilst trying to find his balance, and having trouble with his still partially swollen feet.
"Don't mind what?"
"You seeing me like this, you know, minus pants, clothes, the full Harper," Harper awkwardly spoke, even finding a smirk. "I mean, yeah, maybe when we first met, those times on the Maru, man, six months ago, six days ago I would have had an issue with it but now, I don't mind."
"What's changed?" Beka was curious, though she had to admit she wasn't sure she was completely comfortable with it.
"Our situation," Harper offered.
"Well, it was kind of forced," Beka conceded. "I'm sure given the choice you wouldn't have been so eager to lose the pants, and don't turn that comment into some lewd return, Harper."
Harper smirked, caught out but soon recovered. "I don't know, just this past week, these past couple of hours even, I feel like I've finally got to know you," Harper shrugged, having managed to get the new pants on and was decent again, as he attempted to put on the Gilad issued boots.
"Know me?" Beka found this hard to believe. "Harper, I've never hidden any side of my character from you," she lightly protested.
"You have," Harper picked up the loose shirt that made up the new outfit he had been supplied with, and left it undone whilst he glanced at Beka. "You always hid how you really felt about me," he shrugged without emotion either way. "And now I think I finally know," he offered and moved closer. "I finally understand."
"You do?" Beka felt a little unsure by Harper tone, and just what he was implying.
"It's always confused me, Beka, why you do what you do for my sake," Harper stated, looking away. "I never understood why you kept me around, some mud foot from a slave world," Harper admitted heavily, avoiding her stare. "Or why you'd risk your ship, your skin to help or save me time and again but the reason I haven't been able to understand is because I've not had that since I was five years old, not since I saw my parents struck down in front of me."
"Harper," Beka wanted to speak but Harper held his hand up.
"You have been through hell these past few hours, more than me, regardless of what they did to me, Beka, you suffered," Harper stressed. "But it took that hell to make me finally see what I've never seen before."
"That I love you," Beka finally spoke.
"But not in that way," Harper grinned, and Beka smirked with him.
"Unconditional love, Harper."
"I never knew what it meant," Harper frowned. "Or that you felt that way about me," he added unsure, as if suddenly he wasn't so confident about what he was saying, but Beka's smile reassured him.
"Either did I till we reached this place, and Rhade began cross examining me about you," Beka admitted. "I just thought I was maybe overly loyal to you, because you're my crew but he made me realise it was more."
Harper then took a deep breath and seemed to realise his surroundings suddenly. "We should move, get back to camp, or the house, I don't think it really matters does it? Which one we return to," Harper suggested, suddenly agitated by the situation. "I really don't want to stay here a moment longer."
"Of course," Beka was quick to agree, the mood that had suddenly taken them both somewhere they'd never been before, quickly lifted, and now there was the desire to simply move away from the subject and continue with their lives as normal. "You good to go, do you need any help?" Beka checked unsure knowing he was hurting.
"I'm good," Harper declared moving forward, and for the most part he seemed pretty agile considering, though to the trained eye, Beka could see he was moving with great pain.
Harper suddenly grimaced, as his body jerked slightly, and Beka moved quickly to his side quickly. "You ok?"
"Yeah," Harper nodded his head but quickly regained his composure, and they soon moved out of the building into the now darkened streets of Edenia. "This is so weird," Harper remarked. "They torture you, and then leave you to make your own way home, what kind of freakish place is this?"
"A place I can't wait to see the back off," Beka remarked with her eyes scanning the area with caution.
"Ow," Harper jerked again, and then time he stopped to catch his breath.
"What is it?" Beka asked more firmly this time, moving to the front of Harper and holding his arms.
"Damn port feels left out, it's trying to get my attention, give me a minute," Harper requested, and without hesitation Beka brought Harper forward into an embrace and held him to her, as he waited for his port to stop tripping him.
"What does it feel like?" Beka asked.
"Like I'm resting my head a bit too close to your-" Harper began until Beka cut him off.
"I mean the port, and the tripping!" Beka snapped, and then smirked knowing she shouldn't have expected anything more from Harper, and relieved that it was a clear sign he was ok, in his own way.
"Oh, right," Harper quickly considered her question. "It feels like my brain is in two places, here and there," Harper seriously answered, with his eyes closed to the dizziness he felt, with his head having moved slightly to rest against Beka's shoulder.
"That can't be good," Beka showed her concern once more, and held him a little tighter whilst waiting for the attack to cease.
"The metallic signature of that metal Tirus uses must have some trace element in it that can somehow connect, in part, with my port," Harper stated.
"I lost you at 'the'," Beka offered quietly, as she held him protectively, and they were both simply stood in the street.
"If this keeps up you might lose me completely," Harper then pulled back, moving away from her, and avoided Beka's glare. It was now clear that the port had ceased causing Harper problems, as he found his focus and looked ready to move again.
"What did you say?" Beka checked and moved to Harper's side.
Harper shrugged, and Beka sensed his concern and the hint of fear about his stance. "This stuff is messing with my brain, Beka," Harper offered softly, his head down. "Now I'm no doctor, no brain specialist but these trips," Harper looked up revealing in his eyes, as they met with Bekas', that he was scared. "Surely they're going to start messing things up, if they haven't already started," he then frowned. "Beka, those reports we looked at together, remember, when I first mentioned getting this port done way back when?"
"The ones that talked and ranted about the damage that could be done to the brain when a port goes faulty, and isn't fixed? Yeah, that was supposed to be a deterrent before you got that thing inserted, not now, and you wanted that port," Beka stated.
Harper smirked. "If you remember it was me showing you," he simply said and Beka backed down, knowing what he was suggesting. "I don't regret a thing, Beka, how could I?" he exclaimed. "Everything I have experienced in the past six years is due to this port," he half smiled. "But we have to be realistic, there's no one here who can fix ports, and we're not exactly in any position that suggests we're leaving soon and my port is still faulty."
"Dylan is concerned," Beka admitted heavily, not knowing what else to say.
"I keep hoping it'll go away, but I don't think it will," Harper sighed. "The port itself is fine, at least I think it is, but this stuff inside it has to be removed because I can't keep tripping like this."
Beka moved to Harper and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "It's been a long day, we're both tired maybe now isn't the time to be discussing this, we've both been through a lot and you need to rest so your body can produce some more of that red stuff that you lost."
"You say it like I did it on purpose," Harper teased, and Beka looked down as she smiled with him but soon felt Harper stop and freeze, causing her to do likewise as she sharply looked up.
"Get away from us," Beka warned on seeing the old lady, and she encouraged Harper to move behind her. "I said move," Beka demanded when Killah didn't react.
The old lady was wide eyed, and looking past Beka to Harper. She then offered a small sack to Beka, and waited.
"We don't want anything from you, please, just go," Beka stressed, knowing Harper didn't need this right now and that he genuinely feared the old lady.
"I'm sorry, but take this, please," Killah forced Beka to take the sack and then just as quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared amazingly agile for a lady of her age.
"She is pure evil, her eyes just eat into me, you know?" Harper stated with fear, finally moving back to Beka's side. "What the hell did she give you?"
Beka checked the sack and showed her surprise, as she pulled out two medical devices. "Seems like more medical nanobots, and synthetic blood, your type," she frowned unsure. "Both chilled, and seemingly ready to use."
"I don't know," Harper backed away unsure.
"She took samples of your blood," Beka reminded him. "Maybe this is genuine."
"She had no equipment, she's crazy, Beka," Harper dismissed. "That could be red paint or coloured water for all we know!"
"She fixed your shoulder," Beka persisted lightly, and this time Harper didn't respond immediately, but still looked agitated and unsure. "You're injured and this could help, it's not the first time the Gilads has given you the aid you need," she considered.
"The Gilads are the ones that did this to me," Harper snapped back, and then composed himself. "I'd rather let my own body do its thing."
"Your own body isn't capable of that, not efficiently," Beka moved closer to her friend, but he was already shaking his head.
"No," Harper simply stated.
"Ok," Beka agreed and she threw the bag to the ground, and they continued walking.
From the shadows, and unknown to them, the old lady retrieved the bag with a look of sadness on her face before disappearing once again.
TBC