Chapter 17: Love Hurts.
The first thing Jack became aware of a was a strange metallic creaking noise, it sounded like a rusty hinge in the wind constantly creaking back and forth, the next thing was a heavy clanking noise like boots on a metal plate floor, well that was until the pain kicked in.
As he opened his eyes his vision swam in and out of focus, he appeared to be in a room that was almost completely darkened except for two rather large spot lights that were aimed right at him, he tried to focus his eyes away from the lights instead looking at the areas around them but the lights blinded him to the point where all he could pick out were vague shapes, he also became of the fact that his hands were chained to the ceiling and he was stood upright.
As soon as his eyes were open he heard a set of those footsteps head away from him before two sets returned, he heard voices but he couldn't pick out what was being said, but he did hear the word 'ooman' being said more than once.
That was when one of the shapes in the room revealed themselves by stepping into the light, stood in front of Jack was a rather large Yaujta male, he had a rather large rippled head crescent with what almost looked like horns running off the sides of it, his face was covered by scars and from what Jack could see one of his eyes was totally white from a scar that ran through it, his skin was a grey yellow color with patches of blue running through it, to say he was ugly was an understatement and that was an observation Jack felt he was more than qualified to make given that she'd seen the pretty side of the species in Tik.
The bad blood male had a verity of jewelry all over him in the form of rings on his dreadlocks as well as small skulls of a verity of animals hanging from his black armor, he stepped right up to Jack and leaned down to look into his face, he looks almost curious as he made an unusual clicking noise with his mandibles and moved his face from the left side of Jack's face to the right, his green eyes never left Jack's the entire time, "Ooman show no fear" he said in a rather deep voice,
"I'm not scared of you fuckers, grossed out by that puke pile you call a face maybe but not scared" Jack said defiantly, the male made a rapid clicking noise before he stood up to his full eight-foot height and let out a mighty laugh,
"Ooman has spirit" he said gesturing to the other forms in the room and Jack could hear various clicks from around the room, "Not for long" the male said in a genuinely menacing tone before he threw an almighty punch into Jack's side which hit him so hard he actually left the ground and swung on his chains like a piñata.
The pain burst through Jack like a wave from the point of impact and he was sure he heard at least one of his ribs go, the male slugged him then in the other side again swinging him up into the air, the third one hit him square in the face causing him to see star bursts of light in his vision, "Where is the Shadow Claw whore hiding?" the male asked and suddenly Jack got what this was about, they must have seen him and Tik together at some point and were now going to use him to find her, well they were going to have to kill him because there was no way he was going to give up the woman he loved.
"What Shadow Claw whore?" he asked in a raspy voice playing dumb, the male clicked his mandibles angrily,
"The one who helped you kill the kiande amedha" he said in a low growl,
"Oh her? No idea said something about having to piss on the graves of something called bad bloods, haven't seen her since" Jack said with a smile, with a roar of anger the male slammed his fist into Jack's face so hard it snapped his head back and blurred his vision, this was followed up with about several other hard punches to various parts of Jack's chest, the male got right into Jack's face and was so close that he could feel the heat of his breath let alone smell the distinct aroma of rotten meat and sweaty socks, or at least that's what it reminded Jack of,
"Ooman will tell us eventually" he said in a rather calm tone, then he gestured to the shadows in the room and suddenly it was free for all time, the punches came from every direction sending bomb bursts of pain through Jack's body,
'Just you wait fuckers, if Tik doesn't tear you in half I'm going to' he thought silently as he gritted his teeth against the floods of pain, well that was until he blacked out
Tik eleth followed the tracks of the bad bloods through the jungle, she was moving a lot slower than she would have liked given the circumstances, but she had to be cautious and not give herself away, these bad bloods were sneaky and could literally be waiting anywhere along this trail for her to pop up, she knew that the only reason they'd have taken Ack was to get to her, they must have realized that there was a connection between them to what extent they knew however was unknown, now they were going to use him to draw her out, she felt a growl stir in her throat at the thought of what they were doing to her beloved, quickly she silenced it, there would be plenty of time for that later when she was tearing their heads of their pauking shoulders with her bare hands, the thought of her male in pain focused her mind and she started out again.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jack roared as the sensation of the knife being drawn along his ribs kicked in, for the last hour they'd seemed to be sticking to the same tactic, they were cutting various parts of his body with some sort of knife that cut through his flesh like it was paper, then they would pour this acid like substance into the wound, it healed it leaving a massive scar behind but it felt like he was being set on fire each and every time, they'd also given him and injection of some sort of super stimulant that kept him from passing out from the pain, it constantly made his heart hammer in in his chest like having a jack hammer in his rib cage, these fuckers really knew their stuff. They'd also inserted what looked like really long broad needles into various parts of his body near to his nerve clusters, they gave constant electric shocks to run along the nerves that induced constant agony in all of his limbs, the big male bad blood walked in front of Jack with his hands clasped behind his back, his demeanor was calm, collected and confident, in his mind he knew that the ooman would break sooner or later, they'd been at this for hours and Jack felt like his mind was close to breaking, it was only the images of Tik happy and smiling that kept flashing through his mind that was keeping him together, there was no way he would ever betray the one he loved to the pauks, as he looked up at the room through pain clouded eyes he saw something strange, stood in the corner of the room to the rear were two shadows that he'd not seen here before, one he instantly recognized as Tik's great grandfather, he was stood in his white and gold armor with his massive arms folded over his chest, he appeared to be looking at the bad bloods that surrounded him with utter contempt and disgust, but it was the other shadow that caught his eye more, because it was the first time that this one had appeared this clearly to him, stood there looking right at him was Sandy.
Jack looked at her in disbelief as she walked through the bad bloods like they weren't there just seeming to phase right through them, she walked right up to him and now she was so close he could see that she was dressed in the same fatigues that she'd been in on that fateful day in Afghanistan, she walked right up to him and slowly placed a hand to the side of his cheek, instantly there was a flash in his mind and he got a rush of feelings forced into his mind, the strongest two that fought through the jumble was a mixture of love and happiness. The love was aimed directly at him and the happiness was amazingly aimed at his current situation with Tik, she was actually happy that he'd found love again and that he'd made that incredible woman happy with his love for her, as the jumble cleared more feelings fought through and he felt how proud of him she was for being able to see past his misgivings of Tik being a totally different species and just seeing her as a beautiful sentient being in need of love and understanding and being the one to step up to the mark and give it to her, he also felt the fact that she was proud of him for not making the same mistake that he'd done with her by never telling her how he felt for her, now he desperately tried to show her in his mind how much he'd cared for her and loved her when she was alive, but the look in her eyes told him that she'd already known.
Then Sandy stepped to one side as the mighty warrior that was Tik's great grandfather stepped up to him, now it was his turn and he did something that Jack never imagined possible, not that he'd ever imagined being able to see the ghosts of the restless dead as possible either but this nearly blew his mind to pieces, Tan sel eleth placed one of his huge mighty hands on Jack's shoulder and he instantly heard the words 'Gift of the blood' fire through his head, then his head was filled with a rush of feelings so intense that at first he struggled to comprehend any of them, but then as he managed to tune his mind to them he realized to his utter shock what was happening as images started flashing into his head to accompany the feelings and he realized what happening, these weren't Tan's feelings or Sandy's, these were Tik's!
Somehow being her ancestor Tan had managed to tap into Tik's emotions and her feelings and was now showing them to Jack in their rawest form, Jack's mind was struggling to comprehend them at first but as it managed to match them up with the corresponding imagery it began to make sense, he saw Tik's early days back on her clanship, he felt the disappointment, the hate, the sadness and everything else that came with her constant rejections and humiliations, then he felt the loneliness and the constant struggle of being trapped on that planet all alone fighting off the bad bloods and the animals on her own all that time, he even felt how much Tik missed her mother and how much she'd wished to see her again, then he saw something that nearly broke him but in a good way, he felt what she felt when she'd met him, first he felt how impressed by his skills she was, that grew into confusion and self-loathing for finding him attractive in any way shape or form, this was followed by a gradual break down of her barriers and her questioning her own beliefs as she fell deeper and deeper for him, building up to the moment when she finally realized just how she felt for him and he even felt the moment when she gave up on her cultural identity as her love for him overpowered it.
That was the moment he felt the depths of Tik's love for him and it rocked his mind as it exactly mirrored his own in its intensity and power, he felt it in its entirety, raw and unfiltered, he showed her happiness and sheer raw joy when he'd confessed his love to her and had claimed her as his mate, he showed him her pride and happiness as they'd held their own little wedding and he'd made the depth of his love for her known, Tan even took it to the extreme of showing him exactly what Tik felt when they were pleasuring each other and also when they were making love, he felt her raw pleasure, passion and an intensity of love that he'd never imagined outside of his own heart as he touched her and kissed her and made love to her, her feelings of being one with her soul mate overwhelmed his mind, the want to never let him go, the want to be one with him for the rest of time nearly brought tears to his eyes and these feelings perfectly mirrored his own, the feelings were so intense and powerful that his mind didn't have time to be embarrassed by the fact that her great grandfather had effectively been watching them in their most intimate moments together as lovers. But then new imagery flooded his head and this time the emotions were those of hate, rage and pure intent and Jack realized these were her current emotions and he also realized that she was looking for him, he also felt her fear and that it was directed at him, she was scared for his wellbeing and was fully intent on recovering the one she loved safe and alive no matter the cost to herself.
As he realized that she was indeed coming for him he felt a rush of power and of his own rage that the pauks had forced his love to go through these feelings because of what they'd done to him, he felt a raw determination to avenge the fact that the bad bloods had made the woman he loved feel fear again, he was going to extract a price in blood from them for making her feel this way he swore it to himself, at that moment Tan stepped back from him and the connection was severed, he looked now into Jack's eyes with his arms folded over his broad chest, he gave him a knowing smile and nodded his head knowing his work was done here, then to Jack's amazement he turned and gestured to Sandy who actually acknowledged him! They could actually see each other? With a parting smile and a wave from Sandy both of them turned away and faded into the shadows of the room leaving Jack with a million questions but also a very real determination, these pauks would never break him and he was going to be reunited with the woman he loved, not only that he was going to use this to fulfill his promise to himself on her behalf, he was going to use this to get her off that cursed planet and was going to take her to a place where she would smile every day and live her life in the happiness and love that she deserved, this he swore on his own immortal soul.
With a gesture from the large male's hand the others stopped cutting Jack whose head was now hanging limply on his chest, he could still feel everything they'd done to him while he was locked into Tan's imagery being unable to pass out because of the cocktail of stims they'd given him, slowly he raised his head and the male was surprised by the dark look of pure determination now in his eyes, "Strange ooman, why do you resist? If this female is nothing to you then why go through all this pain? Maybe she is more to you?" he said, then he tapped a few buttons on his wrist computer and an image sprung up on a large screen to the right of the lights that up until now Jack had not known was even there. On the screen was a large image of him and Tik hugging after beating the bugs, then the male tapped the computer again and the image changed to one of him tending to her wounds, "I think this female is more to you ooman, a friend, or a mate maybe?" he said, Jack said nothing just looked at the pictures with his teeth clenched,
"It appears that life on our world has warped this female, she has forgotten what it's like to know a real Yaujta male, she disgraces herself by lowering herself to cavorting with your kind, the disgrace of lowing yourself to mating with prey, but don't worry ooman, when we catch her and we will catch her, I'll personally remind her who she really is and I'll even let you watch as I force her to submit to me, I'll even let her watch you" he said in a sneer, this pushed the right buttons in Jack as the mental images of Tik being forced by the male swam through his head, instantly his rage flashed like a bomb going off in his head,
"If you so much as look at her I'll tear your throat out with my teeth" Jack hissed through teeth gritted through the pain,
"What ooman say?" he said not hearing, an idea occurred to Jack and he began to whisper nonsense to himself, the male came closer and bent down to get his face next to Jack's so he could hear him, instantly Jack lunged up and sank his teeth into the side of the males face.
The male tore backwards which turned out to be very much the wrong move as Jack clamped his teeth down and took a sizable chunk out of the skin around his mandible taking it down all the way to the bone. The male howled in pain as Jack spat the terrible tasting foul skin to the floor in a glowing green glob, instantly the others in the room laid into Jack punching him full force in every part of his body and all he could do was grin darkly through the melee at the wounded male who was now looking right into his eyes, oddly the male returned his smile even with his wounded mandible before leaving the room.
Tik eleth moved through the trees still following the tracks for miles through the jungle, her fear of what was happening to Ack drove her like a rocket booster, she had to keep slowing herself down and remembering that the only way she could help him is if she reached him alive and unnoticed. The tracks eventually led her to the lip of a rather large tree filled crater that rested at the foot of a small mountain, it was obviously where an asteroid had struck millions of years ago. Using her height in the trees above the crater she was able to get a good look down into it, that's when she saw there were two small drop ships hidden in the foliage and cloaked, in fact had it not been for the hunting mask she wouldn't have seen them at all, then she noticed something strange, it was what looked like a space in the trees where something much bigger had been, this had to be one of the transport ships that came in to drop of new specimens for them to hunt, but why had it landed? That's when it hit her, Ack was no longer on this planet, he was on the pauking clan ship in orbit.
This news rocked Tik eleth to her core, but it made perfect sense they would have wanted to keep him in a place where there was little or no chance of escape, plus in a place like that they would have specialized interrogation rooms where they could attempt to break him and get him to talk, she knew that they would be using him to extract information about her, of all the things on this planet she was their true prize and she knew that they wouldn't rest until they either killed her or forced her to submit, rage started to burn inside her again, finally she had someone to call her own, finally she had someone who cared for her and who she cared for, someone who treated her right and with respect and honor, someone who loved her unreservedly and without cost or price, someone who was not scared to be seen with her or to associate with her, someone who had changed her very outlook on life and had won her heart and her very soul and they'd taken him from her. Suddenly all the years of pain, of suffering, of being ignored and passed over for 'superior' females, of having to be the best at everything to even be considered 'worthy' in the eyes of people that didn't seem to care whether she lived or died, finally, pauking finally she found someone who understands her, who cares for her, who loves her and whom she loves and adores and they pauking took him from her. Her blood began to boil as the thoughts of what they were doing to her life mate up there swam through her head, she was going to make them pay in blood for every wound they caused her love, no-one hurts the male she loves and lives to tell the tale, no-one, with the sheer rage boiling in her blood Tik eleth started off down into the crater.
A fist slammed into the side of Jack's face hard enough to cause his whole head to ring like a bell, he tried to life his head to look at the big bad blood who'd thrown the punch but his vision was all blurred in his left eye, his right was completely swollen shut from the beating he'd been taking from them, it had gone on for what felt like hours, they'd stabbed him, burned him, electrocuted him, covered his skin in some sort of green slime that made his skin feel like it was on fire and still he refused to tell them a single thing about Tik, in fact at this point it was only the thought of seeing her again that was keeping him sane. He grinned through split lips and blood stained teeth at the bad blood male as he spat blood at him, there was only one in here with him now, the others had obviously gotten bored and had headed out for some rest, but this new male seemed younger than all the rest he'd seen so far, he wondered if he like most young men would have something to prove, "That all you got dickless? if so it's no wonder you can't get a female of your own" Jack said with a slight laugh, the male roared and flared his mandibles at him obviously enraged,
"Makes you feel big and hard does it? I mean you must get such a rush hitting a prisoner who can fight back, is this what you and your buddies do for kicks eh? Slap me about a bit then go and suck each other off while you gloat about how many punches you landed on the ooman who can't move?" he said, the male started clicking his mandibles as his anger grew in intensity, it was working, Jack had an idea that due to the male's inexperience and age he'd be able to use his pride to goad him into doing something stupid,
"I mean I was told you bad bloods were honorless but I didn't think you were cowardly as well, but I guess that clears up the question of why there are no females here, I mean what female would been seen dead with you cowards?" he said with his voice now filling with venom, the bad blood male was now pacing around the room as he clicked his mandibles in fury at the oomans words, "I tell you what, I'll give you the chance to gain some honor here, who knows it might even get you a date, let me down and let's make this a proper fight I mean what sort of sport is there in hitting an opponent who can't move?" Jack said looking at the male, his mandibles clicked rapidly as he seemed to be thinking about this, then much to Jack's surprise the male stepped forwards and released the chains holding him, he landed on his face on the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.
Slowly he got to his feet swaying about due to the beating his body had taken over the past few hours, his balance was shot not to mention his depth perception as he could only use one eye, he rubbed his wrists from where the cuffs that held them had bitten into them, the male stood opposite him and he flicked his wrist causing his wrist blades to shoot out, Jack laughed, "Either give me some of those or put them away you coward, what honor is there in fighting an unarmed opponent with weapons" he said panting from having the wind knocked out of him, much to his sheer shock the male actually turned and pulled something from the wall and threw it to him, it looked like a rather odd shaped staff with two razor sharp edges on it, as he picked it up the thing extended to three times its original size, looking at the snarling male who was now circling him,
"I show you who dickless ooman" the male growled menacingly,
"Well then dickless shall we dance?" Jack said and with the power of the super simulant mixed with adrenaline and rage coursing through his veins temporarily granting him super human strength and speed he launched himself at the surprised male.
It took Tik eleth over an hour to reach the bottom of the crater as she was having to move painfully slow, if the bad bloods were down here with their drop ships she had to catch them unawares, normally she'd have figured that there would have been two left after Ack had blown one of them to pieces, but that drop ship that had been here complicated things, it could have left additional bad bloods here while they took Ack to the clan ship, scanning the scene from the cover of the trees she had her suspicions confirmed, although they were cloaked her mask picked the out against the background, she was able to pick out four of them patrolling around the two drop ships, zooming in on them revealed more, these were young bloods, unblooded hunters according to the lack of marks on their armor, a question now plagued her, were the ships on the ground theirs or were they simply there to guard them?, no matter either way she was going to take one by force and would happily kill all of them to get it.