SOS chapter 13

Disclaimer: Nope. Still not mine. You guys will be the first to know!

Written mostly to Within Temptation.

This chapter was difficult to write. I knew what I wanted to happen, but putting it on paper was really hard, and I had trouble achieving the effect I was going for. I think it came out well in the end, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

That which we cannot comprehend always appears darkest.

- Slarsaran motto

Four Years Ago

Ben slept fitfully.

Given his situation and current emotional state, it is remarkable that he slept at all, but after sobbing into his pillow for what felt like hours he was simply bone-weary. He was still weak from whatever illness had afflicted him, and exhausted from the hopeless crying, and so he slept. Every so often, he would start awake in the darkness of his cell, and then drift off to sleep again. His dreams, if he had any, went mercifully unremembered.

However, he must have slept for the final part of the night, because when he awakened, it seemed to be morning. The light was back on, at any rate.

Ben sat up warily and, glancing around his prison, noticed that the robots had brought him breakfast, such as it was. The thought of the alien, likely synthesized, repast was not particularly appetizing, but Ben felt his stomach rumble gently at the thought of food. He had not eaten since before his illness, and he wasn't even certain how long that had been. Vilgax had not bothered to tell him whether he had slept for hours or days before his ill-fated escape attempt.

He pushed the thought away. He didn't want to deal with it at the moment.

Slowly, Ben swung his legs over the side of the bed and approached the copper tray. It was then that he realized he was still wearing the long, grey nightshirt. It made him feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and unprepared for whatever might happen. He ought to get dressed before Vilgax came back. However, the idea of putting on the clothes that his captor had provided for him made his skin crawl, and his own were gone. Disintegrated.

He swallowed thickly.

Dress first, then eat, he decided. After that he could deal with whatever came next. Vilgax had not told him where the clothes were, but there were an aggressively limited number of surfaces in the room. Ben found them after only a few minutes of searching. They were folded neatly on the self under his bed, along with the untouched pyjamas. The new clothes were plain black. There were several sets of socks and underwear, a pair of pants and a short-sleeved shirt, all in black. There was also a pare of flexible, short black boots. He carried them into the bathroom and dressed as quickly as possible, making sure that the pants were on before he took off the nightshirt. He hoped that the bathroom wasn't surveiled, but he couldn't be certain.

When he had finished, he ate. The food patties this time tasted rather like rice, broccoli and some kind of chicken stew respectively, which made him wonder whether it was later in the day than he thought. His meals up until now had seemed to coincide roughly with the time of day, but he didn't know what kind of human care handbook Vilgax was using if this was supposed to be an approximation of breakfast.

Still, he ate the almost-food without complaint, chewing mechanically and finishing it off with a swig of sweet, vaguely strawberry flavoured water. He felt the food settle like a heavy rock in his stomach, but he managed to force it all down.

He had hardly finished, in fact he was just replacing the dishes in their container, when he heard the distinct click of his door as it slid smoothly open.

Ben's stomach tightened again at the site of his captor, and he rose to his feet involuntarily. Vilgax's words from the previous evening flashed to the forefront of his mind.

You will be here for the remainder of your life and you must learn to accept it.

He mentally shook himself in an attempt drive away the words and what they meant. His mouth felt dry and there was a strange pressure in his chest. Still, he stood his ground and managed to raise his eyes gingerly to meet Vilgax's. The alien's face seemed expressionless, but Ben had the impression that his captor was studying him for something.

"How do you feel Ben?" Vilgax asked, his rasping voice breaking the silence.

"How do I…feel?" Ben felt the bizarre urge to laugh in Vilgax's face, although it was balanced out by an urge to burst into tears. Just how did the alien think he was feeling?

One of Vilgax's forward tentacles twitched to the side.

"Has your body fully healed, or are you still weak?" he corrected.

Ben swallowed his rising emotions. He breathed in deeply so his voice wouldn't shake. "I'm fine," he managed after a moment. It was true. Physically he did feel much better. He was still a little shaky, but nothing compared to the pain and weakness he had experienced before.

"Good," his enemy approved with a growl, this being his normal tone of voice. "Come here."

Ben obliged warily, putting one foot in front of the other without letting himself think about what he was doing, and stopping only when he was right in front of the massive alien. He was self-conscious, standing there obediently in clothes that were not his, and he couldn't bring himself to continue looking Vilgax in the eye. Instead, he found his gaze wandering to the alien's left arm. The appendage rippled with bulging, sickly-green muscle, marred here and there by protruding metal.

He would later wish that he had kept his eyes up. Than maybe he could have dodged. Not that it would have made a difference in the end.

As it was, before the surprised boy could react, Vilgax had wrapped one hand around his middle and lifted him easily into the air.

Ben gasped as he was lifted and then held against the alien's armoured chest. He yelled and struggled as panic flooded his system, drowning out coherent thought and any fears about possible reprisals. He simply struggled.

He might as well have been beating his fists against the steel walls of the ship. All he managed to accomplish was to bruise his fingers and stub several toes. Vilgax held him there firmly but not cruelly, seemingly oblivious to Ben's desperate thrashing. He did not command Ben to stop, but merely waited.

Eventually Ben's futile struggles slowed and then ceased altogether. The exhausted boy slumped against the confining hand, breathing rapid, panicky breaths. As he came back to himself, Ben realized that his captor was moving one finger steadily up and down his back in a soothing motion. That realization made him want to begin fighting again immediately, He twitched, but otherwise didn't move. It was useless.

Everything he did was useless.

As though reacting to the thought, Vilgax's hand moved and Ben felt his feet touch the floor again. He scurried backwards as soon as he was released and only halted when he felt the cold metal wall at his back. The blood was pounding in his ears and his heart was racing. He wished fervently that he could press himself through the unyielding metal.

"Wha…what was that for?" he demanded, although it came out as more of a whisper. He could hear his voice shaking.

Vilgax did not answer. He waited for a moment, as though giving Ben a chance to catch his breath. Then, "Come," he ordered.

What?

WHAT?!

For a moment Ben did not move; just remained pressed against the wall. His heart was pounding like a drumbeat in his ears and his head was muddled with confusion. Vilgax had turned partially and was waiting for him in the corridor. Ben closed his eyes briefly and took a deep, steadying breath, than he pushed himself off the wall and followed.

The corridors were grey and empty. Ben wondered, not for the first time, whether Vilgax had purposely imprisoned him in an unused part of the ship.

His heart had slowed and no longer felt like it was trying to beat its way out of his chest, but he was still internally trembling with fear and confusion. He had been able to be angry at Vilgax before because no matter how hopeless his situation had seemed, there had always been a way to fight. Ben did not give up; it simply wasn't in his nature. He had always been able to fight or, if he couldn't fight, he would come up with a plan. Now he had nothing. All he could do was to wait for whatever Vilgax wanted to do to him next. What possible purpose could Vilgax have for doing that to him? Was the alien really just tormenting him, or was something else going on?

Vilgax opened the door to the elevator and entered, Ben following him reluctantly. He put as much space between himself and his captor as possible and kept his back to the wall, although he was acutely aware that it wouldn't make any difference if Vilgax decided to do something. In fact, he could just command Ben not to fight if he wanted to.

So why didn't he?

The thought stopped Ben in his mental tracks, and he was still musing on it as they left the elevator and continued their journey.

There had been many times when Vilgax waited for Ben to obey when he could have just commanded him. For whatever reason he seemed to want Ben to be obedient, not just have control over him. But then why even have the collar? To keep him from escaping? Surely there were other ways of doing that.

Vilgax had made it pretty clear last night that he didn't want Ben dead, and he had made Ben train with the omnitrix, so did he want Ben to serve him, fight for him? Why? Vilgax must have loads of aliens under his command who would think it was some great honour or something. Why didn't he kill Ben or cut off his arm or something and give the omnitrix to one of them?

He didn't have the answer, but he was brought out of his musing the next moment because something had changed dramatically. Another door slid open, an extra large one this time, and they entered a vast, open space. It was the ship's hanger, which he had seen briefly when he was captured, only now it was crawling, sometimes literally, with aliens and robots. There was a general bustle going on all around the hanger, aliens loading and unloading ships, talking on communicators and running about here and there on some kind of business.

Ben was drinking in the site, he felt starved after so long in isolation. Then his brain kicked in and he stopped. They were in the hanger, did that mean…?

A humanoid alien with green-black scales approached Vilgax and bowed its head respectfully. It glanced at Ben and then looked quickly away.

"Your ship is ready Warlord," it said. White teeth flashed when it spoke and there was a slight lisp to its voice. Vilgax didn't answer, but one tentacle flicked to the side in a gesture Ben was beginning to recognize. The alien moved to the side and Vilgax strode on, Ben following. They passed several ships, one which was being unloaded of a cargo which seemed to consist of a massive purple fungus, and then they halted at a small shuttle craft similar to the one which had brought Ben from Bellwood, though larger. Ben would have liked to ask where they were going, but Vilgax was practically ignoring him right now and he was hesitant to attract the alien's attention. He probably wouldn't get an answer anyway.

As they entered the shuttle, the ramp retracting and the door closing silently, Ben unexpectedly felt tears well up in his eyes and her forced them back He looked at the dark red walls instead and wished for windows. Vilgax did not speak, but when Ben glanced at him it was to find the narrow red eyes fixed on him. This time Vilgax did not leave the room, but remained standing next to Ben as the shuttle took off smoothly. The only indication that it was moving at all was a slight vibration in the metal floor.

When they landed there was a mild jolt and Ben stumbled slightly, but Vilgax did not seem to notice. He seemed content merely to let the silence stretch out indefinitely and Ben was finding it difficult not to speak up. He hated silence, always had. He wasn't a reader and it used to irritate him when Gwen spent a whole afternoon buried in a book. Needless to say, she was usually interrupted by a blast of fire or goo after about fifteen minutes.

Still, Ben kept silent. At least something was happening.

The door opened and Vilgax walked down the ramp but Ben's feet suddenly froze to the floor as he gazed at the landscape. He supposed he had known that they were landing on a planet, but he had not thought about what that would mean.

The ship was sitting on a large, circular landing pad and beyond that grew a vast jumgle of green and colourful plants, many with a kind of thick, squishy looking leaf. It was swampy and so colourful after the dull grays, blacks and reds of Vilgax's ship and Ben stared at it with a kind of hunger. There was a light, misty rain falling. The droplets touched his face as he emerged from the ship. He closed his eyes as they settled on him, cool, fresh and feather light. He could smell a faint perfume from the unknown flowers and the clean, cool smell of the rain itself.

When he opened his eyes again he was looking right at a kind of orange lizard sitting in one of the trees. It blinked when he looked at it, and then lifted its arms to reveal bat-like wings and glided to the next tree.

Ben was overwhelmed with the desire to turn into something, anything. He wanted to be off, among those trees, climbing, flying, exploring and running. He longed to run. He would run all the way home if he could.

And he was suddenly aware afresh of the ever-present collar weighing on his neck. Vilgax had commanded that he never run away again. It didn't matter where he went. They could have traveled across the universe and it would be the same. He could see the trees, could smell them, but he could not move towards them.

Vilgax was waiting for him and there was nothing he could do.

With an almost audible moan he tore his gaze from the trees and followed Vilgax once more.

He could still feel the rain on his face and hands and beading in his hair, and though it had lost some of its magic it was still soothing and he enjoyed it for as long as he could. The desire to change had not gone away, in fact it seemed to have intensified and the omnitrix felt warm on his wrist.

Ben glanced at Vilgax's massive back. The alien was walking towards a massive building which seemed to be made of black and green stone. Ben had noticed it before, but had been too preoccupied with the trees to pay it much attention. It was obviously their destination and Ben slowed his pace unconsciously. He didn't know what would happen inside the building, but he felt like he was re-entering a prison.

He found himself wondering if Vilgax would let him change if he asked. Five minutes; that's all he would need. Maybe if he begged….

He shook the thought away, furious with himself and clamped down on his desire.

The edifice loomed up before him and he closed his eyes once more to feel the rain misting on his eyelids, then opened them, set his jaw in a hard line, and followed Vilgax.

Hope you enjoyed!

So, after writing this chapter, I got to thinking about where people might think this story is going, so here's my response to any possible queries regarding this.

Vilgax does not have any sexual attraction to Ben, and he never will have in this story. He treats Ben more like a very clever and useful pet, and will come to care about him very much in that regard (in his own twisted way, naturally,) but there will be no sexual component. Is what Vilgax is doing still horrible? Absolutely; he's a monster. It is just not sexual in nature.

Vilgax does have reasons for what he does in this chapter, and they will eventually become clear if you are confused. Apologies to anyone who was hoping for that in this story, but I just don't write that kind of thing.

Lots of emotions in this chapter. It may appear that Ben is taking Vilgax grabbing him a little too well, but don't worry, he just needs a little time alone to freak out about it properly. Things were happening a little too fast in this chapter. Please let me know what you thought of the chapter, particularly the aforementioned scene. It was really tough to write.

This chapter ended a little before where I thought it would, so I have a few scenes in mind already for chapter 14. That is good news because it means that chapter won't be too long in coming. The update will either be this story next, or possibly another story first and then this one. It's been a long time for Loving You Behind Closed Doors fans, so possibly that one.

Thanks, and I will see you all in the next chapter.