Elisabet padded through the cold, metal halls of GAIA Prime, though she knew she didn't have to bother being quiet. Everyone else was asleep…or lying awake, as she had been before giving up on the idea of rest entirely.
They had all known that they would be trapped in here for the rest of their lives, the way the Faro horde was moving across the land - the biosphere was ravaged, everything that hadn't been eaten or sealed away was already dead, but the bots would keep going, searching for more biomass to convert into fuel, and soon, they'd be at GAIA's doorstep. Tomorrow, the doors would be sealed for the last time, never to be opened again, until one day the new humans trained by APOLLO would gain the credentials needed to take control and finish ARTEMIS and DEMETER's protocols. She had known it was coming, she'd already cried herself senseless over it all, mourning that she would never join her loved ones in Elysium…but the clock ticking down to that final seal made it all seem so real, so inescapable, in ways it just hadn't been before now, and it weighed on her, refused to let her close her eyes.
As childish as she knew it was, she just wanted to go home.
But she couldn't. And soon, home would be permanently beyond her reach.
Desperately trying to hold herself together just in case one of the Alphas got the same idea as her and crossed her path, she entered the communal room, rummaging around for one of the few remaining boxes of high-end herbal teabags they'd managed to get in here. Technically, the tea belonged to Samina, but Elisabet hoped that the APOLLO Alpha would forgive her this once. While the water boiled, she sat down at the metal table and tapped her Focus, scrolling through the latest logs and reports she'd received from the Alphas, reviewing everyone's progress. While GAIA's sub-functions were technically operational by now, the builds were so hasty, there were so many things that could go wrong, and as many simulations as they ran, they would never truly be able to account for any possible contingency. Though she tried to put on a brave face around the others, she couldn't help her fears, her doubts. She, and the nine Alphas locked in here with her, and all the Betas and Gammas, had done as much as they could, she knew that, but would it be enough? Something like this had never been done before, and though it was feasible, it was untested. So many things could go wrong…
With a sigh, she dismissed her displays and went back to her tea, pouring the boiling water over the bag she'd placed in the insulated metal cup. Steam billowed into the chilly air of what Travis Tate had taken to calling "Frozen Hell", and Elisabet put her face into the warmth, trying to inhale the herb-laced moisture, soothe herself by some means, any means.
After a few minutes, she sat down again, cradling the cup in her hands, designed for just enough warmth to reach the outside, missing her mother's old ceramic mugs that could get so hot that they'd burn if you weren't careful. Everything was so sterile here, so lacking in everything that had made this world so beautiful. Would she never feel alive again? No, she thought, probably not. After all, nothing else was alive…
A sudden whistle cut through her despairing thoughts, and she jumped hard enough to send some of the boiling liquid sloshing onto her hand. Yelping and hissing, she set the cup down and shook her stinging fingers, even as she schooled her features into a scowl with which she could appropriately greet the HADES Alpha who'd come sauntering into the room, a wicked half-smile on his face.
"Evening, Lis," he drawled. "Whatcha doing up so late?"
"I could ask you the same question," she replied coolly, settling back down in her seat.
"Just came down off another Razorwing trip, left me with the munchies," Travis shrugged. "Thought I'd stretch my legs and grab a snack."
"Ugh," Elisabet grunted into her tea, hard enough to ripple the surface of the steaming beverage.
"Your turn," he said, and she sensed him lean back against the bolted-down table. "Why are you raiding Samina's tea stock? You know we don't have much of that to spare."
Dr. Sobeck sighed heavily. "I couldn't sleep," she admitted.
"Ah," the vulgar man nodded, clicking his tongue knowingly. "Final seals close tomorrow; in just a few hours, there'll be no turning back. 'Course, we all knew that when we came here, didn't we?"
"Hm," Elisabet grunted, finally taking a sip of the scalding liquid, trying to just enjoy the warmth, the herbal taste on her tongue.
"Well, if you're having a hard time getting some shut-eye, I've got a few cures for that in my room," Travis went on. "Name your poison, Lis, I'm sure I can spare a dose or two. You want Overcast? Snake? Blues? Or maybe something a little more old-fashioned - acid, heroin, roofies, a cocktail? Hell, I might even have a stash of pot left, if you don't mind eating half our rations in the morning."
"No, Travis," Elisabet groaned, setting down her cup to put a hand to her forehead and rub her temple.
"Hmm," he purred, and she glanced over to see him giving her a wolfish smile. "Maybe something else, then? Little more classic, old as life itself, without all those pesky side-effects?"
This being far from the first time he'd propositioned her since signing on as an Alpha of Project Zero Dawn, Elisabet huffed exasperatedly, scowling at him. "Travis, you do realize you've long since crossed the line into sexual harassment, don't you?"
"Have I?" he blinked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh dear, whatever will I do? Tell ya what, Lis - I walk away now, and you don't call the cops on me, deal?" He smirked wickedly.
Shooting him one last glare, she pointedly returned her attention to her tea.
"Not sure if you've noticed, honey, but the world's over," Travis said, like there was any chance she could ever have forgotten. "Civilization and life itself have all burned to the ground. All your morals and scruples, societal rules and constructs? Meaningless now. Worthless. Besides," he added snidely, "you're the one who invited a known criminal to this party."
"Guess I can't argue with that last bit," she admitted, staring into the middle distance as she took another swallow of tea.
For a moment, he was actually quiet, and she braced herself for whatever obscene thing he might say next. But when he did speak again, all he asked was, "Why did you invite me, anyway?"
"Huh?" Surprised by the straightforward question, Elisabet turned and met his eyes.
"Counselor said you listed me as an Alpha candidate from the get-go," he told her. "But why me?"
"Because no one else could have done your job," Elisabet answered softly. "It required a…very unique sort of person to make HADES - only someone equal parts brilliant and incredibly disturbed could code a planetary extinction protocol, even for the greater good."
"Aww, Lizzie," he preened, "that's the sweetest thing you ever said to me!"
"Don't let it go to your head," she grumbled, turning back to her drink.
"I always knew you liked me," he teased, ignoring her words. "Come on back to my room and I'll show you some proper gratitude."
Anger flashed in Elisabet's chest, and she slammed her half-empty cup down on the table and stood up, turning to him. "Why can't you just leave me alone?!" she shouted at him. "You torment me more than anyone else here, even Margo doesn't have to put up with your nonsense half as much as I do! That stunt you pulled at Halloween to name just one of many examples-"
"Aw, come on, you know you got a kick out of that," he smirked, laughing. "'Sides, you've got enough wrinkles to look twice your age, it doesn't get much scarier than that."
"Why me?!" she cried, hating the sob of frustration in her voice, hating herself for letting him get to her. "I have enough to deal with every day without your stupid crap interrupting me and getting in my way, Travis; why do you always target me?!"
A cocky half-smile on his lips, Travis tilted his head. "Do you want the answer we both know you're expecting, or the truth?" he smirked.
Already exhausted by her burst of fury, Elisabet sagged. "The truth," she sighed, reaching for her tea and hopping back onto the metal stool again. "I'm too tired to play games with you."
"Well, Lis, the God-honest truth of the matter is…I'm worried about you," he replied.
Elisabet choked on her half-swallowed tea, spraying the table with the hot beverage before looking up at him, coughing, stunned.
"Don't look at me like that," he drawled, raising an eyebrow at her. "We're all worried about you, you know. You work your ass off day and night, have done since before any of us even knew what was going on, and you never stop. When was the last time you let yourself relax? When was the last time you smiled? It's on all our minds, knowing you're running yourself into the ground without taking a breath. Why do you think everyone here jumps to attention when you say their name, no matter what they might've been doing? 'Cuz it ain't just because you're our boss, I can tell ya that. We're all dead worried about you, Lis. The others won't say it…" He tilted his head. "Funny how that goes, right? People act like they can unmake a problem by pretending it isn't real. Even the greatest minds of the generation think that by putting on a bold face and pretending they aren't afraid you're gonna snap any second, they can somehow prevent it from happening."
"I won't snap," Elisabet stated. I can't afford to…
"Yeah, you will," Travis said. "You keep going like this without taking a break, you will. You've been carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders for months, Lis, and no one can bear that burden indefinitely. We all watch you when you're not looking, waiting for the moment you break down, just collapse and start spouting gibberish and we never get another coherent word outta you, and we have to keep you strapped down and spoon-feed you and wipe your ass. Everyone knows it's coming. That's why I torment you: to try to keep you sane a little longer."
"Travis, if there is anything in this world that's going to drive me insane, it's you," Elisabet huffed.
"Naw," he chuckled, "we both know it doesn't work like that. Without a distraction, you'll go off the deep end sooner rather than later, and no one else here is gonna give it to you. Hell, why do you think I even agreed to come out here instead of leaving for Elysium with the Betas?"
"You're here because you're an Alpha, and HADES isn't finished," Elisabet growled.
"Hmm…" He clucked his tongue. "Yeah…about that…"
Feeling a chill, Elisabet looked up to see a smile splitting his face that wouldn't have looked out of place on a cat after it swallowed the family bird.
"I mighta downplayed my progress a little," he told her wickedly. "More than a little, even."
"You're more behind than anyone else here!" she snapped at him. "You haven't even designed a means for HADES to enact planetary extinction!"
"Well, I don't need to, do I?" he smirked.
Elisabet blinked. "What?"
"We already have a perfectly good means of enacting planetary extinction," Travis gloated. "All the hard work was done for me, I don't have to lift a finger - the answer's gonna come banging on our front door tomorrow."
"What are you saying?" Elisabet breathed.
"Everything's already worked out," he said. "MINERVA has a few lines of code connecting it to HADES, the job's done. If HADES ever triggers, after it seals off GAIA and the other sub-functions, it'll take command of the control towers MINERVA's set to build, and use the same command codes it decrypts to wake the Faro bots. They'll all come crawling outta whatever holes they died in and eat whatever hot mess of a biosphere's brewing on the surface, quick and easy, then go back to sleep. Simple as that. It's already been simulated, no reason to think anything'd go wrong." His grin stretched. "HADES is complete, Lis; it was before we even moved GAIA's core processor here. What few kinks have left to be worked out, you lot could easily handle. And we all saw the writing on the wall when the Betas started getting shipped out - we knew we weren't going with 'em, that we'd never see our spots in Elysium once we flew here. I coulda cut and run, Zero Dawn doesn't need me anymore." He spread his hands, gesturing to the cold metal facility. "And yet, here I am. Lost hundreds of kilos of smut comics in transit, not to mention everything I'd already shipped out to stock my spot in Elysium, to come here with everyone else, but I did. Why do you think that is?"
"I…" Elisabet swallowed hard, processing all this very slowly. Using the Faro bots was such a tidy solution, how had she not thought of it herself?! But he had…and…he'd still chosen to give up the life of luxury he'd been promised in exchange for his help…? "I…I can't imagine," she answered meekly.
"I came because you need me," he answered seriously. "Not because GAIA needs me, but because you need me. When I thought of you locked in here with no one but the other Alphas for company, everyone all doom and gloom and seriousness, all work and no play? Well, it damn near broke my heart, Lis, I couldn't have that on my conscience. You need me around to liven things up a little, keep you on your toes, make you feel something different every now and then. Even if that something is anger and frustration, well, better to be pissed than miserable, am I right?"
She stared at him, shocked. Though she would never have admitted it to him - and still wasn't going to - there had been a part of her that had been glad he'd had to come to GAIA Prime with the others. As annoying and disgusting and infuriating as he was…well, being irritated with him was the closest thing to alive she'd felt since Ted Faro had told her about the Faro Plague. This crazy, chaotic, wonderful world had been full of all sorts of conflicting things, and she loved the bad as much as the good, even the dichotomy of the two; and Travis Tate was like a little microcosm of some of the worst of the world, hedonism and chaos incarnate, and so in a way, he was a reminder of everything she was fighting for, the rawest bit of the world she was working to save that she could have here with her. But never had she imagined that he knew that…
"I'm only here to offer you my services, Lis," he purred, emphasizing the word in the dirtiest tone possible. "And you need 'em right now, more than ever. So come on, give yourself a break and let loose for once, unwind a little before you pop a cuckoo. You got nothing to worry about - I'm clean, believe it or not, and I already had my little snip-snip operation in prep for Elysium."
"You're disgusting," she scoffed, turning back to her tea.
"And proud of it, darling," he snickered. "And you know you're grateful for it too."
Drinking deeply, Elisabet chose not to answer. Better than admitting that he was right…just as the burning disgust in her gut was better than the cold anguish she'd been struggling with when she left her room.
"Real talk, Lis," he went on after a moment: "You've got no reason to say no. I'm not gonna expect any favoritism - hell, I won't even ask for a thank-you; we'll carry on like it never happened, no one will even know. But you'll feel better, you know you will. Just think of it as a sort of therapy session."
"I don't want your kind of therapy, Travis," she scowled into her cup.
"Well, that's a shame," he shrugged, sprawling his arms across the table in her peripheral vision as he leaned back, "because mine's the only kind you've got access to. Better than nothing, though, right? And you can't pretend you don't need any."
Again, she chose to drink rather than answer.
"Funny," he chuckled, "I don't hear you saying that magical little two-letter word. You could just say 'no', and I'd walk away…for tonight, at least. But you're not saying it. Why is that?"
"Would you actually walk away?" she asked coolly, barely glancing over at him.
"Sure," he replied. "Mama might not a' raised me right, but I'm no monster. You know that."
"Hm," she grunted. Her tea was running low…
"Come on," he coaxed. "What do you have to lose?"
"My self-respect. My dignity. My lunch," she answered shortly.
He laughed. "Are the lunches in this place really something to want to keep?" he teased. "And as for your self-respect and dignity…" Glancing over, she saw him shake his head at her, still smiling. "Lis, you know what those future humans raised in the Cradles are gonna think of you when they learn about you, don't you?"
"Huh?" Elisabet jerked, lifting her head to face him fully for the first time in a while, noticing as she did so that he'd gotten incredibly close to her. Hadn't he been at the other end of the table at the start of this conversation…?
"If GAIA is mother nature as an AI, and you created her, then what does that make you?" he smirked at her. "You think Jesus Christ was worshipped? When humanity comes back, as you've ensured it will, all the world's gonna be united under one religion: the worship of the great Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, mother-goddess of all life on Earth."
"No!" Elisabet exclaimed, slamming her cup down on the table and leaping to her feet. "I'm not a god, Travis! I don't want to be, I don't want anyone to think of me like that!"
"But they will all the same," he told her. "And rightly so. God is dead, Lis, if in fact He ever lived, but you're the one who stepped up and took His place - not for greatness or for glory, not even to be remembered, but because you love this world and everyone and everything in it so darn much, like everyone always said God did. Unlike Him, though, you're the real deal, and you always have been."
"No," she whispered, shaking her head.
"Aw, Lizzie," he drawled, smiling at her. "You were always too good for this world, you know that? Too sweet, too gentle. This world's always been a broken, miserable hot mess, one that no one else could wade through without it leaving a stain on their soul, yet you somehow stayed pure as a newborn babe even to this day. It's both nauseating and admirable. But there isn't a damn thing you can do to lose any of your dignity, nor the endless amounts of respect you so rightfully command. A one-night stand isn't gonna undo everything you are. If anything, it'll allow you to keep on doing good a little longer - and, again, at no cost. No strings attached, Lis, I promise."
"I…" She swallowed, her eyes burning, and with something like desperation, she threw out the only insult she could think of: "I hate you."
"Really?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. "No offense, Lis, but I don't think you know the meaning of the word. If you did, you would've said 'no' by now." His grin stretched again, and damn it, when had he gotten so close?! She could smell some of the countless drugs on his breath! "Instead, you're still here, talking to me, letting me talk to you. That doesn't seem like hatred to me. In fact, I don't think your sweet, beautiful heart has the ability to hate."
Elisabet clenched her jaw, trying not to breathe his stench, as though she was afraid of getting a contact buzz from all the unspeakable chemicals his body was probably constantly trying to purge from his system.
"One little word," he murmured. "That's all it takes to make me go away. Or, you could let me help you. You're wound up too tightly, you're gonna snap any second. If you don't relax, you'll be rendered useless pretty soon. I'm here to help prevent that."
She knew she should say it, should push him away, but she didn't. Maybe she already had a contact buzz from the drug-laden breath on her face, maybe she was just too exhausted to think clearly, or maybe she'd already snapped and lost her mind; those were the excuses she would give herself later, but the truth was that she desperately wanted to feel something other than despair, anything else at all, and that was why she didn't even flinch when his fingers brushed her chin. The temptation to just stop thinking, to forget for a moment that she would never see her loved ones again, that the whole world had been obliterated, leaving nothing but this seed she'd worked so hard to develop and plant with only a wish and a prayer that it might sprout one day, that everything she loved and held dear was gone, either out of her reach or completely annihilated…it drew her closer, as much as she disliked Travis, her mouth warmed by his breath, then his lips.
Instead of grabbing at her, he was strangely gentle, almost hesitant, as though waiting for her to change her mind. His fingers brushed her cheeks, his palms smoothed over her hair, and then his arms were around her, and instead of pulling away, she leaned into him, grasping him in a tight embrace. Their jaws parted, and then she was tasting him, his tongue in her mouth, acrid and toxic, laden with the taste of innumerable narcotics that she couldn't even begin to identify, substances so vile people had stopped producing them decades ago, disgusting and obscene - and she savored it, relishing every bit of disgust she could glean from his flavor, revulsion burning in her chest and thawing the lump of ice she'd been carrying there for months in place of her heart. It was her first-ever tongue kiss, what she'd once imagined and hoped would be something sweet; yet though this was raw and abhorrent, entirely the opposite of what she'd dreamed, it made her feel something, something other than misery, and that was more precious in this moment than any amount of tenderness or affection could have been. All her life, she'd been defined by love, pure and unconditional and all-consuming love for everything in existence, but this was not that, this was something else entirely. Was this what it felt like to truly hate? If it was, it would certainly go a long way towards explaining why people always seemed to enjoy hating each other so much…
After a minute, they broke apart, both gasping for air. Elisabet felt dizzy, like when she'd had one too many glasses of champagne at her first few high-society parties before learning her own alcohol tolerance. Contact buzz, she told herself, Travis Tate probably had more mind-altering substances in his saliva and sweat than actual bodily fluids…and yet…
"My room or yours?" he panted, smirking wickedly at her.
"Mine," she answered without thinking. "I don't ever want to know what's in your room, Travis."
"Wait, are you serious?!" he exclaimed, his eyes going wide as he jerked in her arms.
"Don't get the wrong idea," she scowled at him.
He grinned. "Wouldn't dream of it, Lis," he assured her.
Their mouths collided again, harder this time, urgently and messily, and they stumbled together towards the residential wing of the facility, him grunting in satisfaction, her whimpering almost helplessly against him, relishing the feeling of something other than pain. By the time they were nearing the door to her room, she could feel his erection jabbing at her hips through their clothes, igniting more disgust, but also an answering pang in her own loins. Later, she would take solace in the knowledge that her body was just reacting on a chemical level, her amygdala releasing endorphins to override her prefrontal cortex, animal instincts she couldn't control driving her to lust, it was nothing personal. But the truth, the truth she would never admit to anyone, least of all herself, was that there was some selfish part of her that enjoyed the idea that someone, even someone as disgusting as Travis Tate, desired her, could make her feel like she wasn't just a brain but also a body, a human being like any other, and one that could be wanted.
How he had enough presence of mind to guide them to her room and open the door, she would never know. Indeed, she was barely conscious of anything around her until they were sealed inside, the heavy door hissing shut behind them, and he pulled off their Focuses and discarded them.
"Let's see what you've got," he growled, grasping the hem of her nightshirt and lifting the cloth up over her head, and she let him, even though she'd never been undressed in front of anyone besides doctors and her mother before - shame was just something else for her to feel right now, something at least better than crushing hopelessness. His hands wandered over her body as his mouth trailed kisses down her jaw, a slight chuckle rumbling from his throat as he discovered that she was wearing a bra under her pajamas before he roughly unhooked it and cast it aside so he could fondle her breasts. "Always so uptight," he murmured against her skin.
"Shut up," she gasped, trying to sound spiteful and failing, her higher brain functions severely limited by the signals firing through her nerves in response to his touch.
Another nasty laugh reverberated from his body through hers, his fingers hooking under the waistline of her sweatpants and panties and jerking both down until they fell, leaving her naked. He wasted no time in grabbing and squeezing her ass, and she gasped, resentful of her body's instinctual positive reaction to being touched like this, of the ache between her legs and the pounding of her heartbeat as her body readied itself for what was coming. A sudden wash of cold crossed her skin as he pulled back to yank his t-shirt off, but before she could even gather her thoughts, he was against her again, their bodes pressed together, skin to skin, and she couldn't help but clutch at him, feeling his bare torso. He had a few scrawny muscles that barely framed angular bones, like a hairless rat, the rat he was - the idea that she was being touched by a sewer rat sent a fresh wave of nauseating disgust over her, but it was a feeling, a sensation of being alive, alive as she had thought she would never feel again, and she felt a soft moan vibrate in her throat, earning her another wicked chuckle as he finally guided her to her bed; she followed his lead, kicking off her slippers as he shoved her onto the thin mattress.
"Now then," he hissed at her, settling her on her back and kneeling between her legs, looming over her, his hands constantly exploring her skin, "let's lay down a couple ground rules, yeah? Since I'm here for your sake, anything I do, you get two options: either you say the magic two-letter safeword, or you cum. Otherwise, I won't stop. Deal?"
"Stop talking," she groaned.
"Fine," he snickered. "I can think of something better to do with my mouth."
"Wait, what-?!" Elisabet yelped - she'd accepted the fact that they were going to have sex, but not that he'd-
But it was too late, he'd already pressed a flurry of kisses in a line down her stomach before ducking his head between her legs, and any protests she might have been able to make were swiftly cut off by the guttural groan she made in response to the sensation of his tongue swiping through her area, dragging along her entrance and swirling around the sensitive nub at the apex of her thighs. Bodily pleasure wasn't entirely foreign to her - she'd masturbated often enough as a teenager to soothe her raging hormones, same as any typical adolescent - but this felt different, already a thousand times more intense than anything she'd ever made herself feel, liquid heat pouring up her spine and making her shudder and sob with bliss as his tongue slid inside her and curled around, lips moving against her most sensitive parts as he licked her hard, gripping her hips in his hands as he worked. The excuse that his saliva probably contained a cocktail of drugs so potent it could have been sold by dealers on the street would comfort her about a lot of things that happened tonight, because there was no other way she could be okay with the sheer euphoria of his ministrations, her fingers twisting in her bedsheets as she tried to ground herself and failed, swept away on waves of ecstasy, struggling to contain her cries.
"Relax," he told her between licks. "Go ahead and scream. Rooms are soundproof. Your orders, remember? Something about noise complaints?" He gave a low chuckle against her body, the vibrations against her loins coaxing another moan from her throat, her hips bucking against him involuntarily.
He shifted, getting a better angle at her as he lifted her legs up over his shoulders and buried his face in her flesh, groaning against her as he licked and sucked, feasting on her inner walls and nether lips, even his nose rubbed at her hotspot sometimes, and she pressed against him without thinking - indeed, she couldn't think, any rational parts of her brain had been completely buried under animalistic pleasure, instinct driving her to just gasp and moan and cry out and rock her hips, drowning in what he was doing to her. Jerking and lurching, she chased her encroaching climax, and there was nothing she could do about her scream as she exploded, her first orgasm in decades ripping through her body, wringing her dry and limp.
She came to, panting and dizzy, her body burning. Cracking her eyes open, she looked down and saw that Travis had sat up, licking his lips, a nasty twinkle in his eyes.
"You taste good, Lis," he purred. "Guess it's true what they say, a healthy lifestyle really does make a woman taste sweeter. Never tried this on anyone but a fellow bottom-feeder before."
"Shut up," she rasped, not wanting to think about where else his tongue had been before tonight.
"Had enough?" he smirked. "Or should I keep going?"
Elisabet closed her eyes and focused on catching her breath. Even now, she was not going to give him the satisfaction of a verbal answer, especially not when they both knew what it would be.
A clacking noise signaled that he was unbuckling his belt and unfastening his pants, and even with her eyes closed, Elisabet turned her head away, not wanting to see him - even if she knew it was silly, she had to retain some semblance of decency. There was a rustling, an odd pause, and then the sound of clothing hitting the floor, and she knew he was naked. Instead of immediately feeling him on top of her, though, there was a gloopy wet sound, and she found herself lifting her head to look at him, though she kept her eyes above his waist. A small bottle was in one of his hands, from which he was squeezing a pile of gel onto his free palm.
"Did you plan this?!" she exclaimed as he tossed the little container aside and brought his hands down below where she was going to let herself look.
"Naw," he told her, "I always come prepared. Never know when a good binge will lead to a good score."
"Ugh…I don't suppose you have a condom, too?" she asked, far from hopeful.
"No need," he chuckled. "I told ya, I'm clean and sterilized, there's nothing to worry about."
Sighing heavily, she let her head fall back, squeezing her eyes closed so she wouldn't have to watch him ready himself - the wet, slimy noises were bad enough. Complex emotions were returning, and chief among them was that burning disgust, distaste for the man who defined the word 'obscene'.
But it was still better than pain.
"You ready?" he asked her at last, and she felt him crawling on top of her. "It's not too late to make me stop. Just say the magic word, and I leave."
She pointedly refused to speak.
"It's not that hard, Lis," he taunted. "A single, two-letter word is all it takes. Not that tricky to say, is it? You can do it."
"We both know I'm not going to," she mumbled, realizing he wouldn't proceed until she said something.
The laugh she got in response to this statement was downright evil, and then his body was settling on top of hers, his slicked-down hardness nudging between her legs. Resignedly, she allowed her thighs to part for him; his still-damp hands grasped her waist, his member prodding her entrance, and she barely had a moment to brace herself before he thrust inside her all at once. A sharp, burning pain cut through her daze as he breached her, and she hissed.
"Are you serious?!" Travis cackled. "The great Dr. Sobeck really is a virgin?! And here I was thinking it was a little too obvious to be true!"
"Shut up," she whimpered through gritted teeth.
"Easy," he murmured, bringing his mouth down to hers, keeping his hips almost completely still as he kissed her deeply, letting her body adjust to him. She couldn't even taste herself amidst all the other conflicting, vile flavors on his tongue, but the knowledge that it was in there made her feel slightly nauseous; and yet, she kissed him back all the same, enjoying all the overwhelming feelings and sensations he was inciting in her, leaving no room for hollow misery.
In time, the pain of her broken hymen receded, and he began to move, sliding in and out of her in rough, quick strokes, dragging his mouth down her neck. Moaning with something like contentment, she allowed herself to sink under the waves of pleasure, the cascade of sensations firing through her nerves, and not feel or think about anything else.
"You gonna move?" he grunted in her ear.
She ignored him.
"Come on," he growled, "don't make me do everything myself!"
It wasn't as though she would have known what to do even if she wanted to, and wasn't this his thing, anyway? She ignored him still, leaving it up to him to do whatever he thought needed to be done. In fact, it was kind of nice to make someone else do all the work for a change…
With a frustrated snarl, he abruptly pulled out of her, sat back, then grabbed her and flipped her over onto her stomach, causing her to yelp in surprise. Before she could even wonder what he was doing, he grabbed her hips and yanked her back against him, plunging into her from behind, though at least he didn't ram himself up her ass. The force of his next thrust sent them both lurching forward, and she instinctively flung out her hands to catch herself against the wall at the head of her bed, palms smacking the metal surface and pushing back to brace herself, unintentionally driving her hips against his.
"That's more like it," he snickered, slamming into her again, and she pushed back once more in response, feeling him penetrate deep enough to strike at her cervix, eliciting a cry of ecstasy from both of them as bolts of heat rocketed up through her core.
One of his hands came down to touch her in front, his fingers pinching and rolling that sensitive nub, rubbing it in tight, furious circles as he fell into a rhythm of movement, his other arm crossing her chest to grip at her shoulder, pushing and pulling and riding her wildly. It was truly fortunate that all the residents' personal rooms were in fact completely soundproof, as Elisabet would never have been able to live down the idea of anyone hearing the sounds they made as their bodies slammed together over and over, the guttural groans and cries they gave like the animals they were reduced to in that moment. After a few thrusts, Travis found a sweet spot that made her scream again and again, and he stabbed into it with his manhood, laughing even as he moaned and roared, but she lacked the capacity to care, ravaged by raw, unthinkable pleasure, far more exquisite than even what he'd given her with his mouth. His movements grew jerky, unmeasured, chaotic as the man himself, and Elisabet somehow found herself responding in kind, pushing against him at different angles to make sure he always hit her right where it mattered most, desperate for more, feeling herself hurtling towards her end, a finish like nothing she could have ever imagined, something she had never known she wanted.
All at once, she came, screaming loud enough to shred her vocal cords and not even noticing, her whole being annihilated by a nuclear explosion of bliss that wiped away everything she was, any capacity she had for despair or any other feeling, thought, memory, knowledge, anything. Time itself lost all meaning, she couldn't even feel her own body - for a few moments, she didn't exist in the dead, broken world she loved so much, didn't exist in any world but a state of sheer ecstasy, set free of all her woes. There was no room for her brain to register Travis roaring his release behind her, his manhood erupting inside her, the splash of his barren semen in her womb.
When at last she regained awareness, she was lying collapsed on her bed, her face in her pillow, gasping for air that wasn't there. Groaning, she managed to roll her head to the side so she could breathe, her whole body dazed and fuzzy with euphoria, and she just basked in the afterglow, enjoying the inability to think.
Somehow, her sheets were suddenly drawn up over her, covering her body with a slight, comforting weight. Then a hand came to rest on her back, and she sensed that Travis was crouching beside her.
"Sleep well, Lis," he murmured, his voice raspy and breathless but his tone nasty as ever. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. And if you ever need a little more therapy, well…" He chuckled. "As of tomorrow, I've got no place to be but right here."
Distantly, she heard him get up, the rustle as he gathered and put on his clothes, then the click and hiss of her door opening and closing, leaving her alone.
Exhausted, she felt herself drifting, and there at the edge of sleep, a strange thought occurred to her - she remembered, suddenly, the time GAIA had asked her what she would have wanted for her child, had she ever had one. She had told GAIA that she would have wanted her daughter to be curious, unstoppable, and compassionate, but now another wish occurred to her: If she had had a daughter, she would have prayed to whatever God might care that the girl wouldn't develop any sort of weakness for bad boys - that she would find a kind, sweet man to settle down with who would take care of her, and never crave the repulsive touch of a man like Travis Tate.
Yet somehow, even though it would never matter, Elisabet still got the sense that her prayer would have gone unanswered.
…What? Don't look at me like that! I may take my work seriously, but I'm still a fanfiction writer, I'm not above the occasional shitpost! For what it's worth, this IS a shitpost, it's not necessarily canon for my other HZD fics (unless you want it to be); my brain just kinda conceived it and my fingers just kinda typed it, and now it exists. I asked a supporter of my main project, Horizon: Echoes, whether or not posting this would be a bad idea, and they pointed out I might as well, since it exists anyway; they were right, so post it I did. Please don't judge me too harshly.
