A/N: I apologize for the delay. Being a new parent is time consuming. Also, happy witch season!
9.
His neck is stiff. His mouth and throat are dry and he aches for water. He tries to move but finds his wrists and ankles are secured tightly to the chair he sits in.
His head is pounding.
He squints his eyes open to a blinding light. He groans and coughs. The pain is terrible, insufferable, and slicing through him like a freshly sharpened sword. He shuts his eyes.
Sprock, he swears. It's...fuck, it's too much. He shudders.
There's a whimper next to him.
Summoning what little strength he has, he risks a glance against the offending light. Struggling to concentrate, he can barely make out the person next to him. Dark hair and a lithe figure.
Brainy. The familiar voice is like a whisper in his throbbing brain.
"Imra?" He croaks out.
Don't give in. When they come back, don't give in. Don't tell them -. Their connection is abruptly cut off and then Imra is shrieking. He hears cracking and sizzling, feels sparks land on his arms and lap.
He lurches in his seat, yanking on his restraints with the need to help his friend. "What the - agh!" A high-pitched shrill streaks through his head, making him slam back against his chair, shaking at the searing torture. It's horrendous and when it's finished his head hangs limply and he drools down his shirt.
***O***O***O***
Kara is not going to cry again. She's not. She's not, damnit!
But she does fidget. And chews her bottom lip. Picks at her cuticles. Anxiously looks at the clock on her desk every five minutes - okay, fine, 30 seconds - while she struggles with an article for CatCo she's supposed to be writing. She can't leave work early today. She can't. In the morning meeting Lena had looked pointedly at her as she went over the company policies on unexplained absences and overuse of sick days. Afterwards, she had marched to her office without so much as a smile to Kara.
By 10AM James had dropped in to check on her. Their conversation was short, almost clipped on Kara's end. He left with a frown and shoulders slumped.
This isn't fair, Kara runs a hand through her loose hair and stares at the empty Google Docs page on her screen. I can't put my job or friends on the backburner. Querl isn't my entire life.
Her brow furrows and she bites her bottom lip. But...he didn't come over last night. And I haven't heard from him all morning…
Really, she could send a text to Alex and ask if Querl is holed up in his lab again. It's completely within his character to allow his work to override everything else in his life. There was a chance he'd forgotten he was supposed to come to her loft last night.
Or he's angry about Mon-El.
She pushes that thought away. If Querl was mad, he would say so. He was straightforward; blunt. He didn't play games. He'd made that clear twice already.
She wrestles with texting Alex or not and finally decides against it, rationalizing that Querl will find her whenever he's done with his lab. He'll apologize to her, call himself a fool - to which she'll giggle and kiss him sweetly in forgiveness - and they'll set out to find some dinner. It was the pattern they'd settled into over the last week.
She just had to relax.
***O***O***O***
It's difficult to wake. His head throbs and he shivers from the intensity of it. Sweat drips down his face from that damnable light shining directly on him. He'd never been so sensitive to brightness before. He couldn't think. All twelve of his intellects fight against the threat that plagues him.
Imra. Was she still with him? He can't tell, can't open his eyes to check. He strains to contain the bit of consciousness he has. Though he feels himself slipping again.
And then, Don't give up Brainy. Please.
She's there. Faint and scared, but there. Watching him, seeing him struggle. He wants to - needs to - reach out to her, ask her where they are, what's going on, why are they here.
He can't. He can hardly move. Everything hurts. His head...oh, fuck, his head…
You can do this. Just-just focus. Can you hear me?
"Y-yes," he hisses.
Good. She sounds relieved. That's good.
"W-wha-"
Don't try to speak. I-I don't think you can handle it. Sprock, Brainy, you look terrible. Save everything you have for getting through this. They know who you are and they're trying to break you.
"Who?"
Stop that! Do you want to lose consciousness again?! I don't know who! But they haven't let up with that light in hours. They've hooked you up to something, I can't see what it is. But there's wires attached to your head.
He grunts and the light feels like it's burning through him. It's ringing a shrill and terrible sound and it's breaking him. He feels it cracking at his mind.
They know you'd get us out of this. Imra continues. They know you'd calculate billions of ways for us to escape. Her voice becomes a chatter that pounds inside of him. He knows she's afraid. She's trying to help, trying to relay as much of their situation as she can to him. Be his eyes since his are currently useless. But it's becoming too much. The light, her voice, his efforts to remain conscious…
They want -
"Imra," he pants. "Shut up." And passes out.
***O***O***O***
Imra watches helplessly from her chair next to Brainy. He looks utterly haggard and defeated like this. She hates it. Her brilliant friend, reduced to a shaking, frying, and pitiful mess.
Her own predicament is less severe and constant. Jolts of electricity torturously crackling through her, hindering her focus for telekinesis. Their captors had done their research and acted accordingly, but left her telepathy markedly unchecked. Lucky for her; she couldn't bare to imagine the level of torment Brainy was going through.
Whoever the ominous they were, they certainly knew who Querl Dox was and wanted him (at the very least) short circuited.
She bites her bottom lip and watches him nervously. While she's wrangling with the decision to try to probe him awake with more telepathy or letting him rest, a man enters their prison and kneels before her unconscious friend. Disinterested in her, he largely ignores her presence and grabs hold of Brainy's face. Roughly pushing his head from side to side, the intruder checks the varying wires that have been attached to the Culuan. Without so much as a glance at her, he removes his hands and Brainy's head drops to his chest. The man leaves just as silently as he came in.
Sprock, Imra's panic raises. O-okay, Brainy. I'm so sorry, but you gotta wake up. Now.
***O***O***O***
Kara is aware of Mon-El's eyes on her as soon as she enters the DEO and joins the meeting Agent Danvers has called for. Like a nail being slowly hammered into the back of her skull, she can feel his gaze. She ignores it and focuses her attention to her sister and the disaster Reign and Purity are reaping among National City.
There's mention of Pestilence, the Blight and the 31st Century and Kara realizes for the first time that Imra is not among them.
Odd, she notes. The Titan was not one to miss a briefing regarding Reign or her Worldkillers.
Mon-El speaks and Kara wants to ignore him. He has changed so much since their time together; he has become a person her opinion of has rapidly been declining. She bites the inside of her cheek and makes herself listen to the information he offers.
The second Worldkiller; sickness; plague. The desperation to have her ended now. The Blight that took Imra's sister.
"Where is Imra?" Alex asks.
Mon-E sighs. Kara refuses to look at him.
"She's busy with something," he answers.
Alex accepts it easily. She looks at Kara. "And Brainy?"
Kara blinks in return. "I don't know. He isn't here?"
Frowning, Alex shakes her head. "Hasn't been in all day. Thought you eventually yanked him away from that lab of his."
"No, I…" she furrows her brow. "All day? You're sure?"
"Yeah, no. She's right," Winn adds. "I was looking for him this morning for a tech job. Lab was empty and no one has seen him."
Kara chews her bottom lip and glances over her shoulder at Mon-El. He stares back at her with a frown. "What time did you leave last night?" she asks.
"Near 3AM."
"And Imra?"
He drops his eyes in shame. "She was gone when I got back."
"I spoke to Querl around 4AM. He said he was coming over."
Alex watches them. "And he never did?"
"No," Kara shakes her head. "He never showed up. I thought he turned back."
"Why?"
Without taking her eyes from Mon-El, she answers, "I assumed he was too angry."
"Kara…" Mon-El tries, but she holds her hand up to stop him.
"Nevermind that. We're putting that on pause right now."
His purses his lips together and gives a sharp nod of his consent.
Kara turns to Alex and grabs her by the arms. "Something has happened to Querl. I don't know what, but if we..." she continues on, talking faster and faster, rambling out a plan that no one can understand.
"What? Kara, wait. How do you know -"
"I know, Alex."
There have been a lot of moments in Alex's life as an older sister that she wished she were as strong as Kara. It was then that she saw the girl of steel start to crack. Alex is not an 'other'. And in this moment, looking into Kara's dilated, terrified eyes; hearing the quiver in her voice, she knows that their roles have reversed and she is now the steel.
***O***O***O***
He gasps awake, flinging back against his chair.
It's okay. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. It's me. I did it. I'm sorry, I had to.
Imra. He remembers she's trapped with him, chained to a seat next to him, electricity jolting through her at a low frequency.
"A-are y-you -"
I'm fine, really. What they have me strapped to is so mild compared to your device. So long as I look defeated, they don't bother shocking me anymore.
He chances a quick glance at her and sees her body slumped in her chair, head hanging, hair loose and covering her face from view.
"Sprock," Querl grunts. "Y-you look -"
Like shit. Yes, I know. Please, Brainy, don't talk. I'm afraid we can't afford you losing consciousness again.
She retells of the mysterious visitor who'd given all his attention to the wiring on Querl's forehead.
I should probably warn you… your lights have dimmed significantly since being here. And though I'm not a Culuan myself, it's not hard to realize the dangers of your situation.
He chokes out a laugh. You have….no idea.
Silence follows for a moment before Imra asks, Does it hurt? To reply like this?
...yes.
Does it hurt when I communicate with you?
So fucking much.
She's quiet again for a few more moments. And then, I'm sorry.
A small smile reaches his lips. Don't...be...I'm glad...I'm... not alone.
We're going to get out of this, Brainy. We are. We won't -
The door opens with a slam. And a tall figure stands in the doorway.