I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Potential Rest of My Life

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Time passes. Days blur together, then weeks.

I stopped taking escape opportunities. I was always caught, and afterwords Aa'une would force himself on me in punishment. When I stopped trying to leave, those punishments stopped... for a while. Eventually other behaviors were punished that way.

"So, what have we learned about trying to starve yourself?" Aa'une smirks as he readjusts his loincloth.

I say nothing. I simply curl up in the corner and tremble.

Aa'une sighs and turns toward the cell door. To the kha'rall in the room, he says, "Feed that slop to someone else. I don't think our guest is hungry anymore."

The kha'rall, this one made of blue glassy coral, slowly nods. His eyes are wide with shock at what he'd witnessed. "U-understood..."

Aa'une exits the cell and leaves the door open. The moment he's out of sight, I stop resisting the urge to vomit.

The kha'rall steps away from me quickly as I empty my stomach of glowing liquid mixed with acid. I just can't stop vomiting, and long after it's all gone my stomach is still trying to expel its contents.

The kha'rall sets down the bowl of food I had refused to eat, then carefully steps over to me. There's a pained expression on its monstrous face as it looks down at my shaking form. "Nobody deserves that," he mutters.

Now I feel the tears come. My arms almost give out, and I drag myself away from the puddle of puke before collapsing on dry ground.

The kha'rall looks over his shoulder at the cell door, then he steps closer. "Shh shh shh..." he whispers, placing a hand-pincer over my mouth. "Close your eyes... I'm going to make it go away..."

I can't close my eyes. I stare at the kha'rall.

The kha'rall puts his other hand-pincer against my throat. I can feel how sharp it is. "He won't be able to hurt you any-"

The kha'rall's body freezes, and his eyes go wide. Then his body begins to vibrate, and-

And his head explodes in a rain of bluish-gray gore...

The creature's body slumps sideways, pinning me to the ground. My breathing has stopped. I look at the cell's exit.

There's Aa'une, pointing at the kha'rall's body with a furious look on his face. He glances at me, then turns and floats away.

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Smaller and smaller actions start getting punished harshly. Eventually, it doesn't matter what I've been doing, Aa'une simply uses my body regardless. He doesn't even pretend he's punishing me anymore, and the language he uses shows it.

I'm still used as Aa'une's secret spying weapon, multiple times a day, but I've stopped caring. Every time I see him, I silently pray that he'll break my limbs or beat me rather than... that.

{prIncE OsIrIs?} a voice says outside my cell.

The voice shakes me out of me thoughts. It's not Aa'une's voice. I look at the exit to see what looks like a large gray jellyfish.

I don't answer the chieftain, if that is indeed what it is. I simply look down at the ground again.

{OsIrIs, lOOk At mE.}

I look up in time to see a gray bolt of energy and then wait eagerly for my instructions.

{OsIrIs, stAnd Up. I'm gEttIng YOU OUt Of hErE.}

I try to stand up, but my legs feel weak. "I can't," I croak. My throat is so dry...

Master floats over to me and wraps a tentacle around my arm. {Up YOU gO,} Master grunts as he lifts me. {hUrrY, I'm gIvIng YOU tO thE mIpEdIAns.}

If that makes Master happy, then of course I'll do what he-

Master slumps to the ground in a heap, a knife sticking through his body. My mind is free from his influence, but without his assistance I crumble back to the ground.

There's Aa'une, floating over me and the chieftain's dead body. "Trying to escape again?" he sneers.

"N-no!" I stammer weakly. "He was using his brainwashing powers-!"

"I don't give a f***," Aa'une growls, grabbing my shoulders and pressing me to the ground. Then he grins. "Poor choice of words, actually. I should simply say I don't care, because obviously I am going to give you a f*** for trying to leave."

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to make my senses dead to the world. Don't look, don't listen, don't feel. But I can't ignore Aa'une violating me, his savage grunts and firm grip, the feral look of ecstasy written on his face-

An explosion, a spray of transparent M'arrillian blood, and suddenly there's a huge metal spike jutting out of Aa'une's chest. He looks down at the spike in shock, then disappears in a flash of light, leaving me lying limply on the ground.

A Mipedian appears above me, along with several other creatures. A rough voice asks, "Did we kill him?"

A male Human's voice replies, "I doubt it. That looked like Aa'une's projection form from the card game. Most likely that even if we did kill him, that wasn't his real body."

The rough voice grunts, and a Mipedian's face comes into focus above me.

It's Prince Mudeenu's face.

...If Aa'une is trying to toy with me, he made a mistake. There's no way in hell Prince Mudeenu would lift a finger to try to get me out of the Deepmines. That's some lazy sensory manipulation.

Another Human voice says, "Did I really see what I thought I saw?"

Mudeenu grunts, "If you're talking about Aa'une f***ing Michael, then yes."

"You were supposed to tell me that I was mistaken," the Human groans.

I feel myself get picked up by a pair of powerful arms. "He looks too weak to move by himself. Malvadine, take my pyroblaster. I'm going to carry him."

"And this thing?" a Mipedian says while kicking the dead body of the chieftain who had tried to help me.

"Don't... do that," I croak. "He was... trying to help me..." Illusion or no, that Mipedian needs to show that M'arrillian some respect.

"He sounds awful," a Human says.

Another Mipedian says, "I've lost contact with our muge."

"Damn it," Mudeenu growls. "Okay, soldiers, we're fighting out way out!"

I roll my head to the side and-

There's Isis, standing right there, all her red-scaled beauty encased in leather armor. She has a look of extreme pain on her face. "What happened to you?" she asks as she strokes my face.

"Please don't ask..." I mutter, reaching out to touch her face.

"Who's Osiris talking to?" someone asks.

Can't you all see Isis standing right there? Then again, of course you wouldn't if you're all hallucinations. Still, I'm glad Isis is along for this imaginary rescue.

"I don't think he's entirely sane right now- on your six!"

The Mipedian spins around and throws a blast of air at a M'arrillian that had been sneaking up behind him.

Mudeenu takes a breath and roars, and another group of M'arrillians are flung backwards into a wall.

A Human swings an electrified sword at a kha'rall, even though the blade bounces off the creature's armor, the lightning does the job of disabling the coral soldier.

Fighting all around me. There's Malvadine, cutting a path with the pyroblaster, there's Isis, hiding behind a pillar and firing a liquilizer blindly around the corner. A Human I don't recognize sticks a knife into a fluidmorpher's throat.

A voice bellows, shaking the walls. "Kill the intruders! Don't let them take the prisoner!"

"Told you he wasn't dead," a Human says.

"Shut it," Mudeenu growls as he kicks a chieftain in the face.

"Minions!" a Mipedian shouts. A small army of blank-eyes Mipedians are running towards us.

Mudeenu shouts, "Nonlethal blows only!"

The fight rages, and it slowly dawns on me. I'm not imagining this. This is a real rescue. At once I'm filled with joy and terror. We could escape... or everyone here will die or be taken captive.

I do the only thing I can do in my state. I close my eyes and pray.

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Up next: The Rescue

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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