Chapter 3

The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger...watch it grin
~Johnny Mandel, 'Suicide is Painless'

NOS-4-A2 crawled irritably over to the window. Today had NOT been a good hunting day. Everyone had run away like rabbits when he tried to approach and now he was hungry and crabby, both things you don't want in a vampire.

As he put his head through, NOS was startled to hear… what sounded like his captive talking. Talking? Who was he talking TO?

NOS scrambled through the opening with his fangs bared, expecting to see a posse of space rangers with wrist lasers ready. But… no.

No, no one alive was there except for XR… then who…

NOS blinked. Unless his eyes deceived him, XR was sitting up and having a good chat with a pile of rubbish he'd gathered.

"Well, hey, baby, nice legs. Wanna get a room somewhere?" XR said in a voice about half an octave lower than his usual tone, moving some poor robot's dismembered hand towards another poor robot's dismembered foot.

Taking hold of the foot, he moved it up and down as though it was talking, saying in a falsetto- "No way, you jerk! You look like the back end of a truck!"

He switched back to the low voice and continued, in a rather nasty tone, "Well, pardon my energy intake! I was just asking you out of pity anyway!"

"You're ugly!"

"You're stupid!"

"I hate you!"

NOS had seen enough. "Hoi! You! What the CRATERS d'you think you're doing?!"

XR's head shot up, eyes widening like those of a deer in headlights. The bits of dead robot he'd been holding fell over onto the ground with a series of little clangs. Apparently, he'd been too absorbed in his… play to hear NOS come in.

NOS stared back down at him, for once at an absolute loss for words. Dozens of unnerved and unnerving thoughts ran through his head.

Stammering, XR searched his own mind for some sort of… excuse for this. "Oh, uh… hey, NOS, I was just… cleanin' up the place, yeah."

He felt his face work into an ingratiating grin.

NOS merely stared back.

"…You do that."

NOS-4-A2 turned away, shaking his head, and began going about his business somewhere else in the room. What a bizarre specimen, the little one. Maybe he should just kill the thing.

XR stared after him into the dark, mouth open slightly, face questioning. Suddenly an idea came into his head. Maybe- maybe he could bond with his kidnapper. He'd heard of that happening. Get NOS to like him. Stop hurting him, maybe even set him free.

"So… how was hunting?"

Red eyes turned towards him out of the gloom and he shuddered involuntarily. "Poor. Which reminds me…"

He came closer. XR scooted back, eyes wide and alarmed. "Wait. Wait, no. No. No, please-"

Okay, it was a stupid question.

"Don't you get sick of doing the same thing every night?" he said suddenly.

"Just call me a creature of habit," the voice answered, bemused, mocking.... always mocking.

"You have some pretty sick habits," he spat more than said, hatred filling every word.

"Well, since you obviously know my routine…"

He shuddered convulsively, drawing away and protectively shielding his neck.

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you."

Cold claws wrapped around his hand, pulling it away with inexorable force.

"I really think you should, it'll be easier," he said lightly, as though it was really no trouble to him, didn't matter what XR did anymore. And his hands slipped around XR's waist. He shuddered, his engine revving in discomfort at the overly-personal touch. He tried once again to pry the hands away. No dice.

"Shut off," he snapped.

"Come now, that's no way to speak to your roommate."

"Bite me!"

"As you wish."

Another shudder passed through his body. "…No, no, I didn't mean… That's not what I…" No. No, please. He was surprised a bit by how much he suddenly didn't want to be bitten again. It hurt, but he was used to being hurt- but this was a big hurt and- and he'd never- and "No. No. Please."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, little one. Just relax. Really now, you'll just end up hurting yourself. Let me help you with that… Just let me get to you… Lovely…"

His terrified scream echoed through the room, loud enough so that several citizens of Tradeworld had to have heard it.

If they did, they didn't react.

---

When he woke, he knew something wasn't right. Something didn't… feel right, inside him. Things were grinding together somewhere in his chest cavity and it hurt, a deep, persistent ache that spread out to his limbs and gave him the worst headache he'd ever had. He moaned, squeezing his eyes shut. It hurt, it just hurt, it hurt him everywhere… He started whimpering from the pain. He couldn't help it.

"Oh, be quiet," NOS sighed from across the room.

XR bit his lip, trembling. He tried to be quiet, he really did… but he was shaking now and that was making an awful rattling sound… He curled onto his side, pulling his knees to his chest, trying to stop the shaking. Something ground inside him again, loudly, and this time whatever it was made him choke and break into a coughing fit.

"Did you hear me?" the vampire hissed. XR flinched; he was closer now. "I said shut it."

XR nodded – or tried to, anyway, it was hard to accomplish when he was shaking so badly. He wanted to stop, he really did, he would've given anything to stop, why couldn't he stop? The more he tried, the worse it got. Soon he was coughing terrible throaty coughs, wet, rattling coughs that echoed around the room. He still hadn't stopped when he heard NOS's voice again, much closer this time.

"I said SILENCE!" The vampire seized him by the helmet and shoulder, lifting him up and slamming him forcefully back onto the concrete. There was an awful crunching of metal on concrete a sharp SNAP as a long, thin crack split up the side of his helmet.

And still he couldn't stop coughing. His coughs were mingled with little sobs, couldn't NOS see that he couldn't help it, couldn't NOS tell he was pushing him too far?

"Do you want me to drain you again?" NOS-4-A2 barked.

Apparently not.

"Noooo!" XR whimpered, drawing his knees to his chest and attempting to shield his neck.

"Then be quiet."

Mercifully the claws withdrew and after a moment he heard NOS start to tinker with something on the other side of the room. He tried very hard not to imagine what NOS could possibly be doing. He bit his lip, hard, trying to stifle the coughs… but they came out anyway, in short, wheezy blasts. Whatever was shifting inside him was quickly working its way to excruciating; it was making him feel dizzy and sick and… oh no. No, no. Whatever was collapsing inside him was putting pressure on his oil tank. No, no… The coughing had turned into gagging and a weird sort of pressure was building up in his chest. No, no, this couldn't be happening, he had to stop it, had to…

His eyes widened. He couldn't stop it. Shakily he pushed himself to his hands and knees, tossing his helmet aside just as he felt something warm and wet come up in his mouth.

A stream of oil spattered onto the floor.

He coughed and gasped and sputtered. He was shaking harder now, his hands trembled against the coarse concrete… There was that pressure again… he heaved and another stream spilled forth. And another.

He kept heaving even after there was nothing to bring up. He coughed and shivered, whimpering; he felt weak and shaky and drained and empty. Spent. All used up. And there was a dull ringing in his head.

For a long time he just knelt there, generating a ragged breathing sound as he tried to steady himself. His engine was racing uncomfortably, emitting a feeble whine. His head was spinning and for a moment he completely forgot that he wasn't alone.

But just for a moment.

"You… you filthy little worm!"

His head turned slowly and there was NOS, staring down at him, enraged. He looked… blurry. Fuzzy around the edges. XR squinted. There must have been something wrong with his vision – had to have been, because he didn't notice NOS's raised hand, or see that hand swing toward him, until it was too late.

A searing pain erupted on the side of his face. He gasped sharply as stars exploded in his range of vision. Before he could register what was happening next clawed hands had seized him and lifted him up, up, up and away from stable, solid ground.

His vision cleared slightly and there they were, those horrible red eyes, alight with fury… XR hadn't thought that NOS could possibly hate him any more than he already did – but but the look on the vampire's face suggested anything was possible. NOS reared back, opening his mouth to expose those razor-sharp fangs… XR squirmed weakly, whimpering. No. No, no, please, anything but that, please, no… The mere thought of what those fangs were about to do to him made him feel queasy all over again and as NOS lunged for his neck he gagged sharply.

To his surprise, NOS actually pulled away. The vampire held him out at arm's length, frowning like he'd just smelled something nasty.

"Ugh, you're not going to throw up again, are you?" he groaned.

XR stared back at him. Was this… Had he actually found a surefire way to stop the vampire from biting? Quickly he started moaning; he let his mouth hang open listlessly and closed his eyes partway, making himself look as sick as possible. …It wasn't hard.

"Maybe…" he murmured as woozily as he could. It sounded terrible even to him.

NOS groaned and promptly dropped him. Sure, it hurt to hit the concrete, and… oh man, it felt like one of his arms had popped loose… but anything was preferable to a vampire bite. NOS hovered over him, surveying him with a look of pure disgust. He sniffed and turned away, drawing his cape tightly around him.

"You're practically organic," he scoffed.

XR kept up the moaning, gagging a few more times just for effect until he heard the creak of the coffin lid closing. He sighed heavily. He felt awful… For a horrible moment he thought he might really be sick again… but no. Nope, too tired and… empty.

The side of his face was still burning… Wincing, he eased it down onto the floor. For once the ice-cold concrete actually felt good. He let it numb the sensors in his face until he could fall asleep.

--

Across the galaxy Booster was wide-awake in Mission Control, pacing nervously behind a line of LGMs. Every so often he stopped, leaned in towards one, and asked the same simple question.

"You sure you don't have any leads?"

The latest LGM would just look up and sadly shake its head. "No leads."

At which point Booster would sigh and resume his pacing.

Every second of his time on Star Command Booster spent in Mission Control, desperate for news of XR. They hadn't heard from him since he disappeared - hadn't gotten so much as a distress signal. It was unsettling how he'd suddenly just vanished. Mira'd been right there, and even she hadn't seen anything. Only that witness Buzz was talking about claimed to know what really happened. And if that was the case… if it was true, if the energy vampire had gotten to him…

Booster shuddered, wringing his hands. He couldn't remember ever being more worried. His best friend was in serious danger - maybe lonely, maybe hurt - and he couldn't do anything about it. He'd never felt so helpless. If only they knew where XR was, if only they had some kind of direction… But they didn't even know where to begin looking. It was driving him crazy, not knowing.

And so he paced the floors of Mission Control. If they received anything from XR, any hint to where he might be, Booster wanted to be the first one to know.

He was so caught up in his own anxiety that he didn't notice a door whoosh open behind him and Mira step through.

She approached him cautiously, biting her lip. "Booster?" She placed a hand on the highest part of his back she could reach.

He yelped in surprise and whirled around, wide-eyed. She jumped back, holding up her hands.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you."

He shook his head, clutching at his chest. "It's okay, Mira. I was… just thinking about XR."

She nodded. "I know." When they weren't out looking for XR, Booster was in here. Pacing. On the one hand, she didn't think it was very healthy for him to spend every second of his free time in here; he'd drive himself crazy. On the other hand, they were all anxious for some kind of sign, some sort of clue to XR's location. And Booster was particularly sensitive about these things. Maybe being in here was a weird source of comfort for him.

"I'm just so worried about him!" Booster cried, his ears drooping.

She sighed heavily. "I know, Booster. We're all worried."

"It's weird, you know?" he continued. "It's like he just… disappeared!"

Disappeared… Mira shivered. It was as if he'd disappeared, as if he was truly lost, for good… just like she'd told him…

Booster tilted his head. "You okay, Mira?"

She jumped, blinking up at him. "What? Oh… oh, yeah, I'm… I'm fine, just… just worried about XR, you know."

Booster nodded solemnly. A heavy silence fell over them – for which she was grateful. Booster could be a great comfort himself, she admitted, the way he didn't ask questions, didn't pry into people's business. He was so trusting, so accepting of what anybody said to him… it was impossible to get mad at him, when you knew… when you knew he'd take whatever you said to heart, when you knew you could leave a serious impression on him… one negative comment could really set him back, could really, really hurt him…

"Mira?"

She jumped again, gasping sharply. "What? What's wrong?"

He was watching her carefully, concernedly… "What did you come in here for?"

She blinked. She'd come in here… she'd been looking for Booster, because "Oh - Buzz sent me. We're going back out, see if we have any luck finding him."

"Oh, okay. Where are we looking this time?"

"A few small planets on the edge of the galaxy. Unpopulated. Buzz thinks NOS-4-A2 might be trying to trick us by hiding somewhere away from any kind of technology."

Booster frowned. "But – NOS-4-A2 needs technology, doesn't he? He needs an energy source… where would he get that?"

Mira's eyes widened; she stared up at him, an unpleasant mix of pity and worry and nausea blooming in the pit of her stomach.

It finally seemed to hit Booster; his eyes widened and he gasped, his hands flying to his mouth. He stared worriedly down at her.

"You don't think…?"

She cut him off. "I don't know."

He fell silent, shifting his feet. Finally he asked, in a soft, scared voice, "Do you think we'll find him this time?"

"I hope so, Booster. I hope so."

He nodded, wringing his hands. Neither one said anything further, neither of them moved. For a long time the only sounds were the humming of the LGMs' computers, the occasional click of one of them typing. Mira found it unbearable to listen to after a while, for reasons she couldn't quite name, and she turned to the door, muttering "Come on, let's go."

Booster traipsed after her as she headed down the hall, hugging herself.

What if Buzz was right? What if the vampire was relying solely on XR for energy? What if it was… already too late?

She shuddered. No. No, she wouldn't let herself think that. They'd find him, they had to… He had to be okay… They couldn't lose him, no, she wouldn't lose him to that vampiric creep…

If you hadn't made that stupid joke in the first place, we wouldn't be out here right now…

She flinched. No. It's not your fault. It's just a coincidence, that's all. Everything will be okay, you'll see. You'll find him and you'll set everything right.