Warning- very dark themes.
Ozzy stared straight ahead, his eyes blank. He was subconsciously picking at the skin on his fingers and worrying his lip. He's still alive… he's still alive… he's still alive…
"Yo, kid, did you hear what I asked you? What the hell were you doing with that virus?"
Ozzy blinked and raised his gaze to look at the police officer leaning over the table. He cleared his throat and said weakly, "h-he's not a virus, he's a vaccine…"
The officer rolled his eyes and groaned. "Listen, we've been here for hours and my patience is wearing thin. We wanna help you out here, but you gotta help us first. It's obvious you were kidnapped by him from your original body and forced to serve him, but he's not here anymore, so you don't have to keep lying to protect him."
Ozzy's lip started trembling and he looked down at his lap. "He didn't force me. I love him. We're gonna get married."
The officer slammed his hands on the table, making Ozzy jump and look up at him again. "Kid, listen up, you're gonna have to stay here in jail until you start talking, so unless you wanna spend the night with a load of germs, I'd spill."
Ozzy looked into his eyes and said quietly, "I don't give a shit what happens to me, I wish you'd killed me back there." He grit his teeth and dug his nails into his palm, trying to fight back tears. "This is all my fault. This was my idea, he had nothin' to do with any of it."
The cop raised an eyebrow and sat down in the seat opposite him. He took his hand in his own and softened his voice, thinking that he'd finally made a breakthrough. "What was your idea?"
Tears started running down Ozzy's cheeks and he tried to steady his voice. "I had a hunch that there was a virus in this body and I convinced Thrax that we should go investigate. He wanted to tell you guys about it…"
He frowned and scrunched up his nose, his voice more forceful now, "but you cops are always fuckin' idiots and you never listen, so I said we should go face Xeno alone."
He ripped his hand away and shouted, "Thrax didn't do anything wrong!"
The cop blinked at him and slowly stood up. He brought his fingers up to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing heavily. "Okay, kid, you've pushed me to this…"
He grabbed Ozzy's arm and yanked him up to his feet. "Right, when you're ready to start telling the truth, I'll be all ears. Until then, enjoy your new roommates, they'll be very happy to meet you, I'm sure." Ozzy allowed himself to be dragged down the corridor and chucked into a jail cell.
He landed on his front and hit his forehead on the floor, not having time to catch himself. He groaned and cursed out the cop as he pushed himself to his knees.
He screwed his eyes shut and winced at the pain coming from the injuries on his leg and his shoulder. The cops hadn't even bothered to treat him before taking him into questioning.
They'd taken his engagement ring, the hypothalamus chain and his clothes, before chucking an oversized, dark green jumpsuit at him and ordering him to put it on.
I guess this means that Lola's at the age where her immune system is starting to get stronger, the cops here are right dick heads.
He slowly opened his eyes and scanned the room. He counted six germs in total and wasn't the least bit surprised to find them all staring at him.
Three of them he'd never seen before, but he inhaled sharply when he recognised the other three. They were the same germs from Xeno's meeting, and they started walking over to him with big smiles on their faces.
Shit.
"Hey, it's you again! What happened, eh? Did Xeno kill your master then?"
Ozzy snapped his head up and glared daggers at the germ. "Shut the fuck up, he's not my master and he's not dead!"
"Well, if he isn't already, I'm sure Xeno will find him and finish him off. It's all he deserves after calling the cops on us like that. He's nothing but a fucking snitch."
Ozzy suddenly felt a jolt of anger go through him and clenched his teeth. "Don't you dare speak about him!" He jumped to his feet and ran at the germ to try and tackle him, but was grabbed by the collar and shoved against the wall.
"Y'know, you and that rat of a virus really fucked us over back there. Most of us were shot by the cops because of you."
"W-we didn't snitch, we didn't call the cops! They already knew about Xeno!"
The germ put one hand around his throat and grabbed his jumpsuit with the other, so he couldn't wiggle out. "Yeah right, he was nothing but an informer masquerading as a virus, and you were his little fuck toy."
Ozzy growled at him and kicked his legs out. "Stop talkin' about him!"
The germ grinned in his face and tightened his grip around his throat. "Or what? He's not here to protect you anymore. No doubt he's being tortured by Xeno right now. Don't worry, we can help you get over him."
Ozzy punched him in the face and kicked him in the shin, yelling insults at him. One of the other germs who had been at the meeting came over and clamped his palm over Ozzy's mouth to shut him up and punched him hard in the stomach.
Ozzy's vision went black for a moment and he yelled out, before they hit him again. They dropped him to the floor and laughed as he clutched his stomach.
"I think it's time we teach this kid a lesson."
One of them grabbed him by the collar and shoved him onto the floor. They pushed his face against the cold tiles and pinned his arms behind his back.
"Get his clothes off, we'll all have a go. After being with that virus, he can definitely take it."
Ozzy started yelling out in protest and tried to wiggle away, but they pushed his face down harder until he stopped struggling. One of the germs fiddled around the zip on the front of his jumpsuit and started to undo it. Ozzy shook his head and cried out for help.
"Shut up, you piece of shit", one of them spat, as they grabbed his hips and hoisted them up.
Ozzy tried to kick his leg out behind him to hit the germ, but sadly missed. They grabbed his head and forcibly turned it to the side, pressing down harder. He groaned and clenched his teeth, realising now that he couldn't get away.
He decided then to focus on his breathing and try and relax his mind as much as possible.
He thought about how he'd got here, about how only last night he and Thrax had spent hours talking about how much they meant to each other.
He felt tears sting his eyes.
Maybe this is what I deserve.
He relaxed his whole body and stopped resisting the germs.
It's all my fault that this is happening to me. It's my fault that Thrax got shot.
He groaned as one of the germs pressed himself against him and breathed onto his neck.
Maybe if I let this happen, I won't feel so guilty.
Suddenly, he felt himself being yanked backwards. He fell onto the germ behind him and cried out as someone harshly grabbed his wrist.
He was dragged over to the other side of the room and snapped his eyes open to see two of the germs that he didn't recognise kicking and yelling at the others.
He spun his head round to look at whoever was holding him. It was another one of the germs, and he was looking down at him with a concerned expression.
"Are ya okay?", he said, helping him to his feet and pulling his jumpsuit back over his shoulders. "They didn't hurt ya, did they? Sorry if I grabbed ya a bit roughly before, I just couldn't stand seein' 'em do that to ya any longer. I hate germs like that, they give the rest of us a bad name."
Ozzy blinked at him and swivelled his head around to look back at the heap of germs. It was a confusing blur of dark green with yellow blood spilling all over the place. They were biting, scratching, kicking and punching each other, and Ozzy didn't know what the hell was going on.
He turned back round to the germ that had dragged him away and looked up at him, confusion plastered on his face.
"It's okay, I won't let anythin' happen to ya, lad. Those other two are my buddies, we'll make sure no one touches ya."
Ozzy felt a lump in his throat. He nodded and slowly put his arms around his waist, his eyes filling with tears. He quietly sobbed into his chest as the germ patted him on the head.
"T-thank you…"
Just then, three police officers came charging down the hall after hearing the kerfuffle. They gasped when they saw the brawl and pointed their guns at the pile of germs. "Hey! Break it up!"
One of them saw Ozzy and did a double take. "W-what the hell are you doing in there with them?! Get over here!" He raised his gun at the germ that Ozzy was hugging and yelled at him to let him go.
Ozzy frantically shook his head and shouted, "no! He helped me! Don't shoot him! He didn't do anyth-" His breath caught in his throat and he tore his hands from around the germ to clamp them over his mouth.
No no no, not again, please! Don't let another person get shot because of me.
"Kid, come here, now!" One of the police officers opened the cell door and edged over to Ozzy, still pointing his gun at the germ behind him. Ozzy shook his head and grabbed onto the germ's shirt. "N-no, don't hurt him, he didn't do anything!"
The officer tentatively held his hand out and said in a low voice, "it's okay, we're not gonna hurt anyone, come with me."
Ozzy hesitated and tightened his grip on his shirt.
"It's okay, lad. Go ahead, you'll be fine."
Ozzy looked up at him with tears in his eyes. A deep longing within him begged to stay in his arms; they were warm and comforting, a fleeting sense of familiarity.
"Get over here", the officer ordered.
Ozzy closed his eyes, pressing his face into the germ's chest and allowing himself to imagine, just for a moment, that it was Thrax who was holding him. He let himself indulge in the embrace, savouring the illusion.
You have no idea how much I need you right now.
He inhaled deeply and reluctantly pulled away. I miss you. He wiped his tears with the back of his hand and took a few unsteady steps over to take the police officer's hand.
The germ waved him off as Ozzy turned the corner, and all the cops started yelling for everyone to go to sleep.
The police officer put his arm on Ozzy's shoulder and gently squeezed. "I don't know who put you in that cell with all those germs, but trust me when I say that they'll be punished for it."
Ozzy nodded slowly and let himself be guided down the hall. He asked about Thrax, but the officer didn't reply, and simply tightened his grip over his shoulder.
They handed him a blanket and told him that he could stay in one of the private cells. He stepped inside and jumped as they slammed the door shut behind him, shrouding him in near darkness.
He went to go sit on the edge of the bed and swung his legs over the side. He looked down at his hands, taking a sharp intake of breath when he saw where his engagement ring normally was, and hung his head.
Those germs are right. Thrax is gone.
His hands started to shake as he fought back tears.
He was gone. The love of his life, his fiancé, the man who'd given him everything.
They'd built a whole life apart from everyone else. They had no need for other people, they were just so happy to be in each other's company.
Theirs was a love that Ozzy never thought possible until meeting him. It was simply perfect.
He stroked his wrist where the hypothalamus chain should be and stared straight ahead, gritting his teeth. It wasn't in Ozzy's nature to give up. He prided himself on never throwing in the towel.
He knew that Thrax wouldn't want him to spend the rest of his life wallowing. In fact, he'd said countless times that one of the reasons he'd fallen in love with him was because of his determination.
He covered his mouth with his hands as his body started to shudder.
Everything they had been through. The complete trust they both had in each other. The deep conversations where they had finally felt understood. The endless patience they had for each other's quirks. The stupid inside jokes. The idiotic bets. The perfect life they had built together. Gone. All wiped away in a split second.
Tears pooled in his eyes and he started to shake more violently.
For some reason, Ozzy suddenly remembered the present he had been preparing for Thrax over the last week since getting that digital camera for his birthday. He'd been taking candid photos of him doing normal things. Cleaning, cooking, reading, playing with the dog.
Ozzy was planning to make it into a calendar for him for Christmas and write twelve little notes under each month about why he loved him.
Now he'd never see it.
Ozzy breathed in raggedly, desperately, choking on the realisation that everything he loved in this world was gone.
They hadn't even let him be with Thrax during his last few moments.
His sobs racked his body and tore through his chest. He clung onto the side of the bed until his knuckles were white.
Thrax had died alone, scared, cold, in pain, surrounded by unfamiliar, aggressive faces and loud, confusing voices. They hadn't even given him the dignity to check if he was still alive before they pointed their guns at him again.
Ozzy fell to his knees and punched the ground, gasping through the wails that escaped his lips. He slammed his forehead against the cold floor below and dug his nails into his legs until he bled.
He hated himself. It had been his idea to investigate the symptoms. His idea to infiltrate the meeting. His idea not to notify the police.
And now Thrax was gone. Because of him. The only thing he cared about, ripped away from him. And it was all his fault.
He threw his head back and yelled as a combination of desperation and self-loathing washed over him. There really was no point in going on. How could he? His life was nothing without Thrax.
He let his body fall to the side, landing on the cold floor, wishing he could fall through the cracks and be consumed. The tears of his grief continued to run down his face as he thought about everything he'd lost.
Occasionally, he would inhale sharply, each time weaker than the last, as anguish soon turned to hopelessness.