Nights Apart
Chapter 6
Ben was home. That was all that mattered. And as he waited for the pod doors to open, Dexter could not keep his excitement down. Finally his boyfriend was back on planet Earth. The wait felt like an eternity, he could hear his breath, feel his heart beating in every vein with all the anticipation running through him. All his attention was focused on the pods as he willed them to open. The fall had damaged the doors, and they had to be pried open from the outside. But as they opened and the first KND members climbed out, Dexter's heart stopped and sank. A new fresh hell had broke out.
-Nights Apart-
This was a nightmare. That had not been expecting this. It was chaos as kids from the pods attacked the first KND members they laid they're discolored eyes on. And those kids started attacking other KND members after. It was an infection. Dexter didn't know which way to turn, whether he should aid in the fighting or run away as fast as he could. And then he saw Ben making his way toward him, and he froze further. When Ben got to him, he grabbed Dexter by the throat and slammed him into the ground, following soon after to loom over him and choke him. He was phenomenally strong like this, and Dexter was sure that he would have had no problem snapping his head off his shoulders with a bitch-slap, but he seemed reluctant to do so. Dexter grabber Ben's wrists and tried to pry them apart and gasped for breath that would not come. He tried to throw him off like he would when they were play-fighting (mainly Ben's way to teach him some self-defense) but it just wasn't working! The extra strength and feral instinct to kill was just too much, to ferocious to keep Ben from the mission Fuse had given him.
He kept trying until an uninfected KND member kicked Ben hard in the ribs twice and sent him tumbling to the side, where another KND member restrained him for containment. But Dexter's attention was where it had been the entire time. On those green and red eyes that looked so hopelessly at him.
Ben was fighting it.
-Nights Apart-
"It's a parasite, Mandy!" Dex bellowed, slamming his fists on her desk.
"And if a dog's too sick you put it out," was her cool reply. She wanted all the infected eradicated before the infection could spread too far.
"The Professor and I can cure this! He said this looks remarkably like the Green Banded Broodsac parasite you get in snails! Give us some time! One of our greatest assets is part of the infected! Or is the wielder of the Omnitrix really that disposable?"
Mandy scowled at him uncertainly.
"We can cure this with some time," Dexter assured, as determined as he ever was.
"Fine, you win this time," Mandy dismissed and went back to her paperwork.
-Nights Apart-
It was a little skin-crawling to walk into the containment area the infected were held in. It was like walking into a prison block, where every one is looking at you with hungry eyes. Eyes filled with animal-like instinct and malicious intent. They were all under the order to attack, to infect. The parasites inside them gnawing at their nervous system, making them act like barbarians and viruses. Where it only made snails move toward lighted places to become prey, these were fused with fusion matter to make them the predators. They were now nothing but monstrous, freak experiments. Fuse had definitely succeeded in these ugly creations of his.
As Dexter walked down one of the cell block halls, he could feel every single red and green eye burning into him. They would all try to break through the force fields to get at him as he passed them, and they continued to so long after he'd passed. They were growling and screaming war cries in every cell, the sound of it was deafening. He wondered what they did when there was no-one down here. Some would be used as test subjects for the cure and might die. He felt guilty, they couldn't help it, but sacrifices would have to be made.
As he walked he pondered which fusion or fusions could have brought this to be. Was it his own? The Professor's? Both? The idea sounded more likely than any others. Had they set up an escape as a trap? He just knew he wanted to slaughter them for this. And not just because Ben was affected.
It took a while before her reached his destination, as it was way in the back.
Ben was laying on his side, facing the force field. He was either sleeping or just laying around, but that wasn't unusual. Dexter was sure fighting a parasite in your nervous system took a lot out of you. He was calm to the extreme compared to the others. Dexter didn't know if it was because he was older or because of the Omnitrix that he had better control. Maybe it was just a battle of wills. Who knew?
Dexter sat on the floor, crossed-legged. That earned him a cracked open eye, which closed almost as soon as it opened. Except for his eyes, he still looked exactly like Ben. And now, with his eyes closed, Dexter just wanted to run his fingers through that brown hair like he had so many times before. He wanted to kiss him on his cheek, smooth over it with his hand. Comfort him and make this all go away. But he couldn't do any of that. He had the bruises on his neck to prove it. Ben rolled over, facing his back to Dexter. He was done, he didn't want to see Dexter anymore or be aware of him being near, still, Dexter stayed for an hour or two, just looking at him. After he was done, he promised Ben he'd be back and that he would put all of his power into fixing this. Ben watched him leave until he could not see him any more.