Two days passed where Enjuy is the only occupant of the room that he apparently shares with Gray but has not seen once.
By now he has made himself at home and his wounds have mostly healed from his battle with Gray.
Enjuy wonders if Gray is not maybe in the medbay, he did kind of hit his head hard into that stone pillar. He probably has a bad concussion. Enjyu is not even going to wonder if Marda-B had perhaps changed his mind to honor their agreement and let Gray go free, because he certainly did not.
By the next day, Enjyu have grown bored. He has not been spoken to by anyone and nothing else is happening. Some robot brings him food and that's it.
Enjyu did notice that the door is not being locked and he wonders if that gives him permission to leave this room and explore?
And with the thought, Enjyu silently slips out. He then takes his time exploring the hallways with much stealth not to get caught, even though he is not even sure whether he is allowed out of that room or not.
Enjyu had gone down a few floors when he starts hearing something and for some reason, he decides to follow it. After going down to another floor, the sounds had become quite apparent that it is the screams of someone that is in a lot of pain that is being inflicted on them.
Getting closer, Enjyu then clearly recognizes that the screams belong to Gray.
It is no short screams of pain, it is long drawn-out screams of pure agony.
Not wanting to join Gray, Enjyu decides to make a quick return to the room before he is caught.
Another day had gone by and Enjyu still has not seen or heard from either Gray of Ababa.
With his legs crossed and his arms behind his head, Enjuy stares up at the dark ceiling. After turning the main light off, the bedside lamp leaves enough light to be able to see the rest of the room.
Enjuy realizes that he has fallen asleep only when there is a click by the door, and it opens.
Deciding to pretend to be asleep, Enjuy does not move, keeping his eyes closed.
There is a sound of something being dragged across the floor. Enjuy can imagine it is Gray dragging his poncho on the floor. But after remembering that Ababa hung it up and it has been hanging in the room ever since, Enjuy opens his eyes to slits to peak and see what it is.
There are two robots, and the dragging sound is actually an obviously unconscious Gray being dragged over to the other bed. The robots then unceremoniously drop Gray on the bed and then leave the room.
For some reason Enjyu expects the door to be locked but after a long while of hearing nothing, he opens his eyes and turns to look over to Gray.
Gray is completely lights-out and lying face down. His hair looks ruffled, his clothed are filthy and Enjuy is sure it's from their battle from days before, and his shoes are gone.
Just what exactly happened in the dungeons? What did they do to him?
Enjyu turns back and stares at the ceiling again. Quite some time later, Enjyu is woken up again by the door opening and someone entering. Again, Enjuy pretends to be asleep, but his curiosity wins and he again peaks to see who it is.
He finds Ababa next to Gray's bed, placing a glass of water on the side table with something else next to it. When Ababa turns around to look over to Enjyu, he closes his eyes just in time to pretend to be asleep. Moments later, Enjuy can hear Ababa leaving and the door closes.
When Enjuy is sure the coast is clear, he looks over to Gray again. Gray is still in the same position. Next to him is a glass of water and something that looks like a bottle of pills. On the ground are Gray's boots that was not there before.
So, Ababa picks up Gray's poncho and carries his shoes after him, how interesting.
Again, Enjyu turns back and stares at the ceiling and not too long after he falls asleep. Again, Enjuy is woken up and a feeling of annoyance rises in him. Surely, he can get a peaceful night's rest?
Deep breathing and an occasional groan of pain coming from the other side of the room, causes Enjuy to look over to Gray again. He seems restless, but it is not a nightmare. It is like he is slowly being woken up by pain. Well, if those agonizing screams he heard have anything to do with it, then Gray is in a lot of pain.
Moments later there is a deep intake of air as Gray jerks awake. Gray takes a few deep breaths and then he pushes himself up on his knees while groaning out in pain, he then moves over to sit with his back pushed up against the wall. His head is hung forward while he is keeping himself up with his hands on either side of him. Clearly, he is trying to fight down and suppress pain.
Gray then spots the water on the bedside table and then moves over. Without missing a beat, Gray takes the bottle of pills, opens it, tips it over and then downs it with the whole glass of water with a shaky hand. Enjuy can only guess that it is pain killers, if he judges the situation right.
As Gray moves in the light, Enjuy can see stitches across Gray's forehead accompanied by bruising where he slammed him into that rock pillar. He probably does have a concussion too.
Gray then sits awkwardly on the side of the bed, with his knees lifted and his feet not touching the ground.
After a few more deep breaths, Gray eventually scrapes enough courage together and then gets up from the bed. There is a hiss of pain, and it looks like Gray's legs gives a wobble. But instead of walking to the bathroom, Gray hops on one foot, with great difficulty. It looks like Gray's got a limp also, that's if someone can have a limp while only using one leg.
The door then slams shut behind him. It would seem that Gray did not even notice his presence.
Not long and Enjuy can hear water running. It does not sound like the shower, so it must be the handwash basin.
After a long while of the water running, Enjuy wonders what Gray is doing. He cannot remember injuring Gray's foot. Sure, Gray has always had that bad ankle, but he does not remember seeing Gray hurt it during their battle.
So, it must be something they did to him in the dungeons.
At first when Enjyu got to this room, he could not wait for Gray to come, so that he could terrorize him. But suddenly he has no desire to do so. Something tells him that Gray is being terrorized enough around here.
Enjuy closes his eyes, and not long after falls asleep.
Again, Enjyu is woken up and this time he is downright irritated. But this time something else woke him up. As Enjuy cracks open his eyes to see what it was, he is greeted with the sinister look of Ababa. He jerks up and backs against the wall. Clearly, he did not expect it.
"Good morning Enjuy." Ababa's tone drips with sarcastic malice. "Hope you've had a good night's rest."
Enjuy lets out the breath he was holding. Ababa did that on purpose. He will not let Ababa mess with him like that.
"Sure. I was only woken up about four times last night. Can't anyone get a good night's rest in this place?" Enjuy uses an unhappy tone.
"You can be glad that is all that you got." Ababa's comment has some underlying intention that Enjuy immediately picks up on.
"Let's go." Ababa then turns and gestures for Enjuy to follow him.
As Enjuy follows after Ababa, he looks over at Gray's bed. The sheets are all ruffled and it's empty. No Gray. The bathroom door is still closed, and he wonders if he is still in there.
Ababa takes Enjuy to the training courts where he spends the day being driven like a machine.
At the end of the day Ababa shows up.
"Will you be able to find you own way back to your room?" Ababa questions but there is something in his tone that tells Enjuy that he is being given trust as a test. But also, this can be Ababa's way of telling him that he knew he left the room days prior.
"I'm sure I can tell my left from my right." Enjuy sarcastically replies.
Ababa grins and then turns and leaves without another word.
Enjuy then takes a slow walk back. The day was long, he is hungry, tired and his body hurts everywhere. He has forgotten what being trained by the Shadow Alliance is like.
Stepping up to the door, Enjuy opens the door that has not been locked ever since he got there.
Stepping in, Enjuy finds Gray on his bed. For a moment, Enjuy considers slamming the door shut to give Gray a fright but for some reason he decides against it and closes it quietly.
Stepping closer to Gray who is lying on his stomach with his pillow over his head and his hands over the pillow, Enjuy also notices Gray's bare feet.
Well, more specifically Gray's one foot that is red and swollen. Enjuy takes a closer look as it looks like a burn mark that spans the inside of his foot and Enjuy finds that it is indeed a burn mark. No wonder Gray was in excruciating pain.
Enjyu tries to think what Gray could possibly have stepped on.
Taking a closer look, Enjuy finds that it is not just any random burn mark, it has patterns but with the swelling it's hard to tell what it is. There is also a thick layer of ointment that has been applied to it that also makes it harder to see.
After staring at it for a few moments, it dawns on Enjuy. He blinks a few times and checks again to make sure.
It is letters, spelling out 'MARDA-B'.
Marda-B branded Gray as his property. In a very painful place.
An unsettling feeling washes over Enjuy as the weight of the situation sinks in.
Marda-B branded Gray as his property.
Gray is never leaving.
Enjuy is still standing at the foot of Gray's bed as he looks over the rest of Gray's body. Enjuy can see that Gray has lost weight and he notice that Gray has a short-sleeved shirt on, which is strange. Gray always wears sleeveless shirts.
Enjuy then spots the marks on Gray's wrists. It is circular, red welts and runs around his wrists, the obvious markings of restraints.
He stands staring at Gray wondering what exactly they did to him. It is not surprising though, he did betray the Alliance, Gray should have known this was coming.
But that's the thing. Enjuy also betrayed the Alliance. How long will it be before they start doing this to him too? Or did his voluntary return have an impact on his impending punishment?
Stepping up next to Gray, his shadow falling over Gray seems to make him aware of someone else's presence as he starts moving. Enjuy does not know how he could tell there is someone else with that pillow over his head.
"Go away." Gray's muffled voice comes from under the pillow.
"Gray." Enjuy speaks to get his attention, why he is not sure even.
"Leave me alone." Again, Gray's muffled voice but irritation is clear in it.
"Gray." Enjuy leans forward and takes hold of the pillow. For some reason he is not leaving until Gray acknowledges his presence.
It catches Enjuy by surprise when Gray suddenly moves onto his other elbow, grabs the pillow and is about to violently clobber him with it when he freezes.
"Enjuy?" Gray is clearly surprised by Enjuy's presence, he did not seem to expect to see him there.
"Who did you think it was?" Enjuy asks as he watches Gray. The only other person that comes in and out of this room is Ababa. "You were going to hit Ababa with a pillow?" Enjuy asks with amusement and some surprise.
Grays eyes travels through the room as he thinks about it, it would probably not have been a good move. He is glad it was Enjuy. He better get his actions under control.
Pulling the pillow over his head again, Gray goes back to his original position with his hands placed over the pillow, leaving Enjuy to stand there looking like an idiot.
"Get away from me." Just for good measure, Gray makes his irritation known.
Enjuy then goes into the bathroom, takes a shower and cleans up. After he is done, he lies down on his bed and almost instantly falls asleep. He is tired and exhausted after all day training. He has not even gotten any food today, but he is not going to beg for it either.
The door being shoved open, wakes Enjuy and he jerks into a sitting position. He finds Ababa standing in the door, pinning him with a glare. It was probably his quick movement that drew the attention.
"I wouldn't, he is grumpy." Enjuy mockingly warns as Ababa turns his attention to Gray who is still lying face down with the pillow over his head. He has not moved a muscle. Either he is in a deep sleep, or he is used to this, and it just doesn't bother him anymore.
"That's too bad." Ababa replies but he stays where he is. "Get up Gray, Marda-B demands your presence right now." Ababa's tone clearly conveys that he better jump or else he will be in for it, again, some more.
There's a sigh and then Gray pulls the pillow off his head and then moves into a sitting position with no protest or resistance.
"Put on your shoes. You do not want that foot to get infected." Ababa instructs like Enjuy is not even present.
With much difficulty and groans of pain, Gray pulls his left shoe on and then he just stares at his right foot. Not to even mention the burn swollen mark under his foot, his ankle itself is in agonizing pain. They had tightened the vice around his ankle and he did not hold still while he had a searing hot iron stuck to the bottom of his foot.
His ankle is bruised and swollen and he sure as hell is not going to pull a shoe on.
Gray gets up on his one foot and holds his right shoe in his hand. "I'll just carry it." Gray's tone is sarcastically defeated.
Without saying anything, Ababa holds the door open for Gray who proceeds to hop out on one foot.
Ababa gives Enjuy a warning look before he slams the door shut.
Enjuy fleetingly wonders what the look was for. He then wonders what Marda-B is going to do Gray now. Maybe he is next.
By the time they reach their destination, Gray's good foot is also in pain now. Hopping on one foot is not exactly something Gray practiced.