It had been inevitable that they had to run into Captain Black. That it was a trap was almost normal. A warehouse in an abandoned shipping district in Shanghai, almost crumbling in on itself. The roof was nothing but a rusting structure, the walls full of holes. The ground was covered in debris and dirt and possibly poisonous substances.
Yeah, they had walked into a trap.
And had killed at least five Mysteron agents up until this moment, when they faced their most persistent adversary.
"Scarlet. So you found a way." Black's voice sounded almost hateful. The black eyes were burning with an emotion Scarlet was hard-pressed to name. "How quaint."
"Not that it's of any interest to you," Adam snapped, gun never wavering from the Mysteron agent.
"Oh, it's very interesting to us."
"Really? What's new? Not like you can't use one of us against the other already."
Black's smile was cold and cruel. "It makes for entertainment, Captain Blue. Captain Scarlet is already very protective of his friends, but his anchor he will always put first."
Blue snorted. Scarlet regarded his former friend, torn between the hatred he felt for the Mysterons and the compassion that always rose when he tried to think of a way to help Conrad beat their control. It had happened before. He knew it was possible. He had beaten them; Conrad could, too.
"To find an anchor in a human," Black went on, disdain dripping from his voice. "Disgusting, but so very you, Scarlet. We could have given you the same. Your mind craves the Mysteron consciousness, their cool, logical control."
"I'm not your puppet, Black!" Paul spat. "I never will be again."
"So you took not even second best?"
"Hey!" Blue called.
Black didn't even deign him worthy another look. "How desperate were you, Scarlet? To consider him?"
Scarlet was silent, eyes burning with anger.
"Too bad for your little human toy," Black stated.
There was sudden movement in the shadows and Blue brought his gun around. That was the moment Black drew his own weapon.
The bullet slammed into Adam's shoulder, the next into his thigh. His leg was yanked out under him just as he stumbled from the dual impact and he went down hard, gasping as his shoulder slammed into the ground.
"Adam!" Scarlet yelled, his own weapon discharging almost simultaneously and killing off the Mysteron replicant with two well-placed shots.
Black stood over the fallen Blue, grinning nastily. Adam's fingers were curled around his bleeding leg, his face pale, breathing hard. Black's gun steadily pointed at the downed man.
"Do you know how it feels when he pulls from you as he revives, Scarlet?" he whispered, shooting a glance at his opponent. "To have him suck your life out of you like the parasite he is to your system? Can you feel his claws buried in your Mysteron soul? Can you feel his control over your very life?!"
"He's my friend, Black!" Scarlet whispered sharply. "My anchor. Nothing else."
"Oh, he's more. He's your leash and collar. He will drain you with no regard to your own condition, Scarlet. Because he isn't one of us. You will see that when he dies. I'd be happy to give you a demonstration of the foolishness you permitted."
"No!" he breathed. "Please, Conrad, stop this!"
"You like him. You want him. Your human plaything." He barked a laugh. "Oh, you have fallen so far, Scarlet. You could have been so much more with us."
Another grin, showing teeth. Adam lay on the ground, breathing hard, eyes clouded in pain, and blood stained the floor. The blue of his uniform jacket had by now taken on a darker red color.
"This one… he's so useless. Fragile. Human. Weighing you down. Making you human."
"I am human!" Scarlet spat.
"You were made by the Mysterons. It's where you will always belong. It's what they see, am I not right, Scarlet?"
Black's weapon swiveled from the downed Spectrum agent to come to rest on Scarlet.
"Have you thought about what it will do to you if I kill you while he tries to pull your energy? He will feast on you, Scarlet. He is a leech. He is a parasite. You were already an aberration, now you are truly a monster, even amongst the Mysterons."
Scarlet clenched his hands into fists, grinding his teeth.
"Just like you are nothing but a parasite to him," Black went on, laughing. "You use him. You abuse him. You keep him like a pet. That's all you are to him, Captain Blue. A tool. A toy. Scarlet is Spectrum's weapon against us and when he loses his value, his bite, they will turn on him like he is nothing. They will destroy you both. Unless the Mysterons manage that first."
His grin was nasty, inhuman.
"Fuck off," Adam whispered and brought up his gun, fingers stained a deep red, dripping blood, and he pulled the trigger.
The shot was a little off, but it hit Black nonetheless, though not fatally. He whirled around, shooting at Scarlet, catching him in the side, then he was gone. The door slammed behind him, leaving the two men alone in the old warehouse.
Paul fell to his knees next to his injured friend. His own side jarred a little, but he ignored the pain. He had gotten good at that.
"Adam?"
"Fuck, that hurts," the blond muttered, teeth clenching.
He quickly checked both wounds. "Through and through," he told Blue.
"Good news," was the breathy reply, followed by a groan. "Still, hurts like hell, Paul."
"It always does."
The dark blue eyes were filled with understanding, though it was quickly wiped away by another wave of pain.
"I need to wrap this, staunch the blood flow. Gonna hurt more," Scarlet said.
"Do it."
He was already taking off his jacket and then the black shirt underneath. He stripped off his undershirt and began to tear it apart. He used the strips to wrap a tight knot around both bullet wounds.
Blue's eyes were on him, a faint smile on his lips. "Didn't have to strip for me, Paul."
"Whatever keeps you with me."
"Hey, I'm not that cheap… I don't just like you for your body, so you're not getting rid of me." He broke off, gasping sharply.
"Help's coming," Paul told him, taking his hand, holding it as Blue rode through another wave of pain.
"Black knows," Adam whispered, blue eyes burning into Paul's.
"Inevitable. They probably knew for a while now."
"How much am I pulling?"
"Nothing I can feel right now." The dark-haired man smiled faintly. "You're taking your time," he teased.
It got him a weak laugh. "No idea what I'm doing, Paul."
"Neither am I."
So he just sat with the other captain. He had spread his jacket over him, wearing into his black shirt, listening to each breath, each moan. Woozy, consciousness fading, Blue tried to hang on, but it was getting harder and harder.
When the pull began, it was a sharp, sudden jolt that had Scarlet groan, grabbing one thigh.
"Paul?!" Adam sounded tired but a little more alert.
"Nothing," he gritted.
"It's starting?"
Scarlet's free hand flew to his shoulder, grimacing. "I think so."
He felt like his blood pressure had suddenly dropped, dizzy and detached, like part of him was tearing away, and then there was nothing but the soft hum he had noticed months before. His thigh cramped painfully for a minute, then that was over, too.
Scarlet released a soft breath.
Adam's eyes had closed, his own breathing quite regular, and Paul leaned back against the wall, never letting go of his hand.
X x X
Help came almost six hours later.
x X XX xx X XX xx x X XX xx X XX xx x X XX
"Not a monster," Adam murmured when he pulled his partner into an embrace close to thirty hours after Black's trap.
He had been unconscious by the time they had arrived on Skybase. He had woken in med bay, Gold near-by, running test and scans and probing the healing wounds.
Colonel White was aware of what had happened, how serious the injuries had been. Doctor Gold had downplayed them for every visitor, calling them scrapes at best. With the blood on the uniform and the mess both men had been in, neither Captain Brown nor Captain Grey had truly seen the full extent of Blue's injuries. They had airlifted both captains out of the area, leaving Scarlet to tend to his partner, fabricating a story about Black getting the drop on Blue, stunning him, then shooting him.
On Skybase, Gold had smoothly taken over.
And he had kept Blue under observation for twenty-four hours.
Now, in the privacy of an examination room, after Gold had left them with a knowing look, Paul wrapped his arms firmly around the other man. He buried his face against the warm neck, trembling a little with the stress and still lingering shock.
His stoic façade had cracked by the time Gold had closed the door after him and Adam had known how much this had shaken his partner.
"He got to you," he said softly, tightening his arms. "I can see it. You're more morose than normal."
"I'm not morose," Scarlet protested, though he didn't fight the embrace. He actually clung to Adam like he needed the full body contact like he needed air to breathe.
Adam chuckled and pressed his lips to the dark hair.
"Right. Mr. Sunshine all the way. You get this look in your eyes after a regeneration, when those memory flashes hit. When you remember something Mysteron. And right now, even without that, you look ready to throw yourself off Skybase. He got to you."
"With the truth."
"That I take life energy from you? Yeah, we knew that. That your Mysteron side thinks it's a smart idea to rely on me for your sanity? Check, knew that. I leech, yeah. But that was to be expected. You told me."
Adam stepped back, looking into the pale face. He hated the pain he saw there, the worry and pain.
"He's playing a game of nerves, Paul. He looks for weaknesses. They, the Mysterons, do. They know you are human. You have very human emotions. They want to use that against you. They want to use me. We knew that, right?"
The pale blue eyes were filled with the answer.
"As I said: you're not a monster. Not to me. Never to me. Black can think whatever he wants to. You found what you needed and this, between us, it works. I'm just worried that it pains you."
"Small price to pay for your life, Adam."
He smiled, squeezing one shoulder. "Probably." He tilted his head a little. "But you're still thinking about what Black said. About you and me, both dying. What would happen to you when I start pulling."
Paul shrugged and slumped on the couch.
"I would recover," he said. "If I can. Atomization is permanent."
"We had this talk. A dozen times. We're bound together, Paul. I wouldn't want to be the one left standing. I'm not going to bury you, hold your eulogy. Together."
Blue eyes, pale and sometimes glacially cold when on a mission, widened. It caught up to Adam in those moments, how vulnerable Paul Metcalfe really was.
"You like to punish yourself," Blue stated neutrally. "It's apparently a knack. You take all the blame and can't catch a break. News flash, buddy: I'm that break."
"I use you, Adam."
"Uh-huh. What for? Cheap entertainment? I'll have you know I'm not cheap."
"A replacement," was the quiet, too serious answer.
Adam wrapped an arm around the other man's shoulders and pulled him close. Paul almost collapsed against him.
"Replacement for what? The Mysteron mind control? Hey, I'm all for it. Use me all you want. I get something out of this, too. It goes both ways and I'm going to beat this into your thick skull if I have to. For the rest of our lives, Paul."
Scarlet smiled, a laugh escaping him.
"That's more like it!"
He slid his fingers into the dark strands and pressed his lips to the tousled hair.
Paul relaxed against him, the tension bleeding out of his frame.
x X XX xx X XX xx x X XX xx X XX xx x X XXx X XX xx X XX xx x X XX xx X XX xx x X XXx X XX xx X XX xx x X XX xx X XX xx x X XXx X XX xx X XX xx x X XX xx X XX xx x X XX
"Have you ever thought about the future?"
Paul looked up from the study of his tablet. He had a ton of backlog reports to read and most of them were utterly boring.
"Not since my last moment as a human being."
Adam scowled, but he didn't argue again. His expression said it quite clearly, told Paul that he wanted to, though.
"Why?" he only asked.
It got him a shrug. "There's none to plan for. I'm immortal, Adam. As long as I breathe I will fight, be an agent. There is no retirement, nothing like it. I won't age. They won't leave us alone."
Adam was silent, studying him with an almost unreadable expression. "And then?"
"After the Mysterons? I don't know."
Because he might not survive. He might get obliterated. He might not be able to exist without them. They might win and destroy Earth. Maybe they could work out a truce. Maybe the Mysterons could be convinced it had all been a mistake. Maybe…
"What about you?" Paul final asked, fearing the answer.
"Career soldier," Adam answered easily. "That's my future. Now even more so." He gave Paul an easy grin.
"But not the way you wanted."
The blond lightly kicked him in the shin, scowling again. "Paul," he admonished.
"What about your family?"
Scarlet's was dead. He had no one to think of but himself. It was so much easier in a way, and still so much harder. His parents were dead and so were his grandparents. No siblings, no cousins. So, so easy.
Adam had two living parents. He had two older brothers and one younger sister. Of course, relations with his father were strained at best. The man had wanted his son to follow into his footsteps, just like his older brothers had done already, but Adam had become a soldier. Paul knew there had been little personal contact outside family festivities over the years. It didn't mean Adam Svenson had no family.
"What about them?" the blond now asked. "I can't tell them half of what I so. Secrecy and all. It was like that in the Army and it's like that now."
Paul was silent again, fingers playing along the tablet's edge. Adam caught them, holding the pale blue eyes.
"We're good, Paul. Relax into this. We'll take this one day at a time. I'm not going all the different scenarios now."
Scarlet looked at their joined hands and squeezed Adam's. "Can't help it, Adam. I haven't given my life much of a thought. It was just me and my virtual indestructibility. I'm a weapon and that was all. No plans."
"Doesn't mean you never had a life to live, Paul. To lead. You're not a thing. Spectrum doesn't own you."
"Sometimes it feels like it."
"I'll start kicking your pale, British ass if you don't stop talking like that, Metcalfe!" Adam snarled and tugged at the hand he kept holding. "We're in this together. Equally. I'm your anchor and you're not responsible for whatever you think you did to make me your partner in your life. This is us. Two people. Not you and poor me. You're Paul Metcalfe. You're human, Paul. To me, you're absolutely human. We'll face this together. Always together. Not attached at the hip, but you won't be alone." He lifted a corner of his mouth in a small smile. "And it's not a hardship, Paul. I want this."
Paul knew it and it humbled him. Adam pulled him close, the physical contact somehow calming and wanted. He had never realized how much influence Adam had on him.
Since completing the anchor.
Since accepting that he was a Mysteron and needed this.
Companionship.
"Paul?"
"I'm okay."
"You better well are."
"Threats always work so well."
Adam chuckled and groped for the remote, then found a channel with a nature documentary. Paul leaned comfortably against the blond and returned to reading the files on his tablet.
tbc...