The passage of time went unnoticed by Kirchoff. The only thing that registered was the pain. All he felt was pain. The sensation was similar to that of scalding his hand on a hotplate, back when he was just a kid living in the colonies, but this was a whole new level of agony. It felt like all the blood in his body had been replaced with boiling water. Every beat of his heart sent a fresh wave of burning pain through his body.

It seemed like it would never end, that it would burn on forever. Eventually though, the searing sensation began to ebb. His other senses slowly began to come back. The first thing that returned was his sense of smell, and with it came an intense metallic odor. Soon after his taste returned, and it tasted like he hadn't brushed his teeth in a week. The ringing in his ears showed that at least he didn't lose his hearing. Once the ringing died down slightly, Kirchoff could pick up a faint breathing. It took some time to fix the location in his mind, but it appeared to be coming from just beside his head. The sound was vaguely familiar, and surprisingly comforting. He laid still until a tingling sensation started running over his body. It felt pleasant at first, but the tingling quickly turned into a sharper pain. It felt as if his entire body had fallen asleep on him. He writhed in discomfort which only made the prickling sensation worse. As he did so he noticed that he was surrounded by something. It felt smooth and hard, but warm from where something had been pressed against it.

His wiggling had an effect on the thing that was surrounding him. It moved in response to his touch, unfurling itself and pressing against his head.

Kirchoff, A voice sounded in his head. He didn't hear it per se, but it sounded familiar. Kirchoff, can you hear me?

Who's there? he thought sluggishly.

Kirchoff felt a feeling of hurt and worry from the thing in his head. Kirchoff it's me, Valen.

Valen… the name floated in his head. Valen… Valen!

He snapped back to awareness, and with it he became aware of the extreme soreness in his body. Valen, what's going on? Where am I?

Calm down, Valen said. You're safe now.

Where are we? he asked. He tried to say the words out loud, but they just wouldn't come.

Open your eyes stupid, Valen said with a hint of annoyance.

Kirchoff cracked his eyelids open a fraction and was blinded by a light so intense it brought tears to his eyes. He slammed them shut and curled back up, doing his best to cover his eyes with his hands.

"Aaah!" That only made the pain worse.

What's wrong? asked Valen. The fleeting annoyance in his voice had been replaced with concern.

It's too bright, I can't see, Kirchoff told him.

That's odd. It isn't that bright in here.

He didn't respond for a minute, doing his best not to scream as a fresh wave of pain radiated out from his eyes into his skull. When he could finally think again, he asked, Valen… How long was I out?

I can't say for sure, Valen said. But I think it's been one or two days.

Two days!

Hey, it might have been one.

Kirchoff didn't respond. Two days. He had been out for two days. Or maybe just one, he couldn't tell. Keeping one hand over his eyes, he propped himself up into a sitting position. When he did, the horrible prickling sensation returned. Kirchoff moved one leg in a spirit of curiosity. This time he noticed that only parts of his skin that hurt were the parts in contact with his pant leg. It felt like every cell of his skin was being abraded at the same time.

Valen, can you take my clothes off?

Pardon? Valen sounded flustered. Why?

It's hurting my skin, He explained as best he could. It feels like I'm covered in sandpaper.

Okay, do you want me to unbutton them for you? Valen's tone was uncertain

No, just shred them. I don't care, I just need them off now.

Valen did his best to be gentle, ripping his shirt, then his pants off with one claw. He moved slowly and carefully, avoiding touching his skin wherever possible. At last, he shredded through the last pant leg and Kirchoff's skin felt relieved by the cool air on his skin.

What happened? He asked. Who did this?

Julianne was the one that did it.

Wait, Julianne? Kirchoff thought they had gotten rid of her.

Yes, it was her. There wasn't a hint of snark or sass. She said something about needing enough data for a test. You were strapped to a chair, and she shocked you, and then she injected you with some kind of chemical. It hurt you Kirchoff. Badly. It looked like she was going to kill you.

I can feel it too. He winced and tried to sit up, his muscles shrieking in protest. It took a great deal of effort, but he managed to prop himself up with Valen's assistance. Have any humans visited?

No, they didn't want to enter the chamber.

Why not? Kirchoff inquired. They could have just gassed us and it would have been no trouble.

I don't think they wanted to hurt you any further. That and they didn't want to die.

He pondered that for a little while. So… Did you stay by my side the whole time I was out?

Yes, Valen said, almost sheepishly. I was afraid something might happen to you if I left you.

Thank you. That was really… sweet of you. Kirchoff leaned forwards and gave Valen a little kiss on his forehead, despite the protest of his muscles and skin. Kirchoff couldn't see it, but he was almost certain that he felt Valen blush.

Dr. Nigel was sitting in her new private laboratory, previously belonging to the 'pending review' Director of Research, Dr. Gavin. It looked very similar to her old office, complete with papers strewn everywhere. She had never been a particularly organized person, and that made it more than a bit hard to track down documents when she needed them.

The reports scattered all over the desk all belonged to Dr. Gavin, which she had been reading in her spare time for the past day and a half. However, at the moment she was occupied by staring intently at one of the monitors on the wall that gave her a fractured view of the room Valen and Kirchoff were being held in. Valen had wrapped himself protectively around Kirchoff's vulnerable form after Julianne had left, and he hadn't moved at all since. From this angle she could also get a glimpse at Kirchoff, wrapped up in Valen's embrace.

She rubbed her tired baggy eyes and took a gulp of coffee directly from a pot sitting on the table. Over the past 36 or so hours, she had been observing Valen and Kirchoff nonstop, constantly watching for any change in Kirchoff's condition. According to the monitors in the room his vitals were stable now, if weak.

He hadn't handled his torture very well. Electrocution was bad enough, but that chemical was experimental and extremely dangerous. It was designed for use on Xenomorphs, derived from a particularly toxic fern that was abundant on Bernard. She had no idea what effect this might have had on the human body, and she hadn't dared risk trying to remove Kirchoff for fear of what the sleeping gas required to sedate Valen would do to him. She had no doubt Valen would rip anyone who entered the room into bloody chunks if he was conscious.

A flash of movement on the screen caught her attention. It was brief, but there was definitely movement. She leaned in close to the monitor to try and get a better look. Even though the image was disrupted by the cracks in the lens, she could see that Kirchoff had started to move. He wasn't moving very much, just wiggling faintly inside Valen's embrace, but he was definitely moving.

As she watched Kirchoff slowly roused and sat up, helped by Valen. Dr. Nigel heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn't dead. And he could still sit up, that was a very good sign. The headset she usually wore was lying discarded amidst the papers on the table. She hurriedly put them on and pressed the call button to contact them.

Valen showed his usual display of discomfort at the announcement siren, putting his hands up to his ear holes and hissing in annoyance. She chuckled a bit at his antics, but her laughter stopped when she saw Kirchoff.

It felt like two spikes were being driven into his ears. The sound of the siren was so loud that he was forced to clench his head and curl into a ball to try and blot out the ear splitting noise. He felt Valen try to contact him, but he couldn't maintain his link more than a couple seconds before retreating. Fortunately, the siren was mercifully short and it cut out after only a was at his side almost immediately, gently nudging him with his head.

Get up Kirchoff, Valen sounded worried. Get up! Please get up!

Cautiously, he removed his hands from his ears. The sound had stopped, but he could still feel it ringing in his ears.

Valen, what was that? Kirchoff asked as he held a hand out for Valen to help him sit up.

That was the siren they sound when they want to get our attention.

Is it always so fucking loud?

It's loud certainly, but it's not that loud, Valen sounded a little concerned. Are you okay?

I don't know, Kirchoff replied. Everything feels more intense…

"Kirchoff," a voice blared out over the speakers. "Can you hear me?"

The sudden spike of pain the sound brought on made Kirchoff almost pass out. His eyes rolled into his eyelids and he collapsed on his back. Valen hissed in alarm and wrapped himself protectively around Kirchoff. Kirchoff lay in Valen's embrace, dazed. Something was definitely wrong. The pain was too intense, far worse than anything he'd experienced. Even the burning in his blood didn't match the sheer power of the pain that was stabbing his ears.

"Kirchoff," the voice boomed over the speakers. "Are you alright? Can you speak? It's me, Dr. Nigel"

He flinched again at the noise driving spikes into his head. This time wasn't as bad, thankfully. Valen's body was insulating him from the sound.

"Kirchoff, can you hear me?" She shouted again.

With a great effort, he opened his mouth and shouted as loudly as he could, "Shut up!" His voice sounded like a harsh whisper, but his throat burned as if he had been screaming for hours.

The effort it took to yell made his head throb and coherent thought was impossible. While he recuperated he heard Valen in his head, quietly speaking soothing words and comforting him as best he could. When his head didn't feel like it was splitting in half anymore, he removed his hand from his ears.

"What's going on Dr. Nigel?" He asked in a quiet voice, being careful not to hurt his throat.

"That's a very good question," Dr. Nigel said, her voice much quieter than it was before. "But it has a very long answer."

"Explain," he croaked. "I have time."

Dr. Nigel let out a loud sigh, then began to explain.

"I haven't been totally honest with you Kirchoff. About everything. I already knew most of what was in your reports about the emotional state of Xenomorphs. All the data you've been receiving from your laboratory equipment was all nonsense. None of that equipment actually measured anything useful, it was just there to convince you it was. I wouldn't have set up a project so complicated if I just wanted to study the emotional activity of a Xenomorph. I can do that with a modified electro-encephalograph and some vials of drugs. The real reason you're still here is because of your relationship to Valen. You two had a lot to talk about over the past six months."

A lot to talk about… "You know about Valen's ability?" He asked.

"Of course. I was the one who discovered his little telepathy trick in the first place." His mind reeled. So she did know about that. If that was the case, what else did she know? And what hadn't she told him before?

Dr. Nigel continued, not noticing his reaction. "The real reason that you were allowed to stay with Valen for so long was because you helped provide us with so much insight into Valen's telepathy. I wanted to study Valen to find out the exact extent of his mental abilities, but of course, Valen refused to cooperate with me. So I set up this little experiment."

"My original plan was to have a group of scientists interact with Valen one at a time, where the brain activity of the scientist and Valen would be closely monitored. That lab of yours is a highly sophisticated piece of technology that can monitor almost everything going on in your body. As soon as Valen showed any kind of mental communication with his human counterpart, we would start recording the neural activity of Valen and the scientist studying him. In that regard, you were incredibly invaluable."

"So I wasn't doing any real research myself?" His throat was calming down, and he could actually form proper sentences again without too much ache. "It was all fake?"

"Oh you were doing science Dr. Kirchoff, but you just didn't provide anything useful from your research. What you did do was talk. Basically all you two do is talk to each other. The sheer amount of data we got from watching and listening to the two of you was astounding. Still, it was only bits and pieces compared to what I would have liked to learn. If it was up to me I would have continued the project unhindered for months, if not years, but we hit a bit of a dry spell in our funding. And Dr. Gavin..."

She paused, as though collecting herself. When she spoke again her voice was a little bit tighter and high pitched.

"Then… Dr. Gavin started interfering. Please understand that I tried to protect you for as long as I could, but he was getting impatient. My intention was only to study Valen and the scientist he was with for as long as possible, but that wasn't enough for Dr. Gavin. He wanted to take it a step further. He wanted to learn how Valen's mind worked so that he could either weaponize it, or exploit it to develop weapons for use against Xenomophs. He was the one who orchestrated Julianne becoming your assistant, and when that didn't work, he wanted to torture you to see how Valen would react."

"I didn't want you to hurt you, but I had no choice. I recorded what he did to you, and I took that video to the Ethics Board. Dr. Gavin is currently suspended, pending review, and I'm acting in his place in the interim. I'm so sorry for what I've done to you, for being complicit in this, but you have to understand this is the only way I could protect you.."

"Oh fuck you!" If she expected gratitude from him, then she was sorely mistaken. His soreness and tiredness were washed away in a sudden tide of rage. He felt it rising up from the pit of his stomach, searing through his chest and out through the rest of his body. "Protect me? Do you have any idea what the fuck Julianne just did to me? What have you let happen to me!?"

"I…"

"No, you don't," He exclaimed, cutting her off. "Because you weren't injected with pain inducing drugs and almost electrocuted to death!"

A Thought occurred to him. "Oh! And since you've been secretly studying me and Valen for the last half a year, I would assume that you would have deduced that we had some kind of close relationship. What exactly did you expect to accomplish by threatening my life?"

"I didn't do it," She faltered. "Dr. Gavin wanted to see how Valen would react in that kind of a situation... "

"And what would have happened if I died?"

"W-what?" She stuttered.

"Did either of you think about that? Did you even consider what Valen would have done if I died from what Julianne did to me?! Valen told me she didn't seem to care whether I lived or died!"

"Kirchoff, I..." She tried to cut in, but Kirchoff was on a roll. "No you didn't! If I just died, I doubt Valen would ever cooperate with anyone else ever again!" Valen nodded in agreement, backing his point up.

"Why didn't you just tell me what was going on? Why didn't you tell both of us? Then we could have helped you!" He was screaming at the top of his voice now. The metallic, warm taste of blood filled his throat, but he kept on yelling. "You know what might have been simpler? You could have just told me about your precious little project from the beginning, and I would have gladly gone along with whatever you were planning! We could have helped you satisfy Dr. Gavin! We're both just as curious about how Valen's ability works as you are!"

"Kirchoff… I…" Dr. Nigel sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"And to top it all off, you openly admitted that you let me be tortured to get what you wanted out of me, just like Gavin did! Go fuck yourself Dr. Nigel!"

"I'm so sorry Kirchoff… I tried to help!" She sobbed. "I didn't want to go through with it, but Dr. Gavin…"

"FUCK YOU!" It felt like his vocal cords were being ripped to shreds. Tears streamed from his face and his head felt like it was going to split in half. Valen rushed back to his side and screamed at the camera. He wrapped himself around his body, shielding him from the rest of the world. He sobbed and sobbed, crying until no more tears came. Then he finally, mercifully, slipped away into a dreamless sleep.