…What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could've been
And not seeing that love in you
Is what I was trying to do…
"My mom loves that song," suddenly tore into his humming, and Cael's head rose as a low, warning growl vibrated in the back of his throat… and stopped at the sight of the… creature behind the bars of the cage nearly at the same time as its cyan eyes widened impossibly, giving almost comically shocked look its triangular muzzle. "…what the fuck…?"
"What… Who are you?" he rasped, tightening his arms protectively around Rhasa. It… He, because the voice was distinctively male if… young?... but he looked so painfully familiar… Its shape, very different from the so-called masters, reminded him of something…
The creature covered by the thick, red fur shook his head slightly, then it… changed and, in a blink of an eye, a boy kneeled in front of the cage, looking even more familiar. He looked like one of them but quite younger than Rhasa – and older than the younger numbers.
"I'm Raha," he whispered, raising his hands and wrapping them around the two bars of the cage as his eyes zeroed in on the female in Cael's arm, his ears twitching with the sound of her labored breath. "I don't want to scare you, but… she looks really bad. If you let me, I can help her… Heal her, okay? Then I'll help you both to get out of here. From the cage and from this hellhole of a lair, I mean."
…that wasn't really a choice, was it? Even if it was some ploy invented by the masters to torture them…
Cael sighed with resignation, then carefully – trying not to jostle Rhasa at all so as not to cause her any more pain than she was already in – moved, intending to get closer to the bars of the cage. The boy's voice stopped him.
"It's okay, don't move," the redheaded boy said softly, soothingly, and his hands visibly tightened around the bars as focus bloomed on his quite cute face. Cael's eyes widened impossibly, seeing how the muscles on his arm moved and grew; then he, seemingly without any effort at all, bent the thick metal out of the way enough to slip inside the cage. Only now, he noticed that the plate of the entrance to the nook they were in was open, letting a stray of light inside that shoved it also looked quite bent out of shape. "We… I mean me and my friends, we were sent here to get you out," the boy said softly, carefully nearing him and his charge on all fours. He looked small and delicate, so Cael's eyes swiveled between him and the bars of the cage, and he blinked with astonishment. "I have to touch her… to heal her… is that okay?" he added and stopped, raising his hand slowly toward Rhasa's head while his cyan eyes caught his stare.
He had such kind eyes… Cael's throat tightened too painfully to speak so he only nodded as his memory involuntarily supplied an image of another set of kind eyes, if set in a completely different face and in a very different color…
…his face, he knew, because every time he caught a look into any reflective surface whenever masters let him out to make things for them, his heart broke even as the sight of his reflection steeled his resolve. To protect the younger boys and girls caught up in this nightmare alongside him – just like his older brother once protected him from the bastard who sold him to those monsters.
He cleared his throat slightly and moved his hand away from where it was wrapped around the girl's head, if still quite suspicious when the redhead smiled – even if it looked quite strained on his youthful face – and very delicately set his hand on Rhasa's forehead while his kind – somewhat sad – eyes trailed over Cael's face.
"…who are you?" the boy asked, hesitantly looking over his shoulder toward the open door and back to him. "You look… very similar to someone I know."
"I'm Cael," he replied with his mantra. One he repeated in his head over and over whenever he earned a beating or took one for the others, letting the pain engrave it in his head alongside the lyrics of the songs his kind brother taught him.
He couldn't remember his name, but the music was their secret – as whenever he was miserable, his brother would sing for him, and even the masters' abuse couldn't touch the memory of the beauty of his voice. That was his most treasured impression because everything about his brother was beautiful: his voice, face, and especially his soul.
…so much different than their other, evil brother that he remembered only taking joy in causing him pain – before the fucker lured him out of their home and gave him away to these monsters. He couldn't remember his name either – but that he didn't regret. The memories of him only brought back flashes of pain – and he already had enough of that in reality. The only good thing from those were images of their kind brother getting between them and protecting him. Forcing the evil one away with snarls and threats, then singing for him until Cael felt better…
…then suddenly, what the redheaded boy said fully register in his head, and his heartbeat stuttered as he looked into his kind eyes with a new focus.
"…similar? How similar?" he asked, involuntarily tightening his arms around the girl in his arms when the redhead blinked rapidly, looking between him and the door again and sighing softly.
"…to be frank?" his cyan eyes trailed over his face again. "You very much look like my… mate's older copy."
"…copy?" he repeated with confusion.
"Ah… I mean, you look exactly the same, other than the fact that he's much younger," the boy… Raha was it?... motioned his free hand toward Cael's face. "And like his older brother, Ares, too…"
That name sounded somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember why...
"…only Ares's eyes are blue like the sky, and yours… are exactly like Senri's," the redhead frowned and bit his lower lip, carefully pulling his hand back and resting it with the other on his thighs. Cael blinked and looked down at Rhasa's face, gasping with surprise to see all of the earlier covering her bruises and cuts gone. There was still dried blood marring her beauty, but her breathing was now even, and though she seemed asleep – or unconscious – she no longer looked like she was about to slip away with another breath. "She's going to be fine, I swear. But we really should get you both out of here…" he cut off at the distant sound of the steps coming from the direction of the corridor behind the door and visibly tensed, briefly putting his finger against his lips before turning around and putting himself between them and the entrance… to audibly exhale with relief when a tall, blonde man – without their tail or ears – pushed the plate wider open and looked inside with a frown on his face.
"Oi, we're…" he trailed off and blinked slowly when his dark – green? – eyes stopped on Cael's face, and his mouth visibly dropped open. "…the fuck?"
"I know, right?" the redhead sighed, then turned toward him and his girl with another kind but slightly strained smile. "It's okay, that's one of my friends who's also here to help. His name is Gabriel, and he's a Pyre, so…"
"No, seriously… What the fuck?" the blonde gasped, not taking his eyes off him as he pushed the plate completely open and stepped inside, stopping by the bent bars. "He looks just like…."
"I know," the boy sighed, frowning toward the blonde Pyre. "He said his name is Cael. But could you do something about those…"
"Cael?" the male breathed as his face grew white like a sheet when he flinched as if hit. He curled his hands around the bars, which bent in his palms. "…motherfucker. If he wasn't already dead… Nox, Ares is going to freak the fuck out…"
"…huh? You know him?" the redhead looked between them, then slowly stood up.
"Heard of him, yeah," the blonde replied without taking his eyes off his face, then visibly worked his jaw before he exhaled softly and… just like that, tore both bars out of the floor and ceiling with a loud snap. "…sorry. But this is so fucking messed up," he nearly growled, then snapped out two more bars, creating a wider opening. "I knew… We all knew that Hepaistos was a bastard, but to give them his brother…?"
"What are you talking about?" Raha balked visibly, and his face paled as he looked back toward Cael.
"'Cael' was the name of the first kit that went missing from their… your lair," the Pyre replied with audible anger. "Before… what happened with Ares's parents. But if he's here…" he trailed off and looked away, as well as moving a step back from created by him whole in the bars. "Fuck, I wish I could bring him back just to kill the fucker again, I swear. We knew… Ares knew that his uncle orchestrated that whole thing. We all knew that, but this is… fucked up. He told me once… Well, one time we had a tad too much to drink, and he told me that they – his parents, I mean – were supposed to take them to another lair… another Clan because someone from there sent them a message that they found Nyx's brother…"
Nyx. That he knew, and Cael gasped when the name brought back the painfully clear image of the smile on his kind brother's face. Of blue eyes shimmering with sparks of humor as the tall male set a small kit in his arms and then rested his big hand over his hair while he stared with wonder. In the image, the kit looked in his face with his brother's eyes and cooed funnily, making him laugh before he looked up.
'We named him Ares, because he's going to need the strength and determination of the God of War,' his brother said and grinned, falling to one knee then and setting his hands around Cael's shoulders. 'But we will be there to protect him, right, little brother?'
The image melted away with a pang of excruciating pain, and Cael groaned, pressing his hand over his eyes, behind which it seemed to radiate from.
"What's wrong?" he heard before a hand landed on his head, and he flinched at the touch, instinctively pressing back into the wall and growling, of it was more fear than anger inside him as he pulled his hand back and looked at the boy leaning over him and Rhasa with a worried expression in his painfully kind eyes.
"D-Don't touch me," he rasped, moving as far as possible from his still outstretched hand. Looking like he did in this place had a price… he didn't like to think about. The male who lead those monsters especially often… took his time with him, laughing that he looked just like… like…
…who?
The familiar sensation settled over his head, accompanied by another wave of pain, and Cael ground his teeth with a choked whine.
I'm Cael, Cael, Cael… he closed his eyes, repeating his mantra. They took everything else, but this one thing he refused to let go of. His name and the songs sang by… someone with kind eyes.
'You're One,' the insistent voice in the back of his head growled with fury and another wave of pain. 'And you're nothing but my tool. You'll serve me, One.'
"I'm not One," he whimpered breathlessly, tightening his arms around the warm weight in them. The loophole. One had to serve, but he was Cael and…
…everything went dark.
"What happened?" Raha gasped when the man wearing his boyfriend's face sagged against the wall, and his arms went limp around the blonde woman. His hand moved toward them instinctively and froze a breath away from the familiar, ink-black hair – though much, much longer than Senri's – and he consciously pulled it back, reminded of the pure terror in ice-blue eyes and the demand not to touch him.
He really, really didn't want to think about what it suggested or how his heart thumped with misery at the mere first sight of this man's face when he looked up at the sound of his voice, stopping his quiet singing. He had the voice of an angel, too – as much as it baffled him at first to hear something so… unfitting for this nightmarish place.
In the end, Senri was right using his gift on the spiral corridor because, gingerly heading down, he passed a few canine-looking beasts stuck mid-run toward the seeming cage. Still not wanting to use his gift for killing, Raha just passed them while sending a silent thanks to his lover's overprotective nature. Not for himself, but looking at how badly beaten the blonde female looked… he didn't want to know why those fuckers were heading toward them.
And now, looking at the face so painfully similar to the one he loved… he was seriously rethinking his misgivings about killing those monsters. If – having the first-hand experience of it – he was certain that his… gift was a too kind and painless way for them to go. Because looking at him… he could far, far too easily imagine what would put such a reaction to touch in someone as beautiful as his Senri. He could too easily imagine his boyfriend in this place, with that awful black collar wrapped around his throat and…
He shook his head, taking a deep, steadying breath before he straightened and looked toward the silent blonde. By the expression on Gabriel's face, he could guess that the Pyre's mind went to similarly dark places – but right now, they had priorities.
"By you being here… I guess Senri found their Alpha?" he asked softly.
"Mhmm, plus two Seekers, ours escorted out," Gabe replied, stepping inside the cage. "The rest spread out, searching for the others while Rafe went toward your boyfriend. Those collars will have to wait," he sighed, kneeling beside the unconscious Seekers. "I wouldn't dare to try to blast them and risk harming them. Can you take the girl, Raha?" he asked, looking toward him, and he nodded, then carefully and trying to be as delicate as possible, untangled the female from her companion's arms while seamlessly strengthening his humanoid form as he picked her up as if she weighed nothing. Despite covering her face dried blood, especially around her mouth, there was no denying that she was beautiful. Gently securing her long, blonde locks to not pull on them accidentally, he moved sideways as he left the cage and, outside of it, watched the Pyre gingerly scoop up the male before joining him.
With their prize secured, they left the nook – with Raha leading the way – and he wasn't particularly surprised to see that those Keepers (was it ever right to call them that?) he passed earlier turned into smears of blood and guts on the walls along the way. Gabriel only shrugged slightly when he sent him an arched look over his shoulder as they passed the first one, but they didn't speak until they reached the top of the corridor and stopped in the place he earlier split apart with Senri.
He hesitated briefly as Gabriel passed him and headed in the direction of the entrance.
"He's going to be fine, Raha," he tossed over his shoulder. "Nothing in here can stand up to a hybrid, yeah? Let's see about getting these two out of the radius first, okay? Then you can return, and you two can help us look and get out others. I didn't hear anything yet from Rahm or Yugiri, so we still have at least five Seekers unaccounted for… not to mention all the other… Others in this hellhole."
"Okay…" he sighed, then with a last, long look toward the direction he could feel his lover's presence, he turned and, tightening his arms around the woman, followed the blonde up the long corridor leading to the entrance of this miserable pit.
Passing the bodies of Senri's earlier victims, he was reminded of his beast's rage… and involuntarily wondered how much worse it was going to be when he hears of their discovery. And he found that he more than agreed with Gabriel's earlier remark: too bad they couldn't revive Hepaistos just to kill him again… over and over… and over…
Because even if he, in the end, didn't see that execution, looking at the unconscious male in Gabe's arms, he believed with his whole, infuriated heart that no matter what his boyfriend's brothers did to the fucker – it could never be enough to even out all the misery that bastard caused. And in thought he sent another silent wish for his beast to inflict as much pain as possible on the other fucker… because it had to be a special kind of a monster to create and run this place.
In the complete silence ruling in the section of three nooks that was her world, the sudden crrrack! sounded far louder than it had any right to be and made Nine's heart jump in her throat. She knew that sound, and despite her promise to Four, she whimpered and started to wiggle out of the pile of dirt while still trying to be as quiet as possible. When out, she pulled the dark material off her sweaty, overheated face and on her toes, holding her breath, she sneaked toward the nook with the eggs.
In there, her little heart dropped to see her worst fear realized: a big crack running across the surface of the dry, blue egg. In a panic, not thinking much, she darted toward the bucket with the water next to it and, instead of using the ladle, put her hands in, then sprayed the dark-blue scales with the liquid in panicky motions. Whispering a litany of 'please, don't' was useless, however, because soon another crack broke the surface of the scales… echoed with a similar sound behind her.
"Nooo," Nine whined, looking toward the linens wrapped around the other egg, and her heart sank with more crrracks! following swiftly now from both sides of the nook. With shaking hands, she walked toward the other pedestal and carefully unfurled the materials covering the red egg, grimacing at how chilled they were. With her eyes burning with tears that made her sight blurry, she unwound the last linen… and froze, gawking when the portion of scales was pushed out from within, and a tiny, reddish head of the scaly creature poked out, with a funny, growly 'hrrr!' then froze as well, giving her a slightly owlish look of slitted yellow eyes. Covered in dark-red scales matching its egg, it gave her a once-over, then… cooed happily as its tiny nostrils flared and it dug its tiny fangs in the edges of the egg around its head, soon chomping away its pieces. All the while, every few seconds sent her weirdly enamored looks as the opening winded.
Nine stared in astonishment back and, because of it, almost missed another tiny but disgruntled 'hrrr!' sounding behind her. Blinking with surprise, her dark-haired head swiveled toward the sound, and her heart jumped in her throat at the sight of another but blue-scaled creature giving her… a stink-eye as it went to chomp on its egg. Almost forgetting how to breathe, Nine had to bite her lips to stop a loud gush at the unbearable cuteness, and staring at the blue egg, she startled badly when something jumped on her arm.
"Ow," she wrinkled her nose and involuntarily grinned at the red-scaled… thing with leathery wings when without much care for her skin, it scampered up her arm and shoulder, then planted itself atop her head with a chittery, weirdly triumphant 'hrrr!' that the blue-scaled creature answered with a sound that very much sounded like a complaint. To balance atop of her head, red set it… paws?... around it, then using its long neck, looked in her eyes with another chittery 'hrrr!' turning its triangular head to give her a look with each of its yellow eyes before raising it and uttering another triumphing croon.
A tad unsure and setting her hands around the creature in case it tumbled off, Nine carefully moved back toward the blue egg… and just in time for it to crack wide enough for its content to slither out of it, shaking its leathery wings with something like almost a pout on its longish snout. Other than the red, this one appeared to have four eyes, their wide irises looking bright blue compared to its dark scales, and after a moment, she realized that it actually also had four wings, as what she thought were two splits in the middle. Its long, spear-tipped tail wiggled with something almost like an annoyance when red-scaled crooned with its chitter, and the blue snapped its jaw with 'hrrr!' and jumped on her, slithering up her arm to plant itself on her shoulder and chitter at the other scaly creature while giving her disgruntled looks.
"Sorry, I have only one head," she whispered with involuntary amusement, so relieved that her heartbeat stuttered unevenly.
…then she cringed, remembering that as cute as it was, it definitely wasn't a good thing, not to mention her promise to Four! That realization was driven home by the sound of the plate guarding the entrance to the section of the nooks opening that had her ears laid flat against her head as trying not to misbalance the scaly things, and with no other choice, really, Nine moved behind the pedestal of the blue egg – in the small crack between it and the wall – and kneeled, trying to hush the chittery creatures that seemed consumed with quibbling in their hissy 'hrrrs!'
She couldn't hear anything else before the plate of the nook she was in uttered a tiny sound and then nothing again… until a huge triangular muzzle poked behind the pedestal and a pair of pretty but mismatched eyes – white and blue – blinked slowly… and its jaw seemed to drop, showing many, many fangs…
"…Noru?" it gasped, and she tilted her head curiously… electing a disgruntled hiss from the red-scaled creature that clamped its paws around her head and appeared to chitter with annoyance at the big… something as its mismatched eyes widened impossibly moving between the two.
She used its distraction, with a confused frown looking at the new… something as she tried to figure out what it was. Very big, yeah, but it was covered in thick fur whose color nearly matched Four's pretty locks. It also had vertical pupils like the other number did – and despite the intimidating number of fangs in its jaw, the somewhat shocked look on its muzzle was far too funny to be scary. With long whiskers that twitched as its eyes moved between the scaly things that seemed to complain at it… she wondered involuntarily if it could understand their chatter.
"Rahm? Is she there?" she heard another, softer voice, and the furred creature blinked rapidly, then its head pulled back and disappeared.
"Y-Yeah… but she's not alone," sounded then another head, but this one covered with white fur and with pretty, pale eyes poked in hesitantly, then got a funny, surprised look on its face.
"Oh…" it gasped, looking between them while the scaly things hissed at each other, and the blue one attempted to use the red's distraction to dethrone it. "…I see."
"What are we going to do?" the other male voice asked softly, and the white-furred head pulled back while Nine pushed herself deeper into the corner, biting her lower lip with uncertainty. She didn't know what those… things were or what they were doing there, but from the lesson given with the whip, she knew that the scaled creatures were far more precious than she was. She had a poor memory of the masters, yeah, but she knew they wouldn't just leave her be, especially seeing that the eggs broke. But if those weren't masters, then who…? "I don't want to scare her… Or the little ones, but I have no idea how to deal with hatchlings. Should we wait for that Mist Dragon… Yugiri, was it?" sounded hesitant before another movement appeared in her narrow vision, and this time, a number poked his head in the opening, looking at her with that mismatched, but now kind of… sad eyes. "Hey, kitten…"
"Why do you don't have a collar?" she blurted out while the squabbling scaly creatures calmed down, almost curiously looking toward the blonde male.
"A col…?" he frowned, and his eyes drifted to her throat… then his eyes grew dark as thinned his lips. "It looks… too small for you, kitten."
"Yeah… But why you don't have one?" she asked suspiciously. "If you're a number, you have to have a collar… So Four said. And if you're not a number…. Are you the master?" she paled at the possibility, cringing as she wrapped her arms around her knees and gawked at the face of the stranger.
"No… I'm definitely not that, Noru," he whispered, and his eyes grew that sad look again. "I'm your brother, kitten…"
"So you are a number!" she sighed with relief, relaxing as with quiet chittery 'hrrr!' the blue-scaled thing wormed its way in between her chest and lap, wrapping its wings around her legs as it turned its head to peer at the blonde… then out of nowhere spit a stream of water in his face. She wasn't sure who was more surprised, but the number blinked the water away then wiped his face with his hand and sent the blue thing a funny look that made Nine giggle. At that his mismatched eyes widened, brightened, and then he stunned her with a weird but funny expression pursing his lips and wrinkling his nose as he pointed his finger toward the blue thing when it crooned triumphantly, turning its head to look in her face. The red one chittered and tightened its paw around her head.
"I think your dragon doesn't like me," the blonde said, and she blinked with surprise.
"…dragon?" she repeated, looking at the scaly creature. "That's what it is?" She asked, delicately petting the blue scales on its head and smiled involuntarily when it 'hrrr'ed!' and pushed its head into her palm as if asking for more. "But it is not mine," she whispered as her heart dropped into her stomach. "Now that the eggs broke, the masters will take and sell them. That's why they sent you?" she looked between the blonde and the scaly dragon. "Where is Four? She was the only one that is allowed to come here… so she said. Is she… hurt?"
The male hesitated then his expression tightened slightly, but he smiled as he outstretched his hand toward her, palm up.
"She told me to get you," he said, and she blinked with surprise. "And to remove your collar… so you can get a better one. So, can you please come out, kitten?"
"I'm not a kitten," she frowned, looking at his hand suspiciously. "I'm Nine, didn't she tell you if she sent you? And which number are you?"
"Ah…" he blinked, and his expression tightened. "…Three?" it sounded somewhat like a question, but she relaxed slightly, then sighed and untangled her hand from around her knees to put it in his, letting him pull her out of the tiny nook between the pedestal and the wall. When she stood up, she saw that white-furred… thing sitting in the middle of the nook and looking toward them as its white tail swiveled behind it slowly.
"What is that?" she asked, pointing toward it when the blue dragon scampered back to her shoulder, hissing at the red one with something like annoyance. The blonde number frowned but then delicately moved her messy black hair off her other shoulder, and she felt his fingers manipulate the lock of her collar set at her neck. He flinched slightly when the red dragon puffed a cloud of smoke in his face with an irritated 'hrrr!' and his hands pulled back, leaving the collar in place.
"It's broken… the lock," he said at her look, then cleared his throat and sent a weird look toward the white-furred creature. "And that's my… friend. Her name is Shtola, and she's going to help us… go up, okay?"
"But… what is she?" she trailed off when 'Shtola' stood up to all fours and neared them slowly as if trying not to scare her… or the dragons.
"I'm an Allag," something almost like a pleasant smile appeared on her triangular muzzle as she inclined her head. Like this, her head was on a level with Nine's, and she was very big overall, but that white fur looked so soft… the girl's hands nearly itched to check if it was. "And like… Three said we will help you get a better collar, okay? So…" she turned and gracefully lowered all the way to her belly while her teal eyes held her gaze. "…sit on top of me, okay… Nine?"
She frowned with confusion, looking between them as she bit her lower lip… then sighed and complied while trying not to misbalance the dragons. She squeaked a bit with surprise when Shtola stood up again, and without a thought, she lowered and wrapped her arms around her throat while both scaly creatures hissed complaint and moved over to her back, squabbling with their funny 'hrrrs!' before settling along her spine.
"Good," Shtola said softly, then looked up at the blonde male who had a funny expression on his face. "I think it would be well if you go ahead and… clean the path, hm?" she put the pressure on the word, and the number blinked, then his expression hardened before he nodded sharply and headed toward the plate of the nook. Nine looked after him, involuntarily tightening her arms around the 'Allag's' throat. "It's okay, little one. We'll give him a moment to get ahead, then follow."
"O-Okay," she breathed, then buried her nose in the thick, white fur and sighed with delight involuntarily. "You smell nice…" Suddenly her eyelids felt really, really heavy as that distinctively sweet scent grew, filling her head as her throat vibrated with hesitant purrs. She blinked blearily and tried to clear her head when a wide yawn stretched her jaw. Nine heard the dragons quiet down and felt them settle down, shifting and moving with increasingly slower 'hrrrs' until they became a warm weight over her back.
"Don't resist," Shtola purred, and Nine yawned again, closing her eyes when her eyelids grew just too heavy. "I'll give you sweet dreams, kitten… and when you'll wake up, your world will be better."
She didn't understand that – or why she felt so calm and soothed... but thinking seemed too difficult when Shtola's heat made her melt into the Allag's back with loud purrs of bliss. A sensation she didn't really know or understand seemed to settle over her senses, and they soon slipped into hazy images full of cheery, mismatched eyes.
Ah, for the clarity, because it might have get lost along the way: despite their 'numeric' age, like I established Mi'qote age slower so 'look-wise' you may want to think as follow:
- Raha and Damon: 17
- Senri: ~18 [hybrids age MUCH slower]
- Rahm and Shtola: ~20
- Ares and Hades: ~25
- Cael, Rhasa and older numbers: ~30
- Noru and younger numbers: ~12
See you when I see you o/