Wilson's POV

I awoke to what was probably the worst pain I have ever felt in my life.

My head was pounding in an intense migraine, and without looking I could tell that my nose was swollen and crusted with blood. When I attempted to drag myself to my hands and feet, a lightning bolt of pain shot through my arm and I found myself collapsing. Unable to do much else, I let out a low groan.

I was alone and someplace I had never seen before. The hard, cold ground beneath me only drastically increased the ache that I felt all over. The pain seemed to radiate deep into my chest, so much so that even my heart and lungs felt torn to shreds.

Using my good arm, I slowly pulled myself back up, using some sort of circular wooden machine to get my balance again. After I was standing, I dared to look at my injured arm, only looking away quickly a moment later as a wave of dizziness passed over me. My fingers were cold to the touch, but that was the least of my worries. The entire arm was swollen painfully and beginning to turn purple.

What... happened to me?

It took me a few moments before I decided that I was going to be able to stand with support. Even then, my head swam and the world tipped around me. I leaned up against the machine again, holding my head and trying to keep from passing out.

"OH, SO NOW YOU ARE AWAKE."

The voice caught me so off guard that I jumped, but something hard and sharp brushed against my neck as I did so. I opened my eyes again to see a spear held up to my throat, barely an inch away.

"What's the big idea!?" I cried, attempting to swipe the weapon away before realizing that it was my injured arm that tried to complete the action. I cradled it to my chest, hissing in pain.

"I SHOULD BE ASKING YOU."

WX thrust the weapon even closer to me. Now, the sharp edge was digging into my chin, forcing my head upward with the only other option being impaled. My voice pitched with fear: "What did you do to me?" I cried. "Where did you take me!?"
WX's hold on the weapon faltered a bit, but a moment later he shot the weapon forward, slicing what likely was a formidable gash across my cheek. I cried out in shock. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" He hissed. His limbs were stiff with anger, and even a deaf person would've heard the way his voice shook with unrestrained rage. "I SHOULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE LUCKY HE'S STICKING UP FOR YOU."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" My voice broke into what could only be described as a squeak. "Clearly there's some misunderstanding."

"CLEARLY THERE ISN'T." He motioned to my broken arm.

"You did this to me?" My fear was beginning to be replaced with anger. How dare WX injure me like this? And where was-?

I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach.

"What did you do to Webber?"

The blow was immediate. One second, the spear was at my throat, the next I was reeling back with a fresh gush of blood from my already likely broken nose. I could feel myself shaking with agony now, waves of pain staining my senses until I could barely concentrate on WX in front of me. It was all I could do to stay upright, even with all of my weight on the wooden machine. A second later, another punch to the gut followed it. This was the one that sent me sprawling onto the ground, coughing heavily. I held my good arm around my stomach, trying to keep from retching from the sudden trauma. Before I could recover, a cold hand grabbed the collar of my shirt and yanked me up until our faces were less than an inch away from each other.

"I COULD KEEP GOING," he hissed. "YOU DESERVE WHATEVER I DO TO YOU HERE. YOUR ACTIONS WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE GRAVE."

"I-I don't understand," I sputtered. My actions? It appeared to me like I was the one being assaulted!

WX let out a yell of frustration before throwing me back on to the ground. A moment later, his foot planted into my chest and held me there. He was far from pressing all of his weight into me, but I could already feel my ribs groaning under the pressure. "YOU WILL TELL ME," he snarled. He leaned forward until my breaths were nothing more than sharp gasps. "WHO. YOU. CONTACTED."

"I-I can't- I can't." I tried desperately to push his foot off of me. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe.

He let out a hiss of disgust, but the pressure suddenly left. I shot up and coughed loudly, swallowing as much air as I could. "I didn't- nobody-"

His eyes were pits of rage, and his fists were clenching and relaxing as if he was holding back. "YOU'RE FEIGNING STUPIDITY."

"Where's Webber!?" I cried. He had done something, hadn't he? And now, I was next?

"...FINE." Immediately, WX grabbed my injured arm in a death grip and yanked me up. I choked out a sob, shaking in pain once more. He scoffed, but released it and instead grabbed the same shoulder. I had no hope of getting free from him, even if I wanted to. His fingers dug into my flesh, and I was sure that that spot was going to be bleeding soon as well. With no other option but coming with him, I chewed on my lip and stumbled along.

…

Before we even got back to base, I heard unfamiliar noises. Hissing. Spiders.

I glanced at WX, who was deliberately keep his gaze straight ahead. I opened my mouth to ask, or to guess, but the sight of camp left my mouth half-open with nothing coming out of it.

There were a couple of spiders there, a species that must have been completely different from whatever Webber was. One of them, the one who seemed to be snapping orders to the other, was a fluffy white one. As soon as its strangely pink eyes landed on me, its teeth bared in a snarl. Its companion immediately turned as well, this one dark blue in color with fur that looked as if it had been pulled through thorns. Before I could have both of them at my throat, though, WX sharply snapped at them and they both turned back to...

Webber.

"LOOK AT HIM," WX snarled at me. "LOOK AT YOUR HANDYWORK. ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF FOR NEARLY KILLING A CHILD? ONE THAT TRUSTED YOU WITH HIS LIFE?" I opened my mouth to respond, but he interrupted me before I could. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck and he forced my closer, and forced my face in the direction of the injured boy. "ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF!?" His voice had risen to a yell. As he said this, he threw me aside again. His fists were clenched and shaking furiously. "GO AHEAD AND FINISH THE JOB! I DARE YOU."

WX was shorter than me, yes, but he seemed to tower over me in that very moment.

"You're... saying I did that to him?" My voice was so tiny I would've been surprised if he heard it.

He raised his fist again as if to strike me once more, but even as I was flinching away the white spider was snarling at him, and he dropped it. "GO AWAY, IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU."

"Let me help!" I exclaimed shakily. "I promise! I didn't do that to him! I wouldn't hurt anyone like that. Especially not... especially not Webber."

"YOU ARE LUCKY THAT YOU ARE MY SECOND PRIORITY," he snapped. He turned his back to me in order to crouch in front of Webber. The dark blue spider, a spitter, if I could remember correctly, was wrapping layers of silk around the boy's hand, but blood was soaking through it faster than it could work.

The white one, which I believed was called a dangling depths dweller was nervously pacing back and forth, looking very much like it was mumbling to itself.

"IT TOOK US HOURS TO STABILIZE HIM," WX said, his voice strangely soft. Maybe the outburst had taken it all out of him. "AND WE STILL CAN'T GET HIS HAND TO STOP BLEEDING." He fell silent for a moment, staring down. "WHY DID YOU DO IT? I JUST... I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT. WILSON, WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN?"

"WX," I pleaded. "I swear, I don't know who did his. I wouldn't- I couldn't-" the thought of doing something like that to any child, let alone Webber, destroyed me inside. I finally managed to catch his gaze, attempting to pour as much emotion I could into my expression. "I would never hurt Webber."

"THEN TAKE A LOOK AT HIS WOUNDS YOURSELF!" He snapped. "TELL ME THAT IS NOT THE CUT OF YOUR BLADE. THE CUT OF YOUR KNIFE."

"You have to believe me, please..."

I saw his fist clench again, and he closed his eyes tightly. When he spoke, his voice was cold. "WHATEVER HAPPENS TO HIM, YOU WILL FOLLOW THE SAME FATE."

The meaning was obvious: if Webber didn't survive, neither would I.

"IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR ARM, IT WILL NEVER HEAL PROPERLY." He turned his gaze away from me again. He wanted me to leave him alone. I nodded slowly, staring at the ground. The past day... it was nothing but fog. Was it true that I had done something like this? If that's true... I'll never forgive myself.

I surveyed the camp, trying to ignore how ravaged it appeared. There must have really been a struggle if WX had allowed such a mess without cleaning it up. As I turned around, though, I heard a small scuffle, and a spiderlike snarl followed by a tiny voice seemingly repeating the same thing. "...Wilson?"

Webber's eyes had flickered open, although they were glazed with pain and I wasn't even sure if he was looking at me. I tried to take a step towards him, but WX's gaze immediately snapped to me, and the two spiders bristled. Instead, I crouched down a few feet away from him.

"Wilson...!" His voice rose in relief and joy, but when he tried to move, the white spider immediately growled at him. He hissed something back at it, and it stepped back, its gaze weary. "It's... you're back...!" His voice was weak and rough, as was the purr that followed. I couldn't help but wince. If I had done something like this to him, then why would be acting like this?

WX seemed to have the same question. "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ALREADY THAT YOU ARE LIKE THIS BECAUSE OF HIM!?" He snapped. When Webber tried to move again, the robot grabbed his shoulder and held him in place. "YOU NEARLY DIED AT HIS HAND!"

Webber's eyes unfocused, and his smile dropped slightly. He shook his head. "It... couldn't be... not him..."

He trusts me, relief washed over me, so intensely that I nearly fell over. WX and the spiders both seemed pretty convinced that I had hurt Webber, but the boy himself still trusted me.

I looked down at my hands. There was blood on them.

The blank on my memory... had I actually done something to Webber?

I couldn't have... I couldn't... I wouldn't...

I reached out my hand to him, but before he could take it, the white spider got between us again, hissing. I drew back with a frown on my face, then turned my gaze back to Webber. He seemed to have fallen back out of consciousness. Good. Well, not good. If he couldn't stay conscious, that probably meant he was very nastily hurt, but at least he was getting rest. I could see a wound on his neck that had been patched up with silk, and another across his face that had stopped bleeding without it. What really concerned me was his hand. A substantial pile of bloody silk lay strewn around the dark blue spider, but it had only now just managed to staunch the bleeding.

Trying to ignore the pain in my belly, I glanced at WX. "...Who are the spiders?"

"FRIENDS OF HIS," the robot replied. "THEY HEALED HIM WELL THE LAST TIME HE GOT INJURED." I caught a side-glare from him, but tried to ignore it. "I WAS NEARLY EVISCERATED BY THE BEASTS UNTIL THEY REALIZED I WAS TRYING TO HELP HIM."

"I didn't expect to see cave spiders up here."

"THEY DID NOT WANT TO BE UP HERE." He left the conversation at that.

An awkward silence fell over us. I could feel the barely restrained anger emanating from my robotic companion, but he didn't seem to make any moves towards me. I moved to scratch my head, but winced painfully as I remembered the arm. Well, okay, he probably did enough to me to keep me occupied for awhile.

I turned away from the boy, turning to the items scattered all over camp. That was... probably going to be a pain to clean up. I shrugged very slightly before settling down to fashion a sling for my arm and fasten something to help my nose heal properly.

After several minutes, WX came up beside me. His face was a deep frown, but I couldn't tell if it was directed at me or the situation. "...HE SHOULD BE FINE," the robot said heavily. "NO THANKS TO YOU."

"WX..." even I was surprised at the tightness of my voice. I moved my good arm to rub my eyes, and was surprised to feel an irritating wetness there. "...what happened? It's... it's all just a blur. I-" My gaze, unwillingly, shifted back to the injured boy. The spitter was now asleep a few feet away from Webber, whereas the dangling depths dweller was pacing back and forth in front of him, twitching. "I never would've hurt him." Several tears followed the words and I looked down, focused on the hand that wasn't bound up in a sling. I clenched my fist and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before looking back at WX. "Please... you have to believe me. Especially now... I wouldn't have hurt him when we had no more bond than a common goal." I choked on my words. Was I a monster? I denied it, I refused to believe it, but I could recognize the look of my own knife wounds. Nobody else could have done that. "The bond we share... that we all share... it's so much deeper than that. Please...! I couldn't- I could never-" I couldn't say anything else. It was taking all of my effort to breathe, let alone speak. Some part of my mind was chastising my weakness: you are a grown man! Men don't cry, let alone sob! But I couldn't help it. The idea, the very implication of what had happened to Webber: what I had done to Webber.

I did not expect any comfort from the robot, and did not receive any. He simply stared at me, his gaze turned into a deep, wordless frown.

I didn't give myself time to fully recover. I was still gasping for breath between sobs when words started pouring out of my mouth. "I- I had a terrible nightmare and it wanted me to do something terrible but I couldn't- I couldn't...! But no matter how hard I fought it, it was w-winning and now it's u-using me and I don't know how to free myself. I never wanted to hurt Webber. I never wanted to hurt you! When I woke up I was so c-confused but the longer I see him and the longer I think about it I can't- I can't deny it. But I can't control it! Whatever it is it's inside of me and it's so, so angry and I can't get it out and I don't know what to do. It's all just darkness and fog and now Webber is on death's door and I wasn't even around to help him..."

"THE MORE YOU SPEAK, THE MORE YOU EMBARRASS YOURSELF." He didn't sound as hostile as I expected. It was all but a confession of guilt. He was silent for a moment before standing, still refusing to acknowledge my whimpering cries and shaking sobs. "POSSESSION- I WILL ADMIT THAT IT CROSSED MY MIND. YOU HAVE CONVINCED ME, WILSON. WHAT YOU HAVE NOT DONE IS SAID HOW YOU ARE GOING TO FIX IT."

I placed a hand on my chest, blinking away tears. I could feel something inside of my heart. It... I felt so cold.

"I don't know," I whispered. The first, and admittedly only, idea that came to mind was to kill me again. There was something that the monster... Nightmare... had said. That they wanted Webber to make up for losing me. I had offered myself then, but the idea of offering my life to WX was enough to force the darkness in my heart to twist, and the ice radiated out to my fingertips.

I knew that, if I told him now, that killing me would fix this, he would.

It was abundantly clear, in that moment, that WX constantly chastised me for trying to protect Webber, but when it came down to it, WX would defend Webber until the last spark of life left his robotic form.

Webber may have viewed me in a more... parental sense, but WX was the true protector of the boy now.

When WX didn't say anything, I could feel myself shaking again. I was already tired of shaking and cowering away, but I couldn't stop it. "WX, please, I really don't know..."

He shook his head, never taking that eyeless gaze away from me.

"HE TRUSTS YOU," he said after a long, long moment. "HE KNEW THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG. I SUSPECT THAT IF THIS PASSES WITHOUT ANY MORE PROBLEMS... HE WILL FORGET IT EVER HAPPENED." I winced. His hand sure wouldn't. "HOWEVER... I CANNOT SAY THAT THE SAME MERCY WOULD BE GRANTED IF THIS HAPPENS AGAIN."

I nodded ever so slightly. I sniffled and rubbed my eyes. "I don't even deserve the second chance."

"IF IT WERE UP TO ME, YOU WOULD BE DEAD." He frowned for a moment, wringing his hands together. "...I GRIEVED FOR YOU, WILSON. IT WAS HARDLY A WEEK THAT YOU WERE GONE, BUT I STILL RETURNED TO THAT BATTLEGROUND SO MANY TIMES." His gaze turned serious. "BUT I WILL NOT SPARE YOU IF IT COMES DOWN TO A FIGHT."

"I know."

He nodded, just once, before returning to his watchful vigil.

I sighed. Something was eating away at me, and I couldn't stop it. Maybe... maybe it would be better if I left them. Went as far as I possibly could and just give myself up to the wilderness. Maybe, if they had my soul, they would leave Webber alone.

But right now... I couldn't bare the idea. I couldn't be alone, not again. And so, instead, I sighed and turned to the fire. WX was probably getting hungry, if he wasn't already, and Webber would certainly need something to eat once he woke up properly. That was probably the best thing I could do right now, even if it would be harder with a broken arm.

I didn't even notice as my hand idly slipped a white-skinned vegetable into the food.

…

Webber's POV

We found ourselves on a knife's edge between sleep and wakefulness. The sleep was light enough for us to hear some of the conversations around us, but we weren't able to stay awake for longer than a few moments at a time.

The first time we had opened our eyes, we were somewhere dark. The air had been heavy and thick with the scent of mildew, and it had made breathing even more difficult than it was before. Cold arms had been holding us, carrying us...

The next time, we were back on the surface, and a duo of spiders looked on. One, I didn't recognize, but the other had struck me so deep that I couldn't help but murmur her name in surprise. Erika had said something to us, using a name we had never expected to hear from her, but we had slipped back into darkness only a second later.

The third time, Wilson's gray eyes had been focused on us. He turned away for only a moment until we managed to say his name aloud, first in a spiderlike hiss and secondly in English. It had been him, as he really was. His eyes were torn, his entire body shaking intensely with either fear, pain, or grief. It was that moment that we knew that the person who had attacked us wasn't him.

The fourth time, we were completely encased in darkness. We were slightly more awake this time, awake enough to notice the thin blood crusted across our face, the silk that had been gently wrapped around our neck, and the significantly thicker and stiffer bandages around our hand. Our hand...

Pinned against a machine, listening to Wilson's mad ravings.

We instinctively shivered and tried to cower, but we couldn't. The fact that we were completely swallowed by darkness had not quite occurred to us yet, nor did the uncomfortable sensation of being slung over someone's shoulder.

Immediately, we sucked in a breath of air and struggled, but before we could even try to move, we were thrown roughly onto the cold, hard ground. The impact sent shockwaves through our body, choking another whimper from deep within us. Wilson- whatever, whoever was doing this to him- was going to finish the job WX had interrupted the night before. Where's WX? Our mind cried, immediately shying away from what we figured was the most obvious answer. He was letting this happen.

We tried to cry out, to yell for help, but we nearly choked on a swathe of something... some sort of fabric? Silk? That had been formed into a gag. We tried to ignore the spike of panic, forcing ourselves to think of one thing at a time.

Get rid of the gag. That wouldn't be hard. The material seemed surprisingly flimsy and our fangs seemed to be able to cut through it just fine.

Unfortunately, he seemed to notice that we were awake.

"Surprising," Wilson muttered. "I would've thought you would've been out for much longer. Hmm... perhaps I need to adjust the dose next time."

A final, solid twist of our jaw, and the binding fell apart. We took a few gasping breaths, trying to prepare ourselves for whatever was coming next. The last time, it had been out of a sheer unwillingness to harm Wilson to stop us from fighting back.

This time, we physically couldn't.

We tried to say something, to try to get through to him, but before we could, his fist crashed into the broken wooden machine. "Why do you have to be so useless!?" He shouted, gritting his teeth. The change was so abrupt, so similar to last night, that we immediately began to shake. We tried to move backwards, but the machine was to our back and our bandaged hand didn't allow for much use. Even the slightest touch of it against the ground sent pulsing waves of agony all through our arm. "Even when you're only purpose is to die, you can't even do that!" His gray eyes snapped towards where we were. "The Master would be disappointed in me if I let anything be half-done. And I'm not taking another chance with you." His fists clenched again as he pressed them both into the wood, his glare never leaving me. "I was told to kill you all those years ago, before you were consumed. The only reason I didn't was because of the potential I saw in you. Clearly, that potential was nothing more than to be a pain in my neck!"

I couldn't move. I so desperately needed to, to get away, to find help, whether it be from WX or from the spiders, but I couldn't move. All of my limbs, spider or otherwise, were locked in place, and it was all I could do to stare at him and take what he was saying.

"Then, I thought that feeding you to the spiders would be enough. After all, your sister perished exactly as planned with no intervention. But then you refused!"

His hand whipped out and held my throat, pinning me against the ground with nothing but his weight. I had fought WX before, and Wilson's weight was nothing compared to that, but it was nothing I could shake off at my peak, let alone injured and drugged. Last time, he had a noose around my neck which troubled my breathing, but this was more extreme. I couldn't breathe at all.

I tried desperately to suck in breaths, but nothing could get through. Panic forced my heart to pound, which in turned made my body beg for more oxygen.

It finally seemed like one of my sporadic movements landed a hit on his gut, which he immediately recoiled from, enough for me to be freed from his hold. I tried to call out again, but air was rasping against my throat so hard that all I could manage was a low hiss of air.

His hand gripped my scruff, not quite freezing me in place but it was a grip that I couldn't afford to have. Before I could struggle out of it, the hand was around my throat again, this time before I was promptly slammed against the wooden machine. The dawn light was glowing behind him now, casing a heavy shade over his face. It highlighted his clearly broken arm and how he ignored it in favor of having a better grip on me.

Erika was so close and I never got to know her as my sister again-

Holding me tightly with one hand, his other hand had pulled out a knife, which glinted in the early sun. He ran his thumb across the dull side, his eyes flickering between different parts of my face, considering where to cut, where to dissect me like an animal.

I hope WX will be okay and that he's able to be freed-

The sharp end of the knife rested, almost gently, directly above one of my accessory eyes.

I grabbed at him, pushed at him, struggled as hard as I could, but he never once even reacted like I was moving. His voice was so low that I could barely recognize it as his own. "Even if they save you now, you will never be able to fend for yourself again."

I hope-

The knife was pressed down, slicing open skin and obliterating the useless eye as it went.

I hope-

My body felt the wound before my mind caught up. The hand on my throat meant I couldn't scream, but my vision immediately began to get swallowed up by black and red, and my legs kicked out on reflex.

I hope Wilson gets better.

The knife passed cleanly, effortlessly, through my eye.

Immediately, fluid followed behind. Blood and tears poured down and soaked my cheek, but the knife cut down until the eye was completely split in half.

Then, and only then, did Wilson withdraw to gaze upon his handiwork.

The second he dropped me, I felt my body heave in a retch. I barely registered as the scientist took a step back. Even after I had lost everything I had in my stomach, I couldn't stop shaking. I collapsed sideways, desperately trying to look up at Wilson through the spots in my vision. The hands were gone but I still couldn't breath and I couldn't see anything out of my right eye and I was alone and- and- and-

His head snapped to the side, a look of shock passing over his gaze before being quickly swallowed by anger. He discarded his knife in favor of his morning star and immediately pressed the weapon into my injured hand. "Take one more step and he loses it!" He roared.

Everything was pulsing in and out of existence. My mind lamely murmured: looks like WX is here...

But it wasn't him.

In fact, I was able to make out a blur of blue fur and the snarl of a hound puppy. Popsicle, no!

I couldn't help him, though. I couldn't move if I wanted to, and it had nothing to do with the mace slowly grinding the bones of my injured hand. I couldn't feel it at all- it was as if every nerve in my body was in full-blown panic mode, desperately trying to recover from the loss of an eye.

The pressure on my hand lifted, just as the ice hound lunged towards the scientist.

We had taken out dozens of hounds, both individually and together. One tiny puppy would be no match for him.

As Wilson was raising his weapon for a single, quick killing blow, he suddenly stiffened, his eyes widening in shock. Another moment later and he pitched to the side.

WX stood behind him, blinking intensely. He still had one hand up and a knife in his other hand. I wanted to say something, to acknowledge the rescue, but nothing would come out. I was drifting again, but this time I let myself.

I sensed more than saw the robot crouch beside me, murmuring something surprisingly quiet. A moment later, he continued to speak, though this time, it was in a warmer voice.

He...

He was singing.

He was singing a lullaby.

I knew I was safe, in that moment. It was a lullaby I hadn't heard since I was small, one that had always calmed me down from the worst of fits and always put me at ease even with the worst of stress.

And so... I let my body relax and let my remaining eye drift close into a hazy, miserable sleep.