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Parallel Universes - "What if?" / Re: [2376] Entanglement of Chaos
Last post by Ellen Fitz -The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round
Round and round
The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the city.
Pain exploding across the nerve endings of her face interrupted her mental retreat. Enyd’s head jerked left and right, the tendons in her neck working overtime to try to stabilize as Luske Ontatt continued to slap her across each cheek in turn, spewing questions at her all the while as if it was entirely possible to answer in the midst of the slaps. The sudden electric shock sent Enyd’s mind wheeling in and out of present time and her childhood. So disassociated from her body at this point; while she felt the pain and responded to it with noises and flinches, she also felt as if everything was happening to someone else and she was merely an observer.
Thoroughly dissatisfied with Enyd’s lack of cooperation in inflicting pain directly, Luske turned his attention to Zark. Enyd clenched her fists. After the first few blows, she almost snapped back into her mind and body. The temptation to do something, anything, to prevent further injury to Zark nearly choked her. But then Zark yelled at her the encouragement she needed to remain aloof. Keeping her battered face wiped of emotion, Enyd watched the beating with unseeing eyes, falling back into the musical library of her childhood.
O soldier, soldier, won't you marry me with your musket fife and drum?
O no sweet maid, I cannot marry you, for I have no boots to put on.
So up she went to her grandfather's chest, and she got him a pair of the very, very best
she got him a pair of the very, very best
And the soldier put them on.
Luske’s breath tickled the hairs on her neck. Her mind desired to comprehend, to tune into his words, but Enyd found her mind. She battled her desire, imagining her desire as a slimy lizard creature and an armor-clad warrior, swinging her swords at the lizard and ducking behind rocks to avoid the spit acid her desire shot at her. Her left sword glowed with a brilliant blue light, and her right sword pulsated with a green energy. Her greaves were the color of polished shungite, her cuisses like an auralite…
Enyd was still coloring and designing her armor, almost ready to move on to the ornate inscriptions on her swords when suddenly her mind snapped back into her body at the sudden press of chapped lips against her bloodied ones. Trying to reel back with an instinctive recoil, Enyd’s eyes crossed as she looked down her nose at the man kissing her. When Javec pulled back from the unexpected touch, his lips were colored crimson with her blood.
“Are you there now, Enyd?”
“Wha…” Enyd blinked a few times, looking over Javec’s shoulder to note the rest of their team pouring in and sweeping through the room.
“Here,” he took the knife from Enyd and pivoted to cut Zark loose as Enyd had been earlier instructed to do, “you both look terrible, but you’ll both live.” Javec winked at Zark, “Do you need a recovery kiss, too?”
Behind him, Enyd used the remains of the chair she’d been strapped in to get to her feet. “What happened?”
Javec held out a hand to help Zark up before answering. “Ghin Torlan led us on a counter-offensive. It took us longer than we would’ve liked, thanks to that gas, but thankfully, some of Ghin Torlan’s men had previous inoculation to the gas Ontatt used on us, so they were able to recover us to a defendable position until we regained consciousness. We had a devil of a time finding you two because many of the tunnels have collapsed.”
“Yes,” Enyd stepped over Ontatt's unconscious form, hearing the sounds of continued fighting in an adjacent room. “I vaguely remember Luske asking about those explosions. Any ideas?”
She found the med kit she’d hoped would be in the room and motioned for Zark to come close. They didn’t have time for pretty or thorough work, but hopefully, there’d be something in there to take the edge off the pain. Now that she was “back,” her body was quickly “catching her up” on everything she’d missed in her mental disassociation.
“We’ve found no trace of Ono or Jassarc, so my credits would be on a double-cross of some sort.” Javec kept his gaze moving, monitoring both doors in case anyone unfriendly tried to approach while Zark and Enyd tried to clean up and ready for the next step of this mission.
“Get rid of loose ends that are no longer useful?” Enyd glared at Ontatt. “I suppose we’ll only know if we take him with us. Retreat back to the safe house?”
Javec nodded, using the comm link to relay the message on to Torlan and the others. This very much seemed like a set-up, one against both Ontatt and the rest of them. If it had been orchestrated by Ono and Jassarc, then they’d be better off regrouping elsewhere. Potentially try to flush out the bastards if they were firing on the facility nearby. That was, in fact, exactly what Ghin Torlan responded with. Javec was to take Enyd and Zark to the safe house with Ontatt, interrogate the old Cardassian, and then, potentially, keep him alive and safely hidden if he had anything useful on the Barjoran and Orion until Torlan and his team could rejoin them.
“We need to check in with my CDO in the next hour or so if we don’t want Starfleet descending into this madness,” Enyd added once Javec ended the comm link with Torlan and turned his attention to finding some way to secure Ontatt for their journey. Javec nodded but remained silent as he continued to rummage around. Enyd looked back at Zark and tried to offer a smile, only to immediately wince and let her lips fall back into a grimace. “You okay?”