Slow Fracture (Close for Zydrate)

The streets were mostly empty, because of the bitter cold rain. Seibert didn’t even bother closing his coat though. It was cold enough that the rain drops hurt a little as they hit his skin, but somehow it still felt good. The lone figure out in the rain stood at six feet two and would have looked more imposing if the rain hadn’t made him sopping wet. A shadow of a beard was beginning on his face, he hadn’t shaved in the last couple days and his black hair was plastered across his face in a way it hadn’t been able to in years. Out of the corps now though he was letting it grow out, whether it was out of a sense of freedom or apathy though he couldn’t be certain.

He hadn’t been able to sleep again and the former soldier had wandered out into the night to see if any of the local bars were still open. The nightmares had started again for the first time in nearly two months. Seibert had felt certain he’d gotten over the events that had sent his military career into the spiral that finally earned him a dishonorable discharge. The rain began to lighten as he approached another closed bar. A sudden gust of wind caught his long brown coat and Seibert was about to turn back when something caught his ears.

Before he knew what he was after Seibert was running down the shadowed street with his hand on the unfamiliar laser bolt thrower he’d bought when they took back his old side arm. Had it been a scream or something else? He didn’t know for sure, but his body was already reacting to instincts that had been carved into his mind by years of training. Whatever he’d heard had come from the alley up ahead though.

Rylen ran for her life! Her long black hair was matted by the wetness of the rain. She was in trouble.

Again.

It wasn't something new. It happened from time to time...only when she got caught really. For a small time, she had been fortune telling. It was all a scam. She really had some powers. Nothing too impressive but they were present nonetheless. Rylen sometimes hated it. She was one of them. Those that were hunted down for their abilities.

Which is why she kept it secret...

Some secret. She had been found out.

Now where was she? At a dead end alley way. Great..she didn't know this place so running into something like this was high.

Just when Rylen was going to turn back from the way she came, it was too late. She felt two pairs of strong hands throw her hard against the wall!

"Listen, I--ahhhh!!!" She screamed as one of them took out a shocker, shutting her up. A hard punch to the gut brought her to her knees...

The men said something in their language before one of them was slammed against the wall next to Rylen...who was still recovering from the punch...

Skidding around the corner Seibert saw what had stimulated his instincts. Two men stood over a woman who was obviously bent over in pain. This wasn’t his problem, she must have gotten herself into it, he’d already run into the local law more than once. Seibert thought of every reason to walk away. Still, he drew the bolt thrower from its holster behind his back and sent a lance of green light into the wall above their heads. It sent a spray of bits of brick over them and both turned and began cursing at him. At least, that’s all Seibert understood of it, he’d only learned enough Riskan to curse out a particular soldier under his command a few years ago.

It had been a warning shot, but the duo weren’t smart enough to see a trained fighter when they saw one. They left the woman they’d been accosting and began to rush down the alley. As they ran the first one pulled a gun from his belt, but before it could be raised another bolt of green light burned into the thug’s firing hand. The Riskan dropped to his knees clutching the burnt nub of flesh at the end of his arm.

The other one continued to run at him, screaming loud against the night. Three more bolts caught it in the chest sending him reeling and tumbling forward like a child knocked off a bike. One was dead, the other was out of the fight, but Seibert fired twice more. Both bolts caught the injured one in the throat with sickening splats throwing him back. Seibert still couldn’t lower his weapon. It was just like back in that jungle again for him. Staring hard down the alley, he waited for more enemies that weren’t coming.

The smell of burnt flesh mixed with the dirty wetness of the alley made Rylen's stomach churn a lit. She looked up from her position on her knees and saw the dead men. Looking up at the man who literally saved her, Rylen stood up slowly. There was something in his eyes that Rylen couldn't place...

"Hey..." she said quietly, for some reason, something told her not to move too fast or else she was going to end up like those two goons on the ground.

"Sir...uhhh, thank you..." She said as she stood to her full height, which wasn't very tall since most people like her will small. He still hadn't put the weapon down, "..umm, can you please--" she stopped when she heard it charging up again...

Seibert stood silent for a moment ready to fire, but her voice broke his trance. Shaken and unsure, the words helped him come back to the alley from the jungles his mind had been trapped in. He put the side arm on safe and slid it back into its holster behind his back. Her night had been bad enough it seemed, he needed to try not to make it worse.

The barrel of the weapon was still warm on his back as Seibert turned away from the scene without a word. His heart was still racing and though he understood now where he really was his body still hadn’t gotten the message. It was still ready to fight or retreat. Ready to die, he thought grimly. Instead, he started walking back towards his apartment, the girl almost already forgotten.

Rylen was surprised when he didn't say anything. Instead he just turned walked away. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she finally got a better look at the bodies on the ground.

She needed to get away now, before the authorities showed up, someone was sure to have heard the shots.

Leaving the alley carefully, Rylen knew she couldn't go back to her place. They had probably already ransacked it and if not, they were going to. She needed to get out of here but go where?

She saw his back, a distant away, and without even thinking about it, she ran toward him, calling out, "Sir?! Hey!"

Rylen caught up to him and tapped his shoulder as she tried to keep up with his long strides, "Excuse me?"

Another night the man might have heard her behind him, but he hadn’t fired his weapon in months much less taken a life with it. Seibert’s mind was elsewhere and he when the girl he’d just saved touched his shoulder it startled him more than it should have. Again, the man acted without any thought at all. He twisted around snatching up her wrist in his hand and using it to pin her to the building next to them. He clamped down to prevent her from running while his other hand twisted back, reaching for the still warm weapon. He stopped before his fingers wrapped around the grip.

For the first time Seibert really looked at the girl he’d rescued. She was clearly scared, but even in that state of fear her eyes seemed to pierce into him, seeing more than he wanted them to. Tattoos were common, but this one wore hers like it was a part of her and not just a senseless pattern of ink in her skin. As he looked down at her he realized he still had her pinned there and released the steel hold from around her wrist. She stumbled back against the wall and he stepped back.

“You don’t want to sneak up on me,” he told the mysterious girl as if she had done something unreasonable and wanting to talk to him. Siebert suddenly wanting to be out of the rain went to a stoop a few feet away. Fishing a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket he offered her one. It was the only kind gesture he could call to mind.

“What were you doing out here?”

“You don’t want to sneak up on me”

With a grimace, Rylen could only nod. It took a lot to not scream in pain. When he released her, she could've run from him but she was curious about him. He came to her rescue when he didn't even know her. "Yeah, I realize that now.." Rubbing her wrist, she still blindly followed him to the light shelter from the rain.

Rylen waved the cigarettes away, declining them, "No, thank you..." she stood beside him and shoved her hands in her pockets.

“What were you doing out here?”

"I was running for my life after getting into some trouble with some...people..." she coughed slightly when he lit his cig and the smoke blew in her direction. She looked at him. Really looked at him, the pupils of her eyes focusing hard on him...there was a flash of memory... it was too quick to see it clearly but there was something there..pain..

Seibert may have looked calm, but his heart was still racing. Even if she didn’t want one he still needed a cigarette. He lit it and took a long drag. He exhaled and watched the smoke curl around the mystery girl. Some people, right. He’d been ready to say they were just trying to mug her, but now he had to think it was more about her than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, it wasn’t his place to push it, everyone had troubles and she just wanted hers left alone.

Seibert grunted with a sudden flare of pain in his shoulder that disappeared as soon as it had come on. “Must be the rain,” he muttered more to himself than her and he rolled his shoulder trying to work out whatever still might be there that had caused it.

The only thing the Corps had done right by him when he’d gotten back was his arm. It was the latest advance in cybernetics technology and had the most realistic synthetic flesh hiding it that he’d ever seen. The best part was he still had some feeling there, even if it wasn’t really the same as the real thing. Still, he never wanted to go under the knife like that again.

“I’m taking you home,” he told her, he’d meant it to come out kinder than that, but it hadn’t. “You must be pretty shaken up. I’m Seibert, by the way.” He flicked what remained of the cigarette out into the rainy street.

“I’m taking you home."

"Oh...no, I don't want to be a bother..."

"You must be pretty shaken up. I’m Seibert, by the way."

"Seibert..." Rylen said under her breath and gave him a flash of a smile, "I'm Rylen..."

Before she could say any more, he grabbed her by the arm and started off in one direction. She didn't say anything because she realized it was an action of direction...he just didn't have a real gentle touch.

"I want to thank you again for what you did back there...they were sure to kill me." She said as her strides were at least twice as much as to his longer ones. "So, when you say home, do you mean my home? Because it's the other way over there.." Rylen said as she looked back in the rain, her matted, wet hair clinging to her skin.

“I doubt they would have killed you. Those men, you don’t see their species too much in this sector except for soldiers and mercenaries. You don’t need to tell me why, I don’t want to know, but they were looking to turn you in for a bounty, weren’t they.” They weren’t too far from his place and though Seibert would have rather put her up some place else, he couldn’t be sure she was safe if he did. It all depended on why they were after her.

Seibert stopped and turned to face Rylen a little more directly. “If you think that nobody will come looking for you tonight then go ahead and go home. I think you’re safer here, but it’s up to you.” If she wanted to go he was going to let her. Seibert didn’t know why he was bothering with all of this anyway, or that’s what he told himself.

"No, no...I don't mind going with you..." she didn't dare ask him if she was safe with him since she had a feeling she was probably better off with him than on her own.

"So, umm, Mr. Seibert, what were you doing out this late?" She figured she could inquire about him since he already deduced so much about her. The way he moved, the way he always seemed on the ready, she didn't say it out loud but she felt safer already.

Seibert shook his head when she called him Mr. Seibert and they continued on. He’d hated formality even in the Corps, and besides she was making him feel old. “Looking for a drink,” he told her and he started to leave it at that. It was partially true, but there had been beer in the fridge.

“I don’t always sleep so well. I just needed something, anything to …,” Seibert stopped already having told her more than he admitted to most people who asked about him. Fortunately their destination provided a reason to keep her from asking more for the moment. Seibert produced a worn key card and swiped it to let them in the building. “Don’t expect much,” he told her as she followed him up the stairs, “I don’t usually have a reason to keep it too neat.”

Swiping the key card again Seibert pushed open the apartment door. Stray empty bottles spotted the otherwise fairly bare living room. A ratty dull red couch sat across from a tv set on top of the luggage he’d moved in with. “Yeah …, you can take the bed in the other room, there’s clean sheets in the bottom drawer. Toss your wet clothes in the bathroom. I know it won’t fit, but there a big green bath robe in the closet somebody gave me. I never wear it and you need to dry off."

"Ohh, thanks.." With a nod, Rylen walked to the room that Seibert had pointed out, the bathroom.

Sooner than not, Rylen was out of her wet clothing and looked every where for the robe. She didn't see it. Was he being truthful? Of course he was, why else would he have said anything.

With no care about being naked, Rylen walked out of the bathroom stark naked. Her lean body with the same tattoo running down the left side of her face down her shoulder, on the side of her breast and over her ribs.

"Mr. Seibert?" She called out. Not seeing him, she walked into the kitchenette and stood at the doorway, watching him take a big sip from a beer bottle. "Mr. Seibert? I'm unable to find the robe.."

The older soldier was lost in his thoughts again while drinking his beer, and hadn’t heard Rylen calling for him. When her voice finally did get his attention, he set down the bottle and was about to snap at her when he lifted his head and stopped. He swallowed and couldn’t help but stare. The girl he had rescued stood there just as innocently, but she had a body to brought lust filled thoughts into his mind. Her form was slim and exotic, and Seibert could begin to see them wrapped up in each in the throes of pleasure.

Still he did not see that sparkle of lust in her eyes, only innocence. His cock was hardening and his body begged him to act. Seibert stood and walked over to her. He placed a hand on her bare shoulder, tempted to do so much more. “I’ll get it for you …,” he managed and some miraculous amount of willpower he moved away from her into his bedroom.

Seibert could feel Rylen close behind him, but he forced himself not to look back. He’d been alone for a long time and he knew that if he looked back at her again he would do things he would regret. Saving her had probably been the one honestly good thing he’d done in the last year, he didn’t want to ruin it by forcing himself on her. Reaching up to a shelf in the top of the closet he stuck his hand into a cardboard box labled “dishes” and fetched out the robe he’d told her about.

“I … forgot it was up there,” Seibert told her and held it back behind him hoping he could control himself a little longer.

Rylen didn't get why Seibert just held the robe behind him. She shrugged and took it, putting it on. "Alright..." she said as she tied it off in front of her. She was literally drowning in the robe but it at least covered her up.

"Thank you again," she said as she walked next to Seibert and quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked back toward the kitchen.

Feeling that he followed her, Rylen started to talk as she started to dig around, literally making herself at home, "So, I will only stay the night, I don't want to be too much of a bother. Besides, things just seem safer in the daylight."

Seibert took a deep breath and turned to find Rylen swaddled in his robe, but he could still see her perfect form beneath it in his mind. His cock was rock hard and his baser instincts urged him to act. The old soldier followed her into the kitchen.

“You get in trouble a lot, don’t you, Rylen?” He shook his head and smiled for the first time since they’d met. “You’re going to need to learn a lot about a city like this if tonight tells me anything. You can’t just walk up naked. Your body might inspire … things you didn’t mean.” Seibert reached out and pushed a strand of hair away from her face without thinking about it as he spoke.

His brushing her hair out of her face was the warmest thing she felt from him since their meeting. His eyes, ever so faintly, had life showing. Rylen couldn't help but smile back as she nodded.

"I do, but really, it's not my fault." she said with a shrug and hopped up on the counter top, finally putting herself at eye level with him, "They're after what I can do for them..."

Seibert couldn’t tell if she was teasing him or there really was more to her than he realized. He followed her to the counter and looked into her yellow eyes.

“I don’t think I understand,” he told her genuinely. “What is it everyone is after,” he asked her then placing his hand on her shoulder and adding, “you are safe here.” If this was all one big tease he’d feel like a real fool, but he’d felt like there was more to this girl since he’d taken his first real look at her. Besides, he could afford to be made a fool anyway.

Looking down briefly, Rylen gave him a small smile when he said she was safe here. She raised her head and there was a glow about her eyes, making them more yellow.

"I think it's better if perhaps I show you..." she told him in a hushed tone. Before Seibert could stop her, Rylen reached out, placing a hand on the side of his face, slowly she moved it up to his temple...

What happened next was something she wasn't prepared for...

Seibert knew he was standing next to the girl he’d taken in that night, but the moment Rylen’s hand grazed his temple everything changed.

It was eighteen months ago in a jungle almost no one in the Coalition had seen with their own two eyes. They had crash landed in what was supposed to be covert operations on an alien planet. Blood was smeared across his chest and arms, but it wasn’t his. He’d tried to save Juna in the initial attack, but in the end he’d left her behind. The three of them left had taken cover away from the crash site, away from the Droxxins, at least as far as they knew.

“You spineless coward,” Seibert bellowed. Seibert knocked away Rylen’s hand, but it wasn’t her he was seeing, it was the specialist that had ran into the jungle instead of providing the cover he’d needed to get Juna out of there. With his cybernetic arm, he backhanded Rylen and knocked her off the counter sending her tumbling across the floor.

“You killed us all you worthless shit! She was the only one in the whole damn Corps who halfway understood these things. Our ship is scrap, she was the only way we could have gotten off this rock alive. The Droxxins can have your corpse.” Seibert advanced on Rylen and drew the sidearm he’d used to save her earlier that night. Before pointing it though he turned to someone who wasn’t there.

“I don’t care. He can’t help us and he’s going to get us both killed. I’m not going to wait to find out how!”

The flood of memories was WAY more than Rylen had ever encountered before from anyone!

Before she could take her hand away from Seibert's face, he slapped it away..causing her to yelp out in pain. Just as she recovered, Rylen was met with another surprising blow to the face, sending her falling off the counter...and with her height, it was a long way from the top of the counter to the floor.

“I don’t care. He can’t help us and he’s going to get us both killed. I’m not going to wait to find out how!”

"Seibert!!!" Rylen screamed when he grabbed for her again...she was so scared with what was going to happen next, it took all her strength to reach up again, this time with both hands! Which both grabbed at the side of his face and with all the thought she could muster, she pushed with her mind and it threw him off of her... Rylen heard a crash, glass breaking, wall cracking....

This was all before she blacked out...her head in immense pain...

The sounds, the images, even the heat were all now fresh in his mind, but he knew where he was. Seibert leaned back against the wall sitting among the broken glass. The window just above where he sat was shattered and the wall around it splintered, but holding together. Seibert was breathing heavy, but he stopped when he saw where Rylen laid unconscious on the floor. He had done this, maybe the nightmares and flashbacks were getting worse, he didn’t know, but this was his fault. He holstered his weapon not sure why it was drawn.

Seibert lifted himself up out of the glass and went over to gently pick up Rylen. He carried her into his bedroom and laid her down on his bed. It wasn’t nice, but the sheets were fairly clean. As he lifted her head to put the pillow under it she winced, but didn’t wake up. “I’m sorry,” he told her softly. He doubted she could hear him, he still needed to say it.

Then, turning out the lights as he went, Seibert went into what passed for his living room and sat down on the couch. He laid his gun on the battered table in front of him and sat trying to remember what he had done. He fought off sleep as long as he could, but eventually passed out there.

A few hours later seemed like days to Rylen. She woke slowly, her head still in a world of pain but she woke, nonetheless.

It was dark and quiet, save for a few sounds coming from the street. She swung her legs off the bed and headed out the bedroom. She had to stop for a minute and catch her breath, the pain finally subsiding just a bit. Trying to remember the layout of the apartment. She passed by the kitchen and saw the mess...

So, it really did happen. Reaching up, she felt the side of her jaw, the pain was still there, however faint, it reminded her that she hurt another...

The memories were still fresh too. She had seen pain...anger and hurt.

Rylen had sworn to never use her powers to that extent again...the last time she had done so, someone had died...

With a quick brush off of that memory, she turned and headed to the living room and saw him...he was sleeping. She watched him for a while, every now and then, his arm twitched...the arm he used to hit her with.

Rylen couldn't really blame him. It was a memory, an awful memory that she had conjured up. Made him remember. No wonder he was so...cold. So distant.

"I'm sorry..." Rylen whispered as she continued to watch him... His sleep wasn't a restful one, she could tell. She could also help him...but what if something like earlier happened again? She'd have no control over him...before she knew what she was doing, Rylen gently laying on top of Seibert, her head resting on his chest...soon, his dreams were hers...

The dull red light that he’d been sitting in snapped out. It was dark every time they came for him. As far as Seibert could tell the Droxxins never used restraints, but he never saw them to be sure. He waited and the moment he heard a sound Seibert whipped around, but like every time he was too late, they were too fast. His face hit the ground hard and he could feel the aliens, or alien, clamp down on him. What felt like bones pressing down on him and no matter how he struggled he could never move them. Across the back of his neck, three on his left arm, and all across the rest of his body, they felt like claws or talons. Then it came. The fat spike slowly pressed into his infected arm. Seibert screamed and screamed as a burning pain began coursing through his arm again. If they had asked him questions he would have told them, if they’d told him to betray his race he would have. It was only ever his arm, but each time the pain flayed a little more of his sanity from his mind.

When the red light returned the Droxxins were gone and Seibert was still in the same slimy steel cell. He crawled back to the wall so he could lean against it and cradled his mangled arm. The flesh was swollen and twisted, and he could see all the places where the spike had once forced its way into his flesh in the faint light. Still, rather suddenly, the usual despair dissipated. Nothing had changed, but Seibert felt like somewhere, there was a way out. He drifted into blissful unconsciousness. For one night the nightmare was over.

In the apartment Seibert's arm became still. His face became calmer and he wrapped his good arm around Rylen. It would be the first genuinely restful night in months for him.