[Splat]

I am Posting this Chapter a Day Early.

Sort of for reasons mentioned in my last post.
Right, as I said I am going away on holiday to Jordan at the end of this week and so may not be able to post the last chapter of Part 6 for two weeks, unless I post it on Friday. So here's the deal!
If I get four (or five, if I feel stingy on Friday) replies or more to this chapter before Friday, then I will post the last chapter of Part 6 before I leave.
Otherwise, I will try and post it next week from Jordan, but this may not be easy and if I find myself unable, you will all have to wait an extra 2 weeks. I won't be taking my laptop with me, I've decided, so that will complicate things slightly if it comes to that.
So yeah, if you want to know what happens, post! Anni is glaring at all you people who didn't reply to the last chapter! Grrrrr...

Anyway, must get on! Big revelation is coming this chapter! Anni's in danger and she's not the only one. This chapter has been written and re-written and I think I smoothed out the worst of the kinks today. Also, I forgot to mention it last week but we are now in W@RF 5.
On mit das show!!! (Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut.)

Chapter 44

Anni was sat on the floor in the corner of the lab, far from the door but also far from Dek and Stivik.

Dek was leant back against the table they had strapped her too, looking stunned. Stivik was still furious with panic.

“She was unconscious,” Dek muttered, rubbing his eyes, “She couldn’t have woken up so soon.”

“She was waking up from the tranquilisers way earlier than she should have! She shook them off; she did something!”

“Oh please, what could she have possibly done?” Dek asked grouchily.

“The same thing she did to those straps! They didn’t set fire to themselves! She did something!”

“Calm down, Stivik. She’s never shown any signs of powers before-”

“So what?! Maybe she’s kept them hidden, kept them secret.”

Anni let the shouting drown out, wondering. Had she done it? Could she? She had never had any powers before; she had never done anything strange. Could they have been living in her all this time, secret, untouched? Another idea occurred to her and she whispered to herself, “Nova?”

“You’ve got to do something about her!” Stivik barked, making her look up. Dek was slumped back against the table again and he waved a claw.

“This is beyond me.”

“What does that mean?” Stivik growled.

“I mean I was hired to be a doctor, not to make decisions about how to deal with disobedient mudokons!”

“So go and tell Arnie; go and tell him now before she does anything else.”

Dek glared, “I’m not going anywhere. You go and tell him! She’d be safer left with me than with you!”

“I don’t care about her safety! I’m not leaving her here unguarded-”

“Boogie’s right there!”

“Oh yeah, a big-bro with his mind turned to mush by steroids and a vykker who I bet has never held a gun in his life. No thanks, no way am I leaving a dangerous mud in your hands.”

Boogie ignored Stivik’s insult. Dek glared, “She is my patient! I’m perfectly capable of keeping her in check.”

“Have you dealt with a native mud before, let alone one with powers? I didn’t think so.”

“Hey,” Anni yelled, jumping to her feet, fists balled in anger, “How about you both stay here and I’ll go and tell Arnie?”

“Shut the grhzz up, mud!” Stivik roared, then to Dek, “I’m not leaving her.”

“Fine!” Dek yelled, throwing his arms up. “Fine. I’ll go and talk to Arnie and come right back here, and if you do anything to her while I’m away it’ll be your head!”

Stivik sneered triumphantly. While they were distracted, Anni glanced at the desk behind her and grabbed a syringe from a rack there. With all her heart, she wanted to be out of this room. She had to get out!

She heard the door close and turned quickly; Dek had left and now Stivik was leering at her. She looked back hatefully, holding the syringe behind her back. Boogie, big and impassive, slumped back against the wall beside the door to the room of cages.

The three of them waited in silence, unmoving from their places. Minutes passed by sluggishly.

There was a bang from the cage room, and all of them jumped and turned. Boogie looked through the door. “The scrab’s awake,” He said uneasily.
Stivik shrugged, impassive.

“I… I should check its cage is properly closed,” Boogie said, sounding uncertain.

“You locked it, didn’t you?” Grunted Stivik.

“Uh, I think so, but…” He glanced over his shoulder at Stivik, and then at her, and then stalked into the other room. She looked over at Stivik. He was grinning madly and walking towards her. She glared at him.

“Tell me how you did it, mud.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Uh huh, sure. Then tell me how you kept it secret so long.”

“I said, I didn’t do anything! I don’t have powers; I’ve never had!”

He was right in front of her, leaning over her, smirking, “You think you can get away with this now? You attack me, then Razor and now this. When Arnie hears about it all, I’m gonna watch you die. I might even kill you myself.”

Anni suddenly lunged at him, bringing her arm from behind her back and ramming the syringe she picked up into his side. He yelled in anger and pushed her away, then swung his gun at her. She was caught on the shoulder and thrown to the ground. She crawled out from under him and he grabbed her by the arm, but she pushed him off easily, scrambled to her feet and ran to the door.

Boogie was there, drawn by Stivik’s yell, blocking it, glaring at her. She drew to a halt, looking up at him helplessly, “Please let me go?”

“Nice try, mud… Hell! What have you done to him?”

She turned around. Stivik was lying on the floor, writhing and gasping for breath. She stared, open-mouthed.

“What did you do?!” Boogie yelled, shaking her by the shoulder.

“I… I…”

With an impatient curse, Boogie shoved her aside, ran over to Stivik and yanked the syringe out of him. “Oh you little bitch!”

Anni found herself trembling and breathing hard. What had she done? She hadn’t even thought. Stivik suddenly fell still, horribly still. What had she done to him? What if she had…? She stumbled back and fell over. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real. She felt like she was going to faint. She might be a…

Boogie picked up Stivik, out of his pants, and heaved him onto the table. His gun, attached by a thin wire to his mask, hung awkwardly, its barrel resting on the ground. “Go and get the vykker!” He roared at her. “Go and get him, now!”

She turned and ran.

She found him standing outside the boss’s office, looking irritable, evidently unable to find the glukkons. As she bolted towards him, he looked up, surprised, “What’s-”

“It’s Stivik! I…” She gasped for breath, “I injected him with something… I wanted to get away…” She gasped tearfully, “He’s unconscious…”

Dek stared at her incredulously, and then yelled, “Well, come on!” They raced back towards the lab.

She burst through the door a few seconds before Dek, “What’s going on?” He demanded.

“He’s not breathing,” Boogie said, “He stopped about a minute ago.”

“What did you inject him with?” Dek yelled.

She started looking around the floor for the syringe but then Boogie held it out. “Here.”

Dek glanced at it once and then yelled, “Oh, you STUPID GIRL!” He raced towards the other end of the room and pulled a huge syringe out of a drawer, and then he ran back and injected it into Stivik’s chest.

“Listen, Anni,” He said raggedly, then put his hands on Stivik’s chest, “You feel this, where his ribs part at the bottom?”

She reluctantly reached out her hands, trying to avoid touching Dek’s claws until he swore impatiently and she let her skin touch his, suppressing a shudder.

“Right, I want you to press down there, sharp and hard. Do it now.” She did so. “Harder than that, idiot! Now, do it twenty times.” While Anni tired herself out, he started unbuckling Stivik’s mask. “When you’ve done twenty, you check if he’s breathing. If he’s not, you do it twenty more times, understand?”

He pulled the mask away and Anni got her first look of a slig’s face – the sunken, ugly, puffy eyes, the wrinkled, shrivelled skin, and the tight, cadaverous cheeks. She tore her eyes away and found she had lost count of her presses. She started again from one.

Dek was rifling through more drawers, pulling out a stethoscope. When Anni paused in her compressions to check Stivik’s breathing, he put the metal disk on his chest.

“Alright, twenty more.”

The physical exertion of the compressions soon had her exhausted and oblivious to what was going on around her. Her world became aching arms, sweaty skin, putting her head close to Stivik’s horribly ugly face to listen for the sound of a breath.

On the fifth check, she yelled, “He’s breathing again!”

Dek shoved her forcefully aside and checked for himself. “At last,” He muttered and began bustling around Stivik with stethoscope while she stumbled away and slumped to the floor in a corner, looking up at the slig. Her heart was racing; her momentary elation was sinking. Dek was pulling a machine up beside Stivik’s bed and fiddling with the controls; what if it didn’t work? What if he died? That would make her a… a murderer! The very thought made her sob aloud and soon she was crying heavily; she couldn’t stop herself.

“Boogie,” Dek said suddenly, “Take Anni through to the other room and put her in one of the cages, well away from that scrab.”

She looked up in surprise, her vision fuzzy with tears, but was too tired, too frightened to object as she was pulled to her feet and led into the next room. She heard the scrab howling as she entered, but it seemed to be coming from far away. She was put in a cage not quite big enough for her to lie or stand straight in, and she curled up against the bars.

When Boogie returned to the lab, he found Dek dropping two chill pills into a glass of water. “Are those for him?”

“They’re for me,” Dek replied without humour and downed the water, looking faintly disgusted by the taste. “Stivik should be ok, now. There’s nothing more I can do for him, anyway. Another hour and he should be back on his feet.”

“You locked Anni up to keep him safe?”

The vykker snorted, “To keep her safe. I can guess what Stivik’s first thought will be when he wakes up.” He hurried over to the corner where Stivik had collapsed and picked up his gun, before stashing it away in a cupboard. “At least this way I can make sure he stays away from her.” He started putting Stivik’s mask back on his face.

* * *

The scrab had settled down to sleep and Anni was leaning back against her bars, just beginning to doze, when she was woken by a shout. The door banged open and Stivik appeared, leaning heavily against the wall. “Where is she?!”

“Stivik, calm down.”

“CALM DOWN!? ARE YOU ALL LIVING IN SOME FANTASY LAND? SHE TRIED TO KILL ME! THAT’S TWICE!”

Another headache was building in her head, not agonising but none-the-less horrible, and she raised her knees to her chest but gave no other reaction. The scrab stirred.

“It’s too late to do anything about her, now.”

“Too late? Having her here’s putting the security of the whole factory at risk! Deal with her now before she kills us in our sleep!”

“I’m not disturbing Arnie now,” Dek said firmly, following the slig into the room. The scrab rose to its feet and rose threateningly to the vykker. Anni smiled darkly.

“Then get rid of her now. Any sane glukkon would! If Arnie doesn’t have her killed then he deserves to be killed himself! What have you done with my gun?”

“I’ve put it away until you calm down!” Dek growled. “Look at you; you can’t even stand without support. You need rest, before you exhaust yourself.”

Stivik turned his hateful look to the vykker but Dek stared back with equal resignation and eventually Stivik growled, “Alright, but you keep the girl locked up here all night!”

“Yes, yes. I’d like to have a proper look at her in the morning, anyway,” Dek grumbled. Anni snarled.

“Good. Don’t let her out,” And Stivik stalked away.

“Get some proper rest,” Dek called after him, then, “Boogie, go down to the cafeteria and see if you can bring up some food for the mudokon. If any of the other mudokons ask, tell her she’s hurt and I’m keeping her here over night. Tell them she mustn’t be disturbed.”

He left the room and she sat, watching the scrab sullenly, until Boogie came in with some food for her, which she took and ate ravenously. While she was eating, Boogie, under Dek’s direction, stunned the scrab with a Snuzi and moved it into another cage, which had wheels. She glowered at Dek as he gave the big-bro instructions.

“We’re putting it in the lab’s other store room so it won’t disturb you in the night. It’ll be quite comfortable,” Dek told her as Boogie wheeled it out, evidently meaning to comfort her.

She glared, “You should let her go,” She said bluntly. He dismissed her with a flick of a hand and left, taking her empty plate.

When he returned for the last time, he brought a bundle of luxurious bedding, “This is from my bedroom,” He told her as he fed it through the bars of the cage. “I imagine it’s rather softer than what you get in your bunks.” She didn’t reply but remained sullen as he pushed a pillow through onto the floor (the first feather pillow she had seen, let alone used) and placed a battery powered lamp just outside the cage where she could reach it. He switched it on and straitened up. “I’m going to bed, now. I’ll check up on you in the morning. Your friends know you’re safe. Do you want any sleeping pills?” She gave him such a malicious look that he left in a hurry, flicking off the light as he went through the door. The pale blue-white light of the lamp filled her cage but deepened the shadows around her.

She put together her bed, wondering if Javi, Dean and Kix would believe what Boogie told them, that she was hurt. Would Javi and Dean let Dek keep her alone all night?

She lay down and turned off the light, but sleep wouldn’t come to her. Even with the sheets she was cold, and so lonely. She shuddered at the thought of her isolation. She wanted so badly to hear the breathing of other people around her. She wanted to know Kix was in the bunk above her, just a call away. She curled up, feeling tears come to her eyes which she struggled to hold in. What would happen to her now? Would Stivik come for her? What would Arnie do when he heard of what she’d done?

‘Anni,’ Said a voice in her head, making her jump.

She lay very still, barely breathing as she strained her ears to listen.

‘Anni, do you want to be trapped here forever?’ There was chastisement in the voice, and anger.

She swallowed, “I know you made that fire,” She said to the empty room, and then groaned, “Why did you do it? You just got me in more trouble!”

She opened her mouth and spoke in a deeper voice, “We can’t live here. We’re not meant to be here. We shouldn’t be trapped, in a cage, in walls.”

She squeezed her eyes closed, and said in her own voice, “They’re stronger than I am. I can’t get out.”

“They’re weaker! Weaker than us! Weaker than the power we have!”

“Power? That doesn’t mean anything! What does that even mean?”

The voice spoke again, softer, tinged with icy desire, “There’s more to come than just fire… Oh, so much more! You have no idea, Anni…” Anni shuddered. ‘Just let me take control when I want it; it would only be for a short while.’ It said, now only in her head.

Anni, shook her head, her eyes tight.

‘Just for a short moment. And we can have all we dreamed of.’

Anni shook her head again, “I’m scared,” She breathed.

The voice was silent, though Anni strained to hear. Slowly, sleep crept over her, like a shadow.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Now wasn't that revealing?

"There's more to come than just fire... If you just let me take control just a little bit...."

That line comes from the W@RF RPG (I won't say where just yet 'cus that post gives far too much away). It is possibly the single most important line in the RPG for the creation of this story. srsly! The whole of Anni's story comes down to that line; what led to it? And what will it lead to?

Also, if you really, really want to tick off a slig, what's the best way to do it? I'd say using spiritual powers and stabbing him with a syringe would do the job fairly well. Stivik is not a Happy Bunny.

Everything's coming together. Time is running out. Everything in Part 6 will unite in the next chapter and the rest of Anni's secret will finally be revealed. So post, or you might have a long wait!