Stockholm Syndrome

Control

(A/N: Yay update! Hope this makes up for the wait...)

I try to open my eyes. My body aches. Pain spasms through me as I breathe. I hear footsteps approach. Blood is pooling on the ground beside me. I hear sobbing. I shut my eyes again. Too tired. I feel arms round me. Gently picking me up. Someone brushing my hair back off my forehead, blood sticking it to my skin. Someone's warm lips pressed against mine. "I've hurt you Ian. Now I'm going to help you." Derp...
***
I watch from a safe distance as Derp picks Ian's bloody body off the floor, holding him close. "You can see how much he loves him." I growl, my neck throbbing. "Like a toy. You can break a toy. It's very different breaking a human being. You hear their screams, see their blood. Toys don't have blood or the capability to scream." Rose doesn't reply.
***
Sky Eyes. So fragile. So hurt. I'll help him this time. I know I will. I always do. But I always hurt him as well. Why am I like this? Why does he love someone he should hate?...love me?
***
I watched Derp as he carried Ian back to us, sadness in his crooked eyes. Suddenly, the Professor raised his head. My gut clenched when I saw the white hot anger in his black eyes. He struggled to stand. None of us helped him up. "Rose. Take the prisoner and Max far away from here." Rose's face went slack in fear as Derp raised his head slowly, misery in his eyes as he gave me Ian's limp body numbly. Our gazes met. His crooked eyes slid across as he looked behind at the furious Professor. Then back at me. "Take care of Sky Eyes." I nodded at his hoarse whispers. Tears fell from his eyes as he slowly turned to his Master. I got the feeling something terrible was about to happen. We slowly backed away as Randel glared at his bloody creation.

At the blood on his teeth and face; on his hands and clothes. "You. With me." Randel limped away, cold authority in his deep tones. Derp looked at me one last time. An apologetic look. A sad look. A look of terror. A look of trust. His love in my arms. A look that clearly said, 'If I don't come back, keep him safe.' None of us had any idea of if he would come back. ...Or who he would come back as. But as we turned away, I knew Randel wouldn't leave Derp unscathed. A violation like this would mean torture. So much so, that he would be lucky to survive. But he always survived. He had no choice. He had been made to stay alive at all costs. No matter how badly he might want to die, his body will not let him. He's already dead though. Dead inside.
***
Derp. Where is he? I'm so scared. I try to speak but my voice won't work. I want to scream. I scream so loud but it's like being in a dream. A dream where no one ever hears you. Where your voice won't work properly. And you're alone. Tears are hot in my eyes. I want Derp. I sob. So cold... I feel dead. I want him so badly...so alone.
***
I shook in fear as Randel led Derp away, presumably to the Lab. Max and I watched them till they disappeared into the shadows, their figures blurring, blending into the darkness. Max looked down at the limp form in his arms. I brushed Ian's hair back off his forehead, grimacing as the blood stuck to his skin rubbed off on mine. "D'you think he'll even survive?" I sighed. "He's been through so much..." I whisper. To my surprise, Max kissed the top of my head softly, making my eyes widen. "We'll help him. God knows what will happen to Derp though after Randel's done with him." I pursed my lips soundlessly, taking Max's arm and guiding him through the dark corridors and past musty rooms until we reached Derp's room. Max frowned. "Why don't we take him to your room?" I shook my head. "He'll be much calmer waking up in a familiar environment." "How many times d'you think he's been here?" I shrugged. "I have no idea. But probably enough that he's come to regard the room as partly his own. It's better than a cold cell. Mind you, I don't think Derp sees a difference, knowing how tormented his mind is." Max blinked, placing Ian's broken body down on the cold sheets. "What is up with Derp? I know, more than anyone, how much he's suffered, but he's so...temperamental. One minute he's caring for Ian, the next he's trying to butcher him." I sighed, perching on the bed beside Ian, stroking his forehead as Max dug through his lab coat pockets, finding the needed anesthetisers and bandages. "His mind is a strange place Max... His desires and thoughts become muddled. He doesn't understand how to treat people; he can no longer differentiate between wrong and right. He's like an animal trapped in a human's skin. With him it's all or nothing. Randel tried to create an obedient machine that could take Ian's place and accept orders that would affect the world by his actions. He wanted control. What he got was a tortured human being held together in someone else's body with scars and stitches." Max bit his lip, sitting beside me and pulling Ian's head into his lap, gently cleaning the bite marks on his neck with antiseptic solution. I started doing the same to him. He hissed a little in pain as his wounds stung. "He's a vicious human at that." I started treating the angry red friction burns on Ian's hips. I don't even want to know how they got there... "It's not his fault." "But how many things can you tell someone before they fall on deaf ears-?" Ian shifted, wincing a little. Seemed like he was emerging out of unconsciousness. I sighed wearily. "I don't know Max. But we need to help him as much as possible. He's been through hell and back with all the scars." Ian's eyes flickered open and he stared up at us in momentary confusion. "Wh-where...what?" "Shh, it's ok. You're safe." Ian gasped, trying to sit up. "Wh-where's Derp?" Max and I exchanged a glance. Max sighed. "Randel took him away. God known if he'll come back, if alive." Ian's eyes glistened with half formed tears and my heart clenched. "Oh no." He whimpered. "I...I should've stopped it-" "Ian, you were lying in a pool of your own blood. I think you're excused from this." Ian looked at the door and I could already see him contemplating escape. I grabbed his hand. "No Ian. You have to stay here and rest. You're still weak." He went to scratch at a bite mark on his neck and exhaled in pain as his nail dug into it. "Ow...ok..." I moved his hand away and started applying gauge to the worst bites, antiseptic to the lesser ones. "How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was being in a room, then Derp..." He bit his lip, sighing. "I wish he wasn't so hard to...love...I mean, I know what I feel for him, but he's always pushing me away...hurting me." The tears forming in his eyes trickled down his face, fresh ones welling up as a quiet whimper leapt from him. Max hushed him gently as I bandaged his neck. "I know Ian. Trust me, I know. I had to look after him for years. Every time he got worse and worse, his gentle personality being ripped and torn apart by the agony he had to endure for hours and hours every day. Every week, month, year..." Ian bowed his head, tears splashing down onto the covers. I put my arms round him, pulling him gently up onto the pillows before draping the sheets over him, stroking his hair softly as his eyes closed. "Get some sleep Ian. We'll wake you up if Derp comes back."
***
The candle is burning low. Ian's breathing is swift and shallow, his face gaunt and grey, tears still drying on his cold skin. Rose keeps stroking his hair as he sleeps, reassuring him in his dreams. He whimpers a little as his wounds rub from time to time against the bandage but apart from that he's been asleep for ages. I put my arm round Rosemary's shoulders, drawing her close to me. She looks up into my eyes, her green ones filled with sadness. "He's doomed Max. He's fallen in love with a killer..." I kiss the top of her head softly. "I don't know Rose...I've seen the way Derp looks at him, the trust in his eyes..." His Sky Eyes... Rose nuzzles into me, sighing. "Yeah I know Max, but Ian's gonna be skin and stitches if Derp carries on like this, he's gotta learn that he can't treat humans like breakable toys." I hold her tight. "I saw the pain the Mast- Randel put him through. He's...lucky to be alive." Rose shook her head. "If to live like that is lucky, I'd rather be dead if I were him." I bite my lip. "Well, I guess he's desperate. He has to take his anger out on something...someone..." We both look at Ian as Rose sobs a little. "And that someone was him..."
***
Blood. Blood everywhere. Wrists hurt. Master looms over me, a crazed grin on his face. "Now you're mine, my precious little machine. Obey me." Brain hurts. Mind screams. Wrists burn. Stand up. Vision goes red. "Your first task..." Head turns without me saying. I CAN'T FEEL MY BODY! Tears. Cries. But I remain silent. "Bring me Max. We need to teach him a lesson." He smiles. I don't like his smile... It...scares me. Sky Eyes... Where is my Sky Eyes?! Blood sticks on the skin as I walk out the door into darkness. Cold darkness. My mind stops throbbing. Cold body. Cold thoughts. Wrists burn again. Mind is taken in a hard grip, harnessed. "Go my creation. You are under my control now..." Kill. KILL. KILL!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"