The Parenthood Drabbles

Weakness

In the style of Emily Zhang and Mars

She cringed and braced herself for the impact. When the whip smacked her cheek it still felt as bad as if she hadn't.

Finally she broke and whimpered in pain.

"Emily Zhang it doesn't have to be this way," the captor said. Someone caressed her cheek. She would've turned around to bite the hand, but she was exhausted. Trying to transform into an animal while in the celestial bronze chains was fruitless and draining. "You're such a pretty young thing... I wouldn't want to shed your kind of blood..."

The caress turned into a powerful slap.

"But that's going to have to take some of your cooperation, so tell me right now. What is the god of war's weakness?"

"I don't know," Emily said as calmly and neutrally as she could manage.

"Liar!"

The hot iron was pushed into her hip once again, burning away the fabric of her flannel shirt. Tears of pain were clouding up her eyes but right then Emily couldn't care. She'd practically walked into the trap, after all. She'd been so keen on finishing off the hellhounds who'd attacked the Zhang house... The only thing that mattered now was that she kept her silence and her honour.

"Ooh," the Empoussa questioning her said. "It's starting to hurt now, isn't it? Poor little Emily Zhang: legacy of Neptune, the last of the Zhang line, bearer of the blood of Periclymenus."

"Thanks man, I needed that refresher," Emily said. "For a second there I thought my name was Wendy Chang."

She got poked again and she nearly screamed.

"Tell me what his weakness is."

"I don't know!" Emily said.

The hot iron poker moved up her body and rested right above her heart.

"Tell me..."

"I don't know, I can't say anything." Emily said fighting to keep the growing panic out of her voice. "I literally cannot."

The poker was pushed lightly. The heat gave her goosebumps.

"Emily Zhang..."

That's when she heard a sound strangely like a door being kicked down.

"Look down!" Someone yelled. It wasn't hard for Emily to drop her head and close her eyes. Even with her eyelids shut, Emily saw a bright light invading the room. Waves of heat hit her. It was as if a bomb had gone off.

The shackles on her ankles were unlocked. Out of instinct Emily flailed around.

"Stop it, Zhang you're going to kick me." Once she recognised the voice she realised that she probably didn't want to do that.

Her hands were released and her aching arms were free. She fell, but landed in someone's arms.

"Shh," he said. She was being lied down. She forced her eyelids open.

"How hurt are you?" God of War said unbuttoning her shirt to gauge how much blood had soaked her tank top.

"I don't know," she said.

"And you can't have ambrosia, can you? You're so damn inconvenient."

"Yeah, someone should just totally have me dangling from their creepy lair's ceiling and beat me up."

He put his hands over her hips, her stomach, her arms, her legs... At first the healing heat was crippling and she wanted to scream and slap Mars away. But slowly she felt better.

"How long have you even been here?" Mars asked.

"I don't know."

"Think," he ordered.

"I guess... I fought her for about fifteen minutes. Then I nearly had her and her backup showed up. Then she tortured me for... two hours? Does that make sense?"

"You usually leave work at five, so I guess it does." the God of War said. "I can't believe you lasted that long."

"Aren't I full of surprises?" Emily mumbled.

"Sure are, Zhang." Mars said kissing her forehead. She felt a little better knowing that at least she wasn't fighting alone now if they came back.

"I can stand," Emily decided.

"No you can't."

"You're either with me or against me there, bud." Emily said managing to push herself up though her arms were too painful to feel anything. He helped her get up and she propped herself against the wall for a while, giving some recovery time to her legs before she tried something stupid or eccentric. Like walking.

"What did they want from you?" Mars asked once she let go of the wall. Having shape-shifted all her life, Emily's body had adapted to changing very fast. Luckily that spread to healing. She felt better already- a little tired and a little sore, but okay.

"They wanted to know your weakness," Emily said. "Looks like there's someone out to get you."

"What did you tell them?" Mars said.

"Nothing. I didn't know." Emily said. Well, Emily knew that he was left handed and that he couldn't protect his legs for the life of him while wrestling. But she hadn't thought that that was what they were looking for, and she wasn't even willing to say that much.

Mars nodded and motioned for her to follow him out. He turned around after a few steps.

"Next time you can tell them you," Mars said.

Emily didn't reply.

He nodded grimly, a little to himself. "You are my weakness, Emily Zhang. So don't you ever get captured and tortured and hurt again, because I was scared."

"I was pretty scared too," she said walking up to him and putting her arm around his waist. She tried to make him laugh, but she wanted him to know how much that meant to her. How deeply that struck. How she knew how much he meant by that. Maybe that was why she was trying to make him laugh too; she was a bit scared.

"If you keep being this sassy I will leave you here though."