Puppet {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 5

My entire body was sore when I finally woke up. I couldn't lift my arms, and even the simple motion of rolling my head to the side made me wince, so I reluctantly chose to remain still while I grew more conscious. I realized I was lying in a bed, but not one of the beds at the bunker, and definitely not the useless mattress in my room.

No, this bed was much softer, and as I shifted my body a little I could feel thick blankets and sheets moving on top of me. More aware now, I could even feel the pillow that was beneath my head. It was unusual, I hadn't slept with blankets or pillows in years, I guess Blu figured it was a waste to give them to me, and even when I was in the infirmary down in the bunker I never had covering.

I was still too out of it to move, though, so I settled back and tried to remember what had happened. I was sent out for a mission, I knew that much, I was supposed to eliminate the weapons dealer and informant, Tobias Florian, and the leader of the growing Phoniks Vidroh. I remember that it had gone smoothly, until they all entered the room.

Son of a bitch I was captured. Why would they put me in such a comfortable bed though? Was I restrained? A quick pull of my wrists and ankles showed that no, I wasn't restrained, and that was incredibly stupid of them. One mistake of many I suppose. Now I just needed a weapon.

Check that, now I just needed my head to stop hurting, then a weapon. I doubted I'd be able to do much besides swing my arm uselessly while nails were being hammered into my skull.

There were sudden footsteps, and I tensed up before relaxing back against the bed, just as a door somewhere to my left opened and voices entered. I recognized the first as the blue eyed military man from the warehouse, but I didn't recognize the new voice.

"How is he?"

"Still asleep," this voice was gentle and warm, soft footsteps hit the floor and came closer until they were right beside my head; I tried not to flinch when someone brushed aside my bangs, "He'll wake up soon."

"I can't fucking believe this," heavier footsteps entered the room as the door shut, "All this time the damn Con Rồng had him?! If we'd known that before we would've stormed their fucking base!"

"We don't even know where their base is, Cass, calm down," the hand on my head had begun to stroke through my hair, and it... actually felt a little nice.

"Why's his hair like that?" the soldier muttered the question, "Did they dye it to make him unrecognizable?"

"No...," was the soft reply, "I don't... really know why it's like this. I tested it and it's not dyed, so I've been doing some research, but I don't know anything yet."

"Are we sure it's... him..."

"Yes, positive," the hand pulled away, I almost followed it, "The blood tests came back with an undeniable match," I heard shuffling papers and more grumbling.

"He's an assassin..."

"Supposedly," the shuffling stopped, "We only know what Tobias told us, we don't know if it's true."

"The man's an informant, what purpose would he have to lying to us?"

"Yes, but-."

"He stabbed Malachi!" there was a pause and I almost flinched, "Sorry, I didn't... hey don't cry."

"Not crying," the new voice mumbled, and he was definitely crying, I could hear the sniffling, "Mal is fine," he said finally, and the same warm hand raked through my hair, "Right now we need to focus on him. If he's really the Bakunawa of the Con Rồng then they might come looking for him. We need to protect him."