Origins of an Icer

Chapter 18

3 Months later, Iron Maiden's Medical Wing

Akifa groaned, laying on the cold slab with his arms and legs strapped to the medical table as he took a deep breath, his head pounding while his eyes seemed to struggle at adjusting themselves. Turns out with his newfound abilities, lobotomies didn't work, brain washing and hypnotism didn't, therefore, the Captain was getting pissed at his resistance and kept up different medieval ways to break Akifa and reprogram him under her control. So far? No luck, just adding more and more to the pain, since they stopped using anesthesia a while ago. He lost count of the days inside the cell, the tallies simply forgotten on a wall while he was taken to this room day in and day out to be broken mentally and physically.

Deep down, Akifa was too damned proud and stubborn to let it go, that annoying little inkling in his brain that Wren might still be alive somewhere, his Iscerian too strong and clever to be outwitted by the Captain and her army of cronies. Oracle and Camulus came and checked on him often, mostly to ensure he wasn't hurting himself, but they did keep him in the know about new fights breaking out, riots and rebellions forming in small passive-aggressive pockets to annoy and injure the Captain's reputation further. He always had a chuckle at these new riots kicking up, people swearing that they would help him and Wren out of the brig and back into piloting.

What shocked him was how much people were realizing the issues with the ship after Wren had noticed it (Oracle had apparently put a recorder on Wren to make sure he was watched, but it ended up recording their whole adventure into the trash room), videos of the dead pilots and vendors came out and more people were enraged at seeing their missing friends wind up dead. It was only a matter of time before the sentry robots started doing "crowd control", essentially scaring everyone off, and probably killing a few to make a statement: don't question the Captain.

The door opening and hissing shut woke him out of his stupor, his eyes closed as he tried to lay still, hearing the new doctor coming over. Snapping of rubbers gloves and the whir of a tool told Akifa he was in for more pain when a communicator chimed, the tool stopping its loud drilling. Thank the gods for small favors... He took a soft breath, risking one eye to open as he watched the doctor remove his face mask and goggles before picking up the comm, an image of the captain coming on a holographic screen.

"How's the prisoner enduring?"

"I'm afraid it's damn near impossible. His gold tattoos somehow have an unknown agent that gives him stronger resistance to memory loss and hypnotism. I would have to irrevocably ruin his brain processes to ensure it wouldn't recover this time. Unless you want to lose your precious pilot and Avatar, I'm out of ideas..." the doctor admitted, a hint of jealousy under his breath that made Akifa chuckle, turning to look into a mirror wall that allowed the doctor to look at his whole body.

Gods, he had turned into a bad sight... He thought one big scar going down his face was bad, now he was covered in tiny ones bursting from the corners of his eyes and around his temples that looked as if the doctor tried to drill in and out the other side. His hair had been shaved off completely, his whole body losing its muscle tone and becoming nearly atrophied with only the bare minimum vitamins and nutrients he needed to survive. His tattoos weren't even gold anymore, they stayed almost a muddy rose gold, leeching more crimson into the designs then before with his rage still burning underneath. Akifa somehow felt a foolish thought that maybe Wren wouldn't recognize him as he looked now, but his heart seemed to twist at the thought.

Akifa... hayati, are you there? There were his hallucinations again, a little late this time with all the pain he had been through today, but better late than never.