Sticks and Stones

Star (Simon)

"Sash? Bucky?" Simon wandered through the old building from an old town where people lived back when people were colonized on the planet instead of being weeded out here.

It had a square spiral like structure that went up and down and connected to a larger building that had fallen apart. There were several stories in this concrete structure. Now he searched for his companions and only friends on this structure.

A girl's scream pierced the air. He ran to see what was going on, "Sash?! Are you alright?"

She looked up at him with her short pixie style haircut and her big brown eyes. She looked like she was about to cry, "Wh-where's Bucky?"

Star looked around, "I don't know I thought he fell asleep here with you."

"He did Star... And now he's g-gone..." He sat with her and pulled her to his lap.

He gently rocked back and forth with her running his fingers through her hair, "Sh... It's okay Sasha. We will find Bucky I promise. He's tough. He will be alright, right?"

She nodded quickly, "Y-yeah... Good... I thought you were doing a perimeter check."

"I was. I heard something and came looking for you two when I heard you scream. I finished anyway... Come on go back to sleep Sash."

She stayed snuggled up to him, "I'm scared Star..."

He could tell she was almost asleep again, "I know Sash... It's gonna be okay. I won't let anything happen. On my word."

"Ok Star... Okay..." She had drifted back to sleep and soon he found himself too falling asleep. Both were weary and their bodies sleep deprived by now.

=

The next thing he woke up to was him and Sash being pulled apart roughly. He fought his invisible captors and she struggled. She bit and pulled and fought with all she had.

She was thrown forward to the ground and Star could see blood on her face. When she wouldn't stop squirming there was a pistol put against her neck, she started to cry and beg for her life. They pulled the trigger and she was silent and completely still.

Star fought to get to her. He couldn't believe he had just watched his friend die like that. That event put a hole in his heart. He struggled to reach her in his grief and the captors gave him a sedative and he passed out almost immediately.

Over the course of several weeks he was tortured, in a lab on an operation table. He was ripped apart and thrown back together and given so many unknown substances pumped into his blood he was sure there was more of it than there was actual blood left.

He hadn't socialized much with other prisoners. That's pretty much what they were, prisoners being used for testing, he did open up a little when after the first week he received a new roommate.

The guy that had been shoved into the room had shaggy black hair that curled slightly. His parchment white skin looked thin and showed blood vessels under its translucent appearance. His eyes were a violent red and he lunged back at the door. He had fangs and snapped and clawed at whoever had thrown him in the room.

Star didn't move from his bed. He didn't even look up at the new person sharing his room. The guy got knocked back and fell to the ground before spitting out a mouthful of blood.

He moved to the small bed across the room from Star. He didn't say anything at first. But then he stopped at turned his full attention to Star, "What did they do to you?"

"Me? What's it matter to you?"

"It matters Star. What did they do?"

"How do you know my name... I haven't told anyone my name."

The guy gave him a wry smile and a mischievous gleam overtook his red eyes. A gleam that had once belonged to a pair of green eyes. A gleam that was irreplaceable, unrepeatable.

Star was sitting there frozen in shock. He examined the guy closer. He'd never thought his friend was so pale, his skin no longer touched by the sun had paled considerably. His eyes now the violent color where they'd been so gentle before.

Star knew that this was his friend, "Bucky?"

The guy just nodded and didn't speak. Star was stunned that his daredevil best friend had been reduced to this. "Hey Star. Are you good?"

Star felt a warmth spread through his body  at the knowledge that he'd found Bucky. His heart sunk a little when he and Bucky told their capture stories. Bucky even cried when he heard what happened to Sash. They had both loved her, probably more than they should've.

Bucky and Star did stay together. As friends and confidants, the two became inseparable.

Bucky warned him against escape and insisted that Sasha might have not been killed and had been taken in as well. Star couldn't believe him, couldn't help himself. He knew he had to try.

When he managed to escape he was alone. He was free, they had damaged his tracker. But he was free. He ran until he couldn't. He ran until his body shut down. He had to run, to never go back.

He knew they would hunt him. He knew they would send their greatest success. The pretty blonde girl that could get in your head and make your central nervous system go crazy on you. With her she would have the wolf girl she had learned to control.

He knew he couldn't go back and that he had to run. He didn't need to know anything else at that moment as his consciousness slipped and he dreamed of Bucky and Sasha and himself before that dreadful night. That dreadful night that they were taken.