Lyle Majors (smartassets) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2010-11-11 13:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | dante, godric, lyle, peyton |
Saturday August 30th 2008
Who: Peyton, Lyle, Dante and Godric
What: The Rescue... CONTINUED!!
Where: Roswell, NM
When: super early Saturday morning (after 1ish)
Rating: PG 13
Lyle walked a few paces behind Dante, a hand covering his mouth, eyes fixed on Jack's limp, muscular body slung easily over the other man's shoulders. This was too surreal. Dante was just carrying him around like he was weightless, like the dead body was nothing at all. A sack of flour. Five minutes ago that man had been alive and angry and dangerous, and now he was just... dead. Lyle watched Jack's head bob with each step Dante took, the wooden stake in his eye jutting out menacingly. It would not have suprised the young vampire in the least if the madman suddenly jerked back to life and lunged for him, massive hands outstretched and ready to kill.
"Where the fuck're we going?" Dante asked back over his shoulder. He was supposed to be finding some kind of lab. This guy Jack Billings was a psychopath, both by story and firsthand testimony. Dante might've liked the guy if he hadn't been deadset on killing people that Dante wasn't quite willing to be dead. And although he had only known the guy a few minutes, and had only heard him talking in a businesslike, annoyed tone, Dante had gathered that the guy was like a mad scientist, or a villain from a comic book. And as such, his laboratory would be impossible to find.
"Uh... I-I dunno," Lyle admitted hesitantly. He had been in the house before, but only in the front rooms. Paige had been more than willing to allow him access, but she didn't think he needed to peek into the laboratory, and Jack had tossed him and Grid out before they'd made it past the bathroom. "But I think it's on the west side, cuz I didn't get to go to that end."
"Hm," Dante grunted in reply, taking a turn down a boring looking hallway. There was a blinking light at the end of it, probably some kind of security something, which was promising. Sure enough, the door was just a plain looking door (locked of course) with a rectangular blue screen beside it the size of a small photo frame and a dark glossy dome above it. Palm and retinal scanner. Letting Jack's body drop to the floor, Dante growled a little, furrowing his brow. Thankfully he'd only stabbed out the one eye. "Grab his hand and put it on the scanner," he instructed gruffly, grabbing the sides of the corpse's head and lifting him up bu the neck. Jack's shoulders sagged, his thick neck stretched and straining from the weight.
Lyle stood still, just staring. "I... hafta..."
"Grab his fuckin' hand!" Dante snapped. "You wanna get short stack, we gotta get in the damn place first."
Swallowing, Lyle bent and grabbed Jack's wrist gingerly, his arm heavier than he'd expected. "I was... I was going to do it," he said softly, letting the dead man's hand drop on the scanner. A yellow line skimmed up the blue box, then down, while Lyle struggled to keep it flat on the panel. "Kill him, I mean. I was going to. I had it planned out, what I was gonna do, how I would... I knew I had to, and I thought I could talk myself into it. I thought I could do it. I knew I could do it because I had to." Once the scan completed, he let the hand drop, wiping his own hand on his jeans.
Arms shaking a little from the strain of keeping Jack's body upright, Dante rested the guy's jaw against his shoulder, one arm keeping him in a headlock while the other held the undamaged eye open. The retinal scan wasn't as obvious as the palm scan. No red lasers came out like in movies, it was just a bright light and them a small buzz as the door before them slid open. Both men walked inside, moving slowly, unsure as to what would be awaiting them. Dante felt he had been right- this guy was a comic book villain. There was impressive equipment all over, tubes and machines and tables and vials and books scattered everywhere. And laying on a steel table in the middle of the room, tubes coming out of every limb, was Peyton. Lyle rushed over to her side, speechless. She looked so pale, and so small, and her head was shaved. All he beautiful hair was gone. Electrodes were stuck all over her too, her temples and chest and shoulders. "Start peelin' those off," Dante instructed, looking over the various fluids being pumped into the girl. He knew what these were. He had seem them in Roger, right before the operation. A feeding tube, saline drip for hydration, some kind of drug to keep her knocked out. Swallowing, Dante took hold of a tube and pulled.
Lyle's eyes widened in fear. "What're you-"
"I know what I'm doing," Dante snapped tersely. He really hoped he did.
Peyton had been stuck in one long ass dream. The past year, she’d been catching glimpses of another world through short flirtations with REM sleep. The time spent unconscious in her bed at school allowed her to traverse light years. She was transported to a universe that felt strangely familiar and foreign at the same time. The sky was different, the landscape was different, the language was different. But they were all just peeks. She never got to really look around.
All that changed when Jack pumped her full of drugs in his lab. The constant dream state allowed Peyton the freedom to explore every inch of what could only be described as her ‘home.’ She belonged on this planet. Even though Peyton wasn’t like the other inhabitants, she was meant to be with them.
That’s why it came as such a shock when that world was ripped away. Peyton stirred. Her eyes were no longer moving rapidly, they were trying to open. With the tubes yanked from her body, the ones that kept dripping drugs into her system, Peyton was coming to, and everything hurt.
---
Lyle was watching Dante carefully. He wasn't sure that he liked the prospect of the guy who'd just killed someone and carried the body around like it was just a sack of flour, pulling the tubes out of his girlfriend. But Dante had been right- he knew what he was doing. His hands were eerily precise, and Pey was rousing slowly, not jerking awake like something vital had been cut off from her system. Lyle was close to Pey's side, watching with worried eyes.
"Honey?" he said softly. "Baby... can you hear me?" He hoped to God she could, that her brain was okay, that Jack hadn't stolen what he loved most about her.
---
Peyton could hear Lyle, but he sounded distant. Was this part of her dream? Why was Lyle here with her? He didn’t belong on this planet. Why did her body ache the way it did? What was going on!
She groaned and that just made things worse. Peyton hadn’t spoken in weeks, so her voice was understandably scratchy. And then she opened her eyes. Bigger mistake than groaning. The lights in the room burned her retinas, and Peyton closed her eyelids once more with a wince. “Too bright,” she managed to choke out in a raspy tone.
---
It hurt Lyle's heart to see her like this. She wasn't even close to how she should have been. Her beautiful hair was gone, she had little holes all in her body, tubes and needle tracks. Even her voice, normally high and feminine, was deep and scratchy like an old smoker. Lyle could barely understand her when she spoke, and immediately his eyes filled with tears when he heard her. After a few seconds he snapped to attention, looking around until he found the light switch. It wasn't easy- this place was like a mad science lab, nothing made sense. There were a billion switches and buttons but the lights were activated by motion sensors and floor pedals.
Switching off the majority of lights (and ignoring the angry grunt from Dante), Lyle went back to Pey's side, touching her arm gently. "Okay," he said gently. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay."
Sliding the last tube out of Peyton's arm, Dante checked her vitals carefully, seeing that he hadn't withdrawn something important. So far, looked good. "Kay," he mumbled. "Watch her, make sure she don't start flatlining or anything."
---
Peyton didn’t really understand where she was. She’d been here too long, and only conscious for a few minutes in the past few weeks. She had no idea what was going on, why she was in so much pain, and why Lyle and.. Dante were here.
Having the lights dimmed helped a great deal. Peyton was able to open her eyes again and look around. She recognized the place, and suddenly the pain made sense. “Where is he?” she asked. There was a twinge of fear in Peyton’s voice. Not necessarily because she was afraid her dad would come back to abuse her more, though that did enter her mind, but because she knew he’d murder Lyle.
---
Lyle had thought about what it would be like to see Pey again after her having been gone so long. He watched her eyes flutter open, his heart swelling with relief. She seemed lucid at least, although a bit confused apparently. That was normal. She had been drugged for God only knew how long. Standing over her, watching her to make sure everything was okay, that she was coming around and breathing alright, just so goddamn happy to see her alive, Lyle was almost in tears with relief. He had imagined what she might say to him when they saw one another again. What croaked from her dry throat wasn't what he'd been expecting. It took him a moment to comprehend it. He who?
"He ain't comin'," Dante grunted shortly, catching on a lot faster than Lyle seemed to be. Peyton looked like total shit. Whatever Jack had been pumping into her hadn't been kind to her tiny body. "We gonna get her outta here, or do you two lovebirds need a minute?"
"Is she... I dunno if we should move her..." Lyle looked up at Dante, then back at Pey, his blue eyes filled with worry. If she wasn't stable they shouldn't move her... but they needed to get out of here. It wasn't like Jack was going to be coming to get them, but who knew what Paige was going to do when she woke up and found out there were people in her house. And what if someone called the police?
"Think you can move, short stack?" Dante asked. Yeah, maybe she was woozy, but he didn't have time to deal with woozy. When you did a job you needed to get your shit and get the fuck out. They had their shit- Peyton- and now came the 'get the fuck out' part.
--
Move? Peyton was struggling to deal with shit as simple as talking right now. Her muscles weren’t atrophied, no doubt her dad had found a way to prevent that, but they still hadn’t functioned under her command for a while. She shook her head ever so slightly at Dante’s question. “No.”
“Why isn’t he coming?” she asked after a few seconds. Jack should have been down here by now. If Peyton was feeling herself, she would have realized that Jack was probably dead if he wasn’t currently executing her boyfriend and former fuck.
---
"We can't move her!" Lyle insisted, although as expected Dante was ignoring him. Maybe Peyton was just some kind of product to him, but to Lyle she was everything. "It doesn't really matter how long it takes, does it? I mean..."
"She ain't gonna be okay to move for a few hours, maybe a day," Dante told Lyle matter of factly. He remembered coming out of his own drug induced coma, his brain trying to figure out how basic functions worked, his inability to stand on his own for a week. It had been a struggle every step of the way but he'd forced his way through because it needed to work, and right now Pey needed to be taken outta here.
"Then we'll... I'll carry her. Just give her a minute to recouperate, okay?" He was almost pleading with Dante, terrified that the wrong move would kill Pey. Leaning over her, Lyle stroked her hair gently, kissing her forehead. He had to tell her the truth, he knew he did, but he wished it could wait. "Pey, honey," he said softly, "I need to... tell you something. Um... it's gonna be hard to hear, but... your dad's not coming. And he's not coming, cuz, um... well..."
"Cuz he's dead," Dante interrupted gruffly, flicking a few switches to make the various machines keeping Peyton alive shut down.
---
Honestly, the kissing and gentle voice thing, yeah, not really working. Reality felt so fucking harsh now compared to where she’d been the last few weeks. Peyton didn’t like being back. She wanted to return to her dreams. This place was a nightmare.
It got even worse as Dante dropped the bomb. As much as Peyton hated her father, and she did, hearing that he was dead felt like she’d been stabbed in the chest. Jack was dead? What? “No, that’s not possible.” Peyton refused to believe it. Even though she was quite possibly the most powerful person on this planet, Peyton lived in fear of her father. He’d always felt stronger. The mere human made her feel weak.
---
"You wanna see the body?" Dante offered.
"Dante!" Lyle snapped. God, he couldn't even believe how insensitive the guy was being. Jack Billings was an asshole, but he was still Peyton's father and even though she might've hated him, she would still feel something for him.
"What?" the golem said irritably. "He's got her strapped to a table drippin' fuck knows what into her. If she ain't glad the son of a bitch is dead, she's an idiot."
With an agry growl, Lyle turned his attentions back to Pey, watchign her closely. "I'm... sorry, Pey." It was hard saying that, because truth be told Lyle wasn't sorry at all. It had been surreal watching Jack get killed, but he wasn't sorry for him being dead. Not even a little bit.
--
Peyton was so confused. This still didn’t feel right. Her current state of existence was all wrong. Where were the stars she’d come to love? And the moons! And there was so much water before. Everything was either blue or green. If she walked outside right now, it would be mostly brown.
She closed her eyes and mumbled, “I don’t wanna be here.” No doubt Lyle would misunderstand, thinking she wanted to leave the lab. She did, but he couldn’t take her where she really wanted to go instead.
---
Lyle wanted to do anything he could to help her, to make her feel okay. He wanted to fix everything, and even though he knew he couldn't, but he would give her anything she asked. Hearing her small, tired voice, he nodded, glad to have an instruction. "Okay, love," he whispered. "I'll get you out of here." He was careful as he lifted her, her little body lighter than he remembered. He kissed her forehead again, so glad that she was alive, that she was finally safe and free from her father for good.
Following Dante from the lab, stepping over Jack's body, Lyle felt himself going more and more numb by the second. Now that he had Peyton, now that she was in his arms, none of this mattered anymore. Who cared if Jack was dead? Pey was safe. She was here. That's what mattered.
---
As expected, Lyle misunderstood. Peyton wished they would have plugged her in again. She’d happily spend the rest of her days locked in her dreams. It was the happiest she’d ever been. Ever. It was the only time Peyton had ever felt as though she belonged. Now she didn’t even have a father, a creator. Her connection to that other world was severed, and it seemed unlikely she’d ever return without Jack’s help. Only Jack knew where she was from. Only Jack knew the secrets to how she’d been transformed into what she was now. She may as well be dead, because without any hope of finding the answers to all her questions, life seemed pretty fucking meaningless.
Who was she to object though, or signal any sort of protest at all? Lyle was trying to do what he thought was best for her, and it was nicer being in his arms than it was lying in that cold, sterile room. She caught sight of her dad’s body though as he carried her out of the lab, and that’s when Peyton closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to see anything else. Maybe she could fall asleep and get back to the wonderful place she’d left.
---
Dante had been casing the house as they went to search for the lab, and when they'd been following Reese in, so he knew exactly where he was going as they walked. Despite the dark, he found the living room with ease, though he was surprised to find the vampire sitting alone there. And he looked like shit. "The fuck happened to you?"
"You stabbed me," Godric said dully, bent over with his face in his hands. "Oh, and Paige shot me nine times."
"And you ain't dead yet?" Dante had to admit, he was impressed.
Godric peered up to give the other man a look. "I was already dead," he reminded him. "And I need blood, which means we need to get out of here."
"Where's Reese?" Lyle asked softly.
"Upstairs. He says he's staying."
"Well we... I mean he's not, right?"
Getting to his feet, Godric shrugged, his hands dropping to his sides. "I don't know," he admitted, ashamed of the answer. He didn't want Reese to stay, he knew he couldn't let him. But this was Reese's family, and whether or not he was ready, he was the man of it now. And whatever he decided would be what happened.
---
Peyton opened her eyes again when she heard Ric’s voice. She managed to lift her head a bit as well. He’d been stabbed and shot by her mom? What. The. Fuck. This wasn’t the same world Peyton had left behind. Everything was shit now. Why did she have to come back here?
She started to cry. It hurt so damn bad. Being here was so fucking painful, and Peyton couldn’t stand it. If she’d had her mother’s gun, she probably would have shot herself. Peyton didn’t want to be here, just like she told Lyle, but he didn’t understand!
---
"It's okay," Lyle murmured, focusing on Pey, just helping her and forgetting everyone else. If Reese stayed, or left, it didn't matter. He was able to leave, he hadn't been strapped to a table and forced to stay. If he wanted to be left behind in this fucking hell hole, he could.
"Take them to the car," Godric told Dante, who glowered at him, not appreciating being a babysitter. "Just go," the vampire said irritably. He was too hungry and hurt and exhausted for this right now. Watching the three people leave, he stumbled over to the bottom of the stairs, looking up. "Reese," he called, his weak voice barely carrying through the empty house. "We're leaving. And... if you're not outside in two minutes... then I suppose you're staying." He had to give him one last chance, just the smallest opportunity for Reese to come running out, run for his life and save himself. Waiting a moment, he started off toward the front door, listening for any sounds of footsteps. But even as he got to the door, as he stumbled to the car and fall into the passenger's seat, looking sideways at Dante who seemed ready to drive... he knew Reese wouldn't come.