Dead Air

With a satiated belly, a clean body, and a head full of nightmares and migraines, I laid my back against the soft, musty scented mattress. Who knew how long it's been since the last time it was even touched...

But it was comfortable.

Problem was, parts of my body hung off its edges, due to my mass. That wasn't so comfortable...

Flame was right about me feeling pain later. My hindleg was screaming, and my ear felt like it was melting. It certainly didn't help with the headaches...

There was no way I could sleep like this.

I turned over on my side, burying my face halfway into the pillow as I groaned.

"Phoenix...?" The deep, caring voice of Dancing Flame spoke tenderly as the door to the quarters opened. Light poured in from the hall, and I retreated under the pillow, groaning even louder than I had initially.

"Light bad." I drawled.

"Right, sorry..." The door creaked shut, and his hooves traversed across the worn flooring, before coming to a stop at the side of the bed. I peeked my head out from the safety of the pillow to find him regarding me with that gentle smile that told me he cared.

He reached a hoof out, brushing the rat's nest of a mane from my eyes.

"Hold me?" I whispered, to which his eyes shifted down to the structure I lied on for a brief second.

"Sure the bed will hold both of us? Looks like it's already having trouble with you."

"Hold me." I pouted in a playful demand.

"Mm." He nodded and lightly hopped up, lying over me and partially behind me, so as to not fall off. The bed cried out and bent in a little at his weight, but it wasn't giving in just yet.

I looked up at him, staring deep beyond the crimson rings of his eyes as his hind legs intertwined with mine, and his fores wrapped lightly around my neck.

"Thank you, Flame..." I whispered, nuzzling gently into him.

"For what?" He asked curiously in the same volume.

"For everything..."

With a giggle, he booped his nose to mine. "I should be the one thanking you, my Phoenix..."

Our gaze lingered a moment before closing my eyes. It was hurting to keep them open at this poi-AGH!

The mattress collapsed beneath us momentarily, and us with it!

I yelped as we plummeted in that split second, yet somehow the snapping of the support beams was louder than I.

My form bounced off the mattress in the landing, and with me, Flame, who was laughing.

I soon joined in as he shifted into a more comfortable state, now without the fear of falling off.

"I told you!" He teased. "We're too big!"

"When you're right, you're right." I giggled lightly, wincing as I shimmied my body near the edge of the mattress, so as to give him some more space. He scooted closer to me, holding me from behind and nuzzling into the back of my head as the laughter fell away.

"Are you in pain?" I asked softly.

"Nothing I'm not already used to." He whispered into my mane. "He can't touch me or anyone else ever again... What about you? How are you holding up?"

"My body is screaming at me right now... Can't sleep like this..."

"Well, good news my schedule is free... I'll just have to hold you until you do..."

"Or you could knock me out." I giggled half jokingly, but alas, he didn't share the sentiment.

"I think we both know that would only make things worse, if not fatal. If you can't sleep, at least rest your body..."

"Yeah..." I mumbled, mentally fighting through the pain.

My mind, as time went on, gradually slipped away into the dark. The warm, gentle comfort of Flame's body pressed against me, his forelegs wrapping me in his embrace and our hinds crossed almost had me forget all the pain my body was going through. Not entirely, unfortunately. But it was enough that I found myself starting to doze off. Granted, it took some time. But he was there with me through it all.

<>

"Come to me, my little Phoenix... We have much to do..." The voice spoke to me in the darkness, engulfing me with her sound.

"Who are you?" I asked. "Where are you...?"

The crooked chevrons on the mural glowed red in the distance, ensnared by a thick, black fog.

"I am the one to release you and your friends from the cage you've been living in, so that you may fly free. I am judgement. I am justice. I am the future. I am the key to a parting sea of your freedom."

"Can you stop speaking to me in riddles and just tell who you are?" I blurted in a fit of frustration. "Seriously, I've had it with all the bullshit."

There was a brief pause in the darkness, before that voice sighed.

"Come on... I waited trillions of years for this. Don't be a buzzkill, let me have this!"

... Uh... what?

Okay, that was unexpected...

"Well, I asked a simple question, and for once, I want a simple answer! I didn't get to ask too many questions without getting struck until today, so I'm asking!"

"Alright, you know what? I was trying to be mystical and cool. He got to do it, and it was my turn, and you ruined it. After so long have I waited! So no more mystical dreams for you! Just... find me or some shit, I dunno..."

"Wait, find you where? I mean, who even are you? What's happening here? What-"

"I'll answer all your questions..." The voice interrupted. "Once you see me. In the meantime, head beyond the canyons beyond the house you're in. There's someone there that'll help you get to me easier."

Before I could usher another word, I shot up from the mattress, gasping and panting.

Flame wasn't next to me, which would have worried me gravely, filling my heart with the sudden drop of dread that further led to the horrible sense of loneliness...

... Had it not been for the chatter I heard downstairs.

I heard a new voice in the mix, though through the floors and walls, I couldn't understand anything that was being said.

I rolled off the mattress, and with each step toward the door, did a loud creak scream from the floor. The voices stopped in mid-conversation, only for a moment.

As I proceeded to the door, not caring about being noticed now, they resumed their incoherent muffles below.

A brief stroll through the corridor and down the stairs soon brought attention to the new former subjects.

647, a thestral that had come from another group, and 529, the changeling we had been assigned to the same group with.

647 had a scrambled, purple mane of three different shades, like mine. Glowing neon around him. The silky webbing of his wings glowed a cyan neon. The rest of his body was a dark purple, but the tufts of his folded back ears and chest fluff were even darker.

529 nodded to me with a faint smile, and it was then I noticed...

He was far younger than I initially thought. Maybe in his mid-teens. He still carried an innocence in those eyes. There wasn't a whole lot left, but I could still see it in his face...

He was hanging onto it dearly...

Because of the chitin plating, his slave code wasn't inked in like the rest of ours. It was burnt into him...

"You're awake." Flame stated, sitting on the couch beside 153. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit." I replied simply. "And confused as hell."

"Aren't we all...?" 153 muttered, keeping her hind legs pressed firmly together as she showed hints of pain in her expression.

Flame put an arm around her shoulder, to which she leaned against him, breathing in deeply.

"The worst part is over, Polarity..." He whispered.

"That's debatable." She replied softly.

"Polarity?" I raised a brow.

Flame cracked a hint of a smile. "Her color pattern is the same as yours, just reversed."

I regarded her coolly, but she shrugged.

"Not gonna be picky with the new name. I'm not being called a number, so that's good enough for me."

"Fair." I regarded the new arrivals. "And what about these two?"

"We were just going to discuss that." The thestral spoke softly.

"Firefly sounds appealing for bug butt over there." Polarity said with a hint of amusement.

"I resent that statement." He scowled at her in retaliation for a moment, before visually coming to terms with it. "But yes, Firefly is rather fitting. Just... wish I knew how to fly..." He looked down and sighed.

"You and me both..." I replied.

"For me..." Thestral pondered; his eyes wandering to the ceiling as he drifted away in thought. "I'm thinking Moonlight."

"Hey, if you like it, own it." Flame smiled. "It fits you."

"So..." I stepped further in, looking around at the party. My head was still lost in a daze, and while it was better, motion sickness was still being a cunt. "What all did I miss?"

"Well..." Flame began, sitting forward. "I filled Firefly and Moonlight in on everything we know..." He paused, knitting his brow. "Or... assume to know... and my idea on how they operate... what with the static hiss. They have some notes to add as well..."

"Right..." Moonlight stepped up beside me. "Surely you've all seen a subject die before, yes?"

We all murmured in agreement. It was clear none of us wanted to reminisce on such memories.

"So we know what happens within the span of a few minutes after death." He stated matter of factly.

"They lose their glow and color, yes, we know." Flame bit his lip impatiently. "What of it?"

Moonlight stared for a moment, before looking to Polarity and then me.

"Oookay... Clearly you aren't seeing what I'm putting down."

"They still have their glow." Firefly blurted.

Moonlight nodded. "And color."

The room shared a silence. A thought, as we all looked at one another. We were all thinking the same thing, but dared not speak it. It disturbed us greatly.

Instead, we waited for someone else to say it. Or perhaps, the lot of us hoped no one would say it...

Because... what was worse than death?

Being ripped away from the option of it...

"They're not dead..." Polarity muttered regrettably. Her eyes glossed over in a distant realm invisible to us. "Which means the attackers...?"

"... Just may still be alive, for lack of a better term." Moonlight finished with a nod.

"So..." Flame frowned, keeping his eyes glued to the ground. "The screams... are... them...?"

"In theory." He said softly. "We know next to nothing about these things, so this is all just speculation."

"They're just being tortured..." Polarity covered her eyes with a hoof as her voice wobbled. "Stars above..."

"Allegedly." Moonlight added with a raised hoof at her. "Again, we don't know for sure..."

"I can't seem to figure out the weird eye glow thing." Firefly stated. "That one is still a mystery."

"Aye." Moonlight nodded, patting a hoof lightly against the back of the changeling's head. "Maybe some things are best left that way."

"Left what way?" Firefly asked quizzically, looking up at him curiously.

Moonlight let out an amused, but brief chuckle.

"A mystery."

"Oh, right..." Firefly chuckled nervously in turn. "I feel dumb..."

"No, not dumb." Moonlight spoke softer. "You're just tired. And scared... we all are."

He looked to me as Firefly pressed his black chitin face to Moonlight's dark purple chest fluff. The faint dark red glow of his eyes mixed in with the purple light Moonlight emitted from his mane.

His wings stretched out, wrapping around the changeling's form. The two claws atop his wings gently scratched the back of Firefly's head, who began to giggle.

"S-Stop that, you know it tickles!"

"Serves you right for revealing such a weakness to me, little one." He smiled thoughtfully as he looked down at the struggling changeling that sought escape.

They had a bond. Not like Flame and I did, but... something just as special. They cared about each other.

They carried that same deep feeling as Flame and I did.

That know of if it ever came to it, they would do anything for each other. It made my heart sink. Not in the sense of dread, but as if it were beginning to melt. Without hurting, of course. It filled me with a warmth I never felt before.

Moonlight sighed as he let go of Firefly, and as they regarded each other, giving the other some space, he spoke.

"I'm gonna need you to go upstairs and try to rest, okay?"

"But... what about you?"

He smiled wanly, caressing the side of his face with a hoof as he looked into his eyes. Firefly leaned into his affection, not breaking line of sight.

"I'll be up there with you momentarily. And... whatever you hear, don't... don't come out." He grit his fanged teeth as tears welled up within.

"Moonlight...?" Firefly whimpered.

"It'll be okay..." Moonlight whispered back. "Everything'll be okay..."

As Polarity stared at the two in confusion, Flame and I took a glance at each other, which triggered a shrug of his shoulders.

"Run along now..." Moonlight placed a kiss atop his head just before letting go completely. "Cover your ears, if you need to... Just don't come out..."

"P-Please..." Firefly's voice wavered. "Be careful doing it..."

Moonlight nodded silently, pursing his lips firmly together.

Firefly stood up and began to walk for the stairs. Each step was met with a creaking floor.

The room remained silent as we all stared at one another. The house's groans were all to be heard.

Moonlight stared at Flame the entire time with a deep focus. He didn't look happy...

I glanced at the gun on the table. It was still there and close enough... If he tried anything, his head was getting blown off.

At this point, a sudden movement would have had me lunge in for the kill.

Upon the door upstairs closing, and the ceiling groaning under Firefly's weight, Moonlight took a deep breath and slouched, hanging his head down.

"You're good with biology, Flame?"

"Uh, y-yeah... why...?"

"I need you to..." He paused as tears broke free. He wiped a hoof over his face to try and break the stream. "I need... need you to destroy my ear drums..."

"What the fuck, no!" Flame knit his brow, recoiling from the request.

"I'm a thestral, Flame." Moonlight snapped. "That might not mean anything to any of you, but that means I have outstanding hearing. I can hear for miles away, which means I'm more prone to turning into one of those... things. It's astonishing I haven't already. And I'm not gonna tempt chance. I need to go deaf. I don't want to become whatever those things are out there..."

"Moonlight..." Polarity stated. "There's gotta be another-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." He said with a raised voice and an agitated tone. "I tried other alternatives. Helmets. I found ears muffs, even tried giving myself shell shock. But it didn't work..." He let out a shaky breath, before exhaling coolly, tears still streaming down his face. "If there was another way, I'd take it in a heartbeat. But there isn't..."

"And what would you recommend I use, assuming I'm agreeing to this?" Flame raised a brow.

Moonlight nodded to a window. "Break some glass."

"That's unsanitar-"

"I know it is, but it's either I go deaf, or I face something worse than death!" Moonlight shrieked; his batpony coming out. "Please! If you don't do it, I'll do it myself!"

Flame groaned in frustration, before sitting up.

"Fine!" He trotted to a window in an angry fit, spinning around and raising his hind legs to buck against the glass pane.

It shattered on impact, and without hesitation, he grabbed a slender, sharp edge with his teeth, being careful to not cut his mouth.

"I didn't realize freedom came with mutilating others..." He hissed. "Lie down."

"I don't want to be here for this..." Polarity said as she stood up, heading for the front exit.

"I second that remark." I jumped in, ready to leave.

"Too bad." Moonlight looked intently at us as he snapped; tears washing out his eyes. "You have to stay here."

"What? Why?" I asked in defense, feeling my heart begin to pound with dread.

"Because..." Flame muttered. "Both of you need to hold him down."

"Why can't you just knock him out and then do it?" Polarity asked defensively.

"Oh, I intend to..." He replied. "But there's no saying if the pain will bring him back. If he jolts awake, screaming and kicking while I have a glass shard embedded in his ear..."

He didn't need to finish his thought. We were all thinking it now.

Damn it...

"Whenever you're ready." Moonlight said quietly, lying his back against the floor.

Flame stepped toward him. Polarity and I shared discomfort in the whole thing in our glance, before joining his side.

"One thing before we start..." Moonlight said, looking up at Flame.

"Yes?"

"Did you start that little project hanging outside the front door?"

Flame chuckled menacingly. "Glad you noticed. Phoenix started it. I finished it."

"I thought you hated the idea of mutilating."

"He was an exception." Flame's smile went.

"Just... don't do that to me, okay?"

"I wouldn't dream of it." Flame replied, before turning to me, and then Polarity.

"Phoenix, once he's out, you'll hold his head in place. Sit on his fores so he doesn't hit me or push me away. Polarity, you'll get his legs."

Tonight was gonna be long...

<>

I stepped out of the shower area in a damp coat. Droplets of the liquid shined in my mane.

All the blood that I washed down the drain, and still... I felt dirty.

I could hear his muffled cries upstairs. Polarity stepped up from behind, shuddering under her breath.

"I never want to do anything like that ever again..."

I wrapped a foreleg around her, pulling her in for a hug and a nuzzle to her cheek.

"The worst part is over..." I whispered.

"Yet I keep reliving it..."

My legs kept wanting to buckle underneath me from both exhaustion and what I just had to witness. And when she said that, I would have collapsed entirely. My eyes burnt with hot tears as she caught me.

"Hey, Phoenix... Are you alright?"

"Far from it, Polarity..."

She lifted my foreleg further up her damp shoulder, having me lean against her smoky scent.

"C'mon, let's get you to the couch..."

Both of us shaking from the horror show, we trudged across the creaky floor, before flopping our bodies against the old, beaten couch that was beginning to sound more and more like the floor it occupied.

She held me close, and I her. A comfort we were depraved of our entire lives, unless our masters... our former masters... wanted to hold us. We never got to hold our own kind. To touch, feel, look at... Speak to... Admire... Care for...

The closest thing we ever got was the breeding quota.

Flame stepped down from the stairs, each step made with a noticeable groan of the floor's integrity. He approached the couch clumsily and sighed, before crashing his rear down on an empty cushion.

"He's bandaged up... I can't do anything about his pain, though. So expect to hear his complaints for a long while..."

He closed his eyes as he moved a blood stained hoof over them. A mere glimpse of the condition of his hoof had him recoil before he could rub his eyelids.

"Damn it all..."

He lowered his hoof, looking at the other, before slumping in a deadpan.

"I'll be back..." He muttered as he stood up, making his way to the shower area.

Minutes went by without a word. As time moved on, so did our nerves. We were both still uneasy, but who wouldn't be in a situation like this?

"Hey..." I whispered.

"What is it?" Polarity asked in the same volume as I, squeezing me lightly.

"What exactly happened to Vector...? Do you know?"

"Ah... yeah..." She leaned into me a little more, her forehooves squeezing me even more, if not for a second. "He had me and the others run for safety. He tried getting those things to chase him the other direction... and it worked. Too well..."

"Oh..." Another sinking heart...

He was one of them now...

"Turns out they were faster..." She continued. "I still hear him screaming..."

"He didn't deserve that..." I shook my head, closing my eyes. Remembering his face, his voice, his touch. Everything he did for me and to me. The movie and the drink... His care and affection... "Humans are vile things, but... he was different from the rest. He was good to me... and others."

"That he was..." Polarity replied. "He'll live on in memory..."

"Do you think there are others like him?" I opened my eyes, looking at her.

She nodded. "If there was one, there is bound to be more. We just got the shit end of the stick in regards to meeting Humans."

"Right..." I leaned my back against the couch, closing my eyes from the 'thank you' my sore muscles filled me with. Arching my back, I tilted my head up, facing the ceiling. The light fought to get through my eyelids, filling my vision with a dull, orange haze, rather than dark.

"Think we'll ever find more good ones?" I asked plainly.

"Assuming we survive this... and somehow find a way off this planet... I'd say the chance is unlikely. If Talon Corporation owns the planet, they most likely own the universe it comes with."

"Well..." I opened my eyes with a knit brow, fixated on the ceiling. "That's a depressing thought..."

"Just thinking realistically."

"Didn't say you were wrong..." I ran a wing up her back before wrapping my pinion around her shoulder to pull her into me. She moved in with my request, laying her head against my chest.

I had hoped that Vector had found the Afterdeath, that he was in the eternal sleep of it all. But if Moonlight was right about whatever those things were... then he wasn't. No, he was still alive. Screaming through the torture, his body now his prison.

I really hoped Moonlight was wrong...

Flame stepped out with a damp, shiny, clean coat. The moisture beamed off him in specks of light like stars as it did us.

He regarded the two of us and nodded once.

"Can I join you two?"

"The more, the merrier." I replied, smiling softly. Though it didn't feel sincere, given the situation, and the pained cries of Moonlight on the second floor.

Polarity scooted away and tapped a hoof on the cushion between us, to which Flame hopped up, turned, and sat. Her and I scooted in, holding him close as he did us.

He turned his head, placing a kiss atop my head. I reciprocated one to his chest.

"How's your head?" He whispered into my ear.

"Throbbing. But a little better."

"Mm... and how's the gunshots?"

"Throbbing. And not better."

"I figured as much..." Another kiss, this time, against my ear.

"It's nothing compared to..."

I was interrupted by another pained wail.

"... What he's going through..." I finished behind grit teeth.

"I..." Polarity froze, to which the two of us looked at her. She was biting her lip nervously. "I might not be able to help with the pain, but... I might know a way to make it... better for him."

"I know what you're thinking..." I said plainly. "Are you sure you wanna do that? I thought you were in pain."

"I am..." She sighed, looking down. "But I can still use my mouth... if it helps him, I dunno... It's what I'm good at... It's what I know." She looked up into my eyes with remorse. "I hate hearing him in pain. So... I'm willing to... try and make him feel... better. If I knew healing magic, I'd be going with that method, but... I wasn't trained in that department..."

"What do you know?" Flame asked curiously, but she shot him a glare. That was his answer.

"S-sorry, that came out... wrong..." He looked away nervously.

"No..." She sighed. "I know what you meant. I'm a clean slate unicorn. All I know is telekinesis."

Flame and I looked at each other, puzzled, before turning back to her.

"What's a clean slate unicorn?" I asked with a subtle tilt of my head.

She raised a brow.

"You mean... you don't know?"

"She wouldn't have asked if we did." Flame stated with a deadpan.

"Right..." She shook her head. "Guess they kept us in the dark about our own native races as well..."

"It seems so." He muttered.

"Well, a clean slate unicorn is a subject - a unicorn, obviously - who isn't trained in any magic save for telekinesis. Upon being sold, the buyer gets to decide what the slate specializes in and can either train them manually, or implant them with a chip that offers shortcuts. Chips are sold separately."

"By the stars..." Flame's eyes widened. "You just sounded like an advertisement!"

"Wha...?" Polarity asked in a state of confusion.

"Chips sold separately." I filled in. "He's right, you sound like a commercial."

"I don't!" She balked.

"You do." Flame and I responded flatly in unison. He turned to me with a hint of a smile.

"Looks like the real threat is in here with us. Opportunist Commercial Advertising."

"Capitalism, baby!" I giggled.

"The worst threat of all."

He joined in laughter as Polarity huffed and folded her forelegs.

"I'm not an advertisement!"

"I dunno, you could've fooled me." I said behind a teary eye'd giggle.

As I wiped the tears away, it was then that I noticed. This wasn't forced laughter. This wasn't subtle. This was pure, unadulterated joy. For the first time in my life, I was experiencing fun. After 203 years... Despite everything. The danger, the pain, the past, the slim chance of making it out of this situation alive, I felt...

... I felt fucking fantastic.

"Well, I'm glad to hear you two laughing." She said with a weak smile. "Sincerely."

"Honestly..." I said, calming down. "It doesn't sound too far from pegasi. We're never taught to fly. And attempting to teach ourselves results in termination. I can only imagine it's the same for thestrals, dragons, griffins, and changelings."

"They ripped our birthrights from us..." Flame muttered.

Polarity frowned. "Bastards..."

"What about you?" I looked up at Flame.

"Me?" He raised a brow. "Well, I'm good with medicinal remedies and biology. They teach a lot of zebra that stuff. But apart from that and a cock sock or a walking dildo, that's all we're really good for. Oh, and uh... dancing..." He looked away nervously, a soft blush of deep red growing on his cheeks.

"Dancing?" Polarity recoiled slightly. "Why dancing?"

"Pole dancing mostly. Lap dances." He looked back at the two of us. "Seeing as we're built with more flexible bone structures, we're seen as exotic."

"OOOO!" I grinned, as my eyes lit up. "Can Pol and I get a private dance!? A pole dancing session for Pol! HAH!"

Polarity giggled, sticking her tongue out playfully.

"No." He deadpanned, before glancing at me. "Okay, well... maybe... When I'm comfortable."

"Ah, yeah!" I raised a triumphant hoof and pumped it in the air.

"Maybe!" He reiterated. "Don't get your hopes up!"

"Alright, you two." Polarity got up, laughing under her breath. "I'm gonna get out of here before you two decide to start doing shit."

"You sure you wanna do this, Polarity?" Flame asked, regarding her behind a blank stare.

She froze for a moment before looking back at him. A smile curled on her lips.

"I'm okay with it. Besides... Moonlight's cute as hell. Two birds, one stone. Or... in this case, two stones, one pecker." She winked with a grin before turning towards the stairs and resuming her walk. "Goodnight, you two."

"Goodnight, Polarity." I said back in a near whisper, watching her venture up the stairs before disappearing out of sight.