#this is the longest thing i’ve written in a whiel so you have to be SOOO NICE TO ME

[sasster]

Antivenom

This one came to me in a vision btw. It’s great to have a man on the inside! [doc]

—

Due to his position in the fleet and, more importantly, his status as a member of The Overseer’s handpicked crew, Laeche has come to enjoy access to many secrets being held by the Empire and its fleet. It is a list that stretches from unmarked weapons testing grounds to the flight patterns of prison ships.

Valuable information.

Information that should definitely stay out of the wrong hands.

The way Laeche sees it is that everyone has a secret. No matter how sweet and innocent or vile and cruel that person may be, there is bound to be some aspect of themselves that they are concealing from the world. This is also a truth that extends to a society itself.

Not out of shame or fear, but convenience, the Alternian government conceals information from its population all the time.

The purple blood is grateful for his peak behind the curtain.

Laeche makes his way into the grounded fleet vessel that he was summoned to, going over the diagnostics he has to run on the engine before the vessel can take off for the evening.

It has been a very long few perigees working on it solo, but that is what he was asked to do.

The less hands touching a secret the better it is for the sake of the project and all that.

That aforementioned convenience.

Upon entering the vessel he is greeted by a violet blood that comes up to about chin height to him, doing the usual pat down for bugs and paranoid looking around behind him to make sure he wasn’t followed.

He allows the manhandling to take place.

“You know, usually it’s the people that are working against the empire with such strict protocols.” He starts with a smirk in lieu of a greeting. “Should I be worried?”

The scientist sneers at him in response, fins pinned back as he moves to shut the door.

“I’ve worked too long and too hard to be thwarted now. Do you know how much rebel activity happens on this miserable rock?”

“‘Thwarted’ is a word villains use.” Laeche says casually, smacking the gum in his mouth as he meanders further along into the ship.

The ship would be nothing to write home about if it were not for the fact that it was refitted to look almost exactly like a laboratory. Odds and ends one would expect to find in an experimental facility with tubes and wires running through it toward a common area that housed a giant glowing vat. Home to a mysterious liquid with a troll suspended in it, a troll soaking in all of those sweet sweet chemicals.

There is just one thing that Laeche hates in a way that has him seeing red and he has been working silently beside it for nearly half a sweep now.

It makes his skin itch.

The only parts of the ship that remain ungutted are the engine room and coms station to man the thing. His only means off of Alternia when his work is done.

“After I run my diagnostics on the engine you’ll be all set to send for a crew to fly you out of here, sir.”

Where will he take this experiment when he is done?

The engineer never bothered to ask, the less he knew about whatever super soldier project this was the better it would ultimately be for everyone involved.

“Good, I never want to set foot on this miserable rock again.”

“What an impressive show of allegiance.”

“Get to work.”

Laeche puts both hands up as he meanders over in the direction of the engine room, taking time to throw one more pitying gaze at the experiment as he passes it.

Briefly, he wonders how aware of the world around them they are in there.

Then he hopes that the answer is not at all.

 - -

Hours pass before the engineer emerges from his work — A critical failure put him behind in the timeline. The scientist sits in the common area with a scowl cemented to his face. Like a disappointed parent he says nothing as Laeche fully enters the room, following his movements only with his eyes.

“Well.”

“So there was a minor setback.”

Oh, if looks could kill.

“What kind of setback?” The scientist grits.

“The kind where you’re stuck on this miserable rock for at least another day.”

“That is unacceptable.”

“Them's the breaks.” Laeche says very simply, his attention now fully on the vat in front of him. “I can fix it in time for a preflight check tomorrow though.”

“That is unacceptable I said! Your commanding officer will hear about this!”

“General Viroil is already aware that you need me a bit longer. It’s just another night.”

The violet blood shoots to his feet and Laeche catches the glimpse of a grim expression crossing his features in the reflection of the glass.

Scary!

“Why are you playing games with me?”

“We’re both men of science--” he is cut off by a scoff from the higher blooded troll. It rolls off of his back. “Surely you’ve had things fall apart for seemingly no reason at all.”

“What have you been doing all day then?”

“Fixing it.”

Almost as if on cue the lights on the ship go dead, from the delicate hum and glow of the vat it seems like the only thing spared from the outage is the life support hooked up to the experiment.

Laeche laughs breathlessly.

“That wasn’t me.”

Before the seadweller gets a chance to broadcast his disapproval with the situation, though the sneer he wears is plenty good at getting the message across on its own, something large comes barreling out of the darkness and straight for him.

The resulting crash all but shakes the ship off of its foundation.

Laeche turns around to face the masked intruder, large clawed gloves piercing into the skin where they held the scientist up by the neck. In the sudden silence that flooded the room, the purple blood could almost hear the fluid being pumped into the troll from the bulky containers that wrapped around the cuffs of the gloves.

The scientist claws uselessly at the assailant’s wrist.

“Get-- Get this thing off of me.” He barks at him, choking on his own blood.

Laeche sighs.

“Can you drop him?”

The intruder obliges and drops his victim in a heap at his feet, when he tries to stand again he crumples almost immediately.

“You’ll have to forgive my brother,” the engineer starts to explain, eyes cold as his gaze sweeps over the scene. “He has no home training.”

He stares back in astonishment.

“Your brother?”

“Sh. You’ll want to hear what I have to say,” he continues, gesturing to his brother as he does. “Nene here just pumped you full of what I’m guessing is a lethal dose of poison.”

“Lo siento.” The mask troll offers, with a simple shrug.

The scientist sputters, hands reaching for his neck where it no doubt has started to sting something awful. He stares up at the pair with a suddenly humbled expression.

Pleading, almost.

“Thing is, I always walk with antivenom. So I don’t think you’ll die. It’d be painful though. It’s paralytic. Starts in the legs pretty quickly, then it starts to shut everything down. Usually in two or so hours. Worried about the amount he got into you, though.”

He lulls his head over to look to his brother for confirmation.

“An hour if he’s lucky.” 

“I don’t think he’s lucky--”

“What do you want?” The scientist spits back at them. “Is it money?”

“I want you to tell us how to get them out of there.” He indicates the vat with his head. “Alive.”

“What?”

“You’d waste precious time having me explain myself?”

The seadweller hisses and when neither of them respond to the pitiful threat display he drags both of his hands down his face.

It seems he’d rather not die here. Not like this, at least.

He sighs.

“Fine.”

“No funny business, Nene hates clowns.” Laeche warns. “We want them alive.”

“Fine!”

It does not take long for the brothers to dismantle the contraption, maybe about fifteen or twenty minutes, and pull the troll out of the foul smelling chemicals. Laeche finds an old blanket to wrap around their emaciated form. Then he sits on the ground beside them, fore and middle fingers pressed to the neck in search of a pulse.

He gives Vineno a thumbs up when he finds it, thready but steadily getting stronger.

“Your end…Of the bargain.” The seadweller rasps between labored breaths, now slumped over in a corner behind the three. If Laeche had to guess, the man will have almost certainly lost most if not all of the function in his extremities by now.

It’s a marvel he’s speaking at all.

“About that,” the purple blood says with a smile that shows off his fangs. “I never really promised you anything.”

The scientist sputters up blood instead of protest.

“But we aren’t the torturing type. Nene wants to give you one small mercy as a thank you.”

Vineno says nothing as he walks toward the troll.

Laeche cradles the head of the rescued experiment in his lap as the sound of crunching bones fills the air.

“You’re going to be okay now.” He whispers to them. “Nene will take you somewhere safe.”

After the embrace, Laeche stands and starts to meander back toward the engine room.

Vineno follows.

When they are good and alone, Laeche lets out a big sigh that also sees him deflating the tension he held in his back.

“I don’t know how you can be so serious all the time, Nene.” He muses as he sits himself at his workstation, letting himself relax further as he does. “It’s exhausting.”

“It’s a talent of mine.”

“Alright, let’s get to the part where you beat the shit out of me.”

“Gladly.”

“I sent a message to the flying crew that he’s ready for systems check this evening. They’ll be here in a few hours, go make a mess so it looks like you struggled.”

Vineno tsks behind him. It was not as though he needed to be told how to do his job.

“Hazme un paro, por favor.” The engineer says as he puts his goggles on.

“Hm?”

“Don’t break my arm this time.”

“I can’t promise you that, officer.”