Denied - 104. Chapter 104

A hissing roar drowned out the shouts in the distance, and there was a flurry of activity around me. I still couldn’t see, couldn’t move, didn’t really want to. I was tired, so tired. In my short life, I’d lived lifetimes of pain and suffering, and I was done.

Regret pushed at the corners of my brain but not enough to want to stop it.

“Aparoe? He’s not breathing!”

“I’m trying. Stay calm, he needs you calm.”

“He’s not breathing! I can’t feel him! No! Get off me! Deke! Stop it!”

What was happening? Deke… that asshole had better… No.

“No fire, no fire, no fire.” The roar ended with the words chittering. “Move!” Metal screeched painfully, and I would have covered my ears if I could. “Burns, burns, burns.”

Chomper was there, close to me, his voice so loud he had to be right next to my head. “Oh, oh no. Come back!”

“Stay back, Chom—” Captain broke off when Chomper hissed.

“Not. Burns. No fire, no fire on ship. Bad, bad.”

“Someone, get a tranq down here.”

Tranquilizer? Were they going to hurt him again? They couldn’t!

“Please, Aparoe, you have to help him now!”

“I… I can’t. His block means all electrical impulses are negated the second they touch his body. I can’t get through.”

“Stars, no. Kohen, please,” Captain’s voice broke down then.

“You bad! You fire! Hurt.” His hiss heralded one of his outbursts.

“No,” Captain suddenly shouted. “Don’t do that, you’ll—”

Chomper roared in pain, and suddenly I could feel again. His back legs straddled my sides, half his body curled over my legs, and there was so much pain, so much burning. It was still arcing through my circuits…

I screamed, my throat stretched wide, and my shoulders arched off the ground. Chomper cradled my torso in his arms, his body nearly human but for the alien color of his skin, and the crackle of white-fire that bathed his entire form.

He was touching both the ports in the back of my neck, and I could feel the flames pouring out the terminals to dance up his arms.

“No fire. No fire in you. Go away, bad.” Chomper stared into my eyes, and I lived in the connection between us, breathing when I’d given up before, inhaling through the fire that slowly eased in tiny increments.

He was somehow connected to me, pulling the electricity still overloading my circuits out. The side of my brain responsible for rational thought had come online suddenly, like a restored system after a crash. Sharper, clearer, more knowing for all that I’d nearly crispified my brain in order to take out the threat to my family’s safety.

It was what I’d been trained for. What I knew. Those were my excuses, but in the end, deep inside, I’d wanted to feel Lakshou’s brain snuff out as I pulverized it. As I took out the evil tool he’d used to take my feeling of safety and security in the love I’d found.

As I made sure I couldn’t survive it so I wouldn’t have to live with knowing I’d become that ruthless. But all it took was for this innocent soul, for my Chomper, to be in danger.

And look at what he was doing. No idea if it was dangerous, no second thought about if he should… he just tried to help me. To take away the flames and fire. To follow the rules.

I snorted, or tried to, at least. I coughed and choked, my lungs tight and unwilling to open up to allow me to do more than take the shallowest of breaths.

But I was breathing.

Slowly, the fire in me eased. I still felt like there were things inside me that were wrong. Broken. But how much was hardware and how much was my soul?

“I want to go home,” I choked out.

We went home. Chomper stayed with me, the flames having no affect on him. But the electricity kept building back up in my body and I’d already set one bed on fire before we realized he needed to be touching me at all times to drain them off when it grew.

I refused to speak to the crew. To Deke. Captain.

He came, talked to me. Tried to touch me a few times, but the sadness grew in his eyes and he’d taken to flinching away every time I drew back, refusing to touch or talk or even acknowledge he was there.

Our land was still just as dry as ever. I’d be a danger to the landscape if there was much there to burn. But there wasn’t, so Chomper and I started taking little walks farther and farther down the rough-hewn roads.

We went back to the cliffs, the pool.

And every day my brain warred with itself. I had my bond to Chomper. It was stronger than ever. The tiny being I’d pulled from the remnants of the egg was growing each day. He ate voraciously, he absorbed my fire, and I think he grew more intelligent.

Or I lost my mind, not having anyone else to talk to.

Captain kept them all away, just like I insisted. At times, I felt the eyes, the trackers. I was being monitored.

But he gave me what I needed.

Time.

Until one day even that ran out.

“Hey, you selfish bastard, where are you hiding?” Deke’s voice rang out in the house “There you are. Get up, Kohen.” Deke stomped over, and Chomper flew in the window, tucking his wings and hissing, diving between us.

“Shut up, lizard. Hey, Kohen, you might have given up, wanted to die, or whatever the hell happened on that ship that you won’t talk to anyone about, but I will not sit by while my best friend dies. Captain is sick—you’ve broken your bond, you bastard, and he’s dying now.”

That got my attention. “What?” I croaked.