Arro and Rangavar went into the depths of the research facility with a single mission in mind, but may get more out of their adventure than they wanted.

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Guys. I fully plan on writing FUN chapters in the future. That's still a thing.

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Kill, Marry, Fuck
Chapter 24


Arro looked back and forth down the long hallway, anxiously fidgeting with his claws. He couldn’t figure out what Jethe had done. Should he try to follow? What would happen if he found that for forever reason, he couldn’t? What would he do then? On the other paw, couldn’t he just go home instead? Jethe hadn’t mentioned that, but what if telling him not to move still had an impact? What if Jethe could somehow, telepathically prevent that too? Did he really have that power? Did he—

It finally occurred to Arro, after a good long while, that he’d been standing in the same place, unmoving, way after Jethe had walked away. Vaugh dammit. Jethe’s ability was to play with his head, no?

Arro went to take a step—but then faltered. What if he really couldn’t move? What if—

No. He slapped his forehead and groaned. It was still happening.

After a moment, he decided that Jethe couldn’t control his thoughts if he just didn’t think at all.

Arro just… took a step. Then another. Then another. Walking normally down the hallway. He finally had the clarity that there’d never been anything wrong with his body, of course. The prison had been his own mind.

Fuck Jethe.

The friendly dragon who had trained them in the art of mopping floors had turned out to be a monster. Arro hoped that Rangavar could get out of the lab before Jethe showed up—maybe he already had. Although, wouldn’t Jethe had come back for Arro by now, if that were true?

Arro knew that he was supposed to go home now. Like Rangavar had said earlier, it didn’t make sense for both of them to stick around and get caught. Although… Jethe had already caught both of them, albeit separately. So it wouldn’t really matter, right? He should probably go find Rangavar. He couldn’t just leave the Darkal here to fend for himself.

The fat Faerian unhappily broke into a light jog to get back to the lab door. He’d exercised more today than he probably had in centuries.

~~~~~

Rangavar squinted as Jethe shined the flashlight beam right in his face. Jethe’s own face was angry, sweaty, and exhausted. Rangavar stayed put until the Faerian walked right up to him. “What the hell are you doing here,” he panted.

Rangavar pricked his ears. “I haven’t done anything, I just…” He wasn’t sure how to end the sentence. It was both a truth and a lie. Breaking into the lab was definitely something he very, very much wasn’t supposed to do. But… nothing had come of it. He hadn’t had the chance to ‘do’ anything while he was here.

He and Arro had gone through all of this for nothing.

“Do you remember the conversation we had?”

Rangavar stared at him blankly. He couldn’t possibly be referring to the conversation in the file room, right? He’d used his powers to tell Rangavar to forget it happened. If he expected his powers to work, then he’d already know that Rangavar wouldn’t remember. He had to be talking about something else—but Rangavar couldn’t think of what. Maybe the conversation they’d had about Arro that felt so long ago now?

Jethe took in his confused expression and sighed. “Remember when I told you about the truth behind the lab? And you were going to tell Arro?”

Rangavar thought quickly back to their conversation in the file room. He realized it had ended with Jethe saying something like that. But he hadn’t been listening, of course. He was really regretting that now.

He still hadn’t said anything. He realized he did still have one card to play: He was a Darkal. It was his least favorite card, but Rangavar had the sudden thought that if he didn’t say anything at all, he might just be able to get away with all this. Oh, he was just a silly Darkal who had no idea what was going on. Clueless.

Jethe seemed to be thinking as much. He locked his eyes with Rangavar, and the smaller dragon felt a pressure against his mind again as Jethe’s telepathy sought entry. The Faerian still hadn’t realized it had been unsuccessful each time. “Look,” he said, a bit slowly. “You need to go tell Arro to call off this search for… whatever you’re looking for. There’s nothing here. We had a conversation that nothing is here, yeah? There’s nothing suspicious about this place. Nothing suspicious about the research facility.”

Rangavar stared. Oh. So it had been a fake conversation. He was supposed to think they’d spoken about this. Or maybe he was supposed to think he’d gotten an uneventful tour, or something.

“You need to go tell your companion that you explored down here, and found nothing. Maybe some weather reports about the surface of Glitara, maybe some files about the surface—and also, you found out that the weapons in the storage room aren’t actually weapons at all. You don’t even really have to lie about that one.”

Rangavar very intently strained all of his self-control to not twitch at the word ‘companion’. He thought back to what the green Faerian had said to he and Arro on the street weeks ago. Did everyone really see them that way?
Oh shit, Jethe was still talking. Rangavar couldn’t miss out on what he said for a second time now.

“…and convince Arro to quit.”

Rangavar was still fighting not to show any emotion, keeping his face blank, the way that it should look if a type five were manipulating him. If getting Arro to quit was all Jethe wanted, did that mean they still weren’t getting in trouble..?

Rangavar suddenly pricked his ears at the sound of Arro shuffling down the hallway. Wait, what the hell was he doing here? He was supposed to have gone home.

A moment too late, he realized his mistake. Jethe pulled back his face and frowned. Shit. “You… you’re not actually in a trance, are you.” It wasn’t really a question. He’d seen Rangavar twitch his ears.

Vaugh dammit, Arro.

Rangavar still didn’t say anything, but could feel his expression going from blank to guilty.

Jethe looked both surprised and frustrated, his emotions matching his face for once. “You’re a type five?”

Rangavar finally gave up the facade. But at least Jethe had still gotten one thing wrong. “Not exactly.”

The other dragon gave him a strange look.

Jethe paused at the sound of Arro’s approach when it became audible to the gray Faerian. He frowned at the long corridor and lifted the flashlight’s beam from the floor, where he had let it hang loosely from his paw, pointing it down the hall to finally reveal the fat Faerian coming their way. He looked quite exhausted and out of breath, like a runner barely making it to the finish line.

“For the love of fuck,” Jethe growled. “How is it that the least competent, most unlikely pair of idiots can cause the most trouble?”

~~~~~

Arro slowed to a walk as he finally came close. He heard Jethe call him an idiot. He’d heard Jethe accuse Rangavar of being a type five, too. He figured Jethe probably still didn’t know his hearing was advanced. “Aren’t you the one causing trouble?” he panted. He was almost upon them. The hallway seemed so much longer when he was out of breath. “Whatever your employers are doing here is obviously some shitty, shady stuff. You could be helping to stop it, you know. Maybe you’re the idiot.”

Rangavar turned from Jethe to Arro, his brow furrowed, looking as if Arro had interrupted something important.
Jethe rolled his eyes. “This is a lost cause.”

While Rangavar’s back was to the pale Faerian, Arro suddenly saw Jethe pull out a pipe he’d had hidden under his wing. It was so unexpected that Arro almost wasn’t sure what it was for a second. Holy shit. Jethe had prepared for anything; he really hadn’t come to fuck around. “Rangavar, loo—”

WHACK.

It connected solidly with the side of the Darkal’s head. He only had time for one startled expression before slumping onto the ground.

With a growl, Arro charged forward, the sudden rush of anger staving off the exhaustion. Jethe looked at him and prepared by holding the pipe like a bat. Well, Jethe still didn’t know that Arro had unnaturally fast reflexes; it wasn’t his fault he was being stupid. He had no idea what was coming. He even had the audacity to look smug as he swung at Arro, obviously assuming that such a large target was foolish to even approach him.

Faster than Jethe could be able to see, Arro grabbed the pipe and wrenched it from his paws. A look of shock settled over Jethe’s face. That was pretty satisfying, but what was more satisfying was when Arro used his other fist to sucker punch the smaller Faerian. His nose made a nice crunching sound as he was knocked to the floor.

Oh, Rangavar was out cold? Well, Jethe was out cold AND had his face utterly destroyed, how about that. Arro spit on him. He threw down the pipe.

He spun around. The Darkal was exactly where they’d left him; on the floor. He’d taken a hard hit. Arro was actually horrified to see a dark gash on his head, blood filling the wound. He didn’t have a way to stop the bleeding at all, but he picked the smaller dragon up under the armpits, hoping that elevating him might help a little.
Rangavar didn’t stir. Arro wondered how best to get him out of here.

Well…the obvious way was to bring him back the way they came. Allll the way down the hallway. He released something between a sigh and a growl.

Before turning away, however, Arro suddenly had a thought. They hadn’t come down here for no reason. He moved over to Jethe and snatched his keyring off the belt on his unconscious body.

He and Rangavar weren’t done here. They’d be back. And Jethe could go fuck himself about it.

~~~~~

The first thing Rangavar was aware of was the pain in the side of his head. It was pounding. It was sharp. He wished he could just go back to, well… not being aware. He also slowly became aware of a swaying motion. Combined with the pain, it was nauseating. He made a small noise in his throat. It had originally felt like a groan, but came out as a whimper.

The motion stopped. “Rangavar?”

It was Arro’s voice. Arro was here.

Rangavar tried to force open his eyes, but the vision in his left eye was spotted and dim, the same side of his head where the pain was radiating. There was also a burning sensation, his magic trying to fix it.

The first thing he saw was Arro’s concerned face hovering right over his, looking down at him. Then Rangavar saw that he was actually against Arro’s chest. No, wait, his arms. His arms and his chest.

“Hey. Do you want me to put you down?”

He made another noise in his throat. It did sound more like a groan this time. “Yes please,” he managed. A moment later, he suddenly noticed the sensation of a cool cement floor. He put a tentative paw up to the side of his head where the pain was worst. He pulled his paw away. Black blood coated his fingers. “Oh fuck,” he moaned.

“‘Oh fuck’ indeed.” Arro’s face was suddenly over his again. “How are you feeling?”

Rangavar stared up at him, still feeling a bit disoriented. “Like I got hit by a bus.”

“It was a pipe, but close enough.”

Rangavar glanced around, trying not to turn his head too fast. They were in the same dark hallway, although alone this time. “We’re still at the lab?”

“Yeah. I’m trying to get us out of here, but this hallway goes on forever. Can you stand?”

“Where’s Jethe?” Rangavar suddenly recalled his confrontation with the omnipotent maintenance worker.

“He… well, you weren’t awake, but uh, I broke his face.”

“You what?”

Arro pressed his index fingers together and looked away. “I, uh, broke his face. After he hit you. I kind of fucked him up,” he admitted. “Then I stole his keyring. So, we have those now.”

“You stole his keyring?” Rangavar’s brain still felt a bit sluggish, but he was feeling more awake as he and Arro talked.

“You know. All his keys.”

“I know what a keyring is, Arro. I didn’t get hit in the head THAT hard.” Rangavar thought for a second. Jethe’s keyring was huge, probably with most of the keys to the building. He’d noticed it before, it just would have been the last thing on his mind. “Do you think we could use it to find a faster way out of here? Jethe didn’t come down the same way we did.”

“I mean… just how many doors do you want to try?” Arro fidgeted nervously. “I sort of don’t want to still be down here when he wakes up.”

Rangavar frowned. “Wakes up? Just how hard did you hit him?”

Arro looked away and didn’t answer.

“Ugh. Never mind.” Rangavar tried to stand. “We’ll—” He lost his balance and caught himself with his paw against the floor. He tried to shoo Arro away as the fat Faerian automatically moved to help him. “It’s okay, I just need a sec.”

“Rangavar, I don’t think we have that much time.” Arro hovered over him. “I, uh… I REALLY don’t want to run into Jethe again.”

Rangavar groaned and let himself fall back to sitting on the floor. “I don’t think I have much of a choice. You should go on ahead.”

“What? And leave you here? No way. Here, let me just—” Arro grabbed Rangavar by the arm and hauled him up to his feet.

Rangavar leaned on him weakly. “I’m going to slow you down.”

“Nah.” Arro glanced around. “Look. Let’s at least get out of this hallway. Maybe you’re right, and we can find another way out.”

Rangavar let Arro half-drag him towards one side of the hallway, the keys jingling as he sorted through them. There were like a gazillion keys, he had no idea how Arro expected to pick out the right one. He wondered if he could sit while waiting. He was still feeling dizzy, and standing didn’t help.

The lock clicked and Arro pushed open the door.

“How’d you find that so fast?”

Arro shined Jethe’s stolen flashlight around inside. “Some of the keys are labeled. Also, we had to get extremely lucky at some point tonight.”

“Yeah.” Rangavar sighed. “I can’t believe we went through all of that for nothing.” Well, he got one thing out of it; a headache.

“Not entirely for nothing. We have the keys. That means we have access to anywhere.”

“Yeah, for tonight,” he pointed out. “We’re in some serious trouble tomorrow. Like, not just-fired trouble, more like ‘we could get seriously arrested’ trouble.”

Arro grimaced but didn’t say anything, holding Rangavar’s arm steady as he pulled the smaller dragon into the room behind him. The Faerian groped around for a light switch while Rangavar stood awkwardly against the wall to keep his balance. When light finally flooded the room, they both squinted at the harsh glare. Pain shot through Rangavar’s left eye in protest, and he winced, putting a paw over it.

Arro hadn’t noticed. “Thank Vaugh,” he breathed, looking around to take in their surroundings. He paused suddenly.

Rangavar tried to look around too. Arro was intently studying the long room full of clear glass cases that Rangavar was familiar with. Each case was empty, but the Faerian’s eyes were wide. “What do you think this is?” He took several steps forward.

Rangavar shuffled his feet awkwardly and didn’t answer. Maybe he was in too much pain to talk anyway, he realized, as he felt his strength giving up. He let himself slide down the wall to sit on the floor and watch the fat Faerian wander around.

Arro didn’t seem to mind his silence, not even noticing him as he walked up to one of the cases in fascination. “What do you think these giant glass things are?” Arro finally looked back over to Rangavar with his brows drawn.

Rangavar gave him a blank stare. “Looks like some sort of science-y stuff,” he said vaguely. Hey, it was true.

Arro frowned. “Well, yes.” He seemed to notice finally that Rangavar had exhaustedly sunk to the floor, and hurried back over. “Hey, I think we need to check this out before leaving. Are you going to be alright?”

“Uh…” He wouldn’t even have to lie. Would he be alright? It was a surprise for both of them.

“C’mere.” Arro grabbed him around the waist to help support his weight as he pulled the smaller dragon along. Rangavar didn’t resist. There was no point, and he knew he couldn’t get out of here without Arro’s help anyway. They’d only get to leave when Arro was done.

He leaned himself against Arro’s huge, soft body as the Faerian paused in front of one of the cases. “Look at this,” he said.

Rangavar was looking. He saw the case. “Yeah.”

“What do you think they’re for?”

They’re for dragons, Arro. “I don’t know.” Rangavar realized that there weren’t any nameplates or photo ID’s on the front of the control panels. That might have given it away, but every single case was blank with disuse. He was actually more concerned with the sheer number of them; there were at least twenty in the room. “There’s nothing here. I think we should just go.”

Arro pressed his lips together. “I’m not sure we’ll get the chance to come back. Can’t we just¬—”

“I thought you were super worried about Jethe a few minutes ago?”

“Well, now that you’re more awake, you can keep him from using his powers, right?”

“I mean, it doesn’t work exactly like that…”

Arro wasn’t really listening again, too taken in with their discovery. He leaned closer and inspected the glass, analyzing the blank control panels, then staring up into the top of the cases, which didn’t end at a flat ceiling but instead at a grate. “Weird.”

Rangavar wanted to beg Arro to leave again, but not just because he didn’t want to be here; his head was legitimately in excruciating pain, and he still felt weak and nauseated. “Yeah. Weird.”

Arro grimaced and glanced around again. There wasn’t really much else in the room. Well, there was a row of wraith cannons on the far wall. Arro’s ears pricked interestedly. Oh no.

Rangavar struggled to keep up with Arro’s longer strides as he stumbled along in the Faerian’s grip. Arro put his paw on one, and then looked back down at Rangavar. “Do you think we should take one to defend ourselves? I mean, we’re already in huge trouble, so when they notice one missing they won’t do anything else to us, right? We’ll just already be in trouble.”

“Do you have enough paws free to carry it?”

“Do you think you can walk on your own yet?”

Rangavar thought seriously about the question. He wasn’t really sure.

Arro let go of him to reach for the cannon. Rangavar fell forward and caught himself on Arro’s arm for a moment, then finished falling to the floor.

Arro looked down at him in shock and concern. He crouched down, his fat gut bunching up as his knees pressed underneath into the heavy roll. “Vaugh, I’m so sorry.”

Rangavar was mostly sitting, but was tempted to lie down. “I still think you should just leave me here.” His need for rest was honestly outweighing his fear of Jethe right now. He knew he had his priorities backwards, but…

“No, it’s okay. We’ll leave the guns alone.” Arro was blushing. “Sorry.”

It wasn’t exactly how Rangavar had wanted to go about convincing the Faerian to leave, but whatever worked, he supposed.

They were both startled by a loud, metallic scraping noise outside the room. It made Arro jump a little, and Rangavar pressed his paws over his ears. “What the fuck is that?”

Rangavar tried to reach out with his senses to read the aura, not that he really needed to. “Heh. At least Jethe doesn’t have his keys.” If their situation didn’t suck so bad, it would have been really funny.

“Shit. Of course he’d find us, this is the only room with the lights on.”

There was suddenly a banging on the door. “I can hear you two in there. Open up, and things don’t have to go badly for you. We can still work this out.”

Arro glanced down at Rangavar. “Is he lying? I mean, I definitely don’t intend to open that door, I’m just curious.”

“Let me in!”

Rangavar’s head hurt too much to focus. His brain stalled. “Maybe?”

More banging. “I swear to Vaugh if you don’t open up…”

Arro glanced around. There was no way out of the room, though. “Hey, look,” he hissed, pointing upwards at the far wall.

Rangavar looked. It was a row of narrow basement windows, through which they could see some of the trees around the building and the night sky. “So?” He supposed it made a nice view for their last several moments of freedom.

“You can get out of here.” Arro suddenly grabbed him and hauled him back to his feet. He began leading Rangavar towards them.

“You can’t fit.”

“But YOU can. Listen.” They stopped underneath the windows. “I’m going to lift you up, and you need to get away. Go hide. I don’t have a choice, I’ll stay here and deal with Jethe.”

“But he’ll try to hurt you. He’ll try to erase your memories. He’ll—”

“It’s okay,” Arro interrupted him. His emotions said otherwise, but he was trying to put on a brave face. “Remember what you said earlier, about slowing me down? Well, go home, and leave me to take care of this.”

Rangavar stared up at him uncertainly.

Arro took a deep breath. “Come on. Let’s do this.”

Rangavar didn’t fight him as Arro grasped beneath his hind legs and helped lift him up the wall. Maybe he was right. Maybe Rangavar could help better if he weren’t slowing him down. When he was finally eye-level with the narrow window, he unlatched it and pushed it open. He cast a glance down at Arro, but the Faerian nodded reassuringly.

Alright. Fine. He grabbed the sides and weakly tried to pull himself through. It was more than large enough for him, but he felt lightheaded with the motion, and it took another shove from Arro to push him outside into the crisp night air. He dug his claws into the grass, scrambling against the wet, dewy soil for purchase. He pricked his ears at the sound of the lab door bursting open as Jethe finally kicked it in.

“Just go,” Arro encouraged one last time before turning around to face the other dragon.

Rangavar dragged himself forwards and crawled towards the tree-line, realizing he was on the opposite side of the building from where he and Arro found the original windows. The basement must be huge; no wonder they’d been stuck down there so long.

Still not confident in his ability to stand, he wasn’t sure he could make it all the way to the transport right now. Maybe it would be best to hide until he regained his strength. He only had to make sure he got out of there before Jethe was finished with Arro, and came after him next.

~~~~~

Arro whirled back to face Jethe when the door was finally kicked open. The smaller Faerian had his eyes half-shut, squinting against the light, or perhaps swelling as the scales around them had already begun to bruise. His nose was scrunched up, but not just in disgust or anger; it was definitely broken. A metallic scraping noise followed him as he dragged the pipe along the floor.

“You should just let us go,” Arro growled. He cracked his knuckles, trying to look threatening. Maybe Jethe needed to remember how hard he could punch. “You really think you’ll do better this time?” He hoped the other dragon wouldn’t think to use his powers right now. Please, for the love of Vaugh. Arro deserved to catch a break.

Jethe grit his teeth. “Is that what you’re worried about? I’m not here to fight you. I’m here to convince you.”

Arro glanced at the door. He had to get out of here before Jethe used his powers, erased his memories, whatever.

Jethe caught his look. “I don’t need to use my abilities in order to make you understand.”

“Understand what?” Arro growled unsurely. Wait, why was he even entertaining the idea of talking to this dragon? Was it Jethe’s powers at work? Or, well… was it his own curiosity..?

Jethe grinned. It wasn’t a friendly sight, red blood coating his muzzle from gushing out his nose earlier. “Why you need to give this up. Why you need to stop exploring this facility.”

“Why, then?”

“Well for one thing, so that nobody gets hurt.” He took another few steps closer. “What do you think happens to you in the morning? What do you think happens to your companion?”

“My companion?” Arro stared blankly.

Jethe rolled his eyes. “Rangavar.”

Oh. Arro didn’t bother correcting him. “You can’t hurt him, either. He’s immune to your abilities.”

“Arro, I don’t plan to hurt either of you,” Jethe said. “When the research facility finds out you’ve been meddling—when my employers find out how much trouble you’ve caused—what do you think they’ll do? They’re the ones you need to be worried about right now.” He gestured around at the mysterious room full of glass cylinders and guns. “They take their work very… seriously.”

“What exactly is their work, then? You don’t find it weird that your shitty employers have a ton of weapons stored here? A ton of these…” he faltered, gesturing around him at the glass tubes vaguely. “And all the secrecy?”

“Wait, so let me get this straight. You’re worried because we have ‘guns’, some glass cases, and ‘secrets’?”

Okay, it sounded really stupid when he simplified it like that. “None of that stuff would have been weird on its own, but this huge ‘research’ facility cropped up in the middle of nowhere, filled itself with weapons, and NOBODY knows what they’re studying,” he stammered. “It’s like they’re preparing for war or something. Aren’t you at least curious what your employers are doing? Rangavar and I got curious, and you know, constantly having you push us back has only made us realize more and more that something is wrong.”

Jethe snorted. “Why would I be ‘curious’ when I already know what’s going on?”

Arro paused. “You do?” What, so they just went ahead and told one of their maintenance workers their plans? And if that were the case, then why did he and Rangavar have to scramble around for answers?

Jethe took in his expression and smirked. “The work they’re doing is on a need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know.”

Now it was Arro’s turn to take a few steps forward. That was probably dangerous, given Jethe’s powers. Arro didn’t care. “Tell us. Tell us and we’ll stop, okay?” Wait, could type fives hear lies? Arro knew if it were something bad, he and Rangavar wouldn’t be able to just stop.

Jethe didn’t budge as he watched him approach, but the pipe still hung loosely in his paw. “I have a better idea,” he said, a half-grin forming. “Why don’t I just show you instead.”

~~~~~

Dawn was breaking by the time Rangavar finally made it home. At least he didn’t have to worry about getting up for work.

He wondered how Arro was doing. Was he right behind him? Would he be home soon? Or had something else happened?

Rangavar’s first instinct was to head to the shower room to wash off the dried blood on his face, but he hesitated. Even though he’d waited until regaining enough of his strength to walk to the transport, he was running out of energy fast. The side of his head felt better; his vision had mostly returned; it was time for rest.

Fuck it. He’d just wash the sheets later.