For Chuck and Dan

[already_lost]

When Laura slept, she dreamed.

Her dreams, for as long as she could remember, were so vivid, often so clear and familiar, that she couldn't distinguish them from consciousness. She had memories she couldn't be sure had actually happened to her, both horrific and mundane. Evil things, greedy things, had visited her all her life in her dreams, and she often sought out the things she wasn't supposed to want during the safety of sleep.

Lifting her head, Laura wiped at her mouth, frowning at the dried piece of hay stuck to her cheek. Was she dreaming? It was dark, a glowing red flare of light piercing the blackness ahead of her, but she couldn't focus enough to tell what it was. Her vision swam, her head pounding with each heartbeat, and she prodded at her hairline with a wince. Her fingertips came away stained with her own blood.

"Am I dreaming?" She murmured to herself, swaying woozily as she pushed herself upright. She sat, wearing the pajamas she'd slept in the night before. It had been cold, even piled under blankets, and she'd burrowed under the covers in an oversized sweatshirt belonging to Chuck, and a pair of flannel pajama pants. Now, she was burning up, sweat prickling at the back of her neck. Groaning, she plucked at the front of her sweatshirt, peeling it away from her body, scrambling up onto her knees and shuffling forward until she was pressed against the bars of her cage.

A cage.

"Oh my God," she moaned, rattling the bars weakly. They were heavy, rusted metal, too narrow for her to fit through, and beyond, there was a huge, raging fire... A coal burning stove.

"Oh my God," she wailed, yanking harder on the bars, an angry sob caught in her throat. "Hello! Hello! Is anyone there? Hello! Let me out of here! Oh please, God, let me out!"

Comments

[hadtheshot]

In a jaeger, Chuck was, until the very end, virtually unstoppable. He had the highest kill count in the PPDC, the most advanced equipment, a natural in the machines he'd spent most of his childhood around, and a hell of a lot of anger to fuel him. Only a busted bomb release is what did him in at the end. Though he doesn't regret the choice he made, he likes to think that, had that release not been jammed, he would have walked away from that fight at the end.

He doesn't know what the hell he would have done after that, but that's entirely beside the point.

As capable as he may be, though, it isn't as if he's never lost a fight with another person before. This just might be the most humiliating, and the most goddamn terrifying. He'd thought, when those things broke in and attacked, that they were coming after Laura, who'd seemed at first to be their target, and he'd done his best to defend her. He hadn't expected to be overpowered, or that the next thing he knew, he'd be stuck in a fucking cage.

Sitting back in the corner, knees drawn up to his chest, he's bruised and angry and, though he'd be loath to admit it, terrified. Of course, being scared has only made him that much angrier, but he sets that aside as well as he's able when he hears Laura's voice, relief cutting through everything else. As quickly as he can, he scrambles in her direction. It's a sick thing to have to be grateful that at least she's close by, but he is even so.

"Laura. Laura!"

[shine_again]

They've left Dan alone for now, but he knows they're coming back for him, as soon as they've prepared whatever awaits. It sounds like they want him alone, and as he tries hard to hold onto his sanity, he doesn't blame them.

The knowledge and the terror in these dungeons keeps him curled up in as tight of a ball as he can manage. His only comfort is that he knows they left Marcus, they didn't take him too. They left him alive, if hurt.

He thinks he might have simply stayed that way until they came back, if it weren't for the light on the other side of him, flickering into being. It's the closest he's felt to another shine since arriving, and for a moment, he can hear Abra's voice, shouting at him to get up.

So he crawls to the bars nearest the light, which turns out to be a young blond woman. "Hey, hey, shhh," he says. "Hey. Don't pull their attention. You're too bright, you can't take the risk."