Starfire

((And from Memme (*L* We\'re doing a bit of shifting back and forth.. forgive us!)

Sorry for the break! I\'ve had time.. just been putting it toward other pursuits *bad Memme*

Kikvws: Shagging boys, what better way to release tension! I couldn\'t agree more. They WILL shag.. and do it extensively.. soon! But.. just not now. *cough cough* ;)
bambi4real: It was disgusting! It was HARD to write! And I\'m glad we are done putting it out there. Okay.. things get better from here. Though it\'s sad to say that we\'ve not yet gotten the doctor for being a weirdo scary man. We\'re working on it though! Tex and Tyrin are plotting as we speak.
Haywire: Hee! You\'re amazing! Yes! Us duo-writer people need to stick together! Yay!

Also; due to later developments that were not known to either of us at the time of doing these chapters, Tel\'s been changed slightly. Therefore, chapter 10 has been edited again! *L* Pardon for that. I doubt it\'ll be anything too surprising, yet if you like to be in the perfect know, then feel free to go back and re-read the previous chapter.

And on to the rest of the adventures!))


Chapter Eleven: Escape Unwhole

It\'s two hours and a small movement on Tex\'s face, the one eye that\'s good, opening. The other has finished swelling shut, despite his desire to keep it from doing so. He\'d laid his arm across it, hoping to keep the swelling down, it had helped a little but it hurt like a bitch when he finally pulled the pressure away. With a soft hiss, he glances into the room, immediately aware of the fact that he can\'t hear regular breathing from Tyrin.

He can\'t say anything, doesn\'t dare. If he\'d known, he would never have played those games with Tyrin. Hell, he would have said some things that never got said and maybe they\'d be working this from a far different angle. He\'d have been a bit more fucking honest at the beginning.

But how can you be honest when you\'ve never been honest with yourself? He realizes too late, that his lying to himself has only served to make it impossible to connect with Tyrin now.. or ever. So he keeps his fool mouth shut before he can make any more errors. Besides, the less Tyrin knows, the better.

A small pick out of his mouth, tongue working at a tiny concealed bag he keeps in against his gum line. Hey, they\'d just thrust big objects into his jaws, and that hadn\'t made much of impact on the cheek case. The lock pick falls from his lips and he plucks it with a finger, then works quickly and silently on his cuffs. Less than a minute later, he\'s rubbing his hands, the skin had rubbed raw in red circles that were already scabbed when they\'d raped him, he\'d not noticed. He doesn\'t really have time to notice even now.

He rises off of the bed and slips silently to Tyrin\'s side, taking those hands and laying them across his thigh with as much... temerity as he can manage without being a total dick about it. He wants to be tender, to reassure with his touch, but he doesn\'t dare. The pick doing its work and done as well, just as quickly. Then, using hand signals, he indicates the door and where he needs Tyrin to stand, over near where they have the small box he\'d had to thrust his hands into hours before. Just out of way of the door. He\'s got work to do. And it has to be silent.

Tex watched quietly as Tex worked on getting his bindings undone and only watched when he moved to undo Tyrin\'s as well. He\'s not going to do anything else stupid and he promised Tex he would let him get them out of here. All he could do was follow along, hoping this works. He moves from the bed when Tex signals him to and moves where Tex wanted him to be. Too tired to fight with him now.

Kneeling before the door, Tex looks it over and then pulls the pick. They\'d had no reason to make the brig pick proof, it\'s not computerized, but it is a good one. Thing is, lock picking is a lost art, except to the really low echelon. Luckily Tex had been on the streets for a goodly portion of his life and he knew just about every fucking street trick there was, including what to do with a hair pin. The door tumblers shift and the doorknob, silently, turns and the door is open. Ajar, actually, only about a centimeter. Tex leans over and checks through the slit, to see if there\'s the guard he\'s expecting.

This was going to be a cake walk. Maybe. If he was lucky.

Tyrin continues looking at his partner, wondering what he has up his sleeve, but keeps his mouth closed... All he can do now is wait....

And hope...

Gods be damned. He wished in his soul he didn\'t love Tex like he does. He wished things were different, he wished to the gods that Tex would... would... Love him too. Tyrin misses those warm arms around him. He missed the comfort he got from being with this man. He hates feeling like a stranger now.

The soft whisper of door is enough to make the guard turn. But Tex had taken a moment, one - only - to unlace his boots and he reaches out, eyes to either side as he wraps the string around the guard\'s neck, dragging him back against his body as he does so. Pulling him into the room and letting the door whisper close again.

His face is cold, machinelike, as he pushes his thumb in against the man\'s windpipe, crushing it, then standing up and retrieving his lace, leaving the man to gurgle on the floor, struggling for air he\'ll never get. \"We\'ll lock it..\" he intones flatly and picks up the guard\'s side arm, passing it to Tyr before he picks up the heavier blaster from by the door where it had fallen. He wraps his lace around the top of his boot to keep his shoe on, then jerks his head at Tyr and opens the door, slipping out, waiting for Tyr to follow before he lets the door close again, the guard\'s weakening struggles shut from view.

Damn. Impressive. Tex had really been thinking about this hasn\'t he? Tyrin holds his breath as the guard is pulled into the room and Tyrin watches his demise, raising a brow and smiling coldly as he is handed the guard\'s side arm, looking down on the fool before following Tex out of that room. His head still hurts like hell, but he manages, keeping quiet behind his partner. His heart is pounding. Yes he\'s scared but he makes sure not to let it show.

Tex - every part of him on survival mode, jerks his head to the side, going off of the schematics he\'d put into his head from the blue print they\'d been given, and heading down toward the lift. If they were lucky, no one would bump into them before they could get down to the mech suit.

A call. \"Hey! Freddy! Wait up, man!\" and feet ahead, around the bend. Tex ducks to a doorway, opening it and falling into a small closet, pulling at Tyr after him and closing the door. The closet almost too small for even one person, they are so close that Tex\'s breathing pushes against Tyr\'s arm and the door is held closed only by the strain in Tex\'s arm situated around Tyr\'s waist.

Tyrin hears voices and gasps slightly as he is dragged into a small closet. He\'s scared and his shivering body shows it, even though he says nothing. Tex is so close. Damn it. Too close. Again, Tyrin holds his breath and tries like hell to stop shaking. He has to be strong now. If he screws this up, Tex will surely hate him forever. Things are bad enough as they are and he doesn\'t want to fight anymore.

The voices... \"Freddy!\"
\"Yeah.. oh man! I\'m sorry.. here..\"
\"No prob. Thanks, I can\'t believe I forgot that. You heard about the prisoners?\"
\"Shit man, yeah? Set his boys on them. Sick fucking crazy shit. But yeah, what\'s he gonna get out of em, eh?\"
\"Hmm.. hey.. you got a light?\"

Tyrin shuts his eyes tight as the voices come closer, hating this fucking closet because Tex is so close to him. Rock hard body like he felt it on the dance floor and... in his bed. Gods, why are the gods mocking him?! Why do they get in these situations when they couldn\'t do anything about it?!

Tex is dying. He can feel Tyr trembling against his body and his arm is struggling to keep hold of the door handle. The door\'s not completely closed and there\'s nothing either of them can do to make more room so that the door will close all the way. It\'s only a matter of keeping it closed and holding his breath and hoping to hell that the two men outside don\'t notice the slight crack there, where the door hasn\'t completely latched itself.

And all the while.. Tyr. Tex already felt like a shit. Now he feels like a real shit. And if that weren\'t bad enough! Tyr smells. And it\'s not a bad smell. It\'s a Tyr smell. It rises off of his skin and out of his hair and Tex is so close that he only inclines his head slightly and his nose is along the edge of Tyrin\'s hair, his scent, the heat rising off his flesh. Damn.. if.. if Tyr moved even slightly to the left, there wouldn\'t be any chance. Because there\'s some things a body does in response to such a delightful moment, and danger only heightens it.

Tex thinks hard about ... well, scary women and disgusting moments and death.. and.. and.. anything to get the raging heat to die down. His eyes closed, he can\'t hear anything but his heart beat now, his hand sweating and his grip slipping. He\'s drowning.. and he almost doesn\'t notice when the footsteps and the voices die off down the corridor.

\"Erm..\" he clears his throat, quietly here in this closet. And then.. dammit.. \"Okay... lift is four doors down. We go three floors, and then forward fifty feet. That\'s the bay doors. There\'ll be five guards there and inside, who the hell knows. Got it?\" he\'s bending his head, talking in Tyr\'s ear, trying to keep his mind on the mission and not on how he\'s gonna die and how he could die happy if the room was just a bit bigger and if they had more time.

When the voices finally dissipate, Tyrin listens to Tex, biting on his bottom lip to keep his thoughts at bay. There\'s a job to do. He sighs softly and replies with a soft \'yes\' and nothing more.

What is he thinking about? Nothing and everything. How fucking hot it is in here all of a sudden, how badly he wants to kiss Tex right now. And how much he wants to just... run from him too. The pieces of his heart quivers in his chest as the coast becomes clear once again. Doing his damnedest to clear his mind and remember what Tex said. This is it. This is their escape.

\"Please gods, don\'t let me screw this up,\" he whispers more to himself than to his partner before waiting for Tex to move again...

A brush of lips against his temple and a whisper, \"You won\'t, bud... just let me cover you.. get in and go. And Tyr... don\'t wait for me. I\'m taking the shuttle.. you have to get the mech back. I have to get something from the shuttle they have docked there. So I\'ll be following you.\"

That\'s it. Tex\'s ultimate deception. He doesn\'t wait to talk about it. Doesn\'t stop to leave it up for discussion.. before he\'s even finished, he\'s letting the door open and moving them both out into the corridor. Tyrin\'s nerves, they were due to something, but Tex didn\'t have time to find out what it was. If it was pain of the psychological kind, or something more physical. He\'d have his prayers.. and weren\'t the prayers of a dying man worth something?

\"Okay...\" Tyrin whispers it and the shakes begin all over again. He really doesn\'t know why he\'s so scared, why he feels like he\'s going to lose the only real friend he ever had. He didn\'t like this feeling, and when Tex said he wasn\'t coming with him. Oh how it just - It tore Tyrin\'s sharded heart right out. He keeps quiet; eerily so as they get to the lift, his breath becoming ragged as they reach the floor...

The lift is clear and they enter it, the soft whine as it drops, Tex holding his breath until their floor is reached. The schematics say that they have a corner yet, so he slips out with Tyrin in tow, pulling up the blaster and nodding to his friend before he sneaks to the corner.

Fingers up. One.. two.. three...

He leaps around the corner, blaster picking off one, two... three left.. before they start to fire back. He smiles grimly, his eyes leaping from one to the next while he works at fighting back, surrounded by their own blaster fire.

Tyrin closes his eyes a moment, and watches Tex as he reaches the corner and signals for him. He moves then following, but trying to keep out of the way of the blast before he fires as well, taking down the rest of the guards quickly. Damn. Even scared out of his fucking mind, Tyrin is a good damned shot. He walks over to one of the guards and grabs a blaster before looking silently to Tex, waiting for this to be finished.

Tex grunts his approval. Yeah, he\'d noticed Tyrin shaking like a leaf and it was mighty good to discover his partner hadn\'t lost his aim. He grins sidelong back at Tyr and slips around the corner into the hangar. There, before them, the mech, and beyond a few mechanics. So far, so good. He nods toward the mech and looks around for the shuttle that he\'d seen last time they were there. If it\'s not here, he might be...

The mech was still where Tyrin left it to his surprise. That was good at least. It was right in front of the bay doors. Tyrin sees it from where he stands. So this is it. Tyrin closes his eyes tight again, feeling horrible for all of this. For all that\'s happened here. That he\'s even leaving Tex behind.He fucking hates this and even as he tries to choke back the feeling of despair and regret, he just can\'t. Not now, not knowing if Tex is going to make it out of here. Tyrin doesn\'t know what will happen if Tex doesn\'t. It may drive Tyrin mad.

He says nothing, though. He wouldn\'t share his feelings like he used to. It\'s a sign of weakness and he can\'t appear weak in front of this man anymore. Even though he wants to say so much.. before it\'s too late.

Tex snarls. Dammit. The mech is the only thing in there. \"Forget the shuttle. Just go, Tyr!\" shoving his friend toward the mech and heaving back against the door. A sudden alarm and he curses under his breath, dragging the blaster before him and taking down three of the mechanic soldiers as he turns. \"I\'ll cover your escape!\"

There, forget it. It\'s shit and Tyr will know it, but that\'s how it goes in this business.

Tyrin didn\'t like this. At all. When Tex pushes him away, toward the mech, Tyrin looks at Tex with a look he\'s never given another soul in his life. But that was all he could do. There was no time for anything else. He doesn\'t want to say good bye. He knows that this is total shit.

He knows it and he hates it. He watches Tex for the last time. Closes his eyes then and walks away. Tex made him promise that he wouldn\'t fight if he found an escape. But he said \'we\'re getting out of here\'. Another lie among the many others Tex has told him; from the beginning.

Fist clinch and taking a deep breath, begins running for the bay doors, grabbing the line and pulling himself outside once the door opens. It hurts so much to leave him behind like this.

Fuck.

Tyrin gets to the mech quickly as possible without being noticed. There\'s no time for the hydraulic lift. Tyrin climbs the monster, getting to the cockpit, climbing in, quickly switching everything on. Warming Hank up, his heart trembling in his chest all over again.

\"Please god... take care of him,\" he whispers before he prepares weapons just in case someone wants to be stupid. Thrusters on, engine\'s hot. Setting the cloaking device. He lifts off of the ship even as guards start to blast him. Tyrin groans takes off, blowing fire from the feet. He\'s out of the ships control now and once he\'s done this he high tails it back home.

Tex watches his pal leave, then goes back to working on the jamming of the computer works, closing down programs as they rise up, wanting to warn off that the doors are open, that there has been an infiltration. It was lucky then, that the alarm was centralized, only in the bay. And when he\'s certain Tyrin is gone, he casts about for a shuttle or something, a small mech, a supply drone.. shit, any way out!

The bay doors closed, he exits the small pressurized control room and scuttles across the open bay, eyes on an escape pod chute. Maybe there was something in there. He ducks behind some tanks of oil, holds his breath, and then runs the last stretch, holding his breath, hoping against hope... please.. because.. maybe it was a way out!

The shot hits him in the right hand side, high on the shoulder, going clean through.. the next in his back, and he falls. Hell, who\'s he kidding? He\'d get out in the pod and all of the protocols he had sideswiped to allow Tyr to leave, would see him and he\'d have been shot out of the sky. But then, that might have been better than this.

Foot steps, he can feel them against his cheek, around the warm wet pool of blood there. His hair is sticking to his temple. And then, something cold, hard, against his opposite side. \"Hey Howard...\" the cold voice. He shudders.

\"Fuck you, Tel..\" he growls out and for one moment, the cold is gone. Then a rush of air, the side of a blaster cracks against his skull, and he knows no more.

~*~*~*~

Before he comes to the home planet, Tyrin stops and breaks down there in the cockpit... Face in hands and tears streaming like a river.

Finally he regains his composure pushing through the atmosphere. calling Owen on the radio to open the doors for him.

\"What the fuck... am I going to do? Jesus...\"

He sighs quietly, feeling despair wrapping tightly around him...

\"They\'re here! Where the hell you been, Tex? Damn we were gonna pull Suzanna out and go to find you, buddy!\" the first introduction of air time crackles in Hank\'s pilot cab and the hatch opens, allowing the enormous two seater in.

\"Yeah... Owen was thinking you didn\'t love him any more..\" Hank, the real one this time, laughing in relief. \"Tyr with you? You guys okay?\"

\"No.\" Tyrin says it simply and the tone of his voice is nothing short of heart breaking... He lands inside the hangar safely, but doesn\'t leave the cock pit. \"No we\'re not okay. Tex...\" he whimpers and feels his heart nearly come out of his throat as he begins to bawl again. He\'s never felt so low in all his life. \"He... He\'s still back there! And... and I can\'t save him. I can\'t save him. Oh god!\"

He feels like he\'s choking there. He feels so helpless and he\'s not going to be okay until he at least sees him. But how long will it be? What if he never comes back? He knows Owen will never forgive him for this. Tex is his best friend. He finally climbs out of the cock pit. nearly hyperventilating with how upset and worried and fucking scared he is.

This is all his fault. All of it. That\'s what his poor mind and broken heart is telling him. Screaming at him. It\'s the way he feels whether or not it is his fault.

Tyrin couldn\'t even look at them; Tex\'s friends. He couldn\'t say anymore or even show the total amount of remorse for what has happened. \"It... wasn\'t supposed to happen like this...\"

It\'s not Hank who approaches him, but the soft footsteps of the techie, who puts a hand on Tyrin\'s shoulder and then with a low moan, grabs Tyrin and drags him into a deep, comforting hug as his own silence hides the sobs he would have to let go later. Behind him, Hank is silent as a man at a funeral, going to the two seater and running a low range diagnostic on it, while Owen comforts Tyrin.

\"It\'s okay... Hell, Tex has always known the risks. If you\'re here, it means he wanted you to be. Otherwise he would be here too..\" Owen doesn\'t mind the sound of trust in his voice, that the concept of Tex ever being captured and held for too long is almost inconceivable to him. \"Come.. let\'s go into the back room, make you some coffee, check you out on the med scanner, and you can tell me what happened. There still might be something we can do,\" a gentle lead on Tyrin\'s arm.

Hank, his face pale and set, keeps his back to them both, and works silently on the diagnostics. His lover shoots him a worried glance, but he can\'t see it. And Owen decides that he\'ll have to deal with his tempestuous love later. After Tyrin. After they\'ve discovered if there\'s anything they can do for Tex.

By the gods, Tyrin wished so, so much that it was okay. But he doesn\'t feel it. he doesn\'t care about the risks Tex knew about... He doesn\'t care, because he fucking loves that man. With all of his heart and soul he loves Tex. And he never told him. he clings to Owen like a child, his knees shaking. His whole body shaking with the pain of this love he feels. \"I... didn\'t... want to leave him, Owen.\"

He all but loses his balance as he slumps into a chair, his cries doubling him over. \"They... they raped him Owen. They raped him... and... I... I couldn\'t help him. I... just... I couldn\'t watch. They beat him. Owen oh, gods it was horrible.\" He wouldn\'t tell Owen how badly Tex had treated him. He\'s crying because of that too. Everything is so wrong now and he doesn\'t know how it will be if Tex does come back. If he\'ll even talk to Tyrin again.

\"I feel like... Like I let him down... and bad... Oh god!\"

Tyrin is hysterical now. Don\'t know his ass from his face right at this moment. He knows nothing is right, but that\'s it. What could they possibly do to save Tex? He could be anywhere now and there\'s no way Tyrin can go back without wanting to blow that whole fucking ship to shreds. What would Owen do? What would -any-one do in this situation?

\"He\'ll have to have his hysterics, alone. We\'ll get shit worked on.\" Hank\'s harsh voice cuts into the room. He doesn\'t spare a look to Tyrin and Owen, with a worried look at Hank, kneels before Tyrin.

\"Look..\" Owen\'s eyes show his compassion, his worry and the tears, from the shock and disgust as to what someone would have done to Tex, breaks over him. \"You take what time you need. If you need to clean up, you do that. We\'re going to start working on a way to get him out of there. Hank is good at systems work and we didn\'t go deep because Tex didn\'t want to give them a clue as to his coming in. But we don\'t have to worry about that any more. So you take a break. Have a good cry and come back when you\'re ready.\" He pats Tyrin\'s arm and with a helpless look, leaves him in the chair and goes to his partner, leaning on the back of Hank\'s chair and staring down into a laptop that Hank had just opened.

Hank himself, is a mask of fury. While Owen is able to quietly maneuver his emotions, Hank finds himself stuck in rage. And even more so as he hears of how they had treated his friend, his best friend. Owen was his lover, but Tex. Tex had done something to him a long time ago, shifted him around, and taught him some things about living life. It was a debt he\'d never been able to repay and every day with Owen was a new debt, because without Tex, Owen would have never been in his life either. His fingers flying, he hunches over the computer and snaps, \"Go get Tyrin worked over. I\'ll do this shit..\"

Owen, unaccustomed to hearing Hank talk in obscenities, rears back and nods slowly. He hadn\'t known Hank COULD get angry. But it was clearly in every line on his body at this point. He sighs and nods. \"Okay..\" and ventures a kiss to Hank\'s temple before he turns back to Tyrin. \"How about that shower?\" he asks gently, reaching down for his new friend\'s arm.

Tyrin jumps at the cold sound of Hank\'s voice. It cuts and Tyrin takes it quite personally, without meaning to. But because of those words, the harshness in Hank\'s voice he stops the sobs. At least the audible ones. He was still as broken as glass on the highway but again, he had to stop being so fucking weak. Face it, that\'s all he is. And he\'s always been that way. Maybe that\'s why people always treated him so badly in the past. Maybe that\'s why. Maybe it\'s all he deserves. He\'s too emotional. Just a stupid boy who asks for things like this.

He bit down hard on his tongue, tasting the metal taste of his blood filling his mouth before he stood up silently, taking the hand offered to him. He can\'t get over how many mistakes he made on that ship. But he wouldn\'t let it show anymore. His free hand wiped angrily at his tears as he followed Owen\'s lead, heading for wherever the shower was.

He doesn\'t care that Owen is standing there when he peels himself out of his clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor. Tyrin turns the faucets on himself, making the water as warm as he could take, before stepping inside, closing the shower door behind him and just- standing there in the spray, blank for a few moments. He leans forward then balling his hands into fists and beating on the shower fall with all the energy he could muster.

\'Stop crying you idiot. Just stop!\' his mind screams at him, making him hit the walls again and again until the pain in him was replaced by a more tangible pain. He stops then, blurred eyes looking down at his blood red hands. This is better. He could deal with this pain... he could handle this pain.

A sigh and he whispers to Owen, \"What are we going to do?\"

Owen stops with the clothing in his hands and sighs. \"I don\'t know, Tyrin. But I know that we\'ll do what needs to be done..\"

He leaves Tyrin then, going back into the bedroom and finding some more clothing for Tyrin, both he and Tyr of a size. Then he slips into a pair of quick dry shorts and with his arms full, goes out to where Hank is typing furiously on the computer.

\"You have to give him a break, love..\" his whisper seems only to enrage his lover and he waits for the anger, not sure how it will come out. He\'s simply never seen Hank this angry before.

\"Fuck him.. he left Tex behind..\" Hank snarls.

\"Let\'s talk to him, find out the entire story first..\" Owen leans over and kisses Hank with some trepidation. He\'s had abusive boyfriends before. Hank has never been angry, but it doesn\'t mean that when he is, that he won\'t be somewhat physical as well. Still, nothing happens except for Hank turning a tense face to stare at him, pain etched in every line. Owen\'s heart breaks, for them all, for Tex, for Hank, for Tyrin. \"I\'m going to help him out.. he\'s having a tough time. Call if you find something..\" his tender kiss is reciprocated but there\'s no crack in the mask Hank wears. And Owen sighs again, clasping the clothing closer and heading back to the bathroom.

((next chapter: Back on the ship... sometimes, things aren\'t always what they seem on the outside.))