Ghosts of the Past...

[Dab]

"Well sir, I don't know how we did it, but hes alive.

Luciaden wearily looked up at the Doctor. Barely an hour had gone by since they began the surgery. "Its simple doctor." His voice raspy. "The problem was his brain would die. I merely kept it going long enough for you to replace his organs."

The doctor gave him a quizzical look.

"Watch him tonight doctor. And now, I think it is time I took my leave."

Luciaden stood up, uneasily. He half walked, half dragged his feet to the door and walked into the hall, the door sliding shut behind him. No longer in sight of his subordinates, Luciaden staggered down the hall. Pulling with his hands, he made his way towards his quarters. Unable to fully keep his balance he fell against the wall at a T-junction. His knees weak, he slid to the floor. Down the hall, Xizer came out the door to the infirmary. Turned to follow Luciaden's path to his room, and saw him lying there, leaned against the wall. He ran over, and picked him up. As he turned to the infirmary door Luciaden whispered weakly; "No.. Just, take me to my room.."

For a moment Xizer looked like he was about to argue the point. But he turned back anyway, and headed towards Luciaden's room, carrying him.

As he was carrying he took a look over Luciaden. And noticed, that the pulsing along his smooth black scars was slower than he had even seen it.

Gently he laid him down on the cot in his room, and took a step back. Luciaden's body was that of a man unconsciously limp. Quietly, Xizer walked back out to the hall. And stood outside the doorway. Maintaining his bodyguard roll even on a safe location such as the secret shipyard.

Back in the infirmary, the doctors had sedated Soren. The doctor was about to leave the room, to go check in on his lower-priority patients when a muffled moan came from Soren. A moan that quickly escalated into a painful scream. The doctor and nurse quickly ran back to him, checking him for a sign of what was causing this.

After 5 minutes of searching, listening to his pained screaming, they had found nothing. Then they saw a dark splotch of red seeping into the bed sheets near his left arm. They threw back the covers to find a gash cut into his arm. Not a natural cut. But the kind of cut, that was made by a large knife, or blade. Surprise was evident on their faces, as they tried to find a reason for this. But as they were thinking another cut was made on his left leg. And then his right. With no time but to stop the bleeding they set to work cover and patching his cuts up. With everyone they covered up, another cut appeared.

The answer to this was in Soren's mind. Or rather, his dreams.

At first Soren wondered where he was. He was strapped to a large metal table, held suspended vertically. He looked around, confused as to what was going on. That confusion grew when he looked down. He sat there in bewilderment at his dark red skin. He was still wondering, when a piece of his hair fell down. Hair that was long, uncut, dangling wildly from his head. It took him another minute to find out this was not him, but a dream. Half a second later, he found, not a dream. But rather, a nightmare. The straps on his arms and legs retracted in the blink of an eye, slamming him back to the metal table. Another metal table rose in front of him. Distantly, he thought he could hear laughing..

The table twisted vertically and started moving towards him. Right where he thought it was sure to keep going an smash him, it stopped. Barely an inch from the tip of his nose. He could feel a pain slowly pushing against the back of his neck. Pain that quickly turned to torment as the needle pushed its way through his skin and punctured his neck. He could feel blood trickle its way down his back. He screamed in agony.

He heard the sound of small motors, and spinning blades. But wasn't prepared for what came. A feeling of swearing heat crawled up, first his left arm, then left leg, and next his right leg. He had just enough room to tilt his head, and that sent a new wave of pain from his neck. But he caught a glimpse of the pain's source. Razor blades, spun by a motor, were cutting its way through his skin, to ship at the bones beneath. Then flames were being shot at from small holes next to the blades to burn the skin, and stop the blood coming out. His throat started burning, and at first he thought this was another pain device, but soon realized that he was still screaming. He attempted to gain control of his voice, just as another three spots of agony laced its way up his body. The blades had moved on to other parts of his body, cutting new gashes throughout his skin. After another 3 hours of it, the blades ceased. The flames died. And the omnipresent pain in his neck went away. His body was so numbed by the pain he couldn't feel anything. Not even the still-present spikes from the wrist and ankle straps cutting in his skin.

The torture table retracted, and as it did he saw the amount of blood covering it. Almost every surface of the table was drenched in blood. Sending a quite throbbing in his head as he realized just how much he had been hurt.

2 figures walked up to him. Stepping in the blood puddle on the floor beneath him. His body hung, limp from exertions. The figure on the floor smiled maliciously up at him. A small voice that seemed to come from inside his head, his own thoughts he realized afterward, seemed to say; C'tan.. "Clever device isn't it? We found it causes much more pain than recent devices. We wanted to test it before we used it on your species. We wanted to be sure it worked properly before we turned it on your family, your neighbors. Why at this moment we are flying towards your home planet. We thought the Miralukans deserve it after all the trouble you have caused us." He wanted desperately to scream at the man, yell at him. But all that came out was a blood-filled cough. The figure gestured to the other one standing there. "Send him to the cryogenic freezing labs." And all Soren could hear was the quiet voice screaming in anger. Promising itself it would have its vengeance against the C'tan for this...

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