Chapter Text
Broken
By AngstPuppy
Broken, there was something in his eyes that said he was broken. And it didn't take these damned enhanced senses of mine to tell me that it had taken them a long, long time to do it. He smelled of blood and shit, of pain and fear long past enduring. So why send him to me? I turned his face up to me once more and looked into those amazing dark blue eyes and saw why. Unlike the other that we see come through here, here being Planetary Vice Headquarters, Unauthorized Enslavement and Bonding Division, this one had two things going for him. First he was someone special, or perhaps related to someone special, and second, beneath the broken glass gaze that skittered off my own I had seen something. Somehow this young one had kept something of himself, his core personality was held deep, deep within somewhere. It was up to me to find out how. And make him believe it was for his own sake, and not because my bosses wanted new and better techniques for their operatives to use while infiltrating the Slave Trade. Sometimes, no make that most times, my job sucks. But it's what I do, and what I'm good at, and unfortunately like undertakers and tax collectors, because of man's inhumanity to man, my job will never become obsolete.
I let the young one's head fall down again and stepped around his kneeling body to the two officers who had brought him to me. Their eyes were on me, on the walls, anywhere but on the broken boy at my feet. They were fairly new to their jobs, I could tell. They would soon become inured to this type of thing, or they would fail miserably, probably getting themselves and or someone else killed in the process.
"Do you have his information, name and such?"
The younger of the two officers answered, looking pathetically grateful to have something to focus his attention on. "Yes, Sir. His name is Blair...."
As the name passed the officer's lips a high pitched keening came from the form behind me and I cursed Rookies everywhere.
"Shut up!" In the silence the kneeling boy began to settle, the keening stopping as abruptly as it had started. I could tell the young man ~Blair~ my brain supplied unhelpfully, was on the verge of collapse, both physically and mentally. I needed to get him away and fast. "Download the information into my personal com, then get the hell out of here.
With a hushed "Yes Captain Ellison!" and a look at his partner that said I was as unstable as the basket case on the floor, the officer slid an infostik into the appropriate slot on my desk and they both made a hasty retreat.
I gave a mental sigh. Sure as shit I'd be seeing one or both of them coming through here on the victim's side of the desk if I didn't give a heads up to the boss about them soon.
I picked up my personal com and thumbed in the appropriate code as I went about gathering things I would need to take with me from here.
~~Well, Mr....Sandburg...~~ I thought as I read. ~~You and I are going to get to know each other fairly well over the next few weeks. Let's see what we know about who you are under all that mess.~~
~*~*~*
//Soft. Warm. Moving. // It considered the situation from the darkness it had crawled into in the deepest pit of it's mind. It could crawl out and see what was happening now, but more than once in the past however long this had only gotten it beat and abused in more and more horrific ways. No, the time for curiosity had long since past. The body knew what to do, had learned each lesson to keep the masters....content. It curled itself into the corner of it's mind again, hoping never to have to wake up, knowing it was dangerous to hope but unable to push the last of it away as it had so much else.
~*~*~
I had wrapped him in a blanket and carried him through the private exit to the car, all in total silence. Sandburg hadn't stirred since the incompetent officers had left and he had made no sound beyond the horrible keening at hearing his name. Settling him in the back and taking the controls to head towards the Estate I called home, I thought about what I'd read. It was all very confusing. I hated being confused, it meant lack of control.
According to all known sources, this was Blair Sandburg, young genius, brilliant academic, Dr. of, among other things, Anthropology, Xenobiology and creator of Sensetherapy, the program which allowed so called Sentinels, those with enhanced senses ~~freaks like me~~ to live somewhat normal lives. He was also dead. Or so the reports had said. I remembered the headlines from a year ago. He had been mourned on more than one planet. Dr. Blair Sandburg, dead at 30, killed in a fiery blast caused by one of his own subjects. Alex Barnes might not have had her Sentinel abilities under control, but she had been a top notch thief, smuggler and assassin. She had also been crazier than a shitweasel and had evidently decided that if she couldn't have Sandburg as her personal mentor or guide, then no one would have him. The bombs had taken out the entire complex where Sandburg did his work, destroying all the information he had accumulated in his years of study and killing everyone working and living there. But DNA testing had quickly proved that this was Sandburg. Which begged the question, if Sandburg was alive, was Alex Barnes still alive too? I shook my head to try and rattle my thoughts back into their proper order. Barnes wasn't my problem, now. But Sandburg was, with a capital P. I had his body, now I had to figure out if that brilliant mind was still intact in there somewhere.
I called the Estate as I drove and it was mere seconds before Megan's deep accented voice came on the private line.
"Yes, Sir?"
"We're being very formal tonight, Conner. Something wrong?"
Her deep chuckle vibrated down the line to shiver against my hearing. "No, Ellison. I was just expecting your call before this. Seems you're bringing home a rather...delicate package?"
I was neither amazed at the fact that it was more of a statement than a question, nor that she knew about the new "assignment". Megan ran my household with an acid tongue and an iron fist, but she was no -mere' housekeeper. In reality Megan Conner had been a "gift" from my father. She had been sent to infiltrate my home, my bed and to assassinate me. It was a grand joke between us now, that she had known as my father obviously hadn't, that a female sent to seduce me would get about as far as...well, let's just say not far at all. But I did get a retired assassin and hellacious housekeeper/head of security out of it. Father got his money back and utter humiliation should the story get out. It was a sweet deal.
"Yes. Prepare the small safe room. There will be bathing and I may need your help with that, so meet me in that bath in say...12 minutes. And Megan, the package is voice activated so no speaking where it can hear until I say it's ok, and absolutely no other staff in that wing."
"Aye, aye boss."
I chuckled as I broke the link. The day I was Megan's boss....associate maybe, little brother she felt needed taken care of, definitely. Trust me to be contracted to an assassin with a frustrated mothering instinct.
~*~*~*~
//Shifting. Movement again. Soft gone. Cold. Time to give the body. Again.//
I watched Megan watch the boy. He might have been a man at one point, a well respected one at that, right now there was none of that to be seen. I had brought him through the halls and into the bathing chamber beside the small safe room I was sure Megan had already prepared. As soon as I had set him on his feet and unwrapped him from the blanket, his eyes had flicked open and he had dropped to his knees before me. I expected no less and simply ran my hand over his head as one would pet a particularly obedient pet, but kept an eye on Megan to see her reaction. I was not disappointed. She grimaced and turned accusing eyes on me but fortunately did not speak. I nodded in approval. There would be times during this coming...ordeal that I would need her help. She would be seeing things that would turn her stomach, hell, I would be doing things that would turn ~my~ stomach. ~~Even as a part of you enjoys them?~~ The thought crossed my mind so briefly that I was able to pretend I hadn't had it. I would need her assistance for food and clean linens and such and she would have to trust me. Hopefully, more than I trusted myself.
I tapped the side of Blair's head lightly to get his attention. When he raised it enough that I knew he was listening I spoke quietly, but firmly. "Go to the tub and get in." He swung his head slightly to see the tub across the room from us, and without a sound leaned forward until his hands touched the floor in front of him and began to crawl toward it.
"No!" My shout startled Megan, I felt more than saw her flinch. My attention was fully on the boy. He did not flinch at my loud voice, he merely stopped, dead still, barely breathing and waited for my next command. I could see him trying to stop his exhausted muscles from trembling as he stared at the tub that was supposed to be his destination.
"Get up and walk to the tub." This time he did hesitate, his head cocking to the side ever so slightly in question. I smiled, if only inwardly. Yes, it was still there. The ability to question, to wonder why he was being told to do something that was so at odds with the way he had been trained. I knew what his masters had taught him. Only humans walked, and he was no longer human.
His hesitation had lasted only seconds. Even now he was attempting to get to his feet. He would obey what I said, to the best of his ability. For I was his new Master. He gained his feet and took one step toward the tub, on the second he legs gave way and he began to fall. Before Megan's gasp could completely leave her mouth I had him and swept him up into my arms. His entire body stiffened and he shook as I held him, waiting for the punishment he was certain was coming. Instead I looked down at him as I walked him to the steaming tub of water. "Good boy." I whispered softly to him. His eyes flew open and met mine for one agonizing instant before his body collapsed from the shock of praise instead of pain and he lost consciousness.
END PART 3
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