Seren was curled in the captain's chair, bored out of her mind. She was stuck in the ship with Aydin for this mission, the rest of the crew were down in the market with Aydin feeding them information to get to an arms dealer’s stash house. Seren would go down later to actually break into said stash house after they had enough information on it.
A small crash caught her attention, and it sounded like it came from the docking area.
“Hey, I think I heard something.”
Aydin turned around in the chair he was set up in, pausing to listen. She could hear better than him, not like Atalante can of course but still better than him. “It could be one of the temp crew, but if you’re worried go check it out.”
“Fine, I will.” She picked herself out of the chair, grabbing the knife from her jacket still draped across the back of the chair.
“Take a com so if something is wrong you can call me.” He called as he turned back to the collection of maps and data he had been working on as she waved him off. It couldn’t be too bad, and there was a communication system rigged throughout the ship if she needed to call him.
She passed a few of the crew that while permanent weren’t apart of the team, a few of the temp crew as well. Until she got to the docking bay, it seemed to be mostly empty until she spotted a person knocked out on the floor. She must have heard them fall.
Seren knelt beside the person helping them up. “Hey, are you okay?”
The person looked up at her dazed. It seemed to be one of the mechanics they hired to help Carisa out. He was a grizzled man, with a rather unkempt beard and cold grey eyes that kinda freaked her out if she was honest.
“Sorry about that, missy. Must have tripped over a wrench or something.” He smiled cheerfully at her, “You must have some fine ears to hear from up in the cabin.”
She was too focused on the cut on the man's head to notice a woman slinking towards them from behind a box that sat in the bay. She heard the steps too late and a needle was driven into her neck, the liquid inside burning as it flowed into her veins.
Aydin looked to the door to the deck, Seren should back by now. He shouldn’t be worried about Seren, she had taken a weapon with her and- he looked over to see that she hadn’t taken a com with her since none were missing.
The others were just waiting now so he could take a break and check the security system to see if she was okay. He flipped through the feed, not finding her anywhere, which was concerning in and of itself.
The door opened behind him, and feeling something was off and he grabbed a gun from the drawer beside him. It was admittedly small, an antique revolver from the 21st century that Kael had gotten him years ago.
He turned to the door aiming for the person in the doorway.
“Careful now,” Her voice was silken and could have been calm if not for the fact that she was holding Seren by the arm, the grip elevating the blond enough for him to see her face, the young woman was on the ground blood dripping down her chin. The older woman was well built, tall and graceful in a deadly way that reminded him of Atalante on her most dangerous days. “Wouldn’t want to kill the only one who can save her.”
He was sure that Errapel could fix whatever was wrong with Seren, but he would need to get her back on the ship for that. Seren gave a shuttering cough, more blood leaking from her mouth with the sound.
The older woman smiled and it sent chills down his spine. She unnerved him in a way he wasn't used too, through that might have something to do with his daughter possibly dying in her clutches. She looked small on the floor, almost lifeless.
“Easy Mr.Tilki. Come with me and when we get to where we need to be, I’ll give her the antidote.”
He pulled back the hammer on the revolver, he trusted that Errapel could save her.
“Or I can just open her throat here, either one can be done.”
He lowered the revolver before tossing it away.
“What a good choice!” She said with fake cheer. She pulled Seren fully upright even as the blond was visibly weak.
A cruel laugh was his answer as the dark-haired woman dragged her down the halls to the small ship they had for when a group went planetside while the main ship stayed in orbit. He wished they had done that this time. The woman cruelly threw Seren onto the floor of the ship, beside the pilot's chair. On his way in, he hit a panic button on the status pad, it was silent to them but he knew it would sound on Kael and Atalante’s handheld comms.
They wouldn’t be able to stop the small ship leaving but it would give them more time than if they simply came back to them gone.
“You might want to watch your friend, make sure she doesn’t drown in her blood. It’d be a pity if she dies before we can get there.”
He pulled Seren to him, blood still leaking down her chin. He unbuttoned his shirt rolling it up to place it under her head, hoping to give her some comfort. The ship was cold made worse by the fact that he was just in his undershirt now. He gently started to smooth her hair n a gester of comfort.
If he had to hear Talbot bitch about being bored one more time he was going to throw the pilot off the damn roof. Seren’s fondness for him be damned, plus it’s not a long drop he’d be bruised but not broken.
“I told you that you could go with Red and Dormouse to get medical supplies. You said you wanted to help us case out the warehouse. “
“I didn’t realize it would literally be us sitting on a roof while March goes in as a cat.”
“Don’t let her hear you call her that.” Carisa teased.
His and Atalante’s handhelds went off, a shrill sound that could have gotten the Noctis caught had she had it. It was the panic button in the Intrepid.
“Go get the others, I’m going to get March out of there, we’ll meet you in the ship.”
The woman met him outside in her second form, she must have heard the ring from inside. Those fucking ears were ridiculous.
She mewled at him, “The others took the car, so we’ll take the bike.” He opened the bag he had with him. She wouldn't have clothes when she turned back and it would be less eye-catching for him to have a ’cat’ in his bag than a naked woman on the bike.
She wrinkled her nose but leaped in. “Sorry ‘Lante.” He took off, roaring down the back roads to the forest that held the ship in hiding.
The docking bay was open and the grass had been disturbed, evidence that a ship had taken off.
Atalante jumped out of the bag rushing into the ship, he himself not far behind. He came onto his team in the empty bay, blood on the floor and a syringe there as well.
Atalante sniffed at the syringe before hissing, smelling at the blood next. Her hackles raising, the blood belongs to one of their own. She traced the trail as Errapel picked up the syringe, “I’ll go analyze this and see what it is.”
He followed Atalante to the deck of the ship tail ridged and ears flat back against her head, she had turned back to her primary form and had Seren’s coat in her hands, tightly gripping the signature item, the wing embroidered on one side bright in the light.
The blood. He looked to see another small puddle, across from it the revolver he had gifted to Aydin. He took off his own coat draping it over the Noctis.
Someone had taken them, had come into their home and kidnapped his child and oldest friend.
“I’ll rip them apart,” Atalante growled.
He could only agree with her as he pulled up the video feeds. Starting at the time that the alert had sounded. He saw Sereen being dragged, limp, into the smaller ship with Aydin following behind, they watched backward as the events unfolded, once the woman even looked directly into a camera. Cocky fucker. Finally, they reached the start and found the mechanic that had lured and distracted Seren, and had more than likely had let the kidnapper on board.
“Zir, get your ass up here and run this image through every database you can find, I don't care if you have to hack into anything just get me a name.” He called over the speaker system in the ship before storming off to check if Errapel got anything.
“ ‘Lante? Clothes!” he called over his shoulder as he left.
Aydin held Seren to his side the room they were in was suspiciously nice. Seren was almost dead cold against him and it was increasingly worrying him.
The woman from the ship came in a small bag under her arm. He recognized the man that walked in behind her. Alyen Nevil, a consistent thorn in their side. He seemed to keep showing up whenever things went wrong.
So the woman worked for Alyen. “As promised.” She picked up Seren’s arm rolling up the sleeve of her shirt, drawing blood finally moving on to administer what he hoped, god damn he hoped, was an antidote.
“Give it ten minutes and she’ll mostly recover. She’ll be weak but she won't die.” The woman put her arm down but didn’t leave merely standing beside the opulent chair across from the couch.
He jolted away from fingers that reached for his chin, “You are rather handsome.” Alyen smiled reaching next for Seren, no way was Aydin going to let that pass. He grabbed the man’s hand before it made contact.
“She is a beauty, reminds me of a girl stolen from my ownership four years ago,” The man continued as if Aydin hadn’t said anything.
This man, this monster, had been in control of Seren’s contract when they saved her from the mines. “You’ll both fetch a great price at auction unless Kael can rescue you in time.”
The way Alyen said Kael’s name, wrapped around it with hate and perversion, with the familiarity of lovers but the venom of a man excited to torment him made Aydin want to tear the man's tongue out.
The woman opened the case and set a canister down which released a nauseously sweet smell, he heard a lock activate and the last bit off sentence as his consciousness slipped away.
“Keres will get them ready, you finished the drug?”
It had taken one positive I.D., a favor call-in to Ewing and two days to find the mansion that Alyen was hiding out in.
He walked in alone the others scattered around the mansion's grounds, a red-haired, man greeted him at the door.
“We’ve been waiting for you.” He was searched for weapons, patted down before the man smiled. “Follow me, please.”
He was lead down the hall into what looked like a brothel, giving him an uneasy feeling. He’d seen a fair amount of brothels, and brothel auction houses. He knew that Alyen ran slave brothels. This didn’t bode well.
Kael saw a screen, an advertisement for auction, and it made his blood boil.
An unknown man and woman surrounded Aydin, one against his back one on his lap, who was dressed down in tight pants, his hair down and messy in a way Aydin would hate. They were caressing the man, who was flushed, a familiar sight that Kael still held in his mind from when they shared a bed. While Aydin would move away it was like he couldn’t bring himself to break away as the women's nail scraped down his chest and the man’s hands slipped into his pants.
The redhead tried to pull Kael away but he refused to budge.
“Now, now you mustn’t be late.” The man whispered into his ear, too close for his comfort.
They passed booths with people in various states of undress, a stage for the eventual auction. When they came to a curtained section the shadow letting him see that there were three people behind it. The redhead opened the curtain, he walked to the edge of the round bed, the redhead passed him to stand by Aleyn.
If the screen set his blood on fire what he saw made his heart stop, made him freeze. Aydin still wasn’t wearing a shirt, the button on his pants was undone and they wear hanging low on his hips. There were silver bands on his arms and one around his neck. Aleyn was just finishing devouring the man’s mouth.
He ran a hand up Seren’s back, she was more dressed than Aydin or at least more covered, lace and silk wrapped around her body, hiding only the most private parts, the rest of her body on display, her hair was done in curls with gold and jewels decorating the rest of her body. She arched up against Aleyn as he pulled her into a filthy kiss, nearly pulling the woman into his lap. Running his hand up her back. He broke the kiss guiding her down to lay on her back.
Neither of them looked like they were truly present in the moment. Aydin looked less out of it than Seren did.
“Ah, Kael.” Aleyn had the nerve to smile like they were old friends.
“I was testing the new merchandise. Both the new ‘aphrodisiac’” Fucker even used air quotes, “And the two test subjects. Though this one-” He pet Seren’s hair in a mock paternal fashion, “isn’t new. After all, I’ve had her contract in my possession for ten years so I’m within my right to just keep her as my personal… attendant.” He ran one of his hands up Seren’s chest, while the other hand traced down Aydin’s back each hand stopping in clearly possive, in Aydin’s case the small of his back, or deadly in Seren’s case a hand around her neck, which she disturbingly arched into.
“Maybe I’ll keep them both, you have fantastic tastes in near-human forms.”
He had the urge to lunge forward to tear him apart, both for his actions and what the other was implying but was stopped by Aleyn holding Seren’s knife to Aydin’s neck.
“I’m joking, of course, I already have someone to warm my bed. But I knew taking these two would bring you to me. I wanted to meet you, see you outside of your role as captain of that pathetic crew you keep.”
Zir and Carisa needed to hurry up with those explosives.
“Oh, one last thing.” He stood up pushing Seren onto Aydin who seems to have recovered enough of himself to pull her into a hold shielding her body with his. “Your family is still looking for you, though this time it's for your head on a platter.”
He caressed Kael’s face the touch making his skin crawl. “Call off your crew and I’ll let you leave with these two.”
“Give me Seren’s contract.” He demanded.
“You’ll have to buy it from me, buy her from me, this is me letting you … borrow the girl, now leave now or I’ll sell your whole crew. The android’s part will go for a pretty penny, the Noctis I could sell back to the Lumar group.”
“Guys, lets pack it up, I’ll need help getting these two back to the ship.” He relayed as he shoved passed Aleyn, picking up Seren, “Aydin, can you walk?”
“Maybe,” His voice was rough with disuse, at least Kael hoped it was only from disuse. “ ‘Lante here?”
“Your crew is at the entrance. Keres will help you to the door.”
Kael knew this was far from over. He would end the other man. But for now, Seren and Aydin need medical attention or at least a place to let whatever Aleyn gave them to work its way through their system.
His crew, his real family, being safe is what mattered now. He could destroy the other man once that was done.
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