Outlier

The Plan

"You alright?"

Venus opened her bleary eyes to almost darkness. Someone was sitting cross-legged a few feet away, tied up in a strait jacket. Black hair, narrow eyes, high cheekbones.

"Marty?" She blinked quickly to try and see him better. She thought she saw a look of concern on his face, but when she could finally see him clearly, there was no expression to be found on him. She might've only imagined the concern.

Concern or not, though, she nearly wept at the sight of a familiar face.

"It's you," she breathed. "Where are we?"

There was nothing in his voice to suggest that he was happy to see her. He probably wasn't. "In a cell. What are you in here for?"

She sighed. "It's a long story. What about you?"

"I tried to kill the Warden."

Warden. Right before that syringe had hit her neck, someone had called Jace Warden Troy.

"You mean Jace?" She asked.

"He's the one," Marty confirmed, bowing his head. "The one who was with you at Collection Day, holding your knee like he owned you. I think I spoke to him on the phone, too. He was calling himself your 'husband-to-be'. I guess you two never went through with it."

Venus leaned her back against the wall. From what she could tell, they were in a glass box, alone in a dark room lit only by a small lamp hanging from the ceiling. She supposed the box inhibited telepathic ability, because when she reached up to check for the remora, it wasn't there.

"Warden Troy," she said to herself. "Why Troy? His last name is Lloyd."

"He was lying. He introduced himself as Janus Clovis Troy the day we got here. Seemed awfully proud of himself, too. That was until I punched him in the gut."

The corners of Venus's lips twitched up in amusement. "Any relation to the Supreme Leader?"

Marty nodded. "He's his son."

So my observation about Jace looking like the son of a politician on Collection Day was spot on. It was no wonder, then, why he became a Governor, or why he was Warden of... whatever this place was.

"Where is this place, Marty?"

"No idea," he told her. "I was out the whole way here."

She closed her eyes. At least she wasn't alone.

"I was thinking of yelling at you," Marty said quietly. "I really wanted to make you feel horrible. But then I remembered what you must have gone through, and realized that karma already did all the work for me."

Venus drew her knees up to her chest. She kept her eyes closed. She was sure that if she looked at Marty, she would begin to sob.

"That doesn't mean I've forgiven you," he continued. "Not by a long shot."

"I didn't expect you to." She whispered.

"Good."

She gulped. "Marty, what happened to you on Collection Day?"

"I guess there's no point hiding it now, right?" He sighed. "I tried to save you."

"But how?"

"There's no way for me to explain it. I just... I didn't want either of you to come here. If I could distract them, if I could just find a way..."

Either of you. He's talking about Victoria and me. Except now, Victoria is...

"Marty."

"Huh?"

She opened her eyes. Sure enough, at the mere sight of him, they began to water.

"Victoria... she..." Venus swallowed thickly. "We were hooked up to this machine through a hole in our necks. She sounded like she'd been drugged, and then when it started... Marty, it was awful."

Marty's broad face fell. "Is she alright?"

Venus shook her head. "She- she's dead."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Marty stared forward, eyes unseeing, lips slightly parted, hunched over like he couldn't bear to support his own body anymore.

Finally, he asked, "How did you live?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Jace said that he knew I would, that I was special. Every other person there didn't make it. I was the only one."

A long while passed before Marty spoke again, but when he did, there was loathing in his voice.

"He came to tell me. The Warden."

"About Victoria?"

Marty nodded. "A day ago, he told me she was going to die. And I believed him, but what could I do? Break out of this box when I was tied up like this?" He shifted around, gritting his teeth. "The worst part about it was that he wasn't taunting me. I think I'd hate him less if that was what he did."

"What did he do?" Venus's voice was barely above a whisper.

"He looked like he had the most important thing in the world to do. 'Her death serves a purpose', he'd told me, like it wasn't straight up bullshit. 'Every death serves a purpose.' He was solemn about it, even, like murder was some religious thing. Like he was doing something for the greater good."

"He's not. He can't be."

"Of course not," Marty agreed, scoffing. "But that's what he seems to believe, anyway. Maybe he thinks you have a part to play in it all, too. He's going to use you up and suck you dry, Venus."

"He threw me in here after I rejected his offer of kindness," she huffed. "I don't think he wants anything to do with me anymore."

"You'd be surprised. Do you want to know what he said about you? He said you were the most important thing to him in the world, that he'd been searching for you for years. He wants you, Venus. For what, I don't know, but he's not going to leave you alone, not for a second."

"What do I do?" Her vision swam with tears.

Marty seemed to stifle his grief, jaw clenching, eyes hardening. "Come here."

She did, crawling towards him in the box they were enclosed in, thinking he wanted her to get him out of the strait jacket. When she reached out, though, he shook his head.

"You can't peel it away with your hands. Why else didn't they cuff you?" He rolled his eyes. "Come here."

She leaned forward, Marty's lips brushing her cheek. In her ear, his voice was almost insidious.

"You should let him use you. Find out what he wants. And when you know..." He drew away a bit, giving her a meaningful look. "Get me out of here so I can finish what I started."

"But I-"

"But nothing." Marty snapped. 

His eyes were harder than stone, his gaze piercing, laying her bare. Venus wanted more than anything to look away, but she held his stare.

I deserve it.

"Victoria's dead, Venus," he said, wetness finally tracking down his cheeks. "All you can do now is hope that no one else dies because of you."

A/N: Uh oh, looks like Marty's out for blood... Thanks to everyone who's read and voted so far! :)