Outlier

The Scientist

A/N: Without further ado...

Venus opened her eyes to humming. When she looked around, she saw the same concrete, bloodstained floor, the same observation window high above with people milling around inside of it.

Her bones thrummed in time with the machine. She would have screamed if not for the hand that took hers.

"V-Victoria?" She was back at that moment. Was she doomed to relive it?

"It's me," Marty said, his voice carrying over the constant hum. "It's just me. We're the only ones here."

Venus gripped his hand, wishing for all the world to thrash wildly until she was free of her restraints. Something tightened at her temples. The remora was back.

"They must have drugged us while we were asleep," he told her. "I've been waiting for you to wake up. What, did you need your beauty sleep?"

Venus's voice trembled. "Something like that."

After a minute, Marty spoke again.

"Tell me what happens." He demanded.

Venus hesitated. As the memories of her first time here came back to her, she began to shake.

"It hurts," she whispered, barely audible. "It hurts more than you can imagine. And there are voices-"

"Voices?"

"They said the same thing, over and over again. Return. And when I returned, everyone was dead."

Marty's hand gripped hers tighter. Even with her fingers nearly crushed, it was comforting to have him hold onto her. There was no way she thought she could have relaxed in that chair, with a rod in her neck, but somehow, she did.

"I'm not going to let go of you," Marty said, voice just barely audible over the hum of the machine. "We're going to get through this."

"Wouldn't there just be a more simple way to kill us? Or- or- are they trying to torture us?"

"There's a purpose behind everything that sick man does. If he's put you here..." Marty trailed off meaningfully.

And maybe he was right. Jace had told her to do one thing for him- just one little thing, and they'd be together. It'd been to sit and participate in whatever this machine would do to her, and he'd been so tender afterwards.

Until she spurned him and spat in his general direction, and he'd thrown her in a box. Her life was turning into some kind of awful sitcom, one rife with the darkest humour imaginable. What would it be called, anyway? The Life and Times of an Anomaly, starring Venus Calinao, Martius Jin, and, in his first appearance on the small screen, Janus Clovis Troy!

She still couldn't quite believe he was Amos Troy's son... but then again, she could. It wasn't as if he'd bothered to hide the kind of influence he had around here. He just didn't bother telling her.

Venus looked up to the observation window, then, to check if he was there. He was, seated on a desk chair and drinking from a coffee cup.

"Asshole," she breathed.

Marty managed to hear her over the din. He had it in him to laugh.

The lights were flashing red, then, and the alarm was sounding. Venus tensed, breaths shallow in her chest, and Marty's hand held hers even tighter, if that was possible. Her eardrums vibrated relentlessly until she felt one of them burst. Finally, a ragged scream escaped her throat. She knew it was time. The pain was coming. It was going to tear her apart-