Aftershock

Zippered Lips

Perseus

"Come on!" My getaway partner hissed.

I quickly followed her, ignoring the burning pain that swam through my veins. It's only been two minutes and I was already having doubts about this. The pain had started to bubble inside of me again and the need to go back was building up. When the blue woman in front of me saw my face, hers softened a bit.

Thankfully, she reached over and put her hard hand against my face, cooling the burning feeling momentarily. I inclined my head gratefully, shuddering at the change from pain to pleasure.  I had closed my eyes at the touch, but now opened them. Giving her a nod, I braced myself once more.

Her lips pursed and she patted my cheek twice before taking her hand from my face. I grimaced as the pain came back immediately, throbbing inside my whole body. This continued every few minutes as we crept our way free. Stopping for the close contact to relieve the fiery pain and then moving on to the escape hatch.

This ship has been flying through space for over a month now, and we were soon reaching our destination. The stops that have been made were never there when we left, destroyed by Thanos and his children. The ship we were on was huge, but luckily Nebula has been on it before and could navigate her way out of it.

She put a hand against my bare chest to stop me from moving forward, warily watching the round of minions make their way across the floor. I wanted to bring her closer to me as the pain slowly overcame the brief moments of contact we were having. I tried to contain it by distracting my mind and thinking about the past month.

"My children can't touch you anymore, Perseus." Thanos rumbled.

I scowled at him, pushing my back more into the wall to keep away from him. My fingers scraped the hard metal of the ship, my bare feet shifting the dirt on the floor around, and my face morphing back into the blank mask I've practiced over the years.

"Who's fault is that?" I spat back.

"Yours." He replied easily,"You've lost your control, so they're reacting for you. This is their protection and it's causing me problems."

"Sounds like a you problem." I sneered.

He sighed,"It is. I was going the easy way—torture. Now I'll have to chance the hard way."

I narrowed my eyes,"Hardly a change."

He took another step into my cell, his children following him. I slid against the wall, making more distance in between us. His child gave me a smug grin as I tried to keep the tremble out of my body. No weakness, no weakness, no weakness, I chanted in my mind. The Mad Titan took another step towards me, more following after, no cautiousness left as he approached.

Thanos gave me a thin lipped smile,"Torture breaks the body, Little One. The hard way breaks the mind. I would rather have that intact, but you won't cooperate any way else."

I frowned,"If you could heal me after the torture, why can't you heal me after this? You even restored my eyes."

He tilted his head condescendingly,"You of all people should know. The mind is a fragile thing."

"Then stay away from it!" I hissed.

He shook his head, surging forwards,"I can't do that."

I jerked back when he showed no signs of stopping. I tried throwing myself into the wall, desperately trying to create more distance between us. I couldn't breathe as he and his children got closer. They kept coming until they backed me into the corner. Both of his children offered him one piece of material I couldn't see, but when he turned to me with them in his hands I still didn't understand.