Nightmare Wake Up Call

Posted on Fri Jun 11th, 2021 @ 8:35pm by Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Captain Mattias Richardson [Reece]

Mission: Darkness Rising - A Phoenix Lalor Sub Plot
Location: Lily's Cabin
Timeline: MD 11 near to midnight
1981 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

=Dreamscape=

Phoenix wanted nothing more than to sleep. Either that or die. She was exhausted. The tank was a horrible place, water poured in for hours, filling the room until she could barely breath then it drained away swiftly flinging her to the floor, drenched and gasping for breath. This was repeated over and over again. Each time, she grew less and less able to keep her head above the water. The last time, which felt like minutes ago, she had failed to maintain herself and had sunk beneath the churning water, thinking it was ending. Her mind screamed and she wished for Ken in the depths of her soul. Then the water had been drained away and she now lay gasping and coughing up water on the cold wet metal floor as she had for the past few hours - or was it days? She could not be sure.

Her body shivered, her limbs ached and her eyes burned as there was surely something in the water to cause that. She was stripped to her underwear, and it made it harder for her to maintain her body heat. Food, had not been even considered by those who were trying to make her break.

Then she was dragged from the tank and thrown into her cell. Her hair dripped in its now uneven lanks and she crawled, slowly to the pallet that served as a bunk. She curled into the uneven surface, thin cloth over straw she knew, and lay there shivering, her eyes tight against the cold. As the door clanged shut, Sokath's voice came through the bars. "More tomorrow Princess... lets see how long you last."

It was cold, and dark when she woke. And she was weightless. Floating in a dark, void. It was, to put it in human terms, pitch black. Her skin prickled as she tried to move and look, and oh gods, Zero G. She hated Zero G. It was her most closely guarded secret that Phoenix Lalor was one of the rare bunch of cadets who had violently puked her way through Zero G training. She lied about it so often that she was able to fake it. The plus side was that she had nothing in her stomach. She twisted her eyes squeezed shut and curled herself into a ball. Floating sucked big time for someone who preferred to have their feet on the ground.

A whistle sound was her only warning before pain blossomed in her right foot. She cried out in pain. Some sort of projectile had been shot through her foot. Tears welled and Phoenix dashed them away with a hand. Deep in her mind, information welled. 26 bones in the foot of the average humanoid. Erisians, she wanted people to know, had 28, that braced between Metatarsals of the last two toes. It felt like that projectile had shattered more than one bone. Reaching down she clamped her hand on her foot to stem the bleeding. But as she did so, wrapping her left hand around her right foot, her right hand bloomed in pain as another projectile cut through it. Right at the center of the palm. She screamed. She could not help herself. And then another pierced her left thigh, and one hit her left shoulder while another got her in the right hip. Pain seemed to burn through her body and soon enough the pain caused her to black out.

Once they confirmed she was unconscious and near enough to death, the Romulans beamed her to a medical suite where her wounds were tended and patched up and she was dropped uncaringly back in her cell. she didn't stir as she was left there. She was deep within her own mind, battling pain and exhaustion.

=end dream=

Lily woke screaming. It ricocheted through the small cabin as she woke thrashing and screaming. Her normally clear and focused silver blue eyes were wide and terror filled.

"Phoenix!" Mattias exclaimed. He had been trying to gently wake her from what seemed a horribke nightmare. The sheets on their bed were soaked through in sweat. When she finally came to, she punched him square in the face. He knew instantly that she had broken his nose, however, that wasnt important right now.

"Phee," he said quieter, gently laying his palms flat on her upper arms as he blinked through the pain that was blossoming through his face. "You're okay, baby! I promise, you're safe, baby!"

His voice reached her and she subsided in his grip. "Matt?" She asked, her voice trembling as she spoke..her gaze focused. "What happened to your face?"

As tears slowly started to slowly fall down his cheeks, and blood flow down his face, dripping onto his chest, he replied, not moving until he knew that thecwoman he loved was okay. "I apparently taught you how to throw a punch so well, you don't need to be fully awake to connect a powerful hit."

Phoenix scrambled from the bed and grabbed the medkit she kept in her office area. "Kara is gonna kill me" she muttered as she set about pressing a painkiller hypo to his neck and got the bone knitter out.

Mattias moved to sit on the edge of their bed, lifting jis head up. "Oooo, you in trouble!" He tried teasing through the pain. "You broke her brother's nose!"

She narrowed her gaze at him. "I think I will get praised for it." She ran the reknitter over his nose and concentrated.

He grinned as bestvas he could. "Yeah, you're probably right, Phee." He reached out and gently grasped her hips as she stood in front of him, then asked softly, "You okay, baby? You sounded like you were having a nightmare."

She gave a shrug and cleaned him up with the antibacterial wipes in the kit. "I am ok. Just a bad dream." She checked her work. "There, how is the nose?"

Taking in a deep breath through his nostrils, then breathing it back out, he moved his face around, and nodded. "Sore, but I think you got it." Back in a softer tone, he continued. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it, Phee. Just know, I'm here for you, always."

She deftly packed up the kit, neatly putting things back as if drilled to it. She placed the kit on the floor and sat back on the bed. "Good thing you didn't bleed on the sheets" she mused.

"Wouldn't be the first time." He chuckled as he replied. He then reached out and gently moved the hair out of her face. He wouldnt press her if she wasnt ready.

"It was a memory dream." She said. "A bad memory dream"

"May I ask about what?" There was tenderness and concern in his voice as he spoke.

Phoenix closed her eyes briefly. "About a year after I got command, almost straight after i got the captains pip to go with it, my then chief of Helm invited myself, the XO, the chief of security back to Trill. She is a joined Trill and she wanted us there for a ceremony. We took a shuttle, and never made it. Seems my XO has an few enemies within the Romulan Star Empire. They took the chance to capture him and ... well make our lives miserable."

Mattias reached down and gently held her left hand. His jaw clenched involuntarily. "How long were you held?" He wanted to wrap Phoenix in his protective embrace.

"Seemed like months. It was only about 2 and a half weeks." She said. "They degraded us all. They turned Lia, the chief of security into a sex slave, to mess with Gary. Liselle they kept naked, Gary as well. That was not an image I needed to be honest. And me? Well torture, was their main thing. Mental rape, and water torture, and then Zero G torture. where they fired projectile weapons at me."

Mattias' face was turning red as he listened. The very thought of Phoenix being tortured was enough to send his blood boiling. He responded, his voice eerily quiet. "And what became of these Romulan abductors?"

"Still out there. Somewhere. Last I saw they were blathering on about how revenge would be theirs before a Q made them vanish."

This suprised him. "A..a Q helped you?" Everything he knew of the apparently omipotent species was that they were basically hyperpowered mischievous bullies.

Phoenix gave a smile. "Funny story there, when I was on the Talons Wing, there was an officer named Quinn Henderson, Operations Officer. Turns out, she was a Q. She drops by every few years or so. Annoying. But in this case she made the Romulan group less of a problem."

Mattias nodded slowly as he absorbed this information. "What happened then, sweetheart?"

"The Elysium showed up to rescue us. But the Romulans separated us. I do not know where they put the others, but they locked me in a cell , chained to a slab of rock and filled the surrounds with water. Water had just started to pour in when Gary and Arrianna found me and pulled me out."

A look of pain crossed Mattias's face as he learned of the pain his love had been forced to endure. Sliding back to sit up against the headboard, he reached out for Phoenix. "Come here," he said softly.

She climbed into his arms and snuggled down. "I have not dreamed about it for months." she said softly.

Wrapping his arms around her, Mattias held Phoenix clost to him, his voice vibrating in his chest as he spoke. "I wish I could take your pain away, my love." He kissed the top of her hear and added, "I wonder why the nightmare rerurned now?"

"I don't know." She replied. "I am surprised its not the one of me in the agony booth in the Mirror universe"

Tightening his hold slightly, he responded. "You have been through so much pain, thiramen, my only wish would be to take all of it from you, into myself. I would do anything to keep you safe and loved."

"You cannot keep me locked up Matt" she sat up. "I am not fragile remember"

"No, I know that, honey," he replied softly. "I would never keep you from doing your job. Just know, if you ever do anything stupid, like get hurt, not only will I be forced to punish you, I will have to kill those that thought it was okay to hurt you." He had an evil grin on his face as he spoke.

"You are just wicked darling." She kissed him gently.

Returning her kiss, Mattias gave a little more passion in return. Then, when they came back up for air, he said, "I would do anything to keep you and your family safe, my love. Even if it meant sacrificing myself. I would gladly give my life for yours."

"Well I would prefer you to be living your life with me." She said softly.

Smiling softly, he said, "As you wish, your highness. " He then leaned down and kissed her again, much more passionately than before.

Phoenix snuggled down in his arms. "So sorry to have woken you up."

"It's okay, baby," he softly cooed. "It's what we do, you and I. We take care of each other."

"Hmm indeed" She pulled the blankets back up. "Shall we go back to sleep now?"

Still holding her to him, he nodded. "That sounds like a wonderful idea. May you have only the sweetest of dreams, thiramen." He kissed her softly, holding her close and enjoying the natural sweetness that her body seems to produce.

Phoenix snuggled against him and closed her eyes.

Mattias stayed awake a while longer, gently running his fingers through Phoenix's long hair. His mind busy on the things she had told him.

***OFF***