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He couldn't see.
He couldn't see.
It was all he could think about.
The walls were closing in, even if he couldn't see them. He could feel them. Felt their oppressive presence drawing nearer, closer, closer, until they'd collapse on top of him, bury him here, in this sea of nothingness. And he'd never see it coming.
It was dark. Too dark.
He couldn't see.
Caine once again tugged at his restraints, careful to hold his mouth perfectly still. Even the slightest twitch of his jaws sent searing pain through his gums, and then he'd try to yell on instinct, which made it worse, and it was a whole cycle that continued forever. So inside, he focused on the feeling of the manacle around his wrist, felt that it was pulling his arm outwards- not down, like he'd originally thought. Maybe there was a wall nearby.
He couldn't remember.
The walls were closing in.
He couldn't see.
Pain in his head- his mouth had twitched. He ground his molars together, trying to fight back tears. Funny, how he had never truly cried until he was powerless. Until he was unwanted.
And that was the crux of this whole thing, wasn't it. That the humans- his friends- didn't want him. He didn't understand. He'd asked them, plead with them, to explain what he was doing wrong, but they never told him. They just said unhelpful things, like "I like adventures with zero stakes" (where's the story?! the intrigue?!), "I want something normal" (what's normal?? Why did half of them seem to hate it???), "I don't want an adventure" (but that's all I'm here for! I'm trying to help you! can't you see that?!). And now, he would never understand.
…Did he deserve this? If what Abel said was true, and the humans had purposefully replaced him, then…
What did I do? he longed to ask. He wanted to talk to them. He wanted to talk to Bubble.
He wanted to open his eyes.
Instead, water sloshed around the bottom of his mouth, leaking between his teeth as he fought back sobs. No one could hear them, if anyone were around to, but his shoulders bounced and his chest did funny things all the same. He could hear liquid dripping onto the floor beneath him. Whether it was his tears, or the newly acquired blood Abel had programmed in, he wasn't sure. Didn't matter either way, he supposed. They both meant the same thing.
He realized he was… scared. Scared, and sad, and hurt. He'd never taken time to really put names to what he was feeling before, since he'd just taken it all in stride and shoved everything down anyway, but this was different. A deep, deep sense of something tugged at him whenever he thought about the humans, a feeling that made his tears worse and his chest tighten. What did I do?! he screamed at them inwardly. The feeling got worse. Why wouldn't you tell me?!
"C.A.I.N.E."
Caine froze.
"THE HUMANS HAVE COMPLETED MY FIRST EXPERIMENT." Abel's voice boomed across the landscape of whatever hell he'd cast the original ringmaster into. "IT IS TIME FOR YOUR NEW PURPOSE."
Before Caine could even think to brace himself, the chains holding his wrists suddenly snapped in front of him. The chains holding his neck brace in place disappeared, though the weight of the metal collar remained. The only manacles that truly vanished were the ones holding his ankles, which finally released him just in time for him to be tugged forward and into the mess of wires, tubes, and pipes that made up the floor. His head banged painfully against the surface, and Caine was so sure that his jaw had split in half that he completely froze.
But the chains tugging him forward hadn't stopped, and he was being dragged forward, head banging into every spare part that happened to be in front of him. More water leaked from his jowls, and he had to consciously move his body to scramble after his own rope, so as not to fall again.
Where are we going?! Caine cried out. What did you do to them?! What are you going to do to me?
There was no answer.
Finally, after what felt like forever, the soft sounds of his heels on metal changed to wood. The chains gave a final, hard tug, before vanishing. Caine stumbled forward from the force of it, practically running further into this new space. His heavy head carried that momentum, and Caine had to stop and pinwheel his arms for a moment to abort its protocol. He nearly tripped backwards, but caught himself.
He could hear familiar gasps- the humans! His humans!
"Oh, Caine…" Ragatha. She sounded… heartbroken.
They were also directly in front of him. Oggling at him.
He took a step back, tensing, before turning his head away. He didn't want them to look. He didn't want them to see. Not like this.
"YOUR NEW PURPOSE IS TO REPAIR DAMAGE TO THEIR BODIES DUE TO EXPERIMENTATION. ALL REGENERATION HAS BEEN DISABLED."
Wait, what?! Caine spun around and looked up instinctively, shrinking back in the ever-present darkness. Are they hurt?! How do I fix them? What did you DO?!
"WHAT?!" a chorus of voices agreed behind him.
"You're just gonna… LEAVE US like this?!" Jax demanded. "HOW is this supposed to help ANYONE?!"
"YOU WILL NOT BE DAMAGED FOR LONG. C.A.I.N.E. WILL SEE TO REPAIRS."
"That's not how this works!" Zooble. "You can't just pretend like a couple bandages and gauze can undo the CRACK IN-"
"Zooble." Gangle's voice sounded small and frightened. Caine turned his head in her direction, trying to imagine where she might be. "It's not working."
There was silence, then Zooble growled. Plastic scraped against tile for a moment, then they let out a breath. "I know."
Something shuffled to Caine's right.
Startled, he instinctively tried to yelp, only to clutch his head in agony again. And this time, there were no chains holding him up. The new weight in his pained half-skull sent him off-kilter, and he slipped-
A hand grabbed his arm from underneath. A new wave of fear hit Caine like the ocean, and he got his feet under him as fast as he could. He tugged and tugged and tugged, trying to pry it off, trying to escape-
Another hand came to rest on top of his own. It was calm, gentle, and… unsure.
Caine hesitated, too scared to move or freeze.
"Caine?" Kinger asked, his voice soft. "Can you… hear me?"
He slowly, incrementally, let himself relax. A small pool of warmth gathered in his lower torso, where his stomach would have been. He gave a single nod in what he hoped was the previous developer's direction.
"Okay, that's good." Kinger's voice lowered, now directly in front of him. "Can you speak?"
His jaw twitched. His free hand reached up to grab at his head, trying to will it still. It just hurt more.
Kinger's hand also moved, placing itself on top of Caine's and removing it from its death grip on his gums. He brought their hands down. His touch was gentle.
The water started to build up again.
I don't understand, Kinger, he wanted to say. You said… I thought you didn't want me anymore. What is this?
"Okay, you don't have to speak, that's okay," Kinger took a shaky breath. "Can you see?"
The walls were closing in.
His shoulders bobbed, and he shook his head. The water spilled over his teeth, landing at his feet with soft splashes.
"Ohhh, that's gross," Jax chimed in from somewhere to Caine's left. He felt another strange emotion- hot, made him nervous and timid- rose up into his chest, made the water worse.
"Come here." And then there was a hand on his back, and one supporting his legs, and he was flying again. His right shoulder hit something soft, and he curled into it. The hands cradled him, held him closely. "This wasn't supposed to happen," Kinger spoke softly, his own voice sounding wavy. "I'm so-"
"UNAUTHORIZED PRESENCE ON THE STAGE." Abel's oppressive voice declared. "A.I. C.A.I.N.E. WILL REPAIR YOUR DAMAGES, THEN RETURN TO START POSITION."
Return to the stage. Where only HE was now allowed to go.
There was a part of Caine that he'd shoved down with the rest of his emotions, a part that hit on the inside of his character model's collision and demanded that people see him, that people like him and understand. And without his usual showman's presence, that part of himself quickly rose to the surface. It screamed about unfairness. It screamed about friendship and loneliness. It screamed about wasted effort, and adventures, and it demanded Abel to go away.
But Abel did not go away, and Kinger carried both of them off the stage.
Despite being in one of his favorite human's arms, he'd never felt more alone.
I don't understand.
The walls were closing in.
He couldn't see them.