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Nick was laying in the bed in the cell as he started calling it, listening to the growl of his stomach. He had no idea how long it had been since he was thrown in the room, but he was getting hungry. He hadn’t eaten since the Moon base, however long that was. As if someone had known he was hungry, Nick suddenly noticed a tray with food rations on it in front of the locked door. His stomach growled harder knowing the food was present, but he resisted, sitting up in the bed with his knees against his chest. 


“Go ahead, you know you want it. It probably tastes as good as it smells.” 


Nick shook his head in protest, folding his arms around his legs and burying his head in his knees to resist temptation to eat. He licked his lips and tried to distract himself by thinking about something else. Anything else. 


“You’re hungry. Just eat. You’ll feel better.” 


Nick looked up because he was sure that a woman’s voice spoke to him through his thoughts, but it didn’t make any sense. He was the only one in the room, there was no way. The smell of the food was calling him, he could smell warm bread. Something he hadn’t had in a long time, that triggered a memory from a long time ago. Brian had made bread when they lived on the island and Nick remembered how good it was. He kept thinking that warm food would taste really good so he inched himself off of the bed and walked over to the food tray, smelling it. His mouth watered as he picked the cover off of it and he discovered that it wasn’t just regular food rations but there was warm bread and soup. It reminded Nick of the island, the stew they’d made one time with the clams they’d dug up from the beach once. They didn’t have very many supplies but somehow Brian had made it taste delicious and it warmed their bellies when they ate it around the campfire, the stew simmering in the large pot over the open flame. It was then that Nick sat on the floor, his legs folded Indian style as he stared at the food. 


“Fucking hell.” Nick said finally, giving into temptation as he tore apart the warm, pillowy bread with his hands and dipped it into the soup, letting the warm liquid run down the back of his throat. It was delicious. He ate until the tray was picked clean, rubbing his stomach when he was finished. Nick wished that Brian had been there to enjoy the meal even though things seemed to taste better when they had to work together to get it. Nick always enjoyed Brian’s cooking and this came pretty close but something felt off. He should have known when he started to feel drowsy some time after eating. 


Surely laying down wouldn’t hurt….




“I have them in our radar, Brian.” AJ said, taking a breath when they cleared the asteroid belt of the solar system. Brian smiled and seemed a bit relieved, sitting down in his chair again. 


“Good. Just keep following them. Stay on this heading.”


“I don’t know if we can catch up to them but we are in pretty close range so we shouldn’t lose them. How are you feeling now? Any better?” 


“A little, yes. I think since Nick’s somewhat near me I can still be healed by him. The problem was that between when we fled Earth and going to your base on the Moon, my energy hadn’t recovered since I had passed out in the underground city. Nick had healed me but not fully. His own energy was not recovered either. So right now I’m very vulnerable and so is he. He has no idea how much danger he is in being with Sienna right now. I don’t know what her plan is with him and that scares me. He could die and as a result, I could die.” Brian explained with a sigh. He looked out at the stars and felt the nausea creep up inside himself as he worried about Nick and what was going to happen to them both, or if they’d be united once more. He felt guilty. All Nick wanted was to go home but it just wasn’t going to be possible. He started to remember nights from when they lived in peace on the island, nights where all they had was each other. 



“I hope you like this stew, I know we don’t have much in the way of vegetables or anything, but I did have some things. I just figured you’d want something different tonight. I never tried baking anything before either.” Brian said, watching Nick eat by the campfire. Nick smiled at him, the stew dribbling down his chin from when he’d scooped the bread into his mouth. 


“It’s delicious. How did you bake without an oven?” Nick asked curiously. Brian chuckled, sipping from the stone bowl and setting it back down next to him so he could stoke the fire some more. The flame grew bigger and crackled in the moonlight, the starry sky providing little other light. 


“I kind of made one out of some stones up on the cliff. It wasn’t hard to make the bread but I knew you’d like it. We haven’t had bread in a long time.” 


“You’re right about that. Well, it’s definitely good even though it isn’t like traditional bread. It’s more of a flatbread.” Nick smiled, dipping his into the stew again and eating noisily. Brian laughed and just looked at him, enjoying Nick’s company. He loved spending time with Nick and had grown to really love him. He felt a warm aura whenever Nick was near and they were both happy. He didn’t want to trade this feeling for anything else in the world. The war meant nothing as long as they had happiness. 


“We’ll see each other again soon, I promise.” Brian whispered, looking out at the stars in the window in front of him.






Sienna walked into the chamber on her ship, smiling as she laid eyes on Nick upon the table in the middle of the room under a glass box. He’d been undressed, electrodes attached to various points of his skin. He was unconscious, as a machine hovered over his head, emitting a green light. In the corner of the room stood a control panel where two crew members stood, and they saluted when they noticed Sienna was there. 


“At ease,” Sienna said calmly. Her violet eyes went back to watching Nick for any sign of movement, but it was as if he were in a coma just like before. 


“Your highness, we took him as soon as he ate the food and fell asleep as you instructed.” 


“Good. Proceed with the rest of my instructions and let me know when he is ready to be woken up.” Sienna told him, tucking her hair back behind her ear and smiling. 


The crew member pressed a button on the control panel in front of him and the machine whirred, moving over Nick’s body vertically. He did not stir at all, just laid motionless as the machine repeated the motion over and over again. Sienna smiled in satisfaction. She knew the food would make him sleep after she had added the sedatives to it, it had been part of her plan to take advantage of the fact she sensed the boy was hungry. She had also known that this particular food would make Nick comfortable enough to trust her, because it reminded him of Brian. Once he smelled the bread it was all over. It was all manipulation tactics and being an Empath had served her well. All that was left to do was erase any of the new memories that he’d gotten since the last time they tried the memory wipe, which would be easy to do now that Brian was out of the way. As long as the two of them were apart, neither would be a threat to her. Sienna only needed to turn Nick to her side. The rest would be easy, at least she was counting on it to be.