Sweet Venom Ch. 11

The comms went silent and after a few seconds, Chayter's vital signs flicked and the display changed to unknown; not dead, it seemed that he'd been stripped of his gear.

"Wimp." Scyler scoffed, sitting in the pilot seat and assessing the situation. "Command is going to need to see this." He flicked some switches and pressed his gauntlet up against one of the scanners at the helm, allowing him access to the piloting commands. He quickly prepared the assault craft for launch, then rocketed back into the sky, alone in his vessel.

*

At the front face of the dungeon, a slightly out of breath but still pumped Diego came down the final set of the stairs and emerged into the stone corridors. The path in front of him was all but deserted as he made his way towards the Controller's bed chambers. He passed by Seeth's room, and couldn't help but take a peek through the door, still ajar as Leech had left it. The room hadn't been tidied or changed either, furniture lay about the place from his and Leech's struggle, and the bedsheets still smelled of him and Seeth, together. He sighed to himself, dropping his guard slightly as he took their scent in. The room still had a pleasant warmth to the air, despite the cold stone underfoot.

"Am I seriously feeling sentimental about a shag room half a mile underground?" He asked himself, out loud as he questioned the feelings pumping through his chest. "Yeah... huh, guess I kinda am..." He gently brushed his hands across the bed sheets. He'd grown very attached to Seeth in a very short space of time, and now that he was alone, it was difficult to tell how much of that attraction was the simple primal, overwhelming pleasure of the best sex of his life, and how much was genuine connection. She'd hurt him, betrayed him, but he felt drawn to her nonetheless. He sighed again and glanced around the room, taking it in one last time - he wouldn't be coming back here again.

Diego paced quickly through the corridors, the air quickly fading from pleasantly warm into scorchingly hot; his psyonic shielding was the only thing stopping him from igniting on the spot. He encountered a few idle Slaves on his way down, cutting through them one by one. As he drew close to Moltezz's chambers however, he slowed down to survey the state of the place.

The corridors leading to her chambers were absolutely wrecked, with stonework blasted to pieces, and half melted corpses sunk into the floor. Despite the damage, he recognised the design of the armour and weapons; these soldiers were definitely DA. Further on he spotted a corpse, a team leader by the looks of the white markings across his helm. His torso was in pieces, but his arms intact, as though they'd been ripped from his body. He took a second to pry the tech gauntlet off the amputated limb and search through it. Still as arrogant as ever, minimal security on their tactical gear, Diego couldn't help but note, as if no one else would be smart enough to do basic interface hacking, or strong enough to even get the opportunity. Diego was able to breach it easily, and he scanned quickly through their mission data.

He sighed in dismay as it became blisteringly obvious that this team had been here for him, only confirming his earlier suspicions. As he scrolled through the mission details however, he noticed that the gauntlet also held the data key for the ship they had landed on... presumably, if the team leader was dead, and the gauntlet was here, then the ship was still on the planet too! Diego clicked the gauntlet onto his arm, a smug grin teasing at the corner of his lips... but it quickly disappeared once he'd turned back to the ruins of the corridor, and its ruined corpses.

Cautiously, he entered into Moltezz's main chamber. It was large and spacious compared to Seeth's, compared even to the rest of the dungeon, with more effort put into its design and craftsmanship. It looked like the fighting had avoided the room for the most part...

"D-i-e-g-o...?"

The voice took his breath away, and left him feeling like he'd just been punched in the gut. His heart wrenched in a way that none of this madness had made it wrench since this nightmare began.

"Y-You... came... back...?"

She barely looked alive. Strung up by her arms in the middle of the room, dripping with blood and barely able to hold her head up, Seeth wearily stared across the room. Despite her grievous wounds, a pained smile spread across her face.

Diego sprinted across the room, right up to her, staring at her naked, beaten body, desperately running his eyes along her wounds. Her legs had practically been torn to pieces, chunks of her thighs and calves were missing and losing blood. Several deep lashes and burns whipped across her back, and were also bleeding.

"Seeth! How are you awake?! Holy fuck! I gotta get you out of here!" Diego exclaimed, mortified by the extent of her injuries.

Tears welled up in her eyes and Seeth started to cry, shaking the chains weakly as her emotions poured from her.

"You... came back!" Seeth could barely stumble the words out as blood and tears dripped down her face and rolled off her chin. Despite the overwhelming pain she was in, her big beautiful eyes were staring into his with nothing but pure love.

"Of course I did!" He placed a hand softly on her cheek as he calculated how best to get them both out of here. "I promised you I'd help."

"- Well, isn't this wonderful." Moltezz's laugh echoed from the doorway and around her chambers, filling the room. She made her way inside her quarters with long, definitive steps. "You actually came back for her. And here I thought you'd run and save your own hide, especially after the DA turned up. Oh don't worry, I took care of them for you. But this is... unexpected, I must say." The sound of heavy, rattling metal dragging against the floor bounced deafeningly through the chamber. "But this ends... now."