034. - Video - Just Desserts

[brokenweapon]

[OOC: Co-written with Milbury. Thanks for being awesome! There is also a scoschy bit of time fuckery in here because real talk, nobody can be held hostage on the Barge for two weeks without being found. The ship ain't that big, not like it's Tora Bora or anything.]

[The screen flicks on, and the face of Jason Bourne appears - though anyone would be forgiven for not recognizing him at first, due to the haggard look and the beard that he’s sporting. He’s a right mess, with a healing split lip and bruises all over every place the camera can see, and quite a few more besides.

He speaks, and his voice sounds hoarse and rusty from disuse.] “As of the morning of June 5th, I have not been myself. I was kidnapped and impersonated by my inmate, and held captive in another inmate’s quarters.” [He glances off-camera.] “Come here, David.”

	[Sullenly, reluctantly, David walks into view. While not as disheveled as his warden, David’s seen better days himself - his normally straight hair is matted to his head and the shirt he’s wearing is torn at the collar. He’s also got his hands clasped together behind his head - clearly he’s not here of his own volition. He doesn’t look at the camera. His attention is focused entirely on his warden, and the look he’s eyeing Bourne with is a dangerous one - bitter and resentful. He says nothing.]
	“Show them.” [Bourne’s voice is flat and level. His left hand is nearly out of frame, and there’s a gun in it, and it’s pointed directly at his inmate.] “Now.”
	[Gritting his teeth and looking away from the camera, David begins to change. Slowly he begins growing, both in height and mass, his lean teenager’s body bulking up into the body of a man fifteen years or so older. It’s a bit like watching aging flash-forwarded, except that David isn’t just growing older. His entire facial structure is changing as he grows - his ear-length blond hair shortens and darkens, while his eyes go from dark brown to steely blue.
	When the transformation’s complete, no trace of David can be see in the man he’s become. Now Jason Bourne appears to be holding his twin double at gunpoint.]
	[Anyone watching Bourne rather than David would see the anger and hate in his eyes as he watches the transformation. There are two of him now - one whole, perfect, and fake; the other beaten, broken, and the genuine article.] “Demorph,” [he says, and there’s such bitter loathing in his voice it’s surprising he hasn’t pulled the trigger out of spite.
	Looking back at his warden with undisguised hatred, David does as he’s told. Jason Bourne’s form recedes back the way it came, exposing David’s secret for the entire Barge to see.] “Happy now?” [David asks, and while his sullen bitterness can’t match the utter loathing his warden expressed in that one-word command, his own voice is quivering with anger. His hands are clenched behind his head, and it’s quite clear he would enjoy nothing more than seeing the man he just became torn apart, perhaps by rabid lions.]
	[Bourne doesn’t respond to his inmate’s question, but the answer is obviously ‘No’. Though he refuses to take his eyes off of his inmate, it’s clear that he’s addressing the camera:] “I apologize for anything he’s done while using my form since then. This will not happen again. He will be receiving a punishment that fits his crime.”

[He reaches over with his right hand to turn off the feed, the gun still trained on David, and now it’s clear why he’s using his opposite hand to hold a gun on his inmate. His right thumb is still broken and hasn’t yet been treated, hanging down grotesquely. It can be seen for just a moment before the feed switches off.]

[Private to the Admiral, just after Rathammer commences:]
Please revoke David's morphing ability entirely. When I see fit to restore his powers, keep him from being able to acquire or morph any Barge denizen.

Comments

[So Private]

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

For the second time in as many days, David feels the cold metal barrel of a gun pressed against his head. The first time, it was Will Graham holding the weapon. This time it's a much more threatening figure, and he finds himself wildly wishing that the cop was here now. Or Hoffman. Costigan. Someone.

He tries to speak, can't. His throat's tight. Oh, god no, not tears. He won't cry. Can't. Can't let himself fall apart. Can't give Bourne that pleasure.

"I'll... I'll kill you for this," he whispers harshly, his voice quivering.

[So Private] On the Barge, no-one can hear you scream.

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

Bourne doesn't say a damn word. He feels a very small twinge of conscience for the kid, but if he didn't lay down the law David would walk all over him.

You are a weapon. He doesn't even recoil at the thought, even though it's in a voice not his own; Hirsch's, probably.

And what's worse is that he doesn't care about it.

"Do it."

[So Private] Unless you're screaming in thought-speak.

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

David shudders. If this is about making him feel regret, he's feeling it. Regret he didn't kill Bourne, at least. He made the same mistake with his warden the Animorphs made with him, and now he was going to... to...

He closes his eyes and tries to concentrate. But it's hard, his brain's awash with emotions: regret, bitterness, fear, rage.

Rachel's voice in his head, smug and superior: Law of the jungle, you little creep.

Impossible to focus!

"Do it," Bourne tells him in that cold, commanding voice.

It's not just rage he feels now. It's hate. Pure unadulterated hate, coursing through his veins like a drug.

He'll morph the rat. He'll pretend to cooperate. And the instant he gets the chance, he'll kill Bourne. He'll kill him the way he should have done from the very beginning.

David's arms start retracting. Then his legs. He's a big, awkward lump under his warden. His sneakers fall off, first one, then the other, as his feet shrink too small to be held. Then his socks slip off. Fleshy toes are melting into tiny claws.

Now the rest of David starts shrinking. Fast. His skin grows loose and pink, then rapidly starts sprouting hairs. White hairs. He'd scream, but his vocal chords are dissolving too, and only a strangled nose escapes his throat. His nose disappears, replaced by a nub of flesh which then narrows into the rat's snout.

His eyes are still human, still huge in his mostly-human skull. Suddenly, his sockets begin to shrink. Faster than his eyeballs - so fast he grimaces, certain his eyeballs are going to pop this time. Instead, they finally begin to shrink too.

The morph's complete. David is a rat.

[So Private] Fine. Be pedantic. xP

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

Bourne watches the procedure with equal parts fascination, revulsion, and hate. He'd always kept the idea of forced-rat morph in the back of his head as a punishment for David - a punishment of absolute last resort. But what David had done could not be forgiven; he had simply pushed too far, and Bourne's tolerance had snapped.

The morph completed, he bends down to pick up the rat in his good hand. David might bite him; fine. What was one more injury to hold against the little bastard?

Rat in hand, he requests a glass aquarium from the Admiral, with accoutrements befitting its new occupant - a water bottle, soft pine shavings lining it, and a little wheel to run in.

What? He's not going to deprive his inmate of amusement, that would be barbaric.

[So Private] I'm a former tutor, being pedantic is second nature. XD

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

The rat David's become is so still one might think it were dead.

Until Bourne picks him up. Then he goes nuts.

Squealing, thrashing, the rat doesn't just bite Bourne. He bites repeatedly.

< Put me down, you asshole! Put me down! >

But Bourne doesn't. Just as he knew he wouldn't. The psycho's never minded pain - it was pulling one over on him he couldn't stand. So he holds David firmly until he's ready to put him down.

The moment he puts him down of course, David's rat takes off running. But he doesn't get very far. A few inches, and then he collides with wire mesh.

A cage. Of course. Of course.

He's had enough playing the game. Time to morph back, and he doesn't care if Bourne shoots him now. But when he tries, nothing happens. He focuses harder, willing the changes to come with every fiber of his being, and when he opens his eyes again, he's still just a rat.

< No. > he whispers, knowing what's happened. What had to happen. Of course, he wouldn't even get the twenty minutes. < Not like this! Not like this! >

His horrified thought-speech gets louder and more hysterical as he realizes that he's really, truly trapped this time, just like before, and this time there would be no escape.

< NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! >

[So Private] I see. xD

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

The bites hurt, but no way was Bourne about to drop the rat without his hand being chopped up. He's doing his best to be gentle, because he doesn't want to hurt the rat. His inmate wouldn't be able to recover from that injury by morphing - not anymore. And he doesn't want to hurt David. There are easier, less messy ways to break a person than what his inmate had done.

And Bourne was going to show him.

"You did this to yourself, David," he says calmly, looking at the frenzied rat in the cage. "Never forget that. It was you. These are your choices."

He puts something heavy on top of the cage, so David can't try and escape, then goes to clean and bind his new rat bite wounds. They're deep - the little things have sadistic teeth - and he reflects that he probably deserves them for what David is about to go through. But he's been through his own hell, lately.

Time for the (b)rat to get a taste of his own medicine.

[So Private]

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

< I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! >

David throws himself against the bars of the cage, again and again. Maniacally. Madly. He hears Bourne taunt him from above, barely able to see his face. His voice infuriatingly calm, the way it's always been. Did he think he'd actually hurt the freak at all? Bourne wasn't human. He couldn't be. And he was right, this was his fault. He'd been weak. Weak not to kill Bourne the moment he had the chance, the moment he was down. Now he would pay the ultimate price for that weakness.

< No... no... >

David's frenzied screams die down to bitter sobs as he throws himself against the bars until he's too tired to move anymore. Then he just... withdraws. Sinks back into the rat mind, lets it take over. He's too tired to fight it back now.

Maybe too tired to fight it back ever.

The rat's mind is familiar, and that's the worst part. It's like an old friend, welcoming him back. An old friend he wanted to leave and couldn't. And now he'll let it welcome him back, because it's all he has left.

[So Private] It would be heartbreaking if he hadn't been such a little shit. xP

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]