Oneshots! (Mostly Hermitcraft)

Watch Me Fly [Cub, Grian]

The metal door swung open, revealing a tall male giant holding a tray disproportionately small for his size. He bent down as I stretched up on my toes, passing the tray to me.

"It's been drugged, right?" I check, effectively keeping my act. The giant nodded, kicking me out of the kitchen area.

Another thing I was forced to get used to was the intermixing of males and females in the human's ship. The Zentradi forbid any of the weakness that comes from desires to be with the opposite sex. We are a cloned empire, with each soldier providing the DNA for the next. Any mutations are quickly and quietly disposed of.

Stopping at another door, I open my tablet again. I screen-share it to the nearby cloaked ships waiting for the rescue signal. Taking the pen, I write, Not time yet. Moved forward faster than anticipated. Wait for my signal. I can almost see the panic on my friends' faces as they realize what this means.

I will personally monitor the procedure. Nothing will go wrong. As an afterthought, I add, I hope.

I enter the room, this being the only doorway small enough to suit my stature and the resident's. He looks up from his seat on the bed, his signature sweater over his pilot suit folded and creased from weeks of use. Blond hair flops over one eye, which he pushes out of the way.

I carry the plates over to him, sighing as I hand him the food and sit on the floor. He shifts over, patting the sheets next to him. I remain silent as I move over, staring at my shoes.

"What's the plan for today?" he asks, eating the vegetables first, as he likes to. He explained it to me once. Something along the lines of 'the bad taste gets covered up by the good stuff later.'

I remain silent, playing with the tablet pen before shoving it away in my lab coat. "We're going to get you out of here soon. We just need to keep up the act..." I trail off, knowing what will happen. "False, Tango, and Iskall are in veritech fighters nearby, and Xisuma is leading from the bridge of the SDF-1, and the rest of the crew has no clue what's going on. Overall, I think we've got a solid plan. Definitely."

My heart sinks as I realize the drugs are kicking in. "Cub, why," he slurs, barely managing the words past the effects. He collapses into me, tray clattering to the ground.

"Like I said, Grian," I mumble, knowing he can't hear me. "We need to keep up the act."

The roof of the chamber comes off, revealing the Zentradi responsible for transporting us to the lab. I step onto the platform lowered to us, carrying Grian with me. It lifts, with the familiar stomach drop as we ascend. We stop outside the chamber, and I step inside with him. Sick to my stomach, I raise his arms above his head and secure his wrists in the manacles already there. I secure his feet to the ground as he begins to wake, the drugs only being effective long enough so we can see live reactions.

"Cub, I trusted you!" he screams as I remove his shirt with a penknife. He thrashes violently, and I draw back, pressing a button. The restraints tighten, limiting his movement so I can remove the rest of his shirt and uniform.

"Believe me, I don't want to be here doing this, either," I whisper, clamping a hand over his mouth. "The plan is already in motion, we just need to make sure this happens safely. Any earlier, and we all die." He bites my hand. I stifle a yell, taking another step back. "I promised them I'd do this as safely as I could, and it's the only option we have."

I grab the oxygen mask, fitting it over his head. He resists my efforts, shifting as much as he can out of my grasp. "Grian, if you want to live, you need to let me do this." He allows me to strap it into place, and I signal the control panel outside, stepping over to the window. I pick up the syringes on the counter containing the stem cells. Counting the vertebrae and feeling where his bones already are, I inject one on either side of his spinal column in the same location.