Dark Conquest.

[Nina327]

“In a moment Natasha.”

"B..." Her mouth snapped shut with an audible pop. Her word was vital to her survival but so was the trust it also placed in the one that closed the collar around her neck. She would have to trust he knew how much time her brother had. That they did have time for the moments pause. She squeaked and jumped as she felt the tiny tube slip from within her vein. Her fingers flew to the spot, pressing it tightly.

Her head leaned into his hand, his fingers tight within locks, that singular sensation the most comforting since her arrival. her swollen lips crushed by his and she kissed him. her tiny fingernails gripping his chest the only sign of frustration. Her sigh into his mouth her only sign of resignation. She said what ever he wished so long as she made it to her brother. She let her tongue sweep his lips and her teeth trace its path.... a kiss to bring truth to her words.

 

[cgraven]

"B..."

Natasha silenced her objection before it was fully formed snapping her sweet ripe lips together. Beauty & Brains the thought pleased Loki and he was touched at the tender trusting way this wild beauty leaned her head into his hand, his fingers tight within locks, as if seeking comfort form his touch. Those soft moist rip lips “O”ed and then surrendered to his kiss. Natasha sighed into his mouth her only sign of resignation…..She let her tongue sweep his lips and her teeth trace its path.... a kiss to bring truth to her words. When Loki let Natasha become lost in that kiss, then slowly his lips parted from hers, cling to their firm moist ripeness untill the last possible moment.

His lips were but a breathe away from Natasha’s when he spoke. His moist warm breathed bathed her lips and face.


“Natasha do I need to bind your hands and place you an a lead?”

As he waited for her answer he spoke into the air.

“Dryfuss where is the boy?”


A disembodied voice came from the either answered.

Exam Room 12

Loki pressed his body to hers and there was no doubt that her very presence aroused him and that he was undeniably a both machine and man.

 

[Nina327]

Just that moment, that single calculated moment when she gave in to the kiss, he pulled away... So slowly she would have believed he was trying to draw impassioned breath from her very toes. This was but one of the desires she agreed to out of desperation but... that kind of feeling, she didn't need a request to follow it.

“Natasha do I need to bind your hands and place you an a lead?”
She bowed her head and shook it despite his fingers entangled within her locks. "No, I'm going to Tim I will not jeopardize that...." She raised her eyes to his. "Thank you."

Exam Room 12

The different textures of his chest played out under her fingertips as she inhaled his human scent, felt his beating heart and the other parts of him, that throbbed with his heartbeat, tightly pressed to her belly. She smiled as best she could. That part of him was not machine. But was his heart. It beat like her own heart. Though his wasn't breaking trying to keep her word and simply break and run to her brothers side...

"please"

 

[cgraven]

“Natasha do I need to bind your hands and place you an a lead?”

Loki was pleased when Tasha demurely lowered her head and sweetly whispered.

"No, I'm going to Tim I will not jeopardize that...."

The girl raised those stunning hazel eyes to his and simply said

"Thank you."

There was a sincerity about this wild creature that moved Loki. Natasha’s honesty in answering his questions sparked the first grain of trust to form, he was not a creature that trusted quickly or easily.

Natasha’s fragrance filled his nostrils as her body remained pressed to his. He was almost painfully aware of the warmth of her body, the scent of her hair, the dark musky fragrance of her arousal.

Please.

Her soft lyrical voice broke his train of thought and he reluctantly let her slip from his arms.

“Follow me Natasha “

He led her to exam room 12 there behind a glass partition Tim lay on a table, tubes in his arms and a bandage on his chest and head. He had been hit by a shot that was cycling between kill and stun. It was not strong enough to kill him but it was strong enough to wound him seriously.

Her brother was just out of reach seperated from her my a thick sheet of glass.

 

[Nina327]

She steped through the door and her feet lft the ground in flight. Slipping past Loki like a breeze she smacked solidly into the glass. She knew it was there, she stayed pressed tightly too it. Her hands splayed out and scratched at the surface. Forehead pressed her body rocked on it as a pivot point. Her cry was rage and fear and sorrow. Tears ran and her hands slapped at the glass. Her twin, her blood, her promise. Her head thumped on the glass and she heared his voice behind her tell her no. She would have thrown her head through the glass. That one word reminded her of her own words. She would remain here for as long as he wished, death by her hand did not fall into that agreement.

Her body bowed tighter than an angry tigress. Her claws scratched more and more at the glass untill she beat it with her fists and then beat harder. She would have turned and tore him apart.... but the only thing she had was her word. She would not kill him. Wracking sobs shook her screaming to her knees. ...

Finaly when she was quiet she turned her head... her voice flat..... "I can't even touch him?"

 

[cgraven]

Nordstrom had never scene such passion such grief as Natasha pressed her gorgeous young body tightly too the glass barrier that kept her from her wounded brother. He watched as all the wild young beauty’s frustration and anger at last found expression. Natasha fingers splayed, arched and clawed at the barrier. Her frustration mounted, forehead pressed to the unyielding surface her body rocked and Tasha’s cry of rage, fear and sorrow filled the exam room . Tears ran down her flawless cheeks, her head hung low as she sobbed her frustration, hands slapped at the glass, her head thumped on the glass.

“Natasha, NO!”

Loki’s voice was dark, deep, and rumbled from him. A voice that was felt as much as heard. There was no sharpness to it, but a soft power with an undertone of one use to being obeyed. Claws scratched more and more at the glass untill she beat it with her fists and then beat harder………….Wracking sobs shook her screaming to her knees. ...


"I can't even touch him?"

Her voice was unnaturally flat with her grief and frustration as Natasha turned her stunning hazel eyes to him.

“Natasha not right now he is sedated his injuries extensive.”

Dryfuss came to Loki and handed him a plastic pad. He studied it then he spoke once more to Natasha.

“He is near to death Natasha I can operate on him………”

He saw the confusion in those stunning eyes.

“………. I can try to heal him,….ah Tim…”

Loki corrected himself.

“…If I replace the damage he will live but be much as I am Natasha”

He stooped as he spoke and placed a single finger on her sweet moist lips to silence her protest.

“…… or I can use an older healing where, though scared he would remain as you.”

Loki let his finger slip from the girl’s mouth to await her decision.

 

[Nina327]

“Natasha not right now he is sedated his injuries extensive.”

“Not Ri....”
She bit her tongue as another one of them walked in, watching Loki intently as he looked at what ever it was the other gave him. She watched him think. She wanted to know why a stupid piece of plastic was more important than her brother.

“He is near to death Natasha I can operate on him………”

Him? Operate? Things operated! Machines operated. She knew she had damaged one of them in the attack and wondered if he was talking about it.

“………. I can try to heal him,….ah Tim…”

It was about Tim. Her breath caught and rushed. She was instantly on edge, eyes wide. She had no idea what healing meant to him. She knew what it meant to her people but...

“…If I replace the damage he will live but be much as I am Natasha”

He stooped as he spoke and placed a single finger on her lips, effectively holding her tongue. She would have bitten him if her focus hadn't been on Tim. How he thought she would wish that on her blood she would never know.

“…… or I can use an older healing where, though scared he would remain as you.”

His finger slipped off her lips and for a moment or a hundred moments she was quiet. Studying his face. So that was her choice then. Let him mutilate her brother or let him remain like her. Either choice still left his death in pending flight. Her brother would rather die than be machine. She would kill him if he were. To them, the stories, the life they were raised in. You value yourself, just as you are. Scars and all.

She caught his hand and raised it placing her lips on his wrist in the smallest of kisses. Resting her cheek in his palm. Her bruised hand holding his there. The other reaching out to trace that mechanical side of his face, timidly, tentativly... until her fingers tips traced lower, across his lips.

“We are not like you. Heal him or let him die. As it is, no matter what you do he may never wake. I have never seen healing that did not involve touch.”

Her cheek left his hand, lips kissed his wrist once more and trailed along his forearm.

“My people believe it is touch that wills a person to live. More than the sun wills a plant to break from the ground and reach for it. Being with others makes all the difference in the world.”

Pulling her lips away from his skin she rose, lifting herself along the glass and looked at her brother. Her bruised fingers spreading along the glass and tracing his distant form before coming back to herself and tracing the collar at her neck.

“I chose this, to help him as much as help my own survival. I begged to help him but I do not see how I can do that from here accept to choose him dieing now... or after you attempt to heal him...” She turned back to Loki, her eyes slowly coming back up to his. “Can we leave here now...... I can't watch him like this...”

 

[cgraven]

Those wide hazel eyes turned to him and he saw Tasha’s confusion and uncomprehending stare as he listed the options that faced her to save her twin her Tim. For long moments the wild little creature studied him then she brought his human wrist to her lips and pressed a kiss to it were his life forced pulsed just below the surface. Then she gently pressed her cheek to the palm of his hand and cupped it to her face. It was if she were trying to tell him something. Her eyes sought his again as her finger tips trace that mechanical side of his face, timidly, tentatively... until her fingers tips traced lower, across his lips.

“We are not like you. Heal him or let him die. As it is, no matter what you do he may never wake. I have never seen healing that did not involve touch.”

As if to make her meaning clear she lifted her cheek from his palm and traced the pulsing life force up his forearm.

“My people believe it is touch that wills a person to live. More than the sun wills a plant to break from the ground and reach for it. Being with others makes all the difference in the world.”

Just as his explanation of medical procedures had left Natasha confused and wondering. Her explanation of holistic healing by touch was just as much an impenetrable mystery to Nostrum. The slowly she let her eyes drop form him and her lips dew away from his skin. Tasha rose, there was a fluid sensual primal grace to her movements, lifting herself along the glass and looked at her brother. Her bruised fingers spreading along the glass and tracing his distant form before coming back to herself and tracing the collar at her neck.

“I chose this, to help him as much as help my own survival. I begged to help him but I do not see how I can do that from here accept to choose him dieing now... or after you attempt to heal him...”

There was a profound sadness in her stunning hazel eyes as Tasha turned back , her eyes slowly coming back up to his.

“Can we leave here now...... I can't watch him like this...”


Without a word Loki took the girl by the hand. He led her to a sterile white room and into an ionic shower .

“ Then he placed a smock over her nearly naked body. You will do all I say and nothing more till I have finished.”

“He led Tasha into the room with her twin he grasped her shoulders remember nothing but what I say……….”

He waited for her acknowledgement
“You may hold his hand Natasha.”

He then took a deep steadying breath.

“ 10cc opiate 4. “

And so the ancient ritual of the operation began a ritual that had not been preformed in over 300 years. Scalpel, graphs, sutures all the dark magic of ages past. All the ancient arts to save one Norm male, arts that would leave him scared but alive and as human as he was, or nothing but a crops on an operating table. All this for her.

 

[Nina327]

She was shocked and almost dragged from her feet. It was like he was angrily fighting with himself and she simply didn't know why or where they were going. He slipped a mass of white fabric over her frame in the stark white room and tied it in sharp little knots along her back.

"You will do all I say and nothing more till I have finished.”
She nodded as he took her hand and lead her in the very room her brother was in. For her sake and his it was a good thing he had her by the hand. His crushing grip on her bruised fingers was the only thing that stopped her from flight. She was spun back to face him. He held her shoulders, for what felt like forever, until she stopped and focused on him.

"remember nothing but what I say……….”
She stood there, breathing deeply. She had always been surrounded by men that thought they were in charge. Her cousins, her brothers and uncles. His tone was nothing like theirs ever was. His voice was soft but the order brooked no argument. He would acquiesce to her request, despite his wishes. He would prove that his word is as good as hers. Her eyes closed and she nodded but his hands didn't let go until she opened her eyes and answered aloud.
"yes".
“You may hold his hand Natasha.”

She stood there as he walked away. Her want to cover her brother with herself, to pet him, talk to him, stroke his skin, it made her shake. She had never been one to follow orders for long and never any she didn't agree with. Her survival though, depended on it. Even though she had known no-one to survive capture. She was a twin, she was stronger. She would bare twins... she had to survive.

She found a stool in the room and pulled it to her brothers bedside. Sitting her hands took Tim's and she felt it twitch. She dropped her cheek to his hand and rubbed his knuckles on her skin, smelling his familiar smell in this strange room of almost no smells.

Her eyes opened finding Loki standing on the other side watching her until their eyes met. Then he took a deep steadying breath.

“ 10cc opiate 4. “

She didn't ask what that meant, she knew what at opiate was... just not that. She just watched as Tim seems to relax more. Her her fingertips found the pulse at his wrist and stayed there while she watched.... everything.

She watched unflinching as the bandage was removed and his wound oozed. She watched as Loki's hands, machine and mechanical descended on Tim's chest. Each hand working together in perfect harmony. She watched even as she felt her brothers pulse speed and slow. Her only movement was her fingers that trailed along his arm. They never went far from his hand and didn't touch the tubes that entered his flesh. She watched dead tissue cut away. Some things he did she recognized from healers in her camp. He did them with different tools, different things but her confidence grew.... as well as her sadness.

She hummed a lullaby... she didn't know she was doing it. Her eyes watched it all and wandered over her brother. Remembering happy things. Days in sunshine and nights in stars. She had never slept without him by her side since conception. She thought she had a few more months before he left. Yet she prayed through touch and song that he wouldn't survive. Not like this... but she couldn't say that out loud to even herself. She had promised him that he would die by her hand. She hoped that holding his hand would be the same. Though in her hope was that same human desire that he lives.

“Thank you... for trying” she whispered as she said good bye to her brother through her touch.. soft tears... all of it. She knew if he lived they wouldn't be together... and if he didn't, they wouldn't be together but she was truly great-full to be able to say good bye. She hoped he at least understood she was great-full.

Patience would never be hers... time dragged. Her eyes grew tired and she laid her head on their combined hands and drifted. Sleep came and went, repeatedly as the clock ticked.

 

[cgraven]

To Natasha’s world this must all seem so very alien. The stark antiseptic reality of the operating theater with its monitors that showed the life forces of her blood of her beloved twin. Dark green lifeless eyes that showed bright green lines that mimicked Tim’s life force. The web of tube and IV’s that pumped fluids into her beloved. Just as unreal to Loki was her soft lullaby. The way she pressed her cheek to his palm, the gentle caress of her fingers to his skin as if by that touch she could will his life back into Tim’s body.

His hands as skilled as they were could not by this ancient art save the mirror image of Tasha..

“Tasha if you do not let me use my arts to make Tim like us I am not sure I can save him for you……..”

Even as he spoke Loki never gave up his attempt to save the boy.

“……..it would be as if were killed by your own hand.”

One look into those stunning hazel eyes told Nordstrom that she was determined that Tim remain as she and hers. He nodded and returned to the ancient healer’s art. The whispered beeps of those lifeless eyes slowed and then final became a long mournful tone.

“Cardiac stimulation.”

Tim’s body seemed to jerk the little beeps started again only to fade to that mournful tone. Three times Loki called for the cardiac stimulation till finally he pulled the mask from his face.

“He is dead Natasha.”

His voice low deep and with a hint of sorrow.

 

[Nina327]

Her head lifted from its resting place on joined hands and she studied both faces. The one of her brothers wholly human and the one of Loki's. One artificially serene and disturbing in the infinitely white light. The other no less disturbing but so intent on 'fix'ing the serene. Sounds changed. The feel of the thready pulse at her fingertips echoed strangely with the sounds of machinery.

“Tasha if you do not let me use my arts to make Tim like us I am not sure I can save him for you……..”

Her face set in stone.

“……..it would be as if were killed by your own hand.”

Her eyes held his; steady, determined. Tim's fate was already sealed the moment the night was broken my Loki's team. She would protect their ways and her promise every second of their lives. Even if it meant his life. Her fingers gripped tighter as those remaining seconds beat faster and his gentle pulse slowed to a stop.

The soft shrill tone was in time with his heart but it was very very curious that it would have a tonal quality to a lack of heartbeat. She would never forget that sound now. Not ever. Such a mechanical finality.

“Cardiac stimulation.”

She jumped barely stifling a squawk as Tim moved. Standing she didn't register the stool clattering away behind her. Her eyes wildly flicking from Tim to machine to Loki... and then around the room. She would keep her word to her brother first. Then it registered. Tim's pulse was back...

She stood transfixed as again the lines on the machine got smaller and smaller and it toned his end.... Twice more this was repeated. Fear and anger boiled. How dare he do that. What ever it was it was not her ways... but.. twice more that damned tone hung in the air like a living thing. Near frantic she watched and that tone echoed....

“He is dead Natasha.” His deep timbre was free from the mask and she wilted slightly..

Steps, several steps forward and she nodded... eying the body warily. Fingers touched his wrist sliding to enclose it, pressing. Her entire body sagged breathing for what felt like almost forever. Lifting knuckles she rubbed them to her cheek and whispered so, so softly.

“Promise kept........ Goodbye my love.”

Her chest expanded, spine straightened and her face set. Releasing her breath she pulled every tube and wire out of her brother she could reach. Rounding the table she continued until he was free from it all; blood slowly weeped to the floor, the table and the tops of her feet. She didn't care. Pulling the white cloth from her body.. up, up and over her head she wiped the smudges from his face.

She heard Loki's dark voice and hers cut through it before this first syllable had the chance to echo in the strange room. It was not intelligible words, or a scream or pain or defiance or determination. It was all of those in an ear splitting guttural tone. Then without skipping a heartbeat her pinky dipped in the wounds of his chest and she drew a horizon line across his brow. On it she drew the sunset, the mountain and the pine tree. The place of their birth and their clan home.

Taking her covering, folding it, she laid it over his chest and walked round the table to stand half way between it and the door, breathing thickly but strong. She had realized she didn't need to dig all night. No animal could find him here. She could rest, she could wait... she could.....

Her eyes lifted to Loki, infinitely softer than before they entered the room though an edge would remain.

“I am finished, he can be buried whenever the sun comes again. Thank you for allowing me to help him and thank you for trying so hard. That will not be forgotten.”

With that she lowered her head to hold her tongue. If it were not for him her brother would be alive, but he tried to save Tim for her. She kept her word. He kept his. She did not know what her fate was here but at least she had a spark of trust and burning limbs and throbbing in her fingers and her joints... and many places in between.

 

[cgraven]

“Tasha if you do not let me use my arts to make Tim like us I am not sure I can save him for you……..”

Her face set in stone.

“……..it would be as if were killed by your own hand.”

The determined look in Natasha’s eyes told Loki that she was willing to let her brother the male reflection of herself pass from this world to the next rather to have him changed from the free creature he had always been into a Tecnoid. With a heavy sigh Loki met the girl’s gaze with his own unblinking gaze. That look told her he would respect the decision she had made. He watched as the boys life began to slip through his fingers. He used all the skills he possessed to save him for the wild beauty . So intense was he that he never saw how she leapt back and sent the stool she had been setting clattering across the operating theater’s floor.

“He is dead Natasha.” His deep timbre was free from the mask and she wilted slightly..

There was an unsettling calmness as Natasha bent down and whispered.

“Promise kept........ Goodbye my love.”

That deceptive clam vanished in a flash as Natasha tore every vestige of Tecnoid technology from Tim till he was once more as she had always known him.

“I am finished, he can be buried whenever the sun comes again. Thank you for allowing me to help him and thank you for trying so hard. That will not be forgotten.”

“Tasha We shall take him to the camp that was your home if that would easy your sorrow.”


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

He made his way to the upper reaches of the mountain citadel his eyes shifted from shadow to shadow to make sure he had not been followed. His message was short to the point and took no more than a few seconds to send.

“ A fertile female Norm….”

He sent the coordinates and an evil smile bowed Dryfuss’s lips. Soon the Holy Brethren would have her and with any luck Loki would be permanently removed as well.

 

[Nina327]

“Tasha We shall take him to the camp that was your home if that would easy your sorrow.”

Her anger flashed. Her people were nomadic. The entire continent was... was her home. The collar round her neck was the only thing that made this strange new place where she would lay her head. She wouldn't show farther sorrow. She made an agreement. She would keep it.

She hoped she would. Without her brother, her people.. the only thing her word was good for was keeping her alive. She knew how to behave and how to survive. Sometimes those two things didn't coexist.

Her eyes lifted to his, she tried to feel something other than indignant. She couldn't. He was her captor, no matter what her body had done earlier her mind was numb.... her hands lifted, fists closed, wrists together in offering. He could take them and bind them or not. She didn't care, she didn't know if she would run though. Soon as the door opened. She just didn't know.

"Without the sun I can not perceive time but my body tells me it is night. If it is possible to bury him soon i would appreciate it. If it is not then may I sleep somewhere other than this room?"

 

[cgraven]

Dryfuss watched as Loki tried to comfort the wild creature her body stirred feelings in him that he knew where a violation of the Tecnoids basic beliefs in reason and science. All of which convinced him that his conversion to the Holy Brethren it would be through her body her sacrifice that humanity would be reborn.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mathieu of the Holy Brethren smiled as he read the brief message

“ A fertile female Norm….”

Followed by the coordinates where he could arrange an ambush and claim this most precious of all prizes he called his twisted brethren. Some resembled a metamorphous of man and beast others resembled depictions of ancient daemons, and some had withering tentacles.

They waited in the shadows waited to spring the trap, waited with an haunting patients that belied their desperation. Mathieu raised his head a smile bowed his twisted features as the lone craft settled to the ground and he saw her for the first time.


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Loki had accompanied Tasha to the place of burial he had given her the respect to bury Tim as was the practice of her kind. The rituals where just about completed when the Holy Brethren struck. Loki was driven back towards the air ship as they Cut Tasha from any support or aid.

Mathieu soon had the prize he desired. Dryfuss had made sure the battle would go to the Brethren and with the battle Natasha. She would be the sacrifice, and the young beauty the first of her kind to be capture alive was borne away in chains. The bodies of her companions laying sprawled on the ground the air ship burning.