Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grayson watched through the small port hole as Stygia got farther and farther from view. While he was grateful for escaping before the DNA bomb went off, and he was also grateful for having Trishka as company, the silence inside the small capsule was deafening.

  “So… What was Sarrano like back when he had Dead Echo kill my father?” Trishka asked, glancing at her rifle.

  “Well, he never really changed. He was a sociopathic, narcissistic, murderous, son of a whore. Amazing how over the years, he never learned a single thing or gained a single shred of humanity…” Grayson explained. Trishka smiled and looked up quickly before returning her attention to the carbine in her hands. Gray thought it was a beautiful sight, but he was happy that she called him a friend. Trishka was drop-dead gorgeous and Gray would be lucky to be able to love her, but one step at a time.

   For the first time in a while, Gray finally had some time to relax and started taking off his heavy combat gear. After shrugging off his armoured coat, he threw it over across from him and Trishka looked up in surprise.

   “What the actual hell do you think you are doing?” Trishka asked “Just because we survived being nuked down to the atomic level, that we’re just gonna fuck here in the pod in case we die!”

   Gray was visibly shocked and placed his hands up in defence.

 “I was just fucking warm! I wasn’t trying to seduce you or anything! Jesus Christ!” Gray said. Trishka apologised and relaxed again. Gray looked out through the port hole again. Stygia was just a horrible speck off in the distance.

  “We’re going pretty fast.” Gray said, trying to break the growing tension.

  “Well thank you, captain fucking obvious! We got launched by a DNA bomb! What did you expect it to do? Tickle your dick hairs?!” Trishka said. After another few minutes in complete silence, Trishka apologised, and Gray starting to laugh. As the laughter gradually got louder, Trishka took the combat knife out of the sheath strapped to her thigh and pointed at Gray.

   “I swear, you may be my friend, but if you crack and try and eat me, I will stab you in the throat, without a second thought…” Trishka threatened. After a while, Gray stopped laughing and wiped a tear from his cheek.

   “What I was laughing about was, we’re probably gonna die in this pod because I knew for a fact that the batteries don’t last a long time, but in the way, we keep threatening each other and losing our collective shits, I think we’ll have each other dead before the batteries run out. I don’t know about you, but that’s bloody hilarious!” Gray explained. The colour seemed to drain from Trishka’s face as she frantically checked the various monitors inside the capsule.

   “How can you be so damn calm about fucking dying?!” Trishka urged.

  “Well for one, as I explained back on Stygia, I’m finished with all this running and gunning shit! I’ve lived a life full of close calls and a body count that probably rivals that of Warlords. If I die here, I’m ok with that.” Gray explained. This only seemed to anger Trishka more and Gray quickly got a right hook across his jaw.

  “Well I’m not ready to hand the towel in! If you don’t want to live, jump out and stop breathing my air!” Trishka shouted.

   “If I open that airlock, you’ll be spaced along with me…” Gray said. Trishka fell back into her seat and threw her rifle up on top of Gray’s discarded chest armour. Suddenly, she jumped up and went tinkering with the monitors again.

  “I’d suggest you put that armour on again. It’s gonna get cold in here when I send all the power to just the radar beacon…” Trishka explained with a smile on her face. Suddenly the pod grew dark and the temperature dropped almost instantly.

   “What the hell? If I die here, I don’t wanna die as a fucking popsicle!” Gray shouted as he begrudgingly, put his coat back on.

  “Don’t worry Barbara, we’re not gonna die. We’ll just rest and leave the beacon do its job. We’ll have to spoon together to preserve body temperature, but I swear to whatever higher power is listening, if I feel anything ‘pop’ up, you’ll get a clear picture of how good I am with my knife… GOT IT??” Trishka threatened. Gray simply sighed and sat down, resting his back against the wall of the pod, and opened his arms so that Trishka could sit down and get comfortable in his embrace.

   “Yes ma’am!” Gray sarcastically said. Trishka sheathed her knife once again, and sat down in Gray’s lap.

  “Good…” Trishka mumbled as Gray wrapped his arms around her smaller figure. Again, the silence was deafening to Gray, but he had to admit that he liked the position that they were in. He just had to make sure to keep his mind and body in check because of all the threats that Trishka had made before, he was most afraid of the last one. It didn’t take long for them both to fall asleep and then, they just drifted through space until a scrap freighter picked up the pod, and sadly they weren’t out of the storm yet…

Chapter Text

Grey rubbed the back of his head. A sensitive new lump told him that someone had the bright idea of clubbing him while he was asleep. A deadly mistake on their part but between his leash and his shotgun… he’d set matters straight. Becoming a bit more aware of his surroundings, Grey realised that he was in a cage, someone had taken his armour, and he was also unarmed. Grey was now royally pissed.

Looking around, Grey spotted someone leaning against a gangway railing. Finding a small bolt by his feet, Grey threw it at them, hitting them directly at the back of the head. While it had the desired effect of getting their attention, Grey had begun to wish it hadn’t. Bounding over like a feral animal, the ‘guard’ had a face that looked like a wax figure standing beside a furnace. Sagging, rotten skin stretched over a fumbling figure, Grey had to use nearly every ounce of willpower he had not to vomit.

   “Someone’s been swimming around in their own gene pool, you inbred fuck!”

It swiped at Grey with wild, unpredictable claws and leapt up onto the cage. The cage swung back and forth and using that momentum, Grey put his weight behind a single haymaker, delivering it promptly to the guard’s face. The guard was unfazed, and Grey’s fist just buried itself into the guard’s face. There didn’t even seem to be any bones keeping the disgusting bastard together and as he turned back to Grey, one of his eyeballs just rolled out of its socket and rolled along the ground. As he leapt back up onto the cage again, a single shotgun blast rang into the air and the creature went limp and fell down into the bubbling cauldron of molten metal underneath. Hearing someone click their tongue, Grey turned back to the gangway.

    “I’ve told them time and time again that I don’t like anyone playing with my toys…”

A man stepped into the light. He was incredibly short and very portly, with mousy hair and a ratty moustache. The base of a broken bottle served as an impromptu monocle and a grubby red coat seemed to complete his outfit. Grey couldn’t help himself and doubled over, laughing.

    “And who the fuck are you?”

    “My name is Spunkmeyer and I would recommend that you not mock the person who has the power of life and death over you… Greyson Hunt.”

The mention of his name paired with the seemingly shallow threat was only fuel to Grey’s laughter.

   “Believe me Spunky, after the shitty couple days I’ve just had, you can go and pull that trigger. We both know you’re not going to though. If you know who I am, you’re gonna try and cash in my bounty.”

Spunkmeyer seemed to be losing his patience as Grey continued mocking him.

    “My name is Spunkmeyer and your mocking is pointless. I will leave you here and go and see if your female company is any more civilised.”

Grey’s eyes widened for a second before a smirk broke across his face again.

    “Trishka? A word of warning there Spunky?”

Spunkmeyer rolled his eyes.

    “Yes?”

    “If you try and indulge in some ‘companionship’ with Trishka… you better be wearing a steel cup because Trishka will cut your balls off and make you choke on them.”

   “Goodbye Mr. Hunt”

Spunkmeyer left and Grey tried to find someway to get free. Spotting a crowbar sitting on a crate, Grey tried to swing the cage closer and closer in order to grab it. Grey’s earlier fight must have caused a fair bit of damage though because the chain holding the cage gave away and after barely missing the molten metal beneath him, the cage fell, throwing Grey around inside. The cage crashed at the bottom but Grey landed hard on his shoulder. Grey bared his teeth as the stabbing pain in his shoulder told him that there was a good chance it was broken, or at least dislocated. Laying on his back, Grey pushed against the lock and it soon gave away. Crawling out, Grey decided the best idea was to find Trishka.

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While Sarrano was a heartless, dick-less, self-loving, son-of-a-whore, serving under him in the military had taught Trishka quite a lot of essential skills like how to kill someone with a single knife slash or what to do when stuck in shitty situations. Waking up in a cage, naked, was one of those shitty situations and Trishka found an anger so intense ignite in the back of her mind, that her brain sort of had to do a reboot. The ground that she had been sleeping on was grimy and Trishka really didn’t want to know why. After checking herself over and making sure she hadn’t been cut or hurt, Trishka tried to find a way out. After a few minutes, someone walked in and threw a bundle of fabric towards Trishka.

   “Boss says you gotta put this on…”

Trishka had a look at the ‘outfit’ in question. Putting it on, she’d be wearing even less than she currently was. Figuring a way out, Trishka started doing something she never thought she’d have to. Walking up against the edge of the cage, Trishka slowly stuck her hand out, gesturing for the pirate to come closer while cupping her breast with the other. Trishka wanted to murder every single fuck-wit on board this ship and she would but for now, her plan seemed to be working. Running her tongue over her lips seemed to help even more and now Trishka had her hands on the pirates chest, while he had his hands on her hips. Trishka leaned in as close as she could, running her hands over his torso and back until she found what she was looking for.

    “Fuck… you’re h-!”

Trishka had buried the pirates knife in his neck and with a violent spurt, Trishka had yanked the knife out sideways. As blood gurgled from the pirates corpse, Trishka grabbed a key and unlocked the cage. Searching the room for some decent clothes, all Trishka could find was leather straps or worse. Pulling a rifle from the corpse, Trishka headed out into the ship.

    “Guess I better go find that other fuck-wit Hunt…”