The Color of His Eyes, Chapter 10
Title: The Color of His Eyes
Summary: When Flash, a carefree skateboarder of the future, acquires an exotic slave, both of their lives are changed.
Warnings: M/M, Violence, Abuse, Non-con, Graphic Sex


Adrian took a breath and steadied his grip on the tray. It would go down fast, he knew, and would almost undoubtedly end in catastrophe. Living as a fugitive from the law was dangerous enough without charging into the heart of the Empire’s power. A small part of him still cowered at the idea of defying authority, and begged him to leave Rainbow alone. As he knew from bitter experience, not everyone could be saved. Rainbow had sacrificed himself for them, that cowardly part of him reasoned. Would he waste that gift by charging back into danger?

*Yes,* snarled the hunter in him, the part that kept his grip on the tray firm as he walked down the hall. He would not let one of his brethren live captive as long as it was in his power to save them. That was what he had sworn to do when he had joined the Resistance and it was a promise he would keep on pain of death. He had born it heavily when he thought Rainbow had died. Rainbow had been so devoted to protecting them when it should have been the other way around. When they had found out he was alive – alive and suffering, if the agent they captured was to be believed – Adrian had known what he would have to do. The others had tried to follow suit, but he had convinced them to let him go alone into the facility. No sense in all of them getting killed.

He checked his disguise again as he neared the door. His nurse’s uniform was perfectly creased, and his contacts and false fingerprints were still in place. He scanned them at the door and stepped in as it opened and then closed behind him.

An agent slouched at a table on the corner, chin resting on his hand, barely awake. The other human was wearing a white lab coat, and old fear and revulsion bubbled up in Adrian at the sight. He pushed it down. Rainbow was lying there on the table in the middle of the room, depending on him. “Sustenance for the subject, sir,” he said, addressing the lab coat.

“Put it down over there,” said the scientist, not looking up from the syringe he was filling. Adrian put the tray where the human had indicated, carefully avoiding looking at Rainbow, and then set his sights on the agent.

The Agency’s security was far from lax. Anyone who tried to sneak in something even vaguely resembling a weapon was promptly seized and searched, and any alien above a certain danger classification was subject to heavy escort. But in their arrogance, they refused to accept that creatures like Adrian – small, humble, unarmed – were strong enough and clever enough to pose a threat.

The agent didn’t even look up before it was too late.

The other human turned at the sound of the agent’s strangled cry, and startled as he saw the man’s broken neck. Adrian pounced. This one he didn’t kill, knowing that Rainbow’s locks would only respond to fingertips with a heartbeat under them.

Rainbow was watching him when Adrian turned back to him. His eyes were white, which took Adrian by surprise. He had expected the bitterly familiar mix of green and silver, possibly overlaid with pink or even red. If he had been too late, he would have seen a dull, broken blue. It was jarring to see Rainbow so obviously calm when surrounded by chaos and implements of terror.

“Rainbow?” he asked. “Do you recognize me? It’s Adrian.”

“I remember,” Rainbow replied calmly.

“I’m here to free you.” It sounded so easy when he said it like that. He dragged the unconscious scientist over and pressed his fingertips to the lock. Rainbow’s bonds unlocked and Adrian let the human drop, backing up a bit in case Rainbow didn’t want to be crowded. His eyes were still white, so Adrian couldn’t be sure.

“Thank you,” said Rainbow, speaking like he was in a dream. He rubbed his wrists and stretched his neck.

Perhaps he simply needed an example. Adrian took the lenses out and let him see his amicability and trust for Rainbow, his wariness and fear of the agency, and the anger and hunting instinct that lurked beneath the surface.

“Where is Flash?”

“Who?” Was there another Rekikor here?

“Flash. My ma--” Rainbow caught himself. “My family.”

Shit. “You mean they’re keeping your old master here too?” Adrian used the word even though Rainbow was clearly afraid to. He couldn’t afford to let Rainbow keep his illusions anymore. They didn’t have much time, and he wasn’t going to throw his life away for a cursed human.

“Yes, but he’s not – he’s my family, Adrian. Can’t – can’t you see that?” He seemed less calm now, and looked at Adrian like it was obvious his eyes were purple.

Adrian could only shake his head, knowing pity was coloring his own eyes. “They’re just white.”

Rainbow’s lip raised in a snarl. “This is what they’ve done to me.” He stared into the distance, remote in the whiteness of his eyes.

“Look, Rainbow, we don’t have much time. The others are waiting outside. They’ll get us to safety but we have to go now.” Agency secrecy meant there was no surveillance in the test rooms, but it was only a matter of time before someone else came into the room, or tried to speak with the agent or scientist.

“Do you have a plan for getting out?”

“We just have to get to the roof, and we can scale the side from there.” The humans wouldn’t consider that a way out, since they had never been climbers, but it would be easy for a Rekikor.

Rainbow nodded, and Adrian was glad he saw reason, but then he said, “Go to the roof and scale it. Leave with the rest if need be.”

“But I came to save you!” Rainbow’s cool gaze and voice were making Adrian frustrated. What had the humans done to him, to make him like this? He wanted a Rekikor, who thought and felt with all of himself, not this cold, reserved creature that was all but human.

“There’s something I have to do.” He spoke like an agent, flat and unfeeling.

He had come too late, Adrian realized, even if Rainbow wasn’t blue eyed. “They broke you.”

Rainbow moved in, then, and put a hand on Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian was surprised by the warmth in him. “No. They haven’t broken me. They’ve only… changed me, I think. I can’t explain it. They were looking for something in me, and I wouldn’t let them have it, and now I can’t seem to let go of keeping it all inside.”

“I don’t understand.” How could any Rekikor be unable to show any color? They could be forced into a limited range, that was true, or be given more to one than another, because of personality or circumstance, but not to show any color at all? It was impossible.

“It’s okay,” Rainbow said, soothing now, like he was the heroic rescuer and Adrian the terrified captive. “I have a plan.”

88888

Flash was sleeping when the door opened. They made him sleep at proscribed times, and never disturbed him. If they were coming in the middle of the night, it couldn’t be for anything good. He pushed himself up. If they were going to kill him, he would meet them standing up. He had failed at everything – at being Frederick Hunter, at being Flash, at being a friend and a master and anything but an idiot – but he wasn’t going to fuck this up. He owed it to Rainbow, if not himself, to show the agents that he was a man. He would show them that he was someone Rainbow could be devoted to.

But it wasn’t an agent who was coming towards him. It was a ghost. Tartarus, it couldn’t be. “Rainbow?”

Rainbow approached slowly, if not tentatively. He stood before Flash, tantalizingly close.

“I thought you were dead.” Flash was beginning to wonder if this was a dream. Maybe the Agency was drugging him now, messing with his mind to break him.

Rainbow said nothing.

“How did you escape?” There was no way the Agency had simply let him go.

Rainbow’s voice when he replied was flat and cool. “I had help. They’re waiting for us outside. Come on, we have to go before they find the dead humans.”

“The – dead –” Rainbow had killed people? Rainbow, his Rainbow, the quivering mess he had rescued from a cage, so many weeks ago?

But this wasn’t the same Rainbow, he realized, as he was led out the door and pulled down the hallway. This was a new creature, the one who had looked Agent Kriver in the eye and told him he would enjoy killing him. This was the lethal creature he had only seen in glimpses before. The thought made a chill run down his spine. This was the creature who had come for him.

They ran, and ran harder when the alarm sounded and the agents poured out. Rainbow was like a wraith, like a machine. There was no sign left in him of the scared, bruised slave who had huddled on the floor, shaking at his own shadow. This was a hunting alien in the peak of his abilities, pale death against the agents. Flash could barely believe his eyes as Rainbow savaged an Agent easily, wrested his stunner from him and tossed it to Flash without even looking at him. Flash caught it by reflex, and shot three agents before they reached the end of the hallway.

He hadn’t changed very much, apparently. Same old Freddy, crushing life without even blinking.

Not that it would matter. Even under the pump of adrenaline and the shock of his revelation about Rainbow, he recognized that everything had been shot to Tartarus. It didn’t matter that Rainbow had turned into a death-dealing machine, or that he hadn’t forgotten the lessons his father had pounded into him. The Agency still saw a broken commodity and a huvver from the slum. It was only a matter of time before the Agency called in the heavy guns, and they were both taken.

The lights flashed red and Flash heard the mechanical rumble of the lockdown starting.

Rainbow seemed unperturbed. He grabbed Flash’s arm and pulled him into a cargo elevator. The doors whisked shut, and Flash heard distant cursing from the agents who had been chasing them. It was only a matter of time before the elevator was stopped, although the fact that it was a cargo elevator gave them a little more time. “I want to go to the roof,” said Rainbow, looking at him.

He didn’t know how to work an elevator, Flash realized. He really was an alien. He pressed the button, and they rode up, the elevator made to lift large loads moving swiftly with a lighter cargo.

Two floors from the roof the elevator came to a rattling stop, the lockdown catching up to them. Flash looked at Rainbow, feeling a jolt as he saw those seemingly blind white eyes staring at him. He swallowed, trying to think of something to say, and then the doors opened.

He had expected a mass of agents, but only one man stood in front of them. Kriver. Flash raised his stunner just as Kriver did and twin whines sounded as they both shot.

If he had aimed at Flash, things might have gone differently. But he had aimed at Rainbow, and Rainbow had ducked, quicker than any human. Flash had aimed true, and Kriver’s stunner clattered from his numb hands.

“So damn fast,” Kriver said thickly, staring at Rainbow. Flash saw Rainbow smirk. He was obviously mocking Kriver’s own smile, and Flash felt another chill as he wondered how well Rainbow knew this man.

But he didn’t have time to wonder. “That shot’s going to wear off in a bit. Should I shoot him again?” He was the one holding the stunner, and hated Kriver for his own reasons, but he still felt like he ought to ask Rainbow.

Rainbow shook his head. “No, we need him.” He took Kriver by the hair and started to half drag him along. Flash followed dumbfounded until he saw where they were going.

It took Kriver a moment to catch on. He gave them an uncertain look when they came to the staircase. “Unlock it,” Flash clarified.

Kriver swallowed, clearly working up the nerve to refuse. Flash didn’t have time for this. While Rainbow held him, Flash grabbed his hand and slammed it into the lock. It scanned and unlocked, and on they went. Kriver started to thrash more as they went on, making things difficult as the shock started to wear off, but Rainbow handled him like he was a whiny toddler.

There was another lock at the top of the stairs, and it was more of a struggle to make Kriver unlock it this time, but they managed, and when they stepped through they were on the roof.

All of Prospera stretched out before them, disturbingly peaceful from this distance. Years ago Flash would have looked at this place and feel confounded by how much he was expected to rule one day. Now he looked out at the spiraling towers and arching roads and saw a different kind of trap. Where could they go now?

Rainbow did not seem perturbed. He threw Kriver away from him, watching impassively as Kriver rolled to his feet and brushed himself off. The wind whipped through his white hair, and Flash could not help but gaze at him, even as he kept the stunner trained on Kriver.

“I wouldn’t kill me if I were you, kid,” Kriver said, and Flash realized the man was talking to him. “You can’t escape this, but they’ll listen later if I tell them that you cooperated under arrest and came peacefully.”

“We’ve already attacked a dozen agents,” Flash reminded him. The man really didn’t get it, did he?

Kriver looked at a loss at that, and then even more confused as Rainbow took hold of Flash’s arm and pulled him away towards the edge. Flash could feel the drop behind him, and Rainbow at his side.

“Are you ready?” Rainbow asked, and Flash realized abruptly what Rainbow’s plan was.

The other huvvers called him “Flash,” the man without fear, who’d plunge into Tartarus if the rush were sweet enough. He had prided himself on that, doing the one thing he had been unable to do as Freddy, to look into the abyss and jump right into it. He could still do this. He felt the old familiar rush fill him. “Always.”

Kriver didn’t get it until it was too late, and Flash saw him lunge at them as they went over the edge. They were falling, and Flash had no board to catch him this time, but it didn’t matter, because he had Rainbow with him. His last thought before the rush took the breath from him was that he wished he had been able to tell Rainbow how very, very much he loved him.

88888

Damien Feri put down his phone and dared the little bugger to ring again. He was pleased when it did not; it was the first time things had gone as he wished all day. This day had topped any previous incidents of incompetency in his division, and he had seen some doozies.

As Director of the Agency in the Prospera division, Feri was used to the push and pull of government and private elite. He had certain expectations of the old, wealthy families in the area, and in return was happy to provide what services were expected of him. He counted on several families for their monetary and political support, with the understanding the money came with the agreement to ignore their shady business practices and the shenanigans of their spoiled brats. In addition, he was expected to refrain from kidnapping one of those brats, arresting him without charges or record, and even threatening or attempting to kill him.

He had not been expecting the call from the Hunter estate. He had thought it was another boss ringing to vituperate him for the current debacle with Operation Black. The Rekikor’s priming had been going poorly for weeks, and the most recent development of his escape and attack had been the fitting climax.

“With all due respect, sirs,” he had said without even looking at the caller, “I cannot kill the damn thing if I must constantly keep you abreast of my actions.”

“I do hope,” a voice had responded in the pleasant, faintly condescending air of an expensive butler, “That you are not confirming the report that you are trying to assassinate the heir of the Hunter estate.”

“What?” Only then had Feri looked at the number, and realized he was speaking to the manager of the Hunter trust. “I believe you’ve made some sort of mistake.” There was no way the Rekikor was the heir to anything, and the slum kid he belonged to was as plebeian as they came.

“If I may be so bold, sir, I believe the mistake was made on your side. My name is Eric Lanner, and I represent the Hunter estate.”

The conversation had gone downhill from there. It was not a good day. Not only had he let the biggest military advance since the Manhattan Project slip through his fingers, he had probably lost the Agency an enormous amount of funding. Odds were slim that the Hunter kid, now that he was found, would let any more of his precious endless funds anywhere near the government branch that had tried to kill him and his little toy.

He had also probably lost his job.

It had not been his fault, certainly. It was standard procedure to get rid of witnesses without record in a case like this, and the Hunter boy had only been kept as ammunition against the Rekikor. There was no way they could have known who the kid was unless someone had recognized him. And someone definitely had.

He pressed the button that would transmit his voice to the intercom. “Abort initiative to obtain prisoners 994 and 995. Repeat: abort initiative to obtain prisoners 994 and 995.” Then he picked up the phone and tried to decide which of his incompetent, moronic Agents he was going to fire and which he was simply going to have removed.

Only the Fayelian escaped his wrath.

888888

Kriver nearly followed the Rekikor and the idiot kid right off the building. He stopped himself halfway there, and fairly flew down to the first floor, ignoring the hustle and bustle of Agents around him. There still seemed to be chaos everywhere, and he didn’t have time for it. Nothing mattered except the damn Rekikor.

He burst out one of the side doors to the vehicle lot where the kid and the creature should have been lying dead. But there was no sight of them. Kriver swore.

Then he saw a flash of white hair across the lot.

He took off, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, wishing he had the time to grab a vehicle, to call for backup. But he couldn’t let the Rekikor, the godsdamned alien that should be dead or begging for mercy escape.

And he was gaining on it. It ran lithely, as though it hadn’t just fallen from a building, but he was bigger and stronger and he would win. He pounded his feet against the pavement and ignored the fire in his lungs. He ran almost blindly, his only focus the white hair and almost childlike body. He had no idea where he was going, except that he was following the Rekikor, and he was winning.

He made his bid the second he had the creature within arms reach. Slamming into it and knocking his own breath away, he shoved it into an alleyway, where the law could turn a blind eye when he put it out of his misery for once and for all.

It hit the ground hard and rolled away, and he took a moment to catch his breath while it struggled to rise. He watched it come to its knees slowly, head down and hair over its face. As his breath evened he raised his stunner and set it to its highest setting, feeling the weight of his exhaustion fall on him as he took aim. “Time to die, fucker,” he said as the thing finally raised its face.

He saw the flat gleam of its white eyes across the alleyway. In a split second, they were inches away from him. His gun was wrested out his hands before he could think, and he stood frozen in fear, struck by the realization that this thing wasn’t weak at all. It wasn’t tired or afraid in the slightest.

It hadn’t been running away from him. It had been *leading* him.

It was the last thought he ever had.

88888

Flash awoke to the fuzzy feeling only pain drugs could bring. It took him a moment to orient himself, and with consciousness came muted pain. He groaned and opened his eyes, blinking the blurriness away and seeing a cruddy, chipped ceiling. He was lying on a faded red couch, and he was covered in crude bandages.

He sat up slowly, groaning again as his head protested. It was only when he looked around afterward that he realized he was not alone in the room.

“Rainbow?” He realized as soon as he said it that this Rekikor wasn’t Rainbow. This one was bigger, although still shorter than him, with less delicate features and a scowl painted on his face. His eyes looked white.

“I sent for him.” His tone was curt.

“What happened?” The last thing he remembered was jumping off the building with Rainbow. He tried to get up, wondering how bad his wounds were.

The Rekikor took a menacing step forward. “Don’t move, human. It wasn’t my idea to bring you here. Rainbow will be here in a second.”

Flash decided this wasn’t the time to pick a fight. “Where am I?”

The Rekikor seemed slightly mollified by his obedience. “A safe place, for now. We need to move soon. The Agency’s bound to be on our ass.”

“And who are you?”

“A friend of Rainbow’s.”

“No, I mean, who owns you?”

The muscles in the Rekikor’s jaw clenched and his gaze darkened. Flash was too far away and high on pain drugs to tell what color, but he was guessing it wasn’t a happy one. “I am no one’s property, human. Make the mistake again and I’ll gut you.”

Shocked by the threat, Flash said nothing. Rainbow showed up a second later, and Flash watched as he greeted the other Rekikor silently, their eyes locked on each other. The other Rekikor turned back to him eventually. “Remember what I told you,” he said, before leaving the room.

“Rainbow,” Flash said, at the same time as Rainbow cried “Flash!” Then Rainbow was next to him, running his hands over Flash’s bandages as if to check them. His eyes were still a neutral white, although care and worry were written on every other part of his body.

“I’m all right,” Flash said, although he had no idea if that was true. “Especially considering what I was expecting. What happened?”

“Some Rekiki I met while I was esc—away came to rescue me. I told Adrian – the Rekikor you just met – to steal a vehicle and bring it out to the lot after he freed me. I thought the padding would help, but I guess humans are weaker than I thought.” Rainbow, Flash noticed, was sporting only a couple visible bruises.

Suddenly, Rainbow ceased his catalogue of Flash’s injuries and looked up at him, frowning. “You thought you would be dead?”

“We jumped off a building.”

“You love to jump off buildings. Is that not how the board works? You do not die with those.” Rainbow’s expression held horror. “I thought you knew you would be safe. I would not let you die.”

Flash shrugged, feeling uncomfortable now that the moment was over. “Didn’t seem like a good idea to live without you.”

Rainbow, who only a short while ago been the reaper of the Agency, now looked a lot more like the sad creature he’d brought home from a hooker bar. “But I am just a pet to you.”

“That’s – that’s not.” He thought about how Rainbow had come for him, had saved him even after he had failed so much. He thought about Adrian’s words. *I am no one’s property.* “Someone told me that you think of me as family. Is that true?”

“Of course.” There was such utter serenity in Rainbow’s eyes, like it didn’t bother him at all that Flash had ordered him around and tied him up and fucked him and not even fucking protected him when push came to shove. The enormity of it hit him suddenly, of what Rainbow was and what he had done to a creature who had only ever been kind and loving to him. Rainbow had protected him at every turn and he had only enslaved and hurt and failed him.

He put his head in his hands. “Gods, Rainbow, I’m such a fuck up.”

Rainbow made a soothing, inhuman noise. “Of course you are not.”

“How can you say that? I *bought* you. I didn’t even give a shit about you. I wanted to get rid of you, and when I didn’t I made you – I ordered you around and I tied you up and gods, Rainbow, I’m so fucking sorry. I know that doesn’t even mean anything – how could it? Tartarus, I’m so –”

Rainbow placed a hand on his mouth and looked him in the eye. “You were the first human to ever show me kindness. You saw how Adrian was. The others here, they have only known human cruelty. You changed me.”

“Kindness? I thought of you as a *pet.* I did all that to you and you still saved my life.”

“You saved mine first.” Rainbow’s voice was gentle. “I was dying in that cage, and you took me. I know you never meant to hurt me.”

“But I *did.* I treated you like an animal. Worse.”

Rainbow sighed. “I do not care. You may have made your mistakes, but it was only because of you that I survived the Agents. It was because of you that I am what I am now, and I will not be ashamed of it. Or of you.”

“I owe you so much. Gods, Rainbow, I love you so much.” He didn’t even realize his words had changed until suddenly Rainbow was kissing him, his hands moving so gently over his wounded body. It took him a few foggy, kiss-dazed moments to realize that Rainbow was stripping him and himself. “Wait, Rainbow, we shouldn’t – I shouldn’t –” How could he fuck Rainbow again after what he had done the first time? After everything that had been done to Rainbow?

Rainbow silenced him with a kiss. “This is what I want.” The confidence in those words, the same sense of cool control that had let Rainbow kill Agents by the dozen, sent a thrill down Flash’s spine and a shock of blood to his cock. Then Rainbow was on top of him, straddling him, guiding him gently and firmly. He took hold of Rainbow’s hips and let himself be engulfed by sensation.

Rainbow lay beside him afterwards, sleeping silently, but Flash couldn’t sleep even with post-orgasm relaxation and drugs thrumming through him. It still wasn’t right. Just because Rainbow was willing to forgive him didn’t make it all right. He hadn’t done anything except not be as horrible as the sick fucking bastards who had abused him for most of his life. So he had given Rainbow clothes and only drunkenly fucked him once. That didn’t make him a goddamn hero.

There had to be something he could do. Something to prove to himself, at least, that he was serious about doing the right thing for Rainbow. And the others, too, the Rekiki who had risked their lives for him just as much as Rainbow had and with even less cause. He had a chance to take responsibility, and this was one time he refused to fuck up.

It came to him suddenly, what he had to do. He practically kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier.

He disentangled himself from Rainbow as gently as he could, and left him sleeping on the couch. Adrian was in the next room, and looked displeased to see him, his eyes changing to a wary green. “I told you to stay put.”

“I need a phone. Any kind.”

“No contact.” Adrian sounded like an exasperated parent explaining to a child. “The Agents are still looking for us.”

“Once I make this call, it won’t matter if they find us or not.”

Adrian’s eyes took on a yellow tinge at that. Curiosity, Flash recalled. Not trust, but hopefully close enough. “Who do you want to call?”

“My butler.”

Adrian’s gave Flash a once over as if seeing him for the first time, his eyes now totally yellow. “Rainbow doesn’t remember you having a butler.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly living at home when he met me.” Years of hiding summed up in a throwaway sentence.

Adrian frowned, but nodded at a phone, a cheap piece in the corner. He followed Flash over to it. “If you betray us, I will kill you.”

“Fair enough.” Flash picked up the phone and put in the number, remembering how many times he’d called it before. It rang only once before Eric’s modulated tones greeted him. “I was not expecting to hear from you, sir.”

“Wasn’t really expecting to call.” Flash, so determined a moment ago, felt a little foolish now. How could he expect to just waltz home? Even with his father dead and the estate intact, he had been gone so long…

“Would you like to come home?” Eric’s voice was perfectly calm, but even so his question made Flash shiver. Home. Did he want to go back to the place where he had spent years fighting and giving in to his father’s violent teachings? No.

“I don’t think I’ll ever come home, Eric. But I do want to come back. And,” he looked up as Rainbow came into the room and stared at him curiously. “I’m bringing some friends.”