Ed cracked bloodied eyes, the lids peeling away from each other in sections. He blinked against the light, the dim glow as bright as the noon sun after so long without it. He blinked away tears that carved paths through the dried blood covering his face.
"Is it breakfast time already?"
Gabriel chuckled. "Always so fucking smarmy, aren't you? No breakfast for you, I'm afraid."
Ed's chuckle turned crackly and he coughed, bent over in pain. After a minute it settled and he took a slow, careful breath.
"Oh, are somebody's ribs hurting still?"
"Yeah, breaking them will do that to you."
"I'm just here for a friendly chat - it might even lead to some breakfast for you if you're a good little boy."
Ed spat bloody phlegm onto a floor that was already spattered in it. "Well, I suppose another few weeks without food isn't going to kill me at this point. I have to say, it's doing wonders for my figure."
Gabriel snarled and dropped into a squat, pushing the light into Ed's face. "You just HAVE to have a smart comment, don't you? You just can't fucking resist it. Keep it up, art boy! Let's see how good of an artist you are without any fingers!"
They both looked down to Ed's hands and the missing pinkie fingers on each. "I don't have to take them one at a time, you know. I could just go for the whole fucking lot of them." His anger turned into a predatory grin when he saw Ed flinch back at that.
"So, today's the day you're going to tell me. How do you get your paintbrush to open portals to other areas? And how did you find me?" Gabriel had quickly pieced together that it was no coincidence that this asshole had ended up where he was again. He must have been following him, and it didn't take a genius to put two and two together that the portal he'd stepped through was how he did it. Ed had been annoyingly silent on his history, but Gabriel knew the look of a victim out for revenge. This dude must have loved someone that Gabriel had gotten killed and now he wanted revenge. If that was true then there were probably others doing the same thing. He never stuck around long enough to be 100% sure everyone had died.
"And why doesn't my power work on you?" This was the real issue. If there were people out there who were immune to his powers, people that could track him down, he was at serious risk. He wasn't a fighter and it took time for him to build his small armies. If someone caught up with him before he was ready for them… He shuddered at that thought and got angry all over again.
His arm snapped out, his backhand sending Ed's head reeling.
"Look dude, before I start taking more fingers you need to answer my fucking questions."
Ed gave a long-suffering sigh before raising his gaze to meet Gabriel's. "I keep telling you, it's not something I can just tell you. I have to show you, which I can't do without my tools."
Gabriel and some of Mason's goons had snatched the items away when Ed had summoned them, holding his arms in place. Gabriel had been afraid they'd disappear like they appeared, but once they were holding them and Ed was unconscious they'd been able to get them into another room. They'd chained him up in case he tried to use his portal spell, which seemed to have worked. No one would bear the kind of abuse Ed had been receiving if they could just magic themselves to a safe place.
"Well you're not fucking getting anywhere near them, so stop bringing that up. How do you make the portal?"
"I draw it."
Gabriel gritted his teeth. "I know you draw it, but how? How does it work?"
"I picture where I want to go, then I draw the portal."
"Well see, that's what gets to me. You didn't know where I was - not in that shitty little neighborhood and not when I ended up here. So how did you know where to portal?"
Ed smiled through bloodstained teeth. "I smelled you."
Gabriel's temper flared hot and white and he reared back to punch the shit out of this asshole's flinching face. He stopped before swinging though, standing up and looking down at the naked man. "Guess you want to do this the fun way. You know, maybe this time instead of a finger we take an inch off that dick of yours."
Ed's eyes went wide and his feet flailed as he pushed himself against the wall, hugging his knees tightly to his chest. Gabriel laughed as he walked to where the bloodied tree branch pruner sat in a circle of dried blood on one of the washing machines. He dragged it along the surface, enjoying the screeching sound it made against the metal as he did. This is some of that bad-ass villain shit.
He reached Ed, the man kicking out at him. Gabriel kicked back, his boots making thocking sounds on the mans legs and feet. They struggled, Gabriel winning the battle of forcing the man's legs apart.
They were interrupted by an announcement.
** System Announcement: Congratulations! All members of your planet have reached level five! **
Gabriel read the announcement, then again before dismissing it.
"Fuck!" This was going to get Mason in a tizzy and he needed to be there to do damage control or everything he'd built would be lost.
"You got fucking lucky this time, asshole, but I'll be back - and I won't be taking just an inch." He stabbed the pruner into Ed's thigh, reveling in the scream, then grabbed the light and stormed out.
Ed sobbed in the darkness, scared to take the pruning shears out of his leg. The pain was a familiar companion by this point, but not one you ever got used to. It was a pale comparison to the hopelessness that swam through him like an eel in his bowels, though. He didn't know how long he'd been down here, but he guessed weeks. Zavier had speculated that they wouldn't need to eat after level 10, but that didn't stop the pangs from keeping him awake. He guessed that his body still needed fuel to heal - even if he didn't technically need it to survive. He was healing, faster than he had before The System arrived, but it wasn't fast enough and most definitely wasn't painless.
Everything he'd gone through, even the loss of his fingers and his broken bones, were a hollow ache compared to the loss of his tools and magic. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he didn't technically need them. They were foci - used to channel his will and connection to The System into something wonderful. He knew this, but he didn't know it. He suspected that the only reason he was still trapped down here was a mental block that convinced him that he needed them to work his magic. But knowing it and actually breaking through were very different things. His entire life he'd worked with some sort of medium. The tools themselves were almost incidental, as long as they created. As long as they took the images he could see in his mind and put them onto something else, they were artist tools to him. He suspected that even his blood would work, but being alone in perpetual darkness prevented even that. He'd tried, and oh how many opportunities he'd had to try, but without seeing what he was creating there was just no way he could make the images manifest. He wasn't a tactile creator, he was visual, and the only light he ever saw was filled with too much pain and distraction for him to even make the attempt.
He took another moment to wallow in the pain, despair, and fear. He let it swim through him and he swam through it in return. He cried out at the injustice of not seeing The System like Zavier did, of not having his tools, and of being subject to the FUCKING MONSTER that couldn't even let him die.
He swam, then he surfaced.
Wiping away the tears he took a deep breath, reaching down to feel for the shears stuck in his leg. "You're not going to Hedwig me, you fucking psycho." He took a deep breath. "This is going to hurt like a bitch."
The basement was too removed from the main house for anyone to hear the scream.