Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Theseus's Ship

Sorry for the delays, school's hectic ATM, especially since I'm in my last year 

Now this chapter ended up being so long I had to split it into two parts, so this is part one- part two coming next week

Afterwards, without a word, Aster imprisoned me in a cave. It had a thick rock sealing the opening, so I was completely trapped inside. I tried yelling at him and convincing him to let me go, he did not listen, but telling from his expression I knew that he didn't want to lock me up either. The cave was not as cramped and shitty as the cave I was chained up in for 2000 years, it was less cramped and I had no chains binding me except for a long thick one around my ankle to prevent me from pushing the rock away and escaping. Green, and for some reason nothing I did could break the chain. It needed a specific key to the lock.

Of course I was unhappy about my situation, I was scared and empty and terrified, yet he locks me up in a cave like I'm a madman. Maybe I was a madman. Either way, a small part of me hoped that Trinity would manage to convince him to let me go, but as time passed I realised that this was not the case. Maybe he was not moved. Maybe she didn't even try. Maybe they had no other choice.

Eventually, Aster himself came and visited me.

"...This is all my fault. I'm sorry..." Aster was not good at apologies, and could never think of much else to say other than "I'm sorry"s. Even just saying it took a lot of guts for him, and he would never apologise to someone he wasn't close to. "I couldn't have ever imagined that it would turn out this way. I... There... Isn't much else for me to say. You know I'm bad at these types of things, but I'm trying."

"I know." I mumbled, curled up in a ball against the wall as I hugged my knees close like some pathetic child. Honestly, it was an idea, just an innocent old idea that he wouldn't have possibly known would go so wrong. I came up with ideas, we all did, we all experimented, the worst that could happen was nothing happening, not for one of us to be infected by this disease. This wouldn't be any different from me inventing music, and then suddenly Tesseract slowly dying. Still didn't mean I still felt highly of him, though. Yes, I could understand and I didn't blame him, but at the same time the more irrational, emotion-driven part of me hated him. That part of me blamed him. That part of me wanted to tear him apart.

"Just... How's- How's Trinity?"

Aster was quiet.

"Is she okay?

"Short answer, yes. She is okay."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Long answer?"

"Long answer is, the blow you inflicted on her typically wouldn't have hurt her so badly. It would have barely made a scratch, but because she was pregnant..."

"Oh... Oh no..."

"The real reason she was in so much pain wasn't because she was hurt. It was because her unborn child was hurt. Badly, at that."

"Don't tell me..."

"Don't worry. I'm not in with the specifics, but the child's going to survive. Both of them are."

"Oh, oh thank goodness!"

"Trinity slept for three days straight and she's very weak now, but both are in stable condition. That's all that matters. But, you still attacked her. You attacked your pregnant significant other, you almost killed your own unborn child, and Trinity told us about your blackouts. If you're having moments where you lose control, where you attacked people, I hope you understand why you're still in here."