Art by me

Rat squeaking, human speaking

Ayo, deep subject matter of diffrent types of abuse for this chapter and next, not chapters for kids!

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Animal - (n.) any such living thing other than a human being. Ex: Seven was an animal. Always was, forever will.

And just like all animals, he found himself caged, or at least, the rebellion's version of a jail cell. A part of the warren the kids dug out themselves, a wooden stake in the ground while a snare was around his neck to keep him trapped.

He couldn't run, couldn't try to escape, couldn't even chew through the wire because of the muzzle still on him. He sat by the wall, knees to his chest as he rested his chin down on them.

His eyes bore into the ground in front of him, finger tapping on his jeans. How much time did he have left? If he could dig up the stake could he use it as a weapon? Where was Squeaks and was she okay?

Closing his eyes and forcing himself to take a breath. Squeaks would be fine, he should just worry about himself right now.

Squeaks... he could really use her right now... she was a good listener, even if she didn't understand what he was saying. She would let him comb through her hair with his hand and rest on his lap or be right beside him, helping him keep warm during the nights they were together on The Maw. She was the closest thing he had to a friend...

"Sev?"

Seven looked up, eyes squinting as the once dark room was given light by a torch from outside. His eyes traveled up, a growl escaping him as he made out the outline of the figure.

Rain.

She quietly snuck into the room, something in her hands. He could only growl in frustration, wanting to reach out and just-- attack her, scratch her, something to just make her feel the pain he was in. She seemed to notice, staying just out of reach, sitting down and crossing her legs.

"Seven, I brought you something to eat," Rain whispered. Food? Seven looked down, seeing the small bit of food she had in her hands. A small piece of bread and a bit of meat, sitting there just a few feet away from him and was useless to him from how tight his jaws were being held together by the metal around him.

His eyes glanced up to her, an unamused, deadpan stare as a growl grumbled in his throat. 'Get you and your backstabbing ass out of here,' he thought, his nails digging into the fabric of his jeans, muscles tensing as his anger built up again.

He wanted to shout and scream at her, yell in her face about how much trouble she just put him into. He wanted to see her beg for mercy as she withered in all her guilt. He didn't care she was family, he hated her, hated her for all of this!

"I... I know you're mad... but, Sev, please, just listen to me," Rain said softly. The boy in blue's growl grew louder, showing his teeth behind the muzzle grating, taking a handful of the soft sand under him and flinging it at her.

Rain let put a small cry of pain as it sprayed into her face, rubbing her eyes with her coat sleeves. "Sev, wait, please! Plah- yuck, you got it in my mouth!"

Seven gave a small snort, throwing another handful at her. Rain covered her eyes this time, which were now redding and itching, watering in hopes of getting rid of the grit.

"Please, I wasn't given a choice, he said he'd hurt me and you both if I didn't tell," she said, eyes squinting in fear of any sudden attack of more sand being thrown.

Seven stopped, eyes narrowing as he let go of the sand in his hand. 'Fine, explain then, and it better be good,' he thought. Rain looked at him, taking a small breath.

"He... he found me reading the journal the other night. He tried to pry whatever info was in it out of me, got a few marks to show for it. He told me to tell him what all you told me. I..." Seven noticed Rain sudden change of demeanor, grabbing her sleeve as she took a small shaky breath, "I tried to tell him you hadn't told me anything and..."

Nervously, Rain reached for the bottom button on her coat, undoing it, raising the coat up. Seven's eyes scanned over. Bruises, big and small dotted on her sides and thin stomach, a scar under her ribs reaching across one side to the other. What made him flinch was what looked like marks given to her by human nails digging in right above her hips.

"He threatened to hurt you, just like he hurt me... he... he threatened to kill you if he had to get the info out of me, kill two birds with one stone or something like that."

Seven felt his anger seep away, blue eyes rounding with sympathy. He cursed himself for thinking like that, he should have known better, Rain would never have ratted him out on purpose.

Wait until he got his hands on him. He'd make him pay for hurting her like that.

Rain pulled her coat back down, fixing the button as quick as she could. "But now that we have a moment alone, I think I found out what is wrong with Mono."

Seven rose a brow, making a motion with his hand. 'Well go on then.'

"Un wrote about a girl with a power similar to Mono's. Her name was Cini. She could travel through TVs and seemed to be able to control the transmission,"

"Some time after her powers were discovered, Un said that Cini started to get headaches after touching this glitching child in the forest. He said she started to grow more hateful when collecting those glitches he called 'remains of the past' and drew a conclusion they were connected to the transmission,"

"He said it was like she had been possessed. She was so nice to everyone but as soon as everything happened she could barely be in the same room without attacking another kid. He... he said it was like she was corrupted by the signal or something,"

"Sev... Sev, do you think this might be wrong with him? Do you think the transmission is... corrupting him? I mean, it makes sense, every time he messes with it, the transmission has an easier time effecting him. It's almost like a lighting rod drawing in electricity, like when he is controlling it it brings a large part of it to him."

Seven gave a small hum. Corruption? That sounded stupid, like some weak plot twist to a story. For all they know, Mono was just like this because he just was. He didn't believe it, it sounded too stupid to be true.

Whatever happened with Cini happened with Cini, not Mono.

He shook his head, snare wire swinging slightly as he moved his head. Rain looked at him with a worried expression.

"Un said he would try to confront her about it with Ten by the forest outskirts, and that was it before the wild scribbles," she finished.

See? No help. He gave a groan of annoyance, now how were they going to handle Mono and his - by the stars this sounded so stupid - corrupt-ness (if he wasn't born an asshole)?

The twin sat in an awkward silence, Rain nervously rubbing her arms while Seven's eyes were trained on the snare wire that connected him to the stake. He needed to get out, why wasn't Rain trying to help him?

The two jumped as there was sudden fast footsteps, something that made Rain get up quickly in a panic state.

"Squee! Squeak!"

Squeaks?

The curtain moved, a familiar yellow raincoated feral running in. She squeaked wildly, ignoring Rain and came straight over to Seven.

"Frien! Frien, frien, frien!" She tried to speak, something bothering her by the sounds of it. How did she get passed the guards and everyone else here?

His attention was once again brought back out of his thoughts, feeling Squeaks clamp her jaws around the wire, tugging on it to get it off of him. The loop tightened, to the point Seven felt his airway suddenly feeling tight, trying to push her away and pry the wire out of her mouth before she took his head off.

"Squeaks! Squeaks, stop, you'll hurt him!" Rain whispered loudly, trying to pull the other away from him. Squeaks looked back to her, letting out a growl before snapping and biting her hand.

Rain let out a small cry of pain, holding her hand in her other, looking at the blood that began to swell from the bite mark. Rain hissed in pain as she held her hand, taking a step back.

Seven gave a growl, popping Squeaks on her shoulder, making her yelp in surprise, turning to look at him. His eyes narrowed. 'No biting.'

Squeaks gave a whimper, beginning to circle around him. Rain studied her for a moment, lowering her injured hand.

"Something definitely has her upset," she muttered, seeing the feral press against her brother, letting out a squeak, nose reaching up and brushing against the snare loop.

Carefully, she bit on the metal, tugging with her teeth, before letting out as the wire didn't bulge from it's spot. Back to circling she went, sniffing for anything she could do to help out her friend.

Before long, she settled down by the head of a stake, taking and chewing on the wire, teeth sawing back and forth to try and break it.

Rain looked back to him. "I could try to sneak the muzzle key away from Mono. I'll try to be back before long, we only have six hours before sunrise."

Her eyes looked over to him again. Seven could see the worry in her eyes, the somber look as she looked over what she had unintentionally done to her own flesh and blood.

"Be careful, Sev. If we do get you out, we have another problem right on our tails."

'I should be telling you that. You're the one walking into enemy territory,' he thought, wishing how could say the words to her.

Rain left without another word, curtain drawing behind her, leaving him and Squeaks in the dark room. Squeaks continued to bite her way through the wire, trying to snap it with a hard bite.

Six hours until he was thrown out, huh? He could handle that, at least Squeaks was here to keep him company.

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Finished - Apr. 8th, 2021

Another chapter done, yay! Now you see what I meant by marks.

Honestly, writing the scene where Rain showed her marks to Seven actually upset me and took me a few rewrite to fix it to where it wasn't completely disturbing.

I'm hoping to have another chapter up soon, so get ready for that. Not promising though.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!

* Edited June 15th, 2021 *