diversified | Everyone's got their chains to break. [ closed ]

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Everyone's got their chains to break. [ closed ]

WHO Jacob Kane (

insertdadjoke), Abel Fletcher (

sociopapathic).
WHAT Do not fuck with these brothers. Not even if you want to experiment and find out why one is immortal. Just don't do it.
WHEN Late 2014, several months after Cain and Abel have been working together to down the Death Erasers.
WHERE nfc.

"What do you mean, you don't know how to text?" asked Cain. He glanced over the lid of his laptop to give his brother a dubious look. There was a whole lot Abel had simply never picked up in his time as an Enforcer and Cain was painfully aware of how much personal experience Abel was lacking in his unlife. There was nothing to be done for it except curse the Reapers and move forward from there. Still... "Everyone knows how to text, Abel."

It was a bit egregious when Abel had a thirteen year old daughter (granted that she was adopted) who was quite the typical teenager in some respects and still Abel couldn't do much more than make calls with his phone. That just seemed like willful ignorance on Abel's part. Cain was going to have to fix that. There were worse things he was going to have to help his brother get through; this one would be a piece of cake.

Didn't mean he couldn't rib the hell out of Abel for it, though.

"Do you even know how to get to the text menu? Can you even turn your phone on? My God, does Holly have to charge it for you?" he asked, tone going more and more obnoxious as the questions came. Sometimes he even got a reaction for it. Those were always awesome.

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"Death Erasers? That's the same as what the Enforcers call the Clockless, correct?" Angela was back in the driver's seat on questioning while Robert seemed content to go back to his meal. "You were investigating them too?"

The attempted elbowing caused Abel to tilt his head in a smile. He still thinks that shooting him a second time would have been beneficial to both of them, if only to try shooting sense into that head of his. "It is the truth. I cannot shoot you now since it appears that I am fond of you despite all the reasons that I shouldn't be."

"Oh, yeah," Cain said with a nod. "Same thing. I noticed them before I knew the Enforcers had a name for them, so that's what I called the bastards. Theirs is more poetic, but mine is definitely to the point. Because I didn't know the Enforcers were onto them, too, I had my own investigation, yeah," he admitted.

It was plenty obvious and didn't really need much more explaining: seeing people without death clocks was just completely unnatural. Even Cain had one. It had been hard to look at Angela and Robert at the start, but Abel's ridiculousness in buying them golden necklaces to emulate their lost clocks had shocked him out of that silliness. Now there was just a determination to right what had been wronged, as there had been ever since Cain learned of what the Death Erasers had done with the information they'd gathered from his own body.

"That was how Abel and I met up. We had the same lead—someone got sloppy somewhere—but it didn't really pan out in the end. Whatever slack had dropped on their line, they picked it up damn quick."

Both twins were quiet, paying attention to what Cain was saying. They didn't get much in the way of information on the Enforcers investigating the Clockless, so they were incredibly curious about what has been going on with the investigation. "How is that coming along, the investigation into them so what they did could be reversed and they can be stopped?"

At that question, Abel placed his hand on Cain's shoulder, his expression serious. "When you get the chance, excuse yourself to the restroom. I think it would be for the best if we spoke."

Cain spared a frown into his food at Abel's interruption. He wanted to answer the twins honestly, tell them that there had not been so much progress at reversal when they were still flying blind on the techniques that the organization was using to produce such results. It was hard to know how to reach the end goal when you didn't even have a place to start.

"Actually," he said with a tilt of his head, "I need to use the bathroom. Probably better now instead of when we get in the thick of it, huh?" Somehow, Cain had the feeling he was not going to like what Abel had to say, but it was hard to ignore the direct request in comparison to his previous peanut gallery comments instead.

With a sheepish smile, Cain left the table and navigated into the mens' room. It was thankfully empty, hall and stalls, so he took a deep breath and let himself lean back against the tile wall. "What? Getting bored?" It wasn't that, but Cain was still indignant that Abel apparently thought he had done something wrong that warranted being in trouble. "What's up, Abel?"

The twins nodded and looked somewhat disappointed, but apparently decided that this was a good time to catch up on eating instead of just asking questions. They were definitely going to continue their barrage once he returned.

When they got to the bathroom, Abel became corporeal and glanced at Cain. He didn't seem to care about Cain's comment, instead going straight into business. "We do not inform them for a reason. You are not allowed to tell them what our investigation has turned up. Or in this case, what it has not."

Abel was a suspicious man to begin with and with unknown variables such as the twins and his brother involved, it made his job far more difficult. He kept the information from them in case the twins were truly involved with the Clockless instead of being innocent bystanders. While he wished to do the same with Cain, it was harder to do so since Abel was well aware he had his own investigation and that if he blocked him, he would continue anyway.

Cain rolled his eyes. It was about what he expected to be said, but it was still exasperating. He knew Abel was acting under orders and so he tried to keep it from being directed at his brother, yet Abel was the only one around to really pin the blame on. It was better to be mad at the nameless than at Abel. That was not something Cain indulged in lightly.

"What reason would that be?" he asked. "Same reason you just never bothered to explain why Holly isn't and shouldn't be scared of you? Or did you? Maybe they just needed to hear that one from someone mostly uninvolved. Whatever. Why not? There's no progress, but they should be kept up to date."

"They are a security risk and the less they know about myself and the investigation, the better things will be for both them and us." Abel looked at him as if wondering why he didn't even realize that. It was dangerous for everyone to know what they knew. Why didn't Cain know that? "It is why we have them on such a lockdown, so not only can they not accidentally give up any information but so that they do not encounter any of the Clockless."

Because Cain operated on a singular basis. Anything he knew was up to his own discretion on whether to disseminate to other parties at his own discretion and currently his discretion said that the Yates twins were being needlessly kept in the dark. It was hard to reconcile his solo ways (with occasional assist from his children, granted) with Abel's more structured environment for dealing with threats like these.

"Sounds a lot like regular old house arrest to me," Cain said with a furrowed brow. "There's keeping them out of the loop... then there's not even letting them know a loop exists. Besides, if they don't know much about you then they're more likely to hinder you at every turn than let you do your work. Isn't it more efficient this way?" He raised a hand before Abel could say he was avoiding part of the subject. "Believe me, I really do think they should know where we stand on the Death Erasers, but I'm following your lead here. I won't tell them, but it's too late for you. You're welcome."

Abel was starting to pace, trying to figure out how to deal with this. His brother might have doing this with the best of intentions, but it wasn't how Abel operated and it bothered him greatly.

"They are unknown variables and as such, should be treated as a risk until we find evidence otherwise. Because you are my brother and do not know how our operations work, I am merely leaving you with a warning." There was a pause and he crossed his arms tightly against his chest. "And despite what you may believe, you do not know me well enough to give them any good information on me, so I shall ignore that comment."

Abel was getting moody. Hard as it was to tell from his usual hardass and uncomprehending manner of dealing with people, Cain could easily read the agitation of his big brother and knew that it was his nature to simply keep pushing until something gave and he could get over it. Remus had never intentionally pushed against Romulus, however, and Cain pursed his lips to keep from reacting. It stung, but it was also expected that Abel would deny being known so well by someone who was effectively a stranger.

"Is that all?" he asked neutrally. "Just keep them in the dark and treat them like ticking time bombs?" It wasn't how Cain operated. His thoughts were that everyone should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Despite his own rocky past and having every reason to be as paranoid as Abel, it was a defense mechanism to keep Cain from overextending himself and becoming exhausted merely by living. If he wanted to keep what remained of his sanity in the years to come, Cain could not afford to be constantly looking over his shoulder. However, he would do it for Abel. This was clearly an important matter to him and Cain was helpless to deny his brother something he obviously cared about maintaining.

Thankfully, his moods weren't one to stick around and it'd disappear soon enough. For now, he seemed to not notice Cain's neutral tone when he responded. He didn't understand why there would be problems with this.

"Affirmative. Though they don't tick enough nor have countdowns to be actual time bombs, brother, as well as the fact they are not stuffed with explosives. Unless that is what you feeding them."

Cain couldn't help the grin at Abel's complete lack of understanding for the metaphor. It was just Abel enough to let him relax. Remus was still in there somewhere, but Abel was who his brother was now and Cain was quick on learning about this new version of his brother as well.

"You'll have to talk to the chefs here about that," he said with a shake of his head. "Doubt they serve explosives as a main course, though. Look, why don't you go home to Holly—it's about time she got home from school, right? And I'll finish up here. We'll be back soon."

All Abel could really do is tilt his head slightly to the side as if he was trying to understand Cain and not really succeeding at it. Letting his arms fall to his sides, he just seemed to relax. He didn't like arguing with his brother, but it had to happen at least once.

"I shall return home, but I will send another Enforcer to make sure you are protected for the rest of your meal and the drive back." He then paused to think for a moment. "Despite my harshness, I do hope you three have a good time out. I shall see you when you return."

"Sending another babysitter isn't necessary," Cain said mildly. There wasn't really much he could do to stop Abel from sending another Enforcer, nor could he get that Enforcer to go away unless Cain won the lotto and it was one he knew.

Not waiting to let Abel get the last word, he headed for the door and said over his shoulder, "Thanks. See you at home, Abel." Now he would just have to face the twins and do something he hated: lie. It wasn't impossible, but it was against his nature. He much rather preferred simply keeping things from ever coming up, but Abel's interference meant he now had to back out without making it look like it.

Despite the confrontation, things went relatively smooth from there on. For the next few months, life fell into some sort of pattern. Wake up, look for his car (eventually replaced with working on his car with Abel), go out for the day, come home and hang out with everyone until they parted ways. It wasn't until November that Cain started to notice discrepancies in his routine. Some days were missing. Afternoons, really, just blank spots in his mind from when he left the house to when he returned home. It was worrying him to an extreme he had not felt for quite a long time. Of course, he did the most logical thing he could think of to deal with the circumstances and told Abel. He hadn't been received with the best of reactions, but Abel agreed to help him figure out what was happening in those dark hours.

Before all that, however, was Holly's birthday. It was obviously a special event for the now-fourteen year old and everyone was more than a bit relieved for the chance to relax for a day while celebrating. Although they didn't go anywhere special, friends were invited over for later in the day and both sets of twins were bustling about to get the decorations ready, tables set out and the food organized. It was quite nice to have some teamwork after the slow burn of confusion and distrust of the Yates toward their host and his brother. Refreshing, that was the word Cain wanted for it.

However, when Cain stepped inside to check on the progress of the cake being frosted, he was unexpectedly pulled aside by a large hand encircling him arm. All he could do was get out an aborted yelp before something pricked at his neck and a cloth was being held in front of his face to cover his nose and mouth. Cloying sweetness stuffed his lungs and coated his veins and before he could even think about moving, darkness had stolen him away.

While things may have been relatively smooth for Cain the past few months, it was not so for Abel. The investigation was wearing him down and the additional knowledge of Cain's blackouts did not help. He hid his emotions from everyone so he seemed his usual self, but paranoia and distrust was gnawing away at the back of his mind, growing and growing while he waited for the inevitable turn to occur.

He didn't expect it to be on Holly's birthday though. It was one of the few times besides Halloween that she could truly have fun with friends and family and Abel had wanted to make it special, so he was decorating her cake. For being a dead man, he had a bit of culinary knowledge that he loved to bring out for his daughter.

When he heard the door open and close but didn't hear anybody come in, Abel went to look and was completely off guard when he was ambushed. It was an automatic response to fight and he was about to return to his ghost form when he felt something close around his neck with a sharp click, stopping him from being able to incorporeal. That made him stop in shock and gave them the opening they needed to bind his hands and forcibly shove a gag in his mouth before covering his head with a bag and carting him off, Abel doing his best to kick his attackers and let out a very muffled shout.

Whoever was in charge of the abduction knew what they were doing. Although they did not bind Abel's eyes for the trip, he was relegated to the back of a windowless van and shackled to the wall so as to keep his struggling to a minimum. Cain was already there, unconscious and hooked up to an IV to keep him from waking for the length of their trip. Classic 80s songs were played in the front cabin, but soon even that was cut off when their trip ended not even an hour later. It was a short reprieve as their hosts now took the time to make sure Abel would be going in blind, then tossed him into a cage. Apparently it was less suspicious to go by air than drive to their end destination.

Two hours later and the trip was already done. Their captors were moving them again, Cain still unconscious to the world while Abel was treated like nothing more than a muzzled dog and dragged through the hallways. Someone, a large and muscular man who was more than capable of maneuvering a disoriented Abel around, removed the gag and blindfold and then shoved him into a cage. The man left, and the room was empty save for one other: Cain, tied up to some kind of surgical chair in the center of the room. Their accommodations were not sparse. The walls were lined with computers and shelves stocked with medicines, tools, charts and anything else one might expect from a well-funded operation all stuffed into four walls. There was nothing but scientific curiosity and foreboding, no reason other than research for the room to exist. Abel's cage was even made to order, a height where Abel could not fully stand and yet too uncomfortable to lay across; the bars were covered with a strong mesh to keep him from working his fingers through without obstructing his vision. It sat in the corner, an angle where the subject in the center would have to turn his head just to know someone was there in the first place.

Only a short while after they had been deposited, Cain began to stir. His eyelids fluttered and he murmured, trying to stretch out his limbs and stilling immediately when he felt the bindings along his wrists and ankles. He jerked and tried to tug at them, a distressed grunt breaking free as more wrestling with his restraints proved to have no give at all. "Come on... Not again... Come on. Come on, come on. Abel will be here soon, gotta get out first. Too tight. Too tight. Come on!"

Edited 2014-02-07 18:24 (UTC)

Disoriented was one way to describe Abel's feelings. Another was enraged. The entire time he fought, struggling against his bindings and later slamming himself up against the cage he had been shoved into for the air portion of their trip. By the time he had been shoved into the cage in the room they were keeping Cain, Abel was sore and quietly working on trying to get out.

The cage was well built and definitely made for him, which made him snarl in anger. He tried to call upon his Enforcer magic, but there was nothing. That terrified him and he reached up to touch the strange device they had placed on him. This had to be why he couldn't be incorporeal and locked away his magic. He was an Enforcer and that meant he would find away around it, even if only for his brother's sake.

When Cain awoke, Abel was silent, watching him carefully until he heard him panicking and hoping that Abel would come and save him. "Brother. Cain. I am afraid that I won't be swooping in to rescue you this time." He covered his mouth with his hand when he realized that he was speaking Latin. Things were worse than he thought. He didn't have any magic and that terrified him more than anything.

As soon as Abel spoke, Cain froze as if someone had doused him with cold water. He tried to calm his breathing, turning his head to follow the sound. When he saw that his brother was there with him, he grinned. No, that wasn't right, what was Abel saying? It turned into a frown as he processed the Latin and let himself deflate in exhaustion. Things had only just begun but they were already quite out of the ordinary, hope shattering where the light should have been peeking through.

"You called me Cain," he said after a moment of trying to sort his thoughts. Latin or no, that was the first time he recalled Abel ever choosing to use the name Cain had given himself. "Why? What happened? What did they do? Are you hurt?"

"Yes. They grabbed both of us. I am unable to access any of my magic." He slammed his hand against the mesh in his cage as if to prove it. "They put something on me. It is probably what is behind my loss. We were grabbed. Are you unharmed, brother?"

He dropped down into a sit, looking all around as if keeping guard. He felt useless stuck like this, but he needed to try doing something to stave off the unwanted emotions until they could escape or get rescued.

Cain swallowed. His mouth was dry and cottony. It was probably the drugs. He felt them crawling around inside him, weighing him down and making his limbs feel like plastic. It was not an entirely unpleasant feeling, but considering their situation it only served to work him up when he was helpless on top of it.

"Always unharmed," he answered. That was obvious. Why would Abel ask him that? Cain couldn't be harmed. "I'm good. Good... this isn't good, though. If you're stuck and I'm stuck, who's unstuck? Is Holly unstuck? Oh... it's her birthday. We got her shit presents. We got kidnapped."

Abel couldn't help it and laughed at what Cain said. Out of everything, he was worried about being kidnapped on Holly's birthday. Which Abel will get revenge for once they were free and he had the chance to murder people.

"They just grabbed us. You were the only person I saw in the--" Abel had to stop and pause. Latin didn't have the words he needed to explain. It was the downsides of speaking a long dead language. "--van. They took us in van. Then shoved me into cage. Then arrived here. Put me into this cage. You were asleep. Not helpful."

Cain looked downcast at the news. "They drugged me," he said. As if it weren't obvious by the IV still inserted into his arm or his state of nonlinear anything. "I would have helped, but they... I was out. I'm sorry. We'll fix this. We can do this. We'll be back in time for cake."

Whatever further rambling Cain had been about to embark upon was cut short when the door opened. A man in a white lab coat wearing glasses entered. He looked to be about middle aged, with blond hair starting to streak with white. His hands were behind his back and his head held up high enough to easily see the lack of numbers around his neck. Cain stared at him as the doctor made his way over, suddenly breathless from worry twisting in his gut.

"Hello again, Cain," the man greeted. He had pulled a tray over next to Cain's chair and was sorting through the various instruments. "It's been a while. Three years now, isn't it? Almost four. You've brought a friend this time, how nice of you. Let's see... Just need to do a routine little slice, make sure you're still tip-top."

Cain flinched and tried to pull his head away when the doctor cupped a hand firmly around his jaw and held him still. He raised a scalpel and made a clean incision along Cain's forehead, completely ignoring the distressed keen from the immortal man. Even through the drugs, he felt that one. Apparently the chemicals were just to keep him docile, not to necessarily lessen the pain.

"Stop," he tried, wiggling his torso where his limbs were all useless. Blood was rolling down his nose, dipped around his lips and already working its way down his collar. Head wounds bled so far, sometimes they got down to his torso before his healing even started to kick in. "Stop it."

At the door opening, Abel stilled, eyes on the doctor as he moved through the room. Abel may have trouble speaking English, but didn't have much trouble understanding what he was saying. Three years, almost four? That didn't line up with the last time Cain had been grabbed, which meant Cain had dealt with them before they had even met. Abel didn't like that. It meant Cain hid something from him.

But he didn't have time to ponder it because the doctor started cutting and Abel slammed himself against his cage, growling like a wild animal. "Leave him alone." He instinctively switched back to Latin, not really thinking about whether or not the doctor would understand. From the tone of his voice, it was very obvious that Abel wanted to tear through the cage and into the doctor's clockless throat.

Edited 2014-02-09 04:56 (UTC)

The doctor tutted at Abel's outburst, but did not move or acknowledge him until the path of Cain's blood began to reverse, climbing back up into the wound where it closed up. Then he let go of Cain's jaw and set the scalpel aside to address Abel. "That is quite an interesting side effect we didn't foresee, but whatever you said I can assure you that you'll be here saying it for a while longer." Cain had turned his head away from the both of them, trying to play keepaway with the doctor, and was suddenly jerked back when his jaw was grabbed again. "We have quite an interest in your brother here and the secrets he holds. You're quite an interesting subject yourself. How is it that something can be made from nothing the way you've made yourself such a convincing body?"

"Leave him alone," Cain echoed. "He's already dead, just leave him alone and get him the fuck out! Get on with it. You want data, then just take it."

"Afraid I can't do that, Cain," the doctor said with a shake of his head. "You know it isn't that easy. Besides, Cerberus is only more incentive for you to cooperate. Why would we let him go?"

It was then that two more people filed in, these doctors more readily dressed for conducting an operation. They wore face masks and goggles, gloves and disposable scrubs. They were here to do the big stuff while the blond doctor was apparently there to provide some kind of moral support. Perhaps their supervisor. It was hard to say when Cain could hardly see straight through the drugs and panic. He started his useless struggle again, trying to force his restraints to open through sheer strength of will.

"Brother, I can handle this." He easily switched languages, now that he knew that apparently nobody understood Latin. It was better that way since the Clockless would not be able to know whatever topic he and Cain would be discussing in said language. "You want to know? I can show. Need a Reaper. Then you will know once it kills you."

Abel growled again, starting to claw at the wall of his cage. He didn't care if it would hurt him since, as Cain put it so well, Abel was already dead. "Brother won't cooperate. Us together means you die. We will find a way out. And you will be dead."

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Everyone's got their chains to break. [ closed ]

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