Chapter Text
Blakk’s prison was okay so far - probably because he was with Kord, and Trixie and Pronto got out, so he was hopeful I'd be like all those other times he found himself behind bars; quick and painless. Plus, like with Mr. Saturday, they could be sassy to their guards, and there was that side of him that loved that. It’s what they deserved! He was a hero by reminding them all that their evilness was no match for the genetic mockery that every Shane inherits at birth. They will save the day, and with a smile.
He did miss his slugs, though. They were all captured and placed in locked slugholders somewhere else. Except Doc, who knew it would be BAD for him to be ghouled. Poor guy looked so guilty hopping away as the toxic fumes entered his slingers lungs, but with a pat and a “just get us out quick”, Doc bounced to safety. So all they really needed was a breakout, everything was going to be okay.
So, when Dr Blakk came in after only an hour of them being there, Eli smirked. “Looks like we got a fan, Kord!”
The cave troll’s smile was contagious. “Yeah bro, hand me a marker, we gotta hand out some autographs.”
Thaddius, to their dismay, didn't take the bait this time. “Oh, you'll be giving out more than autographs.”
Huh, fun. He hoped Trixie found a way to bust them out soon. “No fun.”
He turned calmly to his henchman. “Separate them into different halls. Troll stays here, little Shane with me.”
That worried them. As they're been fighting him month by month, they saw the man become increasingly cruel to Eli, more frantically hateful in his taunts.
As the two guys looked at each other, they got a bad feeling about this. Then Eli smirked, and Kord was on board.
The gate to the cell opened, and Kord went up as Eli stayed behind. With cuffs, the poor guard surged to get Eli, but was knocked by Kord into the henchman.
They both sped out in the confusion, till Eli felt a jolt of pain somewhere in his neck.
Blakk had forced a needle there.
As went unconscious, he felt Blakk's hands grabbing him, and a blaster to his head. Then arms maneuvered to drag him away. Though early on into that last part, the world faded away.
__
He awoke to cuffs, a plate of food, and Dr Blakk eating it in the corner of another cell, or what he guessed was his new cell. Kord was nowhere to be seen.
He had moved his head waking up - couldn’t pretend he was still asleep.
He glared at the doctor. “Where’s Kord.”
He snorted. “He isn't the one you should worry about.”
Uhuh, sure. “I'll be out of here in no time, you've never managed to trap me down.”
Quick as lightning, he fired a grenuka at the 16 year old. He slammed into the wall, and almost thought the world was going black again.
Eli coughed once. “Hey, no fair.”
“Too bad.” And he fired another one.
His stomach hurt, and his shoulders tensed in pain. Still, “You done yet?”
Blakk smiled. “Sure, if you drink this.”
In the past few minutes, the man had finished his lunch. All that was left was a cup at the corner of his little gray tray. He grabbed it and handed it to Eli.
Eli took it and threw it at Blakk’s face.
And found the substance was red.
Dark Water.
The man nodded to some of the guards outside then addressed his prisoner. “Drink it, and I won't touch you, or your troll.”
His fists were clenched. “Kord isn’t my Troll.”
“Whatever. But cave trolls would need more dark water to start feeling it…I'll send a tank over-”
“No, you can't!”
“So you'll take some? It won't be permanent or anything,” Eli was going to blast him and his happy face away when he got out, “at first.”
It occurred to Eli that this was very, very bad. He was stunned, and didn't even respond. What should he do?
Dr Blakk seemed to enjoy his inner turmoil. “Be back soon, Eli. Give me your answer then.”
When he was out of sight, Eli sat on the floor, and tried to think of a way out. No way was he drinking Dark Water.
*
Dr. Blakk came back in a flash. Well, he had his usual casual pace of walking, but to Eli, it felt like no time had passed at all.
He was holding some dark water in another cup. Floppers, where was Trixie?
“Ready to drink?”
The Shane needed to buy some time. “Why do you want me to drink that? Can’t that stuff kill me?”
“Oh Eli, I would never want to kill you, not so close to me gaining victory.” Then he grinned viciously. “That troll, though? His tribe wouldn’t mind him dead anyway.”
His fists slammed on the bars before he could process that. “What the hell are you playing at?”
“That I’d do nothing as bad to you as I would to your friend.” And he handed Eli the cup through the bars. “The choice is yours.”
Fuck.
Now would be a great time for the alarms to go off, or the guards to be slugged, or the bars to stop working, or swing open.
But in his pause, Dr. Blakk silently eyes his henchman and nodded, and as they nearly left the room, Eli snapped out of it. “Hey!”
They stopped, and in a reckless Shane moment, he raised the cup to his lips and drank the smallest sip he could.
*
Ow. Ow. Ow-
It was like a flood. His body started shivering, his hands felt weak - he dropped the cup. His knees buckled and he was suddenly on the ground, but he didn’t notice the force of him falling, there was too much going on. His head started pounding, even the dim lighting of the cell and bars hurt to be near. His lungs were strained, and every movement hurt like hell. And all this was growing, and building, and suffocating him. He was hyperventilating, and he couldn’t breathe, he needed help, where was Trixie, maybe Kord got out-
Wait, his audience was still there. He opened his eyes suddenly, and found Dr. Blakk’s face way too close to his own. “Hurts now? A sea of it is worse.”
He smile widened at the new tears forming on the Shane’s face. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find the strength to take in oxygen -
“It’ll keep getting worse for a few hours. The effects will be gone in about a month.”
Floppers, he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe-
His face was flushed, beats of sweat making his tears hot. Eli was a Shane, he would stay silent. He wouldn’t let the bad guys see him in pain. He wouldn’t, he wouldn’t-
Dr. Blakk, in his blurred vision, raised his blaster. That was a hop rock. He shot.
Exploded, everything exploded. How was he even conscious right now. He had to have been screaming, because suddenly his throat felt scarred, too. Sticky, his chest felt sticky. Blood? Must be a lot of it.
The lackeys were all laughing on the other side of the bars. He didn’t care, he just wanted it to stop.
“Let’s go; that was immensely satisfying. And tonight I will sleep well, knowing he’ll be feeling it for a long time still.”
He couldn’t hear the fainting footsteps. Just his own heartbeat, struggling to keep up with the wreck his body was in.
It felt worse than anything he’s ever felt. The only comparison he had was his panic attack after reading his dad’s letter. And horrifyingly, he remembered Dr. Blakk said he was in “a sea of it”. Like, in the deep caverns? And that may have been where his dad went….did his dad have to live through this? And a worse version of this???
Eli lived like that for a while. He tried thinking of happy moments with his dad, with his friends. He wondered where Kord was, what Trixie and Pronto were doing. He never once felt like he got enough air.
Did he sleep? He wasn’t sure. Surely a bunch of time had passed. There was some light outside. Shakily he was up on his feet, leaning on the wall for support, because Dr. Blakk was approaching with another gray food tray.
“Eat up, Shane.”
There was what looked to be a hamburger, wrapped in paper. There was no cup, to his relief.
His headache was hopefully from the lack of food, not the dark water. He hadn’t eaten since morning the previous day. But he narrowed his eyes at the offering. “What is this?”
Blakk looked at him innocently. “Just a toasted meat sandwich.”
The Shane felt awful already. Does he risk real food, to feel better and get strength to escape this place, or should he refuse because there’s somehow another harmful chemical in it?
Eli was standing with a blank face, in so much pain while still trying to make a decision.
The evil doctor shrugged. “Well, the food shouldn’t go to waste! Take it to the other prisoner.”
Shane’s breathing hitched. “Fine, I’ll have it.”
Blakk tsked him. “You should really watch your diet more, Shane.”
If he could kick him in the nuts, he would. But instead, the sandwich was thrown on the ground, and Eli took a bit out of it.
His vision went red, and he was too busy screaming to care about the rest of the burger.
But Dr. Blakk wasn’t done. He held the sandwich in front of the teen’s face, now in his hands on the ground in pain. “Eat some more, now.”
Eli didn’t care anymore. “No, stop it.”
“What was that, Eli?”
His voice was getting hoarse. “Please just stop it!”
Dr. Blakk was all too happy to leave him be, now. And Eli would have been fine with that, if he didn’t feel like he was about to die for the whole day. Somehow, it was much harder to think of his duties as a Shane when his body was just screaming at him to make it stop.
For a little moment, he wanted to die, hope of rescue forgotten.
*
Next time he felt better enough to check, there was another sunrise. It had been 3 days since eating anything…well, eating anything good.
Eli was doing quite badly. He had taken his shirt off, feeling too hot; though there was blood under it, too. Seems like they got his upper right arm, his blaster arm. It was like having a fever and a panic attack and no bone strength to help either get better. His mind was murky, unable to focus on anything.
His captors were here again. He didn’t realize till one of them tossed a coin to his face, and he audibly winced. He didn’t look to see them.
“Want some more water, Eli?”
It was so hard to speak, whispering felt like screaming. “No, get…away from me.”
The gate clicked open. Dr Blakk was besides his face, holding another rancid, fucking atrocious cup. “But it really is water this time. We don’t want you dead, you know.”
Shaking, he dragged himself away from the older man as far as he could. “No.”
“Did your father teach you no manners?”
“No, please no, stop it please.” Eli knew he was starting to lose it, and he was starting to really not care.
“Ha! I wish your father could see you now, to know how much he failed Slugterra - and his own little son. And you are even more pathetic than he was.”
The man threw the cup’s contents on the floor. While he trotted away, Eli was dragging himself away from every speck of the floor coated in red. It’s very possible that both his lungs weren’t working (read: on fire), and he was panicking.
*
A couple hours later, if he had been more attentive, he would’ve heard the alarms blaring, and quick footsteps flying past his cell.
Then, the power going out on the bars. This he knew because 1) it was a brief reprieve on his eyes and 2) it meant they were back.
“Get away from me!”
“Eli…”
His ears hurt so much, he didn’t care what they were saying. “Stop, just stop.”
“Trixie, we have to go before they regroup.”
“Eli, it’s us, it's your friends, can you stand up?”
They sounded really worried. Wait, it wasn’t Blakk. He slowly opened his eyes, and saw 3 incredibly sober and concerned faces in from of him. On top of-
“Get off the water!” He tried getting up and stumbled. “Get the hell away from the red on the ground.”
Kord, obviously looking like he was trying to hold back tears, instead took Eli’s arm that was reaching for the wall’s support and he became his support instead. The Shane wondered how bad he had to look for them to seem this somber. “It’s just slippery, we’re going to get away from it now.”
He seems panicked at that suggestion. “But the water-”
Kord lifted the human off the ground, and carried him out like that through the rest of the building.
In the haze, he felt a familiar weight on his shoulder. He winced at the new pressure, and it flopped off.
It was brighter outside - Eli covered his burning eyes with his hands, which, like the rest of him, was still immensely painful to move…and not move. Eli’s whole life just revolved around that illness, and his desperation for it to end.
Slugs were fired, but soon, he was on the back of Trixie’s mecha, biting his lip to not cry out.
He didn’t hear any of them talk on the ride to the hideout.
*
When they arrived, Eli was still very, very out of it.
The three of them encircled Eli, still on Trixie’s mecha. His eyes were closed, scrunched up. The group had never seen him look this closed off and fearful.
Kord was lost for words, and had a quick conversation with his eyes to Trix.
Trixie kept her voice low. “Eli. Eli, can you hear us.”
A slow nod. Okay, we can work with this.
“You're hurt.” It was a statement, not a question. “What hurts? We can help. Or find a doctor.”
Eli slowly shook his head. Then, with apparently great effort, he spoke. “Dark water.”
That snapped Kord out of his daze. “The guards were talking about that stuff when they passed my cell…”
Pronto narrowed his eyes. “How so?”
His blood ran cold, finally getting it. “Gossiping about its effects when drank.”
Trixie gasped, loosing her footing for a second. Then turned to Eli, worry now tenfold. “Eli. That dark water on the floor. Did you drink that?”
A nod.
“...E, I'm going to carry you to bed.” Kord then secured Eli under his arms and carried him to his room, around all his newly rescued slugs. Burpy wouldn't leave his side for a single second, holding little hands with Doc around the kid they wish they protected better.
*
Eli never went to sleep; the dark water shut off that part of his brain. But there were lulls in how much he sensed around him, and it took him a while to get out of the initial haze he came to when back on a soft, comforting mattress. His mattress, at home, in the hideout, which felt safe. Well, normally.
His brain rebooted to all his friends around the bed, two in chairs and Kord on the floor. Burpy was awake, leaning against the pillow his own face was laying on, just like they did every night since he was 10. Doc was near his palm, faintly glowing, a frown on the little face.
Everything hurt, but worryingly, he was getting used to it.
Trix noticed him awake first. She bounced up. “E!” The other two perked up at her movements.
She flung to his side and tried to hug him. But before she could, Eli jumped back. His eyes were open, and they looked scared.
So she backed away. “...hey, welcome back.”
He tried to breathe. It was so shallow. He spoke so slowly that, in another time, the speed would have annoyed him. “Blakk. Told me worst is over. And effects in general would last a month.”
Kord came over. Way too much emotion in his words, he said, “I'm sorry.”
Eli tried his best to physically react; he looked sadly at the cave troll. “You didn't ask for this.”
“I let you be pulled into another cell, and all that happened to me was no food. You…” his best friend had tears in his eyes.
And Eli had been crying non-stop. “It’ll be okay, Kord.” Usually he would crack a smile; he didn't have the energy, and that broke his heart. "Knew we'd get hurt at some point, right?"
I'm glad it was just me.
This time, Eli didn't pull away as they all hugged together. And let themselves cry over such a simple mission going so, so wrong.
*
Eli was stuck sick for a week. Didn't sleep, or eat, much. Couldn't talk for long. “Effects of that water,” Eli explained.
But it had been 7 days without food or water, and Kord refused to let it go 8.
He lightly tapped on the door, knowing Eli was still sensitive to sound. “E? Coming in.”
He entered the room, and as was usual, the Shane was in bed, just there, his slugs crowding him. Burpy served as his primary nurse, it seemed, yelling for more cold towels, more or less bed sheets, and keeping the 2-legged creatures away from the boy when his symptoms were worse. Right now, from Burpy’s neutral expression, Kord had been cleared for entry.
“Here’s some water?”
Eli snapped up and curled into a ball. His eyes were wild, and it took him a second to focus on Kord’s face and calm down. His breathing only got harsher. “No, thank you.”
His voice broke. “Sorry.”
Kord placed the cup on the ground, out of view, and gave E the biggest hug he could.
“I got you, I got you.”
And he was crying again, but now he was also speaking. “He wanted me alive. So I knew it wouldn't kill me.” Kord’s best friend sounded really frantic, now. And apologetic, even though it was himself that was just victimized. And his arms, strong despite the pain and his age, tightened around the Cave Troll. “They kept saying if I didn't take it, they're give you enough to kill you. And said a lot of really racist things about you. So I got really mad. I threw the water at Blakk at first. Then he threatened you and I took it and…” He trailed off, more lost than he’s ever been in the underground world.
Kord didn't know how to respond. He just kept Eli safe in his arms, and cursed Blakk. For everything, but especially for bringing his best friend to this. And his bro for his hero complex.
And himself, for getting captured in the first place.
*
Water was now considered a touchy subject in the Shane home. Food was assumed to also be bad to mention. For the next few days, they left a pitcher of water - not a cup - out for Eli, for him to take of his own volition, and when the other’s weren’t present.
Doc, slowly but surely, was doing a great job. It had been a week and a half, and Eli was beginning to move around more, open his eyes with greater resilience to light, and breathe a little more deeply. But the other effects were falling away, too - Pronto had heard his stomach growl on evening, and Eli was looking sleepier by the hour.
Not that the Gang felt any better. They weren’t coping with what happened well. Trixie was head-deep into gaming, and Slugnet articles. Kord, previously having plans to visit his clan this week, cancelled, instead taking the time to maintenance their mechas, their blasters, and any other tech he could fiddle around with. Anything to keep his mind off of it all. Pronto cooked more, trying new recipes, even made some maps with new paths he’s discovered while being involved in Shane business. He knew he was lacking in the somber, comforting department, and didn't want to misstep.
They all knew it was a waiting game. All they could be was emotional support, because they got there way too late, and now their friend had to heal from them not being good enough to save him in time. And Kord was obviously blaming himself for being used as leverage against the Shane, and for not being part of the rescue mission, because he got himself captured, too. The three of them cohabited the living room, most days and nights, so much unspoken in the air yet no one confident enough in how they felt to express it.
And sometimes, they got distress signals. Nothing too bad, but it was weird, riding off to accept a Shane help signal, stars on their gear and mechas, without the Shane who banded them all together in the first place.
*
Apparently, Eli felt sleepy enough (as he should, as he’s gone a very worrying time not resting completely) to fall asleep at 6 pm.
His friends didn’t know this till they heard screams. They were high-pitched, and terrifying, and out of nowhere. Trixie fell off the couch, their attention previously on her screen shoved aggressively back into reality.
“Eli?”, she called out, as loud as she could. She was racing upstairs. “Eli, are you okay? Eli I'm coming up, Eli? Eli!”
Her footsteps weren't as fast as she would have liked. She scrambled to his door and opened it-
And there was Eli, tossing and turning in his sheets, shrieking like a mad man while his slugs were panicking around him. Doc glowed brighter and Burpy went so far as to start some heat on his arm to wake him up, to no effect.
Because, Trixie finally rationalized - he was fully out of it. Were nightmares also a side affect of dark water?
Then he began speaking words.
“I'm not drinking it,” there was sweaty glinting on his forehead, “I'm not doing it. I'm not, i'm not! Stop!”
“Eli…”
“Wait, Kord, what are you - what is - no Kord, Kord no, I'll take it, I'll take it Kord, KORD NO-”
Trixie heard enough - she ran to his side and, as gently but sternly as she could, took his arm.
The Shane woke up in a fighting stance - fists up near his chest - though it would do little to intimidate anyone due to the shaking of his entire body and the fearful tears he was shedding.
Trixie’s own vision was blurring. “E.”
Eli was panting less and less as his eyes fell to the girl. It was unnerving, how she could have never imagined something like this happening, how the Shane could appear younger than he was. Usually it was the opposite; usually he puffed his chest and, while admitting his age, took it in his stride and fought like a well-experienced Shane should.
But he wasn’t a Shane right now, he was Eli.
“H-” coughs, realizing his voice was set back again, “Hi, Trix.”
The silence was hard to manage. She sat down on the side of his bed, not letting go of his arm. Almost asked if he was okay; that would be a dumb question. Instead: “Want to talk about it?”
He was an open book most days; this was not one of those. So he shook his head, mouthing “another time”.
Slowly, she got up, and left him be, trusting his slugs would be a better presence around at the moment.
The bits of quiet crying she heard in the hallway convinced her; their family needed to talk about this, and it better be before Eli goes to sleep again.