Eighteen
Honestly, way too many warnings.
TW for: starvation, abuse, dehumanization, human trafficking, (more or less off-screen) death, violence, etc.
Basically me trying to use the panels of Sigma's canon backstory and trying to make it into a short story. And likely making it worse.
People who might be interested:
@respiratory-kristem @my-taintedsorrow @fukuzawa-armeddaddyagency @currentlyeatingrocks
Pain. That's one of the first things he felt, learned.
The pain of hunger, of thirst and of the sun burning his skin, of hot sand burning the soles of his feet.
The people who'd found him had seemed... not nice, not kind, not gentle, but safe. They gave him water and food, even as he all but fell face first into the sand in front of them. They brought him out of the sun and into a cold building, dragging him along by his arm. He'd passed out somewhere along the way, exhaustion catching up like a tidal wave.
When he'd come to, he'd found himself waking in a cold place with stale air, quite whispers reaching his ears. Something metallic rattled, every now and again, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a dim and dirty room with a dozen other people in varying states of awareness, some asleep and some talking in hushed murmurs.
No one seemed to have noticed him being awake.
None of them looked all that healthy. Sunken faces, thin frames, clothes and faces and hair dirty. They looked as exhausted as he felt. It took him a moment before he realized yet another thing they all shared in common. Heavy metal shackles wound around these people's wrists, and a glance down showed him that he was no different.
The metal was cold and unyielding, sharp edges digging into his wrists and leaving them aching. He couldn't tell how to get them off, and thus didn't even try.
If anyone noticed him being awake, nobody felt the need to talk to him.
~
Over the course of the next days he found himself stuck in a routine.
Early in the morning all of the people in the cramped room would be ordered out and into yet another cramped space, told to do one task or another. Sometimes they'd be allowed to eat, sometimes they weren't. Sometimes they dug for hours in the sands, sometimes they stood at assembly lines putting firearms together until their hands couldn't move anymore.
He hated it with a passion, but he saw what happened when someone paused for even a moment too long. When someone tried to stop themselves from messing up by taking a few seconds to just breathe and didn't resume quickly enough.
Sometimes, it was a whip that lashed through the air.
Sometimes, it was a fist that connected with someone's face or ribs.
Sometimes, and those were the ones he found most horrifying, a bang would echo out.
Most of the time, the person wouldn't get up again after the shot. Rarely they did, and were gone the next morning. It didn't take a genius to figure out why.
He didn't want to end up like that, no matter how exhausted he was. He didn't want to die, even if giving up seemed so much easier, half the time.
Still, he never found himself working enough, no matter what he did, how hard he tried. He'd always find a kick connecting with his ribs, a slap causing his head to snap to the side. How he hadn't broken a bone yet, he wasn't sure.
He just knew that pain was a constant companion.
~
Among the other people stuck in this place with him was an older man who tended to sit next to him in the cramped room, quietly murmuring words in a language he couldn't understand- he'd later learn, in a different conversation a few days after their first, that the words were Greek and that it was the alphabet he had been whispering to himself.
He didn't know it, then, but the alphabet was the only bit of Greek he'd learn.
They didn't talk with each other though, not at first. They didn't talk until his second week in this place- or perhaps his third. He couldn't quite tell anymore.
It wasn't the other who initiated the conversation. No, the older man had only passed him the bit of bread he'd been given. And he'd stared down at the additional ration, face blank and confused.
"This is yours" he'd found himself saying, and blinked at how raspy his own voice sounded. It was as if sand was scratching across his vocal cords. He couldn't remember the last time he'd talked. Or drank, for that matter.
The old man smiled, and even in the dim room he could see the odd... warmth, in the other's eyes. A sort of warmth he'd never seen on the faces of their captors. "It's alright, Eighteen. I don't need it. Eat"
He winced at the name, the name their captors had bestowed upon him. But who was Eighteen to complain? It wasn't like he had a different name to go by- he couldn't remember one.
He tried to argue, tell the other, Four if he remembered correctly, that he doesn't have to share. But Four was adamant, and Eighteen was hungry. He hadn't gotten a lot the last few days, a consequence of not doing enough work, which had led to him doing an even worse job.
In the short time, he'd already accumulated more injuries than he could count, and he doubted many of them would fade entirely.
Others, quietly, whispered about wanting to leave. He didn't fully understand. Leave? To where? The desert? Certain death? He hated the pain and fear and hunger, but the thought of leaving left him just as scared as the thought of staying.
~
Over the course of his first month he occasionally shared rations with Four, who he'd learned was actually called Alexandros. Alexandros was different. Not just from him, but most of them. He was treated differently, wasn't made to work as much as the rest of them. Simply because out of all of them, he was the only one with an ability.
"The Boundless Garden" he'd whispered, once, when Eighteen had asked why Alexandros was given more rations than the rest of them and watched him share some bread with a young girl he dimly remembered being called Seven. He remembered her mainly because of her pride and her insistence that they'd all make it out alive, one day.
He never knew her real name.
The Boundless Garden was such an odd name, Eighteen couldn't help but think. It sounded so grand, so beautiful, so free... but all it was, was an ability that could tell apart lie from truth. An ability that, so Alexandros told him, was quite valuable to their captors.
To Eighteen, the ability seemed like a blessing, with how it seemed to make the other's life a little easier in this dark place.
He'd learn soon enough that it wasn't the blessing he thought it was.
~
Eighteen bit back a pained groan when his knees hit the cold, hard ground. Th muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of his head, a hand roughly grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place. "Y'know, Boss was thinking of just selling ya to get at least a bit out of ya, useless as you've been"
It wasn't the first time the word 'sell' had fallen around him. Alexandros had mentioned similar things, and in all honesty, he wasn't sure if he was afraid of being sold or hoping for it. It could be a worse fate, or one far better.
He stayed silent, even as the grip on his shoulder grew painful. "Useless as ya are, making a bit of profit off of you might even work, ya know? You're an odd one, you rat. You'd fetch a nice price for your appearance alone, only issue is that you're good for nothin'"
Eighteen didn't understand why his appearance would have anything to do with it, but it wasn't like he actually cared. He knew that he stuck out among the others, that he looked different- but he didn't care enough to pay it any mind for too long.
"That's why I think gettin' rid of ya would do us a lot more good"
He felt his blood run cold, a sharp, dark sense of understanding filling his chest. He knew what would happen, and he wished, desperately, that he could stop it. He didn't want to die. He didn't. He'd only seen the desert and this building- he knew nothing of the world out there... and he wanted to live.
The white-purple haired man didn't want to die. "Please, I can... I can do better" he found himself begging, and flinched when he received a harsh hit with the handle of the gun. Not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough for pain to blossom on the back of his head.
"Eighteen, Eighteen, Eighteen... always begging, yet never useful" There was a quiet click, the safety of the gun unlocked. And Eighteen couldn't help but wonder: How can I be useful? How can I survive? Did anyone else ever survive this?
His thoughts whirled wildly, and the next thing he knew was a wave of thoughts not his own crashing down upon him. Then, he knew no more.
~
They tested it, a few times.
It took weeks until he properly knew how his ability worked, and even longer until he managed to be useful.
Day in, day out he'd get harsh words. If he got lucky. They didn't hesitate to do worse if they deemed it necessary. There wasn't a day where he didn't feel pain.
Sometimes, when he failed to activate his ability, he got slapped. He preferred that, since other times he found a knife slashing across his back, or his head slammed into the wall or ground as a consequence for his failure.
Other times, when he did activate his ability but didn't get the information correctly (and how was he supposed to if they didn't give him specific orders and made him guess?), they threw punches and kicks until he thought he couldn't breathe, until he thought he'd pass out.
A couple times they dunked his head under water and refused to let him up no matter how much he struggled and clawed at everything in reach. Refused to let him up until he went limp and was about to pass out. Sometimes waited until he inhaled water if they were being especially cruel, only to leave him hacking and coughing on the ground until he calmed just enough to repeat the process.
A permanent thing was the new cell. It was small and empty. Lonely. He spend more than one night curled up against the wall, trembling so bad that it left his shackles rattling, crying himself to sleep. He would've preferred the cramped cell, solely because he wouldn't have been so alone. Eighteen didn't even want to talk with them- he just didn't want to be so alone.
They refused to leave him with the others, and he guessed they were afraid that he would spill some of the information he'd acquired from their captors.
There was no Alexandros to share rations with anymore, either. Either he received food, or he didn't and had to deal with it. His stomach ached. He'd been hungry before, but now it was flat out painful. They barely gave him anything, just enough to keep him alive.
Eighteen thought it'd get better once he was finally useful.
Instead it felt so much worse.
He was alive, but at what cost? Day in and day out he was in pain and hungry, alone with nothing but his own thoughts and afraid of what the next opening of the door would bring.
~
If he thought it couldn't get worse, reading Seven's memories did make it worse. It was the first time he read memories off of a corpse and her open, lifeless eyes were still burned into his own. The memory of a knife sinking into his (her chest) and choking on his (her) own blood still echoed through his mind.
Eighteen doubted he'd ever be able to forget it. The blood staining once only dirty hair. He hadn't known her well. He hadn't talked with her much before, but he knew of her ambitions to leave this place.
He understood now, and silently wondered if escaping even was possible. He wanted to leave. He wanted to get out.
That night he didn't cry himself to sleep, and instead remained awake until morning, silently mourning for a person he hadn't even known. A person who's name he'd never learn. By morning, he'd come to a decision.
He wanted to get out.
~
Eighteen met Alexandros only once after being transferred into the solitary cell, in the hallway. The old man looked shaky on his feet, and he looked paler than usual. The younger man couldn't help but think that he looked like Seven, with the difference that he was clearly still breathing and moving.
"It was nice knowing you" Alexandros murmured to him, and Eighteen frowned. "Alex?" he found himself whispering, a hint of fear creeping through his veins. He tugged on his shackles, trying to stop in his tracks. The guard dragged him along mercilessly, leaving his feet to drag across the floor.
Alexandros didn't look back, even as Eighteen struggled and fought to turn around, craned his neck to watch him walk away. He knew the room the old man was led to. Had seen the doors open once in passing, had seen the decaying bodies inside.
The old man who'd shared his rations so long ago with him, who'd occasionally indulged him with stories about a world he'd never previously seen, who'd told him about abilities and a life in freedom, was being led to a fate not unlike Seven's.
"ALEX!" Eighteen shouted, and cried out in pain when the bottom of a gun connected with his ribs harshly. He doubled over, but the pain was enough to distract him from his attempts of escaping. So he was dragged along, throwing only one last glance back, and watched as Alexandros was shoved into the room.
A minute later, he heard the bang of a gun going off.
He never saw Alexandros again.
~
Pain, hunger, dizziness, loneliness.
Those were his constant companions, staying with him day and night.
Pain from the constant injuries, hunger from the lack of food, dizziness from the lack of sleep and over-use of his ability and loneliness from the solitary cell. The only words spoken to him were either orders, or rageful fits over his incompetence and failures.
He was less and less sure how long he'd be able to keep going like this.
He wasn't even sure how long he's lived like this. He could've sworn he heard one of the guards say something about a year having passed since a specific deal had been struck, remembered that the deal had been made not too long after they'd picked him up.
If that's the case, he couldn't help but numbly think, then I've been 'Eighteen' for a year. Been in this hell for a year. Have suffered for a year.
He missed the desert, if he was honest with himself. He missed the desert, for even if out there was nothing but certain death, it was still better than this.
Eighteen glanced down at his shackles, and silently made a choice.
~
Dizzy, that's what he felt like. Everything hurt and he didn't bother moving after he was thrown into his cell. He just laid there, staring at the ceiling numbly. The familiar click of the lock didn't reach his ears, though.
Eighteen waited and waited, but nothing happened. He sat up slowly, wincing at the feeling of water droplets dripping from his hair and running down his face. The door wasn't fully closed. He couldn't believe his luck.
He stumbled to his feet, slowly walking closer. It truly wasn't closed fully. He sneaked a glance outside. Nothing. Not a single guard in sight. His eyes burned, and he couldn't tell why, but he didn't bother to hesitate longer. Instead he slowly walked out of his cell, down the hallway.
Nothing.
Slowly and carefully he made his way down the hallways, peaking around corners carefully and doing his best to stay quiet. He was absolutely terrified. If he got caught now, he was a dead man. No matter if his ability was useful or not.
But he wasn't caught, somehow. He made it all the way out and waited, patiently, until the gates opened for one person or another.
He felt bad, in all honesty, for leaving all of these people behind. But if he didn't take this chance and instead went back for the rest of them... would he manage to free them? Manage to get them all out of here, like Seven had wanted?
He didn't know, and guilt clawed it's way up his throat at the thought of not even trying, but the gate opened and nobody had noticed him, the alarm wasn't blaring yet and he stopped thinking for a split second-
And Eighteen ran.
He ran like his life depended on it, because it certainly did.
Baffled shouts and angry yells filled the air behind him- they recognized him instantly. How couldn't they, when his hair gave him away so easily?
Shots filled the air, caused the sand to explode next to his feet, but he kept running on and on, not stopping even as the hot sand burned his soles. He ran until his chest ached, ran until his knees felt like they'd give out any second.
Eighteen ran until he was certain he was safe, and collapsed in the shade of some rocks.
Somehow, he was still alive.
~
Only a few days after his escape Eighteen would find himself be picked up by seemingly kind strangers, who asked for his name.
And Eighteen, who wished to forget that horrid number yet didn't know any other name, remembered his time with his captors. Remembered the shackles that had been broken off by these nicer people. Remembered Seven and Alexandros and the shared rations and the quite murmuring in a language he couldn't understand.
And he would choose a name that he wasn't sure he'd one day regret or find happiness with.
For even if it was a new name, there was still a piece of his old name in it.
"Sigma"
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OOC: Have some Ellis angst! Feel free to rp but no pressure. I just felt like hurting him because I'm still sick and bored.
Ellis wakes up slowly, groggily. He rarely does that anymore. Usually he snaps awake because of a noise– or, worse than that, because of fingers twisting in his hair.
There isn’t a clock, down here. It’s dark, and it’s been dark the whole time. It’s been a while since the hatch opened, though.
He doesn’t tell Ellis when he leaves. It’s probably on purpose– to put him on edge. He knows he’s not safe down here, and he knows that he’s not escaping on his own.
And he knows that that hatch could open at any time– in a minute or an hour or a month. He dreads what happens when it does. What happens in this basement is hell– although from what he hears hell might be more pleasant. In hell maybe no one would drag him upstairs and keep him chained to a bedpost. Maybe he could eat real food.
He laughs, slightly. Gods how depressing is it that he is fantasising about hell?
He eats a few handfuls of kibble. He doesn’t even gag anymore. He used to hate the smell of dog food, now it’s just a background sensation– not even noticeable. He always feels just a little bit sick, though. Sick and weak and so, so tired.
He’s starting to see things. His parents, his own limp body, a dog that hasn’t been alive since his second week here. He can feel himself slipping.
But he cannot break. He will not. He doesn’t know how long it’s been. His fourteenth birthday has to have happened by now. Maybe his fifteenth. Maybe his sixteenth. He wonders if people are still looking for him.
They have to be.
He shakes his head to clear it. The thought of people looking for him just makes him think about his father, and the only thing worse than thinking about his father is thinking about his mother and he doesn’t want to do either.
Thinking about someone coming down those stairs– someone saving him… It makes his heart hurt. It makes him want to cry. Not that that’s an accomplishment.
He cries so much, since he’s been down here. He cries when he’s sad and when he’s angry and when he’s afraid. You might think it would stop, after so long, but it hasn’t.
He cries, but stops it quickly enough. There’s no use making his head hurt more than it already does. He drinks water from the smelly, rusted tap in the corner. It’s cold, at least.
He's cold too.
The hatch slams open.
Oh gods no. He didn’t even hear footsteps. He isn’t ready. He isn’t–
Yellow light. The only light he gets in the basement. His heart races, and his useless legs– broken and healed wrong– push him against the wall, trembling.
He’s smiling. It’s never, ever good when he’s smiling.
His steps are heavy, and loud, and make the wooden stairs creak. He’s holding a newspaper, and he throws it at Ellis’ feet. He can’t read it.
He looks between the paper and him, and slowly his eyes focus, making out words in the horrid yellow glow of that ring.
It’s on the obituaries. There are pictures of the deceased.
That’s a picture of his mom.
An inhuman sound comes from his throat. No. No. No no no no no nononononono–
“Funny thing, pet. No one is coming to get you. You’re mine”
Rage. All he can feel is rage. He can't speak. His mom is… but no– no, she can’t be– she was supposed to save him she can’t be dead he was supposed to come home. She can't be dead.
He wants to kill something. He wants to kill him.
But nothing happens. He's frozen. He taunts him for a minute longer, and then promises to come back later. It’s been too long, he says, since he was brought upstairs.
Ellis knows what that means. He’s scared. He’s angry.
And he’s trapped here. For the rest of his life.
-☙☣❧-
Ellis gasps and sobs awake, scrambling at the sheets of his bed. He’s soaked with sweat and his throat is tight and he scrubs at his face, his breath shaking horribly.
It’s not dark. It isn’t dark here. It doesn’t smell like dog food. This is his room. This is his house. He lives here with Jason and his siblings.
He is not in the basement. He is not in the basement no matter how much his brain tries to trick him.
He is in the corner, smirking. Fucker.
Ellis kicks off his covers and walks over to his bathroom, downing the pills he’s supposed to take every day. He looks in the mirror, and tired red eyes stare back at him.
He didn’t even mean to sleep, but he was tired, after his little stint at heroism. This is precisely why he doesn’t sleep– because his brain only seems capable of nightmares.
In real life, he wasn’t trapped in the basement forever. He got his ring and he saved himself. He is a Red Lantern. He is Ellis Martin Jordan, and he has a life and a family and he did break, yes, but he’s putting the pieces back together.
He sighs, gets dressed, and leaves his room. Maybe someone will be around the house to talk to. Gods know he needs it.
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