You Became to Me: Chapel & Erik's Story

Written by Sailor Dathomir

The girl woke with sheets tangled around her legs and no idea of where she was. The walls around her were a stark concrete grey with cheap syn-wood doors set in three of the eight walls. Chapel untangled her legs and moved to the small window set high in one of the walls. Even at her great height, the window was hard to see out of. What she did see suprised her.

The entire landscape was covered in glittering metal and glass buildings with flying ships darting around them. Nowhere was there anything to be seen natural, real or even remotely like Dathomir.

Soft knocking at one of the three doors startled her and she started across the odd room. It was odd because she had never seen an octagonal room before. Even one with three doors and one window. The door on the far left opened a crack and someone said her name. Someone male. "Chapel?"

Eriks gave up a silent prayer that the girl Ren had brought in hadn't decided to kill herself or anything else equally gruesome. She was standing near the door, still in blood splattered vest, tunic and trousers. She was mildly creepy (but only mildly) because she was staring at him, staring like she was trying to bore holes in his forehead.

"Chapel?" Her voice was oddly deep. Almost male.

Eriks nodded. He remembered something she'd said last night and tried it. "Can you hear me like this?"

The strangely gold eyes glittered. "I can hear you like that. Don't concentrate so hard."

Eriks grinned in relief. He would be able to talk to the girl. Senshi, actually. He caught her poking at the locked door to the far right. "Hey!"

Chapel looked up, hearing the tone of panic. She couldn't understand what he had said, but she did recognize the different tones and inflections. "What? It's locked and I want to know what's behind it."

"That's my room so leave it alone!" Eriks was flustered but he had recovered enough to mentally send the thought.

"Why is your room connected to mine?" Chapel was suspiscious and opened the lock over Erik's loud vocalizations. There were plusses to being telekinetic sometimes.

It was a plain octagonal room like hers, bed, wardrobe and skylight. Concrete grey paint like hers, but Eriks had tried to add some color with a throw rug and a bright green bed covering. There were several strange symbols painted on one of the doors, but she couldn't understand them.

"Because the other bedroom is full of computer crap!" His mottled face was alternately bright red and stark white with embarassment.

Chapel closed and relocked the door. "Who has the keys?"

In answer, Eriks removed his belt and slid off a set of keys. Putting his belt on, he warned her. "These don't work on our connecting doors, the door in the sick room or the locked door in my room. Not that you should be in there in the first place!" He sighed. "Don't poke where you aren't supposed to. Ren will get very nasty if you poke in the northeast corner of the apartment."

Chapel took the keys and dropped them in a pocket. "Where am I?

"Courscant, Floor number 845076785, and I forgot the name of the building. I don't get to leave the apartment much." Eriks had picked up on mental talk quickly, since he could sound sheepish. Chapel was impressed.

"Why did you come in here?" Chapel changed the subject. She wanted to find out what was going on. She wanted a wash, since her clothes smelled sour. Her hair was too, but she couldn't see it.

"Ren said that when I figured you'd slept enough, to wake you up and let you wash. She said you stunk. She doesn't have anything for you to do today, though. You're supposed to wash, change into clothes not bloodsplattered- there should be some in your wardrobe over there- and you wait until she comes and tells you what to do. 'Fresher's through your middle door- the shower's limited to ten minutes and the tub's three inches." Eriks closed the door gently and walked back to the common room. He had some research to do on a Senate bill the twins were against.

Chapel stared after Eriks walked through the door, then opened the final door. It did lead to a fresher, but what a fresher! To anyone else, it would have been an ordinary 'fresher, with toliet, sink, tub and shower units. Pretty much standard all over Coruscant, except for color. This one was white tile walls with black 'fresher units. She turned to her left and found a black, syn-wood cabinet full of drying cloths and linens.

Exactly fifteen mintues later, Chapel emerged from the 'fresher clean and in non-splattered clothes.

Suitably attaired, the young Senshi walked around the apartment. It was plainly furnished and decorated, with dark grey walls that reflected onto the shiny black and grey syn-wood floor. It was pretty, with a pattern of triangles, rectangles and squares. There was also a small kitchen island unit with white tiled counters and black units. A dark scruffed syn-wood table with about ten mismatched chairs around it completed the western part of the apartment. She walked further east in the apartment and found a screen partition partically decorated with strange figures and symbols. They looked similar to the ones to the ones that appeared on Eriks' door, but she still couldn't read them. It was open, so she walked through and found herself in the room that must have been the one Eriks had meant when he said sickroom.

The room was completely covered in sheets of durasteel. It was frighteningly sterile, with absolutly no feeling in the room. Even her room was more warm than this. Chapel nearly jumped when she heard somone call her name.

Eriks walked out of the third octagonal room and stretched. The chair in there wasn't very comfortable. Maybe he could talk to Ren and Lian about getting a newer one, or even they'd let him go with Chapel to see about a new one.

If he went with Chapel, there wouldn't be a repeat of the of the last time he left the apartment. Lian was stingy with his lone visits outside the apartment, but to be objective and honest about it, he couldn't really see any reason why she shouldn't be. After all, it'd taken her nearly a month to get him back to normal after his last little expedition.

"Chapel?" He called out her name. Even if she didn't know any Basic, she could still learn her name. "Chapel?"

Chapel took a deep breath. It was just Eriks. "What's behind this door?"

"What door?

"The door in the room with the metal walls." Chapel tried the keys on it. No avail. She tried the keypad with the same results. Even her telekinesis didn't work.

"I don't know. I can't go past the screen without either Ren or Lian with me." Eriks waited just outside the screen. "Hurry up and come out of there."

Chapel decided to leave the door alone. She stood and straightened her new long white coat. There weren't any wrinkles to worry about under the coat; her new wardrobe seemed to consist of black body suits with arm and leg armor and long coats of three colors: white, red and black. Her new black many buckled boots clunked across the metal covered floor.

"Why can't you pass the screen?" Chapel sat down in one of the large chairs scattered around the screen. There were about five or six large mismatched chairs around the screen.

"Mentally conditioned not to pass those symbols. Similar ones as the ones on my door. The sickroom holds my monthly meds and also my daily antidotes. They appear by my bed every morning, and the monthly meds appear the same way. There's symbols like those in other places in the apartment. Around my skylight and the front door are two of them. But I can pass the front door with permission or a willing accompanying inhabitant of the apartment." Eriks took a seat across from her. The chairs in the entire apartment seemed to be of varying styles and sizes. None of it matched from what Chapel had seen.

"Why?" Chapel played with the durasteel knife she'd found inside of her "secret" inside breast pocket.

Eriks hesitated. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell why he took meds. And antidotes. It was bad. It was wrong. But it was what they asked of him. And he did it. But he didn't want to tell. "I'd rather not say."

Chapel frowned and immediatly decided to find out why. Straight for his mind, in fact. Eriks sat there immobilized while Chapel rummaged in his mind. She paid no attention to the fact that his face was lined in pain and his entire body was completely clenched. "Stop, please, stop..."

The teenager frowned and sat back in her chair. "You let them do that to you? No, wait..." She sifted through the information she'd practically torn from his mind. "It was done to you and they're helping you live afterwards."

Eriks sat in his chair, his head in his hands. "What did you just do? You just practically raped me. Without even touching me. Dammit, don't ever do that again. Not ever again."

Chapel frowned. "What do you mean, 'I raped you?' I did nothing of the sort."

"What you just did is considered rape, Chapel. If I ever find you've done that to me again, I'll hurt you. Hurt you bad." Eriks' tone was harsh, but Chapel could hear the fear under this tone. Fear she'd caused.

Chapel thought a second. "I will not do that you again."

Eriks nodded silently and stood, padded out of the room back into the computer room. "Not ever, Chapel."

Chapel stared after him. Then she walked back into her room and lay down. The day was exhausting right now. Maybe when They told her what to do she'd understand more.

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