PMOCT: Round 6.7- Minotaur

The walls and ceiling were hidden in a velvety darkness that stretched across almost the entire room.  The only point where it was broken was a tall, narrow rectangle of bluish light some distance away.  Angled pipe joints and machinery loomed just behind the source like the silhouette of some alien spacecraft.  What drew the eyes, however, was the human-looking figure outlined in the center of the light source.

Ed took a sharp breath.  This was it.

He began to step forward, but Sisca's hand closed on his shoulder.  He glanced back at her face.  In the red glow of Rowan's light, she looked especially grim.  The sharp glance she gave him seemed to say Wait.

Ed breathed out through his nose, willing himself to be patient.  She's right; you don't want to barge in and blow everything if they're waiting for you.

After waiting for a moment, a noise did meet his ears.  It wasn't from the room, however.  It came from the passageway behind him: sharp, swift footsteps clattering against stone.  There was also a slight groan and the sound of someone moving about close at hand.  Sisca cursed softly, and Ed turned to see what was happening.

Ethan was pushing himself up weakly using the wall as leverage.  He kept glancing down the passage, which was where the footsteps seemed to be coming from.  Rowan stood nearby with her hands clasped, looking as though she were trying very hard not to help him up.  A strange combination of relief and anxiety was dancing across the girl's face.

Ethan gave her a look of astonishment, then turned sharply to Ed.  "Where are we?"

Ed barely kept himself from taking a step back, remembering all too vividly the attack of fear the other had induced in him last time.  "Still in the Alpha Labs.  We followed Minos and that big shadowy thing in here."

"Mm."  Ethan rubbed his head, then turned to the hall.  A muted apprehension crossed his face before it settled back into its usual stoic expression.  "Those are guards, correct?"

"Yeah.  Think you two can hold them off?"  He tried not to sound too curt or wary as he glanced at Rowan.  She seemed trustworthy at any rate.  Perhaps with her around Ethan wouldn't try anything like that hostage situation again.

Rowan was wincing as though in pain.  "It's... it's a little difficult to focus.  I don't know how much I can do on my own."

An odd spasm crossed Ethan's face as he took a step toward the girl.  "Are you going to be all right?" he murmured, moving a hand toward her face.

"Don't!"  Ethan drew back slightly, brows raised at Rowan's sharp tone.  She flushed.  "I-I mean... you'll hurt yourself.  I'm... my powers are going out of control."

Ethan's face fell.  "We'll find some way to fix it," he told her quietly.  "Just as soon as this is over."

Sisca let out a breath through her nose as her eyes narrowed.  She seemed to be steeling herself, planting her feet firmly into a fighting stance.  "Then I will stay.  That should give you more time, Ed."

Ed felt his stomach drop.  "But--"

"Do not argue.  If they capture all of us, this will have been for nothing."  Sisca pushed him into the room, then hesitated.  She didn't look much more pleased than Ed felt about having him go forward into the darkness by himself.  "Shout if you need assistance.  And... good luck."  The doors slammed shut behind him.

Ed suppressed a groan.  He hadn't realized how much better Sisca's presence made him feel about this mess until she was gone.  The darkness seemed to press in around him a little closer, becoming more menacing now that he was alone.

Pathetic, spineless... the hated voice whispered in the back of his mind.  Just as I told you earlier, Mr. Dauger.  You cannot overcome these circumstances.

His face hardened even as a chill went down his back.  I'm not listening to your garbage.  You're not even really here.  Though it took all of his concentration, he took a step forward into the black, then another.  Slowly he made his way across the room toward that odd rectangular beacon.  His ears were strained for the slightest bit of noise, eyes flitting to one side then the next for some sign of enemies lurking in the darkness near at hand.

But nothing happened.  The only noise that met his ears was the subdued whir of machinery and, very faintly, the low murmur of voices from behind the door.  The back-lit figure loomed ahead of him.  Soon Ed was close enough to make out its features.

The rectangle was, as he'd suspected, a glass container set into the machine's front.  It contained the figure which Ed recognized as Androgeus, though one side of his head was so hideously warped with tumors that it didn't look human.  He was suspended upright in some sort of fluid, head bowed over his chest and eyes shut.  The overall effect was that of a grotesque life-sized puppet hung by its strings.  Ed's stomach contracted a bit as he thought back to the man he'd seen by the Styx.  Those tumors... his death must have been terrible.

"Amazing what people will do for family, isn't it?"

Ed spun on his heel, heart thundering in his chest.  The great dark shadow lurked just outside of the semicircle of light, barely visible but for the great eyes reflecting back the light at him.  They were fixed on Ed, their expression unreadable.

Why hasn't it attacked me yet?  Ed took a slow step back without responding to the creature's statement.

A low smooth laugh caressed his ears.  "Poor boy.  I had the chance to look over all the files of the test subjects, but yours stuck out in particular.  It must be miserable to live in a place without families.  To never know what it's like for a father to boast about you or for a mother to comfort you with kind words when you make a mistake.  To never have anyone out there who will love you unconditionally."

"What's your point?"  Ed's voice was hoarse with anxiety.

"Just that you might not understand."  The great eyes turned to the body of Androgeus.  "We have sacrificed so much for our children."

He swallowed.  "You're... you're Pasiphae, then?"

The creature didn't reply.  Instead, she stepped forward into the light.

She seemed even bigger in the light than she had as an indistinct shadow.  Her feet were great cloven hooves a little smaller than dinner plates, the legs shaped more like a cow's than a human's.  Short brown hair covered all of the exposed skin on her arms and legs including the large, powerful-looking hands.  A surprisingly fine dress that fell to her knees covered her body, a garment that seemed better suited for a party than lurking in an underground lab. Looking up, Ed saw two impressive horns curving back from a mane of wavy hair; this was pulled carefully back out of a very human-looking face.  It was the same face as the woman's in the mosaic, though the features were slightly coarser.  The tawny eyes regarded him with a strange sort of pity.

"You know what this is like, Edmund.  We share the same affliction."  Her eyes roved over the scaled arms and legs protruding from his hospital gown, then moved to the white face and wide, lidless eyes.  "It is horrifying, to look in the mirror one day and not recognize the creature looking back.  It drove me away from the people I loved, drove me to hide from the rest of the world in this basement.  They do not understand... but perhaps you do."

Ed didn't know what to say to this.  He didn't expect her to be so, well, articulate.  Finally he cleared his throat.  "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we can end this.  We can both be human again, but Minos and I need your help."

"My help?"  Ed lifted his chin slightly, trying to will the waver out of his voice.  "I don't have a cure floating around in my body, in case Minos didn't let you in on that little detail.  He wanted me for Androgeus.  And I already told him that my mutations had nothing to do with coming back to life."

Pasiphae smiled, a sweet expression completely at odds with her monstrous form.  "But you have something much more powerful than a cure to this disease.  You have trust."

BANG!  The noise made Ed jump about a foot in the air.  Out the corner of his eye he saw dark figures spilling into their room, illuminated by the red blaze of Rowan's fire.  He could hear darts whistling through the air and voices shouting to one another.

Pasiphae had drawn closer to Ed in his distraction.  "They have much less at stake than you do, don't they?" she purred.  "Their mutations may hinder them, yes, but they are not alienating.  You have helped them so much, and look at how you have been repaid."

Ed's thoughts flicked immediately to Ethan's attempt to hold him hostage in the other chamber.  "You... you want me to give them up?" he asked dubiously.

"No, no, I would not ask that of you.  We only need one to end this madness.  Both Rowan and Sisca have properties that may be able to counteract this curse of ours.  If either one was taken into custody, we could be cured.  Everyone could be cured."  How had he not noticed how soft and deep her voice was before?  It was like the cooing of a dove.  "Think about that; you could save not only your friends, but the other test subjects and all of Knossos.  We could all venture back into the world again."

Ed swallowed again, his mouth very dry.  "So Minos would just let us waltz out of here without any repercussions, right?  That makes perfect sense.  And how in the name of Authority am I supposed to take down Sisca or Rowan?"

"If you help Minos and me this one time, don't you think that would cover anything else you may have done in the past?  As for subduing one of them..."  One large hand came toward him, a small plastic tube with a plunger just visible between the thick fingers.  She placed it in Ed's palm gently.  Her warm tawny eyes never left his face.  "That is where their trust comes in.  You have been traveling with Sisca for a long time now, haven't you?  She would suspect nothing if you drew near to her, perhaps to say something, and then..."

Ed stared down at the syringe for a moment.  Pasiphae had a point, of course.  If he'd wanted to, he could probably get right next to Sisca and have the sedative in her system before she suspected a thing.

"You... you are right, about one thing.  Sisca and I have been traveling together for a few weeks now.  I doubt there's anyone in the Labyrinth she trusts as much as she trusts me.  And..."

He looked up at the creature, an odd expression on his face.  Pasiphae's ears twitched forward slightly.  "Yes?"

"And if you really knew anything about family, you'd know better than to ask this of me."  He let the syringe slip through his fingers to the ground.

What happened next came so quickly Ed didn't have time to respond.  One moment he was standing across from Pasiphae, her smile still frozen onto her face as her eyes followed the syringe's progress, and the next he was slammed against the glass of Androgeus's chamber, the minotaur's hand at his neck.  Her face was strangely composed, though those tawny eyes blazed with anger.  Ed clutched at her wrist with a grunt of pain, but his strength was like that of a child's next to hers.

"Don't think that this changes anything, you wretched little insect," she growled, voice no longer smooth or soothing in the slightest.  "I will take them myself, and you--"

"Pasiphae, what have you done?!"  Minos strode out from behind the machine, wiping grease from his hands onto a cloth.  He was staring at Androgeus's cryonic chamber.  Ed managed to turn his head slightly to see what the scientist was referring to.  Several cracks spiderwebbed through the glass, apparently originating from where Ed's back had struck the surface.  Pasiphae glared at her husband, lips curled back from her teeth in a sneer.

"What, darling?  Worried that precious Androgeus's jar might spring a leak?"

Minos's face paled, a look of shock taking hold of his features.  "My...?  But you always said..."

"So eloquent today, aren't we?"  A snort that would have made any bull proud cut through the air.  "You should know what I want, what I've always wanted, if you're as great as the subjects in your little kingdom claim.  I want to be MYSELF again."

It was amazing how quickly Minos pushed down his shock.  He watched Pasiphae as though he'd never seen her clearly before.  "And somehow telling me this is going to help you achieve your goals?"

"Ah, that's the beauty of it.  You told me yourself that a healer has been procured, one who can pull this curse right out of my body with a touch.  I don't need you anymore, the thorn in my side, the reason I've been damned to-- AAGH!"

She let go of Ed as his stomach flopped out of his mouth onto her wrist.  The hair blocked a good deal of the acid, but the amount that did get through was enough to hurt.  Ed scrambled back to the side as Pasiphae spun toward him, her tufted tail lashing her sides, face contorted into the very picture of wrath.  She charged just as Ed slipped into the shadows.  But she kept coming straight at him through the dark, her bellow raging in his ears.

Something jerked him sharply to the side and out of the line of fire.  The minotaur charged past him like a gale in a storm, her hooves thundering against the ground.  Shaking, Ed turned to see who had pulled him out of her way.

"Rowan thought you might require assistance."  The darkness beside Ed swirled slightly, and Ethan's barely visible silhouette became visible.  He seemed to have recovered from his hit to the head.

Ed narrowed his eyes and took half a step back from him.  "Right.  Thanks."

Ethan hesitated.  Ed wondered briefly how the man might be responding to his curtness.  

"I am... sorry if I injured you earlier," he said stiffly, obviously not used to apologizing.  "I do not expect you to trust me again."

That was somewhat unexpected.  Ed watched the side of Ethan's head closely for a moment as though trying to discern his expression before his eyes flicked to the room at large.  Fire flashed nearby, a bit dimmer than it had been before in the first chamber.  The nymphs were surrounding Rowan, and from the little he could see of her face and her movements they were slowly gaining the upper hand.  At the same time a dark shape flew in the face of one of the nymphs, shrieking that same odd mixture of rage and elation he'd heard when Sisca had run at Minos.  The nymph went down, but another was already running toward Sisca with her gun raised.  He felt strangely detached from it all, as though it were just a movie he were watching instead of an actual fight.

"Doesn't look like I've got a choice."  Ed glanced past Ethan into the darkness, listening for the snorting and pounding of hooves that would denote Pasiphae.  "Think you could distract the minotaur for a minute?  I've got to do something."

"I will try."  Ethan offered him a curt nod and vanished into the darkness again.  Ed heard a snort of surprise from relatively nearby before the hooves clattered off away from him and the others fighting.  He turned back toward the light, cautiously approaching Androgeus's container once more.

He eyed the cracked glass and rubbed the back of his neck.  How was he going to do this?  The glass had to be at least half an inch thick.  He rapped against it tentatively, brow furrowed.  Maybe there was some sort of  control panel nearby to open it up...

"Get away from there!"  A swift movement in Ed's peripheral vision caused him to turn, and Minos's fist caught him squarely in the jaw.  He staggered, surprised by the force behind the blow; he just barely kept standing.  The doctor was quick to take advantage of his momentary uncoordination, and his hand clamped on Ed's arm.

Ed planted his feet as firmly as he could and at the same time swung his body sharply to the side.  His arm jerked out of Minos's grip.  The movement caused his attacker to reel forward, for the moment off-balance.  

Ed tried to take advantage of this, reaching out to push Minos over.  This proved to be a false move.  The man had his balance again in an instant, and before Ed could react Minos had his arm twisted out in a lock.  The eyes that fixed on Ed's face seemed cold, almost empty, as he dug in his pocket.

"I can at least try to save my son," he said in a voice of quiet steel, extracting a syringe like Pasiphae's from his pocket.  Before Ed could even contemplate getting away, however, he was interrupted.  Someone shouted, apparently in pain; Ed recognized Ethan's voice.  Then there was a muffled thud, the clattering of hooves, and Pasiphae strode into the light.  Her wicked tawny eyes moved immediately toward Ed and Minos; both of them froze.  Something quite mad gleamed out at them for a moment, and she pawed the ground.

After a moment's hesitation, Minos let go of Ed and stepped toward the minotaur, hands out in supplication.  "Pasiphae... Pasiphae, it's our son.  We have to have the subject alive to save him.  You cared about Androgeus once."

Ed began edging carefully out of the way as the minotaur laughed, a harsh nightmarish sound that contained no mirth.  She seemed quite the opposite of the sweet person from before, asking him to betray his friends with a smile on her lips.  

"That woman is dead.  You killed her."

Minos didn't have time to get out of the way as she moved; one instant he was standing there, stock still, and the next he was being trampled beneath her hooves.  Ed backed away in shock, wincing at the horrible thuds and cries and Pasiphae's laughter as she stampeded over her husband.  It only took a matter of seconds before her head was up again, though it seemed longer.  Her gaze went to Ed.

If Ed's face could have paled any further it would have.  He took a careful step back, and his foot met the cool edge of the machine.  He was cornered.

She ran at him.

Ed waited until the last possible moment to throw himself sideways out of her path.  Pasiphae didn't have time to even try to pull up short; her momentum carried her straight into the glass.  The cracks pushed through into the chamber, and the liquid inside seeped out.  Androgeus's body swayed slightly with the fluid's movement, giving the brief impression that he was indeed coming back to life, before falling limp.  A red light on the machine's side flashed on, and an alarm buzzed.   "System failure: preservation chamber breach.  Temperature of subject at 278 Kelvin and climbing."

The satisfaction Ed got from the thought that Androgeus would be able to cross the Styx soon didn't paralyze his wits.  He stooped down to retrieve a small plastic cylinder from the floor, charging toward the minotaur as she tried to extract herself from the wreckage.  Her eyes flashed toward him, still smoldering with a mad rage, as he plunged the syringe into her neck and depressed the plunger.  

She bellowed, jerking back from him as though she'd been electrocuted.  An arm swung out at his legs.  Ed cried out in surprise as he crashed to the ground.  His head bumped the floor, leaving him in a daze, as that dark shadowy figure loomed over him like a wounded rhinoceros.  Her hand came down for his throat, lips pulled back from her teeth in a fierce snarl, the face no longer holding any resemblance to the beautiful picture in the hall.  Ed scooted himself backwards feebly, but there was no time to get out of range.

But the minotaur's fingers just grazed his throat as Pasiphae's step faltered.  Her hoof slipped, and she fell to one knee with a groan.  One last look of contempt flashed in Ed's face before she toppled sideways with an almighty crash.

Ed hesitantly pushed himself up to his feet, tense, unsure if the creature was actually unconscious.  Pasiphae's breathing was shallow, her eyes fast shut as she bled from the numerous gashes she'd gotten from the glass.  No, she was out for the count.  He wondered momentarily if she would bleed out before the tranquilizer wore off.

"...Dauger... please..."

Ed jumped, expecting to be attacked-- but the person addressing him was Minos, lying broken on the floor, the white coat stained with blood.  His breathing was labored.  Cautiously, Ed drew closer to him, unsure of what to expect.  "Yes?"

Minos's dark eyes fixed on Ed intensely as though he were about to say something of great importance.  "This wasn't what I wanted... not what I wanted..."

Ed's frown softened slightly, and he knelt.  "You were trying to preserve your family, right?  After binding the gods didn't work?"

Minos nodded feebly, eyes slipping in and out of focus.  "It failed... she wasn't really... there."

Ed was silent for a moment.  "If you were to free the G.O.D.s now, things might be easier later on when you have to deal with them."

Minos blinked at him blearily.  "Why should... should I care about that?"

"They're going to get free one way or another.  If you set them loose now, willingly, some of them might be less inclined to be harsh after..."  He trailed off.

"After I've d-died."  Minos managed a wheezy chuckle, though it obviously pained him.  "No, I'll let them go, but... but not because of that.  I was mistaken... have to set things right..."  The doctor closed his eyes, the breaths becoming slower, weaker.  "Tell Catreus... tell him he was right... and I knew at the end.  Tell him he's a... a good son."

Ed nodded, unsure of what Minos was doing.  For a moment, he thought the scientist had already died.  But then he began muttering something in Greek.  It sounded like he was reciting a long string of data or something else he'd memorized.

"Minos?"

"Override c-command 45-1, A through N," he said quietly, firmly.  "Override command 45-2, A through... through N... there, that's... it's done."

He fell silent.  Ed shook his shoulder; he didn't move.

It was a peculiar feeling, sitting by the side of the dead man.  Ed hadn't known Minos at all, and he had no real reason to be sad about his passing.  And yet he still felt... maybe not upset.  Somber, that was a good word.  He stood up slowly, still watching the ruins of the man who'd brought him out of Paradise, thinking.

"Edmund!"

He jerked back to reality.  Ethan was standing in front of him, sporting a bloodied nose and cradling his arm.  He looked grimmer than usual.  Ed frowned slightly.  "Yes?  What is it?"

"This room shows signs of caving in.  We need to evacuate."  As though to underline this statement, the ground shook.  Little bits of rock fell from the ceiling, plinking to the ground.

The shaking woke Ed up a bit, and he stumbled forward.  "Evacuate, right."  He glanced toward the door where Sisca and Rowan had been fighting.  Rowan was sitting on the floor a little distance from where the fight had been, looking exhausted and a little battered.  Sisca, meanwhile, was limping toward them, looking quite composed.  Ed almost collapsed with relief when he saw her.  "Sisca!"  He half-ran to meet her despite the protests of his worn out body and, before he really knew what he was doing, had pulled her into a hug.

It took a moment for him to realize how stiff she'd gotten in his grip, and he pulled back with a flush.  "I-I mean... I'm sorry, I lost my head for a moment, and..."

Sisca only stared at him as though worried he'd been knocked senseless, completely bewildered.  He smiled a little sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.  "Right, I'll... I'll not do that again."  Suddenly very aware of Ethan and Rowan watching him, he tried to change the subject.  "What happened to the nymphs?"

"I'm not really sure."  Rowan was getting to her feet weakly as Ethan walked over to meet her.  "They just stopped fighting for a moment and looked around like they were confused.  Then before we knew what was happening, they kind of melted into water.  But they weren't, well, upset about it at all.  Some of them were laughing."

"The room is still unsafe," Ethan told them pointedly, though this seemed to be directed more at Ed and Sisca than Rowan.  "We can talk on our way out."

"Right, right."  Ed glanced back at the still figure of the minotaur and hesitated.  "She's not dead though.  Should we--"

An enormous chunk of masonry smashed a crater into the floor to their right.  Ethan's face paled, and though it doubtlessly hurt a good deal grabbed Rowan's hand to pull her forward.

They all picked up the pace as the room began to collapse in on itself.  Rocks the size of softballs came down at them from the unseen ceiling, forming little piles of rubble here and there when they broke to pieces.  Ed's ears stung as little shards of stone hit their unprotected skin.  The feeling of relief from earlier was swiftly dying away.  But the door was right there, they should be able to get through it in time.

"Agh!"  Ed suddenly stumbled as little flecks of stone and dust streamed down from the ceiling and into his eyes.  He barely saw a black and red blur as Ethan ushered Rowan out of the room, tears forming in an attempt to rid his eyes of the debris.  

Sisca's features swam as she turned back toward him, brow furrowed.  "Come on," she barked almost angrily.  And then there was a crack from above their heads.

Ed looked up.  Sisca didn't.  She grabbed Ed's arm and forced him through the door just as an enormous stone slab tipped end over end through the air.  Ed turned to see Sisca standing there for a moment, blurred and wavering though she was through his teary eyes, before she was blotted out by that rough, grey surface.  The doorway was completely blocked.

He stared at it, for the moment stunned by shock.  "SISCA!"

There was no reply.  Ed staggered back toward it, a horrible dread flooding his gut.  No, no she wasn't gone.  She was just behind the rock, she could come out.  They'd figure some way to move that blasted thing, and--

Ethan grabbed his arm.  "We need to keep moving.  These tunnels--"

"I'm not leaving without her!" Ed snapped, though even now the reality of the situation was sinking in.

The other's expression didn't waver.  "We will be crushed soon if we don't keep moving, now--"

But there was already a terrific crumbling and collapsing noise.  It seemed that the entirety of the Alpha Labs were caving in at once.  The ground churned like an uneasy sea, cracks forming in the walls as a hail of rocks poured down on their heads.  Dust filled the air, Rowan was screaming, Ethan was shouting something, and then--

There was a flash of warm yellow-orange fire, quite unlike Rowan's flames.  Ed caught sight of a familiar dark face and a blue and  yellow jumpsuit before everything went black.