Cold, quiet, and uncomfortable. Viktor and the infirmary had more in common than he'd like. It was a place he didn't want to be, especially when he knew he was fine physically. Despite the exceptional results of the few tests conducted on him, Black Canary and Red Tornado worried about the young man's mind. Viktor had explained in as much detail as he could what he experienced from Kassy's mental attack on him, and though he seemed unbothered, Viktor had suffered a wound he wasn't sure he could shrug off.
Viktor was good at hiding how he felt, and this led to him only having to stay just a few more hours. Besides, he was getting quite sick of hearing Zach continuously livestream about being shot. At the moment he sat up as comfortably as he could while watching the hit show
13 Week Fiance!Into the door of the infirmary came a familiar headbush that bopped left and right, mushed down the middle by familiar green headphones. Below that was the body of Kilamanjaro, in a white t-shirt and frog pajama pants, interestingly enough. Held in his hand was a cloche-covered plate of sorts. A small smile came to his features in greeting, pulling his headphones down to rest on his neck. Placing the plate on one of those overbed tables, Ja rolled it closer to Vicky.
“Hai friend…doing okay?”“Hello…” Viktor's greeting was drier than usual, juxtaposing Kilamanjaro's peppy mood. He briefly eyed the cloche-covered plate before returning his attention to his bushy-haired teammate.
“Yes, I'm doing okay.” His eye looked back to the cloche.
“You don't have to feed me… and you didn't need to visit.” Most who didn’t know him well might have found this typical but the young man was behaving more harshly, especially towards Ja.
The youth in question felt the tension and his smile dipped a little. He understood perhaps not needing to feed Viktor, the guy could feed himself…Though, the part about not needing to visit him seemed to come out personally. From what Jamhad remembered, the traumas suffered by Vicky ran deep…He couldn’t know what happened in his head, but Ja saw it as all the more reason to offer reassurance.
“No, maybe not, but I wanted to be sure that my pack recovers good after how wounding the last mission was…” Was his gentle reply, and with it, he pulled off the top of the cloche to reveal:
“Puff Puff balls! They made them all the time in Buredunia. They are like….what are they called here— doughnuts!”Viktor grabbed one, studying the pastry with critical eyes. Ja’s enthusiasm for the tasty treat failed to influence Viktor’s apprehension to try it. He was sure it was delicious but he probably wouldn’t enjoy it in the mood he was in. Out of everyone on the team, Ja was possibly the most persistent. Shaking him away with cold words would never work, but since he was here…
“Ja.” Viktor said the name as if testing the sound of it.
“Who is Kila?”A small flash of confusion seemed to wash across the young man’s features.
“It is me..? It was what I was called by people in Buredunia and friends that were not my Amai. ‘Ja’ is what my family calls me by…” A more contemplative look came across the animal boy’s features, while Viktor retained his more stern expression. He was not completely sure where he was going with this but he’d keep digging.
“Did you hear of someone else called by that name?” There was a brief silence.
“You seem to prefer it at times. And when you do prefer it…” Viktor held up the puff puff ball between his index finger and thumb before pressing on it. Its shape now resembled a wheel.
“You’re quite different. Superficially, you’re the same but everything else I’ve observed is… not troubling but interesting.” Viktor took a modest bite of the pastry.
Ja seemed to mull over the concepts that Vicky was presenting with a gentle bob of his head left and right.
“I’m different?” He said aloud, but still seemed lost in his mind.
“I…in Atlantis, I briefly gave in to the Red’s fury within…I felt different then…” He admitted. The particular circumstance was a detail Viktor had noted while looking over the transcripts of the mission debriefings.
“But you said ‘at times’…meaning more than once…” He mused, still looking for other potential times when he didn’t feel like himself. Yet, the only memories that seemed strange or where there were holes happened before his arrival on the team. Surely Viktor wouldn’t be talking about that.
“Okay, well, if I start acting differently, then let me know.” He nodded, more so to himself as he took notice of his friend eating one.
“Do you like it?”“It is ade- It’s quite tasty.” The hint of a smile formed at the edges of his lips. He could not deny or lowball the deliciousness of the puff puff ball. His face quickly grew pensive with the more serious matter.
“And if I let you know, it won’t be…” Viktor’s curiosity was piqued by Ja’s duality now more than ever.
“I’ll do it.” He simply said with a compliant nod before tossing the rest of the pastry into his mouth.
So it is not just a change in attitude… He quickly gulped down the treat before continuing.
“Knowing what is occurring with you will only improve the success rate of our tasks and missions. Take the encounter with the squid for instance. Don’t you find it odd that you did not use your power over the Red in a situation concerning a hostile creature?”“I…I remember being on the submarine but it is blurry…And I remember blacking out at some time afterwards…I felt the squid dying when I awoke.” Ja’s voice went quieter the longer he spoke, his eyes downcast as if speaking of a passed friend.
“The word ‘Hostile’ doesn’t quite fit to me…he was afraid and mistook the submarine for a whale…I didn’t wake up in time to tell anyone…I couldn’t stop the Professor from killing him…”“Neither could Talon.” In his pettiness, Viktor let the comment linger on its own and pulled out his phone, and tapped the screen as if to artificially let a few seconds pass.
“Hostile or afraid, you failed to relay information you should have had from the start. A lapse in judgment? Maybe. A lapse in ability? More plausible. Why did you even leave the submarine with an oxygen tank and helmet?”“It was part of the armor…though, perhaps when I blacked out, my abilities wouldn’t have gotten blurred if I didn’t have them…” He trailed, then paused though as if realizing something. With a more firm expression, Ja looked back up at Viktor directly.
“You were also in the submarine and didn’t stop Bingley either.” He picked up on the petty nature that Vicky used to casually discredit their teammate.
“Lapse in my ability? No. The difference between Dr. Bingley’s actions and mine is that I chose not to act on my desire. Talon could have stopped him… but he was conflicted. If told to, he would have fired. I know it.”Ja’s face almost appeared to visibly sink back into his mane at Viktor’s words. A betrayed tingle welled up in his stomach and up his throat. He said that the difference between him and the man in Atlantis’ custody was that he didn’t fire…even though he
wanted to. It didn’t sit right in Ja’s head…he just told Vicky that the squid was afraid and acting out of self-defense, yet talked about his desire to have killed it without even a hint of regret. All that the young lion could express at that moment was:
“…De..sire?”“Desire.” Viktor repeated without the slightest hesitation.
“Wh…” Ja’s breath was starting to regain some traction, shoulders rising and falling as his voice gained more base.
“What do you mean desire?! Are you telling me that you wanted to kill the animal that had no affiliation with our mission? Just because it crossed our path?”“The same creature that struck you? Yes. The same creature that obstructed our path and threatened the well-being of our team members? Yes.” Viktor grabbed another pastry, appearing unbothered by the tension between him and the young lion.
“What? Do you think I enjoyed the idea? It was simply the best option. Why can't some of you understand that? Were we supposed to wait for you to save the day?”The longer Viktor spoke, the golden tinge in Kilamanjaro’s eyes faded slowly into amber, further into ruby.
“I think that disregarding life so easily, without care to nuance, is what makes you just the same as Bingley. That you are no different from the people that my Amai and Iwisa wanted to save me from!” His voice took an upshift before it became more melancholic as he spoke his next words.
“I feel the Red’s fury boiling within me; wanting to lash out at you. If my resolve to contain it weakens, and it becomes a threat to both you and Zach: Does that mean that your best option is to kill me?” Their eyes locked. Viktor mentally prepared for the worst.
Without regret, he replied…
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