Three Square Meals Ch. 091

John glanced down at the weapons in her hands. "I'm pretty sure it's dead already. I doubt you'll need those."

She flushed with embarrassment at the realisation she had drawn her pistols and she hurriedly slid them back in their holsters. "Sorry..." she murmured, hopping onto the platform with him.

He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, then turned to hit the button to take the lift up to the Engineering Bay. They raced towards the roof at tremendous speed, the doors sliding open to let them safely enter.

"Would you mind getting the door for me please?" he asked, before carrying his prize across the Workshop deck.

Tashana jogged across Engineering to open the door into the corridor, before slipping through ahead of him and darting towards Medical. John had to tilt the ochre-coloured head on its side to fit through both doors, and when he entered the Medical Bay, he saw the Hivelord's decapitated head on one of the operating tables. With his massive strength, it didn't take too much effort to place the Broodmother next to it and the sterilisation forcefield shimmered as he stepped clear.

"Time to get out of this gear I think," he said to the Maliri girl, who appeared lost in thought. "You can use the equipping frame in our bedroom."

Tashana looked at him in surprise. "Doesn't that one belong to Alyssa?"

*That's no problem, our armour's all the same size anyway, so I'll leave my suit in the Briefing Room,* her blonde Matriarch immediately informed her. She sounded amused as she added, *One of the benefits of John's one-size-fits-all approach to his girls...*

John offered Tashana his hand and she gratefully accepted, slipping her armoured gauntlet into his. They walked along the corridor to Deck Seven in comfortable silence, with the Maliri girl lost in her troubled thoughts, and John not wanting to talk to her about it just yet. The sound of activity reached their sensitive ears as they stepped into the blue anti-gravity field, the noise from the crowds drifting up the tube from the Cargo Bay and Hangar.

After stepping out onto Deck Two and entering the bedroom, John paused to look at Jade, who was still fast asleep burrowed into the covers. Light was still radiating from her verdant body, but the radiance had dimmed slightly, making the Nymph appear more contented than triumphant. He led Tashana into the walk-in-wardrobe and they removed their Paragon suits in the armour equipping frames. John stretched his tired muscles as he stepped out of his armoured boots, while Tashana shook out her long snowy-white hair as she walked clear of her armour.

"I need to freshen up, but there's a problem," John announced, his expression serious. "I don't like showering alone..."

She laughed and unzipped her form-fitting bodysuit. "In that case, I better join you. I wouldn't want you to get lonely."

They stripped off their clothes then walked hand-in-hand through to the bathroom. John activated the shower then opened his arms for her, wrapping her in a gentle embrace as the hot water splashed down around them. Tashana was a little tense to start with, but she soon relaxed, leaning closer to him and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"You were magnificent today," he whispered quietly into her ear, as he slowly rubbed her back. "We wouldn't have made it out of those tunnels if it wasn't for you taking care of those Juggernauts. I was seriously worried when we hit that gallery and saw how many we had to face."

Tashana pulled back and looked up into his eyes. "I wasn't," she said with conviction. "I always feel absolutely fearless when you're near; like there's nothing we can't accomplish together. Even when that train tipped into the lava... I knew you'd find a way to save all of us."

John cupped her head in his hands and leaned in to give her a tender kiss, feeling her melt in his arms as she returned it with passion. Her full lips felt soft and yielding, her tongue flicking tentatively against his at first and then growing bolder. He could feel her smile as she teased him with the tip before pulling back, urging him to follow. Taking up that sensual invitation, he followed her tongue into her mouth and was rewarded by a heated moan as he did so. They stayed like that for a long time, enjoying the intimacy of the kiss as they soaked under the shower.

Eventually Tashana pulled back and let out a blissful sigh. "I've never been kissed like that before... it was wonderful."

"It was," John agreed, relishing the loving look in her enchanting violet orbs.

She gave him a knowing smile and said, "Now I'm feeling so relaxed my legs feel like jelly, are you finally going to tell me?"

"What do you want to know?" he asked her quietly.

"All of it," she replied, meeting his look of concern.

He could see the fierce resolve burning within her; an inner strength that had been gradually building over these last few weeks.

*She's ready,* Alyssa agreed, her tone full of sympathy. *Do you want me there too?*

*I'll be okay,* John replied. *Just let me know when you've finished loading the Trankarans and we're ready to ship out.*

*Will do,* she agreed, her voice fading from his mind.

John smiled at the beautiful girl in his arms. "Let's get dressed and we'll talk."

She glanced down at his equipment, then looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "First, do you want to..."

"Later, definitely," John said, punctuating his words with a kiss.

Tashana nodded and took his hand as he led her out of the shower, the jets turning off behind them. They dried themselves off before returning to the walk-in-wardrobe, where John pulled on a t-shirt and combat trousers while Tashana borrowed one of Alyssa's long dresses. When they returned to the bedroom, Faye was waiting for them beside a paused holo-recording, a sad expression on her elfin face. She fluttered over to join them and pursing her cupid-bow lips, placed a loving kiss on Tashana's sky-blue cheek.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you like that again," she said vehemently, with a blazing intensity to her luminous eyes. Before the startled Maliri girl could reply, the purple sprite looked at John and continued, "Just call me if you need anything."

"Thanks, Faye," John replied, watching her disappear a second later.

He slipped his hand into Tashana's, interlacing their fingers and guided her over to the bed. Some of her bold confidence had left her now, unsettled as she was by Faye's fervent declaration.

"Is it really that bad?" she asked him in a hushed voice.

John paused for a second, then nodded. "Yes. Some of it will be very hard for you to hear."

When they sat down, Tashana wouldn't release her tight grip on his right hand, so he reached for the remote with his left instead. He pressed play to activate the video, the blurred image suddenly focusing on this very bedroom and a gruesomely scarred Maliri girl sitting on the bed. Tashana gasped in horror at the sight of her mutilated face, not doubting for a moment that the girl in the holo-image was her.

Appalled at the sight of her injuries, she whispered, "I always tried to be kind to people. I was... nice. How could anyone do that to me? To anyone?"

The video continued to play but the sound was turned off, the sickeningly disfigured girl in the video talking to someone out of shot, her ravaged face twisted with scorn.

In a voice no more than a muted murmur, Tashana asked, "When was this taken?"

John stroked her back and gently replied, "The night you decided to join me."

Tearing her eyes away from the holo-vid to look at him, she asked, "Can I listen to what we were saying?"

He rewound the recording back to the start, then played it all back. She listened all the way up to her tortured self finally breaking down in tears and begging for John's help, at which point Tashana turned away, not able to handle seeing herself in such a desperate state. She slipped her hand from his and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in a state of shock after seeing those terrible images.

John deactivated the recording, then shifted back on the bed and looked down at her, his face full of worry. "I hope you don't think I was trying to take advantage of the situation. I just wanted to-"

"-help a wounded little bird," Tashana finished for him, giving him a forlorn smile. "And I was hurt the worst of them all, wasn't I?"

He nodded, meeting her troubled gaze. "The amount you've suffered through; all that emotional torture as well as the physical... I don't know how anyone could have survived it." He clenched his jaw in anger and said, "But you were good... and kind... you didn't deserve any of what happened to you. I wanted to make it all better, to take away your pain."

"Please tell me what happened to me," Tashana urged him. "I've seen what I was like... nothing you say could be any worse."

Heaving a heavy sigh, John slowly nodded and told her the unvarnished truth. Starting with Irillith's betrayal and Edraele sentencing her to banishment, but not before the Matriarch had implanted a chip in her beforehand in case she needed Tashana as a test subject. Then the brutal gang rapes by pirates and Tashana's eventual enslavement. The years of abuse she'd suffered, being sold as a defenceless plaything for the sick amusement of sadistic monsters.

"The Bolon..." she murmured, her eyes wide in shock. "I was raped by one of those things..."

His eyes filled with sorrow as he said gently, "Alyssa told me... she's seen everything, from all the memories in your mind. You were chained up and raped until you were... impregnated. Bolons are telepathic and it savoured your terror as it attacked you, trying to make it as horrifying as possible."

John longed to touch her, moving his hand to comfort the shocked girl, but he hesitated at the last moment, worried that she'd flinch at his touch. She gave him a tearful smile and clasped his hand, then held it against her chest.

"What else?" she asked in a choked whisper. "My skills with a pistol? The Pyrokinesis? Where did they come from?"

Feeling a heavy lump in his throat, John swallowed as he gazed down at her beautiful face. "All the abuse over the years... it took its toll. The slaver who owned you eventually let a pirate mutilate your face like that with a knife. Afterwards, your owner decided to throw you into a pitfight, thinking you'd be killed. But he underestimated you. Somehow you fought back... killed your opponents instead. You fought for years, slaying over a hundred pit fighters until your owner had you raped by a Drakkar as your 'reward' for your latest victory. That's when you finally snapped..."

"And brought forth the flames," Tashana hissed, her eyes glowing and fire springing up around her fingertips. The fiery zephyr danced over the back of John's hand but left him unharmed. "The smell of their burning flesh as I punished them... I took my time with the Captain, repaid him for all those years of suffering..."

John looked at her in alarm and something in his expression brought her out of her vengeful trance. "Are you okay?" he asked with concern.

"The memories are getting more vivid," she said, pain in her eyes. "I felt that same sense of burning hate when I looked at the Bolon."

He brushed his fingers through her long white hair, gently massaging her temple. "I put that shield in place to protect your mind from all those terrible memories. I wanted to let you heal mentally as well as physically, but you've grown so much stronger since then that you've started breaking through the shield on your own. I think your mind is fighting to be whole again, no matter how painful it might be."

Tashana looked at his anxious face and could see the worry in his eyes. "You won't lose me," she said soothingly, knowing the cause of his anguish. "I've got your love to keep me strong now, as well as all the support from the girls. I won't be like that tormented soul in the video, I know it."

John leaned down and gave her a tender kiss. When he pulled back he murmured, "I love you."

She gave him a loving smile in return, but it froze on her face as she felt something profound shift in her mind. It was like a titanic presence lifted away, relieving a pressure that she hadn't consciously been aware of before. For a moment she revelled in that sense of wholeness, followed by a sudden surge as she embraced her full potential. However, the shroud had also lifted from her deeply suppressed memories, letting her witness everything from that terrible lost decade.

Tashana's mouth opened in horror, eyes flashing back and forth as she recalled the sick tortures and the rapes... All those agonisingly long years of abuse that had been inflicted on her. Through it all, one thing wounded her worst of all, and she let out a broken sob, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"How could they do that to me?!" she whimpered, reliving the moment of her sister's and mother's betrayals. "I loved them both, with all my heart..."

John lay down beside her, pulling her in for a hug. Tashana went to him willingly, throwing her arms around him and shuddering as she clung to him for comfort.

"The Universe is a fucked-up place," John said, his expression bleak. "A lot of terrible things happen and often to the people that least deserve them."

She pulled back to look up at him through her tear-filled eyes. "Edraele, Irillith... you tried to tell me before what they'd done, but I didn't believe you, not really..."

"They're not the same monsters that turned on you, not any more," he said gently, brushing a long snowy lock from her face.

Tashana nodded, wiping away her tears. "No, because you fixed them! You made them how they should have been, if they hadn't become so twisted and evil. You were right; the Edraele and Irillith I used to know are gone, but the new ones... they really do love me, I feel it in my bones!"

John nodded, his voice quiet. "There's no hidden agendas or vicious scheming there now, just a sister's and mother's heartfelt love."

She reached up to brush her fingers against his cheek. "You really earned your name," she murmured, a look of wonder and tenderness in her eyes. "Baen'thelas, the righter of wrongs..."

He returned her gaze, studying her face and wishing he knew what she was thinking. "Do you think you'll be able to cope with all those awful memories? I can't help feeling like I've let you down... I'm so sorry you had to experience them all over again."

Tashana looked up at him, gazing into his eyes as she said distantly, "Yes... it probably was your fault..."

John looked away, unable to meet her probing gaze. He slowly nodded, feeling a surge of guilt. "Like I said, I'm really sorry. If I could do things diff-"

She grabbed him and pulled him down into a fierce kiss, taking him completely by surprise. There was no anger as her lips met his, only warmth and love. When they finally parted, she smiled at him and exclaimed, "It was your fault because you've made me as strong as the rest of your girls! I was powerful enough to challenge a Progenitor's psychic strength! That's the only reason your shield started to fail..."

His eyes widened in understanding, but before he could reply, he caught the glow of amber light flickering in his peripheral vision. Turning to look over his shoulder he stared in amazement at the burning tapestry she'd woven with her mastery of Pyrokinesis. He recognised himself as the larger, fiery figure standing protectively over the seven female flame sprites gathered around him. An eighth flashed into being and danced over to join her elemental sisters, the group of girls all moving to embrace her in delight.

John had previously experimented with Pyrokinesis to sheathe his sword in fire, but what he saw in that cleverly manipulated conflagration astounded him. He couldn't even begin to imagine the level of control Tashana possessed to be able to manipulate those nine fiery figures to such a degree. He recognised each of the girls, their features perfectly sculpted by the subtle variations of heat in the blaze forming each beautiful face. Tashana's flame sprite embraced Irillith's last, the two then gliding over to wrap John's burning avatar in their loving arms.

Closing his eyes, he searched through the mental compartments in his mind, intending to see the changes in the Maliri girl in more detail. However, the incandescent glow emanating from her slender form was blinding, leaving him flinching away from the glare. When he'd recovered enough to dampen that radiance down so that he could see her, he realised that she was now matching Jade in her brilliant intensity. Tashana lightly brushed his lips with hers and he opened his eyes again to look at her.

She spoke in a soft voice throbbing with gratitude, "Thank you for what you've done for me. Everything I've ever wanted; a family, friends, people I love... you've given me all of it!"

"It was time fate started giving you some of what you actually deserved," John said, holding her close. "Only good things for you from now on, honey."

Tashana smiled and hugged him back, giving him a kiss. When they separated, her smile faded slightly. "I just need a bit of time to come to terms with my past... but I feel good, stronger..."

"I can see that," he said, giving her an understanding smile. He pulled her in for another hug and whispered in her ear, "Take as much time as you need. The only thing that matters is that you're okay."

Tashana returned his smile then rose from the bed. She waited for John to stand too, then said quietly, "I'll go to my room for a few hours, I want to try and sort things out in my head." She hesitated for a moment, then continued, "I'd rather not see Irillith for a little while, but I don't want to upset her. Would you mind covering for me if she asks?"

"Of course, honey," John said putting his arm around her. He looked into her eyes and cautiously added, "Do you remember that I wiped your sister's memory of her involvement? Neither Irillith or Edraele know what their old personalities did to you."

"I do, and I still think you did the right thing. I don't want them feeling guilt over it either; the three of us just need to put all this behind us. You've built a wonderful new family for me and it's one I definitely don't want to lose," she said, her tone earnest. She reached for his hand and placed it on her slender tummy. "You're a big part of that family now and I want all of us to share a glorious future with you."

John caressed her gently, looking into her violet eyes and wanting that future with a passion that surprised him.

"Only a few more months," she murmured, leaning into his hand, her gaze filled with promise.

With a look of regret, John slowly withdrew his hand. "Go and get some rest, beautiful. If you keep talking like that, resting is the last thing you'll be doing!"

She kissed him tenderly, a sultry gleam in her eyes. "Later..." she purred, before padding away down the corridor.

*You handled that really well,* Alyssa said, sounding impressed. *She's been through so much, but you managed to help her deal with it all.*

John leaned against the doorframe and watched the alluring Maliri girl as she walked away. *Is she okay emotionally? That must have been rough getting bombarded with everything in one burst...*

*Actually, it was just the betrayal by her family which hurt her the most. That came as such a shock that the rest just washed over her,* the blonde replied.

*Do you think she'll have trouble dealing with everything once she's had a chance to think about it?* he asked, watching Tashana as she paused outside her quarters and looked back at him. She waved him goodbye then disappeared into her room.

Alyssa paused for a long moment, giving his question some serious consideration. *I didn't realise how much of her mind you were suppressing before. I felt a massive surge inside her when you lifted the mind shield.*