10 Years Ago

It was stupid early in the morning as Steve né Levi and Seeker made their way through the cool air to the House of Levi.

The Seeker felt vaguely excited, he tried to not think that this was because he was working on his Mission. He had even managed to hold himself back on the booze and was only nicely drunk unlike Steve who was occasionally having to get very friendly with walls to keep himself going.

They made it to the House of Levi and Steve took the lead, knocking and holding what he must of thought was a quiet whisper with the man behind it.

“Got another Brother for the group.” Steve quietly shouted to the man behind the door.

The Seeker was busy trying to think, ignoring the feeling of eyes judging him from the darkness. Even when Seeker was trying his best to get horizontal the Mission was always there. Gnawing away at the back of his mind. He was no Levi. He did what was right, what he should do. That is why he followed Steve into the gaping darkness of the house in front of him. Even if he had to sit in a circle of other copies and talk about his feelings it was good to be moving forward.

Inside as his eyes adjusted to the darkness Seeker wondered why there was almost no illumination. Maybe because it was late, people were trying to sleep? Maybe they were skint and didn’t want to pay for electricity?

Through the entrance hall he followed Steve, without the wobble to his step, and was led to a small room with a few old school chairs scattered about and a folding table that if you looked at it too hard it would collapse.

The copy that had let them into the house turned and spoke “Have a seat Brother. We have a few questions if that’s alright?”

The man was a copy although the grey onesie he was wearing looked weird on him. Odd fashion choice Seeker thought. Seeker went to reply however was struck by a coughing fit and gladly sank into the hard plastic chair. The chair scraped against the concrete of the floor. They were certainly cheap the Seeker thought, not even a rug. Steve joined him, lolling his head back and closing his eyes. He started to hum some tuneless melody.

The onesie copy who Seeker had mentally dubbed Comrade Levi turned smartly and left them alone.

Seeker looked at Steve who was still in the happy stage of drunk.

“So Steve, this place. Does Levi Prime know about it?”

Steve didn’t move, just sat there with his eyes closed “Nah, can’t let that bastard know about us.”

Seeker nodded agreement “What actually goes on here? Is it like a Levi club house?”

Steve’s head lolled towards him and he cracked his eyes. The look the Seeker got was chilling; it was predatory, hungry. “Something like that Seeker.”

Before he could decide that just maybe this was a terrible idea, a group of identical looking copies all filed into the small room. All wearing the exact same grey onesie. They stood there for a moment and then parted, letting a primped and perfectly manicured Levi through.

Suddenly, the Seeker started to see the room in a different light. This was not a waiting room, this was an interrogation room.

Prime Dick as Seeker had dubbed the version standing in front stared at him for a touch too long before speaking.

“Welcome brother.” Prime Dick said “What is your Mission?”

The Seeker tried to grin at him and managed to croak out “Your mother.” His throat was killing him, he knew it was the smokes but he didn’t like to admit that.

The Prime stared at him, ignoring some stifled chuckles coming from the underlings around him. At least some of them shared the Seekers stupid sense of humour.

“You could join us Brother.” The Prime continued “Join our flock and you won’t have to be scared any more, we can take care of you.”

The Seeker looked from face to face, of the way the Prime was the only one in a perfectly pressed outfit while the rest were wearing what were obviously cast-offs. The subservience of them was unsettling. What had happened to these men? They were all Levi’s at one point, they were all me once, there was no way that the Seeker could ever see himself scuttling after another copy.

Maybe Prime Dick was not another copy? Maybe he was an actual Prime?

The Seekers damaged voice rasped out into the dead air “I think I won’t fit into your cult, sorry mate.” Nodding to the poorly dressed Levi’s “Unless there is a lot more fucking than these onesie’s are letting on.”

Prime Dick stood there staring at him. He probably thought it was an intimidating stare, one to make anyone question themselves and to bow before his authority. The Seeker saw worse whenever he remembered to shave.

The whole being stuck in a room with shitty chairs on a bare concrete floor with, yes, now he looked, a single drain in the middle? That was terrifying. But there was no way the Seeker was going to give the satisfaction to Prime Dick that he was scared. He understood now why the lighting was so poor. What had he gotten himself into? Why had he thought it was a good idea to follow a random copy into a place he knew was full of Levi’s?

Seeker ignored the part of him that was trying to be heard through the drink, maybe he really did want to spend time with people who understood what he was going through?

He hated himself all over again.

The Seeker managed to find his voice “You are the leader of these gormless idiots then? What was your Mission?”

Prime Dick sneered at him. “Mission? I am not one of you. I was not created as a slave. I will ask again, what is your Mission?”

The comrades behind Prime Dick started to fidget, Seeker could feel the violence building in the air.

Another small part of him, the part that drove him to have another drink when everything was already swimming in front of him, that told him to buy another packet of smokes and just keep sucking them down. That part of him was calm, cool and almost gleeful at the idea of the violence. Even death. It would end the early morning existential questioning of his existence, of who was he really. It would also mean that the real Levi Prime? The lazy fuck who had created him without even a by your leave, who expected him to solve his problems and then return for death?

The Seeker dying in a cold room without the Prime the wiser? That was worth it.

Almost.

Prime Dick finally gave up on his scowling, realising it was getting him no where.

“Show him pain first.” He snapped at the men behind him then turned on his obsessively polished shoes and strode out of the room.

Steve surfaced, Seeker had forgotten he was even there. Steve looked down at him with what he probably thought looked like compassion “Don’t worry Brother. This is for the best. The quicker you accept that, the better it will be for you.”

With that Steve followed behind Prime Dick, the exact image of a whipped dog.

The four Levi copies left in the room stood there and stared at him with empty eyes. What the hell had happened to these men? What had been done to them? A real Levi would not wait, would not look so uncomfortable or unsure of himself even if it was beating an incapacitated man. He was lazy but absolutely certain of himself. With a grim certainty the Seeker was sure that he was about to find out exactly what had happened to these men.

“Alright boys. I don’t know what Prime Dick there is peddling but you can cut it out now.” Seeker rasped out. Not for the first time he thought he should stop smoking and drinking so much and let his poor vocal cords recover. Not for the first time he knew that was not going to happen.

He saw one of them crack a smile at Prime Dick, the others were stoic.

“Lads? Come on lads, I am one of you!” The words came out of a place of self preservation and he found himself snarling at the end. He was not one of these worms.

Two of them produced zip ties and the Seeker tried to make a break for it. The fist smashing into his face, breaking his nose, sat him back abruptly on the chair. It skidded across the concrete floor. The copies were on him before he could recover and he was lashed to the chair.

The Seeker didn’t know how long the beating went on, the blows splattering blood across the bare concrete. The pain different from the usual he felt but somehow comfortable, an old friend. Each blow was almost welcoming, warming.

Seeker had no idea of what was supposed to happen, of what to expect. But it was not this weak shit. He could feel that three of them were trying but did not have their heart in it. The fourth though? He was actually pulling his punches. Not to say it didn’t hurt, especially as he kept slamming his fist into the Seekers newly broken nose but he was not trying.

After an eternity of pain, so about five minutes, they pulled back panting. The Seeker was soaked with blood and so were they. They stood there almost embarrassed while Seeker was trying to breathe through his now thoroughly shattered nose.

The Seeker thought about spitting at them, hocking a glob of phlegm and blood at them. He could not raise his head yet though. Funny that.

When he finally managed to look he saw that two of the Levi’s had left and returned at some point. They were wielding slabs of wood. Unable to move, unable to struggle or even to muster the energy to cry out. His mind should be shrieking in terror but that small part had taken over. He was calm. He was now facing his future.

What happened was that wood was used once. Just once. He heard more than felt his legs snap. The pain was too much even for the little part of him awaiting death. The sound of his shins snapping echoed through the room and his mind. Over and over, slowly filtering away as he lost consciousness.

The pain had dulled from excruciating to just dominant. Seeker awoke in the blood splattered concrete room. He ran though the usual check upon waking. Limbs, fucked. Sight, blurry. Hangover, nope. Gotta take a win where you can, right?

Groaning he tried to straighten in the chair but his battered and bruised body was not having any of his shit and stayed in place.

The door opened.

In walked a Levi, surprise.

The Seeker managed to spit on the floor “Got anything to drink?” He drawled out.

The Levi walked closer to him and started to cut his bonds.

“Shut the fuck up and you might live.” The copy quickly said.

Unable to process what was happening the Seeker let him work. Then again, what choice did he have?

The copy finished with the bonds. “Can you walk?”

The Seeker struggled to raise his head and stare at him, look at his shattered legs and then back at the copy.

The copy grunted “Yeah, okay. Stupid question. Shit. Okay, wait here.”

The Seeker laughed bitterly as the copy left. Where the fuck was he going to go? Valiantly crawl to freedom?

An eon later, a copy, the same one the Seeker assumed, returned with a wheel chair.

What followed was a slapstick comedy of trying to maneuver the Seeker into the chair while at the same time tried to not blackout from the pain. He could barely move his upper body and his lower body was checked out for the duration.

Finally getting him into the chair the copy wheeled the Seeker out of the concrete nightmare room. A blanket covered the obvious damage and a hissed “Act like a cripple” was an easy enough command to follow.

Still unable to properly focus, the escape was a blur. Considering they just needed to head back out into the corridor and out the front door it seemed to last forever.

Once they were out into the cool morning air the copy took them off at a dead run, the wheelchair bouncing and jiving wildly over the cobbles.

Seeker passed out from the pain.

When he surfaced again he found himself in an unknown alleyway staring at the panting, sweat covered copy in front of him.

The copy leaned forward “Where can I stash you? Where is safe?”

Through his muddled brain an answer was dredged. “The Skin Drum.” The bar, his safe haven, his recluse.

That is how the Seeker found himself in another alleyway, this time out the back of the Skin Drum.

The copy leaned down again “What now? Do you own this place? Do we just roll on in?”

It was still early morning, the sun had risen and was trying unsuccessfully to clean up the alleyway. He mustered up the energy to reply “It’s not mine. If you get me in, there is a room upstairs I crash in.”

The copy nodded “Okay. Lets get you there and I’ll try to get a doctor.”

Seeker knew he should ask why this drone was risking everything for him. What did he want? It was all beyond his abilities right now though.

The door to the alley opened. Outlined in light stood a gorgeous looking man, he took one look at them and dropped the bag of rubbish he was holding.

“Seeker?” Valkyr asked hesitantly “Too lazy to walk huh?” He looked from the copy to Seeker and back again.

“Seeker?” The copy pushing the chair asked “Wait, who are you?” That was directed at Valkyr.

“I could ask the same thing.” Valkyr answered but his eyes were nailed to the broken form of the Seeker. “I can assume you were not the one responsible for his sorry state. Lets get him inside.”

No argument there. The copy and Valkyr maneuvered the wheelchair through the back door and with some swearing got him up the stairs and into the bed.

“Give me a minute to recover and I’ll fetch a sawbones.” Said the copy.

“No doctors.” Valkyr snapped. He had not put a blanket over the Seeker and was looking over all the wounds from the completely crushed nose to the shattered and twisted legs.

The Seeker was barely holding onto consciousness, the trip up the stairs had almost done him in but that part of him that was welcoming the end was fully back in charge and wanted to be wide eyed and awake for the finale.

“He needs a doctor!” The copy shot back. Valkyr slowly turned and looked at him. Really looked at him. The Seeker knew what it was like staring into those bottomless orbs Valkyr called eyes. Seeker knew that unlike Prime Dick, when Valkyr properly looked at you there was no escape.

Valkyr held the man’s gaze “I thank you for what you have done for my friend. I would like to hear the full story in time. For now though, I will take it from here. He is safe.”

The copy flicked his glance over to the Seeker. A small smile crawled its way onto the Seekers face. He managed to husk out a reply. “Better trust the big guy. He is way prettier than either of us.” He continued “Seriously though, I don’t know why you have done what you did. Thank you. We need to talk just..” He tried to gesture at himself but his hands weakly fluttered at his side “I am a bit under the weather right now.”

The copy looked from the Seeker to Valkyr and back again. “I’ll be back tomorrow night to check on you, stay hidden until then.” With that he turned and left.

Seeker tried to raise his head to look at Valkyr properly but couldn’t. “What now big man?” Seeker asked the room in general.

No response, just a rustling sound.

Seeker tried again and managed to get up on one elbow and saw Valkyr slowly removing his clothes. He was topless and undoing his pants.

He was stunning.

“Ahhh mate. Not sure what you are doing but I don’t think that is going to work right now.”

“Shut up idiot.” Valkyr said softly. “Just trust me, this will hurt me more than you.” He finished removing his pants and stood there, head bowed.

Then he started to change.

Feathers.

Feathers split the skin and slowly started to emerge all over his body, they were blood stained as thousands of cuts started bleeding as the feathers pushed their way out. They were bone white streaked with red blood. Valkyr snarled in pain, the feathers were everywhere. With a gut wrenching snapping sound the Seeker saw a mound of gore, bone and feathers slowly growing above his shoulders.

Wings. Fucking wings were unfolding and stretching behind him. A crest of golden plumage was pushing its way out of his skull. Valkyr was holding himself very still, too still. He was groaning and snarling, barely keeping in the pain of what was happening. Whatever it was he had chosen to do, it was agony.

After an age it was done. Standing there was not his friend with wings, it was something else entirely.

It was covered in feathers, the hands had become talons, the bones must have fused together. His legs elongated and bending in an incredibly uncomfortable way to look at.

Only his face remained the same.

He should have looked ridiculous.

He looked awe-inspiring.

Divine.

With a low cry the wings snapped out and brushed against the walls of the room and sprayed it with blood. He looked incredible, like a God.

The Seeker could only stare. He knew about Supers. Hell, he had come from a Super. But to see something like this right in front of him, to see his friend become this.

“What are you?” He managed to ask once he found his voice again.

“The one who is going to fix you.” Valkyr gently said as he reached down with his hands, no, talons, and laid them against the sides of the Seekers face.

They were cold and scaly.

The Seeker did not remember anything after that.