Original Two Sides of the Same Coin - Part 14/? - Updated Jan 11, 2022

[starpollen]

I've started another chapter of this, if anybody thinks they might be interested in reading it...? I know this story is OLD. If anybody is interested, I'll try to get it up by the end of the weekend!...

[truth]

plEASE OH M Y GOD. this is the best fic I have ever read in my entire liFe.

[Juto]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read it straight after you finished Bayle and Travin and I got so sad when it didn't have an actual ending, but I didn't want to seem pushy, but OH MY GOD!!!! I would love it if you finished it!!!!!!!!!

This is such a wonderful story!!!!!

[Frivolite]

Heck yes I'd love to see more of this! I hardly dared to dream.

[IcyFlame]

I JUST FOUND THIS AND NOW I CANNOT CONTAIN MY IMMENSE LOVE FOR IT I WOULD CRY TEARS OF JOY IF YOU STARTED UPLOADING AGAIN

[Mustang]

If you post the next part I would DIE (of happiness), so please (DO)N'T post the next part.

[ellwren]

Yes! A thousand times, yes!

I would do anything* to help make this happen.

*There is likely nothing I can contribute here. Unless you need some weird art or something knitted.

[sneasons greetings]

Honestly, this is the best story I've read on the forum. It made me cry like 4 times. I'm not ashamed. Please update. You left us on quite the cliffhanger

[this_is_not_me]

God. Damn. I'm only through part 5, but as a (wannabe?) sci-fi writer myself, I am in awe. The sickness/caretaking parts are amazing, of course, but I am mostly dead over the worldbuilding and character development and... god, HOW? Can I please be you?

[queercastiel]

Okay, fucking fuck. Please, please update. I would sell my firstborn. This story is so wonderful and you have such complex characters, holyfuck. Oh god, you're such a good writer and god ducking damnit. Sorry for the swearing, but god damn.

[this_is_not_me]

YES PLEASE MORE HOLY FUCK

[HPG]

[ellwren]

Just wanted to say that I cannot wait! and have been checking on this thread obsessively.

[truth]

Just wanted to say that I cannot wait! and have been checking on this thread obsessively.

I have to second this. I don't just like it for the sneezes, the idea of this world and the complexity of it is amazing.

[Mustang]

Just wanted to say that I cannot wait! and have been checking on this thread obsessively.

Same.

[daystar428]

Oh please please please!! i reread this one all the time!

[starpollen]

Aw thanks so much you guys!! I've been swamped at work and getting home so criminally late every night, so I haven't had a chance to work on it in days. But it's on my desktop staring at me every time I turn on the laptop, and I am committed to finishing this story [eventually]... I will do my best!

[feverprince]

This is absolutely amazing. This world was so well developed and cool!! And Rio and Caliph are so adorable. Please update I would love to read more!

Welp, I'm off to read all of your stories.

[CharliesGirl]

But all he heard was, "Sleep, baby, just sleep," softly whispered in his ear, the tissue gently brushing his damp nose. Youre running a little fever... Just relax. Ive got ya...

Closing his eyes, Caliph felt the prickling of tears as he realized Rio would continue to hold him, keep running those miraculous, soothing palms down his sweat-soaked back. His fingers curled, fisting Rios shirt, and he gave a shuddering sigh, finally allowing exhaustion to claim him.

Oh, man! This is a beautiful story. You're my favorite author on this site. You rock!

[starpollen]

Okay, so I don't know if this will turn out to be anything... but I've been working on this and might have some sort of idea where it might go... No promises, but... we'll see!...

Hope you like it!

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PART 10

Rio and Dev stared at each other, the moment stretching into a long and heavy silence. Then the computer voice repeated its heart-stopping announcement.

“Two signatures detected.”

“You ready to do this?” Rio drawled, slowly reaching for the weapon strapped to his hip.

Dev nodded, for once completely speechless, locking the rescue ship alongside the pod and ensuring the apertures were aligned.

The rest of their communication took place silently, each man glaring into the other’s eyes with laser-beam precision. Hands slowly went to raise weapons to hover near their jaws, Rio with his back against the studded walls while Dev braced himself opposite the opening.

One nodded. The other blinked. And a gloved hand shot out to punch the button that would open both apertures.

Dev’s gun whipped down to point directly at the door that whisked open with a soft hush, like an exhaled breath.

For a long moment, there was absolute stillness, a moment frozen in time like a drop of water poised to fall into a pool. The ripples – and their aftershocks – were felt, yet unknown.

And then…

“…hel--p…”

Rio pivoted on one foot with the grace of a lithe jungle cat, aiming his weapon down at the two figures laying prostrate on the floor.

“Z!” Dev cried, lowering his weapon.

Zethren and Marcum were in the pod. They were alive. They were safe.

Rio and Dev holstered their weapons and quickly pulled their fellow soldiers into the rescue ship. Both of the missing men were weak from dehydration and starvation, and Marc had a nasty gash on his side that was obviously infected. But it could have been so much worse.

Zethren raised his dark head, bleary red-rimmed eyes blinking in the bright light.

“…hh!-P’SCHuu!” he sneezed, spraying the air with diamond droplets.

“Ew, man,” Dev groaned, wiping his face with his forearm. “What gives?”

Z fixed an accusatory stare at Rio, then croaked in a low, hoarse rasp, “Your fugkig shill god be sigk…”

Rio froze for one long moment… then howled with laughter.

* * *

Caliph and Rio should have received the maximum punishment for Riordan’s blatant disregard for protocol and regulations. Instead, everyone was so gratefully soul-sick that Dev and Z were alive and returned to them that their superior officers had a sudden attack of amnesia. No reports or sanctions were filed, no record of the two renegade soldiers' illegal escapades or their results.

In all the ship’s logs and recorded documents, all anyone said was that “a pod was found with two survivors.” Skeletal details and even less commentary.

And nobody batted an eye.

As for Marcum and Zethren?...

Marc’s wound had developed one of the nastiest infections they’d ever encountered. His fever skyrocketed, resistant to all their sophisticated drugs, much like Caliph’s had been. And still, he refused to stay in the infirmary.

He wouldn’t leave Zeth’s side.

The psychologists let him cling to the older man, willing to trying anything they could think of to combat his obvious PTSD. Marc wouldn't eat, could barely sleep for more than 20-30 minutes at a time before fierce and horrific nightmares caused him to claw his battered body upright, gasping and sweating and screaming.

And Z?… Well…

The doctors were learning that their vaccinations weren’t nearly as effective as they’d originally thought.

Z had caught Caliph’s vicious cold, and his time in space had ensured that it settled deep in his bones with a vengeance worthy of the wrath of the most fearsome alien enemy.

“You need more water.”

Marc was barely holding himself upright on the edge of his bunk, knuckles white with strain. His already pale skin was washed with a sickly gray cast that broadcast his weakened condition. Two flushed spots of color painted his gaunt cheeks, forest green eyes sunken and bruised.

Still, he insisted on barking orders at his older bunkmate. Marc was panting, lightheaded with the demand he had been placing on his body for the last half hour as he tried to coax his friend to accept his ministrations.

Z was curled on his side, his dark, bare back exposed to the younger man. Z wasn’t fighting him. But he wasn’t cooperating.

It was like he wasn't even there.

“Zeth?...” Marc’s light tenor voice barely crossed the small distance between their bunks. “Come on, man… you gotta... you gotta take this stuff…” He lifted his chin toward the arsenal of pills lined up like soldiers on the small nightstand, a battalion mustered and ready for battle.

Both men had fevers. One was stubbornly fighting his, tense and shaking and gasping for each breath as he stubbornly tried to care for his sick, shell-shocked companion. The other was lax and passive, laying in his bed staring at the wall. Saying nothing. Responding to nothing.

Both had rejected all outside attempts at help or comfort. Marc was obviously desperate to take care of Zeth by himself, ignoring his own injury and infection as he coaxed and pleaded and even blatantly begged Z to show any sign of life.

The only response Z had made to anyone since his acerbic, congested accusal to Rio on the rescue mission was to close his fingers in a vice-grip around Marc’s arm in the infirmary as they were laying side by side waiting to be admitted, clamping so hard onto Marc’s flesh that he’d left visible bruises.  Both men had fallen unconscious shortly after.

Unresponsive... except for the sneezing.

Zeth’s smooth, mahogany-skinned shoulders tensed, shallow breath stuttering and hitching dangerously as Marc sat close, struggling to stay upright. At any other time in the previous years they had spent together, Z would have been the first one to wrap an arm around the younger man, pulling him close to his side and supporting Marc with his solid strength at the first sign that the younger man was even remotely unwell. But that wasn’t happening. And Marc was completely at a loss as he swayed and blinked through his swimming vision, aching to reach out and do something – ANYTHING… - to bring the other man back from wherever he was.

“ehH?... G’K-TSCHuu!...”

Z’s cold was exhausting for them both. Marc knew that Z’s head was completely full of suffocating congestion, but he barely even sniffled. Barely coughed. Barely breathed.

He just lay there, burning with a low-grade fever, obviously sore and sick and miserable...

And completely unresponsive.

“God, Z…” Marc choked, tears spilling silently from his bottle-green eyes. “Please… please come back…”

Don't leave me here alone...

The only sign that the other man had heard anything Marc had said was a tight shudder of lean, dark muscles before a slow, soft, desperate...

“UH-SHHhooo!...” then a light, ineffectual cough.

Followed by painful, heart-rending silence.

Edited January 11, 2022 by starpollen

[ellwren]

Oh my goodness, Star, your writing is amazing as ever! So glad you've come back to work on this story. (I think it might be my favorite ever.) Thank you!

[Juto]

awwwww yay! They're alive!!

awwwww yay and you're continuing it!!

awwwww yay!!

[snowshie]

Holy crap I'm so happy you decided to continue with this. ❤️

[daystar428]

Oh my gosh! Oh my goodness!! They are so sweet and your amazing to continue this. I have no clue what will happen next but I'm hopeful and can't wait!! Thank you sooo much!

[stifledsneezelover]

Holy crap... I JUST discovered this and I'm beyond ecstatic that I did! This is spectacular and I adore Caliph and Rio together! I really hope you post more to this. I'm obsessed