Chapter Text
The warmth engulfing his body was the first thing Ryland could feel as he slowly came to, the artificial sun the Eridians had created for him casting a soft glow across his body, which was sprawled out like a starfish across his bed. He grunted softly and shifted, turning to roll over onto his side. He had a class to teach today, sure, but the bed was just so soft…
Ryland blamed Rocky for telling the Eridians in charge of making his home to make his bed soft to make up for the hard bunks he had to endure on the Hail Mary.
There was never any harm in just a few more minutes. Additionally, Ryland knew that Rocky would come barrelling into his door (yes, into. The rock had yet to grasp the concept of doorknobs) to serve as a personalised alarm clock. So Ryland waited, basking in the warmth. And he waited, and he waited, and he waited…
Ryland sat up, brows furrowing. He rubbed his eyes gently, blindly fumbling around for his glasses on his nightstand before plucking them up. He shoved them onto his face, poking himself in his nostrils before settling them atop the crooked bump on his nose. He sniffled softly, his nose stuffy like it so often got whenever he slept particularly well. Or whenever he got drunk.
He was quiet for a few seconds. Nothing. No bumping, no sounds of skittering outside his door and certainly no slamming against it. Ryland threw his quilt to the side and rose to his feet with a grunt, knees cracking as he sat up. He stretched his arms out, letting the blood flow back through the limbs and he shuffled towards his dresser, deciding to give Rocky the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’d just woken up earlier than usual?
Ryland hopped out of his bedroom with one foot shoved into his sweatpants and his ‘Cats: The Musical’ T-shirt halfway pulled over his head. He bumped into his coffee table, huffed and finished dressing himself, pulling his pants up and shoving his head through the neck hole of his shirt. Ryland petted down his unruly strands of hair, trying desperately to tame them to at least come off as presentable so that Rocky couldn’t chastise him for being unprofessional. Speaking of…
Ryland tugged his front door open, grabbing his fox cardigan off the hanger, preparing to leave to go search the dome for Rocky. But before he could even take a single step, he was greeted by the sight of Rocky running down the beach. Ryland could distantly hear the telltale notes of the Eridian screaming his name, and so he stepped out, closing his door whilst he watched with a furrowed brow as Rocky barrelled towards him, almost knocking the man over when he reached him.
“Grace! Grace! Grace! Grace!” Rocky repeated over and over as he hopped around Ryland, who was attempting to stabilise both himself and the unruly alien running circles around him— literally and figuratively.
“Woah, buddy! Calm down, I can’t understand you when you’re talking so fast!” Ryland managed to grab hold of one of Rocky’s limbs, causing the Eridian to topple over. Whatever he needed to say had to be important, because instead of being offended, Rocky rose to his feet and could barely contain his excitement as he swayed from side to side before Ryland.
”Adrian crew found life! Found another Grace! Adrian found human!” Rocky’s notes were high pitched, and he raised two limbs, claws clicking together as he continued swaying from side to side much like a crab would.
Whatever he said next was lost to Ryland’s ears, muffled by the millions of thoughts rolling around in his head. Another human? But… how? Had they sent someone else out?
“Another human? Like… like me? Did they send another person out?” Ryland felt sick to his stomach. Had their attempts with the taumoeba failed? He waved his hands around in distress as he watched what was Rocky’s equivalent of shaking his head. “No, ship look nothing like Mary! Ship small, bad bad bad for long distance travel. Not made for survival, very bad materials used. Not like Mary, not like Rocky ship,” Rocky droned on, feet pitter-pattering on the ground, like he could barely wait for Ryland any longer.
Ryland, whose breath hitched as his eyes widened, lips parting slightly. He swallowed the lump in his throat, and straightened his shoulders. “Show me.”
Ryland had been to this part of Erid often— the station where Adrian worked and where he and Rocky had docked when he’d arrived to Erid for the first time— so he barely needed to worry about Rocky skittering about in his excitement since he could make his way towards the spot where multiple Eridians had gathered by himself. He shuffled uncomfortably forward, the xenonite suit, despite having been tweaked to be more comfortable for him, was unfortunately never able to grow on him.
He politely greeted the Eridians he passed, pushing himself through the crowd of rocks of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Ryland stopped by Adrian, the boulder of an Eridian that reached his own shoulder (he was still getting used to the sheer size of them), who was chittering to another Eridian scientist.
Adrian paused their conversation when Rocky sidled up to their side, humming a tune that Ryland was unable to translate before the large rock turned to him. “Rocky friend Grace, hello. Team detect lifeform in deep space, close to black hole. Very dangerous. We save,” Adrian quickly explained the situation, the timbre of their notes vibrating through Ryland’s entire body. He chewed on his lower lip slightly and turned his gaze towards the submarine— if he could even give it enough grace to call it that. It was terribly built, and absolutely drenched in a red liquid that, with a churning stomach, Ryland realised was blood. Rocky had been right, as it seemed unfit to fit anything, let alone an entire person given the fact it looked like it had been built entirely out of scrap metal.
”Is it true? Is there a human in there?” Ryland breathed, heart hammering in his chest. Adrian hummed a soft tune that Ryland distantly registered as agreement. His breath hitched. Another human— he never thought he’d see another person for the rest of his life. Ryland had always insisted that he was satisfied, that he was happy with just the Eridians as company, but the thought that had been nagging at him at the back of his mind slammed to the forefront of it. The touch of another person, the warmth that came with it. His knees suddenly felt weak.
”Let’s get them out.” The words had barely left his mouth before Ryland was moving, causing a chain reaction of all of the Eridians jumping into action to begin building a dome around the submarine to safely extract the person out of the submarine. Ryland approached the submarine, placing a hand atop the metal, smearing blood across his suit. In there was a person— someone who he could talk to, touch, smell. He grimaced. Alright Grace, too far.
With so many Eridians working together, the dome was built in no time and soon enough, Ryland had peeled off his suit and watched from the sidelines as Eridians in their own suits began sawing open the entrance of the submarine, which looked like it had been sealed shut. Ryland realised with a lump in his throat that whoever had sent that person out had never intended for them to return, or get out.
Goosebumps littered across his skin when the hole they’d created was opened, and pouring out came more blood. How that was even possible was lost to Ryland, but he’d seen stranger things, so maybe he could just question the person about it once they were safe and sound. Ryland jumped when said person suddenly came sprawling out, laying flat and face down on the ground and coated in blood. The Eridians, who had run off when the blood first came pouring out, hesitantly began approaching the large human, curiously chittering amongst themselves.
Ryland found himself taking a step closer as well, barely registering as his sneakers became coated in blood. The Eridians, seemingly comforted by the fact that Ryland didn’t seem too scared, approached further and began inspecting the person, rolling them over to lay them on their back. Ryland gasped softly, his heart stuttering in his chest.
It was a man, whose face was shielded by the long strands of his blood soaked black hair sticking to his face. He was broad in a way that Ryland could only dream of achieving, with muscles that looked like they were made for heavy lifting. Why on earth would they send someone that looked like a bodybuilder to space? Ryland immediately shoved that thought aside when his eyes landed on where the man’s left arm should’ve been, instead being greeted by empty air and bone peaking out of its socket, pushing past gnarled skin. It looked like the limb had been violently torn off, and Ryland had to shift his gaze elsewhere so that he wouldn’t throw up all over the man.
”Jesus Christ… are we sure he’s even alive?” Ryland’s eyes easily found Adrian in the crowd of Eridians, the creature slowly approaching both men. “Adrian is sure. Can hear heartbeat. Faint, but still there.” He crouched down next to the stranger, uncaring of the blood soaking his sweatpants. He reached out, pushing the man’s soaked hair to the side to feel around for his pulse, which was a bit of trial and error with the slippery blood, but he eventually managed to find it— pressing his fore- and middle finger against the faint heartbeat. He exhaled a sigh of relief.
”Okay, okay, uh… so we have a heavily injured man who’s soaked in what can not be his own blood, right? I mean, I thought I’d seen everything when I met Rocky, but this is just… I don’t even know what to say.” Ryland being at a loss for words was a rare sight, and the scientist knew it himself. He shook off the nausea and shifted his hand further up, gently pushing the stranger’s soaked hair aside, breath hitching. Oh. Wow, okay.
“Grace heartbeat quicken. Grace scared for new human? Question.” Rocky’s voice startled Ryland out of his daze, and he squeaked, almost throwing a defensive punch right at Rocky. He shot Rocky, who’d mysteriously appeared next to Adrian behind Ryland, a sharp glare before shaking his head. “No— I mean, yes, of course I’m scared for him! Worried, more like. We need to get him to Arm-ando and get his injuries checked and taken care of.” Ryland turned his attention back to the stranger, heart in his throat as he slowly, ever so slowly stroked his bearded cheek, thumb catching onto rows of sharp teeth on the left side of his face, and Ryland startled.
He delicately cupped the man’s cheek and turned his head to the side, revealing what looked like the hinging maw of a predator, leading from the left side of his lips all the way up to his left ear, the man’s skin having mutated and deformed in a way that looked almost painful to fit the new addition. Like a snake, or a moray eel?
Not helpful.
“New human dangerous? Question.” Rocky piped in after a moment of silence, and Ryland snapped out of his thoughts. “No, no, I don’t think so? I’m honestly not sure. This… is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Humans don’t usually have… rows of sharp teeth on the side of their faces.” Rocky let out a noise akin to a bird, wiggling closer. “Is true. Grace not have.” Ryland snorted and shook his head. His next course of action settled into his head and he looked up. “Okay guys, listen up! We need to bring him safely into my dome where Arm-ando can treat his injuries! Let’s be super careful, we don’t want to hurt him even more.” Ryland liked to use his ‘teacher voice’ when the Eridians got too loud, their notes overlapping over one another— just like he used to with his kids at home and just like he did with the pebbles he taught now.
It did the job, as it so often did, and Ryland retracted his hand from the man’s face to push himself—
Something grabbed his wrist. Not something, someone. The man.
Ryland let out a squeal and flinched, but the man’s iron grip wouldn’t budge, holding Ryland’s wrist so tight it felt as though he might cut the blood flow.
Oh god, his eyes had opened. His eyes had opened!
Chaos ensued.
Every Eridian in the room scattered, long, drawn out notes that Ryland distantly registered as their equivalent of screaming filling the small dome around the submarine. Adrian and Rocky barrelled towards them, Adrian managing to grab onto the stranger’s arm to try and tug his hand off whilst Rocky attempted to pull Ryland’s wrist free. Nothing seemed to do the trick. Jesus, this guy was strong!
“Angel..?” The man croaked. His voice was low and deep, something that rumbled from his chest and vibrated throughout Ryland, sending shivers down his spine— like sandpaper against wood.
“What!?” was all Ryland managed to yell out in his panic, staring into the man’s dark, sorrowful eyes. There was so much sadness there, but as Ryland’s thrashing slowly came to a halt once he realised the stranger wasn’t trying to kill him, the sorrow seemed to be replaced by something new. Something brighter.
Hope.
”Angel…” the man gasped, pulling Ryland even closer. His dark eyes were wide and manic, trembling in their sockets as he stared up at Ryland like he’d hung the moon, like he was something to worship. “Angel, it is you… They were right, they were right. Father was right, I knew it, I knew you’d save me, I knew…”
The man promptly passed out, eyes rolling into the back of his head, which fell back onto the blood soaked ground with a wet splat. Everything went silent. The man’s grip went slack, and Ryland managed to grab onto his arm and gently lay it down before it fell to the floor.
”Rocky hate new human. Statement.” Rocky sounded grim as he broke the silence, which prompted the other Eridians in the room to slowly relax, hesitantly approaching the group. Adrian let out a noise that Ryland had come to learn was an annoyed huff (which sounded an awful lot like a fart whenever he thought too hard about it, and it was definitely not the time for that), which seemed to be enough for Rocky to know that his mate agreed with him.
”He pose danger to Eridians, to Grace. We send back into space,” Adrian stated casually before turning to the other Eridians to give the order. They didn’t make it far before Ryland grabbed onto one of their limbs, a choked noise escaping him. “No!” he yelled, startling the Eridian. Ryland cleared his throat, letting go of them and instead began picking at the dried blood on his fingers. “I-I mean… no, we… we can’t release him back into space.” He looked up, frowning deeply. Adrian seemed apprehensive, and Rocky looked downright offended.
“New human hurt Grace, new human bad bad bad! Statement!” Rocky insisted, incessantly pointing towards the slowly forming bruises in the shape of the pads of the man’s fingers forming on his wrist. Ryland grimaced and wrapped his dirty hand around his wrist. “Rocky, Adrian, please. I need this—“ he cut himself off, inhaling a slow breath. “…he needs this. And he clearly needs help.” His wrist felt sore beneath his fingers.
“Just… give him a chance. It was just an accident, I’m sure of it! Humans often resort to violence when in high intensity situations, he was clearly scared of something,” he defended the man like his life depended on it, gaze landing on his face, brows furrowed despite his unconsciousness.
Rocky swayed unsurely, stopping once Adrian leaned against him reassuringly. “Adrian understand. Grace want human companion, is normal. We save new human and help deliver him to Arm-ando.” Ryland felt his cheeks flush, and he shot the pair a glare as Rocky let out a series of notes he recognised as laughter. “No, I don’t need him, I just have empathy for this poor, injured man!” he argued, chasing after Rocky, Adrian and the other Eridians as they prepared his body to be carried to Ryland’s dome, making quick work of sealing him in his own protective suit.