Sakki Test Test Test Muahahaha!

[HearseFoxSakki]

Pale fingers lingered about as they traced the small little grooves in the bark of a tree. A faint whisper could be heard through the wind, though so quiet one might even question if they had even heard it at all. The lips of a broken girl moved but after some time even the faint whispers seemed to cease. Silence, it seemed to surround the girl's entire world, and yet when words finally broke the still barrier that was her existence, all she wanted was for it to stop. When the cries and fear broke through, there was little Ayano could do to silence them. For a long time now silence had been all that Ayano had- and she hated it. She could not speak to others and existing where she was meant little contact with people even if she could speak with them. The one person she could speak to she quietly wished would go off and get himself killed. Maybe then she could be free, maybe then she wouldn’t flinch at every blue thing in the corner of her eye that moved. He was the reason her life was hell, the reason she was so alone, broken, and unable to use the majority of the abilities... yet she could do nothing about it. The collar he had devised using the same material that his Samehada was made of remained wrapped tightly around the girl’s neck, keeping her from not only being able to use the majority of her abilities, and leaving her with literally almost no chakra, but keeping her from being able to speak when he didn’t want her to as well. Why keep her from speaking? Because the one thing that this man cared for was protecting information, and as far as Kisame had been concerned she knew way too much for her own good. If it hadn't been for this collar though, she was sure Kisame would have cut her tongue out long ago. He had all the say, and she- she couldn't even speak... Quietly cold blue eyes looked up through what light managed to break through the thick leaves of the trees where several small birds sat cuddling and chatting amongst one another. Lightly the leaves rustled as the little birds flew off with one another, and silently she wished that she could do the same, run away to the ocean where she would never have to think about this place ever again. She had been there for so long, it seemed almost like an impossible dream, like nothing she ever did would help her, or at least help her get out alive. It felt like every day was a fight for her life, like everyday she would try to open her eyes from the darkness of night and only find the even darker reality of death. As much as Ayano tried to hope that one day she would simply be set free, some part of her wouldn't let her dream such impossibilities, wouldn't let her wish for the best like that, because it would all be a lie. There was no way in hell she would ever simply be let go. No, especially not with all she knew, all that she had done, and all that he wanted. She was sure that when he no longer had a use for her she would merely be the next one to be set out on a platter and left for Zetsu, hell the possibility of her captor even trying to eat her seemed reasonable. He was a monster anyhow, besides she had all the scars, marks, and even several rather fresh wounds to prove that possibility. Various marks and such things could be found from fights that were never hers, and three crimson slashes down the girl's pale left cheek could be seen rather easily under the light, but the most striking of her wounds had to be a rather large gash around the girl's right shoulder. Though it was wrapped and cleaned when Kisame wasn't looking, it continued to bleed out through the bandages, and painfully ache causing her to wince in pain a little as she closed her seemingly frozen over eyes.

These were just a few of the wounds she had managed to gain over the past week, sure things had been bad before, but never before had he literally bitten her. These wounds might not have even existed if it hadn't been for the weather that week. That week had been the first time in a very long time that it had managed to rain near the Akatsuki hideout, and luckily for Ayano Kisame had left that morning to go to a meeting with the other Akatsuki members. Thankfully though he didn’t take her with him to the meeting, because that meant she actually had time away from him, which was one of the few times now that Ayano had managed to find happiness. Though that happiness didn’t last for long, it was more calm than she had experienced in the course of the past couple months. It had always been her leaving with him and collecting the life force that they demanded of her, but at that moment she had been so taken by the sudden existence of the water around her again that the fact that Kisame could be coming back at any moment didn’t occur to her. It had been morning when he had left that day, and as Ayano lay down in the wet grass the sun had begun to go down. Kisame had always been sure to keep her away from large bodies of water and heavy rain, because even with the collar she wore she could still be deadly around water. Eyes closed she had felt the rain pour down and roll down her arms causing the first smile in a long time. Several moments had seemed to pass, before she opened her eyes, and quickly flinched to her left as Kisame's Samehada sliced into the ground beside where her head had been, the spikes of the huge sword had reached out to cause the three rather deep cuts in her left cheek that now shined in the light as she laid back in the tree that her fingers traced the bark of. That had been the beginning of last week and still the cuts had yet to heal. If that damn collar wasn't on her then she wouldn't have that problem, hell it would have healed within a couple seconds, but she was rarely ever that lucky to have it off. She could still clearly remember the twisted dangerous smile that had been on his face when she opened her eyes, his wet blue hair and almost inhuman eyes. Right after that he had dragged her down to the room that was his, the room with no windows, the room deep beneath the middle of the maze that was the Akatsuki hideout. It was like a dungeon, and being alone in that room with no light except what he provided, with no voice except when speaking to him, and no certainty for survival ever, Ayano was locked away down there all week, some days tortured, and others simply being left alone with him was torture enough. Perhaps it was because it had been raining all week that he had kept her locked away, but perhaps not, perhaps after the first day it had stopped raining and he had just kept her there to watch the pained expression on her face as she had tried to remember the way that rain had felt and make herself small enough that he wouldn't want to attack her. Though yesterday, the day before she had been let out, she had fallen to his game, she had missed the rain, and the light, and being away from him, so badly that she had started screaming at the door from her chained position. Screaming obscenities, screaming about the rain, screaming about the light, screaming about absolutely everything that came to mind because she had lost to his game and lost herself to this fear that was all around her. The fear had been so bad that week that she had been lucky to get thirty minutes of sleep a night, everything seemed to be getting to her, and it didn't help that Kisame always showed up in the worst of moments when she never expected. And like he had shown up when she was in the rain, then when she was screaming dares to him that she never meant, he opened the door and entered with a rather sadistic look pulled across his dark face. At first she had been angry, but when she saw the look on his face the real fear had pulled itself up from the depths of her heart. Taking a step back in the darkness, she had thought that he was to attack her from the front, but in reality what she saw was only a doppelganger of him- and the real him had been behind her just waiting for her to back up into his tormenting arms... and that's exactly what she did. She backed up into the darkness and unknowingly into the arms of the one person in the world she hated more than anything, the one person who could bring out her worst fears, and it had been that moment that she realized that there was no escape- that moment that the collar around her neck felt like it was biting through her flesh when in fact it had been Kisame that had bitten her. The ******** had actually bitten her like a god damn shark! The pain that had come after the bite was far worse than anything he had ever done to her before, and she had been his prisoner, his rag doll that got thrown around and stepped on on a regular basis, her bones crushed, her heart broken, her happiness stolen- for a very long time. She had gone through unimaginable torture at the hands of this monster of a man, no, this monster of a shark, and yet all that torture, all that pain couldn't even compare to that which she had felt when the numerous rows of teeth of the shark had lodged themselves unimaginably deep in her right shoulder.

That had been yesterday, and now the terrible gash in her right shoulder continued to ache and bleed through the gauze. She needed to get down from that tree she was trying to relax in, and go back to her room so that she could wrap it again, but that wasn't a risk she wanted to take. Currently Kisame was at a meeting about some new Akatsuki member, but still Ayano didn't want to take the risk of going back there only to have him injure her again. Meaning that she remained high in the tree with her eyes closed, partially because of the pain, and partially because she was afraid that if she opened them Kisame would be there again. If he really wanted her, Kisame knew where she was, and though she just wanted to run away she knew better, she knew there was no hope in getting away and that the pain could be far worse than what he had shown her so far. Tensing slightly at the sound of someone near her, she silently hoped it wasn't Kisame there to add another injury to the one still bleeding on her shoulder.

~~~

[HearseFoxSakki]

Standing still for a couple moments the man quietly listened in amusement as Itoshi stumbled around the room. This girl had a smart mouth that might just get her into more trouble than she had expected when she spoke to him. The man chuckled darkly to himself as he heard her crumble to the ground on the other side of the door. Ah well, if she survived the next couple of hours than she’d have to learn to keep her smart little mouth shut. A dark smile twisted across the face of the man as he could be heard quietly making his way down the hall once again. With a quick whistle as he entered his lab his men came running and assembled before him. “Scratch what I said earlier. I want you to only pack what we need. You all should know what to do with the rest.” the man ordered darkly as he picked up several large vials of his purple liquid, “That goes for the subjects as well.” he said finally before handing them the vials and shooing them to go off and begin their work. Several of the scientists looked rather shocked at his last statement. Sure there had been some major cruelty amongst the staff, and bodies had begun to pile up, but quite frankly they hadn’t expected everything to be terminated so soon. When he had stated that they would be leaving and to pack the research up, they had thought that they would be simply moving on to another perhaps more large lab with better space, but now they could see that there was something far more serious going on that they couldn’t even begin to put their fingers on. And if Orochimaru had his way then they never would. They would never know what the man had actually planned, what all this research was really about. These were stories that he would make sure he kept quiet, stories that should even the scientists that were working for him realize what he was really up to they might turn on him. Not that these scientists could get very far against him, but still it was better if they were kept in the dark along with the rest of the world when it came to the terrible attrocities that he had committed against hundreds and hundreds of innocent people. To a normal man this would have been a terrible burden against their conscience, but Orochimaru quite truly didn't give a damn about what was right and what was wrong. It wasn't that he didn't' know the difference. No, the difference was simply common sense, but just because someone knew the difference between what should be done to promote justice and good things, doesn't' mean that a person will choose to take that path. Just because one says that a person should be good and kind, doesn't mean that the individual actually will. Orochimaru always knew the difference between right and wrong, but the way he saw things there were two types of people: those who got stepped on, and those who stepped on them. If you played by the rules, did what they were supposed to, and supported all things right you were an easy target; however, if you were the type of person who didn't give a damn what other people said, thought, or cared about, and would do anything to get stronger. Orochimaru was the second type, he stepped on those weaker than him, manipulated them to his will, and in the end gained more strength than he thought possible. He was a monster of evil proportions.

After a couple seconds of looking at their leader awestruck, the scientists realized that they shouldn't have expected anything else. After all the things they had already been ordered to do, were pretty terrible, and besides what were they to expect? That once the test subjects didn't have any use to them anymore, they would be simply released back to where they had been picked up? No, first off all of the people that they were experimenting on had been kidnapped, taken from their homes, and families, and made to be thought that they were dead. Orochimaru was brilliant when it came to covering up things, and no one ever suspected that the subjects had been kidnapped- kidnapped by one of their very own Sannin. Quickly the scientists moved to get what he had ordered done, most of them leaving but a couple staying to help try and get the man's main lab taken care of. Taking the charts, the pictures, the articles, the clippings of information that might someday still be helpful the man packed a couple of these things away, and shredded the rest. The scientists taking entire vials of liquid, glass beakers, and other scientific equipment and throwing them across the against the wall. Glass shattered everywhere leaving sharp little clear splinters glittered against the ground in an array of chemicals, and unknown substances they had been working on. Now they lay in splatters against the ground, the chemicals mixing, and hissing as they combined and reacted with one another. Out of the chaos, Orochimaru stepped with the scientists behind him that had helped him shred and burn a number of important documents in the lab. As the man made his way down several more hallways he watched his scientists wash away the remaining unneeded pills, destroy the the examples, and completely trash anything and everything that was within arms reach. It was chaos in the beginning and Orochimaru hadn't even gotten to the halls that the prisoner cells were on. He already knew what was happening there as well though, throats were forced open, needles were poked, medication was forced that wasn't needed, life lines were unplugged, death sentences were made, and the scientists were already beginning to question why they were doing any of this in the first place. Why they had chosen to work for such a mad man, but Orochimaru knew the answer. It was simple, these men wanted power, they wanted control, and to be more specific they wanted his power. Somehow they thought that he would help them grow stronger, that if he broke the code, that if he found the answer to what he was looking for, he would grant them this power he too sook out.

He had no intention of granting them s**t.

He was the one with the power and it was going to stay that way. Several hours later the man could be seen walking down the halls of the labs and cells, as he did one last check to make sure all the evidence was taken care of. His men still finishing up destroying the remains of charts and the such, the man moved past them. His mind was in a distant far off place, he had so much work to do that it wasn't even funny. As a matter of fact it just so happened to be beyond irritating. "So much to do..." the man said as he entered the room he left Itoshi in, "so little time" after staring down at her for a moment he checked her pulse and threw the girl over his shoulder. Well, it seemed the girl actually had survived, she was a lot stronger than he had initially thought. Well, at least he had been correct, and she hadn't ended up being a waste of his time yet, but in the end it would all depend on weather or not they ended up letting him take her with. Moving down the halls again the man grabbed his bag that held a number of his research materials that he had chosen to keep, and amongst them happened to be Itoshi's papers and documents. After all she would end up being their only survivor. Now as they passed the halls containing the bodies that were begining to pile high, the slight stain of gasoline could be smelled as it made it's way to the serpentine man's nose. A couple seconds later the man continued out the back door with Itoshi still passed out over his shoulder. Taking a lighter the man lit the gasoline that had he had spread while the scientists hadn't been paying attention. Closing the door after him he could see the scientists trying to get out. And with a smirk and a little wave the man bid his scientists, that would never know the truth behind what they did, goodbye.

~Time Skip~

Another several hours, long stressful conversations, and many many miles away, a very annoyed Orochimaru left a room where he had been speaking to a hologram of the Akatsuki's leader -Pein. Moving down a hall in the Akatsuki's hideout to a temporary room that he had placed Itoshi in the man entered and closed the door behind him. Seeing a little Itoshi hugging her legs up to herself the man snickered coldly before approaching her. "Get up, we are in the Akatsuki hideout and have a meeting with the rest of Akatsuki in an hour. An orientation, or something like that, from what I understand." the man chuckled and rolled his eyes before grabbing her by the arm and leading her to a room down a hall. Pushing the girl in the room the man told her that she was in a bathroom, and that she had thirty minutes to clean herself up before he would be back to get her and take her to the meeting, as well as that should he not return by then that down the hall was a kitchen stocked with food. Placing a new pair of clean clothes on a counter for the girl, the man directed her to them and left.

~~~

[HearseFoxSakki]

High up in the tree, Ayano could sense something big moving beneath her, something many times the size of the girl- something dangerous. Tensing at how she could already guess who it was, Ayano listened, silently hoping that she was wrong. Hoping that her little moment of calm hadn't ended by the presence of the one man she had been trying to avoid, but deep down she knew she was right, and that this was the very same man who caused her so much pain on an everyday basis. Then his voice sounded through the forest making it's way to her ears though she wished it hadn't. She wished it had all just been some sort of dream, then again any dream with Kisame in it was a nightmare, where she saw the reality of what would become of her when she was no longer of any use. A slight shudder crawled down her spine as her fears were confirmed by the man's rough voice. The collar around her neck, wrapped by the same gauze that she had covered her bite with, though it's reason for being wrapped wasn't to inhibit it from growing like the full Samehada, but rather to keep from attracting too much attention since blue shark scales wrapped around a person's neck has a tendency to make people wonder... The collar growing almost restless as it heard it's master's voice, several of it's sharp scales tearing through the bandage around her neck excitedly and cutting her in several places. It would have normally loosened when Kisame was the only one around, but seeing as it didn't that probably meant that he didn't want to hear the girl speak. Ayano could tell by the way he spoke that he was still beyond irritated with her, and that meant that if she wasn't careful, if she didn't watch herself, she might just end up becoming this shark's next meal.

Fear rose up in the woman as she heard him speak again, his voice like that of a predator and that's exactly what she knew him to be- the predator, and this was probably just something like a game of cat and mouse to the man. He was the only person who could truly scare Ayano, no one else even came close. She would laugh at anyone who tried to get her to crack under their force, because Ayano was unbelievably strong, and the only person who had ever managed to truly keep the girl under control had been Kisame- which she hated him for, but this none the less caused a certain level of respect for the man. Fear, but respect. Wincing at the pain of the bite on her shoulder, Ayano could feel the blood continue to seep through the bandages again. Clenching her arm in pain for a moment Ayano calmed herself and pulled on her Akatsuki cloak that covered the bloody bandages along with her slender injured form. She was still required to wear their uniform even though she wasn't exactly a member of Akatsuki. This was because she was still their prisoner and it was important for others to be able to distinguish that she was with them... though she hardly ever even got the chance to even close to people. It was almost like Kisame had her on lock down, under his constant supervision, and beyond almost all contact with other human life.

She was miserable.

Though the Akatsuki cloak covered most of the woman's wounds, chances were that even if she hadn't been bleeding as heavily as she was, the shark probably would have still been able to easily smell her blood. Silently swinging her legs over the side of the branch she was sitting on, the woman tried to remember where she had heard the name Orochimaru. Thinking hard, Ayano finally remembered where she had heard that name. When she still lived in Kirigakure she could remember overhearing a conversation between several of the other ninja talking about three sannin from Kohonagakure, and she was sure she had heard the name Orochimaru... so a sannin was coming to join Akatsuki? And more yet, he was bringing someone with him? Why? Was she a prisoner as well? Eh, she didn't know, but truthfully Ayano could care less why he was there. The only thing she cared about was whether or not this information was able to distract Kisame enough to keep him from paying as much attention to her, maybe then she wouldn't be in so much pain, so afraid, so beaten down. Though that was very unlikely, seeing as he hardly ever left her alone unless she was locked away somewhere where he knew she couldn't escape. Besides thanks to this painful collar of his who's scales now stuck deep into her skin again, Kisame always knew where Ayano was, among many other things about her. It was almost like every time she thought that she was alone and safe, she'd look over her shoulder and there he was smiling cruelly in anticipation of the torture to come.

Quickly jumping down beside him, as she had been told to, Ayano feeling the significantly sharp sting of the deep bite on her shoulder hit her hard, and though she tried to ignore the pain and keep her face neutral, she still ended up wincing from the sheer measure of the pain. She had tried not to let the pain get to her, to keep it from letting him know how much it was actually affecting her, but she couldn't. Her teeth clenching for a moment the woman closed her eyes as she felt the blood seep through the gauze wrapping again. She hadn't wanted him to know, but now he did. Opening her eyes once the pain subsided for the moment, Ayano followed beside her master, but fearfully continued to avoid eye contact with the man. Flinching when he moved Ayano followed closely beside him for quite the distance with her her eyes down, but once the girl set eyes on where they were heading she froze in her footsteps. Her fear consuming her and she realized that they were headed back inside the secret entrance to the Akatsuki hideout - where Kisame's room was... where he had kept her locked away in pain for the past week, and beat her senseless on numerous occasions just to prove he was the master and nothing she said to did mattered. He had beat it into her mind that she was his and could never escape and for the most part Ayano didn't try to argue with that man about that, because Kisame was not the sort you wanted to argue with. She didn't try to argue with the man for the most part, but when she saw that they were heading to the hideout rather than where they usually held meetings when almost half of Akatsuki was off on missions, like today, Ayano thought she had been tricked. That Kisame had lied to her, that no Orochimaru would be coming to join them but rather that he just wanted to lock her away again. It was flawed logic at the time sure because had he actually wanted anything of that sort he could have done it at any moment before, simply beat her senseless, picked her up, and there would be nothing more she could say... but in her current position she didn't exactly know what else to think.

She knew that her hesitation, her fear, her pause, would hear her something frightful, but she couldn't help this fear that now built up inside her. "N-no." Ayano choked out painfully since the collar was still rather tight as she tried to pull away from Kisame and took a step back. Her eyes darting toward the forest that sill surrounded them Ayano looked as if she were going to try and make a run for it. It was a stupid illogical idea, but she couldn't help it, eve if she was already severely injured and couldn't use any of her abilities, she would still do everything- anything- she could to keep from being chained away and tortured down in the dark of his room again. Even if it meant that her disobedience would end up making him kill her, she still had to try, had to try and run. Though she knew that even if she wasn't in her current stat it would have been hopeless, she knew she would regret it later, but at the moment Ayano didn't care. She missed the rain- and she missed freedom, so driven by fear Ayano had foolishly tried to run.

Her feet mixing with the grass, the woman kept moving, seconds of movement felt like years as she tried to escape the inevitable. Her heart pounded as she ran and refused to look behind her. Though she was injured, the woman was still quite quick and had managed to escape the shark's reach if only for a minute, because though she didn't sense him behind her the woman was sure that he couldn't be very far away. Running past tree after tree, down through the brush, and as far and as fast as her already injured body could. With each step the pain of the collar tightened around her neck strained her further, and the fact that this intense movement only made her open wound bleed even worse didn't help anything. Her Akatsuki cloak waving behind her as her breath grew heavy. Why hadn't he caught her yet? Ayano found her self wondering. Usually he was quick to catch her and put her down, so why would today be any different? Only when she smacked hard into something in front of her, did the woman realize why he hadn't caught her. It was a game. See how far she could go before the collar took her out, and from the look of the distance she had managed to put between her and the hideout, the answer was evident that she'd have to be kept on a shorter- tighter leash. Her knees in the dirt the woman gasped trying desperately to pull the air into her lungs that the collar that clung so tight around her neck had managed to prevent. It's blue scales moving agitatedly as they sliced into parts of the woman's neck, completely shredding the bandage that had been wrapped around it before.Trembling the woman could already guess what it had been that she had run into. Before she could even lay eyes on what it had been, a rough hand had grabbed the girl by her neck and shook her violently. Her eyes closing in pain for a moment as the girl felt herself being thrown through the forest and into the the trunk of another tree. Opening her eyes again the woman finally caught a glimpse of the man she had feared actually catching her, though she knew that it was probably better that he did, because the collar that now kept her from breathing would have killed her had she actually gotten far enough from Kisame. There was only so much distance that could be put between the two before the collar restrained her breathing and eventually made it so that she couldn't breathe at all- killing her. Gasping for air that would not come to her aid, the woman felt herself being thrown into another tree. Her body landing on the floor just beneath the trunk of the large Oak the woman tensed and curled up already knowing the strike that was to come next, and sure enough not even a second later the woman could feel the shredding of the flesh on the woman's side as the Samehada pierced through her skin. Tearing away at her flesh the woman could feel the Samehada begin to shred off layer after layer of the flesh that protected her. If only she could use her abilities... then she wouldn't be in so much pain, she might still loose but at least she could heal herself. Loosing oxygen as the painful smacks of the sword collided with her she could feel her muscles rip and tear from her bone. Opening her eyes to look up at the ravenous shark demon that now tore her apart, the girl finally found herself able to take in a breath. Though as blood spilled from her mouth and the scent of it danced in the the air like the sweet lullaby of her death. Her body, or what was left of it, had begun to turn numb and she realized that when she inhaled, chances were, it would be the last breath she would ever take. Closing her eyes the woman accepted this final freedom that came with death, and let the darkness take her.

Though it seemed that she wasn't even to be granted this, as she could feel the water surround her, and begin to combine with her form once more. Knitting her broken muscles and skin back together- healing her. He took everything from her, and yet he wouldn't even grant her death? She couldn't understand it... Now surrounded by this water, her once frozen over blue eyes opened to reveal what true power she held within. A deep crimson blossomed within her eyes as she felt her kekkei genkai come into play, though this didn't last long because the next thing she knew the water around her was disappearing and, the once strong flowing chakra had been absorbed by the collar around her neck once more.

Now on the forest floor, there was no water around her, there was no power in her anymore, and though the fear of her possible death had faded, she still felt the toll that had come with Kisame's attacks. He had let her heal, kept her alive- but just barely. The pain that surrounded her was still beyond unbearable, and it was even worse for her to stand. She had numerous deep wounds still covering her, but in the end she was still alive. Only moments later was she forced to her feet. Barely able to stand, the woman was practically dragged back to the hideout. Making their way back inside the secret entrance of the Akatsuki hideout, Kisame forced the woman to her feet and pushed her down the corridor. A striking pain passed through Ayano as she realized how badly her feet were still cut open, and yet she was forced to continue to walk down the corridors. That is until they came across Orochimaru and the young woman that was with him. Ayano's eyes seemed to lock with that of the woman, as she almost completely ignored the slightly serpentine man who was with her. A new interest came across the woman as she looked into the woman's light purple eyes. Unknowing that she was blind Ayano starred at the deep scratch wounds around her eyes. She could easily tell how pained this woman was, but what she couldn't see was how extensive her wounds were. There was defiantly a number of deep wounds along the woman's body, and the way the Serpentine man seemed to guide her made Ayano wonder if those light purple eyes of hers could even see. From what she could tell, this woman had been through some serious hell, and she could only wonder why she was brought here. Here of all places, here to the secret hideout of a very powerful organization of people Ayano could only consider to be monsters. She could only imagine that whatever terrible hell she had gone through (and by the looks of the woman hell it had been indeed) would still not compare to what was sure to come. Ayano's eyes closing once again the woman was pushed into the bathroom and out of her sight, Kisame threatened her quickly before pushing her down the corridor and in the direction of his room. Pushing her inside the room quickly he warned her that hell was still yet to come, and that she had better enjoy her time before he returned.

There on the floor Ayano made her way to where she knew a couple blankets were in the dark of the room, and closed her eyes trying to think. The blood loss getting to her, the woman tried to look around the darkness of the room that was her master's, but she already knew that it was near impossible to see anything in the room unless there was a light lit, and at the moment there was no light lit. Thinking things over for while the woman curled up in one of her blankets before giving in to the darkness once more and closed her still slightly tinted red eyes for a while. When she opened them again it had only been about thirty minutes that she had been asleep but it had felt like a whole lot longer thanks to the amount of blood loss that she had gone through. Figuring that she had slept longer than she should have and didn't have very much time before she was either called to the 'Orientation Meeting' or Kisame returned. Either way Ayano realized that she needed to at least try to cover as many of her wounds as she could before Kisame got back. Shakily standing up Ayano closed her eyes in pain for a moment as the pain made it incredibly difficult to move. Feeling several of her wounds still bleeding, the woman slowly made her way to the exit. Not having any of her normal abilities, the woman could only hope that a water clone of Kisame wasn't waiting outside for her to try and leave. Opening the door, Ayano was more than thankful that there wasn't because just as she did her stomach growled and she realized that she hadn't eaten since that the day before. That morning she had been so eager to get out of the hideout and out of Kisame's reach, that she hadn't stopped to get anything to eat, and seeing how things were going at the moment, she could only guess that she wouldn't get another chance to eat for a while. Slowly Ayano closed the door to kisame's room and leaning heavily against the wall for support, she slowly made her way down the hall leaving a light trail of blood behind her. Making her way to her room, Ayano found herself wondering what had happened to the purple eyed girl Orochimaru had brought with him. Making it inside her room, she took a couple bandages she had hidden away and began to slowly clean and wrap her major wounds that had continued to bleed while she slept. Sitting on her bed she had managed to cover the majority of the large wounds, but had to save some gauze for the very difficult covering of her collar. Carefully taking the gauze in her hands she carefully tried to wrap the collar, but after numerous sharp scales attacking her hands the woman simply gave up. Standing up with ever so slightly just a little more balance the woman left her room and still bleeding made her way into the kitchen where she grabbed some dango and made painfully made herself some tea before she sat down.

~~~

[HearseFoxSakki]

"Kurai speaking" "Hikari speaking"

The soft glow of a candle's light gently graced the presence of a young woman who sat in the corner of the rather dark room. Everything was unnaturally quiet, even as she turned the pages of her book it was almost as if someone had pushed the mute button on a normally rambunctious destruction set individual. Even as the woman raised a small cup and sipped her tea not a sound could be heard. It was a rather unnatural phenomenon for things to suddenly become so quiet, but around this woman, one would find that the quiet could be forced. When a part of her was missing, it was almost like the sound drained away from everything around the girl. Melting away with the missing problematic thoughts of another, her existence was calmer than normal, but when 'alone' it was almost as if she could not truly see the real meaning of anything set out in front of her- her purpose. Why she moved, why she fought- hell, why she had to breathe air even became such a wonder to the girl that on several occasions it had causing her to to simply stop needing to breathe until she was reunited with her other half again. Don't get her wrong she was still rather capable of causing massive damage when she was 'alone', but without that other part of her it was like Kei couldn't feel anything... like her emotions were drained from her to the point where there was nothing left to be felt. Though this lack of emotion when she was 'alone' could be thought of as an unpained existence, she was far from that- seeing as she was the only one out of the two of them that could feel any pain.

Yes, the two of them.

Kei was a complex person perhaps it was because of her background or her family's Kekki Genkai, which wars were waged over, that had made her what she was, then again perhaps it was just her- perhaps she had never truthfully wanted to let go of what the rest of her family had learned to, but what ever the reason a man by the name of Zetsu had taken interest in the girl... and this was not good at all. She had been the only one between the two parts of her clan that hadn't chosen her side, but in a way it hadn't ever really been her choice- some call it fate, and others would call it coincidence, but what ever it was had caused her body to take both of the personalities that had been offered to her, the good and the bad. So in other words Kei was a person consisting of more than one- or rather the Kurai and Hikari of her inner-being split in two and having several interests all their own. She was indeed a two in one package deal, but with an inhuman existence and multiple personalities came more than just the power to cause a great deal of damage, but had earned her problem after problem. First it had been her family's hatred and disgust towards her, then it was her own arguments with herself that had become rather violent, and now finally it had become Zetsu's interest in her. Zetsu was a problem all his own, dangerous and interesting, yet inescapable. He was a monster in his own right, but to Kei's darker self, it seemed to her that he was something more than merely a danger to her health. Perhaps it was the fact that he too had two individuals within him that had managed to interest Kei's darker half, but who knows. The cannibal plant man had managed to gain her interest, or at least in part, and this was a very bad thing because only part of her wanted to be around the monster. Because of this Kei recently seemed to find herself in more and more arguments with herself over trying to leave the Akatsuki, and staying with Zetsu to wreak more havoc.

Scattered raven hair covered the woman's face as she sat there silently reading her book. Though that silence wasn't to last very long because only moments later Kei felt her other side awaken again and her left eye open with it's presence, "Don't read that now. Go get started on the mission." came the rather dark voice that could be easily recognized as that of her darker side. Eyes not even looking up from the book another more chipper voice was quick to respond, "Don't need to yet, they don't start preparations for the girl's party for-" she said pausing to look through her dark bangs at a clock on the wall, "another thirty minutes." Sighing as she felt her left eyebrow raise and the book in her hands being torn in half with the woman's inhuman strength. "Time is a power only given once- use it.", came the dark voice again as Kei stood up and closed her black eye for a moment. Her left white eye continuing to look around the room it had been away from for a minute or so before picking up the cup of tea that Kei had been drinking and finished it off. "Fine- don't want anything else to end up getting cut off..." came the lighter half's response in a rather sad and distant tone, "True, that was bad enough." the darker half agreed with a slightly distraught tone as well. Moving toward a mirror Kei turned to her side and pulled the rather loose shirt back slightly so that she could see her back in the mirror. There in the mirror two rather bloody little pieces of flesh could be easily seen with a little part of the remaining bone sticking out or each. Taking a wet cloth the woman gently cleaned the two wounds along her back, which had once been her wings. Now, only little remained to even show that they could have ever been wings. Little traces of where the feathers would have been could be seen, and the bone that would have connected the wing to her back was splintered and seemed to be snapped far too short seeing as it left little scratches along the woman's skin when she tried to move them. Under normal circumstances it would have probably taken a very very long time for her to grown them back if they could be grown back at all, but Kei was different, if she was lucky they might even be completely grown back the next day. Both of the woman's eyebrows seemed to furrow as she thought about the possibility of them being back tomorrow, and Zetsu realizing and simply deciding to snap them off again. Though he had done more than just snap off her wings being the cannibal that he was, he had made sure to do it piece by piece, occasionally taking a bite of her flesh here and there, so that it was as painful as possible, which caused Kei's lighter side excruciating moments of agony, while the darker simply growled at the fact that she was being held down seeing as it could not feel pain. This had continued on until the her light side ended up giving up consciousness completely to the darker half allowing her to not feel any pain what so ever.

Her heterochromic eyes looked in the mirror again as her fingers went over the numerous bite marks and stitches that she had needed because of this cannibal's nature, though if it weren't for her lighter half's unnatural healing they would have probably had a lot more damage than they already had. Her eyes quickly snapping up to look at themselves in the mirror the woman fixed her shirt and brushed her long black hair out of her face before closing her black and white eyes. Tapping into her ability, Kei opened them again not even a millisecond later and there in the mirror she was starring back at a face that was not hers. The eyes of this face being a light blue that disgusted the both sides of Kei, since she loved her normal heterochromic eyes so much. But with what her mission was, there was no way that she could look anything like her normal self, so now brushing her now short blond hair out for a moment she paused as her eyes flickered to the leaf head band and normal tank top and leggings that had replaced her two mist and sand headbands that had been crossed out along with her usual Akatsuki uniform. She really hated having to look like anyone else, but with her kekki genkai being a spy was almost too easy. Other than her normal two forms between her light and darker half, Kei could look and sound exactly like anyone else.

Deciding it was time for her to leave, Kei blew out the candle before she left the little house she was staying at. There were no windows in this house and it was in a rather isolated area of Kahona, but Kei had to make sure when she chose the place she was staying at that there would be the least number of complications. Seeing several of her neighbors as she left, Kei smiled warmly to them before continued on her way. Then again the way her temporary home was couldn't be considered abnormal, since the majority of the homes it was connected to were also like this, one could say that it was the design of the homes. Kei locked the door behind her like a normal person would, though there weren't anything in her house that someone could use to identify that she had been living there for the past several months. She kept nothing personal around her, her books were very common books that one could find anywhere, she kept no pictures, kept nothing her hand writing was on, and her food in the house was rather normal as well. Upon entering a person would have no idea who lived there, would know nothing about her, and usually things were so clean that one could hardly even tell that the home was even lived in if they didn't know for sure that she was staying there. Being the spy she was she had made it a point to get close to her targets, but keep a good distance from others unless she knew it was absolutely necessary for her to keep from drawing attention to herself. She was polite to her neighbors, though she hated to be, and helpful to those around her, but Kei was strong and never let her real personality slip, never let anyone see her real face, and never let anyone know what she was truly capable of. If the opponent underestimated her than the fight was just that much easier, not that most fights weren't normally easy for her, usually Kei came out on top in almost no time at all. Kei had never lost a fight before, well that is before she came across Zetsu, before that Kei had won so many battles that she had actually started developing what one might call a god complex. She actually thought that she couldn't be defeated by anyone but Zetsu- in Kei's mind she was a god.

Moving quickly through Kahona Kei was as silent as death itself. Shadows covered the streets as night started to take it's place. Arriving at Amaya's house Kei could already sense that she wasn't home, but that Shikamaru was already at her house waiting for Kei. No, he wasn't waiting for Kei, he was waiting for Saya, the person Kei was pretending to be. Landing unnoticed in the dark behind him without so much as a sound, Kei wanted more than anything to mimic her master Zetsu's dark voice and scare him, but she knew that if she did Shikamaru would begin to question the extent of her abilities. As far as the people of Kahona knew she had no Kekki Genkai and was just an average ninja, so instead she just went with the normal childish "Boo!" and caused him to jump a little. Giggling girlishly at his reaction, but secretly knowing that it could have been so much better, especially if she had used the voice of Shikamaru's dead teacher. He he he, she could only imagine the look on his face if he were to hear Asuma's voice, oh how glorious it would have been! Several hours passed by and the person they had come to know as Saya had been one of the key parts to creating a surprise party for Amaya. She had been in charge of the cooking while Lee was jumping around the room like a maniac hanging streamers, ribbons, and party decorations, all while Shikamaru was outside on the roof hidden in the very shadows he was so fond of on lookout for Amaya's return. Where was Naruto during all of this? Quite simply the answer would be everywhere... on the celing helping put up decorations, outside helping keep lookout with Shikamaru so that he wasn't alone, cooking with 'Saya', running around the house as he was being directed towards anything he could help with. Watching him run about and try to help everyone with quite the number of clones Kei though she could see why he was on the Akatsuki's list when her darker side interupted her lighter half's thoughts 'Don't think so highly of him. He may be able to be in a number of places at one time like Zetsu and us, but unlike how our two halves don't ever have to return to one another, though we do prefer to be together, you can tell by how worn out he is already that he can't keep this up for long. Besides,' the malevolent voice in her head continued as a loud clunk could be heard, 'he is a clumsy buffoon.' Kei's right eyebrow raised in mock frustration as she looked at what the loud noise had been. Her darker half was right, Naruto was indeed a clumsy buffoon, among another list of other words that Kurai was thinking, because directly in front of him Naruto had been trying to carry a pot of just boiled noodles in water over to the sink for 'Saya' when he tripped and the everything went flying across the room. The steaming hot water and noodles had spilled all over him and the ground around him, causing the clone to disappear with a quiet 'poof', before several other clones came in a big rush to clean the mess up. "Well there goes the ramen..." Kei muttered looking down at all the hard work she had been working on for what no one knew would probably be Amaya's last party amongst friends. Kei could sense that the real Naruto was coming up behind her, and just a couple seconds later his voice could be heard as he patted her on the back "Sorry Saya," he said, "If we have still got enough time I can go run to the store and get some more noodles for the ram-" but just as he was about to finish his sentence Shikamaru had come running back into the house and quickly exclaimed that they were coming. Immediately the remaining Naruto clones turned off alll the lights and then disappeared like the one who had gotten boiling water spilled on him. Quietly in the dark when no one was looking a sinister smirk pulled across the woman's face as Kei watched Amaya enter her house again. Soon, very soon, Amaya would know who Kei really was.

[HearseFoxSakki]

A bright light shined down upon the busy working hands of a rather tall man as he leaned forward in a comfortable black leather rolling chair. His bare feet pressing into the crimson carpet that covered the floor, he paid careful attention and concentrated on what he was doing. There was very little the man actually had to worry about at the moment, and considering the fact that he had a homicidal vendetta he had been unleashing upon Gotham over the past couple weeks certainly meant that things should have been far harder than they currently were. But Vincent had made sure everything was taken care of before he and his sister, Valentina, even returned to Gotham. He and his sister had made sure that an incident like from their past was impossible in the years they were gone. They had become far more capable individuals than they were before, they were way beyond stronger than they had been before, and they knew how to take out just about anything that stood in their way in less than a second. They had been so weak and vulnerable when they were younger, but their research, and past experiences had hardened them into the intelligent, beautiful killing machines they were. It was almost ironic when he thought about the phrase killing machines, because after their incident in Gotham when they were younger Vincent had gained more than a couple biomechanical pieces that had made him not only stronger than any body builder ever could be, but made him more capable of remembering difficult things, made him able to think- and therefore react faster, made him able to move much faster than a normal person, made him far more durable, and an over all a more efficient creature. Before they had come Vincent had made sure that every single file on his family in Gotham was destroyed and erased so they couldn't be traced very easily. There were no files on his mother's diagnosis at Arkham, there were no police files about the torture she had gone through, nothing about any of his family's deaths, no school records, and as far as anyone in Gotham had been concerned they hadn't existed. They were careful, intelligent, always calculating, and more than anything prepared to completely erase everyone in Gotham from existence.

Upon returning to Gotham, they had bought a rather large mansion on the outskirts of Gotham to insure that should they have any guests over for dinner no one would be able to hear their cries, but also so that it was less likely that anyone would come a knocking and pester the two. Besides, they had both thought that the outskirts of Gotham were the best idea since both of them hated the City with as much intensity as one could muster. Now, in the brightly lit basement, Vincent sat leaning forward in his chair working away on a desk. Not on paper work though, but rather on himself... his left arm stretched out across the desk his left hand holding a metal pole for muscle support while his right tinkered away at the mechanic 'muscle' that blended in and worked with the normal muscles he had been originally born with. The skin cleanly pealed back so he could better see what he was doing, Vincent had been up for almost two days now restlessly working on his most recent medical breakthroughs. One would find though he had little to actually worry about, the man still had plenty to occupy his mind. New experiments, serums, theories that needed to be tested out, and one could never forget his and his sister's most recent attempts to discover the identities and locations of Gotham's most wanted villains and heroes. They had managed to uncover a couple so far, but none of them matched up to the one name they really wanted to know more than any of them- The Batman's. The one who had come all too late, who failed at helping them, and the only people he had managed to save were the two who had sworn to tear him limb from limb when they found him again. How ironic it was that he, The Batman, who thought he was making a difference in Gotham would make the mistake of pissing off the last remaining members of the _________ family who would in turn swear to enact their vengeance against the city and set out to destroy everyone and everything it in. Vincent and Valentina would make sure that his mistake, that broke everything they had every cared about, would destroy the the one thing he seemed to care so much about. They would tear this town and everyone in it down until it was nothing more than a bloody mess of ruble. They would bring justice like he never had- real justice.

Sitting on the corner of the desk not much more than a couple feet from where his arm was a small Dorthy figuring that their mother had made when they were younger. It had been one of the few possessions of their parents' that they had managed to bring with them when they had left that dreadful night they had watched their parents being eaten in front of them. The Dorthy figure stood with her hands on her hips and her little dog poking its head out of a basket around her right arm. Glancing over to it for a moment distractedly, Vincent accidentally sent a shock of electricity to the wrong area and it jolted his biomechanic hand into a fist causing it to bend and leave it's imprint in the metal pole. 1"Cazzo!" the man yelled angrily from the jolt as he scattered to quickly fix the damage he had done. A song played softly in the background and before he knew it, Vincent was humming softly to it as he continued to tinker away on his hand until he finished the new adjustments that he had been working on for the past couple days.

After a while longer the man had finished and looked up at a clock on the wall of the large elegant basement. It was getting to be almost six in the morning and he wanted to get a start on making breakfast before his sister woke up, so pulling the flaps of 'skin' on his arm back together he took the 'skin' and seared in such a way that it didn't even leave a scar. The funny thing was, that with this new method of bringing the skin back together that he and his sister had come up with, no one would be able to tell that he had ever been injured. Even with all the numerous biomechanics that had been entwined with his real muscle all over his body no one would be able to tell the difference between him and anyone else, and with the material that they had made them out of they were didn't set off any detectors. They were so good at what they did that through their years of research they had managed to make the 'fake' skin and muscle that didn't feel anything mix in with the real skin and muscle so one wouldn't know where an injury would really effect him.

Turning off the music downstairs he made his way up to the kitchen several stories above him, and flipping on the television set to work on making a very difficult chocolate souffle and some home made croissants for breakfast. Turning down the television that sat mounted to the kitchen wall since nothing seemed to be on, he put a CD in and continued working for quite a while before everything was done. The smell of everything freshly baked could be easily noticed in the kitchen as Vincent knew his sister would be coming in any minute now. Humming to the music, Vincent became very quiet when he noticed what was on the television. Turning down the music and the tv back up, Vincent heard someone come into the room, that he could only guess to be his sister Valentina, since the possibility of someone actually getting into their house avoiding their genius security system they had built together, past their numerous viscous guard dogs undetected and arriving in the kitchen completely unharmed was completely implausible. Turning away from the news report that was now flashing across the screen for a moment he confirmed his thoughts that it was his sister, 2"Buongiorno Valentina. Come stai?" he inquired lightly with a smile. She was the only person in the world who saw him ever really smile anymore, any other time, to anyone else, it was a fake, soulless, almost painful smile that didn't mean s**t, but with his sister- with his sister his smiles were real, they were sincere and held emotion that he knew no one but her could ever understand. She was all that was left of their family and she was the most important thing in the world to him. He would do anything for her, hell, should she ask he would even stop his war against humanity, but he knew all too well that she was on the same side as him, and wanted just as badly for the people of Gotham to pay.

Turning again at the sound of the woman on the news speaking again, Vincent became distracted by the news report again. On the tv sitting around a shabby table were three individuals Vincent had already known from his previous research- a James Carnige, a Giovanni Carnige, and a Miss Alice Wyatt. Watching the report with mock interest, Vincent raised an eyebrow at the television as Miss Wyatt continued to spout lies to the camera. Looking away from the news report Vincent chuckled darkly as he listened to them talk while he set up two plates for him and his sister. Soon enough little Miss Wyatt would get what was coming for her, for quite a while now he and his sister had been keeping a close eye on her since she had blamed the death of her parents on them. He had looked deep into what had happened on the night of their death by hacking into various police files, and he was almost certain he also knew exactly what had happened, but to be absolutely sure he would need to either have the person her corrupt parents had been working with at the time, or Alice. Since he seemed to cover his tracks so very well, and the only real trace anyone currently had on him was the extremely difficult to find chemicals from his serum in his victims, the chances of him getting a hold of him at the moment wasn't looking too high, and while he would love to simply go and snatch up little Miss Wyatt, Vincent smirked, unfortunately he and his sister had a date with a certain Judge today. Amy Naritche- a corrupt Judge who had been secretly working with the mob that resided in Gotham, releasing criminals, and condemning their victims.

Translations:
1- ********!
2- Good Morning Valentina. How are you?

[HearseFoxSakki]

Cold blue eyes opened to view the world once more as a very grouchy Jonathan Crane pulled the covers over his head when the light from his window reached his eyes. A small groan could be heard as he rolled over on to his side and tried to ignore the fact that it was once again morning and time for him to start his day. Hearing a light buzz, that he easily recognized as his phone, Crane slowly peeked out from the covers at his phone that danced across the nightstand with it's new text. Having no idea who in the hell would even be trying to contact him, Crane pulled the covers the rest of the way off himself and pulled himself into a sitting position at the edge of his bed. Checking his phone crane groaned again. There were only three people in the entire world who knew how to contact him through his untraceable phone, the Joker, Harley, and Zsasz, but seeing as there was little reason for Zsasz to have even thought about trying to contact him unless something was terribly wrong, there were only two likely people. And from the look of the 'text' or rather should I say crude animation, that was now flashing on his phone it was probably the Joker, though the possibility of it being Harley still existed. Quickly deleting the animation of a ditsy scarecrow and rather doll like Dorthy skipping along the yellow brick road hand in hand, scarecrow refused to even respond to the message and instead pulled himself from his bed and made his way into the unnaturally clean bathroom to prepare for his day. Currently the three of them were on good terms but, it seems everyone wanted to take a whack at Crane, friend or foe, since this Oz Killer had shown up. If he got his way Crane was going to find this blubbering imbecile and make him scream such a high beautiful timbre that it might just make up for the ridicule he was currently receiving. That imbecile, who did he think he was? The Oz Killer, really what would be the purpose of killing people like they were in the Wizard of Oz? Unless- Crane paused halfway done with brushing his teeth as he thought this over, unless he or she had suffered some sort of psychosis in his life, but the only way to find out would be to try and get the files from Arkham... and that was a lot easier said than done. Sure, Crane could hack into Arkham's computer database with ease, but the problem with that was that they didn't always keep everything on a computer file, sometimes individual cases that hadn't been pestered with in quite some time were kept in little manila folders in a rusty shelf in their archives area. Crane knew this all too well...

Finishing his shower and finally dressed in his usual suit the man made his way into the kitchen and grumpily fixed himself a sandwich. Turning on the television he listened for the crime he knew had been committed last night, and also knew it to have been done by none other than Maleficent. How did he know if he hadn't been there you ask? Simple. Not only had the man programmed his radio to pick up any thing on the Gotham Police scanners, but he also had people inside the Gotham Police Department working for him as well. This way he got his information with ease and knew about all the little crimes that they didn't report on the news- the classified cases. It had taken Crane a little while before he had realized that the crime had been done by Maleficent since her style and pattern seemed to change rather frequently, but he had come to learn enough about her to know that it was her. He had also come to realize quite a while ago that there was no way Maleficent could be happy about the Oz killings either. Hell, for all he knew she might be almost as mad as he was- and if he was correct that made them allies. Now the only thing was to find her- Crane was suddenly taken out of his thought process when the familiar face of a Miss Alice Wyatt appeared on the television screen. Listening to them, Crane slowly put his sandwich back down on the plate, as he glared at the television screen in the living room from the kitchen. Standing up he washed his hands and made his way over to sit on the living room couch. Through the entire news report, the Scarecrow felt himself grow more and more disgusted with what he was seeing, "The insufferable nerve of that half brained neanderthal!" Crane yelled at the television seething with hatred, "She has the audacity to go on television again and give that dense, deficient, obtuse, half-ling of a villain credit for my accomplishments?!" he growled through clenched teeth. He had only just barely been able to contain himself before when he had learned of her initial part in what had happened, but that was only through the sheer will power and contentment that came with hearing others' screams that he hadn't gone off and killed her right then and there when he had first heard. That was it, this was the last straw, this woman had to have had a death wish, because if she didn't know how much he hated the Oz Killer before, she would certainly know soon enough!

Forgetting completely about the sandwich he hadn't finished eating, Crane went to his room and got a couple things before getting in his car and making his way towards Wayne Enterprises. His tinted window rolled down, the man put in a CD, and only seconds later the beginning of Appetite for Destruction was playing. Yes, Jonathan Crane was a very intelligent individual, but that didn't mean that the only music he listened to was Beethoven and Jazz(not that he didn't like those too because he did). A very distraught man, he had driven a very long way until he found himself approaching a building and after making a quick stop there, several hours later he had arrived at Wayne Enterprises and Guns N' Roses was still playing. Pulling next to the sidewalk beside the entrance to the building, Crane pulled out a laptop and in a matter of minutes he had hacked into Wayne Enterprises' security system and set off the fire alarm. Now, he could have just as easily walked into Wayne Enterprises, subdued everyone with his gas, and watched them scream themselves to death before he moved on to take care of the little disturbance Miss Wyatt had become(or at leas he thought he could), but this was so much easier, and this way she would end up coming to him. It was much less complicated that way.

The people in the building would all be leaving very soon with the presence of the fire alarm sending them on their way, and all he would have to do is wait. Opening the door, he stood outside, and leaned lightly against his car as he waited. Sure enough people started piling out, but he had parked close enough to the entrance that he could see who was who and where they were going. He already knew that while most of them would be stopping and standing in the building's parking lot, being Bruce Wayne's secretary she would be one of the few exceptions that would be required to take what she had been working on to their back up facility which was inconveniently located quite a number of blocks away. Crane smirked as he spotted her leaving the building and hidden amongst the panic ridden crowd he was hardly noticed as he quickly grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and whispered a quick "Remember me?" before he injected her with a new fear serum that he had actually been working on with her parents before they died. And with that he shoved her into the back of his car. With a whistle and a hop in his step, the man triumphantly opened the front seat and got back in the driver's seat. With a smirk he rolled up his tinted windows and looking in the mirror at the screaming girl who had just received enough toxin to keep her tame and incapable of much more than writhing in her terror for almost seventeen hours, he drove off before any sort of bat could jump out of the building.

Driving back towards his hideout, Crane tapped his fingers against the steering wheel like one would had they been listening to music, but strangely enough no music was on anymore, all that could be heard in his child lock equipped, soundproofed car was the beautiful vibrant screech of her screams, but to crane hearing this girl's cries was music enough to mend his terrible day so far... and when they had returned to his hideout he knew his day would only get better.

[HearseFoxSakki]

The clock ticked away as Severe’s hands continued busily working away at the corpse in front on him. It was almost eleven and he was still at the morgue in the basement level of Gotham General working, though to be fair his list of duties often ran him so far into the ground that he sometimes wasn’t able to sleep for two days let alone get off anywhere near eleven in the evening most days. Which meant that since his work was almost finished for the day he would for once be able to get some time to himself. Some nice tea, a sprinkle of blood here and there, and his day would be complete. His blue eyes moved from the paperwork on the counter beside him down at the corpse laying on the table he would be filling out the details of. His eyes stopped for a moment as they looked into the cold lifeless ones of the corpse before taking two fingers and closing them. He stood there working while his mind wandered for a moment. Not too long ago this corpse moved, breathed, walked, loved, hated, hell probably even had sex too… though from the looks of her that surely didn’t happen too often…

After he finished determining the cause of death he closed the body up and paused to look at his work. He went over his paperwork again to double check his analysis. This particular woman had met with her rather fortunate end by means of a heart attack. Since she was so young, to say it was fortunate was really all a matter of perspective. While she had yet to live her life to its fullest, at least she didn’t come in to his morgue the way almost eighty percent of the corpses he received on a weekly basis did. No, she hadn’t been slashed to ribbons, held up in a gun fight, attacked by any of the many gangs that didn’t only reside in the narrows but all over Gotham, or taken out by any of the ever increasing list of Gotham’s rogue gallery.

Being a Forensic Pathologist had its uses from time to time. It had proven useful numerous times for his clients who occasionally needed evidence removed or evidence planted. He had seen pictures of the work of all of the old rogue’s gallery and now that they had settled down, for lack of a better word, and begun their new rogues gallery Dr. Severe Crane had come across the work of almost every member of the new gallery. He knew their carves, their incisions, their hacks, and their slices by heart, and if they were smart they realized that it was in their best interest to be on his side. The executioner had his ways, and made it his personal business to try and get to know everyone he could whether or not they were on his side. Good, evil, it didn’t make a difference Dr. Severe Crane took after his father and kept tabs on everyone and anyone, though he was by no means careless when he went about doing anything. He was extremely accurate, apprehensive, and conscious of everything around him. He anticipated the movements of others, watched concocting profiles on individuals, knew precisely every detail and every method of covering his tracks. Yes, having the surname Crane certainly kept the people around him on their toes, but quite frankly he made sure that no one could connect the dots between his sister and himself to their father. He had the right contacts, the right angles to move and even though everyone knew they were related to the rather infamous Dr. Jonathan Crane from one of Gotham’s darkest hours of insanity, there was nothing they could get on them to prove this. Everyone knew it, but there was nothing they could do about it. Severe had climbed the ranks quickly and had everything he could need to keep them off his back and out of the Cranes’ business. He had become very successful, his face was well known and kept in high regard by anyone who worked around scientific progression let alone held a scalpel, and this meant that the majority of his time was not his own. He occasionally went to conferences around the world offering new methods of chemical analysis and offering his services to the police departments of various areas. After all they do say keep your friends close and your enemies closer…

He now sat at his desk filing the paperwork that was to be turned in the next day and covering up the body with a sheet he pulled off his lab coat. Hanging it on the hook beside the morgue door he pulled his black suit jacket on and locked up before he exited to the parking lot. The drive home was lengthy considering the fact that Gotham General was almost directly in the heart of Gotham and he happened to live on the outskirts of Gotham. He didn’t mind the drive though, it gave him time to reflect on the day. He flipped on the radio and listened to the news. A short while later he pulled up to the gates as his dogs barked and growled anxiously on the other side. He rolled down the window and stuck his hand out shooing them away before exiting the car and unlocking the numerous padlocks along the sharp towering gate. Pushing it open he entered his car and pulled into his yard stopping once inside. His dogs wagged their tail and eagerly wanted to jump up on him, but they were still on duty and thus sufficed with a whine and a pat on the head before running off to guard the house. Their strong lean bodies blending in with the shadows as they quietly crept through the grass. Once the gates were properly locked again he got back in his car and pulled into his garage.

As he entered the house the dogs inside switched places with the ones outside taking their turn to guard the yard as he restocked their food. His house had a rather open floor plan allowing for some level of view in almost any room. He made his way into the living room and up the stairway to his bedroom. A soft caw came from the cage next to his bed and was shortly followed by another as the two crows cuddled closely beside one another perked up a his arrival. “It’s time to get to work boys.” he said opening the cage as he removed his suit and pulled on his Executioner’s armor. From the outside it seemed that it was made primarily of carefully stitched leather, but beneath the fabric and the cotton hood he had custom fit Kevlar body armor and a two piece Kevlar helmet and mask. His crows now out of their cage fluttered around the room in a rush of feathers always landing close by if not on one of his shoulders. If he weren’t so excited by the prospect of what was to happen tonight it would be almost sad that he had just gotten home and was already preparing to leave again. At least this time he wasn’t leaving for a business venture – well not exactly there was something to say about his being The Executioner that Gotham had come to know so well being more his profession than anything- it was after all his true face as The Executioner.


~TIME SKIP~


Black blankets blocked the sun from a pair of blue eyes as they slowly pulled themselves open. There was the slightest of moans as Severe looked at the clock beside his bed and pulled the blankets off of him. He slowly but surely got up as he pulled his legs over the side of the bed and looked across the room at himself in the mirror in the bathroom. Eventually finding his way to his feet he got dressed in a pair of black slacks and a blue long sleeved shirt. He smiled at his crows who continued sleeping away the day and went down stairs to make breakfast his dogs greeting him as he went. He made himself a cup of coffee and started cooking some eggs. Once done he grated some cheese on them and sat at the kitchen table eating as he turned on the radio and listened to the news.

“It seems the mysterious Executioner, as Gotham is calling him has struck again. This time leaving a young man police have confirmed as one Jeremy Barker dressed in what experts say is Victorian Age clothing beheaded outside a local Wal-Mart. Once again a black hood covered the man’s face and cream handkerchief with a carefully stitched E was found in the victim’s pocket.” Severe listened contently as he continued eating, “As with the other found cases of The Executioner’s killings the weapon of choice happened to be a handmade eighteenth century guillotine.” Of course they didn’t state any of the important little facts to the public like how before the man had finally given in and decided to end the terrors tearing at his mind he wrote the words ‘I’m so sorry’ in his own blood on the floor. Only seconds later he had begged for death and lay down in the guillotine triggering it.

He stood up and turned off the radio which had gone to an annoying set of commercials before whistling as he washed his dishes. Hearing his phone buzz he turned off the water pausing from his half washed pan and dried his hands before checking his text. It was Liz, he was always glad to hear from his little sister, he would tear this entire world apart brick by brick should she ask. She had gotten kicked out of class- a teacher trying to make a fool of a Crane? Not on his watch. He had checked his watch her psych class should have just started- which meant that he had to act fast. He texted her back


To: Liz
From: Sev
That so? That simply won’t do.
Let’s see you’ve got about an hour and thirty minutes before your next class.
Would you like me to pick you up? We could get something to eat if you’d like since
something tells me they are going to be canceling classes today. =)


He then quickly called one officer Burman, one of two cops under his influence he knew to currently be working at the university. The number showed up as ‘unknown’ on the man’s phone, but the cop knew better than to ignore the call. His voice quaked slightly as he answered, “He-hello sir. How can I help you today?” the cop asked far more polite than he usually was to anyone. “There is something important I need done. You are to go to the science lecture halls on the second floor in ten minutes. You are to enter room 1021 and arrest the teacher there and bring him to the warehouse on Fetzer street where you will hand him to me in exactly -” He paused looking at his watch, “Fifteen minutes from now. Understand?” he asked before hearing a quiet yes. “You will be back before anyone knows what has happened. Be quick, concise, and strong. Have a good day while you can Mr. Burman because we both know if you fail that certainly isn’t going to last.” And with that he hung the phone and called the second officer he knew there, when she heard his voice her heart dropped, “Good morning Jenna.” He chuckled in a rather chipper tone for what he was about to be telling her. “Sir, I-I I mean – good morning - what can I do for you?” she choked, “ See, you are going to grab the first three kids you see and tell them you need a talk. Do you understand me so far Jenna?” he questioned with a chuckle. “Yes sir- and what- what exactly are we going to be talking about?” He smiled at this, “Why the very same thing you and I talk about, only their contract is going to be on a far more –short term basis.” He chuckled at this knowing fully well that those three people wouldn’t be making it past these next twenty-four hours. While he was talking he walked up the stairs and let his two crows out of their cage waking them up with a gentle hand as he stroked their feathers. Once off the phone he checked that their collars were working right and opened the window letting them out. Each of their collars let off a signal that directed them where to go which could be controlled by his phone. There were two cameras on each crow’s collar giving more angles on the situation.

Getting in his car and making his way to Fetzer street in the narrows with great speed he watched on his phone as the crows landed outside the classroom windows and captured every moment so he could watch on his phone to make sure that everything was going as it should. Some of the students noticed them on the windowsill as they made the occasional caw now and then but they were all struck when a cop came in and arrested their teacher. Mr. Burman said little and kept his face away from the students view. Once he left whispers could be heard amongst the students as they sat in shock for a moment before they started gathering their things to leave. Before they could though three students, two of which had quite obviously been crying, came in and locked the door behind them. “The executioner bids you a good day.” the three of them said in unison before then proceeding to jump at the students with large knives. It wasn’t long before the cops broke in and arrested the three of them, but by then plenty of damage had already been done. Parking a safe distance away from where he told Burman to drop the teacher off he called him when he saw him and told him to throw the gagged cuffed man in the empty warehouse and return to Gotham University. Severe kept his distance as he watched from his secret place until he had gone when he pulled up and threw the man in his trunk.


~ Tʜϵ Eҳϵɔuтɪɵɴϵʀ ~
BOO!BOO!BOO
Scared Ya Didn't I? XD

[HearseFoxSakki]

A tan van made its way through the narrows as the cold wind of a night surrounded the van. The lights of the surrounding area stood either dead or pretending to be in the case of the surrounding houses that knew to be wary of the night. A trail of smoke exited the driver’s window followed shortly by a cigarette bud cast into the night. “Eyyy’ Charlie, give me a drag!” came the irregularly perky voice of Harley Quinn and she poked her head into the front seat. “It’s already gone. You should have told me earlier that you wanted some.” came the reply from the stalky clown driving the van. Seeming rather put out, Harley fell back into her seat with a thud. “How about you Mista J?” She asked piping up again after a couple minutes of silence, “got anything?” she asked hopeful. No response came from the man who sat in the passenger’s seat staring out the window with a distracted gaze.

As they crossed the streets in the narrows one of the dogs could be heard moving as its claws scratched at the metal floor in the back. Resting it’s head beside one of the other dogs, the Joker suddenly yelled for Charlie to stop the van and with its sudden halt the dogs slid against the back of the van hitting the seats in front of them. Though the dogs weren’t alone in that matter since Harley let out a little startled cry and as she pulled her hand away from her face she wiped blood from her nose. “What is it J?” she asked with concern as she looked up at the passenger’s seat at him still wiping away the blood. Still no response came as he continued to stare out the window, only now he seemed to be starring with intent at a window with a light on in the house across from them.

Without waiting for his goon to park the car properly he opened the door with a sudden speed and jumped out the car his purple coat trailing behind him as he did so. Startled the goon parked the car properly and watched with confusion as the Joker skipped his way up to the door of the house. Knocking pleasantly on the door he waited. Harley had instantly jumped out after him and was now still asking questions with an annoying persistence. The joker gripped something in his coat pocket and listened as the voice of an elderly woman sounded from the other side of the door. “Hello? Who is it?” came the voice and as soon as it sounded he pulled the gun from his pocket and shot several rounds though the poor wood of the old door. The paint already flaking away now became the least of the door’s problems as it was broken down with a swift kick.

Having jumped out after him, Harley stood now jumping behind him in a giddy mess. It seemed the fun had finally begun, though why he chose this poor old dump instead of a more wealthy area was beyond her. He stepped over the doorway and whistled for his unbelievably slow goon to get his dogs and get a move on. Harley annoyingly clung to his the back of his coat with glee as she followed him in and looking around she skipped into the entryway. The easily recognizable dark eyes of the Joker moved over the house stopping at the figure of an old man at the top of the stairs.

There he stood frozen at the top of the staircase that stood just in front of the doorway. The Joker tilted his head slightly and licked his lips with a slow motion before speaking in a friendly almost parental tone “What are you doing up there?” he chuckled smiling at the man. As he stepped further into the room the soles of his shoes surrounded in the blood of the old woman, “Come on down here and say hello to your new pals.” It was a small house and his voice easily carried up to the man and though he gave no answer his terror was evident. At first it looked like his hands were the only things shaking as they struggled to keep their grip on the side rail, but as his shaking grew more severe it became more evident as his legs threatened to give out.

Once everyone was in the house, he motioned for his goon to take his dogs to the back and search the house. Never moving his eyes, his intense gaze stayed focused on the old man even as he gave directions and kicked the door shut again with the back of his foot. Since he had broken in, the door didn’t latch properly, but he wasn’t even remotely concerned about this. As a matter of fact he wasn’t concerned about much of anything at the moment. He watched as Harley practically straddled the guard rail as she looked up at the old man. Her hands ran in a deceivingly delicate manner across the aged wood of the rail with something of a lover’s touch. She watched him pursing her lips before tracing the side of her lower lip with a soft little finger while her other hand slowly moved from the guard rail to the handle of her overly large hammer. “I dun think e’ as too good a’ hearing Mista J.” she cooed menacingly.

The Joker chuckled at Harley’s intense desire for violence before taking a couple steps closer. He watched as the man reacted in attempt to take a step back only to fumble and fall down two stairs on his a**. Harley turned to look at the Joker almost pleadingly for permission, and with the following sentence it was granted “Now look what you’ve gone and done. You didn’t hurt yourself did you?” he said in as sincere a voice he could muster, “You don’t look so well friend, seems Harley best go on up there and help you down.” He smiled darkly and with Harley’s gleeful skip up the steps the old man cringed into the fetal position as she got closer. Though when he noticed her pass him did he turn to look at her only to receive a swift kick to the face sending him careening down the flights of stairs.

A searing pain gripped the man and as he was finally able to open his eyes the horror rushed back to him as the only thing he could see was his wife’s cold dead eyes open yet lifeless as they stared back at him from the floor. In horror he screamed and the all too familiar black boots moved into his view wading through the floor stained thick with blood. The next thing was too quick for the man to see, though he quite clearly felt it as the Joker’s boot hit his lungs with a crushing force. Now grabbing him by the hair the Joker propped him up against a wall as he grabbed his chin and looked over his face. The man tried to avert his eyes from the scarred psychopath, but was met with another swift kick as he coughed splattering blood down the side of his mouth.

The old man panicked as the already towering man crouched down beside him and still managed to tower over him. Tears slowly trailed down his cheeks as the man regained his breath and begged for his life asking why him, why his wife… The Joker watched this with a smirk, it was always the same questions, why, why, why – well why not? A little irritated he chewed on the inside of his lower lip for a moment as his eyes looked to the top right as if thinking though they only stayed there for a fraction of a second before flicking back in the old man’s direction as quickly as they had left. “Pay attention.” He said with two light smacks against the man’s cheek, “Looook…” he cooed with another light smack to the man’s other cheek with the back of his hand in a rather nonchalant way. “Hey,” the Joker stated again growing more annoyed as the old man began to break down further with the up close and personal sight of his wife. Reaching down and getting some of her blood on his hand he grabbed the old man by the chin again, only with far more effective results this time seeing as the blood was smearing across his face as she struggled.

“tsk tsk tsk,” the Joker clicked his tongue and watched as he finally calmed down and finally showed signs of paying attention to what the Joker was saying. A smile pressed across his face as the old man listened “Now pay attention-“ He said, “Now this is really really important-“ he said drawing out the sentence, “it might even save your life-“ his smile pulling into a smirk as he the man’s eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets with anticipation. “Hah! Ha ha!” he laughed releasing his grip on the man’s chin and standing up leaving the man looking absolutely bewildered. The Joker giggled again, “You actually believed for a second there you had hope didn’t you?” he laughed harder, “but you never did.” His amusement of the situation seeming to grow as he turned away from the old man, his hand holding his side he was laughing so hard, but instantly in a very manic way he stopped laughing all together and became completely serious as he said “You ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light?” and with one shot the old man lay on the floor beside his wife.

Only moments later Harley headed to the living room as if nothing had happened and he went to the kitchen to find something to eat. Leaning against the side of the kitchen doorway he watched Harley fiddle with the television as she tried to get something decent on, “They don’t have anything good J, ow’s about we go home, huh?” she asked in a child’s winey voice as she glanced at him and fiddled with the TV again. He stood there in the door way just quietly watching her. Watching her as she put a movie in, watching her practically skip across the room with an overly giddy demeanor, her excited frame as her pig tails bobbed up and down, her blond hair in such damned near perfect symmetry with each strand seeming to move in unison… and the longer he stared at her the more her every inch pissed him off… and before he knew it he had her by the throat pressed against the ragged couch. Her blue eyes stared up at him in a with less panic then there probably should have been as her legs pressed against his, but for only a moment his grip loosened and that was all it took for her to wrap her arms around him and kiss him fondly ending one maddening fury and beginning another altogether.



Though the morning came as it would any day, here it refused to grace even the tiniest of corners. Darkness still held free reign in the old room, as the curtains kept the light at bay. Their hold over the dark keeping the secrets of a sleeping mass spread out on a shredded couch. Threads pulled from their place long ago hung lazily off the couch with no hope. There amidst the stains and fraying cover of the couch goosebumps crawled between the hairs of an exposed leg, though the leg was hardly alone in this matter. With only a skimpy purple throw covering what it could, the mass twitched before a low moan sounded. Shortly after it a second sounded as the cracked lips pulled apart again and with their scarred severance the sting of alcohol stained the air.

The scent of alcohol wafted off the man as he reached his hand out and felt across the couch. Only getting handfuls of torn fabric he finally opened his eyes and slowly the dark orbs looked down at the couch where the warm flesh of Harley had been. A deep headache slowly brewed in his skull as his eyes met the light. Now only the musty air of the old house lay in her place, still half dazed deafening screams rang in his ears causing his head to pound further. Slowly he pulled himself up taking a moment to sit in the couch as his eyebrows furrowed.

Standing up all the way he closed his eyes again as he had to regain his balance and leaned against a crumbling wall. Opening his eyes again in annoyance as the screams continued he noticed the remnants of coke lines on the glass table. Grabbing his jacket off the floor searched his pockets, but it wasn’t there. Harley had taken it all while he had slept. Grabbing a gun from his jacket pocket he moved though the empty vodka bottles on the floor, his foot just barely missing a rusty nail sticking out of the floorboards as he went. He clutched his head in pain as he followed the sound of Harley screaming. When he entered the kitchen he yelled for her to shut up, though it was as if she didn’t hear him over her terror of seeing the Charlie tearing pieces of flesh off the Joker’s dogs and eat them then attempting to do the same to her. Quite frankly he didn’t give a damn if she had heard him or not, at the moment he had a headache that had grown into a blistering migraine- so to quiet things he shot Harley and then Charlie without even trying to see what he had been doing to make her scream.

To tell the truth he didn’t care, it was always one thing or another with her, and finally things were quiet again. Searching the cupboards in the kitchen for painkillers he threw objects out of them in his fury. Quickly he made his way to the bathroom and finding some he gladly took them and rested his hands in his face for a couple minutes. Closing his eyes with a moan he turned on the water and washed his face, the make-up running down the drain until there was only pink scarred flesh. Looking around he figured he’d wait to take a shower until he got back to his hideout, so he returned to the living room and put his clothes on. Realizing that Charlie had the keys to the van, he returned to the kitchen to search for them. He moved Harley’s body with his foot before realizing what she had been screaming about, but he just couldn’t think of what would have driven him to eat the dogs. Grabbing the keys from his pocket, he could have sworn he saw Charlie movie, but cast the thought aside for the moment being. He left in the van only to end up parking a few streets down where the road was blocked with cars. His headache not getting any better he was definitely not in the mood for any of this.

OOC: Whew –wipes sweat away- that took forever to get finished , but I hope it was an okay post! (Oh and he didn’t shoot Harley and the goon in the head so they are zombies now…) I also am making a better posting style for the joker, but it isn't finished, I made one for Scarecrow and that one is finished though. It is here.

[HearseFoxSakki]

The teacher looked up at the cold blue eyes of his captor who stared down at him with an enigmatic expression. Severe reached into his pocket and took the cap off a syringe and filled it with the contents of a tiny clear vial. The teacher’s eyes grew wide as he watched him fill the vial. He pulled at his restraints frantically, his pant legs riding up as his legs thrashed against the rope causing a rope burn along his ankles. Severe leaned over the man and in a one fluid movement he quickly pressed needle into the man’s neck. Pausing as he pulled the needle out of the man’s neck he savored the misguided expression on the man’s face for only a moment before closing his trunk. They were in the middle of nowhere in the narrows, so the likely hood that someone was even nearby to see him was minimal.

Getting back in his car after only the minute or so it took to pick up his gift, he made his way down the streets to a local Starbucks and ordered two coffees. One for himself and another he had known his sister to like. Pulling into the parking lot he watched as a blue bug pulled out of a very convenient parking space. He waited for this bug to pull out and leave before taking the space. Before he even entered the parking space he recognized the car beside his. No one who went to Gotham University had the kind of money to pay for a car like that let alone their school bills. Stepping out of the car he easily recognized its license plate having met its owner several times before.

The car belonged to the young Wayne, if he wasn’t mistaken her name was Brooklyn – yes that was it. He had been invited to the Wayne’s parties numerous times, but had only been actually persuaded to attend twice. Their parties really weren’t his cup of tea for numerous reasons. First of which the Waynes had become the kind of family to flaunt everything they owned and show off to everyone and anyone. Yes, they had the occasional extravagant party which the upper class did nothing but rave about, but frankly he found no interest in the things that went on there. The two times he had gone he had invited his sister to come with him, but all it seemed to be was a place for the pretentious upper class to play the my coat is more expensive than yours game which Severe had never gotten into. Because though he knew if he wanted he could easily get the same car as the Wayne, he found there to be far more pressing matters at hand than the majority of the interests of Gotham’s fickle upper class. His car was nice, yes, but certainly not flashy or in any way a means of showing off. No, his car was nice, but it was purposefully meant not to attract too much unwanted attention. He was after all one of Gotham’s rather dangerous criminals that snatched the not too careful up and swallowed them whole. This was all besides the fact that if they played the who can destroy who’s life game; he would without a doubt win.

He paused leaning against the side of his car, putting the two coffees oh his car hood as he checked the message on his phone. He smiled reading his sister’s reply. Flowers huh? He chuckled quietly, well killing those students and kidnapping his sister’s teacher certainly wasn’t his MO but quite frankly he would do anything his sister asked him at the drop of a hat. Hell, just because he didn’t like to ride around in flashy cars didn’t mean his sister wouldn’t. Really he didn’t know if she would like a car like the Wayne’s, but all his sister had to do was ask and there it would be wrapped up all pretty and nice for her- much like the sedated cuffed and tied teacher in is trunk…

Standing straight again he was about to make his way to the courtyard, but was stopped as he recognized the young Wayne on her way to her car. He didn’t like the Waynes let alone the fact that she had been dabbling in the Crane’s area of expertise. He took after his father in that he made sure to keep an eye on all the areas where scientific progression could occur and that included the chemistry department of Gotham University. He wasn’t concerned about her taking chemistry classes, just a little tweaked at the fact that Chemistry was a Crane’s area. From his father to his two children, the Cranes were brilliant chemists. He didn’t really want to have to stop and chat with anyone except his sister at the moment, but common courtesy required he do just that. He smiled pleasantly at her and with a wave said good morning. “Hello Ms. Wayne,” he said taking a sip of coffee, “ I would offer you the other cup, but seeing the other is my sister’s and I only have two at the moment, I would gladly buy you a cup here on campus if you would like.” He smiled as he offered. “See today happens to be my only day off this week, and I have to go to Germany for a conference next week so I figured I’d pick her up so she could play hooky and spend some time with me today.” He looked at her, his smile the epidemy of sincerity as he spoke, “How about you Ms. Wayne? I figured class wouldn’t be out for another-“ he paused to look at his watch, “hour and twenty minutes. Do you have a family emergency?” he asked seriously before his tone of voice became more joking, “Or are you simply playing hooky too?” He chuckled, He knew very well why she was leaving, but he was very good at playing the innocent bystander. Time was ticking away and he really had to go meet his sister, but small talk was an important part of his life.


~ Tʜϵ Eҳϵɔuтɪɵɴϵʀ ~
BOO!BOO!BOO
Scared Ya Didn't I? XD

[HearseFoxSakki]

Sleeve covered hands shook as they snaked through dark messy hair under the blinding white light. Quickly the realization that there wasn’t a single corner where darkness could hide the girl sent her previous panic into a far more erratic state as she clutched the mangled hair on her head and slowly sank to the padded ground as the white smoke drifted down from the vents. “No… not- no… no no no no… th-this…” her hands pulled with increasing intensity at the locks of hair she clenched as she pulled back from the vents. In the corner of the padded cell she curled in on herself, her malnourished frame showing through the thick fabric of the straight jacket that clung so desperately to her.

Files in little stacks were spread around a desk as nimble fingers tapped vigorously away at a keyboard stopping occasionally when they reached out to take a sip of coffee. Though he happened to be hard at work composing his reports on which of the new round of applicants were and were not eligible to be hired in his department at Arkham, his eyes hardly ever left the video feed in the corner of the screen that was recording the reactions of one of the patients as he triggered the gas to fill the room. Her name was Alice Greenburrow, she had inherited her schizophrenia and manic depression from her father who according to her record had tried to kill not only himself several times but Alice as well. He watched her reactions with interest as he typed his reports. This would be the fifth time he had gassed the disheveled little thing this week, he had been testing her original resilience and using it to configure improved methods of concentrating his drug.

Ever since his insight on Wayne Enterprises most recent government contract, he had been curious to see if he could create a far more potent version of his compound that not only made the person writhe in their fear but utilized the body’s nervous system to further enhance what they felt. Unlike the fools that had been running the Wayne Enterprises project he actually knew what he was doing. They on the other hand had little chance of success from the very beginning. For starters they had yet to put together an intelligent enough team with any skills in the pathology field to even accomplish the beginning of their tasks, their understanding of diseases, chemical breakdowns, and any level of viral weaponry was minimal.

The light leapt off the computer screen carving the features of the Doctor’s face. His cold blue eyes moved from the screen with a sigh after Alice had screamed herself hoarse and passed out. There were very few nurses in Alice’s wing at this hour and thankfully none of them were available to intervene with Alice’s condition and Crane’s secret experiments. As for how he had become acquainted with the facts of Wayne Enterprises government contract put simply he made sure to keep a close eye on all places of possible scientific progress finding people on the inside and persuading them in a rather intimidating manner that more than encouraged people to see things his way. Though they had been working at their project for months now Crane knew there would be little progress on their end. They were doomed to fail before they even started…

~Time Skip~

With a groan Crane pulled himself off his desk and into a proper sitting position in the dark room, apparently he had fallen asleep at his desk. Pulling a hand through his hair, he couldn’t recall having gotten that tired, but he must have. Taking his glasses off that had set crookedly on his face while he slept he put them in his jacket pocket and stretched slightly before realizing what had woken him up. There was a loud thumping he could hear coming from somewhere down the hallway. Picking up a pen he tapped it against a stack of papers on his desk as he looked at the screen of his computer that was off. Unfortunately he couldn’t remember having saved his work. Biting on the pen for a moment he tried turning on his desk lamp, but to no avail. Taking the pen out of his mouth, he used it to press the computer’s power button, but still no response. All the lights in his office seemed to be down leaving the only source of light the windows…

Jonathan groaned at the situation tapped the pen again in annoyance at the thumping before growing fed up and in one sharp motion standing up and throwing the pen against the wall. He licked his lips and sighed. Cocking his head to the side with a raised eyebrow he was about to walk out into the hallway, but shadows flittering against the walls caught his attention. Someone was running across the grounds, curiously he approached the window and looked down at the grounds. There was not one but two- no three people running across the grounds. He noticed there was something very off about them though, something strange about the way they were dressed? No maybe it was the way they were running? Yes, yes that was it. They seemed to be running without any sense of direction… He watched them for a little while, watched how they seemed to stagger around, occasionally dragging their feet, the strange animal like screeches that they seemed to spew, as they moved with a manic craze. Jonathan felt his phone buzz but before he could turn and look to see who it was all at once he felt his heart drop at the sight of the three of them suddenly stop and simultaneously turn to look at him. Their crooked heads and their dead eyes contorting as their jaws seemed to open far wider than he had thought humanly possible and a screech like nails on a chalk board erupted from their mouths.

Jonathan’s jaw dropped as he watched them come racing toward the west wing. Unable to look away he just barely managed to pry his eyes from the scene and look at the message. Thankfully the phones still worked, reading Rose’s message he felt his heart race as he realized what was happening. Exiting out of the message he quickly pulled up the cameras he had planted in Wayne Enterprises on his phone, but every camera’s feed seemed to be out. Quickly he located the files where the feed had been recording to and once he found what he was looking for he watched in amazement as the scientists at Wayne Enterprises tested their weapon on what they had thought to be a secure area, only for the virus to go airborne and attack the immune systems of the workers in the building, seeming to do very little but make them cough at first but Crane noticed as one of them coughed out blood. The airborne part of the weapon only seemed to weaken the immune system for most of the workers, but that was the least of their problems. He watched as the test subjects that had died pulled themselves back up and with a limp their dead glassy eyes focused on the scientists as they ran at them. They knocked over the the lamps and things as they went and tackled them with an inhuman speed. Their teeth tearing at the flesh, before running off to find more, and soon the cycle repeated itself.

Flipping back to the message he was about to text her back when he realized that the loud thumping sound that had woken him up had stopped. Everything was dead silent… Knowing that if the majority of his toxins held no effect on animals chances are they wouldn’t do much to a zombie. Quickly his eyes scanned the room for weapons, he had left his noose and his walking stick he usually used to club the ******** that got on his nerves to death in his car. Unfortunately that was down three floors… Taking the chair sitting across from his desk for visitors, he lifted it and smashed it against the wall and with a snap he felt it crack. He then pried one of the legs off of it and now that he had a weapon opened his phone again to answer Rose.

To: Rose
From: Jonathan
“Viral weapon let loose at Wayne Enterprises. Little time to talk. I’m at Arkham still. Meet me at my house.”

[HearseFoxSakki]

He listened to her reply and acted quite surprised at what had happened, his flawless expression that of an innocent. "Really now? That certainly doesn't sound like the killer's MO. Maybe it was merely someone copying him or her. Perhaps someone with a grudge against the man? Hmmm, well on any account this makes my night far more busy than I had anticipated." his eyebrows furrowed with concern, "I will be sure to stop by the Gotham Police Department and see if there is anything I can do to help them tonight." he frowned before listening to her again. "It is on the proper methods of deciphering the indications of disease. No, I shouldn't be gone long only a couple days or so as long as the planes aren't delayed." he chuckled at the unreliability of travel these days, "I should be back this Wednesday, should time permit." he smiled, "What kind of business proposition did you have in mind?" he asked a smile playing across his face as he reached into his pocket. His fingers graced against the secret pocket in the lining of his back pocket where the empty syringe was, he made no reaction to this and pulled his wallet out from his pocket. Taking a business card he handed it to the young Wayne.

"I'm sure you already have the number to my office somewhere, but here is my card just in case you happen to have misplaced it." he listened to her proposition before gladly accepting it and after bidding her goodbye he took his leave. He really didn't enjoy talking to any Wayne, but to have simply ignored the fact that she was there would have been rude, and his father had made sure to teach him the importance of proper manners and getting people on your side. The way he saw it everyone and anyone could be a possible enemy and he made sure to be buddy buddy with people when they took any kind of interest in him.

It wasn't that he had any real reason to dislike Ms. Wayne save for her last name. Then again in a way he knew her last name could also prove to be an asset. He smiled as several people recognized him along the walkway towards the courtyard. As for the story about his going to Germany, yes well he completely made that sack of s**t up. It happened to be his current cover for his well latest excursion as The Executioner. He had all of the people he needed to claim that he was on the plane, and that he gave his talk, and that he was on the plane home. His phone was secure in every way imaginable, and he had been planning this for month and months now. This was going to be the greatest killing spree that the executioner had ever pulled off. No one would question whether or not he was really gone since he took business trips all the time, and he did go to Germany often. Besides if they tried he had all the right alibis.

Hmmm, word certainly did travel fast. As he entered the courtyard it seemed everyone was in a buzz about what had happened and yet he had only called for the hit not even thirty minutes ago. He frowned his face gracefully faking the sadness he felt for that poor class. Finding his sister heads turned as the two Cranes united. "Good morning Lizz." a truly warm smile graced his face as he spoke to his sister, "I'm so glad you are okay, I heard from Ms. Wayne that the psychology class was attacked? That's awful, I'm going to have to stop by the police department tonight to see if I can be of any assistance, in catching whoever did this. They could have hurt you." he said with a concerned voice. Noticing the coffee she had bought that morning he frowned, "I bought you some coffee that I remembered you liked, but I see you already have some." he smiled looking at the notes she had been writing and chuckled at how similar her handwriting was to their father's. His handwriting was nothing like their father's, it was so much like chicken scratch that he was usually the only person who could read it- which became difficult when dealing with other people. "So-" he said clasping his hands together, "The big question is what have you eaten for breakfast, and are you hungry enough for lunch yet?" he asked leaning down so that he could whisper into her ear. "Because I have a present for you, and if you are hungry we can either wait until after we have eaten for you to open it," he smiled at his choice of words, "or if you'd like we could go back to my place, and you could open it while I make us lunch. What would you like?"

((Okay, it's a lot shorter than I had expected, but I hope that works ^.^ ))


~ Tʜϵ Eҳϵɔuтɪɵɴϵʀ ~
BOO!BOO!BOO
Scared Ya Didn't I? XD

[HearseFoxSakki]

Trying to think as quickly as he could before those three he had seen on the first floor outside the window found their way to him Dr. Crane turned his cell phone on silent should the time come for him to hide. Putting his glasses back on he grabbed his briefcase and opened it on the desk revealing a quite the colorful array of tiny glass vials, several syringes, and his most prized possession of all. His fingers lingered on the burlap fabric for a moment before picking the mask up. Taking the array of vials varying from the different concentrations of his fear compound to various sedatives and poisons that were labeled with his secret coding he then placed them in his inner jacket pocket where they would be safe. He already had a syringe on him since it was used as one of his methods of entering his toxin into the victim when he wanted a different effect, so he didn’t find it necessary to grab any of the others in this briefcase. Looking around the room he decided it best to check through everything once more to double check if there was anything else he might need that he missed. Taking his leather gloves out of his jacket he pulled them on and continued looking through his desk drawers until he found a flashlight. He tried to remember if he had any extra rope, but the only rope he could think of was the rope he had in the back of his car with his large walking stick he commonly used as a club. Now that he had everything he needed from his office he walked to stand in front of the door. Taking his glasses off he stood there preparing himself for what was on the other side of the door. He closed his eyes with a sigh before pulling his mask on and opening them again only now the Scarecrow had his true face back bringing the familiar dangerous gleam back to his cold blue eyes.

He placed his hand on the door handle as he side stepped to the left of it. He raised the chair leg above his head should he need to strike whatever happened to be outside his office. He quickly unlocked the door and pulled it open only to find darkness. Darkness – that was it, no drooling, bleeding, moaning zombie fiends awaiting him beyond the confines of his study. At least not yet…

Taking the flashlight in his left hand he switched it on and slowly made his way into the hallway, trepidation within him growing with every step. It was really strange to see Arkham so dark, the place was always a bleached white. Continuing down the hallway he noticed that even the smell of the place had changed. What once smelled of cleaning supplies now only left the lingering scent of death. He walked down the hallway, the tap of his feet the only noise echoing through the halls. Keeping aware of his surroundings he felt the kink in his neck and realized that he must have fallen asleep on it wrong. He stretched his neck with a sigh as he made his way past a couple vacant offices. The flashlight shined on the floor occasionally flickering around the halls as he kept a lookout in the dark asylum. Keeping close to the side of the wall as he rounded a corner with an animalistic shriek two doctors from the asylum charged down the hallway towards him. He had little time to react, but he managed to quickly swing the broken chair leg smacking the first one in the head and his second swing managed to cripple the leg of the second doctor. Once that doctor was down he quickly sidestepped around the first zombie and swung the chair leg as hard as he could smashing the doctor’s head spewing blood and brain matter all over the side of the wall before directing his attention to the second that was slowly dragging itself towards him. The bone in his leg clearly splintered and protruding from his skin as the zombie pulled itself across the hallway towards him, but before Crane could react he was tackled from behind by a nurse who was clearly infected. Landing only two feet from the crippled zombie that was slowly but surely making its way to him, he forcefully pushed the nurse off him and repeatedly crushed his foot down on the zombie’s face. Once he heard a crack and it stopped trying to attack him, he redirected his attention towards the one almost at his leg and with a strong swing he zombie’s jaw flew off. The zombie falling on the floor from the force of the impact reached out to him before Crane attacked the creature again splitting it’s skull open. He continued to smack the dead zombie out of frustration for extra measure before pausing in the hallway.

He leaned against the wall for a moment before standing straight again with the chair leg resting against his shoulder. His suit and mask were now covered in blood and with a light chuckle he looked at at the damage he had done to the three bodies laying in the hall. Continuing down the hall he slowly rounded another corner down a flight of stairs, only this time he was far more prepared for the zombie that had been waiting there. He watched it run up the stairs, but before it could reach him he swung the broken chair leg like a bat snapping the man’s neck. Once again just in case he bashed its head in which both made him feel better as well as more certain that it would stay down where he put it. A plan already formulated, he used a scalpel from his pocket to tear the zombie’s shirt off. Tying the shirt around his right arm he continued down the stairs. Once down the flight of stairs he calmly stood and shined the flashlight back and forth between the two sides of the hall before continuing down the right side of the hall towards the main office. He approached the office door slowly. Noticing that the door was already ajar he slowly peaked in and shined his flashlight around the room checking the area. From what he could tell the room seemed secure, so spotting what he was looking for he entered the room. Stepping around the broken glass on the floor he made his way to the gun cabinet. He quickly shifted though his set of keys, but before he could open the lock he faintly heard the rustling of something moving through the broken glass behind him.

With a swift movement he swung behind him sending one of the surviving employees headfirst into the wall. Shining the light on her he recognized her as his assistant he had hated for a very long time and realized what he had done. The broken glass crunched menacingly under his boots as he slowly approached her. Standing above her he crouched down taking her chin in his hand and turning her to face him. A wound on her forehead was bleeding profusely, the blood dripping down her face as she looked up at him with terror as she recognized his mask. Crane smirked with a chuckle, “Hello Lucy. Heh, heh, it seems my clumsy little swine clearly doesn’t hold the capacity to recognize my voice, so dare you take a shot at who I am?” he chuckled dangerously mocking the girl as he stood up and unlocked the gun case. Taking two hand guns he put one on each side of his jacket pocket protruding just enough for him to grab them with ease. Untying the shirt from around his arm he fashioned a sling to carry the rounds in and put the broken chair leg in the sling with them. Taking a shotgun from the rack he approached Lucy again and double checked that each of the guns was loaded when her quivering voice sounded. “Do- doctor C-crane? Is that y-you? You-you’re the Scarecrow?” she had started crying. He watched her shake and clutch her head with a sadistic smile. “So it seems.” Was his answer, “Well now that you’ve gotten to take a shot, doesn’t that mean it’s my turn?” he chuckled sadistically pointing the shotgun at her. Her wide eyes filled with terror as she tried to scramble away from him, but he just chuckled and put the gun down for a moment as he gave her a swift kick to the stomach. “Really? Did you think I was going to seriously shoot you?” he said before ripping a phone cord out of the wall jack and tying her hands with it. “Heh, my apologies for the disappointment, but if you didn’t realize this already, I, The Scarecrow don’t shoot my victims. Have you never read a newspaper in your life you croaking buffoon?” he asked throwing her over his shoulder and grabbing the shotgun again. “They face a far greater fate then a simple shot that would splatter their temporal lobe across the floor. No no my dear I have dreamed of your death for quite some time now, and from the look of things there is no better time than now.” He looked outside before exiting the building and approaching the light pole and with a heave throwing her to the ground. “Now I always imagined your death to be far more – well prolonged for lack of a better word as the horrors of your psyche unhinged your mind and caused you to tear yourself apart.” He stated rather nonchalantly as he retied her to the light pole as if what he was doing was an everyday thing like getting a cup of coffee or brushing your teeth… “Well at least I get the pleasure of knowing that you will still feel terror.” He said with a couple hand gestures, “Perhaps not to the degree that I had intended, but our dear pea brained simpleton imbeciles at the Wayne Enterprises at least saw to it that you’d get your flesh and possibly your innards torn off you chunk by chunk by your possible friends and colleagues.” By this point she had started screaming in a panic. “I really wouldn’t do that if I were you, see they seem to have quite fantastic hearing and it’ll just bring your death exceedingly faster than I’m sure you’d enjoy. Well – that is all – I hope the last moments of your life are filled with terrible pain and suffering as rotting lips bite and lick at your flesh” he said before chuckling, “OH Wait! That’s right! I don’t have to hope-” he continued his voice now a low growl “because that is exactly what’s going to happen.”

With that final farewell he left the woman to her demise with a smile and entered the East wing building. Yes, this was certainly not the way to the parking lot, however if there was any chance of anyone surviving this catastrophe there was something he had to get before he could even think about going home. He noticed right away that the power was actually functioning in this side of the Asylum – or at least partially. The lights flicked on and off occasionally and the hum of the electric shields was almost calming. He swiped his badge through the card slot and made his way toward the patient’s holding area. Hearing something in the distance he paused and crept more slowly along the hall pausing at the door to listen. There was a loud pounding somewhere along the cells, numerous screeching moans, and he could distinctly recognize the sweet scream of one of his ‘test subjects’.

With astounding speed he charged into the corridor where five zombies were pounding on the door of one of the cells and unloaded three shots. Guns were definitely not his preferred method of attack, but there was no way you could live in Gotham and not know how to shoot a gun. His aim was far from perfect, but he knew enough to get him where he needed to go. Stepping over the corpses he peeked through the eye hole to see none other than Alice screaming as she held herself and rocked back and forth in the corner of her padded room. He had been testing Alice’s natural resistance to his fear gas and using it to create a more effective compound. By the look on her face when she saw who entered it was beyond obvious that he had succeeded in breaking her resistance with his most recent compound, which was why she was the key to their survival. Her natural resistance to his compound and as he had suspected the virus that was destroying Gotham. She screamed and cried as he approached, but he paid no mind to it as he easily pinned her forcing her on her stomach so he could properly fasten the bonds on the straight jacket. Once completed he lifted the girl into a standing position and forced her to look at him. “Alice. Alice? Listen to me Alice. Do you want the Scarecrow to go away?” he knew the way her mind worked and he easily used it against her, “Yes! Please, please, please!” she begged crying, “Then you have to listen to what I say and not make a sound. Do you understand?” he asked speaking very slowly as he forced her to look at the mask. “Do you understand Alice?” he repeated. “Y-yes. Yes sir.” She managed to choke out and with her response he removed his mask and placed it in his coat pocket. He watched her with a raised eyebrow for a moment as he inspected her and decided whether or not he could trust to behave or is he should just give her a sedative now and carry her there.

Making up his mind he decided to give her a chance, and holding her by the straps of her straight jacket he kept her steady making sure she was following. True to her word she held her terror, followed him as calmly as she could only letting out the occasional whimper. They made it as far as the front gate before seeing any zombies. Only to Jonathan’s great disappointment they didn’t just come across one, but six and they all ran at them at once. Thinking quickly he threw Alice to the floor and put a boot on her so as to keep her from squiggling away while he unloaded his pistols into the dead eyed monsters. He then picked her up from the floor, looking her in the eyes and putting a finger to his lips reminding her to be quiet because she had gotten loud with panic when he had thrown her to the ground. She immediately hushed, but only seconds later the two of the both turned to the voice that chimed through the air with an eerily happy tone “Now that’s no way to treat a lady, straw head.” The Joker chimed as he approached from another hall giggling as he thought about how he had killed Harley that morning. He looked at the mask that was partially protruding from his pocket realizing how he had known who he was, but still did not lower the gun he had pointed at him at the startle of his voice. His left hand clenching tightly to Alice’s straight jacket and his right holding the pistol focused on the Joker. “State your business comedian.” Jonathan growled irritated, “I don’t really have time to idly stand here and converse about what ever remedial topic seems to be crossing your insignificant little mind.” The Joker simply chuckled, his headache had long gone and he was feeling much better than he had been this morning. He saw the gun pointed at him, but he wasn’t worried in the least. “Ooo good one straw head. Next you’ll be saying you have an appointment you need to get to.” He giggled, “Actually –“ Crane began, “I do. Now if there isn’t anything you need I have to take my leave.” The joker raised an eyebrow “Is that so doc?” He smiled though the sight was far from something comforting or pleasant in the least. “See I came here hoping to grab me some new goons since everything went to hell, but apparently this place wasn’t any more lucky than the rest of Gotham. I saw your work out there attached to that light pole. Pretty little thing isn’t so pretty anymore, so now I’m thinking I’m going to recruit you.” Jonathan raised his eyebrow as this statement, he recruit him? No. He worked for no one, he was god and he didn’t bow down to anyone, people bowed down to him – much as the cowering little Alice in his grip at that very moment. “No chance clown.” He stated matter of factly and was about to walk away with Alice in tow when the Joker spoke again. “You sure? You could be my number one.” he chuckled before continuing “Ah well then hows about I join you to your appointment? Who knows” he said licking his lips with a glint in his eye, “something might just change your mind.” Crane stopped, “Why? So you can shoot me when I’m not looking ‘Mr. Agent of Chaos’?” he scoffed, “See I don’t really enjoy dealing with that probability.” The Joker simple smiled, “You are the only one holding a gun right now.” Scarecrow’s eyebrows furrowed at the statement before making the insane decision to agree for the lunatic to come with him.

~TIME SKIP~

They successfully made it back to Crane’s house, and parking in the garage he got out of the car making sure to keep an eye on the Joker the entire time. Opening the back seat door he unbuckled a sleeping Alice who startled to waking up to her captor’s face before he threw her over his shoulder. They entered his house and set Alice on the leather couch in the living room before entering the kitchen. There weren’t walls that divided the living room and the kitchen but instead a long counter with bar stools that did so. As he entered the kitchen and started making himself a cup of tea he kept his eyes on his two ‘guests’ one of which was sitting with her knees up to her chest as keeping watching Jonathan with worry, and the other happened to be going through his things. He flipped though the books on his bookshelf, his CDs, and fiddled with his Beethoven bust between the kitchen and the living room. “So What’s up with you and the broad? You got a thing for her? That why you saved her from the Asylum?” Jonathan didn’t even want to dignify a response to the Jokers questions. “No, she is a test subject and save wouldn’t exactly be the correct term.” He said with a cold look in Alice’s direction who shivered in response. A little while later Jonathan got his text from Rose stating that they had arrived. He moved to the door, and let them in. “Hello Rose, and who is your-” He paused “friend?” He entered the kitchen again offering them a cup of tea and keeping a close eye on Alice’s movements.


((HI! I'm in the process of writing for Sev, but his post isn't ready yet and this was. Though technically I haven't gotten the chance of looking over my writing, so there are probably some mistakes I haven't had the time to correct yet. But for now! -dramatic pause- I MUST SLEEP! For my bed calls me and I haven't been to sleep yet because I was having so much fun writing this post...
Well I Hope you like it Tina. -passes out-))

[HearseFoxSakki]

There are cracks between worlds.

Our world, the next world - the underworld. You name it and somewhere there is a crack that lets things in - and on a rare occasion lets them out. They come in the form of tears wept too long for the dead and the overexertion of raw emotion. They have the power to draw things in, to hold them against their will until they see things the way the other world wants them to. They are mysterious, they are demanding, and when they want to be- they are inescapable. Though it is exceedingly rare to come upon a crack in the heart so deep that it stains the mind to match its unyielding cruelty – such a poisonous crack between worlds existed. So adamant in its fixated pursuits that it’s unmatched skill could twist its way into even the most unwilling of minds and hide itself anywhere. Madara Uchiha was such a fracture between worlds that as per his kamuri he was the essence of intangible- never completely here and never completely there. His eyes were the divide between worlds. They had seen battle after battle and had yet to close- snatching the future from countless souls that stood between him and his destination.

There was no question of his success, his plan had been put into action that fateful spring that he had felt the trapped Obito’s chakra. An old man now his hair had become a long white mess as his hands formed the seals and he retrieved the young Uchiha. Taking the man back to his place hidden in the mountains near Kahona, he found that remarkably his right eye was unscathed and did everything he could to restore his crushed right side. He had never had a question as to his intentions as he worked the same crack into his heart and corrupted Obito’s thoughts over the following weeks. Earning his respect, his adoration –his obedience, only Madara was not finished yet. He had yet to obtain his goals in life and an old man now his time was running out. He had been planning and piecing together the places, the people, and the jutsus to get him to his destination. Obito wasn’t the first to be what stood between him and his destination, but rather he certainly was the first step to his destination. Soon enough they would all taste the cracks as he slowly etched them into the places people held dearest. Obito would be first, then his clan, and one day the rest of the world. He would see to it that he got what he wanted, one day they would all bow to him like the grass that bent as he stepped on it. But it would not be quick for any of them, he would see to that. There would be no mercy for those that rose against him. Either you were his or you grimaced in the wake of your deepest nightmares. He knew how to dig into the minds of others, pick out the important bits, and find what struck terror into their lying hearts. He would find that place in their mind and twist himself into the cracks of their psyche. He reveled in the infantile cowering that came from being locked in the own personal hell each person’s mind built for them. He kept them trapped there for what sometimes was decades to a person. They could lie straight to his face, but he would find their weakness, exploit it, and before you knew it they fell apart piece by piece like a condemned building. He was the demolition man of minds, placing the right charges and setting figures into action. He would have his revenge. Wielding both the Senju and Uchiha DNA an ancient jutsu was reborn as he painfully transferred his soul into Obito’s body gaining his right eye and with it the power of the kamui. He returned to the Kahona under the alias of Tobi where he met Itachi who had thought he had come to enact his revenge against Kahona, and made the deal to slaughter the Uchiha’s who had betrayed him.

~Time Skip~

He skipped to the kitchen, though not for the obvious reasons that most do so. A soft smile crossed his face, though none could see it behind the mask the two girls could definitely hear it in his chipper voice. For some time now he had been off in the distance listening to what they said carefully making mental notes to himself as he did so. While he couldn’t hear Ayano since she could not speak, based on Itoshi’s reactions he could easily tell what she had written on her hand. It seemed the two were actually bonding, they were quite miserable for their positions, but who wouldn’t be? Sooo, he had come to cheer them up, because so long as they bent to his will when the time came they didn’t have to be punished with such misery. “Awww” he said on cue as his eyes darted between the girls, “Well hello Ayano!” he said with a little skip as he jumped behind her and petted the top of her head like she was a damn cat. She playfully tried to swat his hand away, only to wince in pain from her wounds. He noticed this and laced his voice with an air of concern “Oooo that looks pretty bad, that’s a lot of blood…” he said before turning to the blind Itoshi, “So who’s your friend Ayano?” he asked with a look in Ayano’s direction, but before she had the chance to answer he exclaimed with excitement “Oh! No! Don’t say! Let me guess! Let me guess!” to which Ayano shrugged with a smile and let him guess, “I’m really good at this!” he giggled looking back at Itoshi, “Your name- your name- hmmm you look like a na. Na- na – ooo that’s it it’s Naomi isn’t it! Yes that must be it you look exactly like a Naomi!” He remained there for a while keeping them company and being his silly self before they all retired to their beds – he to think his plans over and them to prepare for the battle they were to have the following day.

The night left just as quickly as it had come. Now here he stood watching as the young were pit against one another as he had ordered. A deceivingly innocent façade surrounded him as he retained the carefree silly persona of Tobi, though beneath the mask his lips pulled into a sadistic smirk. He was the one who pulled all of the strings around here, nothing happened without his oaky. He knew well of Ayano’s power, and while telling Kisame that her main purpose was to keep Itachi’s eyes functioning in reality that had only been part of his interest in her. Truthfully what he was interested in was the possibility of her being able to heal him when the time came, so that he didn’t have to go body hunting when he one day reached the old age he had been when he took Obito’s. Should Kisame’s samehada collar be removed, her body would periodically heal itself and so long as that worked on him he wouldn’t have to worry about the curse of death. As for Itoshi, he had heard very little about her, but there was a strange kind of hint to her chakra that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was unnatural in its course through her and this perturbed him. The first day she they had arrived he had noticed a particular almost static around her that intrigued him, thus his interest in pitting her against his little samehada collared pet. If she survived then there were more things that he had to look into– like her use to him.

He watched as the two were dragged out to the field, Ayano scared stiff of Kisame as he stood above her loosening the collar as per his orders so she could at least put up some kind of fight, and Itoshi followed closely by Orochimaru who leaned to whisper into her ear “Let’s just say things won’t end too well for you if lose, so let’s hope my keeping you alive doesn’t backfire.” He watched them fight pretending not to care or really be paying attention like Tobi’s silly self, when in reality his eyes were focused intently on every movement they made. Ayano seemed hesitant at first, though in no time the two of them started getting more into it. They were both rusty in the beginning seeing as Itoshi had just lost her sight and Ayano hadn’t been allowed let alone able to fight back for a very very long time, but they both quickly regained their footing realizing that it was much like riding a bike- that you never really forget, you simply adapt. And from what Madara could tell adapting seemed to be a specialty of theirs. For the slightest moment Itoshi seemed to lose her footing giving Ayano the upper hand, but as she cut into Itoshi a scream of pain ripped through the air as Itoshi’s acidic blood speckled across her. Wounds were inflicted left and right in a blur of movement that he tracked every second of, and after a long time of back and forth wounding and healing the two blacked out smacking the blood soaked stone in a tie.

Sure Itoshi didn’t win, but none the less he only found his interest even more peaked after seeing them fight. He attended to other matters outside of their hideout, but secretly kept a close eye on the two’s recovery. Three days later Kisame walked in the room when he was checking their vital signs and took the opportunity to discuss some rather secret matters quietly together, but not thinking he accidentally mentioned Madara’s name. He instantly silenced Kisame, the fear could be easily felt in the room at the mention of his name and the Akatsuki members turned to see the two girls very conscious and very coherent. Ayano’s eyes widened at the realization of who Tobi was and in a terrified attempt to move as far away from him as she could she pushed herself to the corner of the cot. Damn it why did this have to happen? Without a word Tobi’s light carefree nature had disappeared and in its place was the cold dangerous glare that met them. The next thing they knew they were being pulled into a vortex – one of the very cracks to the other world. Madara cursed before telling Kisame he had to inform Orochimaru that both of the girls had died and with that in a swirl of anger he appeared in the other dimension with them. Though to be fair he didn’t look anything like the short spiky haired Tobi, but when he was in this other world his real body could be seen, and only those who had been in this realm could see him for who he truly was. The crack between dimensions – the monster out for blood.

((read through edited and fixed grammatical errors))

[HearseFoxSakki]

Dark cold eyes looked up from the papers he had been shifting through at the towering figure that just entered the room. The serpentine man’s eyes met the crimson orbs of the Uchiha before him, “Our leader is busy, so you will not get the proper orientation you had probably expected, though he urges you to continue looking through the information on your target. Tomorrow your-“ Itachi paused before smirking, “apprentice will be tested against our prisoner Ayano. This will occur in the lower floor of the hideout at six A.M sharp. Do not be late, or your invitation shall be more than rescinded.” Orochimaru listened, his features furrowing as he noted the man’s arrogance. So this was the infamous Itachi Uchiha that Kahona had been in such an uproar over? He held himself with such composure as if everything else around him was inconsequential. Who did he think he was? Orochimaru glowered in the man’s direction as he left without another word. No one spoke to him like that. He was a sannin, and yet this brat had the audacity to threaten him let alone speak to him in such a manner? His fingers contorted around the papers crumpling the corners of them in his anger. He continued to glare at the back of the door from which Itachi had left before deciding to ignore it for the time being and continue looking over the papers. Several hours passed his teeth biting into a pencil as he worked to memorize the details of his to be target. His mind moved from the papers back to the arrogance of the Uchiha that had entered before, causing him to crush the pencil between his teeth in his irritation. He checked the time before deciding to turn in for the night.

The following morning he pulled himself out of bed and moved to the room Itoshi had been put in. He pushed open the door without knocking and standing above her growled for her to get up and get ready. The time had been about five in the morning and the Akatsuki members were already moving around the halls. He exited the room and waited leaning against the wall for her to finish before roughly grabbing her by the back of the neck and leading her down the stairs to the place of the fight. Once there he let go of the back of her neck and leaned down to whisper into her ear, “Let’s just say things won’t end too well for you if you lose, so let’s hope my keeping you alive doesn’t backfire.” He glared at her before moving to the side of the room where several other members stood. His eyes moved from Itoshi to Ayano as he wondered how things would turn out. The beginning of the fight was announced and his eyebrows furrowed as he noted the barely audible sigh that escaped Itoshi’s lips. Was this a sign of trepidation for the battle yet to come? His mouth contorted into a smirk as he realized that she probably wouldn’t get very far in this battle. It hadn’t even been a week since she had been injected with his experimental serum, and yet there she stood engaged in a battle. Six days ago she had been held up in a dark cell with the rancid decaying bodies of her cell mates, enduring test after test by his order. The doctors manhandling his prisoners left and right, abusing them when they fought, injecting them, taking physicals, and running numerous tests to ensure the progress of the study.

She had only just become blind and her beginning efforts in her fight matched as such. He watched her begin somewhat off balance as she moved. A fidgeting character in the corner of the room managed to catch his attention. A mask over his face kept his features unknown to him as he bobbed about the room in a childish frenzy. From the look of him he didn’t seem to have the most remote of interest in the battle. The character he recalled to be Hidan cursed and swatted at the strange one in the mask as he would jab him in the side with a stick before appearing on his other side when he swatted at him and did this over again. Orochimaru looked from this Tobi character to the other more calm rather sinister members of the Akatsuki and for the life of him he couldn’t see how Tobi had gotten to join in the first place. From the looks of things he was simply a nuisance that pestered everyone in the vicinity of him, though something told him that logically there had to be more to him that what was seen. He couldn’t simply be this imbecilic child that he played himself to be, there was no way… but try as he might he couldn’t find there to be anything wrong with him. There was nothing that screamed run for your life, he just seemed like any ordinary ninja- Orochimaru growled, an ordinary ninja that had distracted him from the fight his test subject was currently in.

His eyes moved back to the fight just as Ayano sliced into Itoshi and screamed as the blood came in contact with her skin. Orochimaru did everything he could to keep from reacting as he watched this. Right after that Ayano girl had screamed he noticed the burn marks digging into her skin, though they quickly healed he had several ideas of what could have happened. He continued watching the fight with a deep curiosity. There had been a similar case when he had started his experiments where subject 64, a young male, had been injected with one of the earlier versions of his serum. Everything seemed to be going well and Orochimaru had even considered the possibility that he could have been one of his first successes. Though that possibility was quickly ruled out when four days later he had started screaming like someone was ripping his lungs out of his nostril. All the doctors rushed in to find the source of the problem, but when they finally got there all they could do was take notes on the symptoms and quarantine the area until it could be properly taken care of. The results of the final tests showed that the PH levels of the boy’s blood had drastically changed. It had over time become more and more acidic until his system couldn’t take it any longer, eventually turning on and attacking its own cells eating though the marrow in his bones and working its way out tearing apart his skin and leaving the poor fool in a puddle of a mess splattered across his cell. In his last moments he had been clawing at his skin sending the acidic blood flying all over his other cell mates which once infected worked away at them as well until they too had died. After being left alone for a while the acidic blood had slowly but surely become more of a base and once no longer a threat his scientists burned the bodies.

Over the years of his research he had continued adapting his serum. There had been a vast array of colors, strengths, and of course symptoms some of the more aggressive of which included 64’s blood acidity, amnesia, brittle bones that started to fall apart, various skin burns, more often than not their hair fell off (and occasionally entire sections of skin too). He watched as they knocked one another out and without a word he and Kisame moved to pick the two up and carried them to a recovery room with two cots. Tobi appeared behind them looking the girls over before claiming that he would go fetch their medical ninja. There was a hint of something strange in the childish Akatsuki member’s voice as he spoke. It was almost as if something vulgar an menacing was scratching at the edges of his frame, but it was only there for the slightest of seconds before disappearing again. Orochmaru pretended to not be interested in the fight or Itoshi’s resulting injuries, so he waited until the third day when she had finally become conscious. She had been pretending to be asleep to everyone, but he knew better. He knew she was conscious and he had waited more than long enough to take what he needed. He entered the room without a sound taking the syringe from his pocket as he did so. His movements silent as the night so as not to alarm anyone and keep the sleeping Akatsuki pet Ayano never the wiser. He watched her eyes widen as he approached, but unlike him there was no smirk as he pushed her back into the cot and tightly clasped his free hand around her mouth. Just as there was no smirk across his face there was no interest in playing games. His thumb covering her nostrils as he forcibly kept her still, his dark eyes moved with a glare in her direction that threatened her to resist him. Right now he was simply holding her down by normal means, but what he wanted could have just as easily been taken from her should she no longer breathe. With that glare he moved his finger from her nose so she could breathe once again. He had thought she was a success, but if the results showed that she had the same problem as number sixty four did then he might as well kill her now before the blood killed anyone here. He slowly pressed the needle into her neck taking the large amount of blood he would need for the tests. As he looked down at her he considered simply killing her then and there. The right jutsu and she would be dead in seconds, he stood there considering it before leaning over her and whispering with a dangerous tone “I thought you were a success, but from the looks of your blood I would say you have less than a day to live.” He growled quite certain of what he would see in the blood results, “Perhaps I should kill you before you end up another puddle on the floor like number sixty four.” This wasn’t really a question but rather an observation as he looked down at her. “Either way-“ he said standing up, “whether I kill you or the blood in your system does it won’t be pretty. If you can even faintly remember the pain of my mark it can’t even compare to this.” With that he left the room.

~Time Skip~

He had been outside with Sasori preparing to leave for the village of the hidden sand, when as he was going through his things he realized that a rather important scroll he might need should he find himself in a rather sticky situation was missing. Sasori rather annoyed, Orochimaru recalled the apprentice he had mentored for a little while before leaving to start on his experiments at his secret island who had most likely taken his scroll – so they took a detour to the waterfall not too far from Kahona. Sasori rather annoyed by the entire situation, was even further annoyed when Kisame showed up to tell him that Itoshi and Ayano had died. Orochimaru had already expected this, so he simply shrugged and the two of them continued toward the waterfall he remembered his apprentice has liked so much. Hopefully she would be there and still have the scroll because he knew fully well that an Akatsuki member in Kahona would alarm everyone there.

They arrived and with a smirk he looked across the waterfall at the girl, his body soon meshing with that of a tree near her as his face pulled out of the bark and he spoke “Kaara” he chuckled, his face distorted in the tree as he approached. “I’m sure you already know what I’ve come for.” he smiled darkly.

((Indub, please refrain from placing OOC information in this thread, we do have an OOC thread for that sort of thing if you don't want to use PMs. Thank you ^.^))

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[HearseFoxSakki]

A light moan barely audible above the hum of the equipment in the mad doctor’s laboratory sounded in the dark. No, wait it wasn’t dark, from the corner of his eyes he could see light. There was something covering his eyes, but as he tried to move the object out of the way he found himself barely able to twitch a centimeter. He wiggled in his managing to move the blindfold slightly so he could just barely see from the corner of his right eye if he stained his neck, though sadly he could not figure out what bound him. What was wrong with him, even what he was hearing seemed off. But as his eyes slowly adjusted to the blinding light he was trying to focus on the escalating headache that taunted him paused as his vision cleared. It was distorted at first, but slowly he was able to match the voice he had been hearing to the face of the Mad Doctor. From what he could tell he was in the mad doctor’s personal lab, he desperately tried to focus on what he could see but all he could make out other than the mad doctor was something green bubbling in the distance. He figured it was some new serum the doctor was working on, but as the doctor realized that he was awake and approached the cage he was held in Aristarkh panicked.

He shuddered in terror as the Mad Doctor approached slowly. His footsteps coming closer his works filled with malice as he spoke, “Good afternoon Mr. Devaut. Glad to see that you’ve finally joined the land of the living.” The mad doctor chuckled darkly as he slowly approached the cage that held him. In his panic he further scuffled about in the cage trying to break free of whatever restraints held him so strongly, though his efforts were to no avail and only left him exhausted and overly frustrated with the entire situation he at least managed to get the blindfold off. “tsk, tsk, tsk.” The mad doctor sighed at how poorly the blindfold had been tied. Upon further inspection of the room he came to realize that his initial thought that what he had seen earlier was a beaker filled with the bubbling green liquid was only half right. Yes, there was a beaker there, though it was on the complete opposite side of the room, so it clearly had not been what he had been looking at previously.

His mouth dropped in horror at the sight of a man strapped to the doctor’s operating table. His skin and face had been completely removed of any human resemblance that it once bared and left with a green meaty mass of bubbling meat. What was left of this poor meat puppet was steaming on the operating table as a green substance tainted with blood bubbled and oozed out of the man’s open wounds. This sight sent a wave of adrenaline running through Star’s body as he thrashed about in the cage until he was only a couple steps away from him and Aristarkh realized that he was holding a syringe filled with a vial of the green liquid he had seen. His eyes widened in terror knowing that the cage he was in in accomplice with the various other restraints didn’t allow for any movement. He had no chance of escape and if the Mad Doctor so pleased he could press that syringe into his neck with little to no resistance on his part. The Mad Doctor smirked darkly as he raised the syringe filled with the bubbling liquid and slowly ran the needle of the syringe along the bars of the cage threateningly managing to erect a whimper from Aristark’s terrified lips. His heart pounded faster and faster with every clink of the needle against each of the bars. Another quiet whimper escaped his lips as the Mad Doctor spoke again, “Do you want a taste?” he teased moving the needle threateningly close to Star’s neck. “Well it’s not for you anyways.” He chuckled darkly before fishing out the keys in his lab coat and unlocking the door to the cage, “Not yet at least.” He chuckled again putting the syringe in his lab coat for a moment as his fist wrapped tightly around restrained man’s collar of his straight jacket and onto the floor. Holding him in place with one foot on his chest he reached into the cage and grabbed the blindfold before yanking him back up and tying it even tighter around his eyes. Star was then thrown back in the cage and it was locked again before the Mad Doctor went back to his work. “In time, In time.” The Mad Doctor cooed as he worked, “Truthfully this serum was all because of you, so if you want to think of it that way this subject on my table is now dead because of you.” He exclaimed in an unnaturally chipper tone. “When I realized some of the negative affects you displayed from Rayquaza’s essence I knew something had to be done, after all a success with your ferocity cannot be left to its own devices seeing as you have already demonstrated your need to bite the hand that feeds you.” He chuckled, “But soon, soon you will see, when this serum is complete it will be certain to keep your aggression, towards me at least, in check. “

The mad doctor’s voice slowly disappeared and Star felt himself wilt away into the shadows as the seconds passed. He was hungry, so damn hungry. He couldn’t tell how long it had been since he had been locked away like this, but one thing was for sure he hadn’t eaten flesh in a very long time. “No.” he whispered hoarsely in defiance of the coming madness that he could feel creeping up his spine and wracking his skull. Him mouth watered at the thought of the Mad Doctor’s blood covering the walls as his flesh was thrown across his perfect little lab. His mouth pulled into a deep frown as several of his shark like teeth could be seen slipping out and biting down on his lower lip with the motion.


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The tapping of footsteps could easily be heard moving at a slow but steady pace as the mad doctor mad his way down the corridor. Two scientists followed closely behind him on either side carrying the necessary equipment and various charts of the subjects. He would occasionally pause to check in on his subjects in their cells. He paused in front of the particular cell where the subject they had just used to test his Aristarkh’s serum once stayed. He smiled cruelly looking over at the cell beside the now empty one where he eyed the young man who cowered in the corner at the Mad Doctor’s presence. The Mad Doctor turned to the scientist on his left and told him to mark this man to be next on the project to test the serum with a cold glance in the boy’s quivering form before moving on down the corridor. His lab coat trailed swiftly behind him before he stopped suddenly in front of Lilith’s cell. He eyed her before making a motion to the scientist on his right to hand him Lilith’s chart. He glanced at the chart for not more than a second before roughly shoving it back in the nervous scientist’s arms again and unlocked her cell door.

“Good afternoon Ms. Jones. Hopefully the accommodations are to your liking.” He mused sarcastically, as he scanned her with a faux look of concern before he took a step toward her with a sadistic smile that wretched itself across his face. He approached, the scientists close at his heels as he reached out for her. “Stand up and come here, little girl.” He chuckled darkly as he reached out grabbing a hold of her by the hair, “Perhaps if you behave, I will go easy on you today.” He smirked pulling her out of the cell and dragging her by her hair towards one of the labs. Unfortunately it wasn’t his personal lab as he would have preferred it to be, but rather the lab beside it since the imbecilic scientist to his right, who looked terrified and nervous with every movement the Mad Doctor made, had prepped the wrong room. And his fear was well placed because he knew that if he made another mistake that it would be the end of him and it would be him on one of the Mad Doctor’s table testing his serum instead of these subjects.

“Now Ms. Jones,” he began as he locked the door to the lab behind them and they started strapping her to the examination table. The scientists moved fervently as they tightened the straps around her fragile frame. The Mad Doctor smugly watched this as he snapped the medical gloves on and began preparing a liquid in a paper cup. He then approached and forced her to drink it since her body had been known to change in her defense and needles wouldn't have worked properly without it. This liquid was another of his own creations meant to make the patient slightly more loopy – thus making it more difficult for her to properly react and activate her stone flesh in defense. He stood over her eyeing her with a sick smile as one of the doctors held her head in place. Normally he would have used the chin restraint for a situation like this since that was what it was there for, but this was not a normal scientific procedure that he would be proceeding with today. As a matter of fact this didn’t have anything to do with any of the serums or theories he had been developing with his scientists, but rather that the entire point of this ‘gathering’ was to break down the barriers that this woman had put up. To destroy that last taste of hope that he was certain her encounter with the now widely hated by his staff Aristarkh had given her. He could see it in her eyes, the sickening expectation of hope. This was unacceptable, she was his subject, and he would remind her who she was dealing with. There was no hope for her – there never had been. There would be no escape – and this was just the beginning of his demonstration.

Every day until her will had broken and completely withered away he would do his worst to her until she cowered like the scientist who had severely ******** up and begged for death. He smiled to himself, well the scientist hadn’t begged for death yet, but he would very soon when he too realized that there was no hope for him. Tomorrow if he made the same mistake it would be the death of him. With one hand he opened each eye before shining a light across each pupil testing her reaction. The scientists then released their grip on her so that should she desire to she could see what the Mad Doctor was doing. He picked up the scalpel from the metal tray beside where she was strapped down and slowly, almost sensually he traced the scalpel across the fabric of her pajamas taking pleasure in the threat and the very realistic possibilities that went with it. Slowly it dangerously traced her neck , making sure to touch her vital areas as he moved> “I can see it,” he stared, “you still believe that there is hope-“ it teasingly glided across her abdomen, slipping momentarily between the buttons of her shirt, slicing the strings to one of them as the scalpel traced her curves and found its way across the depths of her thighs. “Your hope dies here today Ms. Jones.” With a smirk he gave the uncovered areas of her body quick pricks with the scalpel to set her on edge before tracing it across the bottom of her right foot, slowly at first before suddenly applying enough pressure and speed to slice into the bottom of her foot. He continued slicing across the bottom of her foot and once he had sliced a deep clean cut across its gentle form he looked up at her again with a sadistic smile. His gloved hands that were now covered in her blood dripped it’s substance across the front of her, dribbling down her stomach and further staining her shirt as he reached out to grab hold of her face and make her look in to his eyes as he spoke. “Lilith, this is my world and there is no hope for you.” He stated matter of factly as he roughly moved his hand from it’s grip around her chin to spread the blood across her face. Moving to the other end of the operating table he took hold of her other foot tightly I his hand and looked up at her again with a smile telling one of the doctors to pull open her eye lids and face her so that she had to look into his eyes as he sliced this time. “No one will come for you. You are all alone. A little rag doll left in my hands to do with as I please.” He chuckled with satisfaction as he finished the cut. “I know you don’t believe me, but soon – soo enough you will see how right I am. Even Star has abandoned you.”

He had the scientist release his grip on her as he moved to place the scalpel back on the metal tray beside him and this time picked up a needle and thread. He ignored her as he threaded the needle and purposefully took his time as he slowly stitched her feet back together. Savoring the her reactions as he ever so slowly pushed the needle through her flesh before pulling the thread after it, over and over again. Occasionally he would purposefully p***k her beneath her toenails with the needle just to watch her squirm. Once finished he stood up and placed the needle back on the metal tray after threatening to sew her mouth shut. “Or better yet,” he growled, “Perhaps it is your eyes that I should be sewing shut, Ms. Jones? I have already made it beyond difficult for you to walk considering if you tried you would more than likely bleed out and die, but perhaps you need that extra kick.” He chuckled darkly, “What do you think Ms. Jones? Perhaps if you can no longer see the way out you will finally realize that there is no hope.” He smirked and approached the cabinet and pulling out a new needle. He took his time for the next few moments as he prepared his next move. “This my dear, is a high temperature fine tip cauterizing pen,” he smirked showing her the pen, “and though the idea of sewing your eyes shut is indeed appealing, I this perhaps another visual means of breaking you should do.” He smirked lighting the pen just as a threat at first before he pulled her shirt sleeve up and wrote the words ‘there is no hope’ in German along her arm, a light smoke drifting along with every second it made contact with her skin. Once he had finished he snapped at the two scientists to drag her back to her cell and keep tabs on her as he cleaned her blood from the room.

The next day he returned to her cell and dragged her back to the lab, where she was once again strapped down to the operating table. Once again the wrong lab had been prepped and the Mad Doctor had taken care of his pathetic excuse of a scientist who now lay curled up in one of the cells beside Lilith’s. This time the Mad Doctor remained silent, occasionally looking at her eyes as he searched for any sign of hope still within her. His fingers lightly went over her wounds from the other day before pulling on one of the strings to her feet just a little to taste her reaction. He greatly desired to rip them out again much like he had her stitches Mr. Devout had placed, but alas they hadn’t much time to heal, so unless he planned on ripping them out again just to stitch them back up he shouldn’t. He chuckled looking over her arm and applying disinfectant to it before deciding to do just that and tear her stitches out again. He remained silent hardly paying attention to her as he did so before stitching them back up again and unbuttoning her shirt. Taking a marker he made several annotations across her skin marking vital points and areas of concern before he made his way across the room to his cabinet and pulled a small metal box out. Standing above her with the box he smiled down moving the hair out of her face so that he could look into her eyes as he proceeded. He opened the box and reached inside slowly pulling out an overly long needle and for the first time that day he spoke to her, “Today your lessons continue Ms. Jones. Today I am going to ask you a question and you will answer it correctly or as I drive these needles through your body I am going to purposefully hit every vital organ along my way. I know every vital area, every place where the slightest p***k could make you a quadriplegic vegetable, for the rest of your sad pathetic miserable life, so unless you wish to experience that I suggest you choose your answers very carefully with this in mind.”
He placed the first needle slightly diagonal and to the left of her heart before asking the first question and driving the needle into her. “Who is your god?” he questioned, “Will you ever leave? Is there hope?” he continued to dangerously question as he drove the needles into her ever so slowly, “Will anyone ever come for you? Who do you belong to? Is your family alive? Who killed your sister?” he smirked darkly as he proceeded with round after round of questions each one meant to hurt her more than the last with the eventual expectation of induced madness. This continued for almost an hour before he decided that he had finally accomplished enough physical and mental scarring and here moved the needles and injected her with adrenaline so that she would remain conscious for what was about to happen. She was then unstrapped and dragged down the hall with the assistance of the scientist.


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Star had been constantly fading in and out of sanity since he had been locked up and denied any meat for such an extended period of time, so occasionally over the weeks while the Mad doctor was working he could catch snippets of the conversations he was having with his scientists and victims as he faded in and out of the real world. Occasionally the mad doctor would pause in what he was doing to listen to the insane man’s mumblings through the muzzle that confined him. Half of the time Star wouldn’t realize if something was thrown at the bars that held him or if the Mad Doctor held a new victim in his grips but there were a few occasions where he could comprehend the things going on around him like when they were changing his dirty garments and spraying him with a fire hose in one of the rooms. Though one of these particularly lucid moments happened to be when several weeks after his capture and drug induced compliance he woke in a panic to someone unlocking and opening the cage that confined him. There was no sound to signify who this could be as they dragged him out and threw on the floor with only a second’s notice before a large heavy boot crushed down upon his chest knocking the wind out of him with a gasp. There was no sound to signify who this could be as a large object struck him in the leg before striking again and colliding with his arm this time with a striking impact over and over again with the only indication as to who it was being the heavy breathing and size of the boot wedged halfway between his lungs. The only sounds besides the heavy thump against his restrained body the scream that managed to escape his strained lungs as his right arm snapped splintering little bone fragments through his skin. With the exhale of air that came with his pained scream the boot crushed down more fiercely and in his panic he realized that he couldn’t breathe back in.

The panic in his heart rose as the seconds ticked by and his lungs were on fire with pain. He knew that with all of his restraints there was no hope for him if things went on this way. As the foot pressed the air from his lungs the searing pain in his shattered arm slowly faded into a numb bliss in comparison to the suffocating recognition of death. As he scratched at his restraints he felt the madness begin to creep up along his flesh once again as it lit a light behind the secrets of his eyes. Panic was hardly the word to describe his position, but his mind raced with the silence of his assailant. There was no mocking, no snickering in this man’s triumph in further torturing an already mad soul. It was almost as if this motion to kill him meant nothing to this person. As if this one little life was little more than a blip on this person’s radar. Well, he couldn’t say he expected an less from the Mad Doctor than this cold and apathetic display of power, but it was when he heard a door open somewhere behind him and the voice of the all too familiar Mad Doctor as he went over procedures with one of his scientists that he knew that there was something very wrong here. If it was not the Mad Doctor who was going to kill him then who could it have possibly been? Seconds later the Mad Doctor’s voice rang with anger as he dropped what he was holding and attacked Star’s assailant relieving the pressure against Star’s lungs. He coughed and wheezed in pain as he tried to regain is breath and listened to the scuffle. A loud crash rang through the room, though by the time the security guards had gotten there the assailant lay on the floor with a needle sticking out of his neck.

The Mad Doctor then turned to Star and motioned for the scientists to keep hold of Lilith while he looked him over. He quickly noted that his arm was splintered and broken but sighed with relief as he removed the binds and strapped him to the operating table. At least with a splintered arm the next part of the Mad Doctor’s plan to crush Lilith’s spirit could still commence. He quickly applied a makeshift wrap to the wound until he could take a better look at it later. “I’m sorry Mr. Devaut,” he said with mock sincerity before continuing, “I thought we had been over this with him after you killed his brother in your little rescue mission of Ms. Jones here, but apparently our killing his Abra that you somehow managed to turn against us was the last straw for him.” He chuckled as if these things happened everyday - though considering where they were they probably did. There was clear evidence in his pupils that the madness had taken him again when he had been attacked, but that wouldn’t matter soon. He fashioned another syringe with his newly improved mind altering serum and injected it into Aristharkh’s neck. He watched the reaction with glee as Star’s eyes turned to a deep metallic green before asking him, “Now Mr. Devaut, who am I?”

“My master, sir.” He replied with a deranged smile like none he had ever made before, and the Mad Doctor satisfied with his answer removed all of the restraints binding him and told the doctors to release Ms. Jones. The Mad Doctor took her by the chin and pointed at Aristarkh, “You think there is hope because he saved you last time I condemned you, but what will you think when your savior is the one to tear you to pieces?” he cruelly asked and with that he asked Star if he was hungry. Star, hunched over in a very predatory position as he felt his claws move to scratch at the floor only growled in response. “Well then, Mr. Devaut,” he chuckled darkly, “let’s sate that hunger.”
Star felt himself involuntarily take a step forward, before pouncing at her like a rabid animal. He greedily dug his claws into her as his teeth ripped her stitches from her feet. He felt the blood rise in his mouth greedily lapping it up before he realized that there was something very wrong with this situation. What was it? What was so wrong? His mind was screamed at him but Star was blinded by the Mad Doctor’s Drug, but somewhere in the excitement of the violence he heard her- that voice. Was that his mother’s voice? No – he paused pulling himself off her as he tried to focus. That voice- it was that girl’s he had saved. ‘Why?’ his mind wracked for the answers as he looked down at his hands in horror. Why had he attacked her? In his panic realization of what had happened came to him as he heard the Mad Doctor who had noticed that his serum hadn’t been strong enough called for his guards just before the power cut off and the room went black.


(( I finally finished it! GAH! >.< ))