 Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:08 pm
 hiss, spit
[wc: 1513]
There had been so, so very much to learn, in that massive battle against Order and their strange alien allies.
Or were those aliens the Negaverse's allies? It was hard for Nagyagite to guess, and he wasn't entirely sure it was up to him to have an opinion either way. He was just a lowly Lieutenant, after all, not at all particularly given to being consulted about his opinions on the greater policies of the Negaverse. It wasn't his job to think, and he knew that. Was more his job to shut up and do, all things considered. So he would do that--would get up, and do things, and fight. That was what he was best at, after all.
He'd made himself a little nest in one of the many rooms he could find in Negaspace, a private place that gave him space to train and space to think. Both of which were, in Nagyagite's experience, in short supply. He needed to be able to keep up with everyone around him--but not just keep up. He needed to surpass. Needed to fight, and claim, and demonstrate that he deserved to have more power given to him. Because that was the problem, wasn't it? That he wasn't being offered more. That he was still, after years in the Negaverse, a Lieutenant. That he had barely bothered to try and rise through the ranks.
But that was going to change. Now. As soon as he stood up and started to fight. There was plenty he could do, after all, to ensure that he stood out. He could show up, more often, to Negaverse events. Could put himself out for missions. Could maybe look into finding himself a General to serve under, though the prospect made him feel a little cold, after what his last General had put him through.
It had been an awful, messy story, really. And he barely remembered large parts of it.
She'd found him late at night, after a prize fight in Mumbai, that he'd traveled far from home to perform in. He wanted to please her form the moment he met her; Jaidev had not, at the time, considered himself to be the type of manw ho wanted a woman to boss him around, but something about the authority she wielded in her voice and her movements made him want to get on his knees for her. Made him want to hear her praise him, tell him that he was doing well and making her satisfied.
She must have liked something about him, because she had taken him home with her that night and made him demonstrate exactly how much he wanted to please her.
He'd done his best, certainly, and she had clearly been impressed. It had seemed like a stroke of luck that she, like him, was from Hyderabad, and only in Mumbai on business. That they had lived close enough to each other in the city to meet up regularly. That she wanted him--or at least, he'd thought she wanted him. She certainly acted like she had.
And then, after a few weeks of what he now realized was evaluating him, she had made him an offer.
An offer to join the organization she represented. To experience power he could barely imagine. And oh, he had longed for the power. He wanted to be so much more than he was, even though what he was wasn't exactly bad. Jaidev had a good life, he was admired in his field, he was a good fighter--but he'd come from absolutely nothing. Even with the money he could send back, his family still struggled, sometimes. And she was promising him so much more.
Even better than that, she promised him magic.
He'd been entranced at the possibility, absolutely blown away by the potential of becoming some sort of mystical warrior. She'd powered up for the first time a few weeks after they'd first found each other that terrible, fateful, lucky night, and introduced herself as Rajadrohite, and told him she was a General in the Negaverse, and that she could make him into a Lieutenant. she had told him that he had so much potential, that she could see it, that she could make him so much better than any of the other Lieutenants she had inducted--and there were more than a few.
She had treated him like he was special.
He wanted that to keep happening.
So he'd said yes, and she'd shoved her hand in his chest, and he experienced pain like nothing he'd ever experienced before. But when it was all over, he was something--someone--brand new.
He was no longer just Jaidev Vaswani, MMA champion and charming bad boy. He was Lieutenant Nagyágite, and he had a purpose.
It was that sense of purpose that had driven him after that. That, and Rajadrohite's liberal application of praise, and charm, and affection.
When she told him he would have to fight to prove he was worthy to keep the power she had bestowed upon him, he had agreed without a moment's hesitation. Fighting was what he was good at. Fighting was easy. Fighting was home. He could fight anyone, anywhere, any time, he was pretty sure.
So he'd let her take him out to a warehouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad, and he'd let her summon up a monster, and he'd let her lock him inside. He shouldn't have, he realized that now, but if he hadn't, he wouldn't be what he was, so he supposed that was the trade.
His memories of the battle itself, of whatever he had done that resulted in him merging with the youma she'd sent to kill him, were blurry. He knew he'd fought, he'd been bitten, but something had...happened...that he didn't entirely understand. Something Rajadrohite had done, or something the crystals she was using to protect the place did, or perhaps it was the intervention of the local General-Queen, who had finally gotten wise to Rajadrohite's incredibly brutal "training" schemes.
But the man-monster that stumbled out of that warehouse was not the Lieutenant that had gone in.
He wondered if Rajadrohite resented him. Probably,h e supposed; it had been the revelation of his transformation that had resulted in her being stripped of her rank and unceremoniously bundled off somewhere quiet. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened to her, and after she cursed and spat at him when he stumbled out of that warehouse, calling him a monster....
He wished he didn't care.
He also sort of wished that there had been someone who could help him in Hyderabad. But no one there had seen anything like what he had become, nor did they have any idea what to do with Rajadrohite's failed experiment. And so he was cast aside, Jaidev Vaswani had a "terrible accident" and had to retire from the MMA scene, and he was unceremoniously shipped ot Destiny City.
He had been miserable, when he arrived. But he'd forced himself not to wallow, as best as he could. All he'd had left was his duty to the Negaverse, and so he'd thrown himself into it with abandon, prowling the streets like the monster he had been made into.
And it was a good thing he had. Because if he'd never come her,e he never would have found her. A new her, much better, one that didn't want to use him. One that wanted to adore him.
He'd had no idea how lucky he was, the night he stumbled across a beautiful, busty blonde and she took a fancy to the monster she met in the dark. But he had learned, with time, and affection, and kindness, and care. And he knew now what it meant to have someone who wanted him not as a trophy, but as himself.
Without that, he wasn't sure where he would be.
There was something warm and wonderful about being with her, and it made him want to stay.
So Destiny City wasn't all bad. Being in the Negaverse wasn't, either. And now that he was feeling reinvigorated, after the successful mission in the Rift and the glorious battle on the hill, Nagya knew that he needed to rededicate himself. Needed to prove that he deserved to be there, and that he could earn himself a promotion.
Which meant he needed to work hard.
And so he would. He had never stopped doing his MMA exercises, but he redoubled his efforts to keep fit and keep active, and he certainly spent more time than was necessary to skim the bare minimum quota and go. But he wasn't eager to submit himself to someone else's direct oversight. Maybe the Generals here wouldn't be like Rajadrohite--but he didn't want to trust that. Didn't want to just assume that he would be safe if he trusted someone else. He'd have to keep an eye on who was out there, and who might be worth giving his time to.
Eventually.
For now, he wanted to prove that he was worthy on his own merits. Whatever that took.
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