[BMC] Purge (Captives + ISS/Mercs)

[Akina Tokuwa]

(( DISCLAIMER: This RP has violence/torture in it! Please be warned. ))

This was the last attempt.

The Inner Sanctum had tried everything. They had plumbed the depths of their brains, researched interrogation, tried bribery, false affection, cruelty. Dioptase, Helicase, and Primase had cracked and spilled, but there was more that the Blood Moon Court sought to learn. Tanzanite had even revealed truths, as had Wolframite. Uranophane had whispered out an insight into the Negaverse. Each of them had made small admissions, but nothing of the scale that the Blood Moon senshi wanted.

So here it was, the final night. By sunrise, all of the captives would be dead. This was the last push for information.

They were in Tanzanite's cell -- all of them. Uranophane, Wolframite, and Tanzanite were chained to their chairs, each spaced evenly apart from each other. Even if they tipped their chairs over, they would not be able to reach another captive. Sailor Ares stood in front of them, flanked on either side by the other members of the Inner Sanctum: Gaia, Laocoon, Birhan Isat, Gunn, and Zirconia.

The three captives had been drugged on a special dose, and if the Intel Team had done their job right, they should be coming to any moment now.  

[Orestae]

There was little left for Tanzanite to fight for, save the captives that were chained alongside her, flanking the ranking officer in an almost military fashion. It was a cruel joke that they were placed in such a fashion, side by side in their final stand, just as they had been in Elysion. Side by side, warriors of Earth, until their very last breath.

Which felt like it might come at any moment for the beaten and broken General Tanzanite. Very little of the woman's body was recognizable anymore. Her legs were burnt, the skin gone entirely and the muscle underneath a patchwork of bloody grey and singed black. Her neck was swollen with the infected wound from where Ares' had plunged her dinner knife into it, and that once pretty face was now little more than a monstrous mass of bruised flesh and broken bones.

Her eyes, when finally they opened what little could, looked glossed over. Already dead.

By all logic, she should have been dead. But just as Tanzanite had always fought like a wild animal, so the animal inside of her now fought for it's life. Youma did not starve to death. They did not bleed to death. They ran out of energy and they began to fall apart, and that was exactly what Tanzanite looked like at that moment. Some ragtag monster, coming apart at the seams.

Her head swiveled left, then right, and a grim smile broke open the cracks at the corners of the General's mouth; they were alive.

For now.  

[cibarium]

The drug-induced sleep was kind of a blessing, in its own way. Throughout the past several days of their incarceration, it was almost impossible to escape being aware of their situation and their surroundings: the chains, the abuse, the incessant hunger, the rats... It had become the norm, by that point, to be in pain and immobilized, for Uranophane to keep her gaze vigilant on the concrete floor for more visitors to her cell, be they senshi or vermin. The narcotics provided a temporary escape from all that. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, the captain was able to sleep without any pain.

It was for not nearly long enough.

Chains rattled and scraped against her chair as she slowly came to, the muscles in her arms and legs spasming from a mixture of exhaustion, malnourishment and the drugs seeping their way out of her system. For the first moment or three Uranophane didn't open her eyes, didn't say a single word, a shaky series of rasping coughs announcing her consciousness instead. And then, even as her eyelids fluttered and made their attempts at pulling themselves open, the noise didn't die down.

She couldn't stop shaking. She couldn't stop coughing. At that moment she didn't really care about where she was or what was going on.

She just wanted to go back to sleep.  

[MoonKitsune]

Sleep was a blessing, and whatever way he could get it, he would accept it. The drugs weren’t just there to help his body ignore the pangs of his own body to rest, but that they allowed him time without interruption to sleep. It was, with deep sadness, that he felt the dawning realization that he was waking. Groggy or not, he felt his body pull awake, and the noises around him told him to wake up. WAKE! Alert before you get punched, but he hushed that impulse quickly, having felt, for a few days not, that awake or asleep, it did not matter. The outcome would be the same. He’d receive pain in the same dosage if he was awake, talking, quiet, or sleeping. Nothing changed.

The sleep was nice, but it was an odd sensation of hearing voices bounce off the walls in a different way, and a sense his chair had been moved. Such a drastic change as his chair being shifted caused him to flutter his eyes open, the only still able to see bloodshot, the skin around it discolored from another recent punching. Still, it worked, and he thanked the world for small blessing as not being blind.

A blessing he wished to quickly change into a curse after what he saw.

He had, since coming here, wanted to see the other officers, but he never realized he gravity of what his wish would entail. Without seeing reality, he could invent them tied to chair, with imaginary wounds that, due to being kind and wishing them well, always softened the damage, and that they would be fit and sharp. This was not the case, and he breathed deep, only realizing who Tanzanite was by her hair. Despite being choppy and greasy, it was still a deep purple, and he looked up at the dried, peeled, bloody husk of a woman that Aree was. A woman who he envied, idolized, had worried for, tended to, and could not bear to see in this way.

Diverting his eyes only pulled them to Uranophane, a fellow Captain he had the pleasure of training with when he was adjusting to his missing eye. Her face was bruised, swollen in places, and her brown hair looked even darker, the brown looking more like dirt now, as it hung about her face. Yet, it was not her face that brought about the most concern. Her feet were red and torn, looking as if they had been gnawed on, and he shot his eyes away, looking down at the ground, gasping as he tried to breath and then clamped his mouth shut as he felt vomit bubble up and burn the back of his throat. With nothing in his stomach, he could swallow the acid back down.
 

[kalindara]

Birhan Isat's heart had fluttered in trepidation when Ares had announced her new, final, plan. Try as she might, Birhan simply couldn't achieve the level of heartlessness that Ares wanted them to have regarding their captives. So Birhan faked it. Face impassive, she flanked Ares in Tanzanite's room, watching as the three remaining prisoners slowly awoke. Hopefully they would never tell from her face that her stomach was performing non-stop somersaults like an acrobat.

It was worse, seeing them side by side. Looking at the results of their handiwork, all together. It had been easier when only faced with one tortured, near-broken Nega agent. All three together (and the blatantly missing other three) forced Birhan to see exactly what they'd done, what they'd become, in the name of saving the world.

... Maybe Tanzanite had had a point, about not being worthy of living in the 'saved' world. No place for monsters, and all that.

They would do worse to us, Birhan reminded herself. They have done, and will again.

Corruption, to no longer be themselves. To be a dark shadow of what they once were.

Starseeds, shattered or sucked dry, to no longer be reborn. To be dead, once and forever. The end. Fight over.

All three of these Negaverse agents had at one stage claimed that what the senshi were doing made them worse than the Negaverse. Birhan didn't believe that. She was under no illusions that what they were doing here was good - her roiling stomach alone told her that much - but compared to what the Negaverse had planned for them, she thought this was the lesser of the two evils.

Maybe Ares would be proud of her, for coming to such a conclusion. Maybe not... (No doubt Ares would prefer Birhan wasn't questioning this at all.)

As their captives woke, Birhan noticed that Tanzanite at least seemed happy to see her comrades were alive. The redhead couldn't help but give a tiny snort. Clearly, the General didn't know what was coming.  

[Akina Tokuwa]

It was never enough. With each piece of information that they received, Ares only grew hungrier for more. A lack of information is what got Hector captured by Wiseman, what brought Alexandros to his side, what caused Nehelenia to sacrifice them all to protect this hunk of rock full of ungrateful people. The only stake Ares had in the planet under her feet was what it stood for: victory. If the Negaverse wanted it, and the Negas were her enemy, then Ares had to keep it for herself. She would not be chased off of a planet she had been reborn on by the same people who had befriended the man who turned the wheels that brought about the death of Nehelenia and the end of the parallel court.

There could be no forgiveness.

Flat gray eyes lingered on each of the captives' faces for a moment. She waited for the spark of awareness in their eyes, a sign that they could hear her. "You have all revealed information to us. We know of the plot in Europe. We know of youma creation. We know of your database on the senshi. We know of the fate of Charonite, and how he was locked away with Beryl's old host -- General Nealite. We know of your leaders: Laurelite, Apatite, and Marthozite. And we know of this." Ares held up a small purple stone. "Your communicator."

Turning, she passed the small stone to Birhan. They had studied it, but the damn thing had been utterly unresponsive to all their attempts. Still, it was information. It was a start.

It just wasn't enough.

Taking a step forward, the Captain of the Blood Moon Court folded her arms across her chest. "Your dedication to each other is admirable," she said, quirking an eyebrow. "But now I need to know the civilian identities of your Generals and your Queen." Ares turned and nodded to Gunn who crossed to the door on the far wall and unbolted it, swinging it open.

Sailor Nemesis and Sailor Lyra entered the room, carrying a limp Captain Dioptase between them. Sailor Albali entered the room next, dragging a beaten Lieutenant Primase. And then the newest member of the Mercenary force, Sailor Requiem, brought up the rear with Lieutenant Helicase.

All four Mercenaries held the bound captives fiercely, bringing them to rest directly in front of the chained Negas in the chairs. They had their orders. Everyone knew what would be done.

Sailor Ares squared her shoulders. "Captain Wolframite, what is the civilian identity of General Queen Apatite?" she asked, voice crisp and even.  

[shibrogane]

Gunn shut the door behind the last Mercenary, bolted it shut. She really did feel much better about things--things like torturing Wolframite--having gotten a bit to catch her breath. She was back in black. On top of the heap. Um... other synonyms for just feeling generally good.

She waited patiently for Ares to begin the questioning. The ISS knew pretty well what exactly Gunn was going to ask about. So did the captives. She'd spoken of little else but Rota's killer besides grudging references to other questions she was meant to be asking. Devoted? Yes. Obscenely dedicated? Yes. Oh, she was aware the captives were people.

The Inner Sanctum senshi could just also remember the look of the light leaving Sailor Rota's eyes.

Ares began the questioning, and she linked her hands behind her back for a moment, and waited for Wolframite's response. She wasn't known for her patience, however, and she rounded on Uranophane. "Who is Bismuthite," she demanded, and she heard one of the Lieutenants behind her whimper. "His civilian identity. I know you know."  

[MoonKitsune]

The senshi in the center were ones he saw during guard duty switches and passing on the few times the door to his cell was open enough to spot someone before it was slammed shut and locked. They were all collected here, as were all the Negas, and Wolframite was growing even more worried that something was up. To change tactics now was not something that made him feel hopeful or confident that they were going to have it better off now. This feeling wasn’t improved when the last of the captives, a trio of beaten lieutenants, were brought in. He had heard all of them, every Nega member here, call out in pain at some point. While he might not have been familiar with the lieutenants, he was with their screams. They looked just as bad, but the guilt and worry was stronger for the new recruits. They had yet to know how their dedication mattered, had yet to show their loyalty, and had yet to be toughened up through battles to be able to withstand
a good pummeling. This was beyond even that, and despite being a Captain, even he hadn’t done well. The effects on the lieutenants – he didn’t even want to think about that.

Still, as a Captain, as a superior, he was responsible for their wellbeing. To protect those lower in rank in their group.

Ares approached, forcing him to look away from the dragged in officers and up at her. Interrogations were back in full swing, and he looked up at her as if she thought bringing them all together would somehow make him want to spill. He had already spilled once. Felt horrible at the fact he let that information slip past his lips, but it had been a small bit. It made him wonder who said all the rest that they now knew. SO much had been given away.

Beside his other officers, he didn’t understand why the senshi would think this would work. He would only want to stay strong and keep his mouth shut when he was in their presence even more than before. Looking up at the Blood Moon Senshi, he frowned. “No.” He could not give up his own people, especially the QUEEN, to the likes of them. That would make him an outright treason! His life was in no way as valuable as the Queen!
 

[Orestae]

Birhan Isat might have thought they would do worse, given the chance, but not even the most vivid of imaginations could have imagined the things Tanzanite would have done to them were she not bound and drugged. Were her body not broken and beaten and burned within an inch of her life. If only she could do more than barely lift her head and half-open her eyes, and stare in sorrow at two of the five officers she had dragged into this hell alongside her.

If she could do anything other than rasp, barely even audible, “Sorry, I'm so sorry...” over and over again as she took in the condition of her comrades. She rambled beneath her breath, her words as nonsensical between those heartfelt apologies. What had she done? What had she brought them into? Look at their faces, Tanzanite felt something that she had not felt in the longest time.

Guilt.

It only worsened as Ares spoke, as Tanzanite lifted her head to see the other Blood Moon whores drag the remaining officers into the room. They were alive, but as Ares held up the small purple stone, Tanzanite's last scrap of hope for their survival was crushed.

They knew. It was their only hope. Their only chance of escape. If the Negaverse hadn't found the by now on their own, then surely Sailor Ares had hidden her tracks well enough that they never would. Tanzanite's head lifted as they carried Dioptase in, and every muscle that was not burnt or cut beyond function tightened as she set eyes on the young Captain.

“Get... your ******** hands,” Tanzanite rasped, her grey eyes fixed upon Nemesis and Lyra, “off of that girl. Oh I'm going to chop off your fingers and make you eat them, Red. I'm going to suck the marrow out of your bones and make you waaaaaatch."

To say Tanzanite had gone a little over the edge would have been the understatement of the century. However, given the fact that the General could see the bones of her own shins and had a broken rib sticking out of her side, this should have been no surprise.  

[cibarium]

The first half of Ares' monologue was a swampy mess of unintelligible noises, as far as Uranophane was concerned. Her features were set into an arrangement of lethargic concentration, her eyes finally peeling open and rolling their way in the direction of the senshi, but there was only so much sense to be made of everything. Sailor Ares was a black-and-tan blob, holding up a smaller blob of faintly luminous purple -- that was hers!

Seeing the communicator helped to clear the room by another shade. Uranophane remembered that she had summoned it to her hand at some point, in some reckless attempt at being clever, only for it to be snatched up away from her at the next instant. Her captors had then learned about what it was, in the same way they had learned about everything else.

Every time they had come in, Uranophane had tried to promise herself -- this time, I won't say a damned thing to them. They shouldn't have learned anything from her. She was a Negaverse Captain. She had endured the agony of rising through their ranks twice now; this should have been nothing in comparison.

Except it wasn't nothing.

It was worse.

It was far worse than anything she could ever have dreamed up, even after becoming part of the Negaverse. Because after being recruited, after being promoted, she was always free to go. Uranophane could turn back to Janice Fitzpatrick in just an instant, and she could carry on with her life as usual, the pain of Chaos energy coursing through her being only existing as a reminder of who and what she was. This was constant. It was always present. It had become the center of her life, the only thing she could count on happening. There was no Janice Fitzpatrick here -- there was just Captain Uranophane, trapped in an existence made of nothing but pain and disappointment.

As she became aware of Wolframite and Tanzanite sitting next to her, and even more of her comrades were dragged before them along the floor, a strained breath pulled itself in through her nostrils as a cold grip of dread closed itself around her throat. They looked like corpses, all of them. A premonition, if there ever was one. Uranophane could only guess that the resemblance wouldn't stay so superficial for very long.

Her face was devoid of any emotion besides sheer fatigue, and her voice was just as unemphatic, sounding something like a car tire rolling over loose gravel. "I already told you," she began, for the hundreth time, it seemed. "I don't know Bismuthite."  

[Nio Love]

Somewhere, just far enough that it felt out of reach, she could hear a woman humming.

Lt. Primase jolted in Sailor Albali's arms, momentarily unaware that she was being held down at all. Her eyes flew open, only to shut again as the blood dripped down into them. Her head shook violently, before it started rolling back and forth. She was trying to use her hair as a mop, to wipe the blood out of her eyes.

It wasn't working. Why wasn't it working? Oh, that's right, she remembered now. They'd cut off all of her hair. Her scalp was shaved and skinned, barely enough left to cover the muscle surrounding her head. That was where the blood was coming from.

She remembered the screams.

Once more, she opened her eyes and tilted her head up. This time, she ignored the streaks of blood as they stung her eyeballs, and just stared vacantly at the face in front of her. She couldn't focus, why couldn't she focus? The face in front of her was a blob of colors and patterns. It reminded her of a kaleidoscope. She remembered having one of those as a child. She used to love playing with them, holding them up to the sun and turning them until she found the pattern with her favorite colors. Then, she would hold it still and just stare, giggling up at the pretty picture it formed.

She started turning her head to one side, and then another. The kaleidoscope colors churned and shifted. It made her want to laugh.

So she did.

"Hahah." The sound slipped from cracked lips, though her voice was hoarse from use. She tried again. "Ahaha. Hahaha. HA. HAHA. HAAAAAA."

A frightening grin rose up onto her face, forcing her eyes closed once more, and she just.. smiled.

The humming had gotten louder.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Dioptase slowly came back to her senses, and looked almost dissapointed to be waking. Perhaps she had hoped that the world would have forever remained the dark haze that she was being all but ripped out of.

Even then, she hung limp in the hard grasp of the two senshi - it looked almost overkill, in a way, that there was an eternal and a super holding her up. She certainly didn't look like she could even have struggled her way out of the grasp of even a normal senshi.

Either just in case she could have, or perhaps as additional torture, both of her legs were hanging limply - knees shattered and ankles broken. She was covered in bruises, cuts, and scratches of all kind - there was three lines where it looked like she'd been cut with long fingernails on her cheek. Her long black hair, once her pride and joy, were dirty and matted together.

She was standing right in front of Tanzanite. There was no way this wasn't intended - but it was to break who ? She didn't need to look up to see how bad her general was - and she didn't. She couldn't, not after what she had done.

She had heard the screams.

This was her fault. This was all her fault. She had cracked. She was a traitor.

She wasn't even worth the threats Tanzanite was flinging at her captors.  

[Lilwolfpard]

Door swung open, Lyra adjusted her stance momentarily before she and Nemesis, a team mate on both teams Lyra stood with, lead the line of Mercenaries that carried in the three crumpled and broken bodies. Somehow these bodies had still clung to life, stubborn... like cockroaches they were. Some more stubborn that others her eyes flicked towards the general surrounded by the captains, before lowering them again and returning to the task of holding Dioptase hostage.

Dioptase was blessed with two guards... she was the only captain of the three the mercs held. She posed the highest risk while not being bound so the Blood moon court was taking no chances, no mistakes. While the red head severely doubted they would be able to do much of anything even if they got loose, they had high resilience and were formidable if backed into a corner. Then again being surrounded by the ISS, and Mercs, they would be put down again easily if left to their own devices.

Finally they stopped in a line, waiting.. holding out. It was time for them to be patient. A unified knowledge, known even by their captives if they would bear to listen.

It was the end of the road.

A sudden voice caught her attention, one that caused her to look up... green eyes narrowed. Tanzanite. The b***h whom left Lyra cold bitten and bloody on the streets of destiny city. The monster whom had left her permanently scarred, a weight she would always bring with her. It was a weird twist of fate, in a way... The blood moon court saved her life that day. The general only let her live as a warning message to Ares... the BMC. Lyra owed her own life to these senshi. Damn if she was not going to repay the favor. "Thats funny, Tanzanite. From the looks of things... I dont expect you do to much of anything. How can you save someone when you can not even save you self? Some General you are... cant even save your own underlings." It was a bad retort, she knew that. She knew someone else could probably come up with something more witty, but thats just how Lyra was.

While she was loyal to those around her... Lyra truly wondered if she was the only one whom felt a smidge of... pity? she guessed that was the term for it. They were beaten and broken to the point of near death, barely able to lift a finger, and yet they still kept them alive. Hoping that keeping them breathing even a second longer would be enough time to get what they needed. Lyra did not agree in torturing the body, mentally or physically. It was something she told herself she would never do.. and to this say, the red head had not. She refused to lift a finger, choosing to guard them rather than prod them for information. This was eating at her and while loyal to the BMC, it took all her mental strength and determination to not show the indecision within. Because while she did not believe in this method of doing things, there was a finer truth behind the veil... this method gave results.  

[Akina Tokuwa]

Ares had not expected compliance, not immediately. It's why everyone had been briefed on what to do before the door was even opened. Only the Mercenaries who she trusted to carry out this mission were informed about it. It was a small group. She wanted to keep this quiet. There was enough dissent whispering in the halls of the Blood Moon Court already.

An eyebrow raised slowly, eyes flashing to the Mercenaries around her. Wrong answers would not bring pain to those chained in chairs. Ares turned around sharply, slamming her heel into the side of Primase's head. A fist flew out to jab Helicase in the jaw so hard that blood spurted out, staining the ground at Wolframite's feet.

Gray eyes fixed on the others in the room. She had started it, but now it was their job to administer the pain to the lieutenants and Dioptase. Lyra, for all her apprehension, was keen enough to make a verbal threat. Ares enjoyed those, sure, but she understood what was truly important: following through.

"What we have done so far has been nothing," she said, voice flat and hollow. "You can cry and scream and lob useless threats at me, but I will show you what is going to happen to you if you continue to keep silent. I will peel off your skin in strips. I will snip the muscles from your bones with toenail clippers and then hold each one up for you to see. I will not stop dissecting until you tell me what I want to know. You have lost. You tried to stand up to a faction that is stronger and smarter and faster than your pathetic Negaverse could ever hope to be. You will never defeat the senshi -- because you will never defeat us." Or me. Me. Ares could taste the power in the room, felt it swell around her, around all of them. It was a moment she planned to savor.

But first -- business.

"Who is the new civilian host of your Queen Beryl?" she asked.

The Senshi of Smoke straightened then, her mouth emotionless, eyes blank. It was almost robotic the way she addressed them. "I don't expect you to believe my threats." She took a step forward, sliding her hand gently up the back of Dioptase's head.

Her fingers gripped the burned and sheared locks. In one heaving motion, Ares wrenched Captain Dioptase into the air and threw her onto the table just behind them. It rattled against the concrete floor, Dioptase's chained arms and legs slamming against the metal surface. "So let me show you how serious I am," she said, pulling a small knife from her bodice.

Ares pressed the cool blade to the center of Dioptase's chest and cut a thin, shallow line from her sternum to her ribcage. She showed no signs of stopping -- and, perhaps more terrifying to her allies, no sign of pity, mercy, or empathy.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Dioptase felt Ares's fingers slide her way on the back of her neck and tensed immediately. It was a sensation she was very familiar with by now. And not in a good way,

In the process, she finally looked up at Tanzanite - the captain's eyes wide wide pool of fear, but also of determination. Where she managed to pull it off at this point, she did not know - but Dioptase knew one thing for certain.

It was unlikely any of them would come out of this alive. So, the only thing they could do was to reveal nothing.

She didn't even have time to scream before she was flung, but she did upon her rough landing. Worse, the black monster was coming her way all too calmly toward her.

And pulling a knife out of her bodice.

She wanted to close her eyes, block out the sight, but she couldn't - her fear wouldn't let her - but it was all too evident what Ares intended to do to her.

In spite of herself, Dioptase found herself praying. It wasn't so much the cut that did it, she'd been cut before, but it was the maddning slowless in which the black moon senshi was doing the deed. Dioptase bit her lip, reopening a closed wound there, but she couldn't keep her eyes from watering in pain.