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 Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:03 pm
Lyra was awake.
Or, as awake as someone whom felt like their brain had been removed through their nose with a straw could have felt. The world came back to her slowly, almost as if she was looking through someones glasses.... burry. Slowly, the world seemed to right itself again. Blinking and squinting, the room came in to focus.
First realization, one of her eyes was nearly swollen shut. Instinctively she reached to to try and touch it, only to wince when her fingers made the lightest of contact to it. Just a brush of the fingers, enough to make her whine out in pain. Not only this... but trying to move at all hurt like a b***h. A sharp pain in her side, somewhere along her rib cage she knew something was broken. Strangest sting? over top of her fuku.. someone wrapped tape tightly enough to restrict movement. Who would have done that?
Second realization, She had no idea where the HELL she was. That knock to the head that made her black out... what the hell happened in between? Memory waning, it slowly was starting to catch up to her... and as it was returning, the more horrified her face became.
Good eye wide, she quickly looked around the small room she was in. The room had a door... and hardly anything else inside it. The walls, they were like... a purple crystalline glass. Unable to see through them, but enough to catch a reflection, she scooted towards the wall gradually. Looking at herself for a moment, she gasped out. A HUGE bruise... complete with a black eye, covered one side of her face. It was black and blue and...rather nasty looking. She was used to bruises, but she had never had one THIS large before.
Memory slower than a old horse boppin down a two lane highway... her brain finally caught up with her... she remembered it all. The phoenix, the blood moon court, Ares, Zink, her brother.... General Queen Tanzanite, her youma arm inches from her face... and then nothing.
...Her brother. They had her brother!.... And how was she to help him?
How could she help him...
Lyra was currently a prisoner in the Negaverse subspace.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:11 pm
the door clicked open, his feet made soft noises as he moved into the room, his gaze never leaving her, he seemed very calm for entering a room with a potentially dangerous prisoner.
"I bought ice... for your face." He said and held out a towel that clicked and rattled as it shifted in his hands.
There were light bruises peeking from under his own mask, ever present it seemed, and he walked gingerly towards her, and offered the towel and its contents at arms length.
"How are you feeling Sailor Lyra?" he asked her in civil, almost conversational tones.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:42 pm
The door opened, and... low and behold it was one of the faces she did not want to see at the moment. Call it denial, call it petty... she was currently too freaked out to care. HE was the one whom brought her here. HE was the one whom knew Zac was taken... he clearly had some hand in both, they knew how to get her trapped into a corner.
It was all his fault.
"Get out." She mumbled to herself, not like she even HAD the right to wish him to leave his own head quarters. Lyra was just being pissed off, moody... and frankly? Scared to death. Her first instinct was to lash out, something the BMC had drilled into her mind as a defense mechanism.
When he offered her the towel she could not help but glare at it. As tempting at it might be to knock the object out of his hands... she knew well enough she was in no condition to fight. She had SOME sense of self preservation. "I dont know...Zink. I am currently held captive in my enemies headquarters, have a few broken ribs, and look like im turning in to a zombie. Not to mention the fact i KNOW you have my brother somewhere in here, and im thinking about the probability of us both actually leaving this place alive."
"Or do you plan on corrupting him, too? Sure... take away my last light of hope in my life."
"You've already taken everything else."
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:49 pm
He actually laughed, it was a sad sort of laugh, he turned his head away and glanced into the dark reflective crystals and shook his head very slightly.
"He's closer than you think, and don't worry Lyra... I Could never 'corrupt' him... " He moved closer and brushed a gentle hand at her bruises. "Must hurt...your ribs too I imagine, broken ribs are a bane..." He said conversationally. "But you have been doing this long enough I am sure you're more than aware of that." He lifted the towel and the ice and pressed it lightly to her bruised face.
"Trust me Lyra... right now the only thing I want... is to preserve what light is left in people's lives... though it may be an utterly selfish goal to have. Take the towel, it will keep the swelling down." The last of it almost an order but not quite.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:07 pm
Sailor Lyra would never know how lucky she was. She would never know the horrors a few brief words from General Zinkenite had spared her. Oh, the things Tanzanite would have done to Lyra, had she been just another senshi. Just another member of the Blood Moon Court. Just another ruthless invader who had helped Nemesis carry Dioptase in for her brutal and bloody death.
But she wasn't. She was General Zinkenite's sister, and that made her... something more.
And so Tanzanite had put down the knives she had been sharpening and started on a new plan. If you couldn't beat them, after all...
They would be able to feel the General-Queen coming long before she strode through the door, pushing ahead of her a cart full of things that Alkaid had helped her prepare. Even as Aree Cadence, she had never been even remotely handy in a kitchen, and as the Youma Queen she could barely even fold her wings down enough to fit in one. Nevertheless, the smells that came from the rolling cart were nothing short of delightful.
“Why the long face? It's a lovely morning outside,” Tanzanite said as she let go of the cart, watching as it bumped into one of the crystalline walls before coming to rest. Fluttering in after her came a falcon-sized youma, a mirror image of the large beast that had ravaged the city the night before, on a much smaller scale. It alighted upon Zinkenite's head with a pleased chirp, and began quietly rearranging his hair.
She looked to be in a surprisingly good mood for someone who had, well, died the previous day.
“Let's go ahead and establish a few things, Sailor Lyra. It is fully within my power to kill you. It is fully within General Zinkenite's power to kill you. It is within our power to turn you into a youma and order you to spend eternity guarding the hilltop where later today we will be burying the bodies of human teenagers who you and your comrades ruthlessly slaughtered. We can do things to you that Ares could never dream of having the power to do. So please, let's just sit down and have a civil conversation, hm?”
Tanzanite took a seat upon a flat mass of black stone and purple crystal. Those massive wings folded behind her, and she smoothed the fabric of her dress down over her legs, “If you would like, we can begin with you apologizing for carrying in Stephanie Leclerc, a girl who I cared for very much, to have her skin ripped off and her throat slashed six inches from my face.
Or we can discuss how you stood by and allowed Primase, a fifteen year old girl, to be sliced into iiiiitty bitty pieces. I don't think Scheelite will ever be able to forget that, do you?”
Tanzanite was smiling.
It was odd.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:36 pm
".....I dont like you." She mumbled to the general after wincing from the slight touch, it was still enough to hurt. More so than the actual skin, the memories of what happened just the day before are what were killing her. "I have to admit,I'm having issues believing y-"
Her words were cut off as her head quickly turned towards the door. There, right there... something was coming. She could feel it in the center of her gut, sitting there like a lump of coal. Energy...power. A familiar feeling, one she just got a little far too acquainted with the previous day.
General queen Tanzanite was here, and she had...
food?
That is what her senses were telling her, what her eyes even said. Why the hell would they bring her FOOD? After what she had aided the BMC to do? It was clear after her speech, something that made the senshi literally back away and tuck her legs against her body, did she realize the full seriousness of this situation. It was true, she was a super senshi... they were a general and a general queen. They could off her SO quickly if they wanted, a simple blast of energy, a life of a finger...
Or hell, the tiny familiar looking bird could just go ape s**t on her and probably peck her organs out. She did not wish to speak, but as the silence drew on a small voice, one that gradually raised in pitch answered them. "...It is no excuse, pardon me... T-tanzanite." Would she rather be called General Queen? Lyra had no idea, but she was not feeling like showing respect at the moment. More or less... she was scared shitless.
Lyra remembered Tanzanite calling out Dioptases name, remembered it with so much vivid color that a single tear rolled out of her almost bruised shut eye. "It took all my will power just to stay within that room, if i had left, they would have seen it as a sign of weakness." Really, Lyra? You really know how to get yourself in a pickle. The Blood Moon Court were similar to the negaverse, at least i Lyras eyes... sometimes. In the sense at least, they do not believe in weakness. "I was being selfish... i- i should have stopped them. I didn't... i still don't agree with what they were doing, a few of us within the court didn't." It was not an apology, it was admittance. Hell if she was going to name named, but a few of the blood moon court senshi were scared of what was happening. Torture was not their thing.
What Lyra was calling over, overall? It was... well. It was kind of a cop out.
Lyra could feel it in her bones, weapons or not she had a sinking suspicion she was not going to make it from that room alive. Either by the hands of the two negaversers here, or maybe she would choke on a chicken bone... if it WAS chicken. If she was not going to make it out of here alive? She might as well tell the truth about her self.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:52 pm
"I do wish I could say the same Lyra..." Zink replied quietly to her first statement, the one made just before General Queen Tanzinite entered the room. He bowed to her in deference to her rank, to her mercy.
The peace of mind she had given him alone was beyond the measure of words... if only Lyra knew.
"Would you like a chair? I can fetch one if you'd like somewhere more comfortable to sit down." He offered her and 'casually' peeked under one of the lidded dishes, it released all the more of the savory aromas into the room. Succulent and well prepared.
"If you're worried it's poisoned... I will prove it's not..." he added and reached up to pull free one of his strands of hair from the 'tiny' phoenix that had taken up residence on his head, then brushed his finger over it's chest, affectionate... like a pet.
"We could share with him as well I think..." He added glancing upwards.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:32 pm
“Thank you, Zinkenite, but I will be quite alright. I've gone two weeks without comfort, I think I can live without a chair. She will need you here when she comes to understand the truth.”
There was a pain in Tanzanite's heart that was reserved only for herself, but never again would she lean on someone as she had leaned upon Linarite. Never again would she let hurt or sadness show in those silver eyes, which looked upon Lyra as though she had infinite patience. Even for a senshi at whose hands her people had suffered.
“Interesting, don't you think?” She spoke as she uncovered the food. Alkaid had prepared it in the southern style of the relatives she no longer could remember. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuits that had been baked to a perfect shade of golden brown. It was utterly unappetizing to the woman who was no longer capable of eating such food. She ate energy and starseeds, and as a General Queen her ability to process food such as that which she uncovered for Lyra had decreased to nearly none whatsoever.
“When we were at your mercy, at Ares mercy,” Tanzanite sat back, gesturing to the food as though to suggest it was their to enjoy, “We were tortured. Dioptase, Helicase, Primase, and Marthozite were killed. Yet she feels no regret. Nemesis feels no remorse for making me watch as my own organs rotted out of my body. Yet here you sit, in our domain. How do you continue to convince yourself that we are the evil ones, when you've witnessed firsthand what the senshi did with the power they were born with?”
Tanzanite frowned, and tilted her side slightly to one side, “You saw what happened to me when Dioptase died. You saw how it hurt. Yet it is I who am inhuman? Because of what was done to me to keep me alive, I am the monster? Did Ares weep when her own were killed; quickly and mercifully, mind you? Would she have given her own life, as Dioptase did? Zinkenite,” she glanced to the General.
“Would you kindly tell her what they did to you, when all you were doing was trying to save your brothers and sisters from torture? Tell her what you saw. What they made you think had happened.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:25 pm
The smell of the food was tantalizing, a slow torture all its own. Even if it was meant as a gesture... of 'peace' or something, it was still tormenting her. The senshi had not eaten right for weeks, surviving on a slice of leftover pizza here.. maybe a quickly purchased McDonalds Cheeseburger there. The BMC really worked them hard those few weeks. It was all for the protection of the greater good... the city. The people.
"Thats what everything boils down to...isn't it." She glanced up at the two, ignoring the rumble that her stomach just sounded off. "Both of us fight for protection of the earth, protecting its life. Yet somehow, we fight each other? Why?" Lyra was speaking from the heart now... something she had thought for a while. She walked the median. "If we all have the same goals i just dont understand why we kill each other.
"I am sorry for what we did to you." 'We', something rang clear and true. She was not denying her role in the BMC activities, only saying she was sorry for the torture they went through. "I did not agree with the pain they put you through. You... Dioptase, Helicase, Primase, Wolframite, Uranophane..." She did not mention Mathozite, she did not know what really happened to the General King. One second his aura was there, the next it was gone. " I'm a firm believer that if i have to kill... it should be quick and painless..." The senshi had only killed twice, but one was a long time ago... and something she saw more as 'sailor nealites' fault and not her own.
"Ares would never abandon those whom needed her." Lyra said instantly, eyes that were looking at the food momentarily traveled back to the duo with a snap. The senshi, still, at this very moment believed that Ares was trying to find a way to them. To somehow free Lyra and her brother. She was clinging on to a thin thread of hope, one that was about to break with each passing second.
Deep down... she knew she was not getting out alive. Even if she did, they would find her again. Only a fool would not know Lyras true identity, not after they knew who her blood relative was... a simple internet search was all it would take for the glamor to drift away.
Eyes traveled towards Zinkenite next, wondering what even the BMC had done to him during their two weeks of hell.
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 4:17 am
"Wouldn't she?" He said giving her a sad look, yes Lyra had spoken second but it was the first thing to come to him when they had both paused to wait for him to speak.
"Do you really think a woman, who'd put on a display, a very specific display so it would look like YOU... had just cut the throat out of scheelite in front of me would stop at -anything? I was, in that moment ready to kill you because I thought you'd killed him. She threw you to the WOLVES Lyra... She knows exactly who I care about and who I speak to... she knows YOU and I have spoken rather than fight, and she used that."
He shook his head frustrated for a moment, too tired, too played out to be as subtle as he normally was but he still fought to be. "Lyra... Did you even know she was doing that to you? Did you even know the risk you were put in? Where is the loyalty there?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 5:20 pm
For the past few minutes another dark aura had been just barely in their mental field of vision. It lingered, somewhere down the hall, as if unsure if coming closer was really a good idea. With the way it fidgeted around it was easy to forget about it. Probably just some new officer, unsure of what to be doing down here in the subspace.
So it was perhaps a surprise when the aura came closer, eventually wandering it's way into their room to reveal the fact that it had been Captain Scheelite lingering around. Currently his gaze was on the floor below him as he entered, one hand pressed to his neck and the other holding a roll of bandages and some antiseptic.
"Can uh...someone help me rebandage my neck? I've been looking around and everyone's so busy and..."
The officer glanced up, curious as to why he felt a different aura. He shouldn't be feeling that here! Not here, where they were supposed to be safe. And that...that is when he saw who was in the room. Tanzanite, who's dark aura washed over him and made him feel so much -safer-. Zinkenite, who's own aura always comforted Scheelite, and from his disheveled look and the subdued tone he was talking in well...comfort was something he seemed to need desperately.
And then there was Lyra, and Scheelite's mouth dropped open in shock. His hand dropped away from his neck, though thankfully the other held onto the items he needed help with. Uncovered, it was easy to see the angry looking wound that wound it's way around his neck and down his throat. While deep the glass had fortunately missed important things, and Scheelite would be left with just a scar. After just being told about the illusion Zink had seen at the BMC headquarters, it was probably rather jarring to see an almost similar wound actually on the officer.
Scheelite suddenly looked very nervous, fearing the very worst. If Lyra was here...she wasn't going to get out was she? He really really -really- hoped he hadn't walked in right before they were going to kill her or something! Even IF she was his nemesis, that just...wasn't something he wanted to see. Not now, possibly not ever.
"You're uh..w-what's going on guys?" And then, with a hint of Scheelite's usual nature he moved to distract them. "Dude..there's food in here, we should all sit down and eat some...I can have some right? I'm so hungry."
Well, he hadn't exactly been eating that well while on the search for the others! He really could use some food, and if they were all eating then they wouldn't be killing, and he wouldn't have to look at any blood today.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 12:00 am
Tanzanite's laughter was not an amused sound. It was not chiming. It was not lilting. It was not soft and gentle. When directed at Sailor Lyra, it was a cold and ruthless noise echoed by that monstrous tone, and it filled the cavernous room like thunder; equally ominous and foreboding. The General Queen's smile was no more warm or welcoming. Tanzanite leaned in, propped one elbow on her knee, and rested her chin in the hollow of her palm. Black claws drummed on her cheek, and for a moment she simply observed Lyra as though she were a puzzle in need of solving.
Or a piece of prey she was trying to decide was worth chasing or not.
Apparently, she was.
For now.
“The flaw in your logic, in every senshi's logic, is that you forget one very, very, very simple fact, my dear girl. This is not your planet to protect. It is not your planet to fight for. You had your own homes and as Sailor Earth before you, you destroyed them in some life or another.”
Tanzanite sat back, and calmly tapped her clawed hand against the mass of purple crystal to one side.
“Is that what you think, that Sailor Ares would never abandon her own? She left the senshi guarding Primase and Helicase to die, did she not? She left you to us, and ordered the Blood Moon Court's retreat. I went down with my soldiers. I could have teleported before I was captured; I did not. I could have run; I did not. We were outnumbered and outmatched, and I died for them."
Twice.
Tanzanite scoffed.
“If you think Sailor Ares would do the same for you, I believe you severely underestimate the gravity of the situation. If you think she has not abandoned you, you are an idiot and of no further use to me.”
Silver eyes rolled towards the door, and as though a mask had been lifted, her expression changed. It was sudden, brought on by Scheelite's appearance, and the General Queen spread her hands in a welcoming gesture. She looked almost motherly as gestured to the space before her.
“Come, sit. Alkaid made it to welcome our... guest.”
It was a better word than prisoner.
“We are explaining to Sailor Lyra the atrocities committed by the woman she seems to think some kind of righteous warrior. Scheelite, would you kindly explain to her how Lieutenant Primase died? Perhaps that tale will enlighten her as to the true nature of her kind.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:21 am
"....She did.... What?" Lyra's gaze was on the General, no doubt in her look that this was, indeed, news to her. "No no... she wouldn't do that. I mean, its not like i made my dislike for scheelite unknown but... We knew the senshi of illusions was one of the barriers but..." She was tongue tied, almost flabbergasted, at the idea that they would use an illusion of LYRA -killing- Scheelite. If anyone had been paying attention to lyra this whole time....hell, even during Ares's little 'grats for your first kill!' party, they would have seen the red head was uncomfortable.
Ares surely picked up on this..right? No..no she didnt. Lookign back momentarily, she remembered the party. It was the BMC talking about their first kills... and Ares afterwords talking about how she overcame corruption. Lyra was silent most of the party, choosing to listen and fidget rather than speak much.
Just as she was about to say something, the laughter rang.. and she turned. It was not friendly laughter, nor was her gaze one of a human. No... it was one of a Hungry lioness, watching its prey. And lyra? She was the baby zebra. If there was ANY sort of retort she had towards the General Queens reply, one basically saying SHE was born here too, it was caught in her throat and forced back down. In the pit of her stomach, anxiety was growing.
"....She left me? Just like that?" That caused her to speak, a exhausted look of pain. Lyra, by that point, had been passed out and did not know what was happening. Ares was fighting for Lyra as she went willingly with the negaverse, because of her brothers capture the senshi had come silent. Ares.. and nemesis from the way the voices rung out, did not take her weakness so lightly.
Laughing, something that seemed more senile than not, tears flowed from the corner of her eye as she placed a palm against her forehead and leaned against it. "Who am i kidding." She muttered, not entirely noticing the entrance of Scheelite. SURE its add her arch nemesis into the bundle! Why not. All three of them were here now, the three that plagued her so much. "Ares would not have come, she is probably not coming. I can guarentee you... she is not. I am useless to her." Ares was a good mentor, but she was a military style thinker. If a man fell, she would replace them with two more.
"...Hell. She probably writes me off as dead. Something i am, pretty sure, is coming."
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:44 am
"Guest?" She didn't look like a guest. But, for all that Sailor Lyra wasn't looking like her usual self, she still didn't look quite as bad as those they had rescued.
"D-dead?" Her captivity still didn't sit well with Scheelite, but...Tanzanite knew, right? She knew what the young captain had been through and he had to hope she wouldn't murder someone, even a senshi right in front of him after that. Maybe his presence could buy Lyra a little bit more time?
The blonde moved, taking up a seat near the General Queen. He quietly placed the bandages and such in his lap, readying himself to give the story. It wasn't something he liked to talk about, and in fact had mostly kept to himself about it. But Tanzanite had requested he share it, and for her he'd do anything in his power to help.
"Lyra...you remember seeing me looking...when I found Dioptase's sash right? I didn't fight you...just begged for any little bit of information so I could find my family. My family Lyra, you knew how badly I wanted to protect them! But you went on about your own family and your own people to protect. Ares, w-who I'd like to remind you set up some sort of crazy damn funhouse for us all to get through, and then grabbed me and held me still so you could attack me. You didn't though did you, because you don't agree with what they did..."
Scheelite paused, taking a deep breath before launching into the real story.
"Well...I kept looking Lyra, and when we did finally locate the warehouse I led a rescue party with Zink and we went through every crazy damn thing on our side of the warehouse. When we got through everything Zink and I found keys...and through my door? Lieutenant Primase, alive. I was so happy Lyra! I'd been looking for two straight weeks and here I could rescue Primase and take my family home. But you know what happened instead? A senshi tortured her Lyra. Slowly cut her with a glass tornado before my eyes. That senshi let Primase live long enough for me to see her tortured, before ending her life with a CLAP." Here he actually clapped, emphasizing that bit of the story. "Primase d-died in an explosion of blood, sliced to pieces by flying pieces of glass, while her rescuer looked on horrified...just a few minutes too late of actually saving her."
During the story he had moved to hug himself, gently rocking back and forth on his seat and trying to keep his voice from cracking as he told it. It was clear to see how deep it disturbed him.
"That's...how I got this."
He gestured to the wound on his neck, now oozing a bit, as he fell silent once more.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:10 am
"Guest..." Zink reaffirmed, no locked doors, no chains, no injuries that she hadn't received the day they had taken her, unless she had slipped and fallen and he hadn't seen the results yet.
They even brought her food, over all it was very hospitable treatment, more so in light of what the Blood Moon Court had done, what she had condoned though her inaction.
He shook his head quietly and continued, his tone measured, next to no inflection, just facts for her to accept or deny, and this time agreement.
"No...you're right, she won't come for you, she didn't before and she won't now... she's not LIKE us. Not where it counts... she is like us in all things she heralds as proof of our evil... the same things she heralds as proof of her innate goodness.
Smoke and Mirrors... words of smoke and mirrors, guesses at things from photographs of her behavior, her words.
"But that's the problem isn't it...Senshi are a group of individuals, who fight for a vaguely similar cause. A new world because they won't return to their old, but we... WE fight for our world AND our...family."
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