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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:05 pm
Meet him at the war room.
It was an order. A order after a very long lesson of what a order meant in the Negaverse. It was the cherry to another, larger cherry on top of the punishment sundae he was being served, and while Zink had been “kind” enough to carry him to the Negaverse and even lift him up to then demote him, he was not so kind enough to help him to said war room.
A war room that was very far from the crystal room that Charonite and Nealite were encased in.
A very far way away.
While Zink attended to the loose ends of the DMC battle, Wolframite, newly returned lieutenant and branded traitor of the Negaverse, was making his painfully slow decent into the Rift. Well, about to make his descent to the Rift. See, he had only managed to drag himself to his feet, hung the walls, and sort of forward slide his way to the entrance of the Rift and now he was back on the floor groaning after having fallen over and knocking his elbow on the ground. At least he didn’t have a audience to try and save face in front of, and was free to swear and cry out as he held his arm and rolled back and forth a moment to somehow try to shake the pain long enough to not feel a blinding spike inside his head that locked his brain tight.
His arm was broken. If not, it was sprained worse than he ever felt before. Either way, it felt expensive. Expensive in how much a doctor’s visit would be when he had no cash. Expensive in how he would even explain this to Billy when they were barely making rent and trying to afford a home.
Billy.
He gritted his teeth and slowly sat up as he took a breath. He still had yet to send any message home, and knew that if he powered down here, he wouldn’t have the energy to power back up in front of Zink. If he gave any sign he was sending communications to the General, he wondered if that would somehow seem like Bis knew.
Bis did know. It was why he said no. It was why he didn’t say much to him when he left the house.
It was why he probably thought he was dead.
Sweat clung to his palm as he wiped his brow and dragged a hand through his short hair. Even this short distance felt like a marathon, and he looked at the door and the long tunnel and wondered if he could just lay on the floor and let Zink kick him the rest of the way there. What didn’t matter how much he hurt now or after?
“Lieutenant ……..Wolframite.” He managed, voice raw and raspy like dry sandpaper as he swallowed thickly and looked at the blistering red mess that made his hand. Lieutenant. The last time he had been a lieutenant had been ages ago, when the world, the Negaverse, the entire game was different. His hopes and aspirations were to be a knight, a protector of Earth, and he envied the heavy hitters like Tanzanite, Linarite, and Obsidian with the same fan-boy envy kids had for basketball stars and teen idols. He had wanted to prove himself and be recognized for his effort. If he worked hard, followed orders, and kept his nose to the grindstone, he was sure his efforts would pay off.
But that had changed.
Grunting, he heaved himself back onto his legs, and the room spun quickly in a way that made him want to throw up or pass out. He hoped one or the other, and felt a heat wave pass over him before he felt a chill.
Wiping his brow with the back of his hand had the mistake of him being reminded that 1.) his arm was broken 2.) it was burned., and a sharp, drawn out “********” was cried out.
It was a long staggering crawl that was more a act of leaning on walls and them throwing himself at crystals here and there until he even made it to the castle that held the war room – and then there were the stairs. Before, the war room was appropriate in being at the very top, and rather iconic. The top room of an ancient ruin overlooking the land of the past and of youma, their ancestral brothers.
Now it was just a pain in the a** and a hellish nightmare. He knew why Zink picked it. He had been punished, but he hadn’t had to execute or endure anything but pain. Now he had to work for this talk. Or maybe Zink just wanted to make sure he was too tired to talk after this.
Or maybe if he died here, he could wipe his hands clean and say he hadn’t directly killed him.
Either way, after crawling up the stairs, he made it to the room, and properly laid himself over the table and pressed his face against the cool surface of the crystal table.
And there he stayed.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:25 pm
At long last, after what must have been hours in the waiting, the door at last swung open behind him, and closed once more with an easy swing despite the great weight of the doors. A weight that might have been far less significant had Wolframite still been a General, rather than returned to Lieutenant. Measured footsteps crossed the floor as Zinkenite moved towards the grand chair that sat at the head of the table. Small things skittered in the rafters, scrambled down the wall and out the great open window that looked out over the world. “There is such a great deal, that I wish… I could trust you with Wolframite, Ladon.” He added, a reminder of everything they shared, of the wedge that time and power had driven between them. “I hope, after today no one will mistake my preference to KEEP soldiers rather than kill them or confine them to crystal.” He sat down in the chair with a heavy sigh that spoke of weariness, weariness that went beyond the physical and gazed at you with tired eyes. He pulled something from inside his jacket, resting it on the arm of the great chair. “… Is my table very comfortable, Lieutenant.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:44 pm
He jerked awake, having not noticed he had fluttered out for a moment, at the sound of the heavy door closing shut. Heavy, because it had once been manageable and was now nearly impossible to open. It was that horrible door that was part of the reason he was now exhausted and sprawled out like a shot peasant on the table, some prize to be plucked and roasted. Though he had been roasted enough. He was surprised the youma above hadn’t swooped in and taking their share, but a General-King’s war-room had probably been enough to keep them away. They knew who to pay their respects to and who to fear.
Funny how even feral youmas, who barely had 2 brain cells to rub together, got that and some officers didn’t. He cringed at his own self-battery.
The chair scooted and he groaned, his head throbbing still from the energy drain, before he brought his arms in and turned his head from the cool tabletop and looked over at Zinkenite. At this point, he didn’t care how he looked. He’d been thrown, tossed, demoted, and scolded. There was nothing he could do aside from throw up on the man to be held in any lower a light, and he was still close to doing that from all the swirling emotions and exhaustion in him.
He remembered a time when he had wanted to impress the slightly more experienced officer – but that was long ago. Back in a time when they were teammates. Back in a time when they could have maybe, in a very light way, considered each other friends?
Or was that some distant memory concocted in his head to comfort him? Bunched together than he felt the Negaverse had strong values and leadership.
Back when he was proud to wear his uniform.
Weary eyes looked at Zink. “My bed is more comfortable.” He informed, wondering why he was even called her aside from letting him do his own walk of shame to get to this room. Why wasn’t he dismissed yet? Why wasn’t he allowed to go home to lick his wounds with is tail between his legs?
His eyes looked down to the object placed on the table, and he looked back up at Zac. “What…is that?”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:02 pm
“Not Zac, not right now. I am still dealing with business Wolframite.” He tapped the ring with one finger, rolling it back and forth on the chair arm. “This… is a clever bit of work, some of our cats put it together. It has a remote.” He flashed a thin smile. “This is the last part of your punishment, this… will satisfy what you did to Leto, at least in some small measure it shall. Were I… someone else, I might take pleasure in these punishments. I wish to be clear that I do not.” He held up a small box, a remote, discrete and with buttons. “Leto will control this… and when it pleases her, or when you displease her, she will cause you some small measure of the discomfort that you gave her. If I could place such a thing around the neck of that senshi you conspired with I’d do so, but she remains rather out of my reach.” “I wish to believe that this will shake you back to some sense, away from your too passionate drive to take revenge on people whom have changed. I know what you can be, I can SEE it Wolframite. I would that you could see it too, I wish for you to take some portion of my…removal and… apply it to yourself. I am, disappointed, and I can honestly say that is worse than the anger that I felt at learning what you have done. That is not to say that I am not –furious-, but that you of all people have disappointed me.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:18 pm
He rose now, looking at the ring that Zink had brought. This device he had gotten from some cat, from his direction, to show him. Sitting now, he eased as best he could to his feet to stand beside the table, reaching out and holding onto the back of one chair to steady himself, and looked at the ring and the remote he was being shown.
“You…are giving me to Leto? You are giving her some…torture device to put on me to let her have?” He – he couldn't’ believe what he was hearing. “How the hell do you think that proves anything?! She didn't get enough of her fill before that you think making things better is to – is to do THIS?! What the ******** is even wrong with you?!” He shouted, finding that, surprisingly, he did have the energy to be angry, outraged, and utterly disgusted with what Zink was doing.
At least he could still be upset over the important things even if he could barely stand.
“I don’t care what the ******** you see in me! YOU’RE disappointed?! Guess ******** what, ZAC! I’M Disappointed! You saw what had happened to them. To Uranophane. To Tanzanite. To those bodies that we had to collect out of the rubble, and you did nothing. You don’t do s**t. You preach and scold me for not following orders when You KNOW they are wrong. You know this isn't how things are supposed to be. You know they shouldn't be around anymore. They don’t de-“ HE was shaking, emotions racing in a tidal wave after tidal wave inside him, crashing and competing to be heard, and he felt himself want to break the table in half and to break down all at the same time.
He lost it all. He lost it all, and here Zac was pretending to be there for him. He wasn’t there for him!
“You act as if you know everything and then talk to me like your my goddamn guardian. We were in the same team, Zink. Did you forget that?! We both went through the same leaders. The same power changes. We were there, and I was there for s**t you don’t even know so don’t you dare come to me and pretend you are on my side and doing what is best. YOU don’t know! You weren't there and saw what they did to them. I had to do what I did, and now you let that monster go. Now you let…You are letting her…” He gestured at the ring. “…just take everything. You are giving me back to those who strapped me to a chair and saying what?! I SHOULD BE THANKFUL?!!”
He slammed his hands on the table and instantly swore at the mistake of forgetting his hand was not only branded but broken. It took some of the fire out of the action, and as he held his hand to his chest, he glared at him. “******** you.”
He had never sworn so much in his life before, but he felt that now more than ever was the time.
"Call me a traitor when you side with her......you deserve a brand more than I do. Those who followed me felt that way too."
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:44 pm
"Will you, so blatantly and willingly… cast aside the orders that Tanzanite, herself gave you? You call me a traitor, when you spit on the very orders she gave you?" "You are, beyond belief you… if I could return you to the age you are BEHAVING I would. You sit there pretending that NO one else has ever suffered, that somehow I ascended to this rank through NO merit and NO effort! Tanzanite…SHE, made this possible, so don't sink so low into your egotistical self delusion while you SCRABBLE to justify siding with the very SIDE that tortured you. "THE VERY…DAMNED SIDE of the War… are you so THICK that you never saw what the side we fight on DOES to us and to them? Lyra, my own COUSIN who is now AMMOLITE once fought passionately EVERY day she could trying to kill us, trying to make us SUFFER, and now, she's our own, unquestioningly loyal to us; faithful and devoted. But you! YOU whom have always been with us have shown LESS loyalty than someone who started out in THEIR tender care. In THEIR uniform and in THEIR colors. You have placed your personal vendetta, above… Tanzanite's orders… my god. Have you ever even considered seeing beyond those BLINDERS you wear?" "I've already been -branded- by the side of order, and I have had everything stripped from me, and crushed back together by very person who you choose to swear to and then spit on. Yes, we had the same Captain, and the same leaders, but it is very clear that we didn’t SEE the same things Wolframite. Call me Zac, I don’t give a damn, because for all the man you think you are, all you are doing is proving you place youself, above the fate of the god…damned world. Or did you forget what Tanzanite said that day, that first day you were PUNISHED.” He moved forward and snapped the collar closed around wolfram’s neck with a very final ‘CLICK’.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:09 pm
He jerked back, grabbing to the collar now about his neck and pulled on it, but he knew that if Zink invested in the technology from a cat, it wouldn’t be going anywhere. He looked at him, more pained than ever before.
“She’s dead, Zink.” His eyes misted as he said this, to him and to himself.
“She was such a strong person and that night, that very night when she had to change herself to save us, she was made into something because of them. Don’t you get that? Ever since that point in time, she was dying.” She became a youma, and he had seen her go from Aree to a husk of herself.
And then she had to welcome them into her world.
All because of orders.
His insides twisted into knots thinking about that.
All these orders and everyone got punished. Charnonite. Nealite. Tanzanite.
And while he was in no way in the same league as they were – himself. “Aree she…” He voice broke.
They were gone. They were all gone. It all started that night and now where were they? They were destroyed by that night.
“She was given orders. She gave me orders. What did those orders do for her though, Zac?” He looked to him. “She was a General-Queen made a monster because of them, and now where is she? She wasted away bit by bit and you are blind if you didn’t see that.” If Zac wanted to call him blind, he could do so in turn.
“Your sister is an asset to you and the Negaverse. She was given a second chance. But those people did something beyond what any senshi did before. Letting them into our side only harms us more than aids us.” He gritted his teeth. “They did not deserve a second chance, Zink. Not the type of people they are. We would be stronger without them.” Once he destroyed their leaders and picked them apart one by one.
He touched the collar again, feeling the cold metal against his skin, and he felt dread and panic start to grow and he pulled on it again. “You’re a monster for doing this. For giving me to them. You might as well strapped me to a chair like they did.” In those rooms. At that place. In the dark among the screams.
The war room seemed much smaller, much darker now, and he felt his breath grow quicker as he looked around.
"What are we even doing anymore?" This place. This organization. It was falling apart.
His breathes continued to grow quicker as he stepped back, pulling on the collar.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:20 pm
“By your own estimation Wolfram, You don’t deserve a second chance either…” He shook his head then with a look of tired patience. “And she has died before… she’s a damned Phoenix Wolframite, a great, black phoenix, and when she is ready, the most valuable tool that Metalia has ever wielded, may yet RISE from whatever place in the rift she has descended to. But listen to yourself… you preach REVERY of the old days and then you hiss and spit at them because they make her a monster, we are Monster’s Wolframite. General Kings and Queens are the monsters because we feed with one hand, and then when some FOOL mistakes that for weakness we choke them with the other.” He held up both his hands and then stripped off a glove to show an old scar, faded into an odd pattern across the back of his hand. “An asset, an assent who tried to kill me, who tried to kill Scheelite, and countless more, and yet you deem HER worthy of a second chance…why? Because she is my cousin? My…HALF sister? Or because…she didn’t try and kill… you.” That’s the real point Wolfram, that’s what makes you a monster too, because you don’t actually care… so long as it doesn’t happen to you. Where I… I have to look at the bigger picture, I have to punish even the ones I care about, I have to turn some corner of a blind eye on the little piss-ants who think they are more… special, more worthy, wiser for all their lack of experience. I have to mete out judgment on the officers who, after they perform TREASON, and do so knowingly, else WHY would you hide with masks and coats and the like… and then ask “But WHY am I being punished? How can you be SO cruel?” And the answer is the same as she gave, orders or not there was truth in her words, this is more, than about US, and most especially it is more than about those of you whom we RESCUED. She was becoming a monster ages before the white moon laid hands on her. The Arm was consuming her, slowly, but that was ALL in the hands of Charonite and Beryl or did you choose to forget that little tidbit? You can’t re-write history just because you aren’t satisfied with the results, and if you make a choice, you must live with the consequences, if you do not…you are either a brat, of perhaps three years of age, or insane. Tell me, which are you?” “You wanted old school, and I gave you a taste, now you find it biter, the best medicine ALWAYS is.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:35 pm
“YES! THE b***h ATTACKED ME AND I WANTED TO TEAR HER APPART! Anyone would want revenge! For what she did to me. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t care! That doesn’t mean that while I wanted to see her torn limb from limb, that I didn’t want to do it not just for me but for everyone else I had to hear screaming at night. Screaming nights still in my head and never stopping. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to fight for them too! I didn’t LIE to anyone when I recruited them. They knew I wanted to kill them for my reasons. I just asked them if they wanted to fight for their own. I didn’t force their hand, Zink. I didn’t fool them. I gave them an opportunity and if they didn’t come, I was ready to fight too and nail against Leto on my own. I just know that it’s easier to destroy an army with an army. I’m not stupid enough to not know that much.”
“Don’t say I’m some piss-ant who doesn’t know that much. You KNOW I wasn’t slacking around all these years. I have fought tooth and nail to get to my rank – to…the rank I was. “ He corrected, bitter at his fresh demotion. “I’m not inexperienced and I know the game. I wasn’t pretending I wasn’t a traitor for what I did. I was dragged through those halls with the rest of them. I know the risk, but that doesn’t mean I have to ******** drop to my knees and kiss your booth and thank you for making me THEIR …..their….” He didn’t even know what to call this situation. A collar? To be called up on and harmed. “Their prisoner again!”
“I don’t have to tell you anything anymore, SIR.” He said, letting Zink have his damn rank that he was so nice to keep pointing out. “You know all the answers. I’m sure you already figured it out.” Ever had been sure of ages ago on what of the three options he was.
He caught his breath, gripping the chair again now with both hands, though one more lightly, as he tried to keep the room from spinning. Head bowed, he looked up again once he was sure everything wasn’t swaying around. “So what now? Are you handing me to Leto until she grows bored? Do I serve the Dark Moon Court now and that team you have?”
What was his purpose in the Negaverse anymore if Zink couldn’t stand who he was?
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