The source of her distraction was unknown but she had already figured out that it kept time. One drop for every ten seconds that passed. It was counting. Counting the length of time she had been locked away, her wings clipped. Counting closer till the moment her captors decided what to do with her broken body.
Phact had screwed up. She had been careless and was paying the price. Years ago, it might have been a quick death. Now, they wanted information and she was not playing that game. Phact knew her worth and knew all the information she had gathered through the years was worth something. But she also knew what they really wanted.
The name of the general she had been working for.
Through it all, all the physical pain, the starvation, the torture, the being left hung against the wall for so long that she no longer had feeling in her arms, Phact had kept her mouth closed.
Yet through it all, the only hope she had was that the general she was protecting would cast those eyes towards her. Phact did not expect kindness. She did not expect to even be saved. All the senshi wanted was one look. One look to know this would all be over soon.
As her head hung lax between to raised arms, a single tear feel between the silence of the water drops.
Phact would fly no more.
Kazenite sat behind a wooden desk up on the thirty-second floor of a corporate building reviewing profiles of recent recruits; their previous lives were some what fascinating especially the one with a military background a useful skill set usually accompanied those who fought in wars outside the ones involving magic… that is assuming he still remembered them.
“Your mind is preoccupied.” Xyla stated as a matter of factly from her perch on the back of the General Queen’s chair.
“Excuse me?” came a slightly annoyed reply. With a raised brow Kaze turned her head to the teal and black striped cheshire cat.
“You’ve been staring at the same profile for ten minutes.” Perhaps it was the raven hair that had caught her eye, who knew. But for someone who was a speed reader it shouldn’t take her this long to determine whether or not she wished to recruit a person into the intelligence division or not. “Soooo…” the guardian cat purred then stretched as means to seem uninterested, which was contrary to how she actually felt. “Are you going to ask him to join you or not?”
Him, yes… it was a him not a her. Not the the dove that was presently on the Queen’s mind.
Closing the file, Kazenite dropped the paper on the desk with a slapping sound that was much louder in the quiet room than she had intended it to be. “No,” she replied rising to her feet, nearly dislodging the cat from where she rested. “He would be far better suited for the infiltration or interrogation division.”
It was as clear as day the General Queen was annoyed and rightfully so. Phact had fled, or so they assumed considering she didn’t show up the previous night with a report on the agents she was suppose to be gathering information on.
Xyla sighed then lowered her head onto folded paws, “If you’re that upset why don’t you just go pay her a visit. It’s not like you don’t know where she lives.”
This was most definitely true, however if someone were in Delilah’s home when they arrived it could very well expose her but in truth, what reason was there for her to care after making her wait for several hours.
Just as she was about to lift the cat up into her arms and teleport to the condo a voice erupted from her communication crystal. “General Queen Kazenite I’m…”
“I don’t particularly care who this is, what do you need?” Her voice was silky smooth which betrayed her actual emotions. A perfect vocal mask when you don’t want someone to ask unwanted questions.
The man seemed a bit taken aback by her interruption by the way it took several moments for him to gather his thoughts again. “My Lady, we have captured a spy. According to procedures, she is locked in the cells after proving…” His voice trailed as if searching for the word. “Difficult.”
“General, are you not an elite member of the interrogation division? Why have you not contacted your superior General Queen Guantanomite?” This situation was much more suited to her talents.
“With all due respect General Queen Guantanomite is…” He stopped, a scream coming to his ears from somewhere behind. The pain made him smile. There was a pleasure with each passing moment something gave in. The woman he was calling about had pushed him to his limit though. She gave nothing. Clearing his throat, his voice caught in the pleasure he was taking. “with another guest at the moment. She has asked we do not bother her for the rest of the afternoon.”
Xyla smirked when she saw her Queen roll her eyes “I’ll be there in a moment” and with that the communicator disappeared from sight. “Seems our surprise visit will have to wait. C’mon.”
One moment the two were in a closed office, the next they were in a well lit hallway several buildings away, standing beside the two officers that had more or less summoned her. “Tell me she at least gave you something to work with…” Straight to business, no need for fluffy
conversations because to be frank she didn’t give a damn how either of them were.
It was the large male that had called her who jumped when the female voice broke his mind from the sounds coming from farther within the prison. The woman only smirked at him before pointing her hand towards the back door, a sign to follow. “No General Queen. She bit her tongue hard enough the first day that we had to call in someone to stop her from bleeding out. After that, she has refused to even scream out.” Her cat like eyes shot towards her male partner. “Not that we haven’t tried, of course.”
The male groaned, taking up the rear. “All we know about her is that she has been working for the resistance as a spy for some time. Her information leak has caused at least several confirmed deaths of our agents in the field. Thus we brought her in to discover the source of the leaks. In return, all we have gotten is a flock of doves sitting on the building roof top. They have been making a mess of the camera…”
“She doesn’t care about that.” The woman snapped as they came to a cell in one of the lower floors. “All she cares about is what she can use against this senshi. And sadly, that is why we need your talents.” The woman opened the slat in the door and stood back for Kazenite.
At the mention of Doves the General Queen’s hand curled into a tight fist. Fingernails bit into her palm to the point they could draw blood at any given moment. “Take me to her… Now…” There was no need for any more talking, she knew who they had in the isolated room and it took a hell of a lot of strength to refrain from slamming the general against the wall and call him a ******** moron. But if what he said was true and Phact refused to tell them who she was spying for, then she brought this on herself; as much as it pissed her off to admit.
Both Generals looked towards the Queen and then back at each other. Neither one knew how to speak at that moment for they each feared the wrath the woman seemed to be building. Someone one of them had said triggered an emotion neither wanted to be part of. “General Queen, if you happen to know something about her we can us…”
The male started before the female elbowed him in the side. “She gave us orders. Don’t talk back.” The woman rolled her eyes before moving back towards the door, producing a key and opening the door. “Inside. She has been chained to the wall since dawn.”
Xyla lept from Kazenites arms onto the tile laminated floor and weaved her way into the room the moment her small feline head could fit through the crack in the door. What she saw was not quite unexpected given the General’s description however it didn’t negate the sick feeling that rose in her tiny stomach seeing their dove with feathers slick with blood chained to the wall.
After earning herself a swift kick for stopping in the doorway, the guardian cat manouvered out of the way to allow the trio in. Sympathy… a curious notion. Never expected to feel this for a white moon senshi. What will you do my queen, what will you do? End her sufferance and set her free or claim her in the only other way you can? Yellow eyes fixated on the teal haired woman as she entered the room, studying her unreadable expression.
“She hasn’t said or done much since we left her here.” The woman said, walking past the general queen and feline towards the senshi. The change in sound had caused Phact’s eyes to flicker open. She heard voices but they were the same two she had come to hate. The two that she had failed to fly away from.
Slowly Phact tried to lift her head but was quickly stopped when the female general did the job for her. Grabbing the back of Phact’s head by the hair, she yanked the senshi’s head up to gaze at the new comer. Phact’s breath choked in her throat. It was now or never she guessed. Her General Queen would either end it or walk away.
The thought made Phact fight back a tear in relief. This was the woman she had been protecting. But why? She was a white moon senshi! She could have torn the queen from her ranks at the very mention of her name during torture. But Phact had remained silent. She had betrayed her status as a White Moon Senshi. All for what? This woman?
“Not much to look at.” The male general spoke from behind, arms crossed over his chest. “But I’m sure I could still have some fun with her before she is handed over completely.” He snickered.
Kazenite stepped into the room and paused to take in the sight her broken bird. “Sailor Phact, Eternal Senshi of Doves,” her name was spoken with intimate familiarity in the way she drew out the senshi’s title. “Tche, what have you done… what have you done.”
There would be no reprimanding the generals for they did exactly as they were suppose to despite the fact all the Queen desired at that moment was their hearts and starseeds served to her on a silver platter. Her little dove, a key to many secrets, a treasure trove of knowledge that she had yet to fully tap now sat slumped against the wall bruised and bleeding staining her pristine white uniform an ugly shade of red and dark brown. Any chance she had of learning what Phact held had evaded her completely.
One footstep followed by another, the sound of her heels were as foreboding as the theme to Jaws. Just as daunting as the presence she carried.
Reaching out with one hand she hooked one finger under Phact’s chin and turned her head from the left to the right and back again as if she were appraising her like some precious antique she was scrutinizing for flaws. “So this is why you never showed yesterday.” Admittance that she knew of this White Moon as something more than just a name, that they were correspondances. “You could have save yourself a lot of heartache and pain had you’d just given them my name.”
As Kazenite grabbed hold of the woman’s chin, the other general let go of her hair, taking a moment to step back and rejoin her partner. Both were about to ask how their general queen knew the name they could not get but were stopped. “You...you are her source?” The male questioned in shock.
Phact though was ignoring them both as she tried to force a smile. “I would have called.” The facial expression stung and soon she had to drop it. Had Kazenite not had her chin in her hand, Phact’s entire form out have slouched again. It hurt all over. “Then we would both be dead.” The words were soft, just at a whisper as she spoke them to the ground. “Better one bird than two.”
Had the man been any closer Kazenite would have backhanded him so hard his neck would have snapped. Instead she ignored him for a moment, wiping a blood smear off of Phacts lips then let her chin go with more care than she should have otherwise shown.
Xyla, however, did not remain silent. Ears pinned back and eyes narrowed she let out a warning growl which was followed by an angry hiss not liking the tone in his voice nor the accusation.
Control She had to remind herself to keep from summoning her deadly weapon. “It is no mystery what it is I do. In conjunction with information gathering I am responsible for snuffing out sympathisers among our ranks, something that is not easily done when the suspects know my face. ANY agent could be a spy for me so what reason is there for someone to open up to one of my charges unless I employ someone in another division hmm?”
“The captain that died several weeks ago was done by my hand.” Kazenite let the words sink in, that the deaths they spoke of were sanctioned hits by one of their own. “It was her actions and silver tongue that got me the evidence I needed to put an end to the flood of agents that had left to aid the resistance.” Yes… she works for me!
“Think of her as a trap if you will. She finds out who among us has loose lips or is contemplating purification...”
Had she had the strength to do so, Phact might have smirked. But at this point, she was fading back into the world of darkness. It was so hard to hang on even if she was finally hearing what she had been hiding. Phact knew the ranking, she knew who was who in the negaverse. What she did not know was where their loyalties lied. She, at the time, had no way to know if these two idiots worked for someone that planned to take down Kazenite. Listening now, she had a feeling they were just massicasts.
Both generals however had gone pale white. They kept looking towards each other and then back to the woman they had broken nearly in half. Had there been fire in the room, they each had a feeling they would be roasting. “We were just doing as instructed.” The man chimed in in quick panic. “Her likeness and area was given in to us on the watch list. All it said was that she was a backstabber and a traitor to our cause. Had we just known…”
“Had you’d of known? Hmm? Tell me what would you have done? Shown her mercy?”
“You two performed exactly as expected, something to be commended for not punished. Any suspicion I have had on you two has been devalidified based…”
“So, you aren’t going to kill us?” He asked, glancing from the General Queen towards the door.
Kazenite’s eyes narrowed in warning for the man’s ill timed interruption. “No… Though I may reconsider if you speak out of turn again.”
His mouth closed quickly as the female general stepped on his foot.
“Understand General, there is a difference between what we have here and sympathisers… Do you know what that difference is?” One delicate unamused eyebrow raised waiting for both of their replies, though her gaze was fixated on the male’s maroon colored eyes expecting him to answer first.
Neither moved to speak, the woman using the gaze as a chance to make herself shrink. The male, gulped down. “Sympathisers make their choice thus knowing they are leaving the cause?”
“Try again…”
Now it was her turn. The woman, even hiding back in the shadow spoke up in as level a voice as she could muster. “The sympathisers plan to leave completely. Taking with them not only our numbers but skills as well. They pollute the minds of people in the agency while they are still in and if they should manage to leave, there is a chance they can help the resistance. She…” The woman motioned towards the senshi. “If what you say is true, is stopping them from aiding her own side.”
“Exactly… And unlike those who seek to aid the resistance or turn tail and run to the other side when caught aiding or abetting Order. I…” Without turning her head so much as to see the soon to be pained look on Phact’s face, Kazenite plunged her hand in the senshi’s chest and curled her fingers around the precious starseed. “... have no desire to switch sides. My unwavering loyalty is with the Negaverse.”
It was warm, much like the one that hung from her choker had once been, delicate as a glass rose bud; and here she was about to break it.
Xyla had grown uncomfortably silent then, her ears stood erect no longer pinned back in anger as she watched her Queen banish any doubts the Generals may have had.
The gasp, no, the near scream that came from the bloodless lips of the senshi was purely animalistic. The very sound sought to escape through the cracks in every wall and seep into the very souls of the ones watching the events unfold. Phact could not see them but the Generals had their ears covered now. They had longed to make her cry out in pain and now that she had, they were trying to block it out. Oh the irony.
But it was this pain that washed away the darkness that had been creeping into her mind and replaced it with a burning light. It was not until she could no longer hold air in her lungs did she look up to where the General Queen stood, arm out stretched and against Phact’s chest.
The moment she gazed up at the teal eyes of the woman before her, Phact’s pain started to melt. She could accept this. She could finally let go. If it had been anyone else, she would have tried fighting but...not her. Not Kazenite. She had been everything Phact had needed in this horrible world. In the darkness, in the last place anyone would have thought, she had given this dove a reason to fight. If her wings had to be clipped, it was proper that the wind itself was the one to do it.
Tears found their way into her broken eyes as she gazed towards the woman’s face. A small nod was all Phact could give. She knew what was to come and hoped Kazenite would realize that she had accepted this fate.
It was time.
Before she began pouring chaos into the precious seed Kazenite held within her one curiosity, something that could not be stated till she saw with her own eyes the brilliance of that which she held onto and so she ripped her hand out of Phacts chest. The screaming had ceased for a moment as her battered body slumped towards the floor and head hung forward like a lifeless doll.
Teal eyes remained unblinking on the generals standing beside her till she brought her closed fist forward. Slowly she uncurled her fingers, with her palm faced upwards in offering to the heavens. Her eyes lowered, tracing over each edge marveling at the glow she was about to snuff out with pure darkness Forgive me my dove… A silent plea that echoed in the way she re-closed her hand or the tinge of sadness that had seeped into her sidelong glance.
Once more her fist returned to the senshi’s chest, none too gently to those who were watching, and began forcing mass amounts of chaos into the dwindling light. Corrupting a basic senshi was easy enough but an eternal… one who had been on the side of order for so long and soaked in the glory of the white moon proved to be much more taxing on the energy it took to corrupt her. Though she only corrupted the unwilling a part of her hoped that the Senshi of Doves accepted her fate and did not lose all of her memory and at the very least remembered something of the last few months.
With the deed done Kazenite withdrew her hand slowly, once more she hooked her finger under Phacts chin, and lifted her head. Ruby colored eyes remained hidden to her behind closed lids, not even a twitch to show there was life somewhere behind the veil of darkness, some stirr of a dream or nightmare that crept into her mind.
“Do you doubt my loyalty?” It was a question spoken to the two Generals even though her attention remained on the black dove that remained chained to the wall.
Phact’s forum went limp. As the darkness surrounded her, two things happened quickly. She felt cold and alone. A feel of emptiness and quiet closed in around the woman as she stood in the void that appeared around her. There was no noise at first and then, she heard that cursed dripping again. It was pulling her to look up. Up and away from the sinking feeling she had that she was being taken down.
When she gazed upward, her eyes caught something very strange. It was herself. But, different. Red eyes met her form but she was dressed in black and reaching out for the mind that glowed in white. ”Let go. I will save us….” The dark Phact spoke in such a warm, calming manner as that the white raised her hand up and took the black gloved one in her white. Slowly she was lifted upward, into the arms of the dark form. ”You have done well...rest…” She whispered, pulled the Phact of white into her arms. Slowly, the white form began to glow and in her place, a beautiful red starseed.
The body began to breathe once more. A gasp and then it slowed to normal. The black bird’s red eyes began to open and she gazed across the room at the others within.
Both Generals stared with their mouths wide open.
Xyla approached the women cautiously, gently bumping her head against Kazenites’ thigh. To which the General Queen took the silent hint and stepped away. “Get her down,” she ordered with far less venom in her voice than otherwise should be. “Take her to the infirmary and get her cleaned up. Once she has been released I will monitor her personally to ensure she is indeed a blank slate. You need not concern yourself with her any further. Am I clear Generals?” She asked crossing her arms over her chest with a look that expected an immediate reply and even quicker compliance.
“Yes Ma’am” Was both of their replies as they nearly tripped over each other to get to the woman chained to the back. The female got there first, her hands working to remove the chains, the male holding the newly corrupt senshi upright. All the while, Phact’s red eyes shifted from one to the other until the man’s hands touched her. She spat at him.
“Why you little…” He snapped, reaching up to slap her only to feel a tight unyielding grip grab ahold of his wrist. Not even seconds had passed and the fool had apparently seemed to forget who exactly it was that stood behind him.
With lips pressed into a thin line Kazenite jerked his arm backwards and was rewarded with a sickening pop followed by a yell of agony. “So quick to forget the orders I had just given. Get… out…” She grit out through clenched teeth and narrowed eyes. “Now!” she added pulling his writhing body away from the now conscious senshi towards the heavy metal door on the other side the room.
“You,” the Queen’s attention snapped to the female General like a whiplash on exposed skin. “You will take her or the both of you will find yourselves chained to the wall in her place for your defiance. I will ask one last time. Am. I. Clear?” To disobey would mean they would be courting death and she would not be so kind as to grant peace so easily.
Phact remained silent, if not glaring evilly. The female general gave a single nod before she snapped the last chain off and dove to catch the senshi. Being smaller than the male who had left her now, she had to support the senshi in a semi-standing position, as if Phact had only been drunk instead of broken. It was a slow process but somehow, they made it out of the cell and headed towards medical. Outside of the cell, the general stopped, closed her eyes, and teleported the pair.
With the room now empty Xyla walked over beside Kaze cautiously. After living with the woman for nearly five years she knew just how furious her Queen really was. The relationship she had with the raven haired senshi was… unique… but it served a purpose and unfortunately tapped into something that should never have been touched. There was no doubt in the feline’s mind that she was hurt, much like the time she had ripped the starseed out of her own sisters chest. It is a loss that cannot be described because the deed was done by her own hands, hands that were forced to do something her mind and heart were opposed to.
Two front paws stood on black steel-toed boots, with her tail wrapped around Kazenite’s calf she purred loudly to comfort the inconsolable General Queen and without so much as a warning the two teleported back to her condo in lower Destiny City.
No tears spilled from teal eyes; she was an agent of chaos, a Queen. For several years she worked and fought her way through the ranks to earn herself this title; performed deeds she honestly didn’t regret. But this… this one stung in an unforgivable way.
Kazenite moved quietly across her living room towards the bed she once shared with the Senshi of Doves and it was as she stepped over the threshold into her room she paused. “DAMN IT!” she yelled before slamming her fist against the unsuspecting wall.
Had she’d of thought to power down the hole that now caved in beneath her hand probably would not be there, nor would her knuckles be bleeding a steady stream of blood from punching through drywall into a support beam. “God ******** damn it…. why the hell….”
Why the hell what? Did she get caught? Not fork over her name to save her own skin? Why… why the hell did this have to happen? The relationship they had worked well in both of their favors and for what?
Taking a few steps back, ignoring the fierce throb in her hand, Kazenite sat on the foot of her bed staring unblinking at the lightswitch beside the damage she had just caused… “Why…”
Seeing the blood dripping onto the carpeted floor Xyla did something she hadn’t done in a very long time and shifted into her humanoid form so she may fetch a clean rag and bowl of warm water. Now was not the time to make smart remarks, now was the time for silence; and so she went about tending to her General Queen, gently dabbing at the cuts with the cloth.
Once done the Guardian Cat placed the bloody water on the nightstand so it was out of the way then approached Kaze once more. Wrapping her arms around the woman's neck, she stroked her hair soothingly as a parent would do to a child for even though Kazenite was her superior, she was also the Cheshire cats responsibility, a fact that hadn’t changed as she watched her charge move through the ranks flawlessly.
Now… now was the time for comfort...
Sirene Naiads
