Leucite had decided that a second meeting with Violane was in order - but not in his office. This time he had ordered her to report to the gym in the Training Corps Barracks Complex. If nothing else, so that she could get a look at the equipment and materials that would be available to her on a daily basis should she choose to avail herself of it. But more importantly - it was to introduce her to Stibnite. Stibnite was the only Captain he had in his group - she was also his adjutant, and thus, he needed Violane to realize that Stibnite was his voice if he was not present.
He was also hoping that Stibnite would be able to break through where he had not succeeded. The girl was being obstinate - and there was nothing that irritated Leucite more than self destructive obstinance. He knew Stibs would not put up with it - and would make that abundantly clear.
He was almost done setting up the gym for the physical aptitude tests he was going to run her through as well - wanting to get a feel for her combat prowess and other strengths and weaknesses.
---
To say she wasn’t pleased to be summoned by Leucite was an understatement. She was still seething from their first meeting. The fire had been left to smolder out, but there were still hot, fiery coals just waiting to be poked the right way to bring the fire back to life. As it was, Violane hadn’t even bothered to go out and work on her quota. Not that she had time, like she had stated. It was finals and she had a recital coming up there was barely enough time in the day to eat let alone power up and go traipsing around the city looking for victims. ********, she didn’t even have a social life at the moment, and that was grating on her nerves.
Still, she heeded the summons. It was either be prepared for it or be pulled from a location she was more likely to be noticed ‘disappearing’ from and the last thing she needed right now was to make people begin to ask questions about her. She’d been doing a good enough job making a decent reputation for herself and didn’t need that getting ruined, thank you very much.
So, powered up, she strolled her way to the training Barracks, a place she had never visited considering Cinnabar had her own private training room where most of their work had taken place. It had been easy enough to find considering the well placed signs over the doors. This gym was well equiped by the look of it, not that Violane could tell you what half of the machines did, but it looked impressive enough to her. Of course, there stood her new General fussing about with things she really hoped had nothing to do with her.
Upon seeing Leucite, those little coals flared to life a bit more. Burned a bit hotter as she walked up to him. It was clearly written on her face that this place was the last place she wanted to be and he was the last person she wanted to see in said place. “You do realize I have finals to study for, right? You said yourself that you went to college so you should know how important these tests are.” She paused a moment before adding “General.” Arms were crossed as she stood practically staring him down.
----
“Then you should be better prepared.” Slipping in the doors after a woman she had not seen before, Captain Stibnite didn’t give Leucite a chance to even answer as he busied himself with the items at hand. Leucite had come home blazing and the insisted she accompany him to the Corps this evening to meet a new recruit. She had not pushed for the full story yet but judging from things, this was her. “You know your civilian schedule long before things come up here. Stay on top of things and a sudden summons should pose no problem for anyone.”
Stibnite’s hood was thrown back as she came up beside Violane. Offering the woman a sly smile, the Captain turned her eyes back to their General. “A summons like this is nothing compared to being snapped from the middle of something when Metallia or the Queen calls. And I promise you...they don’t give a rats a** about your personal life. We have all had to learn to make sacrifices in the name of the Negaverse.”
There was a long sigh, then she shook her head. “If you think studying for exams is and managing all of this is annoying, try running a business. Which…” Stibnite’s voice suddenly picked up making sure Leucite could hear her. “Doesn’t help when someone doesn’t sign the damn paperwork needed for the tax returns!”
---
“They’ll be signed and on your desk in the morning,” Leucite said without skipping a beat, moving to the next machine to test it for a moment before finally giving it a nod and stepping away from it. “And Stibnite is correct. I spent the majority of my college years waking up before dawn to work out - I still do.” He added with a small nod. “You will make time - or time will be made for you.” He said.
“Figure it out - you may have to deal with a few days of sleepless nights, but eventually you’ll adjust to the new level of activity and stress.” He said with a completely humorless face. “On that note, however, I would like to test your general physical aptitude, so if you would step on the treadmill please, we’ll get started.” He motioned to the nearby machine with a slight nod of his head.
“I want to know how much work we’re going to need to put into you to get you to combat readiness.”
---
A new voice joined the conversation and Violane couldn’t stop the sigh and roll of eyes.
Great. Perfect, Now there were two of them to harp on her. Just ******** peachy.
“Right. I know my civilian schedule is jam packed and doesn’t need s**t popping up to ******** it up.” She responded to the woman who had cheekily walked up to her. Violane had no idea who this random woman was, but she could certainly put two and two together and assume she was one of Leucite’s with how she popped in and immediately got on Violane’s a**.
And the Leucite joined in and Violane felt her hackles raise. She was going to be ganged up on and was not liking it one bit. It was like hearing her parents all over again trying to dictate her life and it pissed her off. “Excuse me for not wanting to give up everything I have for this noble cause of ours. I do like my sleep, and school, oh and a social life would eventually be nice to have again.” Cause her social life had gone down the shitter since becoming part of the Negaverse since there was only so much time in a day. “Not to mention I have enough stress in my life as it is, thanks. I am not looking for more.”
But, more she was getting. A lot more.
A brow rose as Leucite gestured to the treadmill. “I’ve not once ever stepped on one of those things let alone have been tested on one.” Wasn’t that the truth, and was probably the reason why Cinnabar had found it so easy to chase her down on that fateful night of her corruption. Even since then she avoided the machines like the plague, much preferring to do basic laps around the training room when Cinnabar felt the need for her to train endurance. Was it much different?
With great reluctancy and hesitancy she walked up onto the contraption and stared at the blinking lights and buttons with unease. Welp, if she ate it it would be her new Generals fault considering she gave him warning.
---
Heels clicked on the gym floor as Stibnite followed the young woman. Before she could start her run, a glove hand reached out and slapped onto the treadmill screen. Red eyes flashed back at her and she locked onto the face of the clearly careless woman. “Do you like your life?” The words were covered in spite as she smiled through them never moving her gaze. “Lieutenant, I don’t know your backstory and at this very moment, I could careless. However, the moment you walked into our lives, and onto our team, your life became a concern of ours. Both Leucite and I will do damn near anything to keep you alive from this day forward however…”
She lifted her hands up and pushed the start putting, picking up the pace of the machine to where she would need to be at least at a power walk. “We are not your protectors. We are not your parents. We will not hold your hand if you fall down nor are we going to stop you from living your life. What we ask though is that you at least put enough effort in to keep yourself alive. Do that and your life is yours to live how you decide. Don’t and you will find it is not us you need to be concerned about.”
Stibnite stepped back, her arms crossed under her chest. “If you aren’t willing to do the bare minimum then I will be happy to call down the General Queen to remove your starseed for good. Something I know neither you nor I were happy about being made examples of.” It had taken Stibnite a moment to realize why she recognized this woman. She had been the woman all but bored out of her mind the night so many Generals had left Special Ops. The knight the Training Corps was born…
“You don’t want to be here. That’s clear as day. But you are here so might as well learn what you can to keep yourself alive. Maybe if you tried you might even find something you enjoy here….” But that would require an open mind. Something this agent clearly didn’t have.
---
“As Captain Stibnite so kindly pointed out, we are not your parents. But it is our responsibility to ensure that when you are out there - in the field - that you are not picked off like some pigeon before a hawk.” Leucite said, keeping his voice stern as he spoke. “Keep in mind that I already gave you an extremely light quota for this week - and I know you haven’t turned anything in. Don’t think I don’t check the logs daily - because I do.”
He checked all of them. Stibnite’s, Lopezite’s, Piypite’s, Wardite’s - and now Violane’s. His life was probably as busy - if not more so - as Violane’s. But he still ensured that he took care of all of his business before finally succumbing to a nap… (Or consuming an energy orb with a red bull chaser).
But that wasn’t the point of this current exercise. “Go ahead and start, I’ll tell you when to increase the speed… You will continue to run until I tell you to stop - if you slow down… If you stop the machine or key it to slow down. I will end the test right there - and you will be reprimanded…. Now get started.”
His tone did not brook any arguments.
---
“like I need anymore meddling and controling parents in my life.” She muttered under her breath as Stibnite droned on and on. Truthfully, Violane was ready to tune the damn woman out as she nagged at her, especially considering the damn treadmill had been started. But, there were key points and words that the Captain said that kept the Lieutenant at least half way attentive. Specifically the mention of starseeds and she scoffed hard. “Yea, which seems to be about the only damn thing this ******** place uses as discipline or displays of power.” Oh, she wasn’t bitter at all that so many people had dug their filthy hands into her chest to grab at her starseed. How she hated being shown how worthless she was. It was just an ongoing theme in her life.
She turned her focus to the machine as she easily kept up with the power walk. At times she skipped a step to keep herself on pace, finding the current speed just bordering a fast walk and a light jog for her gait.
Amethyst eye’s snapped to Leucite. “Great. Perfect. I’ll be waiting for you to fondle my starseed again then. Want me to make it easier for you this time and just hop off this machine now, arms spread?” She huffed, her anger flaring which meant her heart rate and breath increased as well with the increased blood flow. “And no, sorry haven’t found time to hit the town and all yet.”
“Not to mention…” She started eye flicking from Leucite back to Stibnite. “I damn well don’t need you trying to lie to me and tell me I can live my life as I see fit, because if that was the case I wouldn’t be here ******** around with all of this.” She flung her arms up in emphasis to the gym and negaspace as a whole.
---
Stibnite made no comment to her words this time. She was watching her face as she kept pace and fought back everything they were saying. Venom was in her throat and Stibnite was close to showing her fangs but that was when she had finally said something that caught her attention.
“General...” though her words were directed at Leucite, her eyes were locked on their new charge. “Is there a piece of information you have not told me?” Now her red eyes flickered towards the male in the room. The starseed bit was as much of a sore sport for her as it clearly was for Violane. That was their lives. Their very soul. The reason a member of her family was alive today….
“Violane, no.” Stibnite finally said, her eyes still locked on his face. “Being reprimanded here has nothing to do with your starseed. However we would find out how many push ups you can do.”
---
“Violane and I had a discussion at our initial meeting when she was transferred.” Leucite said, voice steady but not nearly as cool as it was before as he was addressing Stibnite and not Violane. “She would not listen to reason, so I had to resort to a rather harsh form of discipline to make her see sense.” His eyes remained on Violane as he spoke. He had ignored most of her taunting and barbs.
“Unfortunately, it seems that, that disciplinary measure was lacking in its effectiveness. In which case I shall have to find more… creative means.” His voice cooled a bit as Violane continued to complain. Though Stibnite’s idea for a punishment had merit. He supposed he could continue to push her until she figured out her pushing wasn’t getting anywhere.
Moving over to the treadmill - he turned it up several notches. “Faster.” He said coolly. “Do not stop.”
---
Seemed the General hadn’t filled his Captain in on everything. It was hard to tell, considering that she was focused on not tripping over her own two feet on the treadmill, if there was more to it than that. The Lieutenant hadn’t recognized the Captain from the meeting, she’d been a bit uninterested as was surmised and then unconscious, so there was no history that she was aware of to possibly pull information from. Still, she did note the fact that Stibnite seemed curious enough about the starseed comment.
As it was, Leucite sound not at all sorry for what he did, which had Violane glaring daggers at his comment. “a*****e.” She spat out at him.
And then he punched the dials on the machine. Within a few seconds the machine sped it’s pace up gently enough that Violane didn’t completely fall on her face and was able to keep pace, but she immediately knew that this pace was not something she was going to be comfortable at keeping up with which was abundantly clear at the fact that her mouthy responses came to a screeching halt as she focused on keeping up.
To the trained eye it would be very evident that Violane had very little formal training with running. Her foot placement was off as she used as large of strides as she could to keep up with the moving belt, her body was leaning too far forward, and her breathing was far from controlled and rhythmatic which was to be expected of a trained runner or someone who had some real sense of knowing how to deal with endurance training.
“How long….is this go...nna go on...for?” She managed to get out.
---
“I see.” Stibnite said curtly as her eyes flickered back to Violane. The subject was dropped, for not. It was a matter they would discuss at another time when someone else was not present. Hands though dropped to her hips and she took mental note of their new charge’s stance and ability to run. It was...telling.
But just as she would not challenge Leucite’s position on his actions in a prior meeting, she would not overrule him here. This was his test. Though she did shoot him a curt glance saying not to keep it going much longer. Violane could get truly hurt if she didn’t learn at least how to breathe when running.
“She won’t be able to keep going much longer.” The words were phrased as a suggestion and an observation. Though she doubted Violane would listen to her or either of them right then. “Though I have to say, if a*****e is her best comeback, you haven’t pissed her off enough.”
---
It was pathetic watching her run. It made Leucite hurt. He could not wrap his mind around someone who did not at least try to keep their body in some semblance of shape. His eyes darted to Stibnite, his gaze letting her know without words that they would talk later. He had not kept it from her out of malice. Not that he thought she’d think his reason was a good one. He’d wanted to keep the discipline separate and discrete, since she was reporting directly to him for the most part.
But she was right - any faster, or for much longer, and Violane was going to hurt herself. With a growl, his fist smacked the emergency stop button, and the treadmill began to wind down as it cut the power.
“Get off, and head over to the next station…” He growled, moving away from the treadmill over to the notebook he’d taken from his office. Grabbing his pen he wrote:
Cardio: Needs Drastic Improvement.
---
Violane had not listened to a word being said around her. Her entire being had been focused on not slamming her face into the machine’s control panel by losing her shaky pace or tripping over her own feet or the belt itself. So, when a hand slammed down onto the panel onto the stop button, Violane couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief as the machine steadily slowed to a halt, leaving her standing there practically gasping for breath.
He was out to kill her. One way or another. Violane was certain of it.
She watched from her near doubled over position as the General moved to scribble something angrily into his book but she didn’t move to the next station. Couldn’t really if she didn’t know what it was. She wasn’t a ******** mind reader. So instead she held her ground, still standing on the treadmill as she gained her breath back one gasp at a time. Eventually she felt good enough to stand up strait. Her eyes parted around for any source of water in the place, far too use to Cinnabar’s own provisions and where they were located at in the General’s personal gym.
---
With a flip of her wrist, Stibnite pointed over the woman’s shoulder. There, against the back wall of the gym was a table with mini water bottles laid out. They kept a small stock of them here because she didn’t care what people said...Negaspace in her mind did not equal a place to trust drinking water. There were also a few towels and a stack of power bars if someone had a sugar crash.
“Give her a minute.” Stibnite finally said walking past the treadmill, her arms going behind her back. “She isn’t used to our level of physical activity. You want to test what she can do, not put her in a coma.” Stibnite reminded him, making sure his annoyance didn’t cloud his judgement. She was just as annoyed with the woman as he was, but tonight was not the night for carrying someone to the hospital for dehydration.
“Violane, careful not to chug. It will make you want to puke later. The General works those who puke harder.”
---
Leucite waited for a few moments, before looking at Stibnite. He did not so much as snap the notebook shut as much as close it pointedly, before placing it and the pen back down on the table. He gave Stibnite a nod, and as she directed Violane to get a drink, he moved away from the two women for a time, mentally counting and taking long, slow, breaths to try and calm himself. He was very, very perturbed at the lack of any physical aptitude that Violane was showing at that point in time.
She’d be eaten alive if she’d had to fight at all. He could see that clear as day.
Finally, he turned back around, moving over to the women, and pointing at the next section, which was more of a cleared spot in the general area. “Once you’re hydrated, we’ll move on to the next task.”
He kept his voice level now, keeping the coolness in his voice from going completely ice cold.
---
It was like the Captain could read her mind, or perhaps it was the needful way she searched the room with her eyes for the liquid relief. With the bottles pointe dout to her, Violane made her way over to them, snatching one, and twisting the cap off. Her first instinct was to chug it as Stibnite had assumed, but kept herself from doing it. Instead she took a few large gulps before putting the lid back on, her chest still heaving from the exertion. ********, how she hated any form of cardio. Well, cardio that didn’t involve a bed and a partner….or two. Ok, a bed was optional.
She turned her attention back to the General and his Captain. She still found extreme distaste for the male in the room. His posturing and form of ‘punishment’ had created an extreme hatred for him and lack of disrespect, but the Captain….well, she was annoying and a bit of an a** kisser, but perhaps there was at least a soul inside who actually thought people were just that, people and not some machine that needed to follow every order. The verdict was still out though.
Taking another swig of her water, she put the cap on again before carrying both the bottle and the towel with her to her torturer. “Now what.” she said, her breath finally returning to a normal pace. She looked at the empty spot and raised a questioning brow. “I’ve not lied to you you know. I’ve never been much of an athlete. The most I’ve ever done is the occasional club fight here and there.” She shrugged. Of course General cinnabar had taken time to train her, but a lot of that training had been to get her use to fighting differently than she was use to. A way to preserve her hands and utilize lower body strength than upper body. Sure they worked on full body exercises but Violane was far from being ‘fit’ by most people’s standards.
---
“I don’t think either of us thought you were lying.” Stibnite responded simply as she watched Leucite moved towards the next area, She wasn’t completely sure what he was planning to do...something she did not like but, they had an understanding. Appearances were ******** important after all. “We just want to see what you are able to do. What your current limits are.”
Red eyes flickered back to Violane and she shook her head. “I’ve seen worse. You are at least still standing so congratulations there. Last person he did that too ended up on the floor for twenty minutes.” And she ended up having to get a full refund. Things that pissed her off more than starseed playing with.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let him kill you. Leucite sometimes forgets that not everyone is here to be training for a strong man show. Just do what you can for now. We will get you to where you can breathe and run soon enough…” She was far calmer now than she had been before. Leucite had pulled a card that had switched her entire mindset about this woman. Violane might still be a fool but she was a fool who needed not a hand to the face but something else…
---
Good, Stibnite was able to come in and act the good cop. He was glad for that. He had hoped she’d be able to fill that role after he’d first spoken with Violane. Mainly because it could have gone one of two ways. The ideal way - Violane finding Stibs to be the reasonable captain and someone worth getting to know. Or the less idea way - and Violane finding them both insufferable. But, Stibs was right. He couldn’t push Violane too hard - he’d either kill her or hurt her and that was counter intuitive to his responsibility to her as her commanding officer.
“Next is push-ups…” He said, his voice a bit lower in tone, less cool now More tempered. “I’ll time how many you can do in two minutes.” He said plainly. “It’s to test your upper body endurance.” He added.
He pulled a stopwatch from his jacket and held it up in front of him as he watched her. “When you’re ready.”
---
she snorted. Right. Should have been there the other night when he threatened to kill me.” She growled out, immediately shutting herself down to them both again. Resentment flooding in her as she looked from the Captain back to Leucite and his expectant look on his face.
If only she could walk up and punch him in the face. The thought of a blood nose ruining that pristine soldier boy look was such a delightful mental image.
When Leucite told her what he expected of her she stopped and stared him for a moment and nearly laughed in his face. “You’ve got to be kidding. 2 minutes for push ups?” She looked from Leucite to Stibnite and back. “Give me 30 seconds and we can can call this done.”
To prove her point she lowered herself to the ground and took up her pushup stance. It wasn’t too terribly wrong. Her butt was a tiny bit high, but the form wasn’t too far away. But the amount of push-ups became staggeringly slow to near non-existent after about seven. At one point she gave up and knelt on her hands and knees as she gave her arms a break from her full body weight. Credit to her though, after giving herself a break she did attempt again to try to push through another few but didn’t get much more than another 2 more, very, shakily.
---
Stibnite felt her eyes roll at the comment about being there the other night. She may have been his partner but she wasn’t his caretaker. Thank God. Otherwise she would never get anything done.
Stepping forward though, she moved towards Violane and tapped her raised behind lightly. “Drop this. You want a straight, smooth back down to your legs.” That was when she looked at Leucite then the timer. “Re-start that. Violane, would you try planking for us instead of push ups? I would rather see your body in a proper form before you get hurt.”
Stibnite stepped back, gazing at Violane’s body and form. “Straight arm. Like at the top of a pushup. You should feel it in your core. Consider it a quick way to a six-pack and attention in a bikini.”
The woman wanted a social life...fine. She could play the attention card. So long as she did the exercise right.
---
Leucite nodded his head, letting Stibnite critique and correct the other woman’s form. He had become almost silent now. Letting Stibnite take control of the situation - guide Violane where she wanted her to go. This was as much a test for Stibnite as it was for Violane - though an unintentional one. Stibnite, by all technicalities, oversaw not only Lopezite, but Wardite and Pyipite as well. The only members of the team that reported directly to him were Raspite - and technically Violane. But if Stibnite proved she could direct Violane… Well…
Maybe he’d relieve her of Wardite and Pyipite. For better or worse.
Still, reset the stopwatch, watching the seconds tick up toward two minutes, watching Violane’s form as she planked. She could at least be taught proper technique, so all hope wasn’t lost at least. Hopefully they’d be able to direct her down a better - more healthy path for herself.
---
Jesus ******** christ, who the hell was running this s**t? Leucite or Stibnite? ********> “I don’t need to look god in a bikini to get attention.” Violane cursed under her breath at Stibnite but she did as told and shifted from pushup’s to planks. The nudge on her butt worked as an indicator for her to drop it a bit more and she followed suit. Yep. There it was. Now she could feel the strain.
Planking was something she was familiar with at least. Sure, she still had issues feeling if she was in the right form, but it was better than it had been at first. After all, Cinnabar had her do this fairly often but hadn’t asked for 2 minutes. Tops she had managed about a minute. She struggled terribly over that threshold.
So, she planked, her body stiff as she focused on her abs. Around the 30 second mark she could feel her arms begin to shake, 45 seconds, the rest of her body followed suit and she had to focus hard on actually breathing and not holding it. At what she assumed was around the minute mark she audible let out a gasp of air, her face contorting as she tried to hold it just a bit longer before finally giving in and going to her knee. “********.” She cursed softly as her muscles burned terribly.
Sitting back on her legs, she looked up at Leucite and Stibnite to see if that was at least acceptable? Considering she appeared to be a royal failure all night she wasn’t in high hopes. Though, she was curious to hear what her time was to see if she had perhaps gone a bit longer. Even if just a second.
--
The smile that formed on Stibnite’s face was growing with each second. Planking wasn’t as easy as people liked to believe so when signs of fatigue began to set in and Violane pushed through, Stibnite had to admit she was impressed. “Nice job. Your form looked much better. You may feel the results tomorrow.” She offered but glanced over to Leucite for the official time.
Truth was she had never asked for anyone to be ‘under her’. The very idea annoyed her to the core. She prefered to work alone or with a single partner. Lopezite had been a surprise. She had seen A LOT in him and truly admired his ability to listen. When Leucite had put her over him, pleasure was not what he got. Wardite and Piypite were another story. Those two were thrust upon them in such a rush...basically she got stuck with them because she wasn’t afraid to kick their asses to China and back.
So had she known he was testing them both, he might have had another woman even more annoyed. “What else do you plan to test her on tonight, General?” Stibnite finally asked, looking back towards Violane to see how she was recovering. “General overview or particulars?”
That was when she seemed to form a question in her mind and looked at Violane. “Humor me. Your assets are clearly not in physical strength, yet. Where would you claim they are?”
---
“My plan had been for a full physical assessment, but I think I’ve seen enough,” Leucite said with a small nod, moving back over to the table, before writing down again in the notebook and shaking his head slowly. “One minute, 15 seconds on the plank by the way.” He added, almost as an afterthought, before moving back over to stand somewhat behind Stibnite. His stance was relaxed, almost aloof - as if he was keeping his distance to let Stibnite take control of the situation on purpose.
At the end of the day - he did call the shots here. He knew Stibnite knew that, knew that she would not step out of line. Knew that if she did - she would expect swift punishment and the apology that would come with it later. But, Leucite trusted her not to put him in that position.
It required an awful lot of trust - to put your life in someone else’s hands. Trust he would have to slowly foster in Violane - if it was even possible. They were off to an admittedly rough start, but it was his hope that she would turn around in time.
“What would you say is your strength, Violane. What are you best at, as Stibnite pointed out - it’s definitely not physical might, though we’ll work on that with time.”
---
Her strengths? That certainly wasn’t something that had ever been asked of her and her surprise at such a question was evident on her face for a split moment before she masked it. The question was a good one though. What were her strong points? Well, she could certainly think of one thing but she had the feeling her bed activities weren’t what these two were looking for. Her violin playing, yes, but again, not something she thought they were expecting or even wanting to hear.
Why was she caring anyway? These two had been a pain in the a** since she’d met them. Sure, she’d been obstinate and unwilling to cooperate but she’d been upset and angry. Who wouldn’t be in such a situation? Going from a General who respected you and didn’t talk down on you to one who expected you to do as he said, no questions asked?
“Well, I…” She paused for a moment before shrugging. “I truthfully haven’t ever thought about it. I was thought of as the ‘problem child’ at home, so I could probably list off my shortcomings before any of my assets besides the obvious like playing violin.” She paused a moment again. “I suppose I am focused, strong willed, and determined. Considering the s**t I had to go through growing up you can say I am quite willing and ready to make my own mark and break away.” She eyed them both. “Give myself freedom to do what I want for a change.”
---
A brow rose on Stibnite’s face as the edge of her mouth twerked into a smirk. She had caught that surprise if only for a second. It was clearly something no one had every considered to ask of her. But the answer did not surprise her. People who had true abilities were not always aware of them at first. At least not the ones that hadn’t been drilled into them like her own ability to hunt or Violane’s claim to the violin.
“Sometimes we want to spread our wings and fly before we are ready.” Stibnite finally responded, never moving but always watching. “You have nailed three of your traits that are clear as day. Focused on what you want and determined to get it. Strong willed and stubborn. All good things here.” Motioning over her shoulder with her thumb, she pointed to the General behind her. “I would be curious to see which one of you was more of the mule in budging on things one day but not today.”
“Here is the problem.” Stibnite finally said, hands going behind her back. “And Lieutenant, I doubt you are going to like what I have to say but I give about as much ******** as you do at the moment.” Holding her gaze, Stibnite continued. “You want to break away and give yourself freedom to do what you want. I think that is every sole that walks this earth with a brain and a spine. However you are no longer on your own. Inside of you even at this very moment is the core of our power.” Reaching up, Stibnite tapped over her heart. “Metallia’s power is flowing in you and there is nothing you can do about it now. We are at her will, beck and call. If she wants us, we are forced to come. If she is unhappy with us, she makes sure we know it. She can kill us without a thought but she can also give us the power to take back what is ours...and more.”
“So Violane, you want to do what you want for a change? Then tell me this, why did you join the negaverse in the first place? What promise was made to you without filling you in on the fact that your very life is no longer your own.”
---
Leucite grinned and nodded his head approvingly at Stibnite’s words. She had the right of it in the end - though he had a feeling that he would probably have been the last to balk if he and Violane had been allowed to fully but heads. But all the same - better to not be in that situation to begin with.
He remained where he stood, giving Stibnite the chance to take command for now. It was good to see that his faith in her was hardly misplaced - not that he feared it would be - but vindication was nice all the same.
He awaited Violane’s answer - perhaps it would help him tailor his training for her.
---
Stibnite’s words gave the Lieutenant pause. It was similar to what she had heard that fateful night. Metallia, the central core of their power, was their one and only true purpose in this crazy war they were involved in. Whatever. This Metallia person had yet to show face and Violane was none impressed with a being who was similar to the religious Gods some preached and bowed to.
A question was presented, and Violane stared cooly at the Captain. “You mean, besides the fact I was given a choice between being consumed by Cinnabar or joining?” There was no loathing in her tone. She spoke her words calmly. “Power. The strength to do what I wanted.” Someone who actually felt like they saw potential in me. Never had I heard those words spoken by a complete stranger and not be in reference to my instrumental skills. Of course, Violane was not going to pour her heart out to these two.
She shrugged. “But that’s besides the point now, isn’t it. It’s all too late. Here I am.” She spread her arms open as if the punctuate that fact.
---
Now things were making sense.
Stibnite felt her eyes close as her mouth twisted into a playful smile. “I knew I never liked that woman.” Stibnite mumbled before turning around to no longer face Violane but to gaze at the man they both called ‘General’.
“I have heard enough. At this point, it’s on you.” Stibnite spoke calmly but did not wait for a response as she brushed past the man and headed for the exit. “Violane, like me or not, call if you ever need help.” She called back before disappearing the same way she had come in.
Leucite and her had some things to discuss on this one but one thing was clear: words would get them nowhere.
---
Leucite nodded to Stibnite, it was not a curt - dismissive nod - but one of understanding. His own opinions of Cinnabar were - well - kept close to his chest for reasons that were his own, but the woman had earned his respect the night she had dragged him from combat - which was why he had chosen to take Violane on. Cinnabar had her reasons to dump all her subordinates - he just hoped it was a good one.
She’d left him with… Someone who seemed to desperately broken and he wasn’t sure if that was entirely Violane’s fault. He had issues with how Generals operated - he would have to voice these concerns at some point, but now was hardly the time.
“Violane,” He said, his voice cooler now - not so angry or heated from her earlier balking. “I have seen enough for this current assessment. You are free to go as you please.” He said. “I will call upon you when I have need of you again.”
He did not move from his spot - since, well - someone was going to have to clean up the gym - and he wasn’t ordering her to do it.
---
Stibnite was the first to leave. A brow rose at the offer presented to the Lt. but Violane said nothing in response. Instead she watched the retreating back of the Captain as a look was passed between her and her General. Violane felt like she was being talked about without a single word having to pass between the two.
And then came her dismissal from Leucite. Unlike the man, the thought that the gym would need to be cleaned hadn’t crossed her mind. Instead she gave the man a look, a shallow nod of her head to acknowledge his dismissal, and left through the same door that Stibnite had left from.
It’s about ******** time.
Torvil
sirene naiads
