Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Yes.” The reply was succinct.
“A curious manner to send for me, I assume there is something happening?” He said in low tones, that shifted slightly at the sight of blood on the other man’s coat.
“….what happened.” He asked after a moment.
“Do you require either a doctor, or a star seed.”

Zinkenite patted at his pockets, seeking out one of the precious star seeds that had been turned in to him and turned it over, a carefully balanced treasure in the palm of his hand.

“So… she stabbed you.” He said carefully as he offered the star seed, his voice was dark when he spoke. An ominous rigidity to his words that implied terrible things.
“ You’d have been within your rights to be eating her star seed.” He said shaking his head slowly.
“She will need punished, and it can not be done lightly.”

He knew the words weren’t needed per say, any general, especially one whom had been around as long as Benitoite knew the importance of discipline, but this…

The last time he’d had to punish on this scale, well.
“… Go, take care of yourself. You know where to find me.” He said and placed a gentle hand on the General’s ‘good’ shoulder, a flicker of tension creased the corner of his eye and the arm dropped again a moment later.

“I’ll watch.” He said and exhaled.
“… Is it you, specifically she seems to take issue with?”

From where she lay on the cold stone floor the Senshi of Swordplay stirred; roused awake by the muffled sound of two people speaking behind her only a few feet away. If she wakes...You can talk to her... were the only words she heard Benitoite say to someone who had a signature that all but suffocated the room with its intensity.

A Sovereign! Realization hit her about as hard as when the General had pinned her against the wall and removed her starseed. If anything, it felt more like a punch in the gut to say the least and with how badly her head was currently throbbing from having her energy drained, it took a significant amount of effort to remain silent and even more to remain still; at least until she hard the soft sounds of footsteps retreating and diminishing aura as Benitoite retreated down a hallway and made a sharp right.

Seconds passed before Hatsya finally opened her eyes.

For the next several minutes she laid prone on the ground where Benitoite had all but dropped her, staring at a decidedly ordinarily plain cell wall in stilled silence. Towards the end of their fight she had resigned her to the likelihood that he would have killed her. I’m so sorry.. he had said in a way that seemed like the General was begging for forgiveness for a sin he was about to commit. A forgiveness she intended to deny him with her dying breath.

Something he intended to deny her in return. Seemed appropriate given the circumstances yet she wished he had left the Sovereign's out of it. But as one so bent on following the rules, choosing to ignore the chain of command would only break his own moral code. Couldn’t have that now could he…

“Heh…” Hatsya let out a mirthless laugh followed by a dry cough as she struggled to at least sit up. The room felt like it was spinning beneath her but with a fair amount of effort she was able to move so her back was pressed against the wall she had been facing. The cell was of a moderate size, not that it mattered though when there was one door and the only other person in the room could kill her more than ten ways from Sunday before she even had a chance of standing up.

Perhaps it was an act of desperation or mild curiosity, but without even acknowledging the General King, the Corrupt Senshi held her hand out in front of her.

“Sword of Silencing” she whispered, summoning the familiar golden handle which she then took ahold of. The blade formed as expected but then the ethereal form began sputtering before bursting into small dusts of light that dissipated before touching the floor.

Hatsya’s lips twitched in a humorless smile as her vibrant sunset colored eyes remained transfixed on an arbitrary spot on the stone floor all the while hoping that the General King, one she had recognized from the last time she had been pulled into the Rift, chose not to take Benitoite up on his offer to speak with her now that she was awake.

Nope, I just needed to know how royally ******** I am. Hatsya mentally replied. Even if she were stupid, or desperate, enough to attack him with it, at best she could get maybe what...? Lost in the maze of prison cells, assuming she was fortunate enough to slip past him; a nice thought but unlikely. In the end it would all be for naught; the moment her magic wore off he would be able to summon her back, just as Benitoite did, and then there would be even more hell to pay.

“There is no reason to have an issue with someone I know next to nothing about.” She finally responded after a moment. Although, because Benitoite got him involved, that might quickly change depending on how this conversation went.

“Not that you had anything to worry about anyway. I’m not stupid enough to attack you.” For the first time Hatsya finally looked up at the General King from where she remained sitting on the cold floor. There had to have been a reason Benitoite didn't bind her hands behind her back; and by testing her magic she found out why. Her lack of strength when trying to sit uphad nothing to do with the fact he had removed her starseed from her chest. Rather, he had taken nearly all of her energy, leaving her with just enough to remain powered up for her extended stay in the Dark Kingdom.

Hatsya’s back straightened, her head accidentally bumping against the wall when the Sovereign stepped near and lowered himself down to her level. Just as he looked at her in a way that almost suggested he were sizing her; the Senshi of Swordplay, in turn, was doing the same to him.

While General King’s tone sounded, at bare minimum, irritated; the authority and firmness behind it actually made her consider retreating to the other side of the cell if only to put some more distance between them. However, the slight tilt of his head suggested an amount of curiosity or intrigue; of what, she had no idea but now was neither the time or place to figure that out. If anything he was just as much of an enigma now as he was in the Rift and in all honesty she had no real desire to test his patience or see how far she could push him before he finally snapped.

“If you’ve already spoken to Benitoite, then I feel like nothing I say will hold any merit.” Hatsya paused for a moment, wishing she could tear her eyes from his but could not find the courage to look away. “If you truly want to know… then it is best I just show you instead.”

The Senshi remained still as she waited for the General King’s reply.

Hatsya’s face nearly deadpanned.

Rather than making a quip comment she closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath and held it for a second just to keep from sighing or rolling her eyes at the General King. Yes, she had just told him she was not stupid enough to attack him. However, she had to keep in mind that while she had no reason to trust him or his intent, he had no reason to trust her either.

After a moment had passed, the Senshi of Swordplay finally stirred. First she removed both her boots, then her bracers and in doing so revealed multiple scars that had been hidden by her uniform The most notable one was a cut about three inches long on the side of her leg just above her knee which appeared to be horizontally mirrored below her knee in a way that suggested, if she were to kneel in front of him, the two would make a straight line. But that was only one of many, the longest of them being a thin line that ran along the back of her arm from her wrist almost to her elbow.

Hatsya shifted then, placing her hand on the wall for support it took more effort than she could have imagined to finally rise to her feet. The struggle, however, was not instantly over as a wave of nausea and dizziness swept over her nearly bringing her back down to her knees. It was like being drunk without the joy of feeling buzzed or having the flu and being forced to get out of bed just to get a glass of water. Having no energy truly sucked, nonetheless, after a few deep breaths she finally found the strength to steadied herself.

Glancing down at the Sovereign her eyes narrowed skeptically. “Just don’t get any ideas…”

For a second it almost seemed as if she was about to consider rescinding her offer to show him the reason she had been pushed this far but then she turned around so her back was to him. While he couldn’t really see what Hatsya was doing, it became clear once she shrugged out of her outer coat and allowed it to fall to the floor that there was more to be seen. Next came the decorative drape followed by the black and gold belt that had been tied around her waist. Again she paused, her head bowed forward as if she were ashamed of what she was about to reveal.

With her long hair acting as a veil between them, Hatsya tugged the sides of her bodice and pulled it down to her hips before leaning down to pick her coat back up and hug it to her chest for modesty's sake. Using her right arm she reached behind her head to pull her obscene amount of hair over her shoulder revealing a myriad of injuries that had long since healed but painted a rather brutal image across her backside; the worst of them being a starburst shaped one on her right shoulder blade.

“This was his fault.” She flatly stated. “He pulled me into a fight I was not prepared for, against a Prince no less.” Hatsya spat out the title as if it was the most vial thing. “It was a haphazard idea that nearly cost me my life. I was lucky that one of those sharp shards of hail didn’t break my spine or crack my skull open.” She, again, let out a mirthless laugh. “No, it just left me in a hospital bed wishing it had because he only thing worse than death is losing your reasons for living.”

“Weeks turned into months and I hadn’t seen nor heard from him. In fact nobody came, then again... when you’re a broken tool what reason is there to check on someone who has lost their use? In the military, when someone is this badly injured they are sent home with and granted an honorable discharge. Over time I believed that this was what had happened to me. At first I was angry but then I saw this freedom as a blessing and finally began to reclaim my life.” Hatsya’s hand balled into a fist at her side as she leaned forward to rest her head against the cold stone wall.

“But then he showed up again…” Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and onto her coat she held onto. “Just like before, my choice, my freedom had been stripped away. All that anger I had felt came flooding back and I just…”

Hatsya fell silent then, unable and unwilling to turn around she simply stood there. “Benitoite is a General, I am a nobody; who was there for me to turn to? Laurelite? Heh… Just because she had been the one to aid in him awakening me doesn’t mean I have any right to approach her for help. And before you say it, don’t even suggest that I could have gone to you. It was clear enough when I first saw you in the Rift that you and the General had some sort of history.” Whatever it was, it was none of her business.

“What other option did I have?” Hatsya used the back of her arm to swipe the tears from her cheeks before turning her head to face the General King.

The weight he placed on her shoulders was actually startling, especially since the Sovereign could have simply told her to put her clothes back on. The action left her feeling oddly confused if not disarmed and a bit uncomfortable because, in truth, she wasn’t entirely sure if she should tell him ‘thank you’ or give it back. Ultimately she did neither.

“Could I have stopped Castor?” Hatsya canted her head to the side in mild consideration. “Him? No.” She replied flatly. “His magic? Yes.”

“If the nuisance of a page wasn’t in the way I do think my sword would have interrupted his magic long enough to allow our comrades to seek shelter or seize the opportunity to attack him directly. At bare minimum I could have given them thirty seconds before he had a chance to cast it again.” Assuming there wasn’t a limit on that horrific hail storm he had summoned.

“But what you need to understand, is at that point, once he’s no longer concentrating on his magic, I am completely defenseless…” Hatsya readjusted her bodice before turning around to face the General King. She paused then, taken aback by his own scars that were now on full display she couldn’t help but stare now that her train of thought had been derailed but this revelation.

Hatsya blinked several times before finally continuing on with the point she was trying to make. “I have not used my magic enough to have a complete understanding of its mechanics, but the things I do know are one… my swords can’t protect me from physical attacks, it’s not real. I don’t know if it actually hurts… the Page I had mentioned before reacted as if I had actually hurt her where Benitoite hardly reacted at all.”

“Two… I can lock someone down out of their active abilities but anything deemed to be passive, such as our natural speed and strength, are uninhibited. The only reason I even stood a chance against Benitoite was because he neglected to have his spear already summoned once he arrived and after I struck him he couldn’t teleport away.” A minor hindrance that he easily overcame. “In the end it meant nothing. While my magic was still active he was still able to break my other sword and overcome me completely.” Which brought them to the here and now.

“Lastly, it only delays the inevitable. Unless I time it perfectly and use my swords in succession,” Which would lock them down for a minute and a half. “I’m screwed. Yes I can run away but…” Hatsya sighed.

“Taking all of the into account I knew it was useless for me to even consider attacking you. Consider this, assuming I was able to get past you, I would have thirty seconds to do what? Run away? I know where I’m at and that there’s nowhere for me to go. I’d be lucky enough to find the exit to this building. All you’d have to do is stand here and wait until you could summon me back here.” Turning her head to the side, Hatsya tore her eyes from his and pursed her lips into a thin line. At that point he’d probably kill her as Benitoite should have done.