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 Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:31 am
The building was more than a century old. Locals often spoke of how it had once been one of Destiny City’s most glamorous hotels, though it hadn’t been used for that purpose since the early 1900s. After the Great Depression, it became a mental hospital dogged by so many scandals it had no choice but to shut down. Ownership changed hands so often over the decades, the building was rumored to be cursed. Many attempts had been made to renovate it, without much success. Now it sat more or less abandoned, under the stewardship of yet another executive with high hopes but too many money troubles to make a difference. Naturally, the building remained notorious among adventurous teens and daring college students on the hunt for ghosts.
They kept Jet in one of the few rooms that still remained relatively intact, with metal bars secured over the window and a door that wasn’t hanging off its hinges. Other than an old metal bed frame and a thin, decaying mattress, there was no furniture, but they provided him with several thick blankets for what minimal comfort he deserved.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that all of your abilities have been neutralized,” Empyrean said. He sat upon a wooden stool, so composed one might think he actually found it comfortable. “You can’t teleport. You can’t summon your weapon. You can’t retrieve anything from subspace. Any magic you might have will prove ineffective, and, judging by the fact that you’ve been here long enough for someone to have noticed your absence, I think it’s safe to say you can’t be summoned away from here.”
Ganymede stood by the door, unwilling to leave Empyrean alone with Jet. The Void was functional, but she wasn’t going to be taking any risks with a thousand year old technology. If Empyrean wanted to speak with their prisoner, he would have the necessary backup in case things took a sudden turn.
A part of Ganymede hated the idea of prisoners.
Another part of her hated Jet more.
She watched him, studied his face, examined his injuries, all of which had been treated by Empyrean. They had a healer, but while the Void suppressed all of their magic, her abilities wouldn’t be useful.
Lucasta stood next to Ganymede, tail flicking against her senshi’s boot. Her presence might not be necessary in that room, but she felt the need to offer her support. Ganymede was in distress. None of them could truly be pleased by the Void capabilities while Jet remained in their keeping.
How long they meant to keep him there was still up for debate. Sessrumnir thought they should dispose of him sooner rather than later. Lucasta didn’t disagree, but there was a deeply buried part of her that shared Empyrean’s curiosities. She did not often encounter agents of Chaos, choosing instead to focus on guiding her senshi and guarding her home.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:51 pm
The building was old, that much was obvious. Aquamarine mentioned knowing where it was, which meant he would hopefully be able to work out a way to rescue him when the time came. He couldn’t say he regretted his decision -- not yet at least -- but he was already in a lot of pain. He was already cold. Already hungry.
Not that he’d never experienced those conditions before. He was at least provided some blankets so he wouldn’t go into shock from hypothermia in addition to the pain.
His leg had been bandaged. He couldn’t remember when. He must have passed out at some point, but being awake now meant that they decided not to kill him -- not yet. Maybe they would be the ones regretting that decision.
“How did you manage to do this?” Jet asked as he forced himself to sit on the edge of the decrepit bed, but didn’t part from the blankets given to him. Even if they were scratchy.
“Last time I was held captive I was tortured. Payback, I guess,” he said as he glanced up at Ganymede and then the cat with a pained expression. He didn’t have to fake it. His side ached. His leg was throbbing. His face was throbbing. He had the worst headache he’d experienced in… forever.
“Is that why I’m here now? Tell me -- how would you deal with those who betray your trust and defect from the White Moon to the Negaverse?”
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:19 pm
Lucasta growled low. She didn’t like the reminder of payback. She was fairly certain she knew what his prior capture would have been payback for.
“How we’ve done this isn’t any business of yours,” she said.Ganymede had no reaction to any of it. For a while, at least, the memories were quiet; she didn’t slip back in time — seven years to the day, almost, since she’d been freed from captivity. She was numbed by Jet’s presence there, by his bloodied bandages and the pain on his face, by the sound of his voice.
That Jet had been held captive before was news to her, though she wasn’t entirely surprised. Ganymede knew many of her allies were capable, no matter how they might try to claim the moral high ground. She must not personally know the ones responsible, or, if she did, they’d elected to keep the information from her.
She wondered when it had occurred.
There’d be time enough for that later.
“You’re here because you’re a danger to Plisetskaya, and to countless others,” she told him.“As for how we deal with anyone, I’m sure the methods vary depending on the subject, and the likelihood of their being saved,” Empyrean said, practical as always, his tone impassive.
He, too, studied Jet, but where Ganymede was numb, Empyrean was impartial. To him, Jet was the figure of stories. Empyrean had too little experience in his company to make an accurate assessment of his character. He knew only what he’d been told by others.
Their personal accounts were not promising.
“You should know that you’re alive right now due to my intervention,” Empyrean said. “How long you remain alive likely hinges on how cooperative you choose to be.”
In Emyprean’s steady tone, such a comment was not a threat, merely a statement of fact.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:41 pm
“Do you really think I’m the only one looking for him?” he tried not to roll his eyes, but he couldn’t help but wonder how these White Moon types thought. He knew they were often fractured and didn’t know how to work with each other, but for them to just assume that he was the only one out looking for traitors was… incredibly naive of them.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already at Metallia’s mercy by now. They’re all so disillusioned when they think they’re being saved. The Negaverse is the only thing holding this god forsaken planet together,” he mumbled as he picked at a piece of lint on one of the blankets. Even still, he shivered -- which meant he winced from the pain that rippled through him. He didn’t like showing weakness, so he grit his teeth and glared at the floor instead.
“Why would I want to tell you anything when you’re just going to kill me anyway? And if you don’t kill me, why would I tell you anything just for the Negaverse to kill me for leaking information? I guess I just have to decide who would be more brutal with killing me…”
He would never dream of betraying the Negaverse, but they didn’t have to know that. And he would also support Metallia’s decision to make whoever betrayed them suffer a thousand times over.
It was curious though, why the Page, the old man was the one who seemed to have all the power. If Jet was alive due to his intervention… what did he have on the others? On the Princess? On Sessrumnir? To make them so cooperative?
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:17 pm
The shivering, the wincing, the downcast eyes — none of it gained any sympathy from Lucasta. Her tail flicked in agitation. She didn’t like Jet’s flippant tone. He was at their mercy now. Perhaps they lacked the vicious aggressiveness inherent in those he called his allies, but they were not so weak that they couldn’t make him regret the attitude.
All they had to do was let Sessrumnir in the room.
“The Negaverse is a blight unto this world,” Lucasta argued. “You think you’re protecting the Earth? Metallia will destroy it.”Ganymede didn’t know that it was worth contradicting him. Jet was loyal to the Queen and loyal to the cause, which implied unbending loyalty to Metallia. He was so steeped in Chaos, there would be no convincing him of the danger it posed. His mind was so warped, he might even think the Earth would be better off destroyed, if that was Metallia’s will.
Ganymede’s concern lied with Plisetskaya. They had no way of knowing whether he’d been apprehended or not. The likelihood that he’d managed to escape was slim. What were the chances he would run into another royal before he was summoned and made to answer for Jet’s absence? There were so few now. Herself. Castor. Camelot, perhaps, though she’d not seen him in… too long, now that she thought about it. Would Cosmos come? Surely if Plisetskaya needed her, she would heed the call.
“Why make your death brutal when we can make your existence worse?” she asked.“I don’t know that threats are necessary at the moment,” Empyrean countered. He didn’t look toward Ganymede, but his focus on Jet didn’t make it any less apparent that he was speaking to her. “We’ve only just begun the conversation.”“A conversation he clearly has no interest in,” Ganymede said. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. If the Void didn’t suppress her magic, she thought she might use it on Jet again, just to remind him who had the power here.
“Would you be more inclined to talk with some company? I’m sure we could track down Aquamarine.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 7:03 pm
“Are you sure…?” Jet wondered, tilting his head to the side at the cat’s comment-- and regretted it because his head felt like it was swimming. He closed one blackened eye to look from the cat to the other two. “Earth was doing just fine before Senshi and Knights started awakening.”
As far as he was aware, the Negaverse had control of the world except for the small pocket of Destiny City for whatever reason.
He tried not to let Ganymede’s mention of Aquamarine bother him. He knew she was just using it to bait him, but his heart still hurt knowing how Sessrumnir had hurt him before.
And remembering the desperate I love you spill from his lips moments before Jet had to leave for this mission.
I’m okay, he thought. Loudly. He had no idea if Aquamarine had the other half of his earring back, or if he could hear him, but he thought hard. Desperately.
“Aquamarine almost died, no thanks to your Knight friend. He’s still recovering, but it isn’t looking good. Is that how you plan on torturing me? Stabbing me with my own weapon? Letting me bleed out? Or will you just starve me? Or let me freeze? No, I don’t suppose you’d want me to die that quickly or painlessly.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:31 am
Lucasta growled again, baring some of her teeth. They hadn’t done nearly enough damage to him if he could still argue. Empyrean should’ve let Sessrumnir have his turn for a bit longer. Maybe with a few extra broken bones, Jet would be more cooperative.Ganymede didn’t know about broken bones encouraging a better response, but she did know a diversion when she heard one.
With his rapidfire questions, Jet was trying to draw the focus back to himself. He didn’t want to talk about Aquamarine.
“I remember him,” Ganymede said before Jet could continue.
A young blond, not much taller than her at the time, dressed in dark blue lined by silver. She remembered staring at the buttons down his jacket, counting them to keep herself present. Though he’d been stuck with a toy sword in battle, the silly weapons of a Lieutenant didn’t extent to torture. For that, they got to use whatever they could get their eager little hands on.
Ganymede wondered if it was part of their training, if they were meant to prove themselves. Were they rewarded for it later?
“What was he, fifteen? Sixteen? He was cute,” she said, voice light like she was reminiscing about something pleasant, not one of the worst experiences of her entire time. “Kind of gangly, wasn’t he? Nice hair, sweet freckles. I’ve heard he’s even prettier now.”
She let that comment hang there for a moment, watching Jet’s face for any minor change in his expression.
“That was him with you at the generator, wasn’t it? You must be close. After all this time… the things you’ve done… that draws people together, doesn’t it?”“Ganymede…” Empyrean said — not quite a warning, but there was a mild edge of disapproval.Ganymede ignored the tone, eyes locked on Jet.
“Do you think he screamed when Sessrumnir shoved his own knife into him?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:49 am
“That was the point of stabbing him, wasn’t it?” Jet said in response, his own eyes locked on Ganymede’s. He knew what she was doing. She was trying to get him to have some kind of emotional response. As if he could be tricked into thinking that they had any possible way of getting to Aquamarine now.
“Sessrumnir wanted him to scream, so yeah, he probably did. Does that make you happy?” he wondered, carefully shifting a bit on the uncomfortable bed. He had to pause for a moment as his aching ribs made it difficult for him to breathe for a moment, but the feeling passed eventually.
“Do you enjoy knowing that the White Moon can do the same horrible things you accuse the Negaverse of doing?”
He was curious. They lauded themselves as morally superior, but when it came down to it, they were no better than the evils they said the Negaverse was capable of. Did the Negaverse do some horrible things? Sure, it wasn’t perfect. There was still a lot to clean up. There were Generals who thought it okay to slaughter civilians, and others who thought it okay to force feed starseeds as experimentation.
But they had a hospital now. They were working on housing inside Negaspace for those who needed somewhere to live. They were growing and improving. What was the White Moon doing, other than debating whether to kill their Velencian ally or let him live?
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:53 am
“Do I enjoy it?” Ganymede said, though she took no time to consider the question. “No, I don’t enjoy it. Not like you enjoyed it when you were a Lieutenant. Did having us at your mercy make you feel powerful? Did it make you feel grown? You were so young.”
She remembered when he came into the room where her cage was kept, how he tried to make a play at sympathy. He dropped the act soon enough and showed her his true colors. He taunted her with a filigree pin, let her see the symbol of Jupiter that came from Valhalla. He put his hand around her neck and squeezed.
Ganymede thought he deserved the same consideration. Maybe she would have Sessrumnir find Aquamarine, just so she could present Jet with one of the pretty silver buttons from his jacket.
“Is it an accusation if I’m living proof that it happened?” Ganymede wondered.
There was no accusing the Negaverse of anything. There was only truth or willful ignorance. She knew what the Negaverse was. She knew what they’d done. She knew what they’d do if they were allowed to continue.
“I don’t pretend the White Moon isn’t just as capable. Believe me, my eyes were open to it a long time ago.”“We have an opportunity,” Empyrean tried to interject, “to reach some sort of an understanding.”Lucasta scoffed. Her tail flicked again.
“I think we understand one another already,” she said.
Everything wrong on this world, everything wrong beyond it, stemmed from the Negaverse, from Metallia and her army. There could be no compromise when dealing with her forces. Any attempt to do so was steeped in delusion. The only way for an agent to earn salvation was to purify.
Jet didn’t strike her at the type to yearn for it.
“Your kindness is wasted on him.”
“Don’t mistake my composure for kindness,” Empyrean countered. “Hate does not have to draw upon our inhumanity so much that we forget ourselves.”
“If you’re trying to argue that we should be better, you’re a couple of months too late,” Ganymede said. If she could use her magic, the burning fury in her eyes would have been enough to cast it on Jet. “Sheikh is dead because of him.”
Because of you, she told herself. Because you let hope consume you instead of facing the reality of the situation.
She would not make that same mistake again.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 12:32 pm
"Ochre," Jet corrected, his voice calm in the wake of their bickering, "Is dead because he was a traitor. We don't know what information he might remember, what he could tell you or anyone else in the White Moon that would compromise the lives of so many who rely on the Dark Kingdom for safety. You, Ganymede, were the one to decide to help him defect in the Queen's presence. If I hadn't killed him quickly, painlessly, what do you think the Queen would have done to him? Or what would Metallia have done to him? I was showing him mercy."
There were too many lives that relied on the Negaverse to take care of them when they had nowhere else to go.
"It's true that I was young back then. I was angry and had every reason to hate you Senshi and your Knights. Still do," he admitted, a hand lifting to press gingerly at his temple where he could feel the blood dried into his now matted curls. "At the time, yeah, it did make me feel powerful."
He wasn't afraid to share. It was all his personal life, anyway. Nothing that could compromise the Negaverse. And what did they really care? They wouldn't believe him even if he told them everything they wanted to hear.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:59 pm
“Mercy,” Ganymede sneered. “What you did wasn’t mercy, it was slaughter.”
She would never forget Sheikh’s head at her feet, the way his eyes stared unseeing, the way his blood soaked into the ground. She would never forget how Jet turned away after, how he moved on, as if Sheikh meant nothing, as if what he’d done meant nothing.
She would never stop blaming herself, even if she blamed Jet just as much.“Ganymede…” Empyrean cautioned her.
She was becoming too emotional, allowing Jet to get under her skin. Empyrean hadn’t thought it wise for her to be in the room with him so soon after the loss of Sheikh, and Plisetskaya, but she insisted. What she hoped to accomplish, Empyrean didn’t know. She had no interest in listening, in holding a conversation that wasn’t spitting venom and trading insults.
Perhaps she thought by coming in here, she would be granted some sort of closure.
Empyrean thought it safe to say that wasn’t the case.Lucasta shifted beside her senshi, let her tail sweep against Ganymede’s leg, caressing her boot, though she doubted Ganymede felt much more than the most miniscule impact. Whatever Ganymede hoped for by speaking with Jet, she would not have it.
If Jet was afraid, he didn’t show it. If he had any intention of cooperating, he gave no indication. More than likely, he would do nothing but rot here. He would sit in solitude and cling to his loyalty, until Empyrean decided to give him up as a lost cause and Ganymede gave the order to dispose of him.
“You’ve done a very poor job of stopping the spread of information,” Lucasta said. “If that was why you killed Sheikh, weren’t there two others you could have dealt with? If I’m not mistaken, you left them to their own devices.”“None of this is productive,” Empyrean said.
It was becoming more apparent to him by the second that, if he truly intended to have any sort of conversation with their prisoner, he was going to have to do it without Ganymede or Lucasta present. The only sort of dialogue they cared for in this situation was antagonism.
Empyrean stood as if he meant to take his leave. He grabbed his stool to take with him, but stopped where he was, eyes on Jet the entire time.
The information Plisetskaya offered was cause for some concern.
“Speaking of the Queen, should we expect her to come for you?” Empyrean asked. “We’ve been led to believe she favors you.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:14 pm
Others, the cat said. Jet couldn’t quite stop himself from letting his lips pull at the corners in the smallest of smiles. They didn’t need to go after traitors in the traditional sense any more. They’d already targeted another traitor that had been present, that had attacked him and made him see threatening visions. They would destroy all traitors, and then all of the White Moon. It was just a matter of time for Chaos to infect their worlds.
The old Page seemed to be done with the conversation though, and Jet glanced up at him as he picked up his stool.
Should we expect her to come for you?
Of course Queen Laurelite wouldn’t come for him. He’d planned this. He’d spoken with her and got her permission to do this. Until they found out what weapon the White Moon had that stopped teleporting and magic and… anything… there was no point in trying to rescue him.
“If that is Metallia’s will,” he said instead. He didn’t want Queen Laurelite to have to come to save him. He had a team and a plan. If he couldn’t get out of this on his own and with the help he’d already pulled together, then so be it.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:44 pm
Ganymede scoffed, “Metallia’s will.”
The idea that Laurelite might come for Jet was laughable to her. Whatever Plisetkaya said about Jet’s prestige within the Negaverse, he was no more important to Metallia than all the others. Countless Generals came before him, and there would be more that came after. Maybe some of them would be valued by the Queen, but that value only extended so far.
Did she even have the capacity to care anymore? What was she but Metallia’s vessel?
“While you’re here, you’ll find that Metallia’s will doesn’t matter as much as mine,” Ganymede said.
She yanked the door open, scattering dust in her wake.
Over her shoulder, she said, “I’ll start with Aquamarine. I’m sure Sessrumnir won’t have any trouble tracking him down again.”Lucasta sniffed imperiously and joined Ganymede, departing with one last furious glare.Empyrean had no reaction but to meet Jet with the same calm, even stare. He watched him in silence for a few seconds more, then said, “You’ll be offered food and water. If you require anything else, you may ask, but your request might not be fulfilled. In our absence, I suggest you consider how you might like to spend your time here. You can cooperate, or you can continue to be obstinate. The more you cooperate, the less you or anyone you care for are likely to face repercussions. I may not condone the actions of others, but I can only be in so many places at once. I may not be able to stop them.”
He couldn’t even say for certain if they were in the wrong for doing so. There was much about this magical war he’d not yet come to terms with.
“Rest,” Empyrean said.
Then he turned and followed the other two out of the room.
The door shut behind them and a lock clicked into place. Their footsteps echoed down the empty hall.
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