Original Stories Fan Fiction / Realism Fan Fiction ❯ Aqua ❯ Price ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter Twenty

Price

 

 

Aqua opened her eyes to the white expanse of an empty room. She groaned as she sat up and looked around. Stretching, she leaned cross-legged against the wall and folded her fingers into her lap.

 

She didn't know how much time had past since she had seen Darain, but she was sure that he was still alive. As she lifted a hand to tuck a stray piece of auburn hair behind her ear she felt the cold burning of steel manacles against her skin as she heard the faint clinking of the links as they jangled against one another. Her hand fell back to her lap and she sat there, staring listlessly at the walls.

 

Some time later, a hair-raising screech filled the room and made her grimace. She glared around in annoyance, but settled for ignoring the screeching when she couldn't find the source. After what could have been hours, she fell back asleep.

 

When she next awoke, there was food sitting in what she guessed to be the middle of the room. She rose stiffly to her feet and stretched her protesting muscles and walked carefully to the food, her chains clanking loudly behind her.

 

Taking a bite of the bread she found it to be stale, but she ate almost all of it. Ignoring the cheese, she downed the water in one gulp before she made her way back to her spot on the wall and promptly fell back asleep.

 

Aqua rotated between falling asleep, eating the food and water that appeared while she slept, ignoring whatever sound that decided to intrude on her silence, and laying listlessly on the floor. The only thing that she never allowed herself to do was to think about Darain. She lost all sense of time and could have cared less how long she stayed like that, in her numbed state of being.

 

* * *

 

“She's been in there little over a month and still she shows no change,” a voice sighed in annoyance. “Most would have gone insane by this time or would at least be screaming and pleading to be let out, but this one…” They let their voice trail off as they again sighed.

 

The auburn haired girl on the monitor had been laying listlessly on the ground, staring at nothing in particular, for almost two full days without touching the bread or water they had set out for her. Not even her eyes had changed from their dead green color throughout the entire month of her captivity.

 

Three figures leaned eagerly forward as she abruptly sat up and made her way to the water. She gave the bread a long look before apparently deciding that it was unappetizing. The figures were disappointed when she lay back down.

 

“Hm,” one mused. “Perhaps we should step to the next phase of her training. What do you say?”

 

The other two glanced at each other and shrugged. “You're her handler, so it's up to you, Clarisus. We're just here to observe how you handle a charge without killing it.”

 

Clarisus tapped a finger against his cheek as he considered the girl. “Yes, it's time,” he said with a cackle. He pressed a button on the panel and a door slid smoothly open inside the endlessly white room. The three of them leaned forward eagerly as they waited for what was about to come through the opening. They were eager to see her fear.

 

* * *

 

Aqua was more than a little surprised when a door slid smoothly open. She could hear snuffling sounds just beyond the opening and waited, surprisingly relaxed, for it to come out and see what she was.

 

After a moment, she got annoyed and whistled to draw its attention. The snuffling stopped and was instantly replaced by a roaring bark before something poked its heads out.

 

“Gross,” she croaked, her voice rusty from a month of silence.

 

The thing before her had four heads, six madly rolling eyes, green slime dripping off its body, five legs supporting its disfigured body, and two legs sticking out of its back. Its mouths hung open as something suspiciously red dripped from its four jaws as the stench that accompanied it threatened to overpower her sense of smell.

 

When it charged at her, she didn't bother to stand as she stared at the creature in revulsion. It was singularly the most disgusting thing she had ever seen.

 

* * *

 

Clarisus gaped in horror as the thing charged her and she still sat there. “It's gonna tear her to shreds,” one dryly observed and then yelped when Clarisus elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.

 

He sighed in relief when Aqua rolled neatly away from the beast and brought herself into a half crouch. So, the girl did have fighting spirit left in her.

 

* * *

 

As Aqua rose fully to her feet, she watched the beast swing its heads around and smack into each other as it tried to locate her. She sighed quietly before she leapt lightly onto its back and had her manacles around one of its necks before it knew what she was doing. With a detached sense of being, she yanked her wrists in opposite directions and snapped the neck cleanly in two.

 

She ignored the sick feeling in her stomach as the roaring bark sounded and the other three heads whined and pawed at the motionless fourth head. Aqua leapt from its slimy back and watched as it retreated back into the opening it had come from, whining at its limp head the entire way.

 

Aqua sat against the wall as far from the green and red goop as she could and waited for whatever was next. Before too long could pass, the gaping opening slid shut and another door slid open not long after that.

 

In the doorway stood a pale skinned, red haired being that she knew to be a Letrangra. “You must be Aqua,” he said smoothly. She merely shrugged and he grinned down at her. “Come,” he said, motioning with his finger and she stood and followed after him into a dimly lit hall.

 

After a moment he spoke, “You are resistant to our isolation techniques and are able to drive a Gorgula away in under five minutes with strength alone.” His tone was wondering, but she didn't miss the hard edge that his voice carried and knew that she was the first to resist breaking under their odd forms of torture. Or was it training?

 

She might have smiled, but she was too detached to really feel anything at the moment, so she just followed after him. They past by cell after cell in which the occupants either screamed and reached for them through the bars or sat curled against the walls. When one managed to grab Aqua's pants, she shook it away with no feeling of pity or remorse.

 

The Letrangra watched her out of the corner of his eye, privately marveling at how little the screams affected her. Perhaps she is already the perfect weapon, he thought to himself. Still, we need to be sure.

 

He paused before a black door and turned to her. Briefly touching the manacles the links melted away and fell to the stone below in a messy goop, leaving steel wristbands securely around her wrists. When Aqua gave him a curious look, he smiled and said, “So you have free movement of your hands.”

 

Then he led her through the door and into another endlessly white room, except this one was slightly different. There was another girl in the room and the walls were flecked with blood. A length of caked leather lay in the corner, but Aqua missed this as her green eyes locked with painfully familiar blue eyes: Amber.

 

The color drained from her face faster than an avalanche could fall. Amber was in the worst condition she had ever seen with her clothes torn to shreds and her back full of half healed whip lashes. A half smile formed on the other girl's lips as she looked Aqua over and realized who she was. If Aqua had felt detached before, she was no longer protected by the numbness that had set in over the last month and instead felt horrified and sick to her stomach.

 

“This girl is another charge of the Letrangra captain that retrieved you from that planet. She disobeyed orders in not reporting the appearance of the prince brat and has thus been punished. For the third part of your training, you are to finish the punishment,” the Letrangra explained, thoroughly enjoying the look of horror that flashed across her face.

 

It took Aqua a moment to recover her composure, but when she did she was livid. “I refuse,” she said firmly, though her hoarse voice made her tone drop a few octaves.

 

A half sneer played about the Letrangra's lips, though he was wary of provoking her further. He had heard what she had done to the girl's handler when he threatened the Night-n-Gale prince and knew that her races venom could be deadly to them. She was almost like a walking time-bomb.

 

“So, the little Rogane can handle a Gorgula, but not the punishment of one little slave girl?” he sneered. He pressed a button next to the door and three more Letrangra almost instantly entered the room. “We thought you'd say that, so we had a little show prepared for you.” He motioned to two of the three and the stepped forward and grabbed her wrists.

 

Aqua glared suspiciously at the four as the first backed away into a corner of the room. She turned her green eyes to the fourth and snarled. He was Amber's handler and the one that had threatened Darain. A rage unlike any other she had felt before consumed her body and she was hard pressed to keep from ripping him to pieces where he stood. The Letrangra captain gave her an odd look before he turned to his charge and slowly advanced on her.

 

The color drained from Amber's face just as quickly as it had from Aqua's when she saw her handler enter the room. She knew exactly what they had planned and she wanted no part of it. When he began to advance on her, she backed as far against the wall as she could and swallowed convulsively. Her eyes flicked to Aqua's and she gave the other girl a pleading look.

 

Their eyes met and locked for the second time since she had entered and she was confused by the look Amber was giving her. Suddenly, it clicked. The reason that Amber's jeans were shredded wasn't from the multiple whippings she had received, but from the many times her handler had…

 

Her rage boiled over and she bit one of the Letrangra that was restraining her. The Letrangra yelled in pain as her teeth broke his skin and yanked his arm away before her venom could enter his blood stream. When he released her, she shifted her free hand to grasp the wrist of the second Letrangra and twisted his arm around until it broke and he released her. Before the first Letrangra could move, she had disappeared from his line of sight.

 

Aqua reappeared in the corner where the whip rested. Snatching it up, she flicked it at Amber's handler and brought it down across his back. Every time she looked at him, she saw him with his claws at Darain's throat and it made her even sicker when she thought about what he had done to Amber, the girl she had come closest to calling a friend.

 

The steady crack of the whip filled the room as she chased the Letrangra captain away from Amber and paid him back double for what he had almost done to Darain. She moved around the room after him until she stood directly in front of Amber, shielding the younger girl for the view of the others as she brought the whip down on the Letrangra captain again and again and again, while deriving am odd sense of satisfaction from seeing the bastard running about the room with his arms over his head.

 

“Aqua,” Amber said quietly.

 

She turned her head slightly to indicate that she was listening.

 

“Aqua, please,” Amber pleaded. “You're making it worse for me.”

 

Aqua scowled, but flicked her wrist back and forced the whip to change its course midair and fly back towards her. She snapped the end of the whip from the air with her free hand and silently glowered at the others in the room. The two that had held her immediately fled the room while the first and the Letrangra captain drew together. “I can handle it from here, thank you,” she said brusquely, her tone colder than her eyes.

 

They gave the whip in her hands a frightened look before the Letrangra captain stumbled, heavily wounded and bleeding, from the room with the one that had led her there hot on his heels. As the door slid shut she heard Amber heave a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Aqua,” she whispered, making the other teen stiffen.

 

Turning slowly on the spot, Aqua towered over Amber. She grimaced as she took three quick steps back and dropped the whip. “It's much different from school, isn't it?” she said in an off hand voice.

 

Amber gave a short, humorless laugh. “School seemed like heaven compared to what they put me through here. I'm just sorry that you have to go through it as well.”

 

Aqua studied her for a moment. “I won't do it,” she said stubbornly as she kicked the whip away from her.

 

“You must, otherwise I'll get worse when they take you away,” Amber pleaded. “Just finish it, please. I know that with you at least, you won't draw it out to watch me suffer. I know you'll make it as quick and painless as possible, so, please, just get it over with.”

 

Blue eyes pleaded with green for a moment before Aqua conceded and crossed the room and picked the whip up. “How many?” she asked as she straightened. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the handle with more force than strictly necessary and turned to face Amber, who was already on her feet and studying her with those blue eyes of her's.

 

After a moment, Amber gave a half-hearted smile. “Usually, they try and go for two hundred and fifty lashes, but after your little performance we should go with three hundred just to be safe.” After a moment, Amber turned away and tugged her tattered shirt off to expose her already raw back to Aqua, hoping that she was right in assuming the other would make it as quick as possible.

 

Never once had she thought a single number could make her sick, but this one did. Three hundred whip lashes for something so insignificant and she was the one who was to apply them to Amber's back. She tried not to think of it as she whipped the leather over her head and brought it down against Amber's exposed skin with a sickening crack.

 

Aqua stepped away, ready to hurl as Amber barely flinched. She covered her mouth and tried to swallow the bile that threatened to overpower her when Amber spoke. “It's alright. Just slip back into your normal state and get it over with. Your ice is the only way to survive in a place like this,” she said quietly.

 

Steadying her hands took more of a concentrated effort than she normally would have needed, but she tried to do as Amber instructed. She imagined herself standing in the center of a lake, standing on the only land as far as the eye could see. Then, she imagined the water swirling up around in a vortex and freezing all around her, protecting her with its cold indifference. When she opened her green eyes, they were blank. Again, she whipped the leather over hr head and brought it down against Amber's back and merely felt a detached echo of the horror she had felt only moments before.

 

Time seemed to melt away as Aqua settled into a rhythm of counting the number of times she drew the whip over her head. 150…151…152… Over halfway there, she had to forcibly remind herself. She drew more ice around her soul as she felt it cracking around her. Successful, she opened her eyes and continued counting. 195…196…197…198…199…200…

 

Another two hours seemed to melt away as Aqua counted. 299…300… she thought and let the whip fall from her numb hand. Distantly, she was aware of the burning in the arm she had used, but all that mattered was that she was done with Amber's punishment. She felt the ice crack again as she stared down at Amber's trembling and heaving form, Amber having collapsed to her knees after the first hundred lashings she had received.

 

Aqua turned her head away and wiped blood from her cheek, feeling sick as she did so. She scrambled to draw the ice around her as the door slid open not even a few moments after she had dropped the whip. Her cold, green eyes locked with the Letrangra captain's and a low growl erupted from her chest. She ignored the other two that had entered with him as she glared at him.

 

Her ice securely around her, she advanced on the pale-faced Letrangra and stopped three feet short of him when one of the others threw out an arm to stop her. Never looking away from his eyes she snarled quietly. “If Amber is ever hurt again…If she dies, I'll hunt you down and kill you in the most horrific of ways,” she growled.

 

A soft chuckle drew their attention. Aqua couldn't help but stare at the woman with black cat-like ears. “Not an idle threat coming from a Rogane, even a half-Rogane,” the Night-n-Gale female murmured. One black ear flicked back into her black hair as everyone turned to stare at her.

 

Clarisus made a noise close to that of disgust and broke the silence. He shoved Aqua away from the Letrangra captain and stepped between them, eyeing her speculatively. Privately pleased with the progress they were making, he held a hand out to Aqua and said, “I am your handler, Clarisus.”

 

She stared at his hand for a moment before slapping it away, scowling. Her ice seemed to expand the longer she was in their company and she reveled in it, secretly glad that she wouldn't have to feel the horror that she knew they would inflict upon her. Glancing back at the Night-n-Gale, she felt the shock through her barriers as she took in the woman's eyes emerald and red eyes. Her eyes flickered between red and emerald every other second before mixing together and giving her the look of a demented demon. It was a bizarre dance of Christmas colors.

 

“No, its not an idle threat coming from me,” Aqua agreed, looking back at the Letrangra captain and narrowing her eyes at him.

 

Amber stared at Aqua's back, for once not caring what her handler did to her afterwards. If her handler was afraid of what Aqua might do to him, then she had a chance of surviving the whole ordeal. Her blue eyes shifted from her handler to Aqua's handler to the previous weapon and stayed there. The Night-n-Gale female was legendary for her skills and accuracy as well as her daring escape. By the looks of it, a control spell had been placed over her and something had happened to it to weaken its power over her.

 

Clarisus waved a hand in front of Aqua's eyes and she turned to stare impassively at him, which scared him more than her anger. He nodded at the captain and he went to collect his charge, being careful not to touch her more than strictly necessary under Aqua's cold gaze. The captain grimaced as the two teens exchanged a look and knew that Aqua would be the first to know if anything ever did happen to his charge, not that he would be willing to risk her wrath a third time.

 

As soon as they were out of sight, Clarisus grinned and introduced the two females. “Aqua, this is Arisan, the previous weapon. Arisan, this is Aqua, the new weapon.”

 

They eyed each other for a moment before they shook hands, neither sure what to make of the other. Then, they looked back to Clarisus as the Letrangra began speaking again, “Arisan is one of my previous charges and now she is going to train you for the remainder of the time before you get your first assignment.”

 

Aqua shrugged before striding out into the corridor and breathing in the non-metallic air. She was grateful to be free of the room where Amber's blood filled the air, but unsure of what to do and so she waited. Arisan was in front of her in an instant, motioning for her to follow. She followed after her, grateful that they were leaving the Letrangra far behind with the brutal pace Arisan had set.

 

When Arisan was sure they were out of earshot of the Letrangra she asked, “How is…the prince?” It almost sounded as though she changed her question halfway through.

 

“Alive,” Aqua answered. Then added, “As were the other four Night-n-Gale that helped rescue him.” Arisan nodded absently, smiling for some unknown reason as she led the way to the training hall.

 

She paused before the doors when she heard something Aqua couldn't and then turned her strange eyes to the teen girl. “You're lucky,” Arisan said quietly. “When I was trained, their methods were less than desirable.”

 

“How so?” Aqua asked.

 

“Torture,” Arisan said dryly. She eyed the teen for a moment. “How old are you?”

 

“Sixteen,” Aqua shrugged.

 

“And they gave you more time to live freely,” she sighed, almost wistfully.

 

“Can we begin?” Aqua persisted.

 

Arisan listened intently to the silence for a moment, then nodded. “It's safe to go in,” she said with a grimace.

 

Aqua didn't wait for Arisan to move, instead she threw the doors open and paused in the entrance to the training hall, slightly surprised at the sight that met her. If her ice hadn't been in place, she would have been horrified and sick. Before her was indeed a hall, but around the sidelines were bloodied machines that looked like something out of a horror movie she had once seen as a child.

 

“Training equipment?” she guessed with a sidelong glance at Arisan.

 

Disgust crossed her face. “Yes, but don't worry. They left this part of your training up to me. We're going to go over combat skills, thankfully.”

 

A hollow laugh rang around the hall as Aqua stared at Arisan. “They've already taken everything from me, so physical pain would do nothing to me.”

 

A wryly smile crossed Arisan's lips. “Perhaps I was the lucky one then.”

 

“Perhaps,” Aqua agreed. She paused, then asked, “You're the one that fell in love with the Night-n-Gale captain, aren't you?”

 

“Yes,” Arisan sighed. “Just as you are the one that protected the prince.”

 

They eyed each other for a moment before Arisan stuck her hand out and they shook again. “Your will is impressive if you were able to survive isolation for an entire month without going insane. It only took them two weeks of that continuous screeching to break me,” she said with a soft scowl.

 

“What's with your eyes?” Aqua asked.

 

Arisan looked at her in surprise, then laughed softly. “I suppose they must look strange to you going back and forth between red and emerald. My eyes are naturally emerald, but the Letrangra decided to cast a control spell on me when I was battling one of their battalions to give Lackardel and the others time to escape. Skipping over the details, the spell almost drowned out my sense of self, but thanks to Lackardel killing me I'm able still able to control my mind.”

 

Aqua arched an eyebrow at her. “What does that mean? Are you a walking corpse, now?”

 

“No. The control spell healed my wound and re-grew and restarted my heart, but by doing so it lost its ability to control my mind. The Letrangra give me orders and my body has to follow them even if my head disagrees. Kind of like a disjointed relationship,” she said with a lopsided grin. “Come one, lets get started.”

 

As they each dropped into a fighting stance, Arisan caught sight of the manacles. She dropped her stance and caught one of Aqua's wrists. “They sealed your magic off?” she asked incredulously.

 

Aqua shrugged and shook her wrist free of Arisan's grip. “I did put a hole in that other handler's shoulder when he hurt Darain. Perhaps it's a precaution,” she said indifferently.

 

After a moment Arisan shook her head. “No, your powers are unstable right now. you Rogane don't usually start using them until after your seventeenth year of life. If you are sixteen, then they won't want you using your magic for a while longer.”

 

“Whatever,” Aqua shrugged.

 

“You're adjusting rather quickly,” Arisan said dryly. “You do know they're going to have you start killing in a few months, right?”

 

Aqua shrugged indifferently. “It's the price I pay for keeping Darain alive,” she said, even as the words echoed strangely in her own head.