Bella can feel the weight of nothing in her outstretched hand. It's clutched about her wrist and squeezing her like a serpent, forcing her fingers to curl atop of and crush the empty air between them. It pulls on her arm like lead so that even holding it out for inspection is enough to make her muscles start burning. 

She's frozen in the moment. Her smile is still painted onto her face, not quite able to melt into the disbelief one lonely corner of her mind knows she should be wearing right now. Her tail has forgotten how to so much as wiggle, and her feet are caught in an awkward half step. It feels like she's being crushed. Her moment, her princess, her triumph... all of it's caught in her throat and she's choking to death on it. She can't move. She can't [i]move[/i]. 

Her nose is failing her: it takes in all the signals that had filled her with such elation, but now it only returns the sterilized aroma of the Kaeri. Her skin crawls with shameful goosepimples brought on by a sudden bone deep chill that even for all its awful power can't force her to properly shiver. Her ears no longer bend to search for sounds; the rushing of blood in her head pounds with the fury of one of Zeus' storms. She couldn't hear herself speak even if her tongue hadn't turned to stone in her mouth. Only her eyes seem up to moving, and then simply so that they can turn their wet fury on anything that's not the Princess.

Her world is filled with Athena. The wroth, the prideful, the untouchable, the judgmental. The single face in all its infinite aspects stare back at her without relief, and Bella's lungs fill themselves with knives. This is a new Box. That's what this is, what else could it even be? This is a new trap even more devious than the one that caught her as a child. Who could have set it? The list of patrons who can borrow Nero's ear are endless, and the list of people infuriated by her victory at the Olympics stretches twice as long. It's so clever. It's so devious. To make her think... to send her out... so dangerous, so ugly, so terrible, so endless... to send her out [i]here[/i] and make her think... and then... and then! The Princess! With her, Bella is useless. With her, Bella is not worth keeping. They'll throw her away in the garbage.

All at once she comes unfrozen. Her eyes burn as they shrink to furious slits, her fingers squeeze deep into her palms, and her skirts and sleeves flutter dramatically as she whips about on the spot to turn her back to the entire disgusting farce happening in front of her. Is that what they think? Is that it? Not her. Bella's a Good Girl. A fucking Praetor! She stalks through the room in silence and grabs the belt herself.

They're not difficult to find. Redana would never actually think to hide anything, unless it was a secret plan to stuff her best friend in a closet and disappear forever and abandon her to the wrath of the Empire. The pocket is large and obvious, and Bella's fingers have hardly slipped inside before they find the pair of smallish, rock hard capsules she's looking for. She snatches them out with enough force to slice the belt to useless ribbons.

She is much more careful as she gingerly slides the talons off of her fingers to reveal the pair of blunted, broken claws she hides behind them. What comes next requires... delicacy.

Nobody sees the kick coming in time. Bella's foot connects with such ferocity that if her pointed heel had been aimed even a centimeter to the right she might have killed the [i]Giatros[/i] attending to Redana outright. Her hand shoves another out of the way with no less savagery, and then suddenly it's Bella looming over the princess with a twisted smile on her face. Only Bella. Her tail flicks behind her with irritation.

"Out of my way, you inbred Athena rejects! Are you stupid? Do you only read about princesses or something, what are you [i]doing?[/i] You're gonna ask for [i]her[/i] opinion? Dipshits, what do you think she's gonna do? Look at these! Look!"

Bella stops barking long enough to hold the nanite capsules aloft before she slides down onto her hands and knees in a motion made with much more curve than strictly necessary. She loses several more buttons from her shirt as her chest slides along Redana's body until she's chest to chest and face to face with her princess. Her Princess. Only hers. She laughs shakily and splits her face in a drunken grin. The stench of imperial grape is heavy on her breath.

"This is not just some princess," she breathily intones, never taking her wild eyes off her quarry, "This isn't even merely Her Imperial Majesty's only daughter. She is Redana Claudius: you can't ask her if she wants to take her medicine. Noooo, no, this little idiot will have you saving it all until her last breath. You have to hold her still and [i]make[/i] her be a good girl. Isn't that right, Your Highness?"

Bella presses her hand tight against Redana's lips and forces the nanite capsules into her mouth. Her hand stays clamped tight to keep her from spitting anything out as she brings her two clawless fingers to the princess' neck and slowly, softly caresses the length of her throat, trying to make her swallow.

"There we go, theeerrre we go," she soothes, "Just let the gods do their good work, Princess. Swallow! Swaaaaalooow, yes, there we go. No more adventures, right princess? No more hard and scary choices. Just leave it all to me. Your Bella will take care of everything..."

Her tail weaves behind her in a languid, serpentine pattern as she stays on all fours pinned atop Redana. Sharp and golden eyes do their level best to eat her best friend whole, even as her smile widens to show her perfect sharpened teeth.