Monochromatic Rainbow, Wind Wild
Adéla, Ludelle
Day -7
Ludelle tried to put Adéla out of her mind but it was in vain. The woman’s presence in such close proximity was like itching powder and gave her no rest. Not a day had passed before the elf’s patience cracked and she set out to find the irritant and finally settle her scores with her.
The tower was huge and she still didn’t feel like interacting with anyone so asking for direction was out of the question. But luckily there was Senechal and she had no problem with AIs at all. Thus when she left her room, Ludelle’s steps were confident as they carried her straight to Adéla’s room. The latter was just coming out of her room only to run into a very annoyed face from the past.
“What are you playing at?” Ludelle started unceremoniously.
Adéla jumped as Ludelle burst into view. Her hand flew to the sidearm she always carried, but she let it drop as she realized who it was.
“What?” She asked incredulously, “What am
I playing at?!” Rebounding from the surprise she marched forwards, poking Ludelle in the collarbone with an accusatory finger. “I lead a mission to rescue you from that prison, got my leg cut off in the process, and have endured you being nothing but spiteful and angry at me - and you’re accusing
me of something?!” She hissed the words into Ludelle’s face, venting months of near starvation and explicit agony into a few moments. “I’m not playing at
anything.”
“Ha! A rescue mission, sure, and you in the role of the glorious leader! That’s a good one, how stupid do you think I am? Are you seriously expecting me to believe that your presence here is pure coincidence?” The other woman’s frown deepened.
“Why would I be here?!” Adéla bristled, glaring daggers at Ludelle. “You’re the hacker, tell me, what did you find on me in the Stygian Blade’s database, hmm? I can assure you it probably didn’t say I was working as an informant for them.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I lead that mission because I had a friend in prison. A friend who didn’t deserve to be in that prison. And in a prison I helped to design! Of course I lead that mission, I wanted to be the one to personally break you out of your cell!”
Adéla took a step back, looking Ludelle straight in the eyes for a moment. “We all got fucked over by the Blade, and I wanted to right some wrongs.” She faltered, sighing. “I have something to show you, but first tell me what you found in their database on me. I want to know why you’re choosing now to come and interrogate me.”
Ludelle scowled, glaring at Adéla. It’s true that she found some very interesting bits and pieces about Adela but nothing definitive and nothing she couldn’t dismiss as falsified information. And she had a reason to be weary. After all…
“He warned me about you. Marcus said that you’re a fox and will try to get me killed. He had no idea… But even infiltrating the Tower of Stars, just to get me... That’s a new low even for you, Adela.” There was electricity sparkling brightly around her pupils - something she didn’t usually do unless she expected a confrontation of some sort. And Adéla knew just how stubborn Ludelle could be. And just how persuasive Marcus could become.
Adéla took a step back. She’d wanted to forget ever hearing the name of Ludelle’s boyfriend. Well, former boyfriend. The man was a scumbag - he’d almost certainly never cared a whit about Ludelle, and manipulated/took advantage of/whatever her at every opportunity.
Gods how she had wanted to punch him.
“Marcus said…” she looked at Ludelle with wide eyes. Even after all this, she was still in love with that hyena? That… inhuman beast in the shape of a man? “Oh sure, I’ve done my fair share of bad things, there’s no denying that, but why would I be here… chasing you or whatever you think I’m doing?!” She gripped Ludelle’s shoulder, not blinking. “I’m here at the Tower because it’s somewhere the Blade can’t reach me, okay? They’re still out for my blood - do you have any idea the kind of risk I took leading that assault?”
“Why would I try to get you killed? That’s the exact opposite of what I want.” She paused, unsure of how to proceed, “Think about it for a moment, please. You’ve known me for years. Why would I suddenly decide I wanted you dead? You say Marcus said I was a fox…” she trailed off, “What if I told you some of the things he’s done?”
Stepping back from Ludelle a few steps, Adéla gripped the edge of her shirt and pulled it off, leaving her almost uncovered from the waist up and revealing much more than cleavage. Golf ball sized blobs of flat scar tissue dotted her entire torso, and her ribcage was oddly shaped, seeming to be lacking a rib or two, and some ribs only seeming to be half there. She turned around, revealing an equal number of smaller blobs of scar tissue, with the addition of obvious knife wounds and a small cluster of more scars that were undeniably tally marks on her right shoulder - twenty one of them.
“Take a good, long, hard look.” She managed to choke out, the anger suddenly gone. “There’s what the Blade did.” The intensity returned, “I. Don’t. Work. For. Them.” She glared at Ludelle, “And you want to know what
Marcus did? Look at those tally marks on my shoulder. And then I’ve got a few memories to show you.”
Ludelle had blanched, her face as white as a sheet. The way the name of her beloved left Adela’s lips was like a slap to the face; the scars - the crack of a whip. Ludelle was no fighter and just the sight of her old friend’s disfigured body was enough to make her gut twist. She remembered back when it was young and beautiful and
nothing like this. “No…” she whispered halfway through Adela’s speech, then louder once she finished: “No! Shut up, I don’t believe you!” If she’d seemed ready for an argument before, now she seemed ready for a fight. “I know what kind of person you are, Adela, and i know what you’re capable of to achieve your goals! Do you remember that family, that little child you pushed to suicide even when he had NOTHING to do with it?! You have no heart! And I've fallen for your tricks often enough.” She shouted and turned to leave.
Ludelle’s words stung Adéla like the crack of a whip - a red hot iron being thrust straight through her heart. The worst part wasn’t even that it was true… Adéla had done truly despicable things over her life to get what she wanted, there was no denying it. What burned her more than anything was that, above all else, that was what Ludelle associated her with now. In spite of all the good she had done, everything
else her friend could remember her by, even the simple fact that she was a friend, or at least… had been…
No, her old friend chose to remember her by the worst things she’d ever done.
Leaving her shirt discarded on the floor, Adéla chased after her faster than she should’ve been able to. She caught up with Ludelle just as the elf was leaving, grabbing her by the wrist and refusing to budge. Ludelle was a hacker and a magic user - she couldn’t compete in a contest of strength. Adéla did however anticipate her trying to shock her off, and kept a charge of anti-magic flowing through her body, ready to swat away any such attempt.
“Look at those scars.” She hissed, grabbing Ludelle’s free hand and placing it on the tally marks carved into her flesh. “Feel that.” She stared into Ludelle’s eyes, months of agony and suffering plainly visible in her own. “You love Marcus so much? You’re so blinded by love that you can’t see he’s worse than I am?” Adéla closed her eyes, a single tear welling as painful memories resurfaced. “Let me show you what your beloved did to
mine, and to me as well.”
Before Ludelle could struggle free, Adéla whipped out a small cable, linking one end around her temples and pushing the other over the struggling woman’s head. A small mental signal to the device and a link had been established - in a fraction of a second, months of memories flooded from Adéla’s mind to Ludelle’s, along with every sensation, emotion, and thought she had had.
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(¸.·One Year Prior*´¨)
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Adéla stood at the front of her squad as she surveyed the damage. Two members of her team down, but not dead, if she got them back to base in time they would be just fine - have a couple interesting scars to show off, but no worse for wear. The poor saps lying in crumpled heaps all around the old quarry however… they wouldn’t be going anywhere. She walked around, finding the survivors and quickly ending their suffering. This hadn’t been a battle - just a slaughter. Barely any of them had had any sort of armor, and their weapons were in terrible condition.
She honestly felt sorry for them. She wasn’t sure why Marcus had ordered her to wipe out this gang, ostensibly it was something to do with arms shipments but she suspected there was something else involved.
“Colonel,” a voice came from behind her and she stood, holstering her prized custom engraved pistol after closing the eyes of the final survivor and ending his misery. “all hostiles eliminated. No sign of the arms shipment the General indicated.”
“So I noticed.” Adéla called over her shoulder, making one final visual sweep for any last survivors. “Well, this one was a wild goose chase.” She made her way back to her team, patting them on the back with an armored hand, “Let’s get out of here, everybody. I’ll tell the general that his weapons cache wasn’t here and that the smell is awful.”
The two injured teammates had already been loaded onto stretchers, and Adéla walked over, fistbumping Sanchez, “Nice job, saw you take that guy down right after he got you in the leg. I’m glad to have you both on the team.” Turning to the rest of the group she grinned, “Drinks are on me tonight! Let’s blow this joint, if I never see this pit again it’ll still be too soon.”
She froze as a click and a high pitched whine met her ears.
“Then I guess I need to apologize for two things.” A familiar voice growled from behind. Adéla turned to look, only for another series of clicks and whines to sound out. There, right behind her, was her second in command - and he had his rifle pointed straight at her midsection.
“What…” her eyes widened behind her helmet before narrowing, “Drop the weapon if you want to live, Wood.”
The man’s smile was unnerving and sickening. “Turn around again, oh great leader.” He gestured with his gun, “I’m not the one who needs to worry.”
She turned, already knowing what she would see. The shock was still the same however, as the sight of her entire team aiming their weapons at each other met her eyes. She wanted to ask why, but knew it would be futile - she knew how the Stygian Blade worked. Some higher up wanted her gone, probably. They’d set up the trap expertly at that, there was no way she was getting out of this one.
Closing her eyes she turned back around, facing Wood. She took a deep breath, seeming to accept her fate.
Without warning she lashed out, whipping her own gun out of its holster she raced forward, firing off a volley of shots that smashed into her former second in command’s helmet. She couldn’t tell if the shots had penetrated, but like hell was she going down without a fight.
A cacophony of gunfire erupted behind her, and her body spasmed as the shots tore through her armor, punching straight through her body. She gasped as she lost all sensation below her midsection, at least two shots tearing straight through her spine.
Her gun clattered to the ground as she collapsed, the hard concrete around her now red with her blood. Wood pushed himself to his feet, pulling off his helmet as he sauntered over to her prostrate body. He kicked her in the face before bending down and picking up the gun she had dropped.
“Catch.” He called to her team, tossing the weapon over to them. “Put it in the case, and don’t lose it. Cutting off her head is unnecessary, Marcus just wants the gun as proof.”
Adéla was rapidly losing consciousness, she heard and saw everything through a dark haze. Marcus had always been a snake. She should’ve done something about him long ago. Another thought pushed its way to the front - what about Ludelle? She was infatuated with him, there was nobody standing in his way with her if she died here and now.
Darkness overcame her.
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(¸.·Two Months Later*´¨)
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Medical nanites were amazing. Adéla was still paralyzed below her chest, and having to drag herself everywhere - but she hadn’t bled out. Life threatening organ damage had been repaired at the cost of permanent scarring. The microscopic little robots were incredible, but they weren’t miracle workers.
She’d dragged herself over to a small pool of water which, judging by the worrying color, was contaminated with industrial runoff. She didn’t have a choice in the matter though. She could drink the tainted water or die of dehydration. Hopefully she would be able to avoid the worst effects of drinking it - so much for advanced healing technology if she just died from highly toxic chemicals lurking about in the water instead.
Her body was wasting away however. The nanites and her cybernetics were incredibly power hungry, and she was wracked with pain as they literally devoured her body.
The gnawed bones of the last rat she had caught lay nearby. Her mouth was caked in its blood, and her hands were marred with the bites it had inflicted before she’d crushed its skull. The rats were thick down here, they’d been feasting on the bodies of the gang she and her team had wiped out two months ago. She had no fire or means of cooking the rats, and so she’d been eating them raw. Playing dead to lure them close before grabbing a few and enduring their frantic bites. They were probably full of parasites - but she had no choice.
One of the guns dropped by the gang had been left behind, it was in decent shape and she kept it nearby. She hated to see it though. Every day she told herself she would survive and get out of this pit, but every day, as hunger tore at her body and the taste of foul water burned in her throat, it looked more and more appealing.
Her arms were twigs at this point, she was barely clinging to life on rats and contaminated water. She’d seen her reflection in the pool - it was just like the pictures of starving people in undeveloped nations. Her skull poked at her skin, and the full figure she had prided herself on was completely gone, her hair had mostly fallen out and what remained was thin and matted.
She’d never appreciated just how important socialization was until now. She was going absolutely insane from the isolation - nothing but rats and spiders for company. She’d resorted to eating the spiders too.
With a sudden manic burst of energy she began speed dragging herself towards the ladder that lead out of this pit. Rocks, rubble, concrete, metal and wood scraps, everything on the ground dug into her gut and sides as she hauled herself across. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she reached it and she took half a second to take a breath before heaving herself up unto the first rung.
The burst of manic strength kept her going, with only the strength of her arms, Adéla dragged herself up the ladder, rung by agonizing rung she heaved away. Her legs dangled uselessly below her as she moved upwards. With every movement she cursed the names of her former team.
Wood, Sanchez, Allen, Turau, Bokun, Kitagawa, Rudolph, Jensen. They would all burn in hell if she had her way.
Wood, the ever confident second in command - she thought he was trustworthy, if ambitious, but now she knew. Sanchez, the reliable point man, always had a smile on his face… she wondered if he had been smiling when he literally shot her in the back.
Allen, kind of a quiet guy, but he was there when she needed him, except this time he’d been there on the wrong side.
Turau, she was also pretty quiet, kind of a loner, but an absolute nightmare with a precision rifle, Adéla had heard its distinctive boom when she’d been been shot - she was pretty sure that was the first bullet to go through her spine, which would explain why it was taking so long for the nanites to heal.
Bokun… she didn’t know anything about him really, he was fairly new, but he would still pay all the same.
Kitagawa was overly serious, he never seemed to appreciate her attempts to add humor into mission assignments now and then.
Rudolph and Jensen were practically inseparable, the two had been best friends since they were both little girls; she remembered they’d often tried to recruit her for girls’ nights after missions, though they had the worst timing ever, so she usually had to decline… she didn’t want to think about those two trying to kill her.
Adéla kept climbing, determined to get out, to survive, to reach a hospital or something and get back on her feet and kill her team. She would kill them, but first she would make them all feel her pain. Make them feel the pain that lead her to scrawl
I’m alive I’m alive I’m alive I’m alive on the cement with a rock.
But her hand slipped. Before she could react she plummeted, halfway up the ladder she fell backwards, frantically clawing at thin air as the ground rushed up at her. Her outstretched hand managed to reach it and she clamped down, halting her fall only a few meters from the ground.
Her shoulder shrieked in protest at the sudden stop, and her lower body slammed into the hard metal of the ladder with agonizing force. She gasped in pain and let go, landing on the hard and unforgiving cement below.
She lay there for a moment, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed uncontrollably in pain, fear, and loneliness. She would die here, with nobody around, no friends, nobody. She would die with broken bones and a paralyzed lower body. She would die with the taste of contaminated water in her mouth and her fingernails caked in rat blood. She would die without ever seeing another face again, or hearing someone’s voice - even her own voice, she was unable to speak for some reason, probably purely mental.
She would die here. She would die, she knew she was going to die.
Her thoughts went to her friends, or what friends she had left now that her team had turned traitor. Ludelle’s was the only name that stuck out at her, almost everyone else had decided to put a bullet in her back.
Her eyes flashed open as the realization hit her. They’d been part of the team that countered the Blade’s plans too! They knew Ludelle had played a role in that too. Who knew what they were doing to her?
That decided it. She wouldn’t die. She couldn’t die. Not until she was sure Ludelle at least was safe, the others could fight and probably escape. Her elven friend however...
She cast a look at the gun again, resolving that this would be the last time she let it tempt her before tearing her gaze away as she heard a noise.
A small family of rats seemed to be heading her way. Judging by their lack of fear they’d not been around long to see their compatriots devoured. She went limp, holding her breath as they neared…
The one at the front, a true monster of a rat almost as long as her arm, sniffed her face and body, walking around to the front as the rest scurried after.
She lunged, grabbing the big one by the neck and another big one in her other hand. A third rat had been passing by her face and she lunged at that one too, biting his head off before he had a chance to bite too much of her mouth. The two big ones in her hands had clamped down, and her blood flowed anew as they tore into her hands.
Two quick squeezes and they bit down ever harder before going limp.
Dropping the fresh corpses, Adéla ripped two pieces of fabric off her pants, tying them down over the holes in her hands with a few loose rubber bands she’d found down here.
The knife on her belt was dulled from frequent use, but it still cut through the rats all the same. She pulled their skins off, discarding them to the side as she moved back over to the pool with the three fresh carcasses.
She bit into the big one first, hot thick blood running into her mouth as she ate the sickening meal raw. The second bite went down no easier than the first. Even after two months of living on this her stomach still turned. But survival was a good motivator to keep eating. And so she took the third bite before tearing into the carcass like a wild animal.
Adéla let Ludelle watch. She felt mildly sorry for the Elf - she was experiencing every sensation she’d felt at the time. She didn’t wish that pain on her, or most anybody.
And the other woman was visibly shaken. Her body was trembling, her lips sealed and her jaw clenched, either from the pain she’d experienced in the memories... or the one she was experiencing right now. Adéla had been her friend, one of very few people she’d ever trusted in her life and for all she hated her right now, she never wanted to see her how she saw her just now. Adéla was no saint but she hadn’t deserved all that…
Or had she?
She still remembered Marcus’ warnings. His gentle hand stroking her cheek as if she was a child, protectively, tenderly. “Be aware of Adéla.”, “You know what she’s capable of.”, “Never trust someone with blood on their hands.”
Ludelle was clearly fighting back tears when she locked eyes with Adéla. Compassion was clearly visible in her eyes but there was something else in there too. Something she couldn’t bring out of her throat but she didn’t have to because her friend knew.
With a snarl, half-angry and half-desperate, Ludelle sent a surge of electricity through the cable connecting them strong enough to melt the jack on Adéla’s side and pulled her hand away with a jerk. Her eyes lingered on the other woman for a second longer before she turned and practically ran away, bumping into a passing Knight as she did so.
