[X] Freedom: Prisoner of Song
Her eyes were open, but all she saw was darkness. She drove her nails into her palm until she bled, but all she felt was numbness. She sharpened her senses and focused, but the silence was deafening.
She couldn't continue like this. It was getting harder and harder to think, by the second. Thoughts were being drowned out by the emptiness and silence. It felt like part of her world was missing, and she could have avoided this. If only she had spoken more, if only she hadn't been so stubborn, then she wouldn't have-
No. With a herculean effort, she forced herself to think again. It was getting to her. Four was getting to her. She didn't need the Song. She just needed to remember what was going on here.
Her name was Haseltii. Haseltii... It was... Her last name, she was...
The realisation that she couldn't force the memory to resurface shattered her resolve. She was losing herself, part by part, day by day. Anything that didn't support Four and her will was being stripped away.
It was...
Why did she even bother fighting? If it hurt like this? The Song was the only relief she got, it was the only thing that felt real, it was the only thing in this world that had any meaning to it, so why keep denying it when resistance just made her feel like this?
It...
It...
It should be easier to be able to refute that thought. She needed to focus more, remember, at least for a bit. S-She...
She still had something in her! The Song and then it's absence were tearing her mind apart, but anything Four might consider useful was still there. As long as Haseltii could hold onto it, she could remember enough about herself. She could keep resisting if she just focused on those memories.
She'd already given away so much, but she still had so much. Blake, she knew a few things about Blake. She'd heard the story, she was the one who passed it on to Khan, she mattered, she was important! She was more than just a prisoner! She-
The silence in the room came to an abrupt end, as the steel, vault-like door in her cell was flung open, slamming into the wall on the other side. Haseltii began to follow it with her head, before the footsteps thundered in and her eyes were drawn back to the door instead.
Four was here, and she had never looked more furious. She didn't even give time for Haseltii to stand, before she had wrapped a hand around the Faunus's throat and slammed here against a wall.
Pain. A sensation, but not a good one. Haseltii almost wished for a return of the numbness. Even if it was a sensation, it was another mark Four had left on her. Four wanted her to hurt, so she hurt, and there was nothing that let her find any positive to that.
Usually, this was the point at which Four would either begin the questioning, or the mocking. But then, usually, Four opened the door in a way that left it intact. Instead, the girl in green gave a hateful shout, as she threw Haseltii back to the ground.
The spider Faunus felt her arm break from the impact, but didn't make any sound. Four would tell her when she had permission to scream.
"You
fuckers!" The Intoner shouted, as she kicked into Haseltii's side. The spider Faunus rolled at the blow, repressing cries of pain again as she did so, and Four's foot came down on the broken arm to stop her going too far.
"How much did you know?" Four screamed, as she dug her heel into Haseltii's arm. "How much were you keeping from me, you insect?"
"I..." Haseltii whimpered, as she looked up. Four was angry with her. What had happened? Did something go wrong? Was this...
"Blake was seen!" Four declared, as she kicked down again. "Atlas is burning, and we saw Belladonna! We found Winter in the ashes!"
What?
Had...
Had Belladonna acted already? Attacked Atlas? But...
That was foolish. Stupid. Even if the plan had worked, the White Fang weren't in any position to mobilise on an Intoner, let alone in the heart of Atlas. It would have taken years, decades even, assuming Four didn't wipe them out. What was she thinking?
"Do you know how good Atlas medicinal technology is?" Four asked, in a low whisper that barely contained another roar of hatred. "It's the best in the world you know. You could lose all your internal organs and have artificial replacements made in less than an hour. We can keep someone alive indefinitely, as long as the brain is intact. Sometimes we have a miracle, because if someone's Aura is strong enough when they come in, we can even reverse minor brain damage. Do you want to know why I'm telling you this?"
It didn't matter what Haseltii would have said if she gave it thought. There was only one answer Four wanted, and Haseltii shook her head to give it to her.
"It's quite simple, really." Four continued. "It's because despite all that, the doctors aren't able to fix everything. Sometimes we bring someone in too late. Sometimes the damage is too much. Sometimes, someone starts a fire in your lungs and help doesn't arrive in time to make sure your brain gets all the oxygen it needs."
Pushing her heel in deeper, leaning down over Haseltii with pure wrath etched into her features, Four hissed. "And if they can't save Winter after what Belladonna did to her, then I'll make sure to show you
in DETAIL!"
Four's arm lashed out, crushing into Haseltii's own and breaking the bone again, closer to the shoulder. Four's arm curled around, and Haseltii felt her captor's overly long nails drive into her flesh, before the Intoner
pulled.
Blood burst forth as a fountain, as Four ripped the Faunus' arm off, and Haseltii couldn't help it. She screamed.
It hurt it hurt it hurt all she knew was pain it hurt so much why did it hurt what did she do she hadn't done anything wrong why was she being hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt-
"Shut up." Four snarled, and Haseltii forced her lips close. F-Four was angry, so if she listened, Four would make it stop hurting. She had to listen. She had to...
"Half of Atlas is burning." The Intoner continued. "Grimm are swarming at the walls, and your friends in the White Fang are attacking. I've been in Atlas for an hour, and in that time, we've had
five reports of White Fang sabotaging defences. The
entire military is fighting to keep the people safe. We have footage of Blake Belladonna leaving on a stolen airship, but
nobody's been able to follow her. So you're going to answer a few questions for me, you pest."
Haseltii nodded frantically. Make Four happy, make her stop the hurting. Answer the question, be useful, don't be hurt, don't lose another arm.
"Who's the branch leader in Atlas?" She demanded. "Who's organising all of this?"
Haseltii took a minute to wrack her memory. She needed the answer or she was going to hurt again. She needed to...
Who was in charge of Atlas? Who...
A name wasn't coming to mind. She couldn't remember who was in charge of Atlas. Why couldn't she-
Oh.
Oh, that was right.
That conversation in Mistral, with Khan...
~~~~~
"Haseltii."
The spider Faunus turned at the mention of her name, and nearly stopped in shock when she saw the speaker.
Sienna Khan, the leader of the White Fang, stood a few feet away from her.
"Walk with me, for a bit." Sienna ordered.
"As you command." Haseltii replied, turning to follow her leader down a path. "Is there something you wanted?"
"Just some company." She replied, her tiger ears twitching slightly as she spoke. "I had a few questions as well, if you don't mind."
"Of course, Khan." Haseltii replied.
The two walked down the empty corridor of the hidden base. An old castle, from ancient times. Legend had it that it had been built before Mistral was one Kingdom, a remnant of a time before memory. How the White Fang had found it, Haseltii didn't know, but the Grimm seemed to avoid this place.
"You'll be heading back to Vale soon, I imagine." Sienna noted, as she walked.
"Yes, ma'am." The spider replied. "I only came here to escort Belladonna. These are dangerous times."
"No kidding." Khan replied. "I've lost contact with the leadership in Atlas. Minor groups are still around, but everyone important is missing, or captured. I was going to send new talent over, but now, I don't know if we can afford to."
"These Intoners..." Haseltii began, before trailing off. "It's almost unbelievable, isn't it?"
"Like a nightmare come to life." Sienna Khan confirmed. "I had to find scouts in Atlas who hadn't gone missing and send them a message to confirm as much of Belladonna's story as possible, just to make sure there wasn't any doubt."
"You did?" Haseltii asked. "But... I was there when she met with you. You didn't seem like you doubted her then."
"Blake didn't look like she would be able to take it." Khan explained. "She hid it well, but not everything. Did you notice how she flinched when she heard my name? A name I had in common, with the girl she watched die?"
"...No." Haseltii muttered, feeling guilty about missing that herself. "She's that bad, huh?"
"I haven't seen worse in a long time."
~~~~~
The memory was hard to hold on to, and it was hard to focus on the part of it which mattered anymore.
"No..." Haseltii wheezed, through her pain. "No leadership... In Atlas. Small groups. Independent. No big base. Hiding in the villages nearby."
Four looked down at Haseltii, a fire burning in her eye. "So this is preplanned... Then, there's no way to stop them, but to burn them all down, isn't there?"
"No way." Haseltii confirmed. Instantly, she knew what consequences her words would have. Every single person in those villages, human, Faunus, White Fang or not, were going to die. Four wasn't going to give them any quarter to recover if she knew there wasn't a head on this snake. They were all going to die.
The Intoner parted her lips and sang, and the bliss Haseltii felt proved she had made the right choice.
The pain from her missing arm was gone, and even as the song immediately ended, the spider Faunus felt a sense of contentment.
All she had to do was sentence dozens, maybe hundreds, of people to die, and something gave her meaning again.
"Where is Belladonna running?" Four demanded.
"Don't know..." Haseltii replied, a sliver of fear returning to her. She had just gotten a reward, but this wasn't a good answer. Did she need to say more? "Not villages... Too dangerous. Not Vale."
"What do you mean, not Vale?"
Closing her eyes, Haseltii searched for the memory again. A different one, this time, requesting back-up...
~~~~~
"There's not enough of us left in Vale." She pleaded. "We have rumours that
she is here, people are going missing. I'm basically the highest ranking person left and I can't do this alone. Please respond."
Usually, it wasn't worth waiting for a reply. The Mistral network would send a reply when they had time. If someone was on the other end, though, they'd reply immediately. And as luck would have it, this was one of those times.
"Message acknowledged." An automated voice replied. "Please hold. Routing to Sienna Khan."
Khan? Again? Haseltii hadn't spoken to her ever before that time in Mistral, and now she was getting to talk to her for a second time in half a year?
The holographic projected popped up after a moment, to show the tiger Faunus resting in her throne.
"Haseltii." Sienna noted, with a nod. "It's good to see you well."
"You too, Khan." Haseltii replied. "It... Hasn't been easy."
"I'll get to the point." Sienna decided, at that. "I'm sorry, Haseltii. We lost too many people in Vacuo, too much of their leadership, and we need our hold in Mistral. We can't afford to send anyone important to Vale."
Haseltii's heart skipped a beat at that.
"But..." She grasped, trying to find a solution. "Surely, Four hasn't done that much damage to Vacuo's branch? We should still have someone there who can hold on while someone comes here-"
"I don't think you understand." Sienna Khan interrupted. "We don't have
anyone to spare.
I am going to Vacou, to try to recover everything. The only reason we can afford to do
that is because my replacement in Mistral has contacts who don't know of her role. If Four is in Vale, then now's the only time we've had in months to get operations in Vacuo back up to standard. We don't have anyone else."
Haseltii took a moment to process that.
"...Understood." She stated, softly.
"How's Belladonna?" Sienna asked. "If she's worried, tell her that she can just pull out and come back to Mistral-"
"She won't do that." Haseltii interrupted. "She doesn't want to miss this opportunity. She won't leave until she's done or she's dead."
"...A shame." Khan sighed. "Haseltii, be honest with me. What's your thoughts on this situation?"
"With the Intoners?" Haseltii asked. Sienna nodded. "It's... A lot. Four, especially."
Taking a seat on her end and leaning back herself, the spider Faunus continued.
"I... Always thought it was unfair." She began. "That the humans were so much more well off than us. There's more of them. They run the government and the military. They can do important things without being suspect, they can walk by a crime scene without being taken in for questioning, they can do so much we don't have to worry about. And despite all that, they don't bother changing anything."
She gave a bitter laugh, at that. "Always wanted things to change. That's why I joined the White Fang. Never thought about what would happen if the change made things worse for us."
"I understand what you mean." Sienna continued. "In Mistral, there's a lot of different trains of thought that the people in power discuss. I've always been fond of Noblesse Oblige, myself. Privilege entails duty."
"Great power, and with it, great responsibility." Haseltii nodded.
"Exactly." Sienna nodded back. "It's balancing, in a way. If you can control the state of the world, you have the duty to ensure the world is in a state that those who can't control it can live happy."
"But that's not what happens." Haseltii continued. "Humans could make everything better on the Faunus if they just tried. If they cared."
"Too many are scared to change the status quo." Sienna concluded. "And thus, it must be us, who makes the status quo unbearable to them."
"And now Four's here." Haseltii spat bitterly. "Now we don't even have that option. It's like I'm a prisoner, and the chains are tightening."
And did that simile not just say it all? Humans were free. They could do anything they wanted to. All the Faunus of the world, they were trapped. They had to justify themselves to the world, they had to prove they were worth trusting, they had to live restricted lives just to be accepted. Prisoners in chains, watching free men run.
All she wanted was real freedom. The same that the humans had. Where she could live how she wanted, not how the humans demanded she act. And that...
~~~~~
...That...
It was a fleeting memory which had vanished long ago.
"The White Fang are abandoning Vale." Haseltii told Four. "There's not enough left. Vacuo and Mistral, we're all there. Belladonna will go there."
"Narrow it down." Four demanded.
"C-Can't." Haseltii whimpered. "Don't know."
"Who does?"
"K-Khan." Haseltii answered. "Leader. Should know everything."
"That's one." Four accepted. "You named two Kingdoms were Blake might run. Who's running the White Fang in the other?"
"Dunno." Haseltii admitted. She felt that familiar fear again, when she saw the anger in Four's eyes. It wasn't a good enough answer, she needed a better answer, she had to give a better answer, she-
"Khan's in Vacuo!" Haseltii spat out.
And with that, the betrayal was done. She'd held onto that for so long. Nobody had known that Sienna Khan had left Mistral, and now, Haseltii was telling the one person who could do the most damage with that information.
"I don't know who's in Mistral." Haseltii continued. "Sienna said she had contacts in the Kingdom, people who didn't know she was White Fang, enough that she can run the White Fang there without Sienna, so she has to be important."
"...I see." Four said, voice dull.
Was that a good answer? Was she happy with Haseltii now? Was the Song going to come again?
It hurt, it hurt so much. Not physically, not anymore, but emotionally. Before Four had come in, Haseltii had been trying to resist. Only a few minutes later, and she had told Four the biggest secret she could think of, just to make her happy.
She wanted the Song. Not just for the bliss. She wanted the Song so she could forget. So it stopped hurting. What was the point of resisting Four's sway, if she just failed, and felt this despair?
Four's lips opened again, and she Sang again.
Green light covered Haseltii, who sighed in contentment. There was comfort, in the Song. There was purpose. The painful world outside of it fell away and stopped mattering, as she felt the Song within her. There was power in it, but Haseltii felt that fall away from her as Four willed it. The Faunus did not deserve the improved strength, she did not deserve a better chance to escape.
Even as Four stopped Singing, Haseltii felt content. There was enough there to keep her going, for a time at least. Haseltii moved to push herself off of the ground, only to realise, after a moment, that she was trying to move the arm that wasn't there anymore.
Pulling out a scroll and putting it to her ear, Four started talking to someone else.
"Secure the prisoner." She ordered. "The door has been damaged, and they are going to need medical attention."
...Medical attention? But her arm wasn't bleeding anym-
Four spun suddenly, and drove the tip of her boot into Haseltii's side. The Spider Faunus screamed, as the blow cleaved through her body. Her ribs broke just from being close to the kick, and as she forced her eyes open, Haseltii watched as her stomach and intestines painted the wall.
Whimpering in pain, Haseltii wretched her eyes shut. She heard Four's footsteps echo out as she left the room, and disappeared.
All there was in Haseltii's existence was pain. And yet, at this moment, right now...
With the memory of the Song still fresh, Haseltii couldn't bring herself to hate her captor.
This was the way she lived, now. If this was the cost of the Song, then this was the price she would pay.
What other choice did she have?
[X] Survival: Knight of Silver
[X] Perfection: Freak of Nature
[X] Contract: Quicksilver Assassin
