Let this be a warning to you all. I only own the various rulebooks for Shadowrun, and the twisted little people that decide to speak to me. Without further ado, I present to you-
Betrayal
Devil stared in shock out the café window, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. She pressed her hand to her eyes before taking a second look. The mocha skinned woman could feel her heart breaking. Before the shock could sink in fully, she turned her head away from what was going on outside the café. Devil's flesh hand fisted powerfully around the sturdy mug her soy-coffee was in, pale green cyber-eyes burning with the desire to shed tears.
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Betrayal burns. It hurts. The moment of revelation knocks you for a loop, making you yearn to forget what you had learned. A heart can skip a beat, breath catch in a throat. The trust that you had invested, that you had thought went both ways, is gone in a single action.
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She had trusted him! She had given blood and flesh and tears for him! Devil managed to keep her eventual breakdown tight within her, pale green eyes dry behind her black shades. She calmly started to drink her soy-coffee, the previously rich, artificial chocolate taste now like that of ash.
Her mind raced, the blonde haired woman trying to comprehend. Her boyfriend of several long years had looked too comfortable with that woman (who was she? She was so familiar…) for the sickeningly sweet –yet hurtful- scene just now to have been their first kiss. How long had he cheated on her? How had the two met? Why did Arrow feel the need to go else where? Who the drek was that woman?
Why did she feel like she knew that red haired woman?
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From betrayed trust comes broken loyalty. Loyalty that had once been as strong as the trust. Loyalty that has you taking someones side, has you believing the words they speak. The effort to break loyalty is far greater then the effort to break a trust. And that breaking is always messy. For any involved.
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Devil rose from her seat after finishing her drink, and she started for her car. Was it her fault? Had he thought her disloyal? She had already lost two limbs protecting him, what more did the elven spell-slinger want from her. She sat in her car for a moment before having it start, the engine purring. "Destination, the Burning nest." She said softly, her voice almost inaudible over the Goblin Rock that had started to blast through the speakers.
A two dimensional map appeared in her vision, and the human woman started to follow its directions to Phoenyx's. That's where the team meet was, today at least. Devil didn't know if the long distance was a good or bad thing.
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From trust and loyalty usually comes love. It could be a friendly love, or a familial one. Or, in most cases where betrayal hurts the most, it is the love between two people that is neither friendly nor familial love. Then it is the love where you are in love. And when it is the love between lovers, then betrayal is truly hard to believe.
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Devil fiddled with the hilt of a knife, leaning against the wall in a tense manner. Phoenyx glanced at her several times, expression worried. "Come on Evil Girl, what's up?" he finally questioned, gaze moving to be focused on her instead of the Matrix.
Pale green eyes blinked a few times, refocusing on the here and now instead of lost in her own mind. "You say something? I was distracted." Her hand dropped from the hilt of the knife as she murmured.
Phoenyx frowned at her, his hands automatically logging off. "Jeez, I haven't seen you this out of it since you lost your leg. Seriously Devil, what's wrong?" The hacker sounded worried, tugging off his AR gloves with a concerned expression.
Devil's lips quirked into a smile that was partly grim, partly heartbroken and sad. "Arrow's been cheating on me." She said softly, trailing a fingertip of her cyber hand along her flesh one. Her gaze focused on the elegant writing on her fingers, then she looked away to keep her sorrow and anger under control. Her flesh hand fisted tightly, knuckles turning white.
Phoenyx hummed and got up. "I'll get booze, you can tell me about it." He headed into the kitchen, limping a little from his bum knee.
Still in the living room, Devil frowned at Phoenyx's back. Her fingers started to unbraid her blonde hair, the razor girl starting to play back what she had seen after telling her friend what was wrong. Her pale green eyes widened, her metal and flesh hands stopping in mid movement. "Why would he get that look after hearing that?" She murmured to herself in Arabic, expression turning from tense and sad to puzzled.
As Phoenyx came back into the living room with a half empty twenty-four pack of beer, Devil's blood suddenly ran cold in her veins. She watched him through her eyelashes, seeing how nervous the hacker seemed. She lazily accepted the can offered to her, but didn't pop it open like he did.
Phoenyx shifted in his seat, fiddling with the can tab. "So, you going to rant or just sit there and fume until the rest get here?" He attempted to joke, offering her a crooked smile.
"How long have you known." Devil asked calmly, her eyes partly closed. Her anger simmered low, a fingertip trailing around the edge of the can.
"I… don't know what you mean." Phoenyx stammered slightly, his gaze flickering away for a moment.
Devil's eyes flared almost angrily. "Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. I am not in the mood. How long." Her tone was low as she hissed her question, venom starting to gather in her tone.
Phoenyx winced, rubbing his neck as his gaze bounced around the room. "Since…. Since it started." He nervously drank half of his can in one go, not able to meet Devil's eyes. He knew what he would see.
"Phoenyx." The blonde half barked, tone almost sharp enough to draw blook. Her cyber hand slowly began crushing the still sealed can. "How. Fracking. Long." She ignored the soy-beer that started dripping down her hand, pale green eyes staring a hole into Phoenyx's head.
Phoenyx nervously glanced around still, almost wishing that someone would show up to save him from Devil's anger. His brown eyes focused on Devil for a moment and the hacker drastically paled at what he saw. As he automatically leaned back in his seat, Phoenyx thought absently that it was a good thing that Devil wasn't a magic user of any sort. He would have feared for the continued existence of the dingy house then. Just like he was fearing for his own. "A year. It's been going on for a year that I know of." His voice was barely a whisper.
Devil stared at Phoenyx, eyes and expression dark but unreadable. She rose to her feet, ignoring Phoenyx's flinch of fear. She strode for the kitchen, boots thumping heavily on the ground. The crushed beer can slammed into the trash compactor, a now ruined pair of leather gloves following to rest on the top of it. Devil's hands paused, pale green eyes focused on the words elegantly tattooed on her fingers in Arabic.
Trust. Loyalty. Love. Soul. Friend. Lover. The street samurai's eyes closed in an attempt to forget the stages of her life, to hold her pain at bay. Devil's hands started to move, turning on the heavily recycled water, then collecting soap to start cleaning the soy-beer from her skin.
As she turned off the water, Devil was aware of everyone else having arrived. She stared out the window unseeingly, hands fisting loosely on the edge of the sink. The dark skinned woman absently listened to everyone, tears finally starting to fall silently, one by one.
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Betrayal hurts. It tears at your heart, it rips your soul to tatters. You feel lost, confused. Sometimes, you blame yourself before the truth is felt, is realized. It is ever your fault for being betrayed, never you fault for your trust to be shattered, loyalty to be broken, your love burned to ash, your soul torn to painful tatters.
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Devil slowly sank to her knees, hands still fisted on the sink edge. Tears continued to slide silently down her dark skin, falling to the ground, showing her pain. "Damn him. And no more." She whispered to herself, the Arabic words smooth.
Allowing herself a moment to cry, Devil rested her forehead on an arm. When her tears slowed to a stop, the woman rose to her feet and wiped her hands and face off. Turning from the sink, she started for the kitchen door, expression changing to her usual neutrality.
A small pool of tears was the only testament of the woman's pain.
I will admit, this one was a touch hard for me to write. Devil's emotional pain stabbed me in my cold heart. I've never been betrayed in this manner, but I couldn't help but think that our reactions would be similar.
Devil is very near and dear to me, and I do wish I hadn't put her through that. As of this point, I'm completely unsure if she'll ever let anyone that close ever again.
Reviewing would be divine of you. Thank you for your time.