A/N: I own nothing. A reworked version of the horror piece I wrote for my duel with SalazarMarvolo, she won so go read her piece 'Dulce et Decorum est', it's objectively better ;). Not fluff despite the title, if you're looking for that go elsewhere. Thanks to SesshomaruFreak for judging. Pre-manga. I plan to make this a two-shot, unfortunately the horror doesn't show up until the second part.
Warnings: Non-graphic prison rape, gratuitous death and violence. Future chapters will have more warnings.
"….You are to select a detail and form a task force with Hisagi-fukutaichou to deal with the uprising by any means necessary," Byakuya concluded the morning's assignments.
Renji nodded, "Yes taichou." The uprising had been a problem for a while and though he didn't look forward to raising his sword against Rukon citizens, they had been doing a surprising amount of damage. He flash-stepped away to gather his detail and was soon outside the ninth barracks.
"Hey you ready?" he asked.
"Always," Hisagi smiled grimly. They moved out and quickly arrived at the recently discovered rebel 'base'.
"Don't look like much does it?" Renji asked as he observed the cluster of three abandoned slums around a small, dusty 'training ground'.
"No," Hisagi replied quietly.
Renji sighed, "Let's go."
They approached stealthily hoping for more capture than kill, they'd both been very firm about that to their respective groups. Since the two lieutenants were taking point they were the first to see the gaunt 'rebels' receiving gruel from a communal pot in the grounds. Whole families including young children lined up for their serving, most with rough wooden bowls they'd likely carved themselves. Renji signaled a halt and Hisagi did the same.
They crouched silently in the shadows, watching and listening.
"We're running out," an emaciated woman said quietly to the man who'd been ladling out the food. He was slight of build even without the clear signs of hunger and had a graying ponytail tied high on his head.
"I know," he said. "We'll raid the stores by the end of the week."
"That's a suicide mission," she whispered back.
"You got a better idea?" the man snapped. The woman hung her head, tears slowly rolling down her face. The man closed his eyes and embraced her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Renji's heart broke as he remembered his days starving on the streets with Rukia and their long dead friends. He glanced at Hisagi and saw pain etched across his face, as one they called a retreat and followed their details until they were almost a mile away.
"Hold here, we're gonna make a diplomatic approach," Hisagi ordered. Snickers and bad jokes greeted his announcement but of course they obeyed. Hisagi and he returned alone and walked straight into the common ground, hands in the air. Immediately they were surrounded by swords with emaciated men on the other end.
"We want to talk to your leader," Hisagi explained calmly. Renji was unsurprised to see the man from before step forward and wave his men's swords down, his own held ready at his side.
"Yer Shinigami," he stated. When they didn't answer he continued. "Shouldn't ya' be killin' us?" Renji fought a smile, the guy had some fight in him.
Hisagi shook his head, "We were sent to end the rebellion." He continued quickly when the man tried to interrupt, "But that doesn't necessarily mean killing."
"We won't give up," the man replied, his voice hard.
"Because you'll starve, so what difference does it make how you die?" Renji guessed, except that it wasn't really a guess.
The man didn't respond, but his eyes burned with anger.
"If we could get you food, would you lay down your arms?" Renji asked. From the corner of his eye he could see the men's hands shaking on their swords under faces filled with hope.
"An' the others?" the man snarled, gesturing at the Rukon in general.
"Baby steps?" Hisagi offered with a sheepish smile. The man glared at them, looked around at his 'forces' and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again it looked like he'd aged ten years. He nodded, "If you bring food for my people."
Renji grinned, "Consider it done!" The circle of men around them separated and they walked out untouched.
"How exactly are you planning to do that?" Hisagi whispered.
Renji exhaled with relief and shrugged, "I'll figure it out."
Hisagi sighed but when Renji looked at him, he was grinning too.
Two weeks later Renji and his fellow lieutenant trudged through the Rukon streets. They were dressed in peasant clothes and hauling a heavily loaded cart. It had been surprisingly simple—if technically illegal—to acquire the supplies from the surplus stores. Renji felt neither guilt nor fear it was just a bit of food and overstock at that, it wasn't like they were doing anything that would hurt their own. Besides it was the only thing that the rebels wanted. There was no need to kill people who were merely trying to fight for their lives and neither he nor Hisagi had any desire to do so.
Besides it was really unlikely they'd be caught and so they arrived back at the rebels compound. Hisagi knocked on the door to the supply building, hissed the password their contact had given them, and waited for it to open. They slipped in and it shut quickly behind them.
Wordlessly they began doling out the food that would buy peace. The women hard-worn and thin, but carrying whatever weapons they could scavenge, wept as they unloaded crates of food. The young men cheered and slapped the lieutenants on the back before going to help the women.
The leader of the group—their contact had named him Amaya-san—moved over to them with a warrior's grace, he carried himself with the kind of pride that came from having nothing else left.
"Thank ya," he said quietly.
"Thank you for keeping things calm," Renji replied. Tears came to Amaya's hard eyes and he lowered his gaze in gratitude.
"Thank ya' fer keeping yer word," he replied his voice choked with emotion. "I'm honored to know ya," he continued with surprising formality.
"Back at ya'. I'm Renji by the way, this is Shuuhei."
The man's eyes widened but all he said was, "Amaya."
"Well good to meet you," Hisagi said. With a smile he shook Amaya's hand, Renji did the same.
Amaya had just opened his mouth to reply when the twilight of the warehouse was suddenly filled with spirit energy.
"Howl Zabi-" Renji began before finding himself bound in a weak but effective bakudo. He struggled, completely immobile as shouts echoed around and blood sprayed from the swords of the punishment squad as they tore into the rebels. Renji watched in horror as Rukon citizens, people who'd only wanted a fair shake and to not be hungry fell around him screaming. Some of the rebels were bound in bakudo and members of second squad calmly executed them where they stood.
The handful that managed to escape both bakudo and blade were chased by flash-stepping Shinigami. The screams that followed announced most of had failed to escape. Renji looked over to see tears falling freely down Hisagi cheeks, he'd never seen lieutenant cry before. He tried to blink back his own, he wanted nothing more than to beat the hell out of their attackers but the bakudo prevented him from anything.
Soi-fon walked up to Renji and sighed.
"You're an idiot," she slapped him across the face. Renji glared fire at her, wishing he could kill her on the spot. He struggled to move, speak anything and felt Hisagi doing the same.
"You would commit treason for a bunch of rag piles?" she snarled bitterly and slapped him again. They were marched out of the warehouse with twenty guards each. Kaname was among Hisagi's escort and watched him with hard eyes.
"A traitor in my own squad" Kaname spat ruthlessly disappointment dripping from the words.
They were dragged back to Seireitei and tossed into a pair of cells in the basement of C46 to 'await trial' whenever that would be. Renji settled back against the wall of his cage with a sigh of relief that the bakudo was gone. Hisagi paced the opposing cell, face twisted with rage.
"How long ya' think we'll be stuck here?" Renji asked idly to break the incessant tak-tak of Hisagi's steps.
"Til' Byakuya springs you and I get tossed in the Maggots' Nest," he snarled.
"Aw it ain't that bad no way they'll find us guilty of anything serious," Renji said. He was fully aware that Byakuya would let him rot there if the law said it was just.
"Have you ever been to a c46 trial?" Hisagi asked.
Renji paled, "Surely it's not..."
"It's treason Ren. We're fucked."
Renji shut up at that, maybe Hisagi was wrong...maybe. If not well, at least they wouldn't be alone.
By the time the day of the trial actually arrived they were both almost out of their minds with boredom. Renji was almost grateful to the second squad escort that clapped on his handcuffs and marched him out, closely followed by Hisagi with his own escort.
They walked the short distance from the cells up to the main chamber of C46 and were led to the bench for defendants.
Renji had expected as a defendant that he'd be able to…well, defend himself and proudly stepped up to the witness stand.
He stated his name and rank on request and then the questioning began. It was short and harsher than any battle he'd ever been in.
"Did you steal food from the stores reserved for Shinigami?"
"Yes but…"
"Please contain your answers to the questions asked. Did you then give the food to known enemies of the Gotei 13?"
"Yes but our ord…"
"Please contain your answers!" the questioner roared. "I have no more questions."
The speaker of C46 gave him leave and his escort led him from the stand.
"You're not listening we only…" a shock of kido hit him. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.
Renji's woke to find himself on the floor of his cell. A few minutes later Hisagi was thrown bodily in with him, cursing wildly. Renji helped his friend to his feet and for all the anger and rage, what stood out to him was the barely veiled horror in Hisagi's expression.
"What?"
"They gave us five years for 'aiding the enemy'," Hisagi snarled.
"The fuck? Look someone can just explain. We followed our orders."
Hisagi shook his head, "They don't care."
They were moved to the maggots nest the next day.
A detail of second squad members arrived, opened the doors to their cells, hand cuffed them again and led them on a short walk to the mouth of the cave known as the nest of maggots. The whole thing seemed surreal to him, a collection of events with no real sensation or emotional impact. It felt like it was all happening to someone else and he was trapped in a sort of numb disbelief.
"Enjoy it. This is the last fresh air you'll get for a long time," The Hound sneered, Hisagi snarled back a wordless noise of defiance. Renji was just stunned, he knew The Hound, not well, but he'd had beers with the master tracker and they'd gotten along well enough. The man's words dripped hate and venom now.
They marched down the rocky tunnel and The Hound and another man Renji didn't know, tossed him to the dirt floor, Hisagi landed with thud and puff of dust next to him. The handcuffs hadn't let him break his fall and he felt blood welling on his scraped chin as he struggled to his feet. The massive gate clanged shut behind them and a moment passed as they picked themselves up and a second gate ahead of them rose laboriously. He felt nervous sweat beading on his face and saw Hisagi wasn't doing much better, but they walked with their heads high into the well-lit cavern of the nest itself.
"Hell," Hisagi breathed. Renji nodded silently. Hours passed and fear of the unknown wore off until they were both more bored than anything else. He took to playing little games with Hisagi on boards drawn in the dirt. It wasn't exactly fun but it was better than staring off into space. Some time later a loud metallic sound filled the cavern, echoing at a volume that made Renji grind his teeth in anger.
"What the fuck!" he yelled and looked around to find the source of the noise. A steel hatch in the high stone ceiling opened and boxes dropped through to bounce off the floor below.
Two of the larger prisoners walked over and broke open the boxes and began doling out their contents with obvious favoritism. They were close to Jidanbo's size and Hisagi and Renji approached cautiously, the larger smiled at Renji and took a deep sniff. Renji instinctively edged away, they reminded him of some of the assholes he'd known in his Rukon days. Hisagi had an identical reaction.
"Don't be scared. I liiike ya'" the larger said with a toothy smile.
"I'm not fucking scared," Renji snarled as he stepped up to receive three small parcels. The prisoner got in his personal space and sniffed him again as he handed them over. Renji noticed a dangerous, predatory light in his eyes.
"Ey back off yer' being weird," Renji said with a forced laugh and the pair laughed with him.
"Yer funny," one said, with a sick smile. Renji learned later that he was nicknamed King Kong. He never knew the man's real name.
"S'Nice," the other, Onoda replied and ran a hand down Renji's back. He leaped away reaching for Zabimaru before remembering that his precious sword had been taken.
"What the fuck?" he roared as Hisagi stepped between them. The pair just laughed.
"Move it!" King Kong yelled. Hisagi looked back, Renji followed his gaze from the corner of his eye and saw the others shifting, fists clenched with impatience. Hisagi grabbed his sleeve and led him away.
"What the fuck man?" he hissed.
"We're gonna be here a long time, there's no reason to piss everyone off at the same time," Hisagi explained.
"Easy for you to say. They weren't sniffing around you like dogs in a meat shop," he snarled but followed anyway. Hisagi had a point even if he didn't want to agree.
"Why'd you get three?" Hisagi asked, trying to break the tension as they settled on their 'sleep ledges', mere rocky protrusions from the cave wall.
"Dunno," Renji replied, handing Hisagi one of the food bars. He had a very bad feeling about it though.
X
Through unspoken agreement, Renji and he slept in shifts. They were constantly bored but otherwise it wasn't so bad. They would often spar hand to hand with each other as well as some of the others to just to have something to do. The only real difficulty was that King Kong and his cronies wouldn't stop harassing Renji. By breakfast of the next day Renji'd had enough and slugged one of them.
A stunned hush fell over the nest before both giants and a few of their smaller lackeys dove on him. Hisagi leaped into the fray and they fought tooth and nail, but they had almost no chance without swords or kido. The last thing Hisagi saw before a massive fist hit him was Renji borne down by King Kong and two of his followers.
Hisagi's eyes flickered open and he found himself staring at the dirt on the floor of their cage. Gritting his teeth with determination he forced himself to his feet and carried Renji back to his ledge before surreptitiously nursing his own wounds.
That night when Hisagi stood to drag himself to the food line Renji didn't follow. He looked at his old friend questioningly but Renji just shook his head.
"I'm not putting up with that shit."
Hisagi nodded his understanding and went to the line. When he returned he split his food bar in half and handed Renji a piece.
Again Renji shook his head, "Ain't even enough for you, much less two of us."
"Eat. You need your strength if we're gonna kick their asses." Hisagi said and Renji smiled, taking the piece of bar.
"Fair point."
So they developed a pattern as soon as they healed they would be back in the food line, Renji would take issues with the King crew's behavior and an embarrassingly one-sided fight would ensue. After the third time Renji looked up at him, one eye swollen shut.
"It's my fight you don't need to keep getting involved."
"Moron," Hisagi replied and felt his split lip open again, Renji gave a sad smile.
It quickly became obviously that they weren't going to fight their way out of the problem, if anything they were growing weaker with hunger.
One morning Hisagi woke on his sleep ledge to find Renji digging with his bare hands in the dirt floor. Hisagi jumped in to help and dug furiously with him.
Renji grunted in pain, Hisagi looked up to see him stop and take his hands out of the small hole. Hisagi looked in to see a plate of metal maybe eight inches down. They spent the next few hours making test hole before, nails bleeding they resigned themselves to the fact that the whole cave floor was metal covered in dirt.
That night looking at Renji on the next ledge Hisagi noticed how dejected he looked and forced a smile.
"We'll figure something else out."
"Of course!" Renji replied and he didn't sound anywhere near as bad as he looked. They tried to form another plan but weeks went by and they came up blank. Renji would join the foodline a couple of times a week. He always made his displeasure clear, but he didn't start anymore fights. It wasn't doing anything but weakening them and with it their hope to escape if the chance came.
A fight between King Kong and Onoda was the first thing to break since they arrived. They watched the show, fascinated by the pair's sheer ability to take damage. Blocking appeared to be an uncommon skill. He and Renji stared like they were watching a prize fight and some of the other captives began betting rations on the outcome. King Kong dodged some of Onoda's head shots as he was slightly faster than the other, but most he took as though they were slaps while hammering home body blow after body blow that Onoda likewise barely seemed to notice.
King Kong caught a powerful right hook to the jaw but took little more notice of it than a mosquito and countered with an uppercut to Onoda's stomach. Onoda doubled over and King slammed his massive knee into the man's face. Onoda dropped to his knees, head bowed in submission and that quickly the fight was over.
"Damn," Renji said as King Kong wiped blood from his mouth and Onoda nursed his broken nose.
"Yeah," Hisagi replied. He saw a dark light in Renji's eyes and as one they fell on Onoda, kicking the crap out of the wounded man in an attempt to rid themselves of at least one threat. Dishonorable as it was they had few options. Hisagi gagged as his robe pulled tight against his throat. King Kong hurled him against the wall and Renji struck next to him as he slid to the floor. The monster had only needed one hand each. Stunned Hisagi shook his head clear and tried to figure out why King had helped a guy he'd just been beating the shit out of himself.
He never did figure it out.
A week or two after that—time blurred in the nest with no night/day cycle—Hisagi woke to Renji's rough screams. His eyes shot open and he was on his feet, hand reaching for the blade he no longer wore. Cursing, he rushed into the middle of the cavern bare handed, only to be trapped as Onoda and another of King Kong's goons seized his arms and held him back.
He fought for all he was worth, harder than he had in his life. His elbows swung sharp and powerful, feet scrabbled for purchase. He gave up on that and simply lashed out with his feet but he couldn't reach his captors with anything but the awkward tail end of strikes. Most of the power of his attacks was lost thanks to the angle, range and lack of any way to plant his feet.
He struggled bitterly anyway, bleeding from a dozen small scrapes and cuts, but with no sword and his kido locked there wasn't much he could do against two bastards twice his size.
Despite his best efforts he found himself held almost immobile, head swimming from the blows he'd received. Renji screamed again and he heard his friend choking back sobs. He closed his eyes, strained against the monsters that held him down, preventing him from going to Renji's aid. He willed himself to break free and assist Renji. It didn't help.
He couldn't do jack shit and the monster finished with its depravities untouched. One of the bastards holding him down simply left and Hisagi instantly snapped back to life, straining to get free again. He managed to surprise his remaining captor with his strength but gained nothing but a few feet of ground and a punch to the face as King Kong came to help his lackey. Despite his exhaustion and concussion, he continued to struggle to the best of his ability. He should care enough to break free, he should try harder but he simply couldn't. Worthless.
He could do little more than struggle futilely with rising nausea as the King crew ran a train on his best friend. By the time the last one was done there were tears running from Hisagi's closed eyes.