1230, AS: Jaguar: Full Moon
1 Month Later
"Help…"
Paradiso Umbra Persephone's head lifted sharply at the faint outcry, barely imagined on the wisp of a carrying wind. She listened and cursed silently for Farron's absent presence from her search group at this hour. The Yun woman couldn't be everywhere, of course, but it was damn handy to have her ears and nose on the job when this kind of scenario hit.
Beside her, the long-legged, brunette-haired Athena made noise in searching that Persephone shushed with a sharp hand gesture. "Quiet!" Athena paused, listening with her, but Persephone didn't hear anything else. She looked to Athena, who shook her head. "Why don't we have a Yun around here?" Persephone asked in the same sharp whisper. They must've both gone with Techne off East. Persephone cursed again silently, but before she could even finish the foul words in her head, a sound uttered, like a faraway cry. Persephone went rigid at it. Athena had heard it too. Within a second, Persephone snapped them both into the time-slowed zone only an Umbra had the ability to: Witch Time. They wouldn't be able to hear in this out-of-normal-time dimension because voices, with everything else, would be slowed to a crawl, but it'd give them more time to search the surrounding area without someone getting away.
Persephone motioned Athena. "Get a Yun," Athena nodded and took off. It'd be a rude intrusion almost like teleportation to the Yun she found, but Persephone knew for a fact that she'd heard some kind of cry. She took off in the other direction they hadn't searched yet today. Allies wound like common streets through Palumpolum, back ways for everything, created when this world had been nearly overpopulated with Umbra and Sages. The city had been erected as a fine commercial center for them all that long ago, with many paths for the various Umbra and Sages stalking the streets. A communal town for both of them to enjoy city pleasures. Now, the many paths did nothing but frustrate Persephone as her pistol-heeled footsteps echoed on stone as she made her way.
Frustrated, Persephone took a path near the tunnels again. They'd searched these already, of course, but these men festered like a disease, refilling old spaces like cockroaches or a spreading plague. Big, spacious, self-sufficient spots, these were the kind of places they liked to fill always, doing all kinds of ghastly things, even in surviving. When she'd gone a little ways and found nothing, Persephone trekked back with a heavy sigh. She found Athena just returning with a Yun. They clicked out of Witch Time in an instant to Styx's great dismay.
"Whoa," Styx' hands went up to her brown and blonde head of highlights as she tilted back, leaning back to Athena for support. "That's disorienting." "Whoa," Styx' hands went up to her brown and blonde head of highlights as she tilted back, leaning back to Athena for support. "That's disorienting." She blinked a few times, but something caught her attention fast. "Wait," Styx half-straightened, inclining her head. She took in a quick breath. "This way."
Almost stumbling when she pushed off, Persephone and Athena took off after the Yun. They made a few unerringly accurate turns, took the back path like Styx knew where she was going, and came upon a ghastly sight Persephone had grown all-too acquainted with over the past couple of months.
A woman sobbed on all fours, dirt-smeared tears clouding her eyes, which were unviewable for the large, hairy penis making her choke. The standing man gripped her hard by the hair, completely controlling his thrusts as the woman struggled to breathe. If that wasn't bad enough, another man, older, had her waist in his beefy paws. Her whole body wracked with convulsions each time as her sobs came as chokes.
"Fucking bitch," the standing one growled. "I'll give you a reason to cry."
Persephone's eyes lit up in rage and a swarm of emotions. In an instant, it wasn't a faceless woman there. Replaced atop the helpless woman they'd helped a hundred times before, Persephone saw Pheme, her young daughter who'd have barely been 37 by now. Fourteen when she was taken to this sick land of barbarians and thugs. The woman's pain became her little girl's. Hatred beyond loathing welled in her chest. Blood sprayed everywhere. Brick crumbled from the wall. "Don't hurt her!" Someone was saying, "You don't hurt her! Fucking bastard! You soulless, fucking bastard of stone!"
"Persephone!" Arms wrapped around her from behind and pulled. "Let him go!" Someone hissed right in her ear. She couldn't. "He's dead!" Athena hissed a second time, arms tightening down around Persephone's in the constraining hug. "Let him go." Athena repeated and repeated again. Gradually, the red haze cleared from her eyes. Persephone saw half a bloody stump of a head, split and blood-soaked. Between his legs, another bloodied mess marked she'd had the presence of mind to crush his penis first. Persephone couldn't remember it, but she was glad for having done so. The sickening, fucking bastard. She threw his limp filth to the busted-in brick wall.
Persephone tried to regain herself with Athena whispering to calm her so. She looked to the right where the sobbing, choking woman now rested in Styx' arms, gazing up at the two Umbra with wide eyes of horror. She tried to voice the words of an apology for a full thirty seconds, but they wouldn't come. With the other man's body limp and dead against the opposite wall, there was nothing she was sorry for here today.
"U— Umbra?" the woman finally choked with a scratchy, tortured throat, looking petrified in gazing up at them, then at Styx, the Yun holding her.
"Yes, we're Umbra." Athena confirmed, finally letting go of Persephone with a warning look to let her handle it. "We're here to help." Athena motioned to Styx to pull her back from where the blood had begun to pool and flow. With one easy lift that had the woman's breath catching in fright, Styx pulled her into her arms bridal-style to keep her from it. Though clearly frightened out of her mind and beyond, the woman choked.
"T— thank you," the woman inhaled a deep breath, seemingly in pain, but she took in all three of them when she barely whispered as if beholding glory, "Goddesses."
It might've been inconsiderate, but Persephone's thoughts only revolved over to one place over and over. "Are there more?"
"Yes," the woman croaked, getting a look in her eyes over it that reflected real horror again. "L— lots of us. They've holed us up. I tried— escape." She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, probably still enduring the phantom abuse in her mind with her throat all raw and scratchy. Or they could've been sores. Persephone remembered speaking to Thalia of Jihl and Lightning's conditions coming in. They'd processed hundreds of women like that and worse. "Please." The woman begged.
"Where?" Persephone asked sharply, and the woman swallowed again.
"T—Tunnels," she finally managed, "They've avalanched the entrance. I've carved— the pipes," she started choking and coughing again, "Y— you must— " Persephone started back at once, but a strong grip on her arm stopped her in her tracks. When she looked, Athena's piercing green eyes cut into her hard.
"Take her back."
Anger, indignation, and fear rushed up all at once. "I'm fine," Persephone answered definitively and hard.
"No, you're not." Athena glanced at the woman and Styx. Then she looked to the corpse in the rubble of brick. "Styx will gather the other Umbra in this area. You take her to the settlement."
Persephone saw her justified vengeance being pulled from her fast. Athena didn't think she could handle it because of her outburst in envisioning Pheme, but she could. She had to. "I need to go with you."
"Persephone!" Athena cut in, sharper this time. "You'll come on the next one. As your friend," she nodded back to the woman, "Take her home." Persephone's heart ached. Every time they found a new settlement of them hiding out, the 'just maybe' started up in her head and nearly drove her crazy in their searches to find some kind of evidence of Pheme's death. She'd heard it'd happened from Jeanne, but she had no real way of knowing anything beyond that. Jeanne might not have even told her the truth, but a merciful lie instead. Either way, she didn't know, and every time they found a new hideout—
"You'll be the first to know," Athena said, reading and interrupting her racing thoughts. "You know this. Persephone; go."
Persephone lowered her head, mind and heart racing so bad. Athena was right; this was their third find today, and she'd almost lost it on these men. The woman could've gotten hurt. Athena was right to dismiss her like this, but it hurt. "Alright," without another vying word on it, Persephone went over to Styx and held out her arms to receive the woman. "I'm getting you out of here," she told her, sending Athena back a pained glance.
"We'll see you later," Athena promised. "First thing. And we'll have more women to process."
Persephone just nodded. To get her mind off the bust, she started away with the woman and asked, "What's your name?"
"Ci… Cissy," the woman said, closing her eyes. "Because… because I'm an easy take."
Persephone had heard of this before. Many men of this world liked to rename the women off of their sexual traits so others would know what to expect of bedside practices. "Is there anything else you'd like me to call you?" Persephone asked kindly. The first step with most of these women were getting them out of the state of believing this would go on again. They had to break them of the routine of it before they started to believe and accept.
"I… don't know," she worked up the spit to swallow again, "Don't remember." Persephone supported her against her body more, cradling her.
"You won't have to worry about that anymore." Persephone promised the woman, "Where we're taking you, no man is ever going to touch you again. And you can call yourself whatever you want."
"Angel," the woman said, lifting a hand to Persephone's shoulder above her chest. She touched the cream-colored hair there Persephone wore like a bodysuit. She fingered the gold-adamantite bound links double-pierced in a V down her chest where the silken, blood-smeared hair was woven. "Will you be there?" Pleading, brown eyes asked, looking up at Persephone with hope.
"For awhile," Persephone tried to assure her. "I don't live there, but… I'll get you settled in."
"Thank you," the woman said again, resting her head against cream-colored strands. "Thank you…"
The woman drifted and Persephone let her rest as she traveled, making her way back to the village in Gran Pulse. She didn't Witch Time like she could've, but instead gave her feather-light companion some rest. Only when Persephone pulled up closer to Oerba in a naturally eroded passage of lush space and open pathways did she gently jostle the woman in her arms who's name she still didn't have to call by. "Wake up," Persephone urged quietly, rubbing her arm to rouse her. Tired, brown eyes blinked up, then glanced around at the lush grounds that'd once been a breeding hive for fiends.
Cleared out six months ago for the new expansion to settlement of relocated women, it was now free of beasts, replaced instead with houses, paved farmland, and domesticated animals that served as milk-providers or pets. The land had needed a little leveling here and there where the war had affected the land too much, but the Umbra had kept as much of it as possible the same. The wide, open expanses further down in the Oerban village proved excellent for establishment so that they hadn't had to disturb so much.
A noticeable difference, at least by Persephone, was the guard layout of Zyk sentinels patrolling the outer layout of the village. More patrolled inside, manning the area and keeping peace between the settlements, but their foremost duty lay in the patrol of these people and the village. No one was to get out unattended.
Persephone shrugged off the growing chill that formed whenever she entered these parts. One could never know what to expect from these rescued, Cocoon women. Some of them loved them and revered the Umbra as their saviors. Others loathed and spat quiet curses and mute glares in their passing. More than most lived in growing healing from tortured lives, adjusting slowly, but always afraid. A lifetime of slavery couldn't be erased within months. It could never be erased. What'd been done to these women put all of them in need of therapy and constant monitoring. Persephone shivered to even think of this community of corrupted women, collectively named Rue Borough by the Umbra.
"Where… " she swallowed harshly. "Are we?"
"This is your new home," Persephone told her as she took in the lush landscape on the way to the village. Persephone carried the girl on as she stared around in wonder.
"It wasn't a dream?" the girl asked with round eyes. Persephone shook her head. It took her another few moments to take in her surroundings and manage, "It's beautiful," she breathed at last, wide eyes taking in everything like little sponges. Persephone took her to the big, reinforced log cabin they'd built in the middle of a tight passage that they used for processing. Two stony-eyed Zyk sentinels glanced up at her approach and both politely inclined their heads.
"Madam,"
"There'll be more coming," Pesephone informed the watchwomen. "We may need more hands taking them all in through processing.
"Yes, Madam," the right-hand nodded, starting to go in ahead of them and held the door, "I'll rouse those at the barracks and round us more hands."
"Barracks?" her girl asked, a touch of fear in her voice.
"The Zyk around here are sentinels." Persephone explained gently, "They're here for your protection to keep the peace in the village. No harm will come to you from them."
As she entered the cabin, a brown-haired Croft at a desk looked up from her book at their entrance. "Madam Persephone," the girl sat up in her chair, put the book down, and asked. "Good evening. Who is this that we're taking in today?"
"Sweetie," Persephone roused the girl's attention from staring around in frightened wonder to her, "I still don't know what to call you," Persephone pointed out. "Do you want to go by Cissy, or was there another name you'd like to go by? We keep records with your entry."
"You… want me to pick?"
Sadly, her surprise was nowhere near surprising to Persephone. She'd seen this so many times before… these men had domineered so much of their lives, these women were stunned by any right asked of them. "It's your name," Persephone urged gently. "Pick something you like."
The girl's eyes rounded up at her in complete befuddlement. "Um…" she swallowed hard again, seeming scared and stressed, like she could somehow get the question wrong and would be punished for it. "I don't know… can you choose for me?"
Persephone's heart softened. She'd have to place this one in a softer home, maybe one of the Converts. She was so unassuming, Persephone wouldn't risk her on the far side of town where new girls usually went. She didn't sense a threat posed from this one, just innocent awe. She'd do best in a family home that'd already settled in warmly, some who were ready to receive her with gentle arms. "How about…" Persephone wracked her mind for a traditional Cocoon name from those she'd heard of other young, Cocoon girls. She stroked a hand up her back in supporting her, quick-jogging through options before trying to land on one for the girl. "How's… Aubrey?" Persephone asked, not really sure.
"Aubrey," the girl repeated softly, testing it on her tongue. She swallowed hard again, then looked up at Persephone with awe in her eyes. "It's so pretty."
"You can change it later if you like," Persephone offered kindly, "We just need to put something down in our records and can alter it if you want something else."
"No," the girl said quickly, then coughed and covered her mouth from the small fit. When it subsided, she said in a scratchy voice, "I'd love Aubrey… named by a goddess." She curled up closer in Persephone's arms like a cub. "I wish I could tell mom."
Persephone didn't know if the mother was left in the tunnels with the rest or dead, but these mothers of the girls were hardly fitting parents in most cases. Persephone knew the structure of it: women who got pregnant were left alone for the duration, taken out of the general midst of the victimized women and treated better until they had their child. It was a sick incentive to the women to produce children for these boars, and the effect had been widespread, but even with the relief of having a baby, Persephone couldn't condone any mother who let her baby girl live in that world. Whatever the consequences, it was inexcusable to her. She shuddered to think of this girl speaking of her mother with yearning; it wasn't right to hear.
"Aubrey, then?" the desked Croft asked.
"Yes, Valerie," Persephone confirmed, then asked the girl to steer her away from her mother-pondering. "Aubrey, would you like a glass of water, dear?" Aubrey's eyes practically shone with tears.
"Where is some?" Aubrey asked in that scratchy voice, struggling to sit up in Persephone's arms. "I'll get it."
"Shh, Aubrey, shh. I'll get it for you." Persephone soothed, keeping her down. She glanced at Valerie, picking through papers. "I'm taking her to one of the rooms. Thalia's here?"
"She's in the record's room," Valerie informed, picking up papers to take with her into the open cabin space of cots for notation purposes with her questions. Persephone walked with her into the open space lined with cots. Only one of them had an occupant, but Persephone had seen this room full and brimming on more than one rescue occasion. Persephone took Aubrey to the very back of the spacious area by the grated fireplace and placed her on one of the cots. Aubrey clung to her a little before letting go, then watched with big eyes when Persephone began filling a cup with one of the little water outlets they'd steered the way of the cabin.
"Valerie's going to ask you a few questions," Persephone advised, torn as Aubrey watched her with those big, glorifying eyes. It wasn't unusual for some of these girls to get instantly attached to their savior like this; Persephone just hoped she had enough time to calm her before the influx of others came. "They're just for records and eventual housing placement. Some of them deal with any living relations or friends you might have. It's okay if you can't answer them or don't know; just answer for us the most that you can, okay? I'm going to get your healer. She's the best at this kind of thing, and she'll treat everything you have, okay?"
"You'll come back?" Aubrey asked, perhaps a little fear filtering back.
"Yes," Persephone pointed to the only closed-off corner of the room that had a little walling off. "I'll just be right there. I'll be back in a moment."
"Okay," Aubrey agreed, relaxing back when she knew she wouldn't be far. She swallowed again and looked to Valerie. "Okay," she agreed again, giving the go-ahead to question. Persephone ducked out the room quickly to the little space they'd set aside for records.
"Thalia— " Persephone stopped when she came into the room, door shutting behind her, and found a full-grown, brown and black speckled jaguar curled up on a rug next to the wooden cabinets they used for filing. The cat's head resting on her forepaws, eyes closed, it took Persephone back just long enough to hesitate upon first sight.
Thalia had curled in sleeping in the form of a fearsome cat. It actually took a few seconds to digest, not because Persephone was stunned to see the giant jaguar in the room, but to realize Thalia had laid down for a short nap. Persephone couldn't tell much in her current form, but she judged Thalia had to be downright exhausted to resort to this. The woman spent so much time here, more than most of the Umbra for her accelerated ability to heal, she must've almost passed out like that, too concerned for her patients' fears to fall asleep like that out in the open, yet too tall to fit on one of the Cocoon-sized cots. Persephone didn't want to wake her and watched for a few seconds. She wished she could leave this woman to rest, but that wouldn't be possible with what was coming.
After giving her just a moment longer, Persephone went to the richly-furred cat, brown in her coat matching the color of Thalia's hair when she was human. Persephone knelt and gently touched her back. "Thalia," Persephone stroked down from the back of her neck in a short pet, avoiding the rings on her shoulders as the big kitty stirred under her fingers a bit. "Wake up," Persephone urged gently. Big gray eyes blinked once before her head lifted, taking in Persephone. "Hey," Persephone greeted, knowing she could hear her now. "I'm sorry to wake you, but I need you now. Come back to me now."
Thalia lowered her head, which Persephone pet one stroke before moving back as Thalia's body started to change. The kitty lengthened as legs reformed, arms and body becoming pale like Umbra flesh, her face shifted back in and changed to the lovely woman Persephone knew as a close friend. Muscles shifting, bones reforming, body taking entirely new shape, the jaguar before her became a long-legged woman of renowned beauty. Long, luscious strands of chestnut-colored hair extended out to cover that body and clothe her in their silken protection, weaving through the piercings strategically arranged over her body to hold the clothing in place.
Thalia lifted her head. Tired gray eyes stared into Persephone's. She tried to smile, but Persephone could see how tired she was in it all too easily. "You caught me in a catnap."
Persephone extended a hand to help pull her up, which Thalia gratefully took. "You've seen better days, Thalia."
"Haven't we all?" Thalia dusted herself off. "What've we got?"
"I want you to go home after this, Thalia." Persephone told her, finding it ironic Athena had sent her off only shortly ago. "You and Araidne need some time."
"We all do, Persephone," Thalia agreed sadly. "We're just needed too."
It was sadly true. Much of their time, what an Umbra had unlimited of, had been taken up with the handling of Cocoon these late months. Everyone was tired, and they all made sacrifices for it. It's how it had to be for a little bit in dealing. "I'll stay with Nephelai after this next rush coming shortly," Persephone volunteered for her. She wasn't much of a healer herself, but she and Nephelai could manage to give Thalia much-deserved time off. To rest up at the very least. "Go home with Araidne when we're done."
"We'll see," Thalia said, the words being as good as a fifty-fifty chance with her. By the end of the next influx of them, she'd be downright dead on her feet. Persephone would have her home by then. "Thank you for fetching me."
"As long as you go by the end of it." Persephone negotiated. Thalia smiled tiredly.
"As long as you fetch me again, okay."
"Before you even want me to," Persephone promised, opening the door for her.
"I appreciate it, Persephone." Thalia grabbed her hand in passing in true appreciation. "Thanks."