Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.
Her War
"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."
— Saotome, Ranma
Chapter Three
Neverbent Knees
I'd thought the girl would surely break soon, early on. I kept on thinking that. She would break… of course she would. She wasn't invincible either… She came close. Once. Only that one time. After that… After that I never heard Her whimper, or cry, or curse again.
After that, She gave up Her name. Her given name. Most new arrivals hated the damnable pet-names they were given. Hated them until they were so beaten they had no choice but to accept them. No choice. As I did.
Not Her though. She did at first of course, but after… after the event that almost broke Her, She came up with an idea. Each time they spat the name they'd given Her, She swore to make them fear it. To make sure that one day, they would hear that degrading name, meant only to break Her spirit, and despair. For all their whips. For all their chains. For all their cruelties and tortures, they could not break this one! They could not break Her!
Ruby began Her crusade…
Ranma Saotome had long forgotten the meaning of time. Time spent awake was time spent fighting or in unending pain. Battling… struggling… doing everything she could to fight back against her captors… oh yes. She had long forgotten the meaning of time.
There was torture, and there was sleep. That was all. Torture and sleep.
Now she was only barely aware… blood flowed all over her, and she was thankful for something in her mind that was causing her entire body to feel numb.
Perhaps they'd struck an important nerve in her head? And now the pain just felt less?
No… Maybe she was dying. That was more likely… She couldn't be sure, though.
The man who carried her, tousled her, shifting her so she lay more comfortably for him, draped over his broad shoulder. She didn't know who he was, but she knew he was not one of the few who felt pity for her. Those numbered less than a hand. And this man's fingers would not stop touching her...
She was thankful for the fact that Borage seemed to keep her exclusively for his own pleasure as far as raping went. The thought of more than one of her tormentors sexually abusing her made her want to sob, but Borage seemed to have taken her as a personal challenge. It was small thanks.
Very small thanks. She had one rapist… and an array of torturers too long to name. So many names of men she would kill someday… so many she had already forgotten, but she was ever defiant. She would not give an inch... not ever. Every one of those men had wiped her spit off their faces.
Now though, her eyes were dizzy and the floor seemed to be moving at hundreds of miles per hour. The shift of the man's boots seemed to daze her and she could hardly think. Blood was leaking over his shoulder from her privates but that was to be expected. It always did…
The cool breeze, crafted by the wind made from the man's long steps, felt wonderful and stingingly cold at the same time, but she'd lost far too much blood to be able to appreciate it. Thrown like a sack over his shoulder, not for anywhere near the first time, nor likely the last, she had grown numb to a great many indecencies.
But still her anger and hatred burned. Day after day… hour after endless hour, nothing but her hatred kept her running. Hatred, and thoughts of home.
Her sleep was her only true haven, because whenever she was awake, she was fighting. When she was ever actually awake, meant she was usually at least half healed and that was more than enough for Borage to decide she was ready for another round of his… attention. And she showed no signs of weakness there. The fire of her spirit burned like a forest bathed in oil. She kicked and screamed and fought tooth and nail. Every time they tortured her she had to be bolted down. Every time Borage… raped her she had to be hung from the ceiling or he could not hold her still enough.
But in the realms of half and full unconsciousness, as she now resided in, it was almost impossible to summon the strength to fight back. To even care… death would be sweet bliss.
Almost impossible… Almost… but 'impossible' was a word that Ranma Saotome defined on a daily basis.
Slowly, she lifted her arm so as not to draw his attention. Bastard kept banging his thigh into her head. He was one of them. And she would kill them all. Fight them with every breath in her body. She knew he would probably laugh at her efforts but she couldn't let that stop her. Cautiously, she cocked her elbow… and slammed it into the guard's bare stomach. To her dazed satisfaction, the man doubled over, coughing as if a truck had run him through. Obviously this guard had not gone through any form of the body training that had made most of these Musk so strong…
Arrogant idiot. That's what he got for thinking he could be anywhere near her and not expect to get… oh… she was falling…
Her head banged against the floor as she was dropped, but the pain was small. She barely felt it. Her mind had already been numbed. Her body, realizing that it would kill her to feel much more of her torture, was releasing the precious endorphins that prevented her from feeling what should be unbelievable torment.
Either that, or she really was dying.
She heard the man curse. He shouted… his angry eyes soon appeared in front of her face, but the words were dim to her…
The world was fading away. Dimmer. Dimmer.
Ranma didn't want to die. Not without… not without her revenge… a nameless death at the hands of this pitiful guard dropping her because he wasn't strong enough to take an elbow thrust was a weak way to go.
…She wanted to see them all again.
And… she was afraid to die.
'Help me… Akane… Shampoo… Ryoga… Pop… Mousse… anyone…' She begged restlessly in her mind, as she desperately fought unconsciousness. 'Mother… Help me... Please…'
Her eyes closed…
…and opened again.
"Ruby... Ruby is waking!" Came elated words, from a face covered by long pale green hair.
Ranma stared up into the eyes of the woman who had been her healer most every time she'd fallen unconscious after her torture.
Which was almost every time.
"Ruby! Oh god, you're alive!" Aktaya's voice from a cell over filtered in through the strange dullness of her waking ears.
Pain… always pain, but it would have been truly strange for her to wake to anything but excruciating pain. Honestly, if ever she woke, and felt good… she would probably be terrified.
'No, Ranma. Be strong… be steadfast. You'll escape. They'll come for you. Your family will come for you… and if they don't, you'll find a way… You are Ranma Saotome… You are the best there ever was!' She told herself.
Strong words but they held less conviction by the day. Less… ever less.
"Don't call me that… weakling…" Ranma spat, not caring that it might hurt Aktaya's feelings too. She'd grown to hate Sage in the… few weeks? Months? Year? She had no idea how long she'd been here but she found quickly that Sage's servitude… her piteous groveling sickened Ranma to her very core. Maybe even worse than torture.
'Don't let her scare you… Ranma… be strong! You won't become her! You… you won't.' Her inner strength began to speak to her as if it were a living, breathing entity all its own.
It would be so easy… Almost too easy. Sage was never touched. Never raped. Barely even spoken to, though much more ever since Ranma had arrived; Ranma knew that Sage's cell had scarcely been opened for years before she had arrived.
The woman covered herself in mud… dirt… and… and things even more disgusting. Not many of the musk wanted to touch her. Only Borage ever approached her… probably because he had no sense of smell. Damn horn-nosed bastard. Gimmer too, but he was just as strange in his own lurky sort of way. The rest though…? They avoided her like plague. Sage was sick almost all of the time. Coughing and hacking and wheezing as if she had a plague. But none of these things disgusted Ranma as much as the sheer servitude in the older woman's voice.
Sage was not quite a pet in every sense… no. She was a coward. Ranma had seen cows less tame than her. Never did she call Ranma by her true name. Never did she give her own name. The name she'd once had. No. She was… She was Ranma's example of herself, after giving up. And she would not become Sage. Not ever.
Gimmer… the salve bringer, as Ranma had named him, lay with her on occasion while Ranma lay right in the cell. Ranma had woken to their strangely passionate love making once and found herself vomiting not seconds later.
'Master…! Oh… M-Mas… Oh..!'
Ranma almost vomited again as the memory bubbled up in her mind. God… how could she live with herself…? Being a… a bitch for these demons to lay their seed in!? HOW!?
Sickened and now thoroughly enraged by her own thoughts, Ranma wobbled up.
Aktaya was… better. Ranma could forgive her, her weakness. Ranma didn't know how long it had taken for the girl to give up her name, but she was not a martial artist. She had been a normal girl once. Obsessed with reading she said. But she had no strength to summon to fight off her own tortures. She was… weak. And she knew it.
During the time between arriving here, Ranma had found friendship unlike any she had ever had before with Aktaya. Whispered sweet nothings while the girl had cried. Words of hope, and dreams… Shared stories. Whenever Ranma was tortured lightly enough to not need… cleaning… she ended up in the cell right across from Aktaya, and finally, she had been able to see the one she had grown so close to.
Midnight black hair, cut shorter than even Akane's, though Ranma was quite certain that had happened after she had arrived here, framed the freckle-filled face of a girl whose age fit perfectly with her looks. Buxom and beautiful, had Ranma been able to look at women with lust any longer without bile rising in her throat, she knew she would be. Much taller than her, though perhaps half an inch shorter than her male form, Aktaya's beauty was marred only by her bruises.
They were kind enough to her not to break her skin.
Ranma had never had a closer friend. She doubted she ever would.
And that was why Ranma had been glad when Aktaya had given in… but she would never forget the girl's name. One day Ranma would free her. She would. Someday.
Shakily placing her hands behind her, she pushed herself to her feet. Her wounds were scabbed over and her skin was clear of dried blood that she always found when she woke in her own cell. She shivered, disgusted by the sticky feeling that made her certain of just how she'd been cleaned again. She'd rather have been left on her own.
"Sage is… sorry." The woman said sadly. "Sage… not as strong as Ru—!"
"Shut up!" Ranma shouted. "Can't you just not use my name, if you have to talk to me? Call me… call me Her or something!"
'My name…? God… I just called 'Ruby' my name!'
"I… okay..." The woman replied sadly.
Ranma felt her disgust rise, along with an equal welling of self loathing for her slip up. Sage was strong! Ranma could feel it! Her power burbled beneath that single manacle she wore! Not as strong as her but she was definitely a great martial artist. Ranma felt the woman was probably as strong as Shampoo or Ukyo; stronger even!
At least she had been… once. Now her spirit was so broken, if she could break the earth in half with her fists it wouldn't matter. If she were let free she would probably run to her jailors.
…
'God damnit!' Ranma almost cried, staring at the other woman, enviously eyeing her loincloth. The Bridled Ones were allowed those. The ones who put on the collar they offered. They received those tattered clothings… and more… once they were taken.
It took everything she had to keep herself from attacking the woman for it… and more to keep herself from taking the collar. Every time they offered it, it seemed just a little more tempting. Every time they showed it to her… Every time… it looked just a little bit more comfortable. A little bit… more…
'NO! N-NO!!'
She shook herself, and violently banged her head into the metal wall. She barely felt it. She reared back her fists and slammed them into the wall, repeatedly… endlessly, till her knuckles bled her fury and her weakness. She felt her knuckles. The stinging, burning pain in them and in her head actually… felt comfortable. Slowly, she was beginning to realize that she wasn't capable of giving herself pain.
Only they could. And they could. Every time they took her to their torture rooms the pain hurt ever more. Now her knuckles, bleeding to make her scream once upon a time, bone actually showing through her cut skin, felt like little more than… paper cuts. Cold sores. Bruises.
And that was one of the only pains she even felt. She'd obviously been sleeping for a long time. She hadn't felt this little pain in ages. Maybe two days… or three. Or a few weeks. No shorter than a day anyway. She didn't feel good. There was no such thing as feeling good here. Just varying levels of pain, but this was one of the lowest she remembered.
Frustration aching in her bones, she embraced her Ki. Calming herself, the same way she always did. Embraced it. Swelled it. Until it overflowed. And pushed ever harder. She would break these manacles or she would die trying.
"Ruby… I'm sorry, I..." Aktaya said weakly.
Ranma looked down at her knuckles. She wanted to scream, but that would just let Borage know she was awake and ready to be… taken once again.
In her anger, unquenchable anger throwing off the focus of her ki attacks on the manacles, she threw her arms and sat against the wall. The cold feel of the stone against her back froze her, but she took it in stride. It helped her focus too.
Until she broke free, all she had here was her mind. And, when pressed, she was a genius. Idly, she catalogued everything she had learned.
The guards changed shifts every seven to eight hours. Though she thought they ran on a system slightly off from hours because they always managed to change a bit before. She still had yet to narrow down the exact time, but given another week she would find the opportunity to get it.
The room that held the manacles was seven meters outside the cellblock. Such a room existed outside of every cellblock, just in case one of the manacles went defective, and she'd narrowed the number of cellblocks to between thirty and fifty… though how many cells each block contained, she did not know.
Cellmates and jailors talked every now and then, and despite the quiet first night, this room was home to many prisoners. Stories heard while slung over a man's shoulders, him usually fingering her, were not the most reliable, but she'd come to believe that she knew the manacles did not last forever. They… expired… though the time it took was somewhere around ten years. And she would NOT wait that long.
The man who worked the shift from between around two in the day to nine at night was a weakling, and likely the easiest to kill with that torch-spike down the hall. Still, he was able to use his ki… If she took a hit the plan would fail.
No escape would be made without the willing, or unwilling, cooperation of the other cellmates. Safety in numbers. She would offer the opportunity, and open every lock. Every bar, and let them run for the hills.
While she went for her true target. But… she didn't know where it was! Borage had to sleep. She had to find out when, and where.
Only then could her plan work.
And with her mind drunk on her body's self-secreting pain killers, there was no chance of that. So… she had to avoid being tortured… just one day… one single day! And she was sure she could find what she needed.
"Ak… Aktaya… have you found anything new?" Ranma asked dismally. She'd asked it many times. And many times heard the answer she hated.
"N-nothing helpful… I'm sorry R… I'm sorry." She said weakly. "But… I… the man you hit… he died. Borage had him killed."
Ranma wasn't certain whether to grin or frown. A nameless man, but even these tormentors had those who loved them. Those who cared. She would kill them, but she would remember every death. Only Borage would she feel no guilt for. Some people just needed to die.
She settled for a frown. A weak man, he was, and weak men were useful here. They were too few in number.
"Nothing else? Nothing new about the grounds? Nothing?" She asked vainly.
Aktaya seemed to pause for a moment. "I... there is… G… Galm wants to take me as his… Seven others challenged, but Galm thinks they are weak. I… don't think I'll be here much long—!"
"N-No! Please… you can't leave! You can't…" Ranma burst. "You…"
What could Aktaya do? If Galm beat the seven who challenged then Aktaya would be his and his alone. She would go to his home. Be his servant. His pet.
His.
Only the broken ones were allowed that. A privilege. One master. One… just one.
'If I took the collar, Borage would take me... I'm sure of it. The only way to stay here would be to…' Her eyes trailed to Sage. The woman was covered in mud and soot and dirt. Dull eyes, and a duller heart, lay boring through her beautiful face and body.
To bear Galm's children for him. Sons anyway. The Musk did not have daughters, though why, Ranma could not understand. That was the fate that Aktaya was meant to face.
"Ruby… I… I've tried to be strong like you. I… How long have we been here? I… can't take it! I can't… I…" Her words trailed off somberly, and Ranma felt despair rise in her.
Aktaya was the only one here who was still alive! Sage? Sage was a doll, terrified of torture that she hadn't even felt in years! The women in the cell on the other side of hers rarely said anything beyond barks for silence when someone was crying too much. Mo Din La, another girl across the hall, her skin black as midnight, was always far too dazed from her own torture to even speak. A weaker version of herself, Ranma supposed.
There were others. Eika. The girl was a pet in every sense of the word. Even more so than Sage. Ranma brought up escape to her, and she began screaming to the guards! The girl didn't even want to be rescued! As if… as if being free would actually hurt her!
'But then, Eika isn't tortured… is she, Ruby?' Ranma thought bleakly. The girl's moans of pleasure, mingled with the heavy breathing of more than two men, had been the alarm to wake Ranma many times. There was no one else there who could even hear her. There was no one else.
"I… Ruby… Last time I went it… It didn't hurt." Aktaya said suddenly.
'What…?' Thought Ranma, confused. 'Didn't hurt…? Didn't… hurt…?' The words didn't make sense to her. Everything here hurt. Everything in this place was pain.
"Galm… he took me on his own. The others… the ones who've… who've raped me before… they were laughing at him when he carried me out, but he didn't care." The girl was choking as if the words hurt her.
'What is she saying…?' Ranma didn't understand. What was this…?
"He took me somewhere else. A bed room… and laid me down. He… he talked to me." She seemed resigned… as if something had happened that she wished hadn't.
She sounded like the others. Like the broken ones. The Bridled Ones. She'd taken the collar to avoid so much pain… but till now she'd still… sounded normal…
'God this can't be happening.'
"He said he always liked docile women, who still had sense. That I was perfect for him. That I shouldn't be locked up in a dungeon, tortured day in and day out! And… I… I shouldn't! I shouldn't be here! I should—!"
"You'd rather be a slave? Be a dog that comes whenever he calls just because his hands felt good!?" Ranma snapped. She already knew what had happened.
"I'm not strong like you!" The girl retorted. Her voice swam with sobs and anger. "He… It felt so good… he was… gentle… like nothing I'd ever felt before! He kissed me… told me I was—!"
"He's raped you! He has raped you! You can't just let this go!" Ranma shouted, her anger burning! How could Aktaya do this? How could she let someone touch her? How could she allow herself to… to…
"Shut up!" Growled the older woman in the next cell over. Both ignored her.
"You… you've been in pain so long that you don't even remember what it's like to feel good do you? To feel loved? I hear what they say about you! They talk! They say you're hard as stone! They say you don't even wince when they… god, I can't be that Ruby! I… I can't stay here… Much longer and I'll... die…"
"But you can't leave me!" Ranma boomed, but even as she spoke her heart burned, and guilt swelled in her throat. She knew she couldn't make Aktaya into her… but the girl was her only chance. Her only ally. The only one she had. Everyone else here was long broken. Long since enslaved to the fear of pain, or the love of pleasure.
Aktaya didn't deserve this. If she could escape… even to a life of servitude… it was still better than living in this hell.
"Ruby… I…" The girl breathed. "I know you can't give in… but I don't want you to die…"
Ranma did not speak for a long time, but finally, she found her words. "You… can't fight my battles… I should know that." Guilt and sobs wracked her at the same time, but she had sworn… no tears. No quarter. No weakness. "I… I love you… Aktaya. Someday… someday I'll come for you. Someday… I'll set you free."
The silence lasted longer than ever.
"I believe in you." The other girl whispered.
Ranma failed to notice the fire beginning to burn in Sage's eyes.
The cell gates opened. And Ranma was hard as stone once again. She sighed in relief at the sound of the first step, then mentally slapped herself as she let loose the breath she didn't even know she'd been holding.. She was stronger than that… she… she was.
The steps were light. They didn't shake the entire complex like Borage's did. And there were few others who came to get her for torture. So… it was probably just one of the guards with food. Or Gimmer, giving out his balms.
"Ah! Look! It is my little brother's toy!" Came the light voice of a thin, wiry man with long billowy black hair, hanging out of a dark cowl. Ranma's eyes moved up to meet his, and she glared. His light voice, full of humor and light-heartedness, made Ranma's ears want to listen, but she knew better. She saw blackness in him.
All thought of tears, of Aktaya leaving her, left her in an instant. Her expression schooled to hard stony defiance. How she did it, even she didn't know.
He stood looking down at her, as if indulging a particularly admiring fan. "Ruby, he calls you, yes?" The man asked. He seemed to speak with an ever-present laugh that never quite touched his eyes.
"My name is Ranma." She stated. She didn't demand it as she once had. No. The time for demanding was over. Slow patience was the only thing that would work here.
The man's unbearable grin widened. "Of course you are!" He beamed. "My but you are a fun one! You know, little brother is becoming quite outraged that he has yet to tame you. But I know ones like you. Physical pain is never going to break a… a lioness like you!"
Ranma barely heard his words. In his hand was a bowl. Of stew. Oh god did it smell good! Her nose breathed in the scent of clusters of beef. Carrots, long out of season, boiled in water for hours. She couldn't help but notice Sage eyeing the bowl as well. It took everything Ranma had to quell the sneer she almost gave the woman.
"Oh…? You… you want this? Why it's just a midday snack you know." He stated, his humor almost nauseating.
Midday. Midday. It was midday. Okay. Okay, that helped. Now she could measure. The guards usually began their shifts around dawn which was… at about seven thirty or so. But she was in China so that was… oh dammit! She couldn't think with that stew in her nose!
Bread was what they gave her. Bread and water. Carrots and rice if she was lucky, but the carrots were always old. Her mouth watered in agonizing hunger. Oh what she would do for a single bite!
He moved the bowl out, his arm protruding. Her eyes followed it, watching the steam flowing out of it in awe. He moved his arm the other way; her eyes followed once again.
"Well. They keep you quite hungry don't they? Heh. Amazing. Do you know how long you've been here? You probably have a pretty good idea don't you? Smart girl like you." He asked with a grin. A master smiling down at a puppy doing a particularly good trick.
She waited… then nodded. She had no idea.
"That's what I thought…" He stated, his words showing the first hint of the darkness his eyes held, but that tiny hint was gone as quickly as it had come. "Well, I'm quite full, you see. Just had a banquet! So I'd be glad to give this to you!"
He suddenly opened the gate, without the key, and held it wide. "Come on out. Not you… no not you… I despise weaklings like you."
Sage quivered in fear in the corner, and that was more than enough for Ranma to know that she couldn't trust this man… but the stew smelled so good Sage could hardly keep her eyes from it. Ranma wasn't able to at all.
'At least we have one thing in common… whoever you are…' Ranma thought bitterly. She too, despised Sage for her weakness… though more for never calling her by her name. Aktaya got plenty of hate for that too… but dammit, Aktaya had no reason to be part of this! She was truly weak. It was selfish of her to want Aktaya to remain in these torture chambers... but she didn't think she could last on her own.
Ranma stood. Her embrace on her ki had never left, and she pushed it even harder now. The manacles were no closer to breaking than they had ever been, but Ranma did not stop. She never stopped. If she was awake… if she was able… she was pushing. All her ki. All her ki. Always.
Slowly she walked to the gate… out it… to stand before the man. She glanced warily down the hall and saw the door to the cellblock also hanging wide open. For the first time, she was given a moment to actually view just how long the room really was. Probably sixty cells lined both sides, and hers was right in the middle of the long corridor, on the right from the entrance. About as many held prisoners as there were empty cells, but Ranma was elated with the chance to finally count. This new information finally could give her a decent estimate as to how many prisoners there were!
…
She could do it in her head if she just knew math a bit better! Damn her idiocy! Thirty to fifty cellblocks… sixty cells each… that meant… Oh god that stew! She wanted it…!
Her stomach growled, as her mouth began to water in earnest.
"Yes… the cell door is open. But you're more than smart enough to know that there is no way I would let you escape. Borage has surely taught you that much at least. Hmph… Barbarian, though he may be." The man said with a smile. His other hand was hidden behind his back and that made Ranma wary.
Borage's name made Ranma's anger rise, and she almost lost her grip on her ki, but the stew was just as, if not more distracting.
Ranma turned her eyes away from the open cellblock door, and back to the man. He now held the stew down to her hands.
"Here you go… you should enjoy it!" The man beamed again.
Ranma warily took the bowl. Looked at the delicious looking broth held within. Then back at the man. The stew. Then the man again.
"Oh it's not poison, little Rub—!"
Ranma chucked the bowl of steaming stew in his face and bolted. Dashing like mad, she made for the door. So slow… so very slow without her ki enhancing her legs!
She heard the man sputter, astonished for a few moments. Then he gave a hearty laugh.
'Don't stop. Don't stop! If he's going to be an idiot and give me the chance! I've got to make it! I've got—!"
A sharp whistling of air like the sound of projectiles. Without warning, Ranma stopped dead.
"Ah, hah hah hah!" The man exclaimed. "Hah hah hah hah! Stupendous! Marvelous! You are every bit the firecracker he says! Oh… oh! You make me so happy…! Oh I haven't felt a thrill like that in years!"
Ranma's mouth hung open. Her buttocks burned! Her shoulders! Slowly, she slumped to the ground. She wanted to scream. But nothing would come, her mouth emitting silent screams that would burst the eardrums of any who could hear them.
'Oh god… it hurts!'
Dimly, she was aware of the gasp of prisoners around her. She heard Aktaya's scream too. But pain was all she could feel. The sound of strings being pulled was her only warning before she was sliding along the stone floor, being dragged back to the man by the four tiny harpoons lodged into her skin.
As if he was fishing with four hooks and all of them caught the same shark.
A clink.
Ranma howled, as the four things tore from her body.
The man only grinned as the four claws from his right hand retracted to their rightful places on his fingers. He walked the few feet left between him and his little brother's new toy. Smiled at the look of her bloodied rear, and the two gaping holes just above her shoulder blades. Then he bent down to her ear.
Ranma's mouth still hung open in shock. Silent screams leaving her again, as she felt the ability to speak leave. Her eyes wide in horror and pain that made even Borage's worst seem a pleasant dream. She couldn't move… something was poisoning her…!
Then… the man whispered. Still smiling. Still cheery… "When Borage fails to break someone, little Ruby, then I give it my hand. Just thought I'd give you… a taste. My name is Marjoram… Remember it!"
He laughed lightly into her ear. Her eyes could not be more wide.
Ranma tasted his lips… and the light hint of broth that still lay splashed on them, before she fell unconscious again.
Aktaya stared in horror at the four strings protruding from the man out to somewhere beyond. She heard Ruby's frantic running and could not fathom how the girl was able to throw that stew into the man's face… but then, the girl was incredible.
She knew that well.
She'd screamed and backed to the far end of her cell as she watched the man fling his hand and the four claws on the end of his glove had sprung away.
"Ruby…" She whispered. She slowly crept forward as the man laughed. He'd seemed so… cheerful. So nice…!
The soft 'shuncks' of the claws entering human flesh disavowed that notion. As did the sound of a person being dragged along the stone floor as she watched the strings retract back into his glove.
'Oh god, Ruby!' Aktaya thought weakly.
Her anger flared but she quelled it quickly. Anger would get her the same thing as quickly as she could even think it.
Ruby's body slid across the stone floor until it stopped right in front of Aktaya's cell. The red-head's eyes were spread wide in horror, unseeing, her mouth hanging open in slack jawed torment.
Aktaya jerked at a sudden 'chink' from down the hall and the four harpoons jerked themselves out of Ruby's skin… then, the girl let out a scream. Short, low and throaty, her eyes staring right into Aktaya's but seeing nothing, the girl looked like she had never felt such agony.
"R-Ruby!" Aktaya couldn't hold back the shout… but fortunately it was hidden by the girl's howl.
Then, the man approached. For all the bravery she wished she had, Aktaya could not remain anywhere near the bars on her cell. Terrified, she scrambled back, and buried herself in the straw, quivering in horror.
The man knelt down and whispered something to Ranma… but the girl's widened eyes didn't seem to comprehend.
Then… he kissed her… picked her up, and walked away.
"R-Ruby…" Aktaya repeated once again. 'Oh god… was she… was she dead…?'
It was not till she heard the cell door close that she felt safe enough to move again. And even then, she did not. Time passed slowly. The usual sound of prisoners was gone, all of them surely quivering under their hay-piles just as she was.
Then… a whisper reached her ears.
"Ak… Aktaya…?"
Aktaya was astonished. "Sage…?" She whispered. Sage had never called her anything save for Tua. Her pet name. Ruby was the only one brave enough to… to…
"I… No. My name… isn't Sage… I hate that name. I… hate it." Came words of passion that Aktaya had never heard on any lips but Ruby's. Words of fire. Words of strength. From Sage…?
…What in hell?
"B-But… but you… you're a Bridled One! I… I thought…" Aktaya exclaimed, slowly extricating herself from the straw. Her hand went to the collar around her neck. 'I'm a Bridled One too…' She thought dismally.
The woman snorted. "My… my name is Chell… Chell…" The woman repeated it, as if it sounded so strange on her tongue that she wasn't even sure if it really was her name. Listening, Aktaya heard the sound of a cringe.
Chell if that was her real name…was still every bit as terrified as she always was. But Aktaya was terrified of using her own name as well. The guards were sneaky. If they heard it…
Suddenly a gut splitting scream of terror erupted from somewhere beyond the cellblock. Ruby's voice. It was the kind of scream to make wolves whimper, and the hardiest of men hunch their shoulders in fear. The kind to make demons shiver.
Aktaya had never been so afraid in her life.
Ranma jerked awake to the feel of anguish itself. She could not think. She could not breath. She could only feel. Agony. A thousand times a thousand times the worst that she had ever felt.
Ranma couldn't tell who it was. She couldn't tell where the pain came from… only that it was everywhere. Everything was blurred. She shut her eyes and tried to curl herself. Her legs were locked down, feet flat against the floor, her body bent over and her breasts pressed into something cold and hard. She couldn't see anything!
Knives… cold wet knives… The feel of a man and the smell of lust, but she could make no sense of it. All of her limbs screamed to her louder than her throat could ever convey.
But she tried. She screamed trying to remember how to beg, her voice coming out hoarsely.
Another knife cut into her forearms, also bolted down… somewhere. She felt cold metal protruding from hollows in her shoulders and buttocks that couldn't possibly be there. Someone was pulling them! Using them as handles to pull himself forward…
Above all she felt him behind her… the feel of iron between her legs. It was Borage. She couldn't understand the meaning of sounds through the agony. Of words. But it was Borage. The poison. The poison making everything he did hurt so much more than she had ever believed possible.
Her screams echoed for what seemed decades. She tried to scream that she would take the collar. That she would do anything! Anything to get away from this! Her insides tore, and churned, though from where she could not tell.
But she could not form words… only screams.
Screams, till her throat ran drier than deserts.
Screams till her voice left her.
But blissful unconsciousness never came.
It was hours before the sounds of Ruby's torture faded to where Chell could not hear them, and hours more till she felt brave enough to make a sound herself.
The moment she tried to, the gate to the cell block opened again. Eight times it had opened since Ranma had left. Seven times. She wasn't sure. Two, to feed the prisoners. One, to take others, ones more broken than even she. The girl Mo Din La, was taken from her cell as well, though the poor girl had only just returned to consciousness.
Another three times, were guards or torturers coming for still other prisoners that Chell had no way of knowing.
The men had brought Mo Din La back after that… and the final visitor was Gimmer, who spent a long time applying salves to the girl himself. He stayed in the cell far longer than necessary, but the girl was unconscious and more Gimmer liked a girl, the better off they were sure to be.
'Please, bring the girl back…' Chell thought. 'Don't let her be broken…'
Chell had finally found her spine. A tiny portion of it at least. With Ruby muttering her plans to herself, half crazed, Chell realized that the idea the girl had just might actually work. She pitied herself for not thinking of it, but realized that would do no good.
Two men made their way down the hall as Chell thought to herself, and stopped at the cell next to, and across from her. Right across from Aktaya's cell. The two men held a woman in their arms, who's hair glimmered red slightly in the dim light. Four silver rods about the length of a short forearm jutted out of the girl's back. One from each shoulder. One for each buttock.
The girl was awake.
"Oh god…" Chell murmured… memories surfacing in her mind. Her hand trailed across the place where the rods had once protruded from her own shoulders. They were handles meant for making a girl easier to rape.
Chell well remembered it. The time when she had given in. Now Ranma would face the same. The girl was stronger than her though. Maybe… maybe she still had her mind… maybe… she still…
Years now, Chell had feared the very torture Ranma had just endured. Years upon years, she had feared it. Dreaded it, even long after she had begged for her collar and the bars had been removed from her body.
The two men walked away, shutting and locking the door, laughing as a sob bellowed from the pile lying in the cell.
She waited till the door closed. Aktaya did as well.
"Ru… Ruby…?" The girl whispered.
Another sob. The girl was weeping. Well, Chell had expected that; as soon as Marjoram had first appeared Chell had known what was coming. She had been able to handle Borage's touch on his own. But when Marjoram used his potion, Chell became their pet Sage, and her mind had never been the same.
At least… until now.
"Are… you… alright…?" Chell asked… but she knew the girl wasn't. She never would be again.
"I'll take the collar… Just stop… Please…" Came words so low they could not even be called whispers. "Please… anything… please…"
The girl wasn't even here. She was still in the torture room. In her mind… Ruby was still there. Chell almost wept… she would have… if not for one small fact.
'She isn't wearing a collar!' Chell's mind screamed to her. By god! The girl wasn't wearing a collar! She wasn't wearing one!? How? HOW!? Even after this, the girl still stood?
"R… Ranma…!" Aktaya screamed. "NO! No you can't give up! You can't! Ran… Ranma!"
The cell gate door burst open. Feet walked quickly. Chell barely noticed the sound of Aktaya struggling. "Ranma!" The girl screamed. But Chell didn't hear. And neither did Ranma. As Aktaya was shuffled down the corridor, still shouting Ranma's name. Chell could only marvel at the red-haired girl, whose tolerance for pain exceeded anything even remotely human.
"What you face now girl is darker than even I have seen…" Chell murmured. "But when you wake I'll be with you. Better to die… than this. Better to die. I won't call you Ruby again Ranma. I promise."
The sounds of the girl's whimpers lasted hours before she fell to sleep. And each one firmed the resolve that Chell had thought she had lost so very long ago.
Days passed, and Chell could not help but stare ever more longingly over at the girl who was now her one last hope. Was she broken? Would she be inconsolable when she woke? Or would she be strong, ever more firm in her desire for revenge?
Why had they not put Ranma in her cell? Why had they not allowed her to clean the girl? She wanted to see her! To touch her and know she was alive!
The girl lay motionless, flat on her bare chest. She rose and fell with her breaths, telling Chell that she was still alive at the very least but it did not console her enough.
Gimmer visited her almost three times a day. Rubbing balms over the girl. Careful to avoid nudging the bars to harshly for fear that he would wake her, he carefully placed her in his arms face up, so the bars touched nothing, resting her back upon one of his crouched knees. He spread pasty substances over the girl's skin… cleaned her of whatever bleeds she still had, and there were many, rolled her back over, and left.
Aktaya was not returned.
Chell could only assume the girl had been taken by… Galm was it? The girl's life was probably much better than it had been here. The thought brought Chell back to the time when she'd been taken.
Borage's personal toy. It had been worse than the dungeons. It hadn't been long before Chell realized unless she did something, she would die, as Borage was no more kind to those he took, then those he spent the time convincing to take the collar.
So… she began to degrade herself. Disgusting him… it made him not want to touch her. She… sickened him… and that had been the best she could hope for. Sooner or later, he'd thrown her, collared, right back into the dungeons he'd taken her out of.
Most everyone in the cells had a story like that. Well… most everyone who had not once been an animal, anyway. Their masters too harsh for them to want to stay. Despite their cruelty, the Musk were against killing in cold blood. Against the killing of slaves. Something that Chell still was surprised by, but it was the only reason she was still alive. So most here had taken the collar but had disgusted their master in some way. Either that, or they were the Young Ones. The newly captured.
In her years here, Chell had drawn estimates to the number of Musk there were. Around three hundred thousand men, and increasing by the year. All of them were fighters, even the weakest of them able to use their Ki. Another three hundred and sixty thousand woman resided in the city with masters, or in the work camps, or in the dungeons where she now lay. The subservient property of their male masters, the whole lot of them.
No. Chell would never be welcome among the Amazon's. People could not be property and the Amazon's, in their own way, were just as guilty as the Musk in that regard. Though at least men had some choice in the matter in Joketsuzoku, Tenuguzoku, and Kinagoda.
The three Amazon villages, all together, had probably a close number to half that of the Musk. It was years ago that she remembered first hearing about the war that they planned and now it seemed all their plans were coming to fruition.
Going into small villages. Kidnapping men. Inducting them. Training them. Making them soldiers, each able to use their Ki. The added bonus of easy, docile women did not hinder the Musk's efforts to recruit, and for years, their numbers bolstered by the day. That was how they grew their numbers. That, and adding the blood of animals to the men, and fusing them together with ancient ki techniques to give the men the traits of animals whose blood they had not been born with.
New faces appeared. New women in the cells and new men to guard them. Some women, a precious few, were strong enough to hold their will steady against the deep cuts of the knives. None lasted long under Borage, and as far as Chell knew, only she had held the Rhino-looking man's attention for anywhere near as long as Ranma had.
Ranma… Ranma was a one-in-a-million. Every time a guard entered this cell he could not help but stare lustily at the red-head, and only Gimmer seemed even partially immune to that, his age finally decimating his hormones.
Musk, it seemed, dreamed of breaking strong woman… and the stronger the break, the higher the honor in their eyes. A petty honor of course, weaker than that gained by besting another on the field of battle, but an honor nonetheless.
Ranma… well… Borage was already going to receive strong honor when she broke, if she broke. But any who held knives to her, when she pleaded the collar, would probably shoot up in ranking like a condor takes flight.
Chell had heard Ranma's rambled whispers after she had returned from the bar torture… But she had faith that when the girl awoke, the pain would be lessened enough that she could find her spine again. At least one last time.
Chell would not die a coward. Even Aktaya had found the bravery to scream Ranma's name in her last moments within this dank place. If the slip of a Japanese girl had the courage for that…? Well, so did she.
"Please be alright, Ranma." Chell whispered silently, staring at the red-head's still prone form.
The girl only shivered in her dreams.
He lay in a beautiful field. It was a place he well recognized, and he was happier to be there than he could ever remember. Buildings touched the fringes of the sky in the distance and a bridge, his favorite bridge in the whole world, ran over the canal nearby.
Fish jumped out of the canal in playful attempts to reach for the sky and cheery children played all around, right up to the canal's slopes. A few, even swam though most quickly got back out of the water, and ran gaily to towels held out by irritated, yet laughing mothers.
He knew the place, and the faces of the people laying on the green grass beside him. Their faces smiling. Singing. Dancing. Anything joyous that one could do outside on a day as sunny and beautiful as this one, one of his friends was doing it.
The girl with long lavender hair danced. A man with a strange polka-dotted bandana wrapped around his head, grinning with a malicious glee that spoke of both rivalry and camaraderie in its own unusual way, danced with her.
Beside him, to either side, sat two more woman, both fitting easily onto the large blanket strewn over the sloped grass. The one on his left, dressed somewhat boyish but she was no less beautiful for it, and his heart warmed when she smiled up at him, then turned her chopsticks back to a plate of okonomiyaki.
The other sat on his right, her deep black, almost bluish hair both long and short at the same time. He looked at her for a moment, and it was long. Glanced away, and looked back and it was short. Long. Then short again, but for some reason, that was not strange to him. She smiled at him too, but quickly turned away with a blush on her face to stare out at another man.
He stood, shirtless, having a casual spar it seemed a slight grin on his own face, as he chucked a gigantic chain across the field, only for it to be countered by a the lighting fast ribbon of his opponent. The two dueled for a time, each enjoying the act, neither making any attempt to truly harm the other, and both waving to his other friends, the children playing, and to him, mid battle without a care.
Turning behind him, he saw more faces. Slightly older, but not a bit less happy than the younger folk, two men stood, holding two women close. He knew them as well, and was glad to see them. Right next to them, an old woman, standing precariously balanced on a stick of thin wood, gave him a wave. Then, suddenly, her grin turned to a glower and she wacked a man, of similar age and height, across the head. The why of it, he could not see, but he was sure the old man probably deserved it.
Grinning good naturedly, the old man rubbed his head, while he too, waved.
So many faces. So many friends. It was all he could do, not to throw back his arms and laugh at the sheer beauty of it all. This was how life should be. How it ought to be.
'But this isn't how things are… Have you forgotten where you are…? What you've become…?'
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. The lavender haired girl kept dancing with the boy in the bandana. The two with weapons kept on with their friendly spar. The two girl's sitting next to him remained smiling. None had heard it.
He shook himself. He must have imagined it.
Turning to the blue haired girl, her hair short for the moment, though it would surely change again if he looked away, he leaned down to ask her if she was going to finish the delicious looking plate of yakisoba sitting before her.
"Are you—?" He began, but abruptly trailed off. He couldn't remember the girl's name. That was strange. He knew her so well… he was sure of that. She was uncute. That seemed important for some reason. But he didn't…
He turned to the other girl. A friend from long ago, he knew. One he had fought once. She cross-dressed, but that was only part of her charm. She was very cute.
No name.
Turning behind him he looked at the old couple and the two men and their wives standing behind them.
He knew them all very well. The old woman on the stick was related to the lavender-haired girl, and the old man was a perverted panty thief, petty, but often times mild mannered, and had a knack to be there when Ranma really needed him, much the same as the old woman.
The two men, were his father, and his father's best friend. The woman held by his father was, of course, his mother. The other woman he did not know, but he recalled having seen her images before in photo albums and picture frames back home.
'Home…? You have no home. Not any more… you have a master now, remember. And a collar. A nice shiny one. They'll pat you on the head if you're a good girl for them, you know! Did you truly forget…? Have you been broken, not into a docile pet, but into a madman? Is that what has become of you? This is an illusion.'
Ranma gave a start, and looked around, seeking the voice. But he saw no one and only heard the laughter of the children. And of his friends. His… friends…
"I don't know your name." He stated bluntly to the blue haired girl, her hair now long and tied off at the bottom.
The girl said nothing, and smiled at him. Then at the man fighting the girl with the ribbon again. She hadn't even heard him…?
Slowly he stood, and turned to view them all.
He knew them all. Very well… but he didn't remember their names. Why? Why couldn't he remember their names?
He walked up the hill towards the bridge, and almost stopped at the depressed frowns that creased the faces of the two girls. The girl with okonomiyaki put the plate down quickly to turn her own sad face upon him, and he started when he realized that she was suddenly wearing a dress.
The blue haired girl wore a bathing suit, that left nothing to the imagination.
"I… I'm sorry… Why don't I know your name…? Will you tell me?"
Neither said a word. Both beckoned him to return though. Both pleaded.
'This is wrong, and you know it. Find the truth. Wake up! Wake up and take off their collar! Wake up! Be a man! Wake up!'
He shivered. "I'm… sorry…" He said to the two girls, both now risen to their knees pleading to him.
Idly, he realized that the others wanted him to stay as well. Their own looks were just as pleading. Just as alluring.
"I need to know… to know who you are… If you would only tell me?" He asked. Why could he not remember!?
He turned away, and the sounds of children screaming echoed in his ears. He turned. The children still played, but the screams did not leave. Something told him, he had to leave. He had to find out why he couldn't remember… who…
Walking away, ignoring the children screaming, he soon managed to reach the top of the bridge. Crossing it, he saw a man dressed in a Kendo outfit. Somewhat of a fool, he knew the man as well. Disdained him somewhat, but he could be tolerated.
The man looked out over the canal and did not even turn to give Him a glance. Neither of them gave any notice to the screaming children either.
On the opposite side stood another girl, her hair brown and cropped short. She stared out across the opposite end of the canal. She too, ignored him.
Turning back, he looked at his friends. All of them stared at him, pleading dismally for him to return. The children did as well, but they wailed and screamed for him to come back. The mothers tried desperately to console them, but nothing worked. Nothing. He had to go back. Go back to his friends… go back…
'To mindless numbness. To eternal madness. That is what lays here. You know this…'
The voice seemed depressed as well. Sad even. As if it, too, wanted to go back.
But it knew that this was wrong. And so did he.
He walked on, between the two staring out across opposite ends of the canal and as he passed, they too, turned to him, their eyes pleading.
Again he turned, wishing he could but return to them all. Why… why could he not remember their names!?
On the other end of the bridge where he had stood before, now two more people watched him, hand in hand. A man and a woman. The man was tall, wearing a strange dogi with a gleeful look in his eyes. The man was torn between staring at him, and at the woman, who's hand he held gingerly.
The woman, long brown hair hanging far down below her, was similarly torn, her eyes turning from him, to the man in tandem. They both, too, were beckoning him.
He took a step towards them and the children's cries faded to laughter once more. Each step their laughter grew louder, and the smiles on his friends faces grew broader and ever more inviting.
'No, no. This isn't real. You know it isn't. Don't go that way. If you do, you'll never wake. You'll be theirs forever. You'll be lost… forever…'
They were so inviting! So warm! They were like… like home.
He hadn't been home in a long time. No. He hadn't.
He'd been away from home. Where? Where had he been taken? Why wasn't he at home?
'Prison… torture… you want to forget these things…? Don't be an idiot. You're stronger than that.'
What was his name? He couldn't remember… A name came close to his lips but slipped away barely refreshing him, like drinking the dew from a leaf.
'Don't remember?'
Looking around he stopped. The children did not start screaming, but they did not laugh any more. Right between the bridge. Between the two on opposite sides. Down below all of them watched him. All eyes on him. All looking for him. Hoping he would do what they wished. He would join them for endless blissful eternity.
He shook his head. He did not remember.
'Want to see?'
Slowly, very slowly, he nodded.
'Then I'll show you.'
Abruptly the world flashed. And everything was gone. It took a moment before his eyes adjusted to the unbelievable darkness.
'This is where you are. This is who you are.'
His eyes traveled across a girl before he even realized he was able to see again. A girl. A girl that was him. He didn't know how. But he knew that this girl was him. Her hair shimmered red, always the most noticeable trait. Blue eyes that shown like sapphires. A gleaming collar glistened. It was the most ornate thing he had ever seen. A golden choker, stocked full of Rubies, each one seeming to gleam bigger than the last. Each dotting the ornate hilt.
It wasn't a grand thing to him. The scene made bile rise in his throat. For the collar was the only thing the girl wore.
She sat on her knees before a giant of a man, sitting off the edge of an ornate bed affront her. A man whose name he also could not remember. Still, he wanted to kill this man, but for some reason he couldn't make himself move. The girl… he… was… doing something. Something that… didn't make any sense. He would never do that! Not ever… not… but why was she?
The giant let out a moan that echoed down the halls.
'Do you remember now…?'
"Oh… Ruby… you are breathtaking!" The beast of a man exclaimed.
His hate grew stronger. He wanted to kill the giant man. But.. he could not move.
The girl lifted her face from his lap, and stared up into him. Joy brimmed in her eyes. Glee… at his words. Giddiness at his approval. The girl practically purred as the man ran one of his giant hands through her hair, gently, if it could be called so.
'This is what you are… This is what you have fallen to.'
He stared, but he couldn't believe. No. This couldn't be… this couldn't.
A name broke the fringes of his memory.
"Borage…"
He hissed at it, a snake's voice brimming through human tongue, empowering all the hatred within him. Filling him. Enthralling him with anger.
The girl's eyes raised to him. She raised up to him. And kissed him.
It was all he could do not to cry, with rage, with despair, with fury, with depression. How… how could this happen how could… wait…? Unbelievingly, his eyes stared at the girl as her hand rose. One of the two hands, wrapped so rapturously around the giant's neck, slowly, ever so slowly, rose…
In that hand, lay a metal spiked pole…
Almost soothingly, like laying a child to sleep, the girl laid it into the giant's neck. His eyes widened in momentary horror, but she never stopped kissing him. As she shoved the pole deep into his neck, blood streaming down her breasts pressed so tightly into his chest.
His depression evaporated, and joy lit his features, along with a light for vengeance. Vengeance.
'Yes. THIS is who you are.'
Names rushed into his mind. Names. Places. Things. Akane. Nerima. Shampoo. Ukyo. Okonomiyaki. Kodachi. Ribbon. Nabiki. Money. Shampoo. Genma. Training. Soun. Nodoka. Happosai. Cats. Fear. Borage. Torture. Herb. Betrayal. Regret. Anger. Anger… endless anger.
Ruby.
The name. Her name.
Ruby.
Ruby's eyes snapped open. Pain greeted her but that was nothing new. The lack of pain, would mean her job was finally finished. And it would not be, could not be, until she had killed Borage at the very least. Only then could it even ease. For herself. For those before her that he had tortured. She would destroy this place. This prison. And that was all there was for it.
And she would make them fear the name they gave her till that day came when she finally was allowed to lay her hand to them, and watch their life seep away.
"You're awake! Ru..Ra…" Sage's voice fluttered in Ruby's ears, but she paid it no mind.
She stood. And pain came with it, but she ignored it. She was hard. Harder than Ranma had been. She was not Ranma. She never would be again. She was Ruby. She was the pet they had so craved. Now come back with the spirit of tens of thousands of tortured souls.
Her arm twisted around to her shoulder, and the metal pole protruding out from the right shoulder blade. She grasped it firmly with her fist and braced herself. A flick. And she yanked the thing free, skin exploding from where it had grown over the spike they'd placed inside her.
She barely flinched.
Three times she repeated the process. And there were her weapons. She was stronger than she had ever been. Stronger than she could ever be. She knew it for truth. That was all. Her ki pressed against the manacles on her wrists from the moment she had awoken, and the things strained ever harder to hold her power in. Her plan was already in motion.
She had four of them. Four.
She took three of the spikes and shoved them into the loft of hay below her. Then, she clenched the muscled in her back to stop the blood from flowing. And took the fourth one, bit her lip… and hid it as well…
And began a kata.
Pain? There was no such thing; she would never feel pain again.
And her ki pushed ever stronger…
End Chapter Three
Author's Notes: New chapter new chapter. And I didn't get to where I wanted to. Admittedly the dream sequence was kinda spur of the moment but I liked it. I wanted to get to it this chapter but trust me, for those of you waiting for Ranma to get her revenge? (Which is surely everyone who has read thus far) you will be immensely satisfied next chapter.
I wish you luck in your wait, and happy thoughts as you leave (a review). Don't for get to wipe your feet on the way out!
Oh! And before I forget! I got a girlfriend! Woohoo! So… I might be writing a bit less than usual. Either way. Expect the next chapter out pretty soon. Every chance I get, I'm writing here, and I REALLY wanna get to this part in the next chapter.
Please Review!
Till Next!
MB