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Aurora looked up at the young soldier through swollen and bloodshot eyes. it was painful to move. "Legionary, Sir, please, my master is Centurion Titus Vulcanus." she croaked, slowly and painfully moving to the bars of the cage door.
"If you can return me to him, I'm sure you will be rewarded." she gasped as she moved, the pain in her ribs stabbing at her.
Lupe started at the beaten up woman in confusion. Who was she? Where'd she come from and why was she asking help from him? All these questions went through the young legion recruits head.
" Who are you profligate?" Lupe asked in a rather demanding tone.
Lupe stood their, waiting impatiently. He started gripping his newly founded Cowboy Reaper, one in much better condition than his old one that broke during the legions advance.
Aurora took a deep breath, "My name is Aurora Marie Cosgrove, I was a private with the NCR supply corps, until Camp Forlorn hope was captured by your forces." she stopped to wipe at a trickle of blood from her lips.
"I was given to Centurion Titus Vulcanis as a 'spoil' of war to be his personal slave." she looked at the young legionary. if she were in his shoes, she would be skeptical as well.
" Your one of the Bears troops eh?...I'm having a hard time believe your not just some spy trying to kill a high ranking legion officer" Lupe says getting somewhat angry at her mention of being a NCR trooper
Lupe's good side started kick in and he holstered his reaper on his back. He instead took out his machete and started toying with it somewhat.
"Convince me profligate slave, convince me that your not a spy and I might release you back into paradise" Lupe says, starting to smile at the look of fear coming into her eyes.
Beneath her bruises, Aurora paled. After all she had gone through at the hands of her Master, and her own people, she was now subject to this young man's desire for revenge.
"I tried to escape a few weeks back, I was caught and returned to my master," she pointed to her collar, still about he neck. "I was given this as a reminder that I am a slave." she held out her arm, showing the burn scar depicting the Slave's 'X' "And this as well, from my master's own Shishkebab." she looked to the desk where the folder with her service file and confession were located. "If you can read, over on that desk is a folder, containing information on me, and a confession that i had been involved in Legion Activities, incuding the attack on this facility."
She hoped it was enough, as she didn't relish the idea of being stuck in this hole until she either starved, or was taken to the cross
" You GAVE the profligate army information on the LEGION?" Lupe nearly screamed in rage.
Lupe walked up to the desk and picked up the folder. Too disgusted to read the folder, he simply stuck it neatly into his pack.
He then turned to the profligate and he said:
" Where are the keys to your cell?"
"They are on the body of the Soldier there." Aurora said softly, indicating to the Legion soldier the body of the nearest MP.
"And I did't willingly give them information, just like I didn't willingly give Centurion Titus Vulcanis the information that made me a traitor to my own people, thus allowing him to take Camp Golf, and take out every ranger station in the Mojave." She stepped back from the door as Lupe found the keys.
Lupe didn't even bother to say anything towards the young slave as he walked over to the Dead profligates body.
He sneered in disgust as he searched his pockets, finding nothing but a picture of a young girl. He threw the picture down spitting on it as he continued to search. After 5 minuets of searching, he found the keys, which the MP tried to hide, and he walked over to the cell.
" Are you ready to go Scum?" Lupe said as he smiled seeing her suffer.
Aurora nodded slowly,
"Yes sir." she said. she hobbled over to stand before Lupe, each step as painful as the one before. she looked at the young man's face, such hatred for her and the NCR clearly written on his youthful features.
she was back in the hands of the Legion, and sadly, they had proved kinder to her than those she had Volunteered to serve.
Aurora was hauled through the camp by two Legionaries, Lupe had been sent back to Camp McCarran to assist there.
When he had Seen Her, Titus seemed to bristle with anger, she wasn't sure if it was the way she looked, in her sorry state, or the fact that she had been captured, interrogated and had told the NCR about her actions against them.
She was brought into a tent where other Legionaries were being treated for various injuries. She was roughly placed on a bed and left there while one of the soldiers went to speak to another, somewhat familiar shadow in the darkened tent.
"Special case, Centurion Titus' Whore." the soldier said gruffly to the figure.
Titus followed into the medical tent shortly after the capture. He had skimmed over the report Lupe had stolen from the holding cells regarding her.
His face was a mix of anguish and anger. Glad for the facemask that covered that mixture up, he stood by her side. He almost reached for her hand - old habits die hard. Titus called over the nearest able bodied man - a Decanus, good, experienced - and growled at him. "Fix her." Before departing. He'd seen much worse, hell he'd inflicted much worse without batting an eyelid, but he'd never hit her like that. NCR freedoms. They'd tie you up before beating you. Cowards.
Sejanus turned, her bloody hands raised frozen at her sides in blank-faced disbelief. There -were- gods and they were mocking her. Simple as that. There could be no other explanation of how this... this thing kept crossing her path. Still, she couldn't fight the thin smile that spilt lazily across her lips as she noticed the state the girl was in.
"Not so sure dear Titus will want you like this," she purred mockingly, letting one blood-soaked finger trace the girl's battered face. "Perhaps I should do him and I a favor and put an end to your whimpering," she snapped, pinching the purple and yellow flesh that'd swollen over one eye.
She smiled as the girl tried to stifle a scream and wrench away, but her grip was sure despite the warm wetness of blood and tears. She reached for the poorly washed scalpel at her belt - tonight had seen her too busy to properly clean her tools - and raised it to the girl's face, pressing the flat of it against her skin to let her shiver at the cold metal. She chuckled at the clear terror and uncertainty in the girl's good eye before cutting the bloated bruise above the other, letting the blood drain. She tried to hide the delight she felt as the warm crimson poured over her fingers, fought the base urge to taste the cruor of the prey before her.
Aurora felt the sharp, filthy edge of the scalpel slice into her flesh, and felt the pressure drain from her swollen skin. she bit slightly on her already bloodied and swollen lip, allowing the burning pain to distract her mind from the torturous attentions of Sejanus.
It seemed like very time she came across this sadistic Legionary, she was on the wrong side of him. he seemed to have a particular hatred for women, much more than a lot of the Legionaries that she had noticed.
Often the men would grope at a passing slave girl, or some would simply drag a passing 'un-owned' slave to a quiet place to have his pleasure, but Not Sejanus, Aurora had a suspicion that Sejanus was the type of person that would be in trouble if their 'preferences' were to be discovered
Aurora winced as Sejanus moved to another part of her face and drained more of her blood with tiny, well placed cuts, she tried not to squeak, or moan in pain, as she had a feeling that Sejanus was enjoying this far too much to be a healthy thing.
She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he caused her such pain.
Such pain; such exquisite pain... etched lovingly across the girl's broken and beat features. Every little incision sent it stiffening. Sejanus found herself lost in her work, lost in every drop the creature bled. Her hand moved with fluid deftness like a violinist bowing their way through an expert concerto, every flinch writing the score to her sadistic euphony. Her eyes glinted with malicious relish as wolfish grin widened, checking the creature's face over once more before looking on to her.. to -its- wracked body.
Her fingers glided softly down the girl's side, feeling fractured ribs in several spots. Sadly none of them felt too severe, nothing worth cutting the slave open for. As the girl winced, she scowled.
"Too much pain for you, girl?" she said, squeezing on worse of her sides, feeling the already stressed ribs protest. "And here I thought you... ladies in the good old NCR were some force to be reckoned with. Not tanning many hides today are we though." She grinned as the girl's face reddened in pain and what she could only assume was anger or shame. "Now what's wrong? Is that a glimmer of shame I see? I didn't think dirt could feel shame." She straightened to her full height, letting herself lean in mere inches from the slave's face. "That's what you are, you know - dirt. That's all you've ever been and you're just now realizing it. That's the beauty of the Legion though," she said, turning back a bit to nonchalantly wipe the scalpel clean, "it can take anyone, and show them what they are, even -dirt-."
She lay the scalpel down on a nearby table, rifling through a mass of bloody rags before finding the bandaging she sought. Without warning she grabbed the girl, pulling her to the center of the tent.
"Strip," she ordered. The girl looked at her, confused. Sejanus tutted impatiently. "Do not make me repeat myself slave" she hissed. She watched in disgust as the girl began taking off her top, savoring the abject fear and humiliation playing across her face. "And the bra," she added. "I have to bind up those ribs. It'll just get in the way."
Aurora moved slowly, painfully. She winced as she pulled the top from her body and slowly removed her bra. The two most cherished objects in the world fell from the left cup as she removed the underwear. Her two pictures fluttered like leaves to the ground.
Aurora covered her breasts as best she could in the presence of the leering legion soldiers. She didn't move to pick them up, too afraid of the repercussions of pissing Sejanus off.
Sejanus arched an eyebrow as the photos fell to the ground. She stooped to grab them not breaking eye-contact once as she did, meeting the slave's humiliated terror with an icy smile. She leafed through them seeing they were of the girl at a younger age. One showed her with what she assumed to be the girl's family; the other showed what seemed to be some tribal ceremony. For the briefest moment a pang of nostalgia flitted through her at the memory of her own tribe. She shook it from her mind, remembering the task at hand as she pocketed the pictures.
"Put your hands on that pole. Over your head. Do it -now-." she spat.
She watched with grim satisfaction as the girl trembled but complied. The men about the tent jeered and laughed as tears filled her eyes and her face reddened, her shoulders wrenching in small silent sobs. She let her stand there trembling a moment before setting to work binding the girl's rib.
Sejanus had grown so accustomed to chest-binding it was a thoughtless process at this point, and as the roll wrapped over and under the slaves arms she didn't even notice how close she had gotten till she brushed up against her. Realizing her blunder too late, the decanus recoiled in horror