Your only validation is living your own life
Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time
So I send this song to the offended
I said what I meant and I've never pretended
As so many others do intending just to please
If I damned your point of view
Could you turn the other cheek . . .

- "Don't Damn Me" by Guns N' Roses

Chapter 35
The Importance of Being Boss

"Hang on . . . THAT's your actual color?" Jigsaw blinked, eyes going wide as she looked at the flurry of blues and golds stepping closer to her. "And why the hell would you waste good bolts wanting to look like it again?"

"One, yes it is, and two, it's a side effect of the nano-distilling process. Apparently 'Make my muscles feel like I'm 30 again' allows for a little leeway." White Noise chuckled, looking down at Jigsaw. "Now the real question is whether people still insist on calling me 'White Noise' or not."

"I doubt it. 'School Spirit' doesn't ring quite as well." Jigsaw chuckled, her hands bracing against the nearby bench. It'd been about six hours since the episode finished, and now people were starting to be skittish about who everyone was going to draw with and what everyone else was going to do to keep alive. Jigsaw, on the other hand, was just hanging around the medical centers waiting for Slick to be okay, and in the meantime replaying in her mind why she couldn't at least have brought something a little more 'battle-ready' than a violin, no matter how useful the violin was. At least maybe then she could've laid a few blows on the scout and given White Noise more 'visual' competition; as it was, the cameras mostly picked up on Slick and White Noise laying down the pain for the majority of the fight. In other words, she didn't have a great claim to contest the results with.

Silk glanced down, tilting his head. "Something got your tongue?"

"I'm just wondering what they plan on doing for the rest of us, 'Captain'." Jigsaw smirked, glancing up at him. Okay, so if she had to deal with having another contestant with rank over her, she was thankful at minimum that it was an old Anyr, and not someone like Ace. To his credit, he did seem to have that nice feel of authority to him.

The Anyr shrugged, dropping back down to all fours out of habit. "I'm pretty sure they're not about to pop you in one of those tanks too. But here, follow me and I'll let you see what they've done with Slick so far."

"As much as I hate to interrupt this little 'reunion' . . ." Damien Vox spoke up, getting both heads to turn towards him instead. "I need to lead you two back towards the arena. We're about to make selections soon."

"Selections?" She blinked, confused.

"For the squads." Damien smirked. "You two get first pick."

White Noise nodded, trotting along with the large lizard, before noting how messy his hair looked now, disheveled in comparison to the previous plait. "What's with you?"

Damien's eyes dropped at the question. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"You look like you've got a bat in your hair." Silk asked again, switching to a two-legged gait to look. "Oh, they're-!"

"Don't touch them!" Damien hissed, and Jigsaw was surprised to see a tiny pair of headwings popping out from his hair. "It's a birthmark."

"Nice." Silk chuckled. "I've met Touched before. They tend to be rather jealous of nice headwings like that."

"I'm not most Touched, okay?" Damien growled, but was now in too much of a hurry to push them back under the hair. "It's not my damned fault Mother won't let me just cut them off . . ."

"She knows what she's doing." Silk remarked, trotting along and just a little bit ahead of Damien, earning a small snarl from the lizard as they went onward. Jigsaw was right behind him, a huge smirk plastered on her face as she tried not to laugh.

A few corridors and punched-in key codes later, the three found themselves on the entranceway to the arena floor, trotting out to see a lineup of chained-down prisoners and 'currently hibernating' robot forms. Jigsaw blinked, but soon found herself walking towards the only person besides them who wasn't chained down; namely, Xanatos sitting in a folding chair, his eyes in a level stare and his tail flickering in non-amusement.

"Having fun?" Jigsaw offered, with a smile on her face.

"I saw what you did with Scout Marcadia earlier today." The Cazar frowned. "I didn't like it."

She frowned, glaring at him. "It was self-defense."

"Tell me, little fiddler, do you even know who the 'Synthesis' were?" Xanatos's eyes narrowed further. Jigsaw shook her head to his, prompting a response of, "If you did you'd understand."

"Look, I'm not in favor of getting more people killed than there need to be today . . ." Jigsaw backed off, glancing around at the other prisoners. "I'll speak to you later."

She spotted White Noise looking over Spyro's shell, before walking along to take note of a sleeping Poison, a 'too-caught-up-in-his-looks' London, and just steered clear of the large, half-withdrawn spidery form of Crater. Something about that robot just bothered her . . .

"Youngblood! Over here!"

She blinked, then caught sight of Cain, sitting there with a series of chains around his wrists and neck, and yet he was still maintaining a rather proud position sitting on the floor; it reminded her of a statue of some ancient god. She blinked, before noting the sense of calm surrounding him. "You still want to offer your advice?"

"In a sense. My advice is to select those who actively seek your guidance." Qin'Xu smiled. "Likewise, I seek your guidance."

"I'm flattered, Cain, but I recommend I have a chance to see who else 'seeks my guidance' before I make a decision." Jigsaw nodded to him, giving him a smile.

Cain returned her smile with a knowing look. "Youngblood, do not leave this arena without me. You cannot afford another 'second place'."

Her eyes fluttered over to Zodiac, tracing along the plays of light on the Vidian's skin. "And you?"

"I can only offer how useful I'll be to you . . . and I know I'm useful." Zodiac grinned. "Don't listen to the old man; he just wants attention from a sweet thing like yourself."

"She needs a sire!" Cain barked, before covering his mouth in wide-eyed shock to regain his composure. Jigsaw's eyes went wide as well, looking back at Cain, then to Zodiac, before walking on.

She stopped just short of Daisy, who was sitting there, still disheveled from the assault earlier, but now with her hands cuffed and chained in front of her. Daisy smirked at Jigsaw, shifting to a kneeling position. "Like what you see?"

"I want to know the truth; The cameras are off and I'm pretty sure six hours is enough time to send Marcadia packing." The Lombax glared at her. "Marcadia said you had quite a bit of blood on your hands . . . was she right?"

"Always the hard questions first? Sign of a bad interrogator . . . but very well." Daisy smiled at her. "It was two decades ago. I was part of a faction known as the 'Synthesis' who spent a year of their time solely on targeting the Solana Scouts. I'll admit to my fair share of carnage, but to blame me for their deaths in the heat of battle is a big mistake. Especially when Quartu herself decided to commit seppuku rather than admit defeat . . ."

"I'm not one to advocate-. Wait . . . that was you?" Jigsaw's eyes went wide, and before Daisy could answer again, Jigsaw ran forward and delivered a hard slap across Daisy's face. "It's no justice to Scout Veldin, but damn it, woman . . ."

"Justice? I let her go eventually!" Daisy hissed. "I digress. I assume you're not interested in my working under your command now that you know, so you should probably-."

"Hell, I actually think I want you for a grunt now."

Daisy blinked, eyes wide. "What?"

"I'm not about to condone your actions." Jigsaw spoke, holding a finger up. "Make no mistake of that. But . . . I still have to at least respect that anyone who managed to take on that many heroines, even as part of a group, should have a reasonable idea of what they were doing. All things considered . . . if you were that dangerous as part of a team once, you can do it again."

Daisy looked shocked for a moment, then smiled. "So nice to have fans of good villainy."

"That and if I let you join anyone else's team, I won't be able to beat the crap out of you over it on nearly as many occasions."

"You conniving little-!" Daisy barked, reaching for Jigsaw but finding herself hard-pressed to. Jigsaw laughed, now starting to pace between Daisy, Zodiac, and Cain, trying to make up her mind. Damien noticed this, and walked over to her.

Damien kneeled down, putting a hand on Jigsaw's shoulder. "Are we deciding?"

"Well, I think I know who I want . . . Just trying to make sure of things." Jigsaw spoke up, looking up at Damien and his still-out headwings. "I only get to pick two, right?"

"Exactly. And technically, you should be running it past Not-so-White Noise over there to make sure you're not conflicting with him." Damien spoke up. "Who are you interested in?"

"The Mad Scientist and the Vampire." Jigsaw answered, causing Damien's eyes to go wide and his wings to go wider. "What?"

"It's just . . . I have a hard time seeing how you'll be able to control them. I don't need to remind you how important it is that you be able to rein in your grunts . . . Ace Hardlight can tell you how badly Geisha's messed him up so far." Damien pointed out, before pointing down at Xanatos and adding on, "He looks more your speed. Small, punchable, healthy sense of military structure."

Jigsaw raised an eyebrow. "I don't want him. He thinks I should've let the scout kill Daisy."

"So?"

"He's a stubborn Cazar, that's what's so! I don't need a solider who I can't depend on!" Jigsaw shot back. "Look, Cain went so far as to volunteer to take Slick's place earlier today; control is irrelevant when he actually WANTS me to lead him. Daisy . . . after today's events, I'm pretty sure she owes me enough to keep her tame, at least initially. Besides, she has some serious experience I'd like to tap."

Damien nodded. "But are you honestly willing to risk a lunatic like her scheming under you, or having the vampire feed on you?"

Jigsaw thought on this for a moment, glancing back at the two, before looking back at Damien. "The sign of a good officer is knowing when to listen to her grunts, right? So I'm going to pick a pair that I know have some decent intelligence between the two."

Damien stood up, his hand on his chin, before eventually nodding. "Make sure that White's not planning anything with them."

"Will do." Jigsaw responded, before running over to White Noise, who was walking down the line and having a hard time getting London to even lower his shades. "Silk, I wanted to check with you on-!"

"I already heard you." White Noise shot back, smirking. "I wanted you to take Cain from the start anyway, and as for Daisy . . . good luck with her. For all you see in her, I don't to be anywhere near that time-bomb."

Jigsaw blinked, then narrowed her eyes. "All right, now I know I'm walking into a bad situation . . ."

"No, you're walking into a situation with flaws as well as benefits — I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying I wouldn't have picked those two, or at least I know they'd work better for you than me." Silk chuckled, walking over to Xanatos. "For example, my technological background means I'll be more interested in the robots than the other players, so it makes sense that I'd pick at least one of them to add to my team."

"Careful with that one." Jigsaw warned as White Noise hovered a hand above one of the Cazar's ears.

Xanatos snorted. "At least he understands what Marcadia was doing . . ."

"And maybe with a little work, you'll understand that the longer we go without getting anyone killed, the longer we all get to live." Silk snarled, grabbing the Cazar about the ears. "Maybe you don't care because you only have to survive here for a season before you get to go home . . . but the rest of us are stuck here until we either leave with a pardon or we leave in a funeral missile. As you can imagine, we'd like to prolong the inevitable.

"Yes, I caused people to die. Yes, Daisy's probably killed a few people herself. Hell, Jigsaw's probably done something pretty bad as well, because I still can't figure out why a virtuoso violinist would want to associate with us otherwise . . ." White Noise looked back to see Jigsaw's eyes go wide, which he seemed to take as confirmation before continuing, "But it doesn't matter how we all got in. What matters now is how we get out. You can either see that I've got enough brains and enough heart to have already earned my way to the top of the heap so far . . . or you can refuse to use the good senses the Cosmic Force gave you and continue to think that I'm a criminal, who deserves to die regardless of my actions afterward, and you can find yourself getting killed in short order for being a stubborn, self-righteous brat. Your choice."

Xanatos blinked, unable to speak for a moment, before croaking out, "Y-yes, Sir."

White Noise nodded, satisfied with this. "You willing to work with me long enough to survive this season, brat?"

There was more confidence in the Cazar's voice this time. "Yes, Sir."

"Bear with me, boy, I'm an old man. I can't hear you so well."

"Yes, Sir!" Xanatos barked up, hopping out of his chair to stand up.

White Noise straightened himself up, his tail cracking like a whip. "I am here to lead you on a tour of things that will scare you, that will shock you, that may even kill you, and if you are anything by loyal and obedient to me you most likely WILL die! I have no room in my command for conscientious objectors! There is no quarter on this station for you to crawl into and cry like the pussy you are if you cannot deal with the fact that in this company, you are no better than any of these criminals here! I need you to be the soldier I know you want to be! Are you willing to follow me into the pit of hell on my orders, brat?"

Xanatos answered immediately. "Sir, yes, Sir!"

"Louder, pussy!"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" Xanatos shouted, his body straight and tall, before pulling out the rapier mounted by his side, holding it up in true marine fashion.

White Noise smiled, glancing back at Jigsaw. "I love soldiers. Basic Training is such an easy interface to hack." He managed to get a smile out of Jigsaw before turning back to Xanatos. "At ease, soldier."

Xanatos calmed down, and Jigsaw noticed the general tenstion in Xanatos's body to have collasped like a finely-tuned implosion. She glanced back up at White Noise. "I see what you mean about 'working better with others'."

"You've got my blessing for your selections, fiddler." White Noise smirked. "I hope the woman and the vampire work for you."

"Hey, Damien! He says it's okay!" Jigsaw shouted back, running back over to where her two selections were still chained up. "I can keep my selections!"

Damien nodded from a distance, before pulling out a small remote control and punching in what apparently were key codes. By the time she'd ran back to Damien's spot, Qin'Xu and Daisy were already standing up, walking over towards her. She smiled at them, but then blinked as she noticed that Daisy was 'trotting' over to her with a mean glare in her eyes.

Jigsaw blinked, then reached behind her, earning a snarl from the scientist. "If you think I'm going to be scared off by a stupid violin, you damn well better-!"

Daisy skidded to a halt, her metal leg screeching just enough as she noticed Jigsaw drawing out just the bow, holding it out as though it were a sword, with Jigsaw staring down it and right at Daisy's eyes. "Don't even think about it."

"Honestly . . . It's getting to where you can't even bite the hand that feeds anymore." Daisy remarked, standing up straight, before glancing over at Qin'Xu, and offering out her hand to him. "I suppose you're at least a better sport."

Qin blinked, looking down at her, then up at her eyes again. "I don't shake hands."

Daisy rolled her eyes, taking her hand back. "I'm not even going to pretend I understand . . ."

"Both of you, come on." Jigsaw spoke up, gesturing for them to walk with her. "Hopefully Slick's ready by now; I want to introduce you two to your Lieutenant."

"One more thing, Miss Forte." Damien spoke up. "Tommorow, we start fitting everyone for armor. Make sure you've gotten them situated enough that we can start specializing their armor for team missions." He then turned to look towards Daisy. "And in your case, we need to know if you're planning on wearing that metal leg of yours in combat or not. We've got an 'interesting' prototype for you either way . . ."

Daisy nodded, then glanced back down at Jigsaw. "Slick's already gotten his ears healed?"

"Well, they ought to at least be partway done . . ." Jigsaw shrugged. "Hopefully they just reattatched the ears rather than grow whole new ones. He'll look like a Cazar for half the week otherwise."