So it took a bit longer to write this chapter than I expected. There was a lot of stuff to keep me busy this time of the year, but now, fortunately, the worst of it is behind me.
Chaos is the Prize Chapter 81
"You could walk a mile in my shoes and you'd be crazy too, with nothin' to lose."
-Tupac Shakur
"A mind without purpose will wander in dark places."
-Imperial proverb
Pyrrha was having a nightmare. The evil spirits slipped into her unprotected dreaming mind and tormented her, not with pain, but with a spectrum of things just as horrible as physical pain. In her nightmare, her flesh warped and twisted, corrupting into something terrible, something unspeakable.
Then she woke up, damp with sweat. She instinctively inspected her body, checking her hands and arms. Her skin had not transformed, though it remained dirty, full of scratches and nasty crimson rash around her joints. Pyrrha swallowed and evened out her breathing. Recently, her sleep had become much more draining than being awake.
Pyrrha pulled her knees against herself and laid against the wall where her chain was attached to. She let out a few tears she quickly wiped away. She stood there awake from then on, for she had received enough of nightmares for the night. Though it whether it was night was impossible to tell where underground. In her darkest moments, she wondered if she was ever going to see the sun again.
After some time, Pyrrha was snapped out of her absent-minded half resting. The door of the large chamber opened, and several children entered, closing the entryway quite hastily behind them. Pyrrha could hear distant sounds from beyond the chamber through the walls, and a bit more clearly for the moment the door remained open.
"Whoah, thank the gods some of those corridors are so narrow," a pure black-skinned and red-eyed boy muttered.
The children scattered around the chamber, one moving to retrieve Pyrrha's pipe of a spear from the corner.
"You hear that?" One of the boys asked as he approached Pyrrha. Pyrrha made noted that one of the hands of the boy had been replaced by a metallic prosthetics, one decorated with yellow and black hazard stripes. "That's Tsagaan's roars and trashing you're hearing. He is in a bit of a sour mood. Did not appreciate me saving his life. Did not like being entombed. Such an ungrateful cousin."
"He does not sound happy at all," Pyrrha replied quietly. The weird machine-like sounds she was faintly hearing did not sound like they came from a sane person.
"Yeah, what a git," the boy continued. "You know, he has always been kinda strange, always the black sheep of the family."
"You mean he was a friendly, understanding, almost decent human being who knew how to do something else then to cause suffering and wreak havoc?" Pyrrha asked sarcastically.
"Yes."
One of the other children approached Pyrrha. Her pipe weapon was tossed to her feet again. "Time to fight," the black-skinned boy said with a smile. Pyrrha picked up her weapon to defend herself once more. It was time to face her tormentors again.
For the next hour, the boys took turns dueling her. The dark-skinned one seemed to be in much better shape than the others, he was quite frankly bursting with energy. The others were not very skilled, but the exhaustion took its toll on Pyrrha, causing her to slowly lose her edge.
In the fight against the boy who just could not keep himself from yelling everything that came out of his mouth, Purrha received a vicious punch right to her face, causing her to scream out and fall. Her mind burned with pain and anger as she watched the boy look down on her, and then retreat to give the next one the turn with her.
"OKAY! IVORIAN, YOUR TURN! A GOOD FIGHT WILL CHEER YOU UP YOU SOUR PUSS!" A sickly-looking boy in unwashed clothes stepped forward and picked up the spear. The look on his face was that of quiet despair like all the joy had been drained out of him.
"GIVE HIM SOME GOOD TIME NIKOS, IVORIAN HERE HAS BEEN KINDA DOWN LATELY! HIS BROTHER FELL DURING THE BATTLE FOR BEACON!
"Sorry about being like this..." The boy called Ivorian took a sagged battle stance. "I am… kinda tired of the long war lately…"
The battle commenced. Despite his frail look, the boy was actually much tougher and stronger than the other had been. He shrugged off lesser blows easily, but he was rather slow and unskilled so Pyrrha was able to land many blows of her own.
Ivorian's strikes weighted heavily when they hit her, drawing pained grunts and moans from her. The exhaustion from earlier started to get replaced by the adrenalin of anger in Pyrrha. As her torment continued, she found her attacks to be fueled more and more by the hate and pain she had been forced to endure all these months. Finally, she started feeling like she had totally received enough, and her face twisted as all of her thoughts slowly gave into the raw fury slowly burning in her veins.
She wanted to defend herself. She wanted to punish her tormentors. She wanted to hurt them. She wanted to really hurt them.
As her tormentors jeered, and the invisible spirits that haunted this cursed place laughed, Pyrrha jumped forward and doubled her efforts. Ivorian did not stand a chance once she got serious. Pyrrha's furious blows rained and nicked his Aura, and it did not take long before she completely broke his defense.
Ivorian stumbled away, getting past the reach of Pyrrha's chain just as his Aura gave in and shimmered away. He stumbled away towards the other children that were cheering at the show. But Pyrrha did not want to let him go.
Pyrrha stood on the edge of the chain's reach, the metal tense behind her, and pulled her arm back. She launched the spear with all her strength, her expert aim making sure it hit true. And hit true it definitely did.
Ivorian had but a moment to glance back before the crude sharpened pipe struck him like a true javelin and impaled itself through the base of his throat.
The jeering and cheering stopped in an instant. The bleeding body of Ivorian slumped to the ground, dying if not already dead from the clearly fatal cause of having a thick metal rod through the base of his neck. In the next moment, the other children let out alarmed cries and quickly fled from the room, smashing the door shut behind them.
Pyrrha took a few steps back. For a moment she just looked at what she had caused. "I… I didn't mean to…" she slumped back to her backside and stared at the corpse that had been a living boy just a moment ago. The fire fled her veins as her anger passed, giving away to clarity and the horror of what she had just done. "I…. I…" she mumbled. "I am… I am sorry…" she cried.
She wept into her arms. She was now what she had always despised. She was a murderer.
It had all happened so fast, in a blur of red and hot anger. She had not meant to kill the boy. She could have just let him go. She did not know what had come to her. But the deed was done, and all that was left was the horror of what she had done in her burst of anger. Her own weakness sickened her. She puked just a bit onto the floor before her.
Pyrrha wiped her mouth looked ahead of her. The pipe was still lodged into the warm body, but the big corroded spike Ivorian had used to battle her had rolled towards her. She crawled forth, stretching the chain to its limits, and managed to grasp the weapon with her fingers. She pulled it to her and held it with her hands, weighing its dark and rust speckled form.
Pyrrha had tried to break the chain that bound her many times, but the twisted metal did not show even a scratch. She felt like it healed itself when she slept, draining energy from her. No, she was beyond that now.
Pyrrha tilted the spike in her hands so that the sharp point was directed at her chest. She breathed heavily, her hands shaking and her eyes weeping. She could not take this anymore. And so she pulled the spike towards her with all her strength.
The spike did not even pierce her skin. The tip of the crude weapon pressed harmlessly against her chest. Directed at her heart but failing to get through. It was at that moment Pyrrha recognized a familiar feeling, the sensation of being protected by Aura. She tried again, and her Aura flared to life just to block her attack. The chain had activated her Aura to stop her. Then the chain flared to life, sending tremors of pain into her body. She screamed as the chain punished her for her attempt.
Pyrrha kept crying totally now with no respite. A sense of utter despair overwhelmed her. She could not escape. And now the cursed chain had taken away her choice of life as well.
Pyrrha screamed from the top of her lungs, her tears flowing like rivers. And the evil spirits beyond her sight and in the back of her skull laughed more rapturously than ever.
Back at the evil hideout of the mysterious goons (™), Sun Wukong was slowly itching himself free of the restraint he was in. The guy who looked identical to that Azu- something fellow back at Beacon had injected Sun with something that made his head feel very groggy and hard to focus on using his Semblance, but after Orchid had gotten lazy and stayed out a lot, Sun had managed to lose his restraints the old fashion way.
The robes they had tied himself with had been slowly nibbled as Sun worked them against the edge of his wrist guard pieces. It would only take a bit more time for them to unravel.
It was at that moment that the guy called Orchid returned to the hideout. Sun tried his best to look innocent. He was generally not very good at that.
The guy in black, white and purple glanced at Sun, looking him once over. Then he took a seat by the sole table in the middle of the room, proceeding to pull out his scroll.
"I saw some of your buddies today," Orchid began without looking at Sun. "Seems they all made it into Argus in one piece."
"Well, nice to hear I guess," Sun said with some genuine relief. She had been concerned from Blake and her friends after he had heard they were lost on the train ride. "Sooo, what's the plan now? I take it I can't go and say hi?"
"Next we use the communication channel I established. Gonna see how well that works out. I originally considered exchanging you for relevant information, but I got a better idea that might work better. You will still work as a reserve hostage."
"Neat," Sun muttered.
"I will be making a call now. Don't make a sound without permission or I will break your fingers," Orchid said casually as he manipulated his scroll.
"Would not even cross my mind," Sun assured. He was kinda curious now as Orchid picked a contact and initiated a call.
After a moment, a familiar voice answered. "Orchid…" came from the voice of Jaune Arc.
Orchid glanced once more at Sangur before speaking. "Yes, it's me. Are you alone?"
"I am alone. Outside."
"Good, good. I sincerely hope you did not tell anyone that you made contact with me."
"I have not, so far." Sun could pick up the heavy doubt weighing in Jaune's voice. He clearly was very on edge about Orchid's call
"Do keep it that way, otherwise we might have… complications," Orchid said with a firm tone. "Now then. The reason for me calling you is quite simple. I want information."
"About what?" Jaune asked with reservation.
"Anything I deem valuable regarding Cinder Fall, her movements, associates… and the Relic she wants."
There was a long silence from Jaune.
"Are you working for Salem? Because if you are I am not telling you anything."
Orchid's brow frowned. "Do tell me, who might this Salem be? How about we start there?"
The conversation flowed a bit more easily after that. From what Sun gathered, Jaune had suspected that Orchid and the others were working for this Salem lady. When it turned out that was not the case, Jaune elaborated just a bit about who Salem was, as if he did not seem to think that information was too valuable. Some of the tidbits of information were new to Sun, as if Team RWBY and JNPR had recently learned more about Salem. That or they had not just seen it worthy of sharing with Sun back at Vacuo.
Orchid asked many questions and got a few answers. Jaune refused adamantly to reveal anything about the Relic, or the plans of RWBY and JNPR. He clearly did not take Orchid's word that he was not in cahoots with Salem.
That was when Orchid revealed his trump card, something that instantly and utterly captured Jaune's full attention.
"...Pyrrha?" Jaune asked with doubt.
"Champion Nikos herself. I will let you in on a little secret. She is in my custody. We captured her during the attack on Vale."
"Liar!" Jaune gasped. "You are lying… How dare you say that… How dare you try to trick me with her name. Pyrrha… died… during the fall on Beacon. Ruby saw it. I found some of her equipment."
"Did she now?" Orchid said with a smile. "And how can you be certain? Did you guys find a body? Because I am absolutely sure the wounded but living Pyrrha Nikos left Beacon in the belly of our ship."
"You are lying. I won't fall for this."
"How about I prove it?" Orchid said with a bright tone. "I mean, you don't have to take my word for it. She is not with me now, but I can get proof of her being alive very easily. I can even get you two on the scroll call together if that is what it takes. After that, we can negotiate an exhcange. Would that be worth the information you know?"
Jaune was silent for a long time. Sun could almost hear his brain pondering the issue. Finally, Jaune's voice returned.
"I don't believe you but...Fine… Prove me that she is alive. Absolute, undeniable proof. Then we can talk… about information."
"Naturally," Orchid said with almost a giddy voice as if he was impressed with his own negotiations. "As I said, it will take some time since she is not here, and I don't have a global scroll connection, but proof can be definitely arranged. Keep your silence about our talk. I will be in contact when I have something for us to continue on. And let me be clear, if you ever want to see Pyrrha Nikos alive again, you better be ready to offer me everything you know."
"Right…" Jaune replied.
"You will hear from me soon. Keep your scroll ready." With that, Orchid hang up the call.
"You did not say anything about me," Sun noted.
"Why would I?" Orchid asked as he stood up. "Pyrrha Nikos alone is enough to force Jaune-boy to do pretty much anything I want, I would bet on that. Revealing your position in my custody would only cause him to make demands about you as well. Better to resolve things with Nikos and then see what other uses or deals we can arrange for you."
"Is it true? Is Pyrrha Nikos alive?" Sun asked. He, like Jaune, had at first Orchid was just lying through his teeth to deceive Jaune. But now Orchid had promised to provide proof of Nikos.
"Yes. Last I saw her anyway. We got her tucked in a dungeon back at home. When Ceruleon and Sangur come back, we can arrange transportation for her. Then we talk more."
Orchid approached the Sun. "Hmmm, your last dose is drifting off. I can smell it.
"Oh come on, can't you just not pump more of… no no no stop! Stop!" Sun let out frustration cries and Orchid pulled out an injector and spiked Sun with more sedatives. The dose seemed to be stronger than the one given by the blue-haired guy, and for the next few hours, Sun was high as a kite, accompanied by Orchid who also shot himself up with something.
"Say..." Orchid asked with a resonating voice. "Who do you think would have won the Vytal Festival tournament if there had not been disruptions? Me, you, or Nikos?"
"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster . . . for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Before you go, be sure to check the Space Battles Forum thread of this story. Mojo1586 wrote there an awesome little snipped about Fionn and the newest slave Gina that is totally worth checking out. A bit more CitP content in addition to this dose of a chapter
Leave a review if you feel like it and have a nice day.