l
-21-
"You're what?" Rota stared at the medic in disbelief.
The demon sighed and stared at them, a heavy set frown on her face. She muttered something in her own language aloud, then shook her head and signaled to the guards at her side. At once, the guards; ten of them against the four Valkyries, all armed with the same energy staffs from before, surged forward. Their screams were guttural, and somewhere within the howling Lind was aware of words; words she didn't understand but words none the less. They corralled the Valkyries, forcing them back lest they be further injured, and soon enough the four of them had their backs against the wall.
The men and woman that surrounded them snarled, barking orders and commands none of the Valkyries understood, and with two guards for each Valkyrie they were divided; one guard grabbed them and the other kept their weapon aimed at the woman. They distanced the Valkyries from each other in ten foot intervals, keeping their backs against the wall and their hands on top of their heads. Bewildered, the four women could do little but follow their instruction, manhandled into position before the guards returned to the medic's side. All ten of them kept their weapons trained on the Valkyries.
The four of them stared at the medic in silence, pale and drawn as they faced the demonic firing squad before them. One wrong move, Lind thought. That's all it would take for them to shoot us down. Yggdrasil, don't let them be trigger-happy.
"Listen up!" the medic cried. Her voice rang sharp and clear throughout the facility. "You will all listen very, very carefully. You will follow my instructions to the letter. If you do not, you will be injured." Her attention went from one Valkyrie to the other. "I say this for your benefit. I say this so you know that it will not by demon hands that you become injured. If you do not follow my instructions than the injuries that befall you will be a result of your own idiocy. Nod if you understand."
Lind glanced towards her companions, and as she caught Rota bobbing her head up and down she followed, taking her cue from the Sergeant. She looked back at the medic and the guards, fighting to control the anxiety in her chest. Where's the Major? she wondered. What did they do with her? She looked to the doors they'd entered through, yet those were barred and sealed; a spell had been activated at the threshold, and the Valkyrie could see where it glowed a bright red against the metal. No one was getting in or out anytime soon.
To include the medic and her entourage.
Lind was not filled with a great deal of hope.
The medic whistled, snapping her fingers. "Blue Hair! Eyes up front!" She snapped, and flinching Lind snapped her gaze back to the woman. "If you do not listen you will be injured. Did I not just say that?" The Private didn't respond, and the medic shrugged. "If is of no consequence to me. You will either listen or you will not. If you do not, what happens to you will be made as an example for the others, and then they will listen."
More concerning words. Lind frowned, and did her best to pay as close attention to the woman's words as possible. It was difficult. The woman's accent was thick and heavy, and it took all of Lind's concentration to distinguish what the medic was saying. "Your angels must be suppressed within you," she said. "There are active weapons within this compound that target angels and are able to draw them out, and so for your continued safety we must suppress your ability to draw them out into a physical manifestation."
She held out her hands, and a black case with power lines that glowed red with magic manifested in her palms. She opened it, and the 'click' it made seemed to echo hollowly throughout the main room. The medic withdrew a syringe filled with a strange, amber liquid, and held it aloft for everyone to see. "This potion is designed to dissolve the material lining of your angels, preventing them from gathering the energy necessary to preserve their physical appearance. It must be administered directly to the angel's physical form to properly take affect and will last for the span of thirty days." Her voice rang like a loud and hollow bell in the room, and the Valkyries who watched her followed along in a silence that spoke of nothing less than dread.
"It is designed to do nothing more to your angels but prevent them from manifesting," the medic continued. "It is not designed to affect you in any further negative ways, and it is necessary for your continued presence in this facility. Nod your heads if I have made myself clear."
Reluctantly, the four of them nodded, though Lind could not help but recall the Sergeant's words. Don't trust her. What was this really about? What kind of anti-angel weapons did they have here that could 'actively' target a manifested angel? There's more to this place than meets the eye, Lind thought. They aren't telling us something, but I don't know what. And then, with an absolute certainty: I don't want to get that shot. Spear Mint fluttered anxiously within Lind's breast, and her hands clammy, the woman bowed her head, wanting to avoid the woman's copper-eyed gaze.
"I will repeat this so that you will understand," the woman said. "This potion is designed to only dissolve the material lining of your angels to prevent them from manifestation. Nothing else. It is not a poison. It is not a weapon. It is a serum designed by your own people for use in medicine and law enforcement. Your own medics within your FOBs have access to this potion. Your language calls it Patet Nihil. It will only dissolve the material lining of your angels. Do you understand?"
The Valkyries shared uncertain looks with each other, then returned their attention to the medic. None of them dared a word, and after a long moment of observation the woman dropped her hand to her side once more. "I will call you up individually. The rest of you will stay as you are with your backs against the wall. You will stand and you will wait for me to call on you. Any actions made against us will be treated as a hostile action and will be acted upon by the guards. Refusal to manifest your angel for serum administration will be forcibly extracted by means of Rabishu of one six and two nines." Again she fell silent, allowing her words to sink in, and once more the Valkyries shared a look of confusion. 'Rabishu' was not a term they recognized, nor the name of an indigenous weapon that any of them could recall learning about in the past.
"Do not allow your angel to be extracted by the Rabishu of one six and two nines," the woman warned. "It will awaken at our call, and it will come. And it will take." She frowned deeply. "And it will not give back what it takes."
Her words were ominous, causing a small murmur of uncertainty to travel amidst the group of four. They looked at each other, growing more and more concerned. Lind's gaze found Rota's, and she looked at the Sergeant in question: What do we do?
The look on the Sergeant's face was disconcerting, filled with its own apprehension as Rota looked at the three lower-tier Valkyries who fell under her wing. She shifted her gaze back to the medic. "What's a 'Rabishu'?"
"A monster," the medic responded. "That is all I can say in the simplest of terms. If you follow my instructions, it will not be called upon, for its nature is of a cruelty that I find repulsive as a medical practitioner." Her frown deepened. "Know this, Valkyrie: Though we are on different sides, my nature as a medic does not change anything. I care not for you, but I cringe at excessive suffering, and this beast exemplifies that. Do yourselves and the rest of us a favor and do not tempt my hand, for I find no joy in its presence and you will find no relief in its cries. Your angel will know pain, and I will be unable to ease your agony. I do not speak this in jest. I do not speak this to ensure your obedience. I speak of this-no, I warn you of this for your own benefit. Do not bring the wrath of the Rabishu on your head."
The woman's eyes swept across the room, lips pursed in a tight line. "Since you are so talkative, we will start with you." She pointed to Rota. "Approach me."
Rota didn't move. "How do we know you're speaking the truth about that serum?" she demanded.
The woman sighed and muttered something Lind couldn't understand aloud. She placed a hand on her brow and shook her head, though when one of the guards, a woman with short red hair, took a threatening step towards the four, she was stopped. The medic waved her back with a dismissive gesture, then turned back to Rota. "Do you need packaging?" she asked. "Then how do you know it is legitimate packaging and that the ingredients listed are in the potion? Do you need a signature to verify the legitimacy of the ingredients? Then how do you know it was not forged within these halls?" She shook her head in disdain. "We could go in circles for hours, but the truth is this: you do not trust me, for I am a demon, though as a medicinal officer I am required by Niflheimian rules of engagement to speak on a factual basis to everyone who is brought to me for aid. Captain Cabatu does not wish for the Rabishu to consume your angels any more than I, though our purposes differ. You will either allow me to administer the potion or the Rabishu shall take its place, but one way or the other, you will not leave this room without your angel's suppression. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Rota's voice came out a growl.
"Then approach me now. My patience with you in particular grows thin, Injured One."
Rota scowled, then stepped forward, ignoring the guards who watched her with such scrutiny as she moved towards the medic. The Valkyrie came to a halt five feet from the demon, and the medic nodded. "Summon your angel," she instructed.
Rota didn't move.
The demon sighed. "Please summon your angel," she said. "I will not beg, but I will warn you one last time: The Rabishu will bring you suffering. Do not force me to summon it."
"Forgive me if I don't believe you," Rota replied. "But you also must understand: We do not summon our angels under duress."
The medic frowned, then inclined her head as she relented. "You leave me no other choice," she said. She looked around Rota and to the rest of the Valkyries lined up against the wall. "And the rest of you? What say you?" She asked. "I will provide you the option: Allow me to treat you now or face the Rabishu and have me treat you through force."
The three younger women looked at each other, for a moment at a loss. Was it a bluff to scare them into obedience? What should they do? Throw their lot in with Rota and support her? Or heed the medic's warnings-if they were indeed valid-and take the shot willingly? The silence dragged on, no one wanting to make a decision, and the medic groaned in aggravation. "Be fast," she warned. "You waste my time; I have my own people that need tending."
"We go by Sleet's decision," Mist announced.
Lind ground her teeth together so hard her jaw popped. Keep with the flight. She nodded as well, and Gunnr nodded a moment later.
"All of you." The medic stared at them all with an expression of pity but not quite surprise. "I should have known," she lamented, then rubbed her temples before looking back to Rota. "I have daughters that are older than your girls, Valkyrie. I look at them and see the faces of children stare back at me. The loyalty they choose over their own self-preservation makes my heart weep."
"Fuck you," Rota said.
The woman nodded, and it took Lind a moment to recognize the emotion on her face as dismay. "I thought as much," she said, then looked over to the guard at her side. "Sunu sa ina Rabishu."
The guard nodded. "Uznum suharruru." His voice echoed through the chamber, and Lind watched with growing apprehension as both the guards and the medic worked a spell around their ears. The medic moved off to the long mirrored window off to the far side of the wall, and the original guard thumped the butt of his weapon against the ground. The others readied their own weapons, shifting into a guard stance Lind vaguely recognized from Sanngrior's numerous drills. One of them-Lind would never discover who-released a sharp, high pitched whistle that hurt her ears. It rose and fell in pitch, almost like the demon was whistling a little tune, and then without warning it ceased, leaving on a hanging note of an unfinished song.
The room fell silent for a span of five seconds, and then what followed was the most Yggdrasil-awful shriek Lind had ever heard. The creature, the monster, for surely even Nature's cruel design could not fathom such a beast, dropped from the ceiling, landing in the room's center in all its wretched, tumultuous glory. It was enormous, spanning the length of twenty feet, its segmented, tubular body at least four feet high. Its flesh was gray with an unnatural, glossy sheen to it like oil, with each segment housing a pair of long, insectoid limbs that ended in a pair of grasping tarsal claws.
"What the-" Rota backed away from the creature, only to be stopped by the guard nearest her. He aimed his weapon at her and she froze, and the woman's attention was torn between the armed demon and the creature before her. Another time, Lind would have risked the guard and his weapons rather than face the beast before them, but that was at a time far later in the future, where the threat of this strange and unwieldy beast was more defined. A time after she'd already experienced the terrors it wrought.
It squirmed on the ground restlessly, two pairs of antennae or perhaps feelers testing the air from a chitinous head of a many-eyed insect, yet held also the nature of a reptile to its features. It seemed to find what it was searching for in Rota, and in an act that seemed unnatural for a creature of such size and mass, it's long body pushed itself up and off the ground, the large head acting as a counterweight as it curved backwards like a scorpions tail.
Its nature was strange and unsettling to watch, for as it moved Lind could no longer tell what the top of its head was and what was the bottom, or if such a thing even mattered for a creature so alien. Now, it surveyed them from a height close to fifteen feet, and what Lind had taken for eyes at first glance she now came to understand were decorative spots; false eyes to take the attention away from... something.
"What is that thing?" Rota's voice was almost inaudible in the quiet, and that large head-insectoid at one moment, reptilian in the second glance, swayed towards her voice. It stilled, and for a moment Lind caught a glimpse at its inner nature: an ambush predator, preparing its initial strike. And then a shriek. A horrible shriek, so different and yet so alike to the one that had first hailed its arrival that Spear Mint shuddered in her breast, leaving Lind with the horrible, strange certainty that this creature's natural prey was them, and if not them than something that came from their being.
Then came a burst of feathers. Feathers that would haunt Lind's nightmares throughout her stay in that wretched facility, and beneath it Rota's screams. "Storm Bringer, stop!" Yet the angel did not stop. It surged from Rota's person with an expression of such rage and hate on its face it was almost unrecognizable as an angel, it's intentions clear as it charged the creature. Perhaps that had been the intent of the scream; to invoke so much blind emotion within the angel that the Other Half lost all reason. That it went all too willingly towards the monstrosity without fear for its own being and so approached the creature freely and openly.
Something popped out of the monster's mouth. Some kind of bone-like tongue; a hidden stinger or venomous fang that looked almost artificial in the room's luminosity. The creature lunged forward, and the angel was a moment too slow to escape its strike. Lind grew aware of several things at once in that horrible moment: Rota's bloodcurling scream, a hollow, echoing warble of an angel in distress, that horrible stinger-fang piercing through Storm Bringer's side, and Spear Mint attempting to tuck herself into the deepest crevices of Lind's soul.
The artificial fang ripped through the angel's side, leaving flesh dangling, and as Storm Bringer dropped, several pairs of the beast's limbs caught it and brought it close in an almost tender embrace. "What's it doing?!" Lind was barely even aware that her body was moving by the time Mist's screams reached her ears. "What the fuck is that thing doing?!" She was running to Rota-all three of them were-when the guards were spurned into action. Lind barely saw them though, and her body acted on its own accord as she tried to move towards her fallen comrade, ducking and dodging through strikes as the world around her slowed to a crawl.
Even still, the medic reached Rota before Lind, Gunnr, or Mist had made it through the guards. "Stop!" Lind screamed. "Leave her alone! Leave her alone!" Through some means that would later allude her she made it past the guards, though not before gaining a heavy blow to the back for her troubles. It was enough to make her stumble, fall, and her back screamed in pain as she picked herself up and continued towards Rota.
By the time she made it to the fallen Valkyrie, it was too late: the medic was already administering the shot to the injured Storm Bringer. If the angel was even aware of it, she gave no sign other than a look that bordered on relief as her body began to dissolve. "Son of a whore!" Lind roared. "You bitch!" She attacked the demon before reason could stop her, and the monster, the 'Rabishu', skittered backwards, tarsal claws skating loudly on the porcelain floor. The Private wasn't even aware of its retreat, her attention focused on the medic across from her as she tackled the woman to the floor. The demon cried out in dismay, bringing her hands up to shield herself against Lind's wild-but still frightfully powerful-blows.
More guards surrounded her, and before Lind could think to run, or even defend herself, she received the butt end of one guard's weapon to the face. The woman felt something snap, felt blood begin to trickle down her face, and then an explosion of stars as the weapon drew back just long enough to collide with her face again. Several arms tore her off the medic and dragged her away, and the Valkyrie released a ragged scream as she came under the combined assault of at least four armed demons. Her world darkened into one of overwhelming, crushing pain, and red blossoms sprouted behind closed eyelids as she curled up in a final effort to protect her vitals. Yet that didn't stop the magic, didn't stop the pointed boots of demons from biting into her, and by the time they ceased their rage a puddle of blood was forming around her.
Her body throbbed and pulsed and burned with pain, each unique and horrible in their own special way. She wanted to fall unconscious, to escape the horrible pain in her face, her head, the throbbing puncture wounds in her back and shoulders and the pulsing bruises that were certain to form on her arms and legs but couldn't. Her body, after the long years of training under Sanngrior, refused to allow her that slim relief of numb darkness, and so when something prodded her with one foot the Valkyrie had no other choice but to respond.
She'd gotten some good blows off the medic as well. The woman had a fresh shiner already darkening her left eye, and there was a fat lip that was still swelling off to one corner of her mouth. The demon was shaking, though Lind couldn't tell if it was from rage or fear. "You. You next, since you are so eager, Violent One." Her voice trembled with emotion and sounded distorted to Lind's ears. She wasn't certain if that was from whatever spell had been cast or if one of the blows to her head had caused something more than a superficial injury. "For your sake, I hope it is fast. For my sake, I hope your suffering is unending."
She stepped over Lind's body without touching her, and Lind was left with a new and horrible sight: that of the Rabishu, approaching her in that same high, scorpion-like manner it had Rota. It's not the head. It's the tail. She thought, her eyes almost level with the creatures true mouth, something she'd missed in the chaos as it drew close, seeking out its next prey. Like a leech. A leech's mouth with a ring of feelers. Small and unnoticed compared to the false head. This one had some kind of magic around its mouth, some kind of transparent veil that filled it like a strange, red miasma and prevented the creature from expanding or contracting its maw. It eats angels, she thought. Black spots were appearing in her vision. Spear Mint shuddered within her. It eats angels by calling them out and then striking them with the false head. And then... what's that scream mean? Before her the Rabishu stilled, preparing to strike.
It's a death cry. Spear Mint whispered. Lind, I can't help it-it sounds so much like an angel's death cry that it's overwhelming. I can't help but respond. Oh Yggdrasil, Lind, I don't want to-
It shrieked, and Lind couldn't even muster the strength to scream for her angel as Spear Mint responded. She felt a new, sharp pain tear into her abdomen, and then blissful unconsciousness as darkness finally enveloped her.
Sp...r in... I... rry...
XXX
Time passed.
Lind awoke in a large group cell with cots laid out on the floor and a whole new world of pain. The Major had somehow convinced Cabatu that it was better for them all to stay together and tend to their injuries as a flight rather than let the Valkyries' various conditions worsen in isolated cells. The medic, of everyone else, had agreed with Sanngrior's words, and their combined reasoning had led to the larger prison that was now their home.
Of everyone present, only the Major was uninjured; the rest of them had all suffered a beat down at the hands of the guards, though Lind was by far the worst off. "They made me watch," Sanngrior later revealed. "They took me to a room with a long window looking into a great chamber. I saw them bring you all in. I saw what-I saw everything." She paused and took in a shuddering breath before locking them in a steely gaze. "We take the shots willingly, Ladies. We take it and we smile and say 'thank you, Ma'am, may I have another', because I'll be damned before I see that abomination come near you all again."
Lind's attack on the medic had only alienated the Valkyries within the eyes of the demons, and the medic in particular would no longer approach Lind to tend to her wounds. That task was left to Sanngrior herself, who took on the responsibility at her own volition and was careful to follow the demon's instructions when caring for Lind.
First days passed, then weeks. The guards made regular visits to retrieve one Valkyrie after the other, and each time they returned with fresh wounds on their person and a shaken disposition. "They know our names," Mist said after one such interrogation. "I-I don't know how, but they know our names, our ranks, our unit number, everything!" One of her eyes had been swollen shut, and there were ugly, subdermal burns across her body that spoke of magical torture. "They know my brother's name," she continued. "Durga, they-" From her place on the cot, Lind watched as Mist collapsed in front of the Major. "They know who he is. They know where he lives, where he works, how many sons and daughters he has, eveything!" The woman was trembling hard now, held together by only a slim sliver of discipline. "They told me they'd hurt him if I didn't tell them the coordinates of the FOB we were from. That they'd know if I was lying, so I better not fuck it up, and, and, oh Yggdrasil, what was I supposed to do?!" She screamed. "I have a two year old nephew!"
It got worse.
Sanngrior returned from one session unable to move and in obvious pain. All attempts at communication with her failed, as the woman had withdrawn so much into herself that she was unable to distinguish the Flight from her torturers. The only thing she spoke was a mantra: "Dun Durgaya Namah ey Hrin Clin Chamundaya Vichche." They took Rota in her place, and by the time the Sergeant returned Sanngrior had recovered enough to warn them of more. "They've got a Rabishu with them. It's not the same one you saw, though. It's smaller, and its scream brings pain."
Rota was able to elaborate further on it. "It's-it's his pet," she breathed. "It screams and, oh Yggdrasil, the pain. It's paralyzing." She clutched her head, and even from where Lind laid out on her cot, she could see the blood that had crusted down her nose and her ears. "I-I don't know what would have happened if not for the Patet Nihil," she stammered.
"What did they interrogate you for?" Sanngrior asked.
"Shift logs," Rota said. "Shift logs on patrol changes. How many patrols there are, how long each patrol lasts, how many Valkyries per shift... I tried to skew the numbers, be vague and what not, and that fucknugget brought my attention to that-thing and it was just hanging over my head the entire time he was interrogating me, and-" She squeezed her eyes shut and moaned. "It sleeps unless Cabatu calls on it. It hangs from the ceiling asleep like a maggot-bat, but it's almost like it can... feel when there are eyes upon it." The woman shuddered, then gestured to her ears. "These wounds? I was trying to block out its voice. I tried to drown it out, first mentally, and then physically. I-I tried to deafen myself, because I feared for my sanity if I listened to its screech a moment longer."
Gunnr perhaps had the best of it. Or perhaps it was easier to say the worst. They took her the following day, and she later returned without any visible injuries. "I...don't know," she said, looking at them all with large, frightened eyes. "I didn't speak with Cabatu. I spoke with a female demon. She didn't interrogate me at all. She even introduced herself: Xul Qabu." The woman looked more and more uncomfortable and kept her gaze locked on Sanngrior, and even then could not bring herself to look the Major in the eye. "We... we chatted. She was... nice. She had food and water for me, and didn't ask about anything regarding the FOB or dealing with the military." Her face grew red with shame. "I-I didn't know what to do. We just... just sat there and talked with each other for an hour. She even made sure the guards didn't rough handle me on the way back."
"Are you serious?" Mist climbed to her feet and advanced on the Private. "We get tortured and threatened and beat, and you get, what, a friendly conversation with some random demon!?"
Gunnr flinched and leaned away from her, but offered nothing in her own defense.
"That's enough, Fog," Rota growled. "This goes back to their tactics. They're trying to pit us against each other, remember?"
"But-"
"Sit down, Fog." Sanngrior didn't raise her voice, but there was an unmistakable tone to it that demanded obedience. It left no room for argument, and bordered on such a still and quiet danger that even Lind shuddered.
Mist sat at once, and Sanngrior pulled in a long breath. "This woman. This... Xul Qabu. She will be the most dangerous one because she is kind. One does not build a defense against kindness, and her name is a lie. It is Falken. 'Evil speech.' She will lead you astray with kind actions and friendly conversation, but she is still a demon, just like the others. A demon that wants to befriend us... you in particular, Gunnr, but perhaps us later down the road, and will use that friendship to gather information you will provide willingly and without thought."
"Yggdrasil curse it," Gunnr muttered, and buried her face in her hands. "Why are they focusing on me?" She demanded. "Why can't they beat me up like you guys?"
"Because they want us to alienate you and win you over to their side as an inside man," Rota said. "And we're not going to let that happen." She sent a pointed look to Mist, who grimaced and looked at the floor. "Instead, if you meet this demon again, you're going to smile and play nice and take control of the conversation, because for her to have complete control would be an interrogation, not a chat between friends. You keep the conversation light: games, literature, hobbies, whatever. If she tries to move it to something else, you tell her you're uncomfortable speaking on that topic and ask to move back to something light. She offers you food, you ask if food can be provided to us as well."
"Friendship is a two-way street, and she's trying to gain your trust," Sanngrior took over. "So we use that to gain supplies for us-namely, medical support since they're being so rough on us. Anything she promises to you she must deliver if she wants to keep your trust, and so we use that to aid the flight. Do you understand?"
"Yes Durga." Gunnr's face was still red, but she looked a little more at ease when it grew apparent that the Major and the Sergeant weren't angry with her.
Between the interrogations and what Lind later learned was physical labor around the facility, Mist began to note the change in guard shifts, and used those times and the medic's regular visits to gain a concept of time. Three guard shifts to last the whole day, each twelve hours long, similar to the shifts the Valkyries themselves worked during exercise drills. Gunnr continued her conversations with the demon called Xul Qabu, and as a result the flight was granted on occasion more food and access to the lone medic in the compound. They gained a regular supply of water that was restocked daily and were provided sterilizing wipes to keep up with hygiene and to clean wounds. The medic came once in with the day shift in what Gunnr proposed was their morning, and then once more in their evening with the swing shift. She never appeared with their night shift, and it was through that deduction the flight came to track the passing days in their cell.
Lind wasn't able to move from her cot for a whole month. The guards had held nothing back in retaliation for her fit of rage. A broken nose, three cracked ribs and one broken one, a fractured tibia, over twenty deep lacerations that punctured the latissimus dorsi, one of which had just missed Lind's spine, and five lacerations in the trapezius muscle on her back. All that on top of a concussion, heavy bruising throughout her body, and smaller cuts and shallow grazes from strikes that hadn't fully connected. Those first days since awakening became a nightmare for the flight. They'd needed to set and align the broken bones so they could heal properly, and stitch the lacerations and clean them regularly to prevent any kind of infection in their poor living conditions. Lind had been delirious with pain, and the medic had provided them with no pain medication to ease her suffering. In the end, Rota had been forced to knock the Private out in order to allow Sanngrior to accomplish the stitches. Lind had fought them at every moment she could, and on at least one occasion had further torn a line of muscle that had already been cut along her back. They were provided dressing, bandages, and disinfectant to keep the injuries from worsening, yet Lind had come to live up to her reputation as the 'Violent One' as dubbed by the guards, and even after bone had been set and allowed to mend fought the entire flight when the time came to clean a wound or re-stitch a laceration.
The guards weren't finished with her, either.
They went out of their way to cause Lind additional grief whenever an opportunity presented itself. The flight knew it, recognizing fresh bruises and broken stitches when they returned, and did their best to protect her by leaving Lind alone as little as possible. Yet no matter how much the flight protested, no matter how much they fought, there were always times during those long and agonizing months where Lind, injured and unable to defend herself, was left alone while the others were dragged off for manual labor and interrogations. Alone and paralyzed with pain when any part of her was moved or jostled. They didn't maim her, as far as Lind could tell, but they slowed the healing process for certain. Never enough to bleed, for the guards avoided any kind of body fluid as though it was contaminated; she'd watched one guard stir up a mild panic after she'd spit on him. Yet they still caused her enough pain to make her scream herself hoarse or to fulfil their own sadism.
One month became two months, and Lind recovered enough to care for herself without the Major's aid. It meant that she sent out like the others, fulfilling odd chores for the flight's care such as cleaning vegetables that would later become a meal. It also meant she could be interrogated like the others, and though Cabatu had allowed her to recover from her injuries, once she could walk again, Lind was free game. Her first solo interrogation with him was not the worst by far... but it set the foundation of what she would later come to expect, and like the others, the main thing she would expect from Cabatu was pain.
It came towards the beginning of the third week of the second month. They took her back to Cabatu's office, that large room they'd initially been gathered in as a flight. They'd sat her down in a chair before removing her hood, though Lind had a sneaking suspicion that was more per the medic's instructions rather than out of any act of kindness. Cabatu was already sitting at his desk when the hood was removed, going over some form of document as Lind regained her bearings. "Are you comfortable?" he asked, though his eyes didn't leave the document that had so enraptured him. "We can't have you on your feet too long now, can we Lind?" Though she'd expected to be called by her real name instead of her callsign, Lind still flinched. It sounded strange and at odds coming from a demon's mouth, and perhaps not quite real after close to two months of being addressed by her callsign. "I've been reading over your file, and I must say, I'm quite impressed young lady." He smiled as he addressed her, though the demon had yet to look at her. "My, such a large family you have! Third born of seven children near the border regions of Asgard and Jotenheim. A country girl! Perhaps that explains your violent attitude towards my poor subordinates. A hick like you simply is too ignorant to know anything other than violence."
He looked up at her, and Lind kept her face a careful neutral. He's fishing for bait. Spear Mint whispered, and her tone was urgent. Just like Rota warned. Keep cool and ignore him. It's not worth it.
"My, you certainly are a frosty one, aren't you?" Cabatu placed the document he was examining off to one side, and Lind kept her eyes glued to his face, continuing to watch him in silence. Cabatu raised his eyebrow. "Absolutely frigid," he deadpanned. "I wonder what category you fall under, all things considered. They say the border regions of Asgard and Jotenheim are a location filled with strife, since the indigenous people up there can't pull their heads out of their ass long enough to figure out if they're deities or Jotun."
Lind twitched. Cabatu caught it. "Just a bunch of uneducated nomads and farmers. First they lived under the rule of the Jotun, then the Aesir after Asgard came and 'liberated' the surrounding territories for themselves, isn't that right?" The man's gaze dug into Lind like a pair of spears. "Didn't you have an older brother who was so dissatisfied with the circumstances of the native populace he joined that extremist organization that lives in the mountains up there? Ah, goodness me, what was the name of it? Příznivci černá vlajka? The Supporters of the Black Flag, wasn't that it?" Lind grew cold at the name. No one was supposed to know about that. No one. The only people outside of her family who knew that were so high up the food chain they were supposed to be untouchable, with the storage banks to boot. How... how the fuck did a demon get his filthy shit-hands on those records? Who told him? No one in her flight was even aware that she had two older brothers; they were only aware of the first-born, Aaja, who bred long-haired horses that could survive the winter storms back home.
Lind... Lind, keep calm. Spear Mint was growing increasingly restless. He's baiting you. It doesn't matter how he got the records. He doesn't care. He just wants to see you react. Ignore him, Lind. Don't give him anything!
Oh, but Cabatu was just so relentless. "Yes... yes I do believe I said that right. It's so difficult to pronounce such an outlandish tongue sometimes... But yes, Supporters of the Black Flag. An extremist organization even by Niflheim's standards, you realize. Trying to establish their own nation-state in the borderlands through a combination of subjugation and violence towards the indigenous population, Jotun, and Aesir into gaining funds to further their self-righteous cause. You had a brother who ran off to join them, didn't you? An older brother, the second born, isn't that right? Iansi?"
Lind's heart skipped a beat at that name. She hadn't heard that name since the funeral piers. Not since her parents had rid the entire landscape of his presence. Cabatu paused and leaned forward. Lind didn't move, but she could feel her control starting to slip. She could feel it in how the blood was rushing to her head. With how her heart pounded a rapid tempo and how red began to creep around the end of her vision. Her hands closed into a pair of tight fists that throbbed with strain, and taking deep, long breaths the Valkyrie began to count in her head, though she knew already it was a losing battle. She'd been close to Iansi. He'd been her best friend growing up and had been the first person to teach her how to ride a horse. They'd had a falling out right before she'd left home to become an acolyte for the Fighting Wings. His last words to her had been 'traitorous bitch'. Her last words to him-before the funeral-had been 'mindless, self-serving fuckwad'. There'd never been a chance to reconcile their relationship. His death had hurt.
"You were an acolyte back then, were you not?" The demon continued at his jovial, good-natured pace, as if they were just a pair of old buddies talking about the good 'ol days. Except there wasn't a smile in his eyes. No sir, like they said back home: Beware those with the eyes of the arctic bear. They are black like pitch for they see nothing that is not food. "Tell me, what were your thoughts when word came that he'd fallen in battle between a patrol of Valkyries and the Příznivci? Was it, 'I should have stayed home and fucked hor-'"
Lind-
Lind launched herself at Cabatu with a roar she didn't recognize as her own, interrupting both Cabatu and Spear Mint before either could finish their sentences. Smiling Cabatu pushed himself back in his chair, propelled away from the Valkyrie as she crashed into his desk. Pain flared up in her injured right leg, and her head filled with stars as her injuries made themselves known once more. She collapsed with a rasping gasp as her strength fled her body, and Cabatu fell upon her like a wolf on an injured deer. "Truly, a violent, stupid woman." He grabbed her left arm and twisted it, and a fresh scream tore from her throat as the angle grew painful and unnatural until something popped. A fresh, new fire joined her mending lacerations, and when the demon released her once more her limb dangled uselessly at her side. "I suppose it can't be helped for one such as you now, can it? Violence begets violence, and some will only be taught by means of violence." He grabbed the collar of her uniform and threw her away from his desk, back into the chair. "You will sit and you will listen. When I ask you a question you will respond, and it will be truthful. Simple, easy-to-follow instructions. Simple, easy-to-follow questions, and questions you should have no issue with, given the fact your family breeds traitors and terrorists anyways."
Lind crashed into the chair hard enough to send it to the ground, with her sprawled on top of it. Panting wildly and with spots spreading across her vision, she rolled onto her back with a long moan. Fresh wetness seeped into her back from where her stitches had been ripped open. It hurt to move, it hurt to rest on her back, Yggdrasil, everything hurt, and Cabatu was only warming up. The pain was so great that at first, she wasn't even aware of Spear Mint's panicked cries. It's here! It's above us! Oh Yggdrasil Lind, get up! GET UP! Don't let him wake it up!
Lind tried to raise her head to see what had so frightened her angel but saw nothing through the spots. Her head thumped back against the floor with a fresh groan. "Spear..." There was something hanging over her head, but she couldn't make out what it was. She tried to roll onto her right side to pick herself up and cried out when her left arm flopped against her like a burning dead weight.
Cabatu watched her from where he leaned against his desk. He sighed. "What a useless wretch," he grumbled, then approached her, leaning down to better look at the Valkyrie. "Bleeding all over my floor at that. Wonderful," he tittered. "I suppose you can lie there if that's what you want. Just know you'll be cleaning it up later." He clapped his hands together, and Lind tried to focus on him through her wavering gaze. "Now that we've established ourselves, let's get started, shall we?" He whistled a little tune, one Lind thought she'd heard before, and something dropped from the ceiling. She didn't see it so much as hear it as it scurried around her on multiple limbs, and in her mind Spear Mint began screaming. She felt something brush her hair and looked up to a leech-like mouth lined with spiraling teeth. She stared at it, frozen, and Cabatu continued to whistle his happy little tune. "So, let's start with something easy." There were small, fleshy tentacles around the orifice, and several of them reached out, touching Lind's hair and then her forehead. They felt cool and dry. "Where are the blind spots located around perimeter fence line of FOB Roc?"
Lind didn't answer him. She didn't even hear his question. Spear Mint's screams had grown into the shrieks of a mindless animal with Rabishu's proximity. The noise was horrid; paralyzing, even, and Lind could no more hear Cabatu than she could think. She missed his question, missed his tone, and missed his disappointed sigh when she didn't respond to anything.
"Shame." Cabatu gestured to the Rabishu, and the noise it made was something Lind did hear. It was something she heard very well, and as it's screams joined Spear Mint's, so too did Lind's, until she could make no distinction between Spear Mint, the Rabishu, or her own voice.
It was only then that Lind's screams began in earnest, locked away with a monster and a demon that was its keeper.
XXX
She was back in the cell when Lind awoke once more. Spear Mint's screams were an echo in her mind, and one that seemed to take the place of the actual angel they belonged to. Of the angel herself, Lind could hear nothing; the event had been traumatic enough that her Other Soul had sought sanctuary as deep within Lind's person as possible. Lind thought she understood now why the Major had been capable of little other than a mantra after her initial interrogation.
"How long was I out?" Her voice was a broken croak, and her throat burned horribly.
Rota handed her a bottle of water; one of the few items they were allowed to keep freely in their cell. "Three days," she said. "A mixed blessing. We had to re-stitch your wounds after they were torn open and pop your arm back into place after it was dislocated. I don't think you felt any of it you were so far gone."
Lind drank deeply, was seized with a coughing fit, and chocked on half the water before it made its way down her throat. She coughed until she was red in the face, then chugged the rest of the water without a word. When she finally finished, she looked back at Rota. "Cabatu?"
"Who else?"
"If I die in this shit hole, I pray to Yggdrasil I take him with me," she hissed.
Rota smiled thinly and rubbed her shoulder. "That makes everyone in the flight," she said.
Spear Mint's voice began to return to her after several days, and with it she gained the attention of an unwanted guest, one she did not see so much as hear. The Rabishu, the Angel Eater, for that was what Lind was now certain the creature was, moved along the ceiling and through the facility's walls like a horrible mutated mouse. Several times she heard its claws scratching against some surface, and at times she would catch a glimpse of its white carapace as it raced over her head. Even the medic's monthly shots didn't keep it at bay. The beast knew the Valkyrie had an angel, and spell or not, it was hungry.
"It's been following us too. It's the first one we saw. Not Cabatu's pet but the other one. I don't think Cabatu's pet ever leaves his quarters," Rota said. "This one I think has been given free reign of the complex. It spooks the guards. They have me on cleaning duty near their barracks, and I hear the name 'Rabishu' thrown around in hushed words and whispers all the time. They don't like it, and whenever the thing is stalking me they send me to clean all the way on the other side of the facility. The escorts get so unnerved by the thing, they don't even bother hooding me. They just want me-and it-away from their sleeping quarters."
Sanngrior nodded. "They believe it is an abomination, just as we do," she said. "But only the guards. Not Captain Cabatu. Not the demons who assist him in interrogations. Only the guards." She smiled, though it held no kindness. The Major's smiles never held any kindness, these days. "We use it, as we use everything else they give us. Show that the creatures scares you too. Try and speak with any guards that speak Highkin and focus on the ones who converse with you. Build a rapport with them. If we can establish in their minds that we are people and not some nameless enemy, than we can get them to our side for further aid."
Gunnr nodded enthusiastically. "I've already got a couple of guards who might work with that," she murmured.
"So that's how you got a whole loaf of bread in here," Mist grumbled. "Girl, you been holding out on us! You didn't tell us you got connections on the outside!"
"I don't," Gunnr grumbled. "I act like I'm too weak to do any heavy lifting. Doesn't work on the females, but the males tend to be a bit more sympathetic to crocodile tears." She sent a side-long glance to Lind, who'd propped herself up against a wall, dozing in and out of sleep. "Y'know, it'd work for you too, if you stopped fighting the guards every time they came to escort you out. They might even be less inclined to try and beat you within an inch of your life that way."
"Eat a bag of dicks, Gunnr," Lind grumbled. "I don't negotiate with demons."
"We know," Rota griped. "The evidence is all over your body." She sighed and shook her head. "Demon's will dance on your grave one day for your idiocy, Pepper."
"It's not idiocy if there's a tactical advantage to it," Sanngrior muttered. "Though I am loathe to say it, your own recklessness has benefited the rest of the flight by taking the focus away from us. We are left to our own devices because they favor you as their victim."
"Savage," Mist winced. "You aren't pulling punches, are you, Durga?"
"The time to pull punches has come and gone," Sanngrior said. "There is only what we have and how we can use it, and at this point even that blasted Rabishu is a tool to better our means.
"Angel Eater," Lind grunted.
Sanngrior looked over at her. "What was that?"
"Nothing."
More time passed as two months became three and three grew to four. Lind's pains faded, but never vanished completely. Not with the guards always watching. Not with Cabatu and his interrogations. She developed a limp, and standing or walking for any long period of time became a trial the Private was ill-prepared for. She found no mercy from the guards, who'd grown bored actively harming her and had grown increasingly reluctant to touch her as more and more time passed. Instead they assigned her chores that left her on her feet for most of the day. The only time she was allowed to sit was when the medic appeared to look her over; the woman, whose name Lind had come to learn was 'Tunda', had actually thrown a fit with the guards when she'd learned Lind hadn't been assigned a chore that allowed her to sit. She'd gotten Lind a chair, and for a few blessed hours Lind had known relief while Tunda inspected her. It didn't last after the medic departed, but following that, every time Tunda came to check Lind's progress, she was moved from one chore to another and then allowed to sit for the small time it took to look her over.
"Do they allow you to sit after I leave?" Tunda asked, eight days after she'd lost her temper with the guards.
Lind glared at her but didn't answer, and with it, the medic sighed. "I cannot help you if you do not speak." She said. "And you help neither yourself nor me with your silence."
"I don't negotiate with demons." Lind retorted, and that brought a swift end to any further attempts at conversation between her and the medic.
Oftentimes, by the time she was returned to her quarters with the others, Lind found it easier to collapse on her cot and sleep rather than sit and speak with the others. Rota, ever observant of the condition of the others, noticed and ensured the others didn't awaken her. Instead, Lind would awaken automatically in the early dawn when she could sleep no more and find Rota awake and watching the guards, and the Sergeant would fill her in on what she missed as Lind told her of anything new she'd learned. "Their interrogations don't make any sense," Lind grumbled one morning. "I know you all have been grilled more than me, so perhaps there's nothing left but to scare me, but...they aren't actually interrogating me for information, Sleet. It's all... random. One moment it's 'who is the Valkyrie in charge of your wing?' And then next it is, 'do you know this song? We like it a lot." She shook her head, bemused. "Have you experienced anything similar?"
"We have," Rota said. "Not at first, but moreso now than at the start." She kept her voice low to avoid waking the others, who'd all become light sleepers in the time since their initial capture. "Durga and I believe it is further prods at our guard. Find something to off balance us, and then follow it with another question that we respond to without thought."
"There's something else though, isn't there?" Lind asked.
"Yes," Rota agreed with a small bit of reluctance. "I speak a small bit of Falkin. The Major speaks more." She frowned, and for a long time was silent. The cell was illuminated with perpetual, artificial light in order to more easily watch the prisoners, and with it Lind watched as a variety of emotions played themselves out on Rota's face. She didn't like the most recognizable of them: Fear.
"They speak their first tongue in front of us because they are confident we haven't bothered to learn their language," Rota began. "And indeed, it's hard to gain a good grasp on what they speak of because of the more complicated words in their vocabulary, but we have pieced together what we can, and what we are seeing is not good, Pepper. Not for us. Not for Valkyries. Not for deities."
"What is it?"
"A bioweapon. That thing. That... Rabishu." Rota pursed her lips, looking outside the bars of their cell. There weren't any guards present. Not at that moment, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be popping in to check up on them soon. "Gunnr's seen demons that aren't military in this facility. Scientists. Civilians. She's been trying to gain rapport with some of the more talkative guards, and they've moaned about how they have to play guard for civilians. One let it drop that they want to leave because the scientists let their monster loose, and they're afraid this current... this current model might be defective. It's why they're always armed whenever they have to be in the same room with it. They're afraid there's just as much a chance of it attacking them as it does us."
"It eats angels, doesn't it?" Lind asked, and Rota looked at her with a start. "When I first saw it, on the ground, I got an up close and personal view of its mouth. Not that weird lizard-head thing with the antenna-but the other end. There was some sort of seal on it that prevented it from eating."
"I didn't know that," Rota said. "I never got a good look at it. One moment it was there, the next Storm Bringer was racing towards it, and then I forgot everything else when it ripped a hole in her side." Her hand drifted towards her right side in recollection. "But you just verified our suspicions. We think this might be some kind of R&D facility designing a weapon to get around the Doublet Clause."
"Wait, what are you saying?" Lind stared at the woman intently, eyes wide with alarm.
"Well, you know as well as I do what happens when our angels are forcibly removed from us, right?"
"Yes, of course," Lind replied. "Everyone does: the body goes into shock due to the sudden severed link, and if it's not repaired with the angel's return or a substitute isn't acquired to mend the link after a set amount of time, then higher brain activity shuts down and the deity involved falls into a coma."
"And we've just stumbled into a base with a creature that can not only draw an angel out against the host's wishes, but holds the potential to devour the angel in question." Rota supplied. "We're test subjects, Lind. They aren't trying to gather intelligence from us. They're trying to gather information. They don't give two shits about the FOBs along the DMZ or tactical advances towards their location or information on generals and special operations forces locations. When they interrogate us, they just want to keep us busy and keep us frightened so that we don't figure out their actual intentions, and that is to act as lab rats for their bioweapon so that they can fine tune it for a functional use."
Lind felt herself grow cold at Rota's words. "Then what happens when they've perfected their angel eater?" she demanded. "What happens to us?"
"What do you think?" Rota raised an eyebrow. "What happens to lab rats once they've outlived their purpose?"
XXX
Five months came and went with little change. Lind's limp began to fade, and with it, so too did some of her strength return to her. She began to join the others in stealing small, easily missed items from around the facility: a bit of wire here, a metal fork there, pencils and paper whenever the opportunity presented itself, and most important of all, food for the flight when it was presented to her. The Private began to note when the Rabishu came and went and from which direction it appeared and disappeared from. As her steps grew more firm and sure with the fading limp, she began to count her steps when the guards led her from one facility to another, and helped Mist draw out a map of her section.
There was a sense of urgency to their actions as six months approached. One that hadn't been present before Lind's conversation with Rota. Now though, with growing suspicions on their true purpose within the complex growing more and more valid with the passing days, there came a sense that they were on a tight schedule. Their time was growing limited, and it was something they all were beginning to notice.
The guards grew increasingly antsy, regardless of the Rabishu's presence in the area. Their games of sadism all at once stopped. A new article of clothing was added to their standard uniform: gloves. "A demon that wears gloves is a demon that beholds you as a tainted being." The saying went, and at this point they were just one step away from full MOPP gear. All that was missing were the masks, and the flight could then be designated an official CBRNE hazard. It was something that chilled Lind to the bone, though she'd be damned before she spoke her fears aloud. A piece of her was afraid that the medic had been pumping them with something other than the Patet Nihil that they'd all come to use to count the months.
Speaking of...
The medic disappeared as well. Lind's last meeting with her was over five days ago, and since then Tunda had made no more appearances amongst the flight. Even with their up and coming sixth shot, she did not appear. The flight received no sixth shot, either, and perhaps that was a thing to fear as well. The Rabishu was growing noisier with every passing day. Now, after almost a week in with no sixth shot and the Patet Nihil's effects quickly fading, the creature had taken up a more permanent residence outside the flight's cell. Thank Yggdrasil the demons had the hindsight to magic the prisons. The beast made no attempts to hide its growing interest in the Valkyries, and on several occasions Lind had awaken to the beast pacing outside the prison walls.
The beast would roam the area outside their cage, shuffling and squirming like a centipede that knew prey was near yet could not quite locate it. The worst came when it would scream, like the one in Cabatu's office. This one's cries were different from the Cabatu's Pet, and the angels-the entire flight's, all five of them, were not so much ripped out of their hosts as they did leave on their own volition. And oh, what a terrible sight it was: the Rabishu would scream and Lind would feel her chest fill with a polluted mixture of fear, rage, and a hate so festering black Lind felt filthy. The angels would rush unsummoned from their hosts into the cell, throwing themselves against the bars of the prison in such a mad frenzy that Sanngrior wouldn't allow the flight to approach them. And all the while the angel eater would sit on the other end, tail raised and baiting them as it tried to bring them close enough to strike.
Lind had never been afraid of Spear Mint before. No one in the flight had ever been afraid of their angels before, yet in that sixth month, watching Spear Mint devolve into a mindless beast with her peers: The Major's Raanee Baagh, The Sergeant's Storm Bringer, Mist's Wild Tempest and Gunnr's Ridge Walker, was like watching the entire choir of angels succumb to some sort of madness virus. Like a Siren's song that led to savagery for the angels that heard it, and brought terror and pain to those who played host to those victims.
During those times especially, there was no relief. The guards wanted nothing to do with the Rabishu and were content to let the flight rot until a higher order came to retrieve one of the Valkyries or to provide them with food or water for the day. And those times could be long indeed: the guards were required to feed them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and that left the angel eater with close to twelve hours of 'alone time' with the Valkyries and their angels.
Twelve long, agonizing hours as the angels threw themselves against walls and clawed past each other to get to the Rabishu. Twelve hours of injuries inflicted in mindless mania. Twelve hours of screams from the Rabishu as it crawled around the outside of their cell, poking and prodding as it sought a way inside.
Lind began to fear that it might yet find a way in. The beast held an intellect to it that bordered on sentient, at times. She watched it out of fear.
The Major and the Sergeant watched it for other reasons.
They both watched it in attentive interest, observing its movement and examining its body, then shared their findings with the rest of the flight.
"Why are you telling all of us?" Mist asked one day. None of the guards wanted to come near the cell until the Rabishu lost interest in them, and for that moment they were granted a small illusion of privacy.
"For when we escape," Sanngrior said. "Even if it's only one of us. The knowledge needs to get out of this facility. The higher ups need to know about this thing: what it looks like, how it acts, how it hunts..."
"We're going to make a break for it?" Lind perked up in interest, and the Major sent her a glare.
"Speak louder, Pepper, you haven't triggered all the listening devices in the cell yet," she growled. "Would you like to speak directly to the Rabishu? I'm certain it would love to know our intentions."
Lind flushed a bright red, and the woman quickly looked down. "No Ma'am," she muttered, her voice lowering on reflex. "Sorry."
Rota sighed and spoke up. "We're going to have to at this rate," she murmured. "We've all noticed that something's going on. Gunnr, have you heard anything from the guards?"
Gunnr shrugged. "They sent me outside to clean yesterday," she said. "And I mean, outside. In the sun. Last time any of us saw that we were on a one-way ticket to Hell. But yeah, they sent me outside, and then they didn't bother posting a guard because they've come to just, I don't know, expect me to behave myself?" She shrugged. "But I heard one of them mention something about a...a..." She bit her lip. "Fuck, what was the word...'Dem-key-ana'?" She looked at Sanngrior and Rota for help. "I asked what it meant but they didn't give me an exact definition. Just that it was some kind of VIP."
"Demkeyana..." Rota murmured, then sent a perplexed look to Sanngiror. "Damkianna?" She asked.
"That's it!" Gunnr exclaimed.
"Damkianna?" Sanngrior repeated. "Their word for 'Daimakaicho'?" The Major's face grew ashen, and Lind felt her heard skip a beat.
"No way." Mist looked at them with wide eyes. "For real? Top Bitch Herself is coming to visit in all her black-cursed glory? What the fuck is going on here that she wants to see with her own fucking eyes?"
Sanngrior sucked in a long and deep breath. "A live demonstration."
A/N: Here is the first chapter of the new year.
Comments of a Madwoman: This chapter was insanely difficult to write due to the nature and content held within. It's a challenge trying to find a proper balance between 'beat the puppy' tropes while still progressing the plotline. We're close to finishing the flashback with this and the next chapter, so hang tight everyone and get ready for some horrible revelations.
