Timeline: while Anubis is being re-conditioned, at the end of episode 13/beginning of 14
CHAPTER 5:
Memories
Hearing Anubis' anguished cries that echoed in the dark corridors surrounding the dungeons, brought back memories Kale had long thought forgotten. He was surprised by the onslaught of images and, worst of all, sounds and smells.
Feudal Japan torn by civil war. Glorious battles. Blood saturating the thirsty meadows and plains. It had been a good time for a young Warlord only recently come into power. Well, recently had been a relative term even then, Kale smiled a nostalgic smile.
Their first meeting hadn't been much of anything. Anubis, unconscious and bound, thrown over the back of a horse, hair gently swaying in the afternoon breeze. Hair as red as the blood that was dripping off him from a multitude of injuries. It was that hair - had always been that hair - that caught Kale's eye and made him take a closer look at his newest prisoner. Taking a fistful of hair, he lifted up a filthy face. Scrubbed clean, he might have potential.
Koma-sama's son, they had informed him. Ah, that explained why they had brought him into the camp. Any other soldier would have been left on the battlefield. This one wasn't going to get away that easy.
Their second meeting had been quite a bit different. Anubis, too proud for his own good, didn't care to kneel before the Warlord. Kale could have sworn the boy before him wasn't the least bit intimidated, which pleased him and angered him at the same time. Not too many people dared to defy him and his master. Eyes blazing with fury, Anubis finally relented.
"Enough." Kale thought that his guards enjoyed beating the young man just a bit too much. An impatient gesture and they left him alone with the great Koma-sama's son. "The next time I ask you to kneel, I suggest you do it."
"Never." A hoarse whisper barely audible.
Brows rose in surprise. There was spirit behind those eyes, now clouded with pain. Being who he was, Kale would enjoy teaching that young one some humility. "Never is a very, very long time."
Eyes alight again with defiance, chin proudly held high; Anubis couldn't have answered more eloquently had he used words.
That was how they met for several days. Kale enjoyed the interrogations mostly because the fire that lit those green eyes fascinated him. Loyal to his lord, Anubis would not give up the information Kale sought even after his blood stained the dirt.
Impatient and in need of that strategic information, Kale had allowed his men some limited "fun" with his prisoner, thinking to make the gravity of the situation very clear, but young Anubis remained stubborn and proud and defiant and altogether too much in control.
But the beatings, the torture, the blood loss, all took their toll and by the end of the week, Kale almost felt sorry for the young warrior.
Kale had given up on making him kneel, mostly because standing had actually become a painful struggle and therefore more of a punishment, partly because watching his men beat Anubis into submission had lost its appeal.
Slowly and with maddening patience, he walked circles around his bound prisoner. They had scrubbed him clean all right, nearly drowning him in the process. It had been the first time he'd seen Anubis struggle with his guards with something more than just that youthful fury in his eyes. He hadn't liked much being divested of his clothes.
A slow and cruel smile curved his lips as he came to stand behind the young man.
"What to do? What to do?" he mumbled more to himself than to make conversation. His eyes traveling over the tangled red strands that had caught his attention that first time, falling on skin raw with abrasions, cuts and welts, barely covered by filthy cotton in the colors of the enemy. He reached out to finger the dirty fabric.
"I would have thought you'd wear silk, being a high ranking officer's son and all." He noticed the flinch as his hand brushed over fevered skin. "Why they stuck you back into those rags after they helped you ... become more presentable is beyond me. I guess I should have given more explicit orders."
Anubis snorted and shifted his weight to escape the curious fingers that still toyed with his clothing.
Kale would have none of that and let his hand fall on an exposed shoulder. There it was again, that very controlled, barely there flinch. Stepping closer, he increased the pressure on that shoulder, while his other hand snaked around the shivering body to come to rest on a flat stomach. Oh, yes, definite flinch this time.
He stepped even closer, not quite pressing his body against that enticing creature before him.
Anubis flinched, squirmed, struggled to shift his weight away from the body behind him, cursing his bound hands.
Kale smiled wickedly as soon as he realized that the source of Anubis' discomfort were indeed his hands ... more so, their location. Bound behind his back, trapped between them, pressing against Kale's groin.
Interesting. After a week of trying to subdue this fierce spirit, all it took was a gentle touch in the right place. A bashful warrior, who would have thought? A skittish young prude, that was too good to be true.
"I don't think so," he whispered into the ear next to his lips. Slight pressure was all it took to tug the now rigid form of Anubis into his arms. His knees placed to his advantage and Kale felt Anubis' legs give out, pressing the boy even further into his embrace. Making sure to grind his groin over the bound hands between them, Kale buried his nose in the tangled red mess before him.
Anubis' breath hitched. The color of shame flooding his cheeks.
Kale greatly enjoyed the squirming creature in the circle of his arms. He let a hand roam down that flat stomach, over the curve of a narrow hip to a muscular thigh. That felt good. A soft moan into the ear closest to his lips was all it took to breathe some life into the boy.
With a snarl born of fury and the strength of sudden panic, Anubis shifted his weight again, brought a bare foot down on a boot, which incidentally hurt the very abused sole of his foot a whole lot more than Kale, and tried to shrug out of this intimate embrace.
And Kale let him go. He opened his arms and watched the struggling boy crumple to the dirty ground, a painfilled groan sneaking past his control, sucking in desperate air past tightly clenched teeth. Kale gave him enough time to see and comprehend a wide, evil grin and very hungry look, before he crouched down and grabbed a fistful of red hair.
And Anubis had seen that expression and had understood that this time he was not going to get away with a mere whipping. Lying on his bound hands, trying to scoot away and opening up the shallow cuts on the soles of his feet in the process, he was helpless.
Kale yanked hard, forcing Anubis on his feet if he didn't want his hair pulled out by the roots. With a violent shove he threw the boy on the narrow cot in the corner of the tent.
Eyes wide with fear, Anubis looked as young and vulnerable as he should have been at his age, not the fierce warrior he truly was.
"No. Please." A sob. A desperate sob escaped those tightly clenched teeth.
Kale licked dry lips in a gesture meant to be intimidating and suggestive. "Tell me what I need to know."
A stubborn shake of the head.
Kale lowered himself on the edge of the cot, roughly turning Anubis on his stomach, ignoring the soft moan that had nothing to do with pleasure, pressing him into the soft cushion.
"Tell me what I need to know." Voice dangerously lowered, he kept one hand on Anubis' shoulder while he unfastened the ropes binding wrists with the other. He leaned over the boy, whispering into his hair. "I could make this pleasurable for you."
Anubis struggled, kicked, squirmed, and cursed, but Kale was unimpressed. Sinking his hand into the rich tangle of hair again, he forced the boy on his back.
"Tell me what I need to know and you might only have to deal with me. Refuse me and I hand you over to my guards. And this time I will not set limits on their pleasure."
Freed, Anubis saw his last chance to escape. He kicked out, succeeded in pushing Kale back, and tumbled over the edge of the cot. He landed in an ungraceful heap. Dazed, he reached out blindly to steady himself.
Kale snagged his wrist and hauled him back up. But he wasn't quite quick enough to duck under the fist that connected squarely with his jaw.
A backhanded slap later that had Anubis seeing stars, his hands were bound again, this time above his head, securely fastened to the cot. Kale let him struggle for a moment. There wasn't much left in the young man, not after a week of dizziness, nausea and fever.
"Enough." With rough hands he ripped the dirty fabric covering abused shoulders. Colorful bruises and swollen flesh gave away the secret of broken ribs. Uncaring for the pain, simply concerned that his prize might hurt himself worse than he had to be, Kale ran callused hands over those ribs, sliding them back into place. The anguished cry of pain got him to back off only for a moment. Then his hands fumbled with the waistband of stained pants.
"No. Please." Anubis was beyond caring if begging and pleading was honorable. Tears of pain streaking his pale cheeks. Voice filled with panic.
"Tell me what I need to know."
"I can't." Eyes pleading for understanding, he met Kale's determined look.
Kale enjoyed this game. He ran a questing hand down a trembling thigh, his thumb skimming the soft flesh at the groin, eliciting a very small sound of protest from a wide-eyed Anubis. He had no intention of letting his prisoner know that he'd been betrayed, sold out by his own people. The information Kale sought was still vital, but he would win this war without Anubis' disclosure. The boy's own clan, not trusting him apparently, had negotiated a truce. That had lasted no more than a night. Most of them had been slaughtered with the sunrise. Talpa did not negotiate.
"You can and you will."
Anubis never did. Not after the guards came and hauled him off kicking and screaming, pleading with Kale who didn't sleep too well that night listening to his men enjoying themselves. Not even after Talpa himself had a go at him.
Kale smiled a bitter smile. Anubis had accepted the Armor of Cruelty only to avenge himself, being ruthless in his pursuit of revenge, hunting down those that had betrayed him. He was still the same fierce creature he had been. And in his mind there was only victory or death, which was why he went after the Ronins with such single-minded stubbornness.
It was a matter of honor to challenge Ryo of the Wildfire who was so very much like the young Anubis, ambitious, passionate, proud, defiant, eager to fight for what he believed in.
Kale was certain that Anubis thought of himself as merely disobedient, not disloyal. After all, Talpa wanted the Ronins destroyed, too. But Talpa wasn't a forgiving master and unless Anubis finally learned his lesson of humility, there wouldn't be victory in his future ...
CHAPTER 5:
Memories
Hearing Anubis' anguished cries that echoed in the dark corridors surrounding the dungeons, brought back memories Kale had long thought forgotten. He was surprised by the onslaught of images and, worst of all, sounds and smells.
Feudal Japan torn by civil war. Glorious battles. Blood saturating the thirsty meadows and plains. It had been a good time for a young Warlord only recently come into power. Well, recently had been a relative term even then, Kale smiled a nostalgic smile.
Their first meeting hadn't been much of anything. Anubis, unconscious and bound, thrown over the back of a horse, hair gently swaying in the afternoon breeze. Hair as red as the blood that was dripping off him from a multitude of injuries. It was that hair - had always been that hair - that caught Kale's eye and made him take a closer look at his newest prisoner. Taking a fistful of hair, he lifted up a filthy face. Scrubbed clean, he might have potential.
Koma-sama's son, they had informed him. Ah, that explained why they had brought him into the camp. Any other soldier would have been left on the battlefield. This one wasn't going to get away that easy.
Their second meeting had been quite a bit different. Anubis, too proud for his own good, didn't care to kneel before the Warlord. Kale could have sworn the boy before him wasn't the least bit intimidated, which pleased him and angered him at the same time. Not too many people dared to defy him and his master. Eyes blazing with fury, Anubis finally relented.
"Enough." Kale thought that his guards enjoyed beating the young man just a bit too much. An impatient gesture and they left him alone with the great Koma-sama's son. "The next time I ask you to kneel, I suggest you do it."
"Never." A hoarse whisper barely audible.
Brows rose in surprise. There was spirit behind those eyes, now clouded with pain. Being who he was, Kale would enjoy teaching that young one some humility. "Never is a very, very long time."
Eyes alight again with defiance, chin proudly held high; Anubis couldn't have answered more eloquently had he used words.
That was how they met for several days. Kale enjoyed the interrogations mostly because the fire that lit those green eyes fascinated him. Loyal to his lord, Anubis would not give up the information Kale sought even after his blood stained the dirt.
Impatient and in need of that strategic information, Kale had allowed his men some limited "fun" with his prisoner, thinking to make the gravity of the situation very clear, but young Anubis remained stubborn and proud and defiant and altogether too much in control.
But the beatings, the torture, the blood loss, all took their toll and by the end of the week, Kale almost felt sorry for the young warrior.
Kale had given up on making him kneel, mostly because standing had actually become a painful struggle and therefore more of a punishment, partly because watching his men beat Anubis into submission had lost its appeal.
Slowly and with maddening patience, he walked circles around his bound prisoner. They had scrubbed him clean all right, nearly drowning him in the process. It had been the first time he'd seen Anubis struggle with his guards with something more than just that youthful fury in his eyes. He hadn't liked much being divested of his clothes.
A slow and cruel smile curved his lips as he came to stand behind the young man.
"What to do? What to do?" he mumbled more to himself than to make conversation. His eyes traveling over the tangled red strands that had caught his attention that first time, falling on skin raw with abrasions, cuts and welts, barely covered by filthy cotton in the colors of the enemy. He reached out to finger the dirty fabric.
"I would have thought you'd wear silk, being a high ranking officer's son and all." He noticed the flinch as his hand brushed over fevered skin. "Why they stuck you back into those rags after they helped you ... become more presentable is beyond me. I guess I should have given more explicit orders."
Anubis snorted and shifted his weight to escape the curious fingers that still toyed with his clothing.
Kale would have none of that and let his hand fall on an exposed shoulder. There it was again, that very controlled, barely there flinch. Stepping closer, he increased the pressure on that shoulder, while his other hand snaked around the shivering body to come to rest on a flat stomach. Oh, yes, definite flinch this time.
He stepped even closer, not quite pressing his body against that enticing creature before him.
Anubis flinched, squirmed, struggled to shift his weight away from the body behind him, cursing his bound hands.
Kale smiled wickedly as soon as he realized that the source of Anubis' discomfort were indeed his hands ... more so, their location. Bound behind his back, trapped between them, pressing against Kale's groin.
Interesting. After a week of trying to subdue this fierce spirit, all it took was a gentle touch in the right place. A bashful warrior, who would have thought? A skittish young prude, that was too good to be true.
"I don't think so," he whispered into the ear next to his lips. Slight pressure was all it took to tug the now rigid form of Anubis into his arms. His knees placed to his advantage and Kale felt Anubis' legs give out, pressing the boy even further into his embrace. Making sure to grind his groin over the bound hands between them, Kale buried his nose in the tangled red mess before him.
Anubis' breath hitched. The color of shame flooding his cheeks.
Kale greatly enjoyed the squirming creature in the circle of his arms. He let a hand roam down that flat stomach, over the curve of a narrow hip to a muscular thigh. That felt good. A soft moan into the ear closest to his lips was all it took to breathe some life into the boy.
With a snarl born of fury and the strength of sudden panic, Anubis shifted his weight again, brought a bare foot down on a boot, which incidentally hurt the very abused sole of his foot a whole lot more than Kale, and tried to shrug out of this intimate embrace.
And Kale let him go. He opened his arms and watched the struggling boy crumple to the dirty ground, a painfilled groan sneaking past his control, sucking in desperate air past tightly clenched teeth. Kale gave him enough time to see and comprehend a wide, evil grin and very hungry look, before he crouched down and grabbed a fistful of red hair.
And Anubis had seen that expression and had understood that this time he was not going to get away with a mere whipping. Lying on his bound hands, trying to scoot away and opening up the shallow cuts on the soles of his feet in the process, he was helpless.
Kale yanked hard, forcing Anubis on his feet if he didn't want his hair pulled out by the roots. With a violent shove he threw the boy on the narrow cot in the corner of the tent.
Eyes wide with fear, Anubis looked as young and vulnerable as he should have been at his age, not the fierce warrior he truly was.
"No. Please." A sob. A desperate sob escaped those tightly clenched teeth.
Kale licked dry lips in a gesture meant to be intimidating and suggestive. "Tell me what I need to know."
A stubborn shake of the head.
Kale lowered himself on the edge of the cot, roughly turning Anubis on his stomach, ignoring the soft moan that had nothing to do with pleasure, pressing him into the soft cushion.
"Tell me what I need to know." Voice dangerously lowered, he kept one hand on Anubis' shoulder while he unfastened the ropes binding wrists with the other. He leaned over the boy, whispering into his hair. "I could make this pleasurable for you."
Anubis struggled, kicked, squirmed, and cursed, but Kale was unimpressed. Sinking his hand into the rich tangle of hair again, he forced the boy on his back.
"Tell me what I need to know and you might only have to deal with me. Refuse me and I hand you over to my guards. And this time I will not set limits on their pleasure."
Freed, Anubis saw his last chance to escape. He kicked out, succeeded in pushing Kale back, and tumbled over the edge of the cot. He landed in an ungraceful heap. Dazed, he reached out blindly to steady himself.
Kale snagged his wrist and hauled him back up. But he wasn't quite quick enough to duck under the fist that connected squarely with his jaw.
A backhanded slap later that had Anubis seeing stars, his hands were bound again, this time above his head, securely fastened to the cot. Kale let him struggle for a moment. There wasn't much left in the young man, not after a week of dizziness, nausea and fever.
"Enough." With rough hands he ripped the dirty fabric covering abused shoulders. Colorful bruises and swollen flesh gave away the secret of broken ribs. Uncaring for the pain, simply concerned that his prize might hurt himself worse than he had to be, Kale ran callused hands over those ribs, sliding them back into place. The anguished cry of pain got him to back off only for a moment. Then his hands fumbled with the waistband of stained pants.
"No. Please." Anubis was beyond caring if begging and pleading was honorable. Tears of pain streaking his pale cheeks. Voice filled with panic.
"Tell me what I need to know."
"I can't." Eyes pleading for understanding, he met Kale's determined look.
Kale enjoyed this game. He ran a questing hand down a trembling thigh, his thumb skimming the soft flesh at the groin, eliciting a very small sound of protest from a wide-eyed Anubis. He had no intention of letting his prisoner know that he'd been betrayed, sold out by his own people. The information Kale sought was still vital, but he would win this war without Anubis' disclosure. The boy's own clan, not trusting him apparently, had negotiated a truce. That had lasted no more than a night. Most of them had been slaughtered with the sunrise. Talpa did not negotiate.
"You can and you will."
Anubis never did. Not after the guards came and hauled him off kicking and screaming, pleading with Kale who didn't sleep too well that night listening to his men enjoying themselves. Not even after Talpa himself had a go at him.
Kale smiled a bitter smile. Anubis had accepted the Armor of Cruelty only to avenge himself, being ruthless in his pursuit of revenge, hunting down those that had betrayed him. He was still the same fierce creature he had been. And in his mind there was only victory or death, which was why he went after the Ronins with such single-minded stubbornness.
It was a matter of honor to challenge Ryo of the Wildfire who was so very much like the young Anubis, ambitious, passionate, proud, defiant, eager to fight for what he believed in.
Kale was certain that Anubis thought of himself as merely disobedient, not disloyal. After all, Talpa wanted the Ronins destroyed, too. But Talpa wasn't a forgiving master and unless Anubis finally learned his lesson of humility, there wouldn't be victory in his future ...