Tainted Souls, Tainted Swords

Chapter Eleven: Destruction in the key of Revenge

Lightning streaked across the darkened and clouded sky, only hours before the dawn as the first drops of a storm descended. Chilled rain upon her face awoke Taki, and took her from nightmare to deliver her amidst another. Upon her, crouched the demon. Water from the rain dripped from his mangle face, falling no more than two inches to touch the skin on her attractive face. She felt his scalding breath that reeked of brimstone. Varelli Tenebrarm glared through her soul with pitch black eyes that burned with hatred.

Before she would have instinctively grabbed Rekki-maru, and sliced the beast's head off without a second thought and then immediately follow up by banishing it from this world . . . but for reasons unknown to her, fear reached up and grabbed her, paralyzing her. Afraid to move, afraid to blink, afraid to breath.

"Where is the smug little Shinobi?" Varelli Tenebrarum, in her face, taunted as he grabbed the woman around the throat and squeezed until she could barely breath, allowing his claws to sink into her just enough to draw blood. Then he lifted her up off the ground, "Is that all you can do? Tremble? Aha ha ha ha ha!."

Taki whimpered, which provoked more belittling remarks and more laughter in her face. She panicked, kicking wildly (getting her nowhere). She reacted like a commoner in the situation, and all the while a layer of her consciousness was screaming, 'Wh—What's happeneded to me?'

"Aww, come now, mighty demon slayer! You have a sword made for killing creatures like me. Surely, you're not afraid." The storm's intensity picked up, thunder roared loud enough to make the earth tremble and lightning threatened to strike the nearby trees with winds strong enough to make the pouring rain fall horizontally.

Afraid? No. Terrified? Yes. She jumped at every flash of lightning, then again at every crack of thunder, and she trembled uncontrollably in the presence of the demon. She didn't even feel the cold rain. 'Why am I this scared?' her mind demanded, 'What could he have done?' Timidly, she looked to her beloved Rekki-maru out of the corner of her eye.

"That's it," Tenebrarum whispered, "You want it. Take it."

She gulped, barely managing to pull that off considering his deathgrip on her throat. And timidly, very timidly, she inched her right hand for Rekki-maru. Ten inches away, nine inches . . . she dared not make any sudden moves. That's when the demon ominously raised its left hand and grinned. The claws extended from its fingertips. Water ran down the claws, and dripped red as the water clensed Kado's blood from his hands. Then, without harming Taki, they retracted again, but the warning was clear. Biting her lip, Taki paused.

The demon flexed his mighty fingers as though preparing for a coming kill, daring her to make a move, "Take your weapon like you took your grandfather's katana. Strike me down as you did Oni." That's when she saw the bloody remains of Kado. The sight hit her like a sledgehammer, devastating her already emotional state. Her mind continuously saw herself lying dead next to Kado. Saw the face of Oni as a child as he held her in a similar predicament once upon a time. Returning her gaze to the prideful demon in the present, Taki sadly choose to do nothing.

Once upon a time she would rather risk death than surrender, she'd rather hope for a lucky break, but these unnatural mortal fears paralyzed her now. She let her hands drop to her sides, and Taki lowered her head in defeat as tears streamed down her face in utter confusion. She could not bring herself to act.

Tenebrarum's victory laughter echoed across the forest, while he removed Rekki-maru from its scabbard, thus disarming her completely. Now she truly was helpless. "Hahahahaha!" Tenebrarum had won. The demon threw the loser across the camp (away from Kado), and her body crashed into a tree.

Disgraced and disgusted with herself, Taki slowly picked herself up out of the puddle she landed in (more wet than muddy). Her eyes were closed and her voice quivered when she asked, "What have you done to me?" What was keeping her back? Somewhere buried in her consciousness was the offensive maneuvers that would yield her a victory. He did something to her, she knew it, and it made her want to rip into him! But she was afraid . . . petrified . . . something in her cognitive process protected this malicious entity, and how it crippled Taki!

"I fixed you." Tenebrarum answered smugly as he tossed the sword - Taki's sword - down in front of him so the blade stuck into the softening earth. Then through gestures, he challenged the woman to come take it. His supernatural fog surrounded the small camp, obscuring all the trails and paths and isolating the two of them. Just Taki and Tenebrarum. It was playtime with the Fu Ma, and he had a few games in mind specifically for her.

Through memory, Taki noted the pathways in the forest nearby (at least where she thought they were). She wanted to run. She so wanted to run. Run and figure out what the hell this thing did to her. Run, recover, and come back, but she couldn't leave without her swords! Maybe if Varelli Tenebrarum held only one, but both Rekki and Mekki-maru? She would have to try to get them back and dismiss the fog . . .

Off in the distance, lightning touched the earth and an explosion rocked her ear drums while the rain still poured down relentlessly. And unable to look at the demon in fear of freezing up again, a drenched Taki slowly approached keeping her eyes more on the demon's lower body. With every step she became more and more nervous, but fortunately she didn't freeze up. 'I can do this . . . just don't look at his eyes.' The former Fu Ma tried to build up her confidence, but she could never fully believe those thoughts. She was doomed, and part of her knew it.

Tenebrarum came to meet her halfway, and Taki spun into a roundhouse kick that landed into his grasp. 'Oh no!' she thought. The instinctive counter attack didn't come – she should have hopped up and kicked him with her other leg, but she didn't. She stood there like an amateur while claws extended into her leg. Then as Taki screamed the demon shut her up with three vicious punches to her face. Taki was face first in the mud, her thoughts awhirl as the demon (still holding her by the leg) stepped on the back of her head and pressed her face into the mud where she couldn't breath.

"I fixed you," the demon repeated, watching her futile struggles as he meticulously grinded Taki's face deeper and deeper into the mud. Thirty seconds. A full minute passed. "I could kill you like this," the demon nonchalantly stated to no one. Her struggles intensified but got her nowhere. "Pitiful," he commented. Two minutes, going on three fully submerged in the murky waters where no air was available. And finally, as her struggles grew weaker Tenebrarum gravely repeated, "I could kill you like this."

Then Varelli Tenebrarum spun around, dragging Taki with him, and swung the poor woman like an axe. Smashing her against the ground opposite where she was with a sickening thud, mud and water flew up and rained back down. Still holding on, he held her up like some disgusting piece of trash that you handle as little as possible. She was a mess, taken to the brink of consciousness, now gasping for breath and very much out of it. After glancing over his handiwork, he flung her across the camp again, slamming her beaten body into a tree.

Taki moaned, and curled up into a ball trying to keep herself from bawling like a baby. Why were her emotions this out of control? 'Damnit what the hell did he do to me?' Very slowly, she peeled herself out of this situation, only to fall face-first into the mud again. Now she cried. Cried like a peasant woman, like an infant. Why did her years of training and discipline seem to vanish from her mind?

Wait! "Why can't I remember my training?" She asked, as she concentrated on her past, on master Toki, the Fu Ma, her home . . . she vaguely remembered these things, but she could not remember experiencing them. It was like her memories had become silhouettes, dark outlines of what they used to be . . . dark and twisted shadows that haunted her. She couldn't summon the wisdom learned from the details, or gather a glimmer of hope from her past. Only darkness and despair. Glaring up at the taunting demon, her hair matted down and mud covering her face, "You stole my memories!"

"Poor Shinobi," it's voice oozing with false sympathy intended to mock her. Smugly, he toyed with his plaything's mind while she finally managed to push herself up. "Are you just now realizing that you're missing something?"

And somehow Taki found she could look into the beast's eyes now without fear. Now anger burned in her. Pure hateful anger, enough anger to cruelly break every bone in its body. A rage that sent her out of control, and far from the discipline she used to exercise. Without thinking Taki balled up a fist, charged through the rain-soaked camp, and threw a wild and overpowered punch—

—right into his trap! Her fist flew into his grasp, while he threw a powerhouse punch of his own that devastated Taki's midsection and took the wind from her. "Better late than never," he said satisfied to finally nail her with the same trap she so smugly avoided before. His fist hammered her abdomen a second time, and a split second later he kicked the back of her legs to bring her to her knees. Far from finished, then he backhanded Taki, and followed that with a series of blows to her arm and elbow (which bent it the wrong way) until the unbearable pain would keep her from using that limb for awhile.

Then Tenebrarum took a handful of her soaked hair, and dragged the dripping defeated Shinobi to her feet. "how does it feel to lose so badly? Huh?" He challenged, pridefully.

And for one moment the true spirit and wisdom of the warrior found a voice through winded breaths, "This isn't . . . me . . . you're beating." She was not herself, just a hollowed out shell of what she used to be. Tenebrarum couldn't beat the true Taki. He had to fix her. "You couldn't beat me."

And she was right. It would cost her, but she didn't care. She spoke the truth, and with that truth she robbed Tenebrarum of any satisfaction this fight may have brought him. It wounded the Demon's pride that no matter what, he could never claim that he beat Taki on anything but overwhelmingly advantageous terms. 'Congratulations, you can crush an ant with an army.'

Infuriated, the demon growled, "Now, it's really going to start hurting," as he proceeded to drive his knee and fist into Taki over and over again, pummeling her relentlessly. And slowly, he broke the ninja down inch by inch, limb by limb, bone by bone. He broke the woman who dared defy him and Soul Edge, dared to take away his victory with a few words. He brought her to her knees, then escorted her through the realm of unforgiving agony. And during the hours preceding the dawn, her screams echoed endlessly throughout the forest.

As the sun arose, the storm ceased . . . and what was left of Taki begged for her life. Beaten to the point that she couldn't think about her words. Her condition would barely register as being conscious. He had her precisely where he wanted, beaten and begging, completely destroyed, and utterly defeated . . . and yet, there was no sense of satisfaction. No sense of victory, and he couldn't hurt her any more without killing her . . .

"You mortals are too fragile," he grumbled, then paced for a good hour trying to figure a way to get at her. She lay at his feet, defeated, and yet he still struggled to get at her. And then it came to him.

Closing his eyes, Varelli Tenebrarum's physical form faded until he become like the fog he commanded. And the vapors swirled around Taki's limp and barely breathing body. Several minutes passed as Taki slowly breathed in the demon fog, and a few minutes later her eyes opened. Pitch black eyes.

Taki, possessed by the demon, stood up. "Come Taki, we have a reputation to destroy. Innocents to slay. And Cities to burn. I'll make you a tyrant . . . Hahahahahahaha!"

Reduced to the role of a spectator in her own body, her nightmares had finally transcended the dream world and assimilated her world. Worst of all? She couldn't resist anymore. She couldn't fight back. And there was no waking up from this nightmare.

--

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, guys. Life has a funny habit of getting crazy sometimes. Thanks for the patience.