NOTES & REFERENCES: For everyone that speaks Spanish around here, I have to apologize. :p I got a comment from KatanaNightengale (shout out to you! Thanks a bunch for reviewing) saying that "cuero" also meant slut in Spanish! Oh my! I did not intend to have Vaas call Emilia a slut all the time, although I kinda like the idea of him doing it affectionately… As I said, when I first used it I thought it meant something like beauty. Neither I nor Emilia speak Spanish, so she would not know what he calls her anyway. I guess the translation is up to you, dear readers! :) Interpret it as you like!
Man, I love Vaas. I can never go back now! I'm hooked. Don't you worry, I got plenty of ideas for other stories with him after I finish Oxymoron.
'Twisted Logic' is a song by Coldplay.

Part 7 - Twisted Logic

I stood there staring after him for a while. The pirates around me left one at a time and suddenly I was alone in the village. Slowly, I made my way through it, heading for the beach. Most of the houses were destroyed or burned down. The pirates must have had a hard time burying all the corpses, all the people they had lost during the attack. I thought of Camila and sighed. She had been the last one to deserve to die. I sat down in the sand, where Vaas and I had been sitting that one night and took a look over the sea and the island. It was rather funny how I ended up here, where I was right now, with a fractured shoulder, a heart on fire and a confused mind. I was so deep into my thoughts, that I hadn't noticed anything going on around me. That was when a dirty hand clasped over my mouth from behind and another pair of hands grasped my wrists together. Around me, there were a bunch of Rakyat – their weapons clicking - and, of course, Robert. My eyes widened at the sight of them.
"Good morning! I decided not to kill you right away. I suppose you still don't want to join us on the good side?" The warrior removed his hand from my mouth. "Fuck you" I said and stared into his face provocatively. I tried to get out of the warrior's grasp, but it was impossible due to my shoulder. The fact that he was holding my arm in an unnatural way already brought the sharp pain back.
"Okay, then I'm not gonna leave you a choice. I'm taking you anyway." The Raykat started moving, including the one behind me, and forced me to stand up. "Come on!"

Being held hostage by the Rakyat was different than being taken by Vaas. Maybe it was because now, I had experience with torture and hostages, that I wasn't as scared about what would happen to me. Vaas had toughened me. In the Rakyat village, they sat me down on a chair in a small house, similar to the ones the pirates lived in, and tied me to it. Robert was right in front of me, showing off his authority by sending the warriors away and positioning his face close to mine. "Now, we just wait for your boyfriend to notice you're gone…" He laughed. "It'll be so easy to slaughter him. You know, most people are scared of Vaas. They say he's a twisted monster. And you? You're fucking him just like that? I don't remember you being so slutty." His lips were dangerously close to mine as he spoke. "Can't blame him. I always thought you were hot." That was when he took my head in his hands and pressed his lips to mine. I felt his tongue touch my lips, trying to get me to open my mouth to let it inside. I was so disgusted by this situation that I took his bottom lip between mine and bit into it as hardly as I could. A peace of his flesh came off and he immediately stopped the kiss, and instead squealed in pain, his hands to his mouth. In seconds, blood was dripping down them. As for me, I spit out the peace of his lip, my mouth equally as bloody as his. I continued spitting out his blood, when he came raging at me and pressed his thumb to my fractured shoulder, to the exact spot where the bullet had hit me. Here, not even the pain pill could ease the horrible pain that ran through my arm and chest. I cried out in pain. As he yelled at me, little spits of blood hit my face. "You think you can fuck with me, Emilia!? You think you are tough because this motherfucker fucks you?! I'll kill you both!" When Robert had enough, he kicked over the chair I sat on. My head hit the hard floor. He left the room. The pain in my shoulder was still present and I had a hard time remaining conscious. I started rubbing my wrists to the stone floor, hoping to roughen up the string I was tied with. The movement hurt like crazy, but I had to get out of this, get out of the village, before Vaas and the others would start a massacre, but it was hopeless. The rope was too thick and the floor wasn't rough enough. How would Vaas ever find me here? To this thought I fell into the void of unconsciousness that I had fallen into way too much on this island already.

"Hey, wake up. Wake up!" I opened my eyes and saw a man – definitely Rakyat, tanned, wearing several necklaces and sunglasses – shake me, cautiously. "Come on. It's almost time" – "For what?" I muttered, still incredibly exhausted from being unconscious for several hours. The man untied me from the chair and made me get up. "Where are you taking me?" I asked while he grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door. I was still dizzy and not entirely okay to walk. "Stop talking so much, Emilia. You should have a little more respect for my people. The Rakyat are the good ones here, not Vaas and his men." I chuckled under my breath. "He's going to come hunt you down." – "We will see. We'll see how much you're worth to him. You'll be surprised. Come on, walk faster."
My wrists were still tied behind my back, which was a painful position. I gasped for air as the warrior dragged me along faster. The little Rakyat village wasn't much different from the one Vaas and the other pirates lived in. Small houses, roads of dirt, the jungle all around. We came to a slightly bigger house. The warrior turned to me and looked me in the eyes. "Now listen to me. You're going to behave now, or this is your end. I'm going to cut you into pieces if you try something. Okay?" As a response, I nodded slowly. What was inside of this house that was so important?
We entered the house, and I found myself in a big room. In the middle of it, with its back turned to me, was a comfortable-looking chair with a woman on it. I could not make out her features yet. Next to her stood two men that were definitely warriors, but they didn't look like the ordinary ones around the village. They looked like they were special somehow. "Here she is." Said the man behind me, pushing me to my knees. The woman stood up and slowly turned around. She came around the chair and the men with elegant, oscillating movements. She was beautiful. Her body and face were tattooed, wore her long hair in dreadlocks that were tied back and she had piercing green eyes. For clothing, she wore a very short leather skirt and a matching top, enormous jewelry and she smiled at me. "Ah, you must be Emilia. One hears a lot about yourself on this island, you know?" The way she spoke reminded me of Vaas. It was the same accent, just a little more elegantly pronounced. I gasped. "You're Citra." I said, breathless. I didn't think to meet her. Anything, but her. "Ah, I see, you have heard about me too." She came closer and put her hand to my chin, lifting my head up. "I see you're beautiful. No wonder. My brother likes only the finest…" She started laughing. "Look at you!" She took a step back. "Good grief. What happened to you? Must have had a hard time. Dennis" she turned to the Rakyat warrior that had brought me there. "Leave us alone. You two" – she now spoke to her two bodyguards – "you go with him. Go on." Dennis flinched and began: "But Citra –" Citra started to laugh. "Oh, Dennis, don't worry! Now go!"
When the men had left the room, Citra untied me and helped me up. "I don't think you have to be tied up. It's just a talk!" I massaged my hurting arm. "What do you want from me?" – "Oh, I just wanted to meet the woman that has finally gotten into Vaas' heart. Most women he just discards after a night with him." – "How would you know?" – "Well, Emilia, I might not have seen Vaas in a while but he is still my brother. I know his ways. We might meet soon! I'm sure he's going to visit, now that you're here!" I looked at the floor and didn't say anything. What was I supposed to say to her? Citra started swinging around the room. "I heard people call you brave. Is that true, Emilia? Are you brave, like a warrior?" I looked up. My eyes followed her steps. "That depends." Citra suddenly stopped and looked at me again. "Oh, yes. I get it. You like to fight for your little friends, for your loved ones. For my brother, I heard about that. Brave… Well, you know, that habit can easily grow into a big, big problem for you." I stared back into her face. "I'd rather die for Vaas than just sitting there letting someone take him from me."
The Rakyat lady started chuckling once again, but this time it was an evil laugh instead of her usual, kind of ironic, charming chuckle. It sent a chill down my spine, and I knew me and Vaas were in serious danger.