Chapter 9: Misery
A/N: Warning this Chapter Contains extreme violence if such material offends you please do not read this chapter.
Kallen could taste blood in her mouth. She sat up shakily, she saw nothing but darkness around her, It must already be lights out. In blackness Kallen had only had her memories to keep her company, Mom... how I'm a I going to change things now? Kallen drifted back to sleep. I'm sorry Mom. Tears welled up in Kallen's eyes. She didn't know if they were from exhaustion, humiliation or regret but she silently cried herself to sleep for the second time in a row.
Next to Kallen's cell Chiba lay imprisoned as well. Sleeping but not resting her face contorted by the nightmares she was having.
Tohdoh stood defiant in the defendants box in a grand courtroom. As Chiba looked more closely she realized that the Judge was none other then the emperor of Britannia himself. His presence dominating the room his voice boomed, "Eleven your people are weak even if you are strong. Forsake them and become a brittainian. Do this and you will live, do not and you shall die."
Tohdoh looked up and retorted, "I live and shall die for Japan. Soon you will see the strength of my people."
The Emperor gave a wicked grin, "Very well then, jury how do you find the defendant?"
"Guilty! Guilty! Kill the number, kill the traitor; all hail Britannia!" The jury wailed in unison. Among the jury Chiba saw Cornelia red faced with rage, Clovis face filled with mock sorrow and a myriad of those she despised most.
"Bring forth the executioner," The emperor demanded. Someone in a hood made their way into the courtroom holding noose and an already bloodied set of knives. The crowd went into a frenzy gnashing their teeth demanding the blood of Chiba's love.
Chiba began to frantically wade through the blood drunk crowd. She made her way to the defendants box where she good hear Tohdoh's screams. She arrived just to see the hooded figure deliver the final death blow. "Nooo!" Chiba screamed. She bolted over the 4-ft barricade and grabbed executioner by the solders. She then tore off the figure's mask only to find her own face staring back at her.
Chiba woke to the sound of footsteps outside her cell. "Who is that?" Chiba asked exhausted the earlier battle and her own nightmares.
A man's voice responded smoothly, "Bernard Leeman. I have guard duty from eight till four."
"Oh – I see." Chiba said somewhat relived it was not some demon from her nightmares.
Barnard continued, "Everyone else on either side is convinced they couldn't have acted in any other way."
"How do you know I have a bad consciousness?"
"They way you talk in your sleep. I can tell something is troubling you." Chiba heard the click of a lighter.
"And what do you imagine is troubling is troubling me Bernard Leeman?" Chiba saw the orange glow of Bernard's newly lit cigarette. It illuminated some of his face. He was an older man with pale skin and short white hair. He had the look of a grizzled vet about him.
"All I heard was a name. It was Tohdoh. I knew Tohdoh. He had no trouble sleeping; slept like a baby right up until the end."
"You know this?" Chiba asked despondently.
"I guess so, I helped hang him." Bernard took a drag of his cigarette.
"With you testimony?"
"No... With my hands."
"Did that give you lots of satisfaction?" Chiba asked slowly, contemptuously.
"My job, after the torture, was to strap his ankles. I did a very good job. Same couldn't be said for the noose-man. Tohdoh's neck didn't break; it took him over fifteen minutes to die."
"I see..." Chiba muttered despairingly.
"Before the execution I was on leave. I packed my bags to return to active duty. The lock on my suitcase was broken so a buckled it shut with a big leather strap. Twice in one hour I did the same job. Once to Tohdoh and once to my suitcase. Both jobs felt about the same," Bernard took a large drag and blew the smoke as coolly as he spoke.
Milly was groggy and on the verge of collapsing. She hadn't got a full night's rest since they'd taken her. She sat tied to a chair in an 'interview' room. A large man slapped Milly's face. "Wake Up!" the man hidden by shadows said gruffly, "I need you to be focused," the man clanked two large metal spikes together before jamming them into Milly's knees. Milly screamed her hazed state immediately dissipating as the pain made everything around her sharp and clear."Are you focused yet?"
Milly breathed through her teeth and nodded. Frantically gasping for air as the man attached wires to the metallic spikes. The man showed Milly a picture of a girl. It was old but Milly could recognize the girl as a younger Nunnally, "Where is this girl? Where is she?" the man demanded.
In response Milly spat in his face. The man didn't flinch. He took out a rag and wiped his face then balled it up and shoved it into Milly's mouth. He walked to the wall and turned on a switch. Milly gave a muffled squeal as electricity coursed through her. Milly's eyes were red from sobbing; her entire body was in agony. All she could do was look up at the flickering light and moan. She was helpless and scared out of her mind.
The man turned the switch off and the dreaded buzz along with its pain stopped. The man removed his tie, "You know we used to outsource this kind of thing. But what we found was that the countries we outsourced to had unreliable power-grids – very third world. Sometimes you'd turn on a switch and the power wouldn't come on for hours. Then tempers would get short people would resort to things like pulling fingernails, acid drips on bare skin. The whole exercise would become counterproductive." Milly could hear the man pace around her.
He wiped his forehead and continued, "But here the power is stable. Here there's a nice steady flow. You can flip a switch and the power will stay on all day."
Once again the man knelt down to Milly's eye level. He grabbed the rag out of Milly's mouth, "Where is she?"
Again Milly spat on his face, though with more hesitation then the first time. The man reacted in the same manner, wiping his face and returning the rag to Milly's mouth. As the man got up and walked towards the switch Milly started to hyperventilate knowing what was to come. Specks of saliva spouted out of her mouth past the rag as she arched her back in unimaginable pain. Although electricity only flowed for ten seconds it seemed like an eternity to Milly.
"Come on, I don't have any more time to waste. Milly Ashford you either tell me what I want to know or this switch will stay on until you're a charred husk." The hulking man in the shadows snatched the rag from Milly's mouth. She began to heave desperate for air, "Where is Nunnally."
"I hid her." The blonde girl whispered, her will finally broken.
"You hid her majesty?"
Milly nodded in response.
"Where did you hide her?"
Milly couldn't think straight, days of dehydration and food and sleep deprivation had taken its toll. The electroshock 'therapy' didn't help either, "I-[sob]- I don't know. [sob]"
The man immediately put the rag back into her mouth. Milly frantically began shouting through the makeshift gag eyes wide with fear."What?" The man demanded removing the rag.
Milly eyes were closed as she began her confession, "Sayoko, she's with my former maid, a woman named Sayoko Shinozaki..."
Kallen woke to a blinding light. She put her arm up to shield her eyes. A silhouette stood at the entrance of her cell. She noticed neither the hall light nor the lights of any other were on. By the way she felt she knew she couldn't have slept for more then a couple of hours.
The silhouette spoke, "Well, I heard we had captured the black knight ace but I didn't expect such a lovely young girl."
Kallen recognized the voice, Sir Bradly – the Knight of Ten, she thought grimly. Kallen spoke attempting to not show her fear, "So you're the 'Vampire of Brittania'?"
"Yes, its a shame we're no longer on the battlefield or else I could savior your blood as well."
"Pity, so are you here kill me?"
"Oh no, prisoners have only one value I care for. It seems to hold dear to life. And while their alive one can do anything he has a whim for to it's body." Sir Bradly was now standing right over the bond redhead.
Kallen had knew what 'whims' he had. Then she considered his entire statement, He called me an 'it'?, she began to think back to a class she had taken. What to do if a man was going to rape you. You have to personify yourself make him see you as a person. Kallen swallowed her fear and retorted, "I'm a she not an it."
Sir Bradly smirked, "Indeed you are...," the brittainian knightknelt down and stroked Kallen's hair, she could smell the alcohol on his breath, "Indeed you are," he repeated as eyed Kallen's helpless, voluptuous form hungrily. Kallen began to sweat.
A/N: Okay since the last chapter was rather depressing I thought I should right a more lighthearted one for you guys. Oh and what did you guys think of the dream sequence, did you like it or should I refrain from trying to do stuff like that. Be honest because I have other ideas for crazy dreams for Lelouch and I'm wondering if I should add some more.
Don't worry about the lack of Lelouch. This is really just a prologue until the 'real' story gets on way.
Anyways be prepared for a massive plot twist, one that will completely swerve the course of the story. I'll give you a hint it involves Mao, Anya/Marianne, VV and the Emperor. Guess what it is.
Also can you guess the movie inspiration(s)? Major props for those know it/them. Again please tell what you thought of my writing what about the plot. I focused a lot of character development in this chapter. Would you guys like more of those types of chapters?
*Thanks for catching that mistake. Its been so long since I watched the seris the episode order got mixed up.