05-20-2016, 03:37 PM
After gathering her meager belongings, Violet was led to the courtyard of the compound. There, Nathaniel had summoned a stagecoach, albeit one drawn by more frightening looking horses than any she’d ever seen before. Perched atop the front of the vehicle was a small man dressed in black velvet, his face covered by a black and gold mask. He gave her the barest of looks, then shifted his gaze forward to the distance.
Once settled inside the surprisingly comfortable interior, Nathaniel handed her a pile of clothing. “I’m not sure they’ll fit correctly, but they’ll do for now,” he said. “After being in your situation for so long, it probably won’t matter.”
Violet eyed the folded clothing, immediately suspicious. He was being awfully generous, wasn’t he? She didn’t like it, not one bit. Her eyes flicked up to his face, watching his carefully rested expression as he gazed back expectantly.
“I’m not going to bite, Violet. You’ve earned your place. There are new rules to abide by when it comes to how we interact with one another, and hopefully I can cover most of it before we reach home.”
“I thought you lived with Ramses?”
“Not for a while now,” he replied. I am a Master in my own right, so I have also earned the capability to own my own compound, my own lands and my own followers.”
“But Ramses is still higher than you,” she observed.
“Barely,” Nathaniel crossed his legs, settling into the cushioned seat. Reaching down into his jacket, he pulled out a silver box and removed the lid. Plucking a cigarette from inside, he placed it to his lips and lit it with a quick burst of energy.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” Violet said. “I guess a lot has changed since we were last…friends.” Just saying that word in reference to them sounded bitter, and perhaps a little mournful.
“It has, hasn’t it?” He drew a long toke of the cigarette, and slowly exhaled a plume of smoke. “Ramses is a complicated case,” he continued. “I’ve been here since just after the Omniverse was created. I can’t even remember how long ago that was now.”
“I was pretty sure I killed you.”
“For all intents and purposes, I was dead. However, I was also scouted from our universe into this one because apparently, I have ‘potential’,” he punctuated with air quotes. “Most of us started off at the very bottom, just like you. I was once a slave, naked and afraid, tortured and thrown into arenas for the enjoyment of my masters night after night. But slavery was just not something I could tolerate any longer, not after what we went through under Commander Red.”
Just hearing his name made her shiver. She’d killed him, too. Suddenly, she realized, if Nathaniel could come back…what about Red?
“You don’t have to worry about him,” Nathaniel said. “Even the Dark Lord himself wouldn’t want that piece of shit running around in his Underverse.”
“You read my thoughts,” Violet shifted uncomfortably in her seat, the clothing still sitting in her lap, almost forgotten.
“You were thinking pretty hard. I can pick up on strong emotions and thoughts from those near me.”
“Interesting,” she looked at him cautiously. “That could give you quite an advantage if you used it correctly.”
Nathaniel smiled devilishly. “Who is to say it already hasn’t?”
“Is that why you’re not just someone else’s bitch?”
“It has served me well in keeping me above the lowbrow pissants that roam this place.”
She chortled and reclined in the cushy seat, one leg crossing over the other. “So, what’s your plan, Nathaniel?”
He blinked at her. “Plan?”
“Don’t be coy,” she admonished. “Who did you kill? You’ve got your own lands now, are almost the same in ranking as Ramses, at least, high enough and rich enough to buy me from him, and this fancy ass carriage surely isn’t cheap.”
“Straight to the point, I liked that about you.”
“Some things never change;” the implications of that statement hung heavily between them. They both had the unique shared experience of living their younger years as agents of a militia run by a batshit insane leader who took liberties with their physical, mental and emotional existences. In many ways, they were two faces of the same coin. While they were different in many key areas, they were just as much alike because of their experiences together.
“Okay, let me rephrase,” she began. “You have your pick of the litter, so to speak, so why choose me? Why am I more special than the other primes?”
“Besides the fact that you were once my wife?” Nathaniel drew a long puff from the cigarette, exhaling a thick plume of smoke into the carriage interior. “I still care about you, you know. I couldn’t just sit back and let him abuse you while I stand idly by and not do anything about it.”
“We’ve hated each other for decades.”
“You and I both know that we have to guard our true feelings in certain situations,” he said. “It’s for survival more than anything.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“I haven’t been myself in so long,” he sighed. “Either under the control of one insane dictator or another, being manipulated to the point where I don’t even know who I am inside my own head, it’s difficult to acclimate to being fully myself again.”
“Those who seek the ultimate power tend to be corrupted easily.”
He glared at her. “I had my reasons.”
“And those reasons exposed your greatest weakness, Nathaniel.” Violet leaned forward, her brows furrowing. “If you had just let me go when I wanted to get away from The Life instead of hunting me down time and time again, who’s to say where we’d be now? Our daughter would be alive, and away from the violence and we’d be just like any other family. We could have put all of that shit behind us and just be normal. But that wasn’t enough for you.”
Nathaniel’s glare intensified. “Don’t you think I would have just let it all go if I knew what it would have cost us?”
“No,” Violet replied. The anger washed over her, knowing that she was treading on dangerous ground meant nothing to her. This was decades of hatred coming to the surface, something she’d suppressed for so long finally being acknowledged. “The temptation was too great for you, and you were too weak to overcome it. That’s why you agreed to the surgeries, the augmentations, all of it, until you were no longer human, but the cyborg puppet of Red. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t let our daughter live that life.”
“You were worth too much to the company,” he said. “Red wouldn’t let you go because you couldn’t cope.”
“Cope? I was fucking pregnant, Nathaniel.” Her voice rose angrily, a swirl of energy encompassed her skin. “Because of YOUR decision, our kid died. I had to live with that. I held the body of our daughter in my hands after you nearly killed me, but all you cared about was what I could do for the company, not the fact that we made a baby and had other responsibilities. You didn’t CARE about what WE had. How did you ‘cope’ with what had happened?”
He was silent for several moments, face devoid of emotions, except for his eyes. His eyes were a dizzying swirl of color, but she didn’t understand it. It occurred to her that he hadn’t processed all of it himself until this moment.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said quietly. “What is done is done.”
“We can’t change the past, but you could at least own what you’ve done.” Violet fingered the clothing in her lap, contemplating on swallowing her pride and just putting the damned things on. She felt so naked, so vulnerable sitting there in front of him, although she was indeed just that. “You’re right though, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“We could start again, Violet.” His gaze was intense, and she couldn’t hold it without feeling like squirming in her seat.
She shook her head. “We could never be lovers again, Nathaniel. There is already someone there that holds that spot in my heart.”
“That monster?”
“Buu, yes.” Violet did look at him then. “He’s not a monster, he’s the father of my daughter, and one of the very few people that stayed by my side through thick and thin. There is no replacing him.”
“I don’t want to replace him. Besides, he doesn’t even exist here.”
“That we know of.”
“Of course, that we know of.” Nathaniel sat back in his seat, taking a final puff of the cigarette before throwing it nonchalantly from the carriage window, where it bounced off the blacktop and into the dirt, never to be seen again.
Violet chuckled. “Oh, Kami, if he could see me now,” she shook her head. “He’d flip his shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m out here having all this ‘fun’ and he’s not part of it. The shit I’ve been through since I’ve arrived in this forsaken place is what he thrives upon.”
“Glutton for punishment, I take it?”
“I guess that’s one way to describe him,” she replied.
“The monster seems about your speed,” Nathaniel observed.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ve always seemed to be attracted to broken things. Thinking you can fix them, and if you shove enough ‘love’ at them, that they’ll give in and return it.”
She couldn’t argue that, she supposed. With Bardock, he was a tough nut to crack, but eventually, their hostilities meshed to the point where their attraction won over and they finally tolerated one another to the point where they formed a bond, a love of sorts, or at least something that kept them together to the point where he had sacrificed himself to save her. Buu was similar, although their relationship had formed long before her and the Saiyan. Buu had been someone who she gravitated to almost immediately after meeting him. He was like a big, pink bug zapper and she couldn’t help but be drawn by his light. It took years for them to acknowledge one another’s attraction, but she was glad for the experience. She missed him, so, so much.
“Can we just sit here quietly until we get to our new home? Please?” Violet hugged the clothing to her chest, suddenly needing the comfort.
Nathaniel nodded. “Sure.”
Once settled inside the surprisingly comfortable interior, Nathaniel handed her a pile of clothing. “I’m not sure they’ll fit correctly, but they’ll do for now,” he said. “After being in your situation for so long, it probably won’t matter.”
Violet eyed the folded clothing, immediately suspicious. He was being awfully generous, wasn’t he? She didn’t like it, not one bit. Her eyes flicked up to his face, watching his carefully rested expression as he gazed back expectantly.
“I’m not going to bite, Violet. You’ve earned your place. There are new rules to abide by when it comes to how we interact with one another, and hopefully I can cover most of it before we reach home.”
“I thought you lived with Ramses?”
“Not for a while now,” he replied. I am a Master in my own right, so I have also earned the capability to own my own compound, my own lands and my own followers.”
“But Ramses is still higher than you,” she observed.
“Barely,” Nathaniel crossed his legs, settling into the cushioned seat. Reaching down into his jacket, he pulled out a silver box and removed the lid. Plucking a cigarette from inside, he placed it to his lips and lit it with a quick burst of energy.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” Violet said. “I guess a lot has changed since we were last…friends.” Just saying that word in reference to them sounded bitter, and perhaps a little mournful.
“It has, hasn’t it?” He drew a long toke of the cigarette, and slowly exhaled a plume of smoke. “Ramses is a complicated case,” he continued. “I’ve been here since just after the Omniverse was created. I can’t even remember how long ago that was now.”
“I was pretty sure I killed you.”
“For all intents and purposes, I was dead. However, I was also scouted from our universe into this one because apparently, I have ‘potential’,” he punctuated with air quotes. “Most of us started off at the very bottom, just like you. I was once a slave, naked and afraid, tortured and thrown into arenas for the enjoyment of my masters night after night. But slavery was just not something I could tolerate any longer, not after what we went through under Commander Red.”
Just hearing his name made her shiver. She’d killed him, too. Suddenly, she realized, if Nathaniel could come back…what about Red?
“You don’t have to worry about him,” Nathaniel said. “Even the Dark Lord himself wouldn’t want that piece of shit running around in his Underverse.”
“You read my thoughts,” Violet shifted uncomfortably in her seat, the clothing still sitting in her lap, almost forgotten.
“You were thinking pretty hard. I can pick up on strong emotions and thoughts from those near me.”
“Interesting,” she looked at him cautiously. “That could give you quite an advantage if you used it correctly.”
Nathaniel smiled devilishly. “Who is to say it already hasn’t?”
“Is that why you’re not just someone else’s bitch?”
“It has served me well in keeping me above the lowbrow pissants that roam this place.”
She chortled and reclined in the cushy seat, one leg crossing over the other. “So, what’s your plan, Nathaniel?”
He blinked at her. “Plan?”
“Don’t be coy,” she admonished. “Who did you kill? You’ve got your own lands now, are almost the same in ranking as Ramses, at least, high enough and rich enough to buy me from him, and this fancy ass carriage surely isn’t cheap.”
“Straight to the point, I liked that about you.”
“Some things never change;” the implications of that statement hung heavily between them. They both had the unique shared experience of living their younger years as agents of a militia run by a batshit insane leader who took liberties with their physical, mental and emotional existences. In many ways, they were two faces of the same coin. While they were different in many key areas, they were just as much alike because of their experiences together.
“Okay, let me rephrase,” she began. “You have your pick of the litter, so to speak, so why choose me? Why am I more special than the other primes?”
“Besides the fact that you were once my wife?” Nathaniel drew a long puff from the cigarette, exhaling a thick plume of smoke into the carriage interior. “I still care about you, you know. I couldn’t just sit back and let him abuse you while I stand idly by and not do anything about it.”
“We’ve hated each other for decades.”
“You and I both know that we have to guard our true feelings in certain situations,” he said. “It’s for survival more than anything.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“I haven’t been myself in so long,” he sighed. “Either under the control of one insane dictator or another, being manipulated to the point where I don’t even know who I am inside my own head, it’s difficult to acclimate to being fully myself again.”
“Those who seek the ultimate power tend to be corrupted easily.”
He glared at her. “I had my reasons.”
“And those reasons exposed your greatest weakness, Nathaniel.” Violet leaned forward, her brows furrowing. “If you had just let me go when I wanted to get away from The Life instead of hunting me down time and time again, who’s to say where we’d be now? Our daughter would be alive, and away from the violence and we’d be just like any other family. We could have put all of that shit behind us and just be normal. But that wasn’t enough for you.”
Nathaniel’s glare intensified. “Don’t you think I would have just let it all go if I knew what it would have cost us?”
“No,” Violet replied. The anger washed over her, knowing that she was treading on dangerous ground meant nothing to her. This was decades of hatred coming to the surface, something she’d suppressed for so long finally being acknowledged. “The temptation was too great for you, and you were too weak to overcome it. That’s why you agreed to the surgeries, the augmentations, all of it, until you were no longer human, but the cyborg puppet of Red. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t let our daughter live that life.”
“You were worth too much to the company,” he said. “Red wouldn’t let you go because you couldn’t cope.”
“Cope? I was fucking pregnant, Nathaniel.” Her voice rose angrily, a swirl of energy encompassed her skin. “Because of YOUR decision, our kid died. I had to live with that. I held the body of our daughter in my hands after you nearly killed me, but all you cared about was what I could do for the company, not the fact that we made a baby and had other responsibilities. You didn’t CARE about what WE had. How did you ‘cope’ with what had happened?”
He was silent for several moments, face devoid of emotions, except for his eyes. His eyes were a dizzying swirl of color, but she didn’t understand it. It occurred to her that he hadn’t processed all of it himself until this moment.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said quietly. “What is done is done.”
“We can’t change the past, but you could at least own what you’ve done.” Violet fingered the clothing in her lap, contemplating on swallowing her pride and just putting the damned things on. She felt so naked, so vulnerable sitting there in front of him, although she was indeed just that. “You’re right though, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“We could start again, Violet.” His gaze was intense, and she couldn’t hold it without feeling like squirming in her seat.
She shook her head. “We could never be lovers again, Nathaniel. There is already someone there that holds that spot in my heart.”
“That monster?”
“Buu, yes.” Violet did look at him then. “He’s not a monster, he’s the father of my daughter, and one of the very few people that stayed by my side through thick and thin. There is no replacing him.”
“I don’t want to replace him. Besides, he doesn’t even exist here.”
“That we know of.”
“Of course, that we know of.” Nathaniel sat back in his seat, taking a final puff of the cigarette before throwing it nonchalantly from the carriage window, where it bounced off the blacktop and into the dirt, never to be seen again.
Violet chuckled. “Oh, Kami, if he could see me now,” she shook her head. “He’d flip his shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m out here having all this ‘fun’ and he’s not part of it. The shit I’ve been through since I’ve arrived in this forsaken place is what he thrives upon.”
“Glutton for punishment, I take it?”
“I guess that’s one way to describe him,” she replied.
“The monster seems about your speed,” Nathaniel observed.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ve always seemed to be attracted to broken things. Thinking you can fix them, and if you shove enough ‘love’ at them, that they’ll give in and return it.”
She couldn’t argue that, she supposed. With Bardock, he was a tough nut to crack, but eventually, their hostilities meshed to the point where their attraction won over and they finally tolerated one another to the point where they formed a bond, a love of sorts, or at least something that kept them together to the point where he had sacrificed himself to save her. Buu was similar, although their relationship had formed long before her and the Saiyan. Buu had been someone who she gravitated to almost immediately after meeting him. He was like a big, pink bug zapper and she couldn’t help but be drawn by his light. It took years for them to acknowledge one another’s attraction, but she was glad for the experience. She missed him, so, so much.
“Can we just sit here quietly until we get to our new home? Please?” Violet hugged the clothing to her chest, suddenly needing the comfort.
Nathaniel nodded. “Sure.”
![[Image: visig2018.png]](http://epiqz.com/mysigs/visig2018.png)