Breaking a Pirate

[Jason Thornvaald]

Thorn sat in a chair in an empty room, his brain was too hazy from the drugs they'd pumped him with in order to shut off his magic to remember where exactly, his wrists and ankles shackled to the floor with titanium cuffs. They had stripped him down to his pants, and dumped a bucket of water on him, though again he was too fuzzy at the moment to understand the why of that one.

His head hung forward, shivering now that his powers weren't functioning, long tendrils of his pale hair having escaped his braid and floating down around his face and chest. All his drug-soaked brain could seem to concentrate on was the Mjollnir, and Lyra. His ship was gone. Bitch blew it out of the sky. He was nothing now. Captain was worthless without a ship. And Lyra . . . where had they taken Lyra?

A moment later the door was suddenly opened. Thorn forced his head up, bleary eyes struggling to focus on what was happening. A stirring of rage curled in his gut as he watched his little sister shoved through the door. She was naked, her arms lashed behind her back. They'd probably made her parade through the ship thus. Humiliation. Subtle torture.

LeValle wanted to torture them. Wanted to know something. He couldn't quite remember what that was.

The woman in question stepped in after Lyra, followed by her black-eyed Mamba and two others. The Mamba grabbed Lyra and--with a sharp twist of her arm that wrenched an involuntary cry from her lips--forced her on her knees in front of Thorn. The other two came forward and then doused him again, causing another fresh wave of shivering. Thorn just stared down at Lyra while they secured her restrains to the floor like his. And he could see the spark of nervous uncertainty buried beneath the defiance in her eyes, when none of the others would have.

His arms twisted weakly in their bonds, wrists starting to strain at the cuffs.

Mr. Douglas stepped to the side and picked up a shock baton while LeValle loped forward, having changed out her starmetal hand for the hook.

Thorn blinked up at her, still too groggy to concentrate. That is until a shock baton suddenly connected hard with the base of his neck. Being wet, the jolt was quadrupled. The giant man's whole body jerked and spasmed, letting out a stunned yell. After only a moment, Douglas pulled back again. And after that excruciating pain, most of the fogginess had been chased out of his brain. Thorn snarled, wrenching harder on his restraints.

LeValle merely sighed, reaching out and slowly sliding the hook down the curve of Lyra's cheek.

"Where is Captain Hart?" she questioned, tone almost pleasant.

"Don't touch her," he growled low.

"Tell me where the Captain of the Plunder's Heart is hiding, and I won't have to."

Thorn's wrists twisted again. "I told you, I don't fuckin' know where she is!"

LeValle's serene expression never changed as she lashed out with the speed of a viper, and Lyra let out a short scream through her teeth as that starmetal hook slashed her across the chest. Thorn strained harder against the cuffs, ignoring the painful bite he could start to feel in his skin.

Douglas hit him again with the electricity. Thorn barely did more than snarl.

"Where is her ship?" LeValle almost purred, raking the edge of her hook along the curve of Lyra's shoulder. Opening up a long, painful gash along the way. The proud female bit her lips to try and hold back the pain.

"I swear to everything that is holy in this universe," he growled low, voice shaking with a fury that was nearly inhuman. "Every mark you put on her, every sound of pain, I will visit back on you ten fold."

Anabelle merely sneered before the round edge of that hook of hers swung out, back-handing Lyra across the temple and nearly sending the woman to the floor. More blood oozed down the side of her face from her now-split eyebrow. After a moment, she slowly straightened again. Their pale blue eyes met once more, and the resigned terror he saw in his little sister's gaze killed him more than anything else that Anabelle LeValle might have concocted.

And then they were shocking him again. Thorn jerked and writhed and this time an involuntary yell let loose from between his teeth. His wrists pulled harder on the cuffs, and the slow, sticky ooze of blood began dripping down his hands.

[Ulysses Grante]

Ulysses sat in the brig of the U.E. vessel--which he'd gathered was called the Heart Breaker--hands on his knees and letting out a long, drawn out sigh.

They had confiscated everything but his shirt, pants and shoes, impounded his ship. Refused to let him snag even one of his toys in order to pass the time. Savages.

"Well," he heaved. "That went well."

A moment later he got to his feet. He glanced out between the energy bars that were holding him prisoner, and was heartened by the fact that the sentry by the door had stepped away for a moment. Taking the opportunity, Ulysses' hand carefully maneuvered through the bars and then he waved it in front of the mag-lock controls just to the side of his cell.

With a ripple of distorted magnetic fields, the locks shut off and the bars of his cell disappeared with a flicker.

The young Mage loped out of the cell with a smirk, turning immediately to where they'd piled his things on a near-by table in order to go through it. He had just finished putting his knapsack on when the soldier decided to show back up.

Ulysses didn't give him time to do more than gape. The dark-skinned Mage lifted his hands, and the soldier's gun flew out of his hands and into Uly's instead. The lone Pirate flicked off the safety with a negligent twist of his thumb and aimed unerringly for the U.E. soldiers head. "Not a word," he advised softly. "Into the cell, nice and slow."

The soldier glared, but raised his hands and did as he was told. As soon as his back was turned, Ulysses slammed the butt of the gun into the base of the man's skull, knocking him out cold. He crumpled into the floor of the cell. Ulysses snatched off the soldier's comm. placing it in his ear instead, and then he waved his hand back over the magnetic locks, reactivating them.

"See what happens when you try to part a man with his Limited Edition Anniversary John Melrose action figure?" he questioned no one in particular, as he headed for the door of the otherwise empty brig. "Things start to get ugly."

Ulysses was fairly certain he could find the cargo bay. And he was also fairly certain that a concentrated burst of magnetic disturbance would be able to knock out this ship's tractor beams and most of it's weapons if he was careful, even despite its size. Yet first, he had some 'shopping' to do. He still needed food and supplies, after all. And now he had a whole, gigantic United Earth military vessel on which to explore.

Uly smirked underneath his scarf. "God I love my job." And then he was skampering off down the halls, sticking to the shadows, fully prepared to abuse his powers on any other unfortunate soldiers he happened to run across along the way.

[Annabelle LeValle]

Much later, Lyra was strapped to a chair again, in front of Thorn. She slapped him with her metal hand.

"This would be easier if you told me what I needed to know, Scarsguard." LeValle murmurred coldly.

"I don't know...don't know...don't....not a damn thing." He said woozily. He was being drugged to keep him from concentrating hard enough to use his powers.

LeValle looked to her men. "Leave the room, now."

They immediately did as they were told. LeValle, once they were gone, turned to Lyra and ran her metal hand down her cheek, almost affectionately. Then she slapped her as hard as she could with it.

"She's a pretty girl, Thorn. Like a sister to you, yes?" Levalle gave him an empty look. "I had a sister once. When I needed her the most she abandoned me." Her hand moved down Lyr's face, to her chest. "Pretty hair. Nice breasts." The UE captain then straddled Lyra's waist and looked over her shoulder. "What would you do if I fucked her, right here?" She looked down in Lyra's eyes. "Oh, she's trying not to look it, but she's afraid. Good. I like it when they're afraid."

"Goin...going to kill you..." The pirate growled.

"Really?" Annabelle stood and walked over to him. "At your best, sword in your hand, with all your powers, you could never beat me, Scarsguard. I had a better teacher than you did. Even you admit that." She turned back to Lyra. "And now, I'm going to fuck your first mate. I don't play nicely with my toys, Scarsguard."

She took a step forward, and then stopped. LeValle looked down at her hands and saw the traces of blood on both her real and false hand. Then, without another word, she burst from the room and ran straight to her own.

She sent the message instantly upon reaching her room and, in a few moments, saw Aphrodite on her comm screen.

"I'm losing control." She said quietly, but with a tear running down her cheeks. "I nearly raped a prisoner. I nearly did to her what I did to your girls. I need to be stopped but I don't think I'll be able to stop next time."

"Slow down, honey." Aphrodite said softly. "It's all going to be alright. I promise you. But before I help you, I need to know how far you're willing to go with this."

Annabelle looked down on her comm panel and saw the blinking light that hold her that the security officer's station was patched through to this. Quietly, she purposefully shut Hayden out of his listening post and then looked up.

"Tell Jo...tell her all of this is expendable. Everyone but my officers. The ship, the soldiers, everything but my officers." Annabelle had tears in her eyes. "All of my officers but me."

"I'm saving you too, lover. Whether you want me to or not. I'll send the call to her soon. After that, I'm going to call you back, okay? And we're going to talk." Aphrodite replied, and then turned off the comm, and one of the most deadly people in the solar system, in her chair, brought her knees to her chest and wept.

[Hayden Douglas]

Hayden had left back to his room after the Captain ordered them out of the cell. He had a bad feeling as to what was going to occur in that cell now that she was alone, but he had been given a direct order and so he followed it, despite his reservations.

But he knew Anabelle was losing control. And he knew the slender female would hate herself for what she was going to end up doing. Loyalty and concern warred in the older man's heart and mind as he paced the confines of his bunk.

A moment later his comm. was activated. "Mr. Douglas?"

He paused, raising his hand to the device at his ear. "Go ahead, Ensign," he murmured.

"Sir, the Captain has just patched through an emergency call to Aphrodite's Arms."

Hayden hesitated for all of a heartbeat before he stepped over to his desk. "Patch the call through to my station and then close off all other links," he ordered firmly.

"Understood, sir."

A moment later the screen at his desk flickered to life, showing a split-view of Anabelle in her cabin, and the beautiful Aphrodite in her private suite.

The Captain of the Heart Breaker was obviously distraught for someone who had been trained well to read people, despite the lack of emotion on her pale face. "I'm losing control," the woman pronounced softly, tears starting to spill down her cheeks. "I nearly raped a prisoner. I nearly did to her what I did to your girls. I need to be stopped but I don't think I'll be able to stop next time."

Hayden hunched a little at his desk, a hand combing back through his hair. Just what he'd been afraid of.

"Slow down, honey," Aphrodite murmured softly then. "It's all going to be alright. I promise you. But before I help you, I need to know how far you're willing to go with this."

The Security Officer tensed. And then he let out a soft snarl when the screen abruptly went black. LeValle had probably noticed that she was being watched. Hayden reached for his comm., his fingers already imputting the address to hail the nearest Mamba warship. All it would take would be one word from him. One damning vote of no-confidence and Anabelle would be stripped of her rank. The Mamba would overtake the ship, and bring it back into control before whatever no doubt highly illegal plan Aphrodite could concoct could go off.

Yet Hayden found his fingers stilling. Hesitating, when he should have been unwavering and resolute.

If Death Viper ordered the Heart Breaker commandeered, it was very likely Anabelle would die. She wouldn't surrender without a fight, and she wouldn't stop fighting until she was dead. Hayden had served under the strong--yet remarkably fragile--female for over five years. He had fought for her. Bled for her. Cared for her more than was probably intelligent.

And now he had to choose between cosigning her to a death sentence, or allowing the rest of the crew to be put in mortal danger.

Hayden's hand hovered across the controls for another solid minute before he suddenly shut off the comm. with a wrench. The large man sat back with a somewhat shaky sigh, dark eyes troubled. Fearing that, with this last act of loyalty, he had well and truly damned himself beyond redemption.