Something that everyone wants but never got. Something most souls strive for in the end. Well… one could hope that they do. Simple thoughts for not so simple people. Noble thoughts for a not so noble people. But one could always be respected for dreaming of that. No? Especially in this world of living gods and monsters.
Those were things always fought for by the average man, by the average adventurer. Some would fight and be remembered, others would only fight and fall into obscurity, forgotten by time, lost without meaning. And then there were some that would fight just to survive. Those of the absolute former were always against the world, or rather, the world was against them.
For the Rangers of Gisana. they saw their lives like this. The world’s gnarled and fanged maw agape, simple waiting for them to fall into that bloodied darkness. Belladonna saw it better than anyone. She knew that darkness waiting for them, saw it first hand, greeted it with a cry as a young girl. Some would see her as the one woman who has done it all, seen it all and still fights.
Were one to ask exactly why she still fights against those impossible odds, she, once upon a time might have said that her reason was lost long ago to the annals of time and that this life was all that she knew.
But so many could simply say the same in that regard. That this life of war was all that they had left. And Bella, even as she sits still on an open windowsill looking out to the Thavnairian island city of Gisana, reflecting on it all, she herself would know a different answer to that question.
As the midnight stars twinkled high above the rolling and seemingly endless horizon beyond the island’s beaches, Bella, as she sat there would feel her answer. For there, in her arms was a gentle shift. Her loving partner rested ever so quietly, nestled into her arms. Her magitech tail flicking idly in the air from side to side every so often as she she slept.
The elezen’s one eye drifted from the star side horizon to look at her partner with a soft smile. Her arms gently pulling the sleeping miqote closer into her fold. A gentle pair of lips press themselves atop Lily’s head. The woman’s ears twitching in their sleep as the shade of a smile shifted onto her face ever so slightly.
Now, were someone to ask why she fights ever onward, even after everything she has done, after everything you could have learned that she has been through. The Last blue Ranger would simply smile and gesture to the woman that slept so calmly in her arms.
The Ranger had found someone again. Someone she truly felt for. Perhaps it wasn’t so clear to her before, perhaps it was. That this woman, Lily, was someone that destiny had saw fit to bring forth and entwine their fates. the thoughts of her flicked through her mind, racing at lightning pace asthe memories of why they were here, in Thavnair and not in Eorzea came rushing back.
The Fear. The Worry. The Ache. Lily’s curse, once thought buried for good had come again. It had surfaced and struck a fear into the miqote’s heart that was once thought quelled. Belladonna’s arms tightened around Lily like a blanket as the thoughts and memories of simply hours ago came flooding back.
Her reason to fight, then and there came very clear. To fight for Her happiness, Her Smile, Her laugh, and Her love. To see that fear creep onto her partner’s face brought pain, it brought a sweeping devastation that struck harder than any hammer could.
That reason. Something so simple in contrast for the woman who has seen it all and done it all. But it was something so clear to her, something that she could see right then and there, here and now as she thought back on it all. It was something from the watery reflection of the stars forever in the sky.
The tappings of late spring rain on a large floor to ceiling glass window were all that filled the Ranger’s workshop. Not even the thrum of magitek engines and turbines were enough to fill the eerily quiet space. Dull grey moonlight poured through the raindrops as the storm rolled over the farm.
It hadn’t even been four bells since the Incident. An accident, an unexpected result to an otherwise already untrustworthy attempt at catching demons.
“What a mistake…”
The mutant’s words were but a low huff and whisper as her one eye looked up to the dreary sky. Her lone seat creaking as she shifted her weight. Her heart shuddered beneath her heavy thoughts, mind adrift in the maelstrom of lost causes and troubled outcomes.
They won… did they not? They captured the succubus, that was the goal. That was why they lured her out from the darkness of the la noscean jungle, in an attempt to bring some manner of peace to the locals and visitors as well as pursue their own wants and needs as a Ranger.
Thanks to lady Sariel’s assistance, they had captured a succubus. A second addition to the already present collection of colorful demons. Their containment coffers stowed away behind wards of the Original Ranger Corps’ design as well as her own. Locked away behind iron and adamantite vault doors and sealed magitek gates for extra protection.
A Ranger’s work always involved the Darkness™, it was always intending to be dangerous, chaotic work with unpredictable outcomes. Yet… this… This she should have seen coming. How much of a stupid fool, how much more of a bloodied rookie waiting to plunge into death could she have been? The longest standing and remaining Ranger, last of her generation, last of her Corps and yet… she made this mistake?
What an idiot.
Belladonna’s thoughts kept drifting to hours before, during the summoning.. during the capturing. The Black Ranger, while effective was too slow to hinder the succubus containable. Blackened daggers and shadows proving slow and unpracticed against a voidsent from a tier of her magnitude. Ambition clouding proper judgement… rookie mistakes…
Rookie mistakes leading to unpredictable outcomes.
By the time anyone had realized what had happened, the succubus had already sought to posses her, cursing her or fixing her. Claiming the little hyur’s body for her own means and ends. A dreadful existence. And yet… It was not to be.
The demon… the voidsent she’s bound to… had other ideas.
You see, once a Ranger chooses this as their path. One must cast aside fear, and take unto their enemy as their enemy takes unto them. Essences of demons are taken, extracted and used… Binding to the user, to the Ranger through the magitek Morpher and use of special aetheric and arcane seals. Each one binding the essence to it’s user in the goal of co-existence in an limited range of the Ranger’s body.
Were the Ranger to become ill, the demon bound would move to cleanse their body of the pathogen, healing their sickness, keeping their health. For one can not exist without the other. And both ‘souls’ both essences, the Ranger’s and the Demon’s strive to live. Strive to co-exist.
A rare anomaly.
It was a tie that binds Belladonna and her demon that kept the succubus from gaining full control… and yet.. Even with Bella safe, all would not be left untouched. The demoness, as it were had already done her work, altering the hyur to her liking, changing her enough to be a fitting host. A fitting slave.
Slowly now, Belladonna rises out of her chair. Her arms extending as her hand reaches and presses against the cold glass. In the dim light, she could see herself there, like a mirror. Only darkened greys mixing with the reflection of magitek monitors in the background reading inconclusive numbers and unpredictable outcomes.
The hyur’s skin in the light could still be seen as the patchwork for what it was. An uneven body, strands of musculature visible along her biceps and parts of her shoulders through the paper thin and transleucent skin while other parts were thicker, ‘normal’ yet darker… seemingly permanent variations of bruises from the wear and tear through the passage of time and unhealed injuries.
Scars scattered along her body, her skin showing impressions of light and dark over her form where bullets, blades and debris had pierced and punctured. The scars despite everything seemed like accents to the ink that adorned her. The black ink itself in designs of the ancient and arcane, a trained eye could tell they were sigils… seals.
Beyond such knowledge, they simply looked like intensive art, ornate and unique.
Belladonna’s frame in the reflection was noticeably larger… taller. More built than how frail and pitiful she had looked before. Her facial features looked more refined, something akin but not quite how she looked prior to her mutation*.
This outcome was… more close to how she looked, were her smaller form to have aged… if it could’ve at all. But now… she was this… an unexpected outcome… through careless mistakes..
Belladonna constantly is in a drive to find a way to just plainly “Be enough”, if not more. She’s seen every fight, every situation before her play out, yet there’s always the doubt, there’s always the denial that even if she and hers come out on top of the fight, whether its against others, or voidsent… she won’t be enough.
Watching her sister, Enambris nearly die during Blind Autumn brought about another mindset in this regards, as well as the battle of Iron Feast. She wasn’t enough, so she sought avenues to better herself. Only to be dealt the consequences, succumbing to mutation, and nearly dying as result.
Having led the remaining Rangers through the Darkest Hour so many years ago, she saw each loss as a sign that she could have done better, she could have saved them, she could have fought more, done more…
All the losses compound into a list of just; she wasn’t enough. It could’ve been better, It could be better, but she’s not enough. It’s not enough to change, it’s not enough to make things alright.
It’s
Not
Enough
And that, if and when the time comes…
She’ll fail. Just like she always had, for not being enough.
“Feels like we’re on edge right now…” “I wish that I could say I’m proud.” “I’m sorry that I let you down….” “That I let you down…”
“What… what could I have done…?” “Anything… I could have done anything.. but I didn’t…” “But I tried everything…” “And I still let them down…”
The words seemed to echo into her mind time and time again, the bittersweet warm breeze of The Bounty billowed through the air above her as sun-kissed skin felt the tingle and pitter-patter of an early morning rainfall were all that could keep her mind relatively grounded from drifting off into hurting daydreams.
Bella sat alone atop a partially crumbling wall of ruin that overlooked a distant ocean. A gentle crackle of burning carnage in the wake behind her along with the falling footsteps of the other Rangers. Not a word was spoken as they arrived onto the scene far too late. Their helmets hid away the grim expressions and falling tears as a young and alone Belladonna rose up out of her right hand a broken bracelet.
It was a damaged beyond repair Morpher…
Bella glanced over her shoulder with somber eyes before turning back to the ocean in sight. Below her boots, sat pressed up against the wall she remained atop of was lifeless and still young girl no older than seventeen. Her expression cold and still, stuck in a gentle yet haunting smile as their eyes were cast towards the horizon beyond their little island along Thavnair’s edge.
The little highlander looked back to the Morpher in her hands, letting out an audible sniffle as she opened the device up, staring at the damaged runes beneath its metal shell. The sigils, the seals used to suppress one’s darker urges brought upon by the essence they were bound to… were all but erased along the device. A shattered green gem sat upon the Morpher, it’s energies sparking upon occasion whenever a wire within the device was moved too far.
Memories of the duel flashed into Bella’s mind as she ran her bare thumb along the runic ranger carvings. The scent of blood lingering in her nose as she shook her head, the memories flashing promptly and powerfully. The distant yet rolling thunder resonated within her like clashing punches against armor and bone.
—
“Fight it! Come on! A-argh!”
Bell’s voice cried out in pain as she felt the mailed fists of her friend collide with abandon. She could see through their cracked visors that her friend was crying as dark veins crept along their features. “Fight it! I know you’re in there! Come on! Fight it!”
The two Rangers traded blow after blow, their muscles screaming, begging them to stop as blood seeped between the cracks in their suits. One Feral and One non. “I know you’re there, please! Fight it!” The highlander called out to her friend, only to receive a dreadful silence in return.
The Feral sped towards her at full speed, a serrated fist charging towards her shoulder. In a flash of lightning, Bella swooped low, a hand running along the Feral’s forearm before gripping hard, attempting to pull them close to grab at the broken device on their wrist.
“Stop! I can help you, I CAN HELP YOU!” She cried out, her voice hoarse.
Before she knew it, the Ranger was tucked low, and spun to the ground. The thunderous pain in her ribs taking hold. The crack of bone resonating through her armor as she watched the Feral’s leg pull away, forcing Bella to the ground. The Feral Ranger let out a shrill cry as they struggled to stand, their own wounds taking their toll.
Bella could see that the Feral, the Ranger beneath was still fighting, still working on maintaining some sort control however little. Taking this as a chance, the highlander forces herself up to her feet, straining out a whimper as she felt her bones suffer beneath her weight.
“That’s it… Yes! Come on.. you can do it! Fight it!”
The flash of lightning and call of thunder catches her off guard, the bolt of levin’s might striking the earth between the two sending the two Rangers back to the earth below with a sickening crunch. The Morphers on both of their wrists were crying out, letting out alarming tones signaling that their powers were running high and dangerous.
Slowly though, the colors faded from Bell’s sight. Seemingly draining away into nothingness as her breathing began to echo through her mind. It was a quivering pace, her heart pounding as she fought to blink herself awake and aware.
Belladonna sat in a workshop, a sleeping miqo’te at her side. They were within the Glass Network’s workshop, sitting before a large window overlooking the valley beside the goblet as a terrible thunderstorm rolled through the night. The thunderous rumble following the lightning flashes resonated through the quiet workshop, sending uncomfortable waves of familiarity through her body.
Her hand tightened entwined fingers with the miqote’s beside her. A gentle shift of the small blanket that covered the girl revealed a newly printed tattoo, gently glowing along the woman’s upper back. Aetherial ink mixed with ancient magicks were used to create a Seal… a Sigil to bind away the curse that plagued Lily. The sigil’s design gave an ill remembrance to the hyur as her one eye looked over her own work once… twice… a third time.
A thought passed through her of what reminded her of such a painful memory… the memory of trust placed in her… only to let them down… a reminder of the trust placed into Rangers, their brothers in arms and even the Seals… A reminder that nothing is without loss at the stakes they play at.
It was one that was a reminder to her of an unfinished Seal from that night so very long ago. One that was never finished and in turn, turned their friend into a monster. Yet while it was years ago, the memories all still come back to her, ringing loud in her mind of the failures she had. The friends she had lost.
And how she never found time to grieve… not until it was too late… far too late.
A bold of lightning streaks across the sky, it’s trail of thunder seeming to shake the very earth beneath them in the workshop causing her hand to tighten along her lover’s fingers. With a shuddering breath, her one eye turned back to Lily, the sights and sounds shifting around her peripheral as she now found herself back into the burning field. The rain falling dimly against charred soil.
With a blink, the hand that held her partner’s now felt Feral’s Morpher. The earth beside them smoldering from a fresh set of lightning strikes. Before her stood a grotesque mutation of a Ranger now…
She was too late to pull the Morpher off… simply seconds too late.
With a cry of defiance and hatred for herself, Bella tossed the device to the dirt. The Feral in turn began to charge at her as she screamed. Fists and claws finding their marks along both bodies time and time again. Each blow sending waves of exhaustion into both parties.
The sounds of crying and grit teeth began to accompany the already growing cacophony of landing fists, pouring rain and burning earth. The scent of charred flesh and burning soil began to seep through the cracks of her helmet, overwhelming her senses as the Feral shrieked, landing strike after strike against her.
In turn, Bella reeled a fist back, ducking low before firing in return. Her eyes catching sight of her knuckles colliding against melding flesh and armor, turning it into a bound form of scale before outright cracking beneath the crash. It seemed to stagger the Feral Ranger just enough to give them pause in their daze. A brief reprieve from their otherwise monstrous rampage. A brief reprieve she needed.
With a sharp breath of air, Belladonna reared her head back up. Digging her heels into the damp dirt beneath she forced herself forward, fist after fist firing into the Feral’s chest. Her knuckles feeling the crunch and break of bone and armored scale. Every blow that landed send waves of searing pain into her form yet she pushed on. Tears streaming down her face as she screamed in a sought after retribution in this last moment.
The blows that landed staggered the Feral time and time again, stunning them nearly indefinitely as Belladonna put forth every ounce of herself forward, sending her target to a nearby wall near the edge of the burning field. Each thunderous strike seemed to shatter the air around them as she screamed endlessly. Ilm by ilm the Feral’s body began to give way, to yield to every blow. The bone and flesh beneath pulverizing as it yielded to unforgiving strike after unforgiving strike until the highlander’s mailed fists met the stone wall before her.
With stained hands, the hyur let out a yell. A cry of agony that dared to pierce the clouded heavens above before she fell to the ground beside her fallen Ranger. Beside the broken Feral in their last moments of life as the Ranger within struggled no longer. There they would lay as the storm above slowly yet surely put out the flames of struggle…
“All these voices in my head get loud…” “I wish that I could shut them out.” “I’m sorry that I let you down….” “That I let you down…”
(( Warning! It’s still sorta a long post! I promised to try and make it shorter, sorry about that! I hope you enjoy it! ))
“It will be over soon…”
“Don’t be scared.”
“Don’t be scared…”
“Don’t be…”
Those words echoed into the chamber as much as they did her mind. Yet even with those few comforts, she found herself shuddering, shaking, on the painful verge of tears as she retreated to the center of the pod, awaiting what came. There was fear in her eye, and the nurse knew it. One could even say that guilt and perhaps their own tinge of uncertainty lingered as she closed the door behind Bella. The pod sealing itself air-tight. There was a churn of machinery as the magitek machine revved back to life.
Bella couldn’t see much of the room from inside the pod, only foggy shapes as the glass doors sealed and shifted to become a foggy cloud that kept her away from the unknown shapes of the world outside. A cold sweat broke out upon her upper brow as a hand moved to cover her working eye to hide the fact that she was tearing up. As she retreated to the center of the chamber, her knees begged to buckle under the weight of a nervous heart. The thunder in her chest was deafening as the machine’s lights within the pod grew dim and gave to darkness. The only true light came in from the outside’s cool blue light behind the foggy glass.
A shuddering breath was all she could muster as the spikes along her back silently flared out to their full length. Despite the towel that wrapped around part of her body, the spikes and their sharp edges poked through and ripped the threads till there were slots to be filled by her mutation. With arms wrapping around herself to keep some semblance of steadiness in her heart, Bella could hear the sounds of shifting panels within the pod itself as the machine’s features showed themselves.
Wall and ceiling panels gave way to small capsules, each glowing a different color. Shades of blues, reds, greens and purples began to illuminate the small pod, every color giving the woman a different feeling of sickness all together. The whirr of magitek machinery humming above all else made her heart sink despite their purpose. The lights bathed the small chamber and cooling and warming auras, enough to churn the hyur’s stomach even more as her nervousness came through.
Suddenly, as red lights began to fade she felt a sharp pain shoot right through her. It felt like a heated cattle brand stuck through her gut and pierced straight through her body. The pain screamed at her senses as a hand reached forward to grab the close yet distant wall as she fell to the floor, curling onto her knees as the other hand grasped desperately for her stomach.
Searing pain was all she felt as her stomach seemed to churn and twist within. The lights pulsed save for the missing red within the chamber, the pulses quickened for some few seconds before slowing to a gentle heart’s beat. Yet despite this, the pain traveled along her body and spread to every corner of her person. No inch of her was left alone by the pain as it ached and stabbed at her mind over and over, driving her to the floor in a sob. Tears were fought back as she cringed and tried to forget the sharp pain as it ate at her.
For so long had she be bereft of pain, any injury she had sustained in combat or elsewhere was met with a muted numbness that she felt ever so disturbing. Yet even as she was without such a factor, she could still feel it. Whenever the spikes along her back would fall out of place and grow back, the pain she felt as they grew back to full length was indescribable. Belladonna never mentioned it to her friends, her loved ones that she felt this pain, she never would. Even as she would be healed by a conjurer or something other,the magic they wield caused more pain than heal.
This, what she felt in the pod was something so close to that, eerily close. One by one the lights began to fade properly, the panels slid to a close, yet as the lights faded, the stabbing and searing agony she felt surged more and more. It drove her to heave, choking on her own air as she retched what little she had onto the pod’s flooring before her. Choked sobs were all she could muster now as she attempted to wipe her mouth clean, a hand gripping at her gut.
Time passed as she folded in onto herself, trembling as the pain began to subside. The waves of anxiety, fear and the crippling ache washed over her as her meek heart clocked over-time to keep the little mutant alive. The humming of machinery thrummed in the background as the results came to the medical staff in droves while the nurse and assistants stood at the door, ready to retrieve the patient when the process was done.
Slowly the doors gave way, opening the small pod to the rest of medical staff. What they saw was bleak, an ill-promising outlook on the woman’s condition entirely. The poor mutant was curled up along the floor, trembling as the spikes were flared out at full length. A mix of vomit and blood turned red pooled the floor of the pod as tears trickled down her face. Without so much as another word of utterance, the staff stepped into the small pod, and lifted her. One after the other nurses and assistants would help the woman to her feet at as the others worked on covering her up once more in a larger towel, guiding her back to the curtain where her she could be cleaned and change back into her clothes.
As the time ticked away, Bella was given the help she needed to come back to her fairly regular self. Nurse Cecilia remained at the mutant’s side throughout the ordeal as others came and went. Bell sat in one of the chairs, still recovering from what she had experienced in the chamber. Her mind drifting to the faces of the staff, their expressions, their reactions to her and the data that streamed to the monitors from the machine.
Not long after, a man in a pristine white coat parted the long curtain to step in. A knock against the wall signaled his entry. “Miss Slater.” He gave a bow. “The report is ready for your viewing.” The doctor stepped forward as nurse Cecilia returned the bow, scooting to the side as he handed the mutant a small magitek tablet. Written on the viewing screen were the results of what transpired, of what the machine did to Bella.
Her eye traced over the data, the resulting graphs, and even the descriptors of what each and ever light did. Much of what she saw… unfortunately she already had guessed and or knew. Each graph she glanced over gave her less and less confidence as each defined a piece of her that would never be fixed. That her condition was truly, and officially… irreversible, unfix-able, and unending. That if, and when she steps back onto the field, the more injuries she sustains the harder it will be for her to keep going, that traditional means of healing… practical and without magic might be her only source of true health… As true as it could be. How she looked now would be permanent and, her age, truly registered at fifty-years plus, yet she looked ever so young. The scars will never truly heal, the pain from injuries untold will always weigh her down… and her mutation… is forever.
In the end, she knew that. She knew it all along, the mutant didn’t need something to tell her that she was going to be a monster, that she wouldn’t be able to feel the shining sun or the pouring rain for what they truly were, that they would only be whispers in the the wind to her. This day just confirmed it, sealed it with a cruel mark. It brushed away any uncertainty that she may yet be… feel… even seem “normal”.
She wouldn’t be.
She couldn’t be.
“Miss Slater…?” With a sharp inhale she blinked back up to stare at the doctor, a weary expression painting her face in all manners of sadness.
“Is there anyone you would like to send this medical report to…? I’m sure that there’s st-”
“N-no.. I’ll take it, don’t… d-.. there’s no one to send it to.”
“A-ah… I see.” The Doctor came to a stand, nodding his head solemnly “I understand.”
Moments pass before Bella’s bid farewell by the doctor and the medical staff. With Nurse Cecilia at her side, she’s escorted out back into the white hall beyond. Before Cecilia exits the room, she’s flagged by the Doctor yet again. The man hands her the small tablet and steps away.
“See this to the Creator.”
With a silent nod, she slips it hidden before joining Belladonna in the hallway. The nurse gestures back down the hall, and with small steps they make their way out.
“Don’t be scared, Miss Slater..” “Don’t be scared of the change..”
((Warning! It’s a bit of a long post! But I hope you enjoy it! I promise part 2 will be shorter…. probably.))
How many moons does it strike now? How long have I been this way? How many bloody days have i spent in pain, in a pain i can’t eve describe to someone. How many does am i gonna keep going..?
Questions. Those words, these questions that always seemed to cycle the little mutant’s mind during every waking hour of the day when her mind wasn’t taxed down by the nigh near millions of tasks that she was assigned, either by the Glass Network, or by her Ranger Duties. They ate away at her, viciously like wild and rabid dogs on a freshly hunted meal that was their first in days. The hunger for an answer drove her insane, her thoughts and mind swelling over and over till it all grew blank.
Belladonna sat alone in a long white hallway, her chair was of a soft cushion’d weave that sat her a fulm or two off the white tiling. Her feet would just slightly dangle were she to sit tucked into the chair itself. Doors lined the hallway in gentle indents, each own blank and without a handle on the outside.
A small stained glass windowpane decorated the upper half of every door. The design of the glass pane was ornate, each colorful in various different shapes. Every design telling a different tale of trial, and triumph that the ocean-side city had bore witness to. Despite the hallway being of a lone shaded hospital white, across the doorways sat large windows, two fulms high off the ground and climbing to the ceiling.
The windows mimicked the ornate stained glass designs that the doors had, each different to match what sat across from them. The late afternoon sun could be seen pouring through in vibrant colors along the white tiled floors. Bell’s eye idly danced along the shades of blues and reds, remembering each battle the told. She had lived through almost all of them, been present in some fashion, as a child or as a Ranger.
A painful sting of pride resonated in her heart as she recalled the perilous battles that she and the Rangers fought to protect their isolated city. The pride swelled only to give way and mix with sorrowful heartache as the memories faded and changed to the pain of losing them all to the same old war.
The bone spikes along her spine flared our quietly, stirring her her mind from dwelling too deep. In the distance, heeled footsteps could be heard clattering down the way on her left. The woman’s eye trailed the floor till it found the source, the nurse dressed in a white dress, an apron of vibrant skyblue and a white cap could be seen making her way towards the mutant. In their hand and arms sat a small magitek tablet, she was humming some faint and familiar tone.
A simple child’s song no doubt. Something that all children in Grisana were taught in some fashion at some point or another in their lives in the city academy. The nurse was young, her hair was kept in a small ponytail, tucked and hidden by the white cap she wore. Age hadn’t tarnished her young beauty, she was twenty-five, pushing twenty-six by Bella’s guess.
Belladonna sat as still as she could be, her hands together as her fingers intertwined, thumbs fighting the dreadful anticipation of simple waiting for news or even interaction. Her nerves despite her age were getting the best of her, her little heard pounding away in her chest causing the rest of her body to shiver in the seat despite the warm air of the city that crept through the hall.
The seconds droned on as the Nurse down the hall made steps closer and closer, the click and clack of heels echoed louder as she closed the distance between herself and Belladonna. The spikes along the mutant’s back were idly filling the otherwise silent hallway with their twitches and rattles as they shifted along Bella’s spine.
Bella seemed to tense as the nurse came close, nervousness plagued her face as she shied away and cast her one-eyed gaze to the floor, choosing the stare at ornate colors rather than the nurse as she arrived. With a sympathetic look, the young woman approached, a hand keeping her tablet close before lowering herself to a slight kneel, offering to have gentle eye-contact. Now near eye-level, Bella took in a shuddering breath as her head turned hesitantly over to the nurse, her body shifting and tensing more.
Despite this, the nurse offered a kind smile to the mutant. She paused to glance at her magitek device before nodding to herself. “Miss Slater..? The room’s ready.” Her voice was gentle, and comforting. Light as a feather yet could carry pride and the duty that she needed to as a medical professional. Bella gave a nervous nod to the Nurse before they spoke again. “I… recognize you from the museum. And your name’s pretty big in the city. It’s an honor to meet you. My name is Cecilia, you and the Rangers saved me when I was little.”
The nurse’s words stirred nerves and gave Bella a bit of comfort in the situation, her heart starting to slow and ease its thunderous beat within her chest. A moment passes between them before the mutant could respond, visibly she was at a loss for words and she was struggling to play catch up. As Bella looked over, her voice audibly struggled, the nurse couldn’t help but smile and offer a hand in return. “It’s alright.” she said reassuringly. “I’m here to help you, we all are, Miss Slater…”
Without a verbal response, Bella rose a shaking hand to take the nurse’s as she came to a stand. The woman’s hand as strong, despite her gentle appearance, the firmness of it gave the mutant a moment of reassurance through it. Bell was given an assuring squeeze before being let go. “The room’s ready, if you’ll follow me?”
Giving a nod, Bell slowly gestured for her to lead the way. Soon the hall was once again filled with the click clack of the nurse’s heels, but it was met and joined with the mutant’s rattling spikes as they made their way past several doors down the hallway. Their destination door held yet another ornate glass pane design on its upper half, the design spoke of the Ranger’s creation, that it was prophesied long ago in caves and ruins long forgotten on their island. It was a tale all too familiar with Belladonna. Something that she took to heart yet buried it away for as long as she could remember when she became a Ranger so very long ago.
Cecilia brought up her magitek tablet up to the door, a her right hand pressing against the flat metal door devoid of any actual detail aside from the ornate glass. A low chime of some melodic tone akin to a child’s rhyme, it was something similar to what the nurse was humming previously but yet still different entirely. A moment passes before the door yawns open, the door swinging outward. A stream of blue lights pour into the already bright white hallway from within the room beyond. The churning of magitek machinery could be heard humming in the room before they stepped in.
The warm air from outside was soon stripped away to give into the colder and cool air within the service room. The room was large and square, yet the corners were no where to be seen as if the design of it was made to give a feeling of endlessness as the lights dimmed along the walls to bolster that thought. Along the edge of the room sat medical console and tables with magitek machinery atop, screens blinking light greens and blues, displaying zeroed vital signs and medical reports of the would-be subjects. Medical staff were seen in the room, by Bella’s count at least eight others without counting Cecilia and herself. On the far side of the room sat some few chairs, a medical examination table and curtain that hang off a metal rail extending from the left-most wall. The curtain could curve along the metal railing, to provide privacy of the table and chairs.
In the center of the room sat a large magitek machine, the hum of it’s power source was what churned and seemed to be what was exhuming the truly cold air in the room. The machine itself was large, it stood from floor to ceiling, bundles of wires led from it to the machines and monitors on either side of the room along the walls and atop the tables. Within the machine, down its center was a clear glass pod, it was big enough to house the largest Roegadyn in the world no doubt about it. Belladonna could feel like nothing but an ant in comparison, yet even then that was an exaggeration.
“Miss Slater?” Cecilia spoke up, “Follow me to the back and we’ll get started.” Without another word she headed towards the curtain, with a nod to the other medical staff within the room. The doctors and nurses stood attentive to who walked in, silent for some small few seconds before turning back to their work. Few spying eyes sneaked glances to Belladonna’s rattling and flared out spike mutations, some curious, some fearful.
Slowly they stepped further into the room, passing the machinery. Bella’s singular eye, despite being hindered by the lack of sight, could still see fine details in everything. A small trait she had learned and picked up to try and adapt to what she had lost, and what had changed. She saw her own name along some of the monitors in passing, her medical history over the years, both Imperial and local. Height and weight changes, and even some slight documented facts of her mutation as well, nothing she didn’t know already.
Finally they reached the curtain, in which the nurse ushered Belladonna behind it, and moved it closed. “You can start removing your clothes here. When you’re done, Miss Slater, there’s a towel over by the table that you can use to cover up and then we can begin.” With a bow she stepped out of the curtain to give Bella privacy.
To say that she was nervous still was an understatement, the spikes along her spine were rattling, they had been the entire time they entered the room, truthfully. Despite this, she took shaking hands to her clothes. Slipping out of her boots and socks, stripping herself of her clothes one by one, piece by piece till she stood bare. Even though she couldn’t truthfully feel the cold, the senses that remained, what little there was told her all that she needed to know of the air. Her body was beaten, bruised and scarred, something she had only slightly gotten used to seeing. Imperfect skin, blotches of discoloration, thin and thick patches in variation. Something she found disheartening in a way, a grim and bleak reminder that she could never be fully healed to a degree that could even be deemed “fixed”. It was a change that she found to be crushing in the weight of it all.
With a shaking breath, Bella walked over to the table. Her hand reaching down to take hold of the blue towel that sat neatly folded. As she reached out, she found that her arm, had seen better days. Her hands and arms were in a poor state, but the distraction of the nurse’s kind words and face were truly that, a distraction. It was another insult to injury, something she hadn’t noticed all this time. The fact that her condition was everywhere along her body, and there was no fixing it. Her skin looked burned, beaten and bruised, matching the rest of her body. Even if she had come to terms with seeing it on occasion, it was still just as jarring to see it elsewhere, whether in the mirror or places that make-up couldn’t hide. Her heart sank deep into her chest, the heartstrings she had felt like they were going to snap at any moment.
Pulling the towel to her chest, she sunk to the floor on the verge of a silence collapse as she curled in onto herself. Grit and clenched teeth as she fought back any sound that could’ve been taken as a sob. The hum of magitek machinery wouldn’t hide it if she lost herself now. On her knees, she curled in, a hand hiding her eyes as the other pulled the towel close. She was shaking, shuddering… crying in silence. She wanted to wail, she wanted to sob. The reminder that she was so poor in health, the reminder that she looked this way, this… freak… this mutant ate at her till she was a shell, always.
Did she ever tell anyone how she felt…? Did she ever say anything to her sisters…? Did she ever say anything to mother… to father… to her brothers…?
No.
Not even fabled all mighty Creator had been spoken to about it… Yet he knew. He somehow always knew.
Her mind was blurring into her sobbing shell, only to be interrupted by a gentle knocking against the wall nearby.
“Miss Slater? Is aught amiss?” It was the nurse, Cecilia.
Taking in a quiet yet heavy breath, she fought to calm herself, wiping her tears into the towel before uttering a small response. Moments pass before she pulled herself to a stand, wiping her eyes one last time before the towel was wrapped around her torso. With a small “yes" the curtain was pulled open gently, allowing Bella to step through.
Despite Belladonna’s best attempts, her fight to hide the fact she was in tears only moments ago resulted in failure. Cecilia gave a small frown, fighting her own expression to keep professional. A hand was held up to stop Bella from moving as the nurse pulled out a small set of tissues, moving to wipe around the mutant’s eyes before moving to her shoulder to give a reassuring squeeze.
"Right this way, okay?”
Leading the way, Cecilia looked to the other medical staff who offered a silent thumbs up to her as she guided Bella to the chamber in the center of the machine. Her hand along the mutant’s shoulder was firm, comforting, reassuring as she led her in.
“You don’t need to do a thing, there may be a few scary noises, and the lights within the pod might turn off, change color and a few other things.. but that’s normal. Okay?”
Bella nodded in silence as she stepped into the small chamber. The pod itself was of a glass make, the opposite door of the chamber seemed to harden, and fog up forcibly, offering some shielded privacy while the other door remained open. The floor was admittedly cold, a slight mixture of metal and glass. The entire chamber was spotless and clean. Overhead hung warm lights, coating the small pod in a wave of comfort, no doubt made by design to reassure patients before scanning.
The hyur’s heart was thundering deep within her chest, but the air of the small chamber helped to calm her to some degree. Behind her nurse Cecilia grinned, giving her small words of encouragement and assurance before pressing a few buttons along the door’s console.
“Just stand there, okay? The process will be over soon, I promise.”
It's Morphin' Time - XIV 