Juliette: "Are you certain you knew dzem? Because I am dzinking dzat if you knew dzem 'alf as vell as you dzink you did, you vould 'ave been 'ere to vatch Evelyn's back. Dzat VAS your job, vas it not, Knight in shining armor?"
:: The White Princess' words tore into Maxine like a knife. As strong a woman that she was, she couldn't help but feel like she dropped the ball, like she had failed Evelyn when she needed her the most. Granted, Evelyn had her on assignment in the states, and the result of that had been fruitful for all involved, but what good would it do now that the woman behind it had been murdered in cold blood? ::
"Keep your cool, Maxine...Don't let her get under your skin. You did what you were assigned to do...Evelyn would understand!"
:: Juliette continued her counterpoint. ::
Juliette: "The vay ve 'ave been known to carry on? And vhat vay is dzat, exactly? Be careful darling...... don't believe everything you 'ear. Rumor is a long vay from fact. Dze pawns love to entertain dzemselves vit fantastical stories of pornography and adventure about dze inner circle....."
:: Maxine rolled her eyes. Everybody in The Hellfire Club knew that Liam treated Juliette as if she were a porcelain doll. He coveted her in ways that couldn't help but ruffle the feathers of The White Queen. ::
"In rumor there is ALWAYS truth, Juliette. ALWAYS."
Juliette: "You seem upset, Max. Could it be because nobody, not even YOURSELF, smart and capable as YOU are, vas able to stop Evelyn's assassination? It's TOO BAD you vere not 'ere, I dzink you COULD 'AVE DONE SOMEDZING."
"No...don't let yourself go there...DON'T"
:: Maxine was fighting a swell of emotion, something that quite honestly never happened to the mutant. Due to the effects of the Techno Organic Virus in her body, everyday she felt more and more like a machine and less like a person, and for somebody to be able to do the things she did, it was almost necessary...but when it came to Evelyn and her death...Juliette had inadvertantly struck a deep and hurtful chord. Her fists shook with rage. ::
"ENOUGH WORDS Juliette!"
:: The Black Knight went to work on Juliette with the power drill as Bretta's words began to fill in the air. At first Maxine was able to ignore them....UNTIL.... ::
Bretta: “But the way I see it? You’re nothing but a COWARD. Why ELSE would you “neuter” us both, making it so we can’t fight back! As I said earlier, untie us BOTH and we’ll show you a REAL party!”
:: She stopped dead in her tracks ::
Bretta: “But you won’t, will you? Because then the tables would be turned in an INSTANT with the tag team of a vampire and a dark faerie, wouldn’t it? And you wouldn’t want THAT now, would you? Because it FRIGHTENS you to think of going up against both a faerie AND a vampire, am I right? Does your heart still beat? DO you even have one? I’m thinking no. EVERYBODY deserted you. Your father, your mother…EVELYN. All the people who were supposed to CARE about you simply couldn’t be bothered to, now could they? Looking at you now, I can see why. You’re NOTHING, Dupont. Even JULIETTE here cares about some people; a DEAD person! What does THAT tell you? You are a poor excuse for a human being, if you are even part of THAT species. In fact, I’m not even certain of your SEX. Are you even a female or are you a MALE?"
:: Maxine's expression remained cold and cavalier as she continued to drill through The White Princess like a piece of drywall. ::
Bretta: "You are WORTHLESS. It must be so BORING to be beating two punching bags instead of having two SPARRING PARTNERS. Where's the FUN in beating things that can't fight back?! I KILLED my father, and boy could that man fight for his life. It was AWESOME. Made me feel alive and powerful. I KILLED me mum's family - well, the ones who came after me - and those faeries could FIGHT like you wouldn't believe. I felt so alive, Maxine, you wouldn't believe it....Well, MAYBE you could. Still...beating punching bags like Juliette and I here...that sounds so BORING, Max. I'm actually kind of disappointed. What do you think, Jules? What's the point of playtime here if WE can't play? You want to play? Let's play."
:: Done. ::
"Why you PETULENT LITTLE CHILD!?!"
:: She KNEW she shouldn't have taken her eyes off Juliette, but her rage could NOT be contained. She was hungry for BLOOD, and she wanted to mutilate Bretta O'Malley in ways that would make even the most deranged of serial killers BLUSH. As she turned. ::
The Duchess said:
Bretta launched a volley of vitriol at the Black Knight, providing a distraction. Juliette pulled with all her might on her chains, using the last of her reserves to break free. She knew Max would react quickly, but Juliette was running on the vampire equivalent of adrenaline and in a single hundredth of a second, managed to rip the drill from her shoulder and plunge it into Maxine's thigh, aiming for the femoral artery inside her leg, then grab the girl by her Mohawk and crack her skull against the stone floor, buying them a few precious seconds.
Bretta: What do you think, Jules? What's the point of playtime here if WE can't play?
Juliette crawled to the bleeding girl, pinned her down and promptly started drinking from an open wound in her abdomen. After a few gulps, she forced herself to stop and looked up at Bretta's accusing glare. Juliette bit into her own wrist, opening the vein and lifting it to Bretta's lips.
"I dzink you vill dzank me later. Drink, princess. It vill 'eal you and give you strengt."
She had her back turned to Maxine, but that was a risk she had to take. Revived, her and Bretta together could subdue the Black Knight and turn the tables.
:: Though Domino had the ability to dodge a bullet at POINT BLANK range, she was caught off guard by the strength of Juliette as she broked free from her chains and jammed the power drill into Maxine's side. ::
"AAAAHH!!!"
:: Less than a second later she found her body HURLED against the stone floor by her hair as she cried out. By this time she had manifested her techno organic skin coating out of fear which GREATLY help shoulder the blunt force of the floor. Wincing in pain she PULLED the power drill out of her thigh. She was bleeding pretty badly, but she was more than VERSED in pain management, thanks to what she had endured as a child. ::
"I cannot abide by this....NOT in my own HOUSE..."
:: She was ready to go in for the kill on BOTH of them. Juliette may have been in an incredibly heightened state of strength but she was NO MATCH physically for Domino at her strongest, and Bretta had proven easily dispatchable before. Maxine could feel the hunger rise up in her body. Her mutant ability to decay organic matter wasn't simply just THERE...it had a HUNGER, it had a NEED to consume and when Maxine was enraged, it became...INCREDIBLY hard to control. ::
"I'll give these amateurs EXACTLY what they're looking for...and i'll pick my TEETH with their BONES!"
:: She stopped herself for a moment, feeling defeated. During her compulsive need to torture and tear down the two women, she had lost sight of what she was doing there in the first place. Maxine thought of Lord Ravena...and his words to her several days before she arrived at The Hellfire Estate. There had been a clear plan all along, and she was straying from it...and if she continued to spar with these women, everything she had been working towards would be lost. It was time to cut the crap and get on with the show, but NOT without a few words for EACH of them. ::
"ENOUGH!"
:: With inhuman speed, Maxine grabbed the chains that once held Juliette and in one fell swoop she lassoed them around Juliette, with a speed that exceeded what the vampire was capable of dodging as she pulled HARD backwards, watching as The White Princess became entangled once again. She used the intertia to SLAM Juliette into the opposite stone wall, knocking over several oversized pillars holding candles. In another instant, she threw part of the chains over a large and grim looking MEAT HOOK that was hanging from the ceiling and used it as a lever system, pulling hard until Juliette became IMPALED by the hook and was dangling in the air, still dangerously close to Bretta. She wrapped the chains around her hands, knowing that her own strength would be enough to keep the vampire hanging in the air. She cast a woeful glare at Bretta O'Malley. She spoke with a strict but even, FAR calmer tone as she looked upon the Dark Faerie. ::
"If I still wasn't fighting the urge to EAT your face and reduce your body to DUST, i'd congratulate you on a job well done. You managed to ruffle my feathers, and that's not a feat that is easily reached. It actually HELPED me...it's comforting to know that I AM capable of human emotion...even if it IS bloodthirsty rage and regret..."
:: Gripping tighter on the chains holding Juliette in place. ::
"So Thank You...but your other comments clearly indicate that just I may have spoken out of turn with regards to Juliette's past, you have done the same...so please, allow me a few moments to wax poetic on my life..I mean, not that you have much CHOICE..."
:: She exhaled deeply. ::
"I must admit, I've never heard ANYBODY call me a coward before, so bravo to you for that...but had you known the years I spent locked in a padded cell, saddled with psychotropic medications to keep me confused and weak, not strong enough to fight off the night shift as they took turns USING me like a blow up doll, you might think otherwise. Or had you known how I spent my blossoming womanhood strung up like a turkey as many doctors and scientists, including my FATHER, injected my body with POISONS, with something they couldn't even CONTROL...just to see what would happen...just to see if I could SURVIVE it...you might have been more careful with your words, Bretta."
:: Maxine paced back and forth for a moment, still clinging tightly to the chains as she continued. ::
"In terms of everybody I love deserting me? Well that's yes and no. My mother? Well, she had the unfortunate pleasure of being there when my mutant abilities manifested. In fact, looking back, it was her death that started the chain of events that would become my life. Once my father saw what I was capable of, well...he veered from distant and cold father, to obsessive and perverse taskmaster. He sold me into slavery. He coveted me, Bretta...he assaulted on nearly every level possible...not sexually of course...there were PLENTY of men in the facility I was kept in to see to THAT. So my mother didn't abandon me so much as I turned her into DUST at thirteen. And really? If we take a look at my father...well, he did the OPPOSITE of desert me. He SMOTHERED me and USED me like a SERF. You killed your father because he betrayed you, and you killed the people who went after your mother because THEY were after YOU. That is where we DIFFER, Red Princess. After SURVIVING my ordeal, I became a killer. Professionally. Every SKULL I crushed...every intestine that I pulled out of somebody's stomach...I wished it belonged to that
man. Everybody hates their parents for one reason or another Bretta...but once he had "created" me..he backed off. I served him and The Hellfire Club, and I was left alone. I didn't kill him because I HAD to...I killed him because I WANTED to..."
:: Her eyes were racing as she was taken back to the night where she killed her father. ::
"It was intentional...it was planned, with Evelyn's help. And when I bust into The Inner Circle's meeting with Jean Luc Dupont's HEAD in my hands and rolled it like a bowling ball down the hall? Now THAT is feeling ALIVE...."
:: She began to move closer to Bretta, her words increasingly intense. ::
"I treated you like a punching bag because THAT is how you have been acting. Up until FIVE minutes ago...you've shown nothing but weakness. You sit behind Rebecca when you KNOW that if you look within, she would KILL you if it meant furthering herself...and in FACT, while you've been down here, I learned that she tasked your dear Red Rook with killing Archer Fairchild...The twist here being that if he fails, she plans to take YOUR life as punishment. I can't sit on good news, so I'll just tell you now...Alec FAILED..."
:: Maxine smiled at the dark faerie. ::
"Now...do not mistake my monologue for any kind of regard for what happens to you. I simply feel that YOU should know a little bit more about the woman you are dealing with before you run that delicious looking little mouth of yours. The things that i've endured, and more importantly, the things i've DONE, would give Satan himself pause...and i'm OKAY with that...because at the end of the day, though you all walk around thinking you've figured all of this out...like you can just come into the house that BUILT me and shake things up [looking at Juliette for a moment], you can only go so far...the true GRIT required to keep this club of ours alive isn't learned by simply living through the ages as Juliette has..or being a Half Breed who never felt accepted..It is LEARNED by those who's souls have been so tortured that it is of no consequence to them what happens to the person on the other end of their knife. It is LEARNED by rising from the ashes and mangled bodies of your creators and taking back what is RIGHTFULLY yours. Juliette feels as if she has it all planned out, and you BRETTA have managed to play one HELL of a social game...but what will happen when the REAL decisions have to be made? The decisions that nobody should ever....EVER have to make come up? It is easy to say you can be prepared, or that you will deal with it as it comes...but unless you already HAVE that darkness inside of you? Until you've been RAPED of the very things that once made you "YOU", you will FAIL. The lack of emotion you accuse me of? My all over general depravity and lack of a moral compass? They are ASSETS because I know what must be done, and I will continue to do it...that is until I come across somebody who can MATCH my darkness and call my BLUFF...because at the end of the day, ALL of us will fall victim to the machinations of what has been created."
:: The Black Knight was now very close to Bretta, and in between the dark faerie and the vampire. She looked at them both as she continued speaking. ::
"One might wonder why I don't just attempt to kill EVERYBODY in here and purge our existence in fire? I've often wondered the same thing myself, but unfortunately...at the end of the day, for people like us...depraved as we may be, there are BIGGER enemies around us. The human population of this world has told us time and TIME again that it does not want us. They would sooner have us in concentration camps, with collars on our necks and tattoos on our arms. The work this club has done to prevent things like THAT is what keeps me going...for everything HORRIBLE thing it's put me through, it has protected the majority of us on a global scale. I came here to assess the courts, to see what they were made of, and it's been an eye opening experience. As far as you think you've come, there is so much more road to travel....You've been through a gauntlet yourself today, Bretta. You've been tested..you've felt my blade dig into your stomach, and you're still alive...but how would you fare if left to your own devices? If our White Princess was not here to run the show...I think it's time to find out, don't you?"
:: Within her hands, Maxine began to lower the chains as Juliette began to move slowly downwards towards the ground. Her face met Juliette's, but she still made sure not to meet the woman's gaze. It was showtime. Maxine tucked some of the beautiful vampire's hair behind her ears. Her lips touched the vampire's ear as she whispered something into her ear that was undiscernable to Bretta, though she would be able to see the look of surprise on Juliette's face as Maxine's left hand began to buzz and hum as an outline of bright red energy began to form around her hand. ::
"How will you be after you watch me kill Juliette, Bretta? Will you use this experience to rise to the top? Or will you crumble. Will you try to save her, or will you recognize that the wheels are already turning and that a revolution has begun, and attempting to save HER life might end BOTH of yours in the process and leave your other allies in the lurch?"
:: Maxine pressed her hand once again on Juliette's chest as she had done before as the smell of burning and decaying flesh began to fill the air. Bretta struggled against her chains and realized that they were loose, barely attached to the wall. If she exerted herself enough, if she moved quickly enough she might be able to free herself. She pressed her hand deeper into Juliette's chest as she watched The White Princess give into the pain and CRY out as it began to dissolve through her tissue and into the nerve endings in her chest, headed straight for her heart. Juliette's eyes widened as they began to roll back in her head. She began SHAKING with wild abandon as her central nervous system began to be burned through completely, dissolving against Maxine's power. ::
"Easy girl...let it happen...fighting will only make it worse..."
:: Bretta could see the almost completely peaceful and curious look Maxine had on her face as she came closer and closer to killing Juliette. ::
"Atta girl...atta girl...Shhhh....Shhh!"
:: Maxine rubbed Juliette's hair as her movement became slower and slower before stopping altogether. Her body remained cold and stiff, her eyes locked in a frightful and open position. She didn't explode into dust like the movies, she seemed eerily "human" as her body slunk into death. Maxine looked over at Bretta, her face giving no expression as she looked at Bretta, before YANKING the Mystic Chains from the wall, sending The Red Princess flying to the floor, but she was free from her prison. ::
"And what comes next for The Red Princess, Bretta? What is her next move?"
She had chided him over and over about being nice, but Alec just treated him as someone lower than a bag of dirt. :hehe: He knew that Reed wasn’t into girls because Bretta had told him that. Bretta had told him that she felt safe with Daniel. Little did she know how unsafe she really was.
