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[shadow=white,left]Dominique[/shadow]
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"Infectious I am, I flow in your blood
Can you feel me clawing at your veins?
I will blur the divide between death and love
I will bind you fast in rusty chains"
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“Something is wrong, Master,” said the Subordinate in a strange tone. Dominique raised her eyes from the treacherous path leading towards her sanctuary. She though she recognized the note in the slave’s voice…could it be surprise?
“Continue.” Dominique eyed her companion warily, unwilling to let her urgency be known.
“I cannot sense the general. It is as if she were slumbering. We are still under your control, but that may change if Commander Renata’s condition worsens.” The Subordinate gave no sign of pleasure at the thought of liberation, her expression remained stoic as customary.
Dom did not answer, yet her strides turned to powered leaps as she bounded up the rocky incline. Behind her, unnoticed, the flame haired slave attempted to keep up while dodging the rocks dislodged by Dom’s hurried ascent. She effortlessly galloped through the many levels of the domicile and emerged on the rough shore that jutted over the Thames. Continuing to run, she noted sounds of conflict and, if possible, increased her speed. It would not do to face an insurrection at this point in her plan.
Dom came around a bend and saw a family of brutes endeavoring to ravage her untrained cyborgs. Beyond their trampling hooves lay a familiar figure, the control key and Renata lay, quite still, much too close to the abrupt edge. Summoning wind with a graceful flick of her silver wrist, she made herself nearly weightless and launched off the cliff side. Dom hit the opposing wall hard and sprung back across the river at an angle, landing next to Renata.
Hurriedly twisting at the woman’s scalp, Dom yanked the key free from the hardware and inserted it into her own skull. The trainees knew how to fight, courtesy of the common upgrade that all of Dom’s cyborgs were given, but they had yet to see actual battle and the human bits of them needed the experience that only fighting a living opponent could bring. Renata had been charged with taking them for this very purpose, in the training grounds proper rested several large brute cages. The animals within and the closed fighting ring were supposed to provide a safe learning environment. Apparently the brutes’ boar cousins objected.
Rising quickly, Dom planted herself in front of the hapless female body. She sent a surge of courage and adrenaline through the link connecting her and the soldiers and equipped for battle. Half-meter long blades sprouted from her wrists in the place of phalanges and the wind around her whistled as its intensity increased. Sweeping a foot behind her, she kicked the general’s body clear of the melee and out of immediate danger as a single pig broke away from the violence.
Beady eyes narrowed in bloodlust as the brain beyond took in the solitary figure. With a short flash of movement, the boar was sprinting. Screaming wind forced the tusks from their intended mark and exposed the right torso. Dom’s blade bit deep, taking the heart in a fierce staccato stab. She yanked her arm clear as the beast faltered off the cliff to disturb the currents.
The cyborgs were having the best of the fight. Several brutes lay dead at their prancing feet as they strove to unbalance the final beasty whose withers reached Dom’s shoulders. She thought that the only reason her soldiers were not all dead lay in the boar’s awesome size- he could not maneuver well in the limited space that was available. Numerous wounds dotted his hide and blood splashed the pavement like water from an unbalanced bucket, yet still he fought on.
Gathering her power to her blades, Dom reinforced their edge into the razor sharpness that only air can provide. She leapt onto the broad back and experienced a brief moment of pity, as one conquering beast to another. The blades were crossed beneath the magnificent head and a burst of crimson obscured its flight into the rushing Thames.
Bouncing off the newly headless bucking body, Dominique landed crouched in the midst of her cyborgs. Blades retreated as she surveyed the damage. Two slaves were smashed beyond repair, but the remaining five were not beyond salvage. Heeding an unspoken command, they pushed their fallen comrades to the Thames’ embrace and retreated back whence they had come to the safety of the sanctuary and its labyrinth of labs.
The Subordinate pushed through to her mistress as the other cyborgs melted around her like water around a rock. She knelt before Dominique in submission, “Forgive me, Master. I was unable to defend you.” The Dom ran a bloody hand through the Subordinate's long hair said nothing; in glancing backwards, she had suddenly noticed an oddity on the grandfather boar’s neck. He was wearing a collar.
“Rise, I did not need your assistance. Collect your general and take her to the infirmary.” The Subordinate nodded and turned her golden features to gaze at Renata who had not awoken. Pacing to her side, she gathered the woman in her arms and passed her mistress on the way to the infirmary. Dom was on her knees before the decapitated pig while studying with considerable concentration, the band around its neck. The Subordinate paused, but a mental urge from Dom sent her on her way.
Dominique smiled at the collar resting in her newly restored hands as the enchantment melted. In the band’s place lay a shining scroll. It was cool to the touch and had a strange shimmer to it, reminiscent of water at the break of dawn. “The first water scroll. What a lovely word, serendipity.”
[align=left][align=center][color=white][font=courier]"Contagious I am, I have chosen my prey
Can you feel your will begin to rot?
Your soul fights against decay
Where life has failed, death will not."
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