Gilded Cages (Beatrix)

[Auric]

A man needs no bars
to say he's in prison

It's rare that I ever go to prison. Back in my Hero for Hire days on Cocoon, the worst I ever got was a cell every now and then whenever overly cautious PSICOM decided to keep me in overnight for suspicious activity. It never happened with the Guardian Corps... mind you, I guess I'm a bit of a rock-star when it came to them. They always knew I wasn't the kind of person to run around doing all that "Pulsian Anti-Cocoon" crap that the PSICOM boys had thought up. Hell, most of us at the GC knew it was bullshit but when the Sanctum says otherwise it's not something you can help. Hell, worst treatment I ever got when it came to captivity? SEER training when I became a Shock Trooper. Still, at least then it was prettier than this place... a dungeon.

---

The first thing you learn about being in captivity is that the longer you kept in, the more you know. Sometimes, however, you know enough that you can't stick around... he couldn't afford to be patient and let them have their way. All it took was the wrong look at a group of his cell's guards and he knew he'd have mist-driven woman clad in skimpy armor itching to stick the pointy end of her sword where his food would be. At least, that's where the food would go if they ever going to feed him. It was dark... sitting against the wall with a poor angle at the high and barred window, it was difficult for him to accurately tell the time. He hadn't known how long he was knocked out for either... but what was important for him was that he only had an hour to make a move. Beatrix had only left just a minute ago -- the guard who'd taken to watching over him seemed much more pacified than the rest.

Which was probably good.... Beatrix must have known what she was doing when picking who exactly would be taking watch. But he needed to get out. She'd gone against her word... whether she knew it or not. He understood that he'd be free once he was found innocent but before she'd taken her leave she's scrounged up some technicality which pretty much soured his intention to reason with her in his rather dire circumstances. And he felt rather naked without his gun at his side. He'd searched himself, looking for thing they had and hadn't taken... he could tell by that empty feeling in his head that the cell had some sort of anti-magic field, but the tingling in his fingers indicated that his gloves still worked. Of course not many people could conceive that they were more than just a form of clothing.

As he sat still, he closed his eyes... reached out mentally to get a finer feel for the room. How the anti-magic field worked... whether it was mystical or some form of technology. Then it clicked into place... magic was still there, but it was weak. Difficult to draw upon with his cell having a neutral affinity. That was rare. When you sit in a river, you can always get a feel for the water and naturally find it easier to cast water magick and same goes when there was a high wind or fire source nearby. Lightning, too, but in this place he doubted they even had "circuitry" for him to draw upon. But as the temperature of the room steadily dropped, the guard took notice and looked around, suspicious as to what was going on... it was only when Auric opened his lips and exhaled that his breath was practically steam. It was then that the guard was alarmed... she turned to run but the entire room stalled as Auric let off his [Freeze]. The entire room was a block of ice.

Auric twitched and his section cracked, shattering as it dissolved. The bars were weak and it only took a slight tug or a gentle push for his bindings to crumble away.... the temperature in the room slowly going back to normal, he leisurely picked up his things before stopping at the door. He wasn't about to kill the poor girl... frozen where she stood, able to look at him but unable to move... he simply looked to her and considered the idea of just "taking care of her". He knew that she'd make noise the moment she was able... and he wouldn't be able to stop it without outright killing her. He was better than that. With a wink and a goodbye kiss on the ice on her cheek he wished her a fair well as he made for freedom...

---

A few minutes later...

Auric bolted along the castle walls. The sentries had naturally spotted him and he quietly cursed at the lack of cover... there really was so very few places to hide. But he didn't lose his cool... even with all the female soldiers right behind him, his mind was still entertaining the idea that this would all suddenly turn into an orgy. No such luck. Still, there was more of them than there was of him and his escape plan involved having to get all the guards' attention and cornering himself on a high wall where, should he take a step back, he'd fall to his doom.

Yeah, okay... not the best idea to propose to anyone looking to break out of prison.

"So, like... is this the part where I'm expected to inch away from all of you and probably fall to my untimely death?" he joked, the guards having blocked all forms of walkable exits.

[Beatrix]

She was leaving Alexandria tonight.

The sun had already set, and a pale moon shone brightly through the window. Beatrix sat on a wooden chair at her room, leaning over the table and resting her head on her hands. Everything was set. There was nothing left to prepare, nothing she desired to take that she hadn't already packed and no messages left to be written. Two enveloped laid visibly on the desk, containing the letters she had written for Garnet and Elise. She'd tried to write another one for Steiner as well, but after a few tries she had given up; the words simply didn't came out. There was nothing left for her to do, only wait for the inevitable knock on the door to inform her the prisoner had escaped. She only hoped the man didn't kill anyone on his way, specially the girl she had left watching him at the dungeons. She had purposefully picked her, seeking to facilitate his escape - the girl was young and naive, easy to trick and probably wouldn't do much to stop him once he was free. If he decided to silence her, though, Beatrix would have to carry with another death on her conscience. For the hundredth time, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.

And she tried not to think about what would happen when they realized she had helped him. She'd left him unbound, with only one guard and with all his weapons and possessions next to his cell, though that was just the start. She'd had the anti-magic field weakened, claiming that she intended to use magic to question him; she suspected the curious metallic device she had discovered among his things was some sort of magical weapon, and she thought he'd need it to break through the guards. As a last measure, she had also purposefully assigned members of the Squad of Pluto, the most incompetent platoon in the whole army, to replace the usual watch at the Castle's gates - Steiner had complained, as they were technically under his command, though he had had no choice but to obey. Things would get more difficult for the man once he got out of the Castle, though she doubted there was anything on Alexandria that could pose a serious challenge for him. She was more worried about the damage he would cause in his wake.

Was she doing the right thing? A part of her brain screamed at her that she obviously wasn't. She was using her position he help a convict escape, she was betraying her oath to protect the kingdom by leaving the city and her duty to serve the crown by doing so furtively. She was exposing the soldiers that had sword fealty to her to a serious risk, leaving their lives subject to the mysterious man's whim. If she ever came back, she'd be surely be executed for high treason. And yet, what good would it do if she stayed? She couldn't stop the Mist's corruption, nor the increasing lack of food and supplies, nor the strange diseases spreading among the populace. And today she had proved to be susceptible to the Mist as well; she'd likely go mad if she stayed long enough, and become monster more terrible than any spawned by the Mist. No, she was better off leaving. Alexandria's only hope was to get external aid, from whatever Kingdom was left standing, and finding out why the Mist had returned and how to stop it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise; there was someone knocking frenetically on her door. Finally. Beatrix took one last look at her room, closes her eyes for an instant and then walked to the door.

---

Some time after, Beatrix was making her way through a crowd of soldiers - they had gone completely berserk, and didn't even take notice of her as they pursued the escaped prisoner. She pushed her way through, trying to get to him before them; only after seeing what he had done to the dungeons she understood the man's true power, and cursed herself for setting him loose on the city.

Instead of escaping toward the village, the man had gotten out of the Castle through the back, and now the soldiers had him cornered against a precipice. Alexandria stood at the edge of a plateau, and the fall was miles and miles long...and into the Petrified Forest, which was not the most hospitable of places in and on itself. She hurried through the crowd; she could see him, though dozens of soldiers stood between them. If the man jumped, she would follow...and if he decided to defend himself, she supposed she'd have to fight him again. She only hoped the man didn't decide to start killing now; though she may survive, if the man used the kind of magic he had exhibited earlier he'd likely kill everyone standing there.

[Auric]

It was true. Auric's magic was as potent as his numerous skills were. Where once an army might stand, he could easily turn them all into a block of ice. Such a shame that none around him knew what he was capable of... not that it should deter any soldier from doing their duty, but perhaps they wouldn't be so eager as to provoke hostilities. But with the mist clouding their thoughts -- he doubted it really mattered. Still as he inched back, he was running out of room to move. A quick glance over his shoulder and he knew the drop would have killed anyone at this height. And no, contrary to popular belief, having a lot of trees to slow you down was one of the more painful experiences you could feel.

Assuming you weren't impaled on a very badly angled branch.

They weren't slow. Even as they all inched closer he could see them eager to pounce... some not even bothering to measure the risk of missing and falling off the edge themselves and others looking to try and blast him with whatever low level magic they held at their fingertips. Ah, but he wouldn't want to stay here.... holding them off was impossible without causing some lasting harm and like before he wasn't precisely eager to give anything more than a good beating. It was time to make his exit. With a click of his fingers, his body was enveloped in electricity... his Grav-Con unit still functioning to specifications before he gave them a short wave, turned on his heel and leaped off the castle wall, a long fall to the forest below...

The Petrified Forest. He wasn't at all aware at what he was getting himself into... but even as he landed on his feet and looked around, he knew it would make do to get lost from Alexandria's inhospitable army. It wasn't so bad. Darker, compared to Pulse's forests... not quite as haunted as the woods of the Viera but from what he'd been told it was Alexandria's equivalent. Without the tall, bunny people with delectable squeals if you ever got them in bed (don't ask). It was night time and with his freedom he'd been able to accurately tell at about what hour he was at. He looked around, searching for resources he could user to set up camp... there was no way their army could track him down in the forest this thick. Not on the first night.

[Beatrix]

Beatrix run with all the speed she could muster, flying past the mob of soldiers with her sight fixed on the man, the prisoner she had helped to escape. Her heart pumped hardly against her chest, not with tiredness but fear. It was not often that the great General Beatrix felt the cold grip fear, though there was no denying she did now; not for her own life, but for the lives of her troops. The man had finally stopped running, and now stood at the edge of the abyss looking at them with unmistakable confidence; with nothing more than a casual flick of his hand, that man was capable of ending all of their lives in a matter of instants. All those lives, each of them a separate universe of experience; wishes, fears, dreams, battles lost and won, jobs left done and undone, hopes and desires to be fulfilled; all extinguished, and with only her to blame. The man was only defending himself, her troops were maddened by the Mist; only she had no excuse. She had created this situation willingly.

She ran faster. She finally reached the mob that was encircling the man. He said a few words, which she didn't hear, but his cockiness was evident. She needed to get to him, she needed to make him focus on her instead of her soldiers...and if she could throw him off the walls, the city would be safe, and it would be over. She made her way through the mob, pushing people aside and squeezing through bodies. She was about to reach the front line, when she heard all of them shouting at once, as if shocked. Fearing the worst, Beatrix grabbed the woman in front of her by her elbow and pushed her aside harshly. She was prepared to attack the man pre-emptively, using one of her techniques to try to knock the man off the walls and into the depths that extended below...only the man was not there anymore. He had jumped. A great wave of relief washed over her, clearing her mind and loosening her muscles. At least that was over...there had been no death that night that would have to weight on her shoulders. For her, however, everything was just beginning. If she turned back now, everything would be lost. So, without looking back, without allowing herself a single moment of hesitation, Beatrix ran...and jumped. And suddenly she was falling, the wind blowing furiously against her ears and the immensity of black trees that opened before her approaching at tremendous speed.

As soon as her feet left the ground, something strange happened. She felt a surge of energy going through her body, making her muscles feel lighter, clearing her mind and sharpening her senses. She felt like she had been suddenly awoken after a deep, prolonged sleep; everything that had happened in the past months felt like a lugubrious dream. As she was falling, she realized some of her old strength had returned to her. She smirked, feeling more confident that she had in a long time; not only because her power had increased, but because she realized leaving Alexandria had been the right thing to do. She hadn't realized the extent of the Mist's influence - how it was clouding her mind, numbing her senses and obfuscating her judgment. She was far from reaching the fullness of her old strength, but if one second outside Alexandria had had such a dramatic effect, she was certain it would take only a few days outside the Mist to fully recover her old self.

Just before hitting the ground, Beatrix bent her body and turned in the air. Her body glowing with a brilliant white aura, Beatrix used a technique to create a protective barrier around her, which fully absorbed the impact as she crashed against the forest's floor. She landed on her feet with a heavy thump, forced into a kneeling position but completely unharmed. And now she was now inside the Evil Forest, the stuff of nightmares and scenery of a thousand ghost stories for the people of Alexandria. It's gloomy dark trees were hundreds of miles tall, the forest was thick with dense, deadly vegetation and terrible monsters were said to stalk in the shadows; but it was more than that. There was a sense of unmistakable maliciousness in the air, the pulse of a malignant will obvious even to the dullest of individuals. And on top of that, sections of the forest seemed to petrify themselves every so often, turning anyone unlucky enough to be in it at the time into a stony statue, doomed to remain there in silence for untold years. Due to some recent event she could not recall, the Forest had been turned entirely into stone and had not un-petrified itself since, and so people referred to it as the 'Petrified Forest'.

Petrified or not, Beatrix had been there many times and knew the place well, which was more than could be said about the man in front of her. When she fell he had been looking around, as if looking for resources to sustain himself. There weren't any, though; even when it wasn't petrified, every plant, mushroom and grape found in the Evil Forest was lethally poisonous. Yet another piece of evidence that the man wasn't from around, if she still needed any. Beatrix rose into a standing position, the white aura still enveloping her body and glowing faintly. "So," she said as she stood, her gaze leveling with his. She knew she would never defeat him with her current strength, but fortunately she had no intention of fighting. However, the man might, so she steeled herself to defend against possible attacks while she taunted him. "Interesting choice of place for our second date; not exactly romantic, if you ask me. Or did you think you could ditch me?"

[Auric]

Looking for resources was difficult when they weren't around to be had. He didn't have to check under stones or even dig up dirt to know that there weren't any... being one with the land in a world like Pulse, you can... feel when things are unnatural. More so for Auric... who could perceive everything as an abstract language, the silence was a scream in his ear, telling him that other than hiding, the woods were as hospitable as the company he'd just left. Beautiful. Still, he'd need to make himself ready for the journey... he didn't have any form of navigation to guide himself swiftly out of the forest -- and his special abilities had been exhausted mitigating the effects of the mist on his psyche such that even right now it was like being denied one of your core senses. He supposed that in a way that might have been a flaw... not that anyone would have known to exploit it.

But if there was one thing which caught his attention more than a big bad nothing, it was the crashing noise of snapped petrified wood as Beatrix practically barreled her way down. Now, compared to his landing it lacked grace and subtlety. Obvious. He patted himself down to rid his person of the splinters his clothes had caught, turning on his heel to face the person who had counted on his freedom. Now that they were both out in the open (well, that is, concealed in the forests and as relatively "in the open" as they could be), she no longer had leverage against him. He wasn't obligated to take her anywhere... and granted, she probably knew a way out of here he'd of figured it out within the next few hours.

"Well I'm sorry, it's the best I could do. I mean I'm nowhere near as kinky as you are, picking a dungeon and all..." he replied, looking to her after adjusting his headgear which... though only covering the top of his head concealed his features as if it were a mask. "But hey, if I was trying to ditch you I guess I should be flattered you're so eager to stay with me." he beamed. "So..." he continued on bringing his hand up to massage the back of his head. "... perhaps you should explain what it is you want from me? Although I should probably warn you... I'm not particularly obligated to give you anything."