Hekate's Call, Chapter 27

After a week doing debriefs and paperwork and making up for financial losses, Hekate's Call returned to the Gestalt and Gravity. Krystyn had a lot to answer for as the field commander. Paperwork was a fine enough punishment, and Crater was willing to let her off with a lecture in her office.

"The client's information was not only incomplete, but failing to disclose the threat of a basilisk on the field is more than enough to cut the contract short," Crater thumped her pen against her desk as she spoke. "We got half our pay from the job, but most of that went to repairs and paying salaries. But there's good news in all of this."

Not that she was willing to share that good news with Krystyn, or anyone. Apparently there was more paperwork and fine details to work out. But whatever it was had Elisabet in high spirits in spite of the catastrophe that was Symeon Vigil's reconditioning.

What a good soldier you are. Always Elisabet's favorite. Didn't even break the woman over her desk like you know you should have. Domon military conditioning at its finest! You could never raise a hand to a superior officer. Not then, and certainly not now.

She could take some solace in the moment at the very least knowing that the former officer was just as broken, just as deeply fucked, as everyone else in this company. Taking comfort in the image of Elisabet kneeling and holding a gun to her own head waiting to be told to fire because she stepped on the Corpse Eater's favorite toy.

Where was Ilina? She hadn't really seen her or Velia since they returned. Private debrief for captured soldiers was common. Surely Liz didn't shove her in the brig or something. She needed to talk to the girl about whatever she had going on with Manya.

It was another week before she finally came across the little pervert skulking around the halls, trying to avoid being seen by anyone it looked like. Watching the hallway where all the pilot quarters were from around a corner. Who exactly was she waiting for?

On second thought, she didn't want to know the answer to that.

Krystyn towered over Ilina, boxing her up against the hallway wall. Finally alone for once, no Velia or Manya, or Kyrnn in sight. She wasn't used to feeling jealous. Gods below, she couldn't hope to compete with Velia and she didn't really want to. But it was Manya that she didn't like seeing around Ilina the most, and they'd gotten quite comfortable together of late.

"Who are you waiting for?"

"Manya," Ilina wasn't making eye contact. "Velia's been really busy lately, and I was hoping Manya could stay over."

That was why she didn't want the answer. She figured it was Manya. "Didn't you explicitly ask, no, beg me to keep her away from you?"

"Listen," Ilina was avoiding eye contact as best she could, squirming in Krystyn's shadow. "I remember the hotel at the market. We're fine now though, I promise. It was a misunderstanding. The sex is good." Much quieter, "Plus she gives me candy."

Krystyn had heard the two joke about candy before. Nope. She didn't like it. It had always felt off, but especially now with how Ilina said it like it was a dirty word. That felt especially wrong.

"Drugs?" Krystyn's best guess was right on the money. Ilina nodded sheepishly. "I didn't take you for a substance girl."

"Oh, I wasn't." Ilina laughed, forced and fake. Genuine embarrassment though. "Her candy makes my head all fuzzy in a good way. And then when she touches me it feels so good. I really like it."

When.

Krystyn had a history of abuses. Crater had a history of rather severe abuses. Kyrnn was a walking sin. But among all of them, none of them did something so singularly destructive as what Manya was almost certainly doing to Ilina.

She tilted Ilina's head up to look her in the eye. "Does she give you candy if you two don't fuck?"

"I don't like this question."

Krystyn grit her teeth. Relaxed. Took a deep breath. Just rip the bandage off. This is a problem you can actually solve, girl. You can do something for once.

Perhaps a bit too slowly, but with as much gravity as she could muster, she asked, "Is Manya leveraging your newfound habit to coerce you into sex?"

Ilina pushed Krystyn's hand away, a bit more abruptly than either of them seemed to expect. "W-when you say it with those words, it sounds really bad. But I want the sex. And I want the candy. So, it's all fine. I'm not being forced into anything." And as if it would emphasize it, or prove that it really was okay in literally any way, she added, "And Velia knows all about it and she said it was fine."

She placed a hand on Ilina's head, giving her hair a little ruffle. She needed to have a talk with Manya. The stupid bitch was fucking with another pilot, and dangling an addiction in front of them in the middle of missions. While she couldn't stand the idea as a person, Krystyn couldn't exactly tell Ilina how to spend her personal time. But, as their field commander she had a duty to shut this down.

When Ilina tried to follow her, probably realizing that was exactly what she was on her way to do, Krystyn turned and pointed at the girl. "Stay."

As it turned out, all you needed to stun Ilina was a firm voice. She teetered in place, struggling to pick between following Krystyn and following the order. The worst part of Krystyn's mind wanted to see if she could do any other tricks.

No. No. She had work to do.

Manya was spread across the bed, naked, and idly passing time on her tablet. Barely reacted when Krystyn entered. That was fine. She hadn't even decided what she was going to say to the bitch. She imagined herself opening with a punch to set the tone for the conversation. She needed to keep it professional though, otherwise she wouldn't be able to leverage the infallible power of bureaucracy against her.

Krystyn hovered over the bed, but Manya didn't even move to make space for her. The low light of the room cast such ominous shadows across all of her scales. It looked like there were new ones on the outside of her thighs. She really never stopped making changes to herself, huh?

"You've been feeding Ilina drugs, haven't you?" Direct. Not easy to talk around.

Manya put her tablet in the little shelf beside the bed and stretched on the bed. "Sure have," she said with no concern whatsoever for consequences. "Been wondering when we were gonna have this chat. What's the issue?"

Maybe she should have opened with the punch. She was never really that good at talking around smart people, duel of wits, or keeping her temper in check. It stifled her military career in the infantry, but pilots didn't need those skills.

When she finally opened her mouth to respond, finally gathering enough of her thoughts to form a point of attack, Manya let out some atonal noise. Like a child who didn't want to listen to something they were being told.

"Your little pet isn't addicted to it or anything," Manya said while pulling herself up and turning to face Krystyn for real. "The drug isn't dependency forming. It even has a short enough half-life that it's not even in her system after a few hours. She's perfectly fine."

"Bullshit."

Manya rolled her eyes as if she was frustrated and talking to a small child. "Do you get cravings for sitting around in Velia's room? Miss the taste of fake cherry soda in the cafeteria? It's the same drugs we used on you." A slight pause, like it was an afterthought. "Drugging you was Velia's idea, not mine."

Yes, yes. She already knew about the plot against her. "Explain her behavior then." Krystyn sat on the edge of the bed, keeping eye contact with her. As if she'd be able to tell if the monster was lying or not.

A noxious little giggle. "I don't think you want me to. I don't think you could bring yourself to look at her the way you do if you knew what you were doing to her."

Those small needling comments. Manya was always like that. She knew just how to twist something, to decontextualize it enough to make it feel wrong. That was what she wanted to do here. There were no teeth behind it.

"Hit me."

"She wants attention. Attention and affection. And she gets both when she comes to me." It wasn't that much of a revelation. Anyone could tell that. Manya's smile widened and bared those sharps of hers. "It's the exact same reason she spends all her time around Velia even though the woman hates her. They do their little routines, eat their meals together, and Velia feeds her soft little touches and praise to keep her in line."

She rolled her eyes. It was nothing. An empty observation.

"Oh, don't give me that," Manya brought her hands to her mouth as if she was trying to physically hold back her laughter. "You've beat her. You raped her. Right here in this room. Right here on this bed. Now after all of that she's stalking you around the Gestalt and crawling all over you in the Inertia! You finally found the perfect, pretty little victim who'll forgive everything you do to her and never ask you to change. She's everything you ever wanted, Charlotte."

If it had come from anyone but Manya Carie, those words would have cut her so deep she might never be able to look at Ilina again. In ancient history on just about any world if you saw Manya you would have known instantly that the devil was real and present. But Krystyn had shared a bed with the woman for so long that she'd genuinely forgotten. Inhuman words coming from an inhuman thing.

They washed over her, forgotten before they even finished.

"Stay away from her," Krystyn growled.

Manya tilted her head. Surely those words would have gotten to poor, fragile little Krystyn. No emotional regulation, quick temper, prone to violence. It would have elided the whole reason for this conversation.

"She doesn't belong to you," Manya lip curled up.

Krystyn lunged, wrapping a hand around Manya's throat and pushing her back onto the bed. "But you do."

There was a moment of shock, followed by that flash of cruelty in the devil's eye. That thin, twisting grin. Krystyn wasn't holding to suffocate her yet, so she still had once last chance to respond. "Alright, dyke. Prove it."

Central Domon was a place of true horrors. Always at war with someone, and if they weren't they would find someone to be at war with. Something to pacify. Something to break down and build back up into something more correct. The philosophy trickled down through every branch of the military. The first step to fixing something was to break it. The first step to owning something was to break it so deeply that you are the only thing that could ever put it back together.

Manya Carrie did not understand the significance of looking into the eyes of a Domon commander and telling them to break her. It was something every conscript tried at least once. Even Krystyn tried it, time and time again. And she broke, time and time again.

Just like she would break Manya.

"Fuck me," the devil sneered. "Do it properly."

Do it properly? Sure thing, girl.

The two shuffled into a better position on the bed. Krystyn didn't even bother taking her boots off for this. Still had her firearm and her knife. If Manya wanted her to do it properly, this was the only way she knew how. Krystyn moved over the devil and held one arm by the wrist and slid her free hand down between Manya's legs. The hair down there was so trimmed and neat and downright repulsive for a soldier. What kind of soldier had the time or energy to be that vain?

Dry. Mostly. Even as she edged some fingers beyond the entrance to feel for it. That wouldn't do. She brought those fingers up and attempted to slide them between Manya's lips. The dumb thing tried to stop her.

This is what you wanted.

You don't get to say no now.

Krystyn grabbed both of Manya's wrists and forced them above her and pinned them under one hand. She knew Manya was stronger than she looked, more augmentations surely, but taking a look at the writhing thing under her she realized that it didn't matter how strong or deadly Manya was. She was bound by Crater the same way Krystyn was. Manya couldn't fight back, or leave, or hurt Krystyn in a tangible, lasting way because Elisabet had something to keep her in line.

"You know," Krystyn said as she shoved her fingers in Manya's mouth with much less resistance. As Manya's tongue pressed against them as if to urge them out. "Ilina started sucking on them right away. And she didn't gag no matter how deep I pushed." Manya on the other hand gagged almost immediately.

"Eyes on me only," Manya snarled as the fingers slid out.

Krystyn slammed her fist into Manya's solar plexus. One strike with plenty behind it. The devil was winded and gasping and all the fight she had just a moment ago vanished. She grasped one of her horns and leaned in close so Manya couldn't look anywhere else.

"If I hear anything that doesn't sound like immense gratitude out of you, the next one's going to break your pretty jaw."

Manya nodded frantically, wheezing some form of apology. It was close, but still wrong. "No. I said gratitude. What should you be saying?"

More wheezing and sputtering as the thing tried to wiggle free without any strength left in its body. Eyes staring into the distance until she shook her by the horn and brought her back to the moment. She repeated herself, even though she shouldn't have needed to.

"Thank you."

"Attagirl," Kyrstyn beamed. Where was she before the detour? Oh, right. "Anyways, I thought you loved when people talked about their lovers during sex. Right?"

She blinked tears from her eyes and looked up at Krystyn and realized she was supposed to respond to that. She nodded even though she didn't mean it. Manya loved when she got to tease people about their lovers and when she was told she was better than them. She loved being the most important person in every room. That self-importance needed to be the first thing to break. Everything else could be fixed later, but not while that scaffolding was holding it all up.

A thought bubbled up and she couldn't hold back laughing about it. "If you had joined my unit back in the day I'd have wanted my hands on you first. Some of the other girls liked to carve their names into their mentees, but I always thought that was going a bit too far." The energy of the backrooms were so infectious and deeply traumatizing. She could still smell the sweat, blood, and machine grease. She could never quite hear the screaming under all the laughter. "Nobody would help you with your mentee if they struggled too much. I always taught mine that it would hurt less if they didn't fight back."

Manya nodded. She could feel her trying to sink further and further into the bed as if there was somewhere for her to go. Why? This was what you wanted.

Krystyn moved off of Manya, but kept those wrists pinned in place. It probably wasn't necessary since there didn't seem to be any fight left in her for now, but that part wasn't for Manya. The part that was for Manya was when Krystyn shoved a thigh between hers and pushed up as much as she could.

"The great thing about Ilina is just how eager and responsive she is," Krystyn said as she gripped Manya's hip. She started guiding Manya through the motion of grinding against it, though it seemed really slow to catch on. "She would have started trying to hump that before it was even fully in position."

Some whine as she started the motion. Manya's tail wrapped around the leg first and she tried to brace herself in some way to make the motion easier. It was a rough, demanding position and she was still having some trouble breathing. But, as long as the thing followed along, Krystyn wouldn't have to hurt it again.

But she really did want this to hurt. Krystyn wanted this to hurt Manya somewhere deep and unseen. With each pass, Manya got wetter until Krystyn could start to feel it through her pants. Right, that's right. This was about Ilina. There were so many things Krystyn knew about that girl that Manya didn't, but a lot of the things she learned in the cockpit of the Inertia were things she wanted to keep to herself. Things that even Velia didn't know about her.

So, what else was there?

"I keep getting told over and over I love her," Krystyn started as she forced Manya to grind against it harder, until those wheezing breaths turned into painful moans. "I can't really deny it anymore. I mean, you've seen it too, haven't you? That freak down on her knees with your boot wedged between her thighs, practically drooling. When she's just finished cleaning them and just stares at it. Where you can feel her hips wiggle and you just know she wants it so bad it hurts. How could anyone not fall for her?"

The devil made a face that Krystyn had never seen on it before. Something pained between shame and embarrassment. It was like a hard hit of adrenaline to Krystyn's system. She knew before she said it that Manya had never seen that moment and never would. No amount of drugs and promises could force that pervert to give that up against her will. That moment and that expression on her face meant something.

For all that shame, getting it rubbed in her face, it didn't stop rutting against her when Krystyn took her hand off her hip. It was an awful position for the devil, even with her tail helping and desperately trying to find a way to prop herself up for it. The hit to the chest wasn't helping. Sweat beading on her face, red from exertion, and barely holding on.

But Manya wanted it now. It was that pride of hers. She wouldn't be put through all of this and be talked to like that and walk away with nothing to show for it. Muttering prayers under her breath like the goddess -- the real goddess -- had any say over Krystyn's actions. It was adorable though.

"Hey," she gave Manya a little slap on the hip, "louder. I wanna hear it."

"Fuck. You." Manya said between exertions. She looked like she was about to chew through her bottom lip.

Even if you didn't like them, you picked stuff up over some five or six years of fucking someone. Manya's breathing changed as she got closer to the edge. Little hitches and false-starts. And then several slow, deep thrusts to get over the edge. It all remained true whether Manya was using her tail-strap or not, which was useful. She was really close to the edge.

"Stop," this time firm. An order. Unheeded, but that was expected.

It hurt less if you didn't fight back. If you kept your head down and did what you were told. No matter what it was.

Krystyn raised her fist and locked eyes with a freshly terrified, sputtering Manya. The fear painted on her face was so genuine because she would have never let a human being see her like that. And it made Krystyn feel just a bit more generous.

"That didn't sound like gratitude to me."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Her voice cracked like a human's before splintering like glass into its component parts -- a distinctly inhuman sound.

"That's better," Kyrstyn lowered it to cup Manya's cheek. "I've always wanted to hear you beg for once."

"Charrr--" Her voice waned so very quickly. As if whatever she replaced her vocal cords with was incapable of allowing her to lower herself to begging. Pride and vanity wrapped in flesh and obsidian masquerading as a pilot. She couldn't even mouth the words beyond that.

Maybe it was too mean. There were times when Krystyn didn't know what she needed to be begging for and Manya was always there to tell her exactly what to say. It would be rude not to return the favor.

"Who do you belong to?"

It felt so dumb coming out of her mouth. So forced and weird.

Manya's eyes fluttered back open. "I'm yours, Charlotte." A small, timid smile on her face, like she was hoping it was enough. What she wanted to hear.

It was something. Krystyn felt flush in an instant. It was like a magic spell. Those words changed something in her. She wanted to hear it again, hear more, see more. But she could have Manya any time she wanted, couldn't she? She tapped Manya's hip and gave her a nod to keep going.

Her head was fucking spinning.

Was this how Manya felt when she looked back at Orchid's worship? It was intoxicating.

And then it was over before Krystyn noticed. Manya let out a loud, pained moan and went limp with her eyes only half-open staring at the ceiling. Aw. She kinda wanted to watch that last moment but was too caught up in her own head. Those words repeated over and over again and Krystyn couldn't put away her stupid ear-to-ear grin. Her face was starting to hurt.

She never thought Manya as being fragile or delicate. But just look her cry. One hit was all it took. Why didn't she ever try that before? Some stupid notion of trying to change and be better. Her conscience wasn't why Crater hauled her out of that stupid fucking dive. Maybe she wasn't meant to be better after all. Nobody expected her to be. That violence and dominion was in her blood.

"You're really pretty, you know that?" Krystyn said with that dark backroom laugh. Sure as hell prettier than any other meat she'd seen dragged to the back.

Manya swallowed and wheezed. Trying to force words out through the cracks of what was left of her. Eventually she found her voice, however quiet, however broken.

"Thank you."