The Yellow-Eyed Beast Part 3

PART – 3 Reasons

The worst part about having the only person in the world she trusted take advantage of her was the same as any ‘worst thing ever’ situation. It wasn't a one-time occurrence.
Well, for Toma it was. It did immediately become a form of standard punishment for the Tigress, as it was the only thing she seemed to be afraid of.
Even so.
She was years older now, years stronger, years smarter; and they knew they couldn't punish her much longer. They couldn't torture her much more than she already had been.

Naya was getting sharp, getting smart, getting wise. Gaps appeared, and almost instantly she'd exploit them. Too many times she'd almost escaped. They had to put her to use. Now.

“This collar is going to release enough godsbane serum into your circulatory system to occupy 5% of your blood within less than half a second. That's only if you tamper with it or attack anyone employed by Arksys.”

It was Toma, also wiser. Smarter. Quieter lately, however.

“Now, it's simple. This is going to be a field test of your abilities. We just need to first make sure you can't go AWOL.”

Toma sat on the opposite side of a screen from Naya explaining the next few weeks of her life as robotic arms descended and tried to put a collar on Naya. She suddenly moved. In an instant she was holding a robot arm in her hand, the other twisting the fingers of the second and snapping it at three different joints. The creak of metal, the snapping as plating came unhinged, and finally the lower crackle of sparks from torn wiring was heard. She took the collar twirling around her finger. Toma frowned,

“You know I can pump that room full of gas.”

Naya just stared at him wordlessly. Years more rebellious too apparently.

“You want this on me? You come put it on yourself.”

Toma frowned deeper. “What's the matter Toma, don't you trust me?” Her head tilted to the side, “Maybe you can have another taste of your Beautiful girl before it's too late, hm? I'm sure you'd like that.”

He didn't shift at all. “Naya, don't be obstinate. You know this doesn't end well for you when you're defiant.”

“You telling me I don't have a choice?” A brow raised.

“No, Tigress. I'm saying you're making the wrong one.” He reached over and flipped a switch. A low hiss sounded in the room, clear gas spraying in. Naya looked around and took in a big deep breath.

“Mmm, still smells like nectarines. This is...oh, what did they call it? Petria? The muscle paralyzer stuff Arksys developed for that criminal syndicate. Yeah, I sneaked a sample the other day. Got an absolutely horrible flogging for it, but you know. I'm good at hiding things. Gave me some time to acclimate to the stuff. What else you got on tap?”

Toma groaned and looked away, “Tigress...”

“What happened to Beautiful?”

“TIGRESS, listen to me. I'm trying to help you, just--”

“Fuck you, Toma.” Her middle finger was pressed to the 'glass'. This shit was tough, capable of stopping several fifty caliber rounds back to back. “Fuck helping me you lying sack of shit coward.”

“Put on the collar, Naya.”

Her fist suddenly slammed into the glass and it sent spiderweb cracks through the entire mass of it, unfortunately not actually causing the mass to move.

“FUCK YOU, TOMA.”

He sighed and stood up looking at two guards with him, “I'm going in.” They looked at him like he was crazy.

“Sir are you—“

“Yes.” They couldn’t even see through the super glass anymore.

“I'm taking down the cameras by the way.” The sound of smashing could be heard on the other side of the now impossible to see through glass.

Toma looked at the guards again and shook his head, “Don't come in unless I call you.”

…...........................................................

She was there, tight black shorts, matching sports bra, sitting in her chair with one leg crossed over the other. Naya was an absolute specimen of female perfection. She had toasty golden skin like caramel or the baked crust of a flaky pastry. Her hair was golden and straight, framing her face and kept rather short, her eyes were an amber color as well, slanted a bit and almond shaped. She had the build of a curvy sex idol, but also a warrior’s athletic muscular tone and physique.

Toma entered, closing the door behind him. Naya tossed him the collar, which he caught and looked up at her.

“Naya...”

“Been a while, Toma.”

He nodded, “Yes, it has. Three years now since we were actually in front of each other like this.” Slowly he approached her, but she sat there calmly, casually as if she were in control. “Why did you want me to come do this myself? You going to kill me?”

“I most certainly could.”


“Yes, easily.”

“But I'm choosing not to.”

Toma smirked, “So...you held on to that did you?”

“Of course I did. You were my mentor after all.”

He looked up at her and seemed a little confused, “You'd still call me that?”

“Pre-rape you. You know, before you decided to stick your penis in a teenage girl that trusted you. Not only trusted you, but trusted ONLY you.”

Toma had no words.

“You know, of all the shit I've been through, all the things I dealt with, all the torture, the deprivation, all the challenge...that was the only time I begged for anything. That was the only time I admitted fear.”

Naya stood up and walked over to him standing in front of him, “It didn't even make you a little soft, did it? No. You sped up. You liked that I was hurting. It turned you on to know I was dying inside, didn't it?”

Toma shook his head and looked up at her, his eyes were a little red. They scanned the area seeing the missing cameras. Swallowing once, he couldn't meet her gaze. Naya was staring him right in the face, yellow eyes on his.

“Didn’t it?”

“Tigress...”

“Naya.”

Toma shook his head, “Naya...”
“Look at me, Toma.” Her voice was soft, but it did nothing to take away from its bite. “Fucking look at me.”

Toma closed his eyes, “I had to take drugs. To keep...” he paused. Naya tilted her ear toward him a little. “To keep...”

“What, Toma? To keep your dick hard while you fucked a little girl?”

Toma winced and clenched his teeth, “I didn't want to do it. It's haunted me every day of my life since it happened. Naya...I loved you.” He blinked back some tears, but she just looked shocked.

“You what?”

“I loved you. Not romantically, but...” he shook his head, “I loved your spirit. Your determination. Your wit. I wanted anything but what happened. I wanted the world to really see you some day. To see what you were capable of.”

Naya shook her head, “Then why?”

Toma sighed and ran his tongue along his teeth once before looking at her finally, “Because it was my job.”

There was a long tense silence between them. Amber eyes stared, mouth slightly open. Shock, still. He managed to keep his eyes level with hers as well.

It was his job.

Naya let out a soft breath, and Toma slowly managed to let his eyes dry. Teeth would clench in the woman's mouth and finally she just...moved on.

“What happens next?” She said through her teeth.

“A field test. We put you in a live mission, a combat scenario outside the lab. You pass that, we move on to one more set of tests. After that we move you into the final stage.”

“What is this 'final stage'?”

Toma paused and shook his head, “I can't tell you that.”

Naya suddenly clenched her fist. The chair she’d been in folded onto itself, curling into a ball like a crumpled piece of paper, yellow eyes burned with intensity, “You will. You owe me that much.”

Another long silence and he double checked where the cameras were NOT, then looked at her again. “There will be another one of you. We'll collect all the data we can on you and make one more. A better one. You'll face off with it once it completes its own tests. If everything goes well...”

“I die, and the real project is a success. That's why it's okay that you've fucked me up beyond all reasonable sense.” Naya nodded, “That almost makes me feel better.”

Toma sighed, “Between the last test and final stage you'll be placed in cold sleep so...you'll emerge and do a tiny bit of rehab before finally...yes. Arksys will consider the project a success once you're killed by an actual project. You're just a prototype.”

“Why? Why go through all this trouble?”

“The Bane.”

Naya paused and sighed turning her head, “The Bane. Of course.”

Primal force of darkness anyone?

This was the stuff that was chased away after the big bang, the creation event, the forging of the world. All of the origins. This was the truest void, and the chaotic mass of sentient depravity that the gods of genesis drove away in order o make a home for themselves. Then it was a home for the stars, then the worlds that moved around them, then the living things. This stuff would never disappear, of course. It was too old, too alien, and far too powerful. It lived in chaos, and it lived in those things the gods despised and feared. The good ones at least. It could not truly be created, but it could be called forth. These assholes at Arksys wanted it.

All of it.

They'd even learned how to warp it into a malleable source of energy apparently.

“The shit they wove into my DNA.”

“Yes, Naya. The shit they wove into your DNA. Technically...”

Naya's brow raised.

“Well Naya, The Bane is technically your father, used in place of sperm to fertilize your mother's donation.”

Naya frowned. That was good to know. Part of her essence was made up of the shit that gods feared. Outstanding.

Out. Fucking. Standing.

“You didn't know that, did you? That was the original purpose of creating you. They wanted to see if something could naturally generate the Bane. We discovered it’s not possible, but we CAN grow it in creatures like yourself. Attach it to them in an essential way, it grows and spreads. You’re lucky in a sense.”

Naya shook her head, “Don’t even try and tell me I’m lucky.”

“You could have been completely corrupted. The Bane we put into you was already in in twenty other hosts. It’s how we estrange it from the original mass. We run it through several people and eventually it tries to be more like a human…temporarily. That’s what created you. That’s why you aren’t behaving like a demon or an engine of chaos. Your nature is that of a human being.”

There was no response to that.

“It makes you special. The next one…he won’t be like that. He’ll be all weapon. All chaos.”

Toma looked like he wanted to say more, but she just glared at him.

“Naya…you’re the only on that can stop—“

“Doesn't matter.” She pointed at the collar, “You just going to keep doing your job, Toma?”

He looked down at it, “Naya...you know I--"

“Answer me. Either you care about me and what happens to me, or you put this collar on me.”

“It’s not that simple, Tigress.”

“I disagree.”

This silence was equally as tense as the others. Toma looked her in the eyes, she looked back.

“It’s the only way…” He lifted the collar and moved to put it on her, a hand came up and grabbed his wrist softly. Naya looked up at him, a brief flash of pain on her face. She shook her head.

“Toma…just one more time, I’m going to implore you. Please, don’t.” She swallowed, her vicious veil coming down slightly. He stared back, unable to look away. “Please. I could escape right now. You won’t even have to take the blame…”

“I’m sorry.” He pushed, going to snap it around her neck, but she tightened her grip, a sudden well of rage seeming to overflow in her.

“I'm not.”

Toma felt his wrist break instantly, as if it was made of thin pieces of talcum. Snap snap! Radius and ulna halved, but at the same time as pain nearly sent him into shock, he was holding up a phial of some odd liquid and his thumb broke the glass top of it. It erupted into a white smoke that blasted into Naya’s face.

Immediately she screamed, her vision turning into red streaks of lightning shooting pain across every nerve in her face. She lurched back taking Toma’s wrist with her. It was so fast and with such force that she took his hand…clean off. Bones jerked, snapped and separated leaving Toma howling in agony as he slammed back against the door. Guards rushed in and pulled him out immediately smashing the butts of their guns against Naya’s head and body until she buckled, still holding her face. She was shot, shocked, collared and bent over the table in the room to be held down.

The man lotto’d to give her her punishment that day was not kind.

Taken in her prison, amongst her mentor’s blood and dead hand. Romantic.

She would heal; he would not.