Twist of the Knife 18+

Posted on Sat Sep 21st, 2019 @ 10:17am by Death & Riov (Captain) Dalia Rendal & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & erei'Riov (Commander) Arrenhe t'Suil & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan & Deihu (Senator) Verelan t'Rul
Edited on on Sun Sep 22nd, 2019 @ 6:28pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Brig of The People's Will
Timeline: 2396

Yesterday had begun like most days the last two weeks had for Mnhei'sahe Dox. She woke up on her own before the lights in her quarters to exercise. She showered and dressed and waited for her grandmother to start her day. Before long, the sealed door opened and her grandmother arrived with breakfast and a warm smile.

In truth, she had no illusions that she wasn't a prisoner. Hadn't been kidnapped. But she still found herself enjoying the morning talks over breakfast with her estranged Grandmother, Deihu Verelan t'Rul.

And on that morning, just over a day ago now, the elder Rihannsu Senator brought more than breakfast. She had a PaDD with her and showed her granddaughter their ancestral family home. On the screen was holoimages of a large house on a hill. A large, three-story building with great columns at the front that went from the steps of the main entry to the portico. The columns were a shined black marble framing weathered, pale tan walls over lavender fields. It was Verelan's home in the countryside of i'Ramnau on the homeworld Dox had never set foot upon: ch'Rihan.

Romulus. The world she was being taken to. The house that would eventually be hers. A new life that would only cost her her life, family and wife on the U.S.S. Hera. But still, she had smiled as her grandmother walked her through the rooms and told her stories of her own childhood running through those halls, laughing.

But today, all Mnhei'sahe Dox could hear were her grandmother's screams.

With her arms and legs shackled into the cold metal chair, Her head locked to the rear with a metal collar that even restricted her head movement and the entire affair bolted into the floor of the small gray detention cell In the brig of the Romulan Warbird that had been her prison, the red-headed Rihannsu Starfleet officer was officially out of options. Her attempts at reaching out to her grandmother and trying to convince her to not seek out the secrets of the Hera had backfired spectacularly. Her impassioned speech may well have gotten through to the wizened senator, but Dox had no idea because while she spoke to her grandmother through the door to Dox's mother's cell, Verelan t'Rul was betrayed.

The Romulan Commander Riov Dalia Rendal, who wanted the Lieutenant and her mother for the secrets they had access to on the Hera used the Lieutenant's impassioned speech as an excuse to take her grandmother into custody as a traitor and assume command. And now, all three women were prisoners.

Put in separate cells and restrained to ensure that none of them could do anything to hurt themselves to stop them from talking, there was nothing Dox could do but sit and listen as she heard the intermittent screams of pain from down the narrow metal corridor. For the past few long hours, she had been isolated and alone. Alone with her thoughts and the occasional screams of her mother and grandmother echoing through her mind. Screams that were her fault.

Eventually, the screams of the Senator subsided and she was dragged past Dox's cell, barely conscious and much worse for wear, her clothing smeared with her own green blood as two centurions deposited her in a cell nearby.

Then Riov Rendal stopped in front of Mnhei'sahe's own cell, with Erei'Riov tSuil close at her heels looking like a jade statue of the model Tal'Shiar commander.

"Thank you for your little speech earlier. It gave me just what I needed to advance my own plans." Rendal's royal Rihannsu accent had come out full force now, drawing out her words like a cat toying with them before releasing them to her intended audience. As you spoke, I realized something. Even if your Captain and crew do not come chasing after you, we already have what we need. Right inside your... disgustingly fuzzy head... and we have two people that you seem to care about."

She leaned in slightly, the pale green glow of the cell's field generators lighting up her face almost eerily. "And if you really do care about them... What do you think would ease their pain? Hmm?"

Staring back with nothing but hatred in her eyes, Dox was furious. Furious at Rendal for her cruelty, but more furious at herself for her absolute failure. In her attempt to reach her grandmother and save her mother, she had doomed them both, and given Rendal the roadmap to what she was seeking.

But she maintained her composure and spoke as calmly as she could in her own muddy, spacer's Rihan accent. "You're already torturing them just to prove you can. To show me. Why would I believe you'd stop if I told you what you want to know?"

"Because if I get what I want... what I need... then my own honor would demand that the three of you would be of no further use and free to go about your lives." Then another thought occurred to Rendal, to twist the knife a bit more. "Just like your father. Once we finished with him all those years ago, he was set free, wasn't he, Subcommander?"

Sitting in the cell, completely shackled, Dox's stomach tightened into a knot at Rendal’s words and the cold smirk across her face as Subcommander t’Suil replied flatly. “Ie, Riov. Once former Commander tr’Rul had completed his service to the Imperium and fulfilled his obligations… his mnhei’sahe… he was released freely.”

Invoking Dox’s name, the name of the Rihannsu code of honor known as the Ruling Passion, served only to twist that knife even deeper as the captive Starfleet officer felt ready to explode and half wished that she literally could.

“And I would trust the honor of those that would torture the helpless for power? Would bargain lives with a smile? Or should I trust that you’ll let them go with minds torn apart like was done to him? Like... YOU did to him?" Dox replied with a raspy crack in her angry voice. “You may have listened to what I told my Grandmother, but you didn’t hear a word. You have no honor and I can’t give you what you want.”

The stony face of Rendal almost showed a hint of emotion as one eyebrow raised. "Oh we listened. To every single word. However, I believe you are operating under the assumption that we are trying to save something. No, my faction is dedicated to the defense of the Imperium and the destruction of our enemies. What your mind contains is perfect for such a task and our... mnhei'sahe... demands that we stop at nothing to do so."

"As for what happened to your father... What we had to do to his mind is unfortunate, but please understand that with the resistance he put up, combined with all of the secrets we had to erase, there was not much left to work with. We showed him what compassion we could, however... There were some who thought it more kind to execute him." The Riov motioned in the air with one hand as she let a thought slip out. "Though if we had, he would not be in this cell block now, nor would he have confirmed you or your mother's existence."

"You don't understand. What you want won't just destroy your imagined enemies, it will destroy what you're trying to defen..." As she protested, Rendal's words worked back through Dox's mind as a bomb of recognition went off in her mind, slicing through Dox’s anger as the captive officer’s eyes went wide. “What? You… he’s… my father is... here?”

"Oh yes, he's only six cells that way, if memory serves. Would you like to meet him? I believe he may remember you and your mother now." Rendal motioned off to the left towards the direction her grandmother had been taken after her torture session.

The strength in her muscles let out all in one moment as Dox exhaled and her head dropped as much as possible as though it weighed a metric ton. Her eyes wide and shiny again, she stared at the cold metal deck plates at her feat, blinking in disbelief. “He’s... here.” She repeated in shock. Rendal had everything. Every blood relation that Dox had was there, at the Romulan Commander’s mercy.

Wanting to scream and rage and cry and fight, all Mnhei’sahe Dox could do was sit and mutter weakly, “Y... yes.”

"Very well then."Rendal stepped back and motioned to the centurions to bring Dralath. "I am, after all, a woman of my word."

The centurions vanished for what felt like an eternity and Dox listened to the sounds of muttering from down the corridor followed by a ragged shuffling sound. Minutes later, Riov Rendal stepped back slightly to stand beside her ever-present Sub-commander as the centurions lead a man into view.

He was tall and fat. His thick, puffy face hung low like a frightened animal, framed by shoulder-length, dark gray hair and an unkempt beard. Slowly, as Dox stared in impossible disbelief, the man stood there, still facing Riov Rendal. Dipping her head to meet his hidden gaze, the cold commander gestured with her head towards the shimmering green forcefield and the woman in the cell in front of him. And as she did, he slowly, hesitantly turned his weary face towards her.

As the light of the force field illuminated his thick face, Mnhei’sahe gasped. Looking at his unfocused eyes, that refused to make contact with hers out of fear, memories she didn't know she had ran wild in her mind. Memories of a younger man with a warm smile that spoke her name with love. Who told her stories and sung her to sleep and held her tight when she was scared. Memories that like so many others, she had let herself forget and hide so many long years ago. As a tear escaped her wide eyes, she gulped. Rendal hadn’t lied.

This was Dralath tr’Rul. The father she hadn’t truly seen since a childhood almost forgotten.

Weakly, she muttered under her breath as she called to him. “Father?”

Those eyes... those dark, sunken, sad eyes that flickered about so furtively came into focus at the sound of that word, and the derelict looked confused for a second. Then understanding dawned across his face, and when he spoke, his voice hoarse from screaming, he managed to get out the name. "M-Mnhei'sahe...?"

At the sound of her name coming from him, Dox shuddered and choked slightly on her tears as she replied with a cracked, rasp. "Ie... it's me, Father. Do... do you remember me?"

"No... no no no no no, why are you here, Mnhei? Your mother had you hidden away, far from all of this, so they couldn't find you!" the broken man sobbed, shaking his head. "It wasn't safe, it would never be safe for you..." Pausing, his eyes cleared, and he looked at her, truly looked at her, taking in the details of her face- her eyes, her cheeks, her jaw, her chin. "Look at you, all grown up," he whispered. "I missed it... I missed your whole life, and now here we are... they brought us back together only to die together..."

Listening, Mnhei’sahe did her best to try and put on a calm face through her tears, knowing that he was right and that there was nothing she could do. Instead, she forced a weak smile to her face to try to bring him at least a measure of comfort. “I’m… I’m here now, Father. I’ve… I’ve missed you. I didn’t even know how much I missed you, but I’m here. We’re here. We’re together. I’ve missed you so much. But Mother… she told me. She told me how much you… how much you loved me. She did.”

The defeated look in his eyes was painful to witness, as tears fell freely from them into his unkempt beard. Shaking his head, Dralath tr'Rul sniffled, then heaved a mighty sigh. "Everything I ever did was just to keep you safe, Mnhei'sahe. Please... no matter what happens, I beg of you... please believe that. Don't remember me like this... remember me from your mother's stories, of the man I was, whose intentions were noble, who lost everything just to try to save the most precious thing in the whole universe..."

Then, Rendal did the unexpected and dropped the forcefield. Dralath flinched as the cold Commander gestured inside Gingerly, he reached out an unsteady, dirty, green blood-encrusted hand to tentatively yet tenderly caress her cheek.

Then his eyes widened in shock, and he coughed. He struggled to remain on his feet, but he lacked the strength. As he slid to his knees before her, his hands sliding weakly down her bound arms, Mnhei'sahe Dox could see emerald blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he struggled to speak, to say something more. But there was no more time... not for Dralath tr'Rul, not in this life. Not as Riov Rendal's blade twisted in his back, causing his eyes to squint in one final expression of agony as her sword in his back ended his life. There on his knees, before his long-lost daughter, for whom he had sacrificed everything to keep safe... the last sight he would ever see.

The haughty Riov cleaned the green blood from her sword with a dueling rag, then tossed the rag onto his corpse. "I thought it only fitting that he spend his final moments in the arms of the one he valued more than his own life."

Looking down in shock, Mnhei’sahe knew what Rendal was going to do but still couldn’t process what had just happened. Her eyes fixed on his lifeless form on the deck plates in front of her, blood pooling around him. “I… I love you…” She whispered... the words that came too late.

In that frozen moment, it was only the two of them. Rendal and her Sub-Commander no longer existed. The restraints didn’t exist. It was only Mnhei’sahe and her father. But in her eyes, he was as he said... young and alive with hope and a warm smile. But back in the cold reality Mnhei’sahe desperately wanted to escape, she could only mutter to him weakly, “I’ll… I’ll remember.”

In that moment, time seemed to slow and stop just long enough for her to catch a glimpse of Masato Rei, the literal embodiment of Death itself, reaching down and lifting her father's soul, hale and hearty, looking just as he was in his prime, out of his body and vanishing into a soft light.

Completely oblivious to what had just transpired, Rendal sheathed her sword and motioned for Dralath's body to be disposed of. "It seems his purpose has finally come full circle. You know what I want and you now know what I will do to get it. When we reach ch'Rihan, my patience will wear thin so I suggest not risking your mother's life. And if she and your grandmother are not enough..."

The Romulan Royal pulled Mnhei'sahe's wedding bracelet out of one of her pockets. "We will pursue other avenues of persuasion."