Cleaning Up

"I am Valkyrie Fox, Inquisitor of the Order of the Magi. You are to surrender immediately for judgment," Valkyrie called inside the warehouse from her position by the door. "If you do, you will be taken into custody and treated with respect. I demand you comply." I hope they're willing to be reasonable, she thought to herself.

Valkyrie heard muffled conversation from inside the warehouse. She couldn't make out what was being said, but the presence of conversation hopefully meant they were at least discussing her demands. Not to mention it gave the Seekers more time to get into position if worse came to worse.

"I am William Tyler of the ISS," a voice called to her. "We are under the direct command of Charlotte Griffin and demand you remove yourself from this area under penalty of death. This is an ISS operation. You have no jurisdiction here, and you've attacked and killed two Wardens in service to Her Royal Highness, Empress Celeste Belmonte. Failure to leave will constitute a crime punishable by execution!"

"Aren't they fancy?" Stella giggled. "Wonder how long he had to study the handbook to get that down properly? Of course you know he's lying."

"Obviously." Valkyrie shrugged. Best to see if she could keep him talking until it was time, however. "Tell me, Mr. Tyler," Valkyrie raised her voice to be heard over the faint whistle of the wind sweeping down the alley. "Are you aware that all areas within the boundaries of Bastion are shared jurisdiction?"

"You killed a Warden!" the man shot back angrily.

"So did you," Valkyrie replied. "Gut shot doesn't mean less dead in the end if we can't help her, you know."

"We didn't do that! You did!" the man yelled. Valkyrie cocked an eyebrow suspiciously at Stella.

"The shot came from inside!" she sputtered defensively. "I swear!"

"We didn't do it!" the man yelled again. Valkyrie could hear rustling as the men repositioned themselves, most likely trying to create a firing line.

"Yes, you fucking did!" Stella screamed back in frustration. Valkyrie glanced back toward the end of the alley and raised one hand slightly.

"We go on my word," Valkyrie said, loudly enough for those inside to hear. "You really should have surrendered peacefully," she warned. 

"The ISS doesn't bow to the whims of the Order!" came the slightly hesitant reply.

"You can stop any time, you know." Valkyrie chuckled dryly. "You're no more agents of the ISS than I am a Dryad."

"W-What?" 

Ah, rattled him. Valkyrie smirked.

"You're just a cleaning crew," Valkyrie called matter-of-factly. "Here to make all the dirty bits nice and tidy so we wouldn't be any the wiser. How were you going to fix the door ripped off the hinges? A new door? Don't you think that's suspicious in and of itself?"

"A cleaning crew?" Stella guffawed so loudly and hard she began to snort. "You guys are just a fucking cleaning crew? Oh, the gods, that's funny as shit!"

"This is your last chance," Valkyrie called to the men inside the warehouse. "Surrender."

"We know what happens in the Archon's dungeons! We'd rather die!" William shouted back.

"Yeah. Me, too," Valkyrie whispered quietly, wincing at the man's words. Valkyrie raised one hand over her head before bringing it down sharply.

The men tensed, preparing for the assault. The main door exploding inward behind their position shocked and stunned them. They turned toward the twisted door as men in dark clothes rushed inside. The Seekers opened fire immediately, their pistols belching fire, smoke, and death. One of the crew screamed and clutched his shoulder as the metal ball struck and shattered the bone while another pitched over backward, the side of his face exploding in a spray of bone and blood.

"About fucking time!" Stella called eagerly. "Time to play, cleaners!" Pistol at the ready, Stella rushed into the darkened warehouse.

"Gods damn it." Valkyrie scowled, following quickly after the smaller girl. Her fears of Stella getting hurt were unfounded as the battle, as was typical in situations where the weak faced the strong, was over quickly.

The Seekers had discarded their pistols and moved into melee range, the long, heavy swords swept from the leather sheaths at their waist to cut down one of the remaining men while Stella's first and only shot slammed into the chest of another, sending him tumbling backward where he lay in a heap.

"I said no unnecessary deaths, for fuck's sake. That's three unnecessary deaths. Can't you people count?" Valkyrie fumed, her pistols bursting apart in a shower of obsidian mist and vanishing as she released the magic holding them together. Valkyrie knelt beside the downed cleaner still alive. His shadowed eyes stared up at her in fear and pain, his legs moving weakly in an animalistic and desperate struggle against the blinding agony of his splintered bones. "Check the others to see if they're alive and for signs of weapons," she ordered. 

Assuming he survived, the man would never use his arm again. The humerus bone had been crushed, and the socket was a ragged hole. The man whimpered and tried to staunch the flow of blood unsuccessfully with his other hand, eyes staring in glazed horror at the ragged mess his arm had become.

"William?" Valkyrie asked. The man shook his head dully, glancing over at the body with the destroyed face lying crumpled against a crate nearby. "Ah, I see. You're in bad shape, but whether you live or die is up to you. Tell us what you know about what happened here, and I'll see you brought to the Church. Refuse, and I'll have Stella rip your mind to shreds, we get the information anyway, and you die in agony not remembering your own name, let alone whether or not you have loved ones who might miss you. Are we clear?" The man grimaced as a fresh wave of agony ripped through him, but he finally nodded.

"We're j-just c-cleaners, like you figured out," the man croaked. "The ISS sent us here with the Wardens after a Discharge."

"You expect me to believe that?" Valkyrie scowled at the man, her voice cold and ruthless. "What happened here was no Discharge. We know there was an eruption. Now tell me what you know."

"I o-only know what I was told!" the man protested weakly.

"Which Hunter Group were you assigned to clean up after?" Valkyrie demanded.

"I don't know!" the man hissed through his pain.

"Always the fuckin' hard way," Valkyrie growled, standing, and staring down at the man. "Ok Stella, you're up."

"My pleasure!" Stella bounced over. "1-26?"

"It's 26, now?"

"I'm getting better all the time!" Stella beamed proudly.

"I don't care at this point. I just want answers." Valkyrie shrugged, guilt gnawing at her.

Stella moved her feet away from the spreading pool of blood and smiled down at the man on the ground below her.

"This is gonna hurt, boy-o," she warned him. Stella closed her eyes and lifted her hands from her sides until they were even with her hips, palms down. Faint orange tendrils, like spiders' webs, faintly translucent in the dim light of the warehouse spread from Stella's fingers quickly, coiling and twisting as they touched the man's skin, vanishing into his body like needles, burrowing under the skin, through his now gaping mouth and into his eyes.

The man screamed in horror and renewed agony as the tendrils dove upward toward his brain. He screamed again, his one good hand clawing at his face heedlessly, his ruined arm twitching as it tried to follow suit. Valkyrie clenched her jaw in disgust as Stella toyed with her prey. Gradually his frantic movements slowed and stilled, and his hand dropped to his side nervelessly.

"The ISS trained him pretty well," Stella said admiringly. "Not well enough, obviously, but pretty well."

"What's your name?" Valkyrie demanded of the man lying on the ground in front of her.

"Albert James Mullably," the man droned, blood and tears streaking his ravaged face from where he'd torn gouges into his skin with his fingernails. His eyes were frantic, like a dying deer caught in a hunter's snare with no way to escape, but his body was limp and docile. Valkyrie couldn't imagine the horror of being aware your very thoughts were being torn from you but being unable to control yourself.

"Why were you here, Albert?" If Valkyrie was honest with herself, Stella's power terrified her. Valkyrie might have been a murderer, but what Stella could do was downright horrifying. The fact she enjoyed it made it doubly so.

"We were called in to clean up a Discharge," Albert replied blandly. Valkyrie glanced at Stella who grinned maniacally, driving her tendrils deeper into the man's mind. She tore away memories, thoughts, dreams, and desires as she went deeper, leaving only agony and horror. Albert's lips pulled back taut against his teeth in a soundless grimace of abject terror, but otherwise he remained where he was, unmoving.

"The ISS has some blocks in place, but none strong enough to keep me out," Stella finally reported. "He at least believes he's telling the truth."

"Who was the Hunter Group you were assigned to clean up after?" Valkyrie asked of the man dying horribly at her feet.

"R-r-r-r-r-r- "Albert began, starting to shake uncontrollably. His limbs jerked and thrashed as the blocks the ISS had put into place fought back against the Controller's horrid power. Stella's face grew hard and fierce as she worked to take apart the ISS defenses. Albert's feet jerked as his brain fought vainly against the Controller's intrusion. His body played out the struggle through shaking tremors and spasmodic jerking. Even the Seekers who had seen and done horrible things in their time stared in revulsion as the battle played out inside the cleaner's mind.

"Who was the Hunter Group you were assigned to clean up after?" Valkyrie asked again. One final tremor coursed through Albert's body. The war was lost. The cost incalculable.

"Regula Praetoria," he whispered, his eyes now dead in the dim light. Valkyrie grinned in delight. She'd heard the name, of course. Many times over. Regula Praetoria was the ISS' premium Hunter Group.

"Where are they—" Valkyrie began before Stella cut her off with a shake of her head.

"He's ten pounds of brick in a skin sack at this point." She gestured to the man who was no longer human in any recognizable form.

"The one outside died!" Sira proclaimed, raising her hand jauntily in a salute.

"Gods damn it." Valkyrie scowled. "Which one was armed?"

"None of them, ma'am," one of the Seekers quickly replied, the gruesome silvery skull mask he wore glinting in the poor light.

"We need to see if we have a whisperer inside Praetoria," Valkyrie barked angrily before turning her gaze to Stella. "Outside! Now! We need to talk."

"It wasn't me!" Stella defended herself.