Chapter 90 Struggle

*Warning: Some context might seem extreme for some readers*

***

--- Krysist Command Post, Havcristen, The Greater Elies Region ---

October 31th, 2025

As Sarah gets tossed around by five men like a rag doll. After being pushed around between them, she lands on the floor hard.

She is panting heavily as her body gives in from being exhausted from last night fighting. When that strange looking beast hit her, it felt a big bruise on her chest.

She looks down at her chest to see the pain that bruised area at. It is easy to see the blue and black area on her skin since these give men have been stripping her upper body. They have been treating like a game since they never have seen western clothes before. Ripping off her tactical vest, then her jacket, shirt and then her bra.

She looks up and sees them cheering as they check out her bra as they have never seen one before. Seeing that reminded her how backward these people are. Adult men acting like ten-year-old boys just discovering girls, pathetic she thinks.

When Krysist took her to this command post, where it is, he tossed her into this makeshift jail cell. No windows and only this one source of torchlight outside her cell.

Sarah was only able to get about an hour of sleep before these men came at her and take her to a more private area.

She saw that they were angry at her, saying how many of their comrades they have lost. That they are going to make her suffer for their deaths.

She sees their interest in her bra is over and their attention comes back to her.

As one of them grabs her and lifts her up by the shoulder, she summons whatever strength she has and rams her foot into the man's leg. She then kicks another in the balls as she struggles to get free.

"Let go of me you bastard," She tries to say. Her voice is tired and choppy from when Krysist arm choked her before.

She nearly breaks free but then feels this hard-backhand slap across her face.

All her strength suddenly disappears after being hit across the face. With that, two soldiers lift her up by both arms and drop her on the room wooden table. They held her down on the table as her legs hang down.

She then feels them molesting her breasts as they hold her down. She feels the others in the room grab her by the pants. One of the cuts her belt off and starts cutting up her pants as this other man begins ripping the pieces off.

Knowing what is happening, she tries to kick them away. Barely to see now, one of the soldiers grabs her leg to stop her resistance. With her resistance control, she feels them taking her pants off.

She tries to fight them but surrenders to the idea that she is going to get raped by these Imperialist soldiers, and that there is nothing she can do. There are too many and they are too strong.

This fifth man walks up and starts to get ready to rape her, laughing and describing what he is going to do to her.

She then feels the man that is holding her leg lets go of her. And then suddenly the two men that were holding her down stop molesting her and let go of her arm.

She catches a breath, just please the assault seems to stop, even if it is just for a moment.

She hears this fighting commotion around her, so she looks up to see what is happening. She sees this soldier get tossed aside and rams against the wall.

The two men that were holding her down backs away, their facial expression shows that they are scared.

She looks back and to her surprise sees Krysist standing there, holding onto one of his men as he punches one of his men into the face. He then tosses that man onto the floor.

"What is the meaning of this!" Krysist yells in a ferrous tone.

"General, what are you… we are…" One of the men tries to say.

"We were taking our prize from the attack. After we lost so many brothers yesterday." Another soldier said.

She sees this fire rage in his eyes after hearing that.

"She is the enemy. She deserves it." Another soldier said before being punched in the face.

"What are we!" Krysist demands.

There's pure silence in the room. She looks around and sees this fear but respect in the men's eyes. She sees Krysist look at them all, waiting for someone to respond.

"We are soldiers sir." A man said.

"Yes. We are soldiers, not monsters. Not goblins. Not Minotaur's. Not even those incestual bastards in Sadera. We are the Legion! You will act like it. We fight for the Empire because if it isn't us who do, then the world falls to collapse and what you are doing happens to your families. We maintain stability in a world that wishes to crush us." Krysist said as he walks around.

She watches and notices that fear transforms into a form of pride. She looks back at Krysist as he speaks. In a strange way, he reminds her of Sharpe. Inspiring people around them to be better, rally patriotism and inject his values into others.

"We have the task, and we will accept it with pride," Krysist said with excitement in his voice.

"But the enemy is stronger than us."

Krysist looks to that man and smirks. "And yet we made them bleed. More than anyone else has done so far. Now go and do your Duty!"

As they start walking away, he makes one last point. "Also, the American woman is my prisoner. If I see anyone challenge my will again, I will personally slit your throat."

As they leave the room, he looks to her and walks over.

Krysist grabs her by the arm and forces her to walk behind him. "This is why a woman has no place in wars." He said in an off comment, annoyed by the situation.

She tries to find something to respond but decides again it. She is simply happy that she was not about to be raped by them. All she wants is to sleep.

She gets tossed back into the cell she was in before. She falls on the ground, landing on this straw bed. She slowly sits up and sits down, leaning against the wall. She holds herself up with one arm and the other arm covers her breast.

She looks up to Krysist as he stands in the cell with her, debating if she should thank him or not. After a short debate inside her head, she decides it would be better too since he didn't have to.

"Thank you." She said in a tired scratchy voice.

She watches as Krysist kneels, looking at her.

"No need to apologies woman."

"Were I… am from. We thank good deeds…," She responds with a painful cough.

"How are your wounds?"

She takes a breath, feeling the pain of her body. He just looks at him, not wanting to engage in his game.

She then notices him looking at something else, her breasts. "Enjoying the view?" She said, trying to be strong and definite.

"They are bigger than most women in this world."

His eyes show that he is not googling at them like those five men were. Krysist seems to be analyzing them like a science project.

"Two percent of milk. Got to love the First World."

After saying that, she wonders why she responded like that. That is when she thinks about Sharpe and all the stupid things, he would say in a situation like this. She always thought it was strange when he said that he is an 'Honest Liar', but it seems there is some truth to it.

She learned that it is a defensive tactic for situations like this and that she has picked up some of those traits. Answering a question in a truther manner however not giving any real information of value. It is not as much of a silly game but a survival tool he does.

She can see his tired expression, not fully understanding what she just said but he understands that she did not actually lie to him. This allowed her to face him with a straight face.

"Interesting. Your world is far different than ours. I do wonder how that came to be and what other wonders back on your world," Krysist said, not looking directly at her.

She gets a look at him now, seeing bruises, dirt, sweat, dry blood. While he still maintains his soldier demeanor, he looks exhausted too.

Based on the fight she saw in the recording and off his current appearance, it seems her boss gave him one hell of a fight. She smirks on the thought that he had to use her as a personal shield.

"You're smirking."

"He beat you."

"That is one way of looking at it."

She tilts her head, confused by that. Her brain is still fuzzy from the rape attempt and last night battle. "Don't play games with me. I am in no mood."

"We had a glorious fight; your master is a worthy opponent," Krysist said.

"Glorious? Is this all that is about? Your obsession with my CO is just for some personal pride? And I am not his slave." She said disbelief by what he said.

He waits to respond to her question. "I never called you a slave. I remember your voice. From that talking black box. You serve him willing, but you still serve him which makes you his master."

She is confused by his logic but decided to drop it, too tired to debate a pointless debate. "You didn't answer my question."

He thinks about her question and then smiles. "So, you saw the first fight. I do not know how but I can believe it based on what I have seen with your technology. That was a good fight."

"Yes, I have chosen your Major Sharpe as the man who represents your world. I will face him and determine what future this world shall become."

"You're kidding? All this for your ego? He is just a man serving his country."

He smirks hearing that, then pointing a dagger. "You don't believe that, but I can see it in your eyes. Before you told the truth about your breasts, now you are lying to me."

She takes a tired breath, realizing she walked into his trap. She is starting to see why Sharpe took him so seriously. Was it like this when he was dealing with that Mexican drug cartel that fucked him up so much?

She decides to stop playing his game and just go with the conversation. "You are right. That is why he is going to beat you."

"You believe that?"

She glances down as her vision gets fuzzy a little. She looks up back at him. "Yes. I know for a fact he will beat you. You do not know him and how far he will go."

Hearing that, Krysist stands up. "You love him, don't you?"

She looks up at him. She wanted to answer yes but she sees that he is now planning to use her as bait. She remains quiet and glances away realizing that she is part of his game and there's nothing she can do.

"I see," Krysist said as he crosses his arm. "You are stronger than you look. Staying loyal and true to the end. I did not intend to take the lone he loves."

She looks up at him, surprise and confused about what he is saying.

Seeing that he got her attention again, he looks down at her. "This war will end. One way or another this war will end. However, we are fighting in the manner of how it loses. Now, I must prepare for his coming attack."

As she watches Krysist walk away, there is one thing that is bothering her.

"General."

"Hmm?"

"Why did you stop them?"

Krysist hesitant to respond, like he did not know how to respond. It is like he is debating to open.

In his eyes, she can see the truth. This is not about ego or pride. It is that Krysist highly respects Sharpe as an opponent, as a worthy challenge.

Most honorable men have a secret code of honor deep down inside them. It is their way to fight someone however also show respect to their enemy. A special way that they communicate when fighting.

His saving her showed how much he respected Sharpe, to the point he willing to protect Sharpe's friends and loves ones.

Growing up she always thought it was silly that some men need to fight it out to understand each other, but she sees it right now. And that is the only reason she is somewhat safe right now.

Krysist just closes the door and walks away.

She watches him walk away, knowing what he is about to do. He is going to plan for when her people come for her. Most likely it will be Sharpe, which means they will fight again.

She lays down on the straw and gets into the fetal position, holding herself tight. Her body is freezing from being stripped to near nothing. She begins to cry softly as she comforts herself.

--- Few Hours later ---

Sharpe is sitting down as he checks out the scope on his Rifle, trying to keep himself busy. There are only two things he wants to do, be alone and go after Sarah. They are impossible right now and it is driving him crazy.

In his opinion, the worse part of battles in the aftermath once everything calms down. During the action everything is happening so fast, you have a mission and that is what you think about. Everything is simple and anything pass that might get you killed and mission failure.

After all that, you have the time to think and wonder what you did right or wrong. Right now, all he can think about is last night's mission. Everything that happened and how it ended up accomplishing nothing except destruction and Sarah's abduction.

He feels a pull on his left jacket but does not look, already knowing it is Rory. Her hand is holding on to his jacket, making sure he does not go Gung Ho and go solo.

He would not do that, even though every pulse in his body is telling him to. Ahold habit from his Delta days. Never sitting around, be active, engage and not let the enemy take the initiative.

"Sharpe, you need to go to sleep," Rory said in a motherly tone, very worried about how little he is paying attention to his health.

"I am fine Rory. I have been trained to go without sleep if needed for a few days." He responds, finishing his adjustments.

He is partly telling the truth, his last line of work you sometimes must do an extended amount of time on missions. Sleeping might result in death. It has been a while since he last tried it but last time he checked; he could go three days without sleep. However, he needed a week in the hospital to recover from that.

"That is not the point," Rory said.

"You do look like crap, sir. You smell, you look tired, and your clothes are bloody and dirty," Tuka said, siding with Rory.

"Yup. You are going to get sick and then how will you help when the time comes," Rory adds.

He lowers his M4A1 and looks to the two of them. "Even if I wanted to but my mind is fully active."

After saying that, he gets an ear full of Rory, complaining how stubborn he is.

After chewing him out for a bit, Rory feels the warmth and looks forward to her. She sees Tuka using her fire magic to start a fire.

"Thank you Tuka," She said.

"You are welcome, Rory. I am going to rain soon, and it is cold so I figured a fire might be needed." Tuka responds with a big smile.

"How do you know that?" Rory asked.

"Because she is a High Elf, they are deeply connected to nature," Lelei said as she sits down with a try of food in both of her hands. "Besides, we both heard a weather report on one of their radios."

Then Lelei passes out the MREs she is carrying and some water. "Here you all go. You must be hungry."

He looks at the MRE bag.

"Major Sharpe, if you are not going to take it then I will eat it," Lelei said it. "It will make Rory quiet."

"Yup," Rory said with pride but then glances away, thinking on what Lelei just said. "Wait…"

He takes a breath and takes the MRE.

He understands what they are doing, First Lieutenant Sarah Rose somewhat came to be a mother figure the three, now four girls. Often correcting him for them after he told some insane joke but saying in a way that where it could be real.

Not just for the four girls but for the rest of the team. Most people do their jobs and that is it, its Human nature is to do the minimal. She did more than that without being asked.

"Thank you Lelei. Thank you to you all. I understand what you're doing, I appreciate it." He said.

"Why are you being so down about this Sharpe. She is going to be fine." Lelei said.

"It is the Empire Lelei. They probably have…" He decides not to finish that sentence.

Rory smiles and tugs his jacket a little. "Don't worry Jackson. When the brass figures out where to hit, we will be ready."

He looks over to Rory, always the enthusiastic one.

The problem is that he does not believe in himself anymore more.

"I love all of your positivity girls, but you don't understand it. I just, cannot do it. No matter what I do I just cannot do it. First Mexico and now this."

He lost two of his men and three farming civilians, all being burned alive or hacked into pieces. All because he could not complete his mission, because he screwed up. He was plainly beaten by his opponent.

Now on an alien world, he has run into someone who just took his first friend in the Rangers away. This time it is not someone hiding in the shadows waiting to strike but right in front of him. No matter how hard he fights, how hard he plans and all his ten years of experience, nothing seems to measure up.

He can see they all wanted to respond, probably something encouraging. "Look. This is all on me, I fucked up. The reason why I did all of this was that I was trying to stop a threat. I was trying to prevent this from happening, but I caused it. What they do to her is on me and I can see a way to fix it. I failed, again."

He pauses for a moment as he thinks about Selina, wondering how he will explain that Sarah is gone. He even wonders if the time ever comes, could he protect her?

"Sharpe, you had one bad mission," Tuka said. "My people had eight years of failure."

"What Tuka is saying is we all gave it our best. You told me once the enemy gets a vote in battle." Lelei said.

"Yeah, don't sell yourself short. You have done a lot of good," Rory adds.

He listens and understands what they are saying. He finds it fascinating and strange while they have been followed him this long. It has been going well and even been fun.

Krysist has threatened to harm them before and now he has proven he can follow through on that threat. For the first time, he does not know he can protect them.

---

Princess Pina gets out of what the American soldier a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV for short. So far, she has not figured out why these Other Worlders come up with strange names. Everything seems to be taken literally with them. No creativity in their naming process.

When she first arrived here with First Lieutenant Sarah Rose, Major Sharpe forced her to go to the Army headquarters with Lieutenant General Charles Stanford.

To her surprise, he seemed to be a level hearted nice fellow. She was expected this brass over the top general.

From there she saw the fighting around Combat Outpost Serenity, and it looked intense. She was surprised how effective her people surprised the NATO forces here, feeling a little pride in that. She also was impressed by how well NATO countered the attack.

Stanford explained to her that he fought these types of wars before when he was a lower-ranking officer. A place called the Middle East, a desert region. That his people fought guerrillas like this before and learned how to beat them.

She follows the Lieutenant General as he heads to this other Officer.

"Colonel Yang, nice to see you," Stanford said.

"Nice to see you, two Lieutenant General," Yang said. He then notices her. "I see you brought Princess Pina here."

"She assisted," Stanford answers.

She smiles at that. It was more like she would not shut up until she could come. She did not travel all this way here, alone just to sit on the sidelines.

"Give me a report. How was it?" Stanford asked.

"Eight dead, twenty-three wounded and one MIA. The latest account, we killed or wounded about five hundred enemy combatants," Yang reports.

"Heavy toll, look worse on the screens," Stanford said.

"Should have been more however we were bunkered down pretty heavy around the city. It was a good thing we have response teams ready to go." Yang said.

As she listens, she was not that shocked to hear the death tolls. They consider losing eight soldiers as a major sacrifice.

"I heard about the MIA. I looked at the footage from Major Sharpe and First Lieutenant Rose helmet cameras." Stanford said.

"I was their sir. Nothing could have been done. She was in the wrong place, the wrong time. Should have taken the threat more seriously." Yang said.

"I am sorry to interrupt you two but from what I can see, you did everything you could." Pina interrupts.

She sees they turn around and look directly at her. Seeing that, she starts to get nervous.

"As I told Sharpe, General Krysist is a resourceful man. He does not play by our rules. He nearly brought the Empire to its knees just with sheer will alone. It cost the Empire many lives and blood to force him into exile." She said, trying to be helpful.

"He told us about your conversation," Yang replied.

"He did?" She said back.

"Yes. He was surprised how to open about it you were." Yang said.

"Your highness, do you know what he might do with our MIA? Should we expect the usual Imperial treatment?" Stanford asked.

She looks at the Major General, offended by his question.

But then she thinks about it and understands his context by it. Depending on who the person is, the Empire would normally do is enslave, torture, force them into the Army or whatever idea that comes to mind. Nothing ever would be present to what the Americans call prisoners. That has been one of the bean hurdles in creating peace.

This is Krysist though, the traditional rules do not apply to him.

"I don't fully know; he isn't like most generals in the Empire. Born in the arena, he uses whatever he can for victory, whatever victory is to him."

"That doesn't help Pina," Yang said.

"Actually, that does Colonel." Stanford corrects. "The trenches, luring us to this city so he can shorten the range of our weapons. That rescue mission of Tuka people(1). Using our trap against us. All of it was well thought of."

"Expect when he took Sarah. On your screen, he looked desperate. Like he was out of options. As you said, wrong place and wrong time." She adds.

She crosses her arms and glances down, thinking. "I don't know what his plan is, or what his goals are. He operates independently. He has a thing for Sharpe and most likely he will use her to get to him."

She takes a breath and looks back. "But that probably wouldn't matter because the Major is going after him."

She notices they did not respond in the way she thought they would.

"Your highness, we are on stand down for now. We have to find them first and there are still hostiles within our side of the city." Yang said.

"Seal Team-3 will be joining us to conduct a rescue mission. However, they are currently on a mission in Algnus, clearing out pockets of resistance. They should be here in two days," Stanford said.

Yang looks to Stanford, annoyed by that. "Last time one of my men was taken prisoner, they crucified him by that point(2). God knows what they will do with one of my female Rangers."

"Ok, but what is Sharpe going to do?" She asked again, confused by the issue.

Since she meant Sharpe, she has seen him as a nothing stopping force. He would never sit back and let the Empire hold one of his people. She learned that the hard way.

"He is under direct orders to stand down princess. Besides, I don't think he is all there anymore." Yang said.

She looks up at Yang as he explains what is going on in Sharpe's head. How his confidence in himself seems to be shot.

As she listens, it would just annoy her. The man Colonel Yang is describing is not the one she has seen so far.

She looks over and sees their position, Sharpe sitting by a girl. Around him are those three girls, always tagging along.

She decides to walk away and head over to Sharpe's position.

She sees those girls turning around and seeing her coming. Rory giving a not approving glare to her. Right now, she does not care, she has come too far and been through so much to care right now.

She walks right to pass them and stands right in front of Sharpe, eating something called an MRE.

When he looks up and stares at her, she can see in his eyes that everything Colonel Yang said is true. What she saw in Italica seems to be gone. This man, whoever he is, looks defeated.

"I don't believe this." She said as she raises her hand and back slaps Sharpe in the face.

He moves to the side and places his hand on his cheek. He then looks at her, looking ferrous. He then stands up and looks down at her, being about a head length taller than her. "What the hell."

She looks up at him, not showing a sign of weakness. "What the hell indeed. Who the hell is this?"

She sees he does not understand her counter-question.

"I said who the hell is this? You are not the man that saved us at Italica." She said.

She can see that he wants to respond but the proper does not seem to come out.

Not wanting to lose the imitative and not wanting to give Rory or the other two a chance to kill her for assaulting him, she continues pressing on him.

"I did not travel a quarter of the Empire, go through hell and back just so I can see this. I did all that because of you. No, for him. The man I have grown to respect would never allow this to happen. Krysist has one of your teammates and you are just sitting here." She said in a strong tone.

"I can't go, I am under orders. You are acting like I enjoy this. This is the Army; we have orders and structure. I cannot just go out and do as I please." Sharpe responds.

"I do not recall that stopping you at the throne room Major Sharpe." She counters.

After saying that she notices a positive reaction from him, so she presses harder. "You killed half of the guards and beaten my brother up for what he did to Noriko. You were the one who threw away a peace agreement between our two worlds for her, remember?"

She places her figure on his vest and looks directly in his eyes. "You did it because you knew it was right. You stayed and saved Italica when you did not have to. You rescued people."

"Well hold on…" Sharpe tries to say, wanting to get in a say.

She blocks him, not wanting him to speak. "No, since I met you, you have given me more lectures than my father ever has! You are going to listen to me right now and that is it!"

"I begged your friend to come here, just to see you and try to help. The man I know would never stand aside and let the enemy hold on of his own. He would do everything possible to win. Not for glory or personal interest, not for his name to be remembered but because that is what was best for his team and country and everyone else around him."

"The Major Sharpe I know wouldn't be doing what you are doing now because of a setback. He is a leader, an example. That is why I risked so much because I respect that. And same with everyone around you. Or has that been a lie all this time?"

After saying that, she turns to the side and walks off, done with whoever this man is.

Reference:

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(1)Chapter 73

(2)Chapter 34

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