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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2266436" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 219: The Face of the EnemyKet sat in the empty, colorless room directly across from Shadow. She was bound to the chair, drugged, and the visor was still over her face. And yet still, she struggled in a childlike way. No, she wasn’t going to succeed at breaking free, and she probably knew it...if, in fact, she could think through all of the drugs and the visor. But it was amazing that she still fought.    No. Actually it wasn’t. He would have been disappointed otherwise. She was trained as his replacement. As good as he was, and technically, supposed to be better. They had only participated in two missions together. In both, she had followed his orders and done the job they were given. But that didn’t matter to Ket then...he had already reached a point where his mental training had been broken.     It wasn’t something anyone else had done...he was simply too much of a freethinker to follow orders so blindly. And so, he had done what any young Alraxian in his situation would have done. But it was foolish, and because of his actions, the Mrrakesh captured him. She was not caught, however, and didn’t even attempt to free him. Not that she would. She was a perfect Tam-Day-U. She followed her orders, and did not deviate from them. Saving him from the Mrrakesh was an unnecessary risk.    Yet, despite knowing this, Ket was still bitter. He had not been able to understand why she could simply ignore everything and give up her free will. It was the first steps to his decision that the Alraxian Empire had to be dealt with for the way they treated him. But it was only the first. What the Mrrakesh did to him solidified it...torture was not an accurate description of the pain he experience at their hands.    Ket was broken. Destroyed. Killed, in a sense. Even he knew that the shell of a body he walked in now was not inhabited by the same person who had occupied it all those years ago. He was still Ket Halpak...but twisted and ruined by the Mrrakesh. His mind nothing like it once was. His entire life nothing like it should have been. The Mrrakesh enjoyed it so much...    “And its all your fault!” he suddenly screamed at her, lashing out with his claws across her torso angrily. The moment of rage passed, though, and he sat staring at her again.    His mind was destroyed and twisted by the Mrrakesh due to her inability to see what should be done...and his body, his tail disgraced and taken from him by her. Three times, she had the chance to kill him. Twice, she’d taken a piece of his tail and simply let him live. That was worse than leaving him to the Mrrakesh. At least then it was before she had broken from her training as he had. She had acted out of emotion...anger. It was revenge to leave him alive.    But for what? What had he ever done to her?! Again and again this damned woman scarred him and left for dead, but never once had he harmed her! Never! Never until it had been too much for him to bear! This really was all her fault! Without her, none of this would have ever happened to him!    Again, he reached over to rake his claws across her in anger. But this time, he stopped himself. Stopped himself...and reached over to press the switch on the visor near her ear. It disappeared, revealing a defeated, but still very defiant face that he knew all too well. She blinked in a very groggy fashion, but upon realizing where she was, growling dangerously and started struggling much more violently.    Ket simply looked into her eyes. There was the usual defiance there...as with the other things he’d come to recognize over the years. But there was something else. He could feel it, too. Narrowing his eyes, he said simply, “You don’t even know why you fight with me anymore, do you?”    Her struggling stopped, and she glared right back into his eyes. She didn’t say anything, however. Perhaps it was because of the drugs...perhaps it was due to something else. Or perhaps, she simply had nothing to say. It didn’t matter. Leaning forward(but still out of her reach just in case), Ket finished his prying into her mind, “You’re even more twisted than I am! Isn’t it interesting? The Mrrakesh did it to me...but your own people did it to you. Ruined you and made you into less than you were...just because of the colour of your eyes.”    Shadow growled at him again and suddenly lashed out by sending a wave of the Force at him. Thankfully, Ket had been expecting this, and was also strong enough to resist the powerful attack, “Silent, as usual, I see. Just like when you the Mrrakesh have me. Or do you even remember that? I doubt you do. I doubt you even know anything about the Empire you fight for!”    He was just working himself up again, and becoming and more angry in the process. And so, before she could respond, he reached over and hit the switch on the visor again. In a moment, she was drowned back into nothingness. Yet she still sat tall in the same strong position. Ket sighed.    There was something very different about her than there ever had been. Something that Ket couldn’t pinpoint, and when he almost did, couldn’t make sense of it. But it didn’t matter. In less than an hour...the Empress would arrive and he would kill her. Then, he would have to kill Marix. Somehow, he had a feeling it was going to be much harder to do. Perhaps have Nine do it...no. No, this was not some faceless tool. This was Marix. He would show her respect even if she showed him none.    And then...and then he could finally leave this place. Go with Nine somewhere quiet and safe from the Mrrakesh and the Alraxians and actually live. But before that, he would have to find his son again. That boy did not deserve the pain he would experience in the Empire...and despite everything, he was Ket’s son. Maybe then things would finally be alright, and he could silence the savage voices in his mind.    Maybe.</blockquote>

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