“Begin!!”
Didn’t really matter who said it. One of the eliminators, no doubt. Either way, it didn’t accomplish anything. They were surrounded by force fields and the eliminators tied to Damon’s purse strings. A bunch of mercenaries. People who had long since abandoned their ethics in the pursuit of financial gain.
Or personal gain.
Sage folded her arms and bit her lip as she shuffled uncomfortably. She winced at the wound in her shoulder, but that wasn’t why she was so distraught. Pain wasn’t even that big a deal anymore. Her hand hurt like hell, but it had just become so much noise, filtered out along with everything else.
She was friends with a mercenary. A man who’d killed countless people, and had on dozens of occasions when it wasn’t even necessary. But she had stayed with Vad, despite his many atrocities.
But, then, that wasn’t really it. Vad didn’t kill the changeling or the namek. Or Tamsin. Sage squeezed her eyes shut. She was just a little girl. It was an accident. They all were. But... Sage started grinding her teeth.
Were they really?
The cryomancer turned her eyes to the girl next to her. To Ashe. Sage’s eyes welled with guilt. Her lip trembled with unspoken apology. She had abandoned her, obscuring herself in the Northern Lights. All Ashe wanted to do was be a friend.
“Hold on,” Sophia suddenly interrupted. Sage turned to look at her, and found Alexander pointing a gun at her, and another at one of the eliminators. Hollywood, she thought he was called. “We don’t have to fight each other, do we?” her head swiveled to Alexander. “I don’t... I don’t to fight you again.”
Ace took a drag off his cigarette, and held his breath for a very long moment, before releasing the noxious gas out of the corner of his mouth. He flicked the butt to the street beside him, and trained the Israeli pistol from Sophia onto Kristanna. “Me either.”
Sage’s eyes flickered from Sophia to Ace, and then back to Sophia. What they were suggesting was against the rules! They had to fight each other. That’s what Dante’s Abyss was.
She gazed at Sophia for a moment. If not for her, Sage wouldn’t have lasted a moment in the Friend or Foe tournament. She had risked so much when she didn’t have to, to keep Sage safe. To protect her. The girl glanced over at the bubblegum blond beside her. Ashe wasn’t as capable as Sophia was, but she was certainly a friend.
Sage bit her lip again. She shook her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t kill them. Fake or not, could she live with the blood of these people on her hands? The people she owed so much? If there was even a chance that this lunatic plan would succeed, she would have to try.
Before she could decide what to do next, Alexander opened fire. Both hand cannons bucked as the sliders slammed backwards. Tongues of flame momentarily ensnared the enormous bullets as the whirled out of their barrels, covered in a sheen of shimmering energy.
The bullets hit their marks, crashing into the foreheads of both Hollywood and Kristanna. But they did nothing. Ace willed them to explode, but they instead became inert, and fell harmlessly to the concrete at their feet.
With a growl, the badly battered man unleashed a salvo of energy-infused .50 Action Express rounds, pulling the triggers until the slides locked open and the triggers clicked uselessly, empty casings jangling off the concrete at his feet. The psychokinetically-enhanced bullets screamed to their targets, but all of them bounced uselessly off of them, just as before.
“What the fuck-??”
Sophia unleashed a sphere of energy, but it fizzled out just before making contact with the Hollywood.
“Told you,” Norris sneered, staring down his nose at Alexander. “You’re all going to fight, four on four. Or we’ll kill you.”
“We... we can’t hurt them,” Ashe murmured. Sage nodded, thinking the very same thing. Already, she and the other three had turned to face one another. There was going to be fighting, it seemed, or the eliminators would destroy them all.
The hybrid took a deep breath, and then fixed her eyes on Ace. He didn’t seem interested in fighting. It looked like he was biding his time. He was breathing hard, and was obviously in very rough shape. He must have been in excruciating pain. Sage could have easily restored him, she knew, but that wasn’t what she was going to do. No...
“Sage-” Ashe had caught her uncharacteristically hard stare. “...Why are you doing this?”
The blue haired girl stiffened, and shot a surprisingly cold glance at her friend. “Why are you doing this??”
They were a good distance from the other two. Out of earshot, at least, and the eliminators had given them space. Ashe still didn’t find all the eyes on her to be much of a comfort. “Sage, I’m just... you’re hurt. I just want to know why.”
“And I don’t want to tell you!” Sage suddenly roared as a frigid gust punctuated her seriousness. Ashe braced herself against the chill, but she was unfazed. She reached out, and took hold of the doctor’s shoulders, ignoring the fact that they were supposed to be in a fight to the death. Alexander still seemed content to delay.
“Why not?! I thought we were friends!” Ashe shouted. “That’s what friends do, Sage! They talk!!”
Sophia looked on with concern, but seemed worried to interfere. Perhaps she wanted to give them their space. Sage wasn’t sure. Ashe shook her.
“What do you want from me?!” the Valium addict retorted, breaking her friend’s hold on her and turning away, but Ashe grabbed her shoulder, spinning the girl back around.
“I want you to fucking talk to me!!” she and Sage were both stunned at Ashe’s choice in words. “I just- you’ve been all standoffish the whole time you’ve been here,” she continued, trying to work past the awkwardness of the moment. “Obviously something’s up.”
Sage just shook her head and closed her eyes, for what must have been the millionth time since she was first teleported to Dante’s Abyss. She took a deep breath, and then looked at her friend. “I... joined this tournament, because I was promised I could find someone if I won.”
“But you hate hurting people-”
“It’s not like that,” the crystal haired hybrid interrupted. “His name is Sol. He,” Sage had hoped to just push through what needed to be said, but found herself choking on her words, instead. She began to sob, but forced her way forward. “...He raped me.”
Not knowing what else to do, Ashe embraced the doctor, who burst into tears, her whole body racked by her sobbing.
“I-It wasn’t just him!” she sniffed. “I was just a kid. When I- when I was- it was my-”
“...Sage?” Ashe tried to remain as calm as possible. “Slow down.”
Sage just nodded, knowing it wouldn’t do any good since Ashe’s head was over her shoulder. She didn’t care. She had to tell the story. But she couldn’t. Every time she tried, a fresh wave of agony closed her throat and turned words into tortured gasps.
So she would show her. Sage closed her eyes, and tried her best to focus as she worked to broadcast her thoughts.
- - - - -
Sage woke up with blurred vision and a piercing headache. She was in... a prison cell of some kind, at the end of a long hall. There was a small bench behind her, and a sink and toilet against the wall. Nothing else. There were no bars on the cell, either, but when Sage tried to step into the hall to see where she was, she bumped into a force field and was rudely hurled back into the room.
For hours, she waited there, hurt and terrified, until finally, someone came.
“Ah, so we did get the runt,” he declared with a disappointed tone. “And I was hoping to acquire you and your sister,” he continued under his breath. “If we only got one, the blonde would have been worth more...”
“Where am I?!” the wild-eyed Sage demanded. The fat man who had spoken with her chuckled, and then reached out, pressing some buttons. With a flash, the force field separating the two fell, and he stepped into the frame of Sage’s cell ‘door.’
“You’re onboard my freighter,” he responded. The man wore a uniform of some kind. Red with gold piping and metal circles on the cuffs and on his chest. Not buttons. His pants were black with white striping on one leg.
“Why did you bring me here?! I want to go home!”
“I’ll bet you do, but I want to get paid. Do you have any idea how much money I had to put together to pay off that fucking bodyguard of yours?”“
“Aurelius!”
“That’s the one.”
“No, he wouldn’t do this.”
“No? Kid,” the man squatted down to become eye level with Sage. “People will do anything for the right price. Your buyer fronted a lot of money to cover what Aurelius wanted in return for you.”
“...What are you-?”
“Do you have any idea what a royal is worth? Especially the daughter of a knock-out like your mom. After I sell you off, I’ll be a very rich man,” the heavyset man interrupted. “Now, be a dear and don’t tell anyone about your heritage,” he smiled for a moment, and then his features went dark. “Nobody knows how valuable you are. And if you tell them, I’ll kill you.”
It was the only opportunity that had ever presented itself for Sage to make an escape attempt, and she had failed to take it.
- - - - -
“Sol sold you as a-” Ashe couldn’t find the words. For a long time, she just stood there, holding Sage, her mouth agape. Finally, she whispered. “As a sex slave?”
Slowly, Sage shook her head. “The fat man is Remy. ...He wanted to... s-sell me. But then...”
- - - - -
Hours quickly turned to days. Sage had no contact with anyone aboard the freighter, except for one man who came down to her cell three times a day with food and drink. He slid the food through the force field. Apparently it only kept things in the cell, not out. The girl quickly felt guilty about this, as she soon learned that the girls in the cells around her only got food once a day.
They were all young, like her.
After two or three days, Sage found a friend in the girl in the cell across from her own. A brown haired girl named Nikita. She had been abducted a year ago, and was a year older than Sage. Nikita told her terrible stories of the things they did to her.
Through her, the princess learned she was aboard a ship that specialized in forced prostitution. Every day, sometimes several times a day, girls from various cells would be taken away at gunpoint by guards, and would come back with hollow, listless eyes and exhausted shuffles. The fact that Sage hadn’t been ‘supplied’ for a client yet was apparently unheard of. Sage didn’t tell her about her royalty; fearful that Remy was serious about his threat.
The freighter cruised about the quadrant, finding clients to ‘hire’ the girls in private rooms aboard the ship, hidden from the laws of their home worlds. The crew had their way with them, too. Apparently it was one of the ‘perks’ of working for Remy.
Nikita was taken a few times, too. She never wanted to talk when she returned. She seemed so... heartbroken. Sage grew to hate Remy and his crew. She grew to hate herself, for the fact she was spared the barbaric treatment of the innocent girls around her.
It had been six days.
A terrible explosion rocked the ship. And then another. Sage was hurled from her bunk, and she crashed into the force field, bouncing off of it and onto the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief. The Saiyan Fleet must have found her.
Shouting came from down the hall, and suddenly, the sounds of gunfire drowned out everything else. Sage climbed to her feet. Nikita was crouched down there, by her force field. Sage got to her knees by the entrance to her cell, and leaned forward.
“What’s going on?” Nikita whispered.
“I don’t know,” the hybrid replied. “I think maybe we’re being rescued.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” the brunette turned away for a moment, before casting a hopeful glance at Sage. “...You think so?”
The pigtailed princess nodded affirmatively. “Just wait and see. I bet soldiers are taking over this ship right now.”
The rescue, however, turned out to be a mutiny. After the gunfire ceased, and the smoke cleared away, a man with a rifle slung over his shoulder came sauntering down the stairs, with dozens of the frieghter’s crew trailing behind him. Sol.
“News, kids. Remy’s dead. I’m in charge now,” he said with a smirk, before moving to the nearest console. “I promised you men all some R&R along with proper pay, huh?”
A few knowing chuckles circulated through the group of heavily armed thugs.
“Why don’t you start with what the house’s got in stock, right?” he grinned, tapping a few buttons. The force fields for every cell instantly died away. Including Sage’s. The blue haired girl’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Nikita, who stared right back.
Sage scrambled backwards, and ducked under her bunk. It was hopeless. Systematically, the cells were entered, and girls were dragged out. Though Sage was the last one, she was not an exception. A greasy, bearded man dragged her out by her arm.
“No!!” she shrieked. “Leave me alone!!”
The man just chuckled, until Sage punched him in the gut, a spear of ice extending from her fist. The impaled man gurgled at her, before slumping backwards onto the floor.
“Oh, shit!” someone shouted. Immediately, three ki rifles were leveled at her and fired. Electricity coursed over her as she convulsed and collapsed.
“Nobody said we had a fuckin’ lightbringer on board!!”
“She’s not a lightbringer,” Sol retorted. “I never seen nobody make weapons like that, though. What the fuck was that?”
Sage grimaced against the pain, digging her nails into the metallic floor. “Why don’t you see for yourself?!” she roared, flipping over and throwing her hand out at Sol. Nothing happened. Grinning at her shocked expression, he wiggled the rifle on his shoulder.
“Ki disruptor,” he declared. “It’ll fuck with your powers until we can get you fitted with a proper dampening bracelet, to keep you from doing that again,” he said, gesturing at the dead man next to Sage. He didn’t seem perturbed in the least. Instead, Sage found amusement in his eyes, where anger should have been.
“What are you-”
“Know what?” Sol grinned. “I think I’ll take you for myself,” his declaration was met by a few choice words. “Ah, don’t worry. When I’m through, you guys can take her. We just took this ship! Let’s make this a good night.”
Sage’s eyes darted back and forth, searching for some kind of out. She couldn’t get up and she still couldn’t summon her powers. Finally, Sol grasped her upper arm. “Wait!! You can’t do this!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, but I think I can,” he retorted, hoisting the thirteen-year-old to her feet.
“No, really! You don’t know who I am!!” Sage insisted.
“And who are you, sweetheart?” the lanky, unshaven, greasy dark man inquired.
“My name is... Sage. I’m the princess of Vegeta-Sei,” she said. Her declaration was met with raucous laughter from all of Sol’s men, and from he himself.
“Right,” he spat. “Alright, ‘princess.’ Let’s go have some fun.”
“But I am! Really! You have to-”
Sol backhanded the girl onto the floor. “Shut the fuck up,” he growled.
- - - - -
Sage’s eyes had become more dismal than Ashe had ever seen. Heartbroken, like she had described Nikita. “He... took... me. And when he was finished... he... gave me to them.”
She buried her face in Ashe’s shoulder. The teenager felt paralyzed, and for a long time, she didn’t do or say anything. Finally, she ran her fingers through Sage’s hair, still a little bit surprised that the girl didn’t recoil away from her. “I... don’t- I’m so sorry.”
Sage shook her head. Through sobs, “It’s okay.”
Ashe pulled back from her, shaking her a little. “No, Sage. No, it’s not okay. What they did to you is horrible!! It’s no wonder things have been so hard for you.”
Sage felt a wave of nausea wash over her. She shook her head again. “Not as hard as Nikita.”
“I’m sorry,” Ashe repeated. “How did you... how did you get out of there?”
“I guess...” Sage breathed, trying to level her voice. “...Word got out that there were problems on the ship. It was attacked... in the morning. Raiders, I think. Sol fought them off, but the ship was really badly damaged. They abandoned ship with whatever they had close to them. Even the girls. I was lucky, I guess. Nikita... they took her. I never saw her again,” Sage swallowed hard. “Soldiers came onto the ship. They found us - the ones they left - and they took us away. I managed to convince my sister to find a way to bring me back so my parents wouldn’t find out.”
“...What? How is that even possible?? Why would you do that?!” Ashe demanded.
“I just...” Sage looked around herself, as though she might find the right words to say. She didn’t. “I just didn’t want to hurt them.” the hybrid started to bawl, shaking violently in Ashe’s arms, her words suddenly racing. “I know it’s stupid, but I was so scared and then I just sort of got used to it and we just stopped talking about it and I just stopped talking and-”
“Slow down, Sage,” the bubblegum blond insisted. Again.
“I... stopped seeing my friends. I stopped talking to anyone outside of my family. Especially my sister. I swore never to use my powers again.”
“...Why?”
“Because all of this was... was like a punishment.”
“What?!” Ashe retorted. “How can you say that??”
“My friend’s mom was robbed a week before I was taken away. The ones who did it were arrested, but I was so mad, I went down to the prison and I... killed all of them. The guards couldn’t stop me; I was too strong for them.”
“How did you get into their cell?”
“...I’m a princess. On my planet, I could do whatever I wanted to,” she said as tears rolled down her eyes. “I never told this to anyone but my sister,” Sage shook her head. “I can’t do this anymore; I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“You said you were looking for Sol!” Ashe demanded, trying to keep Sage focused. “What happened? Where did he go?”
“H-He escaped on a shuttle. My sister s-sabotaged it. It exploded. I thought he was dead. I was wrong.”
“And that’s why you’re here,” Ashe breathed. Sage nodded, her eyes completely bloodshot. She noticed Sophia looking on with a mortified expression. Apparently she’d heard at least part of it. It was just as well; she deserved to know. Ace was off having another cigarette. There was no quarrel here. And yet, they all had to kill each other.
No... Sage had to kill them.
Another series of sobs threatened to overtake the girl as she fought them back, still in the arms of her friend.
She had to kill them, didn't she?
...Didn't she?
Didn’t really matter who said it. One of the eliminators, no doubt. Either way, it didn’t accomplish anything. They were surrounded by force fields and the eliminators tied to Damon’s purse strings. A bunch of mercenaries. People who had long since abandoned their ethics in the pursuit of financial gain.
Or personal gain.
Sage folded her arms and bit her lip as she shuffled uncomfortably. She winced at the wound in her shoulder, but that wasn’t why she was so distraught. Pain wasn’t even that big a deal anymore. Her hand hurt like hell, but it had just become so much noise, filtered out along with everything else.
She was friends with a mercenary. A man who’d killed countless people, and had on dozens of occasions when it wasn’t even necessary. But she had stayed with Vad, despite his many atrocities.
But, then, that wasn’t really it. Vad didn’t kill the changeling or the namek. Or Tamsin. Sage squeezed her eyes shut. She was just a little girl. It was an accident. They all were. But... Sage started grinding her teeth.
Were they really?
The cryomancer turned her eyes to the girl next to her. To Ashe. Sage’s eyes welled with guilt. Her lip trembled with unspoken apology. She had abandoned her, obscuring herself in the Northern Lights. All Ashe wanted to do was be a friend.
“Hold on,” Sophia suddenly interrupted. Sage turned to look at her, and found Alexander pointing a gun at her, and another at one of the eliminators. Hollywood, she thought he was called. “We don’t have to fight each other, do we?” her head swiveled to Alexander. “I don’t... I don’t to fight you again.”
Ace took a drag off his cigarette, and held his breath for a very long moment, before releasing the noxious gas out of the corner of his mouth. He flicked the butt to the street beside him, and trained the Israeli pistol from Sophia onto Kristanna. “Me either.”
Sage’s eyes flickered from Sophia to Ace, and then back to Sophia. What they were suggesting was against the rules! They had to fight each other. That’s what Dante’s Abyss was.
She gazed at Sophia for a moment. If not for her, Sage wouldn’t have lasted a moment in the Friend or Foe tournament. She had risked so much when she didn’t have to, to keep Sage safe. To protect her. The girl glanced over at the bubblegum blond beside her. Ashe wasn’t as capable as Sophia was, but she was certainly a friend.
Sage bit her lip again. She shook her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t kill them. Fake or not, could she live with the blood of these people on her hands? The people she owed so much? If there was even a chance that this lunatic plan would succeed, she would have to try.
Before she could decide what to do next, Alexander opened fire. Both hand cannons bucked as the sliders slammed backwards. Tongues of flame momentarily ensnared the enormous bullets as the whirled out of their barrels, covered in a sheen of shimmering energy.
The bullets hit their marks, crashing into the foreheads of both Hollywood and Kristanna. But they did nothing. Ace willed them to explode, but they instead became inert, and fell harmlessly to the concrete at their feet.
With a growl, the badly battered man unleashed a salvo of energy-infused .50 Action Express rounds, pulling the triggers until the slides locked open and the triggers clicked uselessly, empty casings jangling off the concrete at his feet. The psychokinetically-enhanced bullets screamed to their targets, but all of them bounced uselessly off of them, just as before.
“What the fuck-??”
Sophia unleashed a sphere of energy, but it fizzled out just before making contact with the Hollywood.
“Told you,” Norris sneered, staring down his nose at Alexander. “You’re all going to fight, four on four. Or we’ll kill you.”
“We... we can’t hurt them,” Ashe murmured. Sage nodded, thinking the very same thing. Already, she and the other three had turned to face one another. There was going to be fighting, it seemed, or the eliminators would destroy them all.
The hybrid took a deep breath, and then fixed her eyes on Ace. He didn’t seem interested in fighting. It looked like he was biding his time. He was breathing hard, and was obviously in very rough shape. He must have been in excruciating pain. Sage could have easily restored him, she knew, but that wasn’t what she was going to do. No...
“Sage-” Ashe had caught her uncharacteristically hard stare. “...Why are you doing this?”
The blue haired girl stiffened, and shot a surprisingly cold glance at her friend. “Why are you doing this??”
They were a good distance from the other two. Out of earshot, at least, and the eliminators had given them space. Ashe still didn’t find all the eyes on her to be much of a comfort. “Sage, I’m just... you’re hurt. I just want to know why.”
“And I don’t want to tell you!” Sage suddenly roared as a frigid gust punctuated her seriousness. Ashe braced herself against the chill, but she was unfazed. She reached out, and took hold of the doctor’s shoulders, ignoring the fact that they were supposed to be in a fight to the death. Alexander still seemed content to delay.
“Why not?! I thought we were friends!” Ashe shouted. “That’s what friends do, Sage! They talk!!”
Sophia looked on with concern, but seemed worried to interfere. Perhaps she wanted to give them their space. Sage wasn’t sure. Ashe shook her.
“What do you want from me?!” the Valium addict retorted, breaking her friend’s hold on her and turning away, but Ashe grabbed her shoulder, spinning the girl back around.
“I want you to fucking talk to me!!” she and Sage were both stunned at Ashe’s choice in words. “I just- you’ve been all standoffish the whole time you’ve been here,” she continued, trying to work past the awkwardness of the moment. “Obviously something’s up.”
Sage just shook her head and closed her eyes, for what must have been the millionth time since she was first teleported to Dante’s Abyss. She took a deep breath, and then looked at her friend. “I... joined this tournament, because I was promised I could find someone if I won.”
“But you hate hurting people-”
“It’s not like that,” the crystal haired hybrid interrupted. “His name is Sol. He,” Sage had hoped to just push through what needed to be said, but found herself choking on her words, instead. She began to sob, but forced her way forward. “...He raped me.”
Not knowing what else to do, Ashe embraced the doctor, who burst into tears, her whole body racked by her sobbing.
“I-It wasn’t just him!” she sniffed. “I was just a kid. When I- when I was- it was my-”
“...Sage?” Ashe tried to remain as calm as possible. “Slow down.”
Sage just nodded, knowing it wouldn’t do any good since Ashe’s head was over her shoulder. She didn’t care. She had to tell the story. But she couldn’t. Every time she tried, a fresh wave of agony closed her throat and turned words into tortured gasps.
So she would show her. Sage closed her eyes, and tried her best to focus as she worked to broadcast her thoughts.
- - - - -
Sage woke up with blurred vision and a piercing headache. She was in... a prison cell of some kind, at the end of a long hall. There was a small bench behind her, and a sink and toilet against the wall. Nothing else. There were no bars on the cell, either, but when Sage tried to step into the hall to see where she was, she bumped into a force field and was rudely hurled back into the room.
For hours, she waited there, hurt and terrified, until finally, someone came.
“Ah, so we did get the runt,” he declared with a disappointed tone. “And I was hoping to acquire you and your sister,” he continued under his breath. “If we only got one, the blonde would have been worth more...”
“Where am I?!” the wild-eyed Sage demanded. The fat man who had spoken with her chuckled, and then reached out, pressing some buttons. With a flash, the force field separating the two fell, and he stepped into the frame of Sage’s cell ‘door.’
“You’re onboard my freighter,” he responded. The man wore a uniform of some kind. Red with gold piping and metal circles on the cuffs and on his chest. Not buttons. His pants were black with white striping on one leg.
“Why did you bring me here?! I want to go home!”
“I’ll bet you do, but I want to get paid. Do you have any idea how much money I had to put together to pay off that fucking bodyguard of yours?”“
“Aurelius!”
“That’s the one.”
“No, he wouldn’t do this.”
“No? Kid,” the man squatted down to become eye level with Sage. “People will do anything for the right price. Your buyer fronted a lot of money to cover what Aurelius wanted in return for you.”
“...What are you-?”
“Do you have any idea what a royal is worth? Especially the daughter of a knock-out like your mom. After I sell you off, I’ll be a very rich man,” the heavyset man interrupted. “Now, be a dear and don’t tell anyone about your heritage,” he smiled for a moment, and then his features went dark. “Nobody knows how valuable you are. And if you tell them, I’ll kill you.”
It was the only opportunity that had ever presented itself for Sage to make an escape attempt, and she had failed to take it.
- - - - -
“Sol sold you as a-” Ashe couldn’t find the words. For a long time, she just stood there, holding Sage, her mouth agape. Finally, she whispered. “As a sex slave?”
Slowly, Sage shook her head. “The fat man is Remy. ...He wanted to... s-sell me. But then...”
- - - - -
Hours quickly turned to days. Sage had no contact with anyone aboard the freighter, except for one man who came down to her cell three times a day with food and drink. He slid the food through the force field. Apparently it only kept things in the cell, not out. The girl quickly felt guilty about this, as she soon learned that the girls in the cells around her only got food once a day.
They were all young, like her.
After two or three days, Sage found a friend in the girl in the cell across from her own. A brown haired girl named Nikita. She had been abducted a year ago, and was a year older than Sage. Nikita told her terrible stories of the things they did to her.
Through her, the princess learned she was aboard a ship that specialized in forced prostitution. Every day, sometimes several times a day, girls from various cells would be taken away at gunpoint by guards, and would come back with hollow, listless eyes and exhausted shuffles. The fact that Sage hadn’t been ‘supplied’ for a client yet was apparently unheard of. Sage didn’t tell her about her royalty; fearful that Remy was serious about his threat.
The freighter cruised about the quadrant, finding clients to ‘hire’ the girls in private rooms aboard the ship, hidden from the laws of their home worlds. The crew had their way with them, too. Apparently it was one of the ‘perks’ of working for Remy.
Nikita was taken a few times, too. She never wanted to talk when she returned. She seemed so... heartbroken. Sage grew to hate Remy and his crew. She grew to hate herself, for the fact she was spared the barbaric treatment of the innocent girls around her.
It had been six days.
A terrible explosion rocked the ship. And then another. Sage was hurled from her bunk, and she crashed into the force field, bouncing off of it and onto the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief. The Saiyan Fleet must have found her.
Shouting came from down the hall, and suddenly, the sounds of gunfire drowned out everything else. Sage climbed to her feet. Nikita was crouched down there, by her force field. Sage got to her knees by the entrance to her cell, and leaned forward.
“What’s going on?” Nikita whispered.
“I don’t know,” the hybrid replied. “I think maybe we’re being rescued.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” the brunette turned away for a moment, before casting a hopeful glance at Sage. “...You think so?”
The pigtailed princess nodded affirmatively. “Just wait and see. I bet soldiers are taking over this ship right now.”
The rescue, however, turned out to be a mutiny. After the gunfire ceased, and the smoke cleared away, a man with a rifle slung over his shoulder came sauntering down the stairs, with dozens of the frieghter’s crew trailing behind him. Sol.
“News, kids. Remy’s dead. I’m in charge now,” he said with a smirk, before moving to the nearest console. “I promised you men all some R&R along with proper pay, huh?”
A few knowing chuckles circulated through the group of heavily armed thugs.
“Why don’t you start with what the house’s got in stock, right?” he grinned, tapping a few buttons. The force fields for every cell instantly died away. Including Sage’s. The blue haired girl’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Nikita, who stared right back.
Sage scrambled backwards, and ducked under her bunk. It was hopeless. Systematically, the cells were entered, and girls were dragged out. Though Sage was the last one, she was not an exception. A greasy, bearded man dragged her out by her arm.
“No!!” she shrieked. “Leave me alone!!”
The man just chuckled, until Sage punched him in the gut, a spear of ice extending from her fist. The impaled man gurgled at her, before slumping backwards onto the floor.
“Oh, shit!” someone shouted. Immediately, three ki rifles were leveled at her and fired. Electricity coursed over her as she convulsed and collapsed.
“Nobody said we had a fuckin’ lightbringer on board!!”
“She’s not a lightbringer,” Sol retorted. “I never seen nobody make weapons like that, though. What the fuck was that?”
Sage grimaced against the pain, digging her nails into the metallic floor. “Why don’t you see for yourself?!” she roared, flipping over and throwing her hand out at Sol. Nothing happened. Grinning at her shocked expression, he wiggled the rifle on his shoulder.
“Ki disruptor,” he declared. “It’ll fuck with your powers until we can get you fitted with a proper dampening bracelet, to keep you from doing that again,” he said, gesturing at the dead man next to Sage. He didn’t seem perturbed in the least. Instead, Sage found amusement in his eyes, where anger should have been.
“What are you-”
“Know what?” Sol grinned. “I think I’ll take you for myself,” his declaration was met by a few choice words. “Ah, don’t worry. When I’m through, you guys can take her. We just took this ship! Let’s make this a good night.”
Sage’s eyes darted back and forth, searching for some kind of out. She couldn’t get up and she still couldn’t summon her powers. Finally, Sol grasped her upper arm. “Wait!! You can’t do this!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, but I think I can,” he retorted, hoisting the thirteen-year-old to her feet.
“No, really! You don’t know who I am!!” Sage insisted.
“And who are you, sweetheart?” the lanky, unshaven, greasy dark man inquired.
“My name is... Sage. I’m the princess of Vegeta-Sei,” she said. Her declaration was met with raucous laughter from all of Sol’s men, and from he himself.
“Right,” he spat. “Alright, ‘princess.’ Let’s go have some fun.”
“But I am! Really! You have to-”
Sol backhanded the girl onto the floor. “Shut the fuck up,” he growled.
- - - - -
Sage’s eyes had become more dismal than Ashe had ever seen. Heartbroken, like she had described Nikita. “He... took... me. And when he was finished... he... gave me to them.”
She buried her face in Ashe’s shoulder. The teenager felt paralyzed, and for a long time, she didn’t do or say anything. Finally, she ran her fingers through Sage’s hair, still a little bit surprised that the girl didn’t recoil away from her. “I... don’t- I’m so sorry.”
Sage shook her head. Through sobs, “It’s okay.”
Ashe pulled back from her, shaking her a little. “No, Sage. No, it’s not okay. What they did to you is horrible!! It’s no wonder things have been so hard for you.”
Sage felt a wave of nausea wash over her. She shook her head again. “Not as hard as Nikita.”
“I’m sorry,” Ashe repeated. “How did you... how did you get out of there?”
“I guess...” Sage breathed, trying to level her voice. “...Word got out that there were problems on the ship. It was attacked... in the morning. Raiders, I think. Sol fought them off, but the ship was really badly damaged. They abandoned ship with whatever they had close to them. Even the girls. I was lucky, I guess. Nikita... they took her. I never saw her again,” Sage swallowed hard. “Soldiers came onto the ship. They found us - the ones they left - and they took us away. I managed to convince my sister to find a way to bring me back so my parents wouldn’t find out.”
“...What? How is that even possible?? Why would you do that?!” Ashe demanded.
“I just...” Sage looked around herself, as though she might find the right words to say. She didn’t. “I just didn’t want to hurt them.” the hybrid started to bawl, shaking violently in Ashe’s arms, her words suddenly racing. “I know it’s stupid, but I was so scared and then I just sort of got used to it and we just stopped talking about it and I just stopped talking and-”
“Slow down, Sage,” the bubblegum blond insisted. Again.
“I... stopped seeing my friends. I stopped talking to anyone outside of my family. Especially my sister. I swore never to use my powers again.”
“...Why?”
“Because all of this was... was like a punishment.”
“What?!” Ashe retorted. “How can you say that??”
“My friend’s mom was robbed a week before I was taken away. The ones who did it were arrested, but I was so mad, I went down to the prison and I... killed all of them. The guards couldn’t stop me; I was too strong for them.”
“How did you get into their cell?”
“...I’m a princess. On my planet, I could do whatever I wanted to,” she said as tears rolled down her eyes. “I never told this to anyone but my sister,” Sage shook her head. “I can’t do this anymore; I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“You said you were looking for Sol!” Ashe demanded, trying to keep Sage focused. “What happened? Where did he go?”
“H-He escaped on a shuttle. My sister s-sabotaged it. It exploded. I thought he was dead. I was wrong.”
“And that’s why you’re here,” Ashe breathed. Sage nodded, her eyes completely bloodshot. She noticed Sophia looking on with a mortified expression. Apparently she’d heard at least part of it. It was just as well; she deserved to know. Ace was off having another cigarette. There was no quarrel here. And yet, they all had to kill each other.
No... Sage had to kill them.
Another series of sobs threatened to overtake the girl as she fought them back, still in the arms of her friend.
She had to kill them, didn't she?
...Didn't she?
![[Image: Sage.jpg]](http://rebecca.florizone.com/sig/miscsig/Sage.jpg)