Description: Igniz confronts Cross about her actions in Thailand... and pronounces judgement.
The Throne Room is darker than usual, pools of shadow dividing and interspersing the lit pathway to the throne. This effect evokes a sense of dislocation in some, and the fact that Igniz is going so far as to use 'mood lighting' is a bad sign. The only well lit area is the throne itself, a brilliant, glorious halo of luminance focused upon the leader of NESTS, who sits upon his throne with his hood thrown back, his hands folded before him as he stares into the darkness, awaiting she who was called.
Igniz is displeased.
"Posing for a deathmetal album cover?"
There's no sense hanging your head just because you're taking the last walk down death row. Cross can have a sense of humor about this, morbid as it may be, because of the way this week has gone for her. The run-in with that psychopath yesterday really was the cherry on /top/ of the icing, so in her mind there's no way this can go badly enough to put a dent in her already fathomless mire of angst and depression.
"The good hood, too. I didn't think I'd be worth the trouble, boss." A swift, casual gesture is given: a lazy thumb's-up waved off to one side of her head and then quickly lowered as Cross strides down the carpeted pathway leading up to the throne. Her eyes remain fixed on Igniz, and despite her seemingly good humor she seems almost afraid to blink, staring him down from an increasingly shorter distance with weary eyes and quiet intensity.
"Whistling past the graveyard?"
Igniz's retort is short, cutting. His voice is full of compressed scorn and controlled rage. He doesn't rise yet, his eyes simply following Cross's progress from pool of light to pool of light, until she stops before him. His hands unfold, clasping the arms of the imposing seat, as Igniz looks down upon this... transgressor. For long seconds, he stares down, his expression implacable, as if chiseled from luminous stone.
But then he speaks. "You know why you are here. I would like to know why you see fit to defy us. The Cartel is generous to those who serve well, and a terrible foe to those who work against us. You have repeatedly contravened our decisions, jeopardizing our plans and activities. I can understand making a simple mistake. I am generous and forgiving. But these activites speak of far more than bad luck or coincidence, Cross. It practically looks like deliberate sabotage!"
Igniz's eyes burn as he leans forward in his throne, that searing gaze focused on Cross. Abruptly, he roars. "EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" His voice crackles and reverbrates through the room.
Cross cants her head to one side, quirking her brow as she listens, patiently. Her expression is dour, humorless. There's really nothing (deliberately) funny about Igniz, and she's not in the mood to play the court jester. "Yeah, why not? Are you telling me it's going to make a difference? You want me to come in here, and..."
The young agent snaps to attention, rigid as a board, throwing her hand up in a stiff salute. "Agent Cross, reporting as ordered, sir! Awaiting further instructions!" There's a soft, derisive snort as she lowers her hand and drifts back into a more relaxed posture, one hand going to her hip, the other straight down at her side, tapping against her thigh expectantly. "... I think we both know that'd be a farce, right? I'm not going to waste your time playing the perfect kiss-ass like Aislinn."
Her eyes close for a moment, her hand going to the back of her head, then forward, palm smoothing over her hair. Her fingers rake back through it the other way, and she heaves an exasperated sigh. "... as a matter of fact, why don't we just get down to it? What you're asking me, essentially, is why I'm not supporting Shadaloo's operations. The thing I want to know, is why are /you/?"
Her eyes snap open. There's nothing playful or mischevious about her gaze. For a change of pace, she's perfectly lucid. "What are we getting out of it? The Vegas odds are Vega's going down, and hard, and then we stand to lose whatever assets we've diverted to helping him in this /pointless/ little expedition of his, and for what? You know if he /does/ win, he's just going to turn on us the moment he's reconsolidated his power! Or do you really think he's interested in /sharing/ the world, much less his godhood?"
Her arm sweeps outward suddenly, cutting the air in a horizontal motion like a knife, and she tilts herself more forward in a clear show of rising intensity. "And don't tell me it's about stealing what we can from them while we're on the inside! I could have gotten whatever you wanted, and they never would have traced it back here if you didn't have that scumbag Elle playing both sides of the fence, feeding our roster to them! I can't even imagine why you'd put up with that--"
"ENOUGH!" Igniz's voice crackles again, and he stands with a flourish, his robe swirling about him as he looks down upon her. "I put up with /Elle/ because she does her job quickly and well. Her loyalty is to money. I can appreciate this sentiment, even if I wish it were otherwise. What harm is a roster? Shadaloo would need to know who its allies are, WOULDN'T THEY? YOU, on the other hand..." Ignis points down at her with a single condemning finger. "Have been disobeying orders since almost the time you became an active agent!" His arms fold, then. "I don't consider myself to have unreasonable expectations. If you found yourself opposed to the Thailand operations, all you had to do was continue your work in our other theatres, not jeopardize our work! I don't expect you to 'kiss my ass'. I expect you to show us the proper RESPECT we are due!" Igniz's voice become musing, as he rests a finger at the side of his head. "Or perhaps you are more empathizing with some of our more wayward members, hmm?" Slowly, he begins to descent the steps from the dais, walking down towards Cross. "Perhaps you see yourself as the next K'? That isn't what you would call an /ENVIABLE/ fate! But no, his fate is not to be yours. Am I not merciful?" He smiles, faintly, stopping halfway down the steps.
The smile, then returns to abrupt rage, as he speaks. "However, do not consider me an IDIOT. Of /COURSE/ I have my reasons for assisting Shadaloo! And I do not consider /Vega/ an idiot either. If you think you had the ability to funnel information and data from Shadaloo, you are clearly overestimating yourself. But that will be irrelevant, soon."
With an abrupt wave of chi, lifting Igniz into the air, he glides down to land before Cross. His voice is quiet, full of deadly promise. "You have not convinced me, however, to stay my hand. You have one more chance to give me a /good/ excuse for this."
There's a very long pause. Cross stares at Igniz, unflinching, unblinking for a period that seems to drag on into infinity, her only movement a very slow and prolonged inhalation. Almost as much quiet menace lines her voice as indignant rage roars in his, "What are you going do, kill me?"
Another long, uncomfortable pause. This time broken by a muffled chuckle, which, in a moment's time, quickly breaks out into outright laughter. Manic, senseless laughter following a moment later, Cross having to turn her head partially to one side and backward, covering her eyes with the splayed fingers of one hand as she cackles carelessly. "Oh, hoho, haha! Please! You don't think I haven't figured out by now, do you?!"
Her laughter stops abruptly with a weary, put-upon sigh. Then, slowly, her hand drops from her face to hang limply at her side, her eyes continuing to stare off into the nothing in the shadows to Igniz's right. The temperature flares up enough around her that the hot air wafting off her form creates a momentary breeze, lifting up her loose jacket and bangs before rushing off in all directions from her body. "I don't care about K`. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel any attachment to /you/, either, but I'm just not part of some grand scheme to betray you, or anyone else. I did what I did because I owed someone a favor,,,"
Her head tilts first to one side, then the other, as if she were in a daze. Her voice becomes almost completely listless. "By the way, you should watch it. Yesterday someone I think you would probably recognize better than I would was asking a lot of dangerous questions and seeming way too intent on the answers. And on top of that, he's going to be going after Vega, too..."
"No." What? No? Igniz smiles. "Death is a release, not a punishment. We have access to far more creative ways to discipline." The air whipping about him intensifies as she laughs, and a faint tic appears under his right eye. He doesn't look away from Cross. He doesn't have to. "You have made a mistake, Cross. Your first loyalty should always be to the Cartel. This favor is going to cost you more than you can possibly imagine." He smiles. "Do you think you can save yourself by simply offering up some nebulous information. I'm afraid that isn't going to work." So calm, so cool... But it's only a mask. "You seem to have run out of time. Do you have anything else to say before judgement is passed?"
"Iori Yagami," Cross declares, pointedly. Then her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. "You can ignore him at your own risk, I'm just exercising that 'loyalty' of mine by warning you. Not so much for your sake, but because I'd really rather Angel, Kula, and Aislinn weren't there when he makes shore in Thailand..."
The (apparent) teen then takes a half step back, slipping her thumbs under her jacket at the shoulders to snap it up into place, then thrusting her arms out wide as if to receive a hug, smirking. "As for the punishment, go right ahead. What do you really think you can do? Or... did they not tell you? No, maybe you're just too busy..."
The young agent flicks her wrists to make her open palms face upward toward the darkness of the ceiling, curling her finger slightly and unevenly like claws. A soft hiss can be heard as gray-white flames erupt from the extended appendages, wreathing her hands in ghostly fire down to the wrists. A wolfish, devil-may-care grin breaks across her features as she tilts her head back, trembling from the pain; viewed up this close, it's obvious that the fire's actually burning her almost as badly as it would a normal person immolated in such a manner, to say nothing for how the twisted flame feels smoldering in one's chi.
A single drop of sweat winds down the side of her face from her temple to chin, and she huffs hard, despite her restraint, "I guess they probably couldn't tell you what it feels like, huh? Let's just say I don't feel /other/ types of pain much, anymore. This right here is all I need, bossman." Her wrists flick with a snap again, hands closing into fists, and the flames are snuffed. Thick smoke oozes out from the spaces between her fingers.
"Go ahead. Whatever you've got, it'll be worth it for having gotten to wreck that smug bitch's face."
The mention of Yagami doesn't seem to phase Igniz much at all. "Thank you. Yagami will be dealt with as necessary." His smile remains, even as Cross summons the accursed flames she was 'gifted' with. "What NESTS gives, NESTS can take away." He chuckles. "You do not understand what true pain is. You do not understand thep rice of your perfidy. Do you truly think yourself immune? No, I have no intentions of damaging a single hair on your body."
His voice rolls, stentorian, as he intones. A hand is splayed towards Cross as he assigns his judgement. "Agent Cross. For your repeated acts of disobedience and rampant endangerment and damaging of NESTS objectives, you are cast out. No longer will you be of the chosen who will rise to lead this world into a glorious new age. Your fires shall be dampened, your knowledge of the Cartel removed. You will not be given the ability to betray us further. Furthermore, you will be delivered unto Vega himself, as a gift. I am sure that his attentions will be far less appealing than mine." Igniz's smile widens into a grin as he leans in close to Cross's face, his voice quiet, but malicious, dripping with venom. "Am I not merciful?"
"Yeah," Cross replies evenly, giving a slow nod of her head in return. "That seems fair."
Her eyelids flutter shut, and she takes a very slow, deep breath. The muscles of her jaw work a bit beneath the skin, the only visible sign that the words have had any effect on her at all, or that she's even heard them for that matter. Through supreme force of will, she manages to keep her voice impartial, "I just want one thing. Don't blame Angel, okay? She... really did try. It was never fair asking her to look after me."
Her slender throat contorts for a moment as she swallows audibly. Then, she gives a slow nod and opens her eyes, steeling her gaze. The thought isn't pleasent. She's seen Vega's Dolls--/fought/ Vega's Dolls--and she knows what they're like. There's really nothing left of them once they're put through the process, just an empty shell. At the moment, she's just not sure if that would be a hellish existence or a welcome respite, but it looks like she might get the chance to find out first-hand.
"Any other final orders, boss?"
Igniz knows /exactly/ what's probably going to happen to her, and what she is probably thinking she is going to be looking forward to. This, in the end, is the greatest cruelty. Physical pain is nothing. The pain of /life/ after this... Might be far worse than any simple torture or beating. The Brutal God, indeed.
Igniz watches Cross, waiting to see yet another measure of defiance, another clever retort. He waits to see if she would try to escape, or even strike out at him. She does neither. In the end, she will obey. Igniz approves. "She did her best. No punishment awaits her." The leader of NESTS, perhaps, offers this bit of knowledge as a final mercy. "That is all. Proceed to the Laboratory. I will be following you. Do not attempt to return. Much like Adam and Eve, those who are cast from Paradise are lost forever. This... is my final farewell to you." He then grows silent, waiting for Cross to turn and obey his final commands.
"... please tell her I said I'm sorry," Cross chokes out in barely more than a whisper, then quickly pivots on her heel to face away from Igniz. The rebellious child seems to deflate, then, having spent all her bravado and stone-faced indifference, slinking away in a dejected stagger. Though she hadn't really thought about it before, the thought she'll never see Angel again--or at least, never recognize her even if she does--makes her want to cry, and that's something she didn't really think she could do anymore.
Her throat convulses as she walks away and her chest trembles a bit as her attempts to choke it down begin to fail her. Not that she really cares if Igniz sees. She just doesn't have the emotional maturity to know how to handle that sort of feeling. "Nmmh," she makes an exceedingly small sound, like the infant that in some sense she is, and finally starts to sob to herself, even if she does keep walking forward.
Cross enters the lift.
Log created on 21:57:13 06/20/2007 by Igniz, and last modified on 15:04:26 06/21/2007.