Characters: Colleen, OT Danny and Misty Setting: Planet Terror, some days after the trio's capture. Content: Violence, gore. Summary: Colleen hasn't been cooperating, and this is her execution day.
Colleen placed the child’s braided hair over the pale, intricate design etched into her shoulder, meeting her gaze with a small smile. “Okay?” The girl who had helped Colleen during her time here ran her fingers over the plait and beamed up with her catlike eyes, which Colleen took to mean that she’d done something right. She glanced toward the door, a weird feeling in her gut. There was no telling exactly how much time had passed, as the dungeon was always dark and time was different here. Colleen surmised that it had been at least a week since she and her gang got captured, and that it had been much longer for the little one sitting in her lap. The warrior straightened up her back and pushed her hair over her shoulder as the girl stood and moved around to play with her locks, a hobby she’d taken a huge liking to, when the cell door swung open.
Instantaneously, Colleen rose to her feet and urged her friend to stay behind her. Heavy boots clunk against the dirty ground as the guard sauntered in, stoic and ominous. Fearful and obedient eyes fixed upon him while he skimmed the group with cruel purpose. Colleen could feel the child trembling against her, and when the large humanoid came toward them and attempted to push her aside, the woman knew, and she reacted instinctively. The sentry staggered back, holding his stomach in a moment of stupor before Colleen cracked his face with a high kick and forced the electric rod into his eye. He fell to the ground, groaning.
The hostages looked on in terror, pushing themselves up against the wall, as far away from the scene as possible. Clenching the prod, Colleen’s will didn’t budge when more guards rushed in to contain her and to take away their next victim. “No! Atocr!” she protested, shoving them away from the little girl. Colleen struggled with them until she was overpowered, struck so hard that tears formed in her eyes, and forced to watch them drag Atocr by her braid. “Stop--” Hands tied behind her back, Colleen lurched forward and cried, “I’ll go! Damn it, take me, take--” Sheer horror was the last thing she saw on the girl’s face before the door slammed shut.
--
Light and cheers poured into Atocr’s cell as the door lifted. She’d cried, for her parents, for the being in the cell who let her play with her hair and claimed to have come from a big blue marble. Tears still fell down her cheeks, heavy droplets making small craters in the orange sand as she took trembling steps into the arena. She bowed her head, flinching by the garbage and jeering coming at her from the crowd. It was only when the door opened from the other side that Atocr looked up.
Mama? Smiling and her eyes glazed over, the young girl with the red skin and phosphorescent eyes dragged her feet through the sand, in a trance. Atocr called out for her mother again; she knew they she would find her one day, and that she would get to see her father, and her brother again. They must have been waiting for her. Happiness shined in Atocr’s face, her arms reached out to embrace her mother.
The round, pearly-skinned alien before her raised his hatchet and swung.
--
Colleen watched them rake away Atocr’s body until she was yanked from the fence and shoved back into the line. A shadow cloaked her ashen face, her eyes fixed on the restraint digging into her wrists. She walked silently beside her companions, trapped in a grim daze, tears streaming through the dirt on her face. She’d witnessed a lot of inhumanity in her life, been a victim-- Rough fingers dug violently into her shoulder and pulled her out of the group. The guards from earlier. When her gaze met Danny’s and Misty’s, Colleen stared firmly--don’t, it’s not worth it. It would do no good for them to get involved in the mess she’d put herself in. She hadn’t put up a fight this time, but this hadn’t stopped the sovereign’s henchmen from further mishandling her.
The cavity they threw her into reeked of death. Colleen stumbled into the wall, her mouth wet with nausea. She guessed it was somewhat of a good thing that she didn’t have anything to throw up. Breathing sharply through her nose, she straightened up on her feet and faced her captors. “How’s that eye?” she smiled, nodding toward the black and yellowish bruise on his face. His swollen brow overlapped his damaged eyeball now, blood coagulating thickly below his lower eye lid. The alien stormed in and shoved her against the wall, holding her neck in a vice-grip.
“If you make it out alive,” he sneered, “I’d watch my back, lesser.”
Defiance in her eyes, she gritted her teeth, her voice taut. "Colleen,” she corrected. “And when I make it out alive, I'd watch yours." Crushing pain spread from her ribs to the rest of her body. Colleen dropped to the ground, doubling over in agony. Hunched over, holding her stomach, she heaved and gasped for air with a heat in her eyes, when her senses dulled one by one. The last to go was her hearing, and before she blacked out, venomous laughter echoed in her ear, and the loud clash of the door shutting her in.
When Colleen woke up, it was to screaming. Groggy, she opened her eyes and groaned, burned by the flood of light. The planet’s red moons overarched the arena, and surrounding her was the crowd, blurry and shapeless to Colleen until she roused to full consciousness. The rough sand dug into her knees as she sat up against the heels of her feet; she clutched her ribs and bit back a pained cry. At least a few were broken. It took no time for her to understand what was going on, the situation that she was in. The planet’s sovereign, perched up in his royal tier, stood up, speaking grandly in his alien language, staring down at her. Apparently, they were making an example out of her.
Hands tied and weaponless, Colleen got on her feet, fighting the pain. Trash was thrown at her, contempt and amusement put together in the howls and cheers of her audience. Then the gate opened, and the crowd’s enthusiasm grew maniacal; Colleen cursed under her breath and stood unmoving, watching her opponent - herculean in size and probably strength - trample forward. There were no immediate weak spots in his armor, and judging by his weapon and the mask that covered his head - it appeared galactic civilizations were not above cliches - Colleen deduced that this humanoid was an executioner. And this was an execution.
These fights were never meant to be fair. Taking a step back, Colleen fixed the alien with a calculating stare while he demonstrated the abilities of his sword. Made of vibranium, she suspected; double-bladed, flexible, can also act as a whip. There was nothing she could do about the armor, but there had to be a weak spot. There was always a weak sp-- Given less than a second to think, Colleen sprung into a backflip, extending her barred hands out in front of her at the drop, watching as the viper-quick blade sliced right through the restraint. She landed on her knee and the ball of her foot and skid back unsteadily, barely on her feet when a metal boot made contact with her chest and sent her flying into a wall. Body trembling in anguish, Colleen couldn’t hold back the pained, angry moan, struggling to push herself up. Blood trickled down her chin into the sand, and she spit out the rest, gulping air and clutching harder at her side.
The executioner snapped his blade back into place, standing at a distance, probably laughing at her, along with the animated crowd. He was toying with her, after all this was a show and there was a ruler to impress. Colleen’s options were limited. She could run around like a mouse until he caught her, they would love that, or take her chances while she still had her limbs and only a couple handfuls of broken bones, and put an end to this. Pressing her heel against the wall for leverage, Colleen breathed out, one hand still holding her side, the other clawing into the sand as she met the executioner’s gaze.
He should have killed her when he had the chance.
Colleen kicked off on her feet and ran toward him, exerting every last bit of strength she had. The alien picked up his pace and came for her, his blade extended at his side. This was either going to work, or it wasn’t, but the warrior couldn’t stand the idea of not trying. Of not honoring Atocr, and all the innocents who had died before her. Face hardened, Colleen sprinted in the last seconds, then dropped to her thigh and slid beneath the incoming blade - her face a mere few inches below it - thrusting her palm into his wrist and loosening his grip, simultaneously snatching the weapon from his hand. The samurai spotted the neck flesh between the mask and his armor; without another second to waste, she swiftly struck.
A mist of blood came down on her, her eyes fixed on the severed head that fell soon before its body. The blade locked back up of its own accord, and the crowd fell silent, collectively stunned; even astonishment flashed across their leader’s face before the pompous grin spread over his lips and he began the wave of applause. Colleen, contending against broken bones, exhaustion, and hunger, turned tensely to face him, panting jaggedly, as she shook the dark blue gore off the sword. He reminded her of someone from her past, triggered something dark in her. She kept a white-knuckled grip on the weapon and watched the silver coins he’d pulled ceremoniously from an embroidered box float down to her and drop at her feet.
“And the sword, you keep,” he said boisterously as he sat and waved her away. The gate opened and armed sentries came for her, guiding her out of the arena. Colleen cast the ruler one cold, heavy-lidded stare before she followed, limping ahead of them solemnly.