Agony

[Retroboy]

The Palace of Yahmsborg had gone still with fear. All of Apophe's subjects had become acquainted with her migraines by now, knowing she would retreat within the palace for days at a time. They also knew they came with mood crashes. However, there was something seem less frequently, but more dreaded than anything: when the headaches did not send her into a depression, but instead a berserk fury. Apophe then became little more than an animal, barely controlling her rage at the best of times.

This was one of those headaches.

The servants and slaves waited outside of Apophe's room, looking worried. In the corner, a young slave girl sat, her face now covered in bruises. She had made the mistake of rousing the Imperatrix before she was ready and paid for it with a thrashing. She managed to escape before anything especially serious could be done, but she was still in quite a severe amount of pain. The servants had responded by sealing the royal chambers shut, barring the door. Malka sat at the forefront, shooting worried glances to the servants.

Apophe paced around her room, half-dressed. Her hair was wild and her eyes bloodshot. The ruins of furniture surrounded her room. She couldn't think straight. She wailed and roared, halfway between despair and rage. She begged the Gods to make it stop, then went to threatening them. She promised to storm the heavens and tear them to pieces. Then she sobbed and promised she would be a better person if they would make it stop.

Her rage turned to her servants. How dare they lock her up in there. She threw herself against the door, threatening them. She was the Imperatrix. She was not to be confined like this. This was her palace. They were all ungrateful, worthless. Despite her strength, she wasn't able to stop the doors from caging her in. She slid down, her body aching. More pain. She saw the deep claw marks on the door. She growled another threat but they didn't respond. She could hear crying.

She stalked away from the door, looking around. She found a bottle of wine. She drained the contents, some of it running down her neck and onto her chest. After it was suitably empty, she threw it against the door and shrieked another curse.

"Traitors!" she called. "You're all traitors!""

 

[Phantom]

Amelia hated when her sleep was interrupted, but when the person who had awakened her said that she needed to get to Apophe ASAP, she made no hesitation. She walked down the hall, her sword was strapped to her hip, ready to use if necessary. She saw the growing crowd of servants, wondering what could possibly attract such a crowd. "Traitors! You're all Traitors!" There was her answer.

Amelia moved through the crowd, eventually getting to the door. She saw Malka standing there, ordering servants to hold the door shut. When Malka saw her, she quickly explained what was going on, and why they were barricading Apophe in. "Let me in," was Amelia's response.

"Amelia, be rational. She'll tear you to pieces, girlfriend or not."

"No, she won't. She is my fiance, and I plan to go in and see her. Now, move aside before I have to force my way in." Malka's jaw dropped, but she moved aside, telling the servants to barricade Amelia inside until the matter was resolved. Amelia walked in slowly, stepping over the shards of glass. "Apophe... Are you okay?"

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe snarled when she heard the door open. At least they had the sense to open the doors. She would spare them some of her wrath for that. Still, she needed to work out this pain somehow, so she had little plans to spare them completely. The brightness of the hallway outside made her shrink back as a sharp spike of agony shot through her head, and she clutched her temples, moaning. She felt bile rise in her throat but through willpower, she managed to force it back down.

Then, she saw someone enter. At first, her eyes were unfocused. She couldn't quite make out who it was, and she was debating if she was going to attack them or not. Maybe she could rush the door... and it was closed. Her eyes could focus again. She could see it was her fiancée.

She retreated further back into the darkness of the room, moving past a splintered chair. She growled.

"Lemme alone, Amelia," she said. "I don' wanna to talk to you."

She didn't want Amelia to see her like this. If she did, she might turn on her like the others had. Then she might lose whatever fragile grip she had on sanity at the moment and truly go on a rampage. The pain swelled again. She whimpered and clutched her head, pulling at her hair. She ground her teeth and bit the sides of her tongue. Why was the pain so bad? What had she done to deserve this?

Nothing. The gods were merely sick, degenerate sadists.

 

[Phantom]

Amelia crouched to the ground, motioning for the door to be closed. She closed her eyes, extending her mind through the Force, sensing not only Apophe, but all of the servants outside the door. The only one who seemed to notice was Malka, who quickly withdrew from Amelia's mind. Amelia then focused on Apophe, moving forward slowly.

"Apophe, please. I want to help, but I can't when you don't want to talk with me." She kept inching closer until she was about three feet from Apophe. Leaning forward, Amelia would cup her fiance's cheek in her hand, "Please let me help."

 

[Retroboy]

As Amelia came closer, the fact that Apophe had injured herself became clear. Shallow claw-wounds covered her flesh, and bruises were all down her left side, a marbling of purple and red. Her chest raised and lowered with each laboured breath, and she shuddered and shivered even when she was not moving. Blood dripped onto what clothing she was wearing, which had been shredded by pulling and flailing.

Apophe stepped back from Amelia, looking at her with a wild look in her eye. She shook her head vigorously. Amelia was being stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Apophe could hurt her like this. She wasn't in control of herself. She had to get Amelia to leave her alone. Everyone had to leave her alone.

She turned away from Amelia, and grabbed a vase. She broke it between her hands. Given that her hands were metal, she didn't really have to worry about getting glass embedded in them. She looked back over at Amelia with bared teeth.

"I told you to leave me alone!"" she said. "That's an order!""

 

[Cheshire]

Rokuro had never actually been ordered to do anything that remotely involved Apophe and he really wasnt looking forward for what he was about to do. Given that Lazzis had warned him of her violent mood swings and erratic behaviour which scared of him to no extent. He was worried, considering that Lazzis had armed him with sedatives for Apophe. He quickly dressed and ran to Apophe's room. He skidded down the halls, sprinting and dodging past people. When he skidded finally at the scene. He looked at the people gathered around outside her room. He looked at the flux of people that were currently barricading the room. His eyes narrowed and scanned for the person that looked most in charge.

He spotted the priestess so he marched his way over to her. "You need to let me in. I can help her, since you lot arent doing anything.." The group gathered outside glared at him, with Malka giving him a glare as she marched over to him. "Just who do you think you are?" She shouted, centimetres away from his face. Yet, Rokuro was unfazed just giving a bored stare into her eyes. "A person with enough balls to actually help her and not let her harm herself. Plus Lazzis gave me permission which overrides yours whether you like it or not. Now let me in so I can actually help her." His bored expression infuriated her however she grumbled and let him pass, opening the room up for him and shutting the door behind him.

He was shocked to see the state that the usually calm and composed Apophe. He was shocked as he looked around the room and he was so amazed that Apophe could cause such damage. Now he realised why Lazzis had armed with enough sedatives to put down a bull. He looked Amelia and gestured her over. "I'm here to help her. However, I cant do anything while she is like this. Distract her and I can give her a sedative." he whispered, occasionally glancing over at Apophe.

@Phantom @Retroboy

 

[Phantom]

Amelia turned to see Rokuro enter the room. She hated to do it, but she slowly backed away from Apophe and walked over to Rokuro. She nodded along to his plan and walked back over to Apophe. "Hey, Pophie, look at me. I won't allow you to further hurt yourself, I can't turn my back on you, and I won't." She grabbed Apophe's wrists and pulled them away from Apophe herself, preventing further self-harm.

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe stared at Amelia as she separated her wrists. Hurt herself like what? She looked down at herself.

Oh.

She hadn't realized she had hurt herself this much. The pain in her head had blinded her to pretty much everything else, even as she injured herself. Had she really let it get this far? No. It was the servants' fault. They could have stopped this. Someone should have stopped this. Horror turned back into anger. She yanked her hands away from Amelia, stepping back once more.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"" she roared, leaning in at Amelia. "Why aren't you listening to me?!" She turned on her heels once more, stomping and thrashing.

Despite the disturbing display, Apophe was thoroughly distracted by her rage.

 

[Cheshire]

He gave Amelia a reassuring smile. This was for the best and it would help Apophe in the long run. It wouldnt just help Apophe, it would help Amelia as well. So this sort of thing wouldn't happen again, or at least it would be ten times lesser than this sort of thing. He quickly prepared a large needle and kept it hidden behind himself till he got very close to Apophe. He stood there quietly till Amelia prised her hands apart. Rokuro jumped at Apophe, and trying to restrain her and get a vein in her thigh to inject. Rokuro was doing okay for the first few seconds until Apophe started to trash and wiggle. He felt Apophe kick him in the balls and he let out a cry in agony however he kept trying to restrain her. "Amelia! Hold her down! I need to get access to a vain in her thigh!" He barked as he kept trying to keep her still.

Eventually after a few minutes of struggling and various kickings, he finally got her still enough to inject into a vein. He backed off as Apophe slipped into unconsciousness. He took a deep breath and doubled over, trying to recover after her violent temper. He looked over to Amelia eventually after feeling his pain dying down. "You okay?"

@Phantom @Retroboy

 

[Phantom]

Amelia helped hold down Apophe, relaxing once the sedative was in her fiance's system. As Rokuro recovered, Amelia positioned herself so that Apophe's head was in her lap. Amelia was stroking Apophe's hair when Rokuro recovered, "You Okay?"

"I could ask the same of you. But yes, I am okay." In truth, she wasn't okay. She was worried about what their future might hold if Apophe couldn't control herself at times like this. What could this mean for their possible children? Amelia decided to worry about that later as she discovered trail of blood running down her arm. Apparently Apophe had cut into Amelia's arm with her claws. "Hey, Rokuro, is it? How good are you at bandaging up wounds?"

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe hadn't gone quietly, that was for sure. The sheer anger that manifested when she realized Rokuro had jammed a needle into her made her want to squeeze the life out of him, but whatever he had put into her acted fast. She uttered her curses and shouted for a bit, but eventually, she couldn't fight off the growing tide of darkness that came with the sedative. She was only barely conscious when her head was in Amelia's lap, her limbs too heavy to move.

"M'sorry, 'Meyia..." she said, drooling on herself. There was no real chance to respond. Apophe faded into unconsciousness, entering into a dreamless sleep.

Meanwhile, Malka waited outside, listening for signs of commotion. Once things had gone quiet, she told the servants that she was going in. The door was unbarred, and she stepped into the room, and sighed. Malka knew things were bad, but she hadn't figured they had gone to quite the extent. She saw Apophe unconscious on the floor, and shook her head. Of course they had to sedate her, that was reasonable, but there was something just... wrong about seeing it. The amount of damage on Apophe's body was also disturbing. She barely looked like the Imperatrix at all, more like some mad animal that had taken the shape of a woman.

She wandered over to Amelia, looking down at her.

"I know..." she said, collecting herself. "That I was hard on you earlier." Her piercing blue eyes had settled on the Imperatrix's fiancée, but for once they were looking at her rather than through her. "But I want to offer my apologies. I know this is probably very hard for you." She shrugged.

Her eyes wandered to Rokuro. "Good work, slave," she said. "Er... Doctor."

She clutched her staff tightly, almost white-knuckle. Although she tried not to show it, Malka was scared. She had never seen Apophe get quite this bad before. As priestess of the Goddess of Vengeance, Malka saw what people could be like when Erinae's Battle Madness overtook them, but she knew the Goddess sometimes chose berserkers under her to take it on even when outside of battle. It wasn't a sign of displeasure, more just the fickleness of a goddess who was in many ways mad herself.

"If there's anything I can do, just tell me," she said with a sort of maternal tone in her voice, despite the fact that she was not much older than Rokuro and she knew she was younger than Amelia.

 

[Phantom]

"I know... That I was hard on you earlier. But I want to offer my apologies. I know this is probably very hard for you. If there is anything I can do, Just tell me."

Amelia nodded, smiling at Malka, "Thank you... Actually, If you could help me get her onto the bed, that'd be great, and maybe get a few doctors in here? To help bandage her up." She would stand and grab Apophe's torso while Malka grabbed her legs. They set her down on the bed and Malka left the room to call the doctors. Amelia once again rested Apophe's head on her lap and began to stroke her fiance's hair.

 

[Cheshire]

Rokuro stood, stretching slightly as he tried to shake off the pain that Apophe had gave him. "Yeah, its Rokuro. I'll hopefully be able to do more than that. Just give me a few minutes to recover" he wheezed, still recovering from the aftermath of her aftermath. However, his head snapped around as he heard the door scrape open. He glared as he saw Malka walk in, holding herself high and mighty once again. Was that just a priestess thing to do? Arsolyn acted like that and held herself high and mighty compared to everyone else. That's why he hated her, despised her even! Maybe it was just priestesses he hated. When she referred to him a slave. He felt his anger and annoyance flare up inside him and it was displayed in the force. He gave Malka a glare in anger and he held his tongue.

He heard Malka and Amelia talk however he paid it no attention to them talking, they wouldnt care if he wasnt talking to them. Plus they were carrying Apophe which he wasnt exactly interested in doing. He however heard them getting other doctors to help heal her outside wounds, despite the fact that Rokuro knew that he could do better.

"Wait! Don't get more doctors. They wont do much good. However can you get me all of her vitals from previous scans and medical records? I'll need them."
@Phantom @Retroboy

 

[Retroboy]

Malka nodded , despite registering Rokuro's annoyance through the Force. She could address that particular issue later. For now, brain scans. She departed from the room in a hurry, moving as fast as her legs could carry her.

The rush took her from hallway to hallway. If she didn't know where to look, she could have taken hours. Mercifully, Malka was more than aware of where the medical offices were, having just gotten through with a particularly difficult pregnancy with them about a year prior. The Free doctors tried to slow her down, but she let them know she was not remotely in the mood and snatched the documents on Apophe's brain scans. Then, as quick as she arrived, Malka was gone, back towards the Royal chambers.

She returned, huffing and puffing. "I have them," she said. Her eyes drifted over the documents she now had. She grimaced as she did so. They did not look good. The latest were taken recently, after Apophe had been fighting in the Zakuul campaign. Great dark spots covered her brain where in a healthy person they might have been bright and lit up. She also saw the doctor's prediction: if things kept up as they were, untreated, it would be a miracle if she made it to fifty before becoming a drooling husk of herself.

Malka handed the charts and documents over.

"It... Doesn't look good, does it?"

 

[Phantom]

Amelia looked up at Malka, giving her a quick smile before returning her attention to Apophe. She let the priestess and Rokuro talk about Apophe's condition, listening intently, but not showing it. Amelia and Rokuro would stay with Apophe all the while, with Malka leaving after an hour of waiting. After another hour or so, Amelia would feel Apophe begin to stir. Leaning forward in the chair she had moved to and placed her hand on Apophe's

"Hey... How are you feeling?"

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe stirred from her slumber with a soft whine. Every part of her felt numb and sluggish, and she could remember nothing. She struggled to open her eyes, taking a few attempts before she was successful. Then, she found herself looking up at Amelia. For a moment, Apophe was confused. She had no idea why she was here or why her head was in her lover's lap like this. Then the memories back, surging in like water breaking a dam. Her eyes went wide. She looked down at herself. She could see she was covered in bandages, and that she only barely retained her modesty. She also looked around to see her room was in ruins.

She cursed and sat up.

The dull ache in her head resumed, though not as severe as before. She whined again. Her eyes focused on Amelia and she saw the bandaging on her arm too. Panic gripped Apophe, a cold tightness in her chest.

"Amelia, no!" Apophe said, grabbing her arm and looking at it. "What did I do? Did I hurt you?!"

She looked up at Amelia. "This is why I wanted you to leave!" she said. "I couldn't... why did... I'm so sorry...""

 

[Phantom]

"Amelia, no! What did I do? Did I hurt you?! This is why I wanted you to leave! I couldn't... why did... I'm so sorry..."

"'Tis but a scratch." Unsurprisingly, as a Pirate captain, she had endured much worse wounds, this would only add to her ever-growing collection of scars. She brushed Apophe off of her arm and smiled, "Rokuro and I did the best we could to patch you up. Luckily most of your wounds were very shallow, and hadn't bled much. They should heal nicely, with minimal scarring."

 

[Cheshire]

Rokuro immediately took a look at the scans, wincing slightly. "What did she get hit with? Did she get hit by a truck or something? I'm surprised she isn't in a comatose state" He asked. He took a brief look through all of them again before pointing to the scans one again. "This is some serious brain damage. Probably having been from all her combat engagements. I can't heal it fully but I can at least make it a lot better." He said to Malka quietly. He tapped Amelia's shoulder before talking to her quietly. "I need to you to step back so I can work on her." Rokuro quickly stretched and looked at the scans once more.

He quickly gathered his force inside him, letting it rise up like he was taught. He then knelt and places both his hands at the side of Apophe's head and letting himself heal her. He focused on the parts of the brain that needed the most work before moving onto the other parts of the brain. He knelt like this for an hour before finally groaning and getting up once more, exhausted.

When she woke, Rokuro let Amelia speak to her first before he chimed in. "I was able to remove the worst of the brain damage however I can't remove all of it at the moment. You will still have your temper and anger problem however they will be significantly bettet and I will prescribe bipolar medicine for these outbursts." he grinned, clearly happy at what he had done. "I would also ask if you come speak to me on a weakly basis so I can get your medicine and to do scans in case your brain damage does get worse. Also I believe its in your best interests to assign me as your personal and go to doctor for any problems you have!"

@Retroboy @Phantom

 

[Retroboy]

Apophe sighed at Amelia, looking despondent. It didn't matter how well her fiancee took it, Apophe had hurt Amelia which was something she never, ever wanted to do, and it would take a lot to let her forgive herself. Especially as her memory came back and she realized that Amelia was not the only person she hurt. Apophe had no problem hurting people she felt deserved it, but the poor serving girl had just tried to wake her and had been beaten by a psychotic for it.

She held her head in her hands. She looked over at Rokuro. She'd kicked him in the gonads. That was three people who were only trying to help that she had hurt. She felt like a monster at the moment, a rancor in a woman's skin. She didn't know either person in the room could be patient with her at all.

"Thank you, Rokuro," she said. "Hopefully this means I'll never go this crazy again..."

She looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry for hurting you," she said. "I wasn't in my right mind... I'll talk to my sister about seeing you manumitted. You've more than earned it at this point."

She looked at Amelia. "Amelia... I love you, I really do, and I'm sorry I did this to you."

 

[Phantom]

"Amelia... I love you, I really do, and I'm sorry I did this to you."

"It's not you're fault... You weren't yourself. I still love you, tantrums and all." She leaned forward and stole a kiss before she turned to address Rokuro. "Thank you for all that you have done. I promise that I will try and keep her out of trouble, but I am not always going to be here." Amelia knew that herself and Apophe would be spending more time together as their wedding date came closer, but right now, the wedding was still at least six months away.