Soul Slayer: Reborn

Chapter 14- A False Statment: 'Everything Will Be Ok'

Trox had bent down to the unconscious Dia who was now laying motionless on the blank, white floors of one of Nether's Fortresses. As he touched her neck, he felt a pulse.
Trox sighed and shook his head, getting up quickly. It seemed almost painful for Trox to continue, but another side of him didn't seem to care as usual. He uttered out few words, no laugh or smile were present,"Come here now."
And Dia walks effortlessly towards him.
Her irises now enthralled with nebulous darkness and her body moving most unlike herself as her crimson hair fell over her eyes with abandon, she didn't seem to care or at least express her discomfort. She had already gotten up before he spoke, as if the spoken command meant nothing. Trox held her by the shoulder, thrusting her back into the seat with little required force. She didn't fight back. She didn't say anything. Trox didn't even need to put up the restraints, she just sat there like a dummy, waiting for something to happen like an apathetic child. Her eyes looked like they were glazed over, and dark lids had almost blanketed those sorry eyes. Trox on the other hand had once again almost regained his chuckle, a positive tone to his voice was greatly out of place in this situation,
"So, so how do you feel?" Dia didn't respond, she didn't feel anything. Trox looked down, gulped and then he laughed harder, yet this time it seemed very much forced,"Haha! Oh yeah, you can't feel anything can you? Because you're like me now. You're not Princess anymore you're just a blank mind I can fill what whatever I want! It has been two bloody years, and it worked... finally..." He closed his eyes and reopened them slower,"But not enough yet, just need a little more, maybe about a couple of hours more until she's fully adaptable. Then... then everything'll be ok!" He grinned like a maniac to himself, this didn't seem malicious, he rather seemed shocked and on the verge of tears. He put a hand over his mouth and shook his head,"... everything... everything will be ok..."

Trox sat down on the edge of his seat, this happiness had turned to impatience like a child that couldn't wait for Christmas. "Let's- let's get down to the questions, shall we? Yes, yes..." He slumped over, hands in hair and his legs straddled along the side of the chair,"Boring one first: just tell me what happened to Rose. Tell me how she survived, you have to know that in you somewhere..." The brainwashed Dia quivered before stammering in a robotic voice,
"I-do-not-know. Please... elaborate." Trox stamped his foot and grasped her by the neck bursting with a mad, inhuman demeanour, his emotions flooding into everything he said, as he pushed her into a wall and tilted his neck,
"TELL ME! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME HOW ROSE SURVIVED THAT FALL! I COULDN'T OF HELPED HER- I COULDN'T... I NEED TO KNOW, HER SISTER SHE... SHE... she wants to know... she- she said she'd help me even more if I told her..." his lip quivered before he stood up, letting her go,"But you! You- you were her best friend too! You- you should have known! SHE SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU HOW I- HOW I-" In his anger he grabbed something metal from the chair she was comfortably sitting in and threw it with force onto the floor in anger as it broke. He faced the wall so Dia couldn't see his maddened face as he held the bridge of his nose and gripped his hair with a force that could of ripped parts out. He released a large sigh. "I need some privacy. Just... just get out the room and stay outside until I call you back in... don't snap out or I'll pour cement into your mouth and force you to swallow it. Now leave... please" The zombie-like Dia walked out the room, more robotic than usual, as Trox slammed the door shut. He walked around the room slowly, completely enveloped in silence before he punched the wall next to him with such force that it broke his hand with an awful crunch. He shook his head, muttering under his breath, continuing to walk around the room as if nothing had happened,"I'm not ready... why did I think I was ready. Four years... it's been four years... I can't do it anymore... hell why did I ever think that I could see her again..." Trox lifted his head back up like he had broken out of a dream.

He then dialled something on a robotic band on his wrist that made an uncomfortable beep before he ripped it off his wrist: claw marks were left of the wrist band of metal...
A large shadow slid across the room and took the form of Nether,
"Oh Trox, as you can see I'm a little busy lately, what do you have to report to me?" Trox shook his head before saying,
"Princess, she couldn't say how Rose survived." Trox waited for an annoyed remark to be directed at him, yet instead all he head was Nether chuckling haughtily,
"Oh, don't worry, my friend..." (Trox found this a very unusual greeting for her to call him but he digressed) "I did know that she would say that, to be perfectly honest I wanted you to capture her because I need the Ice Soul Slayer dead. If he and the fire Slayer are present, they can find their way to the Land of the Druids. And if they get there, that could be my downfall and create great annoyance as well as ruining the start of my ambitions. The boy does love Dia, yet I expect you've already deducted that, and he'll fall right into your palm... oh I can't let this opportunity come to waste it's just too perfect..." Trox coughed, bringing attention back to him. Nether inhaled sharply,
" ... And you do deserve those Reality powers, yes that too. I didn't teach you to drain for nothing,"
Silence fell. Then Trox chuckled, he began to laugh maniacally for too long to be normal as he looked up, his eyes were practically foaming with the upmost fury,
"Hahahaahahah... oh, ok, ok, so... what you're saying is..." he growled from deep in his throat as her glared at Nether, snapping, his laughter ceasing immediately and his face turning blank"You knew she could literally go against my power and you didn't tell me? Ok, ok so you knew that Princess wouldn't give me answers, as I used up my very important time torturing her for answers that weren't even there?! My life doesn't revolve around you, like I said in those woods I have a very important day today, I... I can't be late..." Nether chuckled a little patronisingly,
"What? Has it got to do something with that boy?" Nether wasn't sure if Trox blushed or not, he was now not looking at her in the eye,
"He's not a boy... I just promised him that I would meet him... I've already been busy and I haven't seen him in months. I can't let him down and miss this... it's our..." he sighed, and grumbled under his breath at his candidness. "It's our... anniversary..." he muttered painfully to her. He rolled his eyes, looking up angrily,"And as well as that you have me that useless contract! I can't... I... I might rethink this alliance, 'by the way'. Instead of trying to capture these Slayers, why don't I just find out where the Druids are and then I'm done. It's not an epicentre because it's in an entire ocean. We can set a trap around the Druids and then kill them where they stand. Or why don't we let them take back Princess, they go back to a base and I've already got navigation on her the first time we met. So we can just go there, burn it down or whatever and kill them there instead. Simple as. I didn't expect Rose to be there with good ol' Princess when we first showed up, and now it has made everything ten times harder. I didn't expect seeing her so soon, and as the person who's going to be either killing the Fire Slayer or the Ice Slayer or probably both, she'll be there too..." Nether tried not to get angry,
"Your suggested is duly noted, Trox, but right now we have a plan and we are sticking with it. The Ice Soul Slayer has already had avoided the Chimera and slain it..." Trox crossed him arms, a grin toying his face,
"Maybe you could of gotten two chimeras? Like I remember catching that thing and it wasn't that hard to subdue for sure... Or you could of gotten a dragon. Or a- or a Mononoke- now that would of been a show if he had killed it or not! You could of just used a simulation too and asked to my help- he's got agoraphobia... terrified of tight spaces, crowds of people, shit like that." Nether gritted her teeth,
"-I said your suggestion was duly noted now if you will, cease the-" the killer snarled at her mercilessly,
"Oh you don't speak to me like that, *Nether*, I'm not one of your shadow slaves!" He opened his arms like a circus master, "I can pull out of this deal whenever the hell I want and throw you outta my land because I have all the power here! I CAN MARCH RIGHT UP TO YOUR PRETTY LITTLE CASTLE AND TEAR IT DOWN BRICK BY BRICK AND YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO STOP ME! I CAN DECIMATE ALL OF THIS PERFECT WORLD YOU'VE MADE FOR YOURSELF, I CAN DESTROY YOU AND YOU KNOW IT!" His voice then instantly changed from the shout back to a normal tone. He shook it off. Nether's attention was on his every word. He pointed to himself, chuckling, almost as if the two were family and had merely had a small argument"Come on! You need me! Don't try to hide it, haha you do, I know you do. That's why you came to me wasn't it?" He cocked his head to the side and spoke childishly, "Or did you just need the company for your empty heart? I'm going to vote for the latter, I know what you're like behind all that makeup." Nether was silent, her expression unfathomable as she looked on at the man that knew so little yet so much of her all at once. They were both complete opposites and one in the same all at once.
Trox had now changed the subject, Nether knew he wasn't one for awkward silences unless he'd purposely created one and waited for the reaction,
"...Sooooo, when d'you think 'Frosty the Snowman' will be here, huh?" Nether thought for a moment then nodded, breaking out of her trance like state,
"Oh- yes... in about an hour or so... soon Rose will never see her precious light of day ever again. Truly the brightest candles burn the fastest..." Trox then looked at the projection seriously, she didn't seem to be paying attention to him as he clenched his jaw,
"Y'know, after this you better keep up your end of the bargain, you- you're gonna keep my end of the bargain right?" He crossed his arms,"Because if you want me to kill the Slayers, fine, but you gotta keep what I promised as well. You're lucky that I'm taking all this so much in my stride, I gave up on the Earth a long time ago, the Netherrealm is my place. I'm not used to you placing these solitary places in such... oh how do I put it, how about SOLITARY environments! Snow is very hard to adjust to! Next time you put me on a mission can you please put it in anywhere but the tundra? Like, I'm fine in a desert, I'm fine near a volcano, I'm fine in the arid and I'm fine near cliff sides or caves but the snowy, solitary tundra that is freezing cold and cold and... freezing is not what I need for an advantage." Nether bowed her head,
"I do apologise, my friend..." this supposed apology did not sound very sincere,"...you of all people know yourself on how... random these things can pop up, and I promise you that you will get what you wanted. Then after that, you'll never have to worry about me or Rose or anybody again. You can just focus all you attention on you and what you want." Trox regaining himself a little, grinning, he stared at his comrade in the eye, ignoring her flattery and knowing well that she'd follow what he said if she didn't want her entire business to come crashing down within a night. That was one thing her loved about the job, he influence on Nether was ever so delightful for him.
"Oh and lastly, this 'form' is ever so straining on my body right now... hahaha, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I let off a bit of steam would you? Secrets are- hahahaha- secrets are so difficult to suppress!" Nether smiled with hungry intent,
"Of course, I'll let you have your fun, I'll see you soon, I think a storm is coming."