Ace of Hearts

A/N: Can be read as a stand alone, but it makes more scense if you read it with Brainwash. The enderarments are French terms. I also have no idea how to play poker. Origanaly posted on Fictionpress.com.

 I was in big trouble. I had lost the radio to call for help from my platoon. The last I saw of it, the device had been run over by a two-ton grey war machine. Son of a bitch, I was going to die. Just then a strong pair of arms pulled me from my hiding spot, a trimmed vibrant green bush in front of a senator's posh mansion. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a gruff voice chuckled. My arms were forced behind me and I felt freezing metal clamp around my wrist. As I struggled, they tightened. Not cool, man. "What are you doing?" a woman's silky voice reached my ears. "We found him sneaking around the property, ma'am." She giggled. It was a sinister sound, and I would have bet she had a cruel grin on her face. "Well that just won't do. Let me handle him," she demanded, and whoever was holding me complied. "Yes ma'am," the guard mumbled, suddenly meek in front of this woman. "Wait," the mystery woman exclaimed. She snapped her fingers. I had a nanosecond to contemplation what this could mean before I felt the hilt of a pistol crack the back of my head, and I was gone.

"Wake, child," a velvet voice whispered. It sounded like the woman of earlier, but now it was so kind and quite, it was almost impossible to believe. I now noticed a small ascent. Inadvertently, my eyes fluttered open. The face I saw hovering above me was nothing what I expected. Soft azure eyes met mine as I stared in shock at the perfect pale skin and defined regal features. Her eyes were large and her lips were a perfect heart shape. This lady had to be one of the goddess queens they told us about. Apparently they were made by the creators to be their wives. She looked at me with a strange sadness in her eyes. "I tried to scramble from the bed on which I lay but I ended up falling on a hard marble floor. I heard a soft giggle and the goddess knelt next to me. "Do not fear me child. I wish you no harm." "Yeah, say that to the bruise on the back of my head," I told her. "I am truly sorry for that. But the guards suspicion could be you doom," she said apologetically. "Why did you save me?" I curiously implored. I was just an escapee kid. Why didn't she just send me to the Creators for an information extraction, their fancy code for torture? "How old are you, ma bichette?" she inquired. "Um, I'm 13. I think," I shifted uncomfortably then stood up. "A child's life should be that of joy and love. Not of guns and war."She looked at my machine gun in the corner with distaste. Ok well somebody was a little assuming. Just because I was a kid didn't mean I couldn't protect myself. "I can take care of myself" I said, sounding a little offended. She laughed with her voice like those glass things that hang in the trees, wind-chimes. It was sweet. "I don't doubt you could, ma cheri. But you shouldn't have to." "I do if I want my freedom," I replied a little sharp. "Ah, those damnable slave facilities. I despair at the thought that they exist. I am one of the only ones here who oppose their existence," she growled. Wait, a high and mighty that actually hates the facilities? This is new. "I think-" I was interrupted by a door slamming downstairs. The queen blanched.

"My husband. Ma cheri, you must hide!" she said panicked. "Come, come," she breathed, dragging me into a closet. She shoved me in and sat down on the bed just as a man walked in. I watched through the cracks. He had a handsome face, but it was severe and cruel, with harsh angles and steely eyes. That must be Senator Harwell. "Hello, dear," the goddess said, her ascent forcibly hidden. "Have you been a satisfactory wife today, Delilah?" "Yes my lord," she said bowing her head, and my anger flared. My lord? And I got it now. Why she hated Facilities, why she wanted me to have a happy life. She was as much of a slave as the brainwashed working, living their entire lives without knowing about the real world. He master was he husband, and the fact she wasn't born in Padinilly. She was treated like shit, and she didn't want anyone else to be forced to endure."Oh really? Then who's gun is that?" She whimpered and stuttered half formed apologies. "Look at me," he ordered. The goddess looked up, but the second she did the insufferable man backhanded her. That was it. I busted from the closet and wrestled the bastard to the floor. I punched him once... twice... I felt a crack. A second later I was pulled of him by a guard. "Well guards, I think we found a new candidate for extraction. Bring him," the Harwell snarled. His broken nose was satisfying to observe. The steel cuffs were snapped back on me and I was pushed by the men behind me to walk all the way down to the basement.