Simone strode down the industrial looking hallway behind the young aid. The aid had met them straight away to bring them to the holding facility where the prisoner waited. The ambush had shaken her but Fedarsi's quick action and orders had shocked her.
He had opened up about the missing Judge. He had seemed eager to tell her everything, eager to get 'close' to her. The man had asked to use her first name! It was totally inappropriate! And then when she was still reeling from the rocket strike, he had ordered her Stormtroopers to join his men in repelling the attack. As if she herself wouldn't have done just that. She fumed silently as they threaded their way through the maze of hallways and closed doors.
On one of the lowest levels they finally stopped and the aid opened a heavy door and stepped back to let Simone's Guard enter first.
Sitting in the floor was a young woman, blonde headed, pale skinned with a great many scars that appeared self inflicted, and lithe of frame. She was sitting in the floor, chained by her wrists and ankles giving her no more room than absolutely necessary to move to the only other thing in the room, the toilet. She looked up, her eyes filled with nothing but hate and loathing for anything they fell upon.
Simone surveyed the bare room. They had allowed the prisoner more room to move than she would have but that was why they had called her in. She turned to the aid and sharply ordered him to bring her a chair. She nodded to Malachi who stepped back to almost disappear into the shadows.
She turned back to the girl. "Who are you?" she asked her voice quiet and emotionless.
The girl's eyes went up and down, surveying the individual standing before her. She didn't flinch, didn't move another part of her body other than her head, and the look in her eyes only became more intense. " I am a daughter of the Emperor. I have been wrongly accused!" The words would have been convincing if wasn't for the spite and disgust with which she spit out the word Emperor. Her voice was cool, calm, but there was an undertone of fear that could not be missed.
Simone crouched down so she could look into the girl's eyes and she smiled warmly. "Well, then," she said, " If you truly love the Emperor as we all must, then you have nothing to fear child."
Tears began to well up in her eyes, but that stare of hatred seem to contain the release of the tears. "Nothing to fear? You have imprisoned me after your Arbites attacked my home!"
"Yes, tell me about that. Surely there has been some mistake." Simone maintained her calm, serene manner. This chit wasn't fooling anybody.
"I do not know what happened, other than i was at my home, then all this shooting started and they were killing my family! Is this the justice of the Holy Emperor?!" She was beginning to unfurl herself on the floor, like a snake ready to spring. Her voice was hard, cutting, but still holding that underlying fear.
As the girl started to move, Simone heard Malachi shift his feet ready to intercept if he thought Aulus was a threat. Simone kept her focus on her prisoner. "Why, do you think the Arbites chose you, of all the people there to bring in?" She waited, hoping that Aulus would trip herself up.
She shifted, her comfort lost, her mind was beginning to rattle. She was having a hard time holding it all in, and the more she talked, the less she was able to control the urge to denounce everything she knew. "Chose me? I....I don't know...they just....the gangers said they were being fired on....I tried to help...." The words were becoming unintelligible, she was beginning to lose it. Her body was shaking; sweat pouring off of her like water in a shower.
"Hmmm." Simone stood and crossed her arms over her thin chest. "Now, Aulus, why would you try to help ...gangers? A good citizen of the Emperor would try and help his lawful Arbites."
