Go Directly to Jail {Claudio}

[Rainea Cross]

'Ok think, what happened?' Rainea tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't manage it, not yet. 'I was in a bar, I won that drinking contest.. Light weights' a smirk crossed her lips, and faded quickly as she thought forward, 'I walked outside the bar, and was arrested, well maybe that was after I punched the Fed, I can't remember.' She moved her hands, she couldn't lift her arms up, something was preventing her. Though she could open and close her hands, her right one still hurt.

'They didn't put me in jail, they threw me on a ship... then, nothing..' She opened her eyes. She tried to move her head, but she found a strap around her forehead and neck, she looked down to the best of her ability. There was a strap across her chest, her stomach, on her fore arms, and wrists. She could feel them on her calves and her ankles.

'At least I'm still dressed..' She took several deep breaths to calm her heart beat and tried her best to look around the room. There were curtains, fancy ones, she would assume they soft, she wasn't good at fabric, she just knew she didn't see it often. Everything seemed to be in dark shades, reds, maybe. Everything was high end. Who would spend millions on a home like this, and toss her in it?

"Alright enough games!" She was trying to sound tougher than she felt. Her mouth was dry, if she had to guess, some kind of drug they gave her. And for the first time since the war, she felt as though someone had the drop on her. This was not the way she planned on going out, but she would take it if she had to.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio sat, his hat on low over his eyes, and watched the chair. This was an important day for him, he had found her, and now she was his again. She stirred, and he smiled a wicked smile, looking down at his hand, where he held the chain with her dog-tags, and the ring. Oh the ring, so simple yet so amazing. He smiled, and looked back at her. When she began to speak, he rose and walked slowly to lean on the back of the chair. His gloved hands made no sound as he pressed them against the chair.

"Save your threats for someone who actually cares." He said, in a soft silky voice. "Believe me, I have no interest in idle words filled with threats you cannot carry out." He laughed, a booming, rich, wicked laugh. "So tell me, where did you get this?" He held a hand above her head, and dangled the chain in front of her eyes, the ring catching the dim light and flashing magnificently. "I have to wonder, who would part with such a thing as this." He artfully flipped the chain up into his hand, and walked past the chair, keeping his face hidden, and striding over to one of the large windows in the room. "Well?" He said, turning slowly, the light casting a shadow across his face, and obscuring his features. "I am waiting."

[Rainea Cross]

"I served in the war, how else would you get something that wonderful? I have a handful of others on my ship if you want to look at those as well." She moved her arms again, nothing moved. She pulled at her legs and squirmed in the chair. This man, whom ever he was she wasn't going to let him get a larger upper hand on her. He didn't need to know about Leo.

"What do you say? Cut me loose and I'll give you the grand tour of the ship. Might even show you my room.." She wiggled and started to try and retrieve the small knife from the leather wrist guard on her off hand, though when he turned to face her, she stopped moving her hand, trying to make sure he couldn't see the silver blade.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio grinned at the little joke, looking at the dog tags themselves. "If you have so many extras," In one swift motion, he tore them from the chain, and bending one in half in his hand, he dropped it on the floor, crushing it beneath his boot. "Then you wont mind that." He eyed her, watching for the reaction he knew would come. "Now then, perhaps you will answer my questions when I ask them, instead of playing the joker." He poined a gloved finger at her, "Jokers get hurt."

Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a cigar, and lit it. He let it burn for a moment, then put it between his fingers, "This ring of yours, it is quite the piece." He turned his back on her, "Miss Cross, I wouldn't try to cut your way out if i were you." He blew a smoke ring into the air. "Those bindings have electric wires running through them, and I would hate to have to wash you out of that chair." He grinned, and walked to stand just out of her field of vision.

As he walked, he made sure his face was kept hidden, and when he stopped walking, he crouched next to the chair, and spoke. "So let's try this, again." He gently reached in and took her knife, running the blade across his glove. "How quaint." he said, standing up and pocketing the knife. He held out her remaining dog tag, rolling it over in his hand. "These things," He said, with a sigh, "they never figure out how to make them fireproof." As he spoke, he moved his cigar to within inches of the small object, the burning end reflected in the tag. "How did you get that ring of yours?" He asked, knowing she would most likely try to lie. "Hurry, my hand might slip."

[Rainea Cross]

The moment he took one of her dog tags and bent them she fought back her tears. She looked away, not baring to see what he was doing, though she knew what was happening, one was lost. He would likely use the other against her. "I didn't know I was being a joker, perhaps you should ask your questions more directly." Her eyes stayed away from him until she could smell the smoke. She had smelled that smell before, though she didn't smoke she often thought of Leo whenever someone lit a cigar.

Then he brought up the straps. 'Oh he did not just say....' She looked down at her wrists again, trying to make out if she could see little wires, of course she couldn't. But was it worth calling a bluff? He had the money, he could be telling the truth, but what were the odds? "I'm going to need that back.. Good memories and the like." She watched, not as much him but the tag, the remaining tag. "I stole the ring from an old boyfriend, before I left." There was more to her reason for leaving, but that didn't matter, he could crush the remaining tag, but she would never tell him about Leo, and as far as she knew, Leo wouldn't care either way if he had her. "It belonged to his father.. I left several years ago, I took it to remember him, my memory isn't what it use to be." The last part was a lie.

She remembered every face that she killed, every man she served with, their ages and ranks when they passed away. She remembered it all, and she remembered everything about Leo. Their good times their ups and downs. The night she left, she had told him she loved him, and he just smiled and nodded to her. She wouldn't have that, she wasn't going to put herself on the line to have a man walk all over her. She left that night. She was suppose to meet him for dinner, then perhaps a show, but she never showed up.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio chuckled when she tried to keep up her bravado, clicking his tongue. "Didn't your mother tell you not to lie?" He blew a breath of smoke at her, and sighed "I would have thought you might care a little more about something like this" He crushed the second dog tag, putting his cigar between his teeth. "Oops." He knew exactly what that meant to her, how much pain she was probably feeling, and he loved it. "Now then, i have some questions for you." He smiled, and ran his hand through her hair, knowing not being able to see him would drive her mad.

"But first, I have to explain very carefully the one rule of our little game." He stepped around the back of her chair, picking up a cane that he had leaned up against it. Tossing the cane in the air, he grabbed it in the middle, and tapped her hand with the large end, that had a red crystal in the shape of a skull on it. "I will ask you questions and you will answer them." He chuckled, "If you lie, and I WILL know." He lowered the cane, and took his cigar from his mouth, leaning in close he spoke in a whisper. "Then I will hurt you."

He slammed his cane against the ground, making a satisfying bang. "Now then, since you didn't know the rules, I won't penalize you for both lies." He sighed, "But i am afraid I can't look over it completely, you must learn." He took a firm hold of her hand, and shook his head, "If only you hadn't lied." He pressed the burning end of his cigar into the back of her hand.

[Rainea Cross]

"My mother never taught me anything." She spit at him when he brought up her mother. Her mother passed when she was a small child, a sickness that her planet had no cure for. She turned away as a stray tear fell from her eye as he crushed her other dog tag. What he had done would hurt deeper than any physical pain.

She watched him, carefully. The cane, she could feel the weight behind it when he tapped her hand. "You don't know me." Was her only responce to him knowing that she was going to lie. No, there was no possible way he would know everything about her or about Leo. She would give her life to keep it that way. The cane, there was something about it, she had never seen it before, but it brought back a memory, something, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Then again Skulls normally had that effect on her.

She jumped when the cane hit the ground. Her breathing quickened as he spoke, she was expecting the can to meet her body, she wasn't sure were. Her face, her arms, legs, anything he hit had a chance of breaking judging by the sound. But then again, she wasn't sure. She was still focused on the cane with the cigar touched her hand, she let out with a welp and quickly closed her mouth holding in her want to scream. She watched as a name was disappearing under his cigar. "I never liked Private Earnest anyway." She said through a clenched jaw.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio laughed when she yelled, and he removed the cigar. "That's right, your pitiful planet never could cure its own diseases." He smiled wryly, and patted her arm. "See that wasn't so.." But before he could finish she spoke. "LIAR!" He said, in his booming voice, standing up and slamming the bottom of his cane against the floor. "I know everything about you, from the top of your pretty little head to the tips of your toes." He spoke softly and menacingly, keeping behind her, and tapping his cane against the back of the chair.

"I know that you never forgive yourself for your failures. That you wish you were dead, that you hate the alliance, and that you can't get over the fact that you let Earnest DIE!." His last words rang in the chamber, and he laughed. "And I know about your little knife and the ring too." He got very close to her ear, and whispered. "He died well, Leo." He chuckled, and stepped in front of her. "Said his only regret was losing you." Claudio's eyes, hidden from her clouded ever so slightly, "But he was weak, and so i put him down."

Without warning he wheeled around, bringing his cane down upon her foot, and feeling a satisfying contact. "That was for telling me I didn't know you." He said, his voice low as he turned and walked over to the window, "You know Miss Cross, there are days when I wish I didn't have this job." He sighed, and blew a smoke ring. "That pesky captain of yours makes it worthwhile, and so do people who think they can outsmart me." He sighed again, "But people like you, make it so hard to do what I do." His eyes narrowed, and he placed his cain on the remnant of one of the dog tags, then raised it, and slammed it down.

Crossing slowly, and keeping his face hidden, he returned to his place just outside her view, reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the knife she had been trying to use for an escape. "Also," He began, as he ever so gently ran the blade's flat side across her neck, "When you love someone, when you truly love someone, you don't run away." His voice was cold and empty, and he pressed the blade against her neck harder, feeling the skin break slightly. "Such a pity."

[Rainea Cross]

How could this man know her? Her family was dead, her friends. There was no one left for him to speak with, sure he could have her record from the army, "Earnest was going to die to die no matter what I did, we didn't have enough supplies, and I couldn't save them all on my own." Truth be told, she could have saved him, she made a choice to save someone else in stead. Someone she had a relationship with, but in the end they both died, leaving her to know she choice the person that was less likely to live, because she had feelings for him.

She was about to say something else when he brought up the ring, and the knife, and finally her Leo. Her eyes closed in defeat for a moment, her mind racing. He killed the one thing that kept her comming back to the core system. Every year on Leo's birthday she sent him a package. It was never much, but it was something that made her think of him. She still loved him deep down, though she never thought he would feel anywhere close to the same about her. "He was one of the strongest people I have ever met." Then again, she hadn't met that many people that were still alive, she had to correct that thought, Leo was dead now, she failed him as well. "Dead or alive, I doubt using me would ever get to him." Maily because she didn't think he actually loved her.

Then without warning, she felt his cane on her foot. She held in her welp of pain but she could stop her body from trying to jerk to grab her foot. "The Cap'n makes your job worth while but I some how don't, well why in the world don't you kill me then and make us both happy and easier to live with." She said everything through clenched teeth, her foot still throbbing and screaming in pain as she tried her best to supress the pain.

Rainea tilted her head, as much as she could with the restraints, to give him more access to the skin. "If you truly know me, you know why I left. I loved him but he didn't return that love. He would never have left the core, and I couldn't live there. It was a doomed relationship before we ever started it." She had never asked him directly if he would leave with her, but with everything he owned, everything he had, she couldn't see a reason why he would want to leave, and he was her only reason to stay. She had told Leo several times she could never stay on a core world, it hurt. Everything about what the Alliance did hurt, she wanted to run to a boarder world, far from Alliance's reach and just, live. He didn't seem to take an interest in her little plan and she dropped it, never brought up her plans to leave again, though she still planned for it.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio's face stiffened, and he drew the knife across her throat, leaving a fine line of red, and then he walked in front of her, his back turned so she couldn't see him. She wasn't going to have a very good experience if she kept this up. "You think he wouldn't?" He smiled, wondering how far he could push this before she guessed the answer. He sighed, and blew a long stream of smoke into the air. "The real question, Miss Cross" He began, in a deep rich voice, "Is whether or not you want to know just exactly how this hero of yours died." He smiled a wicked smile, and turned to face her, the light casting dark shadows across his face.

Reaching down, he took hold of her right hand, and gently caressed the fingers, his gloved hand running up past her wrist as he moved slowly around her. "It is a shame," He said, in a mockingly piteous voice, "That someone as beautiful as you can be so stubborn." He rubbed the blade of her knife on her shirt, cleaning off the blood from her neck, and then he gently rubbed her face with his hand, "You can end this, all of this pain." He felt an unusual attraction to her, one that he hadn't felt since... since well, before she had run away. "Stay here with me, and i can make you a queen." He smiled, and took a long deep breath on his cigar.

"The alternative of course, is much less appealing." He moved in a flutter of cloth and a swirl of smoke, and was on her other side in a flash. "I can't break you, you pitiful excuse for a woman," He laughed, "Do you know why?" He blew smoke in her face, "Because you are already broken, broken beyond recognition." He traced the tattoo on her arm with his finger, gently pausing as he approached the burn. "I can put you back together again, but only if you will let me." He paused waiting for her to respond.

[Rainea Cross]

Rainea watched him, it seemed to be the only thing she could do, as small lines of blood flowed down her neck, deep enough to bleed, shallow enough not to kill. She was slightly disappointed by this development. "If it was anything like this, I would bet he was bored to death." She glared at him, her mind finally getting to a point of clarity. The hangover was starting to fade, at least she thought it was, it was hard to think through her pain.

"If I gave up that easily, you wouldn't respect me in the morning." She smirked at him and closed her hand into a fist as his fingers touched her. When his fingers reached her hand she closed it into a first. "A Queen? We both know that I wouldn't be any good as a Queen.." She tried to pull her hand away when he touched her, pulling away from his touch.

"I don't need you to fix me." She looked up at him, her other hand balling into a first, the burnt flesh causing her to wince. "Why would you even care, you killed..." A thought came into her mind, she pushed it aside. "You might know of me, but I doubt that you know me. I am not a toy, I am not some simple machine that you can just pick and slap new parts on. You can not only not fix me, there is no way I would allow you to try." There was only one person that she had let in, and despite what her gut was telling her, that man was dead.

[Claudio Vinccino]

Claudio withdrew slightly picking his cane up and swinging it through the air as he moved, missing her face by mere inches. "Again with the attitude," He said, with a harsh laugh, before continuing to himself, "You haven't changed a bit." He took a long breath on his cigar, and turned to face her, blowing out the smoke as he moved. "You don't know what you have done, child." He smiled, the light catching the bottom half of his face, and showing his sparkling teeth. "I can shape you however I want. You may fight at first, but before long you will give in, you can not beat me." He took a long stride forward, and stabbed the knife into the chair between her fingers, leaving it to quiver there.

"You may think of yourself as strong, noble and brave." He crossed the room, to look out the window behind her chair. "But I know who you really are, a pitiful, weak and powerless worm, who's greatest achievement is to lose a war that was never even worth fighting." He knew he would get a rise, and he continued. "He could have helped you too, that man of yours." He turned to look at the back of her chair, "You could have been happy together, but no, your misplaced nobility and commitment to ruining your own life got in the way." He was rather angry now.

"What about your father?" He smiled maliciously, and chuckled "You never could save anyone, could you?" He moved to the back of the chair, and slammed the butt of his cane against it. "All the men you lost, all the faces, the question is: Will you still remember mine?"

[Rainea Cross]

"You missed..." She struggled against the bindings some more then he spoke of shaping her. A smile crossed her own lips. Did he really think so little of her? That he would think that he could shape her to his will. She knew that it was absurd, she would never give into him, not now, not ever. "You assume very little about my personality if you think you can change..." She jumped as the small knife hit the chair. She glanced down at it and grabbed the knife with her fingers, pulling it into her hand. It was time to call his bluff. When she thought he could no longer hear her she began cutting at her arm strap.

"I might have been on the losing side, but I'm still not convinced it wasn't worth fighting it." She then laughed after he spoke about Leo. "He would never have been happy with me. I was younger sure, but I am no princess, I can't live in a tower the way he would have wanted. I am a fighter, and I will never be able to stop." Pushing harder against the leather strap she spoke louder. "I do not want a ruined life, I want one worth living. I love him.. Loved him..." She couldn't continue that thought, several tears ran down her cheeks, if her gut feeling was right, then, Leo was dead regardless.

She stopped cutting when she felt the cane hit the back of her chair. "It depends on if I see your face, for now, you are worth forgetting."

[Claudio Vinccino]

"I told you once," He said, in a low voice, "That was not wise to attempt an escape." Reaching down, he pressed a button on the back of the chair, letting the electricity flow into the many contact points throughout her body. He laughed as her body twitched and flailed against the restraints. Releasing the button, he smiled as her body went limp, her breathing heavy. "Tears?" He said, softly, taking out a handkerchief and gently wiping her face and neck, cleaning the sweat blood and tears away. He reached out with his cane, and pressed it against her hand, forcing her to let go of the knife. "Now that you know i am serious, perhaps you can be too?"

"He would have changed, you know, for you." He walked away from her, putting his cigar out in the ash tray that lived in the windowsill. "He told me, all those things you think about him, how he wished he could have said more." He laughed, and shook his head. "It is pity that you weren't more understanding." He muttered, crossing to stand in front of her. "So tell me," He reached up, and removed his hat, leaning down to stare into her eyes with his, "Do you remember me?"

[Rainea Cross]

She let out a scream as the electricity flowed through her body. As he leaned in and wiped her tears and blood away she held back her want to cry. Her breathing turned jagged and she took several long moments before she spoke."I would like to see how you react.. " He then brought up being more serious, "Come now would you really have me be any other way my dear?" Her hand burned and her mind screamed, her whole body hurt and she couldn't move anything yet. Whatever he hit her with, it did a number.

"He wouldn't have changed for anyone.." She shook her head a little, the only thing keeping her from falling forward was the straps around her body. When he approached her,and she could finally confirm her worries and suspicions. "LEO?!" She almost yelled his name in surprise, she closed her eyes and trembled there before him. She felt broken, defeated, she didn't know what to do. "Of all the people," she whispered, "It had to be you."

Rainea sat there, silent, her breaths shallow, she was trying to find a reason to keep fighting him, and she was coming up short.