Sweet Venom Arc 03 Ch. 16

NO! I REFUSE! EITHER I WIN WITH MY MIGHT, OR I DIE BY IT!

Seeth swallowed hard and grit her teeth. She pulled her hands away from the Baron's torso and clasped her fingers around his.

One sharp twist!

*CRACK*

He howled in pain as she pulled on his fingers and snapped them back. His fingers loosened, and she shook his grip loose.

As the fat sack of shit recoiled in pain, Seeth launched herself upwards and seized him by the scruff of his neck, pulling his face down towards the crown of her carapace.

*SMACK*

His freshly-broken snout dribbled with blood as he fell backwards, bellowing loudly. Seeth gasped loudly and clawed at the floor as his gigantic girth finally rolled off of her chest, desperate to pull herself away.

The floor shook as the Baron stumbled heavily to the ground, reaching towards his dropped cleaver. Seeth felt over the wound in her neck. The wound was deep and bleeding profusely. As she continued to move her fingers over it, she suddenly felt something cold, and solid.

This needs to end soon, or it's over.

A surge of adrenaline pushed her to her feet, and Seeth pounced onto his collapsed body. As she crashed down on top of him, the Baron twisted and snapped his jaws at her, her face inches from his gnashing teeth. He bear-hugged her close, trying to pin her arms to her side.

To his surprise, Seeth quickly yanked one of her arms free. He wasn't surprised for long though, and almost immediately he snapped the full force of his leering bite onto her forearm, teeth sinking into the fleshy parts of her forearm.

He strained and clamped down as hard as he could, the delicious blood dripping onto his tongue. The taste only made him more ravenous, more determined, and the feeling of their struggling bodies rubbing against each-other caused a disgusting, aroused growl to gurgle from his throat.

No, NO! Absolutely not, FUCK THIS SHIT!

Just as the Baron began to feel victory in his grasp, Seeth yanked her other arm out from his grip and she pushed herself further up his body, until she was leaning over his face. She grabbed her ensnared fist with her now free arm, and with a single, overpowering motion, twisted her forearm in the Baron's mouth.

A bassy *CRUNCH* vibrated through his skull as his jaw popped out of place, immediately falling slack and weak. Before he even had time to realise what had happened, Seeth yanked her forearm free and grabbed the base of his flopping maw. He roared out in pain, releasing his grip on her body and grabbing at her wrist instead. Slowly, determinedly, she stood up, pulling on his jaw with every ounce of strength she had.

This ends now.

The Baron's jaw was torn free from its hinges, and splattered to the ground behind them. One last burst of strength flowed through her aching limbs. The Baron gargled on his own tongue in anger, and grabbed Seeth's thigh with his one intact hand, half-groping, half-grappling. She brought her fists down on his wrist in retaliation, breaking through it as though it were nothing more than rotting wood.

Fury bubbled in Seeth's body and brain. The idea that this man was going to kill her? That he had his hands over her? Was holding her by her hair?

No. This would not do. This had to be answered in kind.

She stood above his growling body as he tried to push himself onto his feet. His giant round belly rolled around the floor as the Baron desperately fumbled about for anything he could use as a weapon. As she watched him blunder about, pure rage besieged her mind.

He would not get the mercy of a professional kill.

She raised her fists above her head and slammed them down onto his chest, feeling the crunch of his ribs under his greasy skin and fur, as his body lurched in pain.

She immediately raised her fists again and brought them down with all the force as she could muster.

The Baron gargled and projectile-vomited a tube of mustard-yellow spew into the air as Seeth's fists mauled his obese body.

Again.

His skin ruptured. His ribs snapped inwards, skewering and slicing at his internal organs.

Again.

A dying gasp filled the air. As her fists crushed his chest, blood erupted from his nose and mouth, spraying into the air and painting the already dripping ceiling a dark crimson hue.

She screamed out in a blind, unmasked rage, a thunderous screech.

"YOU DARE MAKE ME THINK FOR EVEN A SECOND THAT I WAS WITH HIM? THAT YOU WERE HIM?!"

Again.

He sagged against the floor, convulsing on the floor, weak and broken. Bile and blood staining his tattered fur.

Again.

He'd stopped breathing. His body was disfigured and his chest crushed, blood pooling around his body.

AGAIN!

With her final blow, blood and mucus oozed from his face and chest where her fists had broken him. Seeth stumbled backwards and clutched tightly at her wound.

It was over.

She felt quickly for the med-kit on her belt. Her eyes remained glued to the mountain of a Baron, pierced for even the slightest sign of life.

She sprayed a neon-blue gel over her wound slowly. It puffed and foamed around her neck, and the bleeding stopped.

Now that she could look at him properly, the Baron didn't look like Diego at all. He was a wolf-breed of some sort, with black fur and purple eyes, but that was where the similarities ended. A few minutes ago he'd been a ten-foot tall mountain of teeth, hunger and flesh, bent on making her body his next feast, but now he was just a mangled pile of broken bones and split flesh, rapidly haemorrhaging onto the metal around him. Vomit trickled from his mouth and out onto the floor.

She sunk back against the wall behind her, hands trembling as her mind finally began to process what had just happened.

"I need him back... Where are you, Diego?"

*

Seeth was sitting in the far corner of the loading bay, leaning heavily against a stack of cargo crates. Her eyes were tightly closed, her hands visibly shaking. It had been a week since the attack on Barru X, a week since she'd lost him... and they'd spent that whole week on Venner's ship which was far too small for her - to be honest, was far too small for any of them to stay on for such an extended period. It has come to this, Seeth effectively hiding from the others in the back of the loading bay, just to try and get a little peace.

Venner had spent the last seven days calling in every favour she had, and while she was... somewhat grateful, it wasn't enough to even begin to sate the hatred she had for the rat. Venner had finally managed to secure herself a work transfer, and them an extortionately overpriced flat on the edge of some nomad space station that was in the middle of fucking nowhere. And that was nowhere by nomad standards.

Her urges were getting harder and harder to control. She dug her shaking fingers into her thighs and squeezed them tightly, breathing slowly, trying desperately to calm both the burn she was feeling in her loins, and the anxiety churning in her stomach.

I'm so sorry, Diego... I'm so sorry I wasn't there...

"Seeth! Seeth, are you here?"

Seeth's eyes snapped open into an expression of frustration and annoyance. It took everything to stifle the growl in her chest as Tivy came bounding round the corner.

"Found her, Oxyi!"

Humming happily, Tivy pulled herself up onto one of the boxes and smiled across at Seeth, swinging her legs back and forth. Seeth glared back at her.

Oxyi appeared round the corner, panting slightly after running all around the ship after her friend. "Oh, well done, Tiv." She breathed.

Seeth's glare slowly moved from Tivy to Oxyi. "Can I help you?" She snapped.

"Um, w-well..." Oxyi seemed a little taken aback by Seeth's tone, and shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "We were just thinking about food! We were gonna order something, and wanted to ask if you wanted anything -"

"Trent wants pizza, Oxyi wants sushi, we all want different things!" Tivy chimed in. "I wanted to get the massive veggie platter from the takeout we got the other day but nobody else wanted it!" She suddenly pouted very solemnly.

"Y-Yeah." Oxyi forced a laugh. "So, uh, if we order, d'you want anything?"

Seeth slowly moved her glare away from Oxyi. She stared out, straight ahead at the wall.

"No."

"Awh c'mon, Seeth!" You didn't eat with us yesterday either!" Tivy stood up on her box and started bobbing up and down. "We miss you! You gotta have somethi-"

"Can't you just leave me the fuck alone?" Seeth snapped. "Haven't you two got anything better to do, besides follow me round like lost puppies?" She was staring back at Tivy now, pain and fury in her eyes. "I know for a fact that you have much better things to be doing."

Tivy cocked her head and stared back confusedly at the Controller. "What do you mean?"

"Tiv, maybe we should come back later." Oxyi quickly tried to guide Tivy away, but Tivy hopped back from her outstretched arm.

"Have I upset you, Seeth?"

"UPSET ME?!" Seeth leapt to her feet, her body trembling with rage. She towered over Tivy, even with the cargo crate. To Oxyi's surprise though, Tivy didn't even flinch.

"You... THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Seeth barked. "Y-You were too busy FUCKING YOUR NEW BOYFRIEND to notice that Plasia was stripping the ship apart! You were too busy SHOVING YOUR TONGUE DOWN HIS THROAT to notice that she'd changed! If you had taken one second to take Trent's fluffy orange DICK OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, we might still have a working strike-ship! Diego might still be here!"

Seeth's voice echoed loudly around the confines of the loading bay. There was anger, sadness, desperation and just a glint of insanity in Seeth's eyes. Her chest was heaving. she clenched her fists by her sides. Oxyi froze under the Controller's powerful poise. Her heart beat heavily in her chest. Slowly, she forced her head to move, and she looked over at Tivy in fear...

Tivy, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by Seeth's outburst. She cleared her throat softly, and quickly climbed up the next stack of cargo crates behind her, so that when she stood on them, she was eye level with Seeth. Seeth's eyelid twitched as she watched the critter clamber up the boxes, but was too thrown off by her actions to say anything.

"Seeth. That's not fair. We're all missing him." Tivy said calmly. "But you can't stand there and say any of those things are true!"

Oxyi's jaw dropped. Where had this big-balled little Tivy been during the attack?! Seeth too seemed taken aback; she wasn't used to being back-chatted like this.

"You knew Plasia better than anybody else here!" Tivy continued. "Or atleast, you were supposed to! How come YOU didn't notice, hmm?! Maybe if YOU weren't so busy STARING AT YOUR MAN'S ASS ALL THE TIME, they'd both still be here!"

"Tivy! Tivy that's enough now!" Oxyi interrupted. "Let's go back to the others now!" She made an attempt to reach out for her friend, but she absolutely refused to cross in front of Seeth; she could feel the heat and the anger emanating off of her.

"No! I'm not done! Speaking of THEM -" Tivy had hit her stride now; she spoke loudly and confidently and stared right in the Controller's eyes as she did so "- WHERE IS PLASIA?! Do you EVEN CARE?! Not once have you even mentioned Plasia! She could be anywhere! She could be dead! You're SUPPOSED to be her FRIEND, but every time we've talked about a rescue, it's only been Diego Diego Diego! Did you even want her to come with us? You're not acting like a friend! You're acting like a BITCH!"

Seeth opened her mouth to speak, but Tivy actually reached up and pushed the Controller's lips back together.

"Shush! I'm not finished! Out of everybody on this ship, YOU have absolutely no right to judge ANYBODY for who they have sex with! No right at all!"

The room fell into a heavy silence. Tivy didn't need to say any more than that; her message had been delivered loud and clear. She hopped down from the cargo crates and took Oxyi by the hand. Oxyi stared up at Seeth, unsure of what to do. Seeth had been visibly struck by Tivy's words. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth open slightly agape. Suddenly, she was back in the dungeon, with Moltezz and Leech, and she was doing some terrible, terrible things...

But that... that's not me anymore... I want to atone, I want to change... I promised Diego -

- But Diego's not here anymore.

"I... I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry, Tiv. I... I think I need to be alone right now..."

And with that, Seeth fled as quietly but as quickly as possible from the bay. She could feel their gaze burning into her back as they watched her leave.

Her shoulders shook as she walked down the corridor. She managed to make it to the single bedroom on the ship unnoticed by the others. By some small miracle it was empty. Seeth flopped heavily onto the bed and tried to make sense of her thoughts. Tivy's words swirled around her head.

N-No. It doesn't matter if Diego's here or not. I refuse to be that person again! I'll f-fight it! I'll fight this with everything I have!

She glared down at the growing bulge in her trousers with disgust, that seemed to be triggered at just the very thought of his name. She dug her fingers tightly into the mattress beneath her.

"I'll fight it to the death if I have to..."

"...I gotcha the good stuff to regenerate that gash of yours! Garnet's been telling me all 'bout your adventures this week, shootin' them Barons up and stuffin' they're nasty bodies into corpse barrels - or what's left of 'em anyway!"

A warm and gentle voice interrupted Seeth's thoughts, and suddenly she was back in the Fixer Den's infirmary. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, and was surprised when she pulled her hands away to find that her fingers were wet. Seeth had returned to the Fixer Den about an hour ago, battered bloody and bruised, wearing a gaunt expression that no-one had seen on her before. She could hear a concerned crowd gathering outside the door, all told firmly to stay outside while Garnet's wife attended to the strider's wounds.

Unlike Garnet, Veronica (or V, as she liked to be called) was an immaculately well-groomed otter, with all her limbs still intact. She had a shapely, plump and short figure, with curly soft hair and bright green eyes, creased with years of laughs, smiles and love. The otter had an equally southern twang, but a much softer voice than that of her husband. Her fingers moved delicately over Seeth's butchered skin, and her expression was warm and comforting, but also sharp. This wasn't the sort of woman you wanted to mess with; she had a gleam in her eye and a strong right-hook she wasn't afraid to use on anybody that got too close. Luckily, the right-hook was seldom required, thanks to her renowned home-baked cookies and cakes. Her freshly-made treats were usually enough to placate even the most irate of Garnet's customers.

Veronica pulled out a blue gel-filled needle attached to a large metallic container, stamped with the words 'Rev X formula' in bold green writing. Gently, she pushed the needle into Seeth's medi-gel covered neck wound, and a fizzling warmth immediately coursed through her body.

"Thanks, V. How much do I owe you?" Seeth murmured, her eyes fixed firmly to the floor.

"Nothin' hun. It's on the den." Veronica smiled, throwing the used needle into a bin behind her.

"You sure? Rev X isn't exactly cheap in this part of the universe. I can pay."

"I know you can, hun. But I couldn't charge you even if I wanted to, Garnet would give me heck for it! Besides, the influx of folks we've had staying here all said they'd pay for you's, even if the Den didn't." She paused, watching Seeth closely. Seeth hadn't reacted at all to her words, she just stared, blankly at the floor. She looked... empty. Veronica's face flickered with concern. "You... don't seem right since you got back... I hate to state the obvious but something happened on that barge, didn't it? And I don't just mean the neck chop."

Seeth sighed and sank down into her seat.. Maybe it was Veronica's disarming attitude, or maybe she just really needed to talk to someone, but finally, after months of pushing her thoughts and feelings down, they spilled out onto her tongue.

"I lost someone, about six months ago... Someone very important to me, and I'm missing him dearly."

"Oh, hun I'm sorry." The otter replied sincerely. "Was it on Barru X? Did he die in the attack?"

"No, he's not dead. I... I don't think so anyway, but I don't know exactly. I think the DA has him." Seeth fought back her upset and rage, clenching her fists tightly.

"The DA?! Say, Garnet's on the line with the Commander Koa fella from over yonder. Having a right old chat, have you asked him about your friend?"

"Yeah, ages ago. Several times. Said there wasn't much he could do."

Veronica pondered the Controller's words for a few seconds. A mischievous look twinkled in the otter's eyes.

"Y'know, I hear from Garnet that that Koa fella is mighty grateful for all the work you've been doing."

Seeth glanced over towards the otter, her eyes heavy and tired. "Yeah?"

"Mmm-hmm! They go back a long way. The DA are trying hard to repair some of the damage they've done with the other systems over the years, especially us nomads. I'm sure ya know this already, but that Koa's been on the front lines for years, main correspondence between the DA and nomads, trying to form some sorta relationship. Hasn't had too much success, up until now."

"What do you mean?" Seeth asked, a little curious now.

"Them Vora Barons have been plaguing this side-ah space for years now! Hunting down nomads while the DA sat back, promising with all their fancy words and contracts that they'd do something about it. Took a rogue czarite bounty hunter to finally make a dent! You wanna make sure that people know there's no DA affiliations. Koa's a nice guy, but I'm sure he'd happily let the DA take the credit if it meant the nomads warming up to his cause. Unless, of course -"' Veronica lowered her voice slightly "- there's somethin' other than credit you want from him."

"You... You think I should speak to him? Try and force his hand?" Seeth raised an eyebrow. There was a cunning streak to Veronica that Seeth hadn't noticed until now, which was both impressive and concerning, given how well she hid it.

"I reckon he's the type to hate owing people." Veronica's voice was determined. She took hold of Seeth's fingers and squeezed them firmly. "From the chats he's been having with Garnet, I'd say he sounds pretty indebted to you right about now. I'd press that on him."

Seeth pondered Veronica's words closely, her free hand feeling over the goo filled gash in her neck.

"Fuck it. Worth a shot. I've got some pretty strong words for the commander anyway." Seeth's face suddenly twisted into a scowl. A fresh feeling of rage was starting to burn in her stomach. The Rev X healing process was uncomfortable at best and downright painful at worst, but she'd be fully healed by the end of the day - physically at least.

"Why don't you head out the back and avoid the crowd? I reckon speakin' to the Koa fella is more important than making friendlies right now, even if Tora is desperate to know where you're at."

Seeth thanked the otter then made her way out back, straight towards Garnet's office. Her scowl intensified as she heard Jace's gravelly voice from the corridor. She wasted no time eavesdropping, and instead ploughed straight into Garnet's office, making the portly man jump out of his seat.

"S-Seeth?! I'm assuming that's you! Geez, girl! You could knock first!"

"Sorry Garnet. I need a word with Commander Koa here. Am I coming through?"

"You are." Jace replied calmly. He couldn't see her, but he was able to hear her thanks to a specialised analog microphone installed in Garnet's office. The dragon wore a cool smile but his dark eyes and sloping shoulders conveyed a type of tiredness that sleep could not fix.