#lilacby

Lilac grabbed whatever he thought would be necessary, and threw it into a suitcase.  He ran out the door and didn’t both to lock it, he wouldn’t be coming back anyway.  He ran around the corner and fell in a heap when he collided with something solid.  He dimmed when he looked at what it was.

Roseby was snarling down at him, but his face looked as though it had taken quite the beating.  Lilac chuckled tensely, “Hey there, Roseby.  You look like shit.”

Roseby grabbed his collar and yanked him up, holding his off the ground, voice just a low whisper, “You will pay for this.”

Lilac stiffened and before he could respond, his world when dark.

________________________

Lilac groaned and pulled lightly at the restraints,  they were horrible tight and were cutting into his skin pulling a hiss from his lips.  The chair was metallic and stiff, his legs slightly separated as each foot was tied to a leg of the chair.  He tried to keep his breath even, he just had to talk to Roseby.  Easy.  He had to have something that the guy wanted.

The door flew open and slammed into the wall, lightly swinging back as Roseby threw a bag on the table and pulled out different objects.  His face was neutral, which was far more terrifying than if he was angry, it meant that he was thinking clearly.  Lilac watched as he took a slow breath before spinning around and driving a thin rod into his leg, almost parallel with the bone.

Lilac screamed as it happened, his skin being forced away as the rod naturally pushed away from the angle.  The pain was worse than he had imagined it would be, the pulling of the skin was driving him insane.  And Roseby was only getting started.  Another rod was slipped under his skin, his left arm this time, causing him to choke on cries of agony and jerk violently against the restraints.

Lilac gasped and looked over at Roseby, his voice weak, but filled with desperation, “There…...There has to be something you want.  Just say what already!”

Roseby turned, face cold and filled with loathing, “I want you to beg for death, then keep screaming until your vocal cords tear.”

Lilac breathed, trying to steady himself as his mind was screaming for this to stop, “I-I’m sorry.  They didn’t give me a choice.  And you all got out, you can go into hiding, you - GAAAAAAAAH!”

Lilac was cut off as a blade was shoved into his thigh, Roseby’s voice quiet and slow, “Vio didn’t get out you jackass.  He’s dead because of you.”

Lilac’s eyes widened in horror at the words.  Vio couldn’t be dead right?  Unless they didn’t tell him everything.  He scowled, why did he trust that low life hitman.

Lilac’s thoughts were interrupted as another rod was run into his shoulder downward.  How did it not kill him?  He just screamed as he felt the metal sink in at least seven inches into his torso.  He twitched and cried out further.  There was no escape, this pain was already driving him to lose his mind.

There was no telling how long the rods were left in, but none were added for a time, Lilac’s muscles were growing stiff as he didn’t dare to move, and anytime he began to relax, agonizing pain shot through him.  He’d heard of what Roseby could do before, but he never imagined something like this.

He gasped in pain and relief as the rods were quickly removed, it still stung, but good god was it so much better without the metal lodged into his body.

Roseby looked down at Lilac and sneered.  Why was he so easy to break, it was pathetic.  How did this worthless waste of life cause Vio’s death.  He tightly grabbed the wounded shoulder and Lilac cried turning away and closing his eyes.  Roseby smirked as he healed Lilac’s mangled body back into working condition.

Lilac groaned as he felt his body pull back together.  He would fear it more, if he wasn’t so worn and exhausted by the pain he had already endured, but he knew he was long from being free.  He looked up at Roseby and found him scowling at him, disgusted.

Lilac’s voice was quiet as he barely formed words, “What…..what if I just work for you?  I can be of use, you know I can.  Just throw one of those damned collars on me already.”

Roseby punched him in the face when he finished, it stung terribly, but he was already feeling numb to such dull pain.  Roseby snarled, his voice dripping with venom, “I don’t just keep people around.  And you already proved I can’t trust you, so fuck off.”

Lilac opened his mouth, but words wouldn’t come to him.  He was right, there was nothing he could offer now.  He was nothing in this room except a traitor to him.  And he would die like that.  The real question was:  How long?

Roseby sighed and moved back over to the table.  He was feeling conflicted over this.  Dammit all, he was feeling conflicted.  He hated Lilac so much for what he did, but he had also know and worked with him for years now.  To be doing this to him was harsh, but he had to, just remember Vio’s face.  His final expression.

Roseby yelled and punched Lilac again.  Lilac grunted lightly at the hit, but was otherwise unreactive to the blow.  Roseby snarled and stormed out of the room.  He hit the wall, but only hard enough to connect, he had learned his lesson on hitting walls already.  He heard talking from upstairs and quickly walked toward the main house.  He closed the sound proof door behind him as he walked up.

When he entered the living area he saw a fuming Blue and Sinder.  Blue pushed Sinder causing him to fall to the ground.  Roseby stormed up and shoved Blue away from him, “What the hell do you think you’re doing in my house?”

Blue punched at him, but Roseby moved out of the path of the hit.  He was a bit shocked at how easy it was to dodge though.  He looked at Blue flatly, “You’re drunk aren’t you?”

Blue spat at his feet, stumbling a bit, “What do you fucking care.  I need to pay back Vio for all the shit you caused him.”  He went to swing again, but only stumbled.

Roseby caught him and straightened him, causing Blue to scowl at him.  Roseby sighed and waved a hand, “I don’t have time for this, I have enough to deal with without you barging into my home.  Drunk at that.”

Blue leaned against a wall and his face fell, “Vio never would have let me get like this.  When I was upset, he would be sure I never got close to the booze.”

Roseby jumped when Blue started to cry.  What the hell was going on?  Roseby was the last person Blue would talk to last time he checked.  He looked him up and down, “I’m sorry, alright.  I really am, but I am busy dealing with it myself right now.”

Blue glanced at him, his voice shaky from the emotions that he couldn’t keep down, “And how might that be done.  How do you deal with causing death?”

Roseby glowered at him, “By getting pay back.  Now you can leave so I can get back to that.”

Blue looked at him confused, before his eyes brightened a bit, “You found that bastard, didn’t you.  I want a go at him.”

Roseby rolled his eyes, “I don’t need him dead.  I’m a long way from being done with him.”

Blue stood and sneered  with an eager glint in his eyes, “I don’t plan anything that bad, but it’ll make me feel a hell of alot better.  So just let me have a go at the bastard.  Something tells me that you’ll do worse to him.”

Roseby relented from his last words.  He was right, he would do far worse than what Blue would dish out, “Alright.  Don’t touch anything and keep up.”  Roseby glanced at Sinder who had quietly sat through the conversation, “You alright?”

Sinder nodded and moved over to the couch, not moving once he was settled.  The day seemed to also have taken a toll on him.

Roseby let the way back down to the basement, once the sound proof door was opened, quiet sobbing could be heard.  Roseby scowled, did that guy have no dignity left.  He led the way down the hall and opened one of the doors, showing a Lilac, curled over and quickly holding back his sobs and sitting up.  His eyes widened when he saw Blue.

Blue stumbled forward and didn’t hesitate to punch at Lilac, his head violently jerking to the side, Lilac crying out from the hit.  Roseby’s eyes widened a bit, he didn’t really notice just how hard Blue could hit, and was now realizing that even when he hit him, Blue was holding back.  Well he wasn’t holding back now.

Blue swung into his chest causing Lilac to choke on air and gag, keeling over before he took another blow to the head.  Roseby grabbed his hand before he could bring down another hit on Lilac, “That’s enough.”

Blue sneered, though he almost fell when he turned toward Roseby, “I’m done when I say I am.”

Roseby gave him a level look, “You need to go home.  I can handle this.”  Blue looked like he was going to protest further, but Roseby cut him off, “I can make him hurt far worse than a few hits to the head.”

Blue finally sighed and pulled his hand from Roseby’s grasp, “Fine, but he better be a goddamn mess when you’re done with him.”

Blue grumbled as he sat at the bar, waiting for the others to arrive.  Vio had gotten a call the night before, interrupting them, and was told to prepare a meeting the next day.  Vio refused to give him a drink because he didn’t trust how he would act with the alcohol in his system.  He didn’t blame him for that one.

The door swung open and two figures walked in, the taller of the two speaking up, “Good to see you again, Blue.  Any idea what this is about?”

Blue shook his head at Scar.

Grey walked over to a table and sat down, “Didn’t we just talk the day before?  How can we already be in a position to update?”

“Because I have information.”  They turned as Roseby walked in, a wide smile on his face.  Sinder followed after with Hellios and moved to the booth he always sat in.  Roseby leaned against a railing and folded his arms, “Good to see everyone made it.”

Blue glowered at him, “What the hell is this about?  Can we just make this quick?”

Roseby’s smile fell and he returned a hard gaze to Blue, “Why don’t you calm down, this is more important than your bedroom time with your boyfriend.”

The room froze and Blue’s flames jumped in height, his face glowing electric blue, “What was that, bubblegum bitch?  I didn’t quite catch that.”

Roseby’s gaze darkened his flames flicked violently, “I mean, you can fuck out your anger later, so shut your goddamn mouth.”

Blue jumped up, but Scar stood between them arms outstretched, “Enough you two.  We need to work together, you can kill each other after this ordeal.”

Roseby relaxed against the railing and waited for Blue to do likewise.  He glared for a minute before returning to his seat, seething eyes never leaving Roseby.

Roseby clapped his hands together, “Alright, so this is everyone.  Let’s get started.”

A soft knock was heard from the door, and the group looked around at each other, not sure what that could be.  Roseby walked over and slowly opened the door, but quickly stepped to the side when he saw who it was.  Lilac and a second fire elemental, his flames a teal color.

Lilac glanced over the group with a sly smile before turning back to Roseby who was locking the door, “This ought to be interesting, I wonder how much I can get out of this.”

Roseby walked back over to where he had been standing, “And what does that mean?”  He raised a hand before a response could be made, “Actually, first what are you even doing here and how do you know?”

Lilac chuckled as he sat at the far end of the bar, his companion sitting beside him, “I heard the other day that someone never arrived at a more private and dark meeting.  One that was being held not to far from here.  I just had a feeling of what happened, speaking I gave up their information the other day.”

Roseby shrugged, “Yeah, not to hard to figure that out, the question is then, are you with us, or are you going to go down with your middle ground?”

Lilac’s expression darkened, “I’m afraid I have picked a side, if for no other reason than that it would be dangerous to try and play both when war is the likely result.”

Scar cleared his throat, causing the others to turn his way, “As nice as it is to hear you are with us, we need to know who he is.”  He pointed toward the new face beside Lilac.

The new face had a wide flirtatious grin on his face as he looked over at Scar, “I was starting to get worried that no one could see me.”  He leaned onto the counter and closed his eyes, “I’m Teal, and I just happened to catch Lilac after he talked to…”  He glanced at Roseby as if sizing him up, “Rosebud, over there, and I wanted in.”

Roseby twitched and glared at Teal, “It’s Roseby, not that difficult.”

Teal shrugged nonchalantly and smiled smugly, “Well, I was hoping to be ‘bud’dies, so it’s like a pet name.”

Roseby scowled, “If you get anywhere near me, I will make your death slow, understand.”

“Roseby, just tell us why we are wasting our time here!”  Blue was seething, and his volume filled the space and was met with silence.

Roseby raised an eyebrow at him before he shrugged and sighed, “Alright.  It’s simple really, I was able to talk to someone who could give us some information on our enemies movements.”

Scar scoffed at him and glared his way, “And by talk, you mean torture, don’t you?”

Roseby gave a sly smile, “Does it matter, I got the information.”

Grey glanced over the room, “Why not have them tell all of us?  Wouldn’t that be easier than conveying it now?”

Roseby laughed, he really did find the response hilarious, “Oh, god no.  She’s dust now, and you didn’t want to see her when I was working on her, trust me.”

Grey jumped back and the room felt tense afterwards, but Roseby’s bright outburst kept him from dwelling on it, “Anyway, it’s not like there was much, she didn’t have that much information.  I suspected that they wouldn’t just hand out details to anyone, but it was still something.”

Scar growled, “She still had friends and family, so could you be more respectful.”

Roseby raised an eyebrow at him, “What do you care, we both took a lot of lives for war before, why is this any different?”

Grey shrank into his chair and trembled lightly, Scar glared at Roseby, “We don’t need details, just tell us what they told you already.”

Roseby shrugged, “Fine, it’s not much, but they are gathering in lower Hotlands in two days.  There’s a pretty large group of them, 50-60 estimate.  No information on the one in charge of the attack except that they call them ‘the Savior’.”

Blue scoffed, “ ‘The Savior’?  What kind of name is that supposed to be?”

Teal laughed and waved a hand, “It’s still better than the king’s naming.”

Roseby cleared his throat to stop the chatter, “That’s not the point, the problem is that this meeting is meant to be the one that attacks the king himself, so this is the one we have to make.”

Lilac hummed to himself softly, “Now that is an important detail, even I hadn’t caught word of that.  So now we plan our strike?”

Roseby nodded.

Scar stood and moved a few chairs away from a large table, “Alright, so we’ll likely need to split into groups, if we all walk in together they’re going to notice and everything will fall apart.”

Grey moved over, though still stayed at least a few feet from anyone, “What teams should we run, we need them to be able to work together.”

Blue glared at a few of the people around, but Lilac spoke out, “Not just that, we need them to be a strong team.  If they can work together, but have the same strengths and weaknesses, then it won’t work.”

Roseby nodded, “Exactly.  I was thinking of Blue and Scar on a team, they know enough about each other to keep themselves safe.”  Scar nodded in agreement, Blue looked away, but he looked to have agreed.  Rose pointed toward Grey, “You and me will be on a team.  I know you don’t trust me, but with you being in less than satisfactory condition, you’re better off being with a healer.”  Grey hesitated for a moment before giving a quick nod.

Lilac cleared his throat, “And what of me and Teal?”

Roseby glanced at them, “I don’t know Teal at all, but I know you are good at gathering information.  I was hoping you could keep a distance on the higher ridges of the area and keep an eye on things.”

Lilac nodded, “Alright, then Teal you might as well stick with me.  Unless you’re going to cause a ruckus, we can’t have that.”

Teal gave a devil may care smile and folded his arms, “I can handle that.  Actually by the looks of this we should have an escape plan as well.  I can have a distraction ready to go in case anything gets too exciting.”

Roseby nodded.

Blue slammed his fist on the table and held a dark gaze toward Roseby, “And what about Vio, huh?”

Roseby raised an eyebrow at the outburst and sighed, “He will be with Sinder.  They will stay on the outskirts on standby.”

Blue stepped toward Roseby, “Why have them their?  What if something happens?”

Roseby kept his face neutral as he looked at him, “They will be fine.”

Blue grabbed his collar, the rest of the group jumped up fearing an all out brawl between the two was going to break out, but Roseby waved a hand, “Blue, calm down.  I won’t let anything happen to Vio or Sinder, alright.”

Blue snarled, “Coming from the person who already did something, that’s not too reassuring.”

Roseby sighed and folded his hands behind his back, looking Blue straight in the eye, “Then get it out of your system.  This isn’t going to work if you can’t focus on the mission.”

Blue’s fist connected with the side of Roseby’s face, who almost fell from the hit.  It was a lot harder then Roseby had expected, and he could tell he would feel that for a few days.  Blue raised his fist to strike again, but Vio grabbed his arm.

Blue snarled before his face softened when he realized who it was, “Let go of me.  He deserves this.”

Scar walked to stand between the two and shook his head, “That’s enough, Blue.  Just leave it for now.”

Blue ripped his arm out of Vio’s grasp and walked away.  Lilac cleared his throat and had a forced smile on his face, “I guess we should all go our separate ways until then.  Don’t want to draw any extra attention to ourselves.”

Roseby nodded as he lightly rubbed the side of his face before turning to where Sinder was, “Hey, Sinder.  You alright to take care of yourself.”

He froze for a moment, but after a pause nodded.  Roseby began to move toward the door, “Alright, then I’m leaving.  I’ll see you all later.”  He waved a hand over his shoulder as he left.

Roseby quickly walked a short distance and stopped to lean against a tree, scowling at himself.  Stupid Blue, just had to remind him of how badly this could end.  Roseby didn’t want anything bad to happen, but in war it was hard to control the flow of the fight.  He lightly punched the tree, not to hard, as he had healed his hand only the other day.

“You look worse than I thought you would be.”  Roseby turned and was surprised to see Grey standing there, expression unreadable.

Roseby turned away, placing a hand on his forehead, “What do you want?”

Grey chuckled softly, “You really don’t remember me do you?  I guess I don’t blame you, I would like to forget it myself.”

Roseby turned a bit confused, “What are you talking about?”

Grey looked at his hands and clutched his cane tightly, “After I got away from…...from the humans.  I was in pretty bad shape.  Eventually they sent someone to try and heal and talk to me.  It was you, but I guess it a was also a bad time for you.”

Roseby was shocked when it hit him, it was just after….. Didn’t matter, he did now Grey, and damn did he curse himself for forgetting, “Heh, I can’t believe I forgot someone like you.  You were really stubborn, huh?”

Grey smiled and looked away pained, “Yeah.  I want to ask though, why did you let Blue hit you.  I know, not just from the last time you two saw each other, but from your history, that he wouldn’t have hit you.”

Roseby leaned against the tree, “He’s right.  I deserve it, simple.”

Grey closed his eyes, “I don’t agree with your actions, past or present, for a second, Cotton Candy.”  Roseby scowled at him.  “But, you’re letting yourself be stuck in the past.  You are getting annoyed at Blue for having an attitude that could leave this mission in shambles and yet.”  He paused and waited for Roseby to look at him, “Your attitude will do the same.  You need to start fighting, as much as this world might be better without you, that’s just not in your character.”

Roseby looked at the ground, contemplating his words, “Thanks for that, but I’m fine.  I’ll be ready by the time we head to Hotlands, I can guarantee that.”

Grey shook his head and sighed as he turned away, “Fine.  But me and Scar know you, better than you might think.  Don’t over do it, either you’ll end up dead or a lot of other people will be.”  He walked away.

-He’s become very good at picking out lies, for the sake of keeping his information accurate. It’s because of this that he really dislikes liars, even though he isn’t above lying himself.

-He typically speaks very coolly, and words his statements very carefully. The exceptions to this are if you talk to him about something he’s interested in (gossip, shady dealings, a select group of people) or if he’s proven wrong somehow. He tends to make subtle digs towards others during conversation.

-He’s really self-serving. That’s not to say he’s completely heartless, he just likes being one step ahead of anyone else. He considers knowledge his greatest weapon.

-Continuing from the last point, he’s really not a fighter. He relies upon other patrons to help him remove overly rowdy customers, and is careful about not letting himself into dangerous situations.

-Sometimes he’s cautious to a fault. However, he’s insatiably curious - he’ll put himself at risk to find out how a situation turns out if it interests him.

-He listens to certain types of classical music: Faure, Debussy, calmer Grieg pieces, etc. Sometimes, he finds this to be the only way he can shut down his mind after a busy day.