Taken from live role play. Thank you, Renna!


Her long legs were curled beneath her, her posture was near perfect...even at this late hour. She had poured over her emotions, her thoughts, her strategies regarding the matter at hand. This matter had plagued her for years, slowly gnawing away at her. This matter had quietly, and sometimes not so quietly been chipping away at her self-esteem, her confidence, her self-worth. This matter had been the thorn under her nail, the burr under her saddle, the fly in her ointment. And this matter went by one word: Renna.

Isuelt had been enjoying her morning, after coming off of a patrol. She had been standing along the dockside, on a blank pier watching the sunlight twinkle off of the waves as they gently came toward the harbor. It promised to be a beautiful and unseasonably warm day, and this Scathachian was determined to begin her day with a sunrise and perhaps a bit of breakfast from Tori's Diner in the WestEnd before heading home for a long and steamy bath. Her plans, however, were not to be.

Renna's voice had jolted her out of her pleasant morning reverie. "Alone?" The pier, beheld the Betrayer as she stood behind Isuelt, her gauntlet glinting oddly with the sun's rays.

As if she had been suddenly plugged in, Isuelt's eyes flew open wide and stared at the sea. That voice scraped against her brain like rusty nails along wounded flesh. Her gaze narrowed at the water, thinking its serenity was oddly cruel as it was flaunted before her. Her teeth gritted, forcing her jaw to jump as she spun around to face who she knew to be there. "You wish for another swing, Renna?" The Scathachian's tongue pushed her words through tight teeth, the steel of her gaze rivaled her blades.

Renna made little effort to be civil. She was simply before Isuelt, nose to nose, as her gauntlet moved up to grip about her throat, a steaming mist of ink and feathers appearing before her eyes, before the Betrayer materialized herself in front of her. Fingers moving to curl about the flesh of her neck. "Hardly. I want to talk." Isuelt's lips parted, a small sound was heard as her throat was squeezed. Gloved hands came to grip onto Renna's gauntlet, even as the sun-kissed hue of her face began to throb with a pink flush. Slowly, Renna began to lift the Judge off of the ground. "So listen good, Scathachian. I am sure you all think my movements odd. Sparse. But know this... I work silently, now. Don't except my involvement unless obvious. Don't expect my desire for your destruction to be the only reason for my return... Want to know a secret?" She lowered Isuelt, and let go of her throat. "One of your allies, opened the gateway for my return."

Isuelt was struggling to breathe as well as keep her composure as her hands gripped onto the gauntlet. Her eyes remained on Renna's face, and remained narrowed and sober, though she could feel a near crackling in her throat. She would never relinquish her countenance, her poker face. It was only after her boots touched the ground once more and her throat was released that the involuntary fit of coughing and gasping for air tipped her hand. Isuelt's breath finally slowed as she lifted her eyes once more to Renna, and soaked up what she had said. While she didn't necessarily gather the full meaning of her words...it was rare she ever did - her enemy had many levels...she repeated a single word: "Ally?"

Renna's grin grew wide. "Killing you now would be pointless. There is no crowd. No one to witness it..." The bladed fingers lifted, wiggling towards Isuelt, "Yes. An ally. I would never had returned if it wasn't for... Him. The virus. The reason for your Sisters' destruction... That boat. The reason thousands bowed to my name, the reason thousands died... All because he gave me on simple device. The gateway was the path of my return but this man, maintained my eternal being." She lowered her gauntlet. "If you want Justice. Kill the man who made me this powerful."

Isuelt's breathing was still ragged, but her smirk defied her physical pain, "You're saying you're a puppet on a string, Renna? You couldn't get here by yourself?" She was intrigued, to say the least, however.

"Hardly." Renna turned up her chin. "I used him to attain what I desired. The puppet, is him. But through his involvement, many, many... Many people died for my advancement. I am no puppet. You are. Your ally, is. You, all, are, my playthings!" She grinned, "Even now you don't know the big picture do you? One may had a hand in my immortality but another brought me back! Allies! To you! Don't you see? My influence, is everywhere. Look over your shoulder, Scathachian. For even the friends of your kin are mine to command."

As much as she knew of how Renna operated, a shiver ran down her spine. For as Isuelt knew Renna to bend truth to her will, she had never known her to outright lie. Her mind was racing. Ravenlock? "Who?", her voice was low as it pushed out the word with an air of disgust.

"Who..." She bowed to Isuelt slowly, at the waist, "What? One chance. One question I shall grant you. Who... What?"

"You think I should turn my attentions to the ally who made you....you...a..." she couldn't even bring herself to say the word 'goddess.' "Then who is it?"

Renna grinned, as she righted herself. "During my rise to Emperor of the Ssr'Kesir, the only way to maintain my army was to ask the aid of a man who I knew had the technology... To clone." Renna slowly offered a hand to the side, indicating a direction, "You know that every blood spawn of mine I can control. Then now you know. The virus... Everything. Is because of that man." Renna grinned widely, "He is the man who urged my return. He is the man who allowed me to create an empire of souls for
me to consume! And their souls belong to me... And their souls, are now. Shadow. Demon!" Renna's face cracked, as if she wore a mask, "Remember me... Issy?" The mask fell from an abyssal face, with a grinning maw, of toothy spines... "Wolvinator, is the man who allowed me to discover my purpose! The virus shall spread, child. And it is his, fault! You want to punish me? Say thank you the one man all who has trusted."

The word 'technology' was ringing in the Judge's head, keeping time with her pounding heart rate. With each deafening beat, the picture of a face in her mind's eye became clearer and clearer. Edward Batten. Though as Renna's face split, revealing the monster she truly was, the Scathachian took a step back without realizing it. Then, it was Wolvinator's face which swam in the theater of her mind. "How did....I don't..." She cleared her throat, which was still throbbing and tried to collect her thoughts. "Why are you telling me this?" Her vision was smoldering and tinged with red as she thought of what Wolvinator had done. Had he truly brought Renna back? Had he truly brought her back as this? Isuelt was in foreign territory: she was helpless against Renna. And that scared the hell out of her.

The flesh of her skin cracked, and split, and revealed the abyssal creature of shadow that had consumed so many... Queen of Shadows? Perhaps. Emperor of Negzarcurgis... She is! "Because I know you can never kill the man who made me what I am today... Or can you? Can you bring justice to the man who created the virus... Who helped kill so many. Who helped destroy your Sisters... Can you? Can you forgive him? And if you can... Can you live with yourself? CAN YOU?!"

Twelve of her Sisters lost, one survivor. And Athena was still not talking very much about the incident that destroyed the ship. Isuelt shut her eyes against Renna's merciless question. A question for which she did not have an answer.

"You have your answer..." Renna turned from Isuelt, then glanced over her shoulder. "Do you dare bring that man to justice? Or pretend I tricked him?"

A realization hit Isuelt suddenly. "What do you know of the ship?" She actually followed Renna now, her obvious lack of firepower forgotten for the moment.

"There were two, survivors." The Betrayer grinned. All the report of the Harbor Watch had said was something of an explosion, and Athena said she had seen or heard nothing except bits of wood and the screams of her Sisters. "Two survivors. One escaped. Another..." She looked away, "Is my prisoner."

TWO. The word bit at her like nothing else. One Sister was in Renna's hands? "You LIE!" Her own hands reached out and took hold of Renna's throat to return the favor.

"Do... Do..." She croaked, "Do I???" She grinned, as spittle drooled out of the corner her mouth, "Want me to prove it?"

Rage was spewing through the Scathachian's veins, the fire of her training was burning at her fingers as she squeezed for a moment longer and released. Her right arm quickly heaved back and took a healthy swing at Renna's chin.

Her head snapped back, to the direction of the swing. Blood splattered from her mouth, but she turned to smile at her. A bloodied toothed grin aimed right at the Scathachian. "Just for that, I'll send her fingers, first."

Venom poured from her lips, she could taste it. Every fiber of her being hated Renna like she had hated nothing else in her lifetime. "I swear to my blessed Scathach, I will see you destroyed before I die. I swear, if it is the last thing I do with my aging body, I will rip you limb from limb and shove you into the throat of hell until even that place will have you no longer."

Renna's head threw back, cackling, "And I swear to Nemesis, and Mother... That I will bring you all to my knees... In fact? I shall, start tonight." Wild magma eyes widened to Isuelt. "I have waited long enough. The Revolution begins today." She pushed her lips forward and kissed Isuelt, while her hands curled about the woman's head. Keeping it there.

Repulsed, her teeth bit down hard on what they could as her muscled arms grabbed on to Renna's shoulders and pushed with all of her might. She wanted to rip her to pieces right then and there, immortality or not. The near-roar in Isuelt's throat was the sheer volume of her bubbling rage unable to be contained.

Her tongue was grasped between Isuelt's teeth, and she snarled at first... But groaned as her tongue tip was completely bitten off. Blood erupted from her lips and still she kissed the woman. Then she pulled back, throwing herself a distance between them, as a hand lifted up to stop the flow of blood from her lips. A dark echo whispered into the Scathachian's mind. Next time I will f*ck you until you bleed.

Isuelt had blood dripping from her own lips as she turned her chin to the side and spit out the tip of Renna's tongue. Without wiping the sanguine fluid from her face, she looked like Scathach herself, fresh from the battlefield. If Isuelt's glare could hold anymore malice, it would be a weapon itself. She snarled at the threat, and while her logic was compromised, she bid to Renna's serve. "Bring it."

Renna's wings of black erupted out of her back. She turned, and snarled, the Daemonic form melting into her physical. She fluctuated between the two, a twisted display of Human and Ethereal. Then she looked away, "... No. I shall bring your pain, on the innocent souls that shall feed me." A spiny jaw opened wide, revealing a writhing tongue that had lost its tip, spurting blood of ink, "Don't forget... You own kind, the very foundations of this city, is built upon my return... Be thankful, that I allow you to witness... War. True, war. War of Rhy'din." She turned, and took off into the sky, as the clouds darkened and swirled at the eye of her return. And it remained that way, for several minutes.