To Turn The Tide.

Blue says: ...Actually.
Blue says: Ajax.
Ajax says: Yo?
*Blue stared, now.

He'd seen the way the man had hesitated, at points. His heart didn't really seem to be in all of this; was he -really- someone who was a douche to the core? Someone who didn't have anything in him but to be a spineless pissant?

"You say you don't want to be an inmate in this joint. So think...about all the people you've subjected to that fate."

He was..preaching?

Blue was -preaching-?

"...You can't tell me it doesn't bother you. Working with someone like Chiller, you say the wrong thing and that could be you strapped to a rocket. You could become the doc, you could become Yuna. You can laugh it off, so there's no chance it'll happen, but.."

He was analytical, now.

"You're working under a man who enabled a device that set off -six- rampaging Saiyans, all more than capable of squashing you like an ant. Why'd he do that? Because he knew he'd survive. But what about you? He didn't give a fuck if you died, Ajax. -How much- better off than us are you, really?"

Blue sat back, now. It'd been a long day, he was tired, and along his arms and his exposed chest on his tattered Gi were the scars he'd wracked up from his fighting in this place.

He looked older than fifteen by a long shot.

"Chiller would kill me on a whim. You think being the warden saves you from that. But it didn't save the Doc. And it won't save you. Besides...a guy like you is okay with playing second fiddle? Forever? To Chiller?"

He shook his head.

"I thought you were better than that, 'Jax. Even you. You're the warden, but your prison is no different than mine. It's just your cage...is dolled up, a pretty little office. But can you leave this world without Chiller hunting you to the ends of the universe? Can you -live life- the way you'd want? Are you -free-, Ajax?"

Blue was silent. Haunted blue eyes looked into the warden's.

"You're as much a prisoner as I am. But the shackles are on your fucking -soul-. My curse is being doomed to murder as yours is to force -others- to murder. To get out of here, one life is going to be on my hands, one innocent's blood spilled. Ajax, on your hands is the blood spilled of every innocent you dragged in here and died, every person that innocent killed, and every..fucking..bit...of the atmosphere that makes this place a living -Hell-."

He stared, and then spoke with the full weight of his conclusion.

"You and I are -both- inmates, make no mistake. But for you? The ride. Never. Fucking. Ends."*

*Ajax absently struck his bag has he listened to Blue's preaching. He was silent. There were no quips, no humor, no "daddy-o," just pure silence. That was mostly because Blue had a point; Ajax had subjected many people to the fate that he was striving so hard to avoid, and he had done it repeatedly, and he had done it just this morning. That was his job, after all  -- to round up new contestants for Chiller's little game, and make sure they don't get too rowdy. It was, in fact, a pretty nice job. He got a sweet little office, basically got to do whatever the fuck he wanted, was more-or-less untouchable, had a hell of a broad waiting for him, and it was pretty darned safe at times when people didn't want to be fucking stupid and challenge Chiller.

"I don't expect the big guy to care about me, jack," spat Ajax, still striking the punching bag. "I never expected anythin' from the guy. He's one sick cat. You know that, I know that. Look at where we are." The Tsufurujin took a moment to gesture at his surroundings, the prison walls that enveloped them all in this hell-hole; the prison walls he'd, in fact, built. "It does get to me, daddy-o. Sure. I feel bad for these cats I brought here. Fuck, I brought some kids here, clyde."

Ajax's assault on the bag was unwavering. "He don't give a fuck about me. Hell, I don't give a fuck about me. I'd be all right if you guys put him in a Chicago overcoat, but daddy, you -can't.- You can't beat that cat. Didcha pay attention when he murdered the doc? Didcha see his power? That's unassailable, my friend. There's no way you or I could beat 'em."

"I'm not gonna let this guy kill me because he feels like it, because boy, he could do that. I don't wanna bring people here, man, believe me, I don't, but that's my gig. The Doc didn't do his gig right. He passed all that snazzy tech to you guys and not the boss, and he died, and you saw how he died, jack. That ain't gonna be me. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. I'm gonna hafta keep throwin' people in this joint. I'm gonna hafta keep workin' under the big guy. I'm 17, man, I don't wanna die."

Finally, the Tsufurujin turned from his punching bag, facing Blue now. "I'd like it we could all be free, man. I'd like it if were all out there, enjoyin' ourselves, but that's not the way life works. People win and people lose, daddy-o, it's all a game. It's survival of the fittest. I got soiled hands, man, but it'd be the same shit out there. People'd be steppin' on eachothers toes, tryin' to get the nicest things, the nicest chicks, tryin' to get power. Out there, it's just more subtle." He raised his hand and pointed in the direction the door was.

"We're all inmates of fuckin' life, jack, the big guy too," he said, with the utmost conviction.

"And I'll be damned if I don't make the best outta my incarceration."*


*Blue let all of what Ajax had just told him sink in. He listened to every single word, and he sorted through the haze in his mind, the incessant memories he couldn't fucking repress. He wasn't some battle-hardened warrior like these saiyans were, -he had never had to see anyone die before this prison-. Since he'd come here, however? It'd been a facet of his life, murdering, or being murdered, -watching murders-, it was even a casual conversation topic, something just tossed around as an idea.

-When the fuck had this become his life-?

"Help me. Help us."

And there it was. The point of no return. He'd asked Ajax, and now, Ajax was in a suitable position to turn him over to Chiller and have the -fuck- killed out of him. But this was Blue, untrusting Blue, Blue who didn't believe in friendships or bonds, giving his life to someone who he almost wholly expected to take this opportunity to rob him of his life.

Maybe he'd got tired. Maybe.

Or maybe it took seeing the worst in people before finally, something in him had chose to see the -best-.

"Mel is a little mute girl who'll end up taking a life before her age is even in the double digits."

His gaze was intense.

"Saul is hardly any older."

He delivered each of these words with such -righteous indignation-, such passion, such conviction, that these weren't just tragedies, but things he would do -everything- in his power to change.

"Red played possibly the biggest role in killing the 'Doc, when all he wanted was to save him."

This wasn't a game. Not to anyone but Chiller.

"The Doctor didn't want anything but to be free, Ajax. And neither did Yuna."

Fire was alive, racing through his veins, arcing alongst his arms in a swirling, destructive -maelstrom-. It swirled around him and unknownst to him, placed meaning in meaningless words, rambling from a delusional, tired, haggard mind that was only now working out how to give -speech- to his emotion. The fire lit his clothes and scorched his skin, singed his hair, but if he was in any pain it couldn't -possibly- be seen on his face...

The flame inside burned that much hotter.

"My mother is going to die, Ajax. And maybe you don't care, not about her specifically, but you could give someone something you and me don't have, could give it to -all- of us. You could have it, too."

The fire still raged, spreading around the room from him, encircling them; his eyes were emissive with blue light in a sea of red.

"Freedom."

That word sounded like a fairy tale.

"You say Chiller can't be beat, but I watched him fall."

He was so fucking sure right now it could be done.

"You say that this world doesn't exist, where we beat Chiller and everyone is free, I'm free, you're free, and this prison is nothing but a bad memory. But it does, Ajax. We can -make- that fucking world."

The fire roared, flaring up so it touched the ceiling.

"Don't let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Don't let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and never've been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it's real.. it's possible.."

His silhouette looked so small in the flame he'd conjured, so pitiful, so weak. He was so..short. And thin, too. He was just a human boy. A fifteen year old, human, boy.

But somehow his presence was larger than a giant's.

"It's yours."*

*Ajax again, assaulted the bag. It was the only thing that was distracting him from the topic at hand. The thumping of his hand against the punching bag coincided with the constant thumping of his heart against his chest. What Blue had said to him was true, he knew that much, and he'd accepted it, but that didn't make it any less of a bitter pill to swallow. He was contributing to the deaths of innocents to preserve his own, but that was all he really knew. Survival. But he didn't just want to survive.

He wanted to thrive. He wanted it all; money, women, power, and freedom. But even as a warden in this place, was he really, truly, free? Probably not. Chiller was still his boss. If he up and left, he'd probably be chased down and consigned to the same fate as the doctor and Yuna; horrific death, and that didn't appeal to him. Not one bit. It didn't appeal to him to see these people - Kinoko, Saul, Red, Asch, Luca - all these people he'd befriended die like that either, or even die at all. Ajax was rooting for them to escape but he knew that it was unlikely to all of them would get out. Some of them were just completely adverse to the idea of killing. Some of them didn't have the power to, and might end up as targets to other, more opportunistic prisoners.

The beating of his heart quickened, as did his attack on the punching bag. His striking was the only noise that filled the room for a few moments, until...

…until Blue had asked his help. Ajax knew it was coming. Maybe not Blue, but certainly someone. He knew someone would ask for his aid because that was a smart thing to do. It didn't shock him, but it left him unprepared. He had a lot of options, here. All of them were tough calls. All of them had their pros and cons. The most obvious one would be to help Blue. All he had to do was slip Blue and whoever else out of the prison via the doors, but would that really be an escape? No, merely a respite, for Chiller would chase them down to the ends of the Universe. They couldn't get far at all. They'd still be on Namek, and he'd find them soon enough. If they did manage to get into space, well, Chiller had a spaceship and a pretty fucking dandy one at that.

The other one was to say no and turn Blue in. That'd probably result in his death, surely, but it'd earn him a fair number of brownie points with his boss. Chiller, did in fact reward him for a job well done. When he had "married" him to Yuna, that was a reward for the service Ajax had given the Changeling. Who knew what Chiller would give him if he turned in Blue? A space ship of his own, maybe? The gravity machine he had received from Raienzo's corpse?

Then he considered Blue's words. Melokhia, a mute child, not even ten, stuck in this goddamned oblivion. Saul, too, who he had personally -led- here. Red -had- played a giant part in the Doc's death. Perhaps moreso than Chiller himself. And he was right about Raienzo. He wanted to be free, annoying and as much of a dick as he was. Yuna, too, the bitch, but she just wanted to be free. They were willing to kill him to get free, but Ajax was the -enemy- to them. That much was true, and he couldn't blame them for it.

Ajax's attacks on the bag came to a halt. His eyes were downcast, as was his head. Strands of brown hair hung down and clung to his forehead as a result of the sweat that had accumulated from his incredibly intense training. He watched as the flames enveloped Blue's body, a tumult of suppressed emotion. Blue was a quiet cat. He kept himself to himself, and Ajax imagined that the emotions he was verbalising now had probably never been verbalised before and for some reason, he felt a modicum of comradery between him and Blue. It was strange.

...But he still had a decision to make. It wasn't an easy one. He could jeopardise his life for these people, some of whom had never cared for him, but did he give them a reason to care for him? No, not really - he was looking out for numero uno, and there was nothing wrong witht hat in his mind but jesus fucking christ it probably  looked dickish to everyone else sans himself.

Ajax blinked. Once, twice, three times. He snapped himself out of his deep thought. It was time to make his decision.

"...Yeah. I'll help."*
Ajax says: ...We can talk later, jack. Lemme out. I'm gonna go see Kinoko.
Ajax says: I gotta do somethin'.
Blue says: ...Alright.
*Blue just smiled.*