C5 - Poisoned Bonds

In the week that followed, the hectic pace of the first few days settled down to a calm, comfortable routine. No more attacks occurred, as the message had been sent quite clearly and the drug cartels reeled, preferring not to waste their people and resources on an endeavor that was not really worth the expenses. On the other hand however, the presence of the 8th Officio became tighter in response to the slaughter, as they now knew that Magical Girls not on their roster were present in the area. As such, the Cell had to be that much more cautious to avoid drawing their attention and kept a lower profile. Barging down into the fortresses of crime lords was one thing, but unnecessarily antagonizing the largest Officio on the planet would be truly foolhardy.

So far, the objective was successful and the 8th's agents were foiled with no leads, or, almost none. The 8th was aware of the German Vanus' rather unique combat style as they had cooperated in the past, so there was a chance, if a very slim one, that they could piece together she was in the area and involved somehow. For the time being though, this was not an immediate concern. The Cell had multiple distribution points like the abandoned house from before, and no two days in a row were they ever using the same one. In fact, since the location was always changing, it was the purpose of the ground work team to let their usual customers and accomplices know where the selling point would be on the next day, from one day to another.

As time went on, Liese had the chance of trying all three of the usual duties within the Cell, though due to her lack of knowledge of Portuguese - or even Spanish -, said ground work was the most difficult and she needed to leave most of the work to whomever she was paired up with. She preferred largely to be assigned at the distribution points, and none could complain about the part of the rotation when they were simply watching over the safe house; that was practically a day off.

It was now one such day, and Liese was lounging on one of the couches in the lobby, on her side with wings folded inwards and tail following down the curve of her body. This time, she had been paired up with Rebeca, as on their first day here, and the Eversor was in a similarly relaxed position on the adjacent couch, with a bottle of cerveza in hand. The weather had gone foul and heavy rain drummed onto the ceiling, making it unpleasant to go outside and rising the humidity to unbearable levels inside.

"Hey, mind if I ramble a little?" Rebeca broke the serene calm that had been present until then as she spoke up with a more quiet and reserved voice that was usual for her naturally forward demeanor.

"Sure, go ahead." The blonde confirmed with a small nod before shifting her position slightly to look over. Without any television, computer or book, she was spending most of her time on guard duty simply resting like this or listening to music. The ravens would warn her if there was anything happening outside anyway.

"You must have noticed, but even though some of the others aren't showing it, everyone is having a lot of fun here. I like to think we're a pretty friendly bunch, even if we're not exactly the most righteous." The Eversor began before taking a long sip of cerveza, which left Brandt a bit unsure at where exactly this discussion was headed.

"I'd be lying if I said no, yeah." The Vanus confirmed with a slightly fatigued voice, due to having recently woken up from a nap. "I'll admit, I'm enjoying this job too, or at least the parts that don't make me feel like more of a monster than what I've already done before..." She then added, wincing at the memory of what she had made herself complicit of during the purge a week earlier.

Cruz sighed lightly and pulled on the neck of her outfit, not even her was immune to the heat of the rainforest when it was full of humidity. "I'm kinda glad to hear it, well, the part about you enjoying yourself I mean, but I'm also a bit concerned." Her expression revealed a small amount of worry after acknowledging the response, which explained why she was acting a bit off.

Brandt blinked once, a bit surprised, and sat up on the couch. Her jacket was wide open due to the heat, but its sides were preserving her modesty. "Hm? Worried? What about?" She inquired with genuine curiosity, leaning forwards a bit.

Cruz, meanwhile, leaned back and put down the bottle of beer she was holding onto the low table. Her next words were a bit apologetic and she avoided direct eye contact "Samantha might be a frigid bitch most of the time, but she really has a gift with figuring out people. She told me that when she looks at you, she sees you're carrying a lot of burden, and it's not easy."

Liese leaned back as well and tilted her head with a renewed surprise. That was, to say the least, not the kind of talk she expected to have with a happy-go-lucky Eversor, let alone for the topic to come from a rampantly sociopathic Vindicare. "Well..." She hesitated, blindsided by the topic and slightly uncomfortable. "I've got a lot on my mind, yeah, because I want to always do the best I can be, all the time, and to avoid fucking up."

"So basically, you're just like Cecilia." Rebeca mused with a small sigh, picking her bottle back up for a quick sip. "I won't tell you about her story, because it's her choice to reveal it or not, but to keep it simple, she's always such a dildo because she wants to be the best squad leader possible, all the time, without fail. That's gotta be pretty fucking stressful, and the same to you, right? I sure remember back before she joined she was on the fringe of fading out because she had a really hard time handling it."

Liese rubbed the back of her head with a deep breath, trying to recover her composure while at the same time recalling events when her stress was at an all time high: Back in the final Barrier in Romania, the initial failures in Vanus training, the whole mess that was the Siberia op, and then when everything went south in Bengal... "Well, granted, it's not exactly the most relaxing way of doing things, but that's how I do them and that's good enough for me." A short pause. "Why bring it up though? It came out of left field."

Cruz let out a small chuckle and smiled, finishing her beer and discarding it. "I don't like seeing people destroying themselves inside out." She then announced with a sudden decisiveness. "One day, all that stress, all those expectations, it'll all catch up to you, and you'll find yourself crumbling." The short-haired Eversor spoke with a certain distance, as if she had seen such a scenario happen in the past, and perhaps even more than once...

"Ah, so that's what it is." Liese responded with one of her trademarked wide, bright grins, tipping her peaked cap in a theatrical manner. "Then you don't have anything to worry about. I'm Liese-fucking-Brandt, Reaper of Prague, I don't break down, no matter what, no matter where." She introduced herself anew and almost immediately wanted to slap herself for having dropped such a recognizable nickname, but fortunately for her, she was gravely over-estimating her own reputation and she was not yet well-known enough for her title to have reached all the way to Brazil.

"That's part of the act too, isn't it?" Rebeca questioned a bit coldly and Liese winced noticeably, but retained her expression and cheerfulness.  The Eversor then added quickly to precise her thoughts: "I'm not trying to grill you out, you being you is fine, I'm just concerned. All of us nearly faded out at some point, and probably would have.."

The Half-Witch relented and returned to a more normal expression, quickly enough figuring out that by 'fading out' the Eversor was making an euphemism about the moment a Magical Girl cracks under the pressure and lets herself become a monster; a new Witch. "I don't fear my final fate, if that's what you were getting to. If anything, I look forward to it."

With that, it was the Cruz's turn to wince ever so faintly.  The vast majority believed that the final fate of becoming a Witch was a terrible thing, so hearing the blonde say this was shocking for her. "Alright, alright.." she tried to chase the thought away "but hear me out on this." She cleared her throat lightly before continuing. "If things start falling apart one day, or if you just feel like you could use a break from everything, remember this. Itzli can help you."

That was it, the moment the Vanus had been both absolutely dreading and secretly looking forward to was finally confronting her. "I.. appreciate the thought but.. I don't really want to forget anything and.. I don't really hate the world or anything like that." She was not prepared for this. Her friends warned her about it. She knew it was coming. Yet, she was not prepared.

"Please, don't bullshit me." Rebeca answered with a sudden sternness that caught Liese by surprise and caused her to blink, a bit stunned by the reversal. "I've heard from the others. How you fought that day, how didn't object at all with one of the worst things we do..." Her tone mellowed down and she hopped to her feet, heading over to the kitchen to fetch herself another beer. "You have -all- the qualifications, trust me..."

This time, the blonde half-German closed her eyes and remained silent, the words of her closest Callidus friend coming back to haunt her about being wary of 'going too deep' and playing with fire too much. She found no words, and an uneasy, awkward silence rose up.

"Honestly, you kind of sound like you're still buying into Incubator propaganda..." The disheveled Eversor came back and sat next to Liese, offering her a beer, which the latter took gladly, and they both opened their bottles at the same time.

"Well, you don't exactly go advertising yourselves in the open either, so they're the only source of information I got for the most part..." Brandt confessed before taking a long gulp of the ice cold elixir. "I was pretty damn lucky to manage to land this contract.

"Hm, that's a good point." Cruz conceded with a long gulp of her own. "But you see, they're not exactly the good guys. I mean, come on, they set up this entire system of misery and abuse, and for what? vague threats about things going wrong in a far future we might not even be alive to see when it happens."

The equally disheveled Vanus grit her teeth, as the statement hit squarely on beliefs she did hold dear. What was the point of doing all of this; fighting horrors and seeing your own friends turn into more of them all around you, if they weren't doing it for a goal that was worth fighting for? The thought sickened her, so she rejected it. Yet, at the same time, Cruz wasn't the first overly friendly Eversor to challenge her views in such a manner, no.... the whole scene was deja vu...

"What I'm getting at is.." Cruz began, but needed a sip of liquid courage to continue. "It would really mean a lot to me if you would consider joining in a more permanent way." Brandt gulped with difficulty, knowing full well what was being implied here. "I know it might be hard to believe but.. I honestly feel like Itzli cares for us, and she would care for you too."

Liese choked, words getting stuck in her mouth. Ever since she had first learned about this abnormal Witch from Debbie back in Romania, whom helped magical girls instead of devouring them, she had wanted so badly to see her, to encounter her, to learn so much more about her. The opportunity was literally right here, offered on a silver plate, or perhaps more like dangled like a fresh piece of meat. "I-I.. uh.." She couldn't form a coherent response, torn between her personal desires, and understanding that if she allowed herself to indulge in them, she would probably end up betraying everyone who believed in her.... well, everyone not in Brazil...

Seeing her obvious hesitation, Cruz pressed a lone finger onto Brandt's lips, leaning a bit closer. "It's ok, you don't have to give me an answer right now. I just want you to think about it, and consider it." She removed her finger and muffled any would-be answer by a quick kiss straight on the lips.

Liese's eyes opened wide under a mixture of surprise and forbidden desire. Long ago, she used to be blissfully ignorant of romantic feelings and otherwise; her eyes closed due to a childish naivety. Since those days, things had changed drastically, and it was all thanks to a certain Eversor from her old squad, to which she couldn't help but see some similarities in Rebeca.

She shoved all those thoughts away and merely responded to the kiss by pushing back against it, moving in with flushed cheeks. All too soon, lips parted with barely contained passion and her tongue darted forward to pre-empt the invader. The two remained like this for several seconds, liplocked, before Rebeca finally pulled back with a smirk. "I didn't think you'd respond this strongly, I was just being a tease~." She jested, having pegged the Vanus for the more reserved and restrained type.

"You have noooo idea what you've just unleashed." Brandt could only grin back, but this time there was a certain something animal and predatorian in her eyes; a look she had not given yet, and which the faint of heart might have found very alarming. With it, she leaned and whispered into the Brazilian Eversor's ear. "I learned from the Warmaster of the Ninth, I hope you're ready to take responsibility for what you just did~." With this, she gently licked the back of Cruz's ear with the tip of her tongue, while at the same time her tail grazed against her spine, sliding up from the lower back to the neck with the lightness of a feather yet the sharpness of a nail.

Rebeca lip her lower lip as her own expression became a bit more flustered, not having anticipated such a strong response indeed.. "Oh you are such a treat." She hushed with a silken voice, recovering her spunk as well before going in for another round of tongue-wrestling, nearly tackling and straddling Liese in the process.

 The ensuing passion lasted for the better part of half an hour and involved special toys, the obscene, lewd details of which were perhaps better left to the imagination, as were those pertaining to the acts perpetrated and the inappropriate words that were said.

 A shower and a few hours later, the increasingly familiar scene of the entire cell gathered in the lobby - now also including Alexis - was also repeating itself. The smell of spiked weed was overpowering, filling the entire cottage and probably even seeping faint hints outside. The whole thing was becoming outrageously cozy and relaxing, but soon she lost track of the conversation as it erred into more arsty territory once again.

It was roughly at that time that a very troubling, very upsetting thought hit her. No matter what, after the time she had spent here, and it would no doubt become worse after the time she still had, she could not turn on these people. She still worked for the 12th; she still was an operator meant to spy on them. Despite that, deep down inside, she had come to love these people in a way not unlike her own squad, and in a record time too. The care and concern Rebeca had showed her earlier was mutual, and fully reciprocated.

Unfortunately, she knew it was all too possible she could be ordered to betray or even backstab them. In a way, just handing in her report at the end of it all would already be betrayal, and she hated it. She was not cut for this. She should have never wanted this. The thought of it all ate away at her and tortured her. Worst of it all was that thought that she may be ordered one day to directly strike at them, or indirectly encounter them again in hostile conditions at some point in the future. This also she knew: She would not be able to bring herself to it. If she ever had to fight them, it would be with the greatest of reluctances, if at all, and with the faint, childish hope they could understand business would be business. How ironic, since that was always her stance and she herself had been double-crossed in the past but did not mind it...

Despite all those depressing and self-hating thoughts, she eventually realized that she was still far more relaxed, and even calm, than she expected to be from this cavalcade of dark thoughts. The fact stuck her as definitely odd, as she had always been one to get deeply invested in what she was doing and the people around her and as such her emotions were all too often rash and strong. Right now, however, she found herself comfortably numbed, and could only place the blame of that on the weed, as every puff seemed to lead her to a more and more serene state.

It was then that Alexis' words rang back in her mind like a shockwave; how she had said that the substance she synthesized and added to her joints emulated the effect of the Witch's Kiss. Was this how Cultists felt all the time? Able to stomach terrible atrocities while being only mildly affected by them? Was it really making them so readily accept that which should deeply upset any normal person? Was that why everyone just acted in a 'you'll get used to it' manner at the thought of abducting random people to offer in ritual sacrifice to Witches?

It all made perfect sense, and, to a frightening degree... she, at this point in time, could find no problem with it. It was a very strange sensation: She knew full well her mind was being altered to make her more accepting, yet.. that very effect made her accepting of the alteration itself and prevented her from being upset or angry about it. No, instead, she merely took another puff and relaxed. What a strange world indeed...

The remainder of her time in Brazil was very similar to the past week for Liese. No other explosive event occurred, although they sometimes came very close when parts of the Cell nearly blew cover while hunted for by the agents of the 8th and the 2nd. Instead, it all fell into a strangely fun routine of illicit activities, debauched evenings and the ever-present threat of attacks to keep everyone on their toes.

When her contract ended, it was with a heavy heart that she headed back - with a good provision of 'the good stuff' in her magical inventory. She had come to appreciate even the snide harshness of Noemi's sadistic streaks and the blunt honesty beyond all conventions of politeness that Samantha's sociopathic tendencies made her display. That was, of course, to say nothing of the warmth of the Eversor trio and the kinship she felt with the Venenum...

In perhaps an amusing twist of irony, she made the promise not to forget to those people who were member of a cult venerating the Witch of Oblivion, or forgetfulness. As she made it back, she pondered very heavily on what she would do next, as the immediate actions she would take would likely haunt her forever, no matter what.

In the end, she forced herself to go the middle road. She gave her usual amount of details about the nature and technical aspects of the operation, but did not reveal any outright specific locations or coordinates. Likewise, she described the contents, repartition and roles of the Cell, but did not reveal the specific tricks, strengths, weaknesses or habits of its individual members. She did her best to give as much information as possible for the Incubators to be happy with, but while also attempting to obscure anything that would directly endanger her newfound friends.

The path had been chosen, and she failed to be decisive, so as a result of picking neither, it was possible for both sides to one day end up reviling and abandoning her.  Hopefully she could still find a path somewhere if that dreadful day came to pass...