Within the Shackles of Oppression

[Ryan - Loki]

Pain, pain, pain; it was all he could feel, just pain and nothing more. He knew his entire essence was aching but he was lost in darkness, unable to see the light or even his body for that matter. He had once before been in a similar situation when nearly slipping into death under the blade of Loki; was the same happening again, was he near death? He had welcomed death after failing his loved ones in such a way as he had done, he was only sorry that he couldn’t have done more for them than he had managed to do.

Deep down he knew he had given his all but that wasn’t enough for him, he honestly believed that he should have given more even if it had killed him instantly in the process, instead he was cursed to balance on the edge of deaths blade until he either slipped off into the darkness of death or the light of life; his feelings in direct conflict with each other. His honour and upbringing as a Samurai would have him dead, whether it under the finish blow of his enemy or his own blade, but his soul would have him fight for life.

Now it didn’t matter, however, as his life it seemed was in the hands of fate. What was to happen to him uncertain; he couldn’t have taken his own life even if he wanted to, not in the sense that he was supposed to at any rate. These thoughts were that of delusion, thoughts that lead to things that nothing could be done to change and therefore a waste of time on the whole; right now there were more things that he needed to think about, more important things. For one he didn’t even know where he was right now, for all he knew he could still be laid upon the street flow that he was battling upon while slowly bleeding to death. If he were to survive then he would need to do something about his situation very soon, but then that lead him back to his earlier thoughts; did he really want to survive?

The last time something like this had happened he had been saved and dragged back into the light before darkness had engulfed him completely. It had been his own father, Arc angel, Katsumoto who had saved him and brought him back from the very brink of death. Before returning him back into his body upon Dragonia. Where was his father now when he needed him once again, had he deserted him? Perhaps this was his way of letting Ryan know that he couldn’t always just rely on him to save him from death. Both life and death have paths that everyone must walk and, eventually, lie down and die upon; perhaps it was just Ryan’s time to do and if so, it had been a good death.

Slowly but surly the darkness continued to engulf everything, to the point where Ryan couldn’t even see his own hands or body; it felt as if this was an out-of-body experience despite being able to feel each part of his body, in pain, respectively. Just as Ryan was about to lose all hope and give his body to fate when something unexpected happened; the darkness was breached. Streaks of white light suddenly ripped through the darkness from all around, like lightening through the night’s sky. It was quite the frightening site, all of these bright, glowing white streaks of lightening ripping through the black that surrounded him before fading once more.
This carried on for a length of time, each time the rips moving closer, until suddenly they all ripped through the darkness and struck Ryan dead centre of his chest. He had only known it had struck his chest through the sudden pain that rushed through his heart, and jerk that his body was forced into. It was a matter of moments before the lightening ripped through the darkness once more and struck him with an even heavier force than before, this time causing some of the surrounding darkness to vanish into light. Now breathing very heavily the pain was immense, almost too much to handle, but once again the lightening struck and the darkness finally faded away, leaving everything a blinding white; it was then that he heard them, the faint voices.

“Strike him again if you have to,”
“No need sir, he’s coming too….”

[Ryan - Loki]

With a sudden jerk Ryan shot forward to a sudden jolt against his restraints, his muscle tensed, as he took a deep breath of air as if he had been holding his breath to the point of death. He could feel the very oxygen from the air rushing back inside his lungs, filling them up, before rushing around his body; it was a blissful feeling, despite everything else that he could feel. After the first initial breath had been extinguished his body fell limp once more, falling back against whatever it was that he was laying upon.

His eyes had closed again by this point, his eyelids feeling as if the entire weight of the world was upon them causing them from opening, but through all the pain that he could feel upon, and within, his body there was one particular spot that seemingly stood out from the rest, a new pain; above his heart. He couldn’t place the pain, as in what had caused it, but it burned with great intensity, almost more so than a normal burn would do so. Still breathing relatively heavily Ryan slowly tried to move his arm, which took an extreme amount of effort as seemingly every single muscle in his body was under immense pain and strain, but it suddenly jolted and wouldn’t move any further; he had been tied down.

His vision was still slightly blurred, and the poorly lit room wasn’t helping the situation, but suddenly two figures slowly moved out from within the darkness and into the light directly in front of him. He laid his head back down against whatever it was that he had been placed upon and tied down too, his neck muscles hurting far too much for him to keep his head lifted; he now couldn’t see anything but the ceiling above him.

“W…ho’s t-here…where-where am…I?” he faintly inquired in-between heavy breaths of air, his voice weak. The blurred figures look in each other’s direction before one quickly stepped forward and smashed Ryan across the face, busting open his mouth.
“You speak only when you’re spoken too, you half-breed scum!” the figure retorted, spitting at Ryan before turning back to the other. “To think…we electrocute him back to life and this is the thanks we get? Insolence…” he continued.
“Heh… This pathetic excuses for a Saiyan wasn’t even worth our electricity…” the other replied with, walking slowly over toward Ryan and grabbing him by the hair; yanking his head closer to his own. “Your lucky half-breed…if it wasn’t for our orders we’d be ripping you limb from limb right now…” he whispered into Ryan’s ear, throwing his head back down against the table.
Slowly Ryan turned to look up at the figure; assuming that these were Saiyan’s and that he’d been taken prisoner. Slowly he lifted his head, as far as he could manage under his restrains and the pain, looking deep into his eyes with his one open eye of his own. “…You’ll know…my pain for yourself, before the end…I promise you Saiyan…” Ryan said faintly.
“Shut it scum,” the Saiyan spat back, smashing Ryan’s head back down against the table once more. “Just give me an excuse to hurt you more than I’m meant to…please.”
Ryan forced a laugh, coughing up blood as he did so, clearly in immense physical pain. “Hah…a…I’d rather be a ‘hal…f-breed sc…um’ than what you are…filth.”

At this, Ryan’s defiance despite his current physical state and situation, the two Saiyan soldiers looked off toward each other once more before sharing a slight laugh. At this point Ryan had closed his eye, the other too swollen to open to begin with, so he wasn’t to see the two Saiyan’s share a nod in agreement. The Saiyan closet to Ryan at that point bent down and ripped off Ryan’s restraints, causing Ryan to open his eye and roll his head to his right to see what was going on; he was confused. After making sure all of Ryan’s restraints had been released the Saiyan stepped back next to his counterpart, both folded arms.

[Ryan - Loki]

Ryan rolled his body over to the side, off of the table, and slammed down against the concrete floor. The pain was almost unbearable but he wasn’t about to let this opportunity to stand slip so that’s what he did, he stood. Pushing himself off of the floor Ryan held onto the table he had previously been laid upon and used it to help him stand up vertically, although the most vertically he could manage was being hunched over slightly while holding his ribs with his one good arm; his ribs were most definitely broken.

“Much better,” one spoke.
“Much better indeed.” the other replied.
“What…what is the mean…ing of this?” Ryan inquired, confusion within his weak voice.
“Oh you’re attempting to escape,” one quickly replied; and instantly everything became crystal clear.
“…So t…hat you can kill me?” Ryan asked, already knowing the answer he was about to receive.
“And bingo was his name-o.” the other replied quickly, clapping his hands together as he did so.
“And…if I refuse?”
“Then we say you broke free and we had to kill you anyway-”
“It’s a win-win situation, for us.”

With a prisoner attempting to escape any orders that a guard has received instantly become void replacing those orders with another, death on sight. Framing Ryan in an attempt to escape the two guards would be obliged to kill him. It was a smart move on their part, a lot smarter than Ryan had previously given them credit for, but Ryan didn’t lack intelligence either and knew that the fact he was alive right now instead of dead was an important fact, it meant someone high up within the Saiyan ranks wanted him alive; and that’s what he would exploit.

“Clever…extremely clever…” he muttered, somewhat at a loss for breath at this point. His injuries were far worse than he had first suspected. He knew he was lucky to survive the beating he had received at the hands of the Saiyan army, and it seemed they had placed him through a form of torture to bring him completely back into the realm of the living, but he had never realised the full extent of the injuries his body was now struggling with to mend; not an easy task, even for a half Saiyan half Dragonian like himself.

“Why thank you,” the Saiyan who had snapped Ryan’s restraints replied. “Hah, you know, this half-breed scum aint half bad brother,” he continued, quickly glancing toward the other Saiyan, with a laugh, before focusing back toward his prisoner. “You’re right, it was an extremely clever idea…I’m glad I thought of it.” he continued, raising his head in a slightly smug manor.
“Yea, I’m glad he thought-” began the other Saiyan, pulling himself up halfway through mid-sentence before turning to his comrade. “You what Sivios? YOUR idea was it?” the other Saiyan questioned. “I seem to remember it was I who broke his restraints and let him go.”
Sivios slowly turned his head toward his counterpart and smiled. “And I’ll remember that when the general asks what happened here,” he smugly responded, tilting his head. “Or I could forgot you did that Mobius.”
Mobius sighed, lowering his head somewhat; his brother had outsmarted him yet again it seemed. “It was your idea…and a very clever idea at that.” he muttered quietly.
There was a slight pause between Sivios and Mobius, a moment that only siblings with a firm rivalry could possibly understand, before Sivios smirked smugly once more; the victor in this blood war. “Now that’s settled where was we?” Sivios asked, the question rhetorical, as he turned back around to look at Ryan once more.

At that moment a pale blur slammed into his side, causing him to be sent crashing against the wall behind him; it was Ryan. Before Mobius could even react, Smash , a blinding light filled his eyes as a piece of metal crashed across his mouth, a ball of blood and spit sent flying from his mouth as he thudded down upon the concrete floor; unconscious. Sivios let out a groan of pain as he opened his eyes and looked upon what had just happened. “Mobius!” he exclaimed. But before he could even prise himself from the wall he had been indented upon Ryan was upon him slamming the piece of metal into his stomach, Sivios arched forward, before feeling a sudden sharp sensation of pain upon the back of his head; all went dark.

[Ryan - Loki]

Ryan stood there in silence while his body swayed somewhat in the slight breeze that was blowing through this section of wherever he was, what left of his attire flapping about upon his body also; basically no more than his extremely torn trousers, which looked more like shorts now.

What had just happened was playing over in his head in slow motion, every move, every sound, and every last little detail. He could see himself charging toward the two unsuspecting guards, unsuspecting in the sense they hadn’t suspected someone as injured as him to be able to move as he had done. He could see himself forcing Sivios’ body against the wall behind him, with great force. He could see the piece of metal, which was still held tightly within his palm, as it slammed against Mobius’ face, it crushing his jaw. He could see himself then spinning on the spot to slam the metal against Sivios’ lower gut, finally defeating his two oppressors.

He was in something of a trance while playing this all back in his head, so much so in fact that he hadn’t noticed Sivios slowly pushing himself back to his feet. Sivios, whom was now in immense physical pain due to some of his internal organs being ruptured by the force of the piece of metal that the prisoner had attacked him with, looked up at the Dragonian as he simply stood there, saying, with his back towards him; this would be a perfect opportunity to attack him.

Suddenly Ryan heard the crunching of rock beneath something heavy; it brought him back to his senses with a snap. Spinning around on the spot Ryan lashed out with the piece of metal. Due to spinning in his condition Ryan has lost his balance somewhat upon spinning, causing him to stagger backwards a step or two, which meant as he lashed out with the piece of metal it didn’t make a solid contact with Sivios but in fact sliced across his throat.

Ryan’s bare chest, and face, was instantly sprayed in Sivios’ blood, covering him in a dark crimson. As Sivios’ body slumped down upon the floor Ryan caught a glimpse of his eyes, all life within them slowly fading away into the white of his eyes, into nothing. He hadn’t meant to kill this man; he had only wished to render him unconscious for a period of time while he made his escape, as he was simply a man doing his duty to his race. He hated this entire needless killing.

Staggering backwards Ryan turned around from the bloodbath that he had just been the cause off and moved toward the exit of this room. He could hardly stand upright let along walk properly, him swaying and staggering all over the place as he attempted too. Despite having defeated the guards who were supposed to have been watching over him he knew he had quite an effort to make before he was clear of the woods, so to speak.

He pushed the door open and fell of onto the corridor outside, his body falling against the wall opposite the door. He was having trouble finding his breath, figure that one of his lungs had been pierced due to his broken ribs, but despite the physical agony he was finding himself within he had to continue, he didn’t intend on finding out exactly why the Saiyan’s had kept him alive thus far. Turning to his right he began to make his way down the dark and gloomy corridor while leaning against the wall for some amount of support, not knowing quite where he was going or whom he may encounter.

He hadn’t made it more than twenty feet from his cell until he fell to his knees, the pain proving too much for his body to physically handle any longer. He fell forward once more, now upon his hands and knees, as he began coughing up blood; it seemed he was in a much worse condition than he originally believed. He then heard a series of muffled echoing footsteps moving towards him from the corridor ahead of him. Lifting his head slightly to look upon whomever was coming toward him Ryan barely focused on the silhouette of a huge figure in front of a single light bulb.

His vision began to fail him quickly as all went blank; Ryan had fallen unconscious once again.