Check
‘I like the way you look from this angle. There’s determination in your eyes, and that’s about to change. You’re afraid you won’t be able to do anything, but you’re acting so strong. I like that bravery, because that’s the dying throes of your willpower. Once I break her, I’ll break you by proxy.’
Poor, poor Damarus. He’d get to play the hero for a few seconds, breathe a little relief in Janet’s body for a few seconds, and lose it all a few seconds later. Sird would get to taste those tears a second time, watch this boy who dared to defy her turn into nothing but a crying, shaking, sniveling mess. She wouldn’t console him, either. Instead, she’d step closer, touch his shoulders, and whisper into his ear that it was only a matter of time. No one could ever escape her.
Janet didn’t see any way out. Her face crumpled up, turning hot and wet as she cried. “I-it’s okay,” she told Damarus. “I don’t want them to get mad with you, too. I’ve done it before. I-I’d rather it be me than you.” But she didn’t want it to happen to either one of them! What choice did she have?
That sentimental selflessness wiped the smile off Sird’s face. “And you aren’t going to say anything about the fact your Commander isn’t stepping forward to help you?” she whispered to Janet, giving Leslie the proper space to restrain the girl. Once Janet was held back, unable to move away, Sird rolled down her left sleeve. There, from her wrist to her ankle, was a strange armband of some sort.
What was there to say? All Sird was going to do was laugh, if that. Cyrus and Mars had okayed it. Charon gave up. The only person who still showed any signs of fighting back was Damarus, but she didn’t want him to get hurt. He would if he interfered.
Nothing, hm? Nothing at all? That would make it easier. Sird extracted a chip from her armband, and pulled a small device out as well. With that thing placed on Janet’s neck, the subcutaneous chip could take root and, within ten minutes, the re-plugging would be complete. “I’m sorry, little one,” she apologized icily. “Since I last did this, I wasn’t able to cut down any of the wait time. It’s still going to hurt, but don’t worry. I think it’s going to hurt your accomplices far more than it’s hurting—”
Oh, screams.
What lovely music.
“You said…” she had to pause a few times, hoping her voice would be audible over Janet’s shrieks as she jerked and convulsed in the lab manager’s grip. “…you said you had something you were holding out on. Now would be a good time to tell me what it is, because I’ve never re-plugged. I don’t know if your grunt’s poor body can take it.”
"We all have our sins," Cyrus shot back. "Not even I am an exception to the harsh reality of this world. It is simply all the more reason it must be changed. But you would know all about pride, would you not, Charon? After all, was it not pride that prevented you from seeing the truth for so many years about a certain companion of yours? Certainly there were other factors at play, but they do say that vanity breads all other sin. You clung to your ignorance like a child." And lost both of yours in the process.
And spill over him they did; for every one grunt Charon toppled, more replaced him in a desperate attempt to keep the old man back just long enough. And even if he did manage to make it through them all, Cyrus's Weavile stood by, waiting attentively to serve its master.
Janet's screams pierced the air in the assembly room, and Cyrus turned unflinchingly to glance at the operation he had seen, and personally performed, numerous times before.
If Charon did not act now, and very quickly, very carefully, his chance would certainly be lost. This would be checkmate.
