Abattoir vs. River Styx - Once Upon A Time In Boyle Heights...

And just like that, it was over.

The crowd - sick, twisted fucks that they were - went nuts as she planted Safiya’s face into the dirt, doing damage that would be with her for the rest of her life. Whatever. It was what they paid to see, so they were happy. Styx, on the other hand, was a bit more blase about the whole affair. Yes, she’d gotten her blood pumping for a second, but as she released Safiya’s brutalized head and wiped the dirty blood off with her shirt, the feeling of boredom was already beginning to settle in.

There were worse ways she could’ve ended this week, but many better ones, too.

Anyway, it was over. Styx stood up off Safiya and began to leave, taking a casual stroll towards the cage door, already thinking about her plans for the next day, when she realized a curious fact: the door was still unlocked. They hadn’t opened it yet, like they were supposed to when the fight was over. But there was only one reason they’d do that, and…

She looked over her shoulder, saw Safiya, and made a noise that was almost as much a groan as it was a growl. The crazy, stupid, insane, silly little bitch was still getting up. ”Gotta be shitting me.”

Unfortunately, Safiya was not, in fact, shitting her or anyone. She still had some energy left. Where she found it, Styx had no idea. Maybe it was just her body running on autopilot, some weird response, like people walking around on fire after their plane crashes. Styx didn't know why or how she was up, and she frankly couldn't have cared less. All she knew was that it was about to end.

She moved over to Safiya’s front and stood there for a moment, looming over her like the spectre of death. Letting it all sink in. Letting her realize what was about to happen just enough to be afraid. Then, and only then, did she reached down and wrapped her hands around the lithe, young fighter’s throat. She gripped hard and tight, getting a real choke on, before she hoisted Safiya up, holding her high enough to make her feet dangle.

For a few seconds, she held Safiya close, looking into her bright blue eyes with her own pair, staring hard as she watched the conscious began to flow from her body. Giving her the chance to struggle, fight, wear herself out.

Styx took a deep breath. Waited. Then lifted Safiya up with one hand, fell forward, and slammed her skull into the floor, with a move that had all her weight and strength behind it.

Everything hurt.  Everything.

As Safiya Khouri found herself shakily wobbling up to her knees, half-blind and wallowing in a mire of agony, she found the thing that hurt the most wasn't even tangible.  What she'd been reduced her left her abjectly ashamed - she'd been on top of the world, running a wild hot streak through everything in her path, and now here she lay on the dirt floor of some shithole fight club in Los Angeles.  Shattered.  Maimed.  Afraid.

It was the most objectionable thing she could conceive of.

Her arms trembled, burning with pain, as she held herself upright, and when the shadow fell over her once again she raised her gaze to meet Styx head-on.  This was...well, realistically, this was probably it.  The end of the line.  Even if, through some sort of miracle, she managed to get a last-ditch-effort victory, something was seriously wrong and she wasn't sure what, or what the extent of it was.  Either way, the fight was almost definitely over.

And yet she didn't stop trying.  Styx stood over her like an executioner with the axe ready, and Safiya found it in herself to reach up for her, trying to use the other girl's waist to drag herself up to her feet.  She couldn't get a grip, of course, and really couldn't do much more than feebly paw at her, but it didn't stop her from giving it a shot, at least until a hand gripped her throat and hoisted her off the ground, legs kicking weakly.

One hand reached for Styx, trying to do something - push her away, break her grip, claw at her eyes, anything - and came up short, wavering in the air.  She couldn't even reach.  A bitter, desperate fury suffused the nak muay's scrambled thoughts, and as her vision began to fade she was mouthing some kind of wordless, choked curse at Styx, a final fading attempt at defiance.  

"Nghhh...."

Not like this.  It wasn't fair, she just had to reach a little further...not like this--

Nothing after that really registered, truthfully; this was the point where her perception of events more or less came to a temporary end.  To the rest of the Road Warrior, though, the smack of Safiya's head bouncing off the floor sounded like an axe hitting a log, and then she stiffened and convulsed, her head lolling back, the veins straining and pronounced against the muscle of her neck, and then, at last, she went mercifully, eerily still.

The crowd's raucous cheering seemed a bit inappropriate, but Styx had won their adulation nonetheless.

And now it was over.

Styx didn’t even take a moment to watch and make sure her opponent was finished. She’d used that move a dozen times on a dozen idiots, and the result was always the same - the hit the ground and they didn’t do much moving for a while. Granted, few of the people she’d done it on were this fucked up when she got around to it, but it hardly made a difference to her. Done was done.

The only indication she got that something was up happened when she opened the door and Pete came rushing out - not to congratulate her and announce the victory, but to waddle his fat ass over and check up on Sleeping Beauty. Behind her, she could hear his panicked mumble, as the crowd started to lull.

”Fuck...fuck!” He cried out, trying to squeeze as much volume out of his shriveled voice as possible. ”911! Call 911!”

Yeah, this would be a weird one to explain to the police, and she was sure Safiya would have some interesting excuses when she woke up. Styx, on the other hand, had pressing business with a bottle of whisky and her earnings for the night. She could read all about how this played out in the newspaper.

With a shrug and sigh, she made her way into the faceless throngs and disappeared, putting this night behind her and letting it get lost in the shuffle of her memory.

Safiya felt herself sinking.

She wasn't totally sure where she was, or how long it had been since her fight with Styx, but here she was, submerged in a vast sunless ocean, swallowed up by the eternal waters.  Which was odd, because it seemed like something was missing from the chain of events.  How had that happened?  Shouldn't she be in pain, or worrying about fighting Styx, or...

...well, it was sort of peaceful.  There was a tranquility to it that she hadn't felt since she was a very small girl, and the chill of the depths had an otherworldly soothing quality to it.

Something was wrong, but every time she tried to remember what exactly that something was, it was distant enough to elude her.  Better to sink to the bottom and find solace in the thrumming of the waters.

=

"She's been code blue for six minutes.  Not looking good."

"CPR?"

"Non-responsive.  Total asystole so far."

=

At the very bottom, in the abyss that swallowed all light, she found him waiting for her.

"Does it know what has become of it?"

The question was an echoing sibilant gasp, one that her mind couldn't quite seem to hold down without it slipping through her fingers.  Safiya narrowed her eyes, straining for comprehension, as the words swam around her and muddied the dark waters.

"I think something must be wrong," she said airily, and gazed uncomprehending at the billowing scarlet mass before her.  "I was...I'm supposed to be fighting, I think, and...is this a dream?  Did I miss the fight?  I don't understand."

"It has been killed," he answered, in the same tone of voice one might use to discuss the weather.  A spindly-fingered hand supported the leering white mask under his hood.  "Its hubris has led it to ruin."

"What?"  She blinked and, with a supreme effort of will, focused on the mask. And perhaps it was the growing realization of what had happened to her, or perhaps it was the glimpse she caught of what lay behind the mask's empty eyeholes, but Safiya began to feel a growing unease in her heart, one that swiftly blossomed into a gripping anxiety. "How did...what is this?"

=

"Epinephrine's getting a response."

"Pulse?"

"Arrhythmic, but it's there.  Defibs!"

=

The dark and empty waters no longer held any lazy drifting comfort. She was dead?  How was she here, then?  Where even was here?

"Who are you?" she asked.  Her voice was shaky; it betrayed the rising panic inside her.

"It wishes to know me?" A cold sense of amusement swirled with the depths around her.  "I have taken so much from so many, and I have given in equal measure.  Perhaps I will be generous.  Does it wish to return from whence it came?  Does it desire fortune?  Renown?  Power over the hearts of men?"  

He was everywhere and nowhere, regarding her like a specimen on a dissection tray with a thousand lidless eyes.  Even when she tried to look away, it felt like she was still staring him in the face.

Safiya shook her head.  It was getting colder.  The numbness prickled at her skin, like her entire body was starting to go to sleep.  "I don't care about any of that," she managed, quavering and terrified as the darkness pressed in around her.  "I just...I don't wanna die, not like this!  Send me back!  Please, I don't know what--"

"Does it desire revenge?"

There was a moment of perfect stillness.

=

"Here goes.  Clear!"

"Anything?"

"Still arrhythmic.  Come on, work with me here..."

=

"Perhaps it feels that it deserves to be sent back." He was staring into her very core.  It felt like being nuzzled by a pair of cold, slimy lips.  "It would do well not to expect a vulgar demonstration of charity from me."

The smothering dark was crushing, stifling.  Tears were pouring from her eyes.

"Anything," she choked.  "Whatever you want, just don't let me go--"

"Then if it is sent back, it will recall its Task, and strive towards its accomplishment.  Yes?"

"Yes!  Fine!"  Safiya thrashed wildly, helpless before the existential terror of her situation.  "I'll do it!"

=

"One more?"

"One more.  Come on...clear!"

=

A gloved hand rested on her forehead, and she could feel the chill of the deep recede from around her.

"The Task, then.  All that it needs will be imparted onto it, and then it will know the Task and remember the Task."

"Yes.  Yes, I...yes."  It was like coming up for a breath of air.  The rush of relief through Safiya's mind was the most satisfying thing she'd ever felt.  "I'll do it.  Thank you.  Thank you!"

"It will depart from me now, and return from whence it came."

There was a surge of jumbled, chaotic input, a cacophony of sights and sounds and understandings, like a floodgate had opened into her mind, and then everything was consumed in a light so bright it was blinding; suddenly it was very warm and a welcome rush of pain was stabbing Safiya's flesh from all angles, and she was keenly aware of the blood pumping forcefully through her veins, and the world crashed in around her without warning.

=

Abattoir opened her eyes.

-end