Family Business (P)

Cicilia caught that little twitch, something easily missed by someone who wasn't looking for it... Oh, yes... The boxer knew of that little weakspot and felt NO shame in DIGGING that dagger in deeply as she could and twist it... to make ELFRIDA BLEED from her heart if she couldn't from her flesh. Oh, the smallest of smiles spread across the Juggernaut's lips as that small sign of distress flashed across her sibling's face, the boxer suddenly feeling a RUSH of invincibly, like she had FINALLY gotten the one-up on an impossible battle! Elfrida deserved to BURN in hell for what she had done to her... but seeing as her death likely wouldn't come for another handful of decades... Cicilia would settle for making her regret being around her...

...And speaking of regret...

Elfrida was keen to remind Cicilia who truly had the power here. Yes, the younger sister had gotten in a couple cheap-shots. WhooptiDOO... Now she would show her the power of someone who didn't NEED them to make a point! With all the savagery of  De'Reignhardt woman, Elfrida RIPPED Cicilia from her bed and THREW her against the wall, a sound that, no doubt, could have been heard DEEP into the halls. Whoever was out there... IF there was anyone... must have heard the commotion and come running... right...? Cicilia wanted Elfrida GONE... and it didn't matter what it took to make her leave! Insults, being dragged out by security... being admitted into the hospital herself... WHATEVER!

...Ugh... Why did it hurt... to want that....

Elfrida either didn't know or care but was willing to inflict pain who's source was evident. SLAMMING her boot into the boxer's wounded face, the Juggernaut would let out a LOUD yell of pain, her bandages shredding under the sharp soles of her boot! Instantly, Cicilia's hands would shoot up to her sibling's ankle, trying to RIP her foot off her... but it was like trying to remove rebar from concrete!

"RRRUUUUUUAAAAGH...." She cried, her eyes wet from the sheer PAIN... But her grin still remained... a SPITEFUL little smile... "W....want to take m...my legs too, huh...? He hasn't forgiven you, you know... Destroying his entire life... His dreams... because you were going to LOSE if.... if you didn't!"

It was amazing. It was like every time she thought her loathing for Cicilia - this girl, this waste of skin and talent that by some cruel twist of fate shared the same blood and gifts as herself - couldn’t grow any deeper, she blatantly attempted to prove Elfrida wrong.

Her continued defiance was expected. It was more than predictable, it was as if that uncontrollable temper was inexplicably fused to the scraps of her DNA by the rage burning in her very core, being kindled ad infinitum with every spiteful breath. Fires that flared so wildly they burned everything they touched. She was a walking disaster, almost beautiful in its destruction if it weren’t for the carnage and waste she left in her wake.

They only burned all the hotter as Cicilia looked back at her with defiance. The pulsating hatred in pupils met Elfirda’s cool and indifferent gaze with like so much mist over pools of coiling magma. What kind of life was she leading over here that she got so much backbone?

Elfrida could hardly feel an inch of remorse as she attempted to stamp those flames beneath the rough soles of her boot. She dug in deeper and leaned into the motion, making sure her words word and her intent clear. The crow was done playing nice. She could handle all of the posturings. She could even handle all the reminders of...that blunder. That idiot that halted her career as much as she ended his. She’d faced those realities day in and day out, accepting them as they came and resolved to move forward no matter the cost. But there was one thing that slipped by her sister’s lips she couldn’t abide, a single word that sharpened her gaze to a razor’s edge.

‘Lose’.

Lose? Her? Elfrida De’Reignhardt? Lose? The very notion, the audacity of it. She learned nothing. Nothing of every time she beat her into submission. Nothing from every time she was forced to clean her own blood from the mats.

But...that’s what an older sister was for. To steer her in the right direction.

Elfrida reached down and grabbed her by the collar, hoisting the younger De’Reignhardt off the floor and slamming her once again against the wall, rocking the vase on the adjacent table. The water slushed high and low against the glass as the flower adorning its top wheeled gently along the edge.

“You see? There you again. Letting your mouth dig that hole you’ll end up buried in.” She slammed her against the wall again, harder this time, cracking the ceramic against the back of Cicilia’s hardened skull.

“That’s right. I destroyed his life. I broke his body because he was stupid enough to think he could stand at the same level as me. It ended that way because I’m strong and he was weak. I did all of that to some nobody, someone I didn’t hold an inch of animosity or resentment for, because I understood what it took to stand above the rest. Because it was just. That. Easy.” She leaned in, bringing her lips close to Cicilia’s ear with a deadly whisper. “What do you think I could do to you, pathetic little sister?”

Her fingers creased together, tightening the grip on Cicilia’s gown and scraping the flesh underneath. Her lips drew closer, grazing the ridges of her ear. “You’ll never be strong enough. You can’t protect anything. Not even her.”

"GAH" Cicilia coughed as she was RIPPED off the floor and SLAMMED into the wall, a familiar WEAKENING burn starting to spread all up and down her spine and along her ribs! Her head CRASHED against the wall, a sickening, feverish delirium implanting its seeds within the boxer's mind... Instead of demoralizing Cicilia, however... it inspired her... It JUSTIFIED her! Look at Elfrida... Look at what she was doing... She was acting like a brute... a HAMMER! Elfrida was never that kind of person when she was in control! She was a scalpel, a knife, someone who was just as capable as destroying you from inside your own head as she was able to bash it to paste on the floor! The Elfrida SHE knew was a beast of balanced cruelty.... Something was throwing her off... and Cicilia had a good idea what it was!

"You did.... You did it because you were WEAK!" Cicilia asserted, looking DEAD into the eyes of her oppressor as she did so! "You were... afraid! Fucking AFRAID! I know he fought you to.... to..... nnnnngh.... to the bloody, bitter end! You were... afraid he'd beat... you one day! Can't.... fail for a moment.... could you, sister....? Couldn't... acknowledge a.... rival... because you're too AFRAID! Ms. Invincible De....... 'Reignhardt... isn't so tough an..... anymore is she!?

Cicilia struggled to speak, her body SUFFERING under the combined onslaught of her wounds and Elfrida's hepless abuse, her body steadily starting to give up on her, one blow at a time... Cicilia was tough, but her stamina was not infinite. Her strength was vast... but it was a machine without power. Even as Elfrida pinned her to the wall again, the German's arms only hung down by her sides, the Juggernaut's eyes being the only thing that still had a counter-grasp on her older counterpart.

"I know what you can do to me..." Cicilia smirked, a small dribble of blood rolling down over her bottom lip as she did so. "...But..... But... You can't.... hurt me.... anymore..."

That was it. Elfrida seemed to have enough of Ciclia's taunts and leaned in, her fingers digging through cloth and flesh, nails rending both in her quiet, cold rage. Elfrida would pull the trump-card... using her BITCHIEST trick in order to STAB into Cicilia's heart... a blade the German would PULL Herself up onto... getting closer...

"And you..." Cicilia would whisper back, shakily lifting a hand, wrapping it around her older sister's mid back... almost resembling a hug of some sort. "...Don't control anything anymore.... not... even... yourself... You're scared.... that I can challenge you... You target Sayumi... because you can't challenge me... What a... coward you are... I pity you... sister..."

For a moment, there was a raging flame that grew ever brighter in her gut, fueled by the disdain her sister cast into the air between them. For a moment, nothing seemed to matter to Elfrida beyond dashing this woman - this girl, this mistake - into the nothingness she deserved to become. For a moment, she was ready to cast it all away if it meant never having to think about Cicilia De’Reignhardt again.

But then, she saw the light. A spark, a flicker in the sanguine red mimicking her own. And then it all went away. The flame fizzled and died, and she felt in control again. Elfrida only saw that spark somewhere once before. Quite a long time ago. And she knew.

She knew.

“Defiant to the end. I can respect that, in a comically tragic kind of way.” The champion smirked, tightening her fingers on Cicilia’s collar. “It almost makes ending this excuse you call a ‘career’ totally worth it. I certainly didn’t waste my time coming here. I’m going to enjoy tearing your world asunder, you foolish little imitation.”

Elfrida clenched her fists tighter and pressed her little sister harder and deeper into the chipped ceramic, supporting her ailing body solely between her powerful fists. Her arms surged with raw, overwhelming energy, refined in its diffusion as the veins in her exposed biceps and forearms swelled. The contours on her shoulders and triceps pronounced themselves, her back flared, her eyes grew with a flaming intensity to set her younger half ablaze in an instant. Then, all at once, when she felt her heart surge with one resounding beat between their bodies linked in mutual self-destruction...she let Cicilia go and allowed her limp form to fall to the floor.

“But not today!” Elfrida threw her hands up, letting a hearty chuckle slip out between her foxy grin and shut eyelids. “I have some important things to take care of in the meantime, so can’t waste any more time hanging around here!” She slowly opened her eyes to look down at Cicilia through a narrow, yet sharp gaze.

“You have become a little more interesting though. I think I’ll keep my eye on you a little closer from now on.”

The Crow’s ears perked at the sound of rushing feet approaching their door, coming closer with each passing second. Even amidst the foot traffic just outside their door, the clamor stood out and it told her all she needed to know. The veteran pugilist turned and walked towards the door. “Keep growing that resentment, hone it a razor's edge, and you might just see me on the other side. Auf wiedersehen."

Before she left, however, she stopped just at the door frame. She stood there for a second, frozen in time, before she looked over her shoulder at the collapsed girl, one red orb that stared Cicilia through from behind a veil of beautiful dark. “That right hook still needs some work.”

She gave a flash of a white smile as she turned and disappeared around the corner. In the same instant, a pair of nurses rushed into the room, alerted by the bed alarm the moment Cicilia’s weight was flung free from its surface. The shorter blonde rushed to the injured boxer, her wide eyes looking over each of the bruises and cuts all over her frame. A couple had reopened and some wounds were likely reaggravated under whatever stress they’d been under. The taller nurse looked on for a moment, then turned and raised her hand, trying to get the attention of a security guard as she pointed down the hallway.

“H-hey! Stop that woman!”

Slammed against the wall with not a bit of air left to make any kind of comeback, Cicilia was left silent and suffering as Elfrida filled the void herself, stating flat-out what her plans were... She wasn't just here to torture the juggernaut, to usurp any attention and control the spotlight. She wasn't just here to control AFW with her awesome ability and immeasurable technique... No, she was so much more focused than that... like she always was. With the darkest, most perverted grin the German had ever seen in her life, Elfrida would state... that she would end the boxer's career. Cicilia said nothing... not that she could speak in the first place, her sanguine eyes cold with shock as Elfrida's BURNED with a haunting glee. Yes, this was something her sister could do with a snap of her fingers. With the assets and reputation she held, she could end it all as AFW would do ANYTHING to retain a legend like her sibling. Her own place of residence would cast her aside in an instant if Elfrida wished it...

...But knowing her sibling, she had an even more precise instrument at her disposal, one she had yet to stab into Cicilia's heart yet...

The Juggernaut crumpled to the floor gasping, clutching at her wounded form, so broken and pathetic and weak... and yet still her eyes glared up in defilement of her older sister, in renouncing her flesh and blood right there in the hospital-room... And speaking of blood,,, Her bandages were no longer the shade of pure, untainted white that they should have been, splotches of red of both darker and lighter shades seeping into the her wrappings! Her eyes fluttered weakly as the casual, effortless beating tolled the Juggernaut more than she could ever hope to afford, her body slipping off to the side... unconscious with the last words she heard... being a mocking of her punch....

Whoever sought to stop Elfrida from leaving... they wouldn't stop her... Cicilia would awaken in bed, bandages changed and feeling as if she had escaped from hell... in every sense but good. Her body was RIDDLED with pain that brought the strong-willed woman to tears, her heart and blood awash with the sharp twinges of fear and helplessness that could only accompany a visit from the devil herself! On the days of Sayumi's visits, Cicilia would smile, kiss and dote on her as if nothing was wrong... but Cicilia knew she knew... Sayumi was smarter than she was, more perceptive and most of all... she loved her... Even without being able to put a face and a name to the clouds that hung over the boxer, she witness their presence... and Cicilia hated it... ALL SHE WANTED... Was to be with her girlfriend... to be HAPPY with her...

...WHY COULDN'T SHE HAVE THAT!? WHY COULDN'T CICILIA BE HAPPY!?

"Sayumi..." She cried one night, her one, untouched arm wiping weakly at her eyes... "...I won't... I won't be the same woman.... anymore... I... I promise..."