The Choice

[۞ KAT ۞ AKA Red Viper]

((A story derived from glorious and gritty role-play that spanned over ten years. Dialog is, as it was, between the two.  Credit to the wonderful player of Eow/Celeste.))

A piece of someone’s spine casually skittered across the stone floor at The Seat of the Primus in Maldraxxus. Watching it, was a red-haired woman, with a rather bored look on her face, like she had sat there watching the same odd sight so many times before that it had become common place.

Rolling her amber eyes, she snorted and shook out the map in her hand. Locations glowed softly on its face, denoting where contracts were currently waiting for her. While she was trying to make a choice, she felt the faint fluttering of Celeste’s consciousness prickling at the back of her mind as the young woman woke and her mind reconnected with the Link of the gang’s mental plane.

“f*ck...” Kat groaned, bowing her head, allowing the map to fall to her side forgotten.

It had been a few days since Celeste’s lover, a relatively new recruit to the gang, had broken her word and turned Traitor. In that time, Kat hadn’t seen her awake, and now that she finally was, she wished she wasn’t.

Within the Link of the guild hall, Kat had been seated on a red couch, and when Celeste was finally awake enough, she had appeared by the fireplace, a no nonsense look on her young, freckled face. “We need to talk. I am in Feralas.”

There had been no need to reply. Kat stood, murmuring a few words which set her out on her journey to the Colossus. Nothing good ever happened there anymore. She felt this would be no exception.

As Kat made her way through Stormwind, headed for the portal to Uldum, she didn’t see any of the other people milling about the city streets, didn’t hear any of their chicken-clucking like chatter. They were all irrelevant to her now. She had an important date with destiny, and although she wished it was a blind date, she had a good feeling of what exactly to expect.

Usually when she stepped foot in Uldum, there was a grateful sigh. The welcoming heat had seemed to melt away any cold she was normally feeling. However, this early evening, nothing would be a balm, and on the long gryphon ride to her final destination, she had a lot of time to think; as if the months since the Leech had joined the gang hadn’t been enough.

Dark lips pulled into a frown, the scenery below fading away.

Thirteen years ago, Celeste’s adoptive Night Elven mother, Eowithiel had joined the gang. She and Kat had taken to each other instantly, their chemistry such that it challenged them at every turn. For a while, they loved it. Eow became an Officer within the ranks, working alongside Kat and the others to lead the Cheshire Cats.

Over time, Eow fell in love with one of the Shadow Knights, a human named Isral McCullough. All had been well for some time after that, or so Kat had thought. Until one day Xrailax came to her with the news Eow had turned Traitor and left without a word. Eow’s abandonment not only gutted the young gang leader, it started ripples within the fold that would change lives forever.

Isral, who had been a loyal Knight to the Lady, and the gang, had become conflicted. The rules of the gang, were to vehemently ignore those who left the gang, choosing to become Traitors to the Blood Oath they signed upon joining. After all, who in their right mind would want to associate and trust someone who would so easily break their word that they had sealed in blood?

However, Isral could not stop loving his elven beauty, and even though he was bound to Lady Kat’s very soul via a magical bond only the Shadow Knights have, he still chose to break the rules of the gang and betray her trust. He took every opportunity to steal away to see Eowithiel, spending as much time with her – and their two adopted children, as he could. It seemed to work, for a while. Perhaps because Kat didn’t want to see the truth, so she simply didn’t look for it. However, when curiosity finally won out, and she did look, and saw the shadows within Isral’s mind, the secrets he was trying to hide... she knew.

She had let that mockery of a Knight run around unhindered for too long. She had allowed Eowithiel to live, and her reward was another betrayal. By a Knight. It had burned, and had sickened her.

In the end, after a long battle, she had given him what he had deserved. His body was thrown off one of the floating land masses in the Netherstorm, into the bottomless void below.

The Colossus loomed in the distance. The knot of dread that had been twisting within Kat’s chest, oddly seemed to loosen the closer it got. Acceptance was sometimes a beautiful thing.

Heeled boots touched down upon the grassy top of the mountain, not far in the distance stood the lone figure of Celeste. She was clad in her battle garb, the gang's crest desplayed on her cloak and old, weather beaten fishing hat, the brim flopping about in the wind. For a moment, she thought she saw Isral.

Jaw twitching, Kat advanced, slowly. Every muscle in her body was tensed as if the inevitable were a physical force trying to hold her back.

“I be here...” she said, when she stopped about twenty feet away, staring at Celeste’s back, watching the split, grinning skull on the cloak warp and shift in the wind.

The younger woman was staring out over the vast expanse of green, humid forest below them. Her tone faraway yet inquisitive, void of malice, “Was it as tall as this?” she leaned forward to peer over the ledge. “The cliff you pushed Father off of?”

“Nay.” Kat replied simply, “Twas in Netherstorm. Floating land masses. Bottomless.”

“You know...” Celeste turned around slowly, fixing her hazel eyes on the six-foot form of Kat, “I always thought his mistake had been, that he had never been able to make a choice...”

“Yeah? And now?”

Celeste blinked slowly, her head tilting to the side as her brows rose, “Now, I think his mistake was simply that he hid his indecision from you. Hid that he not only could not choose, but chose to play both sides.” Her right hand rose to brush an errant strand of hair from her eyes, tucking it back under her hat and behind her right ear.

Kat snorted and grunted with a light shake of her head. She was partially right, yet there were so many other mistakes too. It wasn’t that simple. "Ye don't get to play both sides.” she began with mounting irritation, “That aint how it works. So, if yer sayin all this to hint at that being yer choice... " her head shook again.

“Nat's gone. Finally fed up with your abuse,” she shrugged ignoring Kat's incredulous look, “I think it's for the best but... why didn't you just toss her out? Why make the situation worse by dragging it on?”

A dark grin touched Kat’s lips. “"Because I be gracious. I wanted to see if she had what it took to turn sh*t around properly. If she was even worthy of ye." there was a vague gesture. "But she failed." It had been the truth, or part of it anyway.

Celeste blinked, then threw her head back and laughed boisterously. “Honestly. How could she have shown you any other side of her, when you barely even looked at her, much less listen to what she had to say?”

"Oh, I f*cking saw MANY sides of that two faced bitch... Ye never got to meet Kris. Don't stand there and tell me I didn't see other sides of her." her jaw clenched tightly, memories of how the Leech acted when Celeste wasn’t around to see, or hear her, "I was very, very close to her, before ye even f*cking met her, and then I had to deal with her when ye were away on yer little mission. Don't stand there acting like I didn't know her."

Cel's eyes closed briefly as she sighed, “Mother... Mother faced situations like this many times in her life in your gang. Lost a lover or two, lost many, many friends. Each time she stayed, learned to make new friends and felt the sting of losing them each time until she felt her soul was an empty void.”

Kat’s fists clenched, they were here, at this point, because Eow hadn't stayed, she hadn't even said goodbye.  The woman didn't seem to care about all the stray pieces of hair blowing about her face, tendrils of fire cutting across her tense features, “Yeah? Imagine where MINE be! Only I still be here!”

Celeste’s lips twitched faintly, “Exactly.” she watched as Kat tilted her head and squinted an eye at her, “All because you just can't stop yourself from burning every bridge you can.”

"Nay!" she barked quickly, holding up a finger, "Because all those f*cking pieces of sh*t I f*cking cared enough about to give a chance, all f*cking stabbed me in the f*cking back!"

“Stabbed you in the back, how, exactly? Just because they felt they had to move on?”

Glancing down at the ring on her finger, Kat hissed a few muted words, drawing her hand over it briefly before she replied forcefully, "Every f*cking person who comes into this gang, swears an oath in blood. An oath to stay, to serve, to protect... Ye f*cking know this."

“I do,” was the simple reply. “But no one told them that doing so would lead to a lonely existence. That's the price everyone has to pay.”

The fishing queen was obviously fishing. It did not impress Kat one bit. Her lip curled up, and a fang winked out from beneath it. The voice that passed her lips was a low growl, “Get to the f*cking point, Celeste.”

The smaller woman took a few steps forward, “Here is my point then, if you're in such a hurry...”

Kat once more visibly tensed, her chin jerking toward her. For a moment, all she could see was Isral coming at her with his blades drawn.

“I am not Mother. I can't stop loving Nat from one day to the next, just because the two of you did not get along. It's a cruel thing to force upon me.” her tone was gentle, demeanor as non-threatening as she could make it.

For a long moment, Kat digested the words, weighed them against the whispers in her mind, when finally, she inhaled a large wad of snot, churning it within her throat before spitting it to the side. It had been so impressive, that even the strong winds barely made a dent in its course. Celeste lightly shook her head.

"Ye don't have to stop 'loving' the Leech. But ye do have to cut communication with it. Ye can't do that, ye know what ye gotta do." Kat retorted through a sneer.

“You are the one forcing this choice upon me but I refuse it. This decision, this rule about Traitors is yours. I won't bend to it as Mother did. That choice is yours to make, not mine. Either you let me continue to see Nat and keep me with you or you choose to lose me. I won't bear the burden of that responsibility and I wash my hands of it.”

There was a snort, "Ye knew the f*cking rules when ye came into the gang. Things don't just change because ye want them to." Her eyes narrowed, “And yer f*cking mother didn’t bend to sh*t.”

“And I told you, that if I ever learned that you lied to me about Father, that I would avenge him yet I did not.”

Kat’s eyes flashed. She couldn’t believe Celeste was bringing that up. She thought they had put that ghost to bed that evening on the boat during their heart to heart. "I never lied.  I told ye what I did. No one can f*cking PROVE he died. I be f*cking innocent." She sucked in a breath, jaw twitching.  She had left out the fact  that she had kept her father’s soul. She wasn’t lying all the times she admonished she didn’t kill him, she hadn’t. Not technically.

Celeste sighed, shaking her head. The girl’s shoulders rose and fell as her face adopted a tired look. “Please, stop. This is beneath you”

Though the air in Feralas was hot and humid, a sudden chill cut through it. Kat’s demeanor shifted. Her eyes fell briefly, behind the lashes a sickening fel green halo spread around her amber irises for a moment before fading with a forced bit of effort. Hands curled into fists as a sly grin touched her lips. “Stop? Ye want me to stop?" She stalked toward her languidly, eyes dark, swirling with a chilling light.

Celeste swallowed, suddenly feeling as if she were standing before a coiled viper. “Are you going to throw me off this cliff then?” her eyes closed, muttering a few arcane words before regarding Kat again.

Kat’s eyes didn't reflect any emotion, even as her dark lips peeled back away from her teeth to reveal a sickening, toothy smile. The tone was silken, "Would I do that? Do ye think I would do that to me own daughter?"

Standing her ground Celeste frowned, “Why not? You don't even trust me. Never did. You said so yourself. I don't know what goes on in that heart of yours. I keep thinking I do; I keep thinking I'm making progress. Always end up being proven wrong though, aren't I? I'm naive that way, I suppose.”

The smile on Kat’s lips faded, breath passing through her nostrils. Her tone was a purr, yet somehow dead. "I don't have a heart anymore... Yer mother saw to that when she thrust her sword through it... remember?" her gaze drifted over Cel slowly, before meeting her eyes, "Funny though, ye should say that... I feel the same way. Although... in this case... Seems I be right, fer a change, when it comes to ye." her head shook like a metronome. “This time, I be right.”

Celeste remained still and resolute, staring into Kat’s eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the rational woman that she loved.

Deliberately, Kat’s right hand rose, twisting as if she were about to blow a kiss. However, her teeth bared so that she was able to grip the edge of her black glove at the wrist, to pull it off. As she did, the eerie skeletal hand tattoo became visible, so dubbed ‘The Hand of Death’, as if the glove were her flesh being peeled away. The woman's eyes never left Celeste's as she spat it to the side. The wind was waiting, grabbing it before it hit the ground, spinning and flipping it before it caught on the scraggly end of a bush.

"Speak yer choice."

“It is not my choice to make.” Celeste said willfully, “I was clear on that, and I won't make it any easier on you by pretending otherwise.”

"Will ye cut contact with that f*cking Traitor! Yay er nay!" Kat’s gaze was almost desperate. She couldn’t understand why Celeste wanted to make the same mistake as her father... as her mother... Not making a choice. Trying to have the cake and eat it to. Had she not done her best to teach her and mold her properly to pass this test? Didn’t she understand how much she meant to her? How important this was to her- to both of them.

“Is your spite so strong that you are ready to be rid of me, for this?!”

For this. She said it like it was inconsequential. Like this was as important as choosing what underwear to put on. She had no idea what she was saying. That was clear. Kat had failed.

“Do ye hate me so much, that ye would choose someone ye just met, over me. Someone who has never lied to ye... fer someone who broke their blood oath and proven they can’t be f*cking trusted!?..."

“I don't hate you! But I hate this side of you!” she yelled against the wind, against the advancing form of the woman she had come to see as her mother, her eyes darted over Kat’s face, still peering into her eyes, “I won't play your games, you can't guilt me with your well-crafted barbs!”

"Yay.... er Nay!”

As Kat came to a rest before her, Cel’s lips twitched defiantly. “F*ck. You.”

The Leech’s words, those same words, instantly echoed in Kat’s mind. She didn’t see Celeste when her ‘Hand of Death’ shot out and seized the girl’s throat in a vice-like grip.

Alarm finally registered in her hazel eyes as she tried to swallow nervously, the motion felt under Kat's hand. With effort she choked out, "At least use... a dagger, I think I'm... worth... that much..."

The Colossus watched on silently, observing the tense dance between the people standing atop it. The winds picked up, violently stealing Celeste’s hat from her head, carrying it off as if it had been sentient and trying to flee the scene on its own accord.

Slowly, Celeste’s scared face came into focus, though the hand continued to tighten upon the young woman's throat, the grip increasing fractionally by the minute making it progressively hard for her to breathe.

Features remained impassive as she sneered, "Me daughter woulda been worth that much... But me daughter woulda stood by me and the gangs' rules, and seen the Leech fer the lying bitch that she be..." her face moved in, nose almost touching Cel's. Kat's tone became a low growl, breath stale, "Yer not me daughter."

While Celeste’s field of vision was blocked by Kat’s face, the red-haired woman’s left hand reached for something in her pocket. She pushed Cel back a few steps, lips twitching as she stared hard into her eyes, head tilting imploringly. "I wanted ye to be- I wanted to make it right... Fer Eow. That little bitch was yer test,” there was a pregnant pause before she hissed the final words, “and ye failed. Ye failed the test, and ye failed me." Kat's left-hand gripped Cel's belt, unbeknownst to her, slipping something beneath it.

Celeste gasped for air, remaining limp, though her hands were clenched at her sides, tears streaming down her cheeks. Is this what her father had felt at the end?

Kat pushed her back another step, twigs snapping, the edge of the cliff breaking and scattering to the ground far below. She continued to hold onto her, expertly feeling her pulse, watching the color of her lips, the way her pupils dilated, every minute reaction... She was holding the young girl until the very last precious moment before she blacked out.

It didn’t have to be this way. Why did it come to this?

Kat's cheek brushed against Celeste’s, she may have felt it, been dimly aware. It was a tender gesture compared to everything else happening. Cel's tears smeared against the cool amber flesh. Closing her eyes, Kat whispered something that didn't quite cut through the darkness that was gently wrapping about Cel's mind. And then... her cheek was pulled away, merciless eyes looking over her face as if trying to hold onto the moment as long as she could.

Celeste’s head was lolling to the side, even as she tried to hold onto her consciousness. The fists at her sides had gone limp, fingers randomly twitching against the breeze. She almost looked at peace. The girl’s face whispered into Kat’s mind the night she passed out drunk after a night out. Kat had found a bed for her to sleep in, and threatened the guard whose bed she stole, that if anything happened to her, she’d kill him.

All she had ever wanted to do, was to keep her safe.

"Enjoy yer choice." I hope she was f*cking worth it. The hand on the Celeste's throat relaxed, allowing the limp body to fall backward over the cliff.