Dayshift 42: Bus 3

[entaiho]

One second he was in the hallway, dizzy and sickened and barely able to focus as Youko picked him up (and he'd thought for a moment to warn her to be careful before remembering his shirei couldn't hurt her anyway, even agitated as they were) and then the next...in bed. Back in the sterile hospital room, with only the sharp scents of cleaners and

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[quickdrawbkiddo]

[free as a slithering snake]

Jeans, a t-shirt and a denim jacket - Beatrix felt like she was back in the eighties as she walked out to the buses. All she needed was her hair teased up with way too much hairspray, a handful of buttons on the jacket and a couple handwoven friendship bracelets on her wrist. It could always be worse, she decided.

The cut on her cheek had a small butterfly bandage on it and the stitched had been redone in her shoulder from her antics the previous night. The Bride had not noticed the blood considering how much of it had already pooled on the ground beneath Bitzwing, but the fog had grabbed her attention before HK-47 had answered her question.

Sitting alone toward the back, she pondered the significance of that fog.

[givemeoblivion]

Callisto might have thought herself out of a different decade herself if she knew anything closer to the present time than ancient Greece. She was angry at how fast the night had seemed to end, despite its unusual ending. (Playing games, Landel?)

The outfit they'd insisted she wear again was familiar, and not any better the second time around than the first. What was with all the flowers? From the embroidered ones on her jeans to the large one on the front of her pink shirt... she felt as if she was being mocked again. And hadn't she had a bandage on her nose the last time they'd come to Doyleton? Wonderful.

She took a seat next to a face she knew as they loaded onto the buses, not in the mood for questions from one of the newer patients.

[quickdrawbkiddo]

Beatrix raised an eyebrow at what the warlord was wearing when the woman joined her.

"Clearly, you need to kill your nurse. She has horrible taste," the Bride commented.

[givemeoblivion]

"Hmph." Callisto smiled a bit at that, making herself more comfortable in her seat. "I'm always tempted." The damn orderlies were the problem, really. And the sedative. The fact that she was so easily overpowered by them was embarrassing.

[quickdrawbkiddo]

A brief chuckle. "I take it you've already tried and failed? Pity."

The Bride's lips turned up slightly. "I am curious - if you had a knife in your possession that could be spared, what would you demand of the one wishing it in exchange?"

[givemeoblivion]

If you asked Callisto, it would probably be better off embedded in their gut. "If you have a knife to spare here, then you're lucky."

The former warlord didn't need anything from other patients, as far as she was concerned, so she gave a bit of a chuckle. "Ask them if they'd be willing to kill another patient with it first. If they say yes, give it to them after they dispose of someone of your choice. If they say no, give it to them anyway. Chances are someone or something else will kill them for it and get one more weakling out of the way."

[quickdrawbkiddo]

And Blitzwing had thought her request was too much for a single knife. Beatrix was amused by this thought and gave a shirt laugh.

"It's interesting to see how few of our fellow prisoners seem to understand how valuable a single knife is," she replied. "Then again, perhaps it's just the robots or, as an associate of mine puts them, the inorganics."

[givemeoblivion]

"Robots..." Callisto muttered. She'd heard this term before. All that came to mind were the creatures they'd fought in the basement - or that Qui-Gon had fought, rather, with those glowing light-swords. "Those are like droids, aren't they?"

Well, it didn't matter. "In a place where weapons are as scarce as they are, a single knife can mean everything." How many times had she used her boot-knife effectively in the past?

[quickdrawbkiddo]

"Exactly like that," Beatrix confirmed. "My associate happens to be a droid."

A slightly sadistic smile touched the Bride's lips, though her eyes remained as cold as ever. "The particular robot from last night, one of the Cybertronians, thought I was asking far too much for a single kitchen knife when I believed I was being far more generous than any benevolent god. Silly robot. I hope he has learned his lesson."

"Now tell me, what does the Jedi look like?"

[givemeoblivion]

Wait, so there were droids turned human among the Landel's populace? How did that even work? They had seemed to be mindless automatons. She wasn't even going to ask what a Cybertronian was. (Someone from the country of Cybertronia?) Too many words she wasn't familiar with yet.

She raised an eyebrow at the woman's next question, then smirked. "And why should I be giving out information like that?"

[quickdrawbkiddo]

"To make my life easier and therefore far more inclined to bring you along when my associates and I wish to go meet with dear Martin Landel," Beatrix replied smoothly.

[givemeoblivion]

Callisto chuckled a bit at that. So the woman expected her to just play into her hands? "Running out of other options, are we?"

She appeared to give the idea some thought, chewing lightly on a fingernail. "I don't know if that puts me in the best of positions, seeing as you'll be with your 'associates' whereas I haven't been fortunate enough to find any of those here. I might end up feeling outnumbered."

[quickdrawbkiddo]

"Not so much out of options as much as out of options less irritating than you," Beatrix replied.

She then snorted. "You've never worked with assassins before, have you? Associates is a very loose term."

[givemeoblivion]

Well at least there was a bit of honesty there. Callisto laughed again. She was fairly certain that the word 'irritating' had been used to describe her on a regular basis. She wasn't going to argue the point, though.

"Oh, I have. But even so..." She shrugged. "I don't know if the situation is enough in my favor."

[quickdrawbkiddo]

"It won't be; it'll always be in my favor," the Bride replied. "I've been double-crossed far too many times to not compensate for it."

She raised an eyebrow. "The fact is that I possess the means to obtain something you wish. How you go about dealing with that is your choice. As it stands, I don't need you to get the information I want; you are simply convenient."

[givemeoblivion]

"You don't seem to get it." Callisto smirked. "I've already done the trials. I've gotten the reward. The only reason I'd want to go back down there is for my own amusement. You think you're the only one who's ever been double-crossed numerous times?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm through with being used. I don't have any reason to play along with you if I don't feel like it."