Tenth Test: Cycle three, Month 3, Day 18 - Do I Twist, do I fold?
[She tried keeping awake. She really did. Everything she could think of--raiding the store levels for anything with caffeine, pacing around the less-ruined levels of the ship, talking at Itachi, not really saying anything until her throat was sore and he was completely fed up with her.
Anko had seen everyone else's nightmares, the realities they'd woken up to, and she could already imagine hers, the whispers in the dark twisting her stomach with fear already. She's used to going a while without much sleep when called for, but four days is pushing even her limits--and nothing can prevent her closing her eyes, just for a minute.
And then the nightmare starts.]
[It's a memory of when she was a child, but a memory gone wrong. She can see herself killing all those people she killed right alongside him, a good little student ninja. But now, now they're all wearing Konoha hitai-ate. She's killing her own comrades and she can't stop her child self.
And then she's standing in a place only familiar to her because of what happened there, a bare room, though she doesn't recall much otherwise. The second Orochimaru's teeth close down on her neck, she wakes with a shout, the seal burning.
As well it should, because Orochimaru is here, in her room that looks more like a torture chamber than anything else.
Within seconds, she's on the floor on her knees clutching at her shoulder in pain while her old master stands above her, his low laughter echoing through the room. A room filled with bodies, most dead, a few with the last signs of life. Every one of them has been tortured, it's apparent, some changed, mutilated, modified and morphed, some beyond recognition.
The ones she does recognize in her quick survey make the bile rise in her throat, for here is Itachi, two Sasukes, Axel, Hiruma, the Doctor, bloodied and broken. And people from home too--Kurenai, Kakashi, Yamato, Tsunade, others.
But her attention is focused on the man standing above her, his purple eye-markings perhaps making him recognizable to anyone who remembers The AU Orochimaru that came through.]
No, no you can't be here!
It's really too bad that thing never killed you.
[His voice is dispassionate, he looks almost bored now that he's stopped laughing. She stares up at him, all her efforts to get away useless against the pain of the activated seal--watching him draw a short sword. When she screams, her voice is rough, wrecking her throat, giving it all she's got. Her kicks out at him as she tries to scramble away do nothing.]
Get away, get away from me!
It would have been far more merciful than me. But I suppose there's no other way to get rid of such a useless, pathetic creature such as yourself.
[He picks her up my the throat, even though she struggles against him, just so he can see the betrayal in her eyes when he runs through her with the sword, twisting it. Finally, her fingers scrabbling at his arm still and fall limp, and he throws her to the floor, finishing with a hard kick as she lies bleeding out on the ground, her tears mixing with the old and new blood around her.]
Tch. Too easy. Next time I'll have more fun with you.
[He turns his back on her and walks away, uncaringly stepping on the bodies around him. The scene fades as her life finally gutters out and her body fades--only to reappear three empty minutes later on the slab standing in for her bed.
Each subsequent time he kills her will be more violent and drawn out.
She wakes with a start, clutching at her seal in pain.]
Anko had seen everyone else's nightmares, the realities they'd woken up to, and she could already imagine hers, the whispers in the dark twisting her stomach with fear already. She's used to going a while without much sleep when called for, but four days is pushing even her limits--and nothing can prevent her closing her eyes, just for a minute.
And then the nightmare starts.]
[It's a memory of when she was a child, but a memory gone wrong. She can see herself killing all those people she killed right alongside him, a good little student ninja. But now, now they're all wearing Konoha hitai-ate. She's killing her own comrades and she can't stop her child self.
And then she's standing in a place only familiar to her because of what happened there, a bare room, though she doesn't recall much otherwise. The second Orochimaru's teeth close down on her neck, she wakes with a shout, the seal burning.
As well it should, because Orochimaru is here, in her room that looks more like a torture chamber than anything else.
Within seconds, she's on the floor on her knees clutching at her shoulder in pain while her old master stands above her, his low laughter echoing through the room. A room filled with bodies, most dead, a few with the last signs of life. Every one of them has been tortured, it's apparent, some changed, mutilated, modified and morphed, some beyond recognition.
The ones she does recognize in her quick survey make the bile rise in her throat, for here is Itachi, two Sasukes, Axel, Hiruma, the Doctor, bloodied and broken. And people from home too--Kurenai, Kakashi, Yamato, Tsunade, others.
But her attention is focused on the man standing above her, his purple eye-markings perhaps making him recognizable to anyone who remembers The AU Orochimaru that came through.]
No, no you can't be here!
It's really too bad that thing never killed you.
[His voice is dispassionate, he looks almost bored now that he's stopped laughing. She stares up at him, all her efforts to get away useless against the pain of the activated seal--watching him draw a short sword. When she screams, her voice is rough, wrecking her throat, giving it all she's got. Her kicks out at him as she tries to scramble away do nothing.]
Get away, get away from me!
It would have been far more merciful than me. But I suppose there's no other way to get rid of such a useless, pathetic creature such as yourself.
[He picks her up my the throat, even though she struggles against him, just so he can see the betrayal in her eyes when he runs through her with the sword, twisting it. Finally, her fingers scrabbling at his arm still and fall limp, and he throws her to the floor, finishing with a hard kick as she lies bleeding out on the ground, her tears mixing with the old and new blood around her.]
Tch. Too easy. Next time I'll have more fun with you.
[He turns his back on her and walks away, uncaringly stepping on the bodies around him. The scene fades as her life finally gutters out and her body fades--only to reappear three empty minutes later on the slab standing in for her bed.
Each subsequent time he kills her will be more violent and drawn out.
She wakes with a start, clutching at her seal in pain.]