Open//You Can't Fix These Broken Veins//

[Decadence]

If there was one thing in the world that could have gotten under Peyton's skin in that moment, it was silence. Silence told her nothing and got her nowhere. Silence was defiant. Silence would not be tolerated.

Leaning forward once more, Peyton firmly cupped Taki's face in her hands and lifted it up to force him to make eye contact. Her muscleless, flimsy arms and small childlike hands were a complete contradiction to her superhuman strength. Fuming, she spoke slowly with enunciated words.

"Taki. If you do not answer me right now, I swear to God, I will..."

As she spoke, she examined his face for a reaction... and what she saw was pure, undilluted fear. At this, she realized that perhaps she had gone too far. She needed him to be afraid of her, but she also needed his cooperation, and he could not cooperate if her mere presence made him pee his pants.

"... be very very sad, because nobody really talks to me here," she finished, reverting to the tone of a depressed little girl and backing away. Deliberately, she let out a deep but silent breath to calm herself and took a sip from her cup of tea.

"So tell me, Taki, what have you been up to?" she repeated.

[Sparrow]

Taki jerked his head back, trying to pry himself loose from Peyton's strong grip. How could such a little girl have so much power? And though he guessed it must have something to do with her mutant abilities, it was her words that chilled him to the bone.

He could only guess what she would do to him. And though half the time he wished he were dead, Taki knew right now he would never wish to die at Peyton's hands. Hers would be the most frightening death he could ever imagine.

Taki pushed away the cup when she released him and realized suddenly it must have been his silence that transformed her from sweet and innocent to scary and demonic so he decided to answer this time, if only to literally save his face.

Honestly, all I do is what the DA requires of me. If that includes tracking an object or a person or if it means sweeping a floor, I do it. I don't know why you're asking me this Miss Peyton, but I have nothing to tell you. Taki said calmly, as he rubbed his sore chin. As she seemingly shifted back to normal girl, Taki had also come to the realization that Peyton could not kill him. The DA still needed him. Therefore, he could relax as much as a tortured victim possibly could and try and answer her questions as blandly as possible.

[Decadence]

Peyton stared at Taki for a good ten seconds before deciding that she had gotten enough out of him for the moment. She also assured herself confidently that she had probably terrified him to the point where it would have been impossible to devise much of a lie, so she decided that she would return to the DA with the information that she had collected.

"All right then. Thank you, Taki, for talking to me. It was very very nice meeting you," she said pleasantly. "I'll take your tea for you." With these words, she snapped her fingers twice before stepping off of the stool and picking up the two cups. The guard from before returned, and she shoved the cups into his hands then walked off while he put the cups and the stool away.

[Sparrow]

But Taki wasn't going to let her walk away that easily. Not after that look she had just given him. Not after the strange questions and even odder behavior. Not today.

Hey, wait a minute. Taki protested. He started to get up but angrily found his ankle still chained to the chair. Frustrated, he kicked out and hit the chair leg. And though his leg was smarting, he still called after Peyton.

I know who I work for, and he wouldn't send you down here for nothing. Tell me what you want to know. Dammit, don't leave me here! Taki shouted, not thinking about the consequences. He had said far less and been whipped for it but that didn't stop him from having a determined look on his handsome face.

[Decadence]

Although Peyton had been marching confidently to the exit, she stopped dead in her tracks upon the sound of heavy link chains clanking against the hard, cold floor. Peyton was not one who allowed herself to be talked down to, and nobody had spoken to her so defiantly in a long, long time.

Slowly, she turned around on her heels to face Taki then took a few careful, deliberate strides toward him, placing herself close enough to the captive so that he would feel like she was right there, right in front of him, so close. And yet if he was to, for some reason, be foolish enough to try attacking her, he would be attacking nothing but the air in front of her face. Her presence was almost tangible yet not.

"I'm sorry, Taki... do I answer to you?" she questioned in a whispered yet harsh, cut-throat, snake-like tone, her bright eyes never leaving his pupils.

[Sparrow]

Taki winced as his foot refused to stretch further and instead crunched against the harsh metal. But though the pain was apparent on his face so was the defiance. He wanted answers and it didn't matter if he ended up crouched at her feet in agony, Peyton was going to give him some.

No, he said, slightly out of breath but refusing to look away from her cruel glare. No you don't. But I deserve to know what you want from me. And if you do, maybe, he narrowed his own clear blue ovals. Just maybe, you'll get the answers you're looking for.

[Decadence]

Exercising caution, Peyton calculated that it would be safe to take one more deliberate step toward the prisoner. As she stared at him this time, it seemed like she was actually seeing him for the first time.

He was quite handsome if one was to ignore all of the scars and bruises. And although he looked beat down, frustrated, there was still some defiance in him as he met her gaze. She would have to fix that.

Then, as he spoke, a fire of rage grew inside of her behind her bright blue eyes. Who was he to taunt her like that? Did he really think that he had anything over her? That she couldn't easily extract the information from him by force if she needed to?

"You, Taki, seem to think that you have the control in this situation. What you need to realize is that I am in complete possession of the upper hand, and you have nothing. I set the rules, and you obey them. I tell you what I want, and you give it to me."

As she said this, her eyes turned to red like two firey glowing meteors. Flames started to grow from her hands. By no means was she using her powers to their full extent, so the flames were controlled and non-threatening, yet they were flames nonetheless.

"Now all I had wanted was to talk, but since you so insisted on turning this into business, then so be it. I suspect that you know exactly what information I need from you already, and if you do not give it up, then know that your power is not one of a kind, and you are replacable."

She was bluffing. If he didn't know what she was talking about, then he would be scared and confused, and she would know that she was wasting her time. And he was not replacable, but he didn't need to know that.

[Sparrow]

Taki was used to people studying him. Some did it to determine how weak he was. Others analyzed his strength and powers. And some people did it just because they couldn't get past his features. His eyes, bright blue and intellegent, were hidden beneath a maze of scars. One lined his cheek, another above his left brow, and a third underneath his right eye. He also had a rather large bruise on his forehead currently that probably also took away from the handsome part of his features. Besides his eyes, Peyton could surely see his angled chin and defined nose and lips. But that probably wasn't what she was looking at.

As her eyes seemingly changed before him, Taki couldn't help but let the words slip past him. He had heard them all many times before. "I'm right, you're wrong", "you're a loser Taki, that's all you'll ever be", "you listen to me, you slave".

He knew this defiance would not hold much longer in front of Peyton so Taki decided to make the most of it. If I'm not replacable, why am I still here? He asked coolly. Then Taki prepared for the onslaught he was certain was next.

[Decadence]

Rather than letting Taki call her out on her bluff, Peyton simply extended her lie. "We keep you here because you are pathetic, subservient, submissive, and easy to control. But there are others where you came from," she growled, but what patience the little girl did possess was running thin, and she decided to speed up the interrogation process.

Holding out her hand, a few bright embers of flame glowed just above her fingertips. She blew lightly, and the embers floated through the air and landed on Taki's shoulders. Then, with a swift wave of her hand, the tiny, seemingly harmless embers burst into a small, controlled flame on Taki's shoulder, turning his sleeve into ashes and charring his skin.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi... As much as the sadistic Peyton enjoyed this, she had to make sure she did not kill the boy, so with another wave of her hand, the small flame immediately died.

"There is more where that came from, too. Now, are you ready to tell me what you know?" Peyton commanded.

[Sparrow]

With each word, Taki flinched as the painful reminders cut into his soul. Pathetic - slap. Subservient - slap. Submissive - slap.Easy to control - slap. And even though Tak knew they were each only half true, it still made him feel lower to the ground. The most frustrating part of all though, was Taki knew perfectly well Peyton could see this emotional agony written all over his open face.

Taki watched her with suspicious eyes as Peyton created tiny embers. Just as he was about to be amused, flames sprouted all over his shoulder. The fire immediatly began to eat through his shirt and he bit back a scream as he felt his flesh catch on fire. And then the fire was gone as quickly as it had come- though the pain still lingered.

Taki's hands curled into fists at the sheer irritation of knowing he had to succumb to her wishes. Taki had been beaten down many times before but he hadn't been burned yet and his shoulder was throbbing. With a sigh, he sank back into his chair.
What do you want to know? He murmured, refusing to look her in the eye but instead focusing on the desk's stained wood.

[Decadence]

Feeling that it was safe, Peyton took another step toward Taki. Although she had been expecting submission, she had not anticipated it coming so easily and so soon. This put her on her guard and made her wonder if Taki's willingness to cooperate was genuine. Perhaps it was a trap.

If the rumor that the prisoners were plotting an escape was false, then she wanted to know. But if they were true, then she doubted that Taki would actually betray his comrades to telll her, and she did not want him to know that the Corporation and the Dark Angel were suspicious. It was a conundrum indeed.

"Well... right now, I just want you to look at me," Peyton told him in a sinister tone, hoping to stall for some time. If only there was someone at the Corporation whose power was to detect lies...

[Sparrow]

Taki heard the step on the floor and closed his eyes. But then she spoke and his earlier decision to submit decided to disappear for a moment of defiance.

And if I don't? he asked quietly, trying to imagine Peyton's expression at this moment. He almost wished the DA himself were here... at least he would be getting a few answers.

-Sorry this is so short O.o couldn't think of anything...-

[Decadence]

Peyton had no answer to Taki's question. She did not particularly care if he looked at her or not as long as she could could be certain that his answers were the truth. If this was a game of chess, then they were locked in a stalemate. It was clear that his submission was only temporary, so she had to make her move immediately. But if she was foolish and reckless, and if she made the wrong move, then she risked giving Taki the upper hand. She needed a way to be sure that whatever Taki told her would not be a lie. She had to bring in reinforcements.

Completely ignoring Taki's question, Peyton returned to the guards once more.

"Is there anyone at the institute with the gift of lie detecting?" she asked one of them impatiently. It took the guard a few seconds to respond.

"Y-yes, Miss Gabriel. I have been informed that we have just received a new member with that ability," the guard, who had been watching the "conversation" between Peyton and Taki from afar, stammered.

"Perfect," Peyton replied with a satisfied smile. "Send for him." The guard scurried out in a hurry to track down the new member while Peyton waited at the door.

[Sinclair]

{Sin shall come to help the RP along and to torment Taki. Sin's grumpy today XD}

"I assure you, I can walk myself,"growled Sinclair as the guard kept a firm hold on his shoulder up until they were inside the dungeon- and, to be more precise, in sight of Peyton. Sinclair didn't look ready to be there; his jeans and black sleeveless t-shirt looked wrinkled from being slept in, and his normally combed black and teal hair had a tousled look that told of total neglect. As for the guard, he looked ready to hit Sinclair. Sin hadn't stopped taunting him since he'd been woken from his nap because Sin had been up all night and had finally crashed just a few hours prior. Now some little thirteen year old girl wanted him to come to the deep, dark dungeon with no explanation? Or, at least not one the guard was sharing.

"You're the one that said he wasn't going to go in just because a little smurf girl bid him to."The guard replied with a casual shrug- it wasn't him in the wrong, and he wanted to make that clear.

"That was before you started shoving! Maybe you haven't noticed, but you're a little bigger than me, are you not?"Sinclair retorted hotly,"I'm rather fond of my appearance, I can't have you marring it simply because you don't know how to handle the word 'no'."

Sin seemed bored of the guard by this point, anyway, so he turned around and walked toward the little girl. Odd, the little girl was the familiar one he'd seen around. He didn't bother to even ask the question of 'where do I know her from' or even 'who is she', not this time at least. Instead he looked to Taki for a moment, examining his figure and general predicament curiously. Sinclair hadn't really realized that the Dark Angel kept prisoners like this. He presumed the boy was an X-Men, but he decided to address Peyton before he'd try to figure out Taki's story. His gaze moved from Taki to Peyton to accomplish this.

"You're the little girl who insisted I be woken up? Seriously?"Sinclair demanded, before adding,"Is it really that important? I mean, I was having this pleasant dream about some simply killer tasting peach jello- you know, nightmare gone right. I went from drowning to eating. And then that inconsiderate fool knocked on my door and what happened? The jello collapsed. You don't uncollapse jello. So I woke up."

"And you. What happened to you? Get caught being one of the institute's golden boys or something?"Sinclair questioned, his gaze once more shifting to the other boy in the room.

[Decadence]

Peyton calculated that while she had to maintain her cold, tough demeanor in order to keep Taki in line and show the new guy who was boss, she also had to soften up just a tad. She couldn't have the new member thinking that she was a psychotic megalomaniac from the loony bin after their first encounter... even if it was technically the truth. No, until he fully understood her position at the Corporation and until she knew enough about the new member to figure out which version of herself to assume in his presence, she would have to tone it down a bit.

And yet, when the man entered the room, Peyton was knocked completely off of her guard. Something about him from his confident, cynical attitude to his handsome looks to his disarming voice was so familiar. She stared at him for a while, pondering this.

"Do I know you fr-" Peyton stopped herself in the middle of her question. What was she doing? She had to focus on the matter at hand. She could figure out if she knew the man later. "Nevermind. I was told you can detect lies. I need you to tell me if the prisoner is lying." Peyton made her way back over to Taki, not even bothering to ask for the new archangel's name.

"This is the corporation's little slave. His name is Taki. Don't be rude, Taki, say hello to the nice man," Peyton ordered with a smug smile.