2023-05-27: High Stakes Negotiation

• Cast: Leina Ashta, Mineva Lao Zabi, Martha Vist Carbine (As played by Leina Ashta)
• Where: The Garuda
• OOC - IC Date: 2023-05-27
• Summary: Puru-1 speaks with Mineva Lao Zabi about her betrayal. Martha Vist Carbine pays the Princess a visit for lunch and some girl talk. Mineva left in private after the talk makes an attempt to get through to Puru-1. (tw: Brainwashing, Amnesia, Gun.)

---

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

You wouldn't think of a military airplane having luxury suites under ordinary circumstances. It only becomes apparent that this plane is owned by a civilian foundation when one reaches what used to be officer quarters.

Shortly after she was taken out of the Unicorn far more gently than Banagher, she was brought here. It is an enormous suite, of well luxury upholstered furniture, an adjoining bedroom with wardrobe of clothes all in her size, and an attached shower. There is also a living and dining area.

There are windows, certainly, but they are reinforced. There are no visible cameras, but Audrey always has the sense she's being watched nevertheless.

What she doesn't have? Is freedom.

It is in every way, the gilded cages she was accustomed to before Char Aznable took her away from her regent. No... it's smaller.

There are a pair of armored guards right outside of her room, who act to contact room service for her needs, but don't allow her to wander.

The hours pass by maddeningly, until she hears activity within the hallway. And eventually...

... the door slides open, and Leina walks inside. She's in the pilot suit of the Banshee, minus the helmet. Black with accents of grey, red, violet, and yellow.

She has a sidearm buttoned in, within a holster, and a retractable baton hooked into its belt. In many ways she looks like a version of the Manhunters that menaced them not so long ago.

From the neck down. From the neck up, it's her. She looks tired by the dark circles under her eyes, but at least cleaned up after the battle, presentable. Her seagreen eyes give Audrey a long look, sorrow within them, "Audrey... I..."

There's a prolonged pause, before she quietly changes whatever she was going to say to the message she was here to deliver, "Mrs. Vist Carbine asked me to come check on how you were doing, and whether the accommodations were to your liking ahead of your scheduled lunch date with her."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

She didn't want to come out, at first.

Even as Banagher fought the guards, as the pulsing of tasers echoed in the hangar, she sat there, curled in on herself, clutching her head held between her knees. It was all just too much. And thinking back, those sounds haunt her. Banagher struggled, hurt, and she couldn't do anything...

Eventually, they managed to coax her out of the seat. She was unprotesting, silent, her bruised face blank until the still-helmeted Banshee pilot crossed her eyeline. It took her a moment to realize who it was--and looked away, pained.

Here, now, she sits by the window, watching the earth move slowly beneath her. She's turning a black Go stone over in her fingers. She hasn't eaten since she came aboard.

It really does feel like the end of the line. Vist has the Unicorn. They have Banagher, and they have her. Everything she's fought for, everything she's worked toward to safeguard the Box... none of it matters, now. Vist holds all the cards.

She's no 'honored guest' here, like she was aboard the Gwennangorn. There's no question--she's a prisoner. Running her thumb over the smooth surface of the stone, she gives brief thought to the idea of escape, but...

Where would she go? How would she get Banagher out with her, much less Akane and Rikka?

And Leina...

--

Mineva looks to the door as Leina enters, and her face takes on a look that barely captures what's going on underneath. Pain, betrayal, grief... and a sorrow as deep as the oceans below them.

She doesn't speak for what feels like an age, searching Leina's eyes since she can barely read her spirit. When she does speak, at last...

"What did they do to you?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Her walls are up right now, yet even she can't help but feel that pain, betrayal, grief, and sorrow. She has to close her eyes simply to recompose herself in light of the weight of it...

... breaking the contact Mineva has with her eyes.

Opening them anew, she tells her quietly.

"Nothing I didn't volunteer for. I marched into Mrs. Vist Carbine's office three months and a half months ago - cut a deal with her."

She doesn't meet her eyes anew. "Between Monaghan Bhakarov and her, it felt as if she'd be more amenable for allowing you to have... something resembling a real future."

She continues almost tonelessly, as if to hide her sorrow, but being unable to do any of that. "There's really not much more to say. I betrayed you and Banagher of my own free will, Audrey. It felt, kinder, than the alternative."

For a time, she just shifts uncomfortably, "Once this is over - and both you and Banagher are safe, you'll never have to see me again. For now, just keep your head down and let me take care of everything."

There is something distant, abstracted within her eyes as she murmurs softly, "It will all be over soon."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

She doesn't believe it. She can't. Not after feeling Puru-1, not after those greedy, jealous hands... not after Mineva saw Leina's face on the viewscreen.

But that doesn't make it hurt any less. It's like a knife to the heart, hearing those words from her girlfriend's mouth.

She exhales, shaky, the lump in her throat feeling big enough to choke on.

"'Kinder'?" she asks, clutching the Go stone in her palm, rising to her feet with a wince. "Kinder to who? To the people who died in Dakar? To me, who thought that maybe--just maybe--I'd found someone I could trust?" Tears well up in her eyes, and her voice quavers. "Someone I could tell anything to, someone who wouldn't..."

She trails off, but images of the aurora after the Axis Shock flash across her mind's eye.

Mineva looks away, and her thumb rubs over the Go stone, feeling for Banagher.

"Kinder to the boy who loves us so much he'd give us the world if we asked?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

She can feel the hurt, perhaps more acutely from the presence of that Go stone. An eyebrow twitches faintly, beneath a closed lid.

It is not an easy thing to weather, hearing her so upset, but weather it she must. "Kinder to you." She repeats as she meets her eyes, "Whether you see it or not. Some lessons are learned only through crashing into painful reality."

Now she opens her eyes, and meets them square on, I decided to cushion the blow, "You don't get it. Judau? My brother. He won. He won and it looked the SAME as defeat. Another turn of the cycle. A vacuum which your father filled."

There is something unsteady in her voice, but she is not shouting at her. "Nothing changed. The same hollow hearts and minds who created this perpetual motion machine are in charge. Why do you think it took him EIGHT YEARS to come back? EIGHT YEARS after beating her?"

She doesn't step closer, but Audrey might see her digging her gloved fingers deep into her hands, with a clinched fist, "And he's still not anywhere over it. Let's say you and Banagher were as lucky as he had been. That is the /best/ outcome the two of you could have hoped for."

Her voice drops to a hushed tone, "And there are so many worse ways for it to turn out. So, I chose to keep you both alive, and /safe/."

There is the sound of gloved fabric twisting, and then suddenly, she relaxes, as if allowing herself to sink into a pit of hollow despair, "Hate me for it if you will, all you want. It's nothing less than I deserve."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Judau...

Of course that's why she's doing this. Why she thinks she's doing it, anyway...

She finds Banagher, and does what little he can to shore up her struggling boyfriend, passing him her strength... and receiving some of his back. She steels herself, standing a little straighter, and shakes her head at Leina.

"Did you forget why we know, Leina?" she asks, taking a step forward. "Your brother was there... and he was the one who realized it was you!" Her voice is still shaking, but she's found something to latch onto. Maybe, some small part of her thinks, if she can just find the right words...

"You say nothing's changed... and maybe that's true, but what is this but a confirmation? If he believes this was really your decision, your own free will, what do you think it's going to do to him?!" Her volume increases as she speaks, and by the end, she's nearly yelling.

She waits, but not long enough for a reply. Quieter, she concludes, "It's going to break him all over again."

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Mineva steels herself, drawing upon Banagher for strength, taking a step forward towards her. And Leina, no, Puru-1 doesn't move from where she stands.

There is a desolate look in her eyes, and a broken laugh, "How could I forget that?" But she doesn't interrupt other than to answer her in that respect.

Mineva is taller, so eventually her eyes must drift up to meet them, but this time she does. Leina never was one to back down from her convictions.

No matter how wretched they might be.

"What do I think it's going to do to him?"

She asks quietly, "Exactly what you said, it's going to hurt him all over again. But then he'll wash his hands of me, once it settles in the kind of person I am, and always have been."

Perhaps it's wishful thinking, perhaps it's the depression deeply rooted in her brain, "He'll move on. Stop fighting. Live his life..."

She trails off, takes a deep breath, keeps his eyes closed, "... if he keeps going on like things are now, he'll either end up dead, or in a lab. If the choice is hurting him more, versus THAT?"

There's a hitch in her breath, like it was a half sob, and then it becomes another broken run of laughter, "Well, I always have been the kind of girl who did what I knew was BEST for him." That laugh is just, pregnant with more of that hollow, awful despair.

Her shoulders heave, then sink, "For everyone... in my life."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Mineva stares at Leina for a long time. She feels like she's half-blind, talking to her... she's always been able to read her. But she can't... so she's almost ready to believe her. To really believe that she let this happen. For a moment, she's ready to hate Leina.

But she remembers the aura. The sight of her face, covered in those ghastly hands.

This can't be her.

But Leina believes it... and it's tearing her apart. Another part of her wants to hug her. Tell her it'll be all right. She forgives her. They'll save her. They'll fix this.

She can't bring herself to do any of those things.

Mineva looks away and closes her eyes. She can't hide the tears rolling down her face. As neutrally as she can manage, she states, "Tell Mrs. Vist-Carbine she's given me a very lavish prison cell."

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

For a long time Leina just watches her as she looks away, with closed eyes, and tears rolling down her cheeks. She has a hard time looking away, as if she were struggling between the impulse of comforting her...

... and knowing, she has no right to do so. Her hand unclinches and she doesn't relax, but...

"You're right. She has. I'll tell her."

Turning around, she walks towards the door, and opening it, "She'll be here within the hour."

Stepping out, she leaves her alone. That way she'll have better company than her.

...---...

And as Puru-1 foretold, Martha Vist Carbine steps into the room, with her business formal dress, immaculate makeup, and jewelry, "Audrey Burne. As aliases go, it has a lovely ring to it." She motions towards the dining table, and the two cushioned and well upholstered chairs on either side of it, "I hope you don't mind joining me for a meal and a chat, just between us girls hmmm?"

Martha has a seat, and crosses her legs, swinging the chair around to face her with a smile. ... Right as Puru-1 enters the room anew, the food cart she was pushing left outside.

Placing down two champagne glasses, she uncorks a bottle; then pours for one, and then the other.

Leaving the bottle in an ice bucket, she returns to the hall and retrieves two dishes. She places one meal down... then another, lifting the cloche each time she does to reveal the fresh food which would be haute cuisine on any airline.

Some kind of fish dish, drizzled in sauce.

Puru-1 may believe she's a co-conspirator in this, a volunteer, but right now she's acting as a common servant. Which means... It's all another twisted show, for Martha to display her power here.

"Stick around, Ms. Ashta." She bids, "I think you'd appreciate being a part of this 'girl talk'."

Rather than respond verbally, Leina returns the tray to the hallway, moving to stand, with her hands behind her back, and saying nothing as the door shuts once more, leaving the three of them alone in the room together.

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Mineva, meanwhile, is dressed passably well enough; about as casually as the wardrobe allowed. Her face is un-made-up, and she hasn't bothered to dab away the tear streaks on her cheeks. She'd rather not pretend this is something it isn't... and it's an act of defiance, besides.

"If you insist," she says simply, watching--frowning--as Leina is treated as a servant. She stares at the dish, briefly, before looking up at Leina. "And you're all right with being our waitress?" she asks, an eyebrow raised.

She glares in Martha's direction, knowingly. Mineva sees it for what it is.

Instead of moving to eat, she crosses her arms in front of her. "I do not have the patience for these games. We both know what this is. It's an interrogation... shall we do away with the facade and get at what you're here for, Mrs. Vist-Carbine?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Leina looks towards Mineva as she asks that question, for a moment it's like the answer is unclear to her too. Is she alright with this? Serving as a waitress to someone as twisted and hollow as Martha?

"Yes." She says, short and sharp, the look in her eyes distant, abstracted.

"Yes I am." She repeats, more clearly.

Martha Vist Carbine has picked up her champagne glass, raising it, a small motion as she examines the rising bubbles within.

"An interrogation? Truly you mistake me. This isn't anything of the sort. It's a business proposal."

Her eyes just disturbingly fixate upon Mineva, "I intend to seal Laplace's Box for good. I believe you left Neo-Zeon because you wished the same thing, Highness. For it not to fall into the hands of the Sleeves?"

She takes a sip, and holds the glass in the air, "Your boy toy down there is screaming that he'll do anything so long as we stop hurting Ms. Ashta here, so I don't require your cooperation in convincing him to lead us to the final coordinate."

She raises a hand, "This benefits you, of course. But do you understand what would benefit both of us more?"

Martha Vist Carbine smiles as she presses her, "The corpse of Neo-Zeon keeps shambling to the marching orders of one Monaghan Bhakarov. Certainly, you don't wish to see the rise of a third Neo-Zeon war, now would you? And so, I ask if I might persuade you to ally with me? That way we could see that he never gives birth to another conflict greater than the One Year War, another black mark to your family legacy."

She puts her glass down, "No amount of effort will undo the past, and heal the hurt feelings of those Spacenoids, but the two of us together could see those feelings directed... properly."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Mineva's eyes fall at Leina's response. She can see the doubt, the unsureness in that moment. She closes her eyes sadly.

I'll make you see what they've done to you. I promise.

She frowns, listening to Martha, shaking her head at the woman's presumption of her intent. "I left to prevent the Box from getting into the hands of any of the powers. I think we would both agree, Mrs. Vist-Carbine, that you are a very powerful woman. In charge of an organization powerful enough to have done... everything that's happened to bring us into here today."

"What are you doing to Banagher?" she asks, her emotions flaring. "If you're hurting him, or planning to hurt him..."

The revelation that Bhakarov is behind the Sleeves... her lips grow thin. She doesn't trust that Martha is telling the truth, but it makes sense. A perpetual enemy... a way to keep the war machine going. A way to keep Earthnoids galvanized against Spacenoids.

But she doesn't answer Martha's other queries at all. "I can see what you've done to Leina. I know you've done something to Akane and Rikka. If you think I'll trust you not to hurt Banagher..."

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Leina's head turns as Mineva reaches out, but Leina does not reach back. Within her eyes there is just, sadness and despair at the belief Mineva has that she is simply a brainwashed pawn.

She has deceived her that well, for as long as they've known her, about the type of person she is.

"And as I said, I intend to seal it!" She tells her with a smile, "Is there no better way to prevent it from getting into the hands of the powerful than making certain that noone can, have it?"

Putting down her glass, she picks up her silverware, and cuts off a tiny bite of fish. She doesn't pick it up or swallow it quite yet, she looks up over the sliver of piscine delight.

"I'm not doing anything to him. Why that boy is hurting himself more than anyone else. Throwing constant tantrums unless Ms. Ashta is in his cell with him."

She picks up the bite with a fork, chew, chew, swallow. A small moment of consumption, of a shark unto a smaller fish, "What, you mean how I had Ms. Ashta conditioned? Her memories altered?" As she says it outright, leaning back in her chair, and smiling at Mineva.

She just lets that, HANG for several long seconds. Leina doesn't even react. As she flicks a look towards Leina, "Ms. Ashta. Are you conditioned?"

Leina looks towards Martha in this moment, "No ma'am. It is a bluff you are utilizing, to make everyone hold back against me in battle."

Martha taps her chin, a fingertip tracing across her lips, "I see - I see. Just how do we resolve this dispute then, of whether she's conditioned or not?" A small tap, a thoughtful look, "Puru-1, who is your master?"

Puru-1's eyes instantly just, glaze, "You are, Martha Vist Carbine." "Now, would you kindly kneel right over here?" She points beside the chair.

Puru-1 takes a few steps forward and kneels down. Martha then asks, "Your sidearm." She unsnaps the button and holds it out. Martha idly holds it within her hand, pointing it straight at Leina's forehead.

Leina doesn't so much as twitch.

"I don't believe there's really any ambiguity on the matter." She tells Mineva, smiling, but without offering any actual ultimatum, or threat that isn't implied. "What do you think?"

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

"And why do you intend to seal it?" Mineva asks, her eyes narrowing. "Everyone who wants the Box has an agenda. That includes you." As if to head off the follow-up question, she adds, "My interest isn't in the Box itself... it's in making sure nobody who wants control of it gets it. That includes you as well, Ms. Vist-Carbine."

She reaches over and, finally, takes a sip of her champagne. "... I see," she nods. If they plan to extract the coordinates from him... that brief touch, earlier, was enough to confirm that they hadn't, yet. It's not something she intends to give away, of course--who knows the coordinates may still be up in the air.

She's about to raise the glass to her lips a second time when Martha moves on... and Leina doesn't react. Mineva looks over at her... and grows more disturbed by the second, with every command, with every response.

"Stop," she says, as Martha orders Leina to hand over her gun. A queasy, awful fear builds inside her as she watches Leina stay in place, unflinching, as a gun is pointed to her head.

"STOP!" It's a hoarse, desperate yell, of a girl barely gathering the pieces of herself back together, faced with a sight that threatens to shatter her completely.

"You monstrous woman," she seethes, staring daggers at Martha. For just the briefest of moments, her attention flits to the knife before her, as she considers the unthinkable, before restraining herself. "You put on airs, you pretend to face me on equal footing... you say you want to work together, but you know that will never happen. If you had any intention of working *with* me, Mrs. Vist-Carbine, you wouldn't have held a gun to the head of the woman I love. So I will ask you, again, to dispense with this FUCKING CHARADE!"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

"Because it benefits me for noone to have it. The mythology of the box is arguably more powerful than the contents of the box for me." Martha tells her, completely self-assured, hinting that she knows what's in it, but offering no actual clues as to what it is.

Mineva tells her stop. Martha's smile widens. Then at her desperate yell. Martha actually raises the barrel of the gun away from her head.

As Mineva seethes, her smile only thins a touch, like a shark looking straight at its prey. "How absurdly naive. That's how business is conducted, Highness. This was never going to be on equal footing. You, are in my custody. All I am doing is offering you to 'play ball' so to speak. To do things the 'easy way'."

She gives her another almost shark-like smile, "By showing you that things could be much harder on you. Or how easily your loved ones could become fertilizer for you to blossom into the kind of woman I require you to be."

Martha Vist Carbine turns the gun around her, to show her something small, a switch, "Besides Highness, the safety was on."

She then tells Puru-1, "Puru-1, stand up." Puru-1 does so, and Martha gives her the sidearm back, which she immediately holstered. "Now Puru-1, drink from the river Lethe."

Puru-1 momentarily looks confused, blinking her eyes. Then stands up straighter and puts her hands behind her back as if nothing had happened.

Martha asks a question of her in this moment, "Ms. Ashta, did I just point a gun to your head?"

"Ma'am?" Leina gives her this, bewildered look, "You don't... have a gun."

Martha looks Mineva straight in the eyes and says for emphasis, "How right you are."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

There's little Mineva can do except watch as Martha continues to demonstrate how thoroughly she's conditioned Leina... by now, the feelings of betrayal have completely melted away in the fires of anger.

But... what can they do? Mineva looks at Leina for a moment...

If she explained it to her in private, everything that just happened... what would happen? Would she even comprehend?

She silently expresses something to Leina, in hopes that she'll understand. She has to try... Come later. I want to talk.

The threat Martha is making is entirely clear. She's leveraging both Banagher and Leina to get her to agree... and she's gone far enough already that Mineva has no choice but to believe she's serious. Even this thread she's tugging on is too tenuous to hope for...

Mineva breaks her long silence, finally. "What do you want?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

As Mineva tries to reach out to her, Leina turns her head to look at her, perhaps... surprised? But eventually just a small, almost imperceptible nod.

When Mineva asks what she wants, "Your cooperation of course, and it's so much more effective if I don't have to keep offering you that sort of incentive."

She picks up her glass, and takes a sip of champagne, "Full Frontal and Bhakarov desire a united front. I intend to fracture the Sleeves apart. A separate banner. Your banner."

She smiles at her, "Relax. You won't be asked to lead from the front. A few months of overhead building it remotely... and then, you will only be called upon every so often to reinforce my control."

She smiles at her sympathetically, "We can discuss precise terms later, I don't intend to simply offer you just another pretty cage. That would ill suit you. You have a life to live, and I want to help you live it."

Now, her hands are folded atop one knee, as she looks straight at her, "What say you, Highness?"

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Mineva doesn't quite look directly at Leina--just enough to see her response. There's... a little bit of hope, now.

But amid it all is an offer she can't refuse. And yet... it's still an offer. An illusion of freedom.

How cruel it all is.

An agreement... will buy them time, if nothing else. And with any luck, keep things from getting worse for Banagher and Leina. It's hard to believe, right now, but she can't forget that they aren't alone. The strike on Dakar put a target on Vist's back. If they can't find a way out of this, then maybe...

Maybe someone will find them.

She just has to hope she was wrong about Judau. Hope it galvanizes their allies against Vist. Hope it didn't demoralize them, instead.

"Fine," she nods, finally. "I agree, provisionally... pending the discussion of terms."

Even as a lie, the words taste like bile in her mouth.

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

"Marvelous. I'll have my people draw up terms, and then the negotiations will begin."

Negotiations, of course, Mineva has minimal leverage, but it's not as if Martha won't budge on 'reasonable' measures.

"I look forward to a mutually beneficial arrangement, Highness." She checks her watch at that moment, "Ah, look at the time. I have a meeting with Councilor Corner coming up. You'll have to excuse me."

Martha takes her napkin, delicately dabs her lips, then stands up, her meal barely touched, her drink however, mostly drained.

"I'll give you two girls some privacy. Ms. Ashta, Dr. Murasame has given you a reprieve from your dietary regimen as a reward for a job well done hasn't he?"

"He has, Ma'am."

"You're welcome to my leftovers then. No point in throwing them away, mmmm?"

With a hand raised, she offers a small wave, "Enjoy your girl's night in together." The door opens, then shuts behind.

Leina looks at Mineva at first, but then her eyes slowly trail to the food Martha left behind. There's definitely a struggle there.

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

There's a lot to process in Martha's question to Leina... but... now Mineva understands why Leina was so bony.

She curses herself for not seeing the signs for what they were. Her heart sinks, a moment... but she gestures to her own plate, still untouched, before standing. "Please... you can have mine, too. I'll ask them for something else later--and use my silverware. I... this 'training regimen' is why you'd lost so much weight, isn't it?"

She hugs her arms against herself, sitting on the bed. Now that Martha's gone, she starts to decompress, and herself feel everything. She's scared. Much more so than she was when the meal began.

There's a quiet moment, before she finally addresses the elephant in the room. "You... really don't remember the gun, do you?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Leina gives Mineva a shocked look, "Really... it's- it's okay, you should eat something? You must be starving." Still, however, she does remember her promise to Mineva, that she would let her take care of her in this way. Eventually she just nods, and sits down in Martha's chair. Taking up her silverware and just cutting it apart.

Taking a bite, eating it.

"It's- a regimen of self-denial. To make me a more effective pilot. The Banshee has, something of..."

Her voice softens, "...Elpeo, inside of it. I'm- supposed to submit to it."

She doesn't say how she's been admonished recently for being insufficiently submissive, for being far too awake.

"I volunteered for it, though admittedly my appetite hasn't been the greatest, lately either."

Looking at her hugging herself, her eating slows even further, feeling her terror. Giving her a sad, sympathetic look...

Then Mineva asks her a question, "I... no? Was she telling some anecdote or something?"

Her brow furrows subtly as if she were trying to discern what both of them were talking about and coming up short, "I kinda, drifted off there. I don't... sleep well lately. Part of my regimen too."

She takes another bite, chew, chew, swallow, "I had alarms on my phone to, wake me up."

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

Elpeo is there... some part of her. An echo, maybe.

Elpeo, who's always been with Leina... this must be horrible for her, too.

She doesn't interrogate that right now. Leina's probably rationalized that away the same way she has Judau, somehow.

She says she volunteered for this. The lies they've made her believe, even about herself... it makes Mineva wince.

There's so much she could say. So many ways she could approach this... none of them are likely to amount to anything. She knows that. They must have accounted for this.

But even so...

"Please... I need you to trust me when I tell you this. She was demonstrating how complete her control over you is," she explains, her voice shaky as she thinks about it, looking into the middle distance. "And she ordered you to hand her your gun."

"You did, and she pointed it directly at your forehead. You didn't even flinch." Her gaze shifts to Leina, tears welling up. "... And then she made you forget! She used a code phrase, and you forgot, and she asked you if she pointed a gun to your head!" She can't hold it back now. She's sobbing as she pleads, "Leina, they're lying to you! Making you lie to yourself! They've changed your memories, made you believe you volunteered for all this! You have to believe me!"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Leina keeps eating for a time, at the very least, she doesn't stop eating here. Maybe her appetite is coming back a little?

Or maybe she's forcing herself for Mineva's sake.

Either way, when Mineva tells her she needs to trust her, she stops eating, looking her right in the eye.

She listens, with a certain incredulity in her expression, but eventually that withdraws as her expression softens as she sobs.

"It's... not like I don't trust you, Audrey. I promise I do. It just..."

There's a soft shake of her head, then she looks away, "... I just. This all feels so much like something I would do. I told you about how I was, Glemy's best pupil right?"

Her eyes look out the window of the Garuda in flight, at the fluffy white clouds, "I took to his lessons for a reason. I've known for a long time, I'm not a good person, Audrey. This feels like, the kind of deal I'd make, to keep the people I love safe."

There's a soft, inhalation of breath, a sigh, and she rubs a hand across her face, that then shifts over her mouth, as if she's deep in thought, then, she releases it, "Okay. Let's say you're right, and I can't trust myself, my memories, or anything I've done here." As if she were truly allowing this, entertaining it, but then she breaks into this, broken half-sob, like this sort of despair is sinking in, "Duh-Does that mean everything I did, for you two, was- was all for nuh-nothing?"

And in this moment, her walls just, collapse under the weight of all those feelings-

This is all I can do for them. If I can't even do that. I'd be better off dead.

"No... no!" She quickly gets up from her seat, as she gets caught in a catastrophic spiral, "This- no, this is, this is the best way. The only way! There's no better path forward. It's the only way I can save you from... the inevitable! I-I-"

It's at this moment, the door slides open, and a woman in her late 20's with mousey brown hair, and glasses on in a labcoat says immediately, "Puru-1, drink from the river Lethe."

Leina's eyes glaze over moment, as if she were interrupted mid thought, there is a smile offered Mineva's way, with a cold look within the Lab Assistant's eyes.

"Sorry to cut things short for you girls, but Ms. Ashta, Dr. Murasame would like to see you. He says it's urgent."

Leina blinks, then puts a hand to her eyes, realizing she was crying, and not realizing why, dabs her hand across it, "Yes. Yes of course. I'm- I just need, a moment, to clean up. I don't- don't know what came over me."

The lab assistant puts a hand upon her shoulder, still staring at Mineva, "We'll take her food to go. After all, Mrs. Vist Carbine gave it to her as a reward."

The lab assistant leads her out of the room, as Leina takes one last look at Mineva, dazed... while a woman in a servant's uniform enters, and brings the plate up on a tray, putting a cloche back on it.

Soon enough, she's leaving too. Leaving Mineva all alone.

<Pose Tracker> Mineva Lao Zabi has posed.

She's entertaining it.

For a moment, it feels like Mineva's gotten through to her. That there's a glimmer of hope, that maybe... maybe they can do this. Together.

She flinches visibly as Leina's walls drop, as that assertion washes over her, and as the denial sets in, she stands, reaching out to comfort her and embrace her, but-

It all falls apart. "Wait, I..."

What can she say? What could she possibly tell them to keep them from taking her away? She was so close. but those five words... those five words were all it took to make it all slip through her fingers like so much sand.

She should have known they'd be monitoring Leina. That someone would be watching. That they'd expect exactly this. It was too easy.

All she can do is watch.

And then she's alone, with nothing but the sound of the Garuda's jets.

A queasy feeling sets into the pit of her stomach as she sits again. She failed. But... even so, there's hope. The girl she loves is still in there. Still reachable. Mineva doesn't know if Leina will still trust her tomorrow. But even so...

I won't give up.