Prison Sex part six:
Full Circle
indentAfter his rudest awakening that morning, Ranma did notice one particular difference in the way he was treated around the place- Nick and his boys left him alone. Considering the amount of trouble that Nick had given him up to date, Ranma was suspicious enough to wonder why the sudden change in heart.
indentHe didn't openly question his good fortune, simply wondered at it.
indentThen the next morning, though he had started out on the bottom bunk, he woke up once again on the top bunk, naked and female.
indentAnd the next day.
indentAnd the day after that.
indentIt was roughly a week after Ranma began sleeping again, when, shortly before lights out, Anthony said, "You weren't a virgin."
indentRanma didn't answer- there was no answer for it. Not a question, not an accusation- merely a statement of fact.
indent"Who was your first?" Anthony asked.
indentRanma remained silent.
indent"You know, you've lived in the same cell as me for three weeks now. You know me by now. I eventually get my way." He said it, not gloating, not meanly, but almost kindly. Just friendly advice. "You'll eventually tell me, only later you'll tell me on my terms."
indent"His name was Chris." Ranma said.
indentAnthony nodded. "So was it just a fling or was it something more?"
indentRanma looked at Anthony, barely seeing him, but for his resemblence to Chris. "It was... something more."
indentRemembering.
indent"Ranma?"
indent"Hmm?" She had been half asleep; the mumble was the closest she could come to a coherent reply.
indent"Do you love me?"
indentRanma was quiet a moment. Thinking. "I'm not sure."
indentChris said nothing.
indent"Why do you ask?" She said, tilting her head up from his arm to look him in the face.
indent"I dunno, it just seemed important to me, that's all."
indentShe rested her head on his arm again, feeling his other arm draped over her side. How he molded himself to her back, feeling his chest pressed to her shoulder blades.
indentFinally, she said, "I guess, maybe. Maybe I do..."
indentHe kissed her neck. Ranma giggled, hunching her shoulders up. He leaned up and over to kiss her under her jaw, and she turned to face him, to kiss him more fully.
indentFor a while, there were no more words between them, only murmurs and gasps and heavy breathing.
indent"Chris." She whispered, then arched her back with a sharply taken breath.
indent"Ranma?" He replied, surging.
indent "I'd ... (gasp) do an- anything... f-for you..." She breathed in his ear.
indent"Anything?" He grunted heavily.
indent"Anything..." She whimpered softly, shaking. "Anything you want..."
indent"...just ask me..." Ranma murmured.
indentAnthony arched a curious eyebrow. "What?"
indentRanma said bitterly, "I once told him... I'd do anything for him. Just ask me..."
indent"Anything?" Anthony said, unknowingly matching Chris's tone so very long ago...
indent"Anything. I told him I would, and I did."
indent"Like?" Anthony prodded, but Ranma said nothing more about it.
indentAfter a while, the call went for lights out and the lights were shut off across the block. A minute or so of darkness, then Ranma said, "I'm going to wake up that way again, aren't I?"
indentAnthony's voice floated back down to him. "You don't have to."
indent"What do you mean?"
indentAnthony's voice was the soul of reason. "I won't rape you in your sleep if you just come to me of your own free choice, while you're awake."
indentRanma was quiet a moment before replying, "I don't have a choice, do I?"
indent"You know me." Anthony didn't have to continue; Ranma understood what it meant. There were always choices, even if only between bad and worse.
indent"Why are you here?" Ranma asked him suddenly. "What did you do?"
indentAnthony's chuckle was equal parts bitterness and humor. "You don't know me THAT well."
indent"Where is your water?" Ranma asked.
indentThe only response was the thud of something heavy landing on his bunk. A two liter of Naya.
indentRanma got out of his bunk, and doused himself with the water.
indent"Now come to me." Chris said.
indentRanma put the cap back on the two liter, then put it on her bunk. "Do- do you want me clothed?" She asked hesitantly, combing the water through her hair to even out the dampness.
indentAnthony chuckled. "No. Undress first. Then get back in your bunk."
indentShe did so.
indentSilently- absolutely silently, she wondered why she had ever been able to hear him get out of his top bunk for two weeks running- he slid out of his bunk and stood over her, before lifting the sheets and sliding in next to her.
indentAs though to place a seal on her despair, Anthony said softly, "That's a good girl."
indent"You never cease to amaze me."
indent"Of course." Anthony chuckled, watching Ranma. "Every bit as warm and comforting as she looks. And how could you doubt me?"
indent"Oh, of course there were no doubts. I know you."
indentAnthony grinned. "Yes, you do. And now, so does he. Or she, take your pick."
indentNick shook his head. "Tame."
indent"Yes."
indentNick looked at Anthony. "So, what next, boss?"
indent"Give me some time. I'll think of something."
indentThe two men laughed, and Ranma felt nothing inside, hearing the whole exchange.
indentHe felt nothing inside when he whirled on them both with a snarl of rage.
indentFelt emptiness when he broke Nick's jaw, and his ribs, and his arms.
indentFelt nothing inside when Anthony tried his Kasumi expression, and empty when he released his Chestnut Fist on him, breaking bones and skin with indiscriminate abandon.
indentAnd the emptiness remained within him when the guards maced him and dragged him to the hole.
indentThis time, it wasn't so bad. The darkness, the quiet.
indentHe had the emptiness inside to keep him company. In the back of his mind, the song by Tool began playing again, and he wondered at the sense of peace that the emptiness had granted.... I have found... Some kind of temporary Sanity in this... "Blood on my hands..." Ranma sang softly, licking the blood off his knuckles.
indentNow, as he looked at it, it wasn't that bad a punishment after all. Not compared to what he had been through the last few months.
indentOut there, there was violence, and always having to be on his guard. Being raped.
indentIn here, there was solitude. No past. No future. No Nick.
indentAnd best of all, no Anthony.
indentThey'd be out there waiting for him. Assuming, that is, that either of them got out of the infirmary.
indentThe spray wasn't so bad this time around, Ranma mused. Incapacitating, but not as bad as before.
indentRanma wondered why he had attacked them like that. Their words meant nothing to him.
indentBut then again, they meant nothing to him as well.
indentTame. Me, Ranma, the wild horse. Tame.
indentNot anymore. Never again.
indentNo more.
indentHe remembered with relish the way Anthony's cheek bone had cheerfully popped under his punches. That had felt so good. And all he could think about while hitting him was, not so tame now, am I?
indentThey both had to be bed bound in the infirmary, after the beating he had given them. He chuckled, getting his first taste of real humor since six months ago when
indent"Chris?" Ranma said, not quite believing her ears. "Who were those guys?"
indentChris watched the black sedan drive off. "They were gangsters. Like the Yakuzas."
indent"You can't mean it- you'll take their fall for that man's killing?"
indent"I have to. I owe them a debt, and they always remember."
indentRanma felt desperation weling up inside of herself, when she burst out, "Let me do it!"
indent Chris looked at her guagingly, and Ranma felt a momentary sense of unease that had little to do with what had just happened. Finally, Chris said softly, "You would, wouldn't you?"
indentAt Ranma's determined nod, he smiled cheerfully. "Then this is what you need to do-"
indentRanma listened for several minutes in numb disbelief as he calmly, coldbloodedly laid out the plan for how she would take the fall for a murder. What she would confess. What she would say. Ranma finally realized something that had never occured to her before- that now, for the first time, she was seeing the REAL Chris. "Are- are you serious?"
indentChris looked back at her with an amused chuckle. "Well, we have to get the story straight if you're going to keep me out of prison, you know. Hmm... And we need to find a way to fake some records for you having been in Pasadena for the last few weeks."
indentRanma's eyes went wide in shock at what she was hearing. "You WANTED me to take this fall?" She asked incredulously. "Just who the hell do you think you are?"
indentChris looked her in the eyes and said, "A man of my word."
indentRanma's confusion was answered. "Remember what you told me last night? That you'd do anything for me?" She didn't answer. "Remember?"
indentShe met his eyes with a rage that would have obliterated him on the spot had she been able. "Damn you. You BASTARD! I thought you loved me!" She sank to her knees, and wailed, "I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU!"
indent"You didn't know me THAT well." he said softly. "Will you keep your word." It was not a question, because Chris already knew the answer.
indentAnd Ranma knew the answer too. "Yes." She whispered.
indentTwo days later, Ranma turned himself in.
indent"Mr. Sawatomay," the officer at the desk had said, butchering his name badly, "You do realize that in the state of California, any martial artist ranked as a black belt and engaging in a fight in any case other than self defense is considered Assault with a Deadly weapon, and automaticly institutes intent to kill?"
indentRanma closed his eyes, bit his lip, and nodded.
indent"Are you aware of your rights, that you have the right to remain silent, and that-"
indent"I know my rights."
indent"How do we know that you aren't taking the fall-"
indent"I wore gloves when I killed him. Garden gloves. I dropped one, so I thought you might go easier on me if I turned myself in."
indentThe oficer nodded to his two companions. "Cuff him."
indentAnd two weeks later, when the guard came back with his foglamp to release him from the darkness, the guard was greeted by the silent and smiling visage of Ranma Saotome, wearing the mask of the damned.
indentReady to take over.
indentGod help Angler Pen.
indentThe warden clutched in his hands the vital folder that proved it all. Ranco's fingerprints, found on the nightclub's styrofoam cup, matched exactly Ranma Saotome's fingerprints when he was female. And the night of the murder and car theft, Ranco was working from 8 pm to 4 am.
indentRanma Saotome was innocent.
indentHe dashed down the hall to look out in the yard. The investigation that had taken most of his spare time for the last month and a half had culminated in a victory, the good guys win. He looked out the window to the exercise yard-
indentAnd saw a sight that chilled his blood.
indentIt wasn't just the violence- An Angler staffman got used to savagery very quickly or else he didn't last long- But rather, the joy in the eyes of the perpetrator. Ranma Saotome was enjoying every last minute of singling out and forcing Nick's regime to submit to him.
indentHe watched for fifteen minutes as Ranma isolated from sight or help a single member, then whipped him badly, not permanently hurting, but simply humiliating unto submission. Then letting that one go and netting another victim.
indentThe warden felt a hollow void in his gut. He held onto the folder, though, for a week more, before he threw it into the shredder. By the end of that week, Ranma controlled the prison populace at Angler.
indentNot ordinarily an overly religious man, the warden was moved to a rare action. In his office, he dropped to his knees and began to pray. Praying to God to have Mercy on Angler Pen.
indentPraying to God to save the pen from a monster of its own making.
indent God help Angler Pen.
Epilogue:
You look so Precious
indentRanma stood behind the group of yelling men, watching the bus arrive.
indentHe'd seen it before. Nothing new, just another batch of fresh fish to fry. He'd controlled the men of the prison now for two years, and had learned every trick in the book. Humming the comforting sounds of Tool to himself, he whispered, "I've.. Come... Round... Full circle..."
indentHis eyes popped wide open as he saw a familiar face, one he'd seen haunting his dreams ever since he'd been here at Angler. Angler, where the cons go deep underwater to never be seen again. And of all happy coincidences to happen, Ranma couldn't think of anything better than this one.
indentRanma had learned a hard truth here. You see, while many clammor and yell for justice to be served for this crime or that wrong, true justice almost never happens. Because true justice is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. A punishment fitting the crime. Justice is brutal, justice is unforgiving, and justice is, as oft noted, blind. But justice is also very messy, and the moreso for those deserving of it the more. Which is also why it almost never occurs. But 99.9% is not 100%, and right now that tenth of a percent had struck right on the nose.
indentRanma watched with anticipation as Chris stepped off the bus, looking lost and altogether forlorn, but at the same time determined to survive, survive as he always had, himself at the expense of all else and others.
indentRanma smiled serenely. My Lamb and Martyr... Don't you look so precious now.
indentWelcome home, Chris.
indentWelcome home.
End
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