Editing Ghosts of Rage (Warhammer High) (section)

===Consequences===

A mere half hour later, Furia sat on a hospital bed in the emergency room with a headache. And even though her hands hurt like hell, she had suffered blood loss and been electrocuted, none of these things were the cause of her headache. It was the loud argument outside that was annoying her.

The female doctor in front of her seemed similarly annoyed by the noise outside. She glanced at the shut door and back at Furia. The blond haired woman looked down at her a bit distressed as she finished up with the bandages on her arms. “You want some more painkillers?”

Furia paused and nodded. By the time she had reached the hospital, her arms had bled quite a bit and had several pieces of glass stuck in her hands. Naturally, she looked pale and tired to everyone around her, yet her mind was wide awake.

The doctor grabbed an injection tool beside her and placed the appropriate drug capsule in the slot. Placing the needle edge to her arm, the machine auto detected a blood vessel and injected her with its contents. The doctor did the same with her other arm and soon enough the drugs began to take affect as she lost feeling in her bandaged arms.

“Well, I’ll be giving you some prescription medication for the pain. It won’t matter for long with your physiology, but it can help till then.” The argument outside escalated and Furia could clearly hear the sound of her father, roaring in rage just outside the door. The walls must have obviously been soundproofed in one way or another, as if it wasn’t she would be hearing the entire conversation in surround sound. The doctor looked back worried.

“What is it?” Furia barked weakly. She wasn’t in the mood for games.

“If you want, I can knock you out and blame it on the blood loss.” Furia stared at her, unsure of her motives. The doctor shrugged. “You are no shape for a chat with them. Your condition might even get worse because of the stress.”

Furia shook her head. “Fuck em, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” the doctor asked her.

The redhead growled. “Why do you care?” she retorted quickly, not in the mood for anyone's favors.

“You are my patient. And you are a young girl. And you don’t need their shit right now.” Furia smiled weakly at the last remark, but still shook her head.

“My problems ain’t gonna disappear if I’m asleep,” she muttered to her. She knew that no matter what, the following conversation was going to happen if she liked it or not.

Before the doctor could respond, the argument outside quieted down. The door opened seconds later into the large medical room and in walked in a well dressed man, clearly from the Treasury. In one arm, he carried a solid black metal briefcase and in the other some papers. He looked at the doctor and Furia for a moment before turning to the door.

Angron stood outside, as angry as always. Furia locked eyes with him for a moment and she could tell she wasn’t going to enjoy the following conversation. He nodded at her slowly and she returned the gesture, basically telling him that she was alright.

“This will only take a few minutes,” he said to the large berserker, who sneered at him as he turned to the room he had walked into. “Doctor, if you could leave?”

“Is this necessary right now? My patient is tired.” There was truth to the statement. Furia was falling asleep on the bed and had to focus to stay awake. The black suited man did not seem to care.

“That is unfortunate. I will be sure to make this as quick as possible. If you would, doctor.”

The woman scowled at him, but he seemed indifferent to the situation. Turning to Furia one last time, the doctor reached into her pocket and took out a card. Handing it over to Furia, she smiled at her. “If there are any complications, call me.”

Furia looked at the card for a moment, finally getting the woman’s name, Dr. Elizabeth Chawas. The teenager nodded and the doctor left. The Treasury officer closed the door behind her in a hurry, wanting no other interruptions. There was silence as the two suddenly stared at each other.

The man slowly walked towards her and put his briefcase beside her on the bed. Placing his thumb on a scanner, the box opened and he placed the papers in his other hand inside. “How are you, Lady Furia?” he asked finally as he seemingly had organized his belongings.

“Fine. Are we done?” she said quickly.

He chuckled at that. “Eager to leave I take it?”

“Well, I had a long day if you haven’t noticed.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I noticed.” He paused and looked at her. She stared back at him, not budging in her position. “Why did you attack that man?” he asked, not dealing with any more small talk.

“He was there at my mugging.” He looked at her a bit strangely. “Eidetic memory, remember?”

“Wasn’t it dark?” he asked, a bit surprised. She groaned loudly, not wanting to deal with the twenty questions this man had for her.

“Are you guys seriously in charge of my safety and yet know nothing of what we are capable of? I can see in pitch black darkness,” she informed him, seemingly unhappy with his lack of knowledge.

He grinned softly at her. “Your capabilities are why I am here today. Breaking a gravcar’s regulation windshield with your fists is quite a feat of strength to say the least. Didn’t it hurt?”

Her smile was vicious in nature. “Not enough for me to stop if you couldn’t tell.”

“Of course,” he accepted. “So, recognizing the fellow you obviously thought to take justice into your own hands. Literally.”

Although she might be tired, her anger was never running empty. Her eyes stared at him coldly as she responded. “They almost killed me. I wanted to return the favor.”

“Return the favor.” He seemed unfazed by her stare and looked at her with complete apathy. “By chance, would you have killed him?”

She seemed taken back by that statement. Truth was, it never even occurred to her since the whole ordeal. And she suddenly realized she would have. She would have easily killed the man in her rage. Something about that seemed strange to Furia that she didn’t even seem to care that she would have easily collapsed the man’s trachea or snapped his neck.

The man nodded, knowing full well she hadn’t thought of it. “I figured. That is why I am here, Lady Furia.”

“You see,” he continued, “we have been wary of your sudden bursts of anger for a while now. Being the daughter of Lord Angron, it was a circumstance we had to prepare for a very long time.”

“What are you talking about?” Furia asked him, her headache getting worse. She didn’t show it as she simply stared, but all she wanted to do at the moment was lay down and fall asleep.

“We had to come up with a plan when one of the royal family members would go against the laws of the Imperium. This plan actually came into action the day you had been mugged by the drug dealers.”

She stared at him, unsure what he was on about. “What do you mean? What did the plan do?”

“Do you know what your father did that day?” he asked her. She nodded slowly. She had her suspicions for a while. According to the news, the Treasury had stepped in and had a violent fire fight with the gang members the night afterwards, killing all of them.

However, Kelly had told her that Curze had gone out that night, to conduct “business”. Her own father had disappeared during the same time. It was pretty clear to her that he had done his own justice.

“Well, your father was the first one we had to approach with his plan, which we found to be successful. Now it's your turn.” He reached into his briefcase and removed a small pill bottle. “Furia, I am going to give you two choices.”

She stayed silent as he continued to talk. “The first choice is this: the next time something like this happens, where you go and break the law, the Treasury might not be able to protect you like we did now. You might go to court for your actions and could end up in prison.”

“Are you saying you won’t do your job?” she asked him, knowing full well that they couldn’t. She was still royalty, even if her behavior did not show it.

“Oh, we will. But we can’t always protect you, especially if the public finds out the truth.”

“Alright,” she unwillingly accepted. “What’s my second choice?”

“You start taking these,” he said as he shook the small bottle. He threw it to her, which she easily caught. She looked at it strangely, unsure of what it was other than some sort of medication. “Those are Xelaratin. They are meant to keep people like yourself calm for extended periods of time. As long as you keep taking them, you will not have these moments of rage that you normally have.”

“You are going to fucking drug me?” she roared. She didn’t like drugs, ever since some drug dealers almost killed her and Simon. She still smoked cigarettes, but that was the extent of her drug usage. This went against many of her current beliefs.

“Drugging is such a horrible term for this. It's pacifying your anger. And we aren’t forcing this on you.” He closed the briefcase and picked it up. “You have the choice not to take the drug, but next time might be different. Next time, we might not be able to get you out of trouble. Remember that.”

“Do you have any questions?” he asked her.

She had many about what had just happened. The legality of the entire scenario seemed strange to her, and she wondered what kind of control the treasury actually had over their lives. What could they actually get away with?

Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to care that deeply at the moment. Her hand closed around the small plastic container, squeezing it till she heard the plastic strain. “Are we done here?”

Moments later, they both walked out of the room. Angron stood nearby, glaring angrily at the Treasury officer as he walked past. “Lord Angron,” he said respectfully, bowing his head. He paused and turned to the redhead teenager. “Hope you feel better soon, Lady Furia,” he told her and left, leaving the two superhumans alone in the hallway.

Furia looked around for a moment. “Where did the doctor go?”

“Had some other shit to take care of. Gave me some painkillers for your arms.” He opened his giant hand and showed another small pill bottle, identical to the one in her hand. She grabbed it from him and nodded.

“Thanks,” she said somberly.

Angron place his large hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. He noted the tired stare in her eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry it has to come to this.” He used the softest voice he could muster, something rarely heard from him when all he usually did was yell.

She showed him the small bottle. “Are you on these?” she asked. He paused and nodded a moment later. “What are the side effects?”

“Side effects?” he repeated, clearly unpleased with the term. “They make you as calm as a fucking Eldar,” he growled, nearly spitting out the final word. She didn’t notice the sad look he gave her as she was too tired. “Come on, let's go.”

They arrived to gravlimo in the basement parking lot of the Medicae facility. The area was empty of anyone other than themselves and the swarm of Treasury guards on patrol. One of them opened the door to the vehicle and both of them slipped in. As they sat down, Angron looked at the front cabin to the servitor driver. “Go,” he ordered, and the robot acknowledged as the limo took off towards the exit.

Furia looked at her arms for a moment. The bandages were up to her elbow, covering up many cuts that the glass had left on her skin. All would heal and disappear as the cuts weren’t that deep to begin with. There was a slight chance that a few would leave ever-present reminders of what she had nearly done. She turned to her father. “What happened to the guy I was attacking?” she asked him.

He grinned at that. “In custody. Senior officials know full well what kind of photographic memory we have, so they didn’t doubt your claim. Also, it seemed that he was a suspect for some other crimes, so he won’t get away if we can’t fix him on the mugging.”

She nodded, pleased that at least there would be some justice. “That’s good.”

“Yeah, well he is lucky I didn’t get my hands on him,” boasted Angron, clenching his huge fists. Furia looked at his hands, her thoughts still on the conversation with the treasury officer.

“Like the other muggers?” she innocently asked on reflex. Angron didn’t say anything for several seconds, becoming stone faced at the remark. Furia wondered if she had gone into territory she shouldn’t have. Eventually he nodded slowly at her, understanding that she knew what he had done.

“Yeah, like the others,” he murmured.

The rest of the trip home was silent as both kept to their thoughts. She suddenly realized she had to call Simon and tell him she was okay. He probably saw the whole thing moments after they had left each other. With the rush of treasury guards cordoning off the area, it was unlikely he could get to his side. He probably felt that it was his fault, even if there was nothing he could have done to help.

Angron looked at her, then turned his head to look outside. The spires of the hive went by as they travelled upwards to his own. He rubbed his bald head, deep in thought on how to approach the subject. After a few minutes, he turned to Furia. “Listen, I don’t like this as much as you do but...” he started, but suddenly realized he should shut up. Furia had fallen asleep on her side of the limo, falling unto the seat. He sighed, shaking his head. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her.