:| Teach a Dog to Bite |: {Axel}

[Anna Banana]

At least she had sense enough to accept my invitation for a drink, not that she really had all that much of a choice to begin with, but still I took it as a personal victory that she didn't think of some crappy excuse. She would either learn the hard way or the easy way that I was not someone to be trifled with, and no matter how bitchy she was, no matter how arrogant, I was always going to get my way. In a way her arrogance and demeanor reminded me much of myself, my younger days within the Peacekeepers ranks, not a bit of respect for anyone or anything. Of course her arrogance could simply be a derivative of her hatred for me, in which case she was more like me than I thought, hatred fueled me when I was younger...perhaps I could teach her how to focus and use that hatred.

Another day and another time though, today's exercises were over, now was the time for me to learn a little bit more about the girl I would be training. I remained silent as we traveled though the woods, only the rasping sound of my breathing breaking the silence around us. District 7...of all the hell holes I could be sent to to train someone it had to be here...the place where my life seemed to take a turn for the worst. It couldn't be merely coincidence that I was sent here, it was to make a statement to me, it was meant to remind me that the Capitol had absolute control over me. My rough fingers ran over the metallic structure on my face for what felt like the hundreth time today, a reflex brought on by wandering these woods again. This place held all of my nightmares locked away within their leafy camouflage, and I couldn't begin to guess if she was out there, hidden away waiting for her time to strike.

When I exited the "protection" of the forest and entered civilization again I was able to let out a sigh of relief. I walked past everyone without making eye contact, turning around only briefly to make sure that Ana was still following behind me. I stopped briefly infront of one of the bars to take in the scum that surrounded it before pushing open the door and walking in, keeping it open long enough for Ana to walk through. Shoving my way past some of the other occupants within the building I took a seat on one of the stools and signaled for the server to come and get our drinks. I gave my order without even addressing the server and motioned for Ana to come take a seat. Finally I was somewhere that was at least somewhat familiar to me...a bar...pitiful as it was I frequented these place often, if only to blot out the memories that would not leave me alone.

"Ms. Laroche, let's not beat around the bush shall we, you hate me and everything that I am. I will not tell you that I don't hate you, but an undercurrent to that hatred I also have a certain respect for you. There is a quality in you that reminds me in a way of myself when I was your age. As a result I don't want you making the same mistakes I did, I don't want you ruining that pretty little face of yours." A dark laugh escaped through my mask, made only more ominous by how it was filtered through my mask, causing the room to fall silent around us. "Clear out everyone, this bar is Peacekeeper territory for the rest of the night, anyone that has a complaint will take it up with me." I cracked my knuckles loudly and everyone in the bar stood up and walked hastily through the door.

Always nice to know that you still have an intimidation factor in places such as this. Spinning back around I ordered another round of drinks and grabbed my current on in my fist. "Who needs friends when you have so much power over people with intimidation. Friends are for the weak, they weigh you down and use you...and eventually they all but disappoint you. Who wants to live a life with friends, knowing that eventually they will betray you and leave you for dead? I gave up everything to become what I am today, and I reached where I am without the help of friends...they are just fools who wish to leech off of your success and will backstab you to do it. That's not the life I wanted, that's the life I'm trying to keep you away from, that's why I'm not your friend Ms. Laroche."

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[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

It was a quiet walk back after he delivered his mandate, something that made me both uncomfortable and relaxed. I was uncomfortable because the silence meant that he could jump me at any time and without warning, but as I watched him fidget many times throughout the walk, I felt a little safer. Technically, I should have been more worried for if something was making him touch his mask over and over again, then my safety could have been compromised. But I wasn’t going to be attacked by “Andy”, not if his mind was obviously on something else. How interesting it was to see how much he was exposing himself, the self-named brute. I had to suffer through dealing with his “I’m the boss and don’t you ever forget it” attitude, and yet he was just as much of an open book as some of the weak ones I had to interrogate. All it ever took was time and an uncomfortable situation.

As we entered the town, I heard him let out a sigh which I couldn’t help but mirror. Even though his being relaxed meant that whatever was on his mind was gone, I had to admit I felt a little tense in the forest as well. It was unfamiliar settings and I wasn’t accustomed to the place; if I had made the wrong turn somewhere, I would never have found my way out. Seeing the streets meant I could follow actual paths that led somewhere; I just had to make sure I was following him so I could get my drink and make it through the rest of the day. “Andy” eventually stopped at some bar that looked rather seedy, but he chose it and so I had to follow.

Once we were situated and he had ordered his drink, he began on another lecture. He was not wrong when he said how much I hated him, but it surprised me when he said that he had a “certain respect” for me. For me? What type of game is he trying to play? While it was nice to know that I was actually respected, I didn’t believe what he was saying nor did I want his respect. My goal of surviving this training was to prove to him that I was capable, not to try to earn respect from that brute. And what did his type of respect even mean—was it demeaning and menacing? He made it even worse by comparing me to a younger version of him. I wanted nothing to do with him, and yet here he was lecturing me about how he was doing this for my betterment.

I bit my tongue, though; hadn’t he already said I couldn’t protest whatever his decisions were? I wanted to shout at him, to throw a glass at his head and tell him that it wasn’t up to him to run my life. He wasn’t going to be able to protect me from everything, despite his efforts to train me. My “pretty little face” could not be protected from the world, no matter how tightly he bound me. Yet when he cleared out the bar, declaring it “Peacekeeper territory”, I could feel that small ounce of respect I had for him at the beginning of the day. I still hated the fact that he was being stupid and overly protective, but the power he had to clear the room managed to convince me that maybe he was a worthy teacher. To have obtained that much authority no doubt took much training, but also a lot gaining respect before it could turn to fear.

I didn’t know if he was slightly intolerant to alcoholic drinks, but soon he began on this terrible rant about friends and their uselessness. I agreed that there was no way we would ever be friends, and I never would resort to making friends with my fellow Peacekeepers; ambition ran far too strongly within the ranks and back stabbings were as normal as a daily routine. But friends were still necessary; otherwise, I would eventually end up like the broken man who was sitting next to me, convinced that all he needed was fear to move forward every day. What a load of bullshit. Finally, I couldn’t hold in my anger any longer. “Whatever happened to you that you would feel this way?” I was standing up, my face scrunched up in anger and frustration at this…this…man.

“You claim that friends make you weak, but really, they make you strong. They give you a reason to be more than just you. I don’t know who betrayed you, or if they were even a Peacekeeper, but if you are going to be so negative about friendship, then I think you have some issues you need to address.” My hands were balled up into fists, ready to block any blows that he could deal. “You say you are successful, but as I look at you sitting here, spilling your feelings about friendship, I think you are far from that. Yes, you can intimidate people and yes, I am sure that people will always speak of your name because of the terror you bring.” My palms were sweaty as my mind went haywire. What was I even trying to say? “But do you get their respect? Do they look at you and think of how strong you are, or do they just think that you’re all brute force?”

I leaned in closer to him so my eyes were level with his. “You are right that we are not friends. I’m certain this whole day has told us of at least that.” I moved back to sit on my chair, never letting my eyes move away from his eyes. I was going to get a beating for everything I had just said, but it had felt so exhilarating just yelling at him that I didn’t even care for all the future bruises and cuts.

[Anna Banana]

I felt my eyes glazing over as I sat there after my tirade. It did little to satisfy this hollow hole that had been sitting in my chest for a while since I met this new pupil. It was a feeling that I hadn't felt since my days at the academy, a feeling of...was it regret...that my life wasn't what I had wanted it to be when I was younger? I wasn't always like this, I wasn't always a brute that could inspire fear in the hearts of people. Once upon a time I was no better than this stupid little bitch that sat beside me, ignorant to how things really worked. I wasn't about to let her make the same mistakes I did, I wasn't going to let her become what I was, I would have to teach her that the only person you can really trust in life is yourself.

I had little time to properly start up another rant before I saw her shadow rise up beside me and confront me. Her words were harsh and unforgiving, she judged me based on how I was now, on what I had told her. She challenged me by asking if I had the respect of the people, that if they looked at me they saw how strong I was or how brutal I was. To be honest, I wondered that a lot myself, it was probably the only thing in her childish rant that made an impact on me. The rest of it was little more than a pitiful attempt to try and drag my name through the mud, and maybe make me think about my point of view. Of course I was too heartless to really think about any of that, I was beyond help in that department. Too much had happened to me that had made me what I am.

Once she was finished she kept her eyes on me and sat back down, most likely wary of my reaction. She was correct in assuming that I would meet her with anger. I could feel it boiling up inside me, any amount of regret that I had before was now gone...replaced by hatred and anger. I got up from my seat slowly, standing up to tower over her, and glared down at her. This girl, this insufferable excuse of human flesh, insolent and unrespecting to me. I deserved her respect, if only because of the title I held within the ranks of the Peackeepers. I was her superior in every way, and even if she hated me, like she made it very clear she did, I still deserved her respect.

I reached out and gripped her neck, lifting her from her seat, and throwing her across one of the tables. "You have no idea what you're talking about Ms. Laroche, you haven't the slightest idea. While some of your accusations are true, others are a little more...hard to believe. Did it ever occur to you that I have respect through the fear I am in command of?" Walking back to her I gripped her shoulders and stood her up, only to spin around and slam her into a wall. "Do you think this is another one of your interrogation games? This is the real world, you're not in that comfortable office anymore Ms. Laroche, you don't have the reports and files to look on when you're stuck. Every move you make out here in the field is going to make an impact. You don't have time to think of the option that will make friends."

I dropped her to the floor and brought my fist up into her stomach, before throwing her across another table. My rage was taking hold of me, and if I didn't stop soon I would end up killing this girl that I was supposed to train. She needed to learn respect though, she needed to learn who was the teacher and who was the student. "Friends are pointless in the field, they cloud your judgment and they get in the way. You would be willing to throw away everything for someone and they would stab you in the back and betray you. I don't need any friends, all I need is myself, all I need is my own strength whether it's through intimidation and fear, or respect for who I am, I don't care. Which is it with you Ms. Laroche...do you fear me?" Angrily I walked over to her and picked her up, shaking her before throwing her to the floor and making my way to my seat. I sat down and heaved a huge sigh, holding my head in my hands as I waited for my anger to dissipate. She would know fear, she would know what everyone else felt when they saw me, and sooner or later she would learn that you couldn't let have friends in this line of work because friends made you weak.

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[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

I had braced myself for fists or even a palm of a hand, but I had not expected the strong fingers around my neck that lifted me from where I was sitting. I knew better than to struggle, knowing it would only make it worse, but I didn’t have to remain limp long as I was thrown onto one of the tables, the crack of the table snapping underneath the sudden force. The pressure that had been applied against my back was what grabbed my attention, not the muffled words that were flowing out behind that mask. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, phasing in and out as he grabbed me and pressed me into a wall. The sting was only worse as my body screamed for it to end.

It was the only time I heard his words and even then I didn’t want to listen to him. What made him think that I came from a comfortable office? What made him believe that he knew what I did while I was an interrogation officer? I hated him even more because he was making assumptions that he himself could not validate. My career as an interrogation officer had no office, even less a comfortable one. Yes, I was at a desk and yes, I was often indoors, but he had no idea the amount of crap I had to take from both the trespassers and the peacekeepers. After a certain amount of years, I knew I could only take and there was no point in fighting back. But all this throwing around was breaking through the abuse I had to put up with as a child, the abuse of my coworkers who had absolutely no respect for me because of my gender.

I wanted to fight.

He threw a fist into my stomach—thank goodness I hadn’t ate or drank anything before the beating—and then threw me onto another table. My body was already aching all over so the impact didn’t affect me as much as the first one had. I brought up a hand to wipe my mouth to see that I was bleeding somewhere—nothing new. I phased back in time to hear him ask me if I feared him. The answer was simple: I did not. I did not fear the brute who was just like my father, mother, brothers, sisters, cousins. I did not fear the man who was stuck behind the mask and would always be in fear of the cause. I respected the peacekeeper, the authority figure, but I did not respect the man.

I could feel my whole body shaking as he picked me up and threw me to the floor again. I was good with words, using them as tools against the person I was facing, but I didn’t want to use words at that moment. I wanted to throw my fist, to strike him in the gut, to kick at the inner part of his knee. I wanted to damage him more than he already was. All I had to do was find his weak spot. Holding onto a table close to me, I lifted my damaged body until I was standing, never keeping my eyes off of him. I watched as he sat down, his head in his hands, and I read his body language.

He knew he had to get back in control, because how was he supposed to explain the fight that killed me? But I didn’t want him to get back in control. I wanted him to get angry, to attack me so I had good reason to fight back, to do what I could never do as the smallest child in my family. It was my turn to do something and I didn’t hesitate as I walked towards him, my hands already balled into fists. Standing in front of him, I uttered only one word, “No.” Before he could respond, I pushed him and the chair back, using my leg to keep the fall in control. Right before he hit the floor, my right fist collided with his face and I could feel the skin over my knuckles split as they collided with his mask.

As soon as I saw a bit of what was behind the mask, I knew why he went to such great lengths to hide the disfiguration. Eyes wide, I let go and took a few steps back. It was grotesque, ugly, vile, brutal, and yet it seemed so familiar. Injuries so severe that resulted in the loss of a hand, foot, leg, arm were not strange to me, and they compelled me far more than what “Andy” was hiding. But what was behind the mask did compel me in the sense that I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what did that to him, why he felt the need to have a mask. I was so fascinated that I forgot that I had just punched my superior.

[Anna Banana]

It would be a lie for me to tell you that I wasn't surprised by her sudden aggression, it surprised me greatly that she had the guts, or rather, stupidity to try and challenge me. She stood infront of me and uttered only one word "no" and before I had time to react I felt my chair falling backwards, and me with it. I felt a slight jerk in the chair, some part of her keeping the fall in check, and before I could gather myself I felt her fist collide with my face, or rather the mask that covered my face. I felt the thin parts of the metal dent and parts of the breathing apparatus shatter at the force of her blow, and I let out a guttural yell of pain. The last thing I saw before my chair fell to the floor was her look of horror and disgust, I knew without a doubt that she had seen what I tried to hard to hide.

I hit the floor with a thud and raised my hand up to my mask, running my fingers over the dent and hole she had created with her fist. I felt a surge of anger and hatred burn up within me and I pulled myself off the floor with more effort than I expected. Slowly I made my way back to her and stood before her, pure venom in my eyes as I looked her over and glanced at her bloody hand. "You...so you know what it is that I had under this mask, you know of my one failing, the mark on my record. Ms. Laroche, you have made an enemy of me...you have made an enemy of the one person who could have given you everything you wanted. You have attacked your superior officer and you have humiliated me by destroying my mask."

I stepped away from her and gripped my mask, tearing it off my face with a yell. "Look at me you bitch...look at me, you want to know suffering then look at me. THIS...THIS IS MY PAIN, THIS IS MY BURDEN." I ran my fingers over the tattered remains of my jaw, the torn skin and the ligaments that connected my jaw clearly visible. It was a hideous sight to see, something that I had kept hidden for so long, something I had hoped to keep hidden since I had been treated for it. A horrible sight to see, someone's jaw hanging loose from their face, barely held on but for a few ligaments and skin. "My partner let this happen to me, he left me for dead, left me to die at the hands of an ANIMAL. I had my humanity ripped away from me by an animal, some girl who used tooth and nails to shred my skin and tear my face.

You have no idea what it felt like, the will power to not give up right there. Oh the agony was great, and my skin burned as she rent it from my face and tore my face to shreds." I turned my head to reveal the long scar that ran down my neck and down to my collarbone, one end starting at my jaw and the other ending below the collar of my shirt. With a rage I hadn't felt in a long time I walked back up to her and brought the back of my hand hard across her face. "I have half a mind to kill you now Ana Laroche...but your punishment will be finishing EVERY...SINGLE...TASK...I assign to you. You're life will be hell, and you will learn what it is to know pain. You'll never know what I've been through...but I will make sure you will know pain...I will hate you forever for what you did tonight. I will hate you until the day I die."

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