Taming Tira

Chapter the First:

In Which Tira Gets a New Master

I do not own Soul Calibur.

Story takes place at the end of the third game.

"Reargh!" Seigfreid screamed as Soul Calibur, currently in the form of his trusty zweihander cleaved through his evil nemesis, the cursed armor Nightmare. It had been a long and difficult fight but the Teutonic blond had prevailed. Nightmare fell to the ground, defeated. That left him only one remaining task, destroy Soul Edge. He slowly staggered over to the malevolent blade and regarded it coolly for a moment, gathering his strength before thrusting Soul Calibur into the eye of the blade.

There was a dissonance in the air, as if a great thunderstorm was approaching, then abruptly came an unholy crack, like ten thousand windows shattering all at once before both swords dissolved into the aether.

Seigfreid sighed in relief, finally his quest was over. Or so he thought. Suddenly from behind him came a screech of indignant rage as the sword's servant appeared as if from nowhere attempting to cut his head off. He was in definite trouble, unarmed and exhausted after his battle with Nightmare the chances of victory were slim. He had fought this girl on multiple occasions and knew her to be a formidable and elusive opponent. He dodged her odd hoop-like weapon and as she dove past he punched her as hard as he could in the stomach. The girl staggered a few more steps, made a rather distressed gurgle and collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Seigfreid blinked.

He looked at his hand.

Er...what just happened?

He Cautiously moved over to where the girl lay and nudged her over onto her back with his foot. She would normally attack from the shadows or at night so this was the first time he had gotten a decent look at her.

Christ in Heaven, he hadn't expected her to be so young.

This made the knight rather angry. Such a young women lost to the sway of the evil sword. She's quite pretty too, whispered his sub-conscious.

He stormed over to Nightmare's remains and kicked them viciously until he felt better. He was still livid, but it was down to the level that he could get his brain to work. Not particularly rationally, mind, just to where he could process thought, which probably goes some way toward explaining his subsequent course of action.

He should probably kill her. She had no doubt committed many wicked acts under soul Edge's influence. It was a tragedy for one to die so young.

Bloody goddamn Nightmare! He went back to kicking the remains.

An idea occurred to him. It wasn't a particularly rational idea, but well, somewhat understandable in these particular circumstances. He turned slowly toward the girl. Perhaps she wasn't irredeemable after all. Perhaps she would also seek redemption for her actions under Soul Edge's influence. If not...she would, wheather she wanted to or not. He would see to it himself.

Kicking Nightmare one more time he went back to his horse to get some things.

0-0

Tira was shocked awake by having a bucket of ice-cold water thrown at her. She tried to jerk away but found that she couldn't move. She tried to look around but found only darkness.

"Who's there?" she called. "Release me or my master will destroy you!" her words echoed back to her.

She shivered in the silence. Cold was not a feeling she was used to. Neither was hunger nor exhaustion. Unknown to Tira Soul Edge had been sustaining her with it's evil power, she had required neither food nor sleep, and she was now feeling the lack of both. It was troubling.

0-0

"Your master is dead." Seigfreid revealed. He had taken the girl down into the dungeons of Nightmare's castle, Ostrheinsburg. It was quite dank and most of the "equipment" had rotted away from neglect but he had managed to find a few serviceable items. The girl wrists were secured to a short steel bar with a shackle at either end and hung from the low ceiling by a still firmly attached chain. Her legs were spread apart and chained to the floor, suspending her into an inverted 'Y' shape. Her ragged and flimsy clothing, now soaked and clingy, did little to hide her almost unhealthily slender form. She was incredibly lean and wiry, possessing not an ounce of extraneous flesh. If not for her modest breasts she might even be called boyish.

"Sikken? (What?)" the girl responded.

Oh hell Seigfreid thought. She doesn't speak German.

"Jeg forstar ikke. (I don't understand.)"

He wasn't sure what language that was. He thought it might be Danish, but he wasn't sure. Not one he was familiar with that was for certain.

"Votre maitre est mort." he tried French.

"No, you must be lying!"

Ah, good, she understood that.

"It is the truth. He and the evil sword are no more."

0-0

For some reason Tira knew he was telling the truth. She felt...empty, diminished. Something was definitely missing, she felt...hollow, lesser somehow.

0-0

Suddenly the girl went crazy, screaming bloody murder and thrashing about wildly in her chains. Seigfreid was worried she might hurt herself but then she just...stopped.

She hung there lifelessly for a moment or two before breaking into great heaving sobs, her body convulsing, wracked with grief, tears and mucus streaming down her face.

Uncomfortable in the face of such undiluted emotion Seigfreid left her to it while he went outside for some air. He could still hear her but it wasn't nearly as intense. Now he felt really guilty. He went over and kicked Nightmare some more. That made him feel a little better. After about an hour he could no longer hear her wailing so he went back down to check.

"Kill me." she asked as her drew closer. "Without Master..." she trailed off.

This statement made him intensely angry. That the girl was so dedicated to that...abomination. Lost to his rage he lay into her with his riding crop, striking her all over her body. She shrieked in shock and pain, jerking on her chains trying to escape but was held fast. The knight continued for quite some time, he wasn't sure exactly how long it took him to regain his senses but the sun was starting to sink below the horizon.

He stood panting for a few moments before clenching the girl's jaw in his hand and ripping the blindfold from her eyes, forcing her to look directly at his angry face.

"I am your master now!" he demanded.

The girl, afraid, alone, tired, hungry, cold and emotionally broken stared wide eyed at her tormentor and much to his incredulous surprise, blushed a little before looking away and whispering, "Y-yes, master."

Seigfreid came up short. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Um..." is this what was supposed to happen? He coughed nervously into his hand. "Right, now don't you forget it." he says before noticing the girl had passed out again.

0-0

Well, that's the first chapter, not really sure what I want to do with this. It's a bit more serious than the things I usually write but I thought I would post it and see if anyone wanted to see more.

So if you like it, leave a review or this goes back to the bottom of the pile and I go work on my Dragon Age story: Chronicles of an Elven Bedwarmer.