Unedited/First draft
Maybe it was because she destroyed her bed, but Dia didn't sleep well that night. The awakening was even worse. Dia opened her eyes just in time to see Collins staring down at her sleeping on the floor. He looked irritated, clicking his tongue as he had waited for a long time.
Dia groaned.
"What are you doing here?"
"Obviously I was waiting for you to wake up, miss Zephyr." He said, without bothering to tone down the sarcasm. "A thankless task, I may add."
Dia rubbed her eyes and glared at him.
From the start, he seemed to loathe her for some reason. He looked at her like she was a cockroach, unworthy of his services and out of place here in the palace. Dia was annoyed by his behavior, but she was still groggy, and she had no intention to argue with him.
Besides, they weren't alone.
There was someone that looked a lot like a maid just a few steps behind him. She seemed a doll, immobile and inexpressive, and probably that's why Dia didn't notice her from the start.
She had something in her hands.
It seems...a dress?
"What is this?" Dia asked, pointing at it.
"What do you think?" He snapped. "It's your change of clothes, miss Zephyr. Commander Reyes wants to see you. Immediately."
"And you think I'll wear that?" She asked, looking at him like he was an idiot. "I don't think so."
It seemed like a black evening gown, very low cut and provocative, the kind of dress she would never wear even if she still in the empire attending some gala, let alone in the Umbra's palace.
"It seems you don't understand how you look like at the moment, Miss Zephyr." The words seemed polite, but she knew he was sneering at her. "I would suggest looking at yourself in the mirror, but you broke it. Otherwise, you could see you don't look...decent at the moment."
Decent?
Collins looked stiff, staring fixedly at the wall behind her, but he sneaked a glance at her from time to time. Dia followed his gaze and realized her uniform was full of holes, parts where the synthetic fiber had been torn revealing the pale skin underneath.
"Ah shit." She said under her breath, but Collins seemed to enjoy seeing the dismay on her face.
"Maybe from where you came from is normal to walk around half-naked, but this is the palace." He chided with that pompous tone of his. "That kind of disgusting behavior is not allowed here. I won't allow it. It's my duty to uphold the moral standards in the palace, and as long as you stay here, I will make sure you'll behave like a proper lady, miss Zephyr."
Dia gritted her teeth and clenched her first. She really wanted to hit him. Hard. He was talking like she was some kind of whore and he did it on purpose.
Her first instinct was to cover herself and ask for something else to wear since she had no intention to put that thing on, but then she saw how Collins was looking at her and forced herself to stay still.
The little man was a little flushed, his pupils dilated and the jowls under his chin shaking like jelly. In the Navy the baths were mixed, and most of the soldiers were men, so Dia was used to nudity, and though after what happened with Reyes she tried to avoid men like the plague, she wasn't completely innocent.
So, Dia knew what was going on with him, though he was trying hard not to show it.
Disgusting eh?
"Well? what are we waiting for?" She asked and noticed with pleasure she managed to catch him off guard.
Collins stood there staring at her like a fool for a second or two before clearing his throat.
"Proceed." He said to the maid, glanced one last time at Dia and started to leave the room.
But he barely made to the door when Dia asked:
"Where are you going? Didn't you say is your duty to uphold the moral standards in the palace?" She taunted while the maid started to remove her clothes like an automaton, her movements stiff but precise. "Don't you need to make sure I behave like a proper lady, Mr. Butler?"
"I'm the palace's Chamberlain, not a..." He started to say, but he opened his eyes wide when he turned.
Dia was already half naked, her tank top missing and her plump breast in plain sight. The maid was helping her to take off her pants, but Dia was looking at him, a mocking smile on her face as she saw how flustered he was.
"You...!" He let out a strangled yell as he pointed a shaky finger at her, his face red and bloated like a big balloon.
"Talking about disgusting" She smirked, looking with disdain at the bulge in his old-style trousers.
Collins looked a bit ashamed, but mostly he was angry.
"You, little whore." He hissed and Dia's eyes became two slits. "I knew you were a slut..."
He was still speaking, or probably trying to insult her when Dia...disappeared. She was like a blur, moving so fast across the room, Collins didn't see her until she was on him.
He winced, the air leaving his lungs as she first grabbed at his neck and then slammed him against the wall. Collins felt a piercing pain in his back and opened his mouth to scream only to realize he couldn't. Dia was still lifting him with, her fingers squeezing his throat like steel wires.
But there was a discordant note: the maid. She was still and emotionless, staring at them with blank eyes.
However, now Dia had no time to think about her. She heard the sound of steps coming close to her as two guards ran inside the room. They looked at Collins and then at her---half-naked and lifting more than two hundred pounds of fat with one hand---too surprised to react for the moment.
"H...el...p...me" Collins wheezed and gurgled. He was slowly suffocating, his purple face turning blue.
Only then the guards moved and pointed their rifles at her, the laser guns making a shrill electrical sound as they removed the safety. But Dia was faster than them.
"Stop, or I'll crush his windpipe." She threatened them, and the guards lowered their rifles like they had been electrocuted.
"Now, listen closely." She said to Collins when she was sure the guards weren't a danger for her. "I don't know what kind of beef you have with me and I don't care. But from now on if I catch you looking at me in a way I don't like, or if you say one word, just one wrong word..." She grinned, but to Collins she looked like the Grim Reaper smiling at him just before swinging his scythe. "And I'll rip your fucking head off. Do you understand me, you piece of shit?" She growled. Although more than a growl it sounded like a weird and prolonged rumble, like that of a crocodile, not the kind of sound a human being should be able to make.
Collins nodded repeatedly. He was scared out of his wits, probably because he knew that wasn't just a threat: she would really do it. She wanted to do it.
She was restraining herself, but the idea of removing his head and keep it around as a trophy didn't sound as gruesome as it should have. She was angry, utterly furious he dared to look down on her.
But that rage vanished without a trace when she smelled something sour. She looked down and saw Collin peeing himself, the urine dripping on the floor below. Dia looked disgusted and when she loosened her grip, Collins fell, face down on the floor and in his own piss. He started coughing as soon as she let him go, but Dia wasn't looking at him anymore.
The guards were still staring at her, or better ogling her naked body.
"What are you looking at? Get out!" She yelled and believe it or not, they did it without thinking.
When Dia got close to the maid, she resumed her work like nothing happened, as if her mind was in another dimension and just her body stayed behind, a soulless robot that just happened to be made of flesh.
It was weird, and without a doubt really creepy, but not as disturbing as Dia's behavior.
Why did I do that? Collins isn't the first misogynist jackass I have to deal with it, but I never reacted like this.
She was aggressive and brazen, but above all, she couldn't believe she stripped in front of him just to prove a point, show him he was just a hypocrite who treated her with scorn when in reality he was attracted to her.
And that anger, that uncontrollable fury scared her. It made her think she was changing, becoming a completely different person. Maybe she could accept her life would never be the same and her body had been altered by the hands of a madman with a penchant for metal, but what about her mind?
Maybe is the aftereffect of what happened yesterday? She wondered. Or maybe I am just shocked. So much changed in such a short time. It's normal if I am a bit edgy.
She tried to convince herself.
But when she saw at the ruins of the room around her, the glassy look on the maid's face and the fear in Collins' eyes, she knew she was just deluding herself. Everything had already changed.