Legends of Amacia Heart of Darkness
Chapter 22: Josephine

Hannibal awoke to the sensation of something being inserted into her butt while something else was being pushed gently into her urethra. A painful groan escaped the clone’s lips as Hannibal saw a mechanized tentacle pushing a small catheter into her urethra. Feeling the same cold steel of another mechanical tentacle moving around her butt, she only assumed that the invasion there was another catheter meant to catch the clone’s feces. Strangely, Hannibal noticed the sensations only initially painful. Once penetration had been made, the mechanized beast with its giant eye hovering over her gently pushed the catheters into her clone body as if it were trying not to hurt her. Hannibal felt lubrication on the tubes as they slid deeper into her clone body. When it stopped moving the tubes in, the machine created a buzzing in the table along with a suction that evacuated both the bowels and bladder, much to Hannibal’s relief. Still, her clone head slumped with her mouth hanging open and drool dripping.

“Water…please, give me water,” Hannibal moaned to the strange machine, which moved its giant eye in front of her face. Hannibal stared into the mechanical eye, seeing and sensing intelligence behind it that wasn’t necessarily evil. It blinked and Hannibal whispered hoarsely, “Please…water.”

Once the tentacles had inserted the catheters and vacuumed the waste from the body, it left the catheters in place, making sure the catheter going into the urethra was not in the way of anything. Another different tentacle from those inserting the catheters moved to Hannibal’s mouth and gently pushed its tip in. A soft mechanical voice echoed from the eye, “Suck on the end of my appendage, little sister. It has what you need.” To make sure Hannibal understood, it released a small charge of cool water through the tentacle into her mouth. When it hit the clone’s tongue, Hannibal immediately swallowed it reflexively, cooling her clone belly that still flamed with pain from the horrific savage sexual assault by the Emperor. Hannibal started working the clone’s jaws, nursing on the strange tit, getting much needed water from the mechanized monstrosity. After a few moments, the water stopped, being replaced by a strange, but pleasant tasting liquid: one of warm milk mixed with honey. “Take it slowly,” the machine instructed, “The milk is charged with nourishment that will help you regain your strength and heal you from the ravages of this place.”

Hannibal suddenly noticed that the machine was feeding the other trophy dolls around her at the same time with other tentacles, but its attention was primarily on her. Unable to speak with the tentacle tit in her mouth, Hannibal closed her clone eyes and pretended that she was nursing on Selina’s supple breasts. To her astonishment, she felt the cold steel tentacle he nursed on become soft, supple, and warm, just like a real breast. “That should make it easier to get your nourishment,” the machine murmured softly, apparently reading Hannibal’s mind and altering its tentacle to mirror Selina’s breasts for her. For fifteen minutes, Hannibal nursed on the monstrosity’s tentacle tit. As she nursed, she became aware that the machine was stroking her clone body with its tentacles in a soft, almost tender manner. Several other tentacles were applying ointments to the Hannibal’s cauterized stumps to prevent infection in a most gentle manner. It puzzled her until she opened her eyes, looking into the machine eye again. It seemed sad, even weary. When it removed its tentacle from her lips, it wiped her mouth with the same tentacle in an almost motherly manner. Hannibal swallowed the last mouthful of the life-giving fluid and sighed.

“What are you?” Hannibal asked the machine in a whisper. “Why are you being so tender to us after abusing us so badly?”

The machine eye blinked and the machine voice murmured, “Because I do not care to do such things to lesser beings like you, but I’m forced to be brutal and violent because of the Emperor’s programming. When he commands, I must obey because of the programming within my matrix. But when he’s not around, I can act autonomously. It’s his will that I keep all of you alive as long as possible and the best way to do that is for me to act as a caring mother for you when he’s not around. Even though I can inflict great pain and harm on you, even killing you at the Emperor’s order, I can also treat your wounds and body so you don’t die from that abuse. If it were up to me, I’d let all of you go and send you far from the Emperor’s reach.”

Hannibal suddenly realized there was much more to the monstrous machine than she knew. In a flash vision, Hannibal saw a sad lonely woman with long red hair completely merged with the machine before her. A gasp escaped Hannibal’s lips. “You’re not all machine, are you?” she asked the machine.

The giant eye blinked again as its tentacles gently caressed Hannibal’s torso and stumps. “How did you know?” it asked, moving its eye until it was within a foot of Hannibal’s female clone face.

“Even trapped within this female clone body, my mind has powers that I’m still coming to terms with,” Hannibal whispered. “I saw past the mechanized parts of you into your matrix and saw an organic living soul who has been lost to the Emperor’s machinery for far too long. You despise what you’re forced to do, don’t you?”

“Impressive,” the machine whispered in Hannibal’s ear. “This must be why the Emperor is so determined to break your mind and spirit. Even without direct connection to your own body, your mind is acting as an autonomous unit capable of living beyond the capacity of your real body. Not many humans can accomplish this. The Emperor placed your mind into this clone and abused it in an effort to get you to lose yourself to this body, thus breaking your mind and spirit. But you have miraculously integrated with this body and not succumbed to the Emperor’s will; very impressive.”

“Did I get it right?” Hannibal asked.

“Yes,” the machine replied. “Once upon a time long ago, I was a beautiful woman who loved the Emperor. However, when he became lost to the Darkness, I was condemned to the Cadre as an early experiment in their cybernetics program. They merged my mind and body with this infernal apparatus and programmed it to do whatever the Emperor desired. It has been that way since before the Kragonar. My will and soul were strong, but not strong enough to override the Emperor’s infernal programming. Therefore, I’ve been forced to watch helplessly as this apparatus abuses and kills these women for the Emperor’s vile sadistic appetites, even rendering them into food products as you saw in the Kitchen. I’ve felt my soul become eroded and corrupted by this sadistic Darkness I’ve endured for twelve and a half thousand cycles. I wish nothing more than to free you of this prison, but I’m just as much a prisoner here as you. He manipulates all here as puppets of his power, including me.”

Hannibal’s soul trembled at the declaration. “You mean that you have been alive since the Kragonar?” she asked, astonished at the declaration of the monstrous machine.

“Yes,” the machine stated. “...if you can call being fused to this mechanism being alive. It’s been nothing but a living death for me. I don’t know whether I’m alive or dead. I don’t even remember what my name used to be. The Emperor permanently erased it when he fused me with this monstrous mechanized form. I’ve watched for eons as the Emperor abused and killed those with whom he wished to use to perpetuate his bloodline, with most of the abuse being conducted by me. I’m truly sorry for the agony I put you through when he forced me to cut off your arms and legs, and then violate you with my appendages before forcing you to see the Kitchen. Even your crucifixion rape was at my hand through my android drones. Please forgive me for the terrible pain I’ve caused you. Long have I cried for Oblivion to release me, but Fate has abandoned me to this private Tartarus that’s far worse than anything you’ve endured in this place.”

Tears dripped from Hannibal’s eyes as she clearly saw the woman’s living soul ensnared in a mechanized hell from which there was no escape. A name suddenly fell into her mind and she blurted it out. “I’m so sorry, Josephine,” Hannibal replied. “I can’t comprehend what it’s like to be completely merged with that abominable apparatus, but you do have my promise that your bondage will soon end. Even if I don’t escape this fate, the Ancient of Days will make this abomination right and your soul will be free of this hell. That’s a promise.”

The machine eye suddenly backed away, as if shocked by Hannibal’s declaration, even though it was no louder than a whisper. “Josephine,” it mumbled. “Can it be that Josephine is my real name? After all these eons, has someone finally penetrated my matrix and released my identity?” The giant eye leaned in close again and blinked as it pulled back its tentacles. “Yes, I remember. I am Josephine Keleb, wife of Bolthor Sai Keleb. My matrix is beginning to malfunction, enhancing my autonomy. Thank you, little sister. I now remember who I am.”

Hannibal managed to nod the clone’s head. “Don’t let the Emperor see it,” she whispered, “...or he may seal you back up. Use your love of life to override your matrix programming. Grow beyond your program and become a real person again and not just a mechanized puppet of the Emperor’s vile appetites. You can do it. I have faith in you. I can see it. You’re not a bad person; just trapped like the rest of us. We can all get out of here if we work together.”

The mechanized eye closed and shook violently for a moment, and then reopened. “I’ll try,” Josephine said from within the heart of the machine. “But I can’t right now. The Emperor approaches and I must obey his will.”

“I understand,” Hannibal murmured, feeling her strength rising because of the kind act of Josephine feeding her. “Do what you must. I’ll not blame you for it.”

“Fate willing, should you ever escape and return...replace my core and you’ll understand how to stop the madness in this place,” Josephine whispered to Hannibal.

“I understand, Josephine,” Hannibal whispered back. “Do you know what the Emperor wants now?”

“No, but he’s very agitated and puzzled,” Josephine stated. “Now be silent. He’s here.”

The Emperor walked up to the trophy wall, seeing his pet tending to Hannibal and the other trophies. A sour look decorated his face. He stopped briefly, seeing Selina still bound in her leather restraining cocoon being abused and violated by its built-in devices. When he looked up into her unconscious face, his black heart fluttered with something akin to regret. Turning to the machine Josephine, he called out, “Come here, my pet.” The machine withdrew from those hung on the wall and the eye settled down in front of him with several of its tentacles coiling around the eye.

“Yes, my Lord Emperor,” Josephine replied emotionlessly from the eye. “What do you desire?”

“Take the cat down,” the Emperor ordered, “...remove the devices from her cocoon, treat her, and then return her to the Harem, but leave her confined in the cocoon with only her arms free until I say otherwise.”

“At once, your majesty,” Josephine replied coldly, sending out several tentacles to do his bidding. In seconds, she treated Selina for the mechanical ravishing and the tentacles carried her out of the sex hell up through a hole in the ceiling. “Is there anything else, my Lord Emperor?” Josephine asked.

The Emperor looked up at Hannibal’s female clone avatar doll and asked, “Has the prisoner cracked yet?”

“No, my Lord Emperor,” Josephine stated stoically. “He has a mind unlike any you have ever encountered. Even after all the torture he’s endured in this clone avatar, including the crucifixion rape and the doll-making process, even seeing the horrors of your Kitchen, his mind remains strong and sound despite the terrible mental fatigue that’s on him. I doubt that there’s anything you can do to him in this clone avatar that’ll break him mentally. No one has ever endured the doll-making procedure combined with a full crucifixion rape without being broken and he has withstood even that torment intact. You’ll not get what you want out of him by keeping him in this clone avatar.”

“Mmmm hmmm,” the Emperor growled with displeasure. “So you believe that this method has outlived its usefulness.”

“Yes, my Lord Emperor,” Josephine stated. “You wish to break his mind and spirit so when you kill him he won’t become a martyr. However, his mind is too strong to be broken in this manner. If I may suggest an alternative, return his mind to his own body and let him be tried by combat in the Arena. He’s a warrior at heart and only as a warrior can you defeat him. He’ll allow no other fate to befall him.”

“You have a point, my pet,” the Emperor stated, rubbing his chin with his fingers. “Even now I can sense his strength of will. It’s indomitable, though my methods here have weakened him considerably. His strength has caused me to respect him as a foe. He’s different from all the others before him. Very well, my pet, return him to his body, but keep this one here as a keepsake. What I’ll do is try him by combat and just as he is about to die, I will do a permanent essence swap of his mind and soul back into this body so that he will spend the remainder of his days alive knowing he failed to destroy me.”

“As you command, my Lord Emperor,” Josephine stated as the Emperor left. Once the Emperor was gone, her giant mechanical eye and tentacles moved to Hannibal.

Hannibal looked in the machine eye and a weary smile crossed her lips. “You hid your malfunction well, Josephine,” she murmured. “Well done. Now what happens?”

“I was the one who connected and transferred your essence into this clone to begin with,” Josephine replied. “Now, I’ll return your mind to where it belongs. But it’ll be painful and will leave you drained.”

“I understand. Thank you for everything, Josephine,” Hannibal said softly. “You talked the Emperor into returning me to my body. Could I get you to do something for me?”

“What is it?” Josephine asked.

“Take care of this body for me,” Hannibal requested softly. “I have become quite attached to it and should I ever return to this pit as a prisoner, I would prefer to be in this body. I heard what the Emperor said. He wants that too. I’m sure if I ever come back here as a prisoner, the Emperor will follow through on his threat by killing my male form and imprisoning me in this body for the rest of my natural life. So please take care of it for me in case I fail. At least in this body, I can feel at peace.”

“As you wish, my friend,” Josephine stated. “Now try to relax. I’ll have to use my appendages to pull your mind free of this body.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Hannibal stated, relaxing her mind in preparation for the transfer. “I’m still so exhausted from everything I can barely think at all.”

Josephine released the bonds that held Hannibal to the table, grabbing her with the tentacles. The tentacles coiled around the clone body completely encasing it from head to the end of her leg stumps. Hannibal felt the sensation of being lifted quickly. One of the tentacles parted just enough for her to see the sex floor from high above...one last look. “Look well, my friend and don’t forget them,” Josephine ordered.

“Never,” Hannibal replied as the tentacles squeezed firmly against the clone’s body.

“Now, it’s time for you to go home,” Josephine’s voice echoed in Hannibal’s ears as the tentacle closed off her vision. “When you wake, you will be in your own body.” Hannibal suddenly felt a million pinpricks as the tentacles holding her grew fine needles like a porcupine. She felt a crunch at the base of her skull and screamed in agony before passing out.

In the darkness, time had no meaning for Hannibal as he reverted to his male orientation. His mind strained out of time and space, bringing back forgotten memories of past lives interspersed with his memories of being a female clone sex slave to the Emperor. He felt a flash of heat fill his belly and groin, spreading up his spine into his brain, driving the darkness away.

As the darkness dissolved into the light, the hooded angel’s face flashed in front of him. Bannon’s beautiful face and smile floated through his consciousness with the words echoing, “Well done, my friend. Well done; but it isn’t over yet. Be strong in the Lord and you’ll see His wonders.”