((Warning: The reason that there is only one story being posted this month is that I lost access to Grammarly Pro. Stories should resume being posted weekly on 5th of May. This is just to show people why I prefer to use Grammarly Pro. Please keep this in mind when judging the quality of this piece.))
The soles of Regret's bare feet echoed off the marbled floor of the empty hallway. Reggie could hear her talons clink satisfyingly. Any contentment vanished when she arrived outside the Interrogation Room. A one-sided mirror separates the hall from the room. It revealed a reflection of herself and into the room where a prisoner waited. Her stomach did somersaults at seeing the one-armed Tainted that looked familiar in a way that pissed her off.
Regret went a few days without seeing herself in any mirror, so momentarily, the sight frightened her. She fits the role of a Demonkin perfectly beside the massive dragon-like tail she lugged around and her horns that curved inward and outward. Her skin or scales were an earthly shade of red with golden eyes that would make a Native blush. It was uncomfortable to wear her M.N.P.D cap, thanks to her horns, but it accentuated her long, braided black hair tastefully. Today she was wearing a wifebeater under her cut-off denim jacket with a pair of basketball shorts. On her undershirt was her badge that she always placed above her heart. Completing her ensemble was the necklace that her baby daddy gave her at the height of their relationship. A simple chain with a winking black cat as a pendant. She thanked the gods that one of his skills was being a good father and caring for his daughter.
The Chieftess was able to sneak up on her, "Reggie~!"
It was less her presence but the annoying animu voice she put on to scare the staff. Regret instinctively tried to twat her across the face with her tail, but Elise's gelatin skin hardened just in time to make the impact bounce off, "By Leva's snatch! Can you not, El?!"
Regret's heart was racing when she turned to look at her Boss. She was a Gel in the G.G.S. (Gel, Goo, & Slime) family with an orange colour to her supple flesh. Elise's outfit was made out of her gelatin but with a metallic sheen. Though she was in no danger, she always wore a vintage-styled '+' Officer uniform. It was so padded that it ate up the femininity of her features. Reggie was not even sure how she moved with that get-up on. Just like Regret, she had a face that was easy on the eyes and wore her flowing gel hair in a work-friendly ponytail. When she spoke, it was in her signature commanding shout, "At ease! Good to see you here so early!"
'Well, it is not like I had a choice! Either lose my job or come at whatever ungodly time she demands.'
She continued, "Last night, we brought in someone relating to one of your cold cases. Titus is responsible for seven deaths and the creation of cycs without a Technomancer license. Now you can add assault on an officer, possession of illegal drugs, and providing refuge to four class F criminals. Due to weird circumstances, only three out of the five culprits were put in your name." She paused thankfully as this was a lot to take in. As much as Roronoa wanted to jump and scream her lungs out at this fortunate turn of events, something was sinking in. That specific number of deaths she only had associated with one person, "Wait, Titus?"
"Regret."
"Is that Everett!?" She looked back again at the one-armed man. Due to just how haggard the fuckboy looked, she did not recognize him nor heard her Chieftess, "Regret!"
"I am going to fucking murder that---" She was in the middle of cracking her knuckles and neck when Elise found a prominent way to get her attention.
Her touch was hard enough to chip through her scales if that was what she intended when she grabbed Reg by the collar of her wifebeater. Her Chieftess had all of her attention the moment she lifted Reggie enough to leave her feet dangling. Elise's voice was an octave away from yelling her business throughout the building, "Regret W. Roronoa! Don't fuck this up! Out of everyone here, you have the most unsolved cases. You are the only one on your final warning! You were the only person responsible for that whole lube incident! You are the Underchieftess, so act like it and start wearing a bra already it is distracting everyone! Understand!?"
Regret nodded her head in response as she was released. She had a slight feeling this was about something else while fixing her shirt. Elise recomposed herself just as a few Officers went to see what was going on. Chiefess' tone was measured and even, "I am sorry, Reggie, it is just the Federal Police Commission is getting on my case. I am on my way to meet up with Cornwell now. The only thing saving my ass is how deep in the mud M.H.P.D is."
Regret tuned out for a second there, whispering loud enough for Elise to only hear her, "Listen. Go. I got this, and can we not talk about the lube thing anymore? We still have people who are trying to sue, 'kay?"
Elise laughed it off before walking away. There was no laughter for her in this, but she was unscathed outside of being wetter than she was previously. That was gone the instant she walked into the Interrogation Room and made eye contact with Everett. Roronoa standing across the table from him with her arms folded under her bust. The last several months since she had last seen him must have been hard. If not for his past relationship with one of her best friends, then she might have felt sorry for the vanilla-skinned bastard. Officer Roronoa's tone implied otherwise, "Well lookie here, one of the Degenerates chained up and a-wristed." Everett grimaced at her choice of words.
"Don't look like that, my dude; I am here to offer you a helping hand." He shifted in his seat with his intact hand rattling his cuff. His blood-red eyes locked with hers as she approached, "Alright, I will stop pulling your arm. I can't help you. Maybe with these unlicensed cycs charges but seven murders? A little excessive, right?"
"Someone for the love of Demetrius, get this psycho bitch away from me! I want to talk to my attorney!" Once she stepped within arms reach, Everett attempted to stand up with the chains on his feet, keeping him in place. She spotted the oil around his bandaged arm and stepped back before sitting in her proper seat on the opposite side of him. Regret set her personal feelings aside and put on her most flirtatious smile, "Calm down. No one is coming in here until we talk. Tell me about these murders. I know you, and that does not sound like Everett."
His eyes averted hers the moment she smiled. They burned holes into the table, "I told you when we met outside the walls. I never murdered a soul. I tried to help all seven of them, including...." There was a brief pause that Regret was quick to fill in, "Your sister, Nicole, right?" There was no response, so she continued to press the issue, "You have to talk to me. I am the only one that will bother listening to you because the next person to come in here will be your attorney. After that, the next Officer will show you to your new home for two years. Now let's stop with the lies. The only thing we ever spoke about outside of this job was your little hero fantasies. Still, the autopsy report tells a different story. We can prove that you used your Flame on them moments before their death, thanks to modern technology. Explain that?"
"I tried to save them...."
There was a brief enough pause for her to start to doubt her ability to obtain a confession from him before he said something that wiped the fake smile from her red lips, "So how is Clara?"
"None of your damn business." She said more out of reflex than anything else. It was something that had been on her mind since she had walked into the room. A single thought was close to the forefront of her mind that it broke through her professional veneer. At this moment, she was not talking to the third most wanted criminal in M.N.P.D, Titus. Roronoa saw the most enormous asshole she had ever known, Everett, "You know what, let's pretend that everything that you told me is true. Here is something else that is true. There once was a man and woman who were having a child. The wife became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn. She was never the same again, and he left without a word--"