The friend of the enemy of my... habitual rapist

Cardia eyed Rika's hand, considering her offer for a few seconds before rolling her eyes in disgust, "Oh, bullshit. You don't see me throwing a tantrum every friggen time I lose. No. I'm not... playing that game again."

She rolled over onto her stomach and began the slow process of helping herself up, "You know... I see how it is now." She braced herself, pressing herself up, quickly hooking her knees under herself to give her exhausted, numb arms as much help as she could muster, "Lukretia was right... I shouldn't expect anything from people like you." With a sudden start, she shoved herself up on her knees, "The strong beat the shit out of the weak. That's what they do. They don't need a reason. They do it just because they can." She chuckled to herself, slowly extending one leg and then the other to stand. "Every time... every time I play the nice girl I get this. Fuck it."

She stumbled back against the mirror, chuckling grimly, "I mean, seriously... I thought I could be... FRIENDS with you. Heh... more like trading being one bitch's chewtoy for another." Cardia's eyes narrowed briefly, but she let the intensity fade. She didn't want to fight about it, just make it known that she disagrees, "And Lukretia... is NOT a slut."

Rika frowned but was not entirely surprised when Cardia refused her apology. After what she did to the woman it was a wonder she was still talking to her at all. As Cardia talked Rika reakized how much Lukretia had gotten to Cardia. She couldn't imagine a life of a abuse like her's.

"At the end of it all, Rika merely shrugged. "So?" she said simply. "That's who I am. I'm strong and I aim to prove it, mainly by beating the shit out of those weaker than I am." Rika grinned like the devil as she said this. "If I cared what people thought about that, I wouldn't even be here. But..... I also know when I'm wrong. So if you're still willing, I can give you a few pointers. Teach you how to do to other bitches what I did to you." Rika crossed her arms and smirked. "Tell me if I'm wasting my time."

Cardia chuckled, "Wasting YOUR time? I've got enough lying psychopaths who want to beat the shit out of me under the false pretense of 'training.' I damn well don't need another... Besides, it doesn't take THAT much training to sucker punch people."

Cardia sighed. She was not looking forward to the walk home. Just getting off of this mirror was going to be difficult, so she simply stayed leaning against it. She arched her head to the side, "Honest question though. You clearly don't have any non-fighting hobbies, and I'm willing to bet you can count your non-Sarah Gatt friends on one hand and still have fingers to spare... Which means fighting is what you do, full stop, I'm guessing... How do you deal with the fact that Sarah is better than you will ever be at the only thing you do?" Cardia meant it more as an honest question... an issue she was tackling herself. But she had no desire to avoid offending Rika at this point.

Rika shrugged uncaringly. It was her fault what had happened but if Cardia didn't want to deal, neither did she. "See you around then," she said, turning her back about to walk away, until Cardia's question made her pause. She was slightly irked at the fact Cardia thought she had no friends, not being true in the slightest. Mind you, Rika's other friends were mostly thugs, gang members, and in some cases drug dealers, but they were good people none the less!

Rika again shrugged. "If you think that way you've already lost. There would be no point in trying to get better. What more incentive do you need to get stronger than to know that there's someone waiting to take you on?" Rika smiled slightly to herself. With that she kept walking. "Since I'm sure you have more girls raping you than you have fingers, why don't you tell the slutty one I'll be getting her back soon."

Cardia shrugged. Such naivete. "Just warn me before you do so I won't be around for the inevitable post-loss tantrum again." She paused, "I suppose the incentive to get stronger comes a bit easier since you know you've got a safety net."

"You call her a safety net," Rika called over a shoulder. She stopped and gave Cardia a goofy grin. "I call her a friend." With that last statement Rika left the gym without looking back.

That grin infuriated Cardia. "Yeah, I bet you'll call her a friend real fast when the next person who tries to be nice to you actually CAN take you," She muttered, not really making the effort to call out after her.

She bit her lip. That nutjob street trash like Rika could just do this to her, without any provocation, without any reason!... and walk away grinning was bad enough, but Cardia knew she'd never be able to exact meaningful revenge for this. That hurt doubly so. She wouldn't be able to catch up to Rika while these wounds were fresh, and she didn't have the will or the resources to find some other way to get even.

"Fuck," Cardia groaned. The helplessness of all this left her seeing red, her head throbbing with both pain and rage. Turning around, with strength purely derived from anger, she slammed her fist in the mirror, sending another fresh spider-web of cracks out from the impact point, "Why am I even doing this?!" She growled to nobody in particular.

The anger soon faded into a dull, painful depression. Cardia sank again to her knees. Slowly, she hobbled over to where she left her clothes, stumbling occasionally, before simply clutching them to her chest and laying there on the gym floor, letting out a soft sob. If she couldn't even stand up to someone like Rika, she knew she'd never catch up to anyone she wanted to face... especially Lukretia. Convinced that would never happen, Cardia simply lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness. The only doctor she trusted was back at the von Creuzfeldt house, and she hoped she would wake up with enough energy to make the trip before any other sadists found her.