Avalyn Obscurity: The Pain Game

      "Faeris is dead?!?" Mevolent demanded angrily. "Who killed her?"

    "Apparently someone randomly passing by, who didn't like her jacket."

    "So the prophecy will be unfulfilled then?"

    "Not exactly. You see, Raeza didn't die in the explosion..."

     "Kelley." Raeza's voice was cold, blocking him out with a layer of ice, which shattered as she said, "Do you really think you can come in, murder my sister, try to explode me, and then...sing?"

     "Maeve liked singing. I just thought..."

     "Just thought what? That you could pretend it never happened?! Just like you pretended to have nothing to do with the day she died the first time!"

     Kelley winced. Shattered ice was sharp. "I-I--"

     "I know you were there, with Serpine," Raeza spat. "If you think I'm going to forgive you with just a simple apology, you're wrong! Guess what you said after my sisters died? You said 'I'm sorry,' but you didn't tell me the truth!"

     Kelley began to fade to nothing, pausing only for a moment to see if she would call him back. She didn't, only turned away, eyes red. He slipped past her as nothing, as no one, insubstantial, and maybe that was the way he belonged. He reappeared on the edge of the property, when he couldn't trust his magic to last any longer, and he saw them. 

     Only one of the five soldiers was someone he even vaguely recognized, but that was enough. Mindy Almaz was thoroughly loyal to Mevolent and would only be here for one reason.

     "They know she's alive," he muttered to himself, then started to shout "Raeza! Run!"

     Unfortunately, though, he never had the chance to warn her. The sword swing was timed perfectly, slicing through his neck and making the puddles of water by the edge of the road begin to turn red. All that came out was a slight croak, and then he was gone.

     *******

     *******
     The prison was dimly lit, in a stereotypical dungeon-y way, and Avalyn could see shadows and shapes that looked like people, some hanging from the wall and almost certainly dead. Everything went dark, and she gasped, realizing that someone was standing over her.
     "So you're awake." The woman shifted position slightly, and Avalyn could see her face about as well as was possible in the gloomy basement-y place. She would have been gorgeous once, with striking hazel eyes and thick lashes, but her entire face was covered in scars, some random, as if from a fight, others more purposeful. This woman had been tortured.
     "Wha-wha--?"
     "You're in one of Mevolent's prisons. Underneath an office building somewhere it rains a lot. It's not his main castle, but it might be an overflow prison somewhere in Ireland, or just a prison run by his army anywhere in the world. I don't know. I was unconscious when they brought me here." Avalyn took notice of the way she forced her last sentence out sharply, like she was kicking herself for messing up.
     "Who are you?"
     The woman hesitated. "I'm J.A." she finally said, "You?"
     "Avalyn Obscurity. I work for the American Sanctuary. Mostly paperwork," she lied, with a shrug.
     "I'm freelance." J.A. didn't explain what she did, exactly. Avalyn made note of this, but she wasn't surprised.
     She hadn't mentioned her intelligence work, or the fact that she'd been intercepting coded messages between Mevolent's troops in Ireland and America. Unfortunately, she'd tried to report the information to the Grand Mage, which was all well enough except that some man named Croatoan had tortred Kerias and re-arranged her internal organs, and she was understandably unavailable when Avalyn had stopped by. Instead, there'd been a man named Prestidigitation, who, as it turned out, was actually working for Mevolent, and didn't want his plans told to the opposition. Avalyn's memory was fuzzy about the rest, maybe he'd hit her over the head when he'd captured her.
    There was an awkward silence, then they heard a door creak open, and the loud clack of guards' boots as they entered the dark prison. A dim lantern glow appeared off to the left, illuminating the five or so figures in black, but not much else.
    Avalyn heard the other prisoners shuffling around her, and felt J.A's hand on her shoulder, pulling her towards the back wall. "They're coming for you," she hisses.
    "How do you know?" Avalyn whispered back, turning around to look at J.A., her face contorted in fear, confusion, anger, a hint of betrayal...
    "Logical deduction. Do you want me to take away the physical pain, or the emotional?" J.A. pulled out a ballpoint pen and looked at Avalyn expectantly.
    "Emotional, I guess, but how--why...?" 
     J.A didn't answer, only grabbed Avalyn's hand and drew a quick sequence of symbols on her palm, a sort of a grid, with a little fishhook-like squiggle sticking out. She retreated back into the shadows as the guards stopped outside the cell, the leader of them calling out: "Avalyn Obscurity?"
     She didn't answer, but they knew she was there, anyway, and came for her. As she was led at knifepoint out of the main cellblock and into a better lit torture-room, she looked down at her palm again, and saw that the symbols were gone.

     (Sorry I took so long to update the Raeza subplot. And AIEEEEEEEEEEEE I STARTED ANOTHER ONE! Whoopsie! Avalyn and J.A. are characters from some of my other stories, I've used them both many times, but somehow they hadn't met. Well, they have now! And, uh, I've sorta  given up on keeping this thing at a post per day... I'm not immune to the business of this time of year, and I have a dance recital approaching that's taking up my free time. And school, of course...:-/ )

Richard Sloth: When Everything Goes Wrong

Ursa couldn't drive, neither could Franz. Richard's leg was playing up and Hiro had been insufficiently healed. That left Jayden, who panicked behind the wheel and so was refusing to drive, and Garnet. When he was handed the keys to Indishan's car (Indishan seeming to have disappeared with Mortis) he was warned by all of the others to drive sensibly and in a way that wouldn't get them stopped by police. Amazingly, he did as he was told. They got to their safe distance from the castle very safely. Hiro gave Franz a look.
"You're sure it's here?"
"Positive. I can give you instructions as to where as well. Be warned, I think it's protected by an alarm system."
"Crap." Richard muttered. "You know how to bypass that?"
"No."
"Double crap. Right, out the car, everyone except the gingers."
Ursa looked like he was going to object. Garnet sat back with his eyes closed and put his shoes, which were in Teen Titans's Robin Converse over pink socks with blue aeroplane outlines all over them, on the headrest of the seat in front of him. The other four made their way to the castle. Jayden found them a window they could sneak through without alerting people inside. They were lucky enough to only encounter three people they had to knock out, or kill, and then hide the bodies of. Finally they found themselves in the same room as the Grotesquery after having changed their path at least eight times to avoid large groups, most of those times the same group in the same area. "Pretty thing." Franz commented, tilting his head to the side. Hiro gave him a funny look as Richard and Jayden each took a corner.
"This would be so much easier if you'd let Gar come."
"We're not risking getting him captured again, plus tunnelling this successfully would be near impossible for him."
"How the hell are we supposed to sneak this thing out?"
"That's why Ursa and Garnet aren't with us. You think this window's big enough to get the damn thing out of?"
Franz nodded. "Just about."
"Where are we?"
"East side, south-east corner. Third window from the bottom."
Ricky texted the information to Garnet and opened the window, opening a proper call with him and talking in a whisper. "There's about three or four guards by the wall. You'll have to take them out before we can slide the thing out to you."
"Got it. The Aussie's on it."
Ricky watched from the window as Ursa attacked the three guards with Garnet's flintlock pistol and a set of nunchucks he'd probably found under a seat. The medical man couldn't help but laugh. The redhead was clearly enjoying himself and the stupid grin on his face was just too much. Garnet and his stupid new shoes tunnelled under the window with a tarpaulin, looking eager. Ursa came and helped hold it taught and the four men in the room heaved the Grotesquery to the window. Alarms wailed and once the bandaged torso was off the tarpaulin, Jayden called for them to keep it taught and jumped down into it rather than escape through the door like the other three idiots.

-----

Buying baby stuff became an interesting aside to all the paperwork and meetings. There was a spare room in Erskine's house that, up until then, had been used as an extra attic and a place to store things he bought and didn't need. Decorating the room and arranging furniture helped pass the time when he had trouble sleeping. He still had the occasional night terror and sometimes slept on his knee funny, causing him to wake up with a shooting pain up his leg halfway through the average night. Mist usually scolded him in the morning if she found he'd used his time that way though. One thing he hated was that news got around quickly. He stared at the little congratulatory messages waiting on his desk. Normally he would be quite happy to see these things, but after the thing with that Acacia Adonia woman he felt the less people knew about it, the better.

-----

A man awoke on a floor in a stolen car. Across the globe, mass destruction was enveloping Azerbaijan and the Philippines. This man knew he was at fault, but he didn't remember who he was, just that he'd been stabbed recently and now he had people after him. There was an American man driving the car, humming along to a rock song playing on the stereo. Some instinct told him to stay on the floor and he obeyed it. The car eventually pulled over and the man driving turned in his seat. "You're awake." He said, sounding mildly surprised. The man on the floor gave no response. "Sit up then. You have a name?"
"Obviously," He did as he was told and frowned. "I can't remember it though..."
"Shame. I'm Memphis. I need to get into Mevolent's castle."
"Then you're crazy, unless you have a veritable army at the very least for distractive purposes...but they'd have to be willing to go on a suicide mission."
"I know. That's why I'm recruiting people right now. You're one of them. I have another as well. He's called Niall and he has a pet vampire with him."
"You want me to go in there?"
"You have a reputation, sir. Whoever framed you may have half-assedly cut your hair and tried to make you a stranger to the world, but I think I know you. What's the earliest thing you can remember? If you go into childhood memories, I will shoot you."
The man paused. "Uh...being stabbed across a counter..."
Memphis nodded. "I think someone likes you. I can't explain why you're still here unless you have a reflection out of place someone killed instead of you."
"Not that I know of..."
"...Has anyone ever told you that you look a tiny bit like Serpine?"
He shook his head.
"Well, I think I have a plan, Mr Shudder."

-----

Daemon stood in the corner, face a clear frown. Austin arched an eyebrow from the maze of duvets and blankets he was hidden beneath, questioning her mood.
"You kissed me."
"Did I?" he asked blearily. Her face was a good enough confirmation. "Oh."
"Don't you have a girlfriend?"
"Nah. She cheats. I don't want her anymore."
"Well aren't you fast to move on?"
"I kiss. Call it gratitude."
"You kiss out of gratitude?"
"Call that something I picked up off of Cay."
She gave him a funny look and came closer. "You seem out of it, Ozzy."
"Do I?"
"Yeah, very." She came a little closer and helped him sit up. He felt strangely cold. "Austin, get up."
He did as he was told, hugging himself for warmth despite being fully clothed.
"Sierra and her lot said it would be healthier to get you up as soon as possible."
"Screw Sierra. Are they gone?"
"Actually, they're talking to the blonde guy downstairs. He's showing them his vampire cage."
"Oh wonderful." He went to the door and happily slipped out. Daemon waited a moment before following. Box was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
"Austin? You attract a lot of new visitors." He gestured to a very smug looking Crystalline and a nervous-looking Repine.

-----

The man in the corner propped himself up on his elbow. There was a French man talking to River in the centre of the room, lamenting. He was working for Mevolent, but he wasn't beyond lamenting to his prisoners. Although, why he was in a cell was a mystery. Charles looked around curiously, wondering how the hell he'd gotten there. Last he'd checked, the French kid had been tied to a chair being questioned by himself and Percy. The French detective sat up properly and addressed Leandre. "Where's Perseus?"
"Who's Perseus?" He replied, a laugh in his voice. The white-haired man's hands clenched into fists
"You know damn well-"
"Oh, right, the Spanish kidnapper guy. He was who I came for. I was told by an informant you two were, eh, together...gross, by the way."
"You're an idiot." River snapped immediately.
"Where is he, Leandre?!"
Leandre put up his hands in defence. "He's with a sub-general, as we call them, of which I might become soon. Apparently one of the small children he took was hers and she now has her little girl back and wants to 'thank' him for 'keeping her safe'." He gave a rather sinister grin and left the cell. River looked to Charles with a sad smile.
"Hi."
"Hello."
"I'm River."
"Charles."
"Sorry about your friend."
"Sorry you're stuck here with me." He laughed slightly and she laughed along.
"I'm sure you'll be great fun."
"I don't even know how anything happened...the guy who just left was tied to a chair while I pointed a gun at him last I remembered."
"Ah. Maybe there was more than one on his team."
"If someone was behind me, Perseus would have seen them. He has very good eyesight. He shot a rat out of the window of a moving taxi."
She sighed. "He's only human, Charlie."
"Charles."
"Uh...sorry."
"That's okay." He sighed and sat back against the wall. "Why're you here?"
"Don't know. They need me for something...I don't know what, but it was me specifically..."
"Stay strong and don't let them get to you."
She gave an anxious smile. "Thanks."

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, Franz and Hiro were playing with guns. They were back to back, but with Ricky between them. The science magic user offered the occasional punch to anyone who got past the other two, but didn't do much. He flinched or jumped whenever a gun fired. He was very against killing and bordered on pacifism, which was strange as first he was a doctor for a trio of killers, then he was an organiser and doctor for two more killers. The group of attackers went down as Hiro reloaded and Ricky went to explore, opening a door. The lights were on and there was an injured man strapped to a chair. Ricky pulled a face and went in further. There were two guns in the corner of the room and a few other belongings. He checked the man's pulse. It was strong and healthy, but he was unconscious. Hiro poked his head in. "Richard, Franz thinks he's found the way out. There's a coat rack thing and everything. Woah, that guy looks like he's seen better days..." He leaned so he could see Richard's face and saw what he was thinking. "Dude, no. We can't bring him along. Leave him."
"I can't just leave him..."
"He could be one of Mevolent's lot."
"Tied to a chair, bleeding?"
"Well...he could have done something really wrong and...yeah, that was stupid...but we can't afford to bring him along..."
"I'm going to try. I at least want a chance to heal him."
"He'll just ask us to come back and liberate some other people. I don't play to that shit."
"Well you don't have to come along any more." He began untying the prisoner and dragged him out the room, stopping to pick up one of the guns as he went.

The door was in sight but still a long walk away. The men hadn't encountered anyone else, and there was indeed a coat rack and another door leading to an unknown place. Franz stopped by this door and scrambled back. "Hide." He grabbed Hiro's wrist and dragged him down a side corridor, hiding in a dark supply room but leaving the door ajar so he could see. Ricky dodged into the coat rack nook. He covered the injured man in some fallen jackets and squeezed himself up against a bucket of umbrellas. That was his mistake, as now if he moved his leg, the bucket would knock over. A group of men stopped right there and began having a chat. Ricky started thinking complaints of how it was a stupid place to stand and chat and how it was just typical that they would wait there. His mind kept complaining until an all too familiar sensation  invaded the leg against the bucket. The stupid RLS sensation. The uncomfortable need to move his leg. He couldn't move his arms to try fix it either. He tried to grit his teeth and bear it.

The sudden clatter of the metal bucket caught the attention of most of the men. Five of them went to investigate and one of them was shot dead instantly. Ricky and his restless leg burst forth, gun blazing. He tried to break to the door, but it seemed the odds were against him. Hiro rolled his eyes from the ajar door. "Idiot." he muttered before picking off another of Mevolent's lot to help his friend. The medical man was almost at the exit when he fell with a bullet in his back. Hiro paused, no longer able to see his friend but able to hear the enemies chattering and joking about him. "Richard!" He slammed the door open and ran into the group of Mevolent's men, firing blindly. Franz rolled his own eyes and stepped outside, leaning against the door and waiting for the Asian man to fail.

Garnet Dorado and friends: Vol De Mortis

She was well overdue a scan. 'Robert' and 'Angela Levi' waited side by side to be called. He looked nervous and she rested a hand on his knee, trying to comfort him. He winced slightly as the sudden touch set off his bad knee, but forced a smile.
"It'll be okay." She assured him. "You look really pale and panicked, you know."
"Anything could have happened. Anything could still happen."
"I'm sure everything is fine with the baby..."
"How would you know?" Asked Erskine, who never liked the idea of being a father. "You haven't had any scans or anything. Like I said, anything could have happened."
"Don't worry about it. We'll worry about things as they come."
"Plus you've never been pregnant before as far as I'm concerned. How do you know everything's working as it should?"
"I don't. I'm choosing not to worry about something until I know I need to worry."
"Wish I could do that."

They were called in and saw a nice ultrasound scan that made Ravel's blood freeze. Haidee the ultrasound technician looked a little concerned. "Were you unaware of this?"
"There were extenuating circumstances. We've not really known anything about the wellbeing of our children to this point, this included..." Mist stated relatively calmly.
She nodded and left the room for a moment. Mist took control of the ultrasound thingy curiously. "I think they're girls."
Erskine had gone pale. "There's three of them."
"Isn't that interesting..."
"Suddenly I really can't do this..."
"Maybe you can call in some of your friends for help."
"I-"
"That wasn't a suggestion, by the way."
He didn't respond any further, just nodded. Her hand snaked round to grip his.

-----

Memphis awoke, groaning. The first thing he registered was the light levels. He was unable to open his eyes it was so bright. He groaned again and someone started talking to him. Irish. "Excuse me sir, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear." He replied croakily.
"Can you open your eyes for me?"
"Too bright. Dim the lights." There was a moment's silence and the voice sounded again.
"We couldn't find any ID on you. The hotel said a woman had signed you in. A Donna Pedrosa. Can you tell us your name?"
He hesitated, trying to choose a name he felt went well with River's given one. "Bernard."
"Do you know where you are, Bernard?"
"Somewhere where the lights are too bright."
There was a good-natured chuckle. "You're in hospital. People reported signs of a disturbance. Were you in a fight, Bernard?"
"A fight?" he asked as if the very idea was ridiculous, "some retard with a gun burst in and threw a lamp or something at me..." He was kind of amazed he could remember...then he remembered Jaime on the bed. "Where's my son?"
"He's in good hands. We have a crèche here, he's with trained professionals, Bernard."
"I was wearing sunglasses. They're prescription. I need them to see when it's this bright."
"They were broken."
Memphis shrugged. "Can I go soon?"
"We just need to make sure we've got all the fragments out and then you can go...do you know where Donna is?"
"No. The retard with the gun took her. She could be dead for all I know..." His voice cracked a little on the last sentence, but he only did that for show. He knew she was fine and even if he didn't he'd be able to stay very calm. It was one of his talents. Push down the emotion, give the outward impression of a robot, think fast and efficiently. He broke this rarely outside of family life. He spoke a little longer with the doctors and finally was allowed to leave, Jaime in his arms. He needed a way of getting to Mevolent's lot without risking being killed by Lord Vile. He couldn't let the dream versions of his old friends down.

-----

Jayden seemed a little dazed as he walked out of the Sanctuary. He leaned against the wall and stared at the car parked outside for a few minutes. It was just a car to him. He never really knew Ricky that well. The man in the front of the car, therefore, did not register as anyone Jayden knew or trusted. A window rolled down towards the back and Garnet beckoned him over. The dark-skinned Mage frowned suspiciously before making his way over and leaning in. "Gar?"
"Jay. Get in."
"And suddenly I am so confused..."
"You remember Ricky Sloth?"
"...No..."
"...Right, Richard?"
"Yeah?"
"You remember Jayden, right?"
"Yup." Richard turned to look and frowned. "Well...mostly..."
Garnet shrugged. "Is it safe to leave Mortis with those other three?"
"No, no it's not. Get in the car, Jayden."
Jayden just stared. "I have no clue what's going on. I was in a Sanctuary gaol a few minutes ago...the one with all the proper murderers and things..."
"Let's just say we saved the Grand Mage's life as well as that of one of the Elders, so we got both amnesty for killing Vex and your freedom."
"He actually gave you amnesty for killing Vex?"
"No, but he didn't hurt us there and then, so I think that's a good sign."
"Did you have Wilbur or a gun on you?"
"...it was probably out of fear..."
Jayden sighed and rolled his eyes. "Mortis is where?"
"The old house."
"With? Who are 'those other three'?"
Richard smirked. "Friends of mine."
Garnet smiled. "Yeah. Get in the car."
"But-"
"Get in the fucking car, Jayden!" Richard screamed. "Now, or else you'll be forced in with two damn broken legs!"
The other two both looked shocked. Jayden walked nervously to the other side of the car and slid in beside his tunnelling friend. The car set off, the radio blasting 'Horse Outside'. The dark-skinned Mage pulled a face at his ginger friend, who laughed. "Rick, I thought you couldn't drive!"
"Shut up, Garnet."
He shrugged and turned back to Jayden. "Apparently he doesn't get much sleep, so he's pretty cranky. Oh, you'll love his friends! There's this one possessed by something who knows all of everybody's names! Oh yeah, he won't call me Garnet...don't laugh when he addresses Mort, please. He came at me with like eight knives in his hand last I did..."
Jayden laughed. "I'll try and remember."

The door was lying off its hinges. Ricky's eyes widened as he ran up the porch steps and threw the door out the way. "Mortis!" He screamed, furious. "Hiro! Ursa! Franz!" He stopped in the living room and turned a full circle, eyes darting about wildly. He turned his glare to Garnet. "Check upstairs. In Mort's room!" The ginger Adept jumped and quickly did as he was told, well aware something was very wrong.
"In here!" A weak voice mewled from the kitchen.

-----

Austin lay on his side, breathing uneasily as Sierra, Andeep and Robyn worked on reversing the effects of the amethyst. He was clearly afraid, but whether it was of the three women 'fixing' him or of the hallucinations, Daemon was unsure. She was crouched beside him, holding his hand and offering a reassuring smile. It didn't seem to be helping, especially when he was made to roll onto his back so Robyn could inject him with some strange white liquid. "Is that milk?" He asked in a strained voice as a joke. Robyn smirked at him.
"Maybe."
Suddenly he wasn't so sure they knew what they were doing. He looked at Daemon fearfully, who brushed his hair away from his face in a comforting gesture. "It's okay, Austin. They're experts. How old are you again?"
"N-ninety f-four..."
"Oh cool, I'm older than you. You like ice skating? Be a good boy and I could take you."
"They're going to butcher me. These three...never trusted them..."
"Austin, listen to my age-moulded wisdom. You'll be fine. They're reversing the effects of the amethyst, nothing more. You're perfectly safe, Austin."
He leaned close and she thought he was going to whisper something to her, but instead he planted a kiss on the corner of her mouth and settled back down, quickly falling asleep rather than hearing her outraged complaint. Daemon sat back, looking pissed off. Sierra laughed.
"Your little friend developing a crush?"
"He's nuts because of that gemstone, Sierra. It's probably to do with that."

-----

Hiro lay on his back, trying not to cry as he was in so much pain, as Ricky repaired the damage done to his abdomen. Garnet shuffled into the room anxiously. "No sign of Borealis. Mort's stuff is all gone as well."
"Wonderful." Richard spat before turning to Hiro. "He just snapped, decided to kill you all and scarpered then, huh? And what about Franz? He go after the stupid psycho for his stupid blade?"
"Franz is still here." Garnet muttered. "I assume the thing with the break-in is still going as planned?"
Ricky nodded. "The plan's not complete...Mort's a meticulous planner...but as long as we still have Franz, we can still do something."
Hiro sighed. "He went crazy."
Jayden had crossed to the window by this point and was parting the blinds. "Uh...Ursa...lanky ginger bloke, like Gar but with better dress sense and a tan?"
Ricky froze. "What's he doing outside?"
"Lying there with what I assume is a blade sticking out of his back..."
"Jay, Gar, go out and check he's still alive..."

Ursa was still alive, but suddenly Jayden and Garnet had something else to worry about.
"It's an athame blade." Jayden muttered.
"What does that mean?"
"You know which one this is?"
"It...it looks like Wilbur..."
"If Mort upped and ran by choice, he would never leave Wilbur behind...he would risk his life to keep this blade by his side...it's his favourite-"
"And the store of all his magic. You're right, this doesn't make sense. Something's happened to Mortis." The ginger Mage looked down at his hand. The curse burn was still there. Mortis had touched his hand immediately after. "Oh God."
"What?"
"B-J's curse! What if when I touched the necklace the curse didn't affect me but passed through to him instead? What if he's being controlled? What if-" Jayden punched him on the nose.
"Shut up. Firstly, if you've passed a bloody curse onto my boyfriend, I don't care how close friends we are, I'll personally make sure you die. Secondly, he said it was a one person only curse. What else could have happened to him? How could he possibly be being controlled?"
Garnet just stared, one hand pulled up to his nose to half-arsedly stem the flow of blood. He shrugged. "Zeb's ghost?"
The dark-skinned Mage smirked. "Or Felicity's."
"Who?"
"Did he ever tell you about his sister?"
"Anyway, a ghost."
"Yeah, what bullshit. Anyway, we gotta figure out where he's gone and how to get him back."
Ursa groaned from the floor and tried to get up onto his hands and knees. There were slashes all over his face. Jayden pulled a face.
"That looks painful."
Ursa met his eyes. "It is."
"Gar, go see if Richard's finished with the other guy..."

((...Point 1: I have four fanchildren for Rist...Dextra is the second or third...not quite sure...anyway, I couldn't throw away that order no matter how much I wanted because my brain threw a hissy fit...plus I've always wanted to experiment with torturing characters with multi-births...which I've done once for Teen Titans...this time round it's just embarrassing, but I have patience failures and really can't write multiple pregnancies out, so in my mind it's different but here...myeh. I was going to put something here about something I wrote about Mortis, but then realised it was shameless self-advertising...but it does explain who Zeb is...so if you want to know who Zeb is, I have a link that can explain...End Transmission))

Anna Zinaida: You Forgot Me Long Ago

IN THE PAST BUT QUITE A BIT LATER IN THE PAST THAN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS THAT HAVE BEEN SET IN THE PAST:
     Anna rolled out of bed silently, so as not to let the intruder hear. She quickly slipped on her bullet-proof jacket (and with it, several knives and other weapons of various sorts (not all of them typically thought of as weapons, but useful all the same).
     Hearing the intruder on the stairs now, Anna  darted to the dresser and grabbed the box with the right half of the spectacles, placing another small jewelry box where it had been. She made the bed quickly, so it didn't look like she'd rushed out, but rather that she hadn't slept there at all.
     She heard the breath just outside the door and slid the window open, hoping she wasn't too late. The wind blew her hair back out of her face, disrupting her hearing, and leaving her to slip out the window as fast as she could and hope that nothing in the room had been disturbed.
     She climbed into the tree which was the reason she slept where she did, the escape route. Anna tucked the box under her arm and began climbing her way down the sturdy cedar. She stopped in the shadows of her house, scanning the street for any signs of danger. Deciding it was about as safe as it could get (she had her best knife, after all), Anna darted across the part of her front yard illuminated by the street light,
     She didn't notice the person watching her from the dark window across the street, making sure she had the box, and then slipping out into the night after her.

     The riot leader spoke passionately, painting a vivid picture of that dreaded word, Communists, and invoking the names of several town council members, each of them, coincidentally, people that stood in his way. Most of the rabble in the crowd, he knew, were simply trouble-makers, and didn't particularly care who they burned, Communist or not. Just enough to make the more intelligent of the mob believe this was justified...

    The sky opened up and rain began to pour, cold, hard, heavy droplets that stung Effie's face as she tried to keep up with the dark shape in front of her. Her hair was seriously going to frizz after this. She had to get the other half of the spectacles, though, had to see. She'd given in to the whispers, the convincing conspiring voice that kept telling her she could see secrets. Maybe she could see how her brother died, and why her mother hated her. Maybe she could finally understand...

     Anna drew to a halt as she saw the crowd, yelling and waving torches (A/N: Torch doesn't mean the same thing as flashlight here, I am American) in the air. They started off in the direction of the mayor's house, screaming and trampling over each other to be the one to light the first fire. It was sickening, the way the entire mob moved like a puppet, under the control of some orator or other.
     She shouldn't have taken the moment to think those thoughts, she should've used the crowd to hide, to disappear. She probably could've made sure she wasn't trampled. Unfortunately, she only realized this when the dagger pierced her from behind.
     She gasped for breath, and whirled around, the dagger slicing through what was probably another vital organ. She reached behind her, trying to pull it out, but her hands were too slick with her own blood. The next option was to bring her attacker down with her, then. She looked up and raised her fist, ready to smash someone's skull, but it was...
   
     Effie looked down at the blood on her hands, and understood how Lady Macbeth went insane. "I did it for...spectacles," she muttered in disgust. Anna didn't seem to hear. She didn't seem hurt or surprised, either, which stung Effie inside. Just a little, all she would admit to.  Anna was used to the world of shadows, secrets, lies, betrayal, an expert on hiding emotions. Maybe she really had cared about Effie and really was upset, maybe not, maybe she was like Mrs. Williams. Maybe she was just too busy dying.
     What have I done? Eff thought, what's the point of it all? She felt her mentor's pulse, very faint, but still there. Effie wouldn't be the one to deliver the killing blow. She picked up her thankfully petite mentor and took the box out of the dying spy's pocket. The reason why she'd done the 022230300450 deed in the first place. The riot crowd was coming back this way, and Effie pulled the dagger out of her mentor's back. She tossed Anna into the fray, so it would seem like she was simply trampled, an accidental victim of the mob, which in the end, she was. The police picked up Anna's body with the other riot casualties, and no one ever knew the truth, Effie never told a soul,

     She stood alone on top of the cliff that overlooked he harbor, humming slightly to herself as the wind blew her hair back and she watched the waves, at peace...sort of. The two spectacle halves were still in her jacket pocket, and she took them out and examined them for a long while.

     It wasn't worth it.

     Eff brought her arm up fast, and the left half of the spectacles flew into the sea, before she could think better or worse of it. It was better, though, she believed that enough not to venture after it. She couldn't make herself get rid of the other half, though. It stayed with her, haunting her, calling her, reminding her of her terrible mistake. She would not make a mistake like that again,


(A/N: ................)

Various (Fabi): You Won't Cry For My Absence, I Know

IN THE PAST:

"Samantha," or Adamantha Snark, as she would become known, practically skipped down the hallway, the left half of the spectacles clutched in her finger extensions, trailing a bit behind her. The whole stupid-girl speech had been a diversion, to buy time and all while she grabbed it. In case you hadn't already guessed. But since you're probably waaaay smarter than Mindy, that's totally a possibility. It still hadn't occurred to her that Mantha had taken them! Of course, Mantha didn't know that, she figured Mindy (whose name, in reality, she didn't know) would be somewhere behind her, which was why she kept glancing over her shoulder. Which is why she ran straight into Olivena, lost her balance, and fell face-first onto the cold tile floor. Ouch. She felt the spectacle-half sliding out of her grip, and used the very tips of her finger extensions to fling it down the hall. It went much farther than she'd anticipated.

"Hello, Alia," Lily-liver smirked, letting the needles of poison slide out from under her fingernails, and standing over her victim, all smiles.  

******* 

Anna and Effie pressed against the wall as they heard the sounds of violence from a neighboring corridor.

"There's a trap on the wall," Anna hissed. "I'm going to disable it, and when I say go, we run past that corridor and hope no one sees us. Do it quietly."

Eff nodded, and she turned to the wall and began fiddling with a wire that stuck out, while her apprentice's mind wandered."

There was a sharp clattering noise; both Effie and Anna jumped, the latter believing she'd caused it by doing something incorrect and making the trap activate somehow. Effie, on the other hand, saw the small metal and glass object that slid out of the noisy corridor and into the hall in which she was standing, a few feet ahead.

"Got it," Anna whispered. "Ready...? Run!"

They dashed past the corridor, Effie stopping for a moment to pick up the left half of the spectacles, before joining her mentor as they reached the end of the hallway and flung the exterior doors open, heading out into fresh air once more.

You will see though your own eyes, so much more... Secrets, you want to know secrets, don't you?

Effie winced and did her best to close her mind off and block out the tantalizing whispers.

******

IN PRESENT TIME:

Anna nodded as Effie finished explaining. "So you want to stop your apprentice from dying?"

"Fabi's not my apprentice. She trained mostly solo, I can't tell if she trusts everyone or no one, but for the most part she never had a teacher. She kinda picked up a bit from a lot of us, though, and she's not half bad at the whole spying thing. Anyway, she's not my apprentice, and I don't know if I can really count her as a friend, considering the fact that I tried to kill her. Well, not me me, but y'know. Effie pointed at her head, the voices of Mevolent and the dead psychic strangely silent. So the stone circle actually worked. Cool.

"I see," Anna's voice was a pitch lower than usual, as if she were trying not to burst out into anger. She noticed Effie looking at her and frowned. "Mind control is the lowest magical discipline I can think of."

"Yeah," agreed Effie. "Sure right."

Anna considered for a moment. "But before, though, it wasn't mind control. Your head was still your own." Effie blinked like a fish. She knew, of course she did. Play the fool for as long as possible.

"I told you, Mevolent is in my head and then I resisted and--"

"Effie," Anna shook her head. "You're not stupid. Did you really think I didn't know?"

Her eyes gleamed, opening doors to her anger and pain. Effie winced and took a step back, only to bump into the invisible wall behind her. The stone circle Anna had led her to wasn't just a safe place to talk, it was a trap.

Anna stepped outside of the circle easily, nodding at Eff as she went. "I'm going to help your friend. You say she has head injuries?" Eff nodded wordlessly. "Well, I can un-hit her on the head, and deal with that, at least partially. If it's as you say, though, Ember Silver will probably kill her anyway. If that happens, it isn't my problem. I'm just helping you this once, okay? Once, and it's more than you deserve." Again, Effie nodded. Anna wondered if she was being hard on her, but shoved the thought aside. Eff had betrayed her, let her down, there was no reason to help. It was possible, after all these years in the shadows, that Anna Zinaida could still be considered something of a good person.Or  just wishful thinking.

[AT THIS POINT IN TIME IS WHERE THE NIGHTMARE CHAPTER GOES. ANNA UN-HITTING HER ON THE HEAD CAUSED FABI TO REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SINCE I BELIEVE EMBER IS WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER AND PROBABLY DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS, IT PROBABLY JUST WOKE HER UP AND SHE STILL HAS A REALLY BAD HEAD INJURY. THEN AGAIN, WHATEVER EMBER SAYS IS WHAT IT IS, SO YEAH.]

[SORRY ABOUT THE ALIA BIT... I KNOW MY CHARACTERS ALL HAVE LOTS OF NAMES, BUT ADAMANTHA ISN'T ADAMANTHA YET, SO OLIVENA CAN'T REALLY CALL HER THAT.]

Mindy Almaz: Isn't Someone Missing Me?

IN THE PAST:

Mindy lifted the monocle out of its case and examined it, trying to remember what she was supposed to do with it. She had to give it something, didn’t she? Something to identify its target… She retrieved the knife from the floor, where she’d been stupid enough to drop it, and let a drop of Effie’s blood fall onto the lens.

********

A world of power at your disposal, my dear. The ability to see it all, truths, lies, the future, secrets. You know what you want, come to us, come to see.

The voice came only from her left ear, and she whirled, but still it came from her left. She spun, trying to make it fade, go away, and finally it did, only to echo in her mind. “Truth, lies, secrets, everything.”

“Effie, is everything okay?” Effie shook herself back into something resembling reality and saw, through all the spinning, her mentor’s concerned face.

“Yeah… I’m a bit dizzy.”

“Effie, you just spun in circles for nearly two minutes, you are going to be dizzy.” Anna clearly didn’t believe that Eff had done it out of randomness, but what? Was she supposed to say that a weird voice had been trying to get her to take over the world with her left ear? It sounded absurd. Her mom must have been right, Effie was crazy, she thought bitterly.

********

Mindy shook the monocle, then looked through it again. It still wasn’t showing her Effie’s current location.

“What are you doing with that?” a voice asked from the doorway. “It’s useless without the other half.”

Mindy jumped, and turned to see a girl of about twelve or so with a brown ponytail and irritating freckles. She smirked, like she knew better. She obviously didn’t. Mindy smirked harder.

“It’s called a monocle. That’s ‘mono’ as in one, nitwit, and it's obviously broken."

"If my wits are nit, yours are not. That isn't a monocle, not-wit, it's half of a pair of spectacles. The monocle's kept in the other room, and if Serpine knew he had both spectacle halves, that'd be there, too. Or not, maybe he'd be using them for something," she cocked her head slightly. "You never can tell with Serpine."

"What do you know about Serpine?"
The girl shrugged "Same as everyone. He used to be Mevolent's general, has a back up plan, and of course, this secret cache of unauthorized magical items."
"Everyone knows that?" Mindy asked skeptically, setting the monocle--spectacle-half, whatever on the table behind her and turning to block it from the girl's view.
"Well, no, not everyone. Obviously I do, though, and so do you, or you wouldn't be here, but presumably you already know that you know, and since I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't know, so you already know that, too, and that, and there's really no point in me continuing this long speech, because it's probably boring you, am I right?"
"Yeah," Mindy said, anything to make her leave.
"'Kay then, I'll go, sorry to bother you. Continue using the wrong magical eyewear!"
The irritating brat turned to go, finally, but Mindy's spy side couldn't help asking, "Who are you?" to see what the girl would say.
"I don't have a taken name yet," the girl mused, "and I know better than to tell you my given one. I suppose you can call me Samantha, I like the sound of that."
"I won't be needing to call you anything," Mindy muttered. "With any luck, I'll never be running into you again."
After scowling and mentally complaining for nearly a minute, she remembered the task at hand and turned back to the monocle.
It was gone.

(It's been quiet lately...how is everyone? [hugs])

Aretha Tesla: Gaslight

I woke up inside the box again, and went straight back into panic mode. I was still in the dark, and covered in my own blood, but the pain had gone. Suspicous... Why would he...? I pushed myself up off the floor and tried to think. There had to be something I could do, some way I could get out... But the darkness caved in on me and made me feel as though I was drowning. I was breathing too hard and too loudly, the blood was pounding in my head, and everything was far too quiet and far too loud at the same time. I can't take this anymore... But I know no one's coming for me now.

All of a sudden a song popped into my head, and unsafe as it was, I couldn't stop myself from singing softly- it was the only form of comfort I could give myself.

The wheels are turning, broken machinery
It grinds below us, and all around I see
The crooked ceiling, the old familiar halls,
The dirty paper that's covering the walls
The shattered staircase
The bed I'm bleeding in
We've tried to fight this, but we can never win

And in the gaslight
That brings both life and death
If it's like last night,
This could be my last breath
And so I hold tight
To any hand I see
But nothing's alright
They're always watching me
And no one's coming
Coming to take me home
No one's coming
Coming to take me home

The sound echoed off the walls and gained a light metallic undertone. I laid myself flat against the floor, taking some comfort in the soft vibrations. But almost immediately I recognized that what I was feeling wasn't comfort- it was numb. Somehow that scared me to pieces. My realization instantly broke the spell of calm.

I scrambled to my feet and backpedaled again, pressing my back to the cold wall and digging my fingernails deep into my arm. It was a bad habit I'd picked up a long time ago, but I only did it when I was really terrified. It made me feel grounded, somehow.

The barks and snarls that had become familiar to me started up again in the distance, and I took a deep breath to try to brace myself. Of course, that didn't work- it never really had, I knew I was doomed anyway- so I started singing again instead.

He's at the window. He's always looking down
As we are beaten. How can this town
Not know what's happening to all their little girls
They've got the pirate, they're cutting off her curls
And she is screaming- they won't leave her alone
And I am dreaming of joys I've never known

And in the gaslight
That brings both life and death
If it's like last night
This could be my last breath
And so I hold tight
To any hand I see
But nothing's alright
They're always watching me
And no one's coming
Coming to take me home

No one's coming
Coming to take me home

The dogs came and cut off my last note. If I'm honest, I could have stopped myself from screaming- I could have stopped the pain, if I'd simply willed it all away. But somehow the idea of that, of desensitizing myself, set off every red flag I had left, so I screamed and thrashed helplessly as the dogs tore, bit, and scratched.

Somehow every growl and scream, every rip of flesh and crunch of bone, seemed to echo off the walls to the tune of the song in my head. It was about a victorian asylum- those were really, really messed up, but no one would believe the girls, of course- after all, they were 'insane'. So you're a doctor and I am just a crazy little girl. Who would you believe? It wasn't really applicable to my situation, but for some reason I felt more connected with it than I ever had been.

I guess some parts of it made sense. I still pitied the asylum girls, though- even in my situation, I wouldn't want to trade places with them. Then again, maybe I would, and I just didn't care to belittle their pain by saying it. Everyone has their own worst fear, and theirs was different from mine.

Rather quickly once I got into that train of thought, however, I caught myself- I was desensitizing again. So I welcomed the pain, the panic, the desperation, the helplessness- anything was better than not feeling. I thought of a line from my favorite Evanescence song- As much as it hurts, ain't it wonderful to feel? And I wouldn't call it wonderful, but for some reason, I had to keep feeling. It felt like I would die if I didn't. Then again, I was sure I would die if I did.

Another bite, and I reached my hand out to confirm what I could already feel- my right leg was gone. Apparently checking was a mistake, too, because the moment I exposed it a pair of jaws clamped down on my hand. I felt one more set of teeth sink itself further up on my arm. And just when I least expected it, Niccolo's voice whispered in my ear again.

"Had enough yet? Wouldn't you rather feel- oh, I don't know, nothing?"

Suddenly it hit me. "You're doing this?" I gasped, "You want me to stop feeling! Why?"

"Oh, I'll tell you- and you'll love it- but not now. Not while you're like this. Call it a game- we'll see how much of this you can take before you surrender your emotions."

"Go die."

"No, I'm afraid not. My time will come, but it's not here yet. You know what the best part of this is? The only way you can resist me is to suffer. The only way to resist suffering is to surrender to me. But I want to see you suffering anyway. No matter what you do, I win."

"I can get out. I could escape. You wouldn't want tha-"

"No, I wouldn't, but that, my dear, is not an option. As I've said, you are never getting out of this box."

Something sharp tore into my neck and my mind went numb.

Garnet Dorado: Just Give Us Our Mascot Back

Richard and Indishan had been up through the unholy hours of the night arranging for that one cell to be evacuated. Mortis was with them, throwing things into the deal to help those trapped in the cell. The connection was cut off and late the next day the the two friends plus Indishan and Ursa were driving off as Franz and Hiro stayed home to track down the Grotesquery.


Arduous Marshmallow stood by the cells, grinning. He was twirling a ring of keys around his finger. Beside him stood Prosperity Straker, a man who actually had 'legal' access to the cells, and Arachne, who was tapping her foot nervously. Prosperity shook his head. "We shouldn't do this."
"We're getting paid." Arduous replied nonchalantly.
"But Mevolent-"
"C'mon, it's not like these guys are exactly against us."
"One of them is the son of a Norwegian Elder."
"And? He's not going back to Norway at this rate.

Two men stood by a car outside. Mortis and Ricky were talking in hushed voices. They both raised eyebrows when Garnet came stumbling out, flanked by a man carving something on him with a scalpel and a pregnant woman holding him up. They stopped and the murderer in the middle almost collapsed completely. "Almost finished." The man beside him muttered. "I have to be careful with this. Ruin the lines without damaging anything vital. Would be easier if you weren't so skinny."
"You can talk." He spat back.
"I'm ill, that's why I'm skinny. You have no such illness, I've seen proof of that." Suddenly Gar took a deep gasping breath and pulled away from the man, managing to straighten up. He gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"No problem. Your friends are going to take yourself, the Norwegian gent and this lovely young lady to Roarhaven, as agreed."
"And B-J?"
"We'll find her and help her, we promise."
He took a few minutes, seeming to be trying to get his breath back, and smiled, hugging Mortis, who stiffened and muttered curses under his breath, then turned to Ricky and grinned.
"Never thought I'd ever see you again."
"Likewise...you're not going to hug me, are you?"
"I thought you died ages ago."
"Again, likewise."
Garnet grinned and pulled the reluctant Richard into a hug, despite his protests. Garnet had always been a very touchy feely person. Most of his friends hated that. In fact, the only ones who didn't mind being hugged were B-J and Jayden, and Jayden found being hugged by Garnet horribly awkward.

-----

He went to the window, peering out into the darkness, trying to ease his troubled mind. It didn't work when he caught sight of the barrel of a rather large gun pointing at the window. His eyes widened and he dropped. The bullet whizzed through the glass and he crawled carefully over to the bed and pulled the covers off his wife to wake her up. River turned over and glared at him. "Mem, what the hell?"
"There's a gunman outside. Go get dressed."
She arched an eye brow and did as she was told. He went to look again and the man was gone. He relaxed a little and went to find his sunglasses. There was a knock on the door and River went to answer it, but only opened it a little before slamming it shut again. She had been standing to the side and the next bullet fired had shot through. "Okay, now there's a gunman behind the door." She stated, surprisingly calm. Memphis picked up Jaime and tucked him into a bullet-proof vest from his belongings.
"River? Take him. Keep him safe."
"You're not going out there." She took the baby anyway.
"I have weapons of my own."
"Memphis, no!"
The door splintered as the man on the other side tried to get in. "Come on out and I promise not to shoot you!" he called in earnestly. Memphis shook his head.
"Idiot." There was a long pause as Memphis trained his gun on the door. The door smashed and both men fired at once. Memphis was knocked back into a table and River backed into the corner, unable to pick up a weapon while holding her son. The man went towards her and Memphis aimed his gun. "Leave her alone. You have no reason to harm her."
"No," the man agreed, "I don't. I need her unharmed. You on the other hand..." He grinned darkly, aiming his own gun.
"Why would you need me unharmed?" River asked shakily, trying to stop this man from killing her husband.
"We believe we have use for you, darling." he saw her reluctance and an idea popped into his head. "Give the baby you have there to this gent and I promise not to kill either of them...provided he lowers his weapon." He gestured with the gun for Memphis to go to the window. He followed him there and made him drop his gun out the window. He dropped his own one out after it and smiled. "Wasn't too hard." He backed away and kept his eyes on Memphis. "Give the baby to the man please, River."
She approached him from behind. he turned at the last minute, grabbed the wrists of the hands about to bring a table lamp down over his head, wrenched the lamp from her grip and threw it at Memphis. River screamed as loud as she could as the man attempted to chloroform her. Once she was out, he looked over at Heatwave and winced. The guy had been unable to dodge the lamp and was now unconscious and in a pretty bad state. He left him there with baby Jaime crying in the vest.

-----

Sierra knocked on the door and waited. There was some movement from inside and a pale man with brown curls opened the door and smiled a little. "Sierra." He greeted with a slight nod.
"Vampire." She greeted back. His smile died on his lips.
"You're here to see Box?"
"He's a good informant. Better to trust than Gale Blaze or China Sorrows...and you know I used to go to Myron Stray if I needed something..."
"Okay, look, Helper isn't in right now, but you can come in for a cup of coffee or something in you want."
Sierra smiled. "Yes please." She stepped inside and took off her shoes and coat. There were two people arguing in the living room, where Daemon went out of curiosity. She saw a ginger man and a sick-looking blonde man. It took a moment to register who they were.
"Austin! Gale!"
They both looked round and Gale smiled. "Daemon, hey!"
Daemon smiled and went over to Austin. "You okay?"
He arched an eyebrow. "F-fine..."
"Where's the Amethyst of Abran-k'uhl?"
"U-upstairs...in my j-jacket pocket..."
She nodded and smiled. "Great to see you again, by the way."

-----


Madame Mist got out of bed and carefully, quietly, edged round to her husband's side of the bed. She palmed a knife from a sheath hidden in her night gown and raised it for a deadly strike. She was stopped when a shadow stabbed through her stomach. She let out a blood-curdling scream of pure agony. Ravel sat up, shocked as he clicked on the bedside light and saw what had just happened. Naturally he looked horrified. Then the redheaded man came to stand beside her. She was still screaming. He held a gun to her head and silenced her. She fell to reveal a man with long, dark hair in a ponytail and...

The woman stood beside the dark-haired man frowned. She didn't have her veil on and her stomach was swollen. "Do I count this as cheating or can it be completely excused under the circumstances?"
The redhead grinned. "I think you can forgive him, Elder Mist. I've met this one." He nudged the corpse with his heel. "She's a good'un."
The dark-haired man muttered something about the body that sounded like 'I think we're related'. Mist, the real Mist, the one who was still pregnant, came forward and sat beside her husband on the bed, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. "Erskine?"
"She...I...where...?"
"I got into a fight with her and a friend of hers, oh I don't know, six or so months ago? Unfortunately, they won and she stole my clothes while her associate bundled me into a van..." She gestured loosely to the two men now standing at the end of the bed, looking expectant. "Oh, these are my new friends, Garnet and Mortis. They helped get me out of Mevolent's dungeon. They wanted to ask a favour."
Erskine frowned. "Uh...weren't those the guys who tried to kill Justice a few months back?"
The men exchanged looks and Mortis spoke. "Ah...you remember that, do you?"
"Of course I do! I don't even know how you got away, but if Richard Sloth had anything to do with it, I swear he-"
Garnet cut him off. "Ricky helped Mort, I got captured my Mevo's lot. See it this way: If we hadn't been there, your wife wouldn't be beside you right now and Miss Adonia here may have killed you easily in your sleep."
"...will be rewarded, naturally..."
The redhead smirked. "Well then, Grand Mage, glad you see it our way. We have a request to ask though, since you have been reunited with your beautiful wife and unborn child thanks to us, and since we have both just saved your life...You have a friend of ours in your holding cells. A Jayden Slander, dark skin, no hair, a Child of the Spider who killed a few Cleavers that day. We'd like him set free, especially since he's done you no harm."
"He admitted to killing a close friend of mine."
Mortis looked at his feet. "Anton Shudder?"
"Dexter Vex actually."
Garnet shook his head. "I think that was me..."
"I think he bled out through the wound I inflicted." Mortis responded, looking up, a little confused.
"Wait, so your friend killed Anton as well?"
"I kind of forced him to do that one."
Erskine was now trying very hard not to get up and try kill them. His hands her balled into tight fists, getting tighter the more they talked. He did his best to remember one had Necromancy, one had a gun and they had both just saved his wife as well as him. "I am so tempted to throw you both in the cell with him..."
"I tunnel." Garnet stated simply.
"You're murderers! Senseless killers!"
"Don't forget psychopaths." Mort added happily, clapping his hands.
Erskine spluttered and Gar glared at his friend. "Listen, Grand Mage, the world is full of...severely screwed up people like myself and Mr Grievance here...Jayden is his boyfriend and keeps him sane during what would otherwise be long, lonely nights, and he attacked no-one apart from a few cleavers, and that was only in an attempt to protect the man he loved."
"Who was trying to murder an Elder..."
Dorado frowned. "Just give us our mascot back or we'll take your wife all the way back to Mevolent where we found her."
He looked like he was going to object, but Madame Mist put a hand on his shoulder. "Jayden Slander is a Child of the Spider and a man I once knew."
"Fine, now bugger off, both of you...and take that piece of filth with you." He gestured furiously at the remains of Acacia Adonia. Once they left, he put his head in his hands and tried to deal with the whirl of thoughts.

Mortis stopped off halfway back, went into a shop, came out with a stack of crocodile-skin stuff and carefully dressed Acacia in it. Garnet pulled a face. "This is why we were always poor."
"Quit complaining." The Necromancer replied as he savagely attacked the corpse.

((Look guys! a present! And a taste of 'I have no clue what's going on in my own story'...and a magical powerful amethyst from a different SP fic...which has Daemon in it...and Electrolytic and Hauter and Nemone and also some people you've never heard of! And Hiro, actually...sorry, babbling. Anyway, have some stuff.))

Percy Frivolidad: Sparks Fly

It was raining. Perseus wasn't sure what to do. He was waiting just inside the Sanctuary. He was certain Jasmin and Lionel were busy. They were in some stupid meeting of some kind. Charles was busy with some stupid case paperwork or something. In fact, that was what annoyed him. He couldn't even read the paperwork, so how could he fill it out?

He stepped out into the pouring rain, standing on the edge of the pavement. He stood there for a few minutes, eyes closed, wishing he had a cigarette on him.
"You're still here!" A voice called through the rain, sounding disapproving and worried. Perseus cracked an eye open.
"yes, Charles. You've finished work?"
"No, but I was worried you wouldn't have anywhere to go, and I wanted...I...I wanted to make sure you'd be okay."
He smiled. "That's sweet...you're getting soaked."
"So are you. That blazer doesn't look waterproof."
Perseus looked down at himself. He was wearing a grey suit and yellow shirt and he was soaked to the skin. Charles wasn't much better off in a white blazer-jacket and dark grey T-shirt and jeans. He was quickly becoming just as drenched as his dark-skinned lover. He stepped a little closer, drawing his jacket around him for warmth. "You should wait inside, Percy."
"Percy?"
He nodded sharply. "Percy."
Perseus shrugged. "I'll allow that. Don't call me it too often though."
Charles nodded and shifted closer still.
"So what happened with your wallet?"
"One of Mevolent's stole it."
"well..."
"Elder Montaneaux gave me money for a cab home. I have money back home. Want to come with?"
"To your house?"
"It's a place to stay. I have a spare room. You might like it."
"You know what I do for a living, right?"
Charles paused. "You mean kidnap children?"
"For their safety or the safety of those around them, yes." he sighed. "I actually miss having to care for children...they drove me crazy, but..."
Charles gave a light laugh. "I have young nieces. Babysit them once and a while." They both laughed airily and Perseus turned and found his nose inches from Charles'. They both jumped. Charles started laughing again. With a roll of his eyes, the Cuban Mage grabbed a handful of snow-white hair and pulled the French detective forward, locking their lips together.

-----

Back at the house, Mortis was hiding from Franz. He went to explore upstairs. Garnet's old bed was taken up by the new redhead. Ricky was in his own old bed. There was no sign of Hiro living in Mortis' old room. The wall between Mort's and Jay's had been knocked down during a fight shortly before the two of them had been forced to leave by the detective who had been at Icarus' house. Neither room looked occupied and the belongings of the two men seemed undisturbed. Frowning with curiosity, Mortis reached under his bed and pulled out something bronze. His face brightened. "Lance." He cooed, holding a tuba up. It had been a long while since he'd seen Lance the tuba last. He blew a little dust away and held the instrument to his mouth.

Ricky rolled his eyes to gaze at the ceiling as the sound of music floated down from above...in fact, it was that self same song. He sang along a little while he waited for Franz to return from the bathroom. "The hills are alive with the sound of music...the songs they have sung for a thousand years...the hills something some something sound of music, something some...once more..."
"Hate that song." Franz muttered as he entered, just as Ursa opened his mouth to correct the healer on the lyrics. The Australian closed his mouth again. "Tell me, Evan-,"
"Richard."
"What exactly is it you need me to do?"
"Several things. We'll pay you back in whatever amount you feel is fair. Firstly, the whereabouts of the Grotesquery. We need to find it and see if your...disposition...can destroy it..."
"That wasn't part of the plan." Ursa interrupted.
"Not originally, no. Then we'll discuss the next part of our plan. Mainly because Phillipa up there was an unexpected factor and we can't kill him...and Garnet's an unexpected factor as well...and we don't need you to break our friend out anymore..."
Franz listened with mock-interest.

-----

Charles opened the front door, grinning, and reached for the light switch. He flicked it a few times to find there had been a power cut. Looking out across the road, he found the neighbours' lights were out as well. With a sigh, he scaled the stairs. Perseus dumped his stuff by the front door and slammed it shut. There was some movement upstairs that he assumed was Charles until he heard the scuffle. When he looked, he could easily tell the difference between the lighter, smaller figure of Charles and the taller, slender, darker figure of the intruder. "Need a hand?" He called up, startling the intruder. Evidently he had been under the impression that the detective had been alone. Charles got him in a headlock.
"I'm doing fine, Percy. Just a little reluctant to release my Gist on the kid." The 'kid' collapsed.

The power was back on when the kid woke up again. He was shackled to a plastic kiddie chair. He had dark brown hair, smooth, silky and wavy to his chin and green-grey eyes. He had a few familiar traits to him. Charles couldn't place him, but he did look familiar, as though they'd met before. "Morning, kid."
"Let me go, pig."
The detective took a seat opposite the boy. Perseus stood beside the boy's chair. He was about 20 appearance wise. His biological age was a mystery. "My name is Detective Fiable. What's yours?"
The kid spat at him. Fiable, to his credit, didn't so much as flinch.
"The sooner you answer my questions, the sooner you may go."
He sighed. "Leandre Luxueux."
Charles hesitated. "That name sounds...a little familiar..."
Leandre shrugged.
"Okay, so you broke into my home..."
"I was looking for something."
"For what? Files? Belongings? Shelter?"
Leandre stayed quiet.
"Are you just some poor kid with no home or are you an anarchist or are you working for someone? If I get you in trouble, I'll make sure you're protected."
"Or imprisoned."
"Eh, if it means Mevolent doesn't kill you."
He narrowed his eyes. "I don't work for Mevolent."
"Leandre, you're going into a cell anyway, so why not tell me why you're here?" He examined the boy's face closely, difficult when he still lacked his glasses. He looked like someone he knew, but he wasn't. One of his dead friends' eldest children had taken the name Leandre. Jasmin's and Enrageant's eldest kids were girls. Hiver-Horloge had had a child, but Leandre looked nothing like him. That left Jalousie, and it sort of fit. Leandre could well have been Jalousie's Leandre. Leandre remained quiet, so Charles decided to ask. "Did I know your father?"
"I don't know. Did you?"
"You look like a Necromancer I knew. A scholar."
Leandre arched an eyebrow. "Maybe."
"He was married to another Necromancer."
"My parents weren't Necromancers."
"No?"
"No."
After a while, Charles sighed and sat back. "You're lying. I can see it in your eyes. They're her eyes. Amour's. But I can see a bit of Jalousie in them as well."
Leandre wet his lips nervously. "You were his friend, weren't you?"
Charles nodded solemnly. "Not a close one...in fact, he told me I was his least favourite of everyone in the group, but a friend nonetheless."
He suddenly looked terrified. "Let me go. Please let me go."
"You broke into my house and assaulted me."
"I'm sorry! Please let me go!"
Charles sat back, raising an eyebrow. "Are you scared of me, Leandre?"
He swallowed and said nothing.
"What's scary about me, Leandre? What's so frightening about meeting your father's old friends?"
He shook his head. "Please let me go..."
"Leandre Luxueux, you are under arrest for assault on a Sanctuary official."
"Please! No!"
"I'll take you to the Sanctuary and then you'll never see me again, okay?"
Leandre said nothing.

-----

The hotel seemed nice. The bed was comfy, the walls were a nice colour, everything was clean and it had a very pleasant smell. A baking smell. Memphis liked it. It was dark and he had just finished brushing his teeth and he already knew tonight would be a bad night. He was in Ireland and Lord Vile wanted him dead. He was pretty damn terrified. His mind was playing tricks on him. He kept seeing movements that never were in the shadows and almost having panic attacks. River was woken up multiple times by his tossing and turning.

It turns out his paranoia wasn't without justification. It wasn't Lord Vile lurking in the shadows though...

((...so apparently I'm actually intolerant to something ingestible...huh...interesting...oh, I'm now part of a magical thing called study leave, so now I have more time to revise, write, relax, eat things that might make me sick because so much stuff has gluten in it...I was interrupted when writing Ricky's speech, so I forgot what I was going to write, so I'm moving things along to my spoiler storage chapos...hoorah!))

Mindy Almaz: Isn't Something Missing?

IN THE PAST

Mindy held the knife against Double's neck and glared at Zinaida, who still held the box firmly. "You hit me with your mind, she dies."

"Mindy.. I should've known." Zinaida's face creased in...not surprise, not hurt, but...disappointment? Ha, that was likely. Ever since that Effie had come along, Anna hadn't cared a fig about training the more advanced of the two apprentices. Effie was just an upstart weakling, couldn't Anna see that? 

"Yes, you should have." The words came out short and harsh. Mindy didn't care if Anna was disappointed in her, Zinaida wasn't her mentor anymore. Serpine would do a much better job.

To her credit, Zinaida stayed mostly calm, not letting her body language give away her next move, but Mindy knew she was going to rescue the girl. "Hand it over. My patience is wearing thin." she dug the knife a bit deeper, drawing a thin line of blood. Anna looked at Effie for a moment, then nodded. 
Mindy felt her prisoner twitch slightly and looked down. She gasped in horror as she saw the river of blood gushing from Effie's neck.
*****

In that moment, a thousand thoughts flashed through her mind. Time ran in slow motion. Who was she to be doing this? How did she know that Anna didn't...? Why was she even fooling herself for a second? Anna didn't care anymore, not like she once did. Effie didn't care either, never had. It didn't matter that her neck was gushing blood, Mindy didn't care! And yet she jumped back anyway, dropping the knife in shock. That wasn't a tear streaking down her face, it was...sweat or something. She didn't care, wouldn't care. Why bother? Nobody cared back. Of course they didn't, they were spies, better spies than Mindy would ever be. Heck, she didn't want to be one of them anymore. She wasn't heartless enough. She was even considering attempting to save Effie, when Eff and the blood vanished.

*****

She looked around as the white-hot anger began to build up in her head. Just because I'm not heartless like you doesn't mean you can do that to me! Taking advantage of the fact that she cared, well Mindy would make sure that never happened again! A quick glance around the room showed that Anna was nowhere to be seen as well. That didn't mean they weren't there, though. She would track them down, she would. And then she would take the box and return it to Serpine, who would actually recognize her work, not brush her aside. And then at that moment, a sudden impulse took over, and she turned back to the treasure room, not looking for the box this time, but for something else. And they think I care, they think I'm weak. They'll see their mistake soon enough.

(A/N: Okay, this chapter really deviated from my plans. I may delete this post and redo it if I can't work with it from here, consider yourself warned. Oh, gosh, Mindy is scaring me in my head! For reasons I'll not say. :-P)