Order of Business

These vampires are actually very nice, Jenn thought as she tried casually to adjust the corset to allow a little more room to breath. The red and black whalebone contraption and the flowing skirts underneath it were all gifts from the small French woman Belle Morte. Just thinking about Belle's pale soft skin brought a slight blush to her cheeks. She had needed help to understand all of the petticoats and undergarments and such and Belle's instruction had ended up with her laying naked underneath the master vampire while she fed from her neck.
She glanced at Marcus sitting next to her as he was scrambling to respond to the grilling the council was giving them all. Marcus had become very important to her in such a short amount of time. Every single time one of the councilors came to her, touched her, fed from her, or grunted on top of her, she thought as she looked at Padma, her Marc Antony was there keeping her calm with his magic touch. She idly caressed the six separate bite marks on her neck and shoulders. The loss of that much blood in a single day had almost caused her nasty little slayer to come roaring out, but again her Marcus had helped her to battle that demon back into it's cave.
The guard captain that had been making eyes and stealing little caresses from her for two days now was just ordered from the room and left in a rage. She turned to watch him leave and hoped that it wasn't that serious, whatever was wrong, because he was very kind to her and she enjoyed the game between them when Marcus wasn't looking.

Hearing her friend's name mentioned, her attention darted back to the council. "What did you just call her?!" she interrupted, causing all of them to stare at her.

"Keep your pet quiet, Antony," Belle commanded.

"What did you just call my friend?" she demanded, Marcus's touch fervently rubbing circles on her bare shoulder.

"I do not need to answer to you, Valkyrie, but Belle Morte can be courteous," Belle responded, perplexed as to the girl's anger. "All I said was to ask how the negress was developing." .

"NEGRESS! My friend is not a negress!" she yelled, resisting as Marc was trying to turn her face so he could look into her eyes.

"I meant no insult. That is not an insult."

"Well," Morte D'Amour responded, "actually in modern America it is considered an insult. The appropriate term is, I believe African American if you wish to be formal or simply Black if not."

"Is it not more of an insult to assume all dark skinned people are of African descent when it is not true in the least?" She glared at Morte until the praetor rang his gavel again.

"We are straying from the proper path." Cicero looked at the Slayer and caught her attention. "Valkyrie, no one was insulting the woman Rami. Obviously, she is a fine friend and a wonderful partner to you." He pushed more of his power through his servant and he could feel her anger crumbling.

"Alright then, and why do you keep calling me that name?" Jenn asked as the last resistance gave way and Marc's magic touch filled her mind and soothed her emotions.

"You will be quiet now, unless spoken to. Valkyrie is the name that the council has given you. By edict, the Masters have decided to keep you and eventually you may be made vampire." Turning from the blond girl in the very distracting corset, Cicero addressed the rest of the council. "This episode serves to illuminate just how tenuous the control over her is. The slightest amount of anger fuels the slayer and takes more energy each time to sedate it. The black female," he said, glancing at Valkyrie, "is proving to be resistant to any of our gazes. It is my opinion that these slayers are not the newborns that we had hoped to capture, and this mistake, by my own captain may prove to be even more costly than the vampires that were lost on the mission. I have ordered Captain al Bandi to capture the other one's mind at all costs."

"And if her mind cannot be taken?" the Dragon, still clearly angry at the loss of Gaskar, a servant that had worshiped her for more than twenty centuries, spoke with clearly apparent hatred.

"Then I would move a vote as to her termination," Cicero replied, quickly turning to watch the slayer's reaction, but Marcus had her so enthralled with his groping of her corset-offered globes that she missed the comment. Once the negress was dealt with, then they would have to find a permanent way to keep the blond under control, he thought, wondering about the three options that were before the Council now: Padma's desire to make her a tigress, The Dragon's demand to turn her into a vampire immediately, and Belle's surprising offer to mark her as a servant. Unfortunately all three options would remove any chance to keep her as a blood cow, he thought, mournful of the loss of such wonderful power-laden blood. No, the Slayers were proving too hard to control to be kept for mere cattle, and if their Queen Buffy or the Dark Knight Faith that Valkyrie was so enamored of, were to come to the Forum, how would they be stopped?

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The sound of Kabuki's meaty fists battering the child became like music to Captain Maruk al Bandi's mind. The large Japanese weretiger was covered from bald head to the waist of his jeans in colorful tattoos so that it seemed like they could hypnotize you if you watched them too closely, he thought as he finally stepped forward to stop Padma's goon from killing her. She was chained with the heaviest chain that they had in the forum dungeons. Her wrists and ankles were stretched apart, suspending her half-naked body in the middle of the small stone room and the slight but constant red stream of her blood seeped from where it was dripped onto the floor into a large drain directly under her. Maruk grabbed her chin to raise her battered and bloody face. She tried to bite him and he backhanded her causing another stream of blood to spit out all over Meyer's Marine Corps tee-shirt this time. As the American swore and tried to keep the blood from staining, Maruk snarled in her face and described to her the sensations that she was soon to feel.

"Go fuck yourself, you pin-dick fagg..," she spat out before his fist knocked her senseless. As she woke back up, she could feel Wanna-be-Osama feeding from her neck as his hand painfully clawed at her breast. She waited for him to finish, and when he pulled back slightly she put everything she had into a headbutt, catching him right on the bridge of the nose and busting his face wide open. She stayed conscious while he beat her and managed a gruesome broken toothed smile when he finally stormed out of the room.

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"Eleven," Buffy said as she laid her exhausted head back against Haven's chest.

"Eleven what, Babe?" he replied, rubbing his hands up and down her arms as she reclined between his legs in the large bubble-bath in her company penthouse.

"People who've died that I was responsible for, and are now buried in the Company's cemetery," she said with so little emotion that her fiancee was worried for her.

"We're not there yet, lover."

"I know, I just said that so you'll know it's not all wine and roses with me. Sometimes being around me is going to suck big-time and you should know that before we go too far." She was luxuriating in the feel of his massage, especially after not having slept at all for three days running.

Haven gently turned her face to look at him. "Listen to me, Buffy Anne Summers," he said seriously. "We've already gone too far, the wedding is just a ceremony. We're a team and I love you. Although wine and roses is a little funny, more like cheeseburgers and mocha lattes." His voice trailed off as they drifted into a long kiss before she turned back and he continued his massage. "Any news at all?" he asked softly as he brushed her hair with his fingers and started vibrating her body with his rumbling purr.

"No, we did an audit on the off-world missions compared to the sign-out sheet and Willow is now looking for other entrances to the Shadow Roads. She thinks that they have to be off-world because the suped-up locator spells keep failing, though that doesn't explain why they didn't work that morning when we know now that they were at that motel the whole first day."
She started, realizing that the sneaky bastard was trying to lull her asleep with his delicious purring. "Stop that! I can't fall asleep yet, I've got an FBI meeting to go to in an hour and I shouldn't even have let you drag me into this bathtub, my girls are out there."

"Babe, if you fall dead from exhaustion, you can't help anyone," He said still rumbling the warm sounds from his chest.

"They're getting raped! We found Rami's blood in the bathtub so we think Jenn was assaulted on the bed." The emotion came now and tears streamed down her face.

He wrapped his powerful arms around her tightly and pulled her closer to him. "Bad things happen to all of us, Buffy. All that matters is that we live through it. To survive is the only way to win in those situations. No one knows how to survive more than a Slayer, and we'll find them. I've got experience with rapists and blow-torches and when the time comes we'll make these bastards hurt a lot worse than what your slayers had to live through." The deep rumbling voice, the powerful arms that guaranteed safety, and that invasive purr all conspired together to cause the weary slayer to slip off into a much needed sleep.

She missed the FBI meeting.

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Thank god and the Marine Corps that it wasn't the other girl that he had to do this to. She really did remind him of his beautiful daughter Julie. Well, Russel Jacob Meyer didn't exist anymore and he'd never get to see Julie again, if she was lucky, he thought as he pressed his body to the black girl while Maruk held her face, trying to force her mind. The Corps had taught him that all people were the same, no matter their color, but he had never had much use for the blacks. Though he was sure that his long dead mother, who was very racist, even if she didn't realize it, would have been ashamed of him for what he did now. "Unh unnh unnnhgh..." He dumped his load in her and stepped out from behind her.

Maruk focused all of his formidable energy on her eyes and pushed with all of it as the American finished raping her. He thought that he almost had her, but she raised her swollen eyes and her battered face actually smiled.

"That...all you got?" she said, the words slurring through her bloody mouth. Her slayer rose up and cast him away again.

"You are very impressive, too impressive in fact," he said as he knelt and pulled her pants up and secured them around her waist, covering her helplessness. She had earned that much, he thought as he watched her eyes drift shut. "You do understand that your friend lives in comfort, has a whole staff dedicated to her every wish? She has to suffer no pain, no degrading tortures."

"At what cost?" The beaten girl's face came alive with anger.

"She has come to realize that this world is now your home for eternity," he said staring into her eyes. "She has only made the best possible deal that she could for herself."

"Ya, why don't you cut the puppet strings and then see what she does for herself," she snarled back at him, showing more life than even when she was being assaulted. He reached out and brushed the hair from her eyes before carefully leaning in to kiss her forehead.

"How fiercely you defend your friend. If you can't be controlled, you'll be killed, and she'll be with us forever alone. And if the news of your death causes her to break free then she'll be killed also. Wouldn't it be better for both of you to just give in, just let me in your mind? I wont let them strip away your humanity. Survive long enough and eventually you might even catch us all by surprise and the two of you might escape. If you're dead, you have no chance for any of that." He gently wiped the dried blood off of her face as he continued, "It doesn't have to be like this, Rami. Life or death, comfort and a future versus pain and the cold finality of death. Is there no one in your life that you'd do this for, so you could survive and see them again?" He brushed softly at her tears and glared over her head at Kabuki who was unbuckling his belt. "We are all going to leave you for awhile, Rami. Take the time to decide if it's going to be your last moment of peace and hope before death or you could decide to let me help you, give you a chance to fight again in the future." He used both hands to gently turn her face towards him and was heartened when she let him do it. "I am a good man, Rami. Give yourself to me and I swear to you that I wont let you be abused again, not by anyone. The first vampire to open your mind has the best chance to control you but the council might grow tired of my failed efforts. There are others that would take your mind and destroy you a piece at a time. You will either die or someone will eventually take you. Chose for yourself, Rami, chose to live and chose me. I greatly admire your friend and I would see the two of you together again." With that he kissed her and she didn't fight it. He kissed the tears on her face and slowly pulled away. "Goodbye, Miss Carlyle, use the remaining time well." He bowed to her and ushered the others out before he left and the sound of the door locking made her wince.

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Latoya Carlyle would not cry. Crying never solved anything. She tried to give her resolve to Pamela Hawser as the two mothers of missing teenage girls sat together with Dawn and her team of therapists in the SDW Family Services Office. Jim Hawser wasn't doing much better than his sobbing wife, he was on his feet demanding more from the obviously exhausted Mrs.Harris. After the third time that Jim mentioned that his daughter was probably getting molested, causing both his wife and his twelve year old son Tim to cry harder, Mama had enough.

"Now you just sit down and shut up, Jim," she commanded, startling everyone in the room. "It doesn't mean a god-damned thing whatever these girls are going through until we get them back. These people here love our kids and they are doing everything that can possibly be done to find them. Jenn and Rami love each other and will keep each other alive. We will get them back and then we can help them through whatever happened, but stop talking about it. All that does is get everyone upset about things we can't affect anyway."

Nodding, Jim sat back into his chair and hugged his wife while squeezing his son's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding his own tears in.

"No reason to be sorry. Jenn and Rami are warriors, they're Slayers, and I work around hundreds of them everyday. They look like little girls, act like little girls and sometimes have little girl fears but inside, there is strength. There is more strength and resolve in each and every one of these kids than anyone could ever imagine. I thank god that Rami became a Slayer. Sure it's dangerous and things like this can happen but my little girl will never be anyone's victim. She might endure cuts and scrapes to her body and even to her soul but she will never break. She will never know what it's like to live in fear of an abusive husband." The tears were now slipping unwanted down her cheeks, causing Pamela and Dawn to come gather her in a hug.
"Neither of them will ever be victims." She broke the hug and sat back down. Truth be told, she thought to herself, she wasn't that worried about the Ram, her pet name for her hard headed daughter, sure, she was concerned, but the force of will that the Ram had was awe-inspiring. No, she was more worried about her little Snowflake, her all but legally adopted daughter Blake. Rami would come through this, carrying Jenn on her back if she had to, but Blake was softer than they were. She had all the power of a slayer and was a big-time witch on top of that but there was something innocent inside of her and all Mama could do when they told her that they were now looking for Blake as well, was to pray that Snowflake would come through this with her innocence intact. She wouldn't lose Rami and the Hawsers wouldn't lose Jenn and she sure as hell wouldn't lose Blake either.
Mama believed that the strength of will could move mountains...Well those mountains better be getting nervous, she thought with a determined smile.

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"What are you doing?" Faith stepped out of the darkness and asked Blake as the younger girl was bathed in her trademark golden flames.

"Oh...Hi, Faith," she answered, hoping that Faith somehow didn't notice the flaming landscape behind her.

Walking around the girl, Faith looked at the clearing in the woods outside of Seattle. Blake had four big demon corpses tied to trees spread out around the area. A circle of golden flame traced the lines between the demons and they and the trees they were tied to were fully ablaze. "So tell me they were dead before you lit them on fire."

"They were dead," she lied, it was always easy to tell if Blake was lying.

"Okay." Faith sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, I just had this thought that I could find them with this spell," the slayer-witch answered as the golden flames still danced along her shoulders.

"How did you know this spell?"

"I don't know, it's an old Viking spell though," she said with building excitement.

"Are you an old Viking?" Faith asked as she watched runners of flame weave burning lines toward the center of the clearing.

"Umm...no?" The flames burst into a doorway in the center and the four clearly dead demons howled in anger anyway.

"I'm going through, you go find Willow and do this again," Faith commanded as the four demons disintegrated and the doorway started to waver.

"No! I'm coming with you!" Blake screamed and the two Slayers stared at each other for a moment before Faith looked over her head.

"Hey, Buffy," she said, causing Blake to whip around.

Later after Blake woke up and found a mirror, she could see the imprint of Faith's boot-laces on the side of her face.

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Faith ran for the portal and dove through just as it snapped shut. She rolled to a stop and was immediately clipped by a city bus, launching her back into a pile of garbage bags. "Son of a Bitch!" she yelled at the bus driver who didn't even bother to stop.
"Blake! Remind me to kick your ass when I get back," she growled as she staggered to her feet and checked herself for injuries, before limping out of the alley and looking around. "Holy shit, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." She looked at a landmark that she recognized. "Unless this is a really cool Hell dimension, I'm in Paris. Yay me!" she announced with sarcasm as she looked at the Eiffel tower all lit up in the night sky.

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"Hey, Giles, It's Kennedy. Did Faith go off-world again?"

"No, why?" he responded as he double checked his reply with the Big Board.

"Because I just became the official Slayer," she answered with a dark quality to her words.

"Oh Dear."