Author's Comments: I'm back! Keeping Season 15 going after my last story, Too Close. I am having trouble thinking of anything but SVU until the premier, so I feel compelled to return to fanfic to relieve the tension. Am I the only one here who counts the time not only in days, but also hours and minutes? I feel like such a patsy sometimes. I should be perfecting my own original WIP's.

This one's a little different, but I think you'll like it, Olivia gets her mojo back, but her actions are still very much affected by Lewis. She and Elliot are still together, but will they be for much longer? Circumstances beyond Elliot's control may rip Olivia away from him for good this time. No spoilers so far, well except "Her Negotiation", of course. And if anyone wants to go back and read my version of "Surrender Benson," it's entitled Twenty-Four.

Rebel in the Dark

Chapter One

Part 1.

The bathroom—the ultimate equalizer—would be Dale Carter's undoing. As he rose from the stool on night-weary legs at a quarter 'til four, a figure stepped out of a shadow and he went down on one knee as something hard cracked against his temple. "What the-?" he cried out, bringing a hand to his bloody head as he steadied himself.

But within seconds, another blow, this time to his back, knocked the wind out of him, and he lay prone, smelling the urine from the spot where he had missed the toilet repeatedly over the years. Mixed with it were other odors, probably sweat and vomit and blood, from his exploits with various reluctant underage participants in his forbidden sex games.

He tried to look up, but his eyes never had adjusted to the darkness—he preferred to walk around with the lights out in his house, because it reminded him that he was the emperor of this abode. A woman's voice came from the form standing above him, and said, "Don't move, you bastard. If you do you will get a bullet through the head right now."

As if to prove her point, the woman held out an object, and by its silhouette he could tell it was a gun. It didn't matter the manufacturer or the caliber—all guns had the potential to end a life at this range. "Roll over on your back," said the woman.

Dale couldn't help but be angry, even when expressing that anger may cost him dearly. Even though he was no taller than her, he was portly and yet muscular, and he was not afraid of much. "What the fuck?" he said. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm your fucking Freddy Krueger," she said with poison in her voice, and it took him a moment to understand the joke—he lived on Elm street. But given the paucity of laughter, he knew she should not be taken lightly. She continued through clenched teeth. "My name is Olivia Benson, and you've fucked with the wrong person's daughter."

Part 2.

They say you become whatever has been inflicted upon you, but Olivia did not believe that entirely. And yet here she was, preparing to torture the man on the floor before her. Maybe not the same way Lewis had tortured her, and for very different reasons, but she was sure the sadistic urges within her rivaled Lewis' in intensity.

"I need you to sit up," she said, her tone controlled and even. Instead, he tried to swipe her feet out from under her with his arm, but she had the advantage of more minutes awake in this dark space, allowing her eyes more time to adjust to the scarce light. She easily hopped out of his reach, and kicked him in the face with her boot.

"Aw! Godammit!" he said, and she could tell from his new lisp that she had knocked at least one tooth out.

While he recovered from the fresh injury, she reached down and swiped a nine-inch serrated knife across the back of his neck, and he howled. Now he was furious, and he scuttled toward her on his hands and knees, but she easily leapt back out of his way. She kicked him again, her foot making satisfying contact with his face, and said, "You ready to cooperate? Or do I have to knock you out?"

"Okay, okay," he whispered through heavy breaths. "What do you want me to do?"

"Put your hands behind your back," she said. He did what she asked and she cuffed his hands together, and then helped him to his feet.

"You a cop?" he asked, his eyes wide. "Why are you—"

"Don't worry about it," she said, guiding him to a chair and directing him to sit. She duct taped his hands to the chair, and added a piece to cover his mouth, saying, "These things won't concern you when you're dead."

Beads of sweat began to drip down his balding forehead, and she said, "You get off on raping little girls, don't you?" He shook his head furiously, and tried to mumble through the tape over his mouth. She pulled up a chair across from him and leaned forward, her lips pulled back into a grimace. "Remember Jessie?"

She stared at his terrified face, and hesitated for just one second as a flash of doubt tried to make its way to the forefront of her psyche. Brushing it away as she remembered what he had done, she put down the gun so she could focus on the knife. Stabbing it down into his crotch as he let out a muffled scream, she said, "She'll never be the same again, because of you." Her voice triumphant, she said, "And now, neither will you."

Without looking down at the damage she had inflicted, she wrenched the knife out of his flesh and the chair behind it, and rammed it, parallel to the floor this time, straight into his crotch again. He let out several heaving squeals, music to her ears. A part of her, deep within her, wondered what had happened to the old Olivia, the one who would not cross this line. But she knew the answer—that part of her had disappeared with Lewis, when she realized that there were sadistic sick bastards who would do anything, anything, to inflict as much pain as they could on another human being, and masturbate themselves to ecstasy while doing it.

Her actions would mean one less heartless bastard who could damage a young child on this Earth. But what about her—would she become just another unfeeling asshole to replace him? She had to think that it was worth it, if it meant another girl could live her life carefree, without having to worry about a monster stealing her joy.