The room was dimly lit. The only sounds were the pleading whispers of the prisoner trapped. Tied to a chair, his fate imprinted into his mind. There were two others in the room. Neither of them knew his name, neither of them cared.

"Please... Please you can't do this. I have a wife. I have kids. I need to live." He pleaded. The figure in the corner of the room shook his head. The woman in the room was the only one to notice the subtle movement of the tall, lanky man.

"Do it, Sister. We're all up and motherfucking waiting." The man from the corner stated, crossing his arms while he stepped further into the light of the blub swinging loosely on the string. In the low lighting, it was hard to tell the room was already coated in blood. "Make it good."

She took in a deep breath. She had to kill this man, this innocent man. Take him away from his wife and kids. For what? So she could live and keep on killing? Stealing. Dealing all for the name of the Makaras?

Then again, if she didn't kill him, the man in the room - the youngest of the Makara family - wouldn't hesitate to kill her or the man he had dragged in from the street. What choice did she have?

Gamzee tapped his foot impatiently, his arms crossed over his chest while he studied the blonde girl. His best friends girlfriend. Wanted to be a recruit. She was smart, cunning, brave. But if she couldn't kill this man and fully be initiated it would be the end of her life. If she couldn't join the business, well, she knew too much then.

"C'mon, Vris... He's waitin'" A goofy grin took up the juggalo's face, watching as the girl slowly made her way towards the guy. What was his name? He recalled getting it from him, but it had long since floated away from his mind.

"Please. Just let me go. Let me go and I won't say a word, I promise." It was a lie, both Gamzee and Vriska knew it the second he said it. It wouldn't matter if he told anyways, the cops all around the country knew well of the Makara's, but there was far too many team mates for the government to shut them down. Not yet.

"If I don't kill you, they'll just kill both of us." Her voice was calm and steady. Gamzee was actually surprised she wasn't flat out panicking like most did when they were put on the spot for the first time. Even his best friend took on a panic and cried. He smiled at the memory.

Vriska made her way closer to the nameless face. A low whisper of her apology escaped her lips. Gamzee didn't hear. But he did hear the blade was holding rip through the skin of his throat. He heard the man cough on his own blood. The blood splattering on her clothing and the floor.

"Well, that was anti-motherfucking-climatic, but good enough." He walked over to her, thumping her on the back in the most affectionate of ways. Though, to her it felt more like a punch. "Clean up and go. You're in, kid." His use of the word kid was more than unwanted, but she said nothing in argument. In fact, Vriska stood silently until he left the room and went to work on cleaning. She wasn't sure what exactly he had meant on cleaning, but she settled for untying the lifeless body and laying him down to rest gently. She closed his eyes and folded his arms neatly. Not giving him a second look, she left.

Vriska changed her clothes and quickly rushed out of the building. God she did not want to spend another second in that horrible place. Her clothes changed and free of blood, she ran into the alley separating the warehouse. The New York base for the Makara's business, and whatever shitty apartment building was on the other side, and ran right at the man waiting for her.

He was dressed strangely formally for someone working in a sort of mafia. Always dressed like a gentleman in the full suit and tie combination. Vriska's arms flew around him engulfing him in a tight hug.

Karkat didn't wait a second to hug his girlfriend back, holding him tightly to him. He knew the protocol. He also knew she did it. He knew she would join the business at any circumstances just to keep them from getting separated, like when they were back home in California.

"I did it, Karkat... I did it." Vriska breathed out against his shoulder. His hand rubbed at the small of her back, holding her protectively.

"I know... It's okay.. You're okay..." His words were gentle. Weirdly gentle for him, but she was the only one to ever hear him speak so softly.

"I want to go home..." Her words were obvious, another thing he knew was coming. It seemed whenever something happened that upset her in the slightest, she wanted to go home and cuddle him up tightly. He didn't complain ever, especially not this time.

"We'll go right now. But, we'll have to pack before we get down to cuddling. We head out tomorrow." Karkat told her, which earned a slight groan from the slightly shorter girl. "Hey, hey, hey, don't give me that." He scowled her lightly, detaching her face from his shoulder to make her look at him. "We're going back to California." Vriska tried to hide it, but the smallest trace of a smile formed on her lips. He smirked. "Mhm, thought so. Besides, we have to meet with Captor-" Another groan, but he continued on. "Because he's working on the case in New York with us."

Vriska whined. Why couldn't they just go home and cuddle and maybe have sex all night? But no, they had to talk to Captor and his bitches and deal with packing and leaving and then the hours of driving and this job was really going to suck.

"Fine, let's go." Vriska sighed dramatically. He rolled his eyes and wrapped his arm around her, leading her home.

The peacefulness of their walk wasn't cut short, but rather the following events should have been expected. They probably lived in one of the worse parts of New York, and to Vriska, getting her ass grabbed on the street wasn't an unusual occurrence. But that didn't stop her from flinching and turning towards the guy who grabbed at her. He couldn't have been much older than 18.

"Watch your hands." Vriska hissed at him. The kid simply chuckled. Karkat then turned to see what had caused Vriska to stop. She could handle herself, but the laughter unsettled him.

"Hey, dude. I'll give you twenty bucks for the bitch and your tie." The kid smirked, offering the cash towards Karkat. But instead of getting laid by the Serket lady, he got laid by Karkat's jaw. Fucking up his jaw real bad.

"Watch your hands." Karkat repeated. Seething with the rage at how horribly some people treated women. His arm went back around Vriska, while he ignored the ache and bruising he was certain was forming in his knuckles, and walked off with her once more.

Vriska didn't say a word while they continued their way down to the apartment. Karkat knew he should have seen it coming, and he nearly slapped himself in the face when he saw Sollux Captor, already waiting outside of the building. What made it even less surprising is that he had one of his what could be hundreds of girls pressed against the wall, her legs spread while he grinded against her, her lips suctioned to his neck.

"Captor!" Karkat shouted, really quite the opposite of amused with the scene before him. "Let the woman go and if you're here to talk to me, actually do it." When Sollux pulled away from the girl, it was clear who it was. Aradia Megido.

Sollux was what could really only be described as a less famous Hugh Hefner essentially running his own Playboy Mansion on the side of working for the Makaras. He had two favourites, those two also working in the trade, ones who came everywhere with him when he was on work. Aradia Megido and Feferi Peixes.

"KK, nice to see you again. How are you?" The conversation starter was casual. Far too casual for a man who had a girl glued to his side and was most likely groping his ass.

"I'm doing perfectly fine. But, that's beside the point. What brings you here?" He wasn't about to put up with the usual bullshit that was spewed from his mouth. Oddly enough, if it wasn't for Gamzee, Sollux probably still would be his best friend. Just like in their high school days. He pushed those thoughts from his mind.

"Well, I guess this is only a business visit," Sollux shrugged a bit, seeming to pull Aradia closer. "And given those circumstances I think we should be having this conversation inside."

It took all of Vriska's willpower not to snicker at the sound of his lisp, and upon Sollux noticing this, he raised his eyebrows. She swallowed her laughter, and removed the key to the building from her pocket, unlocking it and leading the group up the stairs to her and Karkat's apartment.

"So, where's Feferi?" Vriska decided to start a small, casual conversation with Aradia, after all, what could it hurt? They were friends once upon a time.

"Oh its her turn at the whorehouse. Gamzee likes her and I when we come around, so each time we come, we switch. Last time she stayed with Sollux and I went, this time I get to stay." She hugged Sollux's arm tighter and kissed his neck, causing him to chuckle.

"As much as I would love to keep my girls to myself, Makara doesn't let me. Pains me to part with either one of them."

Karkat rolled his eyes and motioned for Aradia and Sollux to take their seat on the couch. The two of them looked around the dingy apartment with distaste, but said nothing. Vriska tried not to be too offended.

"So, what's going on that's so important you actually needed to talk to me?" Karkat would admit, he was fairly surprised Sollux would come all the way out here. He was one of the few who got to stay where the company started in good ol' California. Taking the trip out to New York really meant something was going to go down.

"The Ampora's are screwing themselves over." Sollux said simply. Which, no one in the room found surprising. But it did spark up concern in Vriska.

Yeah, sure she had dated both of the Ampora boys, but when her mom died and she wasn't with either of them, Dualscar (His name isn't actually Dualscar. More of a business name) took her in, treated her like his own daughter. She was barely 17 at the time and could not be more grateful for everything he did for her. He was her father as far as she was concerned.

"What are they doing?" Vriska asked, and Sollux raised an eyebrow towards her. Wondering why she was still even involved into the conversation.

"Uh, sorry, Vriska. This is business work. Makara work." He said simply, almost expecting her to leave until Karkat butted in.

"She joined."

Those words really did set Sollux back a bit. Mostly surprised that Karkat actually let her join. Hey, if she was even dating him she had to have some strong willpower and argumentation skills. He realized then she was going to be joining whether Karkat liked it or not.

"Well, alright, VK. Welcome to the team." He offered her a slight smile before returning into conversation. "You know how they ran the shipping area of the trade? Dualscar has been keeping the money. Making his own deals. Doing his own work behind their backs. We have to talk him out of it before they turn around and kill him."

That wasn't too surprising either. Ampora's were selfish, they'd stop at nothing to get what they wanted. If they wanted to do their own work, they were going to do it. There was no point in trying to stop them. Sollux seemed to think otherwise.

"That's your job, at least." Sollux continued, Karkat and Vriska nodded. Listening attentively. "I'm just the messenger. Since I had to come down here anyways. Have a job myself to do for Kurloz." He shrugged a bit.

Aradia, who had stayed silent the whole time, spoke up then. "Speaking of which, he's expecting us soon. And we still have to pick up Feferi. We should get going." Sollux nodded a bit. It was almost five o'clock and they had to meet him at five thirty.

"We'll be off. See you in California soon?" It wasn't as much of a question as it was a statement, but Karkat agreed, and the two set off.

Vriska and Karkat had a rather uneventful night of packing up for the next day, and Sollux and Aradia took their walk down to the warehouse to get Feferi and meet with Kurloz, the same man who grabbed at Vriska, also grabbing at Aradia. To which she barely flinched.

"Pathetic." Sollux muttered, shaking his head and leading her off. Not even giving him a second look.