Page was waiting by Reaver's mansion when Tallusa skipped into view. She did a double take; Tallusa was actually…skipping. Huh. She had never seen a 25-year-old woman skip so happily, almost as though she was glad to be going where she was going.
"Gooooooooood morning, Page," Tallusa trilled, and Page realised, will a mental face-palm, that Tallusa was in fact delighted. Why else would she greet her with of 'good' made of so many 'o's?
"Mmm, that dress really suits you," Page enthused, attempting to distract her jovial friend. "Really brings out the colour in your eyes. Shall we?" Having filled her quota of compliments for the day, Page returned to the task at hand.
"Why not?" Tallusa replied, beaming, and they walked into the mansion.
"Bit late, aren't you?" asked a ginger butler, upon their appearance through the door. "You've missed half the rituals and all the drinking. All we've got left is fizzy pop."
"We apologise," Page said smoothly.
"Oh yeah? Well if you just give us the password, we'll forget all about it, all right?"
Tallusa realised, as her brain processed the necessity for a password, that this ginger guy with heterochromia and weird hair did in fact have a speech impediment that rendered all his r's into w's. N'aww, her brain gushed stupidly, as Page got flustered.
"The…password?" she asked, a little scared.
"Nah! I'm just pulling your leg! Come on in!" guffawed the butler. He began to move towards the stairs, where Tallusa had spotted a reveller emptying out the contents of his stomach. "Master Reaver will be happy to have a few more conscious people around for the final ceremony. I wasn't joking about the fizzy pop, though. These lightweights drank the lot. There's probably some cooking sherry left in the kitchen, if you're desperate. No? Don't blame you. Never touch the stuff myself-well, except in the mornings of course." They walked along quietly, and Tallusa, lost in thought, barely heard the words 'nice orgy', before Page was barking at him to keep moving.
"Of course, of course, you'll have to pardon me miss. I do have a habit of spouting the odd vulgarity. Master Reaver has often brought out his whip to rectify that very flaw in my character."
They reached a door and the man stopped.
"It's just this way. Oh, you'll have such fun! Well, not drinks and orgies fun, you know, but it'll be a real laugh, I'm sure. Now there are some ground rules. Master Reaver insists that nobody carries weapons in the ballroom. There have been some accidents before," he added.
"I'm afraid I need to keep mine," Page said firmly. "I'm here to find some friends."
Very smooth, Page, Tallusa's brain (this thing does most of the talking, to be honest,) remarked dryly. Why don't you go telling him that we're here to free some rebels too?
"Oh!" The man exclaimed, "you're the brave noble rebels!"
BUGGER, the combined brains of Tallusa and Page swore.
"Why didn't you say so? I'm an oppressed proletarian myself! We're practically comrades!"
Yeah right, Page's brain hissed.
"If you just go through these doors, you can sneak past the party and rescue your fellow revolutionaries." Page and Tallusa's brow rose at the same time.
You're about as trustworthy as a dead cat, Tallusa's mind told him. They walked through the door anyway.
"There's one of my men! Kidd! Are you alright?" Page gasped, seeing nothing less than Arthur Kidd yanking at the bars of a cage as they entered the room.
"Get out! Now!" he begged.
"Where are the others?"
"All dead! Reaver knew you'd come! He's been waiting for you!" Kidd revealed. The cage began to lift.
"What?" Page asked, confused.
"I'll get him out," Tallusa growled, and, pulling on the bars, she attempted to pick the lock.
"My, my, my! More busy little bees here to steal Reaver's honey! So industrious! So committed! So bloody annoying!"
Page looked up to see Reaver himself, decked in his usual white clothes, wearing a purple mask and surrounded by people.
"When will you people learn to enjoy life?" Reaver spat, shaking his fist at them.
"I'll enjoy killing you, does that count?" Page replied harshly.
"Oh my, you're just full of spunk, aren't you? A true heroine. You must be lightning under the bed sheets," Reaver commented dryly. Page flushed beneath her mask. "And now, as promised, the evening's piece de la resistance-another piece of the resistance," Reaver announced; the second part was said as an off-hand comment to two people beside him, who laughed. "Voila!" declared Reaver, and Tallusa registered the crank of a lever before Kidd's cage was hoisted further into the air.
As Tallusa failed to pick the lock and dropped down, the first thing that registered in her brain was 'Ohmigosh there are two gay people there!' For sure enough, two men were having a cuddle beside Reaver.
"Do try to put on a good show for my guests, won't you?" simpered Reaver.
"Show? You expect us to entertain you?" Page spat.
"But of course!" Reaver said patronisingly. "It's just a game, my little sweet."
"The wheel of misfortune! It's rather simple; I spin, you die, we watch. Really, it's a riot!"
Ah hell, the combined thoughts of Tallusa and Page swore.
Seven rounds of mayhem, carnage and rather stupid commentaries later, Page and Tallusa were gasping, and Page was glaring daggers at Reaver.
"You half-wits! You've ruined everything! You were supposed to die! Instead, this game lingers on, and my guests grow…restless."
Hatch, gazing pervertedly at a female guest, slithered over to her.
"No need to get restless, sweetheart, Barry Hatch is here to take care of you! Fancy a quick jig?" He patted her on the arse and twirled her around.
Oh crap, Tallusa thought, eyes widening, as she and Page watched the woman's eyes turn yellow, and dangerous teeth grow from her jaws. They blinked and-
"Arrgh! Reaver!"
"Oh you simpletons, do you have any idea how hard it is to get good hired help these days?" Turning to Page and Tallusa, he smirked. "What's the point of a secret society without a little secret, after all?" he purred.
The guests turned into Balverines before their shocked eyes.
"What are they?" Page whispered.
"Balverines!" Tallusa replied.
The Balverines were finished off with little to no difficulty on Tallusa's part.
"Well, I must say, you've made me out to be a rather poor host. Rather rude of you to dispose of my guests."
"Now it's your turn," Page hissed, and shot at him before Tallusa could jump on her gun. Reaver merely deflected the bullet.
"Oh my dear girl, why not stop all this unpleasantness and go up to my quarters? The three of us could have a private party," Reaver suggested.
"Do you have any idea who this is?" Page snapped angrily. "It's Logan's sister, the princess."
"The king's sister, a bona fide Hero. Well, I'd never come between such public sibling rivalry…well that's not strictly true, there was that one time…anyway, have fun with this revolutionary lark! Tatty bye!"
"Reaver!" Page swore, and then her mouth dropped. Tallusa had force pushed her way up to the platform Reaver was walking away from.
"Oi!" she heard Tallusa say, and watched her running down the corridor and heard her tackling the deviant to the floor.
"Tallu, my dear, what exactly would your rebel friend say?" Reaver's voice drifted down the passage.
"I want to talk to you, Reaver! I've missed you, you great lemon." Page's eyes bulged out of her forehead. Lemon? The rebel princess had just called Reaver a lemon?
"Very well, we shall talk. Could you dismiss your revolutionary friend?"
"Let Kidd out of the cage and you've got a deal, Reaver."
"Ah, you amazing child! Learned everything from me about haggling deals."
"And I'm damn proud of the fact!"
Page watched the cage being lowered and shot open the lock. Kidd scrambled out the door and they fled from the mansion.