A/N Gets down and bows head touching the ground. I apologise profusely for making you wait so long. Work was insane and I started watching some new anime which gave me ideas for about a zillion other stories, so my mind has been jumping from one to the next without actually finishing anything. So I am so sorry for the wait. Or if you don't care about the wait then I apologise for making you read, or at least scroll past my babbling apology.

PS All reviews are welcome and Gorgeous Carat isn't mine. (Though sometimes I wish Noir was.)

Broken...

Two Weeks Later . . .

"So he still won't come out of his room?"

Noir looked up at the woman standing in the doorway of his study, his eyes telling her the answer to her question. After the incident with Azura, Noir had sold his old home and relocated to London. He hoped to one day return to Paris, but wouldn't as long as Azura hunted Florian.

"Only to bathe and that worries me as well because he scrubs so hard he bleeds."

After escaping from the Midnight Rose, Noir and his companions hadn't even bothered returning to his home. They'd headed straight to the harbour and he'd sent Laila a message using a special code that they'd developed years ago. He spent an exorbitant amount of money getting the four of them passage on a ship leaving almost immediately for England. Laila and the rest of his men had followed later after packing up the house and selling the property along with most of the furniture. They had made port in a small fishing village a couple of hours from London, rented a carriage and had spent the night racing towards the crowded metropolis. While on the ship and in the carriage Florian had seemed to be in a daze but when the finally found themselves in one of London's most prestigious hotels it was if the reality of his escaped had finally hit him and he had spent the night sobbing in Noir's arms. Since that night, however, Florian had withdrawn into himself, rarely speaking. What disturbed Noir the most was the way that Florian flinched whenever Noir came near him and the fear that appeared in his eyes. Never before had his Amethyst looked at him in fear, not after he'd whipped his back bloody and not after Azura had hurt him the first time. What had changed to make Florian fear him now? Noir repeated this question over and over again in his mind, never reaching an answer.

Noir brought himself out of his thoughts as Lady Aly moved across the room. Her eyes seemed to pierce right through him, seeing all his secrets.

"How did he react the last time Azura had him?" She questioned, her voice soft as she brought up that painful subject.

"While it was going on he was being fed opium, so I don't know if it really sunk in what was occurring. There was one time, when he attacked Azura and after I reprimanded him for it, he started to cry and ran away from me. After I found out what was going on and we escaped, he was so distraught, believing that he had killed Azura that I don't think he let himself deal with what occurred. Then when he was finally back to normal, I think a combination of the opium and the stress turned the whole experience into some kind of hazy dream for him. I don't think he ever really dealt with what occurred." Noir sighed then, he knew that he should have forced the other man to confront his feelings and what had happened to him but he hadn't thought he would be able to bear seeing his Amethyst relive those horrible moments.

"In that case we have to treat this like a first time rape."

"First time rape? What does that mean?"

"The first time a person is raped there are certain things that must be done to help them recover from the trauma. There are things that have to be done every time a person is raped but the first time is special. There's a loss of innocence, because even if the person was sexually active there is a big difference between consensual and non-consensual sex." Noir stared at Lady Aly intently.

"And you have experience dealing with rape victims?"

"Well, there's my own personal experience, as I have been raped a couple of times. Even this last mission with Azura, while I "agreed" to having sex for the sake of the mission, it still wasn't really consensual sex and it left me with some of the same feelings as a more violent, overt rape would have."

For the sake of the mission, huh? Noir still couldn't believe what Lady Aly had told him while they were fleeing Paris. His mind drifted back to that conversation.

Two Weeks Previous . . .

"So are you going to tell me what the hell these "missions" are and why they are so fucking important that you had to stay in such a place?"

Lady Aly glanced at Noir and seeing the determination in his eyes, sighed. "I guess I might as well tell you. I'm the leader of a military organization dedicated to the protection of all people currently living on our fair planet." Noir looked at her speechless, he started to snort in disbelief but Lady Aly ignored him and continued. "Our code name is "Nexus" and our home base is called "Nexia", it's a small island in the Caribbean that's fairly isolated from surrounding the land masses. We are under the direct control of all countries and no countries. When a person joins our group they give up all rights to citizenship in any country, though each member is given valid passports to all countries and region on Earth."

"What a minute. So what your saying is that this military organization which you supposedly run has ties to every country, every world leader?"

"That's correct. A few years ago there was a major catastrophe. Important documents were stolen from the Pentagon in the US and they blamed the Chinese for the theft. It was the start of a major international incident. The Canadian Prime Minister suggested that a team be put together to investigate and that no one would attack until their findings were presented. Luckily, Canada was on relatively good terms with both the US and China and the suggestion was accepted. Rico was a Colonel in the Canadian Military Intelligence division and was chosen to lead the investigation."

"Rico? Not you? What does this have to do with your missions?" Noir asked impatiently.

"Yes Rico and at the time I wasn't connected with any military or any other group actually. I had just turned twenty. I had spent the last five years travelling around the world. I had gone everywhere and learned everything I could. Languages, fighting styles, art forms and anything I could about the different world cultures. I was in the last stretch of my journey, a trip down the Amazon river, when I met up with Rico. It seems that the information hadn't been stolen by the Chinese but by a terrorist group based out of the Amazon. The info was dangerous stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Noir interrupted, again.

"Research on making faster, more powerful firearms, bigger bombs, more devastating explosions. Basically, it was a guide to killing people. Anyway, Rico tracked them to the Amazon and was planning an assault on their compound. Unfortunately for me that's when things got complicated. It seems the terrorists were bored and lonely so when they spotted my ship sailing down the river, they pounced. The crew of the ship was killed and my companions and I were taken prisoner. That was the first time I was raped."