Disclaimer: Hey, guys, look! I'm making soup! Seth and El Ray are owned by Tarantino and Rodriguez. Sands is owned by Rodriguez. Blackheart is owned by Marvel Comics. Alex Tully is owned by Fox, although they don't seem to want him. I do own Xanny, Augusta and Marcos (wherever the hell he went). And that's it.

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Nine: Fear

There was another city, not too far away. In a few hours, Augusta had reached it, going at a good clip on her bike. And she managed to find a very nice, rather luxurious hotel on her first stop.

She checked in, got into a room, and took a very hot shower. When she came out, there was a very expensive black dress hanging in her closet. It was in her size.

Augusta felt compelled to put it on, and go downstairs to the hotel restaurant, thinking of nothing more than indulging in several bottles of wine and an expensive dinner. But there was something else…something in the back of her mind. All her movements felt far away, as if she were watching herself from a short distance.

When she got into the lobby, she felt herself slowing down. Something was pulling her…the bar, it seemed dark and inviting. The sun was setting, it was a clear evening, and the purple light was filtering through the crystalline windows, dancing in small rainbows against the marble floor.

It was a rich place, lush with deep leather and brass fixtures. It was mostly empty, except for a lone figure down at the end.

Even before she reached him, he turned, and she recognized him. From the Titty Twister. Only here, he seemed to fit.

She paused. "Hell…hello," she said, her voice trembling. It felt wrong, suddenly, to be here, to be standing in front of him. It made no sense, none at all, and yet….

"Hello, Augusta," he said, in that strange, echoing voice that seemed to vibrate through her. Here, in this place, it carried much farther, trembling off the walls, making the floor under her feet quiver. "You look good in my present."

"You…you had this sent to my room?"

He shook his head. "I put it there myself." He gestured to the seat beside him. "Sit."

Unable to help herself, she sat down, staring at him. She couldn't remember his name, and yet it didn't seem to matter. He seemed to defy naming – what could have fit him? He was unearthly beautiful, with pale, almost translucent skin, hair black as pitch, and eyes…his eyes…

"How did you know I'd be here?" she asked, struggling for some semblance of dignity.

His smile was wicked. "I read your mind."

She started. Narrowing her eyes, she stared harder at him, trying to find something, anything that gave him away. "So how did you get here so quickly?"

"I rode the wind."

She wanted to laugh, but couldn't – she believed him. He reached across the table, his hand open to her. Augusta noticed something glimmering on his pinkie – some kind of ring, but whether it was gold or silver, she couldn't tell. This struck her as strange, as she had never had problems identifying jewelry. It complemented his long, pale fingers beautifully, and she suddenly had another flash through her mind---

---those fingers playing over her body, touching her in---

She blinked, shivering. She felt cold, and suddenly afraid. And it felt good. It felt so bizarrely good

She reached out and laid her palm over his, and he was as cold and lovely to touch as he had been to look at.

"Yes, you like the fear. You always have," he whispered to her.

She blinked, several times, trying to form words. "Blackheart," she moaned.

He stood, pulling her with him. She stepped forward, into his personal space, and while nothing touched him but her hand, she felt as if he had somehow wrapped himself around her. It was so cold, like standing in the middle of a snowstorm, but the wind had embraced her like a lover.

"What do you want?" she managed, pulling back to herself for just a moment, rising up from the drowning ocean for a gasp of air. "What do you want from me?"

"You know what I want, Augusta," he smiled at her, and it was more unnerving than his stare. "I want you."

Another pull…it was getting easier to think clearly. She took a step away from him, and it was an effort nigh to a moon pulling free of its planet's gravity. "Why me?" she said, and the more she spoke, the easier it became to speak. "I mean, yeah, I'm beautiful, so are a hundred other girls." Where had that come from? She'd never been one to compare herself to the pack…and still, it made sense. It sounded like something Xanny would say. That thought gave her strength.

He smiled, undaunted by her resistance. "Because of you, Augusta. There is no one like you."

"Uh huh." She crossed her arms, which pulled her hand from his. That felt… disappointing. She tried to ignore it. "Yeah, that's a great line."

He chuckled. His smile reminded her of a crocodile. "Oh, yes, proud and vain as well as dangerous. You see, my sweet, it is not your beauty that draws me. Beauty means so little, and is only for surfaces." He started to circle around her, and she felt as if she were back against him again. She tried to move away, but only found herself stumbling.

"Beauty is only skin deep, you think I don't know that one?" she tried, but it felt weak.

"I think that you don't know what it is that has been holding you back for so long," Blackheart said, his voice a whispery purr. "Haven't you ever wondered? Your beloved twin…like you in so many ways. In more ways than you realize. She lived a life of crime, but eventually longed to change her wicked ways. You, however, have been living a secret life for so many years. And every moment, every thrill, was all for the fear. You're addicted to it, you know."

She scowled. "You think you know so much about me—"

"I know more than you're willing to admit about yourself," Blackheart said, pausing behind her. He leaned toward her, electricity buzzing between his chest and her back, his lips barely touching her ear. "You've always wondered…and you were right. You were the bad one, Augusta. You liked it more than she ever did. You were the smarter one, the more dangerous one. And your sister needs to see the truth, too."

Augusta felt pinned. It was true. Every instant of her life, every secret she kept, every risk she took, she had loved each and every moment of it. She felt no remorse, no pull to be good. Why had she ever stopped? Maybe it was Xanny's fault, she had distracted her. Maybe it was Seth…

"You liked being with him," Blackheart rumbled. "But don't confuse truth with fantasy. He was dangerous, like you. You saw a kindred spirit. Except he had the balls to do something about it, whereas you let your money hold you back."

She felt defiant. "I am who I want to be," she said. "Nobody controls me."

Blackheart smiled. "That's my bad girl, now," he crooned. "Can you find that Augusta? Does she still live inside you, waiting to come out?"

Augusta felt like she was holding her breath. And slowly, as her heart and her mind reached into those darker places, she realized she had been, all these months.

Before Seth came to her that day, in the bank, she had been a free spirit, doing what she liked, how she liked. Getting engaged to Marcos had been nothing, a cover, a dress she could put on and discard at a moment's notice. It had been a relief to hand him over to Xanny, but yet…nothing had come of it. She had been on hold, had been waiting.

Blackheart reached up, the backs of his fingers caressing her cheek. There was something piercing about his touch, as smooth and cool as his fingers were against her skin. Then, he walked around her, his hand turning over and his palm hovering a mere inch over her lips. She closed her eyes in an odd kind of anticipation. Gently, caressingly, his fingertips came down, brushing against her eyebrows, the lids of her eyes, then to her nose, out against her cheeks – she could feel his thumb up against the underside of her chin, tilting her face upward.

Her lips burned. She bit them, feeling terrible compulsions. The visions in her head were much harder to push away now. Things she couldn't voice danced in her head, things she couldn't bear to think about, even as she was thinking of them. And then she opened her eyes as she turned her head, and was looking at Blackheart so closely – his breath caressed her face, cooler and smoother than his skin.

"Yes," she whispered into him, her heat and his cold crackling together. "Yessss."

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It was a foul hotel. Xanny thought she wouldn't mind it at first, thinking she had stayed in worse places, but even by her standards this was fetid.

She paid cash to get in – they wouldn't take anything else, and even if they had, she wouldn't have dared give these men her credit card numbers – and found herself just a few doors down from Alex, Seth's new "partner."

Pacing her room, Xanny felt a profound sense of self-disgust. She had earned her living as a detective, and yet this was how she went about searching for her sister? She stopped pacing, stared at the door, and was about to go through it when someone knocked.

It was Alex.

"Thought you…uh…might need some ice," he said rather lamely.

Xanny crossed her arms. "Not ice," she said. "But do you have a map?"

A few minutes later, they were in Seth's room, Agent Sands with them, and Xanny had pushed the map of the general area so that it covered the rickety thing that passed for a bedside table. They were in the state of Chihuahua, and all the little towns were laid out in front of them like multi-colored bugs.

"The Titty Twister is North in Las Cuatas, not too far, maybe a few hours drive," she said. "So I suggest we take the other three directions – South, East and West. If we find her, use cellular phones to bring us all in, but if we don't find anything, I think we should go back to the Titty Twister at sundown. Sands, you know the area best, which of these places is the most built up?"

"San Mateo is too tame for Augusta," Sands said thoughtfully. "And Tres Castillos is too rough, not much better than here. It'd say it's most likely she went West, to El Tule. They have some nice hotels there. One of them is really nice, Ritz Plaza nice. It's not too far from the ocean so it's a big touristy place. But it's also three hours from here, the farthest away."

"She'd be drawn to that," Xanny said. "It's her comfort zone."

"What, is she a hotel heiress or something?" Alex remarked.

Seth gave him a dirty look. "Augusta Charlene Baxton. You honestly don't know that name?"

"Neither did you, Seth, when you first met her," Xanny said without looking up. "And yes, she's so fucking rich that she can afford to stay out of magazine and tabloids. All right, I'm going to take El Tule, then, see what I can find. Seth, you take San Mateo – you look like you could use the break. Sands, you take Tres Castillos. Unless you two want to trade," she said, giving them both looks.

"Yeah, let's trade," Sands said, although his voice was monotone. "I've got a contact in San Mateo I can talk to."

"I can handle my shit," Seth said in his "I'm cool" voice.

"What about me?" Alex asked.

"Figured you'd go with Seth," Xanny replied. "Since you're partners and all."

"No, you need a fast car to get to El Tule and back by sundown, if it's as far away as Sands says."

"Wait a minute, go to the Titty Twister at sundown?" Seth barked. "Are you suicidal?"

Xanny shook her head. "It makes sense. Augusta met Blackheart at the Titty Twister. Satanic Pandemonium's stomping ground was the Titty Twister. He'd take Gus there if he had the chance, it's full circle, and the most obvious way to get your attention."

Sands nodded. "But Alex is right, you need a faster ride than your Harley."

"My Harley goes fast enough," Xanny argued.

"Let Seth take it," Sands said. "You can afford another if he crashes it. You can handle a Harley, can't you, Seth?"

Seth gave Sands a very dangerous look, but Xanny snapped her fingers to bring them back to the situation. "Fine," she said, tossing Seth the keys, "take my Harley, I'll ride with Alex, I need time to think, anyway. Your car pretty fast, Alex?"

"Pretty damn fast," Alex said, without a hint of boasting. "Fast enough to get you there and back when you need to be."

"Well, I'm not going back into that place," Seth started to say, when Xanny gave him a livid look, "without a serious mess of protection. There ain't a church here in El Ray, is there one in Tres Castillos?"

"Here, take this," Xanny said, handing Seth the scapular that Sands had given her before. "I'll get my rosary when we go back to the Titty Twister. Now everybody shut up and get moving. You know who you're looking for, and how to find her—"

"How?" Alex asked.

"Follow the trail of shiny things," Sands said dispassionately before he headed out the door.

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1 -- A/N: Yeah, yeah, me again. The trio of cities, El Tule, Tres Castillos, and Las Cuatas, which is where I decided the Titty Twister would be, to surround a little city called El Rayo (yes, with an "o" on the end) on a map of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. However, I am taking serious liberties as to the nature of these towns – and I completely made up San Mateo. No offense meant to anyone familiar with these towns in any way. I even downloaded a map online and made some notations, even mapped out the possible route (and I loosely mean "mapped) of where Seth and Ritchie crossed the border from Texas into Mexico, and even drew a few arrows where they would have gotten off the main highway and gone in the direction of Las Cuatas, where I put the Titty Twister.

I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS!!!!