Asher and Raven: Rescue

Raven Pov

It was the day after finals, which I was happy to say I passed with decent marks. I was back in Crescent City heading towards the school to collect the few things that I had kept there during the school year. It was a pleasant enough day, I could feel the sun on my skin as I walked down the street. People were walking by, talking, I could here shop keepers talking with nearby customers, a few kids ran past me laughing as they went. Sometime later I was still a few blocks from the school, most of the shops were behind me now. This part of town was a little less crowded, the houses were farther apart due to the small farms they each kept. I heard a bird chirping in a nearby tree but it went quiet as I stopped to admire its song. 'Huh, must be shy' I thought to myself as I started forward again, soon after I could hear it start to sing again, I shrugged and continued on my way.

I felt several ropes go tight around my body, I never heard them coming, they were behind me and for some reason none of my senses had picked up on them. My hands were strapped to my sides, leaving hand signs and my katana useless to me. I felt them begin to pull me off the main road as I struggled against them, I'm not sure how many were hauling on that rope, but I pulled hard and it gave me nothing.

As much as I hated to, I called out for help as loud as I could, again and again never receiving a reply or any sign anyone could hear me. I had not felt this helpless since I had been freed from The Company. I struggled harder and that was when I noticed it, there was no sound to my movements. I could hear everything in the distance but there seemed to be a certain range near me that had gone deathly silent. The bird... I thought as I silently cursed myself, why hadn't I picked up on it?

This hadn't happened to me for a long time, but I knew what I was in for if I couldn't escape. Back before I left Konoha I was exhausted from one of our missions and was on my way home when this same thing had happened. Fan girls. Rabid, fully trained ninja level, cult mentality fan girls who had decided if I would not give them what they wanted, aka my body. That they would just take it. Except his time I was blind and they were much better prepared for my escape methods, and tricks. I continued to pull and struggle as they edged me down a side road. 'Please, let someone come before its too late' I was a mess, the flashbacks were threatening to take over I could feel it. I wrenched and twisted, I was so not going to make this easy on them.

Asher pov

I watched as this strange young girl came running up to me on the street. She seemed rather panicked about something, "Please, you have to follow me!"

"Excuse me? I don't even know you."

"Please, they'll hurt him if you don't come quickly!" I took in her long dark hair and wide panicked brown eyes. She looked familiar...

Flower tensed beside me, I kept my hand on his arm, "They who? Who would they hurt?"

"Asher please!" She exclaimed. How did she know my name? My eyes narrowed at her, "It's-it's Raven! They've taken Raven!"

Before I could stop him, Flower had wrapped a tendril around the girl's throat lifting her several inches off the ground the glare on his face, if looks could kill... she coughed and gasped out "Please hurry... they'll." The girl did not even seem surprised at his reaction.

"Flower, drop her." He did and as she hit the ground she put her hands to her neck "Where?" I demanded of her as she caught her breath.

"I can take you to them." She said as she got to her feet.

"Fine but just a moment, stay right here and don't move." I said warning her.

She nodded and I turned to Flower, "I'm sorry love." I said to him as I teleported him back to our room.

"Asher no! Don't!" He screamed as I locked the bedroom door and teleported back to the girl's location. As much as it hurt me to do this to him, I knew that if I took him with me anyone who was involved would be dead by the end of it. There would be no questions asked, no way to know if some of the ones involved had been forced to go along with it or who the truly guilty party was. Flower was very powerful and even I wasn't sure I would be able to stop him once we were in that situation, keeping him out of it was my only option.

The girl had in fact stayed put, she was knotting her hands nervously around each other when I reappeared she wasted no time, "This way!" she said as she led the way running down the streets as soon as she saw me as fast as she could, the girl wasn't half bad. She seemed genuinely concerned for Raven's well being and safety fan girl or not.

Raven pov

I wasn't sure where it was they had exactly but I knew that we were still in the city, even if it was the borders. They hadn't gone back towards the portal gate and the city was a big place, I was guessing that we were out near the larger farms at this point if the smell of cattle and apples was anything to go by. I wasn't fighting back all that much right now, I was trying to save energy for a better opportunity. I struggled now and then to see if their grip on the rope would come loose but it was no good, if anything it got tighter. It seemed that they were aware of some of my usual escape tactics, good thing I had some new tricks thanks to Asher, now if I only had the chance to use them.

I was suddenly yanked roughly down to the ground, so we had finally reached whatever destination they'd picked. On my knees as I was, I knew that struggling right now was not in my best interests. I felt a hand near my ankles and I tried to kick, some one else held me down by my shoulders and I felt the rope go tight around my ankles. Ah, crap. I had hoped they would at least leave my legs free. The one who had held me down didn't move, I looked up but I couldn't make out the energy. So that was how they'd gotten the drop on me, they had learned to suppress their energy.

"No one else can hear you except for us, so don't bother calling for help." Said the voice of a female, the one in front of me.

"What do you want?" I asked already having a fair idea. This wasn't the first time that I'd been caught and tied up by my damn crazy fan girl cultists. That of course had been many years ago, back in my home village. I'd been a kid, the last of my clan, getting caught by them was my own fault and no one came to my rescue back then either. I braced myself for what I knew was coming, nobody would even miss me for another few hours and I bet they knew it.

"It'd be so much more fun if you agreed to it, but I don't suppose that will happen will it?"

"No." I replied.

"Fine then we will take it from you."

I felt the knife tip as she placed it just above the rope line, "Hey what are you doing?" One of the others asked alarmed.

"Oh shut up, I'm not going to cut him... as long as he holds still." I felt sick as she tilted the tip of the knife up, pushed it through the fabric of my shirt and pulled up hard. I heard two of them gasp, two including the one in front of me giggled.

The one from before however spoke up "You said we were just going to steal kisses from him and then let him go." She seemed almost angry.

"Damn it, if you don't want to help then get lost!"

"I… I will!" I heard the girl move, a door opened and then she was gone. So we were in a barn, shed or something. That made sense, it would ensure that this was all out of sight. There were five of them, though now I suppose it was only four. I didn't quite count out the one that had left in case it had been an act, though by the sound of her shaking voice I didn't think that would be an issue. The one in front of me had her hands on my shoulders again, she pushed the fabric of my shirt down off my shoulders. As the fabric fell away I heard the other three girls gasp, the one in front of me drew in her breath sharply.

"Not so pretty as you thought, huh?" I asked knowing the reason for their reactions. While most of the damage had been healed, there were in fact still some scars along my chest, back and upper arms. Most of it was pretty tame compared to the mess of pink and red it used to look like, but it was enough to be noticed.

"Are you sure it's really him?" One of the others asked.

"It's him."

"Well fine. What about the rest of him then?" Asked another, who until now I hadn't heard speak any more than her gasp or intake of breath. Oh great, I thought to myself, knowing my feet were still tied. I guess I'd been hoping that they wouldn't actually want to go that far once they'd seen my bare skin. I squirmed trying to use my saved energy to tear the ropes off by pushing with my arms as hard as I could. I heard a few of the girls giggle again.

"Good luck, we had those specially made to hold people like you." Said the one in front of me. Damn it. The girl from in front of me stepped to the side, I felt her place the tip of the knife very specifically and push it through the fabric. The door off to one side of the room was torn from its hinges, the girls screamed, the one with the knife nicked my thigh in her panic. She recovered quickly and had the blade to my throat, when I heard a voice that flooded me with relief, "Don't you dare fucking move! Not a damn one of you!"

"Fuck! What's he doing here!?" Yelled the girl who now had her arm wrapped partially around my neck.

She was close enough, I quickly bent my head and bit down hard, she wrenched her arm away from me, my fangs leaving tears in her arm from the action but at least I was now free of her grasp.

"I told you not to move!" Asher snarled at her furiously.

"He fucking bit me!" she yelled.

Asher pov

I could tell that if I didn't grab her she'd bolt at the first chance she had, I grabbed her by the arm that Raven had bitten "Yeah, that's what vampires do." The scent of fear crept further over her, the other girls were inescapably frozen in place by the spell I'd used just before I grabbed this one. I took her roughly by the hair and forced her to show me her neck, she screamed and struggled against me to no avail. "Disgusting." I said quietly while ignoring the scent of blood in the room, I let her scream for a few more seconds while I fed off her fear, when I'd had enough I snapped her neck and dropped the body to the floor. The other girls shrieked while frozen in place, "You will all answer for this." I said coldly, a couple of them began to cry but otherwise remained silent.

I picked up the knife that the girl had dropped when I killed her and stepped towards Raven carefully, "Raven, it's me." I said wanting to make sure that he knew who was approaching him.

"It's fine. Get these off of me." I cut him loose and he stood, he looked alright physically, though I realized it was his blood I could smell, I was glad that I'd gotten to him before anything more serious had happened. "I need each of them to speak."

"Why?"

"There is at least one other who is not leaving here alive." He growled quietly so that they couldn't hear him.

"Does screaming count?" I asked, I wanted to make them pay for what they had done, or had planned to do.

"Be my guest." I knew that it was unlikely he would be referring to the two who had come here with me, so I skipped them and went for one of the others. I grabbed her a little roughly by her blonde hair and she cried out. I looked at Raven but he didn't move or say anything so I pulled her head to the side forcing her to bare her neck for me.

"No! Please don't! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It wasn't supposed to go this far but I was scared." she broke down into tears and I saw Raven shake his head. I dropped her to the floor where she continued to cry and moved on to the next one.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed as I grabbed her hair.

Raven stepped towards us "That one," he said coldly, "Give me your hand." He demanded, she didn't respond so I took up her arm and Raven took hold of her, he wrapped her hand around his wrist for a moment, then dropped her hand. "Yeah, that's the one."

"You want her?"

"Yes," so I shoved the girl towards Raven who caught her roughly. "You four, remember this before you go messing with people again. You were the one who tied my legs up and if I'm not mistaken it was also you who asked 'well what about the rest of him then?"

"So what?" The girl sneered not even trying to deny it. Raven growled near her ear and then snapped her neck, "That was the one, I'm done. Get them away from me." Dropping the body he walked out through the open door.

Raven Pov

I really didn't care what Asher decided to do with the other ones, it wasn't my problem right now. I gave up on going to the school to get my stuff and instead teleported home. Back in my room, I got some fresh clothes and headed for the shower. I'd be in there for hours trying to get the feel of the ropes and their hands off of me. I couldn't let this happen again, I thought as I stood under the hot water. It was time to take War up on that offer of his to fix my eyesight.

I failed to repress the shudder as memories finally flooded into my mind about all the times this had happened to me growing up, my time at The Company, the failed attempts that these girls had made before today. Eventually I did manage to pull myself out of the shower, I was walking towards my couch when someone knocked at my door. I had a mind to tell whoever it was off, but as I opened the door to find Kakashi standing there the will to say anything left me.

"Raven, you look like hell. Asher told me to come and see you as soon as I could. What's going on?" he asked, voice full of concern.

I didn't answer him, I couldn't and instead threw myself into his arms, the tears I hadn't known were there finally came forth and left me unable to stop. Kakashi wrapped his arms around me and stepping in kicked the door closed. He took me to my bed and settled himself beside me, while I clung to him. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to, he knew at this point what must have happened. It was not the first time he had had to deal with the fall out of these incidents even back then. Eventually I passed out from it all, the only thought in my head was to never let this happen to me again.