Enemies

by P.A.R

A look at the history of the Unspeakable Orion Black.

23. Chapter 16A: Revenge

A/N: First off, I apologize for this being late. Poor PAR got a nasty case of food poisoning and was out of touch for a few days.

Next, you were warned about getting attached to characters, folks. So don't come crying to me about this chapter, O.K..

And again I would like to thank all of you who are reading this story. even if you don't review, I still appreciate you giving this story a try. I hope you are enjoying it and it is living up to your expectations.

And as always.....,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Look. If you don't know by now, you just haven't been paying any attention at all.

Chapter Sixteen A: Revenge

Orion rolled back over to his side of the bed, sighing quietly as he stared at the back of his lover.

Since the party at Olivers, things had settled back to normal between them fairly quickly.

Except for tonight.

Katlin had hardly said a word all evening. Even in bed, she barely looked at him. Now she lay on her side of the bed, facing away from him and, Orion felt, further away from him emotionally than even the space between them on the bed.

Slowly he scooted over to her side and gently wrapped an arm about her waist. Even as he nudged up closer against her, he could feel every muscle under his touch tensing.

"What's wrong?" He asked her softly as he laid his head over her shoulder.

"Nothing." Came the quiet reply.

Orion shifted up closer to her, wrapping his arm further about her body. "Katlin, I was practically having sex with myself tonight. Now, that isn't like you at all. You usually enjoy our being together. Tonight, you hardly even seemed like you were here. Now, again, what's wrong?"

Katlin shifted slightly out of his hold. "We're done, Orion. Go to sleep."

"Wait a minute." Orion stated. "We're done? Go to sleep?" He rolled Katlin over until she was looking up at him. He had intended to press on until he had an answer to what was bothering her. But the track of silent tears on her cheeks stopped him. His usual neutral expression melted into one of concern as he gently brushed the tears away with his fingertips. "Hey." He said quietly. "Love, what is it? What's wrong?"

"You wouldn't care." She said sullenly, rolling back over away from him.

"Katlin...." Orion pulled back up over her shoulder, placing a light kiss on it, then rested his chin over it. "Love, something's wrong. Whatever it is, upsets you. Therefore, I care. Now please....tell me. Maybe I can help."

Katlin shook her head. Orion could hear her fighting back her tears. "You won't.....and you can't."

"Give me the benefit of the doubt."

Katlin sniffed softly against her hand. "Someone I cared about was killed a few days ago." She said in a barely audible whisper.

Orion wrapped her gently in his arms. "I'm very sorry, Love." He kissed her shoulder again. "Who was it?"

"A friend." Katlin choked out. "One of my closest. Kristen Banks."

Orion tightened his embrace slightly. "I'm sorry, Love."

"Your people killed her." Katlin said abruptly, her voice suddenly very hard and cold.

Orion froze. Not only from the sound of Katlin's voice, but the statement itself.

"Aurors?"

Katlin nodded slightly.

Orion sighed quietly. This was not what he had expected from her. Katlin talked about her own people being killed in fights or ambushes much as he did. It was their job and there were risks. You accepted them. But this time she was taking the death very hard......, and very personal.

"Love," he said, trying to be sympathetic, "our lives have risks......"

"They tortured her to death." Katlin interrupted in a sharp, suddenly hostile tone.

Orion stopped short. "What?" He asked. His voice low and soft.

Katlin paused before repeating herself. "They captured....and then tortured her until she died." She replied in the softest whisper.

"How do you know?"

"Because they sent the body back to us. To the Deatheaters. To our lair. They made sure we....made sure we saw. That we found her. They left her body at the main entrance. Like it was some game to them. Some.....some sick joke."

Orion could feel each cry that she tried to stifle as it shook through her body. But all he could think to do was hold her. Just let her know he was there and that despite what she said...what she thought..., he did care.

"She was just....just an innocent.....playing in a very dangerous game. She thought...it was all so...exciting. I tried to tell her....she was wrong for this. She wasn't like the others. She was too innocent." Katlin shook her head against the pillow, then buried her face in it as she let out a howl of pain. "It shouldn't have been her! She never hurt anyone. She never could. Why her!?"

Orion fought against his own tears as he felt Katlin lose her battle with her pent up emotions and finally dissolve into a flood of tears. He pulled her closer to him, rolling her over until she faced him. She quickly pressed her face into his chest and cried harder still. With gentle caresses he stroked her hair and with quiet whispers he told her that it would be all right. Anything to try and calm her down. But in the end Katlin simply cried herself into exhaustion and fell into an uneasy sleep in his arms.

The next morning Orion was especially reluctant to let Katlin leave, pleading with her again and again to stay at the house for a few days at least. But Katlin only shook her head, as he imagined she would.

"I'll be fine, Orion." She promised, melting into his arms as he wrapped them protectively about her. "Work keeps my mind off of it."

"Are you sure, Love?" Orion pleaded softly. "Wouldn't you rather just stay here for a few days?"

But Katlin shook her head again even as she wiped a stray tear off her cheek. "I really need to go. There's a meeting this morning." Katlin paused as she turned to face him. "There was one thing I didn't tell you last night." She added quietly. "I told you once that I would introduce you to the person who changed my mind about giving you a chance?"

Orion only nodded.

Katlin stood on her toes and softly brushed her lips over his. "That person was Kristen." She whispered against his lips before apparating out of his arms.

The next day Orion didn't see or hear from Katlin. And though he was worried about her, he felt that what she needed the most from him was time and space. She knew he was there, and she would come back when she was ready.

And besides, he had found something to occupy his spare time well enough.

With the information Katlin had left him with, Orion had started that very morning after Katlin had left, looking through the agency records for any report of the death. But, much as he expected, he found nothing. If things had gone as Katlin said, those responsible would never have reported it. They would have been required to produce the body or proof of the death and the order for it or circumstances deeming it a lawful act against a Deatheater. From Katlin's description, it was neither.

It had been sport.

Even his own actions against the Deatheaters never bordered on this type of sadism. His rules were simple. They attacked, he defended. He never went looking for one of them solely for the pleasure of killing them. And he never tortured. A quick, clean death. There was no need to waste time with it. That was his job. Plain and simple.

But those responsible for this girl's death were not just 'doing their job'. Not only had they not reported it, from the look of what Orion found, they had done everything to cover the incident up. No one seemed to know anything about a sole, female Deatheater being killed in the last few weeks. So whoever was responsible wasn't talking about it.

Well, no matter. People talked sooner or later. Especially when they were proud of what they had done. When they had enjoyed it. When they thought they had gotten away with it.

Sooner than he had expected, Orion began hearing the whispered conversations within the agency. Three male Aurors had caught and killed a young female Deatheater, then sent her body back to Voldemort as a 'gift'.

Orion followed the stories like a bloodhound on a trail. Every person who knew even a trace of the story he pressed for the origin. And with slow, persistent steps, he managed to follow the trail all the way back to where it began.

Three Aurors in one of the lower ranking department branches had apparently grabbed the young girl after she had left a supposedly secret meeting. They had, in fact, stumbled across the whole thing by accident and simply decided to have a bit of 'fun'. Orion listened intently as one of the three, thinking him nothing more than an equally enthusiastic audience about the whole matter, told him the story as though he were recanting the most exciting event of his life. How they had captured the girl, then taken her to a deserted area deep in the woods, and done exactly as Katlin had said.

Orion had left the man thinking he had enjoyed the story immensely.

In truth, it had sickened him.

By department rules he should have reported all three to the head of their own department. They likely would have been severely reprimanded. Possibly fired. Perhaps even stood trail for their actions.

But Katlin deserved more than being told the ones who had killed her friend were going to spend a year or so in Azkaban, or more likely in the department jail.

She deserved far more.

Reluctantly Katlin followed Orion into the woods. He had taken her out for a drive, coaxing her along with the promise that the drive would make her feel better. At first she had protested, saying she didn't feel like going anywhere that night. But Orion had been persistent and soon her resistance broke down. Now she was starting to wish she'd held out. The woods were dark and cold, and she simply didn't feel in the mood for any of her lover's games tonight.

"Orion." Katlin finally stated, coming to a sharp halt in their trek. "This is far enough." The longer they had walked, the darker her mood had become until she was at the point she was getting quite a bit angry at the man in front of her.

But Orion turned back to her with a surprising smile in the face of her growing anger. "And you couldn't be more right, Love." He replied.

Katlin's anger turned to puzzlement as Orion stepped to the side, waving her on with a sweeping gesture of his hand. Katlin stared at him for a moment, then followed the direction of the gesture with her eyes.

At first all she could see before her was the same darkness they had just come through. But Orion quickly lit his wand, and the scene that now greeted her had Katlin standing frozen in surprise.

Standing before her were three men. All of them standing so still that she hadn't even noticed them before. With cautious steps Katlin approached them, eventually realizing that all three were held by some type of binding spell, capable of moving nothing but their eyes.

Katlin walked between the three men, staring intently at each in turn to see if anything about them sparked her memory. Orion had to have brought them here for a reason. But she had no idea what her connection to them was. For the life of her, she would swear she didn't know any of them.

Finally she turned a puzzled stare back to Orion. "Who are they?" She asked.

Orion gave her a strange sort of smile as he answered. "No one really. Just three men whose only entertainment seems to come from torturing young girls until they die."

Katlin abruptly turned back to the three. Her puzzled, curious expression vanished behind a mask of frightening hatred.

"You!" She hissed at them. "You are the ones responsible for Kristen's death?" She stormed up to the first one in the line. "You are the bastards.....the cowards who killed her? You......" Words quickly failed her as Katlin struck out at the man before her with pure instinct, her nails leaving tracks of blood across his cheek.

Katlin stood for several moments, as still as the man before her as she quickly recomposed herself. But finally she turned around to face Orion.

"Why did you bring them here?" She asked in a low, dangerous whisper.

"For you." He answered. "So that you, who has the most right, can avenge your friend."

But Katlin shook her head slowly. "No. Not just me. What they did, they did to all of us." She replied, the anger in her voice quickly rising. "They took the life of a Deatheater. That was a crime against all of us. All have the right to claim vengeance."

But Orion caught her arm as she turned back to the three, her wand already out. "Katlin. No." He stated, causing her to abruptly turn back to him. "No." He repeated in a more careful tone. "I didn't do this so that you could turn them over to the Deatheaters."

"They did this to us." Katlin nearly shouted at him.

But Orion held her stare in the face of her anger, keeping his own tone low and level. "What did you tell me about Kristen?" He asked her. "You never thought she was much of a Deatheater. That you never understood why she joined them, or why she stayed. She just didn't seem to fit in. Now," he continued as he watched her think over his words, "is this how you want to remember her? By taking the three responsible for her death back to a group of people it was probably a mistake she was with in the first place, or to take revenge for her death the way it should be? Privately....., by a friend."

Katlin slowly turned her eyes from his. But when she looked back up at him, it was with a softer, more controlled stare.

"This should be done privately." She answered in an equally soft, quiet tone. "By a friend."

Orion slowly released his hold on her arm. "All right then." He said. "You take her revenge for her."

Katlin quickly shook her head again. "No." She said, not looking at him now. "She would never have asked for such a thing. This isn't for her." she added, turning back to the three with a building rage in her eyes. "This is for me."

Katlin stepped up to the first of the three, her wand held tightly in her hand. She spoke a quick spell that removed the binding spell from the neck up. The man instantly tested his new found freedom by moving his neck to one side, then the other. But his focus quickly settled back on Katlin as she slowly lifted her wand and touched it right between the man's eyes. "You." She asked in a voice as cold as the darkness they stood in. "What did you do to her?"

The first of the three gave her a defiant, hate-filled look. "Nothing." He spat back at her.

Almost instantly the man's head snapped back as he let loose with a guttural cry of pain. After a few seconds, it stopped and the man's head fell forward. Katlin grabbed him none to gently under the chin and lifted his head back up so that he was looking directly at her.

"Now," she said in a soft hiss of a voice as she raised her wand and once more touched it to the man's forehead, "again. What did you do to her?"

The man said nothing this time. But if he had thought that silence was the answer to keep the pain away, he was wrong. Again the searing hot pain burned through his body as he let out another, bone chilling scream of pain.

As soon as he stopped, Katlin again grabbed him under the chin and forced him to look at her as the wand once more lay touched to his forehead. "Again." She repeated in the same quiet voice. "What did you do to her?"

The scene repeated itself five more times before the man finally focused his wavering stare on the woman before him.

"I killed her." He spat back in answer to Katlin's question. "She died in my hands. Is that what you wanted to know, Deatheater?"

Katlin gave the man an odd sort of smile as she released her hold on him. "That is exactly what I wanted to know." She replied as she stepped back from him. "You killed my friend. And to make your crime worse, you brought her body back and threw it at my feet. After all that you did to her, you had to add my pain to her's. For that, you have earned the same right." Katlin pointed her wand at the other two men. "You will watch these two die, seeing it through their eyes, and knowing you will be last."

The man laughed at the declaration. "These idiots." He snorted. "Kill them. I couldn't care less."

The third man started to fight against the spell, gaining Katlin's attention. Turning back to the other two, she spoke the same spell that released the binding spell from the neck up.

"You bastard!" The third man shouted as soon as he was released from the spell. "The whole thing was your idea from the start. We didn't even want to kill her. That was your idea."

"Because you simpletons had no stomach for it." He snapped back.

But Katlin wasn't interested in what the three had to say to each other. Instead she turned her attention back to the man before her. "You'll care." She said softly before stepping over to the man who had spoken.

Again Katlin raised her wand and placed it between the man's eyes against his forehead. "What did you do to her?" She asked simply.

The man looked past the wand at the woman before him with absolute terror in his eyes. But apparently he couldn't come up with an answer fast enough. The searing white pain shot through his body as he echoed the first man's screams of pain.

When the din quieted, Katlin placed the wand back to it's former position and repeated the question. "What did you do to her?"

"I....I only hit her....a few times." The man stammered in reply, his eyes never leaving the wand perilously placed between his eyes. "I....I didn't want to do anything to her. It was just....just suppose to be a little fun. She wasn't suppose to die."

The first man gave a snort of laughter, causing Katlin to shift her attention back to him. "You have something to say?" She asked with a tone of disgust.

"Only hit her a few times." The man snorted again. "You put her under the Cruciatus curse more times than I can remember."

Katlin turned back to the man with a smile. "Really?" She asked. But the smile quickly dropped as she pressed the wand tip against the man's forehead. "Crucio!"

The man screamed again. Every part of his body fought against the bindings holding it. If he had been bound by rope it was questionable if the ties would have held as hard as the man jerked about under the bonds of the invisible spell.

To the right, the first man had echoed his scream, and was now engaged in the same bone jarring movements as he struggled likewise under the bindings of the spell. But finally the struggles stopped and both bodies fell limp.

Katlin slowly turned her head to the first man again. "How many times?" She asked in the same cold voice she had used earlier.

The first man didn't answer.

Katlin walked over to him. His eyes followed each step, but quickly shifted as the wand was raised again and placed against his forehead.

"How. Many. Times?" Katlin asked again.

The man quickly shook his head, but remembered what had happened the last time he refused to answer and didn't want her to mistake the gesture as such. "I....I don't know." He answered quickly. "I wasn't counting."

"Was she still alive when he was done with his 'fun'?"

The man nodded.

"Was she coherent?"

The man thought, then shook his head. "He....he kept placing it on her until she stopped screaming." He replied. "The last time....she just sort of......whimpered."

Katlin turned back to the third man, a small smile playing across her lips as she walked back over to him, with not a hint of mirth in it. "She wasn't a very strong person. Not against Unforgivable Curses. But I'm still willing to bet she held out longer than you thought she would."

"He made me." The third man stammered. "I swear it."

Katlin turned in the direction the man indicated with his head, looking over the first man again before turning back to the one before her. "Well then," She said smoothly, "I guess the poor girl had more in her at least than you do if you allowed that sorry excuse of a person to influence you so completely."

Katlin pointed her wand tip at the man again and soon after the screams began anew.

Nearly a half hour later both men were hanging limply in their binds. The man before her was making some soft, simpering sounds while the first wasn't making any sound at all anymore. Instead his body simply convulsed from time to time. Katlin placed her wand against the man's forehead once more.

"Crucio." She stated firmly.

The man hardly reacted at all. The only sign the spell had acted on him at all was a tremor that passed through his body, convulsing it slightly as he whimpered against the pain. The first again went into convulsions, a soft cry emitted from his lips with a bit of froth.

Katlin gave a slightly unhappy sigh before turning her attention now to the man who stood between the other two. Nothing but terror showed in the man's face as Katlin slowly walked over to him and stood in front of him.

"And you?" She asked in a falsely pleasant tone with a small smile to match. "What did you do to her?"

The man shook his head quickly, a cold fear in his eyes. "Nothing! I swear it in the name of magic! I didn't do anything to her. It was the other two. They were the ones. I didn't so much as touch her."

Katlin continued to stare at the man. But there was a small look of puzzlement in her expression. "You didn't do anything?" She asked.

The man fervently shook his head again. "I swear it."

"You stood there? You just watched?"

The man nodded. "Yes."

"And you swear to that?"

"On anything you'll believe in. I swear it. I didn't do anything."

"So you stood there," Katlin replied, her voice suddenly growing very dark and cold, "and you did nothing."

The man realized his error too late. "I cou.....I couldn't have stopped them." He replied shakily. "I........they'd have killed me!"

"And she was just a Deatheater." Katlin added for him.

The man didn't respond. He simply kept a pleading look focused on Katlin.

"And do you regret what you did?" She asked after a moment.

The man nodded quickly. "Yes. I swear. I would change it if I could. I didn't want her to die. I didn't think they would really do it. Not really kill her."

Katlin sighed softly in the darkness as she turned away from the man. She walked a few feet away from him, thoughtfully tapping her wand to her chin as she seemed to think the situation over. A few minutes past, the only sounds being those from the other two men as they whimpered in their bonds.

"Very well." Katlin said as she raised her wand and pointed it at the first man, speaking a quick spell. The man raised his head and shook it slightly, like a man just waking from sleep. He looked around for a moment before his gaze settled on Katlin.

A look of hope crossed the other man's face. But only briefly. He watched as Katlin pointed her wand at him, then spoke a quick spell. Instantly a bone chilling feeling filled his senses. One he couldn't explain or find a reason for. But it was there all the same. He felt a desperate need to run. To get as far from where he was as he could. Anything rather than stay where he was. But the bonds surrounding him held tight as he began to fight them. Trying desperately to get free.

As he twitched in the invisible hold, Katlin walked over to him and, grabbing him under the chin, turned his face to her. Already his face was contorting in fear and his eyes darted about looking for some way to escape.

"Then feel what she felt." Katlin whispered to him. "Feel her fear, her panic, her pain. All of it. Right to the moment she died."

Katlin stepped back and watched the man begun to twitch more violently in the bonds, the man next to him echoing his struggles. Shortly the screams started as his body jerked beneath an invisible blow. Soon cuts began to appear and blood started soaking into his cloths until there was hardly a single area that wasn't stained bright red. But shortly the violent motion stopped and the body began to convulse. The screams continuing as pain racked its way through his body. For another half hour he twitched and jerked under the binding until finally his body fell slack, only convulsing slightly as he whimpered. But then it gave one last violent jerk in the bonds and fell limp.

Katlin pointed her wand at the first man, who also now hung in his bonds, his body shaking slightly as he whimpered in pain. She spoke another brief spell and the man collapsed limply against his bonds.

The other man continued to twitch and moan for a few more minutes, but slowly even those sounds stopped and the body fell slack.

Katlin spoke a quick spell and the bonds holding the man disappeared, allowing the body to fall to the ground. But she simply walked past it as thought it didn't even exist as she turned her attention back to the first man.

Lifting his head, she placed her wand between his eyes and once more revived him.

"I wouldn't suppose you have much of a mind left." She said.

The man managed a weak smile as he stared back at her, the words forced and slurred. "Had your fun, Deatheater?" He barely managed between cut and bleeding lips. "Do what you want. Because in the end, my soul will never be as black as yours."

"No." Katlin replied, pointing her wand to the side. "Because you have no soul at all."

Katlin spoke a brief spell and in the darkness next to her a dark robed figure suddenly appeared. She quickly stepped back from the man as the creature descended on its victim. The man barely had time to let out one last scream as the Dementor's mouth covered his.

Katlin quickly raised her wand and pointed it at the mass of dark robes as it pulled away from the first man, dropping it's hold on his body. A second brief spell and the Dementor disappeared, returning to wherever Katlin had summoned it from.

A slight groan caught Katlin's attention as she turned back to the last man, still hanging loosely in his bonds as his body twitched slightly again. Walking over to him Katlin lifted his head as she searched his eyes for any recognition. But only a blank, unknowing stare met her's. Dropping her hold, she stepped back with a sigh, then pointed her wand at the man.

"Crucio." She stated.

The body pulled up sharply, violently jerked a few times, then fell limp again. But this time it no longer emitted any sound.

The first body mimicked its posture, hanging loosely in its invisible bonds. Katlin raised her wand one last time and released the three bodies, allowing them to crumble to the ground.

Katlin stood for some time just staring at the bodies that now lay on the ground before her. But eventually she raised her wand and, with the word of a spell, a flash of light enveloped the three bodies, then faded, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

Katlin barely felt Orion step up behind her and wrap his arms about her body. Suddenly she was keenly aware of how cold the night was and how warm and comforting having him near felt.

"Lets go home." He told her softly.

Katlin didn't answer as she stared at the three piles of ashes. She had seen now what they had done to Kristen. Seen it in the faces of the men she had just taken her revenge on. Heard it in their screams. And somehow she didn't find as much comfort in what she had done as she had hoped to. Katlin finally turned her eyes from the ashes and nodded, allowing Orion to turn her about and lead her back to where he had left the car.

Q&A

Sailor Sol: Yeah, sometimes it just works out that way, and you get to be first.

Perhaps to some Katlin seemed a little OOC, but remember that that chapter was written more for fun than anything else.

sweets: Oh! I thought they dressed you up in one of the character costumes, which I understand can get so hot sometimes some of them have their own little A/C units in them.

I'm now on week three with FictionAlley. I think the delay has a lot to do with the fact that the review of their convention I posted here was added to the end of the chapters I submitted. And I believe they are trying everything they can think of to not post it.

Actually, Orion said it himself. How could he blame her for something he couldn't swear, were the situation reversed, he wouldn't have done himself.

As for how much of a law-abider Orion is? He's dating a Deatheater Elite, lying to his Department, his employer, and his partner, and is currently trading secrets for sex. (Let's face it, folks. No matter how you slice that pie, that's what it comes up to.) I don't think he's getting his name on any plaques this year.

Reviews are as of 09122003.

And remember...,

If corn oil comes from corn, and vegetable oil comes from vegetables, where does baby oil come from?