A/N: Feh. Nothing. But I know what's going to happen. Unless I choose
to do something else on impulse... Which I probably won't. But, you
never know, neh?
Disclaimer: I make no claims toward ownership of Harry Potter. I do,
however, claim ownership of Ange. 'Cause they're mine.
WARNING: This is rated R for a reason. Should you choose to ignore
said reason, read at your own risk. Masochism, sadism, sensuality,
graphic violence, and harsh language. Possible male/male
relationships, and definite female/female. Ye hast been warned. Should
any of the above be objectionable to you, there is a back button on
your browser, a convienient hyperlink back to the main Harry Potter
section of the site, and a simple right-click will reveal an option
for "back", if your computer works like mine. Can't help mac users
there.
Spoilers: OotP, GoF, PoA, CoS, SS.
Chapter 8:
Street, London. 1408, December 28.
Raye shivered slightly, dressed in only a thick camouflage vest over
her standard white blouse and white pants. Not for the first time that
day, she glared at the now red headed woman dragging her down the
street, before her eyes shut in resignation. She really had to wonder
why she stayed with the taller witch, it could have just been for the
sex, which was a good enough reason, but sometimes she felt almost...
content. Something she hadn't felt for a long time.
Her musings were interrupted as she crashed into the red head, nearly
knocking both of them to the concrete.
"What," Raye grumbled, "was that about?"
Tonks pointed at a window, her eyes laughing. "I've found it!"
Raye turned, quite nearly breaking into a cold sweat, to find that her
fears were indeed justified. They had actually arrived... at a
clothing store. She warred for a long time with her desire to run
away, sobbing or screaming, she hadn't decided yet.
At last, she gave up, allowing the taller woman to drag her inside,
but not before one last prayer. Loki preserve her sanity.
As Tonks dragged her toward the changing room, outfits appeared in her
hands without her actually seeming to reach for them. It was, suffice
to say, rather unsettling.
And then, she was being thrown through the door to the changing room,
landing rather awkwardly on her ass. She looked up to protest, when
something else, namely a lot of leather, slammed into her face,
stifling anything she might have been able to say long enough for the
door to shut strongly.
Outside the door, Tonks giggled gleefully. This was going to be so
funny!
She waited a very long minute, before calling out, "C'mon, let me see
what you look like!"
There was a long moment of silence before a muffled voice reached her
ears. "I am not coming out in this! If you want to see, you come in!"
Tonks shrugged, pushed open the door, and entered. She looked around
skeptically, wondering if Raye could disappear, when she heard the
door shut behind her. She turned to see what happened.
She stepped backward into the mirrored wall, gaping. In some twisted
manner, Raye had managed to find the most intimidating, somewhat
violent, clothes she had been given. Around her neck, for instance,
she had wrapped a spiked collar, not unlike the kind you would find on
a rottweiler. Her feet were clad in black leather boots that reached
up to her knees, snugly enough to show that her legs were almost too
skinny to be healthy. Only almost. Her skirt, once again black, with
something that looked like it could be used to hold a whip on the left
hip, over a slit, was small. Really small. As in, get any smaller and
it's a wide belt, not a skirt. Furthermore, instead of a top, she'd
decided to wrap three belts around her chest, one that barely covered
her nipples, and the other two crossing between her breasts, to form
something not entirely unlike an asterisk. Long gloves reached almost
to her shoulders, the fingertips tapering into claws, which Tonks had
no doubt would hurt.
All of which contrasted sharply with her almost transparently white
skin, causing Tonks to decide abruptly that anything else she'd seen
the other woman wearing didn't compare to this. The fact that she'd
never actually seen her in anything but the white uniform didn't deter
her in this opinion, and she was almost sure that there wasn't
anything that the silver-blue haired woman would look better in.
"Oh, hell yes. We're definitely getting that." Tonks announced boldly.
Raye's eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward, pressing her breasts
against Tonks'. "Who says?" She demanded.
Tonks, uncomfortably aware of how aroused she was becoming, pressed
her back harder against the mirror for a moment, before scolding
herself for her cowardice, and shoving against Raye. That it had a
similar effect to a fly hitting an anvil, she felt better about
herself. "I do." She whispered breathily.
"Oh, good then." Raye turned and began to strip, throwing the garments
aside from the collar into a pile she had now designated as, 'buy.'
Shop, London. 1417, December 28.
-------
Street, London. 1634, December 28.
Raye sighed, taking a deep breath of the icy air as she stepped out of
the--what was this, fourth?--shop. Over her shoulder was slung the
single bag, in which she had shoved the entire results of the
expedition. Her eyes shut tiredly, and she swayed somewhat unsteadily
on her feet.
So, it was understandable when she almost failed to post out when
Tonks crashed into her back.
Unfortunately her temper flared, and she whirled on Tonks, catching
the woman around the throat and dragging her close.
"What," she grated out, "the hell was that about?"
Tonks whimpered, both slightly sick at how this side of Raye was
arousing her, and scared half-way out of her mind of the woman.
"S-sorry..."
Raye let go abruptly, catching Tonks as she staggered.
In another abrupt mood-swing, she hugged the taller woman, whispering,
"Sorry, sorry, sorry, man I am a fuck up..."
Tonks was more than vaguely unsettled by the sudden change in attitude,
something she had not seen in the other woman. Funny, how the twelve
days they'd been together sometimes felt like an eternity.
Fuck... she was like some sort of lovesick puppy. God damn pathetic.
Raye's ears twitched as she heard the distinctive sound of apparition.
Curse the Death Eaters. Always had to interrupt everything.
They were just begging for death.
Well, who was she to deny?
She gently pushed Tonks away from her, tossing the bag into the
metamorphamagus's arms. In response to the bewildered look, she
flicked her head toward the newly arrived wizards.
Tonks gaped for a moment in astonsihment, before the first curse, and
therefore the pandemonium, flew.
Whereupon her Auror training kicked in, and she immediately ducked
into an alley. Not really the best choice, she admitted, but it was
better than standing in the open.
... Like Raye was doing. Fuck.
Then, in a movement so fast she almost missed it, Raye had drawn some
sort of weapon. It looked something like a large metal "L", but...
Oh. Right. Gun.
...
What the hell? Since when does she have a gun? Was about as
coherent as her train of thought was getting.
Before that line went any further, the weapon roared twice. For some
reason, possibly because it was a threat they were aware of, this sent
the muggles scattering more effectively than the entire barrage of
curses thusfar.
Then again, it could have been the way the two shots more or less
vaporized the head of one of the Death Eaters. Just maybe.
Then the weapon vanished again, leaving only the headless man to
testify to the fact that it had ever existed.
And Raye was moving. Her hands dangled loosely at the ends of her
arms, somehow managing to avoid curses anyway. And she was enjoying
this. It was kind of hard to miss when her entire face was contorted
with a kind of childish glee Tonks hadn't seen in years.
Which wasn't to say Raye wasn't fighting. No, she'd already
appropriated several wands, mostly off corpses, and was occasionally
throwing curses. Mostly though, it was just her hands raking any
exposed flesh they could find, and hell, some that wasn't, coming away
bloody. Decidedly creepy.
Raye giggled in the same way that a fifteen-year-old who has just been
asked on a date by the school 'hunk', who she's incidentally had a
crush on for the last four years might. This was so much fun!
She whipped around, unleashing an incendio at someone. She wasn't
bothering to restrain her attacks to the Death Eaters now, she was
just slaughtering anyone in her way. Absentmindedly she snapped one of
the wands in her hands, dropping the shattered remains to the street,
before catching the wand off a falling Death Eater, who had taken one
of the nastier curses aimed at her.
She flung the first wand she'd aquired through the air, noting with a
degree of amusement, and a decent amount of arousal, that it had
actually managed to puncture someone's neck entirely through. The man
wasn't a wizard. The fact that he had just been standing in the middle
of the road, bewildered, was a tip off as to that fact.
Hell, she observed. I'm not supposed to be killing civvies, am I?
There are no civilians.
Ho! She observed as she drove a man's wand through his neck. Took
you long enough to start criticizing!
Left!
Raye's hand caught the side of the man's head, and swung him into
another of the, rapidly dwindling, standing bodies. In a carefully
planned gesture, she lazily reached out and sliced across the man's
neck.
She smiled delightedly as she whispered, "Tell them Raye sent you.
Tell them I'm here."
When she saw the long, somewhat boxy rifle, with an awkwardly placed
handgrip on the bloody ground, she broke into a delighted grin. How
simply gorgeous! A Remington M31!
She stomped on the back of it, popping it into the air, in much the
same way as skateboarders did to their boards. Only with much deadlier
results.
She caught the weapon, brought it up, and fired once. Moved. Cocked the
weapon, fired again. Moved. A third shot, and she felt it run dry, so she
dropped it, having served it's purpose.
Yeah. So she was leaving her DNA everywhere. Not like anyone would
know what the hell to make of it. Fingerprints? They'd been removed.
She'd done it herself.
Raye whirled around the Desert Eagle .50 whipping out again, and
firing twice more, the first putting a hole through the chest of the
wizard approaching Tonks' hiding place, the second drilling a hole in
another man's neck, which she observed wasn't where she was aiming.
The gun vanished again, and she rolled away from a curse that would
have, literally, skinned her alive.
Tonks was, meanwhile, carefully gaping at Raye out of the corner of
her eye, while looking for the approaching sirens. She wasn't against
Raye enjoying herself, but she was very against Raye being arrested.
So, when she started to hear the sirens, or rather, realized what they
were, she started toward the girl, intent on getting the hell out of
there.
When Raye felt the hand on her shoulder, she whirled, stopping her
hand less than an inch away from Tonks' face. "What?" She demanded
harshly.
"We need to go." Tonks whispered.
Raye blinked, turned her head to the side, and nodded after a moment.
"Lead the way."
A stray curse rebounded off a Death Eater's shield, before slamming
into Raye's back, knocking her hard against Tonks.
The bleach colored woman whirled, a wand snapping into her hand, and
barked something in a harsh language.
The shield imploded, turning into visible fragments, not unlike glass,
as the spell impacted, slicing deeply into the man's flesh.
Raye helped Tonks to her feet, whispering, "Hurry up and apparate," as
she did so.
The two disappeared with a whipcrack.
Street, London. 1636, December 28.
-------
Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. 0530, January 1.
A group of children, barely seventeen, milled around the room in a
disorganized fashion. There was a certain... unity to the group, Raye
observed from where she sat, perched on top of the window. Or rather,
there were several groups-within-the-group. That would have to change.
At last, when the milling organized chaos began to leak toward the
door, she spoke. "I did not dismiss you."
It was rather amusing to see the children's astonishment. She was both
amused and disappointed. She hadn't even been trying to hide, but no
one had noticed her anyway.
Had she really been like that once?
"Right then. Line up."
The children did as ordered.
Raye walked up to the first girl in line, stared into her eyes, and
asked softly, "Honor or morals?"
While the child could honestly say that it was a strange question, she
could also say that she somehow knew how to answer it. "Honor," she
whispered back, feebly.
Raye pointed to the aft side of the room, where the door was. "Stand
over there then."
This continued, with everyone who answered, "Honor," being sent near
the door, and everyone who answered, "Morals," being sent toward the
wall with the window.
"Right then," Raye began, noting in annoyance that the number of
people on the honor side of the room vastly outnumbered the morals
side. "Everyone who said 'Honor,' get the hell out. I am not teaching
corpses. Everyone who said 'Morals' stay."
There was an outcry of disbelief at this announcement, though a single
glare from the albino-like woman silenced them. "Move." She ordered
angrily.
There were several mutterings, mostly of things like, "bitch" and
"whore," but the children obeyed.
"Now. You make a choice," Raye snapped at those who remained. "I am
not going to teach you to defend people. That is not your job. Your
job is killing the enemy. I am not going to teach you to defend
yourself. That means you have stopped moving, and have therefore
fucked up. I am not going to teach you to win in a 'fair fight.' That
means you have already forfeited. I am not going to teach you to, as
the Ministry calls it, 'disable and capture.' That is stupid. I am
going to teach you to kill. I am going to teach you to surprise the
enemy. I am going to teach you how to stack the odds so heavily in
your favor that it is impossible to lose. I am going to teach you to
be merciless. I am going to teach you to enjoy what you do. I am going
to, in short, teach you to become soldiers.
"Should you have any objection to the above, get out. Like I said, I
am not teaching corpses." She watched as about half the remaining
people filtered out.
Unsurprisingly, most of those who remained were in Ravenclaw. There
were, astonishingly, one or two Slytherins. Apparently some of the
house barrier had broken down. Even two Gryffindors, Ron and Hermione,
had stayed. They were not going to last the training. They would fail,
if only on the grounds that they had not gone with their first
reactions, "Honor" and to leave with the rest of the people who
objected to what she would teach. The little idiots had fought it.
Raye laughed mercilessly. She was going to enjoy breaking them.
"Right. I am going to teach you one thing today. Never let your enemy
engage in a fight where the sides are equal. Never.
"Outnumber them. Stab them in the back. Ambush them. Have me on your
side. Because, you see, you are not going to survive doing anything
else.
"Report here after lunch, 1315. Earlier if you like. Understand that I
can, and will, drop you for the smallest of infractions."
Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. 0534, January 1.
Drizzt of the 203-SAW--'s from the Simpsons, but it's a LUEism now
too.
Relle--Seeing as Ange (apart from Harry/Raye) don't exist, and there's
about a ten-thousand year spectrum when they don't, Dumbly don't know.
I have a strange urge to now sing "Dumbly doesn't know..." to the tune
of "Daddy wasn't there..." of Austin Powers. O_o
jghjghg --seven sixteenths of an inch is all you have to move your
little finger from "A" to "Caps Lock" to not sound like an idiot. I
defer to Maddox (.xmission.com) at this point.
Sword of Darkness--do you really, really want me to rant about your
reading comprehension skills? let me quote you something quite
relevant to your commentary: "Really do go back and read the last
chapter if you're confused. Raye is NOT an OC." That was at the end of
chapter six, and there was also something about it at the beginning.
Do you want to know what that was referring to? End part of chapter
five, Harry's self-criticism: "Five seconds, Raye. You're getting
slow." So, are you just incapable of adding two and two to get four?
By now you should realize that I don't tell people where things are
heading in a fiction, so that question was pointless. But yes, I do
know where it's going.
Everyone else, apologies for the rant. I'm just annoyed that he/she
brought up an issue I had already addressed before anyone asked about
it. Oh, and that he/she called it "really, really stupid". *bows
apologetically*