Chapter Twelve

Piper cried out in pain as the Sorceress again tapped the helmet, sending pain echoing through her skull, but her cry was drowned out by her iron gag and another scream from Ororo. She didn't know what was happening to her godmother, but Ororo had started screaming some time after the Sorceress had released her from the spell. Her yells had began coherent, but now they seemed to Piper's ears to be the raving screams of a lunatic. Never would Piper have imagined that Ororo's mind had gone back to the time she had been a three year-old child, trapped and buried under rubble with the bodies of her parents and their neighbors, nor could Piper have known that Ororo had been frantically clawing at the trap door until her fingers were beginning to dwindle to naught but bloody stubs.

All Piper knew now was that she, the man she loved, her family, and all their friends had been cast into a Hell the likes of which she could never have imagined. She did not know what was happening to Cole or any of her sisters. She did not even know if they were still alive. Her hope had been drained away as the Sorceress had slowly tortured her and the screams and howls she heard coming from seemingly all directions had preyed upon her ears. Now, she could no longer help just wanting it to be over.

The Sorceress turned the screw again, and Piper screamed once more as her skull felt that it would explode. This time, the pain surged into her eyes. Blood rushed into her vision, and her eyes ached more fiercely than anything she'd ever before felt -- even more so than when the raptors had clawed her eyes. At least then, her blood loss had quickly rendered her unconscious, but now she remained awake as her eyes popped out of her head and splattered down her shattered jaw and neck.


Gabrielle could not seem to stop her tears even after Callisto moved away from removing her last fingers. The blonde stood before her, peering down at her and having a good laugh. Gabrielle didn't know how long the laughter lasted nor did she take any notice of when Callisto finally moved away to begin heating her next torture weapon. She did, however, see what the bitch carried when she returned to her vision.

Callisto toted the instrument by the bar that joined it together, but it was the long, ghastly claws that caught Gabrielle's attention. She stared at the things, wondering in terror where they would go and what they would do to her. She was given her answer when Callisto stopped beside her and caressed her right breast. "I bet Xena's had fun playing with these," the blonde sneered as she rubbed Gabrielle's nipple between her thumb and forefinger. "Oh well. That's just one more little item you won't have to entice her with."

Gabrielle's green eyes shot wide as the claws neared her breasts, but then, suddenly, the dinner bell rang. Callisto pouted and sighed. "Guess it'll have to wait." She raked the claws against Gabrielle's breast, drawing blood, then dropped the instrument onto her bare stomach and left.

Gabrielle sighed in relief that something had, at least, bought her some time. "Xena, where are you!" she whimpered in the silence of the cabin.


Donkey had watched and warred with himself the entire time that Anamaria had been using the Spanish crusher to remove Will's testicles. Now she dropped the instrument and pulled a knife from her belt. He watched, and his eyes grew even wider as she held Will's limp member in one hand and began cutting off small pieces. She started at the tip, and he knew she would not stop until she was done. He had to do something! Regardless of what happened to himself, he had to do something!

Anamaria had been intently cutting off small pieces of Will's sword, only about an inch at a time, when spit slammed across the side of her face. She dropped her knife, whirled, and, even while clawing at the spit with her fingernails, yelled at Donkey. "YOU STUPID JACKASS! I TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU!"

"FINE! KILL ME THEN," Donkey spat bravely at her, "BUT I CAN'T JUST STAND HERE AND WATCH YOU KILL MY BOY!"

"You're going to," she informed him. "I'm not going to kill you. Not yet, any way." Leaving her knife and the crusher where they had landed, she moved back to her table and picked up an iron gag. It was usually used for humans, but she saw no reason why it wouldn't work in the irritating, talking Donkey's case.

Donkey waited until Anamaria came close enough, then struck out with his hooves. She managed to escape the front ones by jumping back, but the hind ones caught her instead. They threw her so that she landed face first on the floor. Anamaria growled as she shoved herself back up, and her chocolate eyes blazed at Donkey.

"That's it!" she seethed. She turned and rolled quickly and, before the animal could react, pulled her pistol and shot him four times -- one for each leg she had not yet injured and the last for the sword. Donkey screamed as each bullet hit its mark, but Will was too far gone to notice.

"Now," she told him, "you give me any trouble, I'll shoot your boy."

"You wanna torture him."

"I do," Anamaria admitted, "but I've already done a lot and what I really want to do is to take Jack's little lover away from him. Shooting him in the heart'll do the trick just as fine. Now hold still." Donkey was in too much pain to fight her this time, and after Anamaria had secured the gag, she returned to Will -- and his sword which she continued slicing off like a butcher cutting off links of sausage.


When Darla and Drusilla had began working on getting rises out of Angel and Connor instead of just hurting them, Crystal had ushered Cordelia into Lorne's arms and had began to pace the cell. She did not know how long her brother or his son could hold on nor did she have any idea how much more of watching her lover being slowly destroyed Cordelia could handle without revealing her love for Angel. Her ice blue eyes moved to her babies where they huddled together in one sweating, panting heap. They were all creatures of cold climates, and she knew they could not withstand the heat for long without her protection -- a protection she was unable to give them as long as the collar blocked her powers.

To her surprise, Crystal came to realize that there was another pacing the cell -- a purple dragon that belonged to Kitty Pryde and was clearly hopping mad. She looked from the dragon back to the Vampiresses and chewed on her bottom lip a moment while she thought. When Darla and Dru slipped wooden rings out of their pockets, forced them onto their prisoners' swords, and those swords stood suddenly erect, Crystal knew she had no other choice. She had to try something, anything, and she began to coo quietly to the dragon.

Lockheed cocked his head as he listened. When she was done explaining her idea, he hopped up and down excitedly. The bonds on his wings kept him from being able to fly, so Crys, ignoring her arm cuff's teeth biting even deeper into her arm, reached down to him, picked him up, and put him on her shoulder. She moved over to the bars and turned to look at Lorne. "Back up," she mouthed to him.

His red horns drew down, and he frowned in confusion. What was she going to do?

"Trust me," she mouthed to him, her desperate eyes pleading with him, "please. For Angel."

He nodded and gently led Cordelia back. When they were safely out of the way, Crys turned back around just as the Vampiresses were hiking up their skirts. "HEY, BITCHES!" she yelled. "YEAH, YOU, YOU UGLY WHORES!" Darla dismissed her and slipped her mouth over Angel's steed, which brought an even louder sob from Cordy, but Dru turned to look at the woman who had suddenly grown an acid tongue.

"My, my," the Vampiress crooned, "another pretty, little blonde with such a foul tongue, but this one's even prettier than the last." She walked away from Connor and Zora to take a few steps closer to the cell. She cocked her head to one side as she studied Crys. "Her skin makes me think of snow. Do you remember snow, Mommy?" she asked Darla. "I remember snow. I remember taking a little girl in the snow and how her blood ran onto the ground and mixed with the snow . . . "

"Why don't you come try to repeat the act, bitch?" Crystal challenged, her ice blue eyes narrowed and flickering dangerously.

Drusilla drew closer to the cage. "I might . . . "

"Might?" Crys repeated sarcastically. "What? You don't have the balls for it? Oh, what the heck am I talking about? Of course, you don't. That's why you and the rest of your cowardly lot had to put the collars on us to stop our powers, attack us when we didn't even see you, and throw us in these cells like caged animals. You don't have the guts for a real fight, because you know your little ass would be staked in a heartbeat." She'd never used such language before in all her life, but she knew she had to draw the Vampiress closer and it was working.

"That's what you think, dear," Dru snarled. "In a real fight, I'd slit your throat in an instant!" Her sharp fingernails reached toward the bars.

Drusilla had just stepped close enough, and Crystal's hand shot through the bars. Blood poured from her cuff as she grabbed the Vampiress by the neck and slammed her against the bars. "Crys!" Lorne cried. He dropped Cordelia without a further thought to the Princess, but Kurt, who had been returned to the cell after Dru had snacked on him, caught her before she could fall. Lorne had started to run for Crys but froze as fire spewed from Lockheed's mouth, engulfing the Vampiress' face.


Vang roared as Clawdeen hit him again. He had seen Catra remove poor Tom's toenails, eyes, and nose, and he knew he was bleeding even more profusely than his old friend. He just didn't know how long they could hold out -- or how much longer before they passed into unconscious from blood loss.

Clawdeen struck his face and roared, demanding his attention. His bleary eyes refocused on the pink lioness who had grown to be twice his size. She roared again, and he roared in response -- refusing yet again to roll over and stick it out so that she could take him.


Drusilla fell back, screaming and beating at the flames with her hands in a mad fit. Darla's teeth nipped Angel's sword as her mouth left him; she then raced for a bucket of water that she'd kept nearby in case some of the hot things they were playing with got out of hand and doused her lover. "YOU!" Darla screamed, throwing the bucket against the bars where Crystal stood. "HOW DARE YOU! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

"Will I?" Crystal asked, feigning surprise. "I'm not yours, just like the little doctor said earlier. I belong to Judson now. Do you really want to tick off the man who gave you the holy water and probably has some left just in case one of you went over the deep end?"

Darla seethed, and Lockheed could swear he saw real smoke literally rising off of her. "We're going to get him and he'll handle you if he doesn't let us do so, but you'll get yours!"

Crystal smiled as Darla, holding her crying partner close to her, swept out of the holding area. Her plan had been a success, but as soon as they were gone, her smile disappeared. She started to collapse against the bars, but Lorne was there to catch her.

He picked up her hand and looked at the blood that was now oozing without stopping from behind her arm cuff. His red eyes next moved to the hand that had clutched Drusilla's throat, and he ached even more as his gaze was met with her completely-burned hand. "Crys . . . Why?" Why had she let this happen to herself?

"Lorne, please," Crystal pleaded, seeing the tears welling in his eyes, "don't cry. I had to."

"But why?" he asked again.

"To buy them some time," she explained.

Angel shook his head where he hung against the wall. He couldn't help being glad for the reprieve and had ached for one, but he hadn't wanted it to come at the cost of his sister's well-being! "Crys, you shouldn't have."


For the first and only time in his life, Autolycus was in the middle of sex -- and hating every minute of it. The blonde bitch rode him like a horse, her legs locked around him where he hung on the wall. Her fingernails had left scratches all over his body, and she had taken and taken while never giving. He had bit her tongue once, but to his dismay, he'd discovered that she'd liked it! Therefore, he'd hung like a limp dishrag ever since, letting her have her way with him while praying to whatever God might care to listen that it would be over soon.


Helvira had slowly worked her way up Jareth, crushing his feet, legs, and knees. She knew he'd never be able to walk again and must be in the most pain he'd ever felt, yet he still refused to succumb to her and she could feel the sun beginning to set. "I'm not going to waste all my time on you," she informed him. "The sun's going to set soon, and when it does, Brendan'll be untouchable so I'm going back to him but I'll return to you shortly." She patted his cheek reassuringly, then drew her black fingernails down his cheek, drawing blood.

She walked back to Brendan. She removed the necklace from around his neck, placing it back on hers. She then withdrew a wooden ring that was tied onto the sash of her dress and slid it onto Brendan's steed. It brought the limp sword to life, and Prue screamed as the bitch climbed onto her man. Even as Helvira sank onto Brendan with a pleased sigh and ignored the screams and curse words that were flung at her, her hands reached out to Wolf and Wolverine who hung next to her chosen steed and began to caress their swords. "You're next, boys," she promised them. Then, after she was done with them for now, she'd go back to the irritating King who simply refused to cave.


Wesley had never been in such a terrible fix in his entire life! Not only had the pretty woman taking him against his will turned out to be a Demon, but she had continued changing while screwing him! The thing that rode him now made him shudder, cringe, and try to pull away once again as spikes exploded out of her red forehead and horns snarled backwards protruded from the back of her skull.

"You're not going anywhere, lover," she growled at him from a deep, unearthly voice. Her strong hands ripped the iron gag from his mouth. She tossed it to the floor and slammed her mouth against his. Her forked tongue dove even deeper, sliding against his trembling tongue much as her body was against his steed. Wesley tried to scream, but her mouth silenced him as easily as the iron gag had.


Crystal looked from Lorne to Angel and back to Lorne. She heard soft footsteps against the wood and looked down to find her babies looking up at her with tears in their eyes. She shook her head slowly, her long, blonde hair shimmering down her back and began to lift her voice in song.

"When you first met me,
I didn't believe in hardly anything.
All I had left was survival,
Survival for my babies and I,
But then I met you.

I met you, and for the first time,
The first time in a very long time,
I had hope and a family.

I guess that's why now,
When our world is falling apart,
When there seems to be no hope,
I know there is.

They're not dead.
Don't think that for a second.
It'd take something much larger
To kill those we've left behind,
And they'll find a way.

They'll find a way to come for us,
And they will.
But until then . . .
We have to be strong.

We have to hold on
If we're going to break away
And live to see the sun another day.

We must do what we must
To help each other survive,
Stay strong, stay alive.

If we just stay strong and
Do what we have to to survive,
We'll hang on.
We'll make it, and we'll be here
When they get here to save the day.
"

Her lyrics confused Lorne even more, and he answered her in song.

"I know they're not dead.
I know they'll come for us,
But I still don't get it.

You say we have to hold on,
We have to do what we can to survive,
But then why risk your life like that?
"

Crystal was about to answer Lorne when a new voice spoke up in song, and startled eyes turned to look at none other than the Princess. Her voice was shaky, but her words were true.

"Don't be angry with her.
I understand.
We all know what those two . . . monsters want.
Who knows what they'll do after they get it?

She did what she could
To buy them some time,
To buy us some time,
So that we can hold on.
"

Crystal nodded, and the two women sang together.

"If we just stay strong and
Do what we have to to survive,
We'll hang on.
We'll make it, and we'll be here
When they get here to save the day.
"

Cordelia sang on.

"I remember when I was a little child,
I used to dream.
I had such big dreams,
But they were all killed.

Then"

Her teary, hazel eyes turned to Angel.

"I met you,
And you brought them all alive again.

I know you probably think
I don't think that highly of Captain Sparrow,
But I do and I know he'll come for us.

We just have to hold on,
Give him a chance to reach us,
And he'll save us . . .
"

Her words faded as a door opened and angry footsteps plowed down into the shadowy depths of the hold . . .


"This just isn't working!" Enchantra cried in protest as she pulled herself back up off of Cole. She put her hands on her slender hips and stomped her foot in protest. Her lips poked out so far that Dawson couldn't help thinking that some one could take a long walk off of them as easily as they could a short pier.

Cole glared up at the blonde bitch who had been kissing and licking him all over his body and sucking upon his steed in her desperate attempts to get him up. His member had almost betrayed him a few times, but all it took was remembering Piper, wondering what horrors were befalling his beloved, and the knowledge that he would surely lose her love if he were to cave in to the whore to make it dwindle right back down.

"Tell me about it!" Catra agreed. "I swear I've never met an idiot more determined to stick to his stupid wedding oaths!"

"Vows," Tom told her with a grin. "They're wedding vows." Though he hurt like Hell and could no longer see or smell, he was glad and proud that his steed had not betrayed him.

"Whatever!" Catra snapped back at him.

"I don't know what you girls' problems are," Silver Fox commented from where she rode her Chinese stallion.

"You're not having any trouble?" Rubella asked, surprised that one of them was getting hers whereas the rest of them had not gotten absolutely anywhere.

Silver Fox grinned. "China man China good!" Her lips met Chong's again.

Rubella humphed. "I say it's time we break out the cock rings!"

The men looked at each other as best they could. Each puzzled expression wore the same worried thought: What the heck was a cock ring?


Roxanne had fled from the galley shortly after arriving. She had raced past Darla and Drusilla and was glad that she would not be around for whatever those bitches were heading to fuss about, but she was running at such a speed that she did not even notice the burn marks on Drusilla's pale face. She did not cease running until she reached her cabin, unlocked her door, slammed it shut, and quickly locked it again.

Katrina looked up when the slamming of the door startled her. She had been almost asleep due to exhaustion with her arms around Celina. Morph was nestled into Celina's other side.

Roxanne's brown eyes turned toward her prisoners. Panic seemed to touch the edges of her dark orbs, but her much calmer face only showed determination. Her words spilled quickly from her lips. "Elektra will be returning soon, and you'll want to hide these," she told the black catwoman as she tossed a package wrapped in cloth and a key to her.

Katrina deftly caught the package and the key and then looked questioningly at Roxanne. "What is this for, and what is it?"

"The key," Roxanne hurriedly replied as she began stripping, "is a skeleton key. It will open your collars, but you want to wait until your friends arrive for the same reasons we discussed earlier. The other is food."

"Thank you," Katrina told her. "What is about to happen to you?" She gently nudged both Morph and Celina, trying to wake them.

Morph had, for a change, been in a light sleep. His brown eyes fluttered open, and he found himself looking at a woman who was practically throwing her clothes off and to the floor over his sister-in-law's shoulder. "What the heck?"

As soon as she was naked, Roxanne moved to her wall. Her quick-thinking mind was still trying to make sure she had told them everything she could when something else occurred to her. "You can find pistols in the drawers of my desk," she told them even as she began locking herself into chains that were on the wall, "and . . . " She groaned against the pain that was beginning to race through her body. "beware of . . . of the Priest. He can take . . . any . . . form . . . "

"What are you," Katrina asked her, realizing that the woman was about to morph into something, "and why do you care so much about us?" She was thankful that the woman did care about them and was trying to help them. She would do what she could to help her, as well.

"I'm tired of . . . of seeing good people hurt . . . for . . . for no reason . . . When you free . . . When you free your people, please . . . there is one toward the back . . . caught in . . . caught in f-fevers . . . If you could . . . could take her with . . . with you . . . " Her words broke off into a scream of pain as the change began.

Katrina had been about to ask if they could take her, as well, when the change had began. Her eyes grew wide as, for the first time, she realized, as the spotted fur began to appear on the woman's body, that this woman, too, was a cat. That explains so much! Katrina thought and watched helplessly as the woman continued changing.

Morph also watched the changes take over the woman they now knew to be a Werejaguar. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to help, his brown eyes turned toward Katrina. "What did she tell you?" he asked.


Helvira was in the throes of her ride, sliding herself up and down Brendan's forced steed while her hands vigorously rubbed Wolverine's and Wolf's when shocks suddenly ripped through Brendan's and Wolf's bodies. They howled even as Helvira screamed and was knocked backwards off of Brendan. Her black eyes glared up at the Werewolves. She'd been so lost in enjoying her men that she'd forgotten about the full moon, and it had just finished rising into the night sky. "You'll pay for that, you bastard!" she hissed as she jumped to her feet.

Brendan stared at her incredulously. He was about to ask her just what he would pay for when he was not responsible for the collar that had shocked them when her fingernails stuck into the flesh above his ribs. Fire shot through him, and he howled. Helvira managed to snatch her hands away just as another shock ran through his body. "Well, it looks like it's back to you," she told Jareth as she began walking toward the end of her line.


"There!" Darla seethed angrily, pointing Crystal out. "There's the little bitch who used the damn dragon to burn Dru!"

Judson's eyes calmly met Crystal's, who returned his gaze and tried to quiet her frantically beating heart. "Who speaks for the dragon?"

Though she knew Lockheed was Kitty's pet, Crys held her chin high. "I do," she spoke firmly.

"And who was singing?"

"I was."

Lorne knew that Darla and Dru knew he'd had nothing to do with the attack and thus he was unable to share her burden on that, but he would not let her shoulder the punishment for singing alone. "And I," he added.

"Lorne!" Crys protested, her ice blue eyes cutting back at him.

"We do what we have to, sweetheart," he reminded her.

"And I."

The voice came from behind Lorne and Crystal and set Angel to struggling again. "Cordy, no!" Whereas Crystal and Lorne might stand a chance, no matter how slim, of surviving whatever punishment they had planned, he knew his beloved Princess would not.

"I would have thought better of you, Princess," Judson told her. He then turned to the Captain who stood beside him. "I need two spiked punishment collars, if the green Demon's captor does not object?"

"Not at all," Lilah assured him.

"Kalena, fetch the collars," Callisto called out. Kalena nodded and walked off to do her Captain's bidding.

"And . . . ?" Callisto prompted, looking back at Judson.

"Two volunteers to take Miss Frost," he smiled devilishly at Crystal, "to the wheel."

Lorne gasped and shivered for his love. He did not like the sound of that!

Crystal forced herself to remain calm. She gently lowered Lockheed and sat him beside Blue. She then stood, waiting and still trying to slow her heartbeat and hide her fear.

"Darla, Elektra, help him," the Captain commanded.

"With pleasure," Darla snarled. Elektra opened the cell's door, and Darla snatched Crys away from Lorne's arms which had just encircled her again in hopes of somehow miraculously protecting his beloved. He watched with tears in his eyes as they led her away. Elvira howled, Cindy roared, and Blue screeched. Cordelia moved quietly up beside Lorne and placed a compassionate hand on his shoulder even as she fought against her own tears.


Rubella's plan on the cock rings had worked well for Catra and Enchantra, but just as they were getting set to mount their prisoners, Rubella cried out. "It's not working!"

The other three women looked up at her, each wearing the same puzzled expression. "What!"

"It's not working!" Rubella repeated. "I've never seen anything like this, but it's not working!"

Enchantra, being the closest, was the first to move to investigate. Her fingers slid along Clark's sword as she checked that the ring was secure, and her mouth opened in surprise. "She's right!"

"What?" Silver Fox asked.

"There's no way it can't be working!" Catra exclaimed.

"But it isn't!" Rubella exclaimed.

"Come look for yourselves!" Enchantra urged.

What happened next was a scene straight out of Clark's teenage nightmares as four lovely women converged upon him. Each checked the ring the first had shoved down onto his steed, and each found that it was secure. "Maybe you're doing something wrong," Silver Fox suggested.

"Like what?" Rubella demanded.

"I don't know," the Indian admitted.

"Let's see if we can figure it out," Enchantra said.

They began to kiss, lick, and suckle Clark, and their mouths did not leave a single area untouched.


It did not take Kalena long to return to Callisto's side for she knew any slowness would bring her loyalty into question. She handed the heavy collars, which weighed over eleven pounds each, to her and stepped back. "Train your pistol on the blue Demon in Priest's clothes, Lilah," Callisto commanded her First Mate. Jocelyn held the door open for Callisto as she entered the cell, and Lilah kept her pistol pointed on Kurt as commanded.

"Not that I should need to tell you," Callisto told the prisoners, "but any one moves any way other than the way I want you to, and his head gets blown straight off."

Angel fought even harder against his chains as Callisto approached Lorne and Cordelia with the collars. He could tell they were very heavy, but that was not the source behind the fear that clutched at his heart. The fear came from the spikes that he could see gleaming hungrily on both the outside and inside of the collars.

Cordy and Lorne had to force themselves to stand as statues, knowing that the slightest wrong movement would mean Kurt's death, as Callisto fastened the collars around their necks. "This will teach you," she informed them, "to try to lift your spirits by such silly tactics. Oh, and just so you know, your friends won't be coming. You're ours to do with what we -- "

"They'll come," Lorne told her, his red eyes staring her down. "They'll come, and they'll rescue us."

Callisto backhanded Lorne so hard that blood broke from his lips. "Don't you dare backtalk me, Demon!"

Cordelia gasped, and her hands reached out to check the damage made to her friend even as Callisto turned her back on them and walked out. She did not pause as Jocelyn shut the door behind her but merely continued on her way back to her prisoner.

The other Piratesses left quickly, as well, and Angel found himself facing Drusilla. "Looks like it's just me and you now, Daddy," Dru told him, a name that made Cordy's eyes shoot wide in shock, as she retrieved the iron bar from the brazier and swung it low . . . "I don't like being burned, Daddy," Dru crooned. "I don't think you like it either." Angel could not stop the scream that split from his mouth as the bar touched his sword.

Neither took notice of the shocks that were ripping through Zora's body, but Connor did. "Stop," he pleaded with her in a frantic whisper. "Stop trying to use your powers!"

"I'm . . . " Another shock cut off her words. "I'm not!" she gasped. "It's the -- " Her words broke into a scream as yet another shock exploded through her.


"It still isn't working," Rubella complained a while after she had been joined in her efforts on her prisoner by Catra, Enchantra, and Silver Fox.

Catra's green eyes lifted up from Clark's thighs, and for the first time, she noticed the necklace around Rubella's neck. "What's that?"

"It's a necklace I traded for a few ports back," Rubella told her. "It's a rare stone called kryptonite."

"Why is it glowing?" Silver Fox questioned.

"I don't know." Rubella shrugged, her brow creasing in confusion. She'd been too busy with her prisoner to notice it before, but now that she did, it was starting to worry her.

"Has it ever done that before?" Enchantra asked.

"Glowed?" The blonde nodded, and the black woman shook her head. "No."

"Maybe it's affecting him some how," the First Mate, Enchantra, suggested.

"How can we tell?" Jade queried.

"Try holding it closer to him," Enchantra instructed Rubella. "See how he reacts."

Rubella held the glowing, green rock closer to her prisoner. Clark pulled away from the thing that was somehow making him feel so weak, but she simply brought it closer still. His skin drew tight against his bones, and his veins throbbed. The women gasped at the sight. Rubella drew the rock against Clark's chest, and he screamed in agony.


"You're either stupid or brave and stupid," Elektra commented as Crystal allowed herself to be drug toward the wheel without fighting.

Crys had never seen such an instrument in all her life, but she had known that stopping Darla and Dru from raping Angel and Connor would come with punishment and was determined to keep her head high as she'd paid the price she'd asked for. After all, if she had a second chance, she'd still do it and anything else she could think of to help delay the evitable from reaching her family.

Judson watched as Darla and Elektra strategically arranged the wooden timbers underneath Crystal's body. They staked her to the wheel, and the three of them converged upon her at once, smashing her limbs with the iron edges of the wheel until every bone was sufficiently broken.

Crystal had been fighting to keep from screaming the entire time, and blood trickled from her tongue where she'd been biting herself to keep silent. As they continued breaking her bones, however, she found that she could no longer remain silent. Her scream brought a smile to Judson's lips -- and made him recall who was waiting for him in his cabin. "Tell you what, Darla. She used the dragon to burn your lover, so why don't you do whatever you want with her? Just don't kill her, but do anything else."

Darla's eyes met his, and Elektra shuddered inwardly at the evil smile the two shared. Darla set back to breaking Crystal's limbs as Judson walked away and Elektra slipped off, still shivering inside. When Darla had finished breaking Crys' bones, she began to braid them into the wheel's spokes.


"We were lucky," Rachel observed, her own words shocking her, as she and Elizabeth stood alone in the galley.

"Lucky!" Elizabeth gasped out in disbelief.

Ray nodded. "Whatever happened down in the hold distracted them. They forgot to whip us."

It was then that Harriet appeared, flanked by two other women. She held a whip in her hand, and Rachel sighed. "Damn."

"What?" Elizabeth asked. Her eyes followed the redhead's gaze, and her mouth fell open and her face paled. "But -- But -- But I thought th-they liked the food!"

Rachel shook her head. "They never like anything."

"Hold them still one at a time," Harriet commanded. "They think they can call that food! Please! I was cooking better when I was barely out of diapers!"

Rachel knew the fat, old woman's words were a lie, but she dared not call her on them. She stepped before Elizabeth, volunteering to be first so that she might delay the new girl's punishment a little.

Harriet shook her head, knowing exactly what Ray was trying to do. "The blonde first," she commanded.

Before Elizabeth even knew what had happened, she had been snatched. The whip cracked over her head. She tensed and scrunched her eyes tightly shut. She screamed and Rachel winced as the whip hit her back again and again.


Faith could not stop trembling after seeing her own mother making love to her and Snow, the one friend she'd ever had before signing up to the Black Pearl, demanding why she had killed and ate him. She did not know what Judson would do to her next, but she knew he knew how to push her buttons and that she'd best expect anything. Still, she wondered, having thrown her mother and Snow at her, what else did he have left? She shuddered; she didn't really want to know.

Of all the things Faith could have expected, none was what entered the room next. Her mouth fell open, and she stared at the blonde man before her in complete shock. His blue eyes returned her stare, but his eyes and face were completely devoid of any emotion. Tears sprang to Faith's eyes. "D-D-Dawson?"

"Faith."

His response was cold, and she stared at him in even more surprise. "D-D-Dawson, w-w-wh-what's g-going on?" Chills swept through her prone body, and her heart felt dead in her chest as he moved further into the room and she saw what he gripped in his hand. It was a whip with a wooden handle carved with indentations to grant its user a better grip and three chains of seven links each. "Dawson, what the Hell -- !" The words came out in a panicked rush and froze in her mouth as she saw Lilah enter the room behind him and lock the door again.

Lilah smiled coldly at her. "Judson sends his regards. He had to get a bath after what you did to him." She shook her head. "Stupid man bothering to try to be clean."

"D-Dawson?" His name escaped her mouth in a weak whisper. All the color had drained from her face.

"I'm sorry, Faith," he told her, his voice sounding strange and flat. "I have to do this."

"W-Why!" she cried, tears running down her face. "I-I thought you loved me!"

"So did I," he replied with a shrug, "but I realized I loved living more, and it was either do what they wanted or die." He grinned. "What kind of an idiot chooses death?"

Lilah smiled at the boy's words and moved toward the table. She hit a button underneath, and Faith found herself released from her chains, thrown upwards at such a point that her body flipped, landed on her stomach, and rechained before she could even move a muscle! "D-D-D-Dawson, please, don't! I . . . " How could she tell the man who now held a whip above her naked back that she loved him? How could she love him!

Tears began racing down Faith's face even before Dawson laid the whip against her back. She screamed as he whipped her, no longer caring how she appeared, and her screams grew as the whip lashed into old, tender spots in her back -- spots that Judson had first torn open many years ago. Her tears increased in speed and number, and this time, they did not stop.

To Be Continued . . .