AN: Just a heads up guys, this is the main chapter I have rated this story Mature for. You have been warned. If you want to skip the unpleasantness just scroll down past the line of xxxxx.

Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Eight

When Sister woke, she was in a cage in a dark, dank, warehouse. There were some clerestory windows near the ceiling, and she thought it seemed like late afternoon from the light, though she couldn't be sure because it seemed to still be raining. She looked around and saw one of the thugs.

"Seriously? A cage?" she called to him. "I'm a human fucking being asshole!" He ignored her. "How about some food? Or maybe a drink?" she called. The man got up, brought over a bottle of water and a protein bar.

"How long was I unconscious?" she demanded.

"About half a day," the large man replied.

"How come you do this? I mean, there's got to be more reputable jobs than kidnapping teenagers, even for henchmen, right?" Sister tried to reason with the man. He didn't answer, but handed her a wet cloth, and she wiped the blood off her face. "Seriously, you seem friendly enough," Sister tried again. "Why do you do this?"

He smirked, looked Sister up and down. "We get a cut of the merchandise," he said.

"You get – oh. Oh." Sister processed the fact that she was not the captive of just any criminal, but of a slaver. "Well, if you just want sex, let me go and I've got no problem with that." Sister shrugged casually and tried to keep sounding friendly.

"You know, you're actually the first one to ever offer that? Good for you. No deal though. Boss pays well, and you saw what happens if you cheat him. And that was just poker money, not business."

Sister frowned. Getting out of cuffs was one thing, but getting out of a cage, a warehouse, and a dozen large men who wanted to keep their jobs, their lives, and her warm body, could be a problem. She sat down with a sigh to think. After a few hours the giant man gave her another bottle of water and protein bar.

"Shift change," he said.

"So?" Sister asked.

"Don't provoke this guy, kid. You could very well end up somewhere really nice if you behave. But this guy, I don't know why the boss keeps him around. He's a little..." The man swirled his finger around his temple, indicating the man coming was crazy. "He'll fuck you up kid. Don't mess with him. Just act invisible. If he doesn't take interest, he won't hurt you."

A door opened nearby.

"Good luck," the guard said, and lumbered off.

The Suit, as Sister had dubbed him, was back, and the new guard was with him. Sister could see what the other man had been talking about. This new guard was not so big. He was more wiry and he kept twitching, like he was about to bolt at the next loud noise. His eyes had a hungry look about them, like a wild animal.

"Ah, here is our feisty new pet," said the man in the suit. "Take good care of her. She'll bring a large sum as soon as those bruises heal. Try not to add to the situation, will you?" The creepy man just nodded. As the suited man walked away, Sister couldn't help herself.

"You won't get away with this you cock-juggling thunder cunt!" She screamed out.

"My my, buyers won't appreciate that language at all. We'll have to deal with that accordingly." He walked back out of the warehouse.

Sister glared at the creepy guard. He leered back at her. She sat down and ignored him. She counted the trusses holding up the roof. She took food and drink when he brought it, not from his hands, but from the ground where he set it next to the bars. She didn't sleep. In the morning, the large man from before came back. He looked her over, likely checking for bruises, and nodded in satisfaction when he found nothing new. The day past like the one before, with Sister staring at an empty room and wondering how she was going to escape, and if Brennan had even called the police or if he was too afraid. She napped. She attempted to play "I spy" with the guard until a vein was popping on the side of his head. She counted the trusses again. In the evening, the creepy guard came back. This time he tried to talk to her. She ignored him, and was really proud of herself for doing so, as she knew she had a notoriously loud mouth. Things continued like this for another two days.

On the third night, when Sister leaned down to grab her water bottle, the creepy man grabbed hold of her hair and jerked her up against the bars of the cage.

"Get off!" Sister tried to pry her hair out of his grip and he seized her wrists. She heard him inhale deeply next to her ear.

"Mmm...you smell so nice." Sister felt his tongue graze her ear.

"Let go you sick fuck!" She pulled with all her might, ignoring the pain of her hair being pulled, and managed to break free. His spindly fingers followed her into the cage, and she stood stock still in the exact center, just out of his reach. He leered at her again and began circling the cage.

"He's just messing with you. Don't let him get to you." Sister told herself. She didn't know how long it was that she repeated this mantra to herself. Long enough to get properly dark, anyway. She had long ago gotten the handcuff key out of her boot, and she had placed it in the keyhole of the cuffs, prepared to flee at the first opportunity. All she had to do was turn it and give the cuffs a good tug and her hands would be free.

The lock on the cage door clicked, and Sister opened her eyes. As she had suspected, the man wasn't going to be able to keep his hands to himself and simply guard her. She tried to control her breathing, to tell herself she wasn't terrified as the cage door creaked open. She could just make out the guard's silhouette in the dark. He reached for the zipper on his pants.

"Oh, fuck this!" Sister slammed her cuffed fists into the man's throat, and he stumbled back with a gurgled outcry. Sister darted out of the cage, but he grabbed at her arm. She swung her leg around and tried to kick him in the balls but he caught her leg and pulled, taking both her feet out from under her. He came down on top her and pinned her down with his body, pulling her wrists above her head.

"Feisty little girl. This will be good." he licked the side of her face and Sister screamed in fury. She tried to kick at him, but her legs were pinned by his. He lowered one hand from her wrists back to his pants, keeping his eyes on her. Sister took the opportunity to turn the key in the handcuffs. She pulled, they came apart, and quick as she could Sister raked her sharp nails down the side of the man's face. He reared back with an agonized yell, and Sister wriggled free.

She was on her feet and running for the door, sprinting faster than she had in her life. She could hear the man getting up behind her. She slammed into the door and flung herself outside. It was still raining, and it was a pitch black night. There were no street lights. Sister had no idea how to get back to the albatross. She picked a direction and ran.

She could hear when the man came out the door behind her. He let out an earsplitting shriek, something that might have come from hell itself, and Sister understood what the other guard meant. He may have been a slaver, but this guy...this guy was insane.

Sister kept turning every chance she got, hoping the terror behind her would lose her in the maze of the city. She hoped the rain disguised the sound of her footfalls. She tried to keep up the pace, but she was tiring, and though there were a few street lights now, she couldn't see an area where there were more, where she might reach safety. Her hope flagged when she turned into a dead end alley. She could hear the crazed man getting closer, and she tried climbing on the boxes and bags of garbage at the end of the alley.

"Maybe if I can get to the roof – "

"Gotcha!"

Sister screamed in fright. He had caught up. She scrambled, but slipped on the wet surfaces, banging her knee painfully. She caught herself before she hit the ground and cursed. It was over. She couldn't outrun him now. Oh, she would fight, but she probably wouldn't win.

The man came toward her, eyes wide, hands outstretched as if groping for something in the dark. He giggled madly, and Sister was reminded of Saturday morning cartoon characters from her childhood. She spotted a loose brick by her foot and threw it at the man.

"Stay away from me!" She screamed. He sidestepped the brick and kept coming..

"Come on darling," he seemed to hiss gleefully. "This will only hurt for as long as I want it to." He giggled again.

"Hey." A new voice stopped the man in his tracks. "The lady said to leave her alone. You should back off." Sister could see a tall, muscular figure, dressed darkly, but she couldn't make out his face through the dark and the rain.

"Stay out of this stranger. It's not your concern," her attacker snarled.

"I am making it my concern." The stranger had what might have been an eastern European accent, but Sister was really too panicky to be sure. Especially when she saw the mad man pull a gun.

"Look out!" But a shot rang out before she could finish the words, and the mad man hit the ground almost before she had registered the gun that had fired hadn't been his. Sister stared, wide eyed and shaking, at the body in front of her. She hardly registered the heavy footfall that came to stop beside her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

"That's … that's some gun you've got mister." Sister couldn't look away from what was left of the rapist's face. There wasn't much. She flinched, but only a little, when her rescuer gently turned her face toward his.

"He did this to you?" He touched her bruised face and torn lips ever so gently, and Kai felt a little flutter of relief replace the sick feeling in her belly.

"It was – it was slavers. They took me to – pay a debt, I guess. I got away, but he followed..."

"Shh … it is all right. You are safe now. I will take you to a place I know. You cannot go back to where they took you from. It will be the first place they look."

"That's all right. I wasn't really safe there anyway," Sister said sadly.

"Come," the man held a hand out to her. She took it, and he led her out of the alley. Only a few minutes later they had emerged onto a busy street full of people, colorfully lit signs, and shops galore. Sister relaxed instantly. Her knee was killing her though, and she soon found that the crowds knocked her off balance. When her rescuer noticed, he simply scooped her up in his arms. From the warmth of his heavily muscled embrace she could examine him more closely. He had a hard face, but gentle charcoal-colored eyes. His hair was cropped close, almost shaved, and was black, or very near it. He looked as though he hadn't shaved in a few days. His skin wasn't scarred, but it certainly hadn't been pampered. Rugged was definitely a word she would use for him. He looked like … well, like a warrior of some kind she supposed, from the way he was dressed. He didn't look "battle hardened" but neither did he seem inexperienced, and was perhaps in his twenties, though he had one of those sort of ageless faces so Sister figured he could be anywhere between 18 and 35. All in all, she couldn't really find a complaint with how this situation had turned out, thought she reminded herself to interview people before traveling with them from now on.

"Live and learn," Sister thought. "I mean it's not like Brennan wanted to sell me to slavers. But still."

After a few minutes more of winding through the bustling, umbrella-laden crowds, her "hero" as she'd begun referring to him in her head, placed her gently down on the porch of a restaurant. It had no name – just PHO' in bright red letters above the door, which was only covered by a curtain of wooden beads. The man called inside and an ancient looking Asian granny came hobbling out. They spoke for a moment in what Sister thought was probably very broken Vietnamese and perhaps a bit of Russian on her hero's side and very fast Vietnamese with a lot of hand gestures on the old granny's. Finally she turned to Sister and gave her a deeply appraising look, almost like she could see into her soul. She nodded, gestured at "Hero," and went back inside. They waited. A minute later the old granny came back with some towels. She handed a couple to the man and then began vigorously drying Sister off. After she was satisfied she indicated they should come in, but then stopped them, said something else and pointed to their feet.

"She wants us to take off our shoes," her hero sighed. They complied, the man taking much longer with his heavy combat boots, and then followed her inside. She sat them down at a table and then bustled back into the kitchen. She returned a moment later with two steaming bowls of pho'. They thanked her and dug in.

"Thank you," Sister said to her rescuer after a few minutes.

"You are welcome," he replied.

"Do you rescue people often?"

"Not really."

"Do you kill people often?" Sister looked at the man intently. He looked up from his noodles and seemed a little surprised that she would stare him down.

"No," he finally replied. "It it generally avoidable. That man needed to be ended though."

"Are you a cop?"

"No."

"Will you get in trouble for killing him?" Again, he seemed surprised at Sister's question.

"Not if you do not tell anyone it was me. It is not surprising that you got yourself into such a situation if you are always so curious. You are the adventurous type, am I right? My cousin is just the same. You ended up with someone you could not trust?"

"Basically, yeah. Are you military? Like special ops or something?"

"Or something." He didn't meet her eyes this time, but Sister thought she detected a faint hint of a smirk. "The old woman will give you a bed upstairs tonight and tend your injuries. You can trust her. I would not quickly trust anyone else though. This is a hard place." He stood up from his chair and tossed some cash down on the table. "Try to stay out of trouble, solnyshka." he looked on her with those gentle eyes again, and she was mesmerized for a moment. She stared after him for a minute as he left. Suddenly, she realized something, and dashed out trying to catch him. He was already gone. The old woman came out onto the porch.

"I didn't even ask his name," Sister said softly. The woman patted her hand gently and led her inside where there was a change of clothes and a warm bed waiting.