Slowly and painstakingly she worked through the symbols and translated her muddied understanding of them to the paper. Some of it wasn't quite right, she knew. She kept backtracking, erasing, and editing as she went but she was making real progress despite it all. Even she could see that much was true. She was so absorbed in her quest that she blocked out the others in the room almost entirely. She knew they were still there but so long as they stayed well away from her, all was good.

They kept their distance.

She continued with her task.

The blank pages slowly filled with shaky, thin writing, the script scrawling in irregular lines. As she kept at her task, she noticed the people slowly disappearing into the far corners of the room or drifting up the stairs. The more people dispersed, the more at ease she felt. She kept her head bent, her eyes flitting back and forth between the book and her translation. It felt insanely good to have a task to do - even if it was a self-imposed one.

She had no idea how much time had passed before her eyes started to droop shut and her head began to nod. The woman Bo, never farther from her than a few paces away, slowly approached her side and gently lay a hand on her knee. She still wouldn't meet the woman's gaze but she carefully controlled her urge to flinch at her touch.

"Hey Kenz, are you ready to call it a night?"

She clenched her hands into fists slowly before silently exhaling and nodding her assent. With very deliberate motions, she carefully slid her pile of paper into a neat stack and set it on top of the book on the table. The pencil she had been using was lined up next to the book just as precisely. With another silent deep breath she slid back on the couch until she was laying down, the blankets pulled up to her chin and her eyes determinedly closed.

She heard Bo sigh. "Oh Kenz…" The sound of the table being drug slightly away punctuated with a presence on the edge of the couch indicated that her visitor was not quite ready to depart. "I'm just going to be upstairs for a few minutes. I'll be right back, I promise."

She nodded slightly and felt the woman's lips graze her brow in a delicate kiss. Sleep was not long in coming.

Flickering light flashed against her closed eyelids and a deep rumbling noise shook the entirety of the world around her.

They were coming. They were coming. They were coming.

The words were caught on an unending loop in her head, growing louder and faster until the voice was little more than a piercing wail that echoed in her skull.

They were coming.

A loud crash and its answering ground shaking tremor pulled her solidly from her nightmare-filled sleep, if not from the nightmare itself. She desperately searched the darkened room for any sign of interlopers. Then she cast her gaze about even more desperately for the woman Bo. There was no one there - she was all alone.

And they were coming.

Another loud booming crash and blinding flash of light startled her into movement. The pain didn't matter, she had to find somewhere to hide before it was too late - before they came.

There had been no hope of hiding when she had been caged in her cell. Absolutely no way to become invisible. Here in Narnia she at least had a better chance of disappearing from their notice. She pushed herself from herself from her sickbed and scrambled across the floor as best she could, ignoring the protestations of her body. She had to find a hiding place. Sheer terror hardened her resolve and egged her on. She had to hide. She could not survive another session of their particular brand of ministrations.

The booming crashes continued as did the screeching warning in her head but soon all sound was drowned out by a soul jarring scream that went on and on without stopping. She clawed at cher head and ears to keep from having to hear the sound. Deep in her subconscious was the realization that punishment would be doled out liberally very soon. If even one made any sound at all, everyone suffered the consequences.

With her fingers still clawing at her ears and her knees drawn up tightly to her chest she frantically rocked back and forth. Back and forth in the dim and dusty space beneath the stairs. The first place she had found in which to hide herself away from those that would be coming to do her grievous harm.

Please, please, please, please, please, no, no, no, no…

oOo

What had begun as a gentle soaking rain had coalesced into a massive, violent thunderstorm by the time Tamsin left the warehouse. The jailers would no longer be a threat to Kenzi or anyone else for that matter and the captives had been identified by the local police as highly traumatized victims of human traffickers. So all in all it was a win-win. And she had taken care of it without the assistance of the others - something they would balk about when they found out but that made no difference now. She had felt a real need to wreck some vengeance of her own before she had a complete melt down and had seized the first opportunity she had been able to find.

Deciding to stop by the Dal on her way home in order the look in on Kenzi, she came to a stop on the stoop just shy of opening the door. Something was not right. Something was very definitely wrong. There was a blood chilling, inhuman keening wail coming from deep within the Dal Riata that set Tamsin's teeth on edge and raised goose bumps along her arms and neck. It was a sound she could not liken to any she had heard before, even on the battlefield.

After shaking off her chill, she dashed into the building. The bar was empty and dark but there was a thin stream of light emanating up from Trick's inner sanctum, the noise too seemed to come from that general direction. Below stairs Tamsin found Trick and Dyson standing frozen in the low light. The sound grew louder as she joined them.

The sight that met her eyes was not what she had expected. Bo was crouched on the floor beneath the stairs, her arms wrapped tightly around Kenzi who seemed to carry on screaming without needing to pause to take a breath. Bo worked to gently stop Kenzi from trying to tear at her ears, easing her hands away from her head and holding them firmly but carefully in her lap. She matched the young woman's rocking motions as well.

"What in the hell happened?"

"We think it was the noise of the storm."

Tamsin nodded.

Bo's attention was directed fully on Kenzi. She had somehow managed to wedge herself into the small space with the panicked woman, wrapping her in what could only be called a death grip of a hug. Still Kenzi screamed.

Tamsin could not move, the blood in her veins turning to ice water even as her fury rose to even greater heights. She felt a very real need to hurl herself headlong into a bloody battle, do anything to relieve the boundless anger that threatened to overwhelm her.

Then Kenzi stopped screaming and the sudden crashing silence was even more horrifying than the wail had been. She hadn't moved beyond her frantic rocking, even her mouth was still agape - but she was utterly silent.

Tamsin stared into the blue of her eyes, seeing for the first time since their rescue of her just how much unspeakable horror lurked in her soul. Had she been right to hope Kenzi had died early on in her captivity? Oh yes, she had been. She would never wish her dead now that they had found her but she did find herself fruitlessly wishing Kenzi had been spared at least some small amount of the suffering she had endured.

Shaking herself from her pointless thoughts, she took the blanket Trick held in lifeless fingers. They were all dumbstruck in the unnerving quiet, only the sound of the continuing storm outside invaded their company. The blanket was bunny rabbit soft in her hands and she knelt next to the pair beneath the stairs to bundle as much of the thick fabric around Kenzi's body as she could reach and managing to envelop Bo as well. Done, she cleared her throat.

"Well, that answers that question."

Bo looked askance.

"They didn't physically steal her voice. They may have taken it psychologically but that's something that can be fixed."

Bo nodded still clutching Kenzi as she continued to quietly match her rocking. Tamsin couldn't tell if Kenzi's silent scream continued because she had at last moved and buried her face against Bo's shoulder.

"PTSD's a bitch."

Bo nodded again. "I'm going to kill every last one of them," she promised in a soft, calm voice. "I'm going to kill them and then I'm going to bring them back and kill them again."

"Sorry to ruin your vengeance plans but they've already been taken care of."

That little announcement drew everyone's attention but Trick was faster to find his voice. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I called in a few favors." Tamsin tried to shrug off the weight of their stares. "What they did to Kenz - they deserved a lot worse than they got."

Kenzi lifted her head and her eyes locked with Tamsin's. Tamsin would have sworn the other woman almost smiled. Battlefield Kenzi could certainly appreciate the bad guys getting their just desserts. The ghost of a smile gave Tamsin the hope that there really might be a chance to get Kenzi, their Kenzi, their bubbly-never silent-mascara wearing-bad ass with a definite sense of style Kenzi, back.

to be continued...