A/N: Sorry everyone for taking so long to post this chapter. Had some life happen. Also sorry (not really) for leaving the last chapter on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Also, huge thank you to Kira Mackey for the shout out. Show her some love if you haven't already and check out her stuff. It's incredible reading.

And as always, thanks to everyone that has favorited, followed, and/or reviewed. I really appreciated it.

-E.K.

Pain brought her back to consciousness. Then, she heard someone screaming and it helped lift her out of the blackness. When she was forced to gasp for a new breath, she realized that she was the one she had heard screaming. As she sucked new air in, there was yet more pain. It flashed through her ribs and up her spine. Against her will, her back arched upward. It was then that she realized she was lying on her back. Her eyes opened and the harshness of the light made her snap them back closed. The pain was exquisite and every little movement set if off to greater levels. She knew that she would have to center herself and calm down. It was the only hope she had to try to get the pain under control.

"Finally stirring again, I see." She heard a harsh sinister voice say. She wanted only to fall away from it and back into the blackness. Somehow, she sensed that it would be better than whatever the voice had planned.

"Oh, no you don't." The voice reprimanded. "Stay awake for me this time."

Pain exploded through her side as she felt a booted foot kick her. She forced her eyes open and squinted a bit, trying to adjust to the light. Eventually the burning stopped and she noticed that a couple of torches were the only sources of illumination in the cave. She must have been out for a while for it to have hurt her eyes that bad.

"There's a good girl," the voice chortled though it sounded more malicious than anything else. A face appeared in her vision as it finally cleared up. The man was older with thick graying hair that probably used to be black. It was cut somewhat close to his head. His wrinkled face was covered with stubble. He had green eyes that gleamed with arrogance and a vileness that frightened her. She tried to get up and found that she was restrained to the table by her wrists and ankles.

"Oh, you can't leave just yet." The man smiled. It gave her a mental image of a cat ready to play with a mouse. "It would hurt my feelings if you refused my hospitality so soon after arriving." His face suddenly twisted itself up in rage. "Especially after the number of my men you left dead behind you! It will take months of dealing skooma to recoup the losses you caused!"

In that instant, those words brought it all back to her. Sable remember it all. She had taken on the skooma cartel in response to a request for help from a member of the thieves guild. The thief used to be a member of the Dark Brotherhood, the guild of assassins to which she now belonged. Since his band of professional bandits had fallen on hard times, he had run a desperate operation to rip off the skooma dealers in Riften. He had done so without the approval of the guild's leader and it had failed miserably. In fear of retaliation, he had contacted the Family and called in whatever favors the assassins owed him. She accepted not knowing the details and was forced to act immediately regardless of how outnumbered and out-armed she was. Along the way, she had met a wizard by the name of Sionis. He had worked for the dealers for a while against his will. They had kidnapped his younger sister and threatened to kill her or worse if he didn't cooperate. When she struck and took on the Riften division's leadership, he had decided it was time for his shackles to come off as well and had helped her.

The pair, then, invaded the cartel's headquarters at Cragslane Cavern in the hours just before dawn. They might have been successful at eliminating the dealers except that Sionis had inadvertently alerted the cartel and brought the whole organization down upon them. The last thing she remembered was slashing her way through the thugs covered in blood that was not her own.

And now, here she was; strapped to a torture table under the thumb of the sadistic leader of the whole syndicate. She turned her view to see a hooded mage with lightning crackling among his fingertips.

"That's right, my little flower." The boss said with glee. "He's here just for you." He laughed as he stepped out of the way of his cohort.

Normally, the assassin might have found what he had called her amusingly ironic, but the looming promise of yet more pain on a level she legitimately feared stole the giggle from her before it had any hope of bubbling to the surface.

The wizard stepped forward and raised his electricity filled hands. Sable turned her head the other way. While she was sure it wouldn't lessen the pain any, she didn't want to see it coming. She heard a crack as the lightning discharged into her. All her muscles locked and every joint in her body was jolted. Her body contorted in an endless string of spasms. She opened her mouth to scream away whatever pain she could. Her lungs emptied themselves though there was not a sound. Not even a whisper escaped her.

Sable didn't actually know how long the cartel mage kept the spell coursing over her each time. Her muscles continued to spasm for a while after he had let up. This caused her to jerk against her bindings making new wounds at her hands and feet. Just as it seemed as if the convulsing was dying down, the daedra-spawn of a mage would light her up again.

At this point, all she knew was pain and the quickly diminishing hope that it would ever stop. She had cracked or chipped several of her teeth already due to how hard she was clenching her jaw while her torturer went about his work. And he seemed to be rather enthusiastic and studious about it.

She almost welcomed death now. While she hated to think that Arkay was indeed more powerful than her, she knew that if she died the pain would finally stop and the despair nearly crushed her. And oddly enough, that is what saved her in that moment. The wave of despair that rolled over her at the thoughts of her powerlessness was then quickly destroyed by anger. It boiled into rage. How dare she let these cowards exercise their power over her? It was just pain after all. Granted it was breath-taking in its scope, but all pain ended. She steeled herself against it now. They might be able to make her scream, but eventually it would have to stop and when that happened, their power over her would be gone. She would prove it to them. And then, they would die. They would die screaming and she would laugh in their faces.

"And just what's so amusing?" The voice of their leader came from out view. "Have you not yet had enough? Or has your mind broken already?"

"What's funny," the bound assassin replied ignoring the pain of the air hitting her newly broken teeth, "is that I was about to ask you the same thing." She hadn't realized she had been laughing out loud. She didn't care though. It truly was funny that she had ever thought that they had any real, lasting power over her.

"Yes, I suppose I could see where that would be amusing." The man replied. It was obvious he was trying to keep his anger from boiling over. How easy it was to reverse the power struggle on her captors. She was now the one in control. He finally seemed to regain enough composure to continue giving her a small, tight, and completely forced smile. "Well, since we all seem to be in such cheery spirits, why don't we chat for a bit."

"I guess if you think you're interesting enough to hold my attention." Sable challenged.

The 'chat' almost ended right there before it really began. It took her captor several more moments to regain himself.

"I'll try my best to entertain you," the man said with a malevolent smile. "You did quite a bit of damage to my operation before you were finally captured. Truly, I haven't seen anyone weave death through a crowd quite the way you did. Of course having a mage who is an expert at destruction as back up probably didn't hurt you're cause any."

"Glad you liked the show." Sable sneered being careful not to change her expression in the slightest at the mention of Sionis. "Always nice to know I have fans."

The cartel leader laughed. "I don't know that I would classify me as a fan just yet. However, I may become one. It all depends on how cooperative you'd like to be." He paused briefly, but not long enough for her to get another jab in. He was adjusting his tactics to try to regain control. He was good, but she was determined that he wouldn't be good enough. "See, being the businessman that I am, I would like to know what prompted you to visit me with such … unfriendly intentions."

"You mean you don't recognize the armor of a Dark Brotherhood assassin?" She answered. "How could you have been in the business of dealing skooma and not think you might earn an enemy that would want you dead?"

"So this is simply a matter of a contract your pathetic little guild foolishly attempted to fulfill?" Sable didn't bother answering the idiot's question. If it wasn't rhetorical, then he was too dumb to understand it all anyway. She didn't figure he was that dumb though. To her knowledge, no other drug dealing outfit had ever successfully run their operation through a hold city for any length of time.

"Well then," he finally continued, "the answer to my first question leads to another. Who is it that sent you to kill me?"

This was a pivotal moment in the conversation, she knew. She could come clean and tell him or she could remain true to her Family and tell this scum nothing. Figuring that he would probably kill her regardless, she opted to really piss her captor off.

"I'm afraid that is a question I can't answer." Sable responded. "I take the confidentiality of our clients seriously."

"Is that confidentiality worth your life?" the man growled, now just inches from her face. "I won't just kill you, you know. I'll make it last longer than you would think possible."

Sable simply stared at him; never flinching or blinking. She kept her gaze locked on his in silence until he couldn't take it any longer and finally got the hint.

"Have! It! Your! Way!" he screamed in rage. He looked to his mage. "Malik, make her suffer."

The mage chuckled as the man stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him. "It's rare that he leaves me alone with a prisoner. Let me show you one of my favorite ways to cause pain."

At that, his hands lit up with a mostly white energy tinged with blue. He walked down to her feet and cast his frost magic over her right foot, encompassing it in the freezing cold.

It was a shock at first, but for the most part, Sable didn't respond to it much. She had lived in Skyrim all her life and was quite used to the cold. She knew that the wizard could cause frostbite or all manner of other problems with the unnaturally cold frost, but at least it wouldn't register as painful as the lightning.

A moment later, the mage looked up from his work and she finally got a glimpse of him. He was a chubby-faced Redguard with sadistic eyes set too close to each other. For some reason, his looks just made it seem fitting that he ended up a torturous bastard.

He now called flame to his right hand and went back to work on the same foot.

"See, this is the tricky part," he commented as he worked. "Just the right application of the heat and it will cause such agony that you'll give Lionel anything he wants." She could've done without his explanation but wasn't able to get a comment in as he kept right on rambling on. "See, as the foot is heated up too quickly ..."

She never heard the rest as pain exploded through her foot and she screamed. The heat differential caused by the flame being applied to her frozen flesh caused the skin to form massive blisters that then burst violently in spurts of blood leaving the layer beneath exposed. In other places, the top layers of her flesh simply cracked apart, gouging her foot with deep valleys and spattering her blood all over the mage's robes. The pain was blinding and deafening and though she couldn't see or hear anything, she could still feel the pain and wished desperately for unconsciousness.

As she started to regain her vision and hearing, she became aware that there was some kind of commotion. The wizard was just grabbing the boot of her left foot when the door to her particular room in hell burst open. The boss walked in hurriedly following by a half dozen of his thugs. He strode right up to Sable.

"Last chance!" His voice had a twinge of desperation in it now. "Tell me who arranged the contract and I'll let you live."

"We both know that I won't leave this gods-forsaken pit alive." The trapped assassin replied. "Even if that were not the case, I don't reveal my clients to anyone. If you were half as smart as you seem to think, you probably would have figured out who it was by now anyway."

His eyes went wild with rage. He reached down and grabbed her nearly destroyed right foot and squeezed it with all his might. Sable screamed.

"Tell me!" Her captor demanded as loudly as he could, urgency nearing taking over in his voice. "Tell me, or I'll kill you now!" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the captive assassin heard a cry of surprise that turned into one of pain ever so briefly before it was gone in a gargle.

"Uh oh," Sable couldn't help but giggle despite the pain, "what's the matter, Lionel? Under attack again?" She used as much bravado as she could muster to keep the tears of joy at knowing her Family had come for her from leaking out.

"Shut your impertinent mouth!" He shouted as he back-handed her hard enough to rattle her teeth.

A moment later, the door slammed open and a Redguard man wearing the black and sanguine leather armor of the Dark Brotherhood walked in. He was carrying a large scimitar that he used to take the head off of the surprised thug nearest him.

"I wouldn't advise even touching her again." He said in a deep rich voice. "It would be rather … unhealthy."

"Nazir!" Sable couldn't help the outburst. She was overwhelmed with happiness at hearing his voice.

"Greetings sister," he replied, "give us one moment to deal with the garbage and help you off of that table."

"You might have trouble with that, seeing how there is still six of us and only one of you." Lionel threatened.

"Unfortunately for you," Nazir countered. "You won't be dealing with me. We all promised that you'd have to deal with her."

He stepped aside to reveal a rather innocent looking 10 year old girl.

"Babette!" Sable involuntarily exclaimed again.

"Hi sister!" Babette returned excitedly before her face turned serious. "How badly do these cretins need to be hurt?"

The cartel leader finally piped in. "A little girl? I'm supposed to be afraid of this tiny little girl?" He chuckled.

"The faceless idiots can just simply be killed." Sable answered Babette as if no one else had spoken. "Save this one for me," she said face pointing to the leader. "This one," she pointed with her face again, this time to Malik, "is the one that did this to me." She wiggled her mangled appendage. "He's all yours. Do with him whatever you see fit."

The child vampire smiled. "As you wish, sister."

"Enough of this." The cartel leader spat. "Kill the child! Kill them all!"

The five remaining goons rushed toward Babette while the torturous mage and their leader hung back to watch the carnage. Just as they were about to reach her, the child smiled wide, showing off long pointed incisors.

She leapt into the fray and the sheer brutality of it took Sable's breath away. The child vampire jumped into the arms of the first to reach her and sank her fangs into his neck. She didn't bother to stay there and feed. She promptly bit deep and then ripped a mouthful sized chunk of his neck out. They both fell to the ground as the man attempted to scream the rest of his life away. It came out as loud gargling sound.

And then they were upon her. One grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up. In response, Babette reached back to the fingers wrapped up in her hair and ripped two or three of them out of their sockets. The man screamed, gripping his disfigured hand. She didn't even bother to go after him; rather she turned her attention to the next one in line. She kicked him in the knee hard enough to break it. It broke so forcefully that the joints nearly came out the back of his knee with a loud crack. As he doubled over to clutch at his leg, she reached up and grabbed his head. Her face strained with exertion, but she did manage to twist his head so that his face was in line to look over his left shoulder. That one's life was gone before he hit the ground.

To say the remaining two were beginning to lose the heart to fight was an understatement. But they never had the chance to back out. Babette rushed the closest of them, bowling him over. She ripped his throat out in a fountain of blood just like the first. The last of the cartel thugs turned to leave. Another unnatural leap from the child vampire brought her right in to his back. Upon landing, she grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into the ground with such force that blood squirted out from all sides of his face in a circle from the multiple rapid cracks of fractured facial bones.

Babette looked up from the last of the ruffians, her face covered in streaks and smears of carnage. Her visage was nightmarish as she sighted down the wizard. To his credit, he kept his composure enough that he started to call fire to his hands, but Babette was there before he could cast. Disappointingly, their tumble took them out of Sable sight, but the screams that came from the sadistic son of a scamp were quite satisfying.

Seizing the opportunity of the Oblivion-spawned child taking her time with his former interrogator, Lionel pulled a knife from his belt and quickly started toward his captive assassin intent on at least ending her life, but he forgot about Nazir and failed to notice that a new stranger wearing the same black and sanguine leather armor had entered the room.

The Redguard assassin stepped up and brought the pommel of his scimitar onto the cartel kingpin's right shoulder. His right arm went completely numb and he let go the knife as he dropped to his knees. The third assassin was there in a flash, an elven short sword at his throat to prevent any other maneuvers. He looked up, finally seeing the tall blonde Nord woman and knew it was over. His shoulders slumped and his gaze fell to the ground as he awaited his fate.

"Taking on an entire skooma cartel I see," Sable was never so glad to hear Astrid silken voice. "Ah, ever the overachiever." Her matron stroked some hair out of her face as Nazir started to cut away her bindings.

She wasn't paying much attention though. The white-haired assassin's mind replayed Babette's attack on the thugs over and over. Sable had never seen such a display of sheer power. It was magnificent. The men had never stood a chance against her and she had let them know that violently and quite messily before they died. Everything, from opening of their throats, to the fracturing of bones, to the limbs torn from their sockets. And now that she thought about it, she remembered Babette mentioning that she was nearly 300 years old. No person or thing or anything else could hold power over her. Not even Arkay himself. That was her answer. She would become a vampire and know supreme power.

Her thoughts were broken a moment later when the child-vampire came into view. Blood was still dripping off her chin. She smiled an exuberant ten year old girl smile. It would have looked cute if hadn't been so grotesque; bits of tissue still clinging across her cheek and jawline.

"The wizard suffered greatly, sister." Babette exclaimed proudly and then her voice went cold. "I'm only sorry that it didn't last long enough to make up for what the daedra cursed pig did to you."

"Babette," Sable said barely above a whisper. "You must make me like you."

The smile left the vampire's face instantly.

"Let's get you home." Astrid offered her a hand to help her up. Sable just now noticed that the bindings had been cut free. She grasped her matron's hand and slowly sat up and winced as she finally got her first good look at her ruined foot. Interestingly enough, the pain had lessened considerably, but she had to wonder if she would ever walk without a limp again. It still oozed blood and she couldn't tell where the breaks in the skin actually were. She glanced over to where Babette and Malik had crashed to the floor. There was nothing but a pile of gore left from what she could tell. If she hadn't known beforehand, she wouldn't have been sure that what was left had been human.

"Sable, Gabriella was not at the Sanctuary when I got your message." Astrid explained. "We'll have to wrap it and hope for the best until we can get you to her. Can you struggle through it?"

"Are there any of these bastards left to kill?" The injured assassin asked.

"I bet there are still a few we haven't rooted out." The tall blonde answered with a sly smile. "I found these on a table by the door." Astrid handed her a pair of perfectly crafted elven daggers. They had been a gift from Astrid's werewolf husband, Arnbjorn.

"Then, I'll crawl if I have to." Sable answered grimly and full of determination. "But first, this guy."

Sable turned to the cartel leader that her Family had left for her at her request. She knelt down to look at him face to face.

"All this … is compliments of Delvin Mallory of the Thieves Guild in Riften." She didn't even wait to see his reaction before plunging one of daggers through his ear into his skull. His eyes immediately glassed over indicating his life was gone. "Who has the power now?"

"I think I'll ask about that later." Astrid commented. "Ready to finish this?"

Sable nodded. "There is someone we need to find on our way out, so no killing anymore wizards without my approval."

The trio nodded their consent and surrounded her as she hobbled toward the door. She only made it a few steps before she faltered. Nazir quickly went to her right and put himself under her arm to support her weight.

"Babette, you go in front." He instructed. "Take up the rear if you don't mind, mistress." The vampire and their leader complied and they left the torture chamber at a shuffling pace with Sable carrying her right boot.