The next night Deidara, Ren, Nala, and Ayame set out for the underground slave market. It was across town in the basement of an abandoned factory, and it was the local hot spot for passerbyes. There was only one thought on everyones mind, the one problem to their rescue, and that was how to get in. When Ayame had explained the plan she never mentioned where the entrance was. Now in front of the gate everyone was waiting for what Ayame told them to do.
Ayame walked around to the back of the old crippled building, popping the collar of her long sleeved button up shirt as she walked. She stopped in front of one of the loading docks and rapped on the cold metal as the others waited behind her. A man opened a small window as Ayame was putting her hands in her pockets.
The two black heartless eyes glared at her and she glared back with eyes just as heartless.
"Identification." He stated monotone. Ayame drooped her left shoulder effectively causing her shirt to slide doen to her elbow. On the front side of her shoulder was and x'ed out number three in Old English writing, at this the guard chuckled whole the rest of the group stood in confusion.
"Whats an old top five doing comin back to her roots?" he smirked.
"Let me in." she commanded in a serious demeanor and he quickly complied. He had been the guard of this facility for over 20 years, and this girl, 2001's number 3 slave, had always struck fear into all but her master. The girl had quite the reputation and many of the newer slaves were compared to her for rating. He watched the girl go through, but stopped the others. "These friends?"
"They're with me." She told him and smirked once again as he let the other three teens in.
"Just keep them out of trouble number 3, just 'cause you've got a title doesn't mean you get special privlages." He called as she walked off fixing her shirt.
She led the small group down a flight of stairs to what looked like a large, what looked like, underground arena. Walking the narrow isles she made her way down to the edge of the stands and looked down into the pit. There was a man in the middle of the far end on a platform in front of a curtain. Ayame jumped the seven foot drop and started walking over to him, stopping half way to wave for the others who were still at the top to follow. She continued to the platform, hopped up, and walked over to the black curtain. As the others caught up the man who had been talking ran over to them.
"Hey you! You're not allowed over here!" she yelled.
"I'm number three." She said with a defiant stare. "I'm here to pick up a young girl and boy to train."
"Okay 'number three,' lets see some proof." The dark haired man sneered.
"Fine." She mumbled as she once again exposed her tattoo. The gentlemans eyes went wide as he returned his gaze to her face.
"What can I do to aid your decision?" he asked. Ignoring him she walked through the curtains, she hated playing 20 questions with men that supported this revolting practice.
She stopped and sighed as she looked around at all of the slaves being prepared for bidding, and then remembered her friends. Turning back she stuck her head through the curtain effectively startling Deidara who was about to go between.
"You guys stay here." She ordered and the teen nodded in compliance.
Turning back, she walked the rows of tied up children and teens. Their blank empty stares made her heart ache knowing that she used to be among them. Coming to the changing rooms she looked in noticing a brown haired girl a couple of years younger than her getting dressed infront of a shattered mirror. Hearing foot steps the girl turned around and faced her intruder. Ayame was amazed to see a number two tattooed just below the necklace the girl wore, a small bronze coin with a howling wolf. The two stood there, one amazed the other confused.
"Its amaxing you made it to number two." Ayame told the girl. "You've really grown since our days at the orphanage."
"So have you." Leia replied after regaining her composure and turning back to the mirror. "What do you want?"
"For my friend Raiden to stop cutting, for my life to be easier, but more recently, for the group of six that I promised to protect to not hate me for taking almost half a decade to come and save them." She answered.
"And what makes you think that we will!" Leia yelled out of frustration. "I know about your stay here 'number three' and I know about how you escaped. The reason I made it this high in the ranks is for my own attemps. Attemps I made in hopes of going off and finding you so we could save the others!"
"Now is not the time to hate me Leia!" Ayame yelled back. "I need you to chose right now if you can put that hatred behind you or not! I never said when I'd be back, just that I would be. Well here I am and heres your chance to get rid of this life, leave with me or die being a slave."
Ayame knew what she had said was harsh, but arguing with the brunette wasn't going to make things better. The teen walked past her stopping a few feet in front.
"I'll go." She said not turning to face her companion. "But that does not mean that you have my forgivness."
"I never asked for it." She shrugged. "What you do after we leave is purely up to you, now, where is Dorchet?"
"Dorchet!" her eyes widened. "He was here!"
"Ya, but I haven't seen him yet." Ahe explained as they walked back toward the curtain. "Never mind, just go out of those curtains, my friends are waiting, and Deidara is with them." The girl nodded and ran off. Ayame sighed.
"What am I supposed to do now…" she thought looking around. "I ran into Leia by chance, but me finding Dorchet is slim and none."
She walked around and asked any of the care takers she came across if they had seen him, but no one knew him by name. When she came to the seventh one she noticed a young boy staring at her bitting his lip, when she looked at him he averted his gaze but as soon as he thought she was looking away he looked back almost frustrated. She walked over casually and knelt down looking at the boy. Fear washed over his frustration and he tried not to make eye contact.
"Do you know anything about my friend Dorchet?" she as calmly. He nodded his head, but started shaking. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked him over. He was obviously broken, not speaking unless spoken to, avoiding eye contact to allow the other person to feel superior. He was dressed in tattered shorts and had no shirt exposing his marred flesh and identification tattoo.
"Come on." She said getting him up and motioning for him to do the same, she tried but quikly fell with a subtle thud. He looked up at her with wide honey brown eyes and cringed when she up her hands under his arms and slowly hoisted him up.
"I'm not going to hurt you." She whispered in his ear. "I'm a friend."
She rejoined her friends on the stage where the auction had already taken place. /not baring to stay in the place any longer than she had to, she made her way to the back exit ignoring the puzzled looks from her friends.
The boy followed her out giving the others cautious looks every once and a while. When they made it out and to a secluded area she sat him down to her friends.
"Nala," she said turning to the golden eyed wolf. "I need you to sniff out the area for any signs of Dorchets scent."
"But how am I supposed to know which is his?" she asked as her conscious trust toward Ayame.
"Sniff the boy." She answered. "If my theory is correct they've been in contact in the past couple days."
She turned to the boy who nodded that they had, Nala walked up and sniffed the boy who acted considerably calm due to the fact that he had a 4 ft tall wolf in his face. After taking a deep breath she trotted off. Turning her attention to Leia the girl glared at her.
"What?" she muttered.
"Do you know him?" she asked motioning to the boy. She looked over at him noticing the identification number.
"Number 78." She mumbled thinking. "Dagon, 13 years old, been at the market for a couple years."
Ayame turned to Dagon and knelt down to his level.
"I need to know what you know about my friend, Dagon." She spoke. "You wont be hurt for a=anything you say, or for speaking out of turn. I promise." The boy nodded.
"Dorchet was number 107, and we shared a cell together." He said, voice crackling from disuse. "He was sold off earlier today. I don't know to who though, I'm sorry."
"That's alright." Raiden stepped in. "But I what I need you to tell us now is how you became part of the auction."
Ayame caught where he was going with this and smiled right away, Raiden had always had a soft heart.
"I was playing in the woods out side my house one day and some slave hunters came and dragged me off. I miss them, that house was only a few miles away." He said tears filling his eyes as he remembered a happier time.
"Do you want to go back?" Ren asked also catching on.
"More than anything…" he trailed off, he didn't think it was possible.
"Well then," she said swiftly cutting the rope binding his hands and letting it fall. "You better get going."
The boys eyes lit up with hope. He ran off after thanking them, and Nala appeared just after he left.
"I've got his scent."