The Three Kings: Strike

Disclaimer (1): Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Studios, and TV Tokyo. Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, Arthur A. Levine Books, and Warner Bros. Please support the official releases.

Warning: Description of the rape of an underaged character, pedophilia, nudity, sexual situations, minor character death, child murder, child soldiers, pregnancy, abortion, surgery, manipulation, torture, non consensual memory modification, violence, and gore.

Chapter 14: Voices of the Past

The first time Plant #1,041 had seen him, she'd been eight years old. He'd stood before their group of about thirty battered, bruised orphans, flanked by some of the most powerful people that the Department would allow them to see. He'd worn a red silk suit, his dark hair long and flowing around his face, gloved hands holding the head of a walking cane. #1,041 had blankly at him, not knowing or caring what he had to say.

"I am Maximillion Pegasus," the man had said and #1,041 had done nothing more than blink. "I have been informed by your Handler," he nodded towards Bathilda Bagshot, a tiny, aging woman with thin white hair and liver spots dotted across her face, "that you are the best of the best, the cream of the crop. Well, now is your chance to prove it."

Pegasus smiles, his teeth blindingly white and perfectly set, "I have an assignment, one that will change the wizarding world as we know it. But…" he pauses for dramatic effect, "it is only available to one of you."

This grabs #1,041's attention like nothing else. She is thirsty for a challenge, hungry to show her worth. Her drive to succeed, to prove herself, is the only thing that the Department has yet to strip her of, and she clings to it with desperate, clutching hands.

The assignment seems simple enough. There will be a boy. He will be smart, charming, and gifted by blood and history and circumstance. His sister is the first mage born to a wizarding family and the Department wishes to make something great out of something fowl.

"We've already planted the first seed," Pegasus tells them. "The mother has been told to keep the little mage quiet, any way she can. But given Ariana's powers of blood manipulation, it's only a matter of time before she acts out again."

"We have Imperiused Kendra Dumbledore to poison her daughter with lead when the girl turns fourteen. Ariana will lash out and in the chaos, killing herself and her mother in the process," Bagshot continues. "Around this time, Beauxbatons will play host to the Triwizard Tournament, the first in over a century, and Albus Dumbledore, Ariana's eldest brother, will travel to the school as a possible champion."

Pegasus nods, "Over the course of a year, you will infiltrate his life. Girls, you will be expected to seduce him," Pegasus licks his lips, his eyes flicking over them. #1,041 notices how Bagshots eyes move towards the man, narrowing in what appeared to be suspicion, "Boy, you will become his friend, his brother. Either way, you will make him love you like nothing else in this world."

"After graduation, you will work together to find the divine weapons, the Deathly Hallows, collect as many followers as you can - a detailed list of possible candidates will be provided at the time," Bagshot says. "You will eventually break the Statute of Secrecy and openly fight against mages and their muggle allies before dying, inspiring generations of witches and wizards that will take up arms after you. You will be a martyr. You will be a hero."

"You will be remembered as something greater than you could ever be," Pegasus smiles. #1,041 clenches her fists and wants to be that.

"Except…" Pegasus continues, purposefully moving his head as he head as he observes them, counting their numbers quietly under his breath, "Mrs. Bagshot, there are too many of them. We will need a smaller group for this to work."

Bagshot blinks, looking a little surprised, "Of course. How… How many would you like?"

Pegasus eyes them, humming and hawing, and #1,041 slowly moves her hand to her wand holster. She's in the middle of the pack. If she wants to survive, she'll have to be faster than anyone else here.

Beside her, a boy with curly red hair nudges her to catch her eye. He whispers, "Team up?"

"One half," Pegasus answers finally and #1,041 tilts her head just enough to show that she agrees. Pegasus turns his back and walks out of the room, his long hair swishing through the air.

Bagshot watches him leave, then whips her head around to face them, looking annoyed, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get to it."

#1,041 kills the red haired boy first.

#1,041 lands hard on her back, the concrete of the Garden's training facility scraping at the skin of her neck. She looks up and stairs down the length of her opponent's wand. She bares her teeth in rebellion.

"Dead," the girl, Plant #997, says. She's blond, with pretty blond curls that frame her round face.

They are ten years old.

Claps echo around the room and both of their gazes turn towards Pegasus, who stands at the edge of the ring. He's grinning and staring at #997 with proud eyes, "Good! Very good, my dear! Now, finish her off."

#1,041 grasps blindly for her wand, but it's too far out of reach. She'll never reach it in time before #997 fires her curse.

Then, to the surprise of everyone watching, #997 lowers her wand.

"Permission to exercise mercy, sir," #997 asks.

Pegasus tilts his head in question, "Why?"

"I wish to practice it, sir. I'm sure that Albus would appreciate a partner who can understand the concept of mercy," #997 explains. She pauses, re-evaluating the situation, then slowly brings her wand up again, "If that is dissatisfactory, sir-"

"No. No. It is not," Pegasus says, "Thought it is… unorthodox." He nods towards Bagshot, who's frantically scribbling notes in a corner. "You are dismissed. Both of you."

#997 offers her a hand up, but #1,041 slaps it away and runs for the hallways, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Hey!" #997 calls after her, "Hey! Wait a minute!"

#1,041 keeps moving, stuttering into a jog, before twisting in place to quickly apparate away. #997 tracks her and follows her through the void.

#1,041 punches her stupid, pretty face the moment it comes into focus. #997 rolls with it, showing why she was currently in the number one spot in the competition, and knocks #1,041 backwards with a lightning fast kick to her gut. #1,041 stumbles backwards and collides with another body. An arm wraps tightly around her neck and holds her in place.

"Stop moving," the boy behind her hisses. "We're just trying to help."

"Took you long enough, Gel," #997 huffs at him, completely ignoring #1,041's struggles.

"Sorry," #1,041 can feel him shrug. '"Got held up."

#1,041 bites him. He doesn't even react.

Finally, the boy lets her go and #1,041 stumbles into the middle of the room. She nearly tries to apparate again, but finds that she can't. Her wand is missing and- #1,041 scowls, because #997 is twiddling it between her fingers.

"Will you just listen to us now?" #997 asks, almost sounding tired.

"What. Do. You. Want," #1,041 says through gritted teeth.

"I'm Gel," the boy points to himself before waving his hand towards #997. He looks nearly identical to #997, with icy blue eyes and golden hair. She recognizes him as Plant #996, "This is my sister, Gara."

"What's your name?" #997- Gara asks. When #1,041 hesitates, Gara offers her a small smile, "It's alright if you don't remember it. I know that it would have been hard if I didn't have Gel here to remind me all the time."

#1,041 swallows, eying her captured wand in Gara's milk pale hands. Gara clearly sees this and, instead of doing any other sensable thing, tosses it towards #1,041, who nearly drops it in shock.

Gara shrugs, looking sheepish. She tries again, "What's your name?"

#1,041 rolls her wand between her fingers, contemplating her answer. She spits it out eventually, "Re… Reiko."

Gel grins effortlessly, "Hi, Reiko."

"What do you want?" #1,041 growls again. Plants aren't supposed to reveal their names, let alone remember them. Names were for the lives they'd left behind.

"Gel and I were wondering if you'd like to team up with us," Gara offers.

#1,041 snorts, "Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"You two are the best there are here," #1,041 crosses her arms in defiance. "And I'm…" She doesn't finish, but instead thinks, Dead last.

"Not in everything. Not in potions," Gel implores.

"We're terrible at potions," Gara continues on. "We'll make you a deal. We'll help you with your fighting and you can help us with potions."

"So that you can be even better?" #1,041 hisses at Gara. "Only one of us gets the assignment. Don't you two get that? Only one of you makes it out alive."

Gel shakes his head, "That's what they want us to think. I heard Bagshot saying that they want to give the second and third place Plants to some lady named Latner. Bagshot said that Latner works in the Labs and it would be a waste if our potential just went to waste."

"The three of us will get out alive," Gara takes a few steps towards #1,041. She takes her hand, threading their fingers together. "We could win this."

Something inside #1,041 shudders. She can't take her eyes off of Gara. She's really, really pretty.

And she finds herself nodding.

Final Standings

First Place - #997
Second Place - #1,041
Third Place - #996

"Well done, my dear," Pegasus says the moment #1,041 closes the door to his office. "Well done, instead. Have a seat, please."

"Thank you, sir," #1,041 nods, hiding the pride that she feels. It's too human of an emotion and she shouldn't need to feel it right now.

"From the bottom of the pack to second place. What an incredible accomplishment," Pegasus smiles, spreading her file out on the desk before him. Reiko doesn't look at the pictures, but she wants to. Pegasus chuckles, "No, please, admire your work. It's not often that someone improves as much as you have."

"Thank you, sir," she repeats and folds her hands in her lap. "But I do not do this for admiration."

"Then why do you do this?"

"For the Department of Mysteries. For the wizarding world," #1,041 pauses, looking down slightly, before admitting. "For the mission."

Pegasus tilts this head, "A mission that would see you dead by the time you turned twenty-five."

"The mission takes priority. If the Department requires a death, then who am I to argue?" #1,041 answers. She blinks, "Sir, may I ask a question?"

"You may."

"You are asking me questions about the mission, one that I have not qualified for. The first place position belongs to Plant #997," #1,041 points out, remembering Gara's brilliant smile when she'd seen the final score board. Reiko had laughed, thrown her arms around Gel and he'd whispered, We did it! We did it!, into her shoulder.

"Oh. You are under the impression that this was a competition, that the winner would automatically be chosen for the mission," Pegasus laughs and the bottom drops out of Reiko's stomach in shock. What? "No. No. You see, this was merely a chance for us observe you and choose the best fit from amongst the best."

Reiko digests that information as best she can before asking, "Do you mean that I'm still in the running?"

Pegasus hums, non-committal. He reaches across the desk and uses his fingers to tilt her head up to look at him, "Tell me, pretty girl. Who do you think should be Albus Dumbledore's partner?"

Logically, the answer is Gara. She is the best Plant in the program, the strongest fighter and the smartest person #1,041 knows. She's driven, wicked cunning, and most of all, empathetic in a way that #1,041 doesn't think she can be herself. Gara and Albus would make a great pair visually, and the added benefit of Gara's womanhood (as opposed to Gel) would be that she and Albus could create a dynasty if they were to marry before Gara's death.

Except... Illogically…

"Me," Reiko says finally. "You should choose me."

Pegasus stares at her, his thumb brushing softly across her lips. Reiko holds his gaze, no matter how uncomfortable it makes her.

"Why?" Pegasus asks.

"Because I want to," she answers.

Pegasus grins, pulls away, and shakes his head, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. Reiko doesn't know how to take that. He leans back in his chair and observes her.

"Have you ever had sex before, Reiko?" Pegasus asks. Reiko can barely hear anything over the roaring in her ears.

He called me by my name, she thinks, panicked. She wasn't supposed to remember it, but between Gel and Gara, it was all that she could call herself now. How was she supposed to respond to this?

Reiko does the only thing she can think of, and refuses to react.

"Come now, don't play stupid. I know you know what your mother called you. You remember her, don't you? Her name was…" Pegasus trails off, fingering at one of the pages of Reiko's file, before finding the information he was looking for, "...Chiyo, wasn't it?"

Kaa-san, she thinks and Reiko closes her eyes, trying to stop the images flashing through her mind. The smell of miyo wafts around her as she remembers a woman's soft singing voice. Kaa-san, I'm so sorry.

She'd been ripped from her mother's arms, screaming and crying. Reiko doesn't even know if she's alive.

"You had an older brother, Yukiie. He was non-magic, so we didn't take him."

Reiko is not going to cry.

"Oh. Oh, oh, it's alright. Look here, girl. Look at me," Pegasus coaxes her to open her eyes. "It's going to be fine. I won't tell anyone. I promise. I swear to you."

She's so terrified. Reiko almost feels sick.

"I promise," Pegasus stresses again. "It's good that you remember. You can use them as your cover story."

"My… my what?" Reiko stammers, her throat feeling impossibly tight.

"Your cover story. For Albus Dumbledore. You can tell him all about your family when you meet him," he smiles at her. Her heart stutters in her chest. "Now, I'm going to need you to answer my question, Reiko."

"Your question, sir?"

He laughs at her, "Have you ever had sex before, Reiko-dear?"

She's shaken from their previous revelations, but this is a question that can answer.

"No, sir."

Pegasus tuts, "Have you even been kissed, my dear?"

"No, sir," Reiko says, trying to reassemble herself. She's so, so scared.

"You haven't gone through the training yet? This isn't good, Reiko, not good at all," he frowns, ruffling through her file. "I could have sworn it said that you had-"

"Training, sir? I… I don't understand…"

"Sexual training," he tells her. "It's quite important for a Plant to know how to handle themselves in the bedroom, so that it's not a shock the first time they have to bed someone during a mission. And for this mission, it's especially important if a girl was to be chosen. We can't have young Albus be dissatisfied in his partner, now can we?"

Reiko has no idea what to say, so Pegasus continues on, "Every girl who's been part of this program has had to go through this training, once they come of age- oh. Is that it then? Have you not bled yet, Reiko-dear?"

Reiko swallows. Pegasus is looking at her so intently that she feels like she doesn't have clothes on. It's a struggle to keep her hands in her lap.

"No, sir," she answers. She has to look away.

Pegasus sighs, looking so disappointed, "It's such a shame. You'd held so much promise. But without the test, I guess we will have to chose one of the Grindelwalds. Mrs. Bagshot seems to be behind Gara taking the roll."

"Gara?"

"Yes. Gara. She completed her training, and she did receive the top score-"

"But you said the scores didn't matter!"

"I did, but Reiko, you have to understand. This will go above my head. Unless…"

Years later, she will look back on this and realize that Pegasus had used that word as a baited hook, dangling it before her eyes. But now, Reiko is twelve, and can't see anything other than an opportunity.

"Unless what?"

Pegasus sighed again and very carefully picked up each page of her file, placed them in the correct order, and slid them back into the folder. He leaned across the table, "I won't be doing this unless I believed in you, Reiko. I shouldn't even be offering this at all. I could get in so much trouble if anyone found out."

"What do you mean,sir?"

"I could help you complete the training," he says. Reiko wants to leave just as much as she wants this mission.

"I could help you," he says again. "But you'd have to make me a promise as well, that you'd never tell anyone. It would just be our little secret. Is that alright?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Come now, Reiko? Don't you trust me? I promise that it will be fine," Pegasus smiles, reaching for her. "Come here, why don't you? We don't have to do much. Just come here and give me a kiss. It's alright. It will all be alright."

Reiko swallows hard, makes a choice, and stands.

They choose Gel. It's… She… She can't…

[...]

They choose Gel to become the figurehead of the campaign, to lead Albus Dumbledore into becoming what he's needed to be, but the Department still values their two remaining contestants. Pegasus pulls some strings and Reiko and Gara are put to work, providing support to Gel while he's off at Durmstrang cultivating a background.

["Caught Gara stay with me?" Reiko asks, her eyes on the ground, when Pegasus tells her his decision to keep her on the project, to keep her close to him. "She's my friend."
Pegasus hums and promises to try, but she has to do something for him. Reiko swallows and climbs into his lap and presses her lips against his.]

[It hurts. Pegasus tells her that's supposed to happen. He talks about Gara afterwards in a way that scares her.]

The Department gives them each a task. Reiko is to comb through old history texts, searching out the locations of the famed Deathly Hallows, three divine weapons of wizarding origin that will help Dumbledore to turn the tide of the war. She likes that sort of thing, she discovers. It's something about the smell of old books and the adventure involved in the long scouting trips that she takes that make her come alive and allow her to figure out just who Reiko Kitamori is.

Meanwhile, Gara, who is so much more brilliant than Reiko could ever be, is given the most important job of them all. She combs through both Dumbledore's and Gel's classmates, through candidates at Beauxbatons, looking for potential followers that could be approached now or later on in life. It's nearly six years into their mission and she's already gotten complex charts and diagrams, showing possible hierarchies and chains of command structures.

Reiko looks up from her own work to see Gara slump back into her chair, letting out a long sigh. It's not often that she gets to see Gara like this, relaxed and utterly human. She's tired, they both are. It's been nearly five weeks since the last time either Pegasus or Bagshot had allowed them to have a break from their work, but their time spent together is something that Reiko enjoys immensely.

Maybe, Reiko thinks as memories of Pegasus's breath on her skin slither up through the fog she's pushed them under, I enjoy them too much.

"Gel's being difficult," Gara groans into her hands. Reiko places her quill back in it's inkwell and leans forwards.

"What do you mean?" She asks. Gara had recently returned the Labs after a trip to Norway, where she'd been allowed to transfer key information to her brother during a routine school outing to a local town.

"He's been… well, I don't know what to call it, really. It's like…" Gara pauses, looking over at Reiko for a second. Then, she lowers her voice and whispers, "It's like he's just trying to stand out."

"It's that the point?" Reiko asks, but all the while she knows full well what Gel's up to. They've been exchanging secret messages for almost a year now, ever since he discovered that Pegasus had been doing to her.

["I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill him."
"No! No! He wants Gara. He wants her… He wants her," Reiko had sobbed. "If I don't, he'll… Not Gara. Not her."]

["I'm going to tear the Department down, brick by brick, if I have to," Gel had said, the night before he'd gone back for his second years at Durmstrang. "I have an idea, Reiko. Will you help me?"]

["If we can find the Hallows, maybe we can turn their plan against them," Reiko ponders aloud and Gel looks intrigued. "With the Hallows, we could do whatever we wanted."]

"Not like this," Gara shakes her head. "He's drawing too much attention to himself, doing magic that no civilian his age could possibly have the ability to do. And he's missing so many classes. No matter what the Department does, at this rate, we may have to have a back-up plan, just in case he gets himself in some serious trouble."

Reiko's eyes flicker across her own work, looking down at a map of Stolac, Bosnia where's she's circled the home of Mykew Gregorovitch, the wandmaker who she's certain possesses the Elder Wand.

"Over half the professors at Durmstrang are Department Plants," Reiko points out.

"Plants from the first round of the program. Merlin only knows how reliable they actually are," Gara rolls his eyes. She sighs again, looking pained. "Have you talked to him lately?"

Last night, Reiko thinks. She wants to tell Gara, but Gel's insistent that they don't. If too many people know, then there's going to be a problem. Instead, Reiko just shakes her head and turns back to her work.

They're interrupted nearly half an hour later by loud voices carrying in through the door. Gara glances back and frowns, mouthing, "What?"

The door to their workroom bursts open, revealing Pegasus, Bagshot, and a pair of people that Reiko has never seen before. The man looks familiar in a way that Reiko can't quite place with his slicked back hair and tight, pinched face, while the girl looks impossibly young with her short auburn hair and coal black eyes.

"Which one of you is Plant #997?" The girl asks, clearly in charge.

Gara's gaze glazes over as she stands at attention, tall and slender and beautiful beyond her age, "I am, ma'am."

"Who do you think you are?" shouts Pegasus, his face red with rage. He opens his mouth to continue, but the other man steps in and silences him with a look.

The girl continues to look Gara over, poking and prodding at her with her ancient looking wand. Finally, she grasps Gara by the chin and lowers her eyes to meet hers. Reiko watches in terrified awe as the girl shatters Gara's unbreakable Occlumency shields with enough force to drive her to her knees.

The girl releases Gara, shoving her to the ground in disgust, "It's not her."

"Then who?" The man asks as Reiko's heart skips a beat. She needs to get out of there. Gel's done it. He's gotten caught. But… she looks at Gara, who's sobbing on the ground, clutching at her head. She can't leave Gara here. Not alone.

The girl turns her cold eyes to Reiko. She feels the girl's magic lancing into her mind, looking for whatever she can. But rather than resist, Reiko lets it happen, and fires back.

Potions wasn't the only thing they kept me around for, she thinks. She's always been better at mental attacks than either of the twins, anyways.

Reiko only gets a name out of the girl's mind - Holly Hendrix - before she moves, grabbing Gara and twisting with all of her might, shoving herself through the Lab's apparition wards. They land floors above their previous location in the British Ministry's lobby, crashing into the Fountain of Magical Brethren and snapping the wand arm off of golden witch in their fall. All around them, confused Ministry workers looking on as Reiko hauls Gara out of the bloody water and onto her back, ignoring the pain in her side from where she's splinched herself as she looking desperately for an exit.

There's a series of cracks and Reiko finds herself frozen in place. She never even saw the spell that hit her, but she assumes that it was Hendrix that did it. The girl walks up to her, her yellow and black robes swirling around her legs. She does the same thing that she did to Gara, pulling Reiko's face down to meet hers, and picks Reiko's brain apart piece by piece in front of the most powerful government in the entire wizarding world.

Gel, I'm sorry, she cries, desperately. Run! Run!

"Hendrix," hisses the man from before, somewhere off to Reiko's right. "Hendrix, come on. We have to go."

Hendrix releases Reiko and she tumbles into the water, barely managing to roll onto her side to avoid drowning herself. Reiko rises, shaking and out of her depth, and glares at the girl, daring her to act on the information that she knows that Hendrix now has.

But instead, Hendrix's lips peel back into a predatory smile. She looks Reiko dead in the eyes and she says, "My mother would like this one." Then she turns to the man and lies, "It's not her either. But these two will still be useful to us."

Hendrix turns towards the stunned Minister workers and casts a memory charm on them all. The crowd seems to pause, all at once, for just a moment before they turn back to their daily tasks, moving as if there had never been any interruption. It's the largest and most powerful Oblivation that Reiko has ever seen in her life.

Who is she? Reiko wonders, frightened and humbled all at once. Hendrix gives Reiko one last glance before turning her back, calling the man to her side, and brushing past both Pegasus and Bagshot like they were nothing.

Beside her, Gara stirs. Nothing is ever the same again.

The plan goes wrong.

"The Tournament isn't a big deal, we can work around it," Pegasus tells her one night while she lays in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He plays with her hair and Reiko fights to keep her hands from covering her naked chest. "It will just take a mass Obliviation of the Ministry Departments taking care of it. And as for the Ministers, well, Spavin always been a bit of a pushover, so I'm not too worried about him. Monteil might need a bit more work, but Dobrovodský… well, we might just have to arrange an accident, won't we? A hiking accident in the Scandes, perhaps?"

"Very wise, sir. Minister Dobrovodský has family near Bodø and the holidays are upon us. It wouldn't be too unreasonable for him to be killed while visiting them," Reiko agrees. Pegasus likes to talk afterwards. Sometimes, if she can keep the conversation going long enough, he tires himself out enough that he doesn't crawl back on top of her. "Should I leave tomorrow for Norway?"

Pegasus shakes his head, "No. Only if there's no other option." He frowns and sighs, "Besides, Dobrovodský is the least of our concerns. Mr. Grindelwald has seen fit to get caught red handed using an Unforgivable on one of his professors. I don't know what the boy was thinking, but now we've got to rearrange the entire plan. How on earth are we going to make Albus and Gellert meet?"

Reiko isn't surprised by Gellert's expulsion. It's been part of their plan for almost a year now. The Department would be caught off guard and have to scramble to make ends meet. And in the chaos, Gel could sneak off to Stolac to acquire the Elder Wand. Meanwhile, Reiko would escape and target the others, the Stone in Little Hangleton and the Cloak in Godric's Hollow.

But the Department had worked too fast for them. The moment Gel had been expelled, Bagshot's men had swooped in and rounded him up. Gel is being transported to the Labs as they speak, his wand stripped from him before he'd been wrapped in chains.

Reiko hopes that once Gara wakes up that she'll forgive them for keeping her in the dark. She'd been laying in the Lab's medical center since Hendrix had probed her mind, pale against the white of the sheets. The Department is keeping her alive because she's good at her job, just as they'd patched up the hole in Reiko side after she'd lost it forcing her way through the apparition wards. She hopes that Gara wakes up soon, because it won't take long for her to outlive her usefulness.

But still, that leave the question of Holly Hendrix herself. Reiko is pretty sure that the girl knows of her treason, but she hasn't reported her. It makes Reiko uneasy, because now she's in debt to this person that she knows nothing about.

Pegasus prattles on, classified plans spilling out of his mouth. He tells her that instead of at the Tournament, he'll give Gel and Dumbledore a more private meeting in Godric's Hollow. Ariana's survival in the face of her mother's death will force Dumbledore home so that he could care for her while their brother was still at school. Bagshot will return to her hometown as a Department shell to act as Gel's great-aunt, her brains carved out and reprogrammed, so that she could never give anything away once Gellert Grindelwald and his sacrifice became a household name.

"Oh, she doesn't know this, of course," Pegasus tells Reiko. He smiles mockingly, "I hated that annoying bitch from the start, and I believe you did, too. Don't lie to me now, Reiko-dear. You'll be glad to see her go as much as I am."

Reiko remembers the time that Bagshot watched, unblinking, as Reiko broke each bone in her own fingers and then fought off three acromantula without a wand. But after she'd won, Bagshot had carefully drawn the poison out of her body and stitched up Reiko's wounds herself, telling her the whole time how well she'd done.

Reiko doesn't think that she'll feel anything in regards to Bagshot's fate.

Eventually, Pegasus gets bored of talking about work, so he moves on to talking about himself.

"I don't know if you knew, but we had a visitor from one of the higher ups yesterday," and it is in this moment that Reiko realizes that Pegasus doesn't remember her escape, that Hendrix probably wiped it from his mind as well as all of the Ministry employees. "Blaine Garrish told me that there's going to be an opening amongst the Inner Circle soon. I've been recommended to take the Test."

Reiko blinks in confusion. Pegasus answers her unasked question, "The Inner Circle is a group of six witches and wizards who work directly with the Department Head. Supposedly, whenever there's an opening, they test possible replacements with something called the Flamel Test in the Gardens. So after this little project is all wrapped up nicely, I'm doing to take the test and move up."

He pauses, moving his hand softly along Reiko's jaw and tilting her head so that he could look her in the eyes. She wants nothing more than to run.

"I'm going to take you with me, Reiko," Pegasus says softly, like he's admitting something secret. "What we have… I've never felt like this before. There have been others, girls that I have desired and had before, but never one that I've loved quite like you. Tell me that you feel the same."

Reiko can't get the words out. So, thinking of Gara and everything that she's done to keep Pegasus away from her, she forces herself to kiss him.

"You're crying," Pegasus whispers when she pulls away. He presses his lips to her cheek, kissing her tears from her face. "Don't worry, my love. I'll keep you forever, by my side until the end of time. We'll be eternally young, you and I. Ageless and perfect in the French Gardens. Isn't that wonderful?"

He continues on like that, in stuttering gasps and hushed confessions, buried deep as he moves inside of her. Reiko closes her eyes and thinks of Gara.

I love you, she thinks and waits for it to be over.

They keep Gara hostage to ensure Gel's loyalty, binding her to the Labs, far away from the action, with a curse designed to kill her if she leaves.

Reiko pleads with Gel to stay on course the night that Bagshot had been dragged kicking and screaming into the Reprogramming Room. Pegasus had followed in after her, intent on watching the entire operation. She and Gel had been ordered to watch the door.

"Please. Please, just give them what they want," Reiko begs, clutching desperately to her friend's arms. "We were stupid, we can't… we can't do anything. The Department is too powerful, we can't-"

"They'll kill her regardless. Once I'm dead, she'll be a liability," Gel says sadly, his eyes red rimmed from crying. "Reiko, we have to now. Don't you see? It's the only way-"

"No! No!"

"I can change this! Don't make me stand by as Pegasus rapes you and kills my sister. Don't ask me to do that," Gel tells her.

"Do you seriously think that a divine weapon will be enough to change anything?" Asks a voice behind them. Reiko and Gel turn to see Holly Hendrix leaning against the wall. She hadn't even heard the girl arrive.

Hendrix laughs at their stunned faces, "Oh, if only Garrish could see you two now, he'd know just how poorly his stupid little program actually is at creating the perfect Department soldier. He's going to need to step up his game with the next batch."

Garrish? The man that Pegasus had talked about that night a few months ago? What did he have to do with anything?

"He invented the Plant program," Hendrix answers her mental question, slipping past her Occlumency shields like they weren't even there. She tilts her head, smiling slyly, "Planning on running away, are we?"

Gel plants himself in front of Reiko, "Don't touch her."

"I'm not going to fight a pregnant girl. I'm not a monster," Hendrix rolls her eyes, but then raises an eyebrow when Reiko goes utterly pale. "You didn't know…"

"Pregnant?" Reiko wheezes, her hands flying to her stomach. She can't control the way that she curls in half and vomits on the floor.

"It's Pegasus's, isn't it?" Hendrix asks, her voice low and dark. Reiko can't answer. In front of her, Gel clenches his fist so hard that she can hear his bones creaking in protest. "You should really meet my mother. She can help you."

Reiko looks up, desperate for anything. She wants this thing out of her. She'll do whatever it takes.

"Reiko, don't. It's another one of their traps,' Gel warns her.

"Listen, I can only get you away you while Pegasus is in there," Hendrix stresses, her hands on her hips and ignoring Gel entirely. "I'll let you say goodbye to Gara. I'll get them to lift the step and send her back to the Gardens. I know you love her, I felt it when I was in your mind. You know why Pegasus had her bound to the Labs. He'll de-age her and do the same thing that he did to her."

"No…" Reiko can't think, can barely breathe, but her instinct to protect Gara is stronger than anything that she knows. "He can't. He won't touch her."

"Come with me, then," Hendrix says again and Reiko makes a choice.

Gara looks as beautiful and serene as ever when Reiko walks into the room. They'd given her a white silk dress that glinted in the moonlight streaming through the window, her golden hair curling around her face, wild and untamable. If Reiko hasn't been in love before, she'd have fallen then.

"They said they're taking me to the Gardens ," Gara says. "Reiko, what have you promised them? What have you done?"

Reiko reaches up and cups her face in her hands, "It doesn't matter. You'll be safe."

"They haven't said anything about Gel. They're not saying anything at all," Gara pleads.

"It will be alright," Reiko promises and kisses her softly, trying to memorize the feel and the taste of her, because this would be the last time. "I love you. Remember that. I love you."

"Reiko, what have you done?" Gara asks again, tears streaming down her face. Reiko wipes them away with her thumbs.

"I love you," she says again. There is a knock at the door. Behind it, Hendrix tells her to hurry up. "Forever. Always. It will always be you."

"Tell me what's happening," Gara asks one final time through her fear, and Reiko tells her everything.

By the time she's done speaking, there's arguing outside the door. Pegasus bursts in, as livid as Reiko had ever seen her. Gara reacts a second before Reiko does, pulling out her wand and launching a volley of fire at the man. Pegasus tries to shield himself, but Gara's curse shatters his defenses and the fire catches his arm, burning his flesh nearly to the bone. He screams furiously, nearly incomprehensible in his rage and fires a curse that catches Reiko in the chest. She falls, convulsing on the floor.

Unspeakables rush into the room. She lays there, her life ebbing away, as one group pulls Pegasus away, the other incapacitates Gara and drags her from the room. Reiko gets one final look at Gara before the darkness begins to encroach on her vision.

"She was taking too long," Holly Hendrix says to the pair of figures behind her. Reiko recognizes Garrish, but the woman beside him is a stranger.

She's middle aged, with red hair, blue eyes, and a face that looks strikingly like Holly's. This must be her mother, Reiko realizes as she feels her body start to fail.

"Don't worry, my girl. I've got you," the woman says, pulling something small and red from her pocket. "It's all going to be alright..."

Two months later, #1,041 sits on the roof of the Dumbledore household in Godric's Hollow, cloaking in invisibility, and waits.

#996 had been discovered in bed with Albus Dumbledore only yesterday, about to whisper classified information in a desperate, final attempt at freedom. #996 had been reprogrammed earlier this morning, just as his Handler Bagshot had, and the entire project had been scrapped. The Department is looking at better, more controlled options now.

The suggestion has been made to impregnate a Plant with Albus Dumbledore's child and to raise the boy under the Plant program. It seems to be the most viable option. Pegasus has been assigned this project, to work directly under Blaine Garrish and his protege, Trista Latner, in preparation for the Flamel Test. She'd seen the two of them standing side-by-side, Pegasus clasping his hands over his cane and Latner with her dark hair and dark eyes.

#1,041 grips at her robes to avoid pressing her hand to the ever growing problem inside her.

There is going to be a fight today between #996, Albus Dumbledore, and, if necessary, his brother, Aberforth. In the middle of it all, it is to be #1,041's job to kill Ariana Dumbledore and make it look like an accident.

#1,041 watches as as #996 walks up the front walk, eying his forehead in search of any scars from the operation, so that there's nothing that gives them away. But the Department's healers are too good to have left a trace. She's disappointed, though she shouldn't be.

The voices inside the house get heated, creating the argument that #996 had been told to create. The first curse fired is Aberforth's, #1,041 is sure of it. The fight escalates quickly, spilling out onto the front yard. #1,041 slips inside the house and pulls out her wand.

Ariana Dumbledore kneeling on the sofa, pressing her face into the window to watch the fight outside. She tenses and spins to face #1,041.

The girl is small and hauntingly thin, hollow cheekbones high on her sickly pale face. Her blonde hair lays limp against her shoulders. But her eyes are the same blue as both of her brothers, bright and twinkling with an odd kindness.

"He said that you'd come," Ariana says, peeling away from the couch and standing in the middle of the room. Her legs are as thin as the rest of her, ankles barely supporting her own weight. #1,041 remembers that Ariana was supposed to be able to control blood and wonders if the only reason this girl survived her mother's assassination attempt is because she's pushing her own heart to continue to beat.

"Who?" #1,041 asks.

"Gel. He said that if something ever happened to him, if he ever became different, that they'd send you," she clarifies angrily. "What did you do to him?"

#1,041 doesn't answer.

"Why? Just… why?" Ariana says through gritted teeth. "Is it because of me? What I am?"

#1,041 hesitates, then says, "Partially. It's also because of who Albus is. What he could have been."

"Are you here to kill me?" Ariana asks.

#1,041 nods.

"Why?"

["The girl is a liability," Helena Hendrix, Holly Hendrix's mother, says, her blue eyes cold as ice. "Pegasus is scraping the entire plan and moving on, but Ariana is a loose end. She dies tomorrow."

#1,041 nods.]

#1,041 pulls out her wand.

["Do this for me and I'll see what I can do about that operation."]

Ariana, all of fourteen, nods soberly, "Gel said that you'd do that."

The mage flings her arm out just as #1,041 firsts her Killing Curse. Something lurches inside of her and #1,041 falls to the floor with Ariana, her heart seizing and sputtering in her chest. #1,041 gasps and drops her wand, clutching at her chest, as Ariana dies beside her. She lays there next to the girl's corpse until she can breathe again.

The fact that Ariana was so sick and having to keep herself alive with her own abilities is probably what saves #1,041's life. Having to switch in between killing her murderer and saving herself gave #1,041 just enough time to get a shot in.

She's lucky to be alive.

#1,041 flees the Dumbledore household before the fighting outside finishes. She turns just in time to see #996 use the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth, to watch Albus blast his lover across the front yard and into the neighbour's living room, tears streaming down his face. #1,041's entire life had been building towards this moment, and here it is, falling to pieces around her.

#996 is as good as dead. Gara is gone, somewhere that #1,041 can never reach.

And Reiko? Reiko Kitamori feels much of a corpse as Ariana.

Consciousness ivades #1,041, feeling like she's trying to grasp at an eel, covered in slick. Her eyes peal open. Her mouth feels like someone has stuffed it full of cotton.

"Water?" She croaks. Someone moves and then a glass is pushed against her lips, cold water running down her throat.

"Do you think you can sit up?" It's Helena, looking as matronly as she had the day #1,041 had met her. #1,041 nods and pushes herself upright. Her stomach screams in pain, but she ignores it.

"How are you feeling?" Helena asks, concerned.

#1,041 grimaces, "Not well, but I've been worse."

Helena smiles, "Well, you'll be pleased to know that the operation was a complete success."

#1,041 eyes fill with tears, arms wrapping around her stomach. I'm not pregnant. I'll never be pregnant again. She's so fucking grateful.

"I'm so sorry, my girl, for everything you were put through. We should have known," Helena looks down and pulls #1,041 hands from her body, holding them with her own. "Pegasus was arrested by muggle authorities for assaulting a girl two years before he joined the Department. There will be an investigation, I promise."

#1,041 nods, her jaw clamping shut. She feels ill. She feels angry.

Then, there's a cool, tingling feeling in her gut, and the pain slowly ebbing away. When she looks up, #1,041 sees Helena pocketing something small and red.

Helena smiles softly, "You're safe now, girl. I promise you. You are safe."

If only she really felt that way.

"What's your name?" Helena asks. When #1,041 tenses, the older woman shakes her head. "Don't worry. I simply don't want to address you with your Plant code. If you're going to work with me, you're going to be a person, not a number."

#1,041 closes her eyes and thinks of the life she's lives as Reiko Kitamori, of all the things that she's done and had done to her, all the people that she's left and had to leave. She doesn't want to be Reiko Kitamori anymore.

But if #1,041 is unexceptable to her new master, then a new name will have to suffice.

She remembers her mother and brother just then, of the few memories that she has of them. #1,041 remembers the smell of miso soup simmering over the fire and the laughter that they'd shared. And then, very briefly, she remembers her father. She remembers his name.

"Kiyoshi," she answers. "My name is Kiyoshi."

Hello again!

I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: Safiruu, Tz342, InsanityByDefinition, Moonfirekitsune, dragomira, Kaderin, anita15, and green lilah. You guys are awesome!

So... I'm about to get very political about some of the things that may come up in discussion about this chapter. I'm warning you in case you want to skip the following author's note.

I understand that this is probably going to be a very controversial chapter for me to publish, especially because it deals with Reiko's rapes, abortion, and subsequent hysterectomy, on top of Pegasus's pedophilia (which seriously made me want to throw up while I was writing those scenes).

I'm just going to say that I'm pro-choice, as I believe that anyone who has the ability to get pregnant should have a say in whether or not they want to be pregnant. If you are not pro-choice, perhaps the fact that Reiko was an underage girl unwillingly pregnant with her rapist's child will help you understand why she did what she did. And if that still doesn't work, well, I'm not going to argue with you about it and any rude comments left about the topic will be left unanswered. Any threatening or offensive language will be reported, as per the guidelines on this site.

If this is something that makes you want to discontinue reading the Three Kings series, I thank you for your patronage up until this point and I wish you luck with your future reading experiences.

I also wanted to show that rape is not something that should be seen through a black and white lens. Rape is not always a blitz attack, nor is it something that happens to someone after they've been drugged or intoxicated. It is not always done by strangers wearing masks in dark alleys. It is often someone you know (that is, of course, not to discount or discredit those that experience these things). And Reiko may have 'made a choice' or 'forced herself to do something', but she was in no way consenting. What happened was rape. Reiko was underage and unable to say NO. It's gross. It's horrible. And worst of all, this is a reality that people have to deal with in our own world. What Pegasus (and any other real world person like him) did to Reiko (and their victims) is wrong.

And not only that, but the Hendrix's (both Helena and Holly) take advantage of the situation, holding Reiko's abortion and hysterectomy hostage until she swears her allegiance to them. They are not her savours; they are just as bad as the monsters that she had to leave behind.

I would also like to clarify a few more things before I go on.

The Three Kings Series was first written before the release of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and also proceeds any information about the movie that was released on Pottermore. Therefore, the Gellert Grindelwald that is shown in this iteration is not the one that will be seen in the movie series, nor will his character be involved in any of the events that occur in the movies. Also, things like MACUSA, Ilvermorny, and any of Newt Scamander's adventures did not exist within the Three Kings Series. I made this decision early on in the writing of Hunt because it would mean rewriting and reworking any plotlines that I had planned at the time and, at that point, was not done in protest towards the Fantastic Beasts series in any way.

So, in summation, the Fantastic Beasts movies and any Pottermore information regarding the American wizarding world are considered non-canon as far as the Three Kings Series is concerned.

On the other hand, I would like to say that while the Grindelwalds are going to be involved in upcoming plots, I do not support the casting of Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald because of his history of assault, specifically towards his now ex-wife, Amber Heard. I also do not support JK Rowling's continual refusal to show Albus Dumbledore's sexuality in any canon media and her continued support of Depp's casting in the Fantastic Beasts moves, as well as the silencing of people criticizing these decisions on social media.

I believe that it is important to openly acknowledge problematic actions, especially within a series that I hold near and dear to my heart. It's half the reason why I started to write the Three Kings in the first place and is why I continue to write it despite the issues that I have with the continued Fantastic Beasts movies and the Harry Potter universe and fandom at large.

Until next time,
AlcatrazOutpatient