"Cato!" Chavi cried as he dragged her along. The baby in her arms screamed for its mother, but he ignored the sound. "Cato! Please!"

He glared at her. "Shut up."

"Please! You don't want to kill me!" Chavi glanced down at the child. "And the baby, she didn't do anything wrong. She's innocent. Let me take her to a church or back to the town. We can just leave her there and she'll be out of the way."

"Shut up. Just…just shut up!"

"That girl back there, her name is Katja." No, no, no! He didn't want to know her name. If she had a name, then that would make her human. And only a monster would do those things to another human being. But Cato wasn't a monster. Was he? "She…"

"I said: SHUT UP!" he roared. He pulled out the gun and pointed it at Chavi. Her eyes stared at him wide, clutching the baby to her chest. His hand was shaking slightly. He didn't want to kill Chavi. They had grown up together. He knew her.

"You're not a killer Cato," she whispered. "I know you're not, even if Garridan doesn't. You don't have to do this. You can do the right thing."

Tears of shame burned his eyes. "I didn't want to drag you into this Chavi. I…I just had to help Garridan. He's my brother. He's all I have left."

"I know," Chavi replied softly. "But that doesn't you have to kill us."

Cato closed his eyes for a brief moment. "I have to. If I let you go, you'll bring people straight to the cabin to arrest me and Garridan."

"You know I will though. You'll have the head start. You can go back to the cabin, get your brother, and run. By the time I could get anyone back, you'd be long gone. You could disappear into the country side never to be seen again."

"I can't just tell Garridan I let you go."

"No," she admitted. "But you could say that someone found us in the woods and you had to decide whether you killed me or got away and that you couldn't do both."

He stared at her for several long, tense minutes. The only sound in the forest was the sound of the crying baby. Finally he lowered the gun. "Go."

Her eyes grew wide. "What?"

"Go!" Chavi turned and took off running through the forest as fast as she could. Once she was a considerable distance away, Cato raised the gun to the sky and pulled the trigger twice. He turned back towards the cabin and began slowly trudging back.

Garridan stared at the unmoving girl. Her tears had long since stopped. In less than two days he had done what Javert couldn't do in five years. He had broken her spirit. Even after five years in the cage, she would still scream and fight him, but now she was just limp and unresponsive.

He knelt next to her and began to stroke her hair. "You know, I didn't expect you to break quite this easily. And now what am I supposed to do now? That's half the fun." Her eyes simply closed.

Several gunshots echoed through the woods. "Well, well, it looks like that's the end of that." A low whine escaped her lips. He smirked. "There, there, you'll get over it soon enough. After all, we've got plenty of time together now."

She twisted away from him. "Oh come now, don't be like that." He stood up over her "Come on. Stand up and we'll get started." The girl didn't move. "Get up," he snarled. She tried to push herself to her feet, but collapsed. "That wasn't an option!"

"I…I can't."

"I said: GET UP!" He grabbed her by her hair and yanked her to her feet. She screamed in pain. Her legs gave out and she collapsed against him. Frustrated, Garridan tied another rope to a support beam going across the ceiling and strung her up by her wrists. "There, isn't that better?"

Tears of pain slid down her cheeks. "Why are you doing this to me?" she whimpered.

He grabbed her chin and forced her to give him a long and slow kiss then leaned into whisper into her ear, "Why not?" The girl pulled out of his grasp, her eyes full of fear and loathing.

Before he could do anything else, the door opened and Cato walked in. He shot a look of disgust at his brother. "Do you not have any self-control?" Cato asked.

"What?" Cato just rolled his eyes.

"Did you want a turn with her?" he asked, motioning to the girl. Garridan didn't consider Cato his equal. They were brothers yes, but Cato was more of a dog, fiercely loyal, easily trained, and willing to do anything that he was commanded as long as he got a small treat every once in a while.

His brother shook his head in revulsion. "After what I saw come out of her earlier, I think I'm done with women for a long time."

Garridan sat beside Cato, the two next to the few embers burning in the fireplace, the only remotely warm spot in the room. "So did you deal with Chavi?"

Cato seemed to hesitate, but only for a brief second before he nodded. "Yeah, she's gone."

"Good." Garridan watched his brother for a while. Cato was staring at the girl, who was shivering with cold. "Now what's wrong?"

"You're going to kill her."

"I thought we already established that."

"We established nothing! You established this!"

"Well you knew what you were getting into. Tell me, how are we supposed to end this without killing her? We can't. She'll go running off and send the police after us!"

His brother thought for a moment. "We could just leave her here."

Garridan shrugged again. "Fine, but no one knows that she's here. She'll be long gone before anyone finds her."

"You never know," Cato replied evasively.

"Do you know something you're not telling me?"

Cato shook his head before glancing at what was left of the fire. "Dammit, you let it burn out!" He stood and stormed out the door. "I'm getting more firewood," he said just before the door slammed shut.

Cesar stopped abruptly at the sound of the gun and whinnied nervously. Erik was the lucky one, Fredrick and Dieter's horses reared up, nearly throwing them off. "What was that?" Fredrick asked.

"What do you think?" Erik screamed.

He tried to urge Cesar forward to find the source of the gun, but the horse spooked by something rustling in the woods. A girl, a dirty and bruised gypsy girl, came flying down the path, something clutched to her chest as though her life depended on it.

"You have to help me!" she cried. "They're going to kill her!"

"Who?" Fredrick demanded.

"Her name is Katja. Please, they've kidnapped her! They're going to kill her if someone doesn't get there quickly!"

Erik leaped down from his horse. "Who took her and where are they now?"

She pointed down the path. "Their names are Garridan and Cato. They took her to an abandoned cabin a few miles that way. Please, you've got to hur-…" Her voice trailed off when she looked at Erik's face for the first time and noticed the mask. "You," she gasped. "You're the one…the one who rescued her… the one who…my father…"

His eyes grew wide. "Chavi?" He hadn't thought much about Javert's daughter in years. Actually he was surprised he even remembered her name.

"Yes," she replied. "And you must be Erik." He nodded. "She told me about you. She loves you very much. She thinks you're dead; she was devastated when they told her that you were."

She glanced down at the thing in her arms and held it out to him. His eyes grew wide when he saw it was a baby. "No," he whispered. It was pink and bloody and naked, but still beautiful. Katja was right. She was a baby girl trembling from the cold. Erik instantly pulled off his cloak and wrapped his tiny daughter in it, cradling her as though she were the most precious treasure, which to him, she was. He tried to remember what name they had decided on, but then he realized thanks to him, they hadn't. The last one Katja had suggested was Belle. Yes, it would be perfect. She was indeed the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He looked up to Chavi. "Katja, is she… is she okay?"

"You have to hurry before it's too late!"

Erik placed a kiss on his daughter's forehead and held her up to Dieter. "Please, get her home safely. I don't want to risk losing her." Dieter took his granddaughter into his arms and nodded. "You should go with him too."

Chavi shook her head. "No, I'll find my own way back. I'll be okay. Just save Katja." He nodded then quickly mounted Cesar and took off in the direction that Chavi had pointed out.