They stood her next to the waterfall. The cliff was slick and cold, water splashing onto her skin. She didn't think her life would end this way, but then again, most people didn't know how their life would end in the first place. She'd always thought she'd be shot in some bar or cut down by an Akuma she'd tackled. This hadn't been what she'd had in mind.

Execution could be so shameful.

They'd stripped her of everything except for her bra, underwear, and her rosary. She'd pleaded to keep it on the grounds of honorable custom. If there was anything these men could identify with, it was a need to be close to their God, in spite of their actions. Of course, that wasn't the only reason she wanted to keep the rosary; she knew that Noah could destroy Innocence, and she'd literally die before they would destroy it. It would be too late by the time anyone realized that she'd kept it with her.

The cold, mountain wind scoured her skin red. She sniffled, already having cried as she realized how many people she was going to lose. She was standing resolute now, however. She was resigned to her fate.

They'd dragged Lavi off already, and she'd watched them haul a torture rack towards his tent as she was led to her execution site. She could only pray that God was merciful to him and minimized his pain, perhaps even kill him out of pity. She had no doubts that they would not be gentle in their interrogation, and there was nothing she could do to help. She heard the quiet footsteps of small feet, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw small children at the edge of the cliff. They were here to watch... and perhaps to learn. To learn what happened when you defied your drug lord and the master of the land. What happens when one defies 'God's will'. Esperanza stood straight ahead out over the trees. She could barely make out the horizon of the desert on which she'd been born and raised. It was such a sad thought to realize that she would not die there, as well. Instead, she was to be killed on a strange mountain at the hands of men she did not know while her family carried on without her as if she had never existed.

"Cuando doy la orden, quiero disparar." The man's voice was oddly hushed by the multitude of trees and the rush of the waterfall. Esperanza was stolid as she stared out into the distance, imagining in her mind's eye her family. All ten children, grinning and smiling at her when she arrived every month, her father beaming at her proud, but not arrogant, countenance, her mother finally well and waving.

"Tres." The birds seemed to have fallen silent. The children did not chatter.

"Dos." The water was the only sound, and Esperanza bid her body to relax as she looked up at the sky. Under her breath she muttered, "Aunque ande en la valle de sombra de muerte, no temere mal alguno, porque tu-"

"Uno. Fuego!"

The shots rang out into the still air, and the birds briefly alighted into the air. She wasn't even aware of the pain as bright red blossoms arced from her back. Esperanza saw the sky flip, and suddenly the world was backwards, with the sky below and the ground above. The roaring sound of the waterfall greeted her, and for a brief, optimistic moment Esperanza had the hope that perhaps she would land in the water instead of on the rocks below.

Her hopes were in vain.

Darrin watched from a ridge, horrified. He could see the crowd of children as a blur of black and brown, and the men with their guns looked like the tin figurines he'd played with when he was a child. A woman, naked to the wind and water, stood like a statue at the edge of the cliff, as close to the waterfall as they ever dared go. He knew what came next, and he ran into the forest. He'd only gotten so far before he heard the crack of ten muskets going off. He didn't wait for the sound of a body hitting the bottom of the cliffs, and he trekked on through the forest.

The source of the river, as he'd already known, was set in a bowl of sorts near the top of the mountain. Already, a chill had settled over his bones as he wandered around the forest, following tracks. His old joints groaned in protest at the sudden bursts of energy he exerted over them, but he knew that he would need to get as close to the camp as he could if he wanted to be of any help. It was all about what he knew...

He knew that Esperanza was beyond saving. He knew they'd probably kept Lavi alive, or else they'd have executed him along with Esperanza. He knew they dare not stay too close to the lake - they were superstitious folk, after all, and being on the mountain was giving them enough jitters as it was. What they were doing up so far, anyways, was beyond him. He suddenly came to the edge of a tree line, and he stared at the lake with awe.

The lake level was so low. He could see the water line from previous years, and the current lake level was several hundred feet below the highest mark. Masses of strange creatures were diving into the water and then jumping back out. There were teams of them, taking turns. It looked like they were being driven in gang systems, with one of the monsters ordering around groups of the others. He crouched behind a tree as he watched them, and finally he moved on. The water fall had been connected to the lake, and it was rushing because of the suddenly influx of water that had been realized from the lake. It must've been dammed up long ago by some force, and now they'd let go the water again into the river.

Darrin finally reached the camp, after circumnavigating the lake and finding a proper trail that looked like it'd been used recently. It took him an entire three hours, but he managed to get to the outskirts. It looked as if the camp was only two or three miles from the lake, but it wasn't far from the water fall, where the river finally started as it pounded down the rocks. The camp itself probably only had fifty to seventy people within it, all of them male and all of them young thugs who were probably headed by older, grizzled mentors. He knew that at the highest point would be the head honcho's tent because he would be able to keep watch on everyone. It put them at a strategic disadvantage, but then again they hadn't expected anyone to journey up the mountain anyways.

Realizing that he could be followed, Darrin quietly crept away. He'd need some help first. And of course, he'd need to bury Esperanza before the sun went down and something went and ate her body. She was a good woman and deserved a proper funeral.

With this sobering thought, he started to head back towards the cave as the sun dipped into the horizon.

"Could you please repeat that?" Lulu's voice fazed in and out. It sounded as if someone were muffling his ears with cotton. His breath was ragged and quick. His eyes were shut tight while Lulu walked around him, inspecting him. She suddenly kicked him in the side, his entire body smashing into the side of the rack and settling back towards the center again as he cried out.

"I couldn't hear you, I apologize," Lulu stated in a ladylike manner as she folded her hands behind her, looking towards the back of the tent. That poor piece of meat lashed to the rack continued to breath heavily, and she looked towards Mr. Naso. The small man was wearing his butcher's apron, and he was splattered here and there, but not too much. Mr. Naso was very good at keeping his subjects alive, and subjects needed blood to live. His MO was that he usually did not leave any blood at all, but the mistress had wanted her subject to bleed out a little in order to weaken him. However, Mr. Naso was finding the redheaded man very resilient, despite their best efforts. He'd only screamed three times in the past four hours, a feat worth respect. He hadn't breathed a word about any of the questions Ms. Bell had asked, and he found that astonishing. A man like him should be either dead, babbling, or at least sobbing with pain.

"Mr. Naso, I think we need to up the ante a little bit. Bring me one of the children, please," Lulu said, and finally the redheaded man looked up. Mr. Naso watched as his breathing quickened from fast gasps to straight hyperventilation. However, Lulu's request was interrupted by a man walking into the tent with another ten behind.

"Miss, here is what you wanted. All of her things, like you asked," the man said. Lulu lifted an eyebrow, and she stared at the clothes. Lulu changed shape, reverting back to her default form. The man jerked back, but he was only startled. He'd seen her do it before, and it was a strange thing to see her melt from one form to another. She took the clothes, and she frowned. The man felt a bead of sweat run down his face into his dark mustache. Lulu Bell looked up, her eyes flashing with an emotion that none of the men could place. However, it scared them.

"Are you sure you took everything? Why is this coming to me so late?" she asked. The man stood still for a moment, trying to form an answer. He finally said, "Some men, uh, were passing the clothes around. It took us a few minutes to round up all of the pieces." She threw the clothes at him, and she snarled, "You've missed something. Are you sure you took everything?" The man looked indecisive before saying, "We... left her the rosary."

Lulu was quiet. She finally asked sweetly, "Who told her to keep the rosary?" One of the man slowly raised his hand.

"Custom, senorita. She going to die, so why not? Let her have God with her," the man said, shrugging. Lulu nodded, walking over towards the table full of implements. She suddenly flicked a flechette knife at the man, and it nailed him through the eye. The man gasped for a moment before suddenly collapsing. The rest of the contingency screamed or backed away in surprise as he fell on a man loosely, causing the unfortunate person to fling off the newly dead corpse to the ground.

"I want you, all of you, to go and find me her body," Lulu said, lifting up another knife, letting it glimmer in the lamp light. The men looked at each other before beginning to file out. They didn't even bother to complain that it was almost dusk and that it was freezing. No one wanted to end up like the man on the ground.

"And take him with you," Lulu said, waving casually towards the corpse in a dismissive fashion. Some of them hastily dragged out the body of their compatriot, shooting murderous glances towards the woman who had so nonchalantly murdered their friend. When the room was empty, Lulu looked back to Lavi.

"The children, Miss?" Mr. Naso said, and Lulu Bell thought for a moment.

"Not right now. We'll save that for last. Start on him with flechette knives. Fingernails first."

He was sure that he'd crack. Lavi couldn't take much more. She'd asked him several questions already, ranging from the actual size of the Order to how many pieces of Innocence had already been recovered to the locations of every existing Exorcist currently on the planet. He'd kept everything mum, and he'd tried so hard to keep his head down and mouth shut. The pain was unbearable. His fingernails were sliced open, and a few were missing. He was sure he'd broken several ribs. They'd carved small lines into his back, only enough to cause pain. They'd rubbed salt into all of the open wounds, and he was using everything he had in him not to scream.

"How many Exorcists do you have?" Lulu asked, reclining in her chair. She crossed her legs, as languid as a contented feline. Lavi stared at the ground. He looked up at her, finally. What more could she do to him? He suddenly began to laugh. The laugh rolled out of him like pebbles out of a bag, tumbling over and over itself and rushing until it was a full blown, maniacal hysteria that streaked the air. Lulu's face suddenly went from indifferent to stony. She nodded to Naso, and he grabbed one of Lavi's feet.

There was a blinding pain, and Lavi sucked in a breath. It was like nothing he'd felt before, a piercing agony. Another lance of pain raced up his foot into his leg, and then another. He shook like a leaf, the pain amounting to a fever pitch the closer it got to the arch of his foot. He dare not look behind him to see what the little man with the bowler was doing to his feet. It might break him.

"Enough. Stop there," Lulu said. Mr. Naso obliged. Lulu walked around Lavi, inspecting him as a scientist examines an interesting, new specimen. She leaned down and jerked his face up to meet hers, their eyes locking. She could see the answers. They lie there behind that one green eye, inside that fantastic brain of his, and she could only reach it through cracking and shearing away the shell that surrounded his innermost secrets. She used a finger to trace the line of his jaw, one of the few unbruised parts of him. She pursed her lips as if in disappointment, and she asked, "Can't we get along here? I don't want much." However, there was a trace, a vein, of something within Lavi that she could almost feel through her fingertips. It was like the metal band around a barrel that kept it together - a strong, iron will that refused to bend or break. It would take much, much more to shatter him without shattering his mind in the process. As Lavi continued to stare back with such intensity as to rival the sun's rays, she sneered before smiling.

"I can do much worse." Lavi knew that. He knew that well, but he wasn't willing to contemplate it. He didn't bother to speak. "Are you sure you want to go on? We can stop." Lavi remained tight lipped. He wouldn't budge. He'd thought he couldn't handle it, but he was wrong. She'd asked to destroy the lives of his friends, the closest thing he had to family, and the Bookman in him was resolute in keeping his secrets. He would not falter. The apparition, throughout the ordeal, had only briefly appeared once, mocking him with a smile, yet at the same time looking infinitely sad and defeated. For some reason, that had allowed Lavi to hang on just a bit longer. What more could she do...?

Lulu Bell straightened from her bent position. She tugged on her suit's coat, and she sat back in the chair. He was proving harder than most. They'd already carved words into his back, and they'd put needles into his legs. His foot was probably mangled beyond repair, at least without any attention, and his entire body was mottled with bruises that were turning blue, black, green, and purple. If they continued on, there wouldn't be much left of him. She didn't want to break any more of his bones - they didn't have any antibiotics and they were running the risk of deep infection with his foot and ribs. Suddenly, she was struck with an idea.

She looked to Naso with a dark look. "Go get me a brazier of coals, if you would, Mr. Naso." Lavi didn't even bother to look up. It would be another trial to go through, but he'd make it.

He had to keep telling himself that. He'd make it... he'd make it...

Darrin came back with two villagers. He'd had to convince the town elders to take a contingency to the settlement in order to get the children. It'd been hard work, and Darrin had thought he'd lose his mind waiting, much less his hair considering he was pulling on it so much. Lavi... no doubt the boy was probably nothing more than a mass of hamburger meat. There wouldn't be anything left of him to bury. He had no doubt that they'd be able to save the hostages, but it'd be risky and it was very likely that someone was going to die in the process, be it child, villager, or he himself.

As he crept towards the camp, he felt his stomach twist in knots. He hadn't done anything this dangerous since he decided to take on that panther with bacon grease and a frying pan. No doubt, there would be creatures guarding the perimeter, and some villagers against those monsters sounded like a snowball's chance in hell. Still, they had to try. They were armed with guns, clubs, and whatever else was on hand, including one tea kettle. It wouldn't be too much help, but anything was better than nothing. He scratched his beard as he stared into the camp.

"What now?" one of the villagers asked. Darrin realized he was at a loss. He hadn't planned this far. First things first - find the children. Second - rescue the boy if he was still alive, though chances were that educated feller was no longer among the land of the living. The best thing to do was get one of the sentries and interrogate him. Darrin managed to grab one of them, silently clocking him over the head before dragging him away cursing. Of course, this in turn attracted the other sentries, who they had to clock and drag, too...

Soon they had five of the seventeen sentries on the ground, all knocked out cold.

"Damn, we only needed one," Darrin muttered as he rubbed his chin, trying to figure out what to do. It was hard to interrogate a person who was out like a light. Another sentry came, discovering them, and before they could call out, another villager clocked him over the head with his tea kettle. The man blinked in surprise before finally falling to the ground. Darrin sighed. This wasn't working. They'd notice that their sentries were missing soon, and then they'd be nowhere again.

One of the villagers whispered, "Hey, this one's moving." He pointed to the first man they'd knocked unconscious. He woke up, finding himself gagged and tied with a handkerchief, and he immediately tried to run, but the old man tripped him before he could go anywhere.

After some interrogation that involved a few threats to certain parts of the male anatomy and a rather rusty looking kitchen knife, the man told them where the children were.

"Follow the red tents... they're in the old blue tent with the gold lines," the man said, staring at the knife rather worriedly. The man wielding it looked a little too anxious to use it.

"Much obliged," Darrin said, using the tea kettle once more to induce a bit of sleep on the man. He stared at the metal implement as the man fell over, nodding appreciatively.

"I should use this thing more often. It ain't half bad," Darrin said. The villagers tied all of the men together, stealing their clothes as well just to embarrass them when they woke up.

"Now that's just wrong," Darrin snickered. The villagers grinned in the moonlight, shrugging to each other in agreement as they started to put on the clothes of the sentries. They pulled hats over their faces, and Darrin made sure to darken his skin with dirt in order to blend in better. It was dark, and no one would think much of two more men who just waltzed in wearing the clothes of thugs. Darrin himself didn't fit in any of the other guys' clothes, so he had to go in with what he was wearing, but he trusted the indifference of young men enough to trust his 'disguise.'

As they walked, they attempted a looseness that would throw off any suspicion that they weren't supposed to be there. As they headed towards the tent, however, they were stopped by several men who stared at them and asked, "What are you doing off post? Don't you have sentry duty tonight?" Luckily, Darrin's two villagers, Pedro and Ignacio, spoke Spanish fluently, and one answered, "Nah, switched out with someone else. I had to pay him off, though, but it's worth it." The men shrugged to each other, agreeing with their logic. They got past them, saying good night congenially.

"That was too close," Darrin muttered. The other two nodded quietly with sobered looks. They had all been sweating under their clothes, dripping down over their sides and back. First, Darrin attempted to find Lavi, but asking about a prisoner would be too suspicious. He figured he'd be in the head honcho's tent, but they wouldn't bother to torture someone in the living quarters... Darrin didn't dare go off on his own, though. With a group, he'd blend in, but by himself he'd be caught. He stayed with the two he had with him, and decided that if they made it out with the kids, he'd go back in himself to find the man who'd hired him up the mountain. They finally got to the tent, which was guarded by another two men playing cards. They looked up idly, and then went back to their game. It was none of their concern. They were just there to make sure the children stayed in, not that people stayed out.

Ignacio and Pedro walked in with dark looks. It was pitch black in the tent, and the children were huddled together for warmth. It smelled disgusting, and it looked as if they'd only been given buckets as toilets for the past couple of weeks. They were dirty and hungry, and at the sight of the men they cringed, shrinking as small as they could make themselves. The older girls hovered in front of the younger children defensively, though they themselves trembled. Ignacio immediately recognized his daughter, and he picked her up in a hug. The young girl almost screamed, but upon smelling her father's familiar scent, she gave him a look of disbelief before returning the hug. Pedro searched for his son, but he didn't find him in the group. Darrin could see the empathy in Ignacio's face as Pedro suddenly bit his lip. It was all too likely that some of the kids had died in the fetid, disgusting tent from disease or some other such reason.

Pedro left, said something gruffly to the men, and then walked back into the tent.

"I told them I'm taking them to the woods for a bath in the stream near here. He said that's fine as long as I keep an eye on them. We'll need to bind them together," Ignacio said in his native tongue, and they quickly set to work. Before long, they were headed out of the camp with the children in tow, and they reached the perimeter of the camp before -

"Hey! Bastards!" The men turned as shots went off, and a child screamed as one of their number was hit in the leg, a bullet going awry. The sentries who had been stripped of their clothes had managed to escape their bonds, and there were several Akuma following close behind. Darrin didn't have to tell them to run after that. Pedro picked up the injured child, Ignacio led the pack, and Darrin kept off the men with his shot gun as well as he could while running. He even managed to save himself with his tea kettle, using it as a shield. A bullet pinged off of it, and he cackled as the men raced to catch up.

The two villagers managed to escape, but Darrin was caught by the sentries. He struggled as they began to carry him off, and he grumbled as he went, hiding his panic. That hadn't gone exactly as he'd planned...

The men from the camp looked around aimlessly at the bottom of the cliffs. Lulu had sent them here to find the body, but they hadn't been able to find it anywhere. They'd even thrown a piece of rope over the exact spot where they'd shot her, and there was no body left at the bottom underneath the swinging twine. The men chatted amongst themselves worriedly. This wasn't good. Lulu wouldn't be happy, and if Lulu wasn't happy, someone was going to end up dead, just like poor, poor Antonio.

"A body doesn't just walk off," one of the men muttered.

"You think it fell into the river?" another asked, staring into the rambling, roaring depths of the newly born pool that had long been dry. They all stared at the pounding waters. If she'd been dumped into the river afterwards, that meant that they'd never find the body, and that they'd all be dead before sunrise.

"You think we can give her a metal crucifix and just tell her it was hers?" one of the men asked, and they all glared.

"She isn't human, idiot. She'll know the minute she touches it," one of the older men stated, wandering into the undergrowth. They all spread out, hoping to find at least the carcass of her body somewhere.

Suddenly, there was a short scream that was abruptly cut off. Birds fluttered away against the firmament, disturbed by the noise. Everyone suddenly went on edge. There was something utterly eerie about this.

"We killed her, right?" a young man asked his partner. The other nodded, looking around.

"You don't think... her vengeful soul isn't at rest, do you? That she'd decide to kill is in revenge in order to pass on?" he asked, his voice a low hush of fear and paranoia. The other man licked his lips. This was a cursed mountain. Anything could happen. They'd stripped that woman of her clothes, beaten her a bit, and killed her. It was all too likely her soul still roamed the earth, thirsting for the blood of those that had killed her. Another cut off scream rang out, and the air stilled to nothing.

"She's taking us one by one," the young man realized. Suddenly, his partner let out a choked sound of fright, but frighteningly hauled off before he could say more. The young man was alone. He removed his gun from it's holster, pulling back the hammer with an audible click. He looked around, feeling as if he were suffocating in the dark. The others... where were they? Had they fled already, not bothering with him? Was he going to die here.

Suddenly, he saw her in the moonlight next to the banks of the river. She was an ethereal form, with all those scars. Her black hair trailed down to her waist, and she merely stood there, gazing into the water of the river. She was half-dressed, and her dark skin seemed almost white under the light of the moon. The young man trembled as he stepped back as far into the woods as he could, hoping to God that he wasn't seen by the ghostly thing that stood at the edge of the waterfall's pool. Her body was completely matted with blood and bruises. He thought he could see bones jut out in some places, pale white under the moonlight, but he was too far to see. His breathing hiked up as she began to turn around. Finally, she began to walk towards the path up the cliffs, and the young man knew where she was headed next.

He had to warn the camp. They had to know. He had to find a different way up the cliffs, though. There had to be another way up the cliffs without using the main path, the one the specter had used. He spied the rope, and an idea came to him as if through lightning...

Screams echoed out from the tent like knives that sheared through the night. Men winced in their cots as they heard the sound of sizzling skin. Suddenly, there was the sound of pleading, sad, sad noises of pain.

"Stop... please stop... please..." The stricken voice was choked with tears and agony. His breathing shivered, and he looked up into the eyes of an old friend. He gave the smallest of smiles as Darrin was sat in front of Lavi. Darrin's face was one contorted into features of disbelief and horror. Lavi, however, was so happy to see something familiar, something tied to something so good as to be normal, to see...

"Lavi, you have to let go," the apparition stated. Lavi looked to his right at the boy standing next to him. Lavi's breathing was ragged.

"What're ya gonna do t'me?" Darrin asked.

"You know you have to," the apparition stated. "It's the only way to survive. You're not strong enough. Only I am."

"Oh, that's easy. We actually have a use for you. How long you think you can hold your breath?" Lulu said, her voice slipping in and out again. Lavi swallowed, staring at the apparition with a look of childish confusion. The apparition shook his head.

"Why do I bother? You're so blinded by pain, you can't understand what I'm saying," the phantasm sighed, and Lavi tilted his head as his brain caught up with the words.

"Wait...yeas I... I can..."

"What would ya have me do?" Darrin asked.

"Just a little test. Nothing major."

"You can't do this as you. You have to let me take over."

"What's this yer talkin' bout? Gonna put me in the lake to swim with the fish? Ha, like at'll kill me."

"You'd be surprised."

The hiss of something hot against skin. The sound of pain that was far away.

"Stop... please, stop... please, just stop it!"

"Lavi, switch over-"

"What in the hell've you done to him-?"

"Like you've never seen-"

"Lavi, switch or-"

"Ya'll goin' ta hell-"

"I think I'd like it there-"

"No... just... quit, I'll... quit, don't... don't, please... I-I... just c-c-"

"Damn it all, listen to me-"

Another hiss, biting into his back, beginning to crack his mind, beginning to mumble-

"Hm, it looks like he's finally saying something-"

"You ain't gettin' away with this-"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP."

"SWITCH!"

"Finally-"

Lavi gave up and retreated as far back as he could go.

I apologize for the graphicness of the chapter - I needed a Shock Chapter somewhere in there, and a camp with a Noah running it will do that. Hopefully, this doesn't mean I have to raise my ratings any higher to an M rather than a T.

I would like to say thanks to St. Iggy the Pyro - fantastic review! It was very helpful. Thank you for the support. I just love feedback.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be out soon. I'm sorry that my schedule is so irregular. I might make a new system of releasing chapters so it'll be a bit more on time. Until then, things will be sporadic.

-Dr. Yok