dark dealings

[Sonja Wright]

In the middle of the night, sound was blaring from the nightclub, shaking the very ground she walked on. The constant pounding was enough to give anyone a headache and the incredible fear Sonja Wright felt didn't help the situation in the slightest. She had a meeting to go to, one that she wished she didn't have to do. What kind of creature would ask to have a meeting in the middle of the night, inside a nightclub? How Mafia. But this was much worse than a Mafia meeting. At least the Don would have you killed right then and there. Sonja knew that someone else, something much worse than death, awaited her inside.

Making her way through the crowd, Sonja was jolted and jostled around as she tried to make a path. Stopping at the bar first, she ordered a shot, downing it quickly. She didn't really want to have a clear memory of this when it was over. If she got out alive, that is. Pushing past people to get through, she was stopped more than once and asked to dance. Sonja could only push the people (all guys of course) away from her until she came out on the other side, seeing a table in the back where someone was waiting.

Waiting for me, Sonja thought to herself. Swallowing hard, she looked around once, hoping someone was watching her before she took a step toward...whatever was awaiting her.

[closed]

[Robert Shaw]

It was understandable, to want out with the stakes as they stood, after all she had been nothing more than a naieve child upon her recruitment. It was a pity really, the girl had such potential, leadership, aggression, and now what was she, a cherubic demon with a leaf overturned? It was pathetically admireable, many would want out, not many would have the courage to actually ask for it.

From across the room the young woman appeared from the crowd, a hesitation moment and then began her trek over. The wanting out wasn't Robert's problem, anyone could get in and anyone could leave. The problem lay with the fact that the girl simply knew too much, and there needed to be an--arrangement--made on just how to deal with it. With music blaring and his voice safley shielded, as the girl approached he acknowledged her with an unseeable smirk and most chilling words.

"Miss Wright. I commend you for your courage, not many would willingly accept this meeting given to what our discussion pertains. Take a seat if you desire." There stood no need for wands, no need for force, not now. Later there would most likely be no alternative, for now there was only diplomacy. The girl did, after all, still have a brain, the question was a matter of if she could properly use it.

[Sonja Wright]

Sonja's throat betrayed her and closed up, not allowing her to speak as Robert Shaw's voice drifted to her ears over the noise. She sat down silently, crossing one leg over the other and trying to not let the fear show on her features. She knew that if she admitted to being scared, she was done for.

All the girl could do was nod. Her eyes were down on the table in front of her until she forced herself to look up and look the man in the eye. Somewhere, deep down, something made Sonja speak again, but her voice was low.
"So what do you propose we do?" Sonja asked, struggling to keep her voice steady and as polite as she could. Politeness had never been her forte.

[Robert Shaw]

Robert could do nothing but chuckle, his gray eyes streaking over the blonde locked lass before him. No doubt she was nervous, no doubt she feared the repercussions of showing it, but what would it matter if she showed it? She was after all, withdrawing, leaving, running, fleeing like a coward when outnumbered and out matched... A fools choice really, to leave a life of enveloped safety, secrecy, for a life of panic and looking over your shoulder.

"It is to be your life, this is your choice, and right now this is a negotiation table. State your terms and I'll state mine." It came without doubt that his terms would win over, but diplomacy went two ways, and of age or not the young woman was still essentially a child. It was for she and all like her whose future this crusade would benefit. Very few however saw it as such and fewer still believed in its ability to succeed. Most of his ranks held their own reasons for involvement, he found himself feeling much like Stalin only without the paranoia. If any of his rank wanted him dead he would have been so already, their motives were not on him--not yet anyway.

[Sonja Wright]

Leaning forward slightly, closer to the table, Sonja stayed strong and tried to not let him intimidate her. But it was a battle she was definitely losing. Clearing her throat, Sonja spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully as she went along.
"My terms," she began, "You let me go, you let me live and I spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. I'm done with this, Shaw. I just want out."

She knew it was bold and it would probably cost her in the near future but she wanted to be firm. Sonja wanted him to know that she wasn't screwing around and she wanted him to be able to trust her with the secret. After all, she'd been loyal so far, even now that she wanted out. She hadn't told anyone where she was going tonight, not that she really had anyone to tell. Sonja realized now that that probably wasn't the brightest thing to do but she wouldn't let Shaw know that.

[Robert Shaw]

For a long moment, a stretch of near eternity he did nothing, said nothing, tried, nothing. She made it seem like the table was closed with her words, all deals final with not further negotiation--Wright should've known better than that. Oh yes, let the girl live, run in fear, where would that fear drive her? Where would she go? Eventually no doubt she would run to the aurors, or perhaps even they to her. Could he really risk that? Of course he could, but was it logical, rational to risk it? No.

"And tell me why I should run that risk? To let you live and merely hope that you don't go crawling to that Ministorial wash-bucket they call aurors?." A pause. "Why should I trust you to your silence now, now when every day is a critical day?" Oh no the girl was not getting off with a simple slap on the wrists and a warning. If she wished to live and keep her silence...there were...methods other than death.

[Sonja Wright]

Sonja's hand on the table slowly clenched into a fist, growing angrier by the second. She could understand why Shaw would be wary of just letting her go when she knew so much, but it was also a blow to the ego as well. She had been loyal to them so far, why would that change now? Just because she wanted out didn't mean she was about to run off to the Ministry. Shaw should have known better than that.

"Because I know what you can do to me," Sonja snarled back, knowing it would be the end of her if she kept going this way, "And you would know it was me who ratted you out if the Ministry came for you. There's no need for betrayal here, Shaw. You haven't done anything worthy of it."

[Robert Shaw]

Hadn't done anything? Oh that was a statement he coudl laugh at for hours. He'd kidnapped not one but two students at wand point and tortured one of them quite possibly tot he point of permanent scars. And, of course tot top it off he was a Lieutennant in an organization bent on rebellion and treachery until wizarding society succumbed to a 'pureblood' rule. And she says he hasn't done anything worth betrayal, perhaps she wasn't completely overturned after all.

"Live, run, fear and be forced to look back at what you've left every day. That's the life you want..." Robert replied, a small and cold chuckle briefly escaping his lips. "Why? Why would you pick that path, the path of fear, of cowardice? Either way you lead a double life, why pick a loser's end of the battle?"

[Sonja Wright]

"What's it to you?" the hot-headed teenager responded with, now not caring about her anger boiling over, "It's not like it's you that's going to be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life. You won't have to live with the fear. Why do you care so much that I'll have to?"

It was a legitimate question, although Sonja knew she shouldn't have lashed out like that. What she found strange was that he seemed to care what happened to her. Why should he? It's not like he actually even liked her, all she was was a minion, one of his many, and it shouldn't matter to him what happened to her. Her fear of him could drive her insane, and nothing would happen to him. Sonja would spend the rest of her life, locked in a padded cell while he was still out in the world, wreaking havoc and causing pain wherever he went. Why did she matter?

[Robert Shaw]

What was it to him? Tch-tch! As quick as this young lass was with her words and tone she was quite lucky she wasn't dead. Youth...always thought they were bloody invincible, until they were literally bleeding out to death in a London back alley. Overall it was downright foolish, but such were the ways the brain was designed to function. It had given him an uncanny advantage of late after all so who was he to really complain?


"What's it to me?" Robert repeated, eyes glinting with a heavy amount of bemusement and a slight touch of mockery. "Call it...curiosity." He responded after a moment of silence. Curiosity was a powerful thing, the problem was it tended to kill more often than satisfy. One what-if led to another and another until eventually you reached your limit of chances--and then pushed it one further. Merlin only knew how many more breaks he'd get before his number got drawn...he was pretty sure he'd started pushing his luck long ago.

It was all a matter of waiting for the whistle to blow...

[Sonja Wright]

"Curiosity killed the cat, Shaw," Sonja snapped rather viciously. So what if he killed her right then and there. Who did she have to stick around for? She'd lost Scott, she'd lost her mother...her father was just existing somewhere with his Muggle woman. She had nothing to keep going for and by this point, she would have been glad if he just killed her and got it over with.

Sighing slightly, Sonja leaned back in her chair, feeling slightly more vulnerable now that she'd just snapped at Robert Shaw for the 100th time. Shaking her head, the teenager tried to keep her voice steady and choke back the tears that started to well up.
"What do you want from me?" she asked him, a hint of pleading in her tone, "What do you want me to say?"

[Robert Shaw]

Curiosity had killed a cat and oh so much more, but it hadn't killed himself as of yet, and until that day came he would continue to be curious. As curious as any other mortal and physcial being. With the ever thunderous music beating in his drums--all of it music he cared to rather not associate himself with--the man's voice replied with a drippingly cold tone. "What I want is simple, I suppose it meets your terms, you leaving, living in fear. You just won't have to watch your back, merely your tongue." A pause. "This vow is unconditional. The. Unconditional."

What he was suggesting was some excruciatingly powerful magic. One that still carried the price of death should she ever pigeon them, but it would not be a death by wand, nor any real hand but her own. He could be certain of it, Unbreakable vows carried unconditional terms, what you were bound to would be what you did. Silence or death by one's own hand? It was a simple choice, and should she choose to rat, the aurors would have her statement, but a dead corpse was of no use to a Wizwngamot court now was it?

The feeling of victory was just oh-so sweet. The Deva higher glanced off to his right and into the darkness of the shadows. The young man had been there through what was most likely the entireity of the conversation, also per his request. No doubt he'd found bemusement in that sick and twisted way of his form it all as well. Not that Robert cared rightly, as long as he had a bonder, and he had conditions, and this...traitor...agreed to those conditions he didn't give a damn. He wouldn't give one once it was done either, after all, whose head did she really hold except her own then?

(Awful posting form Aros, sorry...)

[Sonja Wright]

Sonja let out a harsh laugh at his suggestion, not believing that he was being entirely serious. But when his expression didn't change, Sonja's face dropped, along with her heart and stomach that were now swimming somewhere by her feet.
"You're serious," Sonja pointed out, her body stiffening in fear as she understood the reality of the situation. He actually wanted to do it.

The Unbreakable Vow, Sonja mouthed, not daring to say the words out loud. She swallowed hard, her security wall crumbling to dust around her. She thought she was invincible, that with some good persuasion, she'd get out of this without a scratch. How wrong had she been.

"Who's gonna do it for us?" Sonja asked, her tone returning to timid.

[Aros Orphe]

"That person would be me..." drawled a voice from behind the shadows of the room that they were currently situated in. Aros' grinning face first emerged from the shadows before the rest of his cloaked body emerged as well. He had followed Shaw's orders to stay out of sight simply listen to the girl who wanted out and to provide backup just in case the girl decided to pull anything fancy.

If it were up to Aros, the first sign of such treachery from the girl he would've simply gutted her and tossed her body back in Knockturn. It would've looked like a simple murder, courtesy of the friendly inhabitants of Knockturn. None of this fuss and worry of Unbreakable Vows and diplomacy. Whenever diplomacy failed, Aros stepped in to make sure everything was good and dead.

His dark brown eyes settled upon the blond girl labeled traitor. A wide grin appeared on his face, a grin so large that it would've even unsettled the Chesire Cat,

"Tell me, Miss Wright, do you fear... death? Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare, all your sins punished?"

Aros laughed, the odd noise quite foreign as it became mixed with the music of the nightclub. He looked over to Shaw and gave him the simplest of nods before looking back at the girl,

"I shall be your bonder." he said, now sounding much more professional, "Have the bondees agreed to the other's terms?"

[Robert Shaw]

[iYou're serious?[/i]

Oh the girl's voice was amusing, him, notserious, on a matter such as this? Well there went any notion out the window that she had a fully functioning brain. As Orphe stepped from the shadows, his cold laugh sent chills even down his own spine. The man was not a bonder, nor even truly a henchman. Orphe was a born killer, and no doubt if Robert were to leave now the young woman would end up dead, it wouldn't look very peaceful in the slightest.

"Good evening, Orphe. I thank you for your...services." Robert aknowledged after the man's question. "Terms? Oh yes. Those are quite simple my dear. Keep silent of our organization, of names, of faces, locations, victims, keep silent of everything. Tell but a single soul and death shall be administered." A pause. "Not by me nor anyone else, no it shall be dealt by yourself. You see, it's so much easier this way, you still get your fear of death, and I don't have to lift a finger. You live with the life you choose, andare who you are. You say you've changed, you say you want out? There. Is. No. Out."

His cold eyes searched for reaction, for the overwhelming fear he knew she fighting to keep back. She was proud of being strong, of her ability to not show fear, but he wanted her broken. Broken, afraid and curled up in a corner of her mind. Thie Deva was not something you walked away from unscathed, He would not allow her the satisfaction fo forgetting what she'd done, if she'd truly changed, truly received a heart toward the muggle-borns then she needed to be constantly reminded just which side she'd chosen first.

Alpha and Omega. First, and Last.