OOC: Takes place during the big AU plot and totally backdated to then.

The final showdown was something to behold, but in all the motion and movement, two of the women became separated from the rest, the sound of heavy boots on the ground after them as they found a corner to hide in.

Neither Jennifer or Kris were particularly physically strong, and Jennifer's mind was still trying to recover from having used her powers, so the trembles were wracking her body and she needed as much support as any injured person.

"Stop!" Tobias shouted, his weapon drawn and raised as he chased them, shooting two electric bullets after the women. Against his other leg rested his pistol that fired brass stakes with a silver tip, effective on the human and were enemies they had. He flicked his wrist to recharge his gun and pulled the other. "Submit and be purged or I will shoot!"

He was one of the best marksmen in this unit. Not the best, but one of them.

( Run! )

( Suffering )

The park was hot, the sun bearing down in the sky, and Connor had a bottle of water against the heat, lifting the hair away from the back of his neck so he could place the object there. A watch check said it was one fifteen. He'd spoken to Kris a couple of hours ago, asked if she wanted to hang out a little. The Slayer had sounded okay over the phone, at least to his ears, but he doubted she was what could be described as 'better'.

Still, he was going to keep it casual. Not like he wanted to interfere in anything, he just wanted to check on how she was. He liked to think that the two of them were friends, and friends looked after each other in whatever way they could.

The Destroyer took the cap off of the bottle, drank some of the cold contents. Just making a quick check-in, that was all he was doing.

( Relating )

The fugitive Kris had been walking the back alleys and the shadows of this Chicago for the last few hours, trying to go as far as she could without losing her way back.

She was beginning to think she'd never find anything when the sounds of a scuffle stopped her dead in her tracks. Immediately she hugged the wall and edged along it, peering around the corner to watch from a safe distance. Kris wasn't special, not like Francess, or strong, like the vampires, but she was good at being sneaky.

It was one of the talents that had at times served their cause well, even if their cause was mostly centered around running for their lives a lot of the time.

( Fearful )

****

( Email to Hayden, Rhiannon, Toby, William, Izzy, Connor, Whistler, Logan, Sonya, Faith, Juliet )

Breathing, it should be the easiest thing in the world, but when caught up in the throes of an unpleasant dream it's the hardest thing imaginable. It's like your drowning and because you're lost in the subconscious trap of your own mind there's no escape. I know of all things I should be sleeping and recovering my strength and yet I'm not, I'm wide awake and watchful. Suppose that comes from having spent too many nights with one eye open, expecting a set of fangs in my neck.

Freedom, it's funny how much is based on... having very basic human rights such as being able to control what you do, where you go and what you say. I don't think I ever realised how fragile something like that is, all it takes is one explosive collar and suddenly you no longer have any control and the worst thing of all is that your life rests in the hands of cruel bitch.

Even if she did a number on me whilst she had her claws in me, the whole cruel to me one minute only to soothe the pain away a few seconds later. There's a word for that, somewhere, but I can't think of it this early in the morning.

I thought escaping her would be the hard part, but I was wrong. The hardest bit is still yet to come: working out what to do with my life. Those people... they tore my life apart, shredded it like it meant nothing, and I'm not sure how to handle that. It's so surreal, how much... changed and how much stayed the same, it's disconcerting how much the world at large doesn't miss you and how my apartment was seemingly frozen in time.

( Wayward Thoughts )

Returning to the place where she'd spent weeks of imposed exile was probably not the best idea in the world, but this time she had Hayden and she had a plan. Just taking the collar off wouldn't be enough to satisfy Kris. She had to give that bitch of a vampire a taste of her own medicine, she deserved it.

She'd used a payphone to call Katherine, to let the vampire know she was "running late" because she was overdue and Kris didn't want her triggering the collar. Kris blamed Bethany. It wasn't like she cared about whatever consequences came to light for that. Bethany wasn't a good person.

Getting in wasn't really a problem considering Kris knew how. Planting the collar took a little bit more thought. She was oh so tempted to break the lock and put it in with the Slayer skull, but something in her made her stop, a leftover sense of... loyalty, or what-the-fuck-ever.

Kris finally found somewhere, a place Katherine would never even think of looking and left it there, waiting for the button to be pressed. God, Kris hoped she pressed the button, she really did.

( Simple Things )

( Never Give Up )

( Do Me A Favour... )

"Y'know, you're really not so bad when you let yourself loosen up about this..."

Kris Michael's captivity had involved harsh discipline, it was true. This evening, though, had been another one of Katherine's attempts to see if carrot might work better than stick. They were locked in without the possibility for escape, but that was no barrier to the vampiress ordering in the girl's choice of food and alcohol. A girl's night in, as it were. Or at least, as close to being one as possible, considering the explosive collar now in constant residence around the Slayer's neck. A permanent enough fixture, though, to almost be forgotten about. So long as she did nothing stupid, it was in no danger of being set off.

So, there was Katherine, sitting on the couch, booted feet resting by heels on the coffee table strewn with whatever Kris had requested, beer can in hand and, to all intents and purposes, acting very unlady-like. In other words, being every bit the Katherine she known for. Over by one side, a large, flat-screened television played one of several films the pair had swiped on their latest criminal excursion.

"That jacket suits you y'know," the vampiress complimented with sincerity. "Told ya' it would."

( A Verbal Exchange )

( About Those Watcher Types )

Kris was a prisoner, this much she was aware of, but just because she was subject to Katherine's whims she wasn't about to roll over and make any of this enforced isolation easy on the vampire.

She hadn't done as she was told, even under threat of the collar being detonated right there and then if she didn't do as she was told, thankfully it hadn't come to that. Kris might have been a lot of things, but ready to die was not one of them.

The vampire hadn't been pleased and hadn't been shy about showing it, doing that thing where she yanked on Kris' hair and bared fangs. That had come to a head in the most of bizarre ways, a forced kiss, one that had ended with Kris biting down really damn hard on Katherine's lower lip until the kiss was finally wrenched away, a welt rapidly rising along the abused flesh.

The bitch deserved it.

( All Consuming )

It had all started out well enough, but had quickly disintegrated into mindless bloody violence. They hadn't been ready for a Slayer, having no idea that the brunette that had slipped past their wards and guards was a Slayer, one of the many that now littered the Chicago streets.

She'd started it, delivering a bone crunching punch to a man's nose and following it with a deliberate breaking of his wrist. After that it had been a complete free-for-all, men trying to grapple and take her down. It didn't get them very far, if anything it just pissed Kris off more, the way in which they parried blows and struck back with annoying punches that barely left marks.

The Slayer believed that if you were going to hit somebody then you'd better make it count, there would be no second chances, not in the heat of battle.

She felt the collar's weight like a restrictive band, pushing against the tendons along her neck and catching vocal chords as they let out small grunts as one man threw a punch to her stomach. The small earpiece in her ear was lit up, feeding back the scuffle with crystal clear sound and audio, Katherine paid for the best after all. The fight continued until Kris yanked a man's head back and turned him until he went face first into a wall, slumping to the ground a few moments later.

( Getting The Job Done )

( All Time Low )

( Phone Home )

It was yet another trust exercise and Kris was tiring of them, knowing she couldn't make a run for it because with one flick of Katherine's finger and she was as good as gone. She'd been dragged from the darkness by her hair and forced to her feet, not resisting the urge to headbutt the vampire. Not that it did her any good, she just got a slap in return.

Apparently Katherine had a job with a big payoff, but she needed the money first before she wasted her time in off'ing the people in question.

The vampire was going to wait outside and send Kris in to collect, tapping the girl's collar with a malicious smile before disappearing into the darkness. How she thought she could keep an eye on Kris when she wasn't in the same place was truly beyond the Slayer, but she supposed the bitch had her way.

She pushed open the door to the club and stepped into the dark, grimacing faintly at a sudden strobe light lit up a stage and a slithering dancer wrapped around a pole. Kris was briefly transfixed before she dragged her eyes away, finding her way through the crowd of men, ignoring the slurred comments about giving her a good time.

( Keeping Bad Company )

( Drink Up, You Need It )

Everything hurts.

She can barely breathe and she knows it's her own fault, for having refused to say those words. Her shin still aches and her neck's beginning to feel the strain of that collar, a couple nervous swallows as she recalls what is threaded into the metal.

It's dark, she can see the walls around her and a sliver of light coming from beneath the door which is far beyond the reach of her chains. She knows this because she's tried to reach it before.

The bitch knew exactly what she was doing with that scorpion, it wasn't poisonous to kill, but just poisonous enough to hurt like a bitch. Kris swallows, immediately grimacing as the entire back of her throat feels like it's on fire. The double vision makes four of everything and the thundering sound of her heartbeat in her ears seems to drown everything else out.

( Alone In The Dark )

"Not bad... I know it's new, but you'll adjust."

Katherine had often wondered what it would be like to have a Slayer of her very own. It had been a little while since she last turned someone and trained them up. The Slayer factor was bound to make things different, but like any other pet, Kris would learn. The elder vampiress was lounging back in a chair, counting through dollar bills. Money was still a necessary commodity in the supernatural underworld. You could break in a shop and steal whatever you fancied, but cash hired people to do things and certain products were never on display in windows; they had to be supplied and delivered to secure locations. That meant purchasing power.

Tonight had been more of a test-run, than anything else. Small-scale. Usually, Katherine did not trouble herself with turf wars, but it seemed like an ideal place to teach her newest dove how to grow wings and fly. The body count was as expected and the street gang was no more. Something Katherine could have handled on her own? Without doubt. She needed some flesh and bone for Kris to deal with, though. Her first under Katherine's guiding eye.

The larger, more vicious stuff, was for later.

( Owned )

( Pride Cometh Before A Fall )

Kris was stubborn and she absolutely refused to stand idly by whilst the neighbourhood tried to walk all over her for reasons she couldn't even begin to fathom. Nobody had enough balls to tell her to her face what she'd done wrong so clearly she had to find out for herself. Which she had done by crashing some sort of goodbye dinner for a guy who worked in the grocery store. If they wouldn't come to her then she would go to them.

She knew it wasn't the most tactful approach, but screw tactful, she wanted answers.

"So," she began as she regarded the crowd of faces in front of her. "Is nobody going to tell me why I'm being victimised in my own neighbourhood?" She tapped her fingers against her biceps and stepped closer, finding each and every face on purpose and looking at them intently. "Come on, you know something, I know you do. I want to know what I did that was so wrong that you took it upon yourselves to turn on me?"

Kris made sure to keep her back to the door so if for any reason this turned ugly she could get out and away, but she wasn't leaving without answers.

( Torches And Pitchforks )

( Secrets )

[NPC Mob was written by Willow]

The gym was officially closed for renovation and Kris was hoping against hope that she would have the client base to bring it back once all the damage had been repaired. The insurance had covered it all, thankfully. She just couldn't put how disheartening it was to see your hard work destroyed with so much abandon into words, couldn't express the way she was feeling without putting her fist through something and it sucked.

She was tired and feeling every one of the hours she'd spent cleaning up the gym, but there was still more work to be done. She'd called Connor and arranged a meeting in the park, the need for open space was currently overwhelming. She needed to talk to him, tell him the God's honest truth and give him notice of her poor financial state. This gym was her living but she knew it went a long way to Connor's as well, he needed to know, it was only fair.

Kris knew the money from Toby had been more generous, but she'd spent most of it on buying the building then put the rest into the college fund for Rosa. She wasn't touching it, she wasn't about to stoop to her father's level to get her through. Not now and not ever.

It was warm out but Kris had a jacket on, she was feeling cold for some unexplainable reason. It had to be stress. She kicked up her heels and rested the soles of her boots against the edge of the bench she was sat on before she merely closed her eyes, tipping her face into the sun.

( Never Done This Before )

( Baby Steps )

After she'd spent the better part of her evening answering questions and ignoring the looks from the neighbourhood Kris had finally retired into the mess that was now her gym, thankful for the fact she could start cleaning up as the police had taken their 'prints'. She had very little faith that anything conclusive would come of this whole investigation, she'd never had much luck with the authority before.

She breathed out slowly as she took a long look around herself, trying to figure out where in the hell to begin first. Kris shrugged out of her jacket and tossed it over the nearby counter, figuring the broken glass was as good a place as any to start.

It was amazing how quickly time flew when you were picking up the pieces of your life.

It was gone 8 in the morning by the time Kris had put some semblance of order back into the gym itself. She could see the floor, which was a good start. Her walls would need a repaint given the fact somebody had gone to town with a can of black spray paint in some indecipherable language which she was thought was English, but she was sure she would need some kind of PhD to read it.

( Slipped Her Notice )

( A Few Ugly Truths )

( Make Do )

Kris was pissed to say the least.

She'd been ready to head out to Rhiannon and Purity's when she'd received a call from the police telling her that her gym had been in their exact words 'broken into'.She had no idea of the damage that had been done until she arrived on scene and she'd taken it in with her own two eyes.

The windows were broken and the interior was even worse, it looked like somebody had gone mad with some sort of chainsaw. God, she didn't even want to think about how much it would cost to replace a lot of the equipment, but hopefully her insurance might cover a lot of it.

( Doesn't Matter )

On Friday evening, the weather in Chicago was nice enough to open the windows. The third floor apartment where Rhiannon and Purity lived on Oakwood Avenue was spotless, for a change. They propped open the doors and music filtered down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, which prompted the only other tenant -- Donald the awkward software guy -- to leave and visit a relative for the night.

Inside 3C, the furniture was old but comfortable, the floor carpeted, and the walls painted in a medley of colors. The air smelled richly of incense. The couch and armchair had been dragged closer to the television, where Purity hooked up a favorite gaming system. On the back half of the living room, there were a card table and chairs, and a few well-used sets of playing cards and poker chips waiting.

The kitchen counter was divided into sections for drinks and snacks. There were a couple of barstools bought from a garage sale.

Most of the evidence of their extracurriculars (like stakes and magical supplies) had been put in their bedrooms in the back of the apartment.

[Thread: Open to Purity, Avery, Sonya, Joseph, Kris, Connor, Juliet and Hayden]