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The hair prickled on the back of her neck as she coalesced on the inner side of the portal. Her keen demonic senses told her that someone was here, although the lights were dimmed. Peering around the corner, she saw nothing more than a faint glow coming from the doctor's private office. She knew Maritus favored working in the light, even when his idea of work was less than professional. Her finely attuned hearing picked up the softest clicking sounds. She levitated herself silently so that her footfall would not alert her quarry and cloaked herself in shadowy threads of darkness. As she peered around the corner she was taken completely by surprise at the sight unfolding before her eyes.

Aria Trovatelli was seated at the small computer desk in one corner of the doctor's office. This was his private computer and one that contained all the information concerning activities of members of the Betrothed, as well as all records connected to the Imperium Mind Clinic. She knew Maritus had taken great pains to encrypt and secure all of his data, yet it appeared that Operative Trovatelli had easily broken through his security.

She watched the woman for a few moments before she slowly lowered herself to stand on the floor behind her. Aria was so focused on reading the information in the files that she failed to notice the faint breeze created by the slow beating of the demoness's wings and the muffled thud as she landed directly behind her.

With a soft cough, Syndi alerted the girl to her presence. She took a defensive posture, still cloaked in darkness, just in case the guilty party decided to make a break for it or perhaps even try to eliminate this witness. Aria jumped at the sound and spun to face her accuser.

"A bit late to be working, don't you think?" Syn asked sarcastically.

Aria's face was frozen in a mask of horrified guilt. "I…" she began, then fell silent as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

"You have about ten seconds to explain why you are here and what you are doing going though Doctor Maritus' personal data," Syn snarled.

"Please…I wasn't doing any harm. I am…looking for someone."

"In our organizations personnel files?"

"Yes," Aria said softly. "That is why I came to the Rogue Isles. I need to find her."

Syn's eyes narrowed as she assessed the woman for any signs that she might be lying. Aria squirmed uncomfortably as Syndi looked her up and down. This situation could end up being incredibly fortuitous. She now had Operative Trovatelli backed into a corner, and that gave her an incredible amount of leverage.

"And did you?"

"Not quite yet," Aria admitted. "But I feel I am very close."

"How were you able to access this computer?"

Aria let out a nervous laugh and grinned sheepishly. "I am just good with computers like that."

Syn's eyes narrowed. Perhaps she could use this situation to her own advantage. "You realize that I am obligated to inform the doctor of this security breach," she said ominously, "…unless…"

A wicked smile played on her lips as she locked eyes with the young Arachnos operative.

"Please," Aria began, "you can't do that. Not because of me…"

"Why not?"

"Because he would hurt her," she said quietly, as her head dropped to her chest.

"Her? Who is her?" Syn's voice edged up a notch as frustration began to build with the operative's evasive answers.

"Alexandra."

"Locke? Xandra? Why… why would you care about her? She left this group some time ago."

"I know," Aria explained with a sigh. "I have been searching for her for years. The search led me first to the Rogue Isles. Since I was not considered 'super-powered' in any way, I had no way of really making any in-roads here. So I joined up with Arachnos, knowing they keep an extensive database on just about everyone. I figured eventually it would lead me to Alexandra. And it did," she added, gesturing towards the doctor's computer. "I found she was forced to join this organization by her tormenter." Her voice cracked as she continued, "I just now learned that she escaped, and so far there is no information on her whereabouts. I am THIS close, and now the trail goes cold."

"Why are you interested in this child?"

Aria's voice took on a wistful tone. "When we were young… she was such a beautiful little baby… I used to care for her at the orphanage where we both lived."

"You are from the Children of Ramah?" Syn asked, incredulously.

Aria nodded as she continued. "She was so tiny, so fragile, so delicate... She was the only beautiful thing in our very bleak existence there. I… I … loved her… very much. Then one day she disappeared. I cannot describe everything I felt that day. I was hurt. I was angry. I was confused. I knew that someday I had to find her. I grew up and left the orphanage, and set out to find where she had gone. It was not hard to track her to the Rogue Isles. That part was easy. It was a bit harder to track down the demoness who stole her away. Then I found out about the curse."

"Where did you find all this information?"

"Originally? I found police reports indicating a suspicion that she had been taken to the Rogue Isles from back when she was kidnapped. So, I accessed a database in the Rogue Isles, but was locked out before I could find anything but a list with her name on it. Some kind of project – Destiny - I think is their code name. But I knew she was here." She paused before going on, excitedly, "I came here and quickly joined the organization. After passing a ton of tests, they assigned me to this Bane project that was the first of its kind. Kind of an executive wing who are geared for gathering intelligence, and of course the occasional execution that goes along with covering up our existence." She made a face. "I am not really the executioner type, but I was drafted for my, ahem, information gathering skills. Getting a clearance to access information within the organization was better than I could have dreamed. To build expansive dossiers we must have access to all the knowledge that the organization possesses, except for a few high level files that exist only on the top ranking officials' personal computers and are not accessible across the network."

Syn nodded. "So you have a personal interest in Miss Locke. How do I know you are not really out to harm her?"

"You have to believe me, Syn," Aria begged, looking directly into her eyes. "I love her. I could never hurt her. I have devoted my entire life to finding her."

"What do you intend to do, once you find her?"

"I want to protect her and keep her safe."

Syn smiled. "First, you have to prove your sincerity. I want some information from you. Tell me everything you know about a woman named Megan Kingston. She is an Arachnos Widow, code name Megaira."

Aria turned her back on the succubus and began typing at an amazing pace. Within moments a black window appeared on the screen bearing the familiar Arachnos logo and a login prompt. She typed in her code name and password so fast even the sharp demonic eyes of the succubus could not have interpreted them.

A few moments later, they were reading a detailed file on Meg. Indeed, it appeared that she had killed an Arbiter. An immediate death warrant had been issued, and the organization was now engaged in an all-out manhunt with orders to shoot to kill.

"Do they show her as being affiliated with any other…villains?" Syn asked coyly.

Aria typed in a query and read off the results, "They show she has no real friends, only a few acquaintances with whom she has worked. Just a couple of others in the organization, one Wilhelmina Ashton, and another widow code named Shadow Veil. Neither knows her well enough that they could offer any personal information on Megan. No one seems to know where she lives. The address she gave when she joined the organization was destroyed by a fire in Mercy Island six months ago. They have no current information on her whereabouts."

Syn let out a sigh of relief. "Very well." She thought for a long moment, before she transformed with a whoosh of dark energy into her demonic form. "What do you know about me, Aria."

"I know you are a succubus, bound to servitude to the doctor by the same evil demoness who took Alexandra. I know you are the doctor's second in command in this organization, as well as his personal secretary at the Imperium Mind Clinic, the front for his operations. I also know that you…use your… skills, to… umm…recruit talent for him."

Syn's eyebrows arched a notch. "Oh really? And you learned that from Arachnos?"

"No," Aria confessed sheepishly as she opened a folder on the doctor's computer. With a few clicks, she had the contents displayed as little icons - miniature still photos of what appeared to be security video files. Most of them showed the lovely succubus in various states of undress and positions with a host of different applicants. One file showed Syn assisting the doctor himself.

"That perverted son of a…" Syn hissed.

"You did not know he had cameras in the lounge area?"

Syn's cheeks burned red. "I am a succubus. I have some powers but I am not all knowing."

Aria smiled gently. "To be honest, most of these are pretty… hot."

"You actually WATCHED them?" Syn cried.

Aria grinned and nodded. "I couldn't help myself."

"So the doctor has a secret porn collection, and I appear to his star performer," Syn mused, noting one of the videos involved herself and a certain assassin that had formerly worked for the organization. "Can you… eliminate one of those?"

"Don't you think he would notice it missing?" Aria countered. "Let me do this instead." With a few nimble taps she was on a website written in some foreign language, downloading a small program. "Which ones do you want destroyed?"

Syn pointed to the one showing a naked Marcus, reclining on the couch with only her dark hair providing him modesty. The scene elicited some fantastic memories for her. He was one of the few that she had actually enjoyed. A twinge of guilt washed over her for having such thoughts of the man who was now engaged to the niece of her very good friend.

With a few clicks, the little program opened the video and began to process it. Syn watched in awe, trying to distract her thoughts from following the action they were seeing to avoid any more arousing emotions. She was failing miserably as she felt her chest begin to rise and fall in rhythm with the action on the monitor. She noted that Aria too was becoming quite aroused, and their proximity caused the succubus to feed on that erotic energy. Both women were in a state of sexual frenzy by the time the seductive video had run its course. Aria closed the program, and reopened it. Suddenly the images were grainy and blurred beyond recognition, marred by random boxes of pixelation.

"Oops! File corruption!" Aria giggled as she quickly erased all traces of her computer activity from the machine and powered it off.

Syn put her hands on the girl's shoulders, absentmindedly kneading her soft flesh. The tank top she wore slide easily off her shoulders as the succubus caressed her soft skin. Aria turned in the chair and raised her arms to encircle Syndi's waist. "I have never been with a succubus before," she said, breathily, "but I hear it is amazing."

Without another word, Syn took her hand. Aria followed her to the portal, then outside and to her small but attractive apartment.

The next morning, Aria rolled over to find Syn gone. Sitting upright among the mountain of fluffy pillows, she looked around the room. She slid to the edge of the bed and had just dropped her feet over the edge when Syndi appeared bearing a tray. "Breakfast," she smiled.

"Does this mean you are not going to tell the doctor about my snooping?" Aria asked playfully.

Syn shook her head. "Aria, I need to know I can trust you. Mind if I take a look around inside," she asked, placing a delicate hand on the girl's head.

"I thought you did that last night?" Aria teased.

"That was pleasure. This is… work," Syn stated flatly.

Aria nodded her consent and opened her mind to the succubus.

"I have to be honest with you," Syn said, some moments later. "I know where Xandra is."

Aria thought her heart had stopped in her chest. She choked for a brief moment before she asked in a gasp, "Where?"

"Remember me asking you about Megan Kingston?" Aria nodded. "When Xandra…escaped…from our organization, Megan took her in. The both live somewhere very secluded with absolutely no records. I fear Megan being compromised within Arachnos may endanger both of them by virtue of the fact that Xandra is with her. I did not know if Arachnos had determined that the two of them were connected. But I want to protect both of them."

"You want to protect a woman who killed AN ARBITER?" Aria said, a little more forcefully than she had intended to.

"She did not. She tells me that she did not, and I believe her. I have known Megan for a while now. If she had offed him, she would tell me. She has been set up by someone within Arachnos. While I try to unravel who and why, I need help in keeping both Megan and Xandra off the Arachnos radar."

Aria grimaced. If she got involved, and could be tied to helping Megan escape Lord Recluse's twisted version of justice, she would be executed as well. As would the succubus and anyone else harboring someone who was suspected of killing an Arbiter. She swallowed hard.

"You realize if they connect us to her, we will be in the same boat she is in?"

Syn nodded gravely. "We need to find out what is going on here. Who framed her, and why?"

"You have a computer?" Aria queried. Syn nodded and pointed her towards a sleek laptop on a desk in the corner of the bedroom. Aria's visage set in a grim mask of determination as she accessed a proxy, then created a virtual network connection with an Arachnos server.

Instead of entering her normal code name and password, she decided to hack her way past the log in protocols. No one really needed to know she was looking at this particular information. The fewer connections they could make between the raven-haired Operative and the Widow, the better.

Opening a small black window, she quickly circumvented Arachnos security protocols, and began electronically rifling through the files. "This may take some time," she murmured quietly. "I don't even know where to begin looking. They have the warrant listed in her file. It does not give me a whole lot of detail. Do you know who she might have been working for when this incident occurred, err, supposedly occurred?"

Syndi shook her head. She was in her human form this morning, and her dark brunette locks fell forward into her face as she pulled her cell phone off its charger on her dresser. She smiled at her foresight in buying these prepaid airtime phones for herself, Xandra and Megan. Of course they were more expensive than a traditional phone with a monthly bill, but no one could trace these phones or their numbers to a particular person. That little detail was about to become infinitely more important now.

Meg answered the phone sounding like she'd been asleep. "Megan, I need some information. Can you tell me who you were working for when all this went down?"

Aria heard the succubus murmur "Mmmhmm" a few times before saying "The good news is they don't seem to have any connection between you and Xandra… Yes, she can go back to school... No, I don't believe she is in any danger. Just make sure she does not mention you or any other personal details that someone might use to connect the dots…Sure. Anytime, honey… I will stop by later. Bye."

Turning to Aria, she spoke softly, "She was working for Seer Pia Marino, who is based in Mercy Island. She was sent to a base there to assist a co-conspirator, a member of your Spider faction, who supposedly had gotten himself into some trouble. When she arrived, she discovered that the nameless body she'd been asked to dispose of was in fact an Arbiter. Oddly enough, she had been slashed up by someone whose training and technique was almost identical to Meg's. The Huntsman assured her they had found someone to pin this death on. She found out that when he referred to this 'someone', he meant her."

"How does she know that there is a termination warrant on her?" Aria asked.

"Evidently this Seer told her."

Aria turned back to the computer screen and began digging. "Indeed, she is listed in the Arbiters database as marked for termination for the murder of the Arbiter."

Syn shook her head. "What can we do?"

Aria gave her a pained look. "I am afraid there is not much we can do, from here. All of the Arbiter's information is stored in multiple offline backups to prevent any tampering, including printed copies. Even if I could change this file, it would only serve to flag a discrepancy and make her look even more guilty as they would instantly know someone was covering her tracks."

Syn swore under her breath. "Well, at least we know where she stands." Her cell phone chirped discreetly. Answering it, she was surprised to hear Meg's voice on the other end of the line.

"Syn, I called Pia, I mean, Seer Marino. She told me that the two men we thought were our allies have betrayed us. She asked me to go see Ghost Widow herself and warn her. I am not sure I can do this."

Syn hesitated for a moment before putting the phone in speaker mode. "What good does she think going to see Ghost Widow will do? Won't that be like turning yourself in? Are you sure you can trust her?"

"Well… it is a long story… but we have been in this whole mess together. Unfortunately, she is in just as much trouble as I am if we cannot clear my name. I have no other choice but to trust her."

Aria began typing furiously. A moment later, she looked up at Syn. "She is right, you know. It appears that this Huntsman has already sworn out a statement implicating her in the murder of Arbiter Cross. They have his word, and they have surveillance video of a Widow matching her description breaking in to the base and taking the body."

Megan listened to this strange voice for a moment before asking, "How do I know this is not yet another trap?"

Aria continued to type as Syn paced behind her. "We have no way of knowing that. There is only one way to find out. I will take you to speak to Ghost Widow."

Aria gasped out loud. "You would be putting your own life on the line if you do that. If Ghost Widow refuses to believe you and has Megan arrested, you will be taken as a conspirator."

"That is a chance I will have to take," Syn said flatly. "Meg, are you ready to go now?"

Megan's voice was shaking as she told Syn, "I have to make Xandra some breakfast, take a shower, and put on my uniform. Give me about an hour?"

"Perhaps it would be a good idea to go now..." Aria began, "I see from the surveillance data that the Widow is in her tower this morning. Although systems are reporting an unusually high amount of foot traffic near the entrance…you don't think…"

"That perhaps this traitorous Huntsman is actually using Megan and Seer Marino to get to Ghost Widow?" Syn asked. "Actually that type of backstabbing sounds very typical of Arachnos."

"I want to come with you," Aria volunteered.

"No!" Syn said emphatically. "We cannot afford to compromise your clearances by revealing our affiliation. You have a reputation to protect. You are far more useful with that clearance than without. I cannot let you jeopardize it."

Aria opened her mouth as if to protest but after a moment's thought she realized that the little succubus was right.

"Meg, I will be over in an hour. Stay put and do not leave the house until I am there, okay?" Syn instructed her. Megan acknowledged and bid her goodbye.

Syndi turned to the raven-haired Operative and put her hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry. I have a feeling this will all work out."

Aria gave her a look drawn with worry. "I wish I could be so confident. I feel like we are jumping off a cliff, here."

Syn shook her head as she ran her nimble fingers over the girl's satin flesh. "That is not a problem when one can fly, you know." She said with a wicked smile. "Come, Aria, we have an hour to kill."

She leaned in to press her mouth over the still unformed protest that was struggling to escape the young Arachnos soldier's full lips. As their mouths melded into one writhing surge of passion, she wrapped her arm around Aria's trim waist and guided her to the bed without ever breaking that heated contact of their hungry mouths.

Aria returned the kiss with fervent passion. She could feel her apprehension melting away in the face of the intense flames of their arousal.