LONDON CALLING

Ruby followed Angus and Robert she pushed past the large stone door that had opened and chuckled as he mentioned looking behind the curtain and finding the illusionist's tricks. " well, its always good to find out how things work, in this case." she said and followed Angus into the cold semi dark cell. Walking to a wall she felt the cold dampness of it against her hand then moved to kneel next to Angus she looked at the fabric he'd handed to her and nodded. " yeah , and look there, I bet that some of hers or Marcus's blood too, they definaly been kept here." she said pointing to the shackles where on one was stained a light red. It was now she saw a small gold button tucked under some leaves. moving she picked it up. " is this from marcus jacket?" she asked placing it in his hand as she looked round more." drag marks too."

Jessie stood out side the cell as the others gathered looking in. " I think and hope thats all the proof thats needed to finish this..." he didn't have the word to call Gelding anything that had not already been said. " Im glad Kaden isn't here to see this." he said in almost a whisper.

Angus took the button Ruby had found and examined it slowly.

"No, I don't think so," Angus said. "His suit jacket buttons are almost always the color of the jacket...But--on second thought, he does have a couple of waistcoats that have smaller brass button. It could be from that. I admit, I really was not paying attention to what she was wearing because she was all wrapped up in his suit jacket, and now I see why. It's bloody freezing in here."

Angus was getting a picture of what surely had happened to them, even without Marcus's statement he was seeing more than enough.

"You know Robert and Brian have a right to see this, and they're going to want to. Let's see if we can find the next bit if we're finished here. I presume there must be a corridor before we get to the guard room or the torture chamber. Let's see if we can find it. I have a feeling there is more ugliness to see."

Angus said nothing of his thoughts to Ruby or Jessie but he had seen the results of the heartache Khaat had suffered at Rob's hands, the torture that Neo's had subjected her to, and, worse yet, the torture that James had subjected her to. He couldn't help but wonder how much more she could possibly take. Even just this was starting to make him wonder how she had her sanity left at all. This bothered him immensely.

"They're family, you know," he said quietly as he moved on, looking for the next hidden doorway. "You're supposed to be able to protect your family."

Ruby looked at Angus and nodded " yeah looking at it now its a bit small for a jacket button." she said as they stood up. She listened to him talk and nodded " agreed, I agree this can't be all of it from hos Khaat looked." she moved with him and heard his words.

" yeah I know how you feel, I felt it when Jessie was hurt that feeling of uslessness, not being able to do anything, but you can't prevent them being hurt, Robert and Khaat are high priority people some one will always want to hurt them, all we..you can do is be there for them threw it and help them to heal" she said as her hand hit a small knob sticking out of the wall.

" oh what do we have here?" she said looking around where it ws. Turning it she heard a soft click and another door opened revealing a long tourch lit corridor. " what do you think, shall we?" she said smiling. " could be what we're looking for" she loked abck at him

"You're right, of course. Thank you," Angus said. "They don't ask for more really, just our friendship. Let's keep moving. This is not the time or place for it to get to me." He watched her find the next door. "Oh, well done. Good job. Yes, let's keep going forward."

They went through the next hallway without incident, but Angus couldn't help but wonder what terror was going through Khaat's and Marcus's minds as they were dragged down this hallway. He saw more bloodstains on the floor, and he wondered whose blood it was. Was it Khaat's? Marcus's? Some other poor soul who was rotting in the other cell block that they had seen last night? He began to think that this could not possibly be just Gelding's work.

"This isn't right, you know," he said, his mind racing. "This isn't his style. I think this belongs to some other agent of his. I think he had to give someone a free hand to handle the dirty work because I've never known of Gelding, himself, to want to get his hands dirty. Nor have I ever known of him to be this bloodthirsty. I don't know who designed or implemented this but I really don't think all of this is his brainchild. Gelding is a spoiled brat of privilege that doesn't have it in him to actually be hands on in something of this scale. It just doesn't fit."

They came to two doors. One on the left and one on the right. He'd seen these on the map.

"The door on the left should be the guard room," Angus said. "Let's go there first." He found the door locked, but he picked it easily and opened it.

It was full of all sorts of wizarding technology. Magical speakers and projectors, notebooks of enchantments and spells--and several closets. He opened one and found a heaping laundry bin of dirty children's clothing, shoes, blankets and stuffed toys. Now his blood boiled. He knew what this was.

"This is the evidence of his 'empire'," Angus was filled with rage. "This is what they were wearing when they were taken. He says he makes them 'more marketable' before he moves them on. Robert is going to want to show this to the authorities, for certain." He couldn't look at it for another moment, and he opened the next closet door. It was full of shelf upon shelf of glass balls. He thought, at first, they were prophesy balls. He carefully picked one up and saw what it was. Recorded evidence of kidnappings, tortures, and more.

"Find me a trunk, a valise, anything!" he said. "We're taking every one of these. We need to use a packing spell to make sure they aren't broken. Help me gather them up--quickly!"

Ruby walked with Angus and saw the look on his face. " hey stop over thinking everything, shes safe, yes she went threw this but she came out of it, we will find and kick the daddybags out of whom ever designed and operated this place" she said taking his hand in her own for a moment.Seeing the two doors she nodded as they entered. looking around she saw a lot of things familier. she walked over to a moniter and saw a note book infront of it " this is dates and times" she said then heard the clatter of things falling, turning she gasped at what she saw " now I raly want to tear him apart." she said walking over to where Angus stood, her hand brushed his shoulder as she looked down at the small clothing before her. As he opened the second locker she stood with her mouth open but quickly composed her self. Glancing around she saw a carpet bag.

"okay we can use this, I'll ench...drat we can't use magic here, or can we?" she said not quite sure if the gard room was enchanted so they could use magic. She took out her wand and cast Diminuendo that made the balls shrink so they would all fit in the bag. She smiled seeing she could use magic. " I guessed they wouldn't want their guards going without magic, how could they control their prisoners."

"You're right, of course," he told her. "Log books? We'll take those too. I'll shrink them and put them in my pocket when we're done with these memory balls." They packed the memory balls, he cast a charm on them to make them unbreakable--just in case. Then he went over to the desk and found the log books and shrank them to teeny weeny and chucked them in his pocket.

He went to the one closet he hadn't opened and he found it was some sort of a cabinet of bottles of things. Looking closer, he found it was a massive array of muggle medications and things. Before he thought, he hit his medallion. Robert was going to want to see this, and he needed to see it in order to be able to have any idea what she had been given. And then he thought about it. Robert wasn't going to be able to just apparate himself to them, not in here, not unless he had found a staff corridor of some sort.

"Well, I'm an idgit,' he sighed. "He can't just poof himself here, now, can he? We'll have to give him a bit. Let's leave this muggle crap for him, and...wait. What's this?" He saw some sheets of paper rolled up in scroll fashion. He took them out and saw they were blueprints of this house of horrors. Every level, every switch, every trip wire, every obstacle, every room and corridor. "Well, look what we have here. This is worth its weight in gold, I think. Floorplans of this sorry place. And look at the detail on it. We didn't see half of it last night by the looks of it. We'll have to make sure there are no kids here."

On impulse, he burst out of the guard room and hurried to the other room, finding it to be unlocked. he opened the door and was met with the most horrendous thing he had ever seen in his life--the torture chamber. Everywhere he looked he saw bits of torn clothing, blood stains, and all manner of evidence of foulness not entirely unlike the cells they had found last night, and in his mind, all he could see was Khaat's and Marcus's suffering flashing before his eyes. How many others had suffered here? Died here? Were they all adults? How would he have reacted if it had been him here instead of Khaat or Marcus? Would he have handled it as well if he were in Robert's shoes, if it were his child instead? It made his head spin for a moment, something that just never had happened to him before on a mission.

No wonder Robert hadn't told them what Marcus had confided in him. For a brief moment, his stomach churned, and he thought perhaps he might be sick. And then, he remembered some of the coaching Edward had given him when, as a sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts, Edward was teaching him how to survive a werewolf attack and teaching him how to cope with savagery. He could remember Edward's coaching in his head, and he managed to use it to breathe and settle himself.

"Don't come in here!" he shouted to Ruby. "This isn't fit for your eyes. Wait there for Robert. I'll be back in a just a moment." He made himself take a brief walk around the room, and there, on a table, he found Marcus's and Khaats' wands--both snapped in half. He picked them up, took a breath for resolve, and then went back to the guard room.

"It's a lot like what we saw last night, but this wasn't staged. This is real. And look what I found. I found their wands," he said, holding out the broken pieces to show her.

Ruby moved to his side and looked at the plans " gold indeed, this should help us manover around this hell hole" she watched him turn his medallion then paused before leving the room. Ruby continued to search for anything useful as the bag filled with the balls, now unbreakable balls. shrinking it slightly she picked it up and was about to walk out when she heard Angus call for her to stay put. She stopped and waited for his return, seeing the look on his face she knew it had been something bad he'd seen, Then he showed her two broken wands.

Placing her hand over his as he held them she spoke softly "They can be repaired." she told him taking her wand she cast Reparo to mend them. she then heard foot steps outside the room. "That could be Robert." she told him her hand now curled around his as she looked at him. " don't think about the past or what could have been, look to now and the future." she told him " and right now we're looking for a git of a man to kick the daddy bags out of" she smirked at him. " besides you still owe me a cinnimon swirl bun."

"Gabe will have to look at their cores to make sure the cores and their magic is still intact and isn't wonky. A broken wand can continue to do all sorts of wonky things. Think of Michael's dogs. His whole house is like that--from wonky magic. It's weird even by wizard standards." He was about to reply to her encouragement that really did mean a lot to him when he heard Robert and Brian shouting, and they seemed to think he and Ruby were in danger.

"We're here!" Angus shouted. "We're alright. You need to see this." A moment later, Robert and Brian and Minister Sardou came in.

"At last!" Robert said, realizing at once they had found the nerve center to this horrendous place. "Oh, well done! Well done, both of you! Capital. Did you find anything useful?"

"Much," Angus said. "We found logs and records of what happened here. We packed them to remove from here. And this." He handed Robert the wands.
"They were broken in half when we found them. Ruby used a Reparo to mend the shafts, but obviously Gabe will need to see if they can be used again."

"Thanks, Ruby," Brian said. "That little wand means a lot to her. She'll be glad to get it back." He followed Robert through the room, needing to see things for himself.

"Thank you," Robert said, taking them and looking at them for a moment before pocketing them. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Much. Look here." He showed him the cabinet of children's clothing and blankets and toys. Robert looked at it and then looked at Minister Sardou.

"Do you believe me yet?" he asked her.

"I never doubted you," she said, her gaze frozen on the big laundry bin full of evidence.

"But you didn't help me to stop him," Robert said, silently wishing he felt like he could just shake her until her brain rattled.

"Robert," Angus said, "there's more. We found the muggle drugs--here." He motioned to the medical locker, and Robert went there quickly and searched the contents carefully.

"I want these, Daphne," he told her, not asking, just telling her what he wants."

"I'll give you a list," she replied.

"I didn't stutter," he said calmly. "I want these, not a list."

"It's evidence!" she said.

"You have acres of it! I want these to treat my daughter and her guard. I"m not asking, I'm telling you."

"And I need them too!" she said.

"Robert, I may have something equally as helpful," Angus said. Then he looked at Minister Sardou. "You stay here," he told her forcefully. He was almost surprised at the sound of the force in his own voice. He hadn't asked either. She looked at him with wide eyes, not accustomed to being spoken to in that tone. Robert gestured at her to wait where she was, and he looked at Ruby as a silent instruction to try to stall her if she moved. Then he and Brian followed Angus, and they went next door.

"The cells are back behind us, down the hallway on the other side of the guard room. We saw where they were held, and we have the hard evidence of it."

"Give me a moment," Robert said quietly, walking the room, taking it all in. This was not the first of these rooms Khaat had ever been to, but he certainly hoped it was the last. Robert, like Angus, were getting the clear picture of the unstated facts.

"Daphne," he shouted. "Come see what my daughter and her guard were put through because you denied me help over and over. See it for yourself!" Angus went back to the doorway, feeling that Ruby would certainly come now, and he wanted to make sure he was there for her in case she needed a little support coping with it.

"He's mine, Robert," Brian was struggling to remain composed.

"Breathe," Robert said quietly, having to take his own advice. He was as livid as Brian was.

Ruby let Robert and Minister Sardou walk in to see the clothing. at Roberts reaction even she wouldn't want to question him. She let Angus show him everything they had found but when Minister Sardou questioned Robert she shook her head "Idiote " she said softly it was now she heard Angus tell him of the other thing they had found. She looked at him and staid in her spot not moving, she rembered what he'd said about she should not se it.

When they left Minister Sardou and her alone she sighed hoping they would get the drugs so they could help Khaat and Marcus. Hearing Robert call out sher followed Minister Sardou to the room next door. Standing in the doorway she froze at the horriffic site in front of her. Slowly her hand went to her mouth covering it as she looked around "dear gods, this is...I." she moved to Angus and taking his hand in her own she took a shaky breath in, turning to look at him she silently knew this was where the damage to Khaat and Marcus had been done. "This is why you didn't want me following earlier ." she said keeping her back to the scene but unable to stop a stray tear rol down her cheek. What did amuse her was she thought she heard Minister Sardou throw up in a courner.

"Yes," Angus said softly to Ruby. "That's exactly what this is, and, unfortunately, this one isn't illusion." He saw Daphne Sardou get sick, and he didn't feel sorry for her. Robert was about to start to argue about what pieces of evidence he wanted to take with him, and Angus motioned to him, seeing Sardou still trying to get herself together.

"What?" Robert was highly impatient.

"Let her have it. We have more," he said softly, pointing the bag he had. "You might not need it." Robert looked at him questioningly, and Angus nodded and handed him the rolled up floorplans. Robert opened them and got wide eyed.

"Oh, well done indeed,' Robert said. "I think we can take it from here. You two have done brilliantly, but I think you've seen and put up with enough. Why don't we get the two of you out of here, and you can take a break before going home. Take a couple hours off and go for a walk or go for a coffee or something."

Angus hated to leave the team, but on the other hand, he had had enough. and he was feeling that Ruby had too.

"What do you think? Should we stay a bit longer, or are you ready to leave the rest of it to them?" he asked her.