Sawyer twisted her hands as Elijah sank onto the couch in the living room. She was sitting on the kitchen counter, just watching and waiting. It had been an hour since they had gotten Vincent’s call. An hour they had spent in silence, needing to come to terms with what they had been told.

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Elijah groaned, finally breaking the silence. “A family.”

“Yeah,” Sawyer breathed. “It’s pretty fucked up. We’re stuck here without a ride to help.”

“We couldn’t exactly go with them if we wanted to,” Elijah reminded her. “There wasn’t enough space. Either way, we need to deal with the sheriff. Vincent made it clear that no one has informed the sheriff or any of the local law enforcement about the family in Acampo, yet. And he has answers. I swear to fucking every god anyone has ever prayed to that this mother fucker has answers.”

“So, I not only get to beat the shit out of him for his kids, but also torture him for information? That’s a bit fucked up for the IMPO.” Sawyer scoffed. It really was. She’s signed up for a lot, but pure torture wasn’t her thing. She knew it was done by the WMC on captured criminals. She knew, somewhere out there, Axel was probably being waterboarded without the use of his magic.

It made her a little sick to think about.

“Stevenson won’t need to be tortured.” Elijah sighed. “He’s too weak a man to need it. He’ll break once you’re done giving him what he deserves. “

“What have we found here, Elijah?” Sawyer huffed. “What is this fucking mess?”

“History,” Elijah offered. “We’ve stumbled into a case that’s going to make history. It sucks, and it’s awful. It shouldn’t be what you deal with this early, as your first case, but we’re here. Anti-Magi organization, crooked, unregistered Magi sheriff, serial killer…I don’t know anymore, Sawyer.”

“A purge,” Sawyer exhaled the words. “A fucking purge.”

“I’ve never heard of it happening before, not in the last few decades, anyways. Nearly a century, really.”

“Right after World War I,” Sawyer added, thinking about it. When Magi first revealed themselves to the world at large, against the direct orders of the secretive WMC. Magi had taken up arms in the war for their own respective countries and exposed themselves. For nearly a decade after that, Magi all over the world moved around and fought for their right to exist. Purges. Families’ homes burned down. Weaker Magi tied to fucking stakes and burned.

There were reasons they lived by the laws they did. No joining a country’s military or police forces. Loyal to the WMC and only to the WMC. Loyal to other Magi, first and foremost, because even if you love your country, it might not love you back.

“Yeah, so something like this? This is outrageous,” Elijah continued, pulling Sawyer out of her mental rundown of history. “And we’re on the back foot. Serial killer is escalating, and we’re trapped in something much deeper than just his killing spree.”

“Why do you think he’s been bothering me?” Sawyer asked, looking up to the hazel eyes now watching her.

“I… don’t know.” Elijah sighed. “I wonder if he was going to try and kill us, but instead… got distracted by your nightmares?”

Sawyer nearly gagged. She didn’t like that theory at all, but there really was no other theory to run with.

“I mean,” Sawyer groaned, “I would rather him fucking dance around my nightmares than kill us…”

“Yup,” Elijah agreed.

They went back to waiting in silence as the minutes kicked by. Sawyer’s mind drifted off. She was so ready to take this fucker down and prove she could help the team. Prove to herself that this was something she could do.

That she could earn it.

She held that close to herself. She could earn this. She might not need to prove it to the guys, but she needed to prove it to herself. Like she had earned the friendship of Charlie and the respect of Liam and her students.

Sawyer had the need to earn something. She could be arrogant in her own abilities, she could be confident in her strength, but she didn’t like handouts. She would fucking earn it.

She would do what Elijah was telling her to, and, instead of feeling guilty for her past, she would use it. She would show the fucking WMC and herself that this assassin could use every bit of her knowledge and do good. Like she’d been trying to do for years already. Maybe this would give her the real, bone deep satisfaction of knowing she could bring someone to real justice. Because that was the difference. She never could truly save her students, only protect them. She had never put anyone behind bars.

Now, she could. Stevenson would go to prison for a long time for what he’d done to his children. Now she could get the ending for one of these pieces of shit she’d wanted for so many others.

“Sawyer?” Elijah called out from his spot in the living room. “What’cha thinking about over there?”

“Why?” she asked, meeting his eyes.

“Your face changed,” Elijah commented with a shrug.

“Spend a lot of time looking at my face?” She chuckled, giving him a raised eyebrow.

He didn’t answer, and that made Sawyer suspicious, but she didn’t get the chance to say anything as an ear-screeching caw rang out and made them both jump. Elijah looked confused and Sawyer patted her chest as her heart adjusted. It was a bit of a spook, that noise.

“That was Kaar,” Elijah mumbled but Sawyer wondered if he was saying it to her or just to himself. She slid off the counter and walked closer as Elijah looked out the front window. “And now I see why…”

“What’s going on?”

“We’ll start hearing them in a minute,” Elijah whispered. “The sheriff is back, and he’s brought a few friends. One other truck.”

“Sounds like we’re going to have a party,” Sawyer chuckled. “I wonder if, in the last hour and half, they heard about the family in Acampo.”

“And the sheriff can’t go to the scene since the boys already claimed it,” Elijah added, nodding.

She could hear the trucks now, coming down the long dirt driveway to the house. She cracked her knuckles. It was time.

Elijah sat back down on the couch and Sawyer propped herself back up on the counter.

“Patience,” she called out as quietly as she could to Elijah. “This is all about patience.”

“Of course,” he agreed, seemingly moving around to get comfortable.

“TIM!” Stevenson’s voice rang out. “I know you’re upset but-”

“UPSET?!” Another man roared. “You have no idea! He left a message on the wall and is trying to pin this shit on us!”

“He’s just doing what we’ve led him to do,” Stevenson growled. Sawyer heard footsteps as she and Elijah nearly held their breaths. “We wanted this. We started it. Once I knew what he could do, we talked at length about finally cleaning this area up.”

“Yeah, but now we have…” The second voice trailed off. “Your door, Sheriff.”

Sawyer didn’t hear the sheriff’s response because it was too quiet.

She was practically vibrating, ready to use her abilities and hurt this monster of a human being. She was ready to teach him the only lesson that mattered anymore. Karma was a fucking bitch, and Sawyer was its willing tool for men like him.

She saw his head poke through the door and sublimated just as he swung his firearm into the doorway and took two shots. She sank to the floor, the bullets passing through her without causing any injuries.

Sawyer heard a yell, and she wondered if Elijah was hit. When she reformed closer, trails of black smoking coming off her, she saw that the sheriff had dropped his gun… which was melting into the floor.

“Good job, Elijah!” Sawyer said cheerfully, grinning at the sheriff. She heard a truck start back up and tear off. “You think he’ll go find… help?”

“No.” Elijah laughed, grabbing Stevenson before he could scramble out of the door. Sawyer took a look at the old man’s hands. They were red and would probably blister, if she could guess how hot Elijah had made the gun by its melting corpse on the floor. “I think he’ll realize how totally fucked all of them are.”

“What the fuck do you want? I’ve done nothing wrong!” Stevenson roared, trying to pull away and looking desperate. Sawyer stayed at the entrance to the kitchen, smiling as Elijah threw the sheriff closer. He made a thud as he hit the floor and tried to stand without putting his hands on anything for balance. “Where are my children? What have you done to them?”

Sawyer felt the violent beat of anger flood her again. He had no right to his children anymore.

“Gone,” Sawyer growled, squatting down to his level. “And you will never see them again. They will be raised by Magi caretakers with other Magi children. And you will never touch them again.”

“They are my fucking children! You don’t have the right-”

“We have every right, old man,” Elijah snarled. “I don’t know how you made it unregistered for so long, but that doesn’t exclude you from being under the purview of the WMC or the IMPO. We fucking own you. We rule.”

“I will never answer to a bunch of fucking devil-worshipping freaks!” Stevenson roared, finally standing up. Sawyer raised herself up along with him. “This is fucking America!”

“I tried the same thing, buddy,” Sawyer chuckled darkly, “but those aren’t the rules.”

She kicked his legs out from underneath him and watched him fall back to the floor. She listened to him scream. She looked to Elijah, who seemed unperturbed. Yeah, she thought, I chose the right one to stay.

They waited for the screaming to quiet down. Sawyer looked at the damage her kick had caused. She’s broken his right shin. She didn’t feel too bad about it.

“Go get me a towel,” Sawyer ordered Elijah with a smile now that Stevenson wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“Why?” Elijah asked, frowning at her. “And why didn’t you get one while we sat here for nearly two hours?”

“Just go get one,” Sawyer commanded again, this time with less humor. She hadn’t gotten one earlier because she wanted to see the fear race through Stevenson’s eyes as he tried to figure out what she was going to do to him.

Sawyer didn’t torture people.

But she wasn’t above dragging out what she felt they deserved.

After Elijah wandered into the back of the house, she knelt and whispered.

“Every blow you landed on your children, I’m about to return. Now’s your chance to tell me why you did it.”

“Magi brats,” Stevenson whimpered. “I have to raise them right. Awful, shameful to have fucking Magi children.”

“You are a Magi,” Sawyer growled as Elijah walked back in. “Of course, your fucking children would be. So, you beat them for it?”

“Teaching them to resist temptation where I couldn’t,” Stevenson growled, giving her a glare. Obviously, a broken leg hadn’t sent the message she wanted.

“There’s no temptation to resist,” Sawyer hissed, wrapping a hand around the man’s throat and yanking him forward. That brought out another scream as it jostled the broken leg. “You know, there’s a lot of things in the world to be ashamed of. Beating your children should be one of those. I’m a retired assassin, sheriff, so I know a lot about things to be ashamed of.”

“Wha-” He groaned at her. She stood up and looked at his broken leg. Then she grabbed his hair and kneed him in the face, sending his head into the wall and breaking his nose.

“But what I don’t understand is how you think you can beat a child over how they were fucking born,” Sawyer said plainly as Stevenson moaned in pain. “I’ve done a lot of fucked up shit, sheriff, but never,” she paused and leaned down, “never have I been ashamed over how I was fucking born. And you have no right to try to beat your children for how they were. You want to hate yourself? Go ahead. A lot of people do, but you don’t get to spread that fucking hate around. Not on my fucking watch.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond. She sent a kick to his ribs and felt them crack with the force.

“Now, we know you’re fucking helping a goddamn serial killer, so I recommend you tell us what the fuck we need to know.”

Sawyer couldn’t understand his response. She dropped the towel onto Stevenson and yanked his head back again.

“Say that again?” she snarled, glaring at him.

Sawyer didn’t torture.

Much.

She didn’t really have much sympathy for this guy right now.

“Cory!” Stevenson gurgled out, blood covering the lower half of his face from the broken nose.

“Your son?” Sawyer gaped, letting go of him. She turned to Elijah, who looked shocked as hell. “His oldest son?”

“Explain, old man,” Elijah forced out, stomping closer. “Explain!” he roared down at him. Sawyer backed off from him. Elijah angry was a rare beast, and it was a fearsome one.

“Cory… Gave Cory a copy of my list,” Stevenson coughed. “Been finding out who all the Magi are in this area for years. They don’t notice me. I think he lost his because my copy is gone now.”

“Yeah, I stole it,” Sawyer snarled. “Move along.”

“Wants to… prove he belongs with God’s Will. I let him,” the old man whimpered. “He’s doing good work. He killed his mother on accident when she tried to run away with my children. I helped him hide the body and told everyone she ran away. They all knew she was trying to. He just wanted to stop her from leaving with his siblings, stop her from leading them astray from the flock. He wanted to stop them from being exposed to sin. We decided to give him a purpose, a goal, knowing what he could do.”

The we, Sawyer guessed, was the group Stevenson was a member of. God’s Will, or whatever self-righteous piece of shit name they gave themselves.

“Dear God,” Elijah gasped, grabbing Stevenson’s shirt and yanking his chest forward. “You are letting your son kill people for you? You orchestrated and let loose a serial killer?”

“He was supposed to kill you all in your fucking sleep,” Stevenson growled weakly. “Supposed to get you out of the way.”

“I wonder why,” Sawyer mumbled sarcastically, backing away. She ran a hand over her face as she turned away. Her mind was running a thousand miles a second.

“Sawyer?” Elijah looked back her. “I’ll cuff him and drop him on the couch, if that’s okay with you.”

She shook her head as she turned back. She looked down at Stevenson.

“This is all your fault, you know that right? People are dead because of you. A family, a little fucking girl,” Sawyer fumed, squatting next to the sheriff. “A boy is an orphan now. Your children will grow up, forever remembering the monster their father was. And what you turned your son into…”

“He was always crazy. Fucking unhinged. I gave him purpose, so he could prove himself to the Lord and live as a warrior for God. Like I have—repentant for being a fucking freak. You thrive on using your demonic powers, but some of us know the Lord is always watching. You belong in Hell, heathen,” Stevenson snarled at her, as loud as he could. He coughed after and whimpered in pain.

“I’ll meet you there,” Sawyer hissed. This old man was off his fucking rocker.

She grabbed his forehead and slammed his head into the wall. He went through the plaster, and she stood up, leaving him there. He wasn’t dead, but he was also no longer a problem. They knew what they needed to know. She heard the click of handcuffs and stepped out onto the front porch for some air.

She was only out there for a moment when Elijah followed her. She felt a large hand touch her back and another cover her left hand.

“You’re shaking,” he whispered with concern.

“I do that,” Sawyer answered, louder than she’d intended. “He beat his son to the point, I’m guessing, that Cory thinks the only way to make up for what he is, is to kill other Magi. To… cleanse and purge.” The words made her sick with anger. “He turned his son into a monster and thinks it’s okay. Thinks he did something good. God, what if he had turned on his siblings?” Sawyer’s stomach rolled uncomfortably in her stomach.

“I’ll call Vincent.” Elijah sighed, pulling out his phone.

Sawyer pulled her shaking hands to her chest. Cory was supposed to kill them, but now she sort of understood why the creep kept entering her nightmares. He understood in a weird way, probably. Getting beaten on like that… he had firsthand experience.

She wondered if it was just for cheap thrills, or maybe he didn’t kill them because he had sympathy for her.

And Sawyer realized something else.

Cory was a boy she could have saved, like his siblings.

He was just another victim, doing what he thought was right. As awful and terrible as it was, he was just searching for a way to redeem himself in the eyes of a higher power, one that he’d been told could never tolerate him, could never love him. He was looking for salvation, thinking that being a Magi was a sin—one he couldn’t change.

He was also probably trying to prove to his father that he could be loved.

That struck an awful cord in Sawyer. It made her pity him.

She guessed there was probably some mental illness involved as well. Cory couldn’t just be an abused boy turned religious fanatic. That would cause him to be his father, not a serial killer. Unhinged, Stevenson had said. This entire, backwoods shithole was un-fucking-hinged, in her opinion. There were great Christians out there, Magi and non-Magi, alike. People like these? They were rare. Fanatics that went this far were rare and shook Sawyer to the bone. They normally never went this far.

“They’ll put out word on Cory.” Elijah sighed when he walked back. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Sawyer bit out. She explained to him what she felt about Cory. Elijah only nodded.

“Makes sense,” Elijah said plainly several minutes after she was done. “They are coming to pick us up. And to try to see if the sheriff knows where Cory will be going next. Zander will get him up.”

“I take it nothing could be gleaned from the scene?” Sawyer asked.

“Nope.” Elijah shook his head and didn’t give away how he was feeling by his tone of voice. Sawyer reached out and touched his large arm.

“We’ll catch him,” she said with a confidence she wasn’t sure she felt. She was out of her depth, really. She had never really had to track someone down like this, someone that passed by unnoticed. Her targets had always been high-value, visible people, who couldn’t keep secrets about where they were and when. This was different, and people’s lives were on the line.

“Vincent thinks Cory is going to rush now,” Elijah groaned. “Thinks he’ll jump immediately after his next target.”

“Is he going in order? The names on the list?” Sawyer asked, removing her hand when Elijah didn’t acknowledge it. She’d tried to do the comforting thing.

“No, he’s not.” Elijah pulled the list out of his pocket and began looking over it. “I think we should just start rounding everyone up. Everyone is pretty close, I’m guessing. We can have Dallas find addresses. Get them to Abilene, give them to the locals there for protection. At least in numbers, they won’t be as vulnerable.”

“That takes time we might not have,” Sawyer reminded him, feeling anxious suddenly. They had no time and no way to find this guy.

“There’s Vincent,” Elijah blurted out, as if he wanted to avoid what Sawyer had just said. She turned and saw the Explorers screaming down the dirt driveway, kicking up dust and rocks. They were going fast enough that Sawyer knew something was wrong.

“What the hell,” she wondered to herself. She watched Zander slam on the brakes and nearly hit the porch. Sawyer and Elijah both moved, just in case. The second Explorer, probably being driven by Vincent, nearly slammed into the first as it came to a stop.

She felt a wave of fear as the rest of the team all jumped out of the vehicles. Zander didn’t even bother turning his off.

“Where’s Stevenson?” Vincent yelled as he ran up.

“Inside, what’s going on?” Sawyer asked, looking from Vincent to Zander, as the later ran inside past them.

“The boy? The last member of the family? He wasn’t at the school when the Dallas officer got there to pick him up. The school lost him. A review of the security tapes show him literally disappearing. Someone cloaked him and walked out with him.”

Sawyer felt the blood rush from her head and then a curl of despair entered the pit of her stomach.

“No,” Sawyer gasped, turned to where Zander was healing Stevenson and watched the sheriff wake up slowly.

“I have a few questions for you, Stevenson,” Zander snarled.

“Go to hell,” Stevenson snarled back, spittle flying from his mouth, now wide awake.

Sawyer watched Zander put a hand to the sheriff’s ribs and push. Stevenson screamed. Sawyer realized that her other teammates also weren’t above torture in certain situations.

“You are going to answer them,” Zander threatened, “and when I think you’re fucking trying to evade giving me an answer, I’m going to make it painful. I’m not above this.”

“Okay!” Stevenson screamed, and Sawyer saw tears in his eyes. She wondered what Zander had just done to the man. Quinn walked up next to her and she took a glance at his face. Bad idea. He looked furious. Shade and Scout moved past, and, when they arrived at Stevenson, Shade bit down on his unbroken leg, bringing another scream.

“Cory kidnapped a boy,” Zander growled. “Where would he take him?”

“The Acampo boy?” Stevenson gasped. “He’s probably dead by now-”

Sawyer heard a sickening crunch and a snarl. Stevenson screamed as Scout bit down on the broken shin.

“Jesus,” Sawyer breathed out.

“We’re working on limited time and we need to impress the severity of that on Stevenson,” Vincent told her, sounding mild. She glanced to him but saw he was a little pale.

“You aren’t comfortable with this,” she noted, taking in his lack of color.

“We have legal right to do it,” Vincent said, trying to sound controlled, but Sawyer could hear the cracks. “There are things I’m willing to look past when others’ lives are on the line. It’s just hard to watch, and we’ve never had to do it before, not like this. Too much is riding on him telling us something, anything.”

“I understand the need,” Sawyer told him, as Stevenson gave another scream. She looked back in the room and saw Elijah was now with Zander. She hadn’t noticed him walk off to join Zander.

“This isn’t normal, though,” Jasper finally spoke up. “We normally don’t have to go this far.”

Sawyer looked behind her to see that Jasper wasn’t even watching. The entire scene was punctuated by repeated questions from Elijah or Zander and Stevenson’s whimpering, pitiful sounds.

“Jasper?” She took a step to him. “I’m not… completely comfortable either, if it makes a difference.” He turned to her and sighed.

“I judge you for all sorts of things,” he mumbled, “and yet, we do this and call it the greater good.”

“A boy could die if Zander and Elijah don’t find out where Cory might take him,” Sawyer countered. “It is the greater good.”

“I know,” Jasper said plainly, “but two wrongs don’t always make a right. And you’ll notice, I’m not trying to stop them.” Sawyer nodded slowly. He wasn’t. That said something at least, that Jasper was willing to bend his moral high ground for something.

“The… farmhouse!” Stevenson finally groaned. “Cory goes to the farmhouse when he wants to hide out from the world.”

“What farmhouse?” Elijah pressed. Sawyer turned back to the scene.

“Abandoned, about ten miles from here. You’ll find a gated drive down the road. It’s down that. He walks out there or uses his four-wheeler. He would have taken the four-wheeler if he has the boy!” Stevenson sounded like he was dying. Sawyer didn’t think anything Elijah and Zander had done to him was fatal, but enough pain could make anyone think they were going to die.

“If you are wrong, if you are lying to us,” Zander growled in a low voice, “I will come back, and I will fucking kill you.”

“I’m not!” Stevenson screamed. He told them the actual road names as Sawyer collected her and Elijah’s bags.

“He won’t go anywhere,” Elijah snarled. “Let’s go.”

Sawyer ran with the team to the Explorers. Elijah looked at the sheriff’s truck and Sawyer watched wide-eyed with satisfaction as the interior lit up in flames. It lasted ten seconds then cut off like a gas stove.

No, she thought, the sheriff wouldn’t be going anywhere now.

It was a bumpy ride as they tore off down the driveway.

No one spoke, yet. They didn’t know what they would find or who. There was nothing to plan for yet. They could only hope the boy was safe and alive. They could only hope it was Cory who had him.