Return to Form (Bri and Rich)

Briony let go of Richard as soon as he had apparated them to the area of London that Kayla had told them about, she could see that this was going to be all too easy, these would be a group of men who thought they knew what they were doing but they were just boys with wooden sticks who didnt know what they were doing.

"Which way?"

Still letting the anger build up inside of her Briony bit her lip as she leant against a metal warehouse, wondering when Richard was going to catch Annies scent, it shouldn't be long once he had gotten his head into gear.

Since there were even more shadows around here Briony didn't feel the need to absorb any but she did so anyway, in case they were attacked by surprise or there were large lights in the place they were going. But she highly doubted all of the above.

Briony's quick action to leave his presense was both expected and slightly hurtful at the same time. He knew that neither of them was feeling loving in anyway other than possessive love right now. But the part of him that was a little bit hurt was a minority so small it wasn't really worth speaking of. Just like his wife, Richard was crying out for blood. And he probably wouldn't stop with just those who'd participated. He'd track down their families, their friends and everyone who'd ever helped them and he'd rip them apart piece by piece. Let it never be said that the Romains were not vengeful,

"This way." he sniffed once and immediately got Annie's scent. He'd spent too much time with her not to know it instantly. Without taking out his wand, Richard marched through the alleyway and onto the darkened industrial estate. He nodded to the building directly across the road from the alleyway. It was a simple affair, a large rectangular shaped building with a metal walkway all along the outside of it for some reason. The main reason became apparent as a dozen witches and wizards began to rain spellfire down on the advancing pair.

Richard ignored them completely, barely breaking stride to dodge the colourful spells. There was no doubt in his mind that Briony would kill them. She was parhaps even more enraged than him. She needed to kill them.

Reaching the large front doors, Richard placed both palms on the door and concentrated. The large doors began to glow bright yellow before they fell inwards, the metal turning to sand as Richard pulled out his wand to face the dozen more assailents now firing at him from inside the warehouse. Large chunks of the floor peeled themselves up to form sheilds around him as he sent massive boulders flying in the direction of his opponents to break their cover. He gritted his teeth,

"Time to go to work dear!" he announced before he charged in, his floating sheilds of concrete absorbing hit after hit. Rushing up to the first person he could, Richard severed his head with a single curse and sent the head flying to one of the man's fellows. When the second man panicked at having a head sent at him, Richard sent out a ribbon cutting curse, slashing through the man's left leg above the knee and both arms bellow the elbow. He left the man to bleed out slowly.

One of the cockier wizards charged him, presumably to face him in a one-on-one duel, and Richard muttered in german at him. The man's clothes glowed before changing into deadly knives, all of them pointing inwards. Without even managing to make a sound of pain, the man keeled over and died. Richard waved his wand at his left hand and it changed, becoming a metal blade that he thrust into a man's face while poking his partner in the eye with his wand before letting loose a blasting curse. Both men fell to the ground, their heads mostly gone.

Briony moved off as soon as Richard told her the direction that she needed to go in, immediately she switched off her vision so that she could only feel by displacement in the shadows around her, and it was then she felt movement above her, too many to just be one wizard so she tilted her head up, eyes black with shadow.

With a loud roar Briony crunched in on herself and there was a large flurry of shadows whipping out from her body, large tendrils moving through the air gathering speed until they connected with the bodies on the platform.

Sounds of delightful screaming filled the air as the people tried to escape but they were held in tight binds with her shadows at their hands and feet, with that, Briony began to pull her own hands apart and chuckled softly as the screams grew louder then stopped suddenly with the delightful tearing of flesh.

Following Richard into the warehouse Beiony grinned, the blood of the comrades that had fallen just before her entrance, the tendrils still holding the dead bodies moved in behind her, so that it created a very eerie effect.

Just waiting for her husband to clear the area Briony roared again and sent the spikes of
shadow into the nearest mens hearts ripping them out to add them to the collection of parts already on the shadows.

Briony tilted her head to one side and ran forwards swiftly the shadows trailing behind her absorbing most of the blows and spells to her body as she ran deeper into the base in the pursuit of her daughter. Her precious Annie.

Richard would have been slightly unnerved by the obvious joy his wife was finding in the deaths of these pitiful men but he wasn't exactly finding the killing of these weaklings unpleasant. To be honest he found it rather enjoyable as well. Being free to cause as much death as he wanted, severing, burning, blasting, twisting, shaping, changing, boiling and gutting these witches and wizards was a type of freedom that cause his blood to pound in his ears, the inbred blood lust of his family creeping into his mind.

Lashing out with his left hand, still a metal blade, Richard cut a man's nose clean off. When the man clutched his hand to the bleeding, forgetting his wand, Richard kicked the man to his knees. Resting the tip of the blade on the top of the man's bald head, Richard grinned a twisted grin as he looked into the man's eyes before pushing the blade clear through his skull and into his brain. Concentrating, Richard turned the blade in the man's head to compressed gas and his head exploded. His hand reforming out of the thin air, Richard turned to the only remaining person in the warehouse. The wizard was terrified, with good reason, and dropped his wand immedately and fell to his knees,

"P-p-please don't kill me!" he begged Richard and Briony from his knees, "I-It wasn't me! I didn't want to do it!"

His left hand now fully formed, Richard punched the man in the nose, breaking it and sending the weak man sprawling. Sniffing a few times as he stamped on the man's wand, Richard scowled darkly,

"What's your name?" he demanded through gritted teeth. When the man made no sound other than pitiful sounds of pain, Richard picked the man up by his hair and pushed his back to a wall, "I asked you a question!"

The man blubbered weakly,

"M-m-my name's Ben Wi-" he began but Richard cut him off, punching the man in the gut and taking the breath out of his lungs. Applying a sticking charm to the man so that he was stuck against the wall, Richard took a few steps back and began to pace up and down in front of him, visibily calming but keeping his boiling rage just beneath the surface,

"I didn't ask for your whole name." he told the man shortly before gesturing Briony to come over. He turned back to the man with a cold expression, "Now... I want to know just three things. One... where is my daughter? Two... why did you do this? Three... who organized it?"

He chuckled a little and gestured to his wife with a falsely cheery smile,

"If you don't tell me, or you lie to me, my wife here will have to punish you." he shook his head a little, "Now I'm not sure I can control her most violent and degrading punishments. And come to think of it... I really don't believe I want to. Now you have two options here. You can tell us what we want to know and your death will be relatively quick. Or you can lie to us. And we'll spend hours making you talk. And once you tell us the truth... well we'll spend hours killing you. Maybe longer. My record is four days but I think my wife could stretch it out longer."

Ben was whimpering and crying now so Richard punched him again, loosening a few teeth while keeping up the false smile that kept him as the 'good' cop. The man whimpered some more,

"T-t-there's a... an unground safe..." he muttered weakly, "In the centre... of the warehouse floor..."

Richard blinked a few times and the false smile fell immediately. With his jaw locked tightly to keep himself from screaming in unholy rage, Richard turned to Briony,

"Take his fingers, take his toes..." he told her through gritted teeth, "Everything he doesn't need to talk and not die of shock."

Sprinting over to the centre of the warehouse, Richard clapped his hands before pressing his palms onto the ground. With a large amount of concentration and magic the floor of most of the warehouse turned to sand, leaving the large metal safe exposed. Snarling with rage at the thought of his daughter kept in an air-tight box, Richard turned the safe's metal walls to sand as well and lifted Annie out of the sand. He checked for a pulse on the apparently sleeping girl and was relieved to find one. Casting a few charms he found that she was in suspended animation, only to be awoken when someone gave the counter curse. Taking Annie with him, Richard put her down a little distance away from Ben and Briony, keeping her within his sight,

"Tell me when you think he's ready to talk." he told Briony before closing his eyes and kissing Annie on the forehead, "Never again..."

Briony could sense that all of the life forms in the room bar two were no longer alive, and that made her grin with a deep satisfaction, tilting her head to one side she stopped running and walked slowly back into the room where she re-engaged her sight and she looked at the scene unfolding in front of her.

"My my, what have we got here, something for me to play with? Oh he looked slightly better than hideous before you broke his nose, now he looks like a gargoyle."

With that she moved to stand next to Richard, watching as he paced, trying to get his anger under control because she could tell that it was hard for him to control himself when it came to his daughter. Hope in the mans eyes was false, he wasn't getting out of here alive, and she would watch the light leave his eyes.

Smirking as her husband posed her as a killing goddess as such Briony couldn't help but agree, she was good at it, it had been her job, she knew exactly what she was going to do to him and it wouldn't be pleasant.

"Of course my love..."

Briony moved forward and ignoring the feeble pleas of the man in front of her Briony let her shadows go to work but firstly she walked up to him taking his hand and she smiled softly before she snapped his fingers, one at a time, then slowly she gripped them, winked and pulled them off one at a time.

"You found her! Is she alright? Have they harmed her?!"

She growled.

Richard turned away from his peacefully sleeping daughter and stood up again, looking to his wife. The simple fact was that there was nothing wrong with Annie and that was a good thing. But it had been too close a thing. She'd have died if she stayed in that safe any longer. And there had been too many chances for her to be harmed. He stood beside Briony to whisper in her hear so as not to give Ben any indication that they had any other emotions barring anger,

"She's fine. Suspended animation charm, easy enough to dispell." he scowled, "I'll dispell it when we get home. We don't want her to wake up and see us doing this."

Moving in front of the blubbering mess that was Ben, Richard lashed out with a foot, kicking the man in the ribs. The man cried out in pain even as he tried in vain to stop his fingers from bleeding,

"You answered truthfully. That's good." he spat out at the man even as he cut the bleeding off, wanting him to live longer, "Now I want my other answers. Why?"

Ben made no move to answer him so Richard kicked the man in the stomach and punched him in the face again. Blubbering and crying in pain now, Ben nodded,

"I-I'll tell you!" he cried out desperately. Causing Richard to stop his assult for a few seconds. Ben spoke quickly, as to avoid a further beating, "W-w-w-we were told to take your daughter... t-they said they wanted us to ransom her... f-for your services... or a stone...! They said it was a red stone!"

Richard turned to Briony and unhooked the necklace with the philosopher's stone on it. He smiled faintly at he before turning back to Ben, gripping the now brightly glowing stone in his right fist. Power flooded Richard until his eyes glowed red, causing Ben to cower away,

"Now tell me who ordered you to do this!" he demanded, his voice booming and heavily, "So that I can tear their lives down around their ears, kill every member of their family and tear their still beating hearts from their chests!"

Ben whimpered,

"They said... they said they were a council of ten!" he whimpered pitifully, crying heavily, "That's all I know!"

Richard knew who the ten were and it wasn't too surprising that they wanted in on the philosopher's stone. What was surprising was they thought he wouldn't rip them to pieces for this. Time to educate them soon. He gave the necklace back to Briony and gave the man a disgusted look,

"I know I said I'd let him die quickly..." his eyes narrowed, "But I lied. Make him suffer."

Briony knew from that point onwards that her daughter was safe and so her anger dispelled a little bit, it wouldn't have been the case if she had indeed been hurt, if one hair on her head had even been harmed this would have been the most horrific thing that had ever happened to the man...

Well...it probably still would be to be fair.

Nodding silently to Richard Briony moved back over to the man as he did watching him with cool eyes as he asked him more questions about who had in fact organised this, because these idiots obviously weren't the ones behind it.

With the information that he needed being etracted Briony took a moment to think about the group of ten people who had done this, who would be stupid enough to envoke the wrath of both Romains? Surely they knew that they would now bring the world down around them, and make sure it stayed that way.

"Of course." she said calmly

Now the fun begins. With a glint in her eye Briony walked over to the man and stood directly in front of him, leaning down so that their eyes were level with each others and she smiled softly, the blood of his collegues still splattered all over her face. More whimpers.

Sighing in annoyance Briony flicked her hand and a group of shadows peeled off from the wall and floated around her hand, with that she smiled sweetly and let them dispurse into the veins of the man before her, and as she epected the concentration of the evil flowing through him now caused him to buckle and shriek in pain.

"You shouldn't scream. It annoys me."

Releasing the shadows from him, she could see that he was getting ready to thank her, but he shouldn't have, with that Briony let the shadows condense into a sharp spike and she moved her hands in a cutting motion and she grinned as the man screamed in both shock and pain as he looked on what was happening to him.

His manhood now lay on the floor, and he was loosing a lot of blood quite quickly. Placing a suspending charm on the bleeding Briony grinned even darking this time and levitated the part that she had just cut off into the air and she winked playfully at him as she began to ram it somewhere that it should never be rammed...unless you were of that persuasion.

The whimpering grew louder and Briony sighed, reaching forward she grabbed the man by the neck, and in one swift move, tore out his voice box.

"I told you not to scream. It annoys me."

Richard had sat in the corner, next to Annie, while Briony went to town on the guy. He would have felt sympathy had the man done anything other than attack and kidnap one of the two people he loved. If he'd attacked him, he wouldn't have really minded all that much. If he'd been attacked than this level of torture would be unnecessary but this man had helped kidnap his little girl. And for that, no pain he endured for enough for Richard.

After watching Briony winding down from her fun torturing the guy, leaving him barely alive, Richard stood up again and walked over to Briony. He gave her a light kiss on the cheek,

"I think we'd best be killing him soon." he told her with a sad frown, "As much as I'd enjoy dragging his miserable life out for another week of this... there are new scents closing in on our location. We have about an hour before they arrive so this is last call I'm afraid my dear. But don't worry... I'm sure we'll find others soon enough."

Briony became aware that Richard was walking closer to her and she nodded her head as she tried to stop herself from continuing to torture the poor man, maybe Richard was right, maybe she needed to end it, after all keeping it up would drain her magic.

"Very well love, let's end this and then what? We going to the council?"

Her eyes take on an evil glint as she asked this, she could still be up for kicking some useless butts into Hell after this, more than up for it in fact.

"Ta Ta Ben."

She whispered to the barely breathing man, even the sound of that making her annoyed and Briony sent the shadows into his body, amused to see him try to call out in pain despite the lack of voicebox. With a simple click of her fingers Briony watches his body explode outwards all over the warehouse.

"What are we going to do with Annie?"

Briony asked with seemingly no concern for the man she just killed.

He could see her disappointment at being called off torturing the guy some more but the fact was that the scents were increasing in number as well. Now Richard loved a good fight but numbers would win eventually unless he ended up using the stone. And he didn't particularly want to glow like the sun to anyone with even a glimmer of magic in them. He nodded slightly,

"Then we'll find every last member of the council and kill them all." he smiled a little, "After we've beefed up the wards at home and made sure that Annie is alright."

Richard watched the wretched man disappear into the shadows, making some strange noises as he was dragged down until he disappeared. With a wave of his wand, a sheild covered the three of them from the mess of 'Ben'. He turned to Briony with a small smirk,

"You're scary sometimes Briony..." he winked, "Brilliant though."

Reaching down, Richard cradled the sleeping Annie in his arms and walked back over to Briony,

"I say we take her home." he frowned a little, "Fidelius charm on the house this time? If not then I can use the stone to make some more powerful defences."

Briony liked the way that Richard was scared of her when she was like this, because it must mean to everyone else that they were bricking themselves when they saw her, smiling softly as she looked at the mess they had made of the warehouse.

"Okay, let's go home and do just that, I'm not leaving Annie alone though."

With that Briony kissed her daughters cheek and made to walk out of the warehouse but she grinned softly and turned around to look at the blank expanse of wall.

"I think a little joke wouldn't go amiss. For those who come to clean up the bodies later on tonight."

Dipping her hand in some of the blood Briony wrote 'SOON' on the wall in large capital letters, then breaking off some of the spikes she sat on the floor, Tongue out in conversation as she made them sharp at both ends.

"Almost done love then we can go home."

Briony cut off all the heads she could find and stuck one on each spike she had MADD then stuck the spikes by the wall.

"Little warning for them."

Richard nodded a little bit, looking out over the mess they'd made of the warehouse. It was not everyday that he ended up killing a good dozen people and ruining most of a warehouse. And for some strange reason, the sight of the corpses and property damage looked very much like a job well done to him,

"I wouldn't ask you to." he told her quietly before sighing a little, "What type of trap to leave them... sand pit? No, too non-lethal. Shark tank? No, sharks are hard to make. Acid in the sprinkler system it is."

As his wife took they daughter, Richard focused on the sprinklers throughout the warehouse. After a lot of flicks and swishes, along with some muttering in german, Richard had finished his trap. He raised an eyebrow,

"Jokes are fun I suppose..." he said, curious to see what Briony was going to do, "Fair enough. I think picking up some of the pieces that you left behind would be bad enough but there's always room for improvement."

Looking at the now completed sign, Richard nodded a little bit. It was brief, it was to the point and it would distract people enough not to notice the sprinkler system was activating until some of them had their skin melting off. He held out a hand for Briony to take, ready to apparate,

"Let's go home Briony."

Briony smirked as Richard listed all the traps that he could in his head, and when he finally decided on putting acid in the sprinkler system Briony smirked even more, that was going to leave an awful lot of pissed off wizards running around.

"You really do have some excellent idea's darling."

Letting him do his work, when he had finished she stood back to admire both of their work and she nodded with an oddly happy grin on her face.

"I think that we've done a grand job, now, lets go home shall we?"

With that Briony held out her hand to Richard and she waited for him to take hers, with Annie in his arms, and they both apparated back to Philosophers Close, now having to work very very hard to make sure nobody could penetrate it's walls again.