The Hidden Army

The Hidden Army by Darque Queen7

Chapter Four: Vengeance is Mine....

General Aliannas Darque dropped to her knees, the fight suddenly out of her. A trembling hand went to the girl's battered face.

"Hermione Granger," she whispered. "My dear child - what have they done to you?"

General Aliannas Darque could feel the air around her heat up as she stood from the fallen child. She helped her father off the ground, knowing immediately the thoughts that were running through his mind. She took his face into both of her hands and forced him to look her in the eye. "Father," she whispered. "Dad; I'm here. We're all that's left - just like she is. She's a strong one. We can help her, okay? Just like you helped me...and Mark," she motioned for her Captain to take her father. Ford simply walked over, his own grief shaking him as he watched the Med Techs trying to save the teenager's life. Once she knew Ford had a good hold on her father, she ordered her ground crew pick up the deceased bodies of the Drs Granger, put them in body bags and load them into one of the Transport Carriers. The Med Techs had stabilized the girl and were transporting her to her father's labs at the London HQ. The General nodded her approval as she watched the Humvee take off. As she stood by, Major Holmes approached. At her nod, Holmes began her report.

"Their house is on fire - about three clicks from here. Whatever we're going to do - we have to move fast. The Muggle Authorities and/or Aurors will be here soon."

"The Muggles will deal with the fire - they will not know that the family isn't home," Darque began. "That will keep them busy for a bit. The Death Eaters would have set wards to keep Muggle Authorities away from their little soiree. They should be dropping soon. Ask Robertson to set up new ones - they should be short lived. Twenty minutes at most. I want the Aurors to find these - I want the Prophet to take pictures. I want the public to be incensed. The second that the Pure Bloods say we've gone too far - then I'll put my other plans into play."

Aliannas whipped back around, looking at the three remaining prisoners. She wasn't angry. No - when she was angry, that was when she chose to knock out lode bearing support pillars in high rise buildings. But now - she was absolutely blind with rage. Laina and Beiroff froze where they were - skimming to her side without so much as a backwards glance. They had already finished with the task given to them - and they had made sure the survivor had a good seat for what was going to happen next.

The two bloodied and bound Death Eaters stared at her; one in abject fear, the other in arrogance. She looked at the pair of them in absolute disgust. With lightening moves she ripped both of their masks off. She then walked up to Nott and brought her face so close to his; he could feel the warmth of her breath as she spoke.

"Do you remember me, Nott?" she whispered. Nott nodded shakily. "What about you, Avery?" Avery looked on with disdain as he nodded curtly.

"Do you remember what you did to me?" Again they nodded. At this she smiled coldly. "Had you and your kind left me alone - I would have just faded in the background of Muggleborn Magical Society. You never would have heard another thing from me once I would have graduated Hogwarts. Instead you killed my family - you destroyed my body. You raped me. Thanks to you and the others - I can never have children." At this Nott shuddered, Aliannas again flashed him a cold smile. "So unlike others, I have no legacy to leave; no children to carry on with my father's great work - or to simply be as wonderful and beautiful as my mother. I have had to become my own legacy. It began when I woke up in St. Mungo's after being in a coma for a month. You destroyed the image God made me in. So my father made me into a new one."

"An eye for an eye," she whispered, repeating her father sentiments from earlier that day. "A tooth for a tooth; a life for so many lives." She straightened herself out and then moved her right hand over his arm - where his Dark Mark had been exposed. She looked down at the tattoo and then looked up into Nott's eyes. Nott simply stared; Avery looked on in wonder. Her eyes were tinged with a ring of red around them. Almost like the Master's, he thought. She laughed aloud but there was no mirth in the sound.

"It is not my eyes. It is the implants within them. You see, I have found a way to make Muggle items work for Magicals. To work with them. My humanity died the day you tried to kill me. What I am now won't give a shit about what is left of you - except perhaps how I kill you."

She then turned to Laina and Beiroff - and with her right hand outstretched, she touched the ones they extended to her. At this contact, her eyes closed as their minds merged; they absorbed all of her anger and sorrow - she needed to be focused in order to continue. She absorbed all the memories and images the pair took from the Death Eaters as they drained their energies. She held her left hand out and Mark took it, joining in the link.

They left Snape out of it - why? Mark's voice asked.

Because, Beiroff's baritone answered. They trust him no longer. He knew nothing of this raid. The woman LeStrange took great pride in being given this assignment over Snape.

The Order spy is found out, Laina's voice continued. This attack from our end will perhaps make them doubt him further....

Or will put him in a new position of power, Aliannas' voice concluded. We will have to interrogate our source when we return to HQ. Dumbledore may have used me for his own needs - but at the cost of his prize pupil. I must remember these speculations. We must give them to Granger when she awakens. She will decide where this intrigue goes next. Now - to the task at hand. Show me what they did to her and her family.

"You raped her mother," she whispered aloud, her voice sounding as if the voices of all four of them merged into one. "Then you raped her. You made her father watch - then you broke his neck. You like breaking bones, don't you, Nott? Perhaps...perhaps I shall return the compliment." The four then broke the link and Aliannas walked over to Nott. She then put her right hand on his left shoulder - and pushed down. His scream of surprise and pain satisfied her - for the moment. "Your shoulder is quite useless now," she calmly explained while he whimpered in pain. "And with the pressure I exerted, they'll never be able to attach it back - the socket is pulverized. Not that you have to worry - you won't need it where you're going."

She then turned to the one on the ground. "You are going to wish I killed you; you do realize that. Because if the Aurors get you - you're deader than a doornail dressed in black robes and white mask while sporting that bloody tattoo on your arm. And if the Muggles get you - it's off to a place that looks like St. Mungo's on steroids with bits of Azkaban thrown in. And worse still, if the Dark Lord gets his grimy claws on you - you're back to square one, aren't you?" The young man simply stared. "Ah, the look of someone who is more fucked than me," she said, the sound of cruel satisfaction flooding her voice. "Just watch," she whispered. "And thank the Gods you are not them."

With that, she positioned her left hand over Nott's chest. Her father suddenly looked up - she knew he was back with them now. And he was ready for this as well. She looked back into Nott's eyes.

"I know your Dark Lord - Voldemort - will claim your decimated carcass. I know he will read your final thoughts from your bones and cast you away like last week's Witch Weekly. I want him to know what's coming for him. I want him to know - you boys fucked up big time. You should have made sure I died."

With that her left hand began glowing and suddenly an electricity could be felt in the air - as if someone had switched the magnetic polarities of the universe. Her eyes were closed, her face almost peaceful as the glow of her left hand grew until it enveloped her whole hand, making the tips of her fingers glow bright burning white.

"Time to die," she said flatly as she put her hand on Nott's chest.

Her father watched as the energy began leeching from Nott's body in a cloud of white and grey out of him and into her hand. The rim of red in her eyes grew brighter until she now truly looked like Voldemort in Avery's eyes. Nott let out a wail as his whole body began glowing white - as if he were on fire. He thrashed in pain and tried desperately to break his bonds. Nott's skin began to change color - from white, to yellow, to brown. He began to look wizened; his body almost looked as if it were caught in its own time bubble; time was speeding up aging him decades in seconds. His hair began to grow and turn silver-white, age spots appeared on his face; and finally his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he breathed his last.

She pulled her hand back and looked at what she had done. She felt justified; but nothing more. It was just another job - With fringe benefits. She turned to Mark and he simply shrugged. She laughed at his intrusion into her mind. She knew she needed him as much as the Tuuk-Tsarith to ground her. She put her right hand on his shoulder. He cupped it with his own.

"Got to finish, Chief," he said softly. She nodded in return and turned to Avery.

"One more snake - then we can go home," she whispered aloud as she walked over to the last one. He pulled against his bonds, but even he knew that without his wand or his trusted knife - he was done for. He knew wandless magic - but he wasn't sure it would be enough. He had to try....

"You like knives," she stated simply as she reached into his boot and pulled out his weapon of choice. She eyed the blade as she pulled it out of its craved leather sheath and rolled the hilt in her right hand.

"Nice balance. Beautiful workmanship. I remember this weapon - right down to the ivory accents in the hilt. I took up hand to knife combat because of you and this bloody thing." She held the weapon out in front of her, the point towards her as she looked down the edge of the blade.

Avery concentrated every fiber of his being onto the knife and it suddenly twisted out of her hands, reared up and buried itself into her left shoulder. She laughed heartily as she pulled the weapon out, her father and Ford joining her.

"You lost the bet, Mark. Fiver you owe me," she said looking towards Ford.

"As soon as we leave, I'll settle up," he answered. Avery gasped audibly when he realized there was no blood on the blade. Her arm was dry - no blood was coming out of it. It should be pouring out! his mind yelled. I hit an artery - I'm sure of it!

"It would be bleeding - if there was an artery attached to it. But there hasn't been one there - for about 15 years now," she answered softly. Suddenly she was on him, holding the weapon in her left hand - the 'injured' one - and plunged it into his chest to the hilt. Avery let out a surprised groan as she leaned into him, putting her mouth close to his ear.

"Your lung is punctured," she whispered softly, the warmth of her breath making the hairs on his neck stand. "You are drowning in your own blood." She then looked into his brown ears - defiant unto the end. "I hope the words of your Lord give you comfort. Because you'll find none here." She then pulled the knife out of him, blood gushing out of the wound. His vision began to blur as his breathing was becoming more and more difficult. Is this what it is like to die? He asked himself.

"I really wouldn't know," she answered softly. "You see, you idiots, in your infinite wisdom didn't stick around to make sure I was dead. That was your first mistake." She looked down at the blade in her hand, then cleaned it on his robes and sheathed it again. "I'm going to keep your knife. Consider it my first of many spoils of war. I'll put it to good use, I can assure you that. Soon I'll give it a home in Malfoy's chest - and then Macnair's. Oh, and don't you worry your little head about Snape. I'm saving him for last. Good-bye Pure Blood. Good-bye - and good riddance."

With that, she put her left hand on Avery's chest and he tried to scream as Nott had before. The Collector drained him as it had drained Nott and as soon as he breathed his last, she took her hand away from him.

She then looked to her father and Captain Ford. Behind him Major Holmes stood at attention along with Colonel Robertson. "Time to go home, ladies and gentlemen," she said solemnly. "Time to see if we can save another Muggleborn from the disaster of a Dark Revel."

With that, the Hidden Army boarded their transports and took off - just as the Auror Authorities arrived.

*******

Professor Kenneth Marcus Darque looked up from his readouts to his patient in the next enclosure. He sighed as he began running diagnostic programs - trying to see what would be the best next course of action concerning Miss Hermione Granger. Her back was broken - she was definitely paraplegic at best - quadriplegic as worst. One of her irises was permanently dilated. He would need to see to that very soon. Optical implants would take a while to get used to - he remembered how long Aliannas stumbled around in the dark until she learned how to use the infrared bands the new eyes could see. He would have to map her neural pathways as well - that was a nightmare in of itself. But perhaps with a Medi Witch present, his analysis could be done faster and be more complete. He shook his head as he thought of Mark. Do I want to do this again? he asked himself. He smirked as he threw the clipboard down that he had been holding in his hands. "Hell yes," he said aloud softly.

"You know, people will really think you are the 'Mad Scientist' type if you keep talking to yourself," his daughter commented as she entered the labs.

His face was pinched with fatigue as he put the fingers of his hand to the bridge of his nose. General Darque looked from him to the sectioned room holding Hermione Granger. She looked so small through the glass partitions - hooked up to so many machines laying in the worst torture device ever created by man to help those with back injuries - the Stryker Frame.

She had sent Laina in to make sure the little one did not get lost in the land of dreams. Her father then handed her the clipboard he had been perusing; it was a list all of her injuries. She sighed deeply. "How bad is she really, Dad? Is it worth trying?" From the parchments Dumbledore had sent she could tell this Granger girl was quite bright. Aliannas hoped....that she could survive.

Professor Darque took in a deep breath and stood silently, contemplating what his daughter asked. Would he let this one go? As he had let her go so many years before?

"It will not be easy. No infection has set in - that's the good part. We can begin implantation as soon as she regains consciousness. She's lost the ability to see through her right eye - I think those implants should be the first thing we focus on. She's also suffered major trauma to her spinal cord. We have to wait for the swelling to go down before we can do anything more extensive. But - we're definitely going to need another neural mapping," he finished.

Aliannas sighed deeply again. "You know, I oughtn't to tell Mark this. It'll give him nightmares." Kenneth Darque laughed out loud, brushing his hand over his daughter's shoulder. "Would you like for me to investigate if the Wizarding World can help you do the mapping faster?"

"Funny you should mention that," Darque began, his daughter crossing her arms over the front of her chest. "I am hoping that Dumbledore still has that Medi-Witch - what was her name? Pomfrey?" Aliannas nodded. "Yes - I discussed with her my work once; she seemed quite interested. If she can give me a sort of 3-D reference map - I think I can go on from there...it should cut the mapping sequence time by at least two-thirds." Aliannas nodded in understanding. Poppy Pomfrey was an incredibly knowledgeable Medi-Witch. She remembered all the times she had to visit her - her injuries had plagued almost every day of her two and a half year return to Hogwarts. Poppy had been firm but warm and caring for her. She hoped she could do the same for Miss Granger.

"I have already sent Augustus with my letter to Dumbledore and the Ministry detailing the events of this evening. I have asked them both to come here tomorrow to discuss our next course of action. I will ask Dumbledore if he will allow me to ask Madam Pomfrey to help you. I have things to discuss with Minister Fudge," she said, grinding her teeth. "first and foremost is that atrocious excuse of an article in the Prophet."

Of course the Daily Prophet had detailed the attack on the Granger Home and the deaths of all the Death Eaters later. Only they portrayed Nott and Avery as 'upstanding citizens of the highest caliber'. There was no mentioned of the tattoos blatantly showing on their left forearms. She had made sure those were left out in the open for all to see. Did every Auror on the case have their memories Obliviated?

She had finally thrown the paper down in disgust. How anyone could read such drivel was beyond her. The Muggle Authorities had reported the house destroyed by fire and the family as missing. She had already informed her contacts at MI5 what exactly had happened - and asked them to put her on alert should they hear anything - from anyone. They had informed her of other recent attacks on Muggleborns and their families. She bristled as she realized that the Ministry had done nothing to protect them. It was only Dumbledore that had sent Order members to warn the Muggleborns. Some times they were lucky and the warnings worked; most times however, they were not.

She turned to her father once again. "Dad," she called softly. "You look pretty worn. Go to bed. Laina will stay with the little one now."

Her father looked to readings the machines monitoring Granger were sending to his workstation. "It will take me a few days to assemble what she needs. Her...damage is not as extensive as yours was," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder again. "We got to her in time, Aliannas." She turned back to the little form stretched out in the Stryker Frame.

"I only hope she will feel the same way, Dad," she said softly.