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I felt good for awhile after that. I know I'd protested at first, but being a beautiful woman wasn't all that bad once you got used to it. Kyle and I hadn't wasted our time playing yahtzee or monopoly, by the way.

It was kind of funny. The guy obviously felt more naked when he took off his mask than he did without his clothes. Kinda like cowboys and their boots or hats.

But that particular cowboy definitely didn't kiss his horse.

My good mood evaporated fast once I downloaded the things he'd given me on that thumb drive.

Instead of the near twenty victims Charlie had admitted to, there were actually thirty-six of them.

Thirty-six men, males, ripped from their lives and forced into something opposite of anything they'd known or most of them even imagined. A lot of those had been married, and had children.

I almost threw up after first reading that file. These people hadn't simply destroyed individuals, they had ripped families apart.

And for what?

Profit, rewards, bribes, expediency, and the desire to make another human being suffer. In many cases, the victims had simply been in the way of some other ambitious person.

And before you question just how people in important positions like that could disappear without causing a stir, think about this. Thirty-six unfortunates out of millions. People disappear all the time. Or just withdraw from what they have been doing. Sadly, the searches for these unfortunates were at best desultory, and in some cases didn't happen at all.

Mitsuko had been an up and coming midddle level executive in a corporation with a rival who wanted him out of the way, had the shady connections and sadistic bent to condemn his rival to what happened, and wished to see his rival suffer. At 2.5 mil, she had gone cheap because they wanted the goodwill of the 'husband' they prepared her for. And because her former rival had paid a substantial sum to make certain the man she used to be disappeared forever.

Most of the girl slaves this bunch created sold for more than ten million, and some for much more than that. One, put up for auction, had finally sold for 150 mil.

Up to now, hate had always been kind of an abstract for me. Even in my former life, I had just done the job and not thought about it that much. I'd been doing that since my 'resurrection' to a point, but I had been at least thinking about the things I'd done and why I did them. But hate, real hate — the kind that can poison you if you let it go too far — hadn't ever been something I'd dealt with.

Until now.

“Inez!” Fernando Reyes called to the lovely, petite maid polishing his cherished, and antique silver coffee set. “Come here.”

The girl was beyond simply beautiful. Her perfectly oval face, full, wet looking mouth, and large, wide, soft brown eyes, combined with a shape that would have been the envy of a Playboy Bunny left what she was doing and approached her employer, owner, master with a provocative little smile.

“Si Patron?' She questioned. Once she had spoken English, had grown up with the language, but now that was as foreign to her as her memories of having been male. So much had been stolen from her. She hated what she had been forced to become, longed for release, but none of that made a bit of difference. She had been formed to please whoever owned her. She had even given up on resenting the fact, or even fighting it if only that happened in her mind. The pain was too all enveloping, too insidious, to endure for long. And the pleasure when she performed correctly — was like a drug that she was addicted to.

“You know what I want.” Fernando grinned and gestured to his crotch.

“Si, Patron.” Inez answered in her low, velvety contralto.

“Do you miss speaking English?” He taunted as his hands worked through the soft, thick, glossy black hair that fell in lovely waves to her enticingly lovely bottom. “The one-hundred-fifty million I spent to get you was worth it.”

Inez didn't answer. Her mouth was full.

“Big, important DEA agent,” Fernado gloated. “And now you're happily sucking my cock, chica. Don't forget to lick me clean when you're done, by the way.”

She did that, then without comment, went back to polishing the silver.

I'd had enough. Killing him was messy, really messy. And slow.

Then I killed his lieutenants, and the ones under them, then the dealers that were in his compound.

Then the mercenaries he'd hired who hadn't had enough sense to run and were foolish enough to try and shoot me.

Had I killed some innocents there? I doubted it. Every male in the compound had taken advantage of Inez's charms and many of them had even known who and what she had been originally.

One had, surprisingly, actually fallen in love with the poor thing. Him I spared.

“Inez, Jesus.” I appeared in front of them. Jesus, bless him, had actually fought his way to be close to Inez so he could protect her. “You two are safe from me.”

“You know.” Inez almost whispered as she looked at me in all my nasty glory as the Spectre. “You know what happened to me. Even here we have heard of La Fantasma.”

“Yes, I know.” I softly told her then shook my head. “I'm sorry, I can't restore you. But what I can do is give you some free will back. You have a man who loved you enough to risk his life to reach and protect you in Jesus, you could do a lot worse.”

“I know Fantasma.” She nodded then leaned into and hugged the man. “Just give me enough to be a real person instead of a living, breathing sex doll. That is all I ask.”

I reached into her mind and made the adjustments I could, then went a bit further and made her soul comfortable with what she had become. Don't ask me how I did that. It was kind of like walking into a large control room and flipping a few switches.

“Done.” I told her. “When the Policia come, be sure that your are not here, they won't trouble themselves with searching for a poor maid who somehow survived a power play from a rival drug lord. Then you can go live your life as it is now.”

“I will, Fantasma.” She nodded and gave me a slow, hesitant smile. “Gracias.”

“And you.” I turned to Jesus, who was a very nice looking man, not large, but obviously strong even if he wasn't all that good looking. “Take care of her. I will be watching.”

“No problema, Fantasma.” He answered fervently. “I have seen what you can do, but if you wanted to hurt Inez, I would still stand between her and you.”

“That,” I smiled and gave his arm a squeeze, “is what I wanted to hear. Go, before the Policia come, take her away from here, do your best to make her happy, she has suffered much.”

“She will suffer no more.” He answered. “Not if I can help it.”

I gave him, and her a hug. They both flinched, but that was no surprise since I'd done it in my Spectre form. “Be well, live long, be happy.”

“You are no evil thing, Fantasma.” Jesus said as I rose into the air. “You are an angel.”

“Maybe.” I answered. “Angels aren't known for being all that nice either, so I'll give you that much. “Take care of her, love her.”

“Si, bonita Fantasma, Si.” He answered.

I couldn't answer that one. Just nodded, then went somewhere else.

Inez wasn't the worst I found..

I did what I could without raising suspicions among the people I was hunting. The people I took out had powerful enemies themselves and it wasn't all that odd that they had been killed. But I only managed to free, as well as I could, five of the victims that way. Five others I gave the same out that Helena had taken.

The other twenty-five I could do nothing about just then. And that hurt.

But I had information, a lot of it, and more connections to pass along to my allies in this crusade, or whatever it was.

People, a lot of wealthy, powerful people, were going to suffer, and if they were lucky, die as a result of the things I was learning.

If they weren't lucky? I'm sure you can figure that one out on your own.

I know I'm not a nice person a lot of the time. Often enough, I'm not a good one, either.

“Here you go, Lena.” I announced as I showed up in her workroom, and yes, I had called first. Scaring my friends out of their wits isn't something I like to do if it can be avoided. “I have computer links, emails, financial trails, and even some paper to corroborate some of that.”

I'm not going to ask how you got all this.” Lena accepted the DVDs, notes, and files I handed her. But were you the cause of that mess in Bolivia a few days ago?”

“Which mess?” I asked.

“The one where that Cartel guy who'd been propping up a lot of their government officials got killed, along with all his lieutenants, and about a ton of other people working the Drug trade?”

“He paid 150 million dollars for a former DEA agent.” I shrugged. “The other ones just kind of got in the way.”

“Is she dead?” Lean questioned. “The DEA agent?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I fixed what I could in her head, and she has a man who really loves her. Loves her enough to stand between her and me if he thinks I'm threatening her, by the way.

“She's safe, and has a new identity.” I answered.

“Okay, but what if someone finds her even so?”

“I'm watching.” I answered. “I've managed to free five of those chip slaves, at least after a fashion. Six others, including Helena are dead, the the ones I managed to break loose have new identities and are with people who will do whatever is needed to take care of and protect them. It's the best I can do right now. The genetic changes can't be reversed. Every time this bunch tries that they end up with a screaming pile of goo until it can't scream any longer.”

“Is that in these files, too?” Lena appeared as sick as I had felt when I discovered that one.

“Yes, have a trash can handy when you read those and watch the vids.”

“I will.” She answered. “Should I give this stuff to the others?”

“Yes.”

“Kyle, the Green Lantern one, has contacted me, should I send this to him, too?”

“No, I'll deliver another set of the information to him myself.”

She actually grinned once I said that. “Got yourself another boyfriend, do you?”

“If he kissed and told, I am sooo going to hurt him.” I grumbled.

“He didn't!” Lena crowed. “But you just did!”

Am I ever going to get used to all this girl stuff?

Kyle, the GL one had actually cleaned the ship up. I was impressed. “Wow, this looks like someone actually lives here instead of it being an orbiting garbage dump. And the alarm didn't go off when I showed up this time.”

“Set the alarm to let me know when you came and told it not to rouse the dead otherwise.” Kyle grinned at me then waved at the surroundings. “I take it you like this better?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned. “That time my foot got caught in that old Chinese takeout carton and I felt things trying to eat my toes just about made up my mind to stay away from here.”

“Things kind of — mutate — out here if you don't watch them carefully.” He actually looked embarrassed about that one, but it had been pretty gross. No, it had been really gross. Took me an hour to clean my boot after that happened. And another hour to make it nice and shiny again.

“I have something for you.” I smiled.

“You always have 'something for me' when you show up.” He chuckled and took me into a hug.

“Well, yeah.” I hugged him back then pulled away and handed him the package I'd brought with me. “But this is really something, not the other thing we do.”

“You found them.” He nodded, referring to the chip victims who were out in the world just now.

“Yeah, and I could only get about five of them loose.” I sighed. “But I got a pile of interesting stuff while I was checking on all of them. This stuff is what I found. Might be helpful.”

“I'm sure it will be.”

He took the airtight package I'd handed him, touched a wall, then put it into what looked like a garbage chute that had opened up. When he saw my expression he laughed. “Not to worry, I just fed it all to the computer.”

“Handy.” I shook my head.

“Very.” Kyle agreed then started giving me that 'man who sees a woman he really likes and already has a relationship started with' look. “It will take a few minutes for the computer to digest that. Want to wait and see what it finds when it starts searching?”

'Welll,” I grinned back at him. “I think I have a few minutes here.”

Okay, it was more like an hour, or two.

Let me tell you, I was one well satisfied little Fury, or whatever I was, when that was done.

And yes, to all of you missed that before. He did take off his mask.

“Some of this stuff could cause governments to fall.” Kyle was reading the files I'd brought.

“Some of those I wouldn't regret.” I answered. “The others, things can be arranged quietly, I think, I hope.”

“What are you thinking about this one?” He asked then pointed at a powerful Middle Eastern leader.

“You don't really want to know.” I told him.

“Probably not.” Kyle shrugged, but persisted. “But?”

“Infertile,” I answered, “not fit to be or capable of being a wife or concubine in that culture. Slave, dancer, whore.”

“You know,” He answered that with a little shudder and a sigh, “you can really be nasty at times.”

“It's what I am.” I shrugged.

“I should be horrified, trying to stop you from doing things like that.” He shook his head then hugged me. “But I can't, and won't. These people deserve what they get, it's cruel and very vengeful. But I've seen another side of you, too.”

“Don't spread that last one around.” I grinned and kissed him. “It would absolutely ruin my reputation.”

“Samira.” The soft voice intruded on the blissful darkness Charlie had been in.

“Not Samira.” He answered dully and was punished for that with a pain so blinding, so all encompassing, that he didn't even realize he'd writhed so much he'd fallen off his cot and landed on the floor.

“You are who I say you are, what I say you are.” The man with the soft voice went on as if nothing had happened at all once the pain had gone away. It's truly amazing just how much pain the human body can endure, especially if it isn't really physical, isn't it? The mind, though, that's a different thing most of the time. So you will end up being who and what I tell you regardless. Struggle, fight it, and you'll feel that pain, and trust me, it could and will get worse if you don't cooperate. Be a good little girl, do what you're told, and you'll feel pleasure like you never imagined in your life, though.

“The choice is yours.” His trainer shrugged. “We don't need your mind intact to get the results we want, you know that.”

Charlie didn't answer, he was too busy panting, and trying not to vomit, but he heard.

“Now.” The trainer smiled. “Let's start again, shall we? What is your name?”

That pain had just about knocked me for a loop, too, though I shunted it aside at the last minute while watching my victim starting the first phases of her training. Charlie didn't exist any longer, at least not physically. The girl he had become was as helpless, and terrified, as any other 'products' that hellish place produced had been.

Justice.

Harsh, yes, but nothing less than he deserved.

Why, then, was I feeling sorry for him? Why was I raging about the abuses he was being subjected to?

And why, above all, I asked the gods, did I feel shame at having manipulated circumstances to arrive at this stage?

“That is our curse, little one.” Tisiphone's oddly gentle voice entered my swirling thoughts. “To give pain, one must understand it. Vengeance not only affects those it is delivered to.”

“No wonder,” I closed my eyes and fought the tears threatening to get past my tightly shut eyelids, “you and your sisters went insane.”

“True enough.” She answered. “Yet you have a strength we did not possess, Diana.”

“What would that be?'

“Your humanity.” She answered simply. “My sisters and I were created from nothing, we had no experience with humans until we were unleashed on them. Unlike us, when you were reborn, you already knew that humans can also be good, noble creatures. That is the strength, the experience you must hold to through this.”

“I hope that's enough.” I let out a shuddering sigh.

“So do I, dear one.” She answered quietly. “So do I.”