Viola took in a long breath as she stood outside the double doors to the 9th Circle. It felt as though she hadn't even laid eyes on the place in months…the fact that she'd only been there a short few days ago made her head hurt.

She looked down on herself, her usual black leather armour modified with raider sadist spikes and a Mirelurk armour plate clung as protection to her. Despite her thick exterior, she felt emotionally rubbed raw.

"You ready, Smoothskin?" Charon said in his low resonating voice filling her ears with its firm warmth.

"Does he know about…?" She felt her mouth go dry and she gestured to the injured side of her face. The white bandages had been removed and Barrows had found her a more permanent black leather patch to cover her empty socket, the white scar dribbling out from underneath it.

"Yes."

"Oh wonderful."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Of course," Viola answered quickly and before she allowed her brain to think too much she flung open the door and marched in, her large combat style boots clumping heavily on the floor.

No way was this bastard going to get to her.

Ahzruhkal looked lazily up from the bar, eyes resting on Viola and a small smile slunk across his lips.

"Ah, the battle scarred Valkyrie returns," He called over to her as she paced over, head held high and lips tight.

"Ahzruhkal," She said bluntly in greeting, a short nod of her head.

"I can't quite place it, but something about you looks…different…" He purred, head angled in mock confusion.

"Yes. I look nearly as ugly as you now." Viola said plainly, facial expression unchanging.

Ahzruhkal barked out a wheezing laugh.

"I see your manners haven't gotten any better since we last saw each other?"

"Nope," She replied curtly, crossing her arms.

"The once beautiful little spring flower…and now look at you…just as pretty as me…" Ahzruhkal sighed, moving around the bar and slumping down into a chair.

Viola couldn't help but twitch. She realised admitting her new appearance to herself was easier than hearing about it from someone else…even if it was Ahzruhkal.

"Couldn't have been easy for you…"

"I'll get over it."

"Really? You see…I don't think you can."

"I've already dealt with it, Ahzruhkal. Can we drop it?" Viola Replied in a monotone voice.

"Then why are you trying so hard to show me no emotion whatsoever?"

Viola said nothing, but scowled. Ahzruhkal chuckled in a pitying tone.

"Charon, do you remember turning into a ghoul?" Ahzruhkal asked the stoic face that stared down on him.

"No," Charon answered. In fact, he remembered hardly anything from before the institution. He had occasional memories that would bubble to the surface of his mind before lightly popping out of existence. It hardly served him any use to look into the past anyway.

"I do. I remember how my skin began to split and how my voice started to crack. I was quite a handsome fellow before, if I do say so myself." Ahzruhkal sighed whimsically before he snickered.

"What do I mean, before?" Ahzruhkal cracked open a bottle of whiskey, taking such a huge chug Viola was surprised she couldn't see the lump travel down his neck all the way into his stomach.

"Jesting aside, we have a mild problem…" Ahzruhkal shrugged, wiping his mouth with the back of his crusting hand.

"What?" Viola could hardly stop her voice from hissing.

"Well…you'll have to learn to aim again. Completely from scratch."

Viola felt her heart seize up. Oh God no.

"I can do that. Did it once before and I'll do it again."

"How do you know it's going to work this time? You no longer have depth perception," Ahzruhkal leaned forward, a cocktail of curiosity and fake worry splashed across his face.

"It will." Viola insisted, although inside she didn't feel nearly as confident as her words illustrated.

"I don't know…you're in trouble here, Charcoal…"

"No I am not!" Viola growled, unable to think up a retort.

"I need a job doing…tonight." Ahzruhkal sniffed.

"I can do that." Viola answered immediately without hesitation.

"You see, I don't think you can…does your contract come with a warranty concerning faulty goods?"

"It's not like I'm a cripple!" Viola snapped, no longer concerned with trying to keep calm.

Ahzruhkal smirked. One of the greatest pleasures in his life was making people squirm.

"Oh I think you'll find you are."

"What's the job?" Viola grumbled.

"What was that? Really Charcoal you shouldn't mumble…"

"What. Is. The. Job?" Viola hissed through her teeth which were clamped so tightly together she was almost wincing.

"I will debrief Charon. He'll be doing this one alone. You're not necessary. Obsolete…."

"Let me do the job!" Viola snarled, hardly managing to control her shaking.

"…No. I'll just have to think of another use for you. I'm not giving you Charon's contract if you can't continue to uphold your half of the bargain." Ahzruhkal snickered.

Viola tore her stare away from him. This was bad. This was so bad. What if he refused to hand over the contract? She couldn't threaten him, not when Charon was acting like his living, murdering shadow.

She didn't even hear what the job was. She stood motionless, watching Ahzruhkal's peeling lips etch around words. The more she watched she felt her own lips grow sore. She licked them and looked down.

Charon's voice grabbed her attention and she watched him pace heavily out of the room, shotgun in hand. The door swung shut and Viola stood unmoving in the middle of the bar.

"I'll give you twenty four hours for you to think up a new job that you can do to remain useful to me for the next two weeks of your contract…"

"What!?" Viola burst out striding towards Ahzruhkal who was now lazily leaning across the bar.

"I didn't realise a loss of an eye could affect hearing too," Ahzruhkal snorted in amusement.

"But….the contract says…"

"You said it yourself. In return for Charon's contract you will work for me doing exactly what I say so long as it doesn't conflict with your two rules. If you are unable to do as I say then I'm afraid we have a problem."

"But-"

"Twenty four hours. Unless, you'd like me to think up another way of using you?" Ahzruhkal's trade mark snake smirk slithered over his lips as he allowed his eyes crawl over her.

"I hate you."

"I try my damned hardest."

…

By the time Viola had trudged up the steps to the bar precisely twenty four hours after she had last been there, she still didn't know what she was going to say.

There was nothing she could say. She shuddered. She had to do something. Perhaps she could prove that she was still capable of fighting? Of course, she would have to put her life on the line for that but what else did she have to give? If she couldn't aim when she was out on one of Ahzruhkal's jobs then how was she hoping to survive long enough to learn how to aim again when she was out doing what she was meant to be doing before she wandered into this mad house.

It was all she had. She took a shaking breath and stepped forward before pausing as she heard laboured breath and boots pounding up the staircase behind her.

"Tourist!" Willow rasped out, the little hair that remained on her head tangled as she grinded to a halt in front of Viola.

"What? What's wrong?" Viola asked urgently, a feeling of dread rising in the pit of her stomach. Willow looked worried. Willow never looked worried.

"It's Charon…"

"What? Willow tell me what's happened!?" Viola pressed, feeling her blood roar through her veins.

"I was out on my rounds, I decided to head out a bit further than I usually do…you know it gets a bit tedious out there if nothing's going on, and I saw Charon coming back from whatever the hell Ahzruhkal had him out to do…"

"Go on, what happened next?" Viola managed to ask, her dry throat tingling as she spoke.

"I don't know who they were. They must have been pretty good to be able to ambush him like that. Charon managed to take out most of them but I think that just made the others left madder. He must have ran out of bullets after a while, and you can get far in a fire fight if you don't have a gun. Charcoal I'd tell you who they were but I don't know, but they seemed to take him away up North…I thought you ought to know." Willow finished and Viola could feel her head start to spin.

He'd told her he was running low on ammunition. She didn't think he was that low.

"Why on earth didn't you help him!?" Viola hissed at Willow who shook her head.

"Smoothskin they were too far away. The only way I could tell it was Charon was because of his size. That's why I can't even tell you what these people that took him looked like…I know they weren't Talon Mercs but that's it."

"I need to find him," Viola tried to run past Willow who wrapped her hand round her arm.

"You need to tell Ahzruhkal. I hate the bastard but I think I'd hate what he'd do to you more if he found out you scarpered without telling him, especially when he finds out about Charon." Willow told her, releasing her arm.

Viola turned on her heels and ran into the bar, straight up to Ahzrruhkal who looked up in surprise at the sudden movement.

"Smoothskin?" Ahzruhkal narrowed his eyes.

"Ahzruhkal…it's Charon! He's gone!"

"Impossible." Ahzruhkal snarled.

"No! He ran out of ammo, and some people have captured him! Shit I should have killed them when I had the chance I-"

"You know who they are?"

"Yes. Charon and I ran into some slavers, they were talking about selling Charon off to some guy…I can't remember his…no, it was a German name…Dietrich! I don't know if that means anything but…"

" It means something. Smoothskin, we're going to get my property back. Who knows, maybe you can prove that you're still of some use without your ability to aim." Ahzruhkal pulled out his twin pistols and lay them on the bar, smirking.

"Oh yes. This is going to be fun."

Oh God I haven't updated in so long. I'm so sorry guys, I literally haven't had time to breath with all these bloody assignments I'm doing!

Thank you all so much for the reviews! I've had a couple of people ask if I'll continue this after Viola gets the contract, and I'm going to leave you guys hanging on that one, you'll find out when you find out!

I'm going home for Christmas this week, so no more work and more updates.

Again, thank you so much for your support, you guys are awesome. All the best till next time!