Like many things in life, torture is a matter of degrees. What I had subjected Toussant's body to had varied from excruciating to downright savage; harvesting his mind for information had been more of a psychological torture. Forcing him to watch as he was betrayed by his own psyche was the proverbial straw that finally broke him. But I knew that Toussant would choose to relive those agonies and degradations for a thousand years over spending a single second reliving the horror of having his conscious personality ripped out of him.

There is no point trying to explain what he went through as I tore his mind apart. Human language simply isn't equipped to handle that level of suffering.

As I had explained to him, his mind was split into three general parts. There were the autonomic functions like breathing and heart rate, there were his memories, and then there was his personality. That was the part that made him who he was. If a person could ever be said to have a soul, or if you were trying to find the part of the mind that held a person's sense of self, that was where it was. I hadn't destroyed it, I hadn't broken it, I had brutally ripped it all out of him. It was a kind of agony that was simply beyond comprehension.

And not a single part of me felt even the smallest modicum of guilt.

What had been left of him was a shell. A shell that could walk, talk, eat, and breathe like any other healthy person. A shell that contained every single one of his memories, not just memories of things that had happened in his life, but memories of the person he used to be. So when I had roughly and crudely created a copy of my own personality and forcefully jammed it into him, it allowed it to be able to understand and replicate how Toussant would have acted.

Driving onto the ferry to cross the English Channel was the perfect spy.

I should be clear here. I hadn't duplicated myself. Toussant was not another copy of me. The personality I had crammed into his shattered mind was essentially a comprehensive understanding of his mission, and a means to communicate with me. With small parts of my power jammed into there, I was able to bypass the shield provided by his now-healed skull and communicate with him over huge distances. I was able to pass along new instructions, see and hear what he could, or just leave him to his own devices and retrieve that information later. He was a drone.

But creating him had, according to a thoroughly swooning Fiona, required an utterly staggering amount of power.

I had left the entire group in suspense the night before. Toussant had called into his superiors, made up a lie that he knew they would buy, and then left the building. The group had watched in slack-jawed amazement, all of them able to see that my plan had been successful, but none of them quite willing to believe their eyes. I had left them to discuss events amongst themselves while I went to bed, promptly passed out, and slept for the equivalent of three days.

Some women are attracted to money; some are attracted to fame. Fiona was viscerally attracted to high levels of psychic power. With a giggling Faye bouncing on the balls of her feet and telling me that she told me so, Fiona had crept into my room during the early hours of the morning, stripped, crawled into bed with me, and begged me to fuck the shit out of her.

That was how Charlotte found us the next morning. I had erected a soundproof barrier around the room so as not to disturb the others, so when she walked into my room to wake me for breakfast, she found Fiona on her knees, her head pressed into the bed, her hair in my hand and pulled back to arch her spine as I pounded violently into her from behind. Every ounce of frustration and anger that I had been holding in was being fucked into Fiona's more than willing sex.

But instead of flushing, spinning around, and leaving the room as I had expected, Charlotte had simply grinned, stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and moved to the bedside chair to watch, her hand quickly finding its way into her panties.

Fiona, only noticing her presence when Charlotte let out her first sultry moan, crashed through her fourth or fifth orgasm as their eyes met. We'd both lost count at that point.

"Does she feel good cumming hard on your cock, Pete?" Charlotte purred seductively. She grinned a little wider as I could only grunt in response, her voice spurring me on to hammer into Fiona harder and slap her ass like I was trying to make it glow in the low, early-morning light. Charlotte slid off the chair and leaned over to Fiona's face. "What about you? Do you like feeling all that power being fucked into you?"

"Oh God, fuck yes!" Fiona howled. Charlotte purred, leaning down and kissing her deeply. Part of me wanted to warn my friend - my hitherto platonic friend - that the lips she was kissing were still covered in the creamy remnants of my first orgasm that I had pumped into her mouth and finished on her face.

Charlotte definitely noticed but didn't seem to mind, moaning as her tongue dueled with Fiona's before breaking away, licking her lips, flashing me a wink, and purring, "Yum. It looks like you have been having a lot of fun."

Fiona cried out as I slapped her ass again, pushing her hips down and altering my angle to batter into her g spot. "Fuck.. you... you are welcome to... fuck.. To join us!" she panted out as best as she was able.

"She is considering it." Faye grinned triumphantly in my mind, sitting on the sofa of my bunker and finger fucking herself as she watched proceedings through my screens.

Charlotte giggled and kissed her again. "I'll let you in on a little secret. Pete and I have not actually crossed that bridge... yet." She said with a wink to me. "Everyone thinks we have, though."

"Oh my god, you have to. He is fucking amazing!" Fiona groaned. "I can... I can feel the power in him every time he thrusts in. It's like he is sparking inside me!"

I frowned. "Wait... I've just realized I've never actually slept with an Evo before." I said to Faye. "Does it feel different from being with a human?"

Faye grinned teasingly. "For her, it does, yes!"

"Hmmm, good to know."

"And how did he taste?" Charlotte purred.

Fiona grinned mischievously back at her. "Well, you're licking him off your lips. You tell me."

Charlotte giggled again but didn't answer, her hand slipping back into her panties as she stroked Fiona's hair. For her part, Fiona's eyes rolled in her head, and her words devolved into a series of incoherent grunts as I pounded into her. I had already cum once in her mouth and on her face, my powers had kept me hard, but I had been in no rush to fill her for a second time. But now, with our audience, I allowed myself to build again.

Drilling in harder, faster, and deeper, I let the passion consume me. Pistoning into her like a man possessed. I had let go of Fiona's hair to let Charlotte stroke it, instead moving my hands to her hips and pulling her back onto me just as violently as I was thrusting into her. Her face was on its side on the sheet, and one of her hands was buried between her legs and furiously strumming her clit.

"Fuck, I can feel the power building!" She almost screamed, throwing herself back onto me with even greater vigor.

"He's getting close," Charlotte cooed. "He is going to fill you!"

"Oh God, Oh God, Fuck, Yes, Please. Fucking fill me!"

I may not be human, but I'm still male, and no man on earth could turn down a request like that under those circumstances.

My balls pulled up and tightened in a heartbeat. My cock swelled hard inside her, stretching her tighter as I bashed into her cervix. Then, with a carnal, primal grunt, I erupted into her. Fiona shattered the instant the first rope splashed into her, her muscles clenching so tight that she almost levitated off the bed. Howling and screaming as her pussy clamped rhythmically around me, I dumped my second enormous load into her. Panting and moaning as I stroked it all in deep.

I had barely finished. The last few spurts were still splashing weakly into her when Charlotte grinned and pushed me off her, my final eruption splashing onto Fiona's ass. "Now, get out of here. Breakfast is ready. Fiona and I are going to have some fun," she giggled before dropping her head and licking my seed from Fiona's ass. Fiona was still moaning out her climax as she was rolled onto her back, and Charlotte's tongue chased my cum into her pussy, groans coming from both of them as Charlotte cleaned Fiona of my load.

I chuckled, pulling myself to my feet and dressing unsteadily. Charlotte flashed me a wink from between Fiona's legs, and I turned and left the room with another laugh.

That simmering anger had been significantly abated. Who'd have known?

********

Uri and Marco were now totally up to date. I had kept the existence of my computer system to myself; I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't quite ready to dish out that particular piece of information.

"So, what is your plan?" Uri asked, sitting back in one of the chairs and sipping on his coffee.

"Honestly, that was the end of my plan," I half shrugged. "I'm sick of being reactive, of always being on the defensive. We may not get much from Toussant, but he will hopefully be able to give us something going forward."

Uri nodded thoughtfully. "Scienta est vox, Knowledge is power," he murmured to himself before looking around the room. "Pete was right yesterday," he announced. "We need to coordinate our efforts. I must apologize for my secretiveness, but with clear evidence of at least one Evo working for this Royal Inquisition, I didn't know who to trust."

"I think we've all been there," Jerry nodded. "Especially recently. The attack on the party came out of nowhere."

"It's a shame Toussant wasn't involved in that," Marco added. "It would have been useful to find out where they got their information from. We have always been so careful organizing them."

It was at that point that Charlotte walked back into the room, flashing me a wink and wiping the back of her hand across her lips. A gesture that none of the others seemed to notice. A very flushed Fiona followed after her. Her eyes met mine with a satisfied but demure little smile. Both of them headed into the kitchen to get a drink before sitting on either side of me on the sofa.

"Where's Evie?" I asked Charlotte as she got comfortable.

"She's still sleeping. It's been a long week for her," she whispered back as the others continued their conversation. Fiona consciously rested her weight on me from the other side and sighed contently. The rest of the group was completely oblivious to what had happened in the other room.

"So, how do you propose we coordinate our efforts?" Jerry asked around a mouthful of buttered toast.

"I don't know," Uri admitted after a moment of thought. "I would normally suggest we go on the offensive, but we don't have enough information to know how to do that."

"What about Ukraine?" I asked slowly.

"What about it?" Uri arched an eyebrow.

"It can't be a coincidence that we tracked the flight that carried the Montreaux family to Eastern Ukraine, and Toussant was supposed to be in Ukraine when he was tasked with coming after me."

"I don't believe in coincidence at the best of times," Uri nodded in his thick Ukrainian accent. I left out the coincidence that he was from there, too. "It isn't much to go off, but it is something. But you do know what is going on there at the moment, don't you?"

"The war? Yes, I am aware. Who couldn't be?"

"Right, but there isn't much we can do from here. We would need to actually go there. Are you comfortable about visiting a warzone?"

I shook my head with a sigh. "Comfort has nothing to do with it. We are at war, and thinking we can fight it from the safety of our own living rooms is ridiculous. If we are going to win this, or even survive it, we need to be willing to get down in the mud. I'm ready to go."

"And the rest of you?" Uri nodded to me before looking around the group.

"I'm ready," Marco nodded.

"Me too," Jerry added. "We need to take this fight to them."

"I can't leave," Charlotte said with a soft sigh. "I need to help fix Philippa. But I can join you later."

"Do you want me to come as well?" Fiona started. "You said..."

"No, we need someone here to hold down the fort and watch our friends," Uri said with a nod to the room where Evie was sleeping. "They have already shown a willingness to go after innocents."

Fiona nodded and snuggled into me a little more.

"You all have editing stations." Uri nodded. "I suggest you teach yourself everything there is to know about handling weapons and military combat training. Hopefully, we won't need it, but I'm not taking any chances. I have a contact in Donetsk. I can make contact with her and see what she knows about local Inquisition activities."

"Is that something that someone would just know?" Jerry scrunched up his face as he asked the question.

"It's different on the continent," Uri shrugged. "They are a lot more prolific over there. The Inquisition's presence in Britain is nothing compared to Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Even the most low-ranked informant would be aware of local activities."

"Yet, none of them have heard of the Royals?" Jerry asked dubiously.

"If they really are working in cells as Toussant suggested, that would make sense. The casual glance would just associate it with normal inquisition. We may be able to work out some sort of pattern, though."

"That sounds pretty optimistic," Jerry frowned. "But we have nothing better."

"Bob!" I sat up suddenly, amazed that I had forgotten about him. "Bob should be arriving today."

"Who is Bob?" Marco asked with a chuckle.

"Bob is Arthur, or Arnold, or something like that. He is the...." I frowned for a second. "Actually, I don't know what he is. I think he has something to do with the security of the Royal I met in The Hague. Isabelle Bernhardt. He has been seconded for us to act as an intermediary. The other Royals want this threat dealt with as much as we do."

"Can we trust an Inquisitor?" Marco arched an eyebrow.

"They had more than enough opportunity to kill him," Jerry answered for me. "I don't think there is anybody who couldn't be subjected to the same question. Not even the conclave."

"Exactly," Uri nodded. "If they are offering to help, I recommend we take it."

I refrained from pointing out that I had already accepted their help. I just nodded as well.

"When is he due to arrive?" Jerry asked.

"I dunno, let me check." I pulled out my phone and quickly scrolled through the contacts to find Bob before hitting dial.

"Hello Pete, How are you?" A voice sounded down the line after a few rings.

"Hey Bob, all good here. That... thing... Was a total success, so we are looking at future plans now. Just wondering when you will be getting here." I didn't feel comfortable giving out details over an unsecured phone line.

Bob audibly sighed at the name but didn't fight it. "I'm glad to hear your project worked out; I would love to hear about it when I get there. I am about two hours away."

"Excellent, we will see you then," I smiled down the phone, waiting for his goodbye before hanging up and turning to the rest of the group. "Two hours," I answered simply.

"Why do you call him Bob if his name is Arthur?" Uri asked, looking confused.

"To piss him off, really," I shrugged, listening with a smile as Fiona and Charlotte giggled. "They were trying to be all intimidating and threatening, and it was an easy way to show it wasn't working. The name kinda stuck... even if only for me."

Uri tilted his head for a moment, then burst out laughing. "I must admit, that is some pretty effective psychological warfare there."

"Is it?" Jerry asked, taking his turn to look confused.

"I am guessing they were a lot more agreeable after that?"

"They were, actually," I nodded with a grin.

Uri just nodded and kept laughing. "Okay, can I suggest we break for food and other housekeeping before this Bob arrives?"

With no objections, and despite only having eaten half an hour earlier, we broke for lunch.

********

"So... this morning was interesting," I arched an eyebrow at a very casual-looking Charlotte as she rested her ass against the kitchen counter while I made some grilled cheese sandwiches.

She grinned at me and wiggled her eyebrows. "It was fun, right?"

"It was," I agreed. "Just unexpected."

"Why's that?"

"I can't tell if you were interested in only Fiona or..."

"Or you?" she finished with one of those trademark teasing smiles. "Which would you prefer?"

"Oh, hell no. That is one of those minefield questions," I laughed.

She giggled and skipped close to me as I laid out the gooey cheesy goodness onto a plate, picking one up as she kissed my cheek. "Pete, we are friends. I don't intend to change that. But that doesn't mean we can't fuck every now and then. Especially if there is a hot piece of ass like Fiona involved."

And with that, and my jaw resting on the table, she skipped out with a wink over her shoulder.

********

"Bob, welcome to homebase," I smiled as I opened the door.

The older man stepped in with a polite nod and held his hand out. I shook it before leading him into the room. The last time I had seen him, he had been wearing a sharp, expensive-looking suit; that fact alone had been the reason why Isabelle's insistence that Bob was "a fighter" had been so hard to believe. He looked like he would have made an excellent manager, maybe someone who worked with stupid amounts of money, but he absolutely did not look like someone who often saw the outside of an office.

Being led into the room, however, was a completely different side of the man. He still looked old; his appearance hadn't changed that much, mid-fifties at a guess. But instead of wearing a formal suit and dress shoes, he was wearing cargo pants and a plain white, loose-fitting t-shirt. It was as if he had chosen these clothes to be as plain as possible. He carried a rucksack over his shoulder, but aside from that, the casual observer would struggle to pick out a single identifying feature about his appearance.

"Thank you, Pete. It's good to be here."

"Bob, let me introduce you to everyone. This is Uri," I said, pointing to the large bald man on one of the chairs, "This is Marco, Jerry, Fiona, and Charlotte," I finished, gesturing to each of them as I went around the room. "Everyone, this is Bob."

I left out Evie; she was still sleeping, and the fewer people who knew about her, the better.

"Nice to meet you all," Bob said with a bow after everyone had greeted him. "I hope this can be the start of a more healthy working relationship between our orders going forward. Would you mind bringing me up to date on everything that has happened since The Hague?"

"Not at all," I said, offering Bob a seat next to Uri as I retook mine between the two ladies. "So, where to start."

To save a bit of time, I will just say that I spent the next few hours walking Bob through everything. The attack in the sand dunes, laying the trap when I got home, the Royal's attack on Mary's family, the taking of Evie and Becky, the attack on Philippa, the battle at the warehouse, the conditions Philippa was in when we finally found her, and finally, a very graphic description of what I had done to Toussant over the past few days. A description that left the otherwise stoic-looking Bob looking rather pale.

It struck me as odd that nobody had asked how I had been able to track the Inquisitors. I know I had said that I could "see" the voids of their minds during the party attack, but nobody had thought to ask how that had translated to tracking them over greater distances. It's not like I had an explanation chambered and ready to go, but it probably would have been one of the first questions I had asked if roles had been reversed, if only so I could have done it as well.

Nevertheless, the question remained unasked.

What was most surprising, however, was Bob's reaction to the revelation that it was his skull that was stopping us from reading his as he sat there.

"We always suspected that there was a physiological explanation for why we are immune to your powers," he said in shock, "rather than a psychic one. But as you can imagine, willing volunteers have been hard to come by, and even then, we haven't had a willing Evo to help us experiment."

"You don't seem particularly concerned with what Pete did to Toussant," Jerry said carefully.

"I'm not," Bob shrugged. "The man was a coward, a murderer, and a traitor. He deserved all of it. If anything, I am relieved to hear it was as painful as it sounded. I know my superiors will not be displeased."

"And how is Isabelle?" I asked with a smile, finally sitting back into the chair to be instantly cuddled into by Fiona. Bob seemed to be the only one to notice.

"The Lady Bernhardt is well," Bob replied, matching my smile. "She is obviously very concerned about events here, more so that one of our own was involved, but otherwise, she is as well as can be expected. She sends her regards."

I nodded. I hadn't had the chance to report in to Isabelle since Boxing day. Well, to be fair, I'd had plenty of chances, but my mind was occupied with other matters. "I will make time to call her soon," I promised.

"I'm sure she would love to hear from you," Bob said with another nod. "She liked you. Now, you said something about a mission to Ukraine?"

Uri cleared his throat. "Yes, we were. We were wondering what sort of assets or support you have in the Donetsk area."

"Assets, I'm not sure about," Bob replied after a few seconds of thought. "I would need to make a call to check what is currently there. But as for our support, I am authorized to offer you the full support of the Inquisition. Anything you may need will be offered to you."

Uri's eyes widened. "Anything? I... I wasn't expecting that."

Bob nodded. "Yeah," he drew out the first word. "Pete has made us aware that you are working under the impression that we are at war. I can assure you, the real inquisition bears no ill will to any Evo. We do, however, take extreme exception to acts of violence being carried out in our name. These traitors are threatening to disrupt a peace that, for us at least, has held for more than two centuries. Whatever support you need to destroy them is yours. No questions asked."

Uri, Marco, and Jerry shared a surprised but relieved-looking glance between them. "We appreciate that, and we hope that this becomes a peace that Evos can enjoy too." The most senior of them said with a respectful bow.

"Is there anything you can think of off the top of your head that you will need?" Bob asked. "We will get anything you want, but actually transporting it there will take a little time, so the earlier you request it, the better."

Uri nodded. "I can get a list for you by the end of the day, but weaponry will be the biggest thing, and transport. Both to get there and local transport. Oh, actually, there is one thing. Do you think you would be able to give us a comprehensive list of all Inquisitor activities in the Eastern Ukraine area? I have a contact on the ground who has been watching them."

Bob frowned for a second before raising his eyebrows and nodding with a smile. "And you are thinking that by cross-referencing known inquisitor activities with the ones your contact has seen, you will be able to identify the Royals."

"Yes, any discrepancies between what you know about and what is actually happening may not be guaranteed to be Royal activity, but some of it will be. If we can find that, we can start to track them."

Bob nodded. "That won't be a problem, I can make a call, and Lady Bernhardt should be able to get that information for me by the end of today or tomorrow at the latest. When are you thinking of leaving?"

Uri looked around the group. "However long it takes everyone to pack."

"Good thing we're not coming then," Fiona joked. Charlotte giggled and nodded on the other side of me.

"Can you imagine," she laughed. "They would be ready to go, and we would still be picking out which suitcase to use."

Jerry snorted a laugh, but Uri and Marco were now whispering between themselves.

"Care to share with the group?" I called over to them.

"Marco is expressing reservations about using an Inquisitor safe house," Uri said with a huff.

"I understand you are the organizer of the party that was attacked," Bob chirped up. Marco nodded. "Then your hesitancy is understandable, expected even. We are here to back you up. You are under no obligation to use anything we offer."

"Please forgive me," Marco said quietly. "I have spent my life being scared of you. Inquisitors were the enemy. They were dangerous. It was as simple as that. I have lost friends to people like you, a lot of them. We have always known to avoid doing anything that could attract the attention of the inquisition, and now, not only are we using your transport to go to war, but we are using your guns, your information, and your safe houses. I am incredibly grateful for your help, I truly am, but this new reality is going to take time to get used to."

"I understand," Bob nodded with a smile.

Uri looked around the group again. "If there is nothing else, Can we meet back here in a few hours, packed and ready to go?"

I nodded, standing with everyone else. "I will take Evie back home. Fiona can watch her there. Bob, the place is yours until we come back. Feel free to raid the fridge."

********

An hour later, I was back in my apartment, pushing the door through the surprising amount of mail that had been delivered over the past two weeks. Evie and Fiona had been safely stashed back at her place and I had double-checked that Jeeves was watching the area like a hawk. It didn't take me long to pack my things, less than half an hour once I had found my suitcase.

Charlotte came with me and quietly helped. I pulled the needed clothes out of the wardrobe, she folded and packed them.

"I need you to be careful," She finally said, breaking the silence.

"I know, Charl, I will be, I promise."

"I'm serious. You don't need to be a hero. You don't need to save everybody. I just need you back here safe. Okay?"

"Okay," I smiled reassuringly and pulled her into a hug.

We stayed that way for a while, several minutes passing in comfortable, contented silence.

"So, what you were saying earlier about friends who fuck..." I joked, trying to ease the tension.

Charlotte looked up at me with a smile and a soft giggle. "Okay, get your kit off."