Donna flinched as the girl grabbed her arm. Before she could say anything, though, reality shifted around them and they were... somewhere else. An alley in a city she didn't recognize. "What're we doing here--and you'd better put us back before he realizes I'm gone."

"No way he's getting near you again." the girl replied. "And I brought you here because you need to get away from Tompkins and I have to get a little girl off the street before something happens to her as well."

Donna looked at the girl, who didn't seem to be much older than she herself was. "I can't, he'll kill me." Donna despaired.

"He's blackmailed you too, You are being forced, I can tell."

Donna bit her lip, not wanting to say anything, then realized NT had already figured out that much so what was the point? But there was still a lot she didn't know, she couldn't. "I work for him, yes." was all she'd let herself say.

"No, it's more than that and we both know it. He's raped and abused so many women it's sick."

"Tell me about it." Donna murmured, then caught herself. Damn it she hadn't meant to let *that* slip. But now that she had...she shook her head. "I guess you could call me part of the harem, too. Right along with Christine and Tracy." she said bitterly. "They loved everything he did with them, and he said I'd get used to it eventually, that I'd even get to like it the way they did."

NT's eyes flashed dangerously and Donna felt magic flaring up around her. Some nearby gravel jumped and scattered as if it'd been driven over. NT shook and tears ran down her cheeks.

NT's free hand clenched tightly. After a sudden, quick bout of sobbing, she managed to pull herself together enough to say, "I'm sorry,. I'd hoped at least he hadn't gotten around to that with you yet. Wait'll Capri finds out, she'll wanna grill him alive. Not that she doesn't already, same as the rest of us." Then NT explained all about the trial and what would be in store for Tompkins.

Donna shook her head, trying to keep from crying again. Damn it she could feel the tears despite her struggle to hold them back. "No! no you can't interfere--you mustn't. It'll only make things worse." If she gave anything away about Nathan, her mother would end up paying for it. Of that she had no doubt.

"They'll nothing. Whatever he has on you is not going to be held against you or anybody else you love. Tompkins has played this hand so many times already, he uses people's fears that something might happen if anything's done to him, as a kind of shield."

NT met Donna's eyes, hoping to reassure her. "At the trial, we are not going to put you or your family through anything. If somebody else is being employed by Tompkins to try anything to you or your family, it's best to tell me who "they" are, so we can either free them from obligation if they too are being forced, or else try them right along with Nathan, Tracy, and Christine."

"Christine." Donna sighed. "I know. When you and your friends made her disappear...!" She couldn't finish.

NT continued. "She and Tompkins planned this all along and you got caught right in the middle of it. I know Christine is behind that magic in there and I know what it's supposed to do, but it doesn't have to stay that way."

Donna's brown eyes darkened. "She...she hurt me, too. Those collars...how do you think she checked them out, made sure they'd do what she w-wanted them to?" She sniffled. "But he was so angry when she didn't come back. You don't even want to know what he was like then."

"I've seen his flares of temper let me tell you. I know all too well what he's like! And it doesn't surprise me in the least that Christine used these horrid things on you too! She used to experiment on Ameh all the time with this drug or that spell!" NT looked upset, but she took a moment to calm herself.

Then, in a softer tone, she continued. "You have to be brave now, and trust us. We want him gone, and we will see him gone, but we need your cooperation and that of others who have been bullied by this bloomin useless worthless vile nazi-minded gigolo. I am the daughter of one of his victims, and I took away his magic. And you know, I regret not just letting myself all out kill him when I had the chance. God Help me, I've always thought it was wrong to kill, but now..."

Donna didn't know what to say to this. Damn it sometimes she felt the same about Tompkins herself, after one of his...special...visits to her room, but no. She couldn't let herself think that way. She couldn't. She remained silent, letting NT rant on.

NT told her what she knew about Tompkins, including what she learned about the way he operated and that he needed a good dressing down, and the people needed to be safe, hence, the trial. She finished with "This time, he won't get out alive."

"But he will. He won't die now. You heard him--and that bitch that showed up's making sure of that. Besides, even if she doesn't, you can't kill him, he's all I've g-got." she sobbed, hating both Tompkins for putting her in this spot where she had to plead for him, and herself for doing it. But what choice did she have?

"Wrong." NT said firmly. "Even if he does get turned, which I hope he doesn't, we still have the source of this magic he's using you to hold over everybody else. Christine is the only one who can disenchant it, and that's exactly what she's gonna do when I'm through with her. You can't just let Tompkins bully you any more, he's got you thinking he's all you have but that's a pile of crap!"

"You don't understand." Donna cried. "My mother's in prison. Embezzlement. It would've been murder if Tompkins hadn't found the evidence that kept them from convicting her of that. And you know what they do to people convicted of murder?" She sniffled. "He got her off damn it, and then said I had to come and work for him."

She took another deep breath, trying to keep from losing it long enough to finish. "He could always tell the police he was wrong, you know, and then there'd be no stopping Mother getting convicted this time. I *can't* take a ch-chance with her life for Godsakes!" ~and what are you doing to yours?~ an inner voice asked, a voice she promptly told to shut the hell up. "And if he turned me out where the hell would I go? I'd be out on the streets, that's where."

"Well, he's sure got you scared and right where he wants you!" NT retorted. "You're not going out on the streets. Your mom isn't going to get convicted of anything, neither is the bugger going to get a chance to tell them anything, least of all making up some lie about being wrong about your mom. OK? It's not her who's gonna pay, it's Tompkins. I told you all about the plans already. It doesn't matter what she got mixed up in in the past, Tompkins is not getting any option to drudge any of that up."

Donna bit her lip.

Taking her silence as an ok, NT continued. "I don't know how to make that any clearer. And I haven't got all night, we have to pick up Susan Myles and get you back to my place and I need to get Christine to disenchant that magic so we can get everybody out alive. You want to get out of Tompkins's and Benson's clutches and I want to help you, so you're going to have to trust me on this one. Because you just can't go on living like this."

"Do you think I *want* to?" Donna cried. "It's not like I had a choice!"

NT nodded and went on. "I just wish we had known about you before now, before things got so bad. We'll have to introduce you to Capri, she's been up against Nathan types before and won. And if she finds out what Tompkins did to you she's gonna blow her stack big time...especially since you look young. You're uh...in your early teens, am I right?"

Donna stared at NT, then nodded, slowly. "So what if I am? You don't look so old yourself. And I was 14 my last birthday. Which was, if you must know, just before Thanksgiving."

"Well, you don't have to bite my head off about it, there's nothing wrong with looking young. and I'm younger than you so it wasn't meant to be a put down. Anyway, we've got to pick up Susan before I go back there and wring his neck, or he finds you and starts making you take orders again." NT heaved another sigh, then said in a gentler tone, "I'm sorry for getting upset, I shouldn't've snapped at you." And she handed Donna a tissue. "It's just that i'm worn out from having to explain this so many times while Nathan gets more time to play havoc. OK, let's go."

Donna shook her head and brushed away more tears. Damn it *why* couldn't she stop crying??