The Judge paused, and the rage melted from his face like a door closing on his emotions. His hollow face turned in jerks toward Bo, and she swallowed hard as his dark eyes settled on her features.

"What gives you the right to speak, vermin?" he asked, his voice calm and quiet.

Despite his depleted form and wild hair, Bo could finally see how he might have once been a Judge. Someone who had looked down on others and ordered them to fates he thought appropriate for their crimes. There was power in his deep voice. There was authority. His orders were ones meant to be followed.

But Bo wasn't the type to follow anyone's orders.

"I don't need a right to speak," Bo replied. "I'll speak whenever I want to."

"You know nothing of what happens here," the Judge said.

"You kidnap girls and keep them against their will," Bo said. "That's all I need to know."

The Judge laughed, but it was cold and harsh. "These girls are not saints. They're licentious and vulgar. I did nothing wrong in taking them off the streets so that they cannot populate the world even more with uneducated and pathetic masses."

"You're disgusting," Bo replied, but before she had even finished her sentence, the girl had stepped forward.

"You say we deserved it. But what did your son ever do that you would treat him so cruelly? What did he ever do that made him deserve to die tied up in—"

The rage flickered in the Judge's face again. "He was not my son. That creature was no one's, and he did not belong here."

"He was kind and gentle. He was innocent!" the girl said, her voice growing louder with each word. She made to lunge at the Judge, but was too weak. Khan grabbed her before she collapsed.

"Don't speak to me of innocence," the Judge hissed. "You nomads know nothing of innocence. You dance half-naked for crowds. You steal and lie. You're all thieves and beggars. And you, Esme. You tempt me to fall to your level."

He started to walk toward Khan and the girl. Bo maneuvered her gun back between them, but he didn't seem phased by it.

"I did no tempting," the girl said.

"You tempt me to fall. You tempt me to the fires of earth." His words slurred as the rage filled his face again. He reached out and smacked Bo's gun away, and before she could stop him, he lunged forward and snatched the girl from Khan's arms. He gripped her tight and dragged her toward the bonfire which had now spread further into the room.

"Your face tempts alone," he said. One arm locked around the girl's waist, keeping her pinned to his chest. She struggled against him, but he was too strong. He gripped her chin in his other hand, keeping her staring at his face. Bo could see his breathing stirring her black curls, and the way she trembled in fear.

"I'll shoot!" Bo yelled, but the Judge ignored her.

"I will not fall," he said. "I will rid the world from your temptations first. Your evil ways must be eradicated." His eyes flicked from her face to the bonfire just a few feet away from them. He let go of her chin and waist, and grabbed her wrist instead. She gasped, catching her balance right before she fell into the flames. He shook her arm so hard that Bo was afraid it might snap.

"Stop!" Bo shouted, rushing forward. She only had to run a few steps to get to him, but he could easily push the girl into the fire in those brief seconds. She still had to try, though.

"There is only one way you can escape your fate. If you become mine, I will help you to cleanse yourself of your filthy nomadic blood. I can save you. You have one choice, Esme." He twisted her arm, bringing her close enough to the flames that her skin instantly began to redden. "Be mine or you will burn."

"I'd rather burn a million times over," the girl spat out.

The Judge's eyes seemed almost to turn to the flames themselves as the girl spoke. Bo could see that he had no control left. He had slipped so deeply into his rage and vitriol that he was no longer a man.

He wrenched the girl's arm, forcing her to lose balance. She tilted forward, the flames snatching at her hair. Bo screamed, reaching out to try and grab the girl's skirt, but catching nothing but air. The girl disappeared just briefly into the orange haze, but then a blur obscured the light and heat. Khan. He leapt into the flames, snatching the girl before she hit the fuel. He pulled her back and tossed her to Bo while the Judge struggled to stop him.

Bo caught the girl, quickly lowering her to the ground and patting out the flames that had caught in her hair and clothes with her jacket. The girl had passed out at some point, but when Bo finally got a good look at her, she seemed mostly unharmed despite the fire. There were some weeping burns on one cheek and her arms, but otherwise she seemed only covered in soot.

"Khan!" Bo said. "We need to get out of here! We're running out of time before the group will leave without us!"

Khan shoved the Judge away from him. "I'm trying, but it's kind of hard to run right now!"

Bo growled and stood up, aiming her gun at the Judge. "Step back, Khan!" she shouted.

Khan glanced her way, seeing her gun, and his eyes widened. He quickly blocked the Judge's punch, and then danced to one side, leaving the Judge completely open for Bo's shot.

She caught him in the chest, making him stumble backward a few feet. His skeletal hands patted his chest until they met the small prick in the fabric of his clothes where the bullet had entered. Blood dribbled slowly from the wound and across the wrinkled skin of his knuckles.

"You've shot me," he mumbled.

Bo turned her attention to the girl and slung her arm around her shoulder in order to support her weight. Khan edged around the Judge, who swayed in place but did not attempt to stop them any longer.

"Quick, we're losing time," Bo said, as Khan grabbed the girl's other arm. Together, they stood and supported the girl between them. With this movement, she slowly came back to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered, focusing on the Judge as he stared at the wound in his chest.

"Will he die?" she asked.

Bo glanced at the man. "I don't know. It doesn't matter. We only need to escape."

"It matters..." the girl said, pulling away from Khan and Bo. "It matters to all the girls he killed. It matters to that poor boy he treated like a creature."

"Wait! We need to leave now!" Bo said, attempting to grab the girl.

The girl dodged Bo, and kept dragging herself toward where the Judge stood. "You wanted me to die in the flames," the girl said to him. "But it won't be me that will burn."

She stood right by him now. He looked at her in shock, anger, and grief. "How can you do this?" he whispered. "I loved you." His hands shook as he reached for her cheek. It was surprisingly a soft gesture for how he had treated her before, but Bo knew better than to ever think he had true love in his heart. Whatever he felt for the girl was a perverted and tainted thing. It knew nothing other than its own good.

The girl bared her teeth. "You will face the fires now. You will face those that you wronged."

Before anyone could process what was happening, the girl placed her hands on the Judge's chest and shoved him sharply backward. With the bullet wound already making him weak, he easily tipped.

There was no sound as he entered the bonfire. He simply disappeared into the orange flames, making them dance higher as he joined the rubble that fueled them. Bo gasped, covering her mouth with an arm as the smell of burning hair and flesh filled the room.

"He said we deserved what he did to us," the girl said, staring into the fire. Her strength seemed to leave her again, and she began to sag. Khan rushed forward, catching her before she fell. Bo came to help, and caught the last words the girl whispered before she sank back into unconsciousness.

"But he deserved this. Truly."

----

A/N: Finally, I am well enough to update! I am not joking, the last week and a half have been the worst I've felt in a long time. I lost five pounds in three days, that's how sick I was. :'( I'm on the mend now, though, and back to writing! Thanks for waiting for me during the small hiatus!