Jennika dragged her home

Rei, a bruise on her face, a scar on her arm, and the scars left by tears running down her face, sat on the couch silently. She was obviously depressed, having refused to talk to Mal or Conan last time they tried. Jennika had been the one to find her and beat her before taking her home. She had even told Muse she had found Rei like that. Something had happened to Jennika to turn her into this abusive btch, she had always been a drunkard, but the abuse had started a few years ago.

Mal walked up to Rei, not noticing anything was wrong right away. "Hey, Rei, what's..." He trailed off when he saw there was something very wrong. "What happened?" he demanded.

She didn't respond, blatantly ignoring him at first and continuing to stare blankly at the TV

"Rei," Mal said firmer. "What happened?"

"Nothing." She moved to stand up, wanting to leave so she didn't have to talk to him

"Don't lie to me, I know something's wrong. You can't just avoid this," Mal said, moving to block her path.

"Mal.. move.." She ignored what he said, trying to step around him

"No. Not until you explain," Mal said, refusing to move.

"There's nothing to explain."

"How stupid do you think I am, Rei?" He frowned, then his face softened a little. "I'm worried about you. Please, just tell me what's wrong? Keeping all of this in isn't good for you."

"It's really not important, it was just some guys in magic town.." She lied, not wanting to tell him Jennika did it

"Rei, that is important. They can't get away with doing that!" Mal said, believing her.

"I'd rather just not think about it..." She looked down "I doubt I'll ever see them again.."

"Nobody should be able to get away with that. It's not okay!" Mal hated it when people hurt his friends, and he was really considering going to get Nessa and dragging her down to Magic Town to hunt down the guys and teach them a lesson.

"Mal, worse has happened to me.." She said, referring to Ainion "It's really not that important."

Mal scowled some more. "It is though!"

"Mal, th-they didn't even have a chance to do that much"

Mal crossed his arms. "It's not okay to hurt people just for the hell of it, Rei. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this."

"They already have, it's not like you can stop it from happening"

"I can stop them from doing it again to someone else."

She didn't say anything, feeling bad about lying about this. Would the only way to keep him from discovering the lie be letting innocent people be blamed?

Mal's hands were balled into fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Innocent people being hurt really bothered him, and he wouldn't stand for it.

"Mal, I-I'm sorry.. that.. might be a lie." She sighed heavily "I just didn't want to tell you what happened.."

"That what happened?" Mal asked, surprised. He honestly hadn't known she was lying.

"I don't want to talk about it."