With sincere apologies to the talented Ellie Dauber. The characters used are from her stories Slow Justice and Triple Play

This story comes from my own odd sense of justice. While I believe wrongdoers should be punished, I also believe that they should as a general rule be given a chance to be rehabilitated. Punishment should reflect the crime, but over-punishing or cruelty...bothers me. It always has, I guess I am just a bleeding heart.

The character I personally introduce to this story is someone I've been working on for years in various RP's, MMO's and even my own little stories, but it was Randalynn's "Stark" that inspired me to finally bring her out into the open.

Once again, I apologies to Ellie Dauber, this is mostly for me and my own sense of justice.

Rose Walsh stared at the ceiling, hearing the dull, disinterested chatter outside of her hospital room. The sterile smell was nauseating, along with that odd feeling of being just a bit too cold that seemed to accompany every Hospital in the world.
That slight discomfort synchronized well with her aches, the shooting pain passing up her crotch, the blackened eye, the bruises and scratches on her arms and thighs, and her bloody nose and split lip.

Max Snyder...

She had tried to go out to a movie, just...just to feel better about herself, to have something pleasant to try and remove the feeling of violation of being dirty and...worthless. She hadn't quite enough money to get home after the movie and it was after nine at night, but she thought she would be alright.
Max had been calling and texting her, trying to 'meet up' with her, but she had always ignored him, ever since the dance.

He hadn't liked that.

Not.

One.

Bit.

He felt humiliated, as she had stood him up to his friends who now didn't believe that he had gotten lucky with her. Angry, he had spotted her go to the movies, and followed her back.

As she cut across the park, he had attacked her; punching her in the face and throwing her to the ground, then forcing himself on her: ripping her clothes off and hitting her in the face again when she screamed.
He had used her...repeatedly, snarling like an animal...and some sick part of her had enjoyed it, as part of Chloe's insidious curse.
Then he had run off, warning her that if she turned him down again that it would be worse!
Rose had laid on her back, staring at the sky feeling his semen running out of her, pain throbbing through her body, and blood trickling down her face.
She felt numb, empty and could feel Chloe's cruelty behind this latest attack; in fact she was almost certain she heard the fate shaper's cruel laughter as Max attacked her...raped her.

Again.

Instinctively, Rose knew that there would be no point in pressing charges; Chloe would ensure her tormentor got off scott free just to further torture the former male. Hadn't she suffered enough? Clearly not.

Rose had been found by an early morning jogger who thought she was dead at first, and called the police, where she was rushed to the hospital. Her parents had not yet come in, but Rose dreaded their arrival...what would they say? What would they do?

She heard the door open and she glanced up, and felt a shock of confusion.

It was a woman, probably in her early 30's, dressed in a dark green 3 piece suit, with a white blouse and black tie beneath. She had shoulder-length black hair that hung free, and carried a black briefcase in green leather-gloved hands.
But most striking was her piercing jade eyes behind a pair of black wife-frame glasses that seemed to cut through the room with a confidant authority.

This strange woman shut the door behind her and turned to face Rose, offering a sympathetic smile.

"Rose Walsh?"

Rose nodded hesitantly,

"Yes, who are you?"

The woman placed her briefcase down on a table next to the hospital bed.

"My name is Miss Laufey, I'm a lawyer, I'm here to help."

Rose's face fell and she turned back to staring at the ceiling.
"I told the police that I didn't see who attacked me."

"Even if you didn't see him," responded Miss Laufey, "I'm pretty sure you would recognize Max Snyder's voice."
Rose's head whipped about to stare at the emerald-clad Lawyer, jaw hanging ajar.

"Wha? M-Max? He's my boyfriend," She protested weakly, "He wouldn't hurt me."
The woman's eyes turned sad and she shook her head.

"Chloe and her ilk got you bad."

Rose began to shake in terror at the very thought of the Weaver siblings,

"A-Are you with them? Are you here to p-punish me?" stammered Rose, tears welling in her eyes then running down her cheeks.

"oh no no no...here," Miss Laufey pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at Rose's eyes, "no, I'm most certainly not. Quite the opposite in fact. If you let me...i can protect you from them."

Rose gasped, and for the first time she felt a tiny spark of hope fill her.
"Keep the handkerchief, I have more" Miss Laufey sat down at a guest chair, and allowed Rose a few minutes to process what she had said.

"Y-You can change me back?" Rose blurted out, her breathing quickening as she felt the end of this hell nearing.

"no...No i can't do that, shh shh...no no don't look at me like that" pleaded Miss Laufey as the despair returned to Rose's eyes.

"Their magic is far too powerful, there isn't anything I can do to change what they have inflicted upon you. I said I can protect you from them, and give you a chance a real chance at a proper life away from Max."

The darkness of depression swirled around Rose who stared at her feet, barely registering what Miss Laufey was saying.

"Rose...Rose" she gently took the despondent girl's hands, and Rose once more glanced at the lawyer.

"Rose. Chloe and her sisters want you to suffer for the rest of your life. They want you to live in misery, humiliation and pain. They want to take all happiness from you, that's why they stacked the deck against you, to torment and hurt you for the rest of your very long life. If you give up then they win. I can't undo what they did...but I can help you deny them the satisfaction of seeing you live as Max Snyder's sex slave."

Rose searched the woman's eyes, but saw no hint of a lie; only honesty.
"How?" she asked with a cracked voice.

"With these." Miss Laufey turned back to her briefcase and twisted the numbered tumblers until the locks popped, and then she reached in and removed a stack of pages and a black fountain pen.
Placing them down in front of the hospitalized girl, the dark-haired lawyer looked awfully pleased with herself, while Rose looked nonplussed.

"What are these?" demanded the tired and wounded girl.

"Contracts!" grinned the lawyer roguishly, "Special contracts."

Rose gave a skeptic, unamused look at the lawyer who frowned.

"Now now, don't look at me like that; I wouldn't offer you these unless I knew they worked. I already used them three times on three other victims of Chloe and her sisters. Granted they weren't quite as poorly off as you were...but the worry that Chloe would interfere with them again motivated them to protect if not just themselves than their families from Chloe's cruelty."

Rose felt a cautious hope return.

"But...why? Why would you do this?"

Miss Laufey leaned back slightly.

"It's not purely out of the goodness of my heart, I'm a spiteful creature and spiting things like Chloe Weaver and her sisters gives me great pleasure, not to mention that you would be working for me."

Rose looked alarmed, but the lawyer waved it away,

"No, nothing terrible. You would be working to helping people like yourself; individuals who were punished with no real chance of self improvement. Of which there is a dizzying number, both dizzying and disappointing. There are also a great number of people who abuse their magical powers and gods being petty and cruel, you will help me right a lot of wrongs which is frankly put, a lot more productive than struggling through life fighting your body's desire's."

Rose looked back at the stack of pages dubiously.

"How do they work? The contracts I mean. How would they keep Chloe from hurting me more?"

Laufey nodded; a reasonable question.

"Celestial bureaucracy. You've heard of making a deal with the devil? Signing your soul away? This is sort of similar. You see, I cannot remove anything she's done to you, that would be breaking a lot of rules and frankly I don't have that power. But...I can add things.

For example, one of the girls I helped was made into a bimbo, something you're familiar with. I can't make her smarter..but I can make her stronger."
Laufey looked back at Rose, laying bruised and injured in her bed, before she felt a tingling; the hair on her neck standing on end.

"If you sign that top document, then you will be my responsibility; you and any of your descendants. You will all be shielded from Chloe Weaver and her sister's manipulations."

Rose looked over the pages once more then touched the fountain pen, but yelped as a sharp pain shot through her thumb: a tiny needle protruding from the side.

"Signed in blood" explained the lawyer, "Thus it is binding and completely unbreakable." She then began to stand, her expression turning serious.

"I know I ask much of you and I haven't given you a whole lot of reason to trust me. But you will have to make this decision quickly."

Rose looked alarmed, glancing at the lawyer and her intense expression,

"Why?"

"Because we're about to have company."

It was strange watching it happen, truly odd...one second she wasn't there, and then the next she was.

Chloe Weaver, wearing a look that sent shivers down Rose's spine.

"Rose," the eldest Weaver said the name with contempt and acid, before looking at the lawyer. If possible, her face became even darker...angrier.

"You!"

"Yes, me." the lawyer gave a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "All me. Hello Clotho, oh...sorry, you're going by Chloe these days aren't you? I apologize."

Chloe growled in her throat,

"Why are you here?" demanded the Weaver sibling, her attention focused on the uncaring Miss Laufey.

"Conducting business; I'm on the clock right now afterall. The bigger question is, what are you doing here, Chloe Weaver? This doesn't involve you; your role in this little tragedy is long over."

Chloe pointed at Rose, making the poor girl begin to shake.

"I'm stopping her from making a big mistake!"

"What?" Rose blinked, now thoroughly confused.

"Rose," Chloe looked at the girl, hospitalized and wounded, "If you sign that damn contract you're doing more than you think. It will bind you to this bitch forever! Your soul will never go to an afterlife, you will be reincarnated forever and always in her service! Your family, your children will never know the peace an afterlife; Just eternal servitude to this trickster!"

Rose looked at Miss Laufey in surprise,

"Is that true?"

The lawyer smiled but without malice.

"Yes. That is true. If you sign that contract then your soul cannot be harvested nor reborn into a new thread to be woven, measured and cut by the Weaver sisters. IF you sign that contract, your life thread may be cut once and only once...and then you will live exactly that long every time you are reincarnated, as a girl every time and every time you will make your way back to me. But Rose..."

The emerald-clad lawyer faced the tired and hurt Rose,

"Do not think for one second that Chloe is being altruistic in any way." Miss Laufey sneered at the scowling Chloe,

"Because she's not. She doesn't give one shit about you. This little 'test' she's made for you? She doesn't care what the ending is, she has absolutely no interest in it. It's more of a game for her to play against you, and she's playing with a stacked deck. She's no justice god, she's a weaver of fate playing pretend Justice Goddess. But she has no idea what it means to be 'just'."

Miss Laufey's shadow loomed behind the lawyer, growing until it filled half the roof in a way entirely contrary to the light of the room. It looked like some
kind of villain's shadow, with a cape and what appeared to be horns.

"You see, Justice Gods don't live as normal people. They spend occasional periods as criminals to see if what they're delivering is truly justice or if it's

merely revenge. To ensure that they are always being 'just'. But you don't do that, do you Chloe Weaver?"

Chloe seethed, and Rose felt trapped; watching these two confusing and powerful figures face each other down.

"You live amongst mortals, but you've never had to live AS one. Then you take your toy morality and beat others over the head with it, as if you are some kind of unyeilding force of good and justice.

But you don't give one single solitary shit about the fates of those punish, you aren't interested nor invested in their fates. You give them no tools to further themselves, to better themselves. You just craft your little scenario's and then sit back and laugh as they run about. THAT is why Jaimie, Mandi and Patty agreed to sign the contracts in spite of what it cost them. Because the alternative, the frightening possibility that you could dip into the lives of their children was too much to bear. "

The lawyer looked back to Rose, now thoroughly terrified by what she was seeing, it was if the two were about to break out into open battle, and if they did she would never survive it!

"Rose," Miss Laufey looked at the girl, paralyzed by fear of the two powerful entities before her,

"Neither of us can make you sign that contract. We can give you advice, warnings and suggestions. But if Chloe could force you to stop, she would've. The truth is that you have limited freedom. So now you have to choose.

If you choose me, you will be siding with an unknown entity, along with your children and all those of your line. But, you and yours will be shielded from her interference. Chloe will be unable to twist your life thread, unable to influence or manipulate your children and your line. Guaranteed and total protection."

"And if you side with that bitch," snarled Chloe, "Then you will never be reincarnated as a boy ever again. You will never again be male! You will be stuck as her servant for eternity. You may not like me, but if you don't sign that contract, then I guarantee your next life will be male."

Rose's eyes shot between the two; the unknown factor and Chloe who had done nothing but torment her. But then her eyes moved past them, to the wall behind them and her ears stopped hearing the exchange between the Lawyer and the Fate Weaver, to the bustle of the hospital outside.
She felt the mild discomfort of the cool hospital air, and the throbbing ache through her body from the injuries inflicted by Max Snyder.

"...you had me raped...you made me like it." Rose said, "You let Max...and I couldn't stop him." she said quietly, and Chloe's jaw hardened.

"The second rape was unforseen, but i had no role in it" Chloe promised,

"You still made me like it." retorted Rose softly, "And every time i have sex i will never be able to know if it's because I am happy...or if it's because your curse on me. You took that away from me...how do I know that you won't do it in my next life?"

"Don't give me cause to" Chloe responded evenly, "And I won't."

Rose looked back down at the complicated contract before her.

Rose Walsh she signed, in blood red ink.

Chloe closed her eyes and breathed out a ragged breath.

"Rose, you've made a very serious mistake. Now you will never have freedom, you will be bound to her service for eternity."

"I never had freedom anyways," countered the young girl quietly, "And she promised me she'd help me. You just mocked me...you let Max rape me, twice. You enjoyed him raping me. You would never help me...never. So no, I made no mistake."

"Don't worry about Max,' Miss Laufey smiled in relief, "He wont' be raping anyone anymore."

Chloe rounded on the Lawyer once more.

"What have you done, trickster?" demanded the weaver of fate, to which The Lawyer smiled pleasantly.

"I killed him, shortly before coming in. He will be found in that same park that Rose was found, shot three times in the chest by a high caliber pistol.

The forensics will lead to a confusing conclusion and ultimately there will be no conclusion; a cold case."

"you had no right!" snarled Chloe, "He had a life! He had-"

"I had every right!" fired back Miss Laufey, "If you have the right to change and warp someone's life as punishment, then I have a right to end a life. For punishment. So take your pretend ethics somewhere else. Speaking of which, why are you even here? Rose signed the contract...you have no purpose here anymore."

Chloe seethed, but it was true...Rose was no longer her responsibility.

"You will regret this" she warned Rose, who simply shook her head.

"no...I won't."

Chloe vanished and Miss Laufey breathed a sigh of relief.

"...well that could've been worse."

Rose squirmed and looked up at the woman,

"What will you do with me?" only now was the weight of her decision coming down on her shoulders.

"Nothing nefarious. I cannot live your life for you Rose, I cannot make these choices for you. But I can give you the tools that Chloe didn't. Which includes a therapist for dealing with your rape, a martial arts instructor to build confidence and self esteem, and friends who know what it's like to have
Chloe twist your life around. But Rose..."

The lawyer gave her a serious look, as she took the pen and contract,

"You did deserve to be punished...you know that, right?"

Rose looked down at her hands and nodded, tears once more beading in her eyes.

"I know, I...I wasn't a good person."

Miss Laufey gave a small smile and nodded.

"No, you weren't. But Chloe didn't give you much of a chance to prove you were better than what you were. She only gave you a life-long punishment with little chance to escape her cruelty. You deserved to be punished, but you also deserved a chance to prove that you could change, a chance she denied you and others.

Now rest up...your parents will be here soon. If they give you any shit then you call me, don't worry; you'll know the number."

Then she gathered up her brief case and turned to leave,

"Miss Laufey?" Rose called, and the Lawyer glanced over her shoulder

"Yes child?"

"umm...Chloe seemed to know you...she called you 'trickster'. Why?"

A true smile lit up The Lawyer's face.

"That's because my first name is Loki. Good night Rose."

then she stepped out and passed Rose's parents as they rushed in to greet the gobsmacked Rose.

I strongly believe that people need a chance to prove that they have or have not learned and grown from their experiences. But those who deny others this chance could be considered just as bad as those they've punished.

I feel that Rose, Mandi, Patty and Jaimie were never given the chance to become better. They were punished sure, but I don't feel like they had a chance to learn from it and grow and prove they had changed. They only had a limited choice of lives to live in and that felt like an injustice to me.
Some may disagree with me, and you are welcome to, but this was written so I could feel like those injustices could be corrected while trying to remain respectful to the source material and the original author.

I may use Loki Laufey; attorney at law more, as she has quite the story. But for now, I think this is a good introduction for her.
Lastly: Remember that there is a difference between what Rose believes that Chloe would do and what Chloe would actually do, as well as personal opinion expressed by the various characters.

Thank you everyone for reading and once more: I apologize to Ellie Dauber.