When Eva was gone, Yuri stared down at Niko. "This is... unexpected."

"It's not true!" Nikolai had been lying to himself for so long he found it easy to lie to his accusers now. "It's not!"

"You know there's nothing I can do for you now. Hell, there's nothing I want to do. Your deviant cross dressing behavior is disgusting. You're an abomination."

"I didn't--"

"You know what happens if you don't confess, you know what I'll have to do to your father. Other than being the father of a sick, perverted, deviant like you I think Abram is a good man. That won't stop me from destroying him if you make me."

"How am I making you do anything? You're the one who's threatening me and my family!"

"Just confess and I'll leave them alone. I mean, I can't control the public. They could have looked past the fact that he fathered a petty criminal but this? Once the people hear about this they won't be happy. Your father may have to leave the council but I assure you that your confession buys their safety from my office at least."

Nikolai closed his eyes and shifted himself out of time. He remembered picking up one of Eva's dresses for the first time. It was so soft. It took him a long time to gather the strength to try it on but before he knew it he was shaping his daily life around his new hobby. Every time he was home alone, which wasn't often considering the size of his family, he was sneaking into his sister-in-law's closet. "She encouraged it," he finally said.

"Who did?"

"Eva, she found me and she told me it was okay. She even sewed me a dress. I keep it folded under the floorboards in my closet."

"That truly doesn't bother me. For one, she tells me you threatened her and I'm much more likely to believe a woman who understands her place than a deviant. Second, she's demonstrated herself to be a loyal citizen by coming to me with this information."

"So what now? Off to the Patriot Camp for the rest of my life?"

Yuri smiled. It was his authoritative smile, the smile that made anyone on the receiving end wither with fear. "No, Patriot Camps are for people who can be reformed."

Nikolai swallowed and tried to speak but he found it impossible. "So then what happens to me now?"

"You know damn well I need to have you killed now and it's gonna have to be slow and painful and public."

"Please--"

"No, this is your own doing. This is what you get for being so disgusting. There's a van waiting for you. We're gonna take you to the village square."

"No, you can't!"

"We're going to remind the people what happens when you deviate from the true path."

The last time a deviant was punished in the square Nikolai was six years old. He remembered his father taking him to see the man who had been locked to a post in the cold. He remembered the way the man's wounds filled the air with a rotten smell and his fingers were growing black from cold.

Yuri was on his feet, the MEC agents pulled Nikolai out of the room without letting him put his boots back on. The cement steps of the station were bitter cold against the exposed soles of his feet and the agents laughed at him as he tried to fight against them for his freedom. He saw a woman in a long fur coat walking past. She had a scarf tied around her head and she was hiding her face, no doubt in order to avoid seeing the crazed prisoner.

Yuri moved to sit in the front passenger side of a black van while the agents dragged Nikolai into the back and forced him onto a bench. They secured him to the wall with chains so tight he could barely even breathe, let alone move. As they exited, Nikolai looked out the back doors after them and noticed the woman on the sidewalk had stopped walking. She turned towards the van and he was sure he saw a thick beard sprouting from her face. Her coat slipped open at the hem and he could see that it was lined with bright , glittering sequence. The doors slammed shut and the engine started. Before the van could move there was gunfire outside, two quick shots and then he could hear Yuri cursing from the front seat. The van took off with a squeal and if Niko hadn't been so tightly restrained he would have fallen over. There was another gun shot and the sound of a loud bang as one of the tires popped. The van skidded and skipped for a second before it flipped and rolled over.

When it stopped, it was resting on its side. Nikolai was still so firmly attached to the wall that he found himself hanging from what had become the ceiling. The back door swung open and through it Niko could see the woman's shoes and the glittery lining of her long coat. She bent over and entered the van. Her coat was unbuttoned, revealing an outfit that glittered as brightly as the lining of her coat. When she came closer to Nikolai, he realized that what he had seen was real, this woman had a thick and very finely groomed beard. She also had a shotgun in one hand and the keys to Niko's chains in the other.

"Nikolai Sirminov," she said with a velvet voice. "I'm here to rescue your sorry ass."

"What? Why?"

"Do you really care? I'm gonna save you from days of public humiliation and torture before you die a miserable death." She unlocked him and he fell. "Get up now, girl, it won't be long before the MEC sends backup."

"I'm not a girl."

The woman laughed as she helped Niko up and out of the van. "Yeah, they say that about me too, sweetie. Now let's go."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Why shouldn't you? You've deviated, the republic is against you, what else do you have left?"

There were sirens approaching, Niko didn't have long to think. "Okay, I'll come with you, just gimme a second."

Nikolai moved to the front of the van and looked inside but Yuri wasn't there. He scanned the area around them and saw the bright red poking out of the snow. He moved towards it and realized the scarf wasn't the only red that colored the proxy. He had been thrown from the van in the accident, his face was bleeding and Niko could see one of the bones of his arm piercing through his flesh. Niko stepped closer and reached for the scarf. He felt that silky smooth feeling against his skin for the second time and it sent chills through him. As he started to pull the scarf free of Yuri's neck, the old man began to groan.

"You won't..." Yuri said, it was clear that it hurt him to speak. "Get away."

"Sure he will." The mysterious woman who wasn't a woman was standing at Niko's side now, fur and glitter trailing in the wind behind her like a cape as she pointed her gun down at the proxy.

"Don't kill him," Niko said. He tugged at the scarlet silk again and it slipped off the dying old man. "He won't live long anyway."

"Why not just put him out of his misery?"

"Cause I want him to finish out the rest of his few painful moments of life and I want him to think about the fact that in the end, I won."

"Well, actually I won, really."

Nikolai draped the scarf over his shoulders like a shawl. He rubbed the fabric against his face and it made him feel more powerful than any of the dresses Eva had ever let him wear. Despite the deadly situation he found himself in, Niko laughed.

"You're twisted," the woman said, "I like that but we gotta go."

Nikolai let the woman lead him away from Yuri. He wasn't sure who she was, or where she planned on taking him, but anything was better than the town square and the fate that awaited him there.