Glass Heart

A chilling splash of water to the face startled Scarlett from unconsciousness. Widening her eyes after she managed to blink away the cold she took in her surroundings. Immediately she attempted to stand and bring her hands up defensively. Instead she found herself unable to move. There were metallic shackles surrounding her wrists and ankles, tugging her back onto her now soaked chair. Muttering curse words under her breath she closed her left eye as it stung; it was swollen and sore. One of the guards must have thrown a punch.

Figures.

Luckily, it didn’t feel like her nose had been broken.

Looking around the room and forcing her left eye open while ignoring the pain she saw the cast shadows of two men standing behind her. In front of her another man crouched. She recognized him as the Russian leader of MedCo. It took her a moment to recall his name, since her memory seemed to still render it unimportant.

“You put five of my guards in the medical wing.” His voice seemed colder than it had when they’d last spoken. Perhaps it was the scowl on his face as he looked at her like a disapproving father. Or perhaps it was the interrogation room she was being held in that made him more menacing. It could’ve even been the metallic shackles holding her combined with the shiner. Visibly shivering Scarlett stared down the man in front of her, refusing even to blink.

“No offense, Mr. Ivanov, but I’ve done better.” Leaning her head to the side, Scarlett wiped her dripping wet nose off on the top of her shirt. Blood smeared off with the water onto her shirt and she made a mental note to get that looked at when she had gotten free. Still, it didn’t feel like she’d broken her nose.

Rising to his feet the Russian didn’t seem angry with her nor did he seem happy. There was something apathetic about him that concerned Scarlett. Apathy usually meant sociopath in situations like this and that was always trouble. If nothing else, it meant she was in store for more pain than she was prepared to handle. Considering her head was already pounding from the after effects of the chloroform and the shiner she’d received during her fight, she wasn’t sure how well she could hide it. Scarlett had a way with pain but even she had her threshold.

“Call me Mikhail, Miss Damien… I do think we’re far past formalities at this point, don’t you?”

“I’ll stick with Mr. Ivanov, thanks.” Scarlett leaned her head back and heaved a sigh. “If this is going to be some kind of torture bit where you attempt to teach me a lesson or make me regret what I’ve done then you’re wasting your time. There have been many before you who have tried to put me in my place and no one’s succeeded yet so… Really, I’m saving you some time here. I’m rather stubborn and set in my ways. It’s an uphill battle, trust me.”

“Oh, you misunderstand me! What was it? The cold water dumped over your head? Is that what made you to think I had something sinister planned for you?” Despite his jovial tone, there was no expression on Mikhail’s face. This was clearly not his first attempt at intimidating a prisoner and as much as Scarlett hated to admit it, it was working.

“That and the shackles probably. I guess both could be kink, but sorry, you’re not really my type.” Scarlett exhaled dramatically. She could dance around the inevitable all she wanted and talk a big game but in reality she was stuck in that chair and at the mercy of Mr. Ivanov.

“You are not mine, either. No offense. Lovely and all but I prefer more… submissive women.” Mikhail sat down on the table in front of her and watched her curiously. “I am rather fond of you though, Miss Damien. You have proven to be far more… exciting than we had initially anticipated you would be. When we had discovered what you had earlier done my colleagues suggested we torture you as punishment. In fact, they wanted us to kill your lover… Scott was his name, no? They wanted us to kill him immediately so you would know the consequences that came with disobedience.”

Scarlett didn’t respond.

They wouldn’t kill Scott. Not if they wanted her to do anything for them. If they killed him they’d have no leverage over her. There was nothing more dangerous than a woman who knew her way around a gun and had little else to worry about. This man knew that. Scarlett could tell just by looking at him.

Mikhail had nothing to prove unlike the older woman and he didn’t seem to be it for financial gain like the man with the glasses had been. Scarlett couldn’t get a read on Mikhail and this worried her. Being able to predict what common people would do in reaction to her was what made her good at her job. People were often predictable and habitual, which made them easy targets. This man did not fall into that category. Despite her nerves, she kept her face stern and her demeanor calm. It was like dealing with an animal; as long as she didn’t show fear, she wouldn’t become prey.

“But you know we wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t allow it. I wondered instead… What did you hope to accomplish when you crawled out of your laboratory? Clearly you weren’t trying to escape our grasp or you would have been long gone before we had even noticed.” Mikhail folded his arms on his lap and observed her with a deep sound that seemed more curious than frustrated.

“If I had wanted to escape then you would’ve never found me.” Scarlett cocked an eyebrow. There was no point in hiding what they both knew.

“So what were you doing, then? Hmm? I can’t wrap my mind around it. Why on Earth would a talented woman in such a dangerous situation sneak into a secret part of an already secret facility when she very well could have snuck out under our noses?”

“Maybe I was bored. Maybe I just wanted to screw with you. I’m not really good at being told what to do,” Scarlett answered when she realized Mikhail wasn’t going to continue until she’d given an answer. Much to her surprise, he chuckled.

“Oh, you are clever little girl.” Standing he walked away from her and faced the outer wall.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sharp.” Scarlett closed her eyes. There was no point in being on the offensive now. She was too exhausted and too incapacitated to hope to find any leverage. Even if she could break free by some miracle, take out the two guards she’d noted behind her and then Mikhail she would have to deal with the numerous guards outside of the room and then, of course, the other two heads of MedCo who she assumed weren’t very far away. Besides, she had no idea where she was being held nor did she have the peace of mind to start searching the room for visual clues. Any plan she came up with now would be a bad one.

“You think that simply because you are pretty I do not see the intelligence behind those big blue eyes, hmm? You are smart. You are very smart and it is getting you into trouble. There is no chance that you are dumb enough to go running around our facility in such a calculated manner without purpose. You had a reason for it and you will tell me before your contract is up.”

“Oh, so we’re still working together?” Scarlett ignored the rest of the threats. Honestly, they’d gotten old and tired now. If they were going to kill her they would’ve just gotten it over with. “I figured you weren’t going to trust me on my own after this. I’m pretty sure that this is more of a hostage situation…”

“You’re right, we aren’t going to trust you. But a deal is a deal Miss Damien and you have work to finish. We require it to be done quickly. The only other option is to bring Mr. Stark in himself to finish your job and well… what would’ve been the point of going through all this trouble to get you if we did that, hmm?”

“Right, I’m sure that he’d love to be associated with all of this. It’d fit in real well with his peace keeping press and pool parties.” Scarlett kept her eyes closed but snapped them open when she felt a hand on her wrist. Mikhail was removing her shackles with a small silver key. One by one she was freed from her bonds. He nodded toward the guards behind her and a moment later they were at her side, coaxing her to her feet and slipping handcuffs around her wrists to secure them behind her back.

“I’m not going to waste any more of my time asking you what you were doing in my facility, Miss Damien but believe me, I am just as stubborn as you. I will find out one way or another. You are messing with forces you are clearly underestimating. This is not a childish game. There are lives on the chess board and you are merely a pawn.” Turning his back on her once again, he continued. “You have a week to finish your work on those robotic limbs, Miss Damien.”

“Oh no, we had agreed that I had a four month contract. We’re only eight weeks in, unless I slept for two months when your guard knocked me out and I’m sure he didn’t hit me that hard. If it wasn’t for the chloroform you wouldn’t have caught me.” Scarlett shoved at the guards in irritation and was met with just as irritated shoving.

“You changed the terms of our agreement when you attacked my men.”

“Oh, so it didn’t change the terms of our agreement when you completely switched up the plans on me, right? It didn’t change the terms of our agreement when you kidnapped Scott and held a gun to his head, did it? It only changes the terms when I do something that you don’t like, is that what I’m to understand? Well no offense, Mikhail but you can rot in hell.”

“You have one week to complete your work or I will bring Scott into your lab and put a bullet through his head right before your eyes. Then we will see how quickly you complete your work while sitting next to his rotting corpse. If that doesn’t work, Scarlett then I can find far more creative ways to get you to finish. You have one week. End of discussion.” Scarlett knew he was trouble but it had been a relief to see him finally act like it.

“Yeah, threatening me is going to make me work harder. You clearly weren’t listening.” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Fine, one week. But don’t expect me to make it look pretty.” There was no way Scarlett could finish those robotic limbs in a week. Not if she planned on sleeping or taking time out of her day to eat. Something told her that her captors weren’t going to afford her those luxuries any longer. “I’m not a pawn by the way. I know exactly what piece I am on the chessboard and you can’t afford to lose me.”

Mikhail didn’t respond and after a few minutes of awkward waiting and silence a black bag was slipped over Scarlett’s head. They weren’t going to give her anymore clues. Instead, she listened to the sounds that followed. After moments spent walking she realized that she must have been in the area she’d broken into because she could hear the trucks in the loading dock. From there it was pretty easy to guess where she was being led. When they reached the basement where her laboratory was located she was handed off to another guard who they exchanged orders with.

She recognized the voice; it was the man who had given her the vodka and relief flooded over her for the first time since she’d regained consciousness. When she had been ushered inside of her laboratory the guard removed the black bag from over her head. Having decided to keep her eyes closed she at last opened them when she felt the guard touching the shiner she’d received. Quickly she tilted her head away from his touch and glared at him.

“Don’t, it really stings.”

“It is very bloody. Needs stitches, maybe.” Nodding toward the workbench she’d been using on a regular basis, the guard urged her to sit down. Suspicious of his intentions, Scarlett kept her eyes on this man who worked for her enemies and sat down where she’d been asked to. Moving behind her, he freed her wrists from the handcuffs she’d been bound with then moved in front of her again.

“No stitches, just really swollen I think.” Scarlett leaned away as the guard tried to touch the wound again.

“Stop flinching.”

“Stop touching it and I will.”

“Two seconds.” The guard held up two fingers and Scarlett sat impatiently, pondering what to do next. There was little she could do with her guard breathing down her neck, but he seemed to have a soft spot for her so perhaps she could use this to her advantage. The guard disappeared out the door and later returned with a first aid kit. Scarlett was rather surprised and flattered. “Now sit still while I fix.”

“I can’t promise anything. I’m a terrible patient. I’ve been told I either squirm too much or don’t show any emotion and scare the doctor.” Scarlett half smiled and closed her eyes while the guard cleaned out the cut next to her eye and placed small strips of medical tape over the wound to keep it from splitting open again. True to her nature, she’d only joked to break the tension. The fact was that she had a rather high tolerance for pain.

“Thank you.” He spoke after a moment into his cleaning.

“Hmm? What for? You’re the one helping me.” Not bothering to open her eyes, Scarlett weighed her options. There was no way that she could build robotic limbs for MedCo, not after all they’d done to her. It was very likely they planned on killing her and Scott regardless of the outcome. Scarlett had decided to go out with a bang. Even if the guards hovered over her shoulder to make sure she got her work done, she guessed they knew little to nothing about what she was actually working on. So long as she was working on something that looked robotic, she could go through with her new plan.

She had a pretty decent knowledge of the layout of the building and if she could create enough of a distraction she would perhaps be able to get to Scott. This time, she wouldn’t worry about how many bodies she left at her feet or how quietly she moved. MedCo had made it clear exactly what sort of game they were playing and Scarlett was going to prove to them exactly what made her the Queen on the chessboard.

“For not taking advantage of my kindness.”

“Hmm? I don’t recall extending you such a… uh, favor.” There was a huge risk to Scott’s life but when she weighed it against the damage that would be done to the rest of the world if she gave into MedCo’s demands, it seemed to be an easy choice. The guilt of owing Scott so much for having kept her out of shitty jails and taking care of her after drunken nights sank in the pit of her stomach. It was the same guilt that had gotten him into her bed and the same guilt that had made her promise to be with him. Oddly, there was no guilt in regards to their relationship, which Scarlett wasn’t entirely surprised by considering the circumstances. She was a terrible girlfriend and she knew it.

“I brought you vodka. You didn’t use it for anything except drink. I left door unlocked, you climbed out air vent instead.”

“Maybe I just didn’t notice you left it unlocked.”

“I am not naïve. I thank you.”

“Thanks for the vodka… and the smokes.” Scarlett smiled softly and shifted in her seat once he was done with the wound next to her eye.

“What’s your name?” He smiled just enough to comfort her. Scarlett was surprised that he hadn’t been warned not to communicate with her. Were these guards blissfully unaware of what MedCo was up to? Probably.

“Scarlett,” she said simply, leaning against the table and pulling the half built robotic arm toward her. As she shifted in her seat something cold touched her leg inside of her shoe. The pocket knife she’d stolen from the guard hadn’t been discovered. A smile crept over her lips that her guard friend clearly thought was in regards to their conversation.

“I am Sergei.” He nodded his head and returned her smile. “You are brave woman, Scarlett. I would not try that again. We have orders to shoot with real bullets now. Before was just taser.”

“Don’t worry, Sergei. I’m not going to try anything quite like that anymore.” Scarlett’s tone darkened as she dismantled pieces of the arm. It wouldn’t take nearly as long to assemble an explosive in the shell of the limbs she’d created.

“But you are going to try something, no?”

“If I told you then you’d have to shoot me, wouldn’t you Sergei?” Scarlett didn’t look back at him but she could hear him clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“You are big trouble, Scarlett.” The guard stood and headed toward his post outside the door.

“Sergei?” Scarlett turned in her chair to face him. The man didn’t respond but looked back at her. “Make sure you’re not here at the end of this week, alright?” Sergei didn’t respond for a moment, perhaps weighing his conscience. Was he worried about loyalty to his company and helping his new friend, or maybe wondering what she had planned?

“My throat has tickle, I think perhaps I am coming down with flu,” he spoke after contemplating her words. Scarlett sighed with relief then turned back to her work on the robotic arm in front of her. It would take all the time she had left, but she had a feeling that she could make do with the items she’d been provided with to build the robotic limbs.

Time went faster than Scarlett hoped it would as time always did in situations most dire.

While Sergei allowed her to sleep he shared shifts watching over her with other guards who poked and prodded at her when she took too long to accomplish a task or napped for more than an hour. The food she’d been provided with had been coming in increasingly smaller portions of more disgusting looking meals over the week and while she was exhausted and now malnourished, she continued on with her work.

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, she noted she had three hours left until one of the heads at MedCo demanded to see what she had accomplished. Exhausted but mentally preparing herself for what came next, Scarlett hummed a tune to keep her mind clear and free of all frustrations while she put the finishing touches on her project. The explosive devices were filled with as many nails and other small metallic objects that she could find so when they were triggered, the shrapnel would be impressive. Hopefully, with any luck, she wouldn’t be in the room when they went off. When the hands were switched on to start functioning, they would begin to move but a timer would activate and in ten minutes time they’d explode.

While assembling the final touches on the fruit of her exhaustion Scarlett heard the radio turn on behind her. The guard was speaking into it in hushed tones and without even acknowledging her he headed out the door and left it partially open. Curious, Scarlett watched the door and through the small gap she could see other guards hurrying along, shouting orders to each other. Something far more important than her last day was happening. Something so important, that the guard would leave her potentially armed with robotic weaponry with the door unlocked.

Unarmed, since the robot limbs were merely bombs, and unsure of what was going on, Scarlett continued finishing up her work and listened. She ended up bracing herself against her desk very suddenly when the whole building shook. Something had exploded; something not of her design. Had someone else’s experiment gone wrong on another floor? Is that why the guards had abandoned ship so quickly? She couldn’t fathom what else would cause such a noise, not unless they were under attack. But what were the odds that the MedCo facility would be discovered and attacked on the very day she planned escape?

Astronomical, at the very least. Not impossible, but still.

Things weren’t going to go according to her neatly laid out plan. That became obvious when the building shook a second time, this time the source was much closer. The ceiling groaned above her and she grimaced as dust fell in front of her. Hurrying to finish up the weapon she’d built, she pushed it aside on the table, making sure it wouldn’t fall to the ground if the building continued to shake.

Then the lights dimmed as though the generators supporting the building hadn’t existed at all. Not even the dim emergency lights provided near every door had switched on, meaning that the building had been completely cut off from all power sources.

“Time to go.” Scarlett closed her eyes and groped around until she found the flimsy flashlight she’d been provided with to assist her in her work. While she had insisted upon having a Maglite when she first begun working, those overseeing her saw the potential harm she could commit with such a heavy duty flashlight and had provided her with several smaller bargain brand ones. Reaching underneath the table, Scarlett grabbed the pocket knife she’d taped there the day she’d been brought back to her room to start working again. It would be her only protection.

If she wasn’t going to hand over the bombs to the heads of MedCo she’d have to think of another way to trigger the limbs to explode. Suddenly recalling the vodka she’d been given by her friend, Sergei, she pointed the flashlight at the bottom of the crate she’d hidden it in a week prior. Digging through the supplies for a few moments, she pulled out the bottle of vodka and the rag she’d hidden it under for so long. Resting it down on the desk, Scarlett stared at it and contemplated what she had to do.

She’d never been fond of Molotov cocktails. They were unpredictable and dangerous. On top of that, Scarlett had never been a fan of fire. It was just something that was far too dangerous and volatile to use as a weapon. She couldn’t control where the fire went and what it destroyed. It was very easy to cause her and her allies harm with fire along with her enemies, but it didn’t look like she had much of a choice. Picking up the bottle, she took a swig of the alcohol and felt it burn her throat. She’d also never been fond of vodka, at least without cranberry juice, but with the little amount she’d eaten since her practical enslavement one swig of it would be more than enough to take the edge off.

Placing the bottle back down, Scarlett picked up the blueprints she’d designed for the weapon she’d been forced to make and stared at the thick paper in disdain. Her skills had caused her trouble in the past but never quite like this. Perhaps it wasn’t her skills to blame but instead her attachment, or rather, obligation to Scott. If she had stayed on her own then it wouldn’t have been such a big deal when they’d taken someone they had thought had been her lover. Instead, she was stuck underneath the thumb of a bloodthirsty Stark Industries subsidiary because some man she had confusing feelings for was being held hostage.

Immediately feeling guilty for those thoughts, she tore the blueprints in half and pulled the matches from her table closer to her. They’d been provided to her along with cigarettes from Sergei after he’d given her vodka. While she’d never been a smoker, she knew that the cigarettes would carry a flame longer than a match would and kept them around, pretending to occasionally smoke them so her friend, the guard, wouldn’t think she was taking advantage of him.

“So deceitful Scarlett, don’t you ever grow tired of yourself?” Striking the match against the side of the box twice until the end sparked and caught fire, she stared at the flame for a second. “I guess not.” Setting the match to the end of the blueprints, she set the now alight pile of paper onto the floor, away from anything else flammable. All evidence of what she had been building would be erased. No one would be able to recreate the robots she’d been commissioned to build.

Turning back to the bottle of vodka she shoved the rag into the opening until it was dipped in the alcohol, which she’d barely touched since it’d been provided for her despite how much easier it would’ve been to deal with captivity while drunk.

“Miss Damien!” The door flung open and one of the three owners of MedCo stepped into the room, holding an electric lantern. The open door provided her with the sound of whatever chaos had been going on outside of her prison cell. “What the hell are you doing?” Scarlett searched her memory for the man’s name, back when he’d introduced himself so long ago before she’d signed her contract. Erick Reno; that was it. She snapped her finger in recognition and pointed at the man.

“What the hell is going on out there?” Scarlett stepped in front of the burning blueprints, knowing that with nothing flammable beneath them, the fire would put itself out once all of the paper had been consumed. Erick pushed past her and started to stomp on the papers in an attempt to put them out. Scarlett shoved him away from the blueprints, insisting they’d burn. Setting down the bottle on her desk, she flipped open the blade of the pocket knife but before she could aim it at Erick she heard the sound of a gun cocking.

“You little bitch! You double crossed us, didn’t you? What did you do? Who did you call? How did you call anyone? Hands up! Where I can see them.” Erick pointed the gun at her angrily. Concealing the blade the best she could in her hand, Scarlett held up her arms and sighed heavily. Now was not the time to get shot, not when she was so close to escaping. The building shook around them again and continued to rumble as something collapsed above.

“Double crossed?” Scarlett looked surprised then mumbled. “Double crossing someone who double crossed you… Not to mention kidnapped my boyfriend and holding me prisoner for weeks forcing me to build something I would have never built for a Stark company in the first place… isn’t this just sort of redeeming myself? I wouldn’t call it a double…”

“Shut up! You cannot afford to be a smart ass, not unless you want a bullet in your skull!” Erick’s eyes flashed with rage as he straightened the glasses on his face. The pile of smoldering paper on the floor was curling up, destroyed and unrecognizable.

“Testy, aren’t we?” Scarlett rolled her eyes, and grumbled in irritation when Erick grabbed a handful of her messy hair and shoved her against the desk, holding the cold steel of the gun against her side, just beneath her tank top.

“Don’t talk back to me, you little bitch,” he hissed in her ear and with the hand that had been gripping her hair, reached for the limbs on the end of the table. Scarlett widened her eyes.

“Well, this is a problem,” mumbling under her breath, she grimaced when Erick shoved the gun harder into her side as if to tell her to shut up. Still gripping the knife in her hand, Scarlett bided her time while Erick pulled the pile of robotic limbs closer. They looked nothing like the original plans. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that she’d sabotaged the weapon she’d been building for them. Though, it was likely he wouldn’t be able to tell that she’d turned it into a weapon of her own.

“What did you do?” Erick threw the robot arm back into the pile and both he and Scarlett looked at the limbs in surprise when something clicked.

“So much for a silent trigger,” Scarlett whispered under her breath. Grabbing her by her hair again, Erick shoved Scarlett onto the ground. Rolling instantly onto her back so she could see what the owner of MedCo would do next she found herself face to face with him as he hunched over her, aiming his pistol between her eyes.

Holding her breath, she leaned up on her elbows, flipping the knife around in her grasp, hand stinging from holding onto the blade. Erick leaned closer to her, aiming the gun at her chest, fist shaking with rage.

“What did you do? What the hell did you do? You betrayed us! What is that? What did you do?” Scooting closer to her, Scarlett didn’t back down as the metal of the gun touched her chest, despite how her heart was racing with fear. It wouldn’t exactly be easy to escape with a bullet wound to the chest, or any other part of her for that matter. Even if she got away, if she’d been shot in the process, then how on earth was she going to walk all the way to rescue, or deal with whatever chaos was happening in the building above them?

“Did you really think I was going to build those things? Did you really think that once I found out who you worked for and what your motives were that I would build you a weapon with the potential to start the next world war? Are you really that naïve? All three of you couldn’t figure out that I wouldn’t cooperate no matter whose head you held a gun to!”

“You selfish little brat, you little twerp! You’d let your lover die? Die so you could have the last laugh?” Erick looked at her in disbelief. The stoic demeanor he’d had upon their last meeting completely absent.

Glancing at the desk where the seemingly innocent pile of limbs lay, she knew the clock was ticking on at least one of them. There wasn’t much time for her to get out of the building before the whole thing went up in flames. Knowing it was now or never, Scarlett tried to find her way around the gun, when Erick gave her a chance.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” Moving the gun away from her chest, in order to point it toward her face while he grabbed her hair to pull her closer, he let the gun aim away for just a split second. Scarlett swung her head forward and bashed it into Erick’s, stunning him enough to force him to let go of her hair. In a flash she’d grabbed his wrist and just in time as he’d fired a shot that whizzed by her ear and into the wall behind her.

“Before you hold someone hostage to force them to do your bidding you should probably learn a little bit more about who you’re dealing with,” Scarlett hissed, finally annoyed enough to go after her aggressor.

With one swift stab, she plunged the pocket knife into his chest, pulled her legs free and kicked him away from her. Erick howled in pain, trying to pull the knife from his chest, but each tug made the wound more painful. Scarlett got to her feet and stepped on his hand, putting pressure on his wrist so he’d be forced to let go of the pistol. Reaching to grab the gun she froze when she heard the static of a handheld radio.

“Kill him,” Erick coughed into his radio to whoever was on the other end. Turning to face the man on the floor, her chest tightened as she heard the response. “You’re too late, Scarlett,” Erick laughed, finally managing to gather the courage and strength to pull the blade from his chest.

Scarlett held the gun aimed at the floor, realizing her chance to save Scott had passed and her only chance to save herself was fading as she wasted time dealing with Erick’s taunting.

“It’s Miss Damien.” Aiming the gun, she pulled the trigger and shot Erick between the eyes twice. Turning away from the spray of blood she reached down to pull the bloodied knife from his grasp, folding it up and ultimately putting it in her pocket. Grabbing the bottle of vodka from the desk where she’d left it, Scarlett didn’t look at the bloodied mess of a corpse she’d left on the floor as she stepped over it and headed out the door that Erick had left open.

Rushing down the hall, Scarlett didn’t run into much resistance. Crouching low as the building above her shook once again when she reached the stairwell Scarlett grew concerned. She knew that whatever must have been happening triggered some kind of an evacuation of the building. While she had expected alarms to go off to signify that, she guessed that when the electricity had been killed, so had the potential for alarms.

Not quite willing to give up on Scott so easily, and not ready to forgive herself for leaving the building without being sure he was gone Scarlett rushed up the stairs and down the familiar corridors of the first floor toward the loading dock.

Reaching the big doors, Scarlett heard voices on the other end, shouting and giving out orders. Shoving the door open hard, she felt the resistance of someone behind it and watched them fall to the ground. Surprised, a circle of guards who looked as though they had been planning an attack or escape turned toward her.

Realizing who she was, they reached for their guns. Scarlett could tell at a glance that they weren’t using stun guns anymore, at least not for her. Her hand was still tightly wrapped around the bottle of vodka she’d turned into a Molotov cocktail so quickly she struck a match, lit the cloth and tossed the bottle in front of the guards. The alcohol sprayed over their legs, and while it wasn’t enough to stop them, the fire from the match and the cloth quickly spread onto the flammable liquid, leaving the group more concerned with their legs being on fire than with Scarlett.

Not taking a chance to look back, Scarlett hunched low and rushed through the loading dock until she reached the maintenance room. Prepared to break down the door to the secret hallway, Scarlett found she didn’t have to since it had been left wide open.

Hurrying down the hall, she kicked open doors to her left and her right, finding many computer systems and weapons inside. At the end of the hallway, there was a door labeled Biohazard. She was stopped only when something inside suddenly exploded!

Throwing up her arms to protect herself, she leapt onto the floor and hoped to avoid the brunt of the damage. Shrapnel flew overhead, the roof of several of the rooms around her collapsed. Hurrying to her hands and knees she did her best to avoid as much of the debris as she could.

Considering herself lucky when she didn’t end up completely crushed beneath the rubble of the building, she looked around the bright African desert and was met with dust clouds obstructing her view in every direction. Whatever was happening to the MedCo building had kicked up so much of the dry dirt of the desert that it was nearly impossible to see exactly what had caused the chaos.

Getting to her feet, she stumbled over the rubble and after a few steps forward, realized her right leg was aching in pain and could not be ignored. That was saying quite a bit for her. Glancing down momentarily, nervous about seeing a piece of shrapnel sticking out of her leg, Scarlett grimaced when she saw something wet on her pants. It burned at the denim of her jeans and seeped through to burn at the flesh of her leg.

The biohazard sign on the door came to mind and Scarlett realized that some kind of chemical weapon must have been being built in the secret laboratories and now, whatever chemical it was, was burning horribly at her flesh. Leg aching and threatening to give out beneath her, Scarlett knew she didn’t have time to try and wash off whatever chemical it was.

Wiping her face and feeling blood on her forehead, Scarlett realized how hard she’d smacked her head to the floor when she’d taken refuge from the blast. Ears ringing and aching from how close she’d been to the explosion, everything began to spin dangerously around her. If this kept up she’d pass out.

“You can’t give up now Scarlett, come on. Just a little bit further.” Knowing it was likely that she was going to be killed by whomever was attacking the MedCo facility, Scarlett had to at least try to get away now that she’d made it out of the building.

Shuffling away from the rubble, Scarlett’s leg finally gave out in the desert sand. Cursing beneath her breath she winced as the sand pushed into whatever wound had begun to form there and stung. Before she could address it, the desert quieted very suddenly.

Recognizing that unsettling calm before the storm, Scarlett threw her hands over her ears and stayed low to the ground. The bombs she’d built inside her laboratory must have gone off. The explosion that followed was immense; far more immense than she had expected it to be. The sound of the blast was deafening and the ground quaked beneath her. It seemed to last forever, the destruction she’d been responsible for. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that Scott was in that building, a gunshot to his head and now his body decimated beneath the rubble, possibly never to be recovered. Guilt struck her once again. After all he’d done to protect her from herself, he had ultimately been destroyed by the woman he had tried so desperately to get to love him.

Staying on the ground until the world had stopped shaking and sometime after that, Scarlett rolled over onto her back at long last only to be face to face with one of the guards. He was bleeding from a wound on his arm, his pants and legs looking badly burned. He held a gun in his shaking hand and was aiming it at her unsteadily.

Scarlett grabbed for the gun she’d stolen from Erick before she’d killed him and realized it was gone. Somewhere in the confusion of the explosion she’d dropped the weapon and hadn’t had the chance to look for it. If she’d lingered even a moment longer inside the building, she’d be dead from the explosion. Glancing at the rubble, she could see only the skeleton of the MedCo building, even if half of it was obstructed by the dust that had been further kicked up by her chaos. Whatever remained would be unsafe.

The sound of gunfire and shouting echoed through the desert. She hadn’t noticed it after the chaos of the explosion. There was some kind of battle raging around her and from what she could hear, it seemed awfully one sided.

No one had expected the building to explode of its own accord. Scarlett had thrown a wrench into everyone’s plans. The guard aimed his gun at her, hand shaking still out of rage or nerves, Scarlett couldn’t tell. She sat up and attempted to reach for the knife in her pocket, but the guard seemed to catch wise. He was mouthing something and after listening hard for a moment and reading his lips, she realized he was telling her to get up.

The annoying ringing in her ears only permitted her to hear things that were louder than the ringing, and most of that seemed to be gunfire, what sounded like high tech laser fire, and explosions riddled with the occasional scream.

After forcing herself to concentrate and listen, she managed to get onto her feet, her leg barely able to support her after the damage the chemical on her skin had caused.

“Hands up!” The voice was garbled but she could hear it better now; the ringing had lessened but not by much. Scarlett’s head was pounding worse than it had in ages. She realized that no matter what skills she possessed in the art of combat, with her leg unable to support her properly and her head pounding so severely she wouldn’t stand a chance at getting to this guard with the knife in her pocket before he shot her.

Throwing her hands above her head in frustration, and growing angry at how damn far she’d come only to be cornered once again by MedCo, Scarlett gave the guard an ultimatum.

“Kill me!” Hearing her own voice echoing in her ears, darkness flashed in her vision and threatened unconsciousness. Determined not to pass out before she’d finished giving the guard his options, she stumbled forward, her injured leg nearly giving out on her.

Startled the guard held his gun aimed at the woman.

“Don’t move! Stay where you are!”

“You’re going to have to kill me! Shoot me! Do it! Now!” Scarlett hissed.

“Sorry Miss Damien but you have a contract to fulfill.” The guard held his gun, trembling still. “Perhaps we’ll grant you death after you’ve done so.” Scarlett cursed and contemplated ending it on her own with the knife in her pocket. Or perhaps she could force the guard to shoot her. She would rather be dead than finish the work that she’d been doing for MedCo and while she didn’t want to end her life, it seemed like the only logical way out.

Before she could decide on her next course of action there was a bright blast of white light, tinged with blue. It was some sort of laser. The guard in front of her fell backwards. Scarlett stared in awe at the collapsed man and looked around in surprise for the source of the laser fire.

In the chaos of the bright light Scarlett hadn’t even heard the gunshot. Pain suddenly burned white hot through her side. Stealing a glance she saw the blood instantly pouring from the wound and spreading over her shirt. Hunching over and grabbing her side in an attempt to stop the bleeding, Scarlett knew she didn’t have time to sit there and wait for whatever had shot the guard.

Hurrying over to where the guard now lay dead on the ground she pried the gun he had fired in his dying moments from his hands and started through the sands. Her leg nearly gave out again as she trudged forward. Head swimming she tried to keep it together but there was little use in her efforts.

Blood loss, alcohol, pain, and whatever chemical had splashed on her had finally taken its toll. Adrenaline could only help her cope with so much and the shock was finally wearing off. Cursing beneath her breath, Scarlett blinked furiously to try and fight off the darkness encroaching on her vision.

Tripping as her leg gave out beneath her, she fell face first in the sand and dropped the handgun she’d stolen. There was a sound she didn’t recognize, like something rushing through the air; thrusters perhaps. Mechanical whirring filled her ears, but was unrecognizable for the most part. She’d never heard anything like it before.

Leaning her head up to try and get a last look before unconsciousness took over Scarlett could only make out one thing: red and gold metallic feet, walking toward her through the sand. Head spinning and unsure of what to make of it, she could hear a voice coming from whatever was in front of her but couldn’t make out what it was saying.

Wanting to yell and get to her feet to find out what the hell had happened to the MedCo facility while she’d been planning her escape, she found herself physically unable to do so.

The darkness of unconsciousness finally took over and Scarlett gave in to the toll her wounds had taken on her body. The last thing she felt was the heat of the desert sand on her face, stinging at the wound on her forehead.