Hollow Scars

“What the hell do you mean you know?” Tony’s flight path had faltered upon hearing Scarlett’s response to his big reveal and he now hovered in the air waiting to learn more. After he’d spent the last two days being driven mad with guilt and fear she already knew? How many times had he kicked himself for possibly destroying his relationship with her because he was nosy and she already knew everything he had worked up to tell her? When was she planning on telling him that? “Scarlett, what the hell? You have to give me a little more than that.”

But Scarlett didn’t respond to him.

Why was she being so damn cryptic about everything? He’d practically spilled his guts to her (though he conveniently forgot to reveal that he’d pried so desperately into her history) and she had barely spoken two words to him.

What was happening on the other end of that phone that he couldn’t see? He hated that she didn’t have the technology that he was accustomed to. Tony was a very visual person and not being able to see Scarlett’s reaction only left him wondering what it really was. Could she still be mad at him even though she apparently already knew exactly what he had intended to tell her? He had betrayed her trust after all. Why wasn’t she yelling at him? Why was Tony disappointed that she wasn’t yelling at him?

His big reveal had sort of flopped and left him flustered in the meantime.

Scarlett, on the other hand, was not thinking about how Tony had figured things out or what he’d said on the other line. She was too busy trying to judge how much time she would have to twist Scott’s arm away before he fired a shot out of nerves.

Scott always did have shitty nerves.

But Scarlett’s mind was reeling and she was beginning to think her nerves were just as shot. Yes, it was true that by the time Tony had told her about Scott she had figured out a good chunk of his true intentions both past and present. But much of what he had revealed had been new information and she was trying to wrap her mind around it. For once she wasn’t just Scarlett the super spy, mercenary or whatever it was that she had become.

She was Scarlett the human being and she’d been betrayed by someone who was supposed to take care of her. Wasn’t that what he had wanted in the first place? To take care of her? Hadn’t they argued over it a hundred times and she’d objected to the notion of needing anyone? Here she thought she’d been the one breaking hearts! Were any of the moments she’d had in the past real with Scott? Or was it all a part of some bigger scheme he’d had planned from the beginning? Head pounding, Scarlett was doing her best not to hyperventilate. She was rethinking every moment they’d spent together.

Now was most certainly not the time to get emotional.

This was when she needed to be the hardened fighter she’d worked for years to become. Yet it wasn’t working the way she’d wanted, nay needed it to. Her head was spinning and despite the repetitive mental chant she’d started of ‘I can deal with it later’ Scarlett was failing.

She wasn’t very good at failing.

But she couldn’t keep pushing things off to deal with them later either. Why did she have to reach that conclusion now, of all times?

When Scott reached for her phone to knock it out of her hand, she didn’t think she just reacted the way anyone would. Dropping the phone so he had nothing to grab it cracked on the ground and the screen shattered but the call didn’t disconnect as she had hoped that it would. What Tony was about to hear wasn’t going to be good. Possibly traumatizing.

“Scarlett? Scarlett!” She could hear Tony yelling at her through the phone since he’d obviously been alerted to the dangerous situation. At once she threw her elbow back into Scott’s face and he covered his nose in frustration but his finger also instinctively clenched and pulled the trigger on the hand gun. A single shot rang out, nowhere near Scarlett, crashing into the concrete on the ground nearby and ricocheting somewhere else. Tony was officially screaming on the phone and panicking but Scarlett wasn’t exactly in a position comfort him.

Reaching for her hand gun, Scarlett pulled it free quickly and aimed it at her former lover but she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to actually pull the trigger. This had been a man that she’d spent years of her life with. Ending it with one bullet didn’t seem possible.

Scarlett was beginning to think that she desperately needed to see a shrink.

Where were all the people of this town anyway? Someone should’ve called the cops by now. Why was the whole place abandoned? How had Scott managed to trigger this entire series of events to lead up to this one moment? Scarlett’s head spun with unanswered questions.

“You broke my nose you bitch!” Scott shouted, leaning forward and holding his bleeding nose, his eyes tearing.

“Well, considering what you did to me in the last year I think you’re lucky that I didn’t break your balls, asshole.” Scarlett’s hands were trembling from upset. The memory of having a panic attack at Tony’s lab came rushing back to her thoughts. There was absolutely no time for her to panic like that so she concentrated on taking deeper breaths though it was no simple feat.

Faster than Scarlett had anticipated, Scott grabbed her wrist and twisted it backwards then grabbed the barrel of her gun and twisted it away from her grasp. Scarlett let the gun go; it wasn’t worth breaking her wrist over and she had a spare though she was unsure if she’d get to it with how fast Scott was. When he reached for her again, she deflected his hand with her palm and punched again at the already bloodied nose he had. It was a cheap shot, but Scarlett was desperate and was more than prepared to fight dirty to gain an advantage.

“What you don’t know about me could fill a book, Scarlett.” Scott was smiling and the pain he’d expressed only seconds ago had mysteriously faded. He had blood dripping down his nose, past his lips and coating his teeth despite his demeanor. Something was seriously off about him. Scarlett was guessing some kind of nerve damage from the surgical scars she’d took notice of earlier.

“I’m realizing that, actually. Something we agree on at last. It only took how many years?” Scarlett was still defensive. She hoped if Tony heard her voice then he would realize she was alive and stop panicking so much. Not that she could blame him for freaking out, she would’ve done the same if the tables had been turned.

“Admitting you’re at fault for once? Taking responsibility perhaps?” Scott grabbed for Scarlett but she anticipated this and ducked. As she was going to kick out his legs underneath him she squealed in surprise finding Scott was much faster than she had ever expected and lunged nearly on top of her. She rolled out of the way just in time and got to her feet. His hands smashed at the concrete, leaving dents against the ground with unnatural strength. Whatever Scott had done to his body, it wasn’t good for her and she didn’t stand a chance.

Her only option was to run, but where? How did Scott even know she was going to be there in the first place? Where were the people who lived in this town? She couldn’t get that out of her head. The place couldn’t be abandoned. Were people sitting in their homes, ignoring the attack going on outside? She wouldn’t put it past MedCo to have orchestrated such an event.

Scarlett turned to run once she realized it was her only option but stopped short seeing a familiar face standing at the end of the block.

Mikhail, one of the three heads of MedCo Scarlett had encountered during her time held in captivity in South Africa, was wearing a tan leather trench coat, hands in his pocket and watching the scene in front of him casually. Marcia and Erick were his companions and while they had been formidable, Mikhail had been the only one to actually frighten her. Even if she got away from Scott, there would be Mikhail to deal with. This day wasn’t going very well.

When she stopped at the sight of Mikhail, Scott seized opportunity and grabbed her wrist then practically threw her against the bench at the bus stop where they’d earlier been speaking. She slid across the top and grabbed onto the end of it with every intention of flipping backwards off of it and running in the opposite direction.

But Scott was once again on top of her with his hand against her throat and unearthly speeds.

“How much did MedCo pay you to let them experiment on you, huh? To become a lab rat? Tell me, what’s the going price for a human being these days?” Scarlett hissed, out of breath and coughing now. She was no match for Scott just as she had been no match for Erick on the ship. With blind luck she’d gotten away just in time there but now she wasn’t sure she’d be so lucky. Every ounce of luck Scarlett had once had seemed to finally be running out.

“Money? You think this was about money?” Scott laughed but he was definitely not smiling. His face was red from rage and he tightened his grip around her throat so it would be a struggle every time she spoke. Scarlett grabbed onto his wrist and felt around for his bones and bided her time. Breathing was no easy feat, but it wasn’t impossible yet either.

“Everything’s about money, Scott. Or did you just steal my experiments because you wanted to screw me over then too? Do you really think anyone would’ve believed you were smart enough to come up with any of the technology I’ve developed in my off hours?” Scarlett couldn’t help herself. Taunting wasn’t the best idea when she was being choked by a mad man who had a gun in one hand and the other against her windpipe. Betrayal made her do stupid things.

“That’s all you think about, isn’t it? You. How I cheated you?”

“Well you’re making a pretty compelling argument for me right now!” Scarlett choked but resisted talking when Scott squeezed tighter on her throat. Dizziness flooded her vision, her ears rang and the constriction made her choke and gag in order to gather her breath.

“How about the years you cheated me?” His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and he was practically spitting at her as he screamed. “All I ever wanted was for you to love me! That was all I ever wanted! But all you cared about was your damn job and the next damn mission when I was standing right there! Waiting for you to look at me and notice that I was all that you needed! I was there for you, damnit! I was there holding your hair back when you puked after getting wasted. I was there to bail you out after you got into some drunken bar fight with some pig that you’d instigated! I was there to check you out of the hospital after you got hurt! How many times did I tell you that someday it would be too much? Someday you’d regret it!”

Seeing red, Scarlett pressed her fingers against the sensitive spot between his bones on his wrists and forced his hand to release its grip. Kicking him away at last she rolled off of the bench and landed on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping for breath. Her lungs were stinging from lack of air. If she had waited much longer she would’ve passed out.

“What, so you paid someone to give me what you thought I deserved? You tried to turn me into someone I’m not?” Scarlett coughed and slowly got to her feet. By the time she’d managed to, Scott had grabbed her and pulled her close again by her hair. She’d reached for her second handgun but he had easily taken it from her and tossed it aside with the other one. “I was good at what I did and you hated every second of it. I told you that I couldn’t be what you wanted and I meant it. It’s not my fault that you wanted something different than I did but it doesn’t mean I was wrong for wanting it.”

“Do you think I care what you want?” Scott chuckled, grabbing one arm and then the other as she twisted away stubbornly. She may have been outmanned but she wasn’t going to hand herself over. “None of that matters Scarlett, not anymore!”

“So what’s the plan then, Scott?” Scarlett knew the only way she’d managed to get far enough away from him was to get him angry… well, angrier than he already was. “Isn’t this the part where the villain sums up what they’re up to or would you rather I guess? I was damn good at what I did and you set me up to take a fall so that the point you’d been trying to drill into my head for years would finally get through? Your life is too dangerous. Wasn’t that what you always said? I can hear it in my head. You told me how I’d someday get into trouble I couldn’t get out of so easily.” Scarlett’s plan, as feeble as it was, seemed to be working. Scott’s grip on her fumbled as he grew angrier and Scarlett managed to smack his hands away from her repeatedly which only further frustrated him.

“Stop squirming!” He growled. Even if Scarlett managed to get away from Scott there was Mikhail to deal with. She was in no condition to fight with either of them but what other choice did she have?

“Well guess what, Scott. That kind of trouble only happened when you pulled the strings.” Scarlett continued to sneak just beyond his grasp. The last thing she wanted was for him to grab her throat again. It was still sore from the last time he had.

She was furious! Irrationally so and while she tried to keep her head in the game it was proving far more difficult than she had hoped. The ex-girlfriend side of Scarlett was betrayed and upset with Scott and wanted to give him a piece of her mind then possibly find his car, slash his tires and bash the windshield in. It was a regular country song moment, except that now her ex-boyfriend was some horrible experiment with emotional issues trying to take her captive for god only knows what reason.

There weren’t any country songs quite like that. Not that Scarlett could think of at least.

“It would’ve happened eventually! One way or another you would’ve met your sticky end. How many times had you broken a bone? Or come home shot or stabbed with me worried sick! You wouldn’t even let me help you!” Scott was fast but Scarlett wasn’t doing much more than staying right out of his reach. Running would take her focus off of him and she’d never make it more than a few feet before he caught her.

“Wouldn’t let you help me? Are you kidding? Helping doesn’t mean nagging and scolding! I needed help and someone who would accept me as the flawed piece of shit I was, not someone who wanted me to be something I could never be! So what is it, Scott? What are you going to do? Keep me in some cell and hope that someday I’ll love you? You can dissect my brain and I’m still going to be disgusted at the sight of you.” She snarled in anger. “You’re a monster, you know that? You were a good man once, when we met and now you’re no better than the scum you used to despise.”

“And you think you’re some saint?” Scott was foaming at the mouth. When she’d said nothing he could do would change her it had sent his mental state spiraling out of control.

“I know what I am.” Scarlett shook her head. “Some of us don’t make excuses.”

“I cleaned up your messes, I did nothing but love you and now I’m a monster?” Scott snatched her right arm and twisted her around, grabbing the other roughly and finally keeping her from squirming out of his grasp. Instead of fighting his grip Scarlet narrowed her eyes at him and saved her strength.

“You made the monster, Scott.” Scarlett felt her stomach ache and wondered if it was her fault after all. Had there always been this beast inside of Scott waiting to get out or was he perhaps instead transformed into it over the years by Scarlett who had ignored his need for attention? She should’ve let him go years ago but sometimes the truth didn’t make an appearance until it was too late. Scarlett had needed to be away from Scott to realize how toxic their relationship was. “And I never asked you to clean up anything for me. I had been perfectly capable of taking care of my own mistakes and handling them. You intervened where you didn’t belong and acted like I was a burden. I never loved you, how could I when you could never love the person I am?” Scott growled, an unearthly sort of growl that unsettled Scarlett like she couldn’t believe. Instinctively she flipped the switch on her Tesla glove to arm it but wasn’t sure she would be able to do more than shock Scott to give her a chance at getting away.

Not that there was anywhere for her to go, she reminded herself.

Scarlett knew she was trapped like a rat unless she miraculously managed to kill Scott and then get past Mikhail. But Scott was finally doing what she had hoped he’d do when he got mad enough. He grabbed her and lifted her into the air with ease. Eyes wide, Scarlett braced for the landing blow and then grabbed Scott’s arm and let him have it. The shock that passed through him rebounded and shocked her as well. Cursing loudly she was even further alarmed when Scott tossed her effortlessly at least ten feet through the air. Landing on the grass in a roll Scarlett quickly turned onto her stomach and jumped to her feet.

Maybe she could lose them between houses. She really hated plans that were dependent on luck. Flipping the switch to recharge the Tesla device she grimaced as it failed and sparked on her arm, severe enough that she could feel it burn her flesh. When Scott had thrown her the device had scraped against the ground and parts of it had broken apart.

“Seriously? Of all the times I’ve been thrown around you break on the grass?” Cursing again Scarlett took a chance and ran as quickly as she could toward the nearest fence. Easily she could hop it and put some distance between her and those who would aim to harm her. How had they found her in the first place? The lengths she’d gone through to keep MedCo off of her tail had been extreme and yet now Scott and Mikhail were there and had organized an entire set up to stop her. “This is no time for math, holy crap Scarlett.” She whispered to herself as she grabbed onto top of the nearest fence. But as she reached the top something hot and painful grazed the outside of her left arm. She heard the shot as she felt the bullet tear through flesh and continue past her with a zip.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. While the blow had only been a graze of her arm it had done enough damage to make her bleed and cause her left arm to give out on her. At the top of the wall, she tilted and tried to compensate for the balance lost with her leg but wasn’t fast enough and instead toppled head over heels toward the ground on the other side of the fence landing right on the afflicted arm.

Temporarily she saw stars but gritted her teeth and kept from yelling out at the misery it caused. It was just pain and ultimately pain was just nerves sending emergency signals to her brain and if she could repeat that then maybe the pain could be ignored until she wasn’t being pursued by a mad man and his lackey.

“You thought I was weak.” She could hear Scott continuing on his mad rant from the other side of the wall and forced her legs to cooperate and her right arm to over compensate for the left before getting at last to her feet and following the wall behind a nearby house. “You always thought I was a little mouse who couldn’t take care of himself!” Scarlett wasn’t going to be goaded into responding and revealing her position. Instead she was more concerned about the steady drip of blood from her arm. Her sleeve was torn so she couldn’t see the wound but she could feel her fingers going numb under the weight of her damaged Tesla glove. She really needed to invest in some protective armor of some kind if she survived this.

“So I changed.” Scott continued to growl in an unnatural tone. What had happened to him? What had MedCo done to change him? As she snuck into the small alleyway in between the block of homes Scarlett was for once, at a loss of what to do. She was screwed, there was no way out that she could foresee that didn’t end in death and more bloodshed. What did Scott want from her? Maybe she was wrong and he hadn’t wanted her alive. The gunshot wound on her arm left her wondering.

And why wouldn’t the damn thing stop bleeding?

“You thought I died in that explosion! You thought I was helpless and trapped and you were my only hope! Well you were never the hero in this story Scarlett you were always the villain.” At the end of the alleyway, Scarlett felt sick. The cling in her throat that she’d been ignoring was making her nauseous but if she coughed she’d practically broadcast where she was hiding. So instead she suffered and dealt with the dizziness caused by lack of oxygen. At the end of the alley she peered around the corner and saw no sign of Mikhail or Scott. So she made a break for it and ran across the street and toward the next alley.

But halfway through the street she heard another shot. This time she had the common sense to duck out of the way. The whistling of the bullet was close but the aim had been sloppier than the shot prior. When she reached the sidewalk, Scott came barreling toward her and knocked her off of her feet, sending them both sliding against the asphalt, Scott tumbling over her head as she kicked him to urge him away.

“You were right about a few things Scarlett. I was working for MedCo long before you knew about them. I used the power they gave me to have you taken by those men and have you set up on that mission in Afghanistan. Do you remember what I said when you collapsed in our apartment after escaping?”

Scarlett wasn’t going to dignify that with a response but she knew very well exactly what he’d said to her that day. Those words had been haunting her in her dreams for weeks.

“You should’ve seen it coming.” Scott pushed Scarlett easily back on the ground as she attempted to get up. Coughing and gagging, Scarlett spit up some kind of nasty discolored ick onto the asphalt and merely stared at the ground in front of her trying desperately to think. Plans of attack raced through her mind but she couldn’t seem to get her limbs to cooperate. “I warned you a hundred times that if you kept playing with fire you would get burned… and you never realized who was fanning the flame! You wanted me to be your innocent… sweet… Scott forever. You’re just as guilty as I am.”

As he spoke he gave her side a jolting kick that knocked her a few feet onto the asphalt. Scarlett coughed harder and held her side but her fingers were numbed from the gunshot wound. Slowly rolling onto her back, Scarlett stared at the gray sky and continued to choke and gag. Trying to run would cause her more pain and she couldn’t see a way out by running. She had to reevaluate her situation. Maybe letting him win was the only option. It might have been easier to go from there.

Scott walked over to her and stood with his feet on either side of her, clicking his tongue in disapproval as he stared her down. “You know I actually was being held captive in South Africa[a name="here"][/a].” He tilted his head to the side and then crouched low and sat firmly on top of her. Grabbing her chin he forced her head off of the ground. Scarlett’s lip curled in disgust and against her better judgment she spit in his face.

“Go to hell.”

“You first.” Scott squeezed her chin and dug his nails into her flesh then leaned closer. “I had been working with Mikhail back then while you recovered from your ordeal to… better myself. First it was my muscular structure and then the bones. But what we were doing was off the record you see… Human experimenting was what MedCo was all about to begin with but… using it for my own personal gain, for you… well that was entirely different. It was unprofessional.” Scott dropped Scarlett’s head back against the asphalt with a smack making her dizzy. The outside of her vision was darkening, like an old movie fading at the end of the reel. “Oh no, you don’t get to pass out. Not until I say so.” Scott smacked her hard across the face and she groaned in irritation.

“Are you sure? Because I could certainly live without listening to you blather on. Is this supposed to make you look like less of a monster because right now it’s not going so well?” Scarlett’s heart was thudding so hard in her chest she was sure that some horrible Xenomorph alien was going to burst out at any second and attack Scott and leave her a ruined corpse on the road.

Stranger things had happened in the last week.

“You will do whatever I tell you to do.” Scott snarled and Scarlett rolled her eyes in response. “That was always your greatest flaw, Scarlett. You never listen… not until it benefits you but you won’t have to worry about that for much longer. Soon enough you’ll do whatever I tell you to do. Whatever they tell you to do. I’ve dreamt about it for weeks… months!”

“Blah, blah, blah, this is old news.” Scarlett spoke between coughs. “Oh no, big bad MedCo wants to experiment on me and use me to do their bidding.” Rolling her eyes she taunted him in a sing-song tone. “Get over yourself Scott. Seriously, why don’t you go eat a carton of Rocky Road and buy a vibrator like the rest of us women do after a bad break up?” Scott reached for the gun that he’d fired at her now three times and aimed it at her with shaking hands. Scarlett knew he wasn’t going to shoot her, he wanted her too badly. She’d had bad break ups before but this was ridiculous.

“Don’t make me hurt your pretty face, Scarlett…” Scott took deep breaths to calm down. “I would’ve died in that explosion if it hadn’t been for the experiments. I didn’t get away before it as you suspected. There was so much fire… the pain was… incredible.” His eyes faded and became distant as he recalled the day that had changed Scarlett’s life forever. “But by then I was too strong. I walked away from the rubble hours later after my broken body had healed. I was taken to the hospital and stayed there for a week before checking out.” Scott pulled up his shirt to show her the scar that he’d earlier pointed out. “That was where they had to remove a part of the table that had burst through my chest in the explosion. I would’ve died without what you claim has turned me into a monster.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” Scarlett muttered, finally able to stop coughing after having been thrown around and spent so much time running.

“MedCo realized what a success I was, despite how I’d broken their rules. With Erick dead… or at least no longer in a position to help run the company, Marcia and Mikhail had no objections to wiping the slate clean and giving me what I wanted.”

“Do you really think that this is going to end well for you?” Scott looked puzzled by her question. “Honestly, Scott… even as clever as some of what you’ve done has been you are still ignoring the big truth staring you in the face. You’re blind! Still the dumbest smart guy I know.” She shook her head. “They’ll never let you live the life you want to live. You’re their property now and if you think that you’re anything more than that then you are as big a fool as you were before those experiments. Worse probably. I liked you much better before you became a murderous asshole.”

“Shut up, Scarlett!”

“I guess none of those experiments were on your brain, right? I mean other than increased amounts of hormones that have obviously boosted your adrenal gland.”

“I said shut up!”

“You are screwed! Screwed no matter what you do! You didn’t just give into pressure you caved! Every good thing about you is lying on some surgical table in India, left to rot because you thought you had to be stronger! Guess what, Scott? No matter what you do, you can’t win! Because they own you now. They win! Not you. You’re just a pawn like the rest of us.”

“I said shut up you stupid bitch, you don’t get to talk! Not anymore!” Scott grabbed her face, covering her mouth with his palm and snarling so close to her that she could practically feel him drool on her. Scarlett made feeble attempts to squirm away but between blood loss and being thrown around she was too weak to do much of anything. “I did this for you! Everything for you! So you could see that I was always the only thing you ever needed! I did this for us and you won’t ruin it! Not after I’ve worked so hard and come so far!” Scarlett bit hard onto Scott’s hand and then spat blood back at him when he pulled away in surprise and howled in pain.

“You’re a fool.” Scarlett choked, spitting again to get the blood out of her mouth. “That’s the problem Scott. I don’t need you. I never needed you and I don’t want to need you!” Scarlett leaned her head back and shook it from side to side. “I don’t know when something broke inside that dull head of yours, but this is all insane. It’s absolutely insane! I know I was a shitty girlfriend and there is literally nothing you can do to change the way things panned out.” For a very brief moment she could see reality make its way through to Scott and his blue eyes looked once again like those of the man she’d once pitied. There was no blame, no hate, no terrifying need to have her in his life. But it was short lived and anger quickly replaced it. Whatever experiments he had done with the intention of bettering his state of being had clearly backfired.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, stop talking!” Scott’s hands were trembling but he didn’t make another attempt to harm her.

“I know you’re in there somewhere.” Scarlett furrowed her brow and leaned her head up. “That smart guy who conned me into a date years ago and snuck his way into my life is still in there. You don’t have to do what MedCo says, not yet. We can fix you. Everyone makes mistakes, Scott. I know I did.” Taking a risk she reached up with her bad hand to touch his cheek in hopes of bringing him around. But Scott instead snarled and grabbed her arm, crushing what remained of the Tesla glove and tossing it away uselessly. Tearing at the hole in her sleeve caused by the bullet he’d shot, Scott pulled it far enough away so he had access to the wound.

“I do not need you to fix me! I didn’t make a mistake! You did! You’re the failure! I’m the genius! You’re the one who needs to change!” Scott spat angrily and dug his fingers into the wound he’d created, pulling at her skin. Scarlett howled instantly in pain and grabbed at his face with her other hand in an attempt to disorient him but he only pressed harder on the wound and laughed. His eyes lit up to see her squirming and miserable beneath him. Flesh tore beneath his fingers, blood dripped from the wound, over his hands, her arm, onto the asphalt beneath them.

“Genius? You’re the genius?” Scarlett laughed but it slowly disintegrated into a whimper and she coughed and leaned her head to the side, her entire left side trembling in pain from what Scott had done. “Hardly.”

“And you are?” Scott held her arm up and watched the blood drip down her arm and stain the remainder of her sleeve while her fingers twitched as a pain response. Scarlett didn’t respond because she didn’t much feel like a genius at the moment. She felt like an idiot for not having seen what Scott was becoming and the way he had changed. How different would her life had been if she hadn’t ignored the dramatic shift in his personality after she’d returned from Afghanistan?

How much pain would she have been spared?

Right now she could think of one very intense pain she could live without.

“That’s what I thought.” Scott smirked and pulled her arm closer, pressing his fingers against the wound once more and urging the blood to flow out of it. Gritting her teeth, Scarlett saw the stars flash again in her vision and struggled against the blackness threatening her. She couldn’t breathe; her heart was beating too hard. Every time she inhaled she gagged and then coughed instead of breathing. “Do you know how I found you? You were doing the math earlier if I recall. Are you still doing that math? Or have you figured it out?”

Scarlett coughed in response and batted her eyes to try and clear her vision. Scott leaned closer and sniffed the blood dripping down her arm which made her stomach turn.

“We couldn’t get close enough to tap your location on anything you owned. Scarlett you were too clever. I know I was insulting you but you made me angry. You’re a smart and beautiful woman… Don’t you see that’s why I can’t let you go?” Scott let his tongue brush over the trail of blood dripping down her arm much to Scarlett’s disgust. She gagged again but not from the phlegm gathering in her throat. “But your friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. got close enough to you and did the dirty work for us. They intercepted your call in South Africa. When you met with their little Agent there they tapped your signal and without even touching your phone you were caught.”

“Shit.” Scarlett cursed. She should’ve realized that’s why her phone was acting funny. The line had been tampered with and she’d thought it was the water after she’d fallen off the boat! This was exactly why she didn’t want S.H.I.E.L.D. involved! When too many people got involved that was when work got sloppy. Scarlett had to stay off the grid not broadcast her whereabouts for everyone to see, including MedCo.

“From there it was as easy as intercepting the signal and blocking your phone. Clever bitch you rebuilt the thing on the plane. We’d lose our chance if we didn’t intercept you here and now. You were bound to figure it out soon enough. Of course it wasn’t by chance, I don’t work here. You should’ve followed your instincts Scarlett, you used to be good at that. But I made you second guess yourself didn’t I? After Afghanistan… those nightmares you had. Can’t trust your gut anymore because you didn’t see it coming…” Licking his lips, Scott still had blood dripping down them.

“Don’t need to be a genius to figure that out, Scott.” Scarlett groaned, her lips curling in disgust and her stomach churning dangerously. If Scott kept up his vile behavior she might throw up. But before she could speak further he bit the wound on her arm, digging his teeth and tongue into her flash. At long last Scarlett couldn’t hold back the agony she was in and she screamed in pain, her body reacting at first involuntarily.

But she couldn’t sit there and let him mutilate her! Scarlett used the adrenaline to her advantage and smashed her right elbow into his rib. She forced the left arm further into his mouth so he would release the bite instinctively. As soon as her arm was free she smashed her hand into his already damaged nose and then pushed him onto his back and placed her good hand against his throat and squeezed as hard as she could.

He shoved her hand away and instead she balled them into fists and slammed them into his face, over and over. Scott started to laugh but Scarlett couldn’t stop herself now that she’d started hitting Scott. She wanted him to hurt and wanted him to suffer! He’d put her through hell and was supposed to be someone who took care of her and supported her. Instead he’d taken that trust and tossed it aside in hopes of controlling her. Her eyes were burning but she refused to get any more upset than she already was. The last thing she wanted was to give Scott the satisfaction of seeing just how deeply he’d hurt her. Scott was laughing as he took the beating she doled out clearly amused by her sudden loss of control.

Finally when she struck him again her left arm gave out and she was forced to stop attacking him, resting her hands down on either side of him on the asphalt, out of breath and coughing in pain and misery.

“God damnit, god damnit!” Scarlett hung her head but Scott took the moment of weakness and flipped her back over. Blood still dripped from his lips and covered his hands.

“You see, Scarlett? You’re just as much a monster as I am.” Scott placed his hand on her cheek and then met her lips. She could taste the blood on them. Her blood.

Squirming she made desperate attempts to part their lips, turning her head away and eventually biting hard at him until he was forced to pull away. “Damnit!” He pulled back and held his busted lip in anger.

Scarlett pushed him off of her and scrambled to her feet but was soon leaning over with her hands on her knees and throwing up. The taste of blood had been what set her off, but the amount of phlegm trapped in her throat had made her sick to her stomach to begin with. Not to mention the pain she was in. Adrenaline had finally worn off and every part of her ached. Her left arm was practically crippled and throbbing from the way it’d been pulled, tugged and bitten.

“Okay Scarlett.” Scott’s voice came from in front of her and she looked up at him with her mouth hanging open as she continued to gag. He was obviously angry and insulted, she could practically see his eye twitching. “Now you can pass out.” Instead of smacking her in the head like she’d expected, Scott shoved her back onto the ground which she resisted by stumbling backward but couldn’t when he kicked her feet out from underneath her. Then he kicked her in the side which resulted in her coughing again and rolling onto her side to escape another blow against her ribs. Her vision was already failing after the fall and now she was only semi-conscious as she laid there. Scott leaned over her and placed his hand over her mouth and constricted her nose.

The last thing she saw was that she had managed to knock out one of Scott’s teeth when she’d been punching him and that at least was a very satisfying thought.

Scott watched as Scarlett finally succumbed to the unconsciousness he’d forced her to fight since the conflict began. He waved to Mikhail who hadn’t moved from his spot at the corner of the block. Finally the large Russian made his way over to Scarlett and lifted her with ease.

“You let her get to you.” Mikhail spoke without turning to look at Scott.

“I let her get nothing.” Scott started walking back toward the bus stop where Scarlett had dropped her phone at the beginning of their struggle.

“Wipe off your face, you look like an animal.” Mikhail spat before walking away with Scarlett. Scott picked up the phone and wiped his lips as instructed. Tony was still screaming on the other end of the phone.

“I would’ve expected you to hang up by now.” Scott rolled his eyes and walked after Mikhail. Tony had spent the last twenty minutes, the longest twenty minutes of his life quite possibly, trying to use Scarlett’s phone signal to locate her and then send the Russian police to help her. But the Russians had thought he was prank calling them and had ignored his pleas so Tony had put all remaining power in the Mark VII into his thrusters. But he knew he still had a few hours left to fly before he’d get there and it would be too late by then.

It seemed too late now.

“What did you do you son of a bitch? Where’s Scarlett? What the hell is going on?” Tony was frantic. He’d heard several gunshots fired and was assuming the worst but then he’d heard yelling and fighting in the background. His only hope was that Scott was still as consumed with Scarlett as he had seemed in the scribbles on the apartment wall and wouldn’t risk killing her. It would give Tony a chance to at least try and save her.

“Calm down, Stark or your battery might die.” Scott spat his words.

“I swear, if you hurt her…”

“You’ll what? Kill me? Fat chance.” Scott wasn’t threatened in the least. “I dare you too.”

“Don’t push me, Scott.”

“Oh, so you figured it out did you? Smarter than I thought. You know much smarter. I thought the whole genius thing was a ploy.”

“Don’t change the subject, what the hell did you do to Scarlett?”

“You really want her back, huh? Just need to know if she’s okay.” Scott stopped walking and watched Mikhail load up a Black SUV with Scarlett and various other suitcases that had been left around town. The perimeter had been rigged to give anyone leaving a jolt high enough to knock them out. They’d planned for Scarlett to arrive exactly when she had. Thanks to their information from S.H.I.E.L.D. she was an easy target.

“What do you want, Scott? What is it you want from her? From me?” Tony took deep breaths. He wasn’t willing to negotiate with him but he would do whatever it took to find Scarlett and keep her safe if she was even still alive. His mind and heart were both rejecting the notion of her being anything otherwise.

“I already got what I want, Stark.” Tony winced upon being called by his last name again. Only Scarlett could get away with that, what was this guy thinking? “The real question is, what do you want and how badly?”

“I’m getting her back, one way or another.” Tony faltered. He had no idea what MedCo wanted and this was exactly what Scarlett had been trying to prevent from happening. She didn’t want him involved with MedCo and she most certainly didn’t want him making the sacrifice play. He wasn’t sure she would be able to live with the guilt of anything happening to him. But there were too many factors being left to chance for Tony. He had no idea what had happened or what kind of condition she would be in when he found her. Scarlett was obviously capable of caring for herself but if Scott had incapacitated her then she wouldn’t be able to find a way out on her own.

Tony couldn’t leave it to chance.

There was no time to waste. What if they experimented on her? What if they destroyed who she was? Tony couldn’t lose another person in his life, not after he’d fought so hard to keep her in it.

“If you want her back, come and find her. I’m sure Mikhail would be more than happy to make a deal with the great and powerful Tony Stark.” Scott hung up the phone without giving Tony a chance to respond with more questions. Then he smashed it beneath his feet and left it lying in the middle of the road next to the half destroyed Tesla device.

No one would be using that phone to find Scarlett, not even S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially not Tony Stark.