AN: Takes place four months after White's Interrogation in Quantum of Solace.

22nd October, 2008

...

Detention Bunker, Bolivia

The lone figure sat huddled in the corner of the dark room, too frightened to move. The room was cold and the air putrid in part from how old the room was as well as her own bodily fluids. She didn't know how long had passed. It could have been a week, a month or perhaps even a year, but then again she guessed it didn't matter. It just reinforced her thought that the chance of ever getting out of the room alive looked bleaker with each moment that passed. Did anyone care that she was missing? Or where they too busy trying to find her? All she knew was that she was beginning to slowly lose hope.

The men that had kidnapped her from the safe house in Siena, visited frequently to interrogate her on everything she knew about Operation Illuminati. It seemed Quantum was just as interested in the project as their government. Either they had their own agenda or they were working with MI6 or the CIA. It didn't matter what their goal was, she refused to tell them anything. However, her silence only seemed to fuel their anger, resulting in her daily torture session. It didn't matter how many times, they inflicted pain on her frail body, she refused to let them break her. It was only when the familiar face of Mr White made an appearance that she felt herself crack under pressure.

The various drugs he had administered caused her to hallucinate her worst fears. It brought everything she had suppressed over the years to the surface, slowly driving her insane. The drugs made her feel like she had no control over her own body. She would have given anything for it to stop. It was only when the pain became too much, that she found peace in the darkness.

When she regained consciousness, she had been lying on the cold, hard ground of her prison. She couldn't recall if she had let slip anything about Operation Illuminati. If she had, the knowledge in the wrong hands could turn the world into chaos. From what she had learned about the project, the drugs caused a person or the 'alter' as they had been called to become a puppet. They would have no free will and have to obey any orders that were commanded of them. They had found the ultimate mind control drugs and if placed in the wrong hands could cause world chaos.

The only reason she had found out about the project was due to the anonymous package that had been delivered to her office at Six from an unknown source. When she opened the envelope and saw the dossier, she read it over feeling nauseous at the contents. With each word she read, she felt disgusted that the CIA and MI6 had carried out such harrowing experiments throughout the 1950s until the project had been brought to an end in the 1980s. However, from further investigation, it seemed it hadn't been the case.

The experiments were still being carried out. There was no one she could trust, not anymore. She had taken an oath to protect Queen and Country, but she realised that the real threat was from within. There was a chance she was compromised, but she couldn't say for certain.

No one had come back since her last torture session, making her think that they got the information they needed and left her here to rot.
Feeling a pain in her chest, she closed her eyes, trying desperately to catch her breath as a hacking cough caused her thin and weakened frame to shake. The metallic taste of blood in the back of her throat caused her to gag. Feeling her eyes water and her chest burn, she finally managed to get her coughing under control.

Laying down on her side, she curled up into a ball, as the sound of her heavy and laboured breathing filled the room. It would be so easy to just give up. There would be no more pain, and she could finally find the peace she had craved since she was captured. Letting her eyes close, she was about to let go, when she could faintly hear the sound of gunshots in the distance. Perhaps this was the end after all.

The sound of hurried footsteps from the corridor outside, caused her eyes to open, as she weakly tried to get her body back into a sitting position. If they were going to kill her, she wouldn't go lying down. She heard the lock being forced open before the door was slid open causing her to shield her eyes as the artificial light filled the darkened room.

Hearing the footsteps approach closer, she slightly opened her stinging eyes, to see the man kneel in front of her. She tried not to flinch when she felt two hands reach out towards her and gently cup her face causing her body to tense.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe."

The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place who it belonged to. She felt her body start to relax under his touch as he gently coaxed her to look at him, but she couldn't meet his eyes, frightened in case all of this was just another hallucination. It was only when his voice became more persistent that she could no longer ignore his pleas.

Hesitantly looking up, she saw a familiar pair of cerulean eyes staring back into her own half closed ones. A small part of her was telling her that she could trust him, yet a small part of her made her wary of his intentions. She couldn't trust anyone. If only she could remember what had happened before she was taken, then perhaps it would tell her everything she needed to know.

Too tired to fight any longer, she let her body give into exhaustion as she relaxed against him, hearing him continue to whisper words of comfort. If it was a hallucination, it was one that she didn't want to end.

Letting her eyes close, she missed the single tear that escaped his eyes, as he held her in his arms.

James looked down at the woman he loved in his arms realising this was no longer the same woman he saw four months ago. He could feel her bones through the white gown she was wearing, only imagining what they had done to her. The mere thought of her captors touching her, made him want to kill them again.

"What have they done to you?" he whispered as he ran his fingers through her matted hair.

"Bond, we need to go."

Tanner was right. It was time to bring her home.

Trying to keep his emotions under control, he gently maneuvered M into his arms and held her close, afraid she would disappear.
Once he was sure she was secure, he stood up from the ground holding M in his arms as he took one last look around her prison that was her home for the past four months.

"What do you want us to do with this place?" one of the agent's asked Tanner.

Tanner was about to answer when Bond beat him to it.

"Burn it!"

The agent looked at Tanner, who simply gave a nod in agreement at Bond's words as the two of them watched him leave the room with M securely in his arms. He would be more than happy to make sure that this place was eradicated from existence.

There were still questions that needed answers, and he knew those answers lay with M. He just hoped she would recover enough to tell them. When Bond had notified him of M's abduction from the safe house, the minister had reluctantly ordered Bond to find her, but after a month the search was called off. He had tried to make the minister see reason, but the man was having none of it.

The outcome resulted in him and Bond continuing the search themselves, with the help of Felix, and some of his agents who filled them in on what little they knew about Operation Illuminati. They had also been informed that one of Felix's contacts was murdered three days after delivering a file to M six months ago containing everything on the project.

It seemed Quantum and the minister had discovered the project and decided to keep tabs on M. Bond's capture of White was no more than a set up in order to abduct and extract the information from M. It had taken them months to track down Quantum, but with the help of Q and Moneypenny they had managed to trace a phone call between Mr. White and the minister which lead them to a compound in the Bolivian desert. The same compound that he was currently standing in.

There had been no sign of White. The man had given them the slip yet again. They had no idea what information he had managed to obtain from M, either way, the outcome was looking bleaker with each second that passed. They had put an end to White and Quantum, but Tanner knew Bond, wouldn't be leaving M's side anytime soon. At least until he knew she would make a full recovery.

Tanner didn't know If M would ever recover from the abuse and torture she had suffered here, but Bond and himself would be with her every step of the way. One thing was for certain, she would no longer be the same woman they had worked for in the past fifteen years. He had never seen her this broken in all the time he had worked under her tenure.

As he took one last look around M's prison, he left the room and followed after Bond, giving orders to the other agents as he passed. They thought the worst was over now that they had found her, but it seemed that the worst was just about to begin.