Viper is so tired when it ends the first time.

Emotionally, physically, mentally.

Every part of her hurts, it's agonizing to just lay there and breath. She couldn't see him anymore, but she could still practically feel Reborn's eyes on her.

(He'd hurt her. This was Reborn and he had hurt her.)

Viper knew that if she laid there much longer she was going to puke, she could already feel it slowly crawling up her throat. But she couldn't even try to move and relieve the nauseous feeling. Her hands were still embedded into the headboard with the Flame-Resistant cuffs she'd gotten him that Christmas.

Every time she tried moving, even just a little bit, all she ended up doing was sending more agonizing pain straight to the flesh that'd been cut into her wrists during her initial struggles.

Trying to use the split blood as lube to squeeze her hand through the cuffs was impossible. Reborn having shackled them so tight she'd end up pulling her skin off if she tried. In any other situation she'd have taken the chance anyways, but with Reborn still in the house and the likelihood of her going into shock from the pain or blood loss. so high..

It just wasn't worth it.

Viper knew she was stuck, she had no other option then waiting for Reborn to tire and hopefully, leave the house without killing her.

She wouldn't make it far but it was the only way she could see out of this nightmare.

Finally alone for the first time in what seemed like days, Viper tried to start cataloging her injuries. Anything to keep her mind off of what just happened.

And who'd done it.

Trying to open both of her eyes, Viper found she couldn't see out of her left, so it had to be either swollen shut or so much blood running into it she'd been basically blinded.

Even though she couldn't feel anything but pain above her wrists she knew her fingers were all broken horribly. Trying to just move her fingers and not her wrist was an exercise in frustration, since what wasn't in horrible pain was numb. She'd have been more worried about the non-feeling if Reborn hadn't told her what was happening when he'd been breaking them.

She'd have also cared more if that same numbness hadn't saved her from feeling it, when he'd decided to pull her fingernails out.

She knew only one of her ankles had been broken, thank god. She'd be able to run on a broken ankle if she had to. It was the busted knee cap that was really going to be a hindrance in her escape plans.

She had to have been blacking in and out of consciousness at that moment since she still doesn'tremember it happening.

The only reason she knew about it at all, was because Reborn had remarked that it was almost exactly like the time he'd broken the other one when they were kids.

She hadn't heard or felt the crunch, not like she had that time, with everything else so blindingly overwhelming. It had just.. faded into the background.

Viper thought? Maybe? That her lip might be split since every time she screamed more blood pooled into her mouth. But Reborn might have cut it? The amount that pooled in her mouth was a lot for just a busted lip.

She felt black and blue all over, and she'd lost count of the cuts he'd made after the first hour. What was the point of knowing? It all hurt the same anyways.

There was more but...

she was fading again. The lights were going smudged, the sound roaring before falling away entirely.

This had to stop soon, right?

Viper passes out to the sound of Reborn's voice talking to some stranger, and to the sight of the photo from their first paid job.

Waking up for the second time,Viper doesn't know how much time had passed. It could be the same night, tomorrow, or even weeks from the day she went to bed and woke up chained.

Reborn is straddling her waist, a beautiful knife held loosely in his hands. His Flames (warmsafemine) burn so prettily along the sharp, sharp edge.

His face is hypnotic in it's savagery. She'd seen those very same eyes almost every day of her life, knew those freckles running just under his left ear. Felt those strong hands hold her up as she cried, laughed with that clever mouth.

Viper knows this man. Has known what he could, would become when they decided on which path to take. Knows he is a cold man, a ruthless man.

But it's only when the tip of that beautiful knife, with those beautiful Flames, stops at the very bottom of her left eye, directly in the center of her bottom lashes that everything comes back into startling, clear focus.

She knows what he's going to do before the knife starts dragging down her cheek. They'd grown up together, of course she knew about his sadistic, cruel tendencies. The way he liked to mock people, humiliate them, before the end. She'd just never thought it would be her on the receiving end of his most monstrous behaviors.

But this was always going to end this way, wasn't it?

She had to have known, subconsciously at the very least, since she'd woken up chained to their bed. Reborn knew all her weaknesses, knew every deep dark fear she had. Knew, intimately, how to exploit them for the most amount of pain.

Because while The Mafia may have identified Viper as a Mist, she had always shared more character traits with the often feared Cloud Flame, then she did with her own Mist Flame counterparts.

Viper had never wanted to be chained down. Not by personal ties, not by (lack of) Money, not by a Sky or a Family.

(Hundreds of Skies had tried since they'd exploded onto the scene. Multiple Families fighting each other, chasing her. But Reborn had always been there to scare them away)

And especially not by a branding. Something that said 'This is Mine. Do not touch.'

Reborn knew this was the worst thing he could have ever done to her. No other mark would ever be as prominent as the one he was going to make on her face. It was the first thing people would see, would notice about her from now on.

And it was Reborn that was doing this to her.

When Reborn starts to add his Flames to her second eye, the right one, she can feel the tears she'd somehow kept at bay since the start of this fall, burning in the gouges he'd carved out of her face.

It's not funny but..

She can't tell if she's crying from the pain of Flame induced, permanent scaring on her face or from the knowledge it's Reborn, who's the one doing it.

Viper passes out for the final time not much later.

After all is said and done, Reborn stares grimily down at Vipers blood drenched body.

She's very small looking like this.

Weak.

Pitiful.

Disgusting.

Reborn can still feel the burning betrayal at the center of his chest. When he'd heard, been told what she'd planned to do…

The rage still hadn't lifted.

He'd done everything he could think to do, other than outright killing her to fill the yawning, snarling void in his heart that wanted her in as much pain as he was in.

How could she do it?

After everything they'd been through. The blood they'd shed for each other, the years they'd been there for each other? The times where they had one meal to split between them for days and they always, always shared it. It was Them against Everyone Else.

And she'd thrown it away for money.

She could have told him she needed money.

She had to have known he would have given it to her in a heartbeat.

Reborn's fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white. But instead she'd done what everyone had warned him a Mist would do. What he'd been so sure would never happen.

She'd betrayed him.

Sold him out to the highest bidder.

Like he was nothing to her.

It's only the sound of polite coughing from behind that draws Reborn out of his spiraling thoughts. When he turns to look, it's the Mafia Don who'd warned him about Vipers ongoing contract on his life.

Reborn tries to calm down by smoothing his hair back only to realize that he's covered in blood. A stained hand goes to the bridge of his nose and he takes a deep breath. But all he can smell is blood, (Vipers blood) it was very distracting. It made trying to calm down surrounded by it close to impossible.

He had to get out of here. At least for a while.

Reborn grabbed the laptop that the Don had been watching through, and glanced at the closet door he'd had to lock Leon into when he'd started in on Viper. The normally loyal lizard had, for some reason, tried everything it could to embolize Reborn once Viper had first started screaming.

After the fifth time he'd had to fend off an attack from his own fucking pet, he'd decided to just lock Leon in the closet until he could figure out what was wrong with him.

Setting the laptop down on the desk, Reborn felt himself slump down into the desk chair. Even if she was a traitor, torturing your childhood friend was draining. It had exhausted him.

But Reborn doesn't get to rest long before he hears faint snickering coming from the laptop.

For some reason a cold stone, so different from the molten anger from before drops into his stomach.

Opening one eye slightly, he can see the Don. The extinguished gentleman he looks like, with silver pepper hair and stately grey eyes, is giggling like a school boy.

The stone sinks lower.

"What." Reborn tries to keep his voice even, to not show the slow realization he can feel screaming in the back of his mind starting to get louder.

"Oh! Oh, it's nothing really!" He's grinning. The Don that had to be at least 65, was grinning at him. His eyes were not kind. "It's just… I didn't think you'd actually believe us."

Reborn was a statue. A blank, suddenly very young looking statue. His voice came out completely bland. "I'm sorry. I must have misheard. Believe you?"

The Don continued. "About Viper, dear Reborn." The Don paused significantly before continuing.

"Everyone knows how very committed that girl is to you. To think! She didn't even let us finish our offer, before killing 3 of my best men!"

The Don, that had been playing these type of games since before Reborn was born, sighed wistfully.

"12.2 million to kill or maim you and she crushed them before your name finished leaving their lips. The only reason I knew about it all, was because she had their remains delivered right outside my office! In broad daylight! The cheek of that girl only makes me wish she'd thought more on our offer."

Reborn felt so far away. Was that him sitting there in his study? Was that really blood covering him? His body was very cold. He wondered why. ….12.2 million…?

"But of course. You two are childhood friends... aren't you?" The Dons voice was sympathetic now, as if he was commiserating with Reborn. "It would only make sense that she'd be so very loyal to you."

He was going to kill this man and his entire Family. It didn't matter if it took the rest of his life, he'd find every last one of this man's blood relatives and kill them. Women, children, innocent, guilty. It didn't matter.

Anyone connected was going to burn.

Reborn sat stock still. Nothing about him showed he was still alive, aware. His face had gone a grey, stone like in color. He couldn't move.

But the dead man had one last twist for the knife.

"You know, there's just one thing I'm still a little bit curious about." The Don (why couldn't he remember his name?) questioned with a light, airy sound in his voice.

It took everything in Reborn to stay silent. But he knew the longer he let the man talk, the easier it would be to find out where the fat fucking rat was hiding.

"It's just... I wonder, how long do you think it'd take for a woman her size to bleed out?"

The Don's shark like smile, seemed to be impossibly filled with teeth.

"You weren't exactly gentle with the poor thing before".

A burst of adrenaline has Reborn flinging himself out of the chair to slam, body first, into the door frame because oh god viper was still there!

But he can't make it past the door when his eyes register what he sees. Everything is exactly how he'd left it.

Including Viper.

Reborns heart was pounding in his ears, the only thing he could hear was the almost cackling like sound of the Don's laughter, coming from the speakers of his laptop.

He can't seem to run anymore, his feet drag across the ground and he knows he needs to be faster, needs to call someone but…

She was so small.

So small and so very, very hurt.

When he makes it to the edge of the bed his hands hover anxiously over just, so many various wounds, but he has no idea where to even start.

(You did this)

Thank the gods, she'd passed out when he left the room last. The sheer pain she must have gone through...

Reborn knows he has to start somewhere, so he starts trying to uncuff her from the bed.

But it's harder than it looks. From Vipers thrashing (because she's been tortured) the metal cuffs has embedded themselves into her skin. He'd have to either rip them out and hope to a god he didn't believe in, that they didn't start bleeding, or grab a warm towel to try and dissolve the caked-on blood.

But he didn't know if she had internal bleeding or not, he'd wasted so much time listening to the Don that Viper could be close to dying, and the time it'd take to get them off gently, she'd (probably) already be dead.

She's dead. Youkilled her, you killed her. Ohgod viper please.

But begging her for something she couldn't give, or even hear in the privacy of his mind wouldn't help anyone. Not him, and especially not Viper. Not while she was...like this.

Reborn very, very carefully uncuffed one wrist before swallowing down bile. She'd been fighting against the chains so hard small bits of flesh came off her wrists when he'd only unhooked the latch.

Staring at the small wrist (It was so thin. He could wrap his fingers around it twice, If he wanted. So delicately made, but always held out to him when he needed it.) he knew so well, that was embedded with enough flesh to make it look like a horror movie prop. Reborn for the first time since he'd taken the name, had no idea what to do.

Ever since they been children, Reborn had always known what to do. He even had people now. People who would drop everything if he called them, people who would kill for him, die for him.

And he didn't trust a single one of them with a defenseless Viper.

She'd be taken from him. Either for a forcible Bond to a Sky because of her Flame Purity or just someone looking to get ahead.

Reborn was alone in this, but if he didn't call someone Viper would die. He couldn't heal her, no matter how desperately he wished his Flames were the normal Sun type right then.

She would die and he'd never hear that snarky wit of hers, or see her uniquely, toxic green eyes. Never run his fingers through her hair when he was stressed, never watch her spoil Leon behind his back again.

Never see her smile so very genuinely at him when they met up, ever again. Smile at him like no one else ever had.

...he'd never get to try and fix this.

Viper was going to die.

DO SOMETHING!

So are you happy now?

You got exactly what you wanted

You try to break me down
Destroy me piece by piece

But I have made a vow
I won't live the life you made me choose

We're players in a game that I don't intend to lose