The Last Game


Thanks to Kira2127 for being the first to favorite! Hope you all enjoy the new chapter! A warning, though ... this one includes the pseudo-rape scene ... it's not graphic, but please skip if this is a trigger for you!


Chapter Two

Ethan Hunt ground his teeth together in frustration. His temper was perilously close to its breaking point, and the sound of Benji's fingers rattling away on the keys of his MacBook Air wasn't doing him any favors. He took a deep breath, then another, and tried to remind himself that losing his cool now wasn't going to help get Brandt back.

Will, said the nasty little voice inside his head that loved to torment him. His name is Will. You're only calling him Brandt to try and gain some emotional distance, so this isn't quite so crippling to you. Pathetic, Ethan. Really pathetic.

"What's your progress, Benji?" he demanded.

"Give me a chance, Ethan!" protested the techie. "It's been barely ten minutes since you last asked me."

"Ten minutes is too long," Ethan snapped, knowing that he was being unfair but unable to help himself. Benji lowered his head and typed even faster.

"I'm trying, okay? Look, I'm worried too, but I can't work miracles, you know. I'm not God."

"Could'a fooled me."

Thank God for Luther, Ethan thought. He rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. Out of all of them, Luther was the only one who hadn't panicked when the blurry video feed showed Will being forced into a car, and the camera had panned up to the rugged face of Janik Vinter. That sickening little wink the Bone Doctor had given made Ethan's heart leap with rage, but Luther had simply put a firm hand on his shoulder and said, "They're not gonna kill him, Ethan. They need him alive, or they don't get the disk."

That was the problem, though. They needed him alive, but they also needed Ethan to believe that he was in danger, or the threat was useless. Not to mention the sensitive information that Brandt – that Will had access to. He was the mission coordinator, the brilliant analytical mind behind the majority of their successes as a team.

And Ethan just had to have a stupid infatuation with him.

And it was just an infatuation, nothing more. A ridiculous crush, admiration gone wrong, an attraction he just couldn't shake. There was nothing sexual about it, he told himself. It wasn't men in general that he felt these unwanted desires for. He just liked Will as a person. He was funny, smart, charismatic … good-looking. Ethan could admit that, that he found Will handsome. So what? What was wrong with that?

Cursing softly, he banged the back of his head repeatedly against the wall, causing Benji to look up in alarm. He waved a dismissive hand. The fact remained, no matter how much he wished he could deny it, that Will was far more important to him than he should be. For a moment, he toyed with the idea that Lane somehow knew, that his choice of Will was more than random luck. But that was impossible. Ethan himself hadn't known until six months ago, the last time they had spoken, the day the IMF was dismantled. When the call had ended, he had clutched the phone to his ear and stared off into space, a sudden pain in his chest that had nothing to do with his bullet wound.

Our last mission. Make it count.

"Oh, oh my God, Ethan, I got something!" Benji didn't sound nearly as excited as he should have. There was terror in his voice instead, and Ethan's heart sank.

"What? What is it?"

"A … a video. Mailed directly to me. It's … I think it's from Lane."

"Play it," Ethan ordered, springing upright and jogging across the room to lean over Benji's shoulder, hands braced on his knees. Luther joined him more slowly.

With trembling hands, Benji started the feed, and within seconds, Ethan knew he was going to have to commit murder. There was no way Lane was walking free after this. He clenched his hands, fingers digging into flesh, and made himself watch.

The recording device had been placed on a table, and Will's face was only inches away from it, the rest of his body laid out in the background, disproportionately sized as a result of the fisheye lens. He was on his stomach, chin pressed against the wood, a gag in his mouth. Ethan couldn't help but notice that he was shirtless.

There was a blurry figure in the background, moving around. A manicured hand intruded into the camera's field of vision, adjusted it slightly, and withdrew. It returned a few moments later to stroke down the side of Will's neck and take his shoulder in a rough grip. Will grimaced and screwed his eyes shut.

The video had no sound, but none was needed to convey exactly what was happening. The expression on Will's face was enough, the way he flinched with an impact every few seconds. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, and Ethan felt a wave of intense nausea pass over him.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh God," Benaji babbled frantically. "Ohh, God, why are they doing this?"

"To hurt us," Ethan said. His voice was as cold and hard as stone, but inside he was a wreck.

"I can't watch this!" Benji cried, and spun away to grab a nearby wastebasket, heaving violently. The sour smell of vomit hit Ethan's nose, and he knew he should comfort his friend, but he could not tear his eyes away from the atrocity being carried out in front of him. To Brandt. To Will, to his Will.

Luther reached past him and switched off the monitor. "That is some fucked-up shit," he said quietly. "Please tell me you're going to get that guy, Ethan. Tell me you're going to get him good."

"Oh, I'm going to get him," Ethan vowed. He raised a shaking hand and scrubbed it over his face. "I'm going to get him," he repeated. "I'll hit him so hard and fast he won't know what happened to him. I'll make him regret fucking with me, with my team."

Benji was still emptying his stomach. Luther patted the techie on the back. "Good," he said. "You hold onto that anger. You think about that, how you're gonna get him. You don't think about …" He gestured to the blank screen, unable to finish the sentence.

Ethan nodded, but there was no conviction behind the movement. It wasn't going to be that easy. He couldn't just forget. Not after what he'd just seen.


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