Author's note:

Hey guys! So here's Chapter 11 and as a heads up, I'm going to start making these chapters longer so I can get more detail and story out to you guys. That being said, it will take a bit longer for me to update, but I promise I'll get them out to you as quickly as I can.

Another short thanks to you guys for taking interest in my story and a reminder to drop a review letting me know what you think. I love feedback!

Okay! On with the story! Happy Reading and thanks again!


I winced at all the voices of my teammates around me as I respawned. When I opened my eyes, I found that I was being glared down by 6 of my teammates. They were mad. I lost the mission for them, they had a right to be upset. However, I ignored them and fell back on the floor. While sitting there, my mind became busy recalling the events that just occurred.

The saw. Oh god the saw. The ghost pain remained there still in my leg and side as I thought about the second the sharp ridges began to rip through my suit and pull at my skin before cutting into me fully. I felt something grab my leg and instinctively I screamed and pulled myself into a ball, still stuck in the memory and believing that the saw was pulling at me again. Whatever, or whomever, was touching me instantly backed off.

"Is leetle fire man okay?" I heard Heavy's worried words and slowly looked up, leaving the thoughts behind for the moment. Medic and Heavy were both staring at me with concerned eyes. Medic was kneeling down next to me and I assume he was what I felt touching my leg. I remained curled up on the floor as Spy ushered the others back to the base.

I flinched at Medic's touch when his arms wrapped around me to pick me up. He was talking, I remember seeing his lips moving, but I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or trying to answer to Heavy's concerns, I was too caught up in reliving the last few seconds of the mission.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

Medic stared at the terrified girl sitting in his infirmary. In the safety of the infirmary, he had removed her mask in order to let her breathe a little easier. She hadn't said a word to him since the start of the mission. Blu Spy had finally gotten to her and broken her. She was immobilized by fear.

The Pyro's normally lively gray eyes were now darkened and Medic could almost see into her thoughts through them. He remembered hearing her screams in the last few seconds. The screams of pure agony that he had heard over a hundred times from past missions and from the victims of his experiments. It was a sound that normally pleased him, but when the screams came from Pyro, they drained him of all color and filled him with dread. In the background of her screams, he heard the saw rip through her suit and the shredding of her skin and muscle as she was sawed in half. He heard the gurgling of blood at the end of her screams, as it filled her esophagus. Then, the silence that followed.

However, what the Medic remembered most of all was hearing the Spy's muffled laughter from the outside of her mask as the saw tore her in half. The memory alone made Medic's blood boil. That Spy had caused far too much pain for Medic's fire loving friend. And, because of the Blu Assassin, the small girl sat, broken, on his examining table. Medic would never forgive the Frenchman for that.

"How is she?" Medic jumped up, aiming his crossbow at Spy, the Red one. "Oh please. Put that down. I'm not my Blu counterpart." Spy's voice called. Medic looked the man over once more before lowering his weapon, but never fully setting it down.

Spy locked the door behind him and made his way over to his new-found companions, his eyes locked on Pyro. She didn't even look up when he entered, she was frozen, hugging herself and staring towards the floor.

"Not gut. I zink our fraulein here iz still in shock." Medic muttered softly. Spy nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you know what happened?" Spy pushed. Medic explained what had happened to the best of his ability according to what he heard through the earpiece. When Medic had finished he looked up to see that Spy's face had twisted into one of pure disgust.

"He disgusts me." Spy hissed under his breath. Spy disgust for his blu counterpart grew by the day.

Medic and Spy jumped as there was a knock at the door.

"Yo, Doc!" Scout's words made Medic and Spy both groan in annoyance. Medic made his way over to the door, unlocking it. Spy stayed next to Pyro, replacing her mask on her for the time being.

"Vhat iz it?" Medic asked, opening his door just slightly. "I'm vith herr Pyro."

"Good. He's just who I wanted to see." Scout growled, pushing past Medic and into the infirmary. Spy stood in front of Pyro protectively as Scout stomped over. Medic stumbled a bit then tried to reach for Scout to stop him, but when he couldn't reach he just closed the door instead.

"Move it, Spy. I want to have a word with mumbles here." Scout stated, trying to push past Spy.

"No. You need to leave." Spy's tone was threatening. Scout growled before finally pushing past the Frenchman. He planted himself in front of Pyro.

"What's your problem? What was with you during the mission today? Do you even know how much you sucked?" Spy and Medic tried to pull the young man away from Pyro, scolding him for his words, but the city boy just fought out of their grip.

"You're not even that great! You're useless! Had you been doing your job, that damn Spy wouldn't have even had a chance to corner us like that!" Scout continued to scream at his teammate, blaming the Pyro for everything that went wrong. The entire time, Medic and Spy tried to remove him from the room. Pyro didn't even acknowledge Scout's presence, which seemed to anger the young man even more.

"Are you even listening to me?" Scout shouted. "Answer me mumbles!" Pyro didn't move. Scout growled, grabbing Pyro's mask, forcing the fire lover to look at him.

"Why weren't you doing your job? Answer. Me." Scout hissed, staring into Pyro's eyeholes. After a few seconds, a mumbles voice came from within the mask.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

"I was scared."

When I answered my teammate, his frown deepened while his grip on my mask tightened. Then in one quick motion, my mask was off. My eyes widened and I instinctively tried to hide my face in my hands. But it was too late, Scout had seen me.

"You're a freaking girl? You've gotta be kiddin me!" Scout shouted, taking a step back.

"Yes. She's a girl. I'm surprised you even know what one looks like." Spy hissed to his younger teammate. Medic moved over to me.

"Are you alright, Fraulein?" he asked, concerned. I moved my hands to look at him.

"No… I can't stop thinking about the mission." I whispered quietly. Medic frowned and encased my hands in his.

"Well that explains why she sucked so much. She's a freakin girl. She has no place out there!" Scout yelled. "No wonder Blu Spy messed her up so bad when she got here."

"Ve vill talk more in a minute." The German cooed. Then, he released my hands and turned his attention to Scout. He glared at the younger teammate.

"You shut your mouth." Spy hissed, grabbing Scout by his collar. "You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"I know that she's only going to slow us down out there!" Scout argued. "How can she fight when she's scared of inanimate objects?"

"She has saved all of our heads more times than your brain can count and she could easily pin you to ze floor without trying. Slowing us down, should be ze least of your worries." Spy warned.

"Yeah right. As if a girl could beat me." Scout chuckled. Spy growled and slammed Scout against the wall.

"Watch your tongue, boy." The Frenchman growled. Medic walked over, still glaring at Scout. He pointed a finger at him and poked his chest.

"You vill tell no von of zis. Pyro's identity is novon's business." Medic ordered, his voice stern and firm. Scout chuckled at Medic's tone.

"I'll tell who I want to tell. I don't keep secrets from my teammates." Scout scoffed, finally pushing Spy away from him enough to escape the man grasp. "Unlike some people."

Scout began to talk towards the door and hopped down from my perch on the table. I ran in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. I looked up at him with pleading eyes. He was easily a couple of inches taller than me.

"Scout, tell whoever you want, just please, please, don't tell Soldier and make sure they don't. I don't need anything else for him to yell at me for right now. I know I'm going to be running laps the second Medic lets me leave here as it is. I promise I'll tell him and I promise I'll tell everyone, just, please, don't let Soldier know." I begged. I really didn't want Soldier to know. Truth be told, I believed that he and Scout would be the least accepting of the team, the rest seemed laid back about almost everything, but Soldier and Scout weren't like them. If Scout was taking it this badly, I was terrified of how Soldier would take it.

Scout glared at me for several seconds before pushing my hands off and away from him, continuing to the door. Before he opened the door, however, he stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"I won't tell helmet head. Only because I know he's an ass. And, if you haven't told the rest of the team by tomorrow night, I'm not going to keep it from them. Whether they tell Soldier or not is up to them." Scout's words were obviously forced, but I've never heard him so serious about something. Then he was gone.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT WAS OUT THERE TODAY MAGGOT, BUT YOU'RE GOING TO BE RUNNING LAPS UNTIL YOU CAN'T FEEL YOUR LEGS!" Soldier's voice boomed next to my head.

As I suspected, Soldier had me running laps the second I left the infirmary. He was waiting for me in the hall. Now, I was on my 20th lap and I already felt as though what was left in my stomach from breakfast was going to end up in the side of the track. The hot dry air of the desert was doing nothing to help me, especially with being in the suit. The suit made the heat so much worse.

Soldier had been running beside me since we started, yelling in my ear the entire time. He was livid with me. He hadn't said one nice word to me since the mission and to be fair, I may have deserved it a bit. I should've pulled myself together, but I couldn't help it. Every time I looked at the saws, I saw death and because of that what I feared, ended up happening. Had I pulled myself together, perhaps I wouldn't have ended up as saw dust.

That being said, I was still in shock over the whole event. After Scout left, I went back to being quiet. The fight with blu spy replayed over and over in my head. I also could help but think of the Pyro before me and how he must've felt. To be in the middle of being sawed in half and realizing that he wouldn't be coming back. That must've been hard. I felt bad for him, but in the same token, I didn't know who had it worse: me or him.

He died and no longer had to put up with the blu Spy. I was alive, yes, but now that I know exactly how ruthless blu Spy is, I get to live every mission wondering what could happen to me next. To what ends would blu Spy go to? He could do anything and that thought concerned me.

"YOU'RE SLOWING DOWN MAGGOT!" Soldier yelled, bringing me back from my thoughts. "I WILL NOT HAVE MY MEN BE PUSHED AROUND BY THAT BLU FRENCHIE! GET IT TOGETHER, PRIVATE." His angry words called out. That's when I noticed that my legs were cramping and I had slowed down significantly. I was tired and I knew I wasn't even close to being done.

Since our missions were always short, there was always plenty of time to kill in the day after the mission. Several hours before the sun went down and if I knew Soldier, he'd have me out here sweating blood until the sun went down and possibly for an hour or two after. I groaned mentally and pushed myself to keep up with the man.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

Soldier passed the fire lover for the second time on the track. He'd lost count of how many laps the two had run sometime after 113. He had kept a steady jog the entire time and though Pyro had to walk for a few minutes, the man would always sprint to catch back up with Soldier and then jog again alongside him for a while before slowing down again. It was only a couple of laps ago that the fire lover had begun to stay at a constant slow pace.

Soldier had to give the man credit, he'd ran the laps without even one complaint. The man was silent, which Soldier found awfully strange. Even Sniper, the usually quiet one of the group sassed Soldier the first time the veteran had made him run laps for poor performance, but Pyro was quiet.

Soldier snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a thump behind him. He stopped jogging and turned to see Pyro on his hands and knees, breathing hard. Soldier looked to the sky, the sun was beginning to set and while he planned to have Pyro running for several more hours, he decided that it was time to stop. It would be the man's reward for taking his punishment without complaint.

"Alright Soldier, that's enough for today. I'm letting you go early for your lack of whining." Soldier said as he made his way over to the smaller man and held his arm down to help his teammate up.

Soldier's eyes widened as Pyro pushed his arm away and pulled himself back to his feet. The man then started jogging around the track again. Soldier watched, surprised and confused as his fire loving teammate continued pushing themselves around the track.

"Soldier." Soldier turned towards a soft spoken voice behind him to find Miss Pauling walking towards him.

"Miss Pauling! What is it?" The veteran asked.

"The Administrator told me to come in person to see how you were training Pyro. After today's mission, she was curious as to what you were doing out here." Miss Pauling stated firmly, looking out over the obstacle course and the track.

"Of course! I have him running laps, at least 50 each day, 40-50 push-ups, 60 crunches, and then I have him do drills." Soldier stated proudly. He was proud of his work training schedule.

"Drills?"

"Lots of running, ma'am. He does 7-10 of them every day. He starts at this line," Soldier walked over to a line on the track and pointed to it. "Then 10 yards to that pole and back. 8 yards and back, repeat lowering the distance by 2 yards each run. Once he finishes 2 yards, that's 1 drill. Then he starts over." Soldier finished. Miss Pauling nodded in understanding.

"And the obstacle course?" She asked.

"Tire run, wire crawl, dodging panels, the wall, rubble or a series of vaulting and ducking obstacles, Rope swing, a balancing bridge, and a series of terrain changes to help train him how to maneuver jumps in the field. I have him run that several times a day." Soldier explained. Miss Pauling nodded again and turned her attention to the Pyro who was now making their way back over to them.

"Engie and I are going to add to the course as well." Soldier stated after a few moments.

"You should do that. Performances like today's cannot continue." Miss Pauling warned.

"I understand." Soldier nodded as Pyro came to stop in front of them, cocking their head to the side in a questioning motion.

"Pyro. Glad to see you're moving." Miss Pauling greeted. The masked man nodded in response. Miss Pauling then frowned at Pyro slightly.

"The Administrator isn't pleased with your performance today. If you keep that up, you'll-" Miss Pauling began, but stopped to cough into her shoulder. "Damn dust… stupid allergies. Anyway, if you keep up performances like today, the Administrator will be forced to get rid of you." She finished, however, she rushed her words this time.

Pyro was motionless and silent for several seconds before finally nodding in understanding. Miss Pauling returned the nod and turned to Soldier.

"I've got what I need. I'll be on my way. It's cease fire tomorrow, so no need to report for a mission. Keep up the good work, Soldier." Miss Pauling smiled. She then turned and left without another word.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

After Miss Pauling walked away Soldier turned to me, a frown on his face.

"That's it for today, maggot. You will return here tomorrow morning 6 o'clock sharp." Soldier ordered. He then turn his back to me.

"You disappointed me out there today, Soldier. I can't even let you stand alone on the field. Disappointing." Soldier scolded before walking off. I frowned under my mask. I knew I deserved that, there was no denying it, but it still hurt.

I'd been trying so hard during training and out on the field. I'd been trying so hard to gain Soldier's approval, but all he does is put me down, if he says anything at all. I just wanted his approval. I wanted some kind of praise from him, even if it was just a pat on the back. The fact that I hadn't received any praise made me both a little sad and very frustrated.

As I watched Soldier walk away without another word, I realized at that point that I needed to receive some kind of praise from him. In order to do that I needed to become fearless and train harder than I ever had. I had to learn to not let Blu Spy bother me anymore. I had to learn to disregard anything I had heard or seen that would make me fear something.

In that moment, I was done letting fear consume me. Even though I never knew how to really cope with my fears, I had to get over it. I needed to. It was my only chance at praise from Soldier and my only chance to survive in this line of work.

As of that moment, I was done disappointing my team.

I wasn't going to let Sawmill or the Blu Spy bother me ever again.

*.-.-.-.-.-.-.*

"You were right. Ze arena completely messed with her head." Blu Spy chuckled as he made his way into the familiar room. His echoing footsteps on the tile floor were a sound he had heard a number of times now.

The dark figure chuckled before seating themselves on a bed, still concealed by the darkness of the room, the only light came from the hall light, which was not very bright itself. The bed was a recent development. It came along with the increase in coughing fits. Spy had been watching his boss slowly waste away. The time spent with them became longer and longer as their condition got worse.

Spy was shaken from his thoughts as the chuckling quickly turned into a hard coughing fit. When the coughing finally ceased, the figure took in a breath to speak.

"Good. I knew it would. They think it was just a glitch. Idiots, all of them." The figure said, her voice was raspy and rough now. It really always had been, but the figure put on a show in the open.

"You are not doing well." Spy said suddenly. The figure was quiet. Spy stood for several moments and then watched as a small flame was lit and a cigarette was ignited. The flame stayed for several more moments before it disappeared, leaving only the lit cigarette as a source of light in the darkness.

The light moved and Spy watched as the end brightened slightly while the figure took a drag of the cancer stick. Shortly following that, the figure began to cough once again.

"Those are not helping your situation." Spy noted, motioning to the cigarette.

"They help ease my mind. I'm dying anyway, why should I care?" The figure stated boldly after they stopped coughing.

"They'll quicken the process." Spy retorted, adjusting his tie and flattening his blu suit. The figure scoffed, annoyed.

"You'd do well to mind your own business and focus on your job. I'm growing bored of torturing the Pyro. I'd like to make it more interesting." The figure started. She then began coughing again. Spy waited patiently. When she stopped, she took another drag of the cigarette before continuing.

"Leave her be for a time, pop up enough to keep you in her mind, but do not cause any further harm than what is necessary for the mission. Then, in 4 weeks, I will arrange for a mission on Teufort. There, you will bring her greatest fear to life and destroy her." The figure's voice was threatening, as though she were threatening Pyro herself.

"And what exactly would that be?" Spy questioned. There was movement on the bed and then the figure slid a folder across the floor toward Spy. The blu Frenchman looked from the folder to his boss a few times before picking it up and opening it. Upon seeing its contents, he drowned out the sound of the woman coughing while he read the papers inside.

There were articles, all dedicated to the Pyro, or Emily as the articles referred. They gave details of a large house fire and how the flames killed a woman, a mother, and left third degree burns on one of the 2 children. The father also had minor injuries, but he wasn't discussed too many times in the articles. Spy read on, discovering that the mother was roughly 6 months pregnant with her third child and that one of the children was not in the house at the time of the fire. That child was Pyro.

Spy's interest grew as he discovered that Pyro was the cause of the fire. She herself had started it for reasons unknown other than the fact that she thought the flames were "pretty." Well, at least her choice in jobs made sense now.

Then, Spy found the information he needed. Pyro had attended therapy as punishment. Something that was supposed to help Pyro understand that fire isn't great and that thinking it was good was bad, actually ended up creating a monster. It created a monster by showing Pyro exactly what she had done and allowing her to take it all in.

Now, whenever someone brings up the fire and continues to pressure her into talking about it, she loses her mind and it sends her into a destructive, murderous monster. She tries to kill the person talking about it by burning them alive and then, in turn, destroys everything in her way.

Spy grinned as he learned her dark secret. With this, he could turn her entire team against her.

With this, he could destroy her.