Chapter 44 – Ambush

Octavio held onto Ajay's hand tightly as they walked up to the front of HQ. He knew that she was pretty nervous about everything transpiring from the previous night. They stopped in front of the building before entering. He stood in front of her and grabbed her other hand while he leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Che you were fucking incredible last night. No matter what happens this is the Silva and Che show." He kissed her forehead. She smiled at him before they walked in. She didn't have her badge with her because it was back at Octavio's place so she had to fill out some additional paperwork before she could go in any further.

After getting through security they were directed to a conference room that was big enough for all of the Legends. Ajay sat down next to Natalie who smiled cheerfully at her. Octavio sat down next to Ajay. Blisk marched into the room for the briefing and introduced himself, "Most of you have already met me but for those of you that haven't, I am Kuben Blisk. You can call me Blisk." Ajay was tense. Octavio knew she was tense so he grabbed her hand underneath the table. Ajay gripped his hand tightly with both of her hands. Blisk looked around at all of the Legends, "Let's get to it. There was a breech in our system last night. I am going to run the footage and you guys can tell me if you recognize this person. They go by Judge Jury Executioner." He paused for a moment as he started the video, "Honestly you guys could take a page."

Blisk played the video from last night. Ajay forced her herself to watch so she wouldn't look suspicious. The video itself was very glitchy. Everything was glitchy except for when the Legends were being killed by Judge Jury Executioner. Ajay watched herself on the screen. She looked as though she was calm and zoned, nothing interrupted her. "I wish I could fight like that as Lifeline." The video ended with Judge Jury Executioner on the screen as the winner; the picture glitched in and out. MRVN clapped as the video finished which made Makoa laugh. Anita sat back in her chair with her arms over her chest, "Obviously this person is highly trained." Renee slammed her fist on the table. Ajay nearly jumped out of her seat as the noise echoed through the conference room. Octavio rubbed Ajay's leg to calm her down. Renee stood up, "Whoever it is. They are cheating the system." Anita pulled Renee down into her seat as Blisk spoke, "Miss. Blasey, I assure you that all this will be taken care of in due time. Until then I suggest you control your temper." Ajay watched as Renee pulled her fist off the table but the anger still raged in her sky blue eyes. Ajay knew she didn't want to be on the wrong side of Renee's fist.

Anita sat up in her seat, "What's the plan sir?" Ajay had a lot of respect for Anita but she was starting lose some of it as Anita had an unwavering loyalty to authority. Blisk smiled at his loyal solider, "We are going to start moving things over to the new arena next week. I also have an intelligence specialist looking into this matter. Hyeon Kim is an expert in his field and he will be joining you guys in the arena soon." Anita raised an eyebrow, "Another Legend?" Blisk looked at her, "Is there a problem?" Anita backed down, "No sir." Blisk smiled, "Good." He walked around the room for a bit and then looked at Ajay, "You're back in this week. Viewers we not happy that you were out. Keep your focus on the game this time." Ajay could feel Octavio's hand getting tense in hers. She rubbed his hand softly, she didn't want him in the middle of all of this shit; at least what she could keep him out of. "We're done here." Blisk left the room, apparently there would be no more questions.

Everyone exited the conference room without a word. What could really be said? No one knew who Judge Jury and Executioner was; except for Ajay and Octavio and they were not saying anything. Ajay and Octavio walked back to her apartment. Ajay held tightly to his hand; she was silent the whole way back. Ajay pressed her code into the pin pad and entered. The door slammed behind her before Octavio could enter. Her back was forced against the door by a hand with long slender fingers that pressed firmly into her right shoulder. Pain shot down up her neck and down her spine as the hand applied more pressure. She could faintly hear Octavio on the other side of the door trying to get in but her body was being used to hold the door closed. Ajay placed her left hand on the arm of whoever was holding her and tried to pull them off of her but they just gripped her more tightly pushing her upwards until her feet were no longer touching the floor below her. She winced as warm tears began to sting her cheeks; she was crying unintentionally. She tried to see who it was but her apartment was dark and the pain was made her vision blurry.

She felt the attacker's other hand start to pat her down "What the fuck?" She removed her hand from the stranger's arm and flung it at the stranger's other hand. The stranger pushed her hand away. The hand that had her shoulder pinned felt like they was crushing her even more as they were now digging their fingers through her clothing. Ajay could feel and hear her skin pop and crackle where her scars were from Natalie's electrocauterizartion. She struggled against whoever had her pinned and coughed. She tasted something metallic in her mouth as she cough up some blood. She felt the other hand trail down her breast and into the pocket of her hoodie. The hand pulled out the white mask. Ajay coughed up more blood as the hand felt like it was pushing through the other side of her shoulder. She heard a laugh that chilled her to the core. Her body fell to the floor in a slump and in a flash of red the stranger was gone with her mask.

Ajay held her shoulder and stood up as Octavio opened the door. "Che." Ajay clutched her shoulder, "I'm fine." Octavio steadied her but coaxed Ajay to the floor. "Che you need to sit while I get the first aid kit, si?" Ajay nodded and waited for Octavio. He rushed faster than normal turning on the lights on the way back. Ajay looked at the blood on the door "It looks like some murder scene. Is that my blood?" She felt Octavio's fingers on her chin pulling her gaze towards his, "Hey Che, remember that one time we were skateboarding and I banged up my knee pretty bad?" She smiled at him as she looked into emerald eyes. "Yah. Ya knee was thrashed." He smiled back at her, "But you fixed it right up. Blood and everything." He pulled the scissors out of the first aid kit and gently cut her hoodie off.

Ajay coughed as Octavio spoke. She tried to piece his words together through the taste of blood in her mouth and the pain that surged through her body. It was getting hard to concentrate but she tried to concentrate on him. "Che, hold this on your shoulder." He pressed her left hand against her cut up hoodie that he had placed on her right shoulder. She watched as Octavio got up. She thought that he was talking to someone but she really couldn't hear much, "Is he talking to me?" His voice was faint and kind of distant. He came back with a bag of ice and lifted up her hoodie. He placed the bag to her shoulder and replaced the hoodie. He pushed her left hand on the hoodie. "Che. Where do you keep the good drugs? The injectables?" Ajay laughed, "This is no time for that Silva." Octavio smiled and kissed her gently on the lips, "I know Che, but just in case." Ajay nodded and tried to point towards the kitchen but she couldn't move her right arm. "Under the sink in the kitchen." Her arm felt numb and her left hand felt cold and wet and was began to feel weak.

Octavio hurried to the sink and pulled out a small box with a combination lock on it. He returned to her with the box, "1107." She could barely hear herself now. Her hand was clutched as tight as she could manage against the fabric on her shoulder as Octavio popped open the box. "Che, when I thrashed my knee and you fixed me and I knew." He rifled through the box and pulled out a few vials of dilaudid, a syringe, and a needle. "Knew what Silva?" Ajay closed her eyes briefly and then opened them. She watched him as he twisted the needle onto the syringe. "I knew that you were the one." Ajay laughed a little, "Silva, we were four." Octavio drew up medication from the vials. "Yeah but you didn't care about the blood or anything else except making me feel better and being with me." He pinched her left upper arm, "And after that you kept fixing me up no matter what stupid shit I did." He poked her arm with the needle and started pushing the medication into her muscle. "You also put up with all of my shit. For years on end."

He finished injecting her and pulled the needle out, setting it in the box. Ajay felt warm and weak; it washed over her from toes to her head. She felt Octavio cradle her in his arms as he spoke. "You were always there with a band aid or stitches or even just to hang out when life sucked." Octavio was now holding pressure to her shoulder. "Yeah, well ya get hurt Silva. Ya do stupid shit, a lot." She smiled up at him. She looked over all of his features, "You're so sexy Silva..." She trailed off as she fell asleep. Octavio held her tight as Natalie rushed in. "Non! What happened? Is she...?" Octavio fought tears back. "Uh we came back and there was someone waiting. I don't know who it was Nat. Can you help? I already medicated her. She has lost some blood." He kissed her forehead. He had seen her hurt but never this bad; at least not right after it had happened.

Natalie knelt down as Octavio pulled the hoodie and ice of Ajay's shoulder. The bleeding had slowed. Natalie shook her head. "Non. I am afraid to cauterize again even if I wanted to. Her tissue might not heal if I did that again. Even then I can't cauterize outside of the arena, I am still working on that. Can you stitch her up if I help?" Octavio nodded as Natalie touched Ajay's shoulder, "Let me see the other side." Octavio gently pulled Ajay's body against his chest while Natalie cut away at her shirt with the scissors. Octavio held hair blood matted hair to the side. Natalie sighed because it didn't look good. "Let me hold her and you stitch, oui? Unfortunately I do not know how to stitch anyone up." Octavio nodded his head as he kissed Ajay again. Her body was heavy in his arms and he didn't want to let her go but as he felt he blood oozing down his arm he knew that he needed to get her patched up quickly.

Octavio was a bit shaky as her handed Ajay over to Natalie. He got out the necessary supplies as Natalie applied pressure to the Ajay's shoulder. "How long have you two known each other?" Octavio threaded the needle, "Forever." It took him a lot just to get that out without breaking down. Natalie smiled, "I like Ajay. She doesn't treat me like a child. I know sometimes I act like a child but she doesn't treat me like one." Natalie pulled the hoodie away as Octavio began to stitch Ajay up. "You are really good at that." Octavio nodded, trying to focus his hands. He was trying hard not to shake as he stitched her cold, blood soak skin back together. "This looks better than the first time Octavio. She will be fine." Natalie said this to Octavio but she didn't really believe her own words. She had really never seen anyone this hurt outside of the arena expect for Ajay. She couldn't tell if this was worse than the first time she had seen it. He finished up, "I am more worried about whoever did this coming back Nat."

Octavio started to clean up and Natalie stopped him, "Let me." She returned Ajay to his arms. He pulled her in tight as Natalie began cleaning up, "I will contact Crypto again to see if he can do anything. Let me go get a bath ready for her. The warm water will do her good." Natalie skipped off to the bathroom to start the bathwater. Octavio stared at the blood everywhere. "Who in the fuck was here?" He just couldn't wrap his head around the situation. "The water is ready!" Natalie yelled from the bathroom. Octavio gently lifted Ajay in his arms. She was heavy, lifeless, and cold as he carried her into the bathroom. With Natalie's help they got Ajay's clothes off. Octavio set her gently into the tub. "I've got her if you want to get in. I won't look." Natalie said as she held onto Ajay from the side of the tub. Octavio didn't care he pulled his blood soaked clothes off and tossed them to the floor. He got into the warm water with Ajay and pressed her back to his chest, making sure not submerge her stitches. Natalie left them alone, "Just call me if you need help. I will be in the other room."

Octavio gently scrubbed the blood from her body. He gazed at all of her scars, a lot of them were ones that he had not seen before; he wondered where she got them. When the water became cool and discolored he drained it and scooped Ajay into his arms. He dried her off as best as he could and held her against him for a moment. He took her to her room and placed her into her bed, covering her up. He kissed her lips as he gazed down at her. She didn't appear to be in pain. He swallowed back tears and went to find Natalie. He needed to find out how to find this Crypto guy because he was going to give him a piece of his fucking mind once he did.