Chapter Thirteen
A/N: Yah I know I took a very very very long time on this… but a lot has been going on but I don't want to bore you…. Do me a huge favor and read the chapter and tell me what you think.
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Tracy thought she was dead. The pain was just too horrible to have left her alive. But then she started to slip back into consciousness.
This time had been different than any other time she was drugged or sedated. She wasn't put into a quiet darkness. This time she had had nightmares, clear and vivid ones. Ones that had left her shaking.
As soon as she painfully adjusted to the brightness of the room she realized why. There was blood on most of the bright walls and floor of the room. And the bodies of two guards, Lou, and Nick laid on the floor unmoved.
Tracy began to find it hard to breathe. She finally managed to hug her legs to her chest and began to rock herself, until it was too painful to even do that. Tears were falling freely from her eyes, and quiet sobs began to wrack her body.
She began to remember what happened but only managed to recollect the events up to Nick being murdered. Then again, she didn't have to remember exactly what happened. She knew.
She knew that she was capable of killing Lou and the other two guards that laid mere feet away from Nick's dead body. She knew that she did so in anger, and in anger she never could control herself. But she also knew that this is what her father had wanted all along. He wanted her to kill in cold blood again. He wanted to see the strength at which she could strike. And seeing the carnage around, Tracy knew she didn't disappoint.
Her hands were sticky with the drying blood, which she was sure was Lou's. Although she was happy to see that man dead, she never wanted to be the one to kill him. Not like this anyway.
Tracy closed her eyes tightly and tried to force the visual image of the room out of her head. She couldn't, and she knew that this will haunt her for the rest of her life. Her eyes flew open again, and she struggled to control the darting thoughts in her head. Soon she had let herself slip somewhere else. A blank expression on her face.
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One by one the guards went down. They were not prepared as the APO team had anticipated.
"Grounds and Ground-level clear." Vaughn said into his com, then turned to Weiss. "I'll go and give Jack some back up on the lower floors. You go find Syd and Nadia."
Weiss nodded and continued towards a flight of stairs.
Vaughn watched his friend as he stalked away, making sure he got his back covered, then began to look for the hidden stairwell that Jack and Edward had gone through. Finally he decided to ask Marshall.
"I need the location of the hidden stairwell, Merlin." He said into his comm. quietly not risking being heard.
"Through the north corridor. Theirs a room… an office… at the right. The door to the stairwell behind the bar. Copy that Shotgun?" Marshall's voice through the comm. asked.
"I copy." Vaughn answered as he began to walk down the very long north corridor.
When he got to the end of the corridor, Vaughn open the room to his right. His gun pulled up ready to shoot anyway that tried to attack. When he was satisfied the room was clear he relaxed.
He looked around again, this time checking for little details. There was nothing personal about the office. There weren't any personal touches. A quirky something or another. Not a single picture of a loved one, a family member, a friend, or even a pet.
When his roaming eyes found the bar, Vaughn approached it. He began to seek some button or a switch to reveal the door. He found nothing.
"Merlin, this is Shotgun. How do find the door?" Vaughn said as he leaned on the drink cabinet. It suddenly moved and a door appeared. Vaughn was surprised it was nothing more than a hydraulic system.
"Never mind that Merlin." He mumbled into the comm. and walked in. What he first saw was a long winding set of stairs. He breathed a sigh, looked back at the office, then began to walk down the stairs.
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"Is it too quite in here or is it just me?" Edward hadn't seen a single guard since they made it down to the basement, and that wasn't a good thing.
Jack looked back at him with an icy look and just turned back. Inside he was getting a sinking feeling too.
Out of now where two guards jumped out from behind a corner. Edward mumbled something about speaking too soon, and began to fight.
The guards didn't have guns, and they seemed to be scared of something. Jack knew for sure now that something was up. Finally the guards were laying lifeless on the ground.
"Something isn't right." Jack simply said and continued on his way.
He and Edward reached the end of the hallway. It crossed with another one, almost in the middle.
"What are we going to do now?" Edward looked to Jack, knowing that he was indisputably the boss here.
"We split up. You take right and I take left." Jack answered.
Edward nodded and began to go his way, when Jack stopped him.
"You be careful, and call for back up when you need it. No one's a hero today you understand me." Jack give him a firm look, and as soon as Edward nodded, Jack was on his way.
Edward went down the right corridor. It was more quiet and soon it was evident it was some kind of holding wing. There were many doors and Edward went frantic trying to open all of them to see if he could find Tracy.
Finally he came to the last door, it was half open so he pushed it and peered inside. There was nothing that could prepare him for what he saw.
The holding cell was big, huge was the word. It was the biggest from the ones he had seen. It had white walls and floor tiles, but most of them were smeared in red bright blood. Bodies were lying on the ground and some one was huddling on the far corner of the room.
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end when he realized who it was. He slowly walked towards Tracy, then started sprinting when he realized that she could be hurt. He finally stood besides her and gulped. She wasn't moving. Just hugging her knees to her chest and her head down. He could tell that she was covered in blood too.
Edward crouched besides her. "T-Tracy?" he whispered. She slowly looked up at him with dead eyes, and a helpless look that made his heart break. She didn't recognize him, and he could tell she wouldn't recognize herself at this point.
"Tracy what did they do to you?" He continued whispering afraid he would somehow startle her if he spoke loudly. She just continued to stair blankly at him.
"Tracy," he whispered lovingly and touched her hair. "cant you recognize your Eddie?" tears began to fill his eyes.
"Eddie?" she asked and her eyes began to change. "Eddie?"
"I'm gonna take you home, Tracy. It's enough." He said as she touched his face gently.
She gave him a smile that made him feel like a child. "Can't go home Eddie. I'm dead." She said simply.
"No Tracy! You're alive! Look at you! You're a mess! Who did this to you?" he asked anger seeping into his voice.
"It's what I did.. Eddie… it's what I did." Her eyes began to go blank again.
"No Tracy! No! you stay with me here! I'm gonna get you outta here!" he began to shake her, and she looked at him.
"How could you love? How could you love me now?" Tracy said and a single tear made its way down her cheek. Edward finally saw her face. It was bruised and blue. Someone really took their time to hit her in every corner.
He just kissed her dry and wounded lips, he felt her wince in pain, and pulled back. "I'll always love you. No matter what." He told he tenderly.
"You sure about that Mr. Richards?" A voice he didn't recognize came from behind him. He turned to face the voice and it was an older man, almost as old as Jack, with a gun aimed at him and Tracy.
"If you don't mind, I don't like anyone kissing my little girl in my presence. You know father issues." The man said sarcastically.
Turner! Edward realized, a blaze of fury shinned in his eyes, and he slowly got to his feet.
"Excuse me on being rude, but I believe you have forfeited your rights as a father Mr. Maxwell." Edwards said bitterly.
"Ah!" Turner smiled knowingly. "And where is my old friend Jack? He's around here isn't he?"
Edward just looked angrily at him. "What did you do to her?" he demanded to know.
"I just killed a gentleman when he began to cause too much trouble. Our girl over there go angry and killed three of my best men." Turner said matter-of-factly.
"She wouldn't!" Edward refused to believe.
"She would if you hurt someone she loves." He said as he fired a bullet into Edward.
Edward gasped in pain and looked at his wound, and collapsed to the floor.
"No!" Tracy shouted, suddenly got up, and charged at Turner. She held him be his neck and he didn't seem to fight her off.
"You cant kill me Tracy. You cant kill your father." He said calmly and reached for a knife on his belt. Before Tracy could do anything he stabbed her in the arm. She let out a yelp of pan and let Turner slip from her hands.
He ran for the door and soon disappeared. Tracy was going after him when she heard the meek whisper.
"Tracy" It was Edward. Tracy ran towards him, sat next to him, and put his head on he lap. She slowly began to cry.
"D-don't cry." He said weakly as he she caressed his hair. "I'm f-fine"
She gave a small laugh, and looked down at him painfully. "It's not supposed to be like this."
His look turned serious and he took Tracy's hand. "You're m-my one, Tracy. Don't you f-forget that."
He guided her hand to the chain around his neck. "T-take it."
Tracy took it off and held it in her hand. A small sob escaped her lips, it had her ring hung on it. "I never loved before you." Tracy whispered.
She leaned in for one last kiss on the lips. Tracy could feel his last breath escape, and a sob escaped her lips still locked with his.
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Jack saw it all. He saw Turner taunt Edward and shoot him, he saw him stabbing Tracy in the arm. And he watched in complete shock as Edward and Tracy share their final embrace.
Finally he felt himself pull out of the state of shock. He looked towards the screens that surveyed what Jack gathered was Tracy's holding cell. Tracy was still holding a dead Edward in her arms, blood curdling screams escaping her lips.
"That son of a bitch!" Jack shouted as he began to run out of the surveillance room. Turner was killing Tracy, and he was going to kill Turner.
He ran down the hall at full speed finally reaching the point where he and Edward had split. A few steps later he ran into Turner.
Turner's shirt was stained with Tracy's blood. When he saw Jack he stopped in his tracks and gave him a mischievous smile.
"Well well! Isn't it my old friend Jack Bristow! What took you so long?" Turner continued to smile as Jack raised his gun.
"It's over Turner." Jack said calmly although he was simmering with anger.
"Oh c'mon Jack! That is so melodramatic don't you think?" Turner chuckled. "Put your gun down Jack and let's settle this the way we did back in the day. That is unless you're too old for that now"
Jack just put his gun on the floor and started towards Tuner, throwing a punch that caught him square in the jaw.
"I was always better than you Turner, as a fighter and father." Jack gave a hint of a smile.
Turner's eyes flashed with anger and he hit Jack back.
"You took away my daughter, Jack! I never got to be a father!" Turner Kicked Jack but Jack caught it and set him off balance.
"You're not doing a great job at it so far Turner.. killing your daughter's lover isn't good." Jack looked down at Turner with disgust.
Tuner reached for the knife and stabbed Jack in the calf, before Jack had a chance to defend himself. As Jack went down, Turner got to his feet quickly.
"You're too old for this Jack, get a Desk somewhere." Turner kicked in the head and Jack fell to the ground, unconscious.
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Marshall had never been this nervous while monitoring a mission, and he was a fairly easily agitated person.
Everyone was radio silent until they cleared their levels, Vaughn was out of Radio silence as he had cleared his level. He and Weiss had split up and Vaughn was following Jack. That's all he told him, before he went radio silent again.
That was almost half an hour ago, no one else had broken radio silence, and Marshall was getting frantic.
"Merlin?" it was Sydney's voice that finally streamed in. "I cant reach Shotgun or Raptor." Her voice was laced with concern.
"Raptor and Freshman hadn't broken radio silence, Shotgun has joined them." He was surprised when he didn't fumble over his words like he did usually.
"I'm going to see if they need any backup, Phoenix…" before Sydney could say 'out' there was commotion and gun shots.
"Son of a…" Sydney shouted and Marshall could hear her through the comm. Link.
"Weiss behind…" It was Nadia now.
"Phoenix? Evergreen? Anyone copy!" Marshal said loudly into the comm..
There was more gunshots and screaming, but all of a sudden all was silent.
"Evergreen? Phoenix?" Marshall shouted his voice filled with terror.
"Do you COPY? SYD CAN YOU HEAR ME!" but all the greeted marshal was silence. Deafening silence.
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TBC.