Screwed up Sandiego

By: FunahoMisaki

(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)

"Ivy!" Carmen ran to the girls room when she heard a scream in the middle of the night, forgoing getting dressed in something other than her night gown as she dashed to the girls side.

"Go back to bed I'll take care of this!" Carmen ordered the ones she could see popping out of their own rooms alarmed as she raced to Ivy's door. Each of them quickly backtracked and went back to their rooms. After Ivy's reaction to seeing Sara holding a needle to draw blood for some bloodwork tests…none of them were getting anywhere near the destructive force of nature after she had a nightmare and was probably going to be on adrenaline high.

"Ivy its Carmen! I'm coming in!" Carmen announced with a loud knock on the door before she even tried to open it. Pushing open the door Carmen saw the girl sitting up in her bed staring blankly at the wall ahead of her without really seeing it.

"Hey Ivy. It's me. Do you want to talk about it?" Carmen asked her voice soft and low as she stepped into the room and gently closed the door behind her.

"No." Ivy's voice was raspy and hoarse showing that she was at least acknowledging Carmen's presence.

"That's fine. Is it okay if I sit?" Carmen asked her voice not changing as she slowly approached the bed, earning a small nod from Ivy.

"Do you think you could get back to sleep?" Carmen asked glancing at the digital clock that read 2:07 in the morning as she sat on the bed next to Ivy who didn't move a muscle.

Ivy just shook her head silently and only tensed a little bit when Carmen wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close so that Ivy's head was over her chest, her heartbeat reverberating in Ivy's ear. Ever since the first flashback and triggering Carmen had discovered by accident that the sound of a heart beating in Ivy's ear helped relax the younger woman. Honestly when she had hugged the red head to restrain her the first time, she had expected to be sent through a wall like Al had been. She hadn't expected for the broken woman to calm down at the sound of her heart beat.

"You know…when I pleaded to be taken as the experiment…when I worked so hard to do be the one taken…I never thought never realized what they would do to break me and turn me into the perfect weapon." Ivy said after a minute, her voice still raspy and hoarse and Carmen was beginning to worry that the red head had damaged her vocal cords at some point.

"You wanted to be chosen?" Carmen asked in disbelief as she stared down at the girl, recalling everything that Sara's scan had shown and revealed to have been done to her. All of those brutal tortures, those gang rapes and beatings, the broken bones and damaged muscles, the forceful removal of her entire uterus.

"It was either me or Zack. They were going to pick Zack at first, they wanted their experiment to be a male. To make them even stronger they said…I pleaded and bargained and even begged for them to take me instead. They said if I proved myself strong enough by the time I was twelve…then they'd leave Zack alone and take me in his place." Ivy said her voice quiet and making Carmen freeze at hearing that.

They had wanted to use Zack who was even younger than Ivy? Zack who would have only been ten when the experiments and beatings started?

"You threw yourself into fighting and training and mastering different martial arts so that you would be chosen in your brothers' place. You did everything to protect your brother. Suffered through all that pain and torment so that he wouldn't have to." Carmen said her voice soft and a near whisper as she stared down at Ivy in a new light. Ivy hadn't been randomly chosen for the experiment or anything like that. She hadn't applied to be tested on out of her own misplaced pride or any arrogance.

She had fought so hard and long to be chosen as the experiment in order to keep her brother from having to go through what she did. To keep her brother safe, the red head had given herself up as tribute.

"And now my brother can't even recognize me. I wasn't wearing anything more than a strip of cloth over the top of my face and a black dress…I wasn't wearing a mask or any make up…and yet he couldn't recognize me. He couldn't recognize who I really am…" Ivy had tears in her eyes at this point although she didn't let them fall as Carmen ran her fingers through the smaller womans hair.

Carmen just kept quiet and held the younger woman close all night.

At ACME

"Zack it's two in the morning. Go to sleep." The Chief said as he looked at the blond who was still working furiously at the computer.

"No way Chief. Not while Carmen still has Ivy and there was something strange about that new VILE crook. The Ram of Aries she called herself. There's nothing about her anywhere in the system and yet she seemed to hate ACME so much!" Zack said without looking away from the screen as he kept typing and searching and trying to find out anything he could.

"And her talking about being a hero for so long that she became a villain! Doesn't that mean that she used to work for ACME? But nothing is coming up on anything! Not the Ram not the Aries! Nothing!" Zack was starting to get fed up with no answers and starting to really feel his sisters disappearance. If she were here they probably would have already solved this thing.

"And what was all that about you all forging a perfect weapon and some secret project stuff? She was probably just playing me but it's bugging the hell out of me because Joshua's been acting off ever since Ivy was taken and I don't think it's cause he has a crush on her!" Zack said not seeing the Chief's eyes widen at that.

"Zack! What exactly did she say?" Chief demanded making Zack glance up at him finally.

"She said 'Tell them that when they forged the perfect weapon then they should make sure that the God of War couldn't go against the ones that made her.' Those were her exact words before she and Carmen escaped." Zack said making the Chief pale slightly which was impressive since he was an AI.

"God of War? Zack…did she call herself Ares at any given time?" Chief asked looking horrified and earning a nod from Zack.

"Yeah she called herself the Ram of Aries, probably the astrological sign. But isn't Aries also the name of the God of War for the Greek myths?" Zack asked earning a slow nod from the Chief who looked upset and dismayed at this.

"Oh this is not good. The big guys aren't going to like this one bit and the R and D department are going to go nuts not to mention the Weapons division." The Chief began to panic and mutter while Zack looked confused.

"Chief what's going on? You know something about this Ram character?" Zack demanded making the Chief look at him sadly and slowly nod. He couldn't tell Zack that the Ram was his big sister, but he could tell him a few things.

"Project Ares, a top secret project that not many are supposed to know even exists. We were developing a weapon that would be sent after the most dangerous of criminals and succeed in their mission without fail. At first all the candidates for the weapon experiment was male but there was one female candidate that worked hard and became the only successful experiment. She was given the designation Ares because they never thought that the single girl out of two hundred experiments would be the only success." Chief said slowly as he looked away from Zack.

"You mean they were turning people into weapons?" Zack asked staring at the chief horrified and shocked and looking a bit betrayed.

"That's just it though. Out of all of them…the only successful one was Ares, the female. But…" Here the Chief looked straight at Zack.

"She volunteered, insisted, even begged to be an experiment Zack. It was her choice." Chief said making Zack frown slightly at that as he stared at the Chief and thought over everything.

If Ares had begged to be an experiment…then why did she seem so angry about it? Something wasn't adding up here.