M was frog-marched along the corridors he had blown apart with bullets and grenades minutes earlier, before he had been so spectacularly captured. To be honest he was surprised the guards hadn't killed him when they threw the flash bang, someone in charge for whatever reason wanted him alive. Mallory watched carefully for a way out of the situation but found none as the men holding him kept their grips tight and he could feel the gun still pressed into his back. For now he was going where they dragged him.
It didn't take long before they reached a door which had a guard outside. The guard looked them all over then entered a code into the door's keypad which turned green to allow them access. Mallory was dragged into the office space roughly whilst the gun that had been pressed into his back was now out in the open and tracking his movements carefully.
He was pulled to a stop just shy of a mahogany desk in the spacious office; he resisted the urge to wince as his arms were damned nearly pulled out of their sockets. His eyes landed on the only other occupant of the room and his senses screamed to him that the man was dangerous.
The man behind the desk had had his back to the newcomers so at first Mallory only saw the back of his head, but there was something about the way the man held himself that was setting off alarm bells. The mysterious person finally turned and M's eyes were drawn to the scarred and hardened face. This man had seen military action at some point in his life, hence the stance. He was strongly built and dressed immaculately in a expensive suit. Mallory was drawn to the man's piercing eyes most of all and nearly shivered when he saw the anger blazing in them. Funnily enough he actually reminded M of Bond.
The extravagant office and expensive looking suit pointed to this man being in charge of something here, maybe the whole operation. The boss eventually smiled although Gareth could tell it was completely superficial. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you M."
Mallory scoffed, the guy was really going all super evil villain on him. "The pleasure is all yours."
The man's smiled grew with the comment not allowing it to phase him in any way. He then ordered the guard that had been aiming a gun at him to get out and help take back control of central HQ. Ah that would explain the thunderous expression. Q was obviously causing quite a lot of damage. Good for him.
The guy glared at M one more time then left closing the door behind him, leaving just the two guys holding his arms behind his back tightly and the boss. Mallory liked those odds better and there didn't seem to be too many firearms in the mix.
The boss stalked towards M, coming round the side of the desk. "Is it Q that's in my system?"
Gareth smiled slyly and moved his eyes towards the clock, another minute and Q's estimate would be up. Q was rarely wrong with estimates at the very least he had already committed a hell of a lot of damage and soon it would be irreversible.
The boss's fake smile fell and anger clouded his face; he really didn't appreciate M's cavalier attitude. Without any further warning a pistol was suddenly heading straight towards Mallory's face and his nose exploded in agony as the unforgiving metal smashed against his face. He groaned and feigned the assault did worse damage than it had, slumping dramatically in his captor's arms. Luckily the idiots fell for his weakness and loosened their grip after his sudden drop.
Mallory broke free of the loosened hold and broke the first guy's wrist in a swift remorseless movement, he pushed him into the boss who was already raising his gun to stop Mallory's sudden attack. At the same time he slammed his boot deep into the second guy's ankle causing him to stumble away screaming. M wasted no time in grabbing the nearest thing in his vicinity which turned out to be a chair, and slammed it over the second guy's head who was still struggling to his feet. The chair smashed apart completely and he went down hard.
M whipped round as he heard a commotion and saw that the guy he had thrown at the boss was disentangling himself. Mallory panicked and sprinted up to him to kick him hard in the head. The guy was out like a light before his head hit the ground. Mallory felt his heart drop as he saw the pistol come up towards his face; he ducked and ran full pelt into the boss grunting as he impacted the heavy guy with a rugby tackle. The pistol went flying from the boss's grip and landed far away with a distant clatter.
They both went crashing to the floor knocking aside everything in their path as they fell entangled in one another. M had the upper hand as he was on top and fought to keep it that way. He quickly adjusted his position to pin his opponent down and aimed a fist at the guy's head to try and end this before it even began. Unluckily for him the boss had regained his senses and brought up his arms to stop the blow from connecting with his head.
Before Mallory realised what was happening a colossal force crashed into his chest and he was suddenly flying backwards off his attacker; he flailed and landed heavily in a heap his breath leaving him for a second. M sprang back to his feet the same time as his attacker and realised perhaps his best strategy was to stall, if he couldn't incapacitate him that was.
"You've already lost." Gareth taunted the boss, hoping he would lash out and come close enough for Mallory to knock him out. They were currently warily circling one another wondering who was going to make the first aggressive move.
"Impossible." The boss spat looking furious.
Mallory glanced at the clock against the far wall, he grinned as he saw the time and realised Q's damage would be irreversible by now. "By now Q has full control and has completely disabled your network. He will be taking your entire organisation down piece by piece."
"You're lying." The boss sneered but lost the confident stance and his eyes flicked to his computer which would tell him if M was lying or not.
M grinned at the amount of unease he was causing. He didn't care if the guy believed that his organisation was doomed, the point was that he knew Q would have carried out the plan perfectly. "He's sending agents out all over the globe to tear apart everything you've ever owned. You shouldn't have messed with us."
The boss stopped circling and halted it in his tracks. Mallory tensed as he prepared for an assault, thankfully none came but the tension remained. Gareth's mind was racing as he looked around the vicinity for a weapon anything he could use as an advantage to end this fight. There was nothing he could see which he could get to before the guy was upon him so this would have to be hand to hand for now.
"No-one's that good."
Mallory had seen first hand what his quartermaster could do. It always amazed him how many people underestimated the young man, it was probably to do with his age. "Q is."
His opponent actually roared with anger and without warning was charging at Mallory like a freight train. M calculated that he was out of time to move out of the way so he braced his body as best he could for the impact, digging his legs into the ground to hold his ground. It wasn't much use. The guy hit him with the force of a horse and they both flew backwards and crashed through a table. M groaned as the wood splintered under him and scratched at his body.
Fists were raining down on his face all of a sudden and he fought to get his arms up to defend his head. His limbs were batted away time and time again and the boss's vicious assault continued, fists finding his jaw and nose again and again. Mallory tasted blood and saw stars with each impact, he realised he needed to get out from under his opponent quickly before he blacked out.
With enormous effort Mallory managed to unhook his leg and gain enough leverage to roll and shove his opponent off him, unfortunately he didn't go far enough so it wasn't long before they were at each other's throats again, literally. M had just sat up when his opponent threw his body at him and reached for his throat. Mallory grabbed at the hands around his neck and tried unsuccessfully to break the hold. He struggled to his knees and placed his own hands around his opponent's neck squeezing with all his might.
He started to see black spots in his vision when thankfully his attacker ran out of air and let go of M's throat to shove him away. They both fell backwards away from each other and gasped for air. Mallory breathed in deeply and crawled away from the broken remains of the table, he wanted to put as much distance as he could between him and the crazed man. His opponent was very well trained and bloody strong, it would be hard to take him down without some kind of weapon.
Gareth glanced over at his opponent and saw that he was still recovering his breath and watching his opponent warily. M got to his feet and leaned against the desk, keen to put an object between him and the heavily built boss. His curiosity got the better of him and he realised this might be his only chance to find out why all this happened in the first place, why Imperium kidnapped him and Q. The questions had plagued them them both for months.
"You weren't even on our radar, why risk everything for Eureka?" M managed to wheeze between coughs.
The boss had also staggered to his feet and was busy wiping away blood from his mouth with a scowl on his face. "We needed it to truly have control."
M shook his head and laughed, really it was all so transparent in the end. "You mean you got greedy."
The boss barked a dark laugh and sneered at M. "It's called ambition."
Mallory had been watching his opponent carefully and was prepared for the charging tackle this time, he easily sidestepped the attack and brought his fist round to connect harshly with the back of the guy's head. M felt elated as he watched the guy stumble and fall, Mallory rushed forward and went to kick his opponent in the head with the hopes of knocking him out. M's smile was eradicated as his foot was caught in his attackers grasp and the guy twisted nastily, causing Mallory to crash to the ground with a scream of agony.
M felt the tendons in his ankle and lower leg twist and burn like fire. He managed to snatch the limb back and stagger a few paces away from his attacker so thankfully there was no immediate follow up. Mallory bit back another yell and hauled himself to his feet, cursing that his leg was now a hinderance and weakness in this fight. It hurt like hell and wasn't supporting him like it should. The boss rose to his feet and his eyes lit up with joy as he spotted Mallory's weakness. He looked like a shark who had just smelt first blood.
The boss's smirk grew and so did his confidence as he stalked closer to M, playing with his weakened prey. "I have contacts, there's no way you'd be able to pull this off."
It was M's turn to be confident and have something to smile about. Q had been right, the organisation hadn't expected the four of them to go underground and come at them on their own. The plan should have been a suicide run. It still could be.
"We went to ground and planned this assault alone." Mallory watched gleefully as the boss's expression turned thunderous. "Four spies are taking down your entire operation. You really shouldn't have pissed us off."
M was well aware that his opponent was edging closer so he shifted his weight to his good foot and subconsciously moved into a defensive stance.
"You shouldn't have pissed me off." The boss growled and raced forward fists swinging. Mallory expected the crazed assault but it didn't make it any easier to fend off. He brought his arms up to his face and fought to keep up with the fists that appeared to be raining down on him from all sides. It was becoming a losing battle, his opponent was too fast and his blows impossibly strong. each one jarred M's bones and rattled his insides.
"You're more stupid than I expected. We will kill all of you!" The boss's strikes impossibly grew more ferocious, and Mallory was having a hard time blocking the worst of them let alone getting off his counter-strikes.
He tasted more and more blood and was pretty sure his nose had been broken during the last bout of hits. His ribs felt like a horse had danced all over them and his leg was buckling under the increasing pressure. All in all he wasn't too peachy, on the other hand his opponent was bleeding a hell of a lot less than Mallory intended.
They both jumped and their attention was on the doors as suddenly a lot of gunfire started up across the whole compound. M wasn't entirely sure what it meant but his opponent seemed to look more stressed out by the sudden addition of firearms, if it was bad for Imperium then it was probably good news for him.
Mallory didn't have time to celebrate as a fist narrowly missed his face. The angrier his opponent seemed to get the faster and stronger his fists became. M was used to anger being someone's downfall, it usually made them careless and they would over reach. Why the hell couldn't this guy conform to some laws of the universe like everyone else.
M caught the next fist and grabbed hold of his attacker's body attempting to force him into a wall and take the upper hand finally. His attacker stalled the attempt and brutally gripped and pinched M's bloody arm wound. Mallory shouted out as the gunshot wound burned under his attacker's death grip. He shoved his attacker off and gasped in relief as the grip broke away from his wound.
The boss had a feral grin on his face as he reached down to his ankle whilst M recovered, staggering back against the desk. His attacker withdrew a nasty looking knife and bore down on Mallory's position.
"When I've killed you, I'm going to make Q undo all the damage he's done." The boss slashed out with the knife which only just narrowly missed M, M had barely managed to jump out of the knife's path in time. Mallory ignored his opponent's goads with difficulty.
The boss stalked his prey round the office, slashing down with the knife with precision and rage. Mallory had to use all of his military training just to keep his body slash free, he hadn't spotted a chance to disarm the boss yet. His opponent was being too careful for that and had clearly been trained how to use the lethal weapon properly.
"I'm going to make him do whatever I want, I'll torture him every day until he begs for death and maybe one day I'll grant his wish."
The threats made Mallory freeze and his opponent capitalised on the mistake and managed to slash at M's arm. Gareth leapt back and grabbed at his new wound, already feeling warm blood trickle through his fingers. He felt rage grow inside him as Imperium threatened his friend again. Mallory knew his opponent was trying to get under his skin, he was just pissed that it was working.
The boss grinned as he spotted the effect of his words, he continued to press M's weak spots mercilessly. "I'll kill your friends next. Bond wasn't it? And the pretty one. Moneypenny."
Mallory's concentration completely fell apart when he mentioned her name, not Eve he couldn't let this bastard do anything to his Eve. His opponent made good on M's mistake and hooked Mallory's leg with his. They both went down to the floor and landed heavily. Gareth cried out as the knife entered his body near his ribs, he desperately gripped at his opponent's knife arm with both hands and just about managed to push the weapon out. It was taking all of his strength to keep the knife out of his body a second time; his arms trembled from the effort of it.
The boss leaned down heavily and ground his knee into M's ribs. Mallory gasped as his knife wound flared up from the pressure. The knife was still held between both their bodies. Mallory was fighting to keep it out of his chest whilst his opponent was fighting to plunge it deep into his heart. His opponent had noticed his reaction to Moneypenny's name that had caused the distraction which led to this perilous moment.
"So you like this Moneypenny do you?"
Mallory ignored the thoughts of her that raced through his mind. He wanted to see her again more than anything and that would definitely not happen if this knife reached it's destination. M started to weaken as blood loss and his injuries kicked in; he didn't know how much longer he could hold the deadly weapon at bay but he had to continue to fighting. He couldn't give up.
The boss smirked widely and pressed his face down towards Mallory, looking him right in the eye with a manic glint in his eye. "Perhaps I will keep you alive, so you can watch her die."
Thankfully Mallory was distracted from imagining the unthinkable scenario when a rather familiar voice echoed through the office. "Actually, I think I'd rather watch you die."
Two deafening gunshots resounded around the two fighters and Mallory watched his opponent's shocked face. He saw the confusion and pain flicker in the other man's eyes before the light went out and his lifeless body went limp. The knife clattered down harmlessly and Mallory stared into the dead eyes as shock overtook him. His brain suddenly starting working and realised that having a dead body on top of him was rather uncomfortable. He pushed and heaved his old opponent off and groaned as his chest pulled with the action; he felt sore all over and rather light-hearted from the blood loss.
He glanced to the doorway and saw Eve standing with a smoking gun in her hand. She looked like a bloody avenging angel in the light and Mallory thought that he was still imagining this whole scenario, maybe he had died from the knife wound and this was heaven.
Eve's gaze met his and her eyes softened immediately. Mallory hadn't really noticed how cold and hard she had been a few second ago; the contrast was stark. She was by his side in a few steps and her searching stare found his most immediate wound quickly. Eve helped him sit up and shuffle back against the mahogany desk, it was about the only thing left in the room that was in one piece after his brawl.
M couldn't help but gasp as she balled up her jumper and pressed it firmly against his knife wound. He saw stars as his nerves were set alight, and he fought off the darkness and focussed on her face to give him strength. Mallory saw concern in her kind eyes and felt guilty he was putting her through this. He must have looked quite a sight if he looked half as bad as he felt. M did know that however much he hurt that his wounds weren't fatal. Even his knife wound hadn't bled half as much as he expected and the area meant there were no major organs to hit, he had been lucky. Well he would have been luckier if he hadn't ended up with a bloody knife in him.
Mallory felt the need to re-assure Eve as her worried eyes fixated on the worst of his injuries. "It's just a flesh wound."
Eve scoffed and raised her eyebrows in disbelief. Mallory realised he had sounded just like Bond and couldn't help but laugh. Her stern expression soon fell apart as his jovial mood became infectious. He was alive and that was the main thing.
"Thanks for saving my life." He sobered and thanked his partner sincerely. Moneypenny was relatively unscathed after her assault and had saved his ass again, this was becoming a habit. Not that he minded.
She finally moved her attention from the knife wound to his face and a genuine look of happiness morphed her expression. "It's my job sir."
Mallory stared into her beautiful eyes and the room faded away. The sound of gunfire dropped to nothing and the misery in his body ebbed away. In this moment it was just him and Eve, it was all that mattered in the whole world. He felt his heart race and his pupils dilated. They didn't speak but Eve closed the distance between them inch by inch, eyes locked onto his.
He didn't think before moving he just acted as the silence stretched on. He leant in and captured her lips with his own, pushing all his passion and emotion to be alive into the kiss. It was fiery, loving and full of life. He suddenly remembered where he was, who exactly he was kissing and he pulled away abruptly as if scolded. He blushed embarrassingly as he waited for Eve's reaction; her eyes were closed and he couldn't read her face.
"Sorry." He muttered stupidly realising that he may have just ruined the best friendship he had ever had.
"Shut up." She whispered and then suddenly her hands were in his hair and her lips were on his own. This time the fire of the kiss was being stoked by both participants. It was amazing, exhilarating, Mallory was lost for words. They pulled apart when they became too breathless and laid their foreheads together panting from the exertion. Eve's hand slipped and she accidentally brushed his knife wound.
"Ahhh." He gasped in surprise and pain, suddenly all his injuries made themselves known and the outside world bled into theirs.
She jumped away and her face flashed with guilt. "Sorry." She whispered awkwardly still flustered after their kiss.
"It's okay,." Mallory laughed, it was a price he would pay any day for a perfect moment like what they had just shared. "I told you it's just a flesh wound."
Mallory grinned giddily at her as his heart fluttered madly. Nothing could take away what he was feeling, not even the agony from the knife wound. That kiss had been electric; he had never felt more alive than in this moment.
Eve glanced at his bloody injury sadly then her still-dilated eyes gazed into his. "I don't like seeing you hurt."
Gareth felt slightly taken aback by the emotion he saw in Eve's face, the softness of her words. It was the first time Mallory had seen his friend really scared, frightened to lose him. He felt the sudden urge to comfort Eve to let her know that he was really alright.
"I know, but I'm going to be okay. I'm alive. We're alive." He gripped her arm reassuringly and hoped it would be enough for her to console her. She had to believe as he did that they were going to get through this. He would heal with time just like he had in the past.
Loud shouting grew louder which caused them both to realise that they were still in enemy ground and potential danger. Eve's vulnerability dropped instantly and she became agent Moneypenny again, brilliant and fearless. Eve helped him to his feet patiently and scrutinised his every move and grimaced as his wounds pulled.
Mallory favoured his right side as he staggered to his feet; he had to admit without Eve's help he probably would have toppled by now. His balance was definitely off and it probably wasn't being helped by the pounding his face and head had taken. M took a minute to steady his balance and tried to ignore the way Eve scowled at his various wounds. She certainly didn't believe for one second that he was suffering just a flesh wound, but he wasn't going to die from his injuries he would just be sore as hell for a while.
Eve sighed as his stubborn expression remained. She had clearly been making a decision and now her mind was made up. "Come on let's go and see how Q and Bond got on."