Warning for strong language and violence

Italicised passages means flashback or thoughts (not in the present scene)

Word Count: 1367

For those of you now utterly confused by what I'm up to, I have posted a timeline on my profile page for as a rough guide

They say good things come to those who wait.

Well just like a Dixie Chick, I'm still waiting.

The vast space wasn't quiet.

It had dark shadowy corners, rats scurrying now and then, almost too quick to see. James shoots one suddenly, and Chekov flinches. I hide my smile.

I've obviously spent too long around Alejandro, picking up his flair for the dramatic because we're sat (well I'm sat at least) on a cold metal chair in the centre of this hideous concrete and steel warehouse as if I'm dining at a royal court, and I'm the queen.

Chekov, a broad man with thin, brown hair that's a little too long for his round face and flat eyes is kneeling before me on the right. To his left, is his boss, a pig named Gaultier whose thing is drugs and vulnerable girls. And boys. The man's not picky.

They usually make a haunt of New Orleans, taking advantage of loose attitudes and tourism to hide most of the leads that could ever set the FBI on their tails. But their lucks running out.

He's a relatively thin man, not much muscle, he tends to hire out for that. His face is long and thin, his eyes dark and filled with loathing. He's wearing a truly garish purple and grey striped suit that could have come from a second class comic book villain.

And he wonders why there's a man pointing a gun at his head.

"I have a few questions" I start, pleasantly enough. Chekov starts blinking uncontrollably, his skin glistening with perspiration. How attractive.

Gaultier is braver, he scoffs outright. Rhodey moves forward so the mouth of his gun presses against the back of Gaultier's head. He does it with a little force though, so Gaultier's forced to bow his head. He's an idiot, but even he's not stupid enough to misinterpret that.

"Now gentlemen" I start tapping my fingernails against the arm of the chair out of habit more than anything else "I need some information and I don't really care for either of you" I'm not really focusing on them, instead lost in the voice in my head.

"I need to know Stephanie. Which means you need to know" I'd felt his breath on the shell of my ear. "Make it quick."

"You think I will help you?" Gaultier is French by birth, lived there for the first few years of his life. Despite his years in America, he's never shaken that hint of something other. An accent that was never quite flat enough to fit in.

Give him credit, his voice is still disgusted, shoulders tense as he kneels, dirtying his garish suit. He stares determinedly at the floor, ignoring the gun still nuzzling his head. Chekov can't stop staring at it from the corner of his eye.

A right hand should always be the equal of his employer. For example, Tank was nearly as good as Ranger if it weren't for that little bit of je ne sais quoi that made him Ranger.

Likewise, my employer had made me in his own image. A God in a world of his making.

It made me feel kinda bad for Gaultier that Chekov was so obviously useless. You might think by the Russian name he was some kind of Russian mafia but no. Anton (yes Anton) Chekov was born to Russian parents in 1972 before he was adopted. He was as American as they come.

Usually I loved having as much intel, as many dark secrets as I could get on a mark but these two were just boring.

Apart from one small detail.

"I think you will help me. Do you want to know why?" I smiled at Chekov, he was shaking, poor thing. He had no idea what to make of me.

"I'll help you out" I said brightly "Here's a little story. There's a man. A man who likes money, who likes the finer things in life. He does this by indulging in things he really shouldn't. He treats people like toys and sells polluted drugs so he gets all the benefit, and yet none of the repercussions" I pause, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees as I focus on Gaultier alone "and so the man goes to a man very far away. A man with lots of power, lots of money. A man who's supposed to be a myth. And do you know why he does this?"

Gautier's obviously not going to answer, and the room chills a little as Rhodey grasps him by the throat with one hand, forcing him to look at me, caught between choking for air and the gun.

I feel the urge to strangle him myself. Instead I continue, "I'll tell you. He does this because this man is a very bad man. He can make very bad things happen. Make bad people richer, indulge their twisted little fantasies. And so all he has to do, is cosy up to this man, and he gets everything he wants, for a very good price. Because he has something the bad man wants"

As I stand, Rhodey releases his hold on Gaultier who slumps forward, nearly connecting with the floor face first if he hand thrown one hand out to catch himself, the other leaping protectively to his throat as he gasps at lungfuls of air.

I move so I'm crouched down before him, we're eye to eye and Gaultier's too much of a rat to have loyalty if he knows who he's fucking with. "And Alejandro wants to know what that is" I finish, savouring the millisecond that passes before Gaultier's eyes widen like dinner plates. I smile back at him too guilelessly to be nice, and feel the pressure on my right change before a muffled thud indicates Chekov has fainted. I let my lips pull into a smile, "they just don't make them like they used to, right?" Gaultier has all the air he needs, and yet I have stand swiftly and take a step to avoid his suddenly slack body as he meets the unkind concrete face first with a sound that makes me wince a little despite myself.

We stand there in silence for a moment before Rhodey chirps, "I think that went quite well"

The truth is, Alejandro doesn't usually touch US soil. He's been out of the game (mostly) for years now. Even back in the day he wouldn't touch it, leaving it for those way down the chain to deal with. He didn't concern himself with petty agendas.

Why should he? He was the man on top of it all. A spider, sat patient in the centre of his web. A comparison I used often enough that I expected whatever heavy object flew my way without fault every time. He really hated that nickname.

The truth is Alejandro and I had a common goal.

Take down the man who threatened our loved ones.

Of course in Alejandro's case, it was too late to protect them. But not too late to make him pay.

And as for me?

Maybe the US secret services didn't realise that Alejandro knew everything, anything he possibly needed to know. He'd known before I did that they'd come to me. He had it all planned out before I even stepped foot in Rio.

Slow and steady wins the race. And this spider was in no rush.

But he was hungry.

Unfortunately, Gaultier had caught word that we were headed straight for him.

After all, it was a rare day that anyone from Alejandro's world stepped foot near him. What he didn't know that despite the fact it was completely unheard of for anyone of his inner circle to come so far for seemingly so little, that Alejandro's favourite pet wanted to have a word. And it was personal.

So we followed him. And he ran to the last place anyone would look for him. The last place I ever wanted to step foot in again.

You guessed it. Trenton, New Jersey.

If I hadn't have known better, I'd say that Alejandro has somehow orchestrated this.

That bastard had always enjoyed my suffering.

A Few Notes!

If you like, in the scenario of this fic, Alejandro is the Joker to Ranger's Dark Knight. With quite a few differences mind, but he's a little bit unbalanced, a little bit murderous and he has his eyes on a very particular prize. My geography is terrible and the more I research it the more I realize it, so please don't think any of these locations etc are more than a figment of my imagination. Sorry about the general violence of the fic, but if it's not your thing, I sadly advise you do not continue to read this fic. It was my pleasure to let you all in that Steph had not lost her mind and has a good reason for doing bad things. But she's still doing bad things and going to a dark place and will go darker am I doing this? I saw a lot of fics that I loved but everyone else got their hands dirty for Steph and she rarely had to deal with consequences. There are some fantastic fics where this is not the case, but it's a theme that's bugged me for a long time so here goes nothing!

Please do checkout the timeline on my profile if you're lost, as at this point the timeline starts to straighten out to mostly present and any past we see will be far more orderly!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! For all your kind and generous reviews, they are so helpful and let me know what you guys want so I can give it to you! There is some Ranger coming real soon to thank you all for getting Right Now to 200 reviews! It blows my mind so much thank you so so much!