From the last chapter:
Leo was sprawled out on the floor, eyes flooding over as he choked out, "Karai bugged the Lair! Get out, now!"
He gave the camera one long look of sorrow, as he whispered. "Good-bye."
Leo belted the camera with a fist, sending shards of glass through his flesh. The screen went black.
It may have been a few seconds, or a few thousand years, it didn't matter now. Leo's only eulogy was the hastily whispered farewell, and the busted pieces of the cheap camera. There was a savage peace, a welcome finality to the whole thing, as Leo calmly lay there, waiting for his ending, and making sure that his last thoughts were filled with the faces of his loved ones. He owed them that much, at least.
Leo could feel the shards of glass and plastic from the camera cutting into his skin, the blood slithering down his shredded knuckles.
He heard the words of dismay, the shouts, and the dull thunder of feet as his captors ran towards him. Soon, so very soon, they'd roll over him like a tidal wave, and he'd drown. He would drown on his blood, on his tears, it didn't matter. Numbly, he lay his head back down on the bruised crook of his arm, indifferently. The drugs, the beating, the constant terror of losing his loved ones had siphoned out any last scrap of strength.
Leo closed his eyes, vowing not to flinch when the death blow finally came.
Karai seemed to materialize out of the darkness behind the blinding lights.
Leo heard her hiss like an enraged cat between her clenched teeth, "Sedate him."
Leo's eyes shot open as he felt the sharp sting of a dart or a needle slicing through his thigh.
Ice slithered through his veins, and time seemed to slow as he gave Karai a smirk and slurred out
"I owe you my thanks, Karai."
Karai scowled, puzzled.
"If you hadn't rigged that camera, and graciously filmed me, I never would have had the chance to warn them. By the time you send your men down there, my father and brothers will be long gone."
Karai tilted her head, her mouth curling into a calculating smile.
"I hope you find some consolation in believing that you saved your family. Let me reassure you…you've only delayed their demise. "
"I'll kill you if you hurt them." Leo snarled out even as the sedative started to take him down. He could feel the heavy, almost welcome darkness rolling over him like a thick blanket.
He slumped when the drug finally took effect, withered and helpless at Karai's feet.
It might have been hours, or days when Leo finally drifted out of oblivion. Awareness came in slow increments. His head felt as if somebody had scraped his brain out and replaced it with drying concrete. His thoughts were too languid and slow, and he was too drugged to really give a damn about anything besides fighting off the torpor.
Leo kept his eyes shut, and his breathing even to maintain the illusion that he was still unconscious. His instincts screamed that he was being watched, but he didn't dare find out by who, not yet.
His palms brushed cold, unyielding metal, and he instinctively raised one hand to rub his aching head.
Panic clenched in his gut at the sudden realization that he couldn't move his hands. After a few terrifying moments, Leo realized with a bit of perverse relief that his wrists had been strapped down by thick leather straps. He wasn't paralyzed, thank God. Only strapped down to a metal table in a white room and at the mercy of his worst enemy.
He flinched when he felt a human hand drape itself across his plastron, and his eyes shot open. He heard a startled breath, the sound of feet shuffling backwards. Leo twisted his head around to see a man in a white lab coat fleeing like a cockroach.
"Don't touch me!" Leo snarled as the man gaped at him, the scalpel dangling from his slack fingers.
The man looked panicked, and Leo clamped his betraying mouth shut. They had heard him speak! How could he have been so stupid as to reveal that he could talk?
The fear melted into terror and animal instinct as Leo grunted and tried to brace his ankles against the table and rip through the straps.
They held fast. His legs were restrained, one thick strap over each ankle, and then another pair crossing over each knee. Leo let his head drop back to the table, panting and exhausted as he shut his eyes and tried desperately to think of something more productive than laying her and waiting to die.
"Leonardo." Karai's hated voice sliced through his torpor. Leo glared at her, and tensed, waiting.
She said nothing for a long moment, only gave him a languid smirk as she lay a palm on his heaving plastron.
Inwardly, he shivered at the unwanted touch, and found it more sickening than the most brutal punch.
Her fingers stopped their incessant tapping, but her hand still lay draped across his chest. He tensed in helpless rage, trembling as he glared around the room.
It was a large, white room, with a row of ominous looking metal cabinets, and several trays littered with what looked like surgical instruments.
"Where in the hell am I? Where did you take me?" Leo demanded as Karai only hitched a shoulder.
"It is a fitting place for you to die, Leonardo. You have sent several of my men here over the years. You are now in the morgue."
Leo shut his eyes, and breathed out, struggling to restrain the storm that was brewing in his gut.
"If you intended to kill me, you would have done it by now. You've had several chances, so why are you leaving me alive? If you're going to kill me, do it and be done with it!"
Karai shook her head, her chuckle cutting as shards of glass. She gave Leo a choked, brittle chuckle, and a smirk that did not match the venom in her voice.
"You are unworthy of a quick and merciful death, Leonardo. Before I kill you-and rest assured, I will-I will break you in every way imaginable, until there is nothing left of you for your pathetic family to salvage."