Sorry for the (very) long absence, life is keeping me super busy and I had no time for writing for a while. Here is chapter 2. Chapter 3 and 4 are coming very soon. Let me know if you're still enjoying the story

Unknown location, the day before, Gaby's p.o.v.

Gaby opened her eyes. She blinked a few times, waiting for her eyes to get used to the light. Her head hurt and something was covering her mouth. She tried to raise her hands to her face, but they felt really heavy and wouldn't move. Looking down she understood why. She was sitting on a chair, tied up, her arms strapped to the arms of the chair. Then she realized that her mouth had been taped shut.

How...?

Gradually she started remembering. She had been walking down the street on the way to her apartment to call Waverly. She had been in a hurry and absorbed in her thoughts. She had bumped into a man coming the other way. She remembered feeling a sharp stinging sensation, as if something had pricked her arm, but her mind had been focused on apologizing. And then her mind couldn't focus anymore. She had suddenly felt extremely dizzy and the man had caught her before she collapsed. She had heard him say something like:

"Are you feeling all right? Here let me help. Don't worry I'll take good care of you, Miss Teller"

And that was all she could remember before everything went dark. And it was enough to make her shudder. The man had known her name. What did that mean? Why had she been taken and by whom? Gaby looked around her. The room she was in was spacious and brightly lit. Right in front of her she could see a large screen on the wall, under it was a control panel, it looked like a video surveillance system. There was also a camera in the room, pointed right at her. Before Gaby could continue scanning her surroundings, a door opened behind her, startling her.

"Oh, it looks like you are finally awake, Miss Teller."

A man's voice. Not the one who had drugged her on the street.

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long. Don't worry, with the delightful show I have prepared for you, I guarantee that you will soon be entertained"

The voice grew closer until two men finally came into her field of vision. She had been right, the man who was now standing in front of her was older than the one who had drugged her. And his face. She would have remembered that face. It was covered with burn scars. The man was almost bald except for a few patches of hair on his scarred skull. The scars went all the way down his neck and as her gaze fell on his right hand, she noticed that it had also been burnt. Gaby repressed a shudder. She had no idea who the man was but his appearance and the cruel smile playing on his lips were enough to make her pulse race. Her eyes shifted to the other man's face. He wasn't the one she had bumped into on the street either. He was taller and looked younger, he had one of those faces that you easily forget but his eyes had a hard glint that made her uneasy. The older man sat down on a chair opposite her while the younger one moved out of her field of vision.

"Just relax, Miss Teller, you have no reason to be concerned, well, almost no reason. If everything goes as planned, you'll leave this place unharmed. But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I think it's important that we get better acquainted. It will help you understand why I'm keeping you here. Let me start by saying that I didn't always look like this."

Gaby's eyes lingered on the man's burns.

"These I owe to your partners. Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin."

Her surprise seemed to amuse him.

"Two years ago I was a brilliant scientist, working for an important criminal organization. Things were going well until your partners showed up to shut us down. See the people I worked for were determined that our research be kept secret and rather then let the MI6 get their hands on it, they gave the order to activate the lab's self destruct system. I tried to save my life's work but failed and was gravely burnt. So your partners caused the destruction of everything I cared about and left me for dead."

Even though the man was creeping her out, Gaby had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Was he seriously expecting compassion from her?

Engrossed in his own story, the man went on.

"I kept a low profile during the last two years. My recovery was a long and painful process but it wasn't a waste of time, on the contrary. It gave me time to plan my revenge. After a year I felt strong enough to get back into the business. Thanks to my reputation, it wasn't long before I was hired by another criminal organization and my new, privileged position meant that I had access to all sorts of interesting information. And so I spent the last year gathering all the information available about the two agents who had caused my downfall. I was looking for something that would allow me to exact the perfect revenge on them, the best way to make them suffer, destroy them as they had almost destroyed me. And I found it.

Gaby felt a chill run down her spine as he gave her a lopsided smile, one corner of his mouth weighed down by thick scar tissue.

So this is what happens when Illya and Napoleon are sent on an assignment without me…

End of chapter 2.