I was actually quite amazed at the responses for this story considering I hadn't posted for it in a while so that you all for you input and especially HuluView who made a suggestion that I just couldn't seem work out for the last chapter. With out further ado, here is the next chapter…hope you all enjoy a bit of Tony whumping…

Chapter 5 –Lucidity Is Such A Fragile Thing

The next time Tony was semi aware of anything he was being moved yet again but this time, it wasn't to a different location. If he'd been lucid enough he may have tried to escape. However, unfortunately for him, he wasn't. On the one had he was convinced that his body with set on melting all his internal organs which, even in his dire situation, made him giggle? On the other hand his muscles refused to work for the short amount of space he'd been dragged to the shackles on the wall, which caused the guy dragging him to be rougher than Tony hoped he would be; not that he could have argued with the guy anyway.

They had taken to gagging him after the last round of questions. Apparently he spoke far too much for his own good about the wrong things. He laughed at that too, him, Tony DiNozzo, talking too much? If he was remembering correctly, he'd even said that to them and then added an extra special sarcastic drawn out nooo; just to see what would happen. Turns out they gagged him for it, well, it could have been worse.

Though, it wasn't like he knew what they wanted anyway. That part they hadn't really asked him yet. Or if they had, he didn't remember. A shiver ran along Tony's spine as burning hot flesh touch the cold stone and for the amount of moments that the stone absorbed some of his excess heat he felt a little better. Hang on, he thought, where had his shirt gone? His headache subsided as his head lolled against the harsh stone but it was soon ramped up again as the door slammed open and a question shouted at him. He barely understood the question so opted for the smartarse answer.

"Go to hell."

His speech was slightly slurred but he really didn't care at the moment. Also, just to piss the guy off more he smiled smugly, as much as he could around the gag, at the dark clothed man. The energy he'd had upon waking up dissipated, and he slipped unconscious once again.

He knew what was coming next; it had been in countless films. The dirt bags never let you sleep; if you did well… you soon learnt the consequences. However, that didn't stop his vision turning ice white nor stop him gasping and fighting for breath, or his muscles screaming in agony as what felt like gallons of water was poured all over him.

Spluttering out all the inhaled water Tony sagged on shackles, only causing more damage to his already damaged body. He didn't think there was anything left that didn't hurt.

Looking up towards the man who had been standing there silently, Tony couldn't hide a gasp when the man's eyes seemed to glow red….surely that was just the fever…not being sure, Tony shook his head to try and clear it. Wincing he found it to be a bad idea as his headache spiked again. Breathing a deep as he could through the gag he got most of the pain under control.

The man with the glowing red eyes seemed to hover at Tony's eyes level, which was at least a foot higher than usual due to the shackles suspending his quickly tiring muscles, it felt as if the tendons would snap with the amount of almost dead weight pulling them down.

Tony head drooped downwards, towards when the dark haired man's hand hovered over the angry red wound in his leg. Great, his pants were well and truly ruined now; one leg had been cut away so that the wound was open for all to see. The skin round the wound seemed unusually pale as he imagined the rest of him did considering his usual skin tone. Through his blurred vision he could also make out slight blotching almost like a rash around the wound. Crap. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that meant. Tony could hear the smile in the man's cold voice as he spoke next.

"Well, it would seem that you won't live very much longer." He stopped, as if waiting for an answer, knowing the agent couldn't speak he continued. "You feel like answering questions now?" The man sneered.

For all Tony's guts he was actually a little scared that he might die…without getting the last word in, he laughed inwardly and was taken aback when the gag was rudely ripped off his face. Immediately he tried to rid the stale, bloody taste out of his mouth by spitting it out on the man's shoes. His inner voice shouted cheerfully 'Take that sucker' as his actual voice seemed to have stopped working for now. He honestly couldn't seem to help himself today, he knew it would get him in trouble so expected a swift kick to his injured leg. He felt a trickle of liquid leak from the wound but what it was he wasn't sure as his vision darkened on him again.

Not even a bucket full of ice cold water could wake the deteriorating agent up now…

x-X-x

Mark relaxed on the porch of his new beach house, the sun slowly sank into the horizon, and a soft breeze ruffled his hair. This was the life that he'd dreamed of ever since he'd gotten involved with those people. They would get the job done. Get rid of anyone who could destroy what he'd gained. And he wasn't afraid of what or who they killed for him to have it.

A phone call suddenly disturbed his peace.

"Hello." He answered tersely, he wasn't meant to be contacted. At all!

That, would only increase the risk of him being found. Maybe he shouldn't have kept the cell phone with him after all.

"Boss, he's not talking." Damn it he cursed. It wasn't meant to be this hard to get information out of someone he thought had been weak minded. I mean the guy was a play-boy for god sake!

"Fine! Go to the next stage." He almost hung the phone up but the man responded promptly.

"We can't, he won't survive this one."

"What!" Mark was furious; he needed information from DiNozzo so he would be able to keep this new comfortable life style. Mark ignored the excuses of the man on the phone and shouted his final order.

"Well then, fix it! And only call back when you have what I want!"

Without another word he snapped the cell shut and retuned to look over at the darkening sky, wondering what activity he could partake in tomorrow.

TBC

Well that chapter went a different way than originally planned but I hope you all like it, poor, poor confused Tony, he doesn't even know that Mark seems to be more than in on it or what they want from him. Thanks for reading and please review! Sorry for any mistakes as it is 2am and i really should be in bed haha.