Chapter 5

Jane and Pepper huddled together in the corner of the concrete room they had been thrown into several hours ago. There was no heat in the bare room and neither women were dressed for an extended time in the cold of a New York winter. They had been contemplating their predicament for the last half hour, and what they could do about it. It was clear to both of them they had been taken because of their relationship with one of the members of the Avengers team but not the purpose of their kidnap.

While they tried to figure out what they were going to do the door to their prison opened, flooding the room with light from the hallway. For that fraction of a second they could see the long hallway their room was at the end of along with far more armed guards than they thought would be necessary for kidnappees, then two people stepped into the doorway, the light silhouetting them, before one of the figures was nearly catapulted into the room and the door slamming shut behind them. The new person's shoulder slammed into the hard concrete slab where they issued a muffled groan and laid where they had fallen.

Both Pepper and Jane sat there, confused, before they realized that the new person was an extremely underdressed girl who was still tied up.

"Well that's just unfair." Pepper snapped as she hurried over to the girl. As she examined their unknown companion, hands snatched her wrist painfully and held it as defiant pale green/blue eyes stared up at her from a mass of tangled brown hair.

Pepper held still, trying not to struggle against the painful grip on her arm as Jane slowly made her way over as well.

"Hey, look we're not going to hurt you." Jane said as she knelt down next to Pepper. "I'm Jane, and this is Pepper. If you can let go of her wrist we'll get this tape off of you."

Slowly the new girl removed her fingers from Pepper's wrist and Pepper had to resist the urge to pull her wrist back quickly and rub it.

"Better," Jane said as she moved in front of the stranger. "Now it's going to hurt when I take the tape off your face, okay? Pepper, why don't you see if you can make some noise and get us some blankets and possible some clothing."

Pepper went to the door as Jane pulled the tape off carefully, picking the hair away from the sticky surface. The tape around the newcomer's wrist came away in a long strip, leaving angry red marks on the skin, but she was finally free.

"Thanks..." The third kidnappee said as she pushed back her hair. "Zaria."

"What?" Jane asked confused.

"My name, it's Zaria."

"Za-ry-ah?" Jane said pronouncing each syllable separately. "Pretty name."

"Uh... Thanks..." Zaria muttered as she stood up and looked around. "So, do you know why we're all here?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing. Here, put these on and you probably don't want to ask where they came from and if someone was already wearing them." Pepper said as she handed a pair of old gray sweats with a matching sweatshirt; Zaria took them without question and put them on quickly. "They didn't give me any socks or shoes for you but I guess the sweats are long enough to cover your feet. Jane and I know why we're here but not why you're here. Do you?"

Zaria shot Pepper a quick glance. So they don't know about me? She thought as she pulled the drawstring tight on the pants. "Mistaken identity?" She said with a shrug.

"If that's the case then who were you mistaken for?" Pepper questioned, but not at Zaria, at Jane.

Jane looked bemused and scrutinized Zaria as if she were trying to picture who she might be. "I can't think of anyone you look like that they would want to take honestly."

Zaria shrugged. "Honestly I don't even know why you're here so I can't give any input." Although she had a pretty good guess as to why she was here, which would be the same reason the girls were here, if a little different.

Jane looked at Pepper she looked like she was considering things before she finally sighed and turned to Zaria. "Under normal circumstances I'm sure I'd look familiar so it's no big deal telling you who I am. I'm Pepper Potts."

"Tony Stark's girlfriend." Zaria finished as she eyed Pepper. She turned her attention to Jane as she mulled over who she must be close to. "You assume that you're dating or close to one of the other members of the Avengers team."

"I am," Jane admitted. "Are you?"

Zaria blinked. "I'm pretty sure they would have told you I was dating them if I was. I don't even know any of their identities, outside from Tony Stark as he kind of gave that one away on a whim."

Pepper made a face at that. "Yeah, he does that."

"So you don't know any one of them?" Jane questioned.

"If I did I don't know it." Zaria answered, which she knew was a lie.

Jane and Pepper moved off to one side to discuss the possibilities of Zaria dating one of the remaining Avengers and not knowing it while the girl in question studied the walls of their concrete box.

The door flew open to a bright light and several armed men, one of which was holding a camera. Zaria froze, instantly going to the defensive as she assessed the men, the weaponry, and the possible collateral damage. She liked it better if she didn't know the possible collateral damage, even better if there wasn't any, but she wasn't sure what the possibility would actually be since they were all necessary hostages. Before she had time to really consider her options she made an attempt at attacking.

She ducked low, using both hands to fit the first man's knee cap, twisting it viciously and putting him out of commission, and then she came up with the flat of her palm and caught another one in the jaw, snapping his head back and dazing him. She aimed for a third but a fist caught her in the jaw, whiplashing her head to one side and knocking her to the ground. Pain racked her head, blurring her vision as she felt blood leak into her mouth. Shaking her head she attempted to get back up but a boot dug into her spine, she yelped before she could stop herself.

"Shut up!" The man with the boot in her back snapped before he smashed her head with the butt of his gun.

The pain in her jaw paled to the pain that rocked her head. Stunned, Zaria groaned quietly and put her head down on the cold concrete. Blood made her hair sticky as it trickled out of the gash in her hairline.

"Stop!" One of the other girls cried causing Zaria's head pound. "You don't have to brutalize her; she didn't do any real harm."

The man ignored her. "I hope you got that all." He muttered so another of the armed men.

That's when Zaria noticed the small camera, its red light on and blinking. They were being recorded. She gritted her teeth in anger, she didn't like her weakness displayed for everyone to see.

"Yeah, I was told not to shut it off for anything."

"Well then I hope they enjoyed that little show. Your girlfriend has a temper on her but as you can see she's been quelled. If you don't do what you were told to do earlier we're going to get creative with them while you watch." The Boot Man said to the camera. He reached down and grabbed Zaria roughly by her hair and yanked her to her feet; she grunted in pain but kept her lips mostly sealed. "And I think we'll start with this one."

He put Zaria's bloody face in full view for the camera and she realized that they weren't just being recorded it was being streamed live now she was pissed, and for her, anger gave her the edge she needed.

"Jane, Pepper," she said quietly. "Close your eyes."

"What does that have to do with anything? They can see your faces." Boot Man snarled at her.

"I know the camera can still see us, but I don't want them to see what I'm going to do to you." Zaria answered. She swirled her tongue in her mouth, moving as much blood as she could to the front before she spit it in the man's face that was holding her.

Boot Man wheeled, releasing her as the blood and saliva hit him in his face, and Zaria took that fraction of a second to assess the situation. They wouldn't draw their guns for fear of killing the girls and they were all wearing army grade knives, so, before the men could react, she grappled the man who had beaten her, picking him up and throwing him, back first, onto the hard concrete floor while pulling his knife from its hilt and thrusting it up into his ribs in one smooth motion.

"You seem to forget that Kevlar doesn't stop a knife." She whispered to the downed man as she shoved the knife as deep as she could get it, piercing his heart. The room was stunned and she used that moment to wrench the knife free, darting across to the room to attack and kill the remaining men. As she whipped the knife across the neck of the man holding the camera it clattered loudly on the floor where he dropped it.

A whimpering sound echoed from the corner where Jane and Pepper had been huddled in when the group had first come in. Zaria looked over to see the girls staring in horror at her. She looked down, noticing the blood on her borrowed clothing and her hands slick with it making holding the knife difficult.

"I told you to close your eyes." She murmured as she turned away from the girls and shirked the sweats, using them to towel off her hands then wrapped the knife in them. She bent over the bodies she had dragged out of the way, examining the Kevlar vests and picking the two with the least amount of blood on them. She stripped them off and snagged a satellite phone before walking over to the two girls.

"Put these on." She commanded.

Jane paled, looking green and sick while Pepper appeared to be trying not to gag.

"Why...?" Pepper asked. She seemed to be more under control.

"Because they will stop bullets," Zaria answered tersely. She shook them. "Put. Them. On."

Pepper gingerly took one of the vests and examined it, she pales when her fingers came away with blood. "But..."

"Do you want to be shot?" Zaria interjected.

Pepper shook her head quickly and put it on. It was big for her, and Zaria adjusted the straps as best she could before basically forcing the other one on Jane.

"Can either of you shoot?" Zaria asked, neither of the girls answered. Sighing she sat the phone down and returned to looting the corpses, grabbing to military grade submachine guns.

"Here," she said as she held one out to Pepper who took it carefully as if it would bite her. "This is an MP5A2. It's a submachine gun, an automatic. Right there is the safety switch. Leave it on unless you see someone that you don't know. Turn it once and it will be a repeater, shooting three rounds at a time. Turn it again and it will shoot the entire clip if you let it. All you need to do is point, pull the trigger, and hold on. Got it?"

Pepper nodded quickly. Zaria sighed as she squatted down and placed several spare clips on the floor with the extra gun before picking up the satellite phone again.

"Use this to call Tony. If he has as much tech as he claims he does he should be able to track the call to the exact location of the bunker we're in and maybe even to what room you're in. This will get through the concrete and steel, your cell phone won't; if you even have your cell phone. Call Tony, sit down and make yourself as small of a target as you can, and shoot anything that comes through that door that you don't recognize. And when Jane isn't feeling so shocked have her take the other gun and help if she can. Got it?"

"Got it." Pepper said, her voice sounding firmer than it had a moment ago.

Zaria moved back over to the bodies and pilfered the last of the weapons, which were a knife and a Beretta handgun. She moved back over to the camera, swearing silently that the damn thing was still running. "Although I cannot hear your responses I am sure you would like me to leave the camera running so that you can keep an eye on the girls." She moved the camera to a corner of the room where it could see the girls and the door. "That's the best I can do so you can see both Jane and Pepper and the doorway."

With that she assessed the room then headed to the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Pepper asked as she jumped up.

"To make a hole for your boyfriend." Zaria answered before she left the room, knife in hand.

Pepper stared at her for a long time, stunned. Who was this stranger? Was she friend or enemy? She couldn't be that bad if she was helping them, right?

"Pepper...?" Jane started shaking Pepper from her musing.

Pepper sighed and dialed Tony's number.

"We're starting the trace now." Tony answered without a hello. "We'll be there soon, I promise."

Pepper sunk to the floor at the sound of his voice, looking at the bloody drag marks that led to the pile of dead bodies in one corner then to the door that Zaria had disappeared through. "I know." She whispered. "Do you know who she is?"

"No, but Fury is looking her up so we'll know soon enough."

"She helped us." Pepper said as she could hear the implied threat in Tony's voice.

"She could be the enemy."

"She's just a girl."

"Who murdered five grown men before they could react."

"If she wanted to hurt us she could have done it when she first arrived."

"She might want you to think she's on your side. For all we know she could be working for the people who kidnapped you."

"I don't think she would have killed those men if that was the case." Pepper said defiantly.

"If she wanted to gain your trust I'm sure she would do anything."

Pepper sighed, she wouldn't win this argument. A heavy thump came from the hallway outside along with several gunshots. Pepper stared out the door, waiting for someone to come in, but no one did. Distantly she heard an alarm sound then it was an all-out war with gunfire.

"She's going to get herself killed." Pepper said to no one.

"Not our problem." Tony grunted.

But somehow, Pepper thought it would be their fault.