TW for torture and implied rape
Allie
III
When I reawaken my collar is strapped to the chair as well.
Killian is standing by the fireplace facing away from me.
"Sweet Allison, you misbehaving minx," he chides. "Soon you'll be an extremist super soldier and then it'll be too late to tame you."
"Tame me? That'll never happen," I scoff and he chuckles.
"You'd be amazed what pain can do to the brain, what shame can do," he says and turns around.
There's a metal iron in his hand with a shaped end. The end is white hot from being in the fire.
It takes a minute but then I realized what he plans on doing.
"B-burning me won't make me obey you," I state but my voice waivers.
I fear the pain.
"Maybe not but it's not just a burn, no it's a brand," he returns and holds up the end.
It's an A shaped brand.
"And the brand accompanied with a video I will show Tony of all the horrors done to you, that will make you obey," he explains and the fear bubbles into tears and frantic ripping at my bonds.
Tony, he'll blame himself.
"Don't please don't," I plead and yank at my arms and feet.
"Begging for me to stop already? The pain hasn't even started."
"Please don't show Tony," I beg with teary eyes. Seeing this will destroy him, the guilt will kill him.
Killian groans and sets the iron back in the fire, it relieves me for a second.
"I see now that I've kidnapped someone who cares more about making sure others will be fine if you're hurt than how it will affect you," Killian mutters and shakes his head.
I watch him with burning eyes while he mulls it over.
Eventually he shrugs and grabs the iron again.
"No matter the pain will still have a desired effect," he decides and before I can say a word the iron is on my neck and I'm screaming in agony.
Awful pain courses through me and my vision goes completely white.
All rational thought leaves my mind except for one thing: please don't let this ruin Tony and Gabie.
III
Gabie
III
Savin and another guard drag us into the plain cement basement and zip-tied us to metal bed frames.
All the while I am helpless to stop them.
A collar is placed around my neck and it jabs me every few minutes or so to keep my mind groggy and my eyes from straying into the minds of those around me.
All I can feel from Allie is the faintest of tingles and traces of distraught emotions.
III
Allie
III
It feels like an eternity before he takes the iron off.
"Wouldn't want to damage the nerves too badly, we need this quick healing agent to work," he explains and takes a filled syringe from a table beside the chair. "This will heal and scar the burn quickly so we can move on."
"So branding isn't enough? What are you gonna do next carve your name into my flesh?" I spit out weakly. My neck is burning but he shock of it all has numbed it slightly.
"No, that would just look bad. That's also the reason I'm only doing the A, anything more would be excessive," he replies and pushes my head to the side.
Slowly he pushes the needle into my skin and I barely feel it.
"I can't believe my life has become the torture plot to propel the plot of Tony's life forward," I breathe out, not loud enough for Killian to hear. "Such a cliche."
It's a dark joke and highly upsetting but what else am I to do.
I'm the damsel in distress.
III
Gabie
III
I remained awake for the entire day that we were changed up, Tony stayed unconscious.
III
"Look who it is," I mutter angrily as Maya strolls in freely.
The guards leave the second she walks in.
"Your friend is alive," is the response I get.
It makes me furious and I immediately lurch in my bonds and claw the air.
"You betrayed her! She was good and pure!" I snarl viciously and Maya flinches.
"We need Stark and she was the only incentive we could find."
"She helped Killian! She helped him and you kidnapped her!" My fury only increases at Maya's stony expression. "If she has been harmed in anyway so help me I will-"
"What kill me? Torture me? It's nothing that would be any worse if I defied him," she snaps back and my anger diminishes. Her stony expression slips for a moment but she covers her weakness and stomps to the makeshift computer across the room.
The whole basement has been set up as a grimy makeshift lab.
She ignores me and starts her work as if nothing her happened.
IIIAllie
III
"So beautiful," he murmurs in my ear. He holds a warm hand in my neck as he watches the burn scar and heal. "Stark doesn't deserve you."
"And you do?" I retort. "At least Tony isn't a serial killer." I receive a sharp squeeze on my neck that sucks the air right from me in retaliation for my comment.
"I would stop disobeying if I were you Allison," he coos and wipes a stray tear from my cheek. "Bad things happen to girls who disobey."
III
Gabie
III
Tony wakes a few minutes later and groans loudly upon realizing what's happened.
Maya turns away from her computer and faces us with a somewhat bored expression.
"Just like old times, huh?" she taunts.
It's true, I imagine Tony has had situations where's he's been tied to bed frames like this before.
"Oh yeah, with zip-ties. It's a ball," he grumbles sarcastically.
"It wasn't my idea," Maya offers as if it'll make us feel any better.
"Okay, so you took Killian's card," Tony remarks, completely off topic. It's a comment about the story, how Tony met Killian years ago and broke his pathetic heart.
"I took his money," she corrects.
"And here you are, thirteen years later in a dungeon," he observes.
"No."
"Look around, I say yeah," Tony argues.
"Looks pretty dungeony," I agree.
"No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go," she responds nonchalantly. Tony half nods and glances at me. I watch him do a once over and frown at the collar on my neck.
Maya stands and approaches Tony.
"A lot's happened, Tony, but I'm close. Extremis is practically stable," she reasons vehemently.
"I'm telling you it isn't! I'm on the street, people are going 'bang,' they're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself," he hisses.
"Then help me fix it!" She whips out an old name tag and holds it up. One side says "you know who I am" and the other has a half written formula. It's the note from Berns, Switzerland that he left 13 years ago.
"Did I do that?" he inquires blankly.
"Yes," she sighs.
"I remember the night, not the morning," he says and her face falls.
"Please don't let me die zip-tied to a bed frame next to the worlds sluttiest man," I murmur to myself while Tony remains oblivious.
It takes him a second but he realizes the situation. Maya and the Mandarin wanted him to fix the serum the entire time.
"Is this what you've been chasing around?"
"You don't remember?" she breathes in utter disappointment.
"I can't help you." Maya frowns pitifully before scowling at Tony. "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people, now look at you." Her scowl shifts to a horribly upset expression. "I get to wake up most mornings with someone who...still has her soul."
Maya looks at him with tears in her eyes but I feel little pity or sympathy for her.
"Get me out of here. Come on," Tony encourages by she inhales deeply and returns to her desk without a second thought.
Clicking shoes echo down the hall and then Killian stalks into the lab.
There is blood on his perfect white suit.
Red floods my vision and anger my mind.
"What did you do to her!? YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" I screech and rabidly yank at the cuffs. I have to get to her, I have to save her.
Killian chuckles and Maya presses a key on the computer.
The collar promptly shocks me sharply. I cry out in pain as the electricity pumps through my body.
The second it stops I slump and my head hangs low.
"Another outburst like that and the shock will kill you," he threatens darkly. "Or maybe it'll kill her."
"Don't hurt her anymore, please," I beg. "Please she is good!"
"Enough now," he warns and I go quiet. I won't risk Allie anymore. "Thank you."
His callousness regarding her life is infuriating and the blood on his suit is disheartening.
"You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favorite of many sayings, 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese,'" he muses, casually moving on from the outburst.
"You're not still pissed about the Switzerland thing, are you?"
"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation." Killian speaks with genuine emotion but I'm not falling for the act. "If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well for the first twenty minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour, I...well I considered taking that one step shortcut to the lobby, if you know what I mean."
"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse," Tony deadpans and I smirk.
"Usually I'd hate sarcastic replies to admissions of suicidal thoughts but with you, well I really wish you had just jumped," I spit out.
"Tsk tsk Gabie," he chides and continues speaking without fault. "But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony."
"If nobody knows who you are, nobody will shoot you for what you've done," I mutter and he nods at me.
"Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since, right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a Bin Laden, a Gaddafi, The Mandarin, you hand the people a target."
"You're something else," Tony says.
"You have met him, I assume?" Killian concludes.
"Yeah, Sir Lawrence Oblivier," Tony snarks.
"I know he's a little over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault, he has a tend...he's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is. Anyway, the point is, ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety's kind of had its day," Killian recounts.
"What's next for you in your world?" Tony questions.
"Well, I wanted to repay you with the same gift that you so graciously imparted to me."
He throws three small metal balls onto the floor and as they roll and stop, I cannot tear my eyes away from the image they project, the image of Allie tied up.
"Desperation," Killian finishes and Tony jerks.
My heart stops at the sight of tears running down her face, the ugly burn on her neck, and the rips in her clothes.
Anger pulses through me and I begin ripping and yanking at my restraints.
"NOT HER!"
"Now, this is live. You should have seen the footage I got of her yesterday, the way she cries is so tear jerking," he muses and the desperation takes over.
Tony is staring in shock, he doesn't even move.
"I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up," Killian informs nonchalantly.
Allie is glowing orange and sobbing as the effects of being injected with Extremis take hold of her body.
"And if it gives up, I have to say the detonation is...it's quite spectacular."
"You're a sick bastard," Tony states.
"Please don't show Tony, please don't show Gabie, please," she pleads weakly and my gaze goes to her. She's crying and I'm agony but she's begging for us not to see? "The guilt will kill Tony, the rage will kill Gabie. Please don't show them, I've already caused enough pain."
Killian scowls and presses a button on his stupid remote, the collar promptly shocks her making her scream.
"STOP!" I demand and frantically claw the air.
"But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain, well more than I've already put her through."
He clicks his remote and turns off the projection of Allie.
It was painful to watch but it's even more painful not to see.
"How could you do this? She was good to you! She helped you!" I exclaim and Killian chuckles.
"This is necessary to break your spirit Stark, it's also necessary to build her strength and her perfection. Once the Extremis takes, if it does, she'll be my trophy," he explains naming my stomach flip. The sentiment makes me want to puke.
"You won't have a subservient trophy, she will fight you for every last minute of her life," I promise darkly.
"I doubt that, did you see her? She's already broken."
Again I lurch forward with rage in my heart. All I want to do is rip his head off.
"Anyway we haven't even talked salary yet." Aldrich stalks up to Tony and suddenly grabs him by the throat. "What kind of perk package are you thinking of? Hm?" He starts glowing orange and his hand looks dangerously close to burning Tony.
"Let him go," Maya and I order in unison. I pause and stare at her in shock. She holds an Extremis injection pointed at her neck.
"Hold on, hold on," Killian tells Tony and releases his neck to look at Tony. "Maya-"
"I said let him go!"
"What are you doing?"
"1200cc's, a dose half this size, I'm dead," she threatens. In my eyes this is redeeming for her, she finally sees what a monster he is.
"It's times like these my temper is tested somewhat," Killian murmurs to us, as if were in this together. "Maya, give me the injector."
"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?"
"We're not doing this, okay?" Killian denies but she brings the injector closer.
"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?"
Aldrich pauses for a moment, then looks at Tony and me.
I watch his arm go up, I see the gun, I hear the shot, and then I shout as Maya collapses. Maya gapes at Killian, the surprise painted on her face, and then she keels over and dies.
It all happened so fast, he shot her as if she was nothing.
"The good news is, a high level position has just been vacated."
"You're a maniac," Tony utters in horror.
"No, I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac, and he takes the stage tonight."
With that Killian leaves us to wallow in our feelings of distraught.