Agent Emma Coulson

Warnings: Violence, Blood, Torture, Some swearing, Plot

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel but I do own Karl, Emma and Liza. I don't do this for profit, simply for enjoyment. I also do not own The Little Prince.

Chapter 2

Emma had been knocked out for six hours; at least, that's what her internal clock was telling her. It was damn near impossible to tell the time when you're locked in a basement and tied to a metal bedframe. True to Karl's words, Emma couldn't use her powers, he must have put something in that knockout drug, even her angel side was sluggish, which meant that she couldn't release her wings or use her telepathy. Emma had studied the room she was locked in, there wasn't much in it. There was a steel door directly in front of her and, if Emma's observations were correct, it had a digital lock. There was a wood desk in the corner, with all sorts of wicked looking torture equipment laying on it. There was a small end table by the bedframe she was tied to, made of the same wood as the desk. Overhead there was a small spotlight shining down on her and there was a knife on the floor by her feet, Karl must have left it there after he drugged her. But over all there was nothing that could help her escape, her hands and feet were tied to the metal bedframe that was against a wall, and without her powers Emma was on her own.

Heavy footsteps sounded from the stairs, it seemed like there were more than one, this made Emma start to freak out. During her last mission in Russia things had gotten bad... VERY bad. And even though it had been eight years since that mission, Emma still freaked out when she heard or sensed more than one person come into the room she was captured in. Emma quickly built up a pretence of calmness as the door started to open. She heard the beeping of a digital lock as it was opened, which added another challenge for escaping. Emma hung her head, as if she was still groggy from the drug as Karl walked in. There was a woman with him, she had brown hair that was streaked with grey and pulled back into a tight bun. Emma could tell that the woman was blind by the way Karl was guiding her, whoever she was karl cared for her a lot, but it couldn't be his mother as Emma had killed her.

Karl led the woman over to the wooden table, where she placed a silver tray on it. On the tray there appeared to be foodstuffs on it. Honey, white bread, a few strawberries and a tall glass of water. Emma was instantly confused, surely this wasn't for her, unless he had poisoned the food and water, surely he would do something like that? It was what she had made his parents do after all. Karl left the old woman by the table and walked over to Emma, he trailed a hand down her cheek softly, tracing an old, faded scar before gripping her chin and tilting her head so he could stare at her. " 'You're beautiful, but you're empty. No one could die for you.' Do you know where that's from, Emma? A lovely book called The Little Prince. Now, one could take that quote and mean so many things by it, but directed at you." Karl couldn't help but smirk. "Directed at you it means that no one will ever love you enough to make a complete sacrifice, for you have no heart. But you already know that, don't you Emma? That's your greatest fear, that everyone that you have let tame you will disappear and that you shall be left a flower? 'Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons'. You fear being weak and naïve again." Karl kept smirking as he released her and walked over to the table. He picked up the silver tray and walked back over to Emma, putting it on an end table. He then picked up a slice of bread and spread some honey onto it. "So tell me, Emma, why do you let yourself be tamed when you know that you shall end up a flower?"

Emma listened to him with a face void of emotions, she didn't let him know that he had hit a really deep spot inside of her, those were some of her greatest fears. Not many people knew them, or had access to them, but she guessed that he must have read her file when the triskellion fell. Emma made a show of thinking, tilting her head to the side as he spread the honey on the bread. "I let myself be tamed because it makes me a better person, now you tell me something. Why on earth do you wear those horrid sweaters? I mean seriously, who gives you style advice?" Emma couldn't help but mock him. Karl's outfit was similar to the day before, except this time he was wearing a horrid yellow and blue sleeveless sweater with a blue shirt underneath, he was wearing tan slacks and polished tan shoes. "And if you're trying to feed me poison it won't work, you can't kill me that way." Emma sounded smug…. Till what Karl said next shocked her, her surprise plain to see.

"Whoever said I was going to poison you? I'm going to feed you. I'm unstable, not a fool. I can't have you dying before I'm through with you after all." With that said he held a corner of the bread and honey to her mouth, waiting for her to bite down on it. "so why did you destroy my parents? Were you not tamed by SHIELD? Or were you simply an animal set lose? Yes, that's what I think you are, you're no more than an animal that can control it's actions, unlike snakes or other animals. If they're scared then they attack, if they're sad they seek comfort. But you, you had full control of your actions when you came into my life to ruin it, and instead of taking pity on me and ending me, you just couldn't bear the thought of killing me too, and that's truly what I want to know, WHY?" Karl all but shouted at her when he asked why, ignoring her jab about his clothes.

Emma bit down on the bread cautiously, chewing and swallowing with the same caution as the sweetness assaulted her taste buds. She quickly bit down for more of the sweet bread, she hadn't eaten in over a day and Emma needed a lot of food to keep going. From the food on the tray she guessed that there was enough food to keep her alive, but not enough to sustain her powers. Karl had been smart about this, she had to give him that point. After finishing the sweet bread, Emma replied in a soft voice, not one that many people got to hear. "You're right. I was acting like an animal. But it was all I knew. I have been raised like that since my birth and when they sent me on missions I did what I was taught to, what I was told to. Because If I didn't complete the mission then there was hell for me back at SHIELD… and I didn't kill you because I thought I was doing the right thing. In the file I was given to read they mentioned nothing about a son, nothing about killing you. So I left you alone, because if I had killed you then I would have been in trouble as SHIELD would have had to bury another body. Besides, you looked so weak, and I'm not in the habit of attacking those weaker than I am… but I make exceptions for assholes. I don't like being an animal; I've been trying to change that nature for years now, that's why I let myself be tamed."

Karl cleaned off some of the honey that had spilled from the corners of her lips. Karl may be unstable but he wasn't evil, he would look after his 'guest'. "That's no excuse, you're a person, you have free will and you didn't choose the right things. And something tells me that you could have left any time you wanted to, but you didn't. Instead you stayed there and continued to ruin lives, you've made your own villains, Emma, even if you don't know who most of them are, you'll come across them eventually and then you'll wish you'd never entered their lives. Tell me, Emma, how many people have you killed? And how many children's lives did you ruin? Do you ever lose sleep over them? Do you ever fear your 'precious' friends will find out about it? What do you think they'd do then? Would they cheer you on? Stay with you? Support you? Or would they abandon you to rot? Be afraid of you and warn others?" Karl hissed with malice lacing his voice as he leaned in close to her. His brown hair was slicked back as if he had been to work, his eyes, which were a shade darker than his hair, glittered with hate.

"I'll deal with my own demons when the time comes, I can hardly do them now anyway, can i?" Emma said sarcastically. "I've killed far too many people to count and yes, I do lose sleep, but only over the children that I killed, all the adults deserved it and I freely admit that. I am hardly afraid of what my friends think, they know my past, and quite frankly they don't care, because friends stick together, they don't stab each other in the back…. Which hurts by the way, although for you mud-monkeys it simply means your death, for me it is simply a minor irritance." Emma's eyes darted to the rest of the food on the tray, gods, she was starving. The honey bread was nice, yes, but it barely took the edge off her hunger.

Following her look, Karl glanced at the tray, a smirk growing across his lips at the almost ravenous look on her face, He knew that she was staving, and even though he wanted her alive, he was going to work by his own agender. "If you answer the next question correctly, I might let you have some more food. So do not sass me or I shall take the food away. Do you regret killing my parents" Karl picked up the tray to remind her of keeping her answer truthful.

"No. I don't regret killing your parent's, and that's the truth of it. I will never regret killing them, because it stopped SHIELD from damn near killing me. Do you want to know why I was given that assignment Karl? It was because a week earlier I refused to destroy an orphanage. And Orphanage that still had all the children and staff in. I couldn't do that, I'm not that much of a monster. And do you know what that decision cost me? I was beaten and given mere scraps to eat for five days. If I had refused to complete this assignment too they would have damn near killed me, after the torture and experimentation that is, because gods know they got off on seeing me suffer, and I would have been damned if I would go through that again. My own father carried out the torture and beatings, so how do you think I feel about parents? You should be glad that you had them for the time that you did, because I've never had them." Emma was snarling by the time she had finished speaking, and she had leaned forward as far as she could whilst chained. She was so focused on staring at him that she missed the slightly wrinkled hand strike at her hard enough to knock her out. It was the old blind woman who had struck her, Emma had all but forgotten she was in the room, discarding her as not a threat, however her punch felt like a sledgehammer, a pain Emma had first-hand experience with.

"Liza, my aunt, why did you do that? She wasn't a harm to anyone. I can't feed her now can i?" Karl simply shook his head. Although he hadn't liked Emma's answer her voice was simply too raw for her to not be meaning what she said, and even though he was unstable he was a man of his word…. No matter how twisted they may be.

"She was disrespecting your parents memory, and I was not going to stand for that. You are the closest thing I have to a son and I will not let her hurt you with her words. Now, come and help your old auntie upstairs, we have guests arriving later and we must be ready for them." Karl quickly took Liza's arm and started to lead her towards the door, he left the tray of food near Emma though, who knows, it might be fun to watch her struggle to reach the food. "I wonder if our guests will want to see our little captive? She does have some history with them after all."

Dun Dun Dun!
What will happen next? Will Emma escape? Who are these mysterious guests?

Find out in the next chapter! Please review as reviews inspire me to write.

Thank you and have a good day wherever you are!