Chapter Seven - Master of Puppets

Co-written with Renegade Vic

Addison needed it. That much was obvious. She was barely able to stand, anymore. But what was her test? Why was she here?

Jonas wasn't in much better condition, if the pallor of his skin and how sunken his eyes looked were any indicator. He had earned his keep…had tried to keep everyone focused.

Ava would probably kill him for it, if push came to shove.

Daniel was smaller than almost any of them- the poison would be taking effect in his body faster than anyone else. He wouldn't have long if they didn't get him an antidote.

Amanda had almost been thrown into the pit herself. And her knowledge was valuable, even if she didn't know what "games" were coming. She knew how to survive.

But why not keep it for himself? The pain of the last attack was still etched into Mike's mind. It was debilitating…and if it happened again, he might not be able to keep fighting. The others needed him, especially with Xavier around. He was the only one who could go toe-to-toe with the brute and walk away.

Decisions, decisions…

"Obi. What should I do with it?" Mike asked, turning to the man whose test he had helped him win.

"The weakest one. The one who needs it the most. Give it to them," Obi murmured, his voice barely audible over Xavier's groans of pain.

"Yeah. Probably…" Mike trailed off, glancing over the others again.

"Ad…come here. This shit's been kicking your ass since we got here, and you're just gettin' worse." He beckoned toward the brunette, who stepped toward him hesitantly. "Look. I know we're not all good fuckin' Samaritans here, but the way I see it, fuck this gimme-gimme bullshit. We get an antidote, whoever's hurtin' the worst gets it. That way we keep more people in the game, keep more eyes open and brains workin'. See what I'm saying? If we've got somethin' in common, I wanna live to find out what the fuck that IS."

For a second, Ava's vision tunneled. Everything around her turned to blackness, except the antidote held in Mike's hand. The syringe was full of clear liquid that almost looked identical to water. Pure, life-giving water…

A hand like iron tightened inside her chest and she was just about to leap at the rocker and tear off his whole fucking arm…when she stopped and staggered, coughing up blood into her hand and knocking her from the overwhelming homicidal intent that threatened to consume her.

That had been more than a little bit close. Her animal instincts were kicking in and the next time she was faced with the chance to survive, she would probably take it. And kill anyone or anything that got in her way.

The only way to avoid succumbing to her inner demon was simple enough. Her own test. If she survived, then the antidote was rightfully hers. No giving to the weakest member of the group this time.

No.

She watched, nostrils flaring, as Addison took the syringe from Mike with a tired smile.

"Thanks," she said, sticking the needle into the prominent vein in her forearm with the ease of a practiced professional and pushed down the plunger.

Three cured. Obi, Laura and now Addison.

And the rest of them would die, but she'd be damned if Xavier didn't die first. Inhaling heavily, she stared down at him. He was still groaning slightly, but other than that, he could have been dead.

"You did a good thing, man," said Jonas, nodding in approval at Mike. "Better than that stupid motherfucker down there."

"He's got his priorities right, it seems," Ava murmured. "At least morally speaking."

Mike had chosen others over himself. He was willing to prolong the chance of his own death just to save someone else. Seemed stupid and reckless if you chose to ignore how much of a good thing it was. He was the polar opposite of the fucker in the pit.

"We should keep moving," said Obi quietly. "We're wasting time here and there are other chances to get the antidotes for the rest of you."

"He's…he's right…" Daniel looked paler than he had earlier, the redness around his eyes more prominent than ever. It was easy to see that he was minutes from bleeding from his eye sockets and possibly his nostrils. "We should go…"

"What about him?"

Amanda was looking down at the half-dead drug dealer in the pit and biting her lip nervously. After what he'd done, it was surprising that she was even asking.

"Leave him," Ava hissed contemptuously. "He's served his purpose."

Moving past the others, she walked back out into the corridor. She had to find her test. She had to find it. There was no negotiating this point.

And there was no fucking way she was dying before she found it.

At the others' approval of his decision, Mike breathed a sigh of relief. What they had just been faced with could have turned incredibly ugly- but now, they had a battle plan. A way to keep everyone alive. And it seemed like something everyone was agreeable to.

Now they really were looking up to him. So far, three people had been cured, and Xavier had been put down- hopefully for good this time. And they would have time to find more antidotes.

They had to. There was no way he was dying because of that fucking nerve gas…and there was no way he was going to let someone else die like that.

Anyone who wasn't Xavier, anyway.

Maybe he should finish the dealer off? If he ever did get out of the pit, he'd be coming for blood- that much was obvious. But the question was whether he even could get out.

It wouldn't matter. If they stuck together, he wouldn't have a chance to pick them off. The knife was tucked in Mike's boot, and the shovel was in his hands. As long as they kept anything that could be used as a weapon, Xavier would be going against an armed mob if he even tried to take someone down with him.

"C'mon. We've gotta find more antidotes," Mike instructed, fighting back the urge to cough again. If he started, he wouldn't be able to stop…

"Yeah. Let's get outta here…keep goin' while we're on a roll," Jonas voiced, lending a shoulder to Mike as he made his way uneasily from the room.

Where had Ava gone? She had taken off just a few moments before…but now she was nowhere to be seen.

Her footsteps, though, were easy to follow. Mike stumbled onward, toward the sound of the footsteps, determined not to let anyone get separated from the group until they knew Xavier was dead.

"You didn't have to do that." Amanda was still as quiet as ever, but her voice sounded less hard…more compassionate this time.

"What? Let that stupid fuck throw you in there? He's a fuckin' coward…wouldn't face his own test, earn his own way out. The way I see it…he didn't deserve the chance he got."

"I…no. He had his chance…you're right." The words sounded difficult for her to form.

Why? What did she know that no one else knew?

"Wait a minute…" Realization dawned on Mike as he turned and caught a proper look at Amanda's face- or, rather, her profile.

She was the girl from the clinic, last year. He had taken Addison there to try and help her shake her addictions…and they'd talked in the waiting room while Addison had been inside.

Then that greaseball had tried to pick a fight with him for talking to her. Cecil. He was some territorial fuck with less sense than he'd been born with and a chip on his shoulder against anyone and everyone different than he was.

He'd wanted a fight. What he got was a broken nose and a stomach full of fist.

"What?" Amanda asked, noticing Mike's stare and raising an eyebrow.

"…Nothin'. I'll tell you when we get outta here."

Ava stumbled through the house, her vision blurred to the point that she was getting by on touch alone. Was she crying, or was it blood flowing down her cheeks?

She had to find her test. She was dying, more so with every minute that passed. If she didn't get the cure soon, she was going down and it was unlikely that she'd get up again.

Every breath was becoming an effort and her knees felt like they were deteriorating with every step she took.

"I'm…not…fucking dying like this," she rasped, stumbling forward and clutching at the wall in front of her…and touching metal.

A doorknob?

As Ava lost her balance, she gripped the doorknob to steady herself…and it twisted downward. The door the knob was attached to opened and she spilled into the room, the smell of mildew assaulting her nostrils as she fell face first into the floor.

"Goddammit!" she snarled, coughing as she dragged herself to her knees, not trusting her body's ability to move any further upward. Gravity, it seemed, was totally against her.

Raising her head and willing the blurriness to fade from her vision, Ava saw what appeared to be a towering pole of shining steel…two of them…right in front of her.

A test…

Hers? She didn't know or care, but she couldn't move. With a moan of defeat, she dropped her forehead to her knees.

"No…" she whimpered. "No, I can't die like this…"

Footsteps. Someone was here.

"Shit."

A male voice. She couldn't tell who it was and she definitely couldn't see who it was. A hand on her shoulder, squeezing hard.

"It's a test…" She managed to get out to the stranger. "I don't know whose it is…"

Fear and adrenaline combined in her veins, cleared her vision a little, enough to see who had hold of her.

Long hair…the rocker. Dammit.

Ava struggled to her feet, using him to steady herself. The world swayed momentarily before returning to focus.

"There should be a tape," she murmured, staggering to the other side of the room. "Find out who this thing is for."

After a few moments' searching, Mike located an envelope, not unlike the ones they had found before- but this time, the envelope bore Ava's name.

"It's…this one's you," Mike informed her, tearing the envelope in half and tipping the tape into his hand. Jonas grabbed the tape and prepared to insert it into the player- but Mike held up his hand in warning.

"Don't listen to it yet. See what we can figure out about this thing…and then how we're 'supposed to' do it." He made his way to the poles and began to examine them.

They were thick- almost improbably so. Mike's hand, long though his fingers were, couldn't quite reach across the column's side.

And there was an opening on each of them. Some kind of switch sat within the hole- but it hardly seemed like a good idea to attempt to throw the switches.

"So what's the deal?" Daniel asked, curiosity overtaking his fear.

"There's a switch inside these things…but I don't know what happens if you push 'em," Mike replied, pointing to the aperture on the trap.

"Easy answer is you put your hand in it and hit the switch," Jonas remarked, feeling around the base of one of the pillars. "Runs through the floor though. Think there's somethin' under here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, man…so now we kinda know what this thing wants us to do. Play the tape…"

"Hello, Ava…"

The voice, as rough as cold as every tape since the one in that little room, chilled Ava to the bone but she listened nevertheless.

"For most of your life, you have lived as an ordinary human being, adhering to the laws that society have deemed necessary…and appropriate…but you are not…ordinary, are you?

In you, lies a demon…a demon that has claimed the lives of thirteen people. The newspapers call you…the Puppeteer."

Bile rose in Ava's throat at the name, taken straight from the Herald no less. Her chest began to tighten as Jigsaw revealed to every person in the room what she had spent most of her life hiding, protecting.

Her true identity.

"The device in front of you is a symbol…of what you did to your victims. To release the mechanism on the door, you must make the same sacrifice within five minutes, or the door will lock and any chance you may have had for survival becomes more…ambiguous." Jigsaw chuckled. "I have only one question for you, Ava. How much blood will you shed…to survive? Let the game begin."

Her eyes were shut tight, against the world outside and the knowledge that she had been exposed. After everything, it had been a voice on a tape that was her undoing.

"The Puppeteer…" Jonas' voice rang out over the silence. "Holy fucking shit, you're the Puppeteer?"

"Yeah…I'm the fucking Puppeteer," Ava snarled, raising her head and getting to her feet, her weakness pushed to the back of her mind as she glared at the others. "That's why I'm here. I'm a fucking serial murderer."

"Vigilante…"

Ava blinked in surprised as the kid spoke, his eyes to the floor. "You don't kill innocent people. You…you string up bad guys…and bleed 'em out."

"The newspapers love me for that," she chuckled, turning back to the two pillars, gritting her teeth. "Let's hope I survive this and give 'em more to write about, huh?"

Pausing to draw in a careful breath, Ava slipped both of her hands into the open holes, her fingers just brushing the switches.

"Thanks much, Jigsaw," she murmured, before flipping both switches at once…

And razor-sharp blades sliced into her wrists.

His jaw was hanging open- of that much, Mike was absolutely sure. But he just couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

Ava was the Puppeteer.

Holy shit!

How could she be? It didn't make sense. Then again, nothing made sense once Jigsaw had gotten his hands on them. And now it had been revealed to them that they were trapped in this house not only with a psychotically violent drug lord, but also with a vigilante.

No, not a vigilante. Mike had grown up reading comics about vigilantes, about mercenaries- about vigilantes going toe-to-toe with sadistic, sick fucks. Slavers, torturers, serial killers. Sure, the Puppeteer- Ava- had targeted people who got no less than they had coming…but the killings weren't how a vigilante functioned.

What she was doing was for her own benefit, not to avenge anyone, not to protect anyone else.

Was that so bad, though? He'd contemplated bringing his M1911 clone with him to a race, splattering Jericho's brains across the inside of his windshield, and driving off without giving it a second thought before. He'd beaten the hell out of Xavier with a shovel…and enjoyed it, felt satisfied in doing so.

No. It wasn't the brutality that was so satisfying, it was knowing that by pounding him into the floor, no one else was going to get hurt.

If anything, that was how a vigilante worked. Right?

Right?

But she didn't deserve this, either. The expression on Ava's face as the blades cut her, bled her from her wrists, wasn't…right. Mike wasn't sure how to explain it to himself, but somehow, it would have been like letting Obi burn in the furnace. Like letting Xavier force Amanda to endure his test for him.

It just wasn't right.

"Fuck…there's gotta be something we can do about this!" Mike began to examine the pillars, half-hoping that something else had changed since Ava had pushed the switches.

Ava couldn't describe the agony as the blade sliced through the delicate skin of her wrists. It seared white-hot, her blood boiling as it spilled over her palms, over her fingers, and dripped into the pillars. God knows how much blood it would take before the mechanism was full and the antidote was revealed. But this was Jigsaw. Despite every instinct in her body screaming for her to find the man and hang him like so many of her other victims, she had to believe what Amanda had said.

He wants us to survive this!

He wanted Ava to survive, despite everything that she had done to 'deserve' being shut in here and tortured like this.

"Jesus…FUCK!" A whimper escaped her lips as she felt the feeling vanish in her knees. "There's nothing you can fucking do, Mike," she groaned, eyes rolling back into her head as she fought against the overwhelming need to fall over and pass out. "This is fucking…Jigsaw…I have to do this…"

"How much blood did you make your victims lose? He…he said you have to make the same sacrifice-" Daniel asked desperately, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.

Ava swung around to face him, her lips curled into a grimacing smirk.

"I bled them dry, kid. If I have to make the same fucking sacrifice, I die."

And she would die. And everything she had worked for, everything that she'd done in her life for the greater good, would have been for nothing. The streets would become dirtier in her absence; more innocent people would be hurt and slaughtered in the back alleys of this godforsaken city.

No.

No, Jigsaw didn't get to fucking do this! This was her city, not his. Even if she had to spill almost all her blood just to survive this house, she would live. Because as far as Ava Sullivan was concerned, she was going to pass her 'test'. And then she was going to find Jigsaw and either join him…or cut out his fucking heart.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed her bleeding wrists harder against the blades, the rate of blood-spill increasing.

She was getting dizzy…

"How much more?" she groaned, sagging slightly against the device. "Can anybody see how much blood…I need to…give…?"

Sacrifice…

Her vision was blurring, and all she could hear was a vacant buzzing sound over the top of the voices of the others, becoming fainter…

"No…"

"Nothing- it doesn't show how much it needs," Mike replied, pacing frantically around the device, looking for anything that might somehow make the process a little easier, a little faster. "Fuck…we're gonna need bandages, guys, someone…fuckin'…cut strips from a shirt or somethin', I donno!" He pulled the hunting knife from his boot and passed it to Addison, watching with growing dread as Ava's strength ebbed and her knees threatened to buckle.

"Keep her upright…" Obi murmured, stepping forward and positioning himself at Ava's side, bracing her shoulders against his own. "Mike. Help."

He was doing it again. Trying to make the situation a little more manageable, a little more merciful. Had he been the one to kidnap Ava as well? Mike found himself less than surprised by the possibility, even as he stepped in toward Ava's other side and held her in place, staring in outright shock at how pale she was- or rather, how much more pale she had gotten from blood loss. Her face wasn't even chalk-white, but some shade of white that had never existed before; her veins were dark blue and acutely visible beneath her skin.

When he saw the blades in place, Mike began to grasp why Obi had insisted she be kept upright. If she collapsed, they would shred her arms, and there would be nothing anyone could do to stop her from bleeding out.

"If this thing doesn't stop soon, we're gonna have to get her out of it…figure out a new way to do this…"

Ava was in a state of oblivion, her body cold all over as shock began to set in. She was vaguely aware of the two people holding her up, but she couldn't feel their hands, couldn't feel her own face.

She couldn't see. She couldn't hear anything.

For the first time in her entire life, Ava felt as weak as a newborn baby, her muscles felt like jelly and her knees were on the verge of collapsing inward.

"She's…gonna need…for god's sake…"

Voices. She couldn't tell who it was or what they were saying, but they were close to her, holding her to Earth.

"Fucking…"

She tried to speak, but her tongue felt like it had been coated in lead and was refusing to cooperate.

How much blood will you shed to stay alive…alive…alive…

Fuck you, Jigsaw.

Ava managed to raise her head, just as there was a loud whirring sound and the blades retracted into their original positions within the pillars. She was free…

She had passed…

"Goddammit…"