Let's find out what happens. This is a short chapter but I'll be posting two to make up for it ah hah!

To carry it on would have created a weird flow I wouldn't be able to live with.

Enjoy!

Chapter 25

Adam, whom Ivy had thrown a Homicide badge to quickly to stop any questions about his sudden appearance had immediately taken it upon himself to subdue the hysterical neighbours who were all shouting and crying for help at the same time. Either way an ambulance was stationed by the apartments.

"He's still screaming in there."

"No he's not it's been quiet for a minute."

"What is going on?"

Ivy ignored the lot of them, removed her gun from her trouser pocket and along with Fisk began to walk up the flight of stairs to get to Scott's apartment. "Thank God he's only on the first floor." Panted Fisk already out of breath. Ivy didn't know what she wanted to see when she saw the open door to Scott Tibbs' apartment and the amount of police milling around didn't give her any sort of clues. She approached one of the officers who seemed to be directing the others.

"Detective Reeves and Detective Fisk, Homicide. What happened?"

"Not sure exactly. He was lucky lets put it that way." The officer informed leading Ivy over to the apartment opposite Scott's and into the living room where a bloody and panic stricken Scott Tibbs was sitting. He looked dreadful. As if he had seen the grim reaper himself, his hands were bloody and there were burns across his mouth and wrists. He looked shell shocked and was cursing the paramedics attempting to tend to him and pushing them away from him. As soon as he saw her his whole demeanour changed.

"Hey chick. Trust my good fortune that it would be you to come to my rescue. But you're a little late princess. I survived bitch." His eyes were darker than before and Ivy frowned at his new nicknames for her.

"Barely Tibbs." Said the officer who had shown her him. "If my guys hadn't shown up here just in time you'd be like that watermelon we found in your apartment."

"Watermelon?" Ivy questioned wondering how on earth a watermelon fit into the equation. Fisk came darting into the room.

"You have got to check this out. The absolute thick as shit genius decided to create his own little Jigsaw game and nearly got himself killed in the process..." Fisk trailed off as he saw Scott in the room. Ivy smirked at the awkward situation.

"You tried to kill yourself?" She asked mild amusement staining her tone.

"No I showed everyone that I had what it takes to survive. I've got the fucking survival instinct. I beat it."

"Doesn't sound like it. Sounds like you had help." Ivy told him exiting the room before he could reply to examine the 'trap.' There was trails of blood on the walls. The whole apartment smelled of weed and other drugs till they entered what seemed to be the living room turned into a sort of band room with computer all over one side and instruments strewn across the floor. In one corner was the makeshift game. Far cruder than anything John had ever constructed, even his first elementary trap for Cecil was a piece of craftsmanship compared to Scott Tibb's.

"Very simple in design, yet very effective." The officer informed her as she took a flashlight from one of the forensics men to have a closer look spying the watermelon on the desk with the computers. "The axe was hooked up to this timer here which gave him about three minutes to escape. His hands and arms were tied with gaffer tape and there was a gag in his mouth to stop him talking. Also a saw of some kind which started cutting into his hands as another measure to inflict pain. All he had to do was release himself from his bindings before the axe gutted him like that melon he must have practised it on earlier."

"Absolutely insane." Ivy muttered.

The officer laughed, "Nothing surprises me anymore. Regardless of the trap alone there is more than enough weed to arrest this guy for a while."

"It's certainly not a Jigsaw trap." Ivy confirmed as Fisk too began to have a closer inspection. "Too crude and basic for Jigsaw. He's thinking big now and uses his engineering knowledge whenever it seems possible. Plus there doesn't seem to be a tape or TV to play the rules. Not that there really were any in this game."

"But Tibbs wasn't alone." Piped up Fisk and Ivy looked at him.

"How do you mean?"

"He couldn't bandage his own wrists and arms could he? So someone had to either help him or be forcing him to play."

"That's something to ask him, I suppose if they did just leave him to it and ran for it then that could be classed as attempted murder." The officer beside her nodded loyally. "Stupidity gone wild to try and recreate something as deadly as this. What if it had gone wrong and he had died."

"At least he knew what he was doing and it would be a very dodgy suicide attempt." Fisk declared and Ivy smiled.

"At least there isn't much to figure out here and since he got away that means far less paperwork. Sadly Scott Tibbs' name will not be alongside mine in the hallowed list of Jigsaw Victims." Ivy lamented, her eyes rolling in disinterest.

"Unless your Uncle sees this and decides he's fair game." Fisk pointed out and Ivy nodded.

"He might steal the idea." She found speaking of her Uncle with as much sarcasm and ease as she could found him much easier to talk about as a serial killer. It allowed her the distance she so desperately needed.

"So we're sure it's not a Jigsaw game, you call Mark back and inform him about it, also see what he's got on his end. Maybe his was a false call too." Fisk declared and Ivy nodded taking out her phone as Scott Tibbs came back into the room. A paramedic was rushing after him and Ivy could still see what resembled an IV sticking out of Scott's arm.

"Hey man this was a Jigsaw game. It was exactly the same alright? I can be the new Jigsaw. I've survived."

"But will you be able to carry on afterwards?" Ivy asked him and Scott turned to glare at her.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" He asked her advancing dangerously towards her.

"Leave her alone man we're just doing our job." Fisk shouted glancing at the paramedic cautiously in case something kicked off.

"I've gone through more than you have that's for sure." Scott hissed in Ivy's ear. Ivy determined not to show cowardice despite the slight thrill of intimidation that was coursing through her being. She stood resolute and still her eyes focused ahead on the decrepit trap.

"You don't want to be the new Jigsaw." She warned him darkly.

"What? Afraid I'll be better than your precious Uncle? Because everybody knows about that."

"It's not about surviving Scott, it's not even about the games themselves. It's about what happens after you survive, if you do. And right now I think if you'd be properly tested you wouldn't be giving me all this ego shit right now you might actually be humble. My Uncle's philosophy is about bettering yourself and learning lessons from what you did wrong." She stared him down finding the same power she had found before when confronting Amanda. "You haven't learned anything from this have you? You're still the same person you were before because you can't see what it is about you that is poisoning those around you. So I'd watch out. Because my Uncle will not tolerate copycats."

Fisk was staring at her his expression shone with worry for his friend and when Ivy caught his eyes she backed off at once feeling ashamed of herself. Who am I to threaten someone even if it is Scott Tibbs? He still nearly died and I'm lecturing him on not doing it properly. She did feel as if Scott wasn't in the same league as her but she couldn't deny he must have feared for his life like a mirror of herself. She turned towards the door to Scott's apartment to see Adam standing there staring at her with an expression of even deeper confusion, worry and hurt than Fisk's. She took a step towards him as Scott began laughing when he too finally saw Adam there.

"The fuck are you doing here Adam boy? Not really your scene is it anymore now your schmoozing about downing champagne like it's water." Scott goaded but Adam seemed deaf to his words. He just kept his eyes trained on Ivy.

"You sounded just like the tapes." He said quietly and she stopped in her tracks at the flicker of fear in his voice. "You sounded just like him."

"It's not the first time someone's said that to me." Ivy told him quietly so only he could hear it and his eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"You passed?" Adam asked Scott, he seemed as surprised as Ivy.

"Yeah I fucking passed."

"In a manner of speaking." Ivy corrected and Scott gave her the finger behind her back, Adam made no move to defend her.

"I don't get it." He said with a frown.

"It wasn't a Jigsaw Trap like ours so to speak." Ivy informed finding it easier to slip back into her professional manner again. "Instead Scott decided to try and make his own trap to see if he had what it took to survive. But it looks like whoever was helping him decided to abandon him to his own devices, so in a way they played by the rules more than Scott."

"If they stayed and you were in trouble you would have made them get you out wouldn't you?" Adam asked Scott his tone wondrous as if he was thinking it all through deeply.

"Fuck yeah I didn't want to die did I?" Scott said at once pulling a retarded face at Adam.

"Then I agree with you." Adam told Ivy and she smiled at him. "It wasn't a proper test then. It was those guys, his band members or whoever that made it more realistic."

"Realistic?" Fisk repeated staring at the two as if they had grown extra heads. "It's still attempted murder."

"Yes but not in the same pattern as Jigsaw. If anything develops further from this then we have to measure this against the real Jigsaw games. Adam can help me with this." Ivy told Fisk who nodded but remained looking unsure.

"Who were the people who left you?" Adam asked Scott.

"Joey, Lackey, Thalia. My boys and my crew man. I thought we were tight." Scott moaned flinging his arms around. The paramedic took the chance to grab him and try and lead him back into the other apartment but Scott shook him off once more.

"That's what happens when you mistreat your friends." Ivy told him smugly, "They might become your enemies one day." She shot a look at Adam who rubbed his shoulder in embarrassment understanding the look she had thrown him.

"Shut the hell up." Scott snarled although his eyes glinted and Ivy knew that he had understood and taken in what she had said. "What gives him the right to be here?" He threw a finger over to Adam.

"He doesn't have a right, he sort of decided to come himself." Ivy said honestly shrugging her shoulders.

"Typical always worming your way around." Scott hissed before spitting on the floor near Adam's feet.

"Could you please escort...this man to the ambulance where he can be be taken to a hospital. Preferably St Eustace as I have a certain Doctor friend who will find this most amusing." Ivy smirked as the paramedic began to obey her at once.

Scott didn't argue when he saw how badly his wrists were bleeding and allowed himself to be removed from his apartment. Adam stared after him before becoming fixated with the spot Scott had spat at by his feet. Ivy frowned and called Mark.

"Hoffman."

"Hey Mark you never called me back. It was a false alarm over here. Genius Scott Tibbs decided to make his own version of a Jigsaw trap and nearly got himself killed in the process." She told him seeing no alternative than to tell the Jigsaw accomplice the direct truth.

"He survived a Jigsaw Game?" Mark's voice was so serious, so full of sudden anger even he couldn't disguise his wealth of surprise.

"Well that is the problem, it wasn't a Jigsaw Game. No TV or cassette player to indicate the instructions. This genius just decided to see if he could escape before an axe impaled him in the chest. His friends left him once his 'game' had started and he wasn't doing too well at all. If the police hadn't been there due to the neighbour's complaints about screaming, then I'm sure he would have died. They helped him escape just in the nick of time." Ivy explained the evidence before her eyes. Fisk was nodding beside her as she reported all their findings.

"Well that was extremely fortunate." Mark's voice hadn't lost the hardness in his tone but he seemed relieved to Ivy. Naturally he would have been questioning a trap he didn't know about.

"Why didn't you call me back?" She asked him and Adam came over to lean his head on her shoulder. His eyes on the trap, Adam abandoned her shoulder and went over to prod at the watermelon. "Adam don't it might be rigged and needs forensics on it." Ivy instructed and Adam backed away at once returning to her side.

"Because the guy on our end wasn't so lucky." Mark told her and Ivy frowned. Adam rubbed the back of her neck and tried to listen in.

"That the cop I met when I was freaking out about you?" He asked in a low voice and Ivy held a finger to Adam's lips.

"What you're at a Jigsaw Game?" She asked ignoring Adam's persistent gestures.

"Yeah. It's a confusing one though. I'm with Detective Kerry whom Rigg called to come and take a look. It's a gruesome one."

"As gruesome as the Seth Baxter one?" Ivy asked without thinking it through wondering what she should be prepared for if they asked her to pop over as well.

There was a long pause and a sigh before Mark spoke again, "I shouldn't have shown you that folder. And I think it's worse."

"Really?"

"Why is Adam with you and Fisk at a crime scene?" He asked her and Ivy panicked a little.

"Um it's a really long story. He has been quite helpful." She said quickly. "Does Al...I mean does Detective Kerry want me to come over and see if I can be of any help."

"I don't know." Mark said at once and Ivy smirked internally hearing the slight apprehension and fear in his tone. Between Ivy and Allison they could very well uncover something if it was a fresh trap.

"Well ask her." Ivy pushed.

"Uh of course one moment. I'm a little shellshocked." Liar. Ivy thought he's beginning to feel some of the pressure now. There was shuffling on the other end of the line and then Allison's harsh voice speaking fast and abruptly.

"Hi Ivy I heard yours was a dud. Can you please come over here Mark thinks we're fine as we are but I would really appreciate you seeing this after Adam's trap. I have a theory, Mark thinks it might be nothing or a one off but can you come and see if you can disprove it. In case you see something we're missing?" She rattled this off very quickly and Ivy had to listen intently to catch every word.

"Yeah I'll come now. Detective Fisk should be alright with handling things here. Is there a survivor?" She asked hopefully as Mark had not told her either way.

"No he had no chance of making it at all. That's why I want you here." Allison told her and Ivy frowned, nodded and then hung up.

"Can I come?" Adam asked his voice shining with the hope Ivy's had a moment ago.

"No. You shouldn't even have been here and if the Sergeant or my FBI boss found out they would be severely pissed off with me." Ivy told him. "I appreciate what you did with the neighbours actually giving them some answers but there is a real Jigsaw trap here and it could be very dangerous if there is another insurance trap like those electric stairs. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you when I couldn't stop it." She said softly reaching a hand out to stroke Adam's cheek.

"Umm lovebirds..." Fisk interrupted and Ivy dropped her hand at once. Adam nodded and kissed her swiftly on the cheek.

"Thanks for bringing me along." Adam whispered and prepared to leave. "I might go to my own apartment tonight."

"No, umm not when a Jigsaw game has just happened. Can you stay at mine tonight please? It just doesn't feel right to me." Ivy asked him and Adam turned round looking surprised.

"Okay." He said with a smile and headed out of the doorway.

"Is it alright if I go see about the other Jigsaw game and leave you here to handle the rest of this?" Ivy asked Fisk who began nodding.

"Yeah you can take this one. It's nice to have a change." Fisk smiled patting Ivy on the shoulder. "Good luck, it sounds like you'll need it."

Ivy knew someone was dead the moment she entered down the corridor stifling a yawn. She had been forced to hitchhike a ride in a cop car with another officer who had been called at the scene of the crime. Her phone rang as she flashed under her badge and she pulled it out quickly thinking it would be Allison asking her to hurry the fuck up.

"Reeves."

"That's Agent Reeves, I talked to you about this." A firm voice told her and she sighed a little. "Don't sigh please. Tell me what you've got on this new Jigsaw game."

"I don't have anything yet Strahm. I've just been called to it. I've been investigating what we thought could be a Jigsaw murder only to find out it was a fake." She informed her real boss nodding at some of the SWAT team she recognised from her time spent with them during Eric and her own game.

"A fake Jigsaw game?" Strahm's voice was filled with doubt. "Which Detectives are at the crime scene with you?"

"I'll fill you in on it all later, Detective Kerry, Detective Hoffman and I believe SWAT Team Commander Rigg." She told him.

"Rigg and Hoffman. Got it thank you."

"Something you're going to tell me Agent?" Ivy asked not liking his phrasing, it was as if he was jotting the names down.

"I will actually. Later." He quipped back and the line cut out. Ivy sighed and forced herself to stash her phone away and walk into the room. The reason she had known a murder had been committed was the overwhelming and all consuming smell of death and decay. It had begun to haunt the corners of the bathroom. Hitting her senses and paralysing her as she remembered the state of Zepp's mangled corpse rotting and festering away near Adam. And how it could very nearly have been him. If this is what a fresh one smelt like then she pitied Daniel and Amanda more than she could have ever thought possible.

Blood was everywhere. Hoffman had been right in his warning to her. A bomb had clearly gone off as everything seemed to be blown to bits including the trap itself. Ivy collapsed against the wall at the sight and smell of it all. An officer steadied her and she thanked him quietly. It wasn't the blood, she'd seen more than enough blood to never be frightened of it again. It was the body parts that were strewn across the floor. Entrails and pieces of stomach acid and other ureic substances that made Ivy want to throw up. The poor victim must have been standing right by the bomb when it went off. She spied a severed, broken foot a way off and lent against the wall again reminded far too strongly of Lawrence.

A pair of gentle hands touched her shoulders and she turned around not wanting to appear weak, despite already appearing to be so. She ended up looking into Mark's blue eyes and pushed him away at once; another wave of revulsion hitting her as once again she held him accountable for the mess before her. "Hey, hey calm down. I'm only trying to help you." Mark soothed one hand steadying her back as if he thought she would faint like a damsel into his arms.

"I don't need help." She told him flatly. "I need to know what's going on here." And moving away from the demented Detective she spotted Rigg holding onto Allison calming her in a similar manner.

"I wouldn't." Mark warned his voice still gentle.

"Why not?" Ivy asked.

"You won't get a straight answer out of Kerry right now. She was obsessed with thinking it was Eric Matthews in the trap." Mark informed and Ivy's heart stopped, she never wanted the brutish cop to go down in such a manner.

"Is it?" She asked pushing the bile back down so it burned the back of her throat and reminded her of the acid refluxes she had when she was little.

"I don't know. Somehow I don't think it was. The hair colour doesn't seem to match, but most of the forensic team were with you at the other game."

"Don't call it a game. It was a jumped up dickhead trying to prove to the world that he was man enough to beat Jigsaw." Ivy snapped and Mark held his gloved hands up a piece of the trap dangling from one.

"Alright just because you're angry, don't take it out on me. I personally don't think you were needed here it's almost done now. I thought you'd be better off getting some sleep tonight and beginning this fresh tomorrow."

"Oh really? I thought we'd go out for a nice little Starbucks after." She snarled irrationally seizing the piece of cold metal out of Mark's hand and inspecting it.

"Don't be a sarcastic bitch, it's not my fault you're here or that that Scott guy didn't die because I can tell that you wanted it."

"Yes I did want him to die and he would have deserved it. Happy?" She retorted back. "Is this a chain?"

"You must hate the guy."

"Is this a chain?" She repeated slower as if she was talking to a particularly stubborn dog.

Mark heaved a great sigh of his own. "Yes it's a fucking chain. The guy was chained in place with his skin and he had to pull the chains off and release himself before the bomb went off. But he didn't make it."

"Sick." Ivy remarked wanting to get under Mark's skin, she was getting tired of the perfect mask he wore. She wanted to see it slip at that moment more than ever. "Yeah, you can tell he didn't make it."

Mark carried on ignoring her jibes though his eyes were blazing with hidden warnings. "I need the forensics to come and try to remove the tape from the TV over there so we can examine it in detail. Find out the rules, you know."

"Yeah the usual twisted stuff." Ivy nodded waving him away as she bent down by the B marker seeing some of the nails on the floor. She straightened up. "Bag them incase they have DNA on them or something else that is useful."

"We have the whole bomb." Mark told her.

"Well we'd better get all of it hadn't we?" She instructed coldly. He doesn't want me anywhere near this trap. His own design? He was a part of this one.

"Do I hear some heated words over here Detectives? And here I thought the two of you were pretty tight buddies." Rigg had finally sauntered over to the two of them trying to maintain his own composure.

"We are." Ivy confirmed missing Mark's raised eyebrows behind her after her cruel treatment of him. "Just not when he's being deliberately unhelpful."

"Deliberately unhelpful?" Mark repeated back in complete shock and Rigg held him back from dragging Ivy out of the room to confront her. Ivy being clueless about Mark's sudden bout of anger headed over to Allison hoping she would be an ounce of more help. Rigg steered Mark over to a corner, avoiding the body parts and began calming him quietly. It was odd to see Rigg being the mediator for once.

"Ivy. I'm glad you're here." Allison said seeming to have finally got a grip on her nerves despite how she was still shaking a little.

"Hey are you okay? It's not Eric thank god." She said putting a hand on Allison's shoulder. She clasped it with her other hand for strength and nodded weakly at Ivy.

"No. Rigg's just been telling me that. Eric's a missing person." She quoted and Ivy nodded.

"Yes we have to think that way, think positive." Ivy calmed her and Allison nodded. Ivy's irritation from before had been well and truly demolished by Allison's tender nerves and she was beginning to wonder if they didn't find Eric dead or alive soon, if Allison would really begin to lose the plot. She didn't want to have to send Allison away till she could cope with the case again. Mark was becoming slightly more keen to hide things from her and Ivy did not want to be ganged up on or she may be forced to reveal him to Strahm.

"I keep seeing him in my dreams Ivy." Allison muttered lowly, "Well they aren't dreams they're nightmares.

"It'll be over soon. Just tell me about whatever it is you wanted to tell me." Ivy told her gesturing to the grizzly scene before them. Rigg had successfully calmed Mark down. The Detective had gone home feeling he could be of no more use and Rigg himself was discussing something with the forensics team who had now arrived and were attempting to remove the tape without breaking or corroding it.

"Well the door you came through when you entered, it was sealed shut. There was no way out." Allison informed her and Ivy frowned and went over to inspect it for herself.

"Then how was the victim meant to escape if he couldn't?" Ivy asked in confusion.

Allison tilted her head from side to side. Ivy followed he gaze from the broken down door, to the remnants of the body and then the leftover pieces of shrapnel from the bomb. She pieced it together just as Allison spoke. "Do you remember your theory that Adam's trap was un winnable?"

Careful Ivy, getting a little testy round Hoffman no?

Another inescapable trap and Scott Tibbs' epic fail haha.

Read and review pretty please xoxo