Disclaimer - I do not own Leverage, any of its characters or plot line. I only own my original characters and anything that isn't familiar with the show's storyline.
I started writing this after watching the series. I absolutely adore Christian Kane and truly believe that Eliot deserves to find love just as his teammates have.
The title is based on Daughtry's "I'll Fight" which I consider Eliot Spencer's theme song.
Reviews and comments are appreciated.
So without further adieu, here we go. Enjoy!
WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE
Two hours after she'd been taken Alexa came to, fighting with what little strength she had to merely open her eyes. She felt as though her body weighed a thousand pounds, and her mouth was as dry as the Sahara desert. She tried to move her arms from their place over her head, but they only budged a few inches to the sides. Rolling her neck and hearing it crack in protest, she looked up to find her hands shackled in steel cuffs to a chain that was looped over a steel beam about ten feet above her head. Thankfully her feet were still touching the ground, which takes some of the pressure off of her arms; but she could feel the weight of steel shackles around her ankles holding them together.
"Ah, finally you're awake. I was starting to think we'd dosed you with a little too much."
Suddenly the foggy feeling in her head and weightlessness of her body made perfect sense. They must have dosed her with a combination of Ketamine and Diazepam; she was actually thankful that they seemed to at least know what they were doing, because even a miniscule off of the correct dosage could have put her body into respiratory failure.
"Hmm, she still seems a little out of it." Gavin smirked as he circled her, eyeing her with a predatory gaze. "Let's see if we can't give her a shot of adrenaline boys."
Alexa could hear the cackling of several men around her followed in the silence by the distinct sound of a whip cracking in the air; and what proceeded that was a sound that turned Alexa's blood to instant fire in her veins. A terrified whinny combined with a mournful pain-filled neigh broke through the silence. Her eyes snapped open with the speed of a bullet exiting the barrel of a gun, and for the first time in her life, Alexa truly wished she was dead.
For there no more than ten feet in front of her was Kohana, his head held in place by two thick steel chains leading from his halter to steel beams on either side of him. His beautiful coat was covered in sweat and red welts, small trickles of blood weaving their way down towards the floor. He was dancing in place trying to avoid the instrument doling out the pain, his large hoofs stomping and pawing at the concrete beneath him.
"Stop! Please! Leave him alone! I'm begging you! Please! Stop!" Alexa screamed until her voice could no longer make a sound, her throat felt like molten lava had been poured down her esophagus.
For the longest five minutes of her life, Alexa bore witness to the most heinous and cowardly brutality she had ever seen in her life. Oh how she prayed they would gouge out her eyes and burst her eardrums; her stomach churned and acid boiled in the back of her throat as she watched them inflict their wrath on her friend.
Alexa hung her head, tears tracking lines down over her cheeks and dripping off her chin. "Please. Stop." She pleaded through a broken whisper.
Gavin held up his hand halting the man with the whip, he leaned closer to Alexa wondering if it really had been that easy to break her. "Did you say something?"
Lifting her head as heavy sobs rattled her body she stared into Gavin's eyes. "Stop."
"No. I don't think I've gotten my point across yet." He sneered turning his back to her.
"Then use me."
Gavin was caught off guard by this, turning back to face her he met her eyes; there was the fire and defiance he knew she held inside, burning a line straight to his soul. "Perhaps. But what lesson would that serve to prove? Whether I hurt you or the horse, the physical wounds will heal with time. But seeing your animal in pain and knowing there is nothing you can do to spare him the torment… that leaves a permanent scar."
"Then you're obviously no good at torture, because a real man can leave physical and emotional scars that never go away. What? Does the thought of hurting me make you squeamish? You can take your anger out on an innocent animal, but not a woman? We're all the same to a man like you aren't we? Frail, defenseless, weak. Hurting us makes you feel better about being a man, doesn't it? Or are you nothing more of a scared little boy playing at being a man? A cowardly lion pretending he's King, but knowing deep inside that he's not the hunter… he's just the prey."
Whether it was her words that played on his insecurities, or his need to watch the defiance in her eyes die, Alexa would never know. Her only thought as the whip cracked against her body over and over, flaying open her skin and spilling her blood, she had spared Kohana from their wrath for the moment.
After what felt like ages of torture, but in reality it had only lasted a mere ten minutes; Alexa's body was battered, bruised and bloody. Her shirt had been violently torn off her upper body allowing Gavin, who chose to take matters into his own hands, more access to her open skin. Her long hair was matted with her blood and sweat, it stuck to her face, neck, chest and back. Her arms ached as her body lagged against the restraints, the skin on her wrists rubbed raw from the confines of the shackles. Her feet kept slipping on the concrete floor from the amount of blood that was slowly pooling beneath her; Alexa could feel the liquid squishing between her toes. The metallic tang of her blood hung heavy in the air, along with the underlying scent of rotting flesh from somewhere in the building.
A low chuckling to her right had Alexa opening her eyes and fighting to raise her head, despite the pure exhaustion that was overtaking her body and mind.
"I have to admit Alexa, I am impressed by you. You are stronger than I gave you credit for. Most women would have been begging for their lives, but not you, you never made a sound. Tell me, is the inside of your mouth covered in blood from biting your tongue?"
Alexa's response to the question was to spit a large amount of blood and saliva into Gavin's face. As he back peddled, furious to have been spit on for the second time that day, Alexa gave him a bloody smile.
"In my defense… you did ask." She stated with a laugh.
Gavin roared with anger as he cocked his fist back and punched Alexa on the left side of her jaw. Her head snapped to the side, but the smile never left her lips. Gavin was floored by this woman, how was she still holding on? What the hell did he have to do to break her spirit? He was going to kill her anyway, he never had any intensions of letting her go free; but he wanted her broken, sobbing and pleading for her life before he killed her.
All at once the answer came to him, the way to break her was standing ten feet in front of him. Kohana. It was then that he realized why she had goaded him into hurting her, she was protecting the horse, keeping their wrath focused on her.
"Oh, Alexa. You are a smart one." He chuckled. "This was your plan all along. We torture you and your precious horse is spared." He shook his head as he eyed her with disgust. "You're willing to die to protect this animal? Why? It's just a horse. It's nothing special."
Alexa looked lovingly at Kohana before she answered. "He's not just a horse. He's something incredible." Her gaze turned to Gavin. "And I think you know that. I think you're afraid of him. Of me. Of what we can do together. Otherwise, you wouldn't be doing all of this."
"I'm not afraid of this animal, or you. You brought this on yourself, Alexa. If you would have just taken my offer, it never would have come to this." Gavin's voice became a shout as his anger grew. "But you chose to do things the hard way. You chose to put your life on the line for a herd of horses that no one cares about. And for what? What did you accomplish?"
His voice calmed slightly and his eyes softened just a fraction. "We could have worked something out together, Alexa. I would have been willing to split the herd with you. We could have been partners, you could have made millions. I could have bought you a hundred Mustangs. I could have given you anything you wanted in the world."
"No, you couldn't have." Alexa answered as Eliot's face flashed in her mind. "The one thing I want more in this world than anything, no one can ever give me. And I would never get into bed with scum like you, professionally… or personally. I'd rather die."
Gavin's face morphed into one of pure evil, a murderous glint in his eyes as he grinned at her. "Oh, and die you will. But first…" He walked over to the table to her left and picked up a syringe; grabbing the bottle of Ketamine he drew the liquid out until the syringe was completely full. "…You're going to watch your beloved horse die. This much Ketamine should shut down his respiratory system and stop his heart in less than a second."
He laid the syringe down on the table before he turned back to face her, smiling as he saw the tears clouding her eyes. "Oh, don't worry his death will be quick, he'll never feel a thing. Your death however will be slow and painful. You're going to die knowing that you couldn't save him, and no one is coming to save you. You're going to die alone, Alexa."
Alexa smiled as she glanced around the room at the other five men. "I may die tonight. But I won't die alone. None of you are gonna make it out of here alive." She then locked her eyes on Gavin. "And you… You're gonna die screaming, and I'm gonna watch."
White hot rage shot through Gavin's body and a guttural roar left his throat; he blindly grabbed an object off of the table and jabbed it into Alexa's left temple. He smiled sadistically when he realized that what he had in his hand was a scalpel, that and the fact that Alexa was now screaming out in agony.
"Who's screaming now?" He taunted before he gripped the handle and drew a line from her temple, curved under her cheekbone and down to nearly the corner of her mouth before ripping the blade free.
Alexa's voice cut out as her mind went numb, her body in shock for the moment; only registering the sensation of her hot blood pouring from the laceration, running in a cascade down her body.
Gavin backed away from her still holding the bloody scalpel in his hand. His pride was swelling inside of him, he'd finally made her scream. But his gratification was short lived as a chilling sound filled the building. The men in the room turned their increasingly alarmed attention to the woman, her unexpected laughing sending distressing shudders through each of them. This was not a happy nor accepting of her fate kind of laugh. This was nothing but pure evil and malice.
"You shouldn't have done that. He's going to be very angry with you." She stated looking straight at Gavin.
"Who? There's no one coming to save you." Gavin shot back.
"That's where you're wrong. My best friend. He's coming for me. The moment my sister knew I was missing, she called for help."
"The note said if she called the cops we'd kill you. I don't think she'd risk your life."
"Then you don't know my sister." Alexa snapped back. "You told her not to call the cops— well he's not a cop."
"And just who is this man that you think can save you?"
Alexa's eyes lit up with an inner fire, thoughts of Eliot giving her strength to hold on. The longer she could keep them distracted, the better his chances of getting to her in time. And he would come. She knew it in her heart.
"He's a soldier, a hitter, a retrieval specialist; he can find anything and anyone, and he doesn't stop until he gets what he wants. He's tortured hundreds of men and killed many more than that. He's the best in the world at what he does. You signed your own death warrants the moment you decided to take me; only it won't be the Grim Reaper that comes to drag you down to hell. It'll be him. And the worst part for you— is you'll never even see him coming."