Greetings and finally I have managed to upload this chapter! It took a little while to write and was another challenging one to create. Warning - this one is a little darker (hence the rating M if you are squeemish like me) so was quite difficult in places to write, but it is also a key chapter for shaping the rest of the story!

Chapter 10 - Darkness

Hatchet's bar was buzzing and a little busier than normal for a Sunday night where many of Tim's colleagues had gathered to celebrate his birthday. Blaze had arrived early on the scene to catch up with Max before the bar got busy, however the reception from Tim towards her was far from welcoming. She figured that he was still holding a grudge or was licking his wounds after Blaze had rejected him the previous night. The birthday had started out a little awkward, but soon enough more familiar faces began to arrive.

Blaze was thankful as soon as she saw Adam walking through the door with Estel by his side. Finally, there was someone present that she could have a decent conversation with during the party.

"Thought I'd find you here," Adam smirked as he reached forward to hug her. Estel also gave Blaze a friendly exchange.

"Thank God you two just showed up! I was starting to lose the will to live…." Blaze winked.

"I heard you gave the Commissioner a jab yesterday! I gotta admit, that was nice work Fielding, I never liked that asshole!" Estel gave Blaze a coy grin and her seal of approval, despite the fact that the blond fighter always swore to uphold the law.

"Thanks, he had it coming to him. The sexist pig…" Blaze huffed.

"By the way, we picked up something for you," Estel smiled, lightening the mood. She then pulled out of her bag a pack of several baby grows.

"Awww, this is so cute! Thank you!" Blaze hugged onto the pack, grinning with excitement.

"Expert Hunter over here thinks you're having a girl, but I still insisted we go neutral. I gotta admit, it was a little awkward though when the two of us walked into the store if you know what I mean", Estel chuckled.

"That's so nice though that you did! This is all starting to hit home now…" Blaze anxiously sighed as she carefully placed the gift into her bag.

"Well if you need us, you know where we are!" Adam nodded. "Hey, what the hell is going on with Tim tonight? He's acting weird…" he frowned, observing the officer dressed in a smart navy blue shirt and grey pants from a distance.

"I personally think that man is taking drugs," Estel had her suspicions as she glanced on with distaste lurking on her face.

"Nah! Tim is just holding a grudge against me and it's really stupid," Blaze informed them, shaking her head.

"Why?" Estel queried.

"This stays between us…. but yesterday, he tried to hit on me. So I let him down gently."

"Woah! Really?" Estel's eyes instantly widened with shock. "Does he know you're pregnant?"

"Yep!" Blaze raised her eyebrows.

"Mans got a death wish then, assuming he knows who the father is…" Adam huffed.

"It's ok, I think he's got the message now. Besides, we don't have to work together anymore. I quit the police department for good now!" Blaze smirked.

The rest of the night continued as it started. Adam, Blaze and Estel all felt disjointed from Tim and the rest of the guests as they sat down with their own drinks in one corner of the bar.

"Hey, wanna get a bite to eat with us someplace else?" Estel asked. She had started to feel fed up with the atmosphere there and the reception they were receiving from the others.

"I'm good," Blaze shrugged. "I'm actually just gonna go home now but I'll see you two tomorrow yeah?" She smiled.

Although Tim had ignored her throughout the entire night, he always kept a view on Blaze out of the corner of his eye. So when she got up to leave alone, he took the opportunity to follow her out towards the door.

"Leaving so soon? It's only ten!" Tim smiled.

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired. You have a good night though, and happy birthday!" Blaze politely smiled back.

"Hey, er… do me a favour?" He sighed.

"Sure, what's up?" Blaze frowned.

"Give me a call or a text when you get home. It's cold out there…." The truth was that, although Tim felt conflicted, the guilt was starting to eat away at him. He knew that members of the New Syndicate were following her, they had been darted around the bar all night and they were desperate for answers. Tim understood that they would question Blaze about Axel's whereabouts and they could even get a little physical if she refused to respond. Despite that, he felt that Blaze knew what was good for her and how to handle herself against any threat. But Tim was still worried about her. He was itching inside to say something so badly to warn her, but he knew that it would only make the situation worse. As long as Blaze coorporated, she would be okay.

"Adam's booked me an uber, it's just outside… see?" She reassured him.

"Ok. Still text me though, ok?" He looked out at the street with concern. "And I'm sorry about last night, for making things awkward between us."

"It's ok, I won't hold it against you and you're still my friend." Blaze gave Tim a warm smile before they parted ways.

As Blaze sat in the cab ride home, she couldn't help but feel a sense of loneliness deep inside herself. It was almost as if everybody else was taking steps forward with their lives, but she was stuck where she had remained four months ago. Witnessing Adam happy with Estel as well as the rest of her friends in stable relationships made her think hard. The hard truth was that she was missing Axel badly and part of her feared bringing up this child alone. The time with him was the happiest she had ever felt, but all of that was starting to become a distant memory now. The past four months since she last saw Axel had slowly tickled by with little doubt however, she was starting to wonder if he would ever return to her life again. But then Blaze remembered the note and hope filled her mind once again. She understood Axel well enough to know that if he had made a serious promise like that to her, then he would keep to it.

Unexpectedly, as the cab approached a bridge, Blaze started to hear the sound of revving motorbikes nearby from behind them. The noise immediately distracted her away from her thoughts, but it didn't seem urgent enough to alarm her at first. Then more bikers started to appear with at least ten surrounding their vehicle in very close proximity. The driver began to use his horn as he picked up pace when he realized that something was terribly wrong. At this point, the bikers who were dressed in full leather gear and black helmets may as well have pressed themselves against the sides of the car.

Then suddenly, glass shattered when a bullet broke through the driver's window. He yelled as it punctured his abdomen, then the car started to viciously rotate on it's wheels out of control.

Blaze held on tightly to the seats and ducked her head low at the back of the car until he managed to remove his foot off of the accelerator. They immediately came to a halt in the middle of the bridge when the car's wheels screeched with smoke against the ground. Blaze caught her breath for a moment as their surroundings fell suspiciously silent. She could see that the driver was still alive, although he was now heavily bleeding.

Everything that followed from here took place so abruptly. The window next to Blaze was next to smash as one of the bikers used a pole to break it. She held her arms in front of her face over her head then she ducked down low on the rear seats, shielding herself. These people had guns and they wern't fucking around. The small fallen shards of glass had cut her hands and forearms, but Blaze wasn't going to give in so easily.

Two of the bikers then opened the rear doors from both sides as they attempted to drag her out by her legs. Blaze caught one of the bikers off guard when her boot smashed into their chest whilst she laid on her back. She then reached backwards over her head towards the second biker then Blaze took a firm grip, grappling their leather jacket. She used the strength in her upper body to pull the female biker forward where her forehead ended up violently crashing into the top of the car's door frame.

Blaze immediately rolled out of the vehicle then took cover on the other side as more bullets flew past her. She thought quickly on her feet as she dragged up the injured biker off the ground whilst taking away their gun.

"What the fuck do you want from me?!" Blaze shouted at the others whilst she pressed the loaded weapon into the rider's back who was in front of her.

"Throw away those guns right now or I'll shoot her!" Blaze demanded as she stepped out from the side of the car, still restraining the member of their crew.

An enemy with a female voice just two metres away instantly responded, directing her gaze at the rest of the gang. "You heard what she said, drop 'em now!"

The remaining bikers immediately tossed away their firearms. Blaze then kicked her hostage forward and started to run away. Unfortunately, she was outnumbered once again when she clashed with more bikers who closed in on her from the opposite direction.

"You're coming with us!" The leader of the gang snarled.

"No I ain't!" Blaze shook her head as she readied her fighting stance. Four of the bikers instantly dashed forward, however Blaze was able to cartwheel backwards just in time for them to all crash into each other. The female fighter then kicked, punched and blocked any other fighters who tried to attack.

Finally, after about a minute Blaze caught her breath once the dozen or so bikers remained down as they laid injured on the ground. Blaze then ran once again as fast as she could as soon as she heard more revving engines fast approaching. She ended up off of the main lit road and onto one of the side backstreets past several stores. Eventually, she hid in one of the dark alleys behind some trash cans, just in time as the convoy of bikers aggressively rode past.

Once it was clear, Blaze stood up and caught her breath. She frantically tried to search her jacket for her phone but she had remembered leaving it in her bag which was still inside the cab. All of a sudden, she began to hear the same motorbikes fast approaching once again as they circled the area in search of her. She knew she had to get out of there fast as they hadn't given up. As Blaze nervously backed up deeper into the dark alley, her heart skipped several beats when her back crashed into a tall man waiting for her around the corner.

She couldn't see his face which was concealed by a black mask whilst he restrained her from behind.

"I told them you wouldn't be easy to catch…" he remarked with a strong East Coast accent. The only thing Blaze could recognise at that point were the red socks and red wristbands he was wearing under his black attire. He was tall, at least 6ft 4 and his muscular arm almost crushed her collar bone. The back of his hand boasted a large tattoo of the face of a demon, possibly the emblem of a gang that he was part of.

"Let me go!" Blaze screamed and fussed.

"Sorry sweetheart…"

"No! No!" She yelled as loud as she could whilst the man carefully placed a damp cloth over her nose and mouth. Blaze's surroundings immediately fell into a daze as soon as the chloroform on it entered her lungs, knocking her out cold.

Several moments later, Blaze opened her eyes.

At first she could hear the sound of dripping water against the hard cold floor when it had started to rain once again. As soon as she tried to move, Blaze realized that her hands were tied up behind her back and she was lying flat on her front with her head pressed against the ground. From what she could tell, the place around her felt like an old derelict car park. It was dark, cold and the night air was damp. She focussed her gaze forward, noticing several boots lined up in front of her.

"Stand her up!" The same male voice that Blaze last heard aggressively barked an order at the group. There were at least ten men and five female bikers who surrounded her. They all had black masks or helmets on, so clearly they didn't want any recognition for some reason. Perhaps these were fighters that Blaze had already been familiar with, or maybe they were just a new gang in town trying to carve up old Syndicate's territory. Either way, Blaze quickly understood that they had followed her and that this was no coincidence.

Her black mascara had run down her face and her jacket was ripped from its sides as two of the men dragged Blaze up off the ground. They tightly gripped onto her arms on both sides to hold her in place. One of them had the prominent smell of brut aftershave. Blaze had recognised the scent straight away as she disliked it, whilst the other thug to her left reeked of cigarettes. She glanced down then saw another worn out tattoo, this time it was a colourful machete on the masked-man's forearm.

The tall man who captured her here appeared to be the leader of the gang. He slowly walked forward, each step clogging against the ground from his smart black pair of shoes.

"What do you want from me?" Blaze nervously spoke out, directing her gaze towards his brown eyes which haunted her through the holes in his dark mask.

"We just wanna ask you a few questions Blaze, then you can go". The man replied, tilting his head to one side. The two thugs by Blaze's side had gripped onto her so tightly that her arms were starting to feel numb.

He began to hold up a knife in the air, which appeared to be vaguely familiar to Blaze.

"Only four months ago, this weapon right here was struck through Mr X's back before he died. We found it close to Axel Stone's apartment, care to explain further?" He queried.

To their surprise, Blaze immediately started to laugh. "You really felt the need to chase and drag me all the way here for a dead man, just because you thought Axel killed that bastard? Well I hate to disappoint you, but it wasn't him and that weapon you have was stolen from police archives!"

The man took a deep, slow breath to himself, turning his body away from her. It wasn't quite the reaction he had expected from Blaze. "So are you saying that the young teenage boy or the cyborg doctor killed Mr X instead? That's hard to believe…"

"No!" Blaze shook her head. "I killed him you asshole!" She spat with hate on her face.

This time, the man started to chuckle to himself in disbelief at what she was saying before the rest of the room followed suit. He didn't for a second accept anything that Blaze was saying. A young, innocent cop like Blaze Fielding wasn't near enough capable of destroying Mr X and his empire.

Then, as the man turned back to face her, his right fist swung around and caught Blaze in the face. Her head jerked back from the impact then her long brown hair fell over her eyes.

"Don't lie to me bitch!" He aggressively shouted as he began to lose patience. The man then tilted her head back up towards him, tightly squeezing her chin with one hand as he moved her hair out of Blaze's face with the other. The fast impact of his fist had caught her off guard, but it wasn't enough to scare her.

"The fucker's dead, what difference does it make?" Blaze heavily breathed.

"I wanna know where Mr X's killer is and why Axel took off like that! Now we can either do this the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours…."

Blaze's pulse started to race as she anxiously witnessed out of the corner of her eye another three members of the gang stepping forward wearing bronze knuckle dusters. They both had on loose denim jeans and black leather belts with a silver buckle. One of the guys had a deep scar all the way across his brown neck above a thick linked silver chain. A third man also stepping forward. He was wearing a red gi and part of his face under his nose was covered using a red mask. This man was much more rounded in appearance and it was clear that he was a well trained fighter.

"Where is Axel?" The leader of the gang insisted once again, still tightly holding Blaze's face.

"I don't know…" she quietly gulped, avoiding his eye contact.

"Come on, don't play games with me. You are outnumbered here and you know what could happen. Stop protecting him and tell us where he is…"

"I told you, I don't know!" Blaze snapped. "Axel took off for the woods and left weeks ago, he's gone, I swear…!"

WIthout answering her, the tall man turned towards the rounded fighter by his side then gave him a nod.

He immediately pulled out a black sack from under his gi which he placed over Blaze's head.

"What are you doing?!" She nervously shouted.

"Tilt her back!" The leader of the gang ordered. They then doused a bucket of cold water over Blaze's face. It was the first time she had ever been waterboarded and the seconds she endured felt like minutes. The tall thug then pulled off the sack over her head as he looked down at Blaze's drenched face once again. He used one of his hands to aggressively pull her hair back as she tried to breathe.

"Where is he?!" He questioned her once again, this time with his tone louder with more frustration in his voice.

Blaze spat water back at him, before finding the strength to reply. "Are you deaf or something? I told you, I… d-o-n-'t…. Know!"

"You British people are too arrogant, you know that?" He remarked as she screamed once again when the sack was placed over her head for a second time. This time, the gang held her still for longer. Each dark second was hell and Blaze felt as if she was drowning.

She vigorously coughed and gasped for air as soon as they removed the sack off her head once again.

"Now, for the last time, WHERE IS HE?!" The leader yelled in her face. She could feel his cold breath in front of her forehead.

"Fuck you!" Blaze definitely spat back at him.

The muscular thug paused for a moment then he paced back and forth in front of her. "I didn't want it to come to this, but it looks like we'll be doing things the hard way now…" he sighed. Several gang members behind him now also wearing knuckle dusters stepped closer towards her. Blaze's heart immediately sank into her gut as she took a deep nervous breath.

"Seems like you prefer pain, don't you darlin'?" This time, he gently tilted her head towards one side where the purple bruise from where he struck her had started to flare on one side of her face. "It's a shame, you're pretty…"

"Please don't do this… I told you everything I know! Axel is gone, I swear! He's somewhere out in the open training, that's all I know…." Blaze's voice started to shake as she started to panic for the first time in their presence.

"What are you afraid of huh? All you gotta do is tell us where he is and you and that unborn child here can walk away free…"

"How the hell do you know…?" Blaze frowned up at him. This time she was trembling in shock. She had been through some tough times, but never had she been as afraid as she was right now. At that moment, even though the cold water had shivered her skin, Blaze understood that someone in the precinct had betrayed her.

"Oh, I know everything sweetheart…." he calmly whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. "You can either walk out of here and raise that child without a father, or you can stand here and face the consequences. The choice is yours…"

Tears started to run down her cheeks as Blaze shook her head with sadness, staring up into his eyes. Her voice croaked as she struggled to say her words with regret. "I swear, I told you. I really don't know where he is or where Axel has gone…. Please….." Blaze's tone became quieter and softer as it turned from resistance to begging for mercy.

He paused for a moment, then took a deep shallow exhale. "Well," he sighed, "that's not the answer we came here for…" The masked man shrugged at her then he slowly turned around to walk away.

"Please don't do this….!" Blaze pleaded. "I'll pay you money for the rest of my life, I'll work on the streets, whatever you want me to do!... Just please don't hurt us..." she cried out with fear and distress as he continued to walk away from her.

"Leave Axel a message…and if any of you hold back on her, I'll kill you!" He ordered his fighters.

Like wild dogs, the rest of them charged forward without hesitation.

"No!... Please don't do this….!" Blaze shook her head at them with tears heavily running down her face.

The leader of the gang sat back with his arms folded against one of the motorbikes as he arrogantly watched from a distance.

Nothing could prepare her for the first punch which heavily ripped into Blaze's chest. She immediately fell forward, gasping for air as the two men next to her continued to keep her standing. Within seconds, further kicks and punches caught her lower back as she struggled to breathe from the hits projected towards her lungs. At least seven punks were surrounding her like cowards with their faces concealed, almost in shame whilst they continued to kick and punch the life out of her. Each time, the metal from their fists cut deep into her skin almost as far as a knife would go.

They punched without mercy, as hard as they could even breaking several ribs at one point as blood trickled out of Blaze's mouth. She tried to fight back, but she was outnumbered with her hands still tied behind her back. Blaze quickly lost count of how many punches had hit her face and her now frail body. There were at least 40 punishing blows towards her. Then suddenly, one hit landed on one side of her head which knocked Blaze down towards the ground. Her ears rang as she crashed helplessly on the floor.

Blaze took a second to catch her breath, struggling for air as she curled her legs in towards her stomach in order to protect it from any more hits. But the beating didn't stop, it only got worse. They continued to violently kick her from all sides until she could no longer scream or cry anymore. In that moment, Blaze just longed to close her blurred eyes and take her last breath so that this could all be over. Her bones were broken, the rest of her body was fractured and her insides were punctured. She could barely see through her own blood. Blaze laid there and took every hit, silent and submissive as she fixed her gaze towards the distance where the rain was heavily falling from the sky outside.

Slowly, she became numb to every strike that punished her body. Blaze had nothing left. Her young life was flashing before her eyes with no strength left inside of her to even take a single breath. Her vision blurred more and more and her hearing quickly muffled. Everything around her was depleting fast into a black pit, until the remainder of her surroundings ultimately faded into darkness.