Miss Romanoff-Barton

Ow

Getting close to finale people!

Alexa's POV

I wait for the onslaught to begin

It feels like an eternity as they torture me. I'm whipped, punched, cut and beaten.

Deep cuts run across my back legs and arms. Shallower ones run across my chest, stomach, face and head.

Two of the men broke my arms and legs, so they hang uselessly beneath me.

My hair is caked in blood and my body sings numbly with pain.

My vision blurs and I pass out.

Liam's POV

Many hours prior

My lungs won't breathe as my feet pound the pavement.

Alexa would never turn off her comm during a mission, I know that. She knows that.

I sprint through the alley ways, hurtling my way to the last place the comm registered.

I find it finally, a side alley way, leading directly off of the gala. A shut door allowing music from the party to flow outside.

No.

A smashed comm and a syringe needle lie waiting for me.

My head spins as I drop to my knees. Carefully picking up the syringe and sniffing the container lightly.

Chloroform.

I radio Clint.

"Hey Liam, how's the mission going?"

His casual tone makes my stomach turn. They have no idea.

"Alexa's been taken."

His tone immediately changes.

"Are you positive?"

"Yes."

"Liam, breathe"

My throat catches as my breathing quickens. I didn't notice.

"Sorry"

"It perfectly fine, I need you to tell me everything that leads you to believe she's been taken"

I take another deep breath before rattling off what I found.

"Shit. Ok, where are you?"

A black car picks me up. Clint, Natasha, Coulson and Bruce are waiting inside.

We have to find Alexa. We have to.

Alexa's POV

I open my eyes and It's incredibly dark. The sparse lighting that was used earlier is turned off.

I'm completely alone.

A second passes before the pain hits me like a ten-ton train. Every cell in my body is screaming at me.

I whimper quietly.

Agonisingly slowly, I turn my wrist and pull the pin from my matted hair.

After a beat of ringing silence, the shackles click open and I collapse to the floor.

Why did they have to break my limbs?

I slip in the still-wet pool of my blood and have to bite down on my hand to stop myself from screaming. There is so much red.

Inch by inch, I drag myself over to the wall. Leaving a trail of staining red in my wake.

Standing is excruciating. But so is everything else.

I take a deep rattling breath before hobbling brokenly to the gap in the wall and out onto the street.

The silvery moon is the only light source in the deep purple sky.

Halfway down the street I collapse.

Time to crawl, I guess.

I'm entirely unaware of my surroundings until there's a thing right next to me.

I raise my head and see a phone booth.

I didn't think these things still exist.

I place a blood-caked hand on the booth, leaving a dark red print in my wake and drag myself into the chamber.

I dial the one number I can remember.

He picks up immediately.

"Hello?"

I haven't used my voice in hours. Swallowing thickly is necessary.

"Hi Liam"

The phone erupts.

"ALEXA YOUR ALIVE! WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OK?"

I pull the receiver away from my ear and groan silently at the spiked pain in my arm.

"Liam calm down she's probably barely conscious"

"Mom?"

The phone is passed over.

"Hey Lexa"

My legs give out again and I slide wetly down the slide of the box.

For the first time all night, I think I might die.

"Tony is tracking your location right now, we're coming."

"It's bad mom"

"Just stay awake for me"

For the next few minutes, or maybe it was hours? I fade in and out of consciousness. A continued stream of conversation bubbling in my ear.

Bruce stays on the line regularly, trying to get an assessment of my injuries. I try my best to describe what they did, but the weight settling on my limbs makes it harder to talk.

Eventually I hear the words 'we're here' and I let the receiver drop, the cradle feeling miles too far away for me to reach.

Third person POV

Alexa was bordering on unconscious when she was found, sprawled ungracefully in a telephone booth, her blood seeping out around her.

The reveal of her horrific burn causes a ripple through the group before she is whisked away.

Screeching tires and hazy city lights swallow the group as they race back to SHIELD.

A waiting quinjet delivered the shell-shocked team back into their home territory and away from the slowly lightening Russian streets.