POV Layla
A branch splintered under Layla Gray's foot as he sprinted through the jungle, risking a glance over her shoulder at the guy chasing her- Tony Toretto.
Miss Nowhere had sent Tony on an undercover solo mission to Rio- much like the one she'd sent Layla on just over a year ago. He was supposed to infiltrate a drug cartel and gather intel to report back to the agency, but one of the communications had been intercepted and Tony was compromised. The rest of the crew had been sent to Rio on a rescue mission, only to find out that the cartel was an off-shoot of Rafaela's old gang, so they still had access to the mind control formula. Instead of just keeping Tony as a hostage, the cartel used the formula to turn him into of their own members and take advantage of his spy skills.
Frostee was working on an antidote to the new and improved formula, but so far the crew hadn't been able to get Tony alone for long enough to even try it on him. Until now.
With Frostee's direction over their comms, Layla, Echo and Cisco had been able to intercept a meet-up with one of the cartel's clients. It was just Tony and two other guys, so Echo and Cisco were able to take them out while Layla led Tony away from the scene. Now she was running through the thick rainforest with him hot on her tail, praying that the location Frostee gave her still existed.
Finally, she caught a glimpse of the building through the trees. It was the old warehouse where the crew had been locked up during their first mission in Rio. The warehouse was big and dark and had a lot of places to hide, so Frostee had thought it would be a good place to get Tony alone and try to use the antidote.
As Layla threw the metal door open, which was already hanging off rusted hinges, she was met with a wave of Deja Vu. She hadn't mentioned it when Frostee suggested the location earlier, but the warehouse was also where she and Tony had really talked again for the first time since Vegas. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the mission, or just the fact that it had been late at night, but Layla felt like something had shifted between them during that conversation, and she hadn't been able to forget it since.
Layla crouched behind an old filing cabinet as she heard Tony come through the doors, breathing heavily. She cupped a hand over her own mouth so he couldn't hear her catching her breath as well. Heart racing, she listened to his movements around the warehouse, waiting till he was farther away before risking a glance around the side of her hiding spot.
Tony was standing at the other end of the warehouse, gazing up at the row of windows at the top of the wall. Moonlight shone down on him like a spotlight as he stood there, motionless. It was the spot where he and Layla had talked, and she wondered if he was feeling a sense of Deja Vu as well, but couldn't place the memory due to the mind control.
With Tony somewhat distracted, this was her chance to use Frostee's antidote. But she had to be quick, as Tony would surely start looking for her again any moment. Moving silently from behind the cabinet, Layla slid the antidote bottle from her jacket pocket and moved towards Tony. She got about five feet away when he sensed her presence and turned, but she already had the bottle unscrewed. Before Tony could even put his hands up, Layla drenched him with the formula.
Tony spluttered, wiping at his eyes.
"Agh, what the hell!"
Layla waited, praying Frostee's calculations had worked. But when Tony opened his eyes again, he showed no sign that he recognized her. Instead, he looked even more pissed off than before, and Layla knew better than to wait around and ask questions. She turned to run, but Tony caught her arm, smacking the bottle out of her hand. It flew across the room and shattered near the door.
Layla cursed under her breath, trying to wrench her arm free from Tony's grip. Why hadn't the antidote worked? The new formula couldn't have been that different from the one Rafaela used, right? Then again, she didn't know much about science. And Frostee had been working a lot faster this time, so it could've been easy to miss something. Whatever the case, Layla needed to figure out Plan B asap.
