Oceans Away || Leo Fitz Book Three

Chapter Seventeen

Notes:

Warning, these next couple chapters may be rough. There will be descriptors of violence and torture. Please proceed with caution and take care of yourselves if you could potentially be triggered by the topics. ❤

Asia woke with a groan, her body feeling stiff, feeling hot. She could feel bruises forming beneath her skin, could pinpoint there locations before she even opened her eyes. And she didn't open her eyes. Because she knew something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. She didn't feel anything familiar around her. The scents were different. The sounds weren't the same. Something was beeping nearby, and she didn't know what. She couldn't feel the familiar passes of water that ran through the base. And she was sitting up, arms bound down at the wrists to whatever chair she was strapped to. Yes, something was very wrong indeed.

"Good morning, Monroe," an all-too-familiar voice growled in front of her. "No use pretending you're not awake, the heart monitor gave you away already." Grant Ward. She was somewhere, strapped to a chair, with Grant Ward. And now that he had mentioned it, she knew what the beeping noise was. Montiors, she was strapped up tight and he was reading everything on her. Begrudgingly, she opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings.

The room was large, with a vaulted ceiling, but dark. She could feel water anywhere around her. Not anywhere at all. That knowledge left her with a sick, hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had no idea how long she had been tied up, no idea how much water she had in her to use. She was thirsty, her mouth as dry at cotton balls, but she had a feeling Ward wasn't going to be giving her liquids any time soon. The ceiling, as she stretched her neck up, was vaulted to a point above her, with what appeared to be a lightning rod of sorts. Directly beneath the center was the chair which Asia was strapped to.

Looking down, Asia took in her physical situation. There was a needle stuck into her left arm, though Asia wasn't entirely sure if it was putting something into her or drawing something out. There were cords dipping under her shirt, which she asse

Lower down from her platform, looking up at her, was Ward, a grim look on his face. "Took you long enough. You've been out for a day and a half." He tisked his tongue, as if he were disappointed in her behavior, disappointed in her lack of waking up. Speaking of, the back of her head ached from wherever she had been hit. She didn't remember it happening, but obviously, it did. She wouldn't be in this position, now would she?

"Maybe your lackey shouldn't have hit me so hard," Asia replied, licking her lips, trying to make herself feel any sort of semblance of moisture. It was like her knew, like he had designed this place to be her personal prison. Calculated, she thought to herself, but that didn't make things impossible. She felt confident she could get out on her own, given enough time.

That was, until thousands of volts of hot flaming electricity licked through her body, coursing up from the metal coils wrapped around her thin wrists and ankles. She let out an animalistc scream, unprepared for the the sheer level of pain that tore through her entire body. She heard Ward laughing at her pain, but couldn't move her head to look at him, still unable to take control of the pain eating her alive. It was like having liquid lava pulsing through her veins. She screamed and cried for him to stop, unsure if she was making words, or if the sounds were all in her own mind. She could smell her own flesh, burning. A scent she wished she could forget.

"Nuh, uh, uh," Ward said holding a little switch, a tiny silver remote up in his hand, flicking it and stopping her pain. She let out a gasp for air, only just realizing she hadn't been able to truly breathe until the electricity stopped destroying her nerves. "No backtalk, Monroe. It's not very nice. Also, lackey isn't a very good name for your sister, is it?" He tapped his chin, which was grazed with just the finest hint of black stubble.

Asia's ears perked up at this, her head jerking to face him, eyes ripping away from the switch in his hand to look him in the eyes. Was he lying? She couldn't read him the way she used to. Old Ward, her Ward, she could read like a book. But he had changed, he had adapted, into something different, an animal only recently discovered in the wild, a beast she couldn't read. He could be making this entire thing up to see her reaction. So she did what she did best, let her RBF take over for her. She stared at him, no questions, no emotional response. He didn't want back talk? Fine, he wouldn't get any talk at all.

Bored, Ward clicked the remote again, just for two seconds, watching Asia Monroe's body tense up, going ridged as he electrocuted her. He watched one single tear squeeze itself out of her right eye, and he grinned, turning the electricity off. "Sorry about that, finger slipped." He shook his head, walking around her. Asia didn't like that she couldn't see him as he walked behind her. He could be doing anything, but she would never know.

"I'm sure you're wondering where you are, how you got here..." Ward trailed off, rounding her left side. Her eyes stayed glued straight ahead, but she could feel his movements. Feel the water coming from his body. The only water in this space was coming from bodies, and that wasn't really something she could use. "When you're asleep that long, it's pretty easy to relocate. You're nowhere near home, wherever it is that Shield makes their base now. Nowhere near where we picked you up, that's for sure. Even if you got out, you would die before you got close to civilization."

Ward leaned against the brick wall in front of her, watching her for a while, lightly flipping the remote that could activate her torture device at any moment, as if it were a baseball. Toss, up, down, catch. Easy as that. He made it look so casual, holding her sanity like that. If she could, she would spit in his face. If she could, she would break free from her restraints and beat him to hell, no powers needed. Though she wouldn't mind being able to freeze him right now, smash that smirk off his lips, turn his body so cold and dry it fell to pieces at one touch.

"So we're going to have some fun now, you and I," Ward explained, still smirking at her, nodding the remote towards her. "You're going to sit, quietly, until I ask you a question. When I ask the question, you give me an answer. Simple, right?" He shook his head, standing up and walking towards her, holding that remote out. With the cold metal, he tapped her on the nose, once. "Don't follow my rules, zap." He flicked the electric chair one for one second, then back off. "Don't answer my questions, zap." On, back off again. Asia could hardly tell the difference between the normal air and the burnt, charred air. "Make any sounds other than answering my questions...What happens to you, Monroe?"

"Zap," she replied dryly, staring at the remote, not at him. Why, why, why, why? Asia knew Ward had become all sorts of fucked up, but he had protected her, when....when he was trying to assault her, trying to use her body, trying to torture her....Asia shoved those thoughts deep back down into the recesses of her mind. Ward had protected her, that was all that was important. So why now? Why hurt her like this now? Had he not been the one by her side in the ER after her first bullet was removed? Had they not stitched each other up too many times to count? How could he do this?

Breaking the rules already, she spoke. "Can you tell me why you're doing this?" She turned, angling her head up to look at him directly, meeting his gaze for the first time since he had began his speech. And then she waited. Waited for the flick of the pain, the burn of her innards. But it didn't come.

"I'll give you that one," Ward said evenly, staring into her grey eyes for one moment before he had to tear his gaze away. Dammit all, she was trying to work him and he knew it. He knew her well enough by now, after all these years, and knew she was going to try and get off easy. "That was your one slip up. And I can, actually, tell you why I'm doing this. I suppose you deserve to know." He dug into his pocket, pulling out a phone, unlocking it with his finger print and showing her a picture. A picture of a woman, staring off over a balcony, completely unaware that she was being photographed. Long, dark brown, almost black hair, tan skin, lips slightly parted.

"Her," he said. "I'm doing it for her. Your team, Shield, is the reason she's dead. I need to get to Coulson. Hydra talks a lot about chopping off heads this, growing back that, but Shield is the head that won't come back if I cut it off. I need to end Coulson, and you're going to help me. Willingly or not."

Asia stopped looking at him, staring back at the wall, finding a small chink in the brick she could focus on, just a small corner of one stone that was chipped out. She would focus on that, she would remember her training, and she wouldn't say a word. Her lips would be a safe, locked up type. She wouldn't let Ward in, wouldn't let him break her.

And so the questions began. And so the smell of burnt flesh filled the room.