Author: Tinadoll (aka Tina- That’s me!) Setting: After BDM Rating: PG-13- NC-17. This chapter is slightly pg-13. Author’s note: I have written fan-fic before. But this is my first Fireflyfic and my first serious (kind of) one. Scorpion is mine. All Spanish, Latin or any other language will be in parenthesis. This could get messy folks. My spelling and grammar is horrible. And my humor is odd. And I’m a fan girl. LOL ENJOY

Disclaimer: Firefly et al. Are properties of Joss Whedon- Those who don’t like that will get punched in the Kidneys Beta'd by Jetflair

Chapter 6: Back to the Pain and suffering

As she walked away from Serenity she paused to look back, feeling something in her chest that was new. It must have been regret, because it was not fear. She watched the ship take off, and with a final wave turned and tracked her way back to her shuttle. Her shoulder and hand still stung but they didn’t hurt. She was surprised how much pain she was in after she got shot. She had never been shot before.She reminded herself that she wouldn’t worry about that any more; she knew she was in trouble and soon she would be dead. She was so preoccupied about getting a warrior’s death she didn’t see the hands of blue scoping her out on the hill top. “This will be easy,” said a man with hands gloved in blue, watching her progress. “Too easy,” Blue hand two agreed. “Too bad,” shrugged the first man. “Yes, too bad,” said number two softly. “It would be a shame-,” mused the first man. “-To kill her now,” finished the second. “To kill her now.” agreed the first. They exchanged looks and approached her with caution. She heard them coming and reached to grab her Katana. There was nothing there. She silently cursed; she’d forgotten having left it with River. Her rifle was in her shuttle and she was unarmed. She hated these kinds of situations. The two hands of blue split up and went in separate directions to head her off, maintaining the high ground. The terrain heavily wooded and it was still the prefect hiding place. There were plenty of clearings for ships to land and keep a low profile, and the first hand of blue didn’t see her approach from behind and clock him. It was just a ruse. Like the Velociraptor dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period, Scorpion was out-maneuvered and out-flanked by true, remorseless predators. The second hand of blue took out a mysterious device and activated it, holding it steadily in one gloved hand. It emitted a high-pitched sound and she covered her ears as her nose bled and she screamed in pain. Her one good eye started to bleed as well. The agony she felt was indescribable, creeping up from her blackened soul and out her mouth without any hesitation or regret. “We must not kill her, now,” warned the first hand of blue, regaining his composure and getting to his feet. He was holding the side of his bruised head with one hand. His partner put away the device as Scorpion collapsed to the floor. *** When she came to, she was in a familiar place. It was the holding cell where she was first brought after the war. She was strapped to the medical exam chair with metal straps. One ran around her neck. Perhaps they wanted her eye back, she mused. It was dark as usual, but she heard a door shut and footsteps approaching. A familiar scent came upon her nostrils through the dense cell air. “So we are here again,” her master said. She knew she had smelled death. “How hard was that job to do? It was one girl. You were only required to bring back one gorram girl,” he said. When he spoke his voice was uneven as perhaps he was being pressured. She said nothing. “You failed,” he said sternly, regaining his composure. “I didn’t fail,” she replied, losing her composure. “I decided that the job wasn’t worth doing. I decided that I wanted OUT of everything.” “Wrong answer,” he said as he pressed something in his hand. The chair she was strapped to buzzed alive and delivered an intense shock. She winced and gritted her teeth but did not scream. He turned the knob off and she relaxed again. “I am waiting for an apology,” he said. “Never. You have never apologized to me.,” she replied. He blinked. “Apology for what?” he asked. “This life,” she said. “I have killed, kidnapped, burned and reaped revenge on every mark you sent me to destroy. I took every job. My reward, besides payments to a bank account I could not touch was that I became your personal object. I was given no choice or say on what my life was to be like. I was raped, humiliated and tortured. The life you so desperately wanted me to believe I had was not real. I am not a samurai as you so willingly remind me- I am a slave. Even whores are better treated then I was. So I decided to take what humanity I had left and I gave that innocent girl a reprieve. She deserves a life, the life this company was never going to give her.” “This life?” he said, incensed. He turned the voltage up, and she gripped the chair in obvious pain but did not cry out. “This life? You had a pampered life. I gave you everything a woman in the core could desire- A home, clothes, trinkets and attention. Do you know what life is like on the outer rim? Before I met you, you were Prisoner of war who was going to be subjected to torture with certain death. I saved your life.” He turned the chair off. “If knew what my life would become, I would have rather died and joined my parents in eternal paradise,” she said defiantly. “You will die slowly. And painfully like the coward you have shown to be,” he replied. “After all, you were going to escape if they didn’t catch you.” “You know nothing,” she declared with plenty of venom in her voice. “I am no coward; I was on my way back when your goons jumped me.” He was about to shock her full blast when he was interrupted by the slamming of the door. The Chairman stepped forward. “Enough of this bickering,” he said. “It’s unprofessional.” “Sorry, being strapped to a chair getting summarily shocked does that to a girl,” she said sarcastically. “You will be silent or I will kill you right now,” he said. She obeyed. She had no choice. “You know what I think you should do Mr. Yoshida?” asked the Chairman. “Face her like the man you pretend to be.” Yoshida, sai-ai, her Master, said nothing but narrowed his eyes and pressed the unlock button. Scorpion sat up and cracked her neck. She gave him a triumphant look. “ This is going to be fun.” She said.