I finally got around to my Jake X MWAF fic! It only took three months!
Serial Connection Part 1
Encrypted message received:
You've had your fun. It is time to end it.
--
On the night of the new moon, the forest darker than usual. Still he weaved between the trees to the place marked on his phone. It was time to end this madness. If Jake was what this crazed madman wanted all along, if it meant ensuring both Hannah and MC's safety, then so be it. After the Man Without a Face had used MC's phone to call Jake, he was out of options. He had to engage the enemy directly himself.
Jake reached a small clearing and saw him standing in the middle. His enemy had his back to him and was staring at the dark sky.
"You took your time," the man spoke with the distorted voice still. He must’ve had a device in that sack that would distort in real time. Technology Jake didn’t expect a small town madman to have.
"I am here. Now let them go," Jake insisted.
The madman laughed and turned to Jake, "Sure."
The madman waved his hand, then two men in black came out from behind trees and shot tasers at Jake. Jake fell to the ground convulsing as the madman walked up and crouched before him. He removed his sack finally... or rather she.
"MC!" Jake gritted his teeth.
"It’s Raven actually," she grinned and raised a walkie-talkie to her mouth, "Release the girl."
The men zip tied Jake’s wrists and picked him off the ground. Raven expected to see a look of betrayal, but instead she saw a look of disappointment on Jake’s face as they carried him off to the black van hidden in the forest. Raven opened the back and the men tossed Jake inside. He twisted and pulled himself up onto the bench as Raven climbed in and sat down across from him. The men got into the front of the van and started the engine to drive off.
Jake continued to stare at Raven emotionlessly. She tilted her head in amusement.
"You’re not going to ask why or how?" she smirked. Jake remained stone cold. "You and your crew hacked the wrong people," she laughed. "They thought getting you to come out of hiding was impossible. They just didn't think outside the box enough."
"Amy? Richy? Just to get to me?" Jake asked stoically.
"Well, I had to sell this ridiculous legend, didn’t I? Anyway, Richy’s alive. Barely. Can't say I didn't enjoy it though. I really started getting into the character," she laughed. "And you were too easy! 'I'm so scared, Jake! I don’t know how to help them!'" she mocked. "As I said, your crew hacked the wrong people. Its time to face your reckoning, Nymos."
"Are you going to sit there and tell me it was all fake?" Jake questioned, staring at her intensely.
She laughed again mockingly, "With your 'flaw', you don’t even know the difference! Such an easy mark!"
The rest of the ride was spent in silence with Jake glaring at Raven and Raven beside herself over her victory. She didn’t even notice that the van had driven up the long driveway to her employer's mansion. The van parked in front and the two men went around to the back of the van to drag Jake out. Raven paraded through the front door to her boss' luxurious mahogany office while Jake was brought in behind her.
"You should've just given me this mission to started with," she boasted. "Rather than wasting your time with the others."
Her boss puffed his cigar and put down the papers he was rifling through, "That is him?"
"Pathetic, isn't he?" she smirked.
"Take him downstairs, beat him until he talks," her boss ordered the men. "If he doesn’t, just take him out."
Raven frowned, "By all means I should be the one to torture him. I know him best. The others couldn't even find him!"
"No, I want you to take tonight off. I have another job for you to start tomorrow," her boss insisted.
"I don't need resting!" Raven argued. The men started dragging Jake out of the room. "Those idiots aren't going to get anything out of him!"
"Well he's going to die then," her boss put down his cigar and narrowed his eyes at Raven. "You don't care, do you?"
"What!? No, of course not!" she hissed at the thought she would have any attachment to a mark. "If you want the whereabouts of the rest of his crew though, it'll be easier if he's not dead."
"His types will take secrets to their grave so I'm not expecting much. Just take your leave and report back here tomorrow at noon," her boss ordered.
"What a waste of my effort! I could've just killed him then!" Raven turned and left the office in a huff. She saw the henchmen dragging Jake down the stairs into the basement. She looked away and stormed out of the mansion. "Just fucking talk," she mumbled under her breath.
Encrypted message received:
So uh... he's not talking. Did you want to give it a try? I won't tell boss.
Encrypted message sent:
And you get to take all of the credit? Fuck no.
Encrypted message received:
Fine, if you manage to get him to talk, I'll come clean.
Encrypted message sent:
I'll only do it because I never get to have any fun anymore. They pulled me before I could take my next victim!
Encrypted message received:
Oh right, you were playing a serial killer. How was that anyway?
Encrypted message sent:
>:D
Raven parked her bike outside of the mansion just as the sky began to lighten. She waved to the bodyguards standing at the entrance, not that she recognized them. The heavies changed faster than the cycles of the moon. Inside the mansion was quiet so no one took notice of her heading to the basement. Downstairs there were several cells built in, but only one had a man standing outside of it.
"You should've called me earlier, Xander," Raven mused. "You're just not cut out for this."
"I do just fine, thank you," he frowned at Raven. "I've gotten five to talk this week alone!"
"And yet you can't get one little hacker to talk," she smirked.
"They're fucking diehards," he rolled his eyes. "Go on, bat your eyes at him if you really think that will work."
"I am more than just my eyes, thank you," Raven said as she opened the cell door. She took one look at Jake and turned back to Xander. "You're so fucking shit at this! How on earth is he going to talk if he's bleeding out!?"
"What can I say? Hackers piss me off!" Xander shrugged.
"For crying out loud!" she yelled.
Raven grabbed some stretches of cloth from the clean rag pile and went into Jake's cell. She went up to the unconscious body tied to the metal chair and quickly began wrapping the pieces of cloth around his torso.
"And you said it was all fake," Jake muttered from behind the bruised and swollen face.
"Shut up if you want to live," Raven hissed. " You just need to give us one location, you idiot."
"No," he coughed.
"They're going to kill you," she warned.
"They're going to kill me anyway," he sighed. "So why would I betray my comrades?"
"You hackers are so stupid, you know that? You're all so fucking cocky, but you're just weak piles of flesh!" she spat. "When you fail to talk, they'll send me after them and the order won't be capture alive by any means necessary, it will be kill on sight."
"So that's a no to Chinese?" he asked.
She slapped him on the back of the head, "Shut up!"
"I better cancel the reservation," he mumbled.
Raven grabbed Jake by his hair and pulled his head back while sitting down on his lap, "If you wanted chop suey that much I can always bring it to you."
"That pun is terrible," he frowned. "Also I don't think threats work after bandaging your victim."
"I just want you to last a bit longer than an hour," Raven smirked. "I'll torture you by pun if I have to."
"You are the strangest hitwoman," he looked at her perplexed. "Is it weird that I'm still attracted to you? Or is that the Stockholm talking?"
"The brain does funny things when it's low on blood," she smiled and reached into her pockets. "Jelly bean?"
"Now she's offering me sweets," he frowned.
"You could probably use the glucose," she popped a jelly bean into his mouth.
"How much are they paying you?" he questioned while chewing on his jelly bean.
"More than your share of what you stole," she pointed out. "Not that it was ever about the money. It's about setting an example."
"What if we paid you all of what we stole?" he continued.
"What kind of merc would I be if I just flipped over such a meager offer?" she laughed.
"Please?" he added.
"No," she frowned. "You better start behaving or you don't get another bean."
"If we worked together, we could steal everything," he smiled.
She rolled her eyes, "You're beneath me."
"You're right, but I don't mind," he smirked. "This is how you normally torture people? I should've surrendered sooner. Can I select you to be my preferred torturer in the future?"
"There won't be a next time if you don't talk," she reminded him and popped another jelly bean into his mouth.
"You're not going to kill me and you're not going to let them kill me either," he shook his head.
"Give me one location," she pushed.
"You're better than them. You could run the place," he rambled. "I'd never work for them, but I'd work for you."
"Bargaining isn't going to work," she laughed.
"Feeding me sugar isn't either," he looked away.
"It's either sugar or my pointy friend," Raven pulled the dagger from her hip.
"I'm not sure you can add to the pain I'm already in, but you can go ahead and try," he looked back at her.
"Tch, flipping morons," she cursed her colleagues for going overboard on him and put the dagger away. "You really don't care if you die?"
Jake laughed, which caused him to cough and sputter blood, "I'm already dead, you made sure of that."
"I can't help you if you don't give me a location," she sighed.
"If I give you a location, you'll let me take you to the Chinese restaurant?" he mused.
"You still want to go on a fucking date?" she frowned.
"Humor me," he smiled.
"You'll really give up a location just for a date?" she doubted.
"I thought you trusted me," he faked a sad expression.
"You tell me, would you trust someone who refused to give up a location when his life depended on it, but turns around and says he'll do it for a date," she tilted her head.
"I told you you already killed me. You can't kill me twice, but you can bring me back to life," he explained.
"I kidnapped your sister."
"You didn't kill her. You kept your word."
"I misled and betrayed you."
"I am capable of forgiveness."
"You're fucking messed up."
"Says the one feeding jelly beans to the man she keeps threatening."
"Maybe I won't give you anymore."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Just do it already. Kiss me or kill me."
"Why not both?" she grinned.
Raven crushed her lips on Jake's bruised mouth. She could taste the sweetness of sugar mixed with blood on his lips. He kissed back as best as he could, even when she pulled out the dagger again and dragged the cool metal along his neck. When she pulled away she couldn't help but grin as she licked her lips.
The cell door opened and Xander stepped in, "See, that's really not my style of interrogation."
"Fuck off," Raven cursed.
"You know boss will be up in five for his morning run. He might not want to see you down here making out with the prisoner," he pointed out.
"Well at least Nymos has made his demand," she smirked.
"What? Really?" Xander raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"He just wants a date," she stood up and put a hand on Jake's head condescendingly.
Xander burst out laughing, "You can tell boss about that one. I'm staying out of it." He waved and left the room.
"Location first, Nymos," she smirked at the prisoner. "Then the date."