Frisco Jones lowered the high range binoculars with a scowl, handing them with a grim look to Alex.

After a moment, Alex lowered the binoculars and made some notes in a small notepad.

“What do you think?” Frisco asked as he stared at the heavily guarded compound and found himself wondering which room she was in and if he was hurting her.

Stupid question. Of course he was hurting her. He’d been hurting her in one way or another since she had been a kid, why would he stop now when she was his prisoner.

The problem was that she was also the woman Frisco loved more than anything and he was determined to get her back. Alive. And God willing in one piece.

Although the latter wasn’t absolutely necessary Frisco realized grimly. He’d put her together before, back in Paris after the fiasco with Morgan first went down. He’d spend the rest of his life helping her heal from whatever Faison was putting her through. Nothing that bastard did was going to break his love for Robin. Nothing. And he would show her that. Make her believe that.

But first he had to get her out of there.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Alex murmured as he shook his head. “There are guards stationed both on the walls of the villa itself and throughout the grounds in those damned towers. And those rifles look Russian made with laser scopes. Judging from the amount of power lines hooked up to the place I’d say our friend has a security system with enough twists and turns to rival anything we’ve ever seen or dealt with.”

“It can be done though.” It wasn’t a question and Alex stared at Frisco for a moment and then nodded. “Give or take a dozen or so things that could get us killed in the blink of an eye.”

“We’ve had worse odds.”

“Not by much and not without the entire WSB as back up.”

“We don’t need back up. Not this time.” Frisco’s sharp gaze wandered over the compound, his mind already forming and rejecting plan after plan.

“What makes this time different?”

“He has Robin.” Frisco said the words softly as if it explained everything.

Which they did.

The Wild Boar Tavern

Lucky Spencer stared at the amber liquid in the shot glass, his fist closed around the smooth surface tightly. He swirled it for a second, watched the warm liquid slosh around the edges.

It wasn’t the liquid he saw.

It was her. Standing there. That split second as their eyes met and he knew, he knew, what she was going to do. What they were going to do.

Exactly what he would have done had their positions been reversed.

And he had let it happen. Had stood by and watched as the woman he loved the most slipped back into the hands of the man he hated the most.

All to save him.

Damn her. He shuddered even as he silently begged her forgiveness and then turned the thought into a prayer. God keep her safe. Keep her safe. Please keep her safe.

Don’t let him touch her. Don’t let him hurt her like he hurt me.

It wasn’t fair. This wasn’t her fight. This was between them, captor and captive, hunter and hunted, knight and pawn. Monster and....

He stopped himself, needing to keep the darkness away just a little bit longer. Just long enough so he could rescue her and then he could give in, fall of the edge, give into the darkness.

And kill the bastard.

He stared down at the glass in his hand and his fist tightened as he imagined the smooth surface was his neck and his hand was slowly tightening until he could feel the bones crunching under his grip and the strangled gasp air that played like a symphony to his ears. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and fought to regain the control he knew was slipping. It was the beginning all over again. Those first few months of freedom when the rage had been so intense, the pain so sharp, the terror so real, and the line between reality and remembrance so blurred that he had spent each day reliving his captivity so that a WSB shrink could help him understand it and each night trying to desperate to shut the same memories out.

He shuddered, taking another deep breath, and trying like hell to calm down, to keep from demanding them back.

A plan. Information. Resources. Back up. He’d listened to it all back in the square when Frisco had had to physically restrain him from tearing off after the car that carried Emily and Robin back to Faison. He heard Frisco say that Robin and Emily would be all right, that they would get them back, and he had only half believed it and the need to fight, to strike out, to strike back, had still raged in him until he had turned and seen the look in Frisco’s eyes.

The anger had dissipated quickly as he realized that Frisco had more to fear than he had.

Yes Faison would hurt Emily to get back at him, but what the bastard would do to Robin......

So here he was sitting and waiting, two things he was definitely not good at, while Frisco went out to rendezvous with Alex and do some scouting around. Frisco was off doing something, while he was here waiting and thinking and imagining the worst. The worst part was that it wasn’t all based on his imagination. He closed his eyes again and exhaled slowly, trying desperately not to go there again.

He glanced at his watch. Time was passing. Too much time. Time where Faison could do things to Emily. Things he knew that Faison was capable of because he had done them to him.

Things he didn’t want to think about.

Lucky shoved the shot glass away from himself in a sudden burst of frustration. He was one of the WSB’s best agents; trained by their best agents. He knew about security systems and tracking systems and could probably tell you do to the penny how much Saddam Hassien had in that Swiss account that no one was suppose to know existed. There wasn’t a gun he couldn’t handle, a knife he couldn’t throw with deadly accuracy. He knew more ways to kill a man than medical students at Harvard learned to save a man.

Yet in that moment when Emily and Robin had been surrounded by Faison’s men, he had done nothing to save either of them. He had been forced to stand by and watch.

God, it was almost as bad as that fiasco in New York when a rookie move that even rookies knew better than to make had resulted in Emily being taken from him the first time.

He’d gotten her back. Or to be bluntly honest she had gotten herself back.

Faison wouldn’t slip up a second time.

The pressure of sharp steel against his throat made him freeze.

“You little prick.” The knife shifted tighter against his throat. Casually, Lucky reached for his drink again as his eyes wandered the tavern’s occupants, most of whom were caught up in their own business and too busy drinking to care what happened to a stranger. No help from that corner.

No hindrance either. Lucky’s smile was almost feral in its intensity.

“You’re sitting here getting drunk while she’s ......you bastard. What the hell was she doing here?” The voice was dark and angry, it’s normally smooth European accent clipped and abrupt.

“Fuck off.” Lucky reached to bring the shot glass to his lips only to have the glass slammed down on the bar, its contents splashed onto it’s roughly hewn surface.

“You were supposed to protect her,” Sonny Corinthos’ voice hit Lucky’s ear in an echo of the phrase that had been hammering itself around his own head since Frisco had taken off to meet Alex to do some surveillance work on Faison’s compound. “You were supposed to protect both of them.” A harsh, guttural laugh exploded from Sonny. “God I should never have left Emily with you.”

Jealousy flared in Lucky even as somewhere at some level he acknowledged the truth of Corinthos’ statement. “You didn’t leave her with me. She chose me. She wanted me.”

“And look where it got her?” Sonny mocked softly. “Kidnapped by a madman. Again. I always thought Spencers could at least take care of their own.” The knife at his neck pressed closer and Lucky could feel it nick the skin. “Maybe it’s time I take back what belongs to me.”

With a speed that was almost blinding, Lucky jabbed his elbow into Sonny’s chest and used the momentum from the blow to reverse their positions, ending with Sonny against the bar, the knife dropped, an edge of broken shot glass dangerously close to his cheek.

“Two things Corinthos. Emily is mine. Now and always. The second thing to remember is not to push me because I will push back. Hell, I even enjoy pushing back “ Lucky grinned. “ I don’t particularly like you Corinthos. What you and Morgan did to Robin..... the only thing that is keeping you alive right now is that Emily considers you a friend.”

“And the fact that you need me to get your sister out.”

“I can take care of my sister.”

“Right. You’ve done such a great job so far.”

“I don’t know Corinthos.” Frisco’s voice interrupted the stand off with a cool nonchalance. “I would have described you as many things, but never once suicidal. The man has the ability to cut your face in such a way that you wouldn’t even recognize it in the mirror and yet you persist in taunting him. Almost makes me regret having to order him to stand down and let you go.” He placed a gentle hand on Lucky’s shoulder. “For the moment he’s one of us.” Lucky looked at the older agent for a moment and then nodded, straightening himself up and then letting Sonny do the same.

“Come on,” Frisco looked around him carefully. “We need to talk and here is not the place. I paid for the back room, let’s go use it.”

They’d closed the heavy door behind them and Frisco nodded at Lucky. The younger agent, with a glare in Sonny’s directions, took a small metal scanning device out of his pocket. After a moment, he nodded at Frisco. “We’re clear.”

“All right.” Sonny stared at the two men. “What the hell happened? We were so close. I had Lulu right at the exchange point and then all hell broke loose...”

“That pretty much sums it up.” Frisco’s voice was heavy and tired. “Faison had more men in the square than we had expected. They would have spotted us only...Robin and Emily saw to it that they spotted them first.”

“What were Emily and Robin doing here in the first place? They weren’t part of the plan we discussed on the phone.”

“They came on their own.” Lucky ran a hand through his hair impatiently. “They took the ELQ jet and followed us here to Italy.”

Sonny stared at Lucky for a long moment and then nodded. “That sounds like Em. Hell, it sounds like both of them.” He shook his head slightly. “Robin should know better than to put herself in danger like this. She...”

“Has as much right as anyone else to be there when we take Faison down.” Frisco finished sharply. He shrugged. “I would have thought that even you would realize by now that Robin is an adult who makes her own decision. She’s not the the teenager who worshipped you or the young woman you almost destroyed. She can take care of herself.”

Frisco took a deep breath as he tried to let go of his anger towards the other man. He couldn’t help it- every time he saw Corinthos all he could see was that look in Robin’s eyes when he’d bumped into her in Paris. The utter devastation. The lack of any self-worth. Turning, he stood and stared at the other two men. “Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere. Let’s face it, we don’t much like you Corinthos and you don’t much like us. That’s fine. No one says you have to like everyone you work with. What we need to remember is that we all care deeply about what happens to both Emily and Robin.” Frisco withdrew a notebook that he had used to jot down some details when he and Alex had done some scouting around the perimeter of the villa. “Not to mention Lulu.”

“How is Lulu?” Lucky asked softly.

Sonny frowned. “More like a Spencer than her stepfather would like to acknowledge I imagine. She was a little shook up over what went down this morning, but she’s holding it together.”

“Faison isn’t.......hurting her?” Lucky held his breath as he waited for the answer.

Sonny shook his head. “Faison barely knows she exists. All he cares about is Anna.”

“Anna? Anna Scorpio?” Frisco stared at Sonny in shock as Lucky paled. “Anna Scorpio is alive?”

Sonny nodded. “Only she’s not....all in one piece. Mentally at least. She thinks she’s married to Faison and that Lulu is Robin.” Sonny remembered in stark detail the lines criss crossing Anna’s back. “I think Faison tortured her.”

Frisco whirled on Lucky. “Don’t.”

“They were alive. All this time they were alive.” Lucky’s voice was barely a whisper. “She could have saved them.”

Frisco grabbed Lucky’s shoulders and shook him. “I said don’t.” The authority in his voice, an echo of his trainers at the academy, broke through to Lucky. “Don’t start thinking like that. Not now. Not when there is so much on the line.”

Lucky looked at Frisco in daze. “You heard him. Anna is alive. My god they might have both been alive when Faison offered Robin..... She could have saved them.”

“And maybe Faison would have killed both of you just for the fun of it. We’re talking about a psychotic twisted murderous son of a bitch that I wouldn’t trust for a split second.” Frisco’s hands on the young man he had come to consider family gentled. “You were his victim Junior. As much as Robin or Anna or Robert ever were, you were his victim too.” He reached into Lucky’s jacket and removed his WSB badge. “But this...this says you don’t have to be anyone’s victim. Not any longer. I’ve been telling you for weeks that you’re not the kid you were when Faison grabbed you. Well, today you finally get the chance to prove it. It ends today. One way or another, this game ends. I’m not giving him the chance to hurt Robin or anyone else anymore.” Frisco glanced at his watch. “It’s a little past one. By midnight, Faison is going to be dead. But I can’t do this alone. I need your help. I need you here with me in this moment, not caught in the past. I need you. Lulu needs you. Robin needs you. And Emily needs you.”

The tension in the room was almost tangible and only slightly relieved as Lucky nodded softly.

Frisco breathed a sigh of relief as he flipped through his notes. He was going to get his team out and he was going to get them out alive. To do that would require a small miracle and Frisco didn’t normally believe in miracles, which meant that he would have to create one of his own.

No problem.

He turned to Lucky who had automatically come to stand beside him.

“Did you pick up anything on the radio?”

Lucky withdrew the small listening piece out of his ear and shook his head. “Nothing but a headache from all the smoke in that tavern. There has been no radio communication from the villa since they picked up Emily and Robin.” He rubbed his ear gently. “And tell Sean for me that the new inner ear listening devices hurt like hell after the first hour. On second thought, don’t. The last time I complained about a piece of WSB agent he made me spend my vacation redesigning it.”

“Anything on the satellite?”

Lucky flipped open his watch and checked the download one last time and shook his head. “Faison hasn’t made any attempt to link with any of the orbital satellites he has access too. If he had, the security interface would have sounded the alarm and this would have beeped. Just to be sure I did a manual check every thirty minutes.” Lucky’s voice was cool and professional. Focused. Exactly how a WSB agent should be if one ignored the glint of hatred that burned in his eyes.

Frisco raised an eyebrow. “In the bar?”

Lucky shrugged. “I went to the bathroom a lot. If anyone noticed I was careful to make sure it looked like I was drinking enough to give me a reason to go.” He smiled at his boss. “And before you ask none of the guards we have dossiers on went in or out of the tavern.”

Sonny stared at the other two, feeling like he had just walked through some kind of alternate doorway that had landed him in the middle of a Get Smart episode. He wouldn’t even blink an eye if one of their shoes started to ring...... He blinked, realizing that they were talking to him.

“If Faison’s cutting himself off from the outside world and keeping his men on alert....what’s the situation inside the villa?” Frisco asked Sonny..

“Tight. We returned almost as soon as things went down and the security guards were being recalled. I almost couldn’t get back out myself. With the amount of artillery and men he’s got in there, it’s going to be next to impossible to get yourselves in much less anyone else out.”

Frisco drew a quick outline of the villa based on what they knew and the scouting he and Alex had done. “Tell me where Lulu and Anna would be.”

Sonny pointed to one end of the compound. “These are the family quarters.” Sonny stopped. “I hated taking the kid back there this morning but I had no choice. With all of Faison’s men in the square there was no way that we could have gotten away cleanly.”

“You did the right thing. At least with Anna it sounds like she’s safe, at least for the moment.” Lucky spoke up quietly. “Thank you.”

Sonny shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” He paused. “About what happened earlier.....”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lucky echoed Sonny with an awkward smile. “Frisco’s right. We need to work together if we have a hope of saving Emily, Robin, or Lulu.”

“And Anna.” Sonny said with determination. “I’m not leaving without all four of them.”

“None of us are.” Frisco’s words echoed in the small room.

“So what’s the plan?” Sonny asked. “How do you plan to get past Faison’s security? Somehow I don’t see Faison opening the door to welcome us when he sees us coming up the path.”

“He won’t see us.” Lucky corrected with a grim resolve as he and Frisco exchanged looks. “He’ll see me. And trust me, he’ll make sure that door is wide open.”

Robin came awake slowly, her eyes adjusting to the dimly lit room. She shivered in the cold that filled the room. Moving her hands slowly, she realized that they were chained to the wall behind her with heavy iron shackles. Her feet were bare against damp cement blocks. They were in some kind of dungeon and despite herself, despite the years of training, despite her utter faith in Frisco to get them out of this, Robin acknowledged, if only to herself, that she was scared. Twisting slightly in her shackles, she looked over to where Emily was similarly bound against the wall, her cheeks pale, her eyelids closed..

“Em? Wake up.”

“Robin?” Emily opened her eyes carefully. “Where are we?”

“I can’t tell for certain but my guess would be somewhere in Faison’s villa.” Robin replied softly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Emily looked around her softly. “I take it Faison’s subscription to Better Homes and Gardens expired.” “Or maybe he’s been watching too many episodes of Dark Shadows.” Robin said lightly as she cursed softly. “My knife is missing from my calf holster.”

“Is that bad?” “No,” Robin replied trying to remain optimistic. “I figured they would search us and take our weapons, I was just just hoping the search wouldn’t be that thorough. I guess that will teach me to underestimate Faison.” She smiled at Emily in the dark. “It also means he shouldn’t underestimate me.”

“Oh trust me,” soft educated tones carried through the room as lights turned on. “I never underestimate a Scorpio. Appreciate them. Torture them. Kill them. But never underestimate them.” Cesar Faison grinned as he approached the two young woman.

“Why Miss. Emily Quartermaine,” he drawled as he neared Emily. He reached out and caressed her cheek with his thumb. “How nice to see you again.” Emily flinched and tried to move away despite the shackles holding her hands tight.

“Leave her alone Faison.” Robin’s voice was full of scorn. “She isn’t the one you want.”

“Sweet, sweet Robin.” The former DVX agent turned to give his full attention to the WSB agent under his control. “Such beauty and fire, so like your mother its scary.” His hands started at her shoulders and ran down her sides in a tortured caress. “I wonder if you will break under my touch as easily as your mother did.”

“My mother is alive.” Robin breathed the words softly, the thought she hadn’t dared to form since she had seen Anna in the crowd coming through. “Damn you to hell Faison.”

“Only if you accompany me sweet Robin.” Faison whispered her name like an endearment and Robin cringed inwardly even as she forced herself to hold her ground outwardly. “And oh yes, your mother is definitely alive. Alive and warm and beautiful and oh so passionate in my bed every night. Everything she was for your father, she is for me. With me. Like it should have been. Like it will always be.” He leaned forward and ran his hands over her, cupping her breast, and pinching at a nipple. Her fury shook as she stifled a cry of pain. “Still....you have grown so beautiful my sweet child. Mother and daughter together? It is every man’s fantasy, is it not?” His breath was sickly sweet. “And now my reality.” His mouth descended on her and Robin moved quickly, kicking at him with her feet and pushing him backwards with grim satisfaction.

Her reprieve was short lived as madness flared in his eyes as he recovered and stood up, advancing towards her. “You little bitch.”

“Make up your mind Faison....am I a sweet child or a bitch?” Robin taunted even as she bit back the rising fear. She knew what he wanted, knew what he was going to do. She wasn’t afraid, not really. You couldn’t do what she did and flirt with death on a daily basis like she did and be afraid. Still... this was rape. This was different. And the idea of this man, this man who had destroyed her family and tortured Lucky and put them all in hell touching her...

If she kept him angry, maybe he’d take it out on her physically. She’d rather be beaten than raped.

She closed her eyes and thought of Frisco. She remembered the first time they had made love- the intensity that connected them even as they both pretended it was just a casual affair. How long had that pretense lasted? Five minutes. Maybe less. She’d known it from the first time their lips met as lovers- he was her sanctuary. He saw her as she was, not as he wanted her to be. The freedom to fly and the safety to fall. That was what he had given her.

And a future. A future that was already destined to be too short because of her damned HIV. She wasn’t about to let it be any shorter because of this bastard.

She laughed softly.

“What is so funny?” Faison whispered as traced designs on her chest, his callused fingers rubbing against the thin cotton of her clothing. “Or is my touch so pleasurable?”

“Your touch is as pathetic as you are,” Robin spit out. “Poor Faison. No wonder my mother choose my father over you.”

A hard slap against her cheek and Robin blinked back tears of pain. “Shut up. You’re father was a weak, sniveling coward who didn’t deserve my beautiful Anna.” An evil smile glimmered. “As his death proved beyond a matter of doubt.”

Robin closed her eyes for the briefest of moments. She had known he was dead. Knew that if he had lived he would not have let her mother remain Faison’s prisoner. Still to have it put into words.....

“My father was a better man than you will ever be.”

“Too bad you’re mother disagrees.” He smoothed the cheek where a deep red indention would soon turn to purple. “Perhaps I should have you join us in our bed. I would enjoy watching the expression on your face as your mother calls out my name in her pleasure.”

Robin said nothing, her eyes lowered to hide the revenge that burned in them.

Satisfied that he had made her cower, Faison turned to his men with a quick order.

“Kill the Quartermaine girl and then bring Ms. Scorpio to my bedroom.”

Even as the guard approached Emily with the knife drawn and she struggled to break free from the iron clasped around her wrist, Robin yelled at Faison.

“Don’t do this Faison.”

He turned and smiled at her. “Why ever not?” He asked simply.

Robin took a deep breath. “Let her go. Let her go and I will do whatever you want.”

Faison paused to consider. “Anything?”

God forgive me. Robin nodded. “Anything.”

Faison considered for a minute longer and Robin could hear the rush of her own blood, the pounding of her own heart, even as she watched the knife pressed closer to Emily.

Emily closed her eyes. If she was going to die, she was going to die thinking of Lucky, seeing the blue of his eyes, feeling the delicate touch of his fingers- not the stinking mass of so-called humanity in front of her.

Faison looked at both young girls and then shrugged. “As much as your offer appeals to me....it doesn’t appeal enough. I’m not interested.” He turned back to the guard standing near Emily and nodded. “Kill her.”

“What if I make you a new offer?” A soft and cold voice spoke from the doorway as Lucky Spencer stepped forward, his arms gripped on either side by two of Faison’s men. “Let them go Faison and I’ll do anything you want.”

A shocked look passed over Faison’s face before it was replaced by a grin. “What makes you think your offer will appeal to me?”

Lucky stared at the man who had held him captive, abused him, and almost destroyed him. “It did before.” And the words hung in the air for seconds after the sound died away.