Part 56: Captive IV

                                    

                                          
Willa had no sense of time. Her ribs throbbed.
One day she woke up and she could breathe. Was her pain less or was her body just used to it? She cautiously pressed a hand to her abdomen and hissed in pain at the little pressure. She looked over at the bottles of water and bread. She needed them. Slowly, she dragged herself across the floor, hissing the whole way, but she eventually made it.
She woke up in the same spot and couldn't bring herself to try to move. She chewed the tasteless food until it was gone and dozed in and out. She thought she was imagining the soft touch on her hair but when she blinked her eyes, she could make out a shape sitting above her. It was real. Her stomach twisted at Deathstroke's presence. 
She coughed and her nostrils burned at the smell of smoke. Was he smoking a cigarette? The thought of highly trained assassins smoking would be a funny one in a different situation.
"Your heroes are at peace," he said, "they don't even know you're gone. I made sure of it, so it'll be a surprise when he finds you." Willa didn't respond, she knew it was better to let him talk. "They're on edge, guarding all the little ones, no idea who the target really is." He chuckled, pleased with himself.
"Why do you want Nightwing?" She croaked out.
"Isn't it obvious? He's the lynchpin for the whole institution. The League, Batman, the young heroes. Destroy him, and the others fall apart. Raw with emotion, vulnerable. Rip out the heart and the organs begin to fail."
He was right, Willa thought. Dick was the leader, the head of the Team. Kill him and it becomes chaos, fear. Kill Dick and Batman crumbles, and if Batman crumbles, the League sees the cracks, they'll splinter. Deathstroke meant to scare her, and he did, but he also gave her confirmation in what she was doing. She had to hang on.
 "It's nice to have someone to talk to," Deathstroke went on pleasantly, "someone to keep my secrets." Because she'll be dead, Willa thought wryly. "You would never betray me, would you, sweetheart?" Willa's mouth ran dry as she shook her head silently while wishing she could stab him in the heart.
**
This time she woke up coughing and sputtering, crying out as her body ached from the sudden movement. She started shivering from the cold water all over her. She looked around to find a Shadow holding an empty bucket. It was the first time she had seen one without a mask. He met her eyes coolly, no mercy in his gaze. He threw a bundle of clothes at her and turned his nose in disgust, "get dressed. It stinks in here." Apologies for the smell of my blood, she thought sarcastically but she reached for the clothes instead. She breathed a sigh of relief when he went back out the door to let her change instead of watching. 
Her clothes stuck to her skin and it took a while to get them off. She gently peeled her jeans off. They were stiff and discolored, the knees were ripped, and the edges were frayed with dirt. She grimacing as she went and was breathless by the time she had changed into the Nike shorts. She rested against the wall, the shirt would be harder. She bit her lip when she tried to raise her arms against the pain and let out an exasperated breath.
"Hurry up," the Shadow hissed. He was watching her sit there. She knew better than to talk back but she tried to plead for more time silently. He scoffed and stomped towards her, grabbing the t-shirt from her hands.
"Wait, wait-" she tried but it fell on deaf ears. He tore her wet shirt off, eliciting cries of pain as her arms jerked up. He pulled the new, dry, baggy men's shirt over her head and pulled her arms through then pulled her to her feet. He locked a pair of shackles to her wrists, binding them together with chain before pulling her forward.
She stumbled as her head spun but he didn't let her fall, just kept dragging her along. They kept walking. She closed her eyes and tried to turn away from the sudden exposure of light. It was blinding. She tried to squint through the pain so her eyes could adjust and recognized the walls. This was where she tried to escape, that wall was where she was caught, she noticed, but the Shadow pulled her past.