| Code Name: Shadow | (DC's Legends of Tomorrow)

After nearly nine and a half hours of not sleeping- Meg heard someone enter into the room. The serum had worn off five hours back, but she was colder than ever and her side still ached incredibly- slowly starting to ooze thick, sticky blood.

"I'm glad to see you're awake, Margaret." Valentina's icy sweet voice sent chills up and down Meg's spine. The red head sat up slowly, being mindful of the burns in her side. She glared hard at Valentina through bloodshot eyes, anger slowly boiling in her blood.

"Never went to sleep." Meg hissed back through her shivers. Her voice was hoarse and sore from screaming. Valentina grinned, stepping out of the shadows. She was accompanied by two men- who unlocked the cage door. Meg's shackles are unlocked and her arms roughly grabbed as they dragged her out.

Meg let out a small cry of pain, her torso stiff. Her legs couldn't seem to find the floor- so the guards simply held her up by her arms.

"Good. I'm sure you'll find this next exercise quite easy then. We are taking you to Stein, to see if he'll work better when someone he knows is.. Expendable."
Valentina said. Meg rose a brow, letting out a small laugh.

"You think that he has any sentimental attachment to me?" Meg scoffed, being forced to stand on her own. Her legs were weak and shaky- like she was stuck in slow motion.

"Tell that to his face last night when the whole compound could hear your screams." One of the guards said. Meg blinked, keeping her mouth shut.

As Meg was roughly guided out of the room, she took this as a chance to take in her surrounding. The halls were narrow, lined with cells filled with burley looking Russians. They stared at Meg- who looked small and weak by her beat up appearance. She hoped she'd never have a run-in with them.

The temperature didn't seem to exceed 40 degrees in the Gulag- which was bad news for Meg. There wasn't the slightest questions that she already had a small case of hypothermia. Her lips were tinted blue, and her skin looked paler than usual. Meg couldn't feel her feet or hands, which was probably a good thing considering her knuckles were bruised and bloody for pounding on the floor.

"Meg? Meg!" Margaret whipped her head around to see Ray pushing against the bars of his cell. He looked worried for her- his knuckles pure white from gripping the bars.

Meg opened her mouth to say something- but was hit in the side by a guard. Her burn injuries hissed in pain, causing her to stumble and fall. The guards laughed at her, kicking the red head in the side until she tried to get up. They grabbed her arms- her damp jacket clinging to her dirty, shivering figure.

She turned to look back at Ray- now sporting a bleeding cheek- and offered a reassuring smile. The smile turned out to be more of a grimace, but Meg didn't have time to say anyone to the worrisome Ray and careless Mick before she was dragged off.

Snart's words about Ray flashed briefly into Meg's mind. Was that true? Or was Snart simply spreading false facts. Obviously they all had to care about one another and get along or else this mission would fail... if it wasn't already... Plus, Margaret couldn't think of a reason why anyone would be infatuated with her. She had narcolepsy, and was shy... and now with those stupid powers of hers Meg considered herself a real turn off.

The guards, led by Valentina, brought Meg into another laboratory-themed room. Stein sat in a cell, looking not only exhausted physically- but also mentally. Meg knitted her brows together with worry. Did they hurt him?

As they opened the cell door, Margaret was shoved inside, falling onto the floor in front of the former professor's feet.

"We will let you two have a small reunion before we get to work. I'll give you an hour- it's my lunch break." Vostok sneered, her thick accent echoing in the room as she locked the door to the cell.

They cleared out- leaving only Martin and Margaret.

"Miss Grace- are you okay?" He helped her to her feet, trying to be gentle since he didn't know where exactly she was injured. Meg sat down in the cell, her bruised hands wrapped around her torso as she shivered.

"Fine. Did they hurt you? Did you tell them anything?" The red head asked, her face cringing in pain as the Professor wrapped his jacket around the hypothermic girl.

"I'm fine, Margaret. And no- I didn't tell them anything. I'm afraid, though, if I don't then they'll hurt you and the others." Stein fretted.

"Don't tell them a thing, Stein. We can't let them find out about Firestorm. It'll be the end of the world as we know it." Meg sighed, looking at the Professor with purple-ringed eyes. Her torso and back hurt terribly, and the numbness of half her body was no help. Stein's jacket did give her some warmth, but she shrugged it off and gave it back to them. He had the information Valentina needed- so he should be the one to stay warm the longest.

"I'm afraid it's the only chance you, Raymond, and Mick have."

-----

The hour was shortly up, and Valentina came with the rest of her guards. Meg was dragged quickly out of the cell, her stomach lurching forward. She was dragged deeper into the lab.

Her hands were brought above her head, chained to a pipe. The searing hot pain of the long burns on her sides caused a pitiful yelp to escape her lips.

"I hope you and Margaret had lots of fun catching up, Dr. Stein. I even see you tried to patched her up a bit. Now.. Where were we? Ah, the missing part of the formula for Firestorm. I need it." She asked. The guards came over with the familiar searing hot rods, causing Meg to pale.

"I won't give it to you." Martin said defiantly, eyeing Margaret wearily. Valentina nodded at one of her henchmen, and another hot metal rod pressed into her back. Meg let out a choked sob, her body flailing to get away from the heat. The hot sensation traveled all the way up her arms to her cold fingertips. It pounded like cinderblocks in her body.

Meg breathed in heavily, nostrils flaring. Her legs had given out, leaving only her wrists to hold her up. The red head wished so badly to blast Valentina out of the sky, to rip her pretty little finger nails off to hear her screams and laugh at her like she did to her.

"Ok.. If you won't answer your own questions and Margaret seems to be a little preoccupied.. How do her powers work? You must know, being a scientist and all." She asked, circling Dr. Stein like a hawk stalking its prey. An uneasiness stirred in Meg's stomach as she watched, hot tears streaming down her face.

"That's not my business. I have no clue where she got them, I've only just met her a few weeks ago." Stein answered as safely as he could. Valentine raised an eyebrow, and contemplated his words. Meg studied Stein through the curtains of her rusty red hair that fell over her face.

They wanted to break him, and get the answers they needed. But Valentina didn't know that she was actually trying to torture one half of the actual Firestorm.

Behind his big, philosophical facade of a grumpy old man- Stein was a kind soul fearing for his life. For however long they had been there; two, three days- he's been thinking Rip and the rest of the team would come rescue them. But he was losing hope. He was barely able to hold on.

Something crackling with electricity hit Meg's body- an electrified baton smacking against her burn wounds. A scream worked it's way out of her mouth as she slumped forward from the power surging through her limp body.

"Stop it, you'll kill her!" Stein exclaimed. They cut the power, leaving Margaret gasping for breath. The chains were taught as she tried in vain to get her footing and stand. Her bruised fists smacked together as she tried to stand.

"Then tell me the information I need!" Valentina exclaimed. The Professor thought for a moment, searching for the right words to say.

"Stein, don't you dare-" Meg is cut off by another thwack of electricity. She screeched at the top of her lunch, arching her back in immense pain.

Everything around her blurred, her ears ringing out of control. Every other noise around her seemed to be canceled out.

Then, as she tried to gain her footing to soothe her aching wrists, Meg's eyes drooped and the world around her went dark.