Chapter 8

Violet blinked groggily as a light flooded the room. Moments later, her eyes shot open as the alarm clock next to the bed said in a loud, feminine voice, "Good Morning, it is 8:30 am."

Violet reached over and blearily shut it off.

Then she sat up in the very large bed, very much alone, as memories of the night before filtered into her waking brain.

She'd lost her virginity.

To Syndrome.

Violet scrambled out of bed, vaguely recalling being woken earlier by Buddy as he told her he'd be out for a little bit. Turning on the bathroom light, she came to a stop in front of the sink, staring at herself with wide eyes.

She'd lost her virginity.

Violet drew in a shaky breath. Her eyes were a deep purple, her skin so pale it was almost translucent. Her dark hair was tousled and disheveled. Her fingers shook were she gingerly touched her own cheek, and then her lips, slightly red.

Looking away from herself, she turned on the faucet, changed her mind, and turned towards the shower. She needed the hot water to calm her down. She was already naked, so she just turned on the water and got in.

As the hot water cascaded down on her head, Violet silently cursed herself. She'd always told herself that she wouldn't be dumb and lose her virginity quickly. She'd always planned to be dating the guy for a while before she let things go to the next level. But last night...

Well, everything had felt so right, and her mind hadn't exactly been thinking too much. Being in this...place...made everything different, made everything seem so...surreal. Last night, Buddy had been so gentle with her, and she'd felt so bold, so...free.

Maybe she was being a rebel...sleeping with her family's nemesis.

But it was more than that, really. Buddy had proven to be so much more than a villain. Her world of black and white, good vs. bad, which had already been shaky, had been completely blown up by Buddy and the way he acted.

Heck, referring to him as Buddy in her mind so easily was just one sign, when before he'd always been Syndrome, the villain, not Buddy, the person.

Shaking her head to try and alleviate all of the thoughts swirling around her brain, Violet decided that three things were for certain: there was more to Buddy than meets the eye as far as villains go, she could not let last night repeat itself, and she had to put some distance between them before anything bad happened. Like caring for him. Last night had been a fluke, a crazy night where she wasn't thinking and was acting drastically with her captor who had shown unusual kindness.

Nodding her head to further punctuate her thoughts, Violet quickly washed and stepped out, hurrying to dry and get back in her own clothes.

Violet was on her way to the kitchen when she heard the door open. The door that she knew led to the outside, if only she could get through it. Her steps slowed, but instead of going past the kitchen to the door as she wanted to, Violet made herself turn towards the kitchen.

The movement in the hallway was approaching her, but Violet kept her eyes on her hands as she prepared to make a sandwich for herself.

It wasn't until the steps where actually in the kitchen that she realized they sounded nothing like Syndrome's careful steps. These were quick, light steps.

Violet turned around and came face to face with a stranger. A man, standing three feet from her. He was taller than her, but not by much. He was lean, with hardly any meat to his bones. His nose was long and showed signs of being broken and healed unevenly. His eyes were a dull mud brown, but they glittered with malice and intelligence. His lips cracked into a feral smile, revealing teeth that desperately needed a dentist.

Violet gripped the spoon that she'd been holding.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked taking a step back to put her back against the counter.

"My name...is Parasite." He replied, and lifted a gloved hand. In it was a small black device. Her eyes widened when she realized it was a taser. "And you are going to come with me now."

With her heart hammering against her chest and fear-induced adrenaline pumping through her veins, Violet hurled the spoon at his face and ran for the door.

Buddy slowed as he came down the alleyway that lead to the entrance of his lair. He glanced over his shoulder back down the alleyway he'd traversed, and upon finding it empty, he slipped a hand between two bricks that were spaced wide enough apart for his hand. The fingerprint and DNA scanner peeped quietly, and the door latch released.

Opening the door, Buddy made it three steps before his breath left his lungs in a whoosh as his eyes widened and his heart stuttered. The hallway that acted as a buffer between the circular hallway and the outside world had blood splattered on the wall and floor, though it small quantities. The door to the hallway was open. On the floor, closer to the hallway than to the outside world, lay Violet's metal volt bracelet.

Buddy strode forward and picked it up, startled when it sent a small jolt into him at the smallest contact. Grimacing, he left it where it was and entered the hallway. His eyes roamed the area, spotting two more blood drops leading towards, or from, the kitchen. He followed them, and in the kitchen, he found mayhem. A half-made sandwich lay on the counter. The chairs had been overturned and one of the table legs was broken. A spoon lay in the corner.

Anger built inside Buddy with every moment. His fingers curled into fists, his muscles quivering. His steps echoed as he made his way to his control room. There, he was able to rewind his video feed and watch it all. Watch how a strange man used a glove to get past his door, corner Violet in the kitchen, taser and wrestle with her, punching her, kicking her, to get her outside. When she'd been pulled past the door, he winced when she screamed, her body convulsing. His fist cracked down on the desk when the man grabbed her arm, broke her hand, and ripped the bracelet free.

She'd lost consciousness by then, and he'd slung her into a large bag which Violet easily fit in, and carried her away past the line of his feed.

And the man was the same one who'd he'd purchased to make a diversion in capturing Violet in the first place.

Buddy let out a yell of pure rage and tossed his computer chair across the room, where it banged against the door and fell to the floor. His body vibrated with his anger, his finger curled into fists and his eyes simmered with wrath.

He'd been duped. The great genius Syndrome had been duped by some sniveling man who'd been eager to please and even more eager for money. He was almost certain that the man had done something, collected some samples of some kind, when they'd met to arrange for the distraction. And now the man has Violet.

A few days ago, this may have angered him to no end because Violet was his prisoner, his link to the ultimate revenge against Mr. Incredible. It was more than that now. He'd begun to feel a little for the girl. Damn it, he'd taken her to his bed! And it hadn't been about the sex. He'd enjoyed showing her things and seeing her pleasure more than he should have. He hadn't woken up alone. The hole of loneliness which had only been filled when speaking to Flower had been filled twenty four seven by the living breathing flower herself.

Buddy closed his eyes and leaned forward against the desk, trying to get ahold of himself. Ranting and raving were going to get him nowhere. He'd learned long ago that his fiery temper was best left leashed. His eyes narrowed dangerously on the still shot of the man's face as he glanced over his shoulder before he left the line of sight of his alleyway camera.

The man was going to pay.

Buddy reached for one of his many devices, a plan formulating in his head.

Violet came awake to pain. Her hand throbbed unmercifully, and her body ached all over from numerous cuts and bruises. Never before had she had to fight a villain without the power of invisibility, or of shields, and her body had paid the price. She'd become too reliant on them.

Holding herself still to keep from further damaging herself, Violet looked around the dingy room she was in. It was obviously a rented apartment that hadn't been renovated or repaired in many years. Her ankles were in handcuffs, and so were her wrists, behind her back, and both handcuffs were around two steel pipes in the wall. They were spaced apart to the point where her back was arched a little to allow the position. Wincing, she looked over her shoulder to see that the steel pipe was rusty, and might give if she pulled hard enough. Still, she needed to rest a moment or she knew she'd pass out from the first attempt.

As she shifted for a more comfortable position, she realized that the weight on her wrists came only from the handcuffs. The metal bracelet which had blocked her powers was gone. Elation soared in her chest at the realization that she could use her powers again.

The elation was doused some when she realized that it would do nothing to help her escape. She was weak, beaten, and completely immobilized in the strange position that had her laying on the ground on her side. What was more, as she shifted again, a sharp, white-hot pain shot up her hand and into her arm. She bit her lip to keep from screaming, drawing a dot of blood. She had a broken hand.

For the first time in a long time, Violet just wanted to cry. These past few weeks had been terror. She'd been kidnapped twice, she hurt all over, and the saddest, perhaps most pathetic part was that she wanted the wrong person to save her.

She should have wanted her parents, hell, even her brothers, to save her, but no...No, she wanted Buddy to save her. In the past few days, things had drastically changed in her life, and one of the most drastic was that she'd given away her virginity to a guy who had once been her enemy and that she barely knew. The moment had been so passionate, and he'd been so surprisingly gentle, that she hadn't been able to stop. Looking back, she wished she'd waited, knew that her high-strung emotions and hormones had played too large of a part in her decision.

Did she regret becoming so close to him though?

Her heart and her head hesitated from what she knew should have been an immediate 'yes.' It should have been Stockholm syndrome...but Violet knew that was a lie. Even now, she craved to know more about him, to be around him more…

She was considering a fucking relationship with him.

Violet groaned, shaking her head a little to clear her thoughts. This was definitely not the time, nor the place, to be thinking about something like that. Instead, she shifted her body into a position that would allow her to kick her legs against her restraints and try to crack or move the rusted pipe. She was bracing herself for the pain when a sound made her freeze in place.

A door opened loudly, less from force and more from the horrible screeching sound of a door in serious need of oil. Violet moved back to the way she'd been laying when she woke up, closing her eyes and resting her head back down against the floor. She held herself as still as possible as footsteps echoed against the floorboards by her ear. They got quieter as they receded in the opposite direction, and then louder when the person headed for her direction. She tried not to stiffen when the door to the small room she was in was thrown open, and the footsteps, at their loudest, brought the walker to within a foot of her head.

"Still passed out eh? What a little weakling...Well, that makes it a quieter night for me!" The man's voice was whiny, full of gloating. It was the same voice was the man who'd kidnapped her...Parasite. The floorboards creaked as he leaned down, and Violet distinctly heard him smell her, a long pull of air, and his reaction, to groan happily, had her skin tighten in disgust and fear. This man was crazy.

Within moments, during which Violet was sure he was staring at her, he turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. She opened her eyes to gaze at after him, her wide eyes taking in the closed and probably locked door that lead to the rest of the apartment. Her hear sank even lower than before. This man, Parasite, was smart, and he was crazy. She didn't know what he wanted with her, but she knew she was in a very bad position.

Sweat beading her brow, Violet began to tug on the pipe, doing it quietly, and over and over. With any luck, the repeated friction would set her free.

Buddy grit his teeth and slammed his fist down on the desk. He had the man's location down to a couple of apartment buildings, but it was taking too long! He'd managed to hack into the cameras that monitored traffic, and followed the man back to a neighborhood, but he'd gone out of range of the cameras and hadn't reappeared in any others, which meant that his lair was located in any number of the buildings that was accessible by the road he'd last been seen on, and had entrances that were no in range of the traffic camera.

Already a full day had passed since she'd been taken. Each time the man had disappeared from a camera, Buddy had been forced to riffle through cameras until he found him again on another screen. This process, along with the residents list he hacked and had been going over, had taken almost a whole day. He hadn't slept or eaten, especially when he'd discovered that there had been no new residents in the buildings, not that any document was aware of, and so Buddy had been forced to look up the histories of anyone who could possibly be the man who'd taken Violet.

He had together everything he needed once he found her, all of the equipment to get his Flower back, but he hadn't counted on how long the searching process would take. The city's surveillance was splotchy, and the apartments in the neighborhood were all low-grade, sketchy buildings that had very little record of the residents.

During the search, his mind had been trying to figure out what the man could possibly want with Violet Parr. Very few people knew who she was, because she hadn't been wearing her suit when she'd been taken, and without her suit and mask, she looked like an ordinary girl. But then...the man had been the diversion that Buddy had used to kidnap Violet in the fist place. He might have seen Buddy take Violet, though Buddy had not told the man his intentions for the diversion.

But if he knew that Buddy had Invisigirl, and if the man had found Buddy's lair, which was entirely possible if he'd been followed...then he would have known that the girl in the lair might have been Invisigirl. And with that knowledge, he would know that by kidnapping the girl, he would gain power over Mr. Incredible.

Buddy's eyes narrowed. The man had used all of Buddy's work in order to gain the rewards. He didn't realize that Buddy wasn't doing it for money or power...he'd done it for revenge, strict satisfaction at seeing Mr. Incredible suffer. His last hurrah to his bad side.

Then, what would this man do with Violet?

Buddy's eyes widened, and quick as lighting, his fingers brought up a fresh camera on his large screen. There, the Parr house came up on screen. He'd been watching the house, from time to time, to see if Mr. incredible had indeed given up super duty. And he had. Several small disasters had befallen the city, and Mr. Incredible had stayed holed up in his house. Even more, he hadn't allowed his family to fight either.

Buddy leaned forward in his seat, narrowing his eyes as he zoomed in on the door. He could see activity inside, through the windows, but there was nothing on the doormat or in the mailbox.

It was a matter of minutes to hack into the Parr household's computer system. They weren't nerds on any level, save for the youngest son, but he had no need to try and breach the boy's computer. He got the jackpot on the first shot. The living room computer had a webcam, and he turned it on remotely without turning on the screen. He had viewing access to the room with sound. The image came up as a separate box on his screen.

"Why did they change their mind? I don't understand what's going on!" Helen Parr cried, sitting down on the couch next to her husband, who was gazing out across the room with hard eyes, his fists tight, his jaw locked. There were three other figures in the room, the eldest boy, and two men who were clearly from the agency.

"This is so stupid! Why did they take Violet in the first place!" The young boy shouted, anger simmering on his face. His blond hair wasn't slicked back like normal, and he was wearing pajamas.

"Dash, go to your room," Helen Parr said sharply, looking up through tear-filled eyes. The boy hesitated, clearing wanting to say something, but instead, he disappeared from the room. He literally moved too fast for Buddy to follow. After a moment of silence, Helen looked down down, her face harsh with held-in grief.

"Mrs. Parr…" the taller man in the room broke the silence tentatively, "...it's impossible to understand the mental workings of a villain...but this is good news, in a way. This letter is not as immaculate as the old. We can track this one...and what's more, he gave you a location to drop off the money...we can find your daughter that way." He was the youngest of the two agents, and he held, with gloves, a letter in his hand. Buddy could barely make out the cut out letters that had been glued to the sheet.

"Amateur..." Buddy murmured, straining to try and read it.

He was interrupted by the second agency officer, who spoke slower, with more authority, and with a more intimate tone. He knew the Parrs, and he must have known them for a while. "Bob...I don't think this is the same guy," the man said, gazing down at the ground in thought. Buddy's eyes flashed to his face, watching closely.

"What do you mean?" Robert Parr asked, looking up sharply.

"This...well, this is sloppy. This letter is too excited...too sudden. The first few messages were clean, organized...cautious. The first guy knew what he was doing, and he was good at it. I don't think we would have been able to figure anything out about him. And he was patient. The letters came very spaced apart, and he seemed in no hurry. What's more, when he told you to stop fighting, we expected something really bad to happen. Nothing has. It's like...he just wanted to test you...or play with you. This new letter...it tastes like a whole new villain," the man's eyes slowly moved up to Mr. Incredible's face, his expression one of speculation, thoughtful.

"Well now...so the agency does have some smart men…" Buddy told himself, tilting his head to the side. He was curious as to what they would get from this.

"But...but what does that mean? No one knows that Violet has been taken. We've told no one, and neither have you. How could someone else know?" Robert Parr asked, confusion and pain darkening his features, already haggard from worry.

"It means...either someone found out, which is extremely unlikely, and is pretending to have her...or...well, perhaps the first villain was duped, or maybe he got ahold of Violet somehow...I think we need to follow this advice, given them fake money that has an invisible tag to it, and try to find out where this second villain is. Either way, we have no choice."

"What if she's dead? What if that's the reason for the change...that she's dead…" Mrs. Parr said in a hollow voice, not looking away from the floor.

"I don't think so...we can't think that way. We must hurry. The drop time is tomorrow morning, at 4 am," the older man from the agency, the wiser one, turned on his heel, heading out of range of the camera. The second man shifted, enough that Buddy was able to read the address of the drop site.

"Leonard, bring the paper...we'll do analysis on it while we get the money in order," the older man's voice came from out of visual range, and the taller, lanky man hurried after him.

Buddy reached to turn off the camera, but he stopped for a moment, gazing at the married couple on the couch. Both were silent. Helen had her arm wrapped around her husband's broad shoulders, her elasticity allowing for her to hold all of him. Robert Parr, Mr. Incredible, had never looked more defeated in his life, gazing down at the floor with dread.

"We'll find her…" Helen whispered, barely loud enough for the camera to pick up on it. Her husband said nothing, and Buddy switched off the webcam. He sat back in his chair, gazing at the now empty screen.

All he'd wanted was to watch Mr. Incredible suffer...to make him feel the way Buddy had felt. Now he'd seen it...and it hadn't satisfied him in the way he'd longed for. He felt...nothing. He did not feel bad for the family, no, but he felt no satisfaction in their suffering.

Buddy let out a slow breath as he realized that his driving need for revenge...was gone. He felt...empty, with the loss of something that had been a part of him since his adolescence. No...he wasn't empty. An image of Violet surfaced in his mind. His revenge had been replaced by hope.

Buddy closed his eyes, tilting his head back against his desk chair, and groaned. "What a fucking sap...I've turned into mush...This...is pathetic…" he told himself, covering his face with his hands. "I can't believe the great and terrible Syndrome just admitted that he was full of hope...I sound like a Hallmark card."

But as much as he laughed at himself, he felt...relieved. There was hope for a new life. He was free of his need to torture Mr. Incredible, and now he could focus on...well, real life.

And in this real life...he wanted his Flower.

Buddy straightened, a new resolve making his eyes glow with determination. He didn't know what he felt towards Violet, if it was just infatuation or if it truly was the beginning of something as terrifying as love, but he knew that he needed to find out. He was going to find her.

The drop site for the Parrs was a few blocks from the apartments. He would wait until then, watch the cameras for the hour before the drop time, and he would find that fucker who'd breached his precious lair. He would make him tell him where Violet was, and then he was going to beat the living shit out of the guy.

Satisfied, Buddy got to his feet. He needed rest before the action. He would find Violet, and he would find her before the Parrs could.

A/N: Hey guys! So...way long time no see, but I've been really busy...and I hope I can finish this story for everyone! I would love some reviews, that always makes me want to work on this story, and I hope you guys enjoy the chapter :P