It took some time to realize my torturer had left the room. At first all I could register was that the pain was gone, for the moment, and relief flooded my brain, and I barely even heard his receding footsteps, or the heavy metal door opening and closing. But then the pain did not return, and I slowly found the strength to lift my head. The room was empty. Just me and the angled metal slab I was chained to, my arms over my head, my clothes torn to shreds and brown with blood.

A distant noise. A voice? Loud, but far away. Shouting. Other voices, shouting. Something crashed, something smashed.

An explosion rocked the room, and the door swung open, loose on its hinges. The hall was filled with smoke. My throat was dry enough already from screaming and lack of food or water, and I blinked rapidly to keep my eyes clear.

The unmistakable sounds of a fight reached me through the smoke. No, not a fight - a smackdown. Fists against flesh, over and over, while the loser whimpered and wailed and was finally thrown aside.

And then she appeared in the doorway, out of the smoke, blood on her knuckles, grenades on her belt, and her face streaked with dirt and soot.

If I had thought that no longer being actively tortured was a relief, it was nothing compared to the wave of glee that rushed over me. She was here. She was here!

"Marta." Her name barely escaped my hoarse throat.

"You're alive." She strode forward and began to undo the binding on my hands. "Lucky for them. I might let a few live."

"Who else is here?"

"Just me. No time for backup."

"That was stupid. And risky. What if they killed you?"

My hands came free, and I sagged forward into her arms, strong and ready to hold me.

"Yeah, well, you know me. I never think things through, right?"

I couldn't think of anything appropriately snarky to say. It was just like her to throw my own words in my face like that. I wanted to tell her again she shouldn't have come, that it was a foolish thing to do, but now in her firm embrace, I couldn't lie and say I wished she weren't here.