The Long Game

Summary: (Sequel to Mind Games). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

Disclaimer: This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

Authors Note: Ok, so if you haven't read Mind Games, this might not make much sense to you. Better go read that first. :P

To my returning followers; thanks for your patience with this. I know I left you with quite the cliff hanger in Mind Games, so hopefully this gives you the closure you feel you need.

Updating may be sporadic; I've got a few projects on the go at the moment, including an original project that is taking off like a storm! More info on that if you ask for details.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

Prologue: The Recap

It had been a long and hard trip, but Collins was finally safe. Canada was as hospitable as he'd been promised and no one knew he was a wanted fugitive in this secluded, forest-based village. He was as out of the way as he could hope to be, and it felt so gratifying and free. Here, the ignorance of the world couldn't touch him and he could further his research in peace.

The car's engine sputtered out; aged and rusty, it had performed grudgingly to get him to his new home and he couldn't be more thankful, however he also couldn't wait to see the back of the old thing. While his funds had been incredibly high – thanks to a very wealthy sponsor – he couldn't risk standing out in anything flashy or noteworthy. This, along with other small changes seemed to help keep him under the radar. His beard was gone. Hair was now black and short into a buzz cut. His glasses had been destroyed in the blast that he'd set up at the Scorpion Headquarters and had since been replaced with dark brown contact lenses. He'd treated himself to a fake tan too. All of which gave him the appearance of a foreigner from South America rather than a North American Caucasian fugitive.

The new passport was genuine but the documents to procure it were fake but clearly convincing. A few bribes had given him stellar character references and his new name was now Johnathan Lee Smith. Even if the name didn't suit the foreign appearance, there were enough John Smiths who looked nothing like the ethnic origins of the name to make it convincing enough. While the authorities were trained to search the generic names first for fraudulent fugitives, Collins knew that they wouldn't be looking for a foreign looking John Smith. They'd overlook him without a second glance. Where better to hide than in a list they'd already marked as checked?

And even if they did spot him and recognise him, he was no longer in their jurisdiction and it would take months for an extradition case to go through. He also had three other forms of identity to confuse the authorities too, with a story that 'his ID had clearly been cloned by this Collins chap and that he'd like to get it sorted as soon as possible to get this man in custody.' It'd give him enough time to activate his back up escape plan and he'd be long gone by the time anyone pegged him as the actual Mark Collins that they were looking for.

It was a brilliant plan and he knew it.

He stared out of the dirty windshield at his new home for the foreseeable future, and sighed with contentment. Anything was better than that dilapidated warehouse he'd been staying in while setting up his various traps and research. It hadn't been very comfortable, nor had it been easy to get the equipment in place, or keep himself cleaned and fed. The money was good but he had a notoriety issue in the city, and couldn't move around or show his face too much or he'd have been caught. Nonetheless, the warehouse had done the job he'd needed it to do. Now his creature comforts would be met as a reward for the hard work he'd put into the whole project. In all honesty, the BBI project hadn't been his first interest when he was offered the chance to get his revenge on team Scorpion. But his client and sponsor – a very rich and politically inclined Russian – had hired him for that sole reason. The vengeance was just a side dish that was more appetising to Collins than the main course.

He knew the implications of what could happen if the BBI research was perfected and sold as requested to his sponsor; the world would be at the man's mercy. And he wasn't a very nice man. But Collins had a few fail safes in place to keep himself safe in that eventuality. A few override commands built into the chips would ensure he would be forever required and forever protected from death as long as he kept his secrets close.

His only threat was Walter.

Walter was the only one who had just as much knowledge on the BBI chips as Collins did, and even though Collins had improved the design and capabilities of the chip, Walter was only a few study sessions away from deciphering it all and undoing his work. But Collins wasn't worried about that. The chip in Walter's head was his security blanket. He hadn't needed to, but he'd hooked the chip up to all of Walter's core body functions that kept him alive. If Walter wanted to live, he'd stay silent and do nothing. If he didn't, he'd be too dead to do anything about it.

Not that Collins wanted Walter dead. He hadn't gone to all that effort to just kill off a key player. Once upon a time, Walter had been a close friend and dear co-worker. It wasn't often Collins felt that level of respect for someone. Which was why it had been such a shame that those so-called friends of Walter's had interfered and diluted the genius brain of his friend.

Collins eyed the house before him as he sat in the car, thoughts circling around his friend and his project. It was a nice house; old, in a sturdy and homely way. Built to last and withstand the brisk country Canadian weather. With heavy lumbar fascia's, and compacted stone base walls that were no doubt holding the basement in perfect place. There was also a small porch decking at the front with a rook that doubled as a balcony for the guest room. The front door was a heavy oak door and had been treated with a dark varnish to match the lumbar facets. It was a handsome house. strong, bold and ready to keep its tenants safe.

Just what Collins needed.

His sponsor had no idea about this house. They'd offered him a studio flat in one of the major cities, no doubt kitted with all the spyware they could afford – which would have been a lot – and Collins was not about to have his work stolen from him after all this progress.

He'd accepted the flat via email but had no intention on ever stepping into the place. He wasn't an idiot. The second he stepped over the threshold of that flat, there'd be a team to bring him whatever he needed, negating his need to leave the place and then the spyware would steal his codes, passwords and data. Then he would be canon fodder for any repercussions that came up.

No thank you.

Collins huffed a sigh and cranked open the car door. It opened with a resistant whine but allowed him to exit the vehicle without further protest. He quickly grabbed his duffel bags and headed inside the house. It was cold outside, as was to be expected now that he was that much further north but the house was warm and inviting. He smiled to himself and set to work setting up his computer system in the basement. He couldn't wait to watch the footage of his old friends trying to solve his genius puzzles.

He set the video playback up onto the main screen and fetched himself a coffee from the upstairs kitchen before sitting back on his leather backed desk chair and pressing play.

The first scenes of the laser room were as he'd expected. The looks on the faces of those attempting to thwart him were priceless. He couldn't hold back the chuckles as Toby's incredulous looks of surprise and disbelief flashed across the screen. As predicted, Paige would be the one to attempt the impossible flexes and twists to get to the other side… but that's when Collins felt the first pang of concern. Paige stopped in the middle of the room and pulled up the panel that was not supposed to be pulled up. It didn't bode well that the team had found a loophole on the first trap.

He watched with bated breath as the lasers went out and then predictably the lever wouldn't work to free the drowning girl. Collins leaned in close to the screen, worry marring his tanned brows as he urged the team to get the girl out. He might be a sadistic twist of a man but he wasn't a murderer. Not that his victims knew that but still.

He breathed a sigh of relief when they macgyvered a small bomb to free the girl. He sat back in his chair again and sipped at the coffee as he watched the rest of the footage play out.

The maze was next. But right at the start, he realised something else had gone wrong. The TV had shorted. The water from above had leaked through the floor. Of course, it would. The lever was supposed to drain it away, not leave the tank and flood the room. Damn it.

Luckily Happy had fixed it up so they could hear his message. As he watched the puzzles unfold, he sipped and snacked as though watching a movie. Sylvester and the snake pit had been entertaining but an easy solve. The drama with that homeland guy being bitten was interesting, and watching Toby in action never failed to impress even Collins. Grudgingly. The periodic table was funny to watch, seeing the team hopping in a single file across the board was a sight. And the mad dash to the door at the end of the room was hilarious. He found himself sobering though when he realised that the cage knot that the damn baby was inside had come loose. He watched, glued to the screen until the baby was safe. He breathed again and found himself wondering about Walter's set up. So far, his two victims had come very close to a death he hadn't planned for. And Walter's room had been fairly hastily put together.

The knot of concern grew as the team ventured toward the room of switches.

The events that followed confirmed his fears, and Collins watched on the edge of his seat as the final switch shorted out. Walter's condition had rapidly gone downhill, a lot sooner than he'd anticipated. In hindsight, a little first aid could have helped prevent this mess of a situation.

And then Walter seized. Collins' heart almost stopped.

This was not how the plan should be going.

The screen showed Happy breaking the glass and his heart almost stopped again in fear of the bomb he'd set up going off. And it was here that Collins was thankful for his shoddy work not working properly. All that work, to be blown up would have been such a waste. Not to mention his strange sentimental attachment to the man who was being rescued. He followed them through the camera footage as they raced back through the building and his various traps and then he lost sight of them once they left in the ambulance.

In a panic, he quickly searched all of the hospitals' servers for a patient matching Walter's bio-metrics but found none. He cursed to himself. They must have taken him to a Homeland infirmary which was off the usual public grid. It'd take some intricate digging, but it wasn't impossible to hack their system and learn what they did to save Walter.

On a whim, he tried the bugs he'd placed in the garage but none of them pinged back. They'd done a bug sweep and cleaned up properly too. Damn. He was sure that at least one or two had been well hidden.

He had no choice. He had to log into the chip.

There were a few reasons he was reluctant to do this right away. One was that he knew the chip was intricately linked to Walter's major organs and if he logged in mid surgery then all sorts of programming errors could become an issue and cause more harm than Collins was really willing to initiate.

And if the team were working on figuring out the chip, logging into it might make them aware of his presence and he wasn't ready to give them anymore details than they'd already figured out. But his options were now limited. He had to know the status of the chip and what its programming had done to his first test subject. It was vital research data and would determine his next actions in his grand plan, the long game.

He switched computers, this one was masked and under heavy lock and key to prevent back hacking and reverse tracking. He opened the program he'd created and loaded the home screen. He clicked on the connect button and waited several beats for the connection to load.

Error – Could not connect to device

'What?'

He clicked again. Knowing his connection to the dark web and the internet in general was secure and strong.

Error – Could not connect to device

"No, no, no-no-no, noooo…" He muttered under his breath as he tried again and again to connect to his creation. Every click presented him with the error message.

"NO!" He cried out in frustration as he threw the nearest thing on his desk into the wall. His coffee cup shattered in a spray of ceramic and dark liquid but he paid it no heed; his eyes glued to the error message on his screen with a furious glare. His mind worked a mile a minute at his next options. He'd need another test subject. Another chip.

Another six months to plan the whole operation from scratch.

"Damn you, Scorpion."