Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off o this.
Warnings:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, abuse, torture, heavy,
dark angst, attempted NCS, not a deathfic.
Burning Candles
Down into Darkness
"It's simple, Maxwell," the guard said in his ear. "Every time you say no to one of our commands, you get shocked right in the gonads, got it?"
Duo was gasping, naked below the waist, legs spread wide and strapped into place on a table reminiscent of an obstetrics table, his arms were locked behind his back and his neck chain drawn tight into a lock behind his head. Immobilized, he had been unable to stop them from inserting the device under the skin behind his testicles.
The guard showed him a hand held control and smiled evilly. "I think you probably need a demonstration."
"No," Revenant ordered sharply. "As long as he follows orders, he is safe. I want him to trust us." He came into Duo's view. "Don't be stupid, Maxwell. Do as you're told." He began to turn away again, but Duo called out sharply.
"Better not leave me alone with sicko here," Duo warned, "or he'll take advantage of the position, if you know what I mean?"
Revenant grimaced in disgust. "Only if he wants to die."
The guard tightened his grip on the control, furious, but he didn't push the button that would deliver to Duo the electric charge.
"Saving that pleasure for yourself?" Duo retorted.
Revenant slowly looked over Duo's body in a way that made Duo squirm nervously. "I don't mix pleasure with business," he finally replied and nodded to the guard. "Release him and take him to Bertram." Revenant added, "And Maxwell, don't try to remove the device, it has sensors that will trigger a massive shock to your system if you attempt it. I've heard of men living for days in absolute agony."
Revenant left with his guard and aids came forward to release Duo from all his restraints. His arms refused to work until they massaged them back to life and his neck, having been restrained at sharp angles for days, was now throbbing with spasms and giving him a tremendous headache.. He ignored the pain, sat up, and snatched his pants from a nearby table. He put them on, glaring at the aids and the guard. "Shows over," he growled.
The aids backed away nervously, but the guard was grabbing Duo by his braid and yanking him off of the table. Duo hissed at the pain between his legs, but he stood.
"So, what now?" Duo asked as he was prodded towards a door. His bare feet were cold on the freezing floor but no one gave him back his shoes."Why the change in scenery?"
"Seems your Preventer buddies don't give a damned about you," the guard sneered. "We didn't even get an email from them."
"You thought Heero was going to come running after me?" Duo surmised. "You thought he'd be wearing this ball shocker instead of me right now, right?"
"Revenant wanted the best," the guard admitted."But Yuy's been too alert, too security conscious to give us an opportunity to kidnap him. Revenant thought he could convince him to come here, bargain for you, give us a chance to capture him."
"I'm the best, you fucker!" Duo snarled.
"No," the guard replied, "You're 'make do' and boss man isn't happy about that at all. If I were you, I'd jump through flaming hoops, if he tells you. He's mad enough to do without if you're too much trouble."
"Why the advice?" Duo wanted to know. "What's it to you if I get my balls fried off?"
"Nothing," The guard snickered. "But when I do fry them off, I can truthfully tell Revenant that I warned you." He leaned close to Duo and said. "I'll enjoy making you roll over, beg, fetch, and lick my boots. I'll enjoy it a lot."
Duo's reply was to toss his head sharply sideways, cracking the guard in the face. The man dropped like a sack of rocks, unconscious. Duo grinned and retrieved the control and the guards gun. "Why are guards always so fucking stupid?"
"Luckily," Revenant's disembodied voice replied all around Duo, "I am intelligent enough to realize that and to have other controls for your shock device. Sirtus, fifteen seconds, if you please?"
The shock erupted from between Duo's legs and he screamed and fell, writhing on the floor, hands tearing at his clothes to get at the device. Fifteen heartbeats as red washed over his eyes and his head felt as if it would explode. Fifteen breaths as agony encompassed his entire being and he threw up. Fifteen lifetimes before the pain ceased and left him in a tangled, semi unconscious heap of sweat, tears, vomit, and torn clothes.
Someone was looking down at him. The face of Revenant drifted in the red haze.
"I think we've learned our lesson, yes? Nod or I'll shock you again," Revenant warned. Duo nodded and Revenant's tone became pleased. "Do everything you are told and you will be treated well. Displease me and ruin my project, and I will make you truly suffer. Understood? Answer me."
Duo wiped the vomit from his face, glared at it, glared at Revenant, and then said distinctly, with a hard, fierce smile, "Fuck you."
Revenant frowned and then said coldly, "Fifteen seconds, Sirtus."
The world shattered in pain.
________________________________________________
"Heero!" Quatre choked out. "What-"
Heero raised a hand. He was as white as a sheet but he was staring at the scrolling code on the computer screen intently. The code was easily decipherable as Preventer made and coming directly from Commander Une's office.
"'I.. I have the photo memorized," Heero said at last, blinking and turning his ruined computer off. He bowed his head, hands clasped between his knees. His shoulders trembled very faintly. "I need another computer as quickly as possible. I will have to set up a blind account and reroute connections so that Une doesn't tap into it." His voice steadied and grew monotone. His mind centered and shut off his shock. It was difficult. Something wanted to explode inside of him and his hands were flexing, opening and closing against his will, as if they wanted to grab a weapon and...
Quatre ran hands over his face. He sat down heavily, mimicking Heero's posture unconsciously. "He's alive..."
"Perhaps," Heero corrected softly.
"Why?" Quatre looked at the dead computer as if he could still see the picture there. "Why would Une keep this a secret? Why steal this from your emails?"
"The first note," Heero tried to stop his trembling and failed. "It seemed to say that Duo's kidnaping had been payback for something Une had done. But, if that's so, then why send these things to me? Why send me a message telling me that these people wanted me instead?"
Quatre swallowed hard, wiped at his eyes, and then replied, "They took Duo because they couldn't get to you." He glanced at Heero. "I'm guessing that you still keep up your security habits from the war?" When Heero nodded, Quatre nodded as well. "Yes, so..." He cleared his throat, trying to speak through his emotions. "I think.... I think someone wanted something from Une. Her refusal triggered retaliation, in the form of kidnaping her best agent and... torturing him. Perhaps, by sending emails to you, proof that Duo is being tortured and that it is Une's fault, they hope to goad you into enacting revenge on her."
Heero frowned. "Why not simply kill her?"
Quatre's eyebrows rose. "Kill her?" he echoed.
Heero nodded, once, frowning, "Her security is poor. They could easily kill her."
"Perhaps they wish to bargain with her still, force her hand with the threat against Duo and the possibility that you will find out and kill her yourself?" Quatre reasoned.
"No," Heero argued. "Unless they are stupid and unprofessional, I don't think that could be true."
"What is your guess?" Quatre wondered, at a loss.
Heero thought for long minutes while Quatre waited patiently. Finally, Heero came to one conclusion that was logical, though hard to accept. "They kidnaped Duo. They are sending proof of his torture to me, not Une. I am Duo's partner. Usually, partners are very close, very emotional about their working relationship. I think their plan was for me to try to rescue Duo, even offer myself in his place. That would explain why they would reveal that I was their goal, not Duo."
Quatre frowned. "And where does Une fit into this?"
"Once I acquire a computer, I intend to find out.," Heero promised."If I'm the one that they want, one of the stolen emails may have a meeting place specified."
"The picture," Quatre wondered. "Does it have any clues?"
Heero closed his eyes and concentrated. " The walls are fortified steel, riveted. The floor is sealed against chemical spills. The chains they are using are new... stainless, the type one might use on a ship."
"A tanker ship?" Quatre guessed eagerly.
"Perhaps," Heero replied cautiously. "Duo is wearing...not his uniform pants. They are the kind a surgeon might wear, cotton, drawstring. His shoes are gone. His cuts are consistent with a razor edge. His shock burns are not severe. They are being careful, keeping him undamaged." Heero trembled a little more. "He still has his braid. I was afraid..." He choked down on that. After receiving some of it, he had been afraid that they had cut off all of it. "The men attacking him... middle aged, not military, they look sloppy... tattoo in Armenian on one, scar on left temple of the other. Clothes nondescript. No uniforms."
Heero opened his eyes. "Nothing to pinpoint location," he finished and stood. "I need to protect any future emails from Une in case they try to contact me again."
"Heero," Quatre picked his words carefully as he stood as well. "You weren't able to answer their emails. If Une didn't answer them, it's possible that..."
"That they killed Duo?" Heero finished and frowned. "Unlikely. I'm convinced they are keeping him operational for some purpose other than to use him as bait to acquire me."
"Operational?" Quatre snapped back angrily. "He's not a machine. "
"No. He's a Gundam pilot," Heero replied stiffly, "and we're not weapons anyone destroys lightly. I will assume that he is alive. It is possible that he will free himself."
"Did you see the same picture that I did or is your memory faulty?" Quatre retorted hotly. "He was chained and being tortured! If this is your way of saying that you won't pursue this any further..."
"Our main investigation has to be Une's motivation for keeping this incident classified," Heero told him."She is the head of Preventers, the only armed police force in the Earthsphere at this time. If her loyalty is compromised, then many people are in danger. Peace is threatened. I cannot ignore that threat and pursue Duo instead. He knew that an agent's life might be called on to be sacrificed for the greater good when he joined."
Quatre was outraged. "How can you..." He closed his eyes, nostrils flaring, and then he looked at Heero hard, his blue eyes piercing. "I know you feel for him. Your fear is burning like fire all around you, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not. Perhaps you can lock it away from your heart and be the good soldier, but I can't. Pursue Une, but I'm sending my own men after Duo."
"Where will they look?" Heero wondered skeptically.
"The oceans, the boats, ships that carry chemical loads," Quatre replied. "All of Earth and Space if they have to."
Quatre strode to the door, but he paused with his hand on the knob as he said to Heero, without turning, "Perhaps your course of action is the right one, but you could at least have the decency to look upset over that decision!"
The door banged as Quatre slammed it shut behind him. Heero stared at the wood for long moments and then he took a shuddering breath.
______________________________________________
"I've never seen anyone chance a second charge," a nervous voice said. "Heart failure is a real possibility if he allows a third." Hands touched Duo, cold and impersonal. "He went into shock. His eyes were tracking. He suffered muscle spasm for twenty minutes. All indications of dangerous trauma. If you want this man to pilot, I do suggest that you persuade him in another fashion."
Revenant's voice came from Duo's other side, frustrated and very angry. "What do you suggest instead?"
"Pain does not seem to motivate him, nor self preservation," the other man mused."I suggest drugs."
"No, he can't be mentally impaired when he runs the system," Revenant told him and then corrected himself, "If he can run the system. Yuy was a definite. This man's only potential."
Revenant's voice came very close, as if he were leaning over Duo. Duo remained
motionless, the throbbing pain of his head, stressed muscles, and his shock
implant making it hard to stay still and breathe evenly. "He is very...
volatile, emotional, sure of himself, " Revenant continued, "Men like
that... do you know what they hate worse than anything?"
"Sir?"
"Humiliation, helplessness... and having what they hold dear threatened," Revenant replied. "Every man has a weakness, Dr., even someone like him. We just have to find out what that weakness is. Take his clothes and throw him back into his cell... let's start with humiliation while my men find out if he has anyone in his life he holds dearer than his stubbornness."
Tbc
see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at amazon.com
under Kracken
Website:http://kracken.bonpublishing.com
Latest updates at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KrackenficsML/
and for general fanfiction talk: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/krackenml/
On to Chapter four