Time slows down when you're being brutally beaten, Ben reflects, and you have two choices: turn that time into a blur or sharpen it to a point. He pitches his next scream of terror higher and cowers at the fury of the Iraqi man before him.
Facing similar situations, many people would likely attempt retreating to a "happy place" somewhere in their minds. Not Ben. Besides, with Juliet angry at him over what happened to Goodwin and Alex angry at him over his attitude towards Karl, he doesn't have many happy places left lately.
He locks eyes with Sayid as the self-proclaimed torturer exits, sees the struggle with grief over the woman he has lost and guilt over the man he has become. The grief is shallow and will fade, but the guilt is acidic and unyielding. The guilt will spread, intensify, and the only thing that will help him to forget it will be to take it out on somebody. And somebody is right at hand in the armory. Sayid will be back.
Ben will be waiting. It certainly isn't the first time he's incurred severe damage to his person in order to study an opponent, and it probably won't be the last. A man in a rage is a man who has let down his guard. Every insult, every blow reveals more about the man beneath the surface.
He pushes past the pain as pain, focuses on the sensation without letting it take over. Warm blood trickles down his face.
There is power in it.