This, like the genderbent, has been on tumblr for a while. On tumblr, this was a prequel to a one-shot (which turned into a multichap because of Eri and my muse), but here it makes more sense to post it chronologically. I'll probably post the next part tomorrow, then the next the day after that, and so on until I continue writing more installments (if I ever do. This is a bit hard to write).
Warnings: The entire plot of the fic centers around Ian having been tortured by the Vespers (this chapter shows some of the torture) so that settle as a warning. Future chapters may have mentions of suicide. Also OCs are mentioned.
Being captured was part of the plan.
Arthur coming back to get them was part of the plan.
The Vespers realizing Arthur's betrayal and capturing all of them for real was not part of the plan.
(Of course, Ian thought bitterly, knowing Arthur it could've been his own secret plan. Although he doubted Arthur would've included the ten needles currently occupying the space underneath Ian's fingernails in his plan. Oh, it could be worse, he tried to say to himself, they could've shoved the entire needle down his finger instead of half. Of course, that just made him a bit more paranoid about what else they were going to do. Even so, just halfway in, the pain was hardly bearable. No - not even hardly. It wasn't the least bit tolerable, he remembered. Just twitching a finger any which way resurfaced that pain from... however long ago it had started. But it had numbed down, so that was decent.)
The door to the torture room slid open, revealing none other than Ian's mother. She walked, as she always did with the grace that her personality lacked, over so she stood in front of Ian. She offered him a satisfied smirk.
"You know, based on what's happened, you really shouldn't have let Elizabeth tag along with you."
Ian glared at her, trying his best not to clench his fists. "If you so much as look at her-"
Isabel clicked her tongue. "I wouldn't waste my time with someone so... fragile."
She took a step back as Ian rose up to attack her, though his restraints held him in place. She gave a cold chuckle. "Now, now, calm down. You'll only hurt yourself further."
Ian fell back into his chair, though his glare didn't let up. Neither did Isabel's.
She pouted and reached forward to grab Ian's chin. He lashed out to bite her. "Well, that attitude will get you nowhere. My poor son, deluded into an unsophisticated-"
"I am not your son," he growled, "in case you've forgotten the legal documents."
Isabel's smile slowly formed into a frown. Her hand snapped out suddenly, holding Ian's head back by his hair.
"You'd better be careful, saying such rude things to the one who controls your fate." Isabel's free hand reached down and grabbed Ian's hand, forcing out a hiss of pain from him. "She could very easily grant your curiosity." Still pinning his head back and his hand down, Isabel's thumb reached down to push the needle in Ian's thumb the rest of the way in. Ian bit his lip, though a scream still found its way out. "And you wouldn't want that, would you?
She forced his head farther back, prompting a tear to snake its way down his cheek. "Now, you're going to tell us what you and your little posse are up to, understand? Or we'll have to have a repeat of what just happened." She poked another needle, taunting the injury and emitting a cry from Ian. "Understand?"
Natalie curled herself up further, something Nellie didn't think she could do. With each scream that seeping through the walls, Natalie curled further and further as her hand pressed against her ears harder and harder.
"That sounded like Ian," she had whispered at the first scream (what Nellie assumed was) days ago. Nineteen screams (each getting weaker, though the tenth and eleventh had a long interval so the eleventh sounded like the first) later and Natalie was practically a small ball. Reagan had tried to comfort her, but Natalie persisted her formation. She hardly got up to eat anything.
A twentieth scream, what would be the final one, pierced through their walls, forcing Natalie further into her ball.
Isabel scowled at the mess that was her son. Hunched over and shivering after the final needle found its way through without a single confession from the boy.
She'd trained him too well.
She walked over to the intercom by the door, ordering two lesser agents to come by. Once they appeared, she jerked her head towards Ian. "Take him to room WB. Do not let him go until he has given us the information we need."