Disclaimer: I don't own any of the GoW characters, EPIC does.

The screams that echoed off of the walls of the Barge caused her ears to ring.

Body numb and arms throbbing, she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, she leaned against her cell wall, gritting her teeth as she did so, the tops of her palm just grazing what felt like water as she sat hunched over. She grimaced, the worst coming to mind, the tops of her hands possibly sitting in left over locust feces or even urine-she picked up her hands into what little light shown into the small cell and sighed, ever so slightly catching sight of a dark red covering her hands. The liquid was simply coming from the deep slashes Skorge had whipped into her earlier.

Tai ...you idiot...

She mumbled to herself as footsteps slowly started to drag past the cell door, a low grunting and growling combination, the sounds of chains scraping against the floor as the occasional coughing could be herd, other then that it was silence.

...my men.

The Grubs were taking some of the prisoners out of this god forsaken Torture Barge and out to the yard to dig, for whatever it was they dug for. Another scream in the distance, this one stood out above all the rest, the voice was deeper, stronger, but she could tell it was getting weaker. She could hear the gasp at the end of it, along with the booming laughter from the Grub now delivering the whipping. She gritted her teeth.

No...

She clenched her fist that were now resting on the floor again, causing the skin around her knuckles to whiten and pain to shoot through her once again. Not Tai, he had just been captured a few hours (or was it days?) ago, if they broke him now, she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, she didn't know how she was still alive after what seemed like months. Some small part of the Lieutenant in her had fought to its wits end, seeing an old Squad mate from the 22-RTI there with her, for some reason, had given her hope.

How long had it been since Beta Squad had been captured on their routine patrol outside of the walls? It was nearly impossible to keep track of time in her current situation

"I'm pleased with our progress..."

An ethereal voice spoke out as the sound of steps faintly grew louder in the hallway outside of her door. A males groaning could be herd, he was being dragged back to his cell, Lieutenant Mendoza could picture Tai, he was probably sliced up just as bad as she was, or worse. She didn't know how he broke free from the chains, all she could comprehend at the time was the scream from the drone then suddenly he was there, in front of her and wiped blood from her face as she struggled to lift her head.

She thought she was dreaming as she hung there, barbed wire tied around her wrist, blood dripping from her back, fire dancing along her skin as Tai yelled and fought against the Drones that had appeared to restrain him once again. He fought, she'd never seen anyone fight so hard in her entire life the way he did, he thrashed around and managed to knock another drone to the ground. Veins popping out along his neck and forehead.

"No... Tai.." she managed to mumble before she was falling to the ground. Her wrist have been cut free, she landed with a grunt as Skorge, the bastard, hissed at Tai a smirk distorting the hideous locust face as the other Drones laughed.

"Get busy..." his voice curled through her ears as the lanky but vicious General motioned to the now free chains hanging from the ceiling.

"Up..." one of the Drones voice ordered her. She couldn't move, so she just closed her eyes, darkness was her escape. Oh how she welcomed it right now. Her limbs were burning, her skin torn from it's place, she could feel it, lying there on the ground. A sharp pain jolted through her stomach. "UP!"the Drone shouted again, reading himself for another kick. She coughed, moving a shaking limb to her stomach, the taste of bitter iron on her tongue as she forced her palm to lay flat on the ground.

"DO NOT LET THEM WIN!"

His voice rang out so loud and strong she jumped as if another kick had happened.

"DO NOT GIVE IN!"

Tai's voice thundered again, she could hear Skorge screech, the sound of that whip that was spiked and splintered crack, the sound of it as it tore through the air and penetrated with the thick flesh on Tai's back. He grunted, but didn't scream, he wouldn't scream. The Drones laughed as they watched their Kantus General whip into the humans flesh again and again.

"This was the one that challenged me on the surface..." Skorge hissed through his teeth, that snarling smirk still present on his face.

"UP!" the Drone shouted in her direction once again. She couldn't move up any further then holding herself up against her elbows, she watched Tai as Skorge whipped into him, again and again, unable to do anything. Suddenly something was pulling her into the air, head pounding into oblivion now, the Drone had grabbed her by the hair, still shouting for her to rise. She yelled, adrenaline suddenly flooding her veins as the grub picked her up into a standing position, using what strength mustered through her, she yanked away, feeling the sharp sting as a grip of hair was torn from her skull.

She ran, urging her legs to get away as far as humanly possible, hearing the shouts from Skorge as the Drones followed, close behind, vision blurring, she collapsed just as a bullet whizzed past her shoulder.

"This one managed to run?"

The ethereal voice continued as the door to her cell was pulled open, the Drone grunted in reply.

"...filth ran from us for a good five minutes before collapsing, we were just about to shoot it before it fell..." the distorted Drones voice answered to the ethereal one as clear as the Lieutenant had ever herd a Locust speak in English.

Something came into the room with her and grabbed her face, forcing her to look up. Lieutenant Mendoza, slowly opened her eyes to meet a clear blue gaze staring back at her, the Lieutenant slowly inhaled through her nose, what was a civvie doing down here in the Hollow? And more importantly what were the Locust doing taking orders from them?

It wasn't until the Blue eyed woman released her face and stepped back nodding is when the Lieutenant realized that it wasn't just the face of the 'thing' that was normal. She was human, at least through Mendoza's' blurred and darkened vision she looked human, the woman even looked as if she was wearing an altered version of COG issued armor, but it was twisted, spiked at the shoulder blades and a deep crimson color...

"If she has not died yet..." that cool blue stare watched her for a moment, cold eyes grazing over the Lieutenants body accessing her injuries, she nodded again and turned back to the Drone. "She will do." The civvie walked out of the cell her voice carrying across the barge, but footsteps fading. "I want you to take her to have those wounds burned, she's no good to me dead..." for a moment Mendoza was sure this wasn't happening, it was a hallucination from the blood loss. "And give this to her immediately afterwards, Fenix believes it will help wounds heal a bit faster..."

...Fenix?

Mendoza watched The Drone her eyes half closed as it nodded and turned back to the Lieutenant a snarl on his face again as he closed the small space and shoved a thick needle into her stomach. The Lieutenant grunted, unable to move and coughed more as she fell back to lying on her side with a thud.

"Actually... Leave her there for now, don't burn the wounds shut just yet, lets see if Fenixs' remedy has any effect on her..." that terrifyingly ethereal voice called from someplace unseen once again. The Drone grunted in agreement as it slammed the cell door shut.

Mendoza could hear the loud bang as the lock for the door closed, and the repeating pattern as the cell doors shut around her, she listened intently for the drones sounds to fade into a whisper and then she screamed. She screamed at the top of her lungs as a sharp stinging spread throughout what felt like her entire body. No, her bloodstream. It was ripping at her insides, she was burning from the inside out.

Queen Myrrah smirked as she rode the elevator to the top of the Barge listening to the Lieutenant's screams carrying through the air.

"She will be ready soon, we cannot afford to lose any more time... The Lambent have proven their worth, and now it is time to move on..." the Drone standing next to her did not understand what she spoke of, but remained silent nonetheless as his Queen mused to herself. "...our beloved planet Sera is quickly becoming a lost cause..."