Hello! As you can see, I changed my summary. I felt this one was a lot better. I'm just so picky. I'd like to thank everyone who read and review and alerted and faved and I think that's everything...I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I thought it would be longer but it turns out that I'm really dreadful at writing action scenes so it's shorter.

Chapter Two

Pain

Magda found herself back in the cell a few hours later, humming a song. Uncle Bauer, a title that swiftly became much easier to use every time she said it, had given her a couple pieces of candy, including the piece of chocolate she sucked on now. She had not tasted sweets in so long. It was starting to give her a stomachache but she did not care. It tasted so good. However, she did remember to save a piece for Erik. To let him just watch her enjoy the treat would not be fair at all.

All Uncle Bauer had done was check her height and weight, amongst other things. It was stuff that a doctor would do normally. It made her feel much more at ease in this strange new world. He even said that she would get to see her brother again. It made her very excited, the prospect of everything being okay again.

The door flew open and Magda looked up with eager eyes. She wanted to share all of the good news with Erik. Maybe he had news that was equally pleasant but when she laid eyes on him, it was clear that his day had not gone so well. His eyes were red and puffy, his shoulders were sagging and he moved forward with the pace of someone who no longer cared. He was crushed to say the very least.

Magda swallowed her chocolate quickly and rushed forward to Erik. "What happened?"

In response, Erik simply dropped to his knees. He sniffed and whimpered, on the verge of tears again no doubt. Magda kneeled down as well, trying to get some kind of response from the boy. She looked him over, searching for any kind of physical injury but coming up with none. However, she did see in the palm of his hand a coin, the Nazi insignia clearly etched upon its surface. For some reason, she felt compelled to touch it and reached a curious finger in its direction.

"Don't!" he shouted, all hate, anger and pain combined into that one syllable. The force behind it caused Magda to withdraw to the wall, gasping in fear. At the same time, a deep thunk could be heard. The once solid metal door now had a large indent in the middle of it, as though someone had punched it. Magda looked between the door and Erik for a very long time, torn between her fear and the need to comfort the pained boy in front of her.

She took a tentative step forward and then another. Erik flinched when she stood in front of him again, as though he were ready for a fight. He tried to back off but did not get far before she wrapped him in a tight hug. For a long time he struggled in her grip but Magda refused to let go. Eventually he gave in and began to cry into her shoulder, shaking as he sobbed.

"He killed my mother!" Erik cried, hugging her back tightly. "He killed her!"

Magda felt her heart drop, the good feelings from before all but gone. It made her question what she had gone through today. How could people that had taken them from their homes be so kind to her? She began to wonder how long it would be before she too would be like him. Would she see her brother again only to have him murdered right before her eyes?

She began to hold Erik tighter, if only to help herself feel better about it all as well.

Uncle Bauer, as it turned out, was not kind like her actual uncle. From that day on, he began what he called his medical experiments. To Magda, it was just torture. Some days he would only test how she reacted to physical pain, a prick here, a shock there. And while they were horrible to bear, that pain eventually went away. These were the days she prayed for every morning she woke up because the other days were when he would inject her. The number of injections varied, usually between one and three, depending on how she reacted to them. Sometimes she was lucky and it did nothing to her. Other times, she wished it would kill her.

It had been two weeks since they arrived at the concentration camp. To both Magda and Erik, it had felt like an eternity. The only reason they had not gone insane yet was that every evening they could look forward to seeing each other again. If up to it, they would talk about home or what they would do once they got out. It was still very difficult for Erik to talk about his mother but sometimes the subject of her was the only thing that could make him smile, if only for a brief period of time. It was guaranteed that he would soon frown again, hatred filling his eyes, making them so much darker than they actually were. Sometimes it scared her.

That night was the worst yet. Magda did not have the strength to get back on her own two feet so the guards simply dragged her there. She did not feel the cold, concrete floor as she was pulled across it nor did she feel the strain on her arms as all her weight was put on them. Magda did not notice how tight the guard's grip on her wrist was, threatening to cut off all circulation. What she did feel was pain, white hot, burning pain. It was like a fire that burned in her abdomen, its flames reaching to lick her furthest extremities. Her head was pounding and with every beat of her heart, she thought it might explode.

When she was finally tossed inside, Magda was hardly conscious. Despite the heat her body exuded, she was shivering uncontrollably and what images she could see where blurred and beating with her heart. She was crying and whimpering but did not know it.

Two hands grabbed her clothing, pulling her into a sitting position. For a brief moment her sight cleared and she could see Erik. He had new marks on his face, part of his torture no doubt; he would never speak of it but she could tell he was in agony as well. She smiled at him before another pulse of pain had her doubled over. Erik brought her into his arms, holding onto her tightly in some attempt to make it easier on her.

"It hurts," she mumbled into his shirt. "It hurts, Erik."

"It will get better," Erik replied, trying to sound positive. "It always does."

"I can't…I can't do this anymore," she cried. "I just want to die!"

"Don't say that!" Erik shouted, making her face him. "Never say that! I will get you out of here, Magda. I'll protect you, I promise."

This made her quiet a little. Her eyes began to flutter shut as she rested on him once more. "My mother said don't make promises you can't keep."

She was fast asleep by the time Erik spoke again, the darkness being his only witness. "I didn't."

Erik was just about asleep when the door opened again. The guards had returned and for some reason they looked entertained. He tried to keep them from taking Magda but it only resulted in a backhand across his right cheek. Magda made some unintelligible sound as they yanked her up. She was able to walk on her own again, though only God knew how long that would be the case.

"Come now, girl," he could hear the guard say as the door was shut. "Doctor Bauer is going to let you see your mother today."

There was a beat, one small moment of silence as both Erik and Magda understood his meaning.

"My mother is dead!" Magda began to scream. The sounds of a struggle could be heard. "My mother is dead! Erik!"

"Magda!" Erik rushed to the door and began to pound on it with all his might. He could hear her screams growing more distant as the guards dragged her away, never to be seen again. He began to hit the door harder; he could not let this happen. He promised her. She was not going to die. No one else was going to die because he failed.

The anger in him began to light. Hatred pulsed through his veins, giving him a power he did not know he had. All at once, the door began to give way.

Magda was strapped to the table again, its cold surface combined with her fear causing her to shiver once again. She looked around frantically for a sign of the doctor but all she could see was the ceiling. He was there, somewhere, watching her. She began to cry. Never again would she see Peter or Erik. She would never get out of here; she would never go home.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Magda," Uncle Bauer said, sounding remorseful. The sound of his voice made her cry harder. "But I promise you, we did save lives. Because of you and me, the world is that much closer to perfection." He came around the left side of the table, running his hand along the edge. In his other hand was the dreaded syringe. He moved to inject it into her arm. Magda struggled against the restraints uselessly.

"Ssshh. Don't fight it," he said, resting his free hand on her arm. The needle moved closer and closer to her skin. Magda closed her eyes tightly but after a long while, nothing happened. When she opened them again, she saw the needle just an inch above her flesh and Uncle Bauer struggling to push it, as though something invisible held it.

"No!" someone shouted to her right. Suddenly the syringe flew from his grasp. Uncle Bauer looked in the direction of the shout, afraid yet furious. He had no chance to do anything though as all his work tables, filled with instruments still, flew up into the air and crashed into him, knocking him unconscious on the floor. Magda felt the restraints become undone and she sat up immediately to face one very angry looking Erik.

"How did you-"

"C'mon!" he shouted, clearly not in the talking mood. Magda jumped off the table and grabbed his hand. Together they ran through the hallways as an alarm started to go off. They passed the area where their cell was, a crumpled door lying uselessly in front of it. Her eyes widened and pace quickened as they left the area.

"Do you know the way out?" Magda asked as they turned down another hallway. There were stairs up ahead and pouring from them were armed men. She saw Erik shove his arm forward. All the soldiers began to fall as their helmets started to crush their heads. Magda tried to look away and ignore their screams as they went down the stairs and out a door that led to the dirt road they had entered on.

Erik did not have complete control of his powers. Everywhere they ran, metal began to bend wildly. The fences that held the prisoners were crushed like wads of paper, freeing everyone inside. Guards tried to stop them but they too were either brought to their knees by their rapidly shrinking helmets or by the prisoners themselves when their weapons magically flew from their grasp.

"Where are we going?" Erik still said nothing. He only continued to push forward to the exit, toward the trees in the distance.

Suddenly a soldier who had been knocked down grabbed at Erik's foot, managing to pull him to the ground. Erik shouted, letting go of Magda before she could be dragged down with him. Instantly Magda turned around and began to hit the soldier, trying to get him to let go, but her efforts were cut short as another man ran up and grabbed her. He was not a soldier but instead one of the inmates, one that she recognized.

"Peter, no!" Magda shouted as she grabbed for Erik's hand. Their fingertips brushed lightly one last time before her brother dragged her off into the crowd of escaping people. In one last effort, Erik tried to close the gates just in front of them, causing the metal to twist together in ways the soldiers could not unlock. Magda was safe now.

A few moments later, Erik was surrounded by soldiers, bloody from being beaten by a few. A man in a suit kneeled down before him, a wide grin on his face.

"Very good, Erik," he said, surveying the scene once more. "Our sessions appear to be working. Shall we continue?"

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