Notes

...is it bad when you know the story's gonna be dark going in, and then you write it and it ends up being so much darker?

You're about to see a new side of Rex Madison, folks. Buckle up...

Chapter 2 - Capture

"...ir! Sir! Mr. Sie? Mr. Sie, sir!"

Kensou rolled over and groaned, his head thick as molasses. He wrenched open his eyes to find several staff members surrounding him, supporting his head and trying to shake him awake.

"...what happened...?"

"We're not sure, sir. We just found you like this," the one in front of him told him. "Did you pass out? Were you dehydrated?" She opened a bottle of water, started moving it to his lips.

"I...don't know," he replied, letting her. He laid back against the one supporting him, trying to remember...

...and then he did.

"No‼" he shouted, sitting bolt upright and batting the water away.

"Mr. Sie!?"

"It's drugged. The water for this room has been drugged."

"What⁇ ...when!?"

"How should I know!?" Kensou snapped, his eyes wide. "It could've been hours ago!" He looked around frantically, struggling to stand and failing. "Athena. Where's Athena⁇"

"Please calm down, sir!" the woman urged him. "We only found you here! ...she did leave her cell phone, though...I think?" She pointed to the ground a few feet away.

Kensou turned to find a small, black flip phone there, most definitely not Athena's. He reached over unsteadily and grabbed it, opening it up. The screen went straight to the Contacts page, which had one entry: "Call This Number". He tried to edit it to see the number itself, but a password prompt blocked his way.

Shaking, he followed instructions, his finger barely able to hit the dial button. He raised the phone to his ear; he heard three painfully long rings. And then:

'We have the girl.'

"We have the girl."

She heard the words faintly, through an ocean of foam and fluff. Her head lolled to the side, her eyes still closed. But her attendant didn't let up, shaking her roughly and slapping his hand against her cheek. With a grunt of protest, she forced her eyes open...and then they widened into saucers.

Athena found herself in a small, dark room, seated behind a large plastic table that dominated the space. ...she was secured behind it, actually, her hands handcuffed behind her chair and her legs duct-taped to its own. She gave some experimental tugs, but immediately knew she wouldn't break them.

At least her pink button-down and black slacks remained untouched. Thank god for that.

The rest of the room was crowded with five black-suited men, none of whom she recognized. The first stood at the front with a cell phone, his back turned to her; the one that had slapped her awake stood at her side, no longer looking at her. The other three sat at the sides of the table, staring at the phone man or nothing at all.

"Where am I?" she demanded, turning to her attendant. "What do you want? Why are you doing this⁇" Of course, "why now" would've been the better question...but he wasn't talking anyway. He just kept staring straight ahead, his job done.

Meanwhile the man on the phone had kept the conversation moving. "You don't need to know who this is. ...we want ¥100,000,000 as ransom. Deliver it to Kyocera's old storage building at midnight tomorrow. Come alone or she dies. ...you'll just have to find a way. ...yes. ...yes, she's here in this room." Then he turned to Athena, holding the phone in her direction. "Tell him."

But she didn't. Athena stoically kept her mouth shut, knowing that talking wouldn't do her any good. The ransom was a ruse; this was about revenge. She'd known that the minute she'd seen the man who took her. And anyone coming to deliver a ransom would just end up dead too.

After a few seconds, though, the phone man nodded to her attendant. He, in turn, pinched Athena's arm as hard as he could. She yelped in shock, scowled in annoyance...

'Athena!?'

...and paled in absolute horror.

"Don't come, Sie‼" she shrieked at the phone, tears springing to her eyes. "It's a trick‼ They'll kill me either way‼ It's the ya - "

"That's enough," her attendant barked, clapping a hand over her mouth.

But it wasn't enough. Not for Athena Asamiya. Her scowl back on and ten times darker, she closed her eyes, focused...and exploded into the Shining Crystal Bit.

The cuffs snapped. The tape melted. The chair shattered into splinters. Her attendant, the only one in the blast radius, flew into the back wall and crumpled bonelessly to the ground. The other men shouted and ran for the front of the room; the phone man called out the door for backup, while the other three just stared at the bright-orange barrier and the purple Bits orbiting it.

Athena couldn't keep the shield up forever, of course. When she dropped it, she immediately gathered the Bits and threw them at one of the men, sending him to the floor. Terrified but loyal, the other two men at her sides moved in on her; she intercepted one with a Psycho Ball, but the other got to her and grabbed her...until an unseen force pulled him off of her and tossed him into the ceiling.

Then the phone man pulled out a gun and pointed it at her heart.

Then she Teleported behind him and Reflector'd him into the table.

Unfortunately, she had bad timing. As the man (and the table) collapsed, his backup arrived, coming up on her from behind. Before she could turn, three men had grabbed hold of her, two by the arms and one by the waist. Athena grimaced, knowing she was in trouble; she couldn't move her legs enough to Teleport, and she didn't have the strength yet for another Shining Crystal Bit.

Desperately, she flung the man on her left arm away with her mind. But the one behind her snatched it instead, pulling it down and gripping it along with her waist. As she shifted her struggles to her left, his right hand briefly let her go...then came back up and held a chloroform-soaked rag to her face.

For a moment, Athena panicked. She just shook her head wildly, forgetting she had psychic powers and even that she shouldn't breathe. By the time she remembered, the drug had already started to work; she tried to hold her breath, to do...something, but she was already too woozy.

With a sad whimper, she blacked out again, falling into her captors' arms.

"Athena‼ Athena‼"

Kensou screamed into the phone again and again, praying for some kind of response. The workout center staff had given him a wide berth by then, knowing that he was okay (physically, at least). One of them had tried to dial 110, but he'd stopped her; he'd seen enough movies to not want to alert the police yet.

"Answer me, damnit! Hello!? Is anybody - "

'Shaddup‼'

The voice cut through Kensou's plea like a knife, silencing him. It was a new voice now, one that didn't seem nearly as reasonable. Stunned, Kensou simply followed instructions again, not knowing how to handle this. (Not that he knew how to handle any of this.)

'...your bitch girlfriend's a real nuisance, you know that?'

In a flash, Kensou was furious. "Don't you talk about her that way‼"

'She's gotta lot of...what's that word?' the new man mused, ignoring the threat. 'Ah yeah, that's right: "spunk". ...I fucking hate spunk.'

That shut Sie up.

'Tonight,' the man went on. 'You got till midnight tonight to bring the money here. Or she's dead.'

"...I can't get a hundred million yen by tonight!" Sie exclaimed. "Even if I had it, the banks aren't open‼"

The man paused.

'...hmph,' he said finally, conceding the point. 'Fine then. Still midnight tomorrow. But unless you want this bitch chloroformed for 24 hours, you gotta tell us how to restrain her. We have to fight her again, we're gonna kill her. Slow.'

Kensou's heart sank into his stomach. He didn't know much about chloroform, but he knew too much of it was a real good way to get killed. Or brain damaged. Or scarred on contact, if you were sensitive. He didn't want any of that for her; he didn't see any other choice.

Athena...I'm sorry...

He closed his eyes, bent his head, and started talking.

When Athena woke again hours later, her situation had changed dramatically.

She found herself in a new room, this one bright beige instead of dark. There was no table, no decorations; there weren't even any chairs. She simply laid there on the floor, stretched out in the middle of the room. She wasn't quite the only thing in it, though.

They'd put her in handcuffs again, her hands still behind her back. They'd tied her legs together this time, not with tape but braided nylon rope. They'd wrapped a cloth gag around her mouth, bunched into it at the middle.

And, if she was feeling it right, she now had a collar.

Of course, she might not be feeling right. The double-whammy of drugs they'd hit her with could put anyone off. She couldn't see it to confirm it, either, or reach up to it with her fingers. But in her heart, she knew these bastards had given her a collar. She just hoped it was symbolic, and not meant for something more sinister.

On the bright side, she still had her clothes on. It didn't relieve her nearly as much this time, though.

The only other thing in the room was the door. But the door had a window - and she could see someone looking through it, another black-suited man she didn't recognize. She expected him to open the door, or maybe the window, and start talking. Instead, a voice came from above her...loud enough to feel it all around her.

'Wakey, wakey, princess.'

She knew that voice.

A deep sense of terror filled her...but also a righteous fury. The fury won out, and she looked up with a scowl at - well, at nothing, really. Wherever he was, though, her enemy definitely saw her; the next thing she heard was mocking laughter.

'Awww, I'm sorry,' the man oozed. 'Would you prefer Asamiya-sama? The Psycho Soldier? ...or how about your name from when I knew you? Would you like that one? ...Dazzler?'

Athena's eyes narrowed. She hated that name.

'You don't know how long I've waited for this,' the man went on, savoring it. 'The bosses never liked me, but after you they hated my guts. They called me weak. Stupid. Pathetic. It took me years to prove them wrong. And even when I did - even when I worked up the ranks enough to lead the op myself - they still wouldn't let me go after you...until Sie Kensou made his play.'

Her face softened in confusion. Sie...?

''Till then, they kept saying it wasn't worth the risk. All they wanted from you was ransom money, and none of your friends had enough. But then you and that pissant said you loved each other, in front of all the masses. So they watched you. They waited. They kept track of your accounts. And the minute you gave him emergency access to your funds, they finally...FINALLY let me have you.'

Now her face completely slackened, as she realized he was telling the truth. She had, indeed, given Sie access to her funds. ...she'd done it yesterday.

'This isn't just about ransom money, of course,' the man assured her. 'The deal was to take you here, collect the money, and give you back alive. If the kid fucks it up, I get to kill you. Slow.' He paused again; she could feel his grin. 'And if he doesn't? ...well. You'd be surprised what you can live through.'

The terror began to win out.

'It'll be worse if you act up again, though,' he warned. 'And it won't do you any good anyway. You surprised us before, but now we know how to keep you in line. ...you've got your boyfriend to thank for that.'

Athena cringed...but not because she felt betrayed. She knew they must have forced him, and she knew it must have hurt.

'Handcuffs, no fireballs. Leg ties, no teleports. We already had that covered, of course. But he's the one who said you couldn't 'port through solid walls. He's the one who said you could only move things with your mind at close range. HE'S the one who said somebody should watch you remotely, ready to pump sleeping gas into the room if there's trouble.

'...don't worry, though. The shock collar was our idea.'

Her eyes closed.

''Pain and fear'. That's what he said screwed up your focus,' the man sneered. 'We figured a shock collar would fit the bill pretty well. The thing has three settings; right now you're on #1. You look like you're gonna try something, we give you a little pop.'

Then the man outside the door demonstrated, holding up a remote and pressing a button. A jolt of electricity, quick but strong, shot into Athena's neck. It made her whole body jump, made all her muscles clench together; she let out a sharp yelp, though it was muffled by her gag. ...yeah, that'll do it, she thought miserably; she'd never be able to focus through that.

'You manage to get something going, we change it to Setting #2 and tase you. You actually get close to the exit...or you piss me off too much...then we'll just switch to Setting 3 and fuckin' electrocute you. Got it?'

Got it, Athena thought needlessly, trembling.

'Alright, princess. I'd like to start the fun right now, but I'd be too tired to enjoy it. It's been a long damn day...thanks to you, you fuckin' nuisance. So I'm gonna go rest up - and I think you'd better, too. We got another long day ahead of us...a long damn day. See you then!'

She heard a long, loud click, and assumed that he was gone.

Useless. I am USELESS. Athena's eyes closed again, started swimming with tears. They had neutralized her completely...even put in a failsafe. She was a psychic, damnit - but what did that even mean? The psychics in the stories could've teleported out of here, or torn the door off its hinges and slammed it into the guard. They could've looked into his mind, figured out how to manipulate him. Hell, some of them could've controlled him, and made him open the door at once.

She couldn't do any of those things. She couldn't do anything right now. She was Dazzler again. She was worse than Dazzler. Dazzler could've thrown a fireball.

But then she realized...no she wasn't. Not quite, anyway. She could still do one thing Dazzler couldn't have, one thing her captors hadn't thought of.

So Athena looked up at the guard, and did the only thing she could.

Please let me go, she begged him, bypassing the gag and speaking directly into his mind. I don't want to die. I don't want to have his kind of 'fun'. I could get you OUT of here, get you away from a life of crime. ...I could pay you instead of them. I could -

"Boss, you were right!" the guard called out. "She's trying to get inside my head!"

Her jaw dropped.

'Ha! I knew it,' the intercom blared, crackling back to life. 'Fuckin' nuisance bitch...'

"Want me to show her how Setting 2 feels?"

"Mmmph! MMMPH‼"

'Sure, sounds good. Give her a taste.'

With a quick smirk in her direction, the guard did just that. It felt like the "little pop", really...except it lasted for five seconds, five of the most excruciating, horrifying seconds of Athena's life. She didn't jump around like she expected - her body just seized, curling up in something close to the fetal position. She did scream like she expected, though; if she hadn't had the gag, she might have deafened herself.

And then it was over...and she just laid there, trembling and weeping.

'Gonna behave now, princess?' her enemy asked. ''Course, I'd love it if you didn't, so...y'know. Your call.'

The intercom clicked off again.

...useless, she reinforced, her eyes closed and leaking tears once more. I am useless.

End Notes

Probably the most sadistic I have ever been. ...I did it for a reason, though. I promise. (And no, it's not because I hate her now ;_; )

...I cheated, by the way. Athena doesn't even have telepathy, according to the wikia and every other source I could find. So I guess even this story may not be canon compliant. But the wikia also says Sie does have it...and even if that has a canon source, I refuse to believe that he does and she doesn't.

(Athena uses more powers she may not have in The Deal, especially in the last chapter. We're going to ignore those in this story, leaving her with only what's in canon. I thought about rewriting parts of Deal for consistency's sake, but it'd take a whole lot of work and probably make it a weaker story. So I'll leave it alone, at least for now; we'll call it "mostly canon compliant".)

See you soon...