Disclaimer: WE no own, you no sue.
Yoru: Last chapter, I forgot to mention that this is part of a roleplay that MisterCreamPie and I are doing. Totally forgot to mention it.
Kuronue: PART of?
Yoru: Yeah, the whole thing is actually bigger and has more stuff in it…
Zack shoved Axel to his knees in front of King Leon, who stared at him in shock.
"A…a boy kidnapped my son?" he stammered. Zack nodded.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness."
Leon approached Axel, who trembled at the utter fury in the King's eyes. Leon looked at him for a long moment, and then backhanded him sharply across the face. Axel hit the floor, curling up.
"How dare you," Leon hissed, rubbing his hand. Axel looked up at him, cheek reddening.
"H-he made me…please…"
"Who made you?" Leon snapped. Axel's eyes widened as he realized what he'd said.
"N-no one…ain't got no one…" Axel hid his face again, but Zack pulled him back up to his knees.
"Give me a name," Leon growled, approaching again. Axel shook his head frantically.
"He'll kill me!"
"If you give us this name, we will not hold you responsible for the kidnapping. We will protect you," Leon gritted out, "If you do not give us a name, you will be hanged."
"The Imperial Army can protect you easily," Zack added. Axel hung his head.
"If I tell you, your army ain't gonna matter. He'll still get me," he murmured. Leon sighed.
"Put him in a cell." He turned away as Zack grabbed Axel's arms. The boy struggled fruitlessly as the soldier dragged him out of the room.
"Lemme go! Lemme go!" he cried as Zack pulled him into the dungeons.
"Are you going to give us that name?" he asked, stopping in front of a cell. Axel shook his head.
"I can't!"
"Then you're not going to be free." Zack shoved Axel into the cell and shut the door. Axel immediately curled up in a ball, facing away from Zack.
"Give me that name," Zack snarled.
"…I'll think about it," Axel whispered, not turning. Zack nodded and walked away.
Axel lay alone in the darkness of the dungeon, curled up in a ball with his hands still tied behind him. He cried softly, feeling pathetic but seeing no reason not to cry.
I can't give 'em Luxord. He'll find me, his people will find me and they'll kill me…
Axel sniffled one more time, and then started fighting the rope around his wrists. After a moment of fruitless struggling, he calmed his panic and maneuvered his bound wrists under his legs and to the front. Using his teeth to work at the ropes, he began a desperate bid for freedom.
Zack stood at attention as Leon paced before him.
"I don't care how you get that name from him. If he won't give it to you, torture it out of him." Leon stopped pacing and sat down hard in a chair. Zack nodded.
"Then you really believe that he's not just trying to keep himself alive as long as possible by pretending there's someone else, Sire?" he asked. Leon shook his head.
"There's something far too innocent about him for that."
"But you want that name badly enough to torture him," Zack said quietly. Leon looked up at him, pain in his eyes.
"My son was almost taken from me," he murmured, looking away. Zack nodded again, bowing.
"I shall go question him, then, Your Highness." He turned and left the room, heading for the dungeons. Once at Axel's cell, he saw the boy working at the rope around his wrists.
"If you want freedom, you'll give us that name."
"Ain't giving it to you! Ain't dying like that!" Axel snarled, his struggles with the rope ceasing. Zack sighed.
"If you don't, I have orders to torture it out of you. Just give it to us; we can protect you afterward. We have an army. What does this man have that can pierce that?" he asked, getting thoroughly annoyed.
"People on the inside," Axel replied, going back to working on the ropes.
"That's impossible. All of our soldiers are background checked and tested. There are no impure Imperial soldiers."
"You ain't been outta this castle much," Axel muttered, giving up on the rope. Zack blinked in surprise.
"Well, no…I mean, I'm stationed here. What do they do?" he asked, not sure why he was asking or how he knew the boy was telling the truth.
"Ain't done nothing to me, but I ain't blind. I can see 'em beating on the others and holding 'em down while they…hurt them," Axel murmured, looking straight into Zack's eyes.
His eyes are so green, it's unnerving, Zack thought, King Leon is right. There's something really innocent about this street rat.
"Well, regardless, if you don't give me a name, I'm calling in our torture artists. Speak now."
Axel looked away, but Zack saw his shaking. He sighed again, wishing his orders were different.
"You're condemning yourself," he murmured, turning and walking away. He knocked on an office door.
"What?" came a grouchy voice from inside.
"Your skills are required," Zack replied. A large blonde man opened the door, taking out his cigarette.
"Lemme get Lex, then," he grumbled, going up the stairs. Zack followed.
"Cid, he's just a kid. Don't…do anything drastic, at least not at first, okay?" he said quietly. Cid looked at him strangely.
"One of those with the eyes that see through you, eh?" he said, putting a hand on Zack's shoulder. Zack stared up at him in shock.
"What do you mean?"
"You just sound like you don't really want us to torture him at all. He beautiful?" Cid asked, patting Zack's shoulder sympathetically.
"Yeah, but he's a kid! It's just that he's the one who kidnapped the Prince, but he says someone made him do it. He's afraid to give us the name, so King Leon has ordered it tortured out of him."
"We'll just break a few fingers, okay? That kind of pain should do it in a kid," Cid said thoughtfully, knocking on Lexaeus' door. Lexaeus opened it, looking down at the already-tall Cid and towering over Zack.
"Yes?"
"Got a job. Come on," Cid said, gesturing at the dungeon. Lexaeus followed him to Axel's cell. The boy was cowering in the corner, shaking like a leaf.
"One last chance," Zack said venomously, inwardly hoping that Axel would break. Axel only shook his head, covering his face with his bound hands. Lexaeus reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, dragging him to his feet and out of the cell. Cid looked at Zack for a long moment before following Lexaeus and the struggling boy.
"You should probably stay out here," he said as he walked away. Zack nodded, watching them go into a room and shut the door. He could hear the boy begging them not to hurt him, and forced himself to tune it out.
Axel struggled as Lexaeus untied his hands and strapped one of his arms into a device, pushing one of his fingers into a set of rings.
"Okay, kid. This is how it works. You give us that name, and we don't hurt you. Got it, pretty one?" Cid purred, putting his hand on the lever of the device. Axel shook, just as much at the pet name than at the impending pain. Cid gave him a moment, and then with the silence, he brought his hand down hard on the lever.
Axel's finger cleanly snapped as the machine jerked in two different directions, and he screamed. Without even flinching, Lexaeus pulled the broken finger out and slid in Axel's index finger.
"Name, boy!" Cid snapped over Axel's sobbing. Axel stared at his mangled finger, memories flooding his mind of Luxord hurting him so many times…
Cid slammed his hand on the lever, breaking Axel's index finger. Axel screamed again.
"PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!"
"Please ain't in our vocabulary, pretty. Give us the name, or I break the next one." Cid put his hand on the lever again as Lexaeus slid in Axel's ring finger.
Zack stood, leaning against the wall outside of the torture room. He winced every time he heard Axel scream, and when the screams turned into loud begging, he almost went in to stop the pain. He had almost managed to tune it out when the Prince's silver-haired servant ran into him.
"Riku? What's wrong?"
"Zack! Where is the redhead?" Riku asked, panting a little. Zack gestured at the door just as another scream rang out.
"They're trying to get the name out of…"
"Stop the torture! That boy saved Sora from being raped!"