Not-So-Pointless Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Xenosaga or the characters within Xenosaga. If I did, the game would be a crazy crack game that makes no sense whatsoever. By the way, special discretion should be used while reading this chapter. It's a bit brutal, so don't say I didn't warn you. It's not so bad now, but you should read while listening to the music I was while writing this. I should make a soundtrack to this fic to help enhance the experience. Muahaha. Wait... Why am I still talking?
Scars
Chapter 2: Resistence
I woke up with a start. I would have lept to my feet if I were capable of it. I looked around the cell trying to figure out where the hell I was. The last thing I remembered was Shion... crying... and me on the ground...
Oh. Right.
Ugh. Now I remember. I've never been much for cursing and certainly have never done it in front of Shion, but if ever, now was the perfect fucking time. The room was freezing and most of my limbs were numb. I was sitting on the floor with my hands chained above me to the wall. If it weren't so damn cold, they would be aching like hell right now. And for some reason, I didn't have shoes, which made the temperature several times worse. At the time, I didn't feel like there were any injuries to worry about, sans my head.
There was almost no light in the cell, and everything was eerily quiet. Even if I hadn't been shackled, there was probably no way I could find the door anyway. Quite suddenly, I became aware of a horrible, grotesque smell in the room. It was nothing I'd ever encountered and was slightly afraid to know what it could have been.
I suddenly heard quick footsteps echoing down one end of the room, which was apparently longer than I had thought. Two U-TIC soldiers appeared from the darkness and stopped on either side of me, guns aiming at me. Because, you know, I'm just such a THREAT at the moment. In a way it was flattering, all this precaution. I must be a better fighter than I had thought.
The sets of slower footsteps advanced into my view, revealing an arrogant Margulis followed by Pellegri, keeping a solomn step behind him. "Heh," I muttered loud enough for my voice to bounce off the walls. "I was wondering what that smell was. It looks like my guess was right."
One of the guards hit me in the face with the butt of his gun. I hadn't seen it coming, and the blow took me by surprise.
Margulis, still with that damn smirk, kneeled in front of me so we were eye to eye. He seemed to be enjoying this. "How pretentious of you, Uzuki. You seem very confident for an insect ready to be squashed."
I sneered. "Don't act so cocky. This is the only way you could ever get the better of me: having me bound, stripped of my weapons... But on equal ground I- UGH!" Another hit in the face. I was getting pissed now. "You're just going to sit there and let your damn soldiers do your work, you coward!"
Silence followed. My voice continued echoing the word "coward" down the chamber. The smile on his face faded, but was still present. "I'm a coward, am I?" he whispered with a dangerous tone.
Somehow, I managed to bark a laugh out. "You've always been a coward, all your life. You could never do anything for yourself." Margulis held his hand up, stopping another blow to my face. "And, just like back then, you're still all talk and no action. If you're planning to kill me, than cut the theatrics and just do it already!"
He moved his face disgustingly close to mine, and I pulled away from it as far as possible in my restraints. I could smell his breath. "You misunderstand me, Uzuki. I'm not going to kill you," he grinned, "I'm going to make you BEG for death!"
I spat in his face.
He reared back in surprise and fell back until he was sitting on the floor in front of me.
"I'D RATHER DIE THAN BEG YOU FOR ANYTHING!"
Pellegri and the guards were staring at me incredulously while I grinned in victory. Margulis blinked at me and touched his hand to the offended cheek, almost disbelieving. The look on his face, that perfectly shocked expression, is something I will cherish for the rest of my life.
However, due to his quickly growing anger, it didn't look like I'd be cherishing it for too long. He stood up quickly, hands in almost shaking fists. He looked so genuinely pissed. How I loved every second of it!
"Take him to Cell 3! NOW!" he spat. Pellegri unchained me quickly with the trigger-happy guards focused on me the whole time. I felt an explosion of pain as the blood rushed back into my arms. I moved them gingerly and stood up in front of the now strangely patient guards. As I was led out of the room, Margulis yelled, "We'll see how much you'll be smiling tomorrow!"
Without losing my pace with the guards, I turned my head back to face him. I managed to give him a smirk and a wink before I was roughly shoved along.
----
I was in a strangely jovial mood for the situation. I should piss him off more often!
The chamber I was in, I discovered, was more of a hallway than a room. All the way down was a thin, easily camoflaged door. It didn't take long to reach Cell 3, but as we started getting closer, I started to feel a slowly building dread go through me. I fully understood what was going to happen. I was to be tortured. The Federation Government, especially the Special Forces division, trains you to a degree on how to resist torture.
U-TIC, however, was unfamiliar ground. You can only be trained on torture tactics if you know somewhat to expect. All I knew is that U-TIC occassionally used prisoners for experiments. And even that wasn't very settling.
When the doors, I hesitated. I was supposed to keep my cool. That was the first rule: Never initially show fear. However, I couldn't help but wonder how many others had gone through these doors before me. Once again, the guards shoved me through. Somewhere during the travel, Pellegri had left. I was considering what this meant when two ununiformed men joined the room. The previous two guards saluted them and left quickly.
Uhhhh...
The guards hadn't restrained me. Aside from my sword and shoes missing, I was fully able to fight. Do they want me to escape? I raised my eyebrow, looking at one, a brown-haired guy who was snapping his neck, then the other, a red-head who looked almost bored. They actually look like kids, don't look tough at all. I guess I better get this over with, I thought to myself.
I charged the blonde guy first, but he was quick and dodged the attack. Again and again, he dodged my attacks. Too quick! Impossibly fast! What the hell was he?
"Ya done, yet?" He asked with a smirk. He made an exaggerated yawn. "I usually like it when they fight first, but this is booooooorrrrrrrring!"
Faster than I could possibly follow, the boy dodged to the left, took a small knife from his sleeve, and slashed down my back.
"AGH!" I yelled, surprised. How the hell does he move so fast? I glanced back just as he kneeled, shoved my face into the ground and slashed much deeper down the exact same line he'd made. I yelped in pain.
"Come oooooooon, Luc!" the red-head whined. "Don't kill him already! Save some for me!"
They lifted me to my feet by my shoulders like I weighed nothing, stretching the wound on my back. I gasped in pain.
"Sorry 'bout that, Albert," Luc said shoving his face in mine with a horrible grin no child should ever possess. "It just so much more fun this way." With one hand, he snapped my elbow in the wrong direction.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" These children... these things... aren't human!
I was starting to panic. The kids shoved me onto an unusually high table in the center of the room I hadn't even noticed. Quickly, they were somehow able to make me stand up and then used a horribly tight elastic rope to tie my arms together behind my back. Luc made sure to pull the bindings as tight as physically possible, shattering what was left of my arm. Every jerk earned a scream out of me.
"Ready?" Luc whispered into my ear as the two jumped from the table. I could barely hear him. I was reeling from the pain. One second before it actually happened though, I realized what they were about to do. I was standing on the table, looking like a man ready to hang myself. The remaining elastic was supporting my bad arm and was tied to a bar at the center of the ceiling.
"WAIT!" I managed to yelp, but it was too late. Albert kicked the table from under my feet. I fell, and all the weight of my body was supported by my broken arm.
"AAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH! OOOOOOOH MY GOOOOOOOOD! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
It was a pain more excruciating than anything I had ever felt before. I instinctally kicked, jerking the rope and making it several times worse. For the next few hours I was left hanging like that, screaming my head off. Everyone in the building must have been able to hear me. Margulis must have been laughing from wherever he was.
In addition, Luc cackled and skinned my legs slowly, enjoying every second. Albert pulled me down with his weight added to mine. Sometimes he would climb up and get to my face with his knife. I couldn't see through one eye during half the ordeal.
I think I blacked out a few times from the shock, but I was always brought back to reality by a sharp jerk. It seemed to last forever. I only had one thing to look forward to, and that was death. I could feel it looming not too far away, and I welcolmed it. The pain started to numb, finally. I vaguely felt something wet dripping down my face.
And I saw... Pellegri. She was reaching out for me, my savior. Why? Why does she have to be the last person I see? Not Shion. Not mom or dad. HER. Not even chaos. But before I could think more on it, the ground below me opened up like a brilliant mouth of mercy. And I fell, happily, into the abyss.
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Hey! Get back here! The story isn't over yet! Anyways, how do you like this chapter? I used the suggestions I've received so far, and I hope it's gotten a bit better. Maybe I'll edit the first chapter so it fits the style a bit.
As I said, the fic is not over yet There will be a few surprises in the next installment. Also be on the look out for the editted readable version of Chapter 1.
You better come back!