The first thing I heard when I was tossed back into the cell was my own name. "Vixen!"

I didn't move. I couldn't. I was exhausted, and freezing. Shudders wracked my body. It was Wolf's voice. He came to my side, lifting me off the ground. "Vixen, speak to me." He ordered.

His touch warmed my freezing body. I smiled lightly as his concerned face focused. I reached up to caress his cheek. "I'm... f-fine... Wolf..."

Wolf shook his head. "You're freezing and soaking." He brought me over to sit on the bench, ignoring the others entirely. "What did they do to you?"

"Same thing they d-did to you..." I replied, lying. "They t-tried to drown me."

Wolf shook his head. "No, what else did they do? Did they hurt you?" There was a growing fury in his eyes. "Did they touch you?"

I blinked, realizing what he was implying. "No! No... they... they u-used pressure p-points..." Another shudder coursed through my body, making Wolf hold me closer to him.

"Damn bastards..." He muttered.

I closed my eyes for a second before a thought hit me. "They said something..." Wolf stared at me, helping me sit up. My eyes locked on Cub. "Cub... they said you were next."

I could see the fear in Cub's eyes, like a child just waking from a nightmare.

"Great. Perfect. We're gonna get binned." Snake muttered.

Wolf shrugged as Cub's eyes slid out of focus, like he was having some sort of flashback. "Told you, kid."

I struggled off of Wolf's lap, coming to sit between him and Cub.

"Would b-both of you... shu-ut up?" I turned to the little kid next to me. "Look, Cub, l-lets be serious..." I said, then gestured a shaking hand around the cell. "These g-guys think you've got... n-no chance... they won't even w-warn you or try to h-help you, but you're a k-kid, and it's not f-f-fair..."

I took a hold of his hands, my maternal instincts taking over. "Look, I don't care if you're Double-O-Nothing or what." That name earned a twinge of irritation from him. "How long can you hold your breath?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, a minute."

I pinched his nose between my fingers. "Show me." He whined indignantly at my fingers. I rolled my eyes. "Just show me."

He sighed, taking in a breath and holding it. About thirty seconds later he opened his mouth to breath.

I released his nose. "Thirty seconds. That means you'll last fifteen seconds."

He stared at me in confusion. "Trust me, however long you can hold your breath in water, you can hold it for twice as long out."

Cub shook his head. "That's not long."

I shook my head, "And that's not all they can do." I recalled all the previous RTI sessions I'd endured in my time at the SAS. "The most common methods they use: waterboarding, stress positions, disorienting, sensory deprivation, and maybe they'll beat you up a bit; rarely ever do real interrogations involve blood being spilled."

He tilted his head. "Why not?

"Because if they did, you'd bleed out before they could break you."

"Oh..."

I nodded. "Believe me, Cub. Interrogation is a vicious, demoralizing, humiliating experience! You're never quite the same after." I shook my head. "They'll probably give us an hour or so before they come to get you. That's more than enough time to get you prepared." I put my hand, palm up, over my shoulder. "Wolf, shirt."

He blinked "What?"

"You heard me. Take off your shirt."

Eagle spoke up after a few seconds of Wolf's silence. "Why don't you take off your own shirt?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

A few seconds later I was holding Wolf's shirt in my hands. I bunched it into a flat piece, but shook my head. This wasn't going to work. It was too thick. I unrolled the shirt and tore the hem off into a circle of fabric.

"Hey!" Wolf shouted indignantly.

I ignored that, tearing the hem piece in two. I took a hold on Cub's arm, guiding him to stand and walk to the center of the cell. I stood behind him; I could see his tense form. I sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you."

I saw his shoulder's relax in my grip.

"Much."

"What?!"

I laughed. "I'm joking! Now stop squirming."

I took the first piece of Wolf's shirt and placed it over Cub's eyes before tying it tightly in the back. I felt Cub's hands go instinctively to the blindfold on his face, but before he could, I grabbed his wrists, holding tight as he began to struggle.

"H-hey!"

"Oh, be quiet." I said, tying the other piece of the shirt around Cub's wrists, using one of the special survival knots we'd been taught. I noticed the guys had began to look on with a confused curiosity.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his voice sounding a little panicked.

"Showing you one of the techniques they use." I said. "Sensory deprivation." I waved a hand in front of his face. "Can't see anything, right? You have no clue what I'm doing. Doesn't that make you just a little nervous?"

He didn't answer for a second. "Um... no?"

I shook my head. "You're such a bad liar. Another thing losing your sight does: it improves your other senses to make up for it, like hearing, smell, taste..." I reached to pinch the skin on his bicep. "Touch..."

"Ouch!" He flinched.

"See?" I smiled, brushing my fingers over the now red skin. "Doesn't it make you feel absolutely helpless?"

"Vixen, can you stop?"

I shook my head. "Nope. They will do worse to you, and I want you prepared. Because if you slip up, we all get binned."

"I'm not gonna slip up!" He insisted.

"As long as you have a tongue, there's no guarantee of that." That made him flinch. "And I'm not gonna do that, so I have to prepare you for the worst."

"You said you weren't gonna hurt me!" I don't believe I've ever heard him whine like a child.

"Cub, right now I am your interrogator, and never trust what an interrogator says."

"Can we at least do this somewhere more private?"

"Where, Cub?" I gestured around the cell, even though he couldn't see. "Where would you like to go?" He didn't speak, but I felt his shoulders slump in defeat. I nodded. "That's right."

I noticed the guys were watching me like I was crazy, but I ignored them. "One tactic they already have in process is cold. We're in our sleep clothes, and we're up in the mountains. Wolf and I have both been soaked through the skin and left here. I'm worried they might do something worse with you."

I took his wrists, feeling him stiffen. I smiled. He would be eaten alive by those Green Jackets. I quickly yanked his bound arms up into the air, forcing a gasp from him as his knees buckled.

"V-Vixen!" He shouted, his breathing labored.

"These are stress positions. This is the minimum of what they would do to you." I said. "Remember, you're the youngest of us all; they view you as an easy target. Out of everyone here, they expect you to break."

"She's right." Snake said. "The only reason they didn't go after you first is because you came in a little late."

"And they wanted to have some fun with us first." Eagle added bitterly.

"But is this... really n-necessary?" Alex asked, his knees still buckling under the pressure and strain on his arms.

"From this position it would be so easy to dislocate your arms." I leaned in closer to his ear. "Can you imagine how painful that would be?"

I twisted his arms again, drawing a cry of pain from him. "S-stop!" He cried out, quickly biting his lip at his mistake.

I nodded. "See that right there? You just got us all binned." I let up on the pressure on his arms. "If they think you're cracking, they'll come down on you even harder. If you are verbally defiant, they'll come down harder. The only thing you can do is remain passive."

"What does that even mean?!" He shouted, more panicked than angry.

"It means don't be angry, and don't show fear. Be neutral. Tell them your name is Cub. If they ask for anything else, tell them you don't know. They will know you're lying, but you can't break face." I turned him around, pulling the blindfold from his eyes. "Cub, you have to make yourself believe this is real. Because it is. They are going to ask you real questions. They are going to demand real answers. They are going to cause you real pain. And failure means we're all real screwed up. And I swear, if you get me binned, I'll hurt you worse than they ever could."

My words shook him up pretty badly.

Even worse when Fox added: "She's not kidding."

Cub stared up at me with eyes that made him seem six years younger. "Is it..." He began, his voice wavering. "Is it... really that bad?"

I nodded, stoic faced.

I undid his binds, tossing the torn shirt back to Wolf, and leaving Cub to wander to the corner and shake. For a moment I blamed myself. I may have just made breaking him that much easier. But it was something I had to do.