Arctic Wolf sits up as soon as the door opens, her legs swinging over the side of the bed, her feet swinging. It almost makes Duke stop at how innocence she looks, somehow and someway. But then he remembers her words from the day before and hardens himself. She cocks her head to the side. "I'm surprised I'm still alive. Is there something you'd like to ask me?"
Storm Shadow catches Duke's arms, whispering in the hopes Wolf won't hear. "There's something different in the way she thinks. Something... off. It's like she hasn't had any exposure to people at all." He looks at Wolf and immediately knows she can hear and that whispering is worthless. "So go a bit easy on her and try to be patient. Her training isn't anything like how they trained in the old days."
She bristles. "Are you trying to say I'm not as good as them? I'm better than them." But it isn't offense he hears in her voice. It's competitive, like in a race for first place. Duke has no doubt she'd win in that win anyway. But Wolf turns her attention to something on the wall. "I'm being watched and recorded. Why would I be recorded when I have someone here already?"
Duke sits down, ignoring her question. She keeps her eyes on the camera. "Are you trying to locate it? Because this room is too dark for you to find it-"
"I can see it now. I can hear it too." Her kicking stops, and Duke feels a bit unsettled at her response. "I don't like being watched, Duke. I have no reason to leave and escape just yet, but when I do have reason, I won't be here. Tell me what you want, but any and all questions asked won't be answered just yet. Especially not to do with my Family."
The blonde nods as Storm Shadow slips into the room and comes closer to her than Duke. Wolf glares hard at him. "We're not going to ask about the secrets of your Family, Wolf. But you should answer the other questions Duke has." Wolf continues to glare at him, her attitude unchangeable. "We're going to show you a picture. Nod if know him, shake if you don't."
Duke holds up the photo of a boy, also with steel eyes, and light hair. Wolf doesn't answer, but she does know him. She stays stony. In the picture is Wind Rider is known for disappearing in the Family, the only true competition she had for her spot as ereba. It isn't surprising he is around now. He is the choisi of the Family, marking him as second to her. She is aware the situation is dire enough in the Family that she may be forced to reproduce with Wind Rider as he is the only one who could possibly take her down.
"This is getting no where," Duke sighs, getting up. He comes closer to her, one hand leaning on her bed. "Do you know him?" His voice is firm now, and Wolf slowly turns her head towards him. Nothing. "Answer the question or I'll be forced to use-" He's cut off as Wolf headbutts him, breaking his nose. Duke feels stupid for trying to act like she's a child. Just because she looks it doesn't mean she is.
Storm Shadow takes the picture. "We'll be in touch." He leaves Wolf in her room, hauling Duke to his feet. Wolf says nothing, lying down and staring at the roof. Family doesn't turn on Family. It's the first code in being part of the Family, and the only way to know for a fact of their insured loyalty. They have the right to betray you if he answer questions or identify them for reasons not included in the code. So she can't turn her back on Wind Rider and identify him to these people.
"She probably does know him, but she isn't going to give anything up, Duke. The only way to get what you want is to teach her right. I told you, she thinks different from how we think." There's a rustle in the other room. "This isn't the way to get what you want from her." Wolf thinks briefly that he won't ever get what he wants from her.
"How was she taught? The way those people raised her can't be used as an excuse for anything she's done, and she needs to come clean." He sounds a bit sore. "She broke my nose, man."
"Because you tried to treat her like any other prisoner," Storm Shadow says in reply. Arctic Wolf turns over, her chains making it awkward. "To get her to give you what you want, you have to do it in a way the Family doesn't teach. They know only pain and destruction closing off anything soft. We have to open her to make her see the world she's supposed to see."
"How do you suppose we do that?" Duke asks.
"We take away the chains." Storm says it so simply, and Wolf looks in confusion. She hasn't ever heard of a group who willingly take off the chains and cuffs and any other defense meant to keep them from killing someone. She puts up her own wards and looks around for something to use. Grabbing a pen, she slides under the bed, keeping close to the floor. The pen is pitiful, but she can work it to be her advantage.
Duke doesn't say anything, but Wolf hears steps towards her door. She curls in on herself, even as the light turns on and her sight adjusts almost immediately. She closes them to keep them from hurting, and then opens them again to see Storm Shadow. She lashes out with pen, a yell making its way from her throat. He dodges it easily, holding her wrist and jerking the pen from her hand.
Wolf scrambles back, hitting the wall. Storm Shadow sighs, and says, "Duke, go get Snake Eyes. I'm not patient enough for this." He's shaking and tense, like he's trying to keep from hitting her. Wolf glares hard at him, and he sees another way she could've gotten that part of her name. She's desperate to get away, but she's a lone wolf with no pack. She has to be as strong as any pack though, and living to see another day is required. He relaxes. "C'mon, Wolf. I'm not here to hurt you," he says, holding out a hand. "I'm not here to help you either, but I won't hurt you."
She scrambles farther back, trying to meld with the wall. Storm Shadow finds it funny how many sides there are to her. She's innocent, deadly, and desperate. All three he's seen in just a day. The door opens, and Snake Eyes comes in. Storm Shadow gets up, leaving Snakes to sit with her. Wolf curls into a ball like they're going to hurt her more than they'll even think of what they're doing. He snaps his fingers, and she doesn't move.
She stays in the same position for hours, but Snake Eyes doesn't leave either. Someone else will come to sit with every now and then, but he ultimately stays with her. Wolf looks up at him, feeling stiff and tired. He waits a moment, and Wolf thinks he's asleep. She listens closely to his breathing and knows it to be true. She crawls from under the bed, looking for some type of blanket. She finds a jacket instead, and, being as quiet as she can, lays it over Snake Eyes.
Crawling into her bed and cuddling the pillow as best and awkwardly as she can, Wolf closes her eyes again. She welcomes sleep like the shore welcomes a tidal wave, unyielding then taken along with it to be deposited elsewhere.
Her dreams are usually nothing but black. Sometimes she doesn't notice when she goes to sleep because of the darkness that matches the back of her eyelids. Wolf knows she is asleep though, surely, because she's strapped down to a bed, Cutter and Headshot and Hothead all standing above her with maniacal grins. Wolf can't remember the last time she dreamed, and her only doubt of this being a dream is that it looks so real and feels so real.
Cutter smiles down at her, the sadistic grin they all have when they're going to truly enjoy something. but the hint of madness behind her eyes makes Wolf struggle to keep her mask in place. She holds a knife in her hand, her blue eyes bright and her blonde hair perfect. "Wolf, you always were a real pain. I enjoyed watching you kill though. You had such precision... Always the exact way your clients wanted it... Too bad you won't be around much longer."
Cutter takes her arm, holding it steady. She doesn't need to though, because Wolf isn't moving. She's paralyzed with some type of drug, but she can still feel everything. Cutter presses the blade into her arm, pushing it under and pulling it up with Wolf's pale skin curling. Wolf bites her lip down with each passing second until she can taste the metallic blood. When Cutter stop, she flips it over for the other side.
"Whoa, whoa, hold you. We want some fun too." Hothead takes her wrist on the other side and snaps it. Wolf gasps, but no other sound escapes her. Headshot takes out a shotgun and shoots her close range in the same arm as her snapped wrist. Wolf wants to move her head away from the scene, her bone slightly visible. It's enough to make her sick, but the screams only rip free when Cutter begins slowly disfiguring her arm once more.
Meanwhile outside of her dream torture, Snake Eyes wakes up as soon as she begins screaming. Storm Shadow, in the next room over, bursts in, going towards the bed as Snake Eyes attempts to shake her out of it. "What's wrong with her?" Storm mutters, dodging a chain thrown around from her thrashing. He grabs her shoulders, sitting her up with Snake Eyes's help. She struggles, taking in large breaths before screaming again, fighting with all the might she'd been taught. "Hey, hey!"
Wolf screams until her throat is hoarse, the three around her reveling in the sound. "Stop! Stop!" She still can't move as Cutter shaves away the skin from her legs, somehow leaving only minimal blood behind. "Stop!" Hothead continues to break her bones, taking a hammer to them now, and Headshot digs a bullet into her muscle, left bare from Cutter.
Wolf's eyes meet Hothead's, his usually sane eyes with an intelligent glint now a deep, muddy brown that looks feral to her. His brown hair is tousled, and she sees a patch of dried blood in it. Cutter stops momentarily. "Plead for you life, Arctic Wolf. We've made you scream and bleed. Show us the true pup lying underneath your lies and false encouragements."
Wolf glares hard at Cutter, but it isn't the way it usually is. This one is full of pain and holds none of the blood thirst it once did. "I'm not going to beg for my life. I never have, and I never will." Cutter smiles, a curve of the lips that seems too unnatural for her. Her knife comes down hard on Wolf's stomach, cutting a jagged line to-
Wolf jolts up with a final scream, loud, piercing, and full of pain.