Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters created by Ubisoft for Far Cry 3. Everyone else is fair game, though.

Rated: M for violence, profanity, sexuality, etc.

FCs: Kendra (Claudia Black), Vincent (Arnold Vosloo), Charlie (Eric Balfour), David (Richard Madden), Isobella (Rachel Weisz), Darius (Leonardo DiCaprio), Citra (Zoe Saldana), Vaas (Michael Mando, duh)

Chapter 3 - The Players

What is this not fun anymore? Have I failed to entertain you?

Kendra's eyes slowly emerged from behind heavy lids. Pain immediately shot up through her skull, synapses firing at an excruciating rate. She yelled out and gripped each side of her head, trying to make it stop. "Who the hell's been tapdancing on my brain?!"

"No one, no one," Vincent assured, taking a hold of her shoulders and helping her sit up. "Look at me, look at me!" Kendra gazed at him constantly blinking to try and clear her vision. "How many fingers?"

"Three," she responded.

"Your name?"

"Kendra West."

"Your birthday."

"Oh...October 11th. I'm not telling you the bloody year."

Vincent smirked and examined her eyes next to make sure they were dilating properly. "Do you feel dizzy, do you feel like vomiting?"

"No. I'm fine really. I don't have a concussion alright. How long was I out?" She inquired now taking a look at her surroundings. Her eyes grew a bit wide when she realized she was in a wooden cage. Her, Vincent and Charlie occupied this one. The one right next to them contained Isobella and David. They seemed unscathed, except for David who had a bloody lip. She suddenly remembered what had happened. It was late in the afternoon by now. It would be dusk in about two more hours. The cover of night could do them some good.

"Not too long. Just a few hours," Vincent replied before sitting down adjacent to her.

She glanced at Charlie and he nodded silently at her to confirm he was okay. Kendra smiled a little but not much. The situation had kept her reticent while she tried to piece everything together. They were being held captive by pirates. This could easily go one of two ways; they could either get sold as slaves, or get themselves killed. If they were lucky they would held for ransom. Kendra wished for such luck. "Do we have a game plan cause it's going to get dark soon."

"Not yet." Vincent replied.

"From what I tell, there's pirates all over and from what I heard, this isn't their only camp. How we didn't run into them earlier, I don't know but they're all over the bloody island. This whole place is their turf," David stated from across the cages.

Movement caught Kendra's eye and she looked towards it. Someone was coming their way. "And this must be the leader," she mumbled.

Indeed he was the leader. He sauntered up to them with an air of authority and a cocky smile. He probably liked to think of himself as being on top of the food chain around here. His hostages were no doubt as important as algae in his eyes. He bent down in front of Kendra's cage and looked at it's occupants one by one. Then he looked back at the other two. "Welcome to my island. I am your host, Vaas Montenegro. So who do we have here?" He pulled out their IDs that was amongst their captured equipment. "We have Vincent, Charlie, Isobella, I like that name, David aaand Kendra. Now lemme tell you something, all of you-" he said, pointing at each one, "are very fucking expensive, aren't you? I mean your equipment...it's top notch. I know why you're here. I've dealt with people like you. You're here to learn more about the power of the Rakyat, right? Haha. Well...that's not going to happen. Because around here I have the fucking power and you are all my bitches."

"Fuck you." Charlie spat.

"Excuse me? Hermano you got something to say? You got something to say to me you little cocksucker?! HUH?! Shut the fuck up! I have the dick around here! Shut the fuck up or you die. Okay?"

Charlie remained silent after that. This Vaas was obviously not going to tolerate anyone's shit. Kendra took it all in, watching ever so carefully how Vaas talked and how he responded to people who defied him. He then glanced down at Kendra and suddenly crouched down beside her. "Kendra, I have it on good word that you're worth a lot of money to a lot of people. I like that. It really makes my day you know."

"Vaas, I need you. I'll take over from here." Someone interrupted as he came walking up. Vincent recognized him immediately and began grinding his back teeth to try and keep his cool. Kendra picked up on it immediately and turned her eyes to this new man. He was Caucasian and his accent was South African. Physically, he was very much out of place here, however, he held as much power as Vaas did if not more. Vaas obeyed this guy too. He pounded both cages with his palms as he stood up. "I'll see you again soon," he stated before walking off.

The South African ordered one of the grunts to open the cage, "I want him." He pointed at Vincent. The grunt open the cage and Vincent came out willing. The other man looked at Kendra, "And you. Out." Kendra was hesitant but she got out anyways.

"Where the fuck are you taking them?" Charlie protested, clamoring after them. The grunt punched him in the stomach and sent him back into the cage, before tying it closed again.

"Charlie!" Kendra called out turning to go to him, but another pirate grabbed her and dragged her away. "Get off of me!" She yelled, trying to wiggle away. He just continued to pull her forward. David and Isobella looked on, worry etched across their features. Charlie lay there in the dirt, clutching his abdomen, feeling like a failure for only a moment. He then sat up and scooted to the edge of his cage so he could talk in a lowered voice to the others.

Vincent and Kendra were taken to a rather large hut built in the center of the village. A few pirates milled about here enjoying some food and drink as the two prisoners entered. They all started chuckling because they knew what was coming. As Vincent and Kendra were being chained up to the ceiling restraints, gunfire met their ears. Kendra panicked, thinking it was her friends. She turned around, eyes searching for them. Instead she saw Vaas off in the far corner blowing holes into three bound and hooded figures. It couldn't be her friends, she would have seen them pass by on their way to the hut. She was relieved in that aspect but witnessing such violence nonetheless had really solidified the fact that they were in deep shit.

Vaas rested the AK-47 over his shoulder as he came to the hut, a satisfied grin plastered across his face. He certainly stood out amongst the others. He wore a red shit and military trousers like the rest. However, he donned a mohawk and a nasty looking scar on the left side of his scalp. He also had an intricate tattoo down his right arm. Unlike the other tattoos Kendra spotted on various pirates, this one resembled the tatus of the Rakyat. Interesting.

Vaas placed the semi-automatic aside and crossed his arms, observing the two chained up. He then glanced to his would be boss. Vincent stared him down, "Volker."

Volker grinned, "Vincent. Long time, no see man. Huh. What are you doing here? No, no, better question. What are you doing with her?"

"She's my boss," Vincent stated, not taking his eyes off the other South African.

Kendra turned to her companion, "Remember what I said earlier?" She wanted in on whatever hostility was between the two. Being on the outs with something like this wasn't exactly ideal. Not with their lives on the line.

"This is Darius Volker, the little brother of Hoyt Volker. We used to work together."

Kendra just stared at him, mouth agape. She couldn't believe what she just heard. "Are you fucking kidding me? Hoyt was the employer you left?! Isn't he some sort of drug lord?"

"Was," Darius corrected. "He's dead now. I'm here to take over his business. And, darling he did more than deal in drugs. He was the top dog of slave sells." He stepped closer to her and grabbed her face. "People would pay a lot of money for you."

Kendra spit in his face. Vaas hid a smirk. She had spirit. He liked it when they had spirit. That made it all the more fun when he broke them. Darius stepped back and wiped the spit away. He then backhanded her across the face, causing her lip to bleed. Vincent remained silent and gripped his chains, anger boiling within him. Darius turned to face him, "Vaas is going to take care of you both, you especially Vincent. Think of it as a lesson. Once you're in with us, you're in for life." He nodded to Vaas, "I want her unmarked." With that he left the hut. He had other affairs to attend to but he trusted that his little dog would make the pair suffer before selling them off to the highest bidder.

As Darius walked along to his helicopter he thought about how to make Vincent pay for leaving them. He all sorts of sadistic ideas swirling about his brain. The best option was to break the man and make him rejoin the ranks. Then make him watch as they tortured the two other men and sold off the two women. Revenge always tasted so sweet.

Vaas rubbed his together and moved behind the two to a table. Upon it was all kinds of torture devices. Vaas was proficient in each one. According to what Darius told him, Vincent needed to suffer and he was good, no, great at making people bleed and scream. He grabbed a long, slender dagger, good for poking holes into people and moved to face Vincent once more. He stabbed the man in his abdomen and he grunted in response. He wasn't going to give in and grant this little psycho the satisfaction. It was Kendra's turned to grip her chains. She remained as stoic as possible. Vincent had taught her for years to not succumb to anger or show weakness in the face of an enemy.

Vaas stabbed him several more times, being sure to miss vital organs but Vincent refused to vocalize his pain. Vaas was annoyed but a part of him respected the man's strength. He glanced to Kendra. She was supposed to be unmarked but there were things he could do to her and that would make Vincent talk. Vaas moved to her and brushed aside her hair. "You leave her alone." Vincent demanded. That was quick. Vaas ignored him, though, and slipped his hand under her tank. The pirates there looked on lecherously and began chuckling.

"Hermano, your friend here, your boss...I bet she'd be a lot of fun."

"You get the fuck away from her!"

"Vincent!" Kendra shot back.

"Oooh, I think she wants to have some fun."

"You hurt her and I will rip out your throat."

"Oh no, I won't make her hurt. I'll make her beg. By the time I'm done, she'll wish she was dead." Vaas stated, walking around her back, hand still under her tank. He walked to the front again and laughed. Vincent lashed out his foot and kicked Vaas in the thigh. He wasn't too happy about that. The pirates got up ready to fire but Vaas stopped them. He grabbed Vincent by the collar of his shirt and punched him across the jaw.

Vincent only laughed, "I heard what happened here four months ago. How one little jack rabbit burned you to the ground. I'll make history repeat itself."

"You'll shut the fuck up!" Vaas yelled in his face. He then headbutted the man twice and then punched him in the gut where his stab wounds were at. Vincent began coughing up blood but Vaas wouldn't let up. He started using Vincent as a punching bag.

"Stop it, you're killing him!" Kendra begged. "STOP IT!"

"Shut up!" Vaas countered, continuing his assault.

"Fuck you, you psycho!"

Vaas stopped at that and was on her in a second. Bloodied hands grabbed both sides of her head. "What the fuck did you just say to me? Huh, you cunt?!"

"Did I stutter? I said fuck you!" Kendra repeated, fierce blue eyes meet green ones. The room was silent, save Vincent's groaning in pain. His knees had buckled and he was now hanging from his wrists. Kendra didn't stop there, though. She was defiant to the end after all. "Oh you don't like that do you? Someone who's not afraid of you. Because that's what you do, you rule through fear. You scream and you swear and your wave your gun around and somehow that's supposed to change my mind? No! I meant what I said. Fuck. You."

After another moment of silence Vaas started laughing again. He let go of Kendra and walked off before turning on his heels and pointing at her. "Oh I like you. I do! I'm going to have so much fun breaking you." He whistled to his pirates and gestured at Vincent's general direction. "Take that sack of shit back to his cage. Kendra and I, are going to film a little video."

The pirates did as they were told. They unchained Vincent and dragged him back to the cage. He was barely conscious. The others unchained Kendra, and tightly bound her hands behind her back with some rope. They then took her away to a different hut, further into the jungle away from the main complex. It was up a little hill and provided a good view of the rest of the camp. This was where Vaas stayed. Fittingly so. Vaas led them there and entered first. As he cleaned the blood off his hands and face, the pirates pulled out a chair and tied her to it. Vaas then got out a tripod and camera and set it up.

"Okay, hermana, today you are my actress. We're gonna make a video to send to your mama and papa." Vaas explained, turning on the camera and zooming it on her. He then pressed record. "Hello boys and girls, it is I again. Today we have Kendra West joining us. She has a very important message. She wants you to send some money to free her and her four friends. I want five million dollars but that's not for all of them. Five million for her friends, and another five for her. I know you'll send the money because she's really important." Vaas moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulder, being sure to keep his face out of the frame. He never let the people on the other end see what he looked like. "Isn't that right, Kendra?"

Kendra looked up at the lens of the camera, "Don't."

Vaas threw up his and sighed. "You just don't get it do you? I will fucking kill you if I don't get my money."

"So kill me now and save yourself the trouble."

Vaas walked over to the camera and stopped the recording. "You're not afraid of death then? You're not afraid of me?...And what about your friends?"

Kendra eyed him at that. Vaas smirked and then ordered his men to untie her. "Come here. I've got something to show you."

They walked back out to the main complex and towards an unused road that led into the jungle. As they got closer to the end, Kendra could make out bulbous looking things growing out of the ground. She soon realized these things weren't growing, they were buried there. One of the pirates pushed her forward and made her fall on her chest right in front of the bulbs. She came face to face with a head that had been decaying for a long while. The smell and the sight sent her back. She squirmed and pushed herself away releasing a disgusted yelp. Vaas chuckled and walked around to the other heads, squatting down next to them. "Do you like my garden?"

"You're crazy!"

"You call it crazy. I call it good fertilizer." He patted one of the fresher heads lovingly. It moved around to try and avoid his touch. Kendra's heart almost stopped. "See all these people weren't important...your friends are not important. You are. So this is what will happen to them if you do not comply. Understand?"

The brunette just slowly nodded. Vaas smiled and the pirates hoisted her up to her feet before pushing her back to the hut. Vaas was about to leave but he turned to the head that was still alive. "Hey do you need anything? Mangoes? Water?" It nodded. "Okay I'll have someone bring you something."

Back at the hut, Vaas turned on the camera again, "Let's try this one more time. I want five million dollars for Kendra's friends and five million more for Kendra. But here's the thing. I know it takes a little while to get that much, so here's what I'll do. I'll give you a week to send the first five for her friends. One week. I get the money, I let them go. I don't get the money, I start killing them one by one and the price goes up to save the others. After that, I'll send another video, then from there, you have another week to send the five million for Kendra here. That gives me two whole weeks with such a respectable explorer." Vaas stood behind her again and tucked her loose hair behind her ears. "If you people fuck me over, I'll kill them all. You know I will. Tell them Kendra."

Kendra nodded and glanced up at the lens again. She remained silent for a moment, not wanting to say anything but then she thought of her friends. She knew Vaas would keep his word about killing them. "Do it." She said sharply, regretting the words as they fell from her lips. "He will kill them. I've seen...I've seen what he does to people for fun and it's nothing good. Please, just do as he says. Exactly, as he says."

Vaas patted her head and walked back to the camera. "You have one week." He then turned off the camera and clapped at Kendra, "Oh you're such a good actress! Really, we're gonna do such great things together!" Kendra just looked down at the floor, refusing to make eye contact. It was all just a game to him. He was having a fucking ball at the expense of others. How in the hell could such people exist? She felt the pirates move her again, this time leading her back to her cage. They pushed her in and she stumbled down, not really caring if her got scraped up. She moved herself to the opposite end of the cage where Vincent was to make sure he was still alive.

"He passed out a few minutes after they brought him back. Are you okay?" Isobella asked.

"We'll be fine." Kendra stated, not really answering the question. She examined Vincent's wounds only to find that they had been bound.

"They gave me some gauze to wrap him up with." Charlie stated.

"They don't want him dying just yet. It's too early," Kendra replied, mostly to herself.

"And what do you mean by that?" David questioned, "Who was that man? Vincent knows him doesn't he?"

Kendra remained silent and sat back against the cage. "None of it matters. We'll be out of here soon."

Back at his hut, Vaas occupied the chair Kendra was tied to earlier. He had his head nestled in his hands trying to will the pain away. Ever since that Jason Brody kid came along, things had been pretty bad. His mental stability deteriorated even more. He was starting to lose perspective. Everywhere he looked, he saw the definition of insanity. People kept doing the exact same thing, thinking things would be different. Vaas sat up and looked down at his shaking hands. Who are you Jason? What kind of man are you? Vaas shook the memory from his head and shot right out of his chair. He walked over to a three drawer, metal cabinet and pulled open the middle one. He rummaged a bit and found his slender black box inside. He then moved over to the bunk and sat down. He opened the box to reveal a syringe, a vile, some rubber tubing, a spoon and a smaller vile filled with black pebbles.

He pulled the chair closer and used it as a makeshift table. He placed the spoon down and put one of the black pebbles on it. He then opened the other vile and used the attached dropper to place three drops on the spoon. Afterwards, he fished his lighter out and lit up the bottom of the spoon. The black pebble began to melt into the liquid, turning it into a murky black color. He placed the spoon down and used the syringe to soak up the contents. Then he tied the rubber tubing around his arm and held it tight between his teeth. He grabbed the syringe and stuck it in the protruding vein in his arm. The black liquid went in and intermingled with his blood. He put the needle aside and released his arm of the tubing before falling back against the covers of the bunk.

The room spun around and the walls melted off, memories of the past came flooding back. Flashes of the jungle ran through his mind, the chanting of the Rakyat and drums filled his ears. Citra's voice echoed around him, "You are strong. You are a warrior." Gunfire and screams replaced her. He had an AK in his hands and began mowing down everyone in his path. Hoyt Volker laughed, "Sorry. House rules." Television screens soon replaced the jungle. Women danced on their poles, the pirates sung and drank. A drug-addled Vaas danced around with a corpse before disappearing in a plume of smoke.

Everything went quiet, all he heard was his voice this time. Vaas could see himself standing tall and ominous. The harbinger of death and unhappy tidings. The prevailing evil of Rook Island. Nothing could knock him down. He stepped closer to his image and reached out. Flashes of his past sprout up again all around him like weeds.

"C'mon -clicks- Pull the trigger. C'mon motherfucker. Pull the trigger! Let's go, shoot me! Shoot ME! End this fucking misery!"

"You are me...and I am you."

"Take me into your heart. Accept me as your savior! Nail me to the fucking cross and let me be REBORN!"

Vaas woke up with a start. He looked around and saw that he was back in his hut, splayed across his bunk. His head pounded but quickly subsided. His thinking was a little clearer today. He rose up and swung his legs over the edge of the bunk. He spotted his drugs and decided to put it away back where it went. Afterwards he stepped out of his hut and into the morning sun. He had been dead to the world all night. He descended from his shanty and made his way over to the cages to check up on his newest acquisitions. All of them were still asleep except Kendra.

"Still alive, huh?" Kendra inquired in a sardonic tone.

Vaas smirked and kicked dirt at Charlie's face, "Good morning Charlie! Wakey, wakey. Today I am going to make a man out of you."

"Leave him alone," Kendra demanded as Charlie stirred from his sleep to wipe the dirt from his face.

"You, fuck off. I rule this kingdom, okay." Vaas stated as he opened up the cage. "C'mon Charlie, I don't have all fucking day." Charlie patted Kendra on the arm and did as he was told. Vaas grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out. He then had a good look at his face." Ooo, you're pretty. I know this guy in Yemen who'd pay top dollar for you. You better hope you're people pay first." He then turned Charlie around and kicked him in the ass to move him forward. He regarded one of his pirates and thumbed to the other prisoners, "Oy, get them some water."

With that Vaas was off into the jungle with Charlie and three pirates in tow. Kendra began to worry. Vaas was clearly unhinged. She began to question whether or not he ever had any intention of letting them go. He could easily get the ransom money and then turn around and sell them to the highest bidder as slaves. It's what she would do. This was all just a business after all. Kendra had never actually seen human trafficking up close before. It shook her to her core that such a thing was still possible. If you didn't turn a profit, you were killed or turned into a play toy until you outlived your usefulness. She shook Vincent, trying to will him awake. "Vincent, Vincent!"

He stirred a bit and slowly opened his eyes. He noticed first thing that it was daylight again. The bloodloss had incapacitated him for hours. He was glad to see Kendra was alright, though. The man moved a bit to sit up and noticed Charlie's absence. "Vaas took him," Kendra answered the unasked question. "He sent off a ransom for us but I have a bad feeling about it."

"He'll renege for sure. That's how these pirates work," Vincent replied, clutching his chest as he moved into a more comfortable position.

"You know what we're up against. Can we get out of here?"

"They're well supplied, and that will work in our favor. They have boats and helicopters, either one could be used for an escape."

"Good. Then we use one, tonight."

A/N: Sooo, I touched a little bit on Jason's hallucinations. I'll go into more detail about that later. The game struck me as veeery Fight Club like and I wanna play on it and expand it a bit to try and explain some of the inconsistencies in the game. Hopefully I can do that without looking like a jackass.

LadyEpic101: Oh God please let there be more. This is the only Vaas fanfic out there that's not Jason/Vaas. PLEASE DON'T STOP.

- Baha, ikr? I do not approve of the Vaason. It's just sooo illogical.

Twisted Novocaine: Really liking this story so far and things are definitely getting interesting! :) Can't wait to read more.

- Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it!