#10 The Method Broken
A/N: Hello to all you patient readers! Europe was very satisfying, what with soaking up culture and…I'll shut up now and let you all read the next chapter you've most likely been hanging out for…I hope. Thank you for your patience!
LaPush'sSheWolf: The next chapter is here now, so I hope you do enjoy it.
paleblak97: All shall be revealed in this chapter. Europe was amazing, and yes, a cliffhanger was slightly mean.
Sparky Dorian: Yes, Jarred is incredibly evil.
Minglisabeth: I'm glad you like it so far!
Jess: You demanded it, so…there shall be much rejoicing, for it is here! I hope this chapter meets your requirements.
2259.13
Spitfire Dawn
Neither of them spoke. Relda sat curled in a ball in the corner, her chin resting on her knees. She didn't even look across at Chekov. He sat across the room with his head in his hands as though appalled by something he'd done. They didn't know how much longer they had until Jarred returned, but they knew something terrible was going to happen. There were only two left now. His plans had been foiled.
But that had been the plan the whole time.
"Relda." Chekov's voice was hoarse, and he sounded as though he might have been crying. "Please say something. Just…look at me."
His words brought her from her melancholy reverie. She uncurled ever so slightly and shifted, glancing across at him. What was there to say? She just wanted to scream, or pound the wall in frustration. Rahnek's death had been different from those of the four others massacred when they had first been captured, but somehow, it had been more…disturbing.
"What am I supposed to do?" she snapped at him, "Say everything will be alright? Because it won't be. Don't you understand? He will kill us now. I'm sure of it. What else can he do without Rahnek?"
Chekov sounded pained. "Relda…"
"Don't talk to me." It was hardly his fault, and she felt guilty being so accusatory towards him. "I just need time to think."
Footsteps loomed ever closer, defying Relda's wishes.
"There is no time," Chekov reminded her, gently, "You need to be strong. We both do…"
As their captors stopped at the door to the cell, Relda looked at Chekov – really looked at him. He looked completely shattered, as devastated as she felt. His blue eyes were haunted by what they had so recently witnessed.
Wiping the blood from her face, she whispered, "Tell me about the method of three."
Several hours earlier
Relda's heart thumped in her chest as Rahnek marched towards the bathroom cabinet. Behind them, Chekov was rolling on the floor in pain, clutching at his stomach. Her eyes were wide with horror as Rahnek reached into the cabinet and pulled out the packet. Relda could feel the tears sliding down her face, hear her own uncontrollable sobs.
"Rahnek…please, put it back. Don't…"
"It has to be done, Relda." His voice was hard, just like his eyes. "For the good of all of us. The method of three must be broken. Jarred cannot be allowed to win."
He was going to kill Chekov. Relda had to stop him. She was a security operative, but was she good enough to face a Vulcan? She doubted it, but someone had to try. She lunged at Rahnek, but his eyes flashed and then he darted forward, catching her arm and twisting it behind her back. Relda yelped in pain as Rahnek tossed her easily aside and continued to the navigator, who was wiping blood away from his mouth and staggering to his feet. Rahnek's eyes were shining with something fervent and mad as he reached into the packet, slowly.
Relda felt a throbbing pain in the back of her head where she'd hit the ground, but every other pain was numbed compared to the fact that she might lose Chekov. All three of them had been fighting together…and now it looked like Rahnek had snapped.
Rahnek pulled out the pill, a pretty little blue thing, and he held it up to eye level to examine it. Chekov realized in that split second what the young Vulcan intended to do, and he began to stagger to his feet.
"NO!"
Rahnek offered them both a small smile as he pushed the pill into his own mouth. Relda gave a cry of shock and desolation as she realized that this had been Rahnek's intention the whole time. He had never been about to kill Chekov – he had recognized the destruction Jarred was wreaking upon them, and he sought to stop it by his own death. Of course he'd acted like he was going to kill Chekov, because he would have known they would have tried to stop him.
Rahnek started to froth at the mouth and his frame shuddered violently. He hit the ground, still jolting and writhing as Chekov and Relda both hurried to him, examining with horror what their comrade had done.
"What were you thinking?" screamed Relda, unable to contain all the emotions inside of her, "Rahnek! WHY DID YOU DO IT?"
Tears were falling thick and fast as eventually Rahnek's violent twitches subsided into a horrible stillness. Relda knew what it was. She had seen this stillness on New Year in New York City. There was no doubting that Rahnek was dead.
Footsteps hurried down the corridor. There was no doubting that the surveillance cameras had captured everything that had happened. The door hissed open, and there was Jarred as Relda had never seen him – panicked. He saw Rahnek lying dead on the ground, Chekov and Relda leaning over him, and his eyes widened.
Relda couldn't help but feel victorious. Rahnek had done them not to save himself from what may come, but to break the method of three and prevent Jarred from making them destroy themselves. This way, they actually stood more of a chance. Relda clambered to her feet, smirking as Jarred stalked towards her.
"He's dead," Her tone was triumphant and taunting, "You've failed, Jarred Medwin. Because Rahnek is dead."
Jarred, usually so calm and collected, couldn't control the blind rage that was surging through him at that moment. He grabbed Relda by the arms, viciously slamming her against the wall so that her head bounced. A trickle of blood ran down the side of the face and she winced. He struck her across the face, before he released her and stepped away, regaining his composure.
"Soon you will wish that you were, too."
He ran his hands through his silver-blue hair, clearly at a loss of ideas. With Rahnek dead, all of his intricate plans were ruined. While this gave Relda hope, Chekov was clearly overcome by the loss of his comrade. He stayed leaning over Rahnek, a horrified expression on his face.
Then after a few moments of panic, an evil smile came over his face and he laughed as he tossed his hair back. Relda's heart sank as she realized Jarred had come to a conclusion about how to make the best of this situation. Perhaps Rahnek had been wrong. Maybe Jarred could still break them.
"He thought he was clever," Jarred said in a mocking voice, quite different to the almost animalistic way he'd snarled at Relda just before, "But all he did was buy you time. For he has made Pavel Chekov a murderer."
Upon hearing his name, the young navigator looked up.
"What are you talking about?"
Jarred grinned maliciously across at him. "If there has been a death, I will have to report it to the crew of your beloved Starfleet ship. They'll want to know how Rahnek died…and of course, it should be no surprise that Chekov, overcome by madness and jealousy, was the one who did the deed."
Chekov's eyes widened. "No!"
"They won't believe you," Relda warned, "You're a fool for trying, Jarred."
He turned his attention on her.
"Oh, you'd be surprised, sweetheart. When I get back…both of you will be left wishing you died along with Rahnek."
Relda's eyes flicked to the packet of cyanide pills. Did she have the strength to take her own life as Rahnek had done? Would that be saving Chekov, or leaving him to Jarred's mercy – or lack thereof – alone?
As if guessing the girl's thoughts, Adar stepped forward and snatched the packet up off the ground. Jarred's eyes were completely empty as he wagged a finger at them as if they were naughty children.
"Tut tut. I don't think so. Neither of you shall be getting out the easy way like Rahnek did."
He nudged the Vulcan with his foot, and the act was so completely dehumanizing that Relda could no longer restrain the pent-up anger, hatred and frustration that had been building up inside of her for so long.
"Why, you…"
She charged at him like an enraged bull, fully expecting to attempt to tear him to pieces. She didn't how badly beaten she got for her efforts, as long as she got a good go at him…but then Chekov snatched her arm and dragged her backwards. Relda fought against him, and Chekov grabbed her other arm to prevent her from breaking free. Then the tears came again, those stupid tears that blurred her vision and made Jarred's smile grow sadistic. Her struggles grew weaker as she sobbed.
"I'm going to kill you with my bare hands," she told Jarred, her tone full of passionate anger, "You're a…"
Chekov clapped a hand over her mouth, preventing her from saying anything that might have got her hurt. Jarred's eyes darkened for a moment, but his grin remained plastered across his face the whole time.
"You are trouble, my dear. When I get back from contacting Starfleet and telling them about Rahnek's horrible murder at Chekov's hands, I shall make sure that you never speak back to me again."
A shiver ran down Relda's spine. She didn't like the sound of that one bit.
Present time
Relda was back to the scared little girl she was deep down, and the thing that terrified her was that she found herself incapable of putting on her usual brave façade. Jarred had thought up creative ways of hurting them in the past. She had the distinct feeling that whatever he had planned next would be horrific. So when he stepped into the cell, that deceivingly pleasant smile across his face, she was truly at a loss for words. She had just watched a comrade kill himself to save them. Jarred wouldn't be pleased about this, no matter what he'd told the Enterprise crew.
"When I'm through with you, you're going to be begging me to kill you." Jarred jerked his head towards Chekov. "Make him watch. This could be an educational experience for him." As Adar roughly grabbed Chekov and shoved him into the grasp of two others, Jarred tilted his head to the side and grinned. "Have you ever watched a comrade tortured first-hand, Chekov? I didn't think so. Well, today you're about to learn what effect that has on you. It scars you for life."
It was Relda who dared ask the obvious question. "And you know this because?"
The smile vanished as though wiped from Jarred's face. He pulled out something from his pocket, something that glistened and shone like silver…and then when Jarred was finished unwinding it, Relda's heart skipped a beat. It was a whip, covered with tiny little spikes, malevolent things that would bite into your skin at a touch.
"Are you sorry yet?" Jarred asked her as he gripped the whip handle tightly. "Because you soon will be."
Relda tried to get up, to run, but he tripped her up so that she landed on the ground quite heavily. He then kicked her in the stomach for good measure. Relda felt like she couldn't breathe, like the wind had been knocked clean out of her…
Then the whip came down, and she had never felt pain like it. She gave a shrill scream as the metal bit into her skin, and then just as suddenly it was torn back out. After ten lashes, Relda stopped screaming and learned to focus on numbing the pain, on accepting it for what it was so that it all became one. After fifteen lashes, she felt herself losing consciousness. Maybe it was better if she died. Then Jarred couldn't use anyone else against Chekov. Then he would have failed…
Right on twenty lashes, the whip stopped striking her back and Relda forced herself to turn over – resulting in an excruciating pain in her back – to see what was happening. Jarred stood over her, a contemptuous expression on his face.
"You disappoint me, Relda. I thought you were stronger than this."
"Give me the whip and let's see how you fare," Relda replied through gritted teeth.
Jarred raised his eyebrows, acknowledging that the fire still had not been doused in Relda. She was still going to talk back, the bloody annoying girl…and he was determined that things would go his way, or no way. He'd already lost Rahnek and been forced to backtrack. He had been close to breaking Relda before. This time, he would succeed.
"I hope you're not afraid of the dark, Miss Bennett."
Relda was puzzled…until Jarred's foot swung out of nowhere and slammed into her head.