AN: I told you, by my time I have just under an hour until Monday, so suck on that!!! Things are starting to kick off now YEY! I have no idea whether this chapter makes any sense as I kept stopping and starting it again during random intervals throughout the day. And now I'm stuck using clever scientist speak as I'm still channelling that character! Speaking of scientists, none of the scientific thing in this are real, I have no idea whether it would work or not I just thought it sounded cool so don't pull me up on that one. Loyal subjects I Psycho hearby announce that I finally have reached double figure chapters! 10! Celebrate, be joyful and use those feelings in reviews, I'm feeling lonely in my little padded cell.
DISCLAIMER: do you think that if I owned Remy that I would share him with anyone else? Really its just silly to ask. I'm the teenager and yet you think that it's clever to ask whether I own the most amazing guy on the planet, really? Oh btw I don't own the Princess Bride either (that's the quote for all those who are wondering, If you don't know it then it is a required film to watch for my New World Order! GO WATCH NOW! But read and review first!)
LOVE TO MY REVIEWERS:
tfobmv18,
laceylou,
GardenRiver: please don't break your fingers, you need them to review!,
Alexmonalisa: Well at least you have your comics, great that my reply makes you so happy but I hope the update makes you happier,
XxXFairyQueenXxX,
Misunderstood,
LadyMageLuna
Sorry about the short replies but well…I'm falling asleep and right now coherent sentences make my head hurt, but I still love you all and am ever your fearless leader Psycho! Xxx
~I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.~
~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844–1900~
"Gentlemen I believe that it is time Miss Darkholme had another Endurance test, don't you?"
I looked at him with fear in my eyes; the only time I ever let them see how I truly felt was when I was due for my Endurance Tests. I had learnt pretty early on that they were hell on Earth, the worst pain you could ever imagine increased to the point where you felt that you were being incinerated from the inside out. I despised this man already, not only had he promised pain, but because he didn't care, no remorse, anger even humour for Gods sake just the flat, emotionless dead, grey orbs that he called eyes.
"Have these tests ever been explained to you my dear?" He paused and I held back the urge to heave his voice was like oil and sandpaper at the same time, grating at my soul and making me feel like I was drowning simultaneously. This man, this creature dictated my life, the thought hit me while he was waiting for my reply. He knew my name…no-one knew my name, only me, the professor and Remy yet this beast had called me by it when he had entered the room, I felt violated, like my past had been desecrated. "No? Well I must explain, I have been very interested in your abnormality since you first arrived, in fact I have great plans for you, but we mustn't ruin the surprise, lets just say that you will help me purge the world of your plague and to do that I must see how strong you really are, how long you'll survive my scheme. You see this here?" Trask indicated to the new syringe that Head Scientist was holding, it contained a clear liquid with small blue speckles in it, I visibly cringed away from it, I had seen this substance before, many times. They would inject, I would scream, they would scribble, I would pass out, the continuous cycle of torture to see how long I would hold out. Each time was longer, harder, more painful and each time they would become more excited and more encouraged by my consciousness. "I stumbled upon it quite by accident while developing My Sentinels" If possible my skin crawled even more, this was the son-of-a-bitch responsible for it all, mutants coming out of the shadows, for sticking me in this torment for almost killing me everyday but making sure that I was just well enough to survive until the next, for doing the same to Remy I was going to rip his scrawny little neck out!!! "You see this beauty here raises the acidity levels of your blood ever so slightly, just enough to make it feel as though you're melting from the inside, the pain is intense and I can wait to see how long you're going to last this time, I do hope you will finally get over your 7 hour record, I can wait to hear you squeal like the animal that you are." ANIMAL!?! The guy that is trying to burn me to a crisp from the inside and he calls ME an animal!?!
"Why are you doing this, you Monster?"
"As Hitler once said: I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice, I will have my justice by wiping every last peace of you scum off the face of the Earth and I'm going to use you to do it." He indicated for Head Scientist to finally inject me and I cowered away, ashamed but unable to stand up to the unendurable pain that I knew was to come.
The slight prick in my arm alerted me to the fact I had lost and I lay there waiting, knowing I would be powerless to stop the agony that was surely to come all I could do now was delay it. Distract my mind from the flames that were now licking their way up blood vessels in my arm, melting away at my body and resolve.
Beheading would be a good way to kill him, too quick but the blood would spurt nicely. No? How about a duel to the pain? Rogue mulled this idea over in her head and found herself liking it more and more with each moment, much better then setting him alight…She remembered the passage form the book clearly "Fist thing you will loose will be your feet, the left, then the right. Below the ankle. Then your hands, at the wrist. Next your nose, no smell of dawn for you. Followed by your tongue. Deeply cut away, not even a stump left. And then your left eye—"
"And then my right eye and then my ears, and shall we get on with it?"
"WRONG! Your ears you shall keep, so that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish – every babe that weeps in fear of you approach, every woman that cries 'Dear God, what is that thing?' will reverberate forever with your perfect ears. That is what 'to the pain means'. It means that I leave you to live in anguish, in humiliation, in freakish misery until you can stand it no more." It was perfect, he would truly know how live would feel to be one of us "freaks" and would have the pain that he had inflicted upon us in this prison.
But the pain continued to knar away at me, it had already infiltrated my legs and was slowly climbing up my torso. Inflicting imaginary bodily harm on Bolivar Trask was no longer enough, I turned to Remy, the one thought that always held off the pain, he had lengthen my time from 4 hours 20 to a straight 7 hours and was determined to beat it. To stave off the abyss that enveloped by world at the end of each of these sessions, it terrified me every time it had occurred before my conversations with Remy. The time he first asked me to talk about my family I had only just returned from one of the Tests and I knew I wouldn't survive another. But when Remy's voice had asked me that one simple request he pulled me back, he gave me another, stronger, more urgent reason to carry on and being as stubborn as I am, I used it. Using Trask's use of my name to fuel my grit I recalled the question I had asked after I had told Remy my name.
*~FLASHBACK~*
"What is your biggest regret?" I was expecting something generic like, getting caught or not going after some girls when he had that chance. I truly surprised when his voice responded with the most sincerity and sadness I had ever heard one man speak.
"I regret not saving Etienne, it should have been me"
"Yah cousin?"
"My cousin, It was his Tilling but we were set up, the Assassin's they…they wanted to kill me and I was Etienne's Second. They set us up." He paused in the story and she thought that was all he was going to tell her, which was fine, she understood that it was difficult to talk about the deaths of the ones that you love, especially ones you felt guilty for, Remy had been the first person she had ever spoken to about Cody after all, but she hoped that e would open up to her. He wore so many masks and had constructed so many walls around himself, just like her and because of that she knew that he had to share it with someone, allow one person to see his true, scared self as hypocritical as that sounded, but she didn't want to lose him too. "The guards had been doubled and were armed, they were informed of our plan, knowing precisely where and when we were going to enter the building. They…they shot at us, I got caught once in the shoulder and I lost sight of Etienne while we were running. I should…I should have stayed, distracted the guards to give him some time to get clear but I…I was a coward…I blew a hole in the wall that went straight onto the river and I jumped…The Guild came and picked me up…Etienne had drowned…he got caught by a piece of debris, knocked unconscious, unable to swim. I…I…I killed him, my own family…I…" He choked off but there were no sobs, no tears just a palpable self-loathing that Rogue was all too familiar with.
"Yah, didn't kill him, the Assassin's did, you feel guilty, you blame yourself you wish ta Gawde that it had been you. But it's not! Yah are alive, yah are here and there's nothing you can do about it! Yah love him, he was family and he loved you, he could have chosen anyone as his Second but he chose yah, and yah did all you could, if yah had stayed yah could have both died, the Assassin's would have won and their would be even greater grief in your family, they would have lost their Prince and their Son, so stop this, or his death would have been truly worthless. Now tell be did you get vengeance?"
There was a shocked pause at her sudden outburst and Rogue was worried she had taken it too far. She just hated to hear his fun loving voice so full of sadness; it made her want to rip the hearts out of whoever had made it so and then slap the Cajun silly for being so self-pitying. Finally Remy's voice returned "Yes,"
"Then all is balanced, justice was served and you should move on, I don't mean yah should forget him, never forget him, remember him everyday and let his memory make you stronger because we are only truly dead when we are forgotten, and his love will keep you going even it the toughest of times, like now. I use the memories of all the people I love to keep me going, to give me a reason to continue, and you're one of them Remy, so don't give in to shame because we need to keep going together, Okay?"
"Of course Marie, ma chere you are one of my memories too you know."
"Course I do, otherwise I'd come and kick your ass"
*~END FLASHBACK~*
Rogue gritted her teeth, holding back the scream that threatened to escape as Trask's words permeated through her memories. He was talking to Head Scientist.
"What do the images show?"
"It's just as you suspected, I'm amazed that you would have noticed it before sir"
"Never underestimate me Simon, why is this area highlighted?"
"Nothing, it's just the subject's mind retreating into its memories to protect itself, a common defence mechanism, especially between Mutant #10 and #14, interesting really but inconsequential all that matters is this area here, notice the glitch? That is exactly what we've been looking for."
"Superb Simon, this will put us ahead of schedule by 2 weeks I am truly astonished at the progress here, its almost a shame to move onto Phase 3 of the plan."
"Phase 3 sir?"
"Why yes, I forgot that you hadn't been informed, don't worry all will be revealed in time, and I assure you that it will benefit you greatly, now I wish to raise Mutant #10's dosage, the quiet in here is boring and I wish to hear her lovely southern scream."
"Sir! I must protest a higher dosage could be fatal for the subject. The acidity could permanently damage her body as well as her brain. Not to mention what the stress of the pain could do to her mind, if she even survives she could lose all coherent thought or sanity. Need I remind you of Mutant #7? Consider the consequences, the ramifications of your actions could be cataclysmic for all that you have worked for, I must pro—"
BANG
"You all talk too much…Now Marie, I know that you have been holding back on us, you are much stronger than seem so I am going to increase the dosage myself." He paused for a moment but Rogue had no idea what he was doing, she had her eyes squeezed shut and the pain was making her thoughts short and disjointed.
More Pain? Can't handle more
Bang? Did he shoot him?
Need to keep going
Talk to Remy soon
Pain
"I always admired, your powers, to kill and it to be so quick, easy and clean. I do hate the way people feel the need to bleed all over you when they're dying, so inconsiderate, they were killed for a reason so why continue to irritate me? Anyway ahh…yes here we are…enjoy this #10 I sure will."
The pain finally exploded, colours bursting before her eyes in a mocking dance or reds, oranges and yellows with black finally inching its way across her vision while screams continues to wrack her small frame. When the blackness finally took her she hoped it was death.
I'm sorry Remy, I love you.
…
I'm all depressed now, only reviews will make me happy again. Don't worry she isn't dead, not by a long shot. Another cliffy I know, but you love the drama really.
xxx
R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R…R&R