Chapter IX: A Tale of Survival
*** March 1st, 74 CE ***
Dearka backed up against the wall. He and his team had just made an attempt to escape and failed miserably. They were able to kill all the guards who and been guarding but new ones quickly took their place. Now guns were pointed in their direction. They were all injured and in no condition to try fighting their way out again.
"Bring me the Captain" One of the guards said. Four soldiers quickly grabbed Dearka. He struggled to get away from them to no avail. They brought him over to the center of the room and began to chain him up. His limbs barely reached. The pain of being stretched was more than he ever imagined it would be. He looked over towards his team. He could tell they were all scared. None of them were trained to deal with this kind of situation. He knew in that moment he needed to try and stay strong for them.
"What do you want with us" Dearka asked in a harsh tone.
The lead guard step forward and grabbed a hold of Dearka's dog tags. "Captain Dearka Elsman of ZAFT" He read before twisting them to choke him. Dearka tried to struggle to get the tags out of the man's hands but it wasn't working. His hands were secured tight in the chains. He felt himself become faint. Hearing the laughter of the BLUE COSMOS members just made him angry. Finally just as he thought he was going to pass out the man released the dog tags. He took several disparate breaths trying to regain his composure.
"You people… you're monsters" he spat under his breath.
"You don't know the half of it. We are going to show you what coordinators truly deserve." He said before he pulled out a knife from belt. He took the knife and cut the young Captain's shirt wide open. He traced the knife lightly down from Dearka's neck to his belly button. "I can't wait to hear you scream" with that he plunged the knife deep into his stomach. He tried to stay focused on anything other than the pain. He couldn't let them hear him scream. He looked at his team. They looked terrified but he knew he needed to stay strong.
He remained tough. This only made the man angrier. He twisted the knife inside Dearka. He couldn't hold it back any longer. He screamed out in pain. He had never felt anything like it before. He had been shot before even stabbed, but no pain he had experienced was ever like this. Slowly the knife was pulled out. He could feel the blood running down his leg and drip off his foot. "Collect it" The man said. Dearka watched as they placed a bowl underneath him. His blood filling it.
"What the hell are they doing" He thought to himself. He wanted to move but his body wouldn't respond. He just hung there motionless. He felt them begin to wrap him in bandages. They moved the bowl of his blood and took it deeper into the cave. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked weakly. The man didn't answer so Dearka decided to try and provoke him "Don't want to answer me fine. But no matter what you do BLUE COSMOS will come to an end. Naturals and coordinators will someday live together in harmony and even fall in love."
He could see how angry he made the man. He ran off to the side of the cave where a box of tools were. There he pulled out a small chainsaw. Dearka was shocked, it was all going to end here with his head being lopped off. His men all closed their eyes while he held his chin up high. It refused to let them see him flinch. He raise the saw up and moved it towards his neck. He was only inches from cutting Dearka's head off when someone stopped him.
"That's enough Evans!" As soon as the lead guard heard this man's voice he stopped. It was Donald Rowe. The new leader of BLUE COSMOS. Dearka didn't know who he was all he knew was that whoever this man was he was obviously someone important. Maybe he was the new leader he thought. "Release him" The guards walked over to the captain and unlocked the chains, letting his body fall hard to the ground. He tried rolling over but the pain was too much. "Bring him into the inner cave" Donald ordered as he walked past heading deeper into the cave. The injured coordinator was picked up and carried into the other part of the cave.
Dearka was forced down onto his knees next to a roaring fire. His eyes darted around the room as he tried to get a lay of the land. He couldn't help but notice one of the enemy soldiers painting on the wall with his blood. What the hell was going on here he wondered.
"Any last words" the Rowe asked as he pressed a gun to Dearka's head.
Dearka smirked his famous smirk "Kill me. It won't stop them. They will come after you."
"They need to find us first!" he replied.
"Days, weeks, months or years it doesn't matter. They will find you. BLUE COSMOS will end"
"It's too bad you won't live to see that day" he said.
Dearka heard laughter. His eyes looked up at the man laughing. It was Evans, the man who had tortured him. "After we kill you I'm going to kill your soldiers one by one. I'll make sure they feel just as much pain as you did" He said before laughing hysterically. Dearka felt an uncontrollable amount of rage build up inside him. Adrenaline was running through his veins. He felt a sudden surge of strength. He leaped up, breaking away from the men holding him down and pushed Evans into the fire "Ahhhhhhh!" He screamed out in pain a horrible blood curdling scream that echoed through the caves.
A gunshot rang out shooting Evans through the head and ending his screaming. The smell of cooking meat soon filled the room. Dearka was forced back down to his knees. "I was going to let you die here. But now I think death is too good for you. I prefer to watch you suffer. You will pay for what you just did." He pulled Dearka's dog tags off from around his neck and threw it into the fire on top of Evans burning corpse. "To ID the body" He said smiling. Dearka tried to struggle but it was futile. Donald pulled a gas mask out of his pocket. "Smoke the place" he said.
Soon the air filled with a thick smoke. Dearka felt faint. Everything seemed to get blurry. He fell down to the ground. He could hear them all laughing a satisfied laugh. They enjoyed his suffering. "Miriallia... I'm sorry" he managed to gasp out before everything went black.
Dearka wasn't sure where he was when he finally came to. He was laying on an uncomfortable wire bed. He looked across the rounded room to see a sink and toilet. "How long was I out?" he thought to himself. He looked down at his bare stomach. He was expecting to see a horrible wound. Instead he was surprised to see an old scar. It was almost like it had been healed for weeks. He was so confused.
"It was a beautiful service really" He heard a man say. The voice sounded like it came from above him. He looked up. That was when he realized he was down several feet into the ground in a large hole. "They even let your father out for the occasion" the man said before throwing a pamphlet down into the hole. Dearka picked it up. He was shocked. It was the program for his funeral. He started to read some of the text. According to it he had been believed dead for over three months. "I guess this means nobody's been to be looking for you Captain Elsman nor will they ever" he said with a smirk on his face.
"What the hell do you plan on doing with me?" he said never taking his eyes off the paper.
"They say ZAFT soldier are trained never to break under pressure. They are trained to deal with interrogations and never give up the information. I just want to see how well trained you really are. I want to see how long you can hold out before you break."
"And in the end you plan on killing me. So why not just get it over with. What the hell is the end game here? You're just going to keep hostage here for as long as it takes?"
"Of course you dieing is how this will all end. Break now and you'll feel the sweet release of death. But not right away. No. I want to see you truly suffer. Your like my little play toy, punishment since you killed one of my best men."
"And you killed many of mine" he replied in disgust.
"All coordinators need to die to preserve our pure and blue world. A single naturals life is worth more than a hundred coordinators" Dearka curled his nose up. This man was a horrible human being "But that doesn't mean I won't sacrifice a natural's life to get what I want."
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
"She's a very pretty young girl. Miriallia Haww from the Orb Union. She's really starting to make a name for herself too, vowing to take down BLUE COSMOS no matter what" Dearka felt panicked. He didn't want this guy to even say her name. How the hell did he even know about her. "I promise you this Captain Elsman, when you break I won't be the one to kill you. You're going to kill yourself. But first I will slit that girls throat in front of you. I'll let you watch her die just barely out of your reach. I'll leave her body there for you to look at. For you to know her blood is on your hands because you couldn't keep you impure hands off her. Then a few days later I'll give you a knife to take you own life. That is the only way this ends."
"You're wrong" Dearka spat. He looked up at Donald Rowe, tears built up in the corners of his eyes. Anger was written all over his face. "There is another possibility. I survive. And I kill you."
"Good luck with that" He said before taking a gun and shooting Dearka in the arm. He looked over to where he was hit. It wasn't and bullet but a tranquilizer dart. He felt his vision start to get blurry before everything went black.
*** Present Day - March 27th, 79 CE ***
Miriallia laid in her hospital bed feeling the cold breeze blow in from the window. She still couldn't believe everything that had happened on Earth. They actually had found BLUE COSMOS and brought them down once and for all. But the thing she really couldn't believe was they found Dearka Elsman alive.
She looked down at her still bandaged legs. She frowned at the sight of them. She couldn't help but remember a panicked Yzak ordering the medical team to help her. Insisting they couldn't let her die. It was kind of sweet of him. What she didn't think was so sweet was him ordering a rape kit. She insisted that nothing had happened but after the way he found the two he told her she didn't have a choice. Much to his relief the results came back negative.
Donald Rowe had unfortunately lived. Yzak believed it was a good thing. Maybe they could get some answers from him about the past five years. But Miriallia knew the man was never going to tell them anything. She started to wish she hit him a little higher when she stabbed him. Hit him in the heart, let him feel the pain she had felt for years thinking Dearka was gone. But that wouldn't have changed anything. She would only have his death on her conscience.
"How you feeling today Haww" Yzak asked as he walk in the room. He was holding a large bouquet of wild flowers. She looked at him funny. "They're not from me. Ava picked them out downstairs." he said slightly embarrassed. He handed her the flowers and she smelled them.
"To answer your question I'm doing a lot better. They are releasing later today"
"What! But you're not fully healed!" Starting to head towards the door. He was going to give the doctor a piece of his mind.
"Yzak! Please that's enough! I just want to go home. I'm want to be there when my daughter wakes up and goes to bed at night. I miss it. You can't keep me in here forever." She knew Yzak was dealing with a lot right now. His wife was a little over eight months pregnant, they we taking care of her daughter, he was in charge of managing all the aftermath of BLUE COSMOS without her… then there was Dearka. "How is he?" She asked finally. It was the first time in three weeks she had the courage to ask. Yzak chose never to volunteer any information. He knew when she was ready she would ask.
"How much do you want to know?" He asked taking a seat.
"Everything"
"Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Even if I can't I need to know"
"He woke up about two weeks ago… but just lays there. He hasn't said a word yet. The doctors say there is nothing physically wrong with him to prevent him from talking, so it must be something psychological. When he first arrived they flushed so many drugs out of his system. They think that they kept him asleep most of the time with tranquilizers and other drugs. That's why he was unconscious when you found him. The drugs messed with his nutrition. That's why he looked like he was starving. He hasn't eaten anything since waking up but they are making sure he gets the nutrients he needs. He even managed to gain a couple of pounds."
"How much did they torture him?" she asked never looking at her friend. She was scared to hear the answer.
"We don't know. There doesn't appear to be too much physical trauma. There were signs that he had bones that had broken. But they said it didn't seem to look like from torture. They think it was from him trying to climb out of the hole. You know Dearka. He wouldn't just sit in the hole and behave, he fought tooth and nail to get out. But judging from how he won't speak maybe all the torture was psychological."
"I… I want to see him" Yzak looked at her like she had two heads. She looked back at him with determination to get her way. "He was my boyfriend when he went missing. He is the father of my child. He was the reason for everything I've been for the past five years. I need to see him"
Yzak wanted to refuse her but he knew her enough by now that this was one argument he wasn't going to win. Later that afternoon Mir was released. She changed into some civilian clothes. She wore a pair of white flats and a red halter romper finished of with a white belt. She was gorgeous. "Nice clothes, they seem real appropriate" He said sarcastically noting the length of the clothing. Most of her legs were showing, that is the parts that weren't covered by bandages.
"I can't help what your wife sends me to wears."
"She's too pregnant to reach in the bottom more appropriate drawers." He replied.
"Then stop complaining…" she joked before getting serious "Come on. I'm ready."
They walked down the hall and got into the elevator. A short ride later and they were on Dearka's floor. They walked down the hall, their shoes echoing through the halls. Finally they came to his room. "Are you sure you are ready for this" he asked she nodded her head and walked in the room.
He was just laying there in the bed. He seemed so peaceful as he slept. She had a hard time recognizing him for a second. He was now five years older than the last time she had seen him. His hair hadn't been cut since he was taken captive. It was so long and unruly. His muscles she had once admired weren't as prominent anymore. But most of all his happy smile she had grown to adore was gone. Mir took a few steps closer, accidentally waking the sleeping man. He eyes slowly opened halfway and stared at her. She could finally see the color of his eyes. They seemed glazed over but they were the same violet eyes she had looked into a hundred times.
"Dearka..." She whispered. He didn't look like he knew who she was. But how could he. She kept looking at him pointing out how much he had changed when in reality she had changed to. She was 19 years old when he went missing. Now she had just turned 24 years old. She was a mother and governor of a free colony. Her hair was much longer than it ever was before and much differently styled. Even the clothes she chose to wear now a days was different then the styles she chose five years ago. No… in truth maybe she had changed more than he did.
She slowly walked over and sat down beside him. His eyes followed her as she moved. When she was finally beside him his hand quivered and shook as he reached for the bed controls. He pressed the button and adjusted the bed to a sitting position. He turned his head and stared into Mir's eyes. Yzak was shocked. In the three weeks he had been visiting Dearka never moved a muscle never mind something like this.
"Do… Do you know who I am?" She asked softly. She looked at him begging for a response. Finally he nodded his head 'yes'. He dropped the controls for his bed and reached his hand out into the empty space between them. She reached out hers out in response and took a hold of his. She felt butterflies fill her stomach. A feeling she hadn't felt in years. She looked down at her lap she was surprised to see tears falling. She didn't even realize she was. She looked up at Dearka. She could have sworn for a second she saw him smile. "You're safe. I promise you are safe… Your home Dearka"