Project Menoetius - then
There were many ways to break a man and not all of them were physical. It helped, of course, at least in most cases. Although there were some that cling to the physical pain in order to withstand the psychological one. It had taken a while until they'd understood that they were dealing with such a case.
By then he'd already been bruised and bleeding, unresponsive, dancing at the edge of unconsciousness. And yet he was as stubborn and mute as ever, still not showing any kind of resistance. He merely sat in the chair he was strapped to, chin resting on his chest while breathing hard, slowly but steadily dripping blood onto the metal floor. It was infuriating.
He hadn't even flared or tried to shake them off biotically because he knew exactly that this was what they were waiting for. That they were looking for the right buttons to push for him to react and show them the extent of being a L2 biotic. He didn't give them the satisfaction.
Their first assumption had been that he simply had a high tolerance for pain, knowing he was dealing with the consequences of living with a flawed implant and the agony it resulted in. After a while in the hands of a very talented and skilled expert in terms of making people react in a way they wanted to, it became clear that his high tolerance for pain wasn't the problem.
The problem was, that he was using the pain inflicted to him to stay in control. And if there was something Kaidan Alenko was infamous for, something every single one of his superior officers had noted in his file, it was his control.
So it stood to reason that they had to take it first before they would be able to get him where they wanted him to be; a place so desperate he would do anything to get away. They had to break his mind first before anything they'd do to his body would result in any of the reactions they were waiting for.
After hours of trial and error, of studying his file almost religiously, watching the tapes of him over and over again, she had a very good idea how to get him there.
A fraction of a smile ghosted over her lips as soon as the idea began to bloom in her mind. Her fingers were reaching for the button of her comm almost without her being aware of it. Her eyes were still fixed on the man before her, watching his chest rise and fall steadily, knowing that, despite his sorry state, he heard every single word she said even if he couldn't know they would soon be responsible for shattering his world.
"Wilson? Would you be so kind to send me the latest files of Project Lazarus."