As always a heartfelt thanks to CyanB for all her encouragement and kindness. I wouldn't have been able to write this chapter without her support.
WARNING ! - This chapter contains detailed descriptions of torture and physical abuse.
Soundtrack: Play Dead – Björk
It's sometimes just like sleeping
curling up inside my private tortures
I nestle into pain
hug suffering
caress every ache...
I play dead,
It stops the hurting
I play dead,
and the hurting stops...
James raised his head. Blood was smeared across his face, his right eye was almost completely swollen shut and his nose was broken. His body screamed with pain. He had managed to hold back a cry of pain when they had smashed a couple of his ribs by giving him a round house kick that hit him square in his chest. The grunts and the whimpers that did escape him had been lost among the other noises.
When the torturers didn't get the response they wanted they had gotten creative.
They had injected him with something that spread through his system like wildfire, something that made him acutely aware of way his bodyweight pulling on the muscles and tendons of his arms and shoulders.
His face had begun to throb in time with his heart, his ribs started sending spikes of agony through him with every breath. He could feel everything. The metal cuffs digging into his wrists. The burn of sweat mixed with blood dripping into his eyes. The cold, hard tiles under his toes and the weight of stale air on his naked skin. Each cut and bruise was magnified a thousand fold. The tears leaking out of his eyes felt like acide on his face and he sobbed, unable to control it.
The leader of the merry gang of torturers, the one he had dubbed 'Laughing Boy', did just that.
"Looks like our little party favour is doing its job", he said and laughed again.
James could hear Shepard begging them to leave him alone, her voice heavy with tears, and Kaidan and Garrus cursing and promising horrible retributions the moment they where free. Their voices were a distant choir in his world of pain and torment.
Laughing Boy spoke into his ear, making James flinch as the sound of it assailed his nerves like nails dragged down a blackboard. "The drug hyper-sensitizes its users, making them respond to the lightest of touches." He scraped his gloved nails down James' back, making him arch and whimper. "The Dealer ordered this next part, special, just for you..."
James couldn't keep from flinching from the sound behind him: the hiss of a whip. He forced his eyes open, tears, blood and sweat and the drug blurred his vision but he could make out the slender shape of Shepard standing where the torturer had left her; a small figure in a dirty, grey T-shirt and a pair of ruined sweatpants. He blinked and met Shepard's broken and shattered eyes. Tears were running down her cheeks.
"Please, stop this!"
Laughing Boy laughed and sent the whip flying.
Pain exploded like a searing white hot supernova and James screamed, unable to hold anything back. The second lash hit him across his lower back and he bucked and thrashed, screaming again and again.
Shepard forced herself not to look away, to meet James' fractured gaze. She was curling her fingers into fists hard enough that her nails would leave bloody half-moon shape marks in the palms of her hands.
All I need is one chance... One moment when they're distracted... The words repeated themselves in her mind over and over like a mantra.
When an alarm suddenly started to blare, it felt as if her heart stopped beating. Her whole body tensed.
The man lowered the whip with an annoyed grunt. "It might be another varren setting it off again. Go and check it out", he ordered. His two assistants left, clearly not happy about the fact that they were going to miss part of the show.
Laughing Boy dropped the whip and stepped around James, letting his hands slide over the trembling body slick with sweat and blood. He lifted the drooping head up and leaned in close. "This is my favourite part", he whispered and James shuddered at the sound of his voice.
One chance...
Shepard took a slow, deep breath and forced herself to moved forward, her bare feet making no sound on the tiles. With one swift movement she drew the knife and pressed it just below the base of the torturer's skull. The man froze.
"One move and I'll sever the nerves and turn you into a vegetable for the rest of your life", Shepard hissed.
He tried to turn his head, but the sharp pain when Shepard applied enough pressure on the knife to break the skin, advise from it. "My men will come back at any moment. Do really you think you'll get away with this?" He asked.
"I don't care", she gritted out. "Release my friends. Now."
The man hesitated but then reached up and opened the metal-cuffs. James fell into a trembling heap on the tiles. Shepard forced herself to look away from him. She pushed the man towards Kaidan. He complied, undoing the straps and then moved to release Garrus.
Kaidan was out the chair, yanking the black collar from his throat, throwing it with a snarl of disgust against the wall where it shattered. He ran over to where Vega lay on the bloodstained floor. As gently as he could he rolled the marine over onto his back and checked his pulse. It was too fast and erratic and his breathing was shallow.
"Kaidan...?" James managed to whisper. He struggled to open his eyes.
"It's okay, James", he said, putting a hand against the younger man's cheek. "I've got you."
Garrus had grabbed the torturer's weapon, a battered and scratched shot gun, and was aiming it at him. "What now, Shepard?"
"Unlock my cuffs", she ordered the man. He stared at her with defiance in his pale eyes, then Garrus slammed the butt of the rifle into his stomach making him double over and groan in pain.
"Do as she says!" He growled. "Now!"
The man climbed to his feet, still rubbing his stomach. He activated his omni-tool and pressed in a few digits. The cuffs snapped open and Shepard let them drop to the floor. She rubbed her wrists, staring at him. "Put him in the chair."
Garrus pushed the man towards the torturing device hard enough that he fell into it. Before he could react the turian had him strapped into it. Shepard bent down and picked up the two syringes that he had dropped when she put her knife at his neck.
Kaidan's eyes widened. He had been raiding a medi-gel dispenser to treat James' injuries, now he turned to Shepard. "What are you going to do to him?"
"I'm going to give him a taste of his own medicine", she replied, her eyes on the torturer strapped into the chair, the man that had raped her again and again. She shifted her grip on the large knife, weighing it in her hand. "What's your name?" She asked.
The man looked like he was going to refuse to answer her but then did so anyway. "Coetzee."
She leaned over him, bringing her lips close to his ear. "So you like to torture and rape, Coetzee? You enjoy inflicting pain... I wonder, how long will it take me to make you beg me to stop?"
She stabbed the knife through his hand, hard enough that it scraped against the chair's metal armrest after it had pierced the flesh and tendons. He arched, eyes bulging, his mouth opening and closing like a fish on dry land but aside from a grunt he didn't make any noise.
"My God, Shepard..." Kaidan said numbly, his face pale. "Don't do this."
"I want the ID-codes to the FFI. Now!" Shepard demanded, ignoring Kaidan.
Coetzee bared his teeth in a grin. "You're not going to do it, Commander. You're a good person, a goddamn hero. You don't have what it takes to torture a man."
Shepard's eyes were dark and unreadable. "I may be on the side of the angels", she said. "But don't think for one moment that I am one of them. Not after what you and your men did to me." She yanked the knife out of his hand, splattering fresh blood on the already stained floor. Another grunt escaped the man and sweat was pouring down his face.
Kaidan watched in frozen horror as Shepard moved around the chair, picking up a pair of pruning shears, the sort one might use when gardening. She grabbed the man's other hand, placing his thumb between the shears' blades. "Give me the codes", she ordered again.
"My men will come", Cotzee said through gritted teeth. "And then you will be in a world of pain, Commander. We'll take turns fucking you-"
She closed the shears, severing the thumb from the hand. Blood spurted and this time he screamed.
Thick smoke billowed around the old, half-overgrown buildings. The sound of weapons being fired could be heard over the shuttle's engines. When the STG caused a distraction they didn't mess about, Zaeed thought and grinned. He was leaning out through the shuttles open hatch.
"All right, Cortez. Take us around to the platform on the other side and drop us off."
"Aye aye, sir", Steve said, his hands dancing over the Kodiak's controls. The shuttle made a wide loop to avoid being caught in the clouds of smoke. He was flying without the aid of the radar so keeping the field of vision clear was vital.
More explosions and more smoke, this time a little further to the left of the huddling building, drawing the Blue Sun mercs away from the base.
Zaeed ran callused fingers over the his beloved rifle. She was beaten up, old and scared. Just like him. "Ready for action, Jessie?" He mumbled. "Let's make these bastards pay for laying a hand on Shepard."
Cortez brought them around, approaching the base at high speed. He would have to get down there and hope that the element of surprise was on their side, and that the gunship wasn't air born. After that it was up to the STG-team to keep the platform and the Kodiak safe until Zaeed and Bau returned. He said a quick prayer, crossed himself and landed.
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post this chapter. It was hell to write and I wouldn't have been able to get through it without CyanB.
Apparently the line: "I may be on the side of the angels..." is from Sherlock Holmes. I thought I was freely interpreting a verse from Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare and instead I've managed to copy a line from some BBC series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Thank you to Barleyguy and ITNW1989 who pointed this out to me. :)
The verse from Measure for Measure goes: "O, what man may within him hide, though an angel on the outward side."