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Changes Sequel – III. War + Epilogue – Epilogue Part 11
Eyes watched as cold water was splashed over the naked body of the man that hung from the ceiling, his wrists cuffed to a chain that was fastened far above him. The man, whose head was hidden by a black hood reacted to the sudden cold by trashing briefly and uttering a gasped that was muffled by the black fabric.
"I'm asking you again," the man inside the room could be heard over the intercom by those that were watching from the adjoining room and walked in a circle around the hanging man. "Did someone give you an order? If so, who? Where did you get that bomb? How did you know where to place it?" he rattled down his questions and waited, but the man remained silent once more. "ANSWER ME!"
All air left the man's lungs as a fist collided with his exposed belly and another connected with his jaw. A rough hand grabbed his neck and brought him closer to what he figured was his torturer's face. He could smell the cold cigarette smoke on his opposite's breath and felt disgusted.
"It doesn't matter if you talk or not. You attacked the US government, good people died because of you and you'll hang for this," he hissed and tightened his grip. "A confession will only change how you'll die. It's either necktie party or the needle." He waited a moment before he went on. "So I'm asking you again… Contract? Or your own doing?"
Underneath the hood Daken gritted his teeth at the pain his broken wrist caused him and heaved deep breaths to overcome it. He was exhausted, completely drained of energy and all he wanted was to finally be allowed to sleep. They were keeping him awake for at least three days already, kept him hanging from this goddamn ceiling or threw him into a dark pit that depraved him of all senses. He also hadn't had food or water and the fever that was wreaking havoc in his already messed up body didn't help his situation at all. He was shaking badly and his brain and body demanded sleep badly. He wondered if the team even knew where they had taken him. He guessed not. There was no way they would leave him in this hellhole. Except…they believed he had done what S.H.I.E.L.D. accused him of.
"As you wish…," his torturer suddenly said and Daken craned his neck a bit to hear what the man was doing now. He heard how something was brought closer, then switched on and how the man came closer. "You asked for his," was all his opposite said before something cold and hard touched his left shoulder and right hip. An agonizing wail escaped the feral's lips as his muscles contracted and his body began to spasm wildly, electricity shooting through every fiber of his body and turning him into a trashing mess. He could still feel the burn as the flow stopped and he heaved a deep breath, just to notice that he could breathe at all. In front of him, his torturer had pulled the hood, above which a plastic back was put over, back and the fabric and plastic was covering his victim's nose and mouth. He gritted his teeth as Daken began to trash in a vain attempt to breathe and pulled even stronger. "Just tell me what I want to know and this will stop," he told him and let go of the hood, listening to the heavy gasps his victim was taking, before he applying the rods to two different positions and electrocuted him once more. He waited a moment before the stink of burned skin became too much for him and withdrew the rods again. He put them aside and made sure the unconscious man in front of him was still breathing. A syringe was filled with a high dose of adrenaline and the needle carelessly pushed through skin. It didn't take long and his victim woke up again. "No sleep or passing out for you!" he told him and threw the syringe aside. His hand went for his earpiece and he listened to his superiors. "Well, it seems it has already gotten late. How about I leave you hanging here, hm?" he asked, but dropped Daken carelessly to the ground anyway and tore the hood off.
After he was finally left alone, lying on the ground covered in sweat and shaking badly, the feral closed his eyes in exhaustion and prayed that sleep would overcome him and allow him to pass out. He had barely closed his eyes as the overhead lights began to flicker and loud music blared through the speakers, keeping him awake once more.
"He won't talk," Fury said and watched the mutant with disdain, arms folded in front of his chest.
"Anderson is an expert in his field. He makes everyone talk," a man on his left disagreed.
"Don't you think you are overdoing it?" Sharon Carter asked, her blue eyes looking at the suffering prisoner with sympathy and looked up when she felt that all eyes were on her. "What if he is saying the truth and it wasn't him, but a shape shifter or something similar?"
"You were saying, Agent 13?" one of the top brass of the military asked her coldly. "See, gentleman? That's why you don't bring women to an interrogation!" he added and made everyone but Fury, who shook his head at his agent, chuckle. "I think we also heard enough. The judges saw this, no?"
"Yes," Fury replied. "What's your plan?"
"My plan?" the man began and was interrupted as the door opened and the interrogator joined them. "Well done, Sitwell!"
"Well done?! He's not going to talk," Sitwell grunted and crossed his arms, glaring at Daken through the window.
"It doesn't matter if he confesses or not. We have solid proof on tape and that is enough," the man tried to calm him down as his phone beeped. "Excuse me, gentleman."
Fury, who was leaning against the wall behind him, watched him carefully and his eye looked aside as Carter came closer. "Not now!"
"But, sir!" the woman tried and got interrupted once more as the man shut his phone.
"It's decided. He's found guilty and will be executed at 6 a.m. tomorrow," he informed them, pocketing his phone.
"Executed how, sir?" Sitwell asked.
"Lethal injection," came the cold reply. "Gentleman, I thank you very much for your cooperation. Let's call it a night. I've got an execution to prepare." He waited for them to leave the room, before his eyes fell on Daken. Slowly, he began to switch off the cameras in the interrogation room and any other device that could record him before he made his way to the adjoining room and closed the door behind him.
Daken, who lay curled up on the ground raised his head tiredly and watched the tall man coming closer. He was wearing a dark suit with black tie, his head was bald, the eyes a steel-grey that made him shudder and he was broad-shouldered and muscular. He didn't know him though. The cruel smile the man wore on his lips though gave him the creeps.
"So, Daken… You kept your mouth shut as you were trained by Romulus, hm?" the man asked him and Daken began to frown. How did that man know about Romulus?! "Endured everything as the good boy you once were. I am sure you made your master proud," the stranger mocked and crouched down next to him, still smiling. "Don't bother. You don't know me. But I know everything about you. And…" He let his hand ran through the messy hair on Daken's head, suddenly pulling his head back sharply, "Romulus sends his regards. He was willing to pay a very nice sum in order to make you suffer. I hope you're looking forward to your execution in 8 hours. In case you're hoping you will merely fall asleep before the other two drugs kill you…" He chuckled and shook his head. "Romulus gave me a nice drug, especially made for scum like you. It will kill you and you will suffer agonies. Just the right punishment for mutant scum like you," he told him in a low voice and suddenly slammed Daken's head into the ground.
Groaning, Daken closed his eyes as his vision began to swim and his ears to ring even worse than before. His eyes rolled back in his head as nausea set in, but he blinked the upcoming darkness away, too afraid of what the man would do to him, if he passed out. He looked aside, his eyes widened as the bald man disposed of his neatly folded jacket, then rolled up his sleeves slowly; all of it with the same sickening smile upon his lips. Mentally, he already prepared himself for another beating as the man took one of the rods from the nearby table with a smirk.
"I know you've got your limits," he said in a chilling voice and crouched down next to him again, holding up the rod for him to see. Daken held his breath as the rod touched his neck and his torturer let it run down his spine slowly, even further until it was nestled between his legs. "A fag like you likes it up his ass, don't you?" he heard him asking before a hand clasped his mouth shut to muffle his scream. "Oh, you like this, don't you? And guess what? We've got at least another 7 hours all alone to ourselves!"
Jean startled as Logan slammed the door shut and came stomping down the bluish corridor of the X-mansion's underground levels. Behind him was Scott, who was walking next to Remy, Ororo and Kitty, all of them looking sour, but also keeping a distance to the clearly pissed off feral.
"Don't ask!" Logan growled and went past her, straight to the elevator, leaving her standing in the middle of the doorway and looking after him.
"It was another dead end," Scott informed her with a sigh. "No one knows where they brought Daken or were they are currently holding him."
"Damn it…," Jean muttered and crossed her arms. "Charles couldn't find him either…"
"What if they already killed him?" Ororo asked after a moment of silence and earned looks for the comment. "What?! It's a possibility that we have to take into consideration."
"How's Jean-Paul?" Scott changed the subject and the redhead sight, taking a look over her shoulder.
"Still feverish and he hasn't woken up, yet…" She ran a hand over her tired face. "Hank and I need to leave for Washington in a bit… I don't like leaving during this whole mess."
"We'll keep you updated," Scott promised and put a hand to her shoulder, then followed the others back upstairs, surprised to find Cap and Tony talking to Logan at the front door.
"Why are they here?" Kitty wondered and exchanged a look with her team.
"Remy dinks dey might know w'ere da Snicktling is," the Cajun said and followed Scott over to the small group, nodding at their guests. His red eyes looked the two Avengers over. "To w'at do we owe da pleasure?"
"I guess you know why," Tony replied and remained on the spot, his arms crossed. "We're trying to find the Snicktling."
"Why?" Kitty asked suspiciously.
"Because we don't think Daken did anything," Cap said. "It just doesn't make any sense why he would attack us all of a sudden."
"Tell that Fury," Logan huffed and glared at the front door. His mood was bad, his mind tired and by now all those sleepless hours of searching for his eldest was getting to him. He had looked everywhere. He didn't know where else to look or who to ask. He had even been desperate enough to contact people like Bullseye and Deadpool. "Did ya find anythin'?" he finally asked, but Cap and Tony shook their heads.
"He was brought to the Avengers Tower, but then they've taken him somewhere else. I had Jarvis check upon any secret locations, but there are no results," Tony informed him.
"Any other information might be classified," Cap added.
"Anyway, let's sit down and figure out what to do. In the meanwhile, I have Jarvis hack into Fury's files," Tony suggested.
Logan nodded and looked up when Jean and Hank came towards them, both pulling a trolly behind them. He watched her greeting Tony and Cap before he hugged her and returned her kiss. "Be careful, alright?" he asked and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "Call when ya have arrived."
"I will. The children are already in bed. Call me as soon as you have news," she said and kissed him once, then followed Hank to the waiting cab.
"Where's she going?" Tony asked and followed the X-Men to another room where they could discuss their next steps.
"Some Capitol meetin' with the bigshot of Mutant Affairs," Logan grunted and opened the door to his office. He went over to the window and looked out of it. "What do ya suggest?"
Cap, who had sat down on a free stool, shrugged. "Where did you look already?" he asked and listened at the group's recollection of their search, then told them theirs. They began discussing possible ways of finding the mutant, a look at the clock telling Cap that it was almost 4 a.m. and reminding him once more of how exhausted he actually was. "Found something?" He looked at Tony, who shook his head. A beeping noise interrupted his thought and he reached for his phone.
Tony watched Cap talking to someone briefly before his attention was back on the device in his hand. Jarvis had hacked into Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. account, but there was nothing that even remotely hinted to Daken's whereabouts. He looked up as Cap's face began to change and listened further in.
"I'm at the X-mansion, why are you asking?" Cap asked and listened. "Yeah, sure. Come over." He put his phone down and frowned at Tony. "What?"
"Was it your sweetheart?" Tony teased him and snickered as Cap blushed noticeably. He stopped going through Fury's file and instead accessed public cameras and activated facial recognition.
"She's not my sweetheart…," Cap muttered and looked quickly away.
"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" Ororo asked. "Where else can we look?"
"Or who can we ask?" Kitty added.
"'n kill?" Logan grunted while he was glaring at the darkness on the outside. They remained in the room until, approximately half an hour later, Cap's phone rang again and Scott went to open the front door. He returned with Sharon Carter, who greeted them and looked into the round.
"See? It was your sweetheart," Tony muttered, biting his cheek to keep himself from grinning. As he had expected both blushed like tomatoes. "What brings you here, agent?"
"I…," Sharon began and bit her lip, looking clearly uncomfortable. "I'm not allowed to tell you this. It's classified information and they'll know it's been me…"
"Tell us what?" Cap asked and met her gaze.
"Ya know where my son is!" Logan immediately guessed right and let go of the wall to head over and face her. "Where's he?!" he snarled and Cap got quickly up to go between them.
"Do you know where he is?" he asked her and she nodded. "Where?"
"They're holding him in a compound that is underground in the city. They were torturing him for hours to get him to admit that he placed the bomb," she said and tensed when Logan narrowed his eyes, growling. "I don't think he did it… But they are convinced that he is the culprit and convicted him."
"Convicted him?!" Kitty asked and came closer. "How?"
"That's how they work. There's no official law, but their law and their ways," Tony said. "What's the sentence?"
"Death by lethal injection at 6 a.m…," Sharon said, her gaze lowered.
Logan stared at her, then his eyes fell on the clock. They had a bit more than one and a half hours left. "And yer tellin' us NOW?!" he snapped at her angrily. "Where's that fuckin' compound?!"
"We can't just barge in, Logan!" Scott said and already thought about a plan, but he also needed to know the structure of the building in order to create one. He was about to as Carter as Tony's mobile went off.
The Avenger looked at it. "It's Reed," he let the group know and frowned. "What could he want?" he wondered and answered the phone, ignoring the ongoing fight between Logan, Carter and Cap, who was trying to solve the problem diplomatically. What he heard on the other side of the phone however, and what he saw in the file that Reed had sent over, rendered him speechless for once. He switched off the phone and stared at the video in front of him. In the far right corner was the date and time stamp, a fact that told him the incident had happened merely ten minutes ago. "Guys?" Tony had to say for several times, raising his voice with each attempt to get the attention of his group. As they were finally looking into his direction, he turned his small computer around. "Part of the Baxter Building just got blown up and guess who planted the bomb?" he said and pressed play on the keyboard.
Nick Fury stood behind the window and watched how Daken was strapped down on the table, his face covered in bruises that hadn't been there a few hours ago. He frowned as the mutant didn't fight back and simply stared blankly ahead while the two guards fastened each belt. What made him frown was the odd, empty look in the mutant's eyes. Wondering about what might had happened to him in the past hours, his eyes darted to the clock that showed 5:45 a.m. Sighing, he crossed his arms. He needed to get out of this building and that fast. He didn't even know what was going on on the outside.
"He still didn't say anything, hm?" the man from yesterday asked and Fury shook his head. "Stubborn little prick… Well, he's going to pay for what he did." He moved closer to the window, deliberately standing in Daken's sight. As the mutant's eyes darted towards him, he smirked cruelly at him, his mind remembering the hours beforehand. Romulus would definitely be pleased. The door to his right opened and both men looked aside.
"We're ready. Do you want to talk to him before we begin?"
"No," Fury said, because what was he supposed to tell him? I'm sorry, but you deserve this? Why did you do this and went behind our backs? Do you know what you're doing to Logan with this? His eyes looked at the clock. Four minutes left. He wondered what he could tell Logan. The feral would kill every single person of S.H.I.E.L.D. in retribution, they would lose the X-Men as allies too… However, he had his orders and served the country.
"Do you have any last words?" he heard the executioner ask behind the window and awoke from his daydream, his eyes darting to the needle in each crook of the feral's arms. God, Logan would kill him and everyone in this room… He had spent the whole night trying to find evidence, his gut feeling telling him that what they were doing was wrong, but all he chad come up was the same video that clearly showed Daken placing the bomb. Fury looked at the feral, who was covered in sweat and shaking despite the restraints. He wondered if it was fear, or if the Daken was sick. He had noticed that the man wasn't healing at all. Each bruise that should have long faded was clearly visible on his body, his broken wrist swollen and an angry red. He watched how the guard in the room nodded towards whoever was sitting behind the one way mirror, as angry shouts and loud noises could be heard on the outside of the room and suddenly the door to the execution chamber was kicked open, revealing a very angry looking Wolverine. Shit, was all Fury could think, but to his biggest surprise the feral was closely followed by Cap, Carter and Tony.
"Proceed as planned!" the man to his right demanded through the speaker and Fury could clearly see the liquid running through the tubes, but also how Logan swirled around and cut straight through them. "Goddamn it! Someone take him down! Arrest them!"
"Ah, ah, ah!" Tony warned and raised his arm, while Logan busied himself with freeing his son. "We've got proof that the Snicktling here is innocent!"
"Plus, torture is against the law," Carter added.
"Not to forget to mention that lethal injection is also against the law in this state," Cap said and turned to help Logan with his son. "What did they do to you?! He needs medical attention, Logan, and that quickly!" He took the feral's left arm as the man dropped to the ground as soon as his feet touched it.
"What proof is that supposed to be?" the man asked through the intercom and glared at the group inside. Fury turned briefly and nodded at Natasha when she came over to him with a small computer to show him a video.
"How is this possible?!" he asked after he saw it and she shrugged.
"Shape shifter? Someone who is determined to set him up? We're on it," she told him and he watched the video again and again. "No casualties at Baxter Building though."
Fury nodded and pressed replay once more. The video clearly showed how the same man, who looked exactly like Daken, just sporting a carefully styled mohawk, entered the building, went to the upper levels and placed a bomb that was carefully hidden. Afterwards, he exited the building again, a smug, shit-eating grin on his lips. "What is going on here?!" he muttered and looked up, watching how Logan scooped his unconscious son up into his arms and hurried out with him, followed by Carter, Cap and Tony.
"We were wrong," Black Widow said, ignoring the man to her right that was throwing a fit. "We probably just severed the ties to the X-Men…"
Fury's eye glared at her. "You were convinced he did it too, Natasha!"
She gave him a cold look back. "Yes, but who exactly said to torture him to death?"
Fury ignored the snarky comment and left the room, closely followed by her. "Why were Cap and Stark here?"
Natasha shrugged. "Cap always believes in the good of people. He and Stark were snooping around and asking questions. It was Carter who told them where to find Daken."
Fury sighed and shook his head, stopping in front of Coulson who was already waiting for him at the car and gave him a look that spoke volumes. "Just say it already…"
"You screwed up royally, sir!" Coulson and Natasha said at the same time and while the first opened the door for Fury, the latter sat down on the passenger seat.
As promised: the next chapter before I take off to London. I so hate flying. D: I hope everything will go well and that my friend and I will have a save trip. : ( Please, leave a review and let me know what you think! It would be great, if it were between 6-10 again, because I always appreciate what you think. The next chapter will, as someone wished for, introduce someone from Jean's past. So, keep your fingers crossed for the flight. It's almost 1 a.m. here and I need to get up in 3 hours. -.- Anyone going to London Comic Con? Review, please! Take care!