Email: swythangel@hotmail.com
Title: Devil In the Sun
Type: 2/?, Series
Teaser: Ken is caught by Schwarz and, ah hell, I can't describe it..just read please
Rating: PG -13
Spoilers:
Warnings: Shonen Ai, yaoi hints, torture, AU
Disclaimer: Weiß Kreuz is not mine…will never be mine but damn if that'll stop me from torturing their lives in my fics...
Keywords: Ken, Brad, BradxKen, Schwarz, torture
Er, I'd like
to clarify something for minna-san. Torture in this fic is not equated
to bondage or any sexual nature. I am talking about prison torture.grins
at grumbles> You guys know by now that I have never written a lime scene
much less lemon, though I want to...sighs>So does this mean no one
is going to read it anymore? chuckle>
Hope not. Because
you all know how much i love comments...pleading look> I really
will try for a lime scene in one of the last parts ^-^v
Thank
you to all of you who commented. As always I love you guys!glomp glomp
glomp> BradKen rules...i hope! lol>Ok Nuff said.
Devil In the Sun
Part 2
They tried truth serum first. But Ken's mind wasn't the kind that responded to such chemicals and all it made Ken do was spew out curses aimed at Brad.
Not that it affected Brad. He had long ago learned to filter out such things, remaining unattached and unemotional to the things he did. This was work, there was no room for personal matters.
It was this attitude that made him one of the best interrogators in Esset. Unlike Schuldich who was quick to get angry and had sadistic tendencies, he never once flared up, his iron will never let him down.
/There are other ways, Siberian. In the end you will break too, like all of them. I have seen it in a vision. I will succeed as always./
/You don't belong in Weiß, Ken Hidaka. Your naivete will not cut it as an assassin. You should have chosen another path to follow, then you wouldn't be in this situation. Now you will regret it./
It was a purely objective observation on Brad's part, devoid of feelings. They had researched the personalities of the Weiß assassins well before they had finally chosen Ken Hidaka. He was the weak link. Through him, they would be able to break Weiß and the organization behind it.
That was the mission Esset gave him and Brad had never failed before. He would not fail this.
***
Every nerve in Ken's body was screaming in agony. It hurt to move or even breath as too sensitive skin burned in response.
/Everything hurts. Damn bastard./
Tears leaked out of his eyes and Ken flinched as the salty liquid touched the skin at the back of his neck. Even that hurt and he knew it would continue to hurt until the skin healed. Only his face had been spared. And that only because he still needed to breath.
But even as his physical body was in excruciating pain, Ken rejoiced inside. He hadn't talked. He didn't say anything to betray Weiß. Omi, Aya and Youji were safe.
/It will take more than dropping me into scalding water to break me./
Yes, the sadistic bastards had tried to break him by boiling him in too-hot water. At first it had been merely painful. The water had not even been hot enough to blister his skin. But that soon changed. In the end, Ken's agonized screams filled the room.
They lifted him out for a day. Long enough for the pain to subside. Then put him back in. And Ken's agony continued as tenderized skin exploded in renewed pain.
All the while, Ken's hated captor looked on, popping in the same question every interval, every time the need to breath would force Ken to stop screaming. And Ken would always ignore him, concentrating on saving his energy for the screams to come.
Knock! Knock!
Ken knew who it was eventhough he didn't turn to look. It was Crawford. Only he would knock before entering Ken's cell, a polite gesture so very out of place in this torturous hellhole.
He sat down on Ken's cot.
"Well Siberian. Are you ready to tell me who commands Weiß now?"
Ken didn't even deign that with a reply.
"So stubborn." Brad told him softly as he stood up.
"And stupid." He signaled to people outside and like before, guards took Ken and carried him back to…
/No! Not again. I can't take it anymore./
The fear must have shown in his eyes because Brad's next comment was like an insidious snake, tempting him.
"You know that the agony will end if you just tell me what I need. I'll even let the best doctors heal your wounds, take you back to your friends."
Ken shut Brad's voice out. He didn't want to hear what he had to say, afraid that he might give in and betray Weiß. No, he could not, would not, betray his family in exchange for his life. He turned his face away from Brad.
"Suit yourself."
Brad gave the signal and the guards dropped Ken into the boiling water, keeping his head above it.
Ken's mind started to splinter again. No! No! No! He couldn't bear the water again. He didn't want to hurt anymore.
Half-cooked skin burst into scintillating pain, intensifying each second that passed. Ken's mindless screams echoed throughout the room.
As it dragged on to what seemed like forever, Ken's pain-glazed mind realized that this would happen again and again until Crawford got his answer. He cowered inside his mind. He didn't think he could take this pain for much longer.
/There is only one thing left for me to do./
And in a daring act of courage, intertwined with cowardice, Ken extricated his head from the guard's hold and plunged his face into the scalding water, overcoming his body's survival reflex as he breathed in the water…
***
Ken woke up in his cell, a tingling mass of pain, bitterly disappointed that he hadn't died. As usual, Brad was sitting on the edge of his cot. The Schwarz leader was gently removing the tubes they used to force-feed him when he had been unconscious.
This startled him and he croaked through a throat ravaged by burns. "It doesn't hurt when you do that."
"I am not a sadistic man." Brad told him quietly. Ken couldn't really see that well but he thought he saw a troubled look in Brad's eyes.
Ken laughed at this. A laugh that turned into pain-filled coughing as his offended throat protested in agony. It struck him as funny that his chief torturer was bothered by his comment. As if Ken's opinion of him mattered at all. Tears squeezed out of his eyes in laughter and pain, stinging half-healed skin.
"You sure could have fooled me."
Brad withdrew a snow-white handkerchief from his impeccable suit's breast pocket and blotted out Ken's tears.
"There is a reason for what I do."
Ken didn't have a reply for that so he stayed silent.
Silence reigned for a few minutes as Brad continued to sit and stare at Ken with pensive eyes. Ken had a feeling that the Schwarz leader desperately needed someone to talk to.
/Can he possibly be lonely? After all, even bad guys must have feelings too./ Ken mused, feeling sorry for Brad Crawford.
/Baka Ken. Don't start feeling sorry for him. He's the enemy remember?/
But still….
"Ever questioned them?" Ken suddenly asked Brad. "What they're telling you to do?"
"No." Crawford replied.
"No?"
"Its not who I am."
"Who are you?"
"Loyalty."
"Blind loyalty." Ken snorted. "That's stupid."
Crawford shook his head. "Absolute loyalty to the cause. There's a difference."
Brad intrigued Ken. From Weiß files and from previous encounters, Ken knew that Brad was an oracle, a clairvoyant.
"One who sees the future…" Ken murmured, lost in his thoughts. Ken was wondering how Brad could give his loyalty over to the enemy when he could probably see the havoc it would cause in the future, how he could choose to walk this path.
On the other hand, Ken could see how the burden of the future could weigh heavily down on a man's shoulders. How could Brad know what road to take. Ken could not even think of the responsibility and guilt Brad must feel everytime something went wrong. It must be hell being Bradley Crawford.
"Does it hurt? Knowing the possibilities, the future?"
"Sometimes." The Schwarz leader said heavily. "Sometimes it hurts to know that there is a possible future so bright and full of promise, only to see it trodden and broken by people in the present who do not care enough to think of what they should do before doing it. You don't know what it is like to see something like that, yearn for it and have it broken into pieces by uncaring actions only because I am powerless to stop it."
Brad blinked, startled. That had been one of his best-kept secrets, a remnant of his broken youth. He had never told it to anyone before.
/What are you doing to me, Ken Hidaka?/
It also startled Ken, this sudden outburst of honesty from his enemy.
/He is human after all./
"It saddens me to think that someone who should feel strongly about a bright future is on the other side when we stand for what is right."
"You think you do." Brad countered. "But who is to say that you are right and we are in the wrong. It could be the other way around."
"You know what drives me nuts? It's the fact that you actually believe in their shit. How could you ever believe that a bunch of old geezers have a right to play with the life of a girl like they're God?"
"What's so wrong with god-playing?"
"They're not gods, Crawford."
"But we could do worse, Ken. The God you believe in created this miserable world, dangled a bright future in front of it and swiped it away after a second or so. It is not that different from what we want to do. Do you blame me for trying to make things the way I think they should be?"
Ken looked Brad up and down. "Hell no! But there is a right way of doing things."
"Who commands Weiß?"
Ken refused to answer.
And the gentle once-idealistic man that Ken was starting to like took out a razor and slit both of Ken's eyelids.
***
Ken's vision returned painfully. He peered through cracked lids and it was like seeing through fur or broken glass. Apparently, he needed his vision for the tortures to come…
Crawford had Farfarello rape him physically and Schuldich mentally. But Ken's mind went elsewhere each time, went to a place where no one could touch him, deep into his mind. Even Schuldich couldn't reach it.
They could humiliate his body until they fell over dead, Ken just wasn't there.
His consciousness returned when they brought him back to his cell, every nerve in his body screaming in pain. He was used to it now. And his mind wandered off, ignoring his body, as he remembered something.
/Since when did Bradley Crawford called him Ken?/
***
Brad ran through everything he knew. He tried the rack, the whip, gang rape, even tried all the primal fears, but nothing worked. He was fast running out of things to try.
His clairvoyant powers had told him that he would succeed but that should have happened a good long way back already. His powers had never failed him before…and it couldn't fail now. His powers were an extension of his self, like his eyes. If they ever faltered, he would feel blind.
/What is happening? I cannot lose control./
Esset was becoming impatient with him. Brad Crawford, who had always regularly delivered successful results, was not completing his most important assignment ever and they wanted to know why. That was why the three prominent leaders of Esset were here now. They had come to observe Brad, to check up on his progress. A fact that did not bode well for Brad.
"Have you made progress?"
Brad stiffened but covered it up in his urbane façade, his pale face was the only sign of his distress. He answered honestly.
"I am sorry but there is nothing more I can do with the captive."
An incredulous silence followed. Brad had always come through for Esset before, to hear the Schwarz leader admit defeat was startling to say the least.
"Are you saying you failed, Crawford?"
"I have more than failed. If I had done things differently, I might have gotten the information required but I have erred in my calculations and the result is this."
Brad realized that his mistake was in his very first decision. He shouldn't have chosen Ken Hidaka. He might have appeared to be the weakest link, what with his openness and naivete but Brad had underestimated his loyalty and protectiveness towards his teammates.
"This is catastrophic."
"Yes it is." Brad said, he didn't try to hide the fact.
"Is it that he is that strong?"
Brad considered that. "Physically, no. He's threshold of pain is very low but I have underestimated his tenacity and belief in remaining silent."
"In his mind, he is protecting his teammates and that gives him strength to circumvent anything I throw at him. He has conditioned himself to avoid pain. If I get anywhere close to a breaking point, his mind just conveniently goes someplace else."
Brad's voice was tired and he knew he was strung tighter than a violin.
"Show us. What are you doing now?"
"Fire."
"He withstands fire?" One of Esset's leaders said skeptically.
"No. That's the point. He doesn't stand anything. When the pain becomes intolerable, his mind goes neatly elsewhere and I am left with a mindless screaming body. He comes back and we do it all over again."
"I am trying to keep the pain at a level where he will stay with me."
Esset nodded at him.
"Continue then."
Brad turned his attention back to Ken, face paler than before. There was distress in his eyes and more than ever, he felt the responsibilities of his job weigh heavily on him. It was the first time he ever failed an assignment, a fine reason to be distressed. But there was something else…
/Get your mind back to your work, Bradley, or they'll get angrier than they are already./
He closed his eyes for a moment. He was dead tired of this. Ken Hidaka might be nowhere near breaking point but he was.
***
::Crawford looks too pale.::
::I sense that he is unhappy, tired, broken.::
::Unacceptable. We need him, he is the one best qualified in the tasks we need him to do.::
::Then what do we propose we do.::
::Find him a mate. He is still young. He needs companionship.::
Disdain laced the next mind-voice. ::A ridiculous failing of youth. But I concur.::
::Where do we find one?::
::We ask.::
TBC
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