Squall stepped off the elevator, Quistis and Fujin close at heel.
"Here," Squall said, stopping at a set of massive metal doors, "Dark 1. Now, just so we're clear on this Fujin, at the first hint of treachery, you will be executed immediately. Nothing personal, you understand."
Fujin's face remained dispassionate as she nodded, "UNDERSTOOD."
"Good," he answered, producing a small disc, and placing it in Quistis's hands. "I leave this matter in your charge, then. Quistis, Llyriance isn't ready for questioning yet, but when the time comes, he's in Dark 2."
As Quistis prepared to access the Dark, Squall receded into the background, the sound of the elevator carrying him back into the day. She slid the disc into the panel near the door. The machine processed the disc after Quistis punched in her access code, and then Squall's voice came through, clear and strong.
"Fujin: interrogate Cadet McMurdo. Find out what, or who, compelled him to assault the Headmaster. Since you have never worked in the Dark before, Quistis will supervise the initial phases of your interrogation. You may use, wherever necessary, aggressive questioning. Proceed."
That said, the enormous doors slid open, their silence menacing, casting light into the room for the first time since McMurdo's imprisonment. Still, his chair kept him so far from the door that he couldn't see the two women enter. As they passed through the entrance, Quistis pressed the button to close the door, adding an additional command that it slam shut, startling the young cadet.
"Who... who's there?" he called, fear in his voice.
The women took no further action as they crossed Dark 1, letting their footsteps echo across the cavernous room. McMurdo heard the sound and wished, for the first time since his confinement, that his solitary punishment could continue. The fact that they'd broken his solitude meant his execution time drew ever closer.
"Come on," he choked out, trying to sound braver then he felt, "let's get this over with!"
Fujin broke stride with Quistis and stalked over to the chair confining McMurdo. She listened carefully, hearing his breath quicken as her footsteps neared. The silver-haired woman leaned down and snarled the word "SOON," into his ear. That done, she resumed her walk across the room.
Fujin and Quistis stood before another set of large metal doors. Quistis punched in an access code again and they slid open, revealing a dimly lit elevator. Dimly lit, Quistis reflected, so that the prisoner in the chair – McMurdo in this case – would not be able to see any light when the door opened. Cid had planned the disorienting effects of the Dark with care.
They rode the elevator up to the control level, looking down over McMurdo in his confinement. Quistis pressed a button and activated the lights, in the control room, letting them see, for the first time since entering the Dark, in the normal range.
"These windows are heavily tinted," she explained to Fujin, "so it's impossible to see through them on the ground floor. Nevertheless, I'll be watching over things for a little while.
"Here," Quistis said, producing a slimmed-down, more sinister version of the handlink Xu carried to keep her in contact with the Garden's main computer, "is the Dark's equivalent of the handlink. Once you learn it, you won't need me around any more. It can control all the lights, hypodermic, electric, medical functions... Anything you can think of.
"And, of course," she continued, producing a folder that, by now, seemed to follow her everywhere, "McMurdo's file, so we can go over it before you start in on him. What do you think?"
Fujin opened McMurdo's folder and picked up the picture of the fifteen-year-old boy, holding it in front of her face. She regarded it, bringing it closer, until a corner of the photograph rested on her lips. She set it down, picking up the first sheet of paper in the file.
"DELIGHTFUL."
* *
On the floor of the interrogation chamber, Fujin stood before McMurdo, listening to him breathe. Fujin signaled to Quistis who switched on the lights. Suddenly, for the first time in days, light came flooding into McMurdo's eyes. Imprisonment had not changed him for the better. The intravenous meals, while nutritious, had turned him gaunt. He'd endured days of sensory deprivation, sleeplessness, and constant anxiety. And because of the changeless cycle of his days, he had no idea how long he'd spent in the Dark.
"Who're you?" he barked, still trying to maintain his bravado. Fujin stood stock still, arms crossed over her chest, smirking as the boy's cognitive powers worked. Even through the haze of his mild dementia, Fujin presented an unmistakable appearance: silver hair, a blazing – almost red – eye, and a patch in place of the other eye.
"Fu- Fujin?" he stammered, "but you left with Seifer." Then, remembering his training to maintain the offensive, "What're you doing here?"
"QUIET!" she snapped. Quistis pressed the button to tighten the boy's chest restraints. It pulled him back in his chair with sufficient force to knock the wind out of him.
Fujin held up a picture of the Headmaster for McMurdo's inspection.
"WHY?" she asked.
McMurdo set his jaw and said nothing. Fujin watched him for a second. After waiting, she shrugged. She reached for the handlink at her side and pressed a few buttons.
"WRONG."
So saying, she pressed one final button, sending electricity arcing through the chair. McMurdo screamed in agony, throwing his head back against the cold metal and twisting against his restraints.
"WHY?"
"I'm... not... telling..." he replied through gritted teeth.
Fujin pressed the button again, administering another electric shock. McMurdo, prepared this time, still screamed against the pain.
"WHY?" Fujin repeated, pressing the question even harder.
McMurdo made an effort to spit at Fujin.
Fujin sighed, the look in her eye informing McMurdo how tiresome she found his resistance. She pressed the button to trigger another shock and he writhed in his chair, slumping over unconscious when the shock ended.
"QUISTIS?" Fujin said aloud.
Quistis spoke to Fujin through the handlink, guiding the silver-haired woman through the next step of the procedure. Fujin pressed another series of buttons on the handlink, and an arm swung up from the back of the chair, administering a hypodermic full of stimulants to McMurdo. Slowly, he opened his eyes, glaring at Fujin.
"WHY?" she said again.
McMurdo's hands clenched into fists, and his eyes closed while he waited for the shock. "Why don't you just kill me?" he asked.
"NAME?" Fujin asked.
"What?" he answered.
A short sharp shock for that. He yelped in surprise.
"NAME?" she repeated.
"McMurdo!"
"RANK?"
"SeeD Cadet." He gasped deeply now, taking in huge gasps of air, relieved and confused to answer "safe" questions.
"WEAPON?"
"Firearms."
"GOOD. FINISHED." She pressed a button on the handlink on his wrist restraints snapped open. He moved his arms a little, the muscles unused to doing anything except trying to break free. He massaged his wrists and ran his hands through his hair, trying to get as much use from his freedom as possible.
Fujin reached into her back pocket and produced an envelope, handing it over to McMurdo.
"LETTER," she said. He tore it open, recognizing the return address.
"Honey," the letter read, "how is everything at Garden? You must be very busy lately. It's been a long time since you've written or called. Is everything okay? Have you been hurt? Please get in touch with us soon, because we're all very worried about you. Love, Mom."
"I need," McMurdo said, through cracked lips, "to send a letter to my family. They're worried about me. I need... to write to them... please."
Fujin glanced up at the control booth, from which Quistis watched the proceedings. She moved in close and blocked McMurdo from the booth's view with her body.
"DANGEROUS."
"Please!" he begged, clutching at her sleeve. "I know you have no reason to help me, but I have to write to them. I have to let them know I'm alive."
"FAST," she said, slipping him a pen.
He placed his mother's letter on the arm of the chair and wrote on the blank side. He worked quickly, but in his weakened state, he found it hard to hold the pen.
"Here," he said, handing Fujin the completed result. "You'll see that it gets delivered?"
"PROMISE," she answered, sliding the letter up her sleeve. She then placed his wrists back in their restraints and locked him down, making sure he was comfortable before she walked away.
* *
The elevator door slid open and Fujin stepped into the control room, holding McMurdo's letter home. Quistis looked up from the video monitors and faced her colleague.
"Well done," she said.
"OPINION?" Fujin asked.
"The boy's responding well so far. He's disoriented from the time he's been left alone. You've confused him by setting up both reactions of both fear and trust. You gave him an opportunity to avoid punishment by asking him simple questions. And the forged letter trick is textbook. I think that angle is going to take us a long way. Speaking of which, did his letter give you anything?" As Quistis spoke, she cleaned up her files and the area in which she'd worked. She didn't like to spend any more time in the Dark than necessary.
"GARBAGE." Fujin answered.
"Well, we'll break him sooner or later. Let's get out of this place."
They rode the elevator down in silence, and stepped off at the sleeping quarters. As Quistis considered the chair where the young man sat confined, doomed to another night of sensory deprivation and intravenous food, she got the suspicion, and not for the first time, that SeeD had started to wither at its roots.