The guards ushered the children into the facility, a complex system of doors and spiral stairs, undoubtedly an ideal place to hold fragile but volatile prisoners. Heero Jr. stood in front of a triangle formation. If there had been any doubts that he was the leader, Commander Long had none anymore. He noticed that his nephew Li was on Heero's right hand, as Trinity was hauled into a room with a strange bundle of cords in it. All the children sat down and were instantly bolted to their chairs.
"What is this?" Trinity asked. Long smiled at her, one that outwardly told of pleasure and inwardly of malice and sadisticness.
"This is where you will be tortured until you or one of your friends agrees to cooperate." Long said. The children struggled at their bindings. It was no use…they could feel the flimsy bindings stressing, but could not break them. No doubt a psychological ploy.
Trinity struggled over to Heero as the guards tried to pull her to the machine. She whispered in his ear. "Hold strong. Don't let the others give in. We can't let them accomplish-." They dragged her to the machine before she could finish and began assembling the bindings.
Peace looked on the situation, unable to think. All she could do was cling to Rashid and pray for their safety. She looked over at Triton, but his face was unreadable as usual. Li was tense, his loyalties obviously divided. How long could he watch one of his friends tortured for the good of Earth and the colonies? They were abstract at best-but here was his childhood friend who was real…
Long smiled again, that insincere grin that aggravated his prisoners. "This little exercise requires a bit of explanation. The machine here will administer a pseudo- electric pulse that her body will not be harmed, but her nerves will think that it is. It's a little like fire, if I turn the force down." He pulled the lever up all the way. "But that wouldn't be fun, now would it." He stepped out of the way and motioned for one of the guards to turn on the machine.
Trinity's pulse could almost be heard through the room. She started panting heavily, the speed increasing with each breath. They cannot know my pain, Trinity thought. Or they'll give in for sure. Waves of agony hammered her brain, her entire body felt like it was being consumed by lava. She was racked constantly by a sea of pain. Her entire body felt like folding up. The agony tried to come out of her mouth, but she kept it shut. She swayed side to side, trying to distract herself from the white, all consuming pain. It was a light that was slowly erasing her being, and soon all that would be left would be the pain. And then she noticed-only one of the levers were up. Maybe she could endure-.
Long switched on the last lever himself.
Trinity's screams could be heard from outside of the room. Her friends tried to look away, but the chair was designed so that upper body movement was hampered. Rashid was shivering, clinging as usual to his sister while crying for Trinity.
Heero felt absolute rage at the smiling Commander. One look at Li guaranteed him that Li felt the same way as Trinity's body convulsed in spasms. Her eyes seemed empty, her spirit broken, and the only assurance they had that she was alive and not just spasming in death was that she kept screaming. Heero wondered how long she really could endure the torture.
Li knew Trinity as long as any of them had. She wouldn't break so easily, and neither would Heero under torture. But Li understood that it wasn't the one tortured who would break. It was the ones who had to watch. And if they gave in-
"Stay strong, guys. We can't let them win." Triton nodded, sweat wettening his brow with worry.
But Heero couldn't hear Li. All he could hear was Trinity's screams of pain. She began to beg them to be let out, but whenever they asked her if she would cooperate- she would not answer them. Heero struggled at his bonds again, this time with such a furiosity that the flimsy but strong synthetic wiring began to stretch.
"Heero! No!" Triton called out to him. Long gestured for a guard, who got a gun from his back.
"Don't move," Long commanded. The gunman took aim-and Heero broke through the wire. A single shot echoed throughout the room. Peace screamed.
"Heero!"
Heero, Sr. glanced at his laptop on the shuttle. Trowa hovered over his shoulder as they attempted to hack through old government records to find outspoken dissidents of the new system Relena had set up. Duo and Quatre worked at another computer, while Wufei stared out at the stars.
"Wufei, what do you think you are doing? Your child is out there too, don't you feel like helping?" Duo asked, incredulously. Wufei merely looked down. Trowa spoke up in Wufei's defense.
"I think this whole escapade may have something to do with his past. If he's in conflict, shouldn't he work it out before he continues?"
Wufei didn't acknowledge either of them. He merely kept staring out into the starts, wondering. Was I justified, that day?