Hello! A quick warning that like Rule #12, this chapter also touches on some non-con topics (still very well within range for this fic's rating), but I'd also like to warn y'all that some waterboarding does occur 'on-screen' along with a semi-debilitating injury. Nothing extremely serious, though it may be confusing or frightening for some younger readers, which is why this fic is rated Teen.
Year Fifteen
Rule #14: Do not allow yourself to be captured
"Mister Wilson isn't coming today," he told her, "So I guess I'm going to be overseeing your training instead."
She nodded in acknowledgment. Lex had taught a few of her lessons before - mostly in the field of business management, and they often simply consisted of the two of them going over LexCorp monthly reports from the various subsidies. He was a virtual genius when it came to organization and market prediction but was terrible at explaining himself, so most of his supposed 'training' ended with him marching off in frustration and leaving Stormkrigeren to try and decipher his cryptic notes scribbled on the reports all by herself. She suspected it would be the same today, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he wasn't carrying any of the usual papers, portfolios, or notebooks that acted as teaching material for his lessons - he must have come to teach her something new.
"So I know I'm not Mister Wilson, but I see no reason we should deviate from his usual routine," Lex announced, surveying the walls of her Room with clear interest as he spotted the climbing grips that hung there, "How about we start with some warm-ups? You can show me some of the climbing work Wilson's been doing with you - does that sound good?"
"Yes, sir," she agreed, holding back a small smile. It sounded great - the physical lessons were always more enjoyable than the ones involving book-learning or writing, and it gave her a chance to show off her climbing skills.
At his assent, she moved a few paces away from the wall before jogging quickly towards it, launching herself at the last second into a precise wall run that carried her a few meters up the wall before she found a comfortable grip. Stormkrigeren swore she could feel his eyes on her back as she adjusted her position and reached for another grip to her right, carefully moving herself horizontally along the wall. Climbing vertically was easy enough - as long as one had a fluid upward motion with the correct balance, they could get decently high at a good pace, but climbing horizontally was a completely different matter. It required a stronger sense of balance, more muscles to be working tirelessly, and oftentimes put more weight or stress on any of the four main contact points. The greater the distance traveled this way, the harder it would be to achieve her goal at the far end of the climbing wall - but Stormkrigeren reached it nonetheless, and allowed herself a simple celebratory flip off of her perch to land safely on the floor, turning finally to Lex to hear his verdict.
"That was pretty good," he beamed, having watched the entire performance with devout interest, "But I noticed you didn't go very high up the wall. Do you think you could reach the top? How about that one handhold up there - near the top, sorta shaped like a golf ball?"
Stormkrigeren followed his gaze to one of the higher grips on the climbing wall, near the ceiling that usually took some effort to reach, but she had done it a few times before.
"Simple," she replied confidently, buoyed up by his enthusiasm until Lex's grin turned devious.
"I'm sure it is, but would you still be so confident if you had to do it with your hands tied?"
She stiffened instantly at the suggestion, immediately on guard and eyeing him distrustfully to see what he meant by his words. Stormkrigeren realized she must have forgotten to keep a blank face like Mister Wilson had taught her, making her suspicion clearly obvious, because the next thing she knew, Lex was actually laughing at her.
"You're such an open book!" he teased, recognizing the distrust on her face and chortling good-naturedly before sobering at her discomfort, "Look, Darcie, I know you're a bit gun-shy of me - who only knows why, but you should know me well enough by now to know I don't mean anything by a couple of zipties. I'll even tie them in front for you!"
Stormkrigeren frowned, not liking the idea of being restrained while Lex still had free movement, but also not wanting to be seen as weak for turning down such a simple challenge. She hesitated a moment before relenting, obediently presenting her wrists to him so he could bind them where she could watch, but she was still a bit wary of turning her back to a possible attacker.
Lex stepped back after making sure the ties were suitably secured, giving her some room to make the attempt. Stormkrigeren ignored him and pulled her knees up in a quick jump to swing her hands behind her back, making an already hard task of trying to grab the handhold while restrained even harder by forcing her to perform without even seeing her goal. She could do it. She had to.
Like before, she moved a few paces back from the wall and spread her feet in a runner's stance, mentally calculating the jump, impact, and path required in order to gain enough speed to vertically scale the wall without her hands. Taking a deep breath to calm the nerves that were buzzing through her at a thousand miles per hour, Stormkrigeren ran.
She left the ground a mere meter away from the wall, launching herself upwards with practiced ease earned from hours of jumping practice with Mister Wilson, teaching her to move swift and sudden like lightning over the sea. Her forward foot hit the vertical concrete at a familiar angle, giving her the traction she needed to push herself farther up and take another step towards the ceiling before she began to use the grips to assist her ascent. The solid plastic 'rocks' in her climbing wall were purposefully small, but they provided less room for error and an easier landing place for her next step than the wall itself. Stormkrigeren had to move quickly to keep her momentum, scaling the obstacle at a good pace before she reached her goal of the uppermost grip. This was the hardest part - swinging herself around so that her backside was to the concrete in order to catch the grip with her restrained hands, while also maintaining a steady balance against the wall so that she didn't force her shoulders out of their sockets again (she knew the pain of a dislocated joint all too well). Despite the odds required to complete the objective, she managed it. A final kick off the wall, an instant 180-degree turn, pushing her back forward and her hips back to maintain balance while giving her arms the chance to locate the grip - and grasp it tightly.
Lex nearly yelled with excitement, clapping his hands emphatically like a little boy who had just seen a magic trick when she managed to successfully reach the goal, but Stormkrigeren simply smiled from her perch on the wall, shoving her heels against the concrete in order to keep her shoulders at a comfortable angle.
"That was amazing!" he exclaimed, "Do you think you'll get down okay with your hands tied? Wait, hold on, I'll grab the scissors - be right back."
Lex disappeared into the kitchen in search of the cutting utensil as Stormkrigeren prepared to let herself go from the precarious handhold. Slowly, she released her grip, carefully keeping her knees and heels together as she fell before hitting the concrete below with a light thud. Landing on the balls of her feet, she quickly tucked her body forward into a landing roll to reduce the risk of injury, and managed to successfully avoid much more than a sore shoulder and ankles, coming up from the roll just as Lex returned.
His hand caught her upper arm as if to help her up, but she couldn't help but notice how his grip was a little too tight to simply be assistance. She tensed at his unwanted touch, his skin against hers, yet Stormkrigeren knew better than to resist and kept her discomfort to herself.
"I was thinking of maybe doing some swimming lessons," Lex suggested brightly, completely ignorant of her rubbing the spot on her arm where he had touched her a moment ago as he cut her bonds with an easy snip of the scissors, "My coach at the Y was showing me some techniques the other day and it made me think of you. Since, you know, you've never really tried. But I think I can fix that."
He promptly moved off into the kitchen, putting the scissors back in their drawer as he passed by the counter before reaching behind to pull his shirt off over his head. Stormkrigeren, who had been dutifully following him, paused at the sight of him undressing and briefly considered leaving the small room to give him some privacy - which Dr. Schreyer said was the polite thing to do - when Lex caught her watching and winked playfully.
"C'mon, Darcie, no one swims with their clothes on!" he teased, beckoning for her to follow. That made sense - loose clothes would have too much drag and slow a swimmer down, so it was probably a good idea to get rid of the extra weight. Stormkrigeren obeyed, following his example by taking off her shirt as she stepped into the bathroom, only to find Lex already in the shower stall stripped down to his boxers as he turned the water on.
A jolt of panic shot through her at the sight of him, stirring up uncomfortable memories of what had happened last time she had stupidly allowed him to drag her into that room. Her throat was still sore thinking about it even though Lex hadn't touched her in months, but Stormkrigeren ventured the thought that this time might be different. He wasn't forcing her into the bathroom with him, and he didn't appear to have a gun on his person or hidden in his clothes on the floor. He had approached her with the idea, letting her accept it in her own time, and was offering to teach her a skill that would no doubt become essential, all without any coercion whatsoever. Maybe, just this once, it was safe - and even if it wasn't, Stormkrigeren was sure she could defend herself.
"I know, I know - you already know some strokes off by heart," he relented as she stepped into the shower stall beside him, "But believe me when I say that concentration is so much more difficult when you're half-drowning and constantly getting splashed in the face."
Lex laughed at his own joke and adjusted the shower temperature, playfully batting the stream in her direction. Stormkrigeren just barely stopped herself from flinching when the freezing water stung her skin, but quickly frowned at her own weakness to something as stupid as a cold shower and for almost letting it show in front of Lex.
"Sorry," he apologized half-heartedly, watching as she wiped the water from her eyes and still chuckling as he stepped back to give her some room in the cramped space, "How about you show me your freestyle?"
Stormkrigeren complied, stepping beneath the stream and carefully making sure that she did not turn her back on him as she turned her face up into the falling water and held her arms over her head in the 'streamline' position, steadily performing the swimming stroke. Lex had been right - the sudden overstimulation on her face was a bit of a shock that she quickly had to get over before realizing the more serious discomfort of not being able to see all too well. She knew from a previous 'swimming' lesson with Mister Wilson that she could open her eyes perfectly fine underwater (this was found out while holding her breath with her face submerged in a bucket - though she assumed it couldn't really by called 'holding' it when she didn't seem to need to breathe at all)(the experience had prompted a number of various examinations from Dr. Anklow and Dr. Schreyer, and subsequently the uncomfortable discovery of Stormkrigeren's additional nictitating membrane that appeared to be completely transparent). The constant deluge of droplets in the shower broke up the light too much for her to be able to see clearly - or perceive any oncoming attacks.
He shoved his body against hers, forcing her against the wall and quickly binding her wrists over her head, the rough plastic of a cable tie craftily hidden in the palm of his hand biting into her skin. An instant later, he had her ankles forced against the wall with his own, the weight preventing her from kicking out at him and effectively trapping her against the tile.
Stormkrigeren had immediately gone on defense the moment Lex had laid a hand on her, struggling to get her feet up or so much as trip him while he had her fists securely above her head, but it only took her a few moments to realize that it would be useless to fight back. He had the advantage of both height, weight, timing, and strength, while all she had was experience - she would have to wait until some other factor changed in her favor, yet for now, Stormkrigeren made herself a terrible captive and gnashed her teeth in his direction, reminding him that she could still bite.
"Ooh, you're a fierce little Storm," he smiled, the pressure on her ankles increasing as he leaned over her, "It's all right, Darcie, I know you already know how to swim. Slade's a great teacher and all, but he hasn't taught you much about surviving torture yet, has he? Where would you be without that sort of knowledge?"
Stormkrigeren paused her struggling, eyeing him questioningly. True, Mister Wilson had told her that some methods of 'safe' torturing were great stamina builders, but had never gotten around to exposing her to them. Now Lex was offering her a much-needed - albeit dangerous - learning experience, one that she was already tentatively curious about. Her purpose was to survive and protect - and what better way to survive was than to understand all possible circumstances beforehand? She needed knowledge that he had - so she nodded to her teacher in relent.
"Okay! Lesson One in surviving waterboarding," he smiled, his grip tightening slightly around her wrists held firmly over her head, "The quickest way to do this would be to simply throw you in the deep end, so let's get started. You ready?"
Something in his manner caused her to hesitate - Stormkrigeren often struggled to read body language, especially Lex's, but she understood enough to know that something about the way he moved was more off than usual - and he only confirmed her suspicions by pressing a Glock against her shoulder with his free hand.
She nearly swore aloud at her own stupidity. Stormkrigeren thought she had been diligent - checking both his clothes and himself for any sign of a weapon - but had idiotically forgotten to check her surroundings, including the shower caddy where he must have stashed the gun before she obediently followed him into the bathroom, walking right into his trap.
"I asked if you were ready," Lex repeated neutrally, the ring of steel pressing against her bare skin and forcing her back against the slate-gray tile lining the shower stall, cold to the touch as her bare skin was shoved up against them. His hand that wasn't threatening her with the gun was still wrapped around her wrists with too strong of a grip for her to effectively break, and even if she could, she was still bound by cable ties - but with the right leverage, she could grab the showerhead mere inches away. It would not be hard at all to pull herself up and land a solid kick against his chest, giving her time to escape from the confined space and out into her main Room - but she would still be locked in there with Lex and his gun.
He had planned this. He had planned to trap her, to make sure she was alone with him. He was smart and had planned the entire thing. He was smart, and she needed him to teach her, she needed to learn how to survive if something like this ever happened again. He hadn't done anything to imply a repeat of past instances, of close, cold contact. He wasn't there to hurt her - he was there to teach her. Stormkrigeren was a good student. She could get away from him for a moment, but only if she needed to. For now, she was ready to learn.
Lex chuckled softly, easily guessing the conclusion she had come to, and released his bruising grip on her wrists to stroke her exposed throat possessively, a subtle reminder of what would happen if she even considered resisting.
"Are you going to be good?" he asked her in a low voice that sent a shiver of apprehension down her spine. But Stormkrigeren shut out the fear, shut out the weakness, and nodded silently.
A damp washcloth was laid over her face, blinding her, and she could feel him tracing her features through the wet fabric as she fought to remain calm and keep her breathing steady. Something hit the back of her knees with enough force to throw her to the ground and she nearly whimpered in pain when he grabbed her hair to force her head back. This was a bad position, she was too exposed, she couldn't get up, she couldn't fight like this-
The shock of the water suddenly hitting her face caused her to gasp inadvertently and she nearly choked as it entered her lungs. With the washcloth clinging to her skin and covering her mouth and nose, she had no way to breathe without inhaling more water than air as she gasped for breath, but to no avail. Lungs burning, she swore she was slowly drowning as the deluge continued and the gun was shoved into her side, threatening much more than pain if she dared make a sound. Panic rose in her chest with every moment that passed, drowning, drowning, silently screaming - until after an eternity, the water was shut off.
The cloth was removed, allowing her to gasp in the fresh air as he grinned down at her, watching with apparent amusement as she fought to take a few deep breaths. Deciding her brief respite was up, he tossed the cloth back on her face and forced her back under the stream of water. She could not see anything but the solid white color of the fabric and a slightly brighter area which must have been the overhead light - but it could just have easily been her passing out. There was nothing she could do except gasp for the precious little air she received and silently scream to be free of his abominations before he would finally let her up for a single breath and the cycle would continue.
She had no idea how long he kept her there, trapped on the verge of consciousness yet never allowing her to slip under, always in pain, always afraid. There was something about pain that shut out all feeling, limiting her world to nothing but fear and drowning and his hands grasping at her chest as he forced himself upon her, her silent screams unanswered. At one point she managed to rid herself of the blindfold long enough to glare up at him, fire burning in her eyes as she dared him, dared him to hold her down and to hurt her again. He only smiled, and violently shoved her skull against the tile. The bright overhead lights seemed to flicker as she clung to consciousness by a mere thread, dimly aware that Lex had finally let her go and was stroking her bruised cheek as he crooned softly.
"It's all over, Dee-Dee," he whispered, "I'm going to make it all better now. All you have to do… is pay up."
A fresh wave of panic washed over her at the words, and she struggled against his tight grip on her wrists, holding her down against the freezing cold tile. She managed to wrench herself free for the briefest of moments, trembling from the effort as she fought to open the stall door only to feel his hand on her head, pushing hard.
He caught her off balance. If her knees had been a little more bent, her stance a little more stable, or the shower a little less wet, she would have been fine. But somehow he managed to push her just a little too far and once again managed to force her against the wall, her head hitting the grey tile with a resounding crack.
V*V*V*V*V*V*V
The bright overhead lights seemed to flicker in and out at a quick pace, ignorant of the headache they were causing her, or maybe it was an old headache simply returning with consciousness. Either way, it still hurt, and the rest of her didn't feel much better. Something tight was wrapped over her forehead - a bandage by the feel of it, squeezing uncomfortably. Why the hell she would need a bandage, she had no idea-
She sensed movement off to her left and instinctually tensed, clenching her fists and minutely bending her knees so that she could get up quickly if she had to defend herself. Stormkrigeren listened hard, trying to estimate how many potential attackers were nearby and how close they might be. Taking the risk, she cracked open one eyelid to try to catch a glimpse of them, but was met by the sight of a lone Mister Wilson sitting on the ground nearby, eyeing her over the top of a hardcover book.
"About time," he muttered, setting the novel aside, "How's the head?"
Stormkrigeren carefully pushed herself up into a sitting position, her vision swimming from the movement. A wave of vertigo hit her, unsettling her stomach and causing her skull to throb painfully as she scrunched her eyes closed to shut out the spinning world, swearing softly under her breath, "Fuck."
"Yeah, skull fractures aren't pretty," Mister Wilson agreed, "Though I've rarely had trouble with them, so don't think I'm letting you off the hook for a damn bruise."
She shook her head in acknowledgment, and immediately regretted it as her stomach twisted in complaint, her head still throbbing with no sign of stopping soon.
"What you're feeling is twelve-thousand milligrams of acetaminophen - four times the maximum adult dosage because that's how much you needed before your brain took to the stuff," her teacher explained, "You like it?"
"No, sir," she managed to get out, her tongue feeling cottony and dry against the roof of her mouth.
"Good. The stuff's shit - this is always better."
She felt something light hit her blanket and looked down to see a slab of milk chocolate. Stormkrigeren gingerly picked it up to examine the label and realized it wasn't just any regular chocolate - it was the nice kind, with cookie pieces scattered throughout the bar, and it was a decent size too. Mister Wilson hated milk chocolate with a passion - something about how it was too gooey and hard to get out of one's mouth - so he only ate the really dark stuff when he felt like it. There was no real reason for him to have gone to all the effort for something he didn't even like, unless… he'd gotten it for her.
"I saw the security feeds," he mentioned off-handedly, ignoring the thankful look she gave him as he glanced up at the climbing grips on the nearby wall. Stormkrigeren flinched at the thought - Mister Wilson had seen what had happened, he had seen her stupidly walk into an obvious trap, he had seen her make an idiotic mistake that had cost far too much, he had seen her… succeed.
"You saw the jump?" she asked quietly, unsure if she was going to receive praise or a rebuke. Mister Wilson only nodded in reply, but to her relief, she could tell by the fact that he didn't reprimand her for the stupid trick immediately that her teacher - albeit reluctantly - was impressed.
"Don't get cocky - succeeding at something once means jack shit," he warned her, seeming to sense her conclusion as he crouched down beside her mattress. She nodded, watching as Mister Wilson slipped some plastic strips out of his back pocket and pressed them into her hand. Stormkrigeren looked down at the cable ties as he brought her fist up to eye level and gently folded her fingers closed around them, nodding once to see if she understood.
He wanted proof. Proof that her one-time success wasn't just luck - it was skill.
A hint of a smile crossed her face as she nodded back, ignoring the pain in her head as she stood up to let her teacher bind her wrists.