Author's Note: There are a couple of shocking items in this chapter. Be ye warned before reading. My original edit did not save, so if you spot a grammar error or typo, please let me know so I can fix it.
Interior of Hydra Base
Sam gave up his fight of trying to free himself from his new bodyguards that were with him in the elevator. He knew there was no longer any point in trying to argue with them into disobeying Teagan's command. Her power over them was complete. The best that he could hope for was getting to the surface and then making a call to see if he could find any type of help.
When she had kissed him, he'd thought that it was a show of agreement to his suggestion of just getting out of there.
But when they had separated and he had been able to gaze into her eyes, Sam could visibly see them darkened with brokenness. Her hatred of Keeling was now her driving factor. He had put her through too much since coming here. Sam feared that the deprivation of all sensory inputs had moved her mind somewhere it couldn't escape entirely from.
When she had first seen him, it had taken her too long to understand what it meant with him being across from her. Pure anguish was the only way to describe the cry she had given. And then with Keeling threatening him moments after she just found out he was alive. She had been pushed to a new point where her powers had evolved once again.
And thanks to that, Sam was almost positive that he might be the only one to make it out of this base alive.
As they reached their first checkpoint just outside of the elevator doors, he was shocked to find that orders had been put into the security system stating that he was now under the control of Project Cherry Tree and he was allowed free access to the base. It seemed that enough information was on their screens so that none of the guards questioned it. Teagan must have made Keeling put that there after they had left…or maybe he had been so arrogant that he'd done it before taking him in for interrogation.
They continued on, passing through another checkpoint before they finally made it out into the large hanger area. The sun was high in the sky, which told him it must be around noontime, he just didn't know what timezone they were in.
Seeing that they were leading him towards the large open hanger door to the outside, Sam pointed out, "I need some kind of communications device, maybe a cell phone that cannot be traced. Actually, this isn't the time for hiding…if possible, make it one that can be traced."
One of the guards veered over to a supply room as he and the other waited just outside. Thanks to the command given to them, neither one even tried to turn on him.
When the guard returned, in his hand was a smartphone, making him think of how Nat never gave one to Steve without a joke about making sure that he wasn't 'too old to understand to use it'. Waiting until they were outside and away from prying ears, Sam punched in the emergency contact number that Nat had made all of them memorize so long ago.
Sam could only hope that there was still someone on the other end to answer his call for help.
Marcus Keeling was a prisoner, locked inside of his own body as Teagan used her newfound powers to control him and the others. She had him now standing in the corner like a bad child as she dealt with other issues. He could only dread what would happen once she turned her attention back to him.
How had he not considered that by pushing her emotions to the breaking point, just like he had before, that her powers would mutate again? Because not a single scientist that had worked on her project years ago had even suggested that they could be taken this far, that's why.
Over the past few minutes, he had been disturbed by the different commands that Teagan forced him to obey. The first had been the authorization being entered into the system stating that Sam Wilson was now granted full command clearance which would give him full access to the base. If any other guard tried to stop them from getting him off of the base the would find the legitimate orders to allow them to do so.
The next thing that she had him do was call up to Henry Bradshaw and ask for him to come down so that he could be personally given an update on not only her but Falcon's supposed 'transformation' into Hydra. But the moment that Henry had stepped into his office, she had once again taken another as her captive. She'd ordered him to 'freeze', a single word command that rendered him immobile and mute. A simple word used from a children's game, planting the suggestion of what that word's meaning encompassed. From that point, she was able to then able to give more detailed instructions.
He'd seen the horror in Henry's expression as he helplessly stood there glaring at Teagan, free, in control, and with full access to the base with her new personal guards flanking her. But he noticed that unlike with the guards, she did not command him to be loyal to her, only to obey her commands.
Henry's computer access was then used so that she could watch Sam being escorted into a smaller building just outside of the hanger. The guards knew that it was a secondary security house that was built to be used as a fortification during an outside attack. It seemed that Falcon's guards considered it the location best suited to keep him safe as per her command.
Now, she was starting to look at the bigger picture of her revenge on all of them.
"I need some way to either contain or eliminate everyone located in this base," Teagan mused while glaring up at the taller Henry. "I'm guessing that you would know if there is. So tell me, is there something like that?"
Henry's face paled as he was compelled to answer, "Yes, there is a fail safe system."
"Hydra has some way to...disable...everyone on this base?" he heard Teagan ask Henry with disdain in her voice.
"Yes. There is a device hooked into the ventilation system that has two gas canisters attached to it. One will knock everyone unconscious for up to five hours. The other will kill in under two minutes. I have the ability to secure each individual floor as I deem necessary, locking anyone on that level inside, and then releasing them only where I want to."
Teagan began to shake her head in disgust at hearing that.
"Why are you set up to kill your own people?"
"As I said, it is a fail-safe. It is in case the base is ever compromised. Either to temporarily take out everyone so Hydra is not compromised or to kill the intruders after evacuation."
"I guess that it will have to do," she said to herself. Her hand drifted over to the metal letter opener resting in the pen cup on his desk, lifting it up for inspection. Then she turned her eyes to him, a darkness that often saw in his own, and Marcus knew that something bad was coming his way. He could only stand there frozen as she pointed the sharp instrument into his neck, just enough so that he could feel it. "You, on the other hand…I have special plans for you."
Teagan, still holding the sharp item, then ordered him and two other guards to head back to her cell. Henry and the other guards were told to stand and wait for her to return without moving.
Would she just kill him? Somehow he doubted it.
As they walked without a word towards where she had been kept for so long, Teagan broke the silence with a question for him.
"I've always wondered one thing, Keeling. How is it that with how often you raped me that I never became pregnant? Did you do something to me?"
"No, it was not you. When I was injured years ago, the shrapnel not only damaged my leg but also my reproductive organs. I am sterile, unable to get anyone pregnant."
He hated that she had brought up that one point. For years, it had been one of the threats that he liked to use…making her worry that she would become pregnant with his child. He had even taken to lying to Teagan by telling her that her menstrual cycle was late just to mentally hurt her a little bit more.
With him standing just inside of her cell, "Strip and do not fight from this point forward," she simply ordered, and he did so without hesitation.
Once he was standing there naked, he knew that it was going to be very, very bad. Marcus didn't even need to look at the twisted grin on Teagan's face to know...one that he used so often.
"Secure his arms into the binder just like he had mine. Do whatever you have to, no matter how painful it is to him, to get them in there," she coldly instructed the two guards.
As they walked towards him, Marcus saw that they didn't look upset at being given the order. In fact, just like the merciless Hydra guards he knew they were, they appeared to almost be smiling at the idea of the cruel act they were about to perform on him.
With the command she had given him earlier to not speak unless questioned, he couldn't even beg her to stop. The most that he could do was shake his head as the two guards approached him.
"What? You didn't seem to have any problem binding me in this fashion. I'm just giving you the chance to see what it feels like."
Even with being forced to not struggle, the two guards roughly tossed him onto the still damp concrete from where she had been washed off earlier. The sound of the chain being moved made him turn his head. It was being lowered so that it would reach him on the floor.
The first metal piece was laid against his back, the outline of the W-shaped cold on his skin. As his left arm was bent behind his back in a way he had never even tried to do, he found that he could at least scream since it was not actual words coming from him. One of guards held it in place as the other did the same maneuver with his right. He was sure that his joints were about to pop out of place, just as Teagan's had done so many times through the years.
"Painful. Isn't it?" her delighted voice reached him over his cries of pain.
"Yes," he was forced to answer by her previous command before he continued to howl as the top piece was put into place. Since it was created with the size of Teagan's arms taken into account, his hands were forced into small fists in the enclosed top area. Some of the hairs and skin on his thicker arms was pinched by the two sides coming together, the guards having to adjust them painfully until at last the skin was inside so they could bolt the item into place.
There was no way to hide the tears already pouring from his eyes at the immense pain he was in. Marcus couldn't remember the last time he'd cried. Even when he had been dealing with the shrapnel injury to his body, he never showed this type of weakness.
"Lift him up," he heard her say. "Make the chain just long enough so that his feet barely touch the ground."
The chain's crank began to click as it shortened, forcing his body up into a standing position. Soon, his shoulders were burning with an agony that he'd never felt before. The bulk of his weight was now was pressing down on the balls of his feet as he strained to stand just a bit higher to stop the pain in his shoulders. He'd often put Teagan into this position, knowing it would hurt, but not truly understanding just how much it did until now.
Turning around so that he faced the door, he watched Teagan whisper into the ear of one of the guards who then left.
"You have no idea how many times through the years that I have wanted to see you just like this," she told him with a cruel grin. "You can now speak freely."
He didn't need to be told twice.
"You fucking bitch! When I get out of here, you are fucking dead! I don't care how useful you are to Hydra! I'll choke you to death with my bare hands while I fuck you one final time!"
Teagan's devious grin showed not a single hint of worry from her at his threats.
"Oh, you'll be fucking one final time, just not who or in the way you think."
"What the fuck does that mean, bitch?" he yelled just as the guard who'd left returned with an item in his hand.
Marcus' blood ran cold as he saw him holding the sensory deprivation hood from where he'd been sent to retrieve it from the interrogation room.
"Give us a moment," she instructed as the two guards moved to stand out in the hallway but were intently watching the scene before them. Even under her control, they seemed fascinated with the brutality she was having them inflict on him, wanting to know what was coming next.
"You'll never get away with this. Hydra will find you and make you pay for everything that you plan on doing here today."
He could feel a sharp pain already starting in his arm muscles at the unnatural position they were in.
"As long as Sam is safe, then I don't care if I have to go down with this entire base to make all of you cock-knockers pay for torturing me all of these years. Especially your sorry ass. I don't know if your misogynistic, masochistic attitude was preserved just for me, but I intend to make sure that nobody else ever suffers like what you've done to me…except for you."
Puffing out his chest trying to not appear weak, he sneered, "Cut off one head, two more will take its place."
Teagan narrowed her eyes at him, her voice just as sinister as his own, "Then I'll kill every last one of them also. I'm sure their blood will be just as sweet as my revenge on you."
He really didn't like the sound of that comment.
Her eyes began to sparkle as she captured his gaze.
"The guard is going to put that hood over your head, blocking out the world for the rest of your life. Then you will be treated to a surprise. If that arm binder or any piece of that hood is ever removed, you are ordered to bite off your own tongue. If that doesn't kill you and you are continued to be freed from the binder and hood, then you will constantly do whatever is necessary to attempt suicide until they are put back into place on your body. Jump from a high place, stab yourself with any possible item you can, run head first into a wall...anything that you would consider possible lethal."
Marcus knew his eyes were wide with hearing that. She was indeed going to kill him, just not in any sudden fashion. She was ordering him to end his own life. If anyone tried to free him, it will be his death.
"You can't mean that," he weakly tried to argue.
"Oh, don't I? Suicide is a guarantee of damnation of the soul. I'm just ensuring that yours makes it there. I told you long ago that I would see you in Hell one day, and that I would be the one to put you there. And with the blood of every other Hydra agent on this base also about to be on my hands, it will guarantee that it will happen. There's an old Irish saying: Go ndeine an diabhal dréimire de cnámh do dhroma ag piocadh úll i ngairdín Ifrinn. It means: May the devil make a ladder of your backbone and pluck apples in the garden of hell. I look forward to seeing you again."
Not sure if he wanted to scream or cry as she turned to leave him alone in the cell, he bravely exclaimed, "Hail Hydra!"
Reaching over without even looking back at him, she clicked the crank attached to the chain one final notch, putting him agonizingly onto the tops of his toes.
With that, Teagan walked out into the hall, ignoring his screams of pain as he struggled to get free while cursing at her.
Walking over to the two guards who had been able to hear her conversation with Keeling, she looked between them, asking, "Has either one of you ever raped another person before?"
Without hesitation, the one on her left answered, "Yes, I have."
"Did you enjoy it and would you do it again?"
"Yes, without hesitation," he told her, but she saw the worried look he gave at actually admitting that. Teagan shook her head, glad and sickened at the same time at being able to find one of Keeling's guards that would work perfectly into her plan.
Looking at the right guard, the took the leather hood from him and instructed, "Go and wait with Bradshaw."
He didn't even look back as he obeyed.
Inspecting the hood, she saw that the blindfold and gag were still in place, but she made sure that the parts that covered the ears were gone. If Keeling was asked a question, she wanted him to at least be able to nod his head and give an answer. That way, he could inform whoever found him of his preference of either staying alive in those hideous contraptions or finally allowing himself to die. It would be his choice…kind of.
Holding out the hood to the rapist, she emotionlessly ordered, "Go inside of that cell and shut the door. You will securely place this over Marcus Keeling's head, locking it into place. Then you will repeatedly rape him, over and over again. When you need a break, use the shock-stick on him until he passes out, paying special attention to his cock and balls. When he wakes, repeat your instruction until somebody comes to this cell. You will inform them of the instructions that I have just given Keeling about killing himself if someone tries to free him. Then, the moment that door is opened, you will take this letter opener and stab it into the veins in your own neck. You can now speak freely."
The guard took the hood and letter opener from her as he also began to plead with her to not do this to him. But his body began to obey the command even if his mind was free.
The rapist walked into the cell with Keeling who was pleading with the guard to not put the hood on. But her orders would be obeyed, without a doubt. Watching the door behind him shut, she thought it slightly funny that the only person who she knew could open that door with the code was now trapped behind it. Even if someone came to this level, they would have to work at forcing the door open while listening to him being raped.
There was always a chance that whoever found the two of them would ask Keeling as to what they wanted him to do, and he could answer with a nod or shake of his head as to if he wanted to be freed from the devices.
Teagan kind of hoped that he was so arrogant that he let his own torture drag on for a long time.
The sounds from inside the cell then changed, as Teagan contently listened to Keeling's begging which suddenly became a mumbled protest as the gag was finally put into place.
There was a type of satisfaction warmly flowing through her that she had never felt before. A special type of happiness at knowing what Keeling was about to go through.
Needing to take a moment for herself, Teagan began to aimlessly walk through the halls freely for the first time ever, not stopping until she found herself in the prisoner cell area. There was only one door open, guessing it was the one that had been Sam's. Walking inside of it, she sat down onto the hard mattress.
On the floor was a tray with bits of food scattered, but the mess meant nothing to her. Had Sam been fighting them this whole time? Giving his spirit, she felt that he probably had.
A tiredness was starting to come over her so she picked up the thin pillow, wrapping it in her arms…and found a familiar scent coming from it.
Sam.
Looking around, she took in the cell where Sam had been kept. There was nothing in here, not even a single book to occupy his time with. Instead, he had been stuck inside here with nothing to do. Teagan was not sure that she wanted to know what the speaker on the small table just outside the cell was for…even if she had a very good idea. Through the years, she had partially deciphered Keeling twisted mind. He would never pass up an opportunity to somehow torture a prisoner.
Sam had been not far away from her, listening to her daily beatings, and she never knew. All that time that she had believed him dead, safe from Keeling and this place.
Giving the pillow a hug, she inhaled his essence to help calm her. Keeling was no longer going to be a problem for her or anybody else. She was truly free of him.
All it had cost her was Sam.
Once she went through with the decimation of this base, if she somehow survived, there was no way that even Sam would be able to stand to be around someone so evil. He was too good, honorable…which is why he had to be saved. And she knew without a doubt how disappointed Sam was going to be with her. There was no way someone as kind as him would be able to look at her the way he had without always being reminded of the horrors which she was in the middle of inflicting on this base. He was needed out in the world where he could be the hero he was meant to be.
Letting the misery of what she had lost overcome her, Teagan broke down in his cell, crying aloud into the pillow that still smelled like him. There was no way that she would ever undo any of the commands that she had already done, and compared to what she was planning to do, they had been nothing.
Rubbing the tattoo on her chest, Teagan now knew that she never deserved Sam to begin with.
Keeling had damned her soul long ago and now she was too far gone to ever be saved.
Feeling a calm ease over her tense body, she knew that it was time to continue with Hydra's downfall. Placing Sam's pillow back on the bed area, she let her hand glide over it one final time while thinking of him.
She would make him safe at the cost of every life here.
Passing by Keeling's office where the other guards watched her, she knew they were worried about what she planned. They would learn soon enough.
But first, she had to make a final stop back at her cell. She had to know for sure…
Hearing the piercing scream that came from inside of the black room, she knew that the guard had started the next part of his orders. With each hard thrust into Keeling from behind, he let out a screech of excruciating pain as he received payback for all of the times when he had raped her.
Standing there listening, Teagan felt her body began to gently shake with contained joy as she reveled at his situation. Even though she was sure laughing was not a normal response, she knew her mind was far too broken after what she had just been through for days, weeks, months, or however long she had hung in that cell waiting to die.
Keeling was finally getting the payback that she had dreamed of for so long.
"Do you feel that, you fucking bastard!?" she screamed at the locked door, her fists pumping in the air in front of her. "It's not as fun when you're on the receiving end, is it? Scream...scream for me, Keeling! Let me hear your pain!"
As tears of joy rolled down her cheeks, Teagan finally allowed the pleasure of sweet revenge to penetrate all the way to her broken soul as her laughter joined in with Keeling's muffled shrieks. There was no doubt that he would be able to hear her.
Did someone who was insane actually know that they were? she wondered as she walked back down the hallway, wiping away the tears while looking forward to the next part of her plan.
Author's Note: I hope that you found a bit of satisfaction with Keeling's situation. After what he put her through for so long, I felt it an appropriate response. I'd like to hear from you out there as to what you thought. Ready to head back to Sam with the next chapter and find out what Teagan has planned?