Reon was sobbing by the time Nerys was in the recording. The sounds of his sister crying like that tore at his insides. Dukat didn't seem to like it either. He had the grace to at least pretend to look sorry. He made a motion in the air, as though he wanted to stroke her image on the screen and comfort her himself. Reon wanted to do the same. Thank the Prophets for Shakaar!
He winced every time Kira was harmed. He gnashed his teeth when the torturer threatened her. He had panicked when they drugged her. She had assured him she wasn't hurt or raped when he saw her last, but how could she possibly remember what had been done to her if she was drugged? He was relieved she seemed to have gotten away with minimum harm done. She hadn't lied to him.
It took them both some time to recover from watching that.
"Why the hell did you let that happen to her?" Reon demanded his anger reawakening. "You allowed them to drug her, hit her, threaten her, and nearly rape her! You said you were watching it live and in control?"
"It wasn't live, but if that Cardassian had truly harmed or touched her, I would have had his head on a silver platter. He knew it and was only performing a show. Shakaar rescued her, but I protected her. Her Prophets had nothing to do with it. I am her guardian. She just doesn't know it or appreciate it yet."
"How could you allow even a show?" Reon snapped. "My sister!"
"You learn the truth about a man or woman when you put them in such extreme circumstances. It was a show, but it was all too real for Nerys. I know your sister far more intimately thanks to it."
"You're a sick bastard! You're a special kind of sick Cardassian!" Reon ranted. "And why the hell would you force me to watch that?"
"I wanted to show you something in particular, Reon. Look closely," he skipped back near the beginning of the video and began to zoom the video in on Nerys.
"That's my sister, you scaly beast!"
Dukat gave him a withering look, "And you accuse me of being perverse? I'm not overexposing her genitalia, son. Look at her eyes."
Reon didn't trust Dukat and wanted him to stop calling him 'son'. He shut his eyes and Dukat slammed his hand on the table, trying to startle his eyes open.
"Look, I said! Need I remind you of the warning I gave you earlier?"
Reluctantly, Reon opened his eyes. The footage was zoomed in on Kira's face, not her body. Dukat hadn't lied thank goodness.
"See that within her eyes?" Dukat spoke in a strangely soft and hypnotic voice. "The defiance? There's fear, of course, but she'd be stupid not to have a healthy amount of fear. Fear is a survival tactic. Your sister is not stupid. That's the spirit of your people right there in her eyes. There's defiance, beauty, grace, and a cunning not unlike a Cardassian's. There's anger, hatred, and passion. I've never seen anything like it! It's fascinating and lovely!"
Reon stared into Kira Nerys' face and tears burned in his eyes. He was already convinced that he would never see her again. He drank in the image, not in the sick and perverse way that Dukat did. He was simply a brother gazing at his beloved sister. Her brown eyes were as gentle as their father's when she softened. That was the look he liked best, not this provoked glint. He saw what Dukat wanted him to see, too, and he was fiercely proud of her. He began to mutter a prayer.
"Your Prophets won't help you here, son."
"I'm not your son! I'm the son of the Kiras, Taban and Meru!"
"Meru was my mistress and I had her more times than your father ever did. I kept her longer."
"You mean you raped her!" Reon roared.
"Funny, she never said 'no'! She was grateful and loving. She never denied me no matter the hour or state she was in."
"Doesn't that seem the least bit suspicious?"
Reon savored a small victory as he saw doubt creep into Dukat's eyes, if only for a fleeting second. Then his confident sneer reappeared.
"No," he said it so dismissively. "And you don't believe me, but I deeply loved her and you by extension."
"Then why did you abandon her in that hospital?" Reon spat. "Why let my baby brother Pohl starve? Why stalk Nerys like a predator waiting for her fruit to ripen for you?"
"I couldn't return Meru to her family, not even in the very first few days! Another Cardassian might have claimed her instead and hurt your family. Not even the Prefect of Bajor can entirely protect a Bajoran woman during an Occupation! I didn't understand Bajoran family dynamics at the time or I would have at least sent a nurse to care for Pohl! The neglect of milk permanently damaged him. I regret that, but no one told me! She didn't even tell me her youngest was still an infant. She told me when she got ill she never wanted to return home."
"I don't believe you!"
"It's true! Her family and society would call her a traitor and whore for entertaining me, willing or not, for even an hour! I sent those rations to your father for many years."
"Why did they stop?"
"Ask your precious Resistance!" Dukat said viciously. "Your father was forced to stop accepting them when you fell under suspicion."
"Convenient that my mother died around the same time!"
Dukat's expression saddened, "Meru realized her illness was likely terminal. She was more and more depressed when she learned her youngest son had died and the rest of her children weren't getting rations. I put her in that hospital because she would receive the best care there. I wanted to hire a personal doctor and bring them here to Terok Nor. I hated being separated from her. The doctors began to suspect that her illness was entirely psychosomatic. I didn't poison her, son. I promise you I had nothing to do with it. Meru is the one that gave up, not me. She was refusing her treatments. I suspect she convinced the doctors to euthanize her."
"No!" Reon howled.
"I loved her, Reon. If you believe nothing else that I have said, believe that. She was mine for seven years, and they were the happiest of my life. She made them warm and joyous. She could make me laugh like no one else, and her paintings and sculptures were beautiful. This painting behind me is hers. It's landscaping on Bajor. An art collector offered me a fortune for it and wanted to know the artist. I refused to part with it and protected your mother's identity."
"What about my sister?" Reon growled.
Dukat began sneering again, "I've kept her safe."
"What?"
"Who do you think has kept her files hidden? Why do you think this torturer restrained himself? Look!" he froze the screen on the Cardassian's face. "All men like him at least receive training from the Obsidian Order. I hate that organization for my own reasons, but I also personally hated this man. He misused his comfort women and killed more than one. I couldn't touch him because I was of lower rank ages ago. I thought it would be a special treat to unleash Nerys upon him. He had no idea who he was dealing with! She didn't disappoint me! I laughed so hard when she snapped his neck! He desires her almost as much as I! Can you see it?"
"I don't want to!" Reon closed his eyes.
"He is so frustrated!" Dukat laughed manically. "He has a beautiful and vulnerable, soft, smooth woman before him! She's naked and cold! She should be bargaining her body for mercy and freedom. He aches to make that body sing with pleasure or pain. To a torturer, such music is the same to their ears. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for a Cardassian to deny his needs?"
"I don't want to know!"
"And look at Nerys!" Dukat laughed harder. "The numbing agent she managed to get in proves how amateur that Cardassian was! He's lucky it wasn't a euthanasia drug of some kind. I might have lost my precious Bajoran daughter. It's entirely involuntary, but she's taunting him with her body language! The eyes are the most obvious, but she's spreading her legs here just a little. She licks the water from her lips there. She's trembling with rage, but it might as well be desire. Her spunky repertoire is typical of Cardassian flirting! Her breasts-"
"Please stop!" Reon cried.
"There's pheromones too. He can smell them. She keeps tossing back her hair-"
"Dukat, I'm begging you to please shut the hell up!"
"She's become the torturer, Reon! I would invoke your Prophets if I believed in them. I love that girl!" Dukat sighed sensually. "And that's why the Cardassian hesitated. It's why Nerys has never been snatched as a comfort woman. I put her on a list of protection. She was actually quite safe in the camp. None of those soldiers that came around to taunt her would have ever taken her home. I would have heard of it and within four hours I would have been at their door to take her away from them and execute them slowly. It was always just wishful thinking on their part."
"What do you expect to get from my sister?" Reon asked. "She'd never break for you, you know that? She's not my mother."
Dukat said confidently, "The day she breaks for me and loves me is the day that I win!"
"Sick! You're so damn sick, Cardassian! I thought you loved her as a daughter and me as a son! Doesn't that add a layer of incestuous motive to your thoughts and deeds?"
"It's true, son, that you and Nerys are almost mine as much as my other children. But the fact is you are not biologically mine. You are not even the same species. I couldn't save Pohl, but as Meru's only daughter, I confess that I have always prioritized her over you. So sorry if you feel neglected."
"I wouldn't want your kind of attention!" Reon burst. "And you'll never have my sister! Stay away from her! I swear I will kill you and every member of your Cardassian family!"
Reon tried to spit at him, and Dukat's eyes lit with a cold and dangerous gleam, worse than anything he had seen before. He truly looked like a Wraith.
"Now my affection for you is wearing thin very quickly," he sighed. "No one threatens my children! No one, not even a Kira."
"I'll tell everyone about this!"
"No, Reon, my son," Dukat said regretfully. "I'm going to kill you now. I'll make it clean and quick and plant evidence that you were the Collaborator all along. I hate to kill Meru's last son, but if I have to sacrifice one child to save my others and keep Nerys from learning the terrible truth, I will."
The last thing Reon saw was his sister on the screen as Dukat slit his throat and a sweet memory of playing spring ball flashed in his brain. Nerys and Reon were children and little Pohl was merely watching, too young to participate. Nerys was giggling happily and the Bajoran suns were shining and warming their skin, making hers glow. Reon missed the ball and fell into the grass, slamming hard. His sister screamed his name shrilly and all went black forever.