He was only half conscious when they came for him. He didn't understand the sound of the door sliding open or the heavy tread of boots. Bleary and disoriented, he tried to push himself up, his mind too clouded with fever to immediately grasp what was happening.
Then they grabbed his arms and his body remembered even if his mind did not. He shrank back, trying to pull away, but he was powerless to resist as they clamped the restraints around his wrists. Thirteen felt the ice cold shock of terror. "No..." he shook his head, pleading, panic catching in his throat. "No, please."
They tried to pull him to his feet, but fear had unstrung his limbs. He was limp, shaking. He begged. "Please. I don't know anything. I don't know anything else. No - Please." The litany was second nature now.
They half carried, half dragged him from the cell and along the hallway. There was a lift, another hallway. A door at the end.
Not again. He couldn't go through it again. He had told them everything. He didn't know anything else. He had begun to cry, babbling now, a desperate, incoherent stream of sounds tumbling from his broken mouth. He couldn't do it. Not again. They'd already taken everything. He had nothing left.
The door opened, but instead of the small, colorless room it was filled with light. Thirteen flinched away, it hurt his eyes. Sunlight. He was outside.
He did not know how far or for how long it was before they suddenly stopped, thrusting him to his knees in the dirt. Thirteen crumpled forward with a weak cry, the impact sending waves of pain and nausea through him. A hand on his collar pulled him back. And suddenly he understood.
A weak, gasping laugh escaped Thirteen, and then shattered into a sob of relief as he shut his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. He knew what came next. He'd been on the opposite end of it often enough. He tilted his head back. The sun felt warm on his face.
He felt the hard ring of the blaster muzzle press against the back of his head. Then, soft as a whisper, the click of the safety flicking off, and Thirteen felt himself smile.
He wasn't afraid anymore.