Sudden chapter 15
'The White Room'
Agent Serena Ryan looked down at the redheaded boy in front of her and felt like shit; she hadn't hurt him at all, she didn't want to; he was just a kid. How could there be any explanation to what her superiors were doing? What they were doing was nothing short of child abuse!
The thought sickened her, she'd never in her life had a soft spot kids, she didn't understand them and she disliked their undeveloped sense of reasoning.
But this was- this was disgusting; she knew that this direction of thought was entirely Grey's fault, he knew, from eight years of a close friendship, perfectly well that she was easily led and easily persuaded; it hadn't taken more than several minutes before she knew that she couldn't let her superiors harm the child and his mother.
But before she was able to devise some sort of plan she had been called in to monitor Christopher Rosenberg, and to carry on with the extraction of information; which of course meant only one thing; torture. Damn.
She brushed a few strands of black hair behind her right ear before looking up at the window where she knew the scientists were, they were probably looking at them. She couldn't do anything about helping Chris, not now. There were too many people watching, too much of a risk.
Her eyes flitted up to his face as she heard him stir quietly; he grimaced slightly before opening his bright-blue eyes, "Mommy?"
Serena let out a breath, she had to do this, "You're mom isn't here." She hated how cold her voice sounded as her Military façade rose up along with the emotionless expression on her face. "My superiors need answers and you're going to give them to me, got it?."
Chris shook his head, "I WON'T," his own 'resolve-face' was plastered across his face, firmly. Why did they keep asking him that? He'd said 'no' hadn't he? Still, this lady wasn't as scary as Dr. Meanie which was good.
He recoiled slightly as she leaned in so close that he could feel her hot breath on his cheek, she whispered to him softly and didn't sound so mean anymore, "Just play along, I'll get you outta here but you have to play along- just lie, okay?"
Serena squeezed his arm tightly to give the onlookers the impression that she'd been threatening him, hopefully this kid was a good actor and wouldn't give anything away. She squashed back the jab of remorse as he whimpered in pain; she released the bruising grip on his arm and moved away from him.
"Agent?" someone asked through the PA.
Serena looked up to the mirror, she couldn't see anything except the reflection of her, Chris and the room; she knew that the scientists were behind the mirror looking in like a kid peering in at their pet goldfish through the goldfish-bowl. She gave them a fake smirk, "I'll crack him, he'll be singing in no time." Little child-abusing bastards.
She leaned over until her nose was barely a centimeter away from the boy's, she then whispered without moving her lips too much, "I'm gonna pull the needle out, it'll hurt but it'll make you feel better afterwards."
Her fingers moved discreetly to Chris's wrist, she could feel him tense and hear him suck in a breath as he got ready to have pain inflicted on him, she tugged at the tape fixing the drip again his wrist and then tightened her fingers around the needle and swiftly pulled it out as if ripping a Band-Aid from a three-year-old's scrapped knee.
Guilt gnawed a her insides as Chris wailed in pain, she looked at him and immediately wished she hadn't, his reddened face was etched in a mask of pain and his hurt-blue eyes were starting to brim with hot tears.
Pushing the remorse aside she said coldly, with a slight break in her voice, "Tell me." He sobbed and she leaned close to his ear again, "Just lie; you'll be outta here in no time." But he kept sobbing.
She drew away and said, "Look, Kid, you'd better tell me now or-
Chris's crying drowned out the soldier's fake threats and echoed around the confines of the room; Serena resisted the urge to cover her ears as the noise assaulted them. Grey would be handling this thing a lot better than she was if only her superiors had chosen HIM for the job. Damn it.
She sighed, she'd wanted the boy to lie about himself until the sedative wore off, unfortunately it looked like that wasn't going to happen. She only hoped that the scientists didn't give up and decide to fully sedate him again, because if they did she didn't know how to explain how the drip had been taken out of Chris's wrist.
NID Base 'White Room no. 02'
Willow made a futile attempt at ducking the next blow and for the forth time she failed at evading the man's fist, blood streamed from her nostrils and over her split upper lip. She was aching everywhere from her scalp where he'd yanked at her head to her second toe next to the biggest one on her right foot where he'd pulled the toenail away from her toe with a pair of pliers; THAT still hurt like a little bitch. Her vision swam in front of her, her face felt hot and bruised, she tried to focus her attention away from the pain but it seemed impossible.
The numerous cuts on her arms felt hot and painful, blood was spreading from the thin wounds and dribbling down her arms onto the 'bed' beneath her; the now-bloodstained scalpel was lying on a table tray by the 'bed'.
Doctor Bryce grabbed her throat and squeezed hard, choking her, "You know, you are really starting to piss me off- you and that freak you got for a son."
Willow tried to suck in oxygen but the man was crushing her windpipe, she gasped again and then black spots danced around in front of her eyes; the spots started getting bigger and bigger as a feeling of falling from a great height overtook her; she was falling…falling…falling into darkness.
Everything went black and silent.
General Hammond held the red phone receiver to his ear, his grasp was tight with anxiety as he spoke to the President, "No, Mr. President. It's only a guess, but there's a possibility that the SGC should expect a visit from the group."
He looked down, "Yes, I'll try to find a way to communicate with them before they inflict any long-lasting damage on us and the potential alliance of our two groups."
He put the receiver down and sighed; he looked up and saw that Jack and Daniel were looking at him, "There's not much else we can do now, I'd better tighten the base's security to DEFCON 3, just incase." Or maybe DEFCON 1 would be more appropriate.
Jack nodded looking tense, "Good idea, General." He wondered what would happen if Willow's friends did find their way into the SGC; they'd raise hell of course. By what he'd read of the reports the gang were as close as SG1 and if their roles were reversed he and SG1 would be doing the same thing. Still, that didn't mean that they wouldn't defend themselves if they did attack them.
Jack and Daniel walked into the crowded commissary and made their way over to the two remaining members of SG1, Sam looked up from her blue JellO and gave her bespectacled best friend a sympathetic smile.
Both the men dropped into their seats, the civilian of the two looked at Sam, "Where've you two been?" neither Jack nor Daniel had seen them since they had first started talking about the possibility of the group of demon-fighters coming after the SGC.
"I've been trying to call up a search on the location of the NID base," explained Sam twirling her spoon with her fingers. "I got nothing."
Daniel sighed and scrubbed his hands over his eyes tiredly, "Great, just great; even YOU can't find anything, what chance does anyone else have?"
Teal'c blinked, "We will find them DanielJackson, it will take time and patience." He could see that the archaeologist was coming to the end of his tether, he hoped that Willow Rosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg would be found soon.
Daniel stopped scrubbing his eyes and looked at the Jaffa between his fingers, "Time and patience are exactly what they DON'T have, Teal'c. The longer the NID have…I don't even know what they're doing to them or even if they're still alive."
Teal'c nodded once, slowly, "I concur that they do not have much time, though I am still inclined to believe what I know; finding WillowRosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg will take the time that they might not have. We will not find them simply by wishing it so."
"Do we even know WHEN Willow's friends are going to be in Colorado Springs?" asked Sam nervously. "Maybe we could head them off before they get to the SGC, ya'know to get them to see that we're on their side." If their luck was that good.
"Hammond's trying to find a way to communicate with them," said Jack fiddling with a spoon. He looked at Daniel, the man was looking very subdued and was unconsciously flexing his hands into fists and then unclenching them again, "Daniel-
"I don't know what to do, Jack," admitted the archaeologist warily. "I mean, first we have to find them, then convince them not to kill us and, hopefully if that works, go and find Chris and Willow." That pretty much summed up what they needed to do, but what if trying to convince Willow's friends didn't work? What would happen then?
Plane
The Scoobies wrestled their hand luggage from the compartments above the plane seats, people were waiting in the gangway to get out of the plane so they had to be careful not to accidentally drop a bag or two onto the said peoples' heads.
Buffy handed her little sister two bags from her position, standing on the seats, and almost didn't notice the anxious look on the younger girl's face, "Dawn?"
Seeing as those last two bags were actually the last of their belongings the Slayer jumped down from the seat, making another passenger in very close proximity jump in surprise, and looked at her sister, "How you holding up?"
Dawn chewed on her bottom lip, "W-what if Chris and…what if we don't ever get them back?"
The blonde gave her a one-armed hug, "We WILL get them back, I promise." Because the very idea of Willow and Chris getting killed was, despite all the loved ones they'd lost and all the experience they had of people dying, unimaginable. Still, she knew it was very possible.
The crowd of passengers had now filtered out through the door, Xander called to them, "Guys, we got two of our people to find, c'mon." He followed Anya out the door and onto the metal steps that led them to the ground far beneath them.
"Let's go," muttered Buffy and Dawn followed her as they made their way to the exit. They walked down the steps quickly and met the others on the ground, without talking they waited for the coach to come so that they could be taken to the Colorado Springs Terminal.
In a few minutes the coach came and the gang swiftly boarded the vehicle along with about a dozen other people, the coach was packed but the gang all got seats.
The combination of the slight jostling of the coach and only one hour's sleep made Dawn's eyes unable to stay open and about two minutes into the ride she was asleep with her head resting on Anya's shoulder.
General Hammond marched into the commissary after more than two hours since his talk with Daniel and Jack; he spotted SG1 and made his way over to them.
Sam looked up as he came to their table, "General, sir." She saw Daniel practically jump out of his seat trying to look at the expression on the man's face to see if there was good news or bad.
"General?" asked the archaeologist hopefully. Maybe he'd contacted the gang and convinced them that they were in the same boat.
Jack pulled up a chair for the General who accepted it, sat down, and then looked at Daniel
"I've just gotten a call," started Hammond wearily, he had their 100 percent attention. "The gang's plane has landed at Colorado Springs airport terminal, I want SG1 to meet them at the terminal and get them to stand down."
"Yes sir," said Jack and Sam simultaneously. SG1 and the General stood up and made their way out of the commissary unaware of the dozens of personnel watching them curiously.
"Sooo, looks like we're going into the lion's den," said Jack as he acted on his undying habit of attempting to put a little dry humor into a serious situation.
Daniel, the General, and Teal'c ignored his joke as they usually did at these times, but he saw his Major's lips twitch up into a brief smile, "Score," he muttered, he always liked to make her smile with his lame jokes.
The General resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the two soldiers.