A/N: Well, I'm impressed - an overwhelming number of you guessed right. Cookies for all of you. And today I am going to catch up on my review replies... Because I have free time!
See challenge at the bottom! Thanks to Jayden95 for the beta!
## break ##
Alex was roughly tossed into the same room where Snake was. Snake was holding his t-shirt to his lip. It was a white t-shirt and already the arm had been stained a bloody red. "What's happening?" Alex demanded. Obviously, this wasn't a targeted attack against him, it seemed as though his whole team was involved – but what was happening?
"Are you okay?" Snake asked, standing. He ignored the fact that his shirt was blood-red and that it looked like his lip had only just begun to dry.
"Just answer me, dammit," Alex responded, feeling the all-too-familiar frustration run through him. "What's going on?"
"RTI," Snake responded as he glanced at Alex's face. "Yeah, you'll have a black eye in the morning, that's for sure."
"RTI?" Alex asked with a puzzled frown.
"You mean you didn't get a training schedule or anything?" Snake asked, his mouth open in shock. They'd all been warned about RTI training. Obviously, they'd forgotten to warn the kid.
"No," Alex responded with a brisk shrug. "They just stuck me with you guys."
"This is RTI – resistance to interrogation," Snake responded. "They test you to see whether or not you can stand up to torture in a real-life situation."
"Why am I here?" Alex asked, a chill suddenly going through him. "I'm not even really part of your unit – Wolf's made that quite clear – and I'm just a kid!"
"I don't know," Snake replied with a shake of his head. "It's only supposed to last a day and a half, though," he said, "unless we find a way out sooner."
"Damn," Alex muttered with a shake of his head. A day and a half for the K-Unit to find out about his scars, that was so not good. "So how do we get out of here?"
"I've already checked," Snake said. "There's no way to escape, so unless we can overpower the guards…"
"Eagle and Fox are both a black belt in karate," Alex volunteered, not mentioning himself. His shoulder throbbed. He winced and touched his arm gingerly; it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.
"How is your arm?" Snake demanded as he glanced at Alex. He hadn't missed the sensitive motion. "Are you on painkiller for that?"
Alex nodded as he winced again. He considered himself to be pretty tough, but his captors – he still preferred to think of them like that - hadn't exactly been gentle on his arm. "Yeah," he said with a tired sigh.
"And let me guess – you didn't take it last night, and you can't take it now," Snake said as he ran a hand through his hair. He slipped into his pocket and held out two ibuprofen. "Here, take these. I usually carry them with me on combat day, but didn't need them today."
"Thanks," Alex said, grateful. He swallowed the pills with a grimace as Wolf was tossed in.
"Little boy, little boy," Shorty mocked. He made his way over to where Alex was standing. Alex didn't flinch; he knew from karate that showing your fear to opponents was dangerous. "What's your name, little boy?"
"Fuck you."
From the floor, Wolf chortled. So perhaps they wouldn't be binned because of the brat.
Shorty grabbed Alex's already-sore arm and twisted, hard. "Your name, or he gets shot," he said, pointing his gun at Wolf.
"Didn't you clean out your ears?" Alex said, attempting not to show fear, although he guessed that his heart was beating at a hundred miles a minute. "Fuck – you," he said, saying it clearly so that everyone would understand.
Shorty shrugged and twisted Alex's arm one more time. It was then when he passed out.
## break ##
"He's coming too now, Snake," he heard Fox's voice say. "Cub, wake up, mate."
"Wha?" Alex said as he blinked his eyes open. "What's going on?"
"Sorry, mate," Snake said with a grim face, "we're still in RTI. How's your arm? You passed out about four hours ago."
"Should've thought of that," Alex muttered with a grimace, "Ibuprofen knocks me out. Sorry," he said, not wanting to have unnecessarily worried Snake.
Snake breathed a visible sigh of relief. "Good."
Then, suddenly, the door opened. Their tormenters were back.
## break ##
They managed to pass through RTI without much further incident. Snake had calmly and coldly made the move to protect Alex to make sure he wasn't further hurt. As soon as they were finished, they made their way back to the hut. They'd barely managed to escape.
"We're going to the infirmly as soon as you change," Snake informed Alex as he dug through his suitcase. They'd managed to come out of RTI fairly fine with only a few bumps and bruises. Still, Shorty hadn't been kind to Alex's arm, and Snake wanted it checked out.
Alex froze. "I thought you were the medic of the team," he responded, "can't you just look at me?"
Snake shook his head. "You really need to get that arm checked out, and I can't x-ray you. Sorry, mate. Wolf, a word?" he asked, and the two stepped outside.
"What's up?" Wolf asked. He knew somehow that Snake wasn't just dragging Cub down to the infirmly to get his arm checked out.
"I'm going to take Cub to the infirmly to get his arm checked out. Can you cover for me if we're not back by dinner, and make sure Eagle doesn't eat everything?"
Wolf grinned. "Sure," he responded. The only nice thing about RTI training is that they had the rest of the day off. Which was good, Wolf was exhausted. "How did he handle it?"
"Didn't give anything away," Snake responded. He'd been surprised at that. Shorty had not exactly been merciful. "I want to check him over, too. He seems like he's hiding an injury and I'd like to know why."
"Yeah," Wolf muttered, "Don't want him bleeding on our watch; I imagine the sergeant would be pissed about that."
Snake rolled his eyes and the two made their way back into the hut.
"Come on, Cub," Fox said as he held out one of Cub's shirts to him, "You've got to get changed. You're soaking wet."
"I'm fine!" Alex responded as he slowly made the move to lift off his shirt, then thought better of it as he made his way to the bathroom.
"Wait," Snake said, blocking his way. "Alex, take off your shirt. I want to see something."
"I don't swing that way, you jackass pedophile," Alex said. He was now nervous. Alex was going to move past Snake, but Snake blocked him.
"Look, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't injured too badly in that training," Snake responded. He knew he had the attention of everyone in his unit. "Look," he said, tiredly, "It's either this, or we go to let Dr. Diablo check you out, and she's worse than I am."
"Fine," Alex responded. So what if they knew he had scars? It wasn't like they were going to do anything about it, he told himself.
With that, Alex slowly lifted his shirt up, revealing the dark, ugly marks. "Happy now?" he asked, his heart beating rapidly.
They were about to discover his – and perhaps the nations' – darkest secret.
## break ##
So - what's "the nation's" and "Alex's" greatest secret? They've discovered the scars - where are they from?