Eight: Obsession
The room was small, at least it appeared to be such when the bag was ripped off of his head and he shook himself to clear his brain, blinking at the surroundings. Three walls on all sides, and he was able to look enough on either side to see a steel door behind him.
Not like Beacons but close...at least no blood and body parts.
Of his captors, other then the door closing behind him there was no one, and with his hands cuffed behind him and himself strapped on the chest and legs to a metal chair, which of course had to be bolted to the floor, that left Marius with little other to do then worry and look around, trying to get his bearings. They hadn't driven far, meaning he was still in Cardiff. If he was lucky, someone noticed the kidnapping on CCTV and would report it, and after that Torchwood might investigate if they found that the person being drug in had no identity as a Human...
The sound of a bolt sliding along the door made Marius turn, craning his head to look back at a tall man walked in. He was reedy thin and muscular, his clothing falling loose on him but not mistaking the muscle that he was made of. A handsome, almost angelic face looked at him, pitch black eyes the only signal of something otherworldly about this man right up until Marius pinned it. He knew who this was...
"You," he found himself whispering, awed and trying to keep the fear out of his voice as the man came to a halt in front of him, looking him over with a serious eye, as if appraising a choice cut of meat. "But you're dead!"
"I might as well be, mightn't I? After all, the item they put on me," he held up a small piece of black plastic, much like the one now wrapped around Marius' arm, "malfunctioned. Badly enough to give me two, one for myself and one for my captor. Killing him was no issue, the poor young one so sure and then so scared...it was quite enjoyable."
Marius felt himself shiver at the word and forced himself to calm down. Even if he was being held by four people who wore Torchwood One outfits and by...by this Sidra, if that could be termed to the madman, he still had a chance of escaping.
"You, of course, are Marius...of the Seidra family. I can tell. You all have that same look, especially when you have a Hub or two. I knew a relative of yours." He smiled sweetly. "How much pain was he in when he died?"
Marius pushed back his anger, but not enough to not keep it from coming through in his voice. "Enough that it was more then enough evidence against you...everything else was just circumstantial, wasn't it? All your accomplishments, boiled down to just one Sidra figuring you out and blowing the whistle. Enough that the races you raped and hurt could be fixed, and the others? They're all extinct. As dead as the stars that once held them."
The tall man turned to look at him from the side, like a bird might look at it's prey, then moved closer. "Is that so, boy? Tell me, then, about those that attacked Canary Wharf, the ones from another universe. They were so much like those beautiful ones I helped created from the weakened race, but instead they were messy. They only took a brain, not the whole body...uniform but corrupted. If my work is so extinct, then why were they on Earth, why did they nearly succeed until the children of Skaro appeared?"
Marius felt himself moved backwards, not wanting to touch this man, as he said simply, "That was the work of another, who was told it would be controlled and they would be killed. Neither promise was upheld, at least not until now. As for the Daleks...they're xenophobic survivors, cowards of a lost war."
The man nodded. "I know...the Time War. The Last Time War, which destroyed stars and brought about new beings, which killed of the two greatest, who make my accomplishments worth it wall...the Daleks, the great killers, and the Time Lords, who prove to be killers themselves, even the meekest of them all."
Marius stayed silent as the former Sidra moved away from him. "The item won't come off, not until it functions again and realizes you're not me. It could take days, even years. In the meantime, I who got the blunt of it must be trapped in this form." He snorted in disgust. "How I hate it."
"Why lead us to believe you were dead?" Marius demanded, "Why attach yourself to those four from Torchwood?"
He looked at Marius once more and gave a smile that sent a chill through Marius. "Oh, they are the survivors and the insane, of course. There were 27 survivors of Canary Wharf, of which one lives here. Those four disappeared from Torchwood's radar, and the rest were reconditioned into thinking it was others there. They gladly gave up their memories of Torchwood and that nightmare for simple lives. No need to worry about them, is there? It was when I saw that FACT...that man of the future that I knew a Caretaker would appear." His smile grew, nearly cutting his face in half. "And here you are, lovely boy. The perfect image of the last one I had...the same defiant eyes. I would have loved to keep his eyes."
"What do you want?"
The smile vanished quickly and the head was tilted another way before he leaned forward again. "To break you utterly," he whispered to Marius, "to see you fall apart as those you care about die before you. I want to know what you know, like who created the new Cybermen that were destroyed, and then, of course, I want to take your power as a Sidra and use it, giving you a dying, human body to cling to in death as you fail in your duty. This, you see, is an oubliette. From here there is one door and, for you, no escape, no help. All those who enter here that do not know it's secrets will perish with you. Now call your friends to help you. I know you have one Hub up. I can feel it. Your worry over them and over how they will be, how much you want them to help but how scared you are for them. Call them, lovely boy, or I will be very displeased."
Marius was shaking, trying to keep it in but unable to, and he finally turned to look at the former Sidra, the one abomination of his race. "You can try, Ulamo, but I will not break easily."
Ulamo, the fallen Sidra, gave the grin that once again split his face in two, like a demented clown. "You are too much like him. I shall enjoy this...you don't know how much I will enjoy this."
--
Ulamo turned after he had closed the door behind the young one and frowned upon seeing Vince there. Vince had been in Torchwood when several charges of rape had come up and been dropped due to the people suddenly not remembering. Torchwood itself had punished him, or had been in the process when they found the hole to the Void and began to not care what happened to him after that. Much like his other three, all of whom had been in some form of torture or information gathering that had turned, in Torchwood's mind, sour.
Still, they wanted the old ways back, and he had promised to help them. Marius was only the first step, especially since it had been a Torchwood member who had found the item in the first place.
"Well?"
"I'm giving him a minute before I begin. I hope you don't mind."
Vince snorted. "He's an alien, and works with those traitors in the Hub. I want him to have started crawling by now."
Ulamo shook his head. "I wonder about you. Crass, very crude as well. The art of torture is a fine one, like wine it must be refined and aged to the point of perfection. The cheap imitations are only for those who want a quick drink or thrill, nothing more. On top of that, Vince, I also need to get my own supplies ready."
Vince cast a look at the door. "And for now?"
Ulamo looked the human over and gave a smile that seemed to split his face in half. "I said a minute...after that, I expect it will take another five for me to return. Just ensure he is conscious and nothing is too broken. A split lip I can understand, but not a broken arm. I will be very put out if I find one."
Vince gave a bark of a laugh. "We can keep it gentle for being rough. I'm sure he'll be fine."
Ulamo finally nodded. "Good. Hopefully soon I shall have what I need to make him break. I intend for him to cry out, to weep, to beg, and finally to do this out loud before he breaks completely for him, breaks in such a way there is no returning to his real self. When all of that is done and I've turned him into fine dust, then I shall discard him back into the Sidra fold. They'll know then that I'm still alive and well, and even if they send other after me...I will simply break them as well. The Human race is so full of possibilities, so many aliens find your world on accident or on purpose it's lovely. And with the power of Torchwood behind us, there is no escape for the rest of the universe."
--
They had left on the cuffs, and taken out the chair, but for how long they passed Marius between the four of them, shaking and roughing him up...he didn't know or care to. He took it all with a casual indifference that seemed to make them mad right before Ulamo walked in, a small case in his hands.
"Now please, what are you doing? I would want him to be nearly healthy before the beginning of what I plan to do," Ulamo smiled at Marius, "Wouldn't you want that too, boy?"
Marius glared at him, not answering as the case was set down and Ulamo motioned, causing the thug holding onto him at this point to turn him roughly before unlocking one of the cuffs. "Now--."
Marius struck, throwing his head back to slam into the man's face and force him to release him as he raced forward to the door, dodging and hitting the two that came after him before he started to grab at the door panel, ready for another attack or a trap--
Marius felt himself tossed, slamming into the side of the room harshly enough to make him see stars as he found himself focusing on Ulamo, who stood where he had been with his hand out at him, a glare on his face.
"That," he said in a voice that caused Marius to nearly cower in fear, "was stupid, boy. Very stupid, in fact. I'm going to have to punish you for that, and I was going to wait for a little while to punish you severely for anything, but when you act this way..." Taking two quick strides, Marius found himself now trapped by Ulamo, the evil Sidra's hands grabbing his wrists as he felt the Sidra push a memory into his body.
The bodies of countless lay before him, brutally slaughtered by the ones he had spoken to, many missing parts of their heads or scalps. Blood soaked into a ground that had once been used as crops between the two people, and now would be a mass burial ground.
"Beautiful" he said to the tired people he had turned into killers, "this is beautiful. I'm pleased."
The group smiled, as a child would to a parent that just gave them praise.
He finally frowned. "But there's not enough...not enough blood. Find more."
A confused look swept through the crowd. One started to speak up, to say that the only blood left was their own, when one of them, understanding his meaning so quickly, sliced off that one's head.
He smiled as the last of the living killed each other, bathing him and the ground--
Marius violently pulled himself away from the memory, his body shaking from the effort and well aware he had let out a yell. Ulamo looked pleased as he stood, moving away from Marius. "You understand now, boy? Do you know what I can do now? Why not surrender now? Why not simply give up?"
Marius stayed silent.
"Tell me the names of your Hubs. Give me the ones I shall hold onto as long as you follow me, help me."
"No."
Ulamo tilted his head. "You were unimpressed with what I showed you? There are more, far prettier then that one."
Marius took a deep breath and shook his head. "I won't tell you who they are."
Ulamo looked at him, then smiled. "A pity. I was hoping this would be easy...but I'm far more pleased that it's going to be a challenge." He reached into his case and pulled out a small hook that he gave to one of the thugs. "I think we'll start with George. He's good at acupuncture, though not the way most Humans know it. Feel free to scream my name when you want it to stop."
--
Marius choked on a yelp as another needle slid into his skin, causing him to both loose feeling at that area and then to cause another area to flare with pain that seemed constant.
"Who are they, boy?"
Marius didn't answer, not trusting himself to speak and not wanting to say anything. He couldn't give them away. He could live through this.
Another needle went in and his whole body stiffened, muscles taunt and aching all over from the usage of the needles. He could feel all of them in him and had to forcibly hold back the urge to scream.
"Who are they?"
He wouldn't say.
"Tell me."
No.
"A name," another needle went in, causing him to gasp out as his body shook now, "and this will end."
With effort, Marius shook his head, staring at the ceiling as he did so and concentrating on his hands and the featureless wall above him.
"You will tell me, in the end. It will benefit you if you tell me now."
Marius stayed silent, vowed to stay silent, and closed his eyes against the pain as two more needles went in.
--
The light blinked in and out of life as Marius lie curled up on the floor, shivering from the cold. At least three spots bled from where George had pulled out the pins incorrectly or had not cared, causing a small trail to head down his exposed back. Sometime during the torture, they had ripped his shirt into tatters then taken it off, leaving his chest exposed to the new environment. His shoes had also been removed at one point, and his hands returned to being behind his back, though this time they were tied with rope through a hook in the floor, and tied tightly enough to start cutting off circulation at his wrists.
At one point in the torment, he had been brought down and put into a position where his arms were raised up while behind his back, and at least one hurt enough to either be dislocated or close to it. The cold and blinking light didn't help to let him get some much-needed rest, but he had to guess that was part of the plan to ensure he would break.
I won't. I won't betray them. I won't let him break me.
Marius closed his eyes against the noise of the light and it's flickering, internally going to find the doors that belonged to his connections and shutting them as much as he could, finding out that there was more to the reconnected lines then he thought.
He easily shut out Toshiko's, Gwen's and Owen's, but Jack and Ianto's, especially Ianto's, where more like the door that Gwen had once had. He pushed them as far as he could, blocking them and that part of his mind when he felt something pull him up roughly, causing him to open his eyes and see Ulamo holding him up, glaring at him.
"What did you do?"
Marius didn't speak as Ulamo slapped him. "What did you do, boy?"
Despite trying to hold off the touch-telepathic part of himself, he could feel the anger and annoyance from the other Sidra and used it as a sign that he didn't know about that. Had his ancestor not closed any of his Hubs?
"Open them up again."
Marius glared at Ulamo, his body still shaking from the cold but himself ready to fight. "No."
Another harsh slap. "Open them! Tell me their names, boy!"
"No."
Ulamo growled, both hands holding onto Marius' upper shoulder before he shoved another memory into his head.
"This will make me...better?"
He nodded to the man, a Mondasian he had contacted about a possible way to continue to live as their planet drifted through space and their lives became in greater peril.
"You need to add these parts onto you. It will, of course, hurt, but it will help you. After all, if you have some mechanical parts on you, then you'll live as long as they do."
He smiled at Ulamo as the table held him down. "And you will watch over me?"
Ulamo nodded. "Of course. But, there is another thing. Others have been doing this, but I think you should upgrade your whole body. Create something new...something that will last forever."
The man nodded. "Yes. Yes, please."
Ulamo turned on the machine, stepping up to touch the man's hand before saying, "I'll leave these so they can identify you, and just remember, now matter how much pain there is, this is for the betterment of your race."
Another nod as Ulamo started up the machine, slowing down time as the man blinked, a look of horror playing across his face as the the cutting begin, slowly moving into him and causing him to scream as it did, taking it's time to move through is body as his life-blood poured out. Out of the way of the machines, Ulamo held his hand, taking in the feelings of being cut into, of the pain and torment and wonder at why he hadn't been told it would be like this...
"All for a greater good," Ulamo told him as the first piece of metal was place, hot and burning down the skin of the man's arm while more were placed in and he began to struggle, begging for it be stopped, "Your race must survive, right? In order to do that, you must become something that is not humanoid. You must become something metal and very pretty. You must realize this now, mustn't you? After all, this pain you feel is your imperfections being taken away. This pain and hurt and insanity that is creeping up on you is simply a by-product of what you are becoming. And after all...shouldn't everyone be this way?"
Ulamo held his hand, watching, smiling, repeating his words of the betterment of the Mondasian race as the man screamed while all the metal that could be scrounged was put onto him, not covering all of his body but most of it, perhaps 60 of it before the process stopped and the man whimpered, still in pain.
"I'm sorry it couldn't be completed," Ulamo said.
"It's all right," the voice was more machine then human, even as tears fell from the man's eyes, "you were right, though. We must convert others, we must do this in order to keep ourselves alive. I am better now—no...no, you lied! You lied, you bastard! I can't be like this! I can't...change me back. Complete me, you said you would! Make me complete! I'm...disgusting. Please!" the last part was almost a melody, the sound of both the old natural voice and the cyber voice now within him.
Ulamo let go of the man's hand. "No. I don't think I will. I think I will leave you here, and see how your race reacts to your appearance. I shall possibly stay for that, but beyond it is up to them. I only give you a way."
Ulamo moved away as the door opened, waiting as the group looked from him to the screaming man on the table, yelling for Ulamo to come back and complete him, to fix him, to make him right in that melodious voice of his, stuck between the caring humanoid and the emotionless cyber being that had come into existence...
"Stop it!"
Ulamo smiled at Marius as he was released, collapsing to the floor and curling up into a ball, his face wet with tears and his body shaking hard, his breaths coming out irregularly.
"You don't like them, do you? The Cybermen...but the ones that came from the other world were not as pretty as mine were, wouldn't you say?"
Marius was shaking too hard, his mind trying to recover from the images and feelings of being torn into, of feeling that again, only—only this was more. This wasn't just like Lisa's insanity, or the partly-remembered memory from Lilith. It was more intense, and it made him feel like he had been there experiencing both the sick pleasure Ulamo got from doing it and watching as well as the pain and growing insanity that the nameless man had gone through while it happened.
Ulamo knelt down, looking over Marius before adding in, "Who are they?"
Marius shook his head, his brain slowly working out who he meant.
"If you don't tell me, I'll only find them. It will only be worse for them, and you, if you don't tell me."
"No," Marius whispered, "no."
"No?"
"No. I—I w-won't t-tell."
Ulamo reached over and stroked the side of Marius face, causing him to flinch away. "Look at you, so hurt and scared now. Do you really not want to tell me? I have so many other memories, so many worse things that I can give you. I could even show you what one of the men saw about that Field Agent who worked for Saxon...the girl was beautiful when she was like that, so beautiful and deadly. With more work she could have been refined, could have been honed...but she left. Do you know who she was, boy? Do you know her name, that I might find her?"
Marius shook his head quickly, his brain slowly coming out of the stupor that Ulamo had put it in.
"No name for her either? A pity. Then I shall have to find it myself. In the meantime, I'll try to decide who to send in next. All of them are so eager to have a go with you."
Ulamo stood, walking out and then saying, "You will give them to me by the end of the week, Marius. And if not, then you will help to get them here. From there, I can find your Hubs, and maybe even that lady. From there...I can do whatever else I want with you. Because you, unlike your relative, will not die. I shall make sure of that. Everyone else...perhaps. But you won't. You will live on and on and on, within the pain of their last moments and all the pain of your own, because you can do nothing to stop me, and neither can they."
--
The water had ice in it, only adding to the cold that seemed to start to penetrate all of Marius' being as he was submerged into it, thrashing when the new man of the hour, Clive, held him under the water, getting him close to near-drowning the longer it went on before dumping the large, steel tub, as well as Marius, out onto the floor and covering the concrete with the ice and water.
Marius gasped up the air as Ulamo, from his seat on the chair that had been returned to the room, clicked his tongue. "This is all for naught, Marius. You will give me those names. Why not make it easy? Why not simply say them, earn yourself a few nice things. Food," the list was punctuated with kicks from Clive to various parts of his body, and despite the fact that his need was basic at this point, Marius found that Ulamo had made it a very long list.
"Things like that," he ended after Marius had received a kick in the back, ending the harsh treatment and leaving more bruises on his body, he was sure. "So...how many are there?"
Marius coughed a little more, pushing himself up until he was sitting on his lower legs, which ached from the cold and another kick earlier before, as well as from the torture with the needles. "I..." he breathed in to get his teeth to stop chattering, "won't tell you."
Ulamo tilted his head at Marius again, the black eyes showing how this was getting tiring for the older Sidra. "You shouldn't be so resilient, boy. Even Field Agents couldn't handle some of the torture. What are they to you, anyway? I doubt they know you exist, or what you look like. I even doubt that they would want to come here to save you."
Marius breathed in the cold air of the room. "I don't care."
He watched as Ulamo's eyes flickered with annoyance and looked over at Clive, who was somewhere behind Marius.
"You don't, huh? Then I won't speak to you until you do care. I believe they are being too gentle with you." Ulamo stood from his seat and walked to the door before saying to Clive. "You have an hour. Make him care."
--
Ulamo turned on the camera and watched Clive work, smiling at the resilience of the younger Sidra as he did. That relative of his...he had been like him, though by now he had told Ulamo that there was more then one connection. By the time of his escape, as lead by the last remaining Hub and the resistance they had started, the man had told him a good deal, but not enough to reveal who his final Hub was or where they were until Ulamo had caught and executed her himself.
A long cattle prod was brought out and Ulamo smiled. Clive knew what he was doing, but at the same time he was only taking up time that could be used later on. This was day two of seven, and after a moment Ulamo decided to give the young Sidra some time to recover, if only a little, before sending in Vince...though he didn't want to. The way that Vince looked at other Sidra...
Ulamo snorted. It didn't matter. That boy would be his by the time everything was done and he had that power, and afterwards...well, it didn't matter, did it? He could keep the boy and allow him to see all that would be done with the Earth before he released it from his grasp and went on to some other world.
"So many worlds," Ulamo said as he saw the boy yell and jump, the water carrying more of the current then he could resist easily, "so many people...all for me to see, and a Rift to help me travel them. So wonderful, this planet. So very lovely."