Twelve: Rescue Me from Myself
Ulamo walked up, removing the headset that Andrew had created and placed on the younger Sidra, watching as the boy blinked at the light and closed his eyes, head tossing from side to side as if to rid himself of this reality.
"Still with us to a point, I see," Ulamo muttered, "You're resilience is quite nice."
The boy whimpered as Ulamo traced a hand down the side of his face to his neck. "Are you ready to talk yet?"
Still breathing hard and keeping his eyes shut, the boy remained silent, his whole body shaking and sweating as it had been the whole day. Ulamo wondered if the boy was sick, and dismissed the idea of healing him. Healing would only allow him to resist all the longer.
Ulamo picked up the strap from the other side of the table, tightening it across the boy's chest as he began to strive for breath, the strap pulling against his chest. "Are you so sure?"
No sound, only his heavy breathing as he coughed and struggled briefly against the strap then only against his own restraints. Ulamo gave a smile as he walked back over, picking up the larger item he had planned to use later on, but with time running low as it was. "They should be here soon, your friends. That girl, Lilith was her name? She might be here as well."
The boy's eyes opened and his head rolled to the side, blinking as if he couldn't focus on Ulamo or what he was doing.
"How embarrassed will you be if they walk in to find you like this?" the item was replaced by a stiletto knife that effectively cut through the remaining garments covering the boy. Ulamo put the knife back down before picking up the blunt object again. "If she is there, and you like her...do you think she'll take someone as destroyed as you are?" Ulamo easily forced the boy's knees and legs apart, meeting with some resistance as the boy once more whimpered, obviously unable to speak or not wishing to.
"You gave up one name already, boy." The object in place, Ulamo looked up at the boy. "Are the others really worth this?"
There was a pause before the boy gave a slow nod, leaning his head back and not even bothering to look at Ulamo.
With a growl, Ulamo shoved the item in and smiled as the boy let out a hoarse scream.
--
The SUV slowed to a halt as Jack and the others opened the doors and stepped out. The Doctor, Lilith, and Avery had joined Jack and Gwen in the rescue, leaving Ianto with Toshiko and Owen, Owen to watch over him and Toshiko to help monitor the area. With the knowledge of where Marius might be, Toshiko had done what she could to find video feed about the area, and while she had been able to come up with enough incriminating evidence against anyone in there, she had yet to find one showing anyone being taken into the warehouse itself.
"I wish you'd given me my gun," Lilith muttered as the group slowly approached the area, the Torchwood group with their own handguns ready.
"I read up about that rifle of yours," Jack said, "I wish she would too."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "If you guys are done comparing guns--."
"So says the man with a sonic screwdriver as his weapon."
"Yeah, because yours lasted so long."
Gwen and Lilith sighed and looked at the two men with a look only suffering women could pull off that basically said, "shut it".
Avery looked at the two and shook his head, looking over at the empty guard shack nearby. "Is it just me, or do guards normally turn off their teles if they're not in there?"
The group was silent as they slowly edged towards the guard shack, Jack looking in and saying, "One man down," he slowly moved to the door and, with it opened, checked the man's pulse. "Dead."
Avery frowned. "Well, this makes it almost too easy. I hope we're not walking into a trap now."
"Jinx us a little more while you're at it," Lilith muttered as Jack retrieved the keys and the group began to head into the place in search of Marius.
--
Ulamo pulled the object out, blood staining it as he walked back over to the front of the gurney. "Anything?"
Marius turned his head away from the voice, though not before Ulamo noticed the tear-stained face and paleness. "I didn't think as much. I rather enjoy our time together, boy. It's quite refreshing, being able to do this again." He dropped the blunt item, going back for the smaller knife. "Quite lovely, in fact. You have no idea how much I enjoy this."
A knock on the door stopped the descent of the knife as Andrew looked in. "Sir, they're here, and almost to the Nightmare Room. Do you want to--."
Ulamo nodded, straightening as he said, "Of course. How else can I greet our guests? What about the other two?"
Andrew smiled. "They're good for...bait."
Ulamo nodded as he casually walked by, slitting Andrew's throat before pushing him into the room and closing the door behind him. "They are, aren't they?"
--
"I don't like this," Gwen said as they reached the second body, unable to go anywhere due to the crates around and the empty rooms, "I feel like a bloody mouse in a maze."
"Probably what he wants," Lilith muttered as she looked around, "the bastard got a kick out of twisted things like this."
The Doctor looked around as well. "So I noticed. But why kill his men? Why not escape with them?"
"Burning his bridges," Jack muttered as they continued on, "he doesn't need them, no reason to keep the guys then, right?"
Avery stood and shook his head. "Well, whatever he gave them wasn't a pretty way to die, either. The bastard does enjoy making people suffer."
Lilith nodded. "He did. He was the first in a very long time to earn a Death sentence of the magnitude they gave him, and the only one that got it to where they took him elsewhere to kill him."
"Why elsewhere?" Gwen asked.
"To make sure he didn't get any burial rights," Avery answered, "The few of us that die, it's important to us that we have the burial rights. He would have just been killed and his body destroyed utterly...nothing to go on, no trace left but that. Even Lilith would have been afforded the kindness of a proper burial. But not him."
Avery looked up and sighed. "So now which way?"
--
Ulamo looked at the warm pool of blood in his hand, happily noting that the rest of the blood on the floor had flowed and covered up the disturbed part from earlier. He moved over to where the boy lay, his breathing erratic due to the constraint across his chest. The blood dribbled a small trail upward along his chest, until Ulamo petted the rest of the blood into the sweat-soaked hair.
"You need to scream for me, young one," he said, his other hand holding the microphone he had hooked up to the comm system for the building, "Show them the way here. Direct your pretty lady Sidra here with her friends. I grow tired of only one play-thing, and you are becoming dull."
The boy kept his eyes closed, his body trembling but otherwise not saying anything as Ulamo released his hair and walked downward to his feet, the stiletto sliding easily into his hand as he took hold of one of the feet and cut a small line down the sole. He smiled at the movement of the muscles and the continual resistance of the boy as he tried to fight against the restraints.
"Nothing?"
The boy remained silent, causing Ulamo's smile to fade as he cut a few more times before putting the knife down and picking up the sap nearby. While he knew the drug was still in the boy's system, it wasn't affecting him as it had before, and on top of that the boy's spirit was waning. If he didn't get new playthings soon, the abuse could either cause the boy to break or die.
Dying wasn't good. Ulamo wasn't done with this one, and he showed to be much more resilient then his relative had.
Ulamo dug his finger into the cuts, watching the bleeding intensify as the boy let out a low moan before trying to stifle it by biting his lip.
"How cute," Ulamo muttered sweetly before bringing the sap down hard, the crack of bone breaking drowned out by the hoarse scream the boy let loose, which he gladly turned on the microphone for. He cast a glance at the band around his upper arm and frowned upon seeing the mark for keeping him awake beginning to fade. He walked back over, listening to the boy moan from the new pain caused him from the broken foot, and pulled out the clear band as well as a small paintbrush, used by some of the Sidra Chronometrics to create the various types of bands used to hold in Sidra, or to be used by the Enforcers later on. He wrote quickly and effectively, picking the symbol to keep the boy awake and another to keep him screaming longer, slowly going through his old injuries and causing them to painfully reawaken.
He walked over, placing the band under the older one and saying simply, "Keep this up, little one. Let them come by your direction. I grow bored with only you...I need new blood to cover these floors."
The boy shook his head weakly from side to side, letting out another hoarse yell as he did.
"You have no choice, do you? They will come for you, and then I shall have more to play with."
--
Everything hurt, and he heard himself moan, occasionally a low scream, as much as he could with what breath he could, coming out as he fought against the pain from before and now.
Marius' mind couldn't fully function, the drug still sending signals of the walls breathing, of lights behind his eyes and something else keeping him awake longer then he should, the drug and something else keeping him from sleeping.
A small hope had flared in the idea that someone was going to rescue him, but at the same time he couldn't raise it over a spark. The Sidra woman...who could that be? Avery? Possibly. Yvenda? Maybe as well, being the Field Agent for Earth, but he didn't want to see her.
I want to see Lilith...
But that was impossible now. She had been given a Death Sentence, and therefore...therefore...
But I heard her voice.
Marius couldn't find anything in his brain that could tell him if it was the truth or illusion. Everything from that time was too fogged up to remember or tell if it was reality or not.
But I heard her voice.
He knew, though, that there was no way to save her. He had been able to save her twice before, but that time...the choice had been between helping her or doing his job. He couldn't do both, and it hurt, realizing he would have to sacrifice one for the other.
She turned herself in. The trial was closed, only three people in the room. No matter what you tried, she wouldn't have been saved.
But I heard her voice...somehow was she saved?
It couldn't have happened. Not with what the Archives had on her activities on Earth, not with the way he had seen her. She was self-sacrificing, and walked in willingly.
Then her voice was what? A call he wanted to hear? He did want to hear it, and to see her again. But now the only way to do that would be--
I won't give him the satisfaction of having me break.
Marius shuddered, only a moan coming out even as his mind decided it. He needed Lilith, and he couldn't stay in this world if she wasn't there.