A/N: Jeewhiz! Sorry it took me so long to upload this but it was a bitch to write. It's hard writing a character that you've never done before - especially Vidic. I have the strongest urge to make him sucha pervert but then I have to remind myself, No! This man is as straight as they come and that's just sick. You know you're a fangirl when... *sigh* Anyways, onto the chapter! Thanks to those who've been following this up!

Enjoy!


Chapter Six, A Crying Shame

Desmond tried his best to keep still and not to act out of order.

After hearing what they did to Shaun, he didn't exactly need a demonstration on himself. For a moment, he wondered if Shaun was alright. But then again, why would it matter? They'd both be dead in a matter of minutes, anyways. It was hard to keep an optimistic attitude as he was dragged through the hallways of the Templar stronghold. He had no idea where he was, he had no weapons, and had no way of knowing where to escape. He had lost track of time - as if it no longer existed. He couldn't keep track of the seconds trickling away from his life. It was as if every breath he took was an eternity, waiting to be silenced by the gun of a henchman.

But every once in a while, he would be reminded time was constantly on the move. He would hear the voiceless groans from Shaun and remember how much they had injured him. He hoped the wounds weren't as bad as he pictured them. No. He hoped that they were worse than the way he pictured him. Why was he thinking compassionately of the man who lead the Templars to him and his death? Because he was the one who comforted you and tried to save your sorry ass, his conscience kicked in, reminding him fully that Shaun was the reason he probably wasn't dead on the spot.

Faintly, he could hear the goons talk quietly amongst themselves, stopping abruptly and dropping Desmond onto the cold ground. He could hear Shaun fall beside him, gasping with the harder impact.

"Well, we have about five minutes. Smoke?" Jimmy spoke, voice dripping with disgustingly victorious attitude.

"Shaun?" Desmond whispered, tasting the tangy metallic sweetening in his mouth.

"Shut up," was all Shaun could manage to spit out before he began to cough dryly.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course I'm not-"

"Hey! Is that talking between our two hostages I hear?" Another voice cut in, immediately cutting off Shaun's air with the heel of his boot.

"Leave him alone!" Desmond shouted.

"Aw, listen to that! Hostage number one wants us to leave his little boyfriend alone!"

Desmond heard the goons snicker, wanting to rip their tongues right out of their ridiculous mouths. He heard as Shaun gasped for a breath of fresh air as the bad guy removed his foot from his throat. Without warning, the blindfold was ripped away from his head and everything appeared in front of him. They were in a long, modern hallway that seemed to stretch on forever. The bad guys were heading for a door that was paneled with frosted glass, and, as Desmond looked behind him, he could not see the door they had come in. It appeared that there was only one way to exit - and that was to enter.

"Well? Should we go in now? Dr. Vidic should be waiting for us now – since his conference should be over," Jimmy smirked as he grabbed Shaun by the arm. Desmond watched as the man didn't even bother to fight back, eyes glazed over from the astonishing amount of injuries he had received. The large man roughly pulled back Shaun's sleeve, pushing it right up to his shoulder. He watched with fury as Jimmy pressed the cigarette against his skin, causing him to cry out in agony.

"You bastard! Stop!" He shouted, and with his outburst, he received a knee to the face. Tumbling back, he hit his head against the wall, almost blacking out. For a moment, the world faded out to grey and everything seemed grainy, like in the old movies. Then everything suddenly flashed back to full colour. Groaning slightly and trying to tune out the sound of the men's laughter, he rocked himself up to meet Shaun's gaze. For a moment, he felt guilty, as if he had been the one to lead the Templars to Shaun. But no, it was the opposite way around – of course it had to be. But who were these people? The Templars weren't large, elaborate companies... or were they?

"Shut up," another man snapped at him, pulling a gun out of his pocket. Desmond froze with fear as he watched the deadly instrument click with the sound of a loading round. Shutting up was easier when you had a gun pointed between your eyes. Without warning, the door beside them slid open as the Templar men forced both Shaun and Desmond to stand on their feet, ankles still tied.

"Ah, finally – Jimmy! What are you doing to our lovely guest? Put that thing away!" A deep voice growled, high with authority. Desmond watched as the gun was pocketed back in the man's pants, just before he was shoved into the large room. Behind him, two of the goons remained in the hallways while three followed both Shaun and Desmond into the main space, both being shoved while trying to walk with little space from their tied ankles. With his back turned to his new arrivals, he turned around in a dramatic style, his lab coat fluttering around with him.

"... What is this?" Desmond looked up to see an older man with grey hair speak with a tight lipped frown. His eyes were cold as they looked from Desmond to Shaun, questioning everything before him. "I only asked for Miles."

"Yes sir, we know," the one known as Jimmy responded, prodding the back of Desmond's head with an eager fist. "We have him."

"But who is this?" His gaze cast over to Shaun, looking over the man who stood before him. "I told you-"

"Not to spill any blood because you didn't want too much of a mess," another man cut in. Max. "but this one fought back with extraordinary skill so we had no choice. As you can see, Jimmy sustained a few injuries, as well as I," he grumbled, pointing to the dark bruise on his forehead. Desmond knew it was the one Shaun had hit with a lamp right over the head – didn't that one also hit his head against the corner of the table?

"Don't you dare interrupt me, or I'll have you in the basement like the others who defied my means," Vidic barked, beckoning for them to bring forth the two men. They did so and Desmond could feel his heart pounding heavily inside his ribcage. "Hmm, well, what's your name, my little uninvited house guest?" Desmond watched Vidic's eyes went to Shaun's thigh, the material surrounding it was dyed a dark red, then to his shoulder, where an angry red burn mark screamed in pain. Shaun bit his lip, musing whether to tell him a real name or false. Then something suddenly occurred to him as he turned to look at Desmond.

***

"You told me your name was Desmond Greene!" He snapped.

"Look, I can explain!" Desmond frowned back. Now wasn't the time for such trivial matters. Before he could get out the rest, he felt the goons behind him kick in his legs, causing him to fall to his knees painfully. He could hear them do the same to Shaun, though it must have hurt more for him due to his leg injury.

"Quiet! The both of you! Now, guest, I'm going to ask you one more time what your name is," he smiled coldly, crouching down to meet him eye to eye. Hatred radiated from him – hatred from the fat cat that was attempting to take the world by unnecessary means. This had to be the dreaded Warren Vidic Lucy told Rebecca of. This was the one who was slowly killing innocent people by the machine that lay just a few feet from them. He could feel the impatient tension in the room and by taking a deep breath, he decided to reply.

"Shaun."

"... Shaun what? Do you have a last name?" He smiled, obviously forced. Shaun had to resist the urge to punch him in the face and take down everyone else in the room. But there was a small problem to that – he was completely tied out.

"I'm not telling you," he snarled back, eyes burning with as much hatred as Vidic had shown him. The man stood up in a flash and merely laughed, tossing his head back. A woman appeared from around the corner and Shaun could register the shock in her eyes. Lucy Stillman stood just a few steps away from him, the one who was keeping their operation alive. Their very own double agent.

"Well then, if you don't tell us, we'll find it. Lucy, go through the database and look for all the Shaun's in this region and get me pictures to match this one," he grinned with an insidious expression, tapping his sides lightly. Shaun watched as Lucy made her way to the computer, keeping her eyes on the ground instead of giving away any clues. If any of the goons caught her looking at him the wrong way, everything might have been blown out of the water. "Now, while my lovely assistant, Lucy Stillman, is searching for your data, care to tell me what you're doing with Mr. Desmond Miles?"

Shaun looked at Desmond, who had suddenly decided that looking at the windows on the other side of the room was far more interesting.

"Well, I went to a bar for a drink and he was there. We began to talk and went home sober, sad enough. I went back to his place because mine is under renovations and then your men rudely interrupted us," he spoke nonchalantly, attempting to keep his temper under control. There was no way in bloody hell that he was telling the whole story.

"Why do I have a feeling you're leaving something out?" He raised an eyebrow, folding his arms across his chest slowly. Shaun narrowed his eyes.

"I'm telling you-"

"Oh! I have a question!" Jimmy smirked, ruffling Shaun's hair roughly. If both his hands and feet would have been free, he would have had Jimmy on the ground in a matter of seconds. Vidic's eyes glowed with curiosity as he nodded at the larger man. "Why were you two sleeping naked together?" Shaun felt his skin flush crimson, along with Desmond, who was now an exact match in skin tone. Humiliation washed over him as he tried to come up with an answer – but what could he seriously say? "And..." He felt the man's beefy fingers touch his neck, causing him to jerk away and fall onto the ground, taking the impact from his side. "Come here," he motioned to Vidic as he leaned over the svelte man, grabbing his collar and pulling him up aggressively. "Look at that mark? What do you think that is?"

The silence dragged on painfully as he looked up at Desmond, who was still on his knees and cheeks still tinted a bright pink. For a second, he felt Desmond's lips on his neck, sucking roughly like he did last night. Then he remembered that it wasn't like that anymore, that they were tightly bound hostages in a large corporate building. He shivered violently at the cool touch of Vidic's fingers on his neck, on his sensitive spot.

"Ahh, you're one of them," the old man smirked, observing the knife wound in his thigh. "And who did this to you?" He asked softly, pressing his fingers against it gently. Shaun gasped, cringing at the simplest touch to his wound. "Well?" Dr. Vidic asked, increasing the pressure slowly as his fingers slowly began to dig into the wound. Shaun screamed out, his voice hoarse from the constant use of his voice at such high levels.

"Oh whoops, that one was me," Jimmy laughed. "Same with the cigarette burn. The little faggot was asking for it," he beamed, a proud hunter. After what seemed like an agonizing forever, Vidic removed his fingers and barked at Lucy to get him some sanitizer and a cloth. She left the data search up as she did what she was told, like a lap dog working for its king.

"Now, now, Jimmy. We don't need you terrorizing them any further," he smiled with a sly grin. "Just keep an eye out for... unexpected diversions and such."

Writhing in pain, Shaun bit back another soulless scream as he watched Lucy aid the man whom he had easily grown to hate. She was right about him being such a prick.

"Can someone hold him down? I need to take blood samples from each of them, actually..." He smiled cruelly as he pulled out a syringe from his pocket. Without being asked twice, both of the goons held down Shaun as they grasped his arm, cutting off the blood circulation. Relentlessly, Vidic plunged the needle into Shaun's arm, filling it to the very brim. Then they easily held down Desmond as Shaun layed motionlessly on the ground, trying to keep his breathing steady. He could feel the world around him spinning, daring him to black out. Shaun watched out of the corner of his eye as Vidic handed the vials off to Lucy, who did very well to mask her disgust at his methods, and then walked over to the computer screen.

"What...? You can't be serious! There are no records of you here what so ever! Who are you, mystery boy?" He grinned. Then suddenly his eyes lit up in a sick and twisted pleasure. "Well, I suppose that's a good thing. The city won't be looking for your body, which is just a bonus for us."

Shaun felt the blood drain out of his face as the thought flashed through his mind. He was going to be killed instantly.

"No... n-no..." he whimpered. Never before had he been so scared, so cornered into an inevitable fate. He had evaded death before, but that was when he could run or make it away. He was surrounded here with no way of escape. He had to buy time. He had to.

"Warren, wait!" Lucy's voice rang out above all the others and Shaun watched as Desmond's eyes followed over to her. "We can't get rid of him! His blood type is AB-, one of the rarest in the world!" She exclaimed, eyes lighting up with excitement.

"Lucy, we have no need for him. He's just a witness with a mouth to our little... personal game of hide and seek," he smiled back down at Shaun and once again, he felt all the blood evaporate out of his body. "Jimmy, Max, and Johnny, have him out of here and bring him down to the basement. Make sure he doesn't scream... don't need the superiors knowing that we spilt more blood," he sing songed, leaning against the Animus. He watched as both Jimmy and Max grabbed his eyes, Jimmy being sure he dug his thumb into Shaun's burn mark, as they began to take him off. He turned to Lucy when Shaun suddenly screamed out.

"I can see things, like the Eagle Vision! I can see blue, red, white and yellow! I'm like them!" He shouted, wriggling to get free. The men continued to carry him out but suddenly dropped him when Vidic yelled at them to stop.

"Eagle Vision... how do you know of such things?"

"I have it. I see texts in different colours. Blue means correct, red means incorrect or false if I'm looking for that information, white means that there's a hidden meaning and yellow means that's a clue to an answer I'm looking for," he panted, his throat sore from how vocal he had been all day. He saw Desmond give him a puzzled look, the same one he had given him when he asked him questions about his job back at the bar. He saw Lucy with an expression the exact opposite of Desmond's.

"Well... this is quite interesting... But you are-"

"Vidic! Listen to yourself!" Lucy's voice was shrill with her outburst as her heels clicked across the floor. "He could very well help us find the location quite easily with this Eagle Vision of his! Of course we'd still need Desmond to figure out the rest of the puzzle, but this is a huge bonus! We'd be fools if we choose to ignore such a gift!" She laughed, her eyes sparkling with the same mischief that was in her boss', but it had to be fake. Shaun watched as the doctor began to muse over the thoughts until he finally made a conclusion.

"Very well, you've escaped your death narrowly, you slithering snake. Such luck does not come free though," he smirked, touching his grey beard gently. "After a night's rest, we'll get both of you started to work tomorrow. Though, I suppose I could spare you two some kind of kindness."

Desmond and Shaun's ears both picked up. It felt as if they had been put through hell over and over without mercy, so any kind of justice would be nice. Even a glass of water would do them just fine. Or perhaps bandaging to Shaun's leg?

"I won't separate you two, eager lovers. You'll have the night the talk things through and get over any... disagreements you two might have developed in the past twenty-four hours. But first, Shaun, we don't want you dying so quickly from blood loss. Let's get you cleaned up before you two can retire to your nice, cold, pathetic excuse for a bed."