Happy Holidays to those of you celebrate them and Warm Greetings to those of you who might not. Here again is another installment of torture and pain for those poor men.

I'm nearing the finish line with just a few more chapters to go and the warm sequel of a much happier note is well on the way.

Some people are concerned that the story seems like it will be all torture but that is definitely not the case and I urge all of you to keep reading till the end. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Until next time,

Enjoy

Alex knew without a doubt that if that man succeeded in pouring that pot of boiling water on him that he was going to die of pain first and of the actual injuries second. The thought of it all drove him completely hysterical. As the man drew closer with the heavy pot that he was obviously struggling with, Alex screamed and thrashed and struggled, trying to find some way to avoid the horrific pain to come.

Fox looked on literally petrified by the ghastly mutilation that was about to occur. He wanted to shout out and scream for it to stop but he was so scared that if he opened his mouth he would seal the deal.

Snake, on the other hand, felt the familiar sensation of losing his temper completely. The terror he felt for Alex and what was about to happen to him was rapidly changing to fury. As he saw the man coming towards Alex like the mad man he was, to literally boil him alive for nothing; he felt that unpleasant heat in his chest that appeared when he felt the very real urge to kill someone and the pounding of his heart that was so loud and forceful that it hurt. He began to feel sick to his stomach as he vehemently yanked and pulled his chains to drag them from the rotting ceiling.

Eagle stared at the situation as it played out in front him and he knew that all of them sitting here were going to be scarred by this for life; in more ways than one . He couldn't help but wonder what Wolf would have done had he been around to see this himself and he suddenly knew that he could not stay silent forever and wondered if the horror could have been prevented if he had opened his mouth as he always did.

"NO! Stop! We know the answer don't hurt him anymore!" He shouted but someone had already beaten him to the punch.

"STOP!" The burly man, whom had first struck Alex, stepped in between Alex and the leaderman just as he approached close enough to throw the water. "Doing this will not get you the information and you most likely won't be able to get anything else either."

The leaderman put the pot on the ground and glared up at the other man; his voice and manner were livid. "So now you're stepping in for the kid now, huh? You're actually protecting the little maggot from me!"

"I'm stepping in to stop you from causing unnecessary damage. It seems to me that we've got what we want; I seriously believe that they don't know. Besides he's a kid."

"You think they really don't? What about Big Mouth; he said 'we know the answer' sounds like they know to me!"

"Just don't kill him like that." The man insisted

The leaderman snarled at him and pushed pass to Alex who was rapidly losing consciousness. Then he turned to Eagle. "Answer the question before I kill the boy on the spot!"

"We were going undercover."

"You mean you went undercover!" He shouted correcting him "You!" He yelled at Snake whose relief barely showed through his enraged expression. "When you arrived, did the members of the group seem at all surprised or suspicious of you?"

"What the fuck is it going to take for you to understand what we've been saying all this time, a comprehension pill?" Snake answered disgustedly "You need to get your fucking act together because it does seem like you're learning a damn thing that you didn't already know!"

From the moment that the man had posed the question, Eagle had been looking at him strangely as though he now knew something. By the time Snake had finished his disdainful response Eagle was sure he had figured it out. Just as the man was turning to do something to Alex again, Eagle spoke; mostly forgetting the warning of the Japanese man.

"I get it. You're slopping up all over the damn place." Eagle started confidently "Now you're trying to cover your tracks."

"The the hell are you talking about Eagle?" Fox demanded

"Them, they're responsible for the bombings. The people we're after are nothing but scapegoats."

"Shut the hell up!" the leader man hissed

Eagle ignored him "And yet the scapegoats know about the whole thing don't they? At least you think they do right? Why else would you ask us questions like that?"

The Japanese man came out from the little room making his way towards Eagle who met his eye with a cool gaze.

"Your dumbest mistake was bringing us in here before we got to the supposed safe house. Now you still don't know how much they know and we CAN'T answer a damn thing since we haven't got a clue! "

There was audible silence in the room following Eagle's revelation until the Japanese man broke it as the leaderman looked on.

"He said to SHUT UP !"

He punctuated the last two words with a bullet each to Eagle's left knee causing him to scream in pain, and to the left side of his stomach.

"That should keep you quiet." He gloated

The look on Eagle's face as he tried to fight off the pain was murderous. "You son of a bitch!" he shouted through gritted teeth. "#$^ you" he screamed defiantly then he spat on the floor and ground it out with his boot. "You're nothing! Just shit beneath my feet! SHIT!" His abdomen was bleeding profusely and he couldn't put his hand there to slow the flow. The man came back over and kicked him in the damaged leg eliciting an agonized scream from him. Then he laughed at the pain he had caused.

"Is there anyone else who's as hard headed as him, who needs to be taught a lesson?" He walked a few steps over to Snake who was shuffling in his chains positively feral with rage.

"What about you?" the Japanese man asked him mockingly "You look as though you're simply bursting with insults."

Snake gave him one good look, sizing him up, checking distances and angles and then he kicked him in the balls as hard as he could and when the man doubled over in shocked pain, he kicked him again before he could fall to the ground. He continued beating him having lost his temper completely after what had happened to Eagle.

Snake continued, giving the man no chance to even move away while the other people in the room watched in a mixture of horror and awe. And as the man was reduced to a quivering vomiting mass on the ground a few significant thoughts ran through the minds of those who were still responsive in the room.

Fox and Eagle found that they didn't really know Snake as well as they thought they did. Both of them were aware of the fact that Snake sometimes had anger management problems; that although he was a quiet kind of guy, he sometimes lashed out when you didn't expect it. But this extremely violent display; this capacity to kill in cold blood was new.

Also neither of them had actually considered how much seeing his comrades this abused and helpless would have affected him either. Snake was known to be a mostly anti-social type who didn't make or keep friendships well. But that was apparently wrong.

The leaderman decided that these men had expired their meager usefulness. With Wolf out of the picture, the man didn't feel so threatened by them despite Snake's display of temper. He hadn't cared very much for the Japanese man anyway because he had been too arrogant and he had already served some use by mortally wounding Eagle.

Alex was the only other person in the unit who seemed to know a good deal about things that he shouldn't and Eagle apparently had the capacity to figure them out. With those three gone he would feel better about what was going on because his other victims seemed to be in the dark as planned. Then he would get rid of Fox and Snake in case they knew things that they didn't let on.

The burly man watched with the detached feeling of having done something wrong along the way in his three long years of employment to this man. He had the distinct feeling of having pushed these men too far and he did truly feel sorry for the boy.

Snake gave the condemned man one last wicked kick.

"That's what I had to say." He announced finally. The exertion he'd put behind the assault was evident by the sweat on his face and the still figure on the floor in front of him. His wrists were bloody from the cuffs around them. the only sound in the room was his heavy breathing.

"You okay?" Fox asked after a second, carefully watching him

"Of course" he answered, with a mixture of exhilaration, which frightened Fox, and residual anger.

"I meant with everything that has happened." Fox amended

Snake glanced from Wolf, to Cub, to Eagle and back to Fox who's eyes reflected his sadness and anger to a certain degree, then to the leaderman who was coming towards him. "I will be." He finally answered. "You?" he returned

"I don't know." Fox sighed

"I'm through with the whole lot of you." The man announced, careful to keep his distance from Snake who still looked dangerous. "But don't think you're going to escape. Now that you've figured out what's going on-" he paused and looked at Eagle who was staring at him furiously with a sickly pallor. His blood was pooling around his feet but there was nothing he could do to stop it. The man snorted with satisfaction before turning back to Snake. "I'm sending you back to your cell and those of you, who don't die before I send for you again, will die when I do."

He turned to the burly man "Send them back to the cell and don't help them carry anybody. Let them struggle by themselves."

When he came over to Snake to release him, the burly man cautiously undid the first chain. "Don't try any of that stuff with me, understand?"

"I wasn't going to." Snake responded coolly.

"Thanks for stepping up for Cub." He added grudgingly as an after thought

The man grunted in response, surprised by the gesture. He decided to return it. "You should go check on your leader; he's not dead."

Snake suddenly stiffened in surprise but he lost no time going over to Wolf while Fox went to Cub.

Snake knelt down beside Wolf and checked his pulse. Sure enough, one was there, weak and thready but there. He gently rolled him over noticing the new bruise on his cheek from where his face had hit the ground and then gradually hefted him up and over his shoulder.

Then he went over to Eagle. Ignoring the eyes of their despicable captor, Snake stopped to check over Alex, who was in Fox's arms, on the way. He looked very bad. His right shoulder stuck off at an odd angle, almost square in shape and his chest was covered in blood. Although he was unconscious now, his body kept twitching from time to time.

Snake continued over to Eagle who was doubled over, quietly moaning in pain as his blood continued to drip onto the floor.

"You holding up mate?" he asked gently

Eagle simply shook his head. It was so vague Snake didn't see it.

"You hear me Eagle? Are you gonna be alright till we come back for you?"

Eagle moaned louder and more forcefully nodded. Snake knew that he must have been in pretty bad shape. Because everyone knew that if Eagle had nothing to say or didn't want to say anything; something was very wrong.

"As soon as we carry Wolf and Cub to the cell I'll be back for you okay?" Eagle didn't answer "He's alive buddy." Snake added as a means to cheer him up slightly "the fucking bastard lied, he's is still breathing." He was pleased to see a small smile grace Eagle's lips before changing back into a grimace. He started to walk away. "Just stay alive till I come back, you hear?"

"I hear." Eagle whispered as his eyes drooped further.

After Snake and Fox had finally left, the leaderman marched over to Eagle and yanked his hair back to stare him in the face. "You think you know shit?" Eagle fought to stay conscious so as to catch anything important that the man might say.

"Let me tell you something" He leaned in closer. "You don't know anything. We are not a terrorist organization like the junkies out there who do it for fun, we're much worse; a terrorist agency.

We don't have any motives for causing destruction except money. We exact terror for the people who will pay and we'll do anything. Human experimentation, bombings, secret attacks, you name it."

He leaned in a little closer knowing he had Eagle's attention.

"But you know what's the best part? No one ever knows. We don't advertise ourselves like some other people do. We have no name, no logo, no face. We're not in any database. No matter whether you escape or not we will never get the blame. Your little revelation means nothing. We'll still be around to do it again and again."

He leaned back with a smug grin

Eagle wasn't sure what to think. These people sounded a lot like Scorpia except for the whole secrecy thing. But the information did not strike him as terribly important because at the moment his highest priority was staying alive and hoping that the rest of his teammates did as well.

Eagle simply ignored his last comment and closed his eyes as he heard Snake's footsteps approaching with the guard from the hall outside. When the leaderman realized that Eagle didn't intend to answer, being as vindictive as he was; he unstrapped the bands hold Eagle's raw wrists to the chair and then grabbed the front of his shirt hauling him to a standing position which turned out to be easier than he had thought because of all the weight they had lost.

Eagle bit his lip till it bled to keep from screaming as his left leg swung uselessly below his shattered knee and his midsection started bleeding harder.

The man was just about to throw him to the floor knowing that he most likely wouldn't be able to catch himself when Snake reappeared in the doorway.

Despite Eagle's best efforts his face still registered his apprehension and before Snake could reach him, he felt himself falling towards the ground. The pain he felt as he hit the concrete was worse than he had thought it would be as he used his elbows and hands to soften the fall and prevent his head hitting the floor. But his knee was jarred and twisted nonetheless and he wasn't able to hold back the scream.

Before either Eagle or Snake was able to do or say anything, the man immediately left them like the coward he was to avoid a confrontation with Snake while he was free.

Eagle concentrated on evening out his breath while Snake wordlessly tried to prop him up from under the shoulders and drag him along but Eagle let out a yell as soon as he'd been moved.

"Damn it!" Snake exclaimed quietly "I don't think I can carry you without it hurting."

Eagle hissed his teeth in annoyance "I'm a soldier Snake if I have to deal with it then I will." then he sighed tiredly "Do what you can Snake, as long as I live through it; I won't hate you."

Snake tried to smile but it was no use. "So you still want me to drag you?"

"I didn't say that." Eagle answered. His words were weak and slurred and his eyes had drifted shut.

"You still with me?" Snake asked as he slid his arms under Eagle's back and knees; careful of the busted one.

Eagle nodded slightly but didn't open his eyes and when Snake finally managed to lift him his face paled further.

"Sorry buddy," Snake whispered looking around for some way they might escape through if the opportunity ever arose again, but he suddenly heard the haughty voice of the leader-man from some hidden passage. "If you make one move toward an opening besides the hallway you just came through, you'll both be dead before you hit the ground." it said

Snake cursed indignantly. "Shut the hell up you slimy dog, you son of a fucking bitch! You think you know everything but you don't know me." Snake yelled enraged. "You can run and hide like the flea bitten mongrel of a coward you are but I will find you and KILL you!"

"He's gone Snake, come on." Eagle whispered urgently. Snake's breaths were coming in short hard gasp and his muscles were tense. But he made an effort to calm down and went out of the room down the lone hallway to the door of the home cell. Just as he contemplated continuing down the hall, the crooked nose German from the first day came up from the opposite direction armed with a semi-automatic rifle, so Snake pushed the door which could only be opened from one side, and the German shut it behind him even before he was properly inside.

Wolf lay in his now usual corner on his side barely breathing, barely alive. Alex lay next to him in much the same state but his arm was thrust away from his body at an odd angle and his chest was covered with blood.

Fox sat against the wall with his knees drawn to his chest and his head resting on them. The look on his face was pure hopelessness.

Don't you feel sorry for them now? They've been through so much but they have been strong they deserve a little help. Review so I can give it to them. You never know when an update my present itself you know.

Thanks for reading and even more for reviewing.