Chapter 5:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. This is re-uploaded Chapter 5. Enjoy.
The pain was unbearable, and there was no way to escape. He was tied to a pole, in the same fashion a witch may have been. The flames licked up all around him, the only thing that Alex could make out amongst the flames, was Jack. Her face was charred, but all her features could still be clearly made out against the black ash and burning skin. It was a grotesque scene as her eyes bore into Alex's brown ones. She stood unaffected by the flames around her, staring at Alex, as he cried out in pain, pleading for her to make it stop. Pleading for her forgiveness.
'Why should I stop? This is what you did to me. You let me burn. You deserve to feel the pain I felt. You deserve all of it.' She sneered at Alex, her face morphing as she did so, the sneer turning into a smile that Alex knew did not belong to her, but to another that had died because of him and his actions.
It belonged to one Yassen Gregorovich.
Jack was no longer in front of him, now Yassen's lethal frame stood among the flame as he laughed. Alex's pleads feel on deaf ears. The pain was becoming too intense as it became hard to breath. His throat was dry, from the heat of the flames that surrounded him, and sore as he screamed at those in front of him for forgiveness, and soon it was to hard for him to continue as his energy died away.
Tears streamed down his cheeks, marking their paths on the burnt, ashy, skin. Yassen only laughed as Jack joined him. Others that had died because of Alex were fast appearing, and even those that were still alive. Tom and Sabina didn't belong here, and yet they stood in front of Alex, laughing at his pain.
But then things changed. The fire seemed to calm to a warm crackle. As the fire died, the people in it did as well, disappearing into the darkness, leaving no trace they had been there. The ropes holding him up unwound and he dropped to his hands and knees. Soft grass that had not been there before, cushioned his fall. The darkness that no light could penetrate lifted, a new darkness appearing, one that held stars in the sky and allowed just a sliver of the milk way to be seen. The moon hung high in the sky, a crescent that casted enough light to allow pedestrians to find their way home, but not enough to ruin the stars. Just as suddenly as the fire had appeared it had been replace. He lay in the park that was not far from his old home in Chelsea. He was not alone, as friendly faces joined him. Ben lay closest singing softly; Tom laid to his other side telling tales that had never happened to a giggling Sabina.
It was a different kind of dream, but it was a dream that he could deal with. Since MI6 had been in his life all Alex knew was nightmares. This dream was something he had not been presented with in a long time.
And so Alex laid back, enjoying the soft whispers of the people around him and the gentle breeze of the wind against his warm skin. It would not last long, but Alex intended to take it in for as long as he was granted this one peace.
~Line Break~
Snake had come back bloody and battered. They had thrown him on the ground of Alex's cell as gracefully as one threw out the trash. The others were released from their own cells, allowing them time to assess the damage that had been done to their team member.
Wolf went into leader mode the moment the door to the room closed. "Fox, take care of Cub. Untie him and get him to calm down before he does any serious damage to himself. Eagle, you and I need to take care of Snake…" He continued telling Eagle what needed to be done first and how to do it with such limited supplies.
Ben went to Alex. The boy had only screamed once in his dream, after that it had become whimpers and small cries.
Being a spy himself Ben knew the bad outcome that would no doubt happen if he tried to wake Alex in the mist of the nightmare. He held no doubt that the boy could pin him down, and so he tried to calm him before untying him.
Loosening the bonds enough so that he would no longer be in pain, but keeping them on so that if he was suddenly woken he would not kill Ben. He pulled the boy close, laying Alex's head on his lap. Running his hand through the blonde locks Ben whispered the same thing any parent or caregiver would tell their child. Softly hushing him, telling him it was okay, that he was safe and no harm would come to him.
Slowly, Alex began to relax. The tears leaking from closed eyes slowed and came to a stop. Ben continued carding his fingers through Alex's hair as he softly sang the same lullaby's his mother sang to him as a child.
When Alex had fully succumbed to relaxation, Ben removed the last of the rope that held him. His arms were red, his wrists bleeding slightly, as he had struggled against the bonds in the mist of his nightmare.
When his hands were free, Alex seemed to find comfort as he gripped Ben's shirt loosely. It was a small reassurance that his subconscious needed that whoever had brought this peace was not going to leave. Ben was not going to take away what looked to be a peaceful sleep from someone who looked as if they had not slept in years. He sat against the wall, softly humming, continuing to move his fingers through the fair hair as Alex slept. The drug that Josh had given him was bound to wear of sometime soon, and all they could do was wait it out.
When Snake had been brought back the guards had said that he had gotten off easy.
Well if that was easy Eagle was afraid to know what hard looked like.
Small cuts marred his skin as bruises decorated it in varying shades of blue, black, and purple. His left eye looked to be swelling and Eagle only hoped it would stop before Snake couldn't open it. It seemed that there were no broken bones, but the dark bruise that stretched across Snakes abdomen worried the man. Was it normal for bruises to become that dark, that quick?
After Wolf and Eagle had done all they could for Snake, they joined Ben against the wall. Wolf leaned his head back, closing his eyes in the hopes of warning off the growing headache. Eagle opted for a more childlike position, bringing his knees up in front of him, wrapping his arms around his knees and resting his head on top of them. Snake was still as he lay on the stone floor. The only sound in the cell block was the quiet humming of Ben as he kept a hold of Alex. As two of the five lay in dream land, the other three drifted in their own minds in hopes of passing the time as they waited for their other team members to awake.
Because as much as Wolf would have hated to say it, that was what he was now. After seeing the kid almost killed himself at Point Blanc, and then knowing he had completed another mission with Ben, Alex had earned his respect. Even if he had been cold to him when he came back to Brecon Beacons. Wolf still didn't understand his decision to hate the kid when he returned, but there was no turning back. The decision had been made and the harm had been done. Wolf only hoped that he would have the chance to make it up to the kid.
It took a while but Snake was the first to wake with a groan. Slowly sitting up he rubbed his head as the ache within it gradually grew. He felt the sting of small cuts, and opening his left eye proved to be a bit harder than normal. He knew he probably looked worse than he felt, but he didn't care enough to take in the damage that had been done.
He closed his eyes against the dim florescent lights, scooting back against the wall, joining the other men that sat there closely watching their comrade. Rubbing his temples he fought to remember what had been so important to tell the team moments before he had passed out. He remembered the room, the guards that stood in front of the door, the cold metal chair he had been forced to sit in as they asked random question after random question. Then there was the man that had been asking the questions. The big stature that had seemed so familiar, but hadn't clicked until the man had stepped out of the shadows and into the light. The man that Snake had once called a team member, a comrade.
"Guys, Bear is on their side. He's the one who interrogated me. That's why he was missing for so long. He works for them!" Snakes voice was soft, but serious. He had trusted Bear with his life, but it made sense. "That's was why he always seemed so closed off and cold to us. He had never been a friend or a team member. He was… he is a traitor."
"Who's Bear? Is he the guy that took my spot when I left? What does the SAS not do background checks anymore?" How could they have been so careless? It was a tough program and the fact that they hadn't thought to do a background check on a man that would eventually work for queen and county was reckless. If they had been in a cartoon he would have steam coming out his ears.
Wolf had joined him in his anger, "What the bloody…" his voice was loud and booming as went to start his rant, but the team cut him off before he could even start. They sent pointed looks at Alex, who was finally sleeping peacefully. Even Snake, who had been absent during the worst of the nightmare sent him a pointed look. As medic of the group he knew the kid was sleep deprived. It was hard to miss the large dark bags under the young boy's eyes.
Wolf sat back, clenching and unclenching his hands in his signature tell of anger. Eagle took the time to fill Snake in on what he had missed while he was gone. "Cub was screaming bloody murder in his sleep. I've never heard him yell out in pain, let alone scream. What was really scary was when he started crying! He always has on that blank emotion face. "
"I want to know what the hell happened to him that could have caused such a nightmare. Even children don't get nightmares that bad without some type of past trauma." Wolf had calmed enough to speak in at a normal volume.
"Don't we all." Eagle replied looking at the sleeping teenager. It was still something extraordinary, as none of them had ever seen the boy sleep before.
Ben looked down at Alex again, he still had a loose hold of Ben's shirt but the man didn't mind. Alex and he had developed a bond working together. Ben knew that he knew more about Alex than any of the others currently in the room. He felt that it was a great privilege, a privilege he was not going to extort. He was not going to lose Alex's trust by revealing any details he may not want the other men to know.
They all returned to their thoughts. Thoughts that held one similar variable. Cub and his past. Thoughts that mostly held worry about what may have happened to the boy that was physically so young, but mentally older than most of those in the room.
A/N:
So going through and editing this chapter physically hurt me. I wrote this back in 2012 maybe and my writing has come such a long way, and I'm actually proud.
But seriously it physically pained me to try and reread this. I basically rewrote the whole chapter from scratch. How did people read this before? I applaud them, because even I wouldn't have read it.