A/N: I was planning on putting this up earlier today but then my Uncle and Aunt came for a visit and I got busy. After they left I went to visit my grandparents since today is the last day of my semester break and I'm going back to Uni tomorrow. Then I went shopping and … Err… ahem, well anyhow, I'm back now so here's the chapter you've all been waiting for.

Oh and by the way, I'll update Shattered Secrets, right after this one. ;)

Enjoy!

Soft warmth was spreading through his body, bringing life back to his frozen limbs. The energy that was partially rejuvenating his cells seemed to be magical. Or that was what part of his brain was telling him. The fingers splayed on his stomach felt familiar to him; oddly chilly, but familiar. The pain in his stomach had receded. The shooting spikes of pain from the bullet wound in his leg had also reduced to a mere throb, something that could easily be ignored. He tried sitting up but those familiar-fingered hands pushed him back on the flat surface.

"Don't move just yet." The voice was soft, melodic, carrying the same familiarity that exuded comfort. "I'm not done healing you yet."

"Ma-Masooma?" he croaked in a raspy voice, "how the heck did you get here?"

"That's not important at the moment, Fai," the brunette answered, her hands moving to his throat, the healing magic seeping in to repair the damaged tissues. "I can't stay for long."

"What?" he almost shot upright but fell back down when the world began swimming wildly in his vision, "Why?"

"They'll be back soon," she answered quietly, retrieving her hands as she stood up. She pulled out something from the pocket of her coat and slipped the needle beneath Fai's skin as she injected the liquid in his blood stream. Once finished, she pocketed the syringe, stepping away from him. The chilly night air hit his bare flesh and he realized with a start that he was still dressed in a pair of now torn jeans and nothing else.

"Where are you going?" he asked, reaching out with a hand to grab her wrist.

"I have to leave for now, I'll be back though, don't worry." She flashed him a smile and for a moment he could have sworn that it had been that blond, black-eyed bitch standing in place of the girl he trusted and cared for as much as he did his inter-dimensional traveling companions and one blind Oracle.

"What's going on?" he asked desperately, feeling lost and confused as her hand slipped through his fingers and she approached the metal door of the cell he was in. He tried following her but found that even though his injuries had healed greatly, he was still physically not strong enough to stand on his own.

"I can't explain right now," she explained in an apologizing tone, "but don't worry, Fai," she flashed him another smile that for some reason failed to comfort him like Masooma's smiles normally had, "I will when I come see you next time, alright?" without waiting for a response, she squeezed through the slightly opened door; but just before she vanished from his sight the image of his friend shifted into one of the woman who had tortured him till now.

A part of his brain was insistent that this was Masooma, his friend and precious person. Yet another small fraction of his mind was screaming at him that that was not true. One part urged him to trust in her completely while the other blared warning sirens telling him not to trust what he saw.

So lost was he in his internal contemplation that he failed to notice the door slide shut behind the girl that had just healed him. Only when the light overhead shut off unexpectedly, plunging him in a world of darkness, did he realize that he was alone again.

The skin on his back prickled uncomfortably, itching slightly, but he could not feel the pain that the lacerations produced from his whipping normally generated. She had healed his back as well.

Well, Masooma is one of the best healers in Celes. Of course she would have healed my back, he thought, feeling happy to know that she had not abandoned him.

But how the heck did she get here? That tiny voice that had warned him to be wary of the girl that had healed him raised the question.

Who cares? She's here. The trusting part of his mind replied simply. She healed me. A feeling of elation filled him at the thought of her caring about him enough to help him out in such a dangerous situation.

Immediately sensing something amiss with his thought process, Fai frowned. What the heck was wrong with him? This wasn't making any sense at all. For some reason he did not want to question how she had gotten there. He did not want to wonder about why she was there. All he wanted to do was feel happy that she was there. Yet at the same time, he was wary of her sudden appearance. What the heck was she doing there? Why was she there? And why had she left him alone again?

Before he could contemplate any further, however, a loud screech, freakish and otherworldly in its shrill, nails-raking-against-the-blackboard quality assaulted his eardrums, making his already spinning head pound wildly. All thoughts of Masooma and her strange visit flew out the proverbial window. Uttering a cry that was drowned out by the noise, he lifted his hands to his ears to cover them. Something jerked at his wrists just when they were a couple of inches from his ears, keeping him from clamping his hands over his eardrums to block out the noise.

With a jolt he realized that his hands were shackled to the flat platform he had been previously laying on. No matter what angle he moved in, he could not bring his hands to his head. The horrid screech continued, the wail echoing all around him, shaking him to the very core, grating his bones and making him grind his teeth in a discomfort that teetered precariously over the borderline of pain. The noise was so loud Fai thought his ears would bleed.

It stopped all of a sudden and a suffocating silence pressed on him from all sides. After all that noise, it seemed too quiet. Had it not been for the fact that he could his own ragged breathing Fai would have suspected he had gone deaf.

"What… in the worlds… was that?" he whispered, his eyes darting all around him in the darkness, but with no source of light around, he couldn't make out anything. He sat there in the dark, limbs shaking wildly as his ears rang with the phantom echoes of those inhuman shrieks.

As suddenly as it had stopped, it all started up again, the shrieks assaulting his eardrums, making his brain hammer against his skull in retaliation. Gnashing his teeth, Fai tried to keep the unpleasant feeling at bay but it still managed to make his flesh crawl.

The shrieks bounced off the walls, amplifying due to the echoes, and a while later Fai's own cries added to the pandemonium as he felt the skin at his wrists tear in his struggle to cover his ears.

He could hear words forming in those cries. They spun all around him, their voices pointing and taunting, accusing and blaming him. Even as he cried and struggled, he tried to ignore those words. And in the beginning he succeeded. But the echoes kept on bouncing off the walls. They kept on rattling his insides, crawling through his skin and flesh like hundreds and thousands of tiny, unpleasant bugs.

The phantoms he seemed to have come to peace with long ago returned with a vengeance. He could feel them all around him, inside him, attacking him. They were everywhere. And there was no way to escape them. They would tear him to shreds and he would not be able to do a single thing to defend himself. Without even knowing, Fai's nails had elongated slightly to form claws as his eyes flashed a vampiric gold.

For a split second the world fell silent again, the noises silencing and the bugs and his phantoms vanishing, leaving him blissfully alone. But it only lasted for a small moment before a shock tore through his flesh and bones. An unbelievable amount of pain surged through his entire being as his mind went white. He felt like he was about to die. The smell of burnt flesh and hair reached his nostrils as whatever little energy his body had retained so far left him. He felt his vampiric state slip away and with it went the electric shock that was rattling his very soul. But no sooner had the shock receded, the accusing screams returned, haunting him, making his worst, long forgotten fears come to life. His muscles ached, occasionally twisted by spasms as he lay on the ground in a pathetic, limp heap. His arms hung halfway to his chest like some abandoned marionette, still chained to the platform he had somehow fallen off of during the time he was being electrocuted.

He panted weakly, feeling the bugs once again begin to crawl through his flesh as his phantoms almost lovingly claimed their hold on his mind.

-0-

Darkness.

Pain.

The two sensations overwhelmed Fai's senses and he lay sprawled in a half-sitting position in his dark cell, unmoving.

How long had it been? Days? Weeks? Months? He couldn't tell. Everything blended together as he fought to stay sane. His whole body shook with tremors as he tried to push the feelings away. Now that those cries had stopped attacking him, his numb, sleep-deprived brain could actually process his thoughts.

Part of his mind had remained unaffected by the whole ordeal and though he was surprised, Fai could not find the energy inside him to actually question why that had been the case. Then again, the part that had come through comparatively unscathed had been the part that was linked to his vampire half. This was also the part of his mind that had previously been questioning Masooma's sudden appearance and her following abandonment. In fact, this was the only part of his mind that was now able to function and for the time being, Fai decided to trust in his vampire instincts.

The woman that had healed him… she could not be Masooma. The girl he had known and taught in Celes would never leave him in a place like this. But just as he was trying to cement that belief in his mind, he heard the lock on his cell door slide open before the door itself was thrown open with a loud squeak.

The blinding light that spilled inside the dark cell made him squeeze his eyes in pain.

"Hello, Fai." With tears streaming down his cheeks, he squinted at the face that swam in his vision. Warm, amber-colored eyes looked at him in concern. Cool fingers reached out to touch his face, wiping the tears from his cheeks as he felt a sharp prick of a needle on the inside of his forearm before a liquid was injected into his veins.

He shook his head, blinking fiercely to bring that familiar face into sharper focus. As soon as he saw her, the vampire half of his brain was pushed to the background.

"H-hey Masooma," he responded hoarsely, a feeling of elation warming his heart upon knowing that she was back to help him. His vampire half tried telling him something but he wasn't able to comprehend what it was. All that mattered was that she was back.

"Look who's here to see you." She smiled, stepping away from him.

"Hey Dude," Nixon grinned, his sightless eyes staring right through him.

"What…" Fai swallowed with difficulty; his throat was parched and hurting. Every word he spoke was like thorns scraping on his flesh. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to check on you, of course," the blind Oracle replied brightly. "We managed to convince the guys up top to let us come and see you."

"H-how?" he asked, wonder filling his voice. How the heck had they managed to convince the hunters to let them in here? Weren't the hunters after all Mages?

"Well, seeing as we secretly help them out with a few hopeless cases," Masooma replied happily, "they owed us a few favors. This is one of them."

"Now, now, Fai," Nixon laughed, somehow able to feel the blonde's confusion, "don't act so surprised. You of all people should know how we really feel about the scum hiding in that city."

"We weren't really happy there. And the hunters made us a good offer," Masooma said lightly. "We all know how those Mages are going down. They're a lost cause. We were both smart enough to realize that, so we jumped ship."

"And as you can see, it's worked out for us quite nicely." The Oracle grinned at him.

Fai could not believe what he was hearing as he continued gaping at the two people he had once thought to be his closest friends. Somehow, his vampire instincts managed to kick in just as a small fire began to burn his veins, boiling his blood like acid.

"You, on the other hand, failed to realize where your loyalties lay," Masooma spoke, her tone turning cold, "so now you will have to suffer."

He cried out in agony, his shackled hand reaching out for his friends but the ones in front of him kept on standing there, watching him with apathetic faces. As his human half began to succumb to whatever drug had been injected into his veins, his vampire half grew dominant, making his eyes shift to the cat-like gold as his claws unsheathed. He watched the expressions on Masooma and Nixon's faces change to surprise before their faces began to morph. He blinked and standing before him were not his childhood friends, but two of his tormentors.

The blond, charcoal-eyed bitch and a bald, red-eyed man he had not seen before.

That was all he was able to see to before his whole body lurched painfully as electricity coursed through him, a choked gasp escaping his now bleeding lips. Immediately, the vampire half retreated and Fai was left shivering violently as his muscles ached in protest. He slumped weakly against the raised platform, the familiar faces of his old friends once again swimming in his vision.

Fai felt the bugs beginning to crawl through his skin as fear began to clench its icy fingers around his heart.

"You deserve this for what you did, Fai," Masooma told him coldly before turning around and exiting his cell. Nixon followed her wordlessly as three men, the ones that had held him down while that bitch had force fed that green, foul smelling gunk to him, entered the cell.

Fai pressed himself against the platform, hoping to somehow sink into the freezing metal. He knew this was going to hurt. Seeing his fear, the men laughed, their rowdy laughter grating his ears as he screwed his eyes shut.

"Time to have some fun," one of them sneered before the men grabbed him and roughly threw him on the platform, twisting his arm painfully as the shackles cut into his flesh, making his partially scabbed wound bleed anew.

A hand touched his shoulder, biting into his taunt muscle. Fai bit his lip, pushing down a noise of protest as he felt the man lean closer to his ear. His breath felt burning hot after the cold, chilly air that had been his constant companion in this cell. Burning hands gripped his legs, arranging them on the platform before strapping them down to the flat surface.

"Your friends have left you in our care." The man's breath smelled disgusting, of stale alcohol and something he could not identify, making him dry heave since there was nothing in his stomach to throw up. "You ready, Mage?" the man whispered before backhanding him all of a sudden.

Fai screwed his eyes shut, inwardly praying to some gods he had stopped believing in long ago to let all of this be some sort of hallucination brought on by the drugs that had been pumped in his bloodstream. But as the sharp tip of the knife dug into his pale flesh, dragging across the creamy expanse of it, leaving an oozing trail of crimson in its wake, Fai knew that that was not the case.

As another blade was added, this one deepening the cuts already made on his body, Fai threw his head back letting out a pained scream when a third knife was plunged into his thigh.

-0-

The tears had long since dried on his cheeks, having mingled with the blood and sweat and dirt that coated his skin. His chest rose and fell, each breath short yet not requiring a whole lot of effort on the blonde's part. Fai stared blankly at the wall to his right, his eyes glassy and unfocused, the stench of blood and sweat and alcohol permeating the air. There was a hint of the sweet, acrid smell of burnt flesh also present in the mix but it wasn't as prominent as the tang that signified spilt blood.

He swallowed thickly, resisting the urge to cough violently.

Or throw up.

He groaned softly to himself, feeling frustrated and confused.

The conflicting parts of his minds were warring against one another, trying to convince him of what each half believed to be true.

He could not decide on what to believe so he pushed both halves to the back of his mind. But other thoughts rose to take their place and he groaned a bit louder, clenching his fists till his nails bit into the palms of his hands.

He felt so weak.

The word reverberated inside his head.

Weak…

It was his own weakness and inability to use magic that had resulted in him getting captured again… it was the only thing stopping him getting out… he was…

Weak…

Weak and utterly…helpless.

Fai growled low at this thought. No… they had not broken him yet… he wasn't sure whether to believe what his eyes had seen and acknowledge that two of his precious people had turned into his tormentors or trust in what his vampire half was telling him and dismiss their appearances as illusions conjured up by the drugs.

He could not decide on that, but the one thing that he did know was that he was not going to succumb. He was not giving in. He would fight. Fight till the end.

That end might be his escape from this hell or his death. Whatever came first. But he would not show weakness again. He would not be scared and he would not act again as he had today.

With this thought in his mind, Fai's lids involuntarily began to droop, his severe lack of sleep and the cold cell lulling him into a sleep…

As his mind began to lose itself in blissful oblivion, Fai shuddered weakly, feeling the bugs crawl beneath his skin.

A/N: I hope there was enough torture in here for everyone. If you have any questions or confusions regarding this chapter, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to explain it to you without giving away the plot itself.