A/N: I will warn for this chapter for Duo!abuse/torture so this is not for the faint of heart. I will update again tomorrow rather than Thursday as I am on vacation and will have limited/poor internet access.

Song for the chapter is Night of the Hunter by 30 Seconds to Mars - this was used in Domino so it feels kinda circular to be inspired by it again.

Chapter Sixteen

Tear You to Pieces and Rip You Apart

A situation that has happened way too many times in my fucking life is being captured. I mean, shit, it had happened after the church, during the wars and a few times undercover. And I hated it, the feeling of weakness, helplessness and coming 'round from whatever the drug was that had been shot into me, I felt blurry and sick too and I fucking hated that. But having had this happen to me way too many times, hell, I knew a few tricks and I was quick to listen, feel, sense as I came around.

First I was laid down on something cold. Figured a metal gurney or something similar. And I was strapped down, leather around my wrists and I guessed my ankles. I could feel it around my wrists as it was directly on my skin but least I still was clothed as I could feel the restraints tight around my jeans. That was a reassuring thing. Being stripped was a humiliating power trip thing and like fuck did I want that to happen. So I took it as one good thing outta this shitty situation.

I figured I woulda looked a lot like one of mine and Heero's first encounters, when he was strapped to that table in my rescue and it made something in me feel even more sick and that was not because of whatever the fuck they had given me. I listened before I opened my eyes, keeping my breathing and heart rate as low as possible to imitate being unconscious. While I was not as awesome as Heero in many ways, I still knew a trick or two and as I wasn't hooked up to anything. That I could tell as there was no sound of the 'beep beeps' of my heart. So I just needed to look as though I was still unconscious and give no signs – which I was doing. So I listened, strained my ears to figure out a bit about my location, there was the sound of water dripping somewhere and the sound of a muffled old radio but that was about it. I risked opening my eyes, cracking them open slightly to see a strip light with only one panel working and the rest depressingly dark. The ceiling looked like any "official" building tiles – the sort you see in hospitals, office blocks and schools. I wondered if I was in a damn hospital, knowing Roth's use of the old one on L2 but I couldn't tell much as I strained my head up to see I was in a white washed room that could be anything – the only contents me and the gurney underneath me.

So this wasn't a good situation, I figured, as damn, I was pretty vulnerable and my head was hammering and shit, I started to try and get outta my cuffs but they were tight and I felt weak. Damn, I hated Roth's chemical shit.

It seemed my attempt at movement was seen by someone as I heard the sound of footsteps in a hollow corridor. It was then I looked up and saw the camera, the small red light of it in the corner of the room and I knew I'd been watched. The thought was creepy but then Roth was a creepy evil motherfucker. He was capable of anything. I tried to make some wiggle room in my cuffs, moving my hands but shit I was not Heero as I remembered him and his bloody hand all that damn time ago. Shit, I didn't have his super strength and like fuck could I do that. But I knew I had no time, no means of escape but like hell was I going to lie down and die. I'd never given up and now was not the time I was gonna start.

It did nothing, of course it damn well did nothing and soon the door was opened and I turned my head, looking towards it as the man who hated me as much as I hated him walked in, looking up and down at my body and I tried to look defiant, I tried to look like I was fucking challenging him and that I was not gonna just take whatever he wanted to do to me but I was in a shitty position for that. Strapped down, helpless, drugged… but still if he got too close I could spit, I could bite and fuck, I would do something as this was the man who had killed Solo and the street kids I knew. This was the man who'd injected me with a fucking virus and locked me in a medical supply closet. This was the man who fucking destroyed the life me and 'Ro had earned, that we'd built – our home, my garage, slow sex on a Sunday morning and cooking steak and shit… I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat. As he'd taken everything away from me once and he was trying to do it again.

"Where's Heero?" I ground out as he approached the side of the gurney, his walk slow and purposeful – toying with me again. Toying with me like he always had.

"No hello, Maxwell? No how are we? No pleasantries?"

His voice was lilting, that slight British accent like I remembered and as he stepped to the side I glared up at him through my bangs, baring my damn teeth like some kinda animal. I jerked myself off the table, rocking it a little with the violence of my movement and he laughed softly and it made me more angry.

"I will fuckin' kill you… I swear."

"Funny to make the threats considering you're the one strapped to a table without any back up, without any weapons or any hope."

His words were said so damn lazily as if we were talking about the weather or something and I had nothing to say so I attempted to spit at him, which wasn't a great action but one that made me feel better. Hey it seemed to miss but fuck, I wanted to show him I wasn't scared and I never would be.

"You want to know where your beloved Heero is?" he said, playing with the cuff of his jacket idly. "Why do you think he's still alive?"

Those words knocked some of my damn self-confidence. As shit, he said it so coolly, so casually, that maybe he was and all this… all this was lies and trickery.

"Because I know."

"Sweet… That you know. But I'll tell you something, Mr. Maxwell, I didn't know when you were there with my daughter… I didn't know you were shooting her, that she was scared and that she was dying. I didn't know any of that so what makes you so sure that Heero Yuy is not already dead? His broken bleeding body dumped?"

"You said if I came… you gave me 72 hours…"

"And you think I play fair?"

I closed my eyes, shook my head, knew he was playing mind games as Heero wasn't dead, fuck, he couldn't be and this was his damn torture. He knew Heero was my weakness. My biggest fucking weakness. And he was gonna use it.

"No, I don't. But I think you know he has some value alive. You're a smart guy."

"Ahh a compliment," he said and his hand ran along the side of the metal and I felt the brush of his finger on my side and I jerked away as best as I could. I did not want him to fucking touch me. "Yes… he has some uses…unfortunately a lot more than you."

"So you gonna kill me and let him go?"

He laughed, harsh and cold and suddenly his face was at my level so damn close that I could smell stale coffee and whatever the fuck he'd had for lunch.

"I'm going to kill you, of course I am, but Heero was never going to be let go. As you said… he has value."

I lunged for him, digging my hands in the restraints, trying to get to him, trying to do something to the asshole, an attempt to damn head butt him but fuck if it worked. And he backed off, laughing and I made a noise deep in my throat that sounded less like a man and more like a goddamn animal.

"But first… I found out so much about you over the years. Those personnel files should've been made more secure… I'd say for you to mention that to your superiors but then as you are not leaving here it is irrelevant is it not?"

I growled. "Fuck you."

"So eloquent… but one thing I found out was this…" he said and he reached his hand to touch my chest and I bucked up to dislodge the fingers but fuck I was helpless. "This pacemaker. It intrigues me… did the Preventers pay for it or Winner?"

"I don't know," I said through gritted teeth and he then produced a knife and my eyes widened.

The blade was a work of art and I remembered my own torturing of his man and I swallowed as he pressed the point of the blade into my cheek, an impression left behind in its wake and I'm sure I felt a rivulet of blood. I didn't react, tried not to as he ran the knife down my jaw, down my throat and finally to the collar of my t-shirt. He pulled on it with the knife and sliced the material in one quick stroke, exposing my chest and the scar, I moved my head to look as he traced the point of my knife against my scar.

"You gonna toy with me or kill me? I'm getting fuckin' bored here."

He glanced up and smiled and maybe I should've just not said anything as fuck me, it was an unsettling look. He was enjoying this and I knew that at times, yeah, I let the darker side of me out, I did shit I regretted and maybe I even smiled when I did but fuck seeing this side was scary shit.

Roth ignored me and put the knife away before he brought something small out of his damn pocket, something I didn't fucking know what it was, and then he moved his hand nearer to my chest with it and I felt a quick pull in my chest as my heart skipped a fucking beat.

I choked. I felt a damn squeeze. Ba dum. Ba dum. My heart rate increased and then there was searing pain as he placed whatever the fuck it was on my chest.

Shit, there was no shame in the noise I made as my heart constricted in my chest, as the breath went outta my lungs due to the pain radiating from the centre of my body. It felt like I was having another heart attack, it felt like shooting pains and I was damned screaming in agony. Fuck, I'd never felt this. The rattling of my heart in my ribcage. The feeling of my chest being on fire. The pacemaker not fucking working.

My head lolled back to the ceiling and he removed the device, the pain easing and I felt the pacemaker seem to work again and I heard his laugh again, that fucking laugh.

"I was curious when I read about the pacemaker as I once read that you could stop one from working by using a powerful magnet and I admit, I've always wanted to try it out."

"You….enjoy…. your….experiment?" I wheezed.

"Oh yes… Maxwell, but I feel like I need much more time doing this… after all, you killed my only daughter."

"You killed her!" I spat out, my voice raw. "You sent her there…she was the one who had a crazy fucking idea of making you proud…you're as responsible as me even if you didn't pull the trigger."

There was a hit across my face for that and the magnet was back against my chest. His face was close again, his breath on my cheek but I could barely concentrate on that as the pain became too fucking much, as he spoke against my skin.

"You killed her and I will leave you here to die slowly like you deserve."

The pain was unbearable this time, I could barely fucking breathe, my hands in fists at my side and I was choking and screaming and my throat was goddamn raw and hell, if this was fucking dying then maybe it was what I deserved. I'd killed so many people and this pain… I didn't deserve to go out in the middle of the night in my bed, in the arms of a lover, I deserved this shit, the pain, the pain of everything I'd done but suddenly, it was gone and I thought shit… maybe I'm dead.

Maybe this is death. Just feeling nothing as all I felt was tingles under my skin as my body reacted to all that damn stimulation but I realised, perhaps, no it wasn't as there was a knife now against my chest, carving a small line that felt like a burn on my over-sensitive skin.

"I have to leave you, I'm afraid but I hope you enjoy your last few moments…"

It was then the knife dragged down my chest, to my abs and suddenly I felt the blade slice into my skin and I winced at the searing heat of my skin and muscle and whatever else was split apart. I felt the blood start to flow as he pulled the knife back out.

"Just kill me…" I said, as I felt the weakness of a sharp jolt of pain.

"You don't deserve just death," he said, "and neither does Heero. You'll die slowly, here…"

"What will… you do to… Heero?" I panted.

"Make a point. You shouldn't have trusted my word, Duo Maxwell. You killed my daughter. You went into hiding and I found a way to draw you out… and you came out of that little hole you crawled into and now… and now I get revenge," he said his voice low, steady, full of malice. "But I will enjoy my last bit of torture on Heero Yuy… telling him you are dead."

"You motherfucking bastard!"

I tried to move but there was nothing I could do and I felt damn weak and he was starting to walk the fuck away. As I knew… shit, I knew that would be the one way to break him. As much as it broke me.

"Enjoy your last few hours, I imagine it will take you awhile to bleed out but then the rats might help… this is an old building and I know there will be plenty around. They'll start to appear when they smell the scent of blood."

I shuddered involuntarily at the words. The idea of rats… rat crawling over my body and biting… fuck it was not pleasant and he clocked my shiver and smiled as he looked at me, his eyes scanning from my boots to my hair.

"One day you are going to die," I said and I put all the venom I fucking could in my voice, all my anger and all my hatred. "You are going to die and someone will rip you to pieces and fuck, I hope I get outta here and it's me."

"Ohh threats?" I saw his eyebrow shoot up and I met his eyes with a fierce glare that rivalled 'Ro's. "As much as I'd love to discuss the ways in which you think you can get out of this situation and the ways in which you can "hurt" me, I have more important business to attend to. Like your boyfriend."

At those words he walked through the open door, not bothering to close it behind him.

"I will fuckin' kill you, Roth! I will fuckin' kill you!"

The shouts were pointless but I did it, screaming the words over and over again, the words echoing around the room even when the sound of his footsteps were gone, even when the sound of his laugh echoing down the corridor was gone. I gave up only once I couldn't scream it anymore, my body sagging onto harsh metal and I looked down to where I bled steadily, to my bound hands and legs and looked up to those broken strip lights above me.

I knew I had nothing – that this was the end, worse than that goddamn medical supply closet and I was in pain and I was bleeding out and shit, I heard the little tip tap of feet on metal and figured the rats had been attracted by the scent of my blood. And yet I couldn't damn give up as Heero needed saving, as Roth needed killing and I started a mantra in my head, that I would get out, that I would get Heero, that I would survive as I was Duo fucking Maxwell. I survived any and all shit. I was fucking invincible. And I told myself it. Over and over again. Feeling progressively weaker, hearing the scuttling of rats and then finally feeling one brave enough to climb onto my leg, me having enough movement to dislodge it to the floor.

I was not giving up, shit, I wasn't but I was weak, so fucking weak and even as I told myself I'd survive – it was gonna me and the cockroaches after the apocalypse like I'd said to myself – I knew I was dying alone, strapped to a goddamn table in fucking pain. Yet the pain started to fade a little, everything became a little more hazy and I knew I was losing consciousness, that my body was giving up and I felt a smile on my face.

"Finally time to meet my maker, I guess."

My voice sounded strained from my cries of pain and my shouts but it felt better to say it out loud. I didn't know what the fuck I believed – I didn't believe in heaven and hell, not in some afterlife and it was not comforting not to believe, you know? I thought about the church and I thought about Father Maxwell teaching me shit and I wished… I wished I believed as damn, thinking I'd end up somewhere better woulda been a nicer thought than the stark reality of me being a goner.

"I wish you were here…" I said as my eyes closed, "Heero… I wanted to save you… now all I want is…"

The words faltered as all I wanted was his arms, his body, his scent, his kiss and I wanted him to know I loved him, that I fucking loved him more than I ever loved anything and that I didn't want to leave him. But I had nothing left. I felt something on my leg, I felt some sharp pains as something bit down and a soft curse left my lips.

I was fucked and I was dying and this was it.

Shinigami's last bow.

And all I wanted was to see his blue eyes again but all I could do was remember a better time, a better place, as I slipped into darkness.