A/N: Apologies for the delay in updating this story but my muse has been playing up a bit and unfortunately when that happens I have to be in the mood for whatever story I am writing and if the mood isn't there then I generally have to wait until it comes back.
"TELL ME AGAIN WHAT YOUR REAL PURPOSE WAS HERE SOLDIER."
Taylor shouted at the young soldier Marshall as he sat hunched and dejected in the interrogation room, Taylor had been questioning him for over an hour demanding to know why he had been sent here by the Phoenix group, just what it was he was hoping for in betraying the colony in the way that he had. Marshall flinched when Taylor slammed his fist down on the table and continued to look down at his hands rather than at the angry face of his commanding officer.
"WELL I AM WAITING SOLDIER."
Taylor growled at him again but Marshall continued to defy him, shaking his head as he tried to remain calm but the uncontrollable shaking in his hands betrayed his fear to Taylor. The commander leaned across the table getting into Ryan's face as he continued to shake in fear at what the commander would do to him.
"N…n…nothing sir," he whimpered.
Daring to glance up for a moment Ryan just as quickly turned his eyes downwards at the look of hatred and disgust on his commander's face. He struggled to keep back the tears that threatened to fall, he hated himself that he was so weak but since the attack he had felt like he was nothing and regardless of the fact that he had not betrayed the colony, he doubted that anyone would believe him.
"DON'T LIE TO ME."
Taylor screamed in his face and reaching down yanked Ryan out of his seat by the front of his T-shirt pushing backwards until Ryan's back slammed against the wall of the room. Ryan hissed as the bruises on his back were once again slammed into yet another wall but he managed to keep from crying out.
"Last chance….tell me the truth. Or I will have no option but to banish you from the colony."
Ryan's lower lip trembled and again tears threatened to spill down his face but he managed to hold them back.
"T...T...They said that I had to make sure that no one was able to contact you once the colony fell…..but I couldn't do it. I c.c…couldn't do it."
Shaking his in head in denial, Ryan continued to try and get the commander to believe him.
"I couldn't betray the colony….I didn't betray the colony, you have to believe me sir."
Taylor looked in disgust at the young man he had up against the wall, he was disgusted with him at his betrayal of the colony and his fellow soldiers who had died for the colony while he had been safe because of his betrayal.
Growling he threw Ryan to the ground and yelled for the soldier who was waiting outside in the hallway. Entering he waited for orders from Taylor who continued to glare at Ryan, still crouched on the floor where he had landed after being thrown.
"Lock this traitor up."
xXx
Ryan slid down the wall of the cell after he was roughly pushed inside; the soldier who had escorted him from the interrogation room to his present abode had not been gentle in his handling of him as he had picked him up off the floor and then dragged him out of Taylor's sight.
Pulling his knees up against his chest, making himself as small as he could Ryan wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his head into his arms. He so wanted this nightmare to end, for the commander to believe him when he had told him the truth but he held little hope that he would be believed and dreaded that he would be exiled from the colony, like others who had in the past.
xXx
Normality was slowly returning to Boylan's bar as colonists and returning soldiers gathered together to drink to the success of their fight against the mercenaries of the Phoenix group and to remember those that had been lost.
Boylan was busy serving what booze he had left that had not been taken when he saw Guz enter the bar and make his way over to a table at the back of the room, the man looked tired and despite the customers wanting a drink who had to be served, he grabbed a bottle as he wandered over to where Guz was sat.
"Free drink on the house Guz, at least the first one or maybe more depending on how long you are staying."
"What do you want Boylan, you never give anything away for free."
Guz eyed the man standing at the side of the table where he had stopped to try and relax for a few moments, not that he had time to relax what with everything that needed to be done to get the colony back on its feet.
"Guz I am appalled that you think that I am after something."
Guz continued to look at him with a raised eyebrow, as he studied the man. Grabbing a seat Boylan sat down as he leaned forward to Guz.
"I heard that young Marshall has been taken in for questioning by Taylor over his 'betrayal' of the colony."
Guz knew it; he knew that Boylan was up to something when he had spied the man approaching the table at which he sat.
"You know I cannot discuss security matters with you. Marshall will be treated the same way as any other who goes against the good of the colony."
"Only if he is guilty Guz and I don't believe the boy is."
"You can't be sure of that Boylan, everything we have seen so far in the paperwork that the Phoenix mercenaries left behind, says he is."
"Yeah well not all their paperwork is necessarily correct….nor his come to that."
Guz sat up at Boylan's words.
"What do you mean?"
"For one thing Marshall is not as old you guys think he is and his surname is not Marshall, well it is Marshall now but not when he was born."
"Boylan what are you going on about?"
"When Marshall was born his real mother gave him up for adoption, she was a career soldier. She was a wonderful woman. One of the best who gave her life for those she believed in."
Guz watched Boylan's face intently as he continued to speak to him he noticed the sad look that crossed the man's face as he spoke about Marshalls mother.
"Boylan….Who was Marshall's mother?"
"Lieutenant Washington."
A/N: Things are not looking good for Ryan and what will be Guz's reaction to the news that Washington was Ryan's mother.