A/N: This bit does contain a bit of torture. Just a warning for you there.
Tegan's Point of View:
My head felt heavy, and there was a pounding feeling in my temple that made me groan slightly. My entire body ached and the metallic taste of blood was stubbornly stuck in my mouth, which felt tight where blood had crusted to my lower lip and had congealed so much around my left eye it was completely shut and I was unable to open it. There was a fiery throb in my elbow and my leg was searingly hot, so much so that my ankle felt like it was drenched in sweat but it had swollen so badly it was painfully pressing agsint my boot The skin of my arms was stinging and my lower lip was swollen and throbbing, in short, everything hurt. Badly. Prying my eyelids open I blinked owlishly, the room was dark, I mean pitch black kind of dark and smelt horribly of sweat and blood. Beneath me I could feel the hard and stiff wood of a chair, the cold metal of a table pressing ontop of my knees, so they'd sat me in a chair at least, good to know he had manners still. Twisting my head, I winced when my collarbone ached, it must have been bruised, my head felt so heavy and I struggled to keep it up right. There was a raw sting in my throat whenever I tried to breathe and I guessed I hadn't had water for at least three hours, the fuzziness in my head made it hard to focus on any single thought and I found my mind drifting to my most recent memories. Atlantis; god that place was wonderful, it was safe, I should have stayed there...John and the others wouldn't have followed me if I'd have just stayed on Atlantis. But he would have just kept killing people until I came back, and I couldn't handle that kind of innocent blood on my hands. However, I had blood on my hands now, and it was worse than just innocent, random people, it was my friends blood. The memory flooded back to me, the heat of the blast, the shockwave rolling me back and the car being engulfed in flames..my friends had been in there. My friends were cooked like chickens in an oven and the only reason they were there was me, they'd come to Afghanistan for me. It was all my fault that they were dead.
A feeling I recognised all to well ballooned inside me and I fought back the grief that threatened to envelope me as best as I could. It was overwhelming, I hadn't felt as bad as this since the death of my parents. My eyes were stinging with the need to cry but I had no tears left, clearly I was dehyrdrated but that seemed like maybe one of my lesser problems right now, I had no idea how to deal with the feelings rising inside of me, the grief was tightening across my chest like a belt, making it impossible to breath and a dark cloud hung over my head, refusing to leave me alone. A nagging voice in the back of my mind was whispering to me, blaming me, and I knew it was right to. Gritting my teeth, I scrunched my eyes closed and banished the images from my mind, but it did nothing to subside the guilt that was eating me from the inside out, I couldn't shake the feeling from my mind and the fact I couldn't move was aggravating me furthur, I needed to be up and doing someting to distract myself from this, it was always what I had done to supress unwanted emotions and now I was being forced to deal with them and quite frankly, it terrified me. Suddenly, a light switched on. The bright white light filled the room and I squinted, blinking the black spots out of my eyes and trying to calm my breathing, the shock had startled me and my heart was beating ten to the dozen in my chest. When my vision cleared, I managed to take a good look around the room I was being held in. It was small, no bigger than the average prison cell only without the bars. The walls were all the same, whitewashed and overly bright when coupled with the fluroscent light above, it hummed and thunked occasionaly and my guess was the generator powering it was flunking out. The floor was concrete, bare, nothing was in this room with me besides the table and the chair I was sitting on. My hands were handcuffed behind me and the metal was biting into cuts on my wrists that the plastic ties I vaguley remembered had left behind. A large tinted window I suspected was perhaps one way was in my direct line of vision. The ceiling was low, with a criss cross metal grating covering a small hole, the only way out of here since there were no doors.
Another light came on, this time more slowly, it was behind the one way window and it turned the tinted brown colour a faded yellow instead. The man before me made me shudder. It was like my worst nightmares coming together to stand infront of me. A pair of alarmingly red eyes stared at me with a cold glint of satisfcation shining within them, his platinum blonde ponytail was present, as it always was, and it was glittering like snow under the light inside the tiny room. His pale face seemed paler than ever under the lights and I felt bile rise in the back of my throat. Terror gripped me in it's icy fingers and goosebumps crawled up and down my skin, my stomach twisted but I refused to look away from him, his presence was such that it commanded your attention and the way he moved was graceful, like a lioness stalking it's prey.
"Tegan James...my my how you've grown." his voice was eerily calm, and a hint of amusement saturated his tone. I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply, this was not how I had wanted to face him. "I must admit I was disappointed. Luring you out of hiding was too easy, and luring you out to Afghanistan? Well that was a doddle." he chuckled. Those blood red eyes peered curiously at me, "But where did you disappear to? I tracked you for years, but knew I could never get to you whilst you were with the army. I suppose that was your plan though, always working and never leaving the sight of your precious military. Then all of a sudden, bam! You're untraceable. Tell me Tegan, how did that happen?" though he sounded mildly curious his face couldn't have been more placid, it was hard to tell if Gary actually wanted to know or not.
Luckily for me, I'd been through all sorts of training to make sure I wouldn't break, he could torture me, mentally and physcially, but I would give him nothing. Nothing about the stargate programme, nothing about Atlantis. I owed it to John, to Ronon, Teyla...Rodney. A stab of pain spiked through my chest and I did my best to ignore it. Gary waited patiently, looking almost bored while he waited for me to reply but I didn't, my lips were sealed. I wasn't too sure that I was capable of speech right now anyway. Gary Murdale smiled, a sadistic looking grin that made me shiver. The spasaming movement sent waves of crippling pain over my body and I clenched my jaw to avoid vocalising my pain. "We aren't talking to one another then? A pity, I have a lot of questions I would have liked you to answer." tilting his head he grabbed a chair, swung it around so the seat was facing him, straddled it. Resting his chin on his hand like he hadn't a care in the world, he smirked. "Do you know why you're here Tegan?" Gary enquired. Swallowing thickly I grimaced, it felt like thorns in my throat but despite how rough I was feeling I couldn't resist the opporutunity to do John proud and retort with hefty sarcasm.
"Because you're a sad little man who has an unhealthy obsession with me?" I quipped but my voice shocked me. It was hoarse, croaky, nothing at all like my usual voice and I hated how weak it made me sound. Gary just laughed, a sharp soprano sound that cut through my ears like a knife.
"You possess your farthers wit." he remarked. "Perhaps my obssession is a little unhealthy, however your family have wronged me, and I will not rest until you all get what you deserve." his expression had turned sour, bitter with resentment and I almost flinched back.
"I wasn't involved in any of that. I only found out the details after you blew my dads brain across the ballroom." Though I tried to make my voice sharp it was far too hoarse to convey the burning anger I felt. Gary eyed me before shaking his head,
"No no no, you don't understand...I don't care. Your farther was a scumbag, a lieing asshole and what did he get? He got the gorgeous wife, the beautiful little girl and the respect of some of the highest authorities in world politics." Gary leaned forwards on his chair and a lazy grin stretched across his face, pulling back his thin lips to reveal the yellowing teeth behind them. "I had all of that, the wife, the two gorgeous little kids, the respect of an army. But who came out worse off, huh? Me! I did! My reputation was ruined when they found out I was using underhanded tactics to arm my rebel army! I was scrubbed from history and my family murdered! I bet they called it an accident didn't they? Oh they just died in the cross fire! No they didn't!" he was bellowing at me, looking livid and his fists shook as he clutched the chair tightly. "They lined up my family and excecuted them all infront of me! I lost everything!" suddenly, he threw the chair to the other side of his little room where it banged and clanged against something metal.
The speakers were crackling, his voice filtering through them in a not so good quality now he was shouting. A deafening silence fell over us and I bit my lip, wincing when I caught the gash and it began to bleed once more. The guilt I was already struggling with intensified, I hadn't known that.
"I'm sorry." I croaked, "They never said..." I trailed off, unable to think of anything else to say. Not that it would matter of course, not that it would make him sympathetic even if I emotionally black mailed him, he was too far gone and too unstable for that. Gary shook his head, chuckling mirthlessly and scowling at me, pointing an accusatory finger in my direction.
"No you're not. How can you be sorry for something you never knew about?"the question was rhetorical and I watched him with my one eye, panicking slightly. He was getting angry and lord only knew what he would do when he was angry, fear began to swell inside me. "Well, now I won't stop until you're all wiped from existence too, until you're family name becomes history and it loses everything too. But I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to sit back and smile as you suffer just like your farther did to me." he promised. He stood up and leaned over something. A control panel perhaps because I could hear keys clicking in the background. Anticipation filled my body and a sense of dread loomed over me, fear replaced my grief and guilt. Suddenly, the grate above me was lifted off and a rope ladder was dropped in. A single man came down it. He was tall, his tanned skin and muscular frame reminded me of John and more pain lanced through me but as he walked towards me with a key and a backpack, I pushed my grief away and preapred to fight. Out of the backpack he pulled a strange sort of chamber contraption, on the back were two green gas canisters, the chamber itself was glass and there were two holes in the front with metal screws either side to tighten or loosen the metal cuffs. Swallowing thickly, I felt sweat break out on my body, as if it wasn't already hot enough in here. He placed the chamber on the table, then, the man moved behind me and I heard the click of the cuffs as they were unlocked. Gathering my strength, I prepared myself to throw the first punch and fight my way out of here but he squeezed my elbow, the injured one, and the pain that exploded in my arm was so crippling the fight drained out of me in one long, agonized scream. The man was smart, he kept his tight grip on my elbow as he cuffed one hand into the chamber on the table infront of me, and by the time he released it I was in too much pain to fight back when he strapped the other hand in. In my delerium of pain I didn't notice him leave, but I was keenly aware of Gary laughing at me through the speaker.
Looking up I glared venomously at the man behind the screen, tugging my good arm to see if I could get it out to no avail, the metal cuffs were cold and tight on my wrists. "Disappointing Tegan." he tutted playfully. "I presume you want to know what's in the canisters?" he questioned. When he got no reply he tapped a button, and there was a hissing sound like air escaping from tyres. Searing pain burned through my skin, penetrating the layers of flesh and making a deep ache, like a rusty knife was constantly sawing cuts in the same place. My eyes widened and I grit my teeth but the effort of doing so turned my face all red and I suffered a hot flush that sent a wave of nausea through me. The pain remained, but the hissing sound stopped. Gary smiled at me innocently as I tried the same breathing technique that pregnant women used when in labour, it helped a little but really I was hoping that so many short breaths would let me pass out due to a lack of oxygen. "Do you know what that is Tegan?" Gary asked, sounding awed by himself. "It's a little bit of gas, my own invention. It burns, however if inhaled...well it can be lethal." my eyes widened slightly and he chuckled at my reaction, "Don't worry, it's an air tight chamber." he assured me. Looking down, I realised that the skin on my hands was already beginning to blister. He grinned, "Let's have some fun shall we?" he asked, and the hissing began again. Shamelessly, I screamed like a banshee. It was an endless cycle of pain, the gas burnt through my skin and the more I writhed, the more my elbow ached. Mercifully, I passed out by the time the third dosage came about, the blisters on my hands already peeling as new blisters formed underneath.
John's Point of View:
We were on the Daedalus that had stayed in orbit to get us anything we needed, the man we had caught was thrown in the brig, and we had just been cleared from the infirmary with minor cuts and bruises thankfully. Tegan was still out there and her locator was no longer working, we thought it was due to the shockwave of the blast. Pure panic had filled me the instant she was dragged out of the car but we were all in too much shock to help her, too much pain. If I hadn't have called the Daedalus to beam us up we'd have been toast. Now, we were standing in the hallway in silence. Rodney looked ashen, cradling his sprained wrist and we were all staring rather solomonly at the floor, unable to look at each other. Tegan was missing, a part of us was ripped out, we weren't whole anymore, she was part of our team, she was more than a friend. In my mind all I could see was her face, slightly flushed, lips parted, her back pressed against the airplane door. I had to find her, I hadn't had anyone to open up to like that since Nancy, but now she was here and the one time I'd allowed myself to give in, she'd been taken away from me, I refused to let it happen. Glancing at Ronon I nodded, our silent conversation conveying everything we didn't say. Rodney and Teyla (who was looking after him) followed behind us as we marched towards the brig. Caldwell wasn't keen on me interrogating our friend but right now, I was ready to use any means necessary to find Tegan and bring her safely back home. There was a small observation monitor that Teyla and Rodney were going to watch. Ronon stalked in first, leaning against the wall with his usual threatening demeanour. Shutting the door tightly behind us I faced the man head on, a killer glare on my face.
"You and me are going to have a little chat." I informed him.