"Tell us what you know and we might let you live!" The spree agent hissed at her before striking her in the face once again.

Tally coughed against the collar and did her best to spit the growing pool of blood out of her mouth. She bit her tongue, completely unwilling to give them anything.

The witch paced slowly around her. "Give me anything at all and I will have my best fixer take the pain away," The woman leaned down closer, mere inches away from Tally's face. With all her strength, Tally gave a huff and thrust her head forward with as much force as she could muster, sending the woman stumbling backwards with a yelp. The blow made the whole room around her spin, the fluorescent light felt brighter, crimson liquid dripped from her nose, and she could barely hear mutterings of the others who were watching.

The interrogator, who was now bleeding profusely from her nose as well, snarled at her before she began singing a low note. At first Tally scoffed at how pathetic the lady looked, but after a few seconds she felt a dull ache that started in her feet. It crept through her like a snake slithering up her body, wrapping itself around her every limb, intertwining itself in every muscle, constricting her and poisoning her as it went. Soon she couldn't move, she couldn't speak, she couldn't even breathe. Another witch joined in in harmony with the first and suddenly the dull ache became a searing all consuming pain that jolted through her like electricity and fire. They held the harmony for a few moments before releasing her.

She gasped for breath, choking on the blood in her mouth. Her head rolled to the side, she no longer had the strength to hold it up on her own. The main interrogator stepped up to her again, grabbing her by the chin, forcing her to look her in the eyes, but holding herself far enough back so that there was no chance Tally could headbutt her again. "Tell me about general Alder,"

"Go. To. Hell," Tally spat viciously.

The woman ripped her hand away from her face and turned her back to her. "The army has lied to you, Tally, the general herself has lied to you, you have been used and betrayed, yet you remain loyal. It would be so easy for you to make all of this end,"

"If I talked...the general...would do worse to me...than you ever could... Tally sputtered against the pain.

The woman turned again. "Sarah Alder can't hurt you here, child, but we can, and we will if you don't start talking,"

Tally laughed then, almost maniacally. "I'm not getting out of this alive," She paused to take a shaky breath. "we both know that I will die with her secrets so let's just skip to that part,"

"We won't be killing you for a while, there's no rush," With that, they left Tally alone, bloodied and bruised, with just her thoughts to occupy her. After who knows how long of silence and resting, she considered trying to reach out to Alder through whatever was left of their link, but she was afraid she'd be wasting energy when she should be thinking about how to escape. She was painfully well aware that Alder had ordered Izadora take extra measures to break the link so there was no telling if there was anything left or not. She just knew she kept having Alder's memories interrupt her life and it seemed like occasionally she could feel the general's feelings. She wasn't convinced it was two-sided though, since she had to bring the memories to the general's attention in the first place.

General! General can you hear me?! She focused all of her mental energy on the link they had once shared so intensely with the faint hope Alder could hear her or at the very least sense her pain. She waited for anything. For any clue or hint or sign that Alder had heard her but there was nothing.

Seconds turned to minutes, turned to hours, and after that she didn't know how long it had been anymore since they had left her alone.

There were no windows in the room where she was being held. For a moment she suspected she was underground, but had no evidence to support her theory. She had woken up in the chair she was chained to and she recalled nothing of how she got there.

She wondered if Raelle was okay, or if they had taken her too. It all happened so fast. They were just talking on the front step of Raelle's house when she noticed the red truck had followed them from across town.

She remembered thinking that the people had to be spree, no doubt having gotten their information from Scylla now that she was free again. Their assailants had thrown several bottles at them, each breaking and releasing songs that brought both her and Raelle to the ground. They both tried in vain to cover their ears, but neither of them was able to withstand it. They hadn't had a chance to defend themselves, not that Tally is convinced she would have, given they were on break and there is the strictly no work off base policy. Maybe she would have though, she knew Raelle would have.

The last thing she saw before her vision clouded over with darkness was her sister being scooped up off the ground and carried toward the truck.

That had to be days ago now, but she couldn't tell. All she knew was that at the moment she couldn't escape, Alder had clearly not heard her, and her hope that someone would come looking for her was rapidly disappearing.


Alder just watched and waited. She knew the rest of Tally's unit would be in here the moment they stepped back on base, it was only a matter of time. She already had a migraine, she did not need to deal with them today as well.

"Are you doing anything at all?!" Raelle slammed her fist on Alder's desk the moment she entered the room, not bothering with formalities for even a second, and all the biddies hissed at her.

"Private. You have a lot of nerve to march in here and speak to me like this," Alder's expression did not change in the slightest, her self control never wavered. "Of course we have teams looking for Craven, but you know that we are not to do work in the cession and the spree have clearly capitalized on that,"

"How do you know it was the spree, general?" Abigail glared at her, but was still trying to be more tactful and restrained than Raelle.

"That information is classified, Private. I am ordering you two to leave it alone. You will be notified of any developments," Alder said with a tone of finality that only made Raelle clench her fists harder.

"But…" Abigail started but was cut off.

"Dismissed!" Alder growled.

"Yes, ma'am," They said in unison and left quickly, passing Izadora and Petra without a second thought on their way out.

Alder rubbed her temples before glancing at the open door. One of her biddies was quick to close it behind the two incoming officers. "What now?" She grumbled painfully, wanting nothing more than to shut out the world and sleep or at the very least sit in the dark where her eyes and her head wouldn't be assaulted by the lights and sounds of the world.

Petra and Izadora shared a concerned glance. "Are you okay General? Are all of your biddies in good health?" Izadora dared to ask.

"I'm fine, we're all fine," Alder dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"You look pale, Sarah," Petra stated, not concerned that Alder may retaliate against her.

She just scoffed under her breath. "I already said I'm fine, do I need to prove it to you or are you going to give me a status update!" Another cautious glance.

"We do have an update. She is stronger than you expected, General, so far she has not said anything revealing at all, in fact maybe we can end this now. Look at this," Petra started off, then pulled out a tablet, setting it on the desk and pressing play.

"Tell me about General Alder,"

"Go. To. Hell," It was Tally. Tally's sweet voice, layered in such pain, that it hurt Sarah to hear.

"The army has lied to you, Tally, the general herself has lied to you. You have been used and betrayed, yet you remain loyal. It would be so easy for you to make all of this end," Alder did her best not to let any emotion show while watching but she was finding it difficult.

"If I talked...the general...would do worse to me...than you ever could..." Tally's breathing was labored and ragged. Sarah wondered what had occurred just moments prior, what workings and seeds had they used on her.

"Sarah Alder can't hurt you here, child, but we can, and we will if you don't start talking,"

Tally was laughing now and Alder was unsure what part was funny about any of it. "I'm not getting out of this alive...we both know that I will die with her secrets so let's just skip to that part,"

"We won't be killing you for a while, there's no rush," Izadora paused the video.

Alder looked up and waited for them to continue, looking pointedly between them, having the feeling there was more they wanted to say. "State your objections,"

"Wha..yes, general. I do feel that you are running a risk of damaging her psyche, Sarah. Mentally she has already gone through a lot with the biddying and unbiddying processes. This is different though. This type of torture is going to leave her with mental, emotional, and physical scars. She could be looking at PTSD from this exercise of yours," Izadora's voice was laced with concern for the girl, but Alder gave them orders and they could not disobey.

"You have ways to help her cope with all of that after, yes?" Alder asked distractedly, dedicating her focus on her pounding migraine.

"I do...but…" Izadora started.

"Push her harder," Alder commanded, albeit quietly.

"I really must protest, Sarah. It has been three days and she's given our officers nothing. She already said she would die with the army's secrets, what more do you need?" Petra was appalled, but was silenced.

Alder let her hands hit her desk and she stood to stare down Petra. "What I need, general, is for you to stop questioning my decisions. She is a threat to security and I need to know the information cannot be tortured out of her, do you understand me, both of you?!" They both nodded quickly. "Do whatever it takes, and do not come back until you can say that with one hundred percent certainty!"

"Yes ma'am!" They both uttered as confidently as possible.

"Now leave the recording here and get out of my office!" Izadora quickly followed Petra out, shutting the door behind her.

Alder sighed, leaning back in her chair. Her headache had worsened tenfold during the span of that conversation if it were possible. She knocked back her remaining shot of whiskey even though she knew it would only worsen her pain. Grudgingly she snatched the tablet from the edge of her desk and flicked on the screen.

She intended to watch every detail of the interrogation from the beginning to know exactly what she was doing to her poor cadet. The still image of Tally slumped over in a chair in the middle of the grey cell was chilling but she pushed past it. She pressed play and slowly the images came to life. She had a growing feeling that this was going to be one of those rare things that she lived to regret. No part of her enjoyed this. She had to fight incredibly hard with herself to even allow it to happen. It felt like part of her was dying, but part of her also knew it had to be done. She cared too much for Tally and she knew that bond they shared would make Tally a target for their enemies. Sarah couldn't admit to herself what those feelings were beyond just a strong personal connection, but she could say with absolute certainty that if anyone got their hands on Tally Craven, there would be hell to pay.

At the same time though, after Tally's revelation that she was seeing her memories, it made her an extreme liability not just for being one of Alder's few weaknesses on a personal level, but also for having potentially debilitating information that could be used against her, the army, and the country. She had to be sure Tally wouldn't break under duress by an actual enemy, even as much as it killed her inside to watch this manufactured scenario she created hurt this poor girl.