The Captain spoke in a low tone. “I will never forget. But I have read her psych profile. She won't break. I think I can convince her to gi–”
“I have jurisdiction here, Captain,” the Doctor interrupted in a low voice. “The prisoners are mine to do with as I please while you handle the military affairs of our operation. That was our agreement. You are a man of honor, so honor it. We both want the same thing after all.”
The Captain started at the Doctor for a long moment. “Sometimes I wonder. Very well, but keep a close eye on this one. She is tougher than she appears.”
The Doctor chuckled from behind his mask. “Let's hope so. I hate it when they don't last.”
As the Doctor selected his first tool, Terra hoped for a last minute rescue. Maybe Alya would burst in at the last moment, or Zaid would lead a daring raid on the prison. At this point she would be overjoyed to see Vand. No rescue came, much like the questions that the torturer was suppose to ask.
∞
Terra found question-less interrogations easy to resist. This bitter thought was of little comfort when they slung the bag over her head and dumped her back into a cell before kicking her again for good measure.
She lost track of time again as the seconds drew out. The slightest sound made Terra's heart jump. A jolt of panic hit her again when someone entered her cell and grabbed her. They dragged her a ways before taking the bag off her head. She now stood outdoors, much to her surprise. After undoing her bonds they told her to walk before taking out the sonic ciphers, the translation devices, out of her ears. When Terra looked around she understood.
Watchtowers encircled an open yard while three layers of razor wire fences stood at the perimeter. Several dark clad guards stood, unconcerned, just beyond the fences. However, the other prisoners caught Terra's gaze. She recognized several tirones, but felt relieved to see her team absent.
All stood silent without the means to understand one another. Terra doubted anyone understood English so she instead walked along the edge of the fence, looking for any weak point. She was about to make a second lap when two tirones grabbed her and dragged her behind a small wall just outside the guards view. One held a sharpened utensil at Terra's throat. The other put a finger over her lips to signal Terra to remain quiet. Several others joined them.
The other tirones all had sunken eyes and bodies slender from malnourishment. Numerous cuts and bruises marred their faces. They talked amongst themselves in various languages. Often one would turn to Terra and say something she didn't understand. Finally, someone Terra recognized stepped out. He wore a US cavalry coat over his training uniform.
Terra tried to remember his name. John?
He turned to Terra. “Do you speak English or Apache?”
“English,” Terra said, still standing tense with the makeshift knife at her throat.
“Okay. I need you to listen to my question and answer very carefully,” John said in a slow southern accident. “Who was your primary instructor at the Academy?”
Terra spoke in a slow deliberate tone. “Centurion Nikias.”
The others turned to each other speaking the name Nikias. A few of them nodded. It was then Terra understood. They were translating to each other. Finally they let go of the knife and released Terra.
A man Terra recognized as a Native American spoke to John. John then turned to Terra. “Right. Sorry about that, Miss.”
Terra rubbed her neck. “What was that about?”
John shrugged. “We had to make sure you weren't another snake. They have used spies more than once.”
Terra's brow knitted. “Spies?”
John sighed. “Messed up our first escape attempt. Whose team you from?”
“Zaid's. I acted as a decoy. They were trying to contact Saturn City to get help.”
John glanced up to make sure no guards were watching them. “Did they succeed?”
A gunship landed nearby. All the prisoners gathered to watch. Terra forced back despair when she saw them drag Zaid, along with most of his team, off the transport. Hikari was still missing though.
John shook his head. “Guess not.”
∞
The next day was much the same. Beatings, torture, and then a brief respite in the courtyard. Still no questions though. Now she was hungry, tired, and her entire body screamed in pain, but she still looked forward to at least being able to talk with Zaid and the others. Maybe they could come up with a way to escape. As with her, Zaid and the rest of his team got shoved out into the yard that evening with the others.
With Terra's prompt intervention, they avoided getting their throats slit like almost happened to her. Thankfully someone spoke Arabic and could speak with Zaid. Terra asked Zaid where Hikari was. John relayed the question to an Apache who relayed it to several others. After a moment the answer came back.
John turned to Terra. “He says Hikari escaped.”
“Good,” Terra said, more to herself.
Another gunship landed and the tirones gathered to see the newcomer.
Terra and Zaid frowned when they saw Hikari. One soldier who dragged Hikari still smoldered while the rest had disheveled uniforms as though they had endured an awful beating during Hikari's capture.
Terra stood for a long moment. No one was going to help her. No one was going to save her. They were on their own now.
Zaid nodded to Terra and pointed at the ground. He had drawn out the courtyard in the dirt and motioned for the others to join him. Terra understood Zaid's hand signals. He had made his entire team learn them. They didn't need a sonic cipher to communicate and they had no more reason to wait for a rescue.
∞
A few days felt like several lifetimes to Terra as she reflected while still tied to the chair. The torture continued everyday with some worse than others. She also learned the true meaning hunger, hunger that was painful. It would have been unbearable if it wasn't for all the other pains in her body that gave her perspective. And the fear. The fear was always present. The only thing that kept it in check was Terra's cold hatred of the monsters who tortured her.
She tried to remember her warm little quarry back home. She had a home right? Those memories offered no comfort nor did they add to her torments. They just seemed surreal. Or was this place surreal? Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Terra hated going to sleep. Sleep always ended with a hard kick awake.
Terra struggled to focus. The only times her mind felt sharp was in the yards with the other prisoners where they planned and plotted.
Plans had changed several times. Most broke under torture, including most of Zaid's team, and were never seen again. Now only Zaid, Hikari, and Terra herself remained along with handful of other tirones from different teams. Despite the desperate situation, small things gave Terra hope.
One day the guards forgot to put the bag over Terra's head when another escape attempt distracted them. When they dragged Terra though the hallways she mentally noted every corridor she saw and relayed the information to the others. Over time they drew a map of the facility.
Other tirones noticed similar slips. One overheard talk of rising tensions in the camp between two rival factions. The pieces gradually fell together and the team leaders agreed on a plan. All they needed now was opportunity. This hope kept Terra going. Well that, and her Torturer's irritation.
The Doctor growled as he slung a blade across the room. “This stupid girl and her absurdly high tolerance for pain.”
Terra clenched her jaw and remained unflinching. She didn't want to give the doctor the pleasure of seeing her in pain if she could help it.
The doctor balled his fists. “I have never seem someone so stubborn! Just a scream? A moan! Even a twitch!”
Terra continued to stare at the wall. She had made of point of not reacting, speaking, or even moving during her torture.
After a moment of pacing, the doctor picked up a new tool and turned to Terra. “Well I guess I better try something new. Um. I was suppose to ask you something
wasn't I? Oh well. I'm sure I will remember when we get started again.”
The doctor finished sterilizing his new tool when the Captain walked in with two other soldiers.
“Captain,”the doctor said. “I was just about to get started again.”
The Captain spoke, hatred bleeding through the mechanical distortion of his voice. “You disgust me. I should have done this a long time ago. Execute him immediately.”
The other soldiers grabbed the doctor and dragged him outside the room as he struggled.
The doctor screamed. “No. Stop! I order you to st–”
A loud blast and a flash of light silenced him just out of Terra's sight.
The Captain turned to the other soldier in the room. “Purge the doctor's loyalists. I will finish this interrogation myself.”
The soldier saluted and closed the door behind him, leaving Terra alone with the Captain.
The Captain grabbed a towel and dabbed Terra's face, cleaning a spot of the blood and dirt. He offered her a drink of water from a canteen.
Terra stared off into nothing.
“It's not poisoned,” the Captain said. “If we wanted you poisoned we could have done so.”
Terra took a sip which eased her burning throat.
“You did well. I couldn't have asked for more from my own men,” the Captain said in a kind tone, though Terra found the mechanical buzz off putting. “I apologize about our methods. When one pursues revenge for as long as we have, it's easy to find oneself becoming the villain without realizing it.”
Terra continued to stare at the Captain's armor. She avoided looking at his eyes. They were the only visible part of his face.
“I should be honest with you. We need the shieldwatch to enter Saturn City. We will use it to invade the city, free our comrades in Tartarus, and assassinate war criminals in the Aeon Legion.”
Terra shifted her gaze to the Captain.
“I thought that would get your attention. The Saturnians recruit those lost to history to fight their wars for them. This also keeps recruits ignorant of their many atrocities. They saved your life didn't they? That's how they work. They give you a second chance at life to ensure complete loyalty. Then they seduce you. Fight for them and they let you live in their hedonistic utopia while we Kalians stand as only a memory, an echo of our former glory.”
After a moment, Terra remembered one of Shani's lectures. The Aeon Legion had fought with a people called the Kalians. It didn't make sense though. The First Temporal War happened centuries ago. Wouldn't they all be dead by now?
“They taught you about the Kalian War right? We are all that is left of the Kalian military. A few hundred of what was once twenty million soldiers. All with just enough singularity tech to keep us alive,” the Captain said as he pulled up a chair with it's back facing Terra. The Captain sat backwards on it with his arms resting on the top. “Let me tell you a story and when it's done you will give us the code for your shieldwatch. I know you will because you are like me. You have a sense of justice.”
Terra tried not to make eye contact again though she wasn't sure what to do any longer. The manual didn't tell her how to resist this.
“I wont lie to you. Starting that war was a terrible mistake. In our arrogance, we thought if we bombed the city they would capitulate. Instead they formed the Aeon Legion and began a bloody march to destroy us. You cannot understand how terrifying it is to see one legionnaire slaughter thousands of your comrades. We couldn't match their technological edge. We lost that war and paid for our sins. Now it's time for them to pay for theirs.”
The Captain shifted in his chair and pulled out a photo. He stared at it. “I had a family I fought for. Ironic that the war claimed them and not me. Someone you know killed them. One of the Legendary Blades, Cerberus though you know him as Praetor Lycus Cerberus.”
Terra's gaze snapped to the Captain, but shivered when she saw his cold, hate filled glare.
“I thought you would recognize him,” he said in a cold tone. “Lycus is one of the worst war criminals in the Legion. His blade, Cerberus, spilled a river's worth of blood and none of it was enough to satisfy him. He butchered thousands of soldiers, even those who tried to surrender. The death of my family at his hands was merely one of his many crimes. There were others. Orion cultivated his own garden of corpses. He would wade through any amount of blood and death for his precious city. Many others such as Pythia and Deucalion would go on to the claim the title of Time King or Queen and commit further atrocities, ruling time like mad emperors. They made the worst tyrants in history seem noble in comparison. Another monster is Silverwind.”
“What? No,” Terra said before she caught herself.
“Oh yes,” the Captain said, leaning closer. “Alya Silverwind. There isn't a Kalian alive who doesn't still curse that name, though we had different names for her like Bloodstorm. She killed more soldiers than most of the other war criminals put together. She was completely lost in darkness. Consumed by revenge.”
Terra stared at the Captain while questions boiled in her mind. She knew to avoid getting drawn into conversation or risk giving away information.
The Captain leaned back for a moment, as if expecting Terra to ask about Alya. Terra averted her gaze.
The Captain relaxed and continued. “The worst injustice I saved for last. Lycus butchered thousands in his blood lust. He killed my family and many others who couldn't even fight back. After all that death and destruction, he finally came to realize what a monster he was. He confessed his crimes and once the Legion discovered all he had done, do you know what they did to him?”
Terra looked up again as the Captain leaned in closer, his mask almost touching her face.
“They called him a hero,” the Captain said in a soft, but venomous tone before leaning back. “All I seek is justice. I don't care about who rules Time. I don’t care about nations or politics. All I want is for a few evil men to be brought to justice and you have the key. You can end this. You can end all the suffering and let my family rest in peace. I ask for one little thing, the code to let us into the city. Your shieldwatch has it. All that is needed is for you to access it. A simple press of a button can end my centuries old quest for justice.”
Terra met his eyes. There was sincerity to them and sadness. He was an empty vessel that centuries of rage had hollowed out. Part of her wanted to help him, to bring peace to his family, but she couldn't help ghosts. Killing Lycus would not bring this man's family back. She looked away and remained silent.
“I will give you a little time to think about it,” he said as he stood. He made his way to the door, but paused when he touched the handle while keeping his back to Terra. “You know. Sometimes I wonder if the worst thing I could do to Lycus is just let him live on as he is. If he truly knows what a monster he is, then perhaps such a burden would be more terrible than death.”
The Captain turned the handle and exited the room, leaving Terra alone.
The moment his footsteps faded, Terra began struggling against her bonds. Any bond can be loosened with enough time or at least that is what her instructors had told her. She had worked on loosening them since her first day here in the rare moments when they left her unattended. One hand slipped out of a loosened cuff and she pulled a small rock she had taken from the evening walks. She smashed the rest of her bonds with it. Terra then stood and grabbed her shieldwatch off the table just as weapons fire echoed through the hallways.
Terra moved fast. The others would likely make their escape attempt now. All they needed for their plan was a distraction or opportunity. Their enemies' descent into civil war seemed like both and the others would hear the weapons fire before coming to the same conclusion. Now that she was free, she had a job to do.
Terra moved through the hallways, avoiding areas with shouting or the sound of weapons fire. She then found her target near her interrogation room, a large series of antenna that constituted the facility's communication hub. The antennae proved delicate and T
erra felt a strange pleasure in smashing it into a twisted jumble. She then made her way to the rendezvous point.
On her way to the rendezvous point, Terra encountered another escapee. Terra sighed when she saw it was Hikari.
Hikari pointed to a window. Terra looked to see the enemy's gunships burning in the distance.
After a moment they joined the others. Zaid tossed Hikari her aeon edge and a pair of sonic ciphers. John gave Terra hers back as well.
Once everyone equipped their gear, they understood one another again. Terra thought she had taken these small sonic ciphers for granted.
Zaid looked at Hikari. “I assume the explosion I heard a moment ago–”
“Our enemy's flying machines,” Hikari said while loading a clip into her aeon edge. “Which are not fireproof.”
John turned to Zaid. “Assuming our enemy's message system is damaged, that leaves the key to the lower level.”
Zaid shook his head. “I can only pray to Allah that the Frankish knight succeeds.”
Terra turned to Zaid. “Frankish knight?”
Zaid sighed. “I don't like the Franks, but the other team leaders assured me he was quite skilled. His name was Roland I think.”
Terra's eyes widened. Roland? She felt a surge of panic. Roland would sell them out.
“There they are,” Roland said, pointing to the group of escaping tirones.
Terra turned to see Roland standing with an enemy soldier.
The soldier turned to Roland. “You were right. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Zaid scowled and the others drew their aeon edges.
The soldier shouldered his rifle and took a step forward.
Once the soldier's turned his back to Roland, Roland jumped behind the soldier and grabbed the energy gun before tossing it aside and placing the soldier in a hold.
Terra stared at Roland with wide eyes.
Roland turned to the others. “You said bring a key. The keys here are a machine that recognizes voices. This was easier than dragging him all the way here through force.”
Aeon Legion: Labyrinth Page 26
