*** This Story Contains Graphic Violence and May Not Be Suitable For Everyone ***

ooc:  This takes place right after the events in Dear Jonathan.

"Wake up, Doctor." The voice slowly penetrated JACE’s awareness. It was harsh, unnatural; obviously computer generated or masked in some way. As he focused on the voice, he became slowly more aware of his surroundings. The next thing to hit him was pain. A deep aching pain radiated from the back of his head around his entire skull. He groaned and tried to raise his hands to his head, only to find they were tied down.

"Good, Doctor, Good. Come now, open your eyes. It would be rude to ignore your host." Even through the heavy masking, JACE could hear the mocking tones in the voice. Trying to ignore it, he concentrated on his surroundings, trying to determine where he was.

It was cold. As he registered that fact, JACE realized he was naked and tied to a wooden chair. He concentrated on his memory, trying to reconstruct what had happened. He remembered going for a walk, intending to focus on the improvements to his fusion reactor he was working on. Instead he found himself unable to forget Celeste’s letter. There were footsteps coming up behind him quickly. Many footsteps. As he turned, there was an explosion of pain, then nothing.

Suddenly his naked form was drenched in ice cold water. JACE gasped, the air driven out of him by the shock. His eyes snapped open, only to be blinded by a brilliant light. The mocking voice spoke again. "Much better, Doctor. I don’t appreciate being ignored." Through his half-closed eyelids, he could make out a shape moving around in front of him. "Oh, I’m sorry, Doctor," the voice continued, "Is the light a little bright? Let me fix that."

The light slowly dimmed and moved out of his eyes. Now it was focused on a nearby table. Fear tightened in JACE’s chest as he saw the things laid out there. Knives of every description, hammers, saws. All those and more were laid out on the table neatly. Sitting amongst them was his Conquistador communicator. As JACE’s eyes locked on the communicator, the dark figure walked over. All JACE could tell for sure was that the figure wore a baggy jumpsuit and a large helmet of some sort.

The figure picked up the communicator. "You want this, Doctor? I don’t know why. It won’t do you any good." A harsh laugh echoed out of the helmet. The voice grew colder, more contemptuous. "Don’t you understand, Doctor? They hate you. They despise you. Do you really think any of them would even lift a finger to help you?" He leaned in closer to JACE. In a quiet voice he continued. "You could call them up right now, let them know where you are and what is happening, and they would just laugh at you and hang up."

As the figure turned away, his words seemed to slam into JACE’s mind. He stared in shock as his brilliant brain made all the connections. He was aware of the hostility of the other Conquistadors towards him, however unwarranted he felt it was. He had never considered how deep that hostility must run. The figures words made perfect sense to him. Of course they wouldn’t come. They would probably laugh and toast his death, maybe even offer to help. The doctor sat silent as he digested the truth. Finally he murmured, "Of course, how could I not see it before."

The figure came back into his line of sight. "Now, Doctor. We have some questions for you. Questions about one of your so-called teammates. One of those who would happily see you rot here, in this room. Answer them, and you will be done. You will be allowed to leave with no further harm. Refuse and," The figure indicated the table with a wave of his hands, "I’m sure you are intelligent enough to know what will happen, Doctor." He leaned in close again. "What do you owe them, anyway? They would leave you here to rot. You don’t owe them anything. Do what is right for you, Doctor. Just tell us what we want to know."

Again, the figure’s words seemed to drive themselves into JACE’s mind. He didn’t owe them anything. Not people who would leave him here to die. He nearly agreed, when his head suddenly snapped up. "Never," he growled at the figure, glaring. It wasn’t about what he did or didn’t owe the team. It was about what he owed these people. They had dared assault him, kidnap him, now they wanted him to submit to them? He had never submitted to anyone in his life. He wasn’t going to give them anything they wanted.

Staring into the featureless helmet, he forced his voice into its normal tones. "I will escape here, then I will kill you. I will kill you slowly and painfully." He smiled a feral smile. "As a matter of fact, I have a new device I will use to do it. I call it a molecular destabilizer. It will literally cause parts of you body to fly apart. Based on the reactions of the rats I have tested it on, it is very painful indeed. I..." The figure’s hand flashed out and smashed JACE across the face. The doctor felt his skin tear as his head snapped to the side.

"Shut, up, Doctor." The figure’s voice was heavy with anger. He spun on his heel and walked away.

"Understand something," JACE continued, ignoring the pain and blood on his face. "Your only chance for survival is to let me go, right now. Otherwise I will hunt you down and you will die most horribly."

Somewhere in front of him, JACE heard a door open, then close. JACE was left alone in the chair, then only thing he could see was the table full of horror to his left. Listening, he could hear the creaking of the large building in the wind and, possibly, the distant sound of traffic. He could feel throbbing pain from the back of his head and his cut cheek. A warm trickle of blood ran down the side of his face. He stared into the darkness, trying to calculate how to escape.

*******

Outside the room, the figure leaned against the wall, breathing deeply. A man walked up. "What happened? I thought you said you could convince him to answer our questions."

The first figure removed its helmet, revealing a woman with cropped blond hair and burn scars all over her face. "I warned you about this." She snapped, "I can make suggestions, but the subject has to be willing to go along. Apparently he has some serious doubts about his teammates, so I was able to convince him they wouldn’t help him, but he’s still not willing to answer questions."

"Very well," the dark haired man nodded. "You have done what you could, now we’ll do it the hard way."

*****

Footsteps intruded on JACE’s solitude. Slow and measured, they came from the same direction the figure had gone. He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but his arms and legs had long since cramped up. Still, determined not to let them beat him, he lifted his head proudly, and stared into the darkness, waiting as calmly as he could.

"Hello again, Doctor," the figure said as it came into view. "I don’t suppose you have reconsidered your position? I really would prefer to do this the easy way."

JACE studied the figure for a moment. Despite the clothes being the same, things had changed. The voice, even through the masking, was wrong. The height of the figure had changed, even its walk was different. He forced a smile on his face. "I don’t believe we have met, but my position hasn’t change significantly. I will merely extend the same offer to you. Release me immediately and return my things, or I will kill you in a most painful and embarrassing fashion. You will take weeks to die and you will beg for the end the entire time."

The figure chuckled. "You are as perceptive and bright as your reputation suggests, Doctor. However, I don’t believe you are in the proper position to makes such threats." He caressed the knives gently and his voice took on an almost loving tone. "I’m afraid it is you that will be begging, Doctor. And you will not die until you tell me what I want to know."

Selecting a jagged knife, he turned back to JACE. "Now, let’s talk about your team’s leader, Nemesis." The knife turned in his hand, reflecting light off its clean, shiny surface. "Tell me what you think of him."

"I think I will enjoy destroying your hands, one fing....AAARGH." JACE screamed as the figure drove the knife deeply into JACE upper arm. The jagged edge of the knife grated on the bone and a thick torrent of blood ran down the side of JACE’s body. JACE gasped and choked, overwhelmed by the sudden explosion of agony.

"Come now, Doctor," the figure continued in a calm, easy voice, as if discussing the weather. As he spoke, he gently turned and twisted the knife in the wound, sending waves of agony up JACE’s arm as the jagged edges of the blade caught and pulled at the tissue. "You are a bright man. You know I will eventually get what I want out of you. The only question is, how much pain will you endure first. Be smart, just tell me what I want to know."

"One...finger...at...a...time," JACE had lost the calm arrogant tone to his voice, but he held on to the determination not to tell them anything.

"One finger at a time it is, Doctor," said the figure. He pulled the knife out, releasing a gout of blood and a blast of pain that made JACE nearly pass out. When his vision cleared, the knife was back on the table, still covered in blood, and the figure held a hammer over JACE’s hands. He looked up at JACE’s face. "Come, Doctor, this is foolish. Do you really want to lose your fingers over it? All I’m asking is your opinion of him as a leader. How do you think he will do as a Conquistador?"

Part of JACE wanted to answer. The pain from his arm was excruciating, the threat to his hands terrifying. At some level, he wanted nothing more than to give them what they wanted and leave. He knew, however, that the more questions he answered, the harder it would be to stop. He also knew they would never let him go. Once they had what they wanted, they would kill him and get rid of the body. He forced his fear down. Pain was transient and he would endure until he could escape. "I will enjoy watching your limbs explode," he growled. Despite everything he turned away as the hammer rose.

*****

What seemed like hours later JACE hung in the chair only supported by the ropes that tied him. His entire body throbbed with pain. Most of his fingers were twisted wrecks, bent and broken. His torso was covered in deep scrapes and blood from a cheese grater. Question after question about Nemesis filled his mind. The man had asked him things again and again, always about the vigilante. Who he really was, what weapons he used, any weaknesses he might have.

Despite the pain, he had resisted telling them anything, although it had been a near thing. When all else had failed him, he clung to his pride. He wasn’t about to let a group of neanderthal barbarians beat him. But he knew he had to escape. He refused to die here, like this. The possibility was too humiliating to contemplate.

As he sat there, he tested his bonds with what little strength he had left. He forced his mind to ignore the pain and examine the variables. Sitting alone in the dark, listening to his blood drip on the floor, he contemplated vectors and force in his head, making and discarding plans.

*****

The next visit from the torturer was no better. After a brutal beating to get things started, the knives came back out. Soon JACE was bleeding from cuts on his body and legs. Between blood loss and pain, he was disoriented, struggling to focus. He clung to the thought that he was not going to give this man anything except a slow, painful death. Almost involuntarily, JACE’s mind drifted away, thinking of new, painful ways to kill someone. Pain and cold shocked him back to awareness as bucket of cold salt water was thrown on him. His many wounds burned and he gasped and choked.

"You disappoint me, Doctor," the figure said. Despite his calm tone, JACE could hear the irritation and anger in his voice. "I had hoped to be done with this foolishness by now. The questions I’ve asked have been simple, easy to understand, and certainly not worth this much pain. You don’t like Nemesis. You certainly don’t respect him. Why would you endure all this for him?"

JACE spat out a small amount of blood and looked up at the man. He made whispering sounds, drawing the man closer. The man stepped close to the bound doctor, leaning his helmeted head in to hear better. "I’m not enduring it for him, I’m enduring it for me, you misanthropic sociopath." JACE brought his knee, which he had spent hours loosening, up into the man’s groin. It wasn’t a hard hit, but surprise and pain doubled him over. JACE then slammed the man’s helmet with the side of his head. Pain exploded in the doctor’s head, but the man was knocked sprawling.

The man sprang to his feet, enraged. With a howl he descended on the doctor, smashing his fists into the bound man’s body again and again. Through the pain, JACE focused as best he could, turning his body and measuring vectors. He felt and heard his ribs break, the wind was blasted from his body. Then he heard a different crack, and a faint smile crossed his face.

Finally, the man stepped back, breathing heavily. He stood for a moment, just glaring, and his voice was strained and angry as he spoke. "That was very foolish, Doctor. No matter how angry you make me, I won’t kill you. Not until you tell me what I want to know." With a determined stride, the man walked to the table again. "I will, however teach you not to strike your betters."

JACE wanted to respond, but all he could produce was a wheezing gurgle. As he watched, the man picked up another knife from the table. It had a very short blade, no more than a few centimeters long. The figure held it up as he turned back around. When he spoke, he was calm once again. "I had hoped it would not come to this, Doctor. I had hoped you would be sensible. But you must now be punished. This knife is not very long. Just long enough to penetrate the skin and find a nerve."

As he spoke, the man moved behind the chair, out of JACE’s view. "Just long enough to sever the spinal cord below the skull." Despite himself, JACE began to tremble. Suddenly the man’s hand grabbed JACE hair. With brutal strength he forced the doctor’s head back until JACE was staring at the ceiling. "Just long enough to penetrate the eye," he growled and plunged his hand down. Screams JACE barely recognized as his own exploded throughout the room and pain drove him down into darkness.

*****

Later, JACE slowly regained consciousness. He could see nothing out of his left eye, but he could feel the weight of the knife, still embedded in his eye socket. Trying to breath, he turned and shifted in the chair, whimpering as broken bones grated against each other. He forced his body to respond, trying to push through the pain. Despite everything, a feral smile crossed his face as he felt the chair flex. Gritting his teeth, he bent and thrashed as violently as his tortured body would allow. Thin screams emerged from his lips, but he continued. The chair creaked and groaned under him, then, with a suddenness that shocked him, the frame collapsed, breaking into pieces. JACE nearly passed out as his abused body hit the ground.

He lay there for a moment. Despite the pain, JACE felt a certain satisfaction. He had been right. Once again his brilliant mind had served him. He had provoked the man into an uncontrolled beating, which had cracked the back of the chair, weakening it enough to allow JACE to break it. The doctor pulled his arms and legs free as quickly as his body could stand. With a grimace of pain, he clenched his broken fingers around the knife and jerked it from his eye socket.

He staggered over to the table, ignoring the many torture implements that still dripped with his blood. He reached his broken fingers towards the communicator. One call and he would be rescued. Just before he called, he hesitated. He remembered the first figure’s words. "They won’t come for you anyway." He could not recognize the mental influence behind the suggestion, but he couldn’t deny the basic truth underneath it either. With a growl, he gathered the communicator up as well as he could in his left hand. He forced his right hand around large knife handle and staggered towards the far end of the room and freedom.

*****

It was hours later before JACE finally got home. He didn’t remember much of the trip. He remembered wandering through the warehouse until he found an exit, then getting his bearings and walking slowly and painfully down multiple streets, a bloody, naked figure clutching a knife. His feet were cut and bleeding, but at least they matched the rest of him. Stumbling up to his door, he touched the biometric reader and the door slid open. With a groan, he fell inside, nearly passing out.

Refusing to collapse yet, he dragged himself over to his briefcase and opened it. Putting on his suit took minutes instead of the usual seconds, but finally his HUD activated and he could feel and hear his suit come to life around him. The cybernetic connections snapped into place and he stood. Despite the fact that he could only see half of his displays, he wasn’t about to quit. He walked to his workbench and scooped up his DNA tracker as well as a nerve blocker. The first he connected to his suit, the second he activated, alleviating the worst of the pain. Seconds later he was in the air, following his own DNA back to the warehouse.

When he arrived, the fire trucks were already there. The warehouse was an inferno. Despite the water and foam being poured on the structure, it was obviously a lost cause. The firemen were all focused on the surrounding buildings, trying to contain the fire. Scanning their radio calls, JACE identified the chief and landed beside him.

"Dr. JACE," the man jumped slightly, obviously startled. "It’s good to see you here, but I’m not sure there’s much you can do. Nobody’s inside, as far as we can tell, and I don’t see how we can save it. Just an old condemned warehouse anyway."

JACE nodded as he fought with his rage. He had been too late. No doubt they were long gone by now. He activated his suits sensors, but the inside of the building was empty. Angry and determined to try, he activated his DNA sensor, gathering data on all of the DNA samples in the area. He flew around the building multiple times, getting everything he could. It might take a lifetime, but one of the samples he found was the man who did this too him. However long it took he was going to track him down.

JACE returned home and headed into his lab. The tissue regenerator was right where he left it last time. Striding over to it, he adjusted the settings on it slightly, then opened the top. With a groan of agony, he slowly removed his suit, leaving it lying on the floor in pieces around him. Barely able to move again, he dragged himself into the unit and activated it. As he felt the broken parts of his body heal, he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. His last thought was he would never tell anyone about this.