#yes this is about vic and sahota | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

befuddled-calico-whump · 11 months ago

Text

Total $hit$how: A Subtle Threat

in which Kaius begins to understand who he's working with

cw: violence/beating, adult language, brief emeto mention, implied/referenced torture

previous ///// masterlist ///// next

×~×~×

“I didn't even get to help.”

“Sure you did! You said the drone chassis was like a combo lock—”

“A master brand combo lock yes, but those are child's play.”

The team was gathered in the dining hall for the evening meal; platters of tasteless chicken, rice, and some unidentified green vegetable. Kaius assumed it was as nutritious as it was bland, and mindlessly forked small bites into his mouth as the others chattered. Vic’s test had been as challenging as he’d anticipated, and though they’d technically failed it, the trial had given him a better perspective on the team. Cavan was fearless and determined; Ruebin was fearful but willing to run into danger all the same; and Davis… Jericho’s heart got in the way of his brain. Even Harbor had his uses, when he proved willing to cooperate.

He was nearly finished with his meal when Vic strolled into the room, something unreadable on his face. Cavan and Ruebin fell silent, and Jericho straightened in his chair. Shockingly, even Harbor sat up straight for once, looking like he may actually be paying attention. Strange to see him go from a slouching mess to someone who looked like he almost cared about this mission in the span of a few weeks.

Kaius had paid enough attention to know he and Vic had been spending time alone, but he was uncertain if it was for behavioral correction, additional training, or something else, and he didn’t care enough to speculate.

“I hate to interrupt your dinners,” Vic began. His tone was rife with his usual friendliness, though it seemed off, somehow. Like his voice was wearing a mask.

“I’ve just received an encrypted transmission from a source I believe is connected to Rotorworx.”

Interesting. If the transmission was anything pertinent, it could be the first new development in their intelligence collection. Kaius wondered if this would turn out to be something negative, and that was the explanation behind the shift in Vic. Was their handler concerned about something?

Unsurprisingly, Cavan raised her hand. “So does that mean they know who we are? Isn’t that a bad thing?”

“It’s nothing to be worried about,” Vic replied. “They reached me using a phantom frequency. One-time use. Untraceable.”

Jericho frowned. “How did they get the frequency?”

At this, Vic sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I want all of you to come with me to the briefing room. I’ll answer further questions there.”

Kaius pushed himself up from the table without hesitation. If they were being directed to the briefing room, this was certainly a more serious matter. The rest of the group trailed behind, filing into the room and taking their seats. A projector screen had been set up against one wall, and the lights were dimmed. Vic closed the door behind them and typed something into the keyboard of an open laptop. The screen flickered to life, a gray stone wall frozen on the frame.

Vic pressed a button, and the video began to play.

“If you’re seeing this, you fucked up,” came a voice, made tinny and small by the laptop audio. It was that of a man, low and hoarse, and as he spoke, he angled the camera down, catching his black lace-up boots for an instant. “We caught your little spy.”

Caught their..? Kaius’s breath stuck in his throat as the camera spun around, landing on a figure tied to a chair. He was slouched forward as if unconscious and stripped to the waist, revealing scarred skin and a heavily bruised torso. Curly, sweat-damp hair hung in his face, obscuring it, but Kaius knew who it was.

“Sahota,” Jericho whispered.

A second figure moved into frame, masked and clad in black. They seized a fistful of Sahota’s hair with a gloved hand, forcing his head up. His face was just as bruised as the rest of him, his eyes unfocused and glaring, blood streaming from his nose.

“If you want him to stay in one piece, you’ll need to take it up with our boss,” said the man behind the camera. “If you don’t, it’s no skin off my back. I’m sure we’ll crack him eventually.” At that, the second figure let Sahota’s head drop, moving around to drive their fist into their captive’s stomach. The camera lingered in place as the beating continued, blow following blow until Sahota was retching up bile.

Every moment of impact sent a small jolt through Kaius—a memory of a nightmare that might’ve not been a nightmare after all—but he couldn’t make himself look away.

“What?” said the cameraman. “Nothing to say to that? Nothing?” He punctuated the question with a blow that sent Sahota’s head snapping to the side, but didn’t draw out much more than a gasp in way of sound. The cameraman let out a breathy laugh.

“Guess if we can’t crack him, we’ll just kill him and find you anyway.” The camera dropped, lens facing the ground once more. “Your choice.”

Vic turned it off. In the absence of the video's sound---the blows and threats and ragged breaths---the silence was very, very loud

“Following this, there’s a black screen with instructions to contact,” Vic said simply, like he was just listing the day’s training exercises.

“What are they? How do we start?”

“We aren’t going to start, Miss Cavan.”

Kaius felt frozen in his seat, unable to look away from the now-blank screen, unable to stop seeing Sahota’s bloodied face. He couldn’t steer his thoughts from his childhood home, the grand estate and all the secrets within it, the secrets he’d worked so hard to uncover but found only regret when they’d come to light. Blood and stone and chains, his mother telling him to come sit in the drawing room and they’d talk about it, and I promise this all has a perfectly sane explanation—

“Then what is your proposed course of action?” Kaius spat out, the words coming out too harsh. No matter, he just needed to curb his thoughts, and there was nothing for that like a good plan. Now that he’d torn himself free of the screen, he could see he wasn’t the only one the video had affected. Across the table, Ruebin was still and teary-eyed, and Jericho seemed rigid beside him.

“Action?” Vic repeated. “I don’t plan on taking action.”

“What?” Joy said. “What do you mean, you’re not taking action? Isn’t he your partner?”

“Sahota is perfectly capable—”

“Sahota is tied to a fucking chair getting the shit beat out of him,” Cavan protested. “Why would you show us this if you don’t want us doing anything about it?”

Vic calmly closed the laptop screen, then moved to turn the lights back on. “I prefer to keep my operatives in the know if the situation pertains to them. The video explains the potential prolonged absence of your trainer better than words could, as well as providing justification for any adjusted security measures on my part.”

Cavan stood. “So what, that was an infographic?” she snarled. “Is he just a fucking visual aid to you?”

“Miss Cavan—”

“I don’t give a fuck what your plan is, I’m not just going to sit here while your second-in-command is tortured.”

“He can take it,” Vic snapped, and his voice seemed to echo in the silence it caused. Cavan’s mouth fell open, but she said nothing.

“Take your seat.”

She did, the room quiet and waiting around her. Vic let the air still for a long moment, as if daring the room to cause another interruption.

“I’d thank all of you to maintain a respectful tone,” he said at last, his voice stony and cool. “Remember that you only have this opportunity because of me, and that I can take it away as easily as I granted it.”

The muscles in Cavan’s jaw tightened.

“Sahota is a trained agent. I know him better than anyone, and I know what he can handle,” Vic continued. “The goons currently in possession of him don’t know what they’re dealing with. Should I give in to their demands and contact their boss, I would be lighting a beacon. They would locate me, locate every one of you, and come down with everything they had. You all would return to whatever sub-ideal situation I rescued you from, and the mission would be a bust. In a few weeks’ time, the Reality Cage would conduct its test, and untold destruction would fall onto the city, potentially the world.” He paused, tugging down the cuff of his shirtsleeve. “And all this for the sake of sparing Sahota a little pain.”

Kaius swallowed, his palms flat on the table though he couldn’t seem to feel its surface. Logically, doing nothing seemed to be the correct move, but the way Vic said it, cold and uncaring, only filled him with a sense of wrongness.

“Is there a third option?” he asked. “You have resources. Is a rescue attempt out of the question?”

“It would be a waste of time and energy,” Vic replied.

“Would it?” Jericho said. “What if they get something out of him? Wouldn’t the mission be a bust anyway?”

At that, Vic actually smiled. “They don’t have what it takes to break Sahota.”

“They said they’d kill him then,” Ruebin spoke at last, his voice wavering. “We—We have to try—”

“They won’t get a chance,” Vic said. Some of his usual jovial tone was beginning to creep back into his voice, and Kaius wondered if the initial shift he’d detected wasn’t worry at all, but frustration at a minor setback. The way he was speaking, it appeared that was all this was to him. Could the same be said for Sahota?

Kaius had a sort of admiration for their trainer. Cold though he was, he was efficient and competent, and didn’t waste words. Having seen him in action, Kaius did not doubt Vic’s claims that he could hold out. But that didn’t mean he should have to.

“I didn’t realize you would all be so distressed over this,” Vic continued. “Rest assured, Sahota will be fine. He will escape, and he will complete his mission. If you don’t believe me, you don’t know him at all. You saw it yourselves. He was hardly shaken by their threats.”

The bruises, the glazed look in his eyes like he was distancing himself from the moment…

Kaius clenched his jaw. “You don’t think it will be a detriment to our training when he returns injured?”

Vic let out a dry chuckle. “You’d be surprised what he can walk off. I don’t think he feels pain at all, not anymore.”

“I still think we should try—”

“I see now that I made a mistake showing this to you,” Vic interrupted. “I can only blame myself. I keep forgetting you’re not accustomed to our lifestyle.” He let out a loud sigh. “But if it gives you peace of mind, I suppose I’ll allow you to attempt a rescue mission.”

“Allow… us?” Ruebin said.

“Yes. I can promise you, you are the only ones with any concern for Sahota’s well-being. I can’t spare the manpower, but if it’ll put your hearts at ease, I can spare you. If you five unanimously agree to it, I’ll temporarily release you from the facility for that purpose.” He held out his hands, palms up, an eyebrow raised. “So what say you? Who wants to rescue Sahota?”

Immediately, Cavan’s hand shot up, closely followed by Jericho. Kaius raised his own hand with a grimace. They’d need someone to keep them on track.

Across from him, Ruebin closed his eyes, let out a breath, and thrust his own arm up. Almost surprising. Kaius knew he’d never volunteer on his own, but the man seemed more confident in a pack. There was only one vote left to count.

Truthfully, Kaius was surprised Harbor’s hand hadn’t gone up sooner. The often-disheveled man was certainly reckless enough, and if anything, Kaius at least expected him to volunteer out of boredom. But when he glanced over, Harbor was still, fingers tapping restlessly against the table, his eyes fixed on Vic.

Cavan let out a huff. “Harbor, it’s on you. Do you really not want to—”

“I think Vic is right,” he mumbled. “It’d just be a waste of time. Sahota’ll get out soon anyway.”

Before she could protest, Vic clapped his hands together.

“It’s settled then. I suppose I should let you all get back to your dinner.” He unlocked the door and opened it with a shove. “Dismissed.”

It was clear that was the end of the conversation. Kaius was slow to stand, but the others were slower, shuffling out into the hall like undead. It felt surreal, to be called in to witness brutality against an ally only to be told they could do nothing about it. Almost like it wasn’t the explanation Vic had claimed it was, but a warning. ‘Should you stumble on your quest, this will be you, and no one is coming to save you.’

Jericho and Cavan were whispering behind him, and Kaius turned his breathing shallow to pick up on their voices.

“...really stop us? If we can find out where he is—”

“Dangerous, but I like our odds.”

Hmm. Kaius slowed his stride until the pair were a scant few feet behind him. “Planning an illicit rescue?” he said, not turning around.

“Maybe,” Cavan whispered. “Want in?”

To disobey orders was to put himself against Vic, a scenario he was liking less and less. But to turn his back on Sahota’s predicament completely was no different from participating in his torture, and Kaius had sworn to himself years ago it would never come to that. If you had to become the thing you ran from in order to escape it, what was the point of running at all?

“Both captors were dressed in low-grade tactical gear,” Kaius said. “They’re likely mercenaries hired by Rotorworx, and likely don’t have an excess of weapons or backup. The location they had him in in the video is walled by a very distinct type of stonemasonry, indicating one of the city’s older buildings, likely the basement of a repurposed church or courthouse.” He cast a half-glance over his shoulder. “Which should bring us down to a dozen or so potential targets, if we’re lucky.”

“Shit,” said Cavan.

“We need to get out of here first. Without Vic knowing,” Jericho said.

“Better get Benji onboard.”

“What about Harbor?”

“He’s made his choice,” Kaius said. “Meet in the kitchen at midnight. If we can make it out of the facility undetected, I’ll have a plan at the ready.”

Perhaps it was stupid, but to stay his hand would be to betray himself. Even without his usual resources, Kaius was confident he could come up with something substantial.

He kept careful watch of the time and sat in his room, lights off, mentally recovering everything he knew about the city. To reach it on foot would take too long; they’d need to commandeer some sort of vehicle. Then once they located Sahota, they’d need to deal with his captors. If they were incredibly lucky, it would only be the pair that had shown up in the video, but even if they weren’t, Kaius was willing to bet there were no more than five men. The team had no access to weapons, but he supposed he could leave it to Cavan to improvise something.

The clock struck eleven fifty five, and Kaius made his silent journey to the kitchen.

Jericho was already there when he arrived, Cavan and Ruebin stepping in a shade before midnight.

“The path outside is likely alarmed. Ruebin?”

“Yup. I’ll handle that.” Ruebin seemed tense. They all did, really. Even Kaius was feeling the fear of potential failure, of what could happen if Vic caught wind of it and they couldn’t sway him to their favor.

“You take point, Manak,” Cavan whispered. “Signal us to stop if you see anything.”

Kaius nodded, motioning them to follow him out of the kitchen. As painful as it was to move slow, caution was key; he had no idea what Vic got up to in the later hours. He halted at every corner, every open doorway, just to make absolutely certain. His nerves buzzed with uncertainty at every step, his own body questioning the will of his mind. He ignored it, peering around the next corner.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up when he caught a silhouette, moving towards them. Kaius held up his hand for the group to halt, moving back a pace. Was it Vic? If their handler caught them at this point, what could they say to dampen his suspicions?

He silently waved the group backwards, gesturing to an open doorway. The library, its lights darkened. The group rushed inside, and Kaius lay down with his body parallel to the room’s inner wall, angled so he could just barely see out into the hallway.

To his surprise, it wasn’t Vic who rounded the corner. It was Sahota.

Kaius had to hold his breath to keep from making a sound as the other man passed by. His cheekbone was darkly bruised, his lips swollen, dried blood still crusted at the corner of his mouth. One finger was wrapped in a crude bandage. Despite this, he walked with his usual grace, though Kaius knew the layers of bruising hidden under his shirt.

Vic… Vic had been right, hadn’t he?

Kaius kept silent until Sahota had disappeared, then slowly pushed himself to his feet.

“Is he gone?” Ruebin whispered.

“He’s back,” Kaius answered. “Sahota is back.”

“No shit,” Cavan muttered.

“We ought to go to bed.”

“Is he okay?”

“He's on his feet.” As bad as his injuries had looked on camera, he seemed unbothered by them. Jericho stood up and began to move towards the hall.

“I'm going to check on him—”

“Don't,” Kaius said. “We can consider our mission complete, and I imagine he'd prefer rest to conversation.” Truth be told, he felt his own plan-oriented nature scrambling at this development, his mind searching for the next step now that everything had so abruptly changed. The only solution he could find was getting to bed; collecting what rest they could before a new training day began. As he left the library and made his way back to the sleeping quarters, the other three followed, albeit reluctantly.

“It was a good plan,” Jericho offered as they walked. “They really can’t get anything past your notice, huh?”

Kaius nodded at the perceived compliment, though he was becoming more and more uncertain of that fact. With every new development, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was getting past him, something that could well be dangling right in front of his nose, but he couldn’t so much as point in the direction of what that something might be.

Whatever it was, perhaps it would only take a more critical eye. Whatever it was, he’d need to unravel it.

Before it was too late.

×~×~×

@theonewithallthefixations

#:)#total$hit$how #stoic whumpee #spy whump #beating #recorded torture #hostage whump #interrogation #whump writing

52 notes · View notes