The Forgotten City, Gaia, Friday Night

[raspberryturk]

Tseng	Tseng knew the thick, coughing sound coming from his right, even if his vision was too blurred over by now to make out the figures cleanly. Elena was choking on her own blood. Tseng's calm was legendary, at times like this. He kept it by being who he was: a Turk. He gathered crumbs of information. He searched for patterns. He analyzed. Their captors were three men with silver hair and Mako-enhanced eyes. The youngest appeared to be the leader, and the others called him Kadaj. The longer-haired one was detached, and cruelest: his name Yazoo. The short-haired one who was digging a wire further into Elena was Loz. "You'll kill her," Tseng said, hoping to sound bored. It wouldn't do to let them know he was concerned.
Kadaj	"Do you think so?" Kadaj smirked, leaning in to Tseng's range of vision. "That could be fun. I've never watched a Turk die before."
Elena	Another voice, faint but so damn reassuring for Tseng to hear. "Never ... will," Elena managed.
Tseng	Well done, Tseng thought with approval. She was alive, and she still had her spirit. Despite her years, Elena was still seen as The Rookie to the other Turks. She'd never seen the darker days of ShinRa, had never been on the wrong end of an interrogation gone this far south. Tseng had had faith that there was a tough fighter, lurking underneath the unsure newbie that Reno and Rude dismissed her as. If they survived this, she'd be a much better Turk for it; a force to be reckoned with. If. "I don't see the point to killing us," Tseng said. Hoping, more than ever, that his voice didn't shake; perhaps his calm could be an anchor for Elena, the way her fire was, now, for him.
Kadaj	"Boredom?" Kadaj suggested. "There's not much point to keeping you alive, if you won't tell me what I want to know. Maybe if I kill one of you, the other one will crack."
Tseng	"I doubt it," Tseng said easily. This was nothing to worry about, Elena; this was nothing that many others before had not threatened. "Kill one of us, and you can't play us against one another. That's why you didn't separate us, isn't it?" Separation helped if you wanted to tell one that the other had turned against him or her. Placing them together meant they were hoping he would falter whenever Elena screamed. He was reluctant to admit how effective it was.
Elena	"Amateurs," Elena said, not without some scorn. It earned her a fierce backhand from Loz.
Kadaj	Kadaj clucked his tongue sympathetically. "If only you'd told us where Mother is," he sighed. "We asked so nicely, a smashed finger here, some broken glass there, and now look what it's come to." Kadaj lifted his doubled-bladed souba and strode over towards Elena.
Tseng	Tseng wished like hell his right eye wasn't a bloody mass. The silver-haired man still had the careless air he'd worn all evening, but the something was new. A tension in the air, as if a very fine string was being stretched to its limit. Tseng squinted, uselessly, and strained against his bonds.
Kadaj	Kadaj smiled. "Now, I have to cut her pretty little head off." His blade rose in an arc.
Tseng	"No," Tseng growled, and it even surprised him how loud it was. No, Kadaj did not get to cut Elena's head off. No, Tseng was not going to sit here while the Rookie died. Enough.
Elena	"Tseng!" Elena shouted.
Tseng	Tseng ignored her and continued. "We don't have it. We don't know where it is." It. Jenova's disembodied, decaying head. Hundreds of people had been injected with her cells, as part of the SOLDIER program. Only one person had ever called her Mother. These bastards were Sephiroth clones.
Kadaj	"So what do you know?" Kadaj said, wheeling back into view as surely as if Tseng had pulled his leash. "Tell me where to find Her. Tell me where She is. Tell me, or the other one dies."
Tseng	Analyzing. Calculating. Just enough information to placate Kadaj. Not enough to put Reno or Rude in further danger. Pray it was enough to keep them both alive. "Reno had it, in the chopper," Tseng said, letting each word out slowly. They had seen the helicopter. They must have heard him and Elena both calling Reno's name. Nothing too incriminating, so far. "I assume he took it back to base."
Kadaj	"Go on," Kadaj said.
Elena	"Tseng," Elena pleaded. "Don't."
Tseng	They had searched him, had taken his wallet, his cellphone, and his keys. His wallet had only contained his ShinRa ID card and 20 gil. They had found it irritating that Elena's pockets were nearly identical, except that she had two less gil and a stick of bubblegum. As if Turks went on missions with incriminating files and secret codes falling out of their pockets. He was nearly insulted. What could be gleaned from his cellphone? That information was compromised, and would be theirs as soon as Kadaj wearied of torture. ... Of course. "From there, the matter is entirely up to the President," Tseng said smoothly.
Kadaj	Kadaj laughed. "The President? Come now, sir. Did you really think I would fall for that?"
Tseng	Tseng shrugged, though only with his right shoulder. His left sent a spasm of pain radiating outwards when he tried to move it. "Rufus Shinra is very much alive," he said. "He's gone into hiding, confined to a wheelchair and suffering from Geostigma."
Yazoo	Tseng heard a few electronic beeps, then Yazoo's voice, clear and bemused. "There's a listing in his cell phone. 'The President.'"
Kadaj	"How very exciting," Kadaj grinned, clearly delighted by this turn of events. "We'll have so much to talk about. The President. I can't wait to see his Stigma." His pupils flickered cat-shaped and back, and Tseng would swear that in that instant, he saw another face peering through. Was he hallucinating from the torture, or did Kadaj shift into Sephiroth himself? Either prospect was frightening. "But alas," Kadaj continued, carrying the souba back over to Tseng and smiling down at him, "you two won't be coming with us. We'll be sure to send along your regards. Good bye."
Tseng	Tseng screamed as the metal ripped into his skin. In that last moment, his calm shattered. He'd failed. He'd gotten himself -- and worse, the rookie -- killed. Sephiroth, clawing his way back from the grave. He'd failed. He screamed until everything went black.

[Posted on its own due to possibly disturbing content involving graphic torture. Read at your own discretion. Written and coded by the_merriest, who is made of awesome. Actual player-characters are in the rest of the posts to come, I swear. NFB, NFI, OOC is shiny and winsauce.]