Between the Lines

This Dangerous Weapon (TW)

**Please note, this chapter will feature descriptions of torture, assault, mental abuse, and POW type of scenarios which may be upsetting for some readers. Please proceed with caution and skip the chapter if necessary. Your mental wellbeing will always come first**

January 10th, 2012

          How long had I been here; when was the last time I had bathed, eaten, or seen another being? I looked at the drawings on the wall of my room, my small little room; had this always been my home and why did the faces made of blood-

   My blood?

   create such an ache in my chest? I knew their names, knew they were not coming for me; did they even exist, or had I simply dreamt them up to combat the loneliness of this tiny room? I felt water drip, drip, dripping on my head and I realized I could not remember the last time I had had a drink.

   "Don't drink the water," I reminded myself, the stiffness of how deeply soiled my clothes were reminded me of that alongside the itching, the constant itching as if had fleas. How I longed to wash myself, to have a change of clothes, a bed, food...

   I remembered waffles piled high with glops of cream and flowers. Flowers I had saved, flowers from that face, the one in the center; from Eibhlin. Eibhlin. Her name felt warm in my mind, like being touched by the rays of the sun. The sun... I missed the sun. How long had I been here?

   "Asgardian," a voice called to me. I tilted my head up toward the light above me, knowing the voice had to come from above; the only place the voices ever came from. "Asgardian, why are you here?"

   "I do not know... But I wish to leave."

   "If I let you out will you try to run?"

   "Yes..."

   "To where?"

   "To her..."

   The voice huffed and left, returning me to the darkness once more.

   I touched her face, and the face beside her. Mother... Hot tears fell down my cheeks, I would never see them again... I would never see them again because of him... them... The blonde men I had called family, the men who had prevented me from being welcomed into my rightful place beside them instead of only beneath them- always beneath them...

   "Asgardian," The voice came again. Had it been hours, days? I did not know, yet once more I obediently turned my face to the light above. "Why are you here?"

   "Because I am a criminal... a failure to the crown of Asgard..."

   "Is that so?"

   I hesitated. "Yes..."

   "And what was the purpose of your crimes?"

   "To... to prove that I too was worthy..."

   "And are you worthy?"

   "... No..." I saw his face, the elderly man I had been convinced was my father, the man who had lied to me from my youth; a man who no doubt would have continued to lie to me had I not figured it out...

   "You are not worthy, yet you survived the fall into The Void?" The voice was right... I had survived. "No one survives The Void; for you to have not perished to its mercilessness... It means something. Do you know what it is that it means?"

   Sighing, I shook my head. "No... I do not..."

   The voice sighed as well, the gentle yet heavy sound so masculine, so frustrated. "You have a purpose still, Asgardian. When you know figure out what that is, then and only then I shall let you out."

   "Please, please I beg of you," I shouted, pulling against my shackles; the irons of which had once been tight, cutting deeply into my flesh now hung so loosely that if it were not for the bones within my hands I could have slid them off. "Please, a bath; some water!"

   Silence. Such deafening silence.

   "You wish a bath? Very well. Gamora, give him what he desires." There was a hint of something in the voice's words, something sinister.

   The green woman, this Gamora, pulled me from the cell as she ordered the blue and purple one in the mauve leather to clean my cell before she dragged me away. She threw me into a larger cage, dousing me with a boiling orange liquid that tore what remained of the strange, soiled clothing I had been given away; the heat of it searing my skin as I screamed. It smelled of chemicals and burnt oranges, stinging my skin as it saturated me from head to toe. Each time I thought she was finished, that I could pull myself from the wire the pressure of the boiling liquid threw me against, I was knocked back down, my restraints clinking together as they were whipped around my body. It was like a game to her, one played by a cat with a mouse. When she was finally satisfied that she had managed to tear a layer of skin from my body, she shoved me roughly through the halls, naked, shivering, and on display for all that we passed to see and laugh at. I wanted to scream at them that no one laughed at a prince of Asgard, but I was not a prince of Asgard any longer. I was only a man... an unwanted man that no one was coming for. After all, if I had been wanted, loved even, someone would have come by now; they would surely not take this long, would it?

   I was paraded into another cell packed with bins filled to the brim with clothing and armor, some I recognized, most I did not. A rack stood nearby with more of the strange yellow uniforms I had been forced into before. The green woman tossed me a towel and ordered me to dress. My body ached, my wounds throbbing from having been reopened by the heavy pressure of the hose as I reached as far above my head as my chains would allow for, pulling down uniform after uniform looking for one that would fit. I finally found one, groaning as I pulled it over my naked form, my skin still tinged orange from whatever I had been doused in. I wince, grasping at my side as I bent to step into the garment, seeing a deep dark bruise on my side, my ribs tender. Gingerly, I counted them, pressing in to find where the source of pain was, gasping as I felt movement and a surge of pain in my sixth and seventh ribs. I did not know if they were broken or merely bruised yet the movement was concerning. It would do nothing to speak of it though, so I pushed through the pain to finish dressing.

   She led me back to the cells after helping to adjust my restraints so they did not rest against my skin beneath the yellow cloth. I kept my head bowed, accepting that this was to be my fate for the unforeseeable future as we turned and began wandering down a different hall that somehow felt and smelled familiar though I did not know why. There was a strange metallic scent in the air along with a chill, both felt as though I knew them yet I could not place them. Not until the green woman roughly shoved me into a dark room that smelled of what I vaguely remembered winter smelling of and was filled with the soft sound of crunching. I fell, sinking farther and farther down into the hole I had been roughly shoved into, gasping for air as the freezing water thick with ice surrounded me up to my neck, the weight of my chains pulling me even further under. I tried to suck in air, tried to breathe, to search for a way out as I heard her grunt above me and a small raft landed on my head. I hurried into it, desperate to get out of the water only to quickly learn that it was not big enough for me to rest within, only to stand or squat...

   "What cruelty is this?"

   "Would you prefer I take the raft away?"

   "You cannot just leave me here!"

   "You asked for a bath, I am only giving you exactly what you requested," I could hear the sneer in her voice even if I could not see it. "Enjoy your bath."

   "Wait please; come back," I cried, as she shut the door above, leaving me in complete darkness, the raft flipping and tossing me into the frozen water once more.

   For how long I existed like that, I could not say, yet somehow I managed to endure. Each time my legs would give out or I collapsed from exhaustion I was plunged back into the icy water, the raft incapable of supporting me no matter how I situated myself. Several times I thought about remaining in the water, allowing my body to succumb to hypothermia, to just slowly fall asleep and drown yet each time that occurred, the voice would return; once more asking why I was here.

   "I don't know alright," I cried out the final time, my rage not unnoticed. "I don't know why I am here, why I survived. All I know is that if I ever get out of this hole, off of this ship, I am going to slaughter you all and then finish what I started!"