#blue ask

She could not longer tell where the pain started and where it ended. Where her numb, bleeding tongue turned to her charred cheeks and gums. Even the outside of her mouth, the sides of her face and the corners of her lips, felt to have been singed with a blowtorch.

Capsaicin. That was what Duple had called it. She’d heard of the chemical before, in the context of hot peppers and the like. Yet, the pure, concentrated form...

Dr. Roberts had felt to be brave. To be proud. To be able to resist interrogation and torture and anything it took. Even if she didn’t have anyone still living to fight for, she had her own pride. Her own dignity. That was worth protecting, right?

Duple wasn’t going to break her. That had been her determination.

That was up until the gag went in, soaked in the hellish chemical. That was before her tissues had been set ablaze, until an animal scream had been forced from her throat. The gag... She had never before found a use for the word ‘hellfire.’ But that gag gave her plenty of reason, now, to use it.

As soon as the sensation of the chemical kicked in, she was more willing than anything to talk. She would have told Duple anything. Her deepest thoughts, most well-hidden fears. She had given all the information that she could, and watched the most sickening smirk appear on her foe’s face.

It did not matter. The gag was out. The interrogation was over. She was safe again.

And then Duple had announced his trump card. The ace in his sleeve.

She was going to be forced to work in The Lodge’s lab. Dr. Roberts hadn’t so much as been given time to respond. Hell, even if she had been entirely willing, it wouldn’t have mattered. Either way, the gag was still shoved back in her mouth.

It would give her something to think about, Duple had spoken, that horrid smirk on his lips only widening. By the time he next saw her, he said, he was certain that she would be as compliant as putty in his hands.

Hands.

Dr. Robert’s head swam as she looked down at her own hands, now, where she sat on the bed in her horrid, barren cell. Her painful thrashing had already sent her blanket and pillow both to the floor, leaving only herself, the restraints, and the gag.

Duple had been more than cruel, bringing her back here. Leaving her with the torture device pried between her jaws. He wanted the pain to last for a good, long while. That was why he had tied her wrists, down to the bedframe. The restraints made it so that removing the gag by herself was only a futile prayer.

Her wrists. Her desperate attempts to remove the gag had led only to fruitless tugging on the restraints, leaving her wrists now a raw red color, with bloody spots showing through at some points.

How long had he left her here? He was right. There was really no one to save her. No one to help.

No one that cared.

The single tear that rolled down Dr. Robert’s cheek gave that area of skin the barest split second of relief from the agony. Then, once more, it bloomed.

A door. Footsteps.

The wheels of a cart.

Someone. Someone was coming to help her. A guard? A doctor? Hell, even Duple would be better, right now! Dr. Roberts would do anything. Anything it took. Agree to any contract, sign any paper. Just to stop the pain. Anything to stop the pain.

Without even meaning to, she stared out with wide, bulging eyes to the outside of her cell. Giving her most pitiful of looks to anyone who walked by.

She had expected Duple.

She got Firecrest.

And Firecrest screamed.

An earsplitting scream, one that made the doctor once more yank on her restraints, to no avail. Another burst of tears made its way forth as she shook.

“What happened?” 

Dr. Roberts could barely contain her joy. Her friend was here. The only one who cared, the only one who didn’t hurt, who didn’t yell, who didn’t burn. She was here, and everything was okay.

The gag was out. A moment later, the burning chemical had retreated from her mouth, leaving only bloody stains and raw-rendered flesh in its wake. All sense left the doctor’s mind. She could think only of one thing:

“Water- Water please water water.” 

She had no clue where she expected said water to come from. Had she been handed a glass or a bottle, she would’ve likely simply stared at it like a fool. She couldn’t think. Everything hurt far too much for her to be able to think.

Water. She wanted water in her mouth, then and there. She wanted it by magic, as it certainly wasn’t getting brought there under her own power.

And then, there it was. The mouth of a water bottle, pushed between her teeth, sending cool, heavenly liquid over her tongue and down her throat. No thought was given to savoring the indescribable relief. Instead, she drank and drank until the bottle went dry.

The pain did not stop, but now, she could breathe. That was what mattered, bruised and battered mouth or not.

With trembling pupils, she looked down, staring at her own hands as her mind struggled to comprehend the sudden shift from agony to discomfort. She had gotten so very used to the presence of the restraints that, when Firecrest moved to remove them, she balked:

“What-” The doctor seemed baffled. “What are you-” 

“We didn’t know the extent of your injuries. That’s the only reason you were tied down. To make sure you didn’t make them any worse. There was no reason to restrain you again.” 

But...

But that didn’t make sense

Doctor Roberts was a monster. That was why she was here. That was why she was suffering. As horrid as the pain was, she knew why she was feeling it. Villains deserved pain, evil people deserved burnt tongues and gums.

That was what Duple had said, at least, and pain had overwhelmed her capacity to deny.

They had restrained her because she was dangerous, right? That had always, always been her assumption. So she didn’t hurt anyone. So she didn’t escape into the civilian population, so she didn’t cause havoc.

She had been restrained because of her injuries? In the same manner as a crash victim was strapped down to a backboard to keep their spine still? That was the purpose of her restraints?

Not because she was evil?

It made no sense. No sense at all.

Yet, here, for the first time in oh, so long, the restraints came off.

She was free.