TW: USe of electricity for torture

Please skip the part if you don't want that. It starts when danny goes to sleep and is only on paragraph look. There's no crucial information you will miss.

Danny winced as he heard Plamsius walk down the steps, every footfall sending a spike of fear through his heart.

He was hoping he'd be distracted longer, just long enough for him to finally get some actual sleep, even for a minute. He didn't know how long he'd been up; he didn't even know how long he'd been in this hell hole.

Maybe days, weeks, months, or something entirely worse.

He had to hope it was just days. The dim lights of the lab and irregular times Plasmius showed up made it hard for him to count the days, or even attempt to. They all blended together in a painful blur.

He couldn't even remember the last time he was feed.

Weakly he lifted his head to look at the approaching figure, knowing by now that not looking made it harder for him to attempt to steal himself from the next torture.

Plasmius grinned at him, causing his heart to race as his eyes grew wider. Grinning was not good. Grinning meant something so much worse was about to happen to him. Grinning meant getting dissected like a frog in science class. Grinning meant his finger being crushed before not so carefully set back in place.

Grinning was Plasmius's way of telling Danny hell had arrived.

"Ah, good! You're awake." He said as if Danny had any chance of falling asleep. "I have a gift for you." He cooed, stepping forward with a small collar like object hanging loosely from his fingers, drawing Danny's eyes like he wanted it to. "If you let me put this on, I promise there will be food for you."

Danny's eyes flew to his face, searching for any sign of a lie. He knew he wouldn't find one. This man was able to trick him for almost a solid year, a simple lie about food would easy to cover up.

Still...

The mere thought of food caused Danny's stomach to clench around the emptiness that filled it. Even if it was a lie, on the off chance it wasn't Danny was sure he'd let Plasmius do anything to him.

He must have seen the reluctant acceptance in Danny's eyes because he smiled wider, stepping closer till he was right next to the table Danny had been strapped to for as long as he could remember.

"Good boy." He cooed again, lifting the bulky collar to strap around the teen's neck. " Now give me a moment to set this thing, and you'll have your food."

Danny wanted to fight back, wanted to scream on the top of his lungs. He wanted to bite at the hand so close to his neck, to headbutt the looming face of his torture as he fiddled with the collar.

But he didn't.

He stayed silent, not moving an inch in fear that his movement would set Plasmius off. He even tilted his head so the villain could attach it better.

"There! Perfectly attached, and no seams just as he promised. Technus really outdid himself this time." The man mused to himself out loud, admiring the piece of equipment now firmly attached to Danny's neck.

Danny felt him gently caress the piece of metal before stepping away with the same grin still plastered on his face.

"Now, I did promise you food. You'll have to give me a moment, my boy, I'm going to have to cook it." He patted the teen gently on his head before heading back up the stairs, leaving Danny alone once again.

Danny squashed down the part of him that went to call out to Vlad and beg him not to leave him, cry out that being alone scared him more then Plasmius.

Because when he was alone, he only had his thoughts.

He thoughts always circled back to his family, wondering if they were even looking for him. If they even cared enough to search for their quirkless child. He hoped they did, but as the days trickled past with him left in Plasmius's care, he began to assume the worst.

They hated him.

They never wanted him to begin with.

They were glad to be rid of the disappointment.

They thought he was dead.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the thoughts as they swam through his head. But with no distraction, they stayed at the forefront of his brain, each one vying for his attention and fighting to stay.

He had to hope they were looking for him, that they even knew to look for him. It was his only chance to get out of this place.

It was his only hope for freedom.

Danny relaxed his face, sighing internally as he fought the thoughts to go away so that he can have this moment of rest that didn't require him passing out from pain first. He knew cooking took some time, so Plasmius would be busy for long enough for him to finally sleep.

He felt the thoughts back off, his body relaxing at the first chance of sleep in far too long. He comforted himself with being able to escape into a dreamless sleep, feeling too exhausted for his mind to come up with any reality where he was gone. Just simple rest would be enough for him.

He felt the tendrils of unconsciousness grip at his mind, lulling him to escape the awful reality he had become a part of, and he welcomed it with open arms. He fell into the sweet embrace of nothing with the zeal of a drowning man given air.

His entire body jolted with pain, seizing up as his mind refused to cooperate and just focusing on the pain centered around his neck. He scrambled and clawed at the metal table, trashing around it in hopes he could just get it to stop! He could feel the metal keeping him to the table biting into the skin around his wrist, but it felt like nothing compared to the burning pain on his neck.

As suddenly as it happened, it stopped, leaving a panting Danny to wonder what the hell just happened before his brain caught up with him.

His neck flared, the pulsing of his racing heart causing the skin around the collar to beat in time. Every breath rubbed the raw skin right up against the metal, making him grimace in pain.

He groaned as he let his head slam against the table, the loud clang echoing through the empty lab, as he realized what exactly was going on.

He fucking let Plasmius put a shock collar on him.

Practically helped him put it on with the mere promise of food.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut again, this time fighting the stinging at the back of his eyes. He knew he shouldn't have let Plasmius put the collar on, but he was just so hungry. His stomach clenched again, causing Danny to moan in pain.

He couldn't fight the tears any longer, nor the sobs that raked through his chest as what little hope he had left shattered into a million broken pieces.

He was going to die here.

And no one cared.

Vlad grinned as the allotted 15 minutes passed. He checked his feed to the lab, watching as the boy writhed on the table before collapsing in a sobbing mess.

Good, he thought as he stirred the contents of the pan, sleep deprivation was an excellent torture method. It was used by a wide variety of governments on their more difficult subjects. And that was just what Danny was. Difficult.

The boy hadn't even begun to show signs of a budding quirk. No electricity that had pained Vlad when he was coming into his own. No feeling of something shoving its way into your body, like a new organ that you couldn't control. Not even the slightest amount of color change anywhere on the boy.

It was frustrating.

Vlad was following his own torture to a T, and he knew by this point his hair had begun its transformation to the shining grey it was now.

So he was improvising, hoping that this newly added element on top of his misuse of medical knowledge would at least encourage him to save himself.

Unless...

Unless he gave up already.

Vlad paused his cooking, staring at the gleaming granite countertops filled with a variety of different food, mostly for himself. He planned a small portion for the boy, to keep him just on the edge of hunger without succumbing to death.

But if he gave up already, it wasn't going to matter how little he fed him. Vlad growled as the thought. If the boy gave up, it means his body wouldn't try to save itself. He knew when he was being tortured that his friends would save him. He had latched onto that idea like a lifeline, knew he had to see his friends again no matter the consequences.

But if the boy gave up, thought no one was going to save him or care if he was dead, he wouldn't have the same need to change. He would give up living completely.

Vlad glanced at the live feed again, a small tv playing it on his countertop so he could cook while making sure everything went perfect with his life's work. The boy was still sobbing; the cries were wracking his body as the table shifted while each one. He was curled up in on himself as much as one can while strapped to a table.

He was the perfect picture of a teen giving up.

Slowly the cries stopped, and Daniel was left with a blank expression on his face, his eyes taking a glassy look to them as if he had fully accepted he was going to die. It was concerning, to say the least.

He wanted to torture the boy, not cause him to give up life. That would defeat the purpose of this whole experiment.

With a sigh, he added more food to Daniel's portion. Not enough to sate his hunger but hopefully enough to give him hope.

Vlad would have to think of a new way to hurt Daniel. Maybe something to do with his family. Something to show him his loved ones still cared for him.

Otherwise, this was all for naught. All his scheming, all his building of Daniel's trust, all those years wasted.

No, Vlad wasn't going to give up that easily. He would come up with something. He had to.

It was the only way to hurt Jack and Maddie.