It had started after his fourth escape attempt.

"Our beautiful mare likes to bolt, huh?" One of the higher ranked soldiers had said, gripping Remy's hair in his fist to hold his head up after the beating they had given him:

"I think she needs a strong rider to break her in." He had released Remy with a laugh: "Give him to the guards until tomorrow morning. And make sure his hands don't touch anything."

/

"Remy." Someone whispered. Everything was still too hazy for him to recognise the voice. They weren't allowed to speak with each other anyway and Remy didn't want to be caught breaking the rules so soon. Not when he hadn't even properly woken up from the last time.

"Remy." The voice said again: "Say something, Remy."

"Is he okay?" Someone else whispered.

"I don't know." The first voice said.

"Silence!" One of the soldiers bellowed.

The hushes and whispers died down immediately. No one wanted to bring down the wrath of the guards down on them because of something as minor as talking. Remy was almost grateful because his body was shivering and he was sure that as soon as he would open his mouth he would throw up. Remy curled up on the cold floor of his cell and swore to himself that he wasn't broken and that he would escape.

/

With Creed it had started after his fifth attempt. They had beaten him, of course, but afterwards they had simply pushed him into his cell and now he waited for the next thing to happen. They had broken all of his fingers this time but he could still charge things, it just would hurt like hell.

"I'm impressed." Said the man who came in. Remy had heard about him, had seen him once or twice but he had never met Creed before. Remy had been one of the few mutants to be caught by someone else than Stryker's infamous hunter.

Remy watched Creed for anything on his body to charge but there was nothing. Unfortunately his power didn't work with fabric and Creed didn't wear anything else: no buttons, no belt, no jewellery or piercing. Creed must have caught him looking because he said;

"You never give up." His grin was feral and unpleasant. Remy wanted to back down but his pride wouldn't let him.

"Never giving up until the end."

"Makes me a good poker player." Remy quipped.

"Yes, I heard about that." Creed came nearer and nearer: "But that's not what I'm interested in."

"I couldn't play anyway." Remy held his broken and bound hands up: "Sorry."

Creed's fingernails extended into claws that slashed over Remy's chest, ripping the red jumpsuit and the skin underneath into shreds and made Remy stagger backwards to remain on his feet.

"I want to see you break."

/

Something wet pressed against his neck woke him up. He batted after it but it was gone as soon as he had moved. It didn't matter as he had a good idea what it had been. He turned around on his cot and squinted through the bars up at Toad who stuck to the ceiling of his cell.

"That's disgusting." Remy told him flatly. Toad shrugged which looked funny, hanging upside down as he was.

"I wanted to make sure you were still alive." He grinned: "Haven't seen you playing in weeks."

"Fuck you." Remy said. Changing of guards was always giving them an opportunity to talk and Toad used it more than anyone else.

"Seriously, you didn't give up, did you?" Toad persisted.

"I would watch my tongue if I was you." Remy threatened but Toad merely grinned and playfully took another swipe at him.

"Now, that's the Remy I love." He said and winked.

/

At first it was bearable, well as bearable as rape was going to be but Creed couldn't let go because Stryker needed Remy for his experiments.

It became part of his everyday life in hell like everything else, the experiments, the harassment from the soldiers, being imprisoned...

The best days were those days when one of Stryker's superiors dropped by. They were treated better on those days, allowed to talk to each other and on one memorable occasion even allowed to go out into a court of the complex. It helped that aside from Toad they all looked like humans and not like mutants.

Remy wasn't the only one who had to shield his eyes against the sun. He couldn't remember when he had last seen it because he had no idea how long he had been here. The daily rhythm changed every few weeks to keep them off guard.

"Oh my God." Emma whispered next to him. She had closed her eyes and held her face into the sun. She wasn't the only one. Everyone was basking in the sunshine and savoured it because who knew if they would ever see it again?

The peaceful silence was interrupted by the sound of Toad's tongue, followed by a nasty, crunching noise. Everyone turned to him and saw that Toad was munching on a bird. Emma made a face:

"That's gross." She informed him. Toad shrugged:

"I was hungry."

"It's still gross." Her arguing got on Remy's nerves.

"We can't all be sparkly diamonds, can we?"

"Who asked you, chewtoy?" She snipped back. Remy opened his mouth but he didn't come as far as saying the first syllable because Sean interrupted them with a stern:

"Remy! Emma!" which shut them both up. Something about Sean's voice made people listen to him, Remy guessed that this wasn't a superpower but because he was a father.

/

"Remy." Emma whispered through the cell's bars.

"What?" He snapped at her. They weren't allowed to speak to each other and he didn't want to be beaten or 'given to the guards' again on one of the few days when Creed wasn't at the base.

"One of the scientists, they said that your power is too unstable." She sounded pitiful: "They don't need you anymore."

Something cold formed inside Remy as if he had swallowed a whole block of ice: He was useless. That meant they were going to kill him. All that time, all that pain endured for nothing.

He screamed, rattled against the bars with his half-healed fingers.

"Stop it!" Yelled one of the guards but Remy barely heard him over his own screams until something hit him and everything went black.

/

When he woke up he wasn't in his cell anymore. And he wasn't dead, which relieved him and made him curious because this room wasn't one of the labs either.

"Nothing to protect you now boy." It was Creed. Of course it was.

"Made a deal with Stryker." Creed leered at Remy: "You're all mine now."

"I'm not a thing." Remy spat at him. Creed grabbed him by his jumpsuit and dragged him near until Remy could feel Creed's breath on his face.

"Still so defiant after all this time" With his free hand he grabbed one of Remy's and twisted his fingers until they broke again:

"I'm going to have fun with you."

/

Remy's attempts to escape never stopped but Creed had found a weapon that was more effective than violence and rape: humiliation.

Whenever Remy was brought back after yet another failed escape Creed would be gentle with him and made sure that Remy's body reacted to his ministrations until Remy would throw up, sick with shame and disgust.

Except that one time when Remy had managed to charm the guard that had brought him his meal and he would have made it if Creed hadn't chosen that particular moment to return to the base.

Creed hadn't been angry or furious; he had been feral, completely out of control. His claws had slashed the guard's chest open like paper.

Creed had fucked him right there, out in the open, then had let everyone else do it too and then it had been him again and again and again until Remy lost consciousness, but that probably hadn't stopped Creed.

Remy had woken up in a bed after a two hour surgery because he was Stryker's payment to Creed and it was easier to sew him back together than to find someone else.

/

The only thing that kept him going afterwards was the knowledge that as soon as he broke Creed would lose interest in him and then Remy was dead.

So he waited until that one chance to escape forever would present itself...