"Wakey-wakey, little girl. The Boss's got some questions for you."

A suddenly savage hand caught the side of her already bruised face, bringing Special Agent Marissa Baird sharply out of the cocoon of inner-darkness that had sheltered her since the end of her last interrogation the night before. The girl spat out a mouthful of warm, coppery liquid while opening her one working eye to glare at her tormentor, her defiance not one whit diminished by the blow. She would be alive long after this soulless bastard was a rotting corpse in the grave, she vowed silently to herself, and she swore she'd be the one to bring about his untimely demise-- in the slowest, most excruciating way she could manage. The thought gave her the courage to face his cold, pitiless gaze without flinching. Inwardly, however, Marissa was bracing herself to ignore whatever form of torture they might choose to inflict on her during the next few hours. She was already acutely conscious of the blood trickling down her wrists where the leather straps holding her upright had rubbed them raw hours ago. Her ankles were only slightly better off, because the legs of her pants reached just under the stiff and tight cuffs tethering her feet to the cold, unforgiving concrete floor, thus providing a small amount of protection to the tender flesh. She knew by now that she was dehydrated, too, but didn't dare hope that water would be at all forthcoming, so she would just have to put up with conserving whatever moisture she had left as best she could. She knew she could do without food for several days at a time if she had to, but water was a slightly more urgent problem. Still, she would not give in…she would fight, and die fighting if that was required of her, because these sadistic sons-of-bitches wanted to use her, to force her to tap into her powers for their benefit. She would not do it!

Marissa let out a grunt as a second fist slammed her in the stomach, bringing her awareness back to her precarious situation by sending a solid jolt of pain throughout her entire body. For a moment, her head swam, making her torso strain against the leather restraints as her center of balance tried to reassert itself. This was made difficult, because as her body lurched forward of its own accord, the interrogator took hold of her head and snapped it backwards on her neck using a set of iron knuckles on her forehead. Feeling a new sensation of wetness on her face, Marissa noticed dimly that he had drawn blood.

From somewhere in the shadows around her came another voice, a woman's silky, lightly accented baritone that the agent could not readily identify, "Now, now, General Kanevke, another blow like that and you may damage the merchandise. The girl cannot tell us what we need to know if you have made her unable to speak." The man blustered something about "merely getting her attention," but the woman wasn't in the mood. "General." The woman's voice turned cold, "I am not interested in your petty excuses. You will control your temper more adequately in the future, or I shall have to send for one more suitable for following orders….do you understand?" Marissa could not hear the man's mumbled response, because in the next second, a loud roaring began reverberating inside her head. She felt her power building inside her brain, screaming for the release she continually denied it. No, she told it, silently, not yet. You can't help me yet. Wait. With renewed determination, she clamped down hard on the struggling tendrils starting to form in her inner-vision.

More to distract herself than anything else, Marissa turned her attention deliberately back to the two adults standing some feet in front of her. The woman was still half-obscured by shadow, but she could see Kanevke with painful clarity, reluctantly removing the iron knuckles from around his hands and picking up a long metal shaft with…Oh, good Lord, is that a cattle-prod? Behind her expressionless mask, Marissa's mind whirled in barely-controlled panic. Even though she had been trained in pain-management and high torture-resistance, there was no way that thing wasn't going to hurt. Somehow, though her outward appearance did not change at all, the cold-blooded rat-bastard seemed to get the gist of what she was thinking, because a slow, malicious grin began to spread over his twisted visage as he advanced on her. "Perhaps another method of persuasion, then, one that will not damage that pretty little face?" He came closer, jeering at her as he reached out with the wicked-looking weapon and gave her side an experimental jab. A white-hot flash was coursing through her body, and the agent cried out despite her attempts to muffle the sound. In her pain-induced haze, Marissa could hear him laughing at her, and fury blotted out her vision for a moment as she tried to brace herself.

"That's enough for now," the woman said in the distance, "You can continue your little games later. I want to question her first, and I will not have you interfering while she answers. Turn that thing off, but keep it nearby. I may use for it if our guest does not choose to cooperate with me." Abruptly the pain was gone, and Marissa could breathe again. She forced herself to take long, slow breaths, her body giving occasional, involuntary twitches as the excess electricity drained from her system.

When Marissa was finally able to move again, she looked up, fully expecting to see the General leering at her helplessness. Instead, she found herself gazing into the light amber brown eyes of Kanevke's female companion and apparent superior, taking in the attractive sun-kissed brown hair, gently bronzed skin and finely curved lips. The woman had planted herself directly in front of the agent's field of vision, standing close enough to touch her if she so wished. Looking at her, Marissa had to bite back a yelp of surprise; she knew this woman! Steadying her voice, Baird fixed her captor with a frank, slightly suspicious glare and whispered hoarsely, "Irina Derevko "

The woman gave an almost imperceptible nod, "Yes, and you are Special Agent Marissa Baird of CIA. I knew your parents very well, once upon a time. You look much like your mother, Teresa, though I daresay you are quite a bit taller than she, as I recall. Tell me, before we get on with business, how are your parents?"

Marissa said nothing, anger beginning to pulse in her temples again. Derevko was baiting her, trying to bring out her emotions and make her vulnerable to questioning. It wasn't going to work. However Marissa might wonder at the depth of Irina's familiarity with her parents, and the reasons for it, that topic was hardly the most important right now. Derevko seemed to guess the girl's feelings on the matter. "Not one for pleasantries, are we, Agent Baird? Very well, then. I shall have to be more direct. You know what we want. You will provide us with information regarding the covert gene-manipulation project your parents orchestrated during the years following their marriage and preceding your birth, the series of tests designated, 'Project Hestia'. You will describe the procedures utilized during these experimentations, their variables and conditions, exactly how these factors were manipulated, and most importantly, how they were controlled within laboratory settings. You will impart all possible side effects that may occur as a result of these manipulations, and precisely what specific adaptations were subsequently made to the project during your sister's neonatal development to prevent the manifestation of these instabilities. You will then provide us with a demonstration of your abilities, Agent Baird." Irina moved forward a few paces, so that she and Marissa were almost nose-to-nose. "If you should decide to cooperate fully with our demands, you will be released and allowed to live out your life in peace. If, on the other hand, you should refuse my offer--" and here, Derevko's voice turned icy, "than I am afraid that things shall soon become most unpleasant for you."

Marissa stared right back into those fiery-amber eyes. "And I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about, Ms. Derevko. Whatever it is you want from me, you're not going to get it while I have the strength to resist you." Irina hid a smile as she recognized the girl's defiance and stepped back, watching the younger woman with what could only be called an amused air.

Then Irina turned away, as Marissa discretely began to try and slip her blood-moistened wrists free of their restraints, and continued to speak in a slightly dangerously subdued tone. "It is not my wish to harm one so young, particularly the child of old friends, but be warned that I will not allow sentimentality to prevent me from reaching my goal, whatever the cost. I shall leave you to consider your options. A pity that the cost of your refusal should be so high." There was something about that last sentence that made a chill crawl up Marissa Baird's spine. With that, Irina Derevko swept out of the room, pausing only long enough to bark, "You may continue to 'enlighten' our guest on the importance of obedience now, General. Avoid damaging the jaw, though. We're going to need her to talk again later," before striding purposefully through the door.

She was gone, leaving Marissa alone with the cruelest man either of them had ever encountered, a man who was now walking toward the agent with a shit-eating grin plastered all over his mutilated face, his massive hand clutching the wickedly painful cattle-prod. Watching him approach, she momentarily felt desperate. The brutal General had Derevko's permission now. He could do anything he wanted to her so long as it would not interfere with her ability to speak later. Already, she knew perfectly well atrocities of which he was capable. Feeling her present vulnerability, Baird resolutely suppressed a shudder. Then she felt her anger begin to boil.

Again her power seemed to surge within her as she turned suddenly murderous eyes to the General's gloating expression. She wanted to rip the metal thing right out of his hands and bludgeon him over the head with it. All she had to do was let go of her control, and then it would be easy. She would make him ooze for all the pain he'd caused her: the blatant sexual remarks and touches, the hours of punches, kicks and slow, thorough, red-hot burns with a fire-poker; the humiliation of soiling herself when the electroshock therapy went a little too well. It would be so easy…she could make him suffer, make certain he didn't have the opportunity to hurt her anymore--

"No, Marissa!" She heard a high-pitched voice yell inside her head, her sister, who sounded completely terrified. "You can't let them know about your powers….urrgghhh-" Marissa swore inwardly, thinking that the last person she wanted to be in telepathic contact with at that moment was nine-year-old Arianna. For her sister felt, as she did, the pain of the next savagely delivered electrical shock. Marissa would have tried to close off their connection, in an almost futile attempt to prevent her sister from sharing her experience, but the agony of the current was whiting-out her vision and disrupting her concentration. Though she was able to muster nothing more vocal than an inarticulate grunt, Arianna, it seemed, was under no such restraint. "No, stop hurting her! Leave her alone, you jackass-jerks, she'll never help you! We're Bairds, Rissa, we—don't---betray---our---friends—or—our—country—not-ever!" She heard her sister cry out several more times through their psychic link, as the blood started to flow from her wounds, as he began to force her into sexual positions she never would have consented to if she had been able to refuse, as he hit her again and again in places more vulnerable than she could have ever imagined, and made her sob wordlessly, as Arianna vocalized the thoughts running around in Marissa's head to those present in her hiding place, "Make it stop, please, please make it stop, you have to make it stop, we can't take any more!" In a last-ditch, supremely powerful effort to protect her little sister, Marissa used all of her remaining strength to close off the link between them for the duration of the session. She felt it strain and then snap, as Arianna was thrown out of it by sheer force, as her older sister apologized silently. Agent Baird could now be sure her sister was safe from her feelings. Then Marissa locked down her own power centers and submitted herself silently to the interrogation.