Till the End of the Line

Dismissed

After her three long weeks of torture, Becca was finally permitted to resume training with her mentor. She was instructed to be careful and not to do anything to strenuous. Of course, the Soldier didn't get the message, because he immediately started their fighting drills again. It was like any rapport he'd shown her from before was gone and it was back to being a relationship of torturer and torturee.

Becca groans as she's thrown against the wall again, clutching her stomach from how hard he'd kicked her. 

"Again, you need to learn how to dodge." 

He scolded her almost robotically.

Anger flared up in her stomach in lieu of the pain. She resumed a fighting position.

"Good God, can't you cut me a break? I was just shot."

The Soldier snorts.

"You think the enemy is going to care whether or not you're tired? That you can just call a timeout in the middle of a fight? It's either kill or be killed Becca. Now, again."

Becca groans and rushes him, ducking under his leg this time and managing to knock him to the floor, straddling him. She smirked.

"Kill or be killed huh?"

She quipped, her face was dangerously close to his, she could see how ice blue his eyes really were. 'Damn it. Not now.' She thought, trying to get her head back in the game. He must have noticed her distraction because instantly the roles were reversed. Becca was on her stomach with her left arm behind her back. She cried out at the gut-wrenching pain but took note that he didn't restrict her previously injured arm.

"Weak. try again." He said monotonously, climbing off her and dusting off his hands. Becca was angry now. What the hell happened? She thought they were...friends. Or at least something close to it, but here he was, brutally mopping the floor with her as if she hadn't saved his life on their mission earlier. 

The moment his back was turned, Becca launched herself at him, he fell to the ground with an 'oof' and her foot made contact with his face in the struggle, the was a sharp crack, both sickening and terrifying and the Soldier yelped in pain. 

"You sunova--" He didn't finish his sentence, just groaned in pain and clutched his nose. 

The he started laughing. 

Becca sat back on the floor, completely confused as she watched him throw back his head and laugh, his nose was dripping thick red blood down his chin. When he finally calmed down, he turned towards Becca, his face returning to its stoic state.

"Good work." He said curtly, getting up and dusting himself off again.

Becca was dumbfounded.

"What the hell? I just broke your nose--probably."

He finally cracked a small smile.

"You were brutal, you took advantage of my weakness, and you let your anger fuel your calculated movements. That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time. You need to be able to be ruthless to survive in the Red Room, and you need to learn never to trust anyone, not even me."

Becca's heart sinks. So...all that time he'd spent talking to her, making her think maybe they were finally getting somewhere, that maybe...just maybe...she'd made an ally in this sullen hellish twisted world she knew; it was all a ruse? A lie to get her to see that trusting someone would only hurt her? Did he even care for her at all?

"Karpov would have had my ass if you'd died."

She recalled the words he'd said when she first woke up. Not 'I'm glad you're ok.' Not "How are you feeling?" Not even an "I missed you." 

Did he even miss her?

She sat there wondering all these things as her mentor clutched his broken nose and got up to go to the infirmary for pain meds.

"Becca?" He called out after him, her stomach flared with hope. Maybe...

"Yeah?"

"You're dismissed."