They called it 'The Clinic', but no one came here to be healed.
The room was white steel and shadows. The air smelled of ozone and antiseptic.A single chair stood under a circle of harsh light, its metal cold enough to turn breath into steam. I stood behind the observation window, mask in place, voice modulator humming softly.Cain's reflection flickered beside mine.
"Your first interrogation," he said, voice low and patient, as though explaining a medical procedure. "A small matter, but important. You'll find the experience… clarifying."
"Clarifying?"
He gestured toward the figure strapped to the chair. "The man's name is Corporal Elias Varn. Overwatch retrieval division. He intercepted one of our couriers during the transfer of Elise Meret's serum archives. He knows where her surviving assistant went. However, he claims ignorance."
"And you want me to make him remember."
Cain smiled faintly. "You were a medic once. You know the body better than anyone. You know exactly where to press to make truth come to the surface."
My throat tightened behind the mask. "And if he doesn't talk?"
"You've proven to be creative before, Dagger. I'm sure you'll find a way."
The door sealed behind him with a hiss. The silence that followed had a pulse.
Elias Varn sat shackled to the chair and stripped down to his undershirt, blood crusted along his temple. He'd been beaten before I got here, but not by anyone who understood what they were doing. Sloppy work. Bruises where nerves don't live long enough to feel regret.
When I stepped into the light, his gaze locked onto the mask. "Talon," he said, disgust dripping off the word.
"Names don't matter here."
"They do when you kill under them."
I ignored the jab, pacing slow circles. "You moved data out of Vulturis Sector Three. You intercepted a courier carrying Dr. Elise Meret's work, the unstable serum."
His lip twitched, but his tone stayed level. "Never heard of her."
"You're lying."
He smirked faintly. "If I were, you'd already know. You people always do."
His calm was practiced; the kind that only came from people trained to resist. Someone had drilled him to compartmentalize fear. That made him dangerous, but also predictable. Made me appreciate Overwatch that we weren't weak when faced with Talon. However, now that I was on the receiving end of it, I was beginning to understand my job wouldn't be so simple without shedding any blood.
"Where's her assistant?" I asked. "He took the remaining serum data before fleeing. You helped him."
He didn't blink. "Maybe he ran because he didn't want to be you."
I circled him slowly. "I'm not a killer."
He snorted. "Then what are you?"
I picked up the scalpel from the tray. The blade caught the light like a sliver of truth. "A surgeon."
Then I struck him. Once across the ribs, another along the forearm — shallow, precise, controlled. Enough to make him gasp, but not enough to bleed out.
He laughed as he spat out blood with the laugh being short, bitter. "You people always think pain equals truth. But I've seen men die smiling through it just to spite monsters like you. Is that all you got?"
"You'll learn that pain isn't the lesson," I said quietly. "It's just the introduction."
I pressed the blade into the muscle of his shoulder until it reached bone. He bit back a scream, jaw clenched tight enough to crack teeth.
"Where is Elise Meret's assistant?"
He lifted his head, blood pooling in his mouth. "I'll die before I tell you anything."
"Good," I said. "Then I'll make sure you don't."
I used my fingers, not tools. Knuckles met flesh in rhythm but not in rage, not chaos. Precision. Each strike chosen for endurance, not destruction. He hung from the restraints like a marionette of pain, shivering, teeth pink with blood.
After forty minutes, his breathing hitched, eyes rolling back.
I touched his neck and pulled out a stim. So I leaned close until he could see his reflection in the mask. "Truth isn't pain," I said quietly. "Truth is repetition. The body remembers what the mind tries to forget. Every cut, every silence. Eventually, it connects the dots for you."
I stabbed him with the stim, injecting him with Blackline. However, I also secretly activated Vital Synch, healing him instantly making it seem like the stim did it to not reveal myself to him.
He gasped, wide-eyed. "What...what the hell are you doing?"
"Healing you," I said. "You said you'd die before you talk. I won't allow that."
He stared at me in disbelief. "You're...sick."
"Maybe," I murmured as I watched his tendon I'd sliced earlier mend. "But it means we can do this forever."
His scream echoed down the hallway, muffled by the metal walls. The lights flickered, the air vent whined, and for a moment the only sound left was breathing, his ragged, mine steady.
"Where is he?"
He spat at me, voice breaking. "You think you scare me? I've watched men die for less. You're nothing but another Talon freak..."
I slammed my hand against his chest, channeling current just short of cardiac shock. His entire body convulsed.
When it stopped, he sagged forward, sweat dripping from his chin.
"You'll talk," I whispered, "or I'll keep healing you until you wish I'd let you die."
Three hours in, the defiance was gone. Pain had broken him. Hope had left him. But it wasn't fear that finally shattered the silence, it was despair.
He stared at the floor, voice hollow. "You won't stop, will you?"
"No," I said, looking at my reflection in disgust. "Talon never does."
He swallowed hard, the sound dry and small. "There's an old military relay in the Alps. A private Overwatch fallback. We used it to extract what was left of Meret's data. Her assistant, Doctor Koren, disappeared there before we could move him."
"Hollowpoint Station."
His eyes widened. "How..."
"You just confirmed it."
He shut his eyes, realization dawning too late. "You're not human."
I stepped closer. "No. I'm Dagger."
He flinched as I pressed my palm to his side again, the faint glow of healing light stitching shut the worst of his wounds.
"You'll live," I said. "That's your punishment."
Cain entered fifteen minutes later. The door opened with a hydraulic sigh, followed by the faint rhythm of his measured footsteps. He observed the room in silence looking at the blood, the broken man, the faint smell of ozone and skin.
Then he looked at me. "Did he talk?"
"Yes," I said. "Hollowpoint Station. The Alps."
"Good." His tone carried approval… and expectation. "Then finish it."
I wiped the blade clean on a cloth. "He's more valuable alive."
Cain tilted his head. "Oh. Explain."
"If we let him escape, Overwatch will assume he broke containment. He'll run straight back to them. Feed them half-truths, whatever he remembers. They'll focus their attention on cleaning the trail while we move on Hollowpoint unseen."
Cain considered it. "You're suggesting we let him walk?"
"Yes. Under sedation, a fake escape. His story will confirm what we want them to believe that Overwatch's data leaks are their own fault."
He studied me, then smiled faintly. "You're learning quickly, Dagger. Cruelty with purpose. I like that."
He turned to the guards. "Release him at the outer perimeter. Stage it as an escape attempt. If he survives the night, the illusion will hold."
Then to me: "You've earned your next cut."
When they carried Elias Varn out, his eyes found me through the haze of morphine. He didn't speak. Didn't curse. Just stared at the mask, the red line across the eyes, the man who'd broken him and put him back together in the same breath.
The door shut, leaving the echo of his heartbeat in the monitors.
I stood alone, staring at my blood-streaked gloves.
Healing and hurting; two opposite sides of the same equation.
Cain thought I'd proven loyalty. He didn't realize I'd proven something else, that mercy could wear cruelty's face and still win.
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Good news for everyone, but me. I'm coming up to my 200th chapter. To celebrate, DOUBLE CHAPTER WEEK. That's right, I'm pausing my gaming campaign of Battlefield, Legends ZA, and the upcoming Ninja Gaiden to pump out these chapters. I'd like to thank all the support, both negative and positive, it helps. Thanks for supporting me even through all the breaks I've taken. Thanks for the power stones and taking the time to add my story to your collection. I'll let you guys in on a secret. I made a deal to try my best to make good chapters that most of you will enjoy, or I'll reincarnate as a blade of grass. May I get to more chapters than the One Piece manga.