The Longest Night - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Ascian
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 4

The first thing their kidnappers did was give them a medical examination. The little man with salt and pepper hair attended to Cecilia first, although in the end both she and Hank lay strapped to examining tables, bright lights blinding their eyes as their examiner poked, prodded, and pinched.

They moved Hank from the van without ever undoing his bindings. The floor of the vehicle seemed to have been designed with his capture in mind, and detached with a loud click and groan. Using a small fork-lift, they transported him to the examining table. It was almost funny, Cecilia thought, watching him wiggling--gagged, bound and suspended five feet above

the ground. And if they ever got out of this alive, it would be another strange, weird story to tell the others over desert, when all of the X-Men seemed to pull out their most bizarre encounters for retelling.

The woman--Wang Mei, she called herself--left almost immediately after Cecilia was strapped to the table. The men who had kidnapped them--they were still nameless--stood in the shadows. They had put away their guns, but there was no doubt in Cecilia's mind that they were more than prepared for anything Hank or herself might try. Not that they were in any position

to. Cecilia tested her restraints. They did not budge.

The little man examining them--what had Wang Mei called him? Sung or something?--removed the gag from Hank's mouth. Cecilia twisted her head, watching as her friend tried to moisten his mouth with his tongue.

"Cecilia," he croaked.

"I'm fine, Hank." Which was a lie. She was *not* fine; her throat hurt like hell, and she was scared out of her mind. She was not about to say that, though. "You?"

"My forehead itches," he said, in a voice so plaintive that Cecilia, for one instant, forgot where she was and smiled. Hank noticed, and winked at her.

The little burst of humor between them made Cecilia feel stronger, which came in handy when she felt hands begin to undo her pants. Before she knew it, she was being deftly stripped of her clothing.

"What are you doing?" Cecilia asked, ashamed at how her voice rose. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the hands pulling down her jeans and underwear.

"The buyers need to be assured that you are both in perfect health," a voice said from behind. Cecilia heard the click of high-heels, and a moment later Wang Mei appeared on her right. She was still dressed in her red suit. She leaned close, and Cecilia smelled perfume. "Just pretend that you are being examined by your regular gynecologist."

"Fat chance of that," she muttered, lashing out with the heel of her foot. Sung easily sidestepped the oncoming blow towards his face. He grabbed her ankle, and with a surprising amount of strength, he pinned it into a stirrup, which had unfolded from beneath the table. He closed the clasp, and her other leg quickly followed suit.

"Stop this," Hank growled, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Stop this now."

"Patience, Doctor McCoy. Your turn will come next."

"Why.why are you doing all of this?" Cecilia gasped, and grit her teeth. Her skin crawled, and she tried to block out the sensation of fingers on her bare flesh, probing.

"She's doing it for money, Cecilia," Hank answered, his voice low and tight with fury. "We are to be sold like animals."

"My buyers don't pay me millions of dollars for *animals*, Doctor McCoy. They pay me for the greatest minds in science--minds that they will employ for their own use."

"It's slavery," Cecilia hissed, and then cried out in pain as Sung conducted a pap smear. He was not gentle, and the shocking intrusion into her body made her eyes sting in a way that the hands around her throat had not. He withdrew, and a warm blanket was thrown over the lower half of her body.

There was a low feminine laugh, and then: "You see? That wasn't so bad."

Cecilia said nothing.

They were thrown into the same room. It was sparsely furnished; one large mattress on the floor, a toilet, and a sink. The walls were made of concrete, as was the floor. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling. It was, in almost every way, like being in a prison cell.

Just minutes before unbinding him, Sung injected Hank with something that Cecilia could only guess was a specialized tranquilizer of sorts. Hank remained alert, but so weak that he could do little more than allow himself to be half dragged, half carried into the cell he and Cecilia now shared.

"I suspect," he said, after the men had left and he was lying on the mattress with Cecilia sitting beside him. "That if we do not get out of here, I will find that being as weak as a kitten will become the normal state of affairs in my life. You shall have to spoon-feed me, and change my diapers."

It was an attempt to make her smile, and Cecilia knew it. Unfortunately (because she was not in the mood for jokes), it worked.

"You can change your own diapers, McCoy," she muttered, and winced as her throat convulsed in pain. There were other parts of her that ached as well, but she ignored them. They carried memories that she did not yet want to face.

With great effort, Hank lifted his hand and touched her throat, probing gently. "Swollen and bruised," he murmured. "But no permanent damage. I am afraid, however, that if we ever make it to that formal ball, you'll have to wear a high-necked dress."

Cecilia stared at him incredulously.

"McCoy," she whispered. "If we ever make it out of here, I'll wear any kind of dress you like."

He closed his eyes. "You are an inspiration, Cecilia. Now we *must* escape."

But exactly how they were going to do that, Cecilia thought, with a glance around the sparsely furnished room, was a mystery to her.

Tienmu was a small district in Taiwan, known for its modern housing and stores, as well as the number of foreigners who lived there. At three-thirty in the morning, however, there was not much to see, although Marrow occasionally spied people walking along the darkened sidewalks, umbrellas held over their heads to keep off the falling rain.

They had been driving for half an hour, and Marrow was beginning to grow restless. Granted, they had not been searching for long, but the girl was beginning to suspect that it was a useless exercise. After all, how could they know which one of these buildings the two kidnapped X-Men might be in? For that matter, Guo could have lied to her; there had not been enough time to find out for sure, although Marrow was fairly certain that the man had spoken the truth. There was something in his expression--a fear too great to allow for lies.

Marrow almost smiled. Despite the pretty face the image-inducer gave her, there were certain things--elements of personality--that just could not stay hidden.

She glanced at Gambit; he had been silent for a long while now, his face lost in shadow. "Remy," she said hesitantly. "You think it might be better if we split up and covered this area on foot?"

After a long moment, Gambit slowly nodded. He pulled the car over to the side of the road, and turned off the engine. Instead of getting out of the car, though, he just sat there and frowned thoughtfully.

"Dere's somet'ing wrong 'bout dis whole t'ing, Sarah. Wha' happened at de Guild tonight." His voice trailed off, and he shook himself. Gambit looked at her, his eyes red and bright. "You be careful, petite."

Marrow grinned fiercely. "These Upworlders are all soft. I can handle 'em."

Gambit merely grunted, and got out of the car. Marrow followed suit, and with a flash of teeth at her friend, began to lope down the street away from him. There was a swift breeze, and she blinked away the rain that got into her eyes.

"Back here in an hour!" She heard him hiss. She lifted her hand to acknowledge him, and kept on running.

Gambit watched the girl leave, and when she had disappeared from sight, he stepped into a covered alcove and pulled out his cell phone. There was someone he could call who might know where Cecilia and Hank had been taken--but it was going to cost Gambit, which was why he had waited until he was sure he had no other choice. That, and his contact was a paranoid

mutant who would instantly know whether or not Gambit had company during their conversation.

Jia Rui hated that, and now was not the time for Gambit to be on the man's bad side.

He dialed in the numbers to his contact's secure line, and waited. The phone rang only once before it was picked up.

"Allo?" Gambit asked, after a long silence on the other end. "It's Remy LeBeau."

"I know." The voice was sullen, deep, and most definitely belonged to Jia. "I heard you were in town."

"I need y' help, Jia. Some friends o' mine--"

"--have been kidnapped. Yes, I know. It's going to cost you."

"I'll--"

"--pay it. Yes, I know." There was a long pause. "I've changed my mind. I'm going to give this one to you for free. No strings."

Gambit lifted his eyebrows. "Y' sick or somethin'?"

"Just sick of the lady who's running the operation that took your friends.I did some work for her last month. Little bitch tried to cheat me."

"What's she up to?" Gambit asked, stepping deeper into the shadowed doorway as a late-night patrol car drove by.

"You don't have time to be asking me questions, LeBeau. Keep talking, and your little friend is going to get there before you."

Gambit stiffened. "Wha--"

"Go west on the road you're on. Follow it for twelve or so blocks, and take a left at Chuang-an Street. Keep going; you'll recognize the sign."

There was click, and then nothing. Jia Rui had just hung up on him.

Gambit tucked the phone back into his pocket; running the directions through his head, he began to race down the street in the direction that Marrow had taken.

The first thing that struck Marrow as she walked through the streets of Taipei in the middle of the night were the numbers of stray dogs. She had not noticed them in the car, but as she combed the streets, she saw them everywhere.

It was too bad, Marrow thought, that she didn't have the nose of a dog. If she did, she could just sniff out the two kidnapped X-Men instead of running haphazardly through these wet unfamiliar streets, her only company a bunch of canines with skin disease and bright eyes.

She stopped under a broken light post, trying to regain her bearings. As she did, she stared at the buildings around her, all of them ramshackle and similar in design. Where in this place would a person hide someone like Blue and Furry? She began to move forward, and felt something soft nuzzle her ankle. Marrow bit back a yelp, and looked down.

It was a puppy. Tiny and white, it hugged her heels, snuffling loudly. She made eye contact as she stared at it, and immediately realized her mistake. Marrow bravely lifted her gaze in an attempt to ignore the little ball of fur. She tried to walk away. The puppy followed her, stumbling over its own legs in its haste to keep up. It was wet and looked cold.

"Go away," she told it. "I don't want you."

The puppy whined and struggled to keep up.

They walked like that for several minutes, Marrow making threats while the little dog stared at her with its great, mournful eyes. She was just about ready to make a run for it when ahead in road she saw a long black Mercedes make a U-turn and park along the side of the street. Marrow stepped into the shadows, waiting to see who the driver was.

To her amazement, it was Ling. Another figure also stepped out of the car, and she felt her jaw drop as she recognized Guo. Ling locked her car, and the two Guild members began to walk down the road away from Marrow. The ex-Morlock instantly followed--or at least, she tried to. As she began to lope down the street, the puppy whined pitifully, his little legs not long enough to keep pace.

//Just leave him. Dogs are useless, puppies even more so. They're only good to eat, and you're not starving in the gutter any more.//

Ling and Guo were pulling farther ahead, their bodies shrouded in shadow. The puppy whined again. Marrow swore, and turned around. In two steps she reached the little dog, and swept it up into her arms. It licked her chin and right then and there she almost dropped it.

"Damn dog," she muttered, and began to hurry to catch up to Ling and Guo, both of whom had just gone around a street corner. But by the time Marrow reached the place where she had last seen them, they had disappeared.

The puppy pushed its nose into her chest and sighed.

Cecilia did not think it would be possible for her to sleep, but when she found herself slowly floating back into a groggy state of semi-consciousness, she blearily realized that she had done just that. She forced herself to roll over, and came face to ear with Hank. His eyes were open, and he was staring at the ceiling.

"Tell me, Mr. Genius-In-Residence.do you have a plan yet?" Cecilia asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

A small, bitter smile played across Hank's features. "I am afraid that it is this supposed genius of mine that has gotten us into this mess. But as to your question," He turned his head and looked her in the eye. "My answer is no."

Cecilia grunted, and flipped herself onto her back. The two of them lay there, staring at nothing.

"I can't think of anything, either," she confessed. "My shield still protects me--as long as they don't grab hold of my neck, that is. I suppose I could try to make a run for it the next time they come--rip off the toilet seat cover over there and smack them with it if they try anything."

"Perhaps," Hank conceded. "The potential risk to your person disturbs me, though."

"And I.I don't want to leave you," Cecilia admitted grudgingly.

Hank went very still. "Cecilia," he began softly. "I cannot express to you how sorry I am to have gotten you in this mess. If I had not left that message on your answering machine--"

"Then none of us would know you had been kidnapped. At least--at least you're not alone, Hank. Neither of us are."

"And that is precisely why I am feeling so guilty," he replied, turning his head so that he could look into her eyes. "Because there is a part of me that is happy that you are here with me--that I do *not* have to go through this by myself. And after what you had to endure tonight--"

"Let's *not* talk about that," Cecilia interrupted wryly. "Besides, you were the one tied to the floor of a van, gagged and bound for hours, until they pumped you full of enough drugs to take down an elephant. At least I actually had the chance to get physical and kick some bootie."

Hank chuckled. "I saw what you did you to that man who dragged you into the van. I wish I had been as capable in my own defense. I called for room service--a midnight snack--but needless to say, the men who brought my meal were not employees of the hotel. They sprayed something in my face, struck me over the head, and before I knew it, I found myself bound and gagged on the floor of that van. It's embarrassing. After all of those hours spent in the Danger Room."

"You lacked a woman's touch, that's all," Cecilia replied sarcastically, and patted his hand. He grasped it and tucked it into his side.

"My strength is coming back," he commented. "If they wait much longer, we might actually have a chance." He hesitated, and squeezed her hand. "If you have the opportunity, take it. Get away and find help--Gambit, maybe, if you can reach him."

"What about you?"

Hank sighed. "If you don't come back with reinforcements, I shall simply have to find someone *else* who can spoon feed me and change my di--"

Cecilia smacked him. "You're hoping it comes to that, aren't you? What happened when you were a baby, McCoy? Not get enough love?"

He grinned, and was just about to reply when the door to their small room clicked open. Two men, both thin and narrow, padded in with their guns drawn. Wang Mei followed them. She smiled at the two X-Men.

"I'm glad to see that the two of you are so comfortable. Unfortunately, Doctor Reyes must leave now."

"Leave?" Hank and Cecilia chorused.

Wang Mei raised a finely plucked eyebrow. "My buyer has just informed me that he has no use for Doctor Reyes; he only wants *you* Doctor McCoy. As such, your friend is going to be.released."

"Uh-huh," Cecilia nodded. //Yeah, right. No one in this room is *that* stupid. //

"If Cecilia is harmed in any way, I will not cooperate," Hank announced, feebly trying to push himself off the mattress. Cecilia stared at him incredulously.

//What a way to scare them, Hank. You can't even lift up your head.//

But he had said that his strength was returning. Which meant.

Hank caught Cecilia's eye, and she slowly stood and turned to face Wang Mei.

"I'll go," she said. "I just need a minute."

"Of course." Her smile was smooth. She took several steps back and stood there, watching them.

Cecilia knelt back down besides Hank, and without a moment's hesitation he enfolded his great arms around her. She pressed her lips to his ear. "You sure about this?" she breathed, her heart beginning to rattle in her chest.

Hank turned her slightly so that the side of her head would block his mouth. "Yes," he whispered. "They won't shoot me--I'm worth too much. It's the only way."

"See you later then, Hank," Cecilia replied softly, and then kissed him hard on the lips. He was not expecting the crush of her mouth on his own, and a strangled "oomph" emerged.

She released him and stood quickly.

"Are you ready now, Doctor Reyes?" Wang Mei asked, taking several steps towards the two X-Men.

Cecilia nodded, still facing Hank. "Yeah. I'm ready."

She whirled and threw herself at the woman. The sound of bullets rang out, and Cecilia felt the familiar pain of contact as they connected with her shield and ricocheted. From behind her, she heard Hank roar, followed by the sound of flesh smacking flesh.

Wang Mei bled from a cut along her temple. //One of the bullets that bounced off me,// Cecilia realized, and then lifted her fist and slammed it towards the other woman's cheek. To Cecilia's surprise, she sidestepped the blow, and returned with one that the doctor was too slow to block. She felt it in her gut, and a second later, fingers tangled in her hair and pulled

her head back.

"I'm going to kill you," Wang Mei hissed. Blood streamed down the side of her face; her eyes were dark and hard.

"Cecilia!" Hank shouted.

Cecilia snarled, raising her fists. She felt the hairs on her forearms lift off her skin, and there was a flash of gold at the bottom of her vision, followed by a loud *thump* and the sight of Wang Mei being propelled into the concrete wall with bone-shattering force.

Cecilia spun around; Hank was wrestling with one of the men--the other lay unconscious on the floor beside them. She could hear the sounds of running feet, fast approaching.

"Go!" he shouted.

"Hank--"

"Cecilia," he hissed, his voice tight with strain as he tried to subdue the struggling guard. He was tiring--she could see it. She knew he wouldn't be able to move fast enough to escape before the others arrived.

She took a step backward, and then another, her eyes glued on Hank.

GO, he mouthed, his eyes pleading.

Cecilia tore herself away, and ran.