Shadows Without Light part whatever

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

Broken Subject
R
Bayverse Interrogationverse AU
Barricade, Vortex, Scattorshot
warnings not so bad for this one: mindfuckery, really. 

A/N Hahahah yeah we've, uhhhh drifted from the original intent here.  *shakes fist and how porn and plot have come together*
Sort of a twist on 'love of comrades' as an approach--normally you can do things like remind them about their buddies, worry them up, and use that emotional state to force a slip.  Not so easy with Scattorshot so you have to do a bit of pride/ego up by convincing him you're fairly worthless and telling you won't do much anyway.  Also a bit of 'ticking clock' and 'open window'--give a sense of urgency, and then give a teensy bit of a way out. These two are often used by homicide detectives as well to get confessions from murderers.  MOST murder cases, btw, end in confessions, and that combo is often a reason why.

It's also useful when a subject is aggressive, to simply back down.  Sometimes he'll think it means it's worked and you're totally cowed and thus are no threat; sometimes he'll think it just had no effect on you at all and will wonder why.

meh.

 

 

“Barricade!”  Vortex’s voice was singsongy, but Barricade could hear a strange tension thrumming underneath it. Like high tension wire. “It’s time for you to go solo.” 

Barricade turned, slowly, tilting his head up to meet Vortex’s hooded gaze. “Really.” Keeping his tone just on the outer margin of surprise. Trying to sheathe the edge.  Vortex’s gaze gave away nothing. Then again, Barricade, did you really expect it to? “Who?”

Vortex shrugged. “Some Autobot, obviously.” He handed over the datareader “One of the Calabi-Yau crew.” 

Barricade took it, careful to keep his talons away from Vortex’s fingers.  Ident code. Designation: Scattorshot.  Looked to be fairly high ranking.  Barricade looked up. He should not be given this as a solo.  Some…junior scrub tech or something.  Not someone with command idents.  Something was wrong. He was being set up. 

“All yours,” Vortex said, cheerfully. Which put Barricade on edge.

“What’s wrong with him?” Barricade blurted. 

“What?”

Vortex’s visor darkened, confirming Barricade’s suspicion that something was very wrong here at the same time as telling him to tread very, very carefully. It was obvious, really, that there was no way Barricade should be given a high priority prisoner. Which meant, well, this was dead wrong, but it was a safe stab in the dark. “Must not know much useful.”

“Oh, we don’t know that yet,” Vortex said, his tone a little too light.  He cocked his head.”Why, Barricade. You almost sound as though you think I don’t trust you.”

No, Barricade thought. I don’t trust you. “Just think you’re setting me up,” he said, flatly. It had to be a set up, after all. Here, Barricade, fail at this.  Vortex hadn’t been physically violent to him in a while, and was probably feeling the itch. And what better way than after a showy explosion of failure?  He’d have no choice but to punish Barricade. 

“Now, Barricade,” Vortex purred. He was on slightly more familiar turf here, “would I honestly do that?”

“Honestly?” Barricade’s gaze grew sharp. “Yes.” 

Vortex twitched back for a klik, before laughing.  “I have made you paranoid, haven’t I?”

Yes. “You wish,” Barricade snapped. 

Vortex’s face was unreadable.  He looked up and down Barricade’s frame, as if studying it for some flaw.  “I’ll tell you something, Barricade.  I want you to handle this one.  Because.”  There was a moment of stillness.  Even though Vortex was obviously fighting something, he kept his face and body perfectly still.  “This one is…damaged.”

Barricade shrugged. “Never stopped you before.” He had the all-too-vivid recollection of the Autobot and the drill. 

Vortex sighed, channeling whatever emotion he was feeling to frustration. “I mean that I damaged him.  Not physically.”

Barricade blinked.  Oh.  He felt a strange rush of fear and excitement mingled.  Vortex…fragged up.  And was coming to him to defrag it.  Barricade wasn’t really able to process the implications right now.  And it certainly didn’t obviate Vortex’s ability—nor probably desire—to find some way to punish Barricade at the end. “Details,” he said, quietly. 

Vortex twitched. “It was a misread. Went in pride/ego down, hostility up, matching, because guard notes said he powergamed.”

Barricade caught himself nodding. In fact, they both caught themselves, shifting a little awkwardly at the collegial moment. “You can…push him past that,” Barricade said, quietly. He had no idea why he wasn’t taking the opportunity to grind the failure into Vortex’s face.

“Not this one. It happens.” 

“Pride/ego down wouldn’t have worked,” Barricade speculated.  “Especially if he bullied.”  He looked up. “So what approach do I take?”  Wrong answer. He saw the sneer form just from the way it crinkled Vortex’s cheekplates above his battlemask. 

“If you’ve learned anything,” Vortex said, his voice rough, dangerous.  Barricade had half a klik to brace himself before the hand came up shoving hard against his shoulder.  He let himself be driven back, one foot behind the other, until his pauldron tires bumped the wall.  Vortex pressed in against him, so that the larger mech seemed to be the entire world—in front, to the sides, above Barricade, pushing in.  “You’ll prove it now, or prove yourself worthless.” 

And in an instant, he was gone, and Barricade felt the datapad digging into his chassis.  Message received.

[…]

The mech gave Barricade a narrow-opticked glance that would have put him on edge only a few decacycles ago. As it was, Barricade merely noted it.  Right. Hostile. How to deal? 

Buy time to figure it out, he thought.  He lay the datapad on the table.  Vortex would not be pleased if he fragged this up. And he hated that Vortex’s pleasure or displeasure were even factors for him, but they were.  It was the way he had to think. 

His talons fumbled with the datapad, knocking it onto the floor.  He could feel Scattorshot’s scathing contempt like a ray of fire on his back as he stooped to pick it up, mortified at his clumsiness.

Let nothing get to you, he told himself.  You can’t let him win. Use his emotions against him. All things he had learned from Vortex. Vortex, the slaggin’ center of his existence.  He snarled, talons clenching.  The datapad slipped out, clattering onto the floor again.

“Pathetic,” Scattorshot spat.  And there, Barricade thought suddenly, I have my intro. Yes.  Pathetic. Heard too much to hurt anymore.

“Nervous,” he said, letting his voice leak a little. 

“Of what, Deceptifilth?”  He held up his stasis-cuffed wrists. “Not going to hurt you.”

“Not you.”  Barricade slapped the datapad on the table. “Vortex.”

Scattorshot sneered.  Barricade hesitated: Scattorshot thought he was afraid of Vortex.  Contempt might work. Scattorshot would let his guard down if he thought Barricade were incompetent. And he could handle the hatred and contempt of some Autobot who—if lucky—would have only a short lifespan left before termination and salvage. He who laughs second to last….

“Vortex,” Scattorshot spat.  “You’d better keep him away from me.”

Barricade struggled to keep the snicker from his voice. “Really? Afraid he’ll mess up your pretty paint job?”

Scattorshot glared. “You seem pretty scared of him yourself.”

“Not scared,” Barricade said. “Aware what he can do.”  More aware than I ever wanted to be. 

Scattorshot tilted his head at him, considering.

“I’m not afraid.”

“Then you’re stupid.”  Barricade thought back to Sunstreaker.  Vortex could do far worse than even what he’d done to Barricade.  And Barricade knew it. And would not forget. And could not forget that at any moment, he, too, could push Vortex too far.  Some mechs had limits. Off switches.  Vortex had none.  He was like a bomb primed to go off at any instant.

He called up the form again.  What he knew, what he didn’t know about Scattorshot.  Conditions of capture.  Nothing was giving him any traction.  Well, idiot, guess your first approach is going to be silence.  He looked up at Scattorshot. Down at the form.  Back up. 

“Slag,” Scattorshot sneered. “You’re fraggin’ useless, aren’t you?”

He’s trying to push your buttons.  Too bad Vortex has already mashed that one flat.  “Yeah,” he said, mostly by reflex. Then added, “Must be why they gave you to me.”

“What?”  Pushing the point of anger.  Yeah, he could see how Vortex could have damaged him.  Set him into a reflexive rage.  Would that have been a better response in his own situation?  How would Scattorshot have handled Vortex’s attentions? 

“Mean, you must not know much if they stuck you with me.” 

Scattorshot bridled visibly at the insinuation. “I know plenty,” he said.  Probably half a boast. Half.  The trick was getting to the second half. “And your better couldn’t get anything out of me, so, what chance do you think you have?”

Barricade shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“We will, won’t we?”

Wow. The arrogance was a little irritating. Do not let him get to you, Barricade.  Back down, see what he does. “Yeah, you’ll probably win. Truth is, you don’t have much better to do with your time. What you have left.”

“A threat? From you?” Scattorshot seemed amused.  Good. Amused was ‘not thinking.’

“I don’t threaten.” He kept his voice damped.  “Statement of fact. Sooner or later they’ll remember you.”

Scattorshot shifted in the chair, tilting his head. “So. This is where you offer me some kind of deal?  ‘Tell me X and I’ll put in a good word’?”

Barricade shook his head. “My good words don’t carry very far.”  Scattorshot was dead either way.  Vortex might have lied to him, told him there was a way out.  Barricade couldn’t pull that off, yet.

“So then, why are you here?”  Hostility.  Yeah. Reflexive.  You know matching him gets you nowhere.  Yield.  It was a hopeless situation. Only Scattorshot didn’t seem to know it.

Maybe Barricade could enlighten him. 

“Let me tell you something,” Barricade said. Except his voice didn’t sound like his.  But the words came, and they felt right, like they resonated through that dark, hurt part of him that Vortex had steadily been building.  “This ends one way: you die.  We’re the bad guys, remember?  There’s no ‘deal’ here.  There’s no wiggle room. There’s only the fact that sooner or later they’ll remember you and how useless you were and will terminate you. And,” and this last was a pure blow to the ego, “it will be entirely unremarkable.” He sat back, his door wings spreading against the chair back.  Scattorshot looked…shocked. Good. “Only difference here,” Barricade added, “is that I’m not clever enough to lie to you about it.”

Scattorshot gaped. 

Barricade shrugged. “So, tell me nothing.  Determine to die a hero to the last.  Admire it, kind of.” Certainly nothing I have in me, he thought, bitterly. “Can leave right now to your heroic  stoicism.”  He moved to gather up his datapad. 

“Wait. You’re…leaving?”

“No sense staying,” Barricade said. “Talking to a dead mech, after all. I’m a worthless piece of slag, but at least I’m going to be alive tomorrow.”  Surviving matters. It MATTERS. He tried to cling to that, the way he saw Scattorshot try to cling to his presumed superiority and Autobot nobility.

“Living coward,” Scattorshot snapped. But it was almost pure bluster. 

“Could have fought to the death if you didn’t feel the same,” Barricade countered.  “Surrender is cowardice.” And yes, he was a coward.  He loved life too much to give up even a finger’s hold of it to cling onto some…intangible. 

Scattorshot blinked. Yeah, Barricade thought. You’re just like me. Suddenly seeing life as more important than some word.  Die for a cause? Doesn’t look so noble when no one will see it. When no one will care.  Good point.

“Anyone gonna miss you?” Barricade said, standing up. “Mean, on your side?  Anyone even notice you’ll be gone?”   No one would notice if Barricade died.

The ego faltered.  Barricade could hear it cracking.  “Shut up, ‘con,” Scattorshot said.  One of those demands that was really a plea. Stop pushing. 

“Yeah. Some heroic legacy you’ll be leaving. REALLY worth dying a hero for, isn’t it? Aren’t they?” Scattorshot seemed more vulnerable to the tangible than the intangible.

“Yes,” Scattorshot said, thinly. Then, more determinedly. “Yes! You can’t even appreciate the difference, living here like savages.”  He made a gesture with his bound hands. “Afraid of your own side.”

“Yeah?” Barricade hesitated. He inched back to the table. “Explain it to me, then.  Explain to me why you’re willing to die for mechs who don’t even care about you? Tell me why it’s worth it.”

He saw Scattorshot waver—could practically hear the fear of death colliding with his reasons, his presumed superiority, his contempt for Barricade.  And. Crack.

Scattorshot’s optics grew a little crafty. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll try to explain.  Just to prove how stupid you are for following a side that condones such treatment of their own mechs.”

Barricade sat down.

“Let me start with the Calabi-Yau.”

[…]

This, apparently, was Vortex’s brand of gratitude.  He’d read through Barricade’s report, Scattorshot naming names, listing mission parameters, profiles, armaments, everything, in pursuit of proving Autobot superiority.  Barricade had broken him, and Scattorshot hadn’t even realized it.  And so Barricade had fallen into an exhausted recharge while Vortex read, worn out by effort and anxiety.  Only to wake up to the larger mech curling around him, hands tugging Barricade’s recharge-limp arms over his frame in a semblance of an embrace, burrowing his face against Barricade’s facial spires.  No violence. Completely impassive physical contact, almost needy. He could have taken Barricade—had before—had thrown him, damaged him, violated him while he was helpless, vulnerable. 

Survive, Barricade, he told himself. And despaired that part of him viewed Vortex’s strange embrace as a victory, a sign that he had proved himself.  A sign that someone would miss him if he died. 

 

Comments

[anontfwriter.livejournal.com]

*blinks* Wow, that was a brilliant chapter! I love how you write Barricade!

[ultharkitty.livejournal.com]

That was utterly and absolutely awesome :D

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

o.O It's almost heartwarming!

(Or, you know, not. Very well done. XD)

[wingzbot.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwwwww!! That ending is so sweet! =)

This fic really brings me back to "Break" (my favorite non-sticky fic)! Very brilliantly written!

Your wit in writing interrogation is completely surreal to me: it's so clever and insightful! I can just see this happening in a real situation!

**happy**!!