CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
INTERROGATION

Aaron didn't really know why he'd stayed with Steve, it had been a rash decision on his part. He was panicked, he didn't want something to happen to his older brother.

Aaron knew he couldn't stop whatever would be done to the three who had gotten caught, but for some reason, at least if he was there with his brother when whatever happened, it seemed to put his mind at slight ease knowing that if the worst happened to Steve for knocking the guard out just like he thought it would, at least he'd be there with him.

Aaron knew he and Robin wouldn't be hurt as bad as Steve would be, but the thought of something so extreme happening to his brother made him nauseous.

He knew Kimmy, Dustin and Erica would be safe in the air duct's and that they could get help, but he also knew that if he had told Kimmy that he wasn't going with them, she wouldn't have let him.

She would have stayed with him. And he would not let it happen, he wouldn't let the girl get so badly hurt because of his decisions.

However, Aaron's half baked plan wasn't going how he'd planned it to. The three had been split up and taken to separate rooms.

Aaron was forced down into a seat against the wall, his hands tied behind his back as two soldiers looked down at him with sneers.

Aaron stayed silent, looking up at the two soldiers fearfully as he bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from blurting something. He was determined to stay silent until he was spoken to.

"Who do you work for?" One of the soldiers spat down at him in a thick Russian accent, the man's voice strangely calm.

The blond took a shaky breath, looking between the two soldiers warily before speaking in a hesitant voice. "I don't work for anyone-"

He was cut off when one of the two men in front of him punched him hard in the jaw, snapping Aaron's face side ways.

Aaron squeezed his dark green eyes shut, trying to recollect himself from the harsh blow that had been sent his way.

He had never been hit like that in his life. He'd never been hit so hard that it still tingled with pain after the damage had been done, or that he felt blood pooling in his mouth after the first hit.

Despite the pain, Aaron was determined to try and not show just how badly the soldier had hurt him. Instead he spat out the blood that was filling his mouth and turned to face him.

"We will ask once more." The soldier was much angrier the second time asking, leaning in Aaron's face slightly to try intimidate him. "Who do you work for."

The man who had spoken was the same as before, the one who had his hands clasped behind his back and stood straight, it was the one next to him who had hit the blond.

"I don't work for anyone, I swear!" Aaron insisted, well aware of the man stood to his right waiting for the nod to hit him once again. "I don't work for-"

Once again, Aaron was cut off. The man hitting him hard in the face again, only this time not his jaw but his cheekbone.

It went on like that for a while, Aaron insisting he didn't know anything and getting harsh blows to his face in return.

Eventually, Aaron had a dark purple bruise growing on both his left cheekbone and the right side of his jaw. His nose gushing with blood from how much hits to the middle of the face he'd received and there was blood splattered all over his face due to his burst lip as well as the fact that the amount of hits to the side of his face mixed with the amount of hits to his stomach caused his mouth to fill up with blood.

Leaving the boy coughing up mouthfuls of blood.

However this obviously was not enough for the two guards, because they didn't seem to want to stop there.

"Please, don't!" Aaron yelled frantically as the man who had been hitting him senseless took a step forward. "I don't know anything! I don't work for anyone-"

The man lifted his leg and kicked him in the stomach, leaving Aaron groaning as he had already felt a bruise forming under his shirt from how much he'd been hit there.

The man had kicked him so hard in the stomach that he hit his back so harshly against the metal wall behind him that he could feel it sting, Aaron already knowing that he'd have quite a bad bruise on his back now as well.

The boy dropped his head and instantly began coughing up blood, so much of it that it was almost choking the boy seeing as there was too much to actually fit in his mouth without trickling down his throat in clumps. The blond gagged as he coughed up much more blood than he knew was healthy.

"Okay, yeah we did sneak into your base." Aaron gave in, afraid what would happen to him if he received anymore blows to the face or to his stomach. "But no one saw us, I swear. And we won't tell anyone, I promise we won't. You can let us go right? Now that you know we won't say anything you can let us go?"

Aaron got his answer through another hit to the face, this stinging much more than previously seeing as the man had hit directly where a bruise was forming.

"I'm sorry," Aaron spoke so desperately it was pitiful. "I'm really sorry, okay? But, I don't know anything! And, I swear it wasn't me who hurt the guard. Look at me! I'm just a kid, how was I supposed to do that much damage? That guy was huge, I wouldn't even be able to-"

"Then who was it?" The soldier snapped, the blond watching from the corner of his eye as the guard began creeping closer to Aaron. "It was one of you."

Aaron hesitated, not sure what to say. Obviously he knew it was Steve who had knocked the guard out, however he was not going to throw his brother under the bus and let him get hurt a million times worse than he probably was already just because they now had some sort of proof of his actions.

Aaron knew he had let the look of fear slip onto his face, but he was unable to hide it, the boy was terrified.

It was now at the point where it was hurting the boy to talk, his lip had been hit so much that it had burst to badly that it hurt him to talk, the blood from his lips dripping all the way down his chin as it continued to pour.

The boy had ignored the pain in his lip and had yelled at the men in front of him time to time. But, this was only to try defend himself and try talk himself out of being hit again and making his injuries worse.

Aaron finally gathered the courage to reply to the intimidating man who Aaron knew could kill him at any moment.. "I don't know-"

The guard hit him harshly against the face again, catching the large purple bruise on his jaw as well as his burst lip. Aaron squeezed his eyes shut as he felt his eyes begin to sting with tears at the pain.

The blond dropped dropped his head, being hit so much that he actually struggled to keep his head up. Aaron was so injured that he now felt drowsy, as if he was on the verge of passing out.

Aaron then felt a hand tug on his hair and force his head up roughly, the blond forced his dark green eyes open, practically fighting to stay awake as the man looking down at him glowered.

The guard let go of him, moving to stand next to the soldier as he too sent daggers his way.

"Who do you work for?" The man yelled right in his face much louder than he ever had before.

Despite the yelling, Aaron could hardly hear him, his ears ringing so violently that it's all he could focus on.

Aaron spat the blood out of his mouth again, trying to ignore the stinging of his injuries. "I don't work for anyone-"

The boy grunted as he was hit again, although unlike before, he wasn't just hit once and then questioned again. The man hit him over and over again, blood pouring out of Aaron's mouth and down his chin as it splattered all over his face while the man hit him roughly over and over.

In fact, he was hit so much at once and so harshly that the boy eventually did pass out. However Aaron was unsure if this was because of how much blood he had lost or if it was because of how much pain he was in.

The man continued to hit the boy harshly even after he'd passed out, Aaron's face a bloody mess.

...

Eventually, Kimmy, Dustin and Erica managed to get out of the air duct. Each of the three climbing through the latch swiftly.

The room they had ended up in was lit up with bright lights, hundreds of the long thin containers holding the poisonous green liquid.

"Jackpot." Dustin murmured as he ran away from Kimmy and Erica. Rushing out of the room the second he could.

Kimmy and Erica looked to each other with a confused expression before running after him. Kimmy's brows raising in surprise at what Dustin was stood next as well as the smirk the boy wore.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Erica scoffed as she looked at the small red car... thing, that Dustin was beginning to climb into.

"How hard can it be? Max did it." Dustin remarked as he climbed in the passenger seat. Before groaning in frustration when he realised he actually didn't have any keys to start it.

"You seriously thought they'd leave keys in there?" Erica scoffed from Kimmy's side as she folded her arms over her chest.

"There's gotta be a spare." Dustin muttered to himself, checking everywhere in the vehicle for some keys.

Kimmy wasn't really paying attention, she hadn't really been paying attention the entire time she'd been with the two.

She was too worried about the blond that they'd left behind. Yes, she was worried about Steve and Robin too, of course she was.

However she couldn't help but allow her worry to be primarily focused on Aaron. She was quite literally worried to the point she was nauseous.

Dustin didn't seem to be as worried as she was, and neither was Erica. Both of them fairly confident that they'd be able to get the three back safely.

Kimmy wasn't so sure.

The girl wasn't really able to process anything that had been said to her the entire time since the three had left half of their group.

The brunette was too nervous to even think straight. She was quite literally terrified for the three who had given themselves up to the hands of the Russian's. She was terrified for them.

"Hey, guys?" Erica asked, walking away from Kimmy's side as she spoke.

"Yeah?" Dustin asked, still looking around for an extra key.

Kimmy heard her and acknowledged her with a small nod, but she was too lost in her own thoughts to even look over to where the girl was headed.

"How big did you say that demogorgon was?" Erica asked the two in a suspicious tone.

"Nine feet or so, why?" Dustin replied in a distant voice, distracted as he looked for a key to start the vehicle.

Erica didn't answer, or maybe she did. Kimmy wasn't sure, she was so lost in her thoughts of worry that she could hardly hear the conversation at hand.

"Found 'em." Dustin signed in amusement, Kimmy didn't even look up at him as he spoke, biting her cheek as she began to spiral about what could possibly be happening to the three. "Erica?"

Kimmy flinched at the sound of a loud zap, snapping her head up in fear as she expected the worse.

Kimmy's eyes widened and she made her way over to Erica and Dustin who were stood at the other side of the small red vehicle.

Erica was holding some sort of weapon, mockingly pushing it to Dustin's face as she pretended to attack him with it, laughing at Dustin's scared expression.

"What the hell is that?" Kimmy exclaimed with wide eyes, Erica turning to face her with a grin.

"A deadly weapon." Erica shrugged with a snicker. "Could be useful."

She then paused, turning to face Dustin again as she turned the weapon on again, pointing it at Dustin teasingly, the boy flinching back.

"For what?" Dustin asked in a shaky voice.

"What do you think?" Erica scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Taking down Commies, saving your friends."

"I thought you were more realistic than that, nerd." Dustin retorted, although he was clearly still a little scared of the weapon the younger girl was holding. Erica rolled her eyes and walked away at his words, however Dustin continued talking. "We don't even know where they are, and even if we did, there are a million guards up there with weapons deadlier than that. The best thing we can do for them is to get out of here and find help."

Kimmy nodded at him, completely agreeing with what he was saying. "Yeah, Dustin's right, Erica."

Dustin nodded at Kimmy and then walked over to the red vehicle, motioning for Kimmy to get in before him.

Kimmy was squished between Erica and Dustin as she sat in the middle. Her eyes widening when Erica placed her weapon across the three so it wouldn't stick out of the car.

"Easy with that." Dustin scolded, Erica sending him a blank look but pulled the weapon back and tried to balance it between herself and the gap in front of her where the windshield window should have been.

"Our chance of surviving, and theirs, rises substantially." Dustin told the two, clearly noticing the look of worry on Kimmy's face. "Just trust me on this. Please?"

Kimmy sighed, sending him a small smile, although the smile couldn't hide the same look of hesitance and fear that wouldn't leave her face.

Dustin turned away, starting the vehicle with a sigh, shaking his head to try reassure himself before driving off.

...

Aaron was brought out of his state of unconsciousness when a loud bang of something hitting the floor could be heard along with muffled voices.

The blond tried to blink his eyes open, but everything hurt. He could never remember feeling so bad in all his life.

Suddenly, his head was forced up roughly and he slowly blinked his eyes open, only to reveal the one person he didn't want to see.

The guard was staring back at him with a look of fury, however Aaron couldn't find it in him to care. The man couldn't hurt him anymore than he already had.

The man scoffed at him, turning the boy's head around so he could catch a glance at what was going on behind him. It was only then that Aaron realised he was strapped to a chair, his bare arms beginning to hurt with how tight he was tied to the chair.

Aaron was confused for a moment at what he was looking at, his mind fuzzy as he clung to consciousness. However he realised he was sat next to Steve and Robin, the three of them tied together, each on their own seats, yet they had one piece of thick fabric tying them all together tightly.

The man then dropped the grip he had on his hair, allowing Aaron to drop his head back in front of him as he tried and failed to keep it up.

"I can't believe you, Aaron." Steve spoke tiredly from next to him, the blond not even attempting to turn his head to try look at him, not wanting to deal with the pain that would come with it. "I told you to go with the others. The one time I needed you to do what I said."

"I don't really care." Aaron slurred, struggling to get his words out as his eyes still closed as he tried to ignore the pain pumping through every part of him. "I wasn't- I wasn't just going to leave you."

"How about we all try telling the truth this time, yes?" The Russian solider told the three, Aaron opening his eyes and resting his head against Steve's shoulder to keep his head up. "It will make your visit with Dr Zharkov less painful."

Aaron's brows knitted together in confusion, moving his eyes from the roof to the room to his side, watching as a man dressed in white approached the group.

Because of the state Aaron was in, it took him a moment longer to process what the man was implying. However, the second he did, his eyes widened.

The man held a huge gun with a large thick needle on the end of it.

"Wait a second." Steve insisted in a panicked voice, Aaron too beginning to grow panicked as he watched the man approach them. "Wait. Hold on."

Aaron seemed to snap awake, the pain almost fading away as he proceeded to panic.

"Okay! Hold on, stop!" Aaron began panicking frantically as the man with the needle got closer. "What are you doing with that thing? Seriously, please stop!"

"It will help you talk." The man dressed in white grinned down at Aaron, his Russian accent so thick that the blond could hardly make out what he had said.

Aaron felt his eyes widen as he realised what the man meant. However the boy really began to panic when the man grabbed his head roughly and tilted it back so he could see his neck, raising the large needle as he went to stick it in the blonds neck.

"Okay, stop!" Aaron yelled frantically, more panicked than ever before. "Seriously, stop! Is that thing even clean? Or are you just-"

Aaron was cut off as the man jammed the needle into his neck roughly, the boy yelling out in pain at the feeling of the needle pushing further and further into his neck.

"What the hell?" Steve yelled after they'd pulled the needle out of Aaron's neck, the blond boy hardly able to stay conscious as whatever he had been injected with began to kick in. "What the hell did you just drug him with?"

Aaron didn't hear the response, his head dropping once more as his eyes closed and all the noise around him drowned out from a fuzzy blur to nothing.

...

Poor Aaron, I really didn't want to have to make him go with Steve and Robin but it works best for the rest of season three plot if it's done in that way.

Also this isn't proof read so if there are any errors or mistakes please let me know!!

Thanks for all the support on the story!!! It's so appreciated!!!!

- AJ :)