Incision (Oneshot)

The Detention Center housed many criminals. Thieves, traitors, gang members.... Brody had only been on the force for 3 years, but he had interrogated nearly every type of criminal on the metaphorical list.

Excluding, however, this one.

It was one thing to start a fight with your daughter's boyfriend for entering your property unannounced, and for others to suffer collateral damage. But when the boyfriend in question is slated to become a Peacekeeper, two of the bystanders falling into the same category, and his own daughter being pregnant when she was thrown to the ground and struck her head, well...

This was new.

Brody was sitting across from the perpetrator in question; his expression was neutral, but no amount of bearing could conceal the cold fury in his blue eyes. He was angry at Matthew for being so stupid, that was for certain. But this man was guilty of a crime that put him at the very disadvantageous position of having to explain to a Peacekeeper why he had attacked one of his comrades. What Ruze didn't know was that the blank, calculated face in front of him was Matthew's mentor and friend. Brody didn't yet know whether Ruze knew that Matthew was at the Academy, and how dangerous the knowledge of his being the father of Kyanite Ruze's baby was. The comm built into the heavy metal table was on, though there was no one outside to hear it; the night guard was 2 floors above, watching the monitors, but they rarely cared when the feed from the interrogation room went dark.

"You are going to get that kid too, right? Interrogate him? I've made myself clear he wasn't allowed in my house. Damn kid just don't listen."

Brody looked at the file on the desk in front of him. Eiten Ruze, father of Jeran and Kyanite Ruze. Wife, conspicuously deceased. The man was neither well-known or well-liked, according to his sources. Eiten kept running his mouth, and slowly but surely it was beginning to piss Brody off.

Well, even more than he already was.

He wasn't alone, it seemed; Eiten glowered at him, agitated that his captor thus far had not said a word since he had arrived.

"Why aren't you answering?" Brody didn't reply, merely studying his face, trying to get an idea what kind of man his prey was.

Eiten Ruze was a man who wasn't just the king of his castle; he was the iron-handed dictator. His word was law, and if Brody had to guess, the fact that he was at the mercy of a Peacekeeper barely older than his own children was probably going to drive him insane.

"You seem to have a problem with Peacekeepers, Eiten Ruze." He replied finally, his tone dangerous and level. "Considering why you're here, you'd do well to keep your opinions to yourself."

He took the bait. "Don't you dare patronize me, boy," He spat, as Brody got up and walked leisurely around to his side of the table, "You're a child, you--"

He was cut off as Brody seized a handful of his hair, smashing Eiten Ruze's face into the cold metal table and leaning on it slightly to make sure he stayed there

"I bet this makes you crazy, doesn't it." Brody said evenly, hardly budging against his prey's struggling, "Being humiliated like this. First your daughter's boyfriend appears in your home, knocks up your daughter... so powerless to stop him, and now here you are with a Peacekeeper barely older than your own son, who turned you in."

Eiten Ruze screamed in rage, which died in his throat as he struggled against Brody's weight only to receive more of it pressing his nose harder against the table.

"Those ungrateful little shits! I'll--!"

"You'll what?" Brody hissed, drawing the knife from his belt and pressing the point into Eiten's cheek. "You've struck your pregnant daughter, and you assaulted two Peacekeepers. What exactly do you think you're going to do, little man?"

A drop of blood ran down from his cheek, and slowly the man seemed to be realizing exactly who held the cards here.

"It wasn't my fault! I told her not to bring that little shit around anymore, she knew he wasn't supposed to be there!"

"And that's why you raised your hand against an officer of the law." He asked rhetorically, pressing the point deeper into the skin. Eiten whimpered, rather uncharacteristically for his rage.

"What do you want from me? I'll drop the charges, I'll apologize, whatever you want!"

Brody clucked his tongue, withdrawing the knife and waving it thoughtfully in the air.

"You see, there's a problem with that." In a flash, he had whipped Eiten's head back, the force causing him to fall backwards in his chair, letting out a scream as he and the heavy metal chair landed on top of his arms cuffed behind his back. Brody knelt on the floor next to him; the blow from the table had broken his nose, and his eyes were watering. At a minimum, he'd guess, the fall backwards probably broke a few of his fingers. "The problem is that you know something that I don't want anyone to know."

Eiten's face searched Brody's face for some kind of a hint as to what he might be talking about... and slowly but surely, he could see the man putting the pieces together.

Matthew was a Peacekeeper. And Peacekeepers weren't allowed to have children.

"I won't tell! I swear to god I won't tell anyone!"

"I know you won't."

The man's eyes widened as he started shouting for someone, anyone, to help. Brody leisurely stood up, walking towards the door the interrogation room and throwing it open. The door slamming against the wall behind it echoed ominously through the empty corridors; Eiten Ruze was silent, already realizing what Brody had meant by the gesture.

No one, anyone, was coming to help him.

Brody strolled back to stand beside his prisoner, kneeling next to him and wiping the blood from his knife on Eiten's shirt. He was shaking now, eyes wide with terror and locked on Brody's. He would be sorely disappointed if he expected to find anything resembling sympathy there.

"Are you going to kill me...?"

"No."

He seized Eiten's jaw in a vice-like grip, prying his teeth open with the blade of the knife.

"But when I'm done with you, you'll wish I had."