Night 65: Disciplinary Therapy Room 2

[damned_doctors]

A lot had happened since Uchiha Sasuke had last been in this room.

Staff changes, for one. The table was the same, as was the darkness. The doctor attending to him, however, had never met him before, at least not in person. She made rustling noises with paper and instruments just out of view, busying herself with preparations. She moved around with an almost jaunty air, footsteps quick and light and back and forth from one end of the counter to the other as she put everything in its proper place. And was that "Camptown Races" she was humming softly under her breath?

The patient in the middle of the room would never understand her point of view, especially not when his body was strapped down and his head sat in what was essentially a vise, keeping him from moving the slightest bit. Still, she saw no reason not to be excited. So much of the work here got so dreary so much of the time. Torture this, rearranged body parts that, research the effects of this horrific experience on the patient, blah trauma blah. When was the last time any one of the talented surgical staff had gotten to do any kind of restorative work? So what if it was to be done while the patient was perfectly aware of everything being done to him? It was the principle of the thing, damn it.

"Awake yet, Sasuke-kun?" asked the doctor, in almost the same cheery tone as the daytime nurses might use, or perhaps the way some other familiar person might have. The woman giggled, shuffling over to the table and shaking the boy's shoulder. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead. There's work to be done."

Comments

[firewhichrefines]

For all the time Sasuke had spent in the Institue, he hadn't expected this. He had been prepared to head out at the end of the day -- armed, alert, feeling for the first time as if things were going somewhere -- and then he had been pulled for an experiment. And now, rising from the confused, muffled darkness of the sedative, his first incongruous thought was that he was going to have to deal with Aidou's bitching about missing an appointment come the day shift.

His next thought was that someone was humming an irritatingly cheerful tune and he needed to shut them up right now -- but when he started to move, his muscles snapped into strain against complete immobilization. He'd -- this was a setup he knew. Experiment, the word floated back, and he flinched hard at the sound of his proper name coming from a member of the staff and that touch.

The last time he'd been here -- but he'd never heard of someone being pulled twice for something like this. Then again, a snide part of himself commented, you haven't heard much of anything recently.

"What is the purpose of this?" He ground out, trained enough by now to know the uselessness of trying to search for the doctor with sight. Instead there was sound and touch, the hand on his shoulder and the lack of ambient human noise making it clear that they were alone.

[damned_doctors]

"Ohh, and here I thought you'd be more excited," said the doctor, the pout on her face coming across quite clearly in her voice. "It's a big night for you, Sasuke-kun. For both of us! Do you know what you represent for this Institute right now?" she asked, trailing the tips of her fingers along the boy's shoulder and upper arm before returning to the counter to make final preparations.

"Completion," she answered. "Seems like nothing ever gets finished around here! Projects always ongoing, results never in the can. It's the sort of shit that got the Eagle so bent out of shape about Landel's work here in the first place. Not with you, though. We've finally gotten about all we needed from you thanks to your generous donation to the cause of science."

In between sentences, the sound of a needle tip being flicked carried through the room.

"And since we no longer have any use for what you donated, it only makes sense to give it back to you," chirped the doctor as she made her way back to the operating table, heels clicking in a way that suggested she might have danced over had she not had work to be doing. "Wouldn't you agree?"

[firewhichrefines]

If Sasuke could have rolled his eyes right into the back of his head to express how he felt about the doctor's first few comments, he would have succumbed to the juvenile instinct and done it. The Institute seemed to have, along with its stores of drugs and monsters, a never-ending supply of mind-bogglingly and gratingly cheerful staff -- it was enough to make Sasuke (even strapped in and immobile) want to respond with something biting. What more could the Institute do to him, anyway?

It was a thought that he regretted as soon as it surfaced, because it was immediately followed by the doctor saying something about completion. Between her next words and what had happened the last time he'd been here ... cold fear trickled down Sasuke's spine almost like a real drop of sweat. His arms flinched as those footsteps neared, muscles snapping the straps taut without breaking them.

If he could just focus his chakra anywhere but his damn eyes he could (if he could have focused chakra this would have been over) -- but when he summoned chakra it flooded those same pathways, every other use blocked, and instead of strength in his arms he got the blazing smear of the doctor's chakra. Too close, too intent, image smudging and smearing and gleaming with it, the light in her eyes one that belonged at a festival.

His own eyes wheeled red and black around the sutures. She had said something about the Eagle, the man who played at god just as Landel had done, which meant that -- it was all for military purposes. Aguilar had known about these experiments just as much as Landel, and they had completed --

"What does that mean?" He snarled, struggling enough to make the table tremble. "What is complete?"

[damned_doctors]

"You might not want to get too worked up, dear. I might puncture the wrong spot."

The doctor's smile grew to a menacing grin. Of the torturous things they did to their patients here, good old fashioned injection was still her favorite. Simple, yes, but oh so effective. 

The skull clamp held Sasuke's head in position, and just to be sure, the doctor placed her fingers gently but firmly around his left eye, where the bit of periorbital skin she needed was. "So keep as still as you can. This doesn't need to get any more traumatic than it already is," she instructed, the needle tip first hovering just under the eye, then plunging into the skin with trained precision. 

[firewhichrefines]

No answer was forthcoming and only -- this, this that Sasuke remembered with absolute clarity despite the desperate haze that was the rest of that night. There were the same warring instincts, every muscle trembling for movement, for an attempt at escape or fight or (the shinobi wish to be able to at least end on his own terms), and the Uchiha training to protect the eyes. His eyes, frail and weak and useless compared to eyes that he'd crushed in his own fingers with less precision and a harsher version of this soft, almost noiseless sound of flesh violated.

Blood won, as it always did, over any training that could be shoved down his throat. Sasuke held still as ice, fists clenched, unblinking, and forced down the Sharingan with every ounce of willpower he could summon.

The maniacal intensity of the doctor's expression vanished with the details of her chakra swirling almost to meet Sasuke's -- his own dormant, useless. Even dead Itachi had known how to use his, had known to find the brother of it, had been. Had been something more than useless.

"Answer me," he whispered, voice straining to sound anything less than desperate, words slipping through lips kept as still as possible.

[damned_doctors]

"Can't talk, dear. Working," was the only answer she gave as she performed the same injection on Sasuke's other eye. She couldn't have asked for a better patient — perfectly still, not overly chatty or twitchy, just right. It made it easier for her to work with the precision she needed. She could see why he had been chosen for this study in the first place.

By the time she was finished, the anaesthetic took hold. Any involuntary eye movements slowed to a halt, any pain left over from the injections faded away — and, as an added effect, the pathways of chakra to the eyes were blocked. All of this would wear off by the time nightshift was over, but for now, the substance did its job perfectly. "Okay, I believe we are all set! Now we can really get started."

First things first: she had to get rid of those pesky sutures from the previous operation. No doubt they were healed over at this point and would require a fresh cut. For that, the doctor fetched a small trephine. The tool pinched firmly between her thumb and forefingers, she returned to Sasuke and hovered the cylindrical blade over the white material that covered his left pupil. "Now hold still for me again. There's a lollipop in it for you when we're all done," the doctor cooed quietly before lowering the blade and cutting a perfect circle around the old sutures.

The white circle was removed with surprising ease, at least on her end. She left enough time for Sasuke's now uncovered pupil to adjust to the light above the surgery table before moving in on the second eye. "Thaaat's it. You're doing very well so far," she said as the same cut was made to the second eye.

[firewhichrefines]

Another burst of pain, the sharp pierce of penetration and then the dull ache of injected drugs, and a flippant answer that told nothing about anything. Sasuke gritted his teeth, tensed his jaw, clenched his fists: blood told, and blood told him to stay still. Whatever pain there was now was gone, and it was nothing next to taking a kunai, to the pain of the curse seal, to the raging toll of the Mangekyou -- to the wrench of a sword through the body. All sensation faded from his eyes -- and then, with it, the Sharingan, second-vision flickering at first and then cutting into black.

How -- was this how they blocked chakra pathways all the time? Was there really something in the water, the food? Sasuke nearly opened his mouth to ask, expression slack with shock even without the anaesthesia's aid, and then the warmth of the so-called doctor's presence returned (once-removed, the powdery smell of surgical gloves reminiscent of other doctors, equally disliked, equally interested in stealing the Uchiha secret, but had they?).

This time the Institute must have been using real anaesthesia, because the next thought Sasuke had was obliterated by the sudden slant of actual light into his consciousness for the first time in over a month. Vaguely, he registered the wet sound of something cutting membrane, but where the needle had been next to nothing and the blade barely noticed actual light struck like a senbon straight through his brain. Without even realizing it he exhaled on the pain, sharp and edged with voiced discomfort even as the uncovered eye struggled in vain to focus on anything at all.

There was nothing to see, just a blazing smear of light and the slightly darker smudge of the doctor to the side becoming larger as she loomed closer -- even prepared, the cry of pain stuck awkwardly in Sasuke's throat as the bright white glow snapped through his brain a second time.

Was their goal to blind him permanently tonight? Did they have no further use for Uchiha at all, was this his last night in the Institute, or ...

[damned_doctors]

"Oh I'm so sorry, dear! How did I forget? Don't want to go blinding you permanently, now would we?"

The light above the table dimmed a few moments after Sasuke's cry. "Permanent loss of sight in patients is, unfortunately, not on the list of things Landel wants studied."

With the synthetic corneas out, it was time to stitch the new ones in. They sat in a sanitized container, perfectly preserved and ready for use. Before fetching them, the doctor brought over eye speculums and a dropper filled with a saline solution; once the speculums were in place, keeping those lovely eyes of his wide open, she dripped a few drops on them to soothe them and keep them moist. Next came the tiny tools. With a hook-ended needle in one hand and impossibly thin forceps holding the donor cornea in the other, she set about placing the cornea.

"You know, we were very lucky to find this donor," said the doctor as she worked, her warm breath furling over Sasuke's face. She should have been working with a video magnifier, really. The way she worked now had more risk of making a mistake. It was worth the risk to her, though, and she was confident enough in her abilities. She had always liked getting up close and personal with her patients. Especially when they weren't so hard on the eyes.

She continued: "It can be so hard to find a tissue match sometimes, but there happened to be someone on hand who is a near perfect match for you. I know — what are the chances, right?" The cornea in place, the doctor started the suturing, using the hook needle to pierce and the forceps to pull the sutures. "In fact, I think you may have met him, even! He was here for a while. I would bet my hat you knew him back home, too," she practically purred, the forceps pulling stitch after stitch until the cornea was fully in place.

She smiled darkly as the second cornea was set down over Sasuke's remaining pupil. "I mean, all you Uchihas come from the same place, don't you?"

[firewhichrefines]

The answer came mere moments after Sasuke had come to the conclusion that perhaps he had become expendable -- so the great experiment was not over, after all. This was just another portion of it, or perhaps in some obscure way Landel had decided that Sasuke would be a more entertaining lab rat with his sight. Perhaps it was the fact that he'd finally completed the task (the murder) that ended the tortuous tour of the basement, and whatever came after would find him more useful sighted.

There was no way this could come without a catch, however. Sasuke was as sure of that as he was of his ... mere weeks ago, he might have thought name, but even that had been taken once by the Institute. The only certainty here was his powerlessness and his fury.

The combination of those, at least, was not unfamiliar.

Focused on not focusing on the pain shafting through his head, Sasuke was startled back into attention when the doctor said donor. Were they using human corneas? He'd worn the synthetic false ones for so long he'd simply assumed that this doctor would have another pair that permitted vision. After all, what were the chances of finding someone who would be a tissue match -- Sasuke had gained a vague appreciation of the difficulties of such procedures from Kabuto's many whines about Orochimaru's constant demand for chimaeras and bizarre grafting experiments.

It occurred to him only now to wonder if Kabuto had already been planning his apparent eventual attempt on the entire ninja world then, when Sasuke had been rolling his eyes at the erstwhile medic-nin's obsessive-compulsive orderliness and eating his rather subpar cooking.

In the next moment all thoughts of Sound and were wiped clean. Sasuke blanched, blood draining from his face even as the first eye instinctively focused on the lamp above the operating table. Another Uchiha -- someone he'd met -- desperately, he thought that there had been that child, Kakashi's teammate, innocent and angry.

But in the pit of his stomach and somewhere dark inside his mind -- somewhere he was still small and terrified and frozen in the stench of blood and early rot, the moon high, his footsteps too loud, his -- his brother --

"I burned his body," he whispered, and then more loudly, uncaring of the delicacy of the operation now: "I crushed his eyes to save him from -- how did you get them?!"