The room was white.
Brilliant, blinding, clinical white. White walls, white floor, white ceiling, a single white light overhead that never dimmed. No windows. No shadows. No corners to hide in.
Damian sat on the floor the only place to sit, since there was no furniture and tried to remember how long he'd been here. Hours? Days? The endless light made it impossible to tell.
They hadn't touched him. That was the strangest part. No beating, no torture, not even restraints. They'd simply stripped him, dressed him in white clothes that matched the room, and left him here.
Alone. With nothing but his thoughts.
At first, he'd paced. He'd pounded on the door. He'd screamed Viktor's name until his throat was raw. Nothing. No response. Just the endless, patient white.
Then the voices started.
Not real voices recordings. Played through hidden speakers at irregular intervals. His own voice, from years ago, caught on wiretaps and surveillance. Barking orders. Threatening enemies. Dismissing weakness.
"Love is a liability."
"Sentiment gets you killed."
"The only person you can trust is yourself."
His own words, echoing back at him. Over and over. A relentless assault of his own cruelty.
And then, other voices. Luca's, from the night he'd begged for help. Viktor's, from their youth. And finally, worst of all
Jace.
"I love you too. God help me, I love you."
The recording played on a loop, Jace's voice cracked and desperate, the words Damian had treasured now turned into a weapon. Each repetition was a knife, twisting deeper.
"I love you too."
"I love you too."
"I love you too."
Damian pressed his hands over his ears, but it didn't help. The words were inside him now, burned into his memory, impossible to escape.
The door opened without warning.
Viktor stood there, framed in the impossible brightness, looking like a god descending into hell.
"How are you enjoying my hospitality?" he asked, stepping inside. The door closed behind him, sealing them in together.
Damian didn't rise. Didn't speak. Just looked at him with hollow eyes.
Viktor crouched to his level, studying him with the detached curiosity of a scientist examining a specimen. "You look terrible. Have they been feeding you? I gave orders for three meals a day."
"I'm not hungry."
"No, I don't suppose you are." Viktor's pale eyes searched his face. "What's breaking you, old friend? Is it the isolation? The recordings? Or is it something else?" He tilted his head. "Is it knowing that he's out there, alone, waiting for you to save him?"
Damian's jaw tightened. It was the first crack in his mask.
Viktor smiled. "Ah. There it is."
He stood, walking a slow circle around Damian. "He's still in the warehouse, you know. Still chained to that chair. I check on him periodically. He doesn't eat. Doesn't sleep. Just stares at nothing." Viktor's voice was soft, almost gentle. "He keeps whispering your name. Did you know that? When he thinks no one can hear. Damian. Over and over."
Damian's hands curled into fists.
"I could let you see him," Viktor mused. "I could even let you hold him, talk to him, promise him everything will be okay." He stopped, crouching again, bringing his face close to Damian's. "But I won't. Not until you give me what I want."
"And what's that?" Damian's voice was raw.
Viktor's smile widened. "I want you to admit it. Finally. Completely. Out loud."
"Admit what?"
"That I won." Viktor's eyes blazed. "That I was always stronger, always smarter, always more. That your little love story was a pathetic fantasy. That the boy out there means nothing less than nothing because love is weakness and weakness loses. Every. Single. Time."
Damian stared at him. The man who had once been his brother. The boy who had kissed him in a frozen warehouse and promised they'd be kings together.
"You want me to say you won," Damian whispered.
"Yes."
"You want me to renounce everything I've built. Everything I've become. Everyone I've loved."
"Yes."
Damian was silent for a long moment. Then, slowly, he rose to his feet. He was shorter than Viktor, less physically imposing, but something in his eyes made Viktor take a step back.
"I spent my whole life believing what you believe," Damian said quietly. "That power is everything. That love is a weakness. That the only person you can trust is yourself." He took a step forward. Viktor stepped back again. "And you know what it got me? A throne of ashes. A kingdom of ghosts. A heart so cold I forgot it could feel."
He stopped, close enough to touch.
"Then I met him. Jace. And he threw a plate at my wall and screamed that he wasn't my dog. And something in me cracked open. Something I'd locked away years ago, when you walked out and took half my soul with you."
Viktor's face flickered just for a moment, just long enough for Damian to see.
"You were the first person I ever loved," Damian continued, his voice breaking. "And you taught me that love was a weapon. That the only way to survive was to become a monster. I believed you. For twenty years, I believed you."
He reached out, slowly, and placed a hand on Viktor's chest over his heart.
"But Jace taught me something else. He taught me that monsters can change. That love isn't weakness it's the only thing strong enough to survive people like us." His eyes burned. "And that's why I'll never say you won. Because even if you kill me. Even if you break him. Even if you destroy everything we built. You still lose."
Viktor's mask cracked. "How?"
"Because we loved. Really loved. And you..." Damian's voice dropped to a whisper. "You've never loved anything in your life. Not me. Not anyone. Just yourself. And in the end, that's the loneliest cage of all."
For one heartbeat, Viktor looked almost human. Almost broken.
Then his face hardened into stone.
"Beautiful speech," he said coldly. "Truly. But speeches don't save anyone." He stepped back, pulling away from Damian's touch. "Enjoy the white room, old friend. I'll send word when your boy breaks."
He turned and walked to the door.
"Viktor."
Viktor paused.
"I still remember the night we met," Damian said softly. "The warehouse. The body. The way you looked at me like I was the only real thing in the world. I think... I think some part of you is still in there. The boy who kissed me and meant it."
Viktor didn't turn around.
"If you ever want to find him again," Damian continued, "I'll be here. Waiting. Like I always was."
The door opened. Viktor walked through.
It closed behind him with a final, terrible click.
Damian stood alone in the white room, listening to the echo of his own words. And somewhere, on a loop he couldn't escape, Jace's voice played on.
"I love you too. God help me, I love you."
For the first time, Damian smiled.
Not because he was winning. Not because he had hope.
But because, even here, even now, even in the heart of Viktor's cruelty that love was real. And Viktor could never take it away.