What if...

Time lost its meaning in the blackness. Each second felt like the next - until a burning in her nose jerked her back to reality. She wanted to sneeze and gag with every breath.
"Are you sure this is necessary?" The voice loomed over her.
"It's either this or give up"
A very loud sigh.
"I hope you know what you're doing"
Her chest constricted, heaving into a cough - but a cloth blocked her mouth, keeping the cough in. Her body thrashed in pain.
"The gag is choking her."
"She'll live." a gruff voice insisted. "I don't want her talking."
"This better work," Someone else added.
The choking grew worse and she started hyperventilating.
"Wonderful. Well, go ahead before she suffocates."
It felt like they pulled off her lips when they pulled the gag away. Her throat was dry and a sick, sour taste coated her tongue, but the cool air felt wonderful. She gulped as much as she could, coughing and hacking until her chest calmed down.
"Don't even think about screaming, Sophie. No one will hear, and you will not like how we punish you."
Her head felt like lead, but she managed a couple of weak nods.
"Good, now let's get this over with."
Rough hands pressed against her temple, squeezing her already throbbing head.
"Why," She croaked. "Why are you doing this?"
"You've served your purpose," a ghostly whisper hissed. "Now alter her memories so we can re-locate her."
She held her breath, wondering if she would actually feel her memories being stolen - if it would hurt. But she felt nothing.
"Is it working?" The gruff voice demanded.
Silence, followed by an exhausted grunt.*
"Yes."
The single syllable echoed through the room, and around Sophie's head.
Then pain, pounding, stabbing until everything was no more.
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She drifted in and out of consciousness, hearing sounds, noises, voices.
"Suldreen"
"Irony"
"Ours"
She was lost again
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A gentle shaking shook her awake. "Suldreen," a soft, whispery voice said into her ear. "Suldreen, are you OK?" She groggily opened her eyes to dimmed light. The voice said it again. "Suldreen, are you OK?" Said the voice again. She blinked a couple of times to clear her sight and saw a room full of figures in black cloaks.
"What happened? Where am I? Who are you?" She struggled against her bonds. "Let me go!"
"I can only answer one question at a time." Said the figure in front of her. She - Suldreen, managed a weak nod. "I'll answer your first one first. This group of people - elves really, called the Black Swan, were trying to kidnap you. To do what, we don't know.  But luckily you were able to transmit to us, and we arrived just in time to light leap you to safety. But not in enough time to stop them from knocking you out. Do you remember?" Suldreen searched her mind. She remembered fighting, no - struggling against these black cloaks. But that couldn't be right, right? "No." 
The figure sighed and frowned "They must have hit you harder than we thought."
"Can you take off you hood?" She whispered.
"Suldreen, you know we don't do that."
"Why am I tied up?"
"We weren't sure how you would react once you woke up, and we didn't want you to hurt anyone." She gestured around her., and the cloaks shifted. "But I think that we can trust you now, right?" Not waiting for a response, the figure bent down and untied her, feet, then her hands. She held out her hand, and Suldreen took it. 
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Category:Fanfiction