"My name is Jack."
Said Niko.
"That girl is Elio,the guy with the crushed bones is Sasha, the man passed out on the floor is Niko and that's Hawk."
Lying came naturally to Niko.
Niko had formulated a hunch although his plan was ultimately evil doing this was the only way to come out of this a free man.
The first simple step was to lie that Jack and Elio were actually Niko and Sasha.
It was simple. The insane number of ships made it clear that they were looking for someone, one of the crew members was hiding some form of secret. In a scenario like this typically non-combatants like Niko and Sasha would have hidden or even gone insane like Jack.
Niko's sanity could be explained due to his tough upbringing but even he was quivering. But Sasha, something was wrong with her. There were fear in her eyes but she didn't seem afraid of death, or even slavery. As if she knew from the start that she was going to make it out of this.
"So, Sasha is the one lying underneath the crushed door?"
"And Niko is the pathetic man passed out? Surprising."
Niko slowly moved to press the same lock button that Sasha had slammed a few minutes ago. It was clear now that the other three had been irrelevant from the start.
"No! I'm Sasha."
The actual Sasha responded.
Niko looked towards the cams as the "unresponsive" airlock slowly slammed shut and disconnected with the other ship.
"Alpha...Water...Dolphinus."
"Delta...Air...Lyra"
Sasha and the man began to exchange code words. This settled it. Sasha had betrayed them. Although the reasoning was still unknown it was clear Niko was related to it.
Niko's hypothesis was that Sasha had acted as some form of proxy revealing their location so that the slavers could effectively ambush them. There was probably some sort of agreement to ensure that Sasha stayed alive and that's why he asked for their names. unfortunately Niko had given out the wrong names meaning Sasha had to clarify.
"And that's Niko."
Sasha pointed towards him, it seemed she had given up on trying to hide it.
Niko knew he had to enact his plan now that suspicions were confirmed. Now or never.
"Jack run! Hawk, the knife!"
The captain of the ship who had been pretending to be passed out began to run for the door and the Hawk who had been dormant immediately chucked the knife in his hand towards Niko.
Jack would not be able to run far, but it was enough of a distraction. As he did Niko caught Hawks knife and tackled Sasha. Wrapping himself around her as he held Hawks knife to her neck.
At the same time the hooded figure immediately took out his sword and slashed Jacks right leg clean off. As jack lay bleeding the hooded figure slowly trenched towards him.
"Do not worry. You shall not die."
He retrieved his metal hand and squeezed what remained of Jack's leg. The rush of blood immediately stopped. Replaced with a perturbing squelch.
The hooded figure now turned around to look at Niko who had Sasha's neck held at knifepoint.
"Let go of me!" Sasha cried out. Before her screams became whimpers as Niko covered his hand across her mouth.
"mmf..mmm"
"If you intend to kill her feel free."
The hooded figure responded with an alarming level of nonchalance.
"She is not the one we want."
"We merely need you. Niko."
Elio kicked the door off groaning. The human parts of him had seemingly stopped moving. Although he was dormant he was still able to speak.
"So. You just want Niko then don't you?"
"That is correct."
Niko now understood the all too terrifying conclusion Elio was about to come to. So he acted to change his mind.
"Listen Elio, you can't trust these guys they're pure evil. They'll lie as many times as it takes to get their way."
Elio seemingly lost in thought held his chin and began muttering to himself.
"No... But... This is the only way."
After about ten seconds he seemed to have come to a conclusion.
"Everybody! Are we alright with selling Niko to save our own skins? The way I see it it's him or us."
Both Jack and Hawk raised their hands.
"Niko, let her go."
Niko refused to accept this. After all he had done for them, getting thrown away to save their own skins?
"Are you kidding me Sasha's the one that betrayed us, she's the reason Jack lost his leg! She put us in this bloody mess!"
Elio sighed.
"You're right. It was Sasha who betrayed us and we'll deal with that later, but if you kill Sasha now the rest of our lives are at risk. I'm sorry Niko but you're the one that needs to go right now."
The hooded man butted in.
"If you can remove him from Sasha I will spare the rest of you."
"Got it." Elio responded.
With that he put his hands into his pockets and retrieved a trigger. Gripping it tightly he pressed the button.
A shockwave pulsed through Niko's body as he felt all of his limbs go limp and fall to the floor.
"I was hoping to not have to use that ever again."
Elio walked towards Niko kicking Sasha to the side.
"Oh well. There's no rope so I'll try to make you pass out as fast as possible."
Elio knelt down and held Niko by the neck. He simply raised his hand and slammed Niko's head face down into floor. Niko was still awake. As he began to raise his hand for round two Niko whimpered.
"You... Fuc-"
*SMASH*
Niko's forehead reunited with the ground as blood seeped from his nose. As Niko desperately tried to escape Elio's unyielding grip Niko's eyes met a slight grin.
He was enjoying this.
"Please. Jus-"
*SMASH*
Niko was barely maintaining his sanity at this point but he understood fully well that his life as a free man was all but over. But he still had a message he needed to send.
So fuck it.
"Elio you bastard"
*SMASH*
Elio's laughter drowned out all other noises in the room.
"I don't care how long it takes."
*SMASH*
Niko slowly began to lose his vision.
"I don't care what I have to sacrifice."
*SMASH*
The last thing he saw was the hooded figure taking out his left arm preparing to shake Elio's hand
"I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna fucking kill you!"
*SMASH*
He had a dolphin tattoo.
"No matter what."