Pain

Draco had a strange dream.

In this dream, Draco could swear that his jaw was hanging to one side of his face, and when he tried to talk the only sounds he could make were garbled noises.

Opening his eyes and waking up from his dream, Draco quickly felt his jaw, but was relieved to discover that it was still there and in one piece.

Looking around, Draco finally remembered where he was.

Draco quickly scrambled to his feet, and was alert as he prepared for the attack of the man who he presumed had just knocked him out.

However, contrary to Draco's expectations, when his eyes landed upon Samir he saw that the man was calmly sitting cross-legged in the center of the room.

Looking at the figure of the white robed man who was sitting on the ground, Draco noticed that his eyes were closed.

Seeing this, a sneaky thought flashed through his mind.

Slowly creeping towards the man, Draco raised his right arm and was preparing to strike out.

Right when Draco's fist was about to reach Samir, however, the man opened his eyes.

One moment Draco's arm was flying through the air, and the next moment it was bent unnaturally to the side.

In a state of shock, Draco stepped back to see that the seated Samir was now staring at him, a small smile on his lips.

A few seconds later, Draco felt the pain hit him, and he collapsed to the ground in pain.

"AAAghhh" Draco screamed in pain as he held his arm.

However, a few seconds later, a sickening series of cracking noises could be heard as Draco's arm began to forcefully shift back into place.

To Draco, this process was five times more excruciating than the pain he felt when his arm was broken in the first place.

When his arm had completely healed, Draco was kneeling on the ground and panting heavily. Sweat dripped from his face as he felt his arm, it felt too warm— it was almost hot to the touch.

Draco looked up towards the seated figure with a mixture of terror and amazement on his face.

'How did he do that? I didn't even see him move.' Draco thought as he looked at his right arm, which was now completely healed.

Flexing his arm, he no longer felt any pain, but there was an uncomfortable tingling sensation running up his arm, almost as if the limb had fallen asleep.

After standing up and looking at Samir who was sitting down calmly, a flash of annoyance appeared on his face.

'This bastard. Break my arm, then just sit back down, will you?' he thought angrily as he began to approach Samir once again, this time in a fighting stance.

However, when Draco was just a few feet in front of Samir, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

In that same second, Draco saw Samir disappear from his spot and reappear in front of him.

Before Draco could even move his head, he felt a sharp pain in his gut. The next thing he knew he was flying across the room, only stopping once he had slammed into the padded wall.

The padding on the wall may have stopped him from breaking his spine, but it did little to stop Draco from coughing up blood and bits of his internal organs.

Draco could do nothing but writhe on the ground in agony for a long few seconds as the room began to heal him.

Samir watched this with an impassive gaze, and just as he was turning to return to his seat, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye.

Turning to look back at Draco in shock, Samir saw him standing up with shaky legs, and pointing towards him.

"F*cker." was all Draco said, but Samir could see the determination and anger in his eyes as Draco began to walk towards him.

Samir was actually surprised, for he had hardly ever seen such raw determination and willpower in someone's gaze before, let alone some unpowered human.

Shaking his head, Samir only disappeared from his spot and reappeared in front of Draco.

Once again, Samir punched him in the gut, and once again Draco was sent flying into a padded wall.

Just like before, though, Draco stood up with shaky legs and continued his advance towards Samir.

***

Standing outside of the padded room and watching this, Amira felt a number of conflicting emotions.

Although she wasn't lying when she said that Draco was useless to her in his current state, seeing him like this still made her feel strange.

If she had to place a finger on it, the emotion she was feeling most strongly resembled sadness.

Amira was a stranger to these emotions. After all, she had grown up in a palace and had never had any real attachment with anyone.

Except for probably her ninth brother, she thought.

She didn't really understand why she felt so sad upon seeing Draco in so much pain, but there was a reason that she was putting him through so much.

'Draco might have a strong body already, but his pain tolerance is far too low. I fear that if he were to take the serum now he would immediately enter a state of shock and die.' she thought to herself with worry.

If Draco thought that Amira had heartlessly thrown him into the padded room, he would have been very wrong.

Of course, Amira didn't actually think Draco would be able to land a punch on Samir, but she still told him that so he would give it his all.

On the control panel screen, she watched as Draco continued to be sent flying across the room.

She clenched her fists as she saw him cough up blood, or his limbs get broken into different directions

'This is for his own good.' she thought to herself as she walked away, half telling the truth and half trying to convince herself.

***

Back inside the room, a few hours had passed since Draco had first been knocked out.

There was blood splattered all along the pristine, white padded walls of the room.

If anyone were to see this room, they would think that the sight was straight out of a horror movie. Draco was now sitting down and facing Samir who was seated in the center of the room.

In his hands was a tray of food that had appeared in the room from a slot in the wall, and he was currently thinking back to his 'fight' with Samir.

Draco called it a fight, but he knew that it was more like a one-sided beat down.

In the past several hours Draco experienced some of the most traumatic events of his entire life, and even now it still seemed like a blur when he thought about it.

He had experienced pain like he had never experienced before.

It was a pain so intense that your brain actually failed to register it, and it made you unable to even breathe as you shook on the floor.

He had experienced this type of pain not once, not twice, but at least ten times as his organs were repeatedly destroyed under Samir's unforgiving strikes.

Even now, Draco was unable to properly eat his food as the tingling sensation in his organs was almost too strong to endure.

Draco knew that if he ate anything his stomach would be unable to hold it down.

Looking up at Samir, Draco wondered if it was even possible to land a punch on the man.

Samir seemed to be a ghost, and before Draco could even register the man's movements he would be incapacitated on the floor.

However, Draco just steeled his gaze as he put down his tray and stood up.

Staring down Samir, Draco raised his guard as he slowly approached him, determined to at least see his movements this time.

After well over a dozen beatdowns, Draco realized that Samir would only attack him when he approached him with the intent to harm.

Just when Draco had arrived within striking distance of Samir, he saw it.

A white blur, a movement so fast that if Draco blinked he would have missed it.

The white blur slammed into Draco's jaw, breaking it instantly. However, on the ground, Draco was inwardly rejoicing.

'I saw it! I actually saw it this time!' he thought to himself as he stood up. The pain in his jaw couldn't hide the excitement that he felt.

As Draco's jaw rapidly healed, he looked up at Samir with a renewed vigor.

Like this, Draco continued to throw himself at Samir, and as a result he continued to get beat down into the ground.

However, the more he got knocked around by Samir's lightning fast movements, the easier those movements became to see.

In this manner two more hours passed, and Draco had collapsed onto the padded floor after getting thrown across the room by Samir for easily the hundredth time.

This time, he was too tired to get back up, and he fell asleep with images of combat flashing through his mind.