Work Text:
Nothing they did to her really mattered.
She was trained to withstand so much, there was no breaking her. Besides, no physical punishment, starvation diet, or stretch in solitary could hurt like having to watch the one she loved have his mind put in a blender one more time.
It wouldn’t work.
They could wipe away most of James, but never all. Natalia knew his screaming wasn’t the pain of loss; it was his iron will, holding onto the important fragments.
When they finally steal a moment together, she whispers; “Milii moi?”
He smiles. “Lyubov moya.”
Their love had survived.