on his first mission in the kgb, illya is set up with a close colleague and they’re sent to berlin to take down a target.
and while in berlin, they finally catch up with the target but his colleague hands him over in order to save his own ass (illya is still too trusting, at least for a kgb agent, and he falls for it) and illya is tortured by the target and the people who work for him.
when they don’t get any information out of him, they cut him up - but always slowly. and one woman leans over him and says “you have such lovely eyes…” and cuts right next to his eye slowly and painfully and deep and leaves a wound that ends up being permanent.
he gets out by his own wit and some help, and when they’re able to patch him up, they see how deep the wound is and apply pressure but they cant do anything about the scar that’s sure to follow afterwards.
and one morning gaby notices it and asks him how he got it, and she leans over him in bed and runs her fingers over it and he shakes his head and says he got it on a mission as a souvenir.
“that’s a shitty souvenir,” gaby says, and illya shrugs and lets go of the topic.
