Troy stood in the middle of his cell, as he felt the walls around him lift themselves in the air. Or, would it be more accurate that the floor fell downwards? It was all a manner of perspectives, after all. However, he could most certainly feel the tremors of pistons slowly pushing to all sides, and the light was brighter than he could remember.

For a few seconds, he had to almost close his eyes, just so that his brain could handle it all. Even through his eyelids, it was all too much. Was it meant as just another form of torture? That he would be able to see a way to freedom if he did the apparent bare minimum of opening his eyes. It sounded cruel, and it was more wrong morally than he could ever imagine. So… yeah, it could have been intended that way. It certainly fit the already sat up format, letting him think that it was all going well when everything was actually unchanged from the start.

Through adaptation, his mind did finally realise that he should have been able to handle normal facility lightning, making his pupils grow to an incredibly small size. It all evened out, letting him see just what everything looked like.

Over him, there was a countless amount of cells, just like the one he had been in seconds earlier. They stood stacked on top of each other, in hundreds of tight rows. Whoever had designed the room had not been easy about giving up any space for freedom. Everything had been used as much as it could. Even now, it would take a minimum amount of walking to reach the walls.

Not that this meant the room was small, of course. It was almost certainly the biggest room he had ever been in, discounting the massive halls of the government institutions. Those places had been built to be large, after all. This, however, just had to be this big, lest everything would have not been able to fit inside. Even the small walk-way to the side would have been impossible to place, if not for the marvel of design that everything was built from.

Actually… on that walk-way that was used for transport there stood one person who Troy could very much recognize. It was one that he had mixed feelings about. Some parts of his mind wanted to slit her throat in anger. Others wanted to slip the back of her ankles instead. It was all very equal when it came to desires, though a very few wanted to just let her be. One small part of him had just gotten tired of her, tired of everything related to that woman. She had caused so much, said so many things, and then she had ruined it all with no effort at all. Could Troy even bear to look at her, while not feeling all that empty resentment?

Troy took a few steps to the side, walking away from the cell that had held him in. He was currently in some form of side-along platform, where the inmates would be made to get out of the cells. Now that he got a real good look at the outside of things he had spent so many hours inside, it was beginning to make much more sense on just why he had not been able to see any entrances or exits to it.

The walls were thick, likely filled with whatever machinery was needed to keep a human body stable while in most kinds of isolation simultaneously. There wasn't any space for a walk-through there! That had been left for the floor, it just slowly retreating downwards, and allowing anybody to get in or out. It was an ingenious design, if only slightly disturbing to look at.

He just wanted to get away from that mechanical monstrosity. Being so close to it was almost an open invitation to get thrown into it again. Now that he knew just how little control he had inside of it, there was no way he would be getting within ten meters of it again in his life. Though… the only way to move away from it would be through Dr Hale.

The woman had been looking at him for some time now. What purpose was there for that? Was she mentally judging him, checking to see if he had grown any weaker since last time? Maybe she was finding the best place to stick another needle into him. She had already hit both his arms and his neck, so there were still plenty of fresh options for that woman.

What did she even want with him? Troy had been so distracted by the simple fact of him being let out into the wild again, that he just hadn't bothered to think of her final words, before pressing the button to release him. She had been… Dr Hale wanted to cash in on one of her requests. The one where he had promised to trust her. Fat load of shit he was going to do that.

Troy had trusted the bitch plenty, when he had followed her through mazes, let her cut him in the arm, broken into highly secure areas, and had lied to somebody he had called one of his most dear friends. He had given her enough trust, to the point where he would have put his life on the line. He had put his life on the line. What had that done? She had betrayed him, and thrown him into this bloody place.

Now that she was taking him out of the place that she had put him in, she thought that she could just cash in on some brittle request made more than just a few hours ago? What was she thinking? How stupid could she have been, to think that he would just go along with that?

…

Troy would have probably gone along with it. If she had come a few hours before, he would have taken it all with gusto, no strings attached. He would have been too desperate to get out at that point. Now? He just could not trust her enough.

But she needed him to. So… a plan was hatched. To get out, he needed to get by her. He needed to get out of this room, first and foremost, and to do that, Troy needed to incapacitate her for long enough. He needed to surprise her when he did it. Could he? Possibly. There was no chance that he wouldn't try, at the very least.

“What is it you want?” Troy asked, sounding just as tired as he felt. His body might have been in some manner of pain still, but that impacted his mental health in no way whatsoever. He had felt plenty of pain by now, and he had done most of it to himself. If some physical sensation would have influenced his mind, he would have fallen over by now.

Yet, that constant watch of the surroundings, making sure that nobody was close? That did cause some minor paranoia, to the point where his heart was refusing to go below a hundred. Not the healthiest state to be in, but he was sure it would give him some short term benefits at least. Though, he could have done without the fidgety hands.

“Did you not hear me clearly enough earlier?” Dr Hale asked, her tone showing just how little she wanted him to answer her about that. She knew perfectly what he had heard. “The battle is not finished. You promised to trust me, and I am reminding you of that now. Are you ready to move?”

Oh, he was more than ready for that. Troy just needed to get close, and he could strike with all he had. He just had to make it all look natural. He had to make it seem as if he was contemplating the choice, and not just getting ready to hit the top of her neck. Or the side of her head. He would take whatever there was to get.

“I just had to make sure I heard it right,” Troy stated, taking the first few steps towards the intended target. It was all following along the conversation, him giving his former cell one last stink-eye. It was a terrible machination indeed. “However, I am not sure I understand. Why would you need my trust? You already threw me in here, after everything failed. You even told Dr Fidelis that it failed. It just doesn't make sense.”

He was getting closer! A few meters more, and he would be close enough to hit her nose. That was foregoing that she wouldn't stop his hand from hitting, of course, but he was sure to make some distraction inside their conversation. He could do that, his experience with the distractions his superiors giving more than enough skill with the practice. While he might not have been able to totally talk his way out of anything, he could at least make a temporary effect.

Dr Hale sighed, looking down temporarily in something that looked like shame. If he had been closer, Troy would have tried going for a kick in the side of the knee. However, he was still too far away, any attempts at that point only revealing his intentions.

“All of it is… complicated. I have done things that may seem like betrayal, and I do not fault you for looking at it in that way. But, it was a needed exercise, if everything was to work as it should. I needed Dr Fidelis to get it into his mind that he had won like all the times before, lest it would not go as I had planned,” Dr Hale explained, not saying anything worth a single dime. Troy did not care to listen too carefully, folly concentrated on the fact that he was within range. Now… he just had to make himself an opening.

“But we were so close!” Troy protested, with all the vigor that remained inside of him. “We almost had Adam with us. It would not have taken that much more time. I know that I would have been able to convince him. Yet… you just found it in your heart to continue with the plan of sedating him, and then throwing me inside a goddamn cell. Do you know how it felt like to be inside that metal box for hours on end? I hid in one of the bloody corners, afraid for my life!”

All through the seconds half, a finger was pointed towards the thing he had been inside of for so long. Troy did not look at it himself, not wanting to betray his earlier personal statements. He would not give it a glance more throughout his whole life, for it had not been something he ever wished to observe, to begin with. Dr Hale, however, did not have the same views on it, looking without a care in the world, not seeing just how much pain those cells had caused to the world.

“I did not intend for you to be in here for so long,” Dr Hale answered, with some amount of forged remorse. She almost looked like she meant it, but he understood how much fakery she was capable of. He bought none of it. “After the matter, there were too many things to prepare. Most of it should have been done earlier, but there had been no chances to do it all. While it might not be obvious, I really am-”

Curse his luck, as her eyes centred back on him the second that his arm began flying at the side of her face. He was doing his best to go a few centimetres from her right eye, with the hope of causing some temporary blinding. It would work with him, while not able to cause too much permanent harm. The perfect blend.

This was the plan only, however. Reality… was not as precise. In the span of a single blink, Troy was down on the ground, one arm forced in the air, while her foot was on that arms shoulder. He coudl feel the woman putting pressure on it, not that much more needed before it would go places not intended. Instincts briefly kicked in, and an attempt was made to use the other arm for some manner of defence. This was stopped just as quickly, as the pain given was more than enough to cause any resolve to gather. How ironic.

“Should I even ask why you thought that a good idea?” Dr Hale questioned, that small bit of emotion having faded from her face. Back was the silent mask of indifference. There wasn't even that small bit of anger put in. Did she really feel so little? Troy felt like laughing at it all, and so he did with glee. It was just all too funny.

“It was the best one I had, to be honest with you,” Troy answered the woman casually, not feeling like screaming his lungs out at her. His body was not prepared for something like that, even if the emotion was ready to be used for it. What would it even do? Cause a noise complaint to come from the next office over? Talking calmly would be all the more capable of causing a lasting impression in her mind. “Getting killed was not one of my preferred list of things to do today, so I wanted to make a run for it. You are surprisingly quick with your hands, by the way. Is there any hidden combat training in you, or am I just that slow mentally?”

It was worth it, in some way, to see that mild look of anger on Dr Hale. Troy knew this one to be real, at least. There was no way anybody would be able to fake that twitch around the eye, as they looked down at somebody they hated with their entire being. It almost made him laugh for a second time.