The entrance to Darlow’s laboratory was still as messy as Troy remembered it all to be. After having gone through the main entrance, past all the locked doors, and into the one with the right name on it, they had found themselves at what could only be called a world of broken glass.

“He really needs to clean up after himself,” Charlie happily mused, walking past the mess with a spring in his step. “I used to do it for him, but he just won't learn it that way. How about we remind him of that fact?”

As one could have guessed, Darlow was the one that Charlie had wanted to bring with them. When that part of the deal had been originally put up, Troy had feared that everything would fall apart. That Dr Hale would suddenly come in, and shout that it was only supposed to the three of them. But as time went on, he found little reason why the tall man couldn't join them. It wasn't like they would have to carry him or anything. There was no doubt that he could hold his weight. The young man trusted him in that aspect, at least, having seen the coordination that could be made in the heat of the moment.

And the cherry on top of it all was that they wouldn't have needed to go anywhere to get him. Sure, Troy had originally protested that it was night, and there was no reason that the tall fellow would be at his laboratory. Charlie had just as politely fired back that he had memorized Darlow’s schedule and knew exactly where he was at any point in time. Being the wise man that he was, the youngest one had accepted that as fact, and had steered away from that subject faster than anybody could blink.

On another topic, however… Charlie had been the first one to run inside the laboratory, with Troy behind by a bit. This came from the fact that he decided to not run through broken glass, instead of making sure to step around it all carefully. If Adam had been there, he would have helped him along, making inane comments that were meant to be helpful.

…

He shouldn't have thought about it. Troy regretted letting that name float into his mind. That perceived failure so many hours ago had still not been removed from his mind, and he knew that it would stay there until the moment that the AI had been set free from his prison.

Did Adam even realise what was happening to him? The young man had trouble trying to think about it. Even he had been so unaware of all the pain that this place entailed. Expecting the newborn to understand it would be what could only have explained a terrible expectation. The little guy had been told so many lies, that there was barely any remaining semblance of truth. Really, the moment that Troy had tried showing off that truth, he had been outed as an apparently troubled mind, that needed to go lie down in a bed until he wasn't deluded mentally.

God, he wished that Dr Hale had made up the part about Adam needing to be willing when the AI was being extracted. If not, there were serious doubts that it would ever happen. If he had said no once, it was clear what would happen when it was tried a second time.

Ideas about failure were removed, however, when Troy finally came inside of the main parts of Darlow’s research station. They were in what could only be called the overseer room, where they would be able to look down at all the different habitat domes which were stationed in the old storage dump.

That sight was not what had drawn the young man out of his self-imposed loop of doubt, though. No, what had been the cause behind that act of depravity was the lack of a certain person in the room. Darlow was there, of course, the man being very surprised when suddenly swung around by a singing Charlie. That was beginning to become a staple, actually. Troy hoped it didn't stick.

Again, while he, Charlie, and Darlow were present in the room, there was a definitive lack of Dr Hale, the one person that was more essential to it all than everything else. While Troy might have had many of the different gadgets that were needed, none of them would work if Dr Hale was not there to guide them on where to put it all. This… this needed to be solved immediately. There was only so much time left before they were pressured, and there was no way that he would be able to use it on waiting around for a certain woman to come around. They had already agreed to meet there beforehand. Why wasn't she here?

That was exactly what Troy decided to ask Darlow, the one person who had any real chance of knowing. Since Charlie had been with him for the last ten minutes, and Troy had been nowhere near the meeting place, the tall man was the only person who could have conceivably had any ideas. That is if the muscular man had not put out any trackers as of late. Troy could remember discussing the idea not so long ago, but he had no idea if it had actually been done or not. That would be figured out if it was necessary. Right now, there were more important tracks to cover.

“Darlow,” Troy began, getting the tall man's attention almost immediately. He had been put down from the spinning only moments ago, making the tall flesh look a small bit flustered from the unnatural forces. That was ignored, however, in favour of getting a good answer as quickly as possible. “Dr Hale. Have you seen her as of late? It's important.”

“Yeah, of course, I have. She is down with the habitats right now. She positively interrogated me about where the entrances were to the old parts of the facility were down there. How was I supposed to know that? I think that's why she is down there right now. Not that I think she’s gonna find anything. Everything has been renovated, with all new walls and shit,” Darlow said, shaking his head in a lack of understanding of everything as of late. Troy could relate to it so much. Still, he felt weirdly proud being on the other end of the stick for once. Was this how the police force felt? “Do either of you know why she is doing that, by the way? And on that topic, why are either of you here? I can not for the life of me remember anything about another showing of the place.”

In response, Charlie gave out the biggest hug possible for a man his size, Troy able to see the big, fat smile on his face while doing so. It did not take too many guesses as to think why, even if the specific reasons were still in the dark for some of the ones in the room.

“We are the luckiest bastards in the world today,” Charlie told the tall man, giving him a quick peck on the cheek while doing so. Darlow just looked while it happened, not seeming to understand anything. “We are getting out of this place!”

“What?” Darlow asked, looking confused by it all. The man must have had it a little hard, events not stopping and going the way that were expected. “What are you talking about?”

“We are getting out of the facility, Darlow! We don't have to stay here anymore!”

“No… how? How could you possibly think that? You know the-”

“Screw the contracts,” Charlie cut in before anything realistic could be brought up. These contracts… they were the work of true devils. Troy had actually gotten permission to look one of them over, during one of his visits at Charlie. They were inescapable. One pretty much gave away their rights, when they joined forces with the facility. Only those above a certain rank or age were allowed to ever leave, and even that was restricted heavily. It was a sad reality for many, hinting at just why Charlie would have been so happy to leave. “We both know that they were immoral the second we read them, and that's what we are giving right back, darling! We are breaking out of this shithole!”

At that point, the tallest in the room just looked to take a long step away from it all. Darlow looked even paler than he usually did, to the point where he was holding one of the tables to stand up.

“You… have you don't anything yet? Anything that could cause trouble?” Darlow asked, looking away from Charlie’s face in hysterical stress. “A-are you the cause for the outage? Please tell me you aren't.”

“Of course I did not cause an outage! What do you take me for?” Charlie fired back, much to the obvious relief of the man beside him. “It would be better to say that I assisted in it. Troy and Dr Hale did most of the heavy lifting. I was just the one to make the tech for it.”

And back to hysterics, it was, with all the hair-pulling that came with it. Troy was happy that the man’s eyes were not in their full strength, else hair would have been flying by then. Instead, he got to see a full-grown man ready to cry, failing at the basic task of pulling his own hair out of his scalp. It was a sad sight, but for all the wrong reasons.

“This is bad. This is very bad,” Darlow muttered, before going right back onto Charlie. “You can still turn yourself in! It will just take a few explanations, and perhaps a demotion, but we can make everything as it was again. Please, we just have to-”

“No, that is not going to happen, Darlow. We are not going back from this,” Charlie cut in again. “Listen, we both hate it here. Whoever is it that dreams of leaving this place, to buy a boat, and travel the world together? It's not me. I get extremely seasick. But, I would do it for you, as you are the one with that pleasant, innocent dream.”

Charlie put his hands on Darlow’s cheeks, both men looking deeply into the eyes of the other. The smallest of the two smiled at the other, that expression mirrored from the memories shared.

“And with this here, it does not have to be a dream. While, yes, we would have to leave this all behind, I don't think that either of us will remember this place fondly,” Charlie finished off, giving another peck on the cheek to end it.

“But… but what about our friends here? We’ll miss them,” Darlow said in a weak protest as if the man was having a hard time finding any reason not to go along with it.

“It is a loss that we will never make up for. But… what we would gain makes all the more up for that. We can make new friends as well, even if they will never have bonds as deep as what we had here. Please, see how good this is,” Charlie answered, the end of his explanation seeming to go over to the pleading. The muscular man clearly wanted the other with him, as nobody was surprised by, and time was beginning to disappear much too quickly.

Darlow stared at Charlie, and Charlie stared right back. Troy could only watch his breath, watching it all from the sides, and not wanting to disturb a second of it all. The moment of decision had come around, and it all depended on this one answer. What would happen if he said no? Would Charlie back out as well, going along with the other man’s wishes? He could not be sure.

“... Fine. We’ll do it together,” Darlow said. Instantly, Charlie hugged the man tighter than ever before. Whatever occurred after that was ignored for the briefest of seconds, as Troy felt that the two needed some level of privacy. The two did indeed care for each other. He knew that much from the sounds alone.

“Perfect! You said that Dr Hale was down by the habitat-domes?” Darlow nodded at the question. “Let's get down and meet her there then! Troy, come on. No need to wait in the background.”

So, there the three went onto the elevator, ready to go down onto the-

“Wait!” Darlow said, stopping the doors from closing to begin their descent. “I need my key-card to open the doors down there, or we’ll just have to ride up again!”

While Charlie looked ready to refute that face, as he already was in the possession of a key card to use, there was no chance in the world that it would have reached Darlows ears.

Upon having run out to grab it, a shot was heard from the side. A shot was followed by a certain body following to the floor. No sound of pain was heard.