Things had gotten worse in Night Vale. StrexCorp was still running practically the entire town, and Tamika Flynn was still leading her revolution. Except it was not as strong after Strex had captured one of her best surveillance teams.

That's about the time when Cecil and Carlos had been 'promoted' in a sense in their respective fields on Tamika's team. Cecil was to lead the head reconnaissance team, and Carlos led the team of strategists, working with Tamika herself and the strange man dressed in a yellow shirt to find ways to break Strex.

And they had just cracked the figurative and literal code to getting that awful company out of their town.

Carlos and his team had been working non-stop for at least 72 hours, which paid off when they used the information about their headquarters gathered by Cecil's team and the mysterious man in yellow. They now had a precise plan to get into Strex's main computer network and shut down the entire company. And it required both Cecil to get into the computer room, but, more importantly, to get Carlos into that room in order to override the network and crash everything.

And they were just about to go inside.

Cecil, along with three others from his team, led Carlos and his assistant, Rachelle, along the side of the building to the back basement door that seemed to be boarded up. But when Cecil got to it, he began carefully lifting the boards from their places since they were not nailed in anymore.

Once the door was open, Cecil led the way inside, having already memorized the blueprint of the layout of the building. It seemed to take forever until they reached the door to the computer room. But, as soon as Cecil opened it, an alarm began blaring overhead.

Carlos had jumped out of his skin next to him, and Cecil quickly pushed both Carlos and Rachelle back the way that they came. He didn't have a hope of getting all the way to the back door again; not now that everyone knew that they were there. But he had to try to get Carlos out.

Two of the other members of Cecil's team took point, with Carlos and Rachelle rushing to keep up behind them, while Cecil and his other team member took up the rear.

All was going relatively well, until they reached one of the main hallways in the basement—only about two minutes away from the getting to the exit—where at least ten Strex employees were waiting for them.

And that is how they had ended up here.

Carlos had not seen Cecil since the day that they had been captured. He didn't have his watch anymore, so he didn't know what date it was, but he could see a clock next to the door of the White Room. And they always led him in there at 3 p.m. sharp. He would stay there longer some days than others.

Anyways, Carlos had not seen Cecil for a good week and a half now. But he knew that he was still alive, thank goodness. If only that were as good as it sounds.

Carlos would be led into the White Room everyday it seemed, right at 3 p.m., and the 'employees'—really, they were more like prison guards—would push him into the chair in front of the table with the radio transmitter on it. And that's when the other employees on the other end of the transmitter would ask the question.

Are you ready to tell us the secret?

Carlos always refused. Cecil had told him when they were captured never to tell Strex the secret of how Tamika's revolution had become strong enough to find and access Strex's headquarters. The mysterious man in yellow that had showed up practically on Tamika's doorstep turned out to be a fired Strex employee, who was left for dead out in the middle of the desert surrounding Night Vale. He had helped lead Carlos's team to the trick to getting inside StrexCorp. Carlos had worked with him extensively, even figuring out the employee's name, something that no one except Tamika knew.

Of course Carlos couldn't risk a member of the rebellion's safety, especially since Tamika herself had labelled his overall existence confidential, and on a need-to-know basis. If this mission to get inside Strex's mainframe were to go sideways, then they would need that employee to formulate another plan. And they couldn't do that if he were dead. He knew the place better than anyone.

And unfortunately for Cecil, that meant that Carlos wouldn't have been able to tell the employees about their former coworker, even if he had wanted to.

On the other end of the radio transmitter always sat Cecil, presumably in front of a microphone, not unlike his own at the radio station, that sat on a table, much akin to the one in Carlos's room, wrists strapped to the arms of the chair, ankles to the legs. And that's when they would torture them. Cecil physically, Carlos mentally and emotionally.

Cecil was one of the strongest people that Carlos knew. Ever since they had been requested by Tamika to help her revolution, Cecil had trained and led more missions than Carlos could keep track of.

This is why Carlos knew that Cecil could get through the burning, cutting, punching, even branding once. Everything under the Sun, Carlos knew that they had the thought of doing to his poor boyfriend. All in the hopes of getting Carlos to spill his beans.

But Carlos never did, and Cecil never cracked. That is, until about the eighteenth day in a row that they had been seated in their respective rooms.

Carlos had sat down, been asked the question, refused to answer it, and they had brought Cecil into the room on the other end of the transmitter. Immediately, Carlos knew something was wrong. Cecil wasn't putting up his usual fight of strapping him to the chair. Carlos could always hear sounds of Cecil thrashing and using his body weight to knock an employee or two over, even getting a good elbow to one's face once.

But there was nothing but the sound of the chair's straps tightening around Cecil's wrists and ankles, immobilizing him.

"Carlos. . . ."

Carlos could hear the tremble in Cecil's voice.

"They said that they were going to kill me."

Carlos felt his heart stop.

"Unless you told them the secret."

And then Cecil said something that Carlos never would have expected or wanted to hear come from his partner's mouth.

"You have to tell them. I can't go on anymore. They said that once they kill me . . . they were going to kill you, and our teams. And then everyone back in Night Vale. You have to tell them."

Carlos could only stare at the transmitter that the voice was coming from. How could Cecil possibly say that? He knew what was at risk here! And it was more than their lives were worth, it hurt to say. But what if that wasn't Cecil? It couldn't be. . . .

Carlos turned one of the employees standing behind him and said, "That isn't Cecil."

The employee looked at him with an extremely creepy smile plastered on her face, and said, "Oh it definitely is. He broke last night. He's ours now."

Carlos was shocked. His Cecil would never, could never be broken. Cecil was speaking again.

"Carlos, please." He could hear his voice shaking, no longer the sweet melodious sound that filled a room, but now hoarse and soft.

"Carlos, you have to tell them. I don't thi—Slam!"

The two employees behind Carlos grabbed him by the arms and pulled him from the room, on course back to his cell before he could even think. What had that noise been? Was Cecil being hurt again? But why would the employees take him away at that point? Carlos didn't have an answer.

But before they reached his room, the three of them were swarmed. Carlos saw Michelle Nguyen, the owner of Dark Owl Records and Tamika's second-in-command, pushing her way past the dozens of others joined in the resistance that were currently fighting off the Strex employees to get to Carlos. Michelle grabbed his arm, yelled, "Run!" and they both bolted, Carlos following Michelle to the end of the hallway before he shouted, "We have to go get Cecil! They still have him!"

Michelle yelled back as she kept leading him through the corridors, "No, they don't! Tamika just confirmed that she got him out!"

Carlos was so relieved that he ran faster than he had ever run before, and both of them were soon out of the StrexCorp building, followed by the other members of the rebellion. They began their hike out to the stashed truck, tire tracks from another one already leading away from the horrid building.

Carlos went immediately to Tamika's small office in the corner of their hideout and slammed open the doors. She stood up from behind her desk, set down the papers in her hand, and began to say, "Carlos, come in," when Carlos cut her off.

"Where's Cecil?"

Tamika sighed like this was going to be hard, which it was.

"He's in Medical. I was just about to go down there to check on him. The doctor should be finishing up with his examination. Come on." And she led the way down to the Medical Bay with Carlos in tow.

Doctor Teddy Williams was at the desk in front of the door to the Medical cots which served as a sort of Nurses' Station even though they only had two nurses. Once he saw Tamika and Carlos coming, he set down her clipboard, and stepped out from behind the desk to speak with them.

"Mr. Scientist," he greeted. "He's right through here." Carlos followed him gratefully. He spoke again.

"I gave him some pain medicine for his burns and cuts, but he's otherwise healing. He does have a pretty bad bump on his forehead, mostly likely accompanied by a concussion, so this along with the meds means that he is definitely going to be slow and confused. Just be patient."

Carlos hardly heard him because all he could think about was Cecil.

When they stepped into the room, Carlos saw him lying on one of the various cots in the room, seemingly asleep. Dr Williams told him that he is awake, and that he and Tamika would be just outside if they needed them.

Carlos slowly approached the make-shift bed, careful not to startle his boyfriend. He squatted down next to Cecil's head and laid his hand on his head, slowing carding through his short blond hair. That's when Cecil slowly opened his eyes, pausing a second to focus them on who was beside him, and then immediately launched himself at Carlos.

Carlos stumbled backwards with a shout of surprise, taken aback by Cecil's attack. Carlos fell onto his back, Cecil landing on top of him, landing punch after punch to Carlos's face with shouts of "How could you?!" and "How dare you?!" and most commonly "Fuck you". Carlos grabbed both of Cecil's slender wrists, holding them away from his face, but Cecil twisted his hands around and pinned Carlos's hands to the ground before he quickly released his grip and tightened his fingers around Carlos's neck.

Thankfully, that was when Tamika and the doctor ran back into the room along with the two nurses from the Nurses' Station. Dr Williams and one nurse grabbed Cecil's arms and pried him off of Carlos, while Tamika and the other nurse pulled Carlos back, away from Cecil. Dr Williams injected Cecil in the arm with something, and after another few seconds of thrashing against their hold, Cecil's movements slowed, and then he fell limp against the nurse, who pulled him back to his bed, using her stethoscope to check Cecil's heartbeat.

Dr Williams told Cecil's nurse to up his pain meds, and then turned to the nurse beside Carlos, and told him to get restraints from the front. He ran to do so, and then the doctor turned to Carlos, who was still sitting on the floor with Tamika kneeling beside him.

Dr Williams knelt as well, and asked, "Are you alright, Carlos?"

Carlos nodded numbly, and looked up at him. "What was that about?" he asked.

"I don't know," the doctor answered. "But we will have to find out when he wakes up again. Maybe Tamika should take you back to your quarters for now. I will send someone to tell you when he wakes again."

Carlos nodded again and the pair helped him stand. Then Tamika led him up to his living quarters, where he promptly fell asleep.

An indiscernible number of hours later, Carlos woke to the sounds of knocking at his door. Groggily, he got up and opened it, looking out at the face of the nurse who had helped Cecil earlier.

"He's awake," she reported, and they walked back down to Medical together. After a couple minutes, Carlos cleared his throat and asked, "Is he doing any better?"

The nurse sighed. "We don't know. He isn't attacking anyone, but he also wasn't doing that before he saw you yesterday. So you'll have to be careful around him. Don't get too close."

Carlos rubbed both hands over his face and up through his hair. First not seeing Cecil for over two weeks and now he couldn't even get close to him. This was killing him.

The pair walked into the room with the cots, and Carlos looked at Cecil's cot to see the man sitting upright and eating an apple with one hand, the other was strapped to the bar holding the flimsy mattress in place.

Cecil looked up at who had entered the room, and the next thing Carlos knew was that he was ducking an apple that flew straight towards his face. Cecil had thrown his snack across the room with surprising power whilst shouting similar accusations as the day before, not forgetting to call Carlos "a fucking coward".

Dr Williams had been at the next cot over and rushed to Cecil's bedside to try to calm him down, but Cecil wouldn't have any of it.

"Cecil," the doctor said sternly, momentarily silencing the man's shouts at Carlos. "Why are you yelling at Carlos? You know that he did nothing wrong."

Cecil sneered at the doctor. "Of course he did! He told them that I was the one that had got us there, and that I was the one that knew the identity of the employee. He stuck them on me. He made them torture me! For weeks! He never once answered me when I called for him. He ignored me."

Carlos felt his heart breaking. "No, Cecil," he almost whispered. "I didn't. I didn't say any of that. They told you that to make you angry at me, and tell me to tell them the secret. I promise. Please, you have to believe me." Carlos was almost in tears.

Cecil's face had dropped from an angered expression to one filled with sadness and betrayal. "Then why didn't you ever answer me? When I called for you when they were hurting me? I called for you. I thought you'd answer."

"I couldn't," Carlos answered, taking more steps towards his boyfriend despite the worried looks from the nurse and the doctor. "I didn't have a microphone in my room. It was just the transmitter. But I tried, Cecil. I tried for days, nearly to the point of losing my voice."

"Oh god, Carlos," Cecil said as he dropped his chin down against his chest. Carlos closed the space between him and Cecil, and placed his hand on Cecil shoulder. Immediately, Cecil's free hand shot up, punching Carlos across the jaw.

"How could you, Carlos?!" he shouted. As soon as Carlos fell back, Cecil's eyes became wide and frantic, his mouth hanging open and his hand hovering in midair.

"I—I'm sorry—no wait! I didn't—I'm sorry, Carlos," Cecil rambled. "I don't know why . . . I'm sorry. I didn't do that. I don't—I'm sorry. . . ." Cecil trailed off while Carlos stood up and closed the space between them again, grabbing Cecil's wrist.

Carlos saw the change in his eyes immediately. They became wild and angry.

"Cecil," Carlos said sharply, and his boyfriend blinked and shook his head side to side as if to clear his thoughts. He looked back up at Carlos, who pulled him into a tight hug. Cecil instinctively pulled on his restrained hand whilst wrapping his free one around Carlos's neck.

"I'm sorry. I didn't—I don't—I'm so sorry," Cecil rambled while Dr Williams injected a substance into Cecil's arm. Slowly, Cecil fell limp against Carlos, who then lowered him into a lying position and covered him with the blanket at the end of his bed.

Once Cecil was settled, Carlos turned to the doctor.

"What the hell is happening to him?"

He shrugged, already looking at the chart.

"There's no evidence of trauma other than what you and Cecil have disclosed. I'm going to run an extensive blood test. I'm going to conduct it right now, and I will get news back to you soon."

They both nodded and went their separate ways; the doctor to the Nurses' Station to get a syringe, and Carlos to Tamika's office. He didn't know if she would be in there, but he had to try.

Turns out that she wasn't, but her assistant told him that she was debriefing everyone about the latest mission in the meeting room. Carlos headed down there, knocking on the door before entering. Tamika was sitting in a chair facing the other troops, but she stood up when she saw him.

"Carlos," she greeted. "Come in. I'm debriefing everyone on the rescue mission."

"Did we lose anyone?" Carlos asked, afraid to hear the answer. Tamika smiled. "Nobody. Everyone's safe." Carlos nodded his head and sat down in one of the chairs, just listening to the rest of the meeting.

Everyone left the room at the end of the debrief, except for Tamika and Carlos.

"How is he doing? Any better?" she asked. Carlos shook his head.

"He's still attacking me. I grabbed his wrists one time, though, and he seemed to kind of come to his senses, like he wasn't fully there before. But then Dr Williams sedated him." Tamika nodded mournfully. Carlos continued. "He's going to 'run an extensive blood test,' he said."

"Good. Maybe we'll figure out what's going on—" Tamika was cut off by a nurse bursting into the room.

"Mr. Scientist! Ms. Flynn!" he panted, apparently having ran all the way from Medical. "Dr Williams thinks that he knows what happened. He sent me to get Mr. Scientist."

"Let's go then," Tamika told them, and they began walking towards Medical at a heightened pace. Carlos wanted to know what was happening to his Cecil so badly that he may or may not have roughly shoved through a crowd of people at one point. Tamika put her hand on his arm, calming him slightly, but not enough to turn around and apologize to those that fell.

Once at Medical, Dr Williams greeted them at the Nurses' Station.

"I believe that Cecil was injected with something. The test is still running, but there is a copious amount of a foreign substance in his blood."

"And this would cause him to lash out so violently?" Carlos asked.

"It may. We just don't know what is in it yet," he told him.

"When will you know?" asked Tamika.

The doctor shook his head. "Not sure. Could be within 24 hours or it could take weeks. I'm hoping the former, but I can't control the machine."

"Has he woken up yet?" Carlos was worried about Cecil being sedated all the time.

The doctor shifted his weight as he stood up a little straighter. "No, he hasn't yet," he said. "I'm sorry about this Carlos, but I think that you should take a break from trying to see him. It's damaging both to you and to Cecil."

Carlos stared at him for a good minute before dropping his gaze to the ground and nodding. "I'll be elsewhere then. But do keep me informed please."

The doctor nodded his consent, and Carlos turned quickly and left without another word to the doctor or Tamika. The first place that he went was the Mess Hall. It wasn't very busy, but they were still open so Carlos sat down at the bar.

"Hey Gino," Carlos greeted.

The bartender looked over at him from washing a glass, and turned fully with a smile on his face.

"Heya Carlos," he said. "What brings you down?"

"I've been banned from Medical while Cecil's recovering," he told him, not really bitter about the situation, but having no better way of describing it.

"I'm so sorry," Gino said with a concerned expression. "And how is Cecil doing? You know that he still comes down here sometimes in his free time and orders the same meal from your first date? He just can't stop talking about you some days. It's really sweet."

That made a lump form in Carlos's throat. "Really?" he asked, and Gino nodded kindly.

Carlos thought about that. He remembered their first date, of course. They met up in Old Town, and then drove over to Gino's Italian Dining Experience And Grill And Bar. They had ordered a single portobello mushroom, served rare and bloody, and then the invisible, non-corporeal, and tasteless carrot cake. Carlos remembered that Cecil had said in his broadcast that they had a great view of the sunset, and of the buzzing shadow-thing, but Carlos could only remember how beautiful Cecil had looked in the dim lighting. Carlos was so nervous by the end of the date that he had actually suggested that they perform scientific tests on the trees. Then Cecil had driven him back to the lab, and Carlos had kissed him. It was wonderful.

Carlos shook his head, awakening from his reverie. Clearing his throat and smiling, he addressed Gino again. "Yeah, Cecil's sure something. He's getting better." Okay, that last part was mostly for Gino's benefit, but Carlos couldn't make the guy feel sad, not after what he just shared with Carlos.

"Good!" Gino exclaimed happily, giving Carlos a large smile. "So a drink then? What'll you be having?"

"Gin and tonic."

Gino frowned a bit. "I never took you for a heavy hitter."

"Well, I am tonight," Carlos answered with a small sigh. Gino served him his drink, and Carlos drank it down, signalling for another. This went on for about ten minutes or so. Then, Carlos asked for just straight up tequila, and for Gino to leave the bottle.

Carlos appeared to be able to hold his liquor very well, but eventually Gino cut him off, which is when Carlos asked him to call someone to walk him up to his room. While Gino turned to make the call from his wall phone, Carlos grabbed the bottle of vodka that was behind the bar, almost falling over the counter, and made his way out of the Mess Hall, trying to find his way to his room. He got turned around, however, but there were hardly any people around considering how late it was.

Eventually, Carlos just stopped trying to walk and drink at the same time, and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. He emptied the bottle of vodka, and promptly passed out.

The next morning, Carlos woke up in a cot that was not his own. He looked around and saw that he was in Medical. But something was strange. There was a divider cutting the room in half, so that Carlos could only see half of the beds. He immediately looked for Cecil, but almost just as suddenly realized the reason for the divider.

Soon enough, Dr Williams walked into the room and saw that Carlos was awake. He walked over to him with a concerned expression on his face.

"You sure gave us a scare, Carlos," he told him. "You were heavily intoxicated, dehydrated, disoriented, unconscious in the middle of one of the hallways. Should I go on?" Carlos shook his head solemnly.

"So, care to talk about it?" he asked. Again, Carlos began to shake his head, but was cut off when Tamika burst into the room, shouting, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Carlos grimaced at the look on her face and knew immediately that he had screwed up big time.

"I was just speaking with Gino. You stole an entire bottle of vodka even after finishing off enough alcohol to incapacitate ten men, and then you were passed out when he and some others found you. So I ask again: what in the hell were you thinking?" She was livid. But, at this point, so was Carlos.

"I was thinking," Carlos spat venomously. "That I was captured for weeks, all the while listening to my boyfriend being tortured and not being able to do something, and then we get rescued just to find out that he thought I was ignoring him being hurt, and now he wants to kill me, so I can't even see him anymore. That's what I was thinking."

Tamika visibly softened. "I know that this is hard on you, Carlos," she lamented. "But you can't just drink your life away! Not at this point in the game."

"And just why not?!" Carlos countered.

"Because you're too important," Tamika shot back. "To everyone here: your team, your friends, and especially Cecil. He may not be up and running now, but he will get better! And you need to be here for him, and you need to be alive and well to do that! That's why not."

Carlos shrunk against his pillow, looking between Tamika and Dr Williams, feeling ever so guilty at the prospect of potentially killing himself last night with all of the alcohol that he had consumed.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. Tamika put her hand on his shin, and told him, "It's alright. Just get better."

But then something happened that Carlos was not expecting. He heard his name called, and saw Cecil appear from around the divider. He was still in the Medical Bay scrubs to keep everything clean, but he was wheeling his I.V. pole next to him, slightly leaning against it.

Dr Williams immediately rushed to his side. "Cecil!" he exclaimed. "You can't be up, and you can't be over here—"

"No!" he almost yelled at him, and the doctor stopped trying to usher him back to his side of the room. "I need to talk to Carlos," he told him. "Right now."

Carlos was astonished, as was Dr Williams and Tamika. The doctor looked at his two patients, and then said, "Alright, but one of us stays with you." Cecil nodded and pointed at Tamika. Dr Williams acknowledged his choice, and left the room.

Cecil shuffled closer to the bed, making Carlos sit up a little straighter, ready if anything were to happen. Cecil just focused on getting to Carlos's bedside, so he didn't notice. Tamika just silently looked on.

Once Cecil got close enough to Carlos, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and slowly reached out to grasp his hand. As soon as he held it, Cecil opened his eyes and sighed out of relief. He then looked up into Carlos's eyes.

"I'm so so sorry for what I've put you through," he said. Carlos went to interrupt, but Cecil stopped him. "No, wait. I—I've been controlling the anger, and I think that I'm better now. I'm getting better. Everything's going to be okay. I promise. Everything's going to be back to normal."

Carlos almost sobbed. Instead, he just grasped Cecil's hand with both of his and kissed his palm. "I know," he told him. "I knew that you would. I—Last night, I was just so sad, and I wasn't thinking. . . ." Carlos trailed off.

Cecil just shushed him and sat down on the side of his cot, taking deep breaths. "We're going to be okay."

Carlos nodded enthusiastically and hugged Cecil, burying his face into his shoulder, the other doing the same to him. When they broke apart, Carlos realized that Tamika had left the room, so Carlos pulled Cecil in for a kiss, and they both laid down on Carlos's cot. There wasn't very much room, but it was enough. They both fell asleep like that.

They both woke up to being shaken by one of the nurses.

"Mr. Palmer, you have to get back to your bed for your meds. And, Mr. Scientist, the doctor needs to speak with you," he told them. They both consented, and Cecil allowed himself to be led away while Carlos got up to go to the Nurses' Station.

The doctor greeted him, and dived right into what he needed to say. "We've finished the blood work. It's definitely a substance that was injected into his bloodstream. We don't know exactly how much, but the effects on him suggest that it was a lot and it was frequent."

Carlos felt somewhat sick. The doctor continued.

"Mostly the substance is comprised of catecholamines, acetylcholine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, plus something that acts like an antidepressant inhibitor, actually lowering the levels of serotonin and dopamine. It's actually quite impressive, but also quite horrible. When injected at these high levels, it would make someone completely subservient to suggestive thoughts, such as to hate someone to the point of extreme aggression and violent actions."

Carlos was dumbfounded. How could anyone have the resources to make something like this? Even if Strex was able to, would they really do something this unethical? Carlos laughed at that last thought; of course they would. They're StrexCorp.

"So how do we fix it?" Carlos asked.

At this, the doctor gave Carlos a small smile. "Unfortunately," he said. "I wouldn't know where to begin to fix it. It's too complex. But luckily, the symptoms will wear off once his body processes the drug completely. It may take longer than it would other drugs considering its density, but it will happen eventually. We just have to wait it out."

Carlos was relieved. This would all blow over in the end. He and Cecil really would be fine again.

Imagine that your OTP are spies and partners. Person B holds a massive secret that could destroy the world. Your OTP are captured by the enemy, who plans to torture Person A in front of Person B until B reveals the secret. Just before it begins, Person A, while they are still strong, begs Person B to never reveal the secret, no matter how bad it gets. Person A is tortured, and they beg Person B to reveal the secret, to make it stop, but Person B refuses, because they made a promise.

Bonus I: Your OTP are rescued by their government, but Person A is so damaged that they blame Person B for what they went through.