A/N: The drought is over, the action has begun!

Aspirant 3.7

"G' up."

If my eyes were open, I would have winced.

"Get up."

How could something be so quiet and yet rattle my skull at the same time.

"I said, get. Up."

And that's when the water hit. Cold. Painful.

Everything else was, including the sight of the stone floor as my eyes wrenched themselves open, but the water was particularly bad.

Apparently, the voice noticed this. "Good. You aren't in a coma. More potential, then."

Potential? Coma? Wha..?

Suddenly, my brain rebooted.

As much as I suddenly wanted to fly away, in reality I couldn't even scream. I didn't have nearly enough control over my body to make any sound other than an unintelligible moan.

I did, however have my ears back enough to hear footsteps, moving away. Apparently the voice just wanted to ensure I was conscious.

Slowly, I became fully aware of my wings again, and I felt the Medusas hiss. Couldn't tell you if I scented anything or not, though; not enough signal-to-noise. But my wings were still functioning, at least. Functioning enough to serve as extra arms.

Even with both right wing and what I assumed were my hands, turning over was, at the moment, something I doubted even Alexandria could do easily. The abyss of general agony that was my body at the moment could have been easily a sign I was now the world's largest amoeba given the lack of a sense for any other limbs or features. Eventually though, I sensed I was on my back, facing more slate grey.

The first thing I noticed was my lack of glasses, given the slight, blueish blur covering everything. The next was a rather dingy looking bunk with an even dingier pillow, nothing but metal and a blanket.

The third was the fact that I wasn't wearing armor. Or my normal underclothes. It was more of a medical gown, but far less well-maintained. More of it was coming apart than not, and with rust-colored patches that I suspected weren't naturally part of the white.

And then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

Blur? No, looked too patterned. I turned to look at it-

Mesh.

The wire mesh of a secure birdcage. Or a solitary confinement cell.

And beyond that, illuminated in blue, was the endless grey and brown of natural earth.

I didn't feel dazed anymore. Not because I had fully recovered.

I didn't know how long it was before I heard footsteps again. Couldn't have been too long, but the blue glow didn't change in any way I could see, so no way to tell from that.

Didn't matter. The pain was gone now.

The footsteps grew closer, an indistinct shadow coming from an alcove.

"...why would we want her fed before your first activity," I heard a strange, reedy voice mutter. "Waste of good cytillesh, in my view. You aren't capable of enlightenment anyway, so I don't see why you get to eat light, I mean in all honesty…"

The shadow gained distinction.

"...you should learn to be more grateful, you weasly little punk…"

A different voice said that. More deep.

"Hey, here's a thought, Thoregg;" said a softer voice. "Maybe you should, I don't know, try out being a dad-"

"Shaddup. I brought him and his even more worthless sis into the world, he can stand on his own ivory tower-"

"Where I may angle you out of the latest ditch you've drunken yourself into Dad? Yes, I suppose it would be more agreeable with your atavistic ideals of patriarchy, in violation of our very reason for being-"

"Um, idiots?" the third voice said. "Ever hear of something called 'prisoner earshot'?"

"Oh, go make love to that eyesore of an aklys," the deep voice whined. "I can say whatever the hell I want in front of meat, winged bi-Oof!"

The shadow stumbled.

"Case in point," the reedy voice muttered.

I began to plan. Probably unoriginal, but...

"In any case…" the soft voice muttered.

The footsteps' owner appeared.

"Hello there, miss."

A glare, as it turned out, was an excellent way to take in the full effect of the living ghost that had just rounded the corner.

Hunched over, carrying something in a backpack that glowed the same blue as the cavern lighting through the flap, was a pale, whitish-blue skinned figure, small and lithe. A shock of bone-white hair cascaded around his face, the only indication of gender being an equally white goatee that hung off his chin, wet and tangled. Apart from the pack, there was very little on him that seemed more modern; mostly leathery armor, bound with straps, and with a pair of tie-on sandals.

Clipped to his belt was what looked like a strange cross between a trident, a scythe, and a fishing hook, with a pair of gems inset on either side of the blade. I doubted if that was simply a matter of aesthetics, though; I learned too much from Cordy.

"...I said, hello there, miss."

I remained silent. Even the Medusas caught on.

"...Think she's mute or just stubborn?" said the reedy voice.

"Either works for me. Meat needs to learn to shut its pie hole, I like screamers in my bedroom alone." The deep voice - Thoregg - chuckled,

"...While I would not blame you for not speaking given my uncle, one is rather expected to speak when spoken to, burnie dear," the soft voice said.

I said nothing, only glared more. Not giving you the gratification.

"...Stubborn," the reedy voice muttered. "She's one of those subjects. Of course the pseudo-diabolical would be one of the unhelpful ones. Why wouldn't she be?"

The figure looked up, finally looking me in the eye.

His cemented the ghostlike impression. Those same cataracts I remembered from the ambush were present on him as well, except now that I looked at them again, I realized that it was less cataract and more lacking visible iris and sclera altogether. Almost like someone had replaced this being's eyes with perfect pearls.

Also, I suddenly realized, only Thoregg's voice came from the figure

"Now, dear, I know you're probably scared, a little angry-" began the soft voice.

"No, I'm not," I said, finally speaking up. "I'm waiting."

"Waiting? Bit lower than your station suggests, eh, princess?" Thoregg said, a smirk coming to his face.

"Well, she eats at a, ahem, franchise burger chain," the reedy voice said. "I doubt she is more than one of the inbreds who supposedly provide moral support to that European island."

"Leaving that aside," began the soft voice. "I can assure you, derro have only your needs for the Magnum Opus in mind. So please, we would not mind a little verbal appreciation from one of you once in a while."

"You're called derro then?" I said, uncurling from my fetal position on the bed. "And I'd appreciate it better if you bothered explaining."

"Nothing that concerns you, Burnlander," the reedy voice said. "Not quite yet."

"In any case, as I was saying," the soft voice said, "as a token of our gratitude, we offer you the Glow of Enlightenment."

The figure - or the derro, I guessed - took off the backpack, quickly reaching in.

What came out was a stick of glowing blue, wrapped in plastic.

"What my wannabe cleric of a colleague means is that this is your first cytillesh ration. Eat it."

I swore, Thoregg was deliberately aiming for me when he threw it. I took a look at the "cytillesh", debating for a second whether I wanted to eat or annoy my captor more.

Not provoking my captor won out. Muttering a dark "thanks" I hoped was devoid of any actual gratitude, I unwrapped the strange food, pausing only to examine it for a second.

Under the wrap, the cytillesh stick was surprisingly moist, given its relative rigidity. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the woody, hollow substance was almost the exact shade of blue as both Thoregg and the ambient light. Multipurpose plant, I guessed? But not worth thinking about right then and there anyway; trusting in my poison immunity, I began to nibble on the stick.

"Much more fitting to your highness than that idiot's beef patties, eh?" the reedy voice replied, a note of pure, concentrated distain obvious.

It tasted like a particularly wet stick seasoned with raw asparagus, but I kept my opinion to myself; fighting back wasn't advisable with bullies. "It's okay," I muttered.

"...Okay?" the soft voice replied, suddenly irate. "That fungus is the savior and lifegiver of the derro, the gift of the deep fey to their truest children, and to you it's...okay!? Why I ought to go in there and-"

"No you won't," Thoregg said, a dark smirk on his face. "I'm the warden, I call what we do with the prisoners, and I say getting a rise out of Nurse Jingoist over here earns her serenity the chance to gnaw on her brain mold in peace. Isn't that right, nurse?"

"...That would be right, yes," the soft voice said, sullenly.

"Brain mold?"

"Ah, yes, the vulgar name," the reedy voice sniffed. "An appellation made by the willfully ignorant, those who fear its enlightenment and purification."

I spat it out. "It's a hallucinogen!?"

"And a nootropic, and an anti-aging drug, and an antagonist for short-term memory," the nurse's voice rattled off, automatically. "Not that you can experience any of that, sadly. Your...divine bloodline resists other paths of truth."

I debated throwing it back, but again, I didn't want to get Thoregg on her side if I pissed him off. I pretended to nibble at it a little more. "...Thanks," I muttered.

"Oh please. It's the least we can do for...your serenity." Thoregg's smirk broke into a smile, revealing discolored teeth. "After all, you're going to be...very...helpful to us. Very…soon."

My glower became a little more so. "Is that before or after the Protectorate feeds you to Behemoth? Kidnapping a Ward out of HQ is the kind of thing that provokes retaliation, you know."

"I'm quite sure your savants will do their best," the nurse said in an amused tone. "If they can find us first."

I smirked. "You do realize what these snakes do, right? So I know who and what you are already; I've been smelling you. And we already found the source of what you did to Browbeat."

"If your limbs are at all accurate, then you should also know we don't have to care," the reedy voice said. "The signal they're going to find is a repeater, nothing more."

My expression turned to shock. "W-what?"

"You should know well enough we're not stupid, queenie-to-be," Thoregg began. "Scientific genius translates to tactical one well enough."

"W-w-well, you can't hide forever!" I began, trying to get my lip quivering. "You...you'll never find it! And the capes are gonna find your boss, before….before…."

"It's our destiny, serenity," the nurse began, sounding more and more aggravated. "The sun we were promised, so will it be."

"And if your rejoinders are truly this poor, our inevitable dominance of the Overburn will be a favor to your kind as well," the reedy voice muttered

Okay, okay, next line. "But...they have to! My boyfriend's in there, the uh, Time Lord, he wouldn't leave me be-"

"Oh, really?" Thoregg's smile grew a little wider. "The white-suited guy? What did we do to him, again?"

"Toxified cytillesh extract," the nurse mentioned. "Can't even be properly described as conscious right now."

"Oh...oh poor, sweet Wally!" I said, laying down on my bunk with a hand to my eyes. "Oh why did it have to be you, always the most mature and wise of us. All out hope lies in Bruce...Armsmaster now!"

"Well that's a shame." Thoregg chuckled. "Come along, maggots. We got some scalpels to sharpen."

And with that, he hoisted the cytillesh bag, and began to walk off, snickering all the while to my whimpering.

As soon as he was out of sight, the whimpering stopped.

So, this stick had an opiate element I could isolate easily enough. All I needed was the supplies.

Thank you, Wards Movie Night.

Truth is, my plans had an element of wishful thinking. I had no idea if Tybalt was still free, or if the derro had chased down his mist form and put him in a stopper/cage somewhere. Or, I realized with a lurch, hadn't just killed him.

Still didn't mean I couldn't work at getting myself free, at least. I concentrated back on the exact feelings I had towards my captors; another few tears of my acid came out and quickly joined its fellows at the corner of the cage. I hadn't done this except with cuffs in my training regiment before (stupid), but the principle was similar enough to creating a nice hole in the mesh.

Of course, hiding the hole until it was large enough for me to get out was...not something I could plan for. I didn't see anything that could really help the the hole evade the guards' attention, not anything that would be unnoticed. So, the only thing to do was to keep these bars attached as long as possible and hope nobody pushed on them.

It also helped squelch my thought process when my thoughts turned to what the derro were apparently planning.

Of course, when you're focused on two things at once, such as watching out for the guard and the activity you are keeping an eye out for the guard in the first place, one tends to not notice the thing on the ceiling.

"Ms. Taylor."

"...Guh." Well, there went my damsel in distress act, and acid-soluble bars-

"I have the key."

Oh. "Tybalt?"

"Yes."

I sighed in relief. "Thought you'd be in mist-mode-"

"I ran out. Enough to get me here, though. Sneaky enough without it."

"Good, good. Okay, I can't reach through the bars, but I think you...can…"

Tybalt floated down into view.

With a complete lack of expression on his face.

And, I just realized, he had been speaking in a monotone.

"Don't open the circuit," he muttered before I had the chance. "I don't want to broadcast my emotions."

"O...Okay. I guess." I decided. "Er, could you-"

"On it," he muttered before putting the key ring around his tail in his mouth, shortly before turning it.

A loud clunk, and I was already opening the gate.

"...Okay, we need to find a weapon, especially a spell doll if these guys have any witches among them," I thought out loud. "Next, a cauldron or chemist's table and some cytillesh-that's the blue glowy stuff they eat-so I can make an antidote for the other Wards-"

"Incendiaries, too," Tybalt murmured, almost off-hand.

"...Er, while I can appreciate that, I'd prefer to not set anything at all on fire around this place, we don't know-"

"For after we escape."

I caught the implication.

I slowly turned to my familiar. "...What did you see?"

"Enough."

That was not a monotone.

That was a hiss.

Next stop on the plan; intelligence.

"Urrrgh…"

Slowly, the aftereffects of my spell wore off, and Thoregg gradually became aware of the impromptu bindings, namely the prison gown I had torn into an impromptu rope-his own clothes were a bit small for me, but they were serviceable enough to protect my vulnerable flesh.

"...Heh. So, wannabe erinyes hews to the stereotype. Brains and bondage." He gave one of those smirks of his. Honestly couldn't tell if he was just derision or actual bemusement on his part. In any case irritating.

"Yeah, don't care. Where are those other two, or were you chatting on some kind of intercom?"

"Snoozing right now. Leaving me in peace, thank gods," he spat. "Those two, in case princess ain't noticed, never shut up. Really shouldn't have honed my ghost sounds."

"Okay then, now tell me-where did you keep my friends?"

"Heh. Yeah, tell the escaping prisoner where her team is kept, truly only the greatest scientific mind would see a problem in that oh and while I'm thinking of OW!"

I jumped back. "Tybalt!?"

"So, you would be the individual responsible for the centerpiece of the lab?" I...didn't think Tybalt's pupils could be that narrowly slitted.

"Hey, hey, I'm a chemist! You want Midris for surgery, not me!" Thoregg shouted through the shoulder pressed on his cheek, blood shining. "Shit, princess, where did you get this thing!?"

I quietly motioned at Tybalt to leave. To his credit, he did.

"Sorry. This is the first time…" I shook my head. "Never mind. Back to the first question. Where are the other Wards, and why did you take us?"

"The pints? Yeah, sorry, but there's nothing special. We just caught you in the net we threw out for that healer of yours."

The who? "We...don't have a healer."

The derro took his wounded forehead out of his arm, looking skeptical. "The other princess? "

...Oh. "Panacea isn't a Ward. The only other girls we have are Vista and Shadow Stalker."

It took a second for Thoregg to catch on. "Knew our magister was an idiot," he muttered. "Okay, okay, I have a promise that I'm going to be stashed away safely, right?"

Well that was sudden. "..Yes?"

"Right, they're being held in the northeast quadrant, you probably can't read Undercommon so just note our maps fact the south since that's where the exit is."

"...And the lab? Cure for cytillesh opiate?"

"Northwest. We're lazy, so we don't like walking too far for experiments. And you want to counter hallucinations with people who haven't built a tolerance for the stuff."

A couple sin-scents. Nothing except for prisoner abuse there and something about ignoring suffering. No lies.

He smirked again. "Oh yeah, and if you see a male derro, 'bout half-a-meter taller than I am with a ridiculous headpiece that it's hard to believe he sees out of, please feed him that stupid hat for me, will you? I'm a man, I really don't tolerate being fried because of stupid mistakes. Or anyone else unfortunate enough to work for him"

I decided I didn't particularly like Thoregg as a person even when he wasn't leering at the prisoners. "A promise is a promise."

I really shouldn't have enjoyed kicking him in that smug face as much as I did, or tying the gag so tightly. But so it goes.

The more alarming issue was waiting outside. "The hell was that, Tybalt!?"

The cat looked up, eyes steely and cold. "I lost my temper. You would too."

"And that's reason to go bad cop/lunatic cop on his face? You're not like this," A Medusa hissed at him. "What's...gotten into…"

The sin-scent suddenly activated.

Wants to make sure these people never hurt anyone else, ever again.

"Tybalt, as your master, I am ordering to tell me what did you see?"

He glowered, crossing his forepaws. "You don't want to know."

The note of finality was clear.

"...Fine. The antidote, next."

I hoped the note of relenting was convincing enough.

I had kept the cytillesh stick, so the baseline and symbolic material to be negated was not the issue.

What was the issue was getting everything else. Up to including a good cauldron, or at least a vial. Which meant the lab.

"There's a guard there," Tybalt muttered as I flattened myself into what I could only guess was the steam pipes, wincing as my wings popped and regenerated; it was way too small for them to fit through unbroken. "Carries a prematurely born infant around with him on his patrol, but in likelihood has a remote alarm with him."

"Thanks for the tip," I muttered, trying to worm through the tangle that I swore could not be safe. Or built in the few months the derro inhabited Earth, but then again there was such a thing as literal magic. "Guess that's what they wanted Amy for, if it's frequent. Genetic repairs."

"I suppose that would be the reason they were studying parahumans as well," my familiar grunted as he crouched under his own tangle, careful not to touch. "The variations in the er, corona pollentella is probably a gold mine for aberrant neurophysiology unto itself, not to mention any physical effects from certain power classifications."

Of course, that's why they decided to drag us in as well. Might as well get extra on-site test subjects while they were already abducting someone. Something I would do, if I ever decided to go mad wizard/scientist. Even the less physical problems could give them insight into the Shadow World and how it interacted with the mortal one. There was Clockblocker's time-stop, useful if you already had artificial time manipulation, Gallant's beams and how they might serve as pacification devices if harnessed, my sin-scent, and…

Hold on…

"Why did they take Win?" I wondered aloud. "And none of the more physical capes. Browbeat they already had data on, but Aegis and Stalker? Can't see why they didn't want to look into directly physical abilities if they're trying to fix their own biological problems."

"Win is a Tinker, these are researchers."

"Yes, but Tinker's usually need to be able to think clearly to make gadgets, and I doubt Win would actually make anything if he isn't dosed on drugs or otherwise...threat…"

Wait. They could remove masks.

Ahem.

"Still doesn't explain why they didn't take either of the more physical capes."

"Perhaps it was chance." Tybalt stretched, having negotiated his pipes. "Temporal manipulation is inexact at the best of times."

"Too precise mistake, if you ask me," I muttered, straightening a wing. "Almost as if-"

...Of course.

"Almost as if they were afraid of the two breaking out."

Tybalt looked back, obviously interested.

"I mean, it makes sense, right? Stalker can become a ghost on command, and Aegis probably would take gallons of cytillesh before he's out of it given that biology of his, plus his strength."

"And you?" Tybalt furrowed his brow. "Mistress, it's well-known you're a witch, and you have myself to assist you in any escapes. Why did they not capture me?"

"The fact you can turn intangible isn't so well-known. They probably thought you were a trick of the eye if you vanished suddenly, and it's quite possible they just didn't pick your existence up. They thought Vista was Panacea, after all."

I smirked. "Nor is the fact I can cry acid that public either."

"Ah."

Somehow, I managed to move the steam covering out of the way without it clattering to the ground in the least stealthy way possible. If only slipping out of it was in any way easy for someone who was apparently half my size, on average.

Tybalt, having wisely decided to go out before I did, poked his head around the door. "Lab's clear. Guard is not here yet." He squinted as I finally negotiated my wing tip, a Medusa hissing in protest as the rest of the wing smacked into it. "Appears his baby is here though. I'd still say keep out of sight, infants get loud when upset or scared, and I doubt even these...people put their children down for long."

"All right then." I shook myself a little, cooling off what I was sure were scalding temperatures to most people. "You be the one to scout it out, you know this place better than I do, and you're smaller. If something's too heavy but looks useful, tell me. I'll get it."

"Understood." And with that, the silvanshee took off, and committed to lookout.

Which also gave me time to figure out the next few steps. With the caveat that Tybalt needed to be watched closely in case he lost his temper again at a critical point.

So, the Wards. Vista and the bugbears had honed her abilities to vaguely Lovecraftian heights of twisted geometry. Would be obviously useful in getting out of these caverns. So she was a priority.

Next on useful capes would be Clockblocker, since he was a guaranteed knockout for any guards-

"Waa."

Thought train disrupted.

Sounded like the aforementioned baby. Curious as to why Tybalt thought they were abducting Panacea, I took a peek around the corner and-

How the hell was that thing still alive!?

Honestly, it wasn't the fact that I could see a significant portion of its (his? Her? I honestly wondered if this guy was born before it developed sexual dimorphism) internal anatomy that was so bad; it was the fact that, from first glance, I could see the blood flowing through what veins I could make out, dark and...bluish? Hard to tell.

I mean, I didn't know derro development, but that couldn't have been normal. Or the fact the baby looked completely unconcerned with its condition.

"Waaa."

Voice sounded normal, at least. Not a wheeze or whisper, as one would expect out of that thing.

Shrugging, I started back to my post-

"Waaaah!

That was an alert cry. Scared cry.

Instinctively, I looked back, conscious thought too slow to remind me this guy was a threat-

Huh. Oddly calm rat. Must not be too scared of the derro, though the infant was certainly scared of-

The rat spasmed and jerked. Almost like a puppet on strings.

Then slowly got up on its back paws before glancing over itself. Then clapping.

The hell?

Quickly, I focused on the idea of Master abilities being a sin, and let a Medusa taste the air.

Uses body switch to experience pain and sensation without consequence.

…

The baby was a parahuman?

Well, not parahuman, certainly, but-what? Could this some kind of ability derro evolved naturally or was the kid some sort of experiment? Both?

Though, I guessed it was possible for an infant to trigger-especially one born in that condition-but that scent was something I would have expected from a toddler, at youngest.

Maybe the engorged head contained a more developed brain than those of homo sapiens.

...And maybe, I just realized, that was why the guard brought an infant child with him. That ability seemed like an extremely useful thing to disable someone instantly. Maybe even gain them as an extra body, if the baby was mature enough to understand the concept of helping daddy with his job. Kind of brilliant, actually. Had to remember that one in case the Wards ever got a Master.

Best be extra careful around him, I guess.

What my nerves were trying to convince me was several hours later, Tybalt came back, holding a distorted-looking spell doll in his tail. Kind of like one of those cheesy depictions of aliens that became popular around the 1980s, engorged head with big, black eyes.

"Looked mass produced. There's also a cauldron with an attached set of reagents to it, but it's far too large for me."

"Got it." Which meant the kid had to go to sleep for a while.

I quietly leaned back, where I winced at the latest game the infant had invented; banging rat head on a wall.

...Hang on, if the kid and rat were mind-switched, which one do I-

Wait, I had unlimited ammo with the curse of slumber, the limit was how many times I could put it on one person.

A couple minutes of quietly charging my evil eye via the quietest cackle I could manage later, both rat and baby slumped over, peacefully snoring.

"This way," Tybalt muttered, apparently not bothering to ask why I knocked out a rodent. "The cauldron contains the reagents and measuring set contained in a detachable case on the bottom; you only need make sure the bottom doesn't come upon while you're running out."

"Okay, okay, just don't run fast-"

Trying to hide something in here.

It took me a second to realize the Medusas were still hissing.

Not very much to catch on to what was going on-

"Er...awkward question, but-"

"Ugh. Can't hide things from those snakes, can I?" Tybalt spun around, looking at me directly. "Look, mistress; I know you're worried about me, but I am honestly trying to protect-"

"Did nothing of what happened over the last couple weeks make an impact!?" I quietly hissed. "Secrets never work!"

Shortly before calming down. I rubbed my forehead "Ugh, this place is setting me on edge. Sorry for snapping at you-"

"You're right, actually."

I jerked up.

The expression of deadly calm on Tybalt had evaporated, replaced by one of guilt. "I'm sorry, it's just that-there's nothing to be gained. It's not to keep you innocent, you've seen a bit too much for that pointless endeavor. It's more to control this rage, ignore the source of it."

He pointed his tail at a slightly ajar, stone-looking door painted with what appeared to be cytillesh as a makeshift emergency light. "But no point in hiding it from you, you deserve to know what we're up against. I warn you, however; nothing we have can take that memory."

I peeked in the door.

And immediately wished I hadn't.

Sweet merciful fuck.

"I know them," I murmured, resting against a steam pipe. "I know them."

"From what I saw of your memories, those would be the surviving members of the parahuman drug runners, yes?" Tybalt sat over in a cooler spot. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what occurred. Even the average kalite does not deserve...that."

"Their hearts were beating," I continued to murmur, still not fully registering. "I could see their hearts, and they were beating…"

I blinked, shaking my head. "I could have saved them. If I secured them properly, if I got them to the car before Chimaera came along, if I looked…"

I didn't have the monarch pin, but rubbing my fingers against each other seemed to work well enough to calm me down. "It's just...why would they?"

"I'm a hobbyist at the natural philosophy of biology, so I don't claim to know," Tybalt replied, shrugging. "But it does resemble a demented idea of a functioning cross section of biology, for the sake of examinations and experiment."

"But why were they separate…?"

I will admit, I had smelled some terrible things as the friendly neighborhood CSI aide. One serial killer, who was actually not the most disturbing sin-scent I had picked up, as his motives were rage and not sadism or sexual dominance. But this? This was the first time I had actually seen such horrible things rather than sniff the residue.

And the thing about residue was that I could cut off the info before I actually got into the nitty-gritty of something horrible. It wasn't too hard to clamp the Medusas' mouths shut even without the helmet.

Not here. Here is where I couldn't help but not only look at that room, but smell it.

Among many other scents, all of them detached and almost without sadism, there was not a hint of actual murder, despite everything

How could people-any people, alien or otherwise-be so cold?

If what I heard about Bonesaw was right, at least she didn't seem to really understand the concept of right and wrong. This? This was simple callousness, the desire to see the ultimate vivisection and study it over time.

And they planned that for us, I was sure of it.

Holy shit…

Slowly, I felt my wits return to me. First thought was slight recrimination I exposed the chemicals in the reagents to heat, but that couldn't be helped. Besides potions didn't really depend on precise science to be made the way you wanted them. Just internal magic logic.

The next thought was wondering what the hell I was doing here.

These people were dangerous. Not perhaps on the level of the aforementioned Slaughterhouse 9, but a significant portion of people in the Birdcage weren't. Dangerous, entrenched, and psychotic. I, on other hand, was a Ward for not even six months, without her weapons and small, ungainly armor.

For the first time, I began to think about escape, to help the Protectorate get here with a lot more resources and reinforcements. Probably was the smarter option, less lethal for all of us.

...Except that would take longer.

And I doubted Thoregg was the only guard. They'd notice, and then possibly decide to evacuate. Once that happened, who would be both soulless and in their right mind to take useless hostages with them?

Slowly, I started to weave through the steam pipes again, careful to not damage the reagents. My friends came first.

Apparently, I was the lucky one. As in, I suspected whatever mechanism of the Azrai neurons caused me to completely ignore the dangerous effects of toxins was the only reason I wasn't in the sorry state Vista was in.

"Spinn-ing...spinn-ing…"

What did they do to her?

"Not just a toxin," I thought, aloud. quietly brewing the new potion I would need in a row of unused cells. "First subject for experiments."

"Thought Ms. Vista was lying when she said she couldn't heal them, or she got caught trying to escape," Tybalt guessed. "Curative?"

"Way ahead of you."

The time to brew wasn't actually that long; around fifteen minutes, if I remembered the time used with packaged and pre-prepped ingredients from Cordy's lessons. Felt like it took three times as long, and might even have, given how I was constantly checking for guards, despite Tybalt's sentry duties.

Eventually though, the distinctive red began to float to the surface. Quickly spooning it into a vial, I stamped out the scrap fire, and began to sneak back to Vista's cell.

"All hail...all hail Mr Squid…clever Mr. Squid..."

"Missy?"

Thankfully, whatever the derro were doing didn't seem to have completely divorced her from reality. My teammate jolted upwards, blearily.

"T...Taylor? Your face is...weird…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I muttered, sizzling through the cage. "Something in the food."

"Cytillesh...right?"

"Yeah, that. Hallucinogen, nothing you see is real. Everything's going to be okay..."

"You gotta get out...this chair…"

"Ssh, ssh, it's okay. It's going to be all right, just as soon as I...there."

And with that, I bent the bars out of the way. Before long, I was trying to knead the dual dose of anti-cytillesh and curative down her throat.

Slowly, a more healthy pall came back to Vista's skin, and her eyes refocused, turning awake and alert.

Then she tackled me.

I was almost too shocked to register the quiet, scared whimpering of my teammate.

And in that moment, I understood perfectly what had set off my familiar.

I returned the hug, just as strongly, while Tybalt attempted to worm in and help.

Slowly, the shuddering stopped, and Vista looked up, with glistening eyes.

"Talk about it later?"

She nodded.

"Good. We just need to find the other words, and then we'll get out of here. Okay?"

"'Kay."

"Great."

And hopefully, I thought, we could kill a few of these bastards on the way out.

A/N: Holy crap this took a long time to get out.

Both because of college, and the subject matter. Handling being prisoners tastefully is hard.