Do apologize for such a long wait, please know that I'm trying my best right now to get things working again. Been a rough new year, as it has been for most of us, so all I ask is just a bit of patience and fingers crossed things'll start coming out quicker for ya'll.

Anyways, short and sweet today. Surprised anything actually came out at all in honestly but this is the best I can do ya'll right now.

Rusty and squealing hinges echoed around the damp and darkened room, the bit of light that had seeped through when the door had been edged open getting quickly snuffed out once the heavy door was closed again. Only for a bright flash of light to fill the room more properly, causing Bryan to flinch and shut his tired eyes from the cot he'd been sleeping on.

Keeping his back against the door, Ray pulled his arms around himself as Tala stepped up to the cell bars that separated them and Bryan. Tala putting both hands to the cold metal, biting into his lower lip some as he and Bryan just stared at one another from opposite ends.

Like he'd promised, Ray was letting Tala have his time with him, but it wasn't without worry and concern. Nor did it stop the anger he felt rising in him even with Bryan behind bars, or the welt he could see on the side of his face where he'd punched him the day before.

Since they woke up that morning, it was all Ray had on his mind while trying to make it as painless as possible for all involved. Mariah was left back at the house with Kain for the time being, and even if Tala had wanted to come and see Bryan he currently had no words for him now they were face to face like this.

As if he couldn't keep his own weight up, Tala slid down to the floor while keeping his hold on the bars of Bryan's cell till he was on the cold ground. His head slowly moving side to side, but still no words came out of him as he sat there.

Inside the cell, Bryan swallowed hard but remained where he sat on the small cot as he watched Tala collapse to the floor. Not even able to form his own words at the moment for him, having already said all he really needed to back on the helicopter. Part of him was expecting a verbal lashing from Tala, for him to hit the iron bars or just snap in general. He hadn't expected him to do what he did, and the silence that encompassed them was more than he could bear.

"I'm sorry…" He finally breathed out, hanging his head.

Tala shook his own back again, sorry didn't fix any of this and they all knew that. What he wanted from this exactly, he wasn't even sure now himself. Even if he'd gone to begging and pleading with Ray that morning to let him come in and see Bryan, it was starting to slowly sink in that this had been a bad decision.

He couldn't handle looking the best friend he'd known all his life behind those bars like this, not when it just brought on the memories of their times back in the Abbey. Not when his best friend had the ways and means to keep Kai and everyone else from getting caught up in the shit storm that had now grown too big they couldn't contain it anymore.

"I can still help." Bryan chanced to speak again, lifting his head a little and focused only on Tala as if Ray wasn't there at all.

"Let me out, let me reset that chip and help you." He near enough begged.

Ray's mouth opened as his muscles tensed, though Tala was up on his feet quickly as he slammed the palm of his hand against the iron bars.

"You had your chance to help!" He screamed out at him, "You had every chance available to you, and look where you got yourself!"

"I told you why I couldn't say anything, what more do you want from me?" Bryan argued back at him, not looking fazed by Tala's outburst. Deep down he knew it had only been a matter of time before he exploded, not that Bryan blamed him for it either.

Tala's mouth shut on him quickly, grinding his teeth as his own muscles began to tighten. Wrapping his fingers around the bars as he began to shake, eyes narrowing as they locked onto Bryan between the bars.

There really wasn't anything Bryan could do to make this right, so what did he want from him? He wasn't even sure now, once more realizing this had been a mistake to even come at all.

Jerking himself away from the cell with a growl, Tala pivoted on his heels as Ray stepped away from the door and let him through. The rusty hinges squealing again as Tala threw the heavy door open, only for it to slam shut behind him.

Once he was gone, Bryan ran a hand down his face with an audible sigh. Eyes darting up to Ray as he came closer to the call but didn't do what Tala had and continued to stand with his arms around himself.

"What?" He spat out, letting his hand drop into his lap.

Ray scoffed at the tone he was getting, though remained standing where he was as they stared one another down.

A growl tore through Bryan's throat, "What? You come to gloat or something? The hell you want?!" He snapped.

"Nothing." Ray answered in a neutral tone, fighting down the smirk.

"Then get the hell out, unless you plan on just letting me go."

"And why would I do that?" Ray questioned in his neutral tone, head tilting slightly at the other.

Another growl tore out of Bryan's throat as he snarled at Ray, though for whatever reason continued to keep their eyes locked.

"Tell me about this chip, what can we do to override it." Ray finally spoke.

"You can't. Only I can." Bryan scoffed back, "And it's going to be pretty damn hard for me to do anything in here." He gestured to the cell he was stuck in.

"So, let me go. Otherwise, you'll all just be sitting ducks waiting for the end to come and bite you in the ass."

"As if it already hasn't done that." Ray rolled his eyes, "All thanks to you, too."

"I did what I thought was right! I added to your numbers, if anything, but you can't blame me for her taking Kai!" Bryan shouted back, his fist slamming into the cot he was sitting on.

"I didn't know that was her goal, or Kain, but it's too late now. So instead of having this pissing contest with me, why don't you do something about it. Director." He sneered out the name.

"And that's exactly what I've been trying to do! Yet here you are breaching my database and putting everyone we know in danger! Don't tell me it was just to help our numbers; you did this for yourself and only for yourself! Everyone from the Abbey but you had been Fused, and you just couldn't handle that. Could you?" Ray bit back with his own sneer, feeling a small stab of victory as Bryan jerked his head away from him as if he hit the nail on the head.

"Now, we're fixing to lose more than just Kai. You realize that, right?!" His voice rose, it echoing off the damp walls around them.

Bryan's head snapped back towards him, jumping off the cot and stomping towards the bars with his fists clenched at his sides.

"You think you're the only one whose lost things during this? I lost my best friend to this long before you were even going and sticking your dick up his ass! So don't stand there and act like you've lost anything here!" He roared out in Ray's face, the bars the only things keeping them separated.

"You think you're one of us, just because you went through it too, but you're far from anything like us. You think you know them, tsch, you barely know the surface of who they are." He mocked, liking the way Ray's pupils slit and could hear the crack of thunder roaring outside.

With all the hair standing on Ray's body, his own teeth grinding, he tore himself away from the cell and back for the door. There wasn't a point in keeping this going any longer, he'd let Bryan sit in there for as long as he wanted and not feel a damn bit of guilt for it.

"In the end." Bryan started in a more casual tone, halting Ray the moment he clasped the handle to the heavy door to leave.

"You're really no better than her or Boris, with your little army that you've gone and built up over the years here. But, you go ahead and keep telling yourself that you're different. If it helps you sleep at night and all, even when your hands are just as soaked in as much blood as theirs."

Something snapped in Ray the moment Bryan had finished talking, an almost pained cry coming out of him as his hand came off the handle and he spun around. The hairs on his body standing up higher to the point they almost hurt, while the room filled with the sounds of loud cracking.

Before either of them could blink, several thin bolts of green lightning shot through Ray's hand and wrapped around the bars of the cell after tearing against the stone ground. The metal sparking as the lightning bounced around it, the cracking getting louder as it began to smoke and forced Bryan to jump away from the bars with his eyes blown open wide.

Panting for air, his own eyes wide, Ray lowered his arm that tingled and burned down to his side as his muscles twitched. Watching the thin bolts of green lightning spark between the bars some more before they slowly faded out with a hiss, the ground marred by what looked like a burn mark from where it had hit. Though he had no words for what had just happened, nor did he understand why it had.

Trying to gather himself up as he felt his head getting light, he turned back for the door and used his opposite hand to grab the handle and let himself out. Bryan reduced to a stunned silence, watching him almost trip out of the room before the door slammed behind him, noticing the small pool of blood on the ground beside where Ray had been standing until the lights went back out and threw the room into pitch black darkness.

Leaning against the wall with his shoulder to keep himself from falling face first onto the stone flooring, Ray panted heavier as if he couldn't breathe. His vision beginning to go blurry as his feet started to drag as he kept pushing to go forward. His stomach began to cramp, making him hiss and pause against the wall with his back as he put a hand to it and tried to apply some type of pressure against it to make it stop.

The moment he felt something wet seep through his shirt he pulled his hand away, turning it over and weakly staring at the skin all along his palm that had split open as each cut steadily oozed blood around the bigger slit in the center of his hand that was bleeding faster and pooling inside itself.

"Shit…" He hissed again at it, shoving his back off the wall and taking a step forward only for his knees to buckle out from under him where his body smacked into the hard ground with a sickening thud as his skull cracked against it and everything went dark and numb.

Jolting awake, frightened, and bleary crimson eyes frantically bounced around as they tried to focus on what was around him while his brain tried to piece together the jigsaw of where he was and why.

Having been startled awake by the jab of a needle in his arm, his heavy head lulled to the right of him where familiar brown hair and round glasses greeted him as the man in the lab coat injected him with whatever was in the vial through the crease in his arm.

"C-Chief?" Kai asked in a shaky voice through the mask that had been fitted over his mouth and nose.

"Shhh." Kenny shushed, carefully pulling the needle out of Kai's skin as tiny droplets of blood seeped out of the even tinier hole he'd made from the needle point only for the hole to close itself up and stop the flow of blood.

"This is going to help with the pain, okay?" Kenny whispered to him, though refused to look at him as he kept his head down.

"I don't… I thought she killed you…" Kai managed to get out as all he could do was stare beside him where Kenny stood next to the metal table he'd been strapped to.

But he couldn't even remember why he thought she killed him, or what prompted him to even say such a thing. Had Kenny been in danger?

Kenny shook his head slowly at him, "I'm sorry… I couldn't stop her from getting Kain…"

"He's safe." Kai said quickly, though part of him wondered why he'd gone and said that at all again.

Who was Kain? And why did he feel a sense of relief that he was safe even if he didn't know him? It was as if there was a fog in his head, making it heavy and weighed down while only small bits and pieces of who he was dully shone through. Which seemed even more odd since he recognized Kenny right away, but this Kain person… There wasn't a face to go with the name.

"What is she having you do?" Kai asked quietly since Kenny had been whispering to him.

Kenny shook his head again, "Not now. I'll have to tell you another time, but we're fixing to put you back under. Okay?"

"Back under?" Kai rose a brow, the fog only getting denser in his head.

What the hell was going on?!

This time Kenny nodded, looking up at him finally with a wobbly frown on his face. "I'm really sorry about this, Kai. Please forgive me…" He choked out.

Kai just stared at him, confusion written all over his face and even more so when Kenny hurriedly took his leave away from him.

Pointlessly he jerked at the restraints holding his wrists and ankles down, the metal rattling but not budging an inch even when he started to thrash harder.

"I wouldn't do that; you'll just tire yourself out." A sickeningly sweet, and familiar voice chided from across the room.

Kai's eyes snapped up as his thrashing died down, locking onto another set of crimson eyes that seemed to be smirking back at him even if the woman's face remained placid.

Through all the fog that had made itself home in his head, he recognized her and hated her with every fiber of his being.

"Ready for another round?" Anette cooed in that same sweet tone of hers.

"What're you doing to me?" Kai demanded in a growl, his fists clenching against the metal of the table he was laying on.

"Oh? You don't remember?" Anette seemed to mock, "That's good." She smiled at him, and it sent an uncomfortable chill to run down his spine.

It was all too fuzzy, everything seemed to be, so no he didn't remember why he was there. All he remembered was her, a few off and on faces with names but they didn't seem to connect to the faces he kept picturing the way he felt they needed to.

There were even smaller bits and pieces of who he was. Sure, he knew his name but beyond that he wasn't even sure who he really was. Was he the CEO of a giant mega-corporation, or was he some kind of government spy that killed people?

There were two separate pieces and neither wanted to align right in his head, and as far back as he could reach there was another piece that he could hardly see much less grab hold to try and place together with the rest of the broken up jigsaw.

"Well then…" Anette's voice slithered into his ears again, "Nighty night, Kai."

The mask that was on his face began to fog up, forcing him to breathe in whatever it was without a way to stop it. He thrashed around again against his restraints, making the IV in his other arm pull and sting while his already cloudy and heavy head began to get even more so until the thrashing died back down, and he looked to be asleep.

With a dull pain throbbing in the side of his head, Ray carefully pushed himself to sit up on the bed he suddenly found himself laying on. Blinking a little to get his vision clear, taking in the bedroom of his home back in the village as the events of what transpired came back to him.

Quickly he pulled his hand up to inspect it, only to find it having been wrapped with bandages that had soaked up some of the blood and dried on the cloth.

"Don't move too fast."

Though even with the warning, Ray's head snapped around to face Tala coming into the room with a plate of food and a glass of water for him.

"What happened?" Ray asked him as he watched Tala step around the bed, setting what he'd been carrying onto the side table by the bed before sitting down beside him.

"We found you knocked out cold back at the prison, your hand was bleeding, and all cut up. You got a bit of a good cut on your head too, but Spence came in and patched you up." Tala explained, his worried blue eyes scanning over Ray as if he was expecting to see something else wrong with him.

"Why don't you tell me what happened, hm?" He urged.

Bryan hadn't said a word to anybody who had come in and asked him, so they were left with grasping at straws as to what happened for them to have found Ray passed out in the hall bleeding.

"I…" Ray stuttered as he closed his bandaged hand and stared at it as if he was having a hard time trying to remember exactly what had happened, though the memory was clear as day as to what had happened but was still left with wondering how it even happened to begin with.

"I can harness his powers now…" He explained in a whisper, as if he was afraid of saying it out loud.

"You mean… You shot lightning out of your hand?" Tala pressed, his eyes going from concerned to wide while Ray nodded beside him.

"Do you have an idea why? You've had him for years now, why now?!"

"I don't know…" Ray shook his head back, "I just can." He shrugged his shoulders a little.

In truth he really didn't know why this was suddenly happening, it never had before and if he was being completely honest he was almost terrified of it happening.

"What if… What if I'm starting to lose control?" He asked in another whisper as his voice wobbled, "What if I'm going to go Savage?"

Tala jolted slightly where he sat, throwing his arm around Ray's shoulders, and brought him up to his side where he put his chin down on the top of Ray's head.

"No, that's not gonna happen. Okay? You're going to be fine. Once everyone else gets here and Emily can set up a lab we'll get you tested, get it checked out. I'm sure it's nothing, you're just a late bloomer is all." He tried to comfort, though felt like a block of ice had slipped down his throat as he began to worry himself.

What if Ray was fixing to lose control? The possibility had always been there, for anyone who went through the Fusion process. Kai had lost control back in Orlando because of Black Dranzer, along with the intensity of the situation they had been thrown into.

For Ray, although he didn't have an extra bitbeast fused into him, he'd been stressed and running on empty for days now. At this point in time, it'd be easy for Ray to simply lose control going the way he was right now. And Tala didn't have a clue on how to stop it from happening, or even if he could.

"It's going to be okay… Alright? I promise." Tala soothed, running his hands down through Ray's hair and back as he held him a bit tighter.

He couldn't lose both of them, not like this, he didn't know what he'd do if he did.