Jake woke with his entire head pounding like the beat of a drum. He blinked slowly, reaching his hand to find where Dirk was. He covered his face with his hand, still blindly searching for him. Did he sleep in his own apartment last night? They hadn't done that in a while. The night before was such a blur, the blaring music and neon flashes. Not finding him he slowly cracked open both of his eyes, shutting them immediately. Was this what Dirk felt like when he didn't have his glasses? The hand now found his own glasses, sliding them onto his nose and he groaned sitting up, feeling like he was leaving half of his brain behind with the movement. "Bloody hell…" He murmured, sitting up only to have his head go face first into his legs. His head felt terrible as the rest of them. It took him a few moments for him to struggle up, glancing at aspirin and water on the bedside along with a bucket. His throat didn't feel sore so he assumed he managed to keep it all the alcohol down. That was a miracle in itself, he felt along the wall, heading toward Dirk's apartment to see if he was doing alright. He stopped short at the girls in the hallway. He frowned at their expressions. Jane was worried and upset; Roxy's was the same, though it had lines of anger on it.

"Morning… why the gloomy faces…?" He asked softly, the sound of his voice breaking the silence though he felt like it shouldn't have been interrupted. Jane bit her lip before going forward, "Jake… do you remember anything from last night?" She asked gently as Roxy turned her head completely away from him, as if she couldn't look at him in the eye. Jake straightened, blinking a bit. It was hazy; a blur still like it had been when he woke up. "We went to a club and we partied, was there something I missed?" He asked, brows raised and glancing at Dirk's door that was shut tight. Jane bit her lip, "Jake…" She looked at Roxy for aid, though she was entirely no help being still tight lipped with arms crossed leaning against her door. "Dirk is missing." Jane sighed and Jake blinked, a full thirty seconds pause before he laughed, "Had me going there for a moment, Jane. Golly, know how to scare a fellow." He walked up to Dirk's door and walked into the room, Jane following him and Roxy coming as well. Jake walked into the apartment to see nothing had been touched, "Dirk?" He called, opening up the bedroom to find it empty. He turned around after another pause, eyes resting on the girls. Roxy looked to the point of tears again, Jane just looked tired. "You…what?"

Jane swallowed, "Last night… you were drunk. Really drunk, and you said some things to him that…" She poked her fingers together and Jake shook his head, "Jane, just tell me! What's happened- where is Dirk?!" Roxy stepped in finally, "You basically told him everything that he's scared of hearing from you." She was back to angry again emotional wise, "You didn't believe he was depressed, you hated him and didn't love him, you were yelling about your sex lives to everyone at the bar and now Dirk is gone!" She was crying now, shaking her fist at him, "He hasn't had his medicine in two days and we can't find him and you- you act like we're joking?! How could you say that to him!? Even drunk, I thought you loved him enough to take care of him!" Jake worked his mouth but no sound came out, eyes wide with fear before shaking his head, "I don't remember any of that- I wouldn't- I-…" He swallowed, "What about his cellphone? Can you track him?" What had he done- gotten so drunk he was just picking on people and Dirk got the blunt of it? "Oh god, Dirk- Dirk-" His name repeated in his head. Jane took out a dirty orange cased phone from her skirt's pocket. "Roxy went back to the club to look for him but this was all that was left." Roxy had to step out for a moment at that, consumed with worry and guilt she hadn't stayed to look for him.

Jake took the phone in his hands, feeling his own press into his thigh before taking it out. "Maybe he sent me-" He typed in his lock code, only to see a text message from Dirk. Relief flooded his chest for a moment before he opened it, which new dread just took its place a second later. 'Break my heart once, shame on me. Break my heart twice, shame on you.' Jake stared at it while Jane looked down at the carpeting of Dirk's apartment. He looked at the picture of the man and Dirk, feeling his heart sink down. The man knew he'd fucked up badly this time… there wasn't a way of coming back from this. "He's not missing… he found someone else." He whispered, locking the phone. "I deserve that. After what Roxy said I shouted at him… he deserves to have someone else." Jane shook her head, "Jake, what if he's in trouble. He wouldn't have just dropped his phone like that. He doesn't have his medication either-" The taller swallowed, "It was dark and we were all drunk, he'll… he'll probably come back for it." He plugged it into Dirk's charger cord before sitting down on the steps leading into the living room of the apartment. A little dumbstruck at all of this information. The mix of a hangover, being dumped for a damn good reason and realizing that he'd probably just lost the love of his life… suddenly hit him very hard. He looked at his own phone again, his brain noting that Dirk didn't smile in this picture, but noticed the way the other man had his hand on Dirk's side. "He left me."

xXx

His head knocked painfully into the opposite end of the cage's opening. Granted, he had probably deserved that in some weird, twisted sense since he had just bitten Nathanial quite hard on the hand. Leave him in an ice bath for nearly two days without any food and he'd find out how much a Strider could kick ass- even with a large wound on his back that near made him crippled. Dirk blinked, the lighting was darker in here- wherever here was. The smell was repugnant and gagged him a bit. His eyes adjusted slowly to the new lighting and more of the room became clearer. He was in a cage. Not tall enough for him to stand in, but enough for him to be on his knees. It was wide enough to lay down in as well- a dog kennel, just like the one they had in Jane's apartment for Bec. He winced, trying to push himself up off the grimy floor- just what he needed in a wound. Dirk hissed, pushing himself up, one arm curling toward him to relieve some of the pressure on that side of his body.

"You were naughty, Dirk. Now you have to be in time out. Didn't I give you a bath? Didn't I take care of you? Then you go and bite me? That's just not going to fly." Nathanial hit the cage with a crowbar that caused Dirk to swallow. He knew that would leave a nasty bruise if it ever hit him. "An hour in the cage and then I'll let you go play with the others." Dirk frowned at the comment, not answering him. "This sick bastard has others trapped here?" His eyes wandered again as Nathan retreated toward a steel door. They were underground somewhere judging by the concrete walls, the steel doors might have been from some sort of subway. Dirk swallowed again, thirst starting to become more than a nag in the back of his mind. He caught a glimpse of what was behind the door and immediately felt frozen. He saw glass jars of red liquid. Of what, he couldn't see very well. His distance vision sucked- hence one of the many reasons he used swords and not more practical weapons like guns. While Nathanial was gone he leaned back, blond hair touching the top of the cage. His left arm curled around his chest as the other hand tested the door quietly. Escape was still top spot on his priority list.

The door didn't budge and he leaned down to exam the lock. It was well made, and would be impossible to break open with force… maybe a lock pick? He looked around the cage floor, hand running against the dark sticky surface. "Gross." He murmured as his hand hit something fleshy and he shivered, feeling sick suddenly but ignored it for now. Throwing up was not going to do him any good, especially wrenching when he was sown up like a voodoo doll. Dirk found something sharp and let a smile grace his features- finally some good luck in Hell. He pulled it up to look out at it and nearly dropped it for a moment. A bone splinter lay in his hand. It was human from the size and it made him sicker on his stomach than he already was. The man brushed his hand through his hair worriedly before going to the door. He'd only picked a lock maybe once or twice in his life- neither of them having good outcomes. Dirk slid the sharp end into the front of the lock, eyes staring blankly ahead of him in order to feel the inside of the metal piece. All Striders, even Dave when he had known him, had very sensitive hands and fingertips. A part of him realized that only he and Jake knew that now. The Dave that had raised him was long sense dead with Rose, John and Jade… They would be born again, of course, but at the same time, it suddenly made Dirk scared.

What if he wasn't there? What if Dave was sent back from the cosmos super frog or whatever made the 'fate' decisions now and he was still in this cage? What if he didn't… True, his older brother hadn't been there- but honestly was that even his fault when in Dirk's timeline there was a dictator trying to take over the galaxy that Dave fought bravely against and lost his life to? Dirk used to not understand that, but after playing the game, he understood perfectly. Sometimes the good of the many really did out way the good of the few. The younger Dave he had met inside the game had been alright he supposed and still broken up about his own brother's death. "What if I'm dead before he even is born?" Dirk swallowed, resting his forehead on the cage door for a moment. He was being held prisoner by a psychopath that took organs for shits and giggles and he was locked in a cage that he couldn't get the door open to. If things got grimmer he wasn't sure what he'd do… "Where are you when I need you, Jake?" He sighed and started working on the lock again. Dirk had never even known what color his brother's eyes were. If he was normal living in a damn concrete box in the middle of the fucking ocean… He was alone then, he was alone now, and he was the only person who was going to help himself out of this mess. He had to be there for his little brother- for Roxy to make sure that she stayed sober- to make sure Jane didn't burn the damn fish and to kick Jake in the nards so hard he would yodel for a month.

The new found inspiration was enough for him to hope, and thus keep picking at the lock until it opened with a clink. He let out a happy, yet startled breath crawling out of the cage, fingernails getting grim underneath them but he didn't care. He had little time and he wasn't going to waste a damn moment of it. He held his side, limping out of the door he'd been dragged through earlier. Dirk could still see the water mark he'd left behind when Nathanial dragged him. Thankfully he wasn't naked anymore, just in gray scrubs that looked like a mental patient had once used. Dirk put a hand on the wall to steady himself as he moved quickly down the hall, breath coming a bit fast. His side and back burned like they were on fire and someone was just pouring salt in the wounds. He gritted his teeth, pushing on with the bone shard scraping the wall a little still in his hand. The place was like a maze, long corridors that looked the same. Dirk whispered in his own mind, afraid to break the silence with his voice, "Right… Left… Right… Right… Left…" If anyone had seen Dirk when he saw a red exit sign, they would have thought he was pathetic that he almost broke down. After nothing but identical hallways, to see a legitimately glowing red sign that said 'Exit' on it nearly made him cry. He let out a rigid breath before struggling toward it.

He heard Nathanial before he saw him. Felt him before he saw him too. Dirk's eyes were still locked on the door when something hard and heavy smacked into his arm, breaking it. He let out a scream of pain, the bone shard dropping. "How dare you! Don't I- Don't I take care of you?! Don't I give you everything you want?!" Nathanial screamed and raised a rubber mallet over his head, Dirk's eyes widened and he rolled. It slammed into the concrete and was raised again. It wasn't the first time he had a broken bone. The time when he was younger that he broke his hand by getting it caught in a robot's chest case and with no one else around he had to search how to mend a broken bone on his own. His hand still didn't have feeling in the last two fingers. Dirk knew he couldn't fight him with wound and a broken arm, so he rolled out of the way of the mallet again, it stuck in the ground and Dirk made a break for the door. Nathanial got him around the collar, smacking him into the concrete wall. He hissed, biting and clawing at him with his other arm. His body screamed in pain but so did he. Dirk had always been known to be a dirty fighter when he sparred with the others; he was also known to be much worse when he was backed into a corner. He bit Nathanial on the shoulder, scratching him on the side of the face hard enough to make him bleed. Nathan hit him across the face heard enough to disorient him for a moment before he was moving out of his grip to get to the door again. Dirk reached for the door and fingers barely scraped the door knob before the mallet connected with the back of his head and he went into darkness.