Dirk winced as he cut his hands on the glass again and again. Hal wasn't too far away, watching him with his Cal like red eyes. He broke the glass shard that Jenna had given him into smaller pieces. If he was going to escape, he was going to need a weapon. He snapped the glass shard into tiny pieces with sharpened edges, scraping them on the floor until they were pointed enough to cut his own flesh. He tested each and every one of them on his forearm, making sure it drew blood. Not out of self-harm, but for the certainty that it would break through the skin of who he was attacking. Hal offered no aid besides to stare blankly into the open space of the room. Dirk stood, wiping his hands on his grimy black pants- they had started out gray, or at least, he thought they had. The darkness surrounded him and was only lit by the glow of Hal's red chest plate- that flickered in and out of existence like he had once done in the game. He limped to the small cache he had gotten of wooden and metal pools. Jenna and he had tried to clean their 'living quarters' at one point, but it hadn't gotten much cleaner due the overall grim the place seemed to accumulate. Jenna had voiced that this room must have been some sort of storage for extra supplies since there were chemical stains that had been on the wall and a drain in the floor. Though neither of them knew exactly where they were, they could guess with all the make-shift torture devices that Nathanial kept around.

He searched through the small stack, trying to find something strong enough to hit someone with and not break, but something lightweight enough that he could use without too much difficulty in his weakened state. It wasn't like they hadn't searched through this before to find a weapon, but they were too weak to fight and there hadn't been anything at the time. Now he had nothing to lose and he had Hal bitching at him to fight Nathanial… which in some weird twisted sense, made perfect sense to him that Hal had come to annoy him in his last few hours before he did something really stupid. Dirk found two pieces that he could mend together… but the holding them together was going to be the hard part. He walked back to his horrifying glass art project on the floor and looked up at Hal. "Any bright ideas on what I can use to hold this all together?" His voice was still raspy; the lack of water was getting to him. Jenna and he would usually just fill whatever they had with water from a leaky pipe that ran along the ceiling… but since the shooting it had either been plugged with a bullet or it had bounced it back into place. He had impossible bad luck it seemed. More than likely because he was a breaking a piece of glass mirror.

Hal blinked slowly at him, "You're not stupid, Dirk." His glitching hand was held up and pointed at Jenna's corpse. Dirk frowned, and then looked back at him. "Absolutely not." He growled, "I'm not defacing her any more than what he's done to her." Hal cocked his head to the side, "How is surviving defacing someone? If she was still alive she would donate them to you- between telling you it was far too dangerous and you shouldn't fight your rapist and possible murderer soon enough." Dirk snarled at him, "Shut your mouth. She deserves more respect than that." Hal rose from his seat and walked over to him, picking up a shard of glass. "Why? By all my calculations, she is one of 104 people that have been trapped here over a near 70 year period. By the percentage of how many actually remember her, there is 4% chance that she will have anyone left by the time you leave- if you do… which only has a 12% chance of success."

Dirk lost it, swinging the stick wildly until his inside burnt with pain. Trying to hit Hal but didn't connect that he wasn't hitting anything at all, just air while Hal teleported away from him each swing. "Fuck you! Fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU!" He yelled and Hal blinked at him from across the room, head cocked to the side, "You don't even belong here! You didn't know what a good person she was! She didn't deserve to be down here- I do! You do! She was innocent! Do you fucking say a damn thing about Jenna! You and all your stupid calculations! Just leave me alone! I'm better alone! I've always been alone and if I was alone it would be me on that floor instead of her!" He was screaming until his voice was hoarse, palm of his hand going into his eyes where he felt liquid. Dirk immediately berated himself for wasting the moisture in his system. "Just… shut up, Hal…" He whispered into the darkness. Hal shut his mouth, eyes lowering to the floor. "But you're right… She would give them to me." Dirk whispered and rubbed his fist into his eye to rub away the shame he felt for crying-. Jenna was the one who deserved to cry. Her entire life was ripped from her. "Use that anger… and sorrow… against him, Dirk. You have fought since you were an infant… don't let that stop now." It was only Hal's voice now, and Dirk leaned his head back, holding his side with one hand. "Turn the light back on… I need to see what I'm doing." He whispered and Hal's chest plate flickered back on, only now Dirk noticed that the light made the shape of the Prince of Heart symbol. He couldn't help find that irony… to have a bad taste in his mouth.

The blond, more brunette with the dirt in his hair, crawled to Jenna. He looked over her, speaking soft words of apologies and promises. His shaking fingers started to undo the dirty bandaging around her arms. The smell gagged him, but he knew he had to use the material to bind the sticks together and the glass to the weapon- it was all he had to use. Hal watched him; head cocked to the side like he was calculating something while Dirk undid what was done to her. He could see how much skin Nathanial peeled from her- to sell as she said- and he wished upon whatever god was listening that he would have the chance to give the monster the most painful death imaginable. The bandages wrapped slowly around the sticks to make a sturdy club, then the glass pushed through to make it sharp at the end, promising to rip skin and blind if aimed correctly. Dirk let out a long breath, resting his head back against the bed. He was starving… thirsty too. "I still have that message… saved on my hard drive at the apartment in case you ever died." Hal's voice seemed almost less demeaning as he spoke. "The one explaining to Jake why you loved him. Why you had to die." Dirk sighed, "I realize what you're talking about. I'm dying, not a moron." He grunted and Hal chuckled, "Perhaps a bit of both… Do you regret anything?" There was a long pause in the silence. Dirk shut his eyes, "I regret not seeing Roxy be two years sober… I regret not tasting Jane's new pumpkin spice cake… I regret not seeing my brother's first steps, or hearing him call my name or taking him to school… I regret not seeing Jake grow old with me." His breath was labored so he swallowed, "I regret a lot of things." Another long paused before Hal whispered, "I'm sorry you had to die this way, Dirk."

There was dragging sound, and Dirk struggled to hide the weapon behind a pile of junk in the room. He managed before the door banged open for what seemed like the millionth time. Nathanial said familiar words to him. "I brought a friend for you." He whispered to Dirk, "A friend we can play with and start our own little family…" He ripped the bag off the girls head and Dirk nearly shut his eyes again. She was younger than him, maybe seventeen at the oldest. Scared out of her mind with one of her nearly fully dilated violet eyes missing- much like he had done to Dirk, Nathanial dropped her on the cold stone floor. "Play time, kiddies." He whispered, grabbing Jenna by her foot and dragging her out of the room all together. The door shut to darkness and the girl let out a shaking sob. Dirk swallowed, crawling his way over to her slowly, "Hey… hey…" He murmured and the girl's breath caught, as if she hadn't noticed him. His voice was gentle as he spoke to her, "My name is Dirk Strider… what's yours?" She quivered a few inches away from him, "R-Rachel- Rachel Gates…" Dirk smiled in the darkness, let out a low breath, "Nice to meet you." He swallowed, knowing he had to say something now. "Listen Rachel… I'm going to give you some advice that was given to me when I arrived here…" Dirk stared at where he heard her breathing and spoke the words he only now suddenly believed in. "Fight him. Fight that bastard whenever he comes in here. You're going to get out of here." He only did now… because he had something to fight for. He would not let Rachel become another Jenna. Nathanial would have to kill him before he would ever make another Jenna.