I honestly don't remember much about how I first came to find myself in that cell. I was so confused and my memory was such a jumble that I just didn't understand where I was or what was going on. It was as if I was disconnected from everything somehow, including my own body. I'm not sure I know the words to describe it better, but my very first recollection upon awakening in Michael's custody was the sudden sensation that I was cold and drowning.
My initial disorientation was almost gone, and I struggled to hold my breath against the tickling sensation in my sinuses and clawed at the water with all my strength. After reaching the surface, I took in deep breaths of air between fits of coughing, straining to reach the water's edge just a few meters away. I dragged myself out of the water and onto the narrow shore, hardly even noticing the figure approaching me in the dark.
The sound of my coughing echoed eerily. I was not lying on a dark beach as I had first thought, but on a rocky ledge in a cave that contained an underground lake. As I peered into the darkness with confusion, wondering where I was, I heard a familiar voice laugh at me. "I had a feeling that would finally wake you up."
Michael. A shiver crawled up my spine at the realization that I was his prisoner... again? Still? Hadn't I just been strapped to a gurney in a medical tent at that place we'd intended to strand him and the other former Wraith? How had he managed to take me from there to wherever I was now without me knowing? I could not hope to hide the horror that I'm sure was plain to see on my face, but I swallowed hard and tried to force myself to stand, despite my unsteady legs. "Where am I? How did I get here? What do you want with me?"
He leered at me, baring his pointed teeth, and moved through a beam of light emanating from a corridor connected to the cave. I shuddered at the sight of his misshapen and discolored face while he circled me slowly. "You were brought here because your knowledge and experience as a geneticist may be of use to me in my research."
I wanted to laugh in his face, but some irrational part of my mind felt too frightened to comply. "You can't possibly be so deluded as to believe that I would ever willingly help you!"
He was quick to become angry. Grabbing me by the neck, he lifted me up bodily from the ground, choking me. "You are alive right now only because I went through the trouble of keeping you that way, Doctor." He dropped me carelessly and continued. "The way I see it, you owe me for keeping you safe. And I owe you for how you betrayed and mutilated me with your retrovirus. You will assist me with my research, willing or not."
I'd barely had enough time to catch my breath when he forcibly hauled me through the corridor. I dragged my heels and struck at his arms hoping that I might get an opportunity to make a run for it, but he was amazingly strong. Nothing I tried dislodged his vice-like grip on me. I was almost desperate enough to try biting him when I was suddenly and unceremoniously dumped onto the floor in a room filled with a plethora of laboratory equipment. Most was Wraith in design, but some looked like it'd been stolen, and some I did not recognize at all. My jaw dropped. Was this laboratory for me? Was he really serious about forcing me to help him with his research?
"Welcome to my laboratory." He toured the room as if to inspect the equipment, then glared at me when I didn't dutifully follow. "This is where you will work when I tell you to work. You will rest when I tell you to rest, and you will eat when I tell you to eat."
"Like hell I will."
His expression turned cruel and his face seemed to form a persistent frown while he took a few moments to ponder my response. Perhaps he was trying to decide if I was bluffing, and I began to wonder then myself. Would I eventually feel compelled to capitulate to his demands if he decided to torture me? I didn't want to die of course, but I don't think could live with myself if it meant that my knowledge would be used to kill others in my place. No! I won't do it! No one will die because I was weak!
If he still had the Wraith ability to read my mind to any extent at all, he already knew that I was determined to resist him. Without another word, he opened the door to a prison cell adjoined with the hallway just outside the lab, tossed me inside, and gave me one last furious glare before he walked away.