Buck listened to the sounds of water dripping onto miscellaneous pipes from the slick rocks above that made up the majority of the cave that this facility was built around. He steadied himself, focusing all of his attention on the audio around him, trying to get a feel for whether he was still being followed.

Nothing but silence and echoing drips awaited him.

Taking the moment to recuperate, he allowed the tension to leave his metallic frame. He had to come up with some sort of plan to get the rest of them out, as well as their Titans; but how? What chance did he have, wet, cold, and alone in this god-forsaken place?

He thought about his options. He could try to find a way out himself, but he'd be abandoning the others, as well as EV and the rest of the Titans to die. So that was a big no.

But if he tried to mount any rescue op, he'd more than likely be killed before making any real impact. The problem was that he had no firepower, no plan, and no help. He was hopelessly outnumbered-

He stopped his mind's progress for a moment, and thought about that again. Maybe, yes, he was outnumbered physically; but if he had some intel about this place, or someone else to talk to about getting the slightest advantage … he might have a chance.

He definitely couldn't go anywhere to get info; not only would he likely be caught, but on the off-chance that he wasn't, they would know what he was up to. So he'd have to settle for talking to someone else and hoping they had what he needed, and he knew who he wanted to talk to.

Problem was that his link with her was suppressed; he wasn't going to be able to get in touch with her unless he found out exactly what was doing the job. Some kind of very fine-tuned magnetic field might be enough to distort it a bit, but not enough to completely silence it. And it wasn't destroyed either, he could feel it in his mind; a door that just refused to open.

The only other thing he could think of was that there was something on him- more than likely in him- that was rejecting the connection. Light surgical implants would be handled easily enough for the human Pilots, but a Simulacrum would need to have something like that wedged deep into their inner workings. And there weren't any tools around that he could use to pry himself open, especially not in such a place where he might have to run at a moment' notice.

So … there was really only one option left to him, and it was going to have quite the brutal result if he messed it up. Doing one last look around to ensure that no other search parties of drones were nearby, he allowed himself to phase shift.

Now, he still sat on the same pipe he'd been situated on, but the world was an inferno of black and white waviness once more. He looked down at his own form, somewhat translucent like the rest of his surroundings, and quickly analyzed it for anomalies. If there was something there that wasn't supposed to be there, he'd be able to pinpoint it-

There. He saw a small foreign object, disc-like in appearance and tiny enough to be hidden, lodged in the crevices of his chest cavity. The humans would need to have their implants pretty close to their brain, either in the neck or actually in the skull itself, but he didn't have the problem of a physical neurological anchor anymore. His important systems were all in his torso, nothing more than the artificial nervous system actually connected to his head.

So long as that thing was there, escape was impossible. He knew the risk of doing this, but there wasn't really anything else that could be done; this was the only path forward.

Steadying his nerves, he plunged his hand into his chest.

There wasn't much resistance to be had, probably due to the much thinner casing of his frame compared to the thick glass that had made up the capsule. Still, it was unpleasant; a feeling like cold mercury ignited wherever his hand moved, and the thought of coming out of phase with his hand still in his chest was enough to make him anxious.

Fortunately, he was able to get a good grip on the disc inside and wasted no time in pulling both it and his arm back out before returning to the physical realm.

Upon popping back into reality, he was able to get a better look at the thing; it appeared flat at first, no more than a small coin-shaped object, but with closer inspection he was able to see miniature teeth that wrapped around the perimeter of it and allowed it to attach itself to whatever it needed to as an avoidance to becoming dislodged.

With disgust in his grip, he crushed the thing and threw the particles into the chasm.

As soon as the disc was destroyed, he jolted in shock as his mind enjoyed a rushing sensation he hadn't felt in years; one of a neurological link being reestablished. And on the other end … he could feel her again.

Apparently, she felt the same thing because it wasn't a moment later that he heard a tentative voice quietly ask, … Cedric?

He felt his chest rise with excitement at hearing the North Star's voice again. "Yeah, Eve. It's me."

But, how? They informed us that you-

"I escaped from their damn game, or whatever they call it. 'Live Fire,' I think they call it. Right now, I'm hiding out in the cave system and I managed to rip the link-suppressor out of me."

EV wasn't one to waste time when action was required. Understood. What's the plan?

He was grateful for her focus on the task at hand. "It all comes down to us; if we don't do something, all the other Pilots are going to die. We need to figure out a way to break them out, as well as free you and the other Titans from wherever you're being held."

I am unable to assist physically, at least until you release us. She gave a thoughtful hum. But perhaps I can be of some assistance in other ways.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he muttered. "What've you got?"

The other Titans and I are being kept in a large chamber not too different in size from the Titan storage barracks aboard frigates. Whenever a Pilot is killed, their corresponding Titan is taken and destroyed. We are unable to escape due to both short-range disruptors installed on our chassises, as well as the fear of dooming our Pilot should we attempt to do so.

"Alright, disruptors on your bodies. Got it. Don't know how we'd get them off, if we even had the time to do it while-"

The monitoring room they use to keep tabs on us is nearby. Within should be the control matrix for the disruptors, as well as minor access to other systems. We've made very small attempts to backtrack through the signal and reverse the process so that we can access the control matrix's intel. From the little we've been able to gather, there should be an armament within half a klick of this chamber; one that the control room can grant you entry to.

Now they were getting somewhere. "Alright, weapons' cache nearby; need to get into that control room to access it, as well as kill the disruptors attached to you guys." He mulled that over for a moment. "How many Pilots are there?"

When we first arrived, there were around three-hundred Titans, and I assume all of them had Pilots.

Holy shit. That was a much bigger number than he'd been anticipating. How many arenas had this place constructed?

"And how many are there now?"

Including myself, there are thirty-two of us left.

That put the whole hellish situation into perspective; every round that continued, their numbers had been halved and then some. Hundreds had died to this place's sadistic tournament, and the rest of them would too if he didn't succeed. He couldn't imagine that the voice was particularly keen on the idea of keeping them around now that he'd escaped.

Had this place been having these matches before them? Was he the first to ever escape? He doubted that they were the beginning wave, especially for so much effort to have been put into this facility. And he'd certainly never heard of this place before, so it was a good bet that there truly was no escape for any eventual victors.

It was time to break the mold.

"Alright, Eve … here's what we're gonna do."

A/N: Somewhat short update, but this story is shorter in general anyways. Not really a good stopping point other than here, because next chapter is going to kick things off hot.

Until the next time,

- Matteoarts