Perry almost resigned on the spot.

He felt like a horrible person. Major Monogram had been right: Portia had caught Perry trying to get information out of her and he was certain now that she would never trust him again. There were only so many betrayals that a heart could take. The worst part was that Portia had actually begun trusting him again before he had blown it by asking her questions, the answers of which he had passed on to Major Monogram already. His boss definitely had NOT been happy when Perry had admitted that he had taken Portia out of the cells, even if he had gained some valuable information.

Perry retreated to his office, where he tried to concentrate on reading his emails but the tears in his eyes kept making his vision too blurry to concentrate so he went to Major Monogram and practically begged for a mission to keep his mind off things.

"Sorry, Agent P, but there aren't any missions at the moment, what with most of LOVEMUFFIN locked up in Steele Bay." Major Monogram consulted a piece of paper. "Actually, I could do with you doing guard duty down in the cells."

Perry grimaced. The last thing he wanted was to spend more time in the company of his former friends, especially Portia. "Is there nobody else who can do it instead?"

Major Monogram's face normally would have displayed a sympathetic expression, but since Perry had recently broken an important regulation, his tone had no sympathy whatsoever in it. "I know what happened earlier today has hit you hard, Agent P, but I need you to remain professional and take your turn on guard duty or it's not fair on the other agents."

Perry shot the desk a glare. I'm sorry, sir, but it sounded like you just said that my professionalism and appearance around other agents are more important than my childhood best friend hating me and my past catching up to me in a horrific way. But he said nothing aloud, instead choosing to simply nod numbly.

…

Perry was actually hitting his head against the wall. He could hear Oliver and Georgia yelling abuse at him. He had made the mistake of checking on his two friends, who had apparently heard about what had happened between Portia and Perry. Now they were screaming abuse at him every few seconds. And it really didn't help that he was on guard with the very professional Ellie the Eagle, who only told Perry to "just ignore it". But Perry couldn't ignore it. It was torture to him because it was his former friends who were yelling at him and it didn't seem like they were going to let up anytime soon. All the worse was that he knew he deserved it. He actually wished that he could hear Portia's angry voice too but she was silent. That meant she was truly hurt.

Ellie the Eagle wordlessly picked Perry up and moved him a few inches away from the wall so that he couldn't hit his head on it anymore.

"How does it feel to betray the only people who ever truly loved you?" came Oliver's angry voice.

Perry turned around and hit his head on the door.

"You're going to damage your brain," Ellie said in her normal monotonous voice.

"I-don't-care," Perry replied, punctuating every word with a hit against the door. "This-is-hurting-less-than-their-words."

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," Ellie said.

"Look, Ellie!" Perry suddenly shouted. "Clearly that's not true! These people were my best friends for five years and now they've turned on me because I betrayed them! Listen to their words! They have to be hurting me because hitting my head hard against the wall is less painful!

At that moment, a rhino agent came round the corner. Perry almost threw himself down at the rhino's feet. "Please tell me you're here to take over from me," he begged loudly. "PLEASE!"

The rhino gave him an odd look and nodded, looking thoroughly taken aback when Perry promptly burst into tears and hugged his foot. "THANK YOU!"

The rhino gave Ellie a confused look. Ellie just shrugged back. Perry then took off running up the stairs and back onto the office floor. He closed the door and leant against it, breathing like he'd just run a marathon. Terry and Tallulah, whose offices were closest to the prison door, shot confused and slightly worried looks at him. "Perry?" Tallulah called. "Is everything okay?"

Having passed through his manic phase, Perry took a step forwards and promptly collapsed from the throbbing pain in his forehead. With hindsight, bashing his head against the wall had not been the best long-term decision. He felt two people helping him up. "Are you okay?" Terry's voice asked.

Perry felt himself be helped to a chair. He lay back in it and closed his eyes. "I don't know what to do, guys," he said shakily. "I really don't." He explained the whole thing: his past in ARCHANGEL, his near-regain of Portia's trust, and his disastrous guard duty.

"Poor you," Tallulah said sympathetically. "I can't imagine what you're going through."

"Don't worry," Terry said, rubbing Perry's arms. "We're here for you. And so's Pinky. We'll help you get through this."

…

Meanwhile, down in the cells, Oliver had managed to make a small hole in the glass, somehow. He didn't understand how Portia could throw her whole bed at the glass without it shattering and yet Oliver could make a small hole about the size of his paw in the glass with just his claws. As he worked on finding something to throw, Georgia was listening to Portia's sobs. She couldn't see her friend but she could definitely hear her.

"Portia, are you okay?" she called.

She saw Oliver stop whatever he was doing to hear Portia's reply: "I'm fine."

"That traitorous platypus has broken your heart for the last time, I promise," Oliver snarled. "I'm never going to let him hurt you again."

Georgia and Oliver waited for Portia to say something to that. They were both surprised when she said, "Is ARCHANGEL…bad?"

"Of course it isn't," Oliver replied, sounding surprised. "Why would we be bad? We're not the ones holding a dozen animals prisoner."

"But we attacked them," Portia said, her voice sounding like it was shaking.

"Because Kirk believes they're a threat," Georgia retorted. "Why are you doubting so much about ARCHANGEL?"

"OWCA's better than ARCHANGEL," came Portia's reply. "It's more relaxed. There're no whippings or beatings. The people are friendly. You get to work flexible hours."

"I'm going to kill that platypus," Oliver snarled, pressing himself up against the glass so as to try to see Portia, but he failed. "He's filled your head with all sorts of stupid thoughts and doubts about ARCHANGEL. We are your family. We are all you have. We're going to protect you, okay? I think I've found a way to escape."

Oliver picked up a metal disk lying under his bed. It must have fallen from something but he didn't know what. He stuck his arm out through the hole and aimed carefully at the button that was used to open the cages. He knew he only had one shot at this. Even though his cell was nearest the button, he had restricted movement of his wrist. He threw the small metal disk and watched anxiously as it flew towards the button. He held his breath…

…and grinned.

…

*le gasp* XD