AN: Hello!

I am back with another chapter. I apologize for the delay - there were a few routes this one could have gone and so to figure things out I decided to work on an OoC AU until I could get over that writing bump.

Also, ALSO - Quantum Reality was kind enough to commission some lovely art for OoC by the talented Flight of Valkyries. Check it out on my tumblr if you want to see it!

"…that I honestly don't understand. Maybe if we try the other protocol-,"

"No. Sobeck specifically wants it this way. Try going back to the older thread. I don't know – maybe we can get a bit more visibility and see why the hell this thing took a shit."

Doctor's office? No. An intercom. I opened my eyes – my vision taking a moment to adjust to the brightness again. I was back in the chair - restraints still holding me down. The voices were gone. The screaming had stopped.

Jenna was gone.

No. She's been gone. I could feel the device Branwell had placed around my head. What the fuck…

The memories returned. It was fake. It had all been fake. My family, the house, Jenna. They were gone – dead and cold in the ground. Aloy had brought me the ashes and we had buried them together under the tree near the cabin. The cruelty of it all made tears well up in my eyes. I sniffed and pushed them back. I didn't have time for this bullshit.

Aloy.

I needed to get the hell out of there.

I could hear Branwell and some other guys muttering to each other through the intercom about why their fucked up experiment had bugged out. I knew it was probably only a matter of time before they got it figured out and working again, which meant I needed to figure out an escape plan fast.

But how? I tugged at the restraints again. Even with my implants, the restraints they had used on me were impossible to break through. Fuck…

"We'll have to run additional tests. Take her to holding with the other one until this gets sorted," Branwell said.

Holding?

The door opened and a young man in a lab coat walked in. He seemed nice enough - maybe not a whole lot older than me - but I didn't have time to be nice. I needed to get out of there. "All right, Rebecca. We're going to take you to another room for now until we can get this going again. Once it's working, we'll put you back in, okay?"

I said nothing. I tried to stay calm as he approached me. He began to unfasten the restraint on my left arm first. Almost. Idiot.

Branwell's voice broke through on the intercom again. "Did Geary grab the-oh, for God's sake, Geary you left the tranquil-Geary get back here-,"

Too late. I yanked my arm free of the restraint before dealing a backhand blow to the guy. It easily knocked him unconscious and he crumpled to the floor.

Whoa. That was…really effective!

"Sorry," I muttered as I undid the other restraints. I pushed myself out of the chair, my legs a bit wobbly. How long was I in that…simulation or whatever the fuck it was?

No time. Had to get out of there.

"Goddamnit!" Branwell yelled. "Alert! We have a security breach in block A-3. I need a unit in there, now!"

I looked ahead. The door! It was still open. I decided to run for it. Stepping over Geary's body, I rushed towards what I hoped would be freedom. Outside of the room was a metal corridor, brightly lit – pretty standard looking for a GAIA-built installation.

Need to go. But which way? Both sides of the hallway looked the same. I picked right and started running. The first few steps nearly sent me crashing to the ground – my balance was way off. I recovered, barely, and kept going. I didn't know where the hell I was going, but anywhere was better than that cold, creepy chair.

"Stop her!"

Keep going. A…blue light? An exit! I pushed forward – tried to focus everything on reaching that door.

Go, go, go – almost there!

My heart racing, I skidded to a stop and held out my hand to activate the power cell. The holographic lock spun before the metal doors slid open.

Branwell, accompanied by four armed guards, greeted me. Their guns were pointed directly at me. "Let's not make any poor choices today, Rebecca. These men are going to take you somewhere to rest while we get the simulation working again."

No way. I wasn't going to stick around for this. I turned on my heel and began running the other way, hoping that Branwell wouldn't be psycho enough to have his thugs shoot at me. I knew they needed me – for what purpose, though, I had no clue.

A shock started at the base of my spine and spread to my leg and up my arm. Pain lanced through me, a hundred needles pricking me all at the same time. I cried out, unable to move my entire left side forward and promptly collapsed on the ground. The shocks continued in intervals, each pulse numbing my implants and keeping me immobile.

Branwell approached from behind, holding a handgun of unusual design in his hand. "Interesting. Guess it worked after all. I'll have to let Liz know," he said to one of the guards. "Please take her to holding."

One of the guards bent down and pressed a small device against my neck. Another pin-prick. "Should we really be dosing her so soon after the sim?"

"I'll make that call." Branwell's sneer was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious again.

"Wake up, girl! Come on, up with you. We don't have time for this."

It took a moment to register that someone was shaking me awake. And yelling at me. Both annoyed me. I opened my eyes.

Fight or flight mode took over. I could feel my left arm again and, since I'd been able to use it as a weapon before, I swung in the air blindly at whoever the hell this new attacker was. I missed.

"Hah! Nice try. Don't think I haven't been expecting that for the last few hours." A deep, male voice. He spoke with a confidence that could only be rivaled by someone in stories Aloy had told me.

I sat up, wincing as the soreness in my body from earlier still persisted. A quick scan let me know I was in holding all right – a fucking holding cell. The room was dimly lit and tiny – four metal walls and a bare floor. One of the walls had a door – the red lights indicating that it was locked. Of course it fucking is.

"We'll have to wait until they come back for one of us before we can leave," my cellmate explained. Peering into the darkness I could see him – his skin was dark and his head shaved and he seemed to be in his forties, maybe. But that wasn't the weird part about him. On his face, his arms, and even his head were stripes of glowing bright blue light – the telling sign that this man had GAIA's machine parts embedded under his skin. A single line of light above his ear told me he also wore a Focus. His clothing was nothing from my world, though.

"You're not with them?" I asked, still not sure if I could trust him or not.

He chuckled. "Do I look like I'd be in league with those lying bastards?"

I shrugged. "How the fuck should I know? I just got here." My Focus beeped. I was surprised they'd kept it on me all this time. Not that I knew what "all this time" was.

"Hm. Robert Johnson…I imagine that Focus was not yours," the man said.

I blinked. "Um…what?"

"Your Focus. You overrode it with your own data but it's not yours."

"Oh." The hell is he going on about? Why does he even care? "It was…it was my dad's."

"I see. And you're Rebecca, then. Or at least, that's what your Focus leads me to believe."

I rolled my eyes. "You know, some people just introduce themselves."

The man gave a crooked smile. "I'm afraid I've never really been fond of that ritual."

I knew who this man was. Aloy had told me about him more than enough times for me to remember and recognize him. "Sylens."

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You know me, then? I'll have to assume this is because of a…mutual acquaintance."

I pressed my hands against the wall and lifted myself up. "I need to get out of here and I need to get back to Aloy," I said.

"Aloy?" Sylens asked, eyeing my implants. "She's not here?"

"They let her go. I made a deal with that freaky clone."

"A deal? Are you mad? Maybe you're just suicidal - I am guessing that explains how you got those?" He gestured to my arm and leg.

I glared at him. "That's none of your fucking business. Now, how do we get out of here? And why are you even here?"

"My business here is my own, girl. All you need to know is that if you want to get out of here alive, you're going to have to work with me. I've been here for a few months now and their movements have been fairly consistent. We'll need a diversion for sure and then we need to make sure that we don't get hit with one of Branwell's weapons."

Are you kidding me? "Oh, is that it? Yeah, I'll just dance around and distract them while you attack the guard and then we'll bust out of here like some bad prison breakout show."

Sylens stared at me, unamused. "You've definitely been spending time around Aloy. This is why I prefer to work alone but alas that will not work here."

"No, it won't. So, what's the plan?"

"I heard you took down one of their lackeys with that arm of yours. Only two guards come by here every day to bring me food. I couldn't take down both of them and escape without being noticed but perhaps with you, we might have a chance."

I sighed. "So, we fight them but I don't think we can possibly fight our way through an army of guys with guns."

Sylens nodded. "If you listen to my instructions carefully and follow them, we won't need to fight our way through them, Rebecca."

Whatever. I had nothing else and if I didn't try something I was going to go crazy being locked up in there. "Becks."

"What?"

"Becks," I said. "Only my mom called me Rebecca."

Sylens didn't appear to have a strong opinion either way. "As you wish." He activated his Focus again.

"You were the one that caused all that trouble with HADES in the first place," I said.

He ignored me and deactivated the Focus. "The guards will be coming by shortly. I'll explain what I know about this place and how we can get out once they are taken care of."

More AN:Hopefully next chapter won't take as long. Thanks for reading!