The door to 626's room opened, so the experiment flipped up to see who had come. The first ones through were a pair of soldiers, and 626 tensed, remembering his dream, worrying that something had gone wrong, that they'd seen him rip the blanket and decided that meant he was irredeemable.

The tension was not shared by the soldier on the right, who waved. "Good morning, 626! Did you sleep well?"

"I-ih?" 626 replied, somewhat confused. The voice sounded familiar, but he wasn't sure from where. "Gaba ika tasoopa? Why yuuga here?"

"Extra security." The Grand Councilwoman stepped through the door, flanked by three other beings. "I know, I know, you're not going to try anything, but the council would have insisted anyway."

"Honestly we're mostly here for her." The soldier on the right pointed towards the Councilwoman. "They tend to get a little twitchy when she goes anywhere unattended."

Oh! 626 remembered why the voice was familiar. "Meega met yuuga before, ih? In the cell?"

The soldier nodded. "Right, apologies again for the needle."

"Taka." In fact the soldier had been gentle with 626 the entire time, explaining what the needle was for, giving him plenty of warning before extracting the blood, and even apologizing for the need to take blood in the first place.

"Don't believe I shared my name yesterday?" The soldier pressed a button on their visor that retracted it, revealing a smiling reptilian face. "My name is Sergeant Oltz. And she," Oltz gestured towards the other soldier, "is Officer Higota."

Higota nodded. "Do behave yourself, Experiment 626." Her tone made the hackles on the back of 626's neck stand up, and for a millisecond he felt his face begin to contort into a growl. Stopping himself quick enough that he hoped no-one would notice, 626 also tried to force the desire to throw her across the room currently surging through his paws. Act bootifah, 626. Naga be bad.

Next to speak was a purple-furred catlike being. "My name is Doctor Milyon Scheur, psychologist. My role is to assess your psychological development and provide feedback to help make this whole process run as smoothly as possible." He smiled, causing his eyes to light up with a gentle twinkle. "And to give you someone else to chat with about normal things."

626 looked at the last being, who looked quite a bit like Oltz besides a line of feathers down their arms and tail. "I'm no one important." They shrugged. "Mostly I just run errands for the Grand Councilwoman, including, er, six cups of coffee so far this morning?"

"Seven." The Grand Councilwoman shook her head. "626, this is my secretary Ava Kulkan, otherwise known as the primary reason I am still sane."

"Okie…" 626 realized he was feeling nervous with everyone crowding into his room. "To kaba gata?"

"Not much." Doctor Scheur pulled out a pair of glasses. This morning's probably going to be a 'get to know you' kind of day - what you like, what you dislike, that sort of thing."

Isa naga lots, 626 had to think, meega like breaking things, meega think. Not that he felt he could likely say that. The doctor was relaxed, but 626 couldn't help but feel nervous: what would they do when they found that out?

"Hold on." Officer Higota held up a gloved hand. "Is something wrong with the bed blanket?"

Oh, choota.

Before 626 could react Higota rushed past him and pulled. When half the blanket came away she shook her head. "Ripped clean in two." Returning to 626 she pushed the blanket into his face. "Did you do this?"

Once again, the urge to throw Higota across the room began to flow into 626's paws. Clenching them to keep the urge at bay, 626 was about to protest when the Grand Councilwoman stepped between the two.

"Easy, Officer. It's just a blanket."

"You didn't rip anything else, did you?" 626 whirled around to see Scheur was right behind him, along with Oltz a few steps behind. He was being surrounded, with nowhere to go.

"Naga. Naga tay sleep, so meega thought maybe…"

"See?" said the Grand Councilwoman. "It was just a release of energy."

"Happens all the time." Ava moved in as well, extending a clawed hand. "So don't worry about it. Just try not to do it ag- aahhhhh! "

Moments before her hand could touch 626 the Experiment grabbed it. Pulling her in 626 grabbed at her with all three of his other paws before swinging her around, throwing her against Higota and sending the two into the wall. "Ganti Batiba!" He yelled.

A whooshing noise to his right told him that Oltz had grabbed his blaster and was getting ready to fire. 626 whirled around and growled at him, hackles fully raised.

"Easy, 626." It was the Councilwoman who spoke, walking around until she was within 626's eyeline. "Remember, we're here to help. I'm on your side." Breaking eye contact with him, she glanced back at Oltz. "Both of you, don't do anything rash."

"Gantu was right about that thing." 626 heard Higota get to her feet. "Couldn't even go five minutes without attacking us like some kind of beast."

That did it. 626 spun around again, saw that the soldier had a death grip on her own plasma cannon, and lunged.

Half a second later, something hot slammed into 626's back.

Knocked to the floor, 626 had just long enough to register the contrast between the searing, burning pain against his back against the cool metal of the floor before the entire world went black.

Panting, Oltz lowered the plasma cannon. "What the blazes just happened?"

Shakily rising to her feet, Ava looked at 626 and shuddered. "One minute he was fine, and the next, what, he's trying to kill us?"

"It's like I said." Even with her visor down, it was obvious to the Grand Councilwoman that Higota was glaring at the downed Experiment. "Captain Gantu was right. That thing's a ticking time bomb."

"Come now, surely that's…" The Grand Councilwoman stopped mid-sentence, right as she was about to say 'that's an exaggeration.' Is it, though? 626 had been mid-leap, teeth and claws bared, when Oltz blasted him to the ground. Not to mention that he'd attacked Ava over nothing. "But, it can't be." He'd behaved himself so well…

"What should we do with him?" Ava asked.

"I - I don't know." The Councilwoman had to admit, she was a little shaken. "That came out of nowhere."

"Perhaps we should move him to a prison cell?" Oltz suggested. "That way we'll have more security next time something like this happens. That is, assuming you still want to try and teach 626 how he needs to act."

"I'm not sure on that, either." The Councilwoman looked at Scheur. "What say you, doctor?"

Scheur, who had been studying 626 the entire time, blinked. "Hmm? Oh, well, may I speak freely?"

"Of course." The Councilwoman braced herself, wondering if he was about to say even that was a lost cause.

"I think that would hurt more than it helps. In my opinion, the best course of action would be for 626 to remain here." Pausing, he took a deep breath before continuing. "Furthermore, I believe that there should only be a maximum of three of us in the room at any given time - ideally, the Grand Councilwoman, myself, and Ava."

" What? " Higota finally raised her visor in order to glare at the doctor. "Are you nuts? That's just inviting it to kill all of them?"

Scheur shook his head. "I'm not so sure. Sergeant, did 626 show you any hostility yesterday in the holding cell?"

"No. At least, not when it was just the two of us."

"I see. When we all came in this morning, 626 was also behaving, was he not?"

"Yes…" The Councilwoman trailed off. "Where are you going with this?"

"Bear with me for a second. When was the exact time 626 began acting up?"

"I think it was when I went to pat him on the back?" Ava suggested. "Right when he grabbed me."

"No." The Councilwoman had a flash of understanding. "It was before then - 626 began acting nervous when we were all close to him."

"Exactly." Scheur nodded. "When he was surrounded. Trapped, if you will."

"Like…when he was in the glass case at the trial?"

"Ava, I think that's it." The Councilwoman looked over at Scheur. "Are you suggesting 626 was flashing back to when he was being confined?"

Scheur nodded. "He may not have been conscious of it, but it wouldn't surprise me if anything that makes 626 feel as though he's trapped is an acute stressor."

"So, what?" Said Oltz. "Me and whoever they get to replace Higota - don't give me that look, officer, you're done here no matter what we decide on - just wait outside and hope for the best?"

"More or less. I'll have a monitor set up so you can watch what's going on."

"But -"

"Doctor Scheur has the right of it, sergeant." The Councilwoman sighed. "I know it's a risk, but I do believe this is the best course of action."

"So you're still giving it another chance, then?" Higota crossed her arms. "Even after it nearly killed me and your secretary?"

"I am. I want to believe that 626 has goodness in him." The Councilwoman looked over at Ava. "But I suppose I should ask your opinion, my friend. What do you think we should do with 626?"

Ava looked down at the experiment. "Well, I won't lie to you: being picked up and thrown like that was terrifying." Suddenly, she stood up straight. "But, after hearing you and doctor Scheur's explanation, I think I understand why that happened. And maybe, now that we know that, things'll be different?"

Higota scoffed, but otherwise kept silent.

"Alright, then." The Councilwoman closed her eyes and considered. "Doctor, we shall follow your plan. And if things go wrong again, then, well, 626 will have to face the consequences."