Lucy's Story

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"Leave!" A shrill scream rang down the hallway of floor 10. She took a sharp corner, scanning the hall for exits. Behind her, orderlies pounded down the path, as burly as elephants and as graceful as gorillas. Alice whirled around, facing a wall, this hallway was a dead end and to go back would mean getting caught by the pink elephants on parade. So she went forward, opening the janitors closet and climbing the shelves, hiding behind a pile of extra towels and sheets. Slowly their footsteps drew closer, the door handle jiggled and one of them stepped into the closet. The other two pushed the first one further in and together they searched. Alice was already gone, digging her nails into the ceiling and lowering herself quietly in front of the door, locking the three inside. Triumphant, Alice wiped her hands and made her way to the dining hall, free of the clothing she so hated.

"Stop right there!" Shoot, Alice had forgotten about the fourth one. She ran to the left, taking a sharp right at the corner and skidding to a stop in front of the lunch room. Just before Alice was to enter, she felt the zap of the collar around her neck. Her eyes rolled into her skull, her body dropping to the floor and convulsing, little black wings fluttering.They collected Alice's collapsed form, she felt as though she were a fish on dry land, struggling to move and gasping for air. The orderlies easily whisked her away, back to her room where a fresh uniform would be waiting. Alice knew because there was a fresh uniform for everyone left on their bed every morning.

"How many times am I going to have to ask you to keep your clothes on?" In response the child growled, receiving another shock from the fancy new collar. "You know in the real world, you're going to have to use your words." Another low warning growl began to resonate in her throat, sounding a bit like a hiss. Once more, Alice was shocked. "Use your words 759," he tsked and opened up the door to her room, revealing the inside. It was a shared room of course, because there were only so many beds for the reform project, it was also supposed to encourage relationship building. Once inside the room she was instructed to change quickly, since she had missed breakfast performing this little stint and it was now time for groups.

In groups they spoke about therapy, goals, what sort of people they had killed, their favorite parts of the world that didn't include destruction, etc. To Alice it was a completely boring waste of time, but it was required of them to go. Sometimes the groups would break off into partners and play games, others times they would simply sit in circles and say something they were sorry about. When Alice arrived, they scanned the bar code on her neck, "You're late," the guard frowned. "Typical you, last to arrive." Alice gave him a grin that could have possibly meant pride. "Your group room today is the library wing." Alice nodded her head and walked down the hall to the library wing, a large library with plenty of comfy chairs and amazing views of the tundra. Alice really was the last to arrive it seemed and she took the only open seat on one of the plush pillows thrown onto the floor. "I'm here!" She pipped in, remembering to say something to announce her arrival. [/center]

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Lucy had been awake since sunrise, the bottle of alcohol she had been nursing all night now sucked dry with not single buzz. Her tolerance for alcohol was becoming far too high for her liking and she grumbled irritatingly as she made her way out of the vent and replaced the grate, stashing the empty bottle under the crook of a sleeping orderly's arm. They weren't stupid the orderlies, they were commissioned from the military, expert snipers, trained in hand to hand combat and knowing how to intercede should one of them prove to act up. Even with all of the precautions and heightened security, Lucy managed to get out. It was never far, but enough away that she could get drunk in the stash of alcohol that she had hidden in the snow. Thankfully, alcohol didn't freeze and with the frosty air there was no reason for ice. Unfortunately, if she didn't get back by sunrise, they would go looking for her.

As of late, the facility had been installing extra security measures to keep them in. Lucy had a tracking device on her shock collar now and whenever she grew too close to a window it would zap her with enough power to knock her out. There was nothing graceful about a body convulsing with electricity while you drooled due to loss of motor control. This morning though, Lucy had thought she had gotten a breakthrough on how to get out of this when she discovered that the vents led to the outside, only, you would have to risk going through a very large fan that whirred at a speed faster than any super human could get through. So she had stuck to sitting in the vent by the cool air of the van and drinking herself numb until sunrise, then taking a nap past breakfast and awaking with a terrible hangover.

When Lucy awoke, she felt as if she'd been hit with a two ton trailer, which wouldn't be the first time. She had been run over by a truck once and it had put her out of commission for several weeks. Today there was no trailer, just the wobbly movements of attempting to bathe and get ready for morning therapy. As Lucy went through the motions and arrived at the library wing, she realized she was first. With a shrug of her shoulders she picked the most comfortable seat, a nice lounge chair with arm cushions and a throw pillow. The facility was supposed to look like actual spaces that they would see in the human world in order to familiarize the monsters with other places. They would look cruel to have confined all of these children to the normal, sterile, buildings where they were created. No, the world had its eyes on the children inside, many citizens were anticipating to see what they would come out as. Some hoped to connect with their long lost children, others were protesting allowing them to reintegrate to society. They should be tried as criminals and hanged, they exclaimed with their pitch forks and blood seeking rage. Lucy couldn't blame them and quite frankly, she wished they would kill her already.

Now she had to endure this; group therapy, attempting to play nice, attempting to appear human. Sometimes it was far too overwhelming. Lucy gathered her legs together onto the chair and hugged them close, drifting off to sleep only to be awoken by the others gathering for group therapy.[/center]

"Oh..Zaika..Little Zaika, how low you have fallen are you feeling a little better today?" "NO!" He blurted out into the dawn of the morning. Afraid he may of woken up his cellmate he reduced himself into a little ball in the foetal position, underneath his blankets he let slip a few tears and tried to breathe. He thought about allowing himself a little while to sleep more or maybe just an extended time to think about how today would play out, therapy was usually as painful as it sounds filled with little monsters trying to work out these strange feelings that not even the therapist would understand, a lot of violent outbursts you would consider the orderlies trigger happy but considering the abilities of the inmates you cant be to careful.Today wasn't a good day, he could just tell it from the moment he woke up, he could probably request more medication but the pain just reminded him he was alive...thank god for that.

Getting to his feet he shuffled a little, looking to the end of his bed he saw his assigned clothes for today a nice new set free of any blood stains like his previous pair..He had, had a little accident with his cutting again and had almost bled out over the night the orderlies had to remove him while they cleaned the bed and stitched him up, over his little arms he recited the words that he had scrawled into his skin.дышать Breathe Плакать Cry Жить Live , he had gotten into an altercation the previous night where he had almost been attacked of course the voices inside him told him to fight back but instead he restrained and left to go and reflect, this was usually the result. He slipped the clothes on making sure to pull the long sleeves over his hideous arms, he sighed a little as he looked at him self in the cracked reflection of a glass shard pushing his wispy hair back he made his way to morning therapy.

As he trailed down the corridors he let his fingers dance across the walls he tried to walk as slowly as he possibly could delaying the inevitable, he felt weak in his group statistically that wasn't true he had strong wolf DNA coursing through him, and of course the other animals factored into his genetic make-up made him just as much as a threat as the others but despite the voices inside his head screaming to fight back and kill all those who even dared to laugh, he still had the innocence of a child he had killed but he didn't want to ever day was a horrible fight between two sides of himself. Soon enough he found himself at the entrance of the library maybe a few people had already wondered in by now but he didn't really notice, he faltered over to the corner taking a small pillow and leaning again a bookcase until the session started he closed his eyes listening to the conversation around him, he held his arms crossed over his front to prevent anything from happening. "Oh..Zaika..Little Zaika, Dont worry you are safe..At least for now little one"

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Cold | Resolute | Sardonic | Loner
|| Burn it Down ▮ Ready, Aim, Fire ||
⎡ EXP# - G98294 ▮ Speech - #0000AD⎦

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Fey never did like humans. They were weak; not just in body, but in mind. People died; it was fact of life. And yet when they died, humans would pretend they cared for the sake of the one who died, when really it was just selfishness. If it had been a parent, then suddenly that person was exposed, alone, and so they cried out of fear and missing their former sheltered life. Suddenly, they had to make their own way. And yet they wrote off that fear to others as feeling sorry the other human had gone from this world too soon? How pathetic. And that was just the beginning of their selfishness. Everything they touched, they destroyed. Yes, Fey hated humans. He was only technically one of them; half of him was. Fey preferred to listen to the side of him that wasn't human. He, unlike those humans, could hear his instincts, feel the world around him.

And right now, his instincts were telling him now would be a good time for a bit of fun. The human was completely off-guard; he stalked the human like the prey it was. This one looked strong; this would certainly be fun, and there would be no consequence. They would never catch him; the scientists had gone overboard with the genetics in him, as they had with all of the first group of experiments. At the time, they only knew how to infuse mammalian DNA with humans; those that lay eggs, the cold-blooded, were too far off the mark. But they had been so excited over their discoveries, that they had gone too far. The scientists openly acknowledged that mistake; they wanted to create monsters, but they had turned out too much like monsters for their liking, too wild. The ones made after that had more human in them than the first group did.

And, as all wild animals, Fey liked the hunt. Some of the creatures he had been built from were known to hunt animals with three times their size and weight; this human was two inches shorter than him. It was no danger. Prey to satisfy the instinct to hunt and alleviate his boredom. And what good prey it was; a former army man, perhaps? Many of the guards were. He wouldn't be too harsh; some of the guards were actually alright, having learned something akin to instinct and only pretending to be bothered by killing anymore. It was ignorance of those things that annoyed Fey about humans; they were just so dumb. So he always gave the guards a chance at survival, just in case they were competent. It wouldn't do to kill the only ones that could be good toys. If they were, he would spare them; though they usually broke in the end anyway, if he played with them too often. They would go insane, and he would kill them, because who wants a broken toy? They don't do anything.

The guard yawned and turned a corner, heading for the staff room, though that was still a ways off. Fey mirrored him, carefully watching for the best moment from around the corner before. With each turn, he got closer. The guard made it to the end of the short hall, turning the next corner, and with silent steps Fey darted to the aforementioned second corner, eyes with a glowing pupil peering out. You could almost see the anticipation shining there. One more short hall, and he would be close enough. As soon as the wall blocked the guard's vision, Fey would be right behind him. The guard reached the end of the hall, and Fey took the moment. Right there behind him in a blur of black hair and clothing, slamming in to him and sending the guard up into the air several feel, impacting into the wall sideways.

The guard caught himself before he hit the floor, pushing off the wall and righting himself so his feet hit the ground first and taking a defensive stance. Fey struck again before he could complete the action, while he was still off-balance, striking at his side in a harsh kick. He heard something crack, but only slightly. The guard yelped, stumbling, dizzy from momentary shock, and took off running down the hall. Fey leapt and batted him back before he could get far, a cat with a mouse between its paws. The guard hit the wall with another yelp of pain and slid down it, wincing and holding his side as he attempted to stand, then blinked a few times as if clearing his vision, glaring defiantly as his eyes focused.

"294! What do you think you're doing?!" The guard demanded, recognizing him on sight.

Fey took measured steps to the left, eyes on the guard; he knew there was no need to worry, as this was the restricted area and there was no cameras here. The area where the humans lived. After a moment, he answered. "I'm bored. You are one of the guards from the army, correct? I thought you might want to play."

The guard blinked at him, a bit surprised. "This is not the kind of game humans play, 294. This is a restricted area and you are not allowed here."

Fey frowned at him, but internally decided that this guard would live for a while; such defiance even after being hunted so. This one would be fun. He had graduated from prey to toy. Fey continued to mess with him, though, as he was wanting to put off getting to that idiotic meeting. "But human games are stupid, you see. What's the point of getting the most cards? Cards don't do anything. They're pointless. And games like that ah... ladders thing, we aren't allowed here. They think we'll use the pieces to choke people. Which is ridiculous; there are far more creative things to do with them than that. If you play this way you get stronger and learn different ways to do things." Fey explained.

The guard stared at him. "Th-that's true I suppose, but you hurt me. You aren't supposed to do things like that, 294. Perhaps I can talk to the scientists about getting some more entertaining things here? It's understandable that you're bored if they don't even let you do things that require, well, doing anything. I'll ask for you - just dint do things like this."

Fey stared at him, actually taken a bit by surprise. "... Are you new here or something?"

"Er- yes... today is my third day."

"... Hm." Fey internally sighed; so it was simply that he hadn't been here long enough? But perhaps he would be a fun toy anyway. He would have to the others about this guy; if only so to reserve the new guard as his own toy before the others discovered what fun he might be. "What's your name? And where have you been the past three days?"

"Wick. And, I was in the back rooms here, that's why you didn't see me - initiation and all that. But don't worry! I don't really believe all of the stuff they said in the orientation - you're still human after all."

How naïve.

Fey's sharp ears picked up footsteps. The hunt was over; it would resume later, along with this guard's education. "You should bet your ribs looked at - I heard something crack. Most people wouldn't break things with just that. You bones are a bit weak, you ought to be more careful." After all, it wouldn't do for his toy to become fragile so early in the game. He had to heal up quickly now.

And with that, Fey disappeared down the twisting back halls, away from the approaching steps and smell of chemicals; a scientist. They would turn on the collar if he was seen. There were drawbacks of course to the collars, ones that Fey frequently exploited; but as of right now, there was no water or metal poles of any sort handy.

With quick, quiet steps he darted down the hall, wondering who he should go after next; probably a scientist. This hunt, though with good results, had spilt no blood; the scientists were always a guarantee of weak, to be disposed of as such. In his entire life, Fey and only found one scientist entertaining enough to dub a toy rather than prey; so it was pretty much a guaranteed kill. He would go after one of them next; perhaps the one running the group therapy today? Messing with whoever it was all meeting long would have the prey all in a tizzy, too; yes, that would be fun. Maybe it would jump out of a window to escape him like that other one did. That one was fun, and rather hilarious.

Reaching the outside hall behind the metal, passcode only, double-locked door, Fey darted to underneath the camera, waiting for it to turn before darting forward to the next one, round the corner to the next, and so on, until he had reached the camera right before the main hall that connected the two sides of the facility; the humans side, and the side that was involved with anything to do with the experiments. He had known the passcode and camera blind spots for a very long time, of course. The new cameras installed recently had all been in the experiments' side, so the blinded route through the other hadn't really been messed with.

The experiments' halls were always brightly lit; it hurt their enhanced eyesight, not that the scientists cared. They were afraid of the dark. Pathetic humans... even without the enhanced night vision, he would prefer the dark, which hid you rather than showing where you were; humans feared it, for there might be something lurking. Didn't it occur to them, that it would be the same for other creatures? That the human could be the thing hiding in the darkness if they so wished it? Honestly, they were so dense sometimes.

For a while, Fey wandered around the halls; playing hide-and-seek with the guards until their hands were shaking with weapons in hand. First in one camera, then gone the next time the camera came around, not seen in a single frame for about five minutes at a time, proving that even with the extra cameras there were still blind spots.

Like the ceiling. Why did humans never look up? Ever? The cameras sure didn't.

Meanwhile, he planned out a course for chasing the scientist later, using those blind spots. Hmmm... what would be better? Smear the walls with blood? Or just give them a sudden scare like he had done earlier, placing it in direct view of a camera so that the body would simply be there, with no one else in the hall? The magically appearing corpse. Maybe Crux or Ophie would like to help. Though, Crux wasn't very creative, and that's exactly what he felt like being. So just Ophie then. Ah yes the eternal and cliche question; where to hide the body.

Getting bored of his hide-and-seek game, Fey went to his room, and waited. The guards showed up pretty quick, telling him off for being out of sight. Fey didn't understand. Hide-and-seek was a game that they themselves told him about after all, and no one had gotten hurt. Except for that guy who dropped his coffee when Fey had suddenly appeared and burnt had hand due to it, but that actually wasn't intentional, so he knew that according to the rules it wasn't his fault and they couldn't punish him.

Once they had left, he glanced at the clock. It was morning now; time for the stupid group activities. Fey bristled. He really hated mornings. Mostly because he had been made with a lot of nocturnal creatures, but also because he had to be in the same room as idiots. He was actually a little bit afraid that being in the same room as some of them would lower his IQ. No really, he was. Group activities sanctioned by attend-or-get-electroctued was the only time he would stand being in the same room as some of them. Another reason to hate mornings; group things were always in the morning. Perhaps the scientists believed that if they were tired they were less liable to attack people. Which was true, except that most of them had been made with nocturnal creatures, so this was mid-day for them. Deciding to get it over with, Fey left for the library. It was the only room large enough to fit everyone. It was a fun place if no one else was there, well if you disabled the cameras. Or sometimes even if you didn't; the bookcases were easy to hide behind, if you were careful about the ones without backs in the center of the room. Perhaps he should begin the hunt here today? So he went, knowing they would zap him if he didn't go; the guards gave the tiny smile on his face a weary, slightly fearful look as he passed them.

Fey easily leapt up on top of a bookcase at the edge of the room, crouching down on top of it with his feet under him in case he had to jump up; sitting criss cross would get you killed, since it took forever to stand up from. He liked up here, actually; across the room from where that wretched human Gaige took up residence. He kinda hated that brat, trying to pretend he was worth something, unlike the rest of his fellow humans. Sure, he didn't freak out about blood like many of them did; he was kinda like one of the army soldiers. But he was weak, and misused the power he had. Fey was determined to kill him someday. If it was right before they got out of here, well, they would be held back; so it had to be before this little reformation project was over.

And of course Ophie was already there, facing the scientists and several guards with puppy-dog eyes and tears about to fall. And Fey, Fey almost laughed. It was just... they looked so confused! Yes, that was it; trick them into thinking that the experiments were just poor, misunderstood children. They always screamed more later if they were tricked into thinking that, which was always annoying, but it also made them more desperate; more liable to do something ridiculous. Like that time a scientist had jumped out a sixth story window, he really couldn't mention enough how hilarious that was. Yeah, jump out the high window if you want to live. Even Fey had to be careful how he landed, at that height.

And the best part? He recognized his new toy there among the guards. The guard gave him a winy little wave, glancing around at the other guards before he did. Fey felt the little hint of a smile creep up on him again.

What would he do, once he discovered they were truly monsters? Would he cry? Go insane? Scream insults at them? Lots of them did. And then they would die, because the weak-minded could not exist here. Fey couldn't wait until he broke; it was always funny to break toys. They had thought they were so high-and-mighty, that they could control the poor little insane kids; yeah right. But you see, the irony was that it was his human side that hated it. Hated someone for trying to control them; animals didn't care. Animals cared only to survive and would adapt to do so. The scientists wanted them to be more human, to not kill; and yet Fey had never been more human than when he resisted their efforts to make him human by killing them. Honestly, humans were so oblivious.

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Ambrose was standing in a field of corpses, many of identified faces. More were stacked together like the piles of unname casualties he had seen in the war, nearly forming a mountain. And on the top of the crimson red mountain was a silhouette of a boy looking exactly the same as himself, his back stained with the image of splattered crimson. Ambrose watched as he turned back, their eyes locking for a second. The boy’s eyes were the same color as the one he saw in the landscape, in the bleeding sky. As Ambrose took a step back in surprise, the boy’s smile widened into a bloodthirsty grin.

“Amber?” Ambrose opened his eyes before immediately shutting them as the bright sunlight hit his face. Yes, Ami? For a second, Ambrose could have sworn the light fell on the frame of a boy with piercing red eyes, lounging against the wall in a manner that radiated an air of boredom. Yet, it only took a blink, and his imaginary friend was gone, as if an illusion by the sunlight. You ought to get going you know. Injections and all. Amber warned from inside his head, and Ambrose rubbed his eyes blearily, slightly disappointed that he had to be woken up by Amber of all people. He yawned, stretching before his eyes landed on the uniform. That’s right, reformation. It was such a foreign concept, and he could almost hear Amber growling in annoyance as soon as the thought entered his head.

Getting into the bath, Ambrose flinched as the water hit his wounds, before letting his body relax in the hot water. It was probably the only time of the day he enjoys, to wash off the blood clean his injuries in the water. However, before he could fall asleep again, the impatient cough of a guard snapped him back to attention. Muttering a soft apology under his breath, Ambrose got out of the water with some reluctance before changing into the uniform waiting for him on the bed. All done. Time to meet the so called ‘therapy group’. Ambrose managed to arrive early enough to get breakfast, though that was consumed with his mind still in a half awake state. He would have fallen asleep on several occasions, if not for Amber pushing his conscience to keep him alert. Ambrose was awfully sluggish in the mornings.

The guard showed him into a library, where there were already several others. There was Gaige, Ophie, Lucy and… Fey. Though that subject was in a rather unconventional position, Ambrose could sense his presence from his ability to sense heat and vibrations. All part and parcel of the DNA of snakes they had injected him with, whether that was a good thing or not. Ambrose had made an effort to learn names instead of numbers, since it’d be more polite that way as he had found. Giving a small wave in greeting, he sat himself down cross-legged on a cushion, appearing to be quite relaxed though wary at the same time. Just in time for the adult that seemed to be a doctor to smile and ask them to talk about something that they were sorry for.

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Oh god. They're really trying, how pathetic. Why don't you go choke him Ami, it'd do us all some good. Peace and quiet, a tempting idea is it not? Ambrose ignored him rather resolutely as Amber let out a mock sigh. Something he was sorry for… Concentrate. It was hard to think of one, since Ambrose highly doubted his capacity to be sorry anyway. This was asking a bit too much of him, though he was reluctant to lie as well. They never told him what to think of this. They never told him what to be sorry for. What was he sorry for? Ambrose clutched at his head for a second, feeling a sense akin to frustration sat in as his eyes threatened to turn red. Letting Amber out now probably wasn’t the best idea, especially since there was a supposed psychologist present. Ambrose doubted that all of the facility members had heard of Amber, but he wasn’t about to get any chances as he bit his lip firmly, squeezing his eyes tightly shut and forcing the red to recede.

He listened a little lethargically as the doctor asked Ophie to speak first, noting the tears and Amber’s little hmph of approval. Amber had always been quite impressed at Ophie’s acting abilities after all. Ambrose couldn’t really tell when she was acting and when she was not, but that was probably the point of her act in the first place. He looked on in interest as she continued feigning to cry, seeing the doctor’s react in a nearly flustered way as he attempted to console the girl. Such a standard reaction. It was something he had to learn. Ugh. Kill him already, I’m bored. Amber was bordering on the edge of impatience at this point. It was only a matter of time before he relinquished control if the questions continued like that, but all Ambrose could do now was to grit his teeth and hope that his mood didn't become conflicted enough, though that might be easier said than done.

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Morning had come and she was meant to be somewhere; she was meant to be somewhere with the other children within her group, and undergo another therapy session as always. It was almost a regular thing now and Poppy was growing use to it over time, so much so that she was always up and readily anticipating the next meet-up, whenever it was announced and requiring her immediate presence. With that said Poppy was already coursing along through the halls and corridors, and calmly made her way to the room where she ought to have been. Thankfully however it was the library; filled with books and order, and somewhere she could at least feel some degree of familiarity with and perhaps even to a certain extent ease.

The group was already more or less gathered by the time she had arrived at the location; sat on cushions and huddled closely together with an adult who would assumedly lead the session, from what she could gather. Poppy had silently strolled into the area and settled on top of one of the pillows that lay scattered on the floor; despite preferring a chair in favour of it being a cleaner option, she gripped the ends of her dress, if only slightly, when hooking one foot over the other and gracefully allowing herself to flop down upon the cushion and into a basket-styled position; the rest of her dress trailing off in every direction around her.

Eyes partially open and crimson orbs dully scanning over the group, Poppy took a note of all the faces presented to her, yet was neither embracing nor rejecting of them as she merely sat and waited for the last few to appear. Amidst her silence however and oblivious to what occurred around her at that moment, the girl dug deep into a pocket and produced a small, crimson marble in the palm of her hand, before grasping it tightly between two of her fingers and holding it into the air before her. Its bloody-like reflection grasping at her intrigue briefly, her mind off on a momentary wonder until the voice of another broke her train of thought, so to speak, and the white-haired girl immediately turned her attention to the other female who spoke. Although the voice alone was not as interesting as the stuffed teddy that was clutched in the girl’s hands and cradled like a child, and admittedly Poppy found herself eyeing it occasionally, somewhat curiously.

Another girl arrived shortly after, announcing her presence aloud and plopping down onto one of the cushions like the others. Unmoved by the tears of the prior, and unsure of the late arrival, Poppy remained sat and perfectly still atop her pillow while mentally raking her mind for an answer of her own; on the assumption that she too would be asked to speak at some point, though as to what she would offer in response was another thing entirely. Was she sorry for anything? Not particularly, but then that was only because she rarely did anything that would make her feel such a thing; being one to stray on the good side of most, it was not often Poppy found herself having to be sorry, which only made this particular moment all the more difficult and harder.

With a subtle shake of her head, as if answering her own question, her snowy white tangles dropped freely against her shoulders in a smooth mess of hair. Then, while hunching over and setting the marble against the cold floor, and with a slight flicker of her wrist, she watched as the tiny orb spun on the ground and looped in a circle; her eyes mesmerized and drawn to it, as if the little thing would somehow offer the girl an answer.

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Crux sauntered down the corridors acting like he owned the place. His hands slid comfortably into his pockets and his trademark smile stretched across his face as if he was in a good mood. It would be rather hard for a visitor to discern him as an experiment as there was absolutely nothing suspicious about him. He walked normally, talked normally and even appeared mentally sound on the surface. Crux behaved the way any other human raised outside the facility would but he was a merciless killer. The only thing that could give him away was a closer glimpse at the evil glint in his eyes and the menace in his smile. Still, those features about him could only be truly identified by someone with relevant experience. Crux knew this.

He raised his hand to his forehead to playfully salute as he passed by a pair of guards on patrol, "Top of the morning to ya. Carry on." Crux lowered his hand, returning it to inside his pocket as he continued to walk onward. After the pair of guards finally registered in their minds the fact that an experiment had passed them, they caught up to Crux and blocked his path. Crux shrugged his shoulders back nonchalantly as his smile grew a little. "Hey, if you wanted me to stay and chat you could've just said so." Crux stared up at them with a firm gaze wondering how these humans would react next. He kept up appearances, relaxed but confident. His smile remained showing his amusement. Well, don't keep me waiting. Say something Tweedledum and Tweedledee.. Crux mocked them in his head.

"H44627, you are to report to the library for therapy." The most muscular guard out of the two spoke up after he had dismissed Crux's previous words. "Aw you remembered my experiment name. That's so cute." Crux said sarcastically, continuing to behave as his usual self and disregarding the authority of the facility's security. As far as he was concerned, he hadn't done anything wrong yet. They had no justifiable reason to even touch him unless they couldn't handle a bit of typical banter. The guard shook his head, not letting the sarcastic comment agitate him before repeating the orders. "H44627, you are to report to the library for therapy."

Crux removed his left hand out of his pocket and started clicking his fingers. He was growing bored especially as he wasn't receiving any reaction from this guy. Clicking his fingers was his quirk albeit, one that most people found annoying for its sound. The guards were no exception to this as it encouraged them to be agitated further. It particularly begun to annoy the muscular talkative one as Crux non stopped clicked his fingers while the guards were forced to raise their voices over him. He acted deaf, using his other hand to wrap around the back of his ear as if he was trying to hear them at all. It was a rather childish scene. "H44627, you are to report to the library for therapy!"

When the order was loud enough that it echoed, Crux snapped his fingers once more before returning his hand to its pocket. "Oh, my bad. For a moment I thought there was a broken record playing." Crux was met with glares from both guards as they towered over him. "Oh, they're getting a bit feisty... His smile was unwavering. Nothing seemed to throw Crux off his game. "So the therapy thing huh... that was today? Darn, I forgot to mark it on my calendar." He rubbed his chin still grinning from ear to ear. He was well aware that the therapy session was today. It was difficult to forget the schedule when the facility offered them little to do in the first place. Crux just didn't want to attend it so easily. He'd buy his time, maybe pick up a chick along the way if there were any worth the hassle. But it looks like its just Tweedledum and Tweedledee this morning. Oh well. Not a total loss...

The quiet guard gritted his teeth in disapproval as his patience was being tested. Crux noticed, locking his eyes on him. "Well..." Crux sighed and his eyes closed, as if he was planning to be compliant after all. "Which way to the library?" he asked, angling his shoulders ever so slightly in preparation for what he was about to do next. The guards exchanged glances, relieved that he was going to cooperate. The muscular one pointed the way but as he turned back around, his partner toppled over. Crux had jolted forward in a split second, targeting the pressure point in the guard's temple rendering him unconscious. The left over guard froze in his spot, surprised by this mere teenage boy's capabilities. Crux began to laugh. "Sorry. I was distracted." He cracked his neck. "So, one more time... Where's the library?"

The guard escorted Crux to the library with force but Crux acted indifferent. "Don't freak out on me. If I wanted him dead, he'd be DEAD." He was thrown into the room, landing on his butt but not embarrassed about it. Experiments being tossed here and there was not a big deal. They were like wild animals in the process of being tamed. The occasional show of force here and there was nothing new. He leaned forward and crossed his legs, his attention now given to his new company consisting of fellow experiments and a human doctor. He didn't really care where he was. Crux always knew how to have himself a good time and make the most out of things.

It appeared he had arrived in time for Ophie's show. From what he gathered, they were to talk about 'being sorry' or some other nonsense along the same lines. Crux could care less but Ophie was a very interesting friend of his.
When Ophie declared that she wished she knew how to read, Crux snickered. He turned away from the group a bit to hide his laughing as if she had made a joke. Well, it was a joke. He wasn't laughing at her though but rather with her. Crux knew better than to believe the words spewing out of the little girl's tiny lips. He continued to snicker quietly, his shoulders hunched over. He was almost snickering in the manner of a giddy schoolgirl who could not control herself.

"Booooooring!" Crux shifted his attention over to the other experiment known as Lucky who had said aloud what everyone else was practically thinking. There was no way any single one of them found this activity even the least bit interesting. "Hey Doc, this really isn't your day. We have one sweet little girl in tears..." Crux re-positioned himself beside Ophie, wiping her tears away with a gentle touch of his middle finger as he spoke. "And another bored out of his mind. Have to say, I am too. So, why don't we make this quick? Shall we..." His final sentence was said with an undertone of the nasty suggestion of hasty death.

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As late as she was, Alice was surprised she hadn't been the last to arrive. She flopped onto her stomach on the pillow, her legs kicking at the air as she listened to the girl called Ophie whom she shared a room with get tearful over the things she supposedly was sorry about. Ophie? More like Oaf. Alice thought and rolled to lay on her back, watching the group interact from her upside down position. Their therapy leader cleared her throat and looked awkwardly around the circle as though attempting to relieve herself from the awkward position of listening to Ophie sob her heart out about things she obviously was not sorry about. "Alright, your turn, what are you sorry for?" Of course her gaze and pointing finger landed on Alice. The girl rolled back into a sitting position and tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully. "Nothing," Alice admitted honestly. "I was made to be a monster, I served my purpose. If anything," Alice straightened as she spoke, a bit of venom in her voice as she spoke. "You should be sorry for making me."

The circle had gotten awfully quiet, or perhaps that was Alice's imagination. "Well maybe there are some things you are sorry about, why don't you tell us about those?" Alice looked around the room for inspiration, or perhaps help. "Not killing more people?" She tried, earning a frown. This was clearly not the answer the therapist was looking for and so Alice dug around in her mind to pull out things she could possibly have regrets over. "Oh! I am sorry for something! Not taking more chocolate from the abandoned houses." Alice didn't actually eat the chocolate, she just liked to have it in her pocket as she found it was a substantial bargaining chip among other hybrids.

"Okay, I think therapy is over for today. Why don't you all reflect on your actions and we'll try again tomorrow?" The therapist pushed her seat back from the circle and tapped her clipboard with her pen twice before leaving them all in the library. "I think that went well," Alice rocked back and forth slightly, gripping her feet together in the criss-cross-applesauce position; they had a free period now which could be used in a number of ways before the hybrids were required to go to various classes to help them assimilate into society. Not that anyone paid any attention to what they were taught. Quite frankly, Alice found numbers to be useless and history to be dreadfully depressing.

Alice was only familiar with a few of the people in the circle. Fey, who she had spent a week locked in a room with, Lucy who had taken every chance she could to criticize Alice's actions, Ambrose, who was kind and patient enough to help Alice with her reading, and Gaige who had been weirdly friendly among this mix of hostile creatures, and finally, Ophie and Poppy whom she shared a room with. So Alice decided to attempt using some of the social lessons and strike up a conversation with those in the circle. "I don't think I've met you all," Alice was trying to be really good about remembering to use her words and today she had only bit one person so far, which was probably some sort of record. "My experiment number is X42759 but my chosen name is Alice." When put into the reform program, they were given the option to chose a name. Alice hadn't picked hers, rather she had been dubbed it due to her natural sense of curiosity. She was often warned not to get too curious lest she fall down the rabbit hole.

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Lucy rolled her eyes as Ophie burst into tears at the mention of possibly being sorry for something. Lucy didn't think that Ophie had ever felt sorry, much less for her actions. She didn't know what it was like to fully realize the weight of what you had done, to hear your father scream bloody murder because you had killed the woman that you hadn't known was your mother. No, if she was thinking of that, then the alcohol must have been wearing off. Lucy was tempted to seek shelter in the vents and wait out the headache that was beginning to explode inside of her temples, but things were just getting interesting here. Crux showed up, then Alice, then Lucky. Just when nearly their entire therapy group was in attendance, the therapist quit and told them all to think harder for next session. It was hard not to scoff at this ridiculous proposition, you could never get a monster to feel sorry for being itself.

Alice was being chattier than usual, Lucy noticed. Usually the pink haired girl was more interested in observing than contributing, but perhaps her outburst during their little session had given her a stroke of bravery. None of them were truly brave, Lucy had realized a long time ago. No, they were all cowards who would strike others from the rear given the chance. Sneak up in the night when their victims were least suspecting and the most susceptible and take everything they loved. A chill crept up her spine, even with the alcohol, Lucy was far too lucid for her liking. The buzz had worn off a few minutes after her arrival to the library and it seems she would have to attempt to sneak out tonight or bribe a guard if she wanted more since she had finished her stash in the vent.

Lucy debated on introducing herself. Most of the faces in the circle she already knew, but since they were being polite and all she may as well partake in the festivities. "My name is Lucy and I find it odd that we've all been gathering here and yet I only know a handful of names." It wouldn't matter in the long run, she would probably forget them all by tomorrow. To Lucy, the other characters in the reform program were unimportant. She didn't focus on getting to know any of them, knowing that they were all as terrible as she. There could always be a few good apples among the rotten, but Lucy highly doubted she would find any of them in this building.

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Honestly, this was the worst. Having the wake up early wasn't a problem, in fact, she was already awake by the time the little group session was scheduled to start. No, what was the worst was having to deal with the incessant noise, the lights, practically anything that she could hear or see was overwhelming. Vittoria had taken her glasses off purposely, lessening the effect that everything had on her, at least sight wise. Of course, she'd have to squint so hard her eyes would nearly be closed just to see something.

But no, the noise was still a problem. Thankfully, no one was being overly obnoxious, but seeing how some people acted it was only a matter of time before something happened. For the most part, Vittoria was well behaved, certainly a lot more than the others were. Though even she had her outbursts, but those were few and far in-between. As long as she kept getting her daily injections, she was pretty much fine.

She massaged the bridge of her nose lightly, hoping to take the edge off her current migraine if only by a little. From the moment she arrived at their little gathering, Vittoria had been silent. Speaking, or doing anything else for that matter would probably only help in making her migraine even worse. She was hoping that this would go by smoothly and she could just return to her little room and hopefully sleep for the rest of the day, though the chances of that happening were almost nonexistent.

From how things were going so far, she was getting a little hopeful that she could get through this without her migraine getting any worse. Though that was shot down almost immediately. "I'm here!" the little voice rung out and Vittoria cringed at the sound. She didn't necessarily have a problem with Alice, no, only a problem with the sound she had just made. It was like one of those days where every little noise that someone makes irritates you, they're chewing too loudly, clicking their pen repeatedly or tapping their fingers on a hard surface. The only difference was that Vittoria had one of those days too often for her own liking, and today just so happened to be one of those days, unfortunately.

After Alice's' arrival, the therapy began, and Ophie was chosen to go first. If there was anyone in this whole facility Vittoria had a problem with, it was that little arachnid. Ophie was always trying her best to get under her skin and she was probably the most vexatious person on the planet, at least in Vittoria's world. And Ophie's response was nothing short of vexatious, just the sound of her whining and crying grinded against Vittoria brain and only make her migraine worse. 'God, just shut it already.' It was unbelievable that some of the doctors and guards actually bought into her childish charades, though it was equally as annoying as it was amusing to watch the staff get flustered.

What was even worse that Ophie herself were that the others were deciding to go along with her game as well. Vittoria didn't care much to know the name of the man, all she knew is that he was probably going to start something. Though it was a double edged sword, whatever he was about to do would probably cause a lot of irksome noise. But that also meant that she would probably be able to sneak out and leave this gathering sooner than she was hoping for. Then maybe she would finally be able to get away from everything, if only it was for a few minutes before she was eventually forced to leave again.

From there, she'd tried her best to ignore Alice's and Lucy's voices and basically any other noise that was audible, just focusing on trying to keep herself from getting anymore irritated that she already was. Though one thing she was interested in hearing was that therapy was finally over, and she would soon find her way back to her room, not worried about introductions or anything.

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Ah, playing around with the guards was just far too fun for her own good. Honestly, was there possibly anything better than tricking people and seeing their reactions? If only Ophie was allowed to actually, y'know, kill them to follow it up. It was such a sweet feeling - brutally murdering someone after they firmly believed you to be a sweet, innocent little girl. The look of absolute betrayal and hatred as well as self loathing in their eyes as in their final moments, they realize the harsh, cruel truth. They were played for a fool. Still, it was sadly obvious that the other subjects didn't really buy her game - yet that was to be expected. It takes a monster to recognize a monster, no matter how hard they tried to pretend that they were reforming.

"Hey, don't cry." The doctor said, obviously flustered. "I'll teach you, is that okay? Maybe you just need extra time."

If anything, private tutoring sessions could only make it easier to get into his head. How ironic it was that a therapist would be the one having his mind prodded and poked into rather than the other way around. Ophie couldn't help but want to giggle - though clearly, she suppressed it, continuing her crying facade. The assortment of reactions from the others was almost a sweet nectar to the girl. From Lucky's cry of "Boring!" to Vittoria's look of irritation, Ophie felt a sense of elation.

It doesn't really get much better than this, huh? Man, I wish I was allowed to kill my fellow subjects. I really should ask Fey or Crux for some sort of alliance, maybe...

The best reactions were, of course, those of her two most interacted-with people in this dump of a facility. The strong, silent, yet almost childishly violent Fey that Ophie wasn't sure if she hated or loved about the man. When Ophie watched him walk in, she had a satisfactory mental grin as she saw the hint of a laugh behind Fey's face. Fey was her number one enemy - Ophie would love a chance to fight him if she could, yet she also cherished his presence in some way.

Whatever, Ophie didn't want to think about it for too long.

"Hey Doc, this really isn't your day. We have one sweet little girl in tears..."

That was when Crux walked over with that familiar arrogant grin on his face. If it was possible for monsters to get along with one another, Ophie and Crux fulfilled the role of true friendship, in all the ways that it really meant anything, at the very least. Ophie couldn't count the hours she wasted away just chatting with this man - if there was anyone she felt she could be actually, y'know, honest with, it'd be him. They were far too similar for anything other than friendship. Ophie pretended to flinch away from the finger that brushed the tear off her face. This symbiotic relationship of theirs - he made her look even more childish and helpless, and she made him appear to be just a tiniest bit more human so the doctors would give him an easier time than they usually would. Everyone benefited - it was perfection and deception mixed into one awesome spider's web. "And another bored out of his mind. Have to say, I am too. So, why don't we make this quick?"

Ophie rested her head against Crux's shoulder, as she listened so her roommate respond to the doctor's question. While Ophie didn't really like the girl, she couldn't help but mentally applaud Alice for her answer. It was hilarious to watch the doctors left, with almost a quizzical expression on her face. Credit where credit was due, right? In any case, Alice drove them off and gave them Ophie's favorite time of all - free time.

"I don't think I've met you all," Ophie stared at Alice again, almost rolling her eyes once she was sure the workers weren't watching her. Introductions, really? While the spider did appreciate the sentiment of knowing the others, did it really matter in the long run? She couldn't think of a more pointless and superficial way of getting to know someone. In an introduction, people would only show the side of themselves that they wanted to present - you couldn't get into their inner thoughts and fears this way. No, there were much better, much more intimate ways of getting to know someone. "My experiment number is X42759 but my chosen name is Alice."

Next was that weird tall girl with the angsty face. Lily? Lory? Ophie almost shrugged, not really caring too much.

"My name is Lucy and I find it odd that we've all been gathering here and yet I only know a handful of names."

...

See? That wasn't any useful information at all! What the hell was the point of that, huh?

Ophie tilted her head to the side with a playful, almost feline grin, as if her crying had never even happened in the first place. The more people she annoyed the better - especially that one girl, Vittoria. The perfect toy to play with. Sadistic glee was almost bursting through the seams.

"Ophie is Ophie!" Ophie's voice was laced with venomous sugar, and it was quiet, almost inaudible. She then trained her eyes directly on Vittoria who always did seem sensitive to loud noises. Joy was hard to find, yet Ophie knew she was about to attain hers. In a much louder voice - "And that's Vittoria! She's Ophie's girlfriend! She's really shy, though, so be nice to her, okay?

A facility full of monsters obviously had those that were probably far too antisocial to say anything. Two of them sparked in Ophie's mind and she felt the spontaneous and sadistic urge to introduce them both. The spider then strung together an arrow made of webs in a split second and lazily pointed it at Poppy, who seemed focused entirely on her marble, as if shutting out the world. Almost as a precaution, she discretely attached a web to Teddie to make sure no one could grab it from her. It was time to introduce her other roommate...

"That's Poppy. She probably was ignoring us, so if you want her attention, you'll have to steal her marble there. She thinks it's much more interesting than the rest of us, right?"

Finally was Fey. Most likely, he'd utterly refuse to do anything, and hell, Ophie wanted payback for their last little spat where he got the better of her and she couldn't think of any kind of response to win it. It still irked her and she wouldn't just let it end. She had to be superior over him in whatever way she could.

"The tall blue guy there's Fey." Ophie aimed the web arrow at him with almost twisted glee that she masked as playful childishness. Ophie could only hope that Crux enjoyed her little game. "He's shy too, but he's really super nice and friendly! Just talk to him a lot so he'll get used to you, okay? If he tries to chase you off, it's only because he's embarrassed!"

Ophie was almost certain no one would fall for the bait, but it was still fun nonetheless to watch Fey's reaction to her words.

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Cold | Resolute | Sardonic | Loner
|| Burn it Down ▮ Ready, Aim, Fire ||
⎡ EXP# - G98294 ▮ Speech - #0000AD⎦

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Fey watched with sharp eyes as each person entered the room from his place atop the bookshelf; he really did like being high up... too many tree-climbers in him, that's what it was. That, and people almost never look up. He leaned forward to watch as the councilor walked in and took her seat right in front of the shelves without looking at him, and started the meeting off with Ophie.

She didn't notice for several minutes; right up until she was about to begin speaking, and a guard motioned to behind her. The woman turned a bit, and then started when she noticed him, leaning over the shelves a bit to peer down at her, a tiny smirk twisting his lips. The woman shivered and pawed through her papers a bit until she found the one with his picture.

"Er... F-Fey is it? Please get down from there and take a seat normally."

Fey didn't move. She stared at him for several long moments before starting again as one of the other patients suddenly woke - he had previously been sleeping - blinked a couple times, and then shrieked about how the scientists had drugged him again. Fey let the tiny smirk widen in amusement before it disappeared as the councilor brought things underway again.

"Er... right then, let's continue..." The councilor attempted, turning back to the main group. Fey gave Crux a weird look as he touched Ophie to wipe her fake tears away.

Crux replied without seeming to have heard her. "Hey Doc, this really isn't your day. We have one sweet little girl in tears, and another bored out of his mind. Have to say, I am too. So, why don't we make this quick? Shall we...?" He trailed off in question to the other Experiments.

Fey met his gaze and gave a small nod, to communicate his plans to do the same. "Be patient Crux. Good things come to those who wait, as they say." He warned; if Crux went for the kill too fast, all the fun of the hunt would be spoiled.

At hearing his voice, the councilor's head whipped around to him. "E-er, why don't you go next then? What are you sorry for?"

Fey gave the woman a strange look, and honestly thought the question over out of pure curiosity - was there really anything he was sorry about, other than not being able to resist them, and getting trapped in this place because of that?

Perhaps that this woman wasn't already dead? She should be, asking him an idiotic question like that. "I don't like idiotic small talk, woman. Ask something that actually has some intelligence behind it and I might not gut you and leave you for the crows. I'm sure they would appreciate the meal."

The woman paled and stuttered, "R-right... let's move on then, Alice- your turn, what about you, what are you s-sorry for?!"

Alice seemed to think for a moment. "Nothing. I was made to be a monster, I served my purpose. If anything, you should be sorry for making me." Alice growled. Fey internally gave her a nod of approval; she was completely right. Fuck'n humans; always so greedy. Creating beings such as them, and then taking it all back; well it was too late. They existed now, and it was all their fault. They could try to change it or try to pretend it never happened all they wanted; to would never change the reality. Humans did this, and they deserved to pay the price.

"Well maybe there are some things you are sorry about, why don't you tell us about those?" The councilor tried again, even more visibly nervous than before.

Alice blinked at her, thinking again. "... Not killing more people?" She seemed to guess, still contemplating. "Oh! I am sorry for something! Not taking more chocolate from the abandoned houses." Alice finally decided, smiling.

And that was the last straw with the woman, who looked ready to pass out. "Okay, I think therapy is over for today. Why don't you all reflect on your actions and we'll try again tomorrow?" The councilor rushed, standing quickly and rushing from the room. It was silent for a moment.

"I think that went well! I don't think I've met you all. My experiment number is X42759 but my chosen name is Alice." Alice put in cheerfully. Fey already knew her; they'd once been locked in a confinement cell for an entire week together, caged like animals as they awaited shipping. Not much talking went on, but he'd caught a few things here and there. But really, why would she give her identification number while introducing herself? Only the scientists cared about that crap.

"My name is Lucy and I find it odd that we've all been gathering here and yet I only know a handful of names." Lucy replied. She had a good point; not that he would reply. Small talk was even more useless than the facility guards.

"Ophie is Ophie!" The girl said in her usual childish tone."And that's Vittoria! She's Ophie's girlfriend! She's really shy, though, so be nice to her, okay?" Ophie demanded, before launching a small attack at Poppy. Fey wondered why she would do something so pointless; Poppy was too quiet to be much fun, at least in the way Ophie did things; she wouldn't make a single peep without that marble; Fey was willing to bet she wouldn't even scream if you hurt her. Which now he thought of it, could actually be really fun; screaming always did kind of get on his nerves, it was too loud, no matter how much he enjoyed liked ridding the world of more nuisances.

"That's Poppy. She probably was ignoring us, so if you want her attention, you'll have to steal her marble there. She thinks it's much more interesting than the rest of us, right?" Ophie continued, and then in a darting movement, launched a projectile at Fey himself with a twisted smile; not bothering to try and miss like she had with Poppy. Fey rewarded her with the slightest change in expression; a sarcastic look that told her just how futile the action was, as he simply leaned to the side to avoid the attack.

"The tall blue guy there's Fey. He's shy too, but he's really super nice and friendly! Just talk to him a lot so he'll get used to you, okay? If he tries to chase you off, it's only because he's embarrassed!"

... Wait, what?

Nice? Friendly? Talk to him until he gets used to you? Embarrassed?? Oh hell the fuck no. She was trying to get people to make small talk with him! God damn that chick!

... Well at least if people believed her, there would be plenty of clueless victims to prey on. The next person to approach him while smiling was gonna get their arm torn off. But that was besides the point.

"Die." He growled with deadly calm, fixing narrowed eyes in the girl, internally analyzing what blood spatter patters would result of hitting the sadistic loli with a train. As soon as those guards were gone...

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Ambrose wasn’t listening to the discussion altogether when Fey spoke, instead his green eyes focused on a head of white. Poppy? “Ah!” His eyes widened in recognition, seeming to ignore the other subjects altogether as he smiled brightly at her. “Poppy, right? You made it! It’s so nice to see you again!” He had seen her a few times when the passed each other between experiments, but their first meeting, though not the most pleasant, was enough for Ambrose to develop a sense of gratitude toward the girl. He was genuinely happy that she managed to get in the reformation program and was not put down, or at least it was what he seemed to have felt from his enthusiastic greeting. Poppy? Ah yes, that girl. Amber spoke those words with a sneer, unamused. Hmph. She might be good to kill time with at least. Ambrose winced inadvertently, he had little idea of what Amber does when he was the one in control.

It was Alice’s turn then, and Ambrose snapped back to attention, listening to Alice’s answer with some appreciation. She was honest, you could say at least that much about her. It was partly why she reminded him of himself, perhaps. Even Ambrose could tell that it wasn’t the answer the people were looking for, but Alice seemed to have no idea of that, innocently saying that it went well. There wasn’t much he could complain about of course, she did leave them with some free time after all.

"My name is Lucy and I find it odd that we've all been gathering here and yet I only know a handful of names." The older subject spoke then, introducing herself to the rest. So her name was Lucy? Ambrose was about to introduce himself when Ophie spoke first, causing him to fall silent once again. It was impolite to interrupt someone when they were speaking, or so the many manners and etiquette lessons drilled into his mind. Integrating into society had quite a rigid set of rules to follow, but Ambrose was coping rather well so far.

"Ophie is Ophie! And that's Vittoria! She's Ophie's girlfriend! She's really shy, though, so be nice to her, okay?" Girlfriend? So many questions that Ambrose didn’t know the answer to. Not that he was curious enough to try, Ophie was someone he’d really rather keep his distance from. Amber approved of her completely, which did nothing but to make Ambrose a little more wary. The people Ambrose likes usually resemble him in terms of personality, Alice is a rare exception for now. As Ophie continued speaking in her sickly sweet tone, Ambrose found his attention drifting off once again. There wasn’t anything much for him right now, and there were no orders to listen to the other subjects.

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It was too late when Ambrose realised that Amber had been awfully silent ever since Ophie began talking about Poppy. “Taking away her marble makes her notice us? Yeah, I’ll try that.” Ambrose’s usual cheery smile widened into a near feral grin as Amber spoke, his eyes flickering a shade of crimson just as they closed immediately. Even Amber understood it’d be bad for the still present guards to notice their switched state. Neither of the two much enjoyed the sharp hypodermic needles that the guards injected the boy with, and his tightly closed eyes didn’t affect him much anyway. Amber could still ‘see’ the outlines of people with the heat radiating off them, and he had figured out the distance between Poppy and himself anyway.

With a fluid movement, Amber closed the space between the small girl and himself, swiping the marble out from under her eyes. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you again, Poppy~” Amber sang cheerfully, waving the marble just out of reach as if taunting the girl. He wasn't too concerned as far as his behaviour goes, it was free time after all, and from afar it looked like harmless teasing between children with Amber’s ever present smile.

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More bodies spilled into the room over a handful of time however, Poppy kept her gaze drilled to the floor without giving so much as a bat of an eyelid to the commotion that developed around her at that particular point. Straightened white locks hung down and framed over the curves of her face like a shielded veil; blocking out the movements around her as those crimson orbs honed in on the floor beneath all too expectedly.

And yet, despite efforts to drift her thoughts elsewhere the familiar voices, though only a few coupled with some others, chimed in her ears and the girl found herself unknowingly listening with some interest albeit small. Her roommate was next to speak following the little display of no other than her other roommate no less. Although the whole scene itself was short and somewhat sweet, and the supervising adults departure following suit, Poppy only then and there acknowledged the fact that the therapy session had come to a close and time was now theirs for now.

Despite appearing disinterested on the front while amongst the group, in all matters of truth Poppy was glad for the company, even if she hadn’t shown it much on her own face. Alice was the first to introduce herself to the group, followed on by the older girl who was revealed to be Lucy. Ophie was next to sound off her name, before going on to introduce one of the other girls, who was known as Vittoria. When her own name was called Poppy barely flinched to the remark; a blink and rolling of her head back given to signify her acknowledgement, as she refocused on the marble before her that was gradually losing its momentum. Lifting both hands and dropping the tips of her sleeves back just slightly, and setting both on either side of the small orb, Poppy quickly gave it another flick with her fingers and set the tiny ball spinning once more, only faster.

Fey was yet another name to flood the air shortly after, and another one Poppy would need to remember, though such a feat was hardly difficult for one such as the girl herself who possessed an incredible memory. Although... just as easily as they had come her thoughts all at once dispersed into nothing, the swiping of her marble tugging at the strings of her focus, as Poppy almost immediately shot a near bewildered look to the figure that stood presently before her and possessed that which she held dear.

”--!” Her mouth opened yet not a word dared to fall out; an empty gap with her words restricted by what could only be described as an invisible barrier. In one swift motion Poppy pushed up onto her feet and stood off from the pillow, the ends of her dress swaying in frantic rhythm of her movements as she placed herself directly in front of the taller boy. ’H-Hngh.’ Grasping at her thoughts, it wasn't long till she recognized him; of course she did, even earlier when arriving into the room however, only now when faced with Ambrose was Poppy robbed of the chance of a fair greeting. Or rather Amber, who had made certain of that and seemingly enjoying it from what she could tell. ’Give it back,’ was the only thought to pass through her mind; a couple of times in fact as she offered a curious look to the boy that held her marble. ’Be careful with it.’ She mentally hissed with a pang to her chest, a sense of worry rushing through Poppy just then.

When reaching for the marble it became apparent that it was out of reach, and only irksomely beyond her grasp as delicate fingers stretched to their limit, and a hand thrust forward in effort to snatch back the orb; but to little avail. Matters only proved more difficult due to the inability to speak, which was more self-inflicted than anything. ’Give it back,’ she internally pleaded once more, crimson eyes wide and beaming up to the boy.

The recurring thought pinged again in her mind, prompting the girl to set a foot upon the boy’s shoe with some force, while leaning her petite frame forward and reaching up to reclaim that which was hers; the other hand meanwhile clinging to Amber’s arm for additional support, lest she wished to fall back and topple the pair over to the ground.

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Alice was surprised that the others were actually being civil and getting along, introducing themselves. She rocked back and forth, sitting criss cross on the pillow and waiting for the introductions to end. It never got to that point though. An explosion rocked the building, the ceiling shook, plaster raining down on top of them. Lights flickered, on and off, finally settling for darkness. Alice was more comfortable this way anyways, she stood, looking towards the door that remained closed. She moved quickly, her eyes adjusting just as fast. Being part bat, Alice was made for this sort of element. She tugged on the door, discovering that it had locked. Most likely an emergency mechanism that turned on in case they revolted. The floor shook again; books began falling from the shelves. Another explosion sounded, this one closer. "We need to get out," Alice went to the window and pulled her arm back, swinging forward and punching with all of her might. The glass didn't even creak, they were trapped in the library.

Another explosion, this one right beneath them. The floor disappeared from underneath her, Alice slid back, hitting her head hard on the floor and causing stars to explode in her eyes. There was a coppery taste in her mouth and as she flew with the second explosion, she hit a bookshelf, causing books of all shapes and sizes to topple on top of her before the shelf itself came down, going with her through the ceiling and landing on top of her, making it seem as though the girl was pinned beneath. It wasn't the bookshelf that kept her in place on the ground, rather it was the metal bar impaling her through the shoulder. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have hit anything important, but it hurt like crazy. Bits of the ceiling rained down, blood was running into her eyes and blurring her vision. The remaining security guards that hadn't been in the blown up parts of the building surrounded them, whether it was to protect or kill them Alice wasn't sure.

Alice wouldn't find out until much later though as the blood loss was making her sleepy and she gave in quickly, wanting the pain to stop.

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Lucy spent the next few minutes attempting to refrain from rolling her eyes. She sighed and shook her head at Ophie and Fey's feud, wondering why those two even bothered. Suddenly an explosion rocked the building, then another, and finally, two that hit the library. Lucy fell through the floor, landing on a pile of debris. Instantly Lucy was on her feet, dodging falling pieces of the floor that had once been above them and attempting to seek shelter in case of another explosion. Soon the shaking stopped, there was a gaping hole in the building. In fact, most of the wards had been blown up. The basement was still safely tucked beneath the ground and only one section of the building remained. Guards flooded the area they were in, seeing as how majority of the other areas had been completely blown away. Lucy's legs began to shake as her PTSD returned with a full frontal assault.

She got to the ground, hugging herself in an attempt to warm up. All those things she avoided thinking about rose to the surface; the explosions, the rocking of the buildings, the shackling of chains, and then the torture. She couldn't have a break down here, not in front of all of the others. Her breath was visible in the cold, instead, Lucy focused on that. She was rather unharmed having fallen through the ceiling into something that softened the blow of the ground beneath. Some of the others weren't so lucky. What remained of the medical staff were running around, attempting to save whatever children they could. Lucy turned away, her stomach heaving. She closed her eyes, head tilted towards the sky in an attempt to breath in something other than ash. A security guard stepped forward, draping his jacket across her shoulders.

Lucy had no idea what they were going to do, the med bay was the only piece of the building still standing. Most likely hundreds of civilians and children were dead, buried beneath the rubble of what was once their temporary home. Lucy couldn't help but feel as though she were going to cry, wherever she went death and destruction followed. Who would bomb a home full of innocents and children? Her eyes widened as she realized just who they may have been dealing with. The cult, the same one that had kidnapped her what seemed like years ago; what if this was their doing? The thought made the shaking worse. One of the security agents managed to get Lucy on her feet and led her to a room in the med bay where the children who didn't need immediate medical attention were to wait so that those who were most injured could go first.

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Ophie observed the exchange between Ambrose (Amber?) and Poppy with amusement. Taking the marble, and Poppy's futile and pathetic attempts to get it back - it was pure comedy gold. If she could, Ophie would be throwing money at the performance for such a job well done. Everything was simply-

And then everything went upside-down. Ophie stared at the upside-down world, wondering why everyone else was standing on the ceiling and why she felt blood rushing to her head.

If Ophie had been standing where she was when the explosion hit, she most certainly would have died a horrible and bloody death. As it was, though, the instant it arrived, her spider reflexes kicked in, and almost without thinking, Ophie leapt to the ceiling in a single bound, claws digging into it as she clung, desperately, against the shaking of the building. This evasion attempt more or less allowed Ophie to stay out of sight of the guards for now - they swarmed in and started bundling everyone up. It was utter chaos - and while Ophie was fine with it, she didn't necessarily want her toys being broken by someone else. They were her toys, not for some random idiotic bomber to kill, but rather, herself.

Rage filled Ophie's mind, shuddering.

If I ever find out who did this...

Ophie would do better than make the culprit one of her toys. She'd paralyze him with her toxins and drag him into the dephts of despair. She'd hunt down everyone the bomber ever cared about and slowly kill them as painfully as possible in front of him as he lay, helpless to resist or help. She'd then allow him to live - but blind and limbless, to suffer for all eternity, trapped in the hell of his own mind. Ophie couldn't help licking her lips in pleasure at the idea. Not many deserved this kind of fate, but Ophie didn't mind being a monster that hunted worse monsters.

And someone who hurt someone else's toys definitely counted as the worst of the worst.

The first thing Ophie did was string up a chunk of the ceiling to prevent it from falling. It was directly above Fey's head, and well, she wanted the guy to owe her. Not that he'd honor it, but so that she'd have something to hold above him. The thought pacified Ophie just a slightest tad. Overdosing the chunk with webbing had an almost cathartic effect.

That was when Ophie saw her roommate, Alice, impaled by what looked like a large metal rod. Ophie was infuriated - how dare someone else hurt her toy like this? Only she (and maybe Crux or Fey) were allowed to do such a thing! She dropped down in the middle of a group of guards debating yanking her out of it, the imbeciles.

"Um, move aside, please." Ophie's voice squeaked timidly. "I want to help, okay?"

"Hey, wait, 734-"

Ophie ignored the inept security guard. They were only ever good for one thing - killing practice with Fey. Everything else was a waste of air and space She stared at the large metal rod sticking through Alice's shoulder and calmly waited for the girl to pass out. Sensing she was unconscious from the blood loss, Ophie quickly strung up a complicated series of webs around the pole, the ceiling, herself, and Alice. With a careful yank, the steel pole was removed and blood gushed anew. Ophie then strung up the wound as best as she could, preventing the blood flow from worsening.

What? Ophie took good care of her toys, that's all. It's not like she really cared or anything.

With that, the arachnid girl followed everyone else to the med bay, nudging at Fey to carry Alice, since she didn't trust the guards to do a good job of it.

She then saw Lily? Lori? That tall lion chick in what seemed to be the throws of trauma. Ophie half wanted to just ignore her, but she knew she had an opportunity to forge some kind of bond. A guard ushered the lion girl into a room away from the injured, and Ophie followed. With the barest of reluctance, she webbed Lucy's eyes shut, preventing her from seeing the chaos.

"Lion girl, shh. Stop shaking, okay?"Ophie's voice was sugary sweet, devoid of the usual hint of venom. "It's gonna be all right. You're scared, right? Ophie's here for you. Ophie will block your ears too, if you want. Just take the webs out once you calm down, okay?

With that, Ophie conjured more webs, this time plugging the lion's ears. With that, she sat herself down at Lucy's feet, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of exhaustion. She lazily and sleepily curled up beside her, with a satisfied, catlike grin.

Look how human I am now, you idiotic scientists.

Ophie pretty quickly felt someone scoop her up in their arms. It was Crux of all people, and Ophie trusted him more than anyone else. She grinned childishly at him through the bleary exhaustion, and he lightly stroked her cheek in return. Crux had his wicked arrogant grin plastered on his face as he fought his way out of the medical room with little to no effort. Ophie blinked a few times but couldn't really muster the strength to help much. It was fine though - she felt more than happy as she was snuggled against her best friend's chest.

"Ophie, we're getting out of here." Crux seemed to have a plan in mind, and Ophie was more than fine with that. Escaping this prison - allowing to be able to wreck havoc yet again in the real world? Ophie was more than happy to oblige. "Just trust me, babe. We can take over the world once we're out. Sleep tight, princess."

Princess. Ophie liked the sound of that. She lazily allowed Crux the honor of killing the guards in their great escape, barreling through the halls.

"Ophie trusts you..."Ophie's voice was a sleepy contented purr and she curled herself closer to Crux's chest. The blood mixed with debris from the explosions only made the whole thing funner. If things got bad enough, the arachnid girl might just decide to join in on the fun. She was still exhausted from recent events though - she really did get lazy, huh? During the war, Ophie could last for hours stringing up an entire city inside her webs, yet now she could only last a few minutes? Pathetic.

It wasn't long until the two were outside. That was when Ophie realized that something was very, very wrong. Her best friend, Crux - what was he doing? Ophie wriggled as best as she could but was pinned by Crux's stronger arm. Crux was presenting her to the insurgents that had attacked the facility - Crux was handing her over to the fuckers that dared to hurt her toys!

"Just sit still, princess." Ophie shuddered, and not from the freezing cold of the tundra. Crux's voice wasn't the teasing yet almost brotherly timbre it usually was. Instead was a cold, calculated smug-like hiss as his snake-like qualities shone. Ophie shivered yet again. "Hey, take this girl. As long as she's restrained, she's powerless. You can make her into an amazing weapon, or a perfect, adorable little slave to abuse however you want. In return, I'm leaving this joint. Deal?"

Ophie was about to be handed over like a prize, and there was nothing she could do about it but glare at her former best friend with hurt and hatred - the spider girl couldn't differentiate which emotion was stronger.

"I trusted you!

"Aren't you a fool to trust a monster?

That girl was persistent. But of course, if she wasn't that'd be too boring. It was what made it worth taunting her, after all. She doesn't give in even if she doesn't retaliate most of the time, like she was trying to fight back silently. It was amusing, if not annoying. "Why won't you speak?" He asked as she stepped on his foot, her force meaning nothing to the sheer power Amber could reach. If he really wanted to he would have already crushed the marble. "Hey, say something won't ya? You want this back don't you?" Amber asked curiously, shaking off her grip on his arm as he reached out and shoved her to the ground again, rather roughly. "Come on, make this more interesting for me."

"Huh. That's no fun if you can't sp-" Amber was going to finish his next sentence, but then the room shook, interrupting him and causing him to fall back. Growling in impatience, Amber gripped the red orb tightly with one hand and pulled Poppy's hand instinctively with the other. Thank god Ambrose wasn't there, he'd probably stay there and wait patiently for instructions until something fell on him and killed him. Speaking of which, Alice was already pinned to the ground by a metal rod, causing Amber's eyes to narrow with rage. Oh the things he'd do to the people who dared to do this to them. Still, Ophie was already attending to her, and out of all the subjects Ophie was the one he put his faith in the most. What was important now was his own escape from this crumbling room.

"Fuck." Amber snarled as he pushed away a piece of falling debris, sharp red eyes now completely alert and scanning the area. His fingers were still around Poppy's hand, she reminded him too much of how Ambrose was going to react to leave her completely alone. This was chaos all around him, no matter where he looked. There were officials, sure, but when did they ever do something beneficial? Kicking shelves and furniture out of his way, Amber managed to clear a path for them to get to the med Bay, where he released Poppy's hand, sitting down next to her. His eyes were half shut once again, in the presence of those troublesome Guards. Not all of them were there, they were still missing Fey and Ophie, though that was none of his business.

The current objective was to keep himself alive, everything else can come after that. "You can have it back." Amber stated as he pushed the marble back into Poppy's hands, feeling disinterested in her lack of ability to talk. What's the point of torturing someone if they don't scream?

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Cold | Resolute | Sardonic | Loner
|| Burn it Down ▮ Ready, Aim, Fire ||
⎡ EXP# - G98294 ▮ Speech - #0000AD⎦

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This post co-authored by The_Queen
How To Deal with Traitors

"It's about time you got here," Lucy replied bluntly, as though she had been expecting him this entire time. "What took you so long?"

Lucy started walking toward him, tugging Vittoria along with her to the car, helping her in and closing the door while Fey returned to his seat. "Where'd you get the wheels?" Lucy asked as she got into the shotgun seat, taking the time to, of all things, buckle her seatbelt. Fey gave her a confused look at the action; why? He knew humans used them for their safety, but it was just funner not to anyway and got in the way. Strange girl.

"You'd better gun it, those s-o-b's are closing in behind us," she hooked a thumb in the direction behind them towards where the humans were tumbling after them, practically jumping over themselves to stop the car. 

Fey shrugged. "Whatever." He disregarded, unconcerned about them - if it was the tank, he might be a little worried, but they were slow and there was no way they'd sent the tank after them, even if the humans had figured out he'd woken up and taken over the vehicle.

There was another muffled thump from the trunk as he threw the car in reverse and backed out of the place - obviously the leader wasn't here, and neither were any of the wardens, so it was pointless to stay. After sparing a brief thought to the two unconscious people in the trunk and their health after banging around in there at such close quarters (not that he actually cared, just curiosity), he threw the car into drive again and took off, now heading to see if anything at all could be salvaged form the guard's quarters. A few tazers and/or his sword would be nice. Really nice.

"Want anything from the guard's place?" Fey asked the two girls.

"Do they have any booze?" The female's tone was sarcastic, but her expression was serious. Fey gave her a slightly disdainful glance, glaring back at her slightly insolent expression.

"Oh, I'm sure they do." He said, purely to torment her a bit. "Bitch, a bomb just blew up the entire quarters, all the glass in the entire damn facility is broken. And you want to get drunk?"

"I was kidding! Jeeze, live a little." Lucy shot back. Fey noticed her rolling her eyes in the reflection in her passenger side window The girl crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back a bit, staring at the passing scenery with a little bit of unusual interest. "We're not gonna last out there very long." She said, in a guarded tone.

"I know, I don't care, and I can just take a few scientists with us. Trade them for the guards, maybe." He responded, tone thoughtful on the last sentence with a glance to the back seat, past Vittoria.

"That's a good idea, if you know where to find them."

"Again. The place just got blown up. They've made a survival encampment to treat the wounded of course, have some common sense." Fey sighed. This, this right here was why he always avoided people in general.

"You're an idiot if you think they're stupid enough to gather in one area like that. These humans may seem like idiots, but they are the ones that made us."

"They're still humans. Right now, one of two things is happening - people are freaking out trying to find their friends, or the place is being evacuated. Since there's a small Army with a tank waiting for them and no one leaving, that eliminates the second one." Fey retorted in his usual logical way of thinking. (In actuality, they were both wrong; the facility was currently in absolute chaos, since some of the more dangerous experiments from underground had gotten free of the cages - but they didn't exactly know about that. They would soon enough though.)

The sound of gunfire, and tings as it hit metal; Fey knew they'd been discovered, and jerked the wheel far to the left, sending them around the corner of the building with squealing tires, into the space that used to be a small court on the outside, where the single hall that connected the guards quarters to the rest of the building used to be; when he'd passed it earlier there had been a giant slab of cement across the opening, no doubt from he explosion. Just as he'd thought, the tunnel was completely gone. Fey eased up a little bit on the gas now they were in the narrower space, and turned sharply to the right, directly into the tunnel to the guard's quarters - what was left of it anyway. It was enough to shelter them though.

"Oh good, they were waiting for us." Lucy replied with a shake of her head. She ducked just as a bullet went through the windshield.

It seemed that their value had expired, and now they were being targeted like the monsters they knew the humans always thought them to be. Fey did a quick check out the back, seeing humans around the opening to the outside, deciding opening the door was too dangerous so carefully vacated the vehicle using the opening left by the windshield, keeping his head low, then hit the ground using every ounce of speed he could as he darted down the corridor and round the corner, hearing Lucy and Vittoria right behind them. This part of the facility seemed untouched; except of course for the broken glass and items dropped everywhere, no doubt from the shockwave of one of the explosions. The instant the other two were past him, he smashed the panel on the wall, the plastic box that protected a single red button; ah how ironic it was, that the security implements put in to save the staff would end up saving the Experiments instead.

Thankfully it seemed the alarm sirens were dead; the metal gate slammed closed without the slowing mechanism or any fanfare but for the loud crash of metal when they met.

"How nice of them to install these for us." Fey murmured cynically, knowing the other two could hear him.

"They prepared it just for us." Lucy muttered, tracing her hand along the wall. She stopped, seemingly recalling something. "I've been here before, the armory, it's this way." She informed, striding off down the corridor, following the red markers on the wall - assuming he didn't know.

"I know where the damn place is, I used to come here to freak out the guards." He explained, distinctly uncomfortable with how polite it sounded, as if attempting to spare her trouble. His voice dropped a note quieter as he followed it up with,"They keep our possessions from before this place there, you know."

Having had plenty enough of sounding remotely friendly for quite a while, he took off with long strides down the corridor, heading for the armory. Lucy nodded her head in response, following along after him.

After rounding two corners they came to the door, metal thing it was; it was dirty, but still intact.

This was the one password he didn't know; it changed every day, so while he'd known it several times, he didn't currently. Lucy walked over to the scanner and pressed her hand against it, frowning, then looked up with a bit of surprise when the device beeped once and the door hissed, the locks being released instantly. Lucy blinked, staring at her hand, then at the palm scanner. "That's odd." Lucy mumbled, as if to herself. Fey entered quickly; going right to the back of the room, and kneeling down to open the bottom drawer, where he knew they kept his sword; probably the only thing remotely important to him. He'd had it as long as he could remember, it was the weapon he'd been trained to use since he was just three years old; he couldn’t remember a time when he hadn't had it. Ophie often teased him that it was like he had a blankie. A blankie that had taken at least a hundred lives and was extremely sharp, as Fey liked to point out, and was made of steel double hardened and could cut through rock. But it was the thought that counted in that case; she was just looking for something to tease him about. Even he himself found it ironic that the only thing he showed gentleness towards was a weapon meant for killing things.

He slung the sash around his waist and tied it in a single movement, slightly more relaxed than he'd ever been seen this past while at the facility; finally, he had his favorite weapon back. Now satisfied with life in general, he turned back and returned to the front of the room, relieving the facility's supplies of two tazers, a swiss army knife, three lighters, and a needlepoint dagger which he broke the blade off of and shoved into the space made previously between the sole of his shoe and the shoe itself; a hidden dagger that had proved quite useful in the past.

Fey did wonder however how they'd known he hid one there before; they'd taken it when he'd been captured. It was actually a fairly uncommon hiding place for them, despite the movies humans watched; an innate fear of accidentally cutting ones self on it he supposed. However, he'd literally been trained from birth in regards to weapons and such, so that was a distinctly lacking reaction in him. Nonetheless, it was always fun to see someone's face when he would use that particular knife; the 'wait, seriously?' look. It was often fairly hilarious and entertaining.

Lucy entered after him, going straight to the daggers and knives that had been confiscated upon entry. She strapped a dagger to her thigh, hiding three more beneath her shirt and visibly relaxing. It was odd how having a weapon could make one feel comfortable, although it could provide an element of safety and self defense. Not that they used them for that. "VIttoria did you get anything?" The blonde asked, turning towards the other girl, and took a few more daggers before she walked over to her.

"Huh? Oh, no,  I'm not going to be taking anything. There wasn't exactly anything that they took from me that I think has any real value to it anyways." The quiet girl spoke up.

 Lucy nodded her head once, seemingly ignoring Fey, who was getting increasingly irritated in the confined space, though was much more comfortable now he had weapons. "Alright and Fey seems to have more weapons than he knows what to do with, so I'd say we're all ready to go."

Fey gave the girl a glance before walking out of the room, giving a few other weapons considering glances as he did, taking some kind of explosive as he passed it purely to have a wild card along. Who knew what was in it; could have been teargas, flash, a sleeping gas, or just a regular grenade. He speculated it wouldn’t be though; after all, this place had been designed to repress the Experiments for the most part, not kill them. That would be the lower levels; so probably one of the former. Now however they needed to get one of those scientists.

It seems they got out right on time, because the moment Vittoria had cleared the entryway a loud metallic snap was heard and the entire room collapsed, sending a flood of debris into the air. Perhaps the amount of metal reinforcing the walls of the room had in the end been too much for the concrete, after all the explosions. Either way, Fey was glad they hadn't had an earthquake or anything while they'd been staying here. Vittoria was thrown forward by the force, but managed to regain her balance after hopping forward several times in an attempt to keep her feet under her.

Lucy coughed, waving dust particles away from her face. "So... What now?"

Fey gave a slight shrug of the shoulders, considering. "How should I know? Today has been fucked up in case you didn't notice. Next thing could be that some goddamn aliens land with the intent to make a peace treaty."

Even as he spoke though, he started walking off, back towards the car. Hopefully the invaders wouldn't have moved past the entry point, thinking they were waiting on the other side of the metal door. The way there was silent but for the faintest taps of their shoes echoing in the more undamaged part of the halls here, and once or twice the faint sounds of falling rock and metal.

The door was still intact; it seemed they hadn't tried to force their way past after all. Fey stopped, closing his eyes to concentrate on his hearing; the metal didn't exactly let much sound past it, but he couldn't hear any voices or gunfire. It was silent. Keeping his senses on extra-sharp, he pressed the button again to release the doors, hearing the click as they unlocked; but they didn't move. Most likely the mechanism had broken, and now couldn't retract them. Well, all the better for them. Fey walked over to the door, pushing one heavy panel back - it was pretty freak'n heavy, even to him - by about a foot to peer out.

Lucy clearly debated whether she should help Fey or not and decided to go see what he was up to. She gave him his space though and made sure to stay out of his way so as not to upset him. "You know, now that we're free, we should just kill 'em all." 

Fey let out a faint scoff. "What do you think I got all the weapons for?" He murmured analytically, mostly to himself, more concentrated on sensing his surroundings that talking.

"I don't know, I figured you were a bit of an S&M kind of guy." She replied sarcastically. 

"Maybe a little. If anyone was good enough to be interested in." He admitted freely. "Mostly in the sense that whoever tried would end up dead."

Lucy giggled, there was no way to suppress it. "It makes sense they would only make males with no interest in breeding." She wandered back over to Vittoria, growing bored. 

Fey gave her a wry, sarcastic look and decided that the coast was clear, turning and going to the car that was still parked in the middle of the hallway, blocking the way for the most part to the other direction the T hall led to. Going to the driver's side, he snatched the keys from the ignition and went around to the trunk, unlocking it.

Instantly one of the two men he'd trapped in back flung himself out at him - surprisingly it wasn’t the Army man but the civilian, and rather than attacking he seemed to be running from the other inside the trunk, or doing his best at it. They'd somehow gotten their hands untied, but hadn't been able to figure out the knot on the gags in the dark, luckily enough. Fey wondered just what the Army man had done to the other in there as he merely stuck a foot out and tripped the guy before he could get away, like some human kid in a schoolyard would do, and watched with a vague sort of interest as the the force of stopping so fast sent to guy down like a tree, too quickly to catch himself. Fey tipped his head, studying the civilian one for a moment before looking at the Army man, who looked terrified and was slowly going red the longer Fey stared at him, as if caught doing something embarrassing.

Lucy helped Vittoria back to the car. For now the coast was clear, although she doubted it would stay so for long. After she'd put the other girl into the back seat, Fey grabbed the Army one by his arm and pulled him from the trunk. He yelped, hopping up and down once he was out in an attempt to get his balance, then Fey shoved him at the girl. For some reason his instincts were telling him not to let they guy near him. At all. In any situation. Then he leaned down and picked the civilian one up, who looked oddly relieved for someone who was being kept prisoner and kept throwing fearful glances over his shoulder at the Army one once Fey had turned around and dragged the civilian after him, taking out the flip knife from his pocket as he walked and pointing it was the guard once they reached the opening in the doors he'd made, holding the guard in front of him hostage style.

Lucy held the officer in her grasp, grabbing one of the knives from under her shirt and pressing it against the flesh of his neck. She followed Fey's lead, unsure what his game was but looking somewhat confident. Fey continued on with only a glance back at her, making sure the Army man wasn't looking as if he was going to try getting away; they needed him alive for the moment. When they reached the entrance to the tunnel, there was a sudden yell and sounds of guns arming themselves; apparently they hadn't realized that the ones walking behind their fellows were Experiments. Fey stopped and waited, as a small troupe of three people cautiously approached, guns raised.

Once they were close enough, he spoke. "We need to talk to a scientist - the one that makes the serum. If that person comes here and proves they are the person that makes it, we will let these two go, alive." He stated.

The commander of the Facility's guards arched an eyebrow at them. "Why? So you can kill him? Do you want to die?"

"We can kill him and then, once his slow and painful death comes to an end, we'll kill you too. Unless you agree to our terms."

"Then why not trade for your friends who the intruders have in custody?"

Fey actually gave in a showed a bit of emotion - pure, unadulterated confusion. "... Friends?" He questioned, not understanding at all.

The guard faltered, staring at him for a moment, then continued as if remembering something. "Yes, your friends - your fellow Experiments, I believe you call those two Alice and Ophie. They are being kept by them and questioned in a holding cell designed for their breeds."

"Oh." Fey accepted noncommittally, and shrugged. "So that's what you meant. If they got caught it's their own damned fault. If they're weak, they'll die. If they're not, they'll find a way through it themselves, eventually. That has nothing to do with us." He dismissed.

Lucy's expression hardened. It was obvious that she instantly knew who the soldier was referring to. It was also obvious that she was not pleased by this news. For his part, Fey just shrugged it off, narrowing his eyes in threat at the guard. "What's your answer?" He demanded.

After a moment, the guard nodded. "We'll get the scientist so you may speak with him. There is no need to go one the offensive here." He sighed, looking a bit annoyed at having to agree with them. Lucy looked to Fey, her expression was unreadable and her posture relaxed. She almost seemed to be at ease, but Fey could see the underlying tension in her stance, and Fey realized idly that she might not even have realized they would need someone with them that could make the serum, since they were now apparently going underground to wait out the battle between the Facility people and the Others. The three guards turned to walk back to the camp, complying, and Fey allowed a small smirk, which seemed to severely piss off the majority of the guards.

Not three minutes later someone appeared from behind the guard lines - the two Experiments facing the guards down vaguely recognized him, having seen him watching them once or twice.

An obvious sign of recognition adorned Lucy's face. The mask of indifference now gone, Lucy's body went rigid. It was a subtle, but very direct signal given by the man who had emerged from behind the line of guards. He was quite recognizable; golden brown skin and hair bleached to pure white. Tau, the head of the Science division, the one of the people who helped create them; he'd only been in charge for the last year or so, after they were taken out of action.

"You." Lucy growled, unintentionally pressing the knife deeper into the Soldier in her grasp's throat. Fey gave her a slight warning glance. Lucy returned his glance with a look of her own. This was the same look she used to wither humans and make them obey her, although it probably wouldn't work on Fey. Undeterred, Fey looked back to the humans as they approached, releasing the guard in his hold and shoving him at the leader of the guards, then quickly held up the grenade, to some extremely tense looks. Fey flicked his head towards the hall leading to their car, behind the metal doors.

The Scientist took a shaky breath and started walking past them, looking as if he completely believed he was going to die. As if they would let him so easily - they needed him to survive after all. Well, probably, but they needed one that could make the serum, and only the higher-ups were in one that little secret. He was the only one they were guaranteed would know. Once the scientist reached him, Fey started taking measured steps backward, still facing the guards. When they were right next to Lucy and the other guards however, there was a shout from among them, and one holding binoculars towards the back pointed towards the front of the facility, hopping down from a bunch of rubble. The thrum of engines reached Fey's ears, and just moments later, several of the off-roading cars belonging to the intruders swept around the corner going full-tilt at them. The guards as one took off towards the side of their path, the cars screeching to a halt where they had just been, doors swinging open even before they stopped to reveal a bunch of the invaders, in light bulletproof vests and such, just like the ones of the guards he'd previously knocked out.

Of course it was a trap. These humans were utterly predictable; it was almost adorable how they thought they could pull the upper hand with a stunt like that. In one swift move, Lucy killed the soldier within her grasp. He let out a beautiful strangled cry, the final sound before death, and fell to the ground in an unceremonious lump. Lucy stepped over his body, seemingly unbothered and positioned herself at the ready. Fey gave her an annoyed look; they could have used him, at the very least as a bulletproof shield... he was more focused on the new arrivals though. Somehow, they'd gotten the memo that this was where everyone was; well, at least there was still one bargaining chip on the field. The Facility guards had one of their own; meaning option one, they would want him back, option two, they would kill him for being a possible information leak. Which seeing as they would see he was still gagged, would probably go with the first one. Thus, they had people they wanted things from on both sides and nothing to give in return, as they probably didn’t realize that the other Experiments wouldn’t bargain going with them to be reunited with their lost 'friends'.

The car door opened to reveal a familiar face; Capt. Genma, of the Army they once fought for. "Wonderful, this oblivious jackass again." He sighed, then turned and simply continued walking towards shelter, dragging the scientist with him, whom gave a surprised squeak.

Lucy furrowed her brow. "You know him?"

"He was in the Army with us - the commander of the camp I was placed in." Fey answered.

"Should we kill him?" 

"Sure, I don’t really care. We kind of need to get out of the way of the guns though, do I'd say later."

"Fine." Lucy sighed. 

One of the intruding party from each car ran over to the former Army man, saluting, and one handed him a bullhorn, which he immediately switched on and pointed at them.

"SURRENDER NOW AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED. DON'T COMPLY, AND YOU WILL BE KILLED." His voice rang out. "WE HAVE YOUR FRIENDS IN OUR POSSESSION. WE CAN AND WILL HARM THEM. SURRENDER, FEY AND LUCY."

"Yeah, let's surrender, so that we can be locked up in cages again and disposed of when we are no longer useful, or not surrender and get shot. Or, we could just kill you all. Such a choice. Note the sarcasm." Fey growled quietly, the humans far too distant to be able to hear. The scientist gave him an odd look.

Lucy shook her head, disappointed in the humans. "You overestimate our capacity for love. You see, we don't care what happens to one another. In fact, we'd rather kill our fellows before we get along with them." Of course Lucy was playing them. While she didn't like the other experiments in her group, she couldn't very well let the humans simply kill them like this.

Not hearing their murmured words, after a moment a small party including the former Captain broke off, walking towards them. The Captain started talking again as they approached. "Well? What's your answer, Fey? I need my attack dogs back, better dead than alive and working against me though."

Fey turned his gaze to Lucy as he heard a faint metallic clatter; she had dropped her knife, her hands shaking. "My-my body, it's moving against my will." She grit out, glaring at the Captain. Fey glanced between her and the Captain - he wasn’t quite able to catch up to what was going on. So far, all he gather was that the Captain was leasing these forces; saying he wanted to kill them. But he just couldn't understand that. Captain Genma was one of the sympathizers of the Experiments - that one who gave his group real names. What, exactly, was going on here?

"Stop it!" Lucy screamed, snatching the knife from the ground, and suddenly lunged at Fey, her eyes glazed. Fey gave her an odd look, easily sidestepping the attack - she hadn’t been trying, not in the least. The Captain smiled. Fey narrowed his eyes at him.

"... What? Did you think I was some wimp who was just happy where I was, being trampled by the higher ups, just because I was one rank too low to be considered for their respect? Some idiot who thought you had some human in you? Did you really think I was that stupid?”

Fey blinked a couple of times, finally figuring it out. "Well... yeah, pretty much." He shrugged, no longer caring about his intentions; they didn’t matter. He was just another enemy, unlike before; he'd become one of the crowd, believing them monsters, just like everyone else. Yet another hypocritical human, background noise. How dare this idiot try and make him think he was one of the ones worthy of being allowed to live - attempting to throw him off by 'betraying' him.

….. Was this guy an imbecile? Fey had always thought of him as an idiot, but was he actually a total and complete moron? He seriously thought he was going to be able to effect Fey by betraying him; where there wasn't even really something to betray in the first place? Humans were so, so idiotic, that it was almost impressive!

The Captain frowned at him, then looked at Lucy. "Come here." He demanded, as if commanding some little house dog. Lucy went stiff, but seemingly of their own accord, her feet marched her over to him."You see Fey, you've been dancing to my tune all along, it was only recently you began to regain a mind of your own." The Captain winked. He stroked Lucy's cheek possessively, suddenly grabbing her by the throat and throwing her to the ground. "Stay there!" He barked, placing his foot on her back as though in a show of dominance. "I'm going to make you my obedient puppet once again." the human spoke, his grin wide.

Fey again, was a little bit dumbstruck... and then in an exceedingly rare show, burst out laughing. Hysterically. With no restraint. And even wiped away a few tears after about ten seconds. Grin wide, it took a full thirty five seconds before he could bring it under control enough to answer. "Now I remember! I didn’t let you live before because you were worthy of it - you were just too entertaining to kill! Damn, that's hilarious Captain. I didn’t expect it - not even a little! Kudos!" He forced out, then had to stop to calm himself again before it made him laugh again. It was far too out of keeping with his character to be just standing there laughing like a lunatic; he refused to let it happen twice in one conversation. I dunno what you did to Lucy, and I don't really care, but could you tell me so I have something to blackmail her with? Blackmail is always useful."

The Captain frowned deeply at him, taking his foot off Lucy as he walked a couple paces closer to Fey, searching his expression. Fey arched an eyebrow. "..... No?…Damn. And it would have been perfect too.”

The Captain clenched his jaw at Fey, now looking seriously ticked.

"Okay, at least answer this. How'd you know where we were?"

A cruel smile twisted the Captain’s lips. "Why, one of your own betrayed you of course, Fey... your little darling Gaige."

Fey blinked, and then smiled widely again. Finally, the excuse to kill Gaige he'd been waiting for - in order to not piss off the other Experiments, he always made sure to have an actual reason for killing them. His patience had been rewarded; the perfect excuse just dropped right into his lap. Gaige was a traitor. "Awesome, thanks. Lucy, and you, Scientist guy, hold your breath because I'm not quite sure what kind of bomb this is!" He warned cheerily, and with that he slammed a foot into the Captains chest, hearing something crack, and threw the bomb with him, taking a deep breath as he did and spinning around even before the person and mystery grenade had hit the ground, calling ahead to Vittoria to be in the car and ready to go, snatching Lucy off the ground and the scientist by whatever he could and taking off running for the hall, as the bomb exploded behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the Captain - who'd somehow been able to stand despite the cracked rib before the thing went off - reel and then face plant into the ground completely limp as the sleeping gas knocked him out.

As soon as they were out of the Captain's range, Lucy blinked, coming to. She looked half asleep, as though she were just waking up from a long nap. "...You can put me down now." She demanded, refusing to look at him, a hand coming up to hold together her shirt, which was still torn from the explosions that morning. Fey let go of her, and she landed easily on her feet, then took off again, the scientist stumbling several times as he tried to keep up.

Lucy pulled the knife in her thigh sheath out, following right behind him. Whenever the scientist stumbled she would look back, clearly wondering if the man knew that he had two feet and not just one stumbling stub. Finally he fell and Lucy clearly couldn't take it anymore, she picked the fully grown man up by his shirt and carried him bridal style to the car. "Get in." the female barked, practically throwing him into the back with Vittoria before getting into the front. 

Fey opened the car door and got in, already having thrown the car in reverse and pressing down on the gas by the time the keys were in the ignition. They shot backwards before Lucy could even fully close the door, and he pulled a hard left and then thew it into drive, swinging them around and forward. Behind them, several of the cars took off after them.

"My vote says we go get the others so that jackass can't have the satisfaction of killing one of our own." He stated calmly.

"I couldn't agree more." Lucy replied with a nod of her head. This time she didn't bother with the seat belt, knowing the cult, they had to be quick if they wanted to save their comrades. 

The human yelped and drew his knees up to his head as the car accelerated even more, and Fey pressed the buttons to roll down all the windows so the wind generated would have somewhere to go, since the windshield was missing. The car was silent for quite a bit as they navigated a few turns at high speeds, attempting to throw off the perusers, on their way to the other side of the building - towards the encampment.

A figure appeared on the road ahead. "Is that Gaige up there?" Lucy asked, leaning forward against the wind slightly.

Fey narrowed his eyes at the far-off figure. "... Yep." Fey answered calmly, recognizing his form - the traitor.

"Er- shouldn't you slow down?" The human piped up, yelling a bit over the wind, though they could hear him perfectly fine.

"Nope."

"Speed limits are for losers." Lucy informed.

Fey kept the pressure on the gas pedal steady as they approached the boy.

"... You're going to hit him!" The human exclaimed, seeming even more concerned at their speed now.

"That's the point." Both Lucy and Fey chorused.

The human blinked once, and then suddenly they were on him, the entire car jolting when the car smacked right into the boy, then the jolt from running over him nearly making them hit their heads on the ceiling when they hit the speed bump that was once Gaige. After a final jolt as the back wheels went over him too, Fey hit the gas again, and they raced forward.

"Oops." Lucy snickered, sitting back and turning her head around to stare out the back window as the ground disappeared behind them.

"Not really..." Fey gave her a slightly confused look.

"Sarcasm," Lucy replied with a wink.

"No, really." He shot back wryly, then shifted gears again as they neared the camp to the off-roading one.

The first thing they hit was a tent, though from the lack of bumps he'd say they didn't hit any humans. Tarp trailing behind in the wind, they cut a path straight through the camp to the trailers in back, to a symphony of screaming, a bit of gunfire, and of course crashed as objects were scattered everywhere like bowling pins, until Fey finally let them slow down and pulled into park by one of the trailers, opening the door and hopping out in front of a shocked human's face. "Would you happen to know where the Experiments are being held? Ah, and some keys would be nice too." He requested.

The human fainted, dropping with no resistance whatsoever, like a brick wall, and landed with a small thud. Fey blinked down at him, then looked up at the one who had been standing behing the first human. "What about you?"

Lucy stepped out of the car as the second human ran screaming, slamming the door behind her. "Watch him," she warned Vittoria before running after Fey, gripping one of her knives in her hands. 

Fey gave her a slightly despairing look. She returned it with a look of her own, "I know this place." 

"Then show the way already." Fey growled in annoyance. "Don't just stand there staring."

"Don't get your panties in a twist." Lucy muttered in reply, walking towards a trailer a couple down from them. Fey followed, glaring at the humans, who were simply standing and trying to comprehend what was going on. Reaching the trailer, Lucy went around to the back of it near the tail lights. She brushed a strand of blonde hair over her shoulder and kicked a pile of snow, kneeling down to reveal a door in the ground rather than the trailer. A hidden space. Fey reached for it and tugged at the chain, testing it's strength, and then put one foot at the base of it to get leverage. The chain made an incredibly loud grinding sound when he pulled on it as hard as he could, then snapped.

Not bothering with the ladder, Lucy jumped down, landing on her tiptoes. Fey let himself free-fall down after her, landing completely silently - the wonders of cat DNA. The place was dark, and he felt his pupils blow wide to adjust. Ahead of him, Lucy went down the short hallway and to the door here, took a deep breath, turned the doorknob and pushed the entrance open. Fey noticed her shiver, and wondered if this was the place that they had taken her to when she'd previously been kidnapped. She shivered again and then bolted, easily leading the way down twists and turns of corridors and tunnels. The first human they came across gave only at most a small surprised squeak before Lucy had shanked him. "Excuse me, I'm a bit lost. Mind pointing me out in the way of the holding cells?"

The man coughed up blood, a look of terror crossing his face as he shakily pointed the way down one of the halls.

"Thanks."

Lucy twisted the knife and pulled it out, stepping over the body, and then continued running, as if the devil was on their heels. After a few more halls and sharp turns, Lucy slowed, approaching the last door cautiously and trying the knob. It was locked of course, but she slammed a hand down and merely broke off the knob, swinging the door in.

Inside, two figures were floating, unconscious inside a sealed kind of tank full of water, with clear sides. Ophie was missing a hand, Alice was missing a wing. They were both in awful shape. "Shit, shit, shit!" a string of curses came from Lucy's mouth, and then she turned and darted back down the hall the way they came. Fey stared after her for a moment, wondering what in the world she was doing, then shrugged it off and went into the room himself, giving the entire place a cursory scan for cameras and weapons and the such that the humans who arrived to stop them might attempt to use. Lucy appeared again a moment later, dragging the body of the guard she's previously killed, and then snatched his arm and pressed his hand onto the palm scanner keeping the water tank locked. The door beeped and slid open, the water, and bodies, coming out with it.

"Please still be alive," Lucy muttered as she listened for a heartbeat in Ophie's chest. It was there, but it was faint. Lucy knelt down by them started chest compressions on Ophie in order to get the water out, pushing down on Ophie's chest in even compressions. "Come on," Lucy begged, pinching the bridge of Ophie's nose and forcing air into the spider's lungs. "You damn spider, don't give up living just yet." Lucy looked back at Fey, "Don't just stand there! Take care of Alice!"

Fey continued just staring. "... Why do you assume we were taught CPR at the First Academy?" He asked cynically, instead walking back to the doorway to keep watch. A glance at the other girl told him that she was breathing on her own, though shallowly, and he could still hear her heart beating, though it was rather slow and faint. But it was still beating. After that, he focused his senses outwards rather than inwards, opening his mouth slightly to draw the scents in more, recognizing Ambrose's among the many weaving around in the room, and glanced around until finding it's source before dismissing it and focusing on the hall.

Ophie stirred, sensing that something had changed. Someone was touching her cold slimy skin and yelling at her and all that mattered was that it wasn't Alice. Whoever it was, Ophie figured it had to have been a threat. She felt around desperately for where Alice might've been but found nothing, shivering. Still, her left hand was still an option - claws and webs available for use to face the threat. She braced to attack - one last struggle, perhaps.

"Ophie? Can you hear me? It's Lucy, hang on, we're gonna get you out of here." She tucked her hair behind her ear, clearly thinking. Ophie was naked, she would need to be wrapped in something. Lucy stood and rummaged through a closet, taking a blanket out.

And then she finally recognized the voice. It was Lucy. Ophie couldn't see or speak, but she had to somehow make sure Alice was safe - that Alice was being taken care of. More important than her was the bat - she had to be the first priority, right? Still, Ophie had to at least try to communicate. She pulled the lid of her left eye open, showing the empty socket. She then gestured towards her mouth and opened it where a tongue once was. She then grinned wryly and mouthed "Alice?" with a tilt of the head, before suddenly realizing just how cold she was.

Fey blinked at the girl on the ground, and then smirked. "Finally. I've been trying to get you to shut up for years. And now all that wishing on stars has finally paid off."

The arachnid girl's ears perked up as her worst enemy made a quip. She opened her mouth to retort - at least spiders are cool, then she remembered that that was pretty much an impossibility. Instead she immediately scowled and gave Fey her favorite finger in her favorite hand gesture in a direction she assumed Fey was standing, judging on his voice. She then mouthed an insult about his sword size and turned away.

Lucy felt any hope sink into her stomach. Ophie's eyes were gone, there were blank sockets and her tongue had been cut out as well. "Fey has Alice." Lucy attempted to reassure, seeing as how Fey could be a bit cruel at times. She wrapped the blanket around Ophie's body carefully, swaddling up the smaller girl similar to how one would wrap a baby and picking her up.

Although Ophie gladly accepted the blanket, she wasn't satisfied. She knew Fey - and she didn't trust him to be as gentle with Alice as she needed. She was like a porcelain figurine in the spider's mind, and if at all possible, she'd be the only one allowed to touch her. Given the situation, that was impossible though - but still, anyone but Fey. Anyone but Fey. Though she felt immensely grateful, Ophie still scowled and shook her head, mouthing Alice again. She then stretched her arm out again in a desperate attempt to get some sort of hint at where she was. It was as if Ophie had become dependent on her now - but she supposed that it was fine. They were monsters, right?

Lucy was glad that Ophie seemed to be alright, although it was a bit concerning that the girl suddenly seemed to care for another. Maybe she had hit her head? Lucy turned, seeing another familiar face. "I'm gonna put you down for a minute, don't worry, I'll be back." Lucy reassured Ophie and put the girl on a table away from the water. She walked across the room to where Ambrose was, sealed into one of the glass tanks as well. His wasn't full of water though, thankfully. Lucy took the man's hand that she had taken before and placed it against the palm scanner, the door to Ambrose's cell sliding open. "Ready to go?" She asked the boy with a wink. There was no telling what horrors he had gone through in this cult circus.

Ambrose looked up in wonderful disbelief. They were going to escape now? He had thought it'd never be over, that they'd be trapped in the hands of the humans forever, ever since they were made different. His body was covered in bruises and burns, though he still managed a bright smile. Lucy was here now, so it means that things were at least getting better. "It's nice to see you again Lucy!" Despite the circumstances, his voice still had a cheerful ring to it, hearing another quiet sigh at the back of his head.

Ophie whirled her head at Ambrose's voice and gave him a weak, forced smile, hoping she actually was aiming it at him and not somewhere vaguely above him.

"It's great seeing you again too in mostly one piece. I'm gonna need your help though." Lucy muttered the last part.

"Of course! What do you need me for?" Ambrose asked, though his smile dropped immediately when he spotted Ophie. "Oh god." His eyes widened fractionally at her lost hand and empty eye sockets. "What did they do to her?"

"What does it look like? They failed at killing her, obviously. I mean, they, what? Ripped her body apart, and yet she still ain’t dead? Humans just... they just fail so hard..." Fey answered, half thoughtfully and half disappointedly.

"I don't know," Lucy admitted. "We just got here," Lucy wrapped Alice up in a blanket and handed her off to Ambrose. "I just need you to hold her for now. We're gonna go to the getaway car." Lucy picked up Ophie gently again, making her way out of the room.

Fey kept a few paces ahead of the small group, wondering exactly why he was here with them anyway... Ah, right, pranking that idiot who wanted them to be his pets, by taking his weapons. He tracked their way back to the surface by following Lucy's scent from before, not bothering with the ladder - again - and merely leaping up from below to the ground above, the freshly cold air stinging his face for a moment... only to be facing down an entire encirclement of cars, brilliant lights focused on the trap door to the ground, momentarily blinding his sensitive vision, the next of the Experiments hopping up after him a moment later.

Ophie heard the surprise in Ambrose's voice. Was it that bad, that her eyes were like this? Suddenly an impossible urge rose up in her body and she widened her left eye, putting her finger in it and swirled it around - as if she herself were gauging it out. Hoping it disturbed him, she let out a soundless cackle of pleasure.

It disturbed him alright. I'm going to fucking MURDER them. Amber hissed darkly as Ambrose's hand went to his own eye, a shiver running through his body. He took Alice from Lucy gently, but when he felt her missing wing it was the last straw. A red mist seemed to take over his green eyes as he followed Lucy.

Lucy turned, she could see the change, but didn't know what it meant. "Stay with me Ambrose," Lucy hoped her voice would bring him back.

"Don't worry your pretty little head over it, lady." Amber said, his voice was bored yet filled with bloodlust. "Ami isn't going to be back unless you find something to knock me out, you know."

"Shouldn't be all that hard actually." Fey muttered under his breath, going fairly unheard thanks to the engines of the cars and shouting humans.

"Anyway," Amber continued, "I have a few people to kill in the most painful of fashions."

The spider knew the change in tone and what it signified. Ambrose's weird split personality had come out. She didn't really understand it, but she knew that if he wasn't going to carry Alice, it'd have to be Fey. She locked eyes with what she hoped was Amber and drew a claw against her throat as a threat, mouthing the name Alice again. There is absolutely no way that tall sword thing is ever touching her bat.

Amber stared right at the eye sockets, smirking as Ophie made a threat. Rather useless, granted that she had lost a hand and her eyes at least. Amber was rather sure her tongue was missing too, Ophie was one of the most talkative subjects and he doubted that she would be silenced without ripping off her tongue. "Admirable effort. You really have grown quite attached, miss muffet."

"What the fuck is a muffet?" Fey asked, but the question went unanswered.

"Always been a fan of your acting by the way, dearie. Regardless, Ami would never talk to me again if I killed Alice here."

"This is the hard part," Lucy had led Ambrose to the ladder. Or was it Amber now? Not even Lucy could tell. She tied the blanket around her middle, turning it into a makeshift sack so that Ophie was tied to her back like a child to a mother. With her hands now free, Lucy climbed up the ladder quickly. Now that she was out, she felt much better. It was like taking a breath of fresh air, being outside made the shaking stop and Lucy untied Ophie from her back. It was freezing out and Ophie was naked. "Stay warm," Lucy said and walked towards the car.

Amber followed Lucy's example, tying the blanket that was carrying Alice around his back securely before he headed up the ladder after Lucy. The air was chilly out, and he felt the wounds on his back sting whenever a cold blast hit him. But if anything, cold was something he could take.

Vittoria unlocked the car for them, or maybe it was the scientist. Lucy got into the front seat, thankful that she had thought to steal a winter coat while they were down there (she took it off of the dead guy). Fey gave her an odd and suspicious look as he slid into the front seat, calmly turning the engine and shifting into gear, then checked that everyone had their heads down so they wouldn’t get whiplash. After confirming they did - even the scientist, who was looking panicked squished between Vittoria and Ambrose. Ophie wasted no time in locating and touching every bit of Alice to ensure all of her was there and that she was alive. Gun shots rang out behind them. Lucy had ducked down, strapping herself in this time now that she wasn't in a rush to fly out the windshield, and Fey hit the gas, jolting the car forward and sending dirt spraying behind the wheels, again having to lean forward against the wind thanks to the missing windshield. There were surprised shouts from the humans; they were totally surrounded, but these guys just all calm-like get in the car and drive off? They hadn't been expecting that. The human was shrieking his head off though as Fey twisted the wheel from one side to another, jolting the car's occupants back and forth as they dodged through the people and around cars. "Someone shut the human up dammit! But don’t break him!" Fey growled, aggravated by the annoying sound.

Alice awoke gasping for air. She felt someone clinging to her and turned her head to make out a figure in the dark. "Are we dead?" Alice asked, confused. If they were, then why didn't Ophie look back to normal? She reached out to hug the spider, noticing that they were entangled in blankets. Ophie smiled a smile that only the most innocent of children could try competing with, immediately smothering Alice with her own body and trying to locate her lips to place a kiss. She tried to somehow gesture that they were rescued and that they had won at last with excitable, unintelligible hand movements. "We're alive?" Alice somehow managed to gather from Ophie's flailing. Ophie was rubbing her face against Alice's and the pink haired girl was very confused. Suddenly Ophie's lips connected with her's and the spider kissed her deeply, there was a sort of hunger to it that made her stomach feel as though it had butterflies.

It was then that Fey chose to look in the rearview mirror.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" He screeched. "What the hell are you doing in my car?! We're being shot at, and you guys just wanna... the hell is wrong with you, I mean, we're insane but that's just..." He shook his head, not having the words to say what he was thinking, the wind carrying the words to them loud and clear.

Following Fey's voice, Ophie didn't know whether to try to glare or to try to infuriate him more. She decided on both - giving him a venomous smile as she gripped Alice closer to her with her one arm, allowing him to get an eye full of their insane relief. She cackled soundlessly and turned her head back to where she remembered Alice was. Her left hand somehow found one of Alice’s and she intertwined their fingers together as tenderly as she could. Alice looked down at their intertwined fingers, unfortunately, Alice was pretty clueless as far as other people went. She wasn't very good at sensing moods or emotions either. "Don't worry, we're gonna get you a new hand, a better one." Alice wasn't sure if they could actually do such a thing, but she was hopeful. "Maybe we can get this white coat to get you some new eyes too?"

Ophie tilted her head, confused. Sure, that was a concern too, but she was hoping to have somehow transmitted her emotions to the bat. She huffed in frustration before going for yet another kiss - a little more forceful, as if that magically made things more clear. She rested her hand on where her heart was beating, and then moved it to Alice's - missing it and instead grabbing a mound that she really had no intention of touching, but decided that she enjoyed the accident. With a semi apologetic smirk, she adjusted the position to Alice's own beating heart, doing her best to make sure she understood. Ophie was the first person that Alice didn't flinch away from when they reached out to touch her. She didn't really understand the significance of Ophie accidentally grabbing Alice's breast, so she brushed it off. Ophie placed her hand on her heart, then on Alice's. Suddenly the girl understand. She collapsed Ophie's left hand in both of her own, "I like you too." Love was not a word that came easy, it was something Alice was taught to mistrust and use against others, therefore using it would feel... Wrong.

The spider's cheeks burned hot and she nodded enthusiastically at the word, glad that finally the bat understood. She returned the word 'like' as best as she could, then rested her head against Alice's, glad they were of similar size, ignoring everyone else in the car as if they no longer mattered. Alice closed her eyes, her head tilting to rest on Ophie's shoulder. If someone hadn't put her down sitting up, Alice probably would have rested her head on Ophie's lap. Alice didn't think she was ever going to be able to fall asleep again, not after all that had happened in the cult's headquarters. Next to her friend though, she managed to relax despite the unpredictable driving of Fey.

"Real Glad Ami isn't here to see this." Watching Ophie and Alice, Amber sighed dispassionately before clenching his fingers around the scientist's throat, alleviating his boredom as the scream was cut short into desperate gasps of air.

Deciding to simply deal with it later, Fey swerved to avoid another car, and then they were home free, past the lines. Lucy looked between Fey and behind them, back at the line they had just passed. She couldn't help but raise a fist in the air in victory, despite the fact that she had done nothing aside from assist in the rescue of their comrades. "We're free!"

"Of course we are. I decided we would be." Fey murmured to himself. "Why is it always like this? Why is everyone surprised I can do anything except kill people? I'm trained dammit. I can do other stuff."

"It's not that we think you can't do things, it's that we're relieved that you can." Lucy attempted to explain, hoping that she didn't confuse him. Fey frowned at her.

Lucy turned to the back seat and pointed at the scientist. "Amber, don't kill him. He's the one who's gonna make the serum to keep us alive."

"Not going to. Maybe close to death, but not completely." Amber said, a little disappointed that he was stopped.

"Alright, just make sure he can still use his arms."

"No, stop. I need him unharmed. For a reason." Fey interceded, tossing a glare over his shoulder at the younger Experiment.

"Afraid someone else would steal your prey?" Amber asked innocently, though he lightened his grip on the scientist's neck anyway. It was only out of sheer grudging respect that he did so, since Fey was technically older and more senior than him.

"Not specifically, but he can make the serum, if you crush his voice box he wouldn’t be able to tell someone else it and the knowledge would die with him. If he died somehow we would have to go back to captivity. See? Reasons." Fey explained, and then shifted gears and slowed the car to a stop next to another one a small distance from the cluster of humans, knowing they would be after them any moment. He vaguely recognized to model to be a Jeep Commander from some idiotic Army car show a couple of years ago. Either way, ti would do.

"Since when were you that good at thinking of them, hm?" Ophie managed an incomprehensible noise that sounded something like appreciative, mocking laughter.

"I always have reasons. You're just not always smart enough to understand them." He countered easily, getting out of the car.

A flicker of rage came into his red eyes. "That's it, we're going to fight once we get out of here and I'm going to crush you." He pulled a face at Fey's statement, but though he meant what he said he spoke in a casual tone. It was as if he was simply asking Fey to play with him instead of fight.

Fey ignored him as the doors to the other car flung open, revealing a small troupe of humans, most likely rookies judging by their shaking hands. "Oi! We're commandeering your vehicle, shove off!" He ordered the humans. The one who had been the driver squeaked, and lifted his gun, but before he could shoot Fey had buried a foot in his gut, forcing him to drop the gun and double over. Fey looked at the other humans, who wore various shocked expressions. "I'm an evil monster made by the government that can jump twenty feet in the air and kills people for fun, if you don't let me have your car I'll pull your spine out through your mouth and cut your lungs out after you can't move anymore." He stated calmly.

The humans all screamed, two dropping their guns, and they took off across the tundra towards the group of humans in the distance. Fey calmly picked up the one still on the ground by the back of his shirt and took the keys from his pocket, then dropped him and picked up the three guns off the ground, shoving one into his sword sash and handing the other two to Lucy.

Lucy got out of the car, standing a bit behind Fey in case he needed help. As expected, Fey had it under control and so Lucy prepared the others to transfer. She rolled her eye's at Fey's use of an archetype evil government weapon. She raised an eyebrow at his rather unorthodox methods, but said nothing. Maybe it was better to preserve life than kill? Nah, there probably was just no point in killing them if you couldn't take your time to make it agonizingly slow. Lucy took the guns, tucking one into her waist band and handing the other to Amber. "Let's move it!" There was no time to waste, Lucy ran to the trunk, grabbing both Ophie and Alice by their waists and switching them into the new car. Ophie grabbed at Alice's hand to make sure she didn't lose her during the transfer, giving Lucy a grateful nod. Now they were on actual seats rather than on the ground. Lucy jumped into the passenger seat, turning the heat up all the way. It was too gosh darn cold outside.

Fey got into the driver's seat, untying the ribbon from his hair and then re-tying it tighter as everyone piled in - the wind had completely messed it up, and a few of the strands had been getting in his way. One of the most annoying things in the universe, that.

Alice was no longer sitting up, but laying down. She moved so her head was on Ophie's lap and turned so that she was looking up at the spider. Alice reached up to brush a strand of hair out of Ophie's face, tucking it behind the spider's ear. Ophie felt the touch of Alice's hand against her ear and she beamed. In response she sensed the bat's head on her lap and playfully patted her head, ruffling her pink hair. Already, Ophie was excited to be able to see it again. The head in her lap felt almost soft and delicate - like something she had to protect from everything else. Once she had her senses back, she'd make sure Alice was safe forever. "Everyone is precious to someone," Alice whispered, they were words meant only for Ophie. The spider put a finger to her lips and then brushed them across where she hoped Alice's were - instead accidentally poking her in the eye. She reflexively scowled and slapped herself in the face. "Don't hurt yourself!" Alice scowled, grabbing Ophie's hand to prevent the girl from doing it again. "I'm fine, see?" Alice ran Ophie's hand over the eye the spider had poked. It had been closed anyways, that eye was nearly glued shut with dried blood.

Amber took the gun, looking a little curiously at the barrel before pulling the door open and slipping next to Ophie. Alice and Ophie were up to something again, so it seemed. Amber didn't know exactly what, but it did seem like the two of them were happy. "Now what?" He asked, swinging his legs to kick the driver's seat for Fey's attention.

Fey glanced over his shoulder with his level four glare in place; he reserved the level five for only the most horrible of humans. "What." He asked flatly, starting the engine.

"-is what I'm asking you." Amber was relatively unaffected by the glare, though Ambrose would probably be silenced by the intensity of it. "Where are we going anyway? Do you have any idea? Since when did you even know how to drive? I'm pretty sure we're in bad hands here."

"Obviously I know how to drive. You think they would send me to advanced military weapons class of I didn’t know how to drive a car? Helicopters, tanks, dude. Yes, I know how to drive. Though that doesn’t mean I know how to drive safely, slow is boring."

"Definitely in bad hands." Amber repeated it as if solidifying it as a fact. He ran his hand through his hair, the golden matted with dried blood from when they almost cut his head open just to see what was going on with his personality. It left a pretty deep wound, but it was worth it in the end, what with him crushing the heads of four of them before they could get him to stop.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty." Lucy sighed at the boys's antics, shaking her head. They were acting like such children and then they wondered why they got reprimanded all the time. "Fey, please tell me you have a plan?" Lucy asked, turning to face him. She turned to face the back, where the scientist was sitting next to Vittoria. "And you, do you have a plan to fix them?" She asked, gesturing towards the three who had just been saved from the clutches of the cult. Upon hearing that, Ophie pointed insistently at Alice, wanting her to be the first healed with a fierce frown. "Don't worry Ophie, I'll make sure it happens." Lucy nodded towards the spider, then remembered she couldn't see it. Of course Ophie was going to go first, Alice didn't even appear to be that injured and Ophie really needed it. With a smile at the lion, Ophie went back to idly playing with Alice's hair, toying with one particular strand.

"Are we still worried about plans at this point? Is anyone else concerned that he's going to crash into something? Just me?" Ophie yanked hard on where she figured Amber's hair was to shut him up and not make Alice worried. She pulled out a few hairs and nodded satisfactorily.

"Hey." Amber turned back to Ophie with a piercing glare, having half a mind to pull her hair out as well, but desisted at the last moment. It's just no fun playing with a victim that couldn't fight back. Ophie was banged up bad enough as it is. Ophie delivered a tricksy mischievous smile and put a finger to her lips in a 'hushing' motion.

Fey watched the land disappear behind them, staying close to the side of the building, zooming across the open spaces and into the area that had the more important labs. They wouldn't dare use anything too strong here, not with all the important things so close, so he kept close to the wall. "Go to the right at the next turn," the scientist spoke suddenly. "There's a way to the basement labs. The password for the loading dock door is Essentials, but in numbers." He explained. Fey gave him a strange look, wondering at the human's sanity. Was he seriously trying to help them?

"Fine, it's not like we have anywhere better to go." Ophie couldn't resist making a strange attempt at a snicker, pointing at Alice's leg (that she located through extensive touching) and grinned excitedly. Alice nodded her head in understanding, "I know, I'm excited too." They pulled to a stop in the underground garage, Lucy got out of the car, opening up the sliding door for them all to jump out. "Can you walk?" Lucy asked the pink haired girl, who shook her head.

"They took it from me," she spoke quietly, referring to the ability of standing on both legs.[/color] Lucy frowned and picked both of the girls up.

"Ambrose you too," Lucy gestured for him to follow.

"I'm Amber. Thought you should have noticed by now." He stated calmly as he jumped out of the car and strode next to Lucy, occasionally glancing at the two girls in her arms. Both of them must have been through a lot, having limbs amputated and everything. He was mildly surprised that they were even alive, but experiments must have better endurance than most.

"I'll go get supplies. Where's the kitchen? And make sure you bring plenty of serum ingredients and anything you need for it back from that lab with you." Fey ordered the scientist, who nodded quickly. "Once you leave the parking garage there's two sets of double doors, take the left one - the right leads to the labs -, and go all the way down the left hall till it dead ends, then right. Third door of your left." He explained quickly. Fey nodded and took a hard right into the parking lot, barely not scraping the entrance since the turning radius was so small from close to the wall. The car tilted down as they went into the underground lot, but only for a moment or two, and he pressed the gas to shoot the car forward to the other end of the lot, parking it right in front of the first set of double doors, and shut the car off, everyone opening the doors to leave the car.

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Lucy rolled her eyes at Ambro-Amber and followed the scientist after he was done explaining everything to Fey. He led them up a spiral staircase to a room lined with tanks. Lucy recognized them, they were suspended animation tanks; the kind they used to make them. "Put them inside," Lucy put Ophie inside of one after prying her hand from Alice's. Alice was suddenly fighting her, wrestling with Lucy against going in. With no use of her legs though, Alice was quickly overpowered and shoved into the tank. "You too," he gestured towards Amber, motioning that he should climb inside. Amber scowled at the scientist a little suspiciously, but complied anyway. Once all three were one (albeit one of them was strapped down), the scientist began typing into some sort of control panel. Liquid began filling up the tanks, an opaque blue substance making the bodies disappear. "How can they breathe?" Lucy asked curiously, she watched from her seat on the ground as the scientist worked.

"There's a tube that connects to the belly button. You know the umbilical cord? It's a similar concept, only a bit... Smarter I guess you could say." He licked his lips nervously, cracking his knuckles and getting to work. She watched as he typed fiercely, the clacking of keys ringing through the air. Lucy was almost captivated as though it were some sort of weird finger ballet. He glanced between screens, the tanks, and the board in front of him, occasionally running a hand through his hair and sighing. Lucy was growing bored, but she knew better than to wander off and explore, someone had to sit here and make sure the damn scientist did his job and did it right. After all, who knew what sort of damage he could cause with these things.

Finally, he pushed a button and the liquid began to drain. "There, that should do it." Lucy stood, she had taken to sitting on the ground against one of the tanks. Curiously, Lucy peered inside the tank containing Ophie. "When will they wake up?" Lucy asked, turning towards the Scientist. He shrugged, as though having no answer. After a moment he responded, "Any minutes now." In the meantime Lucy went through drawers, grabbing whatever she thought useful. "We need you to make the serum, a lot of it." Wordlessly he walked towards a locked container, opening it up with a pass key. As he did that, Lucy stuffed her pockets and the bag she found. She grabbed clothes for those in the tanks, figuring that Alice would probably take them off as soon as she could and grabbing an extra just in case.

"Let me out of here!" A voice came and Lucy walked over to the tank calmly, opening up the door so that the bat could sit up. The girl wiggled her toes, turned to try to look over her shoulder and see the wing that had grown back. With an approving nod of her head, Alice stood, climbing out of the tank. She hurriedly opened up the one containing Ophie, about to shake the girl awake when the Scientist warned her not to touch the spider. They had to wake up on their own apparently.

"Bleh. Blah. La! Gah!" It was as if an alien was in her mouth, all weird and icky and entirely strange. As the spider blearily opened her.... eyes, she closed them again instantly as the oddest sensory overload hit her. Everything was too bright, too weird and just blah. Her tongue still felt weird. It was a tongue, right? It wasn't like stupidly swollen or anything? "Gah! Bleh. Agh. Alice. Alice! Oh, it worked. Okay, cool." The spider sat up, gingerly feeling where she now had a hand again, testing each claw on the floor with a cathartic screech of nails on floor. She nodded appreciatively, then covered both her eyes, with a tiny space in her right eye for her to peer through, seeing the bat's face. Though sensitive, it seemed her eyes worked too. Ophie leaned forward into a hug. "I see you!"

Alice felt a sort of swell in her stomach, seeing Ophie's eye sockets with eyes in them once more. Her tongue was back as well as her hand. "It worked!" Alice met Ophie's tongue, wondering if this swell was what happiness felt like. Alice wiggled her toes as though to show Ophie that her legs worked again, although she could probably tell due to the fact that Alice was standing. Lucy walked over, sort of ruining the moment. "Here," She shoved a bundle into both of their arms. "Get dressed, it's cold out." Alice looked at the bundle in her hands and threw it back at Lucy. "No," she growled, as though she were a child having a tantrum. Lucy shook her head, giving Ophie a pleading look. "You just got those limbs, don't want them to be frostbitten off."

"I don't want anyone else to see it!" Ophie grumbled, nodding at Lucy. Though she was elated that Alice was working as well, she also didn't enjoy the idea of Alice being all naked and exposed for everyone to look. She was hers, wasn't she? "Only Ophie can see, okay?

"Fine," Alice begrudgingly agreed. Lucy handed her the bundle back and she pulled on the shirt, pants, and socks, a bit happy that there was at least no underwear. Underwear was the worst. "Hungry," Alice mumbled. She really was a child, mature neither mentally nor physically. Alice took Ophie's hand, using the other to push her hair back out of her face. Normally she kept her pink hair in pigtails, but Alice had no ponytail holders. Those damn cult members had chopped it unevenly, probably intentionally. "What do you call that color?" Alice asked, looking at Ophie's eyes. Normally, Alice made up words for things she didn't know so most often, people didn't understand her when she spoke of things, but Ophie always seemed to understand.

The arachnid stared at Alice with a cheerful expression, happy she was at least clothed. "Viioooolet." Ophie decided she liked how it felt on her tongue and grinned childishly. "Violet! Violetta! Viola! Oh, Lucy, Ophie wants sunglasses too okay? Perhaps shades would help slowly wean her back to being able to see without being too sensitive to light. Bright things were still irritating and painful, which pissed her off, since she wanted to actually be able to look around the place and place traps in case someone tried to attack.

"Found some," granted they were lab sunglasses and they were probably meant for some other purpose, but they would work. "Here," Lucy handed them off to the girl. "This guy's just gonna finish making the serum that will keep us working, then we're leaving." Lucy explained, pointing the Scientist out to Ophie who was just seeing again. "He's the Head-honcho or something." Ophie regarded the scientist with a sour expression.

"Viioooolet," Alice imitated the way Ophie said it, tasting the word on her tongue. "Viioooolet," it was a new color and one she would forever remember as Ophie's eyes. Clearly Alice was very excited by this word, as she continued to say it so as not to forget.

"Yours are red." Ophie added helpfully, then turned to the scientist. If he was someone with authority, then in some capacity, he had to have approved of what happened to her, Alice, and Ambrose, right? Even if he was technically their toy now, it still really rubbed badly on her. If looks could kill, the head scientist would definitely be dead, which is probably a good thing, since she wanted to deliver him to a painful end. Payback for what she and Alice had suffered. With the lab goggles protecting her vision, she approached the scientist with deliberate, stalker-like movements, before pouncing on him with a snarl.

"You let them hurt us, right?" The spider hissed, straddling the man beneath her like a doll. "You wanted us to be hurt, didn't you?" Rage filled her newfound eyes. "You monster!"

Alice watched with interest, "Dont'!" Lucy yelled, grabbing Ophie off of the scientist. Thankfully, Lucy had the strength of a lion on her side, otherwise, she may not have been able to rip the girl off. "You weren't even in the facility, you were kidnapped." Lucy tried to explain in order to get the girl to quit fighting.

The spider tilted her head quizzically after being lifted up off of the scientist. Wait, something didn't make sense. "...That wasn't the basement? But - then...? Huh? Her eyes narrowed at the lioness. "...What happened?" Lucy placed Ophie down, gesturing for her and Alice to sit. The pink haired girl was confused as well and she slowly knelt to the ground, ending up in a sitting position. She sighed, continuing to push off the PTSD attack that had been trying to work its way through into her mind. "You were kidnapped by a cult," her hands hardened into fists. "they took you and Alice during the confusion at the rehab facility. They're the same ones-" she stopped, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "The same ones who tortured me," Lucy lifted her shirt so the two could see the deep scars that ran across her stomach.

The spider's eyes fixated on the scars on the lioness' stomach. The implications were obvious and she clicked her tongue in disgust, turning away from the scientist who no longer interested her. It did make one other thing make sense though, and Ophie was glad to have it click together in her mind. "So that's why you were weird when the place was bombed?" The spider asked, a bitter expression on her face. "I wanna kill them. I really wanna kill them. We have to make them pay, Lucy! They made Alice cr- th- they hurt Alice!"

"I'd rather just forget they exhisted," Lucy whispered. "You're lucky you aren't older, or I guess, bigger." Lucy could remember the late night visits, the feeling of hands on her body, of suppressed screams that would do nothing as they ripped off her clohting. A shiver ran up her spine and she looked away. "But yes, that was why-the bomb-it triggered a memory." Lucy stood, walking to the window. She didn't want to talk about that place, or think about it. "I'll kill them," Alice spoke quietly, her words only meant for Ophie. "They're going to pay-wish they had never exhisted. Death will seem like a mercy compared to what I'm going to do to them."

One of the spider's skills was high emotional attunement. It made torture fun and easy, but it was also useful for other things. Maybe the reform really was getting to her, but Ophie felt gratitude to the lioness for rescuing them. Maybe it was because she also suffered at the hands of the cult - perhaps even moreso than she and Alice did - but regardless, Ophie squeezed Lucy's hand in silence, figuring her looking away was a sign that the conversation was over. Ophie glanced over at Alice and nodded subtly - she of course would join the bat on their revenge quest once it was time.

"...Thanks, Lucy." She mumbled, before running back to Alice and somehow procuring two hair ties made of webs and handing them over to Alice the way a dog would offer a toy after fetching it. A proud and expectant look was on her face.

Alice looked between the webs and Ophie, were these... Hair ties? Quickly she pulled up her hair into two pigtails, the feeling of familiarity putting her at ease. "Thank's," it was probably the first time Alice had thanked anyone. She smiled, the expression feeling foreign. Suddenly her chest tightened, it felt as though she couldn't breath. Her expression melted into one of confusion, then terror, as she fell to her knees, clawing at her chest. Her body was rejecting her lungs, she hadn't gotten the medicine that ensured her body continued working smoothly. Which meant... Ophie! Alice looked up, panicked; she covered her mouth with one hand, blood spattering against her fingers.

The symptoms were well known to Ophie. If Alice was acting up then her timer was almost up as well. Ophie gave Alice a quick peck on the forehead before returning to the scientist, landing directly on his shoulders, claws on her feet digging painfully into his shoulderblades. She lightly placed a nail from her right hand to the scienntist's throat and another to his eye. Knowing Lucy wouldn't approve, Ophie also sprouted webs to ensnare herself to the scientist, wrapping them tightly together. Her mouth opened, fangs glistening.

"Hurry up or you'll wish I was nice enough to kill you."

He seemed to panic then, stirring whatever was in his hands faster and putting it into an injector. "One for you," He hastily plunged it into the spider's hand, going off to the other girl and pressed the pen against the child's neck, pushing the medicine in. Alice was finally able to breathe, she gasped, taking in a lungfull of air. Her head spun and black dots danced in her vision, she leaned back against the wall, looking up as she gulped in lungfuls of air.

Though relieved, the spider still wasn't satisfied yet. She bent almost double - her mouth at the scientist's ear in a menacing whisper. "Teach me how to put it in. I don't want you touching Alice again, okay?" She then smiled innocently, radiating sweetness and sugar. "You benefit from the deal too! You get to keep your eyes! So you better teach me!"

Lucy said nothing, she figured it was a rather easy matter, the Scientist was on his own this time. "Alright," he agreed, taking the empty pen injector and putting it in Ophie's hand. "First, you position it over a central vein, these are in the neck, stomach, and the backs of your shoulders." He guided Ophie's hands, showing her the spot. "However, in this case, since it's not the heart, you have to find an airway. So the neck and chest would be the best place for this injection," he used her hand, not wanting to somehow offend the girl by touching the other experiment. "Then you just click it like a pen cap, hold it down for five seconds and release. Easy, right?" He stood, going back to making the rest of the vials.

The spider lightly placed her tongue on a web strand and slurped it up like a really long noodle, until it was back in her and she climbed off the scientist's back. She then gave Alice a bright expression, running back to her and hugging her tightly. "I won't let humans touch you again. Ophie will protect you always. It's a promise!"

Alice was at a loss for words, was this what it was like to be loved? Was this why humans always clung to one another? Her heart skipped an extra beat. Was this what they called love? Alice had never been attached to anything, except maybe the taste of blood. Her mouth thirsted for it even now, but Alice wasn't going to say anything. "Thank you," Alice whispered. She got to her feet, pulling Ophie up as well. "Is your heart alright?" Alice placed a hand against Ophie's chest, feeling the spider's heartbeat.

"My heart is nice and healthy." Ophie mewled, enjoying the sensation of Alice's hand on her. It felt warm - nice. Then an idea suddenly struck her that was definitely brilliant. "Pumping a lot of unnecessary blood, though! What am I going to do with all of it? Do you have any ideas, Alice?" Ophie's claw was already in position, arm outstretched in offering. Alice's eyes widened, she nodded her head vigorously. "Only if it doesn't hurt you though," Alice insisted, she didn't want Ophie to be in pain anymore. Ophie squeezed Alice's hand with the sacrificed arm, a dangerous grin on her face. "I'm a monster, something like this is only a tickle. And if it does hurt, you can make it better by sucking it out!"

"Alright then," Alice nodded her head, licking her lips eagerly. Ophie slashed -somewhat deep but nothing really serious - and held her arm up for the feast. Alice placed the cut to her lips, drinking Ophie's blood greedily. It was sweet, but not overly so and it reminded Alice of the spider's exterior. On the outside, Ophie appeared to be a sweet innocent girl, but on the inside well... There were many sides to her. When Alice finished she licked her lips, kissing the wound as though to make it better. The scientist made a strange sound and looked over at the lioness at the window. "Experiments shouldn't be able to... hmm..."

Once Alice was done, Ophie retrieved her arm, having enjoyed the feeding. Hopefully they'd be able to do it many times from now on - because that moment when Alice drank her blood was precious. It was as if they were in sync despite being monsters. If they could remain like that for an eternity, if Ophie could stop time, she definitely would - if only to freeze them in that moment of harmony. Because someway or another, happiness always ended at some point. Nothing ever really lasted. So she had to make use of the time they had before it was gone.

"Lucy, what's the plan now?" Ophie asked, back into game-strategy mode.. "Just run and hide forever, always scared that the insects will come for us? What else is there? How do we win?"

Lucy turned back from the window, she hadn't wanted to interrupt on such a precious and private moment. To think, that two soulless creatures could ever find love. Lucy ran a hand through her hair as though she were thinking. "To be honest, I have no idea. Fey seemed to have a plan and now that we've got the Scientist we don't really need to worry about running out of serum. Maybe we can just... Exist." Of course that was wishful thinking. Obviously, the government would come after them. They were going to have to be careful, they could not leave a trail of blood where they went, they were going to have to kill carefully.

That didn't sound quite right to her. In a game of hide and seek, given enough time, the hiders would always be smoked out. They needed to have some sort of advantage to be able to avoid hiding without an end in sight. A possible, lofty idea popped into her head, but she wasn't quite sure if it'd work or not. She glanced at Alice before turning back to look at Lucy, a pensive frown on her face. "We won wars before, for the humans." Ophie murmured thoughtfully. "What if we killed enough of them that they don't have a choice? Maybe we could find the people the insects love and keep them as pets to kill just in case they try to come after us?"

"We could do that..." Lucy trailed off in thought, the Scientist seemed to be very tense at the mention of more death. "Oh don't give me that," Lucy growled at the human, making him jump. "You created us to kill, don't pretend you're suddenly above that." She turned back to Ophie, "I like the plan, but we're going to need to ask the others what they want to do as well." Lucy turned back to the window. They needed Ambrose to wake up, then they could regroup. "Alice would like to kill!" The Bat raised her hand, as though volunteering herself. "Alice would very much like to kill," her smile grew, like a child's eyes lighting up on Christmas.

An idea sprung to Ophie's mind that suddenly sounded absolutely fantastic. She grabbed Alice's wrist and pulled her to the door. If they were out of the facility now, then that means there could be humans out there somewhere. Something sacred like murder was absolutely wonderful, and Ophie wanted to share the joy with Alice somehow. Her eyes were full of light and excitement that was visible even through the lab goggles. "Alice, Alice!" Ophie chirped energetically. "Let's go hunt! Ophie wants to play with someone with you!"

"Play?" Amber spoke questioningly, swinging his legs from the animation tank before landing gracefully on the ground. Play sounded more like 'hunt and kill' to him, but perhaps it was just their definition of a past time.

"Well look who decided to join the living," Lucy walked towards the tank, a bundle of clothing in her hands. "Out of curiosity, are you Amber right now?"

"why? Am I not welcome?" Amber placed a hand theatrically over his heart. "I'm injured, lady." Lucy rolled her eyes at this, "We're very happy you returned. Now, put some damn clothes on." Everything was currently out in the open and while Lucy didn't particularly mind, she was pretty sure that Amber didn't want his junk to freeze off.

"Sure." The cold was biting, and unlike Alice both Amber and Ambrose preferred the feeling of fabric on their skin. Lucy handed over the clothing, turning around to face the window once more. "Once you're dressed we'll need to find Fey. Or you can join the girls on the purge and meet up with us." Somehow, Lucy felt as though it would be better if Amber went with Alice and Ophie. Perhaps, it would allow the boy to get his sadistic side out.

"Who knows what the girls would do on the purge if they were already doing that in the car." Amber mumbled quietly under her breath as he slipped into the clothes he was given. "But the purge sounds fun!" It had been a while since he had been allowed to kill, and the killing intent pent up over the torture sessions needed someway to be released. He followed Alice's back, noting that the girl seemed to be in high spirits.

Alice jumped up and down excitedly. Lucy warned them not to wander off, or at least, not to go far. "I want to play," Alice skipped along after Ophie, so very happy by the idea of getting her hands dirty. The only thing that could make this better would be if she weren't forced to wear clothing. Alice looked over her shoulder, feeling as though they were being followed. It turns out they were. "Amber's awake!" Alice waved to him. "Are you coming with us?"

"Sup, Alice. And yes, who would miss the chance to kill?" A hint of light seemed to come into his bored red eyes. "I've been itching for a opportunity for some time, Ami won't ever agree." Ophie glared at him for intruding but didn't otherwise make a complaint, seeing as Alice seemed to want him around.

"Ambrose is nice, really, but he's so soft sometimes. Almost human," Alice snickered at the thought, they were partially human, but they had nothing in common with the normal homo sapien.

"Too soft." Amber agreed with a sigh. "Which is why he has me. No way he's going to survive in an environment like this on his own. Anyway, where are we heading to?" He asked curiously, his senses tuning in to the heat emitting things of the place. Perhaps they'd get lucky and bump into a human?

"Outside, we're looking for humans to kill since they all seem to have left this place." It almost gave Alice the chills, this was one of those places that housed all those damn scientists, so why weren't they here? Cowering in fear? Alice scowled, had they somehow gotten word that the experiments would be coming here? Or had they fled after the bombing, fearing this place would be next? Finally, they reached a door to the outside. Alice flung it open, her hold on Ophie's hand growing tighter as they stepped out into what was possibly a blizzard.

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They were walking down the hall. Lucy had stayed with Ambrose who was still recovering a bit from waking up. A door had been left open up ahead, curious, Alice walked a bit faster and poked her head in, finding a screen. She had seen many like this in other homes, but had never bothered much with them. She leaned down, pressing a button. Static filled the screen, Alice jumped back, hssing, clawing, entangling herself in cables and tripping to the floor, unable to move. Alice struggled against the wires, gnashing her teeth as thouhg to bite through them only to realize it wasn't possible. "Ophie!" Alice called, crying for help from her partner in crime.

Ophie stared at the entangled bat in something between amusement and confusion. How, exactly, did Alice let herself get caught like that? Was the static from the strange screen all that surprising? She had to have expected it'd do something, right? The spider gave a bemused sigh and walked over. Judging from what she knew, the wires were probably electrified, right? She hung someone with wires before and felt the jolt through the broken insulation as the victim struggled, after all. So instead of simply cutting through, the spider examined the trail of wires, finding them hooked up to some device that attached to the wall. Electricity, perhaps? She unplugged it, ending the static and then used her claws to slice through the wires, enjoying the feeling of the material succumbing to her blades.

Saved you!" Ophie held a hand out for Alice to hold, if she wanted it. "Be more careful, okay? We can't fall into silly traps if we want to kill some insects!"

Alice nodded her head, taking Ophie's hand that was outstretched and pulling herself the rest of hte way out. "Where do you think the insects are hiding?"

"By bugs, do you mean me?" Lucky stood in the doorway, pointing to himself. Had the whole stupid facility found its way over here? "Get back." Alice growled, standing protectively in front of Ophie. Something didn't feel right, it was Lucky, but at the same time it wasn't. "What are you doing here?" Alice sneered at the creature wearing a familiar's face. Lucky smirked, "Same as you, looking for trouble."

As Lucky and Alice were paying attention to each other, Ophie sensed a fight starting. So the spider started stringing up webs throughout the area using the smallest amount of movement as possible. If Lucky tried anything - if he moved slightly wrong, he'd easily fall into a web snare. Something was definitely off. Her keen senses sensed there was someone else still out of view. It's not just him." Ophie said quietly. Wait for them to make the first move."

Low and behold, from behind Lucky was one more. A girl with familiar hair and wide eyes. She wasn't carrying a marble though, no, in her hands was something much more precious that Alice recognized instantly. The pink haired girl's eyes widened and she looked between Ophie to Poppy.

".....Teddy?" Ophie's eyes narrowed dangerously, voice rising in pitch. "Alice, why does she have teddy? Were they working with the cultists?" Every nerve in her body was screaming for her to attack - to wrench her precious doll from the white haired girl's disgusting grasp. Teddy belonged with her, not some marble obsessed freak. But if she moved, that'd leave her team open. She couldn't risk underestimating the enemy - they were experiments after all, not just human scum. Her finger twitched as she prepared to manipulate her webs, still waiting as patiently as she could manage.

Alice breathed in and when she breathed out, she attacked. She clawed at Lucky's eyes, wrapping her legs around him as she attacked, punching him repeatedly in the nose. Lucky fell backwards, the two tumbling over. His eyes were bleeding, but Alice continued attempting to attack. He wrenched Alice's arm unpwards, ripping it from its socket, but Alice hardly noticed the pain. She used her other hand, then kneed him in the groin, rolling do that she was on top of him.

As Alice and Lucky were in their struggle, Ophie saw Poppy make a move towards the bat. Trusting Alice to be able to handle the boy who almost definitely had a gun hiding somewhere, she launched herself at the snow-haired girl, trying to get her as far away as possible from the other's fight. Ophie aimed for her wrist while Poppy revealed a concealed knife - long and serrated like a dagger - slashing out at the spider. It was a near miss but her throat was moved out of the way just in time to slash at Poppy's hand holding Teddy. She grazed it and the near-mute did something of a flip, knocking the spider off balance and off of her. Tumbling into the snow, Ophie got back up to her feet only to slip againts an unexpected patch of ice. Poppy still had Teddy, and this was in the wide open now, so her webs wouldn't work. Her advantage was gone - but of course, she wouldn't just lose. This was just starting to be fun, after all.

"So, where's your marble?" The arachnid jeered. Can't talk?"

Alice had smashed Lucky's head through the television screen. The boy's body went limp, but Alice could hear him groan. He was still alive and so she dragged him back out, using a shard of glass to cut into his tongue. He sliced it down and off, throwing it across the room. "Where you're going, you're not going to need that anymore." She then raised the shard and stabbed into his stomach, feeling through for something squishy to grab. When Alice had a hold of it, she ripped it upwards and out, drapping his intestines like a Christmas tree around him.

Hearing that Alice had won her battle, Ophie felt a swell of pride. Now that keeping Poppy out of the bat's way was succesful, she could now focus entirely on the fight. Doing her best to ignore the blizzard, Ophie stared ahead of her to see nothing. She instinctively ducked and dove backwards, kicking up at Poppy's knees, forcing her into a buckle. The knife was still swinging though, and she couldn't risk Teddy getting hurt. The spider tackled the snow-haired girl before she could recover, forcing her to the ground again, headbutting her to stun her and then she dug her claws hard into the girl's right wrist, freeing the teddy bear. Ophie attached a web to it and swing her arm - the teddy bear went flying back towards the building. Still, the two girls were sliding across the snow and ice and the storm kept sending sheets of hail into her eyes that were really annoying. While she was momentarily distracted, Poppy went on the counter attack, stabbing with the knife. Pain exploded in Ophie's right hand as the blade went right through her palm to the other side, but then she yanked, wrenching the knife free from Poppy's grip as the edges got stuck on her bone. She rotated her wrist and swung forward, digging the edge of the blade into Poppy's eye and forcing her down, where Ophie realized they were over a cliff. A little more sliding and they'd have fallen off entirely and the thickness of the storm made it impossible to see the lab anymore.

"Last words?" Ophie cackled, tearing her hand free from the knife. Poppy remained silent, so the spider pushed her off the cliff, watching Poppy turn into a red stained splat on the rocks. It'd have been nice to actually play with her and make her sing, but Ophie felt exhausted and tired and the snow was starting to feel somewhat comfortable. A faint warmness prickled in her exposed skin - how much of her clothes had torn in the fight? She tried to stand but her muscles felt clunky and unresponsive. Deciding she didn't have the energy, the spider simply sat in the snow and shivered.

Alice looked out the shattered window. How had Ophie and Poppy gotten all the way out there? The pink haired girl wondered, craddling her injured arm. She noticed Poppy had stopped moving, that the other girl was laying in the snow as though dead. Worried, Alice jumped down from the window, rushing to where Ophie lay. She didn't care about her bare feet or her arm that was dangling limp at her side, all Alice cared about was reaching the figure that looked like a smudge in the oncoming blizzard. Alice knelt down, nearly ripping her clothes off of herself and wrapping them around Ophie. She hoisted the other girl up against, dragging the two of them back towards the building. Lucy had seen it all, she was waiting, taking Ophie from Alice and rushing the two of them back to the room where the Scientist was waiting, clearly not surprised. "Help her," Alice spoke quickly, bouncing around full of nervous energy as Ophie went back inside one of the tanks. It slowly filled up with blue liquid.

"Your arm is a quick fix," Alice bit down on a towel as he popped it back into place. She hardly felt the pain though, the naked girl was too busy watching the silent spider from where she stood.

After what felt like a while, the tank opened and the spider fell out. Not feeling tingly anymore, she stared at the bat hungrily, each bit of her body only being more alluring in her slightly dazed mind. Then she saw Lucy and the scientist. She shot the lioness a dirty look and fired webs directly into the scientists's eyes, stripped, and shoved her clothes onto the bat. "...Only I'm allowed to look." She said, slightly annoyed. Ophie then looked around and saw Teddy chilling in the corner where Lucky was creatively killed. A long strand of silk brought Teddy back and she looked at Alice again, grinning. "Nice work! Very artful!"

Alice smiled, basking in the approval. "I was getting festive." She was hardly happy about wearing clothes though, now that Ophie had none. Thankfully, there were extra pairs. "How's Teddy's condition?" Alice asked, clearly concerned for Ophie's favorite bear. Lucy left a pile of clothing by the spider's feet, as well as a miniature scarf she had found, just in case Ophie wanted something for Teddy.

After getting dressed, Ophie looked Teddy over carefully. She was sopping wet, soggy, and looked miserable. How much did Teddy suffer in that damn Poppy's grip, abyways? The idea of the pain Teddy must have gone through was agonizing to think about, almost making the spider want to cry. But she couldn't, of course. She had to stay strong for Teddy and Alice. "She has frostbite." Ophie growled, glaring at the temporarily blinded scientist. Fix her, I don't want her to need amputation." Clearly a scarf wasn't going to save Teddy, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

The Scientist was still peeling webs from his eyes. "Let me show you the magic of this little device here," it was a towel warmer, but they didn't know that. "It's just like that bath," he indicated for Ophie to put the bear inside. Alice inspected it first, putting her hand in, checking every square inch. "It's safe, I think." She looked up at the man, clearly not trusting him. Lucy's expression was one of amusement, she was standing beside Ambrose, who had fallen asleep. When Alice shot a glare at her, Lucy decided to clean up Lucky's body. Though the scientist was clearly not to be trusted, Alice was definitely worthy of it. She hugged Teddy close to her before gently depositing her into the device. She then grabbed at Alice, settling on a wing that poked out from the clothes, holding it tightly in concern. What was she going to do without Teddy? What if the scientist was lying? Why did Lucy look like she wanted to laugh? Something didn't add up.

The scientist closed the door slowly. He pushed a button, typing in some sort of sequence like he had for Ophie when she was injured. Alice watched carefully, no liquid filled up the device, but a warm yellow glow emitted from it. A minute or two passed and suddenly the door became foggy. Then, as if by magic, it popped open. Alice jumped back, with Ophie's hand gripping her wing it was not a pleasant feeling and she yelped, nearly falling over.

Ophie muttered a quick apology to Alice, releasing the wing. She wanted to say something to the bat about not letting herself be startled so often since it made her an easy target, but instead decided that Teddy needed her comfort. She rushed forward, violently stealing the magic device from the scientists's hands and hugged it to her chest, afraid to touch her friend in case it was still hurt. "No one will hurt you again." She whispered tenderly. "Alice and Ophie will keep you safe, Teddy! Ophie's sorry for losing you! Can you forgive me?" A subconscious part of her mind decided that yes, Teddy forgave her, and she carefully laid the magic device on the table, shooting Lucy -who was cleaning Lucky's corpse - a glare. "We're bringing this with us." She declared fiercely. "Just in case Teddy needs it."

"Lucy left him a scarf," Alice went to retrieve it, bringing the scarf to Ophie. Alice was jealous of the bear, she wanted Ophie to hug her not some stupid bear she had found one day and clung to out of a psycological need. Couldn't she let Alice be her bear? Alice left the room, feeling a but huffy.

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Was it ridiculous to feel jealous of a stuffed bear? Yes. Did that mean she didn't feel it? No. Alice crossed her arms, kicking a piece of shattered window left in the hallway. Alice took off her clothing in rebellion, leaving them in a pile by the door. There, that would show that stupid Ophie. She was about to leave when a terribly guilty feeling crept up her spine and Alice groaned, putting her clothes back on. The bat went exploring, going through rooms and hallways and into places she probably shouldn't. Somehow she ended up in a little girl's room and Alice rummaged through the closet, stealing clothing for herself that she liked better than the ones Lucy picked. She left Lucy's in a pile, putting on articles that were much more comfortable. As she pawed through piles of seemingly random girly items, a cat eared headband conveniently fell on her head almost perfectly. Alice hissed, jumping out of the closet, ready to attack anything that came her way.

Satisfied that the threat of falling clothes had been neutralized, Alice turned to look at what else was in the room. She went through the drawers, dumping out random human belongings that meant nothing to her and tore up the bed in search of something entertaining when something on a shelf caught her eye. It was a stuffed rabbit. An evil idea sneaked into the recesses of her mind, causing a grin to splay onto Alice's lips. She climbed onto the dresser, retrieving the stuffed animal and tucking it underneath her arm. Alice could almost see why Ophie liked Teddy, the rabbit made a good arm rest. "What should I name you?" Alice held the rabbit out, narrowing her eyes in thought. "I know! Poofy!"

Yes, Poofy. Alice tucked the toy back underneath her arm, satisfied and exited the room, going down the hall, skipping along, blissfully unaware of the cat headband on her head. "Kill, kill, kill." Alice sing-songed as she went along, appearing happy. Then she stopped, her stomach growling. Should she ask Ophie for blood? Alice debated, arguing with her inner monologue over going back and simply accepting Teddy as apart of their alliance. Alice pursed her lips in a growl, no, she would not accept Teddy. So the pink haired bat continued on her way, hoping to find the kitchen. She followed her nose, sniffing the air and smelling-was that chicken?

Alice's stomach growled audibly. With a sudden burst of energy she ran downstairs and through the hallway, greeted by the sight of an empty cafeteria. Her nose picked up the far too familiar scent of danger. Alice growled, slowly entering the dining room. It appeared as lifeless as the rest of the mansion aside from some kicked over chairs and what appeared to be blood dried on the floor. Alice frowned, she couldn't lick up blood from the floor, that was gross. If there was a body nearby though, Alice would be happy to suck them dry.

"If you're here, put your hands up and surrender!" Alice held the rabbit out like a weapon. She looked nonthreatening wearing a pair of cat ears and holding out a toy until you noticed the blood red eyes and teeth sharpened like knives.

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Lucy could tell that Alice and Ophie had gotten close during their time with the cult, sharing a near death experience would do that to two in the same position. She hadn't realized just how close until she saw Alice's look of jealousy at an inanimate object. The scientist worked to fix Teddy by putting him in a magic machine that made him toasty warm that Lucy recognized as a towel warmer. Unlike the younger generation, Lucy had been given a proper education. She was taught to read and write, what her targets looked like, what harmless things operated in the human world and a towel warmer was among them. There were other incredibly useful human inventions like microwaves, lamps, and of course, the shower.

Speaking of which, Lucy desperately needed one. "I'll be back. Amber, watch the scientist for me and for the love of all that is holy and for the sake of our future, don't kill him. He's the only one that can make the serum." Lucy stood and went to find a bathroom. It was incredibly easy locating one, she found a room that looked as though a family had possibly dwelt in it beforehand and entered the bathroom, taking off her clothes and scrubbing down her skin and hair under a pulsating stream of warm water. It felt good to be clean and Lucy rummaged around for clothes that would fit, returning to the lab, pleased to find that the scientist was still alive. He was sitting in the corner, playing with something Lucy recognized as a phone. There was no signal this far out though, so no need to worry about him contacting anyone for help.

Something odd prickled her senses, a smell that was unfamiliar and snake like. She narrowed her eyes, poking her head out the door. The hallway was far too quiet, where had Alice gone? "Ophie, why don't you go look for Alice?" Lucy suggested. She would stay here with the scientist and Amber just in case it proved to be a trick by the human.