“urgh… my head…” Nyoka slowly came to, a familiar feeling surrounding her as she woke. Shaking off the dizziness she opened her eyes to nothing but darkness, her body feeling floaty as she hanged suspended in her small prison. “Oh… back here I guess… “she frowned, not knowing how to feel.

On one hand she should be grateful she was allowed to live, maybe she would get another chance to get out, this time for good. On another hand she now knew what her sentence entailed and would most likely be selected as fodder for another monster or used in some experiment. One thing she knew for sure was she honestly preferred either of them if it meant she didn’t have to hang here in darkness and boredom.

She let out a deep sigh “I wonder if how long they will just leave me here… “ she asked the darkness.

“Depends, do you want out now? I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave so soon.” A voice spoke in Nyoka’s head.

Nyoka’s eyes widened, moving her head as much as she could to try and see who spoke “who’s there?” she asked, and again the voice spoke.

“It’s me, your friendly slime. who has taken up residence in your skull for the time being, well, more close to your spine but that’s besides the point.”

Nyoka’s face paled “C-catherine?! I thought that angel…”

“Oh, she did.” Catherine spoke, her voice echoing inside nyoka’s skull. “But thankfully instead of hitting me with that lump of magic, she got angry and gave me just enough time to jump inside this little blob I planted inside of you.”

Nyoka was confused. “What do you mean you placed something inside of me?! When did you ever have the chance to do that?!”

“Ah, remember when we first met? The food I gave you that you ate? Yeah that’s when. I pulled a similar stunt when I killed all those crew members, spiked their drinks and when they gave me too much trouble, I just had the small part of me do few snips in important places and no more trouble!” Catherine laughed.

Nyoka started freaking out, struggling in her prison but with how restrained she was she didn’t get to move much “So what! You are just going to kill me and then escape?!”

There was a pause before Catherine continued “…to be honest that was the plan but, after thinking a bit I have a proposition for you.”

“…”

“well, not like you have a choice in the matter if you want to live… but whatever.” She chuckled “So, you obviously know more then I do when it comes to how this whole place operates? The common sense and what not.”

“…yes…?”

“That’s what I got from the dungeon at least, obviously not enough common sense to not be put on death row but… ah getting distracted. So listen, I let you out, help you escape and you help me find my dungeon and then a ship out of this place and maybe I won’t kill you.”

Nyoka frowned “Maybe you won’t kill me?!” She yelled.

“Ah well, if you convince me not to. Right now you are pretty much no matter what I do.”

‘she’s toying with me’ Nyoka thought, but she was right. Either Catherine killed her right now and escaped, or just left her hanging, Nyoka was as good as dead. Convincing this sadistic slime was the best chance she had at the moment. “…fine, all I have to do is find your dungeon and a ship out of here, right?”

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“Yes, and everything in between.”

“and you won’t suddenly decide to kill me in the middle of this…right?”

There was a long pause before Catherine spoke “Maybe, no promises, if you stop being useful…maybe, or try and double cross me.”

Nyoka groaned “Great…” She considered her options again, seeing she didn’t really have a choice in the matter “Fine, we have a deal.”

“Good!” an elated Catherine spoke “now the big question, do we wait or exit now?” Catherine asked.

Nyoka raised an eyebrow “You actually care for my input? I figured the moment I agreed you would of released us or something.” She then winced when she felt a pressure on the back of her neck.

“Hey, like I said, I’m putting you in charge of getting us to where I need to go. I will assist unless I deem it necessary to ditch you.”

‘how reassuring’ Nyoka thought, then focused. She gave her limbs a few experimental tugs, each one bound in place. Not being able to see outside of her metal cage she spoke “Do you know where we are right now? How long was I asleep?” She asked.

There was a several second pause before Catherine spoke “No clue how long you were out, but by the looks of it we are in some kind of mass holding cell. With several people hanging all around you on different poles.”

“You can see outside?” Nyoka asked.

“I just briefly exited your body, had a look, and came back in.”

Nyoka wondered how, but also didn’t want to know the answer to that question. More importantly she knew where they were at. “We are in the prison wing, wouldn’t take long to get here from where we were at… droids fly fast after all.“ she pondered for a moment before she realized something important. “Wait, how are you even going to get me out without someone noticing?”

Catherine chuckled “breaking you out is the easy part, I don’t know if this machine your hooked up to will notice it’s suddenly empty though…let me try something.”

Catherine went silent again, minutes passed “Catherine?” Nyoka asked receiving no answer for what felt like an hour of silence. Nyoka waited, at times thinking Catherine abandoned her despite what she said, but then Nyoka felt a shock in her lower body, followed by discomfort as something small forced it’s way into her body.

“Back.” Catherine said “Tried a few different things a few rows over, and man they do not care what happens to you guys down here.”

Nyoka frowned, trying to readjust her lower body a bit “well… we are on death row.”

“Yeah but like, I straight decapitated the first guy and all that happened was the machine dropping him to the void below. Then I tried freeing another and nobody cared, no alarms, nothing. I didn’t let him go, obviously, but here let me…”

Nyoka was confused, why wouldn’t the organization have something in place to stop death row inmates from escaping? Surely there must be something…they were using death row inmates as fodder though, and they had no clue how to get out of this area to begin with, still it seemed risky “Wait Catherine maybe we should…” Before she could finish, she heard a *click* followed by a loud metal clang and all her restraints were released causing her to fall.

The girl screamed in surprise, falling straight down, landing a few feet later as a horizontal pole hit between her legs, her breath leaving her body as she gasped in pain. She started to lean, threatening to fall once more but came to her senses and gripped the pole, wrapping her legs around it. As soon as she was stable she brought a hand to her lower abdomen “ow… “ She whimpered, feeling a small, wet, blob land on her head.

“Ah, should of warned you, glad to see you didn’t fall into the void.” The blob spoke.

“The… void…?” Nyoka looked up at the blob, then looked down and immediately wished she didn’t. below her were countless rows of horizontal poles, all holding prisoners in place, and below that was nothing, just darkness. She gulped, her grip tightening around the pole she was on. “Well now what?” She asked. Hearing mechanical noises, she looked up, her previous containment detaching itself from the pole she was on and flying off, the space left behind being filled as the machines in front moved back to fill the spot.

Nyoka felt Catherine move down her face, going over her eyes which went wide in surprise when the slime forced it’s way into her mouth and down her throat. Nyoka gasped for air a second later “W-what the fuck?!” she coughed out.

“What? Would you prefer me going in another way? Through your nose, maybe?”

She squinted her eyes in disgust, then shook her head. She stood up, the pole just wide enough for her to keep her balance. Nyoka did frown upon noticing she was dressed in rags but took a deep breath “I guess we head in the direction the machine took off in…” She said, and started her balancing act, slowly making her way down the pole.