Jormungrand had B taken away first while the guards picked up Lola and Mothman from the ground. The last B saw, Lola hung limp in the guard’s arms and Mothman looked so defeated as he was saying something to her about how things are going to be ok. B struggled against the guard leading him away until they shoved him into the wall of the elevator While Jormungrand barked out orders to the guard taking him away.

The elevator ride went down farther than B expected it to go. Much farther. When the red doors opened again, B was dragged out into the mouth of an eerie, dark, maze of dingy hallways. Waiting for him and the guard was a person in a white uniform that is a cross between old word scrubs and an old-world plague doctor’s costume. This included a black, beak-like mask and a white hat.

"Ug, I hate having to come down here," B's guard commented, then turned to the person in the mask and continued looking very uncomfortable.

"Hey, the boss wants this one ‘convened’ that he wants to work for the company," the guard said to the person in the mask.

"Fat chance!" B cried out. B was quickly whacked on the back of the head.

"Shut up!" The guard told him, then turned back to the masked person. The beak masked person had pulled a clipboard from the wall behind him and started writing something on it.

“Oh and he wants to use the lady coming down with Mothman to help reprogram him for loyalty. He specifically wants the woman to suffer. You got it?” He asked the person in the mask.

The person in the mask nodded and grabbed and went around the corner for a moment.

“Fucken lab rats. Never say a thing to you unless on break,” commented the guard again.

The masked ‘lab rat’ came in with another two lab rats who brought a wheelchair and a cart with a bottle of medicine and syringes on it. One of the lab rats filled the syringe halfway with some unknown drug, while the other two grabbed B’s arms and legs.

“Oh no. No, no, no!” B protested and struggled as the lab rat came closer with the syringe. Unable to escape, B got the shot in the arm and felt the numbing medicine push into his bloodstream. As he struggled some more he felt his mind start to cloud and his body become weak. His no’s started to become less frequent and more slurred.

He noticed his arms were freed and wrists uncuffed but his legs wouldn’t work. A lab rat came up behind him and guided him into the wheelchair. Everything was confusing to B, he could have sworn he heard Mothman’s and Lola’s voices behind him asking in a panic what they’ve done to him, but B couldn’t turn his head around let alone close his mouth at this time.

The walls and turns blurred together as B was taken for a shower and put into a white formless t-shirt like dress.

B didn’t know what time it was or how he got there, but he found himself lying on the soft ground alone in a small room with a human-sized hamster water bottle hanging on the side of the wall next to a metal toilet. His head was much less cloudy now and he could move his body without much effort now. Upon closer inspection of the room, there was an old-world security camera hanging from the top corner of the room too high for B to reach. B heard no noise from the outside and only every so often heard the hamster water bottle or toilet gurgle. B expected, no, wanted, to hear his friends, lab rats, someone talking on from the outside of the door. But there was nothing. Not a peep.

After B inspected the room for any other way out than the metal, key card operated door, he sat and waited. B didn’t know how long it took for him to start to get bored. Then an intrusive thought popped into his head that they forgot about him and left him there to starve to death. B tried to panic. He didn’t have anything to protect himself from the lab rats or anything to try to pick the keycard locks. He still tried to unscrew the keycard machine with his nails but it was screwed so securely, it just ripped his nails to bits. He ended up banging on the door yelling until he got tired.

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B fell on his butt in the middle of the room, alone with his thoughts, again. B fell backward onto his back and stared at the ceiling and harsh fluorescent lights. He was responsible for his father’s death, his town didn’t want him anymore, he was wanted by the Centurions, he was backstabbed by those twins, he didn’t get to talk to his mom, his family and his friends probably hate him now, and his friends...

“Are you crying?” A smooth voice asked cucking.

B sat up quickly. He saw Jormungrand standing in the doorway holding a tray of food with a lab rat standing in front of him holding a cattle prod. Jormungrand was wearing his wig again.

“N-No,” B quickly replied, wiping his eyes.

Jormungrand passed the tray of food to the lab rat, then entered the room.

“Why are you crying?” Jormungrand asked.

“Your kidding right?” B replied, “You do this to me and then you’re going to kill Lola and-and...” B sniffled.

He kneeled next to B and reached for B’s face. B flinched from his touch. Jormungrand’s touch was confusingly soft on B’s cheek.

“Oh B,” he said softly and sweetly, “Lola deserves to die. You don’t know how horrible the things she did to me when she transformed me into this monster. Did she tell you that my wife left me when she found out what happened to me? I lost the house, I lost the kids, I lost everything by just doing my job and just trying to go up in the world. Do you know how that feels, B?"

B started to nod but stopped himself quickly. Jormungrand smirked at him, knowingly. B shook his head quickly.

“No,” B said, feeling confused, “I’m- I’m nothing like you.”

“Oh?” Jomungrand said leadingly.

“I- I just wanted to make my dad proud of me. I-I just needed parts for my inventions,” B sputtered out. B glared at Jormungrand.

“You know you were my hero?” B demanded. He looked at Jormungrand’s shocked face as B continued, “I just wanted to work with you and sell my inventions to you, maybe get an internship or something under you. Sure I did it in the totally wrong way-”

“And you took a high-risk high-reward way of doing it by stealing data and selling it on messenger, Bacterium. Shobbner said getting banished from the town was the least of your worries by getting caught,” Jormungrand said as he leaned back on his foot, seemingly deep in thought.

“That little hussle you have going on reminds me of me when I was young and trying to get up in the world. That Fae testing I signed up for? A high -risk with little reward… I was once in your shoes, B. All the way down to being captured for not wanting to work for those who tested on me.” Jormungrand smiled softly to B.

“I’m just getting revenge,” Jormungrand said with a smirk, “You know that’s what Mothman wanted too right? Especially after I shot Lola for the first time. He got himself in trouble to get into the prison just to try to kill me,” Jormungrand chuckled as if speaking of an old friend’s funny story.

“He was first to join my cause to burn the world when the meals stopped coming too,” Jormungrand shook his head before continuing, “But back on the topic of revenge. What if I can give you that? Will you work for me?”

“Revenge?” B asked, disgusted with the thought.

“Come on, don’t be like that. There has to be someone you’d like to get revenge on.” Jormungrand said, amused.

“Can I get revenge on you for killing my dad and torturing my mom?” B asked bitterly.

“Ha! No,” Jormungrand said, standing up, “I’ll let you think about it. Just so you know, my people are fair game if you want to get revenge on any of them.”

With that, he turned to the lab rat that had been watching them the whole time with the tray of food and cattle prod.

“Make sure he eats every bite,” Jormungrand said to the lab rat. He then left shutting the door behind him.

The lab rat bent down and carefully placed the tray of food on the ground in front of B.

“I don’t care what he says, I’m not eating the meat,” B said to the lab rat before taking a sip from the juice pouch that was on the tray.

“Smart. Jormunjerk is always tricky with those things,” the lab rat replied.

B choked on his drink as he did a double-take at the lab rat. He wasn’t expecting one of them to talk at all after what the guard said, but then again this voice sounded familiar.

The labrat took off its hat and used its cattle prod to put the hat over the security camera. The red hair was strikingly familiar which made B jump to his feet, his hands at the ready. The lab rat took off his mask and turned around.

“Tada!” the lab rat said.

“MARK!” B yelled as he jumped to tackle him.

“No, Blake!” He replied as he sidestepped B who went face-first into the padded wall. The padding wasn’t as soft as B thought or hopped.