Diego turned and drew his sword, pointing it towards the door. He eyed up the tight space and braced to use his psyonics. The footsteps drew closer and closer, accompanied with another sound… Sobbing?

A heavy thud rang out and the hysterical form of Plasia landed on the floor right in front of the armoury door, much to Diego’s relief, and surprise. She looked absolutely terrified, looking back down the corridor she had just stumbled down. Her face was badly hurt, her one eye was cut up and bleeding badly, her skin bruised and weeping across the same side of her face.

“Plasia?! Are you alright?!” Diego rushed forward, sheathing the blade over his back and kneeling down by her, great concern washing over his body and deep into his chest. She turned to face him, hyperventilating and shaking all over. She reached out with a wavering hand, her large sapphire eyes meeting with his.

“D-Diego?! I... I don't know what's going on! Someone hit me really hard and - and - and I hurt and people are screaming and - and I don't know what to do!” A fresh wave of sobs burst out of her chest. She shuddered with every gasp and her body trembled, unable to find her footing.

“Hey, look at me.” Plasia felt a warmth on her shoulder as Diego placed a gentle, reassuring hand on her. He crouched down so his face was level with hers.“It's time to go, Plasia. I’m leaving this awful place, and you're coming with me.” He smiled at her, kindly, standing up slowly and offering his hands to help her up. As she stood, her gaze remained absolutely fixated on him, unable to look at anything but his kind violet eyes.

“W-wha-w-whu-what? What d-do you mean?” She wiped a tear from her eye and slowly came to her feet, trying to the words she'd just heard.

“I'm getting you out of here.” Diego said firmly. “I said I'd help you, remember?”

Plasia stared for a second, her eyes darting from one of his eyes to the other before throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly, nuzzling into his neck and crying into it loudly. She couldn't believe it was actually happening. He was actually going to help her.

“C'mon you, we're not out of here yet!” Diego stepped back and gently took her hand, leading her towards the staircase out. “We've still got a ton of stairs to climb…”

*

Ahead of them, Trent, Geralt and Tivy had begun their ascent to freedom, and so far, it had been suspiciously quiet. The winding stairwell was dimly lit and carved from solid concrete, with no decoration or hand rails on either side and only the occasional small gap acting as a window that allowed them to see the height they’d already climbed, and the dizzying amount left.

Every couple of stories would reveal a metal door that spidered out to the upper parts of the dungeon. All these doors had been closed, up until now. The trio slowed down as they approached it, hazy yellow light beamed out from the doorway and the unnerving sound of Slaves hobbling around within was clearly audible.

Trent signalled for the team to stop, and they gathered on the floor below to discuss quickly.

“What should we do? If one of them spots us, we could be in for one hell of a fight... there could be hundreds in there!” Geralt nervously fidgeted with his rifle.

“They're generally not too attentive unless a Node is about…” Trent replied. “Tivy, think you can see what it's like up there?”

She nodded and scampered up the stairs silently, edging up to the door and peering around the corner. The room itself looked akin to an underground carpark, a massive open room with random support pillars, little in the way of furnishings or comfort aside from some hay on the ground and what looked like feeding troughs. Thankfully, there weren't many Slaves in the room, only a few standing around idly. Most appeared to be sleeping, although standing upright. There couldn’t have been more than sixty or seventy.

Tivy returned to deliver the good news.

“So I think we're clear, they seem to be sleeping. Lets just carry on quietl-”

*BANG*

The team shuddered as Geralt accidentally let a round loose from his rifle. All three of them froze, looking horrified at one another as the ringing in their ears slowly stopped...

“Tivy?! How many?!” Trent fumbled for his weapon and began to ascend the stairs towards the door.

“Sixty maybe?!”

Trent half leapt out of his skin as a hungry monochrome face leered around the door and stumbled towards him, he took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut as he fired a shotgun shell into the thing’s face as it went to lunge for him. The Slave collapsed. There was no doubt the others would follow.

“You guys go! I'll hold them!” Trent ordered, clacking the shotgun's pump action and pushing towards the door. Geralt immediately ran, charging off up the stairs without a second thought. Tivy, however, paused, torn between wanting to help Trent, and saving herself. She bounced back and forth on the spot, then sighed in exasperation and reluctantly followed Geralt, leaving Trent alone.

Trent fired another couple of rounds at the approaching Slaves, dropping them with ease, but they were quickly picking up their pace, and stumbling towards him at speed. Ah, fuck it. As they approached, Trent fired and downed two of the very closest Slaves, then turned and went to run himself. But as he did, something grabbed his tail... one of the Slaves he’d shot was still alive. Although grounded, and with most of its face missing, its limbs had shot up and grabbed his fluffy tail with remarkable speed.

The fox reacted quickly and shouldered the shotgun again, blasting another round into the Slave’s chest, causing it to release its grip on him and fall dead. But now the remaining Slaves were closer, and suddenly speeding up, they broke out into a full blown sprint and covered the distance between them and Trent in seconds. He spun around and tried to run again, but was tackled to the ground by three Slaves, who immediately pinned his limbs and weapon down. The Slaves behind them bellowed hungrily and charged up the stairs. Moments later, Tivy’s horrified scream echoed down the stairway.

No longer were these the shambling creatures he witnessed just a minute or two ago. The Slaves were moving like a grey blur, flowing like water up the stairs, pinning Trent down with overwhelming strength, and preventing him from retaliating in any measure. As the screaming intensified above him, Trent couldn't help but feel they'd already failed.

*

Leech swung her scalpel around and went to stab at Seeth, but the amethystine alien was too nimble and dodged the strikes. After several swipes, she caught hold of Leech's arm and smacked her hard into the elbow, disarming the furious alien and sending another couple of thudding punches into her side.

The irate green beast threw herself at Seeth in an attempt to use her larger size to overwhelm her and drag her to the floor, but Seeth was once again two steps ahead, and grabbed Leech mid-way through the charge and hurled her across the room. Leech impacted against the wall only millimetres away from Venter, smashing into a couple of mounted shelves and completely destroying them, sending broken glass and lab equipment skidding across the floor.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT, SEETH! AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED?! AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH?! YOU SAID YOU’D PROTECT ME!” Leech bellowed, rising to her feet. She took hold of a medical bed from the corner and hurled it across the room. Seeth ducked swiftly as it flew over her head, and rose nimbly.

“I AM protecting you! From YOURSELF!”

Leech growled loudly and volleyed several trays of surgical tools and specimen samples, as her opponent surged across the room and the two sparred once more, but Seeth had the upper-hand now, and they both knew it. Leech swung desperate heavy fists at her but Seeth dodged and blocked them expertly, then countered with a series of hammer-like blows to Leech's stomach and torso, purple knuckles crunching into her muscular green skin, knocking the wind out of her.

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With the advantage secured, Seeth went on a true offensive. Blow after blow sent blood and green goo spattering over the walls as Seeth battered into Leech's head, splintering her carapace with her fierce assault. Leech tried to resist, scrabbling at Seeth’s arms and desperately trying to block her fists with her forearms, but to no avail. Leech was defenceless, her head bouncing again and again against the wall, crunch after crunch with every hit, cracking the masonry behind her.

“Leave her alone!” A voice cried out from behind Seeth and she felt a sharp pain in her side. She spun around to see the terrified form of Venter standing there, with various syringes in his grasp. A quick glance down revealed he'd already stabbed Seeth with a handful of them.

She yanked the needles out and kicked Venter straight in the chest. He was nothing but a grey blur as he skidded across the room, his skull thumping painfully on impact against a desk as the syringes scattered across the room. But the distraction was enough for Leech to find her second wind; she threw her arms around Seeth and attempted to strangle her from behind, holding her neck tightly within the crook of her elbow.

“Don't worry about the injections, Seeth, there’s nothing in here that could hurt you - permanently!” Leech laughed, pressing on Seeth's neck as hard as she could. She spat out a mouthful of blood over her shoulder. “Once I get you under control, we’ll have to work on this terrible attitude of yours! As punishment though, I'll be having your lizard, seeing as you can’t handle him!.” She cackled as blood dribbled down her chin.

Enraged by her words, Seeth grit her teeth and pushed back as hard as she could, slamming Leech back into the wall and loosening her grip. Seeth spun to face her opponent and pulled down hard on Leech's head, driving her knee up at the same time and the two met with a devastating crack. Leech screamed out in pain, and collapsed to the floor.

She was down. Seeth grabbed a scalpel from the floor and mounted Leech's torso and thrust it towards her former friend’s eye. Leech threw her arms in front of her face and the two locked in a desperate battle of strength, The scalpel hovered perilously close to Leech's eye as both their arms shook from the strain.

Despite her situation, Leech laughed heartily, staring up at Seeth with a victorious look in her battered face.

“Even after all that... you're pulling your punches. You can hit harder than that! I've seen it!”

“Shut up, Leech! You can still stop this!” Seeth struggled, pushing the blade down harder.

“You hate everything I do, and yet you can't bear to live without me! HAH! You have NO conviction at all, Seeth. WEAK!” Leech cackled again, as her arms were slowly pushed towards her face. “You've destined to be someone's bitch for your entire life! You had a chance to change that with me, to be at the one at the top for once, but obviously it was too much for you to handle. Happier living under the thumb of a man, huh?”

“If that’s what you think this is about - you're completely fucked up, Leech!” Seeth pushed with all her weight over the blade and inched closer to Leech's face. “Tell me you'll stop this corruption shit and I'll stop!”

“NEVER!”

“DO IT!” Seeth yelled, the blade practically touching Leech's eye.

A sharp metallic crack thundered through the room, and Seeth suddenly lost her strength. A searing pain rippled up her back and she slumped off of Leech and onto the floor. Everything went blurry, and black spots spread from the corners of her vision. Behind her, the tremendously annoyed and disappointed ruby outline of Moltezz appeared. In each of her hands she wielded a length of thick, industrial chain, easily thicker than even the strongest man’s leg, and it was glowing red hot from her touch.

“Outrageous. To think you'd turn on us, Seeth.” Moltezz shook her head. “Take her to my chambers!” She commanded, and several Nodes made their way quickly into the lab. Moltezz gestured with her arm, and dropped one of her chains into the hands of eagerly awaiting Slaves. Despite its hissing loudly upon contact with their skin, they didn't finch, and continued to hold the weapon as commanded. Moltezz strode over and helped Leech up from the floor. “How badly wounded are you?” she asked, eyeing the damage to Leech's head and torso.

“Don’t worry about me, I'll patch myself up. Can you deal with… this, Moltezz?” Furious but shaking, just a little, Leech gestured to where Seeth was being dragged away. She couldn't look up at her though, and kept her head down.

“Of course, I know just what to do with traitors.” Moltezz's fiery glare stared down at the now incapacitated Seeth, lying amongst the ruins of the lab. “Tragic. Has she set your research back at all?”

“No. Not by any significant amount, anyway. UGH, this is NOT what I needed today. I'm going to move on that freighter.”

“I could lead the assault instead? You're looking rather… incapacitated right now.”

“NO! I... I need to be away from her, and from this place. I can command the horde from outside the ship… What are you going to do with her?” Adrenaline was still coursing through Leech’s veins, and despite the beating she had just taken, she was feeling… confused… She wasn't really sure how she was feeling.

“She's an asset to us, Leech, we just need to get her back under control, and back on board. I'll just do what we've been doing here this whole time.” As she spoke, she retrieved the chain she dropped to the Slaves earlier and whipped it through the air, the end cracking loudly at the apex of its whip-like motion. “I need to break her in.”

*

Geralt continued up the staircase, pausing to fire a shaky shot from his rifle and somehow missing every one as a flowing wave of bodies surged after him. A scream rang out as Tivy was caught by her heels, despite moving as fast as her little legs could carry her. Two of them were holding her down and pinning her to the ground. Her fingers reached out desperately for her weapon, but one of the Slaves kicked it away.

Panicking, Geralt slipped and fell half-way up the next set of stairs. He glanced behind him only to see that the Slaves had already caught up. They were on top of him before Geralt even had a chance to even fire his gun. He kicked out and struggled with all his might, but he was pinned under the multiple sets of arms squeezing on his every limb.

*

“Moltezz is going to be so happy with me.” A Node slowly ascended the staircase and stood over Trent, she clad like the other Nodes, standing around eight feet tall in military clothing that was struggling to contain her absurdly sexual body shape. “I have no idea what's going on today, but I can at least stop you lot from escaping. She rewards loyalty, Trent. You know that.”

The fox scowled back at her, and winced as the Slave’s grip around him tightened.

“So close this time too! How'd you get into the armou-”

She stopped. Frozen in place.

They all stopped...

The Slaves released their grip and all stood, slowly marching back into their room. The Node, with her mouth clamped firmly shut, swiftly made her way back down the stairs, back through the door she came from, and closed it behind her. Tivy and Geralt quickly made their way down to Trent, and helped him to his feet. The group were stunned; speechless, they all stood slowly, wondering at what had just happened.

Two more figures emerged from the gloomy staircase below.

Diego led the way, his hand trailing behind him and holding that of the massive sapphire alien that shyly followed him up the stairs.

Geralt stumbled back down the stairs and raised his rifle at Plasia.

“Diego! Look out!”

“WOAH THERE!” The lizard frantically waved his arms about as Plasia retreated a little, eyeing the weapon pointed at her. “Easy, Geralt! Plasia's not going to hurt us, she's a friend!”

“F-Friend?” Trent asked, suspicious.

“Yes. I'll explain everything when we're out of here but I have to ask; do you trust me?” Diego motioned for Plasia to follow him again.

Trent thought for a second, Tivy and Geralt waitied intently for his answer.

“I do.”

“Then you trust Plasia.” Diego said firmly. “Who do you think called off the horde?”

Plasia gave a shy smile.

“T-Thank you… I’m not that good at controlling them, b-but it was nothing, r-really…” the alien whispered quietly to Diego, making his ear twitch.

“Hey, you're the one who did it!” Diego reassured her. “Let's keep moving. We still have a lot of stairs to climb.”

And so they did. The team continued their ascent together, thighs burning and joints aching as they climbed, closer and closer to freedom. Plasia kept the horde away from them completely now, and the rest of the climb was incident free. Hope began to fill the team once again as the ceiling of the stairwell inched closer, step after step.

Eventually and uneventfully, they reached the top and the team stopped to catch their breath. Another locked heavy metal door blocked in their path.

“I-I-I don't have a key... I don't... Diego?! What do we do?!” Plasia began to panic, feeling over the door's surface and turning to her hero for aid. Tivy, Geralt and Trent all laughed, and looked over at Diego too.

“This guy’s a door-wrecking machine!” Geralt laughed heartily.

“Yep, we found the one guy in this place that can bend doors in half!” Tivy agreed, hopping about happily on the spot.

“He got us into the armoury in a rather spectacular fashion, you got this one too, Diego?”

Diego nodded and stood from the top step, turned to face the door and bellowed, his skin flushed red as power coursed through him. This time, he booted the door right in its centre with a powerful kick, smashing it right off its hinges and into the open floor of the abandoned factory. He took another deep breath to centre himself, the aura faded and Diego was back to his ordinary self once more.

Plasia stared at him, open mawed as the others clapped and cheered.

“The guy hates doors!” Geralt did a deep belly laugh as he spoke.

“I don't think he hates doors, Geralt... I think he just - you know what. Nevermind.” Trent laughed, feeling the weight of the dungeon falling off his shoulders.

Together, they stepped out into the abandoned factory, Plasia reaching out for Diego's hand again which he readily accepted.

Wind gently blew through the cracked windows. Trees rustled outside the decaying brick walls, the wonderful morning sky was visible through the broken sky lights. Fresh autumn air filled their lungs and cooled off their skin.

“It's beautiful...” Trent remarked, a tear forming in his eye as they made their way to the rusting front doors and into the main forest itself. “I-I’d forgotten what the sky looks like...” He suddenly turned around and threw his arms around Diego, hugging him close. “Thank you... Thank you, my dude. I never thought I'd see anything other than dungeon walls and her fucking face ever again.”

“Don't mention it.” Diego smiled warmly, hugging him back.

The team slowly made their way out to a clearing in the trees, feeling the fresh grass and dirt underneath their feet, and the refreshing air on their skin.

“I haven't been out here in nearly a year...” Geralt felt tears welling up too. He sat upon a log and stared at the clouds lazily drifting above him. “It’s been so long… A whole fucking year! Cindy was so wrong about you dude! You turn up, and you get us out on the very same day that we meet you!”

“N-Nobody ever even spoke to me before!” Plasia piped up, standing in the clearing somewhat awkwardly, and away from the others. “H-He listened to me!”

While the team honoured Diego’s efforts, his ears suddenly twitched. Diego turned. His ears kept twitching and he looked to the sky again, ignoring the increasing celebration building behind him. He could feel the humming of engines in the air.