Marco found himself in his dreamscape, the warm hands wrapped around him as they cradled him through the darkness. His eyes were closed, his body devoid of the pain he was feeling previously. As he opened them, he saw that he was not in the darkness, but back in his old house near port Galicia. Sitting at his kitchen table, he saw as his mom sliced into a nearby cutting board.
Long brown hair ran down her back, wearing a white a blue summer dress. She placed two things onto a plate and turned to him. Her face was completely wiped out with the color of her light skin. Placing the food in front of him, two halves of a tuna sandwich with the crust cut off. The sun glowed from behind her through a window as he looked up, her palm placed into his cheek as she spoke in a deep voice. "Enjoy," from her vocal chords came multiple voices, bellowing to take control with some gentleness.
He took the sandwich in his small childish hands and took a bite, closing his eyes as he savored the familiar flavor. He felt his head spin as if he were inside a washing machine, a feeling not too dissimilar to the G-force training he had endured.
His eyes opened slowly. He was laid down on the pavement with his cheek against the floor. The rain poured down on him, landing in his eye from time to time, his vision not flinching. He felt the warmth of the blood under him as he tried to squirm, looking down slightly to see the gaping hole in his stomach. His left hand was restrained behind his back and on his, his legs feeling a contrasting cold to the heat under him.
Bodhi kneeled beside him, Marco looked up to his face. Bloodied and with a purple eye, his left cheek had a small gash that was lightly covered up by his thick beard. The droplets from the sky made it look as though he had been crying, something which he never did. Bodhi's eyes darted at him briefly before looking down at the floor again with the same somber view. Whatever Marco had awakened, Bodhi was unable to.
Marco turned his head forward, resting his chin on the pavement on the walkway. The three bodies had been bagged, he saw as two men carried one of them away on a stretcher. He could see Lyle and Arthur having an argument ahead of him, the roaring of the rain covering up the vast majority of their voices. Despite not hearing much, they could tell simply by the way they looked and moved that they were angry.
Lyle turned to Marco, his eyes widening in almost shock as he saw that he was alive. He walked over as Arthur yelled for him. He squatted in front of Marco, looking down at him with his head twisted. The top part of his tracksuit was covered up with a black rain poncho with the company's insignia engraved on it. "I'm surprised you're alive."
He grabbed Marco by the shoulders and lifted him to his knees. Marco groaned and yelled as he felt the weight of his body crush the opening under him. Lyle crouched again, inspecting the wound. It was not healed, but to his shock, the unstoppable bleeding had seized. He could see the lower part of Marco's lung as his shallow breaths moved his innards. Marco and Bodhi both kneeled next to each other, battered, one clearly in a much state than the other.
Lyle stood up and pulled back a strand of hair that escaped his rain coat. Arthur walked next to him, looking down at the two of them with his hands in his pockets. He had a baseball cap on which stopped the rain from coming in his eyes, it also stopped the light from the multiple overhead fog lights.
"The instant you all came back, I had your rooms bugged." He coughed, his voice like a ghost as he cleared his throat. "Now I'm not sure on the details of what will happen to you, but I know one thing for sure." He handed two small boxes to Lyle from his pocket, "You're luckily smart enough not to have killed someone with your own hands, Marco."
Marco winced as he felt the pain at his core intensify, he looked down, it hadn't clicked in that he shouldn't be in such a position to begin with. He raised his arm which previously held his Arbiter, he could see the marrow of both the bones that once held his forearm. His already shaky breath faltered as he felt the searing pain of his larger injury, like his entire body was collapsing on him.
He opened his mouth to scream but was stopped as Lyle injected him with one of the small boxes. He felt relaxed, at ease, a wave of relief washing through him as he looked forward at Arthur who was walking to the last body which was being carried away. He felt as Lyle stopped his forward fall, lowering his head onto the floor, his last memory was gazing towards the cloudy sky as the rain poured on his face.
Inside the testing room again, the small drill revved quickly as the two suited up men looked down at him through their reflectors. The drill pressed hard into him, digging into his skin. It tore through quickly before stopping abruptly, the man pulled the trigger again, the drill spinning in place and not sinking any deeper. It was jammed right under his clavicle, the same spot which the altered had stabbed through and the spot that Tyson had closed up.
The scientist pulled the drill back and put it on the trolley, the other picked up a pen and wrote something on the what he assumed to be a binder. Marco looked around the room frantically, the only objects being the few lights overhead and the large reflective window that loomed over his head.
His head was restrained against the table, he wiggled the fingers in both of his hands, he could feel the cold metal as he tapped the it with his left but not his right. One of the men grabbed his hand, the two looked at each other and continued on. He could feel numbness on his right, he wasn't sure whether his hand was still missing or not, but this had more or less confirmed it was.
One of the men took from the trolley a hammer and spike. He placed it over the same spot and banged it down against the hard spot. Marco could feel the pinging resonating through his body, however, the hammer could not break through. The man lifted it and placed it back on the trolley.
"Where the hell am I?!" Asked Marco as the two men ignored him. The same man took a pair of large tweezers and dug them into his chest. He winced as he felt them tug at whatever object it was that was inside of him but it would not budge.
The man put the tweezer back on the trolley, waiting for the other to finish his writing and rolled the trolley out of the room. As the door swung open and they walked out, Arthur walked in before the door could close, he took his hat off. His clothes were now dry. "Arthur what the FUCK is going on?!" Marco yelled.
Arthur rummaged into his coat, pulling something out of his pocket and spinning it in his hand. He turned to Marco, leaning in over him as he spoke down in his usual voice. "You're gonna tell me everything that you know, and every detail of what you know.-" He leaned in closer, up in his face as he huffed with a furrowed angry face, "and every single thing Tyson has told you since he started working under you." He pulled up a small flask, it contained a severed finger which floated in a clear liquid.