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"So, this is bad," Lucy remarked casually.

"You think?" Aarti snapped back. She was looking around warily as Rena shivered next to her.

The room wasn't what they'd been expecting. There was no horde of researchers or masses of guards. Instead, there was just the hat, sitting in its own cylinder, glowing with that freaky blue light. Various cords and wires protruded from the bottom of the cylinder, most sinking into the floor and a few traveling along the wall.

"They weaponized it," Aarti breathed, and Lucy could still hear the anger bubbling under the scandalized, scared tone of her voice.

"Maybe, maybe not," Lucy forced herself to say in the lightest tone possible.

She had to admit that she hadn't seen that coming. In her mind, there would be squishy researchers and tough guards, and she'd send Aarti and Rena over to make them even more squishy and far less tough.

Instead, the room was almost sterile in its emptiness.

Lucy whirled around, searching for the door. They couldn't have just sealed the thing away, could they?

"I'm going to die. Just like Adrian and Mika and Soren and Ollie and Chris," Rena muttered breathlessly, still shaking.

"We're not letting someone kill you, Rena. Not when we could do it ourselves for being so annoying," Lucy added.

"Well, excuse me for having existential angst! It wasn't my bright idea to go through with a suicide plan!" Rena shot back, bristling.

"It was either here or there," Aarti reminded her. "Be glad it's here with the whole lack of guards thing going on." She reluctantly sheathed her short sword.

The bracing metallic noise was refreshing to hear. There was no sound in the room other than themselves. There wasn't a hum of equipment or even electricity.

The whole thing was setting Lucy's nerves on edge. It was simply far too quiet for her to adjust.

"Now that we're seeing the fabled hat, how do we get it out of there and back to its original owner?" Lucy asked. She glanced over at Aarti to see her shrug.

"I didn't get that far with the questions. I was busy eating!" Aarti explained. "It's not like you can get madeleines and non-fat cinnamon lattes on the island!"

Lucy resisted the urge to tackle her friend and attempt throttling. It would be a pitiful attempt because Aarti was the strongest one of them all. Even San lost out to her in a battle of strength, but Lucy had a suspicion that it was more because San kept damaging himself rather than an actual difference in power.

"I think that's where that comes into play?" Rena asked, jerking her head towards the side.

As they watched, a butter yellow ball of energy appeared before elongating and expanding to show a wooden door set in an elaborately carved doorframe. The door itself was rather plain and solid with the exception of a brass doorplate that shone on one side with an elaborately carved doorknob in the shape of a globe.

"Oh, I think I remember this," Aarti said with a relieved smile. "We might be able to pull this off? Maybe?"

*****

San stared moodily at Niles. The man was reclining against the cylinder opposite him. The cylinder itself was empty. San had been noticing a pattern to the way the cylinders in the room were being filled.

The ones closest to him held his old creche-mates. As time went by, more and more had been unceremoniously deposited. The same went for the others. A quick visual scan had told him that there were just a few extra cylinders than there were Liberated. He didn't have to wonder why. The overlords wouldn't be adverse to acquiring fresh containers to use.

"Why are you wearing that collar?" San asked.

"You don't like my bling?" Niles smiled. It was eerie and off-putting with a self-mocking edge. "These don't come off easy."

"But they do come off," San said, not making it sound like a question no matter how much he really wanted to.

"Enough about me and my striking jewelry. Let's talk about the mighty San," Niles sneered. "Just why are you looking for Quell of all things?"

"We all need Quell." San eased himself down until he was sitting on the floor of his cylinder. He glanced over at the lone Amazon in the room who was slumped against the glass wall of her cylinder. "Well, some of us don't need it at all." He shrugged, looking back at Niles.

"That's not true," Niles said quietly. He ran a finger around the edge of his glittering silver collar. "Quell is the blood of our sweat and tears," he added, looking away.

The sound of the door opening interrupted them. A figure familiar to San darted in, throwing themselves at Niles.

"Honey, I'm home!" The girl caroled, snuggling up to Niles who rolled his eyes.

"You!" San hissed, staring at the familiar figure. She was even still wearing the same outfit she'd had on when the guards had tranq'd him.

"Me!" The girl agreed, nodding. She glanced at Niles and shrugged. "I do good work?" She ventured.

"Of course, you do," Niles agreed. He grinned up at San. "I can't believe you fell for it. Just what were you doing while you were out there?"

San clenched his jaw shut.

"Not talking? Circe?" Niles turned towards the girl snuggling under his arm.

"He worked as muscle for some drug maker and then he came home," Circe said with another shrug. "Not too shabby. Made it easier to handle."

"See? You made it easy for her," Niles taunted, chuckling.

"It was so very easy, but then again, addicts are easy," Circe pronounced with a flutter of eyelashes. "So, how did he do? Was he good?"

"Still squirreled away," Niles said, wincing.

Circe stared at him solemnly. Then she sighed and leaned against him harder.

"It's not as bad when it's shared," she said conversationally. "Do you think they'll up the dosage when they find it's not working?"

"I may not be able to control how much it's used, but that's the only part I can't," Niles assured her. He stared up at San. "How much longer until my dear sister comes, I wonder?"

"They don't know about it," San said, coming to his feet and staring at Niles. "They suspect but don't know. How?"

"I'm not under constant supervision, silly boy," Niles snarked. He pushed Circe away and stretched. "There's not enough, or rather hadn't been enough, personnel to keep an eye on everything all the time."

"And I'm never watched," Circe added. "At least, not before."

San's eyes widened as his gaze kept bouncing from Niles to Circe and back. The rest of the children simply stared from their cylinders, huddling as far away from Niles as possible.

"They're going to kill you," San finally said, shaking his head.

"I'm a dead man walking already. They're just trying to figure out how to get all those genes to properly express," Niles replied with a shrug.

"And some of them aren't just yours?" San asked, his stomach lurching.

"Not really," Niles's smile widened again. "It's a fantastic experiment, but not theirs. Never theirs," he snarled as he began to shake again.

This time San could almost see the tiny arcs of electricity dancing across the surface of the collar.

"We might not get out of here, but he will," Circe told San. She walked to his cylinder and pressed her hand against it. Resting in her palm was a tiny storage chip. "He doesn't belong here. None of us do."

San pressed his hand against the glass in front of her palm. To his surprise, the chip effortlessly passed through the cylinder's wall as if it didn't exist. He clenched his fist around it and palmed it into the pocket of his jeans.

Circe turned away in a huff, tossing her brown hair. She waited in front of Niles as he levered himself upwards.

San watched as they walked to the door and left.

"We might make it to that third one yet, right?" Morris called to San, the mockery in his voice evident.

"Shut up, Morris. Ella's not staying here, okay?" San shot back before plopping back down on his cylinder's floor.

He couldn't stop from staring at Ella's cylinder as he said it. She was still sleeping, having not woken up at all since he'd been here. He had no clue if she did during the tests that the researchers kept taking her for.

He kind of hoped she didn't.