Stage One: Hope in Darkness

Hallucinations (Lara)

"Look at the mess you're in now," Annabelle said to me. Leaning nonchalantly against the wall with her arms crossed, shaking her head at me.

"You made it... BelleI figured it out.... sort of anyways." My speech is slurred even to my own ears. I wince in pain, even the sound of my own voice is painful to my ears. But it was better than before. Subsided from the soul crushing force from before. Now I could talk to her. The pain wouldn't kill me. Or will it? a voice rings out inside me. I crush it with whatever is left in me. No. I'll survive. I have to survive.

Still curled into a ball on the floor of the cell. How long have I been here? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? Time had no meaning anymore. There was the pain and there was the time when the pain wasn't so bad. That is what my world had become.

"Belle, you have to...to.." The knife twisted in my skull, the acid in my veins rebelled. Whimpers of a wounded animal leave me.

"Bail you out again?" She asks, her face is contorted in irritation. She looks pissed. What the hell?

"No you...-" I screech in pain once more. The good time was passing. More pain would follow. The weapons. In the city.... they needed to be destroyed. I had to tell her but I just couldn't seem to focus long enough to tell her.

"Always in trouble and always begging for help Lara. Pathetic. You try and try but you can't save anyone, even those you love." Belle sneers and taunts me as she pushes off the wall and starts towards me. She walks a slow circle around me, "Now you're going to die here. Alone and sad. Broken and hollow."

"But.... You are my friend..." I don't understand. Why was she being like this? Why was she saying these things to me?

"I do not need you. I moved on. And since we met the only good thing that came out of this was Hannibal." She giggles out the words. A ripper getting ready to carve into me. I shake my head. No. No Belle needs me, I have to save her. She shrugs and crouches down to me level so she can look me right in the eyes, "Face Lara, you are nothing."

"No...I'm not.." I shake my head again. Something here is not right. I knew I had skills that were useful to others. Yeah I was a wild card but I did my fair share of the work.

"Ryan will tell you," She sneers at me.

"Yeah right....... I had to pull you out of the rubble of the school. If you hadn't froze then we wouldn't have had to risk our lives to save your sorry ass. Ever since I pulled you out of that basement you have been nothing but trouble." Ryan was here too. I frowned,

"How did... you get out of your cell?.." I was almost too scared to ask. Ryan chuckles.

"I did what everyone else did. Even Belle here. I accepted the truth of the Master and now I am loyal to him. He's going to fix this hell hole and build a whole new world," He says. He extends his arms out. Open and unafraid. No. My head shakes and I try to roll over and get to my feet.

"You're wrong...... That sick bastard is going to kill everyone," I snap out, anger suddenly flooding me. I can't let him do this to people. Not to those I loved.

"What are you going to be the hero?" Annabelle teases before throwing her head back in a bellowing laugh, Why did this feel wrong? Ryan chimes in with a laugh of his own. Adding to my ire. I lean into the wall and painfully make it to my feet. Ignoring my protesting body.

"Knowing you, you'll be the reason humanity ends." Ryan laughs. I shake my head once again. It is more dissorienting when I am standing, it makes the room spin. I glare in their direction as best I can. Annabelle tilts her head at me then without hesitation swings a heavy left hand at me. The blow lands on my cheek with a force that sends me back to the floor. As I blink to try to get my head on straight a heavy boot comes down. It connects with my side. Bruising ribs and knocking the air out of my lungs.

A gasp is all that comes out. I curl up into a ball, trying to protect myself from the onslaught of blows now being thrown at me. I bring my arms up to shield my head and face. They wouldn't do this. Belle and Ryan would never hurt me. I blink back fog, as the next heeled boot comes down I see it. The faces of my friends morph into the men who had dragged me in here. The ones I spent far too much time with on the road here.

Quickly though they morph back into their faces. Too late. The facade isn't going to work anymore. This isn't real. They're not real. It all made sense now. All the things they were saying before. Whatever was in that green gas must have caused this. It makes you see things that aren't real.

As the blows stop I open my eyes once again and notice that when the men left they had shut off all the lights. Was it all a lie?

Had I been sleeping the whole time and just not know it? The slot in the door opens up and a tray of food is shoved unceremoniously through.When was the last time I had eaten? The pains in my stomach tell me that it has been a while. I rush to the food. Shoving it into my mouth with abandon.

"Good morning Lara," the voice is back, His voice, "I'm glad to see you have a healthy appetite." It says. I can hear his smile.

"Morning?" I ask reluctantly. How long have I been in here?

"Yes morning. You've been changing for a whole day and night," He pauses as if in thought, "Although it doesn't help that the guards were a tad rougher than normal" The second part is not as loud. As if he spoke the words to himself. I knew it! it wasn't real. Focus Lara. He isn't going to answer your questions forever.

"Changing?" Great question there Lara. It seemed that one word was all I was going to be able to get out.

"Yes, your treatment is changing you. Making you stronger in ways that only I could have made possible," I frown at his words. Changing how? What was I changing into?

"It's in the gas....." I whisper the words.

"You are smarter than you look, I'll admit. Yes. The gas is helping you and the more it hurts the better off" He says. His voice icy cold but chipper all the same for his words.

"So it is some kind of torture?" A bellow of laughter greets my words.

"Maybe you are not so bright." He remarks. In response I grab the now empty plate and throw it, making it slam against the wall and clatter to the floor. Plastic, not glass. Good to know. "Now, now, Lara there is no need to become violent." The voice tries to soothe me. Did he really think that was going to work?! It only succeeds it irritating me even more.

"What is the point then!?" I demand of the voice, there is no answer, "And the smoke grenades in the city.... .What is your plan for all of this? What do you want?!" I scream into the bare stark white walls.

"To help you of course. To help all of you." He says.

"Then why search for Annabelle?" He sighs at my words. For the first time I hear something in his voice bordering on emotion, exasperation.

"Because she is my inspiration for this medical drug I have created. With her i found the missing link to it all. My own rosetta stone if you will, she is the key to unlocking it all. She is what made all of this possible, to create a whole new world of people." He explains it all with an odd softness in his voice. It is almost like he reveres Annabelle, like hers is the name of his god and he best not say it loudly for fear of her smiting him down.

"So I am just bait?" I demand to know. this bastard will never get his hands on Annabelle again. Not if I have any say in it.

"You are. Your friendship is stronger than I ever thought possible. Far more powerful than she ever let show during our time together. That's why I had you and your friends watched so closely. I knew you would do anything to find Annabelle. And you did! So getting you was just as important as getting her," the man says.

"So you're the Master?" I already knew the answer but I needed to hear him say it, to confirm that this was indeed the one who had ruined Annabelles beautiful voice. "The monster," I add on because to me that is what he will always be. Not a man but an abomination.

"Call me what you will. But you will learn to thank me. In time," With his words echoing off the solid walls, gas starts to fill the room once again. I tense, my body remembers the pain. My mind rebels against what it knows will hurt unlike anything before. No amount of preparation could make me ready for another wave of this.