His eyes slipped to the wall with engravings carved into it. As he etched in another line, a smile tugged at his lips. Today was the day things would change. He had been in this hellhole long enough and was just itching to get out. Not to mention, he knew the others would be overjoyed to be free. This captivity was hardly humane, for all the testing done was absurd. If someone willingly asked to for this, then it would have been okay. But everyone, sans him, was forced into this.

Okay, so he was semi-forced. His partner had requested his assistance. She gave him the timeline and explained everything he needed to do, from acting sick to protesting. Hell, she even gave him a step-by-step procedure for when and which powers he was supposed to use. After all, he was supposed to be a 'normal' being. None could know that he was actually a Valsozn, fully equipped with earth-based powers.

Scratching an itch on his shoulder, he skidded past his urinal and pressed his face against the cool iron bars. Any second now, she would pass by and he would know that he have to wait 15-minutes before spending 30-seconds to break from his cage. He would then have about 5 minutes to subdue any attackers. From there, he would get no more than 10-minutes to haul ass and get the captives out of this main corridor.

As if on cue, Aleu walked past. The brilliant pink gloves on her hand caused him to smirk again. Ah yes, he mused, the latest and greater from her nameless organization.

He knew the purpose of those gloves. She would cake the outsides of the new batch of serum with an explosive material. When it interacted with steel, it would blow.

Now, Aleu's job wasn't that simple. No, it had some complexity to it. She had to orient the tubes in the right direction. If the lip pointed toward the cells, the inmates would die. She would have to tip the tubes away and make certain to touch the far side with the laced gloves.

The day before she had been wearing purple gloves, these were fire-retardant gloves. She would rub the cells with it, doing what she could to keep the blast from charring the innocent.

Her eyes met his. With a small nod, the Valsozn by the name of Melik sank back into his cell. He needed to get a perfect shot of the clock. At the end of 15-minutes, he would unleash his sandy powers and bust free of his cell.

Until then, he just waited.

---

Any second now, his pulled his eyes off the clock. It was time to get the hell out of here. Lacing his fingers together, he cracked his knuckles before giving his shoulders a good roll. Oh how grand it would be to finally be free of this shitshow!

Planting one foot behind the other, he pressed his palms against the cell door. His orbs closed and his mind found peace and clarity. Drawing in a slow breath, he counted down from 5.

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

"Help! Somebody, help!"

His eyes shot open as his brows furrowed. There was something about this plea that caused a lump to form in his throat. He tried to lean in to hear her cries, but she was at the complete opposite end of the building. Her voice, though loud, didn't echo well as it finally reached him.

"Ah screw it," he grit his teeth before pulling back his arms. Elbows bent for less than half a second, he slammed them forward.

Red lights swirled to life and soon a droning, aching alarm screamed out. It was the sign that an inmate broke loose!

The bars were no match for him. The guards and scientists outside his door were taken by surprise for nothing was to cut though that steel. Little did they know that for the past few weeks Melik had been chipping away at the iron's integrity. Little by little, his sand attacks peeled back the material. Rust started to appear, for the cells were damp and musty.

Really, it was the perfect plan. And they were completely blind to it.

Finally free, he let loose a blast of sand in the form of a whip. It toppled the officers and forced the scientists against the walls.

"Not so tough now," he chided before regaining his footing.

Making haste down the hall, he skidded past the end captive's cell. Their eyes exchanged a brief glance and Melik instantly knew she was the one that had called out for help. But why? She didn't appear to...

A sound, a very familiar sound rang in his ears. Then, then came the white light.

He didn't even have a second to cuss for the blast sent his body flying down the hallway. It wasn't ideal though for that hallway was where the next chain of explosions came from. Again, his body was shot in another direction.

Wave after wave of explosions eventually caused him to land just a few feet from Anastasia's cage. He had no idea who she was, but she didn't give him the least bit of her concern.

Blood dripping from his open wounds, he let his eyes follow the white-haired woman's movements down the hall. She seemed... worried.

Forcing chunks of the building off him, he grimaced. God this was painful, but now was not the time to worry about boo-boos. Aleu was in trouble. This all happened way faster than it was supposed to. Hell, he didn't even have a chance to evacuate anyone in this sector!

Fumbling, he eventually hobbled his way to where the woman stood. It pained him to do this, but he knew Rroy would kill him if he didn't look for proof of her body.

Unshed tears continued to build in his eyes. Pulse by pulse of sand, he pulled the rubble away from the cage where Aleu was presumed to be.

"No, no, no," he kept muttering.

As he came down to the final slab of walling, his heart sank. There, beneath the charred wall, was a pale hand with gray, pointed fingernails. Around her wrist, a thing, black bangle with barely visible but well remembered words, "Forever."

His face, a ghostly white color now, looked away. He couldn't... he couldn't bring himself to unearth the woman. It was... it was bad enough just seeing this.

Rroy, he found himself cowering, he's so going to kill me.

"Hey," the voice caused him to jump, "you there, stand down!"

Swiveling his head, Melik saw the red suit of the Elite Guards. Eyes dilating, he jerked his head toward the white haired woman. "Time to run," he said while taking her hand into his own.

He didn't care if she protested or resisted. He simply won't let go. Hell, he would drag her body if he had to.

"We need to find an exit," he finally said. With the building collapsing around them, it wouldn't be hard to scramble their way up a ledge and back onto solid ground.

"Well would you look at that," he finally released her hand to point toward a newly damaged piece of ceiling. Sure enough, it caved in and created the perfect (well as perfect as a broken building can be) plank to walk up.

"Lady's first," he chimed while kicking some sand toward the Elite Guards that were closing in on them. "Uh," he glanced over his shoulder, "faster would obviously be better."

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