Earlier, in the center tunnel:
Hendrix opened his eyes, holding his head as he sat up and examined his surroundings.
The pink-haired boy's gaze met Sev's, who was standing against an ominous door, the sterile, hospital-like design of it juxtaposing the rough rock surrounding it.
"The Officer told us to take you alive," Sev grinned, flipping some kind of knife between his fingers.
Hendrix shot up to his feet-
"No, no, no. That's not how this'll work." Sev's knife shot over to the boy, floating up against the skin of his neck, every little movement slicing thin cuts into him.
"I hate that I have to keep a worthless rebel like you alive, so don't make this harder than it has to be." Sev continued. "My orders were to show you a… Secret… Then maybe you'll cooperate."
Sev walked over to the door, sliding up a piece of rock to reveal a keypad to the right of it. He looked back to see Hendrix, frozen in the same place he stood up.
"You coming, or should I drag you?" Sev grinned, putting a passcode into the keypad as the door slid open, revealing a long hallway covered in white tiling.
Hendrix reluctantly followed as the two made their way down the hallway.
"This place isn't just a cave, y'know." Sev spun around to face Hendrix, who still had a knife floating against his neck.
"I figured." Hendrix muttered, trying to make sure the Deputy knew he was listening.
The duo met another door. This time, Sev grabbed the doorknob and swung it open, revealing an even bigger room filled with green-lit tubes that reached from the floor to the ceiling.
The tubes were filled with some kind of liquid, bubbles occasionally rising up to the top of the tube.
Most of them were empty, but some seemed to be holding something, or someone. These tubes weren't lit. They also had a piece of paper stuck to the side of the tube that faced the walkway. Hendrix was too focused on the knife pressing against his throat to read the writing on the paper.
"Agh." Hendrix whispered as the knife sliced another thin cut into his neck, blood dripping down onto the collar of his band t-shirt.
Sev let out a small grin as he started to talk.
"I guess you must be important, because I'm the only Deputy that knows about this. Officer Nine is the only Officer that's been in here. The other Officers are just aware of it. The Advisors have all been in here, of course." Sev said.
"What is this?" Hendrix said, the importance of the secret finally catching his attention.
Sev grinned as he noticed the boy's eyes focus on the tubes surrounding them. "Nobody knows why we do it, except for God's scientists. What I do know is that we harvest Spirit-"
"What the hell…" Hendrix muttered as his eyes locked onto one of the tubes.
The paper on the tube read "Subject: 3067 | Age: 16 | Status: Civilian"
"3067… Tripp? Ginji and Asuka's daughter…?" Hendrix thought, his eyes refusing to focus on anything else in the room.
Sev followed Hendrix's eyes, quickly connecting the dots. "You wanna get a closer look?"
Sev waved his hand towards the tube as Hendrix stepped towards the tube.
The paper had an image of a smiling young girl.
"Yeah, this looks exactly like the picture Ginji and Asuka have in their room." Hendrix thought.
"Let her out right now." Hendrix turned to the Deputy, not noticing the knife still digging into his neck as he did.
Sev looked at him confused before noticing that the light to the tube was turned off. "Oh. I'll let you get a better look at your friend."
The Deputy kicked a button on the bottom of the tube as the entire container of liquid lit up with that same green tint.
"What the hell…" Hendrix stumbled back, tripping over his shoes as he fell onto the white tiling. His eyes widened as he failed to hold back tears.
Inside the tube was Tripp… Or, what was left of her.
The girl, so lively in the pictures Hendrix had seen, was now skin and bones, sunken cheeks and almost hollow eye sockets gave it away at first look.
It looked as though all the blood and muscle had been sucked out of her, leaving a mummified skeleton of the once happy teen.
"She's long gone, kid. You're about three weeks too late." Sev took a peek at his Correctional Forces watch as he grinned.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Hendrix screamed at the Deputy.
"This is standard procedure, kid. Every tube in here's been filled at one point or another. All of the Spirit gets centralized in the country's capital-" Sev's speech was interrupted.
Hendrix charged, reeling a fist back as he barely missed the knife digging into his throat below his gaiter.
The Deputy dodged the head-on charge with ease, an amused grin still plastered onto his face.
Sev held a hand out as he pushed the knife through the air with seemingly random currents of wind.
Hendrix shot his strings from his back, making them curve towards the Deputy as he spun his guitar to the front of his body.
"Oh, the Officer told me about that guitar…" Sev muttered to himself.
He pulled out another knife from his utility belt, the same curved blade as his first.
Both of the knives shot towards Hendrix, who covered his front with his strings.
Ding. Ding
Both of the knives bounced off the steel wall as the strings made an opening in front of the pickup of Hendrix's guitar.
Sev knew what was going to happen next. He looked around the room as an idea popped up again.
Whoosh
The Deputy floated towards the right as Hendrix fell right into the trap.
Brum
Hendrix strummed a power chord at the Deputy, looking between a gap in the steel strings covering his sight.
A black mass of soundwaves sped towards its target, a blunt force like the one that hospitalized Biggie.
Sev shot to the left just in time.
Crash
The soundwaves collided with the green tube behind the Deputy as Hendrix stepped back in shock.
Tripp's tube shattered, green liquid spilling onto the white tiling surrounding it.
The girl collapsed onto the floor, her long hair saving Hendrix from watching what light was left in her eyes disappear.
"FUCK!" Hendrix clutched at his pink hair.
His head began to spin, losing sense of which way was up and which way was down.
Hendrix dropped to his knees, his patched pants soaked in the green fluid.
Blegh
Hendrix pulled his gaiter down as he vomited onto the tiling.
"Oh, now I know what you look like. This'll be easy." Sev let out a small chuckle as he walked up to the collapsed boy.
Splash. Splash
Each wet step the Deputy made echoed off the sterile walls.
Hendrix gritted his teeth as he recovered his senses.
Shing
Hendrix's strings shot out from his back, grabbing onto the sides of the doorway they came in from as they pulled the boy out of the laboratory.
"Come back here!" Sev flew after the rebel, his currents of wind pushing him from the bottoms of his boots.
The two of them tumbled down the hallway, Hendrix's strings pulling at everything in front of them like spider legs as Sev chased after him in a continuous shot.
Hendrix looked forward, seeing the locked door with a keypad next to it as he gritted his teeth.
He reeled his strings back in as he curled them into a ball of steel.
Boom
Hendrix broke the door down, shooting it across the cavern before it crashed into the rock wall.
The rebel followed after it, his strings flying back out as they curved upward, trying to grab at the tunnel that he fell through earlier.
Crunch
The boy's strings crunched against the rock wall as he jolted to a halt.
He looked down to see the Deputy gripping his shoe with all his might, breathing a deep breath in as Hendrix looked on in confusion.
Whoosh
Hendrix shot towards the side of the cavern, pressing up against the rock behind him as Sev released a giant gust of wind.
He felt blood drip down the back of his head while he gasped for air to no avail.
Sev continued the assault, refusing to let up for what seemed like an eternity.
Hendrix could feel his ribs pushing his lungs flat, every attempt at moving feeling like trying to get an anvil off of every limb.
Finally, the wind stopped, Hendrix falling several feet to the cavern floor as Sev floated down to his level.
"They said bring you back alive, didn't say I couldn't rough you up a little before that." Sev gripped Hendrix's pink hair as he lifted the rebel's head up, revealing the bloodied and tired face.
Hendrix looked at the Deputy as a familiar sensation returned to him.
"No… Please…" Hendrix thought as his thought was interrupted.
"Kill him. You have to." That familiarly deep and gravelly voice echoed through Hendrix's head as he looked into the Deputy's eyes. "Do it. Do it before he kills your friends."
Hendrix hated those words, mostly because he had already decided on it.