The magic brought a pink haze around Gerard's vision. It was something that he hadn't experienced since he was first captured. His magic had been forcefully locked within him, but now it was back within his sight.

He laughed, but quickly covered his mouth with his newly freed hands. He couldn't be caught now. Especially considering he had a body laying in front of him.

He had successfully knocked Frank out with the combination of a leg sweep and punch to the face that he was able to achieve as his magic seeped back through him. It had been strange. As Frank had stood in front of him, Gerard could feel something warm in his chest. The longer they interacted, the more notable the warm feeling was. It spread through him until his vision regained its familiar pinkish tinge of magic. That sensation came just before Gerard felt his strength return as well. He was whole.

Gerard quickly adjusted his weight and leaned towards Frank. He didn't need him to suddenly bolt up. Not yet. Gerard let his fingers graze the soldier's heated skin.

He hummed softly, picturing some of the magic flowing through his veins leaving his fingertips and moving to rest on Frank's skin. He pictured it slowly sinking in and cooling Frank's temperature.

"Eyes closed, mind at ease..." Gerard soothed, looking over Frank's face as he spoke. "Just sleep until I can figure a way out..."

Frank's expression, though already calm, eased more with Gerard's words. The magic was taking hold.

Gerard pulled his hand away, shaking of the magic's connection between his fingers and Frank's heated skin. He hoped it would stick for a bit, at least long enough to come up with a plan of escape. So far the plan had consisted of punching Frank and now sitting in his cell with Frank's unconscious body.

He looked back down at his hands. He had enough magic for a simple continuation of unconsciousness, but was his magic back enough to manage more? How could it have even returned? The serum that Frank had been injecting him with had been holding it back somewhere he couldn't reach the instant it made contact with him. Why had it suddenly come back, despite regular upkeep on Frank's end?

Gerard rose to his feet. He found himself unsteady on his legs after all the time he spent trapped at floor level. He leaned against a wall, willing the magic within him to bring feeling back to his legs.

"Come on..." Gerard muttered, "Work!"

It took a moment longer, but steadiness returned to Gerard. He sighed before taking a small step forward. Progress. He continued forward, stepping around Frank's still body.

It felt so good to move beyond the binding of the chains. It was like walking for the first time. Instinct took over and soon it was just a natural flow.

He stopped in the doorframe, looking at the wall adjacent from his cell. He didn't hear any footsteps. He leaned into the hall, looking to both sides. Still nothing. However, everything looked the same. There was no distinction from one wall to the next, or even markings on doors.

"Shit." He stepped back into the room. He was trapped in and out of his cell. He turned his back to the door and bit his lip. He swore again with words he heard from force soldiers. He turned back around and stepped back in the doorway. There had to be something to indicate a way out.

When he had first been brought to his cell, he had already been too disoriented by serum to know anything about where he was stored. Now, it seemed he was going to be too disoriented to get out.

Gerard twisted, rearing his leg back to kick the doorframe when he paused. There was a small cabinet just outside that he hadn't noticed before. He cocked his head as he knelt in front of it. It was sleek and dark, screaming out the identity of who created it to Gerard.

His fingers ran along the cool surface before pulling open one of the doors. His hand immediately retracted upon the sight of the objects inside.

Torture. It was all items used for torture. Syringes. Weapons. All things the force felt suitable to use against its prisoners.

Gerard snapped his head toward Frank. He had thought one serum had been bad, but to know that there had been so much at Frank's disposal?.. Why hadn't he attempted to use any of the others?

Frank was still resting, none the wiser to what happened after Gerard knocked him out.

Gerard forced himself to straighten in front of the cabinet. There was one item in particular that made Gerard shake as he reached for it. It held a horribly familiar pinkish liquid that seemed to push against its container where he touched it.

"Magic suppression..." Gerard whispered to himself, still shaking as he looked at the serum in his hand. It took everything he had not to drop it. "Make me feel like nothing."

The light pink around Gerard's vision darkened to a magenta. It was as if the magic inside of him could feel the danger in his grip.

"It's all he did, but it was enough." He glanced toward Frank, hoping the magic within him would calm its color without directly looking at the serum. Instead, he found his position shifting so that he faced Frank fully with the syringe in hand.

Frank wasn't magic. The serum wouldn't affect him in the same way it affected Gerard... But it would hurt.

Gerard quickly found himself within an arms reach of the force soldier. He had hurt plenty of force soldiers during battles and forest raids, but he had never done so in a way like this. It felt wrong. He almost didn't want to, but the magic within him pushed him. The magic was angry. When magic gets angry it becomes difficult to control.

"Two wrongs don't create a right." Gerard whispered to himself. What if he needed Frank to get out somehow? What if it killed him? Then what would he do? What would they do to him if they found him?

"We could just try some camouflage illusion and follow him." Gerard tried to reason with the magic within him, "No casualties."

The magic disagreed. Before he could stop himself, the syringe was jammed into Frank's chest.

The spell of Frank's peaceful rest was immediately broken by the tensing of his muscles a cry of pain. It was so instantaneous that Gerard was startled back. The the color over his gaze was shocked back to its light pink.

"Now you've done it." Gerard couldn't take his eyes from Frank. The force soldier continued to cry out in pain as his muscles seemed to flex and constrict under his skin. "What did you do?"

"Force soldier?"

Footsteps were coming from outside the cell.

Gerard swore again. He restrained himself from taking it out on the magic and instead began to will an illusion to hide himself. He wouldn't be killed for this. He needed an escape.

He could feel his magic working as someone stepped into the doorway.

"What the-"

Gerard held his breath, hoping he had been concealed in time. He continued to hold it as the soldier rushed into the room. Right past him.

"I need medical in the lower levels." The soldier spoke to something or someone Gerard couldn't see. "Medical in the lower levels immediately. We have a runner and a man down."