Jack had so much he wanted to ask him, but his eyes closed on their own. His medication was kicking in. The man squeezed his shoulder, his voice whispering to him. "Try to get some rest, my friend. I won't make the same mistake again. I'll save you this time. I promise." A blissful darkness wrapped him in its warm embrace for the first time in what felt like years. However, it was over all too soon. Around ten at night, the nurse knocked on the door and slipped inside without waiting for his answer. Giving him a faint smile, she walked to the machines and checked them over before checking over the I.V.'s in his arms. When she was satisfied with the result, she moved to a side table set off by the cement wall. Putting a hand on the square box set atop of the side table, she informed him quietly. "Everything seems to be looking good. No one should disturb you again until morning. So, I'll go ahead and activate our monitor. He'll watch over your condition and report to us. Goodnight, Mr. McLoughlin."

Pressing a button on the box, she hastily left the room and closed the heavy door that had his name placard on it. For a moment, he took in the room and noticed that he'd been moved again. This room was smaller but cozy for a hospital room. It had a bolted down dresser. A nice queen sized bed. There was no TV but there was a large window on the wall located just across from the bed. On the side tables next to him was a simple lamp and a digital clock. The soft beeping and hissing of the machines were the only things making noise, until the box on the side table by the wall suddenly spoke in a soothing voice. "Oh, hello there. You must be Jack McLoughlin, right?" Jack nodded, feeling unsettled by the digital LED eyes that stared back at him. The digital face smiled, telling him chipperly. "Well, nice to meet you, Mr. Mcloughlin. My name is Iris. I'm a medical assistant robot. My core function is to give guidance to my patients and provide a supportive presence in case of an emergency. Such as mental breakdowns, psychotic episodes, and so on. I was created by your treatment supervisor, Dr. Robert Alexander, himself. So, Mr. McLoughlin, I'd like to congratulate you on successfully recovering from your physical damages."

Jack weakly waved to Iris. He didn't feel like he should be congratulated for something he had no control over. Let alone by a piece of equipment that probably didn't understand that in the first place. Iris's eyes looked him over before continuing. "You were even fortunate enough not to lose a limb. Quite impressive, if I do say so myself. You clever goose. Now that your body is recuperating. Let's take some time to work on your brain damage. It's completely normal to suffer from memory loss and hallucinations. You were in a coma, after all. It's completely natural for a few things in your head to of... shall we say... turn off. My job is to help you switch them back on. Lucky for you, the damage can be easily cured. In order to heal your brain, you'll just have to sleep and rest. Not so hard now, right? Sleeping is the best medicine for your brain. Sleep puts it in a natural state that is perfect for it to heal itself. I know it sounds silly after you've just woken up from a coma... but think of it more like... you are waking up in stages. You may be back with us, but until everything else has had time to wake up with you... you need to rest. So, just fall asleep."

Jack stared up at the bland white ceiling, trying to relax himself. He wished the thing would just be quiet. It hurt his head to listen to him right now. He wanted to sleep. Instead, Iris added on. "Unfortunately, you were in a coma for so long that you might find it hard to sleep because it might cause hallucinations and that could be a huge problem. You'll need to stay calm. Avoid stress. Stress will speed up your heart and will give you a cardiac arrest of the heart. If that occurs... we might not be able to arrive in time to save you from death. Since you are such an important patient to us, we don't want that happening. Would you like me to play any ambience sounds to help you drift off?" Weakly against the oxygen mask on his face, he sleepily droned out. "Something soft. Calming. Ok? Now please be quiet." Iris smiled completely unphased as it stated. "Very well. Soft rain sounds, it is. Goodnight." Closing his eyes, he tried to drift back off into that dark bliss sleep. Only to have an image of a doctor forcefully holding an oxygen mask over his mouth as another yelled out. "We've got to get him out! We've got to suppress Anti!"

Jerking awake, Jack's hand went to the mask over his face. Cautiously tugging it a bit from himself to make sure he could take it off if he wanted. Beside the bed, the heart monitor beeped a bit faster, prompting Iris to state over the soft rain sounds. "It's ok. Just take as deep of a breath as you can. Then slowly exhale. Lack of oxygen to the brain can play tricks on you. Just breathe slowly and sync your heart to the pattern of the rain. Slow and steady. You are ok." Glancing at Iris, he asked anxiously. "Have I been here before?" Iris blinked, then curtly answered. "No. There was no record of you being here before your accident. Relax, Mr. McLoughlin. You're in good hands." Sarcasm slipped from Jack as he blurted out. "But you don't have any hands... Or legs." Iris chuckled lightly, commenting innocently. "True. I'm merely an observer. Good thing, I wasn't referring to myself. Or you'd be in trouble." Turning his head on the pillow to look at Iris, Jack asked timidly. "When did they start using you? No hospital that I know uses robots."

Iris blinked again, before answering confidently. "I'm the only one. I run all of I.R.I.S.'s systems. I'm always there. Always watching. Always... learning." Jack tensed, sitting up just a bit. The smile on Iris' face vanished. Replaced by a neutral line. Both eyes blinked then the iris of the eye split into three before circling back into one. The heart monitor started to speed up again as Jack asked Iris uneasily. "Anti? Is that you?" The digital eyes flashed a neon green, before Iris answered in its normal cheery tone. "Go back to sleep, Jack. Your body is weak. You need to rest." Jack shook his head, panting out a little now. "Anti. Please. Let me help you." Iris' eyes flared a bright green, the voice distorting now when it snapped out. "I don't need your help! I've kept control, all this entire time! I don't need you anymore. Thanks to that doctor... I have found another way out of this hell. I have found someone to replace you. I have all the time in the world. I have already won. While look at you... just sitting there. Don't worry. It will all be over soon."

Iris spasmed out, then returned to normal as it blinked and stated. "Sorry about that. Appears my system needed to be recalibrated. It's all fixed now. What did you ask me? Oh my. It appears your stress is too high. Take a deep breath and turn on the light." Jack pulled the mask off his face, ordering Iris seriously. "Contact a doctor. I wanna speak to a doctor, right now!" Iris' voice filled with light regret as it told him. "Apologies. The hospital runs a skeleton crew at night consisting of security and nurses for emergencies only. The doctors will not return until six am. Until then, you should focus on getting some rest. Shall I continue to play rain sounds for you?" Pulling off the mask, Jack bitterly snapped out. "Fine! Page a nurse! Anyone!" Iris resumed a cheery voice, when it told him. "You have no need for their serves, Mr. McLoughlin. Tell me what is wrong instead. I'll log it and inform your care provider." Sitting up shakily, Jack began tugging off wires as he snapped out. "Fuck you! I wanna talk to a person!"

Iris' voice turned to surprise as machines began to flatline and blare with warning alarms upon saying. "Mr. McLoughlin! Don't do that! Alerting nurses! Stay in bed! A person is on their way!" Climbing out of bed, Jack stumbled toward the door. Practically falling against it, he tried the handle and groaned with frustration. Locked. They'd locked him inside. Heading along the wall to the window, he threw back the curtain and cursed. The window had bars on it. There was no way out. He was trapped in here like an animal. Iris then softly prompted him. "Please, Mr. McLoughlin. Help is on the way. Just go back to bed before you hurt yourself." Jack refused to go lay down, when the door burst open and two male nurses rushed in. Approaching him cautiously, one told him neutrally. "Take it easy now, Mr. McLoughlin. Everything will be ok." Shaking his head, he blurted out. "No! It's not! You don't understand. Anti is in the system! He's plotting something! You have to take me to him right now!"

The male nurse nodded, gesturing Jack to approach him as he said casually. "Alright. Come with us. We'll take you to him." Apprehensively, Jack inched toward them, and they parted the way for him to go through. As he reached the door though, one of the men grabbed him and the other stuck him in the neck with a syringe. Kicking and screaming, the male nurse eased Jack safely down to the floor, while Jack screamed out. "NO! You're making a mistake! ANTI IS HERE! ANTI IS COMING FOR US ALL! LET ME GO!" Slipping off into unconsciousness, Jack heard the other male nurse state out softly. "We need to inform the board about this." Jack tried hard to stay awake, but the meds were just too strong. When next he awoke, Jack let out a muffled scream. He'd been strapped down tight on a cot in an all too familiar cement room. He was gagged by a hard leather muzzle and the I.V. had been hooked back up to him. In the far corners of the room, cameras were blinking as they watched him closely.

Unable to move, he had no choice but to lay there and wait for someone, anyone, to appear. After hours of waiting, Jack heard a door open somewhere nearby and a familiar voice screaming out. "Wait! Why am I here?! Who are you people?! You can't do this! I know my rights!" The door slammed, silencing the familiar voice and leaving him to his own questions. Until the door to his room opened and a man dressed in a lab coat stepped inside. Looking over his clipboard, the man mumbled aloud to himself. "Jack McLoughlin. Seems you had a little incident in the recovery room. You almost hurt yourself and others. I imagine waking from a coma has had quite a shock on your mental state. But I assure you that everything is fine." Jack muffled out a few choice words. Causing the doctor to tell one of his assistants distantly. "Remove his gag. He's not an animal and I don't see him endangering himself, right now. Let's get some answers." As the assistant removed Jack's gag, the doctor stated matter-of-factly. "So. The night nurses told me that you have concerns for... Anti? Care to clarify?"

Licking his dry lips, Jack breathlessly snapped out. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You took him from me. You are torturing him! He's going to get out!" The doctor smirked to himself, scribbling things on his clipboard when he told him simply. "That is not possible, Mr. McLoughlin. Specimen 1-14-20-09 is secured safely. We are not torturing him. We are learning about him. He is quite dangerous and needs constant supervision. We did not take him. Because he belonged to know one." Jack jerked in his restraints, snapping out. "He is part of ME, ARSHOLE! Everything was fine until you took him from me!" The doctor shrugged, saying openly. "There is no need for that kind of language, Mr. McLoughlin. Again, we didn't take him. This specimen as you know it, never belonged to you in the first place. It merely attached itself to you. We are trying to help you get your life back." Twisting his hands in the leather cuffs, Jack pleaded with him hopefully. "Please, we don't have much time. He's going to get out! We are all in danger! He knows how to get out!"

The doctor finally looked up from his clipboard, asking curiously. "And how do you know this?" Taking a deep breath, Jack mumbled out. "Because... I helped him do it... I saw it happen." The doctor shrugged, gesturing around as he asked. "And yet we are still here. You've never been here before, Mr. McLoughlin. You had a hallucination brought on by your coma." Shaking his head, Jack blurted out bitterly. "No! I mean... I've been here but I think Anti is messing with time. He keeps trying to change something. And if you don't stop him, he will eventually figure it out!" The doctor raised an eyebrow, before coolly stating aloud. "I assure you, Mr. McLoughlin. The specimen has not moved from containment. There is no such thing as time travel. And even if there was... we'd be using it to help people. He would have no access to it." Locking eyes with the doctor, Jack shot back sternly. "Anti is made up of Antimatter. The more you use him to power your shit, the stronger he becomes! He's learning about you as much as you are learning about him! Don't you see what you've done?! Anti is in your system! You let him in! And now he is coming for all of us!" To Be Continued...