The world was cramped and cold when Chris awoke. A cage of stainless steel hemmed him in from every side, like a maximum security playpen. His gaze wandered around, unfocused and bleary, for a moment blessed with ignorance of who and where he was. Memory returned quickly and it caused his eyes to snap into panicked focus as he flubbed himself into a sitting position. The room was clean and medical with an operation table taking center stage, ringed by cages of all sizes like bleachers built for the dangerous and deranged.

They were filled with all manner of strange beasts, most completely unfamiliar to Chris’ eyes. The ones he did recognize he was not happy to be reacquainted with. The deer, wolves and winged apes he had seen in the forest all had their place in the menagerie. And across from Chris was a dog. It was a lean, feral thing and its face was bare, as if the fur had been burned off and never healed back. Its eyes were intelligent, and it met Chris’ gaze with something bordering on amusement. Then it smiled, and Chris recoiled from it in instinctive horror. It’s teeth were a perfect set of white tombstones, polished to a gleaming shine. Human teeth in a dog’s head.

It watched him, and it laughed. A true human laugh came from its throat, hoarse and cruel, delighting in his fear and discomfort. They stared at each other for several uncomfortable minutes, before Chris looked away, writing the beast off as just another terror of the forest. But everytime he caught a glimpse of the beast in the corner of his eyes he would get goosebumps as the beast ceaselessly stared at him, smiling.

Hours stretched long, the animals remaining deathly quiet as they waited for their keeper to return. The dog never stopped staring and Chris swiftly began to hate the feel of its gaze. He tried to speak with the beast, a simple greeting. But all he got in return was more eerie laughter.

There was little to do in the cramped cage that he’d been stuffed in, but Chris didn’t allow himself to grow bored. Shocking away the uneasy shadow of the smiling dog Chris focused on the goal he’d set for himself. He was going to kill the Raksha. He didn’t linger long on the reasons for doing so. The hatred that burned in his chest for them was unmatched by anything he’d ever felt, it was a compulsion that could not be denied. It was fate drawing him forward with no recourse. First he would have to get out of here, but he knew he had to be careful. He was no secret agent and to fail even once was to fail forever.

Right now the man who’d bought him thought that he was useless, he had no choice but to as Chris was, in fact, useless. But even a stopped clock will be right twice and Chris knew that he could do this. He just had to do everything perfectly. He looked around the lab with renewed vigor looking for anything that might be recording him and the animals in their cages. There were two cameras that he could see, or at least things that looked enough like cameras that he had to assume they were.

That made things quite a bit harder. Someone could be watching any move he made. If the doctor was alone-

His thoughts were interrupted but a door opening behind him with a pneumatic hiss. “Well good morning everyone, I trust you all slept well. Not out partying too late were we?” The doctor laughed. “Ah and our newest arrival is already awake as well! I must say I’m a bit surprised.” His beady far-set eyes locked on to Chris’, the gray-green skin of his face stretched with a wide and genuinely happy smile. He waddled over and pulled a key ring from his pocket and slipped the largest of them into a lock on the side of the cage that faced the operating table.

Chris had to fight back the urge to jump him immediately. Only the memory of the bullets hanging in the air in front of The Raksha gave him the self control to do so. There was simply too much he didn’t know to move now. And he would not allow himself to fail. So he stood when the doctor ordered and stepped from the cage with a calm demeanor that he did not feel. “My name is Seethis by the way. I told you that earlier but you were heavily sedated for that entire experience so I assume that you’ve forgotten.”

“I had. Thank you for healing me. My name is Chris.” He awkwardly offered a hand for the man to shake. Seethis the Deep Water Doctor narrowed his eyes for a moment at the movement and then simply stared in incomprehension at the offered hand. Chris let it fall.

“Well. Why don’t we move you on to the examination bench and we can see how you’re holding up.” The doctor’s smile was back, but Chris could see that his gaze was lit with suspicion. But the man turned his back easily enough, perhaps another test. But Chris held himself. Until the moment came where he was absolutely sure of victory, he would wait.

So he pulled himself on the cold metal table and Seethis began to poke and prod at the various wounds that he had patched up. Most of them were little more than pink lines now, the doctor clearly knowing what he had been about. Except for one. “This wound on your arm was a nasty bit of business. It’s going to scar and you’re probably going to get some twinges of pain now and again that are only going to get worse with time. On the bright side you can still move it.”

“That’s a relief.” Chris smiled, trying his best to appear congenial.

“It’s a miracle,” The doctor replied. “Now do you remember our little discussion about what you owe?”

“Vaguely.”

“250 years to the day that you’ll be in my service.” Seethis grinned. “And part of that service is to aid me with my experiments in whatever capacity I deem you to be useful.” The doctor waddled over to a cart that sat hidden in the corner of the room. Then he brought it over, the wheels squeaking ominously. All manner of sharp instruments lay on that cart. Spaced with an exactness and precision that spoke of decades of practice. “Now you are the first specimen of your race that I have brought through my doors. So I need to establish something of a baseline so we can determine the effects that my potions, tonics and tinctures might have upon your functions. Both lower and higher. So why don’t you lay back for me so that we might explore your physiology now that you’ve reached a state of relative equilibrium.”

When Chris saw the doctor pull a set of straps from the underside of the cart he wanted to do anything but cooperate. The doctor seemed weak, the way he waddled from place to place did not give him the air of a warrior. But the image of the Raksha tapping bullets from the air still chilled his blood. He would wait. He must wait.