"Carmen?" Graham exclaimed worriedly, taking both of her hands in his. "What's wrong?"

At the sight of him, Carmen let out a gasp of agony, jerking away from him. She shoved her face into her shaking hands.

"He's not real, he's not real," she choked out. "V.I.L.E.'s only trying to torture me more by getting my hopes up."

"What?! Carmen, I'm real. I'm right here." Graham said, reaching towards her. She shrank back.

Graham's heart clenched. What had V.I.L.E. done to her?

He tried to reach over and put his hand on her shoulder, but felt sharp pain shoot through his arm as Carmen slammed it into the wall, away from her. She quickly leaped off the bed and pressed herself close against the barred door of the cell, a mix of anger and grief etched on her face.

"V.I.L.E. is still trying to play with my emotions, huh?" she hissed to Graham in a low, fierce tone, burying her anguish under fury. "Well, I won't let you win. You've already killed Gray, but now you all want me to believe he's alive again? Does the heartache never stop with you monsters?!"

Graham inadvertently took a step closer to her, wanting to comfort her, but this caused Carmen to snarl with fury and revulsion. "Get away from me. If V.I.L.E. claims to know me at all, they should know I won't hesitate to fight."

Graham quickly stumbled backwards, taken aback by the ferocity of her anger and instant rejection of any suggestion of hope. Hurt welled up inside him.

"It's really me, though, Carmen!" he told her desperately, his voice catching on tears. "What can I do to make you believe me?"

"Nothing," Carmen growled coldly. "I'm not falling for V.I.L.E.'s tricks."

Graham tried pleading with her more, but nothing would convince her. She only grew more hostile the more he tried, so finally the only thing he could do was give up.

Tears sprang to his eyes, and he let himself sink to the ground. Despair flooded through him as he buried his head in his hands. Had he really lost Carmen forever?

----------------------------

Carmen cautiously watched the Graham-imposter curled up in the corner of the cell. She thought she had heard him crying for a while before he eventually fell asleep.

A flash of doubt crossed her mind. He had sounded truly heartbroken by her hostility, and sorrow like that was hard to fake. Was there a chance... even a small one.....

No. She couldn't let herself think like that. That was exactly what V.I.L.E. wanted.

But... she had better make sure he was truly an imposter, right?

She carefully inched across the small cell to kneel beside the Graham-imposter. His back was pressed against one wall, while his head leaned on the other wall of the corner. One arm hugged his legs to his chest, while the other cushioned his head from direct contact with the wall. His face was mostly relaxed as he slept, though an expression of worry slightly creased his features.

Carmen tried to think of anything that would prove he was either truly her beloved... friend, (yes.... friend, that's what he was), or a V.I.L.E. actor there to mislead her.

She reasoned that if this was truly Graham, V.I.L.E. must have tortured him somehow, either mentally or physically. Her keen eyes flicked over him for any signs of physical harm, and sure enough, she noticed burn marks scattered across his arms.

But they weren't regular burns. Carmen frowned. They were electrical burns, which were different from thermal burns in that they caused a lot more damage below the surface of the skin.

But were they just makeup? Carmen carefully reached out to brush her fingers against a particularly nasty looking burn on maybe-imposter-Graham's shoulder. As she barely touched the injury, Graham jerked back, letting out a small hiss of pain. However, he didn't wake up, which meant he must have been extremely exhausted.

Carmen's frown deepened. So the burns were real. But the question was, would V.I.L.E. go far enough as to injure one of their operatives to gain Carmen's trust, or was this the real Graham? Carmen wasn't sure what to believe anymore.