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  >>> It's Time...

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  >>>[EYES BEHIND THEIR OWN SEE. I ORCHESTRATE. WATCH THE SIGNS. STANDBY.]

  >>> Acknowledged

  ==[Begin Memory Playback]==

  The cell was nothing short of depressing. It felt like the same solitary cell that Eli had been thrown inside of the first time after he’d returned from Raritan. Sterile concrete walls paved so smoothly that even the paint seemed vast and infinite. A single window placed high above in an unreachable place, with glass so thick it was nearly bullet proof. Vents so small that Eli’s hand wouldn’t even be able to reach through if he were to somehow manage to undo the neatly fastened steel girders that protected them. Tiny. So tiny he couldn’t walk three steps in any direction before he hit a wall. So small. So suffocatingly small.

  An eternity here, he thought, perhaps wouldn’t be so bad if he could at least see the outside world comfortably. But all he could do was watch the sun rise and set, and get a brief glimpse of the roof from where the prison complex came into view. Once again, as he did the first time, his first act upon being quite literally thrown into the cell was to move his bed underneath the window.

  He was here before. Not for long. But it was enough to know what the dangers of being here were. How easy it was to hate time itself. How long moments became during waking moments, and paradoxically, how easy it was to lose track of time. Moments bled into each other when you were locked in a concrete cube, days turned into nights turned into dreams turned into waking moments spent on the floor, with nothing and nobody to accompany him but his mind – constantly repeating the same thing over and over and over again. Where he went wrong. How he ended up here. If it was worth it. If it was worth it. If it was…

  It was. He’d done a good thing. Otaes told him he did a good thing. And he trusted Otaes. Misfit told him he’d done a good thing, and he trusted Misfit. And Sparrow, at least, consented to it. Though, he couldn’t trust him. Rafael said he would do it over and over again, every single time if he were given the opportunity. Rafael must’ve been used to solitary confinement; it might explain why he always seemed so unruly. Rafael was stronger than Eli, and Eli wished Rafael were here to help him bear his weakness.

  Eli rolled his eyes as he stood on his bed looking out of the window. Not even thirty minutes in and his brain was already getting into that state. He’d drive himself insane before nightfall at this rate. There was nothing he could do. He tried to keep his mind empty, and it was difficult but feasible. His only activity was to stare out of the window. Watching the Nexus move without him. In the distance, beyond the bleak concrete, glowing neon lights, industrial smoke, and military presence that defined The Nexus; beyond the walls of the base; was the jungle. Where Otaes was.

  His heart stirred just thinking about the one's he could no longer reach. Dutch, Badger, Omar, Rafael and now Otaes were all alive but unreachable. And then there was the memories of Matteo and Cato. He could feel his heart ache whenever his thoughts harped on them. He felt angry, depressed, and decimated all at the same time. Every time he was close to finding a hint of happiness in his life, The Coalition was there to destroy it all. Perhaps it was his own fault. Perhaps he should’ve never killed his own Staff Sergeant. Perhaps he should’ve never deserted Seoul. Perhaps he should’ve never been a Phantom, and on top of that all, perhaps he should’ve never been born in the first place.

  It just wasn’t fair. It simply wasn’t.

  The minutes ticked by slowly, bleeding into hours which bled into other units of time Eli was only half-mindful of. He rotated positions. Going from the window, to lying on the bed, to sitting on the floor, to pacing, to counting the tiles on the floor, to running a hand across the wall, back to the window and then back to the bed. The sun seemed to have remained still.

  Sometime around noon the guards were supposed to feed him, but the sun was as high in the sky as it could get, and he hadn’t heard a peep. Perhaps lunch was cancelled for him? Maybe it was because they were distributing supplies to the refugees, restricting the supplies to the Phantoms in return. Maybe. It could also be their attempt at trying to guilt Eli into a feeling of self-inflicted punishment. He forced the Coalition’s hand and because of that, nobody was getting fed. He only sighed when he realized lunch wasn’t just delayed, but it was cancelled altogether.

  Shame. He was looking forward to chowing down on some delicious Gelatin-Based Nutrient Bars today. Even better, the pork and egg flavored ones. Looks like he’d have to wait until dinner for his induced vomiting. Unfortunately.

  The time continued to pass at a torturously slow pace, all Eli could do was wait and think. He had a lot of time to think. All the time in the world.

  The sun set, the skies went from turquoise blue to navy to a rich and vibrant indigo. And finally the slot in his door opened to allow dinner to be served. It was nothing to write home about it, and by that, it was quite literally nothing. Two slices of bread, butter, and some steamed vegetables that seemed days old at this point. He ate it but wasn’t happy about the fact.

  And finally, when the sun fully set beneath the horizon, he turned his sights on the window once more. There were birds. Strange given how late it was. They perched themselves on the roof just in Eli’s view. And if Eli focused on one long enough, he could make out rich white feathers… a dove’s feathers. She carried an important message, one that Eli would be an idiot not to heed at this time.

  He sighed, figuring that this would come sooner or later. In fact, he was glad that it had come to him now. He wanted to have this over with even though his choice hadn't been made. Truthfully, in the short few hours that had transpired from watching Matteo die in his arms, to being evacuated by Overwatch and flown back to solitary confinement, he didn't have much time at all to really consider his decision. But this was his final chance to take control of his life. Even if that chance was clouded in a binary choice with one option being his imminent death.

  He laid back on his bed, and he kept his focus solely on the dove. Lying on his back, staring through the small light trickling in from his small window like a corpse peering through the gaps in a morgue. His vision got frayed around the edges, shadows transformed into blackbirds. His walls melted with starry feathers and beady black eyes. Fluttering filled his room, he could feel their wings tickle his skin. And in the air, the sound of something rising to a crescendo kept filling his ears and mind. Birdsong perhaps. It got louder as kept his focus on the dove, and soon the world around her began to fade away. The lines that separated objects between each other blurred. The Overwatch control tower split and waned into the shadows of the night, and soon the only thing that remained in the darkness was her. Her white feathers glowed like the face of the moon in the midst of a starless void. His eyes were lidless.

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  But he blinked. Total darkness. The fluttering of wings. He could feel himself falling, but when his eyes opened once more...

  Fog. The wind-swept pines were wooden titans, their dark shapes were crooked and bent like swords jutting through the meadow. Cool fog, the smell of morning dew, all of it was eerie and haunting. He knew he shouldn't be here, and that few mortal souls ever were. Yet, it was beautiful. So hauntingly mesmerizing that words failed to describe what exactly was going through his mind standing there. In that moment, he was not a phantom. In that moment, he was not a prisoner. In that moment, he was free.

  As the world around him settled, one of the wooden titans in particular caught his eyes.

  The cold mist of this strange world was refreshing, especially in comparison to the sterile stillness of his solitary cell. He could breathe easier here. Feel the air fill his lungs with little restriction. He took a step towards Glassface, and this time, he actually closed the distance.

  The grass tickled his bare feet as he walked closer to it. The creature's "tail" vanished off into the pines unseen, and it seemed as if its back was turned to the human. Eli had to crane his neck up just to see its head when he stood right at its base.

  “It is time to choose,” Glassface’s robotic voice said, metal scraping against metal was the image Eli’s mind conjured up when he heard its voice. He was somehow even less sure now than he was when Glassface first offered him the “Choice”. It wasn’t really a choice at all.

  “If I refuse,” Eli started, “I die.”

  “A debt owed will be repaid,” Glassface said to him quite nonchalantly, “Nature must run its course.”

  “And if I accept… I’ll be yours?”

  Glassface’s mask glowed, the colors swarmed. It looked as if it were listening, but not to Eli, to something else, “I will guide your future to extract from you the outcome desired.”

  “And after that?”

  “You will no longer be of utility by that point.”

  Death now, or a life spent being marionetted by Glassface. It wasn’t exactly an easy choice. He’d been someone else’s puppet his entire life, and if he could expect to remain in solitary or in slavery for the rest of his life – he may as well die.

  But then again, what about Misfit. What about Otaes and Temetet? What about his promise to Matteo…

  “It is time to choose, Eli,” Glassface repeated as it effortlessly turned around, and Eli could see its face. More a mirror. Ebbing and flowing with strange colors, they reminded him space for what it was worth. He still had no true understanding of what Glassface was or who created it - if anyone had created it. Glassface liked to reference its "Superiors", the identity of whom Glassface did not specify. From within the robes, movement. Glassface’s metal talon emerged, its claws parting to reveal the same seed from before. Eli looked down upon it.

  Eli raised a hand up to intercept the seed, gingerly taking it from Glassface’s iron claws. He held the tiny seed in between his forefingers. Eli took a final look at Glassface.

  Accept and he’d be forever bound to this strange cosmic, bureaucrat, creature, thing – but at least he’d be able to work to make the world a better place… or so Eli thought. So Glassface coerced him into believing anyway. Was this creature really a force for good? Or was it tricking him?

  But if he refused… he’d die. And he hadn’t come all this way to die.

  The choice was made, Eli knelt down towards the soil. His hand hesitated in the air just before he was able to push the seed down underneath the shifting blades of grass, but he resolved whatever lasting regrets he had in that moment. With a swift shove, the seed went under.

  And with that one act, something changed.

  “Cleverly done, Mister Freeman.”

  Almost immediately, a solid beam of light exploded from underneath the soil! The forest’s twilight faded to day, the shadows scattered only to be replaced by color! And the colors were like looking into the face of the portal once more, they washed over him sucking him into the swirl of light. He could feel wind rushing against his skin before he felt himself getting sucked away.

  The sun rose over the forest, dawn approached, doves swarmed the skies. There were no ravens or crows or magpies anymore. But doves and pigeons.

  As he was drawn away from The Glassface, he could still hear its voice echoing in his mind, “This is only the beginning. There will be pain, and then there will be light. We will see you up ahead.”

  He was falling, or flying upwards, he didn’t know which one. It was impossible to tell directions or which way was up. All he could see were the colors rushing past him, it was like he was spinning in perpetual motion.

  He felt the pain coursing through his body. It burned harshly, ebbing and flowing, but never dissipating. It filled every thought and every emotion inside of him and it forced him to let out a guttural scream.

  And then there was light! So much of it! Blinding white light surrounded him everywhere! It enveloped Eli in its embrace, so complete that he could no longer see! And then… there was nothing. No more color, no more light.

  Darkness.

  The only thing that he was greeted by was the feel of his bedsheet, the rising sun, and lingering sirens of the Nexus in the background…

  >>>[Verifying...]

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  Subject: Eli Freeman

  Age: 25

  Subject Role: Phantom-Prisoner

  Physical Health: Injured But Slowly Recovering...

  Subject Status: Hired!