'Nicholas. Can you please come with us calmly once I unlock your chains?'
Subject HLI-06 [Nicholas D. Wolfwood] did not stir. He had retreated to the far corner of his brick box and sat with his knees propped. They barred the rest of his body from the world while his head lulled gloomily over them. Stress had placed him in a zombified state. He wasn't going to cause any trouble.
His cell groaned open. White coats approached and seized him under the arms. Still, he said nothing. He was escorted into the hall with guards at either side. They encouraged him to 'cooperate' by lifting his feet higher, but who would want to march happily to their execution? They asked him meaningless questions, but what was there to say just before being executed?
Nick's chains had been removed, but not his restraints. Legato had fitted him with new ones, invisible ones. Livio weighed down one hand like an iron cuff. Nai weighed down the other. They were both chained to his heartstrings. It felt like one tug would yank everything keeping him alive out through his chest. Of course, It would have to go through the glowing bloom in his pocket first. Nai's flower symbolized his last shred of hope. It was a reminder that there was beauty beyond the walls of Conrad's facility.
Nicholas was led to an oversized operating room. He recognized the intense lighting and the steely blue walls. His feet flinched against the tile floor. Blood had streamed in gallons between its tiny squares of linoleum. He didn't need to see it or smell it to know so. Just like he didn't need to ask to know that the metal monstrosity coming out of the right wall would be his final prison, and that whatever tools rested on the neighboring tray would be used to cause him pain.
A tremendously-large tube stood against the left wall, directly across from his mechanical seat. It ran from the floor to the ceiling and contained a viscous solution. Bubbles had to struggle through it. They looked like churning beads of silver as they moved around the tube's primary contents: Nai. Nicholas paused as he tried to process what he was seeing. Because it wasn't exactly Nai, at least not the Nai he knew. The pale plant had sprouted height and an excess of extremities.