“I want to try talking to him alone,” Judith said as the pair stood outside the door. “Maybe he’s too comfortable around you. I want to see what I can get out of him.”

Arthur nodded his head. “Good cop, bad cop, I suppose.”

“You can listen by the door. I don’t mind you eavesdropping.” She smiled wolfishly. “I’m a little too used to you snooping anyway.”

Arthur nodded, leaning against the right wall of the cement hallway as she stepped inside.

John was standing to his full height on the other side of the cell, his chains clanking on the ground as he stared her down. Judith was a rather tall woman, but she still felt diminished in his presence, as if he was looking down on her despite what should be an obvious disparity in power in a situation like this.

She spoke first. “Alright, John. We got off to a rough start, but I’m here now. I’m going to ask a few more questions.”

John tilted his head, his eyes intense enough to send shivers up Judith’s spine. “Where’s Arthur?”

“He’s busy. It’s just me, so you gotta deal with it.”
A cold smile crept onto his face. “Well, ask away. It’s not like I’m going anywhere,

right?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” She said. “Alright. So, let’s go over what we know for a fact. We know you were taken by the Talons and chained up here, we know you’re here against your will, and we know that the Talons are convinced you’re some type of god, or at least you have the potential to become a god, and are trying to turn you into one. My biggest question is... why?”

He looked at her coyly. “Why what?”
“Why do they want you so badly? Why are all of these different groups passing you

around? What is so valuable about you that people would kill each other over it?”

“That’s... a lot of questions. Which do you want me to answer first?” He asked the question dumbly, like he didn’t understand what she was asking him, but the calculating glint in his eyes made clear that he was doing it on purpose.

“Just answer this. Why would they want you specifically?”

John’s smile fell, but he did not break eye contact with Judith for even a second. “Who's to say, really?You already know that Talon fool's reasons for wanting me around, so I don’t think I need to give you an answer for that. Of course, I don’t particularly mind being worshiped, but I’d hardly want to stay in this room all my life, so I’d much rather leave.”

Arthur, on the other side of the door, grimaced. That was not what he was told earlier. Yet, despite the disparity, he could tell that John was not lying. But he hadn’t been lying earlier, either. What was his deal?

Judith laughed mirthlessly. “You don’t mind being worshiped? Quite the ego on you, huh? But we both know that there’s something you’re not telling us.``

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“You have... powers, right? Abilities? Me, I’m tougher than normal, and my partner is a lot cleverer than most. So, do you have anything particularly interesting about yourself that you’d like to share?”

John opened his mouth to speak, but Judith interrupted. “And before you try and weasel your way out of it, just know that Arthur told me about how much you apparently hate lying, so whatever you say to me will get back to him. Do you want to embarrass him like that? Or, if you do lie, at least I know which of us is right. So, do you have any powers, yes or no?”

There was silence as John thought. He never broke their gaze. “I don’t feel comfortable answering that.”

“That’s answer enough,” Judith said, “and the answer is yes, you do have something unnatural about you. Because if you didn’t, you could just say so.”

“That’s hardly fair, is it?” John retorted. “Is the absence of a no really a yes? It seems that I can’t have any autonomy, and even less privacy. Quite shameful of you, really.”

“Are you trying to make me feel bad for you like you do with Arthur?” Judith rolled her eyes. “You’re a real piece of work, you know. We’re trying to figure you out, but it's so clear that you have ulterior motives. I don’t know what to do with you.”

“Funny. I wonder if that’s what your wife thought of you.”

Silence. Judith blinked. “What did you just say?”

“Sorry, my mistake,” John said, not sorry at all. “Ex-wife, I believe. Or perhaps a girlfriend. Didn’t she leave you for another woman?”

“How did you-?”

He held up a small brown wallet. Judith patted down her pockets and realized too late that her wallet had been missing. “You left this here. Quite embarrassing, you clearly miss her a lot. Vivian, was it? Her photos, and what appears to be...”

He pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. “A drunken love letter begging her to take you back? That’s funny... in a sad, pathetic sort of way.”

He chuckled. Then he began to read it aloud. “Vivvy, I’ve been loyal to you since the moment we decided to promise ourselves to each other, and I can’t believe you would hurt me like-”

He was interrupted by a swift kick to the cage. Judith looked down at him, enraged tears falling from her eyes. “God, you’re awful. What did we ever do to you?!”

At this point, realizing how disastrous this questioning had gotten, Arthur ran into the room. He slipped between Judith and the cage. “Hey, both of you stop whatever it is you’re doing! No more reading, and no more kicking!”

Arthur held out a hand. “John, give it back.”

John held the wallet close to his chest. “Why should I? Why should I not leverage the only thing I have, just like how you’ve leveraged my freedom?”

“Please.” Arthur looked at him with pleading eyes. John hesitated, then reluctantly held out the wallet between the bars of his cage.

She scoffed, swerving around Arthur to talk to John directly again as she snatched it from him. “You know, Arthur was the one to try and convince me to talk to you, and try and give you another chance. But you really can’t keep up the facade that you’re an innocent victim anymore, can you?”

“Shut up,” Arthur urged her. He looked back at John. “Why the hell did you say all of that? Judith’s personal life has nothing to do with this.”

“The two of you are so eager to play with my life,” John said coolly, “But when we reverse things and I try to psychoanalyze one of you, suddenly it’s solid evidence that I’m a monster who is not to be trusted. Everything you do is morally justified, while everything I do is only further evidence for or against me, even if it hardly has anything to do with our situation.”

“That’s... different,” Arthur weakly defended. How so, he could not answer right away.

“Of course it is,” John agreed, “The difference is that while you two are forced to find some way to deal with me, I don’t have to be especially kind to either of you. I want to leave, and you promised you would help me do so.”

“Well, that was before things escalated like this,” Arthur said, pulling Judith behind him. “We’re not going to let you out tonight. We are going to call our agency and have some of our higher ups look into this. For the time being, you’ll remain here.”

John’s face was cold. He smiled, but it was tense and joyless, more like he was incredulous at Arthur’s words. “You liar.”

“I’m sorry.” He truly was.

“I’m not,” Judith said. “Clearly we’re not equipped to handle this situation, so let’s just wipe our hands of this mess.”

“We‘ll stay until assistance arrives, if that comforts you,” Arthur reassured.

“It doesn’t.” John’s gaze darkened, as he gripped the bars. “You lied to me. You told me you’d let me free. I haven’t been kind to you, I’ll admit, but I’m not a liar.”

“I’m sorry,” Arthur repeated. He headed for the door, and Judith followed. “The choice has been made.”

Before they left the room, they heard John behind them growl a warning. “I’ll get out of this room soon enough, and when I do you will regret not helping me when you had the chance.”

Judith turned around. “You’re bluffing. If you could have gotten out of this room without our help, you’d have done it already.”

John, despite the frigid rage clear in his gaze, smiled. “ If you were so sure about that, you wouldn’t have been so hesitant to let me out all of this time. You have no clue what I’m capable of, do you?”

Judith had no answer.
John’s smile fell. “No, you don’t.”
Arthur pulled Judith out the door as he gave another apology. “I’m sorry.”