I emerged from the tunnels below the lab yesterday, finally deciding that it was time to come out of hiding- if only briefly. The fear of being discovered by the profound entity lurking in my home was outweighed by the need to analyze my newly acquired wound. The moment my terror subsided, the scientist in me rose- finding the desire to study irresistible. 

It has been seven days of on and off fight or flight, listening intently to each sound above me, as though I were a cave dweller. But today I quietly crept into the dark lab, slinking down the halls to slip inside of the room where my vivisection had taken place only days ago. The gore was just as it had been when I had fled, the sticky residue my own blood had left on the floor was dark and oily. The only difference now was that I was alone down here- alone at the scene of my humiliation. Using a remote diagnostic scanner, I carefully examined the carefully knit scarring that ran along the midline of my torso and into a forking shape across my chest. To my astonishment, the internal structure presented on the scan was alarmingly complex. There was an intricate lattice of organic tissue woven deep into my fascia, acting as an additional nexus tapping into my nervous system. For what, I was not yet sure- but my assumption was that Taoxhul had some degree of control over the structure, I just wasn’t sure what exactly that was yet. 

“Magnificent…” I muttered to myself under my breath, studying the images and each minute detail they offered. I flicked back and forth through the scans on the display, when suddenly that all too familiar voice answered me from the pitch dark of the operating theater, 

“A masterpiece of bio engineering, yes? I thought it only fitting that the perfect scientist should host the perfect experiment.” 

I didn’t dare to turn, I already knew it was him. I could feel his piercing gaze at the back of my neck. My attention, however, was fixed on the foreign body so delicately contrasted against my native tissues on the scan. 

“You are obsessed with the data,” he grinned, pacing around the table to face me.

Finally, I looked up to meet his eye- not uttering a single word. “I propose a new contract.” 

Taoxhul leaned an elbow on the steel table, looking me up and down as though to size me up- truly the most casual gesture I had seen him express in the past two weeks of being here. His tail flicked back and and forth, the pointed end making quiet tapping sounds as it made contact with the metal legs of the slab. 

“Your captivity remains absolute, but I will show you the teachings of the realms beyond here. I will show you how the Null works, how your new biological addition can improve your anatomical efficiency. I will help you seek those answers that you have been seeking.” 

He reached out a dark, elegant hand and gently lifted my chin, forcing me to meet the gaze of his terrifying eye. The sight of his polished horns and single, dazzling eye was overwhelming. The pressure in my skull did not abate as he spoke into me, but it changed. It was no longer painful; it was consuming. It felt like the gentle, possessive weight of a hand cupping my whole mind.

"In return," he finished, his voice resonant with possessive certainty, "you will not lie to me, you will not plot against me, and you will ask for my approval before you draw a single conclusion. Do we have an agreement, little worm?"

I looked into the face of the being who had just dissected me alive. I looked at the ultimate scientific answer I had spent my life seeking. And for the first time since he arrived, the overriding emotion was not terror, but blinding intellectual necessity. I nodded, a small, pathetic gesture of surrender.

The scientist had finally eclipsed the man. The pursuit of the ultimate data had won.