"So, Ryder!" Lennox sang cheerily as he uncuffed the said person's hands. "Today you are free to do whatever you please!"

Ryder looked confused. That morning, he had had breakfast in his holding cell, and then left after the arrival of Ken and Suzanna. They had cuffed his hands like yesterday, and brought him up the stairs, just to find Lennox standing there and waiting, flanked by Nita and Pedro. Next thing he knew, Lennox was unlocking the handcuffs and saying he was no longer restrained.

"Whatever I please...?" Ryder echoed.

"Yeah, except for the obvious no," Lennox said. "No killing. Other than that, feel free."

"Wait. Lennox, you sure?" Nita whispered in his ear.

"The sooner we can trust him, the better." Lennox replied. He turned back to look at Ryder, who was still standing, transfixed. He noticed Ken just barely scowling at him, but disregarded it.

"Hey." Ryder spoke again. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Lennox rested his hands behind his head. "You can roam freely."

Ryder glanced at him, hair flopping over his face. A few moments of silence passed, and then–

"Okay."

And with that, Ryder jumped out the nearest window.

"HEY!" Lennox called, rushing to the window. They were on the ground floor, but he didn't see Ryder anywhere.

"Lennox–" Suzanna said, and he stepped aside. She leapt onto the window sill and looked around. She spotted Ryder climbing the building at an alarming rate, and she hastened to follow. Lennox, Ken and Nita climbed out of the window too to watch Suzanna chase after him.

Suzanna was fast, despite never having climbed the building before, but Ryder was already fairly ahead. He was moving with unbelievable ease. However, once she got into it, she managed to start catching up, but he soon disappeared from her view.

She gritted her teeth.

Come on, Suzanna, she thought to herself. You're better than this.

But even in that situation, nothing could stop the wave of nostalgia that washed over. She allowed herself a small smile, and heaved herself onto the roof. In her mind's eye, she saw him again, back facing her, but twisting around and grinning.

"Wow, Suzanna's first again?"

But he wasn't the one with their back to her this time. Suzanna gave herself a moment to catch her breath, then looked at Ryder.

"He–" she began, but immediately stopped. Ryder was simply standing there, staring at the view. He wasn't doing any real harm.

Suzanna straightened up to survey the view as well. It wasn't anything special. She could see the people on guard duty walking around at the gate, and the gate itself. If she was closer to the edge, she could see the couple of trees that were growing within their grounds. After that, it was such a stretch of barren land. But at a distance into the north-west was the stretch of forest, as far as the eye could see until a very faint and distant mountain expanse. On the north-west, if you looked well enough, you could see the lake, and if you looked a bit more closely, you could see it was very faintly tainted red.

She glanced behind her. There was another very distant forest at the left, and straight ahead a river that was too far to see clearly. Barren land all the way. She turned back to Ryder, and realised his body was more inclined towards her than before, and he was even a few steps closer. She realised that he had also been watching the scene behind him, but now his line of sight was directed at the watch tower to their right.

So Ryder had seen her. But he didn't do anything about it. He turned away from her completely again, and walked to the very edge of the roof. Suzanna took a few tentative steps forward, but then Ryder had sat down there, one knee drawn up to rest his elbow, and the other leg dangling over the edge.

Suzanna stayed there for a while, blinking. Then she grinned and rather than taking the stairs, decided to climb down the building just for the sake of the old times and to see if she still had it. Ryder only looked back at the sound of her leaving.

Suzanna still did have it, by the way. Climbing down was harder, but once her muscles remembered the movements, it was comfortable. Once she was low enough, she let go and fell into a another tree that was growing in their grounds.

Finally, she dropped to the ground, and looked around at everyone's questioning and confused looks.

"Where is he...?" Lennox asked.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Suzanna proceeded to dust herself off. "It just seems as though our tour yesterday hadn't satisfied him."

Everyone was silent, but then Ken spoke up first with an "Oh," of comprehension.

"What, he wanted a tour of the outside?" Nita asked incredulously. "What, ah, Monsieur Ryder, this is the lovely window of room 551, on the fifth floor."

"Monsieur...?" Pedro chuckled, leaning against the window he hadn't climbed out of.

"Anyway, he's doing no real harm," Suzanna continued, brushing leaves out of her hair. "So let's leave him to his own devices."

Ken stepped forward to pick out a leaf Suzanna had missed, saying, "Don't you think you're being a bit too loose?" He held up the leaf he had retrieved.

"I am," Suzanna replied, smiling and taking the leaf from him. She held it up and examined it. "But that's what Lennox wants, isn't it?" Lennox nodded, and Ken very faintly scowled at him again. "Let the boy explore," Suzanna told Ken. "And if you're concerned..." She grabbed Ken's upper arm, and led him off. Lennox and Nita followed.

They wrapped around the base completely, and then Suzanna gestured for them to step back a little. Then she pointed at a figure on the roof. "He's right there."

The others squinted, and they could make him out.

"My god, what an unpredictable guy." Lennox sighed. "If he wanted to see the view, he could have said so..." He ruffled his hair, and proceeded to walk back into the base, Nita hurrying after him.

Ken looked down at Suzanna, who smiled at him. He saw her usually almost lifeless eyes flickering with some light, before she turned away and jogged to catch up with Lennox. Ken stared after her until he saw her pat Lennox's shoulder to get his attention, and they disappeared inside.

He sighed, and crouched on the ground, hands resting on the back of his neck and head bowed. He stayed like that for a while, before finally opening his eyes and straightening up. He thought some more, staring upwards, hands not leaving the back of his neck. He could see that Ryder was now cross-legged. He let out one last sigh before remembering what he had to do.

With that, he looked straight ahead and dropped his hands, making his way to the training grounds.

***

The day turned out to be less lively than they had anticipated. Lennox sent Suzanna to tell the people on duty in the watch tower to keep an eye on Ryder as well. They were told to pass it on to the next person on duty, and so on, and each of them had to come report whatever happened to Lennox when their duty was over. And if Ryder was stepping out of the line, they were told to sound the alarm at once.

Well, not stepping. After he had fully stepped.

But all Lennox came to hear was what sounded like a simple daily routine, only with some peculiarities.

"He sat where he was for a long time, and then he started walking around. But he was walking right on the railings, Lennox!"

"He got down from the roof, and he just sort of scuttled around the walls of the building for a while, and settled on one of the trees at the north side."

"He came back to the roof, but he took his time coming back up. He stood there for a while, then lunged at a bird that was flying by. He held it for a while then, let it go. Then he came back down, and grabbed an apple from one to the trees and snacked on it."

"I think he was napping under the apple tree the whole time."

"He disappeared at some point, but just as we were checking the security cameras, we spotted him again, just chilling. The guards said they were watching him, and nothing suspicious went down."

Alexis and Day had entered the room just as the last person left, each of them carrying a box. They saw Lennox sigh heavily and rest his forehead on the back of his hands.

"What are you stressed about now?" Alexis asked, as the two of them set down their boxes on the tables.

"Health reports from Nita," Day said simply, before settling in a chair.

"Nothing!" Lennox told them exasperatedly. "I'm not stressed!"

"Why're you frustrated then?" Alexis inquired, opening up one of the boxes.

"Because nothing is happening!" Lennox told them, and he sounded like a whining child as he thumped his first on the table. "There's a thrill in being stressed, and I'm not feeling it right now!"

Alexis and Day eyed him in disbelief.

"So you're a masochist?" Day asked, placing his feet on the table. Alexis made a weak attempt at pushing them off, but gave in quickly.

"No..." Lennox pouted, and the two sighed.

They were about to slip into a comfortable silence as Alexis worked, but then their door opened and Nita popped in.

"Hey, Alexis, Day." She held up a document. "I forgot to hand this over to you guys and–"

"Hey."

"–HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS!!!"

Lennox and Day almost fell out of their chairs and Alexis let out a very loud yelp and dropped the document she was holding. Nita was the one responsible for the scream, but nobody blamed her, for Ryder had arrived at the window of the work room, perched nonchalantly as if this was everyday business. It took a while for everyone to get their bearings in order.

"Holy fuck, Ryder..." Lennox said, clutching his heart and shakily getting back in his chair. "You scared us shitless."

"I did?" Ryder cocked his head, as Nita continued to curse under her breath and Alexis bent to pick up the document.

"I thought some friggin weird, extra-terrestrial, oversized bird had shown itself," Nita grumbled, straightening the document she was carrying. "Like an Inbird now or something."

Ryder merely gazed at all of them, and stopped at Day, who hadn't bothered getting up after his chair had tipped over, and his legs in the air were the only things visible. Nita nudged him with her foot as she passed him, and placed the document in one of the boxes. She turned around and was about to leave, grumbling, but found her path blocked.

"Pedro?" She looked up at the slightly wrinkled, but, as usual, smiling face above her.

"Hello," Pedro replied. "Has anything interesting happened yet?" His eyes landed on Ryder. "Well of course they have! Ryder, lad." He walked up to Ryder, and held out a hand.

The latter merely stared at it for a stretch of time.

"Anyway," Pedro continued, putting his hand away. At that, stifled laughter filled the room, as something like this was a rare occasion. Pedro reached behind him and pushed Lennox's head into the table almost professionally. "Glad to see you back. But although you enjoyed yourself, there are some things that we must tell you."

Lennox felt the grip on his head tighten, and pulled himself together.

"Right. Ryder." Lennox straightened his face and looked at him. "Listen, I understand that you enjoyed swinging around, and I know I said you can do whatever you pleased, but I didn't think you'd go there.

"Although I have nothing against you doing...you, other people might have reservations. So I was hoping that you might be able to restrict your jungle-man instincts just a bit. Okay?"

Ryder stared, and then sat more properly on the window sill. "Okay," he echoed.

"Is there anything else?" Lennox asked, slightly mesmerised by sky tainted orange by the setting sun. He saw it everyday, but he couldn't help it.

Ryder put his hand to his chin and thought for a while. Finally, he came up with...

"I want my weapons."