After being locked away in a room for a considerable amount of time, it became obvious to Trubel that her life now revolved around the door opening. Who would come in? What would they do? What would she do?

She heard the locks on her door clicking and moving out of place. she hoped it was Damien, deciding that he had changed his mind about his silence policy. However, it was better than Damien.

It was Nick! He entered her room for the second time that day, and Trubel thought about how it felt like weeks since she had seen him. He walked inside, and Trubel just barely had the chance to see the four guards that accompanied him before the door shut.

"Trubel!" Nick said with relief, happy to see her and happy that she looked better than she had before. The two met in the middle of the room and Nick wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad you're okay," he told her with relief.

"You, too," Trubel said. They pulled away from each other and looked around the room as they thought to themselves. Their eyes both rested on the security camera briefly, and they both realized that everything they did was going to be analyzed later. They would have to be careful with what they said.

"Nick, what the hell are we going to do?" Trubel asked him, sounding hopeless.

Nick shook his head, just as unsure as she was about finding an escape to the horror they were living. "I don't know," he admitted sadly. "But we have to figure out something. We're running out of time."

Trubel was looking down at the ground with a worried expression that she didn't want Nick to see. "What if this is it?" she asked him meaningfully.

Doubt and defeat were two words that weren't in Trubel's vocabulary. Her worries were uncharacteristic of her to express, and it spoke to the severity of the situation. Trubel was never one to stop fighting, and Nick couldn't comprehend what she was thinking now.

"What?" he asked her, unable to grasp what she had said.

"You know what," Trubel said with agitation. Was Nick blind? They were in serious danger, and their odds of surviving it were dwindling with every second that passed. "What if there is nothing that we can do, and we die here?" she clarified to Nick who looked worried and thoughtful.

"That's not going to happen," Nick promised even though he had no authority to do so. He couldn't imagine anything happening to Trubel, or what he would do if something did. "We will get out of here, and I will see my family again," he added with determination. Trubel was already shaking her head in disagreement before Nick finished speaking, and he noticed. "Trubel, listen to me," Nick demanded, but Trubel wasn't going to look at him. "Listen to me," he repeated urgently, grabbing her shoulders. Trubel looked up at him with alarm and surprise at his sudden intensity. "We just have to stay alive until the others can find us, okay? We have Hank and Ian and everyone else looking for us."

Nick sounded sure of himself, but in reality, he was just as doubtful as Trubel. Everyone on the outside was being led in the wrong direction by Miles, but Nick and Trubel couldn't see any way to escape from the inside, either. Nick wasn't giving up, but he knew escaping wouldn't be easy if it were even possible in the first place.

From the look on Trubel's face, Nick could tell that she was thinking the same thing. They stared at each other, communicating wordlessly.

"If we're going to die here, we can't give them what they want," Trubel said resolutely. She was realistic and so was her assumption that they were going to die at the hands of Griese and Reichardt.

"Picking fights isn't going to buy us time," Nick said nervously, wondering what was really on her mind. If Trubel caused any more problems, Griese might jump the gun and kill her in pure annoyance. Or, if Trubel picked a fight with Miles again, she might not be as lucky as the first time; Damien wouldn't always be able to stop Miles from doing what he wanted... That was, if Damien wanted to stop Miles at all. For all anyone knew, Damien's job was to take care of Trubel, and that was it; he likely didn't give a damn about her well being. It made the most sense considering who he was working for.

"Who cares about time? What about the Grimms we'd be jeopardizing if Griese found some kind of weakness during one of her tests or if we told her where the-" Trubel said, thinking about the greater good. She was a Grimm and a government agent, fully prepared to put others above herself.

"Trubel," Nick interrupted her quickly. He didn't want her to say anything about the book.

"No!" Trubel yelled at Nick. She knew what Nick wanted, but she wasn't going to be stopped from doing what she thought was right. Not to mention that her anger was starting to get the best of her.

Trubel walked under the security camera in her room and started shouting at it. "Remember that Grimm ancestry book? I know where it is, and I also know I'm not going to tell you a damn thing! Do you hear me?"

"Trubel, stop!" Nick yelled. He ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind so he could move her farther away from the camera. Trubel let him pull her across the room before she shook him off.

"Are you insane?" he demanded.

"Nick," Trubel tried to interrupt. It didn't work.

"Do you know what they're going to do to you? They'll do everything they can now, to get that book," Nick told her, sounding angry only because he was so scared for her; in his mind, she had made a massive, dangerous mistake.

"I know what they aren't going to do!" Trubel yelled back. She sounded confident in her actions despite Nick's concerns. "They aren't going to kill me. They can't until they get the book. Same with you."

"That doesn't mean you're untouchable, Trubel. They're still going to hurt you to get you to talk," Nick reminded her, not soothed at all by her explanation.

Trubel crossed her arms stubbornly across her chest. She was done fighting with Nick; he couldn't change her mind. "Well, good luck to them," Trubel growled. "Because I'm not scared of pain, and I'm not scared of them."

Nick looked like he was going to have a heart attack. What was Trubel thinking?! She just guaranteed that the last moments of her life were going to be excruciating. The Reapers, Black Claw, Miles - they would all try to physically persuade her into spilling her secrets. Trubel thought she could handle whatever they were planning, but none of that changed the fact that Nick didn't want her to go through that.

"We need a different plan," Nick told her.

"We don't have one," Trubel reminded him scathingly. It wasn't like she could take back what she had said, anyway. "We can't keep playing along with Griese's games."

"This seems like a good time for me to cut in," a voice announced from the corner. Nick and Trubel turned their heads quickly to see Griese standing just in front of the doorway and the eight guards that were with her, flowing into the room.

Trubel looked up at Nick. "I'm sorry," she told him.

Before Nick could even process what she had said, Trubel was fighting.

Everyone would be watching for Trubel to attack Griese... but they wouldn't be expecting her to go after that one guard in the corner...

Trubel ran to the guard at the end of the room. He, as predicted, was watching Griese, so he didn't have time to react. Trubel quickly punched him in the face and chest, and the guard doubled over in pain. Another guard was already trying to stop Trubel from doing any more damage. He made the mistake of running behind her and standing in the perfect position for Trubel to elbow him in the face. It was a solid blow, and the guard stumbled backward dizzily. Trubel used the opening to finish off the first guard with a final punch and a kick to the stomach. His unconscious form went sprawling on the tile floor.

Nick stood, watching the chaos. Though he didn't agree with Trubel's actions, he couldn't let her fight eight... well, seven guards by herself. Nick went to work, throwing punches and dodging the attacks of the guards on his half of the room.

While Nick was punching one of the guards, another guard had wrapped his arms around Trubel from behind and picked her up. She was kicking in the air, at first to get the man to drop her until she realized that she was in a good position to attack the other guards who were standing in front of her. She kicked one in the groin and when he bent over in pain, she finished him off with a kick to the face. A second guard was now unconscious.

However, Trubel was still being partially restrained by the guard who was holding her. Nick knocked the man he had been punching unconscious with a powerful blow to the face and then used the opening to help Trubel. He ran behind the man that held her and wrapped his arm around the guard's neck, choking him. The man released Trubel, leaving her to fight another guard while he was struggling with Nick. The struggle didn't last long as Nick quickly used his other arm to wrench the man's head to the side, breaking his neck.

Three unconscious and one dead; four more to go.

Now two guards were on Nick. They had attacked him just as he had broken the other guard's neck. One held Nick's right arm, and another held his left. Trubel was still fighting with the man she had attacked earlier in addition to another that joined her fight. Trubel was dodging the attacks of the two men that were fighting with her when she saw the tough position that Nick was in; it was her turn to help him. She ducked under the punches of her opponents and ran at the man holding Nick's right arm. She collided with him, causing him to let go of Nick, and the two smashed into the wall near the foot of Trubel's bed. While the man was still shocked from the sudden attack, Trubel ripped him away from the wall and kicked the back of his leg so his knee would bend. The man was off balance and fell to his knees. Trubel grabbed his hair and threw the man's face into the metal bed frame with enough force to leave a dent. The man was dead from the impact, and blood from his head immediately started spilling onto the floor. Two dead and three unconscious. Three left.

Nick was fighting two of the three. The third guard was headed toward Trubel. One of the men Nick was fighting got the upper hand and was able to throw Nick to the ground. He followed Nick with the movement and was now on top of him, holding him down. He woged into a Balam and inched his teeth close to Nick's throat. Trubel was now fighting with one of the men that had just been Nick's opponent as well as the man she was fighting earlier. She didn't quite have an opening, but she still ran toward Nick and kicked the Balam off of him.

It cost her. Trubel's two opponents ran after her and pulled her away from Nick just after she kicked the Balam. As Trubel was being pulled backward, she looked up and saw more guards rushing into the room. Nick and Trubel had been good, but not good enough. The new guards picked Nick up off of the ground and worked together to restrain him. Reinforcements also helped restrain Trubel. Within a few seconds, both Nick and Trubel were kneeling on the floor with their hands handcuffed behind their back.

Griese entered the room. Neither Grimm had noticed that she left. She approached Nick slowly with a bitter and disapproving look on her face.

"I make a deal with you to let you see your friend, and this is how you reward me?" she asked Nick bitterly.

"I can't believe you made a deal with her," Trubel grumbled in Nick's direction.

Griese woged in Trubel's face and told her to shut up. She glared at Trubel, and Trubel glared back defiantly. The stalemate lasted for a few awkward moments before Griese retracted and continued talking to the two Grimms.

"I'm disappointed in you Burkhardt," Griese finished. "Tonight didn't have to be such a mess."

"I never planned for this to happen," Nick said defensively. He had a bad feeling about what Griese was planning next. He hoped if he could alleviate some of the malice she clearly felt that he and Trubel wouldn't be punished as harshly.

"That didn't stop you from participating," Griese said, unassuaged. She stood in front of the kneeling Grimms with a cold expression. Her tone was just as cold when she spoke, though the words were supposed to be comforting. "But I understand why the two of you would want to act out."

"You do?" Trubel asked skeptically, eyeing Griese with a wary expression. She didn't believe her.

"Yes," Griese hissed, smiling but still looking unfriendly. Trubel had once read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest when she was in one of many mental institutions that she "visited." In her mind, she thought about how Griese wasn't all that different from Nurse Ratched - cold, manipulative, sadistic...

Griese continued speaking.

"I'm sure lab rats also feel the urge to act out," Griese said with a grin.

"Bitch," Trubel growled. She looked like she was trying to get up, but a guard pushed her back down onto the floor.

Griese was still smiling. "Let's not start that again. In fact, I have another idea."

That wasn't good.

*************

"Goodnight, honey," Adalind said. She had finished tucking Diana in and was now about to switch off the bedroom light.

"Mommy," Diana said to stop her.

"Yes, sweetie?" Adalind asked, walking back over to Diana's bed.

"What were you and Daddy talking about?" she asked.

Uh-oh.

Adalind would have to be careful with her wording if she was going to stop Diana from getting any ideas. Adalind now knew Diana had heard some part of her conversation with Renard, so a simple "Nothing, sweetie," wouldn't fly. Adalind sat down on the bed next to where Diana was lying. Diana also sat up, leaning against the headboard and waiting for Adalind's explanation.

"We were just talking about how special you are," Adalind said dismissively. "You're a very amazing girl."

Diana's face turned into a skeptical pout. "Daddy said he thought I could help," Diana said, calling Adalind out on her half-truth. "Was he talking about helping Nick and Trubel?"

Wow, Diana was a smart girl. As much as Adalind wanted to keep her from putting the pieces together, she was unsuccessful.

"Daddy was wrong," Adalind told Diana, hoping she would buy it.

She didn't. "You're lying," Diana said. Her eyes started glowing purple, and the door to her bedroom slammed shut. Adalind had a feeling that she wouldn't be able to open it if she tried. She was had to answer Diana now...

"Honey, you shouldn't be involved in what's going on with Nick and Trubel," Adalind said earnestly. It was a hard decision to make. Either she could take advantage of her daughter and expose her to violence, murderers, and God knows what else, or she could keep her daughter safe and risk Nick and Trubel's lives. The more she thought about it, the closer she was to letting Diana get involved. But as her mother, using Diana like that felt wrong.

"I want to help," Diana said in disagreement. Over time, she had really bonded with both Nick and Trubel. Nick was someone she was proud to have as her second dad, and Trubel was the best babysitter/aunt that Diana could ask for. She knew they were both in danger. She felt they were both in danger, and it wasn't just intuition.

Adalind, again, began her efforts to change Diana's mind. "We all do, but-"

"I'll ask Daddy," Diana threatened. Adalind didn't know how to respond to that. Diana was fighting dirty. "He said he wanted to talk to me. He'd tell me."

He probably would, Adalind thought to herself.

"I'll tell you, but you have to wait until tomorrow," Adalind succumbed.

"Promise?" Diana asked. Adalind's reluctance made her suspicious.

"Promise," Adalind said. Diana's eyes turned purple again, and the door to her room opened slightly.

"Goodnight," Adalind said, kissing Diana's forehead after tucking her back in. Adalind shut off the light, left the room, and closed the door. She sighed to herself before walking to the guest room and preparing to go to bed. There was really no point; she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep.

*************

Nick stood in a large room divided in half by a large glass panel that reached up to the ceiling. On the other side of the glass stood Trubel, staring at Nick with a confused expression.

"This is weird," she commented, looking around herself. Why had Griese left Nick and Trubel to talk to each other? Hadn't she implied that something bad was going to happen? Maybe Nick and Trubel read too deeply into her grin when she said she had a plan for them... but maybe not.

"I don't like it," Nick said from his own side of the glass.

"Me neither," Trubel agreed.

On each side of the room was a door to access that side of the room from the hallway. Nick's door opened, and Griese walked in, followed by six guards who remained at the corner of the room.

"I figured it would be safest to enter the room from this side since our little antagonist is on the other," Griese stated with her signature grin spread across her face.

Trubel exchanged a wary look with Nick before asking Griese, "What do you want?" in an aggressive tone.

"To make a point," Griese answered simply. "You know where the Grimm ancestry book is, and I want you to tell me."

"And I don't want to be held captive by a psychopath," Trubel told her. "But we don't always get what we want."

"There are consequences for your actions," Griese warned her coldly. "So I'm only going to ask you once. Where is the book?"

Trubel scoffed. "Do whatever you want to me. You're not getting that book."

Griese nodded to herself before turning to the guards. "Don't stop until she tells you."

What?

Griese walked out of the room, but the guards didn't follow. Instead, they rushed Nick and worked together to restrain him before he even understood what was happening. Trubel, however, knew exactly what was going on. They weren't going to hurt her to find the book; they were going to hurt Nick.

One of the two guards who wasn't restraining Nick woged into a Rißfleisch, a tiger-like Wesen almost as big as a Siegbarste.

"No!" Trubel yelled. Her shouts had no effect as the Rißfleisch didn't even look up at her before punching Nick in the face. The blow was hard enough that it would have knocked a Grimm like Nick to the ground if the other guards weren't working to hold him up.

"Stop!" Trubel screamed, slamming her fists against the glass. The action was useless since the glass was bulletproof, and therefore Grimm-proof. The Rißfleisch punched Nick a second time just as hard as the first.

This was one form of pain that Trubel couldn't take. "Please, I, I," Trubel stuttered. She was extremely tempted to disclose the location of the book. Maybe she could tell them the wrong location... But what would they do to Nick when they realized she had lied?

"Don't tell them," Nick warned her in a breathless voice. He sounded as dizzy as he felt.

"But-" Trubel began to object.

The Rißfleisch punched Nick a third time, but Trubel was the one who flinched from the blow. The Rißfleisch might as well have been punching her.

Nick spit a mouthful of blood on the floor. "No," he warned Trubel again, almost slurring the single word. Nick's vision was blurry, but he could almost swear that Trubel was crying as she watched him get beaten.

"Don't listen to him," the second guard warned Trubel. "Haven't there been times you thought he was stupidly selfless? That he was making a mistake?" The guard was onto something. Trubel had thought Nick should worry more about himself too many times in the past for the guard's comment not to hit a nerve. The guard could tell by the look on her face that he may have made a breakthrough and continued talking. "He's making a mistake now. If you listen to him, he's going to die in front of you tonight."

Trubel couldn't let that happen, but if she disclosed the location of the book, she would be sentencing many more Grimms to die. It was an impossible choice.

The Rißfleisch punched Nick in the face again. By now, it was the sixth time. Nick's face was already turning red and purple from the bruises. His lip was split, and there were cuts on his forehead that were gushing blood almost as much as his nose. Nick looked like he was going to lose consciousness any minute, and there were moments when his eyes shut and Trubel worried they wouldn't open again. The Rißfleisch stopped throwing punches, and instead grabbed Nick by the throat, lifting him off the ground. Nick, half conscious, was grasping at the hand around his throat while he choked.

Trubel couldn't watch any more of this.

She opened her mouth to speak. "Nick knows where the book is, too. If you kill him, you kill the only other person who knows where it is."

"You're going to bet Burkhardt's life on the possibility that we believe you?" the second guard asked Trubel skeptically.

"A better question is: do you really think Nick, the owner of the book and a Grimm like me, wouldn't know where it is?" Trubel asked, sounding more hysterical and desperate than she wanted.

The guard made a face. Meanwhile, Nick was still being choked by the Rißfleisch.

Trubel was even more frantic. "And do you really think I'm more likely to tell you where the book is than Nick?" Trubel had been picking fights, killing people, and causing problems while Nick had been cooperative and even making deals with Griese. The second guard knew that, if one of them was going to spill their guts, it would likely be Burkhardt.

"Put him down," the second guard told the Rißfleisch.

Instead of dropping Nick, the Rißfleisch threw him into the glass wall where he collapsed at Trubel's feet. All of the guards left Nick's side of the room only to appear on Trubel's side moments later. She paid them no attention, collapsing on the ground by Nick on the opposite side of the glass.

"Nick, I'm so sorry," she sobbed, pressing her hands to the glass instead of using them to wipe away the tears rolling down her face.

The guards walked behind Trubel and started handcuffing her hands behind her back. She didn't fight them and kept her position on the floor next to Nick. By then, Nick had pulled himself into a kneeling position. He looked up at Trubel, making it easier to see the bloody gouges in his neck where the Rißfleisch's claws had left their marks.

"It's okay," Nick panted. "'S not your fault."

"Yes, it is," Trubel cried. The guilt was eating her alive; seeing Nick in pain, especially because of her actions, was killing her. She really had made a mistake with her angry outburst earlier.

"No," Nick disagreed. "Don't ever tell them where the book is, or this will happen to more than just us."

Trubel and Nick wouldn't wish that on anyone. "Okay," Trubel promised.

The guards pulled Trubel to her feet and started dragging her back toward the door. "I'm so sorry," she repeated before disappearing into the hallway.

Nick remained on the ground, staring brokenly in the direction Trubel had left even when the door to his side of the room opened. He was too busy feeling guilty that Trubel had to see him like that to care who came into the room. He was lucky it was just Damien.

"Nick!" Damien yelled with concern, running over to the injured Grimm. He kneeled next to Nick. "Nick!" Damien repeated to get Nick's attention when he didn't look up. "Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me?" he asked. He grabbed Nick's shoulders and shook them lightly.

Nick finally turned his gaze toward Damien. "I can't believe they did that to her," Nick said in a detached voice.

"You mean Trubel? Is she hurt?" Damien asked urgently. Damien looked back at the door he had just entered the room through, looking like he was ready to sprint out and check on Trubel.

Nick shook his head. "No, they just made her watch," he sighed.

Damien knew that Trubel wouldn't be okay after that.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. "I'll go check on her, but we have to take care of you first."

"I'm fine," Nick lied, more worried about Trubel than himself. He wished Damien would leave him.

"But Trubel won't be unless I tell her I helped you, okay? So let's go," Damien explained. Nick bought it. Damien helped Nick to his feet and they walked down the hall together. The pair stopped in front of a door which Damien knocked on rapidly until it opened.

A beautiful woman opened the door. "Now, what?" she asked with irritation.

"I need your help again, Lexi," Damien answered.

Lexi sighed with frustration before opening the door wider. "Come on in."