//------------------------------//
// Salvation or bait...? 
// Story: Freedom 
// by SwarmLordAbdonis 
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Seconds before opening his eyes, Jax was so certain that he was going to see the afterlife before him. The gates of heaven opening up to him. Or perhaps he'd find himself imprisoned in Tartarus for what his kind did at Canterlot. Maybe he would even be nothing more than a spirit condemmed to walk Equestria for eternity. Had that been the case then maybe he could find Ant's spirit and be thankful that they had each other still.

Unfortunatley this was not the case. Luck offered him no such respite. Not yet.

Instead, wave after wave of painful bursts spread up and down his back confirmed his survival. Almost everything felt numb from his hooves to his tail. Even his mind had trouble thinking rationally. It took minutes before he finally managed to merely twitch his back leg, indicating that he was still capable of movement. The other limbs slowly followed and allowed him to rise from the cold hard floor. He almost fell back down but managed to keep himself from doing so. His mind eventually realised something that he did not expect.

He was alive.

Somehow, for some reason he was still breathing. He couldn't understand why. He was the last proper living being in the whole prison. He should have been killed. Dead or at least dying. But no. That was not the case.

Trying his hardest to remember what had happened before the intense pain in his back, he couldn't. Nothing came to him other than the pain in his back. He looked around and spotted the keys lying there on the ground just feet away. It took a moment before he realised that he needed them to get out. The reason why too. He walked over to them carefully. His joints painfully resisted the movements he made. Jax didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get out. A little pain would not stop him from doing so.

He bent down and scooped the keys up in his hoof and went for the door to the quarintine. The magical aura had long faded away it seemed. Probably due to no unicorns being around to power them anymore. Jax carefully shoved the first key he could grab into the keyhole and tried turning it. It took three more keys before it became unlocked.

The changeling stumbled through the door, through the shower and out the other side, using the wall to support him. He felt something squish under his hooves. He had once more stepped in the remains of the unicorn. Only this time, he dared to look down and examine his left hoof. Indeed, the bottom was covered in blood, as were all the other ones.

It didn't faze him as much as it should have. Not anymore at least. He merely shrugged at the grotesque remains and continued forwards down the hallway. It took a few seconds before noticing that everything was eerily silent. No hoofsteps other than his own, no terrifying roars, no anything. Just the ringing in his ears that grew more and more.

Jax made it halfway down the hallway before his body began to feel heavy once more. A small hinderance but it was quickly getting worse with every step taken. He managed to quickly make it to the end of the hallway and to the front door and tried the first key. No success.

His limbs were beginning to feel strained, finding it harder to keep his body from hitting the floor. He tried the next key. Still nothing.

He managed to push the next key in before he almost collapsed. His back legs had given out and his front legs were about to follow suite. Twisting the key in time, he heard it finally unlock. A small smile managed to find its way onto his face.

He pushed the door open in time. His front legs had had enough as they too failed him and he fell with a thud. He could feel the cold wind blowing on his face and over his body. With whatever remaining strength and determination he had left he lifted his hoof one last time and stretched it outside before letting it fall onto the soft yet cold snow. He had done it. He had made it out. The feeling of pride swelled up inside him just before he was consumed by the need to shut his eyes and sleep.

././././././././././././././././.

SOME TIME LATER

Not much time had passed since Jax had freed himself. The inside of the prison was silent as expected and nothing else had left the facility. Outside however was a different case. The supply team, a squad of four pegasi guards had arrived from above the cloud line. The harsh winds having no effect on their flight down. Two of them hauled down a supply cart filled mostly with food and other essentials needed for the guards stationed at ICEBERG prison.

They spotted the unconcious changeling right away. Curious, they checked the inside of the prison. They did not like what they saw.

Unsure what the correct procedure was in this case, they decided that it would be best to take the changeling with them. Invasion or not, they couldn't leave him out here. At the cost of half their supplies they loaded him up. After checking that there was nopony else trapped within, of which they found nothing but the bodies of their comrades, they flew off back to civilisation where the changeling would be thrown into another cell. ICEBERG wasn't the only secure facility after all.

It was a shame that none of them noticed the trail of yellow liquid dripping from Jax's back, right where his chitin had been punctured.