His panting breaths froze upon hearing a clatter of noise from across the darkness. Gulping hard, Pilate scooted to the far side of his mattress, pressing his flank up against the wall. He heard the hiss of the sliding door as a broad swath of light cascaded over his bruised features.
"Forget it, Shell," he grumbled, though he trembled with pain and hunger. "You can intimidate me all you like, beat me to a pulp if you must. I'm not telling you anymore. Whatever's down there isn't for you to fool with. I..."
His nostrils flared, but suddenly he paused on a sharp breath. His ears twitched to the incoming sound. The hoofsteps trotting through the darkness were soft, delicate, and pensive.
"Belle?" he murmured, his face grimacing.
"Pilate..."
The zebra seethed. "No..." He shook his head and kicked at the mattress. "You don't bring her into this, Shell! Do you hear me?!"
"Oh, Pilate..." The hooves galloped toward him.
He craned his neck and shouted towards nothingness. "You leave her out of this! You bring her back home—"
"Pilate, it's me!" Belle gasped, grasping his muzzle and tilting his panting face towards hers. She lifted his trembling hoof to grace her mane and half-horn. "Shell isn't here. It's okay."
Pilate's lips trembled. The voice that came out of him clung to her warmth. "Belle? How... wh-why did you come here?"
She smiled, sniffling as she caressed his face. "To get you, silly zebra."
He gnashed his teeth and clenched his gray eyes shut. "I... I tried to keep the symbols secret. But... but he found out a lot. I told him things. I'm so sorry, Belle. I'm so sorry—"
"Shhh, don't be sorry, P-Pilate," she murmured, nuzzling him dear as her voice took on a sobbing cadence. "Just be here." She hugged him dearly. "Be alive. Be mine."
He buried his face into her mane and whimpered in a muffled tone, "I was so worried that he would get to you... that he would hurt you..."
"He won't hurt us anymore, Pilate. I won't let him."
"But... But we're in the heart of the facility and his Enforcers—"
"I don't care," she suddenly growled. "I love you and I am getting us out of here alive, do you hear me?"
He swallowed hard and whispered, "I love you so much."
"It's okay. Everything is going to be fine. I promise you."
Two shadows loomed in the doorway, pensively glancing back and forth from the tender scene to the concrete hallway beyond.
"Darling, as much as I adore a tender reunion, we cannot tarry here," Dalton said.
Pilate gasped, but Bellesmith held him still with a hushed voice. "It's okay. He's here to help us."
"Dalton?" Pilate stammered, his breath leveling out. "You're still in the facility?"
"I'm afraid so, old friend."
"I could have sworn... th-that he got rid of everypony."
"For some reason, he still has use of me," Dalton said with a sigh. "For a moment there, I had hopes I'd be sent home to Mildred."
"Help me with these chains!" Belle exclaimed.
Grinder trotted over and yanked at the metal links with brute force.
Pilate tilted his head aside. His nostrils flared once... twice. He made a face. "Grinder?"
"Yeah, yeah," the ram muttered and ripped the shackles off their chains. "I'm here too."
"Do I even want to know how you got here?"
"What matters is that we have you now, Pilate," Belle said, giving him a swift kiss on the lips before hoisting him to his hooves. "And we have a job to do."
"Uhhh..." Dalton squinted across the dark cell. "I beg your pardon?"
"Job to do?" Grinder's wooly brow furrowed. "As in the job of getting the hay out of this crap well?"
"We can't let Shell get away with what he's got planned with this facility," Belle said as she trotted across the room with Pilate leaning limply against her weight. She gave Dalton a firm glare. "We have to head for the laboratories."
"What for?"
"Rainbow Dash," she said. "We're taking the subject with us."