Nox sits next to a glass chamber filled with noxious yellow gas to the point of full opacity. 

“Some people aren’t born to be caged.  They yearn to dance free among the lilacs and lilies of the Groves.  To tiptoe through the tulips as it were.  They’re not meant to be imprisoned their willpower is too strong to be confined.  Hope is a hell of a drug, it can keep us alive when we’re starving or dying of thirst, just those last three seconds may be all we need to see our survival.”  

Suddenly there’s a banging on the glass as fist imprints are made on the glass. 

“Hope is a dance that can’t be taught, it springs forth eternal from within.  Believe me, if it exists, I’ve tried to bottle it, and hope isn’t something that can be synthesized.  Euphoria, Sorrow, Rage, these emotions can all be recreated in a simple mist of delirium.  But that persistence that desire to keep getting back up because you believe there’s something better on the other side… it’s learned behavior either that or it’s a gift to the overly naive.” 

Next, we hear from the chamber coughing, gagging, and wheezing as a man’s sobs join the symphony. 

“But eventually that need for the next bite of food or the next drink of water wins out and hope is lost.  Your body caves or you cave mentally… and you would do anything to get that thing you crave.  Isn’t that right Mighty?  Mighty by name, weak-willed by nature.  Because your hope was only enough to get you into that ring on your back long enough for that bell to sound, you to be covered, and the NXT Level Championship taken from you.  It wasn’t enough for you to fight for what you’d earned.  It wasn’t enough to push you through and keep that championship around your waist.  Yet whenever I hear your name mentioned, all anyone can say is how much heart you have, and how strong-willed you are but all it makes you is a walking contradiction.  Everyone admires your fight to get out of your contract with Way and Company but if it came down to it, you would’ve just breached it.  Believe me, as a member of the Corporation breaching a contract is something that I’m used to.” 

The chamber goes quiet next to Nox as he presses a button and exhaust fans begin to whir as the gas in the chamber begins to dissipate and there in the middle of the enclosure is the man on the ground twitching. 

“But don’t worry Mighty, this week I’ll get you out of that contract with Way and his merry band of freaks.”   

Nox points at the man twitching in the cell. 

“All you have to do is, breathe it in and this will be the last dance you ever do.  Because I’ve seen this weakness before, Luther Grim, Maxwell Rijen, both men who Arcadia thought could survive The Chemist but you’ll find out like everyone else has… in the end, everything dies.”