And now...there's a solid surface under his back, straps around his wrists and ankles, and he hurts all over. When he finally manages to pry his eyes open, it's to blinding light and a sterile hospital-like ceiling. He rolls his head right, stomach rolling as he catches sight of the crystallized remains of his hand. How is he still alive?

"Ah, Mr. Winters, you're back with us."

The voice is calm and smooth, and it makes the hair on Ethan's neck stand up. He turns his head the other way, and there's a man stepping forward from a doorway, tall and blond and dressed in a lab coat.

"Who-" Ethan tries, voice hoarse. "Who are you? Where am I?"

The man's lips twitch. "None of that is important. Nowhere near as important as you."

Ethan's eyes follow the man as he rounds the table he's strapped to and stops on his right. Instinctively, Ethan tries to pull away, but of course he can't.

"We weren't sure we'd be able to find you in that mess at all," the man says. "Let alone alive. You really are amazing, Ethan." His fingers brush against the meeting of crystal and flesh at Ethan's wrist, and he tries to jerk away again.

"Stop it."

"No. We've got uses for you, Winters. This biology, this technology - it's something else, something new. Something amazing. It needs to be studied."

The words send a chill through Ethan. He wants to scream, to shout, to insist that he's a person, not an science experiment, but he knows the words won't make a difference.

Somewhere in his mind, distant, near-hysterical, he thinks of Mia being taken by Eveline and the Bakers, Rose by Miranda, and now him by this awful man. When does it end? What does the universe have against his family?