Hermione again lifted her AEGIS to be scanned by the door, which slid open to let her into a small waiting room ahead of a large desk, covered in stray sheets and half-finished paperwork. Behind it were a few other desks with computer workstations, but not a single living creature was in sight.

"No," whispered Hermione, almost gagging on her defeat. "No! We're so close, and nobody's here!"

"We'll come back later," Inumuta assured her, but failed to improve the witch's mood.

"You don't get it, do you? If we can't figure this out, track this guy down, and initiate the containment protocol- there won't be a later, not for us, not for anybody!"

"Quit your screaming, Curly," snapped Jakuzure. "For all we know, Fluttershy could have had something against Forty Seven and decided to off her. Regulations will take her into custody after she checks out of Medical anyway. The alien is back in its cage, it's not going to hurt anyone else."

"But, none of this is adding up. Why would it take the keycard? Why was there blood in its enclosure when Fluttershy wasn't injured? Why would she use such a paper-thin alibi? There's got to be some other answer."

"Answer to what?" asked a familiar voice. A small, black-and-red hedgehog walked between them and vaulted over the front of the desk, landing in an office chair which he swiveled up behind a large book.

"Hey, how's my best baritone doing?" asked Jakuzure, her voice unusually sweet.

"Surviving," sighed Shadow. "These damn alarms mean my break's been interrupted."

"Ours, too," moaned Seras, entering with Vegeta in tow.

"You all work here in Personnel?" asked a bewildered Jakuzure.

"Yep. They're my card-playing buddies," the hedgehog explained.

"Maybe they'd like to become glee-club buddies," she suggested.

Instantly, Shadow clapped his hands over his face.

"Wait, you're in the glee club?" crowed Vegeta.

"Blimey, that's funny!" Seras guffawed.

The Saiyan found his workstation and threw his joyously convulsing body into his chair. "He told us he was doing combat training! Ha!"

"What do you want?" moaned Shadow, mortified.

"We're looking for records on a maintenance technician that worked in the Menagerie," Hermione explained. "There's been an accident. People have died."

"Hoo-ha-ha! Oh, this just keeps getting better!" roared Vegeta.

The vampire turned to her laughing coworker. "I don't think she's kidding, Vegeta."

"Oh. I'll, ah, get on it."

Both of Shadow's colleagues began to type furiously into their workstations, sifting through hundreds of archived files. The hedgehog himself pulled out a notebook and began to scribble furiously.

"Uh, yeah, let's see here. I've got a file of an Engineering boffin being sent to the Menagerie earlier today," said Seras.

"So Fluttershy wasn't lying," whispered Hermione. "Does the file say who they are?"

"Rei Ayanami 53, according to this. I'll open up her personal record here… and, boom. Looks like she's off-duty right now if you want to go find her," added the vampire. "And her room's just down the hall. I'll send the specifics to your AEGIS."

"Thank you," sighed Hermione, turning for the exit. "And make sure you lock your doors."

The witch sped out of the room, the Elite Four trailing close behind.

"DO YOU THINK YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR?" screamed Gamagori.

"I'm not looking for anything in particular, except answers," Hermione replied.

"I still think you're nuts," scowled Jakuzure. "All evidence points toward Fluttershy being responsible. How long are you going to let your feelings get in the way of this?"

"Until I have evidence that proves them wrong."

"You might just get your evidence here, then," said Sanageyama, as they slowed down in front of the room their suspect apparently lived in. As a private room, Hermione's AEGIS couldn't open the door automatically, so she had to manually enter the door code provided on the file she had received from the nice people at Personnel. A few taps of the built-in keypad later, and the panels slid apart.

"Ugh," gasped Jakuzure, covering her nose and mouth to shield against the smell. "That's evidence, all right."

The bed sheets had once been white, but were now dyed a dark red, thanks to the pale body lying on top of them. Fifty-three's eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Hermione slowly entered the room, as if moving quickly might disturb her rest.

Sanageyama squinted at the gory scene. "Okay, this is all kinds of weird. There was blood in the monster's enclosure, wouldn't it have gotten her then? Why is she here?"

"Because it got hungry while it was out," said a muffled Jakuzure from behind a finger-thin breathing mask.

"No, they don't eat," whispered the witch. "And it didn't get her. Look," she pointed at the dead girl's stomach. A deep, gaping hole was sliced into it. "That's not like what we saw on Forty-Seven. She was torn up, savaged. Fifty-Three has only one wound, right there. This wasn't an animal." Hermione ran her hand through the blood-drenched uniform, her hand coming up empty from every pocket. "And no keycard, either."

Inumuta zipped his uniform up further than usual. "Oh, dear."

Hermione backed away from the body, staring at the parts of the floor that were un-bloodied.

"So Fluttershy was visited, as the records show. But the engineer was dead, her identity stolen. So the killer must have been the one who went to the Menagerie, and blocked out Fluttershy's memory before releasing the XX121 specimen. But that doesn't explain everything. Why was Forty-Seven's keycard missing? It would have no use for something like that…"

"No, no, not again," cursed Hermione.

"Don't tell me it's the voices again," scoffed Jakuzure.

"It is," the witch gasped, "They're talking about… this."

"Cargo… transit," she gulped, breathing heavily. "We need to go, now. Stay close."

"Wait, are the voices actually telling you to do things?" Jakuzure whined. "Great. I'm stuck on a field trip with a teacher going off the deep end."

Hermione was past the point of caring about her subordinate's complaints. These voices were real, she knew that. And if they were going to help her, she would do whatever they asked. Anything was a fair trade for preventing the horror she had witnessed all those years ago from destroying what they were trying to do now. This nightmare would end, she resolved. And she would be the one to end it.