Jason latted over Twenty-Two’s side, making sure no blood spots were on the bandages. As his thick fingers prodded in, she would do her best to suppress the winces of uncomfort that they brought. Eventually he was satisfied with the wrapping and brought her jacket shoulder back up and buttoned it closed for her.

“I can get that myself, you know.” She told him.

“We’re in a rush, stop fussing and it’ll be done soon. Olivia, are you all prepared as well?” Jason asked, looking over at the desk.

Olivia was in her full gear once again, thick mask and coat as well. On her back was a messy satchel that was spilling out with parchment and measuring instruments. While she tried to respond normally, the words only came out muffled at first. In the end, she lifted it so her face was free, sporting a large smile as she spoke.

“Ready as can be!”

As Jason finished buttoning, he tied off Twenty-Two’s right arm sleeve. With a deadpan expression, she wiggled the ball of cloth at her side a few times before slinging her own pack across her back. The room they had been hiding in was mostly cleared out now, though the signs of life were still apparent; including trash and unsent letters at Olivia’s desk. Jason took a final check of what they needed before he grabbed his own sword and left for the stairs. He made sure Twenty-Two was close at his side, and she could tell immediately he was doing so.

“Wait!” Olivia said as they reach one of the first turns on the stairs.

Twenty-Two and Jason moved back down and waited as she pressed her palms at a seemingly random location at the walls. With her other hand, she fumbled with a large notebook, almost dropping it in her sporadic movements. Eventually the random rubbing and prodding became reminiscent of the first secret passage opening, and to their surprise the stairs themselves began to rumble and move.

At the midsection of the stairs, the adjoining steps leveled out as they formed a small platform. When the steps stopped moving, the doorway itself slid into the wall with a quiet hiss. Dust was kicked up from all of the machinery, and Twenty-Two had to brush aside the air in front of her before she stepped forward.

“Was it really this close to our hideout?” Jason asked her. “I remembered it being a flight or two above this.”

Olivia shook her head. “No, I made sure to count the steps while you were bandaging up Twenty-Two after... well, you know. It took a while to actually figure out the pattern for this one though. I have a suspicion that the unlocking method is somehow related to the way in which the doors open.”

“Strange, I don’t remember you doing that either.” Jason added, scratching his head.

“Er, well... you were pretty close to Twenty-Two the whole time. I felt like I was just getting in your way being down there, so I was trying to make things easier for the mission.”

“Good work, Olivia.” Twenty-Two said, glancing around the entrance before stepping through.

Olivia was stricken for a moment, the alien sound of a genuine compliment from Twenty-Two stunning her. Eventually she hid her face behind the mask, giving a peppy thumbs up before all of them moved into the doorway. Olivia made sure to close the passage as they left, and the only light left was the small strips which were on the tunnel. They moved throughout it quietly, the lack of wind making every noise echo softly in their ears and mix with their own pulses. As they reached the main path back to the chamber, Twenty-Two paused and grabbed Jason’s shoulder. Without a word, she signaled that she would be scouting ahead of them.

The path was still empty when she reached it, but the unmistakable sound of movement was coming from the chamber now. Voices began to mix with the movement, and she could tell right away it was the native Urchski language. Carefully getting close enough around the bend to see, she spotted a couple Urchski guards, as well as three figures wearing smocks similar to Olivia’s.

Pox, they’re already making a base in this place? What would these Urchski even want with this chamber, and why would they want it now of all times? She watched carefully and watched the ones in smocks poking and extracting liquid from the pool. Seems like they’re after the same thing the king is.

She slinked back to where the other two were, and retreated further down the tunnel.

“Looks like the Urchski are guarding the place, I saw some of them dressed in research equipment as well. How would they even have known about this place to begin with?” Twenty-Two asked them.

“Can’t say for sure, but that tunnel was never a part of the original structure. Maybe these Urchski are part of the group that originally built it with the help of Volruun?” Olivia added.

“They were all supposed to have died years ago, what’s with the sudden reemergence? I bet it has something to do with that Human and the maskless. Probably poked around this place trying to market something for the merchant’s guild to exploit.” Twenty-Two said with a roll of her eyes. “But fine, if they’re there, we just need to get rid of them. We’re going to be leaving soon anyway, let’s just get rid of those guards and have Olivia finish her research.”

“You say that like it will be easy to just kill however many guards they have in there.” Jason said, folding his arms. “There’s too many risks here, I don’t like this sudden change in attention from the Urchski. Killing these guards and driving out the others might just make things even worse for us as we try to escape. That or they could bring in enhanced ones that would cause us even more trouble.”

“Are you really worried about the risks, or are you worried I’m going to mess up again?” She remarked back at him.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste time talking about hypotheticals and just take the fight to them! If you want to get rid of an unknown threat, you just attack it whenever you get the chance. If we sit around waiting for things are only going to get more difficult and out of our favor. At least right now we would have the element of surprise.”

“We can’t just—" Jason tried to fight, but gave in with a sigh. “Fine, not above finishing this with bloodshed. We are not going to fight them right now though, I want the chance to kill them to be as strong as possible. We should head back to the hideout and then scout the entrance. I want to attack them towards the end of the day, when they should be at their most tired. Can’t imagine the Urchski would be sending primed and trained guards, all they’ve dealt with lately has probably been drunken brawls and border disputes.”

“That makes sense, I guess.” She replied. “I’ll be sure to keep your doubts of my ability in mind, however.”

Jason shook his head and all of them headed back for doorway that they came from. The path back this time was far more tense, the lack of wind keeping them all on high alert. Twenty-Two most of all was bothered by having to keep her power active the whole way. Every movement that Jason and Olivia felt was pinpicked across her senses while they moved back. Only a few steps from the exit, a strange sound appeared could be heard thumping away. Seconds later, and Plafluf teleported in front of them.

His eyes met there’s for a brief moment where neither group even breathed.

“You—!" Twenty-Two started to bark at him, only for the Urchski to pop out of the tunnel as quickly as he appeared. “Pox upon us, I bet that Urchin has the other two with it. Looks like we’re going to have to fight today after all.”

“No, we need to get out of here as fast as possible. Right now they presumably won’t have a way to open the door up again, so we can get a head start and escape to one of the other structures.”

“But why?!” Twenty-Two demanded, drawing her sword. “We’re just going to let them chase after us? Why not get the jump on them this time, get rid of the problem, and we’ll have one less thing to deal with.”

“You’re too consumed with bloodlust! Olivia is here with us this time, and if you remember correctly two of them have a long range ability. If they have half the sense for combat that you do, they’re going to take advantage of that and bring us down.”

Twenty-Two grit her teeth before sheathing her blade.

“I’m sorry...” Olivia said nervously, staring at the floor through her mask.

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. The whole reason we’re here is to make sure you stay safe and can do your job. I was just being hasty, is all.” Twenty-Two comforted her, putting a hand on her shoulder in solidarity.

Olivia looked star-struck once again, her eyes bulging even behind the glass lenses of her mask. With an enthusiastic nod, the three of them set out down the tunnels again, careful not to make noise as they passed into the main section. Each side tunnel they passed, they would turn back to Olivia to see if it would end up being far enough away. After three side tunnels in a row, they finally found one that led to a structure a safe distance away. Unlike the others they’d been down, it had a slight curve upwards as they moved.

“Strange, I thought all of the tunnels were going to be the same height throughout.” Twenty-Two said as the reached the end.

“There’s probably slight variation to account for geography. After all, the city is essentially at the base of a mountain. Internally a lot of it is actually structures like this, but maybe they tried to not cleave through the stone as much? It’s impossible to say for sure without being able to speak to the builders themselves.” Olivia answered as she opened up the passage way.

As they exited, they realize it was at the top of the stairwell down for this building. Heading down the flights as quickly as possible, they found an assortment of shelves much like their hideout.

“Looks like this is going to be where we have to stay from now on.” Jason said, patting his hand over one of the empty spaces.

“What are you talking about? We can just leave Olivia here for now and go after those three. If they’ve left the hideout that’s all for the better, but if not they’ll certainly be caught off guard by an attack they can’t see coming.” Twenty-Two countered.

“There’s no way of telling whether or not they managed to alert anyone else to what that room is. If they told the guards it’s where our hideout is, they’ll be able to just rout us at any moment with a stream of guards. It’s the exact same problem we were just talking about with the final chamber!”

“So what, we just stay here until the heat dies down or something?”

“No, we wait until we attack the final chamber. Then we flee out the back end of the tunnels to the sewer system and use the smuggling routes to leave the Megaden entirely. I don’t want us spending the night here at all.” Jason said before looking away and leaning against the shelf he had been inspecting. “Then again maybe it’s better to just... I’ll need time to think about all of this. We have to be thoughtful and careful or things are going to end poorly for us.”

“Will you stop acting like a coward?!” Twenty-Two shouted, moving over and pulling his shoulder so he faced her. “What has gotten into you today? You’re acting like this is your first mission or something. Stop trying to hinder and overthink everything.”

“Do you want me to just rush into a fight and get us into more trouble then? You want me to just act like you did? I can’t guarantee that you’ll survive losing another limb, Twenty-Two!”

Jason forced her hand off of him, and she drew it back before slapping him hard across the face. As he fell back against the wall, he shoved her away from him out of reflex. Twenty-Two stumbled in her step and fell onto her backside, failing to maintain her balance because of the missing arm. Both of them glared at each other from across the room until Olivia broke the silence with a fake cough.

“I... know this might not be the best time. But if we plan on fleeing after tonight, I unfortunately left my final report to the king inside the hideout. In order to complete the mission, I’m going to need that back.” She admitted, staring at the floor to avoid meeting either of their eyes.