Was this... Was this pounding in my head or above me?

My eyes were glued shut, refusing to open no matter how hard I tried. The pounding had died down too. Maybe it was outside. I should go back to sleep again.

Wait, it started again. Was there construction going on outside my house?

But... I haven't been to my house in ages. Rebels doing target practice outside?

I wasn't with the Rebellion anymore either. Is someone knocking on my cell door?

I finally forced my eyes open... or did I? It was pitch black. I couldn't see anything.

I raised my hand, but it stopped short above my chest. I frowned, stroking the obstacle. Wood. Why was there wood?

Oh no. I'm in a coffin. I've been buried alive.

Panic coursed through my veins, heart rate rising as my other hand slammed against the wooden cover above me. Where was I?! Who did this to me?!

The panic in me subsided as did my actions as my memories slowly returned. Hugging Pigeon, Melissa, Terrence and Lionel before stepping into the coffin-no-box. They'd closed me in here. The sedative they'd given me started to kick in again as I relaxed. My hands fell back to my side, sluggish in their movements as my eyelids started dropping shut again. The pounding had stopped again.

My eyes started open again as the box jolted. I could hear voices now. Faint through the wood, but voices nonetheless. Two men.

My hands flew to the side of the box, as it shifted again. There were grunts of effort. They were lifting me. The box tilted heavily, making me slide slowly to the side. This was uncomfortable, my upper wings were squished under me, lower ones wrapped around my waist for now.

"Be careful."

"You be careful! This box is heavy!"

"On the count of three. One... Two... Pull!"

There was another jerk before I slowly started rising. The box shifted to the side before being suddenly dumped on the ground. My head jerked upwards, cracking against the top before I fell back down. I groaned in pain as I rubbed my forehead.

"Keelan, I think she's awake."

Keelan was here? Was the other voice Mikhail then?

"Come on, let's open this up."

There was a few moments of silence, followed by the sound of nails popping out of wood. They were probably using a crowbar.

As the lid came loose, it veered away a bit, letting bright sunlight in. I stared at the spot of light illuminating my feet. It grew bigger and bigger, till I finally heard the nails above my head pop out. Without any regard for my eyes, the lid was shoved off.

I cried out in pain as the full force of the sun's brightness drilled into my eyes. My hand rose to shield them as I heard sighs of relief. Hands gently wrapped around my waist and shoulders, lifting me out of the box. I weakly waved my hand about, trying to force whoever it was to drop me.

"Jee-Terra, calm down! It's me, Mikhail."

"Put. Me. Down." I smacked my hand against what was probably his chest.

"Fine! Fine." He lowered me as gently as he'd lifted me, placing me on the surprisingly soft ground.

I slowly removed my hand from my eyes, blinking rapidly to get used to the sunlight again. It was really hot outside the box. I turned my head to the side, staring down into the hole I'd been buried in. There was the remnants of a red flare lying a few metres away on the other side of the hole.

I finally looked up at the two men standing there. Unsure, worried looks on their faces. "Mikhail... Keelan..." I began slowly. My throat was dry. "It's good to see you guys."

Relief broke through their sweat and sand-caked faces. Keelan let out a short laugh as he looked up at the clear, blue sky. "It's more than just good to see you. These have been some very long 48 hours."

"Tell me about it." I sighed, rolling my shoulders as my wings stretched themselves out. "It felt like forever."

"Well, you're back now." Mikhail continued smiling down at me. "Now we gotta walk back to where we were told to abandon our comms and call in the jet." He looked up, squinting at the blue sky. "I hope it's close-by. It's fucking hot."

"Tell me about it." I repeated. "And I'm still wearing these icky clothes. If you two weren't around, I'd have ripped these off the moment I got out of that box."

"You can pretend we're not around." Keelan shrugged. I rolled my eyes, lobbing a pebble at him which hit his chest. He chuckled, raising his hands in peace.

I placed my hands on the ground, pushing myself up to a standing position, but my legs weren't ready. I stumbled a bit, this way and that. My wings stretching out to help me balance out. "There's still some sedative in my system." I finally spoke once I was sure I wasn't going to fall.

My wings slowly closed back up as my shaky steps became a bit more solid. "So, where are we heading?" I asked, stopping in front of Keelan.

He turned, pointing into the desert-ish landscape. "There. All the way until we reach the road where we ditched the truck." Probably for the supplies. "We got instructions to walk in this direction till we spotted a red flare."

"So, you didn't meet any of the Rebels?"

"No. What about you? Did you find out the real identity of the leader?"

I scoffed. "Please, it's not like I was given free roam of the place. He only came to see me when he had a video to record."

"He didn't torture you, right?" Mikhail hesitantly asked.

I shook my head. "Apart from the first video where he tried to tear my arm off, no. A medic came in after that and stitched me up."

"That's nice."

I wiped the sweat already forming on my brow. I hadn't been outside in the morning in ages. "Should we go? I'm thirsty."

"Oh, uh, here." Keelan held out a bottle. I stared at it quizzically. "They'd kept a bag of digging supplies here and enough water."

I shrugged, taking the bottle from him as we started walking away from my dig site. The landscape was pretty barren. Dried, cracked ground everywhere with dried trees that almost seemed bleached white or burnt black. The only place where I'd seen a hint of water had been where I'd been dug up. The soil had been a darker shade of brown. I hadn't even felt the heat underground. That had probably been Terrence's choice, bless his heart. I'd miss him a lot. Again.

"So," I spoke up after a few minutes of silence "what happened while I was gone?"

"Well," Mikhail grimaced "there were... are a lot of disgruntled people. They flew in a psychologist and a doctor who'd been there for your experimentation."

"Doctor... Doctor Blue?"

Mikhail nodded. "Yeah. The man was furious."

I stopped walking, feeling my heart sink to my toes. The other two stopped too, turning their heads to look at me in confusion. "I don't want to see him." I whispered.

"Dr. Blue?" I nodded. Mikhail and Keelan exchanged glances. "Let's get you home first, Terra." Keelan reached out, placing his hand on my shoulder. "We'll deal with him later."

I swallowed softly, forcing my leaden feet to move forward. Mikhail rubbed my back to comfort me but I barely felt it. I didn't want to see him again. The last time he'd sedated me, I woke up a week later with a thick scar on my back and my head. The scar on my head had vanished under the hair that had grown out later, but the scar would stay there forever.

We finally reached the road after about an hour and a half of walking. There was no truck, just a crate with what I recognised as the GPS, and the entire engine of the truck placed on it. There was a note held down by a rock on top of it all.

Did you think we wouldn't find the bugs? We almost didn't activate the red flare. Don't mess with us next time.

~L

"Cocky son of a bitch." Mikhail growled, crushing the note in his hand.

"There were bugs?" Keelan sounded confused. "In the medicine?"

I looked over all the machine parts kept on top of the box. "And inside the truck. They left the entire engine behind. Someone must have planted a transmitter at a place where they couldn't reach it."

"They could have abandoned the truck." Mikhail sighed. "How do we get back now?"

I walked around the crate, seeing a small box kept behind the engine, almost under it. I tugged it out, ignoring the engine dangerously tilting towards me as I opened it. "They were nice enough to leave us comms... I wish there were clothes too."

"Great." Mikhail took the sole walkie out of my hand, tuning the frequency before speaking into it. "This is Mike. Badge number Golf-Alpha-Niner-Niner-Eight-Two-Five. Come in, Eagle."

There was silence. I quietly slid down to sit in the shade the crate was casting. He repeated his call-sign a few more times before we finally got a reply.

"Badge number Golf-Alpha-Niner-Niner-Eight-Two-Five, this is Eagle."

Mikhail exhaled loudly in relief. "Eagle, requesting pick-up at transmitting co-ordinates."

"Roger. Pick-up inbound. ETA five minutes."

"Roger. See you, Eagle."

"You got it, Sargeant."

Mikhail sat down beside me in the shade, placing his arm around my shoulder. "You're almost home, Private."

"Please, call me Terra." I replied tiredly.

Mikhail chuckled, slitted green eyes narrowed in amusement. "Tell me, why are you scared of this man, Dr. Blue?"

I felt my body tense up just at the mention of him. "It's a... It's a long list, Mikhail."

"Do you just hate him for giving you wings?"

My wings flapped tiredly on cue. They felt sensitive from being in the sun. "That's... That's one thing, I guess."

"Did he hurt you?" Keelan asked, finally rounding the crate to sit down on my other side.

"In more ways than one. Because of him, I've had to go through the kind of pain that made me want to kill myself." I paused, the hollow click of a pistol ringing in my ears. "If the Peacekeepers in the lab weren't carrying those new biometrically locked rifles, I'd be dead."

"Christ." Mikhail whispered, his hand on my shoulder tightening. "He seemed like a nice man..."

Keelan patted my thigh, making me look up at him. He smiled at me, gray eyes shining warmly. "Don't worry about him. We'll protect you."

I gave a hollow smile, staring down at the ground. "Thanks." They couldn't protect me from him. No one can.

The jet was pretty loud when it finally arrived. I had to wonder how much money Lionel was funneling into the Rebellion for them to have a stealth jet. Hell, it was silent and it vanished when needed. How rich was he?

I didn't talk for most of the flight home. I didn't want to. The thought of meeting Dr. Blue again was curdling my insides to a point that I felt like I would throw up if I tried to speak. Mikhail and Keelan didn't try to get me to talk, they knew I was worried. And by now, they knew me well enough to know that I don't talk when I'm worried.

There was quite an entourage waiting for me when we landed. The team we had been collaborating with, looking more angry than relieved. Rush, with his arm in a sling. Malcolm, with Robyn standing behind him and literally breathing down his neck. It was good to see her. Dr. Blue, and one other person I didn't know.

I felt my steps slow as I spotted Dr. Blue. He made eye contact with me, giving me a smile that made me stop in my tracks.

"Terra?" Mikhail turned to look at me.

I swallowed, giving my body a push to force myself to walk up to the crowd waiting for me.

Rush wasted no time, running forward and throwing his arms around me, brown eyes filled with relief. "Holy shit, I'm so glad you're okay!" His one arm hug was pretty tight. I place my own arms carefully around him, mindful of his injury. "I swear to god, if I had been in that room when you thought of that ridiculous plan, my voting would've made all the difference."

"I was determined to go through with it whether you all agreed with me or not." I pulled back, giving him a wry smile. "What's done is done. And look," I twisted, holding out my injured arm "we match."

He chuckled, rolling his eyes and stepping aside as Malcolm walked up to me. My smile faded away as I spotted the white cuffs in his hand. They snapped on with a familiar hiss, making me grit my teeth in pain as the needles dug into my skin once more. "Didn't miss this." I mumbled, rubbing the skin below to get rid of the crawling sensation.

I took a step back as Robyn took Malcolm's place. She scanned me up and down, before scowling. "Don't you know how to greet a senior yet, Private?"

I frowned at her in confusion, glancing at the others to her side. "Uh, sorry?"

Mikhail cleared his throat behind me. It sounded suspiciously like 'salute'.

Right.

I hesitantly raised my hand, pressing the side of it to my forehead. "I'm sorry... General?"

Robyn sighed. "Disappointing." Ouch. "But it's good to have you back. You remember Dr. Blue," she turned to gesture to him "and this is Dr. Gonzalez. He was monitoring your mental state at the lab."

Dr. Blue grinned at me, the smell of old milk permeating my nostrils making me more nauseous. "Terra!" He began cheerily, walking towards me with his arms wide open. "It's so good to see you!"

I took a quick, few steps away from him, my upper wings crossing over the front of my body. His smile faltered as his cold, brown eyes ran over me. "The control you have over your wings now is incredible." I didn't move this time as walked up to me, eyes glued to my wings. I growled as he reached out.

My wing smacked his hand away violently as I took another step away. "Don't touch me!" I hissed.

"Miss Carai," Dr. Gonzalez piped up, smarmy looking bastard "your fear and anger is understandable considering what you've just come from, but please refrain from getting violent. Dr. Blue is only trying to help you."

My face twisted into a sneer as I straightened up. "Help me?" My voice was filled with rage, my eyes burning into him. "Was he trying to help me when he continued experimenting on me while I was in a coma? Or when he let a Peacekeeper stun me for acting in self-defense? Did he also tell you that he was frustrated with the lack of results and tripled my fucking dosage to such a point that I tried to kill myself because the pain was unbearable?"

Dr. Gonzalez didn't bat an eye. Of course he knew. I continued nonetheless. "Do you know how much bones deforming hurts? These wings grew out of my spine, practically overnight. My entire body grew new bones overnight. For an entire month, I couldn't move from my room because I could barely lie on the ground and writhe in pain without screaming! He sedated me the moment I was back in his hands! Cut my back and my head open, and took pieces from my wings! He's taken too much of my life and you still fucking think this piece of rat shit is trying to fucking help me?!"

All eyes were on me and Dr. Blue. There were several looks of shock to go around. Dr. Blue shifted uneasily, fixing his collar before smiling again. "Come on, Terra." He held out his hand. "That's all in the p-"

"Shut up." I snapped at him. The height I'd gained had made me as tall as him, my anger made me seem taller. "I do not want to hear my name from your filthy, shit-eating lips again. You will address me by my fucking rank. You got it?"

Anger flickered across his face. "Terra, ho-"

"Use my fucking rank."

"I will not stand this behaviour from you, T-"

"I said, use my rank. Don't say my name again."

"Who the fuck do you think you are? You're Section D scum, T-"

I took a step forward, my hand wrapping around his collar, face inches from his as I screamed. "USE MY FUCKING RANK, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT, OR I'LL RIP Y-"

My threat was cut off as the two of us screamed in pain at the thousands of volts passing through my body, and in connection, his.

The white braces were warm on my wrist as they flooded me with electricity injected right in my nerves. My hand unclenched, dropping Dr. Blue as I fell to the ground, body shaking and shivering, fingers scrabbling against the cement. My vision turned blurry as tears started falling out my eyes, lips brushing against the ground as I screamed my throat raw. The ground was cool, it felt nice against my burning skin. But it was hard and unforgiving to my wings as they beat against it in their own attempt to get away from this.

I was barely conscious when it stopped, only aware of the spit dripping from my lips mixed with my tears and the sound of blood rushing in my ear. There were other sounds. Panicked sounds, worried sounds, angry sounds. Hands... Nice hands. Warm hands on my back, pushing my hair away from my face. Carefully pushing aside my wings, turning me around so I was facing back up. Faces were all blurry. There was some sort of black border. Why was it closing in?

The pain was gone. But it was hot, so hot. Was I still in the desert? No, we'd left that behind... hadn't we? My thoughts were jumbled, incoherent. I could feel my body start going limp as exhaustion took over me. My head turning to the side, the ground filling my vision once more as I passed out.