The interrogation went smoothly, although they did not seem to get that much out of the low-level agent. Jordan and Nikki stepped out of the room with slightly disappointed looks. Astrid shrugged helplessly.

“Believe it or not,” said Astrid as she typed something on her computer. “He gave us a lot more than he thinks. He gave us a location and a name… that’s most than other low-level agents know. He must have really been vying for power.”

They were in their room and discussing what they had learned from the interrogation but there were also things, other things, that needed to be talked about.

“Astrid… about what you said in there,” said Nikki as she took a gulp of the hot chocolate. “We are sorry that you had to go through something like that.”

“I hardly remember it anymore,” said Astrid. “Or what happened during those six months in there. I was in and out of consciousness when I was in there.”

“I’m truly sorry, Astrid,” said Nikki.

“It’s okay,” said Astrid as she sipped the apple cider. “I mean, I guess all that matter is that I survived.”

“Yeah…” said Nikki. “But if you ever want to talk about what happened in there… you can tell us anything.”

“Most of it is classified or redacted,” said Astrid. “But since you have access to those files… I might as well tell you about it in my own time.”

“You look exhausted,” said Jordan. “In fact, we should all get some sleep.”

“Yeah…” said Astrid as she got up and put her empty mug in the sink. “We should probably catch some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

Astrid woke up, particularly early the next day. She had no classes as it was not a weekday. For the first time in a while, she was able to sleep peacefully.

“The low-level agent—”

“Mark,” said Astrid.

“He mentioned a name, didn’t he?” asked Jordan. “What was it? Norovich?”

“Heydrich,” corrected Astrid as she poured the coffee from the pot into her travel coffee mug. “The last name that he mentioned was Heydrich… but do you know many people are out there with that very same last name?”

Jordan shrugged at the comment.

“Hundreds, thousands,” said Astrid as she put her head in her hands. “That’s how many Russian people are out there with that same last name.”

“At least, it is one more clue that can help your friends figure out who the villain. Meanwhile, we have our own problem with what the organization is planning,” said Nikki. “Any progress with that?”

“His clue was not very detailed and was vaguer,” said Astrid as she ran a hand through her hair. “I am doing my best to narrow down the search of the building he described. There are tons of buildings around the world with the same name.”

She found the results by that evening which she showed to her friends the name of the building that she had found. It was one of the buildings that were made before both wars, but still standing.

“Secret bunker, huh?” asked Nikki as they snuck up to the building outside in the disguise outside. “Isn’t this a bit too cliché for a rogue organization?”

“Not compared to a Bond villain who would operate a rogue organization from inside a volcano. I mean, seriously out of a volcano, now that is unrealistic.”

“Are we really talking about the inaccuracy of spy films out there?” asked Nikki.

“Just thought I should point it out,” said Astrid.

“You know that this is practically a suicide mission for you,” said Jordan as he checked his gun’s magazine again as Astrid typed the code into the access panel into the building. “Nightshade has already wanted you dead and gone once and they tried to assassinate you.”

“I know, Jordan,” said Astrid with a long sigh. “But what’s the alternative? I let them harm countless prodigies when I can do something about it.”

“How did you know the access code, Astrid?” asked Nikki.

“Before I was tortured by them,” said Astrid as she opened the door. “I trained at Nightshade for a short period of time. It was one of my most misguided decisions in my youth.”

“You… what?” asked Jordan.

“I was grieving a friend, and I made a stupid decision,” said Astrid as they snuck further in. “I should go alone deeper inside if this building has whatever their plans might be.”

“Hell no!” said Nikki.

“These people wanted you dead and probably still do,” said Jordan. “And we got this far by working together. You have already involved us in this… we’re not turning back now.”

“Yeah, and… we’re not handing you over so easily,” said Nikki as she crossed her hands. “We’re coming with you, or you are not going at all.”

They seemed to have a silent argument between the three of them and eventually her friends won. Astrid gave her friends a look and then nodded agreeing to what they were saying.

“Well, the plan for me was to crawl through the air vents of this secret bunker but we all are not going to fit through the air vents, and it would make too much noise,” said Astrid as she crossed her arms and shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions, honestly.”

“I think I might have an idea,” said Nikki.

“You do?” asked Jordan.

“Have more faith in our friend, Jordy,” said Astrid. “I do.”

“Thank you,” said Nikki.

She opened the access panel and began to get to work. Astrid knelt on the floor to help her working at the access panel. Jordan only stood there as he watched them work on it.

“Alright… done,” said Nikki.

“We’re climbing down that access shaft,” said Jordan as he looked down. “Somehow, I think that it is worse than crawling through air vents.”

“No motion sensors in these shafts, right?” asked Nikki.

“Yeah,” said Astrid. “It is our only option at the moment without setting off any alarms.”

They climbed into the access shafts and rappelled down and then they crawled through one horizontally before opening a cover to the shaft. They hid behind one of the larger structures in the room and it must have been the main room in the bunker.

“Can you hear what they are saying?” whispered Jordan.

“Or what language they are speaking in?” asked Nikki.

“Shh…” said Astrid. “I won’t be able to hear what they are saying, if the two of you keep talking. I think they are speaking in Russian.”

“Are you sure?” asked Jordan.

Astrid turned to glare at her best friend before checking her gun in case those men would start shooting. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Yes, I am sure,” said Astrid.

She turned her attention back towards the men who were speaking. Russian was not her best language, but it was not her worst either like Mandarin.

“She is our linguistic expert, Alpha,” said Nikki. “Omega, do you have any idea what they are talking about? Or what they are saying?”

Astrid was usually great at lip reading but lip-reading people across a room talking in a less familiar language to her was much harder. For one, you had to know what they were saying in that language and then you had to translate what they were saying.

The process had to be done fast, so that you can translate quickly without having gaps. It had been one of the first things that she had learned. The men walked off in the other direction and brought out their weapons.

“Shit,” cursed Astrid.

“What did they say, Omega?” asked Jordan.

“They said… they had men on the inside,” said Astrid, as she ducked behind the crates they were hiding behind, as a series of bullets flew at them. “I don’t know whether they meant inside the academy or inside the Shadowscale. They also happened to mention having a surprising ally. There’s more that they said but I think I am going to have to tell you later.”

“Surprising ally?” asked Jordan.

“Men on the inside,” said Nikki as she stopped shooting for a minute. “Neither of those things sound very good.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Astrid. “We still need a way to get out of here though. They have us pinned down and those are no ordinary weapons. They are military-grade weapons. They might be old but still deadly.”

Nikki looked over the corner to get a glance at the weapons and let out an exasperated sigh.

“You’re right,” said Nikki. She could see the wheels spinning in her best friend’s head. “Astrid. No.”

“I didn’t even say anything,” said Astrid.

“You were thinking about it,” said Nikki. “Just because you used to be skilled with guns and you stand more of a chance of surviving longer in this hellhole of bullets. Does not mean that you will, and we don’t even know what kind of brass they are using. You were going to provide us cover while we run. Did you even think about what would happen to you if you stayed behind as the diversion? They would kill you.”

Jordan flicked his eyes to the two girls. They were his best friends, but this was typical of them being friends.

“I know... I know,” said Astrid. “You think I like the plan any less than you do then, you’re wrong, but I am not going to let either of risk your life for me in a situation like this. Sooner or later, we are going to run out of bullets. It’s your choice.”

“She makes a good point,” said Nikki, begrudgingly.

“She does,” said Jordan.

Astrid pulled out a pen from her backpack and then clicked the pen twice and it extended into a bow, and she pulled out a quiver from her backpack.

“No wonder your backpack was heavy,” said Nikki. “Now, I am more confident about your chances.”

“Seems like they ran out of bullets before we did,” said Jordan. “We might not need a diversion.”

Astrid looked through her arrow options on her watch. She needed to use an arrow that could divert their attention long enough for them and disable them.

“What arrow is that?” asked Jordan.

“Stop touching them,” said Astrid as she picked it up. “And that is a strobe arrow and that is exactly what I need for this situation. On three… get ready to run.”

“Does the academy provide you these?” asked Nikki.

“Yeah… but it is kind of like not a normal weapon for a secret agent,” said Astrid as she notched the arrow in the arrow shelf. “So… I don’t advertise that I use it or that I am good at it. I also don’t like guns after my time as assassins.”

“That seems understandable,” said Nikki. “And there is no shame in preferring another weapon to defend yourself.”

Astrid took a deep breath and released the arrow towards the small case of ammunition that were no doubt in the corner. The strobe lights would be bright enough to blind them and the explosion would be able to divert and stun them.

She released the arrow and as soon as it hit its intended target by the crates. She shrunk the bow back into a pen and quickly tossed the quiver of arrows into her backpack.

They aimed some shots at her, but none were too accurate because they had been blinded but then something surprising happened.

Two shots rang out. Astrid cursed and grabbed her backpack and ran out of the room.

“That was brilliant and… and… amazing,” said Jordan. “How do we get out of here though?”

“Same way that we came in,” said Nikki.

“Well… come on,” said Astrid. “They will likely be sending other guards after us.”

They climbed down the access shaft again with black leather gloves to avoid fingerprints. They were down within two minutes and had reached the exit within ten minutes.

“One thing is for sure,” said Astrid as they were a safe distance from the bunker. “We have to be careful around campus on what we are working on. If they have someone on the inside, we also can’t meet with our headmaster in his office. I don’t think we are going to get a name. I have run facial recognition three times.”

“Do you think they recognized our faces when we broke into the bunker?” asked Jordan.

“No,” said Astrid as she frowned. “At least, I don’t think that they saw our faces.”

When they got back to their room, Astrid was still grappling with what she had learned in the bunker and what she had almost done. She looked down at her hands.

“Astrid… are you okay?” asked Nikki.

“You know… I used to idolize Hugh and Simon for their devotion to the city,” said Astrid as she looked at the sun setting on the horizon. “The perfect idealistic parents and heroes… I was so stupid. Maybe, it was because I was an orphan and there was no one for me and they took me in. I used to see the world in such a black and white way.”

“Not anymore?” asked Nikki.

“I’ve seen too much to know that the world is not black and white,” said Astrid. “And I have had to do things… terrible things to keep people safe at all costs. It makes me wonder what kinds of things my stepparents did to protect the city at all costs.”

“And you,” said Nikki quietly.

“Nikki, what if I am that bad or… or worse?” asked Astrid as she looked at her hands. “What if I am broken beyond the point of which I can be fixed?”

“You’re not your stepparents,” said Nikki as she cleared her throat. “And you are not broken.”

At this point, Astrid had broken into tears. Astrid collapsed on the floor and was sobbing. Tears covering her face and her body frame shaking. Nikki sat down next to her friend and took her hands.

“No… I am saying I am worse,” said Astrid as tears streamed down her face. “Every time I go out in the field. I can hear that little voice in my head telling me to kill people. The assassin in me, the darker me, is still there.”

“But you are not an assassin,” said Nikki. “Not anymore.”

“How can you know that for sure?” asked Astrid.

“I know because I know you, Astrid,” said Nikki as she grabbed her friend’s hands lightly. “When we were back in that bunker, you could have killed those men, but you chose not to.”

“That’s not all,” said Astrid.

“Tell me what else is bothering you,” said Nikki.

“I did not tell you the whole story about what happened when they held and tortured me,” said Astrid as she studied her nails nervously. “I did not want you to think of me as crazy and I feel crazy saying this.”

“Tell me.”

“After the first few weeks, they put this drug in me,” said Astrid as she wiped the tears away and cleared her throat as Nikki squeezed her hand. “I think it was supposed lower my resolve and my mental shields. You know to be able to let my guard down, but I held out against them because I had a stronger mind but as I held out I hallucinated of people from my past missions or people who were close to me who died… or people who I had killed. A million voices in my head.”

“What did those hallucinations say?” asked Nikki.

“They told me to give up the information,” said Astrid as she said in almost a whisper. “The hallucinations always ended with them telling me to give up. They said they died because of me and that it was my fault… that I am a killer.”

“You’re not an assassin anymore,” said Nikki. “You have saved so many peoples’ lives and made changed in so many others’ in a good way. Yes, that part of you that is an assassin will always be there but that is not all that you are or who you are. You know what I think… that Varian taught you the way that he did so you could control the voice in your head and use it for good.”

Astrid nodded at her best friend, and she wiped her tears and pulled her best friend into a hug. Astrid sniffled and then took a couple of deep breaths.

“It’s getting worse out there,” said Astrid. “And I am still no close to figuring this out and more prodigies and people are going to die out there if I can’t figure this out.”

“And we already know that your stepparents believe that the past should remain the past,” said Nikki. “But Heydrich wants to dredge up the past, I know Dante asked you this… but are you sure you want to go down this road?”

“My stepparents taught me to put the people’s needs before myself,” said Astrid as she looked over at her friend. “I am scared to think what they did to protect the city and the people in the early days. If they did do something drastic, I am not going to let it fly over my shoulders.”

“You really are set on this, aren’t you?” asked Nikki.

“Yeah… but you saw what I saw in there,” said Astrid as she grabbed a package of frozen peas and put it on the bruise on her face. “Those were not just weapons that the military used to use and remnants of an old war.”

“An old war?” asked Nikki as she moved around the kitchen making white cheddar macaroni and cheese with lots of sriracha sauce, their favorite food. “I’m not a student of history.”

“I can tell,” said Astrid and Nikki rolled her eyes. “In this case, the first prodigy-mundane war.”

“So… the one you started,” said Nikki and Astrid looked up at her from what she was working on. “Was the second.”

“Yeah…” said Astrid.

“So… the first war. Were you alive back then?”

“I was born during the first few years of the war,” said Astrid as she put the ice pack away. “But I lived with my birth family back then, when my dad died when I was five the war had ended… so I found out everything I know about the war from leaked government files, first-hand reports and my stepparents.”

“What were the weapons designed to do?” asked Nikki.

“To kill prodigies,” said Astrid.

“The humans wanted you guys dead… but why?” asked Nikki as she continued stirring the macaroni and cheese. “It does not make sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” asked Astrid. “People fear what they do not understand. Prodigies had been around for a long time but… no one understood us. So… they feared us and created weapons to protect against us.”

“What caused the war?” asked Nikki.

“There is no specific reason that the war began back then,” said Astrid. “Or… at least, the historians believe that there was no one singular cause.”

“What or who do you believe caused it?” asked Nikki.

Astrid poked at the macaroni and cheese in her bowl in thought. She had many theories over the years as to who or what caused the war.

“I have two theories,” said Astrid.

“Please tell,” said Nikki.

“One… there were two very powerful prodigies who took advantage of the power they had, Titan and Red Death.”

“Those names…” said Nikki. “Isn’t one of them from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.”

“I was thinking you were going to say gloomy, but yeah.”

“So… what happened to them?” asked Nikki.

“No one knows. I mean, everyone knows of the terror they spread,” said Astrid. “Three years into the war though, they disappeared… never to be heard again.”

“Until now…” said Nikki. “But, why now?”

“I don’t know,” said Astrid. “It has to do with what happened cause them to disappear.”

“Time travel?” asked Nikki. “Or an alternate dimension where time does not pass. Either possibility could be an answer to your question.”

Astrid massaged her forehead tiredly. The voices had gone silent for even her alter ego had gone quiet too.

“I don’t know,” said Astrid. “But… I know that we won’t find anything tonight. If we get working at this, we’re going to run ourselves into the ground.”

Later that night, her twin brother slipped into her room. He looked around before speaking up.

“Cozy place,” said Max.

“Why are you here, Max?” asked Astrid.

“Remember how I said that I would help you find a way to get your powers back,” said Max. “When I used to live out of your headquarters, well… I found one.”

“And remember how I said all of these trials and locations are extremely risky,” countered Astrid as she closed the book. “I appreciate what you are doing for me. Going the extra length and I want my powers back but not like this.”

“It’s the same way you leveled up before your fight with Nox,” said Max. “And it relates to our twin powers but… if you don’t want to. I can simply just go.”

“Wait…” said Astrid.

Max turned around to look at her with a questioning look at his sister. Astrid let out a deep breath. She had to start trusting her brother at some point.

“I do want my powers back,” said Astrid. “But… I also need to know that I can trust you that you won’t turn on me when I need you the most.”

“I can’t make any promises,” said Max.

“I guess asking for that would be too much,” said Astrid as she let out a deep sigh. “Show me what you got.”

Max brought out a book and flipped to a page. “There is this scepter of Isis in these old ruins that could amplify your powers and aid your healing process.”

“Suppose this scepter does actually exist out there,” said Astrid as she looked at him. “And we do successfully pass through the temple together… the staff may only give one of us the amplification and don’t give me that look—I know how they work.”

“I know how they work too,” said Max. “And I am willing to take the risk if you are.”

Astrid let out a breath that she didn’t realize that she had been holding. She leaned against the wall with a tired expression as she looked at her twin brother.

“I need time to prepare,” said Astrid as she looked at her twin brother. “But then, I will join you for the tests. I promise.”

“Call me when you are ready,” said Max as he turned to climb onto the ledge of her window. “I will be waiting.”

Astrid nodded at him and then looked at the book that he had left her. She wanted her powers back as she told her, but she was not sure that she wanted to complete the tests.