Thea hated being away from Jack when he was in danger, and right about now, he was in danger.

One of the smaller, less important things that her boyfriend had yet to master was remembering to silence the rest of the squad when addressing Command. Luckily, it appeared that nearly every member of the squad also found this to be more useful than not, so nobody ever let on that his ‘private’ conversations were not so private after all. Afterall, knowing what was going on in the minds of command helped everybody right?

That was the reason they’d all known Command was splitting them up, and also knew that it was not Hawkins that asked them to do it in the first place. The number of times he stopped to confer with his commander showed every member of Spier squad that he didn’t approve of splitting them up either.

But what else could they do?

Their team was running behind while the other three were nearly done with their missions. If this went on for much longer, the factory would turn into a last-ditch defensive point for their enemies.

She didn’t really care about the tactics of what was going on, but when you are in a squad with Alec and Dave, it didn’t take long for the pair to start explaining the validity of every move in detail.

“According to Jack’s map, we have about two more floors to search. The first is like the level with the prisoner on it, but the other looks like one big hallway.” Dave said with his faceplate up and a blue wedge of a shield hovering in front of him as he walked. “I say we check the first one for prisoners. If we find someone, we let them out. If not, no harm.”

“Didn’t you hear Command; they want us to move quickly.” Jenkins pointed out.

“I did, but I also heard that Jack is in the control room, and that he has a wounded ally. We need to act fast if we are going to finish our part of the mission, and that includes finding possible prisoners and the Serum supply.”

Thea could understand Jenkins wanting to hurry up and get back to the rest of the quad; she herself was itching to run to Nessa’s wound and heal it the best she could. But the reality was that they had to trust that Jack and his team had things under control well enough to complete the mission and survive.

No matter how much she wanted to be there to protect him.

Closing her faceplate and reentering the squad chat, she said, “Monroe, we are entering the second to last floor now. From the layout of the floor, I’m expecting a few prisoners.”

“Copy that.”

Motioning to the others, they closed their own faceplates and opened the door. What they saw was a well-lit hallway with doors spaced evenly. Tasteful paintings between each proved that this was not at all a prison, instead it more resembled a hotel than anything else.

“Jenkins and I will check the left side, you and Morningwood get the right.” She said, pushing her way into the hallway and to the first door. “Let’s get this done and move on. We need to get home.”

The first twelve rooms were identical. Each was small with a bed in the center and a small bathroom next to the door. If the hallway looked like a hotel before, this more than confirmed that suspicion.

Entering the thirteenth room, Thea was met with a sight that would haunt her dreams for months to come.

A human woman hung from the overhead light fixture by her torn and bloody wrists. She didn’t want to look down, but knew she had to. Thea forced her eyes to follow the streams of blood down the poor woman’s arms where she eventually met a pair of dull, but still living, eyes.

“Hel…p.” The woman croaked through lips that hadn’t seen water in days.

Rushing in, Thea drew the small Light knife she carried for when – not if – she had to cut her way into an ally’s armor. Raising the small tool, she cut the woman’s bonds and caught her as she collapsed to the floor. Picking her up was far easier than it should’ve been. The emaciated body weighing a fraction of what a person this size should weigh.

Laying the injured and naked woman on the bed, Thea took stock of her injuries before attempting to grant the poor woman an ounce of modesty. The prisoner had been stripped, beaten, and tortured within an inch of her life. If she was going to save a life today, she was going to have to dive straight into healing her.

The first thing Thea did once her Light invaded the woman’s body was to encourage new skin growth over the massive wounds on her chest where the skin had been peeled off. Whoever tortured her had gone to great lengths to keep her alive in the short term, going so far as to burn the raw flesh in a haphazard attempt at cauterization. However, enough time had already passed that the wounds were deeply infected.

Once the woman’s chest was healed with fresh skin, Thea flooded her body with enough Light to burn away infection and energize the body enough so that new blood and cells could be replicated within seconds. Next, Thea focused on the multiple lacerations and bruises. Stitching the former with Light and healing the latter.

After nearly ten full minutes of channeling more Light than she’d ever given to a patient, the Phantom was able to step back and breath. The much-needed break allowing her to get a good look at an uninured face for the first time as the dull eyes found her and seemed to gain some life.

“Water?” She gasped, still unable to fully articulate.

“Right here.” Thea said, opening her faceplate and handing over a canteen. “Drink it slowly. Who did this to you?”

The woman took the water and began to drink from it deeply. After several moments and nearly drinking the entire contents of the flask, she looked at Thea for the first time, “A man, human, from the looks of him. Except he only ever visited me in the dark, but the times when I got flashes, I could tell he was human.”

“Do you remember your name and birthday?” She asked, falling into the standard questions medics have asked for as long as the profession has existed.

“Evelyn. My name is Evelyn, April third, thirty-two thirty-six.” She replied before breaking into a fit of coughs.

Responding to the coughing fit as she would any other illness, Thea pushed her Light back into the freshly healed woman and searched for the source of the coughing. As much as she wanted to heal, she simply wasn’t talented enough to remove something as nebulous as Asthma.

“Good job Evelyn, can you stand? We need to get moving, this is still a hostile zone.”

“Ok.” She answered simply, the thought of going anywhere near combat obviously terrifying her.

Standing to her full height, Thea turned, “She is coming with us, did you find any others?”

“Three,” Dave started, “But they are all well past saving. Honestly, I’m surprised you were able to save this one here.”

“It was close, and her name is Evelyn.”

“Sorry miss Evelyn, I must’ve left my manners back in my locker.” He said, moving his head as if he were tipping a cowboy hat. “We got to move. The mission isn’t over yet.”

Walking over to the bed and helping the dirty woman to her feet, Dave wrapped her in a sheet to give her something to wear. Guiding her out of the room, the recently freed prisoner walked gingerly, limping slightly as she moved.

Staying in her place near the rear of the formation, Thea watched in concern as the middle-aged woman stumbles and stepped gingerly. She knew for a fact that Evelyn was fully recovered, so was the tender way she walked a result of mental trauma, or just an act?

“How long have you been down here Evelyn?” She asked, refusing to take her eyes off of the woman.

“I-I’m not sure. It feels like days at least. They took me on a Monday, if that helps.”

It didn’t, today was Tuesday and just from the amount of infection Thea found in the woman’s body, it was more likely weeks than just days. “Yeah? So the Raak had been in place for a while above ground then?”

“Raak? You mean those big gray scary things?”

“Yeah.”

“They took me on the second day. We tried to fight them off with the weapons we had, but they were just too tough.”

Second day? Thea thought in alarm, the Raak had been here for (TIME) at least. If she’d been held here that long, there was no telling just how unstable her psyche could be. “I’m just glad we found you and you are feeling better.”

“I think anything is better than what I was back there…” She trialed off, unwilling to remember the horrible things that were don’t to her.

The group walked in silence as they descended the stairs to their last objective, the heavy thud of their boots echoing off the walls of the stairwell. The door at the bottom of the stairs was marked with the evidence of the invaders repeated attempts to gain entry. Black marks along the steel frame giving away just how hard they were trying to gain access to this room.

Beside the door, a series of scanners had been smashed to bits by the enraged aliens. Shards of glass littered the ground, the technological corpse of the vaults final defender broken beyond all hope of repair.

“Jenkins or Alec, can either of you override this door and get us in?” Dave asked, stepping back and forming a half dome shield around the team.

“We better be able to.” Alec said, stepping up and placing a gauntleted hand on the door. A pulse of orange Light shot down the Dragoon’s arm and into the machine, it’s interface becoming part of Alec in a way that Thea herself would never understand. “Jenkins, I have the gears, but apparently this was designed to fight off one of us. I need you to take over the computer and release the lock.”

“On it.” He said, indigo light flaring for just a moment as he cast his mind into the interface in front of him. “You’re right Morningwood, they designed this so that two people were needed to gain access in the event of an override. Go ahead and try the mechanism. I’ve got the lock itself disengaged.”

Thea watched as Alec focused on the part of himself that was now a door. A minor exertion of will opening all seven of the large, mechanical locks that held the portal in place. With those out of his way, he pushed it open to reveal a massive warehouse, frozen in both temperature and time.

“I can’t go in there, I’ll freeze.” Evelyn panicked.

“Don’t worry,” Thea replied with a smile she didn’t mean, “Jenkins and I will stay right here as the boys grab our target.”

Dave and Alec strode through countless rows of experimental equipment with one thing on their minds, completing the mission. The pair had been through every aspect of life together, a dynamic that hadn’t changed simply because they’d become soldiers and expanded their family.

Each item they passed on the shelves was labeled, numbered, and cataloged. Beside the item, there was a small, but lengthy, explanation as to what the experiments were and why they stopped. The items ranged greatly from the dangerous to the benign and everything in between.

“What do you think this one does?” Alec asked for what must have been the tenth time.

“Probably something horrible to little men who don’t know how to keep their hands off.”

“Nah, couldn’t be. That would mean the AHF, and better the UHR, had the thinking capacity to know how to stop when enough was enough.” He replied, picking up one of the canisters labeled [Li-Tech Bio Grenade] and tossing it up like a tennis ball.

“Put that crap down before you kill us both!” Dave scolded, “This ain’t the time to be screwing around. Don’t you know our beer is getting too cold in here?”

“Oh damn, you’re right!”

Alec put the bio-weapon back on its shelf and jogged to catch up with Dave, who had stopped to stare at an item that had caught his own eye.

“Didn’t you just tell me not to pick up the shiny new toys? What the hell are you doing?”

In response, Dave pointed to a device laying harmlessly on its shelf. The label beside it simply announcing it as experiment [A-43918.] Glancing over at the description, Alec understood why his friend would be so tempted by this object.

[Experiment A-43918: This module is designed to attach to the standard armor kit of someone in the Aegis Corps. When utilized, it will give a temporary increase to the users maximum Light threshold. In theory, it could strengthen the barrier of any Aegis by as much as %75 for as long as two hours. This project was stopped for the simple reason that I was unable to find enough members of my Corps willing to be test subjects. Project viability – high. Signing Officer – FB]

“Holy shit.” Alec said, reaching for the armor module, “You have got to take this, it could be a game changer!”

“Do you not see what it says? The damned thing says that it is an experiment. I’m not taking something that might kill me because I used it wrong.”

“Spoilsport.” Alec laughed and pointed down the aisle, “Look, I think we are almost to the Serum containers.”

“That man tried over and over to get into the vault.” Evelyn said, still standing on the stairs since the floor itself was covered in glass. “He kept asking why ‘our collective’ wouldn’t want to stop the pain, right before cutting me… or worse.”

“I don’t think that was a human. To be frank, the fact that he said ‘our collective’ tells me he isn’t familiar with human biology.” Thea replied, her feelings of suspicion still not completely gone. “You didn’t catch on to that?”

“I guess not. Honestly, it is very hard to think under that kind of torture. I would’ve told him anything at all just to make him stop.”

“Huh. What else did he ask?”

“Who I take orders from, what my function was, you name it.” She said, fiddling with the makeshift dress and turning her eyes away from the Phantom.

“What did you say?”

“I told him everything I could. I told him that my orders come from my company, and that I was nothing more than a cook.” She whispered, “And all this after the last attack…”

“What last attack?”

Evelyn did not respond to any more questions after that last cryptic sentence. From the dull, lifeless look in her eyes, Thea could tell that the poor woman was reliving every moment of the past several weeks with haunting clarity.

This woman wasn’t a spy for the aliens. No, this poor woman was something much worse. She had been broken in ways that Thea knew she couldn’t empathize with and hoped to all the stars that she would never experience.

“Spier squad, this is Monroe. We have control of the structure. Is the second task complete?”

“Roger that Monroe, this is West.” The familiar twang reported, “Yeah, we have four cases of concentrated Serum. It is all that we can carry, but since you have control of the factory, we should see production resume.”

“We can only hope.”

“Command, I need a trace at two locations inside the building. Please Gate both teams out. Since I know Alexander is still on deck, please ask him to follow the Light trace I provide in order to locate team two.”

“Roger that Spier squad. The other teams have completed their mission. We will begin extraction.”

Thea knew that Jack would never dream of leaving one of them behind, and true to her belief, a field of broken glass materialized at the top of the stairs. “Jenkins, Morningwood, our ride is here.” She said to the pair of men as they reengaged the locks on the vault door.

With the knowledge that her team had survived their mission with no casualties and a smile on her face, Thea walked through the gate.