"Place your hands behind your head and interlock your fingers," the fierce-looking Jackson Turnbull spat towards Jason and Donnelly, raising his pistol towards the two imposters.

Jason could feel his heart racing. Surrounded by armed hostiles, standing beside Donnelly brought back memories of his time in Europa with Aurora. It was a bittersweet feeling, but one he couldn't help but revel in.

Unlike the chaotic forces of Europa, Jason and Donnelly were surrounded by three ex-military security guards. Their posture and poise confirmed they knew how to handle themselves and their caution meant they would not likely make a rash decision. Their commands were precise and practical, they were designed to provide as little resistance as possible.

For any ordinary human being, within moments they would be on the ground, hands behind their backs with their feet pushed up to their buttocks being placed in handcuffs ready for interrogation. Yet Jason and Donnelly were not ordinary human beings, they were Blue Ravens.

For a split second, Jackson's eyes lingered on the two guards behind the Blue Ravens. That decision was enough for Donnelly to strike.

Launching herself at him, her wrist glanced at Jackson's arm, pushing his weapon away from her direction. As the weapon discharged, the helmet of the guard behind Donnelly scarred angrily leaving the man underneath it discombobulated and confused. With one swift motion, Donnelly had rammed her body into Jackson causing him to sprawl backwards and before he knew it, he was no longer the aggressor but was now the victim.

As if the two Blue Ravens had synchronous minds, Jason flipped around, pushing the remaining guard's weapon high in the air as his finger pushed on the trigger. The ceiling charred as the hissing sound of the weapon's battery burst to life. Immediately, Jason grabbed ahold of the guard's arm, pulling on it unceremoniously, causing the guard to scream in agony. Using the butt of the weapon, Jason used it to incapacitate the guard efficiently. As the guard flopped to the floor, the confused, remaining guard had started to regain his senses, but not quick enough to avoid the onslaught from the exceptionally quick attacks from Jason.

Within moments, he too had crashed to the floor, his movements minimal and his breaths ragged. Before long he was unconscious along with his companion.

Jason turned towards Donnelly as she had the barrel of her pistol focused on Jackson's forehead. The anger and focus that streamed from her face appeared unnatural, and for a brief moment, she appeared as if she would discharge the weapon, instead she smashed it down on him, causing him to instantly fall into a slumber.

Resting his hand on her shoulder, Jason's concern was not initially allayed as the weapon was still pointed at the unconscious ex-soldier, but as his touch eased into Donnelly's shoulder, so did her stance, and her weapon gradually lowered.

"Are you ok?" Jason asked, a bead of sweat slipping from his forehead.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Jackson hasn't made it an easy few months. Though honestly, it matters little." Donnelly answered.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked, concerned by Donnelly's flippant response.

Donnelly's eyes did not stray much from her downed opponent, even after she raised her arm to her face and pressed some buttons on a mechanical bracket that enveloped her arm.

Instantly, all the lights in the corridor turned dim before flashing red. The eeriness of the situation was confounded by the doors around them closing abruptly and forcefully. "Plan B is now in effect," Donnelly commented, her voice appearing broken and strained as a result of the comment.

"What is plan B?" Jason inquired profusely.

Donnelly's eyes eventually strained towards Jason. They appeared briefly devoid of life as she prepared to explain her plan. "We destroy the entire facility."

"What?" Jason responded somewhat louder and more anxious than anticipated. "You can't be serious? A moment ago, you had planned to take care of the Duchess quietly."

"And we would have done if we hadn't been compromised," Donnelly explained. "Do not think I take this route lightly. I've spent months planning this! Enter her room, give her one hundred grams of hyprohetamine, an overdose for her current cancer treatment. She would slip away, quietly, no one the wiser, and then after the investigation was complete, everyone in the facility would go their separate ways. Clean, quiet, efficient."

Donnelly turned back to Jackson, and anger flashed enormously across her face, "But instead, Jackson decided to investigate my activities, and became aware of my procurements. I was foolish and naive and failed to see what he was doing. Now I have to destroy this entire facility and everyone in it, Goddammit!"

Jason stood between Donnelly and the downed Jackson before she launched herself into him, as he embraced her tightly, he could hear the anguish in her voice as she explained her reasoning.

"The only way we can remain anonymous is through completely disabling this facility and ensuring it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, with everyone in it. If even one person can squawk of our actions the entire mission, including our capability to obtain the Duchess' key information will be compromised. Having already obtained back door access into their entire network, I have disabled the comms and began a countdown for critical reactor failure. The facility will blow in sixty minutes and sink to the bottom of the ocean. We need to make sure we access the servers, kidnap the Duchess and reach her escape pod before it happens."

Jason released his grip, "How many people are in this facility?"

"Seventy-one," Donnelly replied.

"And you are ok with that? Killing seventy-one people?" Jason replied, a little louder than anticipated.

Rage flashed upon Donnelly's face causing her to push Jason away with unexpected malignancy, "how dare you ask me that?" she responded with tears flooding her eyes, "For months I have tried to ascertain another viable solution where the loss of life would be minimal. Jason, the Duchess is scared, afraid that someone like me would come along and end her life. The security here is intense, and state of the art. I have simply found no other solution."

Part of Jason wanted to embrace Donnelly once more, the other part of him felt sick in the stomach, angry at himself for inadvertently joining a mission with such unnecessary loss of life. He was certain that Donnelly would have chosen another option if one was available, but it still didn't stop him from feeling nauseous as he gazed upon her once more.

Something about his gaze caused Donnelly to reel back and turn away. His disappointment was apparent, and it certainly wasn't making her task any easier.

"If you have access to the network, why not steal the data?" Jason asked, hoping his involvement was unnecessary.

"It's a completely closed off-network, something that can not be accessed remotely. I'm sorry Jason, I would not have requested your help unless I absolutely needed it."

Jason felt like his soul was being ripped away from him. Anger embraced him as he believed he would leave this war without blood on his hands. It was pure naivety. Nothing would prepare him, however, for the lengths he would need to take to uncover a conspiracy at the heart of it all. Was it all worth it, knowing that he would be forever scarred by his actions today?

"How can we access the data?" Jason asked, refusing to look Donnelly in the eye.

"Jackson will have the necessary credentials to access the room, so we are fortunate in that regard. We'll need to be quick, time is of the essence." Donnelly replied as she tied up the incapacitated head of security.

Jason reached down to grab a hold of Jackson's weapon.

"Don't touch it!" Donnelly interjected, "Weapons here have biometrics, and his weapon would only be assigned to him. If you touch it, the weapon will malfunction and zap you with a bolt of energy. You'll end up lying on the floor next to him."

"So what? I have to run around this facility unarmed and carry a man with me who could become a threat should he wake once more?" Jason's frustration was starting to boil over, and the tension in the room was becoming palpable.

Donnelly instantly stopped, before placing her soft hand on his cheek. "Jason, I'm sorry, but you have to trust me. We should encounter little to no resistance, and the longer we stay here and talk, the more chance that Jackson will awake. Do you trust me?"

Jason's sharp blue eyes focused on the saddened, bitter brown ones of his lover. He was angry at her for what had transpired, but did it affect his substantial trust in her? "I trust you," he spoke softly, almost trying to convince himself of the words he spoke.

"We must get moving," Donnelly replied, even less convinced of Jason's conviction than he was.

Without hesitation, Jason grabbed a hold of the unconscious Jackson and chucked him onto his shoulder. Within moments, both were on the move, eager to complete the job as quickly as possible.

The server room journey had been uneventful as Donnelly opened and closed doors at the touch of a button. Every time they had expected to be intercepted, she had closed the door that would have allowed security personnel to reach them, and despite the path being without incident, the silence between the two Blue Ravens had made the tension far more strenuous than expected.

Placing Jackson by the entrance of the secure room, Jason took a deep breath as Donnelly proceeded to dismantle the scanner attached to the door.

"What are you doing?" Jason asked, the first time either had spoken in some while.

"Unlike most biometric scanners, this one identifies whether the user is willingly attempting to open the door or not. If I can fake some of Jackson's vitals, then we should be able to enter," explained Donnelly.

Jason noticed the lack of confidence in her wavering answer. Donnelly seemed unnaturally insecure, and as someone who had assured belief in her technical abilities, it was starting to make Jason unsure of the success of this mission too.

The feeling of insecurity was more alien to him than the one he had met in Alpha Centauri. Never once had he felt he would fail, even when the odds were squarely against him. It was a feeling he did not appreciate.

His father had always encouraged him to have that belief, sometimes to the detriment of others, yet his father had always taught him to do what was right, and this mission felt as wrong as it could be. Watching Donnelly at work had given him some time to reflect, to accept that the cost of this mission may just outweigh the gain, and because of that, it would haunt him for eternity.

For twenty minutes, Donnelly was fiddling with the system causing Jason to feel anxious and slightly desperate. Anxiety and desperation grew to frustration as another voice broke through the unending silence.

"What are you doing?" a groggy croaking voice from Jackson Turnball reluctantly asked.

Both sets of eyes from the Blue Ravens sprang over to him as the security guard pulled against his restraints. Neither responded, but as Donnelly stepped away from the security terminal, Jason pulled Jackson to his feet.

Pushing him towards the terminal seemed to make Jackson chuckle. "So this is why you're here? To wipe all the information that the Duchess has acquired. There is no way you will get inside!"

Jackson's arrogance was immediately disparaged as Donnelly pushed his head towards the retina scanner and into a sliding door.

"We can not enter if I am under duress!" Jackson continued.

Both Donnelly and Jason remained quiet. Frustrated by the day's events, but also to reduce any chances of mind games from the veteran ex-soldier.

Pushing and following Jackson into a foyer, Donnelly's head stayed glued to the ground as a blue light flashed around them. Her eyes appeared dark and angry even after the doors hissed and opened in front of them.

"Welcome Jackson Turnball." a computerised voice echoed around them.

"How?" Jackson exclaimed, confused by their simple entry.

Entering the room, Jason pushed Jackson to the floor before looking toward the white room that surrounded them. Water flowed effortlessly within its centre, slooshing back and forth attempting to conceal the computerised equipment deep within it. The water glowed an unnatural teal as a gangway appeared in the centre revealing a walkway to a terminal at the end of the room.

Jason handed the small device to Donnelly as she took her first steps onto the gangway.

"You can't delete the information," Jackson implored, "the Duchess has spent countless time and resources to gather it all. Do you even know what data you are deleting?"

Jason wanted to correct Jackson's mistake, yet fatigue seemed to envelop him along with his training, and his lips remained shut. Hoping that Donnelly would perhaps comment in his place, he was left disappointed as she took her first steps towards the terminal. Before long she was already accessing it and placing the device into one of its ports.

"I don't know who you really are Josie, but I knew something wasn't right since you first came here. All those times you trained together with us, I felt like I knew you would betray us, how you were determined not to spend any downtime with the rest of the team, instead of spending it in your room working on your endgame."

Jason wanted to hit him to keep him quiet, but it would only seem to add to the immense anxiety plaguing his soul.

"Will you kill Harrison?" Jackson continued, "Who's birthday we all celebrated just the other day, or perhaps you will execute Katherine, who helped you settle into the team?"

A huge sigh escaped Donnelly's lips, normally having incredible mental fortitude, the comments were starting to grind her down. Glancing over to the computer terminal, she was eager to exit the room and complete the final stage of the mission.

"And what about the Duchess?" Jackson continued, his voice grating and severe, "who has practically treated you like a daughter since your arrival. She gave you everything you asked, showered you with attention and appreciation. Something she had even failed to give her own daughter when she lived. Would you simply throw all that away on some fool's errand?"

"Do not deem to think that you understand our motives!" Donnelly responded.

A small smile gleamed on Jackson's face, a tinge of frustration on Jason's. Jackson's mind games were starting to break through to the normally astute woman

"You won't just damn the Duchess for your actions, but you'll damn countless of lives whose names and redemption are engraved in those files. You'll be damned for eternity for your treachery and deception."

Donnelly's face turned towards Jackson, her face full of thunder, and anger which Jason had not encountered in her before. She stomped down the gangway, eating up space between her and the bound head of security. If it was not for Jason's intervention towards the end of the gangway, there was no way to tell what her actions would have been.

"This is not treachery," Donnelly explained, "this is justice!" even as she spoke, her words remained unconvinced and insecure.

"Jacqueline," Jason implored, placing his hands on her shoulders, "we focus on the mission, like always. Do not let his words seep into your soul. We already have enough of a conscience."

For the first time in a while, her mahogany brown eyes gazed at Jason's, and her look of anger and frustration dissipated into a mix of anxiety and vulnerability. She could not smile, but the glance from the crystal blue eyes of the man she loved had reminded her what this mission was all about.

Donnelly knew she was damned for her actions today, but obtaining the vast amount of data in the servers below her could potentially end an unjustified war and bring justice to the many who had died as a result of it. Her actions would not be remembered or they would most likely be vilified, however, all those responsible for all the injustice caused before Pluto and Charon were ambushed would share her fate.

Her actions no longer mattered, for all in this facility would die for what she was about to do.

As she looked to the floor, a computerised voice from behind her exclaimed, "Connection complete." In ten minutes, the data would be off-world, and the ability to disseminate that information could begin. Now, all that mattered was ensuring that her original mission would be completed, which meant that there could be no survivors to tell of a tale that could lead back to her or Jason.

Pushing her way past Jason, she reached for the pistol strapped to her thigh and pointed it directly at Jackson's forehead. As their eyes focused on each other, Jackson did not flinch, did not speak but just smiled as he stared at the perspiring Donnelly.

"NO!" Jason cried, spinning around and attempting to grab ahold of his lover, but it was too late; Donnelly had already squeezed the trigger.