A Sentire lives and dies for their clan.

It is their purpose in life to contribute to the clan, to be of use to it. It is the unit by which they measure their worth.

But they are not a hive of mindless drones. Their personalities differ, and where some may find themselves at home in an office or on the field of battle, there will always be those who seek out their place elsewhere.

That is the origin of the Medicus, an order under the umbrella of the Custodes. Battlefield surgeons, search and rescue specialists, each member dedicating their existence not to defending the clan, but to preserving it.

While human physiology is well known and studied, the body of supernatural creatures is often a mystery, and for good reason.

The discovery of an aversion to silver or the lethal allergic reaction to the extracts of commonly found plants are both discoveries that still haunt those affected by them, to this day.

Frank looked over at the new recruit, their team’s first in almost a hundred years.

He caught the recruits’ attention and tapped the headphones on his head. The recruit awkwardly scrambled to put his own on, the headset turned on and automatically connected to the pre-configured radio channel.

“Don’t be nervous. Be steady and precise.” Frank advised the younger Sentire.

“Y-Yes sir!” the recruit stammered out. A few muffled laughs could be heard across the line, causing the recruit’s expression to sour some.

“Don’t worry, they aren’t laughing at you.” Frank reassured with a sigh.

“Almost a hundred years and you still use that same line.” One of the other Medicus on the helicopter chuckled.

Frank was about to retort, but before he could, a message from dispatch came in.

“Medicus 22-7 reroute from current test scenario to the coordinates given.” The dispatcher buzzed through their headphones as the helicopter took a sharp turn.

“Details, plane crash, one male and two females, one female pregnant. Hostile elements spotted en route, Tactical teams attempting intercept, priorities, stabilize and evacuate.” The dispatcher relayed across the line.

“Help the newbie get his gear set!” Frank yelled to his team, already going over their own gear, triple checking everything.

Frank marched toward the cockpit even as the helicopter swerved, his equilibrium perfectly compensating for every sharp turn in the floor’s angle.

“Jesus Christ, you gotta get us there in one piece if we’re gonna be any help!” Frank chastised the two pilots, but stopped as soon as he saw the tension on their faces.

The intensity with which they devoted themselves to their current task left no doubt in Frank’s mind.

“Oh god, it’s an Heir.” Frank thought as his face fell.

***

Sophia looked down in despair, her tears falling onto Aleks’ blue lips as she ran a hand through his matted hair.

“ALEKS WAKE UP!” Natasha shouted through tears. Her compulsion, powered by the intense grief shared between them, shook the ground and rustled the distant trees.

The small wisp of consciousness from the broken bead had settled in his body like a candle flame, struggling to stay alight, yet with every second, the flame grew dimmer until it was snuffed out.

What followed had frozen them both in place, but only Sophia recognized the sensation from the night at the gala as the strange Nidhoggr had sacrificed its existence to save Sasha.

A horde of overwhelming presences fell over the clearing created by the crashed jet. It felt as if the sky itself had been replaced by their vast existences, their desperation and animosity washing over Natasha and Sophia, suffocating them.

But then a moment later a sound not unlike a wet finger dragged across glass followed by the sound of a string snapping echoed out, and the entities were torn from reality and ceased to exist.

Sophia and Natasha were released from their grasp and struggled for air, neither knowing how much time had passed.

A twig snapped behind Natasha, and she spun to her feet, taking a fighter’s stance, readying herself for a fight.

Five people stepped out of the brush, wearing the insignia of the Medicus, a subbranch of the Custodes.

It was at this point that Sophia noticed a glowing violet line at the base of Natasha’s neck, but in the same instant Natasha fell to the ground writhing in agony, the lines spreading across her skin.

Sophia looked on in despair as her nightmare continued, now taking the love of her life from her, leaving her alone.

The Medicus rushed to Natasha’s side, two splitting from the group to check on Sophia and Aleks

***

Frank barely felt the tug on his psychic senses over the interference caused by the Successor thrashing in pain on the ground.

He got up and hurried to his recruit but stopped as he saw the younger man had removed his jacket and placed it over the man on the ground in a last act of respect, revealing the mark on the younger Sentire’s forearm.

Frank pushed his senses to their fullest as he probed for any hint of consciousness or life from the ravaged corpse in front of him, but found nothing.

The recruits observations supported those findings, telling Frank information gathered through touch and sight in the time after their initial arrival.

The body was cold and lifeless, and had been so for some time now.

“Prep for EVAC! Secure patients and deceased!” Frank announced over the drone of the helicopter descending above them.

***

I rushed forward, weaving to avoid projectiles whizzing by my head.

There was no room for error. All it would take was a single hit, and I’d be done for.

I took cover behind a large boulder, taking the occasional peek over the edge, only to immediately duck back down as suppressive fire rained down on me from a higher vantage point.

Summoning up enough courage, I made another mad dash at my attackers just as a blinding light erupted in front of me and I felt the icy impact on my face.

“Hahaha I got Daddy! Mum, Mom! I got Daddy!” She giggled and declared triumphantly as the ball of snow slid down my face.

I stood stunned at the deviousness before me.

“I thought we said no powers?” I asked, feeling a little betrayed.

“We didn’t see anything.” Tessa chuckled, walking past me.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice the lack of wind resistance on those snowballs. Whose side are you on?!” I asked accusingly, no doubt sounding more than a little aggrieved.

“Theirs, I thought that was obvious.” Tessa replied straight faced, pointing towards where Natasha and Sophia were busily building fortifications made of snow.

A little blond-haired girl with emerald green eyes sat in a tower of snow with a stack of perfectly shaped snowballs behind her, ready to rain down icy fury once more.

“Traitor.” I muttered, but couldn’t help but smile.

“Aunty! Come over here, everyone against Daddy now!” She… Who was she?

“What’s happening? This… This isn’t real. I… This can’t be real.” I frowned and looked up at the gray clouds in the sky. Snowflakes like soft down feathers landing on my face.

I heard a scream, like a distant tone, growing closer and clearer by the second. My heart began to thunder in my ears as the agonized screaming became deafening.

And suddenly the gray skies above were replaced with a metal ceiling. I strained to sit up and found myself on a gurney. A black jacket fell into my lap with a strange version of caduceus, the symbol of medicine, stitched into its shoulder.

I struggled to remain upright, my ribs painfully grinding against themselves. One of my eyes had swelled shut, making my vision monocular and my left arm was numb from the shoulder down.

Another scream pierced through me and instantly dispelled the cold I’d felt in my body, my blood heating up.

I looked towards the source of the screaming and found three Sentires struggling to restrain Natasha as empty vials and syringes littered the metal floor.

Her skin was splitting, glowing violet tears spreading across her body, and her pearly white eyes were bloodshot.

I moved off the gurney without thinking and landed on my leg. A sharp pain and a snap followed as I crashed to the floor, causing yet another wave of pain and no doubt more damage.

But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered right now. Using my only good arm, I clawed my way forward; the Sentires wearing the same black jacket I’d seen earlier parted at my slow approach.

I didn’t even register their shocked and horrified expressions as I reached up and grabbed hold of Natasha’s hand, and channeled everything and anything I had through her body, flushing out the caustic and toxic particles and remnants from what had to be raw Immaterial energies.

Like a dialysis machine, I syphoned them into myself, taking most of the strain without a second thought.

Her breathing settled with an unconscious sigh of relief and I sat up against the table she laid on, my hand still wrapped around hers as I looked up.

The Sentires had split again and Sophia now stood there looking down at me, tears streaming down her face with an expression of disbelief; it was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

***

Frank had only just settled the Fjorgyn Heir carrying what most of the valley considered a miracle when a wave of energy crashed into the helicopter like a tsunami.

Lights flickered and instruments let out warnings, but as quickly as the wave had hit, so did it disappear.

Replacing it came a hair-raising sense of being observed, as if some spotlight was aimed at them each in turn before settling on its query.

It was indescribable and invasive, sending shivers up Frank’s spine.

When it passed him, he immediately followed it into the other section of the helicopter cabin, only to be stopped dead at the door.

The jacket covering the Titan’s face had been blown away and its remaining eye now shone an ominous red.

Frank’s stomach churned as the corpse proceeded to sit upright, the white of cracked bones visible through holes in the skin and muscle of his abdomen and shin along with deep bloody gouges around the rest of his body, including the empty socket of his left eye.

The Successor screamed, releasing another wave of the psychic energy disrupting his team’s empathic communication.

The corpse’s attention snapped to her as it shambled of its gurney, landing on its right leg, the visibly fractured shin bone breaking almost immediately, sending it crashing to the floor with the sickening sound of breaking bones.

But like out of a horror movie, the bleeding and ravaged corpse dragged itself forward with one arm, leaving a trail of smeared blood on the floor.

The impact seemed to grab his team’s attention as they all turned, each of them shocked and disturbed by the sight, yet none intervened, as some unspeakable force kept them all in place.

It reached out its hand and grasped that of the Successor. A jolt like electricity passed between them before, miraculously, the successor seemed to calm. The waves of pain from her mind ceased, and with a sigh, she slipped into unconsciousness.

Without the psychic distortions in the air, Frank felt a presence behind him and turned while instinctively moving out of the way, revealing the Fjorgyn Heir.

Frank could feel her struggle as she didn’t dare to believe what she was seeing, but upon meeting her eyes, the glowing eye of the corpse showed a hint of recognition before dimming, as if ready to rest now that it knew they were both safe.

A consciousness remained, however, and thick black smoke rose from its wounds in small amounts, slowly covering them in a dark material with glints of red.

***

“The rescue team is en route to the valley Ma’am.” Silas said as he held a hand to his earpiece while trying to keep up with the Matriarchs pace, her age making what would have been a brisk walking pace for some, into an all-out sprint for others.

“Their condition?” Katya inquired sternly, without slowing down.

“It… Seems complicated, Ma’am… But they no longer appear to be in critical condition.” Silas relayed, and Katya stopped abruptly.

At the end of the hall stood a group of Sentires, each older than Katya by at least a decade, and at their helm was a familiar face.

“Where is she?!” Agda demanded, the instinctive panic thick in her voice.

Katya recognized the irrational mental state of the Sentires ahead of her. Although their kind had no recorded instances of a dead branch suddenly receiving an heir, Katya could only imagine the intense sensation of suddenly reawakening to those intense impulses.

“Agda, you have to stay calm-” Katya didn’t manage to get out another word as the Fjorgyn Matriarch charged her crossing the distance between them in an instant before slamming Katya against the wall by her neck, cracks spreading out from her back.

Silas reactively tried to intervene but was practically rag dolled by one of the Fjorgyn elders thrice his own age.

“WHERE IS SHE!?” Agda demanded, thin tendrils of insidious mental energy slowly burrowing their way into Katya’s mind in search of answers.

But they didn’t get far. The Fjorgyn line may pride itself on its passive influence, but the Eve line prided itself on its raw power.

And even though Agda was almost a hundred years Katya’s senior, it didn’t matter much in a fight of this nature.

Katya brought her mental strength to bear, shredding the flimsy tendrils and shielding her own mind before reaching out to pressure Agda’s.

The Fjorgyn Matriarch flinched, and it was all the leverage Katya needed.

Agda pushed herself away from Katya. The latter dropped to her feet while continuing her suppression.

“Sophia is unharmed and being brought to the valley by a team of Medicus as we speak, I will take you to her immediately.” Katya lied as she continued to restrain Agda’s resisting mind.

She had no idea of Sophia’s status and prayed she was correct or they would find out what happened to a clan experiencing the death of their branch twice.

“But you have to control yourselves or you will be a danger to her and everyone around her.” Katya finished lessening her mental grip as she saw a hint of restraint reemerge on the other Matriarch’s face.

Agda held up a hand in a gesture to halt, but it wasn’t meant for Katya, instead, it was meant for the man behind her whose hands were hovering on either side of Katya’s head.

The Variant known as Ivar… The Mind Killer…

“We will comply… for now.” Agda said, her voice composed, although Katya still noticed the hint of frenzied hysteria.