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Chapter Text

The world was doomed the moment Radianite was found in that godforsaken crater in the tundra in 1979. A local had tripped over it, almost literally, and this one poorly timed accident therein fucked everyone over, dooming the planet to what would inevitably develop into a third world war.

Kingdom built their whole brand around it. Bought up all the Radianite they found in that crater, then kept those mining operations going across the world, desperate to find more of this miracle substance. Sites across the world in established countries. Sites buried deep into isolated mountains, and sites in cities. Kingdom built their entire brand around being the primary people behind all the possible energy in the world, and with it came the massive boom in technology. Cars no longer needed fossil fuels, not with Kingdom’s all new Radianite powered cars. Needed a faster way to gather and label information? Use Kingdom’s brand new computers with faster processing speeds, and they even come in smaller and more compact blocks! Anything and everything Kingdom made seemed to outclass the product before it, all while capitalizing on Radianite. Every new thing Kingdom made, they were determined to make the next thing bigger, flashier, and of course, using more Radianite.

Suppose it was only a natural progression to weapons. When Kingdom had built it all, they still aimed for the stars. Rockets, what the poor saps who built them thinking they were intended to send humanity to the cosmos, were actually bombs meant to send Radianite across the world. Kingdom never meant for the world to prosper, everyone will know it now. You’re all being lied to. They don’t want to help. They want to destroy. THEY’RE USING YOU! USING ALL OF YOU! YOU AREN’T CHANGING THE WORLD! YOU’RE KILLING IT! ALL OF YOU! TURN YOUR BACKS ON THEM! SAVE US BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

— Oran McEneff, Everett-Linde Energy Plant Engineer

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Klara couldn’t help but rub her temples at this. Another former employee had posted a rant to the company wide message board, and that meant another series of PR assemblies that she would be forced to sit in on. She knew, obviously, these were done with the purpose of clearing their name from disgruntled employees who were fired, but that didn’t make them any less tedious. Especially right now, with the current progress of the Radian Collider going well, having to step away from her work to have to sit in on another round of Kingdom’s attempts to assure that McEneff was just another disgruntled employee, angry at being fired.

Klara’s computer beeped. The head of the Collider project had reached out, stating that the project was projected to be complete by the end of the day, they just needed her in the lab soon to begin the final section of it. Now it really was a problem. Kingdom’s PR assemblies took forever, and she couldn’t miss the Collider finally coming online, not when this had so far been her biggest project of the year. With a sigh, Klara adjusted her glasses before standing from her desk and walking out. If she could, perhaps, convince her own higher ups to let her skip the assemblies, she could continue with the project. She’d just need to prove how much more important her Collider was, which was very simple. The biggest flaw was the fact of the matter, being McEneff was one of HER underlings. He was one of the people who assisted with the creation of the Collider, and that would certainly mean there would be an issue with pleading the case behind her just wanting to work on it.

By the time Klara had arrived at the conference room where the Kingdom higher ups had gathered, they were all preparing their slides and papers denouncing McEneff’s words and disproving them. Klara knocked on the door, letting the higher ups pause their production to gesture for her to enter.

“Good morning, Dr. Böhringer. What do you need?” one of them, a stubby man in a toupe that looked too fake to ignore.

“I need to miss the PR assemblies. The Collider project needs to come online today, and it’ll only happen if my full attention is on it. I know that-” Klara’s ramblings were interrupted by the woman off to the far end of the table.

“Fine. You can miss today’s. However, you will be required to be at all the following ones, zero exceptions. This is… a troubling time for Kingdom, and we need to show everyone that all of our executive staff is on the same page, Dr. Böhringer,” the woman’s sharp voice said, lowering a gaze at Klara, emphasis on her hard earned title of ‘doctor’.

Wow. That was a lot simpler than Klara thought it would be. With a nod, she just left the room, and made her way down to the lab. The prototype teleportals that she had made to make travel for Kingdom Corporation’s employees was active and beckoning. She stepped through, having to shake her own vertigo off as the Everett-Linde Energy Plant laid before her.

It was summer, meaning no matter where Klara stood, the heat of both Shinjuku and New Mexico was inescapable, but it felt much worse at Everett-Linde. Possibly a combination of the Collider and the natural heat of the New Mexico desert. At least at the Kingdom headquarters in Shinjuku, there was indoor facilities and air conditioning. Regardless of the matter, Klara scanned into the Alpha sector, and approached her team.

“R&D Lead on deck!” one of the employees shouted out as Klara entered the main laboratory. 

‘Scheiße, that’ll never get any less weirder to hear yelled out,’ Klara thought, waving off the employees. She approached the containment for the Collider, and looked at one of the other scientists. “She’s almost there, no? Good, good! Let’s begin!”

After a thorough decontamination, Klara finally got back to work. God, she missed this. Her recent promotion had, for lack of better terms, stopped her ambitious run with all the tedious paperwork and all the necessary programs she was now forced to slog through as the brand new member of Kingdom’s Executive Team. Her excitement peaked being in her lab once more, remembering what she was really built for.

At some point, contrary to the original projected outcomes, the project came to an abrupt stop. “What do you mean our Radianite stores are out? You said we still had all our supplies!” Klara had heard from the supply manager’s rant just down the hall. 

Approaching, Klara adjusted her glasses. “What seems to be the problem?” she asked, trying her best to put on a mask of neutrality at the unfortunate interruption.

“Ah, Dr. Böhringer, apologies. It appears our Radianite stores here are depleted, and although I had originally thought we had all of the necessary Radianite,” the supply manager said, running a hand down his face. “I swear, I thought I had ordered everything we needed…”

“Ah! No worries! I’ll call Sabine and see if she can spare some,” Klara said, quickly walking to her given office. A quick dial to the Kingdom Corporation’s Board of Advisors, and Sabine had picked up.

“What do you want?” Sabine’s infamously sharp voice demanded.

“Sabine! Uh, so, it appears we’ve run out of our Radianite stores down here. I was wondering if you could… send some more?” Klara had practically squeaked. Very little scared Klara Böhringer, but Sabine Callas and her general demeanor was among the few things that did.

The line was quiet for a while, long enough that Klara had to check that her phone cord wasn’t pulled out of the wall, before Sabine’s voice finally responded.

“How the hell did you guys run through of three tons of Radianite in one day?” Sabine demanded, her frustration evident in her voice.

Klara checked the manifest of what the Everett-Linde facility had gotten. The report of used Radianite in the facility, reading only 1.5 tons.

“Uh, our manifest says that’s half of that was used,” Klara said, checking the report again.

“Bullshit. I had three tons sent to the Everett-Linde facility, so your idiot of a supply manager probably just misplaced the other half,” Sabine remarked.

“No he didn’t. We only have one supply drop off here, and it’s not there. Are you sure you had all three tons sent?” Klara asked.

“Yes. I am sure,” Sabine hissed, “I’m looking at the order manifest right now. It went from Rabat, through Shinjuku, and then to New Mexico. From being sent from Rabat to Shinjuku, all three tons were accounted for. Then from Shinjuku to New Mexico, again, all three tons were accounted for out of Shinjuku. So either, your supply manager is lying to you and stole some, or he’s incompetent and can’t count.”

“Look, Sabine, can you just send more please? I’ll pay for it out of pocket,” Klara begged. A long silence followed.

“Fine. But I’m accompanying it myself. And I’m getting some of K-SEC’s best so if your supply manager tries anything, he will be dealt with,” Sabine relented.

“Danke Sabine,” Klara bid, placing the phone back to its receiver. Klara released her held back sigh of relief. That was one catastrophe avoided.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, Sabine was pissed. Three tons of Refined Radianite were hard to come by recently. Since Kingdom pushed for their Nucletized (read Synthetic) Radianite program, most of the power in the world rested in Synth Radianite. The exception nowadays was going to be Klara’s Collider she has been working on for nearly half a decade now, creating an original Refined Radianite Energy Plant to be able to produce limitless Radianite energy. Now it appeared that Kingdom’s own negligence in hiring employees with actual qualifications was beginning to drag on it. 

A handful of calls to Rabat helped with getting the next batch to make it’s way to Shinjuku. Three exact tons of Refined Radianite, accompanied by two of K-SEC’s best agents in Liam Byrne and his new second in command, a young and spry girl named Tala. Sabine would oversee it’s delivery to Klara herself, ensuring that this time, no sketchy people were involved in it’s transfer.

She stood by the Rabat teleportal, preparing to receive the order, when the familiar smell of heavily gouache cologne invaded her nose. Him.

“Ah, Sabine! What a pleasure to run into you here!” the annoyingly arrogant voice of Vincent Fabron rang in her ears. Kingdom Defense’s own pain in the ass.

“Vincent. What an annoyance to run into you. Why are you here?” Sabine asked, stepping a foot away from the man in question.

“My friends in Kingdom Defense heard about the incident with the Radianite delivery to Everett-Linde. When I heard you were personally overseeing it’s delivery, well I offered to help escort it of course,” Vincent said, straightening his tie and smiling cockily to Sabine.

“You’re presence is unnecessary. Liam and his new deputy will be accompanying it,” Sabine scoffed, “I trust them with my protection more than you.”

“Ah, still as cold and vicious as ever, dear Sabine,” Vincent said, laughing to himself.

“It’s Dr. Callas to you,” Sabine hissed. At that moment, the teleportal claxon went off, indicating an arriving party.

Walking through the teleportal was Liam Byrne, his K-SEC uniform polished as ever. Beside him, a shorter woman with dark brown, with almost borderline black hair. Most likely his new deputy, Deputy Valdez. Behind them was a large series of crates on a trolley being pushed by a K-HAND unit, the crates a jade green in color.

“Liam. All of it accounted for?” Sabine asked the older man.

Liam nodded. “All three tons. Valdez counted them herself.”

Sabine’s gaze dropped to the woman beside Liam. “Deputy Valdez, I presume?” she asked, her voice flat and neutral.

The younger woman nodded. “Deputy Tala Nicole Dimaapi Valdez,” she introduced, holding out a courteous but fairly disconnected hand. 

With a cold shake, Sabine glanced at the crates and the K-HAND unit. “Well, let’s move now. The less amount of time I spend outside of my lab, the better,” Sabine muttered.

Vincent stopped her. “Ah, you know the rules Sabine, Kingdom would like to screen the Radianite first.”

Sabine scoffed. “You do it then,” she deadpanned, “we all know you have the clearance to.”

Vincent approached the crate and cracked open the lid, peering inside for a moment. He replaced the lid and stepped back. “All clear,” he reported to the teleportal supervisors.

An alarm beeped, announcing their clearance to leave and the convoy was off to the Everett-Linde teleportal. The travel to the teleportal, unfortunately on the other side of the Shinjuku Headquarters, was uneventful. The droning of passing Kingdom employees, the low conversation between Liam and Deputy Valdez regarding evacuation routes if necessary, and the incessant squawking of Vincent never getting the hint was all that echoed in the halls. It was arriving at the teleportal that had Sabine wishing she had a gun on her.

A series of Kingdom Corporation higher ups were awaiting them. All of them had those fake smiles and pretend concern that Sabine had grown used to seeing upon the faces of her bosses. “Ah, Dr. Callas! What a surprise to see you out of the lab! Might we ask why?” some stubby man with a rat for a toupe asked.

“It appears that the most recent Radianite delivery to Everett-Linde was short. They need more. I am simply delivering them more,” Sabine remarked.

“Ah, I see. We can have it take over from here, we know with everything going on, you and Chief Byrne must be exhausted, so please-” the man’s words were interrupted by Sabine.

“It’s fine. Move. If you want the Collider online today, then we need to get the Radianite there now. That is why you allowed Dr. Böhringer to miss your little PR assembly, no?” Sabine asked, her eyes narrowing at the ratty man.

The man laughed nervously. “Of course, but with everything going on-”

It was Liam’s turn to interrupt. “With everything going on, simple delivery missions are breaks to keep people from burning out. Unless you don’t want us in Everett-Linde for some reason?” he asked, the slightest of an accusatory hint in his words.

The rat man shook his head. “No no, not at all. If that’s the case, go on ahead!” he said, that customary fake air in his voice.

With their temporary obstacle out of the way, the convoy continued. The teleportal claxon for Everett-Linde sounded, indicating the connection was established, and the K-HAND unit marched stopped. “Security Detail #1, please enter,” it said.

Sabine glanced at Liam and Deputy Valdez, nodding for them to enter. As the two disappeared, the K-HAND unit followed suit.

“So, shall we, Sabine?” Vincent asked, holding out a hand.

Sabine just rolled her eyes and walked forward, disappearing through the teleportal. Vincent shrugged his own shoulders, and followed suit.

The convoy reached the other side, the Alpha sector supply drop. There stood Klara and who Sabine could only assume was her supply manager. It had been a while since Sabine had actually seen Klara in person, especially since her promotion to Lead of R&D for Kingdom, but seeing her now, it was almost sad the state she was in. Clearly exhausted from having to deal with all the bullshit the Executives were no doubt heaping on her with her new position, and with the war going on causing strain on every part of Kingdom’s global reach, Sabine found it a miracle the little mouse hadn’t cracked completely under the pressure.

“Sabine! Gott sei Dank, you came quickly!” Klara said, relieved, “Is everything here? Accounted for? Ja, ja?”

Sabine sighed. “Yes, we have all the Refined Radianite you asked for Klara. Accounted for and everything,” she said.

Klara let out a tired whoop in excitement as the K-HAND unit carted the Radianite to the transfer zone. Her attention turned to Liam. “Liam! It’s been some time. How’s Rabat treating you these days?” she asked.

“It’s been fine. The war hasn’t touched it yet, but with the escalating tensions, it’s only a matter of time,” Liam responded, “but we’ll be ready, I know we will be.”

Sabine was just about to turn back to the teleportal and leave when the loud alarm began to sound. As a dozen eyes darted to the teleportal, sparks shot from it and the closed, the frame now smoking. Klara’s eyes widened as she ran to the teleportal and immediately dove to check it’s internals.

“Scheiße! Something’s fried the circuitry!” she announced, pulling through the wiring, her face contorted in shock, confusion, and dare say, a little bit of anger.

The PA system buzzed to life. “Dr. Böhringer, you have a call from Shinjuku,” the intercom voice announced. Sabine glanced at Klara, noting her shoulders sagging.

“Everyday there’s something new,” Klara muttered, standing from the teleportal, “I’ll take a look at the teleportal after the call.”

As Klara walked away, Sabine glanced at Vincent, Deputy Valdez, and Liam. All of them stood away from the teleportal, so it was easy to say they probably didn’t cause it. However, as Sabine glanced around again, she took notice of the absence of the K-HAND unit that had accompanied the convoy. How… interesting…

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Liam invited her on a simple escort mission to get away from the constant reports of bombings and death due to the war, Tala was relieved. It meant even if only a few hours away from all the shit happening near Rabat, she could take a small breather. Of course, it did mean that the Rabat outpost was without their first and second in commands, but it had been relatively quiet the last two or so days, so whether through an exhaustion influenced lapse in judgement, or because Liam was just so damn uptight about honoring favors, they decided it was okay to leave for a few hours.

Unfortunately, they were not going to be gone for a few hours, because god forbid Tala try to get away from Hell on Earth for even a few moments without everything going to shit. Dr. Böhringer had stepped away for a moment, and when she came back, Tala couldn’t help but think she may’ve somehow aged thirty years in one phone call.

“Welp. The bad news is, the teleportal system is down. Apparently, a branch of the Neo-Bolsheviks tried to take the Siberia Kingdom Teleportal facility to hijack their teleportals. So, until further notice, the teleportals will be shutdown until the branch is dealt with,” she explained, “So, you’ll all have to remain here until everything clears up.”

Well, shit. Of course this was going to be an issue. The longer Tala and Liam were away from Rabat, the longer they put the base and the other agents there in danger.

Dr. Böhringer had given the facility workers the day off to return to their quarters, promising to continue the Collider project tomorrow. She also showed the convoy around the facility, showing them the mess hall and their respective quarters. Of course, Tala had heard about Everett-Linde, everyone had, especially after the community board rant from one of the engineers who worked here, but she never imagined just how actually big it was. She supposed with the Collider being built (which Dr. Böhringer had enthusiastically explained it’s purpose to Tala, in extremely complex and full detail), it required a lot of space to confidently build and power nearly everything in America.

Once the tour had settled, Tala just went to her guest quarters to sleep. So much excitement of the day had exhausted her to the core, and she just desperately wanted to sleep. Not that sleep came easy, cause why the fuck would it? She’s practically on the other side of the world, stuck in some facility with only two telephones and no way for her or Liam to reach the Rabat outpost. If anything, Tala felt a guilt for leaving the men who depended on her. Safe to say, tonight, sleep was overrated as fuck.

The next morning, Dr. Böhringer had awoken the facility early, hoping to power on the Collider as soon as possible. This meant waking up Tala, Liam, Mr. Fabron, and Dr. Callas as well. As the convoy group had met up with Dr. Böhringer after breakfast, she was standing in the Collider room, screwing in a panel.

“Ah! You all are just in time! We just installed the last Radianite battery! We should be good to power it on!” Dr. Böhringer said excitedly. Tala admitted, that contrary to her absolutely bone-tired outward appearance, the engineer’s excitement was certainly evident in her face. She began to shoo the other scientists, and the convoy group behind a yellow and black line, and looked up at the Collider.

“Here we go,” she muttered, turning to the button along the console in front of the Collider. With a series of codes, a key turn, and a quick breath of air, Dr. Böhringer pressed the button. The sound of the Collider powering on filled the facility, the whirring of energy as it began to crackle and beams of energy shot between the two sections on top and bottom of the containment room. Tala had felt the air seem to electrify with Radianite power, and the hair on her arms and the back of her head stood up in alarm.

Liam brought Tala on as his second in command in Rabat, not because of her combat skills, but her gut. Almost instinctually, Tala knew when something bad was going to happen. Almost like a part of her could sense when a mission or a move was going to go to shit. In this moment, as Dr Böhringer looked up at the Collider with wide eyes, every red flag in Tala’s body rose in warning. The energy in the air, it wasn’t natural. Not with the usual feel she had around Radianite, and she immediately knew it was going to blow.

Her voice tore from her throat. “Shut it down! Shut it down now!” she yelled at Dr. Böhringer, rushing forward. Every cell in Tala’s body screamed as she ran to Dr. Böhringer and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the Collider. She looked at the console, her heart hammering in her ears as she looked for some sort of off button. Every second she spent there, feeling the charged air of the Collider, her body screamed. Something deep within her began to thrum, and still she couldn’t find a fucking off button.

“Putang ina!” Tala swore as she just turned around and grabbed Dr. Böhringer. She turned to the convoy group and the scientists. “Run! Get the fuck out of the room!”

As the herd stampeded out of the room, the Collider hit critical mass. As Tala ran, she knew, instinctively she would not make it. So she did the only thing left, she shoved Dr. Böhringer as hard as she could to the blast doors. Dr. Böhringer, bless her damn bleeding heart, refused, and grabbed Tala’s arm trying to pull her with her. In that moment, it felt like every cell in Tala’s body was shocked alive, and she felt electricity course through her veins. Her movements seemed to get faster, until she tackled Dr. Böhringer behind the blast doors, right as the Collider finally exploded.

And all Tala felt was the electric energy coursing through her body, followed by pain.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vincent knew what his mission was. His own higher ups at Kingdom Defense told him that the Collider couldn’t come online under any circumstances, otherwise the world would see it as a declaration of war from Kingdom themselves. So while he didn’t want to see young Böhringer’s energy and life’s work wasted, he knew there was a reason that Collider couldn’t afford to come on now. What he wasn’t expecting was for his hacked K-HAND unit to fry the teleportal, then basically self destruct itself in the Collider, killing dozens of the scientists in the facility. He certainly wasn’t expecting anyone that close to the Collider to survive either, and yet, Deputy Valdez was still somehow breathing.

When Deputy Valdez had tackled young Böhringer behind the blast doors, everyone was fully expecting her to be dead, however when the light of the exploding Collider subsided, it quickly became apparent that death would’ve been the better option for the poor deputy. The explosion, the exposure to that much Radianite… it changed her. Her dark brown hair had been turned a shock of blue and yellow, and that same combination of colors crawled up her body in electric currents so powerful, young Böhringer had come away from the tackle unconscious and with electrical scars covering her back and shoulders.

Liam grabbed young Böhringer and pulled her away from Deputy Valdez. After, he attempted to approach Deputy Valdez, before Sabine stopped him. “Liam. Don’t. Touch her, you’ll end up like Böhringer,” she warned.

“I can’t just leave the kid there, clearly in pain Sabine!” Liam protested.

“It looks like she currently has currents running in her body, Liam. We have no idea if those currents are fatal to us,” Sabine warned.

“Klara’s alive!” Liam pointed out.

“Barely. Get her some medical attention, immediately. Fabron and I will deal with Valdez,” Sabine said, kneeling down to the deputy.

Though Liam hesitated, he finally relented and gently scooped up young Böhringer, and hurried off to a medical ward, or whatever was left of it, Vincent imagined. Meanwhile, Sabine had held a hand out to the deputy’s unconscious form, and watched as the currents of electricity that permeated her body sparked out to her hand, as though feral animals lashing out in fear.

“Bioelectricity?” Sabine mused, still observing the currents jumping from Deputy Valdez’s skin.

“What, like an eel?” Vincent asked, bending down himself to take a look.

Sabine didn’t answer him, just merely stood back up. “We need an insulated chamber to hold her in. The bioelectricity is currently confined to her body while I assume it grows accustomed to it, but it won’t be long before it begins to spiral out of control. We need to get her away from metal.”

Vincent chortled shortly. “Away from metal? Sabine, dear, this entire facility is made of metal. Where are we going to put her that isn’t metal?” he asked pointedly.

“Fabron, call me ‘dear’ again, and I’m dissolving your throat with acid,” Sabine threatened before turning to the rest of the facility. “There’s a shock chamber somewhere here. Klara always talked about it as where they threw prototypes that were sparking to ensure nobody got hurt by them. We need to find a way to get Deputy Valdez into it before the bioelectricity finds out it can’t go anywhere but out.”

“How do you expect us to carry her, Sabine? If what happened to young Böhringer is while the electricity is contained and barely touching you for a few moments, I would hate to see what it is like when touching us for longer,” Vincent pointed out.

Sabine reached into her pocket, and pulled out some rubber gloves. “Insulate and drag,” she said, throwing another pair to Vincent.

Vincent grabbed the gloves and stared at Sabine. “Fine. You take her legs, I take her arms?” he asked, reaching to grab Deputy Valdez’s wrists. Sabine grabs her ankles.

It took them a second to find the insulation chamber. Surprisingly it was intact, probably due to its distance from the Collider. Vincent and Sabine carried Deputy Valdez into the chamber, and gently set her down. They quickly left, and sealed the electrical insulator. Sabine pulled off her gloves.

“Watch her, Vincent. Make sure if she wakes up, you tell her what happened. I’m going to make sure Klara isn’t dead,” she said, walking away.

Vincent nodded, and as Sabine disappeared from view, the crushing realization of just what he did collapses on him all at once. It’s his fault. All the people who no doubt had died from that explosion. Deputy Valdez, who may have just been fundamentally changed beyond repair. Young Böhringer’s looming threat of death. All of it was his fault. He felt a crushing feeling in his chest, eating him from the inside out. Guilt . He never intended for this. He just needed the K-HAND to pull some cords, maybe cut the power to the facility. He never intended for the Collider to explode! How many people had died today, innocent people, by his hand?

Vincent’s knees gave out, he felt them crack against the metallic floor as he braced himself against the wall. No tears, he was never one to cry, but he could feel every ounce of his body shouting at him, in anger. It’s all his fault. All his fault.

All his fault.

All his fault.

All his fault!

ALL HIS FAULT!

Ever piece of his mind screamed at him. Vincent felt his throat close up, and his skin burn. Sure, he had killed before, but they were all dangerous people. But the people who died here today were innocent! None of them had probably committed nearly as many sins as he had, and yet, he was the cause of all their deaths.

Vincent’s entire body shook. His vision tunneled as he stared at Deputy Valdez’s unconscious form. His eyes zeroed in on her now blue and yellow hair. He did that. It’s his fault she’s definitely dangerous to be around now. His fault they have to sequester the deputy in a chamber like an animal because they had no idea how dangerous her newfound electricity was.

Just as his mind began to spiral, footsteps shook him from his shame spiral. He turned around, and there was Liam. He approached cautiously.

“Fabron. You okay?” he asked, coming up to the Frenchman’s side.

Vincent shook his head. “Just realizing how fucked our situation is. No biggie,” he said, trying his best to present his trademark suaveness.

Liam grimaced. “We have to get ahold of Kingdom. Tell them what happened. Maybe if we get them over here fast enough, we can get help for Tala too,” he said, a hopeful tone in his voice.

“I don’t think in the 70 something years since it was found, anyone has heard or reported anything about extreme Radianite exposure changing you physically, Liam. Killing you, most definitely, but changing you? Je n'ai pas connaissance d',” Vincent said.

Liam sighed. “Well, we have to do something. Tala’s a good kid, and I don’t need her spending the rest of her life having to be sequestered,” he said.

Vincent nodded, and stood up. “I’m going to scope out what remains of the facility and the staff. Watch your deputy,” he said, walking away.

Vincent’s walk through the facility was, well, crushing him with guilt. No remains were found. Not even blood stains indicating that people had been here. There was nothing. If anything, as Vincent walked through the ruins of Everett-Linde, it seemed like the only five people who survived the disaster were him, young Böhringer, Deputy Valdez, Liam, and Sabine. And even then, as of now, young Böhringer’s fate was… uncertain. 

He scoped the damages. The Collider room was in pieces. The Collider itself cracked through the entire facility, ripping it open from the inside out. Most of the building had been ripped open, besides the quarters, the shock chamber, and a portion of both the mess hall and young Böhringer’s personal lab. The telephone lines were vaporized, meaning the survivors were stuck. The teleportal was destroyed, so no help would be coming soon. They were stranded, and unless any employees who weren’t on site were somewhere nearby, it would look like to everyone that the Everett-Linde facility had simply gone off the radar.

Essentially, by all known laws of survival, he and the others were fucked.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liam had been switching off with Vincent and Sabine for the last few days. While Klara had been able to recover even if only a little bit, Tala was still unconscious. Sabine, who had taken it upon herself to be her personal observer, had said that it would take time for Tala’s body to adapt to the sudden increase in electrical energy flowing through her, but it had been four days since the disaster, and there was nothing.

Klara had felt guilty when she had woken up and heard of Tala’s condition. In a way, she felt that it was her fault that Tala had felt the need to pull her away. Klara’s guilt was so bad, Liam had caught her in her personal lab a few times now, seemingly working on a surge protector. She had blueprints scattered around her, all from the medical branch of Kingdom. He even recognized some of Tala’s father’s own work on some of these. 

Liam knew that Tala’s father worked for the medical technology branch of Kingdom, and with the recent attack across the Philippines, he had heard that her father was trying to build surge protectors for hospitals to survive sudden electrical attacks. How appropriate, for his daughter’s current situation.

As he entered the lab once again, there Klara was, still working on that surge protector. Her hair was messy, and the bags under her eyes had gotten worse. He could tell from her constantly changing positions and flinching when she moved that her scars were hurting her. He could only imagine. During Sabine’s examinations of Tala, she concluded that her body was now producing approximately 2.1 million volts of electricity just naturally, and by all accounts she should’ve fried herself from the inside out by now, but it appeared her own body had quickly begun to develop an insulating aspect to keep her from supercharging herself to death.

Even with this, however, yesterday, it had become clear that Tala’s body couldn’t contain it all. It could withstand it all well enough, but it couldn’t contain the electricity coursing through her. Her body started letting out large electrical shockwaves, one had almost fried Sabine earlier that very day. 

So here Klara was, blueprints in hand as she furiously tried to build the surge protector to let Tala be out of that chamber, even though she was clearly in a lot of pain. Liam had dropped off another can of Cram, just to give her access to something with at least some semblance of nutritional value.

Sabine’s voice called out. “Liam. Valdez is awake. And she wants answers.”

Liam sighed and turned to leave Klara to her devices. He had tried to get her to stop, but if he knew anything about Klara Böhringer, she wouldn’t stop while working on a project unless someone literally pulled her away. And frankly, Liam was terrified of hurting her more than she already was from her scars.

Liam entered the observation room for the insulation chamber. There stood Tala, her hair and eyes glowing as electricity was flying off her, in the middle of the chamber.

“Hey kid, how are you feeling?” Liam asked, leaning against the glass.

“Everything hurts. It feels like every part of my body is on fire, and it doesn’t want to stop,” Tala said. “Mr. Fabron and Dr. Callas filled me in. Guess I’m a goddamned superhero now, huh?”

Liam felt his chest tighten at her words, clearly dissociated and empty. “If it makes you feel better, Klara’s awake too,” he said.

“Mr. Fabron said she was. Glad to know I didn’t kill her,” Tala said.

“She says she working on something to get you out of there,” Liam said. “I know Klara, and she’s true to her word.”

Tala laughed, empty. Unbelieving. Only for Klara’s voice to ring out as she ran into the room. In her hands was a suit of some sort. “I did it! Heilige scheiße, I think I can help her!” she yelled, holding up the suit to Tala. “I used your dad’s blueprints for a surge protector in our archives! I think, we can get you out of there with it!” She carefully opened the door, and slowly inched in, placing the suit down a few feet from Tala. “Go ahead, try it on.”

Tala reached down, and placed the suit on over the remnants of her K-SEC uniform. Sabine entered shortly after to examine her.

“Huh. Klara’s suit works.” Sabine noted, holding a hand out to Tala. As Tala reached for it, no electricity crossed between their hands.

Some actual energy seemed to return to Tala’s face as she reached out to touch Sabine’s arm. No electricity jumped out at Sabine.

Tala was thrilled. She could keep herself under control now, and Klara had made sure the suit was comfortable enough to practically live in, given her condition. Not that it meant much. The five of them were still stuck in the facility, with no way to get help.

A week had passed since the disaster, and there was still so little hope. All of them were going a little stir crazy themselves, waiting for some sign of rescue, when one day, the sound of a Kingdom Chariot was heard. The group glanced to the sky, and there it was. The Kingdom logo on the side of the large helicopter as it slowly descended near Everett-Linde. They were saved!

A crew in full tactical suits had descended from the copter, and slowly approached the survivors. After they cleared them, while also separating Tala from them due to her being a currently unknown threat, a member of the team approached Liam and Sabine, holding a box phone. The sound of the ratty man was on the other end.

“Oh, its good to finally hear from you guys! We thought something had happened!” he said, his voice still carrying that air of fakeness.

“Because something did happen, Cointren. Everett-Linde is in ruins because the Collider exploded,” Sabine deadpanned.

“Ah yes, we had heard of that unfortunate accident. Lucky for us, we got your saviors there fast, no?” the ratty man said.

Liam caught Sabine’s nostrils flare as she opened her mouth to tell the man off, but Liam stopped her. “Not now, Sabine. Wait till we get back to headquarters.”

“Speaking of headquarters, you’re saviors in armor shall escort you all to a quick decontamination facility! Since the Collider was powered by a lot of Radianite, we don’t want you guys to be leaking it everywhere!” Cointren said.

The group all glanced amongst each other, absorbing the information. With that, Cointren hung up, and the squad took back their phone. They had everyone get on the Chariot, though not before subduing Tala in stronger restraints. The Chariot lifted off, and the group bid farewell to their Hell.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Klara felt the sting of her scars as the helicopter jostled her around. The faint outline of the Everett-Linde facility disappeared behind them as the Chariot had taken off, flying them out of New Mexico. All of Klara’s hard work over the last 5 years, gone. She thought, swore up and down, that her invention was ready. That it was done. How foolish she had been. Her arrogance always got the better of her judgment, and this was just the most disastrous example by far. Now, not only was she hurt, but so was Tala.

God only knows what Klara’s arrogance did to Tala. The poor girl had put herself in danger to save Klara, and all that she got was an unruly power that required her to wear a stupid suit to contain the electricity coursing through her. God, Klara hated that it was all her fault. Her scars burned, as though maliciously reminding her that Tala’s life has been possibly irreversibly changed because of Klara’s ego. And all the scientists! All her coworkers who had welcomed her when they started on the Collider. All the coworkers who gave her congratulations when she became the R&D Lead, now they were dead. Vaporized, their souls probably still stuck in that hellscape she had created. 

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Why did she think she could fix everything? All she did was make a mess of everything, ruin everything!

Klara had blocked out the conversation that Liam and Sabine were having with the members of K-TAC team, content to just stare out the window.

Huh? Oh. Her glasses. They were cracked.

And with that, every bit of emotion that Klara had been repressing for the last week came rushing out of her. Every flinch of pain at the ache in her back, every tear that she kept unshed for the people who died at Everett-Linde, and every ounce of guilt for her part in Tala’s new abilities. Her voice was silent as tears fell, her breaths shaky as she just sobbed silently. She felt something press against her kneecap, and she looked. Tala sat, touching her knee to Klara’s, as she had a look on her face, asking if the German was okay.

Klara kept crying as she looked at Tala. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she cried. And she cried, the rest of the ride.

By the time the Chariot had touched down, Klara had cried herself to exhaustion, and passed out. Liam had to pick her up and carry her as they walked up to the decontamination facility. A large 124 was painted on the front of the sealed door. As members of K-TAC escorted them to the entrance, Klara had begun to awaken due to the thrum of pain in her back. The door lowered inwards, almost like a drawbridge, as the group entered. The inside reminded Klara of an industrial warehouse, and they were led further down into the facility. There was not much in this place, probably because it was intended to be a decontamination facility, right?

Except, Klara couldn’t help but think this place was too familiar. Like she had seen blueprints of it before. Life support systems, reinforced concrete and tungsten walls, all of it was too damned familiar. They were led into a hallway, where a table was set up. There were 5 uniforms set out, in the red and blue colors of Kingdom Corporation. They had large 124s embroidered on the backs and collars. Besides them, sat 5 bands. Now these, Klara remembers making. PIP-Bands. They were smaller, more compact versions of the old PIP models that she had pitched to Rob-Co in partnership with Kingdom. Easier to wear, easier to use. Just as promised. She glanced at Liam as he put her down.

“Why are they giving us these?” she asked, picking up the PIP-Band with a shaky hand.

“They said it’s a decontamination facility where they’d need to take our old clothes and tech so they can decontaminate them. So my guess is so that we’re not walking around naked, they have these for us,” Liam mused.

Klara looked at the uniform as Vincent had pulled one off. A name was embroidered on the right breast area. S. Callas.

“Ah, Sabine, it appears I found yours,” Vincent said, holding it up to Sabine, whose eye twitched as she snatched it from him.

“Say another word, and I’m killing you before we ever make it to the decon chamber,” Sabine threatened.

Vincent laughed, though it was short and hesitant as he reached for his own suit. V. Fabron was embroidered.

Liam grabbed his uniform, holding it up against himself. L. Byrne embroidered on the suit.

Klara took a look at the last two left. T. N. D. Valdez and K. Böhringer. She glanced over at Tala, who seemed to be bristling around the K-TAC guys who stood at the end of the hallway they came from, as though they were a wall keeping them there. She walked over and whispered into Tala’s ear. “Isn’t it strange that they had these almost custom made for us? In a week too, most of which they probably thought we were dead.”

“I have a bad feeling from these guys. They’ve been purposefully vague about this place,” Tala agreed.

Klara took her suit, then looked at the K-TAC soldiers. “Um, excuse me, hallo! Uh, how is Deputy Valdez supposed to get hers if she’s in those restraints?” she asked, trying to force an innocent voice.

The K-TAC leader simply glanced at Tala, before walking over and removing the extra restraints. “No funny tricks,” he warned, stepping away.

Tala rubbed her arms where the restraints held her before grabbing the suit with her name on it. They were lead to a series of rooms they could change into their outfits in. It was hard for Klara, just because she still couldn’t move her arms and shoulders very far. Eventually she had gotten it on. A simple two piece, practical uniform in the colors of Kingdom. She equipped her PIP-Band, just as the others did, and they turned to the K-TAC team.

“Now what?” Liam asked.

“Now, it’s decontamination. Leave your clothes and tech in the rooms, we’ll decontaminate those too,” the leader said, his eyes zoning in on Tala and her surge protector.

“Hey, don’t touch it. I need it, unless you all want to fry,” Tala warned.

The K-TAC leader seemed to freeze, before he turned to his men, and they slowly approached Tala.

“Oi! Get away from me!” Tala yelled, backing away from the approaching K-TAC members.

“We will need to take you for a separate decontamination. Don’t worry, you’ll remain in the facility with your friends. We just need to work with your newfound… changes,” the squad leader said as his men closed in on Tala.

Liam looked at Tala. “Listen kid, just work with them. Things will go a lot smoother and faster, I promise,” he said to her. With that, extremely reluctantly, Tala agreed and went with the K-TAC guys, disappearing down the hallway.

The squad leader look at Klara and the others. “Now, for you lot. Let’s go,” he said, gesturing for them to start walking down the hallway. As they walked, the entire facility was eerily empty. Devoid of staff or any signs of life. Soon, they all came to a lit up hallway with dozens of… oh scheiße…

Klara felt so stupid for not recognizing it sooner. She HAD seen these facilities before! Kingdom had been rolling out emergency fallout shelters due to the continued escalation of the war, and she had seen a number of their life support systems cross her desk. And she saw the device before her amongst the various ‘life support’ systems. Cryogenical Freezers.

Klara’s heart dropped. She turned around, but the K-TAC team had blocked them in this hallway with four open and waiting cryogenical freezers. They all pointed their guns at the group, and gestured for them to enter the pods.

“This isn’t decontamination,” Klara begun. “This is borderline kidnapping!”

“Get in, now,” the squad leader demanded.

“What are you doing to Tala?” Liam demanded.

“She’ll join you all soon enough. We just need to run tests on her first, make sure she won’t short circuit the place,” the squad leader said. “Now. Get in the pods.”

Vincent didn’t need to told three times. He climbed into one, laying back. The pod hissed as it closed on him, and soon the glass on the front had slowly been covered in ice.

Sabine scoffed. “I knew he was an idiot, but an idiot and a lemming is new,” she muttered.

One of the K-TAC guys shot off his gun. “Get in the fucking pods! We haven’t got all day!” he yelled.

Liam sighed and looked at Klara and Sabine. “I don’t think we have a choice. They’ll either kill us or shove us in here themselves. Just… do it,” he said, climbing into his own pod. It closed on him, and ice crawled up the window.

Sabine sighed. “Fine. But don’t expect me to be happy about this,” she muttered, cautiously climbing into her pod. It closed, and ice formed.

It just left Klara. She looked at the K-TAC men pointing their guns at her, and in the moment she began to step to her pod, the radio on one of them crackled to life.

“The final Kingdom Protocol is being carried out. All Kingdom employees, prepare for Falling Rain. NRBs launching in t-minus twenty seconds,” it said.

Klara’s eyes widened as she stopped in her tracks. “What? What are they talking about?” she demanded of the K-TAC guards.

“None of your business! Get in the pod!” the squad leader yelled.

“T-minus fifteen seconds.”

Klara backed away from the pod, only for one of the K-TAC members to reach out and grab her by her shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through her body.

“T-minus ten.”

Klara struggled, pushing the man away as she tried to turn to run.

“Nine.”

Another K-TAC soldier surged forward and grabbed her other shoulder, sending more pain through her.

“Eight.”

The K-TAC soldier pulled her back roughly.

“Seven.”

Klara tried to elbow him in the side, only for the other to come around and grab her arm.

“Six.”

A third K-TAC soldier approached, and grabbed her other arm.

“Five.”

The three soldiers marched to the open pod.

“Four.”

Klara tried her best to push herself from their grasps, but her shoulders screamed in pain.

“Three.”

The soldiers turned her around, and threw her into the pod.

“Two.”

As the pod closed over her, the cool air of the freezer washed the rest of the fight out of her.

“One.”

The pod closed, as the faintest and distant sounds of explosions rocked through the facility. Klara felt the cool air creep over her, and she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Soon, her vision went dark.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tala heard and felt the explosions as they rocked the entire facility. Her eyes widened as she turned back. “What the fuck is happening?” she demanded as she tried to push past her own escort.

The K-TAC soldiers remained quiet, as they snapped the restraints back on Tala. They grabbed her forcefully and marched her into a large room. A K-HAND unit in a coat looked at her.

“Welcome, Miss Valdez. You have been recognized as a Speciality. Do not worry. This will not hurt, unless you make it hurt.”

Tala’s eyes widened, a syringe found itself in her neck. Her vision went dark, as explosions rocked the facility.

Chapter Text

Though history is ever happening, we never consider that which is happening or will happen as history. So focused in the events of the past, many will never look to the future ahead of them, considering what will happen and what has happened as separate. 

But it is never past history that which dooms man. It is our failure to learn and let those ahead of us know that their lives, their futures will also be history. Sure the bombs had dropped, and we see that as our history as humans having been destroyed by our own folly, but our past is not our full story. So long as the heart of humanity beats, our history marches forward, ever strong. So long as stories of our forefathers told either from a book or around a fire, history, and therefore, man, endures.

Do not let the follies of our forefathers ever have you fall to despair, brothers. They may have doomed themselves, but so long as their stories and our stories endure for centuries to come, then we are never truly gone. We are the last of humanity, and it is our job to ensure that from this day, and on till our world is no longer Hell, that our stories and those whose stories are yet to be engraved in the bedrock of this world. So we may never forget.

-Elder Ibrahim Steele, Brotherhood of Steel Separatists Branch S-001, transcribed from his last sermon.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course he never knew a shred of his past. For 200 years, he had roamed, his mind fracturing and forcing itself back together, only for it to tear open once more. In the hellscape that was the world, Omen’s mind continued to shatter so long as he was forced to walk it. Hoping, praying that one day he could escape it, and finally, finally feel what it was like to be free. 

The ruins of some laboratory were the only lead he had to who he could’ve possibly been so long ago. A scientist maybe? Was he someone important in his past life? He could make out flashes of what he thought could be a life he once led, but every time he chased those faint images of memories, his thoughts would fizzle out and he’d be forced to sit and remember where he was. Every flash of a man with dark hair with his back turned to Omen was met with flashes of blue and white as his mind split with pain, bringing the specter to his knees.

He had long since forgotten what day it was. All he could recall is witnessing 199 winters, and about to witness his 200th. He’s surely witness more before that, but he couldn’t even recall a day that felt… like his. 

A shadow. A Ghoul that had forgotten everything that made him… well… him. He had tried several names, hoping and praying that one felt like his. Some mystic feeling in his gut that would tell him which name he resonated with. He tried Dimitri, and it never quite felt right on his tongue. He tried Fred, but no passing wastelander would take him seriously. He tried John, but he never felt any part of him spark in recognition from that name. He tried Marcus, but his body felt dull with every time it was spoken to him. He tried Yohan, and he couldn’t help but feel empty when it was called.

He had tried any and every name he had seen as he wandered the wastes of… wherever it was he found himself in. He had just about given up trying to find a name when he finally passed through a small settlement, some 75 years ago. Whispers of a ghost that wandered the wastelands, taking those who passed it’s way through the canyons and the fissures that surrounded the lands. He recognized his own handiwork, even spoken through the voices of those who only knew of the legend.

They had called him a ‘beacon of hope’. An omen of safety.

An omen.

Omen.

He liked it. Finally, a name that he felt deep in his bones. Maybe it wasn’t the

most conventional, but in the wastelands, conventional was a commodity that many didn’t care to achieve. Omen had dedicated his wasteland life to helping those who passed through his territories, helping them as best he could. It was a mostly thankless job. Most of those who left the comfort of their camps or settlements were members of the Brotherhood or they were Raiders, meaning he was either at risk of being searched for parts, or at risk of being held at gunpoint for his valuables. Not that he had either.

It was a thankless job, but Omen never needed thanks. He was content enough being the guide through the wastes that they had deemed him. It wasn’t until this latest group of Raiders had passed through his wastes, that the sudden restlessness of nearly 150 years of this came and hit him all at once. 

The encounter was entirely formulaic at this point. The Raiders would try and pass through his canyon, only to lose some men to the crumbling rocks. Then Omen would appear, and slowly guide the Raiders through the safer zones, all the while, they would demand he hand over whatever he had.

However, halfway through the journey, the latest cargo these Raiders had began to… bark? Omen glanced at the crate they carried. It was one of those standard metal boxes with the weird blocky K on it that he had seen scattered around the lab he had woken up in, but inside came a yelp. Omen heard those yelps from hurt mongrels in the past, but this seemed less vicious than those.

“Whatchu looking at, scratch face? Never seen a barking box before?” the head Raider said, his gravelly voice grating on Omen’s ears.

“Never seen Raiders go out of their way to transport Mongrels is all,” Omen said, turning away from the man and keeping his stride.

“Ain’t a mongrel. We ain’t stupid, scratch face. It’s some mutt we picked up from some place out west. Emergency food,” the raider shrugged, smacking the crate to shut the animal inside up.

“Refrain from calling me ‘scratch face’. And if I were you, I would let the animal out. Loud noises can attract creatures to our location, which will be bad for all of us,” Omen warned.

“Ain’t doing it, scratch face. This thing will probably throw itself off the cliff the first chance it gets,” the raider scoffed.

While Omen had seen what he looked like now, he could still feel every emotion that crossed his face. And he felt a scowl cross his face.

“I would strongly recommend letting it out,” Omen grit out.

“Ain’t fucking happening, scratchy. Our emergency food is staying in the crate until we need to eat,” the raider said callously.

Omen scowled as he continued to walk, the sound of faint whimpering from the crate causing him to tighten his fist. They continued, until the animal began to bark furiously once again, the sound echoing across the wasteland valley.

The raider slammed his fist against the crate once again, shouting for the animal to shut up. Omen turned around to demand that the raider shut his mouth when the sound of growling caught his attention. Omen slowly back around, and took notice of the giant yao guai slowly turning the corner.

The moment the ursine’s eyes fell on Omen, it beared its teeth and charged. It lunged for Omen, and as it’s jaws snapped shut around… nothing. Omen reappeared ten feet away, wisps of shadow still floating off him as he glared at the raiders and the yao guai. The raiders all stared at the yao guai, slowly backing away.

“Get back!” Omen yelled, shadows beginning to coalesce in his hands. He threw the shadow ball at the ground in front of the yao guai, and as it hit the ground, a ball of shadowed smoke erupted from the impact center. As the smoke formed, Omen disappeared once again, reforming behind the raiders, next to the crate.

“We need to go now, while it’s distracted,” he said, snapping the lock on the crate off, and ripped the top off. Inside sat a dog, that Omen recognized as a breed called a German Shepard. He had read about dog breeds in a book back at the laboratory he had found. One he still carried around. He leaned in and picked up the scared pup.

“Hands off the mutt, scratch face!” the raider leader shouted as he ran over to Omen.

Omen felt his patience snap. “I’ve been trying my hardest to be civil. No more,” he said, gathering the dog in his arms, before he and the dog disappeared into shadowed smoke. “I look forward to watching you run.”

As he vanished, the smoke cloud the yao guai was stuck in dissipated, and the raiders heard the sound of the ursine creature growl. In a split second, the bear lunged forward, and tore into the raiders, ripping limbs and chunks of flesh from their bodies with a vicious glee. The sounds of their yells of pain echoed through the canyon, and as Omen reformed across the canyon, he could hear the screams die out and the sounds of roars from more yao guai converging on the new feast.

Omen glanced down at the pup in his arms, fully expecting it to bite at him or growl, only to see the dog burying it’s head in the crook of his arm. His face softened as he slowly reached to pet the dog’s head. It buried it’s snout further into his arm, and so he recoiled his hand. Might take some time, but maybe the dog will warm up to him.

That thought stopped Omen in his tracks. Would he really want to take the dog in? He didn’t have a whole lot of food, he never really needed any anymore, and it wasn’t like food was an easy to come by commodity around here. He grimaced, and looked out beyond the valleys of his little stretch of wasteland he had inhabited for 200 years. The sun had been starting to set at this point, painting the land in a glow of pink and yellow, and he felt something twist in his gut. Maybe if he couldn’t care for the dog, he could at least find a place for it to live comfortably without the risk of becoming dog meat.

Huh. Dogmeat.

Omen adjusted the dog in his arms. “How’s Dogmeat sound?” he asked, only slightly joking. The dog looked up at him from it’s crook, tilting it’s head. Wasn’t exactly a no, but not exactly a yes either. “Dogmeat it is. Until we find you a better home.”

Omen had completely forgotten to take into account just what it would be like to leave his little stretch of wasteland for the first time. He hadn’t really walked further than three miles from his canyon trails since he had taken up residence there, so when he hit the edge of his known territory, he almost turned back. It was only Dogmeat bumping his calf with her snout that pushed him to take a step beyond his home, and journey further.

The walk had been taking an abnormally long time, and while Omen himself didn’t require food or water, he knew that Dogmeat wasn’t like him. It seemed the dog wasn’t unfamiliar with drinking what little water that Omen found at travel outposts that seemed long since abandoned. So whenever he found even the hollowed shell of a ruin, Omen did his best to find something for Dogmeat. A can of survival water here, a package of Cram there, anything to help Dogmeat eat.

They had walked for at least three days before another outpost seemed to appear on the horizon, though Omen had to question at first if it was his mind making stuff up. It was nighttime, and for all he knew, this could very well just be his head seeing things that weren’t there.

Huh. His mind. It appeared in his journey to find a home for Dogmeat, he had almost forgotten. His head hadn’t hurt since he had Dogmeat. He didn’t feel that pain he felt when chasing ghosts of memories. He didn’t feel like every part of his mind wanted to rip itself open. For once in his long life, Omen had felt… free . He couldn’t help the relieved laugh that scratched out of his dry throat, and while a part of him felt bad that Dogmeat had flinched away with it, every single bit of his body thrummed in shock. His mind was clear, his head didn’t hurt!

Suddenly, Omen had a flash of a memory. The same dark haired man that he had kept seeing. He chased, hoping with his new clarity he could finally, finally get some answers, but the moment the memory fizzled into a sharper focus, a searing pain brought the phantom to his knees. “Fuck!” he exclaimed, hitting the dirt with his fist.

He felt a dry nose brush his hand, and looked over at Dogmeat. She had come to see if he was okay. He glanced over and Dogmeat licked his cheek. It was strange. Every time he had seen his reflection, the only thing reflected back at him was a shadowed visage with three blue, vertical scratches across his face. He had almost begun to think he just didn’t have a face under it all, if it wasn’t for Dogmeat’s tongue clearly meeting a solid surface along the side of his face.

He reached a hand up, and brushed it on the dog’s head and behind her ear. His book had said that one couldn’t ever feel sad when petting a dog, and he chased that feeling of happiness as though lured by a siren. Dogmeat panted, leaning into the pets, and Omen smiled. Seemed his book was right.

“I was going to ask if you were okay, but it seems your companion has that covered,” a voice behind Omen said. Omen shot up, and allowed his shadows to gather in his hand, turning to face the source of the voice.

The figure was a man, donned in a long white coat. His face was covered in a navy mask with electric blue lenses over the eyes and the collar of his coat. He wore a large, wide-brimmed white hat, and he held a gun with a silenced barrel to Omen. “Careful, friend. I don’t want trouble,” he said calmly, a lilting laugh to his voice.

Omen glanced at the man. “Who are you?” he asked, never dropping the shadows in his hand.

“Put your little trick there away first. I’ll even put my weapon down,” the man said, pulling the silencer off his gun and putting it in the holster on his side.

Omen slowly let the shadows in his hand dissipate, as he calmed himself. He held up his hands, showing he had no weapons on him.

“No guns, hmm? Surprising. How did you make it this far from civilization without any protection?” the man asked, cocking his head at Omen.

“Didn’t need one,” Omen said simply.

The man laughed. “You are either very lost, or very brave. And I have to say, I do not seem to recognize you,” he said, glancing Omen up and down.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Omen said, skeptically.

“True statement,” the man mused, before he held out a hand to Omen, “you may call me Cypher.”

Omen glanced at the man’s hand suspiciously before gently taking it and shaking it. “Omen,” he said cautiously.

“Well, that’s certainly the interesting name. I’d expect nothing less of an intriguing individual,” Cypher said, shaking Omen’s hand, “now, where are you heading, friend?”

Omen gestured down to Dogmeat. “I can’t care for Dogmeat in my valley. I was hoping to find a place for her,” he said.

Cypher seemed to hold a laugh in. “I’m sorry, Dogmeat?” he asked, an amused tone to his voice.

Omen’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah. Dogmeat. Got a problem with it?” he asked, his tone taking on a hint of aggression.

Cypher waved a hand. “No no, not at all. It just seems… it seems like quite the name for a pet,” he said. “Regardless, if you’re looking for a place for her to live, I may have the perfect place for her.”

Omen perked up. “Tell me,” he said.

Cypher laughed shortly. “There is a settlement a week or so south. Travellers call it “El Santuario”. Supposedly, they’ll take in Ghouls, Radiants, and other lost souls. On account that they don’t bring any Raiders to their doors, that is. I think a dog might be a good addition for some of the… younger members of the community,” he said, pulling out a hand drawn map.

As Omen observed the map, he looked up at Cypher. “Where are we right now?” he asked.

Cypher pointed to a region in the middle of the landmass. “Well, when I knew it, it was called Arizona. Nowadays, I don’t believe it holds a name,” he said.

Omen glanced at the map, and traced his own finger west of the marker Cypher pointed at, before coming to an abrupt stop in what was still what Cypher had called ‘Arizona’. “That’s where I came from,” he said, pointing at the large canyon valley.

“Ah, so you come from the Grand Canyon, hmm?” Cypher asked, musingly.

“I woke up there,” Omen said, “and I never really left.”

“Until now?” Cypher asked.

“Until now,” Omen confirmed, glancing down at Dogmeat.

Cypher folded up his map. “Well, I can accompany you to El Santuario, to drop off your little pet,” he offered, “that is if you’ll accept my company. I am heading that way after all, and I do believe six eyes are better than two, or perhaps seven eyes?”

Omen looked at Cypher. “Was that supposed to be your way of asking if the lines on my face are eyes?” he asked.

Cypher shrugged. “You can interpret it that way if you wish,” he said.

Omen sighed, before he reached down to drag a hand through Dogmeat’s fur. “I’ll travel with you,” he said after a beat of silence.

Cypher patted his shoulder. “Ah good choice,” he said.

When Omen, Dogmeat, and Cypher had set out the next morning, Omen was expecting it to be a long slog as it was just to reach where he had met Cypher. Little did he expect his new companion to actually be quite a conversationalist, even despite Omen’s more reserved answers. He told of stories he had gathered from his time as a traveler himself. Stories of mercenaries he had helped, people he had personally dealt with, and even stories of people he hadn’t ever met, but had rather learned about through… well he called it ‘observation’ but Omen could only think of the term ‘stalking’.

The trio had walked quite the ways, very quickly. It seemed Cypher was quite familiar with the environment, being able to tell where the group was no matter the time of day, or the lack of notable landmarks. It also helped that Omen had learned he and his new companion were very similar. It appeared Cypher also did not need to eat and drink like the normal humans Omen had met, which significantly helped cut their travel time. Of course, Omen still passed his own rations to Dogmeat to keep her energy up for the long journey though.

Eventually though, Omen knew they would eventually hit something that would stall their good progress. And it hit four and a half days into their southward journey. They had just gotten to what Cypher referred to as the ‘former border of Arizona and Mexico’, when the wind had picked up. Dogmeat had started whining when it did, which led to Omen fussing over her for a moment, worried she had hurt herself.

“Oh, do not worry friend. She isn’t in pain, she’s trying to warn us that storm is brewing up,” Cypher reassured.

Omen cocked his head. “How would she know that a storm is coming? Unless…” he pulled out the book on dogs he carried, and flipped through the pages until he landed on one. “Oh, right. Dogs, and most animals, have this uncanny ability to tell when the weather is about to get bad.”

Cypher nodded. “Indeed. Dogmeat appears to be warning us that a storm is picking up. We should look into finding a shelter of some sort. An outpost or some ruins would probably be the best option,” he mused, pulling out his map.

As the trio kept walking, the wind began to pick up more and more. Sand began to blow around, cutting off Omen and Cypher’s fields of vision. It was getting so bad, Omen had scooped up Dogmeat into his arms to carry her so he didn’t lose her in the rapidly changing conditions. Cypher had to tuck his map away before he lost it in the wind. At some point, in order for them all to stay together, Cypher had reached out and held onto one of Omen’s arms with his hand as they fought through the winds.

It was daybreak when the trio had been nearly fully engulfed by the winds and the sand. Cypher’s hand held Omen’s arm in a death grip as Omen clutched onto Dogmeat. Through the storm they kept fighting until a shape began to emerge from the clouds. At first, it just appeared to be a large hill or mound, but as the trio got closer, they noticed that on one of the sides of the hill, there was a large, metal wall. As they got closer, just over the sound of wind, Omen could here Cypher’s groan of annoyment.

“Ugh. One of Kingdom’s little strongholds. This should work, but we’ll have to force our way in,” he muttered, slowly letting go of Omen’s arm to walk up to the large metal door. He pressed a panel in the wall, and Omen watched as a small keyboard had popped out, followed by a boxy monitor.

As the wind screamed around the group, and Omen clutched Dogmeat to his chest, he watched Cypher’s hands pass along the keyboard with precise speed and intent, though it seemed with every second they had been still standing there agitated him more.

“بحق الجحيم” Cypher cursed, “open up!”

The screen beeped and turned green, as the sound of sirens blared above the howling winds. Omen watched as the door started to lay down, almost akin to a drawbridge, the moment it clanked against the floor, Cypher ushered him and Dogmeat inside. As the trio took cover, Omen’s eyes just barely caught on the large red 124 on the front of the door as Cypher pressed another button to shut the door. It sealed with a hiss, as the three of them sat on a large steel platform.

Cypher glanced down, and took notice of the long way down. “I suppose if the welcoming committee is coming, we better have a story,” he muttered, standing up to brush off his coat and hold a hand to Omen. Omen set Dogmeat down, and took Cypher’s hand.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Li Zhao Yu, or Iso, as many people knew him, was a man of many talents, however his primary talent had been as a hitman. Of course, when he was still around the ruins of his home country, he made good use of those talents, but he’ll admit, he hadn’t had the amount of work he had during his time with The Sanctuary.

He slowly approached the building under cover of the night, his hand resting on the holster on his thigh where his gun was. Inside, a series of voices spoke in hushed, yet gravelly tones. He peaked inside the building through the dirt stained glass, and scanned around until his eyes narrowed on his targets.

Ten figures, all decked in various raider outfits, sat around a lantern as they ate the rations they had stolen. Iso slowly ducked down, and crept underneath the window sill, rotating to a better vantage point. As he moved, he kept his open ear out as he listened to the conversation between them.

“Man, can’t believe we managed to snag these!” one of the raiders said, mouth full of fruit.

“The caravan barely had any security! You’d think a place with such an infamous reputation would have better staffed protection,” one of the other raiders said. The group laughed, and gone was another set of rations.

Iso crept around the building to the back door, and took a look. The rust on the hinges would probably cause it to squeak if he opened it, meaning he’d give away his position. He had to find a different way in. His gaze drifted around the ruined buildings around the town, and his eyes narrowed on a very rusted fire escape two buildings down. Bingo.

Iso kept his footsteps light as he snuck away from the building housing his targets, and slowly slunk to the fire escape. As gently as he could, he slowly pulled himself up and onto the crumbling roof, before he softly made his way across the rooftops in between this building and the one his targets were using. He made it to the roof of the target building, and carefully and quietly made his way down the parts where the building had collapsed in. Soon, he found himself on the same floor, looking at his targets from behind a wall.

“Think we can hit ‘em again before sunrise? Probably get another week’s worth of food from ‘em,” one of the raiders asked, stretching his back.

The leader finally spoke up. “No. That’s a bad fuckin’ idea. No doubt, someone from that fucking colony is already looking for us. We just need to get what we have back to the rest of the gang, and get the fuck out of here,” they grumbled, cracking open a can of food.

The smallest of the group finally piped up. “Do you think they’d send the Dead Lilac?” she asked, holding onto her own uneaten rations.

The others in the group howled in laughter. “Kid, the Dead Lilac is a fuckin’ myth. Ain’t no way they sending some boogyman to kill us,” one of the raiders said.

The girl shook her head. “It’s not a myth! The Dead Lilac is real! McGuinness said-”

“Kid, McGuinness is the biggest fuckin’ liar this side of New Vegas. He can claim all he wants that he’s met the Dead Lilac, but he’s just a fuckin’ snotty liar,” the raider said.

The girl just set her rations aside. “I’m gonna clear the perimeter again,” she muttered, walking away. Iso almost felt a shred of guilt for what he was about to do, but his boss had been clear: leave none alive.

As the girl disappeared, Iso slunk out of the shadows and leaned against the doorframe. He stood there, waiting, until one of the raiders finally looked up and noticed him.

“Shit! Oi, mates, we got a fuckin’ stray!” the raider said, standing up and putting his rations down. The other raiders followed suit, standing and pulling their guns on Iso.

“Who the fuck is youse?” one of the raiders asked, cocking back her gun.

Iso sighed. “That food isn’t yours. It belongs to the Sanctuary,” he said, gesturing to the ration crates. “Give it back. Now.”

The raiders began laughing in Iso’s face, some of them having the nerve to throw the rations in their hands to the dirty floor. “Oh yeah? And whatchu gonna do about it, bitch boy?” one of the raiders asked in a mocking tone.

Iso sighed, pulled out his walkman, and pressed play. His music played in his ear as he looked up at the people in front of him. “Unfortunately for you, I’m gonna kill you for it,” he said, pulling his gun from it’s holster.

As the raider’s faces twisted in rage at his audacity, Iso pulled his other hand from his pocket, and let the energy in the air single into his hand. Hexagonal energy formed in his hand, a pale purple color, which he threw towards the raiders. It passed over all of them, and they began shooting.

Iso ducked behind the wall he had hid behind earlier and crouched. Making quick peaks around the wall, he shot down two raiders with scary accuracy and only two bullets. In his hand, he coalesced more of that purple energy, and sent it forward. A bullet shield that let him reposition, and in the process shoot down three more raiders. Five down, five to go. As his shield wall dissipated, he ducked behind a turned over table, and aimed around the edge, taking two shots at one of the raiders. Unfortunately, his current angle wasn’t great, meaning he whiffed his shots, and caught the attention of the still alive raiders. As they turned to him, he heard the sound of automatics going into gear, and braced himself. The sound of automatic gunfire rang out as the table he sat behind was riddled with bullet holes.

Iso checked his gun’s magazine. He had only six bullets left. That was fine. He only needed five after all. He reached out to the energy around him, and pulled it towards his body, forming a thin armor-like layer around his body. He couldn’t spare the extra bullets, so it meant he just had to kill them all fast. He rushed from behind his cover, low to the ground, and fired two shots. Those shots connected, punching through the chests of two raiders. Seven down, three left, and four bullets remaining. He slid between the leader and the last raider in the building, and got behind them. He turned his gun on the last regular raider, and fired a shot. It connected to his chest, killing the raider. Eight down, and three bullets. The leader swung around on Iso, and he heard the sound of a pin being pulled. Iso’s eyes widened as he jumped behind a wall as the leader threw a frag grenade.

The grenade hit the ground, and exploded, throwing shrapnel everywhere. A few pieces shot out and sliced Iso’s arms as he landed hard on his side. He scrambled up, and right as the raider leader turned the corner, Iso shot him in the chest. The bullet connected, and the leader stumbled back, but he didn’t die. He stood back up, and cocked his gun in Iso’s direction again. Iso bit his cheek as he quickly checked his bullet count. Two bullets. Fine. Just one more.

As the leader pulled the trigger and bullets flew, Iso gathered the latent energy around him, and slammed it down, pulling himself and the leader into his arena. As the covers fell, Iso sprinted to the side, and lowered his gun at the leader’s head. “晚安,” he bid, before pulling the trigger. The bullet connected to the leader’s forehead, and shot through his head.

As the arena fell, Iso stood amongst the chaos of bodies, blood, and bullet cases. He heard a squeak, and whipped around, leveling his gun at the head of the girl who had left earlier. She stared at him, terror gripping her eyes. “Please,” she pleaded, “I don’t want to die.”

Iso felt his heart twist. “I’m sorry. But I can’t risk anything,” he said sadly. The girl started backing away, her hands up.

“I can be a prisoner! I’ll serve the time for stealing! Please! I don’t wanna die!” she pleaded.

Iso sighed, and lowered his gun slightly. That was all the girl needed before she whipped out her own pistol and fired at Iso, the bullet grazed his cheek. Iso swung the pistol back up, and fired, ending the girl’s life. Her body slumped to the ground, as Iso looked at the boxes of food. Bullet holes riddled the boxes, and at some point, the alcohol the raiders carried had spilled all over everything. Damn.

Iso glanced at the bodies, before walking to the leader and cutting his tongue out. His boss would want proof that Iso had dealt with the raiders. With his job complete, he turned and left the building, stepping over the body of the girl he killed.

When Iso approached the sprawling hacienda gates, he felt his bones grow heavy. The gates of The Sanctuary loomed, with the crest of its founder set front and center. When the bombs dropped all those years ago, they targeted all the cities and major population centers, and this ancestral estate of The Empress had been one of the few things that had remained mostly untouched due to it’s distance from major cities. For two centuries, the Mondragón family had harbored those who survived the bombs who didn’t have the luxury of being… exactly human. Radiants, as these people who had been given these immense abilities from the Radianite bombs and reactors that melted down and failed in the years since the bombs. People born near areas where these large scale meltdowns happened, or who consumed things that were practically infected with Radianite, or even when those who somehow still remained dropped more Radianite bombs, more and more Radiants were created. Ghouls who had been permanently changed by the Synthetic Radianite Bombs that primarily fell on the world were welcomed. And even those who simply had no where left to turn and had nothing to return to were welcomed with open arms. The Mondragón family took them in, and created this place. 

Iso was thankful for it. It gave him a home here, one that kept him safe and fed when the outside wastelands were notorious for being the complete opposite. It gave him a sense of community he was missing back home amongst the scattered pockets of remaining people in China. It helped that he had actually managed to make some semblance friends here. Which helped, as he approached the gate and could shed ‘Iso’ and just be Li Zhao Yu.

Speaking of which, as he got to the hacienda gates, there was Kirra waiting, her little creature curled at her feet. She looked up, and waved at Li. “Oi! There ya are! The others were getting worried that ya died,” she said casually.

Li laughed a bit. “I almost did. Numerous times,” he said, showing the wounds across his body. 

Kirra rolled her eyes and brought out her healing trinket. “Sage would heal ya herself, if it wasn’t for… well, let’s just say she got held up by The Empress again. So, guess ya have to deal with my healing,” she said, activating it. Li felt the calming waves of energy that Kirra’s Radiant abilities produced, as his wounds stitched themselves back up.

“感谢,” Li bid, rolling his shoulders.

“No problem. So, I’m guessing by the lack of food crates with you, you couldn’t get them back?” Kirra asked, glancing behind Li as she walked to the keypad that opened the hacienda gates and typed in the entrance code.

Li sighed. “No unfortunately. The boxes were riddled with bullets and covered in alcohol by the time I finished up with the raiders,” he said as the gates opened. The duo walked through, and the gates automatically shut behind them.

“Shit. Did ya at the very least bring something back to prove that you, ya know, took care of them?” Kirra asked.

Li pulled out the tongue he took from the leader. “Yep,” he said casually.

“Fuck, that’s sick. I like it,” Kirra laughed.

As Li and Kirra entered the main building, they found the elevator platform that led to the lower levels of The Sanctuary, and stepped on it. Li pressed the button on the panel to start the descent.

“So, is everyone else back yet?” Li asked as the platform lowered slowly.

“Han and Jamie are back, though I think Jamie’s currently in the Medical Ward. Efia has been back for a while, so she’s just going around helping out with general chores. Tejo’s newbie is still out, probably will be for a while. Last I heard she was chasing a distress beacon in Senegal, but that’s about it,” Kirra said, sitting down on the platform, “and I think Mateo just got back about thirty minutes ago.”

Li hummed. “So I’m the last one back today then?” he asked.

“Yep. Well, technically you’re the first one back today. It’s past midnight,” Kirra pointed out casually.

Li inhaled sharply. “Do you think I’ll get in trouble for late check in?” he asked.

Kirra laughed. “Eh, if all is going well with The Empress’s project that she needed Sage for, then you should be okay,” she reassured.

“And if not?”

“Then sorry mate, you’re fucked.”

Li sighed and sat down next to his friend. Kirra’s little Tasmanian Tiger padded over and laid it’s head in Li’s lap. Li brushed his hand over it’s wooden head as they listened to the rumbled of the platform’s decent. They passed by numerous windows that showed off different levels in the Sanctuary underground.

“So, how did Kiritani take the news?” Li asked, casually.

Kirra’s face hardened for a moment. “As amicably as one can,” she said flatly. “I told him flat out that I wasn’t interested in the relationship anymore, and he just kind of stared at me for a bit before he just said ‘okay’ and walked away.”

Li let out a breath. “Yikes. Doesn’t sound too good, but also maybe not that bad?” he said, hopeful.

Kirra laughed. “God, I hope so. I still gotta work with the bugger, and if both of us are just kind of tiptoeing ‘round each other all the fucking time cause of this, well, it’ll make things a lot harder for everyone,” she said.

Suddenly, Kirra’s radio on her belt crackled. “Skye? Come in, Skye?” Sage’s voice crackled through.

Kirra grabbed the radio and hit the talk button. “This is Skye, you are go for message,” she said into the radio.

“Is Iso with you? Over.”

“Yeah, Iso’s with me. What’s up? Over.”

“Have him come to the Medical Ward for his check in. Reyna’s down here and can’t make it to her office. Over,” Sage said.

“Understood. Over,” Kirra said, as the radio crackled to silence. “Welp, you heard her. And she said ‘Reyna’ and not ‘The Empress’, meaning that today must’ve went well,” she said, nudging Li’s side.

The platform finally came to stop, and Kirra hopped up, pulling Li up by his hood. “Alrighty, you head on off now. Time for me to get some sleep. Catcha later, Li!” she said, walking to the dorms.

As Li headed the other way, his trip took him past the heart of The Sanctuary’s diverse cast of survivors and family: the last working teleportal in North America.

When Reyna took over as the Mondragón family head, she had approached the responsibility with much more ambition than her predecessors. Instead of keeping to their gates and their complex, Reyna wanted more. And she got more, starting with the symbol of everything bad in the world: Kingdom Corporation. Specifically she managed to steal one of their laboratories that was near the hacienda, and subsume it into the Sanctuary. It meant having steady access to a lab for the agents here, more space for people, and it meant sticking it to Kingdom by taking their stuff. Among the things taken in this lab however, was a mostly finished teleportal. It was never fully completed before the bombs dropped, so it sat in a state of disrepair for 188 years in a sterile environment. When Reyna got her hands on it, it wasn’t long till some Pre-War Ghoul calling himself Tejo rocked up to her gates offering to help her fix and operate it. And using that, is how Li had found himself here in North America. Reyna had crossed through, and invited him to The Sanctuary, and he took it.

The teleportal was inactive for the moment. As Li recalled Kirra’s words that only one Sanctuary Agent was out right now, that being Tejo’s own right hand, a woman calling herself Waylay, who was responsible for long term rescue, recover, and recruit missions. Li looked away from the teleportal before he shook his head and kept walking.

He stopped in front of the Medical Ward, the metal doors looming over him as he quickly knocked. A beat passed, then the door opened, revealing a tired looking Sage.

“Ah, Iso. You’re just in time, Reyna hasn’t left yet,” she said, her tone betraying her exhaustion.

Li, rather Iso as it seemed he must play, entered. In the far back, sequestered away in the emergency section, Iso could just see the top of Reyna’s head. Iso turned to Sage. “Should I be expecting to be in trouble?” he asked.

Sage shook her head. “No. Today’s round of testing went… fine. Maybe some annoyance at your late check in, but that should be about it,” she said, turning and walking out of the medical ward doors herself.

Iso carefully entered the room, and approached the sequestered ward. He pushed back the current, and there she stood. Zyanya Mondragón, or Reyna as she had chosen in professional capacities. The Empress of the Sanctuary, and essentially the leader of the Scavenger Squads.

Iso cleared his throat. “Reyna? I apologize for the late check in, I promise I did intend to come back sooner,” he said.

Reyna turned around to face him. “Don’t worry about it, Iso. Did you at least retrieve las provisiones?” she asked.

Iso inhaled sharply. “No, unfortunately. By the time the fire fight with the raiders had ended, the supplies were shot and soaked in alcohol,” he reported.

Reyna clicked her tongue. “Shame. Seems I’ll have send the scavengers out for more. And I will go with,” she said.

Iso nodded. “Should I prepare for it as well?” he asked.

Reyna shook her head. “No. No need. You can stay here for today, since you reported in late. Do not expect it to happen again,” she warned.

Iso nodded. “Is that all, ma’am?” he asked.

Reyna waved him off. “Sí. You can go,” she said.

Iso turned and left, walking out of the medical ward and out into the hallway. He started off towards the dorms, making sure to keep his footsteps quite as he walked through the halls. As he finally got to the Scavenger Squad rooms, he could hear the faint sounds of snores from some of the rooms, and the faint sounds of arcade machines from others. He kept walking until he stopped in front of his dorm.

Li opened his door, and walked inside, throwing his hoodie to the side as he crawled into his bed, the exhaustion in his bones finally catching up with his body.

The morning came quickly, with Li being woken up by Wei to at least get breakfast before it completely ran out. As Li changed into fresher clothes, he followed Wei to the cafeteria, where he saw Mateo and surprisingly Hazal sitting at a table. Li grabbed his food and slid into the seat next to Mateo, checking for one of the man’s little buddies before he sat down.

“Heya Sage! Heya Li!” Mateo greeted the pair with a wave, “Heard you got back late.” 

Li nodded. “Good morning, Mateo. Yeah, my job went a little longer than I had hoped,” he said, starting to pick at his food as he quickly waved at Hazal. She just simply waved back and turned to her own breakfast.

“So, I’m guessing that your late check in last night is the reason you’re here and not out with Reyna?” Mateo asked casually.

Li nodded. “Yeah. She gave me today off. I’m still supposed to help around the Sanctuary though,” he said.

A warbling sound made Li turn his head. He came face-to-face with one of Mateo’s little guys, simply staring at him almost expectantly.

“Chale, Wingman! You’re not getting anymore!” Mateo scolded the Radivore, before ushering him over. “Sorry, I think I’ve spoiled him on real people food.”

Li shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, really,” he said reassuringly. “If Wingman wants some, he can have some.”

Mateo laughed. “Don’t get him started, otherwise he’ll eat everything on your plate,” he said. Wingman warbled annoyed, before crossing his arms.

Li turned in Hazal’s direction. “Good morning, Hazal. It’s strange seeing you in the cafeteria this late,” he noted.

The woman in question glanced up at Li and grimaced. “I was almost late to breakfast today,” she said simply.

Li nodded. “What are your duties for today?” he asked.

“Guard duty until noon. Then it’s probably off to check on some of those in the insomnia ward,” Hazal said.

Mateo leaned back. “Oh, no way! I got guard duty too! You stationed at the South Gate or the North?” he asked.

“North,” Hazal said.

Mateo groaned. “Aw man! I got South. Ugh, I was hoping for a familiar face,” he said.

Li looked over at him. “Are all of the others not here?” he asked.

Mateo sighed. “Nah, Reyna took most of ‘em with her today. I think it’s just you, me, Hazal, Sage, and Tejo left here,” he said.

Li nodded to Mateo’s words. “I think my guard duty is tonight, so I’ll just be doing my odd jobs and chores for the day,” he mused.

Wei finally spoke up. “I might need some help in the medical ward if you’re willing, Li,” she offered. 

Li hummed. “I think I’ll take you up on that,” he said.

As Li was finishing up his work, he heard a hiss from over where Hazal was sitting and glanced up. Her little Nightmare seemed to have it’s hackles raised, in a state of alarm, which even seemed to confuse it’s owner.

“Are you okay?” she asked it, petting it’s back slightly. The Prowler hisses again, and looked up to the ceiling.

That’s when Li felt it. A series of rumbles shook the Sanctuary walls, as the alarms throughout the place suddenly blared. Possible NRB attack? More Raiders? What was going on?

Hazal stood from her seat, and turned to Mateo. “Gekko, let’s go. They’ll need us up top,” she said simply, walking out of the cafeteria.

Mateo jumped up, grabbed Wingman, and ran after the woman. 

Li looked at Wei with a concerned look. “They might need our help too. Keep everyone up and ready to fight,” he said.

Wei nodded, and the pair stood from the table and rushed to the outer grounds themselves.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His programming demanded obedience to those who bought his model. His programming demanded orderliness and clean work. Everything he was built for demanded him be a helper, and yet, here he found himself, on the back of some beat up Scrapper Car that the Valors just stole from a raider camp, with Tayane just shooting rockets off the back end.

“KAY/O! Another missile!” Tayane yelled at him, setting down her rocket launcher. He quickly handed over another rocket for the woman’s launcher, and watched as she pulled it back up and fired another missile, striking a section of the raider camp, and collapsing the wall around it. “Mano, step on it!”

Erik slammed on the gas, and the Scrapper lurched forward with a screech, shooting their little crew forwards. The additional boost from Tayane’s rocket definitely helped, as the car was suddenly speeding across the dunes. KAY/O felt a wrap of nanowire secure him to one of the bars of the vehicle, as he turned to Iselin who had secured everyone in with her net grenade. Her newly acquired prosthetic lay limped at her side, as KAY/O realized they had forgotten to grab her a power source for it.

KAY/O glanced up at the roof of the Scrapper cage at Sasha, who had an arrow nocked in his bow. “Raze! Fire at their extra vehicles!” Sasha yelled down at Tayane, letting his arrow fly towards a cluster of raiders.

Tayane gave him a thumbs up as she reloaded her launder and aimed at the row of vehicles. “Fire in the hole!” she yelled, the launcher kicking back as the missile screamed out of it and slammed into the other vehicles with a colorful explosion. The Scrapper lurched forward, and KAY/O could hear Erik curse in the driver’s seat. 

“Lillsyrran, for fucks sake, keep the backblast from throwing us off the road!” Erik yelled, his hands death gripping the wheel.

“Come on Breachy! You said you’ve driven before, pre-war!” Tayane laughed, loading another missile.

“It’s been 200 years since then!” Erik protested, yanking the wheel to the right as a large dune. The Scrapper squealed as it turned suddenly throwing the group around. KAY/O had never been more thankful for Iselin’s nanowires.

The Scrapper jumped as the maneuver sent it hurtling over the dune. Erik pulled the steering wheel back, as the Scrapper corrected. The sound of another arrow being let loose registered to KAY/O from the roof of the Scrapper, and he saw one of Sasha’s arrows lance through a raider’s neck, then char the man alive as it shocked him from the inside out.

Tayane leaned down, and checked her bag. She was now officially out of missiles. “Shit! Uh, guys? I’m out of firepower!” she yelled over the howling wind.

KAY/O finally felt his sensors recalibrate as he pulled out one of his own grenades and chucked it behind them. As Erik cleared another dune, the raider camp disappeared under the desert mound.

With the camp now officially in the rearview, Sasha had crawled down from the roof and settled into the caged off section of the Scrapper. “They can’t catch up to us now. Their cars are gone, and I took care of any horses or steeds they could’ve had. We’re in the clear,” Sasha reassured as he sat back.

Tayane laughed uproariously. “Aw man, I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a while!” she said throwing an arm around KAY/O.

Iselin looked slightly uncomfortable as she lifted her prosthetic. “Looks like it didn’t have a power source in it,” she muttered.

From the front seat, a snort followed by a quick yell. Seemed Varun had finally woken up from his tranq nap. “Where? What? Who?” he looked around at the Valors and breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness. I thought I got kidnapped,” he laughed. 

Sasha reached around and patted Varun’s arm. “No worries friend, you weren’t out for that long,” he reassured.

Tayane was looking at Iselin’s arm now, checking the section that should’ve held a Radianite power core, only to deflate upon noticing it was empty. “Damn, yeah, we didn’t grab a power source,” she said.

“And we are not turning back around. Not after that mess,” Erik said over his shoulder.

“Anyone know if there are any settlements nearby?” Varun asked, looking out at the expanse of desert.

Erik glanced at the black and green screened GPS. “Thank god these things still somehow work,” he muttered, looking at it. “Looks like we are just about four days from the Mexico/Arizona border. I think there is a settlement just below it.”

“Which settlement?” Sasha asked.

“Uh… El Santuario…” Erik said nervously.

Varun laughed. “You’re kidding right? You do realize that the scary lady there said that if we ever get near it again, she’d kill us herself!” he shouted incredulously. “We can’t possibly go there! Nuh uh, बिलकुल नहीं !”

Iselin nodded. “I agree. I’d rather like to avoid dying, thank you,” she said.

Tayane nodded. “So it’s decided then? We don’t go near that place,” she said. “But we do need to find a power source for Deadlock.”

Erik coughed. “There’s gotta be some Kingdom facilities near the border. We can always raid some of those. Bastards always have a surplus,” he said.

“No, the only facility up there was taken by El Santuario. Best chance we have is to come across a source by pure chance, or steal one from El Santuario,” KAY/O said. “Or, worst case scenario, you can take my power core.”

Iselin shook her head. “I’m not taking your power core, KAY/O. We’re gonna need you,” she said.

“Ay, she’s got a point, mano. We’re gonna need you around. No way you’re going down,” Tayane said, knocking her fist on KAY/O’s shoulder. The Valors looked up at the sky above them, the night sky slowly showing through as the sun set to the west.

Varun cleared his throat. “I mean, not to be rude to you, Lock, but we could always just, hold off on a power source for now. Wait until we cross into the North America territory, find another Kingdom facility to raid up there? Or, well we got the Scrapper now, so we could just turn back south and meet up with Raze’s family in Brazil,” he pitched. “We got options now.”

Iselin cleared her throat. “And really guys, I can live without an arm for a little bit longer,” she said.

Tayane shook her head. “Nuh uh, I need everyone in minha família to be in their best health, and that includes getting you a power core for that arm, Iselin,” she insisted.

“Do you know if there are any Castles nearby? Maybe we could break into one and steal a power core from it?” Iselin asked. “I’m sure me or Erik could break into a Castle easy enough.”

Erik inhaled sharply. “Even if there were any nearby, I’d rather not. Last Castle that Tatá and I tried to break into almost killed us with it’s security measures. Rather not repeat that incident again, frankly,” he said.

As silence descended upon the Valors, they all tried to let the quiet settle, only the sound of the Scrapper’s moving parts turning as it thundered across the desert dunes. KAY/O took notice of Tayane’s own restlessness before he made a noise to get everyone’s attention.

“Let’s get some rest. Tayane and I can take a watch while we stop just over near that hill,” he said, as Erik slowed the Scrapper.

“I agree. I can’t drive all night, and I think we’re far enough away from the raider camp to where they wouldn’t be able to reach us for a while,” Erik said, bringing the Scrapper to a stop.

Sasha nodded, before he reached into his own bag, and pulled out everyone’s sleeping blankets. “We can crash in here. Easy for us to get up and run if needed,” he said, passing them around. Everyone accepted theirs with a thanks to Sasha for carrying them, before slowly, one by one, the others fell asleep.

KAY/O and Tayane had perched on top of the Scrapper cage, back-to-back to keep an eye on the south and north. KAY/O could hear the faint sound of Tayane drumming her knuckles on the cage.

“What’s wrong?” KAY/O asked, lowering his voice.

“Just nervous is all,” Tayane said, simply.

“Tayane Alves does not get ‘nervous’. What’s wrong?” KAY/O asked again.

Tayane sighed. “I feel bad. I told Iselin I’d help her get an arm, but the moment we finally get one that’s able to keep up with our lifestyle, we forget a power source. And we have no clue how to find one!” she ranted. “And it’s my fault our only good option wouldn’t think of helping us in a million years.”

KAY/O laughed. “Okay, no, first of all, the reason we were banned from El Santuario was because of Varun and Erik, not you. Second of all, you did fulfill your promise to Iselin. You got her an arm back. Maybe it’s not exactly working, but you still got her an arm. So lay off yourself for a bit,” he said.

Tayane laughed shortly. “I guess. It’s just hard to not feel bad, since we were so close to cheering her up,” she said.

KAY/O glanced down into the cage at Iselin, who had curled in on her prosthetic, her back to everyone else. He chuckled a bit.

“She’ll get there eventually. It’ll just take some time, just like it took me time,” KAY/O reassured Tayane.

“Speaking of, KAY/O, do you even remember exactly what you were built for?” Tayane asked, putting a finger to her chin. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you, really.”

KAY/O glanced down at his hands. “I think when I was made, I was intended to be some sort of helper robot. Or maybe that’s just the remnants of my original programming. When the war kicked off, I was repurposed into an Anti-Yield Operative, and then well, somehow found myself drifting in that box you and Erik pulled me out of.”

“Do you have any memories from before the war?” Tayane asked. 

KAY/O looked down at the ground. “No. Whatever I had before hand, it’s just whatever I can gather from whatever remnants of my original programming are still in my code,” he said.

Tayane pat KAY/O on the back. “Are you happy with what you have right now?” she asked.

KAY/O looked up at the night sky, and for a moment he caught the streak of a falling star. “Yeah, I think I am.”

He felt pressure on his back, as he turned around he noticed that Tayane had fallen asleep. If KAY/O could smile, he would have. Erik had said that she tended to fall asleep if she got to talking about stuff. He crawled down the cage, and tucked the sleeping Tayane into the Scrapper.

“Good night, everyone,” he said, crawling back to the top of the cage. He laid his body down across the cage, and slowly powered down.

The rudest awakening ever. KAY/O was sure of it. He had come out of power down being dragged into the cage of the Scrapper by Sasha and Varun, as the vehicle screamed through the dunes. It was early in the morning, the sun hadn’t even risen fully, and he could hear the sound of bullets firing and the sound of Scrappers revving.

He jolted up and looked out of the cage. Sure enough, behind them, there was an entire squad of Scrappers chasing after them, raiders in the cages with guns firing.

“How the fuck did they get more so fast?” Varun yelled, cocking his rifle and hanging out the Scrapper to unload his magazine into one of them.

“I think these are different raiders!” Iselin yelled, cocking back her suppressed pistol with her knees and one good hand.

“Either way, we need to get rid of them!” Sasha yelled, nocking a shock dart and letting it fly towards one of the approaching Scrappers.

Tayane had pulled a pin on one of her grenades, and chucked it out the back of the Scrapper, watching as it blew open and rained four additional bombs on one of the Scrappers, blowing the car up. “And fast! I think we’re near El Santuario! We can’t bring these guys near them!” she yelled.

There had to be something around here that would let him help better than his grenades. There had to be. KAY/O looked around the bed of the Scrapper, and took notice of a trapdoor in the floor of the vehicle. He pulled it open, to reveal a compartment holding a large, black machine gun. He pulled it out, alongside a belt of bullets. He positioned it at the back of the cage, facing the oncoming Scrappers. “Watch your ears!” he yelled, pulling the trigger and letting the bullets fly. 

The bullets tore through one of the Scrappers, painting the shell inside with red as it veered off course, striking another Scrapper and causing both to flip over from the impact. KAY/O aimed the barrel of the gun to another oncoming Scrapper, and pulled the trigger once more. Bullets sparked off the hood of the vehicle, until it veered to the side and exploded.

“Where the fuck did you pull that one from?” Varun yelled, pulling his head back into the vehicle to reload his gun.

“I found it under the floor!” KAY/O responded, pulling the trigger once more.

“How did you know it was under the goddamned floor?” Iselin yelled, firing off the last few of her rounds.

KAY/O pulled the trigger once more, blowing through another Scrapper. “I didn’t. I just looked!” he yelled.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think it has many more bullets,” Sasha said, nocking back another shock dart and launching it.

Tayane grinned wide. “Then we keep the rest, and blow these fuckers to smithereens!” she yelled, lobbing another grenade.

Erik slammed on the gas, lurching the vehicle forward faster. As they raced, KAY/O pulled the machine gun back, and looked out to the west. Just in the distance, he could make out the high walls of El Santuario. That was bad.

KAY/O glanced back at the Scrappers. If he had eyes, they would’ve widened in fear as he saw one of the Scrappers now had a raider hanging out the window, with a Mini NRB launcher.

“They have NRBs!” he yelled, grabbing Sasha and Tayane and pulling them down. This followed with Varun and Iselin hitting the deck as Erik pressed all the way down on the Scrapper’s gas pedal. The vehicle shot forward, reaching upwards of about 130 mph as they heard the sound of the NRB being launched. It soared through the air, and landed about two miles in front of them. As it hit the ground, they felt the explosion shake the earth.

Erik, the god of a man he is, managed to swerve out of the way and head west, just avoiding the blast radius of the mini NRB. As the group looked up to see the tiny mushroom cloud dissipate, they breathed a sigh of relief.

As the group took a breath, Erik’s voice cut through the group. “Good news, I think we got rid of them. Bad new, we are now crossing through El Santuario’s territory, and will surely be executed if we stop, so hold on to your asses, we’re making another sharp turn!” he yelled, yanking the wheel to the right, drifting the car back on it’s course due north. As they zoomed north again, just for a split second, KAY/O could see the shape of a group just on top of a dune mound. While he couldn’t see them clearly, he could recognize the feel of The Empress’s glare as the Valors had just narrowly blasted out of there.

“Welp, safe to say we can never show our faces within a 200 mile radius of El Santuario again,” Sasha said, sitting down. “Surely they’ll know it was us.”

“Of course they will, because what group of wastelanders is full of courageous dumbasses as much as the Valors are!” Varun whooped, throwing a fist in the air.

As the vehicle thundered north once more, the group had let the adrenaline pump through their systems and finally calm down. They watched the sun rise as the wastelands zoomed by them, the sound of hesitant laughter as they all finally processed what had just happened.

“Holy fuck, they just shot a mini NRB at us,” Iselin said, her good hand tangling in her hair. “How the fuck did they get a mini NRB?”

Sasha pulled out his water and gulped down a mouthful. “Theft or luck. Either way, that would’ve ended very poorly,” he said.

Varun coughed. “I think what she means is how would it even exist? As far as we know, all the NRBs were launched 200 years ago. How would anyone get their hands on one today?” he said.

Tayane nodded, her body still shaking slightly. “I agree. Hell, I love explosions, but there is no way in hell they should have an NRB,” she muttered.

KAY/O turned his head out to the wastelands to their east, where the sun was rising. “Maybe they’re not all gone?” he said suddenly.

An uncomfortable silence permeated the Scrapper at his words. Everyone here knew it was a possibility, in the back of their minds, they knew. But to hear it verbalized out loud? It was a thought that none of them could comfortably stomach.

The ride was quiet from that point on. No more Scrappers, no more raiders, and very little talking. There was no sound in their Scrapper, until Erik called for them.

“Guys, I got some bad news. Looks like a sandstorm’s blowing through. Gonna take a while to get around it, and I don’t think we wanna try driving through it,” he said.

The rest of the Valors groaned out. “You have to be shitting me,” Varun said.

As the Scrapper began to slow to a crawl, there was a loud creak. The second the Scrapper stopped, KAY/O heard something break. “I think we pushed the Scrapper a bit too hard,” he said flatly.

Erik and Tayane hopped out of the Scrapper and both crawled under the Scrapper. “Com certeza. Looks like the wheel track is warped to shit,” Tayane noted, crawling out from underneath. “Guess Breachy took some of those turns a little too fast.”

Iselin looked around the wasteland, scanning for any creatures nearby. “How long until it gives out under the strain?” she asked.

“I’d say maybe a day if we’re lucky,” Erik said. “We need to fix it, soon.”

“I don’t know if you’ve looked around us, but we’re nowhere near any semblance of civilization!” Varun said, arms wide.

“I can see that, Harbor, but we need to get the wheel track replaced if we’re gonna get through the desert after that sandstorm clears,” Erik said.

As the two bickered, KAY/O turned to Sasha, who’d been surprisingly very quiet, perched on top of the Scrapper cage. He pulled out his recon drone, and let it loose, flying it out towards a collection of sand mounds and dunes.

“Found something, Sova?” KAY/O asked, leaning against the cage.

Sasha nodded. “Most of the mounds out here aren’t that big. But there’s a strange outcropping of giant mounds just a little ways east. I’m taking a look,” he said.

After a few moments of silence from Sasha, he recalled his drone and climbed down. “I have news,” he said. That got everyone to shut up. “It looks like there might be some sort of bunker near by. One of those mounds has a metal wall along it.”

Erik and Iselin both perked up, and looked at each other. “A Castle?” they both asked, questioningly. 

KAY/O looked at them. “I thought you both said there weren’t any Castles this far south?” he asked. 

Iselin rubbed her chin. “I don’t recall there being any on the maps of the other Castles we had,” she said.

Erik shook his head. “Even pre-war, we only knew about Castles built near cities and heavy population centers. I don’t think there was ever even a town this far south. How would their be a Castle here?”

Tayane piped up. “Well, either way, we have a broken Scrapper, a sandstorm coming, and pretty much no where else to go. I say, we storm the Castle,” she said.

The Valors had trekked just a about a mile east. While the group made their way, KAY/O and Erik shouldered dragging the Scrapper after Iselin and Tayane had secured makeshift sleds to the wheels to help it move. As they slowly got closer and closer, KAY/O could see the glint of metal shining in the sunlight. Eventually, though both Erik and KAY/O were about ready to fall over, they made it to the metal wall.

Iselin and Erik observed the wall for a moment, before Erik brushed the dirt off of it, exposing parts of a number. He kept wiping the dirt off, until a number had shown through the dirt and dust. Number 124.

“What? How? I thought they only made 122 Castles?” Iselin asked, peering over Erik’s shoulder.

Erik scoffed. “Clearly they hid some from everyone. Probably to keep ‘em for themselves,” he grumbled, brushing the dirt off his hands. “Wouldn’t surprise me, how those cutthroat bastards are.”

Iselin observed the wall, until her eyes narrowed in on a piece of the wall that was sticking out. A hatchdoor of some kind. She approached it, and slowly pulled the hatch down, exposing a blocky computer and keyboard, both covered in dirt and dust. She glanced at the screen, and narrowed her eyes. “Uh guys, I think someone’s accessed this within the last day or so,” she said, pressing a green button.

As Iselin pressed the button, the door with the 124 on it slowly lowered into the Castle, and flattened on the ground. As the Valors pushed in, Erik and KAY/O pulling the vehicle inside as well, they were met with the inside of something akin to an old warehouse. The door started closing behind them, and it locked tight.

KAY/O clicked his flashlight button, allowing his screens to light up to shed light for the others to retrieve their own flashlights. Soon, everyone was lit up as they began to walk around the area. Eventually, KAY/O happened upon some stairs. He guided the rest of the Valors down the stairs, slowly and carefully, at which point it bottomed out into a long hallway.

Erik’s eyes caught on a series of blue pipes running along the ceilings down the tunnels that lie ahead, and a flash of familiarity crossed through his eyes. The group followed the pipes until the first break in the hallway, where it split off into two tunnels.

“Me, Breach, and Sova will take the left hallway. KAY/O, Harbor, and Deadlock, you three take the left,” Tayane said, starting down the left hall. KAY/O led Harbor and Deadlock down their hall, further and further into the tunnel, until it finally opened into a large room.

Sasha stopped in his tracks, and held a finger to his eye. “I’m getting an extremely strong and old Radianite signature,” he said, then turned to Iselin. “I think we may have found your power source.”

As Sasha led Iselin and KAY/O further into the room, tracing this Radianite energy, KAY/O noticed the increasing number of pods in here. Iselin seemed to have noticed his confusion.

“They’re cryogenical pods. Kingdom’s very own medical stasis. Every Castle comes equipped with at least ten, so if someone gets badly injured, the medical professionals will fix them up then put them in here to recover,” Iselin explained to KAY/O. “Though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many before. And pretty much all of them were either never filled or they failed to shut all the way.”

As the group went further in, Sasha stopped in front of one of the pods. “This is it. This is where the Radianite signature is coming from,” he said.

KAY/O and Iselin approached, flanking Sasha on either side. As KAY/O looked closer into the glass, he could just make out a figure in the shadow of the pod. “It’s not a power core. It’s a person.” he said.

Iselin nudged Sasha out of the way and looked at the panel on the front of the pod. Her good hand trailed over the panel, before she had simply pressed the red button. The pod hissed and beeped, as it slowly defrosted and opened.

“How did you know?” Sasha asked Iselin.

“All the medical pods back in Castle 22 had big and complicated panels to scare people who weren’t the medical professionals. Figured Kingdom didn’t change up their designs,” Iselin said.

As the pod opened, the figure inside seemed to collapse on the spot, leading to Iselin and Sasha to catch the figure before they fell out. The figure was a young woman, probably in her early twenties, with two toned blue and yellow hair. Her olive skin was cold to the touch, and even looked slightly paler than it most likely should. She had been frozen for quite some time. As KAY/O leaned to help Iselin and Sasha, the moment his arms connected to the woman’s skin, he felt energy coursing through her. Raw, pure electrical energy that thrummed through every part of her. She wore a Castle Dweller suit, with rips and tears in it along her arms and back. Thin and clean scar tissue danced up her arms and her spine, forming at a single point in her mid back that looked like a glowing circle. As KAY/O tried to stand the woman up, he caught a glimpse of an embroidered name on her chest. T. N. D. Valdez.

“We should get her out of here and warmed up,” Sasha said, glancing around at the rest of the pods. “I’m sure hypothermia is going to set in-”

Sasha’s words were cut off by the sound of a gunshot ringing out elsewhere in the Castle. All three of them jolted in alert, as they heard the distant sounds of a commotion. Iselin was the first to start running, followed by Sasha. KAY/O looked between his retreating friends and the woman in front of him, before he slung the woman over his back and ran to catch up with the others.

As they ran out of their room, down their tunnel, and took a sharp turn into the next tunnel, they could heard the barking of a dog and the sounds of metal clattering to the ground. As KAY/O, Sasha, and Iselin burst into the next room, they found themselves having missed all the action. Tayane stood over two men, rope binding them back-to-back, while Erik held a small German Shepard in his metallic arms.

One of the men, who wore a white coat and navy mask looked over at them. “Let us out,” he hissed, struggling against the ropes.

The other, a hooded man with bright blue stripes down where his face should be seemed to be focusing solely on the dog in Erik’s arms. “If you hurt her, I will end you,” he said, his voice scratchy and low.

KAY/O gently set the girl he was carrying down against the railing, and walked over to the two tied up men. He pulled out his knife and held it up to the masked man’s throat. “Names. Now. And you both get to walk away,” he said.

The man with scratches on his face sighed. “Omen. My name is Omen. And your friend there has my dog,” he said.

KAY/O nodded, and turned to Erik. “Put the dog down, Breach. Don’t hurt it,” he said, turning his attention to the masked man. “Name.”

The masked man sighed before turning to KAY/O. “You can call me Cypher. Now will you please let us out,” he demanded.

KAY/O nodded, and untied the rope binding the men, before turning to Tayane. “We found someone. Someone alive. She was in a cryogenical pod,” he said to her.

Erik coughed. “These guys found some people who are still alive too,” he said, gesturing to Omen and Cypher. “We’re still trying to figure out how to get these pods open though.”

“You just have to press the red button. They make it intentionally confusing to prevent people from abusing the medical pods,” Iselin said.

Tayane cracked her knuckles and walked over to one of the still active pods. “Hit the red button. Got it,” she said, slamming a hand on the button.

As the pod hissed, and the ice cracked away, the figure inside collapsed out. In a rush, Tayane had scrambled to catch the figure before they fell. As Tayane stood with the figure in hand, KAY/O and the others took notice of her own Castle Dweller uniform, specifically the state of distress the jacket was in, that revealed the top part of her back and shoulders. Tayane’s eyes widened as she realized the girl in her arms had aggressively red electrical scars, as though they were still fresh.

KAY/O noticed Tayane’s eyes drift to the embroidered name on the chest. K. Böhringer. And in that moment, the girl in Tayane’s arms lurched forward, a gasp of air on her lips.