Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“She’s our number one priority. No matter what happens, you bring her back.”

Sage continued to give instructions over the communication channels in the helicopter. Everyone in the team started conversing and responding to Sage, Omen couldn’t care less.

He was that type of agent, in and out, no questions. He never cared enough to ask and never spoke more than needed.

As everyone started to get ready he didn’t move an inch. Sitting down with his head leaned back and arms crossed, as usual.

“We will be landing the helicopter a few miles away from the destination, to avoid any problems,” said Sage. “Good luck and be careful.”

Sage disconnects and the helicopter lands. “It’s go time,” says Jett. “Everyone knows their roles. Let's not waste time”.

Jett immediately leaves while the others discuss what their next move is.

“Omen, you should go retrieve her. Be careful, I hear she’s dangerous,” said Sova.

“I do not fear death Sova, she poses no threat to me,” scoffed Omen. “I'll retrieve her, you do the rest.”

Omen proceeds to walk inside the building through the main door. He looks around only to find bodies on the floor, Jett must've gotten to them.

He can hear everybody talking through his earpiece; Jett is clearing the second floor, Cypher is giving information from his underground hub and Sova and Yoru are scouting for any backup outside.

Omen gets annoyed, the elevator is smashed. Looks like it fell from the highest floor down. He sighs and says “Cypher I can't use the elevator, give me her exact coordinates.”

“Give me a minute,” says Cypher. Omen hears Cypher clicking away at his keyboard. He never understood how Cypher does what he does, nor does he care enough to attempt to understand. “Well the good news is you won't be needing the elevator,” laughs Cypher. “She’s caged up underground, you can get down through-.”

“No need. I’ll teleport nearby, just let me know where to,” interrupts Omen.

“There is a hallway near her cage. The guards should be inside, 6 of them to be exact. You can teleport there as soon as I disable the security system,” explains Cypher.

A shot echos throughout the building, Omen groans as it goes through his shoulder. He looks up only to be met by a dozen guards.

He teleports behind a pillar where he can get an angle on them and yells into his earpiece “JETT, I THOUGHT YOU CLEARED OUT THE SECOND FLOOR”. No response.

“Yoru! Jett is on the third floor, she isn’t answering. MOVE!” screams Cypher “Go through the backdoor. Omen will clear the second floor, Sova will give outside support”.

Glass shatters as Sova’s recon shoots through the lobby and hits the elevator shoot. “4 to the right, 5 to the left, and 3 in the middle. I’ll handle the left and middle, Omen just clear the right and go get her,” says Sova.

Omen clenches his arms and summons a blind, he then releases it towards the guards at the right and grabs his gun. As soon as he does that he hears Sova’s first beam; he takes advantage of it and shoots the first and second guards, then rolls to the broken elevator to take another angle. The second beam hits; he peeks from behind the elevator and takes out another two.

“Omen, the security systems are down, I can only disable it for 10 more minutes. You have the coordinates on your device, I suggest you move. Sova will take care of the rest,” says Cypher.

Omen opens his device and looks at the map. Cypher marked down where the hallway is, so Omen just closes his eyes and disappears from the lobby.

He appears at a corner near the hallway, he pushes his back against the wall and peeks. No one.

He continues to walk down the hallway where he is met with huge metal doors. “Cypher, count down to 10 and open the door,” says Omen “6 should pose no threat.”

“10”

Omen starts looking at the map, he starts to visualize where his smokes need to land, where the guards are, everything.

“5” “4” “3”

Omen closes his eyes and summons 2 clouds of smoke, covering the 4 guards who are taking the high ground.

“2” “1” Cypher opens the door.

Omen teleports into one of his smokes and bashes the head of one of the guards with his knee, then shoots the other in the head.

She starts hearing gunshots, going in and out of consciousness. She can’t see anything clearly, let alone raise her head to do so.

Omen proceeds to use one of the guards as a human shield and takes a shot to the other platform. 3 left.

He runs towards the end of the platform and jumps up to the wall. He pushes himself and jumps to the top of the cage. He then takes a shot toward the last guard who is taking the high ground. Only 2 left.

He stands there looking around, he finds nothing. “Cypher, there were only 4 guards in here,” says Omen.

“No I counted 6, are you certain?” questions Cypher.

“I may be dead but I’m not blind, Cypher,” says Omen in an annoyed tone.

“Start releasing her, I’ll check where the last two went,” says Cypher.

Omen proceeds to walk towards the edge of the cage and jump down. Giving his back to her.

He turns around to be met by her chained on the top of the reinforced glass cage, lights aimed at her. Her hands were chained behind her back, knees on the floor. They even muffled her with a metal mask.

She looks at him and glares, exhausted. Whatever they want to do to her they better do it quickly, she is too tired for this.

“Omen, there is a problem,” says Cypher.

“It seems like this mission is full of them, what is it now?” complains Omen.

“Yoru was able to find Jett but she’s in a bad condition. And the two guards, well... they sounded the alarm. The entire Syndicate will be at your doorstep if you don’t grab her and leave,” explains Cypher.

“Fine," sighs Omen. He proceeds to raise his legs and kick the metal door to the ground. He walks in and looks up, she's still glaring at him. Her crimson eyes drilling a hole into his skull.

“I have no interest in your hatred towards me," says Omen. He teleports up to her and leans down towards her “Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

He breaks off her chains and she stands up. “I'll remove your mask in a moment.” Not a second later, she starts losing consciousness and falls towards him.

He grabs her before she hits the floor. “Great, you can’t even walk,” complains Omen.

He puts his arm under her legs and the other behind her back and carries her.

“Omen, it's time to leave. NOW!” yells Yoru. “Take the roof, the lower floors are filled with Syndicates.”

Omen closes his eyes and teleports to the roof. No one’s there.

Omen walks to the edge of the building. “I’m at the roof, bring the helicopter to us,” says Omen. “I retrieved the target.”

As Omen was talking to his team, he gently removed her mask.

After a few moments, she regained consciousness and looked up to see him.

She slowly starts to reach for his side knife. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“I just needed a distraction,” she grins as she kicks Omen and jumps from his arms off the building.

Omen regains his footing and slowly looks down to see her drop. “Cancel the helicopter, she escaped.”

“She did what?!” answers Yoru angrily.

As Omen starts to lean toward the end of the building to teleport after her, he stops in his tracks.

She summons some kind of wings. They were obsidian colored and red streaks pulsed through them. She flies for a short time and rolls as she reaches the ground.

She starts running towards the buildings to escape Omen.

Omen sighs as he steps off the edge of the roof and falls. He drops to the ground, where at the last second black mist fills the place he landed. He then appears out of thin air and starts walking towards the area she ran off to.

“Get the helicopter ready, I’ll bring her in the next 10 minutes,” says Omen. “She won't be able to go far.”

Chapter Text

She ran as far as her legs could take her. Not sure where she was, but she finally escaped that cage, she's not about to be put in another.

She looks back and doesn't see him, “Heh, that was quite easy.” As she turns around she’s faced with Omen looking down at her.

“Boo,” he said as he grabbed her arm. She instinctively starts to try to free herself.

“Calm down,” commands Omen. “We won’t hurt you as long as you comply.”

“That’s what they said before they locked me up. So, sorry if I don’t believe you,” she says sarcastically.

She then grabs Omen’s arm with both her hands and raises her lower body; this gave her the chance to kick Omen and attempt to run.

Omen sighs as he swings his arm towards the nearest wall, slamming her entire body against it.

She groans and drops to the floor. He really put his entire strength into that swing , she thought..

“Will you finally stop squirming?” asks Omen.

She looks up at him and disappears into red mist. She then reappears in front of him holding her abdomen.
She starts to giggle as she says “I thought I recognized you. You're her first experiment.”

“Silence,” snaps Omen.

“Oh, the irony of meeting my predecessor! Omen was it? She took a lot of notes about you. Can you guess what she did with them?” she laughs.

Omen sighs. “We will deal with what she did later. You, however, need to come with us or you’ll end up-”

“End up what? what’s worse than what she did to me!?” she screams and she rolls up her sleeve, revealing pulsing red streaks flowing through her arms.

“What she has done to me is beyond repair,” she snaps at him. “What she did to you, however,” she grins “was quite the accomplishment.”

As soon as she said that, everything turned dark. Somehow even the night’s stars stopped shining.

She looked around, she was surrounded by a huge cloud of smoke. Everything inside it seemed to be in an entirely different world.

With a sigh, she summoned her wings and cleared the smoke with a powerful flap. He disappeared.

“What? My comment made the almighty Omen leave?!” she says sarcastically.

In a split second Omen appeared behind her. She turns around to elbow him but he blocks it in a second.

He grabs her jaw, covering her mouth. He then forces her on her knees and says, “Between the two of us, I'm far better skilled. I wasn’t exactly stuck in a cage for most of my life.”

She looks at Omen. She never felt this feeling before, an intense feeling of hatred.

She focuses all her energy on that feeling. Her eyes glow as she harnesses it all.

The red streaks glew in a bright shade of red and her hair got darker by the second. Omen starts to feel the effect of her powers.

“How-” he starts to groan. “Do you have Fade’s powers?”

Despite the pain, Omen holds on to her and grabs a syringe from his pocket. He quickly sticks it in her neck.

She widens her eyes in surprise, but it is quickly followed by her slowly closing them and falling to the ground.

Omen starts breathing heavily and says into his earpiece, “We are heading back. Target is unconscious.”

“Took you long enough,” complains Yoru. “Jett isn’t doing all that well, we need to leave now.”

Omen looks down at her, she is going to be really difficult to deal with, he thought.

He sighed as he carried her again and started walking towards the helicopter.

“Well well, I see both of us secured the ladies,” jokes Yoru as he looks down at Jett in his arms.

“Yours didn’t put up a fight,” complained Omen.

“Come on now,” says Sova. “There is nothing left for us here.”

They all enter the helicopter; their mission is complete.

“They are less annoying when they are unconscious right?” jokes Yoru.

“I still have my knives you know,” says Jett weakly.

Yoru softly laughs, while Omen remains silent. He finished the mission… that's all he cares about.

A few hours later, she wakes up in a caged facility. She gasps and shoots upwards to look around…no, please…..not another one.

“Glad to see you have woken up. I thought you would want to have a nice hot meal for once. It’s beef stroganoff, I do hope you enjoy it,” says Sage.

“You can’t buy me with whatever this is,” she answers. “Just get over with it and torture me already.”

“We are not here to torture you,” explains Sage. “You are a key component to our mission. We need you as an ally, not as an enemy.”

She looks slowly at the food and then back to Sage. “I don’t want to eat, and I don’t want to be your puppet. Just leave me alone,” she says sadly.

She sits on the floor hugging her legs, she’s been caged again. Never to taste freedom.

“It’s been 3 days since she came here. I doubt Viper fed her, so she must be starving,” says Skye.

“The longer this takes the more of an advantage the Syndicate has over us,” explains Yoru.

They all start to discuss the situation and the lounge is filled with multiple voices overlapping each other.

“Enough,” says Omen. “I’ll handle it.”

Omen walks down the hall and into the control room. Phoenix and Yoru follow him.

He starts putting the password into the keypad and Pheonix says in a concerned tone, “Woah woah woah, Brim and Sage said not to open the cage until she’s cool.”

“Well then if they have a problem with what I’m doing, they can discuss it with me. Now go to the kitchen, I’ll be right there,” says Omen.

He enters the cage and finds her on the ground sleeping, her food untouched.

“Get up,” says Omen.

She turns around to look at Omen. “What do you want?” she complains while turning right back around. “Just let me die in peace.”

Omen sighs and grabs her plate of food. He then turns around and starts walking towards the door. “Follow me,” he says.

She gets up slowly and looks at the door. Are they letting her go?

Omen starts to walk as she follows him. He reaches the end of the hallway and opens a door, it seems to be the kitchen.

Phoenix and Yoru look towards the door. “So she didn’t listen to you too, huh, Omen?” jokes Pheonix. “I told you she won’t even try to taste-”

Omen starts walking towards one of the tables, revealing a pale, dark-haired woman behind him.

Yoru and Phoenix both reach out for their guns. She takes a step back to channel whatever energy she has left to defend herself.

“Enough,” commands Omen as he sets her plate in front of him. “Lower your weapons.”

He turns around and looks at her. “Sit right there,” he says pointing at the seat in front of him.

She looks at Yoru and Pheonix who slowly lower their guns. She then unclenches her body and slowly walks towards her seat.

“Eat your food, it’s been long enough,” says Omen.

She looks at her food with great temptation, but she can’t eat it.

Omen sighs and says, “Pheonix, come here.”

Pheonix looks at Yoru with a weird look and then gets up towards their table.

Omen grabs Pheonix by the collar and shoves a handful of food into his mouth.

“See? Not poisoned,” explains Omen while Pheonix is choking in the background.

Her eyes widened with surprise. “How did you know?” she asked.

Omen stays silent for a moment, then answers, “Sabine’s venom knows no mercy.”

He said that with a serious tone, it’s like he knew what she was afraid of.

She grabs a spoon from next to her and slowly starts to eat.

Phoenix starts complaining to Omen, while Yoru’s laughter fills the room.

“What is this food?” she asks with her mouth full.

“What you never had beef stroganoff before?” asks Pheonix sarcastically.

She sat there in silence looking at her food, then looked at Pheonix and said, “What’s beef?”

Yoru and Pheonix looked at her dumbfoundedly and started to ask her a million questions.

“Leave it be,” says Omen. “We need to talk.”

Before Omen could say another word, Sage and Brim entered the kitchen.

“Leave the explaining to us, Omen. You have done enough,” says Sage in an irritated tone.

“To be fair if he didn’t let her out she wouldn’t have eaten her food-” explains Pheonix.

“That’s enough Pheonix,” interrupts Brim.

Omen gets up from his seat and joins Yoru and Pheonix, Sage then proceeds to take his chair.

“Before I explain the situation,” says Sage. “We never got to know your name.”

She looks down at her food, not making eye contact with Sage.

“They used to call me….Alex.”

Chapter Text

“Alex? Like short for Alexandra?” laughs Pheonix.

“Short for Alexis,” snapped Alex.

“Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Alexis,” says Sage.

Sage slowly inherits a more serious facial expression and says, “Now that we are on friendlier terms, let me explain the situation.”

Alex looks at Sage. So this is the leader of the group, she thought. She has her presence, but Alex wonders why she, out of everyone, leads the group.

“As you may know, we have allies that were taken by the Syndicate. We are not sure where they are and why they were taken-” explains Sage.

“Oh I know why,” interrupts Alex. “But you won’t like the answer.”

“Do not play games, just tell us what happened to them,” says Brim, clearly agitated.

She slowly turns around and looks at Omen, giving him a cheeky smile.

“Remember when you asked how I have Fade’s powers?” asks Alex. “Well, that's all part of the project Viper has.”

“Get on with it,” scoffs Omen.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Fine”.

She finishes the last bite and proceeds to get up.

“I have the power of blood manipulation,” explains Alex as she walks behind Sage.

“Blood manipulation? As in blood blending?” asks Yoru.

“No, I cannot control someone else’s blood,” answers Alex. “I can only control mine.”

Wings erupt from her back, red streaks pulsing through them.

“These wings were the first thing Viper experimented on. She took the blood of a falcon and administered it into my bloodstream.”

All of them watch in silence. How many times did Viper have to do this for it to work? they all thought.

“It took her a very long time to perfect it, even then she had to know how to maintain the blood in my bloodstream,” she explains.

“And how did she do that?” asks Sage.

“That, I’m not entirely sure,” says Alex, putting away her wings. “Listen, your body produces 2 million red blood cells in a second. So it’s hard to keep the blood circulating in you.”

“And our allies?” asks Sage.

“Are blood sources,” explains Alex. “I can take their powers through their blood, that’s how I ended up with Fade’s powers. You released me before she could perfect the rest.”

They all sat there with serious expressions, not saying a word.

“So, now what?” asks Pheonix.

Sage looked in deep thought, while Brim just looked at Alex and suggested, “Let’s train her.”

“Train her?” questions Omen.

“I doubt she can hold a gun, or fight in that matter. What she did with you was purely instincts, nothing calculated,” explains Brim. “We can train her to fight.”

“Train her for now, we will move on to the next step when she is ready. Brim and I need to discuss this, for now, everyone go to sleep,” commands Sage. “Skye will show you to the female dormitories, Alex. Good night everyone.”

Brim and Sage leave the kitchen, leaving the rest behind.

“Well…that was something,” jokes Pheonix.

“You heard her,” says Yoru as he stood up to leave.

“Omen! Since you both are pretty close already, take her to the garden. Skye is probably there healing up the last of Jett’s wounds,” says Pheonix.

Alex watches as Yoru and Phoenix leave the kitchen. She then turns around to look at Omen.

“I’ll take you to the garden now. Let's go,” he says.

She looks at him leaving the kitchen, but she doesn’t move from her spot.

“I don’t have all day, blood witch. Move,” he complains.

She starts to walk towards him with an angry expression. “Blood witch!?! I am not a blood witch,” she shouts.

“Quiet. It’s the middle of the night,” he retorts.

What in the world is wrong with him? She thought.

They walk down the hallway, it’s dead silent…as if ghosts took over the building. They continued to walk towards the exit, where they were hit with the coldest breeze as they opened the door.

“It’s cold,” says Alex.

“Winter is approaching, it gets even colder. So get used to it,” answers Omen.

“I don’t mind the cold,” she says happily. “I’d take this over any summer day.”

Omen doesn’t respond, he just kept walking towards the greenhouse with his hands in his pockets.

“You're not much of a talker are you?” she asks.

“And yet, you're still talking to me,” says Omen.

She stops in the middle of her tracks. Omen walks a few steps forward before realizing she stopped.

“What?” asks Omen.

“I’m…” She looked at the floor with a sad look in her eyes.

“What is it?” Omen says while turning around to face her, removing his hands from his pockets.

“I’m sorry for what I said back then,” she explains. “We both were a victim of her experiments and it wasn’t fair to-”

For a second Omen tensed up. She was taken aback by his body language. Must have struck a nerve.

“You will never comprehend the loss I experienced,” says Omen angrily. “Do not act like we are the same.”

“I’m not saying that! I’m trying to apologize for everything,” she explains frantically.

“I don’t need your apology, I don’t need your sympathy and I sure don’t need your friendship,” Omen snaps back.

“Fine!” says Alex angrily. “That’s the greenhouse, right!?” She points towards it, “I’ll go there myself. I don’t need your help.”

She hugs herself to avoid the cold and storms toward the greenhouse, leaving Omen behind.

He turns around to see her entering the greenhouse. He tsks as he walks towards the building, leaving the freezing courtyard empty.

Alex enters the greenhouse, it's suddenly much warmer and is filled with every kind of plant you can imagine. Plants hanging down from the ceiling, some erupting from the huge soil boxes next to the pathways, and thousands of flowers, revealing a vast selection of colors to whoever lays eyes on them.

Alex stands there in awe, she has never seen so many colors in her life. The air felt cleaner, with a hint of floral scents traveling around. She walks around, touching every leaf and observing the beauty of nature.

“Who is out there?” asks Skye.

“Oh, it’s me. Alex,” she answers.

“Who? Can you please come in here, I’m kind of busy with Jett here,” explains Skye.

Alex lets go of the leaf in her hand and walks towards a small metal door. She looks inside to see Jett sitting on the table and Skye manifesting a green orb between her hands.

Jett turns her head towards the door and says, “Oh, you're the girl we saved. Finally, let you out, huh?”

“Oh your Alexis, it’s nice to see that you're doing better. I’m Skye and this is- Jett stop squirming would ya?” complains Skye.

“I’m tired of this, I told you I'm fine,” answers Jett.

Alex looked at both of them shyly and said, “Sage told me that you would show me to the dormitory.”

“Ya, she told me over the walkie”. Skye releases the green orb in her hand and continues to say, “You guys wait a second outside, I need to lock up the greenhouse.”

Jett and Alex leave the greenhouse, waiting in the cold dark night.

“So you were the target of our mission,” says Jett. “Hopefully Omen didn’t give you much trouble?”

Alex’s expression changes into a sad one. It wasn’t him who gave trouble…she did.

“Honestly I was the one who gave him trouble. He wouldn’t even let me apologize properly.”

Jett looks at her with a serious expression. She then sighs and says, “The thing with Omen, even when he warms up to you, which takes forever by the way. He is never truly…open with anyone. So don’t let it bother you, that's just the way he is.”

Alex didn’t seem to be convinced. She saw a lot of evil in her life, no one would fathom what she went through…except him.

“Alright, all locked up,” says Skye. “let’s go get some rest.”

They walked towards the building and went up the stairs to the second floor. They opened the door to the girl's dormitory where around 6 doors were present. 3 on each side, leading to different rooms.

“Two girls share each room, you will be sharing a room with me,” explains Skye.

“I’m going to head to bed. It was nice to meet you Alex, good night,” says Jett.

“Good night,” says Alex.

Both Alex and Skye enter the room where it's split into half. Sky’s side was colored green, with different plants and decorations that fit her aesthetic.

Alex looks at the ground, a green being raises his head and walks towards them.

“What is that?” asks Alex in a worried tone.

“Oh don’t worry! That’s my wolf. He is just saying hi. Pet him, he loves affection,” explains Skye.

Alex slowly reaches her hand towards the wolf and pets him slowly. He then starts to wag his tail in appreciation.

“He’s cute,” says Alex.

“Yeah, all of them are! Well, I’m going to head to bed. You can sleep on the other side. It was Astra’s before they…” Skye looks sadly at the other side of the room. “Never mind that, good night Alex.”

Alex lays down on the bed. She has never experienced such a comfortable place to sleep in. She slowly falls asleep. No cuffs, no lights, no worries.

Chapter Text

It was a dark and quiet night, and all Alex could hear was the soft snoring of Sky’s dog. She had a deep sleep but woke up immediately, she was used to it…never getting more than a few hours of sleep. A change of pace might prove useful to her; so she got up and slowly made her way out of the room, careful not to wake up Skye.

Accompanied by her blanket, she slowly moves towards the staircase. She doesn’t know where it leads, but for some reason, something made her go all the way up. She reaches a door older than time itself. Rust ate away at it and the handle was almost a pull away from reaching its end. She slowly turns the doorknob, being welcomed by the freezing wind.

She looked around, it was the roof. Everything stood silent here, it's as if all her worries vanished into thin air. The night’s stars shined and glittered in space, adding a touch of beauty to a relatively bland and dark sky. It was so peaceful, so beautiful, so new.

Alex stood there for a second, admiring the enchanting view. She then noticed a figure at the end of the roof, a cloak hiding what seemed to be a man. She moves closer before the figure turns around, revealing blue glowing eyes.

“Omen?” asks Alex.

“What are you doing here?” says Omen.

“I couldn’t sleep,” explains Alex. “It’s fine, I’ll just go walk in the courtyard or something.”

She starts walking towards the door, eager to not get into an argument with him late at night. She felt comfort around him, safe even. Maybe because he saved her? Or maybe because no one understands her like he does. Either way, she tried to connect with him and after what happened last time, she was scared to attempt talking to him again.

As her hand grabs the doorknob, Omen says, “You do not need to go.”

“What?” she questions.

“Don't make me repeat myself, blood witch,” says Omen.

“You aren't going to drop that nickname, are you?” complains Alex.

“I don’t plan on doing so. Now sit down, don’t ruin the atmosphere,” answers Omen.

Alex wraps the blanket around her and slowly walks towards Omen. She puts some distance between them and sits down, dangling her legs off of the roof’s ledge.

Silence suffocated Alex. She enjoyed the view but being locked up for years on end with no one to talk to took a toll on her. Being accompanied by her thoughts, her thoughts only. Day in and out, she imagined how the outside world felt like, how people laughed, smiled, and enjoyed each other's company. This was far from what she expected.

“Do you think I’m a monster?” blurted out Alex. She immediately regretted it, god I will not hear the end of it , she thought.

“If you're a monster, then what does that make me?” says Omen in a quiet tone.

She looks at him, he doesn’t even hesitate in saying that. He looked at the night sky as he spoke; as if it was any other conversation. Not a single doubt in his mind…he thinks he is a monster.

“But you aren’t,” whispers Alex to herself.

Silence filled the space between them, slowly adding the distance…feeling like she was far from him. Never to reach him.

“I was cruel to you before,” says Omen. “What happened to me is a thing of the past. Sabine is to blame…not you”

Alex froze, is he… apologizing to me? Oh God, I need to respond. But what do I say? Thoughts overwhelmed her; not knowing what to say, she replied, “Thank you for the apology, does that mean we are good now?”

“Calm down, it's just an apology, not a miracle,” explains Omen.

“What is that supposed to mean?” says Alex angrily.

“As I said before, I don’t need your friendship,” says Omen. “So stop acting like we are friends.”

She looks at him, not knowing what to feel first. Anger? Disappointment? Embarrassment? She went through everything from experiments to torture, not knowing what made her heart break worse was an experiment just like her. All these mixed signals made her feel pathetic.

“You're a maniac. You know that right?” she says with pain in her voice.

In a second, Omen's head turned towards Alex. “Watch your words, blood witch,” threatens Omen.

She stood up and started walking towards the door. Her heart felt like it shattered to pieces, a lump in her throat suffocating her and her skin flushed with embarrassment. Alex stood still, her back facing Omen.

“You know what…I shouldn’t have apologized, all I said was true. You don’t have a single feeling towards others. For someone who has been in a cage for most of her life, I can certainly hold a better conversation than your sorry attempt at an apology!” she screams.

Fury takes over Omen, there were a lot of boundaries and she certainly made sure to cross all of them. She continues to walk towards the door, only for her wrist to be yanked towards him. He looked terrifying…like death itself surrounded him.

She didn’t face him, all she wanted was to make things better, to start a new life…but he was just an obstacle, a stain in a perfectly good opportunity to heal.

“Let go,” she says.

“I have no idea who you think you are,” snaps Omen. “But you-”

“I said LET GO!” She turns around to him with tears trickling down her face. Her eyes glowing in their usual shade of red.

The ground beneath her started to crack, and the energy from her plummeted any chance of reason between the two. Omen analyzed his surroundings, she’s about to destroy the entire building…with the girl's dormitory a few floors under them.

With her other hand, she pulls out blood droplets from her fingertips and hardens them into little spears. Omen immediately realizes what she’s doing and before she releases the spears towards him, he teleports away.

“All this time I’ve been trying to understand, to sympathize, to care! But all I get is disappointment! Every time I feel like I can finally connect with you, you just shut the door in my face,” she shouts.

“You need to calm down, your powers are getting out of hand,” explains Omen.

“No! You don’t get to tell me to calm down. You're the reason for this! If only you just talked instead of god knows what you're doing, we would've been over this entire situation!”

Blood rushed through every vein in her body, She could feel her heartbeat in her ears, the rush of anger silencing every thought of reason in her brain. Her hair began to glow, and the streaks of red shined through her sleeves.

“I’ve dreamed of this for years, the chance to finally start anew. To experience everything a normal human experiences. But I guess I’m not worth all that, am I!?” she explained between gulps of air.

The entire building started to shake, the roof was about to give in. Alex started to gasp for air as her powers were too much to handle. Omen immediately starts to run towards her, avoiding the pulses of energy she has been releasing.

Alex was on her knees, frantically gasping for air. Scared for her life, she started to lose control of her emotions even more. She’s afraid, she never wanted to die because of Viper’s experimentation.

Omen slides down to his knees and cups her face with his hands. She couldn’t see him from the stream of tears in her eyes, everything was blurry. Although he was an accumulation of smoke…his hands were warm…they were safe.

“I need you to calm down for me,” he softly tells her.

Her breathing slows down, her heart adapting to a more comfortable beat. Her eyes turned back to a wonderful shade of brown, her powers slowly dying with every breath.

Omen held on to her face, noticing that her powers were slowly fading away. He understood the meaning of anger, confusion, and sadness…as he adapted a more stoic response to this, she adapted a more explosive one.

“Let me go,” she says in a tired tone. She slaps his hands away from her face. “I’m tired Omen, unless you decide on what response you will have towards me…never talk to me again.”

She slowly got up, her knees giving out as she swayed to the side to catch her balance. She grabs what is left of her blanket and wraps it around her, slowly opening the door and leaving Omen behind.

Omen stood still, he looked around him as he saw the cracking roof. Tears stained the concrete floor. She went through all that just to understand Omen, but Omen only understood one thing. He needed to figure out what to do about his feelings towards Alexis.

Chapter Text

For obvious reasons, Alex didn’t sleep that night; the constant agony from overusing her power kept her up. The pain and heat rushed all over her body, as if her veins expanded and flames flowed through them.

“Mate, let me heal ya,” says Skye. “You went through so much stress, calming down probably made you sick.”

“Just…a bit…you still need to heal Jett,” groans Alex.

“Jett will be fine don’t worry about her,” As Skye said that she clasped her hands together. With enough force, she pulls out 3 little orbs.

Alex gave a relieving sigh. It’s like someone plunged her into cold water, removing any trace of yesterday from her body. Her mind overflowed with thousands of thoughts, but at least her body was able to take a break.

Skye heals her for about a few minutes before she stops. “Alight then. This should keep you good for the day, Brim will start your basic training today. So, I think you get ready and eat breakfast.”

“Thank you, Skye. Hopefully, it wasn’t too much trouble,” says Alex.

“Don’t worry about it.” Skye looks outside the window and gives a huge disappointing sigh. “Winter is here. I really hate the cold.”

Alex chuckled as she got up to get ready. Winter was comforting in a way. Layering clothes, hearing the soft noises of the rain hitting the glass, seeing your breath fog up in the air, snowflakes falling, and collecting each other on the ground. It was…romantic.

Her smile slowly faded as she remembered her cold cage. She was only accompanied by the sound of the pattering rain, almost frozen solid by the sheer cold wind. You would think she would hate winter since she spent it in a cage, but she forever longed to see what it looked like outside.

“Skye,” says Alex shyly.

“Yeah, mate?”

“I don’t know how to cook,” says Alex almost in a whisper.

Skye looked at her with a surprised look before she exploded with laughter. Out of everything that can stress Alex out, she didn’t think cooking would be at the top of her list.

“Well, say less! I’ll teach ya what I know,” says Skye as she puts her arm around Alex’s shoulders, tugging her along.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Skye started with scrambled eggs. It’s an easy dish: some butter, a few eggs, and scramble. Even though it’s simple, Alex’s mouth was salivating.

“Honestly, for your first time cooking, you're doing amazing,” says Skye in a surprised tone.

“Thank you! This is such a nice experience, to be honest. May you teach me more?” asks Alex.

Skye laughs and then replies, “Of course, the others have their signature home dishes so I’m sure you will learn a lot.”

It was comforting. Making something from scratch, filling up your stomach with delicious food, and enjoying the upcoming winter. She was blessed, blessed with an opportunity to experience this type of life.

As they were plating the eggs, Cypher and Omen entered the kitchen. The smile that was once on Alex’s face fades as her heart falls to her stomach. She didn’t want to see him anymore, but that can’t be helped…it’s the way it is.

“Morning!” says Cypher cheerily. “You must be Alex, it’s so nice to meet you.”

Alex was taken aback by his kindness. He radiated such bright energy, that it may even compete with the sun. Although he had a mask, you can see exactly when he smiles, his blue eyes squinting with every laugh.

“It’s nice to meet you too…uhm?” questions Alex.

“Oh where are my manners, I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Cypher, I helped get information on your whereabouts.”

“Oh really? Well, thank you so much. I’m really grateful.” answers Alex shyly.

Omen passed Cypher, like a shadow traveling through the night. He made his way to Skye, ignoring Alex’s presence.

“We made some eggs, please join us,” says Alex.

“Ah, I’d love to but I had my breakfast earlier in the day. However, I have the perfect thing to eat with eggs,” answers Cypher.

Cypher opens the cabinet and pulls out a bag of bread. He slowly opens it and then takes out a few pieces. He makes his way to the table and says, “Everything is better with a bit of bread. This is called Pita bread, back home we used to eat a lot of dishes with them. Including eggs.”

“How do you eat eggs with bread?” asks Alex. “I can barely use a knife and fork.”

Cypher lets out a huge laugh. “I’m sorry, I really don’t mean to laugh but that joke was funny.”

Cypher slowly stops himself from laughing. He says while chuckling, “Let me show you.”

He rips off a piece of bread and gently grabs Alex’s hands, slowly positioning the bread into her fingers. He then carefully explains what she needs to do; step by step, with no judgment whatsoever. It was difficult for Alex to understand it, but bit by bit she started to piece it together.

Skye and Omen sat at the table next to them. He didn’t even want to sit down and talk, he just needed to confirm some things in his head. To make sure to cut all ties, to not connect with anything this world had given him. He is an embodiment of life and death itself, having something tieing him down will not be an option for him.

“Mate, are you even listening to me?” complains Skye.

Omen couldn’t hear anything. He was lost in his own world; thinking, analyzing, making sure he absolutely did not slip up. After a second he looks up, and he sees Cypher slowly explain to her, grabbing her hand, and softly talking to her. He immediately felt a sunken feeling, like something inside him burned with a passion.

Omen felt ridiculous, he refused to show interest in anything. Affection is a concept for the living, for the ones who have something to gain. He hated this feeling…he hated her. “Cypher, don't you have a meeting with Sage?” says Omen.

“Ah right! Thank you Omen. I almost forgot,” exclaims Cypher. “Well then friend, it was a pleasure to meet you. Hope you enjoy your food.”

“Bye-bye!” says Alex as Cypher leaves the kitchen.

“Earth to Omen?” complains Skye.

That grabs Alex’s attention, she turns around to look at Skye. For a second meeting Omen’s eyes, her facial expression quickly changing to a sour one. Omen suddenly stands up, and walks to the door before telling Skye, “She needs to go to the shooting range, Brimstone is waiting for her.” He then leaves the girls in the kitchen.

“Ok so, are you going to tell me what is going on with you two?” asks Skye.

“Nothing,” scoffs Alex. “Nothing at all.”

Alex resumes aggressively eating the eggs with a piece of bread. Cypher was right, it tastes amazing. However, the thought wouldn’t escape her mind. She was able to easily be friends with Cypher, why is Omen so different? Why does she have the constant urge to fix things with him? She removed that thought from her head and finished her food. If this situation is getting fixed, it’s through him not me.

Alex starts making her way towards the training grounds, repeating the directions Skye drilled into her head. She didn’t know what to expect, she didn't even have the time to prepare herself mentally. Ugh, I swear next time I'm beating the living-.

“Alex!” shouts Brimstone.

“Ah yes sir, I was lost in thought,” answers Alex.

“I was asking you if you ever held a gun.”

“No sir, I have not,” says Alex.

“Ok that’s expected, let’s start with the basics.”

He grabs a gun and slowly shows her the proper placement. Where to put her hands, how to stand…all the basics. She slowly gets the hang of it as she positions herself and aims steadily at the target…headshot!

“I did it!” shouts Alex.

“Not bad kid, now let’s see you try another gun,” says Brimstone. “How about you try a ghost?”

Out of all the selection of handguns, this seemed to suit her the most. The way it looked, the lightness of it, the precision…everything. Shooting with it seemed effortless and she loved it.

“I guess the ghost is your calling,” jokes Brimstone. “Ok then let’s continue with the other guns.”
Brimstone proceeded to explain every gun, its uses, pros and cons…every single detail.

Oh, this is going to take forever , she thinks. Not knowing that these skills…are just the beginning of it all.

Chapter Text

Weeks flew by. Day and night, thousands of bullets were shot across the training ground. The mankins, bots, and paper shooting targets, were all filled with holes. She made sure to hit every shot with precision, with no mistakes. Not a falter, not a centimeter out of line. Calluses built up on her fingers, her wrist shaking from agony. One more , she kept telling herself. She kept shooting until she couldn’t physically hold the gun anymore.

“Alex?”

Alex turns around…exhausted. Huffing and puffing, her ears kept ringing with the same high-pitched noise. The gear could only protect her to a certain degree, not after many hours of shooting. She opened her gun to see three more bullets, she slowly puts them in her pocket for another day.

“Alex, it’s 3 AM. You’re still training?” asks Skye.

“It’s 3 AM? God, I lost track of time…I’m supposed to meet Sage early in the morning,” she complains.

“Let’s go get some sleep,” says Skye.

Alex slowly walks towards Skye. She has finally found her place in this group. Having a routine down lets her know what is expected and what works with her or not. “Why are you awake, though?” asks Alex.
“Your Highness didn’t show up, I was worried.”

“Worried about what? It’s not like I would up and leave,” says Alex.

Skye looked guilty. She knew Alex wouldn’t just leave…but it's not like anything is keeping her here. She was scared to lose another friend to this god-forsaken war. Knowing what Alex's plans may be, she might just not want to stay.

“You thought I would leave!” screams Alex.

“Shhhhh, not exactly but I’m just worried mate, that's all,” explains Skye.

Alex became upset. They saved her from being experimented on, they allowed her to become a normal human being for the time she was out. Trained her and even became friends with her. Why would she just leave them? Logically that made no sense, where would she go anyway?

“You owe me pancakes tomorrow morning,” says Alex.

Skye giggles as she gives a thumbs up. “Deal,” she whispers.

They start walking towards the girl’s dormitories, excited for tomorrow’s breakfast.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Can you be any slower? Sage will have my head if I show up late,” complains Alex.

“Mate, I’m trying here. That fire idiot must have jammed the stove again,” says Skye.

“Alexis, please come to my office immediately,” says Sage over the PA system.

“Lovely,” says Alex. She quickly grabbed a few pancakes and rushed outside the kitchen, devouring them.

As soon as she left the kitchen, she began to run. Sage’s office was on the third floor at the end of the hall. She needed to run up the stairs before she was late; it was an important matter, and she needed to know what was in store for her future.

She quickly ran up the stairs. There was no elevator as Brimstone thought it would make his “soldiers” lazy. She felt a sharp pain at her side, her lungs couldn't compete with the speed of her inhaling and exhaling. God, I'm out of shape .

When Alex finally reached the third floor, she took a second to catch her breath before running towards the end of the hall. Slowly, she opened the door and was met by a group of people… he was also there.

“I’m…” She couldn't finish her sentence. She put her hands on her knees and slowly tried to catch her breath. “I’m…sorry. The stove…had to….run,’ she said between breaths.

“Take your time, Alexis. We were discussing our next mission, which you will join,” explains Sage.

“Heh, ready to learn from the best blood-bender?” jokes Yoru.

“When you find them let me know,” she retaliates. “And I could’ve sworn that I introduced myself before, so what’s with the nicknames?”

Before anyone could comment, Sage gave a serious look. It gave off authority, basically telling them to be silent. She proceeded to stand up from her chair and move towards a small projector. The meeting has begun.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“As you know, Alexis has the ability to take other people’s powers by injecting blood through her bloodstream. However, we do not know how to keep that blood running through her system. But we know who does.”

Sage clicks on the remote control to reveal a picture of Viper. Alex’s body froze, and everything came rushing back to her. The experiments, the poison, the cage, the lights…all of it. Her body tensed and her fingers circled the injection marks on her arm, as if she was reliving every single moment of it.

Omen notices her movement. He was quite familiar with how trauma worked; he knew exactly what she was thinking, yet he did not attempt to calm her again…he made his decision. Those barriers were created for a reason, not to hurt anyone…or himself.

“Viper has the information we need to get Alex ready,” continues Sage.

“Ready for what?” Alex interrupts. “I wasn’t exactly informed of anything other than your captured friends.”

“You will be, as soon as we get what we need,” Sage replies. “As I was saying, we need that information from Viper and thanks to Cypher we know where it is.”

Alex looks at Cypher, who tips his hat to her in greeting. His eyes shrink as he smiles at her and slowly waves his greeting towards her. Alex reciprocated the gesture, she was happy to see Cypher again. Other than Skye, Cypher was one of the only agents she could easily get along with.

“There is a computer with the required information at the top of the abandoned Sapphire Hotel. Skye, Omen, Cypher, Alex, Jett, and Yoru will be going on this exhibition. Jett and Yoru will handle the Syndicate guards, Skye and Cypher will scout the area for them and Omen and Alex will retrieve the information through this.” Sage then pulls out a USB device and shows it to the entire group.

“This information is very crucial,” continues Sage. “We can move on to the next step and save our friends sooner than anticipated.”

Everyone got lost in thought. Everything relied on a woman they met recently; will that be enough reason to trust her? Alex however, was also in deep thought. Out of everyone, why Omen?

“I can get the USB myself,” complains Alex. “Why do I need a babysitter?”

“You may know how to carry a gun,” replies Omen. “but you have no idea what we will face outside these walls. The Syndicate are brutal, they stop at nothing to get what they want. You don’t even know what the outside looks like other than your cage and the greenhouse.”

“Listen here, you bandaged freak-” argues Alex.

“Enough! This isn’t about you two. It’s about the good of our friends and allies. So stop whatever is happening and go get ready, the mission is in 2 days,” snaps Sage.

Alex scoffs and storms out of the room. She couldn’t believe it, being treated like a child, a tool…an object! She didn't want to pair up with Omen, that man can’t make a decision to save his life!

“Mate, slow down will ya,” shouts Skye from the end of the hallway. Alex does not hear her from the raging embarrassment she just experienced. He embarrasses her every time he gets the chance to. He is an insufferable pile of smoke .

Sky grabs Alex by the arm, which only irritates her further. “Let go!” she said as she yanked her hand away from her friend. She looked at Skye, a hurt expression plastered on her face. “I’m sorry, it’s just he irritated me and-”.

Alex then let out a big sigh. She was angry at Omen; it wasn't fair for her to snap at one of the few people who had shown her genuine kindness over the past few months. She smiles as she wraps her arm around her friend and jokes, “How about a meat pie? I need to have more meat, you know…using blood and all that?”

“Alright, but you do all the chopping,” chuckles Skye.

For the next two days, it was the same routine: wake up, train, go over the plan (over and over again) with Sage and the others, do more training and sleep. Then the mission day rolled around. Alex started getting herself mentally ready as the sun gave its last light of the day. She wore her gear and took one more look outside her bedroom window, not knowing what she might expect.

Chapter Text

As with every mission; the helicopter lands a few kilometers from the site. It was to not draw attention and make every Syndicate on their tails. Alex stepped down from the helicopter, knees weak and with insane vertigo. It was expected on her first ride on a helicopter. She kneeled and placed her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.

“You alright?” asks Skye.

“Yeah, it's just the height was too much,” breathes in Alex.

“Come on blood bender, the fun hasn’t even started yet,” teases Yoru.

“You better hope that I can't reach that dimension of yours. Cause that the only place you can run to after I-”

“Enough, let’s get moving,” interrupts Omen.

Alex gives him a nasty glare, to which he responds by ignoring her and moving past her. She let out a mocking breath and started walking towards the hotel with Skye by her side.

They took shelter near an abandoned alley near the hotel. “You may begin,” Sage says in the earpiece. Given the cue, Skye releases her two hawks, which then fly up to the building and scout each side of it.

“It’s damn near impossible to go through the entrance, the Syndicates have every angle covered,” explains Skye.

“Let me have a look,” suggests Cypher. “According to the blueprints, there is a sewer system that leads to one of the bathrooms on the first floor. Omen and Alex can go through it while the rest can distract the guards.”

“How do we get to the top floor? I’m pretty sure we can’t just waltz in,” asks Alex.

“Well, that’s what a sneak mission is for, little one,” laughs Cypher.

Alex gives a small giggle and says, “Alright alright, let’s get on with it.”

Skye releases her dog to check the sewer's entrance route. “All clear, move out. Please stay safe,” says Skye to Alex.

“Always.” Alex flashed a smile towards her friend and started walking towards the entrance of the sewers, with Omen right behind her. They didn’t speak on the way, each drowned in their own thoughts. As they reached the entrance, they looked down to see a manhole covering it.

Omen then walks towards it and slowly wedges his fingers under it, raising it to reveal the entrance. Alex slowly descends down the sewers, while Omen follows her and closes it behind them.

They emerge from the other side of the sewers, appearing from the opening in the bathroom wall. They slowly start walking towards the door, where Omen opens it to check if there is anyone outside.

“Before we leave; it’s shoot on sight, bloodwitch. Do you understand?” asks Omen.
“No, I was going to let them take a shot at me first,” replies Alex sarcastically.

“This isn’t a joke,” snaps Omen, towering over her. “Shoot. On. Sight. Are we clear?”

“Yes, we are clear. Can we move on with the mission now?” complains Alex.

Omen stood there looking at her for a second, making sure what he said sank in. Alex responded by holding eye contact with him, looking extremely agitated. He then turns around and slowly opens the door, leaving the bathroom.

“We’re in,” says Alex into her earpiece. “Start the distraction.”

Alex started to hear noises and gunshots in the distance. Omen looks back at her giving a slight nod, indicating that they can move now. They slowly make their way to the staircase, as they open the door they hear the faint sound of a conversation between the guards.

“Two of them up the stairs, get your weapon ready. We are going to take them out quickly,” whispers Omen.

She gave a quick nod before she pulled out her ghost, slowly racking the slide on her gun. Omen proceeds to cock his sheriff’s hammer in response. They quietly start to ascend the stairs, closing the space between them and the guards.

As they were moving along the stairs, they got into positions to shoot. Suddenly, Alex caught a shadow from the corner of her eye. She turns around towards the end of the stairs and aims her gun at him.

She trained for this moment for weeks, aiming and pulling the trigger over and over again. But, hesitation took over. This is a living breathing human, she couldn’t end someone’s life like it meant nothing. It all came in a flash, her thoughts overwriting her judgment.

Omen then turns around where he immediately puts a bullet in the guard's head. He then quickly repositions his gun, taking out the other guard who's on the higher side of the staircase. Alex drops her gun and clasps her hands on her mouth. She started to hyperventilate, they're dead- he killed them.

Omen in a fit of rage grabs the sides of her arms and slams Alex against the wall. He then screams, “What the hell are you doing?!”

“I- I couldn’t,” she says in a whisper.

“You could’ve cost us our lives, YOUR life! These people have no mercy. My body and yours are a constant reminder of that. Do you understand? You see anybody who isn’t us YOU SHOOT," he continues as he shakes her slightly to make sure she understood every word.

“Ok…ok I understand,” says Alex on the verge of tears.

Omen gently lets go of her. He tried to compose himself while she went down to grab the gun. As she was going down, a guard went down the stairs ready to put a bullet in the back of Omen’s head. He turns around to defend himself only for him to see a bullet pierce the guard's head, right between the eyes.

He turns around to face Alex, where he sees a shaking figure with tears dripping down her face. She did it…she finally shot someone. He slowly takes a moment before he says, “Exactly like that, it's either us or them. Do you get it now?”

She doesn’t answer. Alex just composes herself while wiping the tears from her face. She then gradually walks past Omen, going up the stairs. Omen stands there for a second, taking everything in…she is going to have a hard time dealing with this.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

They proceed to make their way up the staircase to the last floor. Omen steadily opens the door, leaving just a tiny crack for him to look through. He notices the cameras that are lined up on the right side of the corridor. He then closes the door and whispers into his earpiece, “Cypher, there are cameras.”

“Say less friend,” answers Cypher. He then continues to hack into the cameras and replace the live footage with a looped one to not draw attention to them. “Done.”

Omen then turns around to cue Alex for their next move, but he stops in his tracks. She looked defeated and exhausted, what she did stained her ability to focus, yet she knew how important this mission was, but she just…stopped.

“You did the right thing,” he reassures her. She breaks off from her trance then looks up to him and whispers, “Did I? He’s dead, Omen.”

“If you didn’t kill him I’d be gone, and I’m grateful for that.” He then opens the door a bit, cueing for her to watch the left side. She looks at him and then gives him a defeated smile. When getting back in position, Omen slams the door wide open and both take position facing the opposite directions…there’s no one.

“What is going on? Skye said it was filled with Syndicates,” questions Alex.

“I don’t like this. Skye, do you copy?” asks Omen.

No response.

“The signal must be jammed here, I can still hear the gunshots, so they must still be stalling. Let's move,” continues Omen.

Alex gives him a nod before they start moving towards the control room. As they were turning a corner, Omen suddenly stopped in his tracks and put his arm out, blocking Alex from moving forward. He then slowly guides her back a few steps before he signals her with the number two… two guards ahead.

He grabs his arm where he summons his blind, he then positions himself towards the guards and releases it. A second later, Alex forms a spear of blood and throws it directly at one of the guards, immediately shooting the other one after him. She saw them drop to the floor, their bodies empty of their souls.
Before she could process anything, Omen placed his hand on her shoulder and walked past her, signaling that they should move forward. He then proceeds to pick up one of the guard's hands and use his fingerprint to open the office door.

“Eye biometrics needed,” says the recognition software. Omen scoffs as he removes the helmet off of the guard’s head, revealing his face. Alex stood there in shock, slowly studying her victim's face. The eyes, the mouth, all lifeless…because of her.

She snapped out of her trance as the sound of the alarm goes off. Red lights flared against every surface, providing the only means of sight for the two agents.

“Ale-....Gua-....M-”

“Skye?! What’s wrong? What happened?” answers Alex.

“Guar-...ret…”

“What?”

“The guards are retreating! They are heading your way!” screams Skye as the connection is finally established.

The two agents quickly exchanged a worried look before it was interrupted by the sound of marching footsteps from the staircase, followed by the ding of the elevator next to it.

“Inside. NOW!” screams Omen as he opens the door to let Alexis in, closing it behind him.

“What are we going to do?” asks Alex.

Omen quickly analyzes his surroundings, all the windows have been sealed off by impenetrable sheets of metal. There was no exit from this room. He then quickly spots the computer and a bookshelf near the door.

“Block the door with the bookshelf. I will get the information off the computer,” commands Omen.

Alexis looks to her left where she sees a huge bookshelf towering over her. She immediately runs towards it and attempts to push it to block the door, but it won’t budge.

“Omen! I can’t,” screams Alex.

Omen gives a quick glance towards her before he looks back at the computer, 75% done. The guards started to try to break down the door open. Alex instinctively ran towards it and blocked it with her body.

“Omen! PLEASE!” pleads Alex.

100%. Omen removes the USB drive and shoves it in his pocket. He then starts pushing the heavy desk towards the door, Alex times her retreat the second Omen uses the last push to secure the door.

Alex breathes heavily as the door continues to bang. “What now?” breathes out Alex.
“We need to get out of here,” says Omen as he starts thinking of ways to escape.

“We can’t communicate with the rest and it’s the top floor I doubt there is a secret pathway or a tunnel of some sort-”

“Wait,” interrupts Omen. “The banging stopped.”

In the heat of the moment, both of them didn’t notice that the banging stopped for quite some time. For a second, Alex seemed relieved but Omen’s body language remained tense, like something wasn’t right.

“Defense mechanism activated.”

Poisonous smoke started to secrete from the corners of the room, while the banging continued after its initial pause. They looked around for a moment, truly not knowing what to do. Alex paused for a second, she recognized the scent of the smoke…its Viper’s.

“Omen…it’s poison…it’s hers! We need to get out!”

Omen stabilized himself before he started to look around the room, searching every inch for an exit. He could not let Viper take anything away from him anymore, he promised himself to make sure of that.

“Teleport.”

“What?” questions Omen while rummaging around the room.

“Teleport to the roof! Get a signal and tell them to bring the helicopter here! Blow up the metal barriers on the windows!”

“I’m not going to leave you here, that’s a death sentence blood witch,” dismisses Omen.

He turns around giving his back to her, she immediately yanks his shoulder, making him face her.

“I have inhaled enough of her poison to last me a lifetime. I can survive! We do not have another choice, Omen. We will die!”

Omen looks at her for a second. She could see that he was thinking about every single step he had to take to do this and the time it took to do so. Calculating every move in order to save her.

“Please Omen, I’ll be fine…just go.”

Omen scans Alex in an incredibly slow fashion. He isn’t convinced of the plan but it’s the only one they got. He reaches for his arm where he removes a big chunk of his bandage.

“What are you doing?! You won’t be able to-”

“I’ll be fine. Use this so you don’t inhale as much,” insists Omen.

She grabs the piece of bandage and wraps it around the lower part of her face, covering her mouth and nose.

“Now go.”

Hesitantly Omen takes a few steps back, then turns into a darker form of himself, disappearing from in front of her. Alex gave a sigh of relief, but the moment was interrupted by a huge bang from the door. They moved the desk slightly forward. In response, she starts running towards the desk and pushing it, blocking the door.

Alex started to cough and it became hard to breathe. The bandage isn’t cutting it, she thinks. How does Viper… Her thoughts trail as she immediately remembers the picture Sage showed during the meeting…Her mask!

Alex held on to her breath and quickly removed the bandage from her face, putting it in her jacket pocket. She then pulls out a knife and slits her palm, blood gushing from it. Pulling her hand close to her face, she moved the blood toward the needed area and hardened it bit by bit, creating a mask. Perfectly protecting her.

She let out a breath and inhaled a small amount of air, making sure it wasn’t poisonous. She sighed in relief but was again interrupted by the pause in her resisting, leading the guards to push the desk to the front again.

She quickly pushed back the desk and started resisting the guard’s attempts to get in the room. Please, hurry up. While she kept enduring, Alex heard a faint static from her earpiece, “Mo- ay-”.

She couldn’t understand it at first. Between the constant banging of the door and the connection issues, her mind wasn’t in the best circumstances to understand. However, for a faint moment, she heard the whirring of a helicopter nearby. Mo- way-...what does she mean… After a moment she connected it, Move away! The helicopter! They are going to blow the wall away!

Alex immediately let go of the desk and sprinted toward the farthest corner of the room. She then pulls one of the leather couches to cover her before she yells, “Now!” A missile was released from the helicopter that blew away the entire wall, Alex in shock lowered her head down to protect it from flying debris. She then looks behind the couch to see Skye reaching out her hand for Alex to grab.“C’mon mate, let’s get out of here!”

Alex immediately jumped over the couch and started running towards her friend. She was interrupted by the desk being pushed forward, revealing one of the guards trying to wedge in. She quickly continues running and summons her wings where she gives off a flap, reducing the distance between her and the helicopter. She reached out her hand to grab Skye’s but while being middair the guard shoots one of her wings.

Omen in response shoots the guard down, while Skye grabs Alex and pulls her inside the helicopter. The helicopter swiftly turns around and leaves the scene. The mission was done…they got what they needed.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Alex kneeled on the floor of the helicopter before she removed her mask and started to violently cough her lungs out. Skye immediately rushes to her side and gives her a bottle of water. “Drink up, it will help with the coughing.”

Alex yanked the bottle from Skye’s hand and started to gulp down the water, leaving nothing but a drop inside. She started to pant heavily and looked towards the rest of the crew. Omen kneels next to her putting his hand on her shoulder. “Took you long enough,” jokes Alex between breaths. Omen chuckles softly as he removes his hand and slowly stands up, helping Alex get up on her feet.

“He teleported up the roof and immediately told us the situation. I’m just glad we already had the helicopter ready,” explains Skye as she hugs Alex tightly.

“I’m just glad everyone is alright,” responds Alex and she hugs back her friend. Looking behind Skye, she could see Yoru and Jett looking outside the helicopter opening.

“What is that?” asks Yoru as he points towards something in the sky.

Jett looks toward the direction that he pointed to and immediately realizes what it is. “Watch out!” she yelled as she dashed towards the flying missile and created a gust of wind to keep it from reaching the helicopter. The missile, however, overpowered her. Letting go of the missile, it hits the helicopter leaving a massive explosion behind.

All the agents scattered mid-air. Skye’s birds immediately flew and grabbed her. Jett sees Yoru’s unconscious body dropping rapidly to which she dashes towards and grabs him by the arm, keeping them floating in the air. Omen and Alex however, were swiftly meeting their doom.

Alex turns around to see Omen's senseless body a few meters away from her, smoke leaving his body. The bandages helped keep his body stable and so did his pure sense of commitment, remove both from the equation and you get… “Omen!” she yells. She tries to fly towards him only realizing that the explosion ripped her damaged wing apart.

She panics as she flaps her only working wing to reach Omen, grabbing his body and positioning herself under him. “Omen! You need to wake up! You’re letting go!” She looks down to see the ground getting closer by the second. She immediately grabs the bandage from her jacket pocket and starts wrapping his arm to stop the smoke from leaving, praying that it wakes him up.

After tying it, she looks at Omen, still unconscious. They were going to hit the ground at any moment. “Please! Omen! We are going to reach the ground. Please wake up!” Noticing his lack of response, she is left with no choice but to take the hit for them both. She wraps herself around him and clutches his head towards her shoulder, hugging him to reduce any impact towards him.

With a few meters separating them between freefalling and instant death, a hand clutches her waist, holding her even closer. It’s as if for a second she felt safe in a warm embrace. Dropping to the ground, a black mist covers their tracks, leaving them both lying on the ground.

Chapter Text

Between the sound of flying rubble and the screaming of the rest of the team coming to the rescue, Alex was going in and out of consciousness. The monotone sound of ringing in her ear kept her from understanding anything that was happening around her. After a few seconds of realization, her memory of the last couple of moments come to her in a rush.

“Omen…” she whispers. She turns around to see Omen lying next to her, not moving an inch. “No, no no no please…don’t,” says Alex breathlessly as she desperately starts to drag herself to him.

“I tried…I swear I tried, please just wake up,” she pleads.

Omen groans in pain, he let go for a moment…but this moment could have cost him everything. Everything he built, everything he worked hard for, all would’ve been gone if it weren’t for her.

He opens his eyes, meeting Alex’s for a brief moment. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she kept shaking him. “Oh thank god,” she said between sobs. “You wouldn’t answer and I thought-” her voice started to break as she watched Omen get himself up to a seating position. He lays his back against the building wall behind him as he looks at her…defeated.

He kept trying to fight these feelings away, he didn’t deserve the privilege of love. With all that happened to him and everything that he has done, why would fate give him something nice for a change? Something wasn’t adding up, he refused to give in to his feelings due to his past. But seeing her care, being vulnerable in front of him just made him want her even more…but barriers are put down for a reason.

“I’m fine. Just need a moment,” he responds.

In the midst of it all Jett lands slowly as she starts to check Yoru’s injuries. Skye’s falcons descend as they carefully place down their unconscious master. Sage, Brim and Pheonix were spotted running towards their fallen comrades, desperate to help.

Omen and Alex start to get up to meet the rest of their comrades. He stood up almost too easily, while Alex groaned at the pain of her leg. She leaned against the wall and looked down at her leg, it’s broken. She reaches her hand towards it, wanting to use her blood to ease the situation.

“No,” Omen objected. “Enough blood for today.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just make a cast so I can walk,” she dismisses.

Omen gently grabs her and carries her in his arms. “You're safe now. So, rest and I’ll take care of everything.”

She didn't know if his words were laced with a sedative, but her heartbeat began to slow down, adrenaline desiccated throughout her body. Alex slowly looked up at him as he started walking, avoiding her gaze. Alex felt the weight of the world being lifted off her shoulders. With that, she fell soundly asleep, resting her head on Omen’s chest.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

A day passed before Alex opened her eyes. Everything was spinning for a second, nothing was clear. She looked around but couldn’t make up the people who were around her. Her ears kept ringing, threatening to split her head right open.

“I can’t see…” she managed to whisper.

“Alex! You’re awake. Don’t worry, give it a minute,” answers Skye happily.

“I tried Skye,” she starts to sob. “I tried to save him, but my wing…”

Skye gave a look of confusion to Sage, which was met with her usual serious expression.

“Omen?” asks Sage. “Alexis, you managed to save him he is right-”

“I didn’t mean to kill him…I didn’t mean to….I tried,” she says between sobs and hiccups.

“Mate, you didn’t kill anyone. Omen is fine, don’t you remember?” asks Skye.

“I'm sorry…I'm so sorry….” before losing consciousness, Skye noticed a slight red streak in Alex’s eyes.

“Sage, did you see that?”

“I didn’t see anything, what is it?”

“Never mind, I’ll figure it out once she’s up.”

Alex continued to go in and out of consciousness all day, living scenarios that weren't real. As the night started approaching, she suddenly sprung out of bed, screaming bloody Mary. “Stop! Please! I can’t take it anymore!” she screeches.

Both Phoenix and Yoru jump to grab her arms, restricting her from doing any further harm to herself. “Sage what is going on with her?” grunts Pheonix, “It’s like she's possessed.” Sage snapped out of her serious expression, her eyebrows rose as the solution presented itself through Phoenix's idiotic expressions. “Not possessed…” she whispers. “Sit her upright, don’t let her move. Tie her up if you have to, I know what to do.”

Sage quickly leaves the room, leaving Skye, Yoru and Phoenix to deal with their raging comrade. A few moments later Sage returns with Omen. “She is hallucinating, using too much blood triggered Fade’s powers in her. She’s seeing nightmares,” explains Sage.

“Just kill me already!” screeches Alex and she tries to get out of the medical ward’s bed. “Please…” she pleads.

Omen’s body tenses up. He vividly remembers the same pleading, being screamed out over and over again…he never thought he would live the day to see someone else screaming it.

“Omen,” says Sage as she moves her head in Alex’s direction.

Omen sighed as he grabbed his arm and summoned a blind, carefully positioning it in his palm. “You had enough for this lifetime,” he says gently as he puts his palm carefully over Alex’s eyes. She tried to distance herself from his palm, fidgeting and grunting to be free. It was no use, by the time his hand was over her eyes, everything went dark.

The million thoughts that ran through her mind, the scenes that kept on replaying over and over again…they all stopped, he stopped them. She took shelter in his darkness, her breathing slowed down and tears ran down her cheek. Omen then removes his hand revealing Alex’s worried expression.

“Omen? Where am I…” her voice trails off and she sees the serious expressions on everyone’s faces. She looked down at her body, her legs were tied down and her hands locked in tight behind the bench’s back. Alex’s confused expression swiftly turned into a sad one, “I had nightmares, didn’t I?”

“Wait, you knew this would happen? A little heads up would have been nice,” complains Phoenix.

“You were screaming bloody Mary. We didn’t know what was happening,” explains Skye.

Alex moves her gaze towards Omen and simply says, “No one was able to stop them, not even Viper. They normally let it run its course. What did you do?”

“Fade’s ability focuses on visual images,” explains Sage. “What Omen did was basically…blind you from seeing them.”

“The darkness…that was you?” asks Alex.

“You are the key to moving forward with our mission. I just ensured that it stays that way,” replies Omen.

Go figures, of course, it’s for the mission. Such a liar thinks Alex. In reality, she knew Omen wouldn't truly say his true intentions. Given the circumstances and her insane fatigue, she couldn’t be bothered to push him.

“What now?” asks Yoru.

“For you? Nothing. Since you guys sped it up, the after-effects will only affect me going forward. Although untying me would be helpful,” explains Alex.

“After-effects?” asks Phoenix as he slowly burns down the rope tying Alex’s legs and hands.

“Normal nightmares. When I sleep, I’ll have normal nightmares until…I don’t,” calmly says Alex as she rubs her wrists.

“How bad are the nightmares?” questions Skye.

“Compared to this? Not bad, just stresses me out that’s all.”

What they didn’t know was that the nightmares never stopped. Every night they present themselves like clockwork, never letting her sleep. She was used to them, but when she was given that brief moment of rest, suddenly she craved it even more.

Alex looks around the room. The atmosphere is horrid and the grandfather clock at Sage’s office door shows that it’s way past midnight. This would have gone on for another few days without Omen’s intervention.

“You hungry?” asks Skye.

“Starving actually,” replies Alex.

“You lost a lot of blood, so let’s give you an iron-heavy meal.”

“At this point just grate straight iron on my food,” jokes Alex.

Skye giggles as she slowly helps her friend up. “Wait, my leg…” says Alex. “Mate that was nothing, Sage and I healed it up for ya,” smiles Skye. Alex looks at Sage giving her a tired smile as she walks next to her friend towards the kitchen.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

After her meal, Alex was placed in a medical bed to rest. She needed to be kept under observation in case the episodes came back. However, she could not rest, knowing what would happen when she attempted to do so. She was bored out of her mind, exhausted but the fear of sleeping overcame that.

She started to pace throughout the room, thinking of the mission, the nightmares she would eventually experience and the moment of peace that was given to her. For the love of god, is there nothing else I can think about? complains Alex. She turned around to see Sage’s office, completely empty. For a moment, she hesitated to enter it, but there was nothing better to do. She turns on the office lights and looks around. Endless amounts of paperwork filled her desk, neatly folded into two piles. Books hugged each other on the shelves, neatly placed in order.

Her desk was huge and the ergonomic chair was neatly tucked into it. This was Sage’s space, and Alex felt horrible invading it. She paced around making sure not to get too close to Sage’s stuff and hovered her finger over the books until one caught her eye, “Internal Struggle: Mental Health and Therapy”. She slowly takes it out of the shelf and replaces it with another book that's similar in size.

She didn’t know what was captivating her towards this book. Maybe because she did suffer internally, Alex just wanted to know what to do about it. She sat down on the floor and quickly scanned over the table of contents. Skimming through it until something unfamiliar caught her eye, Exposure Therapy.

“Exposure therapy is a psychological treatment that was de-.” She sighs in annoyance as she hasn’t read in a long while. “de-vel-oped to help people confront their fears. When people are fearful of something, they tend to avoid the feared objects, activities or situations.” Just like I'm avoiding sleep. She found this groundbreaking, this explains everything she was going through.

With excitement, she quietly continues to read the chapter. “In this form of therapy, psychologists create a safe environment in which to “expose” individuals to the things they fear and avoid. The exposure to the feared objects, activities or situations in a safe environment helps reduce fear and decrease avoidance,” reads Alex. She sat there in silence, thinking if this actually could help her not have nightmares anymore. Before she could plan anything, she heard the hallway door open. “Alex! I brought you some snacks, thought you would use the company.”

Alex quickly sled the book under the shelf and immediately left Sage’s office, closing the lights behind her. “There you are mate, why are you up from the bed? You should be resting.”

“Just pacing, can’t sleep.”

Alex looks behind Skye and sees two other people, Jett and… ”Alex, this is Reyna, she just came back from her mission,” explains Skye.

“Hello! I’m Alexis,” she shyly introduces herself. Given that she got used to the others, she still found it hard to talk to new people.

“Hola, I had to see the blood user for myself. I heard a lot about you pequeño,” replies Reyna.

“Pequeño?” asks Alex.

“Spanish for little one,” replies Jett. “You’ll get used to the language differences with time. For now, let’s eat.”

“Yeah I don’t feel like sleeping either!” says Skye in an excited tone.

She looked at all the girls sitting down on the floor, negotiating who gets which snack. Alex knew they were probably exhausted from her episodes and missions, but she felt glad knowing that they wanted to keep her company during hard times.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

After two days, Alex was able to leave the infirmary. However, she did not leave empty-handed. As people hovered over her day and night, she didn’t have the time to read through the book. She was at the end of the chapter by the time she was dismissed back to her room. Alex lived through another day, the night masked her secret as she pulled out the book when Skye fell asleep.

Using her flashlight, she reads the last part of the chapter, a quote. “One cannot get over their fears, if they do not face them.” With that being said, Alex slowly understands what she needs to do. She grabs her jacket, puts on the hood and leaves the room.

She quickly rushes down the stairs, heading towards the exit. Suddenly, Alex is faced with her new teammate: Reyna. “Oh, hello Reyna.”

“Hello, where are you going late at night?”

“Nothing, I just need to go for a walk. I’m not really that excited to go to bed. Excuse me”

Alex moves past Reyna and leaves through the exit. She, however, didn't really do a great job at hiding her intentions because after 5 minutes, Reyna slowly follows her outside the building, trying to figure out what the blood witch was up to.

Chapter Text

Walking through the cold night, Reyna followed Alex like a predator after its prey. Walking behind her through the nooks and crannies of the buildings outside of the HQ. Alex was clueless, she didn’t know that Reyna followed her, because Reyna didn’t want her to.

As Alex continues, she finds an abandoned building far enough from HQ, but close enough for her to scurry back before sunrise. She enters the building and starts to go to the top floor, with Reyna lagging behind her. Alex reaches the highest room in the building and sits down with her legs crossed.

She can barely use Fade’s powers, the first time she used it was when she fought Omen, but it wasn’t effective. However, knowing the influence of Fade’s powers still lingers throughout her body, she takes advantage of them. She reaches her hand forward summoning a prowler, it starts walking forwards. With a slow tilt of her hand, she makes it turn. Alex then takes a deep breath before yanking her arms towards herself, making the prowler pounce at her, rendering her from seeing.

Her head snapped backward as she faced the ceiling. Her entire body clenched as fear took over it. Crumbling like a paper ball, red and black streaks covered her eyes, and teardrops trickled down her cheeks.

On the other side of the conundrum, there was a cold and dark cell. Between all the prisoners, one could feel a disturbance in her powers… Fade. She sat on the cold floor hugging her knees, slowly raising her head. She felt another presence in a realm she thought was her own. Fade gives a small grin before using the rest of her energy to enter the Nightmare Realm.

Her body turned into a dark red soul, drifting through the scarlet and black realm. She floats around taking in the sounds of the whispers and groans of the nightmares feeding on people’s dreams. Fade pauses as a new sight appears in front of her, a body. A body appeared there, crying.

Alex’s body rocked back and forth and she mumbled to herself, “No, stop…please…no more”. Alex’s voice was barely above a whisper, but Fade knew what was going on. She had seen more than enough cases, especially since she caused them.

Fade grins as she reaches out towards Alex’s body, her hand penetrating it and grabbing its soul. She yanked the soul out of Alex’s body, hearing nothing but the gasp of the soul behind her, Fade immediately merges her soul with Alex’s body.

Fade clears the visions from her eyes and plants a huge grin on Alex’s face. She takes a moment to absorb all her surroundings before she leans her head even further back and says, “Selam Reyna! It’s been a while.”

Reyna emerges from the shadows. She immediately knew who was talking to her as soon as her location was revealed, because no one could detect Reyna’s presence other than…her. “Fade,” says Reyna in an irritated tone. “What did you do to her?”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“She said she won’t say another word unless everyone comes to where Alex is,” Reyna explains to the rest.

“I don’t understand,” asks Skye worriedly. “Why would she put herself in a nightmare?”

“Exposure therapy,” explains Sage. “It's putting yourself in a situation you fear…until you don’t. The question is how did she know about it? She still doesn’t have any access to any networks or devices.”

A moment of silence filled the room before Skye connected the dots. “That’s what she was hiding! The book!”

“What book?” asks Phoenix.

“She was reading a book the entire time, in the middle of the night, she was hiding it! Do you have a book like that?” she asks Sage.

“Yes, she must have snuck it out when she was discharged. I didn’t even notice it was missing with everything going on,” complains Sage.

“She wanted all of us there, we need to move. Alex won’t hold on much longer,” says Reyna as she starts leaving the room.

“Omen, Skye, Brim, Yoru and Reyna will follow me to Fade. The rest, keep your eyes open, I do not trust this whatsoever,” commands Sage.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

After leaving HQ, they start moving towards the abandoned buildings where Fade and Alex reside. They discussed possible plans and reasoning as to why this is happening and what they should do if anything happens.

“What if the blood bender is working with Viper?” suggests Yoru.

Skye aggressively turns towards Yoru, as if threatening him with her presence. Both of them didn’t flinch.

“Use your brain for a second, why would she be working under the woman who basically robbed her of everything? In that case, this would make Omen a traitor as well, no?” argues Skye.

Omen slowly walks next to Yoru and gives him a subtle glare. Yoru in return gives a disapproved tsk before walking past them, catching up to Sage and Brim.

Omen and Skye look at each other for a second before she turns around and continues walking. Omen sighs as he looks towards the full moon, enhancing the snow’s shimmer on the ground. Snowflakes silently joined the rest of its kind on the ground, as they slowly descended from the night sky.

A moment of silence filled Omen’s mind, which was unusual. The only thing that filled his mind was how much he wanted to sit on the rooftop again, without ruining the atmosphere.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Reyna led the way toward the last floor of the building. It was freezing cold and the room was empty, except for a figure watching from the window, giving her back to them.

“Took you long enough, I was starting to think you wouldn’t show up,” she says.

“Alex? Mate, are you there?” asks Skye.

“Well technically yes, but the poor idiot didn’t know what she was up against,” says Fade as she turns around to face them.

“Enough Fade. Unless you have something to say, let her go,” says Sage.

Fade’s smile immediately disappears and she slowly walks toward Sage, she stands there face to face with her, their eyes not breaking contact for a second. Suddenly, Fade grabs Sage by the collar and shouts, “You think you can still bark orders after what you did?! We were all against that mission, but you and this old dog forced us to go through with it! KAY-O got disassembled right in front of our eyes, Astra is forced to stay in the Celestial Realm all the time and Harbor’s artifact has been sucking the life out of him! All because of your stubborn leadership!”

Sage in regret, breaks off eye contact and closes her eyes as Fade kept screaming. Yoru and Brim raise their guns towards Alex’s body in retaliation. Sage raises her hand to stop them.

“Go ahead! You will lose your precious blood witch! Don’t think I can’t see what you're trying to do with her! I have all her memories and thoughts, and unless you shut up and listen, she will keep reliving it over and over again!”

“That's enough!” interrupts Skye. She then lowers Yoru’s gun as she walks towards Fade and Sage. She grabs Sage’s shoulder and pulls her towards Brimstone, who had his gun lowered by Omen. “Either you speak or let her go. Where are you and the rest?”

Fade took a deep breath before she crossed her arms and looked at Skye. Skye’s heart broke, seeing her friend look at her in such a hateful way. As if yesterday's dinner didn't even happen.

“Finally, someone who is asking the real questions,” replies Fade as she looks at the rest. “Not long after that mission of yours, we were transported into the main laboratory. Viper wanted to collect as much data about our abilities as she could, nothing made sense until I caught a glimpse of this girl here.”

Fade points to Alex’s body before continuing, “Every month they transport us to another laboratory to hide from you. I counted 3 in total, we are currently being held in the second one. All I know is that it is a snow wasteland near the borders.”

“And Alex?” asks Skye.

“What about her?” replies Fade.

“What does Viper want from her?”

“Well, I need to guarantee my escape, no? If you can manage to release me from the lab, I’ll tell you the rest.”

“Fade,” says Omen in an irritated tone. “I do not trust anything you say. Let her go.”

Fade smiles as she slowly walks towards Omen, “What? Don’t like her like this?” she twirls before facing Omen again with a dead facial expression. “I know everything, too bad you're traumatized enough to not actually care about her.”

Omen in a moment of anger grabs Alex by the neck and starts to slowly add pressure. Fade starts to giggle while attempting to claw her way out of Omen’s grasp. Knowing it won’t work, her facial expressions slowly melt off of her face, revealing a very hurt look. “Omen?” echos Alex’s voice.

Omen immediately lets go of Alex. She falls to her knees and starts coughing. Her head facing the ground and her arms desperate to relieve the pain in her neck. However, a smooth transition happens. Alex’s cough merges with the sound of Fade’s laughter as she looks up to Omen grinning.

“Fade!” screams Omen in anger.

“As much fun as this is, she’s getting quite feisty and my powers can’t hold on any longer.” Fade gets up and starts walking towards the window. “You have a week before they transfer us to the next lab, make it count. Oh and Sage?”

Fade turns around to face Sage, who returns the gaze with a glare. “Maybe you can think of a better plan this time.” To their surprise, Fade pulls out a knife and stabs Alex in the abdomen.

“No!” screams Skye.

Fade pushed Alex’s body outside the window, and for a moment, they saw Alex return to her body, her face filled with terror. Yoru and Omen immediately teleport to the window, Yoru grabs Omen's arm as he extends himself outside the window and grabs Alex, dangling from the air.

For a second everything stood still, everyone was trying to understand what happened. Everything went wrong in a split second, and all that was done to fix it was pure instinct.

After that second passed, Yoru started pulling Alex and Omen up. She starts to hyperventilate, suddenly going from your worst nightmares to a stabbed abdomen and almost falling to her death triggered something in her.

Omen carries her in his arms and slowly sits down with her between his arms and legs, trying to keep her grounded.

“I- I can’t breathe,” she said between gasps.

“You’re fine! You just need to take a deep breath. Sage and I will heal you,” explains Skye.

Skye and Sage make their way towards Alex, Omen in return tries to get up to give them space. Alex however, grabs his wrist. He looks down only to be met with an anguished look, he knew what she wanted.

He looked towards Sage who gave him a nod of approval. He then sits right back down and pulls her back to him. His palm filled with smoke, gently covered her eyes. She heard and saw nothing. Alex felt comfort in that and she physically started feeling Sage and Skye’s healing working. Her breathing slowed down and was only met with the comfort of being around her friends once more.

Chapter Text

“It won’t heal!” complains Skye.

“It’s the knife, we need to slowly remove it and heal the space that it leaves,” explains Sage.

“But that’s going to hurt her like hell,” replies Skye.

“I know. Omen, you need to remove it. We need to keep healing her if this is going to work,” says Sage.

Omen looked at Alex, sweat dripping from her forehead as she used all her might to stay calm. “I’ll do it, let him focus on keeping her conscious occupied,” says Yoru.

“Be gentle, riftwalker. She won’t take it easily,” replies Omen.

Yoru nods and then looks at Brim, “Hold her down. Don’t let her squirm.”

“Everyone ready?” says Skye.

Everyone is in position. Skye and Sage prepare their healing abilities, while Brim and Yoru hold her body and the knife, respectively. Omen maintains his blind while Alex holds onto the hand that's covering her eyes.

Slowly, Yoru pulled the knife from the wound. Skye and Sage immediately started healing, the screams hindered any thoughts from registering.

“What is going on?!” Alex screeched. “Just yank it out of me for the love of god!”

She squirmed and fought, her screams louder than usual. She could not hear or see anything, Alex just felt the pain. The cycle continued for a few turns, Yoru pulling the knife slowly while the healers did their job.

In a moment of pain, Alex couldn’t take it any longer. She didn’t know what was going on, or what they were planning, she just wanted to end the pain. In a split second, she reaches over to the knife. Omen in retaliation, lets his hand go from her eyes and tries to grab her hand, but he was too late.

Alex had yanked the knife from her abdomen, slowly gaining her sight and hearing back. Before she could react, Sage hastily summoned an ice orb and froze Alex’s wound, denying it from losing any more blood.

Alex frees one of her legs and slams it against Brimstone’s face, rendering her free. Before anyone can grab her, she disappears into a mist, leaving nothing but a trail of red before reappearing behind them.

“Enough,” she says breathlessly. “I am beyond exhausted. Nothing is clear, no one explains anything. I’m constantly out of the loop, yet I am always in the center of it all.” Alex looks down at the knife she yanked out of her abdomen, then hesitantly looks down at the frozen wound on her upper stomach. “I-” she lets out a heavy breath and pulls the bloody knife towards her. The blood on it gives a small shimmer before zooming into her palm.

They all stood there, not knowing what she might do. She was right, they kept her out of everything in fear that she was with Viper, only telling her last minute. They all looked at each other, filled with guilt.

“Alex, mate. Let’s talk about this,” suggests Skye.

“No, don’t come closer. We are doing this my way now,” she glares at each and every one of them. “And don’t think I didn’t notice your little portal next to me Riftwalker. Fade was caught up in the moment to notice it, but I’m fully aware of it. Remove it.”

Yoru looks at Brimstone for a moment, as if asking for guidance. “Don’t look at him. Look at me,” commands Alex. “Remove it, or I will send a spear into your overly blue self.”

“You need to calm down. There is no need for all this,” says Omen.

“What, is that the only line you know? I’m tired of being calm. None of you know what to do with Viper,” explains Alex as she points the knife towards Omen. “And you, for someone who had his entire body shredded, seem to be perfectly calm towards her.” Alex let her words slowly sink into each member of the team before continuing.

“I’ve been here for months!” A sudden shift in her tone sends a shiver down everyone’s spine. “For months I have been training, learning and understanding. All on my own! Because all of you dropped every ounce of hope you had in me after the last mission!”

Alex continued to talk, taking long strides at her side of the room, making sure no one took a step closer. Her hands shaking, eyes pulsing a bright red color. “So here is what is going to happen.” She sends her knife flying, breaking Yoru’s gate and ricocheting back to her like a boomerang. Alex then using the knife opens a huge wound in her palm and splatters her blood on the floor, spears appearing and dividing them apart.

“You are going to go back to base and sort everything out. After you are done, you will return and give me every single boring detail you had discussed. Understood?”

“And you? What will you do in the meantime?” says Sage as she crosses her arms and glares at Alex.

“I’ll let you know when the time comes. For now, hurry along before my patience runs thin,” threatens Alex.

“And who are you exactly to be giving out orders? You can’t even fight one of us, let alone all of us,” says Yoru.

Alex simply looks him up and down. She sighs as one of her spears breaks off the wall and shoots itself towards Yoru, Yoru immediately jumps out of the way, saving himself from Alex’s spear.

“You missed,” says Yoru as he gives off a flashy smile.

After glancing at Alex, the thought dawned on him. One of her arms was wrapped around her waist, while the other rested on it, extending her palm outwards. “Did I?” she says as her palm closes, sending the spear right through Yoru’s shoulder.

Omen takes advantage of Alex’s distraction and swiftly teleports next to her, attempting to pin her down. Alex however, disappears and reappears behind him, positioning herself to kick him in the head. Before she could do that, she spotted Brimstone’s gun aiming towards her. In retaliation, she grabs Omen and moves him in the direction of the crossfire. At the last second Brimstone holds his fire while Alex immediately pushes Omen away from her.

She pulls out the knife and positions it perfectly on her neck. “Enough, anyone moves and I spoil your little plan.”

Everyone suddenly stood perfectly still, as if they stared into the eyes of Medusa herself. Time stopped, merging the past, present, and future into one. “Hm, didn’t expect that much of a reaction over me. That means you had more plans than you let on.”

“Alex, don’t do this. Let me heal Yoru, please,” pleads Skye.

“Heal him. Out of everyone, you were the only one who took the time to know me. That’s why you also withheld information from her, didn’t you? She was never in any of your meetings or your obvious hallway gossip sessions.”

Skye closed her eyes in guilt as she started to heal Yoru. “Couldn’t even trust the only other healer in your team? You guys are more broken than I thought.”

“Why are you doing this?” demands Brimstone. “You were cooperating before…”

“Before Fade?” interrupts Alex. “Well Brimstone, not only was she able to see my thoughts and memories, but I was able to see hers too. I know everything, and to avoid similar things happening, I’ll be in the loop from now on. So like I said, leave. I’ll be meeting you in the morning.”

Everyone stood for a second before Sage gave a heavy sigh and said, “You heard her, nothing else to do about that. Let’s go,”

“That's it?” complains Yoru. “We are going to let her do whatever she wants?”

“If you don’t want another spear through you; I suggest you move,” points out Omen.

Yoru suddenly stands up and faces Omen in anger. Omen, however, stood very comfortably, as if a lion cub challenged its king to a fight. Knowing that he cannot compete in his condition, Yoru retreats from his attempt and limps towards the door. Skye remained where she was. Sitting on her legs as she looked at the ground, defeated.

“Let’s go, Skye,” says Omen.

Skye snapped out of her trance and sadly looked at Alex. With her back turned to them, she looked outside the window with both her palms flat on the concrete. It was a freezing night, and the coldness of the concrete near the very poorly ventilated window was a clear reminder of that fact.

Skye stood up and accompanied Omen towards the door, leaving her friend to fend off against the freezing cold.

“It all went so wrong,” rants Skye. “I mean sure, they didn’t trust her but like she’s legit the main part of the mission, y’know?”

Omen gradually let Skye keep ranting. Omen isn't much of a talker, he would prefer to passively listen instead. His thoughts were also consuming his mind. He was digesting everything that happened, wanting to plan what to do when moving forward.

“Are ya even listening mate?” complains Skye.

After a long trance, something connected in Omen’s mind. “Sage froze her wound,” he says as he stops walking.

“And?” replies Skye.

“She only has a jacket,” he continues. “And her wound is filled with ice. She’s going to freeze there.”

Not knowing what to do, Skye replies, “So, what's the plan?”

Omen stood there in the dark alley, he looked back towards the direction where Alex is. “We can sneak in some supplies into a duffle bag, I’ll teleport to her. We need to hurry.”

With a serious expression, Skye nods towards Omen, They immediately start running towards the base, not having a moment to waste.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Alex laid down on the cold and unwelcoming floor. She looked up at the ceiling and began to go over everything, piece by piece. She could not help the heavy sigh from escaping her body, and a few tears accompanied it, uninvited. She was caught in the drift, drowning…not knowing what to do. The complication of the matter made her so exhausted, she yearned to make sense of everything. Needing a moment to reflect was a desperate attempt to remove all other hindrances from attempting to influence her view on whats going on. Her thoughts, actions, and most importantly, her feelings.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the eerie sound of a being teleporting. Alex gave an annoyed sigh before she wiped her tears and looked in its direction. Still on the floor, she turns her head to be met with a shadow being, glimpses of red streaking over his body, blood-colored eyes staring into her soul. For a moment, she had forgotten about Omen’s abilities. But before she could react, he appeared before her, carrying a duffel bag.

“What do you want?” asks Alex. “Can’t I be alone with my thoughts for a day?”

Omen remained silent. He released the duffel bag from his shoulder and unzipped it. He then started to take out one thing at a time. A thick blanket, a heavy jacket, 3 wooden logs, a matchbox, water, a thermos…

“What is this?”

“Skye thought you needed supplies. She is on her way, she got more clothes and other things you might need.”

“I don’t need it,” snaps Alex.

Omen continued to ignore her, carefully placing everything on the floor. He then grabs the blanket and walks towards her. Alex maintained her glare, waiting for a reason to unleash her anger.

Omen wraps the blanket around her and turns around to go back to the duffel bag.

In a burst of anger, Alex removes the blanket and starts screaming, “What is wrong with you?!”

Omen remains silent.

“You save me over and over again, keep giving me signs, and then after all of this when I finally think I figured it out, you just shut yourself off!”

Omen stops what he is doing.

“Then you show up here to help as if I needed any in the first place. I don’t get it, make up your mind Omen. Between missions and training, you are the only thing that I can never make sense of!”

He slowly starts walking towards Alex. She continues her rant, while slowly backing off from Omen. Tears build up in her eyes and she chokes up on every other word as if she was suffocating on a stone. When she notices her tears, she quickly lowers her head to hide the raging river that is escaping her eyes.

Omen gently raises her head, his hand fitting itself under her chin. His thumb slowly erases the traces of tears from her cheek. He then says, “You deserve so much better than me, bloodwitch. I have nothing to give you.”

For a second, for a heartbeat, for a moment…Alex let that sink in. She was filled with confusion, fear, pain, and most importantly, anger. It felt as if her heart shattered to pieces, as if it stopped beating and her body ached from the constant tension. Her tears stop following, knowing they are not worth falling for such an ordeal. “What’s that supposed to mean?” says Alex barely above a whisper. “You never loved me?”

Omen’s entire body tensed. He was avoiding her gaze, but as soon as those words left her mouth, his eyes gravitated towards her face. Her expression no longer sad, but hurt. His inner voices screaming and shouting, no, that's not it. But before he could do anything about it, his inner battle was silenced by the creaking of the door.

“I'm back! It’s freezing out there!” Skye suddenly takes in the reality of the situation in front of her. She looked at Omen and Alex, tears running down her pale face. “Mate, I left ya with her for 30 minutes, can ya stop making her cry.”

Omen’s body tensed up and was met with the emptiness of his hand as Alex backed away from his clutch and started wiping her tears. “Don’t worry, nothing worth crying about anymore.” Omen’s stomach dropped, this entire situation could have been avoided if he wasn’t insistent on believing he didn't deserve love after everything that happened to him. He took a deep breath before collecting himself again, At least it’s over now.

“I brought ya some jumpers and Pjs,” explains Skye hesitantly. “And other stuff…”

As Skye’s voice drifted off, Alex took the backpack and thanked Skye for the stuff. She then returns towards the duffel bag and says, “You can go now.”

With no hesitation, Omen starts walking towards the door, not sparing a single second.

Skye grabs his arm and goes, “Uh where do you think you’re going ya bloke? We won’t leave Alex.”

“I’m fine, Skye,” replies Alex.

Skye’s blood starts to boil. Alex was being stubborn, but Skye took a deep breath and replied, “If they see us in a short while, they will know we gave ya stuff. Then we will be in trouble. Just let us stay till dawn and we will leave.”

“Enough, Skye. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” whispers Omen.

Alex gave a long stare towards the duo and replied, “Till dawn, then you go meet them before they come here in the morning.”

“Yes ma’am!” says Skye cheerily. She grabs Omen and pulls him towards the stuff that's scattered on the floor. “Light the fire, will ya Omen.”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

The night was filled with laughter between Skye and Alex. They sat down and talked all night, forgetting all of the world’s worries for a few hours. All three of them surrounded the fire, Omen lying on the floor giving them his back.

“I almost forgot! I got ya a book, since you’re so into reading nowadays,” jokes Skye.

“Oh please, Sage barely had anything interesting. You’d think she’s a walking encyclopedia for god’s sake,” complains Alex.

“Here, I'm going to finish up my bird statues in the meantime. The idiots broke their wings while flying and I have to make them new bodies or they are useless.”

“Are they the same two birds?”

“Yeah, I just move their souls from one statue to another. They tend to break themselves a lot for wise forest creatures.”

Alex chuckled for a second before both of them tended to their own hobbies. Another hour passed before Alex felt a wave of weakness rush through her. Her hands and feet cramped up and it felt like the room's temperature plummeted. She felt a rush of tiredness hit her, everything slowly turning to black.

Alex drops her book and faints onto Skye's lap. “Already tired are ya mate?”

Silence.

“Alex?”

Omen turns around in response to Skye’s sudden change of tone.

“Alex, mate. Can you hear me?”

Skye starts shaking Alex, she accidentally touches her face. Ice cold.

“Omen she’s freezing, we need to get her back to the base. Carry her, I’ll get the stuff.”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Amid the snow, Skye and Omen slowly made their way to the base. Snow reached their knees and the cold slowed them down. Alex was going in and out of consciousness, before finally becoming awake enough to realize what was going on.

“...down,” she barely whispers.

“Hold on mate, we’re almost there!” screams Skye in the midst of the whistling wind.

“Let me down,” she says before wriggling herself.

“Enough, you can’t walk,” says Omen.

“I said, let me go!” she kicks Omen and falls onto the snow, making the situation worse. “Don’t touch me, I can walk.”

“Now is not the time for your stubbornness!” screams Omen. “Let’s go!”

He tries to reach out to grab her but she immediately backs off.

“Fine, walk if ya can, you faint again that’s on you,” says Skye in an annoyed tone.

The three of them kept walking at a much slower pace. Between the cold and Alex’s inability to keep herself balanced, they were freezing.

“We’re here,” says Skye.

As soon as Alex heard that, she felt the adrenaline disappear. The only thing she could see was her entire body shift and hit the snow as Omen turned around to check on her.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Sage!” screams Skye. “She’s freezing to death, help her!”

“Lay her down near the fireplace,” replied Sage.

Skye lays Alex down near the fireplace. “How come the shadow mummy didn’t carry her?” asks Yoru.

“She didn’t want him to. They had a blue.”

“A what?”

“A fight you flamin' idiot.”

Sage lifted Alex’s shirt to reveal Alex’s iced wound. “It’s lowering her body temperature. We can’t remove it.”

“Torch it off! I don’t bloody care, find a solution!” screams Skye.

“Watch your tone, Skye. This is not regular ice, if it was I would have told Phoenix to melt it off.”

“I’ll watch my tone when you start treating us like teammates, not subordinates.”

Sage stands up and walks towards Skye. Face to face, Skye is instinctively ready for a fight. “I’ll start treating you like teammates when you stop going behind my back.”

“Listen here you little-”

“What if I gave her my powers?” asks Phoenix.

“What?” says Skye.

“That was the plan anyway. Slowly giving her our powers, making her a weapon against the Syndicate. Basically, a double version of almost every one of us.”

“Phoenix!” snaps Yoru and Sage at the same time.

“Enough secrets, man. Look at us. We are fighting and arguing against each other, while we all have a common enemy.”

Sage let Phonix’s words sink in. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, analyzing everything for a second. “Fine. It’s much earlier than we planned, but we can do that. However, we are missing a key component. A microchip.”

“A microchip?”

“Yes, it’s what makes the blood stay in her system. If the chip is placed with the blood for a while it will sync up with a mixture of Alex’s blood and the other person, it will merge them into one.”

“Ok then, let’s go get it,” says Skye.

“That’s the problem. There is only one person who sells and produces them and I hate dealing with him.”

“Who?” asks Skye.

Sage hesitates for a second, before saying in an annoyed tone, “Chamber.”

Chapter Text

“Chamber?” asks Phoenix. “The Frenchie?”

“Yes Phoenix, the….’Frenchie’,” answers Sage. She was clearly annoyed.

“I thought you swore never to go back to him,” he replies. “Especially after what happened before.”

“Well, we dont exactly have a choice, Phoenix!” shoots back Sage angrily. “It’s either we deal with that backstabbing traitor or let her freeze to death. We won’t be able to get back Astra and the rest like this.”

Sage holds the bridge of her nose, her eyebrows scrunched in stress. The others noticed her current lack of ability to trust her gut anymore, she couldn't make last minute decisions like she used to. It was all because of the incident, which made them lose their comrades.

Brimstone immediately stepped forward. He allowed Sage to make decisions and lead with him. Both of them lead the team against the Syndicate together, but sometimes, it feels like Sage is losing her edge every now and then.

“Skye and Phoenix stay here with Alex. Phoenix warm her up as long as you can. Sage and I will take Reyna, Cypher and Yoru with us to go find Chamber. We leave at first light so everyone go get some rest.”

Everyone but Phoenix and Skye left the room. Skye looked exhausted, dark bags formed under her eyes. Covering her pale and freckled skin. Although Phoenix had a cheery and humorous personality, he toned it down and took charge.

“Skye,” says Phoenix. “I’ll take care of her, go get some rest.”

“I can’t leave her,” she answers tiredly.

Phoenix gently carries Alex. His body tenses against her cold touch. He is used to constant heat, the cold is foreign to him.

“Let’s go then,” he says. “We will take her to the infirmary. I’ll warm her up while you rest.”

“I told you, I can’t rest while she’s basically dying!” complains Skye.

Phoenix gives a soft giggle before he tilts his head, gesturing towards the exit. Skye weakly makes her way to the infirmary, with Phoenix closely behind her.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

When they reached the infirmary, Phoenix laid Alex down on the bed. He looked behind him to see a defeated Skye, sitting on the other bed.

“Skye, I promise to wake you up if something happens. Please rest,” asks Phoenix.

Skye didn’t have the energy to retaliate. She gazed towards Alex for a long period of time before dragging her gaze onto Phoenix.

“Promise?” she says.

“I swear. Just rest, I’ll keep her warm,” promises Phoenix.

Skye gives a tired nod before turning her back to them and immediately going to sleep. Phoenix gave a quiet giggle before he turned back to Alex. Phoenix raised her shirt to reveal the iced covered wound. He took a deep breath before extracting a fireball from his hands, dividing it into two. One for each palm.

“I’m sorry Alex, but I have to warm up the wound,” whispers Phoenix.

He gently places his palms on top of her abdomen, warming up his freezing comrade.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

On the other side of the struggle, the rest of the crew made their way towards the loudest and most luxurious part of the area, The Eternal City. A high maintenance and expensive environment is exactly the place that deserves a man such as Chamber. Or so he says.

“As loud as ever. Dios mío,” says Reyna in a frustrated tone.

“Split up,” says Sage. “Look out for any fancy restaurants or bars.”

“Looks like he is too high and mighty for alleyways,” comments Yoru.

Each member spread throughout the city, looking for the French businessman. They were not dressed in their usual attire, this was a stealth mission. The men wore exquisite suits, made with the most elite craftsmanship. While the woman wore the most elegant dresses, eye catching yet allowed them to move swiftly and maintain their agility.

Each restaurant and bar within the city had no trace of Chamber. “You would think a flashy guy like him would be somewhere around here,” says Yoru over the walkie talkie.

“Exactly,” says Reyna. “That’s why I found him immediately.”

“Where are you?” asks Sage.

“The Golden Bar. He is flirting with a rich woman,” says Reyna annoyingly.

“Ok, stay out of sight till we reach you,” says Sage. “He might leave if he sees you.”

“Weasel will lose his mind if he sees Reyna,” chuckles Brimstone. “Scared to death of her.”

Reyna gives a small giggle and slowly makes her way to the furthest table from Chamber, giving her back to him. She sits down only to be met by a confused look from the group of guys that are occupying the table.

“Are you joining us, love?” asks one of the guys, eyes never leaving hers.

“Well, obviously. She was quick to sit down with us,” jokes the guy next to her, putting his arm around her.

“Move your hand or I’ll break it,” threatens Reyna.

She turns around to look the guy dead in the eyes. Her eyes glew in a shade of purple, scaring him off. “I’m going to sit here and you will act like I do not exist, comprendido?”

The guys immediately backed off, too scared to do anything. Reyna looked behind her to check on what Chamber is doing, noticing the guys are dead silent, she looks back and shoots them a look screaming I said act normal! Which in response, they started talking and giving nervous chuckles.

Reyna looks towards the entrance, seeing her fellow comrades enter the bar, with Sage right in front. Sage wore a shimmery baby blue dress that complemented her complexion. Her hair tied in its usual high ponytail. She left no time to waste and immediately went towards Chamber.

Reyna is amused. Finally something interesting, she thinks. She stands up and glares at the men she sat with and says, “The reason why you don’t have a woman is because you don’t even know how to treat one right.” Reyna then joins up with Sage.

“Oui, mademoiselle. I guarantee you there are none like it. I only make high quality products,” says Chamber.

“Speaking of ‘high quality products,” interrupts Sage.

Chamber turns around, clearly annoyed for being interrupted. But his annoyance was cut short by his heart sinking at the sight of Sage smiling at him.

“Ah,” says Chamber. “Sage, what a- uhm superb surprise! As you can see, I'm with a customer now! I’ll make sure to contact you when I have a free opening on my schedule.” He turns his back to her and continues the conversation with the client.

Sage’s smile immediately dropped as she calmly moved her gaze towards the lady. She shoots her a dirty look, clearly expressing that she wants her to leave.

“I uh-” says the woman nervously, “I’ll take a raincheck on the order Chamber.”

The woman frantically collects her stuff and pays for her drinks. She dashes next to Sage towards the exit, avoiding her gaze.

Chamber, clearly annoyed, gives a frustrated sigh before going back to his personified businessman personality. Sage gracefully sits next to him. “I need something from you,” she says, straight to the point. “I will take it as payment for your past…” she pauses before looking straight into Chamber’s eyes. “Mistakes,” she illiterates.

The bartender gave her a glass of water before leaving to attend to other customers. She takes a sip of water before adding, “Free of charge.”
Chamber’s entire body froze as she uttered those words. Never in his life has he done something for free, and he is definitely not going to start now. “You humor me Sage,” he chuckles. “But I owe you nothing. What happened was purely business.”

Chamber turns around to leave, but is met with Brimstone and Yoru towering over him. He sighs as he says, “Gentlemen. Great to see you again.”

“Cut the crap,” says Brimstone. “You heard her, give us what we need and no one gets hurt.”

Chamber is clearly not amused. “Yes, I’m shivering in fear,” he says sarcastically.

Both men look at each other before chuckling. “Ok then, do it the hard way,” says Yoru.

Brimstone and Yoru moved towards opposite directions, facing each other, revealing Reyna.

“Hola,” she says. She gave a sinister grin, sending shivers down Chambers' spine.

“Ah,” he says nervously. “Mademoiselle Reyna! Such a pleasure to see you!”

Sage chuckled at his obvious nervousness and she continues to sip her glass of water.

“Is it now?” questions Reyna. “I thought you wouldn’t like to see me after last time.”

She walks closer towards Chamber, towering over him, not giving him a chance to escape.

“We need the microchips. The one you supply to your dearest Viper,” demands Reyna.

For a second, Chamber unclenched his entire body. A smile appeared on his face and he says, “Is that all? Well you should have said so!”

He leans his back towards the bar, arms supporting him. “Sadly, today is just not your day.”

He chuckles and raises one arm towards them, his middle finger and thumb taking the spotlight away from him. In less than a second, everyone attempted to grab him, but it was too late. With a snap, chamber disappeared from infront of the team, teleporting away from them.

“His field is small, find him!” commands Sage. She slams her glass on the bar counter before all of them spread out to find Chamber.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Chamber appears next to the back exit of the bar and swiftly leaves through the backdoor.

“Heh, too easy,” says Chamber.

The second he turns his head towards the back alley, he is met with a ghost. But before he could pull out his gun, Omen grabbed Chamber by the neck and slammed him against the concrete wall.

“The microchips,” says Omen. “Now.”

“How did you-” Chamber chokes.

“It was obvious with your disgusting yellow attire. You teleported as soon as you knew what they wanted. Just as I expected, now hand them to me,” commands Omen.

“I don’t have them,” says Chamber, struggling for air.

“I don’t have all day,” says Omen. “Are you really willing to bet your life on them?”

Chamber struggles to break free. Knowing he isn’t anywhere near as strong as Omen, he uses his utility. He summons a sheriff and aims it right under Omen’s ribcage.

“Go ahead,” says Omen. “Shoot. I can definitely hold you long enough to suffocate before dying again. Are you willing to take that gamble?”

Frustrated, Chamber lowers his weapon. “Alright, I’ll give them to you. Just let me go,” says Chamber, struggling between every breath.

Omen stands there for a second, letting Chamber feel one more moment of being on the edge of death, before releasing his grip.

Chamber clutches his throat, coughing and gasping, desperate for a breath.

“Move,” orders Omen.

Chamber gives him a glare before getting up and dusting himself off.

“This way. Follow me,” he says.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Returning to the base, Alex’s temperature continued to drastically drop.

“Skye,” calls out Phoenix.

In the depths of her sleep, Skye does not answer.

“Skye!” screams Phoenix.

Skye jolts and immediately gets up. “What? What happened?”

“She’s getting colder. I need your help,” he says as he removes his jacket.

“What do I do?” asks Skye.

“We need to carry her back to the fireplace, I need fire. I’ll bring some blankets in the meantime.”

Skye nods and quickly goes to Alex and carries her outside the room. Phoenix however, ran to the male dormitory and grabbed as many blankets as he could hold.

When he returned to the lounge, Skye says, “Phoenix. The blankets won’t work, she got even colder,” says Skye.

Phoenix drops the blankets, he took in the weight of the situation for a second before nodding his head and saying, “then I guess joke’s over. We need to buy them some time.”

Phoenix clenches his hands into a fist. His entire body tense as he opened his eyes, flames surrounding it’s exterior. His entire body lit in flames, radiating heat within its radius.

“I won’t be able to hold this form for long, go check where they are,” he says.

He quickly carried Alex and sat down next to the fire, holding her as close to him as possible. Her temperature no longer kept dropping, but Phoenix will not be able to hold on for much longer.

Skye bursts into the room, out of breath. “They lost Chamber. They came back emptyhanded,” says Skye.

Phoenix grunts in pain. He looks down at Alex, not knowing what to do. His thought is interrupted by a familiar eerie sound of Omen’s teleportation. Omen appears, next to him their Morrocan friend, Cypher.

“Ugh, I’ll never get used to that,” says Cypher.

After he teleported, Omen gave a quick scan to the room. His eyes immediately fell on Phoenix holding her. A thousand flames would not describe the fire that was lit inside of Omen. He was inflected with so many feelings he didn’t know which one should take charge.

Was it his sadness? Of seeing Alex at the verge of freezing to death? Or is it his anger? That everything that has happened is outside his control? Or was it his jealousy? Seeing another man easily be close to her in a way he can only dream of being?

As Omen had his sight fixated on Phoenix and Alex, the rest of the group ran inside to room.

“I- I can’t-” says Phoenix. He then disappears from where he was sitting and appears right where transformed. In pure weakness, Phoenix instantly faints and falls to the side, to be caught last second by his friend Yoru.

Disappearing from under her, Alex’s head quickly falls towards the brick wall of the fireplace. Omen, not removing his sight from her, teleports next to her and grabs her head before hitting the brick wall.

“I’ll get the chips ready, carry her to the infirmary,” says Cypher. “Bring Phoenix too.”

Omen instinctively went to carry Alex, stopping at the last second. “Riftwalker, you carry her. I’ll handle Phoenix.”

Yoru lays his friend down on the floor before giving Omen a confused look. Omen slowly lets go of Alex’s head and moves towards Phoenix, ignoring Yoru’s looks. Yoru, tired of all of Omen’s mood swings, walks towards Alex and carries her.

“She’s freezing,” whispers Yoru to himself.

Both Omen and Yoru set off to the infirmary, carrying their unconscious teammates.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Lay them both on the beds,” says Cypher as he continues to type away on his laptop.

After a few minutes Cypher whispers, “Done.” While he was getting the microchip ready, Sage took two blood samples. One from Phoenix and one from Alex.

In a large beaker, she added both their blood in them. Cypher then added the microchip. After a few seconds, the microchip started to whirr, mixing the blood together. The blood then darkened and small flickers of flame appeared. Sage takes a sample of the mixed blood and hurries to Alex, administering the blood into her system.

Silence filled the room, the only thing anyone can hear is the sound of their own heartbeats. No one knew if this is going to work. What if this whole thing was a lie made by Viper? What if the microchips were defective? All these questions ran through everybody’s heads.

“Is it working?” asks Skye.

“Her lips, they are not blue anymore,” points out Brimstone.

In a split second Alex’s body erupts in flames. It was a much darker shade than Phoenix’s, as if you would melt going anywhere near it.

“Alex!” screams Skye. She tries to reach her friend but is stopped by Omen grabbing her.

The fire calms down and Alex raises herself into a sitting position before opening her eyes. Dark crimson light radiated itself from her pupils, with a fire exterior covering its perimeter.

“Alexis?” says Sage.

Sage was met with silence. Alex gets off the bed and starts walking towards the exit of the infirmary. The others looked at each other, confused. They followed her all the way to the training grounds, where she started to put in the code.

“Alex, mate. Are you ok?” says Skye.

Skye tries to grab her friend's arm. But in a split second, Alex looks at her and raises her hand, ready to attack. Brimstone grabs Skye and pulls her to the back, avoiding Alex’s fire strike.

Alex, glaring at them, continues to put in the rest of the code before entering the training field and starting the bots. “What on earth is she doing?” whispers Sage. They were watching her from the glass window, in utter confusion.

The bots lined up like an army, marching towards Alex.

“Do we help her?” asks Skye.

“No, lets see what she can do,” replies Sage,

Alex raises her hands in front of her, palms facing the bots. She takes a deep breath and moves her hands towards her, before pushing them towards the bots. Alex exhales and releases a huge fire attack like no one has ever seen before. Fire so powerful, so big, that even Phoenix himself couldn’t muster. Watching from the window, everyone looks perplexed. Not knowing if they should be in awe or afraid.

After finishing her attack, the crew looks at the bots, completly melted. She then turns her head around, breathing out steam. Her eyes still glowing as before, sending each and every one of them a glare that could kill, before dissipating from her place.

“That was probably her ultimate. She must be back in the infirmary. Let’s go,” says Sage.

In the infirmary, Alex appeared, fire summoning her as she laid down. Yoru, who had not left his friend behind, is surprised to see her back here. The rest of the crew walks in, seeing Alex waking up.

“Alex, mate. You alright?” asks Skye frantically.

“You ask that a lot,” groans Alex. “I feel much better actually. It was cold then I had the weirdest dream.”

Alex looks at everyone and says, “You guys look dead.”

She then looks to her side to see an unconscious Phoenix. “Oh my god! Is he actually dead?”

She stands up and reaches over to Phoenix, in pure terror.

“What on earth happened?” asks Alex.

Everyone else looks at each other, silent. “You may want to sit down,” says Skye.

From behind everyone, a soft giggle can be heard. They all turn around to see Cypher turn his giggle into a full-belly laugh. “My friend. Like a true Phoenix, you rose from death.”

Chapter Text

“I was dying?!” exclaims Alex.

“What is the last thing you remember, Alexis?” asks Sage.

“I was in the building with Omen and Skye, and I was reading. And then….I remember snow. That’s it,” explains Alex.

Sage shakes her head, taking in everything Alex said. “Listen,” says Alex. “I don’t care about what happened to me. Can someone please tell me what happened to Phoenix?”

“He kept you warm,” explains Omen. “His blood saved you.”

Alex didn’t even make eye contact with Omen. Still angry with him, she grabs Phoenix’s hand and says, “Thank you, ‘mate’.” For a split second, Omen’s body became tense at the scene, but he quickly hides it and exits the room, blending in with the shadows.

“We are all exhausted,” says Brimstone. “Let’s go get some rest. Tomorrow there is no training, enjoy your day off.”

Alex looks at Skye and says, “You could use that. You look like a bus ran over you.”

Skye chuckles as she grabs her friend and hugs her. “You are going to be the end of me, mate,” says Skye weakly.

Alex chuckles and hugs her roommate back. “Let’s go rest, I miss my room,” she says.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Yoru carried me to the infirmary?” exclaims Alex. “Ugh, I need a shower. Why didn’t you carry me?”

“I carried you all the way to the base! You wouldn’t let Omen do it.”

“What?”

“Don’t you remember? You literally kicked him so he wouldn’t carry you! Even when he wanted to carry you to the infirmary, he stopped at the last second. That's why Yoru carried you! Omen told him to.”

Alex sat on her bed, taking it all in. He respected her wishes, even though she doesn’t remember making them. But she couldn’t let that affect her decision; she made her feelings clear, and so did he.

“I can’t deal with him right now. He needs to figure himself out, and so do I,” says Alex. “I’ll be right back, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Skye nods weakly, her eyes already closed. Alex gave a small smile and thought, Yeah, she’s probably exhausted . She walks out of the room and sneaks towards the infirmary. She entered to find Yoru and Jett sitting on the couch, talking.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone would be here. I wanted to check on Phoenix,” says Alex.

“I was going to head to bed anyway,” says Jett. “Goodnight, Alex. See ya, Yoru.”

Yoru nods towards Jett. As soon as she leaves, his attention switches to Alex. “He’s fine, his ultimate has a time limit. He held on longer to keep you warm.”

He stands up and walks towards Phoenix’s room, “He’s awake if you wanna see him.” He continues walking but is stopped by something grabbing his arm. He turns around and looks at his arm, and then down at Alex.

She immediately lets go of his arm and says, “I wanted to thank you. For uhm, carrying me to the infirmary.”

Yoru gives an obnoxious smirk before turning around and saying, “Well, you were really heavy.”

Alex’s awkwardness suddenly disappears, with annoyance replacing it. “Every time I think there’s hope for you, you prove me wrong,” she says.

Yoru gives off a small chuckle before turning back towards Phoenix’s room and walking in. Phoenix laid there, drained of every ounce of energy he had. His back supported by a couple of pillows, his eyes closed to rest.

“You said he is awake!” snapped Alex.

At the sound of the whispering, Phoenix slowly opens his eyes. He gives a tired smile and says, “Yeah, I’m awake alright.”

“You good?” asks Alex.

“Burned brighter,” he says with a smile. “It’s alright fam, I’ll be good in no time.”

An awkward silence filled the room after pleasantries were exchanged. Alex wasn’t great with small talk, and she assumed those two weren’t either.

“Well,” says Yoru. “This is awkward.”

“You just had to say that,” complains Alex. “Anyways, I wanted to check on you. Get well soon, we have a lot of training to do.”

She gives him a quick grin before turning her back towards the exit. “Good night!”

Both of them wished her a good night before turning to face each other. “I don’t like this plan,” whispers Yoru.

“Can’t do nothin about that,” says Phoenix. “Whatever is going to happen is bigger than all of us, Yoru.”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

A week passed, and Phoenix was discharged from the infirmary. He became skittish and itching for some type of action. The agent ran towards the lounge and burst through the door. Skye, Jett, and Alex flinched at the sudden burst, while Reyna looked clearly annoyed. “Well, come on then, a fire that is out of control burns, Alex,” says Phoenix.

Alex put down her book and said, “We are training now?!”

“Well, if you don’t want to…” teases Phoenix.

“No, no, I’ll be right there. Just need to put my book back on the shelf.”

Phoenix flashes a giant smile before heading towards the training grounds. Alex, on the other hand, looks at the other ladies, fully confused.

“You better follow him or he will be back,” says Jett.

“Much louder this time,” says Reyna.

Alex quickly puts the book on the shelf and runs towards the training ground. She was excited for a change of routine; she had had enough sitting around to last her a lifetime.

“Ah, my disciple,” jokes Phoenix.

“Oh brother. Here we go,” says Alex.

“Hey! I’m trying to make it fun! No one can do what any of us can do, except you, of course.”

“So, where do we start? Small drills, summoning a fire-”

“You will learn everything today,” interrupts Phoenix.

“I’m going to what?” she replies. “Everything? Phoenix, I got your powers no more than a week ago.”

“And you will master it in less than a day. Trust,” says Phoenix as he puts on his jacket.

“First, the flash. You are going to snap your fingers, focus all the heat onto those two fingers…”

For the next few hours, Phoenix and Alex trained nonstop. They continued until Skye and two unknown men joined the training field.

“Oiy, fireboy! Sage needs us in the- Woah!” One of the men grabs Skye and pulls her away from the wall, while the other man finds himself on the other side of it.

“You fire chicken watch where you’re-” Skye’s sentence got cut midway once she realized who the wall belongs to. It wasn’t the usual shade of orange she was familiar with, but a much darker shade of red.

The wall goes down, and Alex runs towards her friend. “I’m so sorry. I still can’t get the hang of the wall. Is everyone ok?” she asks.

“All good,” says one of the men.

“That's some excellent skill for a beginner,” says the other one.

“Alex, mate, these are-”

“Iso and Tejo! What’s up, pals? Here for a rematch?” teases Phoenix.

“You wouldn’t survive another one, amigo,” jokes Tejo.

“Last time you got lucky,” answers Iso.

“There is nothing lucky around here, fellas. Just pure skills,” says Phoenix confidently.

Alex nervously looks at Skye. She has met other people before, but it has never become easy for her to do so. Phoenix caught a glance when looking at Alex, and he placed his arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her closer.

“Meet my new student!” introduces Phoenix. “Alex!”

“So you’re the new recruit,” says Tejo.

“It’s nice to meet you,” says Iso, bowing his head slightly.

“Hello, I’m Alexis. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” says Alex as if it were scripted.

Iso and Tejo smiled at Alex, Skye then grabbed her friend and said, “Sage asked us to go to the meeting room, let’s go.”

Phoenix and Alex looked at each other in a confused manner, then Phoenix said, “Whatever the boss wants, I guess. Lead the way.”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Hola everyone,” greets Tejo when entering the room. He glances towards Reyna, who gives him a subtle smirk. “Señora.”

“Hola Tejo, any contribution to the children of the sanctuary?”

“Always,” he replies.

Sage lands her eyes on Iso, changing her whole demeanor. “Iso! Nǐ hǎo ma? How is grandmother doing?”

All of them got into their own conversations before they were interrupted by Brimstone clearing his throat. Sage politely excuses herself from her conversation before joining Brimstone in front of the group.

“Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed your extended break. As you may know, we planned for only a day off, but due to Phoenix’s condition we extended it to a week. Welcome back, Phoenix.”

Everyone gave a round of applause to Phoenix. He soaked it all in with no humility whatsoever. “Due to that, we need to discuss the issue at hand and deal with it with the utmost urgency.”

Due to the change of tone, everyone’s faces transitioned to a more serious expression. “I’ll let Iso and Tejo explain the rest,” concluded Brim.

Iso and Tejo got up from their seats and exchanged places with Sage and Brimstone.

“Hello, everyone,” begins Tejo. “We got news from our allies that the Syndicate has been occupying a certain research facility.”

The slideshow then showcases a picture of the building, clearly indicating a lab of some sort.

“Is this the lab Fade talked about?” asks Alex.

“Yes, it is,” answers Iso. “We believe that they will ship her to the next research facility by tonight. We need to get her back if we wanna know more about Viper’s plans.”

“Our sources also indicated that Viper herself will be there to oversee the transportation process, so they may already know that we will be coming,” continues Tejo.

“So no element of surprise,” says Yoru.

“Sadly,” returns Brimstone. “Well, here is what we will do…”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

After discussing the plan, the agents went to the barracks and got the ammunition and gear they needed. Then they all started to get into the vans that would escort them to their destination.

“Actually, Phoenix, I need you to stay with Alexis,” says Sage. “Omen and Skye, too.”

“Why them specifically?” asks Alex.

“Phoenix will guide you since you do not have on-field experience with his powers. Omen and Skye are the most familiar with you, so they will also join you. Is that a problem?”

Phoenix and Skye enter the back of the van while Omen walks towards it. Both of them stare at each other for a second too long before Alex says, “No ma’am.” She then breaks eye contact and enters the van with him right behind her.

“Your second mission!” exclaims Skye. “Exciting, isn’t it?”

“They grow up so fast,” jokes Phoenix.

“You were literally my ‘teacher’ for one day,” says Alex.

“It felt like weeks,” he says.

The bickering and the laughter filled the van. Omen sat there as usual, in complete silence. He was getting into the right headspace; he needed to allow himself complete and utter control of his physical and mental state. Yet, every now and then, he could feel eyes staring at him. He opened his eyes and found that Alex instantly looked away. So much for focusing on myself, he thinks.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

A blanket of snow covered the land. Winter was at its peak, and all Alex could see were snowflakes elegantly descending from the sky. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers.

“Everyone knows what to do. Stand ready for the signal,” orders Brimstone.

Everyone leaves the vans and disperses into their given locations. Sova took the high ground in order to scout the perimeter, and Cypher, as usual, sat in his secret base, watching every move. The rest of the group, however, waited outside for Sova’s signal.

“It’s freezing,” complains Skye.

“For some reason, I don’t feel cold at all,” says Alex. “Phoenix, do you not feel cold due to your powers?”

“Girl,” says Phoenix. “Of course not. You and I are the embodiment of fire, baby!”

Alex chuckles while Skye rolls her eyes at Phoenix. As things quieted down, she looked over the distance to see Omen by himself, looking at the field of snow. A dark feeling inside consumed her. A voice whispered into her thoughts, Go to him, talk to him . It took everything in her to silence those voices, to not give in, and always be the person who reaches out.

“Mate, it's not that deep. If you want to talk to him, then do so,” says Skye.

“How come I always need to be the one to talk to him?” asks Alex. “He never starts a conversation. He hates me anyway.”

“Yeah, ‘cause he’s Omen. He’s like that with everyone; you need to understand that.”

“Yeah, but he made himself pretty clear, no? ‘I have nothing to give you,’ what a load of crap.”

“That’s because he genuinely has nothing to offer.”

“What?”

“Alex, put yourself in his shoes. I’m not excusing his behavior, but the man has nothing to offer. He is a pile of smoke that’s mentally occupied with keeping himself intact. Relationships take time and effort, two things he cannot offer.”

Alex sighs as she turns again to see Omen. She takes a deep breath and starts walking towards him, burying her ego. After being within a respectable distance, Omen turns his head and looks at her. He said nothing as he turned his head right back to where he was staring.

“I assume you don’t feel cold, do you?” says Alex.

“No. I can’t feel anything,” he replies.

“Does it bother you?”

“You get used to it.” He suddenly turns to Alexis and says, “Why are you here, blood witch?”

“God forbid I want to start a conversation,” replies Alex.

“You seem to do that a lot. Don’t you get tired of being let down every time?”

“No,” she says almost too fast.

“What?”

“I said no. If this is what it takes for you to stop this nonchalant act, then so be it.”

Before Omen could even start getting frustrated, Brimstone started talking into their earpieces. “Alright, everyone. Cypher and Sova scanned the entire place, the blueprints and maps will be sent to your phones. Mission will start in 10 minutes.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it. See you on the battlefield, soldier,” she jokes.

She then heads back to her group, her footprints being left in the snow. In a singular moment, Omen’s anger immediately disappears. He looks at Alex joining her group again before fixating on the footprints she left behind, maybe wishing she never had to leave in the first place.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Ten long minutes have passed. Each agent had fully memorized the layout of the location and was ready to move on with the mission. All they needed was the signal from Brimstone and Sage.

“Hey Alex,” calls out Phoenix in a whisper. “Don’t worry, I’m right here with you. Remember everything we trained for, alright?”

“Yes, sir,” jokes Alex. They both started to quietly laugh before it was interrupted by the sound of feedback from their earpieces.

“Alright, everyone, let’s begin,” says Sage.

Phoenix, Alex, Skye, and Omen proceed to walk through the snow towards the main entrance. The members who travelled in the second van took the back entrance. Thus, covering all the possible ways you can enter the building.

Skye nods towards Omen, who clenches his arm and summons a blind. Skye, in turn, grabs her wooden bird and gets ready to release him. “3, 2, 1,” mouths Skye.

At the count of 1, they both released their blinds. Phoenix and Alex took advantage of the blinds and burst through the front gate. With Phoenix taking the right side and Alex taking the left side, both aim towards their respective sides and shot the guards before they could even register what is going on.

Alex looked at the dead guard and gave a sigh. She still isn’t used to taking life, but the last mission taught her it’s either them or the people she loves.

She snaps herself from her trance and says into her earpiece, “We’re in.”

“Good job!” answers Cypher. “Much faster than expected.”

Alex couldn’t help but smile at Cypher’s compliment. She gives a simple laugh before asking, “And the other team?”

“They are making their way into the main laboratory in the middle of the building. It’s a hidden courtyard where they keep the inmates. Go through the set of stairs to the right, then up towards the 4th floor.”

“On it,” says Phoenix.

The agents slowly make their way to the 4th floor. They carefully make it to one of the entrances, where they see the other group at the other end of the courtyard, signaling to stop and get low.

“What’s the holdup?” whispers Alex.

“Listen,” mouths Skye as she points to her ear.

Multiple conversations can be heard. Guards, lab technicians, and two other familiar voices begin to speak.

“Phoenix and Alex, put up a wall and start the attack. Brimstone and I are entering the building with Sova.”

Alex turned around and looked at Phoenix, who gave her a nod.

“Omen. Teleport me to the other side, our walls need to intersect,” says Phoenix.

Omen grabs Phoenix’s shoulder, a little too hard. Before Phoenix could react, they teleported to the other side with the rest of the group.

As soon as Phoenix regained his footing, he turned around and signaled Alex. She nods and slides her hand across her arm. In a moment, their walls were up, intersecting in an X shape.

Phoenix gives Alex another signal, “ultimate,” he mouths. He then holds his palms together. She understood the plan and activated her ult, to which Phoenix does the same.

Both of them run towards their wall. Phoenix runs across their walls and takes the lower ground, while Alex summons her wings and flies above their walls, creating two huge blood spears. Between the lab coats and the vests, Alex’s eyes recognized that ugly shade of green…Viper.

Ignoring the plan, Alex unsummons her wings and builds momentum by spinning, launching herself towards Viper, aiming for the kill. Viper looked at her, nothing but lifeless eyes met the anger that filled Alex’s. At the last moment, a metal being appears in front of Viper, crossing her arms, breaking Alex’s spears.

Alex tsks and uses her legs to push against the being’s arms. She flips and lands on her feet, laying her hand on the floor for support.

“Vyse,” says Alex angrily.

“Nice to see you again. Subject #2 was it?” answers Vyse.

Blood pulsed through every vein. Alex could physically hear her heart beating. Her eyes glowed a beautiful crimson color. Streaks of her hair matched her eyes, and the anger silenced any directions Phoenix was trying to give her.

Not wasting any time, Alex launches herself towards Vyse and Viper. She needed to make it before her ultimate wore off. The villains did not move an inch, knowing that as soon as she takes one more step…

A shot was fired. Straight through Alex’s head.

Her body immediately dropped to the ground...and so it remained there.