Chapter Text
Word was that there was another lead on Ever connecting them to an abandoned laboratory in Skyhaven, and the Hunter Association wanted you to look into it. You were already familiar with the location and situation at hand, not to mention the fact that you were set on proving your worth on this mission again. Especially with what happened last time with the Fleet obstructing your work, leaving a sour taste in your mouth. Let’s just hope that Caleb would leave you alone long enough for you to uncover something more. Which was more wishful thinking than reality if you were being honest..
As it so happened, Caleb was just coming back from one of his Deepspace missions when his adjutant, Liam, told him that you had entered Skyhaven yesterday. Which caught him off guard since he knows for a fact that you would have told him beforehand whenever you’d be visiting the city - making him think that you were here for another one of your Hunter missions. A mission that you didn’t want him to know about. The fact that you’d come when he wasn’t even supposed to be in Skyhaven irked him a little, but the man quickly calmed down. If you wanted to play this game, then he was more than willing to play along and teach you another lesson.
Reaching his office, the Colonel turned on his computer screen and began to sift through the many CCTV recordings from every angle to find out what you’ve been doing over the past two days. Where you started, where you’ve been, where you’re going; he needed to see everything you’ve been doing on your little excursion. The better to protect you.. His brow furrowed in deep concentration as his chin rested on his hands as he leaned over his desk, watching everything and anything that could be used as a clue. What was it this time that had caught your righteous interest?
Yesterday started with you arriving in Skyhaven early in the morning, making sure to hide your face behind a facemask and a hat - but those wouldn’t be able to hide you away from him, he knew you too well. He knew your gait, he knew your habits, he knew how you interacted with others well enough that even with everything you did to hide yourself Caleb knew immediately who to watch. A smile tugged at his lips, enamored by how hard you were trying to keep yourself incognito. Such a shame that it was never going to work with him looking over you.
After that, the first thing you did was head towards a hotel, no doubt under a false name so as to slip under his radar. He’ll need to send his adjutant to go check which room you stayed in specifically, so Caleb could see what you brought along for your mission. Might give him an idea on what and how deep you were trying to dig. After a moment the camera showed you heading into town, in a different outfit, probably in an attempt to fool the cameras. His attention soon caught the fact that you kept checking every blue house down a specific street before entering one down a side alley before exiting and entering another. Caleb noted to look into the history and residence of those locations, vowing to tear it down if the places were secretly operating illegally in his jurisdiction.
Caleb jotted down who you spoke with and where you went into, for how long you stayed there, and if your expression seemed to look good or bad. There were a lot of things to look into, but he had time and help to look through everything. Eventually the camera feed showed you head back into your hotel by the end of the day and stay there for the rest of the night, but then.. The next day showed that you never left the hotel at all. He sat up straight in his chair and peered closer, watching and rewinding time and time again to see if he had missed something. The CCTV feed couldn’t have been doctored, there would have been a tell, but Caleb couldn’t see any editing done to it. Both fists clenched in annoyance, letting out a sigh before sitting back into his chair.
One of his hands went up to his face and covered his closed eyes, thinking about everything that he saw and knew about you to figure out what your next move was. There was no way that you had stayed all day in the hotel without doing anything, you would have told him you’d be visiting if it was just for leisure - and if it was for fun, you could have just asked him to spend time with you. There was no reason to hide things behind his back.. That was when his eyes shot open. Quickly Caleb looked up the hotel’s blueprint, checking to see if there was a secret passage or other access points that he wasn’t aware of that would let you slip away from his watch. Was the entire day of yesterday just you playing as a red herring? A wicked grin grew on his face, impressed and appalled by how you managed to trick him if it was. He would praise you but that would only encourage you to hide away from him in the future.
There it was, an underground maintenance tunnel that led out to the eastern part of Skyhaven - right in the center of where a lot of abandoned buildings were. It was close to where that one building was where you learned about the failed experiments in Test Zone 5, when you had followed him there. And his grin fell, face hardening as he figured out what you were after - Ever. Caleb stood up at his desk and began to breathe heavily, trying to reign in his volatile concern before he broke something. You knew that Ever was dangerous, knew that they were after you. Why would you come back and look into them again?
He needed to find you, needed to make sure that you were safe and sound and away from everything dangerous. But how? Caleb remembered how spectacularly that worked last time when he locked you in his house, but what else could he have done when you take the first chance you can to jump into danger. The Colonel closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, calming his pained heart enough to allow himself to look back at the screen. More video feed was pulled up, looking around the new area in an attempt to find you. Not on this street, not by that park, not anywhere near the main roads - there was an unease threatening to tighten around his heart, forgetting to breathe as Caleb looked and searched and checked and viewed.
A notification brought his mind to one of the video feeds, a lone silhouette of someone hesitating before stepping into a building. He knew instantly it was you simply by the fact that no one else would ever enter an abandoned shopping center for no apparent reason. Only it wasn’t an actual center, it was a cover for another one of Ever’s experimental labs - one that Caleb hadn’t been able to clean up yet. And his heart stilled, throat unable to swallow a sudden lump that refused to let him breathe. You were going into enemy territory without backup, without him, and there was a very high chance that you were going to find trouble there. Not to mention the time on the feed said that you had entered the building at five in the morning, it was twelve noon right now. You’ve been missing for seven hours and he should have been there seven hours prior.
It took Caleb only ten minutes to get there, ignoring all regulations as he rushed into the building himself. The Colonel looked down every hall he passed as he adjusted his gloves and tried to keep his crumbling composure, seeing remnants of black crystal strewn about the walls and floor. There had been a fight here, and shell casings weren’t the only thing left behind in the aftermath - blood. His hackles rose and tension stiffened his shoulders that much more as the man began rushing down the halls, your name on the tip of his tongue but too scared to call out. What if you were in hiding and him calling for you got you in trouble? Got you caught and dragged away to be interrogated?
Some of the scientists and guards were quickly dealt with, stashed away in empty rooms to make sure that no alarms were sound to further hinder his progress. One of the scientists had a folder with them that they dropped, curiosity took the better of him and Caleb picked it up to look through whatever data they had. His blood ran cold when he saw a small picture of you on the folder, crumpling the file in hand before storming away. Ok, now he was mad. Whoever or whatever subsection of Ever that had taken you to experiment on was so lucky that they hadn’t even started any of their scheduled tests on you, or else Caleb would raze this entire building down with everyone still in it. Although, depending on how hurt you were, he might as well do just that to prove a point.
Following the floor plan and the information on the file, Caleb managed to locate where you were being held. He opened the door and strode right in, locking the door behind him before even daring to look at you on the bed. It pained him to see you like this, in a bed with wires and tubes stuck to you, unable to defend yourself. It pained him that yet again you were subject to the curiosities of scientists and he was a step too late to protect you. Caleb moved beside your bed and looked down at you, face devoid of emotion as he could not and would not express anything and risk breaking. You looked peaceful in the bed, quiet and asleep as he contemplated what punishment to give this group.
Eyes slowly moved down your figure, brows furrowed in rage and panic and so much adoration that all of his emotions threatened to trigger his Toring chip; so once again Caleb took deep breaths to calm himself down. He needed to remain level-headed in order to reassure you when he whisked you away into safety, seeing him so agitated would upset you and he never wanted you upset. But then he saw it, a small peek of white under the collar of your shirt. Pushing your collar down to see what it was, his jaw set and he glared dangerously as his hand pulled back. Bandages. A bandage meant someone had hurt you, someone had cut into you and stolen something from you. Again..
Someone was definitely going to pay, and he was going to make sure that the message was sent very clearly this time. Never touch anything that was his..