[u]Unknown Location[/u]
[i]Tenebrae
[color=lightgray]Time: Far After Midnight[/color][/i]

"This is spiraling out of control."

He stared at the harsh blue light of the screen, hands hanging by his sides. His eyes were wide, silver mask reflecting the chaos he saw. A thermal-sight drone reading the lab displayed its data across the screen in a splatter of red. Pain points in the walls, on the platform, all enemies. Only two signatures stood out, one haloed against the wall, labeled as 'Code Red', and at the center, far away from their contact, was a luminescent sphere, the heart. Astra's hands gripped the empty air as if he were trying to will the heart closer to Scarlet, to success.

Corva stood beside him, her eyes carefully passive. "I disagree."

Astra growled, gesturing harshly at the screen. "Yeah? And tell me how the heart, our contact, the armed detail, and that unknown group, give any reassurance that everything is fine?"

She stared back cooly, sweeping a curtain of black hair over her shoulder dismissively. "Your mission is complete, [i]my king[/i]." She turned away, "Now leave and let me do mine."

He folded his arms, tilting his head back in an arrogant huff. "You should have intervened ten minutes ago. What? You so badly wanted to get out into the field; this is your perfect chance."

She shot him a cold look. "I decide when and where I—"

His eyes leveled with her. "Corva. What I'm seeing here is a heart, [i]our heart[/i], in the wrong hands, people about to die, and a bomb ready to set the whole place off."

"You talked about wanting to get out with Operation Phantasm," He nodded at the screen, "What about this? Look me in the eye and tell me that you'll fix this."

A chill entered the room as Corva tried to square her shoulders. "I..."

Astra stepped aside, a circular void opening behind him. He gestured to the hole with an arm. "Then let's go."

She didn't move.

"That's what I thought." Astra stepped toward Corva, the hole closing behind him. "If I didn't know what happened to bring you down to this level, I'd feel some shred of indignation toward you."

His face softened. "Corva, you know something must be done," his voice tightened, "You know what [i]he's[/i] going to do if we don't give him that heart."

[hr]

[u]Corridor, Laboratory of Microreactor Technology[/u]
[i]Coastal Waters, Tenebrae
[color=lightgray]Time: Far After Midnight[/color][/i]
[@Shu], [@Blizz]

[i]"I think you’re scared this ain’t gonna work.”[/i]

The Triad leader sighed, the stress lines hallowing his face. "Meta. I can see you've done this before. So, out of respect for what you once were, I'll be honest with you, one veteran to another."

He gestured to the Triad men around him. "Look at them. Do you see them?"

His face went dark, as though a heavy shadow took over his thoughts. "Each of my men came with a death sentence hanging around their neck. Nothing peaceful, mind you," he tucked away the cross-bolt, instead holding up a tiny dagger.

He jabbed the air over his bare, wet arm. "This, a hundred times over, until we die, is what's waiting for my men and I if we return home without the heart."

"So you can understand, friend," in his other hand his thumb pressed the charge's button, causing it to light as a count down started, "if I'm prepared to go all chips in. If your friend hands over the heart in 30 seconds, I will get you out. Or we can wait and watch how reactor material reacts with a bit of fire."

His head turned to the side, scanning the wall until he saw the faint outline of Scarlet Shadow, unmoving and unyielding. "Men, go get her. Quickly."

Two tattooed Triad men nimbly hopped on the tightrope, edging past gusts of heat as they snaked their way to Scarlet. Hands reached out for her, polite enough to let her reach out to them first. The tightrope attached to the wall at waist-level beside Scarlet, meaning they had to dangerously bend to even touch her. Their straining ankles showed their unstable equilibrium, a sliver of weakness that a master thief could use to her advantage.

[hr]

[u]Corridor, Laboratory of Microreactor Technology[/u]
[i]Coastal Waters, Tenebrae
[color=lightgray]Time: Far After Midnight[/color][/i]
[h3][b][u]Dream[/u][/b][/h3]

[i]"Just get ready, when it happens, we aren’t slowing down.”[/i]

Dream nodded her head, watching the light growing around Ellie's hands. Mild, sweaty relief flashed across her face, and for a moment, the horde of guns pointed their way, the lasers, the active bomb—they all seemed to blow away like leaves in the breeze. Not from Ellie's light—though it did make her feel a kinship of sorts—but from the way she spoke. The light pooled, growing in brightness like the calm settling over Dream's face.

Then, a hand yanked on Dream's shoulder from behind.

A few of the elite guards behind them strapped masks to their faces, shaking off the gas. One, standing at 6'1 and towering with eyes like cold flint, dragged Dream back into a chokehold. She squirmed, gasping for air, hands fighting the steel binds.

Her breath caught when she felt the cold metal of a pistol against her temple.

"Put the heart down, and back the hell up if you want your friend to live," the guard said to Ellie in a rumbling baritone, digging the gun into Dream's head. 

Dream squinted at Ellie, vision blurred as she tried to breathe. The heart, glinting in Ellie's hands.

The doctor, his face turning white every time she asked what would happen if they failed. Above all else, he said, they had to keep the heart safe. They had to, even if it meant...

She snarled, her boot stamping down on the guard's foot, a burst of light bruising the bone. He yelped, losing his grip. That's all she needed, and she tore away. But in her haste, she saw his free arm reaching for her, and she slipped on panicked feet as he pushed her off the railing.

She held back a scream, staring straight down into the boiling pit below. The guard wrapped a tight hand around her ankle, and Ellie could see Dream's other foot flailing; she restrained herself poorly from kicking the guard, desperately hoping she wouldn't die.

As her captor supported himself against the railing, his pistol pointed at Ellie.

"I'll drop her, I swear I'll drop her!"