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etherealvoidechoes · 1 year ago

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Hollowed Defiance - Chapter 28 - A Little Crossed Pt. 2

There's always one thing after the other just after a major operation. Shen finds a mysterious yet concerning signal. Jynn and co get to investigating her lack of modifications that should have been there while she was in the Stasis Suit and ends up biting off more than she can chew.

A little Mox love later in the chapter. He may become a confidant for the Commander later on.

Approx. 12k

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A few days passed since the last back-to-back operations. A small funeral was held for the lost; feelers were being put out to track down the captured. Additional work was being done to find any potential holes that would arise as they knew ADVENT would be quick to interrogate or rip the information out of their soldier’s mind to find the Avenger’s location or where well-hidden Cells and Havens were in the region.

The surviving soldiers from the Haven cleansing found themselves recovering in the Infirmary for a few days. Especially, Avril “Count” Mead. Her little desperation stunt with a flashbang and needle grenade combo damaged her ears, and she was going through a series of treatments to fix that. Their access to Meld was tight as most of it was being used on Manson, who was still alive much to everyone’s surprise. If he pulled through, it would be a miracle if he wasn’t fully paralyzed.

For the time being, XCOM waited for some joint Resistance Orders to be completed and for those soldiers to gather their rest, as they did a few low-stakes raids and Haven visits to restock on supplies. Once they had brought their stores back to acceptable levels, they would finally be making their way to North America to meet the Templars at last.

————————————

It was another day in the main Workshop for Shen, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

So far, no one needed her. The ramp leading outside would be opened for a couple more hours as the Avenger was currently in the air heading to South Africa to make one last stop for some Black Market deals before making their “long trip” to North America.

Commander Reeves didn’t need her. Bradford didn’t need her. Tygan and his team didn’t need her, as they quickly found out they needed some improved tech to better dissect those Codex brains. And no other team needed her assistance.

“Been a while since we’ve done some exploring, huh ROV-R?” She was working on her Gremlin. “With this place up and running with few hitches, and those upgrades that Bones provided should provide some security, we should be able to access some of those dormant alien systems…”

As she spoke her thoughts, they dropped into a low mutter. Her lips moved a little more like she wanted to speak more words but nothing came out. Memories of how they first found the Avenger and worked to get it operational. The blood, sweat, and tears poured into this machine to make it fly once again for the Resistance. The lives lost. “Let’s see if you two can play nice. No more cryo pods and those ‘eradication’ fail-safes have been disabled.” She and others had a great deal of fun taking care of those problems.

She fiddled with her robot buddy for a few minutes before he suddenly sprung back to life without her reactivating him.

“Okay, eager, I see.” She placed her tools down as she watched him fly around a few times before pausing. He flinched a few times before suddenly an array of sparks covered his entire chassis like he was letting off a discharge before flying over to the monitors that were also glitching.

“What the…” Shen cautiously watched her robotic companion. A few more sparks shot off as that screen on ROV-Rs head filled with static. “I didn’t touch those capacitors…” She mumbled, but she wasn’t so sure with what she was attempting to access and tweak. Just as she was about to grab her tools, something on the monitors caught her eye. “Huh…” She cautiously followed.

As she came closer, she paused, noticing the screen on ROV-R’s head raise and sync with the monitors.

“Maybe a system feedback, things have been— What the?” Just as she was attempting to theorize the issues, something new popped up. The screen flickered from the XCOM screensaver over to something new. It was black and red. A strange UI-like screen she had never seen before when hacking into the ADVENT networks despite sporting their colors. This didn’t even look like the more alien UI systems. More human.

As she studied the screen, she noticed the bottom left of the screen looked like an “eye”. Before she could study it longer, the screen distorted again and changed to something else. A location. A factory. And a series of coordinates.

“Shen.” It was Bradford coming in on her earpiece. “We’re getting some kind of interference up here. Seems to be hitting us across the board.”

The young engineer was so enamored by what was going on, she nearly missed him. “Working on it. Working on it.” Though his voice was distant as her mind was still trying to make sense of what was going on, that switch in her mind was clicking. This needed to be solved quickly. She looked at ROV-R, at the screens, and back at him. Somehow, this weird interference started with him when they were going to delve deeper into the ship’s alien systems. Maybe the connection was still flowing through him?

Moving closer, she examined her companion. It took some finagling to get into his systems, as this signal — she quickly deduced — was causing some interference. But once she did so, her brows repeatedly raised before scrunching together as she was combing through some code and files.

“Huh.” Her fingers tapped against ROV-R’s chassis nervously. Something was off and scarily explained why he turned himself on. “Something triggered your remote uplink, but how is that possible? No one knows these systems…” Minus Bones and his man, Von Tron, but she highly doubted either would do anything like this after the threats Commander Reeves gave. She, Dimitri, and the rest of the tech team had done a full system upgrade and partial reformat after that gift, and the security upgrades were robust like a master locksmith. More protection against potential ADVENT hacks, especially from those Chosen.

No, and much to her worry, this had to be something else.

As she was about to take a deeper dive, ROV-R began to make pained sounds as more sparks arched across his chassis and he fidgeted. The screens with those strange symbols and coordinates also began to glitch out.

Shen cursed, quickly biting her fingers that had been zapped.

“Shen, power readings just spiked.” As Bradford said those words, the lights in the Workshop began to flicker. “Wh—t the hell is g—ng on down the—e?” Each word grew more distorted until all the lights went out. Then the ship shuttered. That hum to the ship was gone. It was eerily silent.

“Crap!” Shen lost her footing but was quickly able to grab onto a nearby table. “Did that kill the engines? That killed the engines…” Just as the sinking feeling was about the set in, she felt the ship shutter again. The lights weren’t back on, but that faint hum to the ship was back. Good, we’re not going to fall from the sky.

Getting back up, she moved over to the computers to figure out what was going on and make sure there was no damage to the engines or anything else on the ship. The monitors flicked on one by one showing, a new image.

“What the…” She muttered as she looked around. A faint red illumination caught her eyes. Those monitors were still on and now there was something different on the screens. She studied it for a second before gasping. “Dad?”

————————————

Commander Reeves was in her Quarters going over some information just before she planned to take a nap when the whole system outage happened. She was locked in her room for some time, as she couldn’t quite remember how to bypass the door before the power finally came back on.

“Central!” She called out from the stairs. Those feet were swiftly cutting down the stairs. She quickly noticed how the nerve center of the ship was bustling with more activity than usual. Several consoles were down and she noticed the Maintenance crew was busy prying open some of the doors leading to the room. “What the hell just happened?”

“Commander, I have no clue. It’s not Bones or his guy.” He looked up at her before shaking his head. “And I’m too old to start believing in ghosts.” He mumbled that under his breath. “From what Shen told me for the interference and power spike, a signal, someone from the outside accessed her ROV-R to access the ship’s system. And if they can do that…”

“W-What?” Feet crossing in front of each other, her hand firmly grabbed the railing to keep herself from greeting the floor. That didn’t seem possible. Especially with the new security they had, thanks to Von Tron.

“She and the rest of the Communication crew are working on double-checking to see if there are any more backdoors and she’s investigating the signal. She’s got some coordinates. Looks to be a factory of sorts.”

“Why does stuff like this always happen just before we’re about to jump continents?”

First, they were still recovering after those back-to-back operations and new units they had to prepare for future encounters, were trying to finish their last errands in the region before heading to North America to meet the Templars, and now someone, most likely ADVENT, had found a way to hijack their ship?

“You know how it goes. Also, she mentioned to me…” Central paused as he looked around. His mood seemed to immediately darken as his lids dropped low and his lips pulled into a thin line.

“Spit it out.”

“She saw an image of her father and some of his schematics for something. Can’t say what with how corrupted the image it, but looks mechanical.”

“Dr. Raymond?” Commander Reeves’ eyes went wide as her brows raised. That explained the mood. “Why? And the schematics?”

“No clue.” He shrugged. “But like me, she got to thinking, her father would be one of the few who would know exactly how this ship functions. So perhaps, this is someone who knows how the late doctor worked. Found some of his work from one of the Old Bases’ Information Centers.”

“Hm…” She tapped her lip. “Perhaps some of the old engineer staff from back in the day? I know we had a lot of bright minds the doctor personally picked.”

“It’s all too possible, but something doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t think they would have done something like this. Especially, when we were flying.” Central was happy those emergency systems kicked in when they did. He did not want to find out if the Avenger could float.

“Right. Right… We’ll have to investigate the signal fully when we’re back in the region. But I do want Shen to work on what she can right now. We need to be prepared for the worst.” They just didn’t have time to do it now since they had a meeting with the Templars coming up soon.

“I’ll let her know.” He nodded. “Also putting in a request with Volk and any others to see if they can find anything suspicious.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Commander Reeves stuck around, slipping on an earpiece until all systems were checked and the ship was no longer in code red. Checking on each section of the ship, she learned the currency condition of the crew. Nearly everyone was fine, minus a few bumps and bruises from the sudden stop. A few were spooked and were halfway geared up to repel incoming invaders thinking they had been tagged by a UFO. The Maintenance and Engineering crews were hard a work resetting systems to get everyone going again. The failsafe systems on some of the high-security doors and bulkheads were proving to be difficult, but within the hour most would be open again.

“Hey, Commander.” It was Shen. “I need you to come down to my Workshop. If you have a moment.”

“I’ll be there shortly, Shen.” Commander Reeves knew this had to be important. Quickly wrapping up and finding an open route down to the Workshop, she left.

————————————

As Commander Reeves arrived at Shen’s workshop, she was surprised it was rather quiet. She was expecting to see it full of engineers but quickly figured most were around the ship, helping get things back in order.

As she continued deeper into the room, she noticed what looked to be a pair of those ADVENT MECs were on some nearby worktables. They always had a few on the ship to rip apart for parts and valuable metals before selling the rest, but she faintly recalled some “special” ones had been brought back from Elena, Yoko, and Reaver’s covert operation to investigate ‘rouge’ mechanical units roaming a remote, rural area.

As she came closer, she noticed something was off about these robots. What struck her first was the smell. Rust. With a few whiffs, she could taste the metal. Grunting, she roughly cleared her throat and did her best to get rid of the taste.

“Why do these look old?” Walking around the tables, she saw how rusted, if not decayed, they were. Then another thing struck her. Their heads. A skull-like appearance. That wouldn’t sit well with the human populace in the cities. And then she saw something else.

“Why are these riddled with bullets?” The reason was all too obvious as she recognized the damage from magnetic gunfire that pierced deep. She needed to go over that report again.

“Commander Reeves!” Like a rabbit, Shen popped up from behind one of the tables; so did ROV-R. She hadn’t noticed she had come. At the moment, she was cracking open one of the access panels to the MECs and putting in several wires that were going over to one of her computers.

“Shen.” Commander Reeves nodded.

“Sorry for the mess, but I think I may have found a partial source of how that signal accessed the ship’s systems. The programming in these bots matches the coding in the signal…”

“These are the bots retrieved from the covert operation’s investigation, right?”

“Yep.” She nodded. “Elena and the others said they weren’t too friendly and they couldn’t find who was making them. I’ve sent a few photos to Dr. Sighn, to see if he can ID the creator.” That explained the bullet holes. Reeves just wished it wasn’t so excessive. “But there’s something about this coding architecture that’s similar to the old XCOM HQ and the MEC programs my father was working on.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s a lot to explain, but I’m double checking, but a lot of this coding has similarities to that and then some of ADVENT’s coding in the early days of the regime.” She paused as her shoulders dropped, and a few cables fell to the floor. A small sigh slipped out. “Which also has traces of dad’s hard work.” Something she hated to acknowledge. “Out of precaution, I’m running this on an isolated system, just in case. Don’t want any more power surges.”

“That is… worrying. I don’t like that… I really don’t.” Commander Reeves just shook her head. She knew the aliens had pilfered whatever tech they didn’t destroy when they struck the old bases, but they could possibly have their hands on some old data that could breach the Avenger’s systems at any time. They needed to get to the bottom of this fast. If only they didn’t have to leave the continent in a few days.

“I want this to be your priority work for now and see if you can work on a way this can’t happen again. Especially, as we’re heading to North America.”

“Planned on doing so and working on that.” She nodded.

Commander Reeves watched Shen throw herself back into her work and bounce her thoughts off her robot companion. Always the dedicated sort. But as she did so, Commander Reeves could pick up the worry and sadness in her voice. How couldn’t she? This involved her late father.

She moved over to the side of the table to have a better view of her. “Hey, Lily.” Commander Reeves spoke softly. “When we’re done with meeting the Templars in America, we’ll be back to fully investigate this. I promise.”

Shen wrinkled her nose, not too happy that the investigation would be delayed, but they had deadlines to meet. Yet, that promise reassured her. “Thanks, Commander.”

With that, Commander Reeves made her way back to the Bridge.

It was a few more hours before all systems were checked and they could safely fly once more to reach their destination in South Africa.

———————————

More days passed since the encrypted signal incident that nearly caused the Avenger to drop out of the sky. They had made it to their new location and set up shop for the few days they would be there before leaving once more. Some crew were still jumpy from the incident even more so once word got around of what the possible cause was.

Fingers were pointed at the soldiers who brought back the scrapped robots; somehow it roped in the Hybrid crew that had nothing to do with that covert operation, as usual. Accusations soon followed but the more level-headed crew broke it up and verbally beat into the instigators’ heads XCOM’s usual protocols. As always, precautions were taken whenever they brought back foreign technology and objects. Just how was any supposed to suspect whoever the creator of those things knew XCOM’s systems and coding?

But the murmurs didn’t die. Still suspicious, if not outright paranoid, a few decided to volunteer to help out the local Havens, do Black Market runs, or scavenge the local areas for some time. Better to plant their feet on the ground and not die falling from the sky in a metal coffin. Commander Reeves okayed the assignments with some disdain. She didn’t like an excessive amount of crew on the ground unless necessary, but she wasn’t in the mood to get another message about someone starting a fight, especially when they targeted any former ADVENT personnel, soldier, or experiment. Them being off the ship should calm their nerves and bring some well-deserved peace to the ship.

The departures would give her some time to review some profiles and histories to see if it was time to dismiss some before they compromised everyone’s safety. Not that they would care if she gave them a dressing down and kicked them from XCOM. Several still questioned why she was even the Commander and felt the other Senior Staff fit the role better. Some still questioned why they even put a questionable amount of nearly unquestionable faith in her hands even if most knew her from back in the day. Even with her putting in some miraculous work despite her health issues and incidents, it all felt too good to be true. She had to be a plant by the aliens. A ticking time bomb of a sleeper agent that would cost the Resistance everything. A plant.

Jynn was about ready to lash out at the next person who whispered that but had been steadying her tongue. The crew didn’t know half the truth and it would be some time before they would learn the whole truth. She just knew the utter chaos that would occur as soon as that information got out. If a few had already tried to kill some of the Hybrid crew over the years, she just knew there would be attempts on her life as those maniacs would blame her for everything the aliens did.

———————————

Shen, her crew, and the other technologically skilled new were busy around the ship. They cleared the Avenger’s systems of any further intrusions and double-checked all backdoors.

Shen was still investigating the signal, but was learning a great deal of the coding was based on some of the Old XCOM Base AI tech and some prototype AI. She searched the old archives but found any information dealing with the prototype was still corrupted. That just raised more questions than answers. Just what would they find at those coordinates when they came back to the region?

For now, Commander Reeves put that to the back of her mind. An infinite docket she felt she would never complete. But soon, she was about to check one concerning thought off the list. One that had crossed her mind before operation “Frozen Nocturne”, and she had nearly forgotten about it if she hadn’t reread her notes.

Her utter lack of connection ports on her body compared to the standard ADVENT Hybrid.

———————————

14:08. The Main Lab.

“Is this… entirely necessary? Commander?” Mox asked.

Down in the main Lab were Jynn and Mox. She had requested for him to come down so she could pick at his brain as well as allow her to have a more “hands-on” viewing of connection ports to compare against herself. They had several ADVENT Hybrids they could use, but Jynn wanted a live subject and one she could ask more personal questions.

At the moment, and with his explicit permission, Jynn was carefully examining Mox’s head. A hand would tilt it back, side to side, and down to get a better look at those ports that lined his jaw. A finger would trace the metal and inner rings. Then they traced the surgical scars from his chin to the back of his “ear.” There were eight ports in total.

As she did that, her eyes would occasionally glance at a nearby monitor that contained X-rays of various Hybrids to show just how deep those ports went. She felt her jaw ache.

“Hm? Sorry, Mox.” Jynn sighed. She hadn’t noticed she may have been getting a little too touchy during her examination. “I just needed an up-close look at your ports.” She released her grip on him before turning her finger to her face. “Hm.” Still nothing. Not even a subtle bump in the skin.

With his head free once more, Mox craned his next side to side before rolling his jaw a few times. He noticed a growing confused, if not concerned expression, on her face as she ran her fingers across her face several times. Mimicking the same movements she had done to him moments ago.

“If I may ask,” Mox paused, hoping he wouldn’t disturb her mood, “you seem troubled. What did you seek to find?”

She froze like a deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes closed tight. She knew the question would have happened. How to explain it so she didn’t sound crazy? No, he’ll understand. He and those like him would understand more than anyone.

“I’ve… noticed.” Gesturing her hand slightly in a circular motion, she searched for her words. “I’ve recently noticed that I’m ‘missing’ some changes that should be apparent on my body since my imprisonment under the Elders.”

Mox thought for a moment. His eyes lit up before returning to a more calm expression. “Ah. I believe I understand, you should,” he gestured to his face before gesturing towards her, “have something smiler to the connection ports like mine.”

“Exactly. Really, I should look similar to you, too. The only thing we’ve noticed have been,” she rolled up her sleeves showing those segmented diamond marks on her arms, “these. And they’ve been randomly appearing and disappearing.”

He raised a brow. Those marks looked odd. He had no clue of what they could be. “I understand the Elders alter all They touch, but you were most likely required to be unaltered minus the necessary maintenance.”

“Mox, the information They ran through me…” She paused to catch her breath. She could feel the back of her throat throbbing and that urge to scream growing within. Keep it together. Scream in your pillow after this. She took him several deep breaths to steady her. “The information They ran through me 24/7 through the years should have left me brain dead. I have to have modifications of some kind.”

In a way, she was glad that hadn’t happened. She could only imagine her own reaction to learning of that violation when they pried from that suit. How far would she have spiraled? And then the others’ reactions? The fabled Commander that had spent so long looking for was now a Hybrid? More alien than human? She could already hear the disparaging comments from those few hecklers on the ship and envision the mutiny that would take place. We’re not serving under some Hybrid. How can she be even trusted? Probably has some sleeper code in that brain. She dies or we’re out.

“Ah.” He only nodded. “My apologies. I retract my statement.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t know. Most don’t know.” She sighed. “And don’t let the others know about this. There’s still some distrust with some on the ship and if they learn exactly how the Elders used me…”

“My lips are sealed, Commander.” He nodded, making the motion of zipping his mouth. A little chuckle followed. He enjoyed having the opportunity to use human saying and motions.

“Call me, Jynn. You don’t always have to be formal.”

“May I use Reeves, instead?” Part of him felt Jynn was too casual.

“Heh, that’s fine.”

Still waiting on the others, her eyes wandered around the lab until they fell on that old prison of hers. The Stasis Suit. I swear I’ve been picking up something from it since I came down here.

Her mind lingered on it for a while longer until a report crossed her mind.

“Before the others get here. And if you don’t mind. When we rescued you from that ADVENT prison, they found you in a suit similar to that.” She gestured to her Stasis Suit. “Why?”

“Ah that,” Mox glanced at the suit before looking back at her, “I was stubbornly enduring Jax-Rai and her interrogators for days before they finally threw me into one of those suits. It was to disable me and my mind to be more susceptible to psionic manipulation.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “It was near timeless. Like one is floating in an abyss, unable to reorientate yourself. Barely aware that your mind is being pried at. Your memories are being sorted. If I still had my chip, it would have been worse.”

“Oh.” So those suits did have something in common. Were there any more people out there trapped in similar suits and plugged in somewhere?

Before her thoughts could consume her once more, she heard familiar chatter growing closer.

“She and Mox should be down here already.” Hearing Bradford’s voice caused her emotions to ease for a moment before nervousness crept back into her lungs, knowing the doctors would be with him.

“Ah, Commander Reeves.” Dr. Tygan greeted her. Following closely behind him were Bradford, Dr. Marin, and Dr. Quinn. The latter two were carrying a few psionic detection devices.

“Glad you all are finally here, so we can begin.” She put on a smile. How she wanted to get this quickly over before the negative thoughts crept back in.

“In a moment.” Tygan nodded. He walked past her and heaved over to his computer. It took a while before he had several files and scans of her pulled up before giving her his full attention once more.

“Commander, I would like to apologize that I didn’t,” Tygan paused for a moment, “we didn’t, catch this sooner.”

“I’m not sure if we would have ever made the connection to the lack of cybernetic implant besides that chip we pulled out.” Quinn said as she and Marin set the devices on the examination table.

“Going over the data concerning your genetic makeup, the lack of significant change for so long is… concerning, to put it lightly.” Marin added. “Personally, I believe the Elders would have fully unleashed your psionic potential to aid Their Psionic Network.”

“Please,” Jynn let out a sigh, “don’t beat yourselves up. You all were struggling to keep me alive for weeks once you pulled me out of the suit and then the various incidents… We just haven’t had time to process everything that’s happened.”

They all agreed on that.

“Now, I hope this wasn’t too short a notice to investigate this issue. I know nearly all teams are still investigating that Blacksite vial, but research has slowed from what the latest reports tell?”

“Yes, that.” Tygan shook his head. “Research has slow. There’s a vast amount of data we continue to pull from the vial, but it is all too much for our current systems. Shen and her team are researching a possible solution.”

“I think I received the brief earlier, but they’re currently running some ideas for another room to build.”

“From what she has told me, yes.”

“I’ll that we get the space cleared and the room will be a priority build.“ She looked at Marin and Quinn. “Sorry, that may delay the finishing touches to the Psi Labs.”

“It’s fine. We’ve been able to start some testing with one of the chambers completed.” Marin nodded. “The first volunteer is Yuri as he’s been showing signs of psionic potential ever since he joined.”

“Back to the other room.” Quinn said trying to redirect the conversation. “It may also help us with investigating that chip.”

“Chip?” Jynn raised a brow, wondering if more secrets could be pulled from that chip that was once in her skull.

“The chip from the operation, Commander.” Bradford said.

“Oh, oh!” The failed extraction of Dr. Vox. Her eyes quickly found that alien chip on Tygan’s desk suspended in a similar containment field that housed her chip. She noticed there was another chip there. It looked similar to hers, but less complex and partially broken. It must have been the late doctor’s.

“It bears a striking design… similar to what ADVENT had my coworkers and I design all those years ago. But its origin is entirely alien. Metals foreign to our solar system and nothing matches what the aliens have brought to the Earth.” Tygan couldn’t help but look at it.

“Hm,” Jynn tapped at her lip, “is it possible that the Elders were having your team recreate.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t recall the Elders sharing such a design with us.” Tygan mumbled.

“If so, the question would be why?” Quinn said.

Jynn thought for another moment before a flood of information flowed through her mind. Her eyes glazed over, as her lids lowered until she had a more disconnected to near apathetic look.

“The original knowledge and technology on how to make them had been lost.” She began speaking in a near-monotone voice. “It was a near-perfect design, but from what they recovered from the original creators, the Zudjari, but several tweaks were needed to work on humans and Their forces and Network. A singular grand design would be perfect, but each species is different and so fickly. The Elders do not have the time to tinker and tamper just yet.” She paused. “The arrogant fools.” She let out a dismissive sigh. “So They are forced to settle on lesser designs. A civilian model for those in fields that need to be closely monitored, influenced, and fed upon with a few more complex designs for more “trusted” individuals”, but eventually all of mankind would have a chip. One designed for their ADVENT forces with more complex designs for more important units, which allowed a higher degree of free will but still constrained by the Elders. And one designed for me that mimicked the origin chip as it thoroughly robbed and subverted me of my free will to serve Their whims.”

She continued to ramble on, covering the attempts at designing chips to go into their alien forces and the complications and mentions of attempting to replicate something called “Mosaic.”

Everyone just looked at her than each other.

“Where is all of this coming from?” Quinn cast a glance at Marin.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t had an episode like this, though she did mention something happened during that last operation.” Marin pulled out his tablet and searched through his notes.

“And why hasn’t she been tested for that?”

“We’ve been busy and still waiting for the Communications Team to replicate the information from that General to put it in front of her.”

“Give me a second.” Bradford let the two doctors squabble as had made his way over to her. He waved his hand in front of her face a few times, but she was deeply engrossed in her thoughts.

“Please don’t slap me.” He mumbled. He placed his hands on her shoulders before giving her a hearty shake.

Jynn rambled on for a few more moments before her voice trailed off. She blinked for a few seconds before life returned to her face. “Huh? Wha—What?”

“Lost you there. You started rambling.” Bradford explained.

“Crap.” She buried her face in her hands.

Taking a minute to recompose herself, she let off a sigh more dramatic than she wanted to be as she shook herself out of Bradford’s grip.

“OKAY. Let’s get back on track. Forget about the chip. Back to the lack of connection ports and other bodily changes, modifications, etc.” Her eyes drifted back over to that accursed suit. She felt her skin bristle at the mere thought of having to move closer to it, but she needed to.

“Of course.” Tygan nodded as he headed over to where it was kept and opened the case. As he began to remove the helmet, he beckoned Marin and Quinn over to take the main body over to the tablet and open it up.

Jynn made her way over to Tygan, steering clear of the other two to avoid the suit. But once she made it over to him. She grimaced. A familiar psionic tingle tapped at her skull. Whispers were forming. Great. That little zone-out must have let Them get it.

Before handing it over to her, Tygan removed the red visor, revealing the inside. The inner area was littered with potential areas for connection ports. She could only imagine the ports that handled data, biological functions, and what else the Elders needed to do to her.

With the visor removed, Tygan turned and offered it to her.

She nearly backed away, but with a hard swallow, she took it from her hands. Her grimace grew. That knocking and whispering were growing louder. She swore she could see faint purple wisps wicking off the helmet. And from Tygan’s raised brow, maybe he could see it too.

No, he’s noticing my hesitation and grimacing. Barely a moment for those reassuring thoughts before those detection devices chimed in about increased psionic activity. So her eyes and mind weren’t deceiving her. Great. Hope they increased the shielding down here. She took in a deep breath before focusing on her thoughts. “Yeah, I can hear You all.” She hissed. The psionic wisps grew more vibrant. “Shut the hell up.”

Mox raised a brow at Jynn’s sudden cursing, but hearing the chimes from the detectors increase, he finally noticed the psionic energy wicking away from the helmet. That still puzzled him until his mind focused on that inflection of that “you.” “Is she? Is that?” Mox gawked before looking at Bradford. The man nodded. Pained, worried eyes said yes.

“Keep this between us.” Bradford said sharply.

“My lips are sealed.”

Jynn fiddled with the helmet some more, looking at it from every angle she could and feeling the inside. She even touched her face, trying to find the possible corresponding ports, but still nothing.

“Hrm.” She bit the inside of her cheek. There was one thing she could do, but she didn’t want to try. A gruff sigh slipped out. But she needed to do something and just not fiddle with the thing for an hour. “Let me try something.”

Raising the helmet high and over her head, she slowly brought a piece of her prison back down on her face.

So far nothing was happening until the bottom half of the helmet went past her nose.

“Hm?” Tygan noticed a few points along her jawline, similar to Mox’s, quiver. As the helmet inched closer and closer to contact, the skin began to open up, nearly peeling back, revealing faint glints of something shiny underneath. Possibly metal.

“That is… intriguing.” He took notes. As that helmet inched down and down, he then noticed something was moving out of those hidden holds. A bundle of small tendrils.

“Wait.” Thoughts nearly engrossing him, Tygan realized there were more pressing matters. “Commander! Wait!” Lurking forward, his hands flew to her face to stop her. He was too late.

As the bottom of the helmet fell into place, Jynn felt something click. Several things click all around her head. Then she felt that all too familiar and unpleasant surge of psionic energy course through her body as her head jerked back, gasping like something had grabbed her throat and was squeezing it. The world was spinning. The concerned voices of her compatriots were fading. The world went dark.

———————————

“Commander Reeves. Jynn Gresham Reeves.” A soft, female voice echoed in her mind.

“Commander Reeves. Jynn Gresham Reeves.” The voice repeated, almost beckoning her. It sounded familiar. But one she didn’t like.

“Commander Reeves. Jynn Gresham Reeves.” The calling of her name continued

[Now you’ve done it. Wake up before They get us.] She felt another voice in her mind, but this was much deeper than the other. Like it came from within her. Almost sounded like her, but more distanced and methodical.

“What… the… hell…” Jynn struggled to force herself awake. Her mind felt heavy and numb. As she came to, she looked around her. It was a hazy darkness. The Lab was gone. “What the hell?”

“Commander Reeves. Jynn Gresham Reeves.” That beckoning voice called out once more.

“Oh, no.” This time she recognized it.

“Commander Reeves.” It beckoned her again. “Lost child.”

“Angelis…” She knew the name of this one. This Elder. Dammit, why now? So far she didn’t see Them, but she was hesitant to turn around.

[Our mind is compromised again. Still compromised. That’s why. However, this slapdash test would have most likely led to this outcome. We should have waited until those Psionic Labs were completed or our union with the Templars was established. The psionic security that would have brought.] She heard the deeper inner voice again, but its words were harsher.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” She snapped. She needed some quiet. Some time to think.

“Reeves.” The sudden harshness in Angelis’ voice as the other Elders flowed through her made Jynn’s blood run cold. Before she knew it, the ghostly visage of Angelis and the others began to form in front of her.

“Reeves.” The calmness returned to Angelis’ voice and was accompanied by a chorus of other Elder voices. She was front and center. “Come back to Us.” The gilded robe shifted before the Elder produced a hand and extended it towards her. Reeves backed away. “All will be forgiven. Let this pointless madness end. Bring this world back in order.”

[Tch. A flawed order. Questionably and inefficiently run with so many escaped creatures, pathogens, and mutated non-native life You all let run free, no? But there are more pressing matters, no? Ones that need to be completed so you can flee to Your next conquest and let this world be consumed, no?]

“No, no, no.” She barely noticed the inner voice’s criticism of the Elders. Feeling her chest tighten as her breath escaped her, it took a great deal of strength to move back and away from that hand. Where is that helmet? If I pull it off this should end? Yes, yes, yes. Her hands flew to her face in search of the helmet but only found skin. This couldn’t be real.

[Our physical body is out cold. This is all mental. Focus.] The inner voice spoke.

“Sh-shut up…. S-s-hut up. Sssshut up…” Jynn struggled to utter those words as she felt herself grow more lightheaded with each passing second.

“You serve a higher purpose. To lead Our armies against the One Who Will Consume All.” Angelis reached out to her again. This time, Jynn felt a strong pull on her mind and body before something tried to worm its way in. They wanted in. “Come back to us, to your rightful place, and you shall Ascend.”

The sensation, that violation, made something in her snap.

[Good. There you go.]

Eyes igniting with blue, that psionic energy surrounded her before Jynn suddenly thrust her hand out. A pressure-like wave of psionic energy erupted from her. “BACK OFF!”

The Elders hissed in pain as They backed off. But several muttered there was still the promise of the “Ascended One” within her.

“Such anger.” Angelis kept a calmness to voice. Barely disturbed by that “child” before her throwing a tantrum. “Why such anger? Please, stop your fruitless rebellion and return to us. We can return what has been lost to you.”

As Angelis said this, the psionic vapors around her swirled together before a shimmering projection coalesced together. In it were four people. Johanness, Mali, Charles, and her. She and her family. Everyone was alive, healthy, and looking happy… in some ADVENT city. And they had the gall to put her in a uniform that looked similar to what she wore back in the day but sporting the ADVENT colors and that golden insignia of the Elders those Chosen bore. Even in this ‘vision’ of Theirs’, she was forever a pawn mean to control the Earth.

Her eyes twitched.

[Oh. Careful now. Don’t snap. We know how They get.]

“Anger…?”

At first, Jynn was shocked to see the projection. How she longed to see the faces of her family alive again. But then something inside of her snapped again. She could feel her blood boil. Her eyes glowed brighter.

“You…”

[Don’t. Calm down.]

“You dare… You have the audacity….” She bit at silent words, partially heeding that silent voice inside of her to carefully choose her next words.

[Calm down before you do something illogical!]

Her nostrils flared. Caution? She didn’t care. “You dare mock their… You have the audacity to mock MY memory, of my family!?”

She lashed out again, throwing forth another pressure wave followed by several darts of psionic energy. The projection scattered and fizzled out. The darts stung at the Elders. They hissed in pain before several stretched out their hands to form a shield.

“SHAMELESS BASTARD! You know exactly what You all have done! Done to the Earth. Done to me. So cut the bullshit and self-righteousness! You’re no grand saviors, you are liars! Hiding your true nature from all!”

[Death wish, huh? Though illogical, in this situation, I cannot blame us. This will not be pretty. Hopefully, the others get the helmet off in time. And shields boosted.]

She kept throwing as her rage burned on.

The chorus grew silent. Angelis retracted her arm back into her robe.

“So be it. We’ve tried your ‘human’ way.” As Angelis spoke, her voice mocking her former approach. Her voice began to shift into a harsher one. Her visage too began to change at the center of her helmet opened showing swirling yellow and purple energies. “You force Our hands. SUBMIT.” A torrent of psionic energy erupted from the helmet and quickly ensnared Jynn like a spider’s web.

She let out a cry of pain, finding her psionics quickly subsumed as every part of her mind screamed in agony as the Elders forced Their way in.

“SUBMIT AND YOUR FRUITLESS RESISTANCE WILL NOT SUFFER LONG IN THIS WORLD. SUBMIT AND BE RECLAIMED. SUBMIT.”

With each passing second, more and more of that raw energy poured into Jynn. She could feel Them ripping into her mind. Looking for where she was. Weaknesses to this Resistance. Her mind felt like it was on the brink of collapsing. Until the surge of power suddenly stopped.

The Elders let out a collective hiss of pain.

“Wha—What?” Vision blurred, but slowly coming through, Jynn felt that web of psionic energy unraveling. As her vision continued to stabilize, she saw the Elders’ power flowing around the faint outlines of a psionic shield encompassing her and someone else. Between her and the Elders with a hand outstretched, was another ghostly visage of something more akin to a human. She couldn’t make out what they looked like, but seemed to be wearing some sort of armor.

“TEMPLAR!” The Elders hissed.

“Trying to force her back like this won’t work out for you all.” This Templar spoke with a male voice. “Really, it would do more damage. I swear I’ve heard through that psionic vine that one of your own warned you about that repeatedly, correct?” His voice held a teasing smugness. “But,” the man shook his head and shrugged, “you all didn’t learn a thing Dhay-Vol’s creation.”

[Huh. This is a highly unlikely variable. What are the chances? But a boon nonetheless.] That inner voice commented.

One of the Elders roared with anger as all increased Their power. “SILENCE! YOU LOWLY CREATURE!”

The Templar grunted as he brought forth his other hand. “Touched a nerve, didn’t I, Ga’rox?” He chuckled, which only got another angry bellow in response.

Jynn just watched, in awe at everything that was unfolding. Just who was this man? A Templar from what the Elders angrily bellowed. If this, then this Templar had power, but she could tell he couldn’t hold forever against this collective might of the Elders.

[This can’t hold forever. We need to leave.]

“Right.” For once, Jynn agreed with this inner voice. “Just how?” She looked around. It was just a black void filled that surrounded them and cutting her contact with the Elders was never simple. It always felt random.

“Give me a moment, and I will be that key you need.” The Templar said in between grunts. Slowly, he backtracked towards her as he kept his focus on maintaining the shield.

“How? And just who are you?”

“A friend.” He said. “And like this.” Once he was closer to her, freeing one hand, he raised it towards her face and tapped the center of her head. “Now, wake up. You still have work to do, Commander. We’ll be meeting soon.”

As soon as that finger touched her head, Jynn felt her mind suddenly go still before she let in a racked gasp. There was a sudden release of her own psionic energy radiated throughout her body, burning away every string, every touch of the Elders.

The Elders let out angered cries. It felt like a surge of swarming hands trying to cling onto the last vintages of those strings of web they clung to Jynn’s mind to keep her in that mad Void, but the work of that Templar and her energy shut Them out. The connection was severed. They were silenced.

———————————

The next thing Jynn heard were the voices of the others in the labs and their hands fussing all around her. Around that helmet that wouldn’t budge. She could feel the floor underneath her legs and someone holding her up.

I’m back! I’m back. How her heart could skip a beat out of sheer relief and joy. But that tightness in her chest returned as she felt tugging on her face. I’m back… I’m back… I can’t hear Them, but…. but... Shit!

Her hands flew to her face, and she pulled on that helmet. There was the faintest of releases around her chin as it budged. With another firm grip and strained pull, she barely felt the pain from those tendrils being torn out of those ports as the helmet finally came off. Without a second thought, she lugged the chucked thing across the room. It hit the wall, putting a solid dent in it before crashing to the floor.

Her chest rose rapidly as she looked at that devil helmet, ignoring everyone’s questions of concern and prodding at her sore chin. Can’t do that again. Too risky.

“We need to move.” Suddenly, her lips moved on their own. A part of her brain remembered those Elders had rifled through it. “We need to move. We need to move. We need to move.” She continued to repeat the phrase.

A tight grip on her shoulders and a firm shake made her stop. “Jynn! Snap out of it!” It was Bradford.

She stared at him blankly for a moment. Then that brow furrowed. Her lips twisted into a sneer and her eyes glowed a vibrant blue. “Idiot!” Raising her hand, and without a second thought, she struck his face. “Move the damn ship! They know where we are! The Elders dove into my mind!”

The room went silent.

Bradford was stunned. Both at her smacking her and what she just uttered. Part of his mind wanted to question it, but he could see the fear and anger in her eyes. That fear for everyone’s safety and anger at being violated again. He released his grip on her and quickly got to his feet.

“Yes, Commander.” His brain just flipped to “on duty” as those fingers were already moving to his earpiece. “Bridge, this is a code, Black. All personnel to their stations and get everyone and all essentials aboard in 15 minutes or less.” At the utterance of that code, the ship’s AI set off the klaxons and gave the warning to all aboard and outside the ship.

As he moved to leave the room, he paused and looked back at them. “Watch her.” He then left.

———————————

That code Black had thrown the Avenger into a frenzy. It was a mad dash to get nearly everyone and the essentials onboard, having to ditch some crates at their site, but they managed to get in the air just as those long-range scanners picked up a UFO gunning for their location.

The Avenger would spend the next few hours playing a dangerous game of hide and seek as UFO activity picked up across the region as they slowly made their way North to calmer skies.

During one of its supply runs, the Skyranger would eventually retrieve the personnel who were not on the ship and wished to return. The news of this latest incident only solidified for the more suspicious crew that something or someone on the Avenger was compromised and they rejected coming back until the problems were taken care of. Bradford was working triple-time to keep the cause of this incident under lock and key. He had enough on his hands and did not want a riot breaking out on the ship.

For the next few hours, Bradford kept his eyes on those scanners to keep track of UFO activity and any increases in ADVENT activity. As things were looking calmer, he had rescinded the code Black alert and shifted gears to planning optimal routes to pick up their stranded personnel and re-secure some supplies.

Once that was in a state he could comfortably hand off to a subordinate, Bradford made his way to the Infirmary. It was a fairly safe guess the Commander would be there after all that transpired and he knew the doctors would want to find out just what happened and these “hidden” ports, but Jynn wasn’t there. Nor were Dr. Marin and Dr. Quinn.

He then headed back to the main Lab. The trio of doctors was still there, going over all the information recovered for the incited and examining that Stasis Suit with a more scrutinizing eye. Gathering the flecks of blood and tendrils that remained inside of that helmet.

But Jynn wasn’t there again.

“Where the hell is the Commander?” Bradford asked, voice tense. It felt like a vein was bulging on his head.

They didn’t know.

“She was in no mood for testing.” Dr. Marin said.

“And did not want to go to the Infirmary for the minor injuries.” Dr. Quinn added. She then explained it took Mox restraining Jynn so they could make sure there was no damage to her face, as there was some discolored blood seeping from those hidden ports that had nearly sealed themselves back up.

“I know Mox is with her. He suggested they leave and take a ‘cool down’ walk.” Dr. Tygan said. Finally, something useful.

Mox. Find Mox and he would find her. She should be in good hands. Bradford shook his head. Easier said than done, but he had a lead and left to search.

It was a solid two hours combing the ship and trying to keep things low-key as he heard the occasional disparaging comment about the “Commander’s slipping mental state” before the smart idea of sending out a memo to all staff to ask where the Commander and Mox were. How he wished he thought of that before he started.

It didn’t take long before he got a message from Shen.

“The Shooting Range?” He questioned. She still wasn’t fully cleared to be handling guns just yet. Why?

———————————

Bradford was down in the Workshop within seconds. He expected to hear those all too familiar sounds of gunfire. Instead, it was eerily silent. He visited Shen first.

Before he could speak, Shen pulled him aside and down before speaking in a hushed whisper.

“Word of warning, she looked super pissed and kicked everyone out when she and Mox arrived.” She said. “I’ve heard very sporadic gunfire. I think they may be dissembling and reassembling the guns.”

“Hm.” Bradford bit the inside of her cheek. He expected that, but was worried about how volatile Jynn was. Some mild relief washed over him, hearing the most likely activity that was going on. “Thanks, Lily and keep anyone from going down there.” He said before making his way down to the Range.

“Wait.” Shen grabbed his shoulder.

He looked over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“I’ve made some more progress on that signal and got word back from one of our contacts that did some scouting. It’s an old, old ADVENT factory somewhere between Russia and Mongolia. It’s completely off the grid and run down, but something’s still there. We’re looking to see if we can find any reports on this facility in ADVENT databases, but so far, nothing. I’ve sent some information over to Dr. Sighn as he partially recognized the designs of the old MEC models there.” She gestured to the tables where some of her workers were pulling them apart.

Bradford raised his brows. He wasn’t expecting progress on that so soon, but it dealt with Shen Sr. “Alright, alright. I’ll see if I can shift some more manpower over to that. Keep up the work, kid.” Before leaving, he tussled her hair, which got an annoyed “hey” before a hard slap greeted his bad shoulder. A small yelp slipped out as his back arched.

Taking just a few steps down the range, he heard those familiar sounds of a magazine box being ejected, pins and other metal pieces being pulled and laid out with a few thinking against each other, the receivers or stock being pulled, and more sounds.

“››2 minutes. 45 seconds. Tch. Your hands are shaking. Focus. You’re slipping. Work faster.‹‹” Mox barked.

Bradford raised a brow as his mind was trying to translate what the Hybrid barked out. “Is he… scolding her?”

Just a few more steps down and he saw everything.

There were several weapons — old, new, and ADVENT(disabled) — laying or leaning on some nearby crates. Sitting at a table in the middle of the room was Jynn. Though her eyes were intently focused on tearing apart the ADVENT rifle in her hands, one could see the rage burning within her still-glowing blue eyes. Despite her forceful movements, as if she wanted to throw piece after piece at the wall, all the parts were meticulously laid out across the table.

Standing just to the side of her was Mox; arms crossed and intently watching her, nodding at her increased finger work as within a few seconds, the rifle was fully dissembled.

“››Mhm. 3 minutes. 15 seconds. Could be better.‹‹“ Mox moved from one side of the table to another, making note of all the parts and pieces. “››Your mind follows standard Kracsad instructions well.‹‹“ His throat trembled with a slight growl as he acknowledged how he and his people were made. So much tactical and combat data was imprinted on their minds. “››Records for a full field strip and reassembly are under 7 minutes, sans the usual maintenance. Now, put it back together.‹‹“

With barely a response, Jynn began to reassemble the weapon.

Bradford kept a brow raised as he walked over to them. He wanted to speak, to speak to Jynn, but could see and feel that anger radiating off of her. Faint blue psionic energy wafted around her. He was still wondering why it was blue compared to the usual purple. Just another thing for the scientist to figure out.

He looked at Mox. The man gave him a slight nod and raised his hand. He understood. Wait.

Just the sounds of parts sliding and clicking back together filled the room until finally, the magazine slotted in. The weapon was “primed.”

“››Hands off.‹‹” Mox said. As soon as the gun touched the table, he picked it up. Giving it a look over, he shifted it from one hand to the next before instantly shifting into a firing stance. He tested everything he could on the disabled weapon before lowering it.

“››5 minutes and 55 seconds. Good.‹‹“ He walked back over to a crate with other ADVENT weaponry and placed it in there. “Which weapon would you like next?” He finally switched back to English.

“Commander. Jynn.” Bradford felt like now was better than never to interrupt. He moved closer. He got a better look at her face, specifically her jawline caught his attention. There was still some blood seeping out of those hidden ports. A little orange in that red and something else that gave it an odd shimmer. “How are yo—”

“One of the Mag pistols again.” Jynn just ignored him. “I was sloppy with the wiring and want to work on that.”

“As you wish.” Mox went to go fetch one of them. As he passed Bradford, his neck tightened, his lips pulled back into a grimace as he glanced at the floor. Moving his hand to his throat and keeping it horizontal, he made a quick “maybe not a good time” gesture.

Bradford let out an annoyed huff. One more try could hurt. “Jynn, come on t—”

“And get one of the Mag rifles too! Need to kill two birds with one stone.” Again, she ignored him. “Don’t forget those schematics!”

“Hm.” Bradford’s brows knit together. Looked like he would have to play the long game.

A minute or two later, Mox came back with the weapons and schematics requested and placed them before her.

“Would you like me to time you?” He asked.

“No. This is more of a memorizing exercise to get this wiring right.” She said as she grabbed the pistol and began to take it apart.

With that, Mox turned and gestured to Bradford to go over to one of the shooting range stations before moving there himself. Once Bradford was there, Mox looked at Jynn once more before looking at him.

“How is she?” Bradford broke the silence first.

“Upset.” Mox stated plainly. Reeves has told me very litt—.” He paused before glancing over his shoulder to look at her. A few seconds of silence passed before he nodded. “She has told me very little, but she has permitted for me to share that, yes, the Elders did contact her.”

For a moment, Bradford wondered why he paused before it became painfully obvious. What he heard next made him exhale sharply through his nose. He could recall her visceral reaction of ripping off that helmet, uttering they needed to leave, slapping him when he snapped her out of it, and explaining her freakout.

“How long have you two been here?” Bradford asked next.

“A few hours. It was my suggestion after a ‘cool down’ walk. If we stayed in that Lab for a picosecond longer, I feared she would have attacked the scientists.” Mox said. Faintly, his left brow twitched.

“Let me guess, they wanted to run tests on ‘that’?” He tapped at his own jawline, marking where those ports were.

“Surprisingly, no after they treated the damage. But their chatter about the increased psionic activity resonating from the Stasis Suit, eventual testing on the ‘hidden’ ports, and something about some crystals resonating with all the activity was getting to her.”

Bradford digested the news. He could only imagine the increased agitation that scientific chatter was causing her. Removing her from that situation was wise. “Thank you, Mox.”

“My pleasure. Doing this,” he gestured to Jynn and the surrounding weapons, “is a common way some of us Skirmishers like to destress. In-between a ‘forced habit’ and there is something comforting knowing every inch of your weapon intimately.” The “forced habit” was said with air quotes and heavy sarcasm which got a snort out of Bradford. Programmed habit.

“Glad to see it’s working for her.” Bradford chuckled. “Has she eaten? Have you eaten?”

Mox shook his head. “The thought of food has not crossed my mind as you know us Hybrids can go a little longer without it.”

“Right, right.” He nodded. “But not her. Don’t need her slipping into old habits. I’ll be back with some grub and drinks.” He started to leave.

“Non-alcoholic.” Mox insisted.

Bradford waved him off. “I know. Wasn’t even thinking of that kind.”

It took about 20 minutes before Bradford was back with refreshments. Jynn was now in the middle of working on the Mag Rifle and was still ignoring him hard, but just pointed to a clear spot on the table to put the food. Mox on the other hand, gladly took a sandwich and some water.

Bradford wasn’t going to leave until he got a verbal response from her, so he made himself busy talking with Mox while the man occasionally checked the Commander’s work by test-firing the reassembled guns and fetching her another.

It was time to pick his brain and refresh his mind on how ADVENT and the Freed Hybrids thought.

Their discussions shifted from ADVENT weaponry care and Skirmisher clan life. Bradford was more interested in the weaponry care as he rarely ever saw a dismantled rifle out in the field, but Mox explained it was a “safety redundancy” for teams that would be out in the fields for weeks to months at the time where there could be no chance to restock via Dropship or ADVENT outpost. Yes, faulty hardware would be quickly replaced, but it was good to know how to perform diagnostic checks and quick repairs on the field.

The talks lasted for another few hours before Mox excused himself to go relieve himself. With Mox gone for some time, Bradford found himself a chair and planted himself near, but not too close, Jynn.

Keeping his mouth firmly shut, as that rage had died down, he could sense a faint tenseness to the air that a mere spark would make it explode again. And those psionics were still visible. Fainter now, but visible. He watched her take apart one of the older guns, an AK-47. Something the crew kept around partially out of nostalgia as it was near useless against ADVENT armor compared to their old conventional weapons and no magnetic weaponry.

A few more parts snapped into place, the rifle hit the table with a hard thud as she let out an annoyed huff.

Closing her eyes tightly, those lips curled on themselves as she took in a sharp breath before letting out another strained yet annoyed huff. Her eyes opened once more, she looked at him.

“You can be a really stubborn bastard, you know that?” Irritation laced her words.

Bradford raised a brow. What a way to start a conversation. ”We have that in common. Most days.”

Her brows twitched, those fingers tightened around the frame of the rifle as her eyes glowed brighter and brighter as that blue psionic energy grew more vibrant around her, whipping around like a roaring fire.

Bradford shifted in his seat. One foot ready to take off.

Those eyes grew brighter and brighter before she snapped them shut. Her fingers released that death grip on the rifle. Her shoulders fell. Raising her hands to her face, a muffled scream came out for a solid minute. The energy slowed down to a mere flickering flame before fully dissipating. She took in several strained breaths to temper herself before finally uncovering her face.

“Sorry… I… I don’t want to talk about it right now… or for a while… or… ever.” Though irritation was still prevalent in her voice, she seemed calmer.

Bradford settled back down in his seat, but one foot was still turned. Her eyes were still blue.

“Jynn. It’s ok—”

“But I really pissed off the Elders.” Seemed like she wanted to talk.

“How so?” He wouldn’t let the opportunity slip.

Jynn bit at her bottom lip, drawing some blood, as her eyes darted all around the room. What to tell him? Some details she didn’t want to mention right now. “Called out Their trickery and peace bullshit if I return to Them, for starters. And lashed back with my psionics. They really didn’t like that. They ensnared me with Their psionics and riffled through my brain like it was an open book. They want me back, badly.”

Bradford felt a tightness in his neck. “But you broke free before They stole too much info.”

Flinching, as she bit down on her lip far too hard, she licked the area a few times before letting out nervous laughter. “Heh, heh, heh. No.”

That tightness in his throat grew. “No?” Just how much of their information was compromised?

She nervously laughed again. This time she drummed her fingers on the table. “Somehow, someone else helped me break free from Their grasp.” She explained.

He gave her a puzzled look. “What?”

“A Templar… I think that’s what the Elders sneered when he showed up. And then there was someone else. Or something…”

“Templar?” He questioned. That sounded far-fetched but they were still learning about that mysterious faction and their ticks. “Something else?”

“That’s what They growled.” She explained the ghost-like psionic projection that appeared in between her and the Elders, breaking her out of Their ensuring grip. “And the other thing…” She paused. Should she even say it, she wasn’t sure if, during that whole ordeal, she just wasn’t going mad. “I don’t know how to explain it, but there was this other voice, like mine, trying to get me to keep my head on straight. Didn’t heed it too much after what the Elders pulled…” Her voice slipped away not wanting to think of that projection.

Bradford’s eyes narrowed as he listened. He wished she had given more details about the armor, but understood the pain and chaos would have had her ignoring those details. But perhaps showing an image of Templar armor could help her memory. And then the other thing made him raise a brow.

“Maybe you’re subconscious?” He suggested.

“Maybe?” She shook her head. “It felt too aware to be that. I’ll… bring it up with Marin and the others.” She sunk back down in her chair as a sigh slipped out. She wasn’t looking forward to all the testing that would be happening soon. Her hand went to her face and pushed at one of those hidden ports. She winced. There was something there now, a faint bump under the skin that was tender.

“Hm.” He had no more suggestions. Noticing her poking at her face, he nudged that tray of food over to her. “Stop poking and tear into this..”

She hadn’t noticed she was biting again and shyly smiled. She picked up the sandwich and took small bites.

As she was halfway through her meal, Mox had finally come back. She thanked him for his company and for helping her stay as calm as possible before saying he was dismissed. He nodded and made an offer if she needed him again for something like this, not to hesitate to ask. He left.

Jynn finished the rest of her meal in silence before asking him what the time was.

23:12.

She wisely decided it was time to turn in for the day. She needed to restore her energy before she could worry about the incoming mountain of maddening tests and questions she would have to endure for the next few days if not weeks.

With Bradford’s help, they cleaned up the Shooting Range before leaving. Just as they were about to reach the stairs, and before he knew it, Bradford found firm arms wrapping around his chest.

“I’m so sorry.” Jynn’s voice wavered for a moment.

“Sorry for what?” He asked. “Ignoring me? It—”

“For slapping you. Yelling at you. Especially the slapping part…”

It took a moment, but it clicked. “Jynn, it’s oka—.”

“Hush. Just accept the dang nab hug, you git.”

A snort slipped out. He wisely shut up and just let that hug last for as long as she wanted.

Once he was free, they continued their walk to her Quarters.

———————————

Back in her Quarters, Jynn decided to take a shower before hitting the bed. Knowing Bradford was going to make sure she went to sleep, she gave him orders to prepare her schedule for tomorrow and to add some questions she would have for their future discussions with the Templars. She wasn’t going to forget about that highly unlikely chance meeting in that mindscape.

As she gathered what she needed before going to her bathroom, she found one of Bradford’s clothing stashes and snatched a shirt.

He called her out, asking what she was doing and if she was the reason some of his shirts had gone missing again. She told him she found his shirts to be comfy, even if they engulfed her still thin frame, and liked the smell. Something about the smell helped comfort her stressed mind. He only responded with a raised brow before turning quickly turning his attention back to what he was working on to hide a blushing face.

With clothes in hand, she headed to the showers. It didn’t take her more than 10 minutes to shower and come back out in more relaxed wear. She went over to where Bradford was. He was diligently typing away. She noticed he hadn’t changed yet, but figured he wanted to do his nightly rounds once she was asleep.

“How’s it looking?” She asked.

“Good.” He nodded. “Nearly done. Had to stop and deal with some info from our contacts. Reports on the areas compromised, which ADVENT most likely pulled from Laney, but no casualties.” He shook his head. Hopefully, they could find her before more info was pulled or she was killed. “And some more leads.”

“Hm, expected, but good. Any updates about the signal from Lily?”

“Yes, traced the signal back to an old abandoned ADVENT factory somewhere between Russia and Mongolia.”

“Hm, so we’ll be heading there once we’re done in North America.” She mumbled. “Put in a request with Volk to see if his crew can do some scouting, since that’s close to his neck of the woods. I would include Fayruz, but with the Silent Striders’ numbers thinned, I know she doesn’t want more attention from ADVENT right now.”

“Already done.”

“And schedule a meeting sometime soon with the Senior Staff before meeting with the Templars. Need to discuss,” she paused as a sigh slipped out, “what happened today and more things about my questionable health and what the hell the Elders did to me.” It was a discussion she didn’t want to have but knew leaving the crew in the dark would be a bad idea. At least most of the Senior Staff understood what she was going through. Just a handful were more judgmental since they didn’t have the same rapport with her as the others. “Maybe in a day or two?”

He nodded. “You want to do that so soon?”

“Better get it done now than never tell.” She said. “And everyone’s been keeping their lips shut on the more concerning info about me. They deserve to know, especially if the Elders sink their psionic talons back into my mind and control me.”

“Jynn…” He shook his head. Not something he wanted to imagine.

“It’s a risk. You and those who know aren’t always around to notice and snap me out of it. More of the upper staff knowing would help. Better them than a massive slip-up happening and the whole crew finding out.”

“Right… You have a point…” He didn’t want to admit it but she was right. “Former ADVENT staff, especially the soldiers and experiments have a hard enough time… If they found out what the Elders used you for…”

“There would be a mutiny.”

His typing came to a halt as grumbling came out. “It took forever to get Alberich and his gaggle of loons to stop trying to poison Maurice and some others… and that picked back when Mox joined. And to think we’ll be adding some more Hybrids to the crew soon… The trouble they could cause.”

She wrinkled her nose at the mention of the name. “Exactly. ”

“I’ll get on it.” He got started drafting the message. “And that reminds me some talks need to be had with those troublemakers. For the ones that come back to the ship.”

Jynn rolled her as she sucked air through her teeth and made a few annoyed clicks. In a way, she didn’t mind if that group was shifted to the role of bolstering Havens and Cells across the globe, but knew they would be too much of a liability. She could see them having loose lips to get the formerly ADVENT affiliated killed if they could get away with it.

Jynn lingered over his shoulder a little longer, giving her input here and there, until Bradford finished and ushered her to bed.

As she got settled, he pulled a chair next to her bed and sat down.

“Tomorrow’s going to be so busy.” She grumbled as she fluffed, more or so, punched her pillows. She paused for a moment, and looked at it, before grabbing it and pushing it against her face.

She screamed and cursed for a few minutes. Bradford did his best to not make a single snicker.

Once the screaming stopped, she dropped the pillow from her hands and let out a more relaxed sigh.

“Feeling better?” He asked. The corners of his mouth were twitching. “Your eyes are nearly brown again.” Looked like the last traces of her psionic energy were cooling down.

“Somewhat.” She shrugged. “Gosh darn, I want to shoot something, but this will do.”

“Hopefully, in a few weeks, you’ll be cleared to handle small arms on the Shooting Range. I’ll set up all the Elder targets you want.” He grinned.

A faint smile appeared on her face. That sounded good. “Hold you to that.”

It took her some more time to get settled before she was finally lying down, but found herself tossing and turning for minutes. Her mind just wouldn’t turn off. In a way, she was terrified of falling asleep. Would there be nightmares? What if those Elders dragged her off to the hellscape again?

Flipping over again, she looked at Bradford. He was still there, one leg crossed over the knee of the other as he was looking at his tablet.

“John…” She called out to him. There was a waver to her voice.

“Yes?” Hearing the shifting of sheets, glanced up from his tablet. He saw she was sitting up again and beckoning for him to come over. Getting up, he turned his tablet off and tossed it in the chair before going over to her. Just as he was within arm’s reach, she lurked forward; with a firm grip on his arm, she pulled him down and wrapped herself around him.

“Jynn!” He wasn’t expecting the sudden grab and the equivalent of a Viper coiling around him. He struggled to break from her grip until he heard sniffling and felt his chest grow wet. Crap.

“Sorry… I… I.” Her grip on him only tightened. “I really need this. I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to sleep.” Her voice broke down into crying whispers. “I don’t want to sleep.”

He stopped struggling. Instead, he did his best to slip his arms from her grip to better embrace her. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I won’t leave.” That explained everything.

It didn’t take long before she completely broke down and just cried into his chest and occasionally made mention of the Elders potentially bothering her again and pulling Their twisted tricks. She let slip out about what They did in that brief meeting. The promise of returning her family. It made his blood boil. He just held her tight and did what he could to keep her calm.

Even once she calmed down, tiring herself out from all the crying, her sleep was restless. She constantly tossed and turned, occasionally waking up with a startled yell before passing out again just as quickly. It took a lot of reassuring words and squeezes from Bradford before she had some semblance of rest.

Bradford felt like he could finally breathe a sigh of relief when she had a solid two hours of no movement.

He took a risk getting his tablet. It took some delicate finagling, removing her lobster grip on his arm, but he was able to get up and fetch his tablet. With it in hand, he sent out some messages to the Senior Staff about his delays for the morning as his whole schedule was going to be thrown off, making sure Jynn got some decent sleep. And then he needed to sleep. Once the messages were all sent, he checked up on some information about whatever was going on around the ship. Everything was looking good.

As he was double-checking the internal network for any more updates, he was thinking about finally getting up to go take a shower himself. As he scrolled through updates and messages, those lids grew heavy. He barely had a chance to fight the growing tiredness before the tablet slipped from his fingers. It all hit him at once and he was out like a light. The day’s excitement had finally slammed into him. And the Commander’s bed was comfy.

His falling asleep there wasn’t a bad thing. That protective brain of his was still active. Feeling the slightest shift and frightened murmur from Jynn, he instinctively moved, pulled her into a hug, and held her tight. That quieted her murmurs, allowing her mind to be a peace for the night.

#writings #Xcom #Xcom 2 #Xcom wotc #Fic: Hollowed Defiance

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