Athira followed Shift's lead through the corridors, acutely aware of every second that passed her by as they ran.
"They moved us from the extraction facility in the tunnels," said Shift as they took a left. "We're below ground, though I'm not entirely sure where. What—"
Two people — Wardens or Elites, Athira really didn't care at this point — stepped out from a doorway in front of them, blocking the way. Athira didn't give them the chance to draw on their Colour before untethered Black engulfed their heads and dropped them to the floor, unconscious.
"Did they hurt you?" asked Athira stiffly.
Shift glanced at the Wardens as they passed by. "Not any more than I already was. I feigned a concussion until they got sick of it and brought Zoe in for me to shift. After that it was just questions about anything and everything — which, you'll be glad to know — they got so exasperated with my press personality that they eventually gave up."
"... Press personality?"
"You know," said Shift. "I was all, 'that's a great question, Warden, I'm glad you asked', and then you answer their question with another question and answer that instead. How else do you think I survive being constantly ambushed by journalists?"
The conversation was so normal, so casual, that for a brief moment, Athira caught a smirk tugging at the edge of her mouth. "I just assumed you thrived off the attention."
"What about you?" asked Shift, a little quieter. "Did they—"
Her smirk slipped. "I told them I wasn't talking until I saw you in person. Karma threatened you. I broke out."
"Is that why your Black's a little... everywhere?" asked Shift.
Athira glanced down at herself. The Black had stained her clothes, particularly her tunic and boots, leaving the fabric hard and glossy. "I guess."
"What about—" As they turned the corner into a wider hallway, Shift cut off with a groan and came to a stop. "Oh, come on."
Athira halted beside him and looked up.
Discord — Indigo's commanding Elite — was striding down the hallway towards them, fully garbed in his Yellow combat suit.
Athira raised a hand, intending to knock him out and move on without ever hearing his nasally voice when Shift grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"Wait," breathed Shift, keeping a loose hold of her wrist as she lowered it. "He might know where the others are."
"Why does this not surprise me?" said Discord, stopping some five metres short of them, his nose wrinkled into its usual sneer. "I could tell there was something wrong with you at your Keeper interview, but as it turns out, the entire damned team is rotten."
"Which I'm sure has nothing to do with your amazing leadership skills, Discord," said Shift lightly.
Discord's sneer evolved into a whole new level of contempt Athira hadn't thought possible for humans to exhibit.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble I'm in with the Wardens?" he snapped. "Like it's my fault you're all a bunch of Underground sympathisers sneaking around behind my back."
"How thoughtless of us," said Shift, his voice hard. "We really should have considered your career when we decided to do something about the Warden's fatal experiments on unwilling civilians. I honestly don't know how I'll ever forgive myself."
"I'm going to enjoy dragging both of you back to the Wardens in binders," said Discord. He smirked; his gaze fixed on Athira as a phantom breeze stirred her hair. "We were due for your final assessment today. This seems like a fitting way to fail you."
"Here's an idea," said Athira as Shift's fingers tightened on her wrist. "I'll let you put the binders on if you use your words on something useful and tell us where Zoe and the others are."
"They're in the holding cells where they belong," said Discord. "I wouldn't be in a hurry to join them if I were you. You'll have many long decades behind Elite bars to regret your actions."
"Holding cells it is," said Shift, releasing Athira's wrist and gesturing forward. "All yours."
Athira stalked forward, Black coating the hand at her side.
Discord adjusted his stance, Yellow on the tips of his fingers as he positioned them to click with that infuriatingly smug smile that made her want to rip it off.
"Your Purple won't work—" began Discord.
Black smothered his head, leaving only his ears and eyes uncovered as he clawed at it.
Athira pulled him closer, Colour dripping from her upturned hand.
"It's not Purple," she whispered, smirking at the slight widening of his eyes before she squeezed his mindscape in Black and knocked him out.
Discord slumped. Athira removed the Black and dropped him into an unceremonious pile at her feet. It didn't feel like enough, but it never felt like enough.
"Not gonna lie," said Shift, walking over to join her. "I was hoping for at least one punch."
"If I punched him," Athira said carefully. Her gaze remained on Discord, replaying that smirk in her mind. "I'm not sure I would have been able to stop."
"Probably for the best, then. I'm just happy he stopped talking."
Athira tilted her head to the side, her eyes still locked on Discord.
Shift grabbed her hand, pulling her away. "C'mon. Holding cells aren't far. Zoe might be there."
They ran down the main corridor, taking a left into another wing that Athira assumed was the holding cell block. Expecting to meet resistance, Athira went first, but the only Elites they found were already unconscious.
"That's... unexpected," said Shift, checking for a pulse on one of them. "They're alive, but I don't—"
"Surrender, Reader!" called a loud, clear voice from somewhere inside that they'd both heard too many times through their headset to not recognise. "We can hold this doorway all day!"
Raph.
Shift took off towards it, Athira close behind.
"Really, Raphael," came Reader's voice, as carefree as it'd ever been. "Neither of us wants to be here. Why bother with this little performance?"
Athira paused to glance around as she entered a room that might've been a security checkpoint before it'd been trashed. The narrow entrance had another body or two lying slack against the control consoles. The weapon rack was in disarray, and there were more than a few sets of bloody footprints heading into the cell block.
Somewhere ahead, Kione's voice was quiet but every bit as firm as Raph's. "We have two incoming from behind."
"Good," muttered Raph with a grunt of effort. "Maybe those useless Wardens have finally sent some backup before—"
Shift reached the end of the room first, catching himself around the end of the doorway with his hands. "Did I hear a request for backup?"
"Shift!" said Kione. He came into view, a hand on his glasses as he waved at Athira, who quickly made her way forward to join them. Both he and Raph wore their Keeper suits. "Athira! Oh, you have no idea how happy I am to see you two."
"I might have an inkling," said Shift with a grin. His eyes landed on the one-man blockade Raph had shaped across the hallway with his Red, barring the one and only exit. "What are we looking at here?"
"Wardens were taking Kione and I to a cell," said Raph. "Just so happened Reader's little gang was staging a breakout as we came in. They thought we were helpless because we were in binders, but when your dots vanished from the tracker this morning, we assumed something went wrong. Kione managed to make a get-out-of-binders-free Frame before the Elites forced us into HQ this morning and, well, here we are."
"Where's Zoe?" asked Athira, checking the walls for the tell-tale scorch marks.
"Don't know," said Raph. "They took her somewhere else as soon as we arrived at HQ."
"And Talia?" asked Shift.
Raph grimaced. "She left the base to take a walk after Kione cracked the Project Spectrum database that had everything on the Warden's experiments with Sloth. We haven't heard from her since. I—Athira, where are you going?"
"Putting an end to this idiocy so we can get back to finding Zoe," said Athira as she stepped through Raph's barricade with Black, leaving a hole in the Red behind her. "Stay here."
Shift called after her, but Athira just continued forward, striding straight into the cell block.
"Reader!" she yelled down the empty walkway. "Show yourself, or I cover this entire area in Black until I find you and anyone else helping you escape and see if you can breathe through crystal."
Silence.
Athira flooded Black to her hands. It came easily — too easily — and she didn't care.
"Three. Two. O—"
Reader stepped out of thin air a few metres in front of her, looking nothing like a prisoner in his simple black pants and purple turtleneck. His maroon hair was neatly groomed, the silvered mask over the lower part of his face polished and gleaming.
"There's no need to do anything rash, my dear," he said. "I—"
"You knew what the Surges were—what the Sleepers were," she said, shaking the Black from her hands and scattering crystals across the floor. "And you said nothing."
Reader shrugged. "I wouldn't say I knew. It was—"
"Look at me," said Athira. She kept her distance, not trusting herself to avoid pummelling him into the ground if he gave her one more smug look within reach. "Tell me if you think I'm in the mood to deal with your crap right now. At minimum, you knew it was a possibility."
Reader raised an eyebrow, a curious note entering his expression that she didn't care to identify.
"I did have my suspicions about the Wardens meddling with Sloth, yes," admitted Reader. "But it was only once I arrived here that I was certain. I was able to convince the Wardens to delay their extractions for a while, though after Zoe proved to be resistant to that Sleeper, they became rather excited about the whole thing."
"You sent Zoe to Grandma's with me," said Athira. "Did you know she was a Spectrum?"
"I suspected, though for different reasons than the Warden's little collection of prophecies."
"Why."
"She was the only thing that'd survived Rathe in your mindscape after he so often tore it apart," said Reader simply with another shrug. "That, and her effect on Rathe. It only made sense."
Zoe — the one thing Rathe had never been able to take from her.
At least now, Athira knew why. "Where is she?"
"Why would you assume I know—"
"You've been in this place for a month," said Athira, cutting him off again. "You at least have an idea of where they'll be keeping her, so where?"
Reader considered it for a moment, tapping a finger against his silvery mask. "They're aware she's a Spectrum. If they've revealed their hand to her, they'll be taking her to get inked."
"Inked?"
"You've noticed the Warden's tattoos, surely," said Reader. "Some wear them far more prominently than others, but essentially, the individual's Colour is linked to the tattoo to ensure loyalty. To stray from the cause will trigger the individual's breaking point, killing them instantly."
"Zoe would never agree to work with them," Athira said through clenched teeth.
"She doesn't have to agree," said Reader, his eyes glittering as he tilted his head. "Runes are the language of this universe, Athira. For some Blues, it is possible to rewrite the fabric of reality itse—"
Athira grabbed the front of Reader's shirt with Black and pulled him forward, starting back towards where she'd left the others. "Sounds like we'd better get moving then. Nobody and whoever else she's hiding over there can find their own way out."
Reader protested, but there wasn't much he could do as she dragged him along with her.
Raph had repaired the hole in his blockade when Athira returned.
"You caught him," said Raph, relieved. "Where are the others that were—"
"Reader says the Wardens might be inking Zoe with runes to force her into their cult," said Athira. "He's going to lead us to her."
"You trust him to lead us?" said Raph. "He'd be more likely to lead us straight into a pit full of Sleepers."
"He won't," said Athira, folding her arms. She slid her narrowed gaze to Reader. "Will you?"
Reader tugged against the Black pulling on his shirt and gave a long sigh. "I'll be glad to help you. I just wish you wouldn't ruin a perfectly good shirt to make your point."
Raph frowned. "How can you be—"
"I'm not arguing about it," said Athira, releasing Reader from the Black, who smoothed out his shirt with a scowl. "Unless you have a better idea, I'm going to find Zoe. Come with me or don't. Up to you."
Raph glanced at Shift, who just shrugged.
"The sooner we find Zoe, the better it'll be for everyone," said Shift.
Raph huffed as he removed his hand from the shaped blockade. The Red evaporated, melting away like it'd never been.
"The only thing I'm sure of right now is that we need to stick together," said Raph. "We get through this nightmare as a team, and if Athira trusts Reader to take us to Zoe, fine." He looked at Reader. "Let's go."
Reader tugged on the cuffs of his sleeves, nonchalant as ever. "And here I was starting to think you'd lost any sense of rationality, Raphael, with your insistence on—" Reader caught Athira's glare and cleared his throat. "Though I suppose that can wait. May I make a suggestion before we go charging into the heart of the Warden's base?"
Athira held his gaze, unblinking. "Quick."
"As I'd assume we'd all like to avoid raising any further awareness of our whereabouts," said Reader. "My suggestion is that we make use of Nobody's invisibility until we're closer."
Just behind him, the air shimmered. A narrow section split vertically to reveal four people hidden within — Nobody, still dressed in the yellow jacket and armour she'd had on the night before, another woman, and two men Athira didn't recognise.
What she did recognise, however, was the wristlet on Nobody's arm. Either Athira was going crazy — which was entirely possible — or it was the same one she'd taken off a Warden for Chief's favour.
Athira's gaze was still pinned to it as Nobody stepped forward and touched her hand to Reader's. Some one-sided conversation passed between them that ended with Reader stepping forward, clapping his hands together.
"So, what will it be?" said Reader, though his sudden eagerness had Athira wondering what she'd missed. "Actual stealth, or what I presume would be Athira's version that involves knocking out anyone we come across?"
"Are we all going to fit?" muttered Kione, scratching the side of his neck.
"Tight squeeze, but yes," said Reader. "Nobody has successfully hidden up to twenty people at once, though it was rather cosy, I'll admit." He swept a hand towards the split in the air. "Shall we?"
"Fine," said Athira, shaking off her suspicions. She didn't have the patience to focus on anything except getting to Zoe, and the less Black she used, the better. "Reader, you're in front. Keep your hands to yourself, or I'll remove them for you. Understood?"
"Someone's particularly wrathful today," said Reader with a knowing look as the invisibility dome spread over the nine of them. "And I must say, I love it."
* * * *
A/N - Discord? Down. Zoe? In trouble. Athira's patience? Gone.