Sorry, fans. I've have been muy busy. But, here's a new chapter. It's not as long, but it's a start. Happy birthday, Ebone.

“The Commander wants us to commence DEATH.”

“General?”

“…”

“What do we do?”

“What can we do, Lieutenant?”

Some time later, Blue stood in Aja's room more or less composed and watched Michelle recount half of what happened to groups of experiments that had come flocking there naturally. Blue refused to speak even a word, leaving the others in the dark. At first glance, he looked mad, standing there in the corner of the room with his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest and a dark frown upon his lips. But, upon a closer inspection, you would see the permanent sadness, a seemingly endless trickle of tears running down his cheeks, that sat brooding in his eyes laced by fuzzy red rings brought on from hours of crying. His shoulders slouched as he leaned against a far wall.

"Blue?" someone questioned.

He blinked, focusing on the person that had come to him. It was James. James stood nearly level to the older experiment. Blue gazed at him, hardly acknowledging his presence.

Had Michelle already finished? His gaze did not change except a bit of softening in his eyes. He knew that look James had for him.

James pitied him. And Blue hated it. Loathed it, because no one pitied him before. They never had a reason, but now...

Now...he'd failed. He failed her. He never failed before.

He ground his teeth and chocked back the permanent lump in his throat. Hadn't he stopped crying yet? Turning his head away from him, Blue made some noise in his throat that he hoped James would take as an answer. He didn't trust himself to open his mouth and speak. He didn't know what would come out.

It stung him, James, so much to look into his leader’s eyes that he lowered his gaze. The emotion, the pain that connected with him in that one look threatened to tear him apart. Although he’d barely known Experiment 21, he knew the connection to Blue and her had been strong. He knew if anything could bring her back…

James watched him a second longer, waiting to see if he'd give a direct answer. Not that he expected much. This was Blue after all. Blue was the one that was the hardest to get an answer out of beside Aja, who's answers were always riddled. But, she wasn't here now, was she?

Losing what he had intended to say to Blue and shaken in his own thoughts, James shifted and turned, moving to talk with Adam. Adam and Michelle had not retreated from the building. They hadn’t even attempted an escape. With Blue in the state he was, Adam didn’t even remind Michelle of their plans. After Michelle had found him in Aja’s room, she had not left his side. Not that he’d gone far. He stayed in room 1101 just watching.

Just…

Waiting.

With a shuddered breath, he turned away, walking into the bathroom and turning on the faucet. Finishing her story, Michelle watched him go before turning to console Laura, who, being the type of experiment she was, had collapsed in a fit tears onto the sofa.

Something about the whole building was off. The halls seemed empty and cold. The guards were somber, the teachers sullen, the experiments silent. The troublesome experiments weren’t even being watched. Nor on lockdown. They roamed the halls slowly, unsure of themselves. They could have been next.

Michelle and Adam hadn’t been questioned or probed. Nor had they left like Adam’s plan had been. The Tops were out of site. Plans of escape were halted. The simulator was empty. No one, not even the coaches, showed up for work out.

Everyone was off. Everyone was...grieving.

And this came as a rather unexpected turn of events for Hanna.

The newly inducted member watched with foreign eyes. What was this? Why was this? She stood, listened to Michelle’s story, observed the tears on her friend’s cheeks, and waited for something to happen. Things couldn’t go on like this forever.

Because something was not right.

Several seconds went by before a bubble rose to the surface. It blipped softly as it broke the surface. Seconds later came another. Then three more, quicker and louder.

From under water’s surface, E-Bone pounded on the shoulder of Zapp to let her the flip up. She needed air. Grudgingly, he did so, coming to the surface under a bridge just barely so that his head was only exposed. E-Bone, who clung to his shoulders, gasped for air while Jen floated lazily around, watching them.

Glancing back they way they’d come, she was grateful. They’d run, trying to escape the Cops. If it had been just Jen and E-Bone, they could have made it easily. But, Zapp…

He wasn’t in any condition for it. He wasn’t enhanced. While crossing a bridge a few miles back, her and E-Bone had made the decision. Poor Zapp had been swept off his feet by Jen and hurled over the side by E-Bone.

The river had pulled them downstream and swiftly under cover of the current. Swimming was a talent Zapp did have and E-Bone, who lacked this talent, hung on him to keep up with Jen’s pace.

“Do you think it’s clear?” Zapp asked.

The experiments stilled, ears tuning in sharply to every moment, every breath. The water even almost seemed to still, the current softening instantaneously. To Zapp, it was almost alarming.

E-Bone pushed herself away from him, latching onto the rocky surface of the ground under the bridge. “I can’t detect anything.” She pulled herself onto land, settling her rear on a smooth rock and wringing out her hair. “But, that doesn’t mean it’s not there,” she omitted as an afterthought.

Jen nodded and straightened up. Then, glancing at E-Bone, asked, “What are you doing?”

“My hair,” the other experiment responded. “I don’t mix well with water.”

“It looks fine.” The slim experiment waded toward the water’s edge, studying the darker experiment’s hair.

“Yeah, well, you wait. You just wait till it dries and all hell breaks loose. Then, you’ll see. And, then you‘ll be like ‘What, what, a monkey what?’”

Zapp watched as the two exchanged their private jokes with smothered giggles before fading into a patient silence. The water rippled as Jen sunk back down, and E-Bone pulled her feet to her chest. A cold breeze fluttered under the bridge as dawn crawled into the sky. Jen shivered.

“Hey guys,” she asked, hushed. “What are we doing here?”

There was a painful pause of uncertainty and Zapp looked towards the blood colored horizon. “I don’t know,” he said at great length.

“Waiting, I guess.”

And, noiselessly, they watched the sun rise.

Blue stood at the sink, running the faucet to cover his tears. Her picture of him was pressed close to his heart.

I can’t do this…

Tears streamed down his cheeks with displeasure. It was disgraceful.

Why?

Because…

Why wouldn’t his mind leave him alone? Why wouldn’t the guilt go away?

Why?

Because I can’t!

No! WHY!

BECAUSE I CAN’T! I couldn’t! I couldn’t do it! I just…

“I just can’t.” Her voice came back to him. They’d been sitting in the simulator, doing nothing in particular and out of nowhere she’d spoken. He’d asked her ‘What? What couldn’t she do?”

But, instead, she’d answered why. “My heart.”

“What?” he’d repeated.

“My heart. I just… I can’t. I can’t do it.” She clutched the fabric above her heart, but, abruptly dropped it, got up, and walked away wordlessly.

At the time, he had no idea what she was trying to say. Her heart? What was he supposed to think of that? Her heart what? And what couldn’t she do?

But, now, possibilities flowed over his head like the water down the sink and all of them correct. All of them to heavy to carry. All of them impossible, unwarranted, ugly and hard.

Her heart in life was weak. Without the medicine, she would die. She could never live on her own outside these walls. Yet, her heart, her soul, bled to be free, to be away from here. If she had to stay here, she’d die on the inside.

And her heart, her feelings around him, keeping it secret all this time, must have killed her when she’d overheard him telling Jen that he’d never love her. She couldn’t hide it anymore in her heart.

So it broke.

God. Now, he was thinking he’d killed her. No, he didn’t. He knew that. But, he knew, at least, about her being a half-experiment. Why hadn’t he done anything?

WHY?

And the tears came again. And he could have stayed in there all day and night except for a knock coming on the door. It was Michelle, her hair pulled up in a loose bun, and very out of breath. Tightly clasped to her chest, she clutched a manila folder with the word CONFIDENTIAL stamped across the front.

“Blue,” her voice rushed, but softly breathless. “I found something.”