The Delphi agent that once rode in the passenger seat was the first to regain consciousness. He quickly grasped his surroundings and saw both Dr. Stiles and Angie Thompson unconscious and quickly shook them awake while being aware that they were in a forested area.
"Argh, that was too close for comfort." Derek complained.
"You got that right." Angie said as she got up.
"What's the situation right now?"
"Looks like we crashed after the missile struck. The driver and my injured comrade didn't make it, but I'm fine for now. How about you two?" the Delphi agent said.
"I'm perfectly fine." Angie said.
"Aside from a light concussion I made it through unscathed." Dr. Stiles said.
"Just follow me and don't try to run away. I know where we need to go." The Delphi agent said as he walked towards the road.
"I'm sure that the militias are watching the roads in this area. They're likely to send gunmen to the crash site as well."
"Drat, that means we'll have to avoid the road altogether and travel through dense forest."
It was dark and due to the fact that hostile militia were in the area, the Delphi agent had Derek and Angie remain silent as they headed west through heavy forest. Once it got close to dawn they had arrived at what appeared to be a manor of sorts. Another Delphi agent saw them and rushed forward, stopping when he was about to crash into them.
"We were about to start looking for you and your buddies this morning. Glad to see that you arrived. I also noticed that you brought hostages with you. Are they Dr. Stiles and Ms. Thompson?" the second Delphi agent asked.
"Yeah. The others in my squad didn't survive. The vehicle we were in got hit by a missile. I was the only one that made it, but the hostages are unscathed. We've had to avoid militia while on our way here." the first one said.
"Due to the local militias encroaching on this location, we're going to consider abandoning this hideout in a few days. Anyways, we'll take the two of you to our leader, Zum Wohl."
The two agents took Derek and Angie inside the manor and went into the basement. In a room of the basement that looked like a dining room, the agents stopped and the first one said, "My lord, I have brought Dr. Stiles and Ms. Thompson."
The person he addressed as 'lord' turned around and said, "Why aren't your comrades here with you?"
"My lord, please show him some lenience. The militias have been buzzing around as of late and are getting closer to discovering this location." the second Delphi agent said.
"Please explain, for I, Heinrich von Raitenau, do not have infinite patience."
"The militia hit our vehicle with an anti-vehicular rocket while we were on our way back with these two. I'm sorry, but the other two members of my cell were killed in the resulting crash. Along with Dr. Stiles and the nurse, I was the only survivor." the first Delphi agent explained.
"This is quite serious. If the nurse had died in that crash, our plans would have been set back by an indeterminate number of days. Anyways, welcome to my manor, Dr. Stiles." Heinrich said.
"So you must be Delphi's new leader." Derek said.
"Exactly. I am Heinrich von Raitenau. I am overjoyed to meet the ones who blasphemed against Adam, my venerable grandfather."
"By overjoyed, you mean 'plant GUILT in us and watch us die,' don't you? And you're the one behind all the outbreaks we've been fighting!"
"Ha! Doctors. . . you toy with men's lives, defying the rules of nature. You prevent natural selection from occurring, instead bringing mankind the pain of old age. And yet, you adamantly deny the clear truth: If you would just leave things in our hands, humanity would return to its natural state. And you're right, I do want to simply plant GUILT in both of you and watch you die, but that would ruin my plans."
"Don't you realize it? Your acts of terrorism have all failed. GUILT is no longer a threat to mankind! I-no, anyone who values life- could never understand what you're trying to do and we don't care to! You're nothing more than would-be murderers, hiding behind ideas that aren't even rational to most people!"
"This little sparring match of ideologies isn't worth my time. Truth shall prevail in the end, be it my philosophy or yours. Besides, people like you could never understand the intricacies of GUILT like we do. It's rather unfortunate, Dr. Stiles, but only time will tell if your ideology of medicine is correct or not."
"You're right, it is unfortunate. I wish I could talk some sense into you. However, it seems that you only respect power."
"I do find it humorous that you believe that GUILT is no longer a threat. You are right about me only respecting power, on the other hand."
"What?"
"GUILT is limitless- the forms it can take, exponential. That serum Acropolis created, it will become as worthless as the fools who created it when we introduce new GUILT to the world."
"A new strain? You mean using Sinners?"
"Wait, then the GUILT we couldn't identify that was inside Emilio was. . . ?" Angie asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Heinrich said.
"I'm talking about Emilio Juarez, the Pempti Sinner. I ended up operating on him several times and during the most recent operation I performed on him, I eliminated a strain of GUILT that didn't exist three years ago." Derek said.
"Oh, that Mexican kid. Someone's creating GUILT behind Delphi's back and unlike us, that person must be making GUILT for profit, not natural selection! Anyways, yes, we possess the hosts who give birth to new GUILT. They are descendants of the noble Adam himself. What Emilio had was probably some mockery of GUILT cultivated in laboratory conditions instead of a live body! Now, as for you, Ms. Thompson. . ."
Angie immediately noticed that Heinrich had called her name and asked, "Rosalia?"
"What!? What did you say, Ms. Thompson? Rosalia, was it? Ah, it doesn't matter now. I must extend a special welcome to you, just as we did when you were brought to us as a newborn. You too have the genes of a Sinner. It must be fate that you have been brought back to us."
"Fate!? Don't give me that! You people ruined my father's life!" Angie said before feeling something in her stomach and said, "Ugh! Wh- what's going on!? Why are flowers wilting around me!? Rosalia!"
Angie began heaving and then vomited up blood before collapsing to the ground.
"Wh- what is the meaning of this!? Who is this Rosalia!? Answer me, Ms. Thompson!"
"Wait a minute, auditory and visual hallucinations, vomiting up blood, and there's likely to be either severe hemorrhaging, convulsions, and unexplained tumors!" Dr. Stiles said.
"Do you have an explanation as to what's happening to Ms. Thompson?"
"Yeah, and it won't be good news for any of us: Angie's been infected with the Rosalia Virus. It will be useless to try to cultivate GUILT in her body right now, the Rosalia Virus will just exterminate it right away."
"You seem to know about this 'Rosalia Virus,' don't you?"
"Yeah. Unique for a disease, the Rosalia Virus will attack not only the human body, but will also target other diseases like GUILT. Judging by how Angie's acting, the Virus is already active. Only a special antiviral medicine will be able to save her as the Rosalia Virus will eventually kill its host."
"Shit! Then my plans for her will be all for naught! I was planning to use Ms. Thompson's body to cultivate GUILT, but it seems that the Rosalia Virus has already laid claim to her! Remain here if you will, but I must tend to the Prince and Princess. Minions, just make sure that Dr. Stiles doesn't try to leave the manor grounds! I plan to do something about him later." Heinrich said before he left the room.
A few minutes later, gunfire could be heard and after it died down Erhard and Heather came in along with a SWAT team.
"Looks like Dr. Stiles is fine, but what about Ms. Thompson?" a SWAT team member said.
"Please don't approach Angie, she's been infected by the Rosalia Virus." Derek said.
"Ms. Ross, does our equipment currently provide protection against the Rosalia Virus?" Erhard asked Heather.
"Yes, we should be safe. We'll have to operate on Ms. Thompson once we get back outside." Ms. Ross answered.
Once outside and at the medical truck, Erhard and Heather began to prepare to operate. Tyler and Leslie were also present and Tyler said, "Glad to see that you're alright, Derek. Leslie and I have been supporting these guys by treating any wounded SWAT team members. How's Angie faring?"
"The Rosalia Virus has infected her and it only became apparent when she started vomiting up blood! Erhard and Heather will be operating on her in the meantime. I just hope that they can handle this." Dr. Stiles said.
Meanwhile with Erhard and Heather, they had finished preparations and had begun the briefing:
Name: Angela Thompson
Height: unknown
Weight: unknown
Current condition: Critical
Age: 24
"Derek is probably worried about Angie right now." Heather said.
"You're right, so we'll need to be on the alert for anything unexpected." Dr. Muller said.
"Anyways, we have only one objective for this operation: Eliminate the Rosalia Virus."
"Alright then. From what the scan told us the virus colony is on the lungs and five virus tumors have also settled on the pancreas. Let the disease pass from this world. . ."
Making an incision on Angie's chest, Erhard and Heather noticed that the virus colony was much larger than what they were used to operating on and split into eight segments. "It looks like the colony is getting ready to burst judging by its size. We'll have to drain each individual segment and excise them one at a time. The colony is simply too large to extract in one go." Erhard said.
Erhard proceeded to do just that to a segment after spraying the antiviral drug on the entire colony and extracted the colony segment that had been drained. He then repeated the procedure and was able to prevent the colony from bursting. From there it was a bit easy treating the tumors on the pancreas. After the tumors were treated, the incision was sutured and disinfected before a bandage was applied.
"Whew, that was an operation well done." Heather said in relief.
"Yeah, it would have been a great loss if we had failed." Erhard replied.
A/N: Compared to Tarkin Istanta, Delphi members are much more conservative with their swearing, only doing so when the context of a situation requires them to curse.