"Her agents tend to make the rounds after sundown," Johnnie explained to Ripley as she looked through the documents, he brought to them. "Always at known operating homeless camps."

Matt asked Johnnie what they do and Johnnie replied that they worked to weed out the sick homeless. "Heard they give a big bus ticket to Hawaii if you show them, you're healthy," Johnnie mentioned hearing an incentive for the homeless to lead healthy lives. An all expense paid one-way trip to Hawaii.

"What happens when someone's sick?" Ripley inquired.

Johnnie told her that they're given little cards to use at Cassandra's clinics. The stipulation that once they're cleared, they too get a one-way ticket.

Matt told Johnnie that they saw one of her agents coming out of a park and when they investigated the park, they saw the dead man.

"Might be keeping track of kills," Johnnie theorized.

Since the body didn't turn up in the morning, either the Drekker came back and grabbed it or possibly, Cassandra's agents took it before someone seen it.

"Either way, we need to figure out the plan," Matt sighed.

If the Drekker can't be bargained for, then they'd have to get creative.

"We risk getting into some lawsuits if we force people to take their medications," Johnnie warned him.

Even if they can convince the public to put good health more than anything else, it's not gonna reach all ears, and forcing them wouldn't end well, legal wise.

Getting the city to implement rosemary gardens might work, but it'll take time for the saplings to sprout, and they'd have to ransack every gardening store with rosemary starters and seeds.

"Unless we keep the lights on throughout the nights," Ripley summed.

Johnnie told her that no one in their right mind would do such a thing during bushfire season. If anything happens, then the city's on hook for the damages caused, and no one wants that.

"No one in their right mind would turn to the Drekker for public servitude," Ripley pointed out.

Looking through the papers, Matt came across a copy of emails between Cassandra and someone called Carrie. He read them and asked Johnnie questions about them.

Johnnie looked over his shoulder and said that Cassandra's been making inquiries with hospitals regarding patients. He figured that she wanted to know when the next flu season's going to hit, but with what he knew now, he wasn't sure about his deduction.

Reading the emails, Matt muttered to himself, and when he finished, he said aloud, "She wants to know if there's any non-sick people in the hospital."

He showed Ripley.

"Why would she want to know that?" Ripley wondered.

Sick's one thing, but non-sick's a different story.

"Rip," Matt showed her the next set of emails, it's just dates.

Dates of the blackouts and the time they start and end.

It wouldn't intrigued Matt, as anyone in the city would want to know when the blackouts started, but he saw passages of text regarding "that damn generator."

He showed this to Johnnie and he said that a nurse vented to Cassandra about the generator at her hospital. It kept making a loud noise that bothered her that she snuck some noise canceling earplugs into work because of how loud they are. She's tried appealing to the administration and they haven't said anything about it. Turning to Cassandra, the nurse begged for her help as the noise's driving her crazy.

"Why wouldn't the administrator replace the generator?" Matt asked Johnnie about it.

Johnnie put his fingers together and gestured as he said, "Money."

Summing it up, the administration didn't want to spend dollars if it can help it. Unless the generator finally died or caught fire, the nurse would've had no choice but put up with it.

Matt looked at the emails as they continued and it seemed that the nurse's desperate and pleaded for Cassandra to help her. She had connections to the administration and influence, so her word would help the nurse's hospital get a new generator.

Cassandra gave the same story a councilwoman would but with a twist. She'll consider helping the nurse with her problem for an exchange. Cassandra didn't specify, but she told the nurse that if she wanted a new generator, she'd have to do something for her. What that was, Matt didn't know, the emails stopped shortly after Cassandra told the nurse to call her.

"Bribe?" Ripley looked over to Johnnie as he pushed up his glasses. He shrugged as he told her that he couldn't get in touch with the nurse to get any more information. She's the one who purposely leaked the emails to Johnnie and seemed shaken. Johnnie tried to coax her to tell him, but she seemed visibly distressed.

Johnnie hedged a guess what happened.

"Talked to some of her neighbors and heard something interesting," Johnnie looked between them. "Just before she stopped talking to me, two of Cassandra's goon paid a visit to her."

"What do you think happened?" Matt inquired.

Johnnie scratched the side of his head as he responded, "I know she got a fat check for $450,000 and quit her job."

Something or another happened and the nurse received a check and promptly quit her job, not even two weeks notice. She took the first flight out of the city and didn't make a peep since.

"Nurse asks for help from Cassandra," Ripley raised a finger. "Cassandra tells her she'll help, but if she scratches her back."

Raising another finger, Ripley continued, "Nurse scratches Cassandra's back, she scratched hers."

Raising three fingers.

Matt then added, "And nurse gets money, quits her job, and leaves the city."

Johnnie raised his head as he concluded, "Cassandra wanted her to do something first."

"What hospital was the nurse from?" Ripley asked.

Johnnie grimaced as he replied, "Mercy Hospital."

The three stared at each other in silence and Johnnie pulled down his glasses slowly.

His voice wavered as he uttered, "Cassandra… she wouldn't…"

Ripley grimly said, "It wouldn't surprise me."

Matt looked between them as he gestured, "But, that's unethical, she's risking everyone's lives!"

Johnnie looked pale in the face at the realization.

"That generator wasn't replaced, was it?" Ripley asked.

Johnnie shook his head. He said that it's still chugging away as usual.

"We have to do something!" Matt exploded with fear and anger.

Ripley chewed on the bottom of her lip as she inquired, "Do you think she's capable of doing it?"

Johnnie tried to think back.

Cassandra wanted a foot in the mayor's door, her own agency, but she wouldn't dare do something so stupid like this.

Checking the dates in the emails, they're from last week, when the blackout dates were announced, and then it dawned on him.

"She said… we need to do something about the problem… the homeless… the sicknesses…" Johnnie's eyes widened.

Ripley grabbed their arms and told them to head to Mercy Hospital. There's a good chance that tonight's blackout's the one to break the camel's back.

With Matt's Sonic Screwdriver, he can fix the generator. As for the Drekker, Ripley gave them aerosol cans filled with scented rosemary.

Ripley always thought ahead and after the first time she encountered the Drekker.

"This should last you a while," Ripley handed them six aerosol cans. "Remember, don't look them in the eyes, don't make loud noises, and don't make sudden movements!"

Matt held his three aerosol cans as he processed what's happening. When it caught up to him, he asked Ripley what she planned to do in all this.

"What do you think, I'm going down there and giving her a piece of my mind!" Ripley stated. "I'm going to give her an ultimatum and she's going to do it. You two, do what you can. This stuff should linger a couple of hours, more than enough to ward them off."

She's going to put an end to this. They can't wait any longer, it's too dangerous, and if they do, they risk the Drekker attacking more people.

"What do we do if they break in anyway?" Johnnie asked confusingly as Ripley rummaged through the boxes she stowed away in the TARDIS. She yanked out black discs and stuck them in their pockets, warning them not to get jostled.

"I might've had Jodie help me with these, they're rosemary in poppers form. Loud sudden noises, bright lights, if you toss them right, it should buy you time," Ripley mustered.

She told them that one day when it was her and Jodie, the women came up with the poppers. Ripley always prepared.

"H-hold on, what do we do?" Johnnie spoke up loudly.

Ripley stopped in her tracks as she took a deep breath and told him, "You're going to hold out until I can make her turn those lights back on and when I do, the Drekker are gonna flee."

Opening the TARDIS door to see that the blackout started, Ripley motioned with her hand, and ushered the men out of the TARDIS as she locked it from behind.

"Ripley," Matt got her attention. "What about you?"

Pulling on his cheek, Ripley told him that she can handle herself. It's the agent she's going to bully to get into the agency that won't. As they left the alleyway, Matt spun around to face Ripley.

"This is outrageous!" Matt spoke up that Ripley's not giving him much say in this and Ripley apologized for it. It's evident that she didn't mean to takeover like this, but she knew about that they couldn't spend any more time talking about this.

Matt frowned and told her to be safe and she poked him in the nose as she reminded him, "You just stay away from them and if you see the Big One. Just remember what I told you. Don't do anything foolish and more than anything else, you better not get hurt or I'll never forgive you!"

Looking at the time, Matt saw them having roughly twelve hours before sunrise.

"What if this doesn't work?" Johnnie spoke up.

Ripely frowned as she said, "Then you just have to pray."

With that said, they took off in different directions, Ripley's searching for one of the agents and the men are heading towards the hospital.

It's dark, the only thing casting light's the moon, and there's an eerily silence in the air. Ripley huffed as she ran around, looking for one of the agents' vehicles. She almost ran out of breath hadn't she spotted one parked near one of the parks she and Matt visited.

Cautiously, she went near it, and saw no one inside.

Ripley knew a thing or two about vehicles and it may look bad on paper, but really, she did this to learn and nothing else. Without Matt's Sonic Screwdriver, she got creative and checked the doors, apparently, they don't keep doors locked in these parts. It also appeared the agent didn't bother to put on the alarm either, but he had the lemons to take the keys with him.

She climbed in the back and waited for him. He came back in a few minutes and he got on the radio, talking to a dispatcher about a dead body he found in the park. He seen his share because he treated it like it's just another day.

"Yeah, poor bastard, tore him up. Hey, you sure it's one of them, he doesn't look like a homeless to me," the agent spoke to the dispatcher and they went back and forth about the dead body until the dispatcher concluded that it's not one of the known homeless and that he should report it to Cassandra immediately.

When he finished, he hung up the receiver and turned over the engine, only then, did Ripley pop up behind him, ire in her dark eyes as they reflected in the mirror.

The agent's caught off guard and Ripley went straight to the point and told him that she wanted him to take her to the agency and get an audience with Cassandra. She made it clear she didn't want to hurt him, but if he forced her hand, she'll gladly do it, and that it's better to do what she asked then risk it.

"W-why do you want to talk to her, for?" the agent asked her, his hands up in the air.

Ripley bluntly told him that she wanted to talk to Casandra about her policies and perhaps bludgeon her to death with her ego.

"What's more important?" Ripley challenged him.

It appears the agent knew better and that he didn't like his job. He agreed to take her to the agency, but couldn't promise her she'll get in unscathed. Ripely challenged him on that and he drove them, calmly somewhat, to the agency.

He pulled into the hidden parking lot for the agency and parked in his spot.

Ripley got out and followed him from behind as he went towards the back entrance of the old theater.

The agent went up to the door and went through the primary scans before he opened the door and Ripley went with him through it. He led her through the winding theater that smelled of old makeup, rubber, and everything that an old theater should, until the hallway started warming up as they approached the command center.

"They might shoot you," he tried to warn Ripley as they're probably aware by now since they've been walking past the security cameras. Ripley huffed, "They better not miss."

Pushing on the door, the agent held up his arms as guns drawn on them.

"I suggest you put those down before you shoot your eyes out!" Ripely shouted down at the agents. "I'm here to talk to Cassandra."

Looking at her, the agents having put down their guns and Ripley sighed. She gingerly told them that if they value their morality, whatever's left, they put down their guns, and let her talk to Cassandra.

"You've any idea what's she doing?" Ripley asked them. "She told you about her plans, her goals?"

The agents looked at her, confused, and she sighed. She plainly told them, "Did she tell you she was going to let them go after a hospital?!"

There's hestination in the agents as they raised their arms as they looked at Ripley. Ripley told them that Cassandra's allowing Drekker to attack Mercy Hospital.

"if you've any balls, you'll renounce her agency and go help stop a massacre," Ripley looked at them. "She's going to let innocent civilians get killed by these things, do you have any idea what they'll do to them when they're excited?"

Appealing to the agents, Ripley warned them that Cassandra knew about a struggling generator in Mercy Hospital and paid off a nurse. The generator's not fixed and the nurse never said a word. There's no doubt that Cassandra wants to see the Drekker in action in a hospital setting and that it's now or never.

Ripley saw their expressions, they didn't know whether to believe her or not, but they looked at her as she genuinely feared for the lives of the people in the hospital.

"Oh god," one of the agents began panicking. "She… she was serious!"

The agents took their eyes off Ripley to look at him and he told the agents how Cassandra let it slip she wanted to know how efficient Drekker were in enclosed spaces. He never knew what she meant until now.

"Please, you have to help me. How many people have to die before it stops?" Ripley's voice wavered as she felt her emotions gnawing at her. She held her composure as she begged them to listen to her.

The agents put away their guns and Ripley let the one she took hostage go. One of the agents called Cassandra on his mobile and gave her a made-up excuse for her to come down to the agency. When he's sure she'll come, the agent hung up, and looked at Ripley.

"Listen and listen carefully, they don't like light, they don't like rosemary, I trust you can figure something out, right?" Ripley looked at the twelve agents that had guns drawn on her moments ago. "You know what they can do, don't make any more mistakes tonight, okay?"

Watching them look remorseful in their actions that caused this situation, the agents filed out of the command center and left Ripley waiting for Cassandra.

It didn't take long before she heard the door open and a woman huffing as she muttered under her breath. "Okay, Mr. Hillwood, what seems to be the problem?" she didn't see Ripley until she closed the door and turned around to face the irate Ripley.

"Who're you?" Cassandra flinched as Ripley slowly went towards her and stopped short of her face.

Ripley summed, "Your worst nightmare."

Demanding answers, Cassandra called to her agents, but they didn't come, and Ripley told her why. They abandoned her and her agency and going to do the right thing, they're going to put an end to this and when Ripley's done, she'll put an end to Cassandra.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Ripley gestured violently as she watched Cassandra try to avoid her. "You brought them here?!"

Ripley didn't hold back her anger towards Cassandra and she demanded answers as to how and why she chose the Drekker.

Afraid, Cassandra tried to make a B-line for something to defend herself with, but Ripley made it clear that she wasn't playing around.

Cassandra tells Ripley about the Drekker and how she and her agency became aware of their existence. It started with mutilated corpses of homeless and animals left around the city and autopsies revealed missing organs or flesh.

The city officials wanted to call it animal attacks, but Cassandra and her agency felt the need to investigate. Doing so, they concluded it's far beyond animal attacks or even serial killers.

Surveillance set up near known homeless camps and there, Cassandra and her agency discovered the source of the mutilated corpses.

"It was the only way I could get Lewis to reason," Cassandra told Ripley that she needed the proof to get Lewis to listen to her. "This city's so sick, it brought them here!"

It's evident that there's homeless who've needed help but there's others who're beyond help. Mentally ill and sick, they're incapable of help, and the laws can only do so much. No mental facilities to house them and there's no dispensable chance they'll get better, this is much as a mercy killing than draining the public of money.

"They didn't bother healthy homeless," Cassandra stressed that they would've intervened if the Drekker started attacking the healthy ones, but Ripley sneered at her response.

"You think you're doing the public a service?" Ripley asked her. "You're delusional!"

Cassandra genuinely believed she did. She even said that there's been a low rate of infection among homeless since the Drekker came into the area.

"You don't understand. Before they came, we dealt with outbreaks, needles, when they came, it started dropping," Cassandra defended the decision to utilize the Drekker to decimate the sickly homeless population. Prior to the decimation, the city faced outbreaks of various diseases and dirty needles. Rampant attacks by the mentally ill homeless caused safety concerns.

It's considered a blessing the Drekker came and started attacking them.

"And how did the healthy homeless handle your little plan?" Ripley demanded answers.

Cassandra responded, saying that the homeless population dropped considerably once the hunting started, the healthy ones sought bus tickets elsewhere, and less camps sprung up.

Ripley's dismayed as Cassandra believed it's a perfect trade. The Drekker ate the sick homeless, the healthy homeless either sought proper help or moved on, and the city's in a better state than it was in a long time.

Cassandra stressed that they ran the numbers and that by the end of the year, almost a thousand homeless would've relocated elsewhere. Ripley dryly asked about the numbers of deceased homeless and heard roughly five-hundred if there's enough to go around.

Ripley narrowed her eyes on Cassandra as she asked, "What's the plan when there's no more homeless for them to nosh on?"

Cassandra blinked as she responded that they figured the Drekker would've moved on once there's no more homeless to prey on.

Gritting her teeth, Ripley responded, "You're a bloody idiot, Cassandra. A. Bloody. Idiot!"

Wrangling with her anger. Ripley explained to Cassandra that the Drekker didn't work like the way she and her agency believed.

Yes, they did go after the sickly homeless.

Yes, they didn't go after the healthy ones.

No, they're not going to leave the city simply because there's no more homeless left to prey on.

"You're forgetting something, Cassandra," Ripley pointed at her. "Once a predator establishes itself, it's not leaving!"

Ripley warned Cassandra that the Drekker weren't leaving now they found a reliable source of toxins.

"Toxins?" Cassandra's confused about the term.

Ripley explained, "There's a reason they do this, you know. It's not for public service. Not because they need a quick bite to eat. I'll tell you that. Tell me, have any of your agents found a bloater, yet?"

Cassandra's confused and Ripley grimly told her why Drekker preyed on the sick. They do it to concentrate the pathogens within their bodies and build up toxins in their claws to defend themselves and their flock. When provoked, they'll claw their victims if they didn't maul them to death. Even if the victim only received a scratch, it's in mere seconds that the pain starts, and minutes before death sets in.

By the time someone found a body of someone attacked by a Drekker, they're bloated, pale, black thick veins pushing against the thinned skin, and vacant eyes that forever haunt whoever looked into them.

"When they do that, they're going to need to find more to eat," Ripley warned Cassandra. "They're going to make alcoholics going through twelve packs look modest."

Once they used up their toxins, the Drekker hunted more to replenish the lost toxins.

"Like a match, once they use it, it's gone," Ripley gestured. "It's that potent that they're only capable of using it one at a time."

Describing in detail, Ripley compared the potency of the Drekker toxins to the venom of snakes on the infamous Ilha da Queimada Grande.

The Drekker toxins sought to poison the blood, sending shock throughout the body. Paralyzing the body, the toxins cause neurological mayhem that result in the body losing function. The lungs fill with pus as the victim's unable to react as they lose control of their bodily function and their veins on fire from the toxins causing. Writhing in pain, the victim sees their vision blurring before they lose their sight to the toxins as they bleed through their brain. Eventually, by that point, the only thing the victim could do, with whatever brain function left, come to term that they're dying of one of the worst ways imaginable.

"And before you ask, there's no cure. Not that'd it helps, much," Ripley dryly told Cassandra before she even had the chance to ask about a possible cure. Even if there's such a thing, there's a strong possibility that it won't help, and if anything, the person affected would've welcomed death by that point.

"How do you know so much about them?" Cassandra wanted to know how Ripley knew so much about the Drekker.

Ripley stated, "Unlike you, I listened!"

Listening to the chatter, Ripley learned plenty about the Drekker and how dangerous they really are.

While they're only active at night and only attack the sick, when provoked, those lumbering tarry fiends become a force to reckon with, and they don't give up easily. If they perceive a threat to their flock, nowhere's safe from them, they will hunt down the perceived threat, sick or not, until they're dead.

"Wanna know something about humans, Cassandra. They're very good at making it someone else's problem. If they only go after the people you want them to, you don't care. Why stop at homeless, why not sic them on minorities or those you don't find fitting into your ideal image of society?" Ripley asked a piercing question to Cassandra as she crossed her arms. "You think you can control them, but you can't. You never had any control. You know what you did, Cassandra. You let the wrong ones in. They're never going to leave now. You opened the door for them, gave them a bit of a carpet runway to walk down. What's going to happen, Cassandra, when they've run out of homeless, they're not going to stop and leave. They're just going to switch to the next available source. When that's depleted, they'll move on to the next and the next after that!"

With the rolling blackouts that happen late at night, the Drekker would've taken every opportunity to hunt. Unopposed, they're going to ravage the population of the city like it's a buffet line with free refills. By the time they're done, there might be a healthy population, but plenty of dead bodies of those who weren't fortunate. Some of those, the unintended victims of Cassandra's policies.

"If you know so much about them, then you know how to get rid of them, correct?" Cassandra pleaded with Ripley to tell them how to disperse the Drekker. She asked about weakness, anything pathological, something to that effect that they could've used.

Ripley dryly chuckled as she informed Cassandra, "Unless you plan to force feed medicine, have a light show of a century, and cover this city in rosemary, you'll never get rid of them. I don't recommend launching attacks against them, unless you want a date with death!"

Warning Cassandra, Ripley told her that the only thing she knows that keeps the Drekker away, bright lights, rosemary, and good public health, that's it. They're going to keep coming back to the city, night after night, feeding on every sick person or animal they can find.

"But sure, as long as the right ones get killed," Ripley stabbed Cassandra's logic in the throat. She later added, "Just wait until you start getting the sniffles, the congested feeling in your sinuses, all those nasty little symptoms. Start coughing, feeling bad, and when you'd least expect it, you're going to see it firsthand why they're not nature's miracle workers. You think they're going to thank you for letting them stay in the city, you don't know them like I do. You're not them. You're just a means to an end. When it's your turn, do you think you can stand a chance against the big one?"

Judging from Cassandra's frightened face, she never seen the big one. Ripley explained to her what the big one was. For every Drekker flock, there's the big one. Easily distinguishable by his sheer size. Normal Drekker ranged 180.34cm to 193.04cm, but the big ones get their nickname for a reason. Typically, they're between 218.44cm to 254cm!

"He is in charge, you know, like a da. If he's not happy, they're not happy. When he's pissed off at someone, you can be sure as hell they're too," Ripley summed the big one.

He's easily identifiable as he towers over his kin and they follow his orders. Ripley mentioned that big ones' tended to mimic voices they hear in an attempt of sending people they're hunting awry. Only the big ones' mimicked voices, the little ones didn't, Ripley heard it's because the big ones' still have an intact vocal cord while the little ones can only dre-dre ke-ke ee-eer at any point in their interactions.

Hence their name, Drekker, not only does it have a meaning, it's got a phonetic meaning. It's one of the audible sounds of a little one. In fact, in a rare instance, the big ones don't say much unless irate, the little ones' more verbal.

As for the Sabbek, the matriarchs were the only ones capable of speech, but not her daughters. They didn't have phonetics, just shrills like a harpy. Sabbek probably came from the fact matriarchs tended to have a verbal dissonance.

"So, when you're sick at home and you got your wee box of tissues and you're blowing your nose, just remember, just remember, when you start hearing your loved ones' voices and don't know why," Ripley threateningly described the scenario in which the big one lured Cassandra to her demise by mimicking a loved one.

Oh, they've done this so much, they've got it down to a 'T'!

"Just remember what I told you," Ripley narrowed her eyes on Cassandra. "Especially when they get bolder and start to take a trip down to hospitals. Like, Mercy Hospital, was it?"

Cassandra nodded.

She tried to tell Ripley that the blackouts never affected the hospitals, but Ripley agitatedly responded that all it takes for a flock to descend on a hospital, an opportunity.

If not, an overtaxed generator that finally gave out or the Drekker become bold to go through the hospital in the light, they'll find a way inside the hospital.

When they do, once more, it doesn't matter to the Drekker who're their victims, long as they're sick.

If anyone gets in their way of their feeding, they're not coming out of it alive, the big one ensures of that.

He wasn't just big, he's quite strong, stronger than his sons and he'll ravage anyone a threat to his flock, and he'll bring down even the strongest of humans.

"As I said, I seen what they can do when they're hungry or pissed, have you?" Ripley challenged Cassandra.

Ripley asked Cassandra if she's willing to tell to the public that she's allowing the Drekker to consume the sick and lame, out of a misguided attempt to rid the homeless problem and improve public health.

Ripley summed their reactions with, "Guillotine's coming back in style, Cassandra, you'll be the first one they use it on!"