It was calm, and for once, it was calm inside her mind as well as she sat on the bed she had been put on not too long ago, watching what she, or rather whatever had been in control at the time, had done to this octoling.

The last few hours she could have sworn that whatever made her skin look green was traveling upward, slowly covering more and more of her neck, but at the same time it seemed like it was the same as it had been when she first saw it.

Mira still found it hard to believe, and it took her a long time to process it all too. First the introduction of new agents, then finding out that some extinct species still existed, then getting introduced to a place so dark and grim it made her nightmares seem happy and joyful, only to then be taken control of like some sort of puppet, and now ending up here, with someone possibly dying because of what felt like her wrongdoing.

"Four?" she heard Marie ask from just behind the door. "Do you want to talk? You've been in there for a few hours now."

Mira sighed. "Sure, come in."

She did just that, closing the door behind her and taking a seat next to her on the bed. "So, It's all a bit much, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"And you just can't sort it all out, can you?"

"no…"

"And you think this is all your fault, don't you?" Her voice, whilst not having changed a bit from how she normally talked, sounded oddly calming.

"Yes, and no…"

"Well, It isn't. You didn't know what Gramps and Three were and would be up to, that is all on them. It wasn't your fault that any of this was going to happen, you're just stuck in all of this since you're an agent, nothing more."

"So it could just as easily have been someone else?" Mira looked up at her, clearly closer to crying then bursting out in laughter.

She nodded. "If anyone else had decided to follow me here on that day, they'd be stuck in your position."

"But I'm here because of my mistakes…" Four looked down.

"Mistakes anyone could have made. Anyone could have ended up here, but now that we know it's you, you'll have to figure out how to go on and to make sure you learn from them."

"Like how I should never trust a chair in enemy territory?"

"Sure, if that's what you want…" She couldn't hide a grin, although it disappeared as the door was thrown open by her cousin.

"Hey you two! Gramps wants everyone at the table to discuss." She turned back around, leaving the door open. "And next time you guys do something fun, let me know in advance, alright?"

Marie shook her head and sighed: "Sometimes…"

"Alright, so now that everyone is here, let's go over the plan one more time." Three said as she had finally got everyone to be silent at the table.

"Yeah! Where do you want us to be?" Five asked her, clearly eager.

"You will stay at the entrance to make sure we have a clear exit for when we leave."

"Seriously?! That's so lame!"

"Pearl please, Three knows what she's talking about." Six said in an attempt to avoid a conflict.

"At least you get to do fieldwork." Two added. "Some of us can only watch and give support."

"Not that I'd be able to do much anymore, I'll leave that to you youngsters." The captain joined into the conversation as well.

"Anyway, If I can at least get to explain it to everyone." Three grumbled. "We have to go back down there and make sure that whatever it is gets stopped, or even destroyed."

"But how do we do that without knowing what we are even looking for?" Eight asked, as shy as ever, like she thought she was speaking out of line.

"That's what the people who stay here will try to look into, with some assistance from us."

"But what about Nine?" Eight then asked with clear worry.

"You shall stay here to take care of her if need be."

"Alright ma'am." She nodded, making Mira think of Devon answering her.

Three then continued. "Me, Four, and One shall go down, extract Seven, and bring a stop to their plan."

"Finally some good old action." One smiled.

"Just remember to not go out on your own, your colleagues are more skilled than you are and you know that." Her cousin tried to bring her back to reality.

"Yeah… but still, action! When do we go?"

"Right away. It is almost nightfall, and for as far as we know we could be too late if we leave next sunrise."

"Yes! Let me get my gear." She pushed herself back and ran over to the storage crates, starting to dig through them for her stuff.

One by one the rest left the table as well, getting into their assigned position. Four could see Eight leave to the side room to look over Devon, and couldn't help but sigh, thinking of how she must be feeling about what was probably already her friend laying there, injured and maybe already at the brink of death.

"So why did you not have Eight join us?" Four asked as the four of them were making their way down the ridge again.

"She deserved a break with all that has already happened to her." She got as a response, the agent not looking at her, as she was keeping an eye on their other two colleagues walking a little ways in front of them, happily chatting with one another.

"oh…" Four looked away again, directing her attention to the two in front of them as well. "I guess…"

"You don't have to understand, just accept I decided it."

She sighed by way of a reply.

As they walked further and further down they soon reached the cave entrance. There were no signs of any danger, yet the agents were all on edge, at least, Three and for were.

"Can't I really just go in there with you guys? Just a minute."

"You know what Three decided on, and let me tell you, you don't want to go against Three."

"Really? Then she doesn't know who she'd be up against." This comment made One laugh as the other two passed her, walking into the cave.

"Guys, Wait up!" She ran after the two, leaving Five behind to watch over the entrance and the surrounding area.

"So… where even are we going?" Four asked as they were navigating the maze of corridors.

"I've detected a bunch of activity somewhere nearby, so we thought you ought to check that out." she heard Six reply in her headgear.

"This place really gives me the creeps. They really need a new interior decorator."

"Last time you did that we ended up with neon lights everywhere down there." Three grumbled, reminding Four of the lower levels that had indeed seen some redecorating after she had been captured.

"At least it was colorful, this area is downright depressing."

As the three walked on, they started to hear sounds, those of some sort of warehouse, crates being moved, machinery doing some heavy lifting, metal just barely scraping against wood and some other metal, and last of all was a faint humming, like that of some sort of generator. As they walked further down what seemed to be the end of the hallway, the sounds only grew louder.

Eventually they reached the door. "Alright, this will most likely be it, so let us go over the plan once more." Three said after having already told it twice more as they were walking down here.

"Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time." One tried to stop her by acting nonchalantly about it. "We go in, stop or destroy whatever they have working in there, rescue the human-"

"I never said that."

"...rescue their prisoner, and get out before we're caught. That's it, right?"

"Not exactly, it is not that easy to just-"

"Guys, there is a situation at the entrance." They all heard Two announce.

"What!?" Three asked, clearly annoyed.

"We aren't getting any replies from her anymore. If you could send one of you up there to check out what's wrong, that would be helpfull."

"She probably just forgot to put on her gear, but sure…" Three clearly wasn't in a good mood. "I'll let One check it out."

"Why me? you're both way better in combat then I am." She said in an attempt to not have to go back the way they came alone.

"I shouldn't have accepted that she was stationed there alone, but it's this way now. Get going, before something bad indeed happens."

"Sure…" The last of her positive attitude had disappeared, it was clear nobody had been happy to go down here, but Four had never seen her that far away from cheerful.

She walked off, dragging her roller behind her, creating a slim trail of ink behind her.

"Now that that's done, let's get this mission underway before more inconveniences happen."

"I know this place is really… eh… unpleasant, but could you at least try to not be so grumpy?" Four tried, looking away as she was treated to a gaze that clearly conveyed that she shouldn't have even brought it up in the first place.

"On my mark." Three said, holding up her right hand in which she wielded her weapon, holding the other against her side of the large double door that covered the entire ending of the hallway. Four placed her hand on the other door, waiting on her signal.

"Now!" She pushed her side open and rushed in, shortly followed by Four, who was then pulled back behind some crates. Looking back she saw Three, who had after entering immediately dashed to the side, hiding behind the crates only to pull her into the same hiding spot.

"What was that for!?"

"Ssssh!" She almost hissed. "This place is full of soldiers."

"It is?" She dared to peek, only to pull herself back into hiding as she saw dozens of sanitized octolings and octarians roaming the mostly open hall.

"How can we be sure this is the place we need to be?"

"with that many soldiers? There has to be something important here." Three peeked from behind the crates. "And I think I know what that would be."

"What?" She looked over, trying to get a better look of the room.

The hall had some crates scattered across it, them being moved, some dragged, others lifted with small cranes that drove on rails that were laid into the concrete floor. One thing almost immediately became clear: the crates were being moved aside, making a line from one side to the other.

As she looked at the walls, she realised both sides had something to see. One one side stood some large, short cylinder, tubing built onto it like some sort of maze, and from the front a faint glow visible through what she assumed were tiny windows.

On the other side were what could at first be described as two large metal pillars, almost in the shape of a cone, held up by supports from the walls behind them. Both had a large opening near the top, half the cylinder opened up to reveal the hollow inside, like it was some sort of large container.

"I wonder what they are putting in those."

As she looked longer she suddenly realised something. "Those… those things at the top of those cylinders, they are the same as where we found Seven in."

"They are what?!"

"But that thing had been said to have fallen out of the sky, maybe they were launched from here?"

"But why?"

She shrugged. "No clue, but maybe they are keeping him in one of those."

"Perhaps, but that isn't our main problem right now." Three said, noticing how the soldiers were gathering at the tube covered cylinder at the other end of the room.

"What are they going to do with that thing?"

"No clue."

After some time had passed a few of the sanitized soldiers came closer, carefully pulling on the large lid in the middle, it slowly opening, revealing the silverish gray glow that had also come out of the small windows.

slowly a large cylinder came out, clearly a source of the glow. A large crane mounted to the roof of the warehouse was used to hold it up and pull it out, slowly transporting it across the room.

"What would be in those things?"

"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Three sounded calm again, which Four could appreciate.

They saw how it was raised up and slowly turned to be mounted in the hole of one of the large metal cylinders, slowly going in, clearly a perfect fit.

"Maybe whatever is in there is used for those things?" Four suggested.

"We have to get there somehow though, there are way too many sanitized to just go down there and take them all out."

"You were even considering that!?"

"Ssshhh! Do you want our cover blown?" She said so forcefully Four didn't even think of replying.

After the first was loaded, the same repeated for a second, going into the second cylinder. After that was loaded, the sanitized octarians seemed to disperse, leaving the hall empty apart from the two agents.

"Alright, now we should have a look at these things." Three said as she got up, only to go back down again. "There's someone coming!"

"are you not excited?" Jan asked Will as they walked down one of the many corridors. "Wen we get back up, we will be at a new home before we know it."

"yeah…" he replied, not really feeling too well, knowing full well their departure would mean the destruction of the earth, and everything that lived on it.

"And we do not have to do anyting, everyting is self done."

"Sure…"

They walked on for a little longer, until he suddenly realised something.

"Say, what would happen if we never get that stuff up there?"

"But we will."

"But what if, hypothetically, we wouldn't?"

"I guess we would have to wait until the sun goes boom."

"But we'd be on our way when that happens, right?"

"I tink so."

"alright…"

They stopped at a small door and went in, ending up in a locker room filled with space suits. After having put them on they continued by taking a different door out, finding themselves in a giant room, on one side what he somehow remembered was the main reactor of this part of the facility, and on the other a pair of rockets, the freight compartments sealed and the tanks all filled up.

"So this is it…"

"it is. We could sit in a rocket apart or in one togeter."

"But who'll fly the other one?"

"I tink it is computer guided."

"Then how about we just get in one?"

"Sure." He started to walk towards one of the two elevator shafts that stood so close to the rocket it served that it almost seemed part of it.

He followed, getting in the elevator with him, and soon enough sitting down in the command pod, taking one of the three chairs in what seemed a lot like his old pod, although a little more spacious.

As Jan closed the door, he suddenly remembered something, but realised it was probably too late to bring it up now. All he did was let out a sigh, which his colleague couldn't even hear through their suits.

"So, let us go over te manuel." He said as he showed Will a rather thin booklet.

"Is everything in that little thing?" He looked at it in disbelief.

"yep. Let me see…" He started to read, occasionally looking up at one of the control panels. "We only need to use a couple butons on tis one." He pointed at the middle panel, filled to the brim with buttons, switches, and lights.

"But which ones?"

"Tis one to start…" He started to point at them. "Tis one is for the seat heating, tis one for ejecting the cargo, tis one for if we are struck by lightning, and tis one is for…"

Will had zoned out, staring at the cargo eject button. All he had to do was press it before docking and they wouldn't be able to go through with the plan. He felt a lot better as he heard Jan conclude his listing of the buttons. "Are we ready for lift off?"