Paige and Ripley produce a plan back in their radio station building and decide the next morning will be the best time to execute it.

They wake before dawn and make their way back to the town of Zlin and back to the red brick wall to enter the tunnel to the hidden town.

Ripley breaks off from Paige as they enter the tunnel into the town and heads for an alleyway three buildings down from the café. Paige walks to the end of the street with a clear view of the tunnel they just entered from. Paige checks her watch as dawn begins to light the sky. She notices the wall shift and the man in the green cloak walking through the tunnel and towards the café.

"He's coming Ripley. I'm moving to my next location." Paige says to him in her earpiece.

"Copy I'm moving in." He replies.

Paige continues down the street and towards the man's apartment building. She stands on the sidewalk outside the building and lights up a cigarette, waiting for the man to show up.

"I got a decent look at his face; I'm leaving the area to not spook him. He should be on his way to you soon." Ripley informs her.

"Great job. I'll let you know what I find out afterwards." Paige says as she puts her hood up on her cloak.

She waits patiently for him to come to the apartment building, trying to keep her cigarette burning for as long as possible. She finally sees him walking down the street towards her, coffee, and newspaper in hand. She puts out her cigarette slowly, trying to get her timing down perfectly to seem less suspicious. She slowly makes her way up the stairs around the same time he does.

"Here let me get the door for you." Paige says to him as she fumbles around in her pockets.

"Oh no, it's fine. Please allow me." The man says as he pulls out his wand and points it at a small black box beside the door.

He holds the door open for her, allowing her to enter the building first.

"Thank you." Paige replies as she enters the building.

She sees only a set of stairs to her left and a long hallway with doors on either side in front. She turns left and starts ascending the stairs without looking behind her, just trying to hear if his footsteps follow her. She finally hears his footsteps following her up the stairs and they both continue walking up the flights of stairs. As she almost gets the fifth floor, she could hear his footsteps trail off from hers as he stops climbing the stairs at the fourth floor. Paige enters through the door on the fifth floor and walks down to the other end of the hallway to a sign with a picture of more stairs. She finds the back side stairs and walks down back to the main floor and out the back side of the building.

She meets back up with Ripley on the other side of the brick tunnel back in the town of Zlin.

"He's on the fourth floor." Paige informs him as she takes her earpiece out.

"Good, we can go back tomorrow and see what door is his." Ripley suggests as they start walking through Zlin. "His face was a bit slim; no facial hair and his skin was a golden-brown sort of tone, but get this, his eyes are purple."

"Hm, I guess you don't see many people with that color eyes." Paige replies as they slowly walk through the town.

"At least it's an easy identifier."

"The next thing we need to do is scope out the library then stake it out at around the time he should be showing up." Paige says as they walk towards the campus.

They arrive at the campus and enter through the same door the man entered last night. They are entering a small yellow hall with a staircase leading upstairs with threw two sets of double doors lined up next to each other.

They climb the stairs and enter through the door marked 'library.' They spilt up and look around the multi-floor room. Paige finds a room with rows and rows of no-maj computers along with shelves covered with mostly textbooks.

After looking around the building they meet up at the entrance and exit the building together, starting their walk back to their base.

"So, I guess we just wait until night fall to see what this mystery man does in the library all night." Ripley comments as they continue their walk.

"We have to be careful. If he recognizes us from this morning, then we might be in trouble." Paige replies as she tries to think of the best plan going forward.

"You think he would think it would be too much of a coincidence?" Ripley asks her.

"Yeah, I would think it was odd." Paige replies.

"Well did he get a look at your face?" Ripley asks trying to spit ball ideas.

"Not a good one, I had my hood up." Paige comments as she glances over at him, knowing what he is getting at.

"I'll be close by in case anything happens." Ripley responds.

"Understood." Paige replies as she thinks about her limited options once inside the library.


They head back to the radio station for a quick nap before arriving back at the library an hour before the man's regular routine time. Her and Ripley dress in casual clothing to help make them seem more like a no-majs
Ripley breaks off from her and heads towards a bus stop across the street from the Campus. Paige stops in front of the stairs leading up to the front doors of the library to turn her earpiece on and to look back at Ripley to make sure he does the same. He gives her a nod of acknowledgment before she turns to ascend the stairs.

She enters the building calmly and ascends the second flight of stairs going to the library. As she enters, she sees that it is quite busy in there even for it being around six o'clock at night. She heads to the bookshelves and pretends to search for a book while she scopes out the library again before he arrives.

She makes her way to the second floor and continues looking at the bookshelves while glancing around the large room, watching the people. She spots a young male worker approaching her, so she quicky grabs a book at random from the bookshelf.

"Can I help you find anything today miss?" He asks her politely.

Paige just smiles and holds up the book in her hand. He returns the smile and turns to continue his rounds. Paige walks over to a table with four black and white checkered chairs around it that overlooked the stair way coming up to the library.

"Just don't do anything rash Paige. I know you're getting anxious to get back to him" Otakemaru whispers in her ear.

"What have I done that was rash?" Paige replies in her head as she opens the book the first page and pretends to read the words.

"Nothing, but I know where your thoughts are." Otakemaru comments.

Paige sighs and hangs her head.

"I know. I just miss him so much." Paige admits truthfully.

"Just stay strong and hope that it won't be much longer."

"Hope is the only thing keeping me together."

Paige slowly flips though the pages in the book while checking the stairs constantly for the man in the green cloak. She watches as people come and go over the next hour before she hears Ripley's voice in her ear.

"Target incoming."

"Copy." Paige whispers back and she sits up in her chair, now more alert.

Paige's eyes fixated on the stairs when she finally sees him slowly ascend the stairs. Paige looks back down at the book as he enters the library and watches him through from the corner of her eye as he crosses the library floor and heads directly to a janitor's closet found near the room with the computers. She sees him look around the area before taking out a key card from his pocket and swiping it through a slot in the door, unlocking it. He enters the room and closes the door behind him.

"Don't tell me the great mystery is him being a night janitor." Otakemaru comments in her head.

"That doesn't change anything, he could still be our guy." Paige replies with her eyes still locked onto the janitor closet door.

Paige watches the door in silence for the next twenty minutes with no movement coming from it.

"Do we go in there?" Paige asks Otakemaru in confusion.

"Give it a few more minutes, then maybe ask Ripley what he wants to do." Otakemaru suggests.

Paige waits five more minutes, the man still not remerging from the closet.

"Rip, he's been in a janitors closet for like thirty minutes now. What do you think we should do?" Paige says into her earpiece as she lifts her book in front of her mouth to hide her lips from moving to the people in the library.

"What? Really?" Ripley asks her in disbelief.

"Yeah, I count thirteen people inside including staff. Doesn't really seem like a smart play to check it out." Paige replies.

"I say we open the door, Paige." Ripley responds.

"And what if it's a trap?"

"A trap? In a library janitor closet?"

Paige closes her eyes as she tries to sort her logical thoughts from her emotional ones.

"Paige, look." Otakemaru hisses in her ear.

Paige's eyes snap open as she looks at the door again. She sees another man dressed in a pale blue jumpsuit approaching the closet pushing a trolley full of cleaning supplies.

"Hang on a sec Rip. I have someone else approaching the door." Paige whispers.

"Copy."

Paige watches intensely as the man walks up to the door and pulls out a key card like the man in the green cloak. He swipes the card and opens the door. Paige stands up from her chair to get a better look inside the room from the second floor. It was a tiny room, barely enough space for the trolley the man pushes into there. Paige notices a green cloak hanging on the back of the door before the janitor turns off the light and closes the door. He then heads towards the front desk.

Paige leaves to the staircase to the first floor, quickly descends the stairs. She walks past the janitor and young man who asked if she needed help by the front desk.
She says nothing as she makes her way down the other set of stairs to the main floor, her mind's gears grind together, unable to piece together what was happening. She makes her way towards Ripley who stands up and starts jogging towards her when he spots her coming.

"What happened?" Ripley asks her as she got closer to him.

"He disappeared." Paige mutters with a furrowed brow.

"What do you mean?"

"He goes in there, hangs up his green cloak and apparates to…? Who knows? I don't have a clue."

"What the hell is this guy doing?" Ripley asks in frustration.

"What ever he's doing, it's very interesting." Paige says, lost in her thoughts.

"What now Captain?" Ripley asks her.

"Well, the only choice we have left is to scope out the fourth floor of his apartment building tomorrow. Figure out which unit is his. THEN we must wait for him to leave for the night again before breaking into said apartment without being spotted to search for clues." Paige explains to him.

"I can feel your mind working a million miles a minute right now. How about you spill your theory." Ripley says with a bit of a chuckle.

Paige glances over at him for a moment before replying.

"Okay, so we know that people are their most vulnerable when they sleep right?" Paige comments.

"Right." Ripley replies.

"So, if someone were hunting him, the best time would be in the middle of the night while everyone else was sleeping. No one hears anything. No one sees anything." Paige adds.

"He's removing himself from the weakness."

"I bet he doesn't sleep much, but if he does it's during the day when people are out and about."

"Making it harder to nab him."

"He sticks to a routine on the main road to remain seen by anyone at any given time, using the time of day to his advantage."

"So where does he go at night?"

"That's a good question. He is in disguise if he leaves his green cloak behind. We would have no idea what he looks like when he reappears."

"Who is this guy hiding from exactly?" Ripley asks her as they sit down at a park bench near the center of town.

"Dumbledore conveniently left that part out." Paige replies as she crosses her arms, still trying to think about this whole situation.

"Dumbledore is a little odd himself." Ripley comments.

"He saved my life." Paige replies quietly.

"What? Really?" When?"

"When I was fifteen. I was lost in the woods, and he found me." Paige says in a half truth.

"I find it a little hard to believe Theodard would have lost you in the woods." Ripley replies with a smirk.

"I didn't grow up with Theodard, Jack." Paige says as she glances over at him.

"What? I thought you told me he adopted you when you were five?" Ripley asks her in confusion.

"I lied."

"Then who did you grow up with?" Ripley asks her.

"It's a long story." Paige replies as she shakes her head, unwilling to go that deep into her past right now. "I was just making a point that I trust Dumbledore and that he wouldn't set us up for failure. He might be a little odd but that doesn't make him less brilliant."

"Any other lies you want to confess while we're here?" Ripley asks as he wraps his arm around her shoulder.

"None that are currently popping into my head at the moment." Paige replies with a smirk.

They both silently stare up into the night sky and watch the stars twinkle and shine brightly.

"I've only been away from Juan for a few days and it's killing me. I can only imagine what you're going though." Ripley comments, breaking the silence.

She thinks of what Severus had said to her the last time she saw him.

"It's only temporary."

"You know, I was a little hesitant with your professor at first and especially after he broke your heart, but you are good together. Seems that he's changed you for the better Paige."

"Ugh, I was such a tight-ass before him." Paige replies with a groan. "I don't know how you put up with me."

"Because I looked past all of that and saw you as a fierce woman with a lonely and kind soul." Ripley comments as he pulls her closer into him. "That and you saved my ass many times. You are sort of like my lucky charm."

"Well, one day pay me back at least once and we can call it even." Paige replies as she rests her head on his shoulder, the pain of missing Severus still crawling under her skin.

"I'll take that deal, now come on; let's head back to base and get some sleep." Ripley says as he stands up from the bench, dragging Paige up with him.


There plan was set for dawn. Paige is to break into the building and get on the fourth floor at the same time as him and try and catch which unit the man in the green cloak goes into. She is silently hiding in the stairwell at the very top in front of the roof access door.

"I got eyes, target incoming." Ripley says through her earpiece.

"Copy." Paige whispers back as she stands up and walks silently down the flight of stairs to the third floor.

She looks over the railing downwards and sees the man at the bottom of the just starting his ascent up the stairs. Paige moves to back to the fourth floor and steps into the hallway. She slowly moves down the hallway towards the back staircase. She can hear him behind her now as he steps into the hallway. Paige keeps moving forward as she continues down the hallway towards the other stairs. She can hear his footsteps stop suddenly, but she keeps moving her gaze still directly in front of her. She can hear a lock disengage and a door open, followed by a door quietly shutting. Paige rounds the corner to the back staircase and starts to make her way down to the main floor.

"You catch the room Otakemaru?" Paige asks him inside her head.

"Sure did. Number thirty-seven"

"Excellent work." Paige replies as she exits out the back and meets up with Ripley who was there waiting for her.

"Are we doing some breaking and entering tonight?" Ripley asks as they move away from the building.

"Like the good old days." Paige replies with a smirk.


They climb the fire escape on the building across the street from the man's apartment building at around midnight to stake out the place before breaking in. They dress in all black with half masks covering their nose and mouths, ready to enter in stealth. The moon was full tonight with a cloudless sky.

"I see another light turn off on the fourth floor, second window from the right." Ripley whispers to her as they lay on their stomachs next to each other on top of the roof.

Paige checks her watch then looks back to the building.

"Still too early in enter. I figure we should wait a few more hours." Paige replies.

"I guess it's a good thing he's not there at night." Ripley comments as he turns to his head to look at her.

"Yeah, let's just hope he didn't stay home sick or something." Paige replies.

They wait three more hours before making their move. They quietly sneak down the fire escape from the roof and walk across the street to the apartment building. Ripley looks up and down the street as Paige quickly ascends the staircase to the front door and pulls out her wand and a long bendable piece of metal. She sticks the piece of metal into the lock and uses her wand to spin it, listening to the lock mechanisms as she turns it. Suddenly the door pops open slightly, and Paige moves her foot in the doorway to keep it from shutting.

"It's open." Paige whispers as she turns back to look at Ripley.

She waits for Ripley to climb the stairs and holds the door for him as he enters the building. She follows behind him, closing the front door behind her. Paige watches down the long hallway as Ripley checks the stairwell for movement.

"Looks like it's clear." Ripley says to her.

The push the stairs, slowly and quietly climbing floor after floor until they reach the landing for the fourth floor. Paige watches down the stairwell as Ripley checks to see if the hallway was clear.

"Good to go." Ripley informs her.

"Okay, number thirty-seven." Paige replies.

Paige follows Ripley into the hallway and down the corridor until they reach apartment thirty-seven. Paige pulls out another long piece of metal and jams it into the lock. Ripley watches left and right down the hallway as Paige kneels in front of the door with her wand pointing at the lock. She turns the metal piece again and listens for the unlatch. The door pops open like the one downstairs.

"Get ready to push in, it's open." Paige whispers to Ripley as she stands up.

"Ready."

Paige slowly pushes the door open with her wand in front of her. They both enter the apartment, Ripley closing the door behind him. They enter in a small kitchen with a small round table with only one chair at it. Paige looks around the small sad dwelling. The apartment seems barren and cold, nothing personal at all. No signs of hobbies or interested laying around. Nothing hung on the walls, not even a clock or a calendar, they were all completely bare.

"Do you want the bedroom or out here?" Paige asks Ripley.

"I know how long it's been since you've been in a man's bedroom Paige, I'll give you the honors." Ripley smirks as he opens the man's fridge, inspecting the contents inside.

"Can you at least be a little more professional Ripley? We are committing a crime right now." Paige replies with a smirk as she walks towards the bedroom.

"Sorry Captain." Ripley replies with a chuckle as he closes the fridge and continues his search in the kitchen.

Paige enters the man's bedroom. The mystery man only had a single mattress on the ground that he neatly made up, the blankets and sheet pulled tight, almost military like and a single dresser next to it. She turns and sees a single closet beside her. She opens the closet, and she sees that it is empty except for empty clothes hangers hanging on a bar that runs across the top.
She closes the closet door and moves to the small three drawer wooden dresser next to the mattress on the floor, and slowly opens the top drawer. It only had a single pair of socks and a single pair of underwear folded up inside. She closes the top drawer and opens the middle drawer, finding only a single black shirt folded neatly. She closes the middle drawer then opens the last drawer, finding only a single pair of black pants.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear this is your wardrobe." Otakemaru comments.

"Hey now, I have like…two shirts right now." Paige replies to him in her head.

She closes the last drawer, moves to the mattress, and lifts it up off the floor, checking underneath it on the floor and underneath the mattress itself. Paige lays the mattress back down on the floor after not finding anything. She moves to the attached bathroom, finding only a single tooth brush a tube of toothpaste, a single razor, and a can of shaving cream. Paige checks the mirror above the sink to see if it could open or if there was anything hidden on top of it. Her search came up empty. She lifts the back lid of the toilet, checking the tank – making sure he was not hiding anything important in there. She replaces the top after still coming up empty. She walks back into the kitchen/dining area by the front door to check on how Ripley is doing.
He looks up at her as he closes one of the kitchen cabinets and shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't think we're going to find anything here; we should go." Paige suggests, thinking that they have pushed their luck far enough for tonight.

"I agree." Ripley whispers and they both move to the front door.

Ripley slowly opens the door and checks out the in the hallway.

"Clear."

They both move into the hallway; Paige slowly closes the door behind her. Ripley watches the hallway again as Paige kneels in front of the door pointing her wand at the metal rod still inserted in the lock. She uses her wand to twist the metal until she hears the lock engage. She pulls out the metal rod from the lock and puts it back in her pocket.

"Lock set. Ready to move." Paige whispers to Ripley as she stands up behind him.

Ripley leads the way down the hallway towards the front staircase, back tracking their earlier route. Ripley peaks down the stair well to check that it is empty. He motions for Paige to follow him as they quietly slip down the stairwell to the main floor. Ripley quickly peaks down the hallway in front of the front doors. He holds his arm out to stop Paige from moving forwards. Paige listens harder and can hear faint footsteps coming from down the hallway towards them. Paige suddenly hears loud heavy footsteps above them on the stairs a couple of floors up.
Paige's heart pounds harder and faster as the people approaching pin them in the stairwell. Ripley rips his face mask off and turns to Paige.

"Take you mask off." Ripley says quickly and quietly.

"What? Are you insane?" Paige replies in a hushed voice.

"Trust me." He whispers.

Paige reluctantly removes her mask from her face as both sets of footsteps approach them. Ripley suddenly places grabs Paige's face and kisses her, pushing her against the wall. Paige tries to pull away from him, but he keeps pressing his lips harder into hers.

"Get a room you two." A man grumbles as he reaches the bottom of the stairs to the main room.

"Ah leave them alone George, you're just jealous you aren't getting any anymore." Another man says as he walks past the stairs and to the front door.

"You two better be gone by the time I'm done my stroll around the block." George says to them as he follows the other man out the front doors.

Paige hits Ripley now that they were alone and pushes him off her aggressively.

"What the fuck Ripley." Paige says in a hushed angry whisper.

"I'm sorry." He says quietly as he turns away from her to look out the front door to check if the men have left yet.

Guilt suddenly radiates through her body, and a deep nausea setting in her stomach.

"Come on, the coast is clear." Ripley says as he puts his mask back on and looks back at Paige.

Paige looks at him with discontent.

"Paige, I'm really sorry. It was the only way to not make us look suspicious. I promise that's all it was." Ripley pleads.

Paige knew he was telling the truth, but it did not stop the fact that she still felt like she did something wrong. She hesitantly nods and follows him out the front doors. Paige kneels in front of the doors, locking it again and pulling the metal rod out of the lock.

"Hurry, before those men come back." Ripley urges as he bolts down the front stairs.

Paige follows him at a jog through the dark and sleepy town. They slip out of the town via the brick tunnel and jog through the town of Zlin to the outskirts of town towards their base. Ripley finally slows to a walk once they pass the last streetlight.

"Paige…" Ripley starts to say, but Paige puts her hand up to stop him.

"I know. It just caught me off guard. I'm sorry." Paige replies, slightly out of breath.

"Didn't really have time to explain my plan" Ripley replies as they continue to walk towards the radio station.

"Yeah. It's still going to suck to have to tell Severus this." Paige admits.

"You don't have to tell him Paige." Ripley replies.

"It will destroy me keeping something like this a secret from him." Paige says as she looks up at the night sky.

"I can talk to him if you want." Ripley replies with a smirk on his face.

"Don't you dare." Paige threatens.

"Okay, fine. I won't." Ripley says as he puts his hand up in defeat. "You want to talk about the guy's apartment?"

"What about it. It was a dead end. The man lives like he could run at any minute." Paige replies, trying not to think about the conversation she now must have with Severus.

"Well, I mean, I guess it means we only have one option left to explore." Ripley adds as they approach the radio station.

"Which is?" Paige asks him as he holds the door open for her to enter the building.

"We make contact." Ripley informs her.

"Okay. Let us decide on a plan in the morning, I have my mind preoccupied now and I don't think I can think straight." Paige replies as they enter their living quarters.

"Does this mean you're not going to cuddle me tonight?" Ripley asks her jokingly.

Ripley illuminates his wand to light up the dark room enough for them to see where their bed is. He sees her glaring at him.

"Too soon for jokes. Got it." Ripley smirks as he walks over to their bed.


Paige lays awake next to a sleeping, softly snoring Ripley. She stares up into the darkness, her thoughts consuming any hope of sleep.

"I'm sure he is thinking of you Paige. I'm sure he misses you just as much as you miss him in this moment." Otakemaru whispers to her in comfort.

"I just want to be with him Otakemaru. Just run away together, away from all of this." Paige replies to him.

"I'm ready to go. I wont judge you." Otakemaru comments, knowing she would never do such a thing.

Paige sighs and knows the truth as well.


In the morning Paige and Ripley think of plan to engage with their target.

"I don't think he will run Paige. Not if we tell him Dumbledore sent us." Ripley comments as they sit at a table covered in notes in the staff room at the radio station.

"Jack, this is your target. I am just here to aid you with anything you need. I was just trying to point out the what-ifs in your plan." Paige replies.

"I'm confident he will be on our side." Ripley says to her.

"I think you should approach him on your own, so we don't spook him. I'll be watching from another vantage point." Paige suggests as she looks down at the notes on the table. "I think the best time to approach him in the morning when he's coming back from the library."

"I agree. There will be some early risers awake, but I'm sure we can work around that."

"We just want to limit the exposure if this goes south so I recommend waiting until he leaves the Campus and hits the next street over. I can get the high ground on one of the buildings." Paige adds.

"Let's do this and get back to England." Ripley says with a smirk.

"Please don't get my hopes up." Paige groans as she starts picking up the papers from the table.

"Just being an optimist." Ripley replies as he starts helping her collect papers.

"Yeah, well whatever you call it, it's making me sick." Paige says with a smirk.

"You want to try that kissing thing again while we wait for morning?" Ripley jokes.

The smirk quickly fades from her face as she gives him a deadly glare.

"Okay, no joking about that ever. Understood." Ripley chuckles.