Andrew's POV:

You would think after spending the last several hours dealing with this facility that you'd be used to the gore, carnage and despair. I assure you, definitely not.

I led the girls through the bloodied halls of the facility once more in a search for a "classified area" of some sorts.

We stuck to using passageways that looks considerably more worn than others, stepping over bodies and debris from past attacks. I thought it would benefit us to be in these considerably worse-off areas to lessen our chances of being caught.

As we crouched by, I thought we heard movement so I had the girls duck into an emptied office nearby to take cover, making sure it would be safe to move on.

"This place is seriously fucked up. It wouldn't surprise me if all of the staff has fallen back to a more secure location." I ponder out loud.

"I think we all know who is to blame for all this." Libitina starts. "..Yuri."

I sit in silence for a moment, listening if I can hear the sounds anymore.

"She has really fucked this place up. I wonder where she's at now…" I say, peeking my head out of the door. "I think it's good to go. Stay close, alright?"

We follow the carnage through a few halls, dodging sparks from defunct lightbulbs and stepping over the deceased. I turn a corner and get the girls attention.

"Guys, look."

They turn the corner and follow me, staring at the giant, steel door straight ahead.

"That looks pretty important." I murmur, slowly examining the door.

It was a fairly worn set of double steel doors, similar to an elevator, with a complicated looking computer system next door to it, no doubt to regulate entry based on certifications.

"We don't have any sort of key to get in…" Libitina says glumly while studying the contraption.

"Sure but look here." I bend over and grab a hold of the left door, which was damaged and off its rail system. "It seems to be unhinged, so if I could just…"

I pull the door left, trying to be as quiet as possible, which made it difficult with the metal scraping on the tile floor. Soon enough, we had just enough room to crouch through.

I held it open long enough for the girls to get through, then slide through myself, carefully allowing the door to fall back into place.

"Holy shit, Yuri must've been here." I state, looking around the destroyed room.

It was a square room, with the middle being primarily occupied by small cubicles. There were several doors located on the walls left and right to us, with a giant, steel door on the adjacent wall from us.

This room was no exception to the carnage the rest of the facility was under. Most of the cubicles were crumbled and painted the same crimson we've been all too familiar with. Torsos of employees were misplaced everywhere, missing their lower halves. The lights flickers and spark, their luminescence decreasing more and more as time passes.

I carefully approach the large, steel door at the end of the room. There was a small, circular window that was at peephole-height. When gazing through it, I saw a dimly lit staircase heading down towards the unknown.

"I think we might've found our lab entrance, guys." I say, scanning the door for any way in.

"Look at this console, I think we need an ID." Ilia says, tracing a finger along the gleaming surface.

I took a step forward to get a better look at the panel.

"This is strangely more advanced than anything we've seen so far." I trace my finger along a thin, horizontal slit that was underneath a blank LED screen. "May have to find a keycard. I suppose the directors should have one?" I presume, looking at the girls.

"That would make sense.." Libitina says, turning her attention to the offices around the room.

"In that case, we might as well start looking. There's a lot of carnage and dead people laying around, we're bound to find something."

The girls split off to search different rooms.

The office I walk into is filled with what you'd typically guess an office to look like. An oversized desk, plenty of electronics and hardware, a seat or two, and of course file cabinets.

Unlike the main room outside, the office seemed in much better shape. Sure, equipment was strewn about, but there didn't seem to be any signs of loss of life.

I walked behind the desk and started checking drawers for anything. Other than random clipboards with logs and research plans, there was nothing that stuck out.

I cursed to myself and glanced up at the computer screen in front of me. It faintly glowed, with a green text window flashing. I noticed it to be an audio recording that must've been sent to this individual.

Curious, I used the machine's mouse to play the message.

"Dr. Strauss, I am sending you this in regard to our current outbreak. As I'm sure you're aware, we are assembling the remaining surviving members of each section to Lazarus for containment until the termination of individual F-4. Although the intentions and motivations for F-4 are currently unknown, we have activated full lockdown of Sector Zero for the Speaker's safety. Though he will more than likely be able to handle the situation himself, we are just running extra precautions per REP Chapter 4, paragraph 3.2. If there is further information gathered, I will transmit pertinent."

The audio ends and I sit there, soaking in the information.

'So the others being taken to some compound while….F-4, I'm assuming Yuri, is most likely trying to take out some Speaker..' I think to myself.

I do one more check of the room to verify I have all the information I could find from the room and exit next door to tell the girls of my findings.

….

Libitina's POV:

"Please be careful, Lib." I hear Ilia tell me from across the room. "We don't want to help someone to find us."

I open a drawer, finding nothing, and close it just as fast.

"Ilia, I'm almost positive that whoever else is alive it either long outside the building or down in that lab."

I move over to a nearby file cabinet and start searching through each drawer, finding nothing but documents.

"You can never be too careful.." Ilia finishes, turning her attention to a stack of dented, brown bins in the office's corner.

Everywhere I search, I find nothing. How does no one have a keycard on them? Even these offices seemed more in place than the rest of the facility.

I hear movement outside the room and freeze, slowly turning my head to the doorway. Thankfully, only Andrew enters.

"Hey, how's the search going?" He asks, taking a look at each of us.

"Nothing so far." I dejectedly tell him. "Anything in the office next door?"

He shakes his head but takes a step towards me.

"No keycards but I listened to an audio recording that whoever that office belonged to left on his computer."

I stop searching and turn my full attention to him.

"What did it say?"
He motioned for us to follow.

"It'd be better to show you, so I don't leave out anything important."

He showed us the recording and to say I was surprised was an understatement.

"Wait, so Yuri is down there?" I frantically ask.

"It seems so, along with the rest of the kids they took with them."

I start for the door of the office.

"We have to find a way down there, now! We have to get to Yuri, she can help!"

I began fumbling around the dead carcasses strewn in the main room for any sort of identification. No matter how nasty it was, my mind was fixated on finding a way to get to Yuri again.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, we still have one last place to look anyways." I hear Andrew say to me. I look up to where his gaze was to see an office with a closed door.

We approached and I read the door's tag out loud.

"Dr. Winters."

I felt a shot of irritation flow through me for even seeing his name. Ilia grabbed my arm as if she could sense my distress.

"We'll deal with him in time, okay? Let's focus on getting Yuri first."

I take a deep breath and grab the door's handle, heaving it open.

His office looked as normal as the others, the only difference being a few decorated awards hung up on walls and his desk. That, and his office seemed significantly bigger than the others had.

"Okayyy, I guess we'll start with his desk?" Andrew says next to me.

"I have no clue, honestly.." I start saying, taking a step farther into the room. "..he could put his credentials anywhere in here."

We get to Dr. Winters desk and I hear Allison gasp beside me. I turn to see what has flustered her when we hear the office door loudly close, followed by the charging of energy rifles.

Andrew instinctively reaches for the weapon he has slinged on his back, only to get shot in the abdomen, incapacitating him.

"Andrew!" I scream, horrified.

Low chuckles fill our ears as Dr. Winters takes a step forward, pushing his circular glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I must say, Libitina, I'm impressed. Impressed that you managed to get as far as you've had. Sneaking around, escaping the Pit, making your way back here."

I stand still in silence, my body shaking from anger.

"Do you really care for your sister that much? The same sister that left you here alone all that time ago? The same sister who abandons you now?"

"Shut up!" I spit at him. "She hasn't abandoned us! She clearly is set on a mission, a mission to rid this place of the filth you people have created!"

Despite my verbal attacks, he just emits a low, dangerous chuckle. Allison whimpers next to me while Ilia stands completely still, keeping silent while holding her younger sister's hand.

"Do you honestly still believe your sister came back to save you?" He asks, his voice sinister and confident.

I start to argue back but my words fail me. He smirks as my hesitation.

"Even now, you may not admit it to yourself, but you question her loyalties. The way you haven't heard from her in years, the way that she hasn't bothered to make an appearance since her arrival. She has different motives."

I take a step forward to him, steeling my nerves.

"What are you saying? That she just came here to destroy this place? That's it?"

He chuckles and steps towards me.

"Not just to destroy this place. To take over. To become the one true Queen. Her goal is to assemble those blessed with the Third Eye and use them to gain power. But, of course…" He crosses him arms. "..you wouldn't dare try to believe that."

I stood there, not daring to speak. He's lying. That's not Yuri, she wouldn't do something like that.

"Fortunately for us, we've taken precautions on every sort of measure that would dare jeopardize our mission here. She'll be dead by the time she reaches the Speaker."

He reaches into his inner coat pocket, brandishes a syringe filled with an emerald-green liquid.

"As for you, I cannot allow you to run amuck my already crumbling institution. We were going to inject you after a few more tests, but right now will do."

He stepped forward and grabbed my wrist, ripping me away from my friends.

"Let me go!" I screech, throwing ineffective slaps and punches.

He turns me facing my friends and throws my on my knees, placing a hand under my chin to force my chin up to access my neck.

Ilia moves to defend me but it halted my the humming of energy rifles, bringing my attention to two additional guards that accompanied this monster.

"Don't fight, this was inevitable."

'Come on…' I plea inwardly with myself. 'Please, awaken! Give me the strength….I need to find Yuri…'

I claw and pull at his hands but he is too strong. I feel a knee in my back to completely strip me of control.

I scream internally, fighting with every ounce of power I have until I'm ripped from my thoughts.

There's a sharp crack in the air and a splattering sound. Dr. Winter's grip on me is loosened and I fall onto my knees. I flinch when I hear two more bangs, with the large thumping sounds following.

"Libitina!" Ilia cries as she slides up to me, scanning me for injuries.

"I'm okay, Ilia, I'm okay." I say, sighing in relief and hugging her dearly. "B-but, Andrew, we need to help Andr-"

I start to force myself up, only to stop halfway when I lock eyes with Andrew, who had one hand pressed against a wound and the other laying down a weapon to his side.

"Despite what you might believe, these things hurt like a fucking bitch." He groans.

I crawl up to him and move his hand to get a closer look at the wound. It seems the like shot only barely penetrated him, so it wasn't too severe. The laser rounds leave a mixture of a normal bullet hole and scorch wounds, so it's an abnormal sight.

The wound seemed to have cauterized, so at least he isn't suffering from immediate blood loss.

He points forward with his hand, so I turn and see the corpses of the two Onyx guards and Doctor Winters. The evil man himself was sitting against the wall, bleeding from a shot to the chest cavity.

"You'll never make it. You're going to die here like the rest…" He spits out, before his head falling limp, the syringe falling out of his hand and clinking on the floor.

Silence fills the room temporarily before Andrew speaks up.

"As shitty as all this is, I think we found the solution to our problem."

I nod and step towards the body, frowning at the sight.

"Stupid bastard." I spit, bending down to search his coat. Clipped on a front pocket was a red key card. I snatched it up and turned my attention to the emerald syringe lying next to him.

I carefully pick up the container and return to Andrew, who has gotten onto his feet and is leaning on the office's main desk.

"What is that shit?" He asks, scanning the strange vial.

"I don't know.." I bring the syringe closer to my eyes to read it better. "..its in another language, Russian, I believe. The only readable letters say 'AS-D'.

Andrew repeats the acronym I said while carefully walking around the main desk, opening its main compartment.

"Got some stuff in here that could help us out, too."

He takes out a large sheet of thin paper, along with a group of smaller documents.

"Seems to be a map of some kind…" He says while scanning the paper. The rest of us gather around him to get a better look at the sheet. "…looks like there's an entire subsection of the facility."

He points to a large section of the map in the center.

"'Lazarus Labs'….must be the laboratory we were told about before…" he runs his finger along the sheet."

I put my hand down to shift the map better my direction so I could get a better look. The diagram shows one main room marked 'Lazarus Labs', like Andrew pointed out, with only one small path beyond to labs leading to an unmarked area.

"Here, this area must be where the Speaker is." I say, pointed to the unmarked room.

"Well, at least we have an idea on where to go…" He starts, turning his attention to the documents.

"SA-X? What is that..?" Ilia asks, noting the page I picked up.

I skimmed the page, which was more of an activity log for a 'Third Eye Activation' experiment. It noted injecting the individual with some "AS-X" serum to create a process of merging their mind with the 'Third Eye' and noting their ability to activate and suppress it.

I guess Ilia was reading it with me because she turned her attention to the green vial in my hands.

"If there's another liquid that gives you these hellish powers….then that must mean this green one takes them away…"

My hands start to shake as I hold this syringe.

'Could this thing really take everything I have from me?'

I feel warm hands on mine and look to see Andrew taking the vial out of my hands and carefully putting it in his pocket.

"Looks like I'm the only one this won't damage too harshly so I'll hold onto it. Besides, knowing these freaks, there's probably way more to this than we realize."

I sigh and nod, agreeing with him whole-heartedly.

"Well, what do you say we go down and find your sister, end all this?" Andrew says, clutching the red key card in his hands.

I give him a sympathetic look.

"Will you be okay? You know, with your…" I cautiously look at his wound.

"Eh, we got more important things to worry about. It hurts, but I can move just fine. That's all that matters."

I sigh, slightly relieves, and turn to the girls.

"Are you guys ready?"

Ilia nods and gives me a forced, confident smile while Allison meekly looks at her sister, knowing this is the only option we have.

We approach the kiosk at the steel doors and Andrew inserts the key card into the slot.

'Access Grant. Hello, Dr. Winters.'

We enter through the door and stop at the top of the stairwell, steeling ourselves for what lies ahead.