My head was ringing, even when I was engulfed in the darkness. I started to count, nice and slow.

1…..2…3…..4….

Wow, this was taking longer than I thought. By now I would be waking up and getting my body placing itself back together. How strange, and it felt like an out of body experience. But it was all black, black and quiet for the longest time. How long was I supposed to wait? Was this now a test?

5...…6…7….8…..9…

At this point, I started to feel that tingling sensation within my fingers and toes, almost a shifting within my bones that seemed off. I was trying to figure out what it was, and it almost felt uncomfortable and a whisper of a gasp came out of my lips. I wasn't even fully awake yet when more and more of the feelings in my body making me harder to get my breath again. But once I found my breath, it was in a long groan, almost painful that another part of my body snapped together in place. It was my spine, snapping in place like a piece of a puzzle. I guess it was severed or broken. Either way, it took my breath away and not in the best way possible.

"Come on….come on wake up….please Sorella, wake up…"

My vision was slowly almost coming back together but it was still so far away. I could very faintly feel someone touch my face, almost framing it so fiercely and yet gently at the same time. I couldn't move my jaw nor could I feel the back of my head, both of them were in pain as my vision was almost completely clear.

I was on my back, staring straight up at the opening in the lobby, seeing two stories up that the railing I crashed through was shattered. It was still bright out, but my blurry vision was getting to be clear again. There was a distinct face that was looking down at me with frightened pales eyes, a youthful yet wise face, and the look of fear. I could feel a tear escaping my eye from seeing him in front of me.

Nicky

He gave a huge sigh of relief. He was watching me so intensely, his hands still on my face as I could feel my skull almost knitting back together from the side of my head where I collided into the ground. It made me twinge a bit from the aching pain. I could hear two other voices in the background, talking in wished and rushed tones to each other as the sound of the elevator closing with the distinct sound of the "Ding"

"Is she gonna be okay?" Nile asked, her voice laced with worry. I then felt someone moving over to kneel next to me, right next to Nicky and I could see the dark curls and the gentle face that was now laced in fear. It made my heartache to see him as well.

Joe.

I wanted to talk, but something was off with my jaw. It felt like it was pushed to the side, almost too far to the side as I wanted to say something. I tried to move my mouth at first, but it was locked in a position that seemed unbearable. But Nicky shook his head rapidly, seeing that I wanted to yet.

"Un attimo…wait—" He started to say to me before I instantly felt my jaw shift back into its proper place with a pop, the white binding pain seared through me in such a fashion I cried out loud in such pain. I squinted through the pain, my legs kicking out and my hands making a fist. Nicky still framing my face through the spasm of pain that was all over my jaw and going down my neck into my collarbone. I felt another hand lacing within my fingers, though they were sticky from what seemed to be blood.

"I know…I know," Nicky cooed to me as the pain was slowly melting away and going into my bones again. I was finally able to gulp down some air since my jaw was perfect again. I finally blinked rapidly and I got my spare had under me, pushing myself up as Nicky released my face with his hands and gave me space.

I was sitting upright again, looking dead ahead for a brief moment, seeing Nile watching me with a flood of relief in her face from seeing me come back. She was wielding a gun at the ready in front of her, covering or us as I blinked hard one more time. I had to get back into the current headspace, where I was and how I ended up on a lobby floor with a busted jaw and severed spine. Taking a shallow breath, at both Joe and Nicky.

They both looked beyond relieved, and I could tell in the body language that Nicky was about to scold me from what I did. I only stared at him, giving both Joe and Nicky a tired smile.

"Don't scare me like that again, ever," Nicky scolded me with a stern voice, almost like I was about to be disciplined. Joe simply rested his head over on Nicky's shoulder as Nicky was still staring at me, squeezing Nicky's arm to calm him again, "Capire?"

"Yes," I replied in a huff, Joe lifting his head for Nicky's shoulder and looking at me with his tired face. I saw him give a smile as he leaned over to press a kiss to my matted hair that was almost caked in blood.

"Come on, up you get," Joe said to me as he then helped me on my feet, Nicky not too far from him as they both were getting me back in a standing position. I released Joe's hand in my own and moved my fingers around a bit before I looked over at the bodies all over the floor. I counted six of them scattered around and about all of them had an arrow sticking out of each of them.

"I only shout at four of them," I said in amazement, not thinking clearly of the math. It made me look over at Nicky, noticing that his feet haven't moved from his spot when he was perched over me, and my bow was right next to his foot. I looked back at him, seeing him give me shrug.

"They were going to kill us all right after you fell," He explained, not even caring how he sounded at that moment. I had to lean over and give him a quick hug, feeling him hug me back in return before a flash of worry went over my face.

"Wait, wait!" I said in a panic, finally remembering and I slightly panicked, maneuvering my head over at Nile.

"Where's Andy?" I asked her, worry filling my eyes.

"She's tailing him, Eleanor. He's trying to get out of the building but we placed the entire building on lockdown after we broke in," Nile reassured me as I nodded my head, then going around to each of the soldiers, grabbing the arrow and pulling them out of the bodies.

"Who? The Doctor?" Joe asked near Nicky.

"He's not our target," Nile explained to him as I was going from one body to the next and grabbing more arrows.

"His name, though," Nicky said, not understanding as I finally got the last arrow and walked over to the pair of them.

"He wasn't behind the assassination attempts on me or any of us," I told him, seeing his eyes go from Nile to me, "It was The Wolf. He's blackmailing Randall Stieven into funding their plot schemes and other shit, and he used Daniel as leverage. The Doctor left the Nazis officially 5 years back but was blackmailed to stay with them unofficially,"

"How do you know this?" Joe asked me, having me pause and give him a solemn look.

"Because Randall was the one who spared my life when I was held hostage," I answered, feeling a bit bit about how he was brought into all of this and he had no way out, "He's not our target. The Wolf is, and he's going to kill Andy if we don't get there fast,"

"Let's get her," Nile said in agreement, in which I was getting my bow ready and back in its holster on my back, Nicky and Joe were grabbing spare guns from the fallen soldiers before they went for their stolen swords, and Nile cocking her gun at the ready. I grabbed a spare gun as we were making our way over to the elevator.

"Which level are they on?" Nicky asked Nile.

"Top floor," She replied, pressing the Up button and the doors opening for us. We all piled it, hearing the doors closed as Joe pressed the button to the top floor. For a moment, it was quiet, a soft sound of elevator classical music was heard as we felt the elevator taking us up. I had to look at the reflection in the door of four of us cramped in the small box. All four of us had blood all over the place and dressed in black, sweaty, and holding guns in our hands. Nicky threw his hoodie had on over his head and was closing his eyes, meditating, as Nile was shifting her weight between her feet in rhythm.

"We make motley crew, don't we?" I had to ask, seeing Joe grin as Nicky smiled silently.

"We always have," Nicky answered back, almost fondly. Even when we were going up in an elevator, in our mercenary attire with blood and sweat and grime all over us, a small part of me was glad that we were together in this situation. It felt like the good old days, even with Nile in the mix. I heard Nile clearing her throat to get my attention.

"Eleanor," Nile said to me, having me I look over at her to my right, "That move you did back there…can you show me how to do that sometime later?"

"Which one?" I asked in curiosity as I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Well….all of them really," She admitted in a lightness that it made me grin, "But mostly that one in the hallway when you jumped and slammed on the guy," Joe perked up a bit next to Nicky.

"Is she talking about your chest kick and knife to the head move?" Joe asked in his own soft tone, having me nod my head at him and he laughed as he looked over at Nile, "The last time she did that move was around the 1870s in the Old West of Texas….stopping a bank robber before he could make his grand escape,"

"No shit, are you kidding me?" Nile asked in a breath of awe. Nicky grinned widely.

"It made him drop the money, didn't it?" I asked, shrugging my shoulders, "Besides, the guy was drunk off his ass and he tried to make a pass on me. He was asking for it,"

"But a knife to the head's a bit too much," Nicky said, eyes still closed, but almost like he was giving advice. I just shook my head and looked dead ahead once more.

"I thought it was a nice touch, considering he was a prick to the ladies at the boarding house, calling them whores," I explained some more, "I tried to explain to him the majorly successful conquests women have made for the last century in both business and personal endeavors and how they should have the same equal opportunity as men, how they're just as smart as men too…..he didn't take that last part lightly,"

"Which explains the knife to the face," Nile said in humor as we were about three floors away from our destination.

"I can't help it if I was a feminist for at least 150 years," I snorted, and I could see the reflection of the elevator doors, seeing an infamous smirk on Niles's face when I mentioned feminism.

"No offense to you guys," Nile said to both Joe and Nicky as we were two floors away now, "But fuck the patriarchy."

"Oh, Nicky and I are on the side of feminism as well," Joe measured her gently as I could hear the smile on his lips, "Patriarchy and toxic-masculinity are not the good pillars of humanity, they haven't been for the past century."

"As much as we should discuss this subject, I don't think now is the time," Nicky lightly advised us as we were one floor away, the elevator slowing down as it was about to get to the destination. The tension in the air was once again seeping under our skin as I was looking dead ahead. I wanted to go in with a game plan of sorts in case we were going to run into some trouble with The Wolf.

"Once we find them, I'm taking out The Wolf," I told the group, gripping the pistol real hard in my hand.

"We can help you," Nicky reminded me, to which it felt like we were about to have an argument with each other about this. I felt for him though, and the others since they were on the fence about the choice. They did see me fall from two stories and bust my jaw and sever my spine.

"I need you all to help Andy," I commented, "I don't trust her taking on that man all by herself. She may be older than any of us….but I'm fighting The Wolf on my own,"

"I don't think Nicky's saying you can't handle it," Nile said from behind me, her voice was calming to all of us in the elevator, "If you're gonna go up against this guy….we'll have your back. No man left behind and all that shit, right?"

I nodded my head slowly as the elevator was now stopping and the doors were about to open. I had to learn how to be back in a team dynamic again, no longer having to face things on my own and be solo with these kinds of situations. Who knew that 80 years could change that in a person. After all fo this is over I was going to try and re-educated my brain from being a soloist to being part of a team.

The doors opened, all of us getting our guns out and ready. We stepped out onto the lobby with quiet feet and were all stood backs together, almost a circle as we were checking the perimeter. Once we were cleared, I moved first down the hall to our right, the other three were right behind me as we were going down the hall, looking at every door that we passed. Theses were offices, all deserted and all abandoned as we were going further down the hallway.

"How do we know when we're close to Andy and—" Nile was about to ask then the alarm suddenly went off, the lights install were shut off and the red emergency light was blaring through the hallway. Now, this was going to be some kind of problem.

"Now we know," I muttered as I was walking down a bit more into the hallway, keeping my gun at the ready. Andy had to be close by, and she was alone with The Wolf, I knew I had to step in as fast as I could. Her mortality could kill her at this point since I had a very small glimpse of what he was capable of when it came to violence.

"Spread out down this hall and find them," Nicky said to us from right behind me, having me keep going forward and the others spreading down the hallway on the floor we were on. I was going by the rooms once by one, peering in for a split second before I went to the next one, my heartbeat was getting a bit faster and my adrenaline.

Towards the end of the hallway, I heard some kind of commotion on the other end of the double doors. I was hoping that it would be The Wolf and Andy there, and I wanted to practically run there and burst through the door. But I had to be careful because it could be some kind of ambush. This had to be a careful operation, but I wanted to pick up the pace bit more as well.

"Die anderen sind nach am Leben." I heard on the other side of the door, having me freeze against the door and not move a muscle.

"Er will sie legend!" A second voice hissed angrily.

"Wir müssen sie töten bevor er es herausfindet," Another voice said with the first voice and I started to mentally play out what I needed to do in my head. I placed my hand on the handle, already thinking that this could be a mother step in the right direction and where I needed to go.

But something else happened, and I heard nothing at all on the other end now. No movement, no talking, absolutely nothing at all. I felt that maybe they heard me, to which I maybe should move away from the door in case they were going to come out. But I was frozen, maybe hoping that this could be a good opportunity to bust in there.

But then, a machine gun cocked on the other side. My face dropped.

"Shit!" I said, running right out of the line of fire just in time for rapid gunfire to hit the door and the bullets flying through, It was coming out so fast and loud as I dove for the nearest door that then leads to an office right on the leftist, getting slammed a few times by bullet all along my arms and once in the chest, tumbling to the ground but finally out of the line of fire. Wood pieces were flying out int he air from being slammed into the door, though I was trying to make sure the bullets that were pushing out of my body weren't in harm's way.

I poked my head out, barely in the line of fire from the bullets that were still pouring out of the room. I was looking down the hallway and seeing the others diving out of the way too.

"RESTER BAS!" I screamed down at them in French over the gunfire. All of them diving out of the way and into deserted rooms themselves as I ducked back into the room I was in. I grabbed my bow and landed an arrow, getting two more under my armpit for a rapid reload in case I needed it. After a few seconds, the gunfire was finally over and I heard bullets cascading to the ground like rain. The smell of smoke and gunfire was filling the air, along with seeing the shattered splintered door all over the hallway. I felt the last bullet that was in my collarbone push out finally, the small bullet hitting the carper and not making a noise.

I had to counter strike.

I got one arrow pulled and ready, squatted, and staying low before I turned the corner and released at the first soldier I saw. There was smoke everywhere, and I could make out at least 6 others in the room as I drew another arrow and shot at another before I though twice. The two soldiers fell to the ground as I saw the others about to scramble and figure out what to do.

I bolted towards the mass of people, getting a pistol out and shooting one more down before they were bringing their weapons up and ready for firing. I ran through the room, hopping over one body that was already on the ground and I was charging over at the fourth soldier and dodged the one shot he took against me.

I grabbed the arm that was stretched out with the gun, punched him hard in the face, and seeing blood spew out of his mouth. Maybe the last two soldiers were knocked out in some way since I couldn't see them at all as I was punching out the soldier in front of me. I took one more upper punch to the jaw, finally knocking him out as another soldier cam dup from behind me to wrap his arms around me, yanked me backward, and having em try to push his arm around my waist.

But he was a bit too fast as he then forced me up against a wall, craning me into the glass shelves. My pistole and my bow and arrow fell to the ground from the impact, leaving me vulnerable. The glass cut right into my skin and one-piece, in particular, was right into my neck, though I was too occupied with the quick pain of being stabbed with the glass against my jugular. He was right in front of me and I saw him about to shoot me in the face with his gun.

I grabbed the gun before he could pull, pushing ti up and the gun fired into the ceiling. My other hand reached out to punch him in the throat so he could release my throat. Once he did, I launched myself right at him and had him fall to the floor on his back, having me perched over him with a piece of glass still poking out of my throat and shoulders.

Once I was in a beer position, I went for a punch to his face but he dodged it and punched me back right across my cheek. He then grabbed the glass that was still impaled into my neck, twisting it slightly and having me cry out in pain. He was about to take it out when I went back tp punch him to get his hand away from my neck. I grabbed the glass that was poking out of my shoulder, pulling it out with a yelp as I then slammed it right across his face, killing in an instant.

My hand was bleeding from holding the glass in a tight grip as I looked up, seeing a soldier with a gun pointing right at me. I was still perched over the dead soldier who had a slash across his face, and I was about to be shot in the head. I was bracing for it, but the soldier was instantly shot in the neck, falling to the ground before I could react. I was shocked by what I saw, but I looked over to see who took the shot.

Nile.

She was frozen with her gun out, looking around at all the carnage that I made with the soldiers and the plenty of debris that was everywhere. I sighed, getting up from the ground as she was looking back at me.

"Oh shit!" She said in a shock, looking away immediately from me as I gave her a puzzling look.

"What?" I asked her, and she was looking green in the face. She blindly pointed at me while I heard the other two running into the chaos of the room. Nicky had his sword drawn in his hands, ready to slice as Joe had a gun, and once they were in the room they looked over in my direction. Both of their eyes were huge and in shock.

"What?" I asked again, clearly not catching on. Joe gulped, looking a bit sick as iIcky then pointed over at me, just like Nile, but a little bit lower than my face.

"Your neck," he blurted out, then adverting his eyes. I was frozen, not understanding at first with what he meant by that. But then I reached up, touching the very end of a piece of glass that was still in my neck. I felt a wave of uneasiness since my neck was healed around the glass, at least trying to heal but the glass was not coming out on its own just yet.

"Oh," I said in a low manner. Not knowing what to do for the first second, I looked at the other three to see their reaction. Nile looked like she was about to vomit, Joe was just trying not to cringe from seeing it, and poor Nicky almost broke out in a cold sweat. I didn't know what else to do and the last thing I wanted to do was lose more time.

"Fuck it," I said in a grunt, wrapping my fingers around the piece and clenching myself before I took one hard tug. Blood started to pour out like a faucet.

"HOLY SHIT!" Nile yelled out in shock as I instantly felt pain in my neck as the glass shattered to the floor. I threw my fingers around my neck to stop the bleeding and I almost toppled over from the pain of it. This pain was more shocking from my jaw clicking back together, taking a breath out of me as I waited a few more moments before I could feel the massive wound against my neck slowly knitting back together.

"This is too much heavy shit for me to handle," Nile muttered as she was so close to vomiting in the middle of the room. Joe was looking away, maybe out of politeness or it was a bit much, and Nicky just squinted through it. I was trying to keep my grip on my neck as it was almost healed up completely. It took another few seconds before I didn't feel any wound there at the site.

"Okay, where do we go from here?" I asked the group since it seemed like we were all back to normal in a sense. This all seemed chaotic, but we were just trying to regroup and get our heads back together.

But that was answered when we all heard something right above us on the roof, almost like grunting and a fight breaking out. We all looked up, almost confused as to what was going on, we were following the sound as it was moving from being in the middle over to the side, like the fight over as well. The thought of Andy fighting The Wolf made my stomach churn as we then saw something falling off the building from the window.

It looked like a body.

"Andy," I said in a hurry, all of us started to move. I quickly moved to get my bow and arrows that were on the group, getting them back on my shoulder as we ran out of the conference room and back down the hall, looking for the stairs that would lead to the roof. Once I found the door, I threw it open and we all climbed the last set of stairs before we saw the door that would take us out there. As I was climbing the stairs with the others right on my tail, placed an arrow on my bowstring, already thinking of the absolute worst. This was going to be one of those times when the timing was everything since we were going in blind and we didn't know what was going to happen.

I stopped right at the door, Joe right behind me as he got his sword out and ready, placing one hand on the handle that leads us outside. He looked over at me first as I was getting in my ready stance, seeing if I was ready. I nodded at him once, gripping the handle on the bow extra tight. Within a second, Joe pushed the door open and I moved out, haring the ow in front of me and the arrow was drawn back.

The roof was massive and large, the clouds rolling by with the sound of thunder coming into the town in mere moments. The wind was whistling through the sky as we all come out of the roof within seconds, and I saw instantly two things. One, Andy and The World were in back sparring with each other, Andy's weapons including her ax on the floor not too far away, and they were being brutal. Secondly, Andy was kicked to the ground on her side as The Wolf threw out a gun from behind him, about to aim at her.

I release my arrow without a second thought, seeing my arrow fly through the air and hit The Wolf's arm right in the arm.

He dropped his gun to the ground, crying out in pain and hunching over himself as we all jogged over towards Andy. She grabbed the gun before The Wolf could while we were running, seeing The Wolf staggering back a bit as he was clutching his arm and the arrow still sticking out from his skin.

"Andy," Nicky said in worry as he knelt to look at Andy, who was struggling to get up from the ground. My eyes were still on The Wolf, making sure he wasn't going to do anything else at that point. I even got another arrow out and ready, landing it in the string as Nicky help Andy get up.

"I'm fine, Nicky," She said to him in reassurance, though squinting a bit as she moved to sit up. Joe knelt as well, checking her all over with worry as Nile was standing by with her gun out with protectiveness.

"Nothing broken, boss," Joe said in a sigh of relief, placing his head on her shoulder briefly as Andy patted his head with a huge sigh of relief on her own lips.

"Yeah, I tried not to get in too much trouble," Andy said almost bitterly as Joe and Nicky helped her get back on her feet. But my eyes were on The Wolf, and I could see how he was slowly coming back up from being hunched over, a rare look of pure rage in his eye as it sounded like he was growling and grinning as he did. The others were behind me, and I heard Nile cock her gun as I instantly held out my hand at her.

"Don't Nile," I said to her quickly, seeing that he was now standing up fully and looking at all of us. I could see how he was still staring at Andy, almost in amazement in how she was still surviving his sparring match. He then looked over at me, and I saw the bloody look on his face. Andy marked his face up far too much, but the way his face was swollen in certain places, it was mixed with rage and fury all over as he was now glaring at me.

He slowly reached for the arrow that was still in his forearm, grabbing the long stick with his bloody fingers and pulling it out hastily to throw it on the floor. The arrow bounced from the impact as he was staring me down like he wanted to murder me with his eyes.

"That fucking doctor should have killed you when I told him to," He growled at me, in which I said nothing but kept my eyes on him.

"My fight is with you, not them," I said to him cooly, seeing how he was watching the others over to my right side. He had his infamous smirk on his face as he stared back at me.

"I asked you for your precious secret the nice way…being the nice guy I am," He said to me, taking a few steps over to me as I was staying still. I could hear the others shuffling back a bit now as I was glaring at him.

"And how is that working out for you? Your pretty face getting the treatment it deserves, since you deserve shit in this life for all that you did," I explained to him as I then lowered my bow and arrow down at my feet. He was watching me with his bloody raised eyebrow and a growing smile on his face. I felt like I was about to commit suicide with what I was about to doubt, I also knew what I was doing.

"Looks like I'll have to take it the hard way," he said in a low threatening tone, though I was beyond calm and collected. I had to treat it like I was about to go over a land mine, or even approaching a predator when its defensive was low. I had to lower him into thinking that he could have the upper hand with me.

"You wanna fight me?" I asked him, taking a few steps over to him as I then took off my thigh holster with my pistol and having it fall to the roof in a clatter, "We can fight for it."

"I wanna murder you!" He said in a shout as I cracked my knuckles at him and glared back at him.

"There's a difference between fighting and murdering," I warned him, "And if you really my immortality, and just mine alone, why do you just fucking take it if you can," I was really asking for it, asking for a fight with this person who could be just as lethal as me. But it was the only thing I knew I could do just to end this since I knew he wasn't going stop until either he got what he wanted or I was dead. Which had to be both.

"Come on, then," I urged him, seeing him thinking it in his head how I was practically handing myself over to him, "Come take it from me!"

He then started to run towards me, and I ran towards him. I was feeling everything in this fight, in this one moment where I knew it was make or break. There wasn't a single once of doubt left in me now as I was getting closer to him, my hands making fits with every pump of my legs. He was going to top this, stop all of this nightmare that I and my family had to endure. I was going to make sure of that.

Our fists raised up, we collided in an all-out fistfight.