Bree stormed off, too mad to fully articulate her rage and walked to the arts center. The janitorial staff was used to having her be there at odd hours, they trusted that she was not there to cause mischief and left her alone.

She was glad for it, for she didn't know if she could be even the bare minimum of cordial the social contract said she had to be to people who had nothing to do with why she was angry. She didn't want to lash out at anyone, much less those who didn't deserve it. She was alone in the art studio; all the chairs were stacked on the tables and all supplies were put away. Still, the room gave her a sense of peace and calm. She took a few paper towels from the paint splattered sink, wiped away some of the tears that had managed to escape. She had thought she had gotten over her confrontation with Trevor, but coming face to face with him had brought that horrible day to the forefront.

She felt it was probably for the best that she never found anything on him when she followed him a few months ago; she probably would have had a break down, the whole thing was totally idiotic and wished she had never even attempted.

Bree could barely focus on what had happened at the bake sale. She wished she could have just accepted the money and told him to go on his way. She got even angrier when she felt embarrassed about reacting the way she did.

She took several deep breaths to calm herself. Once she could clearly remember what happened, she started to get worried for completely different reasons. She recalled his thoughts,

He was too surprised at my reaction. He used his name in the third person. Holy shit, he's actually a pod person.

Her more logical side tried to explain all his weird behavior, one that didn't involve aliens.

Did he really not know my name or was he just being a dick? Could it be part of his head trauma? Could it be memory loss? Damn it, why do all of these sound like they could true?

She paced around the room, wondering what her next steps should be.

What's the best way to get out of this and not be the impetus to a sci-fi series? I can't star in a series, I have a report due on Friday—I've only done two out of five pages—oh God, I'm going to die. Pod people are going to take over my life. I wanted to try at least one year at university. I took all those prep courses and I've maintained a 4.0, they can't come in and take credit for all my hard work!

At the thought of some alien getting all the adulation of graduating and getting into college, she kicked an innocent table leg in frustration.

"Ow, ow, ow…" she groaned as she hobbled away and felt dumb.

It wouldn't the first time Bree lost to inanimate objects.

"OK, game plan," she told the paint brushes, they were always much more sympathetic. "I am going to ignore this, as I should have in the beginning. I will continue to live my life, avoid Trevor and everyone else with odd voices at all costs. It's not like they can convince me to go alone somewhere with him. They clearly picked the wrong guy to lure me into whatever nesting ground they have. If they wanted to lure me anywhere, they should have picked Cameron Boyce. Dumbasses. Eventually they'll get bored and find an easier target. I'm sure they have better people they could replace. Or maybe there's some other girl that could be the heroine. A plucky manic pixie girl…it's not wrong to foist this adventure on someone else and put their life in danger."

She definitely thought the filbert was judging her.

"The manic pixie girl wants to go on adventures and be the hero," she explained further as the lifeless art supplies clearly didn't understand how it all worked. "I'd be helping her out. I just want to go to college and have a normal life. I didn't ask for this gift and I can't return it. Ergo, I have no obligation to investigate and stop an alien invasion, cult, government conspiracy, or any mixture thereof. I will find the manic pixie girl, and just nudge her…somehow. It's a work in progress, leave me alone pencil sharpener."

When the art supplies wouldn't contribute anything helpful, she sighed deeply and ran her hands over her face and through her hair.

"OK," she conceded, guilt forcing her to retract her plan. "Yes to ignoring this, no to duping someone else into this craziness. BUT I'm still not going to be part of…whatever this is. It's not too late, I didn't set myself on an unavoidable course where I have to deal with aliens…or whatever. I can totally ignore this and live like nothing has happened."

The easel seemed satisfied and that was good enough for her.

The MacLaren and Hall Traveler teams were seasoned agents, trained practically all their lives to fulfil missions of the Director. While MacLaren's team was prone to improvising, something the Director discouraged as it left open too many variables, they were the utmost professionals that laid low, acted natural, and only struck when the timing was right.

Hall's team tended to be straightforward but took liberties in interpreting what the Director ultimately wanted and were ruthless in their endeavors; at least until Hall and Luca landed in jail with the Director's blessing. Hall was still cold-blooded when it came to missions, and he had more experience with the more unseemly aspects, such as kidnapping.

Kyle was excused for the mission as his host had detention, neither the seasoned Travelers minded as kidnapping was almost rote to them.

All of experience didn't work out as well when the mission was forefront of their minds and they were trying to capture a mind reader.

Bree normally could block people out while she listened to music, focusing on one sound helped drown out others. Sometimes, however, people who were particularly loud thinkers invaded her little bubble and she couldn't help but overhear them. Some became loud with stress or if what they were thinking about was the sole focus of their minds.

Plans to kidnap her not only were loud, but would make her turn off her music subtly and listen in. She kept walking, her heart racing and she hoped she didn't look as panicked as she felt. She kept her pace and stayed on course, wondering if it would look more suspicious to suddenly veer off path or would that be her only chance at getting away.

They really need to teach how to evade kidnappers, what the fuck do I need to the Pythagorean theorem for? Keep walking. Keep calm, they're in a creepy old car that probably gets terrible mileage and has a terribly large carbon footprint.

Luckily there were still several people around her, all heading towards the same direction as her when leaving school. That gave her a few precious minutes before she got to her neighborhood and people would taper off.

Why do they want to kidnap me? If I escape today, will they keep trying? Do I tell my parents? What do I say? I can't say I heard their thoughts…maybe I can just say they were creepily following me…Is this pod people or everyday sex trafficking kidnappers…God, it's so sad that it could be either. The world is garbage. Maybe I should let the pod people take me, everything is awful. What do I even have to look forward to? Insane student loan debt? I won't be able to buy a house, maybe my parents will leave me theirs. Oh my God Bree, focus; you're about to be kidnapped.

Whatever plan she needed to come up with, she'd have to do it later as the car following her was within "push her in before anyone could do anything" distance as one of them eloquently thought. She still couldn't tell if they were pod people or regular humans, their thoughts coming in clear and she didn't know them, she wasn't able to tell if their voices matched their thoughts.

"Hey! Karen! It's so great to see you!" Bree exclaimed to the first woman she came across and hugged her.

The woman was shocked and wasn't sure what to do, her name certainly wasn't Karen and she had never seen the girl before. Bree was glad she was so small and unthreatening, she was certain if she were any bigger then she would have been thrown off and yelled at.

"I'm sorry, but there are these guys following me in that tan car. I don't know them and I'm scared," she whispered while she held onto the woman. She relaxed and eyed the car in question, she agreed that the guys in the car were suspicious as they slowly passed them. The men were much too old to know the girl socially, and if they were related to her she wouldn't have been scared.

"It's been forever! We really should not let so much time go by, lets get some dinner," the kind stranger played along, and Bree almost cried in relief. The two diverted to a local eatery and stayed there until Bree's parents could pick her up.

"How the fuck do you fuck up a kidnapping this badly?" MacLaren railed at Hall and Luca.

Luca had the humility to at least seem sheepish, Hall just scoffed and rolled his eyes. Kyle was thankful he had detention, from the last time they had kidnapped someone and he had skipped school.

"Kidnapping is not that easy," Hall tried to defend himself, ready to give the finer details of the art of snatching people.

"No shit it's not easy, but I would have thought that you at least wouldn't have been reported to the police."

"How could she even go the police? Yes, we were following her but it's not like we were creeping along. We were going the speed limit."

"Well apparently you have a 'creep' factor because a random woman Bree happened to cross had corroborated her story and with Ms. Hatch's exceptional drawing skills had turned in a sketch of your mug. Which then popped up in the database and guess what? You're still on parole. So maybe if you weren't a felon and she wasn't a 5'0" girl with straight A's and starts greenhouses and gardens for the homeless, they would have brushed it off."

"Well then boys scout, you kidnap her. Maybe it'll be easier with your suit and black SUV, tinted windows will make it hard for her to see your stupid face."

"Enough, you idiots," Grace reprimanded them,

I can't believe the Director trusts these morons. I could have kidnapped her, easily.

"Instead of you two snapping at each other like the bratty degenerates that plague the school, I have a plan to get this Faction…a good plan."

"And what's that sunshine?" Hall highly doubted, programmers might have intelligence when it came to computers in spades, anything else they were normally useless at. That's why programmers were cloistered away from the regular populace as they had zero social skills.

"I call her in for counseling and give her a drugged drink. I'm a trusted member of the community, she'll never see it coming and as an authority figure within this wretched institution they mockingly call education she won't be able to refuse to see me. She'll be knocked out, I'll say she left and hide her in my office; when it gets dark, we'll take her to the safe house."

"Drugging young teen girls? That's what we've come to?" Phil was not comfortable with this plan and wanted no part in it.

"The ends justify the means," Grace replied succinctly.

"Machiavelli," Phil automatically filled in the originator.

"I think we know what happens when we start to assume the Director would be OK with doing whatever it takes to accomplish the mission," Grant darkly reminded the group of Hall's past indiscretions.

That did still Grace's hand for the moment. She knew that despite how close she was with the Director, there were limits and lines they could not cross even for the sake of the Grand Plan, unless the Director gave specific instruction to do so.

"Well I'm open to any other idea, I just want it stressed that knocking her out wouldn't harm the host's body."

Trevor sighed deeply and tried not to roll his eyes, wishing Grace would calm down.

No one had any other suggestion, and there were no messengers or any other indication from the Director that Grace's idea was out of line.

"No one? Fine, drugging it is. Marcy, get me knock out drugs."

"What?" the team's medic's head swung towards Grace, startled that she was suddenly part of the insane plan.

"I'm a programmer, not a doctor. I thought of the plan, you take care of the details. I'm going to try out that place across the street. If a rouge Traveler thought it was worth eating at for a few weeks, it has to be good."

Without much ceremony or even a goodbye, Grace left Ops and the others were speechless at her bluntness. But there weren't any other viable plans, Grant certainly did not want to attempt to kidnap the girl in his government vehicle; especially not if she was such a good sketch artist. The last thing he needed was this Faction to report to the police that an FBI agent had attempted to kidnap her or somehow link him to Hall.

Historians and their irritating perfect memory.

The next day, Grace's plan had gone into effect. Marcy had managed to obtain some rohypnol, Traveler 0027 wasn't all too concerned with the "how," only the dosage so she wouldn't accidently kill the host.

The last thing Grace wanted was a dead teenager in her office, she barely tolerated them when they were alive.

There was a soft knock on her door, Grace slightly jumped; nervous about her first mission that didn't involve a computer. Subterfuge wasn't her strong point, but she had to get this mission right or she would never be invited to another.

If I don't get invited to more missions my mind will turn to mush from boredom.

"Hi Bree! Come in," the counselor said in her most welcoming voice.

Bree was slightly startled at her abnormally loud welcome as she walked into the office. She had seen Grace Day smile before, whatever had taken her place looked like they had only seen smiling on television and was trying to mimic the behavior as best they could.

Definitely another point for aliens. Why did I come here? Escape, idiot. No, don't act like anything is wrong. Act like things are totally fine and that you don't suspect a thing. She has a "mission." This is different than the creepy guy in the old car, that guy was a stranger. This is pod Grace Day, she could make my life very hard. One report that I'm acting "out of sorts" and boom, I'm in therapy sessions to make sure I don't have the family "illness" until I graduate.

While she could not be 100% sure the guys in the car were pod people, the fact there was another attempt to get her was telling. She barely listened when the pod Formerly Known as Grace Day babbled on about the bake sale incident right as she sat down. Bree could only guess that's the best she could come up with in order to force her to come there.

"I just want you to know, that the agreement is still in place. Trevor Holden is to stay away from you. I know it's difficult, dealing with graduating and getting into college…and then Trevor. I just want you to know that I'm on your side…"

That's it, nod and smile , let her think you're on her side…and you care about her host's boring mundane life. Offer her the bottled water, the one to the left. Don't mix them up, I…don't want to pass…out. Then the Director would never trust me again and I'm stuck with these brain-dead Neanderthals living out this banal existence.

Bree felt as if she was going to vomit, hearing the plans to drug her made her feel dizzy. The Not Grace Day's thoughts were particularly clear and concise, flickering out rarely. She did her best to keep nodding and smiling, hoping the alien wouldn't pick up on her anxiety.

What in the hell do these people want with me? They can't know…

"I'm sorry what?" Bree asked when Grace had looked at her quizzically, the same look everyone got when it was clear she had zoned out.

"I was wondering if you wanted some water…you look thirsty."

That was oddly inelegant, but also something she would expect from someone who had newly been human and was still trying to adjust to their new planet and interacting with humans.

Must be the B Team pod person. Man, they're really not good at this. How have they remained hidden for so long? Maybe there doesn't need to be a hero, these aliens might only get the dumb ones.

"No thank you…I'm on a tea cleanse. I only drink this special herbal tea, I got it off the internet. It's vegan, organic, and gluten free, it's supposed to help me lose ten pounds in a couple hours. It's all natural, imported from…" she prattled on about the first idea that came to her dead, trying to recall every diet tea or whatever celebrities hawked on Instagram.

Grace blinked several times, totally caught off guard; she was certain it would be easy enough to get her to drink water, but she was instead treated to an infomercial.

Idiot 21st century diet fads, damn this Faction is good.

"I really have to go, thanks for the talk. I'm sure Trevor just simply forgot, too many hits to the head. Silly football and all of that, I'm fine. Thanks for checking in, I have to go to the bathroom, but only the one at my house. I'm bathroom shy and this tea is not going to wait, if you know what I mean. Heh heh heh…bye."

Bree had said it all so quickly and hadn't waited for Grace to come up with an excuse to stay. She could only stare helplessly as the teen exited her office.

Shit.

Later that night, back at Ops.

"Well, so much for drugging her," Hall rubbed Grace's failure in her face.

"Shut up, at least I'm not on some criminal database," she replied petulantly, her face scowling in disappointment.

"Well she started a buddy walking club, so she's always with someone from school to home. It's a big hit, apparently she's not the only one who is uncomfortable walking by themselves. World's not a great place," Trevor informed them.

"She didn't take the water?" MacLaren wanted the entire story.

"No, said she was on some sort of 'tea cleanse.'"

"Well, there are several diet teas offered online, but she has no monetary transactions reflecting that kind of purchase. Most of these are just over priced laxatives and rather dangerous to take as a diet supplement, I can't imagine her parents buying them for her. None of their recent purchases reflect any of these teas either way," Phil droned on, piercing holes in Bree's excuse.

"I doubt Faction would actually buy into 21st diet fads, so I don't think she used Historian training to cover her tracks. She definitely made it up to get away from Grace," Carly suggested.

"She lied about why she refused the water, could she have known it was drugged?" Mac reasoned out.

"No, I never even got a chance to even pull the bottle out. There's no way she could have known it was tampered with," Grace went over what happened.

"Well she certainly knew not to accept it and to escape…could she know you're a Traveler and didn't want to accept it as a precaution?" Carly trying to think of Bree's motivation.

"Not unless there's another mole…could Traveler 0029 had given her a list of known Travelers?"

There was no way to confirm either way, but it was a rather daunting idea if there was a list of known Travelers and how much harder their lives could be because of it.

"Well that certainly makes things harder, if she knows who Travelers are and by sight…she knew to case us and Grace is an unauthorized jump," the likelihood becoming more and more believable.

"What's the plan? If she knows who we are…"

"Then we need someone who has jumped recently, someone after Traveler 0029 had been executed," Carly suggested, the tactician making logical connections. "If she is some deep undercover Faction, then her connection to the future is gone. The most she would know is potential hosts, she wouldn't have knowledge of who the Director is sending currently."

MacLaren nodded his agreement, going over potential teams that could help them.

"Do we have permission to gather more Travelers for this mission?" he didn't direct the question to anyone specific, but he knew the computers were always running and therefore the Director could always hear them.

Yes. Protocol 6 is suspended until we capture the Host known as Bree Hatch, the computer showed.

"Then I think we should bring Victoria in, she has the resources of the Seattle police. If we can't kidnap Bree, maybe we could bring her in for questioning."

"On what charge?" Trevor asked, wondering how arresting her would be a good plan.

"We won't be arresting her. She's recently been active in the community. She's not afraid of publicity. She's in papers for her garden, maybe we can use this new 'walking club' to our advantage. Maybe lure her in by wanting to commend her for her pro-active and smart program. Maybe ask her to be the face for expanding it to other schools."

"We get her into the police station, then what? It's not like we could knock her out there. I'm sure non-Travelers would see her. And I highly doubt she wouldn't tell people where she was going, at the very least her parents."

"No, but we can lay the ground work to get her to trust at least one of us. Once we have her trust, we can lead her to where we want her to be and then we can plan a better kidnapping."

"I doubt Victoria will appreciate having to have to take a hit to Seattle PD's reputation by having a teen kidnapped on their watch for a program to specifically avoid kidnapping."

"She'll get over it, we've all had to do uncomfortable and even embarrassing things for the Grand Plan."

They all grimaced, thinking of their most embarrassing encounters.

Bree found herself in an interrogation room, that had raised a red flag with her.

"Why are we in an interrogation room?"

The young intern that had showed her in, blushed as it was rather odd. It was only his first week and he didn't have any idea what he was doing. Even the simple task of showing someone in was rife with issues.

"Yeah," he breathed out heavily, nervous about answering without sounding like a half-wit.

Oh God, she must think I'm an idiot.

Bree smiled, trying to calm him down. She just wanted answers to the odd situation.

"They said all the regular conference rooms are booked, so we have to use the interrogation rooms. You're not like in trouble or anything."

She looked to the two-way mirror, wondering if there was anyone behind it. She tried to strain, leaning slightly towards the mirror but she didn't actually know how to boost her power. She either heard people's thoughts or she didn't. She couldn't hear anything, so the room on the other side was either empty or her powers didn't extend.

The intern's explanation sounded like it was plausible, so she shrugged her shoulders and accepted it. She went over her head the potential conversation she could have. She was excited to expand her program. While her initial motivation was to avoid being kidnapped by pod people, she thought that it was still a good idea for all the other type of kidnappers or attackers. It was a sad state of affairs where they needed such a program, but she was glad to make walking home just a little safer.

MacLaren hid behind the two-way mirror, wanting to bear witness to the questioning and was there to give tips to the new Traveler.

"Testing, this is Traveler 3468. Do you read me?" he tapped on his com to turn it on. He trusted Trevor's work completely, but it was always smart to test.

"This is Traveler 6248, I hear you loud and clear," an unfamiliar voice rang through the Team's head. The rest of MacLaren's team and all of Hall's team were back at Ops, observing the camera feed from Phil's station.

"Alright, the target is relaxed. She has taken the water, which is not drugged."

Grace rolled her eyes but was thankful she was at least invited to this mission. And it wasn't due to her constant whining, she was sure of it.

"She didn't react to the intern who is not a Traveler. So that is our baseline. We will first send in Traveler 3185, see if she reacts. Then we will send in Traveler 6248 in, he's just arrived last week. So, there's no way for her to know him."

Victoria who had also been tapped into their feed took her cue to enter the room.

"Hi, I'm officer Victoria Boyd," she introduced herself to Bree, leagues more natural than Grace.

Grant muttered his instructions, letting Victoria know what to expect and what to look for.

Bree looked like a deer caught in headlights, she automatically went through the motions of shaking the woman's hand, but her heart was thundering in her chest.

Shit, they've infiltrated the police…what do I do?!

"Hi…" her voice broke slightly and she coughed to get hear bearings, "I'm Bree…" she stared at the bottled water she drank, wondering if it had been drugged.

"Well, it's clear she knows Victoria is a Traveler," Mac said into their comms. He observed as Traveler 3185 went on as if she didn't sense anything was amiss. Bree answered questions when asked, but it was clear she was twitchy and looking for ways to escape.

Unexpectedly, another officer came into the room,

"Sorry to interrupt you, but the conference room is free; no idea what the confusion was about but it's been…"

"That's great," Bree jumped up, almost bulldozing the officer down in her attempt to get out of the interrogation room. "It's just that this room is so small, it's kind of claustrophobic and all of that…"

Both adults looked at her askance for difference reasons and MacLaren cursed behind the two-way mirror that he wouldn't have eyes on the interview.

"Phil?"

"I'm on it," and the Historian quickly tapped on the keyboard and quickly thought of another way to view Bree's behavior. He was able to easily hack into the station's computer system and they were up to date enough to have VTC capabilities in all conference rooms. Phil quickly programed all the cameras to point where he wanted them to be and the microphones were live.

Bree was escorted into a room, and the team all focused on the live feed.

"OK, she's in the room and Victoria has excused herself. We'll be sending in Traveler 6248, known as Charles Anderson, to finish up the meeting. She looks really spooked boss, I don't think we'll be able to get her back into the station," Carly narrated to Mac and was proven right when the newly arrived Traveler had barely been able to introduce himself before Bree tensed again and quickly made her excuses to leave.

"OK, Charles, we want you to try to calm her down. We need to get her to trust at least you," MacLaren urged the new Traveler.

"You know? I just don't think I'll have time to really spear head this program…I have so many other clubs, and it's already established at Fairview. And it's like really easy, it's basically just the buddy system…I'm sure you could start another program in other schools really easily," Bree wanted to get out of there immediately, the new officer was also a pod person and apparently they were trying to get her alone. If she didn't escape, she was certain she would pass out and make their jobs easier.

"Well…maybe if I could get your information…" he tried to salvage the situation as best he could.

"You guys already have it."

"How about contact information for someone else at Fairview, someone with time?" Traveler 6248 thought maybe they could get more of a presence in the school. "It's just such a good program, I would hate for it to fizzle out."

Bree bit her lip, wondering if she should give out a random name. Maybe if the aliens had someone else, they would stop hounding her. Part of her suspected that maybe the pod people were interested in her because of her recent publicity with the walking program and other clubs.

Damn it, I should have just ignored those stupid dreams. If I was still a nobody, then they wouldn't want my damn body. They probably think I could lure even more people to be pods…if that was the case then why did they have Trevor quit football? None of this makes sense!

But guilt started to rumble in her stomach, a cramp threatened to keel her over.

I can't do that to someone…I just have to hope they move on…

"I don't know anyone off the top of my head, but I'll ask around and get back to you," although she had no intention of doing so and rushed out of the building.

Back at Ops, there wasn't a happy Traveler to be seen.

"Well, we're 0-3 on getting this Faction. Are we sure the Director doesn't want to try to convince her to lead the team? Clearly we're outgunned," Hall rubbed salt into the wound of their failure.

"Shut up Hall," MacLaren was not in the mood to deal with the other Traveler's sass. "We don't have time for you to be a smart-ass. We clearly have a mole, another fucking mole."

His team flinched at his rage when he kicked a chair, although they could understand as it seemed there was a never-ending stream of those who were adamant about disrupting the Grand Plan and keeping the future the dire cesspit it was that they left.

"We don't know that for sure," Grace didn't want to believe it, she was certain the Director would have gotten rid of allthe moles when it did that farce of a trial of her. But there was also the chance that one had emerged as the future was always changing with every mission they accomplished.

"Then please, explain how this Faction not only knew Victoria but also Charles was a Traveler? Someone who hadn't jumped to the 21st until a week ago."

Grace remained silent when she couldn't come up with an answer, so she knew that if in her own genius mind couldn't come up with something other than a leak, then it was probably the likely reason.

"There's something off," Trevor insisted, something within his gut had told him since the beginning.

"You think?"

"I swear to God Hall, if you don't shut the fuck up I will shoot you point blank. Trevor, what do you mean?"

"This Faction supposedly has impeccable computer skills. We can't find anything other than sloppy Google searches that link her at all to the Future…"

"Well there are those drawing," Carly reminded him.

"Which a Faction would be foolish to draw in the first place," he reasoned. "What we've found linking her to the future are amateur mistakes. If she is setting a trap, what is she waiting for? Nothing has happened to us or to any mission. And she's been here for months, known about us specifically for months and nothing has happened. As far as we can tell, she has left us alone and hasn't done anything to change the future; at least not on other Faction levels. What we do see is when confronted by other Travelers, she is terrified."

"We're clearly on her trail, at any moment she could be over written," Marcy suggested, knowing all too well how easily their lives could be over.

"In that case, why stick around? If she's a Historian then she knows where to get easy and quick money. Why not move to the middle of nowhere? Spurn technology and live a simple life? Even a life without any technology is still better than what we left behind. It'll be decades before anything truly terrible happens since we averted Helios 685. She could literally live out her life in luxury. She clearly doesn't care about disrupting the Grand Plan beyond taking a Host not meant for her."

"So what are you saying?" MacLaren wanted to know what Trevor's point as they had gone over this already.

"I think we need to think outside of her being a Traveler."

"What else could she be?"

That was still the question that plagued him.

"Maybe she's psychic."

That's what got Hall kicked out of Ops, laughing at Grant's red face and he was certain if the Director didn't have Protocol 3 then he would have had a bullet between his eyes. Luca and Kyle following their team leader out of loyalty and figuring they weren't getting anywhere with the plan anyway.

The rest argued through the night, trying to come up with other ways to get her alone. They all did not want to have to come to the Director and tell it that they may have to skip straight to over writing her, and they'd never know how a Historian could go rouge which was out of the question. They needed to know how she did it, because if it could be done once then it could be done again.

If they had failed anymore missions, they wondered if the Director could feel anger and overwrite them all in frustration.

Kyle, Traveler 5532, still didn't have the hang of the 21st. Everything was so much brighter, the air was clear, and there was so much life. He didn't understand how the teams could focus on missions when all he wanted to do was live the life he could only have dreamed of. He wanted to experience all the joys the 21st had to offer. It took everything in him to not skip school and go on hikes or steal his host's parents' credit cards and binge eat at every restaurant in Seattle. But then maybe that very life was the reason Travelers worked so hard on missions. It was because of them that this life may even survive in the future.

When he first got there, his missions seemed simple enough and Hall wasn't one to keep his company beyond what was necessary. So, Kyle had plenty of time to enjoy the 21st between assignments. He wished his latest one wasn't so difficult or weird. Part of him understood a Traveler defecting, preferring to live their lives in the past. Perhaps after the completing the Helios mission, which was the focus of traveling back in time to begin with, and finding that nothinghad changed—that had proven too much for Bree. Maybe she lost faith in the Grand Plan and despaired that the future she left was inevitable.

It was something that had crossed his mind. They had averted Helios. They had all these other missions that moved the path to the future to where they wanted it and they still had the Grand Plan. They were still all there.

Would a better future ever come?

Part of him felt that maybe at this point, Bree had earned her retirement and ought to be left alone. The teams had admitted it themselves, she had never interfered with the Grand Plan. From what they could see, she didn't even use her knowledge as a Historian for personal gain, she was living out Protocol 5 to the point that they had doubts she was even from the future to begin with.

He had to believe they had to have better things to do than hassle a so far harmless Faction.

Both teams had spent hours going over different plans, each listing every resource they had at their disposal.

Grant had the FBI. Marcy had the hospital and access to drugs. Phil could hack into any computer system. Victoria and Charles had the Seattle Police Department.

Even with all of that, Bree had managed to evade them all.

None of them seemed to have the element of surprise as she seemed to know who Travelers were, even recent arrivals. They had to figure out a way to nab her without implicating anyone on their team or endangering innocent bystanders.

The last resort plan was to ask the Director for a Traveler specifically just for this mission. One that could jump to the 21st and then skip town right after kidnapping Bree to avoid doing jailtime. They would basically be asking for someone to directly forever break Protocol 5. They couldn't imagine the Director would be too happy to waste a Traveler just to get one Faction member.

Kyle wondered if he would be chewed out if he suggested that they ignore Bree until she actually proved to be detrimental to the Grand Plan. He laughed at the thought of the Director making all the computers explode in its anger at such a plan, it having a clear history of hating loose ends and unaccounted for variables.

Everything had to be accounted for and planned to even the most minute detail, it was how the Director was programed and it was the only way the Traveler Program could function.

Protocol 5 was a pain at times, it not only interfered with missions but some 21st customs were utterly ridiculous—such as mandatory attendance to high school. While the mission always took precedence, they still had to deal with the consequences of the host's life. MacLaren wasn't too keen to have Hall's team involved with Bree, so Kyle was stuck at school and he still had several detentions to attend for skipping school to kidnap Anna Hamilton. He wished he could tell the teachers he had saved the 53rd President of the United States, that really ought to excuse his truancy.

But he couldn't and he had to deal with the consequences of putting the mission before his host's obligations.

Perhaps if the Director could think on the fly and improvise, it would appreciate how random chaos could bring about exactly what they wanted. A 1 in a 1,000,000 chance was still a chance.

Kyle had just finished detention and wanted to go home to get his homework over with. He didn't understand why the school just made him sit in a room and do nothing productive. It was a massive waste of time, even if he weren't a time traveler with a mission to save humanity.

But his detention put him in the school, in the exact hallway at the exact moment Bree left the art center. The hallways were empty, and most had left for the day and anyone who was on school grounds were in their respective clubs or in various sports fields across campus. She was distracted by something in her hands, they appeared to be sketches.

Kyle couldn't think of what to do as he did not think he would be alone with the Faction, he wasn't the tactician of the group. He was really just a body for Hall's team. So instead of trying to think of the most reasonable and clever thing to do, he did what came naturally to him which was to put her in a headlock and cut off the oxygen to her brain until she passed out.

Shit…I really shouldn't have done that.

But it was already done, he frantically looked around the hall to see if anyone had witnessed his attack on Bree. Thankfully it was just as empty as it had been a minute ago. Now he just had to decide what to do with a passed-out girl. He pushed the subdermal communication device just behind his ear,

"You guys, I have Bree Hatch."

"What the fuck do you mean you have Bree Hatch?" Hall's gruff voice echoed in his ear.

"I had detention, the school is mostly empty, and I happened to come across her. I knocked her out and now she's in the middle of the east wing hallway passed out."

"Christ kid, get her somewhere hidden. What did they teach you in the future?" He would have thought that would be the first thing he would have done, not come calling them with an unconscious girl where anyone could come across them.

"I'll call Marcy and the MacLaren team," Luca chimed in while Kyle dragged Bree to an empty classroom and hoped no one would come across them.

"The hell we're calling those idiots in. This is our catch."

"This isn't a catch, this is a mission that both teams are on. And if you forgot, we have no medic and the kid knocked her out."

Hall huffed but couldn't dismiss Luca's point.

"Fine, call those uppity douches and we'll meet him at the school."

"I wouldn't recommend that, we still have records and were seen trying to grab the girl already. If we're seen there and she's reported as missing, we can probably count on another stint in jail."

"Fine. Kid, can you keep tight until MacLaren's team gets to you?"

"Yeah," Kyle's voice was shaky, he still couldn't believe he had just knocked her out and dragged her to a classroom. If anyone caught him, he was pretty sure he would have a jail cell right next to Coach Perry. "I can text Trevor, maybe we can get her out of here. He knows the school better than I do."

"Fine, do that. We'll let you know of an ETA for the rest of the team."

Kyle texted Trevor and hoped the older Traveler had an idea of how to get them all out of there without being seen. This was probably the worst thing any of them could do,

"But at least I actually got her. Out of everyone's plans, my non plan is the one that worked."

Although Bree couldn't hear him, he was certain she would agree that while it was impulsive and crude, he got the job done.

Bree woke slowly, her heard hurt and she blinked sluggishly as it took a while to get a full sense of where she was. When she realized she had no idea where she was, she got up quickly from a rickety cot. She regretted that immediately as the world started to spin around her.

A blonde woman quickly ran to her,

"How are you feeling?"

Bree wasn't sure how to respond, still too dizzy to answer.

"Where am I?"

Marcy did a cursory exam, even though the teen was their hostage, it would be no good if the girl was too sick to answer their questions. There didn't seem to be any permanent damage as Bree's eyes started to focus and just needed a few more moments to get her bearings.

Once the room stopped spinning, Bree took inventory of where she was. The walls where beige cement and she was in some sort of clear cube prison in the middle of a warehouse.

She suddenly had an adrenaline spike as she realized that she had been kidnapped and the person in front of her was one of the people she had stalked those months ago. Bree backed away from her as quickly as she could, stumbling over the cot and ran into a chair. Her back then hit one of the invisible walls, the material not like anything she had seen or felt before. It was harder and slicker than plastic but didn't reverberate like glass. She turned and hit the wall as hard as she could, hoping to be able to break out but whatever it was, it seemed to absorb her hits. When she turned around to the blonde woman, she had somehow got out of the cube. Bree could not see any seams or even a door,

Holy shit, alien technology. They're going to replace me.

She started to hyperventilate, no matter how much she tried to breath it never seemed to be enough. Her heart beating too fast for her body to keep up with.

She saw that everyone she had stalked before where there, the whole team of people Trevor had hung out with. Then there were the two guys she recognized from the old car that had tried to kidnap her. They were all in it together, including Kyle who she was certain was not a pod person but she realized that she had not been around him recently to hear his thoughts. The run in during the bake sale, she had only been focused on Trevor and hadn't heard anything from him.

The memory of running into him had rushed to her, he had seemed surprised to see her. As helpful as her power had been, it didn't work against those who didn't have a plan and conveniently thought about it in time for her to avoid them. He had not planned for her to run into him and he took advantage of the situation. She was not ready for him to attack her, and even if she had she doubted she would have been able to overpower or even outrun him.

She also saw there was a console of computers set up, with at least three cameras she could see pointed straight at her.

Trevor got the gut feeling again that they were missing something, every reaction Bree had demonstrated so far felt utterly genuine. He didn't know anyone who could feign such fear and the whole situation didn't feel right. But he wasn't the team lead and regardless, the Director wanted her interrogated. Whether or not she was Faction, she at the very least had knowledge of the future that needed to be addressed.

"We need to calm her down or she'll pass out," Marcy told them as she read Bree's vitals, the girl's heart rate through the roof.

"She's faking, just tell her to cut it out," Hall was skeptical.

"You can't fake tachycardia," she was rather irritated at his presence and his doubt of her abilities not to mention how many of the devices around them were beeping.

"Marcy, sedate her," Grant told her, not wanting to waste time. It would be better if the Faction was fully conscious but drugged out was better than passed out.

Thanks to future technology, they had a specific gun that could shoot through the invisible barrier. Carly was their best shot and took the loaded tranq gun from Marcy and before Bree could react, she was shot in her shoulder. The drugs started to work immediately, everything slowed down and became hazy. She slid to the floor and her head felt so heavy she had a hard time keeping it up.

All those movies were right, hazy bright lights and dark forms above.

What Bree saw in her drugged induced state were regular lights in a prison made from the future, the figures were MacLaren's team as they hauled her back to the cot.

"What did you do to my bones? I need my bones," Bree slurred out as she tried to raise her arm but it just felt lipid and floppy.

Trevor thought he deserved a special place in hell, but he couldn't help but think it was rather cute how loopy she was.

"Your bones are fine, we just had to sedate you because you were having a panic attack," he said as gently as he could. He made sure she was tucked in safely on the cot, ignoring Hall's scoffing and glad Phil was there to help him. The other Traveler he could trust to also take care with their prisoner, even if she were Faction that didn't mean they had to turn into monsters.

Marcy hovered over her, checking her pupils and making sure the dosage wasn't too strong as to cause irreparable harm.

Bree didn't appreciate even brighter lights in her eyes, she weakly tried to slap Marcy's hand away,

"I don't like it."

The Traveler just rolled her eyes, feeling like she was in any 21st hospital room and taking care of an unwilling patient.

"Can we still question her?" Mac asked, hoping they didn't just blow the mission. He had hoped they could get their answers and overwrite the Faction the same night. The new Traveler could make up a quick excuse and have everything be blamed on teen rebellion. Anything longer would be trickier.

"We can try, but it's not really a truth serum," Marcy replied honestly.

"Fuck…it's better than nothing," he hoped the Director was conveniently not watching them.

This is such a shit show.

"Traveler, what is your designation?" Grant asked Bree when Phil and Trevor left the prison.

"My pronouns are 'she' and 'her.'"

That was not the answer they were expecting, they had all frowned and looked puzzled at one another. They didn't necessarily think she would come straight out with her Traveler number, they were more expecting denials or being told to fuck themselves.

So baffled, it took Grant a minute to compose himself and try again.

"How did you get here?" he felt that was a straightforward and simple question.

"You kidnapped me, idiot."

Hall snorted, one upside to MacLaren being in charge is that it wasn't his fault when it all went wrong. The Director had no one to blame but the other's team, although he was fair minded enough to know that he probably wouldn't have done much better.

"The 21st century, how did you get to the 21 century?" he gritted out.

Phil had an uneasy feeling of déjà vu as Grant went back and forth with Bree. It wasn't that long ago that he, Trevor, Marcy, and Carly had been stuck in a warehouse, drugged, and asked questions pertaining to the future. Certainly Bree was treated much better as she was not locked to a wheelchair with a catheter and intravenous fluids, but it still brought back all those horrible memories.

Memories he recalled with striking clarity and was genetically bred to be unable to forget.

He knew this was important to the Director, to the Grand Plan so he took deep breaths to keep calm. He was glad he wasn't hooked up to any device as he was certain his heart rate would give him away. He felt a warm hand and gentle squeeze to his shoulder, he looked up from his monitors and saw Trevor's encouraging smile. The eldest Traveler could tell he was struggling, and while they could not abandoned their post to take a minute to gather themselves, at least they could show their support in small ways; he didn't think Trevor would ever know how much it meant to him, but Phil would remember to always try to be kind; even to people who were their enemies.

"This isn't working, she's higher than CO2 parts per million in the 25th, she's just spouting nonsense," Grace opined, getting frustrated by their lack of results.

Grant clenched his jaw, unwilling to admit defeat just yet. He wondered if more drugs could possibly get her to unwittingly tell the truth or if they should wait until she was a little soberer, but not enough that she would go into another panic attack.

Unfortunately, the Director was also losing patience (as much as a quantum computer could) and told them,

Stand by for D13

"Shit, that's Derek," Marcy reminded them of the specialized doctor from the future. None of them were too keen on having special help brought in because of their failure, but they were also slightly fearful of what a doctor from the 25th would have that they wouldn't already have with Marcy.

"This is such a shit show," Grace lamented into her hands.

I confess, I haven't seen the new season. I'm mostly not emotionally ready for it because some on tumblr have made it seem gut wrenching and I need happier things in my life right now. lol Also, I wanted to get through this chapter without the new season colouring it too much as I had a plan. So hopefully I will watch the new season and not have it totally kill my muse for this story or take it a complete different direction.