The team returned to base with a broken humvee and broken team.

Etrius and Boomer carried an unconscious Beecher out of the humvee and towards the base. Etrius collapsed halfway, and Dr. Romanov, who had been watching from the entrance, ran towards them. "What happened?! Where are the others?"

Etrius coughed up blood. "Dead, or worse."

Romanov tried to get Etrius on his feet, but he shoved him away. "No, help him first."

He gestured at Beecher before falling to his side.

Romanov retrieved a wheel stretcher and wheeled Beecher inside while Boomer dragged Etrius in, Timber pulling at his shirt with his teeth, trying to help.

Blue leaned on Nox for support as they limped inside the base. Lloyd lingered behind, his eyes to the ground and remained silent.

Blue was disoriented, and would've fallen to the ground had Nox not caught her. Red veins were inching their way through the whites of her eyes.

Nox's eyes widened as they darted to her shoulder. "Blue, you're bitten!"

Blue followed her gaze to her shoulder, where blood seeped through the white fabric of her shirt. Her breath quickened, her heart racing.

She remembered the bite wound in the castle animation. Watching it from behind her computer screen looked cool and full of gore. But experiencing the bite first hand was nothing short of terrifying. Pain. Excruciating pain that just kept coming like a storm that never ends. It burned and sizzled like acid, as if someone had injected hot oil beneath her skin. She was on the verge of tears. It hurt more than when she first crash landed into this world, and Etrius found her unconscious in the crater.

Nox practically carried her the rest of the way to the infirmary. "Romanov!"

Romanov grumbled as he worked quickly through Beecher's bullet wound. Every time these rebels left the base, they returned with life-threatening injuries. He lost count of how many times he stitched them up. But when he saw Blue enter the clinic with an Evil bite, his heart raced. His first thought was to perform research to better understand Evils. But seeing the dying look on Blue's face changed his mind. He dropped everything and laid Blue in a quarantine chamber. Beecher could survive in the few hours it would take to treat her. He pulled on gloves, new scrubs and a gas mask.

He could already feel his inner prescience fading as Blue slipped away. The rest of the team could feel it too.

An Author's soul was connected with her characters. If Blue died, the rest of the team would follow.

Blue stared transfixed at the surgery light above her head, fear and pain filling her eyes. Romanov injected morphine and anesthetic into her system, speaking words to calm her down. There was a reason Romanov was the best surgeon in the Castle Project.

As Blue went under the surface of consciousness, Romanov got to work on the bite.

Hours have passed since they first stepped through those gates of the Superior's base. It was 3 AM, and the team was still awake. Etrius watched Blue recovering in quarantine from behind the glass, his forearm leaning against it.

Romanov approached him, his voice solemn. "She'll make it. The bite won't do anything to her. She's surprisingly... Immune to it."

Etrius let out a pent up breath through his nose. "I'm still worried."

Romanov raised a brow. "You never worry about anyone else except your team."

"I know what I said. But our lives depend on her." There was only partial truth in that. He was the one who found her lying in the forest. The one most motivated to get her back home. The one with the most faith that she could find Angel. And she did. She brought them so close. But it came at a price.

Etrius ground his teeth as he fled the infirmary room. He entered the armory and began arming himself with guns and knives. Beecher caught him on the act. "What are you doing?"

"The General is still back there," Etrius clipped on a belt. "The Superior could get information on where we are."

Beecher gave him a doubtful glance. "You're going back to keep us safe, or you're going back for him?"
"Don't."
"Stop letting your anger cloud your judgment, Etrius." Beecher's eyes burned with someone undecipherable. "If we couldn't get the job done together, then you don't stand a chance alone. It's a suicide mission. Just stay here."
Etrius remained silent. Then, he let the belt full of weapons clatter to his feet, and he left the armory.

Blue regained consciousness, soft light filling her eyes. The repetitive beep, beep, beep of heart monitoring equipment echoed beside her. She sat upright in her infirmary bed, rubbing her hair which was dirty and oily with sweat and evil's blood. She needed a hot shower. Badly. When she tried moving out of the bed, she made a noise of anguish and sank back down. She glanced at her arm. It was wrapped in bandages, blood already beginning to seep through the white cloth. She was also connected to an IV drip. Her brows creased together. She hated getting an IV needle stuck in her back in her world, but just the thought of having a needle from another world inside her vein was even more unnerving. Still, she had to give Romanov credit. He did a much better job at patching her up than any doctor she'd been to in her world.
She glanced down. She was wearing brown scrubs. She ran her teeth together, sincerely hoping it was Boomer that had changed her clothes while she was unconscious. Still, they were better than the torn up Pierce the Veil T-shirt and jeans that hung off a chair in a corner of the room. The holographic clock on the wall read 5 AM. She grumbled.
Blue took a breath, then attempted to get out of bed again.
The IV drip and Heart Monitor made a loud BOOOOP beside her. A female electronic voice spoke. "Identity Confirmed - Gabriella." Blue's mouth formed into a thin line. She hated hearing her name, especially from a machine. (This is true, you guys.) "Initiating Pause Sequence. Do not move. Now removing IV Drip and Monitor."
The equipment hooked up to her extracted on it's own. Blue stared at it in amazement. To make up for what she had lost in her home world, this world's technology was incredible. Blue slipped out of bed, momentarily disoriented from laying down for such a long time. The tile flooring felt cool beneath her bare feet. She limped to the shower room connected to the infirmary private room. The door to the bathroom was locked with a voice command. "Please say a command. Ex. Lights. Food. Assistance. Unlock."
"Uhh... Lights off?"
The lights flickered out.
Blue smiled, laughing in the dark. "Fucking cool. Lights on!"
The lights flickered on. Romanov was standing in front of her.
Blue inhaled sharply. "Agh! Get back!" She shielded her face with her arms.
Romanov stumbled back , as if pushed by an invisible wall.
Blue lowered her arms, staring at what she'd just done. "I..."
Romanov's mouth formed into a thin line beneath his white bristled mustache. "Your powers are surfacing. You need to train harder to control them."
Blue sighed in sarcasm. "Thanks for the wakeup call, crackpot." Blue stopped. Crackpot. That's what the team called him. In the time she'd spent in this world, she was becoming more and more like them. For a moment, she reconsidered going back home. She liked it better here. But she knew it wasn't possible. She couldn't build a life here. Not the life she wanted.
After Romanov checked her vitals, Blue retreated into the shower and let the hot beads of water beat against her back, washing away the ache in her bones. She emerged with a towel wrapped around her, and stared at herself in the mirror. She didn't even recognize who was staring back at her. Her eyes were dark from lack of sleep. Her hair was frizzy and wild, and she made a mental note to use Boomer's shampoo next time she showered. She wasn't tired. How could she sleep, knowing her characters were real, she was trapped inside another dimension, and the miserable lives of the people around her were all her fault? But she had to get some sleep if she was going to train harder tomorrow. She sighed and retreated back to the hospital bed, closing her eyes but remaining awake.