It was decided that they should split into two groups, Hoody, Shade,and Toby in one and Nico and Jay in the other. Toby didn't want Nico to go with Jay, but Nico pointed out that even though he was the smallest he was still the only one with powers so really he was the best choice to keep Jay under control. Not to mention that he and Hoody knew the woods best, so it made sense that each group have one of them in it. So why couldn't Nico go with Hoody? Back to the first reason, Nico was the one with powers that could stop Jay from running without killing him.

In the end Toby relented but he still didn't seem happy about it. Hoody pointed out that when Masky was gone he had seniority and therefore he was in charge. Hoody and Toby started towards the abandoned house Alex had apparently taken Jay and someone called Jessica to. He had tried to kill them before Masky stopped him, while Nico and Jay started towards the old hospital.

"So how did you get involved with these people?" Jay asked after he and Nico had been walking for about five minutes. Nico would have been happy to walk quietly the entire way, but it seemed Jay couldn't stand the silence. Nico sighed in annoyance.

"With the way I travel if I don't have a specific destination in mind. I end up in random places. Usually it's somewhere in Asia but once about a month ago it was near where they live. Toby came to try and... remove me. They thought I was human but when they realized that I wasn't and what I could do, they thought I would fit in well with the crowed they walk amongst now. So far they've been right."

"How do you know you won't end up in a volcano if you're taken random places?" Jay asked swatting a spider web away from his face sputtering.

"I'm taken where I'm needed usually. Don't ask me who needed me in Asia it's not part of your world." Nico said redirecting Jay before he could ask anything else Nico was getting tired of answering. "How did you get mixed up in all of this? You seem like an ordinary mortal."

"Thanks." Jay muttered making Nico chuckle. "Ya I am, I was just a university student but Alex, who was my friend at the time was working on this film called Marble Hornets. Tim and Brian were the main actors but since I didn't have anything better to do I figured I'd help. We just didn't know that the Operator attaches to people like a disease and Tim had been, 'infected' I guess, since he was seven. And it spread to the rest of us, Brian first making him into Hoody. It affected the rest of us differently. Alex became homicidal instead, I don't know how it affected Jessica and I started losing months worth of memory and got really paranoid and sick.

I think I knew the Operator was back way before I saw Alex, because I stopped sleeping again. I don't think I ever got the other personality thing like Brian and Tim though."

"Yes you did." Nico objected and Jay looked at him in confused shock. "The mask that I wear now used to be yours, they said you only wore it a few times though."

"Huh, I guess that's where part of the time that went missing went." Jay said sighing. "I wonder why it only happened to me a few times and then so often and I guess permanently for Brian." Nico shrugged, he had no idea and he didn't really care very much, he wasn't a very curious person anymore. "Shouldn't you be wearing your mask now?"

"Why? Even if I'm seen doing something by the mortal police they don't have any records of me. Even if they're given my name the only records of me they'll find will say I died with my entire family in the first round of bombings in Italy during the Second World War. That's the sort of thing mortal authorities like to ignore." Jay refused to look at Nico.

"So you're a lot older then you look huh?" Jay said his voice forcibly casual to the point that it cracked slightly.

"Yep time isn't nearly as consistent as humans like to think."

They came out of the woods into a clearing, in the center of it was a large decrepit building. Nico's breath hissed out through his teeth. The clearing was crowded with dead, miserable, sad scared dead. A few swarmed around Nico when he came into the clearing. There were even more sitting on the grass, leaning against trees, or looking out of doorways and windows of the building.

"What's the matter?" Jay asked looking at Nico through one of the spirits, gods how lucky he was to not see their pain, to not hear their whispers and whimpers. Of course no one would have thought to warn him of this, none of them could see or hear the dead here. He shook his head and tried to focus through and around the dead.

"What happened here? There are so many dead. They're so sad and hurt. They want my help. I can't…." Nico covered his eyes blocking out the images that the dead were trying to force into him and shaking his head trying to clear it.

"There was a fire years and years ago." Jay said uncertainly. "Are you going to be okay?"

Nico nodded in response to Jay then started listening to the dead. They were telling him about someone who must have been the Operator trying to use them for power. Nico nodded, he understood. They didn't feel like they could leave until the Operator was gone. They could keep humans away from here, keep them safe from the Operator.

"That's what I'm here to do." Nico answered them ignoring Jay's look of confusion. "Once he's gone I'll help you move on I just need to focus now." The dead dispersed, only a few stayed by Nico. They looked like nurses and doctors, the good ones who had spent their life helping people instead of abusing their power. Now even in death they were determined to help Nico help their patients. "Okay." Nico said taking a shaky breath and turning back to Jay. "Okay we can continue. Now that they know we're here to help them they're going to help us."

"How can they help us?" Jay asked sounding uncertain. He obviously still wasn't sure whether Nico was crazy or not.

"Well for one I think they would be able to tell me is there was anyone inside." Nico said to Jay in irritation. He didn't like people thinking he was crazy, he turned sharply back to a female doctor and asked "Is there?" More gently.

"Two on the second floor." The woman answered promptly. "Three in the basement but they're just stupid teenager on a dare. We can chase them out if you want. The ones on the second floor are trouble, they brought a man in here earlier, he's on the top floor now but he's restrained. He looks familiar I think I knew him before the fire."

"Of course you did, though he wasn't your patient he was Jeremy's." A older male snapped and Nico turned back to Jay letting them continue their argument.

"There are two people on the second floor and one on the third. I think they must be the ones we're looking for because the one on the third is an ex-patient here. One was brought in and restrained by the other two early this morning. There are three in the basement but they're just teenagers on a dare, they should be running out screaming about ghosts any time now."

"Okay." Jay said hesitantly obviously deciding to suspend his disbelief. "Any sign of the Operator?" Nico glanced at the woman who was done arguing now, she shook her head.

"No. I figured he's trying to stay away from me as long as his puppets are intact." Nico was more worried about Hoody and Toby, though he wasn't going to mention it. If the puppets where here there was a good chance that the Operator himself was going to appear to them since they couldn't harm him. Somehow he doubted that Toby would play it safe and that was worrying since Nico didn't know exactly how dangerous the Operator was, and Masky and Hoody had given him the impression the answer was very.

"So what do we do?" Jay asked, he looked a little scared. Nico growled softly, of course it made sense that he lead here but he didn't want to.

"Do you have a weapon?" Nico asked and Jay shook his head. "Fantastic, you came prepared didn't you?" Nico said sarcastically and Jay bit his lip and Nico sighed heavily, okay so it would be all up to him to defend them. "Do you think you could lure them down to the ground floor? I doubt you could make them come outside but I'm more powerful closer to the ground."

"I can try but Alex uses guns. I've already been shot by him once and he's probably just do it again."

"Oh the gods are just determined that this won't be easy aren't they!?" Nico growled in frustration.

"But I thought you could kill people easily." Jay sneered, Nico glared at him.

"I can." Nico snapped back. "But I don't want to, the girl is possessed, whatever she's done isn't her fault and I want to free her. Alex has information I need and the second he's dead he'll be sucked back into punishment since he's already been marked by it. I need him alive so I can get him to tell me what I need to know.

"Not that I need to explain myself to you." Nico added in irritation as he turned his attention back to the hospital. Well there was no use putting it off. "Don't get in the way and do your best to make less noise than an elephant. I know as a human that's a very difficult feat for you." Nico knew he was being rude. Most of the time he would have held himself back from making such comments, but right now he was frustrated and just a little bit afraid. He had very little experience with guns.

Jay opened his mouth to answer but Nico ignored him and started heading towards the hospital's entrance. As he entered he heard the three teenagers from the basement running out through a back door. Good. They wouldn't be around to hear any gunshots and call the police. Nico stepped lightly splitting his attention between the shale on the ground so he could avoid it, and keeping a sense of the area around him in case one of the two upstairs came down to meet them. This is when it came in handy to have ADHD and adrenalin heightening his senses. He could tell that Jay was feeling the lack of such advantages as he slid on one of the small pieces of stone making a scraping noise against the rough concrete floor.

With Jay there there was no way that Nico could sneak up on Alex. Time to change his plan. Nico turned back to the door stretching his power out into the ground outside the hospital. There were dead here. Old, old bones but willing very willing. Nico called for them. They answered willingly taking as little of Nico's power as possible they dragged themselves out of the earth. None of the dead here where recent enough to have flesh which made them poor shields but no worse fighters.

"What are you." Jay hissed at Nico before he cut off in a strangled gasp as four skeletons walked into the building. Their feet clacked against the floor just a bit more than Jay's had. Nico grinned at them.

"Sneak attack was out. We might as well have back up." Nico said feeling much better for the back up and casually brushing some of the dirt of one of their skulls. "Besides being shot won't do them any harm."

"True." Jay choked out. Nico sighed he had never understood humans fear of their own remains but now wasn't the time to question it. Now flanked by the skeletons Nico turned back to the stairs and started up, after a moment Jay followed them at a distance. Good if he stayed back he wouldn't be a hindrance.

Nico couldn't hear movement. Obviously if the two upstages were moving, they were better at moving quietly than Jay. Just incase Nico stopped before they reached near the top of the stairs and sent up two of the skeletons first. A loud noise rang through the hospital, echoing off the walls and one of the skeletons skulls exploded into splinters. There was a laugh that turned quickly into a scream as the headless skeleton turned and dived at who must be Alex.

There was a shriek and the girl lunged around the corner her eyes wide and wild. She focused on Nico seeming to identify him as the source of the problem and lunged at him knocking his back down the stair. Nico sent a silent frantic command two the two skeletons at the top of the stairs. Contain don't kill! Move him down to the basement if you can.

Nico's back hit the stairs hard and he yelped at the pain that radiated up his spine but he managed to keep his head up. She was armed with a knife and tried to stab Nico. They were still on an angle because of the stairs so Nico managed to push her off easily. She yelped loudly as her momentum and gravity kept her rolling down the stairs. Nico leapt up and dove after her but by the time he reached the bottom she was already back on her feet.

She bounded to meet him. As he got to the foot of the stairs she was kicking at his legs to try to force him to the ground. Nico stepped back away from her flailing leg and caught her wrist while she was distracted. Quickly he slipped around behind her and twisted her arm behind her back forcing her to her knees. She was struggling and snarling like an animal, the spirit inside her writhing to try and evade Nico's grip, but he clamped down on it hard. It was like a leach fixed on her life force, slimy teeth clamped into her soul determined that if it died so would she.

"Oh no you don't." Nico snarled feeling the tugging in his own soul as he started prying its grip on her loose. He almost had it when he heard a yell and clambering from the stairs. Alex was falling and Nico was forced to jump back away from the girl to avoid being knocked over by Alex's body as he came to a tumbling halt at the base of the stairs groaning. "Grab her!" Nico commanded the two closer skeletons as the other two skittered down the stairs to join their quarry. The two already there pounced on the girl, holding her down with the grip of death as she thrashed against them.

Alex was rising to his hands and knees and looking around him for something. Nico noticed the gun behind him. Too late, Alex had it. Nico lunged forward hoping to kick the gun out of Alex's hand but Alex pushed back onto his heels firing wildly at Nico.

Nico screamed as he felt the hot bullet rip through the flesh of his leg, falling to the hard concrete. Finally the other two skeletons reached Alex and plucked the gun out of his hand before he had the time to take aim at Nico. They threw the gun away from them, forcing him down and holding him as he yelled at them.

Nico could feel the hot blood dripping down both sides of his thigh from where the bullet had ripped clean through it. It hurt worse than any other pain he had experienced so far in his life, but now was not the time for it. Now was not the time to deal with the pain and his body knew it, Nico could already feel the adrenalin rushing to numb the wound. He staggered to his feet gritting his teeth against the pained moan that tore itself from his throat.

Carefully he limped towards the girl, ignoring Alex completely. The girl started struggling even harder as Nico got closer, but Nico knew it wasn't actually her. It was the thing inside her trying to save itself. Nico stood in front of her putting all of his weight on his good leg and staring into her eyes. It was easier the second time to find the places where her soul, and the thing's soul were connected. Those links were already loosened.

But it was writhing and it was slimy. It slipped out of his grip almost as fast as he could grab it. Finally Nico gritted his teeth and hit the creature with as much of his power as he could spare feeling it surge through the loathsome creature. It fell still, stunned and Nico tore it out. He knew he had taken some of the girls life-force with it but not enough to harm her. She went limp in the skeleton's grasp. On his command they laid her down on the ground, going to help restrain the now even more enthusiastically struggling Alex.

Carefully Nico examined the thing in his hand, it was a lot like a leach, some sort of sucker at any rate. Black with white patches, as he had suspected it had the same feel as the Operator had the one time Nico had been close to him. Nico had to fight the tickle in his throat that made him want to cough as he dug deeper into the makeup of the thing. It wasn't a human soul, not one at least. When he looked very closely he could find part of different human souls but they were so mashed together and corrupted they were barely recognizable.

"Don't move." Jay's voice broke through Nico's thoughts and something was pressed against the back of his head. Oh, they hadn't watched where the gun had gone. Nico did his best to stay calm as he quickly forced his power deep into the creature and tore it apart. Sending the scraps to melt into the shadow realm where they couldn't interfere or reassemble.

"Jay, what are you doing?" Nico asked doing his best to stay calm. He had seen what the gun had done to the skeletons skull and it had been farther away than this. Nico didn't want to think of what it would do to his. Not that Nico was afraid of death. It was only that he had just met Toby, Hoody, Masky, and the others and he wasn't quite done getting to know them yet.

"You're a part of this. Alex says this won't be over until everyone who's infected is dead and I'm starting to think he's right but maybe... if everyone else is gone one of us… won't do to much harm?" It sounded like a question and Jay's voice was shaking. He was afraid, petrified.

"You don't have to do this Jay, If I destroy the Operator"

"You can't kill a disease!" Jay interrupted, starting to hyperventilate "And that's what he is! I'm done listening to you. You have no idea what you're talking about. You weren't here the first time. You don't know!" Nico could feel the gun shaking in Jay's hand. Alex had stilled in the skeletons grasp watching the two of them intently though his cracked glasses.

"Do it Jay." Alex said assuredly, gods he had the sort of voice you wanted to obey. "It's the right thing. Do it now before you lose your nerve!"