A/N The Sybarites get their chance to be a little more human.

TWELVE

"They want it for … profit?" Aurelian's normally calm voice trembled with anger. "How very human."

Will felt like hanging his head in shame and apologizing for the vagaries of his species.

"I did not expect to return home again. Especially under these conditions."

"We want to help you," Will said. "I think together we can find a way to keep these guys from finding a way inside. We've dealt with goons like this before, and with your knowledge of the temple we have an edge. Do you trust us?"

Aurelian smiled openly, a rarity for him, and clasped Will's hand. "Yes, we trust you, William. Otherwise, we would still have you call us 'Thing One' and 'Thing Two'."

Will blushed, but laughed. "Was that a joke?"

"Impossible."

"When will you be leaving?" Helen watched as Druitt buttoned up his coat.

"Soon. I'll come back with more information on their movements, guard shifts – the like. I'll say … three days. That's as much time I can give you to prepare. Will that be enough?"

"It'll have to be."

Druitt gave her a fond smile and then bowed lightly, arms outstretched. Helen's lips twisted, trying not to grin at the flamboyant gesture, and he strode out of the room.

He paused in the hallway at the sight of a pale woman, one of their Sybarites, who stiffened when she saw him. Anger, accusation – unfortunately, it was an expression he was all too familiar with having directed at him.

"I sense … I have wronged you somehow. My humblest apologies."

She frowned in surprise. He didn't remember, not fully anyway. And his apology was sincere. She watched him carefully as he swept past her and out the front door. There was a shuddering frisson as she felt the energy shift, and he was gone.

Will watched nervously through the glass and into the operating room. Kate had a friendly hand on his shoulder. The Sybarites were being operated on, and to his surprise Will was feeling anxious not as a scientist or doctor, but as a friend.

It was hard not to feel connected to someone, especially after they (quite literally) shared their entire life with you.

Aurelian was being operated on first, Ylerin similarly under heavy sedation. Helen had carefully siphoned away excess gray matter and fluid from the areas surrounding the pleasure and pain centers. Tesla had been monitoring the receptors and was now delicately testing them, seeing if he could manipulate the pathways. It was like a microscopic switchboard … he had to decide which circuits should be shut off, and which ones should be turned back on again.

The Big Guy was monitoring their vitals. Aurelian's levels would spike dangerously at random intervals. "Three minutes and counting," he growled. That was how much longer they could safely keep his brain exposed. He placed more cooling packs on top of Aurelian's body.

Tesla only barely heard him, this task required all of his concentration. Too much applied voltage … and he'd fry the brain, sending it into mass neural shock.

"Two minutes…"

"Just … one more…"

Aurelian's heartbeat began to spike. Tesla's eyes flickered nervously to the vital signs monitor, then back to what he was doing. The tiniest spark leapt from his fingertips to Aurelian's brain. "Okay, close him up. I'm done."

"Keep him stable." Helen quickly sealed and replaced the top of the cranium, and began stapling the lining of his head back together.

"I can't look." Kate ducked her face behind Will's shoulder.

"You? You can get squeamish?"

Tesla fastidiously wiped his hands clean, he was the only one who couldn't wear gloves during the operation. He sighed as he looked to Ylerin's prone form on the next bed.

"And we get to do this all over again. Joy."

"Glad to see you back, buddy."

"Buddy?" Aurelian gingerly felt the bandages covering his face.

"It's a term of endearment." Will carefully guided Aurelian's hand to a cup of water. His face was wrapped in bandages and he'd been in a deep sleep for twelve hours, only now waking.

"Did it … did it go well?"

"Magnus will want to run some standard tests to confirm, but the guess is that you're now at only twenty-two percent above normal sensitivity. Ylerin's at about thirty-two, maybe thirty-five percent."

Aurelian's hand reached out, grasping, and Will held it. "I feel closer to her … to the Silver Lady…"

Ylerin blinked slowly, but a smile crept on her face. She turned to lift her face to the sun, able to withstand its bright light without pain for the first time.

"You're right. It's rather nice."

The Sybarites had recovered rather quickly from the surgery, already able to remove their bandages after twenty-four hours. Their grasp of English had also vastly improved after the mass exchange with Will, and they were beginning to pick up on colloquialisms and abstract terms.

Helen had determined that Aurelian had improved vastly, only at eighteen percent above normal sensitivity. Ylerin was at thirty-seven percent, but it was still a miracle they had managed to drop that far from her original three hundred percent. She had been at higher levels because of her original role as a pleasure slave.

"I finally feel in control."

"Nice feeling, isn't it? Guess it was worth losing your hair."

Ylerin laughed, feeling her shaved head and the scars. "Yes. It seems you've saved my life on more than one occasion now. I guess I owe you a favour."

"Dangerous words to say to me," Nikola smirked, "and I will be collecting."

Ylerin's eyebrows shot up, but he waved his hand dismissively. "It's not what you think. I just require your silence in a certain matter."

She hissed in distaste, but nodded slowly. "If that's what you wish. What matter requires my discretion?"

Nikola didn't answer at first, staring off into the view of Old Town from the courtyard of the Sanctuary. His face had grown grave.

"I am going to enter the Silver Chamber. I have something I want to ask the Silver Lady. But … I need to keep all of that between me, you, and your goddess."

Ylerin bowed her head. She knew agreeing to this could compromise her duty to uphold the ancient ways, but a life debt wasn't one broken easily.

"You have my word."

"When are we expecting Druitt?"

Helen looked up momentarily from her computer then back down again, quickly finishing her email to the South American Sanctuary. "Tomorrow night. Do you think Aurelian and Ylerin are up for the task?"

"They should be fine." Nikola settled into the chair in front of her desk, and closed her laptop screen. She was about to snap at him for disturbing her work but he cut in first.

"What are you even planning to do when you get there? Do you have any idea?"

"I was working on that. I have Kate getting in touch with some of her old contacts to run interference with these groups. The South American Sanctuary is sending me their information on the Blanco cartel—"

Nikola stopped her with a wave of his hand, impatient. "Irrelevant. What are you going to do when you actually get inside?"

Helen glared at him irritably, but he was right. "I don't know. I think if there are any artifacts or other materials, we remove them. If the Sybarites think it's the best option … we set off another booby trap. Bury the rest of the archives."

"But what about the Chamber of Silver? You know the Blanco cartel and every other Corleone fanboy will want to have it. And they can dig it up."

"Well, we can't allow it to fall into their hands." Helen re-opened her laptop with a defiant smirk. "We'll know better how to deal with that once we're there."

Nikola groaned, hanging his head in his hands. "You want to blow it up."

"If it's the only option left to us, we'll have to do it."

"But we could learn so much—"

"If it comes down to it." Helen had on her best no-nonsense voice. "I will do what it takes to preserve the integrity of that temple and its history."

Nikola looked up at her with surly eyes. "Make a wish … any wish in the world."