William stood in Stacy's room. Alice had asked him to try and get confirmation of what they thought. He'd agreed, reluctantly. He had no idea how he was going to this. And he'd been standing awkwardly in Stacy's room for about 10 minutes now. It still amazed him to see her room. In the field, she was so military and efficient, you'd expect her room to be perfectly tidy, bed done up military style, but that couldn't be further from the truth. There was clothes scattered on the floor, the bed was unmade, and there were several posters on the wall for T.V shows or movies, he didn't know which. He wasn't normally a clean guy, his own room was a mess of exposed cabling from the wall from when he'd improved the power output to his computer, resulting in the few people that ever came in his room, tripping up like he'd placed trip wires, but other than that his room was reasonably clean. But, in Stacy's room, he began to feel like he needed to clean it up. If she didn't show up soon, he'd end up cleaning, and what else could make this meeting more awkward, then coming into your room to find a hacker cleaning you room. Just finding a hacker standing there awkward was bad enough.

A minute or so later, just as he was about to give in to his need to clean, a compulsion he'd never had before, the door opened, and Stacy stepped inside. She stopped in the doorway as she noticed him, waited a second, hesitating, then stepped inside, and closed the door "You're a bit forward" she said cockily

William flustered, of all the responses he'd expected for her finding him, that wasn't something he'd have counted on in a million years. "I-uh-I-ah" he stammered "I-that's, that's, what"

Stacy laughed as his awkwardness "Hey, it's fine, I don't judge" she sat down on the bed, and pat the spot next to her "Sit" she commanded

William hesitated for a second, then sat down

"There we go, all cozy, now, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, uh, that" he responded, pointing over at the photo on her dresser

"I don't think we're quite at meeting families yet"

"What, no, I, the man in the picture, the big African guy, is that, Masambe Digkale?"

"Yes, boxer-dad was called Masambe" she raised an eyebrow at him

"The Masambe Digkale?"

"The?"

"You know, hero of XCOM Masambe"

She was quiet for a moment, before she replied "I don't know. Look, I'll tell you what happened, because your clearly worried about that. Like, 21 years ago, when the aliens first arrived. Boxer-dad was away, he was finishing up his last tour with the military before he left"

William nodded, this was fitting with Alice had told him about Masambe

"Then, the aliens attacked. We were at home, so we didn't get grabbed by one of those, abductor cube things, whatever those were. But we didn't even know anything was happening, then these small grey guys with massive heads broke through out door, burned it off its hinges. I was, what, 8, 9, at the time. I had no idea what was going on. Zak was upstairs, doing his homework, but I was in the living room with Dad. The aliens broke through the door, and dad jus went military mode, it was like he'd been preparing for it forever. He flipped over the coffee table, and pulled me behind it. He then pressed something on the bottom of it, and a pistol slid out. he fired a shot blind over the table, and there was some screech. A few seconds later he looked up, and I heard a scream from upstairs. He didn't hesitate, just grabbed me, and ran out the back door. The rest is a blur. Next thing I remember dad hands me over to this man who called himself, Mr Clean. I have no idea what happened next. I was jumped around a lot, never stayed in the same house for more than a week. Next thing I know, I'm 12 and Mr Clean drops me off at this resistance haven, and I just grew up there. So, my dad might be the Masambe your talking about, and if you think he is, I'll take your word for it, all I know is that I lose my brother, and both my fathers in the same day" She took a deep breath, and the fell back onto the bed

A few seconds of silence passed

"I'm sorry" William said "You probably didn't want to have to remember that"

"It's fine" Stacy replied she looked at William, who was still sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed "Come on, lets make trash angels" she then energetically got up, went over to one of the piles of random junk on the floor, and just face-planted into it, then began moving her arms and legs, spreading the junk away from here, like she was making a snow angel

She looked up, to see him still sitting there, and rolled onto her side, resting in the 'paint me like one of your French girls' pose "Or would you rather hack me" she said in a sultry voice

William blushed, but was beginning to get it, she felt a bit uncomfortable, so a way for her to deal with that, was to make him uncomfortable. He had no idea where this confidence came from, but he just replied "If I were to ask you out. Would your answer be the same as your answer to this question?"

She looked at him for a few seconds, apparently thinking, before she broke into a huge grin "You're the smoothest nerd I've ever seen"

"I don't think the word smooth and nerd have ever been used in that context in 1 sentence before"

"Damn, are you my appendix?"

"What?"

"Because I don't understand how you work, but this feeling in my stomach makes me want to take you out"

Thus proceeded about half an hour of bad nerdy pickup lines, each nerdier than the last.

"Anyway are we actually going to do this. Or we just going to trade pickup lines"

"Uh"

"Woah, where'd all that confidence go? Hey, no pressure if you don't want to"

"No, no, I want to. I just, I completely forgot to go tell Alice"

"Alice?"

"She wanted me to check if Masambe really was your father. I'll be real quick" He got up, and jogged down to Alice's room.

Stacy watched him go with a smile. He was such a geek, but he was her geek.

Alice heard William's story, and watched him jog back out. She checked the details with what she knew about Masambe. A lot of details fit. A brother named Zak, and the situation fit with what had been found. The brother had been found dead upstairs, and John, Masambe's partner, had been found, behind a table, dead, an empty pistol in his hand. But one detail didn't fit, the reports said Stacy Digkale's body had been found about a mile from the house, it seemed that she'd run, but had tripped in the forest outside, and fell down a hill, breaking her neck. But then she had also said there had been a, Mr Clean, so Miss Lost and her group were involved, they'd be able to fake that easily. But then why had they gone through so much effort just to save 1 young girl. Truly they were a strange group, and apparently had immense foresight. She collected up the data, and saved it. She'd take it to the Comm-Ryan, she'd take it to Ryan. She still felt a little giddy whenever she thought of his actual name. She'd take it to Ryan once he got out of the Med-bay.

Roman finished his diary. He collected up the 3 small books that contained it, and wrapped a rubber band around them to keep them together. He also got a small bit of paper, and wrote 'Commander, from Roman. Please read it all the way before you make any decisions about me'. Slipped the paper under the rubber band, and made his way to the Commanders room. He wouldn't be there, the Commander was in the Med-Bay. But he was counting on that. He'd let the Commander get back to his room, find them there, and read them on his own time. As he walked he held the books in one hand, his other hand opening doors, climbing ladders, and scratching the scar on the back of his head, a bit of a nervous tick he'd had since he'd gotten the scar. He'd prepared a bit of a speech to give to Bradford when he would no-doubt interrupt him from entering the Commander's quarters, but, fortunately, Bradford wasn't there, and the technicians in the room were busy at the consoles, and didn't look up at him. He climbed up the steps, and entered the Commanders room. It was smaller than he'd been expecting, still bigger than their rooms, but a lot of the space was taken up by a desk, overflowing with papers. He walked over to the desk, then thought better of it, he didn't want Bradford or anyone else finding it. He went over to the bed, lifted up the pillow, and put the books under it. He'd find them in time, though a part of him hoped he never found it, he knew he had to inform the Commander of this eventually. He'd accept whatever the Commander decided was coming for him. He went back to his room, and made it back without encountering anyone.

"Hey, Aya" Maxim turned to her

"Yes?"

"I need to ask you something"

"Go ahead"

"Well, I need to tell you something as well. You know when I, used Inspiration on you during the Blacksite mission?"

"Yes, you enhanced my reflexes so I could act even faster than normally, or something like that, right"

"I think so. Anyway, while I was doing that, I felt, I don't know how to describe it"

"Go on" Aya sat up, she seemed intrigued now

"Well, I don't know, and I haven't checked anything, so I could be completely misreading something" Maxim said quickly "But, well, it seemed, there was some... Alteration, I guess, in your brain somewhere"

"Alteration?"

"Yes"

"What kind?"

"I don't know. I only got a brief glimpse during that, but, something was defiantly different"

"What kind of difference"

"I can't say. I don't think it's anything bad, I don't think ADVENT put a chip in you or something"

"Is there a way you can check?"

"Maybe"

"Do it"

"I can't"

"Why not?"

"I don't know how to properly yet. I've been practising with Alex how to, enter something else's mind. take over their mind, mind control kinda thing"

"And?"

"Well, once I know how to do that, I could go into your head properly, and see if I could find out what's different, but-"

"Just say it Vampire"

"Right, well, I'd need some training in-mission with it. If I mess up, it could easily kill the person I do it on, and I'd rather not accidently explode your head"

"Understandable" Aya laid back down

"So, are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I just told you you have something different in your brain, and need to mind control you to find out what"

"If it's something different in my brain, then I've lived with it for 20 years while protecting you from ADVENT"

"Yeah" Maxim hung his head

"But-" she put a finger under his chin, and brought him up to look at her "I also trust that, when you feel you can do it, you'll be able to figure out what it is, and get out without killing me. I trust you and your abilities"

Maxim smiled "You're my Valkyrie-"

"And you're my Vampire" Aya replied, finishing off the phrase they'd started using.

Maxim laid back down "One more thing"

"Yes?"

"I love you"

Aya was silent for a moment, then looked him in the eye "I could return that phrase, but we both know that love isn't really a thing I do"

"I know"

"Then why do you place me in a position where social conventions tell me to repeat a phrase I do not feel"

Maxim smiled "Because I like making you get all physiological explanationy"

"That's not even a word"

"Nope"

They both smiled, and turned to face each other

"I do, though" Maxim said

"And I care for you Vampire"

"Good enough for me"

Harold stood in the training room, once again beating the stuffing out of a dummy designed to be able to take mag-bullets with minimal damage. He ripped the head off with his hands, and threw the head all the way across the room, where it struck the wall with enough force to dent the metal. Shen practically had these things going on an assembly line, once it became clear how fast Harold would chew through them (literally on a couple occasions). He drove a fist through its torso, and out the back, then wrenched his hand back out. The dummy was little more than a few shredded bits of material clinging to its base now. He was about to go and get another one, when he heard a grunt from the doorway, he turned to see Pyro walking towards him. Harold dropped his handful of stuffing, and turned towards the man "Hi Pyro. Can I help you?"

Pyro kept walking until he was right in front of him, then did something completely unexpected, he reached up, and undid the latches holding his gas mask on. He then took the mask off, and looked at Harold.

Harold had been expecting many things, an ADVENT soldier, a burned and mangled face, he even would have been prepared for a Muton to be looking back at him, but this was something he never expected. Looking back at him, was a Mexican man with a short beard and brown hair and eyes, and a bald head. He opened his mouth, and revealed a tongue that seemed to have been cut off near the base. And he mumbled out "Loo-Iez San-ti-ah-go"

"Loiz Santiago?" Harold asked

Pyro nodded, and put his gas mask back on, and began to walk off

"Why did you tell me that?" Harold asked as he walked off

Pyro turned back, and his voice was even more muffled by the gas mask, but it sounded something like "Tohay is ood day to eveal ecrets" then he walked off. Anyone else would have stood their thinking for a few minutes, but Harold didn't have that luxury, after a few seconds, the hunt-pain returned, and pushed all thoughts of Pyro from his mind, he needed to find another dummy to destroy.

The Commander lay in the med-bay, reading the Art of War. He was rather enjoying his stay. He didn't have to fill out paper works right now. Bradford was handling that for him. Though he still had to handle strategic matters, but he could do those all days. He'd had talks with the Chairman, who finally had something nice to say about operation Sun (Named after the tactician who had given him such wonderful quotes), and how it had worked, and put ADVENT on the back heel. He'd had a couple talks with Miss Lost and some resistance leaders, and had lined out some more plans he had. Now that they had played their strength card, they had to roll with it as much as they could. They were driving their punch home, damaging as much of ADVENT's supplies as they could before they called the bluff and retaliated, and they'd retaliate hard.

"Commander" Shen came into the Med-bay

The Commander put his book back down on the table next to him "Hi Shen. What's up?"

"Inez finished the Skulljack" she said, holding up the gauntlet that would create the blades of light that would allow them to hack into the ADVENT network

"Great. We can jack some skulls"

"Who am I giving it to?"

"Lets see" he thought for a second "Aya or Harold would make sense, they'll be up close and personal anyway. But, it'll be like hacking a computer?"

"Like hacking into a chip in a supercomputer, but yes"

"Then give it to William. He can hax their brains"

"I'll go take it to him now. He'll probably be excited by a way to hack a person"

Alice heard a knock on her door "Yeah" she said, she was focused on this article she'd found, she'd only just started it, but it was really interesting. Apparently they'd found a way to manipulate plants on the cellular level, so they could grow much bigger, much faster, and required less water and nutrients than normal. It was an amazing breakthrough that could effectively eliminate all hunger on the planet. If they used it.

"Alice?" Shen's voice came from the door, Alice still didn't look away

"How can I help you?"

"Have you seen William?"

"Have you checked his room?"

"Yes"

"Did you check your GREMLIN?"

"Funny"

"I try"

"But seriously, do you know where he is?"

"Last I saw he was talking to Stacy"

"Stacy's room"

"She's the last one to see him from what I know"

"Thanks"

"No problem"

"What are you reading"

"ADVENT found a way to almost triple crop yields, I wanna know what they're going to do with it"

"Interesting"

"..." Alice returned to reading

"See ya later Archive"

"Yeah yeah, see ya"

The door slid shut, and Alice returned to reading

William heard a knock on his door, and he rolled out of bed, he was still half-asleep and wasn't really aware of his surroundings. So when he tripped over a pile of clothes, he just thought it was the cable bunch in his room. "Ow" he mumbled to himself, as he dragged himself up. He really needed to sort out those cables. He got to the door, and fumbled for the door release. He found it, and the door slid open. Shen stood there, what looked like a glove in her hand

"Yeah?" he asked. He was still too asleep to realize that he wasn't in his room.

"Oh" Shen seemed surprised to see him. "Am I interrupting something?"

"What would-" His tiredness went away when he heard movement from the bed, and he remembered where he was, and the fact that he was only in his boxers. He suddenly got very embarrassed "No, I, uh, I"

"No no, no worries, I'll get out of your hair. I'll just leave this in your room" Shen walked off, and William was left standing in the doorway, in his boxers, practically glowing red from embarrassment.

"Will?" came a voice from the back of the room "Did you answer my door?"

"Uhhh" William was too shocked and embarrassed to talk

"At least you got your boxers on first" Stacy was practically pissing herself laughing at him

"I just woke up, I wasn't thinking" he shut the door and sat down on the bed.

Stacy continued giggling for several minutes, and eventually William chuckled a little as well, it was kind of funny when he thought about it. He looked down at the pile of clothes he'd tripped over, thinking it was the cables in his room, it was part of the junk pile Stacy had moved when she'd made her trash angel.

"You're such a dork"

"Never claimed to be otherwise" he replied and he looked at his hand "At least I didn't taser finger her"

"You did part of that already" Stacy whispered in his ear

"I will taze you"

"Remember how that worked the first time?"