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Chapter Seventeen

Dmitri stares at a solider that has just finished delivering a report to him, a rather perplexed look on his face. "Mort lost her?"

The soldier nods his head. "That's what his most recent report says."

Dmitri lets out a frustrated growl. "Nadia went missing this afternoon, I thought he reported in to inform us that he had found her."

"Yes... and then an hour later he contacted us once more to report that she had gone missing again."

Dmitri is less than happy with this information. "What about the situation at the museum he reported?"

"We have soldiers looking into that as we speak. So far we've only found members of the Cadrey family there, Eighteen nor any of the other targets were there, but there are signs that Raven Wolf's leader was no doubt present recently."

The door to Dmitri's office opens, General Jovina stands within the doorway as she calls out to him in a serious tone. "We need to talk."

Dmitri looks from her and back to the soldier. "Keep searching the area. They couldn't have gotten far." He dismisses him, now turning his attention to Jovina with a grin. "General Jovina, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Jovina approaches the desk that he is seated at. "The Wind Source, you knew who it was this entire time."

An impressed look fills his face. "Oh, so you've finally managed to filter him out of the crowds have you?"

Jovina is not amused with the manner Dmitri so casually responds to her question. "Why didn't you tell me!? I could have avoided all the measures that I had my men go through!"

Dmitri folds his hands in front of him. "I was under the impression that you didn't want my help. Besides, I enjoyed watching you try to pick him out."

"This isn't a game!"

Dmitri shrugs his shoulders. "You never asked me if I could recognize him, you seemed pretty intent on doing this on your own without the interference of me and my men, that was your own mistake not mine."

Jovina is about to speak up once more, Dmitri interrupts her from doing so. "You have your target don't you? Arguing with me over how long it took for you to recognize him isn't going to be beneficial to either of us, unlike you I'm still looking for my targets and dealing with my own complications, so I don't have time to amuse you with conversation."

"If you think that you're going to get away with this-"

Dmitri interrupts her with a laugh. "I am capable of destruction that you can only fathom, you would be surprised with what the military overlooks to keep me from turning on them." He picks up several files on his desk. "If I were you I would be more concerned with the Wind Source you have so recently caught. Just like your father and his father before him you've come to close to catching him, you're now the target of an assassin that has kept himself from being captured for hundreds of years."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'm giving you a complimentary warning."

Jovina's glare grows into an even more angered expression. "I don't need any warnings from you."

Dmitri shrugs the comment off. "So, when will you be transporting him to your ship?"

"What does it matter to you?"

Dmitri smirks at the question. "Don't be mistaken, just because I wasn't helping you catch him doesn't mean that I won't help you keep him contained. He is the Wind Source after all, one of the other Sources, including the one I'm targeting, may show up to interfere and rescue him before you're able to move him to a high security prison. It's only logical I be there to stop and capture them should they be dumb enough to make such a move."

Jovina remains silent, Dmitri continues to try and get the information from her. "You shouldn't be letting your personal grip with me effect your professional judgment like this."

Jovina turns away from him. "I'll have my men send the report your way as soon as the estimated time is established." She takes her leave not saying a word more.

Dmitri looks from the doorway and back to his files. "Quincy hasn't reported back, he must have run into trouble. If I'm lucky he went and got himself killed, not having him around certainly would make things easier for me."

*******

Several soldiers are making their way through the metal fortress, frightened True Bloods step back and move out of their way as they quickly move forward, running towards a large fenced in field, the guards there all speak to one another in horrified tones of voices as they nervously allow the soldiers to pass.

The group of soldiers draw their weapons as they split into small groups spread out and slowly begin to make their way through the fields. The fields that are usually busy with wilds that have been subdued and made to work as cultivators are unnaturally quiet, blood covers the plants and dirt while the bodies of the workers fill the ground.

One of the soldiers begins to question his comrade. "What happened here?"

The group of soldiers come to a stop when they find a young boy of coyote descent, his clothes and fur filled with blood as he stands on spot, his body trembles as he lets out quick and shaky breaths.

The soldier leads the small group of three and begins to contact the others on his radio. "We found a survivor, but he looks too young to have been one of the workers here."

The radio speaks up in response. "Does he have an electrical collar around his neck?"

The soldier looks back to the boy searching for the object in question, the fur around the boy's neck worn, shows that at one time he had clearly had one, it's not present now. "No."

"That's not a worker, it's the escaped laboratory experiment that cause all of this. Contain him and bring him back, though he shouldn't be able to attack True Bloods we are no longer able to confirm this, he's defective and needs to returned to the labs to undergo assessment."

The soldier calls out to the kid to get his attention. "Hey kid."

"Hey... hey...!"

Alistair slowly opens his eyes as Bret tries to shake him awake, the coyote lets out a threatening growl as he pushes the kid back from him, he though is a little bit happy it's an actual person waking him up as opposed to Zero, the hallucination continually exhausts him and causes him to black out. "What is your issue kid? Every time I close my eyes for a second your start trying to wake me up like I may have just died right in front of your eyes and you need to make sure I'm alive or something! Do you have something against me trying to rest or what?"

Bret looks over to the entrance of the room. "The other one is back... and he brought a unconscious woman with him."

Alistair turns his attention to the area that the kid is staring in, the scene is indeed just what Bret has said it to be. Levi is now here and updating Genesis on the results of his attempt to capture the individuals at the Cadrey museum while the professor looks over the Super Soldier that he has brought back with him.

Zero lets out a laugh catching Alistair's attention, the coyote looks over to the figure. "Well will you look at that, they caught another one of you. It won't be long now, soon you, her and the rest of those like you will all be dragged back to the iron fortress to endure experiment after experiment. Won't that bring back memories?"

Levi injects a large needle into the open and gaping wound is his chest from the attack made by Shiya that had penetrated his armour, this injection is filled with nano machines that will heal up the usually fatal wound. "The Ice Source is much smaller in person than I expected him to be, I know the records state as much but reading about it and seeing it are two different things." He puts the needle down on a table that holds their current medical supply, they have several of these injections on hand. "The little bugger intended to kill me. I thought he was supposed to be the nice one of the Sources."

The professor is not surprised, this a common reaction for any life form that found themselves in such a scenario. "You had him in a corner, you should have expected that he would become more difficult in that situation."

Levi glares back at Genesis, removing the damaged plate of armour and replacing it with a new one. "Well I expected he would bite, I just didn't know he would rip out one of my hearts!"

"At least he targeted the organ and not one of the electronic implants, the nano-machines can repair an organ in almost no time, while electronic implants require heavy surgery and a lot of money to replace."

Levi frowns at the information, that not making his situation any better. "All those facts don't keep me from being any less offended over being stabbed in the heart!"

Genesis doesn't look towards Levi as he talks, he is completely preoccupied with examining the Super Soldier that Levi had brought with him. "Enough about you, what about your other targets. I'm curious to know about the Water Source and what she was like seeing in person, do the images on file do her justice?"

Levi smirks at the comment. "The photos we have of her don't do her justice, but she looks like an animal."

"Animals can still look pretty, it's not as much of a downfall as you seem to think it is."

Levi stops what he is doing to look down to Genesis. "You're disgusting."

Genesis fits a collar around Tahki's neck, locking it in place and activating it. "It's no different than one thinking glasses or blond hair one someone is attractive, just a personal taste. If you ask me it's the purists like you that are disgusting." He gets to his feet and walks over to his computer.

Levi stares down at Tahki. "She's not in very good condition for a Super Soldier, these things are supposed to heal pretty fast aren't they, this one looks like hell and has probably looked that way for a while. I thought their healing capabilities were what caused them to live through the poison that was supposed to kill them, so how is she still alive?"

The professor makes his way back to his computer. "It wasn't the healing capabilities exactly that saved them, it was a unique and rare mutation from those abilities that developed the resistance. They wouldn't have had to excel at self healing to get the mutation." He looks over to Alistair he has run into a slightly similar problem as well. "Even for that one his healing capabilities are not up to par. Apparently for a reason that is currently unknown the effectiveness fluctuates, sometimes he heals perfectly, other times he heals incorrectly and ends up with scars like the one on his face."

Levi shrugs his shoulders at the information. "You would think something created under such controlled circumstances would be a little more predictable."

"Science is seldom predictable when venturing into new and unexplored fields." Genesis looks up from the information that he is inputting into his computer. "So what about the other Super Soldier?"

Levi thinks back to the fight. "The ferret looking thing?"

"According to his records he's a mink, but yes, that one."

"That one caught me off guard. He wasn't at all like the files depicted him to be, 'lazy' 'unfocused' 'fatigued' are you sure you pulled up the right file because I saw none of that, he was practically the exact opposite."

"What was the identification number on the inside of his ear?"

Levi shrugs his shoulders. "How would I know? Do you think I had time to bother looking at something like that?" He thinks back to the fight. "One thing I did notice though, he was pretty protective of that female he was with."

"A mate perhaps?"

Levi seems confused over how that could be possible. "She was a dog, wouldn't she have had have been the same animal as him for that to work?"

Genesis lets out a heavy sigh. "Your ignorance astounds me sometimes." He motions over towards Tahki. "Put her away and then start planning out your next course of action. Your plan to draw him out isn't working, the Earth Source has yet to make a move since sending 1286-02 here."

Levi picks up Tahki to move her while responding. "Odd, I assumed that getting his kid back would be a top priority, guess he's not as easy to read as the last Earth Source."

Genesis looks over to Alistair. "Also, the Super Soldier he sent seems to know you, he said your name and recognized your presence in this city without ever having been told that you were here."

Levi grins at the Professor. "Well there's only one of those things that would be capable of doing that." He turns to Alistair with a smile. "It's been a while Two."

Alistair watches Levi approach him, standing up and presenting him with a grin. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to look across the room and notice me? What's a guy gotta do to get a little attention around here?"

Levi seems impressed with the response. "You've gotten surprisingly snarky for someone that used to be nothing but whiny little mutt."

"I've also gotten much more violent."

Levi lets out a whistle as he puts Tahki down near them. "More violent than you used to be as a kid? Now that would be something I would love to see. You were such a little scrapper, literally tore apart everyone that was thrown at you. Those were the days weren't they?"

Alistair lets out a growl as he lunges forward grabbing onto the front and Levi's shirt and forcing him back, slamming him into the wall behind him. Levi grabbing onto Alistair's neck in response, he motions to the glove on his arm that was used as both armour and a weapon. "Do you remember the last time I used a weapon like this on you? It didn't have a very nice reaction with your collar and nearly killed you. You don't want to go through that again do you? Especially with a more experimental model and no locksmith around."

Alistair lets go of Levi, Levi does the same, a grin on his face as he watches Alistair take several steps back from him. "Good boy."

Genesis stops his work for a moment to question Levi. "What exactly is all this about?"

Levi turns away from Alistair as he starts heading back. "Nothing that's important anymore, not that it ever was important back then either."

Alistair takes his seat on the ground once more, his eyes fixed on the two figures in the room.

Bret looks up to him and talks to him barely above a whisper. "If you take the big scary one do you think I could take the other guy that's always at the computer?"

Alistair frowns at the question, there's no way a plan like that would even come close to working. "Are you kidding me kid?"

Bret looks over to Tahki. "Why are they collecting people anyway?"

"What have I told you about the twenty questions brat?"

"My name is Bret."

"I know what your name is."

Bret frowns at him. "That's not funny."

Alistair looks down to the hand that he used to grab onto the front of Levi's shirt with. Though he isn't able to get near Genesis he can certainly get close to and even attack Levi, Levi though is much more prepared to deal with advances than the Professor is. Still though, it's something, and having something is better than having nothing.

Levi finishes going through the files that Genesis has prepared for him. "The Earth Source is the only target that we're going to be able to easily obtain. Lumia, the other Sources and the other Super Soldiers that we managed to find are all grouped together, so even if I do find them they'll be a pain in the butt to take down."

Professor Genesis motions towards Alistair and Tahki. "We have at least two of the targets we came here to get."

Levi looks over to the collection of captives they have acquired, his gaze stops on Bret. "We could have three if we turn the kid into the Earth Source."

The professor sighs. "That was supposed to be a last case scenario, don't tell me you're already thinking of killing the current host."

Levi crosses his arms. "If I did the other Sources might react, and then we'll have their locations again, besides I don't like being outside of the fortress for so long. The more time we spend out here the sicker we get. Whatever the case the way we're going about it right now is taking too long, something drastic needs to happen to get things going again."

He gets to his feet checking his equipment once more before heading out. "Got anything on his location for me?"

Genesis nods his head. "Yes, a recent report has him attending the transport of a recently captured criminal. That'll be your best opportunity to target him at this point."

Levi activates the cloaking device on his armour, soon disappearing from sight. "Well then, I'm off to hopefully not destroy the earth."

Alistair watches him leave, he then turns to the professor to see that he has returned to his work, possibly searching for any signs of the other targets that they have come here to collect.

"You really think you can get out of this situation?"

Alistair looks over to Zero with a frown on his face. "I can get out of this."

"It's not going to work."

"I wasn't asking for your opinion."

"Even if you did manage to get out of this room you're not going to be able to get anywhere without that collar around your neck stopping you."

"Shut up Zero!"

Bret looks over to Alistair. "Why do you always talk to yourself?"

Alistair turns away from Zero to face Bret. "I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to a figment of my imagination."

Bret stares at Alistair in silence, he eventually speaks up after a long pause in the conversation. "Should I be worried?"

"Yes."

Bret looks away from Alistair and over towards the mouse that has just recently joined them. From the conversation the two have been in it is clear that they intend to capture and transport at least half a dozen people. That meant they need the means and transportation to do so, so they must have another room in this building where they would store their weapons. That is something unwise to house in the same room you're keeping prisoners, as well as a transport large enough to bring all the targets they intend on acquiring back to their facility. This has to be somewhere outside the city since Alistair knows that the two soldiers had entered the city on foot.

Zero speaks up once again. "So why are they collecting people? Why don't they just kill you and the others? What do they find so important about a defective and failed experiment like you?"

Alistair closes his eyes, it is clear that Zero reacts to the thoughts that he is having, though that much should be obvious since it's his own head that is creating him. He can understand why they would want the Super Soldiers to a point, but Dmitri and Dmitri's son? That just doesn't make any sense, and then to just turn their objective around and turn Dmitri into a target, that makes even less sense.

He tries to think this over, the True Bloods are constantly referring to the Sources, even naming Dmitri as one of them, and the Ice Source, though they have not said his name Alistair knows from the description who that is , that's Shiya, the wild that his group has been targeting for capture because he knows the location of a weapon, did Dmitri also know the location of a weapon? And if he does how would killing him bring them any closer to getting that information?

"If only you knew what exactly these things the True Bloods are trying to collect were."

Alistair holds his head as he lets out a frustrated growl. "What are these Sources!?"

Bret looks over to him. "Do you mean the Six Sources?"

Alistair looks over to the child. "... what...?"

Bret looks away from Alistair not meaning to bother him again. "Never mind..."

Alistair begins to immediately question the child. "No, no, not 'never mind' What is this? What are they?"

Bret turns back to Alistair as he begins to explain. "It's an old Wild's story... I was told it when I was very small... you haven't heard of it?"

Alistair shakes his head. "Tell it to me."

*******

Teddy is staring at Zack with a look of disbelief, he tries to make sense of what it is that Zack has just told him. "You... where attacked by an invisible... robot dog woman...?"

Zack frowns at the description. "Did you purposely think of how you could take what I said and turn it into the dumbest possible summary that you could come up with?"

"No! I just... what!? How do you expect me to make sense of anything you've just told me?!" He thinks over what he had said. "Ok so maybe it did sound stupid... but it didn't sound dumb in my head before saying it."

Zack lets out a sigh as he tries to clarify what he has been trying to say. "She wasn't a robot, it was just her left arm and leg made out of metal, and her right eye made of metal too. They were mechanical prosthetics, you know given to people that lose their limbs in battles or accidents."

Teddy nods his head. "Okay that's a little more understandable." He places his hand on his chin. "So you beat one of these people and took their armour?"

Zack nods his head. "Well at least you got that part through your head."

"Do you think we'll be able to use it to get out of here?"

The skunk shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know if it can get us out, but as long as it has power it can at least keep us hidden until we can find a way out." He grins as he lifts his hand lightly knocking it against Teddy's chest. "Something that you can handle right? Now that you can make sparks fly in a literal sense keeping the power going in this suit should be a task you could figure out right?"

Teddy crosses his arms as he thinks that over. "I guess..." He thinks further into their situation and the things they might possibly be able to do. "What about the others that got captured with us, are we going to be able to get them out of here too?"

Zack frowns at the question, knowing that Teddy would probably not be happy with the answer he's going to give him regarding that. "The others? Come on there's no way that we can round them all up and escape with all of them without being seen."

Teddy nods his head. "I understand that it's practically an unreasonable request, but I'm going to be their chieftain, their safety and prosperity is my responsibility."

Zack sighs, this indeed is going to make escaping a lot harder. "I don't know about getting them out of this place, honestly our best plan would be to leave without them and come back with reinforcements, there's very little the two of us can do on our own, even if you are the Lightning Source."

Teddy is about to say something, Zack interrupts him before he is able to do so. "Look, I know more about this place and the True Bloods than you do, you have to trust me on this." He looks from Teddy as he begins to scan the area around him, Zack is still aware that he is being followed by the team that had attacked him earlier. "We lie low and keep hidden until we find our opening to escape, it's the best option we have right now."

Teddy nods his head in agreement, though it isn't ideal he knows that is currently his best option, after all not only do they have the True Blood military tracking them down, but the members of the resistance will be looking for him as well. "So where exactly are we supposed to hide in this place?"

*******

Vaan weakly opens his eyes, he lets out a groan and squints as he is blinded by an over abundance of bright white, he tries to adjust his vision as to get a better look at where he is, the sight of a hospital room now becomes clear.

He lets out both a tired and relived sigh as he relaxes himself and leans back in the bed he is in, it's a welcome feel after having had to sleep on the hard floor of that room he had been kept in.

He moves his stiff and sore arms as he lifts his hands to get a look at them, Vaan stares at his wrists to find that he is no longer bound, his fur and skin are still worn raw from the rope.

"Be careful, you don't want to pull your IV drip out."

Vaan turns his right arm around to find that he is indeed attached to said device, he looks out into the room to find the figure that has spoken up to find Mort there. "Captain?" He stares at him not expecting to see him. "Who found me? Was it you? One of the other Super Soldiers?"

Mort lets out a sigh. "It was Naida..." He looks to the side with a shake of his head. "When Lockheart offered to give me your location I didn't think that he would be getting that information from her."

Vaan continues to question him. "Did you catch the people responsible for capturing me?"

"No. Getting you back was due to an exchange, not a rescue."

Vaan seems interested in this. "And how did that go?"

"Cleanly. Both sides got what they wanted."

Vaan doesn't seem too happy to hear that, the idea that no one was punished for what he was made to go through is an irritating one. "What? Since when did the military do actual exchanges?"

Mort lets out a low growl. "Since the decision was left to me."

Vaan lets out a snicker. "Right, cause the last exchange you were involved in didn't have any underhanded schemes to it."

Mort narrows his eyes well aware that Vaan is talking about the exchange that was supposed to take place concerning Kit Milford and Shiya's daughter. "The decision was not given to me back then. Only orders."

Vaan argues back with him. "You're the one that gave Magellan the orders!"

"Those orders were not his to follow, they were mine. Magellan found out about them and acted on them before I had the chance to."

Vaan seems confused by this information. "Why would he do something as stupid as that?"

Another voice interrupts the conversation as Marshal Williams enters the room. "I assume he did it because he was afraid."

Both Mort and Vaan turn towards the door of the room, the large bull continues his explanation. "Mort has been assigned to the Super Soldier project since its founding, it was and still his job to keep you under control and in line, as such you Super Soldiers grew to respect him, that fondness even more true in Magellan and Quincy's case." He looks back to Mort with an amused grin. "You're kind of like a nanny to them, or in Quincy's case a hot baby sitter."

He stops next to Vaan's bed side throwing down a laptop onto his bed. "Magellan was afraid that if something went wrong his precious caretaker would be taken away from him, and what spoiled rotten little brat would want that?"

Vaan looks down to the computer that has been given to him. "What's this for?"

Marshal Williams begins to explain. "General Dmitri has it on good authority that True Bloods have hacked into our systems, you need to go over the data our intelligence division found and figure out a way to get them out of the system."

Vaan holds up the laptop. "With this thing!?"

"You're in a hospital unable to leave in your current condition, until the doctors give you a clean bill of heatlh you have to stay here. You will be re-introduced to your equipment and resources back at headquarters after that happens."

Mort gets to his feet as he approaches the Marshal. "He shouldn't be working while he's in here, he needs time to recover."

The bull looks back to Mort before leaving the room. "He's a Super Soldier, he'll be back on his feet in no time."

Mort looks back to Vaan as the black cat opens the laptop that has been brought to him, turning it on and waiting for it to boot while taking the cover off a tray of food that is near him, taking a sandwich that is inside and eating it. "Berights, you need to rest."

Vaan looks up to him with a frown. "Thanks for the concern but I'm fine, I'm hungry and sore that's all, and once I heal up and get food in my system I'll be just fine."

Mort tries to explain, that's not what he's worried about. "You were captured, beaten, tied, locked up and starved. That effects more than just the state of your body."

Vaan shakes his head as he looks up to Mort. "I'm an intelligence model, unlike the others who are combat models my state of mind is not something you ever have to worry about being in question." He seems curious. "What happened to the others? Were they terminated?"

Mort shakes his head no. "Swartz went missing, it's assumed he ran away to avoid being terminated. Lockheart switched sides and is now working for the enemy. Alistair was fine, but he was assigned a new mission by Dmitri, during that mission he started acting strange, and I've since lost contact with him."

"So I'm the only Super Solider you've got right now? That really doesn't make me want to rest."

Mort lets out a heavy sigh, it always difficult when it comes to stuff like this in concerns to the Super Soldiers, they sometimes come off as thinking themselves to be invincible because of their healing capabilities even though those healing capabilities are still limited. "Are you sure that you can work?"

"Positive." He looks toward his now empty tray of food. "Be a good nanny and get me more food to eat." Mort glares at him, Vaan looks back to his computer as he starts up on his work. "I was just joking about the nanny part, you don't have to look so annoyed with me. I wasn't joking about the food though, I'm starving."

"Berights."

Vaan sighs as he looks back towards Mort. "I have to work Louis... it's what I was built to do and it's all I know how to do."

Mort lets out a sigh, understanding that, there are still though limits to what a single person can go through. "You can't even take a day or two to rest? At least to amuse me?"

Vaan shakes his head no. "You don't understand, I have to work while I still can, before I become obsolete like I did when with the True Bloods."

Mort finds himself at a loss of what to say to that, it's hard for him to argue when Vaan was almost terminated for that exact reason.

Vaan stops his work for a moment, he stares blankly at his screen before looking back over towards Mort. "You know... before being brought into the domestic military I've never been important. I was always one of the lowest ranked in my batch when it came to our scores... and I was seen as useless because of that. When the domestic military found me and became aware of my abilities I became important to someone for the first time in my life, I became something I before thought I had no possibility of being.

"I don't want to stop being important, I don't want to stop being necessary."

Mort sighs to himself as he turns away. "I'm going to see if I can find out what happened to Quincy. If you have time look into the details of his assignment and contact me with any information you feel might be beneficial to me locating him."

"Of course Captain." Vaan watches Mort leave the room before returning his attention to the computer, starting on the assignment that he has so recently been given.