When Alannah was sure I wasn't going to faint on her, we started exploring the final floor of the compound. Much to my unease, she seemed to know exactly where to go as she led me down the desolate, pitch black hallways.

It's almost as if she's taken this path countless times before...

"Since you two are staggering around like newborns, I turned the lights on for you." Boreas said, humor dripping from his voice as the lights flickered back to life. "You killed about half the guards in this building, so I'm sure a little light won't hurt."

"That virus of yours really did take control of the entire building, didn't it?" Alannah inquired, awe apparent in her voice.

"Remember the dummy procedures I ran during our time back on Du'Vuna?" he prompted her. "Yeah, those weren't just pointless tests. I was probing the company's security and seeing what I could get away with. Whenever you had a sick day, I made sure you still got paid for the day."

"Really?" she inquired.

"You know as well as I do that the people we worked for were terrible human beings. hell, even a few Socorrans wore the suits of the big wigs. They wanted us to work until we dropped dead. We may have had office jobs, but even the smallest of errors would result in...A-hem, a permanent firing. I tried to cover the trails of my colleagues, and the suits didn't bat an eyelash at me since I was their best tech security expert."

I whistled. "You're like Robin Hood."

"You remember that old tale?" Boreas inquired. "I mean, I guess you're not wrong. I may not have stolen from the rich, but I certainly pissed them off."

"And yet they didn't kill the funny guy."

We allowed ourselves a soft chuckle in response before continuing onward. Due to Boreas mentioning it, I thought about the Reptilian species commonly referred to as Socorrans. They hardly come out in public, but the scaly bastards still held an imposing air about them. I've hunted down several Socorrans in my time, and might I say I'd rather go after anything other than the reptilian monstrosities that vaguely looked like Komodo dragons.

"We're getting close." Alannah breathed after several moments of silence. "Tobias' quarters are nearby."

I nodded and held Betty at the ready. Since I had blasted straight through my supply of handgun ammo, I decided it was better to use the scattergun.

Several tense moments passed before we stopped in front of a large set of double doors. Alannah started to hyperventilate, and I noticed her pupils were dilated.

"Come on Alannah." I breathed. "We mustn't dawdle."

"I know." she got out, a sob cutting her off. "Sorry..."

I reached for her hand, and this time, I grabbed it.

"We all have to face our pasts sooner or later." I murmured.

"I know..." she repeated. "Now is better than never."

After that, she kicked in the door and lobbed my knife through the opening. I whistled when her throw struck true and pinned a person seated behind a large desk to the back of their chair.

"How–?"

"He always sits in that damn desk of his so he can see who enters his quarters." Alannah growled, a deadly light in her eyes. "And by the looks of it, Tobias is already high out of his gourd."

The person named Tobias was...off-putting: he had orange hair like his sister, but it was messy–unkempt. His amber eyes had a dull light in them, which told me more than enough: this bastard just did a line of Turbo. True to what I thought, fine neon green particles covered the desk top.

"O...Ow." Tobias slurred, a crooked grin spreading across his chapped lips as he flattened a few wrinkles in the faded suit he was wearing. "Is that how you choose to greet your big brother?"

"After what you've done, count yourself lucky I aimed for your chest." she snapped back, every part of her body tense and aching to slaughter the monster before her. "Where's mother?"

Instead of answering, Tobias laughed.

"Answer...Me." Alannah rumbled, stalking over to her brother and leaning over his desk to where their foreheads almost touched. I stayed back in the shadows—This was not my battle to fight.

When he didn't respond, she slapped him square across the face.

"Answer me!" she screamed.

"Our sweet mother decided to off herself after you pulled your little escape act all those years ago." Tobias answered, sadistic glee dripping from his voice. "She couldn't bear to think her sweet little princess got herself killed running away, so she overdosed on Turbo."

Alannah flinched back and stumbled away, shaking her head in disbelief. 

"No...No...I was supposed to get her away from this hellhole..." she breathed.

I spotted the extra figure lingering in the dark, and I had a knife flying through the air before they could harm Alannah.

"Ah! You brought a friend with you!" Tobias chirped as I went to retrieve my knife. "He must be the one who killed my patrols. Ah, you're Mortifer, the Bringer of Death! What a pleasure to meet you-!"

While this monster continued to run his mouth, I stalked up to his desk and sheathed my knife. A few moments later, I slammed the butt end of my scattergun against his left temple. He passed out in the blink of an eye, his head bouncing against the desk top with a dull thump.

When Tobias was dealt with, I walked over to Alannah. She had fallen to her knees, and I could tell she was more than a little shellshocked.

"Alannah?" I prompted her, kneeling before the stunned gunsmith. "Alannah, come back to me."

"My mother's...dead?" I heard her breathe. Those three words held so much pain and disbelief in them...

"Alannah, please." I begged her. "We need to leave. Do you have anymore hellraisers with you?"

When she didn't respond, I took her mask off and cupped her face in the palms of my hands. Her startlingly-beautiful eyes were clouded in pain, and I couldn't help but feel my heart ache for her sake.

"I remember the day my mother died." I murmured, bowing my head in remembrance. "My father had put a bounty on our heads. I guess he was done with my mother and I, so he decided to wipe us out. However, my mother gave her life so I could survive. When we lose those we care about, we need to continue fighting so their sacrifices won't be forgotten. Please, Alannah. I need you to come to your senses."

Slowly, the clarity returned to her eyes, and she embraced me. I allowed Alannah to piece herself back together on her own time, and I helped her rise to her feet a few moments later.

"Sorry..."

"Stop apologizing." I told her. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

She nodded to herself and turned to face her brother. "What about him?"

I stalked over to him and removed my knife from his chest before tossing it back to Alannah. "We grab him, and we leave. I'll need you to contact your sister. Set up a rendezvous point, and I'll fly us over to it after we get out of here."

"Right, I'll get on that."

 And so while Alannah spoke over her comms set, I waited. A few moments later, she told me it was time to go.

"We need to hurry." she murmured, putting her mask back on. "If we move fast enough, we can reach the elevator and get back down to the first floor before the remainder of my brother's forces get to us."

"Fair enough. Do you have any remaining hellraisers?"

"I do. I have...Three left."

"Pull the pins on all three and throw them into this room." I instructed her after slinging Tobias over my shoulder. "If anything, it'll buy us some more time."

"Fair enough." Alannah began. She spotted something sitting on a nearby bookshelf, and she walked over to pick it up. With a sigh, she stored the small object in one of the pouches on her utility belt before clearing her throat.

"Let's move."

We hurried out of the room and paused so Alannah could lob her explosives into the personal study.

"Okay, now we run." she stated, her eyes wide with worry. "Follow my lead. Hopefully we'll be far enough away from the blast radius..."

"And if we aren't?" I prompted the gunsmith, easily running beside her as she led me through the halls.

"Um...let's not worry about that!"

"Just a head's up, Mortie: the remainder of Turbohead's forces are making their way upstairs. They'll have you outnumbered twenty-to-one."

"Well, they're about to receive a deadly surprise!" I snapped as a faint explosion could be heard. "They can come upstairs, but I doubt they're going to like what they find."

Having nothing else to say, Alannah and I ran at a dead sprint until we reached the elevator. She slammed her fist into the button with a down arrow on it, and we waited for several agonizing moments before the doors opened. Unfortunately, there were four filthy individuals within the elevator cabin.

"Hey-!" one of them began, only to be silenced by Alannah as she jabbed my knife into his neck.

In under a minute,  she had the other three individuals dead and sprawled on the floor.

"Here's our ticket out of this dump." I began as more explosions could be heard. "Might as well take it."

We both entered the elevator, and I pressed the button indicating the first floor. When the doors closed, we started our decent.

"So...Care to explain what hellraisers do?" I asked Alannah, hoping to start some sort of small talk.

She chuckled. "Hellraisers, my friend, are beautiful works of art. While I may work primarily with guns, I've managed to create an explosive that sends out more explosives after the initial explosion."

"It's a grenade within a grenade." I mused. "How quaint...And how long did it take you to perfect this technology?"

A sheepish laugh was her only response.

The explosions continued to multiply in severity until the elevator started to shake.

"Um...Shouldn't the explosions be abiding by now...?" I inquired after the lights started to flicker on and off.

"Cylus..." Boreas breathed. "I was able to fly my drone out of a busted window, and I only have one question for you and Alannah: What the fuck did you two do?"

"I lobbed three hellraisers into the study we found Tobias in." Alannah explained. "Since that explosive is still in its experimental stage, I had no idea how it'd react with other hellraisers."

"Well, guess what? You blew a chunk out of the entire bloody building." Boreas informed us. "Half the complex is on fire, and the other half is holding on for dear life. The good news is you're in the latter half. The bad news? Well, the fire is spreading quickly."

"What of Tobias' remaining forces?" I asked him.

"From what I'm able to see from the cameras that still work, most of the guards made it to the fifth floor before everything went to shit. Most of them are now charred corpses."

"That works in our favor." Alannah pointed out.

"Yes, but the problem is you both are still in the building that is on fire." he said, emphasizing the last two words. "At best, you have about ten minutes to get out."

"I can work with that."

"I...Am prematurely going to go bald because of you..."

I chuckled. "Don't worry, Boreas. We'll be fine."

"Yeah, suuure! You'll be fine!" Alex drawled, "Just make sure your lady friend doesn't get burned to death, and we'll be great!"

"Shut it, kid!" Boreas and I snapped.

Alannah laughed. "You all crack me up. If it weren't for you three, I'd probably be freaking out about the fact we're currently in the middle of a burning building."

I heard Tobias groan, so I drew my other knife and hit him in the back of the head with the pommel of my blade.

A few moments later, the elevator stopped moving.

"It's showtime." I breathed, the doors opening to display chaos before us.

"How are you so calm?" Alannah prompted me in a small voice.

I considered her question for a few moments before shrugging. "I dunno. I think I'm still hopped up on painkillers."

"Oh, makes sense..."