Ash paced back and forth in front of the chopper while he waited for the others. How long would it take the authorities to figure out Tyler was an Altered—or, well, Super? What term was the government using anyway? He thought he'd seen "Supers" on the news...

A boy approached Ash. The eight-year-old Felix Rivera. Ash stopped pacing. The kid had been giving him weird looks for the past month, but had apparently been unable to work up the courage to talk to him. Until now.

"Can I help you?" Ash asked, trying to keep his voice pleasant rather than impatient.

Felix hesitated. His hands fidgeted. "Did—did you know my mom?"

Ash shrugged. "Kind of. She was usually at the labs. I only saw her about once a month."

"Okay. Thanks." Felix ran off.

Ash shook his head. He felt bad for the kid, but he had no idea how to help him. He really didn't know Rosa that well. Certainly not well enough to know whether she was any better than Claudia or John.

Ash went back to pacing. Claudia. Claudia, who had tried to kill his sister, who had taken eleven years of his life, was dead.

He hadn't technically killed her, had he? He'd thrown her into the ocean, but she was on the verge of death anyway. And if he hadn't stopped her, she would have killed him. And Ivy.

Summer, Claire, Spencer, and the German shepherd—Ace—finally approached. Ash held back an annoyed "finally" and followed them into the chopper.

"You painted over your logo," Ash noted. It wasn't a great paint job. If you looked closely, you could see the difference in the blacks.

"We had to," Spencer said. "I mean, choppers still draw a lot of attention now, but there's no reason to make ourselves obvious."

"We have to fly a little slower now, too," Summer added.

As it turned out, "a little slower" equated to flying so painfully slow Ash wanted to scream.

If we show up and she's gone, so help me...

"Almost there," Spencer announced from the cockpit. "Well, we're almost to where we'll have to park. It'll be a bit of walking after that."

Ash sighed.

"What's the plan for when we get to the hospital?" Summer asked.

"They're not expecting us," Ash said. "Shouldn't be a challenge."

"Yeah. but it might be better to be subtle," Spencer said. "Not let anyone know it was us, you know."

"I'm sure most people know our faces by now," Ash said.

"I think I could get us in and out without running into anyone," Claire said. "I could sense anyone nearby and lead us away from them."

"That should work great," Spencer said.

Ash resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wouldn't have anything against Spencer—the guy was likeable, and funny, he had to admit—but Ash couldn't shake the feeling he was going out of his way to disagree with Ash. Or at the very least, ignore him.

Ash also had to admit that Claire's idea worked surprisingly well. She had enough control over her abilities to guide them through the hospital without any confrontation. On top of that, she sensed Tyler's mind and led them straight to her.

Spencer reached the door first. It swung open, and Ash drew in a sharp breath.

His sister was unconscious in a hospital bed, an IV hooked up to her arm. Ash pushed past the others and rushed to her side.

"Tyler?" He placed a hand on her arm.

"This isn't going to be Claire all over again, isn't it?" Summer asked as the others approached.

Ash tensed. What if Tyler was in a coma? Would she be able to wake up? His gaze flickered to the empty bed on the other side of the room.

Tyler stirred. Relief washed over Ash as her eyes fluttered open. "She's waking up," he told the others.

"Where...?" Tyler blinked a few times and sat up, a pained expression across her face.

"Tyler, it's me. Ash. You're in a hospital."

Tyler turned her gaze to him and tipped her head to the side, confusion crossing her features. Her eyes found the Supers behind Ash, which only seemed to puzzle her more.

"We need to get you out of here," Ash said. "I know you probably—"

"Wait," Tyler cut him off. Her eyes widened. "Hang on. It's all coming back to me."

"What do you remember?"

Tyler ignored him, instead turning attention to the IV in her arm. She grabbed it and slowly pulled it out.

"Uh, maybe you shouldn't do that."

The rest of the needle came out, and Tyler tossed it aside. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and jumped to her feet. Well, at least she seemed to be in great physical condition.

"Tyler," Spencer began. "Are you—?"

"Ash!" Tyler exclaimed. Ash frowned. She sounded more upset than happy.

"I—" he began.

"You saw me at Scorpion and you still sided with Claudia!" Tyler folded her arms.

"I know. I'm so sorry." Ash shook his head. "Listen, we need to get out of here."

"Fine. But only because you're with them." Tyler stormed past Ash and followed the others out the door. After a moment of stunned silence, Ash relented and followed them.

~

Ivy stood up, began her approach, then turned around and sat back down three times before she finally made it all the way to Raven.

Raven sat in the doorway of the jetchopper the others hadn't taken. Dr. Williams and the scientist who'd joined their camp stood in front of her, taking vitals and making notes. Ivy almost cut off her approach for a fourth time, but the two finished up and left Raven alone.

"Raven," Ivy said. "I—I'm glad you're okay. I was afraid I didn't get you back to shore in time."

Raven looked up and met Ivy's gaze. The movement was weighed down by the same exhaustion that clung to her face. "I heard they found you. Glad you're okay, too."

Not much by way of greeting, but Ivy couldn't blame her. She didn't look well at all. As Ivy searched for her next words, Raven wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, despite the hot August air. It was then that Ivy noticed the thin layer of frost crawling up Raven's fingers, turning her brown skin almost white.

"Have they come up with anything to help you yet?" Ivy asked.

"No. Not yet." Raven turned her gaze to the treeline. "I don't know if they'll figure something out in time."

"Well, we know it's possible to remove your extra abilities," Ivy said. "It was mentioned in the Phoenix Project file."

Raven didn't respond. A chopper approached in the distance. The others were returning. "Sorry," Ivy said. "I should go see if they found Tyler."

Raven turned her eyes back to Ivy. "You're fine. And listen... Thank you. For saving me, I mean. It's my fault your ship's gone."

The loss of the Fortuna still hurt, but Ivy shook her head. "It's not your fault. It's Zodiac's. And we'll make them pay."

~

The setting sun bathed the camp in an orange glow. Birds sang just out of sight in the trees. Tyler stepped out of the chopper and scanned the Supers that had been assigned to this group. She recognized most of them, but only knew a few names.

"Tyler!" Ivy crossed the clearing to greet her. "What happened?"

The others exited the chopper and gathered behind Tyler. "Hey, Ivy," Tyler said. She took a few steps to meet Ivy. "Ash said he helped you escape."

"Uh, yeah," Ivy slid her hands into the pocket of her red jacket. "John was experimenting on me and he saved me. Did the others tell you everything that's happened?"

"Yeah."

"Tyler?"

Tyler turned around and met her brother's gaze. After a moment, she allowed her gaze to soften. "So Claudia told you someone else killed me? And messed with your memories?"

"Yes," Ash said. "I'm sorry. I probably should have figured it out sooner—"

"It's a miracle you remembered at all," Tyler cut him off. "You did your best."

The others gathered around, watching Tyler expectantly. She still hadn't told them her story.

Tyler sighed. The others—especially Ivy—wouldn't be happy when they heard about how she'd helped Malcolm. Especially now that he had established himself as their enemy.

"I've been asleep for the past month," she began. "Malcolm's been using me to get something called a Pyramid Fragment, in this place called the Dream Realm. We finally got to it this morning."

"Wait, Malcolm has a second Fragment now?" Claire asked.

"He already had one?" Tyler asked.

Claire nodded.

"Well, then yeah, he has two now. As soon as we got it, he left the dream. I have no idea where he went."

"Why did Malcolm have you help him?" Ivy asked. "There were about a hundred Supers he could have picked from."

"Apparently, some people have some control in the Dream Realm, and I'm one of them. He figured it out because he was spying on us in our dreams." Tyler swallowed. "I agreed to help him, because, well... When we were captured by SCI trying to get the chemical for the bomb, he contacted me. I told him where we were, and he said if he sent help, I had to help him."

After a painfully long silence, Ivy was the first to speak. "At least you got us help. Maybe you should have told us, but... Nothing we can do about it now."

"If I'd known how dangerous he really was, I wouldn't have helped him," Tyler said.

"Like Ivy said, nothing we can do now," Spencer said. "Tyler, I'll go get you a sleeping back and you can set up anywhere you'd like."

"Sounds good," Tyler said. "Hey, uh, is Felix here?"

"Yeah, he should be around here somewhere," Spencer said.

"Great." Tyler set off to find him. She only made it a few feet before Ash came to her side.

"Why are you looking for Felix?" he asked.

"I'm the one who brought him to the Fortuna," Tyler said. "I kinda looked after him. Poor kid, there's no one else his age."

Ash nodded. "He asked me about his mom earlier. I wish we could help him."

They found Felix sitting in the shadow of the second jetchopper, drawing in the dirt with a stick. When he saw Tyler, his face lit up.

"You're okay!" he exclaimed.

Tyler smiled. "Yep."

In a flash, he was hugging Tyler, taking her by surprise. As he pulled away, he asked, "Where were you?"

"It's... a long story." Tyler walked to a boulder a few feet away and sat down. Felix found a seat in the dirt next to her, and after a moment's hesitation, Ash joined him.

"Well, I like stories," Felix said.

Tyler nodded. "I know. You used to listen to the captain's stories all the time." She immediately felt a twinge of regret. The others had mentioned the captain didn't make it off the ship. Tyler couldn't recall his name. She wasn't even sure she'd ever learned it.

"Yeah, they were the best," Felix said.

"Do you remember any of them?" Tyler asked. She'd always dismissed them as the product of the captain's imagination, but after what she'd seen in the Dream Realm...

"Oh, yeah," Felix said. "Captain Browning told lots of stories, but I could tell you most of them."

Ash gave Tyler a puzzled look. "You've been asleep for a month and the first thing you want to do is listen to stories?"

Tyler shrugged. "Something to take my mind off things for a little while, I guess."

"All right then. I don't have anything better to do."

Felix beamed. "Okay, the first one takes place when the captain was eighteen..."