Itvara means traveler, by the way. 

Itvara

"So," Tristam said the next morning, "here's your briefing."

"My ... what?" Echo gave him a blank stare, completely confused.

Tristam sighed. "Your preparation. How you're going to get this done. You'll be with Puppet, because I figured it'd be best to keep the numbers low. Although he can be helpful, as soon as you get in, you'll be on your own."

"On my own?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Tristam sighed again, getting frustrated. "The cure is in the middle of the building, on the second floor. There are old air vents throughout the entire building that they don't monitor, and they're small, which is why we need you."

"Why not go in another way?"

"Why don't you leave your questions till the end of the briefing, alright?" the leader said through gritted teeth.

Echo shifted nervously and gently touched his burn. Even when he was awake, Tristam still scared him.

"Alright," he continued. "Once you get in, you're going to need to stay extra quiet. The room with my cure is heavily guarded - on the outside. If you do everything right, you should end up on the inside, without having to worry about them. Puppet's got a map for you, and also a radio Nitro powered up so that you can contact him in case of an emergency. Get in and out as fast as possible, understand?"

"Yes. I understand," Echo said, thinking about what Braken had said the night before, and Rogue and Puppet's conversation. He felt himself start to panic, his chest tightening up and his heart rate increasing.

Tristam noticed his fear and said, "Don't worry, kid. You'll be fine."

"I hope so," he mumbled, gently touching his locket.

"Puppet! Are you ready?" the leader called.

"Yeah. I've got enough water for four days. Sound good?" the other answered.

"Sounds good."

Echo watched as Tristam stood up and quietly exchanged a few words with Puppet, and then went back to his tent. Puppet came up to the young outsider and helped him stand.

"Ready for this?" he asked cheerfully.

"If only."

Together, the two carried their water, blankets, and what little food they could as they exited the camp and started their journey to the facility. Echo worried all day, especially since Puppet had gotten oddly quiet after they had left the city behind. They were traveling farther North on the abandoned interstate, away from the safety of their city. Once every so often, Echo caught sight of another person, in another pack, staring at them as they walked, their eyes seeming to pick him apart, making him feel exposed. Puppet didn't falter when he saw them. In fact, he rose up a little taller as if to prove that he was stronger and could take care of himself.

The landscape might've been beautiful, once, but as the drought had been ongoing for seven years, all plants were dried up and yellow, dead as can be. Some places were blackened and burnt from an accidental fire.

The heat  in the air was more than uncomfortable. Echo wondered how Puppet still wore his coat and didn't melt. He was already sticky and damp with just his tattered t-shirt and jeans.

Near the end of the first day of travel, they set up camp under an overpass and away from the main part of the new city. Echo hesitated, and then asked, "Why are you so quiet?"

Puppet glanced at him and unfolded the tarp for their sleeping bags. "I could say the same to you."

"I guess I'm just nervous," Echo mumbled. "You know ... because Braken said - "

"You were talking to Braken?" Puppet interrupted. "What did he tell you?"

Echo suddenly felt jittery inside, like butterflies were swarming in his gut. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen a butterfly in a long time. "He told me how he was there for four years and that they torture the ones inside - "

"He was trying to get you to pity him," the Raider said, interrupting him again.

"He said he was warning me - "

"Lesson number one - Don't believe that anything Braken tells you is for your own good. You're new. He's trying to get you to trust him. He wants someone on his side."

"Even with the jammer, why don't you guys let him be around you? Why don't you ever talk to him?"

"Because he can't be trusted. He's done some things ... " Puppet hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. "Last year. One of my friends is dead because of him. And he told you about the mind reading, but did he tell you about ... the other thing?"

"What other thing?"

"You'll see soon enough, I'm sure. Just don't talk to him anymore, got it?"

"If you all hate him so much, why don't you kick him out or something?"

Puppet didn't answer at first. He thought hard instead. "Well, we're not that cruel. We don't really want him dead .... most of us, anyway - and Tristam really likes him. He likes to use him to do his dirty work. With no one else to appreciate him, he's pretty eager to do it."

Echo remembered the high pole and Braken's willingness to take him up there, and he shivered, touching his burn. "I just ... maybe he'd be better if you actually took the time to talk to him and be with him. I think he's just lonely."

Puppet snorted. "Lonely my a - um ..."  He cleared his throat and laid down on his sleeping bag, but didn't bother getting in. It was warm enough outside. "Just don't talk to him. I don't want something to go wrong and you to get hurt."

A slight breeze blew through the air, but it wasn't cold, so Echo followed Puppet's example and stayed outside his sleeping bag. They laid in silence as the moon rose and the stars danced.

"Puppet," Echo suddenly asked, thinking of something. "How did you get your strings?"

The other didn't say anything. He waited and then realized that the younger boy wasn't going to take it back, so he sighed. "Not ready to tell you that. I don't want to scare you."

"Oh. Okay." Echo waited for a moment, and then curled up on his side and closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep before tomorrow. He found he couldn't relax. His feet were too sore, his face hurt from a sunburn, and his neck still throbbed, even after Fij's help. The fear in his chest only grew worse, quickening his breath and his heartbeat.

"Shh," Puppet whispered gently. "You'll be fine. I'll protect you when I can. When I can't, you shouldn't even need protecting."

Echo didn't answer. Pretty soon, he heard the Raider snoring softly, almost completely at ease. He wondered how he could relax so quickly when their lives were on the line. Had he ever heard what Braken told him? Did he even care? Or was he right about Braken - that he was only reaching for pity?

Question after question jumbled through Echo's troubled mind, keeping him awake most of the night. Finally, about an hour before dawn, he fell into a fitful sleep, too exhausted to keep his eyes open.

...

"Hey, Echo. Wake up," Puppet said gently, shaking the boy's shoulders to get him up.

"It's morning already?" Echo mumbled. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Hardly at all."

"We should get there about three hours before sundown, so you can rest then. I don't want to spend anymore time here." Puppet glanced around and Echo followed his gaze, noticing multiple pairs of eyes on him. "The pack here is growing ... hostile." The Raider handed him a little granola bar, something Echo hadn't had in years. "Eat this on the way. We'll stop for water out of the city."

They quickly packed up their sleeping bags and their tarp and continued their travel. Echo bit into his granola bar and let a smile spread across his face. It was amazing, better than he remembered. He hadn't had good food in a very long time, excluding Laura's chili.

Puppet shot him a glance and grinned. "Good?"

"Oh, yeah," Echo said through a mouthful. "I haven't eaten one of these in years."

"See? The Raiders aren't so bad."

Echo's mood damped a little. He still wasn't sure about joining them more willingly. "Yeah," he said. "I guess you're not."

They trekked through the city, over more bridges and across more interstates, resting for a short time at around noon, and then kept going. Echo found himself enjoying Puppet's company, especially when he started talking. He'd crack jokes, tell stories, and he generally seemed to enjoy life. Even after the apocalypse, life was good - with the Raiders. Echo determined he wanted to have the same outlook on life as Puppet did, with or without the pack. He thought he probably would, once he got his sister back.

Thinking about his sister made him think about Braken's words again. Could it really be that horrible? These people, the ones Braken called the Destroyers, they wouldn't just torture people for no reason ... would they?

They finally reached their destination: a dark building that was somehow still standing and mostly intact. There was a painted sign on the side that read "HAVEN".

"What's a haven?" Echo asked quietly.

"A safe place," Puppet muttered. "Looks sketchy. See that little fan thing up there? That's where you're going in."

"That looks really high up ... " Echo felt his knees lock up in terror just looking at it.

"It's not, don't worry. Here's your map."

He quickly explained how to climb up and how to move around without being heard, and showed him where to go to find the cure. Echo's fear grew worse the longer Puppet talked. When the Raider was finished, he found he couldn't breathe. "I can't do this," he whispered.

"You'll be fine. As long as you don't get caught, you won't get hurt."

"I can't - I can't think - I don't know what's going on ... " He felt dizzy and sick and disoriented all of a sudden. He couldn't figure out why his hands were shaking or why he was suddenly dripping with sweat.

"Hey," Puppet said gently, putting his arm around the boy's shoulders. "I promise you'll be okay. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I just need to sit down for a minute ..." Echo mumbled.

"Sure." The Raider helped him sit on the curb farther away from the building called Haven and patiently waited until he was able to breathe normally again. "I promise, you'll be fine." He helped him stand back up and gave him a quick smile. "We'll get back and Tristam will help you find your sister."

"No, he won't," Echo said softly. "Rogue said so. You agreed."

Puppet hesitated for a moment. "If he won't, I'll help you."

And so Echo found himself climbing up the side of the building, a radio in his pocket and a map in his mouth. Each foot he climbed made his heart beat faster and his hands more sweaty, and he almost lost his grip multiple times. Puppet was wrong. It was very high up. Finally, he managed to wiggle into the little fan - which turned out to be quite large - and into the air vents. He barely fit. No wonder they didn't send Nitro. Echo was almost getting claustrophobic himself.

"You in?" Puppet whispered through his radio.

"Yeah."

"Great. Follow the map until you find it. Call me if you need anything."

Echo wiggled further into the building, squeezing his way through the air vents. He felt like a worm tunneling through a mountain - like it would take him years to get through. He could barely look at the map, and it was hard to keep moving, especially when his burn started hurting again.

They were right when they said the halls were heavily guarded. People marched with candles or dying flashlights, left over from years ago. They must've hoarded batteries. The darkness made Echo feel like he was in a dungeon or a medieval castle, places from the stories Alyssa would tell him when he was younger.

And there was a feeling in this building, a feeling he found hard to describe. It was a dark, evil feeling that settled into his gut and pierced his heart. It was the feeling of a thousand souls crying out in terror and agony, begging for mercy. Although he could hear the screams every once in a while, they were nothing like this feeling. It made him feel dirty and guilty, and he wanted to curl up and cry. This is what Braken felt, he thought as a tear escaped his fighting efforts. This is what Braken felt for four years. Suddenly, Braken's words seemed a lot more realistic, and Echo had a hard time believing what Puppet had told him.

The feeling worsened the deeper he went. His limbs grew heavy, as heavy as his heart, and he found it hard to breathe - or even find the motivation to try. It reminded him of Fij's relieving touch, only the exact opposite. He wanted to give up.

He found he was coming up on the place to drop down. He looked through one of the vents to see where he was and his heart nearly stopped at what he saw.

It was a boy about his age, chained to the wall, his back pressed against the peeling paint. He was missing one of his eyes, blood oozing from the gaping hole in his skull, and he had gashes and slices up and down his bare chest and stomach, some yellowing and infected, others still dripping. He was sobbing, his restrained shoulders shaking as he struggled to breathe. He was half crouching, struggling to hold up his own body weight, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

As if that wasn't enough, there was another man in the room with him, holding a bloody knife and wearing a morbid grin. He stepped closer to the boy and the prisoner tried in vain to press himself further into the wall, his face white and his remaining eye as big as a saucer. "Do you ever wonder," the man said softly, "what a Gifted looks like on the inside?"

Echo knew what was coming, but he couldn't pull his eyes away. He couldn't do anything but watch and listen as the man slammed his knife into the boy's gut and carved out a hole big enough to see inside of him. The boy let out a strangled scream and immediately lurched, throwing up massive amounts of blood, covering the floor and his body. The man, ignoring his gasping cries and pleas, reached his hand inside of the boy, grabbing for his guts, and then Echo's vision tunneled in and he passed out.