Something moved in the empty ward, snapping Christen instantly awake, although she didn't stir. Shallow breathing, a distinct heartbeat, and almost soundless footfalls had her on high alert as her hand closed around the scalpel she had nicked from a tray earlier and placed under her pillow.

She hadn't thought their earlier encounter would threaten Sergeant Scumbag enough to embolden him to come and kill her here, although she suspected Moore and the Major kept her here to force his hand.

Christen kept track of the intruder as he headed straight for the IV bag. Earlier, she had carefully pulled the needle from her vein, not needing the saline solution or the sedative. Patiently, she waited until he was distracted with inserting the needle into the bag before moving.

The light flared to life just as she flipped from the bed and pressed the sharp blade against the intruder's throat, and she didn't expect it to be PT Sergeant Mills.

Somehow, she hadn't seen that one coming as she blinked against the unexpected light, and Mills swung around, trying to jab the remaining liquid into Christen but instead cutting her own throat.

Christen easily deflected the syringe and instinctively kicked Mills away from her. The Sergeant lost her balance, knocking her hand away from her severed artery and windpipe to blast a spray of red blood all over Christen.

Although she had never killed anyone, she didn't need to be a doctor to realize there was nothing to be done for the Sergeant.

Briefly frozen to the spot before, her mind registered two more people, and she swiveled toward the new threat at the door.

Moore and the Major had their guns pointed at her, his a 9mm service weapon, and hers a silenced version of the same gun. These were not standard military issue for a doctor.

A small sound alerted her to danger as something about the way Mills gurgled as she drowned in her blood, changed.

Was she reaching for something?

Yes.

Weapon.

Christen pivoted on her heel and launched the scalpel she'd been about to drop right into Mills' eye as she dropped to her knees.

The shot intended for her slammed into the doorframe behind her, barely missing the Major, but both reacted to her unexpected movement, shooting her in the back and right through the heart.

She stared at the small holes that had exited her chest less than an inch apart as more blood stained her hospital gown. Dying was the last thing she expected, but perhaps it was the best thing.

The watch released, and even as the major and Moore ran toward her, realizing their mistake, she removed it from around her wrist, and it dropped to the ground with a solid thunk.

Gasping for breath, her body fought back, pushing the bullets out and repairing her heart, despite her weakness. It hurt more than being shot, and a keening sound escaped her.

Moore and the Major hadn't meant to shoot her; it had been an instinctive reaction.

The Major tried to stifle the bleeding, but now that the watch wasn't impeding her, Christen heard silent footfalls in the corridor. Five sets of feet accompanied by five hearts and a familiar cologne.

The attack wasn't over.

"Call your men; they're coming," Christen gasped through her pain, blood coming out her mouth.

"The Private must be delirious," the Major said, and Christen almost rolled her eyes.

"No, I'm not. The other assassins are in the hallway and will arrive in twenty seconds. Call your men, or you will die," she insisted as she grabbed Moore's lapel and looked him in the eye.

The man couldn't believe she was still alive and speaking.

"Now, Moore," she insisted, and just as he reached his walkie, the doors burst open, and gunfire blasted the room, but then the windows on the other side exploded inward. If they were not on their knees, they would have been dead.

Gunfire strafed from that side as the three caught in the middle tried to get as flat as possible. Those coming from the left were more organized than those coming through the doors as they burst into the room and took up position, moving nearly soundlessly.

Moore tried to shoot at those shooting from the doors but got hit in the shoulder, and Christen nicked his gun right out of his hand.

With only a moment to take stock of the assassins, she fired on them like she had done this a million times before. Three shots took out three targets, finding their mark right between the eyes just as darkness overtook her.

***

Christen gasped for air and returned to life. Despite having just died, she was fully alert and instantly realized the battle was over and the assassins were dead.

Dana stood over her, checking her vitals with the Major removing the bullet from Moore's shoulder on the next bed, but he was not a quiet patient.

"Gee Moore. A big strapping guy like you screaming like a sissy," Christen taunted.

Her heart had healed, her lungs were fine, and she was well on her way to feeling normal.

Without ever having seen their faces, she recognized the other four occupants of the room. Sylvian, Cole, Thorton, and Robyn. She could feel them like she did Alexander, but not so strongly.

Alexander was frantic.

"Alex, I'm fine. Calm down," Christen said, and he did. Mentally seeing his enclosure inside her mind, "I promise."

"Is she talking to herself? Why isn't she dead?" Moore spoke with great difficulty.

"Christen isn't dead or dying, but unfortunately, you and Major Lagerveldt didn't make it," Dana announced, and both of them tensed, expecting an attack.

Christen noted that they were not in the hospital room they were in before, and the door was barred.

"What the hell do you mean?" Moore demanded, but the Major pushed him down with his sore shoulder as leverage.

"Think for yourself, Moore. Did we not see Private Strickland die and come back to life? Did we not see Sergeant Cane Baird get shot in the arm, the bullet came out, and the wound closed? These people commandeered an entire hospital on an army base. Use your brain. We worked for a government agency that doesn't exist, and we can either play along or die with those traitors out there," the Major said practically.

"You shoot well for a doctor," Dana said, helping Christen sit more upright.

"So do you, professor," the Major said, not seeming as phased by the change in her circumstance as Moore. Leading Christen to believe there was much more to this Major than her files revealed.

"Let me guess, you aren't really sisters, but you look like sisters," the major remarked as Dana smirked at Christen.

"Actually, we are sisters. Father had an affair with a married woman before he died. Both were virtually divorced when my mother murdered my father, herself, my sister, and almost me.

"Nora was fed up with her husband's infidelity and took her son with her when she left, but with my father dead, she learned that she was expecting twins.

"Grandmother knew the truth but ensured Nora had no access to my birthright. Being penniless, she had to return to her husband. The price he asked was that the twins would never learn they were not his and that they had a sister nearly twelve years older than them but sickly. The doctors did not expect me to live past my teens. Yes, Christen, I lied to you, and I'm not thirty-six but thirty-two. I didn't want that supercharged brain of yours doing the math," Dana admitted, and suddenly everything made sense to Christen.

"Alexander didn't save me, but you did, and you probably infected me on purpose," she said, realizing she'd said it aloud.

"No one's listening, and you may speak freely. Fortunately, we used a dampening field on this mission. Yes, I saved you when I recognized who you were; sue me. I was curious about my sisters and kept track of you," Dana admitted.

She wasn't alone anymore; she had Dana. They were sisters; she even had a grandma who didn't want her.

"Do they know?" Christen asked without having to explain who.

"Yes. They've also tracked you since we have the same unique DNA. If I didn't do what they wanted, there was always you," Dana revealed, and Christen's heart ached for her sister.

"Anna and I?" Christen asked.

"Just you because you were fraternal twins. When Rodrick realized your mother would leave him, he made her drunk and slept with her. She woke, furious, and left him for my father. That night they shared a bed, and she lived with him for two months.

"Anna was Rodrick's child. Just before summer camp that year, she had a DNA test done. This I know because I made it possible through back channels, although I suspected it for a while. When she confronted your mom on the way back from camp, your mother told her the truth, but she refused to tell you.

"The only reason I learned this was because I bugged Anna's phone out of fear for what she would do. With her adoring her father, finding out what happened disillusioned her in both parents. Suddenly you weren't just her twin anymore but her half-sister. How do you explain something like that to other people?" Dana asked, and Christen could understand how that had shattered her twin's world.

"That made me her illegitimate half-sister after all the crap Mom and Dad hammered into our heads about family, honor, and living righteously. No wonder she hated me. Mom and Dad tore the foundation from underneath her and asked her to lie to me. Our... Anna's father always favored me, but he must have known I wasn't his kid. What message did that send to her?" Christen asked as she lay back and closed her eyes.

This bothered her more than the fact that she had died and returned to life because of what Dana had done to save her, but not as much as the understanding that she'd killed four people.