"B.E.T.A.?" Ali asked.

"Biologically Engineered Transformed Anomalies," the scientist explained. "They are Injected with a serum that alters DNA, which was our original plan for the A.L.P.H.A. hybrids, but it went... south. They are designed to kill on sight, not at all what we wanted out of you. So, we decided we'd use this for different hybrids so they can guard people like me and hunt people like you."

Ali gave a deep, inhuman growl, which made me tighten my grip on her side and keep her steady.

Four hybrids. How many bullets do I have again? I can't remember for the life of me how many I have in the gun right now.

I followed Ali's gaze to the hybrids' arms. As I really looked closely, I saw dark bruises and a probably infected spot on their arms. They had likely changed recently.

I felt Ali start tapping. "Hit arms," I squeezed her in acknowledgment, staring into the scientist's eyes.

"Well," he said with a clap of his hands. "I might as well just leave you guys to get acquainted. I have important business to attend to."

With a click of a buzzer, the scientist left inside the building. The doors slowly closed, and the B.E.T.A.s started to creep towards us slowly. I let go of Ali and grabbed my gun from my side while Ali sprinted at one of the hybrids on the left.

With an unknown bullet count, I have to be careful. Once I got a clear shot, I took it and hit the hybrid charging at me in the arm. However, I missed when the other hybrid grabbed the barrel and pushed it down towards the ground, scratching my arm deeply. I cried out, and I hit my attacker in the gut with the butt of my gun and kicked its knee in. The B.E.T.A. pierced my ears as it howled in pain, and I used this to get more distance to take another shot, successfully killing my attacker. When I went to shoot the one that was still alive, I ran out of bullets and immediately got ready to slam the gun in its head. However, it was not needed.

I gasped as I looked over to see Ali on the ground, weekly trying to get up as one of the B.E.T.A.s pinned her down, scratching and biting her side.

Suddenly, something kicked in me. Something so fierce I felt like I could move a whole truck that made my heart race out of my chest. My arm burned like hell as I ran with speed I didn't think I had towards my fallen companion.

"Ali!" I screamed.

Suddenly, a sound pierced through the air, causing the B.E.T.A. to wince and shriek. I turned to the source where a man stood, arm held high and holding a weird contraption that Greg would make. He wore black and white clothes, his hair unkept with a look that could kill. I ignored him and slid beside Ali's side, brushing her arm in comfort as she struggled to get any words out.

"Shh, it's ok, Paws, I got you."

Her eyes looked deep into mine. The blue made me want to take away all her suffering, and the gold made me want to kill for her and be by her side forever. I knew this now: I wanted her.

And I'm not losing her today.

Blood puddled on the ground as I looked at her injured side. This was a deep wound. I took off my jacket, put immediate pressure, and got ready to fight as I heard footsteps running towards me. The man held a knife, but instead of it piercing mine or Ali's skin, it pierced the crippling B.E.T.A. in the neck, and it was over.

"Quick!" the man shouted. "Let's get her out of here and treat her wounds."

"Who are you?" I barked.

The man backed up with his hands high, dropping the knife and keeping steady eye contact with me.

"I'm Lee Bolivia," said the man. "I'm not a threat. I'm here to help."

"What makes me think I can trust you?" I shot at him, hovering over Ali.

"I just saved your lives, and I know how to get essential information for the rebels."

I glared at his response but softened it when I felt Ali's hand grab my leg. I kneeled back down to her as she sucked in a breath.

"Take him... with us," she whispered.

"What?" I asked, surprised that she could trust him.

"Just help me, please."

I nodded to her and raised back towards Lee, still with his hands up.

"Fine. Help me get her to the van," I ordered.

"I'll tell you everything on the way," he said with a nod, running towards us.

I grabbed Ali by the neck and shoulders while Lee grabbed her feet, knowing she'd rather have him there than by her very exposed neck, and we swiftly made our way to the van.

"Stay awake, Al," I whispered to her as she started to nod off.

My heart was beating so fast that I'm sure she could hear it's thumping.

You're not dying on my watch.

Once we made it to the van, I opened the back door, laid her down, and climbed in with her, frantically searching for my medical kit.

"Lee, you need to drive us out of here," I ordered. "I'm going to trust you on this."

He nodded and closed the back before hopping in the front seat, where he found the keys and turned on the van. I held Ali close while the van roared, and it shot back to the road with great speed. Once we settled, I pulled back, grabbed my kit, and glanced at Ali's wounds. Gosh, I could use my mother right now.

Her side seemed to be the only pressing matter, and her face and arms had very light scratches.

"Don't talk, just nod. Is it just your side?"

She nodded once and winced as she pulled up her shirt to see the damage. Her side had been scratched up pretty good with a few bite marks, but the bleeding had slowed. It was pretty deep.

"Benji, it hurts," Ali whispered.

My heart melted as I took her hand and soothed it with my thumb. With the other hand, I reached for my bag, grabbing what I needed.

"I know. I'm going to help you. Just stay awake for me."

My heart kept thumping and my body was shaking, I couldn't remember how to do anything. I tried to breathe slowly, but I was losing control.

"Benji," whispered a voice in my head, one that was not my own. "Stop the bleeding, clean, and tune up from there." It was my mother.

"Breathe, my son. You can do this."

I did, and I felt my heartbeat start to slow as I stopped shaking. I immediately grabbed some solution from the bag and a water bottle and set them aside. I then found the bandages and the gaws and applied them to her wound. I continued to do the necessary work while brushing the tears that had escaped from her face.

"You're alright, Paws, almost done."

"Need any help back there?" Lee called.

"Just keep us steady. I'm getting close," I answered.

After finishing, I wrapped her up and pulled down her shirt. Ali's tears started to slow, and I felt her grab my hand again after I rinsed the blood off my hands.

After a few seconds, I took some wipes and touched up her scratched face. Her eyes fluttered shut at the action, and she sighed in relief.

"Do you feel like you could eat anything?" I asked.

She shook her head no, trying to keep her eyes open.

Then, I said something I might regret for the rest of this trip. "You don't have to stay awake, sweetheart." Sweetheart?! That's what you say to someone you've barely known?

Yet why did I feel like I've known her forever?

"Will you stay with me?" she asked in a hushed voice. "Just until I fall asleep?"

I felt my heart melt, the embarrassment almost forgotten, and gently squeezed her hand. "Yes, of course."

Ali sighed, and I watched her close her eyes, but she wasn't quite asleep.

"Tell me a story," she requested. "From your home."

I shifted from my position to my stomach, still holding her soft hand. I admiringly admired her nails as I thought of a story I could tell her.

"My whole life, I've always hoped for something more than I had before, always looking at the future, never staying in the past. However, my friend, Arrow, teased me a lot."

Ali gave me a chuckle and some butterflies as she looked up at the roof with darkened eyes.

"He'd always poke fun at me for being so hopeful for things like new foods we could afford or toys back then. Now the boys call me 'dreamer' since that's all I ever seem to talk about. But that's not the only thing I dreamed about."

I felt my throat tighten. Should I be telling her all of this? But at Ali's encouraging squeeze, I smiled and kept going.

"I would always wish for my dad to come home safely after a mission, and he did until one night he was late, and my dad was never late for us. That's when my world flipped upside down. He was dead. Some DOA officers killed him. And I didn't just lose my father that day, but my brother too. He stopped talking to me after that, and I'm unsure why. Every night, I'd hope and pray that he would just come back and walk through that door, and we could be a family again. But that... that never happened."

I quickly whipped a tear with the back of my hand, and I could feel Ali's stare.

She also had a tear, one she shed out of sympathy. "I'm sorry, Benji. It must have been so hard to lose someone who raised you."

I offered her a sad smile as I looked into her eyes with wonder. She's crying, yet she never had a real family before. It's like... she's experiencing it together with me, sharing my pain.

This girl baffled me.

"I wish I knew who my parents were," she whispered to the roof.

"Well, you had to have come from somewhere," I thought out loud.

Ali just hummed and closed her eyes, another tear slipping, causing her to shiver.

"Thank you for telling me that," she said. "I love hearing stories, they help me connect to a person." I felt her squeeze my hand weakly. "So does touch. I don't really know why."

I listened to Ali speak until she fell asleep and rested her body. I watched her and checked for any more bleeding before climbing up to where Lee sat, eyes on the road, and I sat in the passenger seat.

"How's she doing?" he asked me, breaking the silence.

"She's doing alright," I responded.

"She's responding really well to you," he suddenly said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, confused.

"By the sounds of it, she seems to have really connected with you," he answered. You know, it's my fault she was even created."

My eyes shot wide open in shock and confusion. "What?"

Lee nodded. "I was an intern at the time before I became a psychologist for the A.L.P.H.A. Project. My job was going to be to make sure they didn't go crazy or have a mental crisis on not being fully human or fully wolf, but they resigned me to the B.E.T.A.s instead later since they never made any more A.L.P.H.A.s. They wanted to experiment on the one they had, so I was never needed."

"So, how is it your fault?" I asked him.

Lee sighed. "Well, while interning, I was a coffee runner, and I was supposed to give the coffee to the scientists and researchers in the room with all the information on the A.L.P.H.A. project that day. However, I was standing just a little too close to Callen, who was pissed at the lack of progress, and he pushed me by accident, causing me to fall and spill all the coffee on the computers, deleting everything!"

"Who's Callen?" I interrupted.

"Callen is our lead scientist." Lee shifted in his seat as he continued. "However, I accidentally solved their missing piece, and the egg survived. Then A.L.P.H.A. 01 was born."

"Ali," I corrected. "Her name is Ali."

Lee gave me a silent nod as we continued down the road, the sun long gone now.

"What happened after that?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"I was scolded for bringing liquids into the computer room, but I didn't get into any real trouble. I was with A.L.P.H- Ali," he corrected himself, "when she was a young kid until I finished my training and was relocated to that other facility with the B.E.T.A.s."

"What was she like?" I asked.

"She was very curious and stubborn but ridiculously talented and smart. She loved art and could beat almost anyone at a chess game." Lee smiled at the memory. " She was a great kid. I missed her while I was away. It's pretty cool to see how much she's grown."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I suddenly asked. All the sensitive information that has to be confidential."

"Oh, it is," Lee responded with a humorous grin. "But I believe that the real people who are behind this project are wrong. No one should be forced into this like a lab rat. She's still human, even if she has something else mixed in."

A defect. Wait, did he say-

"What 'real people'?" I asked.

"I don't know too much since she's not my project, and I'm not a lead scientist or anything like that, but I know there's something a lot bigger going on here."

I leaned forward in my seat. "What do you mean by that? How do you know?"

"Ali is more than just a human-wolf hybrid. I was able to sneak a glance a long time ago that there's more going on than just stronger military machines. They were trying to do something that should have been impossible."

"But weren't they already doing that?" I asked, scratching my head at all the information.

"More or less," Lee responded with a shrug. "Rumors were going around with the other interns, and someone said they saw a better look at the real idea. She claimed they already had the wolf-human stuff figured out, but they were trying to give her some sort of magically based power."

"Magic? Like casting spells?"

"More like manipulation," he answered. "At least that's what's rumored."

"She hasn't done anything like that since I've been with her."

She would've probably told me about it back in the field when we were training together. Right?

"Maybe it hasn't developed yet. I think I saw someone researching sensitive information to become a 'trainer.' It could be that she's a domestic volcano ready to erupt. She just needs a little push."

But why would the DOA need someone like that? If it's truly to wipe out the rebels, they shouldn't need magical beasts—unless there's something else out there we don't know about.

"Are they coming after the rebels?" I asked with a yawn.

"Yes and no. You guys aren't the main target, but you're not safe either. It's safe to say they want every single one of you gone so they can have full control to fight whatever else is coming. We should go back and see if we can get our hands on the confidential information about the A.L.P.H.A. Project so we know what we're really getting into."

I nodded with another yawn. "Let's regroup at the rebel base not too far from here and get some recruits, then we'll go back. We'll finish talking about this in the morning with Ali. She needs to be in on this, too."

Lee nodded and agreed to drive us for a little longer while Ali and I slept. My heart sped up at the thought that I would get to talk to my mother and my friends again. But I can't let myself get my hopes too high since they might be unable to contact people from the outside. But I didn't fight it too much. What can I say? I am a dreamer.