▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱 ━︎━︎ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥/𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐍, 𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄, 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐄, John, and Artemis were all leaning against the wall right outside the room Graph was in. Marcos was standing in front of the door, watching the interaction with crossed arms. When they had been told Graph actually decided to help them, it came to a surprise as the entire group.

Marcos turned and walked towards the group. "He, uh, he told us the Inner Circle were looking at a mental facility in Bethesda."

John looked at him, an arm wrapped around Aphrodite's waist. "You talking about Lynwood?"

Lauren removed herself from the wall. "You know it?"

John nodded. "It's more prison than hospital. They declare mutants mentally unstable and detain them without trial."

Artemis let out a breath of surprise. "Sounds lovely."

"How is that legal?" Lauren asked.

"You just get a shrink to say that they're a danger to themselves or society. That's all they need." Clarice answered, looking at Lauren with a clenched jaw.

"And when she was young, a judge put Lorna into one of those hellholes." Marcos told them. "She had nightmares about it for years."

"We don't even know what they're doing in there." Lauren frowned, reaching for Artemis' hand who quickly gave it to her, interlacing their fingers.

"It's something damn important if you're gonna convince Lorna to set foot in a place like that."

The sound of Graph's cries made them pause before Clarice looked at Marcos. "Guess we'll find out soon enough."

Aphrodite glanced at Marcos and shrugged. "Maybe we don't interfere with this one." The group all looked at her. "If it's as awful as you say, maybe they'll burn the place to the ground."

Artemis hummed. "Yeah, that's true. Or maybe they're doing something bad. There's still people inside that building, mom."

Aphrodite looked at her daughter and said nothing, looking away. If she was being completely honest, she really didn't care what the Inner Circle was doing. Lorna and Andy had made their choice and they weren't coming back. She was sick and tired of fighting. She turned her head when Reed and Caitlin walked out, immediately telling them they had to move, that whatever was happening was happening right now.

They made their way outside and down the stairs, Caitlin staying behind with Graph. "They've cut off all communication. That's all we know so far." Reed told them. "Graph's gonna get into their security system. We'll let you know if he finds something."

Clarice snapped her head towards him. "Do we have a plan? I mean, other than just driving up to the hospital/prison thing and knocking on the door?"

"This is the best lead we've had in the last six months; I'm not letting it slip through our fingers." Marcos told her.

Aphrodite watched as Artemis walked out with Lauren, Caitlin following behind. "Art you staying or going?"

Artemis scoffed. "Going of course."

"Then hurry up." Aphrodite said, moving to the passengers seat in the car that John was driving. Artemis looked at Lauren, giving her a nod before getting into the car with Clarice and Marcos.

John had the window down, listening as Lauren tried to convince her parents to let her go because she and Andy had a connection. "We gotta move." John called. Caitlin nodded at Lauren in permission and she quickly got in the backseat with Artemis.

As they drove, John glanced at Aphrodite and immediately could tell something was wrong. He grabbed her hand. "What's wrong?"

Aphrodite glanced down at their hands, interlacing their fingers. She pressed a kiss to his hand before looking back out of the window. "Nothing's wrong, John."

"Aph. . ."

"Just drop it, please." She softly sighed. After a moment, he nodded.

When they pulled up, Reed immediately updated them over the walkie talkie. "It looks like the Inner Circle took over the facility. They took out the guards. They're rounding up staff."

"Where are they?" John asked.

"I-I can't tell. We're just tapping into random security feeds."

"Who's there?"

"Lorna, the Frosts. But there may be others there too."

"At least there's only one road in." John said, trying to be positive. He turned to look at Lauren, Marcos, and Artemis. "You three cover the front, make sure they can't get away. Clarice, Aph, and I will go in and look for them."

Marcos nodded. "We got this."

John stood there, closing his eyes and focusing. He opened his eyes again after a moment. "I can't get much, but most of the activity is on the east side." He pointed at a window for Clarice. "See the window there? If you can get us inside. . ." He pulled out an axe and Aphrodite rose her eyebrows in surprise, not recalling when he'd put that in his pocket. "When we cross, you keep your head down, you get to cover fast. Be ready for anything." He moved to stand in front of her, Aph beside him. Clarice opened the portal and the three jumped through.

Immediately Aphrodite hated the vibes, it sent chills down her spine. They walked down the halls, Aphrodite's hands at her side, being prepared for anything. It was eerily quiet and it made her all the more nervous. They came to a stop when a machine was thrown down sideways on the floor, fresh blood splattering the wall.

"What the hell?" Clarice whispered. They continued forwards. "Well, this is a lot more depressing than I imagined."

"The patients are all on lockdown." John said, looking into another room. "Most them look heavily sedated too."

"Did Lorna really spend time in a place like this?"

"Yeah." Aphrodite answered. "She was a teenager."

"It might have been for good, but someone made a call." John continued. "Word was, it was her birth father. But she was locked up long enough."

"Well, wherever she is, I'm sure she'd gonna be all kinds of triggered."

They continued walking, turning a corner before John stopped and knelt to the ground, pressing his palm against the floor. "They were taking prisoners." John stood. "Pushed everyone this way."

"Hate to bring up a touchy subject," Clarice started, "but when are we going to admit to ourselves that Andy and Lorna are the bad guys?" Aphrodite glanced at her but didn't say anything. She didn't like to think of Lorna as the bad guy, but if she was being honest with herself she knew that Clarice wasn't entirely wrong.

"Lorna has been with me since the beginning on the Mutant Underground." John replied.

"And now she's with them." They paused, coming across a bloodied hand print before continuing. "We have to be prepared. Evangeline said that you'll have to kill them. . ."

"I know what she said, alright?" John snapped.

"Okay, just listen, I'm on your side, okay?" Before Clarice could continue, the building shook, dust from the walls came falling down. "What was that?"

"It was some kind of blast. Doesn't sound like conventional explosives though."

Suddenly, Reed's voice came over the walkie talkie. "John, John, they know we're in the computer system. They know you're there." Immediately the trio began running.

"Hey, you've gotta give us something, alright?" John answered, still running.

"I think they're down in the basement. In the maximum security area."

They came to a stop, looking around the corner to see a door propped open with a fallen over chair. Clarice let out a breath. "This just keeps getting better and better." They quickly made it to the stairs, going farther down until they made it to the basement level.

"Alright, we're in the basement. Which way are they?" John asked Reed on the walkie.

"The high security area's up ahead. We'll get you through that door." They stood there for a moment before the lock clicked and the light turned green. They quickly pushed through the door and ran forwards. "And now there's a second door up ahead. They're in the wing just beyond that." They pushed through the second door, coming to a stop when they saw Andy, Lorna, and someone else up ahead.

John took a step forwards. "Wait."

Aphrodite stopped him. "John. What are you going to do if you catch them?"

"We can't just let them leave. Lorna! Lorna!" For a moment there was nothing, and then a figure appeared in the doorway. Lorna stood there, looking at the three and saying nothing. "I know that it must hurt being here. But just talk to us!"

Lorna cocked her head and the locks containing the prisoners begin to shake. "Oh, this is bad." Clarice whispered. Lorna pulled her hands forwards and the doors came flying off the hinges, letting all of the prisoners out. One of them let out the scream of a banshee and Aphrodite covered her ears before letting her hands drop. The prisoners ran around wildly and Lorna walked away.

"We gotta move!" They ran forwards only to stop when one of the prisoners hands went through the wall, ripping out a metal bar and chucking into another prisoner.

"Wait, they're killing each other." Clarice said with widened eyes.

"Andy and Lorna are right there." John urged.

"We can't just leave these people here." Clarice shot back.

John let out a loud groan of annoyance. "Alright. Open a portal, we'll get 'em out." They started trying to get the patients through the portal and Aphrodite was getting annoyed quickly.

Marcos' voice came over the walkie. "John! Where are you? What's going on in there?"

"The patients are tearing the place apart, man. We're trying to save the ones we can." When they got out many of them, they decided they would take all of the injured ones with them. John grabbed the walkie, updating Reed. "All hell's breaking loose. Cops are gonna be here soon. We're taking as many of the injured as we can."

"What about Andy?"

"Uh, they got away. They took at least one patient with them, we couldn't stop them."

"How?" Caitlin's outraged voice came over the radio. "You were right there. You were practically on top of them!"

"People were gonna die, Caitlin, alright? We did everything we could." He turned his head to see Marcos carrying a knocked out Lauren―︎an incident that had happened due to her trying to stop the car from leaving causing Andy to step out and knock her back. Artemis was following behind, blood dripping down her harm from a rough scratch and a hand pressed against her head. She was lucky she hadn't been knocked out too. "Right now, we have other issues to deal with." He opened the door and Marcos put Lauren in the backseat. "I've got some bad news."

"Bad news?" Caitlin asked. "What do you mean? What else could be. . ."

"It's Lauren. She got hit pretty hard. She's unconscious. I'm sorry. It was Andy."

Aphrodite ran up to her daughter after dealing with the patients. "Baby, are you okay?"

Artemis forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. Might have a concussion though."

Aphrodite gently grabbed onto her, turning to look at the back of her head. It was just dried blood now. Aphrodite closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright." She pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Go on." She nodded towards the car Lauren was now laying in and Artemis didn't hesitate to get on the other side, placing Lauren's head in her lap. They all got into the two cars and quickly drove away before the cops could show up.