The rain had started before dawn.
It was not heavy.
Enough to darken the asphalt and leave small droplets hanging from the complex’s railings.
Daniel passed through the access checkpoint.
For the first time, he was not wearing the provisional vest over sportswear.
He was wearing his unit’s uniform.
Dark.
Functional.
Light protection.
The A.E.E. emblem on his chest.
And below:
U.A.O. — CANDIDATE
It was not operational authorisation.
Not yet.
But he no longer looked like someone who had come in by accident.
Two short A.R.E. blades rested on either side of his waist.
Models assigned for training.
One on each side.
They still belonged to the A.E.E.
They were still restricted to training.
Daniel rested a hand on one of the grips.
“Don’t get excited.”
He looked up.
Melisa waited by the entrance.
She was wearing the U.A.O. uniform too.
Same base.
Different configuration.
Several compact pouches lined her belt.
Medical supplies.
Radio.
Tools.
She wore an A.R.E. support module on her left forearm.
It did not look like a weapon.
It looked exactly like something Melisa would have chosen.
Something useful.
Daniel checked the time.
Then looked at her.
“I’m not going to ask.”
“Good.”
“But I want you to know I’m thinking about asking.”
Melisa adjusted a pouch.
“Nineteen minutes.”
Daniel smiled.
“You’re improving.”
“Shut up.”
They went in.
The main screen showed a single word.
INTEGRATION
Below:
MIXED RESPONSE UNITS
Daniel stopped.
“That’s new.”
“Everything here is new.”
“Good point.”
“Thank you.”
An instructor walked past them.
“Room four.”
Daniel pointed to the screen.
“What does ‘mixed units’ mean?”
The man kept walking.
“That you’re going to stop training as though nobody else exists.”
Daniel looked at Melisa.
“That sounds bad.”
“For you, definitely.”
Five names appeared on the screen.
DANIEL RODRÍGUEZ — U.A.O.
MELISA — U.A.O.
ALYRA — NE-05
ISKANDER — NE-05
XENYA — VO-07
The door opened.
Alyra came in first.
Her uniform followed the A.E.E.’s basic design, but the details immediately identified her House.
NE-05 — NEREA
She carried an elongated A.R.E. on her back.
Shorter than a conventional spear.
Designed to accompany precise movements and keep a distance.
Iskander appeared behind her.
Same code.
Completely different configuration.
NE-05 — NEREA
A compact A.R.E. shield covered part of his forearm.
A one-handed sword rested at his waist.
Daniel looked at the shield.
Iskander saw him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re looking.”
“It’s big.”
“It has to be.”
Alyra walked between them.
“He’s been delighted with it all morning.”
“I’m not delighted.”
“You’ve cleaned it twice.”
“It was wet.”
“Inside the building.”
Iskander fell silent.
Daniel smiled.
“I like this one.”
Alyra looked at Daniel.
“The one with the exits.”
“The one with the water.”
“I have a name.”
“So do I.”
Iskander sighed.
“Not again.”
The door opened again.
Xenya came in.
Daniel looked at her weapons first.
Two A.R.E. daggers.
One on each side.
Conductors ran along part of the grips.
Voltris details ran through her uniform.
VO-07 — VOLTRIS
Xenya saw Daniel’s two blades.
Then looked at her daggers.
“Two.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Two.”
“Copycat.”
“I picked them up before I met you.”
“So you say.”
Iskander pointed to the clock.
“You’re late.”
Xenya looked.
“One minute.”
“Late.”
“Do you want me to come in again?”
Alyra closed her eyes.
“Please don’t start.”
Xenya then noticed Daniel and Melisa.
U.A.O.
“Two?”
Melisa answered:
“Looks like it.”
Xenya shrugged.
“As long as you can keep up with us.”
Iskander stopped smiling.
“We haven’t started yet.”
Xenya looked at him.
“Exactly.”
“Excellent.”
Everyone turned.
The instructor stood behind them.
“You already dislike each other.”
Silence.
“That saves us the first hour.”
The instructor slowly looked over the group.
Looked at Xenya’s daggers.
Alyra’s weapon.
Iskander’s sword and shield.
Daniel’s two blades.
Finally, Melisa’s module.
“Everything you’re carrying is assigned for training.”
He stopped.
“Being given a uniform doesn’t mean you’re ready for a real operation.”
He looked at the A.R.E.
“And being able to use this here doesn’t mean you’re authorised to use it outside.”
Xenya rested a hand on a dagger.
“Yet.”
The instructor looked at her.
“Exactly.”
A pause.
“Yet.”
The screen changed.
OBJECTIVE: LOCATE / STABILISE / EVACUATE
“Until now, you’ve trained your abilities.”
He pointed to the five names.
“Today, you’ll practise your roles.”
A map appeared.
“Simulated urban area. Unknown incident. Limited communications.”
Xenya:
“Threats?”
“Unknown.”
Alyra:
“Casualties?”
“Unknown.”
Melisa:
“Structural condition?”
“Unknown.”
Daniel:
“What do we know?”
The instructor opened the door.
“Where it starts.”
A stopwatch appeared.
20:00
“And how much time you have.”
19:59
Xenya went out first.
Iskander behind her.
Daniel looked at Melisa.
“I think we already have a leader.”
Iskander’s voice came from the corridor.
“No.”
The first argument took less than three minutes.
Two routes.
One short.
Another longer, with two secondary exits.
Xenya pointed to the first.
“That one.”
Iskander pointed to the second.
“That one.”
“Four minutes longer.”
“Two exits.”
Melisa checked the plan on her forearm module.
“There’s a substation on the short one.”
Xenya smiled.
“Electricity.”
Iskander looked at her.
“Of course that reassures you.”
“Quite a lot.”
Daniel studied the map.
“Long.”
Xenya looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because if something happens on the short one, four of us depend on you.”
Xenya’s smile faded slightly.
Alyra nodded.
“Long.”
Iskander:
“Long.”
Melisa:
“Long.”
Xenya looked at everyone.
“Democracy.”
Daniel smiled.
“How lovely.”
Xenya started walking.
“When we lose because we run out of time, I’ll remind you.”
She did.
“Two minutes thirty-eight.”
Daniel breathed.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
They reached the building.
Melisa raised a hand.
Everyone stopped.
A red mark on the frame.
STRUCTURAL RISK
Daniel looked up.
A crack ran through part of the structure.
Iskander studied it.
“With water, I could reinforce it.”
Alyra looked around.
“There’s no supply.”
Xenya drew one of her daggers.
A discharge briefly ran along the conductor.
“Then we open another way in.”
The instructor was not there to stop her.
Daniel looked at the wall.
Then at the dagger.
“Why?”
Xenya looked at him.
“Because I can.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Xenya frowned.
“We can waste ten minutes looking for another entrance, or I can open one.”
Alyra examined the wall.
“And we don’t know what it supports.”
Xenya looked at her again.
Alyra pointed to the crack.
“If you cut there without knowing what load it carries, you could turn a bad entrance into no entrance.”
Xenya looked at her dagger.
Then at the wall.
The discharge vanished.
She put the weapon away.
“All right.”
Iskander smiled.
Xenya pointed at him.
“Not a word.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
Melisa was already crouching.
“Here.”
A box at the side.
Shoring equipment.
Daniel went over.
“That’ll work.”
Xenya looked at the stopwatch.
“We’re losing time.”
A dull thud echoed inside.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Everyone looked up.
Xenya stayed silent.
Daniel looked at her.
“I’m not going to say anything either.”
“You’d better not.”
First casualty.
Conscious.
Leg trapped.
Alyra crouched.
“Hello. I’m Alyra. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Melisa checked the leg.
Daniel looked at their surroundings.
Iskander deployed the shield.
Not to fight.
He wedged it beneath an unstable piece.
“It isn’t made for that,” Alyra said.
“It is now.”
“If you break it…”
“It holds.”
Alyra rolled her eyes.
Xenya looked towards a corridor.
“There’s another room.”
“Wait,” Melisa said.
“There are more casualties.”
“We don’t know how many.”
Xenya started forward.
Daniel raised a radio.
“Xenya.”
She turned.
“I’m going to look.”
Daniel threw her a second radio.
Xenya caught it.
“Channel two.”
“I don’t need permission to look down a corridor.”
“No.”
Daniel pointed to the radio.
“But we need to know where you are.”
Xenya looked at him.
“Thirty seconds.”
“Twenty.”
“Twenty-five.”
“All right.”
She disappeared.
Iskander shook his head.
“She’ll do what she wants.”
Alyra was still tending to the casualty.
“You’re not exactly easy either.”
“I listen.”
Alyra looked up.
“When it suits you.”
Melisa smiled.
“That’s still listening,” Iskander said.
“I’ve got two.”
Xenya’s voice came over the radio.
Daniel answered.
“Condition.”
“One conscious. One not.”
“Risks.”
Silence.
“Xenya.”
“I’m looking.”
A pause.
“Wiring on the floor.”
Melisa checked her module immediately.
Electrical plan.
Sector C.
An indicator began flashing.
“Wait.”
Daniel looked at her.
Melisa zoomed in.
“It isn’t just the substation.”
“What?”
“The emergency system shares part of the installation.”
Xenya:
“Is that bad?”
Melisa kept reading.
“If they activate evacuation, some doors will close automatically.”
Daniel:
“How much time?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Xenya:
“Perfect.”
Daniel:
“Don’t touch anything.”
“I know how electricity works.”
“Exactly.”
“Very funny.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
When they reached the second sector, Xenya was crouching beside the unconscious casualty.
She had not touched the wiring.
Iskander saw it.
Xenya saw that he had.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
Alyra looked up.
“That’s mine.”
“You can’t register a phrase.”
Daniel:
“I’m sure there’s a form at the A.E.E.”
Melisa:
“Three copies.”
Xenya laughed.
“All right.”
She pointed to the casualty.
“Can we get him out before she finds the form?”
The alarm began during the third extraction.
Red lights.
IMMEDIATE EVACUATION
One last casualty remained at the far end.
Xenya started moving.
Daniel:
“Wait.”
She kept going.
Melisa looked at her module.
Her expression changed.
“Stop!”
Xenya stopped.
Everyone looked at Melisa.
“The general alarm doesn’t control that door.”
She pointed to the corridor.
“It has an independent timer.”
Daniel looked at the panel.
“How long?”
Melisa moved through screens.
“I’m looking.”
The casualty shouted.
“Help!”
Xenya looked towards him.
“I’m going.”
“Wait,” Iskander said.
“No.”
“Xenya.”
“I’m not leaving him there.”
Daniel watched her.
There was no defiance in her voice.
Not this time.
Melisa looked up.
“Twenty-two seconds!”
Everyone turned.
“Are you sure?” Daniel asked.
“Twenty-one.”
Xenya readied herself.
Daniel looked at the door.
“We need to slow it down.”
Iskander looked at the mechanism.
“I can freeze it.”
Alyra shook her head.
“You don’t have enough water.”
Iskander looked at her.
Alyra had already found a pipe at the side.
“But I can give you some.”
She ran towards the valve.
Iskander smiled.
“How much?”
“As much as you need if you stop trying to do everything yourself.”
“Eighteen,” Melisa said.
Daniel looked at the three of them.
Melisa had found the time.
Alyra had found the resource.
Iskander knew how to use it.
Daniel looked at Xenya.
“You come back when I tell you.”
She frowned.
“Daniel…”
“Or you don’t go.”
“Sixteen.”
Xenya clenched her jaw.
Looked at the casualty.
Then at Daniel.
“All right.”
Daniel breathed.
He had not solved the problem.
He only had to make the solutions happen together.
“Now.”
Xenya went.
“Fourteen!”
Alyra opened the supply.
Water came out.
But it did not go straight to Iskander.
Alyra extended her A.R.E.
Turned.
The flow changed direction.
A clean curve.
Then another.
The water reached the mechanism exactly.
“Now,” Alyra said.
Iskander closed his hand.
Ice.
The door began to descend.
“Eleven!”
Xenya reached the casualty.
Released the fastening.
“Nine!”
The ice took the impact.
CRACK.
“It won’t hold!” Iskander shouted.
Alyra corrected the flow.
“You don’t need it to hold! Just to delay it!”
“Eight!”
Xenya lifted the dummy.
“This is ridiculously heavy!”
“Seven!”
Daniel looked at the door.
“Xenya, come back!”
She ran.
“Five!”
The ice fractured.
“More!” Iskander shouted.
“If I give you more, I lose the flow!”
“Four!”
Xenya was still too far away.
Daniel took a step.
Melisa grabbed his uniform.
“No.”
Daniel turned.
“I wasn’t going to…”
“Yes, you were.”
“Three!”
Xenya pushed the dummy.
Daniel and Iskander caught it.
“Two!”
Xenya threw herself forward.
The door fell.
THUD.
Silence.
Xenya lay on her back.
Breathing.
Daniel looked at her.
“Twenty-five seconds.”
It took Xenya a moment to understand.
Then she started laughing.
“Idiot.”
Melisa looked at her module.
“For the record, it was twenty-one.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Let me have this.”
“No.”
Alyra was still holding her A.R.E.
Iskander looked at the broken ice.
Then at her.
“Good flow.”
Alyra breathed.
“Good ice.”
A pause.
“Don’t get used to it.”
The instructor waited for them.
“Objective completed.”
Xenya smiled.
“Good.”
“Over time.”
The smile vanished.
“Two minutes and eleven seconds.”
Daniel:
“Less good.”
“Two unsafe decisions.”
He looked at Xenya.
“One unnecessary use of an A.R.E.”
Xenya did not answer.
“One unnecessary argument.”
He looked at Iskander.
Alyra raised an eyebrow.
“Only one?”
“I can hear you,” Iskander said.
“And a final improvisation.”
A pause.
“That worked.”
Xenya folded her arms.
“So…”
“Here.”
She fell silent.
“That’s the danger of something working once.”
The instructor looked along the group.
“It makes you think you know how to do it.”
He pointed to Melisa.
“Good reading of the system.”
Melisa nodded.
“Alyra. Good adaptation of a resource.”
“Iskander. Good containment. Excessive at first.”
Iskander accepted it.
Then Daniel.
“You didn’t solve the problem.”
Daniel waited.
“They did.”
Daniel looked at the others.
“You made the solutions happen together.”
A pause.
“Don’t confuse the two.”
Daniel nodded.
“No.”
Finally, Xenya.
“And you got there.”
She smiled slightly.
“But if any of the other four had failed, you wouldn’t have come back.”
The smile vanished.
“Individually, you have useful things.”
He looked at all five.
“Together, you’re still a problem.”
Alyra:
“Again tomorrow?”
“The day after.”
Xenya:
“Why?”
“Tomorrow you train separately.”
Iskander:
“And after that?”
The instructor opened the door.
“After that, we’ll see whether five people can stop behaving like five people.”
Xenya sat outside.
The two A.R.E. daggers rested at her waist.
She turned a bottle in her hands.
Daniel came out.
His two blades were back on either side.
“You can sit down,” she said.
“I hadn’t asked.”
“You were thinking about it.”
Daniel sat down.
Silence.
“I’d have got there.”
“You did get there.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Daniel understood.
“Alone.”
“Yes.”
Daniel thought.
“Maybe.”
Xenya looked at him.
“Maybe?”
“Maybe you’d have got there.”
“Then why did you stop me?”
Daniel looked ahead.
“Because you weren’t alone.”
Xenya stopped turning the bottle.
“If you’re alone and want to risk yourself, that’s your business.”
Daniel looked at her.
“If there are five of us, you’re risking us too.”
Silence.
“You’re such a pain.”
“I get told that a lot.”
Daniel stood up.
Took two steps.
Stopped.
“But you went to get him.”
“He was a dummy.”
“You didn’t treat him like one.”
Xenya opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
For the first time since Daniel had met her, she had no answer ready.
Daniel did not ask.
He left.
Xenya looked down at the bottle.
Her fingers stopped turning it.
“Does anyone want this?”
Daniel put his cup on the table.
The other four looked at him.
Xenya pointed to the liquid.
“What is it?”
“Supposedly coffee.”
Iskander picked it up.
Alyra’s eyes widened.
“No.”
Iskander drank.
Silence.
He put down the cup.
“It isn’t coffee.”
Daniel pointed.
“Thank you.”
Melisa sat on the other side, organising her equipment.
Xenya watched her.
“Are you labelling that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Melisa lifted a bag.
“Gauze.”
“I can see it’s gauze.”
Melisa stuck on the label.
GAUZE
“Now you can read it too.”
Xenya looked at her.
Daniel started laughing.
So did Alyra.
Xenya pointed to Melisa.
“I’m starting to understand you.”
“I don’t think so.”
Iskander picked up one of the bags.
Melisa looked up.
“Put it down.”
“I’m only looking.”
“Put it down.”
Iskander put it exactly where it had been.
Xenya smiled.
“The man with the shield is afraid.”
“Respect.”
“Fear.”
Alyra looked at Iskander.
“For once, listen to her.”
Iskander pointed to Xenya.
“Her?”
“Melisa.”
“Oh.”
“Yes.”
Xenya opened a snack bar.
“By the way, I’m going to win tomorrow.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Against who?”
Xenya took a bite.
Thought.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
Alyra shook her head.
Daniel smiled.
For a few minutes, nobody spoke about Ether.
Or tests.
Or the Altered.
They were simply there.
Five people around a table.
They were not a team yet.
But they were beginning to know each other.
Later, Melisa found Daniel by the exit.
“I don’t dislike Xenya.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s become quite clear.”
“I thought I would.”
“That’s still very specific.”
“She’s intense.”
“Yes.”
“So is Iskander.”
“Yes.”
“Alyra less so.”
Daniel looked towards the table they had just left.
“Give her time.”
Melisa smiled.
“Do you think they’ll put us together again?”
Daniel looked at his two blades.
Then at the module on Melisa’s forearm.
In the distance, Xenya was arguing with Iskander.
Alyra stood between them.
Again.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel raised the cup of supposed coffee.
“Because we’ve been a disaster.”
Melisa waited.
“And they seem to enjoy fixing things here.”
Several kilometres away, nobody knew their names.
There was a map on a table.
Three incidents.
Then four.
Then five.
The researcher added the latest.
“They don’t form a line.”
“No.”
“So they aren’t following a route.”
She zoomed in.
Roads.
Forests.
Watercourses.
Urban areas.
Times.
The technician leaned closer.
“Wait.”
First record.
Second.
Third.
Fourth.
“They go around areas.”
“Yes.”
“And then move closer again.”
“Yes.”
“To what?”
The researcher studied the map.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The door opened.
An officer placed photographs on the table.
“New report.”
“Attack?”
“No.”
“Injuries?”
“No.”
Damp earth.
The remains of prey.
Tracks.
Many.
“Blood?”
“Only from the prey.”
“Signs of fighting between them?”
“None.”
Another photograph.
The canids had taken different positions around the remains.
Not perfectly.
But not chaotically either.
The researcher changed the image.
One area remained almost clear.
The technician pointed.
“Why doesn’t any of them go in there?”
“We don’t know.”
They zoomed in.
There were partial marks in the mud.
Incomplete.
Too distorted to reconstruct a track.
“Another animal?”
“Maybe.”
“Size?”
The researcher shook her head.
“Not from this.”
Another image.
The smaller tracks reached a certain point.
Then veered away.
None crossed the central space.
The technician looked at the map.
Then the photographs.
“Are they gathering?”
The researcher stayed silent.
“No.”
“What, then?”
Before answering, she opened the last photograph.
A sequence of tracks left the area.
Several.
All in the same direction.
The technician enlarged the image.
“Wait.”
The marks from the central space did not begin beside them.
They began a few metres further on.
The technician looked up.
“The others left first.”
The researcher studied the photograph.
“Yes.”
“And that?”
He looked at the incomplete marks.
Then at the tracks that seemed to have gone ahead.
It took the researcher a few seconds to answer.
“It followed behind.”
Silence.
She returned to the map.
To the distances.
To the positions.
To that space none of the other animals seemed to have crossed.
“They aren’t gathering.”
The technician waited.
The researcher looked up.
“They’re organising.”
CUT TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 16 — INTEGRATION