Helen sighed into her glass
of wine as she watched her old coworkers empty out the room that was once her
livelihood. “That’s what happens when you get fired though…” she told herself
as she took another sip of wine. Part of her heart broke at the loss of a job
she truly loved, but her broken heart was occupied by the loss of both her
daughter and her husband. Morrigan had disappeared the day she tried to escape
the city with Torvil, whereas James had been arrested for aiding and abetting
terrorist activity. At least, that is what the official reports said.

Helen only wanted to speak
to James though; however, according to Jennifer , any one who aided terrorism
got labeled a terrorist and a traitor. Which, by rule of thumb, Jen was now a
traitorous terrorist as well. That meant James, Rigo and Jen all lost their
civilian rights; they were now seen as animals merely to be put down.

Helen smirked sadly at the
thought, “if anyone were to turn terrorist, it was certainly Jen.” Her obscure,
psychotic and endearing relationship with the woman took a bit of the sting out
of the situation as she watched the last of her computer equipment being
carried out to the SUV the agents arrived in.

The agent who had been dealing
with her stood across the island stoically, waiting for her attention to divert
to him. Helen polished off the rest of her wine with an eye-roll. As she set
the glass down she glared at him, her eyes demanding him to make his request
already. The man dipped his chin in discomfort, “your phone ma’am.” Though she
made no notion of it, panic settled in her spine for a moment before she
remembered that the Federation gave her a work phone and was technically
Federation property.

She cracked an smile as she
bobbed her head in understanding, “ah, right.” Helen turned and reached into a
drawer next to the sink. She nonchalantly tossed the cellphone over her
shoulder. She heard the agent catch the phone behind her and grunted. A small
smile creeped across her face as she knew he saw the screen was cracked so
badly that it looked like a spider’s nest as well as the metal backing
protruding outwards. In a fit of anger she had smashed the phone repeatedly
against the edge of the counter upon her umpteenth time being told she was not
allowed to speak to her husband or know the status of his pending trial.

The agent hummed
inquisitively rather than openly question the condition of the phone as the
rest of his retinue stepped back into the kitchen and living room. Helen snorted
as she leaned over the sink, “I got fed up with not getting answers about my
husband.”

“There is still the matter
of… the access point Mrs. Clarke,” the man said reluctantly. She could hear the
remorse in his voice and the simmering fury she kept under lock and key began
to dwindle.

Helen hung her head with a
heavy sigh. As much as she wanted to take her frustration out on them, she knew
it was not fair. Her qualms were with the higher tier of agency within the
Federation, not the men and women who did all the foot work. “Upstairs… second
door on the left, on the dresser.”

The third agent made his way
back into the fold from her bedroom, carrying the router underneath his arm.
The three men gave Helen a long salute in silent respect for their now former
colleague. For Helen it was bittersweet. She no longer had ties to the
Federation that tore her family apart, but at the same time she lost her
network of distant work family.

As she lifted her arm to
return their respect, a ringtone from a phone chimed through the silence,
followed by the thud of movement. Helen’s eyes widened as she froze, watching
one agent spin with a pistol drawn and the other agent dropped the router on
the ground to mimic his partner. The agent who had been the one to speak her
watched her intently as the sound of movement ended as the ringtone of Helen's
secret phone silenced. His expression told her that he had read her reaction
correctly; she was hiding something.

Both of the agents moved
closer to the wall underneath the stairs, close enough to notice the nearly
seamless door built into the wall. “Sir, hidden room!” one of the agents called
out before moving directly in front of the door.

The man pointed at Helen,
silently demanding her to not move as he drew his service pistol. He stepped
over to her right to keep both her and the door within his peripheral before
ordering them to open the secret room. The agent in front of the door looked at
his partner to his right who held up a flashlight underneath his pistol and
nodded before fumbling with the door trying to figure out how to open it. Helen
kept the half of her that could be seen frozen as she inched her left arm
towards the butcher’s block next to her.

The agent finally gave up
trying to pry the door open with his fingernails when he heard more movement
within the room. His next attempt was to push on the wall which sunk in
slightly before gently springing back an inch. With another nod to his partner,
he gripped the edge of the wall as they readied themselves for whatever was
inside.

Everything happened
simultaneously. As the agent pulled the door open, a large blade flew out from
the opening space to impale the agent to the right of the door. The door
continued to forcefully open as Jen slammed the door into the agent who let out
a surprised yelp. Torvil took advantage of his surprise blade, tackling the
agent he stabbed to the ground and wretched the blade from the man’s stomach
and driving it upwards into the man’s chest. Jen had slammed the hidden door into
the other agent, throwing him into the wall behind him as she drew her own
knife and repeatedly stabbed the man in the chest before he could recover or
squeeze a round off at either of them.

As Jen and Torvil’s assault
happened, Helen swiped a kitchen knife from the butcher’s block and adeptly
tossed it into her right hand. Before the agent next to her could react, she
drove the blade backwards into his stomach doubling him over. Using her free
hand, she gripped his hair and yanked his head up enough to expose his neck as
she pulled her knife from his abdomen and skillfully drew her arm back. As the
edge sliced through flesh, arterial blood splashed across her arm and dress.
Helen watched the man collapse and struggle to breath as he bled out in
seconds, his fading gaze set on her gore covered visage.

Everyone let out a stressed
breath as the panic settled. Helen looked down her side and arm, the bloody
knife dripping blood onto the floor. “God damn it…” she said with restrained
anxiety as she tossed the bloody weapon into the sink and began scrubbing her
hand and arm. Torvil let out a vexed sigh as he straddled the body of the dead
agent he killed and pulled out Helen’s cellphone.

Redialing the number, he
started his simmering rant, “that was the worst possible time for you to call. Arag
m’aen chwaeda! We now have three dead Federation operatives and it’s only a
matter of time until…” Torvil trailed off as heard his sister’s choked breath
over the line. “Mo'Emori… what is wrong?”

“Chwaeda?” he asked again as
he heard his younger sister begin to sob on the other end. His worried glanced
shifted to Jen as she shifted next to him and tried to listen. Torvil switched
the call to speaker phone and Mo’Emori's sobs echoed through the silent house.
Torvil looked between Jen and Helen, his face twisted into uncomfortable
uncertainty as Mo'Emori’s unintelligible effort to say something came over the
speaker. He had never heard his sister under such emotional turmoil and had no
idea what to do about it. Anger he could handle, but he has never heard his
sister so sad.

Hearing the suspected young
woman's cries caused Helen’s maternal instincts to kick in. Stepping across the
kitchen she firmly grabbed the phone out of Torvil’s hand and took a seat at
the kitchen island as she set the phone on its surface. Jen immediately
followed leaving Torvil in his confused stupor. “Mo’Emori sweetie, its Helen,
Morrigan's mom,” she announced in the way of a concerned mother. She could hear
the Eskarii’s crying break at the recognition of who she was.

“No…my brawder… I need…” Mo'Emori
tried to conjugate through her broken sobs. Helen glanced at Torvil to see him
urging her to continue talking to his sister as he stepped over the body
towards the island, returning his knife to its sheath.

“Your brother is here honey.
You’re on speaker. Just take a deep breath and tell us what’s going on.”

“I-I'm s-sorry…” she
responded before taking several deep breaths to try and rein in her emotions.

“Yes, tell us who has done
wrong and I will hunt them down my chwaeda,” Torvil affirmed. They could hear a
choked smile between breaths from Mo’Emori. His sister had always appreciated
her brother’s overprotectiveness and it even made Jen and Helen smile as well.

“I was so close… so close to
finding your husband Mrs. Clarke… so close but…then we lost a relay and… I
just…” she started after a final deep breath only for the emotions to come
flooding back. Her words were strained and only trailed off into formless noise
as her tears began to fall again.

Helen's heart ached at that.
Not only to have lost the opportunity to find James but to also hear the
emotional toll it took on a woman she had only heard about from her daughter.
With how often Morrigan spoke of the Eskarii, Helen felt more akin to her than
she had expected. She could hear the effort Mo’Emori poured into helping her
family even though the woman owed them nothing. “It’s okay sweetie, I
understand. These things happen but I want you to know how much I appreciate
your effort.”

Mo’Emori sniffled, “Mrs.
Clarke I…“ However, Helen cut her off.

“Please, call me Helen. With
how often Morrigan spoke of you, you may as well be family,” Helen said
heartily to try and raise the woman's emotions. Torvil scoffed which earned him
a smack from Jen.

“Why did you hit me?” he
asked. Jen merely raised her eyebrow challenging him to reconsider being
offended.

“Your brother seems to not
like that notion,” Helen said with a laugh, steering the conversation to a
lighter tone.

Helen smiled as she heard
the girl chuckle lightly through a sniffle. “Torvil will have to get over it,”
she stated in slight amusement.

Torvil snorted at that which
earned him consecutive slaps from Jen. “Stop bein such a dick and let your
sister have more family!” Jen playfully scolded him.

“Who is that?” Mo'Emori
asked. Her curiosity pulling her out of her sadness.

“That's Jen, essentially
Mori’s aunt,” Helen answered.

“Hey girlie! She’s right,
I’m the crazy aunt and also uh…” she paused briefly to eye Torvil, “friends,
with your brother.” Jen may have been impulsive and did not believe in
boundaries however, she knew better than to mention that her and Torvil had
been sleeping with each other on the first meeting. Common courtesy and all.

Mo'Emori snorted at that, “my
brawder doesn’t do friends.”

“Hey!” Torvil exclaimed in
defense.

“Torvil… Ti eichun sylfaen
un cy’mar?” Mo'Emori asked in their native tongue.

Helen and Jen watched as
Torvil turned various shades of pink and red. “Y’no am dim’nyr chi’n syr’ad,
nid ddim chi’n syr’ad h’yn yn!” He responded rapidly. Jen shot Helen an amused
smirk when she saw Helen grin mischievously.

“You know I understood most
of that right?” Helen asked. Part of her job had been translating Eskarii intel
which gave her enough experience to pick up the gist of the language.

“Pah’sk…” Torvil cursed in
defeat as all three women began laughing.

“It is lovely to meet you
Jen, I hope my brawder has behaved himself,” Mo'Emori said genuinely.

Jen only laughed at that
aware of the slight heat to her cheeks. “Don’t worry…I make sure to keep him in
line!” Jen could not help but stir up a little trouble. It was her nature after
all. Helen laughed as Torvil rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath at
how all the females in his life were against him.

“I'm sure we will have plenty
of stories to share when we all meet officially. Between me and Jen you will
get loads of stories about Morrigan as well.”

The mention of a chance to
hear about Morrigan sent Mo’Emori into a spiral of sadness. “I would like…” her
voice broke as the tears came back stronger. “I can’t…I’m so sorry!” She
exclaimed before bursting into tears.

The sudden shift in emotions
shocked all three of them as they looked at each other in surprise. There was a
subtle fear began to rise in Helen as she tried for focus on the Eskarii woman
bawling her eyes out over the phone.

“What do you mean hun…”

However, Torvil took the
lead as he watched everyone’s emotions shift negatively. “Mo'Emori, what is
going on?” he demanded.

Despite her struggle, his
sister forced herself to reply. “I can’t, I have not stopped looking for Mori!
I have not…been able to find her…oh Mori…I’m so sorry!” Jen looked sullen by
that while Helen cover her mouth trying to stem her own emotions, a single tear
rolling down her cheek as they listened to Torvil’s sister breakdown in
guilt-leaden despair over not being able to find Morrigan.

“Do not shed tears chwaeda,
I am quite sure the young swyn’wyr is fine,” Torvil stated firmly. Both ladies
looked at him as he listened to his sister intently. “She is resourceful and
strong willed. There is no reason to worry for her well being.”

“He’s right. Mori is a
little bad ass,” Jen chimed in as she perked up. “I can guarantee she’s giving
everybody the most difficult time and kicking ass no matter where she is.”
Pride resonated in her words.

A small chuckle slipped from
both Helen and Mo’Emori at Jen’s words. “They’re right, my daughter is not one
to fall to her knees in the face of danger or shy away for any hardship. It
will come down to whether we find her first or she finds us. So please don’t be
so hard on yourself honey,” Helen told the young Eskarii.

“Okay…thank you,” Mo’Emori
said softly. It was the first time Helen picked up the exhaustion in her voice.

“Sweetie, when is the last
time you slept?” she inquired.

“I… I’m not sure.”
Mo’Emori’s voice carrying the weight of endless days of nonstop searching. By
Jen and Torvil’s frowns, Helen could see they picked up on it as well.

“Listen hun, you need to go and
get some rest. Being up this long isn’t good for you,” Helen said, letting her
motherly tone seep through.

“But…”

“No buts missy, I don’t
think you understand how upset Mori would be if she knew you weren’t taking
care of yourself, ” she said before looking around the kitchen in thought. Jen
and Torvil watched her with quirked eyebrows as she scrutinized the bodies
around them as well as doing some quick mental calculations before she
continued, “why don’t you give me your address then hop off for some well
deserved sleep?”

Helen smiled about her plan,
“Yes hun. We’re compromised here so you can spend the next day getting sleep
and rest, so when we get there we can all work together and see who we can
find.” Jen looked shocked as her friend gave her an affirmative nod while
Torvil gave Helen a smirk of approval.

There was a momentary pause
as Mo’Emori’s mind caught up with what was said. “Okay mem,” she said through
an amused yawn before the tapping of her nails on her phone screen. Helen and
Jen heard the Eskarii say ma’am however, Torvil heard what his sister really
said which caught him in a surprised, choking cough that earned him questioning
glances.

Mo’Emori's short chuckle
could be heard in the background as Torvil hissed his displeasure, “chi'ä!”

“Yes chwaeda?”

“Behave yourself!” She
exclaimed in tired excitement before ending the call. Torvil clicked his tongue
and shook his head. Jen on the other hand, started laughing heartily.

“She's a brat, I like her
already!”

Helen merely smiled sweetly
at him. After a second to think about it, it registered in his brain. “Ah, no
greater wisdom than that of a mother.”

“Oh look, I found myself a
smart one!” Jen snickered.

Helen nodded and stepped off
the stool. “You two start packing whatever you think we need in the next 24
hours, I’m going to try and get us a ride,” she ordered. Both of her partners
in crime now, nodded and got busy while she made her phone call.