Blood from the man Amily murdered soaked into Amily’s pants as Serenity sat where he’d absorbed her. The man’s heart sat on his other side; he knew Amily had planned to carry it all the way to the Viper’s “way out”, but Serenity didn’t need it.

Did he?

Amily knew the Viper far better than Serenity did, and she was convinced he was going to be ready to make peoples’ hearts disappear soon. For a moment, Serenity wondered if a fire-heart would work to protect him. It seemed likely; they were very magical and they were “hearts”, after all, even if they weren’t from a human. It wasn’t exactly relevant, since he didn’t have a fire-heart on hand.

No, if he wanted protection he needed to either carry the man’s heart or shift to a form that didn’t have a heart. Serenity wasn’t certain the spell would target him, since it probably targeted people with the Life Vital Affinity, which he didn’t have. He couldn’t count on being immune, despite the Viper using the term Hollow Ones.

Hollow Ones, while arguably undead because they died and were brought back to life by someone who then took control of them, came in two common varieties. Hollow Ones raised by Undeath Affinity magic were only a small fraction of the number raised by Life Affinity magic and tended to be far weaker. Both kinds were Skill-less and nearly mindless other than their ability to follow commands, but the Life Affinity variety could heal while most Undead Affinity ones couldn’t.

It was a common failing in undead and the reason many mages argued that Life Affinity undead weren’t undead; they could heal on their own. Serenity thought that was a bunch of hooey, the only difference was which Affinity it was. Yes, it was easier for Life Vital Affinity casters to make Life Vital Affinity undead that could heal. Most mages were Life Vital Affinity, too, so obviously they never realized the connection.

Vengeance, on the other hand, was a Death Vital Affinity caster. His Death-based undead could heal. That fact was apparently terrifying. Undead armies weren’t his preferred method of combat, though he’d dabbled in them a few times; still, Death Vital Affinity undead that would recover if they were given time could be extremely useful.

These would likely be Life-based Hollow Ones, willing to tear themselves to bits to do whatever their commander ordered. The lack of Skills, memories, and most actual skills should have made them far weaker than their Tier. It didn’t make them lower Tier, however, and their cohesion along with the ability to be literally torn apart and reform with enough time made up a lot of the difference. There were few things that could permanently stop a Hollow One.

Serenity shook off the memories. Hollow Ones were best against softer targets; against people who could actually fight back, they were bad only if they swarmed. The only reason Serenity could think of that the Viper would want to turn the people of his base into Hollow Ones was to keep them in place and fighting. That was probably enough reason.

:Rissa?: Serenity reached out to his fiancee. :I have a choice to make. I can either get out of the base quicker or I can look into a possible escape route for the commander. If he runs, he’ll kill almost everyone here, probably including anyone who knows anything.:

:Get out of there. We can search documents if we have to,: Rissa ordered. :Stick to the plan to try to lure him out. If it doesn’t work, fine, we have backups. Stop trying to get yourself killed when you don’t have to.:

Serenity grinned a little. She was definitely worried about him. It was nice to hear the implied emotions, even if the worry was misplaced. Possibly especially since the worry was misplaced.

Serenity glanced down at the heart and sighed. He didn’t think he’d need it, but it was better to be safe than sorry and the man was already dead; it wasn’t like taking the heart hurt anyone at this point. He pulled a gallon Ziplock bag from his Rift and stuffed the heart inside; there was plenty of room. He then tucked the heart into the carrybag Amily wore; that was where she’d planned to hide it, and the plan made sense. He simply didn’t want to get blood all over everything and had a way around it that Amily didn’t have.

Serenity lifted himself to his feet and wobbled as he tried to stand. He’d somehow forgotten that his balance was going to be completely different in Amily’s form than his own. It was convenient for now, which was good because he’d be stuck in Amily’s form for a little longer.

It seemed quite a bit less convenient when Serenity tried to walk out of the cave. Walking as a woman - even in flats - just wasn’t the same as a man walking. He found himself walking quite a bit slower and more carefully than normal. It kept him from rushing down the hallways to get out of the base, which was probably a good thing, but he still didn’t like it.

At least it was faster than his Sovereign form could move. Even better, he didn’t have to try to hide; he just had to pretend to be Amily. He could manage that for as long as it took to get out of the base.

Serenity passed a number of people on his way to the best exit he knew of, through the hangar. It was, in a way, convenient that he’d claimed the body of one of the pilots; no one seemed to notice anything odd about him. Her? No, definitely him. Amily was female, Serenity wasn’t.

The latest pair of people he approached happened to be guards; they both wore runeclam armor that to Serenity’s eye quite similar to the armor he’d made for the earlier infiltration. The one on the left was a redhead, though his hair color was closer to strawberry blonde than Blaze’s flame-red. The one on the right was more of a dishwater blonde, but they were both clearly fit, even muscular. They weren’t leaking their auras badly, but there was still enough leakage that Serenity could tell they were roughly Tier Three or Four.

The presence of guards wasn’t entirely surprising, since he was just outside the maintenance hangar now. Serenity had hoped everyone would be too busy to post guards once the damage was done, but he wasn’t that lucky.

“Amily? What are you doing here?” The one on the left didn’t seem aggressive; if anything, he sounded friendly. Unfortunately, Serenity had no idea who he was or what he would know about Amily.

Serenity tried to act natural. He was terrible at it, of course; it didn’t help at all that he remembered effectively nothing about Amily other than the fact that she was a bomber on one of the planes. He didn’t think she could fly them or that she could repair them, but perhaps it would still work. “I’m headed to the planes.”

“You are, are you?” The blonde on the right did not sound at all friendly. “What’s the brown stuff on your pants?”

Serenity looked down. He didn’t immediately see what the guard was talking about; the pants themselves were brown, after all. He brushed his hand over the pants and felt a texture change; when he looked more closely, the brown in the area that felt different was a little darker and slightly more reddish than the pants. It also flaked off on his hand.

It took Serenity a moment to remember the blood on the floor. It must have wicked into the cloth of his pants; they were a fairly close color to begin with, so he hadn’t noticed. He couldn’t have done much about it even if he had noticed. “Uh, I must have sat in something?”

“Yeah,” the skeptical guard agreed. “I’m sure you did. And now you’re back, to try to clean up something you missed. Turn around, we’re taking you to the Captain.”

“She’s one of the flyers,” the redheaded friendly guard objected. “She’s allowed in the hangar.”

“No one is allowed in right now, and she looks suspicious to me. The Captain can sort it out. Come on, girl; I don’t have all day.” The guard took a step forward.

Serenity was confident he’d get away if he ran, but he didn’t want to run. That would take him backwards into the base and he wanted to leave. He could also fight; he was certain he’d win, but he probably couldn’t keep one of them from alerting everyone nearby.

Going with the guard was also an option. He’d meet the Captain; once he was there, he’d have the same options as here but more valuable targets. He could also try to bluff his way out, but there was no chance it would work. It never did.

The only other option he came up with immediately was to try to run past the guards. They’d probably catch him, but there was little chance they could hold him; he was stronger than they were and they wouldn’t be expecting it. Even if they were well trained, that should be enough to get him into the hangar.

From there he could charge straight for the exit; at his Tier, he was fast. It was a long way to sprint, especially since he’d have to take the stairs at a run and keep going once he was on the surface, but Serenity could sprint indefinitely. The plan would get him out of here; better yet, it would give evidence that someone on the surface needed to be caught. They’d planned to lure people to the surface anyway.

Serenity liked that plan.

Serenity suited his actions to his thoughts and raced past the two guards before they could react. The door pushed open; it looked like no one had bothered to lock it since it was guarded. As he moved, he called out to Rissa. :Slight change of plans, I’m coming out with people on my tail. I’m not in trouble, but make sure everyone’s in hiding. I know how I’m going to lose them.:

:Dammit Serenity, I told you to stay safe!: Rissa’s words were harsh, but she sounded at least half amused.

The hangar was absolutely covered in broken bits. If he hadn’t known he was looking at eight airplanes, Serenity didn’t think he’d have been able to tell. The destruction was impressive.

Unfortunately, it was also hazardous and Serenity wasn’t wearing his gear; he was wearing Amily’s, and she wasn’t set up for anything like this. He was definitely going to step on something nasty and have to run with it still in his foot. Serenity hated that; it always left echoes of the pain even if he was fully healed afterwards.

At least there weren’t many people in the room.

Serenity ran forward anyway. He did the best he could to pick his way across the floor, but there was only so much he could do at a full run. Impressively, he managed to make it halfway across the room before his foot came down on something he hadn’t seen in time and skidded out from under him. Serenity caught himself, but he thoroughly slashed his left knee on a jagged piece of metal.

It was a good thing he probably couldn’t get tetanus anymore. It was an even better thing that his tetanus shots were up to date. Better than both was the fact that tetanus was caused by bacteria; he could easily kill them himself. He’d want to clean the wound as soon as he had a chance … if it even lasted that long. It was already starting to close by the time he got to his feet and resumed his interrupted charge.

Lillene

I considered having a plan change here because of Amily and the information she brought, but there wasn't really a strong enough reason to; they still have a good plan A and it can deal with the negatives they now know about.