Okay! Here we go with the next chapter of "Journey into Darkness"! Thanks again to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting! I really appreciate it and it means a lot to me that everyone's been so supportive of this story. With that in mind, onto the next chapter! :D

DISCLAIMER: Only my OCs, plot ideas, and changes from the original game are mine. Everything else belongs to Visceral Games/EA.

Bold- Alex's POV

"So, I know all about your history with Ellie," Carver said, breaking the silence after he and Isaac climbed into an elevator up ahead, "What about Stamford? How the hell did that kid end up being part of your group?" He figured that maybe it would be a good idea to break the ice while they continued to explore the ship until they got to their destination. Plus, he was also genuinely curious. Isaac and Stamford were such an unlikely team that it was hard to see how they might have met in the first place.

"I met Timmy on the Ishimura," Isaac explained as he reloaded his weapon, "A Necromorph was trying to kill him, so I saved him, and then we started working together to try and escape. I didn't like him at all when I first met him, though. He was really full of himself, disrespectful to me and the rest of my team, and didn't seem to take anything seriously. I had to call him out on it a couple of times when it got really out of hand."

Carver shook his head. "Well, there's a shock," he quipped sarcastically. If he was being honest with himself, he had to admit he wasn't at all surprised to hear that Stamford had been an outright asshole in the beginning.

Sounds familiar, he thought to himself as Damara and Dylan's faces flashed before his eyes for a second.

"So what changed?" the soldier asked before he could dwell on his family any longer, "Obviously, you guys seem to get along now."

"Timmy did," Isaac answered, "He cleaned up his attitude after we left the Ishimura. He still has his moments here and there, but nowhere near as bad as back then."

Carver nodded, even though he really couldn't picture Timmy Stamford actually being nice. To him, it was about as likely as being able to breathe in a vacuum, but there was no denying that the kid's overall personality reminded him of…himself.

And with things the way they were, he hated that.

"What about Adams?" he asked as the elevator doors opened.

Before Isaac could answer, they heard the familiar sound of more Wasters crawling through the vents, and they whipped out their guns as they waited for them to make an appearance. Once they did, they opened fire, aiming for the limbs once again as the Necromorphs fell one by one. At first, it seemed like the wave of enemies was never going to end, and both men were almost out of ammo by the time the next batch were taken care of. After reloading their weapons, they picked up whatever supplies were lying around and continued on their way, eventually making it to another Electrical Engineering Interface they had to hack in order to open the door next to them. Even those this was not his area of expertise, Carver still didn't have too many issues helping him break through so that they could lift the lockdown.

"Anyway," Isaac answered in response to Carver's question before they were attacked, "Now that we're not under attack anymore, Timmy and I met Alex on the Sprawl. She was an intern at the hospital where I was kept for three years, and she wound up tagging along with us when the outbreak happened. We didn't know she was a Unitologist until we got to the Church, and we found out she was helping them. After EarthGov almost killed all of us, she eventually joined our group again and apologized for everything. I still don't know how Timmy was able to eventually forgive her, but I guess it doesn't matter at this point. She's been trying to make amends for what happened on Titan Station and seems to really hate the Church now, so I guess she's all right."

"That would explain why she wants to throw herself into all these dangerous situations," Carver mumbled as they finally managed to unlock the door. They were surprised to find that it was spacious, and the Marker statue in the middle reminded them of Serrano's videos from before, when he had mentioned something about trying to replicate those artifacts. There was also a large box in the corner, and Isaac wondered what was inside it. Hopefully, it was more supplies so that they wouldn't run out again.

Carver, on the other hand, was focused on something else entirely as he lowered his helmet: a toy soldier standing right at the base of the Marker. Its face was distorted, twisted into an eerie grin as his son's voice echoed in his mind for a third time. "Dad? Where are you?" it asked, sounding even more frantic than it had outside the Brusilov. Carver frowned, but approached the soldier anyway, wondering again why he was seeing all this.

"Dylan?" he whispered, but just as he was getting ready to kneel down in front of the toy, he felt Isaac grab him roughly by the shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey!" the engineer yelled, "Carver!" He shook his shoulder, and Carver turned his gaze away from the soldier as he faced Isaac.

"What the hell are you doing?" Isaac asked sharply, "Stay away from it!"

Carver couldn't understand why Isaac was getting so worked up over this. It was just a toy soldier. Nothing wrong with that, right? It just didn't make any sense to him.

"It's okay," Carver assured him, "I know this. I've got this." He knelt down and gently picked up the toy, holding it in his hands as he thought about the fact that his son wanted to be just like him when he grew up. Damara had always thought it was great that Dylan wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, but Carver never wanted that for him. And now he knew why.

"Why did you do it?" another harsh voice whispered, a sharp pain forming in Carver's head as he jumped back and dropped the toy soldier, watching as it smashed into tiny pieces on the ground.

"Oh, no," he muttered as the Marker in front of him glowed a bright, red color, pulsing until another flash of orange light made it all disappear. Again, he felt Isaac grab him by the shoulder to steady him just as an army of Wasters burst through a vent in the corner of the room. Carver raised a hand up to his forehead, clutching it as he tried to make the pain go away. Once he managed to get his bearings straight again, he raised his weapon and began to help take out the Necromorphs swarming all around him. He dodged out of the way of one of the Wasters, slicing its legs before concentrating on the rest of its body.

On the other side of the room, Isaac reloaded his Plasma Cutter as he finished dismembering a Slasher, and while he turned his attention to the next Necromorph trying to attack him, he thought about Carver's strange behavior from a few minutes ago. To him, the soldier hadn't picked up anything, even though his hands looked like he was holding something in them, and Isaac briefly wondered if that was how he always looked to Timmy, Ellie, and Alex whenever he was having his own hallucinations. He hadn't really given it much thought in the past, but now that he knew exactly what was happening to Carver, he could see why Timmy had gotten so bent out of shape back on the Ishimura.

"Isaac," he heard Carver address him, "I think that's the last of them."

"Yeah," Isaac sighed in relief as the two of them went to unlock the box in the corner, "Are you okay, though? What did you see before?"

Carver didn't answer at first, a tight-lipped frown forming on his face. Here was his chance to confide in somebody else about the ugly details of his past, and to admit out loud the fact that the memories of his wife and son still plagued him after all this time. Here was his chance to confront what he had been trying to run away from ever since leaving Uxor.

"It doesn't matter," the soldier replied, deciding that he wasn't ready to share those details with someone he barely knew, "Let's just take these supplies and get out of here."

"Okay," Isaac responded in a dubious tone of voice as he healed himself with a medium med pack, "We should go make sure Timmy and Alex are all right on the Greely."

Carver grabbed some more ammo and stuffed it in his pocket as he shook his head. "Honestly, I'm sure they're fine. There's no need to worry about them."

Right after he said that, Isaac looked away as he had a flashback to Tiedemann shooting Timmy with a Javelin Gun and Stross preparing to stab Ellie's eye with a screwdriver. He wasn't ready to admit it to Carver, but both of those incidents were a major part of the reason why he originally quit Marker Chasing altogether, and why he had tried so hard to dissuade Ellie from leaving New Horizons. The last thing he wanted was to lose the only people who genuinely cared about him, especially the woman he loved, and even though he wasn't as close with Alex, he didn't want anything to happen to her, either.

"Well, we have to bring the Skip back there, anyway," he said, "Or else they'll be stranded. So let's get out of here."

"…I told you! I don't know!" a voice cried from an audio log nearby after Alex and I managed to release the lockdown from the radio room a little while later after restoring power to the ship.

"Dr. Barton, someone is broadcasting a coded message planetside!" someone else shouted, "Who are you trying to contact? Dr. Serrano? Tell me!" The other man screamed, and a shiver went down my spine.

"Oh, God," Alex whispered as she covered her mouth in shock.

"Stop!" Dr. Barton yelled, "Please, they wouldn't tell me. I don't know!"

"Commander, this is Unit Three. They've barricaded themselves in with the broadcasting equipment."

"If that's where they want to die, let them," the Commander ordered in a frighteningly calm voice, "Cut the ship's power. It'll kill their life support and cripple the transmission."

"What about the others?"

"You know the orders: no one lives."

"Understood." The last thing we heard before moving on was more screaming in the background, and as soon as the door shut behind us, we took a brief break as we glanced at each other.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath, "That would explain the coffins and the blood stains."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

I quickly told her about what Isaac, Carver, and I had seen back on the Roanoke as we were trying to find a way to get the power back on. "Carver said the blood stains were head height and thought that meant they were from executions," I said, "I wonder if these same orders were passed on to the other ships."

"But why would they give the orders for executions?" Alex questioned, "What could have possibly happened to make them want to kill everybody else?"

"I don't think I want to know. But this message might give us an answer. Come on!"

Reloading our weapons, we passed through the next room quickly, and after dispatching a couple of Lurkers crawling on the walls, we hurried over to the elevator in the corner, picking up some more supplies on the way. We hadn't heard much from Isaac and Carver since we restored the Greely's power, and I wondered if they were having any luck with whatever it was that Carver wanted to investigate.

At one point, after Alex finished taking out a Slasher, I suddenly heard a faint rumbling out of nowhere. "What was that?" I whispered, stopping in my tracks as I held a hand out to stop Alex from going ahead. She frowned, stepped back a little bit, and looked around as she poked the plating beneath our feet with one of her boots.

"It sounded like it came from here," she said, pointing at the floor, "We should probably keep moving, though, or else Santos will wonder what the hell happened to us."

"And Isaac, too." Alex nodded, and I followed her as she opened the next door up ahead. Luckily, there was a Bench in this hallway, so after checking to make sure there were no Necromorphs around, we hurried over to the work station and began to restock on supplies, as well as make some adjustments to our weapons.

"Alex! Timmy!" we heard Santos address us from her end, "How's your progress?"

"Almost there, Santos," Alex reported.

I didn't hear whatever Santos' reply was, for just as I was getting ready to craft some more ammo, I suddenly felt something cold grab my wrist. I yelped in surprise, jumping back and raising my gun as a shadowy image appeared in front of me, keeping a surprisingly strong grip on my wrist the whole time. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alex whip her head to face me, though if she said something, I didn't hear it.

"Timmy," the same voice from before began, "I know you don't trust anything to do with the Marker, but you have to listen to me this one time!"

"Didn't I tell you to stay the fuck away from me and my friends?" I snapped, swiping at it as I saw Alex jump back in shock, "Just leave me alone!"

"I'm not going anywhere until you hear what I have to say!" the voice yelled in a surprisingly brusque manner, "And I can't properly talk to you if you keep shutting me out! Don't you want to know who I am?"

I hated to admit it, but…there was a very small part of me that was a little curious as to who this mystery ghost was supposed to be. But it was too risky between what we knew about the Markers already and our previous experiences with those artifacts.

"No," I answered, "I don't give a shit about you or whatever false information you have, and if you think I don't know what your game is by now, you are sadly mistaken. I am not the Marker's puppet, and neither is Isaac, so don't try to mess with him again, either."

"Timmy!" I heard Alex shout as she grabbed my shoulder and yanked me backwards, "Hey! Hey! Snap out of it!"

I blinked and shook my head, facing away from the Bench as I just glanced at Alex, removing my helmet as she did the same. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the image flash a couple of times before disappearing for good and allowing me to face reality again.

"Is everything all right?" Santos asked worriedly from her end, "What's going on?"

I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down as I leaned against Alex to steady myself. "Sorry, Santos," I apologized, "I didn't mean to scare you and Alex like that. I…I just got a little sidetracked, that's all." That's an understatement, I thought to myself as I sighed.

"As long as you're okay now," Santos said, "Are you?"

"I'm fine," I assured her, smiling slightly even though she couldn't see it, "Don't worry about me. Are we close to finding the source yet? I missed what you said to Alex before."

Santos paused, clearly trying to keep the concern out of her voice as she answered, "Yes. The waypoint leads you into another broadcasting room, but it's a dead end, so this is our last chance to try and find a clue. If you can get in there, we'll be one step closer to decrypting this message."

"Sounds simple enough," I commented, "All right, Santos, we're going in. Wish us luck."

"Good luck. Let me know if you find anything." She hung up, and once I got myself together again, I turned the crank on the door next to us, opening up the path to the next room.

"What happened before?" Alex asked, "What did you see this time?"

I didn't answer at first, only reloading my weapon and raising my helmet again before finally saying, "The same guy from earlier. He actually grabbed my wrist and demanded I listen to him this time." I felt another burst of fury at the thought of him trying to force his way into my mind again. I realized I probably sounded like a lunatic to my girlfriend, but I couldn't help it. How else was I going to explain my seemingly random outbursts?

"Jesus," Alex whispered, "Why is this person so desperate to talk to you?"

"Like I said before," I responded, "I don't know, and I don't care."

We gasped at the sight in front of us as we finally entered the next room: a generator going haywire as arcs of electricity sparked from it, blocking our way to the broadcasting equipment on the other side. And it looked like the only way to get to it was to pass through the contraption in front of us.

On the machine itself was a cover with the Kinesis symbol on it, and after we briefly debated over what to do with it, Alex moved it out of the way and shot the panel behind it, successfully shutting off the electricity. Before we could step forward, however, the rumbling noise from earlier returned, and with a loud bang, all the plates on either side of us flared to life, light bursting through the grating and a low humming accompanying it.

"AHH!" we both screamed, jumping back as the plating close to us malfunctioned in the same way.

"Shit," Alex cursed under her breath, "Did we just mess with gravity control?"

"Looks like it," I answered, remembering similar plates Isaac and I had to avoid on both the Ishimura and the Valor, "I've seen something like this before. Be careful where you step."

And with that, we huddled close together as we made a run for the broadcasting equipment, searching through everything in sight until we finally came across another recording. After turning the crank on the side, the audio log powered itself up as another frantic voice reached our ears.

"Barton! This is Laura Engstrom! They've started the cleanse order! If we don't warn Serrano, all our work will be destroyed! Did you get the message encrypted? The codes are in my office! You have to hurry! They're on to us!" The message ended while a compartment next to us slid open, revealing a key that looked like it was meant for Laura Engstrom's office.

"Damn," Alex whispered as I picked up the key and pocketed it, "Cleanse order. Executions. Just what exactly were they doing that they had to resort to this?"

"It's hard to say," I said, "We passed by Miss Engstrom's office earlier, so let's see if we can get in now."

We turned around and hurried back the way we came, running into another Necromorph on the way as we blasted it with both the shotgun and the Line Gun. All around us, more of the gravity plates burst open as the collective humming nearly made us go deaf.

"Timmy, Alex!" Santos cried, "What is that horrible noise?"

"We messed with the ship's gravity control by accident!" I shouted over the din, "It was the only way to get through to the broadcasting equipment, but we're on our way to Laura Engstrom's office to find the encryption key. She was trying to send some kind of warning down to the planet. To a Dr. Serrano." The same man that prepared the informational video for the General, I thought, Why is his name popping up everywhere all of a sudden?

Santos seemed to contemplate what we were saying for a minute. "I wonder what the warning could be about," she said, "But at least we're closer to decoding this message. Send me the decryption key as soon as you find it."

"Will do," Alex piped up, "Talk to you later." We hung up and continued to carefully make our way back to Miss Engstrom's office. Everywhere we went, random gravity plates burst open, forcing us to begin tiptoeing around to avoid getting caught on them. Along the way, we encountered another group of Necromorphs, some of which stepped onto the plating and shot up to the ceiling with a sickening thud. With that, Alex and I glanced at each other in a joint eureka moment.

"That's it!" we cried at the same time, and taking our guns out, we began using the malfunctioning gravity control to our advantage, pushing the Necromorphs back enough until they ended up in the path of the plates. I had forgotten for a second that Isaac and I had done the same thing on the Ishimura and Valor, but it didn't matter now. Anything that would help us save a little ammo would suffice.

Once all the Necromorphs were taken care of, the two of us hurried back to Laura Engstrom's office, using the key to unlock the door and squeeze our way inside the tiny room.

"Whew," I sighed, wiping my forehead as I took my helmet off for a minute, "We made it, Santos! Just give us a second and we'll send you the decryption key."

Alex quickly found what we were looking for, and with the touch of a button, she downloaded the key to her RIG and then sent it through to Santos. "All right, it's coming your way!" she announced.

"I see it!" Santos cried, "Hold on, I'll apply it to the message."

And just like before, we heard the sound of something scrambling in the background as the message looped over and over again. "Papa Sierra…Papa Sierra…Pah-ide Sie-tta…Hhhide Ssetta…"

"You hear that?" I asked Alex, and she nodded as the message continued to unscramble.

"Hhide Osetta…Hide Rosetta…Hide Rosetta…Hide Rosetta…"

"Hide Rosetta?" Santos asked, confused, "Who's she?"

I wondered the same thing. The only Rosetta that came to mind for me was the Rosetta Stone, but I highly doubted that was what this message was talking about.

"Maybe one of the researchers on Tau Volantis?" Alex guessed, "I guess they didn't want her or her work caught up in the execution."

"But why issue a cleanse order if it would destroy such an important secret?"

"Maybe they found something they didn't want anyone else to know about," I suggested, "Or something went horribly wrong."

"Hmm. It could be anything, really. Thanks for looking into this, you two. It could prove very useful to the mission."

"No problem," I replied, "We're going to see if we can meet up with Isaac and Carver again. They should be finished on the Brusilov by now."

"All right. Good luck on the Terra Nova."

After Santos went offline, Alex and I exited Miss Engstrom's office and climbed up the ladder again, making our way back to the airlock. We were just getting ready to go back out into space when we heard our RIGs go off again.

"Timmy, Alex, it's Isaac," Isaac greeted from his end, "How's your progress?"

"We're finished," I reported, "Santos was able to decrypt the message, and we're heading back to the docking area now. What about you guys?"

"We're on our way back to the Greely with the Skip. Hold on."

"See, I told you they'd be fine, Clarke," we heard Carver pipe up from their end before they disconnected.

By the time we finally exited the ship a few minutes later, we spotted the tiny maintenance craft slowing down as it pulled into the dock. Once it stopped for good, Alex and I squeezed into the back seat while Carver climbed over us to sit next to Isaac.

"Welcome back," the engineer greeted as he locked the doors, "So how was the Greely? What did the message say?"

"Hide Rosetta," Alex reported, lowering her helmet for a second to push some strands of hair out of her eyes.

"Rosetta?" Carver echoed, "Who the fuck is Rosetta?"

We quickly told both of them everything we had discovered as we finished getting settled in, and I could see that Isaac was really deep in thought over all this new information.

"Well at least now we know someone we can look up when we get to the planet," he said, "Her research could be the key to ending all this. Now let's head over to the Terra Nova." Before he could press the button to set our next course, Alex raised her helmet again as she leaned forward in her seat.

"I think I'm going to go back to the Roanoke, you guys," she said, "So I can tell Ellie and the others what we've found, if they don't know already."

"They probably do," I spoke up, "But you can still go back if you want. At least we know it's safer there than here."

"I'll go with you," Carver volunteered, "In case it's not as safe as Stamford thinks it is."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Sergeant," I replied, folding my arms, "But since we've cleaned out most of the Necromorphs…"

"I'm sure it's fine, Timmy," Alex said reassuringly, "You guys just be careful on the Terra Nova, okay?"

After a few minutes, we made it back to the Roanoke, and Alex and I shared a quick kiss before both she and Carver climbed out of the maintenance craft, leaving me and Isaac to continue our short trip over to the last unexplored ship. The ride was silent, so I used that time to check and make sure my weapon was reloaded once again.

At one point, I glanced out the front window over Isaac's shoulder as we passed by another floating pile of debris, and I could have sworn I saw a large chunk of metal that had belonged to the Eudora. As Norton's old ship came to mind, I cleared my throat as I leaned back in my seat.

"So, I told you about our trip to the Greely," I began, "How about your trek to the Brusilov? Anything interesting there?"

In the front seat, Isaac sighed as he glanced over his shoulder at me, stretching his arm across the seat. "Remember how I had hallucinations during the last two outbreaks?" he asked.

I nodded as I had a flashback to Isaac nearly stabbing himself with a needle in the Church of Unitology.

"The whole time we were on the Brusilov, it looked like Carver was seeing something I couldn't," the engineer continued, "I don't know what he thought he was looking at, but he acted like he was picking something up in his hands."

My stomach sank as he explained all this to me, although it was almost scary how we were able to talk about hallucinations like we were talking about the weather.

"Shit," I cursed, "Did he clue you in on what he might have seen?"

Isaac shook his head. "No, but I think we should keep an eye on him to make sure it doesn't happen again. Or have Alex do it for now, since she's with him. If we try hard enough, we can avoid a repeat of the Sprawl."

This was a lot to take in, which only made me think about my own little mysterious visitor from before. To be honest, it seemed awfully convenient that both of us had hallucinated around the same time, plus Isaac's minor episode in the Admiral's quarters.

"Well, then, I guess that could apply to me, too," I said, "Because someone tried to contact me from the Marker back on the Greely."

Isaac visibly tensed up in the front seat, but his voice remained calm as he asked, "Who was it?"

"No fucking clue. He tried to tell me, but I shut him out."

With that, the engineer lowered his helmet as he faced me again, a frown crossing his face. "Good. Take it from me, Timmy: you don't want to fall for the Marker's tricks. It's like I told Carver on the way back here: no matter what happens, you have to fight it."

As soon as Timmy and Isaac were no more than a speck in the distance, Carver and I turned to head back into the Roanoke, looking for the others so that I could tell them everything that had been uncovered so far. Once we made it inside, I took off my helmet, adjusting my ponytail as best as I could. My legs ached, and I felt a stitch in my side from all the running I had done, but at least we were a few steps closer to uncovering the mystery behind Tau Volantis and the Sovereign Colonies.

"Looks like Ellie's finished at the fuse box," Carver commented as we returned to the control room, "And I bet the others are looking for information on that shuttle."

"Where are they now?" I asked, hoping it wasn't too far.

Carver quickly checked his locator, which pointed back to the cargo dock we had first entered the ship in. "Back the way we came," he announced, "Santos is probably downloading whatever you found to her RIG. Come on." He ran ahead to go back through the bulkhead on the other side of the room, and I quickly followed him so that I wouldn't get left behind. So far, there weren't any signs of Necromorphs in the area, and while we hurried back, I faced the soldier next to me.

"So," I began, "How was your trip to the Brusilov?"

Carver just sighed, glancing down as he reloaded his weapon. "Don't ask," he grumbled.

"I just did," I reminded him, which only seemed to make him more irritated than he already was.

"Yeah, well, I don't want to talk about it right now," he insisted, "Okay?" He walked a little further ahead of me before I could say anything else. I initially thought he was just tight-lipped around certain people, but it appeared that he didn't like to talk too much about himself to anyone. Ellie and Norton might have been exceptions, though.

"Fine," I said, "But if you change your mind, I'm willing to listen." I doubted he would, but I didn't mind just giving him the offer all the same.

Once we passed through the doorway, we spotted Ellie and Buckell crowded around Santos as she typed away on a monitor from her briefcase. Locke continued to keep an eye on Rosen's bandaged leg as we joined up with the rest of the group once again.

"Hey, guys," I greeted, waving my hand, "How's it going?"

"Pretty good, Alex," Buckell reported, "Santos is looking into the Crozier now. Then we'll decide what to do from there."

"I'm just hoping we can get it working again," Ellie added, "I'm confident that with Isaac here, we'll be able to figure out how to fix it. He was always good with that kind of stuff."

"And Timmy, too," Santos piped up, not taking her eyes off the monitor, "I don't know what everyone else is talking about, but he seems a lot nicer than I thought he would be. Like when the two of you were helping me on the Greely."

I smiled. "He's a nice guy when you get to know him," I told her, "You just have to give him time. Anyway, is there anything Carver and I can do to help here?"

"I'll go through these files," Carver offered, pointing to a stack of papers in Santos' briefcase, "Anything to take my mind off…" He trailed off there, and I just tilted my head to the side as I considered him.

"Off what?" I asked.

"Never mind," Carver muttered, and with that, he moved forward to join the others as I went to go sit on a railing in the corner. While I glanced down at my boots, I couldn't help but think about the revelation that Danik had murdered Carver's family, and just like it had on the Eudora, the news really hit home for me. As I sat where I was, I felt enraged all over again at the memory of Danik nearly killing Isaac, lecturing and striking Timmy, slandering my parents, and the ugly bomb he had dropped about them not too long after. I buried my face into my hands, sighing as I tried to push all that away, but I had to admit the issue with my parents, along with everything else that was happening, was still eating away at me.

What the hell did Jacob Danik know about me or my family, anyway? I had never even heard of him until he started destroying all these colonies, as Daina had never mentioned anything about him. And what "special plan" did the Unitologists have for me? Timmy guessed that maybe the Circle leader had only said all that to punish me for leaving the Church, but it was just hard to tell.

"Oh, you're back."

I glanced up as I spotted Norton standing in front of me, having appeared from behind the airtight box he had cut open earlier. I just rested my hands on the railing as I stared at him.

"Yes, Carver and I are back," I replied, "Timmy and Isaac went to go explore the Terra Nova, but you already knew that, I'm sure."

Norton didn't react to that, only moving to sit down next to me while he stretched his legs out in front of him. "Santos says you and your boyfriend helped her out on the Greely," he said, "Is that true?"

I nodded.

"And what do you think about the mission? Do you think we should foolishly risk our lives and go to the planet or repair the shuttle and go home?"

At that last question, I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "Well, that second option's kind of impossible right now, isn't it?" I asked, "Danik released the Marker on New Horizons. There is no home for us anymore." A wave of sadness coursed through me as it occurred to me that the lunar colony was the second home I had lost, after the Sprawl.

"Haven Prime is still standing," Norton argued, "That's where Ellie and I lived before we went to Uxor. In a nice apartment, too."

I didn't reply at first, his words feeling like a slap that had been aimed at Isaac. No, Earthrise Apartments hadn't been the nicest building to live in, but at least we had a roof over our heads. All of us had been pretty content just being with each other, regardless of the location. "That was all we could afford, Captain," I responded, "And when you're a fugitive from the Church and EarthGov, you're not exactly looking for a place to help you stand out."

Norton raised a gloved hand to his chin in thought. "All right, I'll give you that one," he conceded, "But I just told you all that to say that you're wrong. There is still a home to go back to, especially for you, me, Ellie, and Stamford. As much as Stamford irritates the hell out of me, it sounds like you two are pretty serious, from what Ellie's told me."

"What's your point, Norton?" I asked.

The Captain sighed, looking slightly impatient now. "Look, Adams-I'm just trying to get somebody to see my side of things, that's all. Talking to the others was a bust, so I thought maybe you'd understand. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to make sure my girlfriend is safe, yet she's acting like I released another Marker. If Stamford wanted to protect you, you wouldn't have a problem with that, would you?"

I remained silent as I processed everything he was saying. I could completely understand him wanting to look out for Ellie, and I would have thought that was very noble of him had it not been for the conversation Timmy and I had overheard before, plus the way he had been treating both my boyfriend and Isaac so far. Those two things alone made me lose some of my respect for Captain Norton.

Then again, who was I to talk?

Suddenly, we all heard our RIGs go off, and two very familiar voices on the other end. "All right," Isaac announced, "We're inside the Terra Nova. Which way to the shuttle?"

"Santos, you found the impound records," Buckell spoke up, "What did they say?"

Santos quickly typed something on her keyboard as she focused on the screen. "Only that the shuttle was decommissioned," she said, "They were going to part it out."

"Great," Norton mumbled sarcastically, "So basically, nobody knows?"

"It's not the end of the world, Norton," Timmy commented, "We'll find it. Right, Isaac?" At that, Norton frowned as he clenched his fist, clearly trying to keep himself from snapping.

"Of course," Isaac answered, "There must be more detailed shipping records somewhere. We'll take a look around the ship." The two of them hung up, and Norton let his hand fall to his side as he shook his head.

"No comment," he mumbled to himself as Ellie broke away from the rest of the group and approached the two of us.

"You two all right over here?" she asked.

"Yeah," I assured her, nodding, "I've been running around so much that my legs were starting to feel tired. I just needed to rest for a minute."

"And I was asking her about her and Stamford's mission on the Greely," Norton lied, and I just stared at him.

"Yeah, for the first minute," I said in response, but he ignored me as he faced Ellie again.

"So, what's going on?" he asked.

"We thought that while we waited for the others to bring us more news about the Crozier that you two could help us continue to organize the rest of this research," Ellie explained, "So that it'll be ready when we get to Tau Volantis. Santos has already added everything you and Timmy collected on the Greely, Alex."

I stretched my legs and arms out for one last time as I nodded and said, "Sure, I'll help you guys."

"Robert?" Ellie turned her gaze to Norton, and I caught the hopeful expression on her face as he noticeably hesitated in giving his answer. It was clear she wanted him to at least become a little involved in the mission.

"Yeah, all right," he finally decided after another minute or two, "We'll be right over." With that, Ellie about-faced and returned to the rest of the group, and I got up to follow her when I felt Norton grab my wrist.

"Alex."

I turned to face him, briefly thinking about how odd it was to not hear him address me by my last name for once.

"You still didn't answer my question from before."

Right after he said that, I reached down to gently pry his hand off me. It was getting increasingly obvious that it would be a no-win situation for me no matter how I answered his question, and I realized I needed to nip this in the bud as soon as possible. "With all due respect, Captain," I replied as politely as possible, "I don't want to play the devil's advocate in this. I'm sure you feel that you mean well in the long run, but I have my reasons for being on this mission just like everyone else, and I need to see this through to the end."

Norton looked away, disappointment etched across his face for a split second before he adopted a neutral expression. He merely shrugged as he got up and holstered his pistol. "Fine," he quipped, "Let's go help Ellie with this research."

And with that, I took my seat on the floor in between Carver and Ellie, taking some of the papers from Carver as I began to peruse through them, reading about the various crew members, ships, and their roles in all this. Now that we were uncovering more information about Tau Volantis, I was even more curious about the cleanse order that had been issued. Better yet, what role did Rosetta play in all this?

It wasn't even five minutes later when we all suddenly heard our RIGs go off again. "Isaac here," Isaac's voice echoed from his end, "It looks like our shuttle is in the aft section of the ship. I'm updating our locators now."

"Just tell me it'll get us to the nearest shipping lane," Norton grumbled.

"If we can get it space worthy again," Isaac replied, ignoring the unenthusiastic tone in the Captain's voice, "Judging from the diagnostic, it's a real piece of shit."

"We can get it to work, can't we?" Ellie asked.

"We're swimming in a sea of spare parts," Buckell helpfully explained, "I can get it to fly."

"Yeah," Isaac responded, sounding a little more optimistic than he had before, "We'll make this work."

"Cool," I heard Timmy speak up next, "Just let us know if we can somehow send you any of those parts from here, Buckell."

"Will do, Timmy. You and Isaac keep your RIGs on so that we can stay in touch." We heard them sign off, which was my cue to go back to the research in front of me. All the while, I kept an eye on Norton, surprised that he had dropped the discussion so quickly. After the way he had been carrying on before, I had expected him to try a little harder to convince me that he was making some good points. Maybe this meant he finally realized that going home really wasn't an option right now.

Or maybe this was only the beginning.

The hallways of the Terra Nova were dark, but that didn't stop me and Isaac from continuing to make our way through them, picking up the sound of faint scratching against the walls. It had been a while since we faced any Necromorphs, so all we could do was just wait and anticipate the next attack.

Suddenly, something in the corner flickered on out of nowhere, making me jump. "Star Blaster!" a robotic voice cried, and I took out my gun and pointed it at a pinball machine that had somehow switched itself on, waiting for it to quiet down before I stepped closer to it.

"Jesus," Isaac whispered, "I haven't seen one of those in ages. I guess they had to have some way to pass time, huh?"

"Got that right," I replied, "Fucking hell, I can't believe I just jumped like that. I'm more scared of a pinball machine than Necromorphs." Maybe I'm not as okay as I thought I was, I thought to myself as I shook my head. Even back home, I had jumped at different sounds that I had to convince myself weren't really threats.

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Isaac said as we finished collecting more supplies and climbed down the ladder next to us, "Remember that cardboard sun that almost fell on us on the Sprawl?"

I remembered exactly what he was talking about: when we had passed through Titan Station's elementary school, we had to climb on the stage in the gymnasium at one point when a sun decoration fell in front of us, scaring the crap out of both of us in the meantime. "Oh, yeah," I said, "But I still hate getting scared over stupid stuff."

After that, we fell silent again, wandering through the next few hallways until we arrived in what looked like a storage room. Crates were haphazardly stacked on top of each other, though it looked like there was a lot of scrap metal around us. Out of nowhere, a faint beeping noise grabbed my attention, and Isaac seemed to notice it, too, for he was suddenly climbing down a ladder to go investigate it. While I was still making my way down, I turned my head for a second to see him picking up a tiny square robot off the ground, dusting it off and examining it as a tiny sensor lit up and began rotating as if it was searching for something.

"Wow," Isaac whispered, "An old Scavenger Bot. This might come in handy."

"A what?" I asked, hopping down from the ladder and moving to stand next to him.

"A Scavenger Bot," Isaac repeated, showing it to me, "It helps collect supplies we might not be able to find on our own. Here, I'll show you."

And with that, we both knelt down to the ground, and I watched as he placed the Scavenger Bot on the floor, allowing it to roll away as it maneuvered around the room, scanning different areas and beeping quietly as it shined a light on the walls around it. It reminded me of the times I had taken trips down to the beach and seen people walking across the sand with metal detectors.

"You can even program them to talk while they're collecting resources," Isaac continued, "But that might give away our position to the Necromorphs."

"Yeah, that's probably not the best feature to install," I commented, "So what happens now? Do we have to wait for it?"

"No," Isaac answered as he stood up straight again, "It'll meet us at the Bench once it's finished."

By the time we made it to the tram a little while later, we noticed that something seemed to be preventing it from reaching us, no matter how many times we tried pressing the button to call it.

"Damn it," Isaac cursed, "Something's blocking the tram system."

"Cradle Ops should be nearby," Buckell informed us from his end, "You can see the tracks from there."

"Got it. Thanks, Buckell."

He seems surprisingly nice, too, I thought to myself as we hurried to get to Cradle Ops so that we could take a look at the tracks. Like Santos, he also seemed very eager to help out with the mission, and I figured this was his turn to help us like Santos had on the Greely.

"AHHHH!"

No freakin' way, I thought as I stopped dead in my tracks, catching the familiar wail that never failed to send a shiver down my spine. "Looks like the Guardians are back, too," Isaac commented as we rounded the corner in time to catch a Mature Guardian situated at the end of the hallway. Tentacles popped out of its stomach as they attached themselves to the wall, along with a sharp blade. Luckily, both of us knew the trick to dealing with these ones at this point, but that didn't mean we suddenly underestimated how dangerous they were.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath, "What's that on the floor?" I glanced down as a group of spider-like Necromorphs crawled over the growth, almost as if the Guardian itself was spitting them out of its stomach.

"Look out!" Isaac cried, but before I could move, the tiny creatures suddenly jumped up and landed on me, causing me to stumble back as they tried chewing through my suit.

"AHH!" I yelped, doing my best to shake them off as I felt their sharp teeth sink into me, and I couldn't help but remember the Swarmers that Pregnants released whenever we accidentally hit them in the stomach. An all too familiar stinging sensation accompanied the various places these new Swarms ended up biting me, though fortunately, I was able to move just enough to get them to let go of me. Another stray Swarm jumped onto the body of someone who must not have been able to make it past the Guardian two hundred years ago. Once Isaac finished dealing with the Necromorph on the wall, he turned his Plasma Cutter to the body next, shooting a few rounds until the Swarm was dead for good. After everything quieted down, we both let out a sigh of relief, though I found my arms were still in pain.

"You okay?" I asked as we climbed into the elevator that the Guardian had been blocking.

"Yeah," Isaac replied, "Are you?"

"Yeah," I echoed, "My arms are stinging, but not as much as before. No doubt it's that damn infection again."

"I guess you're just getting used to it now," Isaac quipped, "I don't know if that's a good thing or not, though."

I sighed, holstering my weapon. "Let's hope it's good."

By the time we stepped out of the elevator, we instantly noticed what was wrong as soon as the bulkhead in front of us opened. In the distance, I thought I spotted the tram, but there was heavy debris on the track as far as we could see.

"Damn it," Isaac muttered to himself, "Looks like someone left cargo on the tracks. Come on! Let's see if we can clear it." With a wave of his hand, he led the way down to a panel that would more than likely help us get rid of everything blocking the tracks. While he went to do that, I suddenly heard a vent burst open, and my heart immediately began to beat faster as I whirled around and took out my gun again. To my left, a Slasher appeared, racing towards us with no intention of stopping.

"Timmy!" he yelled.

"I've got it!" I cried in response, fending off the latest wave of enemies while Isaac continued to get rid of the unwanted cargo, only pausing every now and then to open fire on any Necromorphs that took a swipe at him. After they were all gone, I went to join Isaac as he continued aligning the different cargo pieces, sending them to storage in the mean time.

By the time he got to the last bit of debris, I noticed something was different this time around. "Wait a minute," I spoke up, narrowing my eyes, "What's that?"

Isaac followed my finger, where I was pointing at something wiggling back and forth in a crate on the right. Its skin was a pale gray color, but its eyes were bright red and eerily fixated on us while it bared its sharp teeth.

"Shit," the engineer whispered, "Those eyes remind me of the Ubermorph."

I raised an eyebrow, a wave of dread creeping through me for some reason as I echoed, "Ubermorph?"

Isaac shook his head as he finished clearing the cargo. "You weren't there when I faced it on the Sprawl, but it was just like the Hunter." He didn't need to explain himself any further as I felt my stomach turn. I remembered exactly how the Hunter was, and it wasn't something I wanted to think about right then and there.

Just as we stepped away from the panel, we heard a faint crashing noise from a few floors below us as a voice announced, "Warning: Cargo fault in Bay Four. Containment breach detected. Biological anomalies are present. Please use caution."

Isaac and I just glanced at each other, and I could have sworn he felt the same sinking sensation I did. "Crap," I muttered.

"Let's just go back to the tram," Isaac suggested before I could dwell on the situation any longer, "The sooner we get to the Aft section, the better. I know Ellie probably wants to hear some good news for once."

Hmm, I thought as we called the elevator…only to find a Puker waiting for us inside the cabin. Before we could raise our weapons to open fire, however, the doors slammed shut again, taking care of the Necromorph for us.

"Oh God," I muttered to myself as the doors opened again, Isaac using Kinesis to move the Puker out of the way. I could tell he was as apprehensive as I was about climbing into the elevator after what we had just witnessed, but it was the only way out of Cradle Ops.

"All right," Isaac said, "Now, we just have to-"

Suddenly, the doors violently flew open again as the whole cabin shook, a low rumbling noise accompanying the sickening sensation. "What the fuck was that?" I whispered, my voice shaking a little and my heart pounding as the elevator continued to creak.

"I don't know," Isaac replied, "But don't move."

I held my breath as I waited for the unnerving silence to be broken, and it took me all my self control not to climb back out of the elevator in a panic. It was probably safer to stay where I was, honestly, since we had no idea when it was going to move or when the doors would close again.

That was the moment I felt my stomach zoom up to my throat as the elevator suddenly plunged downwards, with the doors still open and no intention of slowing down.