Valentina and Alexandria continue to explore the area not making much progress and Alexandria wasn't about to move any further in even though the internal clock tick tick tick tick tick inside her head. She shook her head for a moment trying to get the sound to go away, but for some reason it continued. She stopped and Valentina paused behind her.

  "What is it?" Valentina asked keeping her guard up.

  "Shhh, listen." Alexandria peered down the hallway trying to see if anything was coming their way.

  Valentina cocked her head to the side. She could hear it now too. Nine clicks echoed down the hallway in front of them. "Is that skipping?"

  "Why in the hell would someone be skipping in a place like this?" Alexandria paused for a moment. "Valentina get ready to slow down time just in case. I don't want any surprises. Of course, we cannot be sure this isn't something that Eclipse has thrown at us."

  "We would she do that if she's just trying to get some type of reaction or maybe even a working relationship?" Valentina didn't want to think everything they had done up to now was for nothing.

  "Do you remember what it was like to be in one of these places? It changes and alters you. None of us are exactly the same from what we were inside one of these places. So, do not think you know her just because she is one of us." Alexandria wasn't going to let her guard down even in front of a child.

  The sound grew louder and the echos embraced them even still Valentina stood ready at a moment's notice to stop time. Alexandria stood in the front drawing her sickle cane. The metal against the sheath rang out mixing with the sounds of the skipping which in turn suddenly stopped. Alexandria raised an eyebrow and went to take a step forward.

  "Are you friends or not?" Aurora asked tilting her head to the side.

  A child's voice carried through the hallway. Alexandria let out a sigh of relief sheathing her blade and putting up her hands.

  "We don't mean you any harm. I apologize for the weapon. You should know as well as anyone that this place is not a place someone should skip about. Are you an ability user?" Alexandria still could not see her. She had stopped almost immediately after Alexandria had drawn her cane sickle.

  She was glad to know that even someone who sounded so young understood or was taught the sound of a weapon being drawn. The hallway that was once filled with skips and voices grew silent and tension flooded the area so thick.

  Valentina let out a cough finally there was another step and slowly a small girl stepped into the light. Alexandria recognized the clothing immediately and knew that this was probably Eclipse's daughter and if that was the case they had beaten the timer. Of course, she had found them and not the other way around, but a win is a win.

  Alexandria thought to step closer, but something inside her pulled her back instead she smiled and tried to speak as softly as possible. "We met your mother at the entrance. Eclipse. You must be her daughter. She asked us to come find you. We wanted to speak with her, but she was more concerned about you. She made quite the mess back there. Where did you run off to?"

  Aurora stopped placing her hands in front of her swaying back and forth. A straight smile on her face as if someone had just sown up her lips.

  Alexandria raised an eyebrow wondering why the girl was so quiet. Even if she was taking precautions around strangers, they knew her mother's name. Why wasn't she reacting. There were no signs that there were any other subjects here at the moment, but at the same time this facility was not built like any other she had ever seen. Of course, she had been imprisoned in one and raided one and there were said to be at least a dozen. If all of them were operational she wasn't sure. However, she wasn't going to make the assumption that this one only housed two subjects because that would be utter insanity.

  Valentina had relaxed her stance just a little glad to see that they had finally found the person that they were looking for. When she was about to say something the internal clock that she'd set up inside herself stopped and she could feel pressure and she started to shake.

  The only reason Alexandria turned to her was because Valentina bumped into her. She was going to turn to see what was wrong, but her eyes darted back to Aurora as Eclipse appeared behind her licking her lips.

  "It seems you are successful and I'm glad that your intentions seem to be pure. The reason Aurora said nothing else to you was because I have told her in the past to only speak with people that she knows. Aside from a few words are you friend or foe after that she is to say nothing else. Even though she can be quite mischievous she does listen to certain things, and it seems that we do have something to speak on." Eclipse looked down at Aurora. She clicked her tongue five times letting out a small sigh. "Sweetheart why did you run away? I did not tell you that you could do that."

  Aurora sniffled for a moment. "I I'm sorry, but there was red everywhere not my favorite color and it was time to go see auntie Glade. I had to go. I'm not supposed to miss that am I?"

  Eclipse's eyes widened and now she realized why Aurora had come back and even though it was with a little bit of help unbeknownst to Alexandria and Valentina they still found Aurora within the time limit. Eclipse let out a cheerful chuckle as she looked down at Aurora and winked and then back up at Alexandria and Valentina. She waved her hand in their direction which made Valentina gasp for breath.

  Valentina let out a few breaths followed by a cough. "What the hell was that?" She continued to catch her breath trying to stabilize herself.

  "My apologizes. I stopped the spell. Well, spell is something that Aurora here read in a book, but I stopped my ability on you, but I didn't do it properly since I was in a bit of a rush. I ran into some guards earlier and had to take them out. I was supposed to have touched you physically to properly turn off the ability, but I did it through the shadows once I realized Aurora was with you and because I did it that way it caused some unseemly side effects. Again, my apologies. What you just experienced was my shadow ability. Nobody is safe from me. The internal clock that was inside you that you set I put my strings on it. If it had stopped and I looked through the shadows and did not see you with my daughter, I would've killed you and then your friend because you do not belong here. However, since your words seem to be true to an extent and little Aurora here has already let the cat out of the bag as far as auntie Glade is concerned perhaps, we should go. As we walk, I will give you some information. Follow me." Eclipse and Aurora turned making their way down the hallway and Alexandria and Valentia begin to follow them closely towards the area that Aurora had just come from.

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  "All of the guards going towards Glade's area have been dealt with. There are not many left inside the facility that aren't outside fighting your other people, and it seems you have dispatched all of the ships in the area. Do not get things twisted even though this place was built on the orders of the walled city government it is not theirs. I see everything in the shadow even in the brightest lit places there are still corners where I can look. Of course, it takes a toll on me and viewing this entire facility makes it to where I have to rest a lot. So just remember I can kill you in the blink of an eye if I wish. That doesn't mean I'm going to I don't need much to keep an eye on everyone here and I'm not going to waste energy on somebody that could be potentially helpful." Eclipse stopped talking for a moment as they walked in silence for the time being.

  Valentina was still a bit tired from the unceremonious release of Eclipse's threads. However, she would be okay since in a sense with her bending of space and time she could at least turn back a little bit of her fatigue and/or pain if only for a little bit as her body recovered.

  "So, you said this facility only housed five people?" Alexandria was curious. She was a little pissed off at Eclipse's statement about killing Valentina, but there was no reason to voice it. If this person was truly capable of keeping their eyes open in a facility that was meant to test and experiment and keep them contained, then this place is more of a home to them than a prison. Their footsteps were the only sounds heard when the talking cease and at the moment Alexandria's question lingered and intermingled with their steps bouncing off of the walls of the corridors.

  "It's quite simple, Alexandria. The people or the monsters or whatever you want to call us inside this facility we are some of the purest of our kind as far as ability go. There were six of us. The only two to have children were myself and Flare. That..." She paused for a moment taking in a deep breath as if she was trying to push down a wave of emotions.

  "These are not our real names. We do not dare use our real names inside this facility. Two of us Gale and Mist don't even remember them. They are two of the most dangerous here. If you think I'm scary." Eclipse let out a soft chuckle for a moment.

  "My abilities only exist the strongest inside this facility and possibly at night during a full moon, but during the day using my abilities to help it doesn't do much. It's interesting to note that this place doesn't have windows. Of course, my daughter here is a mistress of light. They keep her in the dark because her power can be extraordinary. They allow me to keep mine in order to experiment on her within reason of course and like I said before they crossed a line. Even though we've been in this place since the beginning of the walled cities maybe even further back than that." She let out another soft chuckle.

  "They still do not know enough about us to prepare counter measures for everything. My daughter is always with me so lighting up a room when I'm not with her is sufficient to quell any powers within me expect for the shadow on the ground. That's why when they do this nobody is within range they are far back. Lights dull my senses so I cannot reach into other areas while blinded. If she was with me however that's an entirely different story. The others were pretty easy to contain so the researchers have said. Air, ground, and water. I don't know if they've known this, if they've seen it, if they just don't care, but the person my daughter just mentioned Glade we have been formulating a plan to get her out of her confinement. This place doesn't have a lot to it and anything that is fed by the ground or touched by the ground that is not heavily manufactured and processed Glade can absorb it and use it for herself. Right now, she's wrapped in manmade fibers suspended in the air and everything that gets pumped inside is scrubbed because the ground gets in the air floats around and she can even absorb that if it gets close enough to her. What they don't know is that the shot that they've been using for food Aurora here has been dropping sticks, rocks, dirt anything that she can get her hands on. Even though this facility is pretty well maintained as you look around nature still finds a way to get through and Aurora as you found out earlier is one of the few like myself that's able to walk around. There are surveillance cameras but the people who view this area have been disposed of. I cannot bring myself to destroy this place just yet. We still need it. It's still something that the five of us cannot just get up and walk away. There is a place here that we need to visit. Once we free Glade the five of us will speak. Since none of us at the moment can be very close to Gale or Mist. Gale as I said before can suck the oxygen out of the room. Since she controls things like that her body is constantly flowing with it, but she can take it out of the room and right now both her and Mist are blind and deaf as in through sensory deprivation. So, they are constantly emitting their abilities so anyone that comes into that room that's not protected either suffocates or in Mist's case are dried out in seconds. So, we will need to discuss some things and procure either proper equipment to go inside or find the areas where they're being sensory deprived and disable them. If either one of them hear one of our voices they will not attack, but we cannot walk in there blindly. So, after hearing all this and you are going to hear much more. Do you still wish to quote unquote save us?" Eclipse took in a deep breath letting it out feeling a bit dizzy from all the talking she just did.

  Alexandria took in a deep breath and let out a sigh as they stopped walking. They were in front of the area where Glade was being held. She looked up to see a manmade cocoon or some type of net. She could barely see the person inside it. Their hair was long, and it was hanging out of whatever material they were wrapped in. She took in another deep breath closing her eyes for a moment and turning to Eclipse. "This is an atrocity, and I meant what I said. Perhaps saying saved was a bad choice of words. However, how about we join voices and finally put an end to that government that has been suffocating us, taking from us, and all-around imprisoning what is essentially the next step in human evolution.