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The thrum of the helo seeped into Eric’s bones. An uninterrupted, teeth rattling vibration that had him biting down on his jaw. 

His stump throbbed in time with the rotor blades. The altitude always did this, made the scarred nerve endings tighten, like the skin was grasping at the thin air. His compression sock constricted uncomfortably, pressure building where there shouldn’t have been anything left to feel. Just another thing his accident had taken from him.

He didn’t reach down to adjust it.

Instead, Eric planted his boot hard against the metal floor and leaned into it, forcing pressure back up the prosthetic, grounding himself with sheer stubbornness. The pain dulled to a manageable tingle.

Across from him, Clarice was half-turned in her seat, laptop resting against her knee, fingers typing the last of the satellite updates. Eric felt the urge to take over, the moved up deadline cutting their prep short. He’d barely had time to go over the data before takeoff. Her headset was cocked slightly off one ear, dark curls tugged loose by the turbulence.

Then it happened.

A faint buzz bloomed beneath his arm band, like a pulse just under the skin.

Eric’s breath caught.

His hand came up automatically, fingers brushing the soulmark etched into his skin. An unassuming, black dot hidden under his band for privacy. A mark that had been quiet for far too long. They were getting close. Closer than he’d expected for it to react this strongly. Eric’s surprise gave way to something lighter. Even from this far away, the mark knew. She knew.

Hope filled his lungs, bulging up his cheeks until his lips gave into the smile it induced.

The idea of seeing Rachel again felt like a live wire against his chest. 

Clarice finally stopped her typing with a sigh. “Presentation is up to date until 0600 hours.” She squinted at the bright screen. “Uploading data now.”

Her gaze flicked to his face and then his hands. She arched an eyebrow. “You know,” She said mildly, “most people wait until after touchdown to get sentimental.”

Eric let out a short, breathless laugh and dropped his hand, though the warmth lingered. “Didn’t realize I was being subtle.”

“Not even a little.” She grinned, nodding at his hand. “Guessing that’s Rachel?”

His grin came easier now. “Yeah.” He paused, swallowing as the buzz flared again, stronger. “I don’t remember it ever feeling like this. Like it’s trying to crawl out of my skin.”

“Romantic,” Clarice deadpanned.

He ignored her tone, smiling instead. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?”

“Or it means she’s thinking about you too.” She reached down into her pocket and pulled out a stack of gum. She popped one into her mouth and started chewing with a grin. ”Wouldn’t that be disgustingly poetic?”

The helo lurched to the side before he could respond.

The sudden drop made his stomach flip. The deck shuddered and Eric’s hands snapped forward, grabbing for the two heavy cases at his feet, bracing them with his body as they slammed against the restraints.

“What the hell?” The lingering buzz of his soulmark was taken over by his earlier irritation. He clicked on the radio in his com set and connected to the cockpit. “Easy up there!”

The helo shuddered once more, then leveled out.

When the pilot chatter finally quieted, he lifted his hand back to his headset and tried again. “Report.”

The pilot’s voice crackled back. “Just some wind shear, sir. Minor altitude loss. We’ve got her under control.”

“See to it that you do.”

Eric leaned back against his seat, the ache in his leg noticeable again. 

Not a good day.

Eric sighed.

Just get me there. Seeing Rachel again will make this worth it.

The radio crackled once more, calm and official.

“Killjoy Two, cleared for ILS approach, runway Bravo.”

Rachel barely registered the door closing behind Nick before his mouth was on hers.

Her office, normally off limits to anyone else, shrunk down to the familiar press of him against her. His hands were sure, squeezing at her waist like they belonged there. 

And what do you know? They did.

The burn flared up immediately at their touch, so intense it had her gasp into Nick’s mouth. Her fingers clutched at his back, desperate to feel more of his addictive warmth. The heat crested, like it was waking up after a long sleep, even though it had been mere hours since she last held him.

Nick’s hands slid up her back, into her hair. Her own found his jaw, then his neck, and she pulled back only when her lungs demanded it. Breathless, she smirked at him.

“What’s up, Marine?” she murmured. “Can’t you keep up?”

Nick laughed softly, forehead falling to rest against hers. But there was something in his eyes that didn’t match her teasing. Something earnest. Almost reverent.

“This- ” He started, then stopped, swallowing as the heat flared again. “Rachel, do you feel that?”

Her phone rang.

She cleared her throat before lifting it to her ear. “Rachel King.”

“Colonel King has arrived on base, ma’am.” The operator’s voice spoke through the line. “He’s en route to the briefing room.”

“I’ll be there in five.” She dropped the receiver before clicking her tongue. “Fuck. It’s him. He’s early.”

“Your husband you mean?” Nick asked. “Don’t you think it’s about time you came clean?”

Rachel started tucking her shirt back into her pants, smoothing out the wrinkles. She stepped away from Nick. “Put your clothes back on. Straighten up.” She tucked her hair back.

“Rachel?” Nick said intently, “Are you gonna tell him about us or what? Whatever you had, i-it’s gotta be over.” Nick brushed a strand of hair that had managed to escape her bun during their passion. He grasped her hand, initiating the burn of their marks to prove his point, “Come on, your soul knows it. This, right here? Us? This is real. I know you can feel it.“ Nick cracked a smile at her, the one that usually pulls her away from her thoughts. “He’s old news, fuck ‘im. Rachel, your mark won’t react to him at all anymore. Just touch him. Hell, a Dear John letter would have been enough.” 

She understood what Nick was saying. The same thing she’d thought to herself but never voiced. Rachel couldn’t even imagine a world where she doesn’t burn for Eric. 

The thought almost had her reluctant to go meet him, afraid that touching him will confirm that they were well and truly over. 

She thought she had more time.

Nick was holding her gaze with eyes too full of hope and devotion and Rachel had to look away. Figure out what to say to him. Her eyes shifted focus to the scattered paperwork on her table and Rachel reminded herself that, above all else, she had a job to do. “Baby, I just don't think this is the right time.”

“That’s bullshit, there’s never a right time.” Nick thumbed at the band covering his soulmark. A regulation strip of black fabric, identical to the ones all the soldiers wore. “I want to take this thing off, someday. Show the world who I’m meant for.” 

“See you at the briefing.”

“Rachel, I… I- ” Nick doesn’t finish his sentence. She can tell she had disappointed him.

He left the room without another word, roughly grabbing at his jacket on his way out.

Rachel let out a curse in frustration, but she can’t let herself have doubts now. 

Stepping around the desk, she noticed Nick had forgotten his lighter. Picking it up, she stared at it intently enough that her focus shifted to her own reflection in the metal. 

The strand of hair was out of its bun again. 

She ripped out her hair tie and redid her hair completely. She looked at her flawless reflection again, then exited the room.

Nick entered the briefing room as late as he justifiably could before the meeting started. 

This did not go unnoticed by Jason, if the look he shot him from under his cap was any indication. Joey and Merwin were leaned up against the desks next to him, usually he’d copy them but he was way too keyed up right now. His soulmark was buzzing so hard, it was practically vibrating his whole body. His grip on the heavy gun was the only thing reminding him not to hunch his shoulders up. It was almost a shame he had to put it away for the briefing. He considered for a moment falling in formation at the back but Jason would just get on his case about that too. He opted for the far side of the room from him. And if that put him away from the Colonel and closer to Rachel, well, only she would be able to tell. 

He took in the comics pulled up on the display and then again when he couldn’t make heads or tails of them the first time. For once, it was almost a relief when Merwin piped up to ask what the hell the CO was talking about. Still, Nick could barely spare half an ear to the explanation. It was the same bullshit he’d been hearing this whole tour, but he did manage a fist bump on instinct when Merwin went for one. He tuned out completely when he heard Jason was leading the assault. He’ll get everything he needs from Jason’s pre-mission checklists. 

Instead, his eyes stay on Rachel. She was in full CIA mode, legs braced apart and hands behind her back. Not a hair moving on her head as she surveyed the room. He could tell that she was keeping the mission at the front of her mind right now, though he could only hope that his words had meant something to her. 

Dammit, this might be the worst place for relationship drama and the two people he’d usually go to for a talk were stonewalling him right now, both for different reasons. Maybe Merwin could knock some sense into him? At the very least he’d give it to him straight.

“This is why we went to war! This is what gets us out of bed every morning! Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, this is how we stop Saddam from using these weapons.” 

The Colonel’s whole speech was too grandiose for Nick’s liking. It was like he was following a script given out to every desk agent in top brass who'd never set foot on an actual battlefield before. This guy was the fakest motherfucker Nick had ever seen. He wasn’t even showing them his eyes. Just a pretty boy playing at commanding officer, Nick thought to himself, And aviator glasses indoors? Who the fuck does that? 

As soon as they’re dismissed, Nick b-lined to the weapons table with Jason to do his usual checks. Even then, his eyes were drawn to Rachel, who he could see was walking up to the Colonel. His hands stilled as his whole world centered on their conversation, like he wasn’t in the middle of base camp in enemy territory with a job to do.

“Eric,” Rachel, started. As serious as he’d come to expect from her. “We need to talk. There’s something I have to tell you.”

Nick’s heart swelled three times its size. She was going to do it. She was serious about this.

“You should know, it wasn't my decision to take over your operation,” said the Colonel, hands still behind his back and dark sunglasses still blocking out his eyes. 

Nick scoffed quietly under his breath. Is this man for real? He sees his wife after a year of screaming phone calls and can barely bring himself to greet her like a colleague? Douchebag.

The Colonel paused for a slow moment, seemingly deciding what to say. Nick just wished Rachel would get this over with so they can move on. 

Mr. Sunglasses finally stepped forward and Nick had to strain a bit more to hear the lowered tone.

“It’s been a long time since we last saw each other.”

“Eric-”

“Please. Let me finish… Not a day went by when you weren’t on my mind. When I didn't want you by my side.” The Colonel's voice hadn’t changed much, but his words were noticeably softer. “I’ve missed you so much, Rach.”

Well, shit. 

“This isn’t about us, Eric.” 

Yes, it is, Rachel! Just tell him the truth.

“I just want things to go back to the way they were.”

“How we left it… Things weren’t so great between us.” Rachel said, now completely turned away from him. Practically looking in the opposite direction. It just hit Nick that Rachel hadn’t reached out to touch the Colonel even once.

“We’ve been through worse. A lot worse.”

This wasn’t what Nick was expecting.

“Look, Eric, we’ll talk. When we have time. But not here. Not like this.” 

The wind got taken out from under Nick’s sails. All the momentum he’d been building up throughout their conversation came crumbling down. He was so profoundly disappointed he almost missed the Colonel taking the final step forward and grasping Rachel’s hand. 

Nick’s focus jumped from their joined hands to Rachel’s face, then to the Colonel’s. Like he himself could feel the burn, or the lack of it, if he concentrated hard enough. Rachel was stiff as a board but the Colonel didn’t look shocked at all.

“I still burn for you, Rachel. Even brighter than before.” 

What does that mean? Fuck, he wanted to step up to them and just ask. Was Rachel feeling the burn too? Was she not? If Nick touched her now, would she burn for him? Nick, absurdly, almost reached for his band to check that his soulmark was still there.

The Colonel looked down at their joint hands and for the first time seemed uncertain. “You’re not wearing your wedding ring.”

They got interrupted by Merwin slamming down a case next to them. The sound almost made Nick jump into stance, but it was enough to bring him back to reality. He was getting too distracted, there’s less than an hour left until the raid and he still didn’t have all the details from Jason. 

He was about to turn back to the weapons table when, this time, Rachel was the one to look at him first. He couldn't tell what the look was supposed to mean. 

“Check all equipment, then check it again.” Jason was already done with his section, they were supposed to swap for a second check now, but Nick hadn’t even touched his pack yet.

“Yeah, I hear you.” Taking a hold of his gun again, he eased his shoulders down and finally got to work.

She had felt it. The burn. 

Even now, with Eric on the opposite side of the room, talking to Clarice, her mark hadn’t calmed down. She was surprised but not. 

Fuck, that’s all she needs. Rachel is well and truly fucked.

The whole situation was unprecedented, her mark reacting to Nick was supposed to mean she’d moved on. That Eric and her were over. The soulmark was a foolproof check of two people’s compatibility. Concrete evidence, it was infallible. Their situation had changed irrevocably after the accident, Nick was proof of that. It made sense. Well… it made more sense than her mark reacting to both of them. She kept trying to wrap her head around it but in every scenario a thread hung loose. 

Rachel clenched her hands with a lack of anything else to do and, not for the first time in the last year, missed the pressure of her wedding ring against her palm. But for the first time, she regretted not putting it on. Despite it all, seeing Eric go from the happiest she’d seen him in years to confused when he noticed her bare finger had cut her deeper than the burn.

It was never a question of whether she cared about him, but after meeting Nick, she had thought that they-

“Can you sign this 13-48?” Joey's sudden question made her look away from Nick. She hadn’t even noticed her eyes were on him.

“Equipment release form. Can you…”, again Joey’s question broke her revelry and she managed to sign the form with a too quick glance at the contents.

What the fuck was she doing? 

Get it together, Rach, she ordered herself. This is not the time. Don’t think about it. Not now. This won't ruin everything you’ve built. Everything you’ve worked for.

Rachel walked up to the computers and braced herself against the table, attention on the monitors in front of her. The coordinates pointed to a location at the base of the Zagros Mountains, deep into bandit territory. Reports from the area were scarce, but telling. A steady line of disappearances, mostly foreigners, but certainly more LNs that they weren't aware of. Most of the locals were too superstitious to travel the mountains, making it a blind point on their radars. 

Until now, that was. The scope of the underground structure that Caelus had detected was nothing to scoff at. Miles and miles of undocumented cave systems, though the deeper parts were rendered much less clearly. If this mission turned out to be a success it could change the trajectory of the entire conflict. More of consequence, though, it would have been her team doing it.

Even if Eric hadn’t mean to usurp her position, CENTCOM’s new orders were a heavy blow to her standing. 

Good, focus on that. 

She powered off the monitor, done with it for the moment. The black screen reflected her face back at her. She picked up her hands from the desk and her right came up with a piece of paper stuck to it. She quickly peeled it off. Her hands were sweating- Don’t think about it.

‘SUBJECT: SURVEY GROUP OBJECTIVES’ She read the first lines, ‘TO: DIRECTORATE OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE’ Her eyes slid down the list, ‘3. ORGANIZE AND DIRECT WAR OPERATIONS TO SURVEY AND EXPLOIT WMD SITES WITHIN IRAQ.’

A scowl pulled at her face as Rachel stood up straight. She had a goddamn job to do. She couldn’t lose sight of her objectives. Right now, the soulmark was irrelevant to her mission, that meant it was holding her back.

Normally, time permitting, she’d walk a round of the camp pre-mission, to get a sense of her soldiers’ state. No reason to stop now. 

Rachel set down the paper and faced the room. She may not be commanding officer anymore, but this was her team and she was still perfectly in control. She wasn’t going to let them forget that. She wasn’t going to let herself forget that.

And she knew just the person to get her in the right mood.

Merwin loomed over the climbing gear scattered haphazardly on the table before him, glaring at the harnesses like they had insulted his mother. Rachel paused inconspicuously close to him, she barely had to wait a moment before he took notice.

“I knew there was a reason you were tagging along.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, someone’s gonna have to tie all the petty little knots and shit.”

What a piece of work, but Rachel could handle him just fine. She wouldn’t have shredded all his disciplinaries if he didn’t have his uses. 

“You struggle with that don’t you? Maybe I'll get you some velcro boots so you don’t have to struggle with your shoelaces.”

“While you’re down there…”

She could do without most of the things that come out of his mouth, though. 

“What, you want me to wipe your ass for you as well?”

The Corporal’s grin would have been disturbing if he had the balls to follow up. As it was, Rachel managed to contain any of her own pleasure as she walked away from the exchange. She came out on top, exactly like she needed. 

“Damn, Rachel. You look just as pissed as some of these guys.” 

Joey was too fucking empathetic for his own good. 

“What’s up?” He asked sincerely and Rachel wished she was still talking to Merwin so she could tell him to piss off. 

“I’ve had a shit morning.”

He scrunched his nose and nodded his head to the other side of the room. “Yeah, he… he’s ruffled a few feathers, huh? How come you never told me you had a husband?” 

It’s none of your business, she wanted to say. But Joey was clutching at the card in his hand, bending it irreversibly. She realised that he’d been whistling the whole time, only now obvious to her when the sound had stopped. This will be his first regular unit activity in weeks, the backlog of paperwork he was reassigned to do could only keep him desk-bound for so long. Still, Joey had gotten used to it too quickly. She'd always thought he would be better off far away from conflict. But she can’t have him breaking down on her now, some normalcy would do him good.

“We met back at the academy. You know how the story goes,” Rachel leaned up casually next to him and bumped his arm, until he was forced to relax it into his lap. “We shook hands and felt the burn, after that we had eyes only for each other. We were ready to take on the world.”

“Yeah, that does sound pretty pathetic.”

She could have stopped there, Joey had already eased up on the card, though nothing could have saved the deck for game night. 

“After his accident, Eric spent every second working on Caelus. For me, Langley came calling. And life, as it does, had different paths for us.”

“Until now, huh?” He nudged her shoulder, but leaned it close to ask, “What’s it like?”

“What?”

“Being with your soulmate?”

Well, that was a loaded question.

“Is that too much? Probably shouldn’t have asked.”

“I don’t know what it’s like to be with anyone but my soulmate, so I can't compare.” Rachel said, keeping it diplomatic. She’d never asked any of her subordinates to disclose their soulmates, hadn’t been allowed to. A conversation about this was hardly one she was prepared for.

“Does it always… work out?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, is your soulmate the one? What if they found someone else or, or what if they’re not interested in you, or…”

“Joey?” Rachel couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. There was no way he knew, she’d been so careful, not even a close call so far.

“Nevermind. It’s nothing, just something I heard from… He-” Joey cut himself off again. “Guys talk, you know? About how many civvies they’ve bagged and I, uh, just wanted to know if that’s how it usually goes.”

This wasn’t about her. Normally, people ask how the burn feels, or how you know they’re the one, but not Joey. If she was reading this right, then… 

Oh, Joey…

“Dont let it get to you. Whatever they have going on, it’s not your business. You have a life outside your soulmate, don’t squander that.” She looked at Joey. “Do you understand, Marine?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” was his only response. He didn’t like the answer, but it was the only one she was going to give him.

“Wheels up in 30. You have a job to do.”

“...Yes, ma’am.”

He was in the middle of recounting the mags for the 9mm pistols when the Colonel approached them with a WP shell in his hand. 

“Is this what I think it is?”

“WP, sir.” Jason answered him.

“White Phosphorus?”

“It’s just for popping smoke. That's all.”

“These are only to be used for cover. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“After all, Saddam is the one who’s breaking weapons conventions.” The Colonel said firmly. “Not us.”

That was a dismissal if he’d ever heard one. Nick looked at Jason, hoping for him to say something so didn’t have to be the one to start, but he just ducked back to his table. Nick had a lot on his mind but not anywhere to put it. Jason was his best friend and he had no problems telling him just about anything, he just wanted the same back. 

He was annoyed, for sure, at Jason, at himself. Hell, at Rachel, too. Now he was insulted that the Colonel would even insinuate he’d use WP against enemies. But he couldn't argue that last one, considering... 

Nick started packing the WP containers separate from the ammo.

They’re interrupted again. This time it’s Rachel, another WP shell in hand.

“You’re packing phosphorus? Isn’t that…” 

The same question, too. Nick clutched the straps of his bag tighter.

“Yeah, it’s restricted. We’re cool as long as we use it for smoke.”

“How do these things work?”

It would usually be Nick answering these types of questions, but God bless him, Jason had either noticed his mood or the order from the Colonel spurred him into taking this into his own hands. “Standard 40mm phosphor shell. We use it for target marking, screening, or…” A beat, a shrug. “At a push, clearing rooms. Looks small, but… it spits out a load of smoke and it burns like hell.”

“Appreciate the lesson, Lieutenant.”

Jason nodded at her, then turned back to his table, “Let’s check this gear again.”

Rachel didn't say anything to him.

Nick, the coward, didn’t say anything to her either.

It’s not until they’re kitted up and ready to leave that he got his wish. The Colonel lead the group out of the briefing room, as he passed them Jason finally decided to say something.

“What?”

“What?” 

“You wanna ask me something, I can tell by that look on your face.”

“What do you think of him?” Nick motioned to the empty doorway, but there was no doubt who he was talking about.

“I take it you’re talking ‘bout the skipper?” asked Jason. “Nice guy. He’ll fit in fine, though I'd peg him for DS&T, not CO. What do you think of him?”

“Like he doesn’t need to be here. AFI’s right.”

Jason snorted. “Don’t let the Queen Bitch hear you say that. That’s her soulmate, did you hear? Looks decent.”

“Every Ross thinks he’s a Chandler.”

“That from one of your soaps?”

“I’m just saying, aviators indoors ain’t a ‘decent’ look.”

“Must be a King thing, Rachel’s got the same pair.”

That shouldn’t have hurt Nick as much as it did. Forget about the damn glasses. That’s not the issue here. “She pulls them off.”

Jason just shook his head in amusement and followed the group to the launchpad.

They ran through the mission checklist before they boarded. He didn’t even have to turn around to know that Rachel was on the same helo. The whir of the blades was normally enough to overshadow the buzz of his soulmark, but the thing was feeling particularly sensitive today, apparently. Nick clung to that feeling like a lifeline, he wanted to believe it so bad. It was the one thing that hadn’t lied to him yet.

So then how is another man burning like this for Rachel, too? Those two were over, it was cut and dry. All Rachel had to do was let him down easy.

But she didn’t.

That’s it, isn’t it? Rachel was still feeling some type of way for that man. And until she can let go, the Colonel will keep burning for her.

The big question now is whether Rachel is still burning for him too.

It was like Nick stepped in a whole different universe today. One minute he was in Rachel’s office. Holding her. Feeling her. Burning for her. And she looked back at him like he was her only hope at surviving the horrors they see every day. She didn’t say it but he knew he kept her calm, brought her back to earth gently when she tried to lose herself in her orders. Nick let Rachel keep her thoughts to herself because he could understand her without them. 

Was he kidding himself this whole time? 

He should have talked to her. He should have asked, should have talked to her before. He should have questioned her, he should have hesitated, should have missed, should have never pulled the trigger, he-

Fuck, he wanted Rachel. 

“-contact with the AWACS CP on for hour intervals.”

He was so frustrated with her, why couldn’t she confide in him like he does with her. She knew all of him, his mistakes, his regrets. She was the only one who listened and talked to him after he-

“Sargent Kay? Are you with me?”

Fuck.

“Yeah, I got it. Contact CP every four hours.”

He could feel Jason sliding over to his seat. Pull yourself together, he needed to concentrate, people were counting on him.

 “Hey. You okay?” 

One thing you can always be sure about Jason is that he’ll show up for you. 

“Yeah, I’m straight.”

“What’s going on in there?” asked Jason with a flick at his head.

He won’t be gentle about it, though.

“Just some shit I gotta work through, man. It’s all good. I’m chill!”

“So tell me what’s up,” he orders with a flick at the brim of Nick’s hat.

He could tell Jason. He'd been wanting to for a while now. He trusted him, even if Jason might not completely trust him back. More than that, Nick will go crazy if he doesn’t fess up to someone soon.

“Remember I told you I had something with one of the jawns on base?”

“Shit, Nicky! It’s about a girl?” asked Jason, like he was expecting something else. “You never did tell me who it was.”

“Not just a girl…” Nick thumbed at his band, catching Jason’s attention on his wrist. 

His eyes bulged out of his head. “Holy shit, Marine. The fuck didn’t you say something sooner?” Jason grasped his shoulder as best he could in the moving helo. “Congrats, man, I'm happy for you. I’ll tell you what, next swoop I’m treating you both to a beer, deal?”

Nick laughed out a breath, “She’d definitely like that. It’s just… we’re trying to work it out, somehow. She was…”, he really wasn’t sure how Jason would take this, he avoided the soulmate talk like it was the plague. This was already a much more positive reaction than he’d expected. “She was seeing someone else before we met.”

“Ah,” Jason paused uncertainly, “Well, I mean…” 

Yeah, definitely the wrong person to ask. But, ah, fuck it.

“She’s it for me, Jason. I know it. I can’t lose her.”

“If it’s meant to happen, it will, right? It’ll happen.” He said, like someone was pulling it out from between his teeth. Nick managed not to laugh in his face. He was trying, though. 

“Hope is all we got left.”

Jason stuck out his fist with a smile on his face, “Semper fi!”

Nick returned the bump, chest just a little bit lighter, “Semper fi.”

A damned earthquake in the middle of a warzone.

Out of all the things Eric could have predicted, this was not one of them.

The cave in had dropped him and Rachel in the middle of the cavern. The walls curving up into a horizontal overhang that not even Eric himself would risk climbing.

“Well, that’s a steep drop into nowhere.” Their only possible progression was a sheer drop into darkness.

Eric tried to gauge the depth against the length of their equipment. “We’ve got rope.” He shrugged.

This didn’t seem to enthuse Rachel too much. She crouched down at the lip of the hole and pulled a lighter out of her pocket. She flicked it open and a strong flame flicked on from the embers. 

“Hey look. There’s an airflow.” Rachel called his attention to the shifting stream. “It’s not upward movement, but there’s no other way.”

“You take the lead.” Eric suggested.

“Of course.”

They started unloading the climbing gear from their packs. As Eric clicked the last carabiner onto his belt, he glanced back towards Rachel.

“So,” he started mildly, “When did you start smoking?”

“Excuse me?”

“The lighter.” Eric tilted his head towards it, but Rachel wasn’t even looking in his direction.

“It’s nothing. Just something I picked up back at base.”

He dropped the conversation for now. Focused on properly protecting their descent. 

He hadn’t smelt a whiff of cigarettes on her breath.

The drop led them to even more tight and winding cave passages. They’d barely been walking through the cave for a few minutes when Eric felt the chill of the dry stone, drastically different from the inferno of the desert above. 

At least Rachel was with him, their soulmarks could warm them up just as well.

“I guess we could classify this as ‘quality time’.”

“You and I always did have a different view on ‘quality time’,” Rachel said without looking back.

“I happen to remember you actively searching out climbing spots for every occasion. Joshua Tree saw you more than I did.”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant now.”

Eric tried again. “Come on, doesn’t this remind you of old times, Rach.”

“You mean a sense of feeling lost?”

Eric got the feeling that they were not on the same wavelength right now. He’d told her to lead but now desperately missed seeing her face as they talked. She’d always made sure to look at him, have her facial expressions convey what he couldn’t pick up through tone.

Now he just felt lost talking to her and Eric was dreading the reason why.

The earthquake had crumbled much more than the ceiling, entire passages had turned into death drops. An inconvenient wall separated them from progression. The only way around was to dangle above a chasm. 

“The floor seems stable.”

“Yeah, it looks fine.”

Luckily this was nothing they weren't familiar with. They had done this maneuver dozens of times, barely needing to speak to get into ready position.

Eric and Rachel locked hands, using each other as pivot points to stabilize their passage. Bolstered by the heat of his palm, Eric kept them both stable without issue.

Rachel dropped his hand the moment they were standing solid. It was only as the burn faded from his palm that Eric realized that Rachel was avoiding touching him.

The next room was no better than the last. The only path leading out was, again, a hole in the ground.

Rachel clicked her tongue. “We’re already way too deep. Look around the room for any other way out.”

On his walk around the perimeter, Eric’s attention couldn’t help but latch onto the markers of old history cracked and strewn about the room. He brushed his fingers past colorful frescos that were once attached to the walls. He trailed his eyes across the scattered artifacts that he usually only got the chance to see in a museum.

He crouched down to pick up one of the figures, turning it around his hand and assessing its condition.

“It’s Pazuzu.” Rachel said behind him. Starting the conversation for once.

“Pazu-who?”

She crouched down for a closer look at the statuette. “Pazuzu.” She emphasized the word. ”Do you not watch horror movies?”

“Since when do you?” Eric shot back.

Rachel shifted her attention back to the idol. “I'm allowed to enjoy my free time at base.”

“And you chose… watching movies?”

“I wanted a change.” Eric had truly been curious, but Rachel took the question as a challenge.

“I see… Your unit has quite the characters, the rec room must be crazy. How did they manage to convince you to join them?”

She shrugged, “I had a TV in my office.” She reached out and slid the figure from his hands, doing her own assessment on the ugly thing.

“Maybe I could keep you company, next time.” Eric offered, suddenly very enthused at the idea. ”Show me what you’ve been watching.”

Rachel nodded at the idol in her hands. ”That one’s from The Exorcist. It’s a Sumerian demon. Something to do with plagues, I think.”

Eric suddenly wished she would put it down. “Plagues and demons, huh? Great.”

Rachel nodded, but with a thoughtful tilt of her head continued. “They were also seen as protective figures.” She raised the idol higher, as though it would catch the non-existent light of the sun and help her see it better. ”To ward off greater evils,” she finished.

“Evil greater than this?” He halfheartedly gestured at the figure.

The sound of distant gunfire had them drop the figure where they found it. The accompanying tremor spurred them into pushing forward.

Down the hole again.

Nick felt his stomach shoot up all the way up to his throat when the ground gave way under his feet. He managed to get his legs under him to cushion the fall, but just barely. He still landed too hard on his side and got the wind knocked out of him. Half choked but still in full assault mode, he pushed himself to his feet to scan his surroundings.

He’d barely started his turn when an explosion of static assaulted his ear. “Shit!” his radio was busted. He got back to his sweep, even though he’d have been dead by now had there really been any threats around. He took two deep breaths and when his chest didn’t protest at the shifting, he deemed himself fit enough to continue.

“Merwin! Jason!” he was close to them topside, they couldn't have gotten far.

God, let them be alright.

The opening he’d fallen through dropped him dead center in the cave, with no straight edge to climb. The walls extended up at least fifty feet and the opening he found himself in was big enough to casually park three MTVs. Damn, he’d be eating his words if the Colonel was here. 

Rachel was not nearby, that much he could tell, hopefully she was still up in the safety of the huts. 

There’s gotta be a way out of here.

Not being able to make anything out beyond the patch of light he was standing in, he reached for a flair in his pack. He quickly zipped the pocket back up but paused and with a little more care tucked away Joey’s cross. 

God, please let them be alright.

He could still hear Merwin’s agonizing scream when Joey went down bouncing around his head. That or it’s the radio blowing out his eardrum.

He chucked the lit flair in a random direction and illuminated the rock around him. 

“Jason!”

“Nick?” Jason's answering call was music to his ears. He made for the passage the voice came from.

“I’m close, man. I’m coming!”

“Don’t blow your load too fast buddy.” Oh, now he’s a wordsmith.

He’s about to shoot back a quip to keep up their improvised Marco Polo when suddenly a shadow darted across the glow of his flashlight. Nick sucked in a breath, “You gotta be fucking kidding me. There animals in this place?” 

Nick wasn’t claustrophobic but the tight squeeze and the pitch black was enough to freak him out. He really doesn't want to deal with Jackals on top of everything. He crept forward slowly to not attract any attention.

A strange clicking sound reached his ears and Nick thought his hearing got actually fucked from the radio. Walking closer to the sound, he stopped when he spotted movement a few paces ahead of him. A Jackal. The dog looked hairless but big. Too big.

A head shoot up from the body and looked at him, shriveled, deformed, it was wrong.

Nick aimed his gun at the thing, but it darted out of the way in a split second. Fast.

The adrenaline hadn’t left him from the battle above, but that thing shot a whole new dose through his body.

Did he really just see that?

He took a step back and glanced behind him. A yawning blackness was his only greeting, but he didn’t dare shift his gun from where that thing stood, even if it was gone now. It took a moment to remind himself that he’d come from a dead end. He had no option past pushing forward. Jason was still on the other end of the tunnel. 

He couldn’t even make the thing out. With every passing moment, the image of its face was getting more blurry and his fear had no problem filling the gaps. By the time he reached the light at the end of the tunnel, he almost sprinted to get out of the shadows.

The passageway opened to a bigger room than the one he fell in. This one came furnished with old ruins and a hand the size of God. “The fuck is this place.”

Nick dropped down from his ledge. A tremor brought down a rain of pebbles but thankfully no more. Only a few steps into the room, a flash of light had him aiming his gun at the source.

“That you, Nick?” Jason’s voice rang out, the light illuminated his squinting face. Full, lively, scowling. Everpresent hat still on his head.

“Get your moonbeam out of my face.” It was Jason, for sure, no one else he knew nailed that southern twang.

Nick lowered his gun and took a few steps forward to stand closer to Jason. To cover each other easier, sure. Confident now that Jason had hid back, he kept his eyes sliding across the shadows in the room, looking for things he barely believed were there. 

“We need to get back topside, regroup with the rest of the squad, and signal for MEDIVAC. This place ain’t no weapons silo, but it’s sure as fuck crawling with Iraqis... Nick?”

This shit looked old. Did they stumble on a temple or something? Awaken some insane horror movie bullshit?

“Sargent Kay! Pull yourself together. Eyes wide!”

“I saw something.”

“What do you mean ‘saw something’?”

How do you describe a thing that looked straight out of a monster flick without sounding insane. “I mean it wasn’t human.” He looked up to hammer it in. “In the tunnel.”

Nah, Jason didn’t believe him. Nick blew out a frustrated breath, “Shoulda never gotten off that helo.”

“I fucking knew it. I knew you weren’t ready for this.”

“I swear to God-”

“Do not get God involved in this bullshit! Now I don’t wanna hear another fucking word. You pull yourself together right fucking now, before you get us both killed!”

That thing was still here. “You gotta believe me.”

“No, you believe this, Sergeant. You didn’t see shit! Where the fuck is your head at right now?”

Far as fuck from here, where it’s safe.

“Is this about your soulmate, Nicky? Wipe that shit from your mind ASAP, primary goal is getting the fuck out of this rock box, nothing else matters ‘till then.”

“Easy for you to say, you don't give a shit about your soulmate.” Nick immediately regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth.

Jason stood up taller than his stature somehow to loom over him. “Say again, Sergeant.” 

“I’m sorry, sir. I was out of line.” Christ, as far as he knew, Jason never brought up his soulmate because she was dead. Nick felt like the scum of the Earth.

“I’ve sure as shit got my work cut out with you.”

Jason was right, they need to get out of here right now. He took the lead towards the heavy door. Nick tugged at it, when that failed he braced his feet and pulled. No dice, this is a two man job.

“This thing is heavier than it looks, give me a hand. I’m gonna need some more muscle.”

“You been skipping gym again?”

They were alright. But Nick shouldn't be surprised, Jason always preferred to ignore their problems.

The door opened through their combined effort and Merwin’s anguished screams filled the room. Nick was never going to stop hearing them.

Rachel’s boots hit the solid ground with a thud. The flair cast the chamber in an eerie red light, hitting the statues around them like a campfire in the pitch of night. Though, no camping trip had ever left her this off balance. The shadows stretching on the walls loomed over them like giants and in the flickering light they looked like they were moving. 

“Unbelievable,” Rachel mumbled. She wished her sight was clearer. Despite the atmosphere, this place was a marvel to look at. High walls, statues twice her height, all carved from single slabs of stone in meticulous detail. She was looking at human history in its purest form.

“We’re not the first ones here.” Eric’s voice diverted her attention from the stonework to what looked like a camp in the middle of a thousands year old temple. The modern equipment stood out starkly against the otherwise untouched piece of the past they’d stumbled upon. Well, untouched despite someone’s best efforts. “Damn it! All this crap must be what Caelus detected.

So Caelus really did work. She didn’t usually doubt Eric’s expertise, she shouldn’t have this time either. “I’m sorry, Eric. For real. You put everything into this research.”

“More than you’ll ever know.” 

“You can’t blame yourself. You were right. Caelus worked exactly as intended, but none of us could have expected this.” She made a swooping gesture that encompassed the whole room.

“I messed up. I should have triple checked the data, exhausted every possibility.” Eric got restless on his feet, moving around in the same spot, gesturing with his hands before he brought one up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “But I was so sure this was it-”

“I understand what it meant to you, Eric.”

“I’m so sorry.”

It’s not you who needs to apologize, Eric. You’ve done nothing wrong.

But Rachel only managed out and equivalent “We’ve both made mistakes.”

A clicking noise cut through the otherwise silent room. It at least snapped Eric out of his funk. He was always curious, above all else.

“The hell is that?”

At first she thought it came from something in the camp, but walking around it she could tell that none of it had been active for a long time. Underneath the dust and the rocks, she saw that the camp housed trowels, old slide cameras and measuring rods, among the sheafs of papers scattered around. “This looks like archeological gear. Somebody was studying this ruin. How on Earth have we not heard about this, then?”

Eric came up next to her, “Hey, we could use those lamps. The light could guide the Marines to us.”

“And give us a better look at what we’ve stepped into. We need to send a team down here to bring up everything this expedition crew found. Maybe, find the crew itself. Anything left of them.”

They followed the lines from the lamps to a generator that was probably out of date even when the original crew were using it. 

“Do you think that still works?” asked Rachel doubtfully.

Eric pulled the line and listened to the motor try to whir to power, “It’ll work. Just needs gas.” He looked around the room, “We need to find some.”

The camp was thankfully bare bones, obviously meant to be temporary. The records Rachel found were interesting, but unnecessary. She did take note of the oddities, the rings of dynamite around the pillars and the sabotaged blasting machine were evidence of a much more intriguing story that she didn’t have time to unpack. The WWII machine gun with the empty shells scattered around was also something she flagged, but didn't dwell on. Not when her mind was split between here with Eric and wherever Nick was right now.

“Wherever you are, Nick. I hope you’re safe.” Rachel mumbled to herself, unnecessarily. He was nowhere near to hear her, anyway. 

“Sorry? Did you say something?” Eric called over from the center tent. 

“No. Nothing.” She’s being illogical. She’d already decided to put all of this out of mind, why is she hesitating now? Rachel ran her hand up her forehead, already feeling the buildup of a tension headache. Her fingers caught on a few loose strands of hair. Goddamit. She roughly slicked the offending strands back into place and focused on her current objective.

Keep it together, Rach.

Her search yielded her a roll of duct tape and even more questions than before. But Eric’s was more fruitful, it seemed. “Rachel! Give me a hand with these cans, will you?” He smiled at her, “About time we had a little luck.” 

They picked up a surprisingly full can each and carried them to the generator. She could see why he had called her over for help, Eric’s limp was exaggerated from carrying just one can. He was checking his prosthesis over on the flight here as well. 

“How’s the leg holding up?”

“Leg? Oh you mean the prosthesis? I lost my leg back on the highway.” 

Shit, way to go, Rach. She hadn’t meant anything by it. Though, it was her own fault that Eric assumed the worst.

“Don’t,” she felt like a broken record, but now really wasn't the time for this. Yet, Eric deserved none of her attitude. Ever since the moment she saw him he’s been nothing but open and happy to see her. She sighed and admitted, “I still feel guilty.” 

“I didn’t make it easy on you, Rach. I know that.” 

Rachel could do nothing but stand and stare. In front of her stood the man from the academy. Whole and healthy, his spark was back. Nothing like a year ago, when Rachel’s grief and Eric’s pain made them unrecognizable to each other. The Eric that she’d been imagining in her head for all their time apart had healed. And he did it all without her. 

“You weren’t to blame for that crash.” He continued, but Rachel walked past him, unable to bear his forgiveness when she deserved none of it.

“Come on. Let’s get to work.”

She set the gasoline down next to the generator and let Eric do his work. “Shine a light on the tank.” He unscrewed the fuel tank and started pouring the gas in. He immediately shopped when a splash landed on his leg.

“What’s wrong?”

“Fuel tube’s worn loose. The damn valve is leaking. We have to secure it before restarting the generator.”

“I found duct tape, let me.”

They switched spots so Rachel could reach the leaking tube and start to wrap it.

“Is this a good time to talk?”

Well, they couldn’t do much else until the generator was fixed.

“That depends, what’s on your mind?”

“Back at the base, you said we’d talk when the time is right. Looks like we’ve got the whole place to ourselves.” 

He was really trying. His teasing tone was taking her back to their easy time together before the accident. When she didn’t have to weigh her options before speaking to him. When being with Eric was as normal as breathing to her. 

“This has got to be the worst date ever. Why’d you pick this dump?” she shot back. Was she crazy to be relieved that she still could?

Eric’s sweet smile changed his whole face. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. The reviews were good. My buddy Caelus must have lied to me.”

“What an asshole.” Rachel tried to keep her own smile subdued, for all the good that did. “Hey, what do you say we get out of here?”

“Best thing I've heard all night. My place or yours?”

“I don’t know. Do you still have those Ninja Turtle posters?”

“Do you still have stray cats in your apartment?”

“Your place it is.”

Eric laughed out loud and she lost the war against her smile.

“For the record, it was just Donatello.”

“Of course. And he was the sword one?” God, she remembered how pissy he’d get when she got it wrong. His outrage was so endearing she just kept doing it.

“Now that’s enough out of you.” Ah, he caught wise to her. Shame.

Rachel had kept her hand still on the valve their whole conversation, now she felt the gasoline dribble on her fingers. She reluctantly turned her attention back to it. “Wait, hang on a sec.” She wound the tape around the tear. “I think I fixed the leak. Hold the fuel pipe.” 

She tore off and secured the hanging piece and finally straightened out of her crouch. “It’s done.”

They pried open the panel on the side of the generator to uncover the fuses. Rachel pulled one out and turned it in her hand. She clicked her tongue. “They’re shot.”

Eric reached over and gently took it out of her hand. The burn tickled at her fingers when their palms brushed and Eric shot her a shy smile before turning his attention back to the fuse. Rachel joked about this being a date, but it was surprisingly reminiscent of their first one. She felt like she was meeting Eric all over again. Tentative, walking on strings, but liking what she was seeing. Bonding over their assignments because it was the only thing they knew how to do.

“Feels like so long since we worked on something together.” she reminisced.

“Same time it feels like yesterday.” 

Eric finished fiddling with the fuse but held it grasped in his hand.

“Rachel,” he started, “We’ve both allowed each other space and this… break. I mean, look what it's done for our careers! You, a field officer for the CIA and, I mean… Caelus could change the face of the entire war.”

Rachel’s good mood dissipated at the mention of their break. At the reminder of Nick. Of why she should keep her head straight right now and figure out how to deal with the mess she got herself in. So, as she does, she looked for the fastest way to change the subject, “If it ever decides to work, sure.”

It just so happened to be the cruelest, too.

“I don’t think either of us expected to be out of each other’s lives for so long,” she allowed.

“Past year or so my head’s been buried in Caelus and I've been blind to anything else.” 

“Your work is bigger than the both of us. It gave you a goal, past just surviving. I can’t begrudge it that. You look… better, Eric. I’m glad for that.”

“Rach…”

“Say what’s on your mind.”

“I’ve missed you, Rach. Like you wouldn’t believe. I wish I was better for you after the accident. Back then, I don’t know, something was missing for us, but… now, it just seems simpler.”

It took a year apart, of not seeing each other. Of phone calls that said nothing. Finding someone new. And just when she was about to end things between them, they were finally back on the same wavelength again. 

“Maybe there’s hope for us after all.” 

Eric was satisfied by the conversation, but Rachel only felt heavier. She was betraying both of them and yet didn’t want to lose either. 

Eric stood up. “That should do the trick. Let’s fire her up.” But Rachel only hung her head in shame. The strands of hair curtained her vision. There were more of them.

Eric revved the motor again, this time it took and the chamber was illuminated brightly for the first time in 60 years.

The sudden flash of the lights was bright enough to sear his eyes after his long acclimation to the dark. This is why he kept his glasses on hand. On the bright side, heh, this will definitely lead the Marines towards them.

“We have power!”

After a few long blinks his eyes had calmed down enough to take in the camp he’d spent the past half hour stumbling through. It didn’t look much different in the light.

“If there was a way in for these people, there must be a way out for us.” 

“Let’s take a look around.” Rachel’s reply was subdued again. Eric felt the pit of dread expanding in his stomach. Even after that, Rachel was still holding back.

Eric traced all the lines leading away from the generator when he noticed a thicker cord stick out from the twisted web. He followed it to a lonely tape recorder, managing to hear the plates try to spin when he got close enough.

“Rach, take a look at this.” He called her over to the half tent housing the recorder, figuring that it was their biggest lead to whatever was happening here.

“That thing still work?” Asked Rachel when she spotted the mess of the film.

“The tape is all tangled up.”

“It’s fine. I can fix that.”

He shouldn’t say anything right now, not after the relatively good conversation they had just had. But he came here to be with Rachel again. Try to fix what was broken with them. And he wasn’t going to get anywhere by ignoring their problems.

“So when did you stop wearing your wedding ring?”

“When did you stop wearing yours?”

Eric slipped the neck chain out of his shirt, the attached ring reflected the golden light in a way that made it seem bigger than it was. 

“I didn’t.” Eric stubbornly tried to catch her wandering gaze. “Always close to my heart.”

Rachel reached out and touched the ring. “You were always a good guy.” Her smile was sad. “Maybe too good for me.”

Eric grabbed her hand tenderly with his own, using the burn as proof that they still had something between them, despite what was holding Rachel back right now. He didn’t know what permission she needed to accept what he was giving her, but he will try with all his might to give that to her. No matter what she might convince herself, he was barely half the man he used to be this past year. He just didn’t want to go on without her. 

“I was afraid, for a while, that you somehow stopped burning for me when we touched. But, that’s not it, is it?”

“I do. I still feel it, Eric.”

“Our soulmarks are what brought us together. But I know for a fact that I would have fallen in love with you even without them.” Eric didn’t let go of her hand. Couldn’t. He held out his heart readily and hoped Rachel treated it gently. Even though he knew the truth would crush him.

“Eric…”

He waited patiently. Hoping that he was wrong, but being sure he wasn’t.

“There’s someone else now.”

“I knew it.”

“He’s also my soulmate.”

Eric gasped, but any thought he could form at the revelation was drowned out by the recorder blaring to life with a horrific last stand of a man’s final moments. Crashes, screams, and sounds of flesh being torn, the cacophony filled the chamber they were in. Eric had the sickening realization that this was not the first time this room had heard these sounds.

After it ended he and Rachel could do nothing but look at each other in horror.

Footsteps and a rain of dust alerted them to a presence walking up to the hole they’d descended through.

Hoping that the Marines had finally found them, Eric called a loud “Hello” at them.

Instead, he was answered with a reign of bullets. An Iraqi soldier was using their ropes to drop down into the chamber. 

“Shit!”

Eric and Rachel legged it up the stairs and through the doors for cover. Miraculously, none of the shots hit them on their way, the rope drop nulling the shooter’s accuracy.

“Any call signs, this is King. Contact, contact! Taking fire!” Rachel tried her radio, hoping the message would get through to her team, “Does anyone copy? Over.”

No answer. They were alone.

The doors opened to a small cliffside with a steep drop into nothing. The side stretched out with a narrow path leading to a cave opening that was their only shot at escape. 

“Is nothing simple in this goddamn place?” Eric’s frustration was permeable. They didn’t even have their ropes to stabilize their passage. 

They ran up to one side of the chasm, where Eric’s desperate search for any tool to help them led him to a crate piled with more archeological gear. Among the tools, his holy grail. A rope.

“You’re not serious. That looks decades old.”

"It's all we have.” He wrapped the rope around his waist and secured it on his carabiner.

“Can you see him?”

The man was still tailing them. Now walking past the doors into the dark part of the room, gun drawn and ready to shoot unencumbered.

Eric saw Rachel crouch down slowly next to him. He turned to her sharply, trying to ask what she was doing without words. Neither of them were primary combatants, their best option was retreat. Thankfully, Rachel was craftier than him. She picked up a rock from among the debris and hurled it to the other side of the chasm. The man fell for the bait, giving them room to duck out behind their hiding spot and make for the cave. 

They passed the narrow edge and were almost home free when an unexpected tremor had Rachel lose her footing and slide down the rock face.

“Rachel!”

She clawed desperately at the stone, barely slowing her descent. A single protruding rock was her anchorpoint and she had no handholds to climb back up.

“I gotcha, Rach, I gotcha!” Eric threw down one end of his rope for Rachel to secure herself to. 

The tremors had not subsided. Rachel’s rough handling of the rock pulled it loose from the cliff. She slid down further with a scream, over the edge, pulling him down the slanted cliff face. Eric’s hold on the rope was the only thing keeping her from plunging into the abyss.

“Help me!” he could only hear her desperate screams.

“You gotta stop struggling!” Eric’s weight was hardly enough to keep her up even without her moving. He heaved with everything that he had.

“Rachel grab onto something!” He couldn't keep this up.

He couldn’t even hear if she replied, Eric’s ears started ringing from the force he was pulling.

“Dammit, Rachel, Will you hold still!”

Eric locked his leg on a protruding rock to hold the weight, the pressure on his stump made him scream. He knew the procedure, seared into his mind. He couldn’t pull her up, he needed to cut the rope.

He didn’t let go.

He felt someone approaching.

“Over here! Help!” Barely caring who heard, just knowing that he couldn’t do this by himself, Eric yelled out his pleas.

He wouldn’t cut the rope. He wouldn’t.

Eric pulled out his knife and buried it as hard as he could into the rock next to him. Giving him an extra point of leverage to hold himself and Rachel up.

“Colonel! Hold on!” a voice answered his prayers. A soldier slid down and wrapped his arms around him, adding his weight to the struggle.

“Eric!” Rachel’s voice was finally audible as he shared the effort with the soldier behind him.

“Rachel?” it was the soldier that said her name, about doubling his efforts to pull them up.

For a moment it seemed like they could do it. They were pulling away from the edge. 

Suddenly the weight disappeared. The change rammed Eric back into the soldier and he immediately understood what happened. 

“Rachel!” His scream took everything out of him. With barely enough strength to support himself he thought he was going to follow Rachel into the darkness. He thought he should.

The arms wrapped around him pulled him out of the abyss. And he-

He- oh god, the burn. 

He felt the burn. 

It was searing his insides, like the first time he touched her. His skin was on fire. Did he- he just felt her die. He just felt Rachel die. 

Another scream of her name, but this time it got caught in his throat and came out as a sob. 

He turned into the body holding him and wept his burning heart out.

Rachel was dead.

Nick fought to keep his breaths controlled as he and Jason ran full sprint from the monster. The sparse patches of sunlight barely illuminated their way. Jason led their escape randomly through the tunnels, burying them deeper in the mess of caves with no way out.

Another screech from behind them, but farther back. They’d gained some ground. 

“Cover me!” Nick’s hold on his gun was unsteady. He could still feel Merwin’s last breath caught on his palm. “The hell is going on?”

“I don’t know, man. It was not supposed to play out like this.” 

Fucking A, Nick was almost relieved Jason could see them too.

“Any call signs, this is King. Contact, contact! Taking fire!” Nick’s heart squeezed at the voice on the radio, “Does anyone copy? Over.”

“That’s Rachel!”

“King, this is Mailman Two-One Actual. Say again. Over.”

No reply.

“King, this is Mailman Two-One Actual! How copy? Over.” Jason’s voice was getting desperate. “Damn it!”

“C’mon, man!” Nick urged Jason before taking the lead himself. There must be a path to her if the radio could pick up her signal.

Pivoting sharply through corners he gained a lead over Jason, but didn’t slow down at his call. 

He heard the commotion before he saw it.

“Over here! Help!” That was the Colonel.

The passageway opened up to a half room with a sudden drop into darkness. On the edge of the precipice was the Colonel, desperately pulling up a rope. Hauling so hard he was nearly laying down on the stone.

“Colonel! Hold on!” Nick slid down behind him and took hold of his shoulders.

“Eric!” Rachel’s frightened voice came from beyond the edge. 

“Rachel?” They were holding Rachel!

Nick wound his arms under the Colonel’s shoulders and heaved with a renewed vigor. Together they started to pull away from the edge. 

Nick’s rhythm was broken when the Colonel abruptly rammed into him. His whole chest lit on fire. The burn had him gasp. He was baffled for a moment before the Colonel’s scream made sense to him. 

Rachel fell.

He felt her…

The Colonel almost slipped from his grasp into the chasm. Nick immediately pulled him back. No, please. No more.

His heartbroken cry was barely a choke of air, but Nick understood it perfectly. He made the same noise.

Why? Why does this keep happening? Damn everything, damn everything straight to Hell! Rachel!

The Colonel turned in his grasp and wrapped his own arms around Nick. He clutched at him harder, looking for the same comfort he was, even if the Colonel didn’t know it. Nick’s wet breaths were quiet under the Colonel’s sobs, even muffled as they were in his shoulder. 

He had no right in the world to be holding this man. But Rachel was gone and the only one that could possibly understand his pain was him. Nick’s heart was burning but he only felt cold. It was cruel of God to remind him of the moment he met his soul, now when he lost her forever.

So Nick hugged him and held him until he felt he could breathe again.

Not nearly long enough. The rocks they were lying on started to shift them down, reminding Nick of the precarious position they were in. Not willing to let anyone else die on him today, Nick started hauling them up the slope.

At the top of the slide, Jason came to a stop. He crouched and held his hands out in waiting for Nick to hand over the Colonel, now lucid enough to help with the climb.

“I’ve got you, sir. Come on, take my hand.”

As soon as he stepped on flat ground, the Colonel stuck to his knees and stared back at where everything happened.

“What happened to Rachel?” Nick’s voice was rougher than he expected. He quickly turned away to wipe at his eyes and clear his throat.

The Colonel had no problems showing his pain right now, through a thick voice he spoke, “We… We were ambushed by the enemy… He opened fire on us and… Rach…” He looked down at the pits. “She fell.”

God why.

“I held on. I held on as long as I could.”

Nick couldn’t contain himself anymore, he turned to the darkness and yelled out, “Rachel!” Hoping beyond all hope that somehow, somehow…

He felt her die. She was gone.

He and the Colonel would have probably stayed there forever. Jason had different ideas.

“We gotta move! Colonel, we’re sitting ducks!”

He’d call him heartless if he didn’t understand. There were monsters after them. Now a shooter too. Their numbers were thinning by the minute. 

“We need to fall back. Now!” Jason led the group to the oversized doors away from the chasm. “Over there. Let's go!” 

They followed him, but Nick spared a glance at the cliff again. He saw the Colonel do the same. 

They passed through the doors into a hallway bracketed by huge statues on both sides. Old-timey lights shone brightly, Nick was relieved to step into the well lit place. More than that, it was finally quiet. 

“Slow down. He could still be here.” The Colonel had his gun drawn when walking in the room, eyes scanning for an unseen threat. Huh, he didn’t have his glasses on.

“Right now, Colonel, the Iraqis are the least of our problems.” Jason scanned the opposite direction from the Colonel, back towards the cave opening they just came through. “They’re not following…”

Jason went for his radio, “This is Mailman Two-One Actual to all callsigns. How copy? Over.” If Rachel’s signal went through here, maybe theirs will too. For all the good it did her. “Joey, report in! Over.”

Nick’s mind went to the cross in his pack.

“Joey’s dead.” He bit out, again with more force than necessary.

“The fuck you talking about?”

“The Iraqis tore right through him. He died in my fucking arms.” Like some sort of fucking curse, everything he touches dies.

“Aw no, not Joey. How the hell are we gonna get out of this?” 

The whole situation was FUBAR, they lost most of their unit and now they’re being double teamed by Iraqis and monsters alike. The love of his life was dead. What the fuck could they even do?

“We gotta lock this place down. Form a defensive perimeter and buy ourselves some goddamn breathing space.” Jason was on it, apparently. He shoved the heavy doors shut and started an assessment on the room. Nick was so grateful he had Jason to take the lead, orders were what he needed right now.

“Lieutenant.” The Colonel was considering them. “What did you mean when you said the Iraqis are the least of our worries?”

“You believe in God?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well, start believing. We are under attack by… I don’t know what. You wouldn’t believe me even if I tried.” Jason scoffed incredulously, “Hell… I don’t believe it and I was there.”

“Monsters…” Nick breathed out.

“Monsters?” The Colonel’s voice was skeptical, “Come on. You’re jumping at shadows!”

“Sir, with all due respect-”

“Lieutenant! We’re trapped down here with an enemy Iraqi, maybe more. Whatever you think you’ve seen, it’s bullshit.”

Nick shot Jason a look, asking if he liked how it felt. Jason waved him off. 

“Nevertheless, we need to secure the perimeter. Against anything that attacks us.” Jason emphasized the anything, who knows for who’s benefit. “You got these lights running, Colonel? Where’d they come from?”

“Through those doors, an expedition camp has been set up. Looks old, at least 60 years. We repaired the generator.”

Yeah, this place looks like it needs to be studied. Nick’s head barely reached the calves of the statues here. They seemed strangely familiar. Where had he seen… The Exorcist! Nick had laughed his heart out at the snake. Pazu-something. Rachel would have loved this place.

“These statues…”

“Nick! Take a mental picture and snap the fuck out of it!”

Nick signed, frustrated. “What is this place, man?”

“It’s not the silos, that’s for sure. This mission is a bust.” 

“I could fix this… The satellite. I’ll look over the data to improve the algorithm. They’re clearly teething problems.”

Fucking teething problems? You piece of shit. 

Nick was about to unload every shred of anger he’s been building up onto the man in front of him. Wasn’t he broken beyond repair? Nick barely knew what to do with himself if Jason weren’t here to tell him. Rachel deserved someone who would mourn her properly and not just move on.

But… Nick’s collar was still wet from his tears. Nick looked, really looked at the man in front of him. At his red eyes, his hands clutched on his handgun, the thing was shaking. He wasn’t dealing with it, he was distracting himself, like Nick was trying to do.

He turned away, sure that if someone stared at him for long enough they would notice the same signs in him.

“We should move on.”

The bright lights that were his main defense against his fear went out. All three of them snapped to attention and scanned their surroundings. “The generator went out.”

Jason took the lead again, “Stay and guard the entrance. We’ll check it out.” he commanded the Colonel, who took the instruction without complaint.

Jason and Nick left him behind and pushed into the darkness again.

The smell was going to do her in. 

The stench of rot, of burning flesh centuries past its expiration date. The unexpected sour twang she could practically feel coating her throat. Or maybe it was, she was covered in the stuff. 

Rachel waded through the waist high river of blood as quickly as she could, keeping her hands above the surface. Each movement stirred up the disgusting concoction, letting out more fumes that she tried to avoid breathing in. She tilted her head back for every inhale and drew her exhales out as long as she could. 

The blood was warm.

Trailing behind her were sluggish waves sent out on both sides of her body, the liquid too viscous to move much. Cutting through the middle of them was a long line of rope, frayed at the end. Her very lifeline had snapped.

Her one consolation was the fact that Eric hadn’t fallen with her.

The thick blood was slowing her down considerably, her steps were twice as forceful for half the speed. She brought her foot down, unseen underneath the red, and it landed on something. The solid mass broke apart with a sickening squish. Goosebumps climbed up across her whole body and Rachel couldn’t keep her gag under control anymore. 

The vomit was practically unrecognizable from the blood.

“Fuck… Fuck.”

She spat out the lingering taste from her mouth, then again when it didn’t go away. 

Rachel rubbed her hands harshly up her face, succeeding only at smearing the blood on them up her nose. 

“Well isn’t this just what I deserve, huh?” Nobody was around to hear her, it didn't matter. 

“The Queen Bitch in hell. Merwin would throw a party.”

Her hands reached her scalp and she tugged at her roots hard.

Don’t stop now. Don’t you dare!

Another shift underneath the surface, this one three clicks on her eleven o’clock. She gave it a wide berth, like every other time something besides her moved in the water. “That can’t be anything good…”

She stuck near the edges, hoping the blood was more shallow there. It just so happened that the debris was more visible. She expected to find the rotting old leather and the dented metal helmet; the pit must have been the dumping ground for whatever trash the temple produced. What stopped her in her tracks was a colorful flash of blue plastic.

Rachel braved the river to get closer to it and pick it up. The odd bit of plastic was a modern ID card. French in origin, designating the owner as one VINAY, MARIE.

The name was shockingly familiar. Rachel had seen it on the new batch of orders that came in yesterday, updating their mission parameters.

“Marie, how did you end up here?”

The group of aid workers she was tasked with locating. The countless missing persons records crossed her desk, each one of their names seared into her mind, every single one of them was dead. 

Rachel was standing in them.

“Mission accomplished,” She sighed out.

She pocketed the ID card. It wouldn’t be cumbersome to carry. Maybe somebody can get some closure from it.

Rachel paid more attention to the objects scattered along the shoreline. Most of the papers were too saturated in red to actually read, but they noted the age of the materials, counting back a steady timeline going back thousands of years. 

Forget the temple above, this was going to be the discovery of the century. Rachel could track the rise and fall of empires with just a walk through this blood pit. 

She dropped the metal plate she was holding a little too roughly and a splash of blood hit her face.

“Piece of shit cavern,” She spat out.

She was trying not to think of all the diseases she was discovering, too.

A cacophony of screeches and dark bodies burst out of a cave passage. 

Rachel shielded herself with her arms. “What the hell?”

It was over as soon as it began. A flock of bats disturbed out of their nest. 

Rachel considered the dark passage. Nick’s lighter would do little to illuminate her way. She ripped her one remaining sleeve and wound it around the thickest femur she could find, making a makeshift torch. A weapon if need be. She still missed her gun.

The route was no different than the main river, barring the new layer of mildew to her abused palate. 

The papers on the other hand, those were a find. Titled ‘SALIVA’, a record from the expedition group described their process for harvesting the ‘black saliva’ from the mouth of the monster. It went on to describe the effects exposure to the saliva could have to a person. Similar to those of psilocybin. 

Rachel was rather familiar with the drug trade, both back in the US and here in Iraq due to her intelligence position. She had never heard of any drug referred to as ‘black saliva’. 

Psilocybin, though. Not only was she briefed on the substance specifically, but the area had seen a large uptick in production of it. “How in the world is a WWII expedition connected to the Iraqi drug trade?” This wasn’t her department, but she knew she needed to pass this along at least. She folded up and pocketed this paper too. In her vest, though. Her pants were beyond soaked.

Rachel pushed on. There was no way she was getting used to the smell. No way she was getting it off of her either.

More shifting under the surface, progressively getting closer. Rachel was dragging herself through the blood at top speed. “Not fucking interested.”

The blood bulged, Rachel only had a moment to see the black body burst out before she was showered in a rain of red. Operating more on instinct than anything she threw her torch at the dry wood littering the walls. 

The plume of fire enveloped the room, lighting the body from every angle, giving Rachel a perfect view of…

“What the hell?” Rachel’s voice trembled.

The creature whipped its head at her. 

Rachel threw herself back, clawed at the blood, as though that would propel her faster. She vaulted the log blocking her path, submerging herself in the blood again, but that didn’t matter. 

A screech behind her forced her to turn and look. 

Stupid. 

Never look back. 

But she was transfixed. The thing was human, but stretched. A real life monster. Even in her retreat she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

An obstacle blocked her path and Rachel finally turned to the path she was running.

“Run!” 

Clarice.

She was-

“Now! Go!”

Rachel sprinted past her, through the only opening in the wall. Resolutely not looking behind anymore.

A forceful grunt from Clarice and the passage behind them crumbled. 

The silence that followed had her ears ringing.

“We have to hurry. It’s not safe here.”

They were wading through the blood again, slower now, allowing Rachel to catch her breath. They reached an incline, Clarice climbing up first and Rachel following her out of the blood.

A chill grasped Rachel when she pulled her body out, the cold piercing through her soaked clothes. 

“Better than the alternative,” she muttered.

Clarice led them through the dry passage of stone into an alcove that housed her backpack. Both of them were unsteady on their feet, Rachel was still moving like she was through tar.

“I didn’t know that you could-”

“Fight? Yeah, me either.” Clarice cut in.

Rachel did a slow circle in place, taking in their surroundings. Making sure they were alone. “What was that thing?”

“I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s not alone.” She shook her head with a wide eyed look. “One of those things got its dirty hands on me, dragged me down here. Left me for dead.”

There were more?

“Fuck…” How the hell was she alive? Rachel had almost- “Thank you.”

“Semper fi.”

“So, this is where you’ve been hiding out?” Rachel crouched down next to the backpack. She pulled the zipper open. “Got any weapons?”

“Uh, do you mind?” Clarice asked, outraged.

“I just need some batteries for this damn light.”

“You could just ask. That ever crossed your mind?”

 Right. She was dealing with a civilian.

“We’re low on resources and low on options. Now we have fucking monsters clawing at our throats. Arguing doesn’t fix anything.” Rachel straightened from her crouch. ”Listen up. I appreciate your help back there, I really do. But this isn’t a discussion. You follow my lead and we’ll get out of here.”

“Dial back on the marching orders, Agent. I’ve been around your types long enough, I don’t need the refresher.”

“Good. Then you know this isn’t personal. It’s survival. I’m in charge of that right now.”

Clarice scoffed, crossing her arms and snatching her backpack off the ground. Rachel was done with it anyway.

The light snapped into position on her ear piece and flickered on with a steady beam. Rachel did her second walk around the clearing.

She stopped at the far wall, noticing deeply gouged markings that were too intentional. She traced the lines, a strike bisecting two different sized crosses. “I saw those same symbols in the shepherd's huts.”

Clarice peeked over at her. “Those people must have been in the valley a long time.” 

“Yeah… you’d think after all that time they’d notice…”

“What?”

Rachel unclipped a pocket in her vest. She pulled out the folded paper inside, thankfully undamaged after her dunk in the blood. Folding it open, her eyes glazed over the words, but what really had her pull it out was the image drawn on the back. 

That was the monster. Its mouth open, dribbling black saliva.

“We found a hidden drug compartment in the huts.” Rachel clenched the paper tight in her hands. She held it out for Clarice to read. “We never got the chance to test them.”

Clarice squinted at the paper, eyes darting back and forth. “Psilocybin?”

“Magic Mushrooms.”

“You think those shepherds were harvesting the monsters for drugs?”

“I’m sure of it. The gas masks in the huts were covered in black unidentifiable stains.” Rachel thought back at the moment, sure she hadn’t touched them.

“The shepherds really didn’t look like the ‘monster hunting’ types.” Clarice had an eyebrow raised. “They didn’t put up much of a fight when the Marines came in.”

“No. But they surely would go after someone more vulnerable.” Rachel reached in her back pocket and pulled out Marie's ID card. “They don't risk their own lives for it. Just swoop in when the monsters are distracted.”

Clarice looked up from the drawing, noticing the ID card in her hand. “Oh…”

Rachel raised a fist to her mouth, deep in thought. Already forming a plan in her mind. “We need to scour every inch of those huts. Find a list of all the buyers and quarantine anyone that came into contact with those drugs. We have no clue what spreading any part of those monsters would do.” 

Her train of thought was interrupted by heavy heaving coughs. Clarice turned away with her throat clutched and bent over with the force of her hacks.

Joey’s medkit laid in front of him.

First his glasses, now this. Like Joey was shedding his gear. The caves were way too cold to take any layers off, he must be in shock. Adrenaline should have worn off by now. More likely it was the blood loss, if Joey couldn’t support the weight of his pack… But why would he unload the lightest gear first.

No. Not Joey.

Joey was dead.

Whatever sick game these caves were playing on Nick’s mind, he’d had enough of it. He bagged the medpack, willing to take what he could get. 

A pained scream echoed through the tunnels. 

Goddamit but it really did sound like-

“He’s close!” Jason seemed to think so too.

He and Jason approached the lit opening. It was hard to tell where the sounds were coming from. The screams bounced off the rocks in every direction, mimicking a carnival funhouse of mirrors. The effect had them twitching around at every echo, making Jason visibly antsy.

“Joey, that you?”

No answer. Nick didn’t like this one bit.

“Slow it down. Something ain’t right here.”

Hugging the face of the stone, Nick silently led the charge into the room. A standard breach, stay close to the wall, approach the door, peek around-

An AK drawn ready to fire at the first target in its sight.

Got you.

He signaled Jason a quick follow me and stepped around his cover to open fire. He clipped the Iraqi on the shoulder.

Nick ducked under the following torrent of bullets, leaping to cover behind a fallen pillar.

Is this him?

Is this the motherfucker that killed Rachel?

Nick was more reckless with his shots than he should have been.

“Get to cover!” Jason sprayed his own round of fire, trying to flank the bastard who was now just hiding behind the rocks. 

Nick shot at the rock, liberal with his bullets. Then at the ceiling above the man. Anything.

“Show your fucking face, you coward!”

“Damn it, Nick. Get down!”

Too late. Nick’s yell had already alerted the Iraqi to his position. He lobbed something in his direction and Nick’s training finally took over.

“Grenade!”

Nick booked it away from the explosive, feeling the pressure on his back when it detonated, but he didn’t stop. The force of the explosion had the ceiling crumble down behind him. Leaving him blocked off from the fight.

“Damn it!”

Jason was still in it.

Nick went for his radio, “This is Mailman Three to Mailman Two-One Actual! Come in, Lieutenant. Over.”

Nick tried again. No response.

“Fucking oorah.”

The clicking echoed around him.

Nick spun in place, aiming his gun at every shift his eyes caught. That thing was back.

“Oh no.” Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This situation was getting a little too familiar to Nick. Walking through a tight cave passage with a monster clicking just out of sight. Again he was faced with a forward push into darkness or certain death at a dead end. 

Nick advanced.

All the walls looked alike, Nick walked and walked but never got out. Every step was the same as his last. The pitch black hugged his shoulders and crawled up his neck. He didn’t look back, couldn’t face the void looking into him again. 

Had he seen that overhang before? The rock was morphing in front of his eyes. Nick tried to keep his light steady, any shakes just made the monsters flicker into view. 

Nick advanced.

He felt like he’d just fallen into the cave for the first time. He could almost convince himself of it. That nothing from the past few hours underground really happened. That Rachel was waiting for him to just climb up to her. Right after he finishes walking this passage.

The clicking came from in front of him. Behind him. It was ten paces away. It was next to him.

Nick’s shoulders were tense. He clutched his gun tighter, tighter. His shoulders drew up higher.

Nick advanced.

A shift of the rock, a few tumbling pebbles. The sound was a break from the familiar clicking. He gasped out a breath and as if unstuck for the first time, his hand reached back to his pack and pulled out Joey’s cross.

He wound the chain around his hand and palmed the cross securely between his hand and the gun.

Nick took a breath. Let out words he only spoke in his mind.

“God, please.”

Nick advanced.

The break of sunlight coming from the end of the tunnel nearly shocked him. He didn’t know how long he was walking. He saw no temple ruins, no giant hand. Just stone slabs piled high. Nick tried to keep away the crushing agony at the realization that this was all real. 

He dropped down the ledge into the room. Even though he had the same air in the tunnels, the large space made him breathe deeper. He had to go on. Backwards was a dead end, he could only advance.

The clicking noise was the clearest he’d ever heard it. Right on the other side of the slabs. Nick inched closer on silent steps, about to peek his head around the stone-

A hand shot up and covered his mouth, tugging him back to the front of a body. 

“Shh.” A man’s voice quietly whispered in his ear, “Over there, there is a demon.”

Accented. The man was Iraqi. Nick tensed in his grasp, looking for a way to gain any leverage.

The monster crawled into view. Nick stopped.

Its attention was on the dead body in front of it. Looming over, it looked like it was finding the right position for something.

“We can get through this. But only together.” The man continued next to his ear, barely audible if not for the proximity.

Nick gulped, just to feel something. He couldn’t see the man behind him. Was he even really there? He felt his next breath trapped in front of his mouth.

I can see his hand, he’s here.

It let out clicks again. Less frequently now.

“They react to sound, like bats. They hear you, they hunt you.”

Quiet. Got it.

“I’ve seen their weakness. They burn in sunlight. Like any living being, they can be killed.” Nick listened intently. “Stake through the heart.”

Where the fuck was he going to find a stake? Nick clutched his gun tighter, still trying to find some comfort in it. 

“Your bullets will only slow them down.” The man noticed, but thankfully didn't misunderstand his intentions. “Even a truck falling on them just makes them angry.”

Fucking oorah.

“We do this together, okay?”

No shot was Nick turning this guy down, not when he looked like he had his shit together. He let go of Nick’s face and stepped back, allowing him to turn and take him in for the first time.

Just a guy. Soft face and wide eyes. Uniform very green, but at least he was human.

“We can kill it. You move into a flanking position and get its attention.” Nick stared incredulously at the rusty pipe the man was holding. Until he saw the blood on it. “I will do the rest.”

The man seemed confident and ready to take charge. Nick was almost grateful to be given orders right now.

“I’m ready. Let’s do it.”

They separated to approach the creature from opposite sides. On silent steps they both crossed the rocky terrain in a pincer movement toward the monster. 

The vile beast was still focused on the body beneath it. Nick focused everything on making as little noise as possible. Coming out of the slabs on agile feet, he got as close as he dared. He was out in the open, but the beast didn’t see him.

The soldier was right there with him, creeping much closer to the monster. At the man’s signal, Nick unloaded his mag into the thing. Just like he said, the bullets knocked it back slightly, but mainly just drew its attention. 

The creature stretched out to its full height, painting an intimidating sight to someone with an empty gun.

It screeched at him, ready to pounce but it was knocked to the ground before it even had the chance. The soldier stood on top of the beast, metal pole in both hands, driving it into its back, where Nick imagined the heart would be. 

He ran up to help shove the stake through but hardly needed to do anything. The man held the thing down until it stopped moving, then he yanked the pole out hard with a sickening squelch.

Where the hell has this guy been this whole time?

They stepped away from the grotesque corpse. Nick took a good minute just staring at it, waiting for a twitch, a sign it was still alive. But none came. It was truly dead. They killed it.

These things can die.

Nick closed his hand around the cross still in his palm and mouthed a thank you skywards.

He turned to the soldier that probably just saved his life and sanity. 

“I’ve seen ugly in my life. But never that ugly.” Speaking out against these things felt dangerous, but in the light of the open chamber, with it dead at his feet and with the soldier who helped him do it, Nick finally felt free to just say what’s on his mind. “What the fuck are we up against? Those things are everywhere!”

The man was crouched down, actually inspecting the corpse up close. He looked up at him, “Never before have I ever seen anything…” He took a breath, the whole ordeal exhausting him too. “so vicious.”

The soldier shifted from the monster to the body it had been eating, Nick had forgotten about it. The man kneeled next to the soldier, his comrade, and gently straightened the body out of its unnatural bend. He pulled the shemagh over his face, covering it completely. With a hand held over his heart he spoke a prayer for his fallen brother, “Inna lillah wa inna ilayh raji‘oon.”

Nick averted his eyes, the moment was too profound for him. That this man stopped in this hell to honor the dead for even a moment, it left Nick ashamed he couldn’t spare the same respect to his own people. 

Nick took a knee next to the soldier, hoping he wasn’t overstepping, hoping he wasn’t insulting. He brought his hand up, pressing the cross to his forehead and bringing it down to his chest. He stopped halfway, hesitating to complete the cross. He tilted his head down for a moment of silence. “Rest now.” He was doing what he wished he had done. To everyone he lost today. 

To Rachel.

The man smiled at him, not a hint of judgment in his face at Nick’s vulnerable display.

Grateful for the act, but unwilling to stew in it, Nick got to his feet and tried to assess their situation.

“What do you think those things are?” The man, also standing up, asked Nick.

“You know what, I don’t know. I didn’t think to ask.” He glanced at the thing. “How about you?”

The man shook his head with pinched eyebrows. “I don’t know what they are.” The craziness was getting to everyone it seemed, the man let out a laugh. “I- I shouldn’t be here. I should be home… with my son.”

“I hear you. Family is everything.” Nick would do a lot just to see his loved ones again.

“I should have never come here.” He swung around his pole with a chuckle, “It’s his birthday today.”

“Oh, man. You really shouldn’t be here. How old?”

“Old enough to think he’s a man, when he’s only still a boy.” The man’s good mood plummeted. “He just turned eighteen. And yet again, I am absent from his life… I have many regrets, but not watching him grow old each day, that is my biggest.”

The man’s eyes scrunched up, he shook his head and let it drop like it was too heavy for his shoulders. He wasn’t even talking to Nick, just confessing the sins that led him to this hell.

“I… I also shouldn’t have come here. Almost didn’t, I-” Nick cut himself off, not believing he was considering telling a stranger when he couldn’t even tell his closest people. “If I hadn't met my soulmate here, I would’ve deserted.”

“I am sorry, brother. War keeps us both prisoners… But you have found some beauty in this hell, that is something to celebrate.” He offered Nick a kind smile.

“Wish I had told her that,” Nick said, keeping his eyes toward the ceiling. ”She died in these caves.”

“Forgive me.” And the man truly looked like he meant it. “Please, accept my condolences.” He put his hand on his heart, honoring Rachel like Nick tried to honor the man’s comrade.

“I never even told her I love her. Kept hesitating, kept telling myself that I’d say it next time. But I never did.”

“How you spend your days is how you spend your life. Do not hesitate to show your heart, lest you live only trapped in your mind.”

A monster hunter and a therapist. This guy’s got it all.

“Well, if we’re already this close, you should at least know my name. Nick Kay, Sargent.”

“Salim Othman, Lieutenant. Iraqi Army.”

They shook hands. A useless gesture now, Nick had already lost his soulmate. He’d never have to check again.

Salim sheathed his pipe like a warrior’s blade and leaned down to take the gun from his comrade. “Shukran, yā akhī.”

“Let’s get out of here, Salim. Your son and soulmate gotta be missing you.” Nick was projecting.

“Ah, no soulmate for me, my friend. Yet another regret in my life, that I did not get the chance to meet them.”

The radio crackled alive with Jason’s voice, “This is Mailman Two-One Actual to Mailman Three. How copy? Over.”

Nick’s hand darted to his radio. “Solid copy, LT. I see your light. Keep moving forward, I'm just ahead. Over.”

Eric tore off the last strip of duct tape and wound it around the cracked table legs, securing it for the time being. He gave it a couple of light shoves and was satisfied that it held. 

“Should do the trick.”

He unloaded most of his pack onto it. Five wireless cameras with retractable stands, backup Memory Sticks, small-capacity USB drives with Caelus data on them, his portable laptop and the printed maps he brought along for redundancy. 

He was grateful to unload all the weight, it hadn’t made his earlier maneuvering easy. He shifted to his good leg to alleviate just a bit more pressure. 

He wound the rope he retrieved from their drop into the throne room and secured it back in his pack.

After a moment he packed the roll of duct tape, too. He couldn’t leave it behind. The maps he would leave out for the Lieutenant to consult before securing the perimeter. The last thing he pulled out of the pack was his voice recorder.

A hit of dizziness forced him onto both his legs to keep his balance at the idea of what he was going to do with it. 

“Damn it. Get it together.”

It had resembled a life sized doll when the Lieutenant dragged the thing to their base camp. He could only manage a “Dear god, you were right.” before he ordered them to lay the body on the only sturdy table they could find in the camp. The enemy soldier they brought with them ranked much lower on his priority list. 

Eric took a steadying breath, he hoisted his pack on his shoulders and pocketed his recording device. Never before had his thirst for knowledge been so daunting.

He exited the small tent, initially planning on getting straight to the autopsy, but hesitating before he could take the first step. He instead headed towards the main passageway in the room. He needed to do something about his leg first. 

Eric considered their temporary base. The airflow was decent. He would have thought the holes they fell through were to thank, but the air didn’t feel stagnant and the layer of dust covering the room was smaller than he would have expected, considering its age. There were permanent openings beyond sight. Good.

The lamps were holding steady for now. Eric had considered cutting half of them off to preserve power, but with monsters around, visibility was their best asset.

In the remains of the archeological camp he found crates stamped with both English and Arabic characters. Opening them, he found their uneaten rations. Canned goods, wrappers of hard tack and canteens of water. Some dented, but mostly whole. 

He pushed the crates out of the alcove, flagging over the Lieutenant.

“Sir?”

“See what you can salvage from these. We don’t know how long we’re stuck here.”

“Will do.” He got to work.

A good find. Both for their survival and morale. But Eric was looking for something specific. His stump was starting to feel constricted. This terrain was older than anything he’d trained for. Cyclopean stone bricks that could apparently hold a candle to modern engineering.

And the statues.

Winged, leonine, snarling. Pazuzu. Every one carved from solid stone, massive enough to stop gunfire, heavy enough to make perfect barricades. If only they were closer to the entrances. As they were, they stood too far from the doorways to be moved, even with leverage.

That’s strange.

Rachel had called Pazuzu a protector. A ward against greater evils. He’d dismissed it at the time, folk tales formed from the fear of the unknown. But these statues didn’t face outward, toward potential invaders.

They faced inward.

Toward the chamber’s heart.

Was it possible they weren’t guarding the temple from intruders, but themselves from something inside?

Eric fiddled with his arm band to stop the shakes. Because if the statues had meant to be protection, they had failed. He tore his eyes away from them, back to the camp, and let his earlier frustration take over.

“Not a single goddamn medkit in this place.”

He sighed and sat down on the nearest crate to assess the damage. 

Jean leg pulled up as high as it could go, Eric unlatched the mechanism keeping his prosthesis secure. He gently set it next to him and pulled off the compression sock. 

The stump throbbed, not with anything serious just yet. “Skin is intact… no open wounds, no swelling.” Raw soreness along the edge where the tissue rubbed against his sock. A tiny patch of skin had irritated, likely from hours of friction on the uneven cave floor.

He pressed it lightly with his fingers; the pain was sharp for a second, then dulled to a persistent ache, like a pebble lodged just under the skin.

He flexed the muscles around his stump. “Range of motion is fine. Pain is dull, localized.” He sighed, “Keep pressure light… Like that’s possible.”

Eric didn’t hear the footfalls until they were right behind him. But even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to hide this in time.

“Sir…” It was the Sargent. “I had no idea.”

That was by design.

But with the situation they found themselves in, knowing their weak points was necessary. 

“Car accident, on our honeymoon. We pulled up from the rest stop, truck was going too fast and… ”

Too much information, this wasn’t relevant now.

Eric couldn’t stop himself. This damn leg was the source of all his problems. What made him less of a man, literally and figuratively. His every misstep traced back led him to this awful stump.

“It’s what drove us apart. Healing took long. Physical therapy took longer. But Rach was just about to hit her big break in the CIA… and she couldn’t put her life on pause for me.”

He wished he’d clutched her tight and never let go, even back then. But he was never enough for her. Never enough.

“I didn’t want her to, but I was hurting… and I hurt Rachel, too.” The truth was being pulled out of him. The Sargent had barely asked, he couldn’t show this vulnerability to his subordinates. Rachel wouldn’t have.

He resisted looking at the Sargent, not wanting to see how badly he was misstepping. 

“Do you need help?”

This man had pulled him out of the abyss with his bare hands. How could he ask for anything more from him?

“No. The leg is nothing. If the impact was any different, I could have lost Rachel that day… 

I would give up my other one to have her back now.”

He finally broke his gaze from his missing leg. Braced to be told how unfit he is to be leader again.

What he saw was an expression of utter heartbreak. 

“I know, sir.. I’m so sorry,” a shaky inhale, ”Rachel was a good woman.”

“The best. She was the best. I should have done so much more for her, and now I'll have to live with never being enough.”

“I saw you, Colonel. You did do everything for her. She’ll know that.”

The soldier extended his hand, looking like he’d grab his shoulder, but he pulled away at the last moment. Good, Eric couldn’t take any pity right now. No matter how sincere. Especially coming from a soldier he’d never talked to before. He wondered why he felt the need to approach him now.

Eric felt too exposed with his stump open to the air, he put his prosthetic on with barely half the rest he’d like to have. The whole conversation was rubbing him raw, he wanted the feeling contained to just his leg, if possible.

While he had the soldier here, Eric could get started on his analysis. He stood on both legs, facing the Sargent as he should. As his superior.

“That thing, tell me how you took it down.”

The Sargent looked surprised at the change of topic, but answered him all the same. “Rammed a pipe through its heart. Salim had it all figured out, you’re better off asking him.”

Eric sighed. “Anything else.”

“Yeah, actually. The clicking they do? It’s how they see. I was standing in its sightline for a good few seconds, but it only turned when I started shooting.”

“Echolocation,” Eric mused, ”They don’t just look like bats. They operate like them, too.”

“It was eating a man on the ground, I’m sure of it. But it didn't take any of his flesh, just the blood.”

“You’re seriously telling me that thing is a Vampire?” 

Demons. Vampires. Was The Grinch coming this Christmas, too?

“It’s no Count Dracula… But what else could it be?” 

“Right.” Eric rubbed his temple. “Thank you, Sargent. I’ll talk to the prisoner.”

“Go easy on him, Colonel. He’s a good guy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. The camera equipment is in the tent, get ready for your mission.”

“Aye, sir.” He hesitated a moment, pursing his lips together, before letting out, “She was… strong. Stronger than anyone else. But she leaned on you. You could see it. She wouldn’t want you tearing yourself apart in this place. She’d want you moving forward. Getting us out.”

Eric considered him. “You sound like you knew her well.”

He nodded quickly. “I mean… Everyone did. She had that way about her. Made things feel… steadier. Like there was a point to all of it.”

Nick looked away after that, started entering the tent. “You fought like Hell for her, sir. Anyone who saw that would know what kind of man you are. Just thought you should know.”

The flaps hid the soldier as they draped closed, leaving Eric with a lump in his throat he tried to swallow.

Rachel wouldn’t have stopped here. She never had. Fear, pain, exhaustion, she treated them like obstacles, not endings. She took one look at the darkness ahead and told him to keep moving, that there was still work to do.

Eric swallowed and forced himself forward.

For Rachel, he thought. I can keep going for Rachel.

Entering the central tent, Eric did his best to avoid eye contact with the specimen for the moment. He spotted the prisoner, the Lieutenant with him. Kolchek left a can from the provisions crate, along with a canteen next to him, but the soldier didn't reach for them immediately.

“Sargent Kay is in the corner tent, your supplies are in there. The maps have clear data for the passages on this level. Plan your route accordingly.”

“I hear ya, Colonel.” He nods at the prisoner. “Keep an eye on this one.”

The prisoner said nothing, just kept his gaze down.

The Lieutenant left the tent, he didn’t expect him back until his job is done.

Eric crossed the tent with long strides, finally letting his eyes take in the body prone on the table on his way. It had the semblance of an anthropomorphic shape, though no one would confuse it for human. He stopped in front of the Iraqi.

“I want you to tell me everything you know about these creatures.” He gestured to the black char of a body behind him. “Have you seen them before?”

The man kept his head down, as if he wasn't hearing him at all.

“Do you know where they came from? How many are there down here?” Did the man even speak English? 

“I hope you are a believer, brother. When those things come back, you’re going to need a higher power to pray to.”

His English was fine. He just didn’t have anything useful to say. A different line of questioning, then.

“How many of your men are here? Are you still in contact with any of them?” 

The man was back staring at the ground.

“How about a man with glasses and a hat?”

A twitch of the eyebrow. Recognition.

“Answer me!”

A distant explosion diverted Eric’s attention to the monitor of his laptop. 

“Mailman Two-One Actual, this is Dropkick. Request update. Over.”

The radio cracked to life. “Two-One Actual, receiving. Cameras are green and the holes have been demolished. Over.”

Despite knowing this was their mission, the sound had still sent a ping of dread through Eric. 

“Good work, Lieutenant. Sweep through the eastern corridor and be on your guard. Over.”

“I hear you. Over and out.”

Eric braced his hands on the table where he set the monitor. He had to lead his men out, that was non negotiable. He didn’t know what to do about the creatures. Yet. But there was one threat he could neutralize. He turned back to the Iraqi.

“When the ground collapsed, how many fell down with you? Were you with the man that attacked us earlier?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar!”

“I did not attack anyone. Do you not understand? We are not enemies here.” He jerked his head behind Eric, at the body. “The demons are.”

“Those things didn’t take my soulmate from me. You people did.”

“Your soulmate?”

“Yes! On the cliff… She fell.”

A long silence between them.

“I see… I am sorry to both of you. Truly.”

“Your apology means nothing to her. Not now.”

“I am sorry to her as well.” A strange thing to say, but Eric wasn’t going to be giving him any English lesions right now.

Eric hung his head, view falling on the creature. The sight was a reminder of what he really came here for. He pulled the voice recorder from his pocket and hit record. 

“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Eric King of the United States Air Force. I’m a chief nuclear engineer of the Iraq survey group, tasked with locating hidden chemical weapons.” He sighed, sure it was going to be audible on the recording. “Our mission has uncovered something… Unexpected. I will now begin an autopsy of an unidentified lifeform.” 

He kept the autopsy clinical. Minimizing touch with the specimen as much as he could. Old leather gloves he found in the camp and a piece of fabric covering his mouth and nose acting as his only barriers. 

Keratinoid claws and fangs rupturing from fissured skin. Two of the incisors protruding extremely from its mouth, textured differently than the rest. What fluids were left were completely unidentifiable to Eric. What conditions had this creature evolved in? Why was it so different than anything Eric could recognize?

He was interrupted by the prisoner. “Can I ask what her name was?”

“Whose name?” He asked exasperated. 

“Your soulmate. What was her name?”

“You don’t get to talk about her.”

“Please, I don’t mean anything by it. It’s just…” The man’s voice took on a gentle quality, “We are stuck here together.”

“You want to talk? Alright. Why are you still fighting a war that you’ve already lost?”

The man chuckled silently, shaking his head.

“You think I do this out of choice? That I want to be here?” The man leaned forward, the most serious he’s seen him yet. “I fight so my son can go to university, so that he can have a better future.”

“We could all use some of that.” Eric looked down at what was left of the corpse after he had dissected it. Suddenly he was so tired of the fight.

“My son, his name is Zain.”

Eric looked at the man he had tied up. He suddenly regretted not giving him at least a scarf in protection from the autopsy.

“Her name was Rachel.”

He was done with the conversation. Eric was hardly going to talk about his shortfalls as a soulmate with a man he’d just met. One he’s holding prisoner to boot. He reset the face mask and pulled out the UV lamp. Damn, Eric had forgotten to pause the recording, he’ll cut that part out.

“I will now perform a UV sweep to further inspect the fluids.”

“Hey!” He was interrupted again. “Some advice?”

“What?”

“The demon does not react well to sunlight. I would be very careful with that light.”

Eric considered the light in his hand.

“Why do you say that?”

“I saw one of those creatures burn when exposed to it. It might have the same reaction to that lamp.”

“All the more reason to test it out now, instead of later.”

Eric clicked on the UV lamp and ran it across the creature’s body. Soft sounds of sizzling followed the path he traced, before all at once the body burst into flames.

Rachel crested the hill with a grunt and turned to grab Clarice’s hand. 

Clarice was getting weaker with every passing second. Rachel was practically pulling her dead weight up the wall on her own. She immediately collapsed when she made it up. Her skin was sickeningly blue, even for the cold of the caves.

“You okay?” It was a stupid question, but there was nothing else she could offer.

Clarice sucked in breaths like it was difficult to swallow. “Yeah. Just need a minute.”

“A minute isn’t gonna kill us.” She tried to busy herself while Clarice took her moment. They still had a ways to go, but the rock was much more manageable at this height.

“Until it does.”

She straightened up into a hunch and it looked like she could go no further.

“God, you look terrible.”

“Gee, thanks Rachel. You ever think about going into motivational speaking?”

“Your filter goes first when you’re sick.” Rachel shot back, but immediately sighed, “Seriously though. Are you okay?”

“Ask me one more time, why don’t you?”

Alright, that’s enough. Rachel started plotting their course up the ledge. At Clarice’s pace it would take them at least another twenty minutes.

“You know, you’re exactly how Eric describe you.”

She whipped her head back at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a hard-ass. Stubborn. Take what you want without caring what anyone else thinks. He was nicer about it though. Made you sound driven instead of selfish.”

“I don’t see how any of that is relevant right now.”

“What else is there to talk about?”

Rachel was done entertaining her. She walked up to the ledge and started testing the handholds. “We’re not talking at all. We need to focus on getting out of here.” 

Clarice shook her head with a scowl, not even listening to her. “He was so goddamn excited to see you. You should have seen him bouncing around in the helo.” Clarice sighed. “He felt your soulmark from miles away. Thought i was witnessing true fucking love.”

“What? You got jealous?"

“...Yeah.”

Rachel pushed off the wall.

“Excuse me?” She exploded.

Clarice looked her in the eye. “Yeah. Reminded me that I’ll never get that feeling again.”

Oh.

Rachel averted her eyes at her assumption. “I’m sorry.” She hardly had grounds to react like that when she- “What do you mean he felt it from miles away?”

“I mean he started clutching his hand like he was meeting his soulmate for the first time all over again. What the hell did you do to that guy? You potty trained him, too?”

For the… first time. 

Nick’s earnest face flashed in her mind for a moment.

“I…I didn’t do enough,” She admitted, ”Eric always gave more than he got. More than I gave.”

Clarice dragged herself to an upright ledge and leaned her weight on it, taking the strain out of her legs so she could focus on talking. “I know the feeling.” She wasn’t even looking at Rachel, her attention was somewhere inward. ”Maya was like that. Everything was so easy with her, I took it for granted that she would always be here.”

“How did she…” Rachel probed.

“Heart disease... She was doing so well for a while, but one day she just…” Her face froze impassively. ”Take what life gives you, Rachel. You can’t do anything when it’s gone.”

The moment stretched out longer than was comfortable with Rachel having nothing to say to that. The chill on her bare hands echoed the chill in her heart and she desperately missed the warmth of her soulmate. Of both of them.

“My soulmark reacted to someone else.”

“Nick?”

Rachel reached up to tug at her hair. “That obvious?”

“That you’re with him, yeah. Didn’t figure the soulmate bit. Congrats.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

“What are you talking about? You have two soulmates, twice over what some people got. You get blessed by the gods and you go around acting all high and mighty and woe is me.”

“You think this is all sunshine and rainbows? I’ve betrayed both of them!”

“Hell, Rachel. They’re your soulmates! Talk to them! They’ll understand!”

Rachel raised both her hands and tangled them in her hair.

“Either that or fuck the whole thing up for yourself. Second option sucks ass, in case you wanted to know.” Her last words were choked out through another cough.

Rachel was content to wait out the attack, hoping the conversation would drop, but Clarice just kept getting worse.

“Clarice…” She held out her hands, trying to stabilize her. “What did that thing do to you?”

“Please…” Her tone shifted completely. The word raked access her throat, agonizing. Her arm was clutching her chest like it could force the air in. “Please don’t leave me down here alone.”

“It’s okay… I’m here.”

Clarice pressed her face against the stone floor, sucking breaths that refused to stay down. “Promise that you’ll stay with me…”

“I won't leave you. I promise.” She looked up to gauge the distance to the top. She could do it. “There’s medication up there. It may help you. But we need to move, now!”

Rachel did her best to secure Clarice to her back, the old frayed piece of rope finally useful. Step by step, handhold after crevice, she lugged them both up the hill. At the final push, she secured Clarice to the rock, unwound the rope and leveraged her way to the top. Clarice right behind her. “Give me your hand!”

They made it up, they were almost- 

“We’re on the wrong side of the chasm. We’ll never make it.” Another fit of coughs.

The drop was daunting. More than that, Rachel knew exactly how it felt to fall down it. She wasn’t planning on doing it again.

Rachel grit her teeth, “Don’t quit on me now!”

She threaded the last hook in her pack on the rope and swung it up so it lodged onto the overhang above the pit. She tugged at it until she felt it was secure. “We swing over.”

“That rope won’t hold.”

Rachel readied her swing, but didn’t get the chance to follow through.

“Wait!” Clarice stood to her full height, eyes sunken deep and bruised. Skin bleached of any color she had. She looked like death on two legs. “Do you really believe those medications will help me?”

“We don’t know enough about those things.” Rachel tried to soften the blow.

“Come on, Rachel. Don’t bullshit me.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “It doesn’t look good.”

“Truth is so overrated.” Clarice’s lips stretched to a thin smile. “If it happens… If i turn. You have to kill me.”

“If you turn, it won’t be you I’m killing.”

Clarice nodded at her, accepting.

With a secure grip, Rachel rocked back and swung over the chasm, the move coming easy to her. After having secured her footing, she turned back to take in the state of the rope again. Thankfully it wasn’t compromised.

She threw the rope back.

Clarice caught it. She hesitated.

“Don’t get cold feet on me now.”

Clarice kept holding the rope.

“Damn it! Swing over!”

Nothing. 

Rachel yelled out, “That’s an order!”

“Maybe…” Clarice finally looked up at her, her eyes were glassy. “Maybe I’m meant to be with her after all.”

She dropped the rope. It swung to the middle of the chasm, suspended by only the rocks above it. Unreachable to either of them.

“Goodbye, Rachel.”

Clarice turned away, but Rachel was still stuck staring. Uncomprehending. She just… gave up. Rachel thought she was better than that.

Clenching her fists, she turned from the chasm. This isn’t the end of the road for her. One thing was for sure, she didn’t, under any circumstances, want to end up like Clarice.

The chasm sounded like what Nick imagined Hell was like. Unholy screams of agony that twisted and warped into something inhuman. He couldn’t see anything in the depths and he was grateful for that.

He strained trying to hear Rachel’s voice among the choir.

After what happened to Joey, Nick tried to brace himself for anything.

“I’m not seeing anything come up, but I can hear ‘em,” he spoke into his radio. “Sounds like they’re having way more fun down there than we are up here. Over.”

“Long as they keep the party to themselves, I’m happy.” Jason’s voice crackled through the radio. “We’ve got nothing on the cameras inside, I’m coming to you. Over.”

“Eyes alive.”

The scattered notes didn’t catch much of Nick’s attention, but he did follow the obvious trail to the section of the cliff that housed a small tent.

It was more of a tarp held up by an improvised wall, but it did the job. The decades old radio shielded under it was in good condition physically. 

Jason jogged up to his position, as promised. 

“If they hit us, my best guess is it’ll be from the chasm.”

“If? You feeling optimistic Lieutenant?”

“I’m feeling pissed off, Sargent. I tell you, the Colonel could lose his own ass if it wasn’t pinned on him.”

“Give it a break, Jason. Not like he could have predicted this.”

“Alright, Nicky. Just tryin’ to defuse the tension. You see our absent friend down there?”

“Salim? Nah, he’s gone.”

“We’re facing an enemy we know zero about. Enemy of unknown size, on their home turf. Sucks to be us.” Jason shook his head, glancing back at where he came from. “I don't know how long those doors can hold them back.”

“The radio’s our best shot. We fix it up, call in the cavalry. Even shit up a bit.”

“If there’s a transmitter up there, it’s going to have a limited range. One thing Eric did manage to get right about this shit show…”

“He gave us air support,” Nick finished the thought. “Lord loves a miracle.”

Nick nodded towards the radio. “I’m gonna need a hand to get this running.” 

The Colonel finally caught up with them. “That thing looks like it was sabotaged. Why would they do that?”

“We gotta work with what we have.” He popped open the casing, fingers already coaxing wires back into place. “Capacitor’s shot, but the coil might still hold,” he muttered to himself. “If I can reroute the ground and warm the tubes slow, radio might start talking.” 

Jason whistled low.

The Colonel had an eyebrow raised towards him.

What? Didn’t think he could do it?

“You know… if we can stabilize the current instead of boosting it, it might hold long enough to transmit.” The Colonel offered.

Nick paused, then nodded. “Yeah… yeah, that could work. Keep it from frying the coils. Might buy us a few clean seconds… Huh. That’s actually not bad, sir. Less push, more control. I like it.”

“Should I leave you two alone with that thing?” Jason’s interjection was not needed right now.

The radio flared to life. There was an audible click as a signal took hold. Nick pushed himself up from the table he was hunched over. “Thank you!”

The Colonel leaned over to inspect his work. It was pretty clean if Nick said do himself. 

“Good job, Radioman.” 

Huh, seems he thought so too.

“You know, back in WWII, the Radiomen were the most valuable members of the platoon. It didn’t matter who carried the biggest gun, if you could call in backup, you were more valuable than gold.”

“Guess some things don’t change.” Nick huffed quietly, not quite a laugh.

The Colonel offered a small, genuine smile. “Means you’re in good company. Wars were won because one stubborn radioman refused to let the line go dead. Whole operations lived or died because of men who could make scrap metal talk.”

Nick swallowed, the unexpected praise making him oddly nervous. “Guess they had to trust God…and the wiring.”

“Hope that radio prays back,” Jason added. “You getting something, Nick?”

“Give it a second, signal’s still bouncing around.”

Nick was no less impatient than Jason, though. His fingers suddenly itched for a cigarette. Shit, he thought he kicked that. Rachel was going to kill him-

Shit.

He reached for his pack of smokes, shook one out and put it between his lips.

“Those things’ll kill ya, Sergeant.”

“Yeah, like smoking is the biggest threat to my life right now.”

Nick padded his pockets, searching where he usually kept his lighter. “The fuck did I leave my lighter?”

He didn’t suppose anyone else carried one. Jason never did. He looked up at the Colonel to ask him, but found him already staring intently.

Damn, nobody wants him having a smoke.

Nick sighed, “Alright, alright.” He pocketed his cigarettes.

Rachel would be happy, at least.

The low static of what could sound like voices started emanating from the radio. Jason perked up in interest, but…

“It’s just a ghost signal, even without a transmitter a radio picks up a faint signal. It’s just ghosts man.” Nick shook his head.

“So fix that transmitter. If we can contact CENTCOM, then we’re one step closer to home.”

“I don’t know man. I’m no technician, really.” Great, after all that talking up from the Colonel, Nick ended up being useless. “If Merwin was here though…”

“No shit. Embrace the suck.”

Nick leaned his hip on the table, figuring he doesn’t have to worry about jostling the radio anymore. His gaze landed on the Colonel, who seemed deep in thought. Nick felt a little embarrassed at showing his ass just now.

“I guess I’m no Radioman after all.”

He nodded back, attention elsewhere, “You did what you could. That’s all anyone can ask.” He was looking away from him.

Nick’s hand twitched, almost reaching toward the Colonel, as if to get his attention back. He caught himself instantly, lowering it to his side. The impulse was confusing, unsettling. He didn’t understand why it had been there, he and the Colonel weren’t that close yet.

The radio screeched.

A continuous static noise, almost reminiscent of the screams from the chasm. A chill traveled up Nick’s arms, but he quickly stuck them under the lid to cut the sound.

“Shut it up!”

He was trying!

Nick tried being gentle with the thing but when the mirroring screeches started from the depths he began pulling whole wires out. 

Both Jason and the Colonel took up guard positions around him, buying him time for a task he wasn’t sure he could do.

“Get that transmitter working NOW!”

“I need more time!”

He didn’t know if it was a trick of the echo, but the sounds started getting closer.

“Colonel, get back inside the temple!” Jason ordered.

“I’m staying here!”

“I need you on the cameras in case we get flanked. I’ve got this.”

Not likely. The Colonel was just a sitting duck out here. He would be much safer in the camp.

“Lieutenant, I-”

“I said, I’ve got this. Go!”

The Colonel booked it to the doors and Nick let out a breath. His attention was back on the radio now, hands steady. He almost had it, he almost-

The radio burst into sparks. Not from internal damage, a bullet was shot right through it.

Jason swung over his gun in no time, laying down enough fire for Nick to get with the program and find cover.

“Shit!” It was that Iraqi again!

Nick joined Jason’s barrage with a yell, but the pillar the Iraqi was standing behind ate up all his bullets.

Jason slid behind Nick’s cover as well, panting. Nick heard the faint sound of Arabic and risked a peek to see if the man had any more soldiers with him.

Instead he saw the Colonel on his knees with his hands up and the Iraqi holding a rifle pointed directly at his head.

Fuck. Fuck! Not again, he can’t lose anyone else to that bastard.

For a spine chilling moment Nick thought he was going to see the Colonel get shot, but thankfully the man looked to be giving orders. 

Nick actually felt better that the next round of bullets were aimed for his and Jason’s cover and not the Colonel. Nick took every pause in the man’s gunfire as a chance to shoot back his own. “Fuck this guy.”

“We need to flank him. Only way we’re gonna get rid of this clown!” Music to Nick’s ears. “Cover me!”

Nick and Jason both got into position, covering each other every time they needed to move. Nick pumped it triple time, not giving himself a moment to pause. The Colonel’s life was in his hands again, he’s not letting go this time either.

Nick gets into position but clicks his tongue at the angle. “I don’t have a clear shot!”

Jason aimed his next torrent at the cracked rocks holding the pillar to the ceiling. They immediately dislodge and the debris rains on the man’s head, forcing him from behind the pillar.

Nick smirked. “Well, hello there, ‘wabbit.” He was about to take the shot when a figure darted across his peripheral. The Colonel! He got away!

His distraction cost him. His shot missed the Iraqi and hit one of the lamps, shattering the bulb and losing them precious light.

“Shit.”

The man retreated through the doors before any more shots could reach him. Nick was getting real pissed off at how slippery this guy was getting.

But they were out of time. The screeching was practically right on top of them now. 

“Push forward into the temple! Move!”

All three of them made for the doors and on the way Nick eyed the Colonel head to toe.

“Sir, you alright?”

“Yes, yes. Thank you.” He panted back. Leaning down to grab his discarded gun before following them through the doors.

Jason and Nick both pushed on a heavy door to get them to close.

“Put your shoulder into it!”

“Hurry!”

A voice from the other side of the door.

“Wait!”

“Rachel?!” Eric heard Sergeant Kay’s astonished voice first.

“Rachel?” He turned around immediately, why would he bring her up now?

Eric’s whole world narrowed to a point when Rachel herself ran through the heavy doors. Like a thirsty man in the desert spotting an oasis on the horizon and with the desperation to match, Eric was blind to anything else. His breath caught and he could only stare, uncomprehending. Once his brain caught up, it was like his heart started beating again. The lump he had in his throat expanded tenfold and he almost choked on the sob that wanted to escape. 

Rachel was here.

Panting. Hands on her knees. Looking like she’d clawed out of hell with her bare hands.

She was alive.

“You’re alive?” The Sergeant echoed his thoughts. He moved before Eric could. 

“Have any doubt, Marine?” Rachel’s words were muffled into the Sergeant's chest as he pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Rachel returned it without hesitation.

Eric’s hands dropped from their ready position with his pistol and he managed to holster it before he could lose his grip completely. An utter hit of jealousy, a burn of grief comparable to losing Rachel over the chasm. She was here and alive, in the arms of her other soulmate. 

He couldn’t even conjure up a shred of satisfaction at being proven right. He just looked at them. 

Rachel was covered in blood. Certainly not her own with the way she was moving, but concerning none the less. He saw her run in the room and she was standing up on her own legs right now. She was alive.

Despite his shattered heart, the most important person in it was alright.

Looking at Rachel meant looking at him, too. Something Eric had tried to avoid ever since he figured it out. 

So, that’s what Rachel’s soulmate was supposed to look like…

He had the sickening realization that both of them were hugging to feel the burn on their skin, to prove that they were alive. He just felt cold.

Eric let them have their moment. Unable to deny Rachel anything right now, not when she was alive.

Rachel pulled away from the hug and frantically asked, “Where’s Eric?”

They both turned to him. 

Whatever Eric might have had to say to either of them evaporated when he met Rachel’s eyes. He was pulled magnetically towards her, enveloping her in the same hug she just shared with another man. The relief he felt at having Rachel return the embrace just as hard was dizzying, but the burn that warmed him from head to toe at the contact almost had his knees buckle. 

He pulled away from the hug to capture Rachel’s eyes, but kept his hands on her shoulders, unable to feel warmth any other way now but through her. 

“I held on as long as I could, but…. ” Eric felt the thickness of his words. “The rope. It snapped. I- I didn’t cut it, I wouldn’t.” He was trying to reassure himself as much as he was trying to assure her.

Rachel’s smile was the light of the sun. “I know.” She broke past his grip and clutched him to her again, surging up for a kiss that was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. 

He did try to ignore the blood, though.

“I felt you die,” Eric murmured into her shoulder. He didn’t understand. How was she alive? 

Over her shoulder he locked eyes with Sergeant Kay. The emotions he saw in them were too complicated for Eric to decipher. The Sergeant broke their eyeline first, with a forced clearing of his throat, and Eric could read him no more.

Eric’s grip on Rachel slackened and she stepped back. She looked between the both of them. 

Eric wanted to be angry. At her. At him. But the fact of the matter was, soulmarks weren’t up to interpretation. They were data. A measurable, repeatable phenomenon documented across cultures and centuries. The conclusions were always the same. When two soulmarks burned, it wasn't a coincidence. It was compatibility proven beyond statistical noise.

That was how Rachel had come into his life in the first place. Eric trusted it because it worked. Because it had never been wrong.

Which meant this, whatever it is, between Rachel and the Sergeant, wasn’t an illusion or a lapse or a mistake he could get outraged over. It was real. As real as the data would allow.

The realization hollowed him out. Not because the science failed him. But because it didn’t.

But now where did that leave him? 

He just wanted Rachel back.

“Eric-”

“I know it’s him, Rach.” Eric’s voice was resigned. “I know.”

“Wait, Eric, please. I want to-” Rachel cut herself off, she was more frazzled than Eric had ever seen her. Her hair was slicked back but the only thing holding it still was the blood caked on. Half of it was hanging loose from her bun. He’d never seen her like this- “Nick, just listen-”

“Rachel, maybe sit down for a bit. Let me look at you, that was a big fall.” The Sergeant suggested, holding out both hands in front of him like Rachel was going to bolt. He was concerned, too.

“I truly thought it was over, Eric.” Rachel sidestepped the Sergeant to look Eric in the eyes. “When my mark reacted to Nick, I took that to mean we both had moved on.”

“No… It was just you, Rach.”

“Eric, I’m so sorry.”

The Lieutenant stepped in, trying to keep the peace. They had barely gotten out of one life threatening ordeal and he was sure they were barreling into the next very soon. “It’s good to see you, Rachel. I thought we’d lost you.”

“Who else made it through?” Rachel decided responding to Jason was easier than keeping up whatever conversation the two (three?) of them were having. Eric didn’t fight it. He wasn’t thinking rationally right now.

“It ain’t good. Merwin’s gone. Those things… they got Joey… Clarice.”

Clarice… She was caught up in this mess too. She was just a civilian, Eric himself was barely keeping up.

“What is it?” Jason asked Rachel.

“Clarice was infected, those things, I don't know how, they got inside her,” Rachel grimaced, sounding truly remorseful, “I couldn’t take the risk. I had to leave her behind.”

“You telling me Clarice is still out there?”

“That’s not Clarice anymore.” Rachel rushed to say. “I saw her changing before my eyes.”

“I believe it, same thing happened to Joey.”

As they were talking, the Sergeant approached him. 

“Hey, we good?” He grimaced right after asking the question. He reached his hand behind his head and tugged the back of his hat. Maybe it was just because of his nerves, but the action left his face more open for Eric to read. “Stupid question. For what it’s worth, I also thought things were over between you two. Really just… thought I’d met my soulmate, you know? It didn’t seem more complicated than that at the time.”

Eric shook his head with a sigh. “Yeah. I see.” 

The Sergeant extended his hand to him. “I’m sorry, sir. For the hurt. For all of it. I won’t pretend I didn’t feel what I felt, but I never meant to disrespect you. Or what you and Rachel had.” He hesitated, then added more quietly, “You’re not a bad man. I don’t believe that for a second.”

His hand lingered between them. “So… we good?”

Eric’s eyes stayed on it, the space between their palms feeling heavier than it should have. Some part of his mind, tired, hollowed out by grief, wondered what it would mean if this connection wasn’t a mistake, if it was something else entirely.

For a fleeting second, something else stirred. An idea without edges, without a name.

Eric was going to take the hand. He was. 

The doors buckled inwards with an approaching swarm of creatures.

Nick came to with a phantom burn on his skin and the sharpest mattress poking at his back. He was confused for a moment, reaching out to find where Rachel had gone. He was just holding her. He scrunched up his nose, the scent of her office was overpowered by dust and his back started protesting at the uncomfortable prodding.

Nick snapped his eyes open and sat up straight. 

“Jason… Is anybody here?”

He scrambled around for his weapon, recoiling back when his hands waded through a pile of dry bones. He pushed through the mess until he could grab his gun. Quickly ejecting his mag to check his capacity before bracing it back in its familiar position on his shoulder.

He looked around the empty chamber, it was very different when he wasn’t fighting for his life in it. The last thing he remembered was Salim dragging him off after the Colonel saved his ass from the man thing, before he got knocked out. Shit, Colonel got caught in his place. Nick should have shot that thing when he had the chance.

He hadn’t seen Rachel at all since the fight began.

“What the fuck?” A faint voice sounded from across the room. That it spoke words was enough for Nick to move cautiously towards it.

All caution was thrown away when he saw it was Rachel struggling to her feet. Nick exhaled a relieved breath and threw himself towards her. Blood and all. 

“Nick! I thought I’d lost you.” She met him halfway. 

He grasped her tight, reassuring himself that she was alive. “I thought I’d lost you.”

Rachel tilted her head up to catch his eyes, brought up a hand to flick the brim of his hat upwards and slotted herself in the empty space. Who knew relief tasted like centuries old blood. Nick could barely keep the kiss going with the smile stretching at his lips, but Rachel was patient with him.

“Both of you…”

Rachel and Nick separated at the voice. He felt like a teenager being caught under the bleachers by his professor. But this is his soulmate and he was caught making out with her by her husband. Her other soulmate. 

Man, what the fuck?

Nick stepped away from Rachel. Severing contact completely.

“Eric!”

“I’m here, Rach. You’re…” He paused, looking them both over. Nick was just about expecting to finally get a punch thrown at him when the Colonel surprised him once again. “You’re both alright?”

“...Yeah.” Nick answered him eventually. He did his own once over of the man and left his gaze on where he just remembered his prosthetic was. “How’s your leg, Colonel?”

“It’ll do.”

Rachel shot Nick a baffled look. Her eyes were wide and her mouth parted to form the beginning of a question, but she returned her gaze to her husband with a face of accusation.

A snarl had all three of them pivoting their attention and their guns towards the source. The hole in the ground. A hand shot up from the depths, a zombie forcing its way out of its grave. It clawed the stone, burying its long fingernails deep and pulling itself out of the darkness with superhuman strength. The man thing cocked its head their way and found them with pinpoint accuracy, even though they hadn’t made a sound since seeing it.

The Colonel pulled out the UV lamp that was so effective against Joey, but the light barely sputtered on before failing completely. Nick cursed.

“Shit, it’s malfunctioning!” He pocketed the thing again, useless for now.

“Colonel, you gotta go!”

“You too, Nick. You’re coming with us!”

“Come on, Rach!”

Nick unloaded a few useless shots at the thing, ensuring the others had a head start before he turned to follow them. 

Quick thudding footfalls right behind him, much faster than he expected. He reached Rachel and the Colonel as the thing rounded the corner. All four of them stuck in a staring match. The Colonel broke the moment with a muttered “Shit! Go!” and spurred them back into motion. Nick kept both of them in front of him, in his sight at all times.

They didn’t bother with the doors, not a single one had been able to hold these things back. They burst into a room, dodging and leaping over sunken holes in the ground, pumping their legs desperately through freezing breaths to get away from the monster chasing them.

Not fast enough.

The force of a bus rammed Nick into a pillar, knocking the wind out of him twice over. His body slid to the ground, gasping in air automatically, but another kick to his stomach nearly had him black out. His gun wasn’t in his grasp.

Nick dragged his uncooperative hands underneath him, lifting himself up just enough to see mummified feet stepping slowly towards him in a vignette. 

He was still gasping. The thing was going to grab him again.

A battle cry he’d never heard before. A body slammed into the man thing, the Colonel throwing his whole weight into it. Head buried in the things chest, he pushed it away from Nick, straight into…

Nick leapt towards them with power he didn’t know he had. 

The Colonel pushed the monster into the hole and he himself followed it.

With air still caught in his lungs Nick jumped the rest of the distance, body raking over the rocks, and caught the Colonel’s hand in a vice grip. The burn from his lungs extended into his hand and Nick was afraid he wasn’t strong enough.

“Eric!” Rachel dropped right next to him, winding her own hands around their grasp. The moment would look familiar through a mirror if Nick were in any state to form thoughts other than pull him up.

The Colonel gripped Nick’s hand, the other one he extended for Rachel. Together with a mighty heave, they pulled him up. Away from the abyss once more.

As soon as the Colonel was on solid rock, Nick dropped to the floor. Lungs finally opening up, he gasped desperately for air while clutching his chest. He lay there for a moment, just pulling himself together.

“What the fuck were you thinking? Never pull that shit again. So help me, Eric!”

“There was nothing else I could do!”

“You’re smarter than that, Eric. I don’t expect risky maneuvers from you.”

“Well then, I guess you don't know me as well as you thought, either.”

Silence. 

Nick was finally able to take in mouthfuls of air without choking. He opened his eyes to two bodies standing over him, but closed them back up again.

“Deep breaths, Nick. Take a moment.”

He managed a nod, but dropped his head back to the floor with a sigh.

“Sargent Kay, are you with us?” The Colonel asked.

Nick groaned. “Ugh, get the license number.”

Nick heard a light laugh and suddenly remembered who he was talking to. Shit, no car accident jokes.

“Ah, shit- Sir, I mean…Gimme a hand.”

Wait, was that offensive too?

Nick peeled his eyes open again, looking directly at the man’s leg. Fuck. Another laugh, this one muffled, had Nick tilting up his gaze to the Colonel’s face. Nick stared. One hand was hiding the Colonel’s mouth, the other extended out to him.

Nick took one more deep breath and felt fine enough to get to his feet. He picked himself off the floor and swung his hand up to clasp the Colonel’s securely, but the moment their hands clapped together, Nick felt something familiar.

A burning warmth enveloped his hand. So natural, so sunny against his skin, but the person that was causing it was…

Nick fell down on his ass, head tilted back, staring slack jawed at the Colonel. 

“I thought so,” The Colonel said. Not looking at all as floored as Nick was. 

He finally got his legs to work and pushed himself off the floor, not letting his hand go even for a moment. Once grounded he added his second hand into the tangle of their fingers and clutched even harder. Sure enough, the burn warmed both his hands and traveled up his arms. 

He wasn’t imagining it.

“Do you feel it?” Nick asked desperately, hoping that he hadn’t completely lost it and imagined himself a brand spanking new soulmate in his daze.

“Yes,” He answered, looking at Nick in wonder.“You’re my soulmate.”

“You… you-”

“Back at the chasm. When Rachel fell and you pulled me back. I felt the burn then too, but I misunderstood. I thought I felt Rachel die.” The Colonel cupped his free hand under their joint ones, both of them utterly transfixed at the feeling. “But it was you.”

The burn reached his heart. Or was that unrelated? Nick was still light headed and he didn't expect the feeling to stop any time soon.

He huffed out a laugh in wonder. “The hell didn’t you say anything? I was out of my mind with worry thinkin’ what the hell I was doing.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t sure. Not until you saved me just now. I- I didn’t think this was possible.”

Nick turned to Rachel in wonder, a grin on his face. “Rachel! You hearing this-”

Rachel was walking away from them. Silent. Her head was bowed down, she slipped through the bars into the next room.

“Rach?”

Nick and the Colonel shared a look, they both follow Rachel. 

A bit slower through the cracks and with the Colonel glancing around the medical bay they found themselves crossing, they only managed to catch up to her because she had stopped at a gate. She was inspecting the ground before it.

“He’s alive. Jason’s alive.” Rachel said clearly, still not looking at them.

Nick let out a relieved breath, some more tension that he didn’t realize he was keeping dropped from his shoulders.

“Things aren’t going so badly after all.”

Rachel advanced to the gate and the Colonel made to follow after her again, but Nick grabbed his arm to stop him. “Wait.”

Nick hadn’t really planned it. His hand closed around the Colonel’s sleeve on instinct, he needed to anchor onto something, or the moment would vanish before he could understand it. The contact sent a dull, familiar heat through his palm. A feeling he still didn’t know what to do with.

The sound of footsteps finally stopped.

“What’re you waiting for? A written invitation? Let’s go!” Rachel’s had on her CO voice again. It was perhaps the one thing about her that Nick couldn’t deal with. It always meant that whatever talk they were having was over, with Nick coming out on the bottom. It was what made him hesitate every time he asked Rachel to open up. 

Nick swallowed. He knew that Rachel hid something else under that tone. He had truly thought that she was handling their talks better than he had, but Nick’s finally getting the feeling that Rachel is just as lost as him.

But this conversation was way too important for her to sweep it under the rug. They needed to sort this out right now. “Rachel, we need to talk about this. This is… this is crazy, the three of us-”

“The two of you.” She said with finality.

The words hit harder than Nick expected, it somehow would have been easier if she had screamed them at him. “What-”

“You don’t need me complicating what’s already clear.” 

She didn’t wait for them this time. Nick watched her go, chest tight, mind scrambling for something he could have said differently. Something softer. He’d put her on the spot.

When the rocks swallowed her retreating back, her red stained hair, now completely free from its bun, was the last thing he saw of her. The medical bay suddenly felt too big.

The Colonel exhaled slowly. “She always leaves like that. Like if she doesn’t look back, it won’t hurt.” He brought both his hands up to rub at his temple, Nick could practically feel his migraine. “What just happened?”

“Our soulmate just dumped our asses.” He tried to make it sound lighter than it was. Failed.

He didn’t respond right away, and Nick glanced at him, seeing the way the Colonel stared past the gate. “I know Rachel,” he started. ”Every part of this has been unexpected and she can’t cope behind orders anymore. This is her freaking out. She needs a minute, but if we wait too long she’ll convince herself she’s right.”

Nick rubbed his thumb against his palm, where it felt like the heat from the burn still lingered. He didn’t know how any of this was supposed to work. He didn’t even know how they were going to get out of this Hell. But there was one thing he did know.

Rachel wasn’t leaving because she didn’t care.

She was leaving because she cared too much, and didn’t know how to stay.

“Watch my back, Sargent Kay… Nick?” His name came out as a question and Nick raised an eyebrow at the man.

“Aye, Eric.” 

Huh, he guessed it did feel a little weird.

“Hey. Back there… I forgot to say it. Thanks for looking out for me. You were pretty badass, sir.”

“Of course. What else would I have done?” Eric said. This man truly didn’t consider doing otherwise.

Nick ducked his head for the brim to cover his smile. 

They entered the catacombs.

The elevator ride down was tense. 

Mostly because of how awkward it was. An invisible wall separated Rachel from the two men with her, put up by herself. They stood on opposite sides of a cramped elevator, but there might as well have been a valley between them. 

Despite the quick dip in the waterfall Rachel had to clean up, she felt no more settled than before. Her dripping hair was still too reminiscent of the blood. 

The smell of death still lingered. It clung to her skin, rooted so deep in her flesh, she thought she was producing it.

The bioluminescent roots winding up the wide shaft warranted much more than a glance from her, but she was hardly going to bounce her ideas off Eric. No matter how much she wanted to.

None of that mattered. Nothing mattered. She just had to get out.

Jason sure could fucking pick a hiding spot. 

They hit the ground with more force than was comfortable, the chains rattled ominously but didn’t fall. The doors opened to a flat open cave, tinged a toxic green. The only path awaiting them led deeper into the ground. The elevator was their only way out. Rachel stepped off first, leading the charge by force again. 

Voices from behind her. Nick and Eric were talking to each other. 

Good, that’s good. 

They were both romantics, they felt so deeply. They deserved somebody who can give that back. They deserved something better than Rachel. 

Her heart squeezed at the thought but that didn’t matter.

“Rachel.” 

She didn’t stop. Whatever they had to say to her, it didn’t matter.

The tables didn’t matter. The bodies didn’t matter. The smell didn’t matter.

She reached a step, a smooth slab twice her height. Her wet hands slipped on every remnant of a handhold she could find. When that failed, she tried a running start that had her slam into the rock, her hand just missing the edge.

“Rachel, please. That’s enough.” Eric’ voice was so sad.

“I scaled a fucking ravine with a body on my back today. I don’t need help climbing a rock.” She bit back.

“I know you can. But you don’t have to do it alone.”

“Are you serious? You’re throwing my words back at me? Where was this ‘stronger together’ attitude after the accident?”

“I was wrong.” Eric cut in. “I did need you. Desperately. Pushing you away was my biggest mistake, Rach.” His voice softened, ”I flew all the way to Iraq to see you, Rachel. To make this right. ”

Rachel nodded her head condescendingly with a tight smile. “And you found something real special here.”

Nick walked up next to her and she was sure he was about to touch her. She braced for the burn, not knowing how she would react to it, but instead he dropped to his knee and laced his fingers. A foothold.

“I just said I didn't need any help.”

He shrugged his shoulders coolly, keeping his hands together. “We need to keep going.”

It was Eric that stepped up first, braced his leg on Nick’s fingers and got leveraged up to the top of the step. He immediately turned and offered a hand.

Progress. They needed to progress.

Nick was waiting patiently in front of her. Eric’s hand was outstretched, reaching for her. 

Rachel felt sick at the idea that she was using them both. But…

Climbing was easier with them.

They pulled Nick up safely and Rachel finally took the chance to look at the men in front of her. 

Nick was dusting himself off, he grabbed his gun the moment he was done. 

Eric’s voice interrupted them. “Dear god.”

Their attention was pulled towards him quickly and right behind Eric…

The floor, now visibly made out of metal, stopped only a few feet ahead. A great archway etched with thick wiring framed the entrance to a brand new world. Drab gray rocks jutting out of glowing roots. Bulbs of light sprouting from them making visible the unholy amalgamation of biology and machine. 

Her stench of death was overshadowed by the burning smell of formaldehyde.

It stretched on for miles, an entire city’s worth of space and infrastructure, buried deep underground and forgotten to time.

If it was ever truly known in the first place.

Rachel suddenly felt very small.

Out of the thousand descriptors jumping around Rachel’s mind, one stood out as most important.

Inhuman.

Nick broke the silence.

“We’re fighting fucking Xenomorphs.”

“Impossible,” Rachel breathed, despite the evidence right in front of her.

“All I did…” Eric hadn’t looked away for a moment, eyes sluggishly rolling from one structure to another. “All I did, to get closer to the stars… They’ve been here the whole time.” He scoffed, “While we were congratulating ourselves for sticking a flag on the Moon.”

He walked forward to the edge of the overlook.

“Whatever built this is light years ahead of us. Older. Smarter. We’re barely playing catchup.”

“Hey.” Nick stepped forward, nudging in front of Eric’s face to catch his attention before continuing. “Don’t do that now, Colonel. This is… a lot, but we’re still standing, yeah? We help each other.”

“You don’t understand. I gave everything I had to Caelus. The past year of my life, I gave up promotions. My marriage. I financed the research out of pocket, giving every last part of me.” His voice was wrecked. “My life’s work. And it amounts to nothing.” Eric hung his head. “It was all for nothing.”

Oh, Eric…

Rachel wanted to… She wanted to help, take this burden Eric was so intent on carrying. 

It was Nick who first reached out. “...Jason and I… a couple of weeks back, we were stationed at a live checkpoint. We knew it was a prime target for suicide bombers. So… when a woman walked through and she didn’t stop for us, Jason made the call. And it was me who shot her dead.”

“Oh, Nick…” Rachel breathed.

“That woman died for nothing.” Nick took off his hat, scrunched it in one hand and hit it against his chest. The actions were harsh, but sincerity poured out of his every pore. “Thought I was done after that, I couldn't do this tour anymore. I was gonna quit training and wait for a dishonorable discharge.”

Eric was staring intently, seeing him in a new light. Seeing Nick for who he truly was. Her light in the darkness. Her only hope at survival. Nick had no idea how much she relied on him, how lost she would have been without him. 

She was so, so glad that Eric had him.

“Why didn’t you?” asked Eric.

Nick turned towards her and shot her a quiet smile. “I found help.”

“You…” Rachel gasped. ”It was the other way around, Nick. You helped me more than you will ever know.”

“Rachel, is it so hard to believe?”

“I used you!” Rachel’s yell echoed through the cave, but she didn’t notice. “I needed something more, something different, and I used you, Nick, to get it.”

Nick wasn’t cowed. “Hell, Rachel! I used you too.” He jabbed both hands towards his chest, hat still balled up tightly in his grip. ”I needed something after that checkpoint. And when I couldn’t find it on my own, I went after you when I saw you were struggling too.” He dropped his hands and stepped closer to her. ”But it became more than that… and I know you felt it too.”

Eric stepped up right behind him. “You’re not the only one who’s being selfish here, Rach. Whatever permission you’re looking for, you have it.”

“All this proves how unfit I am to be an officer. I haven’t been in control of a single thing that happened today.”

“I fell in love with you even when you weren’t.”

The sentence shot her right in the heart. It had been hard for them to say it before, but Eric was telling her he loved her like it was the easiest thing in the world. Rachel burned with shame, she had done nothing to deserve either of them.

Yet she wanted them so bad.

“You’ve grown without me, Eric.”

“Now I want to grow with you.”

“Don’t you get it, Rachel?” Asked Nick, still only inches from touching her. “All of us want this. We’re all greedy fucks. That’s why this soulmate thing will work for us.”

The two most stubborn people she’s ever met. How did she manage to fall in love with both of them?

They smile at her and it feels right.

Nick closes the inches separating them and brings his hand to hold her cheek, staring at her lovingly. His eyes take up her whole vision. Ancient temples and alien spaceships pushed to the side, leaving behind the darkest shade of brown. 

He broke their view to look back and nod over Eric. He hesitantly walked up and reached for Rachel’s other cheek. His smile stretched his face beautifully and Rachel did nothing to stop herself from returning his grin. They both brush her completely loose hair out of her face.

Rachel has a perfect view of their arms touching.

Their soulmarks sing.

This is it. This is what matters.

She’s taking what life gives her. She’s not going to let this go.

Eric chuckled self consciously. Ending the moment on a high note. “Heh, how am I going to explain this to my mother? She’s still mad that I spent all my vacation days with Rachel.” Eric sighed, “I’ll be getting an earful.”

“Hey, I've done way worse things.” Nick nudged his arm.

“Yeah, like what?” Eric asked with a grin, then winced and immediately continued. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer that-”

“This one time at a Blockbuster, I, uhh… I was in the bathroom, I was about 14 years old and… There was a man taking a shit in one of the stalls, I gotta say. And on my way out, I accidentally hit the lights and, and I didn’t go back for him.”

Eric started laughing incredulously.

Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t go back for him, Colonel.”

Eric laughed hard. Nick looked smug, he glanced up and raised his eyebrows at her.

“Soldier,” Eric giggled. Giggled! “That is truly deplorable.”

Boys.

She looked at them freely teasing each other.

Her boys.

“Just a few hours ago, you were perfectly presentable soldiers.” Rachel added her own little tease.

Nick shrugged. “I thought you were an asshole when we met,” He said to Eric.

“I was nice to you?”

“It was the glasses. Man, really? Indoors? Be glad I didn't call you a douche to your face.”

“I don’t know what high ground you’re standing on, Sargent. I'm surprised you could see me under the brim of that hat of yours.”

“You tryin’ to say something, Colonel?”

“Your hat is atrocious.”

“Hey!”

Rachel stifled her own laugh and joined in. “I saw you pause in the middle of a fight to put it back on once.“

Nick’s indignant squawk echoed throughout the room.

Nick was walking through a genuine alien spaceship. Sci-fi movies had nothing on this shit. He’d been standing right on top of this place for hours. Hell, there was a village not far from here, they lived on it.

And to think, they never would have found this place without Eric.

“Looks like we found your Chem-Light Batteries, Colonel.”

The little laugh made Nick unreasonably happy. 

Their group reached a circular plateau, with structures at regular points along its edges. Taking a closer look, Nick recognized the forms of the monsters and immediately readied his gun.

“Wait.” Rachel stopped him. “None of them have moved since we came here. Better we don’t make too much noise.”

Nick eased off the trigger but didn’t lower his gun completely. Instead he got a good look at what the monster (alien?) was sitting on.

Eric joined him. “If this thing really is a spaceship, these were probably its pilots. Look there.” He pointed up at what could have been a gear shift if Nick tried not to think too hard about it. Eric reached his hand to touch it.

Rachel snatched it before he even got close. “What did I just say? No taking risks right now.”

“Right. Sorry, Rach. It’s just…” Eric walked a circle around them, gesturing with both hands up at the whore area surrounding them. “This place alone changes everything we knew about extraterrestrial life. And that’s not even taking into account the ship logs we might find...”

She sighed. “After we get out, we organize our own excavation of this thing. I know who to call.” She pushed her hair back from her face and held it on the top of her head, grounding herself. “I'm thinking up the draft already. What a shitshow. Does this place fall under hostile terrain or an enemy base?”

“Put unknown structure on the initial report, we’ll settle for a name once we have more eyes on it.”

“What eyes?” Rachel asked, throwing a hand in the air. “They’re gonna SECCLEAR the shit out of this.”

“Fuckin’ nerds.” Nick interrupted their meeting. “No shot you’re thinking about paperwork right now. I mean, look at that thing.” He points to what would definitely be a pod a mad scientist would experiment with humans in. It’s misshapen, bulging out at places. Like something was really inside.

Eric stepped way too close to the weird alien tech again. This time it was Nick that pulled him back, but the man barely seemed to register being manhandled. “Some sort of… cocoon. These things go through metamorphosis. We’ve been seeing the adults, there must be larval variants too. Or, at least there were at some point. These ones are still in the pupal stage, but how long have they been gestating?”

Rachel picked up where he stopped. “We’ve just been fighting the early risers. The whole colony is still in development. Fuck, this has been our saving grace, the only reason these things haven’t taken over is because they aren't ready yet. A few more years, maybe decades, and they’ll be unstoppable.” The hand on her head comes down sharply, still holding onto her hair.

“But that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a good thing we’re here to stop them.” Nick doesn't know where he’s finding this optimism. It was easier now that he had other people he wanted to go on for.

Still, he was curious too. He turned to Eric as they walked. “So when does the invasion of the body snatchers come in?”

“They can… infect humans somehow.” He looked deep in thought.

“Joey was definitely human, I can tell you that. He died in my arms before we fell in.”

“The specimen you brought back, it decayed too fast for it to be normal. It would make sense if the body was deceased long before. It’s possible this infection only works when the body is dead.”

“But Clarice was still alive when this thing started affecting her.” Rachel interjected, keeping close to Eric’s side. Maneuvering him away from the popping bulbs.

“Are you sure? Was she breathing? Speaking?”

“Yes. She…” Rachel looked at Eric sadly. ”She told me about her soulmate. Maya.”

Eric sighed. “Yes, that was her then. Alright, it’s possible that a living person can carry the disease, but it only takes over after they’ve died. In that case it should be doing everything possible to get its host killed.”

“That’s messed up. We need to look out for parasites now, too?” Nick was losing track of all the threats coming at them.

He kept to the rear, covering their backs as best he could in the open space. Every so often he glanced back at the Kings, still in deep conversation about the place. Rachel looked really worried.

Nick picked up the pace to walk on her other side. “Hey, we’re ok.”

He got Eric’s attention with that, too. He smiled at Rachel. He flicked his eyes at Nick, as well, but he was trying not to be too hopeful. “Just whistle, Rach. And I’ll come running.”

Rachel tilted to knock her shoulder into Nick, then Eric. “I’ll be fine when we get out of here.”

They had walked quite a while without a single disturbance, so the nearby screech managed to startle them good.

“Come on!”

They booked it towards the noise, wagering that that was where Jason was. Nick led the group this time, gun aimed ahead. 

Motion in front of them. They circled the perfectly round pit of green and charged through the dense wood of vines filled with hatching cocoons. Nick spotted Jason at the other end and reached for his ammo compartment. Not a moment too soon, one of the monsters was about to pounce.

“Hey! Fuck face!” He loaded the explosive round and took aim. “I got something for you!”

He hit the thing dead on, knocking it back enough to give Jason and Salim room to retreat. “Run! For God’s sake. Run!”

Quiet went out the window after that. “Rachel, Colonel! I’ll cover you! Go!” He laid down a torrent of bullets, determined to give them as much time as possible.

“Eric!” A scream from behind had him immediately look back.

His heart stopped.

One of the monsters had Eric in its grasp, dragging him away by the leg.

“No!” Nick charged at it, keeping his shots high.

He was too far away, he won’t reach in time. What the hell was he going to do-

Eric bent himself in half, pawing at his leg. Nick’s heart just about stopped when it popped off. But then he remembered.

The fucking prosthetic.

The creature flew back with the leg still in its mouth. It thrashed its head side to side, trying to take a bite, but the wood wouldn’t give. 

He hadn’t stopped sprinting the whole time. He took the chance to shoot the monster center mass, forcing it back properly. He reached Eric in no time. 

The monster, realizing it was chomping on wood, flicked its head to the side and the prosthetic flew out. It turned its gaze back to Eric, still on the floor, crawling away.

“Colonel! Hold on!”

Not losing any momentum, Nick ran into Eric, ducking into a roll and grabbing him on the loop back up. Nick straightened up and smoothly continued his run. He ignored the gasp next to his ear, focusing everything on getting them out of there. 

Reaching the low passage Jason had crawled through, he ushered Eric forward, practically pushing him through until they were both pulled out on the other side.

Eric kept to the floor, trying to control his breaths. Nick was no better. The Colonel was heavy, even without a leg.

“Thank you.” He palmed his forehead. “Thank you, that was… My- my leg… I can’t-”

Rachel crawled in through the passage. Nick straightened up, he thought she was in front of them. 

In her hand, she was holding Eric’s prosthetic.

The latch was dented. A part of the bent metal caught on his skin painfully and he hissed out a breath. He tugged the prosthetic off for the third time and tried readjusting the padding again. His stump was irritated beyond measure. Friction burns up one side, the other covered in bruises. 

He was lucky to still have the prosthesis at all.

No, he was lucky to be alive.

He had two people to thank for that.

Eric set the leg aside for the moment, removing his sock and letting his leg rest.

Rachel kneeled next to him. “Let me.” She took the prosthesis and started disassembling the socket ring.

“I can do it myself.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to.”

Touché.

“You were always better at that than me, anyway.”

She smiled at him. “Not much I can do about the injuries, I’m afraid. But… ” She turned around and waved Nick over. “Nick! I need you here.”

Nick, a loyal puppy dog himself, materialized out of thin air. “Talk to me.”

“Can you take a look at Eric’s leg?”

“Erm, you really don’t have to-”

“‘Course I can.”

Nick took one look at the mess of his leg and set his pack down, reaching a hand in to dig through it. He pulled out a compact medkit. He crouched down next to Rachel and Eric felt oddly flustered at seeing them kneeling right in front of him. He looked to the side.

“I’m no doctor, tell me if anything feels wrong.” 

Eric nodded, staring at the glowing wall. “I will.”

He gets to work slathering antiseptic on the raw skin, touch professional, but there was nothing casual about the burn each trail of his fingertips left on him. The warmth caused Eric to sigh, wanting desperately to ask both of them to keep their hands on him. 

Nick fished out clean gauze and wrapped his leg tightly, not a sliver of skin showing. Eric tried not to show his disappointment when he pulled his sock over top. 

He heard a click of mechanical parts and Rachel came in, sliding his prosthesis on. The opening was noticeably wider. She adjusted the prosthetic ring, twisting the side until it rested flush against his leg. Her fingers brushed Eric’s skin too, she didn’t pull away immediately.

This was a new kind of torture for Eric.

“I feel like I’m being serviced by a pit crew.” He muttered.

“Well, you’re missing a tire.”

Rachel slapped a hand over her mouth. “Nick!”

He unbuttoned a compartment on the kit and from it slid out two white pills. “Motrin. Pain meds. Take them now, they kick in in thirty minutes.” He patted Eric on his thigh. “Alright. Up and at ‘em, Captain Hook.”

“Actually, I’d be Captain Peg.”

“You keep that to yourself, sir.”

Rachel let out a groan and reprimanded, “Boys.”

“What?” Eric asked, confused.

The Lieutenant’s voice reached them from across the room, where he was talking with Salim. “Nick! Unload your pack for me here?”

“Aye, sir.” He complied.

He was already across the room when they heard a drawled out, “You got a thing for blonds, Nicky?”

Eric ignored the thump from their little group and turned back to Rachel. “Seriously. What?”

Rachel snorted again, but after a moment her gaze turned serious. She considered Eric for a bit, but he had a hard time anticipating her thoughts right now. When his own were so confusing to him, too.

“He’s pretty great, isn’t he?” Rachel asked tentatively.

No need to ask who she was talking about. Eric understood her hesitation completely. He had no idea how to answer her. If he said no, he’d be lying. Not only that, he’d be disrespecting his own soulmate. But agreeing with her was also hard. 

Maybe he understood her reaction at the entrance of the spaceship. 

“I can see how easy it was for you to fall in love with him.”

Rachel grimaced. “I really thought I was more subtle.”

“Do you really think this could work?” He asked. They hadn’t even said what this was yet. 

She sighed, crossing her arms and gave her answer some real thought. “The two of you just met. Realistically, you both need more time.” She squeezed her arms tighter around herself. “But as for what I want… It’s both of you. Whatever this is, I want it to work. I’ll do my best to make sure it does.”

Eric braced his legs against the floor and slowly, with his hand on his seat, pushed himself up to a standing position. He felt pressure on his leg at the new position of the prosthetic, but the pain was dull.

He reached for her cheek, liking the thread of her hair on his fingers. Liking it even more when Rachel leaned into it. “I want it too, Rach. I want to get to know him. That’s really all I can say right now.”

“It’s all I ask.”

Salim called out from the console in the middle of the chamber. “Over here. I found something.”

And find something he did. Music, reminiscent of an organ playing lowly, filled the room with a bass so deep, it penetrated into his very bones. The voice of a lost civilization. 

Salim spun a tale of creatures older than the caves themselves. Of creatures that were not born monsters, but became them. Of intelligent people, star-fairing. Architects of great spaceships and composers of music. Then, their great empire collapsed. A sickness, a creeping madness, a tragedy he couldn’t properly name. It killed them, then twisted them into something not truly alive.

Rachel’s scream pierced the room.

Eric had been too absorbed in the story, he hadn’t noticed Rachel walk away from the group.

“Rachel!”

She had a shell clutched between her knees, a knife in hand, poised above her head to strike down. She looked at them with pain in her eyes. Her arm trembled.

Nick raised his hands, taking a few slow steps at her. Eric right behind him.

“Rachel. Rachel, Look at me.”

He had to do something.

She yelled out a screaming sob and dropped the knife. It took all her strength with her. Both her hands clutched at her head, burying themselves in her hair and clutching the strands hard.

She shook her head back and forth, as if she was trying to clear her head. All the while she let out gasps of pain so heart wrenching they physically affected Eric.

“She has it…” Warned Salim. “It’s inside her!”

Rachel tilted her head up like a jolt had gone through her spine, inadvertently giving them a view of her bulging neck. Something was crawling around inside of her.

Eric was going to be sick.

She collapsed on the damp ground like all her strings had been cut. Eric rushed and fell to her side, taking a hand and clutching it close. The burn was proof that she was still with him.

Nick mirrored him, snaking a hand under Rachel’s head and supporting it up.

“They came from the stars.” Her voice was thin, but she was determined to get the words out. ”This isn’t their home, it’s an ark.” Rachel’s gaze was far away, on something unseen.

She struggled against their grasp, trying to get away from something that was already buried deep inside her. Eric clutched hard to her hand. She clutched even harder.

“Do something! She’s turning into one of them!” Nick begged desperately. He didn’t know at who.

“Please, Rachel. You have to hold on!”

Think, Eric!

Rachel choked out, “It’s killing me!”

A light shone intensely at them. The Lieutenant was pointing his gun at Rachel. “I’ll put her out of her misery. Hold her the fuck down.”

“No!” Nick yelled, bodily blocking Rachel from the line of fire.

“Stand back, Sergeant.”

“We can still save her!” Eric interjected.

Nick had his hands raised up, like he was the one at risk of getting shot. “There’s got to be a way. We can’t lose her!”

Quick! He had to think of something.

“There’s no other way. Hold her down.” The Lieutenant sounded remorseful.

“Wait!” Eric leaned over Rachel, getting in the line of fire too. “It won’t take hold as long as she’s alive! This is exactly what it wants!”

“Colonel, I’m sorry.”

Think, damn you!

“It's an infection, we can treat it.” He was speaking his thoughts out loud. ”Kill the parasite, we just need to kill it!”

Rachel shrieked in agony. Nick looked about ready to wrestle the gun out of the Lieutenant’s hands.

Think, Eric! Think! Their weakness, there has to be-

Eric ripped the UV lamp from his belt. He let go of Rachel’s hand and grabbed her face to hold her still. He pried her mouth open. “Stay with me, Rachel.”

He clicked on the UV, ignoring the commotion still happening behind him. 

He hoped, he prayed.

Steam started pouring out of Rachel’s open mouth. She convulsed but Eric kept her mouth open, he was taking no chances. 

Rachel ripped away and leaned to the side, convulsing again, heaving out the contents of her stomach on the floor. Her jaw stretched open as her diaphragm pushed up wherever it was stuck in her throat. Eric held her torso up above the floor.

The vile parasite slid out of her mouth, plopping down on the floor with a sickening squelch.

Rachel sagged in his hold and he had to use both hands to hold her up. 

The thing let out a high pitched shriek and with speed that was incredibly unexpected started crawling away from them. 

Its path was cut short with a pole through its body. Salim stabbed the small thing dead on, stopping it in its tracks. It let out a last shudder before its extremities curled up. 

Nick collapsed on top of them, wrapping his arms securely around them both. ”Rachel?”

Her breaths were loud and unobstructed, but her voice was strained after all the abuse. “I’m here.” 

“Thank you, God.” His voice was wrecked. “Fuck, thank you.”

The pose was very reminiscent of their first touch, only this time it was Nick crying on Eric’s shoulder. 

Eric unhooked his UV lamp and extended it out to Nick. 

“Here. You’ll need this.”

“Hell yeah.” Nick clipped it onto his own belt. “Got any garlic in your pack, too, Colonel?”

“You’re making jokes now?” Rachel asked, outraged. “Keep your head in the game, Nick. Get in, get out. No heroics. You can say whatever you want when you come back.”

Nick stepped in close and looked down deeply into her eyes. Rachel almost got lost in them again. “Rachel, if I don't make it. I just want you-”

“Stop.” Rachel cut him off quickly. “Just stop…” She shook her head. She won’t even entertain the idea. “Nick, I’m begging you. I don’t want to hear it like this.”

She braced her legs apart and affected the same voice she used on her men before battle. “You will come back. That’s an order, Marine.”

Nick nodded. “This isn’t goodbye.”

Eric took Nick’s hand. Nick quickly latched on with both of his. She could practically feel the heat emanating off of them. Eric was slightly taller, it was Nick’s turn to be loomed over now. “I’d like to get to know you better. Please…” He brushed up the brim of Nick’s hat, meeting his eyes straight on. “Come back to us, Nick.”

Nick’s gaze flicked down to Eric’s mouth and he nodded. “I will, Eric.”

Watching Nick go was agony. Salim was keeping an eye on him through the binoculars. Rachel wanted to rip them out of his grasp.

Instead, she sat with Eric, hand threaded through his own. Sharing the sensation of a soulmate’s touch. Keeping herself grounded with the warmth. 

Concentrating on if she would feel Nick burn out.

Damn it, she never should have let him go.

A swarm of creatures orbited the giant mass of cocoons. The waves getting thicker and thicker with every passing second.

Jason was desperately telling Nick to pull back through the radio.

So much for no heroics.

“I’m sorry, Nicky. For this.” Jason grit through the radio. “For what happened at that checkpoint.”

Rachel dug her shoulder into Eric’s.

Nick’s voice answered through the static. “It’s a war, Jason. Bad shit happens.” A pause. “Alpha Mike Foxtrot.”

The flair went up. It had barely arched up its apex when Jason hit the detonator with a shake of his head.

That finally had Rachel leaping up from her seat, dislodging herself from Eric in her haste.

She clicked on her radio. “Nick!” 

No answer. 

“Answer me!”

Just the crackle of static.

“Answer me, damn it!”

She turned to Eric, looking at him in despair. His eyes were on the fiery inferno left behind from the explosion. Her words were caught in her throat. A damnation, an apology. Nothing was coming out. 

Jason’s ‘I’m sorry’ was her undoing.

She reached for Eric, unable to bear being alone. Wanting the comfort of her soulmate, when their other was unreachable.

Eric pulled away.

A wet gasp was torn from Rachel. Raking against her throat more painfully than the parasite.

“...Eric?” 

“Wait.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry-”

“Rachel!” Eric turned to her intensely. She could only stare. “Can you still feel him?”

The buzz.

She lifted her shaking hand and held it out. She felt the pull to Eric, but past him, deeper in the chamber. 

She felt him.

“He’s alive!” she shouted at Jason and Salim, before dropping off the edge of the overlook, following Nick’s path into the vault.

Her radio crackled to life with Nick’s voice. “Does anyone copy?”

“Nick! We’re on our way! Confirm position.” Eric ordered mid sprint.

“I’m two hundred meters from the door, bearing three twenty…” The tension in his voice was eating at her. “But I’m injured… I need help.”

“Hang tight. We’re coming to get you.”

Their whole group wove through the cocoons. Barely keeping silent in their haste. Eric and Rachel had the head start, leading the charge straight to Nick’s location.

What they found had Rachel crackle out a relieved laugh, tinged with a level of hysteria.

“Nick!”

Nick was staging over the corpse of the Ancient man, spear in hand. The thing was face down on the floor, unmoving. Finally as dead as it was supposed to be.

Nick dropped the spear and made to clutch at his elbow, now saturated with blood.

Rachel went to his good side to support him out of the inferno. “I got you.”

“I- ” Nick looked at her intensely. “I’m not giving up on you.”

There was no time. The fire was reaching them, they had to move.

Eric gingerly took his other side and they dragged Nick out of hell. Together.

Jason and Salim are first up the ropes. Only fair. Nick still felt guilty for suggesting they leave Salim behind. He was desperate to get his best friend and his soulmates out as fast as possible. 

‘He’s my soulmate, Nicky!’

Yeah, Nick really screwed the pooch on that one.

They waited for both of them to safely climb up before starting their own ascent. Nick reached for the ropes, but paused when he saw he was the only one.

“Come on! We go together.” Rachel was talking to Eric, who, for some reason, stood watching the waterfall. 

Nick had half the mind to pick him up again and haul him up the rope. He was going to. 

A body broke through the current, splashing cold water everywhere. It landed on two legs, but stayed hunched. When it roared its head up and hissed, Nick got a good view of sharp teeth and empty eyes.

“Clarice?”

Shit.

Clarice shoved past the Kings and leapt straight for Nick. He didn’t have time to go for his gun. The impact knocked him down, but he rolled with the force, trying to dislodge her grip. 

She was inhumanely strong. All limitations gone from her body. Nick wrestled to get her off him. 

Hands wrapped around her, yanking her back for a moment. Nick planted his foot on her chest and kicked out, finally dislodging her.

It was Eric struggling with her now. He tipped back far enough to fall on his ass, still holding her securely so she couldn’t turn and bite him.

Rachel was right next to him. She kicked out at her head. Once. Twice. She hit her dead on.

Nick slid over to Eric and physically separated him from the thrashing body.

With one final kick from Rachel, Clarice fell off the side of the cliff. Snarling all the way down, until the vile sounds stopped.

Nick helped Eric up, keeping a hold on him after. Touch igniting their skin. More than that, he was heavily favoring his bad leg.

“Shit!” Rachel paced the edge of the cliff, shooting glances down every so often. “I should have never let her go.”

“I should have never brought her here.”

Nick maneuvered them back to the ropes. “She was dead the moment they laid their hands on her.” He handed them each a rope. “Come on.”

Victory smelled like burning flesh.

This hut, with scattered colorful rugs, bullet holes airing out the walls and hidden stacks of drugs under the floorboards. It was her new heaven. 

The moment the sun shined through the gaps, Rachel dropped where she was standing and melted to the floor. Nothing was getting her back up. She was a few blinks away from falling asleep.

She forced her eyes open anyway. Tilting her head as far as it would go, she scanned the hut, looking for two people in particular. 

Nick was propped up sitting on a few crates they had somehow pushed over in the fight. His head tilted awkwardly, using the crate as a pillow. His hat had slid off his head, folded right next to him. Nick didn’t make the effort to put it back on.

Eric was laying spread eagle in the middle of the room. Marginally more comfortable, considering the rugs under him. His eyes were open, staring straight up at the hole through the ceiling. She could only guess what was on his mind right now. He reached down with one hand and unlatched his prosthetic, letting out a groan as it slid off. 

They were alright.

Their ordeal was over. 

They lost so many, but Rachel selfishly only cared that her two boys made it out. That’s alright, she was allowed to be as selfish as she wanted.

The first one to stir out of their sprawl was Salim. 

“I need to see my boy.” He grunted as he stood, taking the piece of rebar with him.

Jason leapt off the floor, fresh as a daisy again. “Salim! Wait.”

As he passed by her, Rachel piped up. “The embassy will issue him a soulmate visa. Go with him.”

Jason stared at her baffled for a moment. He nodded, hand raised in an official salute. “Thank you, Ma'am." Rachel didn’t bother shifting from her position.

Nick raised a fist bump in the air without opening his eyes, proving, at least, that he was still awake. Jason ran out of the hut, returning the bump on the way, and leaving only the three of them alone.

“That fixes their issue. We don't have protocol for our situation, though.” Eric mumbled from the floor.

“We divorce, I keep the name. Marry Nick, he takes mine.”

Nick laughed his heart out.

“Oorah!”