Large stacks of books were scattered around in a small dark room. An elongated light on the ceiling flickered several times until it decided to remain on as the sound of banging on a metal door was heard.

"Hey!" Arkham's voice was barely audible from the other side. "Zero, time to get up! It's morning already!"

With the light shining down on the room with books scattered everywhere to the point that the bed could not be seen, Zero stretched his arms out and slowly sat up, causing some of the books to slide off and join the rest of the muddle. The white-haired boy rubbed his eyes and hopped off his bed. Still half-asleep, he accidentally tripped on one of the stacks and fell with a loud thud.

Outside of the room, Arkham took a deep sigh, "Why's he always like this after a mission?" He glanced to the side and saw a young woman dressed in a striped white blouse and black jeans, glaring at him while her arms were crossed. "Mornin' beautiful." His attempt at flirting was met with a look of disgust. "W-wait, Gabby, I know what you're going to—"

In a single, swift motion, Gabriella kneed Arkham in the crotch. He fell to the floor and let out a high-pitched "why?" as he could barely keep his gaze on her.

"Even though we're almost the same age" —she brushed her long, black hair to the side and glared down at him with her piercing, violet eyes— "I already warned you the first couple times, yet you always continue this behavior." She walked away and down the long, arched corridor.

Even when he was knocked down, Arkham couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Two others walked by and stopped near him. One was an older man in his late twenties and a seemingly little girl staring down at him.

"If he's dead, we can finally get rid of him, right?" The young girl had a mischevious grin as she glanced between Arkham and the older man. She pushed up her glasses and pulled back the sleeves of her gray sweater, poking at Arkham to check if he's still breathing. "Damn."

"Hey, Arkham." The older man helped him to his feet. "Let me guess..."

"It was Gabriella," the guys said in unison.

Arkham leaned back against the concrete wall. "Thanks, Ven" —he glared at the little girl— "and you can go to hell, QT."

Ven crossed his arms and sighed. The stubble of facial hair showed his age more so than the others and he wore a gray and green windbreaker accompanied with baggy blue pants. "You're still aiming for her? By now any man would've given up after the amount of abuse you went through."

QT shrugged and pocketed her hands, "Maybe he took some brain damage or he's just a masochist," she suggested, causing Arkham to give her an irritated look. "Relax, 'tis but a flesh wound," she said with a smug.

"You're so goddamn lucky you look like a kid," Arkham looked away.

The reinforced metal door to Zero's room opened and the mess behind him could be seen for a second as he stepped out as it closed behind him. He glanced between the duo and his partner. "I'm assuming—"

"You don't need to." Arkham stepped forward as his legs trembled. "You already know."

Ven lent his shoulder to Arkham, "You'll recover by the time we get to training grounds."

"Thanks," he said with a cheeky grin. "So, gonna keep cheering me on, huh?"

"No," Ven answered with a stoic expression. "I just pity you... a lot."

Arkham looked at him with a puzzled look as QT struggled to stifle her laughter. Zero, on the other hand, was indifferent to the entire ordeal.

                                                                ***

Gabriella walked into a room where the walls and floor were entirely made of glass. From the inside, a metal arena twice the size of an American football field could be seen below. A circular table with a few couple chairs was set around it and a soft, black couch was across from it, whereas a vending machine was next to the door.

A slightly younger girl was sitting at the table as she was flipping through several news stations on the television in the corner ceiling of the glass room. With luminescent eyes of hazel and light brown hair that ended at shoulder length, she was already bored out of her mind. She yawned loudly, but noticed Gabriella's soul-piercing glare from the corner of her eyes.

"Christa," Gabriella sat down next to her.

"Gabby," she sighed and laid down her head on the table. "QT really did a number on keeping the world out of the loop." Christa slid the remote over to her, letting Gabriella surf through the channels.

"Nothing as always," Gabriella sighed disappointedly.

"Hey," Christa peeked up. "Have you ever wondered how long we'll be kept a secret from the world?" her words caught Gabriella off-guard and wide-eyed. "I mean, what about the life that we all could've had if we weren't subjects of some experiment months ago?"

Gabriella leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed, "I... I don't know," she held herself. "Around 10,000 people were abducted in a single night." She glanced at her and gulped. "We're still included to this day."

"If any of this didn't happen, where would we be?" Christa asked with a spark of curiosity in her eyes. "Out of all seven of us, only you and Mortem kept memories of the past."

"Mortem?" Gabriella scoffed. "Is that what he's calling himself now? How fitting when the original personality is dead." she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't know about him or the rest of you, but... before the abduction—" she cut herself off.

"Well?" Christa's voice became muffled as she buried her face in her sleeves and white scarf.

Gabriella took a deep breath. "I just got into a university through a volleyball scholarship and only God knows where that could've gone." She shook her head. "You really don't know how much you take something for granted until it's gone. Sometimes it could be good for better or worse."

The sound of several footsteps from behind and the opening of a door was enough to cause the pair to glance back and notice the others have finally shown up. Ven carefully placed Arkham on the couch as QT went up to the vending machine. Zero, on the other hand, leaned against the glass with an encyclopedia in hand.

Christa lazily lifted her head and grabbed the remote, surfing through the stations once again out of boredom.

"Just making sure, you two didn't see any leaks?" QT asked as she pressed a few buttons and her snack got stuck behind the glass. She kicked it out of frustration, but hurt herself instead. "This piece of junk..." she mumbled to herself as she winced from the pain.

"None," Gabriella rest her elbow on the top of her chair and looked back at the young girl. "Somehow you pulled it off again."

Ven gently knocked on the vending machine, causing the snack to fall for QT to take out.

"Well," she popped the small bag open and a small aroma of potato chips escaped it. "There were a few hundred people who were going to post stuff about the events in Paris on Instagram, so I had to work twice as fast this time." She munched on one as she sat down next to Christa.

"Then what'd you do this time?" Arkham cracked his fingers. "Delete accounts? Get their personal info?" He leaned forward. "Blackmail?"

"Those are such amateur guesses," QT quietly offered some chips to Christa, who just shook her head. "I just held their accounts hostage and if they were to post anything even barely related to the whole ordeal, then their account and all digital backups would be wiped clean."

"What if they have something stored away on a USB or some external hard drive?" asked Ven as he sat down next to Arkham.

"I doubt anyone actually did it," QT scoffed. "But if by some chance someone actually did, the files would be wiped the second it's used on a device that's connected to WiFi."

"Are we sure we're not the bad guys?" Arkham asked jokingly as he turned his gaze over to Zero. "What do you say, Z?"

Zero glanced up at him then back down at the book. "No comment."

"Tsk." Arkham rolled his eyes. "Killjoy."

The entire facility began to rumble as if the world's strongest earthquakes all occurred at the same time in a single point. The vending machine in the glass room nearly toppled over as Ven rushed up to it and held it from falling onto QT. Both Arkham and Christa rushed under the table, whereas Gabriella and Zero were unfazed by the sudden tremors. The glass walls around them began to form large cracks, but didn't shatter as the earthquake came to an end.

Arkham peeked out from under the table. "What the hell just happened?" he asked as he helped Christa to her feet.

"Look." Zero's eyes were focused on the TV as it flashed "Breaking News" on the screen.

As the others soon followed, a sense of horror and dread immediately overcame them.