That night Orion had a strange dream… or at least he thought it was that night… and he thought it was a dream… He felt like he was floating through space. Eventually he was joined by S who was sitting cross-legged as if on an imaginary chair.

“Having a rough go of it aren't you, old man.” S said, S always seemed to call him that, but he couldn't remember why. Perhaps they knew each other long before he even came to this dimension.

“Am I doing the right thing here?” Orion asked them. “I feel like things keep going wrong.”

“Things are going as well as they can be.” They said. “It's not working out in the same way as it was written but it will still work out. You remembered too soon, and it threw everything off. Someone has interfered…”

“Someone had interfered?” Orion asked them.

“I have to look into it... We won't meet again for some time. Just continue as you have for now.” S attempting to push Orion back into the ether. “And try not to get yourself killed again; I don't think I can bring you back another time.”

“What? From a bloody nose? I’m not that fragile, am I?” Orion questioned them.

“What you did was awfully bold, but you really shouldn't do that again.” S muttered.

“Do what again? Can you stop being vague?” Orion pleaded.

“You can figure it out yourself. What happens when an incredibly young shadow overruns its ability to regenerate its physical form?”

“Dormancy or death usually.” Orion responded.

“You're just a hair too young for that you know. In a few more decades, perhaps that would be the case.” S said teasingly.

“That's not… good.” Orion covered his mouth in thought. “I don't remember any of that.”

“You’re right. That’s not good. Don’t do it again.” S admonished him.

“What even happened to cause that?”

“Figure it out yourself, old man.” S pushed him away.

Orion soon found himself back at Spectra's headquarters. He couldn't quite remember how he got there or how much time had passed. He vaguely knew he just finished with the debriefing, but he didn’t know why he knew this, and he couldn't remember any of it.

“Alright, that's enough Orion. Go take a long-needed rest.” Claire pat Orion's shoulder encouragingly. “We can handle the rest without you.”

“But I can help, I don't have to be involved directly” Orion said.

“No, you're pushing yourself too much.” She said. “We can't afford to put you in more danger.”

“What?” Orion had never been in any real danger, so why was this a problem now? Sure, he ended up in some unavoidable situations, but that wouldn't happen if he wasn't directly apart of it.

“Unit one just confirmed it. There were Lambda units' part of the experiments designed to combat your kind.” Claire explained. “It's no longer safe for you to be there.”

“And it's safe for everyone else?” Orion questioned.

“Not necessarily, but we can't lose you again.” Claire said. “There's much more we need of you beyond this mission. Everything will be a lot easier with you alive and you need to be fully healed before then. The risks no longer outweigh the benefits.”

‘Again’ Orion thought, 'Meeting with S wasn't a dream then.’

"Claire's right. Besides, we already have enough information gathered on their experiments to combat them. It won't be hard to wipe them out completely without you." Ricky continued.

"So, you do intend to kill them all?" Orion's demeanor changed suddenly. "You shouldn't do that."

"They're dangerous Orion, you said it yourself, that thing would have eliminated you without any order or reason to do so. It's probably trained to kill shadows on sight, and you want them to go free?"

"It's not their fault." Orion grinded his teeth a little. He also didn't remember saying anything like that, but it wasn't the point.

"No, it's not. But it doesn't change the fact that they're killing machines." Ricky said.

"That's not true." Orion scowled. He thought about the subjects he saw at BioPort. They were like the recruited, they didn't want to be there, and they had no choice in the matter.

"He's right Ricky." Claire chimed in.

"They're still people. They're just people. We can't... ignore that." Orion stood up, "Many of them are useful outside this situation. Wiping them out is more dangerous, catastrophic even. I'll make up whatever excuse you want. I can't let more people die than necessary."

"What are you on about?" Ricky asked annoyed. “Our team needs to be safe. If they have the potential to cause harm we have to eliminate them.”

"If we killed everyone based on their capacity to do harm, everyone in this room right now would be dead, Ricky. None of us are completely human either.” Orion assured. “People will already be killed because of me… Well, I refuse to add to it, okay!?”

"You do know that Imani was an experiment, right? She escaped; she was one of them." Claire started to raise her voice. "Do you want to kill her too?"

"That's different." Ricky tried to argue. "We know she's safe."

"It's not different." Claire glared daggers in his direction. “The Lambda units might be a lost cause but destroying all of the subjects isn't the best way to handle it.”

"Yes, it is." He snapped back.

"We already know the Rho-Eta and the Alpha-Eta lines are considered 'safe'," She did air quotes while saying safe since that was the only thing that mattered to him.

"Several already escaped and are living normal lives, the remaining subjects of those lines are already slated for disposal by BioPort, we can save the rest of them." Orion added.

"Right." Ricky started to concede. "But how would this work?"

"It can't be that hard to try and determine whether the others are safe too." She continued to emphasize the word safe in a snarky manner.

"I will sponsor them." Orion said.

"Now what would that entail?" Ricky asked. “I’m still not fully on board with this.”

"This sponsorship will allow them to live close to normal lives under the supervision of Spectra. Whatever help they need to integrate back into society, and the safety in knowing Spectra has some sort of control in case something does happen." Orion said, "My uncle has a sort of, foundation for this sort of thing, some non-human support service thing.”

"We can negotiate this with Mr. Spectra later. Besides, I think he'd be more than happy to welcome more team members like Imani." Claire said as she stood up.

"Look I was just worried about-" Ricky got cut off.

"This isn't the time for it. We have other things we have to focus on now." She said.

Claire quickly left the room and got back to work. Orion followed after her. He took a seat a bit of a distance away and started going through some information he had on a clipboard.