The glare of the light above her gave her a sharp migraine. 

Maya, fresh from another procedure that had her feeling weaker than ever, groaned. She was tied down to a bed in the same room she always returned to. 

She stared at the wall, contemplating how the scans and blood drawings she’d been through while at Monique’s lab were a hundred times better than the pure torture the red-skinned captures had put her through. She had been surrounded by alien language, strange settings, and in pain for an amount of time she couldn't count. 

She felt tears well up in her eyes at the rising self-pity and regret for not listening to her brother’s warnings.

Then a woman walked in. She wore the typical white lab coat and pristine clothes of the lab’s researchers. Maya felt sick to her stomach. “Leave me alone-!“ She shouted with the last of her strength, yanking aimlessly at her restraints. A gloved hand covered her mouth. Upon coming closer, she could see the woman was not one of the usual staff, and had a dangerous aura. Her braids were in a high ponytail, and she looked down on Maya with a gaze she could only describe as imperious. She severed the restraints on Maya’s chains with a thermal cutter.

“Who are you?“ Maya croaked. The mystery woman unlocked the wheels at the bottom of the bed.

"Friend of your brother," Black Snake whispered. Loudly, she said, “Be quiet, subject.” She said, mimicking the attitude of the laboratory staff Maya was used to. She started rolling her toward the door.

In a whisper she said, “If you want to get out of here, you’re going to have to be quiet. I will sedate you if need be.“ Maya thrashed, panicking at the thought of being sedated. She always woke up to white-hot pain. 

“No! Not again. Anything but-“

She felt a sharp stab in her neck. For the next minutes, her consciousness faded in and out like a dream. Maya felt the bed move under her, passing hallways that she had come to hate.  Clinical voices above her argued and the bed jolted to a stop. She didn’t know how long she was passed out. A commotion occurred, and then she felt the breeze on her skin for the first time in months. Her body was carried, and she felt the rocking of the floor beneath her. 

A boat.

The lull of the boat put her to sleep, and she remembered the words being whispered to her, 

“You’re safe now.“

She woke up in a decidedly nicer room. The woman from before was nowhere to be found.

“G’day, stranger!”

A blonde man with a black suit was leaning on the back of a chair, a knife flipping in his hand. He handed her a glass of water, and she later learned that he - Taylor Frazer - worked for the woman that had rescued her. 

The woman eventually returned, introduced herself as Black Snake, and handed her a burner phone.

“Why did you save me?” Maya asked, perplexed and wary.

“I brokered a deal with your brother and his gang.” Maya sat up at this. “There’s a number in here for Interceptor Technologies and your brother - they wanted proof of life.” She said.

Maya stared at the phone.

 "I can't.” 

“Did they break your hands-” Taylor started.

“I failed him. I failed the girl. I couldn’t even protect myself,” Maya remembered her fight against the redheaded man. ”And I don’t know what they did to me. What I walked myself into. I should never have gone-."

“Dr. Heissman is a bruja. A witch.” Black Snake folded her arms, “Her boss is worse. Do you remember what happened?” She watched Maya carefully. She surveyed Maya’s exposed skin. Scars and rashes ran up and down her arms. Her neck was covered in bruises, and droplets of water littered her clothes where her weak hands could barely hold the water glass steadily.

She shook her head. She’d only heard whispers of an alien language amidst the constant pain she was in.

“We do.”

Black Snake explained that Maya’s Immunity had caused her cells to freeze in time essentially. She would always be weak, because her cells were slow to consume, slow to activate, slow to age, but they were also slow to heal, and slow to remove traces of Jawal poison from her body.

“Am I contagious?”

“You shouldn't be. But don’t worry, dear, all of my Snakes are Immunes.” She went on to explain that she headed an organization called Snakes, which currently worked with I.T as an informant on Dr. Heissman and the aliens known as Red. 

Then she said, “You could join us.” It wasn't a question.

She didn’t know whether that was Black Snake’s plan from the beginning, considering she didn't return her directly to her brother and IT, but Maya knew she couldn't turn back to her old life. She felt sick and prickly just considering it. The shame was too great. She couldn't face her perfect brother.

“What use do I have?” Maya said. The offer clicked for some reason. This Snake organization was going to be responsible for taking down her torturers. But she looked at her scarred, shaking hands and doubted she’d ever be of usage to anyone ever again.

The black-clad woman pulled out a bottle. A label, Blue, stuck out to her. 

“We can make you useful.”

The results of the Snake organization showed up a few days later. An odd man with an accent she couldn't place stopped her when she was walking down to New York Street. The vending cart he ran couldn't be tracked, and Keira suspected it was Black Snake. 

The team stood in the training room, screen extracting and painting images from the numbers in the small USB stick. Its contents left everyone gaping. 

A muscular and still figure - Beastkind - materialized into a dark night. Beastkind was one of Black Snake’s assets, able to mutate into animals and what they identified as alien creatures.  Hidden, he observed people getting herded into a Hole by Agents.

With bone-cracking sounds, the Snake turned into a stealth Jawal. These were the few Jawal that were reported to be seen ever returning to the Holes. Since his current DNA was cohesive with the infiltrating beasts, he didn’t fear prowling through the portal as it closed. The camera used an SD card, and the distorted screen from walking through a Hole lasted but a moment, and the film continued as normal. The film showed that the portal brought him to a silver floor. All kinds of Jawal were in crates as far as the eyes could see. Armed red aliens in medieval-looking armor manned the balconies and stairwells.

Aliens guided him through a series of turns, floors, and doors. The shapeshifter managed to slip away from them, back into his anthropomorphic form, 

“I think I can…” They heard a gravelly voice whispering into the camera. Then the same bone-cracking sounds commenced and the height of the video shifted. Passing a reflective metal surface, Beastkind was revealed to be walking in the form of their alien invaders.

“I thought he could only morph into animals?” Jamie said around a mouthful of candy, reading another file that had been delivered alongside the video. 

Before anyone could answer, Beastkind stumbled upon the human captives. Morphing himself into what was identified as a Red leader, he observed that the Reds were extracting human bone marrow to create a substance they injected into what looked like civilian Reds.

At the end of the video, the team had more questions than answers.