The fighting was finally over well at least against the elites. Glade stood there for a moment over the unconscious body of the commander trying to figure out how to get him onto the wall. Eve, Valentina, and Veronica took the bodies of the others and moved them into the far corner closer to the exit door and moved the table as quietly as possible to cover them. All of their weapons, rifles, and gear that they could salvage was striped and placed in the opposite corner and everything else in the room that could be salvage was taken and put in the corner with the weapons. Alexandria, Eclipse, Aurora, and Gale stood close to Glade ready to give her any help if she needed it. However, Glade had yet to say anything. She just stood there looking down at the body.

  Eclipse was the first to speak. "Glade, he's going to die laying on the floor while you stand there and contemplate how to string him up or attach him. Do we need to put some glue on the wall and just throw him at it like a dart. What are we doing here?"

  A playful giggle escaped Aurora's lips at the sound of her mother taking about flinging a man's body like a dart. For some reason that broke Glade out of her train of thought.

  She let out a small sigh and turned around to face them. "I think he should be suspended. I know it is not my place to decide this, but my suffering has been worse than anyone else's. Gale you were strapped to an apparatus and your senses were denied you and Mist well I'm not sure about Mist's containment area since none of us have seen the inside of the room we're about to go into. I hung there wrapped in man-made fibers. My feet not touching the ground. My hands not sifting through soil or mineral or any type of life. He should feel even if it's just like a dream or a nightmare what that feels like." She paused her emotions were overwhelming her and they could all see it.

  Eclipse again decided to speak first but this time she did it with a bit more confidence and maybe a sprinkling of ego. "What if we hung him with my shadows?"

  Everyone turned to look at Eclipse and Glade walked over to her and put her hand on Eclipse's shoulder tilting her head to the side. "Can you actually do that? I know that you can strike and stab and possess and things like that, but can a shadow thread stay like that without you in close proximity?"

  A giggle escaped her lips. "It is possible. I can do it. We would have to make sure that there was a secondary something to help support just in case the power was interrupted by light or anything else like that, but yes, it is possible."

  The room went silent again. Everyone even Aurora looked like they were trying to figure it out and while they did that Eclipse moved away from underneath Glade's hand and walked over to the commander's unconscious body. She put her hands up like a puppet master and started to make her fingers dance up and down like she was playing a piano and as she did so the darkness and shadows from the ceiling came down. The shadows from the ground started to slither up and around as they congealed around him. The shadows came up from underneath and started lifting his body while the shadows from the ceiling less in number came down to meet the body. They attached to his shoulder blades, the back of his neck, down his spine as he was picked up arms spread out wide. His legs were stretched a bit like he was an x.

  Eclipse started to breathe a little heavy like she had just picked up something heavy as she took in a deep breath and as she exhaled a sound resonated through the room as if water was freezing on contact. The shadows that came from the ceiling and the floor had become solid aside from a single strand that was attached to the back of his neck running down his spinal cord. "There it is finished. He will stay that way until his body weight becomes too much for this solidified shadow to hold him up. Right now, his blood is still pumping through his body so once he dies, he will fall and that'll be the end of it. It was tricky to figure it out, but I did it. I can only do this move once or twice a day and the only reason I did it now is because I had the excess energy since I didn't fight, but there you go. He is suspended but at the same time he is in a way encapsulated. He cannot move and he cannot escape."

  Everyone had now gathered in the center of the room. All of the treasures had been gathered up. They had a significant number of weapons, gear, and a little bit of treasure. The shield and the electrified stun baton were among them which was going to be a boom for them if they could figure out a way to mass produce especially at the home base when the times called for the core crew to be away the islanders could better defend themselves.

  The silence that followed after everyone had stopped moving around and Eclipse had finished talking was different this time. Before the silence was thick and awkward and people wanted it to be filled. Now, the silence had a reverence to it as if it was speaking to each one of them and they were gaining something from it.

  Alexandria was the one to break the silence this time as she stepped closer towards the exit door leading to the final room of the facility and the last stretch of fights. "Alright everyone we can all take a moment to get something to eat to drink and a small rest and then we proceed through this door. I know we've talked about different strategies to get in and get Gale inside and the ones that have been proposed are good, but I have a better one." She paused for a moment and looked in Valentina's direction taking in a deep breath and as she exhaled, she continued. "I think it would be best Valentina if you slowed down time even if they are looking directly at us as we walk in as long as there's enough time for Gale to get into this next room and then get into Mist's containment area, we're good. After that it doesn't matter what happens once Mist and Gale are together in that enclosed space, she will not pay attention to anything in the outer room, or we hope. Even if she does Gale will be there to help calm her. It doesn't have to be long maybe sixty seconds. I don't know the particulars of what is in there and how we have to open that door to get into her room, but I think the better question would be not can you do it how long do you need to make it work?"

  Even though Gale, Glade, and Eclipse along with Aurora were new to the crew it wasn't surprising that Alexandria came up with a plan like that. There was a reason that she was the captain and her ability to plan and strategize that was one of the main reasons that she was their leader, and it showed because it was phenomenal idea.

  Valentina took a second to think about it. She too wasn't sure about the layout of the inner room. However, depending on what the mechanism was for that door because it had to have a door. Even if they didn't want anyone messing with her someone had to go in and you know check on the equipment and give her any sustenance that she needed. That could not be done through a wall you had to go inside and go up to the ability user and do those things which required equipment or gear or the like but still someone had to go in there you couldn't send a robot or anything like that. A they didn't have anything that sophisticated and b if they did, they wouldn't use it for stuff like that they would probably use it for war.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember the exact dimensions of that room and what could possibly be in there. Whether it be a keycode, a voice lock, a handprint, hell just a regular door. It didn't matter what matter was how long each step would take. Simply them opening the door and just walking in that would take about ten seconds so she knew that she had to do at least ten seconds and then after that how much would you add. Based on the distance from the entrance door of the second room to the entrance door to the inner part of the second room probably ten more seconds at most. Now, x which is the number she needed to figure out of how much time they needed to open that door. If it was a fingerprint lock, they needed to know whose print they needed. If it was voice same thing whose voice. Keycode that was just process of elimination.

  Stolen story; please report.

  She looked up first at Aurora and then at Eclipse. "Do either one of you know what's in that room? I know you might not know Aurora because I don't think you've been down this far, but Eclipse you've said you've seen every inch of this place. Do you know if that door is locked and if you do how do we get in? Right now, opening the door from the corridor into that second room where the officers are that's going to take us about ten second to do maximum because it's probably just open the door and you're in. Since it's connected to this room which is supposed to be the first line of defense the officers are the second. The third is whatever you have to do to get into Mist's containment area. What is it? So, far I need to slow time down and give Gale twenty seconds to get to that door. I need to know what the rest of the time is going to be for her to get inside because once she's inside I can bring time back to normal since it doesn't matter what happens inside that room anymore. Everything that comes after that is fighting with us. What's going on in there doesn't matter. So, do you know or am I just going to have to guess?"

  Aurora knew she wasn't asked directly, but a soft giggle escaped her lips as she spoke first. "I don't know what's down there, but I do know that one of the officers inside never comes out. We hear about him, but I've never seen him maybe that's a clue."

  Eclipse rolled her eyes for a second and smiled down at her daughter as she looked back up at Valentina. "My daughter is correct there is an officer who never leaves that room. There used to be an officer stationed at each of our containment areas while Glade's containment area and Gale's containment area and then one at Mist's. I haven't had a containment area in decades and Aurora has never had one. So, those three officers down there two of them are going to know how to deal with Gale and Glade. The last one is Mist's officer. So, if that door has any type of mechanism on it, he's the one that if you need a voice, finger, blood print, or keycode or even a key he's probably the one that has it. I guess even though they rotate when they're in there if all three of them are in there and they're only in there during emergencies. He will be the closet to that door."

  "Hmmm." Valentina thought for a second as she contemplated everything that Eclipse and Aurora just said. "If that's the case then we're going to have to add another thirty seconds just to find him because if we can find him, we want to add another five seconds to look at the door to find out what is there. So, ten seconds to open the door, ten seconds to get to the door, thirty seconds to find him, and five seconds to figure out what the door needs to be opened. So, that's thirty, forty, fifty that's almost a minute and our fighters for that room should be Veronica, Eve, and Captain Alexandria. I should not fight. Eclipse of course you're not doing any fighting and Aurora neither are you. Glade you shouldn't fight either you've expended way too much even though it doesn't look like it right now I'm sure you are tired. Besides we can't have any one of you trying to fight any of the officers that looked after you before because as the commander of the elites said before they were trained to fight y'all to suppress y'all. So, putting any one of you against them would just be asking to lose." She paused for a moment taking a deep breath, exhaled, and then she continued. "Now, that I have a better idea I would say I need to stop time for a minimum of two minutes so that we can get things done. Alexandria what do you think of my idea?"

  Everyone turned to look at the captain wondering what she would say. Alexandria liked what Valentina had said. She had some good points, and it was probably safer that she joined the fight this time. She had the most rest out of everyone and even though it was a bit of a smaller room she had gotten better at shapeshifting certain parts of her body. The polar bear was by far the strongest shift that she had. So being able to utilize that in a small space would be astronomical for them and detrimental for the officers. However, as she had stated before they could not kill any of them because they needed information and possible hostages if they ran into any other issues once they exited the facility.

  She gave Valentina a smile. "I like your idea. It has a lot of merit. I approve. Veronica, Eve, do the two of you agree to continue to fight?"

  A devious grin crossed Eve's face as she rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. "Sure, I don't mind taking down an officer. Of course, if we do get to kill them later on, I would like that opportunity."

  Veronica punched her right fist into her left palm. "I agree with Eve not being able to kill them right now sucks, but yeah I don't mind taking one and if it's alright with everybody here I would like to take on the officer that guarded your area, Glade. After this is all said and done, I would like to train with you. I think the two of us could help each other out and I feel a rapport if that's ok with you?"

  Glade smiled looking over at Veronica. "Sure, I have no problem with that young Veronica. Captain Alexandria, are we ready to move out?"

  Everyone turned to her. They started to move towards the exit door. While they had been talking, they had shared water and food rations trying to make sure they all had enough strength, and they lined up in the order that they needed to enter the room. Gale was first after Gale was Valentina. On either side behind Valentina was Eve and Veronica. Directly behind those two was Alexandria. Behind Alexandria was Glade and bringing up the rear was Eclipse and Aurora. However, if anything started to go awry there wasn't enough room inside the next room Glade, Eclipse, and Aurora would stay behind in the corridor and if necessary, would retreat back to the elite room to give the others space to fight without worry.

  Alexandria closed her eyes taking in a deep breath and as she exhaled her head snapped up and her eyes popped open. "Let's go. Gale open the door. The corridor and your sister await. It's time to show these officers what Crimson Judgement is made of."

  Gale opened the door to the corridor as they walked forward single file all that was heard was the tapping of their footsteps as they got closer to the entrance door at the end. You could see it. The corridor was as small as Eclipse described it and as they walked up to the door Gale extended her hand and grabbed the handle. As she did so Valentina came up behind and put her hand on Gale's shoulder. She would not be able to let go of Gale until right before she walked through the door into Mist's containment area because that would break her ability. She was not only stopping time for the room she was accelerating time for Gale. The only way to do that affectively was to be touching her. As Gale turned the handle Valentina started her ability. The door was pushed in and swung open. Time came to a standstill for everyone inside the room as Gale took her firsts steps inside with Valentina close behind her left hand tightly grasping Gale's left shoulder.

  Would everything go the way they expected it? Would they be able to contain the officers and keep Mist from freaking out? They were about to find out as long as Gale could keep her composure and Valentina was able to keep time at bay for the enemy and accelerated for her ally.