Spasms came frequently within Jo's arm, each time it became harder and caused pain to surge through her arm to her head. Momentarily, a curse escaped her lips. The thought of how the Eureka project would be completed flashed in her mind, she wasn't fit enough to hold on to it and so it faded off just as quickly as it came.

Ramon's grunt interrupted her thoughts. She looked in his direction, his jaws clenched in an attempt to subdue the pains across his torso. Jo chuckled at the expression on his face as its muscles relaxed.

"Man! I ain't feel this sorta pain in a long, long time," Ramon managed to say between calming himself and trying to laugh at himself. "Good thing we got past these crude methods at Phase II."

"Doesn't it leave you with the concerns for these guys out here?" Jo replied.

"Always told y'all, folks at Capital can never be trusted. Just when I thought DT was as shitty as it gets, I get welcomed to Hell." Ramon shook his head. "It only gets worse Jo."

Jo remained silent. Perhaps Ramon's anti-government nature could be justified. This place was worse than DT, no doubt, far worse if they still operated on Next Generation equipment when the world had since moved on.

The two guardians remained in the room which was as silent as a vacuum. It felt like hanging in space, drifting endlessly into infinity until the beeping sound of the door sounded before it opened up and Lucien came through. He engaged them in small talks while he moved the handheld scanner over Jo's arm, observing nano-surgeon activity. Ramon on the other hand had to undergo a slightly complex procedure with a machine to check for activities in his healing torso.

Jo and Ramon changed into the grey outfit Lucien had brought them and then followed his lead. They took in their environment as they followed behind him; thick and cold metal walls, huge pipes with solid ice sprawling around them, the air felt funny with a dash of mint hanging in its scent. Momentarily, Ramon would look back to see if he could still make out his way around, just in case. Growing up in DT had taught him there was no such thing as being too cautious.

Their boot resounded with a metallic thud as they followed through a flight of stairs to another floor. Ramon almost knocked down a toddler who had run into him as soon as they stepped into the hallway. A few others ran past them and the toddler joined, screaming in joy with his friends towards one end of the hallway.

Kids? What the hell, kids?

Ramon's eye followed the direction of the toddlers' voice until it disappeared. The last thing he expected to see in a place like this were children. He held back the urge to grab Lucien by the throat and have him spill out every ounce of truth there was to know about this place, but his gaze met with Jo's.

"Welcome to the common room," Lucien announced, ushering them into a moderately sized hall.

The main floor was taken up by steel chairs and tables arranged in several rows set parallel to each other across the room. Through an open area, Jo could see the kitchen crew energetically washing dishes. Trash cans and a counter sat at the far end of the hall and the queue at the serving area along one wall was hard to miss.

Most of the tables were occupied and although there was no sense of time, one could guess it was early in the day with the kind of meals served and the number of people around for possibly what was breakfast.

Several eyes fell on both Jo and Ramon as Lucien tried to find an available seat for them.

Kindra's eyes lit up at the sight of her crew mates. Her legs sprung to her feet and her hands flew around Ramon's body in a hug, ignoring his injured abdomen.

"Thank goodness, you're alive."

Ramon grunted and whispered an affirmative response to her. He wouldn't deny that her presence made his heart skip a beat for a minute there and he couldn't place it on if it was because she'd was also fine or it had something else to do with body chemistry?

"Your arm," Kindra turned to Jo who had a light smile on her face. It was a reflection of the rekindled hope within her.

"Better than being my neck," Jo answered, pulling out a seat for herself. "Good to see you again, guardian."

"Perfect reunion, I see," Lucien chimed in. "I'll now leave you guys to your thing. Meal's on its way."

Jo simply nodded at Lucien in appreciation, he returned the gesture and then walked away from them.

"Can you believe what this place is?" Kindra started as soon as Lucien was beyond hearing distance. Her voice held both disbelief and surprise.

"I know right! We need to find a way to get outta here ASAP," Ramon said, his eyes darted around the noisy hall.

"No," Jo muttered. "Guys, look at these people-"

"Jo, please, no!" Kindra cut her off. "Where in the world are we? We've been cut out of every form of communication, no information, nothing!"

"How far do you think you'll make it out there?" Jo's eyes moved from Kindra to Ramon. "We're all pretty beaten up and it's as you say, we have no idea what we're up against here."

Silence fell on them while they were served by a young girl no older than 11 by Jo's estimation. Her eyes glowed a green ring, she wasn't healthy.

"They look so helpless; how can they possibly cause any harm?" Jo's voice was calm, her eyes locked with Ramon's. "You wouldn't abandon your people at DT if we found ourselves stuck out here with them, would you?"

"At least we know DT is legitimate." Kindra wasn't buying all of that. Her tone held a sense of desperation. "These people are off the radar. Non-existent. Why wouldn't they seek help if they were clean?"

"We don't know for sure and we wouldn't assume anything."

"In passion, we find purpose," Ramon said for the first time since their conversation.

"In duty, we find strength," Jo responded, completing the guardian code of conduct quote.

Kindra sighed in defeat, the odds were against her if Ramon wouldn't see things from her perspective.

"Do you think Tri Tech would deploy a rescue team?"

"As far as they know, we're fine and Bathfog's atmosphere's disrupting communication."

Kindra nodded, her last straw of hope had just been dashed off by Jo's response. Whatever. The news didn't settle well with her and she was going to do something about establishing communication with the outside world rather than sit and wait with fingers crossed that help would arrive or god knows what. Not only was babysitting an extinct group of people not part of the initial plan, it also was interfering in the path of what might as well be humanity's biggest historical research breakthrough, Eureka.

"Any chance you might have heard about Meggan or Bishop?" Jo asked, digging into the bowl of poorly synthesized plain cereal which stared at her with the lumps floating like small balls of mountains.

"No," Kindra replied.

Ramon cocked an eyebrow at Kindra. His stomach growled once more and he turned to the food in front of him. Poorly synthesized cereal meals was synonymous to DT. He sighed, I never signed up for this, man.

It was beginning to dawn on them that surviving the next second was now as important as ever and they had to do whatever it was to stay alive until they were certain what is was these people here wanted with them.

=||=

Does anything feel not right about all that's happening? Believe me, you're getting set up for the biggest plot twist!

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