AN: Important thing here; I had to edit the last chapter to change the people involved in the last scene due to several reasons. You can reread the last chapter if you want, but it's not necessary, as the content of the chapter hasn't changed, just a couple of names. This chapter now opens with just Marzia, Felix, and Jack instead of the original group I had planned.

That being said, Happy New Year! This is the last chapter before the epilogue, so get ready for some stuff to go down.

(this one's really long so I might have missed some typos. If you find and please let me know!)

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Jack was getting pretty sick of being knocked out.

This was, what, the third time it had happened that day? There was no way that was good for you, and frankly, it was both highly unpleasant and inconvenient. He could only hope that because he was an immortanimus and had inhuman healing abilities there wouldn't be any permanent brain damage.

Groaning, he blearily opened his eyes, not sure if the vague nature of his surroundings was due to dizziness or if everything was purposefully kept secretive.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," came a familiar voice from his left.

Jack's head immediately snapped up, trying to look for the person who'd spoken. The room was poorly lit, so Jack couldn't make out the details of the few pieces of furniture nor the faces of the people around him, but he could tell that there were two other prisoners occupying the room.

"Felix?" Jack croaked. His voice was hoarse, like he hadn't had water in ages, which was probably true.

"Yep," he answered. He gave an awkward wave, though it seemed to be difficult for him, as his hands appeared to be bound to the wall by something.

"You're alive?"

"Sorry to disappoint," he muttered sarcastically.

"Marzia?" Jack said, turning as best as he could to face the other figure. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," she replied, her voice scarcely a whisper. "It's me."

"Thank god..." Jack muttered to himself, thankful to have at least two of his friends alive and with him.

"So," Felix started. "Now that the two of you aren't on death's door, could someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Jack was surprised by Felix's statement for a moment before he realized Felix had no idea about the disappearances, or the IH, or even what an immortanimus was. He'd been kidnapped by strangers for reasons he didn't know, leaving him in the dark both literally and figuratively.

"Oh... yeah."

"I was waiting for you to wake up because I really didn't want to explain this on my own," Marzia admitted. Her statement was fair, as Jack had no idea how they'd even begin to help Felix make sense of everything.

"I can start if you'd like," Jack offered.

"No, it's fine. I've been in this life longer. Maybe I can explain it better."

She thought for a moment before taking a deep breath, steeling herself for the awkward conversation ahead.

"So, to start off, I'm not a human."

"What?!"

"And neither is Jack."

"What?!"

"And now a bunch of the other non-humans want us dead because we want them dead for kidnapping people."

Felix said nothing, only laughing nervously in response.

"Okay. Cool. Sure. Look, whatever actually happened, you can tell me. I won't judge. I mean, I might judge a little, because I've been hit over the head, tied up, and punched, but we're all in this together. Apparently."

"Felix," Marzia started, "I wasn't-"

"Is it a drug thing? Are you guys doing coke?"

"No, dude, seriously. She wasn't-"

"Did you guys piss of a mob boss?"

"What? No! Listen-"

It was becoming very clear that Felix wasn't going to listen. Jack couldn't really blame him considering all that he'd been through that day. His poor friend was probably in shock, and the last thing he wanted to hear was that the paranormal exists. His denial, while a bit of a problem, was understandable.

"... this is way too much effort for just a prank," Felix said, finishing his theory. Marzia and Jack let him talk, hoping that letting him try to verbally work through this might help. It seemed like it was working already, as there was this uncertainty in his voice that Jack had never heard from him before. It took quite a bit to seriously rattle Felix. Cheap jump scares were one thing, because everyone gets scared by those, but aside from that there was nothing that either of them had come across that had put his friend in a state of peril. He wasn't easily fazed, and so hearing Felix's voice waver with an element of fear Jack thought wasn't possible for him to feel was a pretty big thing.

"Why are you guys so quiet?" He asked with a humourless laugh.

Jack and Marzia said nothing.

"You... you're serious, aren't you?"

"Yeah..." Jack muttered, not really knowing what else to say.

Felix laughed. "Well, pardon my skepticism, but I'm just having a hard time following that."

"We'll show you, then."

Jack looked over at Marzia, who'd just spoken. Her face was unreadable in the dark, but Jack already knew she was concerned about having to prove this. The chains on their wrists were no doubt made of the same thing those cuffs from earlier were, and Jack really didn't want Marzia to get zapped. He also didn't know how his body would handle being drained a second time, and the results could be even worse after repeated incidents.

Hopefully, if they didn't go to full-power, they'd be okay.

The room was filled with a soft blue glow as the marks on Marzia's and Jack's faces came to life, the shock on Felix's face becoming more and more visible. Marzia's eyes and markings started glowing first and were much brighter, which was to be expected, as this was second nature to her. It took Jack a bit longer, since he was still extremely new to all of this and had mostly just been tapping into his abilities by chance up until that point.

"Holy fuck..." Felix mused, staring at them with wide eyes.

With the knowledge that they'd provided enough proof, Jack and Marzia killed the light show. Any longer or stronger and bad things might have happened.

Felix let his head rest against the wall and closed his eyes, expression unreadable in the lighting and thoughts unknown.

"My girlfriend's an alien."

"I'm technically not," Marzia retorted, though she was clearly trying to supress a laugh. "It's not like I'm from another planet."

"You might as well be. I just... this is kind of hard to process. I think my brain broke as soon as all of this weird shit started happening, and it's getting worse."

"Well, take your time," Jack said. "We're going to be here a while."

Felix laughed, but both of them knew that Jack was being sincere. This wasn't easy, and it's not like they really had anything else to do but think and talk considering they were restrained.

"When do you think they'll be back?" Marzia asked.

"Not sure. I haven't really been able to keep track of time in here. If I had to guess I'd say sooner rather than later, though, because I think it's been a while."

"Anything in here we can use to escape?"

"I already checked over here, but these stupid cuffs make it hard to move around. Maybe there's something over by you, but I doubt it."

Jack took Felix's suggestion and felt around blindly, hoping his hands would stumble upon something that could help them. His fingers grazed the cold cement floor fruitlessly, finding not even a pebble out of place. Trying the same thing with the wall produced the same result, no matter how far he reached, and Jack was forced to accept defeat.

"Nothing here," he said dismally.

"So I guess we just... wait?" Marzia said.

"Yeah. I guess so," Felix answered.

The trio unanimously and nonverbally resolved to wait in silence, but this immediately proved to be uncomfortable. They were sitting in a cell, awaiting certain doom with a backup that had probably already been captured, and two of them weren't human. The absurdity of it all created this heavy tension in the air, all of those topics suffocating them the longer they remained suspended and untouched.

Jack couldn't bear it.

"I'm sorry."

The silhouettes of Marzia and Felix moved to face him, expressions unknown.

"For what?" Felix asked.

"They want me for something, and because you guys know me they dragged you into this. It's my fault that-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Marzia interjected.

"Same here. You didn't lock us in here. You didn't hurt us. You didn't ask to be a part of this. Life just sucks sometimes and you got monumentally screwed over here. And whatever these freaks want with you, we'll be there to make sure they don't get it."

Jack sat in stunned silence for a moment, not expecting either of them to cut short his self-blame. Hell, he'd been expecting them to agree with him. Hate him. Which he now realized was stupid.

They were his friends, and all that had happened was due to some psychos and some bad coincidences. And he was ready to kick some ass in order to put an end to it all.

Before any of them could say more, a shrill hissing sound filled the room, followed by the revelation of light from beyond as an electronic door slid open. In front of it stood a figure dressed in the trademark all-black that this group seemed to love, their hood concealing their head and creating a faceless monster.

"Well, hello again!" Felix called to them, breaking Jack's sentimental mood as he braced for the results of his friend's boldness. "Nice of you to drop by! Care for a chat? Some tea maybe? I could pull that stick out of your ass, if you'd like."

Much to Jack's surprise, the figure didn't react in any way. He glanced over at Marzia, who seemed to have also been bracing for the worst, and they exchanged confused glances. Jack then looked to Felix to see what his plan was, but the expression on the other man's face immediately told him there was no plan to speak of. He was simply trying to get a rise out of their captor.

And it wasn't working.

Two other figures appeared behind the first, making the total one enemy for each prisoner. Each picked a target and moved towards it, causing Jack's stomach to twist with fear. He tried to back away, but the infernal cuffs on his wrists didn't let him get very far. The person reach him, but inflicted no harm. Instead, they detached the cuffs from the walls, leaving Jack's hands bound but allowing him to move around some more.

"On your feet," one of them said from across the room. The person next to Jack then grabbed his arm and started forcefully trying to pull him up, as if to reaffirm the previous command.

Jack wasn't anxious to find out what would happen if he didn't comply, so he stood up slowly, the change in position alerting him of how badly his body hurt.

The hand moved from his arm to his shoulder, applying forceful pressure once more, but this time pushing forwards and guiding Jack towards the door. Jack went along with it, the person's strength far outmatching his own drained resources.

"Where are you taking us?" Marzia asked from somewhere behind him, several sets of footsteps indicating that the rest of the people from that room were following closely.

No one answered her question.

Their walk through the building (which Jack hoped was still the same one they'd tried to enter, because otherwise he had no idea where they were) was one filled with silence. Well, silence and Felix trying to be as annoying as possible, Jack attempting to be a pain in the ass and Marzia deliberately messing with her captor.

Felix kept singing overplayed songs very off-key, making annoying noises, or rambling about nothing, much to the displeasure of the hooded figures. They'd tell him to stop, but he'd pick right up again about thirty seconds later. Jack couldn't see what Marzia was doing, as the person whose hand was on his shoulder would make him turn his head forward again every time he tried to look back, but from the kerfuffle being made he assumed she was tripping them or stepping on their feet. Their footsteps would falter, they'd yell at her, and she'd sweetly reply "it was an accident." Jack would abruptly stop directly in front of the person escorting him and plant his feet, causing them to run right into him and stumble back. Like Marzia, he would claim it was an accident, though the grin on his face probably gave away the truth.

What was interesting about all this, however, was that no one pulled a weapon on them. Jack knew they were armed, because at one point the person next to him had pulled out a blade and immediately put it back, but the trio was never threatened for their antics. Jack didn't dare try anything, because again, they did have weapons, but he couldn't figure out why none of them had used violence in order to get them to cooperate.

He would soon get his answer.

After being lead down multiple different hallways and dimly lit passages, they finally arrived at a set of doors. There were no handles, and the glowing lock at the centre of the door indicated that pushing it wouldn't be an option either, so Jack had no idea how they were going to get past them.

The method was soon revealed: the person who had been standing behind him walked over to the wall, pulling something out of their pocket along the way. They held the object up to the smoothed stone, which caused a small, glowing rectangle to appear on its surface. The light it was giving off allowed Jack to see that the object was some kind of key card that granted access to whatever was beyond these doors, which they would soon see.

A sharp hissing filled the tunnel, echoing off the walls in a rather chilling manner as the doors slid open smoothly. Bright fluorescent lights were found on the other side, and it took Jack a moment for his eyes to adjust.

On the other side of those doors was room 134.

The same room 134 from the IH headquarters.

Jack's jaw dropped as he attempted to comprehend what that meant. These people had access to tunnels that connected directly to the inside of the base, which made no sense. If they were enemies of the organization, why would they be able to enter the building like this?

The answer to that question was one that Jack didn't want to consider but knew was most likely the truth.

"Ah, there they are," a new voice said.

Their captors continued to usher them into the room and the doors slid closed behind them, leaving them trapped in a sickeningly familiar place with some sickeningly familiar faces.

The strange machine who purpose was unknown was still in the room, exactly as he'd last seen it when he'd been there just a day before, but the tables that had been set up were gone. Instead, roughly fifty people all dressed in the same cloaked and dark attire were stationed at various different points, all committing themselves to certain tasks. Most of them were behind pieces of technology, some which were normal computers, others the likes of which Jack had never seen before.

But it was the group directly in front of him that consumed most of Jack's attention. On the floor were PJ, Lin, Rory, and Egan, all on their knees, hands behind their backs, people pointing guns at their heads, and varying expressions on their faces. Lin and Rory were sitting closer together, and Jack could see that their pinkie fingers were just barely linked behind their backs, enough to keep hold of each other but not enough so that any of the figures behind them would notice. Egan seemed bored, which Jack couldn't even fathom, though maybe he was just misreading his body language. He honestly never knew with Egan.

PJ, however, was unreadable. There was a trace of that far away look he got in his eyes  sometimes when talking about IH stuff, but it seemed to have increased tenfold. There was a sadness and a sense of shame Jack had never seen from him before, too, which he didn't know the source of.

In front of them were three more people, though their clothing was slightly different They were dressed in all dark colours, but instead of concealing their identities with hoods, they used what looked like modified gas masks.

Jack didn't have to be a detective to figure out that two of the figures were Alex and Casey.

But who was the third?

"We were waiting for you. Hope they didn't cause you any trouble, Aidan. The Swede likes to run his mouth," said the masked figure who stood at the very front, causing Jack to assume they were the leader.

"Well, fuck you too," Jack heard Felix mutter from behind him.

"Case in point, but I've seen it all before. He won't be a nuisance for much longer." This came from the figure who'd been directing Jack, who he assumed must be Aidan.

And Jack didn't like the sound of that last sentence.

"Before we get started with all that unpleasantness, however, I'd like to get to know you all. Chat a bit. I haven't had the privilege of meeting you yet. Most of you, anyways."

Felix, Marzia and Jack all remained silent, not wanting to humour this person.

"Don't all talk at the same time," they remarked sarcastically. "You probably have questions. Ask away, we have time."

Jack narrowed his eyes at the figure, attempting to assess what they were getting at and what their angle was.

"Who are you?" Marzia asked, the first of them to speak up.

"See? That wasn't so bad," they chuckled, then reached up towards their face and tugged at something behind their head. "This might give you a hint, but it's not a great one."

With a click that Jack barely heard from where he was, the person's mask fell from their head, and they tossed it aside without a second thought.

And their face made Jack's heart nearly stop.

It was the fake homeless man.

The one he'd met on the way home from the coffee shop, who'd somehow managed to make his entire body freeze as he grabbed his wrist. Who had to have had something to do with that camera that had been watching him.

He was right there, and he was a part of this.

"Surprise!" He said with faux excitement. "Remember me, Jack? Wish we could've talked longer the last time we met. I almost regret giving you such a scare."

Jack's friends were all looking at him now, needing clarification and wanting answers, which he wasn't prepared to give.

"You know this guy?" Lin asked accusingly. Jack expected one of the guards to reprimand her for speaking. They didn't, thankfully.

"It's... I don't... It was a couple days ago and I thought..."

"Don't bore them with the details. They won't matter soon enough."

The man motioned for someone a couple of feet to bring him something, which they did. It was a small remote with a switched-off light at the end, and Jack could only hope it wasn't a weapon.

"But I will tell you this. My name is Alastor."

He pressed a button on the device, and out of the light from the front a holographic screen materialized, creating a divide between the two groups.

"And, to put it simply, I'm a fan."

The tone in which he said that sentence was already enough to give Jack the creeps, but then he saw the images on the screen, and his stomach felt so sick it was a miracle he held his composure.

The futuristic