Sitting in the parked truck, Tina watched the new arrivals being attended to by Devon and a few other adults. They had worked with Tina and learnt what was required. They had decided to stay on and help others coming in from what they termed "the warzone".

Tina had heard so many ordinary human parents say being part of a world belonging to their children was important. To remain a family, they were happy to do anything to assist or find purpose. Pride swelled in her chest at the thought of being part of an Agency that made this kind of thing possible. These people may never have an everyday life, but they could have something resembling that. Since the assurances that the newcomers would be settled exactly how Tina wanted it, she found herself with time on her hands.

Dialling Jasmine's number, she waited.

"I need a lift," she said when Jasmine spoke, "the courtyard, five minutes."

Cancelling the call, Tina pulled her bag from under the seat, eating a cracker before exiting the truck. The families had been taken into the house, and she had minutes before someone came looking for her. Quickly working her way through the nearby garden, she made her way to the courtyard arriving as Jasmine appeared.

"Hey," Jasmine greeted her, "I would hug you, but I might shock you; Birgit was a little happy with my refill. What's going on?"

"Birgit must be having a good day. That's usually when she overfills you," Tina grinned, munching on another cracker, "I need to talk to Craig," Tina said. "There is something that keeps triggering him; no matter how controlled he tries to be ... something is going wrong with him or unravelling. I'm tired of waiting for him to say anything. I'm done being separated by his stoic wall of silence," she took a deep breath and shrugged, "besides, it's past time the babies were settled by his presence again."

"Anyone see you come this way?" Jasmine asked.

"No, I waited until the group of trained parents took the newcomers inside before I contacted you and headed here," Tina smiled. "Noone knows about you ... yet, and they have no idea I'm in this part of the property. Someone will come looking, so we need to hurry."

"Understood, I'll hold onto you. I'm glad it's not just a few of us that have noticed something off with Craig," Jasmine nodded. "Let's get you to him and get some sense into his head."

"Please, Jasmine, I'm worried," Tina said.

Jasmine nodded before gently resting her hand on Tina's shoulder. The pair disappeared before reappearing where Jasmine had left the group and indicated toward Kyle about to enter the tech room.

"Kyle," Tina called, moving toward him, "have you seen Craig?"

"Hey T," Kyle greeted with a grin, "uh ... the last I heard, Bre sent him to his quarters to cool down."

"Why?" Tina frowned.

"He became a little vocal and punched a wall," Kyle sighed, "he is on edge about something. But so was Bre. At least she tried to control her anger."

"Thanks," Tina nodded. Hurrying toward their suite of rooms, she opened the door to silence, "Craig," she called, "are you here?"

Walking through the rooms, she found them empty. Craig's gear was not in the cupboard, and she knew him to be fastidious about hanging it up. This could only mean he hadn't returned to the suite; he must still be wearing his fatigues and be somewhere else.

Where could he have gone?

Where would Craig go if he was furious?

Moving through the passageways, she checked on the beautiful room they used for reflection.

Noone one was there. Breathing in the chilled sweet smelling air Tina longed to slip into a seat, if only for a moment, but she needed to complete a task. Resting would have to happen at a later stage.

The small kitchen for those working long hours was also empty. The training room and firing range held nothing to indicate Craig had been there. Tina sighed, mentally ticking off places Craig could be. Unless he had left the house, the only other place was the infirmary. Moving through the passages, Tina pushed open the infirmary doors. Hesitating, she rolled her shoulders, then her neck, while taking in the area and locking onto the sound of Craig's raised voice before she saw him. The around her seemed to crackle to life as an unfamiliar sensation sprung in her gut. Frowning, Tina watched Craig standing beside the bed, leaning over slightly and shaking the occupant.

"Who are you, and who do you work for?" Craig bellowed.

"But you know who I am," the voice made Tina shudder, "and I think you have company."

Clearing her throat to avoid any reflex actions, Tina moved forward, staring with rising horror at the occupant before turning to Craig.

"Craig," Tina spoke gently, touched his arm, "I need to talk to you."

Craig dropped the man to the pillows looking down at her hand and then into her eyes. Disbelief at her appearing beside him made him blink quickly as though unsure if she genuinely stood next to him. Tina smiled at him as he relaxed under her touch.

A cold and slithering-sounding voice spoke as Craig looked at her, "Glad to finally meet the person who Craig depends on ... Tina."

Tina froze as her name slid from his lips; her mouth went dry, her face felt cold and clammy, and her hands began to shake. Looking at the man in the bed, Tina swallowed hard and replied, "I can't say the same."

"Well," the man smirked, "as good as it is to see you, Tina. You have been hard to find."

"Clearly not hard enough," Tina said icily.

"Tina," Craig said, "can this wait?"

"No," Tina shook her head, "I need to speak to you ... now."

Turning, he followed Tina from the infirmary. Stopping behind her as she turned to look into his tortured gaze.

"What is it?" Craig asked.

"I need to know what is going on with you," Tina said quietly.

"I'm fine," Craig snapped, earning a pair of raised eyebrows and a look of disbelief.

"I don't think you are," Tina said, "if you were fine, you would never have snapped at me. In fact, you wouldn't be acting as you have been in the past few days. You would never have allowed the space and time I took to lengthen into what it has. You would not let me drive away today or any other time we worked on an extraction without reassuring our offspring or myself."

"Do we have to do this now?" Craig asked, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Yes," Tina said, "we can do it here or in our rooms, but this has to be sorted out ... today."

"You're not going to let this go are you?" Craig sighed, his hands dropping to his side.

Tina crossed her arms over her chest, looking at him, silently shaking her head.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Let's talk in our rooms," Craig said, moving past her as Breanna came around the corner with Valencia and David.

"I thought I told you to cool off in your suite," Breanna said, looking between Craig and Tina, her eyes narrowing, "everything okay?"

"Not really," Craig said, "I knew a man with the same face as the man in the bed, but they are no longer the same people. He will not answer who he works for or who he is. The answers given are cryptic and elusive. He tends to enjoy emotional suffering, so be careful. He also knows Tina and would appear to have been looking for her for some reason ... may not hurt to see what you can find out."

"I'm going to talk to him now," Breanna said, "want to join?"

"Ah," Craig looked at Tina before answering, "I do, but Tina and I need to chat."

"Fair enough," Breanna nodded, smiling at Tina before entering the infirmary with David and Valencia/Birgit.

Watching the door close, Craig looked at Tina extending his hand silently for her to lead the way. Frowning as he followed her, noting the pallor on her face, she kept wiping her hands on her jeans as though they were wet or trying to get something dirty off them. Another man she seemed to know. Craig conceded Trevet was right. An explanation was necessary, and he needed to hear whatever she had to say. Worry and concern fought for the presidency in his emotional tower. Surprisingly it was a longing to hold Tina again that eventually won.

"How do you know that man?" he asked, slowing his pace to meet her own as she crunched on a cracker.

"From Darcia's facility," Tina shuddered, "he enjoyed taunting me when Darcia …" her words hung in the air. "When Darcia ..." she tried again but could not go further, "... he was evil."

"Did he ever hurt you?" Craig asked, noting Tina's edginess around the subject.

"Not physically," Tina said, glancing at Craig, "he … enjoyed emotionally hurting his subjects."

"That doesn't sound like the man I used to know," Craig shook his head.

"You knew him?" Tina stopped walking, staring at Craig incredulously, "is that why you were shaking him? Demanding answers?"

"I knew someone who resembled him," Craig sighed, opening the door to their rooms, "he was the complete opposite of whoever that is; I wanted answers, and all he did was cackle at me. I don't think he even recognised me. The Shane I knew died; I know this because I held him as he passed."

"I'm so sorry," Tina whispered, "that must have been really hard. Did you know him well?"

"Fairly well. We were teammates before we both ended up in the Madhouse. Shane's death was a turning point when it came to Darcia pressing buttons to get a reaction," Craig ran his hands through his hair. "I could keep it together ... did so for many years. I could be detached yet feel and function without being triggered and forced to be what I didn't want to be ... a monster. But everything unravelled when we brought Jaxon in."

"How so?" Tina asked, wandering to the couch and sinking gratefully to the comfortable surface.

Craig sat beside her, leaning his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands tightly together. It was time to explain his strange behaviour. Try to mend the rift between them.

"I didn't want to tell you this," he whispered, "wanted to protect you against ... my dark side ... against ...."

Tina nestled against his side as the words hung between them, "Not telling me will only break us apart. I have heard some terrible stories; please, let me ... let us ... be here for you as you have been for us."

Nodding, Craig settled back, draping his arm around Tina and holding her close to his side. His free hand absently rubbed the hard swell under the oversized T-shirt. For a moment, he simply held her, kissing her forehead and breathing in her scent while trying to find the words to make her understand.

"Darcia had a way of putting certain enhancements that could be activated and controlled at specific times in place," Craig cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably.

"Okay, I'm guessing she had to trigger these enhancements to make the active, then they were no longer dormant ...am I right?" Tina asked.

"Yes, sounds like you experienced this," Craig sighed.

"To a degree ... can you tell me about it?" Tina asked.

"Ah ... yeah ... it was ... after one excruciating enhancement, I was put in a containment room with a large glass window. On the other side," Craig paused and sighed heavily, "she had her thugs beat another experiment until the new enhancement activated or until the experiment was senseless."

Tina gasped, "You were forced to watch Jaxon beaten."

"Repeatedly," Craig said, shifting but unwilling to release Tina, "Jaxon would be re-programmed before going through another beating. I didn't understand why he never fought back. When the families came in, I heard the beaten experiments were sedated first."

Silently Tina wrapped her arms around Craig, lending him her strength to continue.

"After Shane, I refused to be manipulated that way," Craig whispered, "I clamped down on my emotions and became excessively disciplined."

"You have no idea what else may come to the surface," Tina nodded, "I'm guessing you were scared of what may emerge. I understand. You wanted to control whatever it was, not the other way around."

"Yeah, I had no idea," Craig said, looking at Tina, "I locked the memories away, refusing to acknowledge them or visit them. Seeing Jaxon made me revisit that part of my past, the part I refused to remember. I knew there was no way to prevent facing them when the same nightmares, and sleepless nights, started to dog every step of my day and night. Taking it out on you was wrong. I'm so sorry, babe."

Tina smiled gently, "I'm glad you finally told me. Promise me you'll talk to me in future. We will figure out whatever may come out way. But I think we need to address how to get whatever is happening under control again. Perhaps facing the memories is not bad..." Tina brushed a kiss on his cheek. "You may remember something that will enlighten us as to why Darcia and Madden thought they could use humans to rule the world. "

Craig nodded, "Perhaps, but I doubt it. I will talk to you in future ... these past days ... weeks have been torture without you. Can I ask how you know Nigel and this look-alike in the infirmary?"

Tina nodded, "Nigel helped me through my cloning. He showed me how to make each of my sister's individual people. Darcia would extract DNA from me, and during that time, I would follow what he had told me. It helped me get through the pain and make each of my sisters different from the others."

"Does David know about the DNA being pulled from you?" Craig whispered.

"No," Tina shook her head, "he would only get angry, and there is nothing he can do about it."

"What about the imposter?" Craig asked.

"He was used by Darcia to see if I had a dark side," Tina cleared her throat, "he would taunt one of my sisters to get me to retaliate. Craig, I'm worried about why he has been looking for me. Why has he been trying to locate me?"

"Do you think it's for himself? Perhaps some unfinished business?" Craig probed.

"I'm not sure," Tina said, "it could be that he wants to torture me again, but I'm not seeing why that would make him look for me. There must be plenty of people out there..."

"Tina?" Craig looked down at her. The sudden stop in her flow of words worried him.

"What if ..." she pushed into a sitting position, "what if he is trying to make one of our offspring use their dark side?"

"Do they have a dark side?" Craig asked, rubbing the growing swell under the T-shirt, "you're using my clothes."

"Yeah," Tina blushed, "I don't have anything loose enough, and I don't want to give it away to anyone that doesn't know ..." she sighed, "you don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all," he smiled lovingly at her, "do you know if one of our offspring has a dark side?"

"I know of three abilities," Tina said, cupping her hand and allowing the ball of fire to appear. "The fourth is oddly absent, and even though I talk to them and they respond our fourth ..." she shook her head, "I don't know what the ability is ..." she sighed, "not knowing is the worrying part."

"Why?" Craig frowned.

"I don't know what may or may not trigger the soul," Tina said, "I don't know how to counter whatever it is that can be done or how to use it should it appear. Craig..." she paused. "What if my body needs to be used if the ability erupts? It scares me ... I know an unknown is coming to life ... I felt it in the infirmary earlier... "

"Tina, whatever happens, I'm here for all of you," Craig whispered, cupping her cheek, "are you okay about this imposter, or do you want me to get rid of him?" Tina chuckled, "you sound like my personal hitman," Craig grinned, "yeah, I'm okay as long as I'm not around him too much," Tina nodded. "I must have looked a fright ... it was all the memories flooding back at the sound of his voice and then seeing his face for the first time," Tina shuddered, "it just … didn't… help get past it."

"You never saw his face," Craig frowned, "you heard what he said and felt what your sisters felt."

Tina nodded, swallowing hard, "Yeah, it was hard to get through."

"That would be torture for someone like you," Craig said, "I'm sorry, Tina … for jumping to a conclusion, shutting you out … all of it."

Dread settled in his chest when she didn't respond or look at him. They had chatted but would Tina forgive him?

"Craig, I hear your apology," Tina said, slowly lifting her head, smiling sadly at him, "you've made a promise to include me in everything. I understand what happened and why you reacted as you did. But I'm not certain you're not going to revert to the same strategy the next time. Forgiveness I can certainly give, but trust will take time ... and work ..." she sighed, looking down at their linking hands automatically gravitating toward each other. "Are you prepared to put in the work and give me that time ... to truly trust again?"

Craig nodded, "Yes. Whatever you need. Tina ... you're everything to me. Our offspring are just as important to me. I want to live whatever life we can with all of you."

Tina leaned forward gently, kissing him. Craig gathered her to him, enjoying the moment of being together.