* * *

Blue eyes stared back at her from behind a mask. Sarah stepped back, but something—a familiarity of sorts—made her go no further.

The man hung back from the others and came closer. A brief impulse to run away flashed through her brain, but never materialized into action.

“What is it?” Concern was clear in his voice.

Feeling trapped in that dark hallway, Sarah struggled not to hyperventilate. “I’ve had this dream before.”

“This isn’t a dream.”

Sarah laughed, a panicked sound. Of course it was. Except… “I can’t remember how it ends.”

“I’m assuming this means we’ll be staying here for the duration.”

Where were they going? And duration of what?

“Phoenix is out,” he whispered as if not talking to her anymore.

“Do you need assistance?” a voice responded, sounding inside her ear.

She suppressed a startled yelp.

“No,” her companion replied curtly. He then looked back at her. “Do we?”

She shook her head. Voices started again in her ear, turning into background noise. She reached out and grabbed a hold of his arm, surprised by how real he felt.

“I’m not sure, but I think we die,” she whispered. There was something so familiar about it all. Even the part where she was standing here with him, hearing voices that weren’t there.

“First floor clear,” one of those voices said.

“Still ten minutes out.”

“We don’t have ten minutes,” she and her companion said almost in sync.

Why did she think that? The disembodied voices continued, regardless of her.

“Here goes nothing.”

“No!” she shouted, finally remembering how the dream ended. But it was too late.

Sarah woke up, gasping for air as her skin burned.

Arms flailing as if she could stop whatever it was from reaching her, she almost fell over her chair when she stumbled to her feet. She didn’t fall, but her chair wasn’t as lucky.

A trembling hand reached down to right it. It was harder than she thought to leave the dream behind. The fear lingered, as did the odd familiarity of a recurring dream, but the events themselves were fading away.

Sarah was still standing there like an idiot, holding on to the now righted chair with one hand and her open notebook with the other when her sister came into the room.

Robyn stopped at the sight of her. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing. I was starting to doze off.”

“That’s why I have this.” Robyn set the bowl of popcorn on the table and took a seat, flipping through her book to find her place. “Any nightmares?”

Sarah recognized the tone. They all sounded that way when asking her about what went on in her head. “I wasn’t actually asleep.”

“Fine,” Robyn shot back, stuffing a handful of popcorn into her mouth. “Oh, you got a notebook?”

Sarah nodded, realizing she still had the thing in her hand.

“What is that?” Robyn asked. “A bird?”

“It’s a phoenix.” The word brought back a flash of the dream, the name spoken as if it meant something more.

“I thought you were going with the amorphous swirly things.”

That was the plan. “I don’t know. There was something about this one. I like it.”

“Whatever. Are you done?”

She gave her sister a questioning look.

Robyn laughed. “Are you done or not? Studying.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

* * *

“Are you done?”

Sarah turned with a start. “Yeah, yes. Sorry.”

The remnants of a dream swirled in her mind’s eye.

Dream? Had she really dozed off while sitting in the corner of a dark alley eating a granola bar?

The echo of her sister’s voice blended into the background along with faraway voices chanting for safety.

“Don’t tell me you were sleeping. It’s only been 23 hours,” Pegasus joked.

Right. She was taking a break. “I’m surprised you’re awake.”

“Who says I am? I’m a very functional sleepwalker.”

“Are you two finished?” Griffon asked over the com.

She stuffed the empty wrapper into her back pocket.

“Scan of our area is complete,” Pegasus said. “Mermaid, how sure was your informant that the New Nation was going to infiltrate the protest?”

“Not incredibly,” Mermaid said over the background noise. She was closer to the action.

“Hey, guys?” Michael was manning the com so Cypher could get some sleep. “Lore sent us some of the latest messages she decoded from the cell we’d been tracking. They do mention the protest.”

“Maybe the New Nation playing with us,” Sarah suggested.

“When is Wolf’s team coming to relieve us?” Mermaid asked.

“Sometime next year, I think,” Pegasus said. “They were rerouted to help Center follow up some leads on the stolen weapons.”

“We’re here until this thing is done,” Griffon snapped.

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. Right away, sir,” Mermaid said.

Sarah stifled a laugh, which turned into a yawn she tried to hide from Pegasus.

“Locals report a skirmish. Anyone have a good view of the main street?” Griffon asked, still all business.

“I do,” Mermaid replied. “Checking it out.”

And just like that, they were back to work.

Sarah pushed the door to her room open with the full weight of her body—that was better than saying she almost fell against it. She went to take off her shoes, mildly surprised to find they weren’t there. Huh. Where had they gone?

She hesitated for a second—a shower would be nice—but she collapsed onto the bed instead, eyes closed before she had even reached the mattress.

Semiconscious, she started edging her feet onto the bed. Wait, had she taken her shoes off? She had a vague memory of wondering the same thing a moment ago and wiggled her toes. After a second or two of repeated confusion, she remembered her boots had come off somewhere down the hall.

She thought she heard a knock on the door, and she listened hard for any other sign of life in the room besides her own tired breathing. When there was no discernable sound, she drifted off. To be fair, as tired as she was, she would have drifted off regardless.

* * *

Unicorn set down Sarah’s boots inside the room and slowly closed the door behind her, resisting the urge to tiptoe away. Halfway to her own room, she found Pegasus leaning against his door, eyes closed while he fumbled with the doorknob.

Laughing, she reached over to pull his hand away.

Pegasus straightened himself and opened his eyes, an embarrassed smile emerging from his tired expression.

“What’s the matter with all of you? Griffon was stumbling to command, Phoenix literally fell into her room, and you look like you’re sleeping where you stand.”

“I am, I think. Being awake for over thirty hours will do that.”

“Didn’t any of you get some sleep on the way back?”

“Just Hawk on the way there, but he can sleep anywhere. And then he was hyper on the way back and didn’t let anyone sleep. I had half a mind to shoot him.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t.”

Pegasus’s expression turned sour. “Griffon took away my guns… and my knife.”

She accompanied him into his room, moving some stuff off his bed and pulling away the comforter. The floor was clear, so there wouldn’t be any tripping hazards. “Do you need anything?”

“Sleep,” he deadpanned.

Unicorn watched with a smile as he struggled to remove his jacket, feeling a bit like when she had to watch over her nephew.

Pegasus had finally wrestled himself free from the last sleeve when the intercom sounded. He tossed the jacket on the floor and shuffled over, pressing the button down with his entire body weight. “What?”

“We’ve got a red ball.”

“Will you stop calling it that?” He closed his eyes for a couple of breaths. When he opened them again, he looked actually awake.

“Be right there.”

Unicorn picked up his jacket and handed it to him. “Sure you’re good to go?”

“I’ll be okay.” He led her back out into the corridor. “But if this is a drill, I’ll be killing someone in the next ten minutes.”

“Promises, promises,” Scorpion said cheerfully as she joined them.

“Yeah, well, I usually keep mine.”

Unicorn almost missed a step. Her eyes flitted to Scorpion just in time to see her smile vanish. Hoping to make each forget the other was there, Unicorn stepped between them. She pressed the elevator button that had been thus far ignored and, with a bright smile firmly planted on her face, turned to Scorpion. “You look happy, what’s up?”

The woman ignored her, glaring at Pegasus as if through her.

He didn’t even pretend he didn’t see it. Matching her gaze, he leaned in closer, encroaching on Unicorn’s personal space when she didn’t move out of the way. “I thought I was supposed to laugh it off and move on. Isn’t that what you said, Belle?”

“Now I know you’re sleepwalking, calling me that.” Scorpion’s tone was as angry as his was bitter.

“Trust me, if I were dreaming, this dream would be a lot more fun. At least one or two dead bodies around.”

“You’re twisted when you’re sleep deprived, you know that, right?”

He laughed, a strange harsh sound.

“Everyone knows it,” Unicorn said, once again deflecting their attention. “That’s why we don’t usually give him more than a couple of missions on end. We try to avoid letting Mr. Hyde out of his cage.”

Pegasus ignored her, but was done with provoking Scorpion. The door opened after what felt like a decade, and the three of them stepped out onto the main area.

Zeus’ brows furrowed when he caught sight of Pegasus. “What’s he doing here?”

“He was summoned by that one,” Pegasus said, pointing towards Cypher with exaggerated motion.

Zeus cast a glance at Cypher, who sat up in his chair, fingers pausing their rapid motion. “Sir, you said all level 4 personnel.”

“Not the ones who have been up for over thirty-two hours. We might need them awake at some point.”

“If it’s all the same to you, can I go sleep somewhere horizontal?” Pegasus asked with a slightly fading voice.

Zeus nodded, but Pegasus had already turned back towards the elevator.

Unicorn called over one of the trainees and pointed at Pegasus. “Make sure he gets to his room. And disregard anything he might say if he sees you’re following him. He’s not armed.”

The young man looked like a startled deer, but took off after Pegasus when the other reached the elevator.

“I hate it when he’s like that,” Cypher muttered.

Zeus didn’t even spare him a glance as he led the others towards the conference room. Scorpion made a point of shoving Cypher’s chair up against the desk as hard as she could, redirecting her frustrations from Pegasus to the one who summoned him.

Unicorn pulled her away towards the conference room, glancing back to make sure Cypher was fine. Hopefully, Scorpion would forget her frustrations by the time Pegasus woke up. Unicorn was hoping for peace and quiet for a change. Unlikely as it was.