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Chapter Text

Rios picked up a flask and checked it over. Another replica with "Made in China" stamped on the bottom. He tossed it into the growing dud pile and reached for another. Cannon and musket fire resounded outside the tent from the Civil War reenactment going on full swing.

"I can't believe how many there are," Raffi groused.

She and Rios were literally sitting knee-deep in old flasks, some fake, some real, but so far not the one they were looking for—Ulysses S. Grant's. The artifact had the nasty effect of making anyone who drank from it believe they really were fighting in the Civil War. The Warehouse had first been alerted to its reappearance when at the previous enactment site on the tour, a soldier had stabbed two actors with a real bayonet. So the two agents had been sent to retrieve it before it could cause any more harm.

Rios picked out the last flask from the old trunk, looked it over, and then dropped it with a frustrated huff. "It's not here."

Which meant it was probably out on the field with one of the reenactors.

He ran a hand over his hair. "Now what?" They couldn't risk waiting for the reenactment to be over and everyone to turn in their props.

Raffi straightened at something past Rios's shoulder, and he turned to look at a pair of uniforms hanging on a clothes rack.

He turned back. "No."

"We have to keep a low profile, so we can't just go waltzing out onto the field," she argued, getting to her feet and grabbing one of the uniforms to check its size. She then started shrugging her coat off so the uniform would fit over her shirt. "Come on," she goaded.

Rios grudgingly took his jacket off and picked up the Southern uniform. "We're on the wrong side."

"Grant was a Union soldier. Whoever's got his flask will be drawn to attacking Confederates rather than his own side."

"Great plan," Rios muttered as he finished donning the uniform.

Raffi struggled to fit the cap over her buoyant curls.

Once they looked the part, they grabbed some rifles loaded with blanks and headed out onto the battlefield, keeping to the periphery to avoid the main action. The blasts of the cannons rattled Rios's eardrums like thunder right overhead.

As they made their way through the melee, they spotted a man hunkered down behind a log, a hand clamped over one arm as though injured, so they veered toward him.

"Hey," Raffi said, crouching down beside him. "You all right?"

The man looked up in shock. "He shot me!"

Rios removed the man's arm to inspect the wound. He'd been shot, alright. "Who did?"

"Private Johnson." He looked down at his bleeding arm. "Oh God."

"It's just a graze, you'll be fine," Rios assured him. "Was this Private Johnson drinking out of a flask?"

The guy squinted at him in confusion. "Uh, yeah."

Rios shared a look with Raffi; that was their man.

A Union soldier suddenly came charging up and shot at Raffi. Rios reflexively whipped his gun up and shot him in return. The soldier's face skrunkled in annoyance, then he scowled at Raffi.

"You're supposed to die!"

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered.

"You have to fall down," he insisted.

She arched a pointed brow at him still standing, and he huffed as he dropped "dead" to the grass. But then he lifted his head to say,

"You're not even period accurate."

"Excuse me?" Raffi took a step toward him, and Rios grabbed her arm to hold her back.

"Keep a low profile, remember? Just, take this guy off the field to the medical tent. I'll find Johnson."

Raffi glowered but nevertheless helped the man who'd been shot to his feet and away from the action. Rios glanced at the "dead" Union soldier still lying on the ground all huffy. He shook his head and continued into the battle, ducking musket fire and trying to avoid any direct confrontations.

He finally spotted a man drinking out of a flask who had a crazed look in his eye. Rios cautiously approached him.

"Hello, sir," he called. "Uh, Private Johnson?" he asked, even as he got close enough to read the name tag on his uniform, confirming it was him.

Johnson's eyes blazed with fury. "Southern dog!" he screamed as he lunged to attack.

Rios leaped back and threw his rifle up to block a bludgeoning blow from Johnson's weapon. With the rifles locked, he tried to snatch the flask off Johnson's belt.

"I- just- need-" he grunted as he struggled to keep the private back with one arm.

Unfortunately, the artifact made him berserk, and with a raging cry, he wrenched his rifle free and swung it down to knock Rios's legs out from under him. He landed on his back hard, and Johnson held the tip of his bayonet ready to plunge into his chest. Then a shot of squiggly blue energy came flying out of nowhere and hit Johnson, stunning him unconscious. Rios craned his neck to see Raffi was back, dressed as a Southern belle now, with a Tesla gun in hand.

"Still not period accurate," he grunted as he sat up and scrambled to grab the flask.

"You're welcome," she snipped.

Rios pulled out a foil-lined neutralizing baggie and stuffed the flask into it, then turned his head away to shield his eyes from the resulting sparks and pops. The artifact was now neutralized, and Private Johnson there would wake up a bit confused but back to normal.

Rios got to his feet, his lips twitching as he took in Raffi's bonnet and very poofy hoop skirt.

"Don't," she warned, gesturing the Tesla gun at him.

He merely smirked as they turned to make their way off the field. They passed a soldier who shook his head in irritation.

"Damn Trekkies always crashing the reenactment pretending to be time travelers."

The drive back to the Warehouse was short, given the reenactment had been in the same state. Rios veered the SUV down a long mountain road that led to seemingly nowhere. At least, that was what any wandering travelers would find. The Warehouse was well isolated.

The dirt road turned to gravel as it ended next to a scarp of a mountainside. The doors looked as though they'd been carved into the rock itself centuries ago, even though that wasn't the case. The Warehouse moved locations, though the when and how was a mystery the agents weren't privy to. This one was number 14.

Rios and Raffi left the SUV parked outside and entered the compound, crossing the Umbilicus corridor that then let them into the main office. There, they found that Seven had dropped in for a visit. Five years Rios and Raffi had worked here and they still didn't know Seven's real name. If she even had one. She was the seventh caretaker of the Warehouse, and therefore just went by "Seven." In a prim business suit skirt and maroon blouse with a black blazer and necklace of pearls, she looked more like she belonged in a high profile courtroom than a rusty old warehouse hidden inside the Appalachian Mountains.

By comparison, sitting in front of the computer terminal beside her, Jean-Luc Picard looked like an old librarian in his brown sweater vest and spectacles. He used to be a field agent but was now on the equivalent of desk duty. When asked why he didn't retire, he simply shrugged and replied that the Warehouse was his home. He had no family or loved ones, he might as well continue to offer his service and knowledge.

Picard swiveled in his chair at their arrival. "Did you get the flask?"

"Affirmative," Rios replied, holding up the bag as confirmation.

"Good."

"What's up?" Raffi asked, eyeing him and Seven curiously. They did look as though they'd been in the middle of an intense discussion.

Picard exhaled audibly. "Someone has been trying to hack into the Warehouse."

"What?" Raffi exclaimed.

"I thought that was impossible," Rios said.

"It is," Picard replied.

"And yet," Raffi gestured at the computer.

"They haven't succeeded," Picard pointed out. "I said there have been attempts."

"And yet, not comforting," Raffi rejoined.

"The firewalls are impenetrable," Seven spoke up. "But this does mean someone out there knows about the Warehouse. We'll need to be on our guard." She looked back at Picard. "Keep me informed of any further attempts."

He nodded.

"Well, that's not good enough," Raffi said, striding forward to nudge Picard out of his seat. "Have you attempted a backtrace of the hack?"

"Yes," he said with mild exasperation.

Raffi interlocked her fingers and cracked the joints, then began typing. "Let them try to evade me."

Rios turned to go put the flask in the Warehouse storage, noting that once again, Seven had simply vanished when no one was looking. Caretaker voodoo or something. But, another day's work done. And tomorrow there would be more.

Chapter Text

Raffi sat glaring at the computer screen. She'd had zero success tracing the attempted hacks, and it was vexing her. Someone out there knew about the Warehouse, and she wanted to know who.

"You're in my seat," Jean-Luc said as he came out of the back room that served as his living space.

"I'm working," Raffi replied.

"Not here. The computer flagged a potential artifact that needs retrieval. That's your primary duty, not chasing phantoms."

Sighing, Raffi vacated the seat. Rios arrived then.

"Got your message. Where are we headed?"

"Maine," Jean-Luc answered. "There was an incident at Chandler Academy of a high school student violently attacking another."

"Uh, that's not cool but it's not exactly weird," Raffi commented.

"The computer wouldn't have pinged on it if there wasn't something unusual," Jean-Luc replied and pulled up a video posted on social media of the incident. Both Raffi and Rios moved closer to peer over his shoulder. The kid's arms were pulsating with black veins as he pummeled another boy on the field.

"Okay, that is weird," Raffi relented. Her search for the hacker would have to be put on hold.

So she and Rios headed off to Maine where they went straight to the headmaster's office.

"Agents Musiker and Rios, FBI," Raffi introduced them as they flashed their badges.

Before they'd been Warehouse agents, they'd both worked for the Bureau. Technically, they still did, which made their credentials still valid. They'd just been reassigned to the Warehouse after catching the eye of Seven and the other Regents. Raffi often wondered how they managed to pull that off. The best she'd ascertained was the Regents were planted in many upper government offices around the world to help maintain the integrity and secrecy of the Warehouse. Other than that, agents themselves were kept on a strictly need-to-know basis. The biggest conspiracy on the planet Raffi would have loved to uncover but couldn't because she was a player in it. The irony wasn't lost on her.

"FBI?" Headmaster Charleston said dubiously. "What can I do for you?"

"We need to speak with one of your students who was involved in an altercation," Rios replied.

Raffi pulled out her cell phone to show him the video of the fight.

"Well," he said after watching it. "I'm quite shocked. Jeremy Hogan is a diligent student and has never shown any problematic behavior in the past."

"We'd like to speak with him," Raffi reiterated.

The headmaster punched the intercom button on his desk phone and asked the secretary to send for the student in question.

"I don't understand why the FBI is interested," he went on while they waited.

"We can't discuss an ongoing investigation," Rios said.

Jeremy Hogan eventually arrived, looking nervous at being summoned to the headmaster's office.

"Jeremy, these are FBI agents," Headmaster Charleston introduced. "They wish to speak with you about the fight you got into with Brandon. I must say I am very disappointed. You know we have a zero tolerance policy."

Rios held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Jeremy, we know this isn't usual behavior for you. Have you come into contact with anything strange recently?"

The kid shrugged, eyes downcast.

"What kind of question is that?" Charleston asked.

Raffi held up a finger for the man to stay quiet. She then turned to Jeremy. "Roll up your sleeves."

"Don't you need a warrant?" he mumbled.

"Not when it comes to matters of national security."

"Na- national security?" the headmaster spluttered. "You can't be serious."

Raffi and Rios shared a look that said they both would have liked to stun the man.

Under their weighted gazes, Jeremy reluctantly rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing the black veins.

Headmaster Charleston sputtered in dismay. "Is this about drugs? Jeremy, what have you done?"

"Okay, please step outside, sir," Rios said, bodily herding the headmaster toward the door.

The man continued to sputter but was no match for Rios's authoritative demeanor. Once he was on the other side of the closed door, Raffi turned back to Jeremy.

"We know it's not drugs," she said. "Have you come into possession of anything recently?"

The kid fidgeted where he stood.

"You need to tell us," Rios said.

Jeremy finally reached into his pocket and pulled out a marble. "I found a bag of these. They helped me focus so I could get my essays and homework done. The competition here is fierce, and I have to get top grades if I'm going to be accepted into Harvard."

"We can understand that," Rios said as he pulled on a purple protective glove. "But it's making you sick."

Jeremy nodded glumly and handed the marble over. Raffi opened a neutralizing baggie for Rios to drop it in…but nothing happened. There were no sparks to indicate the artifact was rendered inert, and the black veins on Jeremy's arms remained.

"Uh, you said there was a bag of marbles, as in plural?" Raffi said.

Jeremy pulled off his backpack to reach in and dig out the cloth bag the marbles had come in. Raffi added it to the neutralizing container, but still nothing happened.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

Rios fixed Jeremy with a serious look. "Jeremy, did you share these with anyone?"

The kid grimaced. "I gave some to my friends. I was just trying to help them."

Raffi shared a grim look with Rios. The kid had good intentions, but his help was going to get his friends in serious trouble.

Rios ripped a piece of paper off the headmaster's desk and passed it to Jeremy. "Names."

Jeremy wrote them down, then Raffi and Rios headed out, passing an irritated headmaster just outside.

"Thank you for the use of your office," Rios told him. "We need to know where we can find these three students," he added, showing Charleston the list.

The man's face puckered unpleasantly, but he nodded to his secretary to give them what they needed. He then turned to jab a finger toward Jeremy before the boy could leave. "We're not finished, young man."

Raffi felt bad for the kid. He probably hadn't known about the negative side effects of using the marble, but now he'd have to face the consequences of it.

The secretary gave them each of the other students' itineraries, and they headed outside. Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth, the Warehouse-issued audio and video communicator, which looked more like a prop for a steampunk fest with its bronze tin case, copper wires, and small dome that served as a video phone. Despite its appearance, it was the most secure connection around, unhackable according to Jean-Luc, and it really wasn't that much more clunky than the current generation of smart phones.

A shimmering image of JL sitting in the Warehouse office filled the glass bubble. "Did you identify the artifact?" he asked without preamble.

"A marble," Raffi replied. "Or, well, a bag of them. The kid who had it shared them with his friends. He was using it to help him focus on his school work. Neutralizing one didn't work, so we still have to track down the rest."

Jean-Luc removed his spectacles. "Bobby Fischer's Bag of Marbles. The Warehouse has been after it for decades. Even one of them instills intense focus and drive to succeed, but prolonged use leads to violent tendencies and mental insanity."

"Explains the uncharacteristic fight," Raffi remarked.

"We have a list of the kids who have them," Rios put in.

"Good, the longer they're in possession of them, the worse the effects will become."

With that, JL signed off, and Raffi pocketed her Farnsworth.

"Let's split up," she suggested, looking at the list of students. "I'll take the gym."

Rios nodded and went off in the other direction.

Raffi headed to the gym where one of the boys, Todd, was supposed to be having wrestling practice. When she walked in, she found one of the students going berserk on his sparring partner. The coach was yelling at him to stop, and he and several other wrestlers were jumping in to pull him off. Guess she'd found him. The kid was seething like a feral animal as he was hauled off the other guy. Raffi could see black veins beginning to pulse under his skin.

"What the hell's gotten into you?" the coach demanded angrily, getting up in the boy's face.

Before the kid could answer, though, he abruptly collapsed.

The coach swore and shouted for the guys to get him to the infirmary. Raffi followed behind, waiting until the crowd had reluctantly left their teammate in the care of the nurse. She then stepped into the examination room and held up her badge.

"Agent Musiker. Is that Todd Harris?"

The nurse blinked in surprise. "Er, yes."

"I need to speak with him."

"He's very sick," the nurse protested.

"I know, that's why I'm here." Raffi pushed past the nurse to approach the patient table.

Todd was sweating and pale, lolling his head weakly.

"Todd? I'm Agent Musiker. I know about the marble Jeremy gave you and I need you to hand it over."

"I can't," he moaned. "I need it. The championships are- next weekend."

"At this rate, you won't be alive to compete in them."

He shook his head. "No, I can do it. I will do it. I need to get that wrestling scholarship."

Raffi leaned closer and lowered her voice. "And if I arrest you for not cooperating with the FBI, what will that do to your scholarship?"

That got Todd to hand the marble over. Raffi grimaced at how sweaty it was and dropped it into the foil-lined neutralizer baggie. She then headed out and spotted Rios across the quad. They met in the middle, and he dropped another marble into their growing collection.

"Just stopped a student from attacking his teacher for not raising his grade," he commented, shaking his head. "I know competition can be tough, but this school seems to take it to the extreme."

"Tell me about it. At least there's only one left."

Before they could set off in search of it, a masked figure all in black came out of nowhere. Neither of them had time to react before they both received roundhouse kicks that sent them in a corkscrew descent to the pavement. The assailant snatched up the neutralizing baggie with the marbles and then bolted across the quad. Without slowing down, he leaped onto the side of a building, vaulting it like some circus performer, and slipped over the high stone wall to disappear.

Raffi grunted as she pulled herself off the ground. "What the hell- was that a ninja?"

Rios wrapped an arm around his ribs as he also got to his feet. "Maybe one of the kids wanted the marbles back?"

"Since when do they teach ninja moves in high school?"

Rios shrugged. "If we don't get the marbles back soon, we'll have a homicidal ninja on our hands. I'll go after the last one; you check with the boys we already confiscated them from, make sure they didn't just try to steal them back."

Raffi nodded. If they had, she was going to show them how to unleash a can of whoop-ass of her own.

Chapter Text

Raffi hurried back to the infirmary to see if Todd was still there. Without the artifact being neutralized, he was likely still sick from the effects. Sure enough, he was, and another kid had been brought in with the same symptoms. Headmaster Charleston was there as well, much to Raffi's irritation.

"Threatening a teacher, Dylan," Charleston was chastising the other boy. "I am terribly disappointed in both your conducts lately. You know we have a zero tolerance policy on violence and drug use."

"Hi there," Raffi interjected. "I need a minute with these two."

The headmaster's expression pinched, but he huffily left without arguing this time.

"Alright, who tried to get the marbles back?" she demanded.

Both of them gave her confused looks.

"Wasn't me," Todd said, lying on the infirmary cot and clutching his stomach. Dylan wasn't looking too hot either.

"Where's Jeremy?" Raffi asked next.

"Headmaster Charleston suspended him," Dylan replied. "His mom already came and picked him up."

"I don't suppose he's got mad ninja skills," Raffi said.

Both boys gave her weird looks.

The headmaster came storming back into the room then. "This has gone quite far enough. I just received a phone call from Jeremy's mother. He's in the hospital. The doctors are saying he had a stroke. Now what kind of drugs are you boys into?"

"We're not on drugs!" Todd protested.

"Just look at you!"

"Sir," Raffi interjected. "As I've said, the FBI is investigating the matter. We believe the boys were exposed to a toxin they weren't aware of."

The headmaster furrowed his brows at that. "Is it contagious? You don't think it's here at the school, do you?"

"We'll keep you informed once we have anything solid," Raffi promised, edging past him and beating a hasty retreat.

Okay, so it wasn't one of the first three boys who'd gone to get the marbles back. The fourth? Maybe they'd texted their friend to warn him, but surely they had to realize how detrimental these marbles were to their health.

"Raffi!" Rios jogged over. "I can't find the last kid. He's not in the debate team meeting room."

"Jeremy's in the hospital, suspected stroke," she informed him. "And the other two are still in the infirmary."

Rios set his hands on his waist in frustration. "This is getting away from us."

A scream suddenly echoed from a nearby building, and both of them took off toward it. They rushed into an empty classroom, save for two students. A girl was shrieking and cowering behind some desks as a boy picked up a chair and threw it at her.

"How could you have missed that vital piece of opposition research?!" he raged. "Are you trying to make us lose the state championship?!"

"Whoa, Nick, buddy," Raffi called, holding her hands up non-threateningly. "Take it easy."

He whirled toward them, nostrils flaring and black veins pulsing in his neck. "Who the hell are you?"

"FBI. We've been to see your friends, Jeremy, Todd, and Dylan. We know about the special oomph you've been giving yourselves, but can't you see it's making you a little nuts?"

Nick blinked at them dumbly for a second, then his cheeks puffed puce with rage. "Leave me the hell alone!" he shouted and picked up another chair to throw.

Rios whipped out his Tesla gun and stunned the kid, dropping him to the floor.

Raffi waved urgently at the other student. "Go."

The poor girl ran off, and Raffi hurried to drop down beside Nick and search his pockets. She found the marble and dropped it in a baggie, but now they had to get the other three and the whole bag back.

"So how do we track down an unidentified ninja?" she said, getting to her feet.

Rios arched a brow and nodded over her shoulder. She turned to find the figure in black standing in the classroom doorway, the mask covering all of his face except his eyes, which were hard and focused. He'd probably followed them to the last marble, just as he'd done with the first ones.

In the next second, he was coming at them. Rios fired his Tesla again, but the ninja actually dodged the shot of squiggling electric energy and kicked the stun gun out of Rios's hand. Rios retaliated with a punch, which the ninja blocked with his own arm. Twisting their locked arms, he cranked Rios's elbow back until it cracked, then slammed a palm into his chest so hard he went flying backward.

Raffi whipped her Tesla out and fired repeatedly, but the ninja went leaping onto the teacher's desk and vaulting into the air, narrowly avoiding each hit. He grabbed one of the horizontal light fixtures and swung around. Raffi kept shooting and missing until the ninja let go and came crashing down on top of her. They both hit the floor, and her gun went flying out of her hand. He made to get back on his feet and go for the baggie with the last marble, but Raffi scissor-clipped his legs with her own, bringing him down again. She grunted as he landed across her, but she threw herself over him and they grappled across the floor.

Raffi managed to grasp a fistful of the black mask and ripped it off. She was stunned to find a youthful face looking back at her. In that moment of distraction, he drew his knees in and kicked her in the chest, throwing her off him. He then scrambled to his feet and back toward the doorway, strands of his long black hair escaping the knot at the back of his head.

"What the hell," Raffi groaned, getting up. "You're just a kid."

"I am Elnor," he said, drawing his chin up. "Of the Qowat Milat Order."

"Is that some kind of D&D thing?"

He canted his head in confusion.

"Listen," Raffi went on, "those marbles are extremely dangerous. You need to give them back."

"I cannot. My employer has a great interest in them."

"Employer?" Raffi repeated incredulously.

"Yes." The kid drew a katana from a sheath across his back. "Now, please, choose to live and hand over the last one."

"Not a chance," Rios spoke up. He had the baggie in hand, but he'd taken off his purple protective gloves, and he reached in to take the marble out. Clutching the artifact, he inhaled deeply, his entire posture settling into one of intense focus.

Elnor attacked. Rios grabbed a thick textbook off the teacher's desk and used it to parry the blows from the katana. Shoving the book forward, he caught a thrust from the blade through the pages, then threw the book aside, taking the sword with it. Elnor switched to hand-to-hand, and Raffi watched with grimacing fascination as Rios met each and every strike with his own, the marble's effects helping him achieve his goal of defeating his opponent.

They fought in a whirlwind of punches, kicks, and blocks, until Rios finally managed to snatch the neutralizing bag off Elnor's belt and tossed it to Raffi. He then dove to the floor to scoop up his Tesla, but the kid turned and fled before Rios could stun him, leaving his katana behind.

Raffi hurried over and opened the bag for Rios to drop his marble into. The rest of the contents sparked and sizzled as the pieces were reunited and finally neutralized.

Rios sagged against the teacher's desk. "Let's get out of here before ninja boy decides to come back."

Raffi nodded and went to grab the katana; it might not have been an artifact, but they shouldn't leave sharp swords lying around a high school campus.

Nick was coming around, and Rios helped him to his feet.

"What happened?" the kid asked in confusion.

"Stay away from performance enhancers," Rios told him.

They took him to the infirmary where they found Todd and Dylan had recovered. Dylan was on the phone and looked over to excitedly tell them Jeremy was going to be okay.

Raffi nodded back, glad to hear it. The four were still going to face disciplinary actions, but that was out of the Warehouse's hands. The important thing was no one had died.

Raffi and Rios hit the road immediately, and Rios spent the first hour watching for a tail, but it looked like they'd lost the ninja kid, which was good. When they made it back to the Warehouse, they filled Jean-Luc in on what had happened.

"We knew someone out there knew about artifacts and the Warehouse," Raffi said, "but I can't believe they hired a freaking ninja to retrieve them."

JL sat in his chair, earpiece of his spectacles pressed to his lips. He looked troubled. "I've heard of the Qowat Milat," he said. "They're an Order of the most elite warriors and assassins. You two need to be extra careful out there."

"Think this employer is also behind the attempted hacks?" Rios asked.

"It's possible."

Well, then Raffi had another avenue with which to conduct her search. Hiring an assassin meant a money trail somewhere. And she loved a good conspiracy.

Chapter Text

Picard sat in the main office on an upholstered stool, engaging a few chess moves in a game against himself. Playing oneself usually ended in a stalemate, but it wasn't a serious game anyway. Alexander Alekhine's Chess Set pieces just needed to be moved around the board occasionally to keep the artifact "happy" and docile.

An alarm from the computer suddenly began wailing, and Picard hurried over to see what it was.

"Impossible," he uttered and began clacking away at the keyboard frantically. The hacker had finally breached the Warehouse's firewalls and was in the system. Picard tried to head them off and boot them out, but the computer then abruptly shut down, the monitor going dark. He blinked at it, stunned.

Before he could formulate a plan of action, he was grabbed by the back of his sweater and the barrel of a gun was placed under his chin.

"Hello, Agent Picard," a cold voice said behind him.

He tried to crane his neck to see who it was, but he received a smack from the butt of the gun in response. Dropping to one knee and cupping the side of his face, he was taken off guard again as a pair of cuffs were snapped around his wrists. He was then hauled off the floor and shoved into his desk chair. The young woman stepped back, holding the gun with both hands and aiming directly at his chest. Picard's eyes widened.

"Soji," he breathed. He couldn't believe it. "How did you get in here?" he exclaimed.

"I've spent a lot of time tracking down the location of the Warehouse," she replied, her expression like flint.

Picard just looked at her in shock. "Soji, what happened to you?"

She let out a half manic laugh. "What happened to me? I lost my dad and sister in the same day, that's what happened."

Picard furrowed his brow. "That was years ago."

"So I'm just supposed to forget?" she snapped.

"And you blame me," he said.

"No," Soji replied quickly, then more levelly, "No. But I want you to help me now. Dahj is still alive."

Picard shook his head sadly. "I know what you witnessed was terrible, but Dahj died in the energy explosion of your father's experiment."

"No, she didn't," Soji insisted. "She's trapped somewhere, like a parallel dimension or something. I've seen her!"

"Soji…" His heart did go out to the poor girl, but this was madness.

Her face twisted with anguish, wrath, and desperation at the look he was giving her. "No, you promised you'd be there if I ever needed you! So where were you when I was committed to a mental institution for seeing my dead twin?"

Picard was stunned; he hadn't known about that.

"You promised!" she reiterated. "And I need your help now. I know about artifacts, how my father was using one in his experiment. Dahj isn't dead. She was just…transported, or knocked out of phase. We have to save her."

Picard didn't know what to say. What Soji was raving about was highly implausible, but she was waving a gun at him, and if he continued to argue with her in this state, she could turn even more volatile. He had to talk her down somehow, though.

The air next to Soji shimmered, and Picard blinked in stupefaction as a reflection of her appeared, though there was no mirror. The apparition stretched an arm out toward Soji almost pleadingly, while Soji stared back. Then the air wobbled again and the reflection disappeared.

Soji whirled toward Picard. "See?! I'm not crazy."

No, she wasn't… Dear lord, that poor girl had been trapped there all these years.

Picard got to his feet slowly. "No, you're not."

"Then you'll help me?"

He nodded. He had no idea how, but he was going to do everything he could to try.

Rios pulled up outside the Warehouse, he and Raffi just returning from bagging an artifact. Everything was so routine, that they didn't notice the front door was open until they were right in front of it.

"Uhh…that's not normal," Raffi said.

Rios drew his Tesla gun and entered the Umbilicus, moving swiftly but guardedly down the connecting corridor to the main office. That door was open too and the security panel busted open with dangling wires. He burst inside and did a quick sweep, but the place was empty.

"Jean-Luc!" he called.

"JL!" Raffi echoed. She set the artifact down on a table and rushed to the computer. "System's crashed," she reported.

Rios checked the back filing room and Picard's living quarters; nothing. He holstered his Tesla and scanned the office with more scrutiny. There weren't any obvious signs of a struggle.

"How about the Durational Spectrometer?" he suggested.

"Right." Raffi went over to a large cabinet in the corner and pulled out the artifact. It was a security camera that could replay who was in a room up to the last five hours.

Rios and Raffi took up position along the far wall, and Raffi scanned the room with the lens. The air shimmered and a spritzing, holographic projection showed Picard being grabbed from behind and held at gun point by a young woman with black hair. Whoever she was, she was very upset, so this didn't look like a professional break-in. Though it begged the question: who the hell could have gotten past the Warehouse's security systems?

Rios winced as the girl clobbered Jean-Luc with the butt of the gun, then clapped him in handcuffs. She raged at him for a bit then. Unfortunately, the Durational Spectrometer didn't come with audio.

The mirage then flickered and blipped and completely cut out.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," Raffi said, frowning at the artifact and giving it a minor slap. It didn't pick up anything after that, just began replaying from the beginning. "Some kind of interference?"

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth and called Seven.

"What is it?" she answered tersely. They weren't really supposed to call her.

"There's been a break-in. Picard's been kidnapped."

Seven frowned. "That's impossible. The Warehouse cannot be breached."

Rios turned his Farnsworth around so Seven could see a visual of the thrashed security panel. In the next instant, she came striding through the open doorway. At least she didn't zap in behind them this time.

"Explain," she said.

Raffi ran the Durational Spectrometer over the room again to replay what they'd seen. "We have no idea who she is or how she got in."

"I know who she is," Seven said. "It's been ten years and she was just a child, but I recognize her."

"Ten years since what?" Rios asked.

"Since an artifact retrieval went tragically wrong."

Soji blew a series of soap bubbles into the air, crossing their path with the ones her sister Dahj was blowing as well.

"Hey, want to see what Dad's doing in his workshop?" Soji suggested.

Dahj grinned in agreement, and they set their soap bottles and wands down and darted across the backyard to the large shed their father used for his work. They weren't allowed in there, but he'd been spending so much time in there recently, leaving the two ten-year-olds to their own devices, they wanted to know what he was working on.

They snuck in through the back door and stayed low around the many shelves of equipment. Raised voices were coming from inside, and they exchanged frowns before venturing closer. Two men were in their father's workshop, one bald, the other with dark brown hair and a full beard. They were arguing as a contraption on the work table sent squiggles of orange lightning bouncing all around the room from copper coils. Soji felt static prickling the hairs on the back of her neck.

"Dr. Asha, you must turn it off!" the bald man shouted.

"This is my life's work!"

Dahj broke cover and ran forward, only for a bolt of energy to come directly at her.

"Dahj!" Soji screamed as the lightning hit her sister. Dahj stood frozen as though in shock, then flickered and disappeared. Soji screamed again.

"No!" their father yelled.

"Turn it off!"

The two men lunged for the device and began wrestling with Dr. Asha to disable it. Soji could only watch in frozen horror as her father grabbed one of the coils with his bare hand. He screamed as an electric current shot through him, throwing him across the shed to crash into some shelves. The strangers quickly began to throw foil bags over the coils, which made purple sparks fly and the orange energy fizzle out. Eventually the electric storm died down, and Soji was left standing there in shock, her father's still and smoking body lying in the corner, her sister gone completely without a trace.

The bald man approached her and knelt down to her eye level. "I'm Jean-Luc. What's your name?"

"Soji," she said in a small voice.

"Soji. It'll be okay."

Soji watched Picard finish recreating Dr. Asha's experiment setup. Those copper coils, Tesla's Wireless Power Transmitters, seemed so innocuous on their own, but Soji could still see the bolts of orange lightning and hear the echo of her own screams. The nightmares had never gone away.

She understood her father had gotten his hands on some artifacts and incorporated them into his experiment—with disastrous results. She knew it was his fault Dahj had been lost, that his own death was the result of his negligence. But leaving Dahj trapped all these years…leaving Soji to bear the burden of knowing all by herself, that she blamed Picard for.

"Dr. Asha's setup was inadequate," Picard said. "We'll need more power to make it work." He pulled out a lightning rod from his bag and attached it to the contraption. He then took a breath as though to brace himself and turned the device on.

The thrum of the machine filled the empty warehouse, and Soji could feel the static electricity building. She whipped her gaze around for her sister, finally spotting her when the air ahead began to flicker and bend. Dahj appeared, expression taut as orange squiggles of electricity spritzed around her. And then the coils started sparking as well.

"What's wrong?" Soji shouted over the growing whine.

"It's not enough power!" Picard yelled back.

Lightning bolts went flying out to strike the ceiling.

"We have to turn it off!" Picard said.

"No! Give it more time!"

"If we overload the coils, Dahj could be lost forever," Picard argued.

Soji shook her head staunchly. "No! We're bringing her back now!"

She surged forward and reached out to grab her sister. Pinpricks erupted up her arms as she made contact through the displaced energy, and Soji cried out as electric currents zinged through her. Dahj's mouth was moving soundlessly, her eyes worried, but Soji clung to her twin. If she had to physically drag Dahj back to this dimension, that's what she would do.

The lightning forked out, filling the warehouse with crackling static and a glowing orange hue. Soji screamed and refused to let go.

Chapter Text

As Seven finished telling them about what happened with the artifact retrieval ten years ago, Raffi shook her head sympathetically. She and Rios had had tough cases, lost innocents, even back in their time at the FBI. But being unable to save a child was the worst.

"You think Soji sought out Jean-Luc for revenge?" Rios asked.

"It's possible," Seven replied. "She had to have been very determined to breach the Warehouse like this."

"Any idea where she would have taken him?" Raffi asked.

"No."

Raffi exchanged a look with Rios. They'd better get to work, then. Raffi went over to the computer to see if she could get the system back online. Rios pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

"Penelope, it's Cris Rios. I need a favor. Anything you can give me on a Soji Asha, approximately twenty years old."

He fell silent as he waited for their former colleague to pull up the information. Raffi managed to get the computer to do a hard reboot, which hopefully purged the system of any malware this Soji might have left behind in her hack.

Rios hit the speaker button on his phone, and Penelope's voice filled the room.

"Soji Asha, twenty, last known residence…Haybridge Mental Hospital. She was committed by her aunt three years ago for…oh wow, poor girl. Her father and twin sister died in a freak accident on the same day when she was ten. She since claimed her twin was still alive and she could see her, which got her the ticket to the institution. She checked herself out five months ago. No current address."

"Thanks, Penelope," Rios said.

"Anytime, my Chilean radish. By the way, are you ever going to tell me where you got transferred to? I mean, I am good, but I can't even find an electronic paper trail—"

"Gotta go, chica." He hung up, mouth pursed thoughtfully. "I'm getting the feeling there's more to this."

"How so?" Seven asked.

"Soji believes her twin didn't die—is there any chance she's right?"

"She got hit by lightning and vanished," Raffi replied.

"Lightning caused by an artifact," he emphasized. "There's any number of possibilities for what could have happened. And it's not an uncommon phenomenon for twins to have an unexplainable connection. Maybe Soji really is seeing her sister."

"Then she came here to kidnap JL why?" Raffi said.

"Let me check something." Rios hurried off into the Warehouse storage, and Raffi turned her attention back to getting the computer system fully online.

"Any damage?" Seven asked.

"Doesn't look like it." With a few keystrokes, she got the security system activated again, not that it'd stand against another infiltration by Soji. Raffi would have to investigate the hack further to find a patch for the new vulnerability.

Rios returned a few minutes later. "The Tesla Wireless Transmitters are gone."

"The ones used in Dr. Asha's experiment?"

He nodded. "If Soji believes her sister is alive, she might want to try to get her back by recreating the circumstances of the accident."

"I can track that energy type," Raffi said, swiveling back to the terminal.

"She doesn't know what she's dealing with," Seven commented. "She could end up losing herself and Picard, or worse, blowing up an entire town."

Raffi huffed at that dire prediction. "Got something!" she exclaimed as the computer pinged. "A large energy buildup that matches the signature of the Tesla coils." She clacked a few keys to narrow in on it. "Looks like it's in an abandoned warehouse district."

"Let's go," Rios said.

Raffi jumped out of her seat, but Seven stalled them.

"You can't go in empty-handed or you'll risk becoming victims of the experiment too," she warned.

The two of them exchanged a look at that.

"I have an idea," Rios said and jogged back down to the storage.

Raffi waited impatiently for him to get back, and when he did, he didn't bother telling her what his bright idea was. She didn't ask, trusting him to know what he was doing. They climbed into their SUV and drove off toward the location of the energy buildup. Raffi had transferred the scanner results to her phone so they could home in on the exact building once they arrived. Not that it was needed—the orange glow and flashing electricity through the oxidized windows was clear enough to see.

They burst into the warehouse, unsure what to expect but knowing it would be chaos. Soji was standing in the middle of the room, flickering in and out along with a mirror image of herself. Jean-Luc was ducked under the table with the device as lightning bolts shot out in every direction.

"You have to let go!" he was shouting at Soji. "We must turn it off!"

"No!" the girl screamed back, clinging to the amorphous form of her sister.

Rios grabbed Raffi's wrist and slapped one of Bobby Fischer's marbles into her palm. The surge of focus was amazing and intense. With no regard for the erupting electricity, Raffi strode toward the contraption with single-minded purpose. She scanned the wiring and setup, including where Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod had been inserted to boost the power output. It was increasing the power load, but it wasn't channeling it. Raffi began tweaking the power coils to get the alignment just right. The static in the warehouse was growing, but Soji and her twin were becoming more tangible. Just a little more time.

Raffi watched with suspended breath. As soon as Soji and her sister solidified, Raffi flipped off the power to the contraption, and she and Rios hastily threw foil bags over the coils to neutralize them. Purple sparks burst like fireworks from inside the baggies, and the static in the air fizzled out. Rios held out another bag with the rest of the marbles, and Raffi dropped the one she'd been holding into it, neutralizing it before the effects could turn her violent.

She gave Rios an exhausted nod. "Nice one."

He smiled back.

Soji and Dahj were clinging to each other, and Jean-Luc slowly got to his feet.

"Thank you," he said. "How did you find us?"

"Once we knew who kidnapped you and why, it was easy to track the energy of the Tesla coils," Raffi replied.

"Ah, well, I appreciate the help, but I wasn't kidnapped."

Raffi furrowed her brows. "You were handcuffed and held at gunpoint."

Picard nodded in understanding. "The Durational Spectrometer. It didn't show Soji removing the cuffs and my leaving with her?"

"Uh, no."

"There was some kind of interference," Rios put in. "Like it erased the footage."

Jean-Luc looked thoughtful before his brows rose. "Dahj had appeared briefly. Her energy must have reacted with the Durational Spectrometer's plane."

Raffi held up a hand. "Hang on, you weren't kidnapped, but you didn't bother to call us for help?"

He grimaced. "It was my past mistake I needed to rectify."

"You had us worried," Rios said seriously.

"I apologize for that. And thank you again for the rescue. I was perhaps blinded by my guilt and jumped in to help Soji and Dahj without fully thinking it through."

"Mm-hmm," Raffi hummed. "You're welcome."

Soji and Dahj finally broke their fierce embrace, and Picard walked over.

"Dahj," he said kindly. "I'm Jean-Luc Picard."

"I know who you are," she replied. "I haven't been able to interact with the world, but I've been able to see and hear everything."

His expression twisted with anguish. "I'm very sorry for leaving you trapped like that. I truly thought you had died."

Dahj looked haunted. "It felt like death. I was a ghost. The only one who could ever sometimes see me was Soji." Her eyes watered and she hugged her sister again.

Picard put a hand on both their shoulders. "Come. Everything will be all right."

After packing up the Tesla coils and contraption, Picard took Soji and Dahj to a bed-and-breakfast not far from the Warehouse. He showed them to a vacant room where Dahj immediately collapsed on the bed, exhausted. Soji was feeling it too, though her sister had it worse. Shock was setting in, and it would be a big adjustment being back in the world. Soji spent several long minutes just watching her twin sleep and breathe before she managed to tear herself away and headed downstairs to where Picard and the other Warehouse agents were still gathered.

Soji cleared her throat as she intruded on their conversation. "I just want to apologize for breaking into the Warehouse and threatening you," she told Picard.

"It's forgiven," he replied with a kind smile. "If you can forgive me for not checking in on you as I promised."

Soji shrugged. The past stung, but it was in the past. Time to put it behind her.

An austere woman came into the living room then. "So, you're the one who hacked into the Warehouse's secure system. No one has achieved that before. You should be both proud and worried about the consequences."

Soji faltered. "Um, I am sorry."

"Were you hired to do the hack?" Raffi asked. "Give someone the location so they could steal artifacts?"

She furrowed her brows. "No. All my research was my own, and it was only to get Dahj back. I have no intention of stealing artifacts or interfering with what you do."

The agents appeared to believe her, but the blond woman still looked severe.

"She knows too much," she said, eyeing Soji with soul-piercing scrutiny.

"I would never tell!" Soji promised. "And neither would Dahj."

"They've both been through a terrible, long ordeal," Picard interrupted. "We should give them time to rest."

The blond in charge didn't look appeased, but she turned and left.

Soji deflated, not sure whether that was acceptance or just a reprieve. "Thank you," she said to Picard.

"It's the least I can do. And don't worry about Seven."

Seven, weird name.

Soji nodded and gave the other two agents grateful smiles before heading back upstairs where she took a seat on the edge of the bed and simply watched her sister sleep. She combed her fingers through Dahj's very real, very tangible hair, paused to feel the puff of breath on her wrist.

Whatever happened next, they'd be okay, because they had each other.

Chapter Text

Soji and Dahj lay horizontally across the bed, legs dangling over the side. When they were children, they'd look up at the glow-in-the-dark stars plastered across their bedroom ceiling. The ceiling at the bed-and-breakfast was bare, and the wall decor wasn't quite Soji's style, but it matched the mountain cabin feel of the establishment.

They hadn't been kicked out yet—nor did they have anywhere to go. They had no parents and only one living relative, whom Soji wasn't on good terms with since their aunt had her committed to the mental hospital. Soji almost wanted to show up on her doorstep with her recovered twin just to prove she wasn't crazy. But that wasn't fair to Dahj, who was still adjusting to being back in the physical world.

"We can do anything we want," Soji commented.

Dahj stared at the ceiling. "I don't even know what I want. I missed out on so many things—school, college. Where would I even start?"

"You don't have to make any decisions anytime soon," Soji quickly assured her.

Dahj rolled onto her side. "What about you? You've missed so much too."

She pursed her lips. "Actually, I was thinking maybe I'd want to work for the Warehouse."

Dahj's brows rose sharply.

"I've seen what dangerous artifacts can do, and I don't want what happened to us to happen to anyone else."

"Have you talked to Picard about it?"

"No, I wanted to discuss it with you first."

Dahj rolled onto her back again to look at the blank ceiling. "I don't want to hold you back anymore."

"Hey." Soji propped herself up on one elbow. "You have never held me back. You kept me going."

Her sister gave her a wan smile. "Maybe it's time you found a life that doesn't revolve around me."

"I'm not ditching you," Soji said staunchly. "You can continue to stay here, just relax and enjoy being back. And whatever you decide you want to do, when you want to do it, I'll support you."

Dahj finally smiled and sat up to hug her. "Let's hope Picard feels the same way."

Right. With that, Soji decided to head to the Warehouse to speak with said agent about it.

The Warehouse's secret location was only a twenty-minute drive from the bed-and-breakfast, and once she arrived, Soji found the door unlocked and she was able to walk right in. Agents Picard, Rios, and Musiker were in the main office.

Raffi straightened at her entrance. "Um, hello."

Picard turned and huffed at Soji. "You can't just break in here whenever you want."

"I didn't," she protested. "The door was unlocked."

"That's because we're performing computer upgrades after your hack."

"Then I did you a favor by pointing out a vulnerability in your system," she replied.

Picard just gave her a look.

There were two laptops open on the large desk with cords connecting them to the main computer terminal, but Soji's eye landed on an artifact sitting on a side table. It looked like a squat lamp with running horses on the shade. She stepped closer and realized it was actually an old motion picture toy. Spin it, and one could look through the slats to see the animation inside.

"What does this do?" she asked curiously.

"Don't touch it," Picard barked. He then turned to Raffi and Rios with a scowl. "You know you're not supposed to leave artifacts lying around after a retrieval."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Raffi rejoined, "we were distracted when we came back to find you'd been kidnapped."

"Not kidnapped," he pointed out.

"I'll take care of it," Rios put in and went over to grab the zoetrope.

Soji shifted awkwardly. The mood wasn't quite what she was hoping for to broach her idea, but she didn't imagine her lingering was going to make it any better.

Rios was crossing the room toward the door down to the Warehouse's storage when he tripped over a loose cord from one of the laptops. He and the zoetrope pitched forward, and he barely caught the artifact as it bumped against the corner of the desk. That sent the shade spinning, and suddenly Rios went ramrod still, eyes transfixed on the zoetrope as a light illuminated his face from within the artifact. Another artifact was directly in front of him, a scanning disk, and it began to glow too. Everything happened so fast—Rios glowed brighter and brighter until it looked like he was disintegrating into particles. Then the energy stream went whooshing backward toward the main computer to disappear. The zoetrope clattered to the floor.

Everyone gaped in shock at the empty space where Rios had been standing.

"What the hell just happened?" Raffi yelled.

Picard surged from his desk chair and skirted around the two artifacts, expression pinched. "I don't know. Artifacts interacting with each other is extremely dangerous."

"What do those pieces do?" Soji asked.

"Max Wertheimer's Zoetrope causes mind transference, but the consciousness is supposed to go into the zoetrope, not dissipate a human body. And John Logie Baird's Scanning Disk facilitates the transfer of electromagnetic energy through any medium."

"So, you're saying the disk sent Rios into the zoetrope?" Raffi asked sharply, striding toward it to try to look through the now stationary slats.

Soji turned her gaze thoughtfully to the computer, where the stream of energy had been directed. The screen was now black instead of filled with code, but then letters began to appear across it.

"Hello?"

"Uh," she said, "I think he went into the computer."

"What?" Raffi exclaimed.

Soji pointed toward the monitor, and Raffi and Picard rushed over.

"Rios?" Raffi called urgently, but there was no response.

"Try typing," Soji suggested.

Raffi hastily clacked at the keyboard. "Rios?"

"What's going on? Where am I? I…I feel strange."

"Oh my god," Raffi breathed. She whirled on Picard. "How do we get him out of there?"

Picard's mouth moved soundlessly, at a loss.

"Can't we just use the artifacts again?" Soji asked.

"Duplicating the convergence will only produce the same results, or worse," Picard replied.

Soji rolled her eyes. "I know that; I meant using them in reverse. How would you reverse the mind transference of the zoetrope? Just…spin it the opposite direction?"

Picard and Raffi exchanged a look, then she went to pick the zoetrope up off the floor and he pushed the keyboard out of the way. Raffi set the artifact directly in front of the computer monitor and spun it the opposite direction, careful not to look at it herself. They waited for several long moments, but nothing happened. Picard then went to adjust the scanning disk so it was aimed at the terminal, and they all stood back as they repeated the process. Still nothing happened.

Raffi scowled. "Rios can't look into the zoetrope when he doesn't have a body with eyes."

"A webcam?" Soji suggested.

Shrugging, Raffi went searching through a box of electronic items under the desk. She found one, and it took her a few minutes to get it hooked up. Then they once more repeated the activation of the artifact. This time, the security system started blaring an alarm.

"What now?" Raffi exclaimed.

Picard went to the two laptops connected to the computer. "It's an alarm for an attempted hack."

Soji put her palms up. "Wasn't me."

"No," he said grimly. "It was the artifact. The computer system just completed its upgrade, and now it's made itself impervious to the zoetrope."

The unspoken consequence hung heavily in the air. They wouldn't be able to get Rios out that way.

Letters appeared on the blank computer screen.

"Hello? Raffi? Jean-Luc? What's going on? I can't see or hear anything. I…I can't feel anything."

Raffi pulled the keyboard back over and typed back, "You got accidentally sucked into the computer, but we're working on a way to get you out."

"WHAT?!"

"How about Tesla's Wireless Transmitters?" Soji suggested next.

"Hell no," Raffi replied.

"But if we used them with the zoetrope and scanning disk, we might be able to bypass the computer's new firewall."

"They transfer the wrong kind of energy," Picard said.

"Then what other artifacts transfer energy that we could use?"

Picard shook his head at her. "Soji, just let us handle this."

"I want to help," she insisted.

Fortunately, Picard was too busy to waste time arguing with her.

"The Standing Mirrors," he suddenly said. "We can connect them to the computer with jumper cables and provide a hardwire connection."

"Which will bypass the firewall," Raffi said, jumping up and heading down to the Warehouse storage with Picard.

Soji was left standing alone in the office. Well, not alone.

"Hello? Where is everyone? Tell me what's happening."

She went to sit at the computer and typed back, "It's Soji. Picard and Raffi have an idea. They'll be back soon." She hesitated, then asked, "Are you okay?"

The cursor blinked for a long moment before Rios responded. "I feel weird."

Soji grimaced. "Just hang in there."

Chapter Text

Raffi and Jean-Luc got the Standing Mirrors up to the office and hooked up with jumper cables to the computer and the zoetrope. Then they spun the zoetrope yet again, and this time the artifact began to glow with energy. Sparks erupted from the connectors and several circuits exploded, but Rios finally shimmered back into the physical world. Raffi sagged in relief.

Rios lifted his hands, eyes alight as he examined them. "Amazing."

Raffi quirked a confused brow at him. "Are you all right?"

Rios continued to marvel at himself. "Very much so."

Raffi frowned; that didn't sound like Rios…

"Uh, guys," Soji interrupted.

Raffi followed the girl's gaze to the computer monitor where words were filling the screen.

"What happened? I felt something."

Raffi's jaw went slack and she whirled back to the Not-Rios. "Who the hell are you?"

Not-Rios beamed. "I'm…me. How very interesting."

"I'm going to ask you one more time," Raffi said menacingly. "Who are you and what did you do to Rios?"

"I am Rios," the imposter replied. "Or, well, partially. I have all of Rios's memories, but more of his positive outlook on life."

"We didn't pull all of him out…" Picard put in.

"You think?!" Raffi shrilled. This was bad on so many levels. "Do it again!"

"I'm not sure it will work that way," Picard started.

"We can't just have a fragment of Rios!"

"That hurts," Not-Rios said. "I'm more than just a fragment."

"You can't have his body!" Raffi snapped at him.

Not-Rios canted his head thoughtfully. "I'm not in possession of a physical body." He turned and waved his arm through the Standing Mirrors.

Now Raffi was even more flabbergasted. They'd pulled out a piece of Rios and he wasn't even flesh and bone? Where the hell was his body, then?!

Soji went over to the computer and pulled up a diagnostic window. "It's a hologram," she said after a few moments. "Wow, did you know the Warehouse has emitters all over it?"

"Not important right now," Raffi rejoined.

All the artifacts suddenly lit up again, and another Rios shimmered into place next to the first.

"Rios, is that you?" Raffi asked warily.

But the second just raised his eyebrows. "You're half right." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around curiously. "Fascinating."

Raffi moved closer and waved her arm through him. He was a hologram too.

Soji clacked at the keyboard. "Rios, are you still there?"

"What are you doing?" was the response. "I keep feeling something…weird happening."

"The zoetrope is only making copies of Rios's mind, not pulling him out," Picard said.

"Then what do we change?" Raffi asked desperately.

The artifacts activated again, and a third copy of Rios appeared, this one with an utterly bored expression.

"Cris?" Raffi asked, dreading the answer.

The copy muttered something in Spanish.

"Oh god," she groaned.

"We need to disconnect the Standing Mirrors before they make any more copies," Picard said.

"No, stop!" Soji yelled. "The first surge fried the electrical outlets. The computer is now being run solely on the power of the mirrors. If you pull the plug, literally, the computer will shut down."

A pit formed in Raffi's stomach. "And what happens to Rios then?"

Soji shrugged helplessly. "He could be lost for good, like unsaved software."

Raffi clenched both hands into her curls. "Then what are we supposed to do?!"

"The Standing Mirrors are working," Soji said. "But the zoetrope is only transferring pieces of Rios's mind because that's its function. We need an artifact that can transfer him back to corporeal form."

"I don't know of any artifact like that," Raffi said, growing more and more agitated.

"There's one that might work," Picard said thoughtfully. "Bob Dylan's Bus Transfer from when he switched from acoustic to electronic."

The zoetrope lit up again and another copy of Rios appeared. There was no time to lose.

"I'll take the zip-line," Raffi said urgently. "What section is it in?"

"It's too big to move by yourself."

And there was no way JL was getting on the zip-line. Raffi turned to Soji. "You afraid of heights?"

The girl looked stunned for a moment but then quickly shook her head.

"Then you're with me."

The zip-line started at the top of the balcony outside the main office and spanned the entire length of the Warehouse. Soji's eyes were wide with wonder as she took in the vast space.

Raffi grabbed hold of the zip-line. "Hold on tight."

Soji gingerly wrapped her arms around Raffi, then squeezed as they leaped off the ledge and went careening over the Warehouse shelves. The zip-line was a fast means of crossing the Warehouse—it was just the landing that was hard to stick.

When they reached the right section, Raffi pulled the brake, and sparks flew as metal gears ground against the immense friction. They finally came to a jolting stop, dangling twenty feet off the ground.

"Grab that shelf and climb down," Raffi instructed.

Soji fumbled to transfer her hold from Raffi to the metal casing, but she managed. Raffi followed. Once on solid ground, Soji looked up at the zip-line.

"You're mental."

"My best friend is trapped in a computer that could fry at any moment," Raffi retorted. "I'm not taking the long way round."

"It wasn't a criticism."

Unfortunately, getting back would not be so quick; the bus transfer was a large, clunky old machine that the two of them definitely couldn't move on their own. They had to get it on a rolling pallet, then they could push it through the Warehouse and to the old elevator under the office that hadn't been used in thirty years. It creaked as they rode it up, and Raffi hoped the bus transfer wasn't too heavy for it.

By the time they returned, there were now five holograms. Raffi and Soji rolled the bus transfer over and Jean-Luc hooked it up to the console. This time the energy from the corresponding artifacts got brighter and brighter, and Raffi held her breath. A stream of particles came whooshing out of the computer and swirled around in the air before coalescing into Rios, who staggered as he became solid. With a heaving gasp, he frantically started patting himself down.

"That you this time?" Raffi asked hesitantly.

Rios gave a shaky nod. "That was a trip I never want to experience again. Wait, what do you mean this time?"

One of the holos came over into his field of vision and waved. "Hi there."

Rios stiffened, whipping his gaze over the others. "What the hell is this?"

"We, er, had a few unsuccessful attempts at getting you out," Raffi replied.

The other four holograms waved simultaneously.

Rios looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

"They're not real," Raffi quickly explained. "They're holographic projections." And though this one certainly sounded like Rios, she moved closer and touched his arm, just to make sure. He was real.

Rios staggered over to the nearest copy and waved his arm through it, which didn't help him look any less freaked. "Get rid of them."

The first holo gave him a kicked puppy expression.

Sparks suddenly crackled from the jumper cables, shorting out the power and completely shutting off the computer.

"It might take a while," Raffi said with a grimace.

"I'll see what I can do," Soji offered.

Rios still looked a bit unsteady on his feet, so Raffi took his (blessedly solid) arm and guided him over to a chair. Jean-Luc brought him a cup of tea.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Raffi asked.

"I think so." He glanced at his copies again. "That is freaking me the hell out, though."

"Yeah, me too."

"You should get some rest after that ordeal," one of them said, then rocked on his heels with his hands in his pockets. "The transfer of a human's consciousness into binary code is a fascinating topic that warrants further study."

"Shut up," Raffi snapped.

Another of the holographic copies was over by Soji, helping her reroute power to the computer, verbally, of course, since he couldn't touch anything. Small favors. That first copy looked far too close to a kid in a candy store as he looked around.

The computer finally started up, and Soji sat down at the terminal to do a system's diagnostic.

"Everything looks okay," she reported.

"Can you delete these holograms?" Jean-Luc asked.

"I'm…not sure," she hedged, making several more clacks at the keyboard. "They're not just holograms by the looks of it. They have complete personality subroutines…all based off of Rios, but still…" She turned in the chair to look at them. "They look like complete units of A.I.s, each one of them."

Raffi furrowed her brow. "Huh?"

"Artificial Intelligence. The first ones ever created. Do you know how groundbreaking that is?"

"Don't care," Rios put in.

"I'm just saying we shouldn't hastily delete anything just yet."

"I vote for that," the perky holo echoed. "I like being alive."

"There is an argument for sentience equaling a true life form, regardless if it's not an organic one," another one said.

Jean-Luc sighed. "All right, this way. You're crowding all us organic life forms."

He waved for the holograms to follow him out of the office and down to the storage area. At least they couldn't leave the Warehouse.

Rios shot Raffi a pointed look, and she knew what he was thinking; she wouldn't particularly like having five copies of herself running around either.

Soji hesitantly approached them. "I was going to ask Picard this, but, well, what do you two think of me becoming a Warehouse agent?"

Raffi and Rios exchanged looks at that.

"Well, she was pretty helpful with this near disaster," Raffi said.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Rios asked her. "What about your sister?"

"Dahj is still readjusting, and I know I can be good at this."

Picard came back into the room then. "Good at what?"

Soji faltered before drawing her shoulders back and saying, "Being a Warehouse agent."

Jean-Luc let out a disbelieving chuckle and shook his head. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"That's not how recruitment works."

"But I already know the Warehouse exists. And that blond lady seemed like she was plotting sticking me in a grave no one would ever find. At least this way you know I'd be working for you and keeping your secret."

Raffi canted her head thoughtfully. "That is a good point."

"Just give me a chance to prove myself," she begged.

Picard stared her down for several long moments, then huffed. "Fine. You can be a probationary agent in training, at my complete discretion. Is that understood?"

Soji beamed. "Yes. Thank you."

Chapter Text

"Hold it with both hands," Rios instructed, manually adjusting Soji's grip on the Tesla gun. "Accuracy is more important than imitating action movies."

Soji nodded along.

"Also," Raffi put in, "if you do accidentally shoot someone, it will just stun them, so it's not the end of the world. But it hurts a lot, so avoid shooting one of us."

Jean-Luc walked out onto the balcony and looked down at the three of them, expression set in disapproval, even though he had given Soji permission to become an agent in training. "You have a potential case," he said and went back into the office.

Soji's eyes lit up with excitement, and Raffi made an abortive gesture for her to keep that toned down in front of Picard. He was being prickly enough about her joining them as it was.

They headed upstairs to hear what he'd found.

"Dr. Jurati called," Jean-Luc said without preamble. "She's in Devil's Lake, North Dakota where a cleaning lady was hospitalized for spider poison, but with no evidence of a bite. She thinks an artifact might be involved."

"Who's that?" Soji asked.

"She's the Warehouse's doctor when we're in need of one," Rios replied.

"And when we don't, she works for the CDC, a position that allows her to come across strange illnesses that might be our area of expertise," Picard added. "Now go on."

Rios and Raffi shared a look as they headed for the door, Soji following on their heels quickly before Jean-Luc could tell her to stay behind.

The drive to North Dakota from Tennessee was long, but it was a good opportunity to school Soji on a number of artifacts in the Warehouse. When they finally arrived, they went straight to the hospital to meet up with Jurati.

With pert blond curls that bounced above her shoulders and a white doctor's coat that somehow looked too big, she managed to portray both a professional and amateur demeanor.

"Agents," she greeted, flashing Rios in particular a smile.

"Agnes," he smiled back.

"This is Soji Asha," Raffi introduced. "She's an agent in training. This is Dr. Jurati."

Agnes held out her hand to shake Soji's. "Call me Agnes."

"So," Rios said. "Spider bite without the bite?"

She nodded, expression turning serious. "The patient died a few hours ago. We've confirmed the symptoms are of the Goliath Birdeater Spider, but there wasn't a single bite mark on the woman's body."

"Could it be, I don't know, an elaborate form of murder?" Raffi asked.

"Our thorough examination found no injection marks either. I even checked the places one would use if trying to hide a lethal injection. There were none."

"Not that there's any reason to be covert if you're going to pick that kind of spider venom," Soji put in.

Agnes canted her head toward her in agreement.

"Okay, did she say whether she'd run into a freaky spider or something?" Raffi asked next.

"Unfortunately, she was in bad shape when she was brought in and never regained consciousness. She was wearing her uniform, so it's possible she encountered whatever it was at one of her client's homes."

"Great, a treasure hunt," Raffi muttered.

"Thanks," Rios said with a nod to Agnes. "We'll let you know what we find."

She smiled back.

"I'll call Garcia for a list of the victim's clients," Raffi said. "This is the part you can't do," she added to Soji as she pulled out her cell phone and walked away.

"Why not?" the young woman asked.

"You're not actually an FBI agent," Rios reminded her.

Soji huffed. "I bet I could get the info on my own with a few hacks."

"And good day," Agnes said abruptly, turning on her heel and striding off so she wouldn't be party to any illegal talk.

Rios watched her go for a beat before turning and heading after Raffi. He and Soji caught up to her just as she finished hanging up with Penelope.

"Got the list of houses she cleaned the day she was admitted."

"Are we going to split up to cover them all?" Soji asked.

Raffi laughed. "No. JL would kill us if we let you run off on your own on your first day. We'll start with the last one our victim was at and work our way backwards."

Seven popped into the bed-and-breakfast to check on their current guest, knowing she was more or less left to her own devices. She found Dahj in the kitchen baking cookies. The poor girl startled at Seven's appearance; she did have that effect on people.

"Oh, hi," Dahj floundered, then looked around the mess on the counters. "Uh, sorry for commandeering the kitchen. I needed something to do, and baking helps me think. Also, I haven't seen anyone who's actually running the place. Maybe because it's a fake B&B."

"The position has been vacant for a while now," Seven replied.

Dahj canted her head and studied Seven contemplatively. "You're different than the others."

Seven arched a brow. "How do you mean?"

"You're…older. And those pearls you're wearing, they radiate something too." Dahj gave herself a small shake. "Sorry, I probably sound insane. Must be what Soji felt like for the past ten years," she added under her breath.

Seven regarded her thoughtfully. "You're not insane. What you're sensing are auras. Have you always had this kind of sense for things?"

"No."

"It's possible your being out of phase for so long tuned you to the energies of things most people can't detect." Seven considered the girl a moment longer, then said, "Come with me."

Dahj looked nervous as she started to follow.

"Turn the oven off," Seven reminded her.

The girl darted back to the appliance to switch it off, then hurried over, though Seven hadn't moved.

"I'll share a secret with you," Seven said, taking Dahj's hand. In the next moment, they were standing in Warehouse storage.

Dahj physically reeled at the abrupt change in location. "How'd you do that?"

Seven touched the pearls around her neck. "Every artifact has its own special effect. Some are benign and safe to use, such as these." She gestured to the numerous artifacts on the surrounding shelves. "Do you sense anything here?"

Dahj looked around uncertainly for several long moments. "These are mild-mannered," she finally pointed out. "But…that one there is dangerous." She grimaced. "Is it weird to talk about inanimate objects like they have personalities?"

"Artifacts are created when imbued with strong emotions," Seven explained. "So it's not inaccurate to say they then have a 'personality.'"

Dahj roved her gaze around the shelves, then pointed to two artifacts, a tennis racket and a set of golf clubs. "Those should be kept much farther apart from each other." She furrowed her brow at herself and looked back at Seven. "Why?"

Seven was impressed. "John McEnroe's Tennis Racket causes aggressive and violent behavior, as does Bobby Jones's Golf Clubs. The previous agents who catalogued the clubs must have thought they should be stored together because of similar effects." She stopped there and waited to see if Dahj would put it together herself.

The girl continued to look thoughtful. "No, they feed off each other that way."

Seven nodded. "I don't know if you have any plans for your future, but if you'd like a job at the Warehouse helping to manage the artifacts, you'd be most appreciated."

Dahj looked stunned at the offer. "But…I don't know anything about…all this."

"It takes a special intuition when working with a collection this powerful. You have that. Think it over."

The first two homes they checked never got cleaned like they were supposed to, but at the third house, the Warehouse agents found the owner livid because he'd had a break-in and some of his collector items had been stolen. He was surprised the FBI showed up on his doorstep but was quick to assume they were there for the theft.

"Did you see your cleaning lady when she was here?" Rios asked, interrupting his tirade.

The man faltered. "No, I wasn't home." His brows rose sharply. "It was her, wasn't it? You treat an employee well and this is how they repay you!"

"She died earlier today from a spider bite," Rios curtly informed him. "Which she received at one of the residences she was cleaning, likely this one."

The house owner looked at him as though he was mad. "A spider bite? Look, if she was allergic, I'm not liable."

Rios shared an irritated look with Raffi.

"Mind if we have a look around?" she asked. "And we'll need a list of what was stolen."

The man looked discomfited at letting a couple of agents go through his house, but he nodded brusquely. "Mostly antique trinkets. An old compass, smoking pipe, a box of wooden tokens."

Rios's phone rang and he paused to answer it. "Agent Rios."

"It's Agnes. Another patient just arrived with the same symptoms."

"On our way." He hung up and caught Raffi's questioning look. "Another victim."

"What about my stuff?" the house owner protested.

"You filed a police report, right?" Raffi said as they headed out, leaving the man sputtering.

"I should've 'accidentally' fired off my Tesla," Soji muttered as they got in the car.

"No," Raffi replied sternly, but Rios didn't miss the glint in her eye that said the exact same thought had crossed her mind.

They returned to the hospital where Agnes immediately took them into the patient room of a twenty-year-old kid. He was still lucid, albeit in extreme pain with a rapidly climbing fever. They didn't have much time to question him.

Raffi flashed her badge at the kid. "I'm Agent Musiker with the FBI. I need to know if you came into contact with anything strange, or old."

The kid ground his teeth together and shook his head. "What's happening to me?"

"You're suffering from spider poison. Were you at 1250 Highland Street earlier?"

The kid continued to thrash his head, but Rios didn't miss the shifty look in his eyes at the address.

"Hey," he said. "The other person who was there died from this. You need to tell us the truth right now if you want us to help you."

The kid let out a whimper, then gritted out, "Yes. I was there."

"Did you steal a bunch of old items?" Raffi pressed.

He nodded.

"Where are they now?"

"Paw-pawn shop. On Maverick."

His body suddenly went rigid and alarms began blaring as he went into a seizure.

"Out!" Agnes barked, and the agents quickly vacated as the doctors went to work.

"So the artifact is with the stolen goods?" Soji said.

"Sounds like it," Rios replied.

He broke a few speed limits getting there, and then the three of them burst into the shop, which was currently empty save for the owner behind the glass counter.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

Rios held up his FBI credentials. "You recently took possession of some old items. A compass, smoking pipe, and some tokens? We need to see them, now."

The man fidgeted. "Hey, if these were stolen, I had no idea."

"Yuh-huh," Raffi responded. "Where are they?"

He bent over to pull the items out from a cabinet underneath the display. "Didn't even get a chance to put them out," he muttered. He lifted out a small box of wooden tokens but accidentally bumped it against the edge of the counter, spilling them out over the glass, including one with a blue palm tree and the number 8, along with the words "Plantacao, Boa Vista, Brasil" around the edges. The palm tree instantly turned into a red spider that began to crawl over the token.

Before the agents could move, the shop owner tried to bat the spider off the counter. He sent the entire token flying, and Rios and Raffi leaped back to avoid it touching them. The proprietor, however, cried out and hunched in on himself. The token with its spider went clattering underneath one of the many display cabinets.

The shop owner was making horrible choking sounds as he writhed in pain, and Raffi rounded the counter to try to help him.

"Gloves!" Rios barked at Soji, and the two of them hastily pulled out their purple, artifact-handling gloves. Then Rios got on the floor to try to find the token, his nerves screaming as he had to press his face close to the floor and hope that spider didn't have a very long range. He spotted the token under a casing, the spider still moving but apparently restricted to the token itself.

"Rios," Raffi called, and he turned as she tossed him an old feather duster.

Holding the bushy end, he used the handle to try to slide the token out from under the case. Soji hurriedly got a neutralizing bag ready. The token came out, the spider still moving. Soji stood with the open baggie, squirming.

"Um," Rios said, questioning whether the gloves would be protection enough. "Put the bag on the floor."

Soji shot him an unhappy look but nevertheless inched closer, setting the baggie down sideways and holding the flap open. She made quite a few squicked out noises as she fought to hold still. Rios took the end of the duster and nudged the token into the bag. Purple sparks flew, and Soji quickly pulled the baggie up and closed it tightly. In the next moment, the shop owner stopped grunting in agony.

"Emmm, take it," Soji said, holding the bag toward Rios.

He relieved her of it and checked the seal on the bag, just to be safe.

"What- what just happened?" the shop owner asked, bewildered.

"Uh, you had an allergic reaction to a spider bite," Raffi explained. "But I had an epipen on me and you're fine now."

The man blinked at her, not buying it but too much in shock to question further at the moment.

"The police will be coming by to collect those stolen items," she added, giving him a pointed look.

Artifact retrieved, they headed back to the hospital where they learned the thief was also recovering.

"Thanks for your help," Agnes told them.

Rios smiled. "Call us anytime."

She grinned back, and they remained like that for an extended awkward moment before Rios finally pulled himself away and bid her goodbye.

Raffi shook her head as they stepped onto the elevator. "When are you going to just ask Jurati out?"

"Stop it."

"She's cute," Soji piped up.

Rios sighed. How had he ended up surrounded by women?

They returned to the Warehouse and briefed Jean-Luc on the retrieval.

"The Boa Vista Plantation Token," he said. "Nasty little thing. We'll need a special case to keep it in."

Seven and Dahj walked in then, surprising them all.

"And I know just who can take care of it," Seven said, looking at Dahj.

"Seven," Jean-Luc said in amazement.

"Wait, you want to work at the Warehouse too?" Soji asked incredulously.

"Not as an agent," Dahj replied. "But helping to look after the artifacts. Apparently, I can read their auras."

"Huh," Raffi said. "Handy…?"

"The last person to hold the position was an empath," Seven explained. "It is useful for navigating artifacts' varying effects."

Soji let out a squeal and clasped Dahj's hands, the two of them bouncing in excitement. "This is fantastic. We'll be working together!"

Rios stepped forward and handed Dahj the baggie with the token. "Welcome to the nut house."

Chapter Text

Raffi, Rios, and Soji sat around the small table in the B&B's dining room as Dahj served them Belgium waffles she'd made. They were plump and golden brown and Raffi's mouth was watering at their tantalizing aroma.

"That's really nice of you," Rios said.

"Apparently, part of the artifact keeper's duties is to run the B&B," Dahj replied. "Not that I mind. I love baking."

Raffi took a bite and let out a long moan. "Well, it's amazing so please keep it up."

Dahj beamed.

The front door squeaked open and a moment later Jean-Luc walked in.

"You have a case," he announced.

"Mind if we finish breakfast first?" Raffi responded pointedly.

"Homeless people are spontaneously combusting, but yes, you can finish your breakfast."

Raffi narrowed her eyes but didn't rise to the bait. She did, however, scarf down her waffles more quickly.

"Sorry to eat and run," Soji said to her sister when they were done. "Next time I promise to help with the cleanup."

"Me too," Rios said, giving Dahj an apologetic look as he headed upstairs to get his go-bag.

"It's okay."

Their case was all the way in San Francisco, California.

"Why doesn't the Warehouse have its own jet?" Soji asked after the agonizingly long car ride.

"We've asked," Raffi said.

"…And?"

"The answer was no," Rios replied.

"That's it?"

"You want to try arguing with Jean-Luc when we get back?" Raffi responded.

Soji huffed. "Not while I'm on probationary status."

"Compared to him, we'll always be probationary," Rios commented.

Their first stop was the county morgue where they used their FBI creds to inquire about the recent deaths of homeless people.

"I don't know why the FBI is interested," the medical examiner said as he pulled out the files from the cabinet. "The victims died in isolated fires. There was no evidence of foul play."

Raffi took the reports and flipped through them. "Hang on, this one says the fire appears to have started inside the victim's sleeping bag. That's not what I'd call a normal fire."

The ME shrugged. "These people do all kinds of things to try to stay warm."

"It's not even the dead of winter," Raffi pointed out.

Rios looked over her shoulder at the reports. "The spots where they were found, these are in the same area?"

"Yes."

Raffi closed the files and handed them back. "Thank you."

Their next stop was the vicinity where each of the homeless persons had died. They parked the car and got out to look around. The streets were filled with garbage and there was quite a large populace of homeless people just milling about. Of course, none of them wanted to speak to cops.

"We're investigating the fire deaths," Soji told them. "We just want to help."

Still, everyone in the immediate area shuffled away with averted gazes.

"Shouldn't have tried to dress like an FBI agent," Soji groused.

"Probably wouldn't have made a difference," Raffi sighed.

"Over there," Rios said, nodding across the street to where a middle-aged man with white hair was handing out styrofoam cups to homeless people that approached him.

Raffi was surprised there wasn't a longer line for free handouts.

The agents made their way over.

"Hi there," Raffi greeted. "I'm Agent Musiker, this is Agent Rios. We're investigating the recent homeless deaths."

The man frowned. "I'm afraid I don't know anything about deaths. I'm Dr. Soong."

"How often are you out here?" Rios asked.

"Every day if I can," he replied.

Raffi ran her gaze over the unmarked styrofoam cups. They had plastic lids, but it looked like they contained soup. "Have you seen anything strange while you're out here?"

Dr. Soong chuckled. "I'm afraid 'strange' would depend on your definition. But I can't think of anything that would suggest murder."

"We didn't say murder," Rios replied.

"Why else would the FBI be investigating? Normally this population group is overlooked by the authorities."

A homeless man shuffled forward, casting fidgety looks at the agents while appearing anxious to get some soup. Dr. Soong handed him a cup.

"Thanks, doc," the man gushed. "I feel so much better, this soup is amazing."

Soong smiled and somewhat stiffly dismissed the man, who hurried away.

"Must be some soup," Soji commented.

"I've infused it with my own vitamin cocktail," he responded. "Got to give these people every bit of nutrition they can get."

"Will you encourage them to talk to us?" Raffi asked. "We're not here to cause trouble for anyone; we only want to find out what happened to the people who died."

Dr. Soong shrugged. "I can try."

She nodded appreciatively, and they moved on, still just aimlessly wandering about in the hopes of finding a clue somewhere or someone willing to speak with them.

Raised voices drew their attention down a side street that led under a bridge where two men were getting into a heated argument.

"Touch my stuff again and I'll kill you!" one of them shouted.

Rios immediately headed toward them. "Hey, guys, let's take it down a notch, alright?"

"Mind your own business," the first snarled and stepped forward to shove Rios, who went flying backward several feet and landed hard on the asphalt.

Raffi and Soji bolted into a run, Soji going to Rios while Raffi pulled her Tesla. But the homeless vet whirled toward her and knocked it out of her hands before she could react. He then grabbed her by the throat and lifted her completely off the ground with one arm. She clawed at him as she choked, her feet dangling beneath her.

Soji scrabbled to draw her own Tesla gun and fired. Unfortunately, with the two of them in close contact, some of the electric current surged through Raffi as well. The vet cried out and dropped her, and she collapsed in a heap on the ground, muscles seizing and making it impossible to draw breath for the moment.

Since the shot got dispersed between them, it didn't fully stun the guy, who stumbled back a few steps and then turned a furious glare on Soji. But then he bowed forward as a guttural scream ripped from his throat. His muscles began bulging beneath his layers, and an orange glow emanated up through his neck into his cheeks. In the next moment, he burst into flames.

Raffi scrambled backward as the guy was engulfed in fire right in front of them, the heat radiating off him in intense waves. Within moments, the flames burned themselves out, and he fell to a dead, smoking crisp. A stunned silence filled the air.

"Tell me I didn't do that," Soji blurted.

"You didn't," Raffi grunted as she pushed herself up.

Rios was also groaning as he picked himself up off the ground. "Guy was strong," he muttered.

"Insanely so," Raffi agreed. "And that fire definitely started inside him."

But there was no sign of an artifact around. It had to be something this guy and the other homeless victims had come into contact with but had a delayed effect on them.

The other homeless man the victim had been arguing with was still standing there, looking flabbergasted.

"You okay?" Rios asked him.

The man gave a slow nod.

"Where was this man's camp?"

Pursing his mouth, the homeless man reluctantly pointed it out. It was down the embankment under the bridge and constructed of wooden slats and tarps. There was nothing unusual inside, except a lot of empty styrofoam cups identical to the ones Dr. Soong had been handing out.

"Well, if he didn't know our first victims, he knew this one," Raffi remarked. "What do you say we go back and talk to him again?"

"What about, you know?" Soji asked, nodding to the dead man.

"We'll call it in afterward if no one else does before that," she replied. "We can't afford to wait for the authorities; we need to find what's causing this before any more people die."

Rios agreed, but when they headed back to the street where Dr. Soong had had his table set up, he was gone.

Raffi blew a raspberry in frustration.

"I'll see if I can find an address for his practice," Soji said, pulling out her phone.

They waited several minutes as she scrolled, typed, and scrolled some more.

"Well?" Raffi prompted.

Soji furrowed her brow. "I can't find any listing for a Dr. Soong in the San Francisco Bay Area."

"Maybe he's not a medical doctor?" Rios suggested. "Homeopathic?"

Soji shook her head. "I've tried a bunch of different search combinations—nothing."

"Okay, that's…a little weird," Raffi said. "And we didn't get a first name."

"What now?" Soji asked.

"Now…" Rios responded, looking at something past them. "We talk to the guy who's been watching us the past few minutes."

Raffi twisted around to follow his gaze. Across the street behind a graffiti-covered bus stop was a guy definitely eyeing them.

They crossed the street to approach him.

"Hey," Raffi called out genially. "We're looking for Dr. Soong. Do you know him?"

The man shrugged. "Sure. Everyone around here knows him."

"We met him earlier, but he left before we could talk to him again," Raffi said. "Do you know where we can find him?"

"Maybe."

Rios pulled out his wallet and dug out a twenty-dollar bill. "This clear up your memory?"

The man quickly accepted the cash. "His 'office,' such as it is, is down on Warrick. Nothing else on that street except gutted businesses."

"Such as it is?" Raffi repeated.

"Let's just say it doesn't ring of legitimate doctor."

"So, a good Samaritan working outside the medical licensing board?" Soji posited.

The man snorted. "Good Samaritan, sure. He doesn't help everyone, though, only those who eat his soup. And you can only get the soup if you agree to regular checkup appointments."

"That definitely sounds sus," Raffi said.

The guy canted his head in agreement. "People who bought in call it Dr. Soong's miracle soup, says it makes them feel strong and healthy."

"But you didn't buy in," Rios commented.

"I hate doctors."

Rios took out his phone and pulled up the pictures of the previous two victims. "Did these two buy in?"

"Yeah, a lot."

"You probably made the right decision," Soji put in. "Since those two are dead now."

"Thanks for your help," Rios told the man and gave him another ten dollars.

As they headed back to their vehicle, Soji asked,

"So, is this an artifact, or more like some weird guy experimenting on homeless people?"

"Or both," Rios replied.

Now that was a disturbing thought.

They drove to Warrick Street, which was a completely gutted neighborhood. Most of the buildings were small and boarded up, but there was a warehouse with a new security key pad on the door.

"Stand back," Rios said and pulled out his Tesla, which he fired at the electronics, instantly frying them.

Raffi then took a pin from her hair and picked the lock.

A reputable doctor's office, this place was not. It looked more like a laboratory, with lots of work tables set up and filled with a handful of machines. No one appeared to be there, so they started looking through the stuff. Raffi went to the computer and pulled up the recent files.

"Definitely an experiment," she confirmed. "This guy kept copious notes on his test subjects, noting specifically their increased muscle strength. He's giving them something."

"What doesn't look like all the rest," Soji said, holding up an old, clunky, rusted looking ladle.

Raffi stood up to go take a closer look, but a cold voice stopped her in her tracks.

"What do you think you are doing?"

They all turned to see Soong standing just inside the doorway.

"What are you doing to these people?" Raffi retorted.

"I am improving their quality of life."

"Until they burst into fire and die," Rios rejoined.

"Which, I see from your notes, you were completely aware of," Raffi added scathingly.

Soong sighed. "Yes, that is an unfortunate side effect."

"Of this?" Soji asked, holding up the spoon.

The doctor—or mad scientist more like—drew his shoulders back in a huff. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

"There is no explanation or justification for what you're doing," Rios said. "And it stops now."

Soong's eyes hardened. "You have no idea why I'm doing this. And you won't be stopping me." He looked at Soji. "I'll be taking that spoon back now."

Soji glared back at him staunchly, but then the air next to her shimmered, and a blade suddenly came swinging into view. Raffi's heart leaped into her throat, but it was only the flat side of the blade that struck Soji's wrist. She yelped and dropped the spoon, which the sword wielder, abruptly now visible, bent down to scoop up. Raffi's brows shot upward in recognition. Elnor.

The young Qowat Milat warrior walked over to Soong and handed him the ladle. So, this was his mysterious employer.

"You're collecting artifacts to…experiment on people with?" she asked incredulously.

Soong's eyes sparked at that. "Ah, so you're the Warehouse agents vying for these valuable pieces. You snatched Bobby Fischer's Marbles away from me. But this time the victory goes to me." He waved the spoon at them.

"Artifacts are too dangerous to use," Rios barked. "You're killing people!"

"Some sacrifice is necessary in the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs," the man replied uncaringly. He then sighed. "Now I will have to pack up and restart my experiment elsewhere."

"Not a chance in hell," Raffi growled, drawing her Tesla and pointing it at them.

Soong, however, just smirked and nodded to Elnor, who held his sword up in front of him. In the next instant, he became invisible.

Raffi faltered, whipping her Tesla back and forth in search of him.

Rios suddenly grunted as he was struck from behind so hard he was instantly knocked out. Raffi swung her Tesla his direction, but nothing else moved. Soji also had her Tesla out but didn't know what to shoot at. Then there was a dull clomp and she dropped. Raffi fired anyway, but the shot didn't hit anything. In the next moment, she was also clobbered from behind and blacked out.

When she came to, she was sitting on the floor, handcuffed to a series of pipes along the far wall. Rios and Soji were likewise bound on either side of her, and the warehouse was now completely empty.

Soji groaned. "Ow…"

All three of them likely had brutal headaches from getting knocked unconscious. But Soong hadn't killed them, which was surprising, given the man's lack of moral qualms.

Raffi shoved her head backward against Rios. "Can you reach a pin?"

She felt his fingers fumbling through her hair, and she had to twist and crane her neck several times to get her scalp close enough to his cuffed hands for him to be able to grab one of her hairpins. Once he did, though, he was able to use it to pick his cuffs first, then free Raffi and Soji.

They picked themselves up off the dirty floor and called Jean-Luc on the Farnsworth to tell him what happened.

"That's Godfrid's Spoon," he told them. "Made by the Viking prince Godfrid Haraldsson from the armor of fallen warriors. It imparts strength, but at a cost the more it's used. Dr. Soong likely used it to spoon his soup into the cups he then handed out."

"And he got away with it," Raffi groused bitterly.

"That is very unfortunate. The sword, also, is a dangerous piece to be out in the hands of someone like that. It belonged to Honjo Masamune and is capable of making the wielder invisible when held at a certain angle. It literally splits the light around them."

"Yeah, we got that," Raffi muttered.

"So what now?" Soji asked.

Jean-Luc sighed. "It sounds as though this Soong is long gone. I'm not sure there's anything else for you to do there."

"What about the other homeless people he's been feeding soup to?" Rios pressed.

Jean-Luc didn't answer, looking grim. "It's possible if they haven't consumed too much already, they will be fine."

"We'll stick around for a bit, make sure," Raffi said.

Picard nodded and signed off.

The three agents booked a motel and stayed the night. Even though they knew it was probably a lost cause, they looked around for Soong, to no avail. They also kept meandering around the homeless population, of which they started to hear grumblings about not having their daily soup. Little did they know it had saved their lives. At least, no one else burst into flames, so all the Warehouse agents could do was hope they hadn't received a lethal exposure.

And so there was nothing left for them to do but return home in defeat, knowing they wouldn't be able to track down Soong until people started dying again. But next time the Warehouse would be ready for them.

Chapter Text

Raffi sat at the main computer terminal in the Warehouse office, poring through its daily Internet scans for any unnatural activity. Everyone was feeling anxious and bitter about losing Soong and Godfrid's Spoon, but so far there were no new spontaneous combustion deaths in the news.

"He's probably smart enough to know he can't use the spoon without us getting wind of it," Rios spoke up from the chair he was reading a book in.

"And it sounded like that wasn't the only artifact he was interested in experimenting with," Soji put in. "Who knows how many others he has."

"That's not at all encouraging," Raffi muttered and turned back to the computer to keep going over the data.

The front door opened and Dahj walked in. "Morning," she greeted. "Raffi, you got mail." She veered toward the desk to hand Raffi a single letter, then headed down to the storage area for her own special work.

The envelope had been forwarded several times and was covered in extra processing stamps. Raffi ripped it open to see what was inside, and she was surprised to find it was an invitation to her 20th high school reunion.

"Oh wow," she breathed.

"What is it?" Rios asked.

"My 20th high school reunion is this weekend. Damn."

"That's not a lot of notice."

She held up the envelope with its overlapping post office stamps. "Guess I'm hard to find after transferring to the Warehouse."

"Do you want to go?" Rios asked.

"Well…yeah, I think I do." She sighed. "But now's maybe not the best time."

"Why not?" Soji piped up. "Like Rios said, Soong probably won't do anything overt, and I can always call you if he does. You should go."

Raffi pursed her mouth thoughtfully, then looked at Rios. "Will you come with me?"

He shrugged and set his book aside. "Sure."

Raffi exhaled heavily. "Okay. But call us the minute the computer gets a ping," she told Soji.

She and Rios went out to their SUV and started the drive back to the B&B to pack.

"What were you like in high school?" Rios asked curiously.

"I was a bit of a bookworm. Definitely not part of the popular crowd. I'm betting you were, though."

He couldn't hide a slightly blushing smile.

"I knew it."

"I played soccer," he said. "Got drafted right out of high school to play on an international team."

Raffi's brows rose; she hadn't known that about her longtime partner. "What happened?"

"Blew out my knee, which ended that career. Signed up for the FBI entrance exam right out of recovery. But this is your reunion we're going to. So, any ex-boyfriends going to be there?"

Raffi got a flutter in her stomach at that thought. "I don't know. Maybe."

She wondered if Jay was married now…had kids. How many of her former classmates had families? Would be pulling out their wallets or phones to share pictures.

Rios cast a sidelong look at her from the driver's seat. "You're not feeling intimidated at the thought of seeing these people again, are you?"

Raffi laughed, then grimaced. "I guess I'm just dreading the question: Are you married?"

"You carry a gun; that's impressive enough."

"Technically not for a while, since we got transferred to the Warehouse." She turned in her seat to face him. "Hey, want to go to the firing range after this? I do miss the feel of a good Glock."

Rios grinned. "Sure. Also, I'll be your work wife if you want."

Raffi laughed genuinely this time and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "You already are, babe."

Dahj meandered down the various aisles of the Warehouse, just getting acquainted with all the artifacts. There were so many…she could spend an entire lifetime here and probably still have more to see.

Rios stepped out from a side aisle right in front of her, making her jump.

Pressing a hand to her chest, she said, "You scared the shit out of me."

"I'm very sorry," he said contritely. "It's this incorporeal status; my shoes don't squeak."

Dahj exhaled heavily in minor irritation. It was just one of the holograms.

"What are you doing?" he asked eagerly.

"Familiarizing myself with the artifacts."

"That sounds like a splendid idea." He moved closer to one of the shelves to read the display cards.

Dahj moved on, but the hologram jogged to keep up and just started following her around. Then another one appeared.

"What are we doing?" it asked.

"Familiarizing ourselves with the artifacts," the first replied.

Dahj didn't know if she should try to ignore them, but the second invited himself along and she found herself with two trailing Rios copies.

"This place could use a good cleaning," one of them commented. Now that they were standing side by side, Dahj couldn't tell them apart at all.

She passed a row of artifacts that suddenly gave her pause, though she didn't know why. Studying them carefully, she finally realized that one of them didn't match the description on the display card. A wallet instead of a yo-yo was sitting on the shelf. Dahj narrowed her eyes at it. She could sense from its aura that it was a little escape artist.

So she grabbed it, though she didn't know what it was or where it belonged.

"Ah, that would be Harry Houdini's Wallet," one of the holograms said.

Dahj frowned. "How do you know?"

"We're connected to the Warehouse's mainframe."

"Oh." She paused. "Do you know what section it's supposed to be in?"

One of the holo's eyes lit up and he beckoned for her to follow, leading her right to an empty placement with the right index card description. She set the wallet where it belonged and pursed her mouth thoughtfully.

"Some of these should be locked in display cases so they can't go wandering around."

"It would help keep them clean."

"There are a lot of repairs that could be made too."

Dahj startled again at the unexpected voice coming from right behind her. Now a third Rios copy had joined them. This was going to drive her mad.

"Okay, come with me," she ordered and headed to the main office.

Soji was the only one around, feet propped up on the desk as she bobbed her head to the music in her earbuds. She immediately scrambled to a proper, upright position as Dahj and the first Rios holo walked in.

"I thought you left," Soji said, flustered.

Then the other two holograms came into view.

"We need to do something about this," Dahj said. "I don't want to mess with their personalities or anything, but is there any way you can adjust the images being projected?"

Soji furrowed her brows in thought. "I can't change the fact that they're copies of Rios…but I might be able to make subtle adjustments."

"Just enough to tell them apart would be nice," Dahj replied.

One of the holos clapped his hands together. "A makeover, how fun."

"Should probably give them names too," Soji mused.

The excited hologram lit up even more. "May I choose for myself?"

The girls shrugged; why not.

Another of the holos went over to the computer and leaned over Soji's shoulder without regard for personal space, instructing Soji very specifically on how he wanted to look. With a few programming changes, his appearance shifted to neatly brushed hair and a black turtleneck sweater. Which definitely made him not look like the real Rios, so mission accomplished there.

"I want to be named Enoch," the giddy holo announced.

"Enoch," Soji replied. "Step right up."

With a grin, he told Soji how he would like to be presented, also with nicely brushed hair, but he kept the natural gray Rios had whereas the first had removed it. He also chose to wear a pale blue collar shirt under a black cardigan.

Soji shook her head. "If these are pieces of Rios, they are deeply buried ones."

"Well, we are the sum of our experiences," Enoch said. "But in our cases, the fragments of them."

While Soji reprogrammed the third holo, Dahj grabbed a bullhorn and went out onto the balcony of the storage section.

"All holograms to the main office now," she called.

It wasn't long before the last two arrived, one of them looking intrigued and the other shuffling in as though he'd just woken from a nap.

"What's going on?" the first asked.

"We're getting individualized!" Enoch exclaimed.

"Aye," the third said, now with a Scottish accent. He was also now wearing a gray turtleneck sweater and black beanie.

"Oh! Give me an Irish accent!" Enoch pleaded.

Soji shrugged and turned back to the computer to do that.

"Thank you, lassies," the Scottish one said. "I'll go by Ean, with an E, if you ken."

"Uh…" Dahj responded.

"It's customary for the Scottish spelling of the name to start with an E," the latecomer hologram said as he stepped forward to take his turn.

Soji gave him a white collar shirt and long black overcoat, and his hair stayed a tad untidy with some floof in the front.

He stretched his fingers out and then stuffed them in his pockets, rocking on his heels thoughtfully. "I feel like an Emil."

Dahj and Soji turned to the last remaining hologram expectantly, but he just gave them a bland look.

"No me importa."

The twins exchanged a look.

"Um…"

"He said he doesn't care." Emil translated.

"Don't be like that," Enoch said. "I know, we'll call you Emmet."

Again, the hologram shrugged.

Dahj leaned down to whisper to her sister, "This is Rios in an emo phase."

Soji snickered and swiveled in her chair to start making her own changes. The apathetic hologram morphed into an unkempt dude with long, messy hair and a black three-quarter sleeve shirt.

"Should I give him black eyeliner?" she asked.

"Eh," the holo interjected. "Por lo menos denme unos tatuajes machotes."

"What?"

"He said at least give him some cool tattoos," Emil said.

"Machotes," Emmet emphasized.

"Excuse me, 'badass' tattoos."

Soji spread her arms. "Then come on, dude, tell us what you want."

With a huff, he slunk over and told Soji which tattoos to give him and where. Basically all up and down his arms and even his knuckles.

Dahj turned to the prim and proper hologram. "And what about your name?"

He thought about it for a very long moment, then said, "Steward."

Enoch and Ean both scoffed at him.

"You're being contrary on purpose," Enoch said.

Steward turned his nose up at them and refused to change it.

Dahj shared an arched brow with Soji. At least they had successfully made each holo not look like the real Rios (mostly), and made them easy to tell apart.

Now if only they could get a bell on them…

The hotel conference room was bustling with people. Raffi felt a tad subconscious in her burgundy, one-off the shoulder dress. She looked good, she knew she did, but she hadn't seen these people since high school and it mentally brought her back there a little bit.

Rios stood next to her, wearing a suit and bowtie. He cleaned up nice too.

She roved her gaze around the room. It was decorated with balloons and streamers of the school's colors, green and gold. She hardly recognized anyone.

"Raffi Musiker?!" someone exclaimed.

She turned as a petite blonde came up to her with a beaming smile.

"I'd recognize those frizzy curls anywhere," the woman proclaimed.

Raffi forced a smile in return. Of course she'd be recognized for that; she was teased all the time for her hair. God, the times she'd tried straightening them to fit in were hellish.

"It's great to see you…again," she fumbled to reply.

The woman bunched her shoulders up as though tickled. "You don't recognize me, do you? Marcie Ballard!"

"Marcie!" Raffi exclaimed, still having no idea who she was.

"Is that Rafro?"

Raffi grimaced as a guy walked up.

"Oh, Troy," Marcie lightheartedly chided.

"Still a beer-head, I see," Raffi said with a fake smile.

Troy just guffawed and lifted his beer bottle in a mock toast. He then slung an arm around Marcie's shoulder, and she giggled as she wandered off with him.

"I need wine," Raffi muttered and headed toward the hotel bar.

A few people said hello to her, but she didn't see anyone she really wanted to reconnect with. High school was so long ago, and seeing these people now…well, perhaps memory was fonder than reality.

"Maybe this was a mistake," she muttered.

"Nah, it's still early," Rios replied. "You haven't had a chance to brag about how successful you are."

Raffi snorted and took a drink of her wine.

The synergetic thrum of the party was interrupted then by a guy stumbling in, laughing uproariously. He staggered into people, grabbing at their clothes and then doubling over with full-body guffaws. He looked completely hammered.

People tried to get away from him, and he lurched toward the bar, still busting out in laughter. Raffi thought it was Jack Hutton, from the football team.

Jack slammed into the side of the bar counter and grasped at Raffi's dress, tears streaming from his eyes, he was laughing so hard. Rios swiftly grabbed the guy's wrist and gave it enough of a twist that he let her go, and Rios lightly nudged him away. Then Jack abruptly dropped to the floor, silent and unmoving.

Raffi and Rios shared a look of bewilderment before Rios knelt down next to him. Jack's eyes were open and unseeing as Rios reached to check for a pulse, then rocked back in shock.

"He's dead."

Chapter Text

Raffi finished giving her statement to the police officer as Jack's body was rolled away on a gurney. Based on all the eyewitnesses, it seemed the police were assuming he died of alcohol poisoning, at least until an autopsy could prove otherwise. But Raffi's spidey senses were tingling.

She went to find Rios, who was just finishing up with his statement. One would think this would cast a pall over the whole reunion, but while a few people were visibly upset, and one woman seemed inconsolable, the party was kicking up again. No doubt fueled by gossip over the incident.

"Hey," Raffi said, coming up alongside Rios. "So that was…weird. Think there might be more to it?"

Rios leveled a firm look at her. "Is this actually your gut talking or just your desire to get out of the reunion?"

She crossed her arms huffily. "It is my gut talking, thank you very much. And if I wanted to leave the reunion, I wouldn't need to make up an excuse."

Rios's lips twitched. "Alright, let's find somewhere quiet and call the Warehouse."

They left the packed conference room and meandered down some hallways until they came to a stairwell. Rios pulled out his Farnsworth from his pocket.

Soji's image appeared in the central bubble with an exasperated sigh. "Still nothing on Soong," she said.

"We might have stumbled across another artifact," Rios replied. "Someone at Raffi's reunion just dropped dead in front of everyone."

Soji's expression scrunched up. "Oh god, that's awful."

"He couldn't stop laughing before it happened," Raffi added. "It was definitely odd. So put Jean-Luc on."

"I can handle it," Soji insisted and turned her gaze to the side, probably to the computer. "Okay, keywords: laughing to death." She straightened. "Hey, I found it!"

"Really?" Raffi said. That was fast; it was only a hunch…

"The Italian Bell," Soji informed them. "It was owned by an unfunny comedian who died onstage when someone in the audience threw a steel-toed boot at him and killed him. Jeez. Now when someone hears it rung, they will literally laugh themselves to death."

"That sounds like a dead match," Raffi said, then grimaced at the unintended pun.

"Thanks, Soji," Rios said and closed the communication device. "So, where would Jack have come across a bell like that?"

Raffi shrugged; she had no idea.

Since they were in a hotel, they checked the areas where a bell might be commonly found, like the kitchens. Except, if it was being used to ring plate orders, the whole staff should be dead, and they were busy at work. Which meant Jack had to come into contact with it in isolation. Maybe his room, if he'd booked one in the hotel.

Raffi and Rios headed toward the concierge counter to ask, but the sound of raucous laughter inside the elevator pulled them up short. They exchanged alarmed looks, and then Raffi jabbed the button to open the doors. But no amount of pushing the button would get the elevator to move faster. The laughter was so loud, it echoed from behind the heavy steel doors. And then it stopped. The doors slid open a moment later, but it was too late. A guy lay slumped on the floor, eyes open and vacant. Rios darted inside to check his pulse, then shook his head. He pulled the flap of the guy's coat forward next, revealing a name-tag for the reunion.

"Know him?" he asked.

Raffi nodded, feeling sick. "He was on the football team with Jack."

Rios stood up and backed out of the elevator. "We need to find that bell."

Yeah, before this reunion turned into a wake instead.

After dealing with the police again, this time a pair of detectives, Raffi and Rios returned to the conference room. Two deaths was drawing attention and more scrutiny, but being FBI agents came in handy and they were able to get information on the first victim, Jack. The medical examiner's preliminary examination suggested he'd died of a heart attack, and his blood alcohol hadn't been that high to induce poisoning. Of course, the Warehouse agents couldn't tell the local cops what they were dealing with. While the detectives made the rounds, Raffi and Rios went to track down other former football players, see if maybe they'd been doing some private partying that could have led to two of their teammates getting their bell rung, literally.

But none of the guys the agents spoke to knew anything, and they hadn't left the main party since arriving. So that was a dead end.

"Raffi," someone called.

She turned, only to pull up short. "Jay," she said, flustered.

He walked toward her, smiling. "I was hoping you'd come to the reunion. You look great."

"Uh, thanks. So do you." In the chaos of the mysterious deaths, she'd completely forgotten about the potentiality of running into ex-boyfriends.

Jay's grin widened. "How have you been? Twenty years is a long time."

"Yeah, yeah it is. I'm good. You?" She grimaced; she didn't really have time for lame small talk right now.

"Good," he replied. "I work in real estate, do alright for myself."

Rios joined them then.

"Jay, this is my partner, Cris Rios," Raffi introduced. "This is Jay. We used to, um, date."

Rios held out his hand to shake. "It's nice to meet you."

Jay returned the gesture. "You too. How long have you been together?"

Her cheeks flushed warm. "Oh, no, we're not… Work partner. We're work partners. FBI agents."

Jay's brows rose. "FBI? Wow."

"Yeah, wow. Um, sorry, Jay, if you could excuse us."

"It's alright," Rios said. "Stay and catch up."

"What about…?" she asked with a pointed look.

"I can take care of it."

Raffi pursed her lips, reluctant to let him go off on his own, but she didn't want to exactly tell Jay she was working a case here at the reunion, so she was stuck for now.

"So, you're not married?" he asked.

"No." She paused. "You?"

"Divorced."

"Oh. Sorry."

He shrugged. "It was for the best." Now he paused for a beat. "You ever wonder what if things had turned out differently?"

Raffi stiffened at that. Differently in that she hadn't had an abortion her senior year, or differently as in she'd never gotten pregnant to begin with? Either way, she didn't like thinking about that particular what-if.

"We can't change the past," she said.

Jay nodded. "Still, I regret what happened with us."

Raffi didn't know if he was trying to reopen that door, but she wasn't interested. Fortunately—or unfortunately—they were interrupted by yet another guy stumbling into the room, laughing uncontrollably.

"Help- me," he gasped out between side-splitting hysterics.

He barreled into a group of people who tried to catch him as he fell. Raffi could only watch helplessly as his convulsions pushed his heart past its limits, and then he abruptly fell still and silent. A shocked stupor radiated out from the center of the room, and the detectives on scene hurried to the forefront. In the chaos, Raffi slipped out and went in search of Rios. She found him down one of the hallways.

"I haven't found anything," he told her.

"A third guy just crashed the reunion, laughing himself to death," she replied.

Rios exhaled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. "Another football player?"

"Actually, no. I think he was on the wrestling team."

"So, another jock. What's the connection? Where are they slipping off to alone?"

"And are they ringing the bell themselves, or is someone else doing it?"

"Raffi!" Jay called. "There you are."

She grimaced before turning around to face him as he made his way over.

"Can you believe this? Three people dead in one night. I wouldn't have taken them for drug users."

"Did they have anything in common?" Rios asked.

Jay shrugged. "They were all friends in high school." His brows furrowed. "Why? You thinking this is foul play?"

"We're not saying anything yet," Rios smoothly replied. "But three deaths is suspicious. Is there anyone here at the reunion who might want to hurt them?"

Jay's expression shifted then, making Raffi straighten.

"What?" she asked.

"Remember David Fletcher?"

Raffi had to think for a minute. She couldn't immediately place the face or name. "Wait, you mean Bowie?" She grimaced at the fact that was her memory of the poor kid, who had struggled with the worst body odor, which had earned him the nickname "B-O-wie."

"Those three guys did bully him a lot in high school," Jay said.

Raffi remembered now. The worst incident was when a group of boys—including the three victims—had dumped a bucket of tomato sauce on the kid, jeering and taunting that it worked on skunks. The whole quad had been in an uproar. So, coming back now and killing them with laughter was a rather poetic justice.

"Did he come to the reunion?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"Who else could be a target?" Rios asked.

"Ron," Raffi said. "He was captain of the football team and the ringleader."

"I did see him here," Jay put in.

Rios turned to Raffi. "Find him. I'll find some earplugs."

"Why earplugs?" Jay asked as Rios jogged off.

"I can't explain right now," Raffi said and went back into the conference room. Jay followed close behind, but a search of the room didn't turn up Ron.

"He got a call there was something wrong with his room," Marcie informed them.

Crap. Raffi hurried out to the concierge desk and flashed her badge to get Ron's room number.

"Where were you keeping that?" Jay asked with an intrigued brow raise.

Raffi rolled her eyes.

Rios returned then with a pair of earplugs for them both, and the concierge told them the room number.

"Stay here," Raffi sternly told Jay.

She and Rios took the elevator up to the fourth floor and then hastened down the hall to the right room. As they approached the door, they could hear loud laughing inside, and also yelling.

"Think you're funny now?!"

Rios drew his Tesla and kicked in the door. He immediately stunned David, who was standing over Ron on his knees, laughing to the point of wheezing. The stun gun dropped David, which made him drop the bell he was holding. Raffi lunged to catch it before it could hit the floor and ring. Rios whipped out a neutralizing baggie and she tossed the bell into it. Purple sparks ignited, and in the next moment, Ron stopped laughing and collapsed onto his side, breathing heavily in exhaustion. But at least he was still alive.

Raffi struggled to her feet without stepping on her dress. "Next time, I'm wearing a business suit with pockets," she groused. "And I can't believe you carried all that stuff on you to the reunion."

"I can't believe you didn't have a thigh holster on under that."

"It chafes."

Raffi looked around the room. Time to call the police again.

David was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, though it was going to be difficult to prove without a murder weapon. The Italian Bell would be going back to the Warehouse where it belonged.

Rios leaned against the wall out in the hallway next to Raffi. "Was your time in high school this exciting?"

She snorted. "Certainly felt like it at the time."

He grinned. "So, want to go back to the reunion?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Nah. I thought it'd be fun to revisit the past, but I'm perfectly happy living in my present."

Rios smiled and offered her his arm, and they walked out together.

She didn't bother finding Jay to say goodbye. That wasn't a door she needed reopened. She didn't regret her past choices; they helped lead her to here. But she didn't need to dwell on them.

She had a home, and family, and an amazing career. And maybe none of them were conventional, but that was all right by her.

Chapter Text

Deep in the Warehouse near the storage of Very Large items where there was open space instead of shelving units, Rios was practicing soccer dribbles. Or, he was trying to, but one of his holographic copies kept distracting him.

"Hm," it said, hands in the pockets of his long coat as he scrutinized Rios's drill. "Your form's gotten sloppy."

Rios scooped his toe under the ball and tossed it up to his knee, then up to his head where he balled it toward the irritating hologram. Unfortunately, it sailed right through instead of smacking him.

The hologram arched a brow. "A little passive-aggressiveness there?"

"You thought that was passive?" Rios rejoined tartly as he went to retrieve the ball.

"I was just trying to offer some constructive criticism."

"I'm only going to say this once—get lost, or I will delete you."

The holo sighed. "Before you do that, you might be interested to know the Warehouse computer has just pinged on an artifact."

Rios snatched up the soccer ball and furrowed his brow. "How do you know that?"

"I'm connected to the mainframe, remember?" He rocked on his heels with a preening smile. "See? My presence is useful."

Rios scowled and broke into a jog to get to the office—and away from his annoying copy.

Jean-Luc was sitting at the computer when he arrived. "Ah, good," he said. "I was just going to call you. The computer pinged on an artifact in D.C. It was flagged in some crime scene photos that were recently logged into the law enforcement database." He turned back to the computer monitor to pull up said photos of what looked like a home study with a dead body slumped over the desk. He pointed to a bronze canister sitting on the bookshelf behind it. "The Canister of Inconsolability. It fills people with such overwhelming despair that they end up committing suicide, as is what happened to this poor man. He left a widow behind, so we need retrieve it before she's affected next."

"Got it. Where's Raffi and Soji?"

"Somewhere around here."

"I'll call them. Send all the info to my phone?"

Picard nodded and turned back to the computer again.

Rios called Raffi and Soji on their Farnsworths to alert them to the case, and they all met topside to first drive back to the B&B for their go-bags and then on to Washington, Rios and Raffi's old stomping grounds.

When they knocked on the door of the victim's house, it took several minutes for someone to answer. They were met by his widow, her eyes red from recently crying.

"Yes?" she asked hoarsely.

"Mrs. Mercer?"

The woman nodded.

"I'm Agent Rios, this is Agent Musiker and Miss Asha. We're with the FBI. I apologize, I know this is a terrible time, but may we come in?"

She frowned but nevertheless stepped back to let them enter.

"We're very sorry for your loss," Rios went on. "And we don't mean to be insensitive, but we were made aware of an item in your husband's possession that might be contraband."

Mrs. Mercer blinked at them dumbly for a moment, then stiffened. "That's absurd. My husband was an honest man. He spent his career exposing corrupt politicians and organizations," she said vehemently.

"We don't believe he was aware of its status," Raffi quickly put in. "Please, may we look in his study?"

She swallowed hard but nodded and turned to show them the way, though she remained just outside the room, arms wrapped tightly around herself.

The study had yet to be professionally cleaned, and there were dried, dark reddish-brown stains on the desk and floor from blood spatter. Rios scanned the area for the bronze canister but didn't see it.

Frowning, Soji pulled up a crime scene photo on her phone for reference.

Rios looked over her shoulder, and while he'd seen the photo before, something about standing in the middle of the actual crime scene triggered his memory. He flashed back to an office, a gun sitting on the desk. The thunderous report and splatter of blood and brain matter a mere five feet from him.

"I just don't understand," the widow choked out. "Justin wasn't depressed. He was excited about the story he was working on. He said he was ready to blow the lid off something huge."

"He was an investigative journalist?" Raffi asked, though that was in his file.

Mrs. Mercer nodded, tears streaming down her face again. "I just came in to bring him a sandwich, to make sure he ate. He could get so focused. And he got so upset over the grilled cheese, and then he- he…" She broke off with a sobbing hiccough.

"It wasn't your fault," Raffi said. "And it wasn't your husband's fault. We believe the artifact is contaminated with a rare fungus that can infect the brain. That's likely what caused your husband to…do what he did."

She broke down in sobs again.

"Um," Soji gently interrupted. "It's not here. Did you perhaps move it somewhere, Mrs. Mercer?" she asked, enlarging just the portion of the photo with the canister so she wouldn't have to see her husband's body again.

She frowned between hitched breaths. "I've never seen that before."

"You didn't notice it in the days leading up to your husband's death?" Raffi asked.

She shook her head. "No, I- I don't think so. We didn't collect antiques like that."

"Any idea where it could have come from?"

"No."

"Okay," Raffi said. "We're very sorry to have bothered you."

She and Soji started to leave, and Rios tore himself away from the transposed images floating over the room.

"Could the crime scene techs have taken it?" Soji asked as they walked back to the car. "But why? If it was a suicide, they had no reason to take an old canister, unless whoever it was stole it."

"If someone did, they're gonna pay a hell of a price," Raffi replied.

Rios made it to the driver side door, then stopped. His mind was reeling, but he had just enough presence to determine he shouldn't drive. "Raf, here," he said, coming back around and giving her the keys.

She quirked a confused brow at him. "Okay. Hey, you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Walking in there…it brought back memories."

Her expression immediately cleared with understanding.

"And…" he went on. "I think I've seen that artifact before."

Raffi's brows knitted together. "What? When?"

"Ten years ago. In Vandermeer's office."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Cris…"

"I didn't put it together before," he continued quickly. "But standing in that study, hearing the wife's story of what happened…it's the same, Raf. You know there were no signs that Alonzo was suicidal."

"Are you sure?" she pressed.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I don't know. But I know a way I can find out back at the Warehouse."

"Who's Alonzo?" Soji piped up.

Raffi waited a beat to see if Rios would answer. When he didn't readily, she said, "Agent Vandermeer was our former superior and Rios's mentor. He killed himself one day out of the blue." She paused. "In front of Rios."

"Oh god."

Rios climbed into the front passenger seat of the SUV, signaling his urgency to get back to Tennessee and find out the truth.

Raffi and Soji shared a look before getting in too, and the long drive back was nothing but silence. Rios was brooding, running past memories over and over in his mind. All these years, he'd carried the weight of somehow triggering his friend and mentor into killing himself, and no amount of Bureau psychologists could convince him there was no reason to feel guilty, that Vandermeer had been ill. Never mind that there wasn't a single sign or indication that he was depressed or under so much stress that he felt death was his only escape. But then maybe Rios had just missed the signs, in which case his guilt was still justified. And Vandermeer had done it in front of him, like…like he'd wanted to punish him. And Rios would never know why.

Unless what he thought he now remembered was right…

When they arrived back at the Warehouse, Jean-Luc had the bronze baby shoes waiting for them, Raffi having called ahead to fill him in.

"Are you sure about this?" the older agent asked.

Rios nodded grimly. "I have to know."

"Very well. Someone needs to go with you."

"I don't think I'll be wanting to stay in this particular memory," Rios rejoined.

"Maybe not right now, but never underestimate the allure of the past," Picard said. "Of seeing your friend again."

"I'll go," Raffi put in.

Rios automatically shook his head. "You don't need to see this, Raf."

"You've carried it alone for ten years, and you have no idea how many times I wished I could carry it with you," she replied. "I can handle it."

He pursed his mouth unhappily, but they weren't going to let him do this alone. So he stepped up to Raffi, the two of them facing each other, and they each took hold of the wooden plaque the bronze baby shoes were affixed to. Rios closed his eyes and focused on that fateful day.

There was a dizzying rush, and then he and Raffi were standing in an office hallway at Quantico. Rios took a breath, his nerves ratcheting up with anticipation of what he was about to relive.

His past self rounded the corner, dressed in a suit. Rios and Raffi automatically parted to get out of his way, though they couldn't interact with or change the memory. Past Rios kept going, right down the hall toward Vandermeer's office. Rios hurried after him.

"No luck tracing the gun purchases," past Rios reported.

Alonzo was sitting with elbows on his desk, head in his hands, gaze downcast. His Glock was out on the desk next to him.

"Boss?"

"We need to find those guns," Vandermeer said tonelessly. "Before more kids get killed."

"I know, but with the straw purchaser dead, there's just no trail to follow."

Alonzo snapped his head up at that. "The one thing I need from you, and you're giving up without a fight."

Past Rios blinked, taken aback.

Rios stood in the doorway, breath hitching. Raffi slipped her hand into his and squeezed.

Alonzo surged to his feet. "You want off this team, is that it?"

"What? No…"

Alonzo started shaking his head. "I can't deal with your crap anymore."

He picked up the gun and raised it to his temple.

Rios jerked his head away right as the report cracked the room. Raffi flinched. There was a thud as Alonzo's body fell forward to slump over the desk. His past self stood there in utter shock as agents came streaming in with guns drawn. There was shouting and calls for help, but Rios couldn't move. He couldn't tear his eyes away from his boss's body, from the hole in his head and the blood and brain matter splattered across the wall and bookcase. A bookcase that had a rusted bronze canister with faint etchings of vines on the sides and green sheens where copper blends had oxidized. The Canister of Inconsolability.

Raffi tugged Rios's hand, pulling him out of the memory and back to the present where he sucked in a ragged lungful of air and doubled over. Raffi quickly handed the bronze shoes back to Jean-Luc and bent over with a hand on Rios's back.

"I'm so sorry, babe."

He struggled to compose himself, slowly straightening.

"What did you find?" Jean-Luc asked.

"The canister was there," Rios gasped out. "It killed Vandermeer."

Alonzo hadn't killed himself of his own volition. …Rios hadn't done anything to drive him to it. The truth left him reeling as much as reliving the past did.

"So," Soji spoke up. "The question is how did it get from an FBI agent's office ten years ago to a journalist's this week?"

Raffi nodded. "And where is it now?"

Chapter Text

Rios sat in one of the upholstered chairs in the office, hand over his eyes. Even though he knew the truth now, that Vandermeer hadn't meant the words he'd said to Rios that day, they were still agonizing to hear again.

"The one thing I need from you…I can't deal with your crap anymore."

"Agent Vandermeer didn't have any next of kin," Jean-Luc was saying as he sat at the computer. "All the items in his office were boxed up and put into storage at Quantico."

"Which means only someone who works or worked there had access," Raffi concluded.

"Why did he have the canister in the first place?" Rios spoke up. "Like our latest victim, it didn't fit his decorative style."

Raffi pursed her mouth. "Rios is right."

"I found the artifact!" Soji piped in.

Rios surged to his feet and went over to the laptop she was working from.

"It was logged into the precinct's evidence along with Mercer's gun," she relayed.

"Why?" Raffi asked.

Soji scanned the log. "I don't know."

"You'd better get back to D.C.," Picard said.

The three of them nodded and headed out. Rios let Raffi drive again, and he had Soji sit up front so he could be alone in the back with his tumultuous emotions.

"It wasn't your fault," Raffi said after an hour of silence.

"I know," Rios replied dully.

"What he said to you…it wasn't him talking," she went on.

"I know that too."

It didn't make it any easier to bear, though.

When they arrived in Washington, they went straight to the precinct's evidence locker, only to discover the canister wasn't there.

"The report says it was logged into evidence," Raffi lambasted the officer on duty.

"And then it was logged back out," the man replied.

"By who?"

The officer flipped through the sign-in sheet. "FBI Agent Lazlo."

"FBI?" Raffi repeated dubiously. "What did they want with it?"

The officer shrugged. "Didn't say. He just showed me the paperwork and that was that."

Raffi exhaled in frustration and turned to leave. "Who logged the canister in the first place?" she asked Soji, who had downloaded the report to her cell phone.

"A crime scene tech named Nick Eads."

"Let's ask him why he logged it for a suicide."

They headed to the crime lab next. Rios's stomach was churning the longer they kept chasing this artifact. What was going on and why was it proving so elusive?

"Nick Eads?" Raffi asked, flashing her badge at the tech they'd been directed to.

He gave them a quizzical look. "Yes?"

"You logged an antique canister from the Justin Mercer suicide?" she said.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was instructed to."

"By who?" she demanded.

"It was a formal request from the FBI," he said, frowning at them. "You guys don't talk to each other?"

Raffi exchanged a look with Rios and Soji. How did the FBI get interested in an artifact?

"I don't like this," she said as they returned to the car. "Twice now that artifact has been logged in a secure storage place by law enforcement and twice it was removed."

"You think it's not coincidence?" Soji asked.

"It feels too cagey to be coincidence. Not to mention the two people who were in possession of it weren't the type to even have something like that."

Rios pulled up short. "You think someone knows what the canister does and used it to commit murder?"

"I'm thinking we need to look into what Justin Mercer was working on. His wife said he was about to blow the lid off a huge story. Maybe someone wanted to keep him quiet."

"What about Alonzo?"

"He worked any number of cases that could have made him enemies," Raffi replied. "Let's start with the fresh case and then find a connection." She reached out to squeeze his arm in a promise that they wouldn't stop until they got to the bottom of this.

Rios took a steadying breath and nodded. And so they headed back to speak with Mercer's widow again.

She frowned when she found them on her doorstep for the second time.

"Mrs. Mercer," Raffi greeted. "We're sorry to bother you again. We're still investigating where your husband would have come into possession of the contaminated antique. What story was he currently working on?"

Her frown turned more confused. "Like I told the other FBI agent, I don't know. Justin was always very secretive about what he was working on."

"Wait," Rios interjected. "Other FBI agent? When was this?"

"Sometime after you were here. He wanted to confiscate all of Justin's notes and materials, but I told him my husband didn't keep that stuff here." She crossed her arms. "He was rather hostile about it."

"What was this agent's name?" Raffi asked.

"Um, Lazlo, I think. He didn't give me his card."

"Thank you. We're very sorry again for bothering you during your time of mourning."

The three agents turned to leave.

"Let's check with Mercer's editor," Raffi said.

"Won't this Agent Lazlo have already done that?" Soji asked.

Raffi huffed. "Probably. But better to be thorough."

Rios pulled out his phone and called Penelope.

"Hello, handsome," she greeted.

Rios, however, wasn't feeling very chatty. "You're on speaker with Raffi," he said, hitting the button to switch the audio over.

"Hey, sugar," Penelope said.

"Hey, Garcia."

"Can you give us information on an Agent Lazlo with the Bureau?" Rios asked. "We might be overlapping cases."

"Agent Lazlo…" The clack of a keyboard could be heard in the background. "There is an Agent Marc Lazlo in the white collar division."

Raffi arched her brows at Rios; that would bring him across potential artifacts.

"Want me to connect you to him?" Penelope asked.

"No," Rios said a tad too quickly. "Just, does he have any open cases involving a Justin Mercer?"

There were a few beats as Garcia went through her files. "Hm, no."

"Okay, thanks, Penelope."

"Anytime, my lovelies."

They disconnected.

"Alright," Raffi said. "Next stop, Mercer's office."

The man had worked for a prominent newspaper, and they were once again met with confusion and a little bit of mistrust by the chief editor.

"The FBI was already here asking about Justin's story," the guy said.

"Yeah, we, uh, heard," Raffi replied. "We're from another division and it seems like we might have overlapping cases."

Mr. Zapata crossed his arms. "Sounds to me more like a cover-up."

"Why do you say that?" Soji asked.

He gave her a dry look. "Justin wasn't suicidal. And the FBI's here? Smells like foul play, and if it has anything to do with the story he was working on, then that stinks even more of a cover-up."

"What was he working on?" Rios asked.

"You don't know?" Mr. Zapata challenged.

"Mr. Zapata, we're only interested in finding the truth," Raffi assured him.

The man huffed and let his arms drop to his sides. "Well, the truth is I don't know what Justin was working on. He was very tightlipped until he was ready to start filming."

"But his notes are here, aren't they?" Raffi pressed.

"No. He didn't want to risk anything leaking."

"You gave him that much leeway?" Rios asked.

"I trusted him."

"So, the other agent that was here," Soji spoke up carefully, "you didn't give him anything?"

"There isn't anything to give," Zapata rejoined. He narrowed his eyes. "Justin said he was working on something big. The FBI investigating itself now?"

"We can't discuss an ongoing investigation," Rios said.

"Mercer gets his mail here?" Raffi asked, picking up a stack of unopened envelopes.

"Some."

"Alright, thank you for your help," she said.

The man watched them suspiciously as they left.

Rios clenched his fists in frustration. Every lead was turning into a dead end. At this rate, he was going to track down this Agent Lazlo and beat answers out of him if he had to.

"Mercer had a utility bill for an address other than his main residence," Raffi said, holding up a piece of mail she'd nicked. "Could be his work space."

"Let's hope this other agent didn't beat us to it," Soji remarked.

The address for the utility bill in Mercer's name was a studio apartment, sparsely furnished with no personalization but piles of notebooks and papers spread out in what was probably an organized fashion to Justin Mercer. And it did not look like Agent Lazlo had been there.

Rios went over to pick up one of the notebooks, only to scowl at its contents. It was written in code.

Raffi looked over his shoulder with a frown, then pulled out her cell phone to snap a picture. She then got out her Farnsworth and called the Warehouse.

"Did you find the canister?" Jean-Luc asked as his face shimmered into the audio-visual dome.

"Not yet," she answered. "We think Justin Mercer was targeted, though. He was working on a big story, but all his notes are in code. Think you can find a way to decode them?"

Picard's phone beeped with the sent photo, and he pulled out his phone to look. His brows rose sharply. "This could take ages to crack."

Raffi grimaced. "We don't have that long."

"Not unless there's no one else on the hit list," Soji commented.

Raffi shot her a look.

"I just meant if the canister went back into hiding for a few years, we'd have time…"

"I'm not letting this guy get away with it a moment longer," Rios warned.

"I can help," an echo of his own voice said through the Farnsworth, except with an Irish accent.

Rios started to roll his eyes, but Raffi asked,

"How?"

"I can run a search through the database and internet for the cipher," the hologram replied, poking his head into view. "And much more quickly than Agent Picard can manually."

He tilted his head toward Jean-Luc's cell phone, his expression going suddenly blank. After several moments, he blinked and straightened.

"Justin Mercer was investigating a drug smuggling ring through imported antiquities," he said. "And there's someone inside the FBI working with them."

"You're sure?" Picard pressed.

"Yes."

"Agent Lazlo," Rios growled. "But what does this have to do with Vandermeer?"

"We can ask Lazlo," Raffi said. "I think it's time we paid him a visit."

"Be careful," Jean-Luc said.

Rios was already striding for the door.

"Stay here and send all of the coded notes to the Warehouse for Enoch to decode," Raffi told Soji. "If there's proof of Lazlo's involvement in the smuggling, we'll forward it to the FBI." She then hurried after Rios. "Cris."

"I don't plan to arrest him."

"Don't let him turn you into something you're not. Not like he did to Alonzo."

Rios pulled up short, heart pounding from the wrath coursing through his veins. Prison was too good for this bastard, too lenient. They'd never be able to prosecute him for murder. No, he deserved to die. He deserved to die by the very artifact he'd used to murder two men, and who knew how many others before the Warehouse caught wind of it.

Raffi was giving him a sympathetic look. "You won't be avenging Vandermeer with anything less than doing this right."

He deflated at that. She was right, as usual. Alonzo wouldn't approve of him taking vengeance. He'd stop Lazlo from murdering anyone else, but for that reason, and not out of pure vindictiveness.

They drove back to Quantico and hunted down Lazlo's office. Rios was on edge, walking down the mirror image of that hallway ten years ago. They found the door with Lazlo's name plate on it, and Rios barged in without knocking.

A guy with close-cropped hair jumped up from his seat behind his desk. "Who the hell are you?"

"Agents Rios and Musiker," Rios replied. "And we know what you've been up to, Agent Lazlo."

The man's eyes narrowed a fraction. "Excuse me?"

"Where's the canister?" Raffi interjected.

His expression flickered with recognition before he schooled it. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Which division of the Bureau did you say you're with again?"

"Sure you do," Rios growled. "You went to see Justin Mercer's widow after he died. Made a stop at the local precinct's evidence locker to grab the canister." Rios leaned over the desk. "And ten years ago, you took it out of Quantico's storage after it killed Agent Alonzo Vandermeer."

Lazlo shook his head. "I really have no idea what you two are on about. And if you don't leave my office now, I'm calling security."

"Why Vandermeer?" Rios pressed. "Why did you kill him?"

Lazlo picked up his phone to call security, and Rios smacked the receiver out of his hand. Lazlo backed up against the filing cabinet.

"Why?!" he demanded.

Lazlo's eyes turned to flint. "He was running a side investigation on me."

Rios rocked back. Vandermeer had suspected Lazlo of being dirty all the way back then? Why hadn't he shared his suspicions with his team? Or at least with Rios? He thought they'd trusted each other enough. Rios would have helped him with his investigation.

"You want the canister?" Lazlo then said, bending down to the floor. He came back up with the artifact, holding it between two rags, and tossed it at Rios. "You can have it!"

Rios caught it reflexively, and he staggered under the sudden wave of crushing despair. All the pain and anguish he'd felt over Alonzo's death, of knowing it was his fault, that he'd done something to push him over the edge, or missed something to pull him back from it.

"Cris!" Raffi shouted.

He flung the canister aside in that split moment. The grief was suffocating, but he wasn't going down alone; he'd take Lazlo with him. Rios pulled his Tesla and shot the man, which only knocked him out with an electric surge. Rios blinked dazedly at the stun gun. That was right, he didn't carry a real gun as a Warehouse agent. Just as he was about to round the desk and go for Lazlo's weapon, the crack and snap of an artifact getting neutralized sounded from behind him. Raffi had wrestled a purple baggie over the canister.

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "Rios? You okay?"

He nodded slowly, even though, no, he was not okay. But he wasn't filled with the urge to kill himself anymore. Yet even that fleeting moment when he had left him shaken.

Raffi's Farnsworth chirped with an incoming transmission, and she fished it out of her pocket.

"Yeah?"

"Just wanted to let you know we found proof of Lazlo's illegal activities," Jean-Luc's voice sounded. "Agents are on their way to arrest him."

"Good. We're in his office. We have the artifact."

"And Lazlo?"

"Stunned."

Rios heard the sound of many footsteps coming down the hallway. So did Raffi.

"Uh, we might need some help explaining our presence here," she told Jean-Luc.

"I'll call Seven."

With that, they disconnected, and she hastily put the Farnsworth away before the backup agents arrived.

"Hey," she said softly to Rios. "It's over."

He didn't say anything. It may have been over, but he didn't feel at peace with any of it.

Predictably, they had a hard time explaining themselves to the agents in charge, but fortunately it didn't take long for Seven to put in a call to the Director, who personally came down to declare Rios and Raffi free to go. Before heading back to the Warehouse, though, Rios wanted to make one stop.

Soji stayed in the car, while Raffi walked him halfway down to his destination, then hung back to give him privacy. He stood over Alonzo's grave, hands in his pockets and shifting uncomfortably.

"Hey, Pops," he finally murmured. He'd never told Alonzo he used to pretend Vandermeer was his father. He'd almost slipped up once, almost called him Pops instead of Boss. Which had made Alonzo's suicide that much worse.

"All this time, I thought it was my fault. That'd I'd disappointed you." He fell silent for a long moment. "I blamed you, too. Blamed you for being so selfish, for doing that right in front of me. For making me think I'd driven you over the edge." A spiky lump constricted his throat. "I know now it wasn't your fault. You weren't in control."

Knowing the truth didn't make it hurt less, though; it didn't bring Alonzo back.

"I got the guy behind it," Rios went on, voice hoarse. "He won't hurt anyone else." He let out a shaky breath and wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. There was nothing left to say, so he bowed his head in one last moment of silence, then turned to walk back.

Raffi waited for him, then linked her arm with his. Time to go home.

Chapter Text

Raffi leaned against the doorjamb of the B&B's parlor, watching Rios with his face buried in a book. One of his broody existential ones. Finding out the truth about Vandermeer's death had given him closure of a sort, but not alleviated the pain of it, and he'd been in a melancholy state since.

She finally detached herself from the archway and strode toward the TV. It was an old box unit with antenna on top, though Soji had rigged something or other to give it better reception. Raffi flicked it on and turned to a sports channel.

"There's a soccer match on," she said.

Rios glanced up from his book. "What? No thanks."

"Come on," she wheedled. "You can educate me on the game." Raffi put her hands on her hips and stared at him until he finally relented.

He set his book aside with a beleaguered sigh and got up to relocate to the sofa. Raffi plopped down beside him. It took a while, but eventually Rios couldn't help getting invested in the match, cheering for goals and groaning at misses. Soji and Dahj came in with a large bowl of popcorn and joined them.

The front door creaked open and Jean-Luc came in. Raffi was going to invite him to take a seat, but the look on his face said he wasn't there for recreation.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but we have a case."

Raffi grabbed the remote and muted the TV.

"Several women in Salt Lake City have died under suspicious means," he went on. "Dr. Jurati is already on her way."

The gang got up to get to work.

"Hey," Soji said. "When do I get to drop the 'in training' and be a full agent?"

JL just gave her a bland look. "When I say so."

She rolled her eyes at that.

"Be careful," Dahj told them as they headed out.

When they arrived in Salt Lake City, they met up with Agnes at the hospital where the latest victim had been treated.

"I've already completed my examination of the women who died," she informed them as she led them down a stark hallway. "Each woman was in cardiac arrest when they were brought in, but doctors were unable to revive them because they couldn't penetrate the skin, which had completely hardened."

They reached the hospital morgue, and Agnes pushed the doors open to go inside. There was one body on a slab covered with a sheet, but Agnes headed toward another slab that had a single metal bowl containing an organ. She picked it up to show them.

"This woman's heart has completely metamorphosed into clay."

"Clay?" Raffi repeated dubiously.

Agnes nodded. "I'm afraid we could be dealing with an artifact outbreak."

"Any idea what artifact?" Rios asked.

She shook her head. "It didn't ring any bells with Picard. But I haven't finished going over everything. I was just about to examine the gene structure."

"I'll call Penelope and have her pull up information on the victims," Rios said. "See if there are any commonalities."

Which left Raffi and Soji to hang around and wait. Raffi took a look at the body under the sheet and was horrified to find a woman whose skin had turned a brittle, ruddy brown and was lined with numerous shallow cracks. What a horrible way to die.

Rios came over to look as well, grimacing at the sight. "Garcia will call me back when she has something."

Raffi nodded and placed the sheet back over the victim.

"This is unbelievable," Agnes spoke up from the computer where she was reviewing the scans. "This genome structure is silicon based." She clacked a few keys to enlarge the image. "This woman's DNA was literally transmuted from carbon into silicon."

"Silicon, isn't that mostly used in electronics?" Rios said.

"How does that equate to clay?" Raffi put in.

"Hang on," Soji said, leaning close to examine the image herself. "There's a pattern here…it looks like binary code."

Agnes frowned and squinted at the screen. "You're right. It looks like a computer virus."

"Could a computer virus have done this?" Soji asked dubiously.

"With an artifact's help, possibly," Raffi said. They'd definitely seen artifacts interact with technology in catastrophic ways.

Rios's cell phone rang and he quickly answered it. After a few minutes of one-sided exchange, he hung up. "All the women recently visited the local SuperBuy, specifically the Tech Squad department."

"Then that's our next stop," Raffi said. She turned to Soji. "You're good with computer code. Stay here and see if you and Agnes can figure out a way to neutralize this virus."

Soji nodded, and Raffi and Rios headed out to visit the local SuperBuy store. The tech department was in the back, and the agents flashed their FBI badges and asked to speak to the manager.

A guy with a name tag that read Colin came out. "What can I do for you?"

They showed their badges again.

"We're investigating the deaths of four women," Rios said. "All of whom visited your department recently."

Colin blanched and suddenly looked discomfited.

"Something you want to share?" Raffi asked.

"Look, I didn't know," he started. "But I just caught one of our employees spying on women through their computer webcams. I fired him, but even with what you're saying, I wouldn't think him capable of murder, just being a pervert."

"What's his name and where is he now?" Rios asked.

"Tyler Yates. And I fired him on the spot. He left an hour ago."

"We're gonna need his address," Raffi said.

Colin nodded and hurried off to get it.

Raffi turned to Rios. "Spying through webcams probably involves some kind of computer virus."

He nodded. "And an artifact somehow managed to transfer it from the computer to those women." Rios pursed his mouth. "Wonder if the kid knew what it was doing."

Colin returned with the address, and they set out once again. The twenty-year-old lived in an apartment alone, but as the agents approached the front door, they found it partially open. Exchanging looks, they drew their Teslas and cautiously ventured inside. A small kitchen was on the left, empty, so they swept right into the living room. Tyler was lying on the floor next to a coffee table, and a stack of comic books and soda can had been knocked over in what looked like a minor scuffle.

Rios went to check the kid while Raffi cleared the back bedroom and bathroom. There was no one else there.

"He's alive," Rios said and grabbed the back of the kid's shirt to haul him up onto the couch.

Raffi went to his computer. "Yep, he's got feeds set up for several women, including all the victims."

Rios smacked Tyler lightly on the cheek and shook his shoulder. The kid groaned as he regained consciousness.

"Wha—" He jerked upright. "Who the hell are you?"

"FBI," Rios said, showing the kid his badge. "And we know you've been hacking women's computers to spy on them. Four of whom are now dead."

Tyler blinked in confusion. "What? No, I didn't kill anyone! I just like to watch."

"Your watching infected them with a deadly computer virus," Raffi said.

Tyler's brows furrowed. "What? That's insane."

"What else were you doing while you liked to watch?" Rios demanded. "Any special item you included in your little ritual?"

"No! I don't know what you're talking about. And hey, I'm a victim here too! Someone broke into my place, knocked me out!"

Raffi arched a brow at Rios; they had found Tyler like that. They both looked around the room, but none of the valuables like the laptop, TV, or game console had been taken.

"Nothing seems stolen," Raffi remarked. "So why would someone break in and attack you?"

"I don't know!" Tyler reached up toward his neck, only to freeze and glance down frantically. "My amulet's gone!"

"Your what?" Rios asked sharply.

"My necklace. I always wear it. It was a gift from my great uncle."

"Do you have a picture of it?" Raffi asked urgently.

Tyler looked around, then pointed to a picture frame up on the wall. Rios took it down and studied it, then passed it to Raffi. The amulet was a vertical pendant with three runes inscribed on it. She took a picture of the photo with her cell phone and texted the image to Soji, Agnes, and Picard.

"Who would want to steal your amulet?" Rios asked Tyler.

"I don't know. I barely got a glimpse of whoever it was. It was like they were partially invisible or something."

Raffi shared a sharp look with Rios. Elnor and Masamune's sword, dammit. The unusual deaths had no doubt attracted Dr. Soong's attention.

Rios called local PD to come pick up Tyler, and while they waited for them to arrive, Raffi went through the kid's computer files. There was enough evidence of spying to convict him on several counts.

The police arrived, and Raffi and Rios handed off the kid, then left the scene. Back in the car, they called Soji on the Farnsworth.

"So you found the artifact," she immediately answered.

"Er, not exactly," Raffi hedged. "We found what it is, but Dr. Soong's goon got to it first."

Soji frowned. "Elnor?"

"Yeah. Which means he's long gone with it. But the kid who was using it has been arrested, so he won't be spying on anyone anymore; that should mean no more women become infected, right?"

Soji pursed her mouth. "I don't know. A fifth woman was brought in not too long ago. Agnes went to the ER to help, but there was nothing anyone could do. Oh, and we heard from Picard. The amulet is Judah Loew ben Belazel's Amulet. It animates the inanimate. Which in this case is apparently a computer virus."

"There's no way to know whether the computer virus is only transmittable while the artifact is being used in conjunction with it, or if it's taken on a life of its own," Agnes's voice sounded from the background. "We're dealing with a catastrophic nexus of genetic science and computer programming run amuck."

"Any progress on an antivirus?" Rios asked.

"We're working on it," Soji replied. "But maybe I should also take a look at the original computer virus, wipe it from the infected systems."

"That was just taken into evidence by local PD," Raffi said. "But we can see about getting access to it. And hopefully in the meantime, no one else gets infected."

A cough echoed in the background, then turned to a long, continuous hack. Soji turned with a frown, her brows shooting upward.

"Uh, guys…"

"What?" Raffi asked.

She turned the Farnsworth's toward Agnes, who was standing in the middle of the morgue, one hand cupped under her chin, her face white. She coughed again, spewing reddish brown particles into the air. Expression stunned, she started to roll up one sleeve to reveal a patch of skin that was beginning to dry out and crack.

Raffi's breath caught in her throat, and she exchanged a horrified look with Rios. Agnes was infected.

Chapter Text

Soji stared in stupefaction at Agnes, who looked just as shaken to be infected.

"How did this happen?" Rios exclaimed through the Farnsworth. "Agnes doesn't even live here; she's never been to that store!"

Agnes swallowed hard and donned a professional mask of calm as she walked over to one of the work counters and methodically took a scraping of the hardening skin on her arm, then looked at the sample under a microscope. After a few moments, she rocked back.

"The virus is mutating; it's now able to pass from person to person."

"From them?" Soji asked incredulously, gesturing to the deceased victims.

Agnes shook her head grimly. "With the last victim who came in that I tried to help treat. But, now you…" she trailed off with a grimace.

Right, Soji had been exposed now too.

Agnes strode toward the phone and dialed one of the hospital's extensions. "This is Dr. Jurati with the CDC. I am declaring the morgue a quarantine zone, and every staff member on duty in the ER within the past two hours needs to be quarantined and everyone they had contact with since."

Soji's pulse started racing as she listened.

"What about the antivirus?" Raffi asked, jolting her.

"Um…"

"It won't do any good if we can't transfer it from the computer to the human body," Agnes put in, having hung up the phone.

"Is there another artifact we can get from the Warehouse to do that?" Rios asked urgently.

Agnes shook her head. "Adding another artifact to the mix will produce unexpected results. We need to create and distribute the antivirus the exact same way the original was created and distributed."

Soji watched Raffi and Rios exchange grim looks at that and knew what they were thinking—Elnor would be impossible to track.

Which meant Soji and Agnes were going to start turning to clay and eventually die.

"How are we going to find Elnor when we couldn't even find Soong?" Raffi ranted. She'd hung up with Soji and was on the Farnsworth with Jean-Luc now.

"The holograms are hacking into databases and mainframes now," he replied. "Car rentals, plane tickets."

"They can do that?"

"It seems so. They are part of the Warehouse computer, but they can track the information faster and with more intent than I can."

"Huh. Might not need to bother Garcia in the future," Raffi commented to Rios, who was pacing in agitation beside her. She was feeling the desperation too.

The Scottish Rios said something over the Farnsworth, though Raffi didn't understand a word of it.

"They found a social media post of a ninja walking around Salt Lake City," Picard relayed.

The holo said something else indecipherable.

Raffi just stared at the dome screen. "That's…just not even a language," she muttered.

"Castle Hill Park," Jean-Luc said.

Rios immediately whipped out his phone to search for the address. Raffi hung up with Picard, and the two of them rushed off to the park, though realistically, Elnor had to be long gone by now. If the "ninja" was even him. What would he be doing in a park anyway?

Sure enough, everything seemed normal when they arrived. Some people were walking, jogging, riding bikes. No Elnor, though. Then they heard a commotion coming from a bridge underpass, and the FBI in them made them go take a look. To Raffi's astonishment, they found a group of four guys hassling Elnor, who appeared to be struggling to fight them off.

Rios pulled out his badge as he strode forward. "FBI."

The thugs immediately took off at a run, and Elnor staggered back against the wall, only to slide down it to the ground. Raffi moved closer, her jaw slackening in shock as she saw the patches of hardening skin on Elnor's face.

He looked up at them, eyes wide and red. "Help me."

Soji's cell chimed in her pocket, and she dug it out with a frown. There was no one to call her on it except…Dahj. Jaw tightening, Soji answered.

"Hey."

"Hey," Dahj replied uncertainly. "Is everything okay?"

"Um…"

"What's going on?" her twin immediately asked. "I knew I sensed something was wrong."

Soji grimaced. "The case we're on…an artifact animated a computer virus, and it mutated and now…Agnes and I are infected." She heard her sister suck in a sharp breath. "But we're working on a cure," Soji quickly added. "And Raffi and Rios are still out looking for the artifact. We'll be fine."

"You can't lie to me," Dahj said.

Soji's shoulders slumped and she lowered her voice as she turned away from where Agnes was working. "Okay, yes, I'm freaking out a little," she admitted. "I just wish I wasn't stuck in quarantine, that I was out doing something."

"I'm wishing I could get out there, though I doubt I'll be of much help."

"Yeah. Kinda missing when you were a ghost following me around. I always knew you were right there."

"I'm still right here," Dahj said.

"I know." A tickle started in Soji's throat, then trickled its way up until she coughed on it. Red dirt spewed from her lips, and her eyes widened in horror.

"You okay?" Dahj asked, and Soji was suddenly glad her sister couldn't see her now.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. Dahj would know, of course, but there wasn't anything either of them could do about it.

A clatter sounded from the workstation, and Soji spun around to find Agnes sitting on the stool, hands up in front of her and shaking.

"Agnes?" Soji hurried over, only to pull up short when Agnes looked her way; her eyes were opaque marbles with reddish dust sprinkling out of dry tear ducts.

"I can't see," she stammered. Her eyes had turned to clay. "I can't finish the antivirus."

"I have to go," Soji told Dahj. "Love you."

She hung up just as her twin repeated the words back to her.

Soji dragged the keyboard over to herself. "Tell me what to type."

"Help me," Elnor pleaded, arms wrapped around himself.

"Give us the amulet," Rios demanded.

Elnor's jaw visibly tightened.

"How did he even get infected?" Raffi wondered aloud.

"Wh-what?" he stuttered. "What's happening to me?"

"You were drawn out here by the women who died, right?" Rios said instead. "That's what's happening to you. Now hand over the artifact."

Elnor slowly reached inside the fold of his jacket and pulled out the amulet, which Rios snatched away from him. "Help me," he repeated.

"Yeah, alright," Raffi muttered and stepped in to pull him up off the ground.

"You're—" Elnor coughed, "—not going to neutralize it?"

"That won't reverse this. The amulet animated a computer virus that jumped to people. We need it to animate an antivirus."

Rios glanced over his shoulder at them. "We've both been exposed now," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Raffi replied grimly. "Let's hope that antivirus works."

They made their way back to the SUV and then headed for the hospital. Raffi called Soji on the Farnsworth to let her know they were on their way with the artifact.

"Thank God," Soji breathed. There was faint coughing in the background, and Soji's expression tightened. "Hurry," she added.

"What about the antivirus?" Raffi asked.

"It's ready."

With one hand on the wheel, Rios pulled out his cell and called the hospital. "This is Agent Rios with the FBI, I need a path to the morgue cleared. … Yes, I know the hospital is under quarantine; we're coming in with another case. Clear a path and make sure we don't run into anyone. You can seal the entrance behind us."

Raffi's jaw tightened as they approached the hospital parking garage, wondering whether security would do as they were told.

Rios drove all the way up to the loading bay for the morgue, and there was no one around. He hopped out of the car and sprinted to the doors; they were unlocked. Raffi helped Elnor out, and Rios waited for them before ducking in to help support the flagging kid. Then they hobbled down the hallway toward the morgue, which was still under lockdown.

"Soji!" Rios shouted through the doors. "Let us in."

Soji appeared at the small window and hurriedly unlocked the doors, and they shuffled inside. Rios handed her the amulet, then moved past her to rush to Agnes, who was slumped on the floor against a cabinet.

"Now what?" Raffi asked as she helped Elnor over to a slab.

"Um, I don't know," Soji faltered. "How do I make the artifact work?"

"Intent," Rios said.

"But how do we get it from the computer to us?" Raffi asked next.

"Same way it transferred initially," Soji replied. "Optically." She sat down in front of the computer and took a deep breath. "Okay, here goes nothing…"

She typed the activation code into the computer, and the amulet around her neck began to glow. Energy suddenly poured out of the screen and swept over all of them.

"Agnes?" Rios asked urgently.

Dr. Jurati blinked slowly several times, and then her opaque eyes cleared and returned to normal, and the cracks in her cheeks smoothed out. "I'm okay," she said, somewhat unsteadily.

Rios gripped her arm and helped her stand.

Raffi turned to Elnor, who was holding up his hands and watching his dried skin replenish.

"What about everyone else?" Rios asked Soji.

"I sent the antivirus through the security system," she replied. "It would have distributed through every camera in the hospital, inside and out."

Elnor slid off the autopsy slab. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Raffi slipped her set of handcuffs out of her back pocket and shoved the kid around so she could cuff his hands behind his back.

"What is this?" he exclaimed.

"You work for a mad scientist who murders people and steals artifacts," Raffi rejoined. "We're taking you back to the Warehouse for questioning."

Agnes contacted the hospital administration and security, taking charge over the situation. Rios stuck close to her as she ventured out to ensure everyone had received the cure and there were no new cases. It took a couple of hours to verify the crisis had been averted, and then Raffi and Soji took Elnor out to the car for the drive back to the Warehouse.

"How'd you even get infected?" Soji asked, echoing Raffi's earlier question. "The virus was in the women's computers that were hacked."

"I visited the victims' homes," Elnor freely admitted. "I found they all had receipts for the SuperBuy, and I tracked Tyler down from there."

"Too bad you don't use those skills for good," Raffi remarked.

"My skills are used in whatever way my employer needs," he said. "Though I agree, it is a shame we are not on the same side."

With that, he suddenly pulled his arms forward, having slipped his cuffs, and he drew the sword from his back that Raffi hadn't taken off him because she'd deemed him properly restrained. Raising it straight up, he bent the light around him and completely disappeared.

"No!" Raffi lunged, heedless of catching herself on the edge of the blade. But it didn't matter; the kid had taken off. "Dammit!"

She and Soji stood in the garage for several minutes, waiting to see if Elnor was going to attack them and try to take the amulet again. But he didn't. Furious, Raffi stormed back inside to find Rios.

He was still glued to Agnes's side as she stood at a nurse's station signing paperwork, but he finally moved away from her to come meet Raffi and Soji.

"Elnor escaped."

His brows rose sharply. "Seriously? And the artifact?"

"Still have it," Soji answered.

Rios shook his head. "Well, there's that. And we did save everyone, so that's a win in my book." His gaze drifted back toward Agnes. "Listen, you two head back to the Warehouse without me; I'll rent a car."

Raffi furrowed her brow. "Why?"

Rios looked over at Agnes again, who glanced up at that moment and smiled his way.

Raffi grinned. "It's about time."

Rios just smirked and walked away.

Raffi turned to Soji. "Guess it's just us girls."

Soji smiled mischievously. "Can I drive?"

Chapter Text

Dahj finished winding up Henry Work's Grandfather Clock and checked it off her weekly to-do list on her phone. Part of maintaining the artifacts required regularly tending to some of their eccentricities. Next was rotate the wheels on George Mochet's Pedal Car.

As she made her way down the next aisle, she heard a crackling overhead and looked up to see a blue ball of static electricity go flying through the air. That was weird. Maybe there was another artifact that needed fiddling with she didn't know about yet.

She rounded the next juncture and pulled up short as she almost ran into, or rather through, Enoch. He was simply standing in the middle of the aisle, gaze slanted downward and brows furrowed.

"Something wrong?" Dahj asked.

He looked up at her. "I don't feel right."

She frowned. "What do you mean?" Since when did holograms feel anything?

A static ball came zinging down the aisle and collided with Enoch. Dahj was barely saved by the fact that the static seemed to get absorbed into him instead of passing all the way through. But then he flickered and spritzed, and the static spurted out in several branches, striking artifacts on the nearby shelves.

Dahj yelped and threw her arms up to shield her face as items went flying. The Baylor Dodgeball rolled off the shelf and bounced on the floor, which activated it, and the red ball immediately launched itself at Dahj, hitting her in the chest and knocking her flat on her back. The ball then split into two and they wheeled around to go for Enoch, but they passed right through the hologram. The balls crashed into the shelves and sent even more artifacts to the floor.

Dahj scrambled to her feet and took off running to get help. The Baylor Dodgeball was a nasty little thing, purposely attacking people and multiplying every time it hit someone.

Emmet suddenly stepped into the aisle ahead of her. "Duck!"

She nearly tripped bowing forward mid-run, and the two dodgeballs sailed overhead. They passed through the holo, but then one of those static balls came flying out of nowhere and hit him. And just like with Enoch, it was like hitting a lightning rod that then distributed the electricity out around it. One of the bolts hit both dodgeballs, sending them zinging off to another area of the Warehouse.

Dahj veered down another aisle to avoid getting electrocuted. She made it to the base of the stairs heading up to the main office when she heard a piano key echo throughout the Warehouse. An airplane hanging from the ceiling in the back suddenly fell with a resounding crash.

Rios and Picard came rushing out of the office onto the balcony at that.

"Who touched the Aluminum Blüthner Piano?" Picard demanded.

Dahj vaulted up the stairs. "I don't know what's happening. There's these—that." She gestured sharply to the blue balls of squiggling energy flying around the Warehouse. "They set off the Baylor Dodgeball."

Picard's mouth turned down. "The static balls sometimes build up because of the energy from the artifacts. There's an artifact that will collect them."

"I'll show you," Rios said to Dahj.

They turned to head back down the stairs when Emil appeared at the bottom.

"I believe there is a problem," the hologram started to say, but then he was interrupted by a static ball hitting him and sending bolts of lightning out in every direction.

Dahj and Rios dropped low to avoid getting struck.

"You guys are acting like lightning rods!" Dahj shouted at Emil.

The holo gave a grim nod and hurried away so he wouldn't make them a target.

"I'll call Raffi and Soji to get down here," Picard said.

Rios nodded and ushered Dahj down the stairs, then led the way through the aisles as static balls zinged overhead.

"We need Vyasa's Jade Elephant," he told her.

Dahj heard a telltale bounce a second before something slammed into her back, punching the air from her lungs and driving her face first to the floor. Rios landed beside her with a grunt. Before they could get up, they were bombarded again by the dodgeballs. Both of them threw their arms up to protect their heads.

"Oi! Ova here!" a thick Scottish brogue yelled.

"¡No, por aquí!" Emmet shouted from the other direction.

The dodgeballs, now over a dozen, went flying toward their new targets. As the holograms tried to distract the red balls, Dahj and Rios scrambled to their feet and fled. Unfortunately, the holos were still attracting the static balls. There was a loud crackling and pop, and then one of the dodgeballs wreathed in static went sailing over them and crashed into a shelf unit. Several artifacts fell to the floor, including a pulley block.

Rios skidded to a stop. "Shit."

But it was too late; serpentine ropes immediately erupted from the pulley block and lashed out at them both, coiling around Dahj and Rios before they could make another move. Dahj struggled as they bound her arms against her sides and held her firmly in place.

"Don't struggle!" Rios yelled, equally restrained by the thick ropes. "The more you struggle, the tighter they'll get, until they crush you."

If that was supposed to make Dahj not panic, it had the opposite effect. Heart pounding, she tried to hold perfectly still, but even so, she could feel the coarse rope continuing to slowly constrict around her chest. Only a few feet away, rope was coiling around Rios's throat.

Ean jogged up to them, only to pull up short. "Oof, this disnae look good."

"Be useful and get help," Rios growled.

"Right."

The holo turned and darted off, leaving the two of them trapped and slowly being crushed to death as the Warehouse descended into chaos around them.

Raffi and Soji hurried into the Warehouse. Jean-Luc's call had only said to get down there right away but no details on why.

"What's the big emergency?" she asked as they strode into the office.

Without getting up from the computer, Picard pointed out the office window that looked out on the storage area, which was teeming with static balls flying left and right.

"What the hell. How did it get that bad so fast?"

"It seems as though the static buildup from the artifacts has been interacting with the holograms' matrices and amplifying everything," he replied. "We might have to wipe them from the system."

"Well, hang on," Soji interjected. "At least give me a chance to stabilize them."

She practically pushed Picard aside so she could access the computer.

Raffi went to the window to get a better look and spotted blurs of red among the blue. "Are those the Baylor Dodgeballs?"

"Yes."

Raffi cursed under her breath. "Where's Rios?"

"He and Dahj went for the Jade Elephant," Jean-Luc answered.

"They're gonna need backup with the dodgeballs running amuck."

A clatter from behind had the three of them whirling to where Seven had abruptly appeared. But instead of looking her usual prim self and demanding to know how they'd made a mess of things, she was bent double and had caught herself on the small table with the chess set, which had knocked some pieces to the floor, and which of course made the board vibrate in agitation.

Raffi and Picard hurried over to take Seven by the arms. "Are you all right?" Raffi asked in concern. "What happened?"

"You tell me," she grunted, reaching up to clutch her head. "Something's happening with the Warehouse."

"Yeah," Raffi said and pointed out the window.

Seven squinted, then grimaced in pain. "It's more than just the static," she ground out.

"Hang on," Raffi interrupted. "How is this affecting you?"

"As Caretaker, I'm tied to the Warehouse," she replied.

"We believe having the Rios holograms in the Warehouse have negatively disrupted the delicate balance of the artifacts," Jean-Luc explained.

"Which I'm trying to fix," Soji spoke up firmly.

Raffi knew she and Dahj had kind of grown attached to the quirky holos, but the Warehouse was at stake here.

Seven groaned. "Well hurry."

"Here, you should lie down," Raffi said, and she and Picard helped Seven into the back room that JL used as his own little studio apartment. They eased her down onto the bed.

"Is there anything we can do for you in the meantime?" Raffi asked.

Seven shook her head, face scrunched up in misery.

Raffi went to the sink anyway and soaked a hand towel in cold water. After wringing it out, she came back over and placed it across Seven's forehead.

Picard walked back out to the office. "Soji…"

"Just give me a little more time," she pleaded. "Rios and Dahj are going to take care of the static, right? So once things calm down, maybe I can find a way to make sure the holos don't disrupt the artifacts again."

"Ah, about that," the Scottish hologram said as he entered the office. "Rios and the wee lass are in a bit of a fankle."

"A what?" Raffi snipped, coming to stand in the doorway. Honestly, why couldn't they have programmed that one with a real language?

Nevertheless, his meaning was rather clear.

"I'll go down," Jean-Luc said. "Raffi, stay with Seven."

Soji abandoned her work on the holograms and went with him. They couldn't delete them right now anyway, not when only the holos knew where Rios and Dahj were.

Raffi's jaw tightened as she watched them venture out into the mayhem. Glancing over her shoulder at the state Seven was in, she wondered what would happen if the entire Warehouse came crashing down on itself…

Rios swallowed with difficulty, his throat bobbing against the rope coiled around it. And every time he did, the artifact interpreted it as movement and incrementally squeezed tighter with every swallow. His windpipe was going to be crushed soon if someone didn't get down here.

Static eruptions continued throughout the Warehouse, followed by the sounds of artifacts crashing to the floor. A gust of wind started down the aisle, bringing horizontal rain. Rios tried to hold back a groan; things were getting out of hand fast, and there was no limit to the destruction any number of these artifacts could wreak.

Two of the holograms appeared, hurrying down the aisle toward them with Jean-Luc and Soji following close behind. And then from the opposite direction, on the crest of a gale, came the Zookeeper Cap.

"Watch out!" Rios shouted, his voice strangled by the constricting rope.

But it was too late; the cap landed at Picard's and Soji's feet and immediately exploded into a silk cocoon that spun up and around them, binding them against the shelves. Now they were all stuck.

"What the hell," Soji exclaimed, struggling against the silken cords. At least those simply trapped a person and didn't slowly crush them to death.

Enoch and Ean stood there helplessly and even tried to pry the silk off Soji and Jean-Luc, but of course their hands simply passed right through the objects. Static balls came flying down to hit them, making them flicker as bolts forked out to hit the artifacts on the shelves. One of the shoots from Enoch struck a coffee pot and a ferret suddenly popped out. Enoch whirled at the animal's harried squeaking and bumped into the shelf. The holo's eyes widened and he reached out to touch it, actually making contact. He exchanged a bewildered look with Ean, who also reached out to touch the shelf—and did so.

"What the- how'd you do that?" Soji asked.

Enoch turned toward her, stunned. "I wished we could be physical so we could help."

Rios could no longer speak past the rope constricting his throat, but he recognized Howard Carter's Coffee Pot. It granted wishes (and spawned ferrets for each one). The static must have connected the hologram in that split moment and made his wish come true.

"Now would be a good time to use your newfound ability," Jean-Luc said with an urgent look at Rios and Dahj.

"Right," Ean said and took off running.

"Hold on," Enoch told the agents. "We'll have you out in a jif."

Static balls continued flying around but no longer seemed attracted to the now physical holos. Enoch spun and snatched up the ferret, tucking it close to keep it safe.

Ean returned with what looked like a grenade, which he arched his arm back to throw. "Close yer eyes!"

Rios squeezed his shut right before Ean tossed the explosive, which erupted with neutralizer spray that splattered everything in sight. The ropes immediately went slack and fell away, slithering back into the pulley block. Rios sucked in a ragged gasp of air and shot a hand up to rub at his bruised throat. The others were also released from the traps, though their heads were all covered in purple goo now.

"Ick," Soji remarked, wiping at her face.

"The Jade Elephant?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Haven't reached it yet," Rios replied as they all set off to retrieve the artifact.

Unfortunately, it was stored near Van Gogh's Stormy Night, which was currently manifesting a torrential storm from being disturbed. Fierce gales and biting rain buffeted them as they fought their way toward the shelf. Water streamed across the floor beneath them, making them slip. Even the holograms, now corporeal, were struggling to get close.

"Do you have another one of those grenades?" Soji shouted over the gusting winds.

Ean nodded and pulled out another to throw toward the painting, dousing it in purple spray and calming the storm.

Rios sprinted through the sloshing water to reach the elephant, which he then had to wipe off with his shirt so the neutralizer goo wouldn't prevent it from catching the static balls.

"Watch out!" Dahj suddenly yelled as a red dodgeball came bouncing toward them.

It went for Ean, who flickered right as the ball made contact, and it went sailing through him.

The hologram chuckled. "That's handy."

He grabbed a placard off a shelf and swung it like a racket when the dodgeball came back toward him, hitting it square on and sending it flying high into the air and across several aisles.

Rios set off to track down one of the many static balls careening around. He ran into Emmet and Emil, who were also able to adjust their photon modulation or whatever so they were incorporeal again, which attracted the static once more. As the balls came zinging toward them, Rios leaped in front of them with the Jade Elephant, catching the balls of crackling energy with the artifact. With the holos' help, he collected dozens of static balls. But the dodgeballs were still out to get them.

Until Ean took up a stance with the placard racket and yelled, "Ball!"

He thwacked the incoming dodgeball right toward Emmet, who threw his arms up and caught it. The force of the ball's momentum sent him flying backward to land on his ass, but he'd successfully caught the dodgeball, which was the way to inactivate it. All the copies slurped back into the single, original ball, now dormant.

Emmet kept a hold of it until all the static balls were dealt with, and the Warehouse finally settled. But it was an absolute mess.

Rios and the holos made their way back to the others, who were standing the middle of a flooded aisle covered in dripping purple goo.

Jean-Luc was shaking his head in consternation at Van Gogh's painting. At least the neutralizer didn't stain permanently.

"Everyone all right?" Emil asked.

The girls nodded.

The last hologram appeared, stepping carefully over the mess and tutting. "Look at this."

"Nice of you to show up after the day is saved," Emil snipped.

"Someone has to clean up after you," the holo rejoined.

And with that, he actually did start tidying up, being able to physically interact with objects now too.

Rios, however, was too tired to focus on that at the moment. He, Jean-Luc, and the twins headed back to the office.

Raffi's brows rose sharply at their appearances. "What the hell happened?"

"The static balls have all been collected," Picard replied. "For now."

"And the holos are somehow physical now," Dahj added.

"Excuse me?"

"Enoch made a wish with the coffee pot," Soji explained and went to the computer to check something.

"Are you saying they're real boys now?" Raffi exclaimed.

"No," Soji answered. "They're still computer programs tied to the Warehouse's holographic projectors. They can just…modulate their photons."

Well, one good thing, then, Rios thought. He didn't want a bunch of copies of himself running off into the world.

"We still need to address the issue so this doesn't happen again," Jean-Luc pointed out.

"I can fix it," Soji promised. "The change in their matrices opens up new workarounds."

Picard sighed. "Very well."

Rios set the Jade Elephant on the desk and headed for the door. "I need a shower."

The others also decided to head to the B&B to get cleaned up, leaving Raffi and Seven the only ones in the Warehouse. Aside from the holos, but they were off in the storage area doing who knew what. Seven was sitting up on the bed now, but she still looked wrung out.

"How are you feeling?" Raffi asked.

Seven let out a small snort. "I imagine this is what a hangover feels like."

Raffi quirked a brow. "What, you've never experienced one before?"

"No. As Caretaker, I have certain obligations to conduct myself by. Plus, my connection to the Warehouse provides me with a bit of…fortification, one might say."

"What about before you were Caretaker?"

Seven's expression turned almost reminiscent. "That was a very long time ago."

She didn't expand on that.

"Sounds lonely," Raffi commented.

Seven didn't respond to that either. But instead of disappearing like she usually did, she remained sitting where she was, the both of them contemplating the other in companionable silence.

Chapter Text

Soji polished off some purple neutralizer goo from a pocket-watch, then set the artifact back on its shelf. Dahj straightened a set of bookends. Then they both looked down that section of the aisle, finally all clean from the recent disaster. Most of the Warehouse had been restored, a monumental task that would have taken weeks to do without the help of the holos, who could lend a hand since they could now physically interact with objects. Soji had also successfully stabilized their matrices so that there shouldn't be any more negative interaction with the artifacts' energies. But she'd also implemented a failsafe just in case that would temporarily deactivate the holograms if a static buildup should start multiplying exponentially.

She and Dahj headed down another aisle, passing Ean up on a scaffold at the top of a shelving unit where he was fixing something or other. He'd been finding a lot of old structural things to patch up. Down an adjoining aisle was Steward, meticulously dusting the artifacts. Soji could hear him tutting about how filthy everything was. At least they were all inclined to help out. Except Emmet. While the rest of them had been cleaning, he was often found resting on top of a pallet or crate "asleep." What did asleep even mean for a photonic projected computer program?

"Are you worried the holos will put you out of a job?" Soji asked her sister.

Dahj smirked. "Nah. And I like having the company down here. It can feel pretty lonely in a place as big as this. Besides, they don't have the super spidey sense I do about artifacts."

They came across Enoch, who was strolling around and snuggling with the ferret the wishing coffee pot had spawned.

"Uh, what are we going to do with it?" Soji wondered aloud.

Enoch looked offended and hugged the animal closer. "What do you mean? I'm keeping him. His name is Mr. Quiggles."

Soji and Dahj shared surprised looks at that.

"I don't think the Warehouse is any place for a pet," Dahj pointed out.

"Why not? I'm going to take care of him."

Soji crossed her arms. "How do you plan to feed him? Stealing snacks from Picard's room isn't going to go unnoticed for long."

"I can order food and pet supplies online," Enoch countered. "I am directly connected to the computer and internet."

"And do you plan to have them delivered to the Warehouse?" Soji challenged. "Which is, you know, a secret location."

Enoch faltered at that, then sheepishly asked, "Will you bring the packages here if they're delivered to the B&B?"

Dahj smiled. "Sure. But I'm not paying for it."

"Understood."

Soji furrowed her brows. "You don't have any money… Have you asked Picard about keeping the ferret?"

Enoch gave her a sly, hedging look. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

Soji shook her head but said, "I won't tell."

Enoch beamed.

The girls let him be and headed up to the office for a break from the nonstop cleaning. They walked in just as Picard was telling Rios and Raffi to head to Milan.

"Milan?" Soji repeated. "For a case? Awesome."

"You're not going," Picard said.

"Wha- why not?" she exclaimed.

"Do you have a valid passport?"

She paused. "Well, no. But the Warehouse can make one, can't it? Or Seven can pull some strings?"

"International plane tickets are expensive," Picard added. "But if you'd like to be considered for the next one, you can get the paperwork for a passport started."

Soji shot a look at Raffi and Rios for backup.

Raffi shrugged. "Sorry, kiddo."

Of all the trips she had to miss out on, it had to be Italy.

Rios and Raffi arrived in Milan and headed to the morgue where they met up with the local inspector assigned the case of an elderly woman who'd died while disrupting a fashion show. Fortunately, sometimes the FBI worked cases overseas, which gave them legitimacy for inquiring about the death, though the inspector definitely seemed dubious about their interest.

"No identification," the man reported, checking his notes. "She has silicone breast implants, which is about the only thing notable about her. Witnesses say she shouted, 'They stole me,' in Russian when she grabbed one of the models on the runway."

"What about tracing the serial numbers on the implants?" Rios suggested. "That should get us a name."

The inspector nodded, impressed. "Good idea." He walked off to see to that, leaving Rios and Raffi to wait in the morgue and give the body and her personal effects their own look-over. There wasn't much to see, and the medical examiner's report said the woman had died of old age. There wasn't anything unusual in the bag of her clothing and possessions, either. But the Warehouse computer had pinged on this for a reason; they just needed to find it.

When the inspector returned, he looked flummoxed. "The implants trace back to an Anya Verdikov, a nineteen-year-old Russian model who was in Milan for the fashion show. She was reported missing two days ago." He frowned at the body on the slab. "How did a teenager's breast implants get into an old woman? What kind of body harvesting is that?"

"The sick kind," Raffi replied, sharing a look with Rios. They both knew this wasn't a case of transplanted breast implants; more likely, the woman on the slab was Anya Verdikov.

Unfortunately, the fashion show where she'd died had already packed up and left town, so with nothing else to see, the agents returned to the Warehouse.

"How was Milan?" Soji asked somewhat petulantly when they walked in.

"All we saw was the airport and the morgue," Raffi replied. "Which looked just like any other airport and morgue."

"While you were gone," Jean-Luc spoke up, "we found several other cases of models going missing in cities across the world that coincided with unidentified elderly women turning up dead."

"That definitely sounds hinky," Raffi commented.

"It's fashion week in Manhattan right now," Jean-Luc went on. "There's only three days left of it, so, two tickets to New York coming up."

"Wait, what about me?" Soji interjected. "It's in the continental U.S."

"No," Picard immediately shot down.

Soji gaped at him incredulously. "What? Why?!"

"There's still lots of cleanup to do down in storage."

"The holos can handle it. I'm an agent, not a janitor."

"Probationary agent," he corrected. "And agents follow orders."

Soji scowled and got up to storm off.

"Why are you being so hard on her?" Raffi asked.

"I'm not."

"Then what is it?"

"As senior agent, it's my prerogative to delegate assignments."

Rios leveled a no-bullshit look at him. "You're being overprotective. Which is a little silly, given Soji's accompanied us on dangerous cases before."

"Yes, but this time young women Soji's age are dying," Jean-Luc rejoined.

"So you are being overprotective Papa Bear," Raffi said.

Picard didn't deign to respond to that and turned back to his work. So Rios and Raffi headed out yet again, this time to New York.

In Manhattan, they went to speak with Anya's agent, Sutton Harris, at her office. She was the one who'd reported Anya missing in Milan. They entered the office and flashed their badges at the receptionist, who directed them to a back office. The door was partially open and they heard a young woman inside say she wasn't feeling well and another woman respond with she should go home and get some rest. A second later, a model exited, looking pale. Rios and Raffi let themselves in after her.

"Miss Harris?" Rios said. "Agents Rios and Musiker with the FBI. We're here about Anya Verdikov."

"Did you find her?" the woman urgently asked. "Wait, FBI?"

"We did find Anya," Raffi replied. "She's dead."

Miss Harris's expression slackened in shock. "What? How? Oh my god, was she murdered? Is that why the FBI is involved?"

"No obvious evidence of foul play," Raffi hedged. "But she was missing for two days, and we were hoping you could help us figure out where she'd been. Had she been acting strangely? Met anyone new?"

Miss Harris shook her head. "No, nothing like that. And Anya was avoiding people."

"Why?"

"She was coming down with the flu. It seems to be going around lately."

Rios's gut abruptly pinged at him. The model who'd just left…

He turned and darted out of the office, sprinting for the door to catch up with the young woman in the hall.

"Miss!" he called.

She turned toward him with a frown. "Yes?"

"I'm with the FBI," he said. "I need you to come with me."

She stiffened. "Why?"

"I think you might be in danger," he pressed.

She shook her head. "I- I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. I need to go home…"

She gasped and staggered, and Rios surged forward to catch her.

"Oh god, I'm burning," she exclaimed as she began to glow. Then she cried out and rapidly began to age right there in his arms.

Rios could only stare in shock, it happened so fast.

"Rios!" Raffi yelled, coming out of the office.

"Get an ambulance!" he yelled back.

She hastily fished out her phone as a crowd of women gathered against the glass doors of the office.

"It's nothing, girls," Miss Harris assured them. "Just some poor old woman who took a fall."

Rios looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms. Two minutes ago she'd been young and vibrant and now she was almost a hundred years old.

Rios stood off to the side with Raffi, briefing Jean-Luc on the Farnsworth as EMTs took the model away.

"The model's name is Isabella," Rios said. "They're keeping what happened to her quiet for now. I checked her clothing and jewelry before the paramedics arrived, no artifact. She must have been zapped by something."

"Something with a delayed effect," Raffi added. "Nothing looked out of the ordinary when we first arrived. Plus, what was it that Anya said in Milan? 'They stole me'? Sounds like someone is doing this intentionally."

"And since the victims are from different places and agencies, the fashion shows are the point in common," Picard agreed.

"We'll head there next," Raffi said.

Rios shook his head. "We're not gonna get far as FBI agents. I think we need someone to go in undercover."

"I am not sending Soji out there," Jean-Luc said defensively.

"I meant Raffi."

Her brows shot upward. "Excuse me? No. No, no, no."

Rios shot her a pointed smirk. "You had no problem dressing up as a Southern belle."

"That was different."

"Rios is right," Jean-Luc interjected. "But can you pull it off?"

"I know who can help us," Rios replied, looking back toward the modeling agency. He hung up with Picard and headed for the doors.

"I'm going to get you back for this," Raffi warned as she jogged to keep up.

"Miss Harris?"

The woman looked up from her desk. "Agents. Did you have more questions? I really don't know what more I can tell you."

"We believe we can find the person who's doing this at the fashion show, but we're going to need your help to get Agent Musiker on the inside as a model."

Miss Harris arched a brow at them. "Well, if it'll help protect my girls." She walked over and tilted her head at Raffi in consideration. "Let's see what we can make of you."

Chapter Text

Rios sat in the modeling agency's waiting room, bouncing his leg as he waited. The magazines on the coffee table were all fashion related; not exactly his cup of tea. Finally, Miss Harris came out from the back room she'd taken Raffi.

"Well, what do you think?" she said.

Rios stood up as Raffi walked out in a red dress that matched the exact shade of lipstick, and her curls had been set free and teased to fan out from the sides.

"Perfect," he said.

Raffi shot him a scowl as she fidgeted. "I don't know about this."

"Being a model is all about confidence," Miss Harris said. "If you don't project that, not even I can help you."

"Just pretend the fashion show is your high school reunion," Rios said. "And don't worry about the look; you got that down." He held up his fingers in the OK gesture.

Raffi rolled her eyes but tried to lift her chin and draw her shoulders back. "Alright, let's get this over with."

They headed over to the fashion show where Miss Harris introduced them to the top designer, Damien Jardin. The man looked frazzled as he barely glanced at Raffi.

"What? No! I'm not working with a new girl at this stage."

"She's an undiscovered treasure," Miss Harris pressed. "No one has seen her yet."

"And they won't here."

Miss Harris pursed her lips into a seductive moue. "Don't you want to be the one to bring her into the sun?"

Damien sighed heavily and glanced at Raffi again. "Fine, we'll take some photos."

Miss Harris grinned and leaned toward Raffi to whisper, "You're in now."

Raffi threw a grimaced look over her shoulder as she was led away for a photoshoot.

Rios took the opportunity to snoop around, keeping an eye on Raffi as he made his way around the backstage area.

"Who is that?" he heard one of the models say hostilely.

"Sutton's latest find for Damien," someone replied.

"Didn't we just get rid of the last latest find?"

"What did Anya ever do to you?"

The model ignored the question and stormed over to the designer. "Just remember, Damien, I burn brightest," she sniped. "No one's going to sell your rags like I do."

"Yes, yes," Damien said in response. "Relax, Romana, you'll get wrinkles."

Well, that sounded like motive to hurt Anya. Rios slipped out and went to find this Romana's dressing room. But a search didn't turn up anything that could be an artifact.

On his way out, he bumped into someone who appeared to be sneaking down the hallway—a young man with long black hair dressed all in black.

"You!" Rios exclaimed.

Elnor threw a punch, and Rios brought his arm up to block. The trained ninja then wrapped his elbow around Rios's and flung him across the hallway to slam into the wall. Rios used the move against him, keeping their arms locked and swinging with his left. Elnor ducked and disengaged.

"What artifact are you after now?" Rios asked.

"If you don't know, then my odds of retrieving it are better," the kid replied. Then he unsheathed his blasted sword and went invisible.

Rios scowled and whipped his gaze up and down the hall, trying to spot any minuscule sign of where Elnor had gone. There was nothing. He could have still been standing there for all Rios knew, so he drew his Tesla and fired a test shot. The squiggling energy didn't hit anything.

Frustrated, he pocketed the stun gun and returned to the backstage area. Raffi appeared to be done with her photoshoot.

"Hey," she said. "Find anything?"

"Yeah," he huffed. "Elnor's here."

Raffi's brows rose sharply. "What? Crap. We cannot let Soong get this artifact."

"We still don't know what it is."

"Hey, new girl!" Damien shouted across the room. "Let's go. This is your debut!"

Raffi groaned. "No way I'm walking out on that runway."

"You might have to," Rios said. "We know the girls are targeted sometime during or after the fashion show, and Elnor could be anywhere with that invisible sword, even out on the runway."

Raffi scowled. "Fine."

She strode off to get ready for the show, and Rios continued keeping his eyes and ears peeled.

When it was time for the show, he headed out into the audience and circled the perimeter, scanning everyone in sight, though the place was packed with spectators, fashion journalists, and photographers. The constant flashing of lights kept leaving spots in Rios's vision.

Raffi came out, wearing an elaborate gown with peacock feathers, her face done up in heavy makeup with emerald green and cerulean blue eyeshadow. Rios paused to watch as she sashayed down the runway with all the confidence of a smooth, undercover agent. She paused at the end, striking a pose, then turned and walked off. Two more models took their turns, but nothing happened.

Rios headed backstage again. "You were fantastic," he told Raffi.

She gave a self-conscious half smile at the compliment. "Okay, I admit, it was a little fun."

"I didn't see anything unusual, though," he said regretfully.

Raffi pursed her lips. "There was an elderly woman in the audience. I don't know if she was staring at all the models, but she was a little intense about it with me. And I couldn't be sure with all the lights, but she had a pair of ruby earrings that might have been glowing."

They both immediately went to the edge of the stage to scan the audience, but the woman was gone.

"Dammit," Raffi muttered.

"I'll get a copy of the guest list," Rios said. "See if we can get a name."

"Good. And I'm going to get out of this dress."

Rios headed off to the check-in table where assistants were cleaning up and showed them his badge. "FBI. I need a copy of today's guest list."

It took a few minutes for them to print one, and then he headed backstage again to wait for Raffi. He heard a crash behind one of the clothing racks and rushed over, only to pull up short in horror. Raffi was on the floor, glowing and rapidly aging.

"Raf!" He dropped down to pull her into his arms, but just like with Isabella, there was nothing he could do.

The glow faded and Raffi went limp, now a wizened old woman just like the others.

Rios sat in the hospital room, elbows on his thighs and chin on his knuckles, the monotonous beeping of the monitors the only sound. Raffi lay in the bed, pale and brittle and barely alive.

Rushing footsteps preceded Jean-Luc and Soji arriving.

"Oh my god," Soji breathed as she spotted Raffi.

"How is she?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Multiple organ failure," Rios replied. "From old age. And the model who was brought in earlier, Isabella, she died an hour ago." He looked back at Raffi's still form, heart twisting with guilt and grief. It'd been his idea to send her in undercover.

Jean-Luc picked up her chart from the foot of the bed and looked it over. "There's something odd in her bloodwork," he said. "Traces of…silver nitrate."

"Silver nitrate?" Rios repeated. "As in the development of film?"

Picard's brows rose with an epiphany. "Of course. I remember rumors of a camera that belonged to Man Ray, a photographer in the 1930s, but it was never found."

"I'll check the security footage at the fashion show for an antique camera," Soji quickly said and left the room.

Guess that cleared the woman with the ruby earrings. Rios leaned forward in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair.

Jean-Luc went around to the other side of the bed and picked up Raffi's lax hand. "I was so worried about protecting Soji," he started in a soft voice. "I don't want you to think I don't also worry about you. That I'm willing to put you in danger."

"It's…" Raffi wheezed.

Rios straightened abruptly and took her other hand.

"…the job," she finished.

"Raf…"

She shifted cloudy eyes to him. "Don't go…blaming yourself…now," she croaked. "I knew…the risks." Her eyelids started to droop, but she managed to pull them open and looked back at Jean-Luc. "Soji…knows too. And she…wants it." She squeezed Rios's hand. "She'll make…good partner."

"Don't you dare give up," Rios snapped.

Raffi nodded weakly, then slipped into unconsciousness again, her fingers going limp in Rios's hand. He squeezed harder as though that could physically drag her back to them.

Soji rushed back into the room. "I found him! Perry Liddell. He's a photographer at the show and has an antique camera. It's gotta be him. I have an address for his studio in the city."

Rios surged from his seat to head out, Soji and Jean-Luc keeping pace with him.

When the three of them arrived at Perry's studio, Rios barged inside, catching the photographer off guard where he was going over some photographs. And one of them was Raffi's, only aged as she was now.

Rios seized the man before he could react and shoved him into a nearby chair. "What did you do to those models?" he demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I'm a photographer!"

Rios snatched up Raffi's picture. "She didn't look like this two hours ago."

Another picture caught his eye, giving him pause. It was of a young woman with ruby earrings. He grabbed it too and held it up.

"This woman was at the fashion show, only she wasn't this young. You're transferring youth."

The man scoffed, but it sounded fake. "That's preposterous."

Rios stepped forward menacingly. "How are you doing it?"

Perry pressed his lips together and didn't answer.

"The last woman you stole youth from is a very dear friend of ours," Jean-Luc put in.

Perry flicked a nervous look at Rios and shifted. "Alright, I double-exposed a younger photograph over someone old," he confessed. "Women will pay a lot of money to be young and beautiful again."

"Why models?" Soji asked. "Why not just take pictures of anonymous people?"

"A model bares her soul to the camera, opens up to it. And Manny's camera captures that, reacts to it."

"You're going to tell us how to reverse it," Rios said threateningly.

"Yeah, okay…" Perry raised his hands and slowly reached into his jacket pocket for something.

Rios tensed and put his hand on his Tesla. But Perry only pulled out a cigarette lighter. Which he then lit and tossed into a pan of developer fluid, which ignited flames in a massive whoosh that caused the Warehouse agents to reel away from the blistering heat.

Rios grabbed a rag and slapped at the flames while Soji ran to get the fire extinguisher. Smoke and fire retardant particles filled the air, clogging their noses and throats. Rios spun back toward Perry, but the man had grabbed his camera and escaped in the chaos. Rios turned and kicked a stack of containers, sending them crashing across the floor.

"We'll find him," Soji said.

Rios took a breath and pulled out his Farnsworth to call Dahj back at the Warehouse.

"Hey, how's Raffi?" she answered.

"Not good. I need the holos to do what they did with Elnor in Salt Lake City, hack into every security camera in the area and check credit card charges. Everything on Perry Liddell, photographer." He scowled at the reminder that ninja boy was also out there. "And if they can manage it at the same time, Elnor's in town too."

"Wait, what?" Soji interjected.

"You failed to mention that," Jean-Luc said.

"I was busy with Raffi dying in my arms," Rios snipped back.

"I'll get the holosquad on it right away," Dahj promised and disconnected.

Rios turned in place and ran a hand through his hair.

"What happens if Perry won't tell us how to reverse it?" Soji asked. "Will we have to use the camera on someone else?"

"If he won't tell us, we can use it on him," Rios growled.

Jean-Luc looked thoughtful but didn't say anything.

When the Farnsworth chimed, Rios almost dropped it as he hastily answered.

"Perry Liddell took an Uber to 673 Wayland Drive."

"Thanks," Rios said as he hurried for the door.

The address wasn't far from the studio, and when they arrived, they heard raised voices, both of which were familiar to Rios.

"I have enough money we can go away," Perry was saying fervently.

"And I told you to stay away from me, you creep," Romana from the fashion show retorted. She slammed the door in Perry's face.

While he was still stunned by her rejection, Rios grabbed him and swung him around to slam against the wall.

"Now you're going to tell us how to reverse the youth transfer, or we're going to use the camera on you."

Perry's duffel bag was on the ground by Romana's door, but just as Soji made a move to grab it, the air right above it shimmered and Elnor became visible as he reached down to snatch the camera from the bag.

"No, wait!" Soji yelled. "We need it to save Raffi!"

Surprisingly, Elnor paused before disappearing again. "What do you mean?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"Perry used the camera on Raffi to steal her youth," Soji hastily explained. "She's dying of old age."

Elnor looked thoughtful. "How do you reverse it?"

"Perry was just about to tell us that," Rios said.

The guy smirked. "Sorry, but I think I'll keep my leverage."

Jean-Luc took a step toward Elnor and held out his hand. "May I?"

The kid considered him for a moment before handing the camera over. Picard then waved for Rios to step back as he raised the lens and snapped a shot of Perry.

"Going to double-expose my image over your friend's?" Perry asked.

"You called Man Ray 'Manny,'" he noted. "You've been using this camera to steal youth for a long time, haven't you? For yourself before you ever started peddling it."

"I modeled for him," Perry admitted. "He gave me that camera."

"Well, you've been young long enough. Let's get back to the hospital before it's too late."

Perry's expression hardened and he lunged for Jean-Luc. But Elnor swiftly stepped in and slammed the hilt of his sword at the base of the photographer's neck, knocking him unconscious in one fell swoop.

Jean-Luc arched a brow at the kid, then nodded his thanks, and they all turned to head for the car, including Elnor. Rios was tense about him coming along, but he was willing to help them save Raffi.

Jean-Luc used the camera to take her picture as she lay in the hospital bed, double-exposing the image with the one he'd just taken of Perry. In a matter of moments, Raffi morphed back into her proper age and vitality.

She opened her eyes and blinked hazily at them for a few moments, then sat up and looked at her arms, then touched her face and hair. "Oh thank god." Her brows quirked as she spotted Elnor standing in the back.

"Now we're even," he told her and turned around to leave. He didn't even try to fight them for the camera.

Rios exchanged a bewildered look with the others, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was just glad to have his partner back.

Raffi puttered around her room at the B&B. Even though she was fully restored, she was taking it easy after her ordeal in New York. Perry Liddell had been reported missing at the same time that an unidentified, completely withered up corpse had been found. Local PD wasn't making any connections, though.

Raffi paused to consider herself in the mirror. She'd seen a photograph of herself on the runway and had to admit she'd looked pretty good. Nothing like herself, but pretty damn good. Not that she wanted the life of a model. Too much drama.

Someone rapped on her open door, and she turned to find Seven standing there.

"Hey."

"I just wanted to check on you," Seven said. "After what you went through."

"I'm fine," Raffi quickly assured her. She paused for a beat, summoning up some of that bravado from the runway. "Would you like to get some coffee?" she asked before she could think too hard about it.

Seven appeared to think about it for a moment, then canted her head in acceptance. "Yes, I would."

Chapter Text

Soji scooped a spoonful of cookie dough out of the mixing bowl and popped it in her mouth.

"Stop that," Dahj chided, threatening to thwack her with the spatula. Soji just grinned.

Raffi poked her head in. "Are those chocolate chip cookies I smell?"

"Yes. The first batch is almost done."

Raffi took a seat on the stool next to Soji.

Picard walked in just as Dahj was pulling the tray out of the oven. "You have a case in Detroit, Michigan," he informed them.

"Why are you always interrupting us when there's food?" Raffi groused.

"Why are you always eating?" he rejoined.

"Watch it," she warned.

"I'll pack some in a travel container," Dahj quickly said in appeasement.

"Thank you," Raffi told her, then swiveled in her seat to face Picard. "What's the case?"

"Flocks of birds attacking people," Picard replied. "But the attacks seem to have targeted specific individuals rather than everyone in the area where they happened."

"May I accompany Raffi and Rios on this case?" Soji asked primly, still annoyed over being excluded from the last one until Raffi was dying.

Picard gave her a dry look, and she tried to hide a grimace as she realized pushing the petulant limits with him probably was going to hurt her more than make her case. But he inclined his head in permission. "Yes."

A breath of relief left her in a rush, and she hopped off the stool to run upstairs for her go-bag before he could change his mind. Then she met Raffi and Rios at the car and they headed out, Dahj's freshly baked cookies filling the cabin with their homey aroma the moment Raffi popped the lid open.

In Detroit, they went to the first victim's house to speak with him. Roland Johnson, age 55, was covered in bandages on his face, neck, and hands. A large patch of gauze covered one eye.

"Doctors say I may have lost my vision," he said as they entered his living room to take a seat. "Damn birds scratched up my cornea."

"Can you describe what happened?" Raffi asked.

"I was just coming out of a business meeting. I was walking to my car, and then out of the blue, a bunch of crazy birds just started dive-bombing me. I barely made it inside my vehicle, and they still kept slamming into the windows."

"Do you know what kind of birds they were?" Rios asked next.

Johnson shrugged. "A mixture, I guess. Some big, some small. Definitely some crows." He snorted derisively. "I had a so-called bird expert tell me they were just defending a nest, but that's ridiculous. And I don't know why the FBI is looking into it, but I'm glad it's being taken seriously. If wildlife are going to encroach on urban living spaces, they need to be dealt with."

Soji had to fight to keep her expression schooled. They were talking about birds here, not coyotes. Though, his injuries were quite severe.

"Have you come into possession of anything old recently?" Raffi asked. "A vintage piece or antique?"

Johnson furrowed his brow. "What does that have to do with this?"

"We're considering several possible explanations," she replied. "Something might have triggered the birds by smell or sound."

"Well, no, I haven't."

"Okay. Thank you for your time."

They visited the next three victims and got the same story, and none of them had acquired a new possession recently that could have been an artifact.

"So, we still thinking these aren't random attacks?" Soji said after the final interview.

"Does seem that way," Rios answered. "So, what do we do next?"

Soji faltered for a second, until she realized he was asking to test her. "Look at victimology? They were targeted for a reason."

Rios nodded and pulled out his Farnsworth to call the Warehouse main connection. Now that they had the holograms to use as resources, Soji had set up their own incoming call line.

"What is the nature of your inquiry?" Emil answered.

"We need information on the four victims of the bird attacks in Detroit," Rios said a tad curtly. He was still a little tense around his copies.

"Please hold," Emil replied, canting his head. His eyes began flickering with blue and white light as he accessed various databases. "Roland Johnson, urban developer. Victim number two is a contractor, and the third and fourth are on the City Council zoning commission. Ahh," he went on. "The contractor recently signed on with Johnson for a project that is forcing a local aviary to shut down. Those two City Council members were strongly in favor of the development."

"An aviary?" Raffi repeated. "Well, if it quacks like a duck."

"Name and address," Rios prompted.

Emil gave it to them, and they went to check the place out next.

It was a quaint little park with a few cabins and one large, dome aviary. The agents headed into the administration building, which was in the process of packing everything into boxes. Rios and Raffi showed their badges to the office manager, who fetched the aviary's director from a back room.

"I'm Arnold Stanfield," the man introduced, shaking each of their hands. "What can I do for the FBI?"

"We're investigating a case that may have a tangential connection to the aviary," Rios replied vaguely.

Mr. Stanfield blinked in surprise. "What kind of case?"

"We can't discuss that. But we understand the aviary is being shut down?"

The director sighed and gestured for them to accompany him outside. "We're a small conversation society," he explained. "Relying on donations to stay open. It's been difficult in the current economy and we've had to make cuts." He nodded to some of the obvious overgrowth and disrepair around the buildings. "It's unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do. The City Council ruled in favor of the developer."

"What will happen to all the birds?" Soji asked.

"They will be relocated to other aviaries and zoos in the country. Others native to the area might simply be released."

"Are any of your employees particularly upset about it?" Raffi asked.

Mr. Stanfield hesitated, then nodded. "Lindsey Holcomb, our head ornithologist. She's around here somewhere, but if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting I must get to."

The agents took that as permission to wander around. They asked some of the workers where to find Ms. Holcomb, but none of them had seen her. Someone suggested they check the aviary; she worked a lot in there. But just as they were about to go look inside the dome, screaming erupted from the front of the grounds. The three of them bolted into a run, rounding the front of the administration building and skidding to a stop at the edge of the parking lot. Mr. Stanfield was on the asphalt, being attacked by at least a dozen birds.

Soji didn't know what to do, but Rios and Raffi drew their Teslas and started shooting the birds, stunning them to the ground. Unfortunately, they hit Mr. Stanfield as well, knocking him unconscious. But at least they succeeded in stunning all the birds so they weren't trying to peck his eyes out anymore.

Raffi ran toward the director while Rios kept a guarded eye out for more attack birds, and Soji used her cell to call for an ambulance. A crowd of aviary employees were also gathering and exchanging hushed gasps at the sight.

Soji scanned the birds on the ground. They were all different kinds, from finches to pigeons to crows. Definitely not the types to band together and attack a human being.

She turned her gaze to the crowd. They'd suspected someone from the aviary was targeting those who wanted to tear it down, but then why go after one of their own?

Dahj pushed the front door open with her foot, carefully balancing the boxes in her arms. She poked her head in to see if Picard was in the office. He wasn't in sight, but she could hear him in the back and smell brewing tea, so she hastened across the room and down the stairs into the large storage area with her haul. She wasn't going to lie to Picard if he directly asked her what she was doing, but she'd prefer not be the one to tell him it was a bunch of pet supplies Enoch had ordered through the internet without anyone's permission…

Speaking of said hologram, she found him and Ean standing at the base of what appeared to be a massive maze of clear and white PVC pipes and conduits branching off down various aisles in the Warehouse.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Dahj asked nervously. "What have you done?" she amended as she saw how vast the network was.

Enoch and Ean both beamed at her proudly.

"It's for Mr. Quiggles," Enoch said. "So he doesn't have to be cooped up in a cage all the time."

Dahj's brows shot upward. "You…" They'd turned the Warehouse into a ferret's playground.

"Ach, dinnae worry," Ean told her. "He cannae get into the artifacts."

A flash of movement drew Dahj's gaze up to where the ferret came sliding down one of the long tubes and out into the base. Enoch opened the door, and Mr. Quiggles bounded into his arms, chittering away happily.

Dahj just shook her head with a sigh and handed the pet supplies to Ean. "You'd better tell Picard sooner rather than later, before he finds this and has a conniption."

Which she was not going to stick around for, so she turned on her heel and beat a hasty retreat deep into the Warehouse to find some work to hide in.

Mr. Stanfield was taken to the hospital, and the Warehouse agents finally caught sight of Lindsey Holcomb, who had come out to take charge of dealing with the stunned birds.

"Be careful with it!" she snapped at one of the handlers picking a twitching crow up from the ground. "Get more towels!" she yelled at another.

"What if they wake up?" someone asked.

"You've dealt with birds how many years now?" was Lindsey's sharp retort.

"They attacked Mr. Stanfield!"

"Then go prep the medical center!"

"Lindsey Holcomb?" Raffi interrupted. "FBI. We'd like to ask you some questions."

"I'm busy right now," the woman said tersely, obviously upset about the birds.

Soji was briefly distracted by a strong whiff of bacon and looked around to see if anyone was eating some, but no one was.

"You're more concerned about the birds than your boss?" Rios asked.

Lindsey shot him a dark glower. "Look, I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you some birds are more intelligent than people give them credit for. Crows, for instance, are known to hold grudges." Her face pinched as she looked at the black birds still lying on the ground. "Excuse me, I have emergency work to do." She stormed off.

"Definitely more of an animal person than people person," Raffi muttered.

Rios's Farnsworth chirped and he pulled it out to answer.

"I have identified the artifact," Emil's voice sounded from the speaker.

Soji and Raffi pressed close on either side of Rios to see the screen.

"It is the Angry Birdcage. Apt and succinct description."

"No kidding," Raffi said. "But it can't be random."

"No, the artifact is activated by being held. Also, whoever uses it will smell of bacon afterwards. Curious correlation."

Soji straightened. "Did you guys smell bacon on Lindsey?"

Raffi and Rios shared a look.

"The other victims make sense," Rios replied. "But why would she attack her boss?"

"Ah, well, I found an interesting twist on the development deal," Emil interjected. "Director Stanfield did not do his due diligence in fighting to keep the aviary open, and he received a substantial deposit in his bank account from a shell company owned by Roland Johnson."

"He sold them out," Raffi summarized.

"There's our last motive," Soji said. "Thanks, Emil!" she added before Rios hung up without thanking the holo.

They hurried off to find Lindsey, but she wasn't in the medical center helping to treat the birds she was so concerned about. They checked her office, but there was no vintage birdcage there either.

"It's not like these attacks have reversed the development deal," Soji commented. "In fact, the publicity is only going to hurt her cause of protecting the birds."

"She's not thinking rationally," Rios replied as they headed for the aviary next.

It was a beautiful structure, with tons of flora and trees and the sounds of birds all throughout. Soji couldn't imagine tearing it down.

"Lindsey?" Raffi called. "It's Agents Muskier and Rios. We'd like to speak with you again."

She stepped out from behind some broad foliage, expression like granite.

"Where's the birdcage?" Rios asked.

"Those people deserved what happened to them," Lindsey said. "Valuing profit over hundreds of animals' lives."

"How is this helping the birds?" Raffi challenged. "People are going to be afraid of them."

"Maybe they should be," she rejoined. "People should respect them more."

"Lindsey, give us the birdcage," Rios pressed.

Her eyes flashed darkly and she bent down to pick up something from behind the large shrubbery. It was an old, wrought-iron birdcage. "You hurt those birds," she said coldly.

Soji stiffened as the feathered inhabitants of the aviary began to squawk and screech, taking to the air in a rustle of agitated wings. Then they dove for the Warehouse agents.

The three of them drew their Teslas, but the birds attacked in earnest, clawing and pecking at their hands until they dropped their stun guns. Then the birds descended on their heads, forcing them to duck and cower as sharp talons and beaks shredded their exposed flesh and ripped through their clothing.

Soji stumbled toward a nearby bush and frantically yanked off a branch with a large set of foliage. Spinning around, she swung the branch like a bat, striking several birds.

Lindsey screamed in rage, and the birds swarmed up to come back down again. Soji arched her arm back and met them with all her might. A couple birds plowed through the leaves and collided with her body, while several more got knocked to the ground where they squawked and flailed.

Rios surged to his feet and charged through the feathered melee, tackling Lindsey to the ground. The birdcage went rolling. Raffi lunged for it, but the birds kept bombarding her, getting tangled in her tight curls and thwacking their wings against her head. Soji ran after her and tried to bat them away. She then stood over Raffi to fend off the birds as Raf got her purple gloves on and picked up the artifact. Once she had it, she bolted for the exit.

Soji tried to cover her, but the birds were swarming Rios now, who had Lindsey pinned on the ground and was trying to handcuff her. Soji sprinted over and continued fighting off the birds, grimacing apologies in her head. It wasn't the birds' fault they were being driven mad by an artifact.

Rios got Lindsey handcuffed and then dove to snatch up a Tesla. But before he needed to fire at the crazed birds, they abruptly stopped attacking and went back to their treetop perches.

Soji and Rios stood suspended for a long moment, waiting to see if they'd attack again. But they didn't.

Raffi came back in, having grabbed a large purple cloth from the trunk of their SUV to cover the birdcage, thereby neutralizing it. "You guys okay?" she asked urgently.

They looked each other over; all three of them were covered in dozens of small lacerations, but no one had lost an eye, thank goodness.

Raffi stowed the birdcage away and Rios called the local cops. Lindsey was arrested under charges of chemically dosing the birds to make them agitated enough to attack people.

"What about the aviary?" Soji asked as she, Rios, and Raffi sat around getting their myriad cuts cleaned up by EMTs.

"I forwarded the information on Johnson's payoffs to the local DA," Raffi said. "Whether it changes things…" She shrugged one shoulder.

Soji knew their part in the case was over, but she hoped it worked out for the birds in the end.

They returned to the Warehouse, looking like they'd all tangled with a coil of barbed wire.

Dahj grimaced as she met them at the door. "You okay?"

"It stings a bit," Soji admitted. "But hey, comes with the job, right?"

Raffi handed Dahj the covered birdcage so she could find a place for it in storage, and they all headed into the office, only to pull up short in surprise at the sight of all five holos and Picard gathered. Dahj set the birdcage aside and went to stand next to Enoch and Emil, a beaming grin on her face.

"What's all this?" Soji asked.

"This is an occasion," Picard replied. "Congratulations, Soji, you are no longer a probationary agent."

Her jaw went slack in shock. "What? Really?"

He nodded. "You earned it."

The holos cheered and applauded then.

Picard sighed. "They insisted on throwing you a party."

Soji grinned as Steward and Ean stepped aside to reveal a table set with a party spread. There wasn't a ton of food, but then, the holograms couldn't eat.

"Maybe I should make another wish," Enoch mused as he curiously considered a mini carrot.

"Don't even think about it," Picard warned sharply.

And just then, a clear plastic ball went rolling across the floor, propelled by the ferret inside, and bumped into Picard's foot. Everyone fell silent as the old man stared down at it.

"What is that doing here?" he asked sternly.

Enoch darted in to snatch up the ball. "I've, ah, been keeping the ferret in the Warehouse," he confessed. "He is, after all, my responsibility since it was my wish that conjured him."

Picard's lips moved soundlessly for a moment before he erupted into a tirade of all the irresponsible, juvenile actions—

"Let him keep it," Soji interjected beseechingly. "It hasn't done any harm yet."

"And he's been taking very good care of it," Dahj added.

"You two knew about this?"

Soji grimaced. "Gonna demote me to probationary again?"

Picard stared her down with an austere mien.

"Let him keep it, JL," Raffi spoke up.

Picard shot her an incredulous look, and the rest of them turned to Rios to see which way he'd vote.

He shook his head and shrugged. "Why not?"

"This is not a democracy," Picard rejoined.

Raffi uncapped the plastic ball and let the ferret crawl out onto her arm. "Sorry, JL, you're overruled. And this guy is the cutest. What's his name?"

"Mr. Quiggles," Enoch said proudly.

Raffi arched a brow at that, then chuckled.

Rios rolled his eyes, looking disinterested in the whole topic.

But everyone was happy, and Soji felt like this motley mix was family.

Chapter Text

Raffi was sitting at the secondary computer in the Warehouse office, checking her email, when someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned and found Seven had popped in. Without making a sound, as usual.

"Are you ever going to tell me how you do that?" Raffi asked as she stood.

The corner of Seven's mouth ticked upward, but she quickly schooled her expression as Jean-Luc came out from the back room. "I'm here on business."

"Okay." Raffi walked out onto the landing and called down to Rios and Soji where he was running their newest agent through some hand-to-hand lessons.

Once they were all gathered up in the office, Seven held up a file she was holding.

"The remains of a Warehouse agent were just uncovered in St. Louis, Missouri. Jack Secord was recruited in 1955 and was last seen in Minneapolis in 1968." Seven pulled some photos from the file and handed them out. "His remains were discovered in the basement of a police station after a gas leak caused an explosion."

Raffi looked at the photos of a desiccated corpse manacled to a pipe. "Was he murdered?"

"Undetermined. But evidence suggests the chamber he was in was sealed from the inside. There's more. Mere hours after the explosion, a group of gang members were all killed on the street. Cause of death is listed as electrocution."

"You think an artifact is in play," Rios said.

Seven nodded. "I don't believe it's coincidence that a Warehouse agent is unearthed and shortly thereafter mysterious deaths occur." She closed the file and handed it to Raffi. "Find this artifact, and what happened to Agent Secord, if you can."

So with that, the three Warehouse agents headed to St. Louis and the police station that had suffered the explosion. Only part of the building had been damaged, so the rest of the station was still in operation.

"Captain Powell?" Raffi queried, showing her credentials. "FBI. We spoke on the phone."

Captain Powell gave them a less than welcoming glare. "As I told you, there's no federal case here. The gas leak was an accident, and the station was built over the existing site in 1970, after the victim was already down there. So there's no misconduct in this department, and we can handle the investigation on our own."

"Jack Secord was a government agent," Rios responded. "And we're not here to take the case away from you, but we are going to look into it."

"And what can you tell us about the recent gang deaths?" Raffi added.

"Those aren't even related," Powell scowled.

"They died under unusual circumstances, didn't they?"

Powell just shook his head in aggravation and gestured sharply for them to follow him two buildings over to the morgue.

"They died of electrocution," the captain said, hanging back as the agents went to examine the bodies.

"In the middle of the street?" Raffi replied. "But there were no reports of any live wires in the area."

Powell shrugged. "God's judgement maybe," he said. "These weren't exactly upstanding citizens. And I thought you wanted to investigate the death of your government agent."

"We've seen the report on Agent Secord's remains," Rios answered. "And there are still questions."

Powell snorted.

"No evidence of fire," Raffi remarked as she looked over the bodies. "Hey, what's this?"

Rios and Soji came over to get a closer look. There was an unburned hand print on one of the victims, the edges around it lightly charred. Raffi arched a brow at her fellow agents; this might have been deliberate.

"Is everyone from the station at the time of the explosion and after accounted for?" Rios asked.

Powell's posture straightened defensively. "Two of my men are in the hospital, one still in critical condition. And what does that have to do with anything?"

Soji pulled out her tablet, and Raffi watched her access the police station's Cloud.

"One of these guys was in the station at the time of the explosion," she announced. "Reggie was brought in for questioning in regards to a gang shooting."

"So?" Powell said. "Gang bangers are in and out of custody all the time."

"There's no record of him being released or booked," Soji went on. "Maybe he bolted during the emergency evacuation."

"Again, so?"

"Who was the arresting officer?" Rios asked.

"Sergeant Clark," Soji replied.

"We'd like to speak with him," Rios told Powell.

"Clark is out on leave. The explosion really rattled him."

The agents exchanged looks at that. Before they could insist on speaking with the Sergeant, Powell's phone rang.

"Yeah?" He listened for a few moments. "I'll be right there." He hung up and turned to the agents. "There's been another death by electrocution."

While Powell clearly wasn't happy to have them tag along, he didn't prevent them from following him to the crime scene. A body was lying on the street corner, and from what Raffi could see, there were no scorch marks on his skin or clothes—other than the outline of a handprint on his arm.

"Who's the victim?" Rios asked.

"Eric Sanders, known drug dealer," Powell replied.

Well, that gave their victims something in common.

Raffi spotted a young guy lurking by some dumpsters in a nearby alley. "Rios," she said quietly.

He flicked his gaze the direction she was looking then quickly away again. "Got it," he said and walked away.

"Got what?" Soji asked in confusion.

"Someone to talk to," Raffi replied and headed across the street. Soji jogged after her.

As the two got closer, the kid turned and shuffled down the alleyway.

"Hey!" Raffi called. "We just want to ask you some questions."

He bolted into a run, but Rios stepped into his path on the other side, blocking his escape.

"Leave me alone! I don't know anything!"

"But did you see something?" Raffi asked. "No matter how crazy it might sound."

The kid shook his head staunchly. "No, no, nothing. Let me go."

"Hey," Rios said, showing him his badge. "This is important."

The kid, whom Raffi could now see was probably a junkie, squinted at the FBI creds. "They'll kill me too," he hissed.

"Who will?" Soji asked.

"The cops! It was a cop who did Eric like that. Walked right up to him and- and- I don't know. Tasered him or something, and then he was dead."

"Did you recognize the cop?" Raffi asked.

The kid shook his head. "They're all the same."

"Well, no," Raffi replied. "One might be on a killing spree."

With a huff, she waved for the kid to get lost, and the agents returned to the street.

"Where'd you get to?" Powell asked suspiciously.

"Found a witness," Raffi answered. "He said a cop did it."

Powell scoffed. "Yeah, right."

"We need Sergeant Clark's home address to go speak with him," Rios said.

"You can't be serious."

"Look, we need to speak with him either way," Raffi interjected.

Powell glowered at them but nevertheless provided Clark's address.

"You think a cop has turned vigilante with an artifact?" Soji asked on the drive there.

"Might be solely under the artifact's influence," Raffi replied. "We've seen that enough times before."

"What about Agent Secord?"

"Murderous artifact first," Rios replied. "Unsolved cold case after."

They arrived at Clark's apartment complex and went up to the third floor, slowing their pace as they approached the door, which was wreathed in crackling electricity. Looked like they had the right person.

Drawing their Teslas, Raffi and Rios shared a silent look to count down, then Rios kicked the door in and they burst inside. The immediate living room was empty, but spritzing energy drew their attention to the window, which Clark was in the process of climbing out of. A large, mechanical, lobster-like thing was attached to his back.

"What the…" Raffi uttered.

Before they could yell at him to stop, he leaped. Raffi ran to the window and peered down. Three stories below, Clark had apparently landed on his feet without injury and was now running down the street.

"Shit," Raffi exclaimed and pivoted to head back the way they'd come.

Once outside, the agents gave chase in the direction Clark had gone, though catching him with such a head start was highly unlikely. They scoured the streets anyway, branching off but staying within eye sight of each other.

"Over here!" Rios shouted.

Raffi and Soji jogged over to the mouth of the alleyway he'd just gone down. There they found Clark, sprawled on the ground. Rios bent down and checked his pulse, then shook his head. The device on his back was gone.

"What the hell," Raffi muttered.

Rios straightened and searched under some debris and garbage in the alley, but there was no sign of the device.

"It didn't just get up and walk away," Soji said. "Did it?"

Raffi shared an uncertain look with Rios. They needed to contact the Warehouse. But first, they needed to call this in.

Reporting that one of Captain Powell's men was dead shortly after the FBI agents had insisted on questioning him at his home didn't exactly go over well, though Powell took it as confirmation his sergeant wasn't responsible for the other deaths.

As the cops dealt with the crime scene, Raffi, Rios, and Soji found a spot out of eavesdropping range and called the Warehouse to explain what they'd found—and lost.

"Clark had some kind of device fused to his back," Raffi said, trying to describe it.

"Pulling up the autopsy report for Agent Secord," Emil said, eyes flickering briefly. "There were marks up and down his spine at the T2, T4, T7, and T9 vertebrae."

"So this thing was sealed in the chamber with him, and someone took it when it was unsealed," Raffi concluded.

"There's nothing in the Warehouse database that matches the description you gave, though."

"I have some old books I can check," Jean-Luc put in.

Emil turned the Farnsworth to Emmet, who was lounging in the chair by the chess table. "Tell them what you found," Emil said pointedly.

Emmet lazily said something long in Spanish, which Raffi did not understand at all.

"There were unexplained deaths beginning in 1968 after a museum display of 11th century pieces debuted," Rios translated. "Secord was probably investigating them."

"Is the museum still open?" Raffi asked.

"No." That word, Raffi understood, but then Emmet went off again with Spanish Spanish something.

"It closed down several years ago," Rios relayed. "Everything is now in storage."

Raffi pointed to Soji. "Head down there and see if you can dig up anything on those display pieces."

Soji nodded, then hesitated as she caught sight of Powell storming toward them.

"Go," Raffi said, then added in a mutter, "We'll deal with this."

Powell, of course, was not happy with the "matters of national security" line the Warehouse agents gave him. But it wasn't like they could tell him the truth. Sergeant Clark had found an artifact in the unsealed chamber beneath the station and then gone on a vigilante killing spree. Rios wondered if the artifact had tapped into something Clark was already thinking, that he'd gotten tired of watching criminals get released back onto the streets, or if it had hijacked his normal impulse control.

That solved those murders, at least, but there was still the death of Agent Secord, and since they had no idea where the artifact could have gotten to, Rios and Raffi headed back to the police station to check out that underground chamber.

The basement had a lot of scorch marks but was structurally intact. The agents passed several generators that had been brought in and connected to the fuse boxes. The chamber, likewise, hadn't suffered much damage in the explosion, only the door that had been blown off. Rios and Raffi looked around the room, though there wasn't much down there.

Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth and called the Warehouse again. "Emil, can you tell us any more about the forensics on Secord's remains? Such as cause of death?"

"The condition of the body prevents any definitive cause of death."

"But even bones should have some evidence of trauma," Rios argued.

"Which there is none of," Emil replied.

"So, what?" Raffi postulated. "Secord was sealed up and left down here to die?"

"That is my best guess."

"And yet he had the artifact on him at some point," she mused.

"Remember what Seven said," Rios put in. "The chamber appeared to have been sealed from the inside."

"So, the artifact made him commit a long, drawn-out suicide?" Raffi said dubiously. "There are easier ways."

Rios shrugged. He had no idea why. And until they identified the artifact, they wouldn't be solving this mystery.

Chapter Text

No sooner had Raffi hung up with Emil that Jean-Luc was calling Rios's Farnsworth.

"I found a picture," he said, holding up an old book with splayed pages for them to see. "Is this it?"

"Yes!" Raffi exclaimed. "That's it exactly. What the hell is it?"

"I haven't been able to decipher the language yet," Jean-Luc replied regretfully. "But it's very old."

"Really? Looked kinda techy to me."

"Soji's at the museum's storage," Rios interjected. "Maybe she found something that could help."

Picard nodded and tapped a few buttons, conferencing Soji into their connection.

"We're looking for this," Rios said as Jean-Luc held up the book again for her to see the picture.

"I haven't found anything referencing that," she replied. "But there's still a lot to go through. I did, however, find notes on a container that was with the other artifacts. The archeologists didn't know what it was or how to open it. But someone figured it out, because I found pictures of the container, open, but there are no more notes about what was inside.

"May I see?" Jean-Luc asked, and Soji tilted her Farnsworth to give them all a look. "That's the same language in this book," he declared. "Soji, did the archeologists have any notes on translation?"

"Uh…yeah, right here."

"Send me everything."

Soji pulled out her cell and started taking pictures. "There's also a manuscript here with 'Hand of God' translated on the plastic cover and an image of a guy getting struck by lightning. Might be related, might not."

Raffi shrugged. "Lightning is a form of electricity."

"Alright, I can decipher some of this from these notes," Jean-Luc said. "The artifact is the Spine of the Saracen. It was used to enhance Saracen warriors during the Crusades. There's something here about…it 'requires a lifetime commitment.'" He shook his head. "I need more time to translate the rest."

"We'll go back to Clark's apartment, then," Rios replied. "Maybe the artifact somehow ended up back there, if there's a 'lifetime' connection or whatever."

Picard nodded absently and signed off.

"Should I keep going through these archives?" Soji asked.

"Yeah, at least until we have another lead," Raffi answered.

They finally hung up and Rios and Raffi returned to Clark's apartment. They'd been worried about having to deal with Powell or any of his investigators in the cop's home, but it turned out they had an entirely different person to be on guard about.

"Elnor!" Raffi exclaimed as they walked in to find the ninja kid searching the place.

Elnor went rigid, but he didn't go for his artifact sword, and neither agent pulled their Tesla—yet.

Raffi scowled. "Of course Soong would be interested in an artifact like this."

"Superhuman abilities can have multiple applications in medicine," Elnor replied.

"Superhuman abilities?" Raffi repeated. "How does Soong even know about this thing?"

"He has his resources."

"And how many people will he kill experimenting on them with this thing?" Raffi retorted.

Elnor sighed. "Can we just agree that the first one to find the artifact gets it this time? My employer's patience with me is wearing thin."

Raffi blinked. "Uh, hell no."

Rios was watching Elnor carefully for any muscle twitch to signal he'd go for his sword, and his fingers were ever so slowly inching toward his Tesla.

But then the tense standoff was interrupted by a gunshot outside. Elnor spun and bolted for the same window Clark had escaped out of. Rios and Raffi sprinted out into the hall and down the stairs. They barreled outside just as Elnor was finishing scaling down the fire escape, and a woman came running and screaming out of the next complex.

"I shot him!" she shrieked. "Oh my god, I shot him!"

Rios pulled his badge and flashed it at her. "Shot who?"

"Rios!" Raffi shouted, drawing her Tesla.

He turned as a man stumbled out of the building, bleeding from a hole in his chest and radiating electricity. His cheeks were puce and eyes filled with rage as he zeroed in on the woman.

Rios whipped out his Tesla and both he and Raffi fired, but their stun guns had no effect.

The man's face twisted as he stumbled toward them. "Help- me," he gritted out and then collapsed to the ground, the electric squiggles vanishing and vacant eyes staring up at the sky.

"Oh god, oh god," the woman wailed. "It was self-defense, I swear! He's my ex-husband."

Rios waved a hand at her to calm down. Raffi and Elnor went for the body at the same time, and then Raf was whipping her Tesla up again to aim at the kid, while he drew his sword with lightning reflexes.

"What the hell," the woman exclaimed.

"Go back inside," Rios barked at her, bringing his Tesla up as well.

"Walk away, kid," Raffi warned. "Artifacts are dangerous and can't be left out in the world."

"Many things in the world are dangerous," he replied.

Elnor then lunged without warning, swiping the flat side of his blade under Raffi's knees and knocking her to the ground. He ducked down and kicked her Tesla out of her hand as Rios fired his, but the shot went over the kid's head. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a throwing star to collide with Rios's weapon, the shock of the force making him drop it. Elnor then pivoted toward the dead body and rolled it over—but the Spine was gone.

"Not again," Raffi groused, getting to her feet and snatching up her Tesla.

Elnor furrowed his brows in confusion. "Where did it go?"

Rios spotted something moving low in the nearby bushes, and on instinct, he jumped forward to push Raffi and Elnor out of the way. A metallic glint leaped from the foliage, and then a heavy weight slammed into Rios's back, followed by sharp piercing up and down his spine. He screamed as electricity bolted through him, filling him with a sense of indescribable strength.

And fury.

"Rios!" Raffi dove for him in an effort to help, and Elnor darted in to grab the Spine and try to rip it off.

Electric energy erupted from the device, knocking them both unconscious. Rios wrenched himself away before it could kill them. He staggered under the onslaught of firing impulses. He was burning and sizzling…and he felt the surging urge to hurt something. It was an intensity he'd never felt before, didn't know he was capable of feeling. His muscles were twitching and convulsing with the need to vent some of his rage. Who should he go after, though?

Rios gave himself an abrupt shake. No. No, he wasn't going to do that.

And so he ran off before he could lose control and hurt anyone.

Raffi groaned as she regained consciousness, every inch of her body sore and tingly from getting electrocuted. At least, she was pretty sure that's what happened. She heard a soft moan off to the side and spotted Elnor also getting up. Rios was gone.

Raffi's heart dropped into her stomach as she pulled out her Farnsworth. Fortunately, the electric shock hadn't fried the thing, and she was able to get a call in to the Warehouse.

"I haven't finished my translation yet," JL answered impatiently.

"The Spine attached itself to Rios," she snapped.

"What?"

"It looks like after the person who's wearing it dies, it actively seeks out someone else to attach to."

"What's it doing to him?" Jean-Luc asked urgently.

"I don't know; he's gone. We tried to get it off and got electrocuted. But…JL, right before that, the look on his face. Tell me you have something."

"The device amplifies the natural electrical impulses through the spine, powering up the body and boosting adrenaline, while simultaneously draining it until it runs out."

"So, superhuman abilities but only temporary," Raffi said, shooting Elnor a pointed look.

"Yes," Jean-Luc answered. "It was used to turn Turkish warriors into unstoppable killing machines. And the reference to the lifetime commitment did refer to the host's death terminating the connection."

"Killing machine as in if there's anyone out there Rios would like to kill, or as in it'll turn him into a homicidal maniac?"

"That is unclear. Sergeant Clark likely had some frustration with the criminals he went after that the Spine tapped into and harnessed. Rios might experience the same."

"The only one I can think of him wanting to eliminate is our little pest problem," Raffi said, shooting Elnor another glower. "But ninja boy's still here with me."

"Wait, Elnor is there too?" Jean-Luc spluttered.

Elnor was frowning as he listened to the conversation.

Raffi reeled back as it suddenly hit her… "Agent Secord got tagged by the artifact, didn't he? And he thought the only way to not hurt anyone was to seal it and himself up."

"That sounds possible," Picard agreed.

"Which means Rios will try to do the same. Is there any way to get it off without killing him?"

JL pursed his mouth.

"A high concentration of electricity might damage it," Emil's voice spoke up from the background.

Raffi shook her head. "We both shot it with the Teslas on the highest setting and it didn't do anything."

Emil stepped into view. "It'd have to be even higher voltage than that."

"What makes you think electricity is even the answer?" Jean-Luc demanded.

"The Spine was created before the invention of electricity," Emil replied. "And while it gives off its own discharge, there's no telling how it will react to an outside overload. That could be what the reference to the Hand of God and lightning that Soji found was. Of course, there is the matter of it being attached to Rios…"

"I said without killing him," Raffi said.

"Rios might take that decision out of our hands," JL brought up soberly.

"What?"

"Even without knowing the specifics of the artifact, Rios knows how dangerous it is. It wouldn't be hard for him to connect why Secord sealed himself away, but since the Spine eventually got unburied, he might look for a more permanent solution."

Raffi's breath caught in her throat. He would…

"Find him," she barked at Emil, then disconnected and turned toward Elnor, who was still standing there instead of trying to get a head start tracking down Rios. Maybe he figured he'd have a better chance following her to him.

"That's the difference between Soong and Rios," she told the kid scathingly. "Soong may say he wants artifacts for scientific advancement, but Rios is willing to sacrifice himself to save other people from them." Raffi scoffed derisively. "But then look who I'm talking to—you work for money, not honor."

Her cell phone chimed, and she checked the caller display. It was Captain Powell, whom she did not want to deal with right now, but she answered anyway.

"Agent Musiker."

"Agent," Powell said. "Your partner just went into the station, wearing some kind of backpack contraption giving off electricity."

Raffi stiffened. "I'll be right there," she said and quickly hung up. "Why would he go to the station?" she wondered aloud. He couldn't be thinking of sealing himself up like Secord did.

The station was only a few blocks, so Raffi took off at a run for it. Elnor followed, but she didn't have time to fight him right now. Cops were gathering outside the building, having apparently evacuated it.

"What the hell is going on?" Powell demanded of her.

"I don't have time to explain right now. Where did Rios go?"

"The basement."

"Keep everyone outside!" she yelled and sprinted for the doors.

Down in the basement, she found her partner on his knees trying to attach cables from the generators to the Spine on his back.

"Rios!"

He jerked his head up, cheeks puffing with exertion and blazing fury in his eyes. "I- have- to," he ground out. "I can't hold it back- much longer." He struggled to reach the cables behind his back, only to double over in pain and drop them. Electric energy flowed over him in squiggly spurts. "Raf," he gasped, lifting a watery gaze to hers. "Help. Please."

Her heart skipped a beat. "Rios…"

"I can't risk- not hitting it directly. And I- can't- reach."

Heart pounding, Raffi moved closer and took the cables from him. Then with a grimace, she reached in and clamped them to the central part of the Spine's own neck and back. Electrical discharge sparked, and she leaped back. Rios made a garbled sound low in his throat.

Raffi scrambled to the generators, only to stop short and look back at Rios in horror.

He lifted an agonized gaze to hers. "Do it!"

Raffi flipped the switch with a flinch, and a mega blast of electricity surged through Rios, making his back arch and his mouth fall open in a paralyzed scream. The Spine vibrated and convulsed, then came loose and detached. Raffi flipped the switch off, and Rios collapsed to the floor. The Spine, obviously damaged, tried to crawl away.

Raffi looked around for something to destroy it completely with, but then Elnor was stepping out of the shadows, and with his sword, he hacked the artifact to pieces. Raffi blinked at him, stunned.

She then turned and rushed to Rios, laying him out straight and pressing her ear to his chest. It was frighteningly still.

She interlocked her fingers and pressed the heels of her palms against his sternum, counting out frantic pushes. "Come on, Rios."

After thirty, she tilted his chin up and breathed into his mouth. Once. Twice. She then resumed compressions.

"Don't do this," she begged, eyes stinging. "Cris!"

Thirty more compressions, two more breaths, compressions again. Then Rios coughed and jerked as his lungs unspasmed and sucked in oxygen. Raffi rocked back on her haunches, ready to pass out from equal amounts terror and relief.

She looked over at Elnor, who had been watching stoically. The kid didn't say anything as he finally turned and left, leaving the shattered pieces of the Spine where they lay.

Rios woke up in a hospital room hooked up to a cardiac monitor. He'd been treated for electrical burns and was now under observation. He had an irregular heartbeat as a result of the severe electric shock, which should hopefully resolve itself in time. But in the meantime, he was being held hostage by his two jailers, Raffi and Soji. Not that he really wanted to get up and move—his back was incredibly sore from where the Spine had pierced it.

"We solved two cases, decades apart," Soji was saying as she shuffled a deck of playing cards she and Raffi were using to pass the time with.

"And put a Warehouse agent to rest like he deserved," Raffi added.

"What about the Spine?" Rios croaked.

"All the pieces are bagged up separately so they can't, like, reform or anything," Soji answered.

"Elnor did a thorough job of hacking it up," Raffi confirmed.

Soji started dealing the cards. "He keeps helping us, huh?"

Raffi shrugged. "Maybe there's hope for the kid."

Rios shifted, only for his muscles to seize up, and he bit back a pained groan.

"Hey," Raffi said, turning toward him. "You need anything?"

He shook his head. "Just…let it settle."

She waited for his breathing to even out, then started carding her fingers through his hair in a comforting gesture.

He swallowed hard. "Thanks," he rasped. "For doing what you did. I know it wasn't easy."

Raffi nodded sagely but didn't say anything, just kept running her hand over his hair until the soothing, repetitive touch lulled him into a sleepy haze and his heart rhythm settled a little more.

Chapter Text

Elnor sat cross-legged on the roof, back straight, eyes closed. He focused on the sounds of traffic in the distance, the birds twittering on some telephone wires. His mind was still. Then a clatter from below and muffled swearing drew him from his meditation. He got to his feet swiftly and ducked through the open window to the catwalk, then down to the ground level of Dr. Soong's current lab.

He found the doctor bowed over his lab station in pain, his hand trembling violently and a specimen slide on the floor. Elnor went over and picked it up to set on the counter, then tried to offer Soong a steadying hand, but the older man shoved him away.

"I'm running out of time," he muttered. "And all this research is useless!" With a swipe of his arm, he sent the slide and several others crashing back to the floor.

Elnor stood there awkwardly. "What can I do?"

Soong snapped an angry gaze at him. "You could have not botched so many artifact retrievals! You know, when I first hired you, the Qowat Milat assured me your age wouldn't be a mark against you, but now I see they sent me a bumbling idiot!"

Elnor gritted his teeth as he took the verbal thrashing. Soong wasn't wrong; Elnor had failed to bring back the artifacts he'd been sent out to get. And half the time he'd even assisted the Warehouse agents in getting and keeping them.

"I will retrieve whatever you need," he vowed.

Soong flashed another seething look at him, then looked thoughtful. "There's an artifact in the Warehouse that will cure me," he said.

Elnor frowned. "But the Warehouse is too protected."

"Find a way," Soong snapped. "Or I'll send you back to the Qowat Milat in disgrace."

Elnor's chest tightened; he really didn't want that. The Qowat Milat was the highest of its Order. When they had taken him in as an orphan and trained him, it was with the understanding that he would devote his life to their way. To be sent back a failure would demand swift and harsh punishment, either exile or death.

"I will find a way," he promised his employer.

Soong harrumphed and reached for a page torn from a journal, which he handed to Elnor. "This is what I need."

The page contained a description and sketch of the artifact: a pair of gloves. Elnor tucked the paper into his pocket and set off, determined to hold up his honor.

Raffi pushed the shopping cart of groceries out into the parking lot. In a town as small as Oneville, all they had was a general store, and there'd only been two other customers inside when Raffi popped in to pick up supplies.

She used the SUV's key fob to pop the back, then started loading the bags in. As she did, she pulled out her cell and called Seven.

"Hello."

"Hey, want to come over for dinner tonight? I'll cook."

There was a momentary silence on the other end, and Raffi wondered if Seven was in some kind of meeting. She knew there were other Regents aware of the Warehouse and that they coordinated within law enforcement agencies, but she didn't really know what else Seven did with her time.

"The bed-and-breakfast isn't very private," she said.

Raffi paused in loading the grocery bags. "Are you worried about people knowing we're in a relationship?"

"No. It's just…complicated."

"Wow. Uh, I'm trying not to take that personally."

"As Caretaker of the Warehouse, I have special responsibilities," Seven replied.

"Is there a rule book that prohibits dating?" Raffi asked.

Seven didn't respond.

"Wait, is there?"

"Not in so many words… It's—"

"Complicated, yeah. All right, then how about just coming over to hang out with all of us? As friends. That way I'd still get to spend time with you."

"Caretakers don't usually interact on a personal level with Warehouse agents," Seven hedged.

"A little late for that, isn't it?" Raffi rejoined, admittedly feeling stung and rejected. "Whatever, talk to you later." She hung up and stuffed her phone back in her pocket, then closed the back of the SUV.

But before she could head around to the front to hop in, something struck her from behind and everything went black.

She later came to with a dull ache in her head and her hands cuffed to a standing pipe. Straightening in alarm, she swept her gaze around, squinting as the abrupt motion made her slightly lightheaded. She was in what looked like a vacant building…and Elnor was there.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered and gave the handcuffs a yank. Of course, the metal didn't budge, nor did the pipe.

"I apologize for bringing you here like this," Elnor said, and he almost sounded sincere if it weren't for the whole kidnapping thing. "It was the most efficient method," he went on.

"What do you want? How did you even find us?" she demanded.

"I followed you after one of our encounters."

Crap. Then he likely knew where the Warehouse was. But its security was like a fortress, made even more secure with the updates and now a whole squad of holograms on duty in the place.

"Then what do you want?" Raffi asked again.

Elnor held up a Farnsworth, and she cursed silently again, noticing the familiar weight was no longer in her coat.

"I need something from the Warehouse. You will call them and tell them I will exchange you for it."

"They will never hand over an artifact," Raffi rejoined.

Elnor's expression looked regretful but resolute. "They will, if they want you back alive."

Raffi's pulse quickened at the seriousness in his tone as he held the Farnsworth out to her.

Rios sat alone in the main office, reading. Well, not alone. That irritating copy of his was hovering again.

"Hm, your bioelectrical field isn't quite back to normal yet."

"What are you, my doctor?" Rios snapped. "And how would you even know?"

"Computer sensors."

Rios scowled and held his book up high to block his line of sight. "Don't you have some work to do?"

Emil sighed. "Very well."

The main Farnsworth in the office chimed then with an incoming signal. Emil went over to answer it, though Rios paused in his reading because no one was out on a case right now.

"Ah, Agent Musiker," Emil said. "What is the nature of—"

"Is Rios there?" she interrupted.

Rios set his book down and got up to come over to the imager. He frowned at the sight of Raffi in the visual dome. She was angled oddly and appeared to be sitting on the ground. "Raf?"

"Ri—"

The rest of his name was distorted as the Farnsworth suddenly shifted and turned around, revealing Elnor.

"Agent Rios," the kid greeted soberly. "The Warehouse has something I want, and I have something you want."

Rios spluttered incredulously.

"Clara Barton's Gloves," Elnor went on. "You will exchange them for your partner."

Emil's eyes widened and he hurried out of the office down to the storage.

"We are not handing over artifacts to Dr. Soong," Rios growled.

Elnor nodded sagely. "That is your choice. But Raffi's life hangs in the balance. So, please, choose for her to live." He disconnected the call.

Rios's heart began to stutter as it picked up pace, and he whipped his gaze around the empty office. Where was a damn holo when you wanted one?

He rushed out and down the stairs to the storage area where he found Emil returning with Jean-Luc and Soji, explaining what was going on.

"Raffi went into town," Rios barked at the hologram. "She had to have been grabbed there. Track her through traffic cameras, ATM cameras, anything!"

Emil gave a short nod and went still as his eyes flickered blue.

"Are you sure Elnor has Raffi?" Jean-Luc asked.

Rios nodded.

Emil straightened. "I've located the SUV." He turned to head back up to the office, and the rest of them followed. Upstairs, Emil pulled up security footage of the general store's parking lot on the computer.

They watched Raffi walk out to the car and begin to load the groceries. She talked on her phone for a short bit, and then immediately after hanging up, there was a shimmer of air behind her and she was knocked out from behind. Elnor appeared and pulled Raffi over his shoulder, then used Masamune's Sword to make them both invisible. Which meant there was no way to track them.

"What artifact does he want?" Soji asked.

"Clara Barton's Gloves," Rios answered. "I don't know what those are."

"They are a pair of kid leather gloves worn by Clara Barton," Jean-Luc replied. "Known as the 'Angel of the Battlefield.' Together, they can heal any ailment, but separately, they have severe consequences."

"Maybe Dr. Soong wants to use them to heal people?" Soji suggested with a grimace. The man's methods hadn't exactly been noble in the past.

"You said separately they have consequences?" Rios said to Picard.

He nodded. "The right glove will heal people but drain the wearer, whereas the left will fortify the wearer but release typhoid fever into the population."

Rios ran his hands through his hair and turned to Emil. "Is there nothing you can track? What about the Farnsworth signal?"

The holo shook his head regretfully. "Unfortunately, the very thing that makes the Farnsworths so secure also prevents us from tracing them."

Rios exhaled heavily. "Then we have no choice; we have to go through with the swap."

Elnor walked over to Raffi and offered her a bottle of water. She arched her brows and gave the handcuffs a little rattle. Elnor unscrewed the cap but still placed the bottle in her hand. She hand to inch close to the pipe to take a sip, but she could manage. Even restrained as she was, Elnor knew not to underestimate her.

"Dr. Soong's intentions are not malevolent," he said. "He needs the gloves to cure himself of a genetic illness for which there is no treatment."

Raffi narrowed her eyes, and he moved closer to take the water bottle back.

"Is that what his experiments with artifacts were for?"

"Yes. But now he has learned of the gloves."

"That doesn't make it right," Raffi pointed out. "Even if he was doing it to help other people with the same condition or something else, he still committed murder. The ends don't justify the means." She paused. "Nor does kidnapping."

"It's not personal," Elnor told her.

"Uh, threatening to kill me feels very personal to me."

He grimaced. "I knew your friends would never let that happen."

"So, your threatening to kill me was a bluff?"

"No… I do not lie. But it won't come to that."

The Warehouse communication device chimed with an incoming signal, and Elnor opened it to answer. Rios's face appeared in the dome display.

"I have the gloves." He held them up as proof.

"Good. Come to the vacant strip mall on Olive Road, last storefront on the row, in one hour. And come alone. If I see anyone else trying to enter the vicinity, I will take that to mean Agent Musiker's life has been forfeited."

"Let me talk to her," Rios demanded.

Elnor turned the communicator around so he could see Raffi, but didn't let her speak. "One hour," he repeated and then disconnected.

Raffi regarded him with a dark look. "Still not lying?"

He didn't respond and instead began to prepare for the exchange. He brought out a large coil of rope and began to wind it around Raffi, from her ankles upward.

"What are you doing?" she asked in alarm.

"I don't trust your partner not to attempt a double-cross. His reasons are noble, of course, but ends and means."

Raffi glowered at him as he finished tying her up in a rope cocoon so secure she couldn't move at all. Elnor pulled a strip of duct tape next, which Raffi began to protest, but her indignant exclamation was muffled as he taped her mouth shut. Last but not least, he placed his sword against her, angling it so that it reflected the light around Raffi, making her invisible. Elnor then went up to the roof to keep watch and make sure the Warehouse agents followed his instructions.

Rios arrived on time, and Elnor didn't see anyone else trying to sneak up from another angle; he'd picked a location where he had full line of sight in all directions. So he headed back down to where he'd left Raffi and waited.

The front door creaked open, letting in an influx of light. Rios stepped inside, posture taut and guarded as he looked around the seemingly empty room.

"Where's Raffi?" he demanded.

"She's here," Elnor replied. "But you won't find her until I have the gloves."

A muscle in Rios's jaw ticked, but he pulled out the white gloves and held them up.

"Toss them in the middle where your communicator is," Elnor instructed.

Rios did so.

Elnor walked over and picked the gloves up. "Thank you for choosing wisely." He then triggered the trip wire he'd set up across that section of the room, and it brought the sword flying toward him. Rios was distracted by Raffi suddenly appearing, and Elnor snatched up the sword, made himself invisible, and slipped away.

Raffi seethed in her bonds as Rios rushed over to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked urgently, even as he took his time trying to gingerly pull off the duct tape.

She winced at the stinging pain as the adhesive came off. "I'm fine," she scowled. "Except for my ego."

Rios began to untie her. Elnor was skilled at knots, though, because he struggled to get them loose, and they were so snug against her that using a knife would be just as tedious.

"How bad is the artifact he took?" she asked grimly.

Rios shrugged. "The gloves can heal people, but used separately they either drain the wearer or spread typhoid fever."

"Great," Raffi muttered, then pursed her mouth in thought. "Elnor claimed Soong is dying from a genetic illness, and all his artifact hunting and research was to find a cure for himself."

Rios didn't comment as he finished getting the last knot undone and then helped unwind the rope from her limbs.

"Maybe that will put an end to his pursuits," she went on.

Rios gave her a doubtful grimace.

Yeah, right.

He helped her up, then went over to retrieve the Farnsworth before they both headed back to the Warehouse in disgrace.

After briefing Jean-Luc on everything she and Elnor talked about, Raffi went to the B&B to privately mope over this personal failure. Objectively, she knew it wasn't her fault, and neither JL nor Rios blamed her, but the defeat still tasted bitter. She didn't like being outsmarted.

A knock sounded on her door.

"What?" she answered unenthusiastically.

The door opened and Seven stepped inside, shutting it behind her. "Hi."

"Hey," Raffi said somewhat stiffly.

"I just wanted to come by and say I'm glad you're okay."

"Oh? Not to chew me out for losing an artifact to a bad guy? That is the Caretaker's job, isn't it?"

"Raffi…"

She waved her hand abruptly and cut her off, "Sorry. It's just been a bad day. The ice cream I bought for dessert melted in the car."

Seven regarded her for several long moments without saying anything. Then, "Come with me."

"Where?"

"To show you something no one else knows about me."

Despite her bad mood, Raffi couldn't turn down the chance to satisfy her curiosity, so she followed Seven downstairs and out to where her driver was waiting. He drove them to an assisted living home for seniors and waited in the car as Seven led the way inside to the community room.

"See that man there," she said, pointing to an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair parked by the window.

"Yeah. Who is he?"

"My grandson."

Raffi whipped her gaze to Seven, expression slackening in shock. "What?"

"Working for the Warehouse requires sacrifice, as you know," she said. "For some, such as Caretakers, the sacrifice is more."

Raffi didn't know what to say. "How old are you?"

Seven arched a brow, and Raffi grimaced.

"Sorry. But…grandson…"

Seven turned a fond gaze to the man in the back. "His name is Icheb. He has Alzheimers and doesn't even know who I am anymore." Her expression and tone turned sad. "That is my sacrifice: to watch my loved ones age and die and then be forgotten when there is no one left who remembers me."

Raffi couldn't imagine.

"So," Seven went on softly. "I ask for some grace while I learn to…open myself up again."

Raffi nodded, instantly forgiving her. And, standing in the middle of the community room, she reached out her hand and intertwined their fingers. "I think you're worth waiting for."

Seven gave a small smile in return and didn't pull away.

Elnor walked into Dr. Soong's lab and bowed formally before presenting the gloves. Soong's eyes glittered with anticipation as he took them and carefully slipped them over his hands. He then took a deep breath, spine straightening as though invigorated. Expression alight, he quickly removed the gloves and took a blood sample to examine.

"Did they work?" Elnor asked.

Dr. Soong was practically giddy as he ran the test. "I feel better already. Like I'm twenty years old again."

Elnor nodded in satisfaction.

When the test result came back, the genetic condition was miraculously gone. Dr. Soong had finally achieved his quest of being healed. He didn't send Elnor out after any more artifacts, though he also didn't yet release him from service. Elnor was content to wait.

But then he noticed Dr. Soong was wearing the left glove only as he continued working on his research.

"I don't understand," he spoke up. "Did the gloves not permanently heal you like they were supposed to?"

"No, they did," Soong replied. "But this one continues to fortify the user. It's the perfect remedy for caffeine and sleep. I can work for hours without stopping."

Elnor frowned. "Is there not a downside to that?" It seemed every artifact he'd encountered had some kind of negative consequences if used too much.

Soong waved his hand dismissively. "Not one we have to worry about. Now, I need more supplies."

He handed Elnor a list of new lab equipment to obtain.

Elnor hesitated for a moment before turning to go do as his employer instructed. But this did not sit well with him at all…

Chapter Text

When Rios's phone went off with the ringtone designated for Agnes, he couldn't help but smile as he answered. "Hey."

"Hey," she replied, but there was something in her voice that gave him pause.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"I just got called to Nashville for an outbreak of typhoid fever."

Rios leaned forward and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it."

They knew using the left side of Clara Barton's Gloves caused typhoid fever while strengthening the user, and they'd been on the lookout for such ramifications ever since Elnor had gotten away with the artifact.

"Soong must be in the area," Rios went on.

Agnes made a small noise in agreement. "See you soon."

"Yeah."

They disconnected and Rios got up to go find the others. In the past, it would've taken time tracking everyone down in the Warehouse, as big as it was, but now they had the holos to function as errand boys, and Rios summoned them to go out and find his fellow agents.

Once everyone had been fetched and gathered in the office, Rios told them about the typhoid fever outbreak.

"That's practically in our backyard," Raffi said. "You think Soong is taunting us? Do you think Elnor told him where the Warehouse is?"

"The Warehouse is secure, which Elnor admitted to you," Jean-Luc pointed out. "But you should still be on guard out there."

Rios turned to the holos. "Scan every purchase and security footage in the city for signs of Soong or Elnor."

"It will take a while," Emil warned. "But all five of us will work on it."

Rios nodded curtly. He may not have liked the copies of himself, but they had proven pretty useful to have around.

He, Raffi, and Soji headed out to make the drive to Nashville. Agnes had arrived before them and was already at the hospital, which was their first stop. The staff was in a flurry, with everyone masked up as they dealt with the influx of patients.

"Forty-three confirmed cases," Agnes reported. "With more rolling in every hour. We're trying our best to treat them with antibiotics, but I don't know how successful they'll be against an artifact-induced illness."

Raffi looked around in dismay. "Soong must be using the left glove nonstop to create a spread this fast."

Agnes nodded in agreement as the doors burst open and someone was wheeled in on a gurney. She quickly excused herself and went to help.

"There has to be a way to track him down," Soji said helplessly. "Why isn't the Warehouse computer pinging on all the artifacts he's been using?"

"It gets its pings from sensors in the Artifact Tracker Football," Rios explained. "Which isn't really a football; it's a computer disguised as one, and it circles the globe scanning for artifacts, but it's only able to download information when it passes over the Warehouse. If it happens to fly by this area in the next twelve hours, then great, but we can't count on it."

Raffi's Farnsworth chimed and she scrambled to answer it. "Yeah?"

"The holos found a lease for a commercial property under the name of a shell company that belonged to Dr. Soong's former research corporation," Jean-Luc's voice came through. "I'm sending you the address."

"Finally," Raffi muttered.

They were all anxious to find Soong and stop him before he killed more people, directly or indirectly, so they piled back in the car and hastened to the address. The commercial property he'd leased was isolated—perfect for his kind of work.

The Warehouse agents drew their Teslas, and Rios pulled out Benjamin Franklin's Bifocals to put them on. The different colored lenses would allow him to see the unseen. Like an invisible ninja kid lurking around.

They breached the building, but after a quick sweep, there was no sign of Soong or Elnor.

"Anything?" Raffi asked tensely as they scanned the seemingly empty room.

Rios roved his own gaze around. "Nothing."

"Looks like one of Soong's labs," Soji commented, relaxing and putting her Tesla away.

Rios kept his out and the bifocals on, just in case.

Raffi went to check the computer. "Damn it!" she exclaimed and slapped the desk. "He had an alert set up on his data so he knew when the holos ran their search and that we wouldn't be far behind."

"If he leaves town, he's just going to take the typhoid outbreak with him," Soji said. "Do you think he knows what the glove is doing? Will he stop using it?"

"I don't know," Raffi replied. "He seems to be getting more brazen to me."

Rios looked around the room again, pausing as the bifocals caught on a small aura beneath one of the desks. He walked over and picked it up. It was the right glove.

"He left this behind," Rios said, holding it up.

Raffi snorted. "Of course. Soong has no need for anything that helps other people."

"Hey, can't we use it to heal everyone with typhoid?" Soji spoke up.

Rios cocked his head. "It'll drain the user, but yeah, I think we can."

And so they returned to the hospital until they could get another lead on Soong and the left glove.

The hallways were filling up with gurneys, there were so many new cases. Hospital staff tried to stop them and back them out, but they flashed their FBI badges and pushed through to find Agnes. She was in a patient room but came out when she spotted them.

"You didn't find him," she guessed.

"No, but we found this." Rios held up the right glove. "We can heal the patients with this."

Agnes frowned. "Healing others will drain the user."

"We know," Raffi said. "But we have to do something."

Agnes drew her chin up and nodded. "You're right. I'll do it."

"No, we will," Rios argued. "It's our responsibility."

"I'm the doctor, so in this situation, it's mine," she replied.

"It's my fault the glove is out here causing this," Raffi protested. "I should do it."

"Raf…" Rios started.

Agnes shook her head stubbornly. "This is my job. You three will be needed for when you find Soong again."

"If we do," Soji muttered.

"You have to," Agnes said grimly as yet more patients were wheeled onto the floor. "Because as long as he's out there using the left glove, the right one will only be a stopgap."

"I'll see if the holos found anything else," Raffi said and pulled out her Farnsworth as she walked away.

Agnes held her hand out for the glove, which Rios reluctantly handed over.

"Are you sure?" he asked in concern.

She nodded and slipped her hand into the leather.

Rios accompanied her to the patient rooms that had the most serious cases, keeping a lookout for passing nurses and doctors as Agnes used the glove, which gave off a blue glow. Rios watched the vitals on the monitor stabilize.

Agnes healed three patients before she began to show signs of tiredness, but she refused to stop. She managed to heal four more before the drain took its toll. Rios saw her begin to sway on her feet and he darted into the room to catch her just as she finally collapsed.

"I'm…okay…" she said breathlessly. "Just need…a minute."

"How about several," he rejoined and helped her out of the room. She leaned heavily against him as he supported most of her weight.

A nurse stepped into their path. "Has she caught it?"

"She's just exhausted. She came here straight off another case and hasn't had a chance to rest," he replied firmly and kept moving.

He found the staff break room and helped Agnes inside to sit on the couch. She kept swaying, so he sat down next to her and she slumped against him. Rios lifted his arm behind her head and stroked his fingers through her hair.

"Let me take some of the load," he said.

She shook her head weakly. "I can handle it."

He huffed. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"It's my tragic flaw," she joked.

"You're not going to be much use to your patients if you run yourself into the ground. As a doctor, you should know that."

She tilted her head back to look up at him. "You just want to be my knight in shining armor."

"Is that so bad?"

Her lips twitched. "No. I like that little vein in your forehead that throbs when you're worried about me." She reached up to poke him between the eyes.

He frowned and rubbed at the spot. "Let me help you," he pleaded.

"You are helping me," she replied, eyes drooping closed.

The door opened and Soji shuffled in. "Hey. Just thought I'd let you know the holos haven't found anything yet. But they're still searching."

Rios furrowed his brows. Soji looked pale and was moving sluggishly. "Are you feeling all right?" he asked.

"Mm, not really," she admitted. And then she abruptly collapsed.

Rios scrambled off the couch and over to her. She was burning up.

Agnes grunted as she stumbled over, tripping halfway there and crawling the rest of the way. She reached out a shaking hand wearing the glove to heal her, but no sooner had it started to glow that the light winked out as Agnes passed out.

Rios pulled the glove off and put it on himself, then focused on trying to heal Agnes. The glove began to glow, but Agnes didn't revive. Frowning, he quickly turned to Soji and grasped her arm, willing the glove's healing power into her.

Her face scrunched up as she came to. "Mmph, what?"

"Are you all right?" Rios asked anxiously. He could feel the drain on his own energy from using the glove, minor for now.

Soji pushed herself up onto her elbows. "I think so."

Rios pressed the back of his other hand against her forehead to check for fever; it was gone. The glove must only heal illnesses, not the drain caused by using it.

He turned back to Agnes and scooped her into his arms, then staggered upright and out the door into the hallway. "I need help here!"

Nurses and doctors came running over and ushered them into a room where Rios was directed to lay Agnes on a bed. He was then pushed back as the medical staff went to work. They were concerned about typhoid, but a quick examination revealed she didn't have a fever or other symptoms, so she was diagnosed with exhaustion and hooked up to a saline drip.

Rios sank into the hard plastic chair beside the bed and put his head in his hands.

A few minutes after the hospital staff had left, Raffi came hurrying in.

"Damn," she breathed.

"How about you?" Rios asked in concern. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, fine. You?"

He nodded.

The commotion of nurses running to another room in response to an alarm sounded outside.

"People are getting sicker," Raffi said needlessly.

"Can't we just take turns using the glove and heal each other?" Soji asked.

Rios shook his head. "The glove doesn't work on its own effects." He nodded to Agnes's unconscious form. "I tried."

"We could heal some, though, couldn't we?" Soji pressed desperately.

Rios understood her helplessness and desire to help; he felt the same. But Agnes's previous point of them needing to be ready to go after Soong still held true.

Someone cleared their throat, and the three agents turned to the doorway. Rios surged to his feet at the sight of Elnor. He and Raffi moved at the same time; she grabbed Elnor by the front of his shirt and swung him around into the room. Rios caught his arm and they both slammed him against the wall. Soji quickly shut the door.

"What are you doing here?" Rios demanded.

Elnor held his hands up in submission. "I just wanted to see for myself," he said. "I had no idea Dr. Soong would use the left glove like this. I thought after he healed himself with both, he would…change pursuits."

"But he didn't," Raffi said.

Elnor regretfully shook his head. He looked past them toward Agnes. "Is she…?"

"She's drained herself using the right glove to heal the people Soong is making sick," Rios snarled.

"Help us," Raffi beseeched. "Take us to Soong so we can stop this."

Elnor's mouth thinned. "I cannot dishonor my vow by taking you to my employer…but I will get the other glove for you."

Rios shook his head. "We can't trust him."

"I swear on my honor."

The agents exchanged doubtful looks, but Raffi gave Rios a subtle nod and pulled out a neutralizing bag from her pocket.

"Put it in this. That will neutralize its effects and hopefully stop the outbreak."

Elnor took the baggie and bowed his head.

Rios's jaw tightened, but he stepped back to let the kid go. Elnor cast a sober look around at them all one last moment before walking out.

"I hope we didn't just make a huge mistake," Rios said.

Raffi shrugged one shoulder. "Can't get any worse, can it?"

Elnor returned to the stash house Soong had fled to after receiving a warning that the Warehouse agents had tracked his current lab. The man was grumbling about said agents, too, and how they were constantly interrupting his work. Elnor walked straight over to him.

"Where have you been?" he snapped.

"I was at the hospital where people are dying because you're using that glove," he replied and nodded to the doctor's left hand.

Soong scoffed. "People die all the time. What do you even care for, anyway? How many lives have you taken with your sword?"

"I always give my opponents a choice. What you're doing is wrong."

With that, Elnor grabbed Soong's arm in a vise-like grip and forcefully pulled the glove off his hand. Soong struggled and sputtered in indignation, but Elnor deftly blocked his haphazard blows and then backed away with the glove, which he promptly deposited in the baggie Raffi had given him. Purple sparks flew from the opening, then settled.

"How dare you!" Soong seethed.

Elnor met the man's gaze levelly. "I quit." He then turned to leave with the glove.

"You don't get to quit!" Soong yelled behind him.

There was a scuffling sound, and a moment later, Elnor felt his body snap into a rigid stance. Jolting to a stop, he looked down at his unresponsive legs. Pain suddenly shot through him, and a powerful wrench had him turning around sharply. Soong was holding a riding crop that was glowing softly. An artifact.

Elnor strained harder to get his limbs to move, even his fingers. But he was completely bound by this invisible force. More than that, though, he could feel the jerk and pull of Soong using the crop to make him move outside of his own accord.

Soong's eyes gleamed darkly. "It's over when I say it's over."

Rios stayed by Agnes's bedside as the hours passed. Elnor hadn't returned with the glove like he said he would. However, no more new cases of typhoid were rolling in, and those who were sick were now responding better to antibiotics. So it seemed the kid had held up at least that part of his word.

Raffi and Soji went off to take turns using the right glove to heal the sickest patients that seemed too far gone otherwise. Rios hoped they were being responsible with it.

"Hey, mister," a weak voice rasped.

He whipped his head up to find Agnes awake. "Hey," he said, grasping her hand.

"What'd I miss?"

"We think the outbreak's stopped. At least, there are no new cases, and patients are responding to treatment."

"But?" she prompted.

"But the ninja kid who said he'd get the glove and bring it to us hasn't."

Agnes frowned. "Huh. Well, that's a partial win, I guess."

Rios squeezed her hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty drained," she admitted, her eyes drifting closed for a moment.

"I tried to heal you with the glove, but it didn't work."

She hummed. "That makes sense." Then her eyes snapped open. "Soji?"

"She's fine. I healed her."

Agnes narrowed her eyes. "How many times did you use the glove?"

"Just the once," he assured her. "I'm not a masochist like you are."

Agnes laughed. "Yeah, right."

They fell silent, and Rios rubbed circles on the back of her hand.

"Why don't you come stay at the B&B for a little while," he suggested. "While you recuperate."

Agnes arched an intrigued brow at him. "Well, my case here is over…"

"Is that a yes?"

She smiled. "Yes."

Chapter Text

Raffi sat at the kitchen counter, scrolling through news feeds on her phone. The microwave beeped, and Rios got out the mug of hot chocolate he'd heated up, which he then took into the parlor to Agnes who was lounging on the sofa. She was staying at the B&B to rest after using Clara Barton's glove had driven her to exhaustion. Rios handed her the mug, then sat beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. She snuggled up against him.

Raffi's lips ticked upward with a smile; she was happy for Rios. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't also feel a bit of jealousy. She wished she and Seven could be openly affectionate like that. But Seven had asked for patience and Raffi was willing to give it to her.

The front door opened and Soji came bounding in. "Hey, we got a ping to check out," she announced. "Two counties over in a cemetery."

"A cemetery?" Agnes repeated. "Please tell me something isn't raising zombies."

"I don't think so. Wait, is there an artifact that can do that?"

"Never rule anything out," Raffi said. "But what's the weirdness?"

"No weirdness, just a ping on artifact energy. Enoch said it was big for the Warehouse sensors to pick it up, but apparently Ean has been working on magnifying their range."

Rios gave Agnes a regretful look. "At least it's not far. Hopefully we can be there and back by tonight."

She nodded. "Be careful."

He leaned over to kiss her forehead, then stood up. "As long as there aren't any zombies, I think we'll be fine."

"Don't jinx it," Raffi warned.

The three agents made the drive across two counties to the cemetery the ping had come from. Soji pulled out a device that looked like a miniature Farnsworth and held it out like a compass.

"What is that?" Rios asked.

"A mobile artifact tracker," she replied. "Ean and I made it." She adjusted course and headed down between the rows of tombstones.

"You made that?" Raffi asked incredulously.

"Yeah. It doesn't have the range the Football tracker does; mostly it can just home in on an artifact's energy signature in the vicinity. Still handy, though, yeah?"

Raffi shared an impressed look with Rios. "Very."

They followed Soji's tracker to an older section of the cemetery and to a mausoleum. The door was open a crack. Rios pushed it open and peered inside. The large vault didn't look disturbed.

"Don't tell me the new sensors picked up on an artifact buried in one of these," Raffi said distastefully.

Soji pursed her lips as she aimed the tracker around the marble coffins. "Uh, here's something."

There was apparently some kind of secret door on the back wall, hanging open and broken. Rios drew a small flashlight and pointed the beam into the dark depths.

"Grave robbers?" Soji guessed.

"Or zombies," Raffi muttered, pulling out her own flashlight. They had to take a look anyway.

Rios entered first, with Raffi right behind and Soji bringing up the rear. Thick cobwebs hung in clumps from dusty beams and the air smelled of mildew. Raffi swept her flashlight beam around, only to startle badly when it illuminated half of a skeleton falling out of the crumbling dirt wall. Soji let out a yelp.

"I've seen this horror movie," Raffi groused. "It doesn't end well."

They pressed on though, because Soji's tracker wasn't telling them to turn back. It wasn't much farther, though, that they reached a larger cavern that appeared to be a nexus into other crypts. It was still too dark to see very well, and Raffi's next step landed on something soft and squishy and immediately plunged downward. She let out a cry of surprise and dropped her flashlight. Rios swung his her way to see what had happened. She had stepped in an inky black patch of something thick and viscous. It was congealing around her legs and dragging her down.

Rios and Soji grabbed her hands and tried to pull her out, but suddenly the chamber lit up with whooshing flames traveling through a fuel trench. And there standing across the room was Soong, holding a riding crop that was glowing with the telltale energy of an artifact.

Rios let go of Raffi's hand so he could whip out his Tesla, but before he could fire, a fishing net was thrown over him from behind. The rope instantly sparked with electric shocks, taking him to the ground in convulsions.

Elnor dropped down in front of Raffi and delivered a roundhouse kick to Soji that knocked her away. As she was staggering back to her feet, he took what looked like an elephant tusk and leaped toward her to plunge into the earth, then quickly darted backward. Snakes instantly popped up out of the ground and Soji screamed as they quickly swarmed her, crawling up her legs and around her torso.

Raffi struggled to pull herself free of the gooey pit, but she only sank faster. The acrid odor of tar singed her nose. She whipped a furious gaze toward Elnor. "So much for doing the right thing," she snapped.

"I did try," he said, tone full of remorse. "And if I could stop this, I would."

Raffi scowled. "No one's stopping you." She flicked a worried look at Rios and Soji, both of whom were going to die from those two artifacts soon if they weren't freed. Rios was writhing under a constant assault of electric shocks, and Soji was slowly being squeezed to death. Not that Raffi wasn't also facing her own demise. Her thighs were now enmeshed in the tar.

Elnor stood there stiffly, while Soong sneered at them, still holding the glowing riding crop.

"I should have taken you all out in the beginning. Or rather, my so-called Qowat Milat warrior should have taken the initiative and done it for me." He shot Elnor a dark glower at that.

Elnor met Raffi's eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, and he sounded sincere. Raffi wanted to scream at him to do something then.

Soong twisted the riding crop in his hands, and Elnor grunted in pain as his muscles snapped ramrod straight. Raffi understood then—Elnor was being controlled by it.

She wracked her brain for how to get out of this, but the tar was around her waist now and she couldn't reach her Tesla. Rios's was under the fishing net that continued to shock him. Raffi saw Soji wriggling desperately as the snakes coiled about her, her face pale with terror. But she managed to maneuver a neutralizing grenade out of her pocket. She couldn't get her arm free to throw it, though, and it ended up falling to the floor and rolling. Raffi stretched her arm out as far as she could to retrieve it, the movement increasing the pull of the tar pit.

Soong bent the riding crop, and Elnor began to march over to grab it first. Raffi strained harder, letting out a cry as her fingers brushed the grenade. Elnor was two feet away, but she finally managed to snatch it up. Pulling the pin, she then threw the grenade at Soong where it exploded, splattering him and the riding crop with purple goo. The artifact was neutralized, releasing Elnor from its control.

With lightning reflexes, he lashed out to grab her arms and pulled her out of the tar before it could suck her under. Once free, Raffi scrambled for some purple gloves, not bothering to put them on but using them to protect her hands as she grabbed the edges of the fishing net and pulled it off Rios. Elnor drew his sword and hacked his way through the snakes to the elephant tusk and yanked it out of the ground. The serpents dissolved back into the earth, releasing Soji. But when he turned to then deal with Soong, the doctor was gone.

Raffi cursed under her breath and braced Rios as he continued to twitch on the ground. "Cris, babe, can you hear me?"

He gave a jerky nod.

Elnor came to stand over them, expression remorseful. "I'm sorry. I neutralized the typhoid glove and intended to bring it to you, but Dr. Soong used that other artifact to prevent me from leaving. And then to do this."

Raffi nodded in understanding and helped Rios as he struggled to sit up. "We need to get you back to the B&B."

"I can show you where Dr. Soong has his artifacts stored," Elnor interjected. "We might be able to reach it before he does."

Raffi hesitated. The artifacts were important, but so was her partner.

"Do that first," Rios grunted, stubbornly pushing himself to his feet. He doubled over again as soon as he was upright, and Raffi ducked in to catch him.

"Soji, grab these artifacts," she instructed.

Soji hastily put on purple gloves before picking up the elephant tusk, then the riding crop, and finally the fishing net.

"There's one more," Elnor said, going to a dark corner and coming back with a cylinder container filled with black pitch. "Primordial Tar becomes a tar pit when water is added."

At least Soong hadn't gotten away with any of the artifacts he'd used to attack them. But they really needed to get any others he had.

The four of them made their way out of the mausoleum and back to the car. Soji stowed the artifacts in the back while Raffi helped Rios into the backseat. Then she hopped behind the wheel and gestured for Elnor to get in on the passenger side. Soji climbed him next to Rios, and they drove off.

At Soong's stash house, Rios consented to staying in the car and keeping a lookout while the rest of them broke inside. Whether Soong couldn't get here that fast or he'd decided to cut his losses, they were able to confiscate several artifacts. Then they beat a hasty retreat in case Soong did show up with some more firepower.

They returned to the B&B with Elnor, who helped Rios inside since he was still unsteady on his feet.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Agnes exclaimed, rushing forward to meet them.

"I'm fine," Rios replied.

"That's two electrocutions too close together," Raffi threw in.

Agnes's eyes widened and she directed Elnor to bring Rios to the couch. "I'll get my bag from upstairs."

As she hurried off to do that, Raffi called Jean-Luc on the Farnsworth to let him know they had a bunch of artifacts for him to pick up and transport to the Warehouse.

"Why can't you bring them in?" JL asked.

"Because Elnor's here and I don't think we're ready to bring him there just yet," Raffi replied lowly. "And Rios is in bad shape after Soong tried to kill us."

There was a beat of silence, then, "I'll be right there."

Agnes came rushing back downstairs with her medical bag and began to examine Rios. Raffi and Soji watched from the archway while Elnor stood in the corner looking like a kid in timeout.

Jean-Luc and Dahj arrived, and Soji stepped away to help her sister with the artifacts. JL came into the parlor to stand next to Raffi.

"How is he?" he asked Agnes.

"He'll live," Rios huffed.

Agnes drew back from listening to his heart. "No cases for a while. Raffi's right; two major electric shocks in a short time is not something to brush off."

He sighed and dropped his head back against the cushion.

Picard turned his attention to Elnor. "Raffi? Care to explain?"

She shrugged. "He helped us escape. Soong was controlling him with a riding crop. He didn't actually betray us with the left glove."

Jean-Luc pursed his mouth. "Cecil B. DeMille's Riding Crop."

"He also led us to where Soong was keeping his other artifacts," Raffi added. "Give the kid a break."

Picard didn't look very happy about that, but he nodded toward Elnor. "We'll be needing Masamune's Sword as well."

Elnor slowly drew the sword from the sheath across his back and reluctantly handed it over.

"What will you do now?" Raffi asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "I can't return to the Qowat Milat. Betraying my employer is an affront to our code. I will only be exiled if I go back."

"Your employer was a bad guy," Raffi pointed out.

"It doesn't matter to the Order."

"You could stay here," she suggested on a whim.

The kid's eyes lit up with hope at that.

"Now hold on a minute, Raffi," Jean-Luc scolded.

"He's helped us when it counted," she headed him off. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

JL huffed and turned to walk away with the sword. Elnor watched it go longingly.

"Hey, come here a sec," Raffi said and headed down the hall to the storage closet under the staircase. She dug out Elnor's original katana, the one they'd taken from him after their first encounter, and gave it back to him. It was just an ordinary sword.

The kid looked absolutely stupefied that she had kept it.

"You really ready to join the good guys?" she asked.

Elnor lifted his chin and gave her a very serious nod. "It would be my honor."

As much as Rios hated to admit it, he was really feeling the toll from being electrocuted again. His muscles were still randomly twitching and spasming, and his heart fluttered on occasion. All very unpleasant sensations.

Agnes fluffed his pillow and asked if he wanted a blanket. He shook his head.

"I was supposed to be taking care of you."

She smiled. "I like an equal partnership where we can take turns." She climbed onto the bed, and he scooted over a bit so she could snuggle up next to him. "Do you think it's wise for Elnor to stick around?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "But we do seem to be making a habit of taking in strays. There's even a ferret running around the Warehouse."

Agnes chuckled. "When do I get to meet these holograms?"

Rios grimaced. "Do you have to?"

"Yes," she said with a grin.

"Not sure I'll be getting up for a while." He made a show of acting too weak to sit up.

Agnes just grinned wider and leaned in to kiss him.

Chapter Text

It'd been a week since Elnor came to stay at the B&B. Rios had recovered from his latest bout of electrocution, and Agnes had returned to CDC headquarters. Only Soji and Dahj had gone out to the Warehouse. For Raffi's part, she felt responsible for Elnor and so didn't want to leave him unattended, and Jean-Luc was not okay with showing the kid the Warehouse. No doubt Elnor already knew its location, but he hadn't been inside. Given his history of trying to steal artifacts for a madman, Raffi understood why Elnor needed to prove himself a little more to the team. But she also wanted to give him a chance to do so. Call her sentimental, but she saw great things in this kid.

So when Picard came down to the B&B to report two separate artifact pings the Football Tracker had just downloaded on its pass-over, Raffi jumped at the chance to take Elnor with her to retrieve one of them.

JL's expression instantly soured at the suggestion.

"You agreed to give him a chance," Raffi said before he could verbally protest.

"When you have to split up is not the best time to do it," Jean-Luc argued.

"What, you think he'll murder me while we're out there?" Raffi huffed. "He could have done that to all of us by now if he wanted. And we have to split up anyway," she pointed out. "These two artifacts are equally dangerous and need to be retrieved ASAP."

Both she and Picard looked to Rios and Soji for backup. Rios gave Raffi a considering look for a long moment before turning to Jean-Luc.

"Soji and I can handle the guitar."

"I am a full agent now," the girl added.

Jean-Luc did not look happy at all, but Raffi wouldn't budge on this and they had an urgent job to do, so he grudgingly handed over the information on the artifacts.

Raffi headed upstairs to the room Elnor was staying in and rapped her knuckles on the door.

"Come in."

She opened the door and found Elnor sitting cross-legged on the floor in a meditative pose. "Hey, come on, we've got an artifact retrieval."

He perked up. "Really?"

"Yep."

Elnor quickly got to his feet and grabbed his jacket and katana. "What kind of artifact?"

"Catherine O'Leary's Cow Bell. Our artifact tracker picked up on it in Kentucky where a fire decimated a county fair."

"So it causes fires?" Elnor asked as they headed downstairs to the SUV.

"Ever hear of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871? Said to have been started by O'Leary's cow knocking over a lantern, but it was actually caused by this artifact. The Warehouse agents at the time only named it after her because they couldn't trace it to its original owner, though according to the database, it was also responsible for the Great Fire of London in 1666 when it was hanging on the door of a bakery."

"How has it not been retrieved before now?" Elnor asked, climbing into the passenger side seat of the SUV.

Raffi shrugged. "Artifacts get lost in the world. And finding a bell in the massive wreckage those fires left behind?" She shook her head and started the engine. "Let's just hope we finally grab it this time."

Since the county fair had been cleaned up by the time they arrived in Kentucky, Raffi headed to City Hall first. Elnor climbed out of the SUV, his katana across his back.

"Uh," Raffi said, "that's not exactly FBI issue."

He arched a quirked brow and glanced over his shoulder at his chosen weapon, mouth pursing. After a moment's consideration, he let his hair out of its bun, letting most of it fall down his back to conceal the sword. He then pulled just the top back into a partial ponytail. Raffi just shook her head; he still didn't look like an FBI agent, but she could compromise.

They headed into City Hall and asked to speak with the committee that had been in charge of running the fair. The people were, of course, dubious as to why the FBI wanted to look through their supplies and decorations, but these were mere civil servants, so they had an intern show them to the basement storage where everything had been put. There were a ton of boxes, so Raffi and Elnor got to work sorting through them. A lot of the stuff had been damaged in the fire.

"Why didn't they throw this out?" Elnor asked, lifting up a banner with charred edges.

"It's government," Raffi replied. "They don't throw anything away."

"Is this a typical case for you? Digging through junk?"

"Sometimes. It's better when we can get to an artifact before it causes a bunch of mayhem and destruction."

They fell silent save for the rustling of rifling through boxes.

"I know the others don't trust me," Elnor spoke up a few minutes later. "I understand. But why do you?"

Raffi shrugged. "You have a good heart, I can see that. And no disrespect to the Qowat Milat, but some of their priorities are a bit skewed." She flashed Elnor an encouraging smile. "Don't be discouraged; you'll win the others over with time."

Soji and Rios headed to Jersey City in Soji's old yellow Beetle. The closer they got to the rock and roll museum there, the more she noticed stop lights were flickering and buzzing with too much power. Something was going to blow soon.

They pulled up in front of the museum, only to find it was currently having a fundraiser in the main gallery.

"And me without a dress," Soji commented as she put her car in park and shut off the engine.

"Not like we can waltz in with the fake," Rios responded, grabbing the replica from the backseat.

They made their way around to a back entrance where Soji hacked the security lock to get them inside. Now they just needed to find Jimi Hendrix's second guitar.

The ambient lights were flickering and buzzing, and there was a noticeable static buildup in the air. Rios's Farnsworth started pinging, and he quickly answered it.

"Have you found it yet?" Picard asked without preamble.

"Not yet," Rios replied.

"Well hurry. The electricity being generated by that guitar is going to cause the entire eastern power grid to crash."

"We're in the museum, stop distracting us," Rios said and hung up.

Soji smirked.

A fizzling blue glow was sputtering and popping up ahead, and they both pulled up short outside a small gallery full of guitars. Jimi Hendrix's was shooting lightning bolts all over the place as it ripped out its own song. Someone must have given the strings a strum to activate it, and it wasn't going to stop until they neutralized it.

"Um, I should be the one to go in there," Soji said.

"Why?"

She gave Rios a wry look. "I don't want to risk you getting electrocuted a third time."

He grimaced at that. "Do you know anything about guitars?"

"I know a thing or two," she replied smugly, turning to the electrified room. It'd be like walking into one of those plasma globes that were popular in the 80s or something.

Taking a breath, she ventured inside, dodging lightning bolts left and right as she scrambled to reach the guitar. She ducked as a bolt erupted too close for comfort, making her hair stand on end. She then spotted the tremolo bar on the floor beneath the guitar stand and snatched it up. Between lightning strikes, she quickly jumped up to reattach it, then bent the pitch. The guitar immediately stopped playing and discharging electricity. Soji lifted it off the stand as Rios came in and set the fake in its place.

"Good work," he said.

Soji grinned and gave the strings a strum, then went all out with a few riffs. "That was cool."

Rios just rolled his eyes, and they beat a hasty retreat out of the museum before anyone from the fundraiser or security could happen upon them.

"That's the last of it," Elnor declared, closing up the final box, and no cowbell.

Raffi ran a hand over her hair in frustration. Where could the blasted artifact have gotten to?

They headed back upstairs to find that intern.

"Hey," Raffi called across the hall when she spotted him. "There was an old bell in the fair's decorations but now it's gone."

"A bell?" the kid repeated dubiously.

"Yes. We need to find it," she said sternly and with an expression that made the guy squirm.

"Um, I think Courtney took it."

"Courtney who and where?"

"She's a volunteer with the youth programs. She thought it'd come in handy at the kids camp…"

Raffi's blood ran cold. "Directions to that camp, now," she demanded.

The intern told them where it was, and she and Elnor rushed over there. Everything seemed normal at the moment, but they needed to find the bell before it burned the place down and killed a bunch of kids. They frantically asked every camp counselor they came across where Courtney or an old bell was.

"It's going to be the lunch bell," one of them said, glancing at their watch. "Which is in a few minutes."

Raffi shared an alarmed look with Elnor and they made a dash for the cafeteria. A woman was walking out to the front steps, old bell in hand, raising her arm in preparation to ring it to summon the children.

"Stop!" Raffi yelled.

But the woman didn't seem to hear her. Elnor was faster, however, and he launched himself up the steps and right at her, grabbing the bell with both hands around the outside and inside. The woman shrieked as they both crashed to the ground, but the bell didn't toll.

Raffi ran over and whipped out her badge. "Sorry, don't be alarmed," she said. "FBI business. We need to confiscate that bell, right now."

The woman blinked at them, flabbergasted.

"You okay?" Raffi asked Elnor as he sat up with a grunt.

He nodded. "I'm good."

Raffi helped him stand as he kept a firm hold on the cow bell and they hastened back to the SUV. Raffi stuffed tissue inside the bell so it wouldn't ring by accident, and then they set off back toward the Warehouse.

By the time they arrived at the B&B in Oneville, Elnor was sore and bruised. Rios and Soji were just getting back as well, it seemed.

"How'd it go?" Rios asked.

"Got the infamous artifact," Raffi replied, holding up the cow bell. "And thanks to Elnor's quick reflexes, prevented a kids camp from burning to the ground in a violent firestorm."

"Nice," Soji said.

Rios nodded at Elnor in acknowledgement, then turned to Raffi. "You taking that to the Warehouse?"

"Actually, I think Elnor could use an ice pack," she said and handed the artifact over. Someday he'd be invited to see the Warehouse, but she wasn't going to push.

Rios and Soji both got back in her car to drive up to the Warehouse again, while Raffi and Elnor headed inside the B&B.

"See?" she told him. "It'll take time, but you'll be accepted."

"Thank you for giving me the chance to begin with," he replied.

She smiled. "You're a good kid." She retrieved an ice pack from the freezer and handed it over. "How about I make you some tea?"

Elnor nodded with a shy smile. "I'd like that, thank you."

Chapter Text

Despite the Warehouse having three full-fledged agents, Rios still felt like he was on babysitting duty half the time. Like now, when he, Raffi, Soji, and Elnor were on their way to Seattle to investigate a pilot suddenly forgetting how to fly a plane while in midair. Elnor was definitely the one they were keeping a close eye on, but Rios also felt a certain big brother protectiveness of Soji with her young age, so really it felt like he and Raffi were two parents with teenage tag-alongs.

They arrived at the Seattle hospital where the pilot had been admitted as a patient after his lapse.

"Elnor, sweetie," Raffi said, "maybe we leave the katana in the car this time."

Elnor pursed his mouth unhappily. "You are all armed."

"With Teslas," Soji pointed out. "They only stun, not decapitate."

"Do I get one?"

The three agents shared a look at that. They hadn't given the kid access to anything related to the Warehouse.

"We'll talk about it after this case," Raffi said. "But this is a hospital, you really don't need a weapon."

Elnor still looked disgruntled but didn't argue as he put his sword in the back of the SUV. Then they headed inside and upstairs to where the pilot was being kept, showing their badges to the nurse's station and asking to speak with the attending physician. They then found the pilot in his room, coloring in a coloring book.

"I'm Dr. Talmudge," a man in a white coat introduced as he came over. "How can I help you?"

"We've been asked to look into the case," Rios answered. "Pilots don't typically forget how to fly a plane while in the cockpit. There's concern this won't be an isolated incident."

Raffi nodded to said pilot in his room. "What's with this?"

The doctor shook his head regretfully. "This man, who has a degree in aeronautical engineering, thought he was in college yesterday and today thinks he's five years old. It's some sort of accelerated Alzheimer's."

"Do you know what triggered it?" Rios asked.

"I'm afraid not. None of our tests have come back positive for anything wrong. We're testing for genetic disposition, but those results take longer."

And given the rate of regression, they might be too late. This definitely could be an artifact.

A nurse came hurrying over at that moment. "Dr. Talmudge, excuse the interruption, but we've just had a similar incident to your patient. One of our surgeons was in the middle of performing surgery when she suddenly freaked out. By the time they got her out of there, she claimed to have no memory of going to med school."

Dr. Talmudge stiffened. "Is she being transferred to this unit?"

The nurse nodded. "I'll let the staff know to bring her here."

"What about the patient she was supposed to operate on?" Soji asked. "Are they okay?"

"They almost died, but we were able to get an on call doctor in there," the nurse replied.

"Did this surgeon have any interaction with our pilot here?" Raffi asked.

Dr. Talmudge frowned. "No. Besides, Alzheimer's isn't contagious."

Rios and Raffi just shared a knowing look; a normal form of Alzheimer's wasn't contagious.

The agents went to find a quiet place to talk while the doctors dealt with their latest patient. Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth and called up the Warehouse.

"You rang?" Steward answered primly.

"We need you to look into the paper trails of two amnesiac victims," she said. "The pilot, and now a Dr. Susan Tatum."

The hologram didn't say anything, but the rapid flickering in his eyes showed he was working on it.

Elnor leaned toward Rios and asked, "You have a twin?"

He grimaced. "No. I have…copies. It was an accident."

"They're holograms," Soji told him.

Elnor arched a brow. "There's more than one?"

"Unfortunately," Rios muttered.

"I found a commonality in their credit card charges," Steward said. "Multiple for Dr. Tatum but only one recently for the pilot. It's for a coffee shop on Canal Street."

"I'll check it out," Rios said.

"Take Elnor," Raffi added quickly.

Rios paused awkwardly. "It's basically grunt work."

"Right, and he's the initiated grunt."

Rios flicked an uncomfortable look at the kid, who looked nervously hopeful, almost like a kicked puppy dog. Rios sighed and beckoned for him to come. "We're still leaving the sword in the car."

Elnor nodded eagerly and they headed down to the SUV, leaving Raffi and Soji to look into what artifacts were associated with memory loss.

"I know you don't trust me," Elnor said on the drive downtown. "But I assure you, I will not betray you."

Rios flexed his hand around the steering wheel. "Trust has to be earned over time."

Elnor lowered his head. "That's what Raffi said."

An awkward silence filled the SUV.

"Look," Rios said, "I don't harbor any ill feelings toward you. You're young and you got mixed up with the wrong people. But that doesn't mean you don't still have to make up for it."

"I understand, and I will," Elnor vowed.

They didn't say anything more as they pulled up outside the coffee shop. Rios pulled out his phone to show the barista pictures of the two victims.

"Don't know the guy," the barista said. "But she's tall mint tea every Wednesday afternoon. Don't know anything else about her, though."

"Was she meeting someone every Wednesday?" Rios asked.

"Nope, always came in alone and got the tea to go."

Rios put his phone away. "Thanks."

He and Elnor exited the shop and stood on the sidewalk.

"Now what?" Elnor asked.

Rios was busy scanning the surrounding buildings. "This shop isn't anywhere close to the surgeon's home and place of work, so why come all the way out here for a mint tea from a chain shop? If it wasn't to meet someone, then she probably had other business in the area."

He pulled out his Farnsworth next to call the Warehouse. Enoch answered the other line.

"How may I be of service?"

"I need you to get into security camera footage for the area we're in for Wednesday afternoons and see if you can track our surgeon's movements."

"Aye-aye," Enoch replied.

"This one has an Irish accent," Elnor remarked.

"There's also English, Scottish, and Chilean," the holo replied jovially. "We haven't been formally introduced, I'm Enoch."

"We're on a time table here," Rios interrupted tersely.

Enoch shook his head in fond exasperation and returned to work.

"This seems…awkward," Elnor went on.

"It is," Rios said.

"Here," the holo declared a moment later. "I found footage of your victim entering this building. More than that, I can't say." He sent the address through the Farnsworth.

Rios looked up and down the street for it. When he spotted it, he said a curt thanks and hung up, then looked both ways before crossing the street. Elnor hurried after him. It was a business complex, and Rios scanned the name plates on the directory. There were a couple of dentist offices—that wouldn't be every week like clockwork. Paralegal offices…also not likely to be so regular. A therapist, however, fit the bill.

"This one," Rios said, pointing to the directory.

"How do you know?" Elnor asked.

Rios explained his reasoning as they headed for the office of a Dr. Talia Richards. He paused outside the door and added, "Let me do the talking."

Elnor nodded, taking the directive seriously.

Dr. Richards's practice looked like a small one; she didn't even have a receptionist. They stood in the waiting room outside her office until her door opened and a patient exited.

"Dr. Richards?" Rios asked, pulling out his badge. "I'm Agent Rios with the FBI. I have some questions about someone who might be a patient of yours."

The woman faltered. "Oh, all right, come in."

They entered her office and she shut the door. "I have another patient coming in ten minutes. How can I help you?"

"Is Dr. Susan Tatum a patient of yours?" Rios asked.

Dr. Richards hesitated enough to confirm it. "If she was, you have to know that doctor/patient confidentiality prevents me from discussing anything about them."

"I do know that, but Dr. Tatum is very sick with an unusual condition, and we're trying to determine whether it could have been maliciously induced."

Dr. Richards's eyes widened. "Oh my. Well, then, yes, she was in this office—I'm neither confirming nor denying as a patient."

"Understood. Did she have any interaction with another person while here? Another patient in the waiting room?"

Dr. Richards pursed her mouth. "That's getting into a very gray area, Agent Rios."

"I understand, but this is very important. What about where Dr. Tatum went before or after her sessions? In this neighborhood specifically?"

She shook her head regretfully. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Rios pulled out his phone to show her a picture of the pilot. "Have you seen this man in the area?"

Dr. Richards's eyes widened. "Um, yes, he was here a couple days ago."

Rios straightened. So they were on the right track. "Another patient?"

"He- he was several months ago," Dr. Richards responded hesitantly. "He came by to touch base. Is he sick too?" she asked concernedly.

"Yes, and we need to find the cause. Have you recently come into possession of any antiques?" Rios asked.

Her mouth moved soundlessly as she gestured helplessly at her office decor, which was all vintage style, though whether they were replicas or actual antiques required closer examination.

"Why are you asking about antiques?" she asked as she nervously fingered her shirt collar.

"Our department deals with toxic or contaminated artifacts," Rios replied. He nodded to Elnor, and the two of them began to survey the various objects. "Is anything here new?"

"Um, the lamp set."

The outer office door opened as the next patient arrived.

"Excuse me," Dr. Richards said and quickly went out to greet them.

Rios immediately pulled on his purple gloves and went to the lamps. He handed Elnor another pair to put on, then pulled out a large neutralizing bag. He stretched the opening wide and nodded for Elnor to stuff the first lamp in. But there were no purple sparks. They did the same with the second lamp, also to no effect.

Elnor frowned. "Are these not the artifact, then?"

Rios also frowned. "No."

They moved around the office, picking up the various other vintage decorations and testing them in the neutralizing baggie. Most of them were knockoffs and didn't give off any electrostatic sparks. Which put the agents back to square one.

Dr. Richards poked her head in. "Um, my next patient is here. Is my office safe?"

"It appears so," Rios answered and hastily removed his gloves. "Sorry for alarming you." He pulled out his card to hand her. "If you think of anything else, let us know."

She nodded, still looking apprehensive as Rios and Elnor left.

"If the artifact wasn't in the doctor's office where the two victims were, where would they have come into contact with it?" Elnor asked.

Rios shook his head, at a loss again. "We'll have to keep looking around the neighborhood."

"Grunt work," the kid repeated Rios's earlier words.

"Yeah, but still important."

Unfortunately, their search didn't uncover anything, and Enoch's perusal of security camera footage from surrounding buildings didn't yield any clues either.

Rios's Farnsworth chimed and he pulled it out to answer.

"Another patient has been brought in with the same symptoms," Raffi said without preamble. "A twenty-two-year-old who already thinks he's two. He's got fewer years to regress through."

"Any connection to a Dr. Talia Richards whose office is located across from the coffee shop our other two victims visited?" Rios asked.

"One moment," Emil chimed in, having been conferenced in.

"Who's this Dr. Richards?" Raffi asked, and Rios filled them in on what they'd found in the therapist's office, or lack of anything.

"There is no record of the third victim being treated by her," Emil came back. "Nor is there record of him visiting the same coffee shop, though he could have paid in cash. We're reviewing surrounding security footage again."

"His apartment is only a few miles from where you're at," Soji spoke up.

"We'll check it out," Rios replied and hung up. His phone vibrated with a text of the address a second later.

So he and Elnor headed back to the SUV to make the drive. Halfway there, however, Rios suddenly felt a strange flush of confusion. The vehicle started to swerve, and he jerked it back into its lane with a jolt. What the…

"Agent Rios, are you all right?"

He startled and whipped his head to the side to find some punk kid in the passenger seat. Rios slammed on the brakes. The car behind him blared its horn, but he ignored it.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

The kid furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

Rios looked around frantically. This looked like an agency SUV, but he couldn't remember where he was going—or what city this even was. "What the hell is going on?"

"Oh no," the kid breathed, looking shocked. "I don't understand—there was no artifact."

"Artifact?" Rios repeated. "What are you talking about?"

The kid's expression turned gravely serious. "Agent Rios, I know you're confused right now, but you need to trust me. Give me your Farnsworth."

"My what?"

"It looks like a large tin. It's in your jacket pocket."

Rios shook his head dubiously. He didn't know what was going on, but he was going to find out. He dug in his pockets for his cell to call Vandermeer and pulled out both his phone and a strange device. The kid in the passenger seat reached for it, and Rios jerked back against the door. The kid immediately raised his hands non-threateningly.

"We're working on a case," he said. "And you got exposed to something that's messing with your memory."

Rios narrowed his eyes skeptically. That sounded preposterous…and yet how could he not know where he was or how he'd gotten there?

"Please," the kid continued. "Just trust me."

"I don't even know you."

"Not very well, no. We just started working together. But I've been learning a lot from you, Agent Rios."

Well, the kid knew his name…

"Including that trust has to be earned," he went on. "But, sometimes trust also has to be given in faith."

Rios hesitated uncertainly but eventually decided to hand over the strange tin. When the kid opened the lid and a young woman's face filled the shimmering dome inside, Rios gaped in stupefaction.

"That was fast," the girl said. "Did you find something?"

"Agent Rios is losing his memory," the kid said urgently. "But I have no idea how he could have been exposed or to what."

"Shit. The artifact must have a delayed effect."

Another woman appeared next to the first. "Get him to the hospital, ASAP."

The kid nodded and disconnected the call. He then looked at Rios with a grimace. "Do you mind switching places so I can drive?"

Rios didn't like the sound of any of this, but it seemed oddly legit…so against his better judgement, he consented to trust this complete stranger with the cosplay hair.

Elnor stood outside the hospital room Rios had been admitted to. He couldn't believe this had happened; he'd been with Rios the entire time! How could he have come into contact with the artifact and Elnor didn't?

The seasoned agent had already regressed to a belligerent teenager and was arguing with Raffi, who was trying to calm him down. After a few more moments, she came back out to join the rest of them in the hall where Soji had Picard on the Farnsworth.

"Got anything?" Raffi asked agitatedly.

"I didn't see anything out of the ordinary," Elnor responded. "And we tested everything in the therapist's office. I don't know how this happened!"

"We know, kid," Raffi assured him. "JL?"

"We found a few artifacts associated with memory," he answered and held up some pictures to the lens.

Elnor straightened with recognition. "The tie clip! The therapist was wearing it." He frowned. "But if that's the artifact, why wasn't I affected?"

"Are you sure she was wearing this exact piece?" Picard asked.

"Yes," he insisted.

She must have been so flustered by their visit that she'd forgotten to tell them about it.

"Walter Winchell's Tie Clip and Cufflinks," Picard said. "The clip is activated when the wearer asks a question and the person answers."

"Agent Rios told me to let him do all the talking," Elnor said.

"Did she ask him anything that he answered?" Raffi checked.

He nodded. "She asked if the pilot was sick and why we were asking about artifacts. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Soji told him. "Finding artifacts isn't an exact science."

"We need to find that therapist and that tie clip," Raffi said. "The pilot is now on life support. His involuntary systems have begun to shut down, like his brain has literally forgotten how to keep the body alive."

"That's exactly what's happening," Picard replied. "But neutralizing the tie clip won't reverse the effects. Only the companion cufflinks can."

"Then let's get back to her office," Raffi responded.

"Actually," the Rios hologram with the Irish accent piped up. "You don't need to. I just found her entering the hospital."

"What?"

Soji's eyes widened. "What if she knows what the artifact does and is coming to finish the job before we can stop her?"

"Like hell," Raffi swore and took off down the hall.

Elnor and Soji hurried after her. Since the pilot was the first victim, Raffi made a beeline for his room where they found Dr. Richards standing over the man's bed with the tie clip in her hand.

"Stop!" Raffi yelled, pulling out her Tesla gun.

The woman startled and threw her hands up, dropping the tie clip on the floor. "I'm sorry," she blubbered in distress. "I didn't know this would happen."

Soji darted in to snatch up the tie clip and dumped it in a neutralizing baggie.

"I was trying to fix it," Dr. Richards continued to exclaim.

"Then where are the cufflinks?" Raffi demanded.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"The matching cufflinks are the only way to reverse this."

Dr. Richards's eyes widened. "I didn't know. They must be in one of the boxes I just inherited from my parents. You have to believe me, I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"She's telling the truth," Elnor informed the others.

Raffi hesitated a beat before lowering her stun gun. "Alright, then let's go find those cufflinks."

They all accompanied the therapist to her home where she had several unmarked boxes filled with old things.

"If you didn't intend to hurt these people, what did you intend?" Elnor asked curiously as he dug through one of the boxes.

"I knew the family legacy of Walter Winchell and how he had a way of getting the truth from people, and then what his tie clip was capable of," she replied, still distraught. "I thought I could use it to help my patients by making them forget their trauma so they could resume their lives. I had no idea it would erase more than that."

"You were trying to erase bad memories?" Raffi repeated dubiously.

She nodded. "The pilot, he was involved in a plane going off the runway into the ocean a couple of years ago. I was brought in as a crisis counselor through NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness."

"Explains why there was no record of him as her patient," Soji put in under her breath.

Dr. Richards frowned at that but continued, "He came by earlier this week to thank me for my help, but also that he couldn't take the anxiety of being a pilot anymore. That was his life's dream, his career. I just wanted to help him. And Susan Tatum, she couldn't seem to move forward after her husband's death. I really thought the tie clip would only erase those horrible memories."

"You do realize how disastrous that could turn out even if you were right," Soji pointed out. "I watched my father and sister die when I was a kid. And yeah, that was a horrible thing to bear, but to forget they were dead and not know where they were? Or that I ever loved them? That'd be worse."

Dr. Richards did look very remorseful over it.

"What about Mike Garcia?" Soji asked next.

Dr. Richards's expression crumpled as she remembered another of her victims. "I talked to him in a bar after work. He was struggling with addiction. God, I thought I was helping them."

"And yet you used it on Agent Rios when he came to question you," Raffi said tartly.

The woman blanched. "I didn't mean to! I was going to use it on my next patient, but your visit caught me off guard and I didn't realize I had it on…but as soon as I heard the others were sick, I took it off!"

"Found them!" Elnor declared and held up the matching cufflinks.

They hurried back to the hospital with them and went to the pilot first. Raffi held the cufflinks in one hand and prized the man's eyelids open with the other so he could "gaze" at them. There was a shimmer of light in his eyes, and then he blinked, quickly followed by panic as he fought the breathing tube.

"You're going to be okay," Raffi told him and dashed from the room.

They all followed as she went to the surgeon next, then the kid, and finally Rios. With a simple look at the cufflinks, he was restored just like the others.

"Mierda," he muttered, looking down at himself wearing a hospital gown.

"You okay?" Raffi asked. "You know who were are?"

Rios gave an unsteady nod. "Yeah, I'm good."

"I'm so sorry," the therapist started to apologize again, and Raffi and Soji turned to lead her out.

Elnor lingered. "I'm sorry too," he said when it was just him and Rios. "I didn't have your back out there."

Rios quirked a brow at him. "Neither of us realized what the artifact was. That happens in this job."

"Still, I wanted to prove myself to you. Prove that you could trust me in the field."

Rios considered him for a beat. "Sometimes trust also has to be given in faith," he said.

Elnor furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I remember what you said," Rios went on. "And you were right. If I could trust a strange punk-ass kid I'd never seen before, I think I can trust a certain Qowat Milat warrior who's done the right thing when it counted."

Elnor didn't know what to say, but he inwardly beamed and inclined his head in gratitude.

Chapter Text

Elnor stood poised, arm arched back with his katana. He moved forward with the blade, keeping his pace strictly controlled in the slowest, most precise movements. Arms and legs synced to maintain perfect balance the entire time.

The back door of the B&B creaked open.

"Elnor," Dahj called. "Come have some cake."

He paused his motions in a moment of consideration, then lowered the blade and sheathed it before going inside. He could still smell the freshness of a bake not long removed from the oven. Said cake was on a platter on the counter, frosted. Raffi, Rios, and Soji were also there waiting as Dahj cut several slices to plate for them. They all took an eager bite, only to falter before they'd even swallowed.

"What do you think?" Dahj asked, having not yet partaken herself.

"It's…different," Soji hedged.

"I'm trying gluten and dairy free baking," Dahj said.

"It tastes like it," Rios said.

"It tastes dry and rubbery."

The three Warehouse agents shot Elnor dirty looks at that.

"What?" he asked. "It's the truth."

"You need to work on tact," Rios said and set his plate down.

"The truth is tactful," Elnor argued.

Raffi rolled her eyes. "If a girl asked you if her dress made her look fat, would you ever say anything other than no?"

Elnor furrowed his brows. "A girl has never asked me that."

Raffi snorted. "Good, because if you gave any other answer than 'no,' that'd be the end of that relationship."

"As a Qowat Milat warrior, I am not supposed to have relationships."

"Oh, sweetie, do not make me feel sorry for you."

Elnor's frown deepened as he continued to consider the hypothesized situation. "Why would a girl ask such a question if she didn't want an honest answer?"

The women of the group exchanged looks while Rios remained conspicuously silent.

Dahj then sighed and took pity on Elnor. "She's looking for reassurance."

"Even if it's not true?"

"Yes."

He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Haven't you ever told a little white lie?" Rios asked him.

"No," Elnor replied, affronted at the notion. "I follow the Way of Absolute Candor."

The conversation was interrupted by Rios's Farnsworth chiming with a call.

"I swear, he's got cameras set up in here for just when the food comes out," Raffi muttered.

Rios opened his communication device. "What's up?"

"The computer pinged on a cluster of severe earthquakes in Colorado near a gold mine," Picard's voice came through. "Huge chunks of rock have reportedly shot up out of the earth. It sounds like Qin Shi Haung's Mallet."

"We're on it," Rios replied and hung up.

Soji set her cake plate down. "Uh, keep working on the recipe," she told her sister before following the rest of them out.

They drove to Colorado and went straight to the mine. While such operations were typically underground, there were men working on huge chunks of rock that looked freshly erupted from the earth. Elnor could see the glint of numerous minerals and metals contained within the stone, which was what Qin Shi Haung's Mallet did—it raised the earth and the resources within.

"Is that gold veins?" Soji asked as they walked past the rocks.

"That's motive," Raffi replied.

She and Rios flashed their FBI badges in order to track down the foreman for questioning. Doug Stratton was their man, and he looked surprised by their appearance.

"FBI? We've had other government agencies out here, but why the FBI?" he asked.

"Just due diligence," Rios replied. "There's been a lot of disturbances in the area."

"Look, our mining practices are standard; we're not causing the earthquakes. In fact, the mine is on its last leg. We had to lay off a bunch of workers until these rocks started coming up. They're on Mr. Coulter's land, so he's had us mining them more than the mine. Talk about a fortuitous event. Although I'll admit the increasing earthquakes is a bit unnerving."

"When did the first eruption happen?" Raffi asked.

"A month ago. No one's seen anything like it, not even the geology experts. They want to come in here and do some studies, but Mr. Coulter won't have it." Mr. Stratton frowned. "If they're trying to make a federal case of it…"

"A lot of people are concerned," Raffi interrupted. "By the way, is anyone on your crew using an ancient Chinese mallet in their work?"

"What? Look, Mr. Coulter's equipment is old but not that old."

Elnor heard the quake before he felt the ground rumble beneath his feet. He instinctively threw his arms out for balance as the earth groaned and rattled. Then there was a crashing sound, and they all whipped their gazes toward the rocks where a sinkhole had just opened up. The edges were still disintegrating as the hole widened right to the edge of one of the scaffolds. One of the workers tried to cling to it, but a base rod snapped and he fell, right into the sinkhole.

The earth settled, and then people were running and yelling. The foreman barreled across the lot to the sinkhole, shouting for his man. Rios pulled out his cell and called for rescue. The rest of them could only watch and wait, as they didn't have the equipment to get down there.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars began to arrive, and the miners worked with the firemen to get the pulley equipment set up. Twenty minutes later, the miner was pulled up and loaded into an ambulance. Remaining rescue personnel began cordoning off the sinkhole.

"We need to find that mallet," Raffi commented.

"Are we going to go in there and search the tools?" Elnor asked.

Raffi and Rios shared a considering look over that. They didn't really have any business or jurisdiction to conduct a search, Elnor knew. He just wondered if they would do so anyway.

"Hey!" a voice yelled. A man with white hair in a collared shirt was marching over. "Doug! Get everyone back to work!"

The miners shared dubious looks.

"Jose was just taken to the hospital," the foreman countered. "He broke his leg after falling into the sinkhole."

"Then he'll be fine. Get back to work."

The fire chief pushed his way forward. "Mr. Coulter! This area is unsafe. You should think about shutting down for the day, maybe longer."

"Your men are sectioning off the dangerous zone," the white-haired man rejoined. "My men will steer clear of it."

"The increased seismic activity makes the entire area dangerous," the fire chief snapped.

"Mine work is dangerous by nature," Coulter responded. "I'm not responsible for what Mother Nature does."

"I'm shutting this operation down until a full safety inspection can be conducted!" the fire chief lobbed back.

"We'll see about that!" Coulter turned and stormed back toward his work trailer.

The Warehouse agents blinked in dismay at the man's callousness. Meanwhile his men were left standing uncertainly between their boss's order to return to work and the fire chief's order to shut down.

"Capitalistic bastard," Soji muttered.

Raffi and Rios headed after Coulter, Elnor and Soji hurrying along with them.

"Mr. Coulter!" Raffi shouted to get the man's attention.

He paused at the base of the steps to his trailer with a scowl. "I'm busy."

"FBI," Rios said, showing his credentials. "We're investigating the unsafe working conditions of your mine."

"That's not the FBI's purview," he readily replied.

"You got a million-dollar bailout from the government five years ago for safety and equipment upgrades," Soji spoke up. "After your mine exploded, killing eleven people. That's federal money, so it is our business."

"Like I said, I can't control Mother Nature," Coulter repeated.

"It is curious," Raffi said. "Your mine starting to run dry and all of a sudden these strange seismic formations are bringing up more gold and other resources."

"Yes, and I'm taking advantage of it."

"You don't happen to have an ancient Chinese mallet lying around, do you?" she pressed.

Coulter scoffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Elnor straightened. "He's lying."

The others shot him startled looks.

Coulter faltered. "I beg your pardon?"

"You're lying about not knowing what the mallet is," Elnor replied.

"I want you off my property," the man said tersely.

"Hang on," Raffi interrupted. "How do you know he's lying?" she asked Elnor.

"I can always tell when someone is lying." He turned back to the mine owner. "Is the mallet here in the trailer?"

"What? No," he said, flustered.

"That is true," Elnor confirmed. "So where is it?"

"You've been using it on purpose," Soji accused. "Consequences be damned!"

Coulter shook his head with a spluttering response. "I don't know what—"

"Lie," Elnor proclaimed before he could finish.

Coulter's eyes began to bug out.

Rios shot a questioning look at Elnor before turning a sharp glare on the mine owner. "Where is it?" he asked in a low voice, stepping forward with intimidating menace.

Coulter took a stumbling step backward, almost tripping on the bottom step of the short stairs. His mouth moved soundlessly for several moments as he seemed to think of his options. "Fine," he eventually ground out. "It's in one of the dried up mine shafts."

Elnor nodded confirmation that was true.

"Show us," Rios demanded.

Coulter's face was turning puce colored as he led them first to a supply crate to grab some hard hats and lanterns. Elnor disliked placing the plastic bowl over his neat hair, but he nevertheless did so. Then they all headed into the empty mine.

"You had to have realized the mallet was causing the earthquakes," Raffi said. "Yet you kept using it, endangering your workers."

Coulter scoffed. "I can always find new workers. This mine is the only source of employment for people in this town. By keeping the mine going, I was protecting it."

Raffi glowered at him.

The man was undeniably despicable and reminded Elnor of Dr. Soong. The ends justified the means.

Coulter led them through the mine, then stopped and started scanning the ground. "It's around here somewhere."

"You expect us to believe you'd easily lose track of your golden goose?" Rios said.

"It's dark and I don't need it until the next rock eruption runs out," the man rejoined. He shuffled around the shaft, searching darkened corners and abandoned equipment.

The others started looking too, but Elnor's eye stayed trained on Coulter, in case he tried to make a run for it. He should have trusted his instincts, because the moment Coulter had skirted along behind them, he bent down to pick up the mallet from behind some broken equipment.

"You're not going to shut me down," he said and raised his arm.

Elnor lunged, but Coulter brought the mallet down on the ground, and rock immediately shot up. Elnor's arms pinwheeled as he skidded to a stop and scrambled backward from the erupting rock. Rocks began tumbling down from above as the shaft shook violently. One glanced off Elnor's hard hat and he lost his balance. He hit the ground and his hard hat went flying, so he threw his arms over his head to shield it. A few moments later, everything settled.

Coughing on the dust, Elnor slowly sat up and struggled to see through the haze. He fumbled around for a lantern, which winked off when he grabbed it. He gave it a few taps to bring it back on, then raised it high in the dusty air.

"Raffi? Rios? Soji?"

"Here," Soji responded first.

He turned the lantern in the direction of her voice as she got to her feet.

"Ow." Her left ankle buckled when she tried to stand, and she caught herself on the rock wall.

Swearing somewhere behind him alerted Elnor to Raffi's presence. He turned in search of her. "Are you all right?"

"No I'm not all right," she snapped. "I'm going to kick Coulter's ass."

"That might be a problem," Soji said.

Elnor turned the light back to her. She was staring at the chunks of rock that had come up from the ground…which had slammed into the chunks coming down and created a complete blockage of the tunnel.

"We're trapped," he breathed.

"Yeah," Rios grunted. "Me too."

Elnor and Raffi fumbled around until they found him still on the ground, his arm pinned under some rocks. Elnor set the lantern down and tried to lift the rocks, but the chunks were too large and heavy for him alone.

Rios let out a pained grunt. "Stop, stop."

Elnor ceased.

"We need to wait for equipment," Raffi concluded, kneeling at his head.

"Great," Rios grumbled.

Soji pulled out her Farnsworth. "This signal should get through…Picard! We're trapped in the mine. The owner used the artifact to bury us in here and took off with it."

The old man said something under his breath. "I'll send help," he said before abruptly hanging up.

Soji stared at the Farnsworth for a delayed moment. "He'll send help," she then said dismally.

Silence fell among them. Rios tried shifting before giving up again. Raffi grasped his free hand.

"So," she said, looking up at Elnor. "You're basically a walking lie detector, huh?"

He shrugged. "I suppose."

"You never told us."

"You never asked."

Raffi rolled her eyes. "It's an unfair advantage! We deserved to know."

Elnor furrowed his brows in confusion. "I don't understand why you're upset. You haven't lied to me yet." He paused. "Are there times you would want to?"

"Remember the concept of little white lies?" Raffi rejoined. "People tell those all the time!"

"I don't."

Raffi huffed. "Yeah, good for you."

Elnor's expression pinched; he hadn't meant to upset any of them. "That's why I live by the Way of Absolute Candor," he explained. "Because if no one can tell a lie to me, it's unfair I do anything else but be honest myself."

The others exchanged a look at that but didn't seem to have a response.

Which left them stuck in a dim, silent hole waiting for rescue.

Seven landed outside the mine in Colorado via teleportation of her pearl necklace. The place looked deserted, but she'd been able to pinpoint the signal of the Warehouse agents' Farnsworths and knew exactly where they were trapped. She turned and surveyed the area, spotting the rescue crews from earlier packing up near the sinkhole.

"You there!" she called sharply as she strode over. "I've got people trapped in the mine."

The fire chief gave her a skeptical look. "Ma'am, all the miners have been sent home."

"Agent," she corrected tersely. "And my team was out here investigating Mr. Coulter. He triggered a collapse in an attempt to silence them."

The firemen exchanged dubious looks.

"They can't wait all day!" Seven snapped. "Let's go!"

The men spurred into motion, grabbing their equipment and heading for the mine shaft entrance. Just as they reached it, Mr. Coulter was stepping out of his trailer. The mine owner blinked dumbly at them for a moment, then reached back inside to grab a duffel bag and bolted.

"Uh, ma—agent…" the fire chief started.

"Two rights and a left," Seven barked at him. "Go!"

The firemen hurried into the mine. Seven narrowed her eyes in the direction Coulter had gone. With no one around to witness her usage of an artifact, she teleported across the distance to intercept Coulter at his car, landing behind him without him noticing.

"Mr. Coulter," she said loudly.

He whirled in shock, and she raised a Tesla gun to fire. The energy discharge struck the mine owner, stunning him unconscious. Seven tucked the gun in the back waistband of her business slacks; she didn't normally carry a Tesla, but once Picard alerted her to the situation, she'd decided to grab one. She walked over and opened Coulter's duffel bag. It was stuffed with cash, a passport, and the mallet. Seven swiftly confiscated it, then called one of her contacts at the FBI so they could send some agents to put Mr. Coulter under arrest. The holographic copies of Rios had already found the money trail and proof the man hadn't used the government safety funds where he was supposed to.

Seven turned her gaze back toward the mine, a pinch of worry drawing her lips together. But she maintained guard over Coulter until the agents arrived to take him into custody. Only then did she head back to the mine shaft. The rescue personnel were just emerging with the Warehouse agents in tow. Soji had one arm slung over Elnor's shoulder as he helped her limp out, and Rios was holding one arm that hung in a decidedly dislocated fashion. Seven's main attention, however, was diverted to Raffi.

"Are you all right?" Seven asked, meaning Raffi though it could easily be mistaken as asking after all of them.

"We're okay," Raffi said with a nod.

"We'll get them to the hospital to get checked out," the fire chief put in.

Seven nodded. "Good." She hesitated. "I should get the artifact back to the Warehouse. I'll…see you there."

Raffi paused, expression thoughtful. "All of us?"

Seven arched a brow in question.

Raffi threw a meaningful look at Elnor.

Seven exhaled through her nose. She knew Raffi supported the Qowat Milat warrior's desire to join the Warehouse, and that he had been assisting them on cases. "Very well."

Raffi gave her a grateful smile before following after the others. Seven watched them go until they were all piled into ambulances and driving away, then she teleported back to the Warehouse.

"Qin Shi Haung's Mallet," she said, handing off the artifact to Dahj for cataloguing.

"Is Soji okay?" the girl asked worriedly.

"She appeared only mildly injured," Seven replied. "They were all going to get checked out at the hospital."

"Okay." Dahj didn't look completely relieved, which Seven oddly understood; she'd feel better once Raffi got a clean bill of health and had returned home as well.

This was the point when Seven would usually leave to go about her business. She could always return later to check on Raffi. But she found herself disinclined to do that and instead wanted to wait. But since standing around in the office was too obvious and obtrusive, she went down to meander through the Warehouse storage aisles. There was so much history here…so much she had first-hand knowledge of. It was like walking down memory lane. She spent several hours down there, simply taking in the various artifacts. She came across some of the holograms as well. One of them was meticulously dusting the artifacts and was content to ignore her, so she did the same. Then she came across the tattooed one snoozing in the golf cart.

Seven stopped in front of him and arched an unimpressed brow. "You're not even a life form that needs sleep."

He didn't even open his eyes as he just shrugged, then lazily pointed up. "They're back."

Seven didn't bother asking how he knew and merely headed back up to the office where the agents had finally arrived. Soji's ankle was wrapped and she had crutches. Rios's arm was in a sling. Raffi and Elnor had suffered only minor scrapes. Elnor stood at the window, staring out at the awe-inspiring Warehouse in amazement.

"Welcome to Warehouse 14," Seven said austerely.

He jolted from his stupor and gave a quick bow. "Thank you for granting me this honor."

"Yeah, well, you've proven yourself by now," Raffi chimed in.

He smiled gratefully at her.

Seven turned her attention to Raffi as well. "Is everyone all right?" she asked again, and again mostly meant Raffi.

"A bit banged up but in one piece," Raffi replied.

"Good," Seven said, maintaining a seemingly aloof air.

Raffi met her gaze with the slightest question, then said, "Well. I'm tired, so I'm gonna head back to the B&B and hit the sack."

Elnor frowned. "That's a lie."

Raffi grimaced. "Crap, need to remember that."

"What?" Dahj asked, looking between them.

"Oh, get this," Soji jumped in. "Elnor is apparently a walking lie detector. Go ahead, try him."

Seven arched a brow at this information. In her time as Caretaker, she'd worked with individuals who possessed…unique talents. They often served the Warehouse's purposes well. Perhaps there was a reason Elnor had come across their path.

Rios frowned at Raffi. "Why would you lie about being tired and going to bed?"

"I, uh, wasn't…" She trailed off with another grimacing glance at Elnor, who looked confused.

"I should also be going," Seven interjected, hoping to put an end to the line of questioning. She should have known better.

"That's also a lie," Elnor said. "Why are you both lying about leaving?"

There was an awkward silence as neither of them deigned to answer.

"Raf?" Rios prompted.

"Seven?" Picard echoed.

Raffi shot her an apologetic look.

Seven sighed. "We intended to meet up again," she admitted tersely. "With each other."

There was another moment of confused silence.

"Wait," Soji exclaimed. "You two are an item?"

"Sort of," Raffi answered. "Maybe. We're…exploring it."

Rios quirked a hurt look at her. "Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"That was my wish," Seven interjected. "Getting personally involved with a Warehouse agent is…frowned upon."

Picard snorted. "I should say so."

She shot him an irritated look; she was his superior.

"I think it's great," Soji said.

"Yeah," Dahj agreed. "You don't have to lie to each other about the work you do."

"I think it's great too," Rios told Raffi.

She smiled softly back at him.

Seven, however, was still uncomfortable with the focus being on the two of them.

"Well then," Raffi said, breaking the silence again. "We'll just head out." She started backing toward the door, cocking her head in invitation for Seven to accompany her. "Oh, and we're going to have a talk about when it's appropriate to call people out on their white lies," Raffi added, jabbing a finger at their newest recruit.

Seven walked out with her, no longer needing to teleport in secret.

"I'm sorry the cat is out of the bag," Raffi apologized as they made their way through the Umbilicus to the outer door.

"I suppose it would have happened eventually," Seven replied. "I'm actually surprised by their reactions. I suppose…I hadn't thought they'd be so accepting."

"Because you're Caretaker and I'm an agent?"

Seven shook her head. "No. Because the last time I went on a date, this would have been taboo." She gestured between the two of them. "When you spend so many decades detached from the world, sometimes you miss how much it's changed."

Raffi grinned and slipped her hand into Seven's as they walked out into the night. "You know, maybe we all should adopt the Way of Absolute Candor."

Seven smirked. "Hold off on that."

Raffi stopped in her tracks and turned to Seven with a serious look. "Why? Does this outfit make my butt look big?"

Her facade instantly cracked, and Seven burst out laughing for the first time in…oh, she couldn't remember how long. Raffi laughed too, and they continued hand in hand under the stars.

Chapter Text

Rios followed the dull sounds of clanking through the Warehouse aisles until he found Elnor and one of the holograms sparring with wooden sticks.

"I'm surprised you could be bothered to get off your lazy ass," he told Emmett.

The shaggy-haired holo responded with something unflattering in Spanish without skipping a beat as he exchanged blows with the ninja kid. Elnor landed a blow, but Emmett modulated his photons so the stick passed right through him.

"That's cheating," Elnor said with a frown.

Emmett just shrugged blithely.

Rios didn't know whether to be amused or embarrassed since each of these holos possessed a piece of his personality. He wasn't anything like them, but they were in part like him, and it felt like having nerves exposed sometimes.

"Come on," he told Elnor, breaking up the session. "We have a case."

They went up to the office where Soji and Raffi had already examined the information from the computer's ping.

"What are we looking at?" Rios asked.

"Apparently there's a supernaturally large amount of bad luck happening at the Fortune Downs casino and racetrack in Louisiana," Soji replied.

"Define bad luck."

"Someone got stung by a bee, which just so happened to mix with chemicals in his shampoo, causing a life-threatening allergic reaction," Raffi answered. "Another patron of the racetrack was cleaning out his gutters when he slipped and somehow managed to impale himself on the weather vane. And before all that, each of them lost big at the casino."

"What artifact are we after?" Elnor asked.

"No idea yet," Soji said.

A case to stretch their investigative skills, then. Rios appreciated those.

The four of them headed out for Louisiana to visit the Fortune Downs casino and racetrack. Soji brought her portable artifact tracker and attempted to covertly use it as they entered the casino floor. If anyone tried to ask what they were doing, their best cover story was checking for electromagnetic radiation, but that ran the risk of drawing even more attention. But that's what their badges were for.

Soji slowly angled her tracker around, narrowing in on a target. She cleared her throat to get their attention and nodded to a guy at the craps table ahead who was winning big. It was possible he was just having a lucky day, or he could be using an artifact.

Yet before the agents could cross the floor to question him, the pit boss and two thugs reached the player first to escort him away from the table. Rios had a good idea where this was going, so the Warehouse agents moved to intercept them before they could disappear behind a locked employees only door. But suddenly a large cart of food came out of nowhere and the casino goons crashed into it, knocking plates of dessert over and crashing to the floor. In the ruckus, the gambler leaped over the overturned cart and escaped.

"Someone's got good luck," Soji commented as they gave chase. But around the next corner, there was no sign of him. He'd disappeared.

"Is that luck or he turned invisible?" Raffi scowled.

Soji pocketed her artifact tracker and pulled out her tablet instead. "Hacking into the casino's security cameras."

They waited as she swiped through the various feeds.

"Got him," she declared a few moments later. "He's heading for the stables."

The agents found an exit and made their way down to the racetrack. The stables were bustling with activity as horses were brought in and out. It'd be easy for someone to slip through the massive barn with its numerous aisles of stables.

"There!" Raffi said, pointing ahead.

They quickened their pace and managed to come up on their suspect before he noticed.

"Hey," Rios announced their presence, FBI creds ready to show him. "FBI. We need to speak with you."

The guy jolted, and really he didn't look much older than Soji or Elnor. He darted his gaze around like a trapped rabbit. "Why? I haven't done anything wrong."

"You're using an artifact to give you luck at the casino tables," Raffi said bluntly.

The kid blinked incredulously. "Wha…so what if I am? It's not cheating. The house is rigged, you know."

"We're not here about ethical gambling practices," Rios said. "You're hurting people. The artifact is giving you luck by stealing it from other people."

The kid furrowed his brows.

"So you need to stop," Raffi picked up and held her hand out. "Hand it over."

The kid's expression firmed and he drew his shoulders back. "Why should I? It's mine."

"Did you miss the part where you're hurting people?" Soji said. "They're ending up in the hospital."

The guy shook his head. "Luck of the draw, then."

"Luck you're manipulating," Raffi emphasized. She glanced covertly at Rios, who gave a subtle nod. They might have to take it by force.

Rios inched his hand toward his Tesla as Raffi tensed to grab the kid, but suddenly a horse broke free from its stable and came charging at them.

"Look out!" Elnor yelled.

They all scrambled out of the way to avoid getting trampled as the horse pounded past. Elnor got clipped by the animal's broad shoulder and went sprawling in hay. Raffi slipped in manure and went down with a cry. Stable hands went running and shouting after the horse. It was over within seconds, but the kid had made his escape during the ruckus.

"Ugh, yuck!" Raffi exclaimed, nose wrinkling at the manure smeared on her pant leg. She tried to get up, only to fall back down with a yelp. "Ow ow ow."

Rios hurried over to drop down beside her, careful to avoid the manure.

Raffi sucked air through her teeth. "I twisted it," she said, clutching her ankle.

"Okay, on three," he said, pulling her arm up over his shoulder and pushing his shoulder into her side to brace her. "One, two, three." He pulled her up in one smooth motion and held most of her weight as she hobbled on one leg.

Elnor came over, rubbing his shoulder.

"You okay?" Soji asked him.

"I'm fine," he nodded, worried gaze fixed on Raffi.

"We need to find you a hospital," Rios said to her.

Raffi shook her head. "It's just a sprain. There's probably a medic on the grounds. Elnor can take me. You and Soji need to find that kid before he gets away."

Rios reluctantly passed Raffi over to Elnor's supportive hold and watched him help her hobble away.

"Now what?" Soji asked as she looked at her tablet. "I'm not finding him on the casino feeds."

"Try the artifact tracker again."

Soji swapped out the devices, and the artifact tracker led them out to the parking lot. But there was no one there. She frowned as she scanned the lot. "I don't get it; I shouldn't be getting a signal if he drove off." She gave the tracker a light smack, and one of the components went flying off, ricocheting off a light pole and into a dumpster.

Soji's jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Now we're the ones having extremely bad luck," Rios muttered.

Scowling, Soji went over and climbed into the dumpster to retrieve the piece of the artifact tracker.

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth to enlist the help of the holos, but before he could call the Warehouse, he turned to suddenly find the pit boss's goons striding straight toward him.

"Uh, something I can do for you gentlemen?" he asked.

"We don't take kindly to thieves," one of them replied.

"Neither do I…"

The second thug grabbed his jacket and upended the inside pocket. Rios stared in bewilderment as a bunch of casino chips fell out.

"Whoa, this isn't—"

A heavy-handed fist punched him in the stomach, driving the oxygen from him. Rios doubled over with a gasp and dry heave. His Farnsworth, cell phone, and Tesla were snatched away, and then the goons seized his arms to drag him away.

"Wait—" he struggled to get out between breathless gasps.

Behind him, the lid of the dumpster abruptly fell closed, and the beeping of a garbage truck filled the air as it backed up to empty the dumpster.

"Soji! No, my friend is in there!" Rios tried to tell the casino thugs, but they ignored him. He struggled futilely against them, which only earned him another debilitating punch to the gut. They hauled him back toward the casino, and the garbage truck lifted the dumpster high into the air to dump its contents into the back.

"Soji!"

"Hey!" Soji yelled, pounding against the lid that had slammed down on top of her. She could hear the dreaded beeping of a large truck backing up. "Rios!" The lid wouldn't budge, and she didn't know why Rios wasn't getting her out.

The dumpster shook as the arms latched into place, then it lifted off the ground.

"No, stop!" Soji screamed.

The dumpster tilted and the lid fell open. Soji shrieked as she and the trash went tumbling down into the back compartment of the garbage truck. She flailed to get free before the mounds of trash buried her, then frantically fumbled for her Farnsworth.

"Did you find him?" Raffi asked upon answering.

"Help!" Soji yelled. "I'm trapped in a garbage truck!"

"You're what?" Raffi exclaimed. "Where—"

"In the casino parking lot. Hurry!"

"I'm coming," Elnor said, followed by the sound of a car door opening.

Raffi cursed under her breath. "Where's Rios?"

"I don't know!" Soji was trying not to freak out, but then came the sound of gears grinding, and she realized the truck's compactor was starting to crush the garbage—and her with it. "Oh my god, stop!" she screamed, though there was no way for the driver to hear her, and she had no idea how far away Elnor and Raffi were.

"Soji!" Raffi's voice rang from the Farnsworth.

Soji was too busy trying to wade through the rising heap to stay on top of it. Just when she thought she was about to be crushed to death, there was a horrible screeching sound. Sparks flew, and the compactor came to a grinding halt. Elnor appeared at the opening above and reached down to grab her hand. Heart pounding erratically, Soji scrambled to take hold, and he pulled her out onto the top of the truck. She saw his sword jammed into the compactor's mechanism from the outside.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly.

He nodded and helped her climb down, then yanked his katana free. The SUV came squealing up behind the truck just as the driver was getting out to investigate the ruckus. Soji and Elnor sprinted to the vehicle and hopped in. Raffi rammed the gas and cranked the wheel, veering them away from a very irate garbage man.

"What the hell happened?" Raffi asked, struggling to drive with the wrong foot since her other was sprained.

"Bad luck," Soji answered bitterly.

"What happened to Rios?" Raffi repeated.

"I don't know. He was in the parking lot with me, but then I got trapped in the dumpster and he didn't try to get me out…" Soji forced herself to take a steadying breath and pulled out her tablet to tap into the casino security cameras again. She pulled up the closest camera to the parking lot and rewound it to the timestamp of her fiasco. "Crap, this is bad."

"What?" Raffi demanded.

"Those casino thugs grabbed him."

Elnor frowned. "Why?"

"With our current luck?" Soji rejoined.

Raffi pulled up in front of the casino entrance, and Soji and Elnor sprang from the vehicle to rush inside. They made their way to an employee entrance where they waited anxiously for someone to come out. Two minutes felt much longer, but eventually a dealer came out, and Soji and Elnor surreptitiously slipped through the door before it closed and locked. Soji knew from following the security camera feeds where Rios had been taken, and she led the way down the halls to the back room that did not have any cameras in it. But Soji could hear the beating happening through the door.

Elnor drew his sword and prepared to kick the door in.

"Don't kill anyone!" Soji hissed.

Elnor huffed and burst in.

Rios was on his hands and knees on the floor, one arm clutching his stomach as the two casino thugs pummeled him. They jolted in surprise, and Elnor surged forward, delivering a roundhouse kick to one and spinning to ram the other in the head with the hilt of his katana. Soji hurried to Rios.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

He spat out some blood on the concrete floor. "Been…better."

Elnor bent down to help him to his feet.

Rios waved vaguely at a table. "Tesla."

Soji went over and retrieved his personal items the thugs had divested him of, then they quickly vacated the casino, pushing past numerous patrons on their way out to the SUV. Once they were piled inside, Raffi took off with a screech of tires.

"What the hell?" Raffi exclaimed, glancing over her shoulder repeatedly at Rios, who was sporting multiple facial bruises and contusions.

Rios groaned and shifted in the backseat, clutching his torso.

"How are we going to get to the artifact if bad luck is just going to keep getting in our way?" Soji asked.

Silence filled the car for several moments.

"We have to outsmart it," Raffi finally said.

"How?" Elnor asked.

"We're stuck with bad luck, right? Which is going to thwart our intentions every step of the way. So we just have to…act as though we want the complete opposite."

"Come again?" Rios grunted with a dubious look.

"I get it," Soji said. "Take us back."

Raffi pulled a u-turn to head back to the casino.

"Is the guy even still there?" Elnor asked skeptically. "Wouldn't he have gone to ground by now?"

"Not if he thinks he's untouchable with his luck," Soji replied. "He's a gambler; he won't just walk away."

Rios caught her eye and gave a small nod in agreement.

They pulled up outside the casino again and Soji opened the back door to jump out. "Stay here," she turned to tell Rios. "In case those goons have woken up."

Rios grimaced unhappily but didn't protest. He had taken a pretty bad beating, and Raffi couldn't walk, which left this up to Soji and Elnor.

The two of them made their way into the casino.

"Okay, we need to look for anyone other than the guy with the artifact," Soji said.

Elnor arched a dubious brow. "I don't think this will work."

They didn't have any other ideas, though, so Soji focused on meandering through the casino floor with the intention of finding anyone else in the world she'd recognize. And she most certainly tried not to think about the artifact they wanted. They went up and down the rows of slot machines and near the tables, and just when Soji was feeling this wouldn't work after all, there was the guy. He locked eyes with them for a split second before turning to bolt.

Soji and Elnor gave chase. The guy barreled through a locked door without problem, and Soji and Elnor reached it before it could shut and lock them out. They cornered their quarry in a back storage room.

"Stop!" Elnor yelled, making a run for him. But he tripped on a small crate, his foot breaking through the slats and almost tripping him.

The kid laughed and sauntered back over. "When are you going to get it? Luck is on my side."

"Punch the wall!" Soji yelled.

Elnor shot her an incredulous look.

"Do it!"

The kid frowned, and Elnor straightened to throw a punch, aiming for the wall. And just like that, bad luck redirected his fist from the wall to the guy's face, knocking him out with one hit.

Elnor blinked in amazement. "I can't believe that worked."

Soji ran over and dropped to the floor, hastily pulling on purple gloves before searching the kid's pockets while Elnor extricated himself from the crate. She pulled out a lucky rabbit's foot and raised her eyebrows. "Hello."

Elnor quickly got out a neutralizing baggie and snapped it open, and Soji dropped the rabbit's foot inside. Sparks flew as the artifact was neutralized, and Soji breathed a sigh of relief that their bad luck was finally over.

They left the guy in the storage room to be found by the pit boss's goons. Soji felt only a sliver of guilt for the treatment he was going to get. They climbed back into the SUV and headed home. Once outside the city, Soji switched with Raffi so she wouldn't get them into an accident even without the curse of bad luck hovering over them. The drive looked rough on Rios, who insisted he did not need a doctor and just an ice pack once they made it home.

"You guys look like hell," Dahj said when they all came trudging into the Warehouse.

Soji handed over the artifact. "This one was hell."

"William Tell's Rabbit Foot," Dahj said. "Alters probability to grant the user impossible luck."

"Yeah, by stealing everyone else's." Soji looked down and wrinkled her nose at her clothes. "I need a shower."

"Me too," Raffi echoed. "Come on, tough guy," she said to Rios.

"Perhaps when you've recovered, Emmett and I can teach you some advanced fighting moves," Elnor suggested.

Rios just groaned and let Raffi lead him back out.

Soji pursed her mouth thoughtfully. "You know what, I might want some lessons too."

Chapter Text

"I've reviewed the autopsy reports," Agnes said through the Farnsworth, conferenced in with Jean-Luc back at the Warehouse and Rios and the rest of the agents currently driving into Philadelphia for a case. "I've confirmed there were no anomalies to explain the deaths."

Four deaths, in total. Two were found dead in their homes, the other two still alive but in comas and put on life support before dying a day later. And there were no health conditions or medical explanations, which garnered the attention of the Warehouse.

"The holograms have searched through the victims' records," Jean-Luc put in. "All of them were in Rome, Italy a month ago at the same time, but there's no indication they knew each other."

"What were they doing there?" Rios asked.

"It appears just traveling."

"If we have to split up, can I go to Rome this time?" Soji asked from the backseat.

"Have there been any similar deaths in Italy?" Raffi asked next.

"Not that we've found," Picard replied.

"All the victims are here in Philadelphia; the artifact must be here," she concluded.

"Yeah, but what are the odds they're all connected to Rome?" Soji pressed.

"Hold on," Jean-Luc said. There was a moment of silence before he came back. "We've just identified another person who was in Rome at the same time."

"We?" a muffled voice muttered.

"He's still alive," Jean-Luc went on.

Rios could practically hear the eye roll over the speaker. Picard gave them the address for Carl Delaney, which Raffi plugged into the GPS, and they made their way there. It was early evening, so if their potential victim worked a day job, he should be home… But there was no answer when they rang his bell. Rios knocked on the door loudly and waited. Still nothing.

"I think that's his car on the street," Soji said, having looked up his file on the short drive.

"Hang on," Raffi said, going still. "You hear that?"

Rios angled his ear toward the door and strained to listen. A faint, garbled scream sounded from somewhere inside.

Raffi's eyes widened as she heard it too, and they both drew their Teslas as Rios backed up and then kicked the door in. The Warehouse agents burst inside where the screams immediately gained more volume. They were coming from a back bedroom. Rios and Raffi led the charge down the hall and into the room where they found Carl Delaney tied to the metal frame of a bed…and a priest standing over him uttering words in what sounded like Latin.

"What the hell," Raffi blurted.

The priest faltered in his ritual.

"Help me!" Carl Delaney begged.

"Back up," Rios ordered, gesturing with his Tesla.

"You must not interfere," the priest rejoined sharply. "This man is plagued by demons and must be exorcised."

Said man screamed again and raged against the leather cords binding his wrists. Raffi pulled out her phone to call for paramedics, then tucked her Tesla away so she could untie Carl.

"I must be allowed to finish!" the priest demanded.

Rios placed himself in front of the priest and bodily pushed him backward without laying hands on him. He shot Soji and Elnor a pointed look to check the priest's "exorcism kit." The two younger agents snapped on their purple gloves and began going through the vials of holy water and ornate crosses, but after completing a search of the bag, they shook their heads in the negative. No artifact. And Carl wasn't comatose like the other victims had been found, though he was obviously severely stressed by being tied up in his own home and put through an exorcism. By the deep red marks on his wrists, he had been straining against those cords for hours.

Paramedics and local law enforcement arrived. Carl was quickly put on a gurney and removed while Rios gave a statement to the cops about what they'd found and that they'd had reasonable cause to enter the residence. The priest, meanwhile, stood austerely with his hands folded in front of him, saying nothing.

"Father…?" one of the cops started.

"Silvano," the priest replied. "And this is a misunderstanding."

"Were you or were you not trying to perform an exorcism on this man?" Rios asked.

"I was, as is God's will."

Another uniformed officer came over. "I just spoke with one of the EMTs. The victim has taser marks on the back of his neck. Would have incapacitated him."

"I take it Mr. Delaney didn't consent to this exorcism," the lead cop said.

"The Devil never does."

The officer shook his head. "Father Silvano, you are under arrest for unlawful detainment."

"Look inside my wallet," Father Silvano replied as the second officer moved forward to handcuff him.

Rios was closer to the bag, so he rifled through it for said wallet until he found what looked like official papers. "Father Silvano from Vatican City," he read, trailing off in dismay at a very key phrase. "He has diplomatic immunity."

Father Silvano looked smug as the cop instructed for him to be released.

"Wait, you're letting him go?" Soji blurted. "He almost killed that guy!"

"He has diplomatic immunity," Rios replied tightly.

Father Silvano picked up his exorcism kit, took back his papers, and calmly walked past them all and out the door.

Soji spluttered. "You can't be serious."

"Diplomatic immunity means he's untouchable," Raffi said, equally annoyed by this development. "Let's go."

"Thank you, officers," Rios said on their way out. They'd be stuck with the paperwork on this one.

"Unbelievable," Soji was still muttering.

"So," Rios said at the car. "No sign of an artifact."

Elnor shook his head. "And the other victims were not found conscious, so Mr. Delaney doesn't look like he's a victim. Not of the artifact, anyway."

"Yeah, but his connection to the other victims can't be a coincidence," Raffi said. "And that priest? I think we should ask Agnes if an exorcism could have caused the other deaths. The paramedics were talking about severe dehydration and erratic vitals when they took Carl away." She pulled out her phone to make that call.

"Then, is this not a case of an artifact, but what the priest said, demons?" Elnor queried.

Rios and Raffi shared a look.

"I doubt it," Raffi replied, turning away to talk into her phone.

"But we didn't find an artifact. Or could it be a delayed effect from something they came into contact with in Italy?"

"A month's delay is a really long time," Rios pointed out. "Did you detect any lies?"

"No. Father Silvano was telling the truth. Or, what he believed was the truth."

"Which is demons," Soji said, sounding equally skeptical of the notion.

Raffi hung up and turned back to them. "Okay, Agnes said it's possible extreme duress could stop the heart. She's going to come down to the morgue tomorrow and do some tests on the victims' clothing to see if there's traces of holy water."

"So now you think the priest is behind all of this?" Soji asked.

Raffi shrugged. "Maybe."

"But what good is that if the law can't touch him?"

"We'll figure out something," Rios answered. It was complicated, but if a priest was going around murdering unsuspecting men, they were going to stop him, diplomatic immunity or not.

After spending the night in a motel, the Warehouse agents got to work again the following morning, first by checking in with the Warehouse. The holo squad, at least, was able to work through the night without rest.

"We did find something," Emil reported. "While all four—now five—of our victims were in Rome, a priest from the Vatican died mysteriously. The Internet is rife with conspiracy theories around it."

"Okay," Raffi said. "That's a connection between the victims and the Church. But is there any evidence these guys were involved? I thought they didn't know each other?"

"Not that we've found," Emil confirmed. "But since when does conspiracy need kernels of truth to survive? In any case, you should also know that the priest who died was a good friend of Father Silvano."

"So he might be taking revenge on the people he believes are responsible," Rios said.

"How did he even link them all if we can't?" Soji asked. "Aside from simply being in town?"

"Who knows. The man also believes they're possessed by demons. Any little thing could have cemented the idea in his head."

"So he's crazy."

Rios angled a kind look at her. "That's what everyone thought about you seeing your dead sister. Maybe what he believes are demons is actually an artifact."

Soji shut up at that.

"Or demons are real?" Elnor put out there.

Emil scoffed over the Farnsworth. "Hardly."

Rios hung up on the hologram.

"What do we do now?" Elnor asked next. "Is this a case of an artifact or not? And if it's not, is it really our case?"

"If Father Silvano is directly responsible for these mens' deaths, via an artifact or not, we can't let him get away with it," Rios answered.

"There's still that whole diplomatic immunity thing," Soji reminded them.

"We'll deal with that eventually." Rios grabbed his jacket and slipped it on. "In the meantime, it's time for some old-fashioned FBI investigative work. Starting with having a chat with Father Silvano again."

They found what hotel the priest was registered at and headed over. The man answered after a few knocks, his expression turning stern upon seeing them.

"Does this country not respect diplomatic immunity?" he asked tartly.

"We just have a few questions," Rios replied. "We learned of Father Giovanni's death in Rome."

"What of it?"

"He was a close friend of yours, yes? Our condolences."

"You said you have questions, not statements."

"There's talk that he was murdered," Raffi put in. "Nothing's been verified, but given all these events, do you have reason to believe Carl Delaney or any other American was responsible?"

"You seek a confession, but it will do you no good," Father Silvano replied. "In any case, my work is almost done."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raffi asked.

"That my work is that of God, and yours is of the devil."

"Protecting the innocent isn't the devil's work," Rios said.

"It is when those people aren't innocent," Father Silvano rejoined. "Now I ask you to leave before I'm forced to take this up with your superiors."

Rios's lips thinned, but they nevertheless backed off and retreated back to the SUV.

"I'm having the hospital put a guard on Carl's room," Raffi said, pulling out her phone.

"I couldn't get a read on Father Silvano," Elnor spoke up. "He didn't say an outright lie."

"He's behind all of it," Rios replied.

Elnor frowned. "How do you know?"

"After being an FBI agent as long as I have, you develop a sense for these things."

Raffi nodded in agreement between giving instructions over the phone. "Okay, security is putting a guard on Carl. You want to set up at the hospital or here?"

"Here. I want to know everywhere this guy goes," Rios answered and climbed into the SUV.

Soji and Elnor climbed into the backseat. "What are we doing?" Soji asked.

"Stake out. Welcome to the most tedious part of being an FBI agent."

They settled in for a long watch, taking turns making bathroom runs and getting food and coffee.

"This is tedious," Elnor sighed after four hours.

"Yeah," Soji echoed. "Why are we bothering?"

"He said his work was almost done," Raffi replied. "Which means he plans to finish the job with Carl."

"But we still can't arrest him if he does," Elnor said in confusion.

"No, but if we catch him in the act again, we establish a pattern and might be able to convince the Vatican to recall him and exact their own disciplinary measures," Rios answered.

Soji huffed. "That's not justice."

"No," Raffi agreed. "But it might be all we get."

Father Silvano didn't leave his hotel until after dark. No doubt to attempt to conceal his movements, but the agents were ready. He stepped outside with his black bag and set off down the street. Rios waited a few moments before starting the engine and following. Father Silvano was on foot, which made tailing him in a vehicle more difficult, since they had to keep a slow speed but not get noticed. Then the priest slipped down an alley and disappeared.

"Damn it!" Rios slammed his palm against the steering wheel.

"Let's get to the hospital," Raffi said.

Her Farnsworth chimed with an incoming call.

"We found another person!" Enoch exclaimed when she answered. "We missed him at first because after Rome he traveled to several other places before returning to his native Philadelphia."

"Are you sure?" Raffi said urgently.

"Yes!"

Enoch gave them the man's address, and Rios did a u-turn to head for it. With Carl under guard at the hospital, there was no way Father Silvano was going to get near him long enough to conduct a full exorcism. So if his work wasn't done, then maybe he was going after one last victim.

The SUV screeched to a stop in front of a darkened house and the agents jumped out to rush inside. Screams led them to the living room where a sixth victim was tied spreadeagled on the underside of an upside down coffee table. And Father Silvano was practically shouting his Latin litany.

"Hey!" Rios yelled.

Father Silvano whirled, eyes flashing. He spun and picked up a candle, which he threw at Rios's head. Rios ducked as the priest took off, then gave chase. He pursued Father Silvano out the back door, through the yard, and out into the empty street.

"Stop!" Rios shouted, gaining on him.

Father Silvano abruptly pulled up short and twisted around. In one hand, he held up a lighter and flicked the tab. Something stabbed Rios in the center of his sternum like grappling hooks. He staggered to a stop with a ragged gasp, his body going rigid. A strange aura began to glow around his eyes, washing out his vision in blue. The stabbing sensation came again, digging deeper and ripping and tearing. He couldn't breathe, couldn't scream, as something fundamental inside him was torn asunder.

Chapter Text

For the second time in two days, Raffi found herself untying a blubbering, terrified person while calling for an ambulance.

"You're gonna be okay," she assured him.

Elnor came scrambling back in from the rear of the house. "Raffi, come quick," he said urgently, and the fear in his eyes was like a shot of adrenaline through her veins.

She hesitated only a split second before leaving the sobbing victim and following Elnor out the back door at a harried pace. Out in the middle of the street, Soji was kneeling over Rios.

"Cris?" Raffi exclaimed as she dropped down beside them. His eyes were closed and his pallor waxen.

Soji had two fingers pressed under Rios's jaw, her expression terrified. "His pulse is getting weak."

"What happened?" Raffi demanded as she looked around for Father Silvano. He was gone.

"I don't know," Soji answered anxiously. "It was dark, and Rios was ahead of us. There was a bright flash, and then nothing, and we found him like this."

Sirens announced the arrival of paramedics, and Raffi jumped up to wave them down.

"I've one critical in the street and another needing attention inside the house," she briefed.

The paramedics split up, one of them following Raffi back to Rios. Her heart lurched into her throat when she saw Soji doing chest compressions.

"Help!" the girl cried to the EMT, who quickly stepped in to take over.

Cris was just like the other victims had been: unresponsive and vitals failing.

More emergency personnel pulled up, and the EMT barked for Raffi to get them over here. She yelled and waved her arms, unable to drag herself away from her best friend.

The other EMTs ran over and joined the first, crowding out Soji and Elnor. The three of them could only watch as a bag valve mask was placed over Rios's face. One of the EMTs held it in place and depressed the bag as the other two transferred him to a gurney and whisked him back to the ambulance. Raffi made a move to follow, fully intending to climb in the back with him, but she was intercepted by a police officer asking if she was the FBI agent on scene. Raffi gritted her teeth as she realized she was the senior agent in charge.

"Soji, go with him," she directed sharply.

The girl sprinted across the road to join the medic in the ambulance before it could drive off.

Raffi was forced to stay behind and brief the first cops on the scene, then the detectives who rolled out in response to the major incident. It took far too long for her patience and she was getting snippy by the end before she could finally excuse herself to head to the hospital with Elnor. By the time they got there, Rios had been admitted to the ICU and was on a ventilator.

"He's in a coma," Soji told them. "The doctors said there's…" She swallowed hard. "No brain activity at all."

Raffi stood in the antiseptic scented hospital room and stared at the egregious tube stuffed down Rios's throat with the psh-shah sounds of the breathing machine doing the work for his lungs.

"The, uh—" She cleared her throat. "The other victim?"

"He's going to be fine," Soji replied. "Whatever artifact Father Silvano is using, he only used it on Rios tonight."

An artifact. But what artifact? Raffi shoved her fingers into her hair, catching on her tight locks as she felt the urge to tear them out. "How the hell did this happen?"

Soji's Farnsworth chimed with an incoming call. "What'd you find?" she answered.

"Footage from a Ring camera aimed at the street," Ean replied. "We just sent it to you."

Soji passed her Farnsworth to Elnor to hold while she got out her tablet, and Raffi and Elnor crowded around her to watch the video. It showed Father Silvano running down the street, then stopping to face Rios. He held up something small in his hand and Rios skidded to a stop. Blue light glowed in his eyes before being sucked out in a massive swirl that went into whatever artifact Father Silvano was holding. Then Rios collapsed and the priest escaped into the darkness.

"I've enhanced the video," Ean went on. "Father Silvano is holdin' a lighter."

"Frank Mercer's Lighter," Jean-Luc put in gravely as he stepped into the frame. "It sucks out souls."

Raffi's brows shot up to her hairline. "What?"

"That's why the victims all died. The body can't continue without the soul inhabiting it."

"He literally did exorcise them," Soji said in disbelief.

"Where is Father Silvano now?" Raffi asked.

"He just boarded a flight back to Rome," Jean-Luc answered. "Seven was unable to stop it, but she's already in contact with the Italian authorities."

Raffi's heart skipped a beat as she flicked a terrified look at Rios. "We have to get that lighter."

Clacking footsteps preceded Agnes rushing in. "I'm here." She blanched as her gaze landed on Cris.

"Keep him alive," Raffi instructed sternly before marching out. She was going to Rome.

The sound of jet engines roared overhead as Raffi, Soji, and Elnor exited the airport.

"I'd hoped my first case in Europe would've allowed for some sightseeing," Soji said. "What if the Vatican won't let us speak to Father Silvano?"

"They will," Raffi replied, waiting on the curb for their contact.

"Agents," a man in a prim suit and tie addressed them.

"You're the Regent?" Raffi asked.

"Call me Mr. Accardi. This way."

Soji and Elnor arched questioning looks at Raffi as they followed. She didn't explain. It was rare for Warehouse agents to even have interaction with the Regents, so Raffi stayed quiet and followed the man's lead.

He brought them to a nondescript, black company car they all piled into, and then they were driven to the Vatican. Mr. Accardi spoke with someone at the gate in Italian and they were granted entrance. Another priest escorted them straight to Father Silvano's room.

The fugitive priest surged to his feet. "What is the meaning of this?"

"You think God is powerful?" Raffi rejoined. "There are other forces in this world you shouldn't have messed with."

Sputtering, the man reached inside his vestment, and Elnor leaped forward to grab his wrist and wrench it away. Father Silvano grunted as he was manhandled against the wall. Raffi stepped closer and reached into the pocket to pull out the lighter.

"This wasn't sucking out demons, you know," she said. "It sucks out souls."

He gazed back at her with steely eyes. "Corrupt souls are still corrupt."

Raffi wanted to stun him with her Tesla, but she gritted her teeth and resisted the urge. She turned her back on him instead and addressed Mr. Accardi. "Thank you."

"What about him?" Soji asked, nodding to Father Silvano.

"We will deal with him," the Regent promised. "My driver will take you straight to the airport."

Raffi nodded and headed out, but her phone started ringing loudly in the otherwise tranquil Vatican. She fumbled to answer it. "Agnes?"

"Have you found the artifact?" she asked tightly.

"Yeah, I have it in my hand. We're on our way back to the airport."

"I don't know if that will be fast enough. Cris has gone into cardiac arrest twice. We managed to bring him back, but the more it happens, the less his chances are."

Raffi's breath stole from her lungs and she abruptly hung up to call in one more favor.

Agnes sat by Cris's bedside, holding his hand as though she could physically hold onto him and keep him from slipping away. The steady rhythm of the breathing machine had a more regular pace than the stuttering beeping of the heart monitor. His body was shutting down and there was nothing she and all her medical training could do to stop it.

There was the slightest disturbance of air and Agnes looked over to find Seven suddenly standing in the room.

"I have the artifact," she announced and held up the lighter.

Agnes jumped to her feet. "How does it work?"

Seven walked over to the bed and flicked the lighter's switch. A bright blue light streamed out of the lighter and went straight into Cris's nose, briefly filling his chest with a muted glow before dimming. Agnes held her breath in amazement. And then Cris's eyelids fluttered open.

Agnes's knees went weak with sheer relief and she hurried forward to clasp his hand again. His eyes blew wide and he reached for the breathing apparatus.

"Easy, easy," Agnes urged, capturing his flailing hands. "There's a tube in your throat to help you breathe. We'll get it out, just lie still."

"Doctor!" Seven called from the doorway.

The monitors that had been so sedate were now blaring with alarms as Cris's instinct tried to claw at the tube down his airway.

"Look at me," Agnes said firmly. "I'm right here."

Wide, frightened eyes locked onto hers, and a flicker of recognition and trust began to bleed through the panic.

The medical team came rushing in and Agnes stepped into doctor mode, instructing them on disconnecting the machine and elevating the bed.

"Breathe in through your nose and then out through your mouth as we remove the tube," she told Cris. "All the way."

He blinked in acknowledgement and took a deep breath in. As he exhaled, the other doctor pulled the tube out. Cris made horrible but not unexpected choking sounds, and once the offending object was fully removed, he broke into a fit of coughs. Agnes had a cup of water ready with a straw for him to sip.

"There you go," she soothed. "You're okay."

He collapsed back against the pillows, eyes watering. "Agnes?" he croaked.

"I'm right here." She stroked his hair back.

He squeezed his eyes shut and focused on breathing for several moments. The medical team had vacated the room, and Seven had disappeared sometime during the bustle. Probably to get that heinous artifact safely locked inside the Warehouse.

"What- what was that thing?" Cris rasped.

"Frank Mercer's Lighter. It, uh, sucks out souls. But we got it back. We got you back."

A tremble went through him. "I felt all of it," he whispered. "It was like being ripped to shreds but still…aware. And then it was dark and cold, and I felt like I was suffocating…"

Agnes took his hand. "It's over now."

He closed his eyes again and eventually fell asleep, exhausted from the ordeal. Agnes wanted to keep him under observation and get more fluids and electrolytes into him before approving his discharge, but once he was fit, she took him back to the B&B in Tennessee where she ordered continued bedrest. Dahj was all too happy to make him soup and honeyed tea for his bruised throat. Agnes took a few days off to stay as well. After coming so close to losing him, she wasn't willing to fly back to work so soon.

They were snuggled up on the sofa, Cris's feet up on the footrest.

"Do you believe in God and the Devil?" he asked quietly.

Agnes tilted her head up toward his face. "I believe in science."

"But with all the artifacts we've dealt with, surely you believe in the supernatural," he pressed.

"Well, I believe in the science behind residual energy that imbues artifacts with…power. And, well…for the other stuff, I suppose I've never given it much thought."

"Neither have I," he said. "I've faced near death experiences before, but I've never given much thought to whether I'd end up in heaven or hell, or whether they even exist. But where I was after Father Silvano used that lighter on me…I think I believe in hell now."

Agnes tightened her arms around him, wishing she could soothe the pain of the wound he bore on his soul from this gross violation.

The front door opened, and a moment later, Raffi, Soji, and Elnor came clamoring inside.

"Hey," Raffi greeted with a beaming smile of relief. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll live," Cris replied. "So I'm told."

"And the Regents are dealing with Father Silvano, so that priest will not be practicing anymore exorcisms, with an artifact or not."

Agnes felt Cris stiffen.

"And the lighter?" he asked tautly.

"Secured in the Dark Vault," Seven's voice answered.

Soji and Elnor startled to find she was suddenly standing behind them.

Cris was still tense. "What about the other souls Father Silvano stole?"

"They have been released," Seven said. "May they find peace wherever it is they go."

There were murmurs of solemn agreement, but Cris remained quiet, looking deep in troubled thoughts. Agnes couldn't know what he'd been through; all she could do was be there with him as he wrestled with existential questions most people spent a lifetime trying to reconcile. It wasn't the first time he'd gone through such extreme trauma, and Agnes had to trust he was strong enough to get through it again.

Chapter Text

Rios was sitting on his bed reading when a knock on his door preceded Raffi's uninvited entrance.

"Hey, we got a case," she said without preamble.

He closed his book and set it on the bedside table. Raffi angled her head at it curiously.

"The Tragic Sense of Life," she read the title aloud. "Okay…" Her brows furrowed. "You okay, babe?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he countered as he went to retrieve his go-bag.

"That doesn't exactly sound like fun reading. And you did recently go through something traumatic…"

"And maybe I have questions," he said, stiffening with defensiveness.

"Yeah, sure," Raffi quickly backtracked. "I get that." She paused for a beat. "Questions like…is life worth living?"

Rios shook his head. "It's not like that."

"Okay, good."

"I just…I got a glimpse of my immortal soul and it was…not so much enlightening as terrifying."

"Well, given the method, I would say not."

"I just need to work through it," he assured her, walking over and kissing the side of her head. "You don't have to worry about me, I promise."

"I worry about you for a lot of reasons," she rejoined, following him downstairs.

They met up with Soji and Elnor, and the conversation was shelved as they headed out to San Jose, California where a haunted house appeared to be actually haunted.

"Picard said we're after the Haunted Accordion," Soji relayed from the backseat of the SUV. "It has a habit of playing by itself, and apparently someone at the Winchester Mystery House thought it'd make a good addition for their Halloween tours."

"Winchester Mystery House?" Elnor repeated.

"Yeah, it's this insane mansion that's a major tourist attraction. It's got 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens."

Rios glanced in the rear view mirror at that. He'd heard of the Winchester Mystery House, but didn't know any specific details.

"Why?" Elnor asked dubiously.

"The lady who owned it was some kind of batshit crazy recluse," Soji replied, reading off a website she had pulled up on her phone. "She kept it under constant construction from 1886 to 1922. Here, there's pictures."

Soji showed her phone to Elnor, then reached between the seats to show Raffi and Rios. He took his eyes off the road briefly to get a glimpse.

"We'll take the tour when we get there," he said. "Find the accordion and then go back to retrieve it."

When they arrived at the mansion, they parked in the lot across from a shopping complex and headed inside. The property was walled off with high hedges and stone walls, which made it seem unassuming and not that large from the outside. But there was a courtyard between the initial entrance and the start of the tour outside the gift shop, and there they got a glimpse of the sprawling mansion stretching out around a massive farm yard. It was still hard to comprehend, not until the tour started and they got into the actual house.

"The photos did not do this justice," Soji remarked in amazement as they walked through a glass corridor between two wings and got an even broader look at the rolling rooftops.

"It's like something out of the Mad Hatter," Raffi said.

The tour was interesting, though there were several places they had to squeeze that were not so fun. Like the teeny tiny staircases that went up and made a sharp 180-degree turn to come back down. Apparently the former owner was of small stature and didn't put stock in higher ceilings. Both Rios and Elnor had to walk hunched over at times. Which contrasted sharply with the ornate bedrooms and even ballrooms in this place.

"Now if you listen closely," the tour guide said, "you might hear the ghosts playing." She angled her ear toward the ballroom they stood outside of. Sure enough, the sounds of an accordion filtered from the back of the room.

The tourists chuckled, no doubt thinking it was a gag, and the tour moved on. The Warehouse agents followed, gradually falling back to the rear of the group until they could find a place to sneak off. One good thing about this gigantic place was there were plenty of places to hide. They ducked into a section that was closed off for earthquake renovations and proceeded to wait until the last tour had gone for the day and the tourist spot had closed.

"This place is a trip," Soji said, standing on her tiptoes to peer out a small window as it grew dark outside.

"The tour guide speculated that Sarah Winchester wanted to keep away the ghosts of everyone killed by Winchester rifles," Elnor said curiously.

Soji shrugged. "Maybe what she believed was a haunting was just an artifact." She turned to Rios and Raffi. "Has the Warehouse ever retrieved an artifact from this place?"

"Not during our time," Raffi replied. "But who knows."

"Who knows how many might be sleeping in these old bones, yet to be awakened," Soji mused.

"It's time," Rios interjected.

The house had officially closed and the employees gone home; they weren't yet running their midnight Halloween tours. The agents got out flashlights and ventured back out into the hallways to make their way back to the ballroom. The sound of the accordion continued to echo through the many passages, playing out a haunting tune.

"I see why someone thought this was a supreme find," Soji remarked. "Kinda sad we have to remove it."

"Does it have any harmful effects?" Elnor asked.

"Nope, just plays and plays on its own," Raffi answered.

"This was the ballroom, right?" Rios asked. They'd passed more than one on the tour.

"Yes," Elnor confirmed.

They stepped over the gallery rope sectioning the room off from public access and spread out to search the room. But they didn't find anything.

"Okay, not the right room," Raffi huffed.

"No, it is," Elnor insisted.

"Then where is the accordion?" Soji said.

Rios turned his ear toward the music still playing. "This way."

They followed the tune, but then it seemed to be coming from everywhere, and with so many intersecting passages, the acoustics were becoming a mess. They crossed a hallway with no wall that looked straight down into a kitchen below and found the music growing fainter.

"Okay, enough of this," Soji said and pulled out her artifact tracker. The thing whirred as it warmed up, narrowing in on the accordion's aura.

The temperature abruptly plummeted and their breaths came out in foggy billows.

"This is…unsettling," Elnor said.

"I definitely feel a chill," Soji agreed.

"It's just because half the windows are left open in this place," Raffi reasoned.

Soji turned back and forth until her tracker started whirring faster. "This way."

The tracker led them to a bedroom where they found the accordion.

"Someone must have moved it before closing," Rios said. He started toward it, only for a gust of wind to suddenly whip up the curtains. A high-pitched cacophony of screeches preceded a swarm of bats rushing in and bombarding them.

There were yelps and screams as they all tried to shield their faces and bat away the offending creatures. In less than a minute, the animals had all retreated back out the window.

"What the hell," Soji uttered and spat a strand of hair out of her mouth.

"Was anyone scratched or bitten?" Rios asked urgently.

They looked themselves and each other over and thankfully were unscathed. Rios turned back to the accordion—but it was gone.

Raffi's brows rose sharply. "What the hell," she repeated.

The music started up again, filtering in from somewhere else.

"It moves?" Soji said incredulously.

"That wasn't in the file," Raffi replied.

"Could the Haunted Accordion actually be haunted by ghosts that are playing it?" Elnor asked.

"There are no ghosts here," Raffi declared, though Rios didn't miss the flicker of doubt in her eyes.

Before this, he would have said there was no such thing as ghosts, and any preternatural activity was because of an artifact. But now he wasn't so sure. If the human soul was real, where did it go when the body died? Heaven, hell…cursed to haunt the earth forever? Or nothing? Maybe the only thing that remained was those artifacts imbued with someone's strong, emotional influence, and everyone else was just erased.

But Rios remembered sensations after his own soul had been sucked out of his body and trapped in the lighter, so he didn't think a person's essence just evaporated after death. But did that mean he was willing to believe there were actual spirits wandering around the earth?

"This way," Soji said, her tracker narrowing in on the accordion again, so Rios shelved his existential queries for later.

They were making their way down a dark hallway when all their flashlights suddenly winked out.

"Oh, come on," Raffi groused, followed by the sound of someone smacking metal casing.

Then there was a creaking sound followed by a yelp and a thud. Rios spun around, but it was pitch dark and he was unable to see anything. Then the lights came back on.

"Where's Soji?" Elnor asked, twisting around.

"Soji!" Rios called, swinging his flashlight back and forth. "Soji!"

"Here!" her muffled voice replied from below.

They looked down through a glass floor to see she was now somehow on the level beneath them.

"I fell through a trapdoor!" she yelled up at them.

Rios looked around. "Where?"

"I don't know. It was dark. I can't even see where I came out from!"

Rios and Raffi felt along the wall, but they couldn't find a latch or trigger or anything.

"Stupid house," Raffi muttered.

Rios looked down at Soji. "Stay there! We'll find a way down to you!"

They moved off down the hall in search of a staircase, but even though this place was supposed to be full of them, they couldn't seem to find a single one heading downstairs where they needed to go.

"I am so over this house," Raffi grumbled. "And this artifact."

Elnor went for a nearby door and pulled it open, only to almost fall fifteen feet when it opened up to a steep drop to the garden outside. "Why?" he asked incredulously.

Rios shook his head; he was getting peeved with this labyrinth too. Meanwhile the accordion kept playing.

Rios's Farnsworth chimed and he answered.

"Where are you?" Soji asked over a staticky connection.

"Lost," he said tersely.

"I'm going to keep looking for the artifact," she said.

"No, stay put. We don't need you getting lost too."

"I'm already lost," she rejoined. "And I have the tracker."

Rios opened his mouth to argue when the connection spritzed and disconnected. He scowled.

The three of them kept moving, stumbling into a sitting room with a portrait of Sarah Winchester. The frame immediately started to shake and rattle at their arrival.

"Knock it off!" Raffi shouted at the house.

"Is it the house or the accordion doing this?" Elnor asked. "Or the ghosts?"

Raffi's nostrils flared in mounting frustration. Rios was getting vexed too, but he kept up his calm exterior.

"If the artifact keeps moving, how are we going to catch it?" Elnor asked next.

Rios turned the conundrum over in his mind. Artifacts had…needs. The question was what did this one need? He pursed his mouth in thought, then took out his phone and pulled up the recording app to record a few minutes of the accordion's song. Once done, he stopped the recording and played it back.

"What are you doing?" Raffi asked.

"Playing a hunch."

After a few moments, the accordion suddenly appeared in the room, playing in sync with the recording. Rios kept the song going as Raffi and Elnor cautiously approached it, then pounced. They were able to compress the bellows and hook the leather cord around the casing to hold everything in place. Then they stuffed it into their largest neutralizing baggie. Rios turned his phone recording off, and everything was silent.

Raffi exhaled a huff of relief. Now they just had to find Soji and then their way out of this maze.

No more ghostly things occurred as they navigated the Mystery House, and the signals on their Farnsworths were clear now, so they were able to call Soji again. With a few turns, they were finally able to find each other and then the route toward the exit.

"See?" Raffi said. "No ghosts. Just an artifact."

But on their way out the door, the wind kicked up around another portrait of Sarah Winchester and the dim spotlights on the painting flickered. The four of them exchanged mute looks at that and beat a hasty retreat.

Rios still didn't have any answers to his deeper questions about life, death, and the immortality of the human soul. But if the Warehouse had taught him anything over the years, it was that there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in their philosophy.

Chapter Text

Picard exited the local tea shop he frequented every Sunday morning, his newspaper folded up under one arm. It had been a drizzly morning but the skies were clearing up. He turned down the side alley, slowing his pace as he came upon a dirty stray dog sitting on a heap of sodden cardboards. It was an Irish Setter, too beautiful a breed to be on the streets.

"Hello, girl," Picard greeted and dug out a biscuit wrapped in a napkin he was saving for later. He offered it to the dog, who snatched it hungrily out of his palm and chomped down. "I'm afraid that's all I have," he said regretfully and started on his way again. But then he was struck from behind and he pitched forward onto his hands and knees, his hat flying off his head. The dog barked furiously. Picard swayed as he tried to get up, tried to meet his attacker, but he was struck again and everything went black.

He woke to a pounding head and aching back, tied to a hard plastic chair in a dark, cold, industrial building. Blinking in pain and confusion, Picard lifted his head and craned it around. The man standing before him was a shock to see.

"Quincy," he breathed.

"Bet you never thought you'd see me again."

Picard yanked against his bonds, but the plastic zip ties were firm. "What do you want?" he asked stiffly.

"Do you really have to ask?" Quincy said. He bent his knees to bring himself down to eye level, expression seething. "You took everything from me."

"I took an artifact," Picard argued. "I had to."

Quincy straightened. "Yes, the pious 'Warehouse' and its agents, thinking they know best for the world."

"The artifact was too powerful; it was going to get out of control—it was already starting to."

"I could have stopped!" Quincy snapped. "I could have handed it over to be locked away like you wanted. But no, you had to reverse every wish that it had made come true."

"It was necessary," Picard replied. "The energy had grown too powerful and had to be neutralized. Which, unfortunately, meant reversing the wishes." He paused, then added, "I'm sorry about Melanie."

"I don't believe you," Quincy said with razor scorn. "You swooped in, took your precious artifact, and left, without a single thought to what would happen to the people left behind. You destroyed my life!"

Picard regarded the man with resignation. "And now you want revenge?"

A mad glint entered Quincy's eyes. "You like artifacts so much, I thought it fitting to find some to use here today."

He turned and walked over to a small side table holding some artifacts Picard hadn't noticed at first. But he recognized the item Quincy picked up—Shirō Ishii's Medal, a torture device that simulated drowning.

"Quincy, don't do this," Picard beseeched.

Quincy ignored him. Eyes gleaming with ravenous hunger for vengeance, he lifted the medal toward Picard, who gasped as his lungs spasmed with the sensation of filling with water.

Raffi swiveled back and forth in the office chair in the Warehouse terminal. Jean-Luc was late. He'd wanted to go over some operations updates, but Raffi had been waiting for nearly an hour. It wasn't like him. She pulled out her phone to call his cell, but it went straight to voicemail. She tried his Farnsworth next. Still no answer.

She straightened in her seat. Now she was getting a bad feeling. "Hey, Enoch," she called into the air.

The hologram shimmered into place. "Yes?"

"Can you tap into traffic cameras in town and see where Jean-Luc is? He's late."

"Certainly." Enoch's eyes started flickering blue as he ran the computer processes.

"Do you check up on us like this?" Soji spoke up.

"Of course not. And I'm only 'checking up' because he's an hour late." She turned to Rios for help. "That's not like him."

Rios shrugged in agreement.

Enoch's eyes cleared. "I'm afraid there are no cameras in the vicinity of the tea shop he patronizes, but I took the liberty of tracking his Farnsworth and he is still in town."

"Where in town?" Raffi asked.

"Outside the tea shop."

"Outside it? Not inside?"

Enoch nodded. "Yes, outside."

Rios set his book aside. "Is he moving?"

"No."

Raffi arched her brows at her partner.

"Yeah, let's go," Rios said.

Soji and Elnor wordlessly tagged along as they drove into town to look around. Raffi ducked into the tea shop just to make sure Picard wasn't still in there, but he wasn't, and the server confirmed he had left at his normal time over an hour ago. She headed back outside.

"He's not here," she said, gut clenching anxiously.

"Over here," Soji called from the mouth of the nearby alley. "I think that's his hat."

They hurried down the alley and found a dog lying on the ground, JL's beret between its paws. Raffi bent down and snatched it up, then whipped her gaze up and down the alley in search of a body. But there wasn't one.

Elnor peered into the single dumpster, then leaned in to retrieve something. He pulled out Picard's cell and Farnsworth. "This isn't good, is it," he said needlessly.

"I can't believe he's been kidnapped again," Raffi muttered.

"He wasn't kidnapped the first time," Soji put in.

"Yeah, you think he's gonna say that now?" she rejoined.

Elnor held up the devices. "Um, these and cameras are the only methods of tracking his whereabouts, aren't they? And they're not available…"

Rios canted his head at the dog. "But we do have a witness."

Soji raised her eyebrows. "What good does the dog do?"

"There's an artifact we can use to read its mind," he replied. He crouched down and held out his hand. "Come here, boy."

The dog stood up and bounded over, tail wagging.

"My apologies, girl," Rios said, stroking her russet fur. "Let's get back to the Warehouse."

The dog was easy to coax back to the SUV and into the back of the cab, and Rios texted Dahj on the drive back to the mountain. When they returned to the main office, she was waiting for them with Mr. Mental and Coco's Fezzes.

"Who gets the honor?" Dahj asked.

"I'll do it," Rios answered first.

Raffi took the fezzes and held them at the ready as Rios clucked his tongue to draw the dog over. Then he knelt down to the animal's eye level, and Raffi carefully put the fezzes on both of their heads at the same time. Rios immediately went into a trance, while the Irish Setter continued to sit there, tongue lolling.

"What's happening?" Soji asked in a hushed voice.

"Mr. Mental was a performance artist who used the fezzes to read Coco's mind," Raffi explained. "The animal would go into the audience and someone would show it something with numbers, and then it would go back to Mr. Mental who would recite them. But one day someone in the audience took Coco's fez off, and it jolted Mr. Mental's brain so badly, he was never the same. So we have to be very careful using these."

"This sounds quite risky," Elnor commented.

"Kind of," Raffi agreed. "But it's Jean-Luc."

There wasn't anything she and Rios wouldn't do for him.

The rest of them stood there, waiting. It was a ridiculous image, Rios and the dog sitting on the floor staring at each other with red caps and tassels. Soji pulled out her cell phone to snap a picture. Raffi shot her a look for that.

"What? Agnes would love it," the girl responded.

Raffi rolled her eyes. If it wasn't for Jean-Luc being missing, she would have found this more amusing too.

And then the worst happened—the ferret emerged from behind the desk, and the dog yipped and bolted after it. Squealing, the ferret scurried down the stairs into the storage room, the dog hot on its tail.

"No!" Raffi yelled.

Rios went utterly limp where he sat, chin slumping to his chest.

"Stop that dog!" Raffi shouted to everyone, including the holos. "Don't let the fez fall off!"

They all scrambled after the two animals, squeals and barking echoing through the Warehouse. Emmett appeared to block their path, but the ferret darted between shelving units, and the dog skittered after it.

"Stop!" Raffi cried desperately as they all gave chase through the aisles. Every time she caught a glimpse of the red Irish Setter, her heart would lurch into her throat until she saw the fez was still on the dog's head. If it fell off…

Enoch finally came out of nowhere and scooped up his ferret. "Mr. Quiggles, you poor thing!" he exclaimed.

The dog came to a stop at his feet, tail wagging as she barked at the ferret. Raffi clambered to a stop as well and grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck, her other hand clamping down on the fez to keep it in place. Soji hurried over to help usher the animal back up to the office. They steered the dog back in front of Rios.

"Sit," Raffi said sharply.

The dog plopped down and tilted her head.

"Okay, fezzes off at the same time," Raffi instructed Soji, who moved over to Rios. "One, two, three."

They removed the hats simultaneously, and Raffi held her breath.

Rios blinked and lifted his head. "I've got the license plate of the van Jean-Luc was thrown into."

"Good, that's good," Raffi said, eyeing him in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He stood up, only to sway unsteadily, his eyelids fluttering rapidly. Raffi surged forward to grab his arm.

"Are you sure?" she pressed.

Rios's brows furrowed. "What happened?"

"Uh, the dog went after the ferret," Soji answered. "But the fez didn't fall off! So, there's no brain damage, right?"

Rios stared at her for a moment, then exhaled heavily and ran his hands over his hair. "No brain damage, but extended time wearing the fezzes comes with other side effects." He looked at the dog and sighed. "Guess we're stuck with her now."

"What do you mean?" Elnor asked.

Raffi cursed under her breath. "Crap, you're mentally linked permanently."

Rios nodded. "Seems so."

Soji's brows rose sharply. "That's cool."

"We'll deal with this later," Rios said, moving away to grab a scrap piece of paper and pencil. "Here's the license plate."

"On it," Soji said, going to the computer with it. Within a few clicks, she'd traced the plate to a rental company and hacked the database for the identity of the person who'd recently rented it. "Quincy de Lancie," she relayed. "Pulling up the van's GPS…got it!"

Rios pointed to the Irish Setter. "Wait here for me."

The dog whined and promptly went to curl up under the desk near the warm computer, and the rest of them once again rushed out to save their boss.

Picard choked and gasped as Quincy let up on the medal again, giving him a chance to breathe between bouts of drowning.

"Is this- what Melanie- would want you- to be doing?" Picard forced out between gasps.

"You don't get to say her name," Quincy snapped. "You killed her!"

Picard shook his head sadly. "Cancer killed her."

"Not after I wished for her to be cured, and she was. But that was undone when you took the dog tags."

"You took your wishes too far," Picard rejoined, bristling with righteous indignation over being painted the villain in this tragic tale. "It's your fault it came to what it did!"

Snarling, Quincy activated the medal again, and Picard choked and spluttered on water gushing into his lungs. But it ended abruptly when the sound of a door getting bashed in caused Quincy to lower the artifact.

"Jean-Luc?" Raffi's voice echoed through the building.

He closed his eyes in sheer relief; his friends had found him.

Quincy's cheeks puffed red with fury, and he turned to the table to snatch up another artifact. Picard coughed weakly as the man waved the prayer censer and immediately transformed into a sapient smoke cloud. The smoke billowed out through the air, rushing around the Warehouse agents as they arrived.

"What the hell—"

"I can't see!"

"JL!"

"It's Edward Lowe's Prayer Censer!" he called back.

"Shit," someone uttered in the thickening smoke. The brume would keep them trapped until they, too, completely disappeared in it.

"I got this," Soji's voice rang out.

Picard thought he could see a vague form toss something through the air. There was an explosion, and purple goo splattered everywhere, including Picard—and the smoke. The fog retreated and turned back into Quincy, now covered in neutralizing glop, as were the artifacts he was holding. He dropped them and ran the opposite direction.

Elnor started to give chase, but Picard yelled,

"Let him go!"

Raffi hurried over and dropped down behind him. "Are you all right?" She cut through the zip ties, freeing him.

"I'll live," he replied. The effects of the medal had been reversed when it was neutralized as well. He rubbed at his bruised wrists as he got out of that horrible chair.

Raffi straightened and crossed her arms. "What was it this time?"

He just sighed and went to pick up the medal and censer.

"JL…"

"It's our job to protect people from artifacts," he interrupted. "But Warehouse agents have always considered their job done once the artifact is retrieved. They rarely give thought to the damage left in its wake." He looked at Soji before going on. "Fifteen years ago, Quincy de Lancie found the Bataan Death March Dog Tags. They belonged to a World War II vet named John Giltoy. On a death march, his friend Roy Schrop became deathly ill and the Japanese wanted to leave him for dead, but Giltoy kept telling him he could do it, over and over for twenty miles." Picard paused in respect for the magnitude of the memory. "He wished so hard that it came true, and their dog tags became imbued with his desire to help his best friend. The dog tags then granted any wish made for someone the user loved. Quincy used them to cure his fiancée of cancer. But then he kept wishing for things for her—a job promotion, wealth…and bad things to happen to her rivals. By the time we got to the dog tags, they had to be neutralized to reverse the more horrible effects. Which, unfortunately, reversed all of them."

"Including his fiancée being cured of cancer," Raffi finished.

He nodded.

"You know we're going to have to put an APB out for his arrest," Rios said.

"I know." He hadn't told them to let Quincy go so he could escape forever. Selfishly, perhaps, Picard just hadn't wanted his loved ones to hear such heinous things about his past. Not that they didn't already know there was darkness there.

They returned to the Warehouse with the artifacts. Picard was worn out and needed a warm bath and change of clothes, but he stopped in his tracks when he spotted the stray dog from the alley lounging in the office.

"Someone explain," he said.

"The dog witnessed your abduction, so we used the fezzes to find out what she saw," Raffi answered. "But there was a…hiccup. And now she has to stay."

Picard sighed. This was the Warehouse, not a zoo.

"What should we name her?" Soji wondered.

"She has a name," Rios spoke up. "It's Sirena." He whistled and patted his leg, and the dog bounded up and over to him. "Come on, let's get us both cleaned up."

They left, Raffi and Elnor following after them.

"Soji," Picard called.

She paused at the doorway and looked back.

"I'm sorry," he said, not for the first time. "For what happened to you and Dahj. Even though it turned out all right in the end, you never should have had to go through it."

Soji shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe we all need to take better care out there." She roved her gaze around the room. "This place is amazing and intimidating and powerful, and some of that can wear off on us. We have to make sure we don't lose our humanity in this work."

Picard gave her a soft smile and nodded. It was easy to become detached from the world, and subsequently, what made them human.

So it was a good thing they had each other to keep themselves honest.

Chapter Text

Elnor sat cross-legged on the roof of the B&B in contemplation. In the yard below, Rios was playing fetch with his new dog. One of the bedroom windows was open, and Elnor could hear Soji and Dahj's laughter from within. It was difficult to find complete silence at times, not that such…homey sounds were unpleasant.

The crunch of gravel beneath tires drew his attention to the driveway where the SUV was pulling up. Raffi climbed out and waved to Rios, who went over.

"We have a case," she told him. "A judge in D.C. drowned while standing in the middle of an athletic club."

"Our old stomping grounds," he replied. "I'll get my bag."

Elnor stood up and lithely leaped from the roof to a tree and down to the ground. "I'm ready to come too," he said.

Raffi and Rios shared a doubting look.

"Um, look," Raffi said. "Because it's a judge, there's a lot of scrutiny on this case."

Elnor furrowed his brows. "And?" He could tell they didn't want him to come along, but he didn't understand why.

"Washington is a town of politicians," Rios said. "Which means everyone lies. And your…candor, could draw unnecessary complications."

Elnor didn't know what to make of that. He knew his ability to detect lies sometimes made his friends uncomfortable, but he'd thought it was an asset in investigations.

Raffi grimaced apologetically. "I know your Way of Absolute Candor is important to you, but can you just…not say anything when someone lies to your face?"

Elnor considered it. "If I promise to do that, can I come?"

Raffi and Rios exchanged a wordless again, then she nodded.

"All right, I can do that," he vowed.

They headed inside to grab their go-bags. Elnor automatically reached for his katana but then hesitated. He didn't like going without it, but he knew he didn't "fit in" when carrying it, and he didn't want to make Raffi and Rios regret their decision to let him come along on the case. So he left his favored weapon at the B&B altogether and joined the senior Warehouse agents back at the car to set off for D.C.

They went straight to the athletic club where the mysterious drowning had occurred. There were already two official-looking people there examining the scene: a brunette woman and a black man. They looked up at the agents' approach, their expressions shifting to surprise but also familiarity.

"What's this?" the man greeted genially. "You two have been let out of whatever remote assignment you were banished to?"

"Hah hah," Raffi replied dryly. "What are you two doing here? You're profilers."

"Given how many top level officials from multiple agencies visit this club, we were called in to take a look," the woman said. "The top brass suspect some kind of terrorist biochemical weapon." She held up an evidence bag with a vial of sand. "This was found in the water the judge coughed up."

Raffi reached out to take the bag, and Rios moved closer to also examine it. Elnor stayed put and stayed silent, as he'd promised. The black man fixed his attention on him, though.

"Who's this?"

Elnor didn't respond and instead looked to his seniors to answer.

"This is Elnor," Rios replied. "He's an agent in training. Elnor, meet Agents Morgan and Prentiss from the BAU."

Elnor inclined his head in acknowledgement.

"You don't speak?" Morgan asked.

Elnor considered his answer before automatically giving the complete truth. "I'm an observer today," he decided to say.

Morgan quirked a brow at him but moved his attention away.

Elnor shifted in discomfort. He'd thought he'd blend in better without his sword, but he still felt out of place.

"You have any leads?" Raffi asked, redirecting the conversation back to the case.

"Garcia is going through the judge's records for a list of enemies," Morgan replied. "But it'll be a long one. By the way, you haven't called her in a while. She thinks you're cheating on her with another analyst."

Rios grimaced. "We did get some…extra help that now handles all our computer work."

Prentiss's brows rose. "Don't tell Garcia that."

"Yeah…"

"We should head to the morgue," Raffi spoke up, addressing Rios.

"Morgan and I were just going to visit the judge's chambers," Prentiss responded.

Raffi and Rios exchanged yet another one of their silent looks of communication that Elnor was beginning to envy. He could tell when people were lying, but he couldn't read minds.

"Why don't we split up," Rios suggested. "I'll go with you to the judge's chambers."

Prentiss shrugged. "All right, I'll go with Raffi to the morgue."

Elnor felt stuck in the middle, unsure which pair he should stick with or whether he'd be asked to wait in the car. He stood there awkwardly, hoping one of them would give him instructions so he wouldn't have to ask. But they didn't. The four agents headed out, and Elnor followed. Raffi and Prentiss went one direction, and Rios and Morgan went the other. Elnor hesitated too long of a beat before hurrying to keep up with the latter.

They went to the judge's chambers in the courthouse where his clerk, Julia, was still in shock over her boss's death. She let them into his office but didn't have much to tell them. The BAU agent started looking through the judge's things, doing his profiling thing apparently, while Rios and Elnor did the same but on the lookout for an artifact. None of them seemed to find anything.

Morgan's phone rang and he pulled it out to answer, putting it on speaker. "Hey, baby girl."

"Hey my statuesque god of sculpted chocolate thunder."

Morgan shook his head fondly. "Garcia, you're on speaker."

"Oh. Hi, Emily."

"Uh," Rios spoke up. "Not Emily. Hey, Garcia, it's Rios."

The woman on the other end made a gasp of surprise. "And my Chilean sugar spice, this is a pleasant surprise. How did I not know you were also on this case?"

"Different departments," Rios answered.

"Mm-hm," she replied. "You know the more you play the mysterious secret agent card, the more I'm going to go digging."

Rios sighed. "Did you call with information, Penelope?"

"Of course I did." There was the sound of keyboard clacking. "The judge has a long list of potential enemies, since he has quite a record of harsh sentencing. A few, however, were recently released. Sending you their information now."

The phone beeped with another incoming call.

"Thanks, Garcia," Morgan said. "Gotta go."

"Talk soon, my loves," she got in before he switched over to the next call, this time not on speaker.

Elnor was rather bewildered by that whole exchange, not just between Morgan and this Garcia, but also her and Rios.

"We're on our way," Morgan said and hung up. "There's been another death in the same manner," he told them.

So they left the courthouse to head out to the new scene. Raffi and Prentiss had arrived just before them, and the victim was being wheeled away on a covered gurney. There was a puddle of water and sand on the ground near his car in the parking garage. Elnor could detect the tang of brine from the water as well.

"Victim was a warden at a private prison here in Virginia," Raffi informed them.

"Doesn't quite fit the terrorist angle," Prentiss commented.

"No," Morgan agreed. "I'll get Garcia looking for connections between the victims."

While he stepped away to make that phone call, Raffi angled herself over to Rios and Elnor.

"No artifact in the judge's belongings at the morgue," she quietly told them.

"Nothing in his chambers, either," Rios replied. "We probably aren't looking for a passive exposure."

Morgan came back over, phone face up in his palm. "Garcia, you've got me, Prentiss, Rios, Raffi…and their agent in training."

"What agent in training?" the woman from before asked through the speaker.

The four agents glanced at Elnor.

"Um, hello," he said.

"Garcia," Rios said pointedly.

"Judge Roland sentenced quite a few people to one particular prison," Garcia went on without missing a beat. "Run by Warden Peter Hanson, the second victim. I did some digging through the judge's case files and it turns out he sentenced several people to the maximum for the most minor offenses. Sounds hinky, doesn't it?"

"Thanks, Garcia," Morgan said. "Let us know if you find anything more."

He hung up, and the agents decided their next stop should be the prison their latest victim ran.

When they arrived, they found some guards out in the parking lot, looking deep in conversation. But as soon as the agents got out of their vehicles and started toward them, they broke it up and hurried back inside the prison, save for one, who stayed to meet them. The agents had yet to cross the lot when a woman came rushing toward the guard, waving to get his attention.

He scowled at her. "You're trespassing on private property. Leave before I call the cops."

The woman came to an abrupt halt and flicked her gaze to the agents as they closed the distance to them both. Faltering, she started to back up.

"Everything okay here?" Prentiss asked.

"Fine," the guard replied curtly. "What do you want?"

"FBI," Morgan said, pulling out his credentials. "We're investigating the suspicious death of Warden Hanson."

The guard's expression shifted. "Warden Hanson is dead?"

"That's right," Rios replied. "So we'll need to take a look at his office."

The guard hesitated. A flash of light shone across his face for a brief moment, catching Elnor's eye as well. He squinted away from it and turned his head to see what was reflecting it. The woman had gotten in her car and was driving away.

The guard grudgingly led them inside the prison.

"We run a tight ship here," he said as he unlocked the warden's office to let them in.

"We noticed quite a few prisoners here were sentenced to the maximum for otherwise very minor offenses," Raffi casually put out.

"I don't know anything about that," the guard responded.

Elnor pursed his mouth as he considered whether this was an appropriate time to call out the man for lying, but before he could come to a decision, the guard abruptly started coughing and choking up water. The agents were momentarily stunned before Raffi and Rios jumped in first.

"Get help!" Raffi barked at Morgan and Prentiss, who snapped out of their shock and hurried out of the room.

The guard had collapsed on the floor, salt water bubbling out of his mouth as he drowned right in front of them. But then Raffi pulled out a necklace from her pocket and placed it over the man's neck. He gradually stopped coughing up water and sagged on the floor.

"Silver Necklace from the Atacama Desert Mines," she explained, removing the necklace and quickly stuffing it back into her pocket before anyone else saw. "Thought it'd be good to bring along since we were dealing with a strange drowning."

Before Elnor could ask what the necklace did exactly, Morgan and Prentiss came rushing back in with other guards and a medic. The agents stood back as the guard was evaluated and then taken to the hospital.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Prentiss said once they were alone in the warden's office again.

"It's gotta be some kind of biochemical weapon," Morgan responded. "But how come none of us was affected?"

"Delayed effect?" Prentiss posited. "In any case, these are looking like targeted attacks, so we need to go through everything in this office."

They got to work, divvying up the files of everything from individual prisoner records to finances.

"Private prisons get their funding from occupancy quotas," Morgan said, looking at some statements. "And this place always meets them."

"I've got a lot of cases of contraband being found in cells," Raffi added. "Leading to extended sentences, specifically for those whose offenses were minor at the start."

"This whole thing reeks of corruption," Rios said.

"That's motive," Prentiss commented. "Now we just need suspects."

Elnor leaned toward Rios and Raffi. "What about the artifact?" he asked quietly.

"Check with the Warehouse," Raffi whispered back. "See if they have anything to add."

She handed over her Farnsworth, so Elnor took it out into the hallway to make the call. Dahj appeared in the dome viewer.

"Hey," she answered.

"Hey, my…spicy…sugar," Elnor awkwardly replied.

She quirked a weird look at him. "What?"

His cheeks flushed hotly. "Never mind. Raffi told me to check in. Have you identified the artifact?"

"We think so," Dahj said, pulling a book closer. "Alfred Dreyfus's Sword Hilt. It causes the enemy of the holder to drown in salt water if they are being untruthful."

Elnor perked up. "That makes sense. The most recent victim told a lie and then immediately was stricken. And the other two were being dishonest with law and justice. Plus Rios said this city is full of liars."

"Um, okay. Cynical but fair. I'll have the holos look through the records for anyone who would want to take revenge on them."

Elnor nodded, then hesitated before adding in a deep voice, "Hasta la vista, baby."

"What? What has gotten into you?"

"Nothing," he said as he fumbled to hang up. He turned around only to find Agent Morgan standing at the other end of the hallway, a small smirk on his face. Elnor stiffened in embarrassment. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long. Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop." He sauntered over. "But if you want a little advice, you're going a bit over the top trying to impress a girl you have a crush on."

Elnor frowned. "But, you and Agent Garcia…"

"Whoa, Garcia and I aren't like that. Our relationship is something special, but you have to know someone really well before you go dropping flirtatious banter like that. And, honestly, if that's the type of relationship you want, that's probably all it's gonna be. If you want something more, you need to be yourself."

Elnor's frown deepened. He hadn't even been trying to flirt with Dahj romantically; he just wanted to be…normal.

Embarrassed and dejected, he followed Morgan back to the office. Elnor drew close to Raffi and Rios to quietly tell them about the sword hilt.

"Definitely haven't seen that around," Raffi replied.

"Sword hilt?" Prentiss repeated, having overheard them. "Why is a sword hilt important?"

"Toxic fungi," Raffi readily answered. "That's kind of what we investigate—imported artifacts carrying deadly agents."

Prentiss and Morgan shared dubious looks.

"You don't expect us to buy that," Morgan said.

"It's true," Elnor jumped in. "I have a masters in microbiology."

The lie fell more easily from his lips than he anticipated, but the immediate pressure on his chest afterward was like a punch. A cough pushed its way up, followed by the saccharine tang of seawater. Elnor's eyes blew wide as he suddenly couldn't breathe. He coughed and choked, coarse sand scratching his throat as he coughed that up too.

"Shit," Morgan exclaimed, leaping forward to catch Elnor's arm as he dropped to the floor, desperately gasping for air that couldn't get past the fluid building in his lungs.

Raffi and Rios had been frozen in shock, but then Raffi snapped out of it and pulled out the necklace she'd used on the guard, hastily putting it over Elnor's head. In the next breath, a little bit of oxygen was able to get in, and he felt the water gradually draining from his lungs.

Prentiss had pulled out her phone to call for another ambulance, but Rios barked at her to hold off. She and Morgan gaped at him incredulously.

Elnor took in a few more shuddering breaths as he struggled to settle. "I'm all right," he said hoarsely and took the necklace off to hand back.

"How the hell did he get exposed to the artifact?" Rios hissed.

"How the hell did you tell a lie?" Raffi exclaimed.

Elnor dropped his gaze in shame. "I was just trying to fit in."

"We'll get to that later," Rios said. "For all we know, each of us could have been exposed." He looked at Prentiss and Morgan sharply. "Don't say a word." He turned back to Elnor. "Did Dahj say how the artifact is activated?"

Elnor shook his head in growing embarrassment. He should have asked.

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth and called the Warehouse. "Dahj, how is the sword hilt activated?" he asked without preamble.

"Light from the hilt is reflected in someone's eye," she answered.

Elnor stiffened. "The woman in the parking lot! There was a reflection of light that caught the guard's eyes, and mine too. I thought it was just the sun off her car as she drove away."

"Get the holos on it," Rios told Dahj before hanging up. "Meanwhile we can go question the guard again."

They stood up, only to pause because Morgan and Prentiss were standing there, staring at them in silent demand for answers.

Rios gave them an apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry, we can't explain."

"The hell you can't," Morgan rejoined sharply. "The kid just almost drowned with no water in sight, just like the other victims, but you stopped it with a- a necklace? And don't tell us it's fungus."

Rios and Raffi exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"We really can't explain," Raffi repeated. "It's classified."

Morgan shook his head. "I'm calling the Director."

He and Prentiss stormed out, and Elnor felt even more horrible that his attempt to lie had ruined everything.

"I'm sorry," he said contritely. "I didn't mean to expose our true purpose."

"Why did you break your own moral code?" Raffi asked.

"I just wanted to prove I could be like the rest of you."

Her expression softened. "But you're not like the rest of us, and that's okay. You don't need to change yourself for anything."

"It doesn't feel that way," he replied. "You didn't even want me coming on this case to begin with. You don't want me carrying my katana. 'Myself' is not acceptable."

Raffi winced. "Well, okay, we have to operate within certain parameters to not draw attention, but that doesn't mean you should change who you are, nor do we want you to." She gave him a half smile. "I like the way you are."

"Even if I'm weird?" he asked.

"Have you noticed where we work?" Rios put in. "Weird is our lives, and you fit right in."

Elnor smiled at the truth he detected in their words.

The BAU agents came back in. Morgan looked quite sour.

"The Director told us to stay out of your way," Prentiss said.

"We're really sorry," Raffi replied.

"Also, I called the hospital," Prentiss continued. "The guard just died. His lungs somehow inexplicably filled with saltwater again."

"Damn it," Raffi cursed.

Elnor felt a tightness in his chest and coughed to clear it, but then that terrifying pressure was building again. "Uh, guys…" He broke into a guttural cough.

Raffi frantically pulled out the necklace to put on him again. "Better?"

He focused on taking a few breaths before nodding.

"That's only a temporary fix," Rios said. "We need to find the sword hilt."

They turned to leave, Rios apologizing again to Morgan and Prentiss on their way out. Just as they reached the car, Rios's Farnsworth chimed.

"The holos identified the woman," Dahj's voice emanated from the device. "Her name is Carla Evans. I texted you the address. How's Elnor?"

"The Silver Necklace is working to evaporate the water from his lungs for the time being," Raffi replied.

Elnor was tense in the backseat. As a warrior, he was no stranger to death, but usually he was the one dealing it out. Having to face his own, especially in a manner such as this, was turning out to be more frightening than he'd imagined.

"What's this woman's story?" Raffi asked as Rios drove.

"Her son was charged with possession of weed," Dahj explained. "It was his first offense but he was sentenced to the maximum at the private prison. Then that sentence was extended when the guards claimed to find contraband in his cell. He committed suicide."

"Pretty strong motive," Raffi commented.

"Yeah," Dahj said quietly. "Good luck."

They arrived at Carla's house and pounded on the door. Elnor could tell Rios and Raffi were impatient, but a few moments later, the door lock clicked and it opened.

"Yes?" a middle-aged woman asked, composure far too calm to not have expected someone to come banging on her door.

"Carla Evans?" Raffi said. "FBI. We know what you've done and we need the sword hilt."

She stepped aside to let them enter, then went into the kitchen where her purse was sitting on the counter. "They railroaded my son," she said as she lifted out the artifact.

"We know," Raffi responded.

"He made one mistake, and it cost him his life. All so corrupt men could line their pockets."

"I can understand that," Raffi went on and held out her hand.

Carla looked at it. "I have avenged my son," she said and handed over the artifact. Then she lifted her chin and said, "And I regret killing those men."

In an instant, she doubled over choking and coughing up water.

Raffi spun toward Rios, who whipped out a neutralizing baggie as fast as he could. They dropped the artifact in, it sparked purple slivers, and then Carla stopped drowning. She looked up in bewilderment and not a little bit of devastation. Rios just gave her a sad look as he handcuffed her and led her outside.

Elnor tentatively took off the Silver Necklace. "Thank you," he told Raffi.

She smiled. "You're welcome, kid."

The authorities were called and Carla was handed into their custody. Morgan and Prentiss must have heard about it, because they showed up.

Morgan nodded to the foil baggie Raffi was holding. "Is there a sword hilt in there?"

"Ready for decontamination," she replied smoothly.

He huffed.

"It was good seeing you both again," Rios said. "Give our regards to Garcia?"

Prentiss nodded.

"I might have to help her go digging," Morgan said in parting.

The Warehouse agents didn't respond, and Elnor heard Prentiss tell him to let it go.

Back at the B&B, Elnor waited until after dinner to seek out Dahj in private.

"Um, hello," he said awkwardly.

"Hey," she replied. "Do you need anything?"

He shook his head. "No, thank you. I wanted to apologize for my weird behavior earlier."

Dahj canted a considering look at him. "I know the sword hilt didn't cause that, so what gives?"

He grimaced. "I thought that was the way to fit in, to be normal. I was…incorrect."

"I get it," she said compassionately. "I spent half my life as a ghost trapped in a parallel dimension. And my sister was committed to an asylum for it. Pretty sure none of us are all that normal."

"Oh."

"Do you like movies?"

Elnor faltered. "I haven't had occasion to watch any."

Dahj grinned. "Then we both have a lot of catching up to do."

Elnor smiled back at the invitation.

Chapter Text

"I liked that movie," Agnes said.

"Me too," Raffi replied. "We should do this more often."

"Night's still young," Rios put in. "Coffee?"

"Yes," Raffi said eagerly, rubbing her cold hands together and then linking her arm with Seven's.

It was a chilly but clear night for this double date the four of them were on. Seven found it awkward, socializing, but it hadn't prevented her from having a good time. And she knew Raffi was enjoying herself, which gave Seven even more pleasure at having agreed to come on this outing with them.

A screech of tires sounded up the street, but then a girl who had just been standing on the sidewalk suddenly went flying through the air. Rios lunged to catch her, both of them crashing to the ground from her momentum.

"Oh my god," Agnes exclaimed, dropping down beside them.

Rios shifted out from under the unconscious woman. Blood was trickling out of her mouth and nose and her bare legs were all abraded and splintered. Raffi got out her phone to call 911 while Agnes tried to stabilize the girl's head and neck. Seven looked up the street where a line for a night club held gawking bystanders holding up their cell phones to record the scene. Seven stepped between them and the poor girl, turning her back on the cameras to block their angles.

The ambulance arrived quickly, and Agnes decided to go with the girl to the hospital. Then police were there and the rest of them had to give statements.

"Not how I would have ended the night," Raffi remarked grimly once they were done.

"That wasn't normal," Rios said, walking up the sidewalk to the place the girl had been standing when she abruptly went flying as though something had hit her, though nothing had. Not that they could see, anyway.

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth and called the Warehouse. "Hey, Soji. Can you run a search on the area around the theater we're at for any strange occurrences?"

"Sure. Don't tell me you found an artifact on your double date."

Rios grimaced. "Date's over."

"Are those police cars?"

Rios glanced over his shoulder at the flashing red and blue lights. "A girl had a suspicious accident."

"On it."

They waited for a few minutes as Soji conducted a computer search.

"Okay," she eventually came back. "There is a rash of reports of overdoses and accidents in the area. The closest and most recent one is a twenty-year-old restaurant worker. Right across the street from you. Family business, his mother owns it."

"We'll go take a look," Rios said.

The three of them headed to the restaurant, which wasn't very busy this late at night.

"Mrs. Yates?" Rios queried of the woman behind the counter.

"Yes?"

"FBI. We were wondering if we could have a word about your son?"

Her expression stiffened. "No. No, he is not a drug dealer."

"That's not what we're here about," Rios quickly said. "We just want to know what happened."

The woman continued to eye them suspiciously, but then came out to sit with them at one of the tables. "The doctors said it was a drug overdose, but my son Kurt does not do drugs! He's a good boy, works hard. And he was with me all day here at the restaurant. We were very busy that day."

"Anything unusual happen? Anyone come in with some old antiques?" Raffi asked.

"What? No. Not that I remember."

"And your son was here the whole time?" Seven checked.

"Except for one delivery, but it was just down the street to Club Effigy. And before you say nightclubs are rampant with drugs, he was only gone for ten minutes. He'd just gotten back when—" She broke off with a choked sound of grief. "He's still in the hospital."

Raffi reached across the table to take her hand. "We're very sorry."

The woman nodded and continued to sniffle.

Rios's cell rang and he looked at the caller ID. "It's Agnes."

"Excuse us a minute," Raffi said, standing up from the table.

The three of them stepped away and Rios answered his phone.

"Agnes, you've got me, Raffi, and Seven."

"The girl's in critical condition with severe impact trauma," Dr. Jurati reported. "Injuries consistent with being hit by a car, but we all saw that's not what happened."

"So we are looking for an artifact," Raffi said.

"She was dressed for a night out," Rios put in. "Any idea if she was at a club?"

"She had a stamp on her hand," Agnes replied. "Hold on, I'll take a photo."

The stamp was just a logo and not a name, so they went to show it to the restaurant owner.

"Yes, that's for Club Effigy," she said. "Why? Are you investigating it? Did someone do this to my son?"

"We're just asking questions right now," Rios said.

Raffi put a comforting hand on the woman's arm again. "We do believe you about your son," she added.

Mrs. Yates's eyes watered with overwhelming relief. "Thank you."

The Warehouse agents headed back out onto the street.

"Guess we're going clubbing," Raffi said, turning to Seven. "Do you need to…?"

"I'll accompany you," she said. She didn't usually go on artifact hunts, since that wasn't her job, but she wasn't just going to flit off to do nothing either.

Unlike other cases where using their FBI badges would gain them entrance, clubs tended to be more aware of laws and the need for a search warrant. So the three of them stood in line until they were admitted as club goers. Club Effigy had a rule of no phones, and everyone's devices had to be checked just inside the entrance.

"What kind of club doesn't allow phones?" Raffi muttered as they reluctantly handed over their cells to a second, stoic bouncer.

"What's that?" the burly man asked, nodding to their Farnsworths.

"Compact," Raffi replied, opening the device to reveal the dome inside.

He gave it a weird look but didn't confiscate it.

They made their way down a long, dark hallway until they reached the party area. There was a huge screen on one wall with hundreds of photos rotating through of people inside the club.

"Hey, that must be our delivery guy," Raffi said, pointing to an image of a young man in a delivery uniform trying to squeeze through the throng.

"And our other victim," Seven said, spotting the young woman currently in the hospital.

Raffi scanned the room, then stiffened and ducked behind Seven. "Crap, a photographer."

Seven and Rios looked toward where a man was going around the club, snapping photos of the patrons.

"Think he's using an artifact?" Raffi asked. "He's gotta be using an artifact."

"Looks like a modern camera," Rios commented.

Seven could understand Raffi's anxiety after the incident with Man Ray's Camera aging her by several decades. There weren't any other artifact cameras out in the world, but something strange was definitely going on here. She and Rios headed toward the photographer, Raffi sticking close behind them for cover and holding her hand up to shield her face from being snapped.

"Hey," Rios confronted the man. "What are you doing?"

The photographer quirked a confused look at him. "Taking photos, what's it look like?"

"And you're putting these images up on the wall?" Seven asked.

"Yeah. People love it."

Indeed, the club goers were quite engaged with the digital wall.

Seven studied the camera but could tell it wasn't imbued with any special energy. "Sorry to bother you," she told the photographer, who rolled his eyes and went back to his work.

"You're sure that's not an artifact?" Raffi asked.

"Yes."

"We should still look around," Rios said.

So they continued to make their way around the entirety of the club, searching for anything unusual. The loud music and flashing lights were giving Seven a headache. Beside her, Raffi started to stumble and sway. She nearly toppled into Rios, who turned to grab her arms.

"Raf? Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah I'm okay," she said loudly and giggled. "Whoo!"

Seven arched a brow. "Are you drunk?"

"She hasn't had anything to drink," Rios said incredulously.

"Nope, nothing to drink, no sireee," Raffi rambled. She staggered and caught herself against Rios again, eyes widening. "Have I been affected? I've been affected. I knew it!" She spun around and nearly collapsed. "Now I'm pissed."

"Shit," Rios muttered.

Seven followed his gaze to the wall where a picture of Raffi from the side had been added to the collage.

"See!" Raffi exclaimed, jabbing a finger wildly at it. "I knew it! Where is that camera?"

She whirled again, which made herself dizzy. Seven grabbed a flailing arm to hold her steady.

"The pictures can't be a coincidence," Rios said.

No, but the wall itself didn't have any unusual properties that Seven could sense, either.

Then she spotted someone in the club that made her go rigid. A man with porcelain skin, blue eyes, and crisp golden hair sauntered over to them.

"Seven," he greeted with an intrigued smile. "Isn't this a surprise." He gave her a cheeky moue. "You haven't aged a day. Tell me, what's your secret?"

Rios shot Seven a questioning look.

"Dorian," she said tightly.

"Dorian," Rios repeated. His brows rose sharply. "As in Dorian Gray?"

"The one and the same," Dorian replied. "You must be Warehouse agents."

"Hey," Raffi slurred. "How you know about the Warehouse?"

"I've had…liaisons with the Warehouse," he said slyly. "After my portrait, are you? Tsk tsk, Seven, that's not the arrangement."

"Except it looks like you've moved on from your portrait absorbing your sins and now innocent people are," she said tersely. It all made sense: the people suffering drug and alcohol overdoses without consuming anything, the girl hit by a car but not. Though Seven had yet to discern a mechanism for the transfer.

Dorian merely shrugged and grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing server and knocked it back in one go.

Raffi went more jelly-legged between Seven and Rios. "Sonuvabitch," she slurred.

Seven shot the immortal a scathing glare. "The arrangement was you got to keep your portrait," she snapped. "Since the only one affected by it was you. But now you're hurting innocent people."

"Innocent," Dorian scoffed. "Not by traditional measures of virtue. Look at them." He turned to wave at the crowd. "All interested in their own image, all their attention on the screen searching for themselves to be on it. The most vain, self-involved people, all in one place."

"I didn't want my picture taken," Raffi groused.

Dorian just grinned. "Then I do apologize for that. Best look after your friend," he told Seven and walked away.

"Are we just going to let him go?" Rios asked, arms full of a limp, slinky-esque Raffi.

"The portrait is the artifact and the source of power, not him," Seven replied. "We need to find his painting."

"What was his arrangement with the Warehouse?"

"Normally, the Warehouse doesn't take possession of artifacts until after their original owners pass. In Dorian's case, his immortality meant his portrait would never leave his possession, yet it had also obtained artifact status. After several failed attempts to confiscate it, Dorian sued the Warehouse for a truce, and the Regents agreed to let him be. Obviously, we can't honor that now."

Raffi swung her weighted head toward Seven. "Did you date him?" she asked morosely.

"What? No."

"You're the same age, though," she rambled on. "And you're both immortal, so he's more suited for you."

"I have never and will never date Dorian Gray," Seven said firmly.

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice called from across the room.

"What the," Rios sputtered as Soji and Elnor arrived.

Soji was dressed for a night out, but Elnor had his katana across his back. No doubt the club bouncer thought it was part of his "outfit."

"What are you doing here?" Rios asked.

"I wanted to go clubbing," Soji replied.

Seven huffed. "This is a case."

"Business and pleasure."

Elnor furrowed his brows. "What's wrong with Raffi?"

"She's experiencing the effects of alcohol," Seven answered.

"Oh, so it's okay for you guys to goof off on a case?" Soji rejoined.

"She didn't drink anything," Rios interjected. "Something is causing people to experience the effects of someone else's vices."

"The ODs and accidents," Soji said.

"Yes."

"Seven's soulmate is here," Raffi blathered. "He's handsome. Prince Charming. Or, no, not a prince. And not all that charming." She tried to straighten sharply. "He did this to me!"

"It's Dorian Gray," Seven cut her off. "And yes, the man from the story is real. His portrait became an artifact, granting him immortality and passing on aging—and all of his vices—onto it. He was a friend of Oscar Wilde, who wrote the story as a cautionary tale."

"Except now somehow Dorian is transferring the effects onto people instead," Rios finished. He passed Raffi to Elnor. "Look after her while we search for the painting," he instructed. He turned to Soji. "Did you bring your artifact tracker?"

"Of course," she replied and pulled it out of her small purse.

They wove their way through the throng as the tracker pinpointed energy readings consistent with an artifact. It led them down to the basement and a locked door with a keypad.

"Hold this," Soji said, handing Rios the tracker so she could pull out her Farnsworth to call the Warehouse. "Ean, hey, I need you to hack a security system."

A few moments later, the keypad lock went from red to green, and they pushed their way in. The storage room was full of old and very valuable art. Rios aimed the artifact tracker around, following the beeping instrument all the way up to a painting of a landscape.

"Uh, pretty sure that's not it," Soji said.

"It is," Seven responded. "I can sense it."

Rios pulled out a small knife and cut into the canvas, then peeled away the top layer, revealing a second painting underneath. One of a visage so hideous and vile it made Seven's stomach churn.

"Holy crap," Soji uttered.

"Did you bring neutralizer?" Seven asked.

Soji rolled her eyes. "It's like you guys think I'm still an amateur." She pulled out a vial of purple neutralizer from her purse and attached it to a mini spray gun, then spritzed it all over the portrait.

Purple sparks flew and the painting began to disintegrate, crumbling into nothing but a pile of ashes on the floor below an empty frame. And thus was the end of Dorian Gray.

They went back upstairs to the club floor to find Raffi and Elnor, but to their dismay, Raffi was still utterly drunk and slumped against Elnor.

"What happened?" the kid asked. "Did you find it?"

"Yeah, and we neutralized it," Rios said in confusion. "Didn't we?"

Seven's mouth thinned into a tight line as she scanned the room. Her eyes landed on Dorian, standing up on the balcony and looking down on them all with a sinister smile. She looked to the digital photos on the wall where Raffi's was still being displayed.

"It's not enough," she said. "He's found a way to transcend his painting."

"Then how do we stop him?" Soji asked.

Seven locked gazes with Dorian again.

She had no idea.

Chapter Text

The Warehouse agents stood in the middle of the bopping nightclub, surrounded by club goers whose images were being flashed up on the screen. Raffi's cycled in and out among them, and she was getting more hammered by the minute.

"Dorian must have transferred the power of his portrait to this digital collage somehow," Seven said.

"Then I'll cut the power," Soji responded.

"Or I could stab the screens," Elnor volunteered, reaching up to draw his sword.

Rios grabbed his arm to lower it before he made a scene.

Seven shook her head. "No. Magic like this, Dorian still needs an actual portrait."

"He had an artist paint his original one, right?" Soji said. "So maybe he's got someone else who made him a new one."

Seven and Rios looked at each other and both said, "The photographer."

"Told ya he couldn't be trusted," Raffi muttered dourly.

They twisted around to seek out the man taking photos of everyone in the club. He was in the opposite corner, and the agents converged on him.

"Oh come on," he groused as they cornered him.

"Where do you upload the photos to the screens?" Seven demanded.

"I don't," the photographer replied. "They get uploaded to the cloud." He opened the side slot. "See? No memory card. They go straight to the cloud and the owner does this with them." He waved at the screens.

"You don't do anything else for him?" Rios pressed. "No computer work? Portrait?"

The photographer quirked a confused brow. "No."

The agents glanced at Elnor, who nodded in confirmation the man was telling the truth. So they let him go again.

Raffi stumbled against Elnor. "Mm, I don' feel so good," she slurred.

"We need to do something, fast," Rios said urgently.

"We've already checked the basement and there was no computer stuff down there," Soji replied. "So let's try up."

They made their way around the darkened edges of the club until they found an empty corridor and a freight elevator. In the loft above the club, they found a single desk with a computer set up, and a tablet with a digital photo of Dorian. Soji hurried over to take a seat and pulled the photo closer to examine.

"He's made a collage of himself from pictures of people in the club," she said in amazement. She banged a hand on the desk. "Now I see what was weird about them downstairs—they've been color shifted to make the portrait."

"That's how innocent people are absorbing his sins," Seven concluded.

"Then we need to destroy it," Rios said.

Raffi suddenly cried out in pain and grabbed her wrist.

Everyone whirled around and found Dorian standing there. He had a bloodied knife in one hand and held up the other palm with a slice across it. Except it healed right in front of them in an instant, and Seven realized Raffi's hand was bleeding.

Rios started to move toward Dorian, but the immortal stepped back and placed the point of the knife at his own throat.

"Ah ah," he warned. "Stay right there, or I'll slice her throat."

Everyone froze.

Elnor pulled Raffi's fingers back to expose the slice across her palm. Seven removed her silk scarf and passed it over to use as a makeshift bandage.

"You had everything you wanted, Dorian," she said. "Why change to hurting people? You had to know the Warehouse wouldn't stand for that. You broke the deal first."

"Yes, I had everything I wanted," he said derisively. "But it wasn't enough. I bought immortality with the power of my own vanity. So I wondered, what could I buy with the vanity of hundreds more? My portrait was approaching its brink, I'm sure you saw. I couldn't risk that one day it would simply implode from the weight of my sins." He grinned. "But now I have a picture that can never be destroyed, because there's always more little models to take the place of those who are lost."

Seven saw Rios move like lightning to snatch up the tablet in order to smash it.

"That's not the picture!" Dorian shouted.

Rios faltered.

"The picture is in the cloud," Dorian went on. "It's a lovely word, isn't it? The cloud. The cloud, where all our dreams reside."

The agents exchanged tense looks. None of them would be able to move fast enough to disarm Dorian before he could seriously hurt Raffi.

"Now I shall take my leave," Dorian said, backing up a step. "Delay me, and I will kill her, and whoever takes her place, and then the next."

Seven watched through steely eyes as he backed up into the darkness and fled.

"Are we going to let him get away?" Soji asked.

"I'm going to puke," Raffi moaned.

Rios snatched up a backup camera from the desk and snapped a selfie of himself. "Switch my photo out with Raffi's," he told Soji.

"Uh, okay…" Soji grabbed the photo from the cloud and inserted it into Raffi's slot, then applied the color shift. "You should only be affected from here on out," she said.

Raffi abruptly perked up. "Hey—" She then doubled over with a cry and clapped a hand to her head. "Oh god, I get the hangover too? That bastard."

Rios turned and ran after Dorian. Elnor followed. But it wasn't going to matter because anything they did to Dorian was just going to be transferred to Rios now. They needed another way to defeat the immortal.

Seven turned to Soji. "I need you to find images of Dorian and make a new portrait."

"Of who?"

Seven grabbed the camera and took a picture of herself next.

Soji's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Do it!"

Soji swiveled back to the computer and got to work. "I need more images of him. Get him to the holding area where everyone still has their phones."

Seven gave a sharp nod and went after the others. She found Rios engaged in a fist fight with Dorian, but every blow he landed came back on himself.

Dorian laughed. "I could do this all night."

Elnor was hanging back, looking uncertain.

Seven smacked his shoulder. "Get Dorian to the holding area."

The Qowat Milat warrior jolted out of his indecisiveness and gave a nod, then charged. He barreled into Dorian, propelling him out and into the open where the line to get in could see him. Dorian shoved Elnor away and tried to dart down the other foyer, but Elnor grabbed his arm and swung him around the opposite direction. Rios caught up and threw another punch, which only served to knock himself off his feet.

Dorian turned back to Elnor. "What are you going to do?" He spread his arms. "Come on, give me your best shot."

Elnor surged forward and delivered a sucker punch. Dorian only stumbled a little while Rios's head snapped to the side and he collapsed back to the floor. Elnor's eyes widened.

"Keep- going," Rios grunted.

Elnor looked hesitant, but as Dorian tried to stride past him, the kid struck again with a blow to the stomach. Rios coughed and clutched his side.

Dorian again tried to get around Elnor, and again Rios yelled at him to stop Dorian. Elnor attacked again, and Rios took the brunt of the blows again.

"As much fun as this is," Dorian said, "I must be going."

Seven grabbed one of the poles from the rope line and hefted it up. "Sorry," she told Rios as she slammed it across Dorian's back, knocking him further out into the crowd.

Rios went flat on the floor again, while camera phones clicked and clicked around Dorian scrambling to his feet. He took off down the street.

Seven grabbed Rios's arm to haul him up, and then the three of them gave chase. They followed Dorian down an alley and into the next building.

"He's going up!" Elnor shouted, pointing after a glimpse of the man's blond hair.

They clamored up the stairs until they burst out onto the roof. Dorian was already sitting on the ledge, one leg swung over the side to dangle several stories above the street.

"You know," he said casually to Rios. "I could throw you off this roof, and you would die. But you also die if I fall back off myself." He swung his leg idly. "It's kind of a win/win for me."

"It's over, Dorian," Seven said.

He grinned. "You're trying to replace my image with the picture. It doesn't quite work that way."

"I'm aware," Seven said. "Your cursed image only works because of how much you love yourself."

"It's a gift, not a curse," he sneered. "Eternal youth. Eternal life. Any sin. Any vice."

"And yet you said yourself, it wasn't enough. You can't feel," Seven rejoined. "You don't pay the price, but you can't feel it either. Eternal life in a numb chase."

"That is why I hate you people so much," Dorian spat at Rios and Elnor. "You can feel, and instead you just watch. You take mortality for granted and so you don't deserve it. I would burn through a million of you for five seconds of feeling." He turned his blazing gaze to Seven. "I'm sure you understand. When's the last time you felt something, Seven? I've lived my immortality in hedonistic splendor while you've devoted yours to being an instrument of an institution. I search for feeling and you deny it!"

Seven didn't respond to his tirade.

Soji came barreling up the steps then, out of breath. She had the tablet with her.

"Foolish Warehouse agents and your pathetic attempts to stop me," Dorian simpered. "I go on forever."

Soji caught her breath. "Maybe not." She held up the tablet, revealing a digital portrait of Seven. "I geotagged all the images from the nearest cell tower from Club Effigy. Got quite a few shots of you from people's social media feeds."

Dorian furrowed his brows in confusion.

Seven took his moment of distraction and turned to take a running leap right over the side of the building. Rios and Elnor shouted after her, their voices quickly drowned out in the wind rushing up around her. She closed her eyes right before hitting the sidewalk, but while she felt a minor impact, it wasn't as jarring as one would expect. She slowly stood up and tilted her head back. Far above at the roof's edge, an explosion of dust was wafting away on the wind. Several faces then appeared over the edge to look down at her in shock. She waved.

Seven stayed down on the street until the others came down.

"What the hell was that?" Rios exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Perfectly fine. Dorian?"

"He exploded," Elnor replied.

"That means he's dead, right?" Soji asked.

"Yes," Seven answered. "Good job."

"I'm just glad it worked," Soji said in awe. "But, uh, what do I do with this now?" She held up the digital portrait.

"Dismantle it," Seven instructed. "My immortality isn't tied to it."

They headed back into the club and up to the loft where Raffi was still slumped over the chair in misery.

"Tell me you got him," she moaned at their return.

"We did," Seven said, bending down to sling Raffi's arm over her shoulder and extricate her from the chair.

Soji took the seat at the computer and began to undo the collage portrait.

Rios found another chair and wheeled it over so Raffi could collapse into it until they were finished and ready to leave.

"You had Soji create a portrait of you made up of Dorian," Rios said quietly to Seven.

"Yes."

His forehead was creased in thought. "I thought Dorian's portrait only worked because of his vanity. You've never struck me as vain," he said candidly.

"The step below vanity is self-love," Seven replied, gazing down softly at Raffi. "Let's just say someone has recently reminded me of my value as an individual."

"You love yourself because Raffi loves you," Rios finished.

She smiled fondly at the woman in question, who was suffering too brutal of a headache to be following their quiet conversation.

"Dorian wasn't wrong about immortality," Seven added. "It does numb the soul."

Rios turned and put a hand on her shoulder. He didn't say anything, just met her eyes with a meaningful look of friendship, compassion, and support. She nodded back in acknowledgement.

"I'm going to call Agnes, let her know it's over," he said and moved off.

Seven stayed by Raffi's side until Soji had finished dismantling all the photos on Dorian's computer and wiping them from the cloud. Then they all headed out, Seven and Elnor carrying Raffi between them. The drive home was rough on her, and they had to pull over a few times so she could lean out the door and puke. Seven would have teleported her back to the B&B if the manipulation of time and space wouldn't actually make it worse for her.

Once they arrived home, Seven and Elnor got Raffi up to her room and into bed.

"I'll take it from here," Seven said.

Elnor nodded respectfully and left.

Raffi had barely been in bed for a full minute before she was lurching up for the bathroom. Seven followed and gathered Raffi's hair up to hold it away from the toilet as she vomited again.

Raffi groaned. "Bet I make an attractive picture," she muttered. "You reminded how not worth it mortality is?"

Seven brushed a stray hand away from Raffi's forehead. "I'm reminded how much I love you and don't like to see you hurting."

She grabbed a washcloth from the towel rack and wet it, then wrung it out and placed it on the back of Raffi's neck. She moaned and rested her head on the toilet. Seven waited a few minutes to make sure her stomach was done before coaxing her off the floor and back to bed.

There was a tentative knock on the door and Dahj poked her head in. "Rios said I should bring up coffee and Gatorade," she said, holding up a tray.

"Thank you," Seven said.

Dahj came in and set the tray on the dresser, then excused herself.

"Mm, stomach too wobbly," Raffi groaned.

"We'll give it a few minutes," Seven replied.

Raffi opened her eyes to squint at her. "You said you love me." She moaned again and threw an arm over her face. "I can't believe the first time you say it I'm puking my guts out."

"In sickness and in health," Seven said. "And I'm sorry I didn't say the word sooner. I've certainly thought it for a while now."

"Don't take this as sappy, but I love you too."

She smiled and stroked Raffi's sweaty curls back.

"Thanks for saving me," Raffi murmured.

Seven's smile deepened and she whispered, "You saved me first."

Chapter Text

It was Christmas Eve and the Christmas related artifacts were getting uppity, so it was all hands on deck in the Aisle of Noel trying to keep them corralled. The holo squad couldn't help because the energy interference would cause more harm than good.

Rudolph's Nose went bouncing across the floor, and Sirena barked at it. Rios scooped it up before the dog could get a hold of it and put it back on the shelf under its glass case. The round ball pulsed with bursts of red.

"I've never had a Christmas," Elnor commented.

"Not one?" Soji asked.

"The Qowat Milat don't celebrate such things."

"Well, you'll have one this year," Raffi declared. "After we get everything in line here, we'll go back to the B&B and dig the Christmas decorations out of the attic. We'll even go cut down our own tree."

"The B&B has decorations?" Soji repeated. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Raffi shrugged. "We have been busy."

"We don't have the fixings for a Christmas dinner," Dahj pointed out ruefully.

"We can cater," Raffi replied.

"It's Christmas Eve," Rios mentioned. "Places are likely sold out."

"Wow, you guys are bah humbug," Raffi responded and pulled out her cell phone. A few minutes later, she said, "I reserved us a ham. If the four of you are good here, I'll grab Jean-Luc and we'll go pick it up."

Rios waved her off; the rest of them could handle this. They continued going through the artifacts, twiddling things to appease them or dusting them with neutralizer. Christmastime was when good will and grief were amplified in equal measure, creating an environment for both mischief and melancholy from the various artifacts associated with it.

A trumpet belted out a note and sparked an ornament, which went flying off the shelf to roll across the floor right as Soji was heading toward it. She tripped over the ornament and fell against another shelf, which knocked a snow globe off. Elnor lunged to catch it before it could hit the floor and shatter. Everyone let out a breath of relief.

"Nice catch," Rios said.

Elnor slowly straightened and looked inside the globe at the tiny Christmas village covered in swirling snow. "Will the artifacts even settle down in time for us to leave?" he asked. "Because I'm looking forward to having a Christmas this year." He set the snow globe back on the shelf where it immediately started to glow. "Uh, what's it doing?" Elnor asked.

Rios had only a split second to think "now what?" before they were all sucked into a raging vortex.

They landed in soft but crunchy snow that immediately soaked through Rios's clothing and left him jolting with the chill of it. Soji yelped as she scrambled to her feet, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Everyone okay?" Rios asked, whipping his gaze around.

"Oh that's cold," Dahj said, trying to brush the snow off her clothes.

There was a bark, and Sirena went frolicking through the snow.

"Where are we?" Elnor asked, furrowing his brow.

"Not the Warehouse," Soji answered, looking toward a small village not too far away.

The lighting here was weird, dim like nighttime yet also lit brightly from another source. Rios looked up at an oddly shimmery sky shaped like a dome. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered.

The others looked up with frowns.

"We're in the snow globe?!" Soji exclaimed.

"How do we get out?" Elnor asked.

"This snow globe belonged to Ludwig Perzy," Dahj said. "He made them with his brother in a shop in Vienna. But getting sucked into it was not part of the catalog information for it."

"Great," Rios huffed. Just what they needed. He pulled out his cell phone to call for help, then scowled. "No signal."

Soji and Dahj checked their phones as well, but they didn't have a signal either.

"Sirena!" Rios called, not wanting his dog to run off and get lost, though presumably since they were in the snow globe, they couldn't go far.

The Irish Setter came bounding back over, apparently enjoying herself.

"What do we do?" Elnor asked next.

"Look around, see if we can find any clues," Rios answered.

So they turned to head into the town. The streets were decorated with lights and garland, sparkling in the dim aura of twilight.

"It's beautiful," Soji said. "Like a real Christmas village."

Except there were no other people in it, not even figurines. The shops, on the other hand, seemed to be full of items from holiday pastries to toys that looked all too real.

They weren't dressed for snow and the temperature was cold enough, so they chanced venturing into a clothing shop and found the articles were, in fact, real. So they changed into coats, scarves, gloves, and snow boots before heading back out.

"Let's try the food," Soji said excitedly.

She and Dahj went around to the other shops, sampling the various holiday treats.

"Oh my god it's real," Dahj gushed. "Elnor, come try some!"

He went over to join them.

Rios kept scanning the otherwise empty cobblestone streets. He just wanted to get out of here.

"Rios, you gotta try this," Soji called.

"No thanks."

"Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"We're trapped in a snow globe," he said pointedly.

"With a Christmas village," Dahj countered. "Maybe it's a wishing snow globe. Elnor did say he was looking forward to a Christmas experience."

The kid's expression faltered. "Oh, then it's my fault."

"That's not what I meant," Dahj said. "Christmas artifacts have a unique way of working. It could have sensed a need and responded. Maybe we need to embrace it before we can get released."

Rios sighed to himself. The truth was he hadn't really been feeling Christmas this year, and getting sucked into an artifact didn't inspire it in him, either.

Sirena ran up to him, wagging her tail. She had a brand new dog toy in her mouth: a bright red and white candy cane stripe rope tug. Rios bent down to take it from her, then arched his arm back and threw it. She took off down the street, snatching it up and then bounding back to him. Rios repeated the process several times, Sirena not getting tired at all. The toy landed in a snow drift and she went plowing into it, spewing white fluff and nearly disappearing in the mound. The girls laughed.

Sirena twisted around to dig herself out, tail still wagging. Then she swiveled back and forth in search of the toy that had gotten partially covered in snow. Rios trudged over to dig it out for her, then threw it back toward the street. She barked and tore after it.

As his dog and his friends enjoyed themselves, Rios did manage to start smiling in response. He wasn't such a Scrooge that his heart didn't warm at the sight of the people he cared about having fun. He even gave in and took a cup of hot cocoa they brought him. It tasted rich and warm and amazing. Magic indeed.

"So is this what a real Christmas is like?" Elnor asked.

"Aside from the fact there are no crowds here, more or less," Soji replied.

"If this were a Hallmark movie, maybe," Rios amended.

"Yeah, it needs carolers," Dahj added.

"I draw the line there," Rios warned.

Sirena came bounding back for another round of fetch, but this time it wasn't the dog toy in her mouth.

"What have you got there, girl?" Rios said, kneeling down to take the new object from her. It was a large star topper.

"What tree would that fit?" Soji said dubiously.

"Oh," Dahj exclaimed. "Of course! Over here!"

She jogged across the street and the rest of them followed until she stopped at a framed picture of the town displayed on the outside of a brick building.

"Look," she pointed. "There's supposed to be a large tree just outside of town all lit up."

They automatically turned to scan the horizon, but there was no sign of the towering pine illuminated with lights. The star topper was the same as in the picture, though.

"Ludwig Perzy took pride in the details of his work," Dahj went on. "The star probably got knocked off when the snow globe fell off the shelf, so maybe we have to put it back in order to get out!"

Rios shrugged. "As good a theory as any."

They studied the picture and tried to determine which side of town the tree was located on, then went looking. Sure enough, they found the large pine strung with lights and ornaments, but none of it was lit up. Like it was incomplete without its star on top.

Rios craned his head back to look up. "We're going to need a ladder."

So they went back into town to search for one. They eventually found one in the back room of a shop and carried it back out to the tree. The ground was hardly sturdy with all the snow, so the girls and Elnor gathered around the base to hold it still as Rios climbed up to the top. He was almost there when the ladder shook violently beneath him.

"Hold it!" he shouted down.

But it wasn't the ladder that was shaking—it was the entire snow globe. Everyone yelped and screamed as the sky whooshed around in a blur of colors and both Rios and the tree fell. He hit the ground, only for an avalanche to come coursing down from the right and wash over them.

Rios didn't know how long he had blacked out for, only that he must have, because his next moments of awareness were hazy. And his head was throbbing. Whimpering sounded next to him, followed by a cold nose brushing his cheek before Sirena grabbed his jacket collar between her teeth and yanked. The jolting movement made his head spike and his vision spin. Sirena continued to whine and dig at the snow around him.

Rios finally managed to crawl free of the white powder and get upright onto his knees. He reached up to feel his pounding head, which was also beginning to sting like dry ice. His gloved fingers came away red with blood. Rios groaned and tried to look around through spotty vision.

"Dahj! Soji! Elnor!"

The Christmas tree was on its side, and the area was covered in white.

Sirena went trampling through the snow to a spot and started digging and barking. Rios dragged himself over and started to scoop away snow, revealing a head of black hair. He couldn't tell who it was and dug faster. Sirena frantically clawed at the snow until Soji's head broke free with a gasp. Rios reached in to find her arm and haul her out.

"Dahj!" Soji screamed, whipping her head around.

"Here," came a faint reply as Dahj crawled toward them, clothing completely dusted in snow and ice.

Rios blinked through wobbly vision and looked around some more. "Elnor!"

There was no response.

"Elnor!" Dahj yelled.

The three of them staggered to their feet and lumbered around the area, searching and shouting. Sirena gave a yip and pawed at another mound of snow. They all hobbled toward it and dropped down to dig, eventually finding Elnor. He was shivering and near frozen but alive and still conscious.

"We need to get you out of the cold," Rios said through his own chattering teeth.

"I don't think we can," Soji responded, staring past him at where the village had been. It was now buried in snow. And the angle of the dome sky was disorienting…the snow globe had been knocked onto its side.

Which left them stranded in the snow with no place to take shelter and no way out.

Dahj shuffled over to Rios and tilted his head to the side so she could see his wound. She then took off her scarf and attempted to clean the blood away. Elnor and Soji huddled together, and even Sirena nestled in close to Rios for warmth. But there wasn't enough to go around, and they were going to freeze to death eventually.

"Good thing there weren't actually any people in the village," Soji commented morosely. "Even fake, I wouldn't have wanted them to die."

"Can we die in here?" Elnor asked.

No one answered, but they shared grim looks. Rios knew he needed to think of something, but his head was throbbing relentlessly and he couldn't concentrate.

Then there were muffled voices that echoed strangely, and Raffi and Jean-Luc's faces appeared distorted in the sky, through the snow globe's glass.

"Where the hell are they?" Raffi said.

"They wouldn't leave a mess like this," Jean-Luc replied. "Something must have happened."

"Yes!" Soji shouted, jumping to her feet and waving her arms. "We're in here!"

But Raffi and Jean-Luc moved on, apparently unable to hear them.

"No! Come back!" Soji screamed desperately.

"What are they- going to- do?" Elnor stuttered.

"We have to right the snow globe to get the star in place," Dahj reiterated.

"Get out your phones!" Soji exclaimed.

"There's no signal," Rios said defeatedly.

"Use the flashlight!"

She and Dahj scrambled to get their phones out and started flashing the flashlight app up at the glass. Rios fumbled to get his out to join them. A few moments later, Raffi and Jean-Luc returned, both of them leaning down to peer into the snow globe. Their distorted faces made Rios's head spin and stomach lurch.

"What is that?" Raffi's nearby voice boomed.

The snow globe was picked up, causing the foundation to shake and the snow to roll. Soji dove for the star topper and managed to get it on the tree before everything abruptly righted. The rest of them went tumbling through the drifts again, and Rios almost threw up as his head screamed in agony. But then everything settled as the snow globe was set right, and the tree's lights winked on. The star on top blazed gold like a real star, the glow growing brighter and brighter until it whited everything out.

The next thing Rios knew, he was back in the Warehouse, along with the others. They were still dressed in their winter village clothes and still soaked and shivering, but they were out. Sirena gave her fur a good shake to displace the snow.

"What the hell?" Raffi exclaimed. Her gaze narrowed on Rios and she reached out to grab his shoulder. "What happened?!"

"We got sucked into the snow globe," he replied tiredly.

"And we were about to get out, but then it got knocked over again and we got buried in an avalanche and would have frozen to death if you hadn't come back when you did," Soji finished. "So thanks."

"Best get them all back to the B&B and out of those wet clothes," Jean-Luc told Raffi. "I'll take care of the artifacts."

"Alone?" Dahj said. "Are you sure?"

"I've worked here a lot longer and with fewer staff," he replied. "Go before you catch pneumonia."

So they all shuffled out to the SUV and Raffi drove them to the B&B where they changed into dry clothes and then gathered in the parlor in front of a lit fireplace. Raffi cleaned Rios's head wound and applied a butterfly bandage to the cut. Dahj found the meal Raffi and Picard had gone out to get and started setting it out to eat.

"Picard should be here," Elnor said disappointedly.

"Someone's gotta take care of the artifacts," Raffi replied. "He understands."

They dug into the meal, savoring the good food and soaking in the warmth after almost freezing. There were no decorations, so it wasn't the Christmas Raffi had promised, but at least Elnor had experienced some of the cheer in the snow globe village.

But then a couple of hours later, Jean-Luc arrived, with a freshly cut tree in tow.

Raffi's jaw dropped in amazement. "You actually went out to cut one down?"

"It is Christmas, after all," he replied.

Grinning, Soji and Dahj bounded upstairs to find the boxes of decorations as Raffi and Jean-Luc got the tree situated.

Rios was relegated to the couch to watch only, given his head injury. Sirena lay half sprawled across his lap, keeping him warm. He may not have been in the Christmas spirit, but the spirit of loved ones and found family…that he could always find joy in.

Chapter Text

Agnes set her purse and suitcase on the floor after bringing them downstairs. Her weekend stay at the B&B was over too soon, and it was back to work for her.

"I had a really nice time," Cris said.

She smiled back. "Me too."

"Why don't you apply for a transfer to the Warehouse full time."

Agnes canted a wry look at him. "And what would I do for the nine out of ten cases that don't involve a medical component?"

Cris inched closer and wrapped his arms around her. "You could become a field agent. Then we'd have lots of nights on the road together."

She smirked. "Someone would have to find a replacement for me at the CDC."

"Someone else's problem."

Agnes shook her head in fond amusement. As much as she liked spending time with Cris and working the occasional case together, their specialities were quite different and she enjoyed hers.

The front door opened and Soji came blustering inside, disrupting their intimate moment.

"Don't mind me," she said, setting a mechanical beehive on the coffee table before sprinting upstairs, no doubt to change out of the filthy clothes she was wearing.

Cris leaned down to kiss Agnes farewell, and she drew it out between them. Until Sirena came running through the parlor, plowing into the furniture on her way. She bumped the coffee table and knocked the beehive over. Cris lunged to catch it before it could hit the ground.

"No running in the house!" he snapped at the dog.

Sirena skidded to a stop and immediately prostrated herself with a pitiful whine.

"Don't give me that," he said, carefully setting the artifact back on the table. "You know better."

Agnes's lips twitched. She wished she knew what those two were able to communicate to each other, having been mentally bonded by an artifact. She went over and bent down to smush Sirena's face and rub her head. "See you later, trouble maker."

"Sirena would like you to stay too," Cris said.

Agnes just shot him another wry look, then straightened and picked up her bags to head out.

After driving back to Atlanta, she stopped at home long enough to drop off her suitcase and microwave a frozen meal, but then she headed in to CDC headquarters to check on the progress of some tests that had been running over the weekend.

She dug through her purse for her security access card, only for something sharp to jab her finger. She yelped and yanked her hand out. Something large had punctured her index finger and it was swelling rapidly. She grabbed her cell phone instead and called inside.

"CDC, this is Dr. Rodriguez."

"Jaime, it's me," Agnes said. "Can you come let me in?"

"Sure."

The line disconnected and Agnes waited until Jaime came to the door and opened it.

"Where's your badge?"

"In my bag but something stabbed me when I was digging around for it," she explained, heading for the staff room to get a first aid kit.

Jaime followed and took a look at her finger before applying some antibiotic ointment herself. "What did it?"

"No idea. I'll dump everything out later at home. Thanks."

"No problem."

They both headed to the lab and Agnes went over to Dr. Kevin Mahoney to ask about the test results. He noticed her swollen finger and grabbed her hand to look at it.

"That looks like ouch," he said oh so eloquently.

Agnes shook her head and took her hand back. "Yeah, it is. But tell me what you've got."

There were far more dangerous conditions to be concerned about than a finger stick.

Rios was sitting at the Warehouse computer checking his email when Jean-Luc came storming up the steps from the storage area.

"The bee is missing from Hatshepsut's Golden Beehive!" he declared.

Soji straightened in surprise where she was sitting. "What? No, the bee was in there when I retrieved it. I checked!"

Rios leaned back in his seat and groaned. "Sirena knocked it over in the B&B. It must have fallen out then."

"What was it doing in the B&B?" Jean-Luc demanded, narrowing his eyes on Soji.

"Come on, I was covered in grave muck!" she exclaimed. "I needed a shower."

"And so you just left an artifact lying around."

"We've all done that before," Rios put in.

"That was before there were animals running around willy nilly," Jean-Luc rejoined.

"There's an animal in the Warehouse too," Soji pointed out.

"Well there shouldn't be!"

Rios got to his feet and gestured for Soji to do the same. "We'll go find the bee," he said, ushering her out of the office before Picard decided to ban the pets. Not that Rios cared about the ferret, but Sirena liked being close to him when she could, and with their bond, he didn't want to leave her alone all the time at the B&B.

He and Soji returned to the B&B and searched the parlor but didn't find the bee.

Raffi came downstairs. "What are you doing?"

"Hatshepsut's Golden Beehive got knocked over in here and the bee fell out," Rios explained.

"But it's not here!" Soji added in distress. "I don't understand; it's not a live bee, it doesn't go flying around!" She straightened. "Maybe it got caught in Sirena's fur. Sirena!"

Rios whistled for his dog, who came scampering into the parlor, and the two of them went through her fur looking for that small mechanical bee. But no luck.

Rios rocked back on his haunches and looked at the coffee table where the artifact had been. Then it hit him.

"Shit," he muttered. "Agnes's purse was right underneath here when the beehive got knocked over. The bee could have fallen into her bag."

"I'm really sorry," Soji said.

"Not your fault," he replied, getting to his feet. "I'll go to Atlanta and get it back."

"What about Picard?" she asked. "He's going to be pissed. Not that he isn't already."

"Just tell him the truth," Rios said.

Soji faltered. "Actually I'll come with you."

He smirked. "You just don't want to face him."

"Hell no," she agreed as they headed out to the car.

"Wait," Raffi called after them, "you don't expect me to be the messenger?!"

Rios waved at her as he climbed into the SUV and headed south. Once they were on the road, he pulled out his phone to call Agnes.

"Miss me already?" she answered flirtatiously.

"Agnes, listen. We think a piece of an artifact escaped from that beehive and fell into your bag. It's a mechanical bee."

"Hang on," she replied, immediately turning serious. There was the sound of contents being dumped out of something onto a hard surface. "I found it," she said a moment later.

"Don't touch it," Rios said. "Soji and I are on our way."

"I'm at the CDC. And…I think it stung me already."

"What? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it just hurts like a bitch. It jabbed me over an hour ago when I was looking for my access card."

"All right, we're almost there."

He hung up and pressed the gas pedal harder.

"Picard is going to put me on neutralizer duty for a month," Soji bemoaned.

Rios grimaced in sympathy. Maybe if they retrieved the bee without any further fiasco, they could argue for lenience.

They reached the CDC headquarters and Rios texted Agnes to let her know they were outside. She came to let them in, then led the way back to her office where she'd covered the bee with an upside down styrofoam cup. Rios put on purple gloves and got out a neutralizing baggie, then lifted the cup and picked up the bee to drop it in. Nothing happened. Rios reached in to take out the bee and examine it. The stinger was missing.

He turned back to Agnes. "You said it stung you?"

"Yeah."

She held up her hand, and Rios dropped the bee back into the baggie, then took Agnes's finger to examine the wound. It was an angry red and very swollen. Rios gently pressed around the area.

"I can't feel the stinger in there," he said.

"Don't tell me it fell off somewhere in this building," Soji groaned.

Rios gave her a grim look. "Better call the Warehouse."

Expression pinching, Soji pulled out her Farnsworth and made the call.

"Have you retrieved the bee?" Jean-Luc asked without preamble.

"Yes, but we have a problem. It stung Agnes, and we have no idea where the stinger is."

"That is a very big problem," Picard said tersely. "The beehive belonged to a female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, who created the artifact with bee pheromones. She then injected the pheromones into her body and became a queen bee. The stinger works its way into the body and anyone Dr. Jurati touches will become slavish drones."

"Wait, what?" Agnes exclaimed.

Rios realized he was still holding her hand and abruptly dropped it.

"Uh," Soji responded. "Rios touched her. But he's wearing the gloves, so he'll be fine, yeah?"

"He'd better hope so," Jean-Luc replied.

"How do we get the stinger out of me?" Agnes asked anxiously.

"I'll go through the files," Picard said and disconnected, leaving them floundering.

"What about a hospital x-ray?" Soji suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Agnes replied and headed for the door.

They hurried down the hall toward the exit, but right before they reached it, an alarm went off.

"What's that?" Soji asked.

"Lockdown," Agnes answered, stunned. She grabbed the door handle and yanked, but it was locked. She tried to swipe her access card but the panel beeped and remained red. "What the hell," she muttered and turned to jog back down the corridor.

Rios and Soji followed. Agnes hurried into a security room where six people in white lab coats were standing.

"What's going on?" Agnes asked urgently.

"We can't let you be taken away from us," one of them replied.

Agnes's jaw dropped open. "What?"

"Uh oh," Soji said. "Did they happen to touch your hand?"

"Yeah, professional habit." Agnes's face drained of color.

"They've been exposed to the pheromones," Rios said.

"Unlock the building," Agnes commanded.

The drones shook their heads, then fixed their gazes on the Warehouse agents. "We won't let you take Agnes."

"Time to go," Rios said, backpedaling just as Agnes's coworkers started to give chase.

The three of them ran down the hall and ducked into a room, quickly locking the door behind them. The affected doctors and lab techs banged on the outside, trying to break it down. A loud thud reverberated through the door, followed by another that dented the structure inward.

"Did you bring your Tesla?" Soji asked Rios.

"No," he replied grimly. He hadn't expected to be met with…this.

"This way," Agnes said, leading them through another door into an empty hallway.

They had to find a way out. But the drones cut them off again and they were forced to retreat further into the building. Agnes led the way through a lab to another door, but when she tried to open it, it was locked.

"Argh, come on!"

"Let me try," Soji said, pushing her way in to try hacking the digital lock.

"Hurry," Rios urged as the drones burst into the lab.

He darted forward to grab some trays and carts to toss in their path in an effort to slow them all down. He heard the lock behind him beep as Soji got the sliding door open, and he turned to run. But just as Soji and Agnes got through, the sliding door abruptly whooshed shut and locked again. Rios slammed into it, stunned at being cut off.

"Cris!" Agnes screamed as Soji frantically tried to get it open again.

The drones were closing in on him, and Rios had no choice but to turn and fight. Six against one easily overwhelmed him, though. He got in a fair amount of punches, but then one of them jabbed a syringe into the back of his neck. He cried out and staggered under the shocking attack. He kept swinging, though, even as his head grew fuzzy and his vision blurred. He heard Agnes's and Soji's muffled voices screaming as he blacked out.

Agnes banged her fists against the glass window. "Leave him alone!" she screamed, but the drones that she was supposed to be queen of completely ignored her as they picked up Cris's unconscious body and carried him away.

Soji jabbed at the security panel, to no avail, and slammed her palm against the wall in equal frustration. Her Farnsworth pinged then and she scrambled to answer it.

"Picard! Tell us you have something. The drones just knocked out Rios and carried him off somewhere."

"They wouldn't listen to me," Agnes put in. "I thought you said the pheromones make them slavish drones?"

"The servants eventually become so obsessed they do whatever they feel is best," he replied grimly. "Hatshepsut's servants mummified her husband."

Agnes and Soji exchanged horrified looks.

"Um, do they know you and Rios are dating?" Soji asked.

"I have a picture of us on my desk. It's not like it's a secret!"

"How do we stop them?" Soji urgently asked Picard.

"You have to use the bee to draw the stinger out through Dr. Jurati's left clavicle, like a magnet."

Soji started rifling through her pockets, only to stop in frozen horror. "Rios has the bee."

Agnes's eyes widen. "We have to get out of here."

Ignoring Picard on the Farnsworth, they frantically tried to find a way out of the locked room, but Agnes's colleagues must have changed the security codes. A few moments later, the door inexplicably beeped and slid open. They shared a bewildered look.

"Got your backs, lassies," Ean's voice came from the still open line to the Warehouse.

"Thanks," Soji exclaimed as she ran out.

Agnes followed, too worried about Cris to care how easily his holographic copy had hacked into the CDC. They ran down the hallway in search of Cris and found him and the drones in the morgue, with Cris laid out on an autopsy slab as they prepared to scalpel him.

Agnes burst through the door. "Stop!"

They didn't even pause to look at her. Soji leaped in to fight them, but there were too many, and they saw Soji just as much of a threat as Cris. Kevin swiped the scalpel at her, which she narrowly avoided. Agnes turned to grab the fire extinguisher off the wall and then started blasting her coworkers with the chemicals. That managed to drive them backward long enough for Soji to reach Cris and find the bee in his pocket. Then she scrambled over to Agnes and held the mechanical creature above her left shoulder. Agnes gasped and dropped the extinguisher as she felt something moving beneath her skin.

"Come on, come on," Soji urged.

The drones were picking themselves up off the floor and shaking off their daze. Agnes screamed as the stinger tore free of her flesh and reattached to the bee. Soji dropped the whole thing back in the neutralizing baggie, and it sparked with purple embers.

Instantaneously, her colleagues stopped in their tracks and looked around in shock and confusion.

"What the—"

"What are we doing down here?"

"What's going on?"

"There was a biochemical exposure," Soji quickly told them. "You'll be fine."

She rushed to Cris, as did Agnes. Agnes checked his pulse first, which was sluggish but steady, then she checked to make sure that scalpel hadn't made any incisions, but it looked like they'd gotten there just in time.

Agnes's colleagues continued to look at them in bewilderment, and she knew this was going to be a horrible mess to clean up.

Agnes walked over to the couch where Cris was slumped with an ice pack pressed to his head. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Like the worst hangover ever," he moaned.

"They used a pretty strong sedative, so technically you are hungover." She sat down beside him, their legs touching. "I'm glad you're okay."

He reached down to take her hand. "I'm glad you're okay," he said back.

Soji came over, looking contrite. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left the beehive in the B&B."

"It was my dog that knocked it over," Cris replied. "So I bear some responsibility too."

"It's neither of your faults," Agnes put in. "Artifacts are unpredictable that way. Mischief and mayhem is their thing."

"How are your coworkers?" Cris asked.

"They have no memory of any of this."

"Small favors," Soji said.

Agnes grimaced. "They're scientists; they're trained to want facts backing up explanations. But the Warehouse hasn't operated this long without having protocols in place to handle it."

"I hope it doesn't make things difficult for you," Cris said regretfully. "Keeping secrets puts a strain on friendships."

She squeezed his hand. "I'll be fine. And thankfully all that is above my pay grade. Now come on, you can get some rest at my place and sleep off the rest of that hangover."

She got to her feet and pulled Cris to his, with Soji's help. He was still unsteady and wobbly, but between the two girls, they had him well supported and looked after.

Chapter Text

"Seriously, how'd it even get in here?" Raffi said as she, Rios, and Jean-Luc walked up the gangplank of an entire galley ship that had been housed in the Warehouse longer than any of them had been around.

"One of the Warehouse's many mysteries," Jean-Luc replied.

Raffi made a mental note to ask Seven about it the next time they saw each other.

Some of the holos were hanging out on the ship's deck, apparently having an argument.

"It's not called the poop deck because it's for pooping!" Steward sniped at Enoch, who was holding his pet ferret.

"What else are you going to clean up after?" Enoch rejoined.

Emil stood between them, looking like he was trying to referee.

The Warehouse agents ignored them as they went up to the main deck where the wheel was. Raffi and Rios had just returned from retrieving the sextant that belonged to the sailing ship, the Lively, and they set the instrument on the pedestal where it belonged. The moment they did, however, there was a flash of bright light that whited out everything, and in the next moment, they found themselves surrounded by ocean on all sides. And the deck was now full with a working crew.

"What the hell?" Raffi muttered, whirling around.

The Warehouse was gone, and even the deck beneath her feet was tilting with the crest and dip of the waves. As she stumbled to reassert her balance, she glanced down and saw she was now dressed in sailor garb. And so were Rios and Jean-Luc.

"Oh hell," she scowled.

"Did we just get sent back in time?" Rios spluttered.

"With a wardrobe change?" Raffi said dubiously.

"That does seem unlikely," Jean-Luc said, even as he looked around perturbed. "Reuniting the sextant with the ship must have activated it."

"But to do what?" Raffi asked.

Shouts of exclamation sounded from below, and they looked down to see the three holograms had been transported as well, and were also now dressed in sailor clothing. Enoch was moving from crewman to crewman, expression wide and delighted. The sailors kept shooting him weird looks and shoving him away.

"Fascinating," Emil said, coming up the companionway to the main deck.

Someone tossed a bucket of sea water across the deck and Steward scampered backward like it was acid, his face turning red in a fluster.

"Okay, we have to still be in the Warehouse if the holograms are here," Raffi reasoned.

"What fun!" Enoch exclaimed with a beaming grin as he jogged up the steps, Mr. Quiggles squirming in his arms.

"Captain!" a voice yelled from below, and another sailor came up the companionway. "We're approaching harsh waters, Captain," the man addressed Jean-Luc. "What are your orders?"

Picard floundered for a moment. If they hadn't gone back in time, how were they interacting with a long-dead crew? Assuming these were the original members. But if not, who were they?

"Captain?" the man pressed.

Jean-Luc cleared his throat. "Er, steady on," he said.

The sailor gave a sharp nod and turned to shout orders to the rest of the crew.

"Okay, let's get off this ride," Raffi said, turning to the sextant. "Think we just remove it?"

"Don't do that yet!" Enoch beseeched. "We never get to experience anything outside the Warehouse."

"We don't even know where we are," Raffi countered.

"Still on the ship," Emil declared.

Rios rolled his eyes at him. "We can see that, but where is the ship?"

"Like you said, it must still be in the Warehouse if we're here. Do let us explore just a little."

Raffi crossed her arms. She didn't like being taken by surprise by artifacts, but on the other hand, it was rather curious…

"How are these guys interactive?" she mused out loud about the crew that had appeared out of nowhere.

Emil and Enoch took that as permission to play around and went back down to the lower deck.

Steward, on the other hand, came closer and leaned so far into Raffi's personal space that she had to bend backwards. "I must protest," he said.

Raffi twisted to get away from him. "Chill out, dude."

"Time bubble?" Rios theorized, ignoring his holographic copy.

"But they think JL is the captain," Raffi replied. "And they certainly don't seem to be questioning our being here."

"It is curious," Jean-Luc agreed, looking down and picking at the lapels of his new—or rather, old—garments.

"Starboard!" someone suddenly shouted in what sounded like a warning.

Before they could react, a raging waterspout of all things came slamming into the side of the ship, spewing vapor over the decks. The ship rocked, throwing everyone off their feet. The sextant fell off the pedestal and crashed to the floor, one of the pieces breaking off and rolling down the steps.

"We can't lose the piece!" Jean-Luc shouted.

Raffi grabbed the bulwark to hold on and tried to scramble down the companionway. The horizon mirror of the sextant rolled back and forth with the lurching of the ship. Then Enoch's ferret came scampering out of nowhere, snatched up the horizon mirror in his mouth, and took off the opposite direction.

"No!" Raffi yelled and lunged for him, but she missed and landed on the wood hard.

"Mr. Quiggles, come back!" Enoch called frantically.

Rios and Jean-Luc clamored down the steps to give chase as well, but the ferret disappeared through the grate of the cargo hold. To make matters worse, the seas were getting rougher and the blue sky had somehow turned pewter gray, with dark, almost black clouds directly ahead of them.

The first mate was shouting orders to the crew, and Jean-Luc waved for Raffi and Rios to follow him back up to the quarterdeck and into the captain's cabin for shelter. The holos filed in after them.

"I'm actually wet," Emil said in wonder, looking at himself.

"This is abominable," Steward lamented.

"We need the sextant in one piece if we're going to get out of here," Jean-Luc put in firmly.

"At least Mr. Quiggles can't go far," Enoch replied.

They all shot him a dirty look at that; a galley ship was quite large for a creature as small as a ferret, with plenty of crannies to hide in. Assuming, of course, he didn't accidentally get swept overboard in this storm…

"Shouldn't we go look for him?" Enoch said.

"Maybe wait for the seas to calm down," Jean-Luc said. "This type of weather is dangerous."

Indeed, the cabin may have kept them dry, but riding out the storm in there wasn't exactly pleasant. The ship kept lurching from side to side, disrupting Raffi's balance and stomach.

"I hope Mr. Quiggles is okay," Enoch said mournfully.

Raffi rolled her eyes. She was more concerned about their welfare than the little weasel's, aside from the fact that he'd taken the mirror.

An urgent pounding sounded at the door, and Picard went to answer. It was the first mate.

"Captain, there's been a serious injury and we need the ship's doc."

"Ah…" Jean-Luc looked back at the rest of them, and they in turn exchanged blank looks, unsure who was supposed to have that role, not to mention none of them were doctors.

"Here I am," Emil said excitedly and stepped forward.

"What are you doing?" Rios snapped under his breath.

"In my free time at the Warehouse, I downloaded every medical text I could get on the Internet, so I have all the knowledge needed to be a doctor." His eyes lit up. "And now I actually get an opportunity to put it into practice!"

The Warehouse agents gaped at him dumbly as he pushed past Picard and followed the first mate. The rest of them quickly snapped out of their stupor and hurriedly followed them down to the berth deck where the injured crewman had been laid on a table. His hand was crushed. Raffi grimaced at the grisly mess of broken bones and split flesh.

Emil went into doctor mode, clearing the way to get in close to examine his patient. "Ah, crush injuries are very severe," he remarked. "There are twenty-seven bones in the hand, and without proper realignment, prognosis is not good. In fact, the common medical practice of this era was amputation, which brought its own risk of complications."

"In all your reading, did you miss the part about having a bedside manner?" Rios snipped.

"That's a relatively modern concept," Emil replied.

Rios shook his head. "I can't watch this. I'm gonna go look for the ferret."

Raffi turned away from the gruesome medical situation and went with him. They stumbled along the length of the ship, occasionally getting tossed to and fro by the high seas. It was already very dim from the stormy skies, but as night fell, it became impossible to see anything, so they had to give up and go back to the captain's cabin to wait for morning.

"Think if we just…step off the ship, we'll be back in the Warehouse?" Raffi wondered aloud.

"You really want to be the one to try that?" Rios replied.

She grimaced; not really. "We could toss one of the holos."

"Hey!" Enoch exclaimed. "Just because we're not real flesh and blood doesn't mean we don't have feelings."

Rios rolled his eyes, then dropped his head into his hand.

Raffi laid her head on his shoulder and tried to get some sleep as they waited for the light of morning.

Elnor, Dahj, and Soji stood in the middle of the Warehouse, staring at the gigantic space where a whole sailing ship used to be.

"How could it just disappear?" Elnor asked.

"This is the Warehouse," Soji replied, as though that was answer enough. "More importantly, where did it go and where did it take Picard, Rios, and Raffi?"

Ean came over to join them. "Emil, Enoch, an' Steward are gone as well," he said.

"Gone like offline?" Soji asked.

Ean shook his head. "No, just…gone."

They all shared flummoxed looks at that.

"We need to research the Lively," Dahj said, so they all headed to the archives to hopefully find a clue as to what happened to their friends.

The storm finally ended shortly before dawn, and so the next morning they all went outside to consider their situation and debate the risks of simply…jumping overboard.

"If we're, in fact, not in the Warehouse, we could be lost at sea," Raffi mused.

"And if we are, we could end up falling twenty feet down to concrete instead of water," Rios pointed out.

"I agree one of the holograms should test it," Jean-Luc said.

Enoch stubbornly shook his head. "I'm not leaving without Mr. Quiggles."

"I'm enjoying this, personally," Emil said. "I get to be a doctor here."

"You're not a real doctor," Raffi pointed out irritably.

"You're not even a real boy," Rios added. "So be a good hologram and go for a swim."

Emil bristled. "I think not."

"How can you stand these unsanitary conditions?" Steward said, storming over. "Scurvy is everywhere!"

"Scurvy is caused by lack of nutrients," Emil said. "It's not contagious."

Steward drew his shoulders back. "I keep finding teeth on the floor. Teeth! The longer we stay here, the greater risk of being…tainted by something."

"Then test our theory," Rios interrupted, grabbing the back of his collar and propelling him to the bulwark and over the side.

Steward shrieked like a girl as he fell overboard and splashed into the sea. A moment later, he surfaced, flailing and sputtering.

"So much for our theory," Raffi muttered.

Enoch jumped onto the edge of the bulwark, holding onto one of the ropes as he cupped his other hand to his mouth and yelled, "Man overboard!"

The crew launched into action, tossing lines overboard to retrieve Steward and haul him back up. The hologram was soaked and having such a conniption that his words were indecipherable among the babbling indignation.

"I demand a court martial!" he spluttered.

The first mate turned to Jean-Luc. "Captain?"

Picard rolled his eyes. "There will be no court martial. Back to work."

Steward straightened, trying to look his usual prim self while sopping wet. "I see how it is."

"You're fine," Emil said with an eye roll.

Raffi sighed. "It was worth a shot."

But now it seemed their only option was to find that ferret, assuming Mr. Quiggles even still had the horizon mirror and hadn't stashed it somewhere. Since the storm was over and the daylight bright, they split up to go down and search every nook and cranny of the ship. Who knew there were so many places aboard a sea vessel that a ferret could hide.

"Mr. Quiggles!" Enoch's voice echoed from further down, sounding dramatically distraught. "Why have you betrayed me?"

More shouting followed, but from above. Raffi paused to listen at the notes of urgency, then turned to run up and see what was happening. The men were gathered on one side, looking out behind them. Raffi sprinted up the companionway to look out for herself. A ship was behind them, and gaining. And it was flying a black flag.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered.

"Arm yourselves!" the first mate bellowed.

Everyone was running and scrambling for weapons.

Rios jogged over to Raffi. "Now would be a good time to get out of here."

"Damn that ferret," Raffi cursed.

There was a sharp crack and high-pitched whistle as the pirate ship fired a cannon. The crude projectile sailed through the middle of the Lively, clipping the foremast before landing in the water on the other side. The ship rocked from the impact, though, splinters flying like shrapnel.

"Captain!" the first mate yelled.

"Fire back!" Picard ordered. He spun to find Raffi and Rios. "We'd better arm ourselves too."

They followed him to the armory and grabbed some swords. Raffi's pulse was hammering against her throat as the pirate ship sailed alongside them. Emil and Enoch were nowhere in sight, but Steward was cowering in a corner, arms up over his head.

"Get below and find that ferret!" Rios snapped at him.

Glowering, Steward nevertheless crawled across the deck to the opening and disappeared below.

Pirates began swinging over from their ship to board the Lively and the battle commenced. Neither Raffi nor Rios were trained in sword wielding—where was Elnor when they needed him—but they held their own. Jean-Luc, on the other hand, had a fencing background.

"En garde!" he declared before driving back his opponent with a series of quick successive moves that ended with a thrust to the heart.

More cannon fire was exchanged between the closely aligned ships, resulting in numerous explosions. One of the concussive forces threw Raffi and Rios to the deck amidst a shower of splinters and debris. That didn't slow the battle around them any, and they both reached to help each other up at the same time, then stood back to back as they continued to fight off their attackers.

Raffi caught a flash of reflected light from a small mirror and spotted Mr. Quiggles scurrying among some rope and barrels with the sextant piece still in his mouth.

"Rios, cover me!" she yelled and went after the ferret.

Rios pivoted to place himself between her and the incoming pirates as she sprinted for the animal. The ferret squeaked and froze for a split moment before trying to dart away. Raffi dove forward and scooped him up, along with the horizon mirror. Crap, but now where was the sextant?

Enoch came scrambling over, apparently having been on the ferret's tail. Raffi shoved the animal and the mirror into his hands.

"Fix the sextant!" she yelled.

He gave a jerky nod and darted off. Raffi snatched up her sword and rejoined the fight. Now that Mr. Quiggles and the artifact piece had been found, Emil joined the swashbuckling as well, while Steward was nowhere to be seen. Emil cut down several pirates before turning on his heel and abruptly taking a sword through the chest. He looked down at it, then up again.

"I am slain." And he collapsed.

Raffi was too busy fighting off a very smelly pirate when he caught her blade in a twirl that sent it flying from her hand. She pinwheeled backward and tripped over some rope, landing hard on her back.

A cannon ball ripped through the lower deck, exploding the top part upward and throwing Rios across the deck.

Raffi's breath caught in her throat as the smelly pirate drew his arm back to run her through. And then he was gone. In an instant, everything vanished—the pirates, the crew, even the scent of brine and pine pitch—everything but the ship, now whole again. The Warehouse ceiling extended above Raffi's vision.

She slowly sat up, looking around in a daze, then scrambled to her feet and over to Rios. Jean-Luc hurried over as well. They were all back in their normal clothes and their weapons were gone.

"You okay?" Raffi asked urgently.

Rios looked dazed but not badly hurt. "Yeah."

Steward poked his head up through the hold. "Is it over?"

Enoch came jogging out, Mr. Quiggles in one hand and the repaired sextant in the other. "We did it!" he exclaimed.

Raffi breathed a sigh of relief, but then all their gazes were drawn to where Emil still lay on the deck. "Is he…?"

Rios got to his feet and staggered over, expression oddly blank. Raffi knew they were just holograms, but the thought that one of them had actually died…the pang of grief she felt was rather real.

Then Emil opened his eyes and he sat up. "Well," he said. "That was a twist ending."

Rios scowled and stormed away from him.

"Picard! Raffi!" a voice shouted from below. "Rios!"

Soji, Dahj, and Elnor came running down the aisle.

"Are you guys okay?"

"We're all right," Jean-Luc replied as they descended the gangplank.

Raffi was happy to be safely off the ship. "We were just temporarily transported to the high seas in the past or something."

"Not in the past," Jean-Luc corrected.

"How'd you know we were missing?" Rios asked. "Has it actually been a whole day?"

"What?" Soji said. "No. Just a few hours. And the whole ship was gone too."

"Apparently reuniting the sextant with the Lively was a bad idea," Raffi said.

"Yeah," Dahj put in. "The mirrors on the sextant created a mirror dimension. That's where you were."

"And that would explain how the holos got brought along?" Rios asked. "A mirror dimension inside the Warehouse."

"Probably."

Enoch grinned and headed back up to the wheel with the sextant.

"No!" several of them shouted at once.

"We'll find another place for it," Picard said.

"Aw," Enoch returned, sounding disappointed.

"What was it like?" Soji asked.

Raffi and Rios shared a look.

"The ship lives up to its name," she said. "And I'm glad none of us were killed by pirates."

"I bet it was a little fun though," Soji pressed.

Raffi's lips quirked. "Maybe a little."

Chapter Text

The staccato collision of wooden sparring sticks rang throughout the Warehouse as Rios exchanged blows with Emmett. Elnor was off with Raffi on an artifact retrieval, so the hologram made a sufficient substitute. Of all of Rios's copies, Emmett was the most tolerable, probably because he didn't say much.

He also had no compunction about not going easy in the least, and Rios was going to have a few bruises in the morning, but he got in a few solid hits of his own, not that Emmett was going to suffer from any of them.

They blocked and parried a few more times before locking rods, then they stepped apart for a brief respite. Emmett gave Rios a clipped nod of approval; his skill was improving.

They were about to go again when a crackle sounded above their heads. Rios looked up to find static building up on the ceiling.

"Puta—" Emmett started before abruptly flickering off.

The static ball went shooting through the air and struck a shelf of artifacts, which sent several flying. Including Brigadier General Laverlong's Elephant Walking Stick. It fell at just the right angle for the tip to strike the ground, causing a massive earthquake. Rios stumbled as the ground shook violently, and an entire shelf unit creaked as it fell over. He dove to get out of the way but the unit was too wide and came crashing down on top of him. The ground continued to rumble for another moment before settling.

Rios lay amidst a pile of artifacts, the shelf unit angled above his head so he hadn't been completely crushed. He had several more bruises, he was sure, but he thought he was okay. Until he tried to get up and crawl free and found his legs pinned. Twisting on his hip, he grabbed his pant leg and yanked, then tried pushing against the shelf, but it wouldn't budge.

"Emmett!" he yelled. "Emmett!"

The hologram didn't appear. More static was building up near the ceiling, which meant the safety protocol had disabled all the holograms until the interference could be cleared out.

"Hello!" Rios shouted at the top of his lungs. "Can anyone hear me?"

He was met with only silence. The Warehouse was vast, but surely someone had felt the quake…

Pain spiked through one of his legs and he sucked in a gasp. Glancing back at his buried lower half, he spotted blood beginning to pool out from beneath the rubble. His heart jumped into his throat; he couldn't see how bad it was. He struggled to dig into his pockets, his fingers getting pinched between his leg and the edge of a shelf. But he managed to pull out his cell and Farnsworth, only to find both their screens were broken. Rios jabbed at the power buttons, but neither turned on. He had no way of calling for help.

He turned back to the rubble and once again tried to pull himself free, tried to wedge something between him and the shelf to create a small gap to slide free from, but the movement only ignited an even worse burst of pain through his legs. He stopped and collapsed back on the floor, then craned his neck to look at the blood. He couldn't see where it was coming from, which meant he risked making it worse and dying faster if he kept trying to pull and yank on things. But he needed help and didn't know how to get it.

A clacking sound on concrete drew his gaze up as Sirena came running over. She must have sensed his distress through their mental bond.

"Hey, girl," he breathed in relief, reaching up to grab her scruff.

She whined and licked his face urgently.

"Can you get help?" he asked.

She barked and whined again, not wanting to leave him.

Rios looked around helplessly. The only reason she'd been able to find him was their bond; she'd get lost trying to find her way back out of the Warehouse's labyrinthine aisles. Just as he was about to lose hope, he spotted one of the artifacts that'd been knocked over—the Alpine Brandy Rescue Cask. Rios couldn't believe his luck. But…it was too far away to reach.

"Sirena, bring me the barrel," he urged.

She sprinted over to the cask and dug at its base to get it rocking, then nosed it toward him. Rios struggled to reach around the front to the cork but stopped once he had a hold of it. He knew what the artifact was supposed to do but not what it would be like. Taking a breath, he pulled the cork out with a pop.

In the next instant, Rios was suddenly looking down at himself lying on the floor, his own face no more than a foot away. He looked straight down at the paws covered in red fur that now belonged to him. His human body let out a whimper and tried to move but couldn't, still trapped.

Rios pressed his wet nose into his own face to reassure Sirena everything would be okay. Then he turned and ran on four borrowed legs to find help.

He raced through the Warehouse, the static charging above making his fur prickle. He ran up the steps to the office, but the door was shut. No wonder no one could hear his echoing calls for help. Pawing at the door, he barked and barked until the door finally opened.

Jean-Luc looked down at him in irritation. "Rios knows better than to leave his dog unsupervised in the Warehouse," he huffed.

"Sirena is well-behaved," Dahj replied from inside.

Rios pushed past Picard into the office and barked furiously at both of them, then danced back toward the door. They frowned at him. He leaped forward to grab Dahj's sleeve between his teeth. He wasn't trying to actually bite her, but she yelped as his teeth knocked bone. He let go and tried again to snag just her clothing, then started dragging her toward the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked in concern.

Rios barked again and darted out onto the landing where he paused to look back expectantly, desperate for them to understand.

Jean-Luc scoffed. "So much for well-behaved."

"No," Dahj said. "Something must be wrong."

Rios yipped in confirmation and put his two front paws on the next step down, whining urgently. Dahj and Picard finally started to follow, so he scrambled down the steps, then waited at the bottom for them. Once he was sure he had their full attention, he darted down the aisle, pausing every so often to make sure they were keeping up. He led them all the way back to where Sirena was trapped in his body.

"Rios!" Jean-Luc exclaimed in alarm.

Sirena whimpered in response.

Picard's brows furrowed at the strange behavior.

Rios yipped and pawed at the cask, and Picard's eyes widened at it. He quickly picked up the cork and plugged it back into the opening. And suddenly Rios was back in his own body.

"Oh thank god," he breathed. "That was wild."

"It was clever," Jean-Luc replied. "What happened?"

"Static buildup, disabled the holos and knocked over the Elephant Walking Stick. I can't believe you didn't feel the earthquake."

"Mm," Picard hummed as he studied the situation.

"Lucky Sirena was around the Warehouse unsupervised," Rios added.

Picard arched a brow in confusion before remembering it hadn't been Sirena that had come to get them. "We're not going to be able to lift this on our own," he said, turning back to the problem at hand. He looked at Dahj. "Call Soji to get down here and grab the Jade Elephant. We don't need the static causing more problems. I'll get the forklift."

"You should hurry," Rios added, nodding with his chin toward the blood.

Jean-Luc's eyes widened again. "Call Dr. Jurati as well," he told Dahj, then ran off to get some lifting equipment.

Dahj pulled out her phone, then cursed. "No signal." She shot Rios a reluctant look. "I'll be back," she promised.

He nodded, gritting his teeth against the pain pulsing through his leg. He was once again left alone with his dog, who whined and tried to comfort him. He clung to her scruff and tried to stay calm. His friends were aware now; they'd get him out.

Dahj returned first but was helpless to do anything on her own. Rios was starting to feel cold and he worried about how much blood he'd lost that they couldn't see.

Then Picard arrived driving the forklift, and he and Dahj got to work trying to find the best spot to lift the mess. And all Rios could do was lay there and try to stay conscious. Jean-Luc found a place to insert the bars of the forklift, then began to lift the shelving unit. As the rubble shifted, Rios cried out and tried to drag himself free, but he was suddenly weaker than he'd realized. Sirena grabbed his collar and yanked, and Dahj darted in to grab hold as well, and together they pulled his legs free. Now he could see a long gash in his thigh and how utterly soaked with blood his jeans were. The knowledge of its seriousness made him dizzy.

Jean-Luc fashioned a tourniquet out of…something. The process of tying it off nearly sent Rios out of orbit. When his vision next cleared, suddenly Agnes and Seven were standing there. Agnes went into emergency doctor mode as she dropped down beside him.

"Get us to the infirmary," she ordered Seven.

The Caretaker knelt down, put a hand on each of them, and then suddenly they weren't in the Warehouse storage but upstairs in the medical suite. The teleportation left Rios disoriented, and he could feel Sirena's heightened worry through their bond. He flailed his hand around to reassure her, not realizing she'd been left down in the Warehouse. The blood loss was finally getting to him. Agnes injected him with something and he was swept away on a river of blackness.

He woke in the infirmary bed, hooked up to monitors and a saline drip. A heavy weight was pressed against his side, and he looked down to see Sirena stretched out alongside him.

"Hey."

He turned his head the other direction and found Dahj sitting there. She smiled.

"How are you feeling?"

"Groggy," he replied hoarsely.

"Agnes had to perform surgery, so you're coming off the anesthesia."

A zing of alarm went through him at that, and he lifted his head to get a look at his leg, though it was hidden under the sheets.

"You'll be fine," Dahj said. "I'll get Agnes."

She stood up and left, and a moment later Agnes came in, wearing her white lab coat.

"Hey," she said, keeping her voice soft and low as she bent down to kiss his head.

He swallowed against a dry mouth and mounting anxiety. "How bad is it?"

"You suffered a deep laceration that needed surgery to repair it. But you'll make a full recovery."

He exhaled heavily at that.

Sirena lifted her head to crane around and plop on his chest, and he raised a hand to pet her.

"Thanks for saving me," he told his dog.

Her big brown eyes gazed back at him.

"Didn't you switch places with her?" Agnes asked. "So, technically you saved yourself."

"But I wouldn't have been able to if she wasn't bonded to me," he replied. "Er, and you saved me too."

Agnes merely smirked and leaned over to also pet the Irish Setter. "I'm glad she was around too. I've grown rather attached to you."

Rios smiled sleepily in return, and Sirena snuffled contently against her master.

Chapter Text

Errand day meant the whole gang going into town and divvying up the tasks. Soji was getting the pet supplies, Rios was hitting the post office to retrieve the mail—it'd been a month and his leg was all healed—and Elnor and Dahj were doing the grocery shopping. Which meant Raffi was free to go get her hair done.

She met up with Rios in the hardware store afterward and took the pile of mail from him to look through. Nothing for either of them. They were picking up some things for Warehouse maintenance when Raffi got the odd feeling of being watched. She paused and looked around the store but didn't see anyone.

"Something up?" Rios asked.

"No," she replied and cleared her throat of some irritation.

They purchased the supplies and then headed out to the SUV to load the back and wait for the others. Rios rubbed at his ear.

Soji returned first with a cart of pet supplies and began loading it into the back. "The dog food brand you specified for Sirena was on sale," she told Rios. "So I bought extra."

He didn't say anything to that.

Soji quirked a look at him. He was rubbing at his ear intently again. "You okay?"

He still didn't respond or even look at her.

Now Raffi frowned at him. "Rios."

Nothing.

Soji put a hand on his arm. "Hey, are you okay?"

"What?" he asked loudly.

Both of them blinked at him dubiously.

"What's wrong?" Raffi asked. Or tried to, but no sound came out of her mouth. She tried again with no result. Her eyes nearly bugged out and she waved her hands to get their attention.

"What?" Soji asked, frowning in confusion.

Raffi pointed to her moving mouth while shaking her head in the negative.

"I can't hear you," Rios said.

Raffi rolled her eyes and pointed to her throat before gesturing kaput.

Rios frowned. "You lost your voice?"

She nodded emphatically.

"This isn't good," Soji said.

"That's not good," Rios echoed.

Soji shot him a look. "I just said that."

Rios frowned at her. "You lost your voice too?"

"No I haven't!" Her eyes widened. "Crap, can you hear me?"

"We need to get back to the Warehouse," he said, completely ignoring her question.

Raffi strode to the driver's side of the vehicle and reached in to blare the horn. Soji jumped, but Rios didn't react, except to look at her in bewilderment. Raffi tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. She pointed to his ears, then jabbed a finger in his chest and shook her head.

His brows rose sharply. "Shit."

"I'm texting Dahj to get back here," Soji said, pulling out her phone. But before she could send the message, they spotted Dahj and Elnor coming toward them without any groceries. Their pace was hastened and Dahj was leading Elnor by the elbow.

"We have a problem," she said. "Elnor went blind standing in the grocery store."

Raffi spluttered soundlessly. Okay, this definitely wasn't a coincidence.

"Rios went deaf and Raffi can't speak," Soji said in response.

Dahj looked at them in alarm. "It must be an artifact."

"How?" Soji asked. "Elnor was with you, and neither of us are affected."

"Yet," Elnor put in grimly, his eyes looking straight ahead in a distinctly unfocused manner.

"Okay, back to the Warehouse." Soji grabbed Rios's arm and directed him to get in the car.

Dahj guided Elnor around to climb in on the other side, and Raffi went around to the front passenger seat. Soji got behind the wheel and drove them straight to the Warehouse where they filed inside and called for Jean-Luc.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Soji explained the situation, and Picard's brows rose in surprise.

"The Monkey Totem," he said. "It's a small statue of three monkeys, one each with eyes, ears, and mouth covered. It steals each of those senses."

Raffi opened her mouth to ask how they'd gotten exposed, but of course nothing came out and she huffed in frustration.

"How were they affected by it?" Soji asked. "Is it here in the Warehouse?"

Jean-Luc frowned. "No, it's not."

"What are you saying?" Rios broke in. "Do you know what artifact caused this?"

Picard automatically started to verbally answer, then stopped. "I'll look into the Monkey Totem," he said instead. "Dahj, see if you can find some artifacts that might negate the effects."

She nodded and made for the door to the storage section. Raffi decided to follow and see if she could help. Whatever was going on, they needed to fix it fast.

Elnor sat tensely in the chair he was stuck in, unable to see or do anything except stay put and listen to Soji working at the computer with someone, likely one of the holograms.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Searching security footage in town to see if we can catch the artifact that whammied you all," Soji answered.

"But we already know we didn't encounter anyone or anything unusual."

"The artifact must have a range of distance on it," Soji replied.

"What are you talking about?" Rios asked irritably.

There was the sound of a clacking keyboard.

"That sounds right," Rios said a moment later. "But who's targeting us? Is it an attack on the Warehouse?"

Soji typed a response.

Now Elnor felt a prickle of irritation at being left out. "What are you typing?"

Soji sighed. "Sorry. We don't know yet, but no one followed us to the Warehouse, so it's secure."

Footsteps hurried in, the familiar sound of Picard's hard soled shoes.

"The Monkey Totem allows the user to access the senses that were stolen," he said urgently. "Meaning that while Rios can't hear anything, the person with the artifact can as though they were here. Same with Elnor's sight."

"Wait, are you saying we're being spied on right now?" Soji asked in alarm.

Elnor stiffened. If that was the case, whoever had the artifact could have seen the route to the Warehouse on their drive here…

"Uh oh," the hologram suddenly said.

"Emil?" Soji called.

"What's happening?" Elnor asked anxiously.

The door banged open, followed by a startled yelp and then sounds of a scuffle. Elnor leaped to his feet but bumped against the nearby table and then tripped over the chair. Blind like this, he was powerless to do anything.

The sounds of fighting quickly died down, and then Elnor was grabbed and his arms wrenched behind his back to be restrained. He heard the others grunt in protest and could only assume they had also been subdued.

"Elnor," a new voice spoke.

His body went rigid on the floor. "Narek."

Someone grabbed the back of his collar and dragged him a few feet before dropping him next to someone. Several sets of boots marched in, and Elnor would recognize them anywhere—Qowat Milat warriors.

"What are you doing here?" Elnor asked, angling his head toward where he'd heard Narek's voice.

"We're on a mission for our employer," the man replied.

"Soong," Soji suddenly spat out.

"It's nice to see you all again," Dr. Soong's voice joined the party.

Elnor stiffened further.

"What do you want?" Picard demanded.

"What I've always wanted—artifacts." There was a brief pause, then, "Start gathering them."

"Don't do this," Elnor pleaded with his former comrades. "The Warehouse is too important."

"You forget your place," Narek sneered. "You are a disgrace to the Qowat Milat."

Elnor struggled against his bonds, but even if he could break them, he was still helpless to do anything as he listened to the warriors make their way down into Warehouse storage.

Dahj had studied up on tons of artifacts since taking on the role of Warehouse manager, but finding one to specifically counteract the effects of the Monkey Totem wasn't a simple matter. And since a different sense had been stolen from Raffi, Rios, and Elnor, she'd have to tackle them one by one.

She turned down another aisle and scanned the shelves, using her sense of auras to try to figure out whether one might be compatible or not. The last thing she wanted was for two artifacts to negatively interact with each other. But without the Monkey Totem in hand for comparison, that was proving difficult as well.

Raffi was following behind her impatiently, and Dahj could understand why she was anxious to get her senses back.

"Enoch, Ean!" Dahj called.

The two holograms appeared before her.

"Aye, how can we be of assis—"

They abruptly disappeared as quickly as they had come.

"What the… Guys?"

Noises sounded from the next aisle over, so Dahj made her way to the juncture, only to stop in her tracks in horror as she found over a dozen ninjas ransacking the shelves.

Raffi quickly grabbed her and pulled her back around the corner and down the opposite direction. Her mouth was moving rapidly, but no sounds were coming out.

"What's going on?" Dahj whispered. "How did they get in here?"

Raffi pursed her mouth in distress.

"Emmett," Dahj hissed.

But he didn't appear. The holos must have been disabled.

The ninjas were drawing closer, so Raffi grabbed Dahj to run again. They found a computer terminal and Dahj quickly accessed the system. She pulled up the cameras in the front office and found the others tied up on the floor.

"Isn't that Dr. Soong?" she exclaimed.

Raffi scowled at the image. The man was standing over their friends while his minions were carrying out artifacts by the dozen. Dahj pulled up the exterior camera and saw them loading the items into a van.

Raffi tapped the screen and gestured frantically, though Dahj had no idea what she wanted.

"I'm going to try to get the holos back online," she said, making that decision for herself.

She must have chosen rightly because Raffi didn't continue pestering her. But while Dahj had some computer knowledge, Soji was the more tech savvy person, but she was captured upstairs and Dahj knew she and Raffi couldn't take on dozens of armed ninja warriors.

It took far too long, or at least felt like it, but Dahj finally managed to get the holo squad to appear in their location.

"We've been invaded," she told them. "The others are upstairs under guard. Can you handle a bunch of ninjas?"

Emmett pressed one fist into his other hand, eyes hardening. He flickered out first, quickly followed by the others.

Dahj looked at Raffi in question. Guess they'd now wait for the cavalry to kick some butt…

Soji and the others watched in helpless anger as Soong's men kept removing artifacts from the Warehouse. Soong, the bastard, kept standing over them with a gloating grin on his smarmy face.

Then, out of nowhere, Emil, Enoch, and Steward appeared in the office and immediately launched into a fight. Emil grabbed a lamp and bashed a guard over the head. Another Qowat Milat warrior spun swiftly to punch Enoch, who simply let the guy's fist sail through his photons before he solidified them again and punched back. Steward cringed as he grabbed the chess set off the nearby table and swung it at another warrior.

"Not the chess set!" Picard yelled.

Pieces went flying and the board smashed against the guard, taking him down with the force of the blow. Steward then darted over to untie them, freeing Rios first who jumped up and into the fight. Once Soji's hands were free, she scrambled for the drawer where the Teslas were kept and began firing at the Qowat Milat.

Elnor tried to help but immediately tripped and went crashing into Soong, knocking them both to the floor. Soong frantically got to his feet, and Elnor flailed around to grab his legs, tripping him again. Soong went down hard, and Soji wanted to help, but more ninjas were pouring in from below and she and Picard kept shooting them unconscious. By the time she turned back, Soong had escaped.

Rios noticed as well, and the two of them went running after him. But when they reached the outside, there was no sign of him, just a set of tire tracks peeling away. Rios made a move for the SUV, only to stop when he spotted the tires had been slashed. Frustrated, they both headed back inside.

The famed Qowat Milat warriors had all been incapacitated by the holo squad, and Dahj and Raffi were just barreling up the steps into the office.

"Oh thank god you're okay," Dahj breathed, throwing her arms around Soji.

She hugged back. "You too."

Raffi went to help Elnor off the floor.

"Soong got away," Soji reported.

"I'm calling Seven," Picard said and pulled out his phone.

"What about all these guys?" Dahj asked, looking around at the unconscious ninjas.

Even though Rios couldn't hear her, he was already thinking on that track and gestured to the warriors. "We need to secure them."

"We've got it," Emil said, and the holos got to work.

"What about reversing the Monkey Totem?" Elnor asked.

Soji's mouth tightened. With Soong having escaped with it, would they even be able to reverse the effects?

Raffi bent down and reached under a table, then pulled out none other than the Monkey Totem artifact. She turned toward them with an elated grin, her lips moving excitedly but no sound coming out.

Soji couldn't believe it, and she went rushing to get a neutralizing baggie. Raffi hastily stuffed the artifact in. It sparked, and Soji looked expectantly at the three of them. "Well?"

"I can see!" Elnor exclaimed.

"Testing…" Raffi said. "Yes!"

Rios looked immensely relieved. "I can hear again."

"How?" Elnor asked in wonder, looking at the artifact as Soji removed it from the baggie.

"Soong must have dropped it in the scuffle."

"Yes, but he got away with plenty of other artifacts," Picard said, obviously stressed.

That sobered the room.

"The Warehouse has been ransacked," Dahj spoke up. "It'll take a while to figure out what exactly is missing."

"Then we need to get to work," Picard said. "Because artifacts in the hands of that madman is a clear and present danger to the world."

They all headed down to the storage area where the holos had finished gathering the prisoners. Seven was already there. Elnor stopped in front of them, and the one he'd called Narek sneered up at him, then spat a glob of saliva at his feet.

"Disgrace," he said disparagingly again.

Soji bristled on Elnor's behalf.

Elnor, however, just looked contemplatively sad. "I may be a disgrace to the Qowat Milat," he said. "But I've found something the rest of you do not have—true honor and integrity." He then turned his back on his former comrades and walked away, but paused next to Seven and asked quietly, "What's going to happen to them?"

"The Warehouse has its own method of imprisoning criminals who act against it," she said.

"You've got a secret prison somewhere?" Soji asked.

Seven didn't elaborate.

After a long beat of silence, Elnor moved on, and Soji followed.

They had a madman to catch up with and stop.

Chapter Text

Rios exited the restaurant with a large plastic bag of takeout. Normally Dahj did all the cooking for them, but everyone had been working nonstop since Soong had broken into the Warehouse. She and the holograms were still trying to identify all the artifacts that'd been stolen, while Raffi and Soji were scouring databases for any leads, with no luck as of yet.

An old man loading groceries into his vehicle next to the SUV dropped a small box on the ground, and Rios paused to pick it up and hand it back.

"Thank you," the elderly gentleman said.

Rios nodded and climbed into the SUV, then drove back to the B&B where Raffi and Soji had set up shop since the Warehouse was in a bit of a shamble. There was a package on the front step addressed to Raffi, so Rios picked it up and brought it inside.

"This was outside for you," he said, handing her the package and then taking the food into the kitchen to set on the counter. He sent a text to Dahj and Jean-Luc to come eat.

"There's no sender name," Raffi said, ripping the box open. She lifted out an antique clock, brow furrowing in confusion. The clock face glowed briefly and turned down into a frowning face. Raffi yelped and dropped it. "What the hell, who sent me an artifact?!"

Rios and Soji hurried over. Nothing visible was happening yet, but Rios retrieved a neutralizing baggie from a drawer and quickly stuffed the clock inside. The artifact didn't spark.

Raffi's brows rose sharply. "It activated, I saw it."

"We all did," Rios replied, eyeing the baggie in confusion. The artifact should have been neutralized. He set it down on the table and pulled out his cell again to call Dahj. "Hey, are you two on your way? We may have an artifact problem."

"Yeah, we are," she answered. "What kind of problem?"

"Not sure yet."

Elnor suddenly came barreling downstairs. "Ahoy, mateys!" he growled, waving a cutlass.

"Get here fast," Rios said and hung up, turning his attention to this next weird development. "Elnor?"

"Aye."

"Honey, where did you get the sword?" Raffi asked carefully.

"It was upstairs on my bed. A gift." He grinned maniacally. "I'm feeling the urge to pillage and plunder."

He started toward the door as though he intended to do just that, and Rios and Raffi scrambled forward to get in his way.

"Um, let's hold off on that for a bit," Raffi said.

Elnor's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare try to stop me." With a flick of his wrist, he swiped his new sword out in an arc, the tip slicing across both Rios's and Raffi's chests.

They yelped and fell backward from the preternatural force, and Elnor bolted past them and out the door. Rios gritted his teeth as he touched a hand to the stinging cut on his chest. It was long but shallow, same for Raffi.

"Oh my god," Soji gushed as she frantically grabbed some napkins from the takeout bag and passed them over to stop the bleeding.

Rios pressed them to his chest and sucked air through his teeth.

"Okay, so that was another artifact," Raffi grunted as she also got to her feet.

Jean-Luc and Dahj arrived then.

"What happened?" Picard asked in alarm.

"Apparently Raffi and Elnor were sent artifacts to influence them," Rios explained. "Raffi got a clock but seems okay. Elnor got a cutlass and turned into a pirate. He ran off with it."

"He tried to kill you?" Dahj asked, horrified.

"Only because we tried to stop him," Raffi said bitterly.

"Did you receive anything?" Jean-Luc asked Rios urgently.

"No. And we tried to neutralize the clock but nothing happened." He gestured to the baggie on the table. "But we saw it activate when Raffi picked it up."

Picard went over to examine the artifact.

"Soji, would you turn that music off?" Raffi said irritably.

Soji quirked a brow. "What music?"

"The symphony or whatever is playing on your computer." She stopped and looked around at their confused expressions. "Oh shit."

"Ludwig van Beethoven's Clock," Jean-Luc said, holding the artifact. "It causes its victims to hear his opuses, one after the other in numerical order, growing louder each time until the hearer becomes deaf."

Raffi's eyes widened. "Why didn't the neutralizer work?!"

"The artifact is missing a figurine on top," Picard said. "Without it, the piece isn't whole."

"Maybe it broke off when you dropped it," Soji suggested and got down on the floor to search around, including under the sofa. But she didn't find it.

"This was one of the artifacts Soong stole," Jean-Luc said grimly. "And it had the figurine when it was in the Warehouse."

"So now he's sending artifacts back to mess with us," Rios said.

"Next time I see that son-of-a-bitch I'm going to shoot him," Raffi growled.

"What about Elnor?" Soji put in. "He was willing to take a swipe at you two; what if he kills someone?"

"This is Soong's plan," Jean-Luc replied. "Keep us busy."

"Think he'll take another run at the Warehouse?" Raffi asked.

"We can have the holos lock it down while we deal with this."

Rios tugged at his collar, suddenly feeling hot.

Raffi frowned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a bit warm."

Dahj stepped forward and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead and cheek. "You're running a fever."

A trickle of dread stirred in his stomach. "I didn't come into contact with anything, though."

"Please tell me that cutlass isn't poisoned," Soji said.

"I feel fine," Raffi responded. "Except for the trumpets in my head."

"We're going to need all hands on deck for this," Picard interjected and pulled out his phone to make a call.

A few minutes later, Seven teleported in with Agnes. Agnes immediately got out a first aid kit and got to work treating the lacerations from Elnor's sword while Picard explained the situation.

"We need to find the missing Aphrodite figurine for the clock to successfully neutralize it, and catch Elnor and separate him from the cutlass."

Agnes finished with Raffi's wound and then turned to Rios. He took his shirt off so she could have unimpeded access to the cut.

She frowned. "When did you get a tattoo of a cat head?"

"What?" He looked down where her gaze was and found one sitting over his chest. "Uh, I didn't."

Seven visibly stiffened. "That's the mark of Ignacy Hryniewiecki's Tattoo Box."

"The what now?" Raffi said.

"The tattoo transfers from the box to a human and then causes heat and radiation to build up into a nuclear explosion."

Rios gaped at her in stupefaction, then down at the innocuous looking tattoo. "Wait, you said a box?" He could kick himself. "On my way back from town, an old man dropped a box on the ground and I picked it up for him. I didn't think anything of it, and it certainly wasn't Soong."

"We know not to underestimate him," Jean-Luc put in. "And we just confirmed Harriet Tubman's Thimble is missing from the Warehouse. It lets the wearer look like whomever they wish."

"Let's go back to the nuclear explosion," Agnes interjected. "How do we neutralize the tattoo?"

"By putting it back on the box," Seven said grimly.

Which they didn't have.

That drop of dread in Rios's stomach was quickly becoming a deluge.

"We need to divide and conquer," Jean-Luc said. "Seven, take Raffi and try to find the Aphrodite figurine. Soji, go after Elnor."

"I'll go too," Dahj spoke up.

The twins hurried out the front door while Seven teleported away with Raffi.

"And me?" Rios asked with trepidation. "Without the box, what do we do with the tattoo?"

Picard's expression was set in stony resignation. "We cut it out."

The music in Raffi's head was getting louder, making it difficult to hear anything else going on around her. And while she wasn't thrilled with the prospect of going deaf, she had it the least worst compared to pirate Elnor running rampant and Rios literally turning into a nuclear bomb. The sooner she and Seven could fix Raffi's problem, the sooner they could get back and help the others.

Seven had teleported them to a shop where apparently Seven knew the dealer.

"Gerard," she said, walking up to the counter. "I'm looking for a small Aphrodite figurine that belongs to a larger piece."

"Don't have one," the guy behind the counter replied without missing a beat.

"This is important," Seven said sternly. "Have you heard of anything like that being moved recently?"

Gerard sighed. "Yes. Try Pete Salazar."

"Thank you."

"How do you know these guys?" Raffi asked as they walked out of the shop.

"In my line of work, it's good to know all the major movers in antiquities in case anything needs to be…liberated."

Seven waited until they'd turned down an alley before teleporting them to the next shop. The moment they walked in, the owner groaned.

"Not you again. You know, if you want something, you have to pay for it like everyone else."

"Pete," Seven replied with a calculatingly saccharine smile.

Raffi didn't hear what she said next, though, as the music was getting too loud. Seven didn't look happy as she argued with Pete. Raffi clapped her hands over her ears, desperate to get some relief from the blaring opus, but it didn't help. The symphony carried on in an agonizing crescendo in her head.

Soji sat in the passenger seat of her yellow Beetle, using her phone to search through camera feeds and social media while Dahj drove into town. Sure enough, there were already posts of a maniac with a short sword robbing a jewelry store.

"This is not good," Soji commented. "We need to get to Elnor before the cops do. Where else would he find 'treasure'?" she mused out loud, doing an Internet search. "God, I hope he doesn't go for a bank."

Dahj abruptly jerked the wheel, and the car went skidding sideways. Soji yelped as they crashed into a pole, the passenger side taking the brunt of the crunch. The airbags exploded, punching Soji in the face and dazing her even further. Groaning, she pushed against the now deflating airbag to get away from being smothered.

"What was that?" she asked her sister in alarm. Had they almost hit someone? But there was no one in the road that she could see. An animal?

Dahj looked dazed as well, so Soji struggled to get her door open and fell out, then staggered around to the driver's side. Dahj moaned as Soji pulled her out, her sister falling to the ground and then crawling away from the wreckage.

"Shit," Soji breathed. Should she call an ambulance? But she needed to stop Elnor…

"Damn," Dahj said, sounding oddly calm. "I was hoping that would've killed you."

Soji blinked dumbly. "What?"

Dahj pushed herself to her feet with a grunt and hobbled around to the trunk.

"Dahj?" Soji pressed, heart rate ratcheting up. Had her sister been affected by an artifact too?

Dahj popped the trunk and pulled out a tire iron, then turned to face Soji with a decidedly menacing air.

"Dahj…" Soji reached for her Tesla—only to find it wasn't there.

"Looking for this?" Dahj held up the stun gun. She must have taken it while driving and Soji hadn't noticed.

But instead of using it, Dahj tucked it into the back of her waistband and started toward Soji with the tire iron. Soji pivoted and ran. Dahj had to be under the influence of an artifact, damn Soong! Soji sprinted across the road and into a department store, the only building within a block. The place was oddly devoid of customers, but Soji didn't question it. She didn't need someone calling the cops on her sister. She ducked into a clothing section and crouched down to hide. Neutralizer, she needed neutralizer. Dahj wasn't wearing anything new that Soji had seen, so she fumbled to get a neutralizing grenade out.

The doors swished open and Soji stiffened.

"Soji," Dahj's voice rang out. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

"Why are you doing this?" Soji called, then scrambled to move locations.

"I spent half my life in a void," Dahj called back. "Why me? Why did you get to have your life?"

Soji sputtered in dismay. "You've got to be freaking kidding me, you mean the life I spent being called crazy and institutionalized? Yeah, I had it so much better than you."

She gave herself a sharp shake. This wasn't Dahj talking; it was whatever artifact had brainwashed her. Gripping the neutralizer grenade at the ready, Soji slunk around the clothing racks to come up behind Dahj.

"Sorry about your favorite jacket," she said as she leaped out and threw the grenade, splattering Dahj in purple goo.

Dahj stood there dripping gunk, expression frozen in shock. Then her cheeks puffed puce and she raised the tire iron.

"Shit." Soji turned and ran. Whatever artifact had whammied her, it wasn't on her.

Soji knocked over clothing racks as she ran through the department store, trying to slow down her murderous twin and find another place to hide so she could call for help. She came upon the jewelry counter and skidded to a stop on the linoleum. Elnor was behind the counter, raiding the glass cases.

They stared at each other for a moment before Soji turned and ran the other direction.

Chapter Text

Rios lay on the sofa, trying to keep his breathing steady as Agnes loomed over him with a scalpel. He really didn't like this, but he was burning up and feeling sick, and then there was the whole radiation thing…

"Hold still," Agnes said tightly as she angled the scalpel down to his chest.

She'd given him a local anesthetic, but he didn't expect it to make this excision completely painless. The blade pressed into his skin, and at first it was just a sensation of pressure, but then it was like acid bubbling under his skin and he cried out. Agnes yelped and jerked back.

"What the—"

Rios glanced down as the pain migrated, and he saw the tattoo slither around his torso to his back where the fiery pain settled into just a sunburnt spot.

"This won't work," Agnes said, distraught. "The tattoo will protect itself. Any other options?"

Jean-Luc's mouth pressed into a tight line. "Maybe something at the Warehouse…"

His Farnsworth pinged and he answered it.

"Dahj is trying to kill me!" Soji's voice hissed from the device.

Rios sat bolt upright.

"I hit her with a neutralizing grenade but the artifact must not be on her," Soji continued, keeping her voice low like she was trying to hide.

"Go," Rios told Jean-Luc. "Agnes and I can go to the Warehouse."

Picard hesitated only a second before rushing off.

Rios grunted as he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his shirt to shrug back on. Agnes reached out to support him but he pulled back.

"No, I don't want to risk this thing transferring to you."

Her mouth pursed unhappily but she respected that and kept a short distance as Rios staggered out to the SUV and bodily hauled himself into the passenger seat. Agnes got behind the wheel and drove to the Warehouse. But when they tried to open the door, it was locked and his key wasn't working.

"Picard put it on lockdown," Agnes remembered.

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth to call the holos, but no one answered. He pounded on the door with growing desperation. "Hey!"

Nothing. They were locked out.

Rios doubled over as a flush of intense heat and pain coursed through him. Time was running out. "Agnes…I need to find a place to minimize the damage."

"What are you talking about?"

He looked at her through watering eyes. "I can feel it, it's going to explode soon."

She shook her head and turned to bang on the door herself. "No. Hey! Let us in! Hello!" She spun and snatched Rios's Farnsworth from him to try calling again. But there was still no answer.

"Maybe they're not even on anymore," Rios said. "Maybe the lockdown somehow turned them off."

"There has to be another way in. The Warehouse can't just get locked away from its caretakers," she insisted. "Seven would know."

"Agnes, there's no time." He gritted his teeth under another wave of agony.

"We can't give up!"

"We have to save everyone else."

Her own eyes welled with tears as she gazed back at him. "There's- there's an old mine shaft nearby. I don't know if it'll be enough—"

"It'll have to be," Rios interrupted.

Fighting back tears, Agnes headed off into the woods and Rios followed. They found the old mine shaft, partially boarded up but with enough of a gap for Rios to squeeze through.

He turned to Agnes. "You need to leave. Get as far away from here as you can."

She shook her head staunchly.

"Agnes!" He resisted the urge to grab her arms and kiss her goodbye. "I love you."

Her face twisted in devastation. "I love you too."

"Then go," he begged.

Tears spilled from her eyes as she started to back away.

Rios tore his gaze away from hers and strode into the mine. He could only hope he could get deep enough to contain most of the blast, and that it wouldn't end up hurting the Warehouse.

Fire pulsed through him, stealing his breath and threatening to suffocate him, but he pressed on doggedly into the darkness, lit by the blazing veins of his own body.

Seven was furious. "You expect me to believe that?"

"It's the truth!" Pete insisted.

"And where can I find your nephew?"

"Hey, the kid's a rotten thief, but I don't want him swimming with the fishes over it."

Seven glowered at him. "I promise not to hurt him, but I need that figurine. So where is he?"

Pete shifted reluctantly. "He lives in his parents' basement. 42 Batton Lane."

Seven turned on her heel and strode back over to Raffi, who was covering her ears like she was in pain.

"I can't take much more of this," she moaned.

Seven took her arm and teleported them to the nephew's basement dwelling. He wasn't home, and Seven quickly searched the room for the Aphrodite figurine. It was in a box under the bed, and she snatched it up, reattached it to the clock, and then swiftly stuffed the entire thing in a neutralizing baggie. She then whipped her gaze toward Raffi expectantly.

Raffi blinked back at her, eyes wide with fear. "I think I'm deaf now," she said, then frowned. "Wait, I can hear myself…"

Seven breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you hear me?"

Raffi broke into a beaming grin. "Yes, and it's the sweetest sound I've ever heard." She threw her arms around Seven and kissed her, but only for a moment before she drew back and quickly sobered. "We need to get back and help the others."

Seven teleported them to the B&B, but no one was there. Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth and called Rios. It was Agnes who answered, tears streaming down her face as she moved hurriedly through the woods.

"Agnes?" Raffi said in concern. "Where are you? Where's Rios?"

"We couldn't get the tattoo off, and we're locked out of the Warehouse. Cris- he went into the old mine to try to contain the blast."

"What?"

"He's almost out of time," Agnes went on, distraught. "Seven, can you get into the Warehouse? Is there an artifact, anything, that can help him?"

"Yes."

She teleported out without another word, as time was of the essence. Reappearing in the Warehouse, she could immediately sense something was wrong. Something was disturbing the very foundation of the Warehouse. At first she wondered if it was the shockwave of a nuclear explosion underground…but no, there was something else to this…something artifact related.

But she couldn't get distracted. She found the artifact she needed—Alessandro Volta's Biscuit Bin—and immediately teleported into the mine to find Rios. Heat buffeted her face, and there was a distant orange glow down the passage. Seven hurried down it and found Rios curled up on the ground, writhing in pain and irradiating like he was about to blow.

She dropped down beside him and opened the Biscuit Bin, drawing out all of the tattoo's energy into the container, which was capable of storing it. Rios gasped and collapsed onto his side. It was now completely dark.

"Are you okay?" Seven asked, reaching out to feel for his arm. She could hear his shuddering breaths.

"Is it gone?" he gasped after a few moments.

"We need light to see. Come on."

She pulled him to his feet and helped him make his way out. Raffi and Agnes were arriving just as they emerged from the mine. In the light of day, Rios yanked his shirt over his head and twisted and craned his neck around trying to find the tattoo.

"I think it's gone," Agnes said, also taking a circle around him.

"Unless it went, you know," Raffi added, nodding to his pants.

Rios shot her a look but then blanched. "Um…"

"Give us a moment," Agnes said quickly and ushered him through the foliage and out of sight.

Raffi looked anxious as she and Seven waited.

Seven placed a hand against her stomach as something sharp stabbed her insides, but she managed to mask it until Agnes and Rios came back, the two looking immensely relieved.

"It's gone," Agnes confirmed.

"Now we just have to find Elnor," Raffi said.

"No," Seven interjected. "We have a bigger problem—something's wrong with the Warehouse."

Soji darted from one section of the department store to the other, trying to evade her homicidal sister. There were no other customers; likely the place had been evacuated when Elnor marched in to plunder the jewelry section. Soji couldn't think about him right now.

Her Farnsworth pinged loudly and she scrambled to answer it before it could give her position away. "Help," she hissed.

"I'm outside," Picard said. "Where are you?"

"Hiding inside the store," she whispered back, trying to peek through the clothing racks for signs of Dahj.

"Can you get out?"

"Give me a minute."

Soji tucked her Farnsworth away, checked the area again, and then darted for the nearest door. She made it outside and around the corner, only to skid to a stop as she came across Elnor having a standoff with police.

"Drop the sword!"

Elnor scoffed back at them, jewelry hanging out of his overly stuffed knapsack.

One of the policeman fired his gun, and Soji jolted at the sharp report. Elnor twisted the cutlass, easily deflecting the bullet. More gunfire erupted, and Elnor deflected each bullet with his blade. Soji was so gobsmacked she didn't think to get out of the way.

"Soji!" Picard shouted. "Close your eyes!"

She squeezed her eyes shut. There was a flash of bright light behind her eyelids, then nothing. She opened her eyes again to find Elnor and the cops were now all frozen where they stood.

"Soji!" Picard yelled in warning.

She spun just as Dahj came up behind her and swung the tire iron. Soji tripped and fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding getting bludgeoned.

"Dahj, stop!" Picard shouted.

Dahj didn't pay him any mind. "You got the life I should have had," she said scathingly to Soji.

"If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me for leaving you there!" Picard yelled as he jogged over.

Still Dahj didn't shift her attention from Soji.

Picard raised a Tesla and shot her. Blue squiggles of electricity zinged over her body as she fell to the ground beside Soji, unconscious.

Soji scrambled to her feet and away. "What artifact are we dealing with?" she asked breathlessly.

Picard's expression was grim. "I have an idea. Where's the car?"

Soji reluctantly left her sister on the ground—and the cops and Elnor frozen—and led Picard back to the Beetle that was crunched up against a pole.

"What happened?" he asked.

"First murder attempt," Soji said bitterly. "What are you looking for?"

Picard wrenched open the back door and crawled inside. He came back out with a silken cord. "Dahj had tossed this in the backseat when we drove from the Warehouse back to the B&B," he said. "I didn't think anything of it, but given her fixation on you…" He wrapped the cord around a jagged piece of the car and pulled until it ripped in two.

"What is it?" Soji asked.

"Mehmed III's Silken Cord. Causes the holder to murder their siblings."

They hurried back across the street to where Dahj was just waking up and looking around in confusion.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Soji asked.

Dahj shook her head. "No. You called needing help at the B&B and then…where are we?" Her eyes widened as her gaze landed on Elnor and the cops.

"We'll explain later," Picard said and turned to head for Elnor where he threw a baggie over the cutlass. Purple sparks flew, neutralizing the artifact. But Elnor and the cops remained frozen. Picard went around with something small in his hand, flashing it in each of the cop's eyes. He then went back to Elnor and unfroze him.

Elnor blinked rapidly, then furrowed his brows. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Picard said, reaching for his backpack stuffed with stolen jewelry. "We'd best leave this here."

"What about the cops?" Soji asked nervously.

"They won't remember anything."

They all hurried back to Picard's vehicle, and then he used some artifact to unfreeze the police from a distance. While they looked around in bewilderment, Picard drove away.

"What happened to your car?" Dahj exclaimed as they passed the busted Beetle.

"Um, you crashed it."

"You and Elnor were also targeted with artifacts," Picard explained.

Dahj blanched. "What did I do?"

Soji grimaced. "You, uh, wanted to kill me."

Dahj's brows rose sharply in horror. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Soji assured her. "Not a scratch. Well, I'm a little pissed about my car, but Soong's going to pay for that."

"What about Raffi and Rios?" Elnor asked.

"I don't know," Picard answered.

Soji pulled out her Farnsworth to call them.

"Yeah," Rios answered.

"Are you okay?" Soji asked urgently.

"Yeah. Elnor?"

"We got him back."

"Good. Get to the Warehouse. We have a problem."

Rios didn't elaborate, and Picard pressed harder on the gas pedal.

They pulled up in front of the Warehouse where Rios, Raffi, Agnes, and Seven were gathered.

"What's going on?" Picard asked as they got out of the car.

"We can't get in," Raffi answered, holding Seven's arm as though supporting her. Seven was pale and breathing heavily.

"The holos?" Soji asked.

"No response."

Seven suddenly gasped, and an echoing snap rent the air. The front of the Warehouse split, a blazing red crack like fluorescent magma creeping up from the bottom.

"My god," Picard breathed in horror and bolted for the opening.

"JL!" Raffi yelled.

Soji went after him, the others following behind. They wedged themselves through the crack and down the Umbilicus into the Warehouse. The lights were off in the main office, but a fulvous red glow was emanating from further inside.

They reached the landing above the Warehouse storage and came to a horrified stop. More red cracks were climbing their way up the walls and across the floor. And everywhere they spread, the Warehouse was beginning to disintegrate…

Chapter Text

Rios stared in shock at the giant cracks splintering throughout the Warehouse, glowing red in the dimly lit underground storage.

"There," Jean-Luc said, pointing to the floor directly below the landing they were all on. The anarchy symbol and been painted or carved in the same fulvous red lines. "It's the Berlin Wall Spray Paint."

"What do we do?" Soji asked, eyes wide with shared horror.

"Neutralizing the can won't work; the only way to stop it is to paint the peace symbol over it."

"This is Soong," Rios growled.

The ceiling above creaked as a crack slowly forked its way up, releasing silt on top of them. They all ducked back into the office.

"There's no way to find Soong," Elnor pointed out.

"That's not true," one of the holos said as they all popped back on. Soji had gone to the computer terminal and must have reinitiated them. "We set up a new security feature after Dr. Soong's last incursion," Emil went on. "Anyone who disables us all again gets sprayed with an invisible radioactive compound that can be traced."

Everyone stared at the hologram in dismay for a long moment.

"You rigged radioactive poison?" Rios exclaimed.

"Is it still in the air?" Raffi asked in alarm.

"It's not at a dangerous level," Emil assured them. "Just a traceable one." He went to grab a small device from the table and passed it over.

"We'll talk about this gross violation of protocol later," Jean-Luc said sharply, then turned to Rios and Raffi. "Find Soong. I'll try to save as many artifacts as I can."

Raffi shot a reluctant look at Seven, who could barely keep herself upright.

"Go," Seven ground out. "The only way to stop this is to find Soong and the can."

Another crack resounded through the Warehouse, prompting them to get moving. Soji and Elnor hurried along with Rios and Raffi as they exited the crumbling Warehouse and piled into the SUV. Rios passed the tracker back to Soji to manage while he drove.

"Head for town," she instructed.

Rios jammed his foot on the gas pedal and tore down the back road through the woods.

"How far away is he?" Raffi asked.

Soji studied the tracker. "According to this…he's in town. And not moving."

"What?"

"Makes sense," Elnor said soberly. "After all the times you've thwarted him, he'll want to stay close and watch his final victory come to fruition."

"We're not going to let that happen," Rios said staunchly and revved the engine.

They peeled into town and stopped outside the coffee shop. There was no time for the element of surprise, and they charged inside. Rios and Raffi flashed their badges and ordered the customers and workers to evacuate. Soong was sitting at a table in the back, sipping from a large coffee cup.

He set it down calmly and looked up. "Nice to see you all again. I suspected you'd save yourselves from my…gifts. But that's no matter; I've won the final round."

"Hand over the spray paint can," Raffi demanded.

Soong merely smirked. "Not a chance."

"Fine." She pulled out her Tesla. "We'll take it off you." She fired, but the burst of electric discharge simply coursed over Soong without effect. Raffi, however, jerked as though she'd been struck and promptly collapsed, unconscious.

Soong continued to smirk as he stood up, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin and dropping it on the table. "You forget, I know all your tricks."

Elnor's nostrils flared with rage, and he drew his sword and charged, thrusting his blade into Soong's stomach. But the man didn't react. Instead, Elnor gasped and staggered backward in shock, blood seeping out from a stab wound in his torso.

"He's using an artifact," Soji said under her breath.

Yeah, and Rios knew which one too—the Corsican Vest. It caused injuries to be inflicted on the attacker instead of the wearer. Just like with Dorian Gray, anything they did to him would be thrown back at themselves.

Soong checked his watch and grinned. "The Warehouse is out of time."

Dahj and Picard scrambled through the Warehouse aisles, frantically trying to grab artifacts off the shelves and pile them onto a cart. Of course, there was no way they could save them all, and trying to prioritize which ones were more important than the others, especially under such duress, made the task haphazard and impossible. To add to the chaos of the Warehouse literally disintegrating around them, the artifacts' energies were going crazy in response and to being thrown together.

"Leave those," Seven ground out. She was trying to help but could barely walk, she was bowed over in so much pain.

"Heads up!" Ean yelled as parts of the ceiling rained down.

Dahj yelped and threw her arms up over her head to shield herself. This was madness.

A crack splintered into two branches, spreading further into the Warehouse, and Seven cried out in response.

"Dr. Jurati, get her out of here," Picard ordered.

Agnes nodded and gripped Seven's arm to drag her away.

"You should go too," he told Dahj.

She shook her head. If he was staying, so was she.

They continued their foray through the aisles, desperately making a run for the most vulnerable artifacts, or the ones that could get triggered and make everything worse, though Dahj didn't know how much worse this could literally get.

The ground shook and a crack emerged from beneath a shelf where Steward was standing. His foot got caught in it and he screamed and fell to the ground. The red paint crawled up his leg, turning it to ash right there. Ean and Enoch started toward him, but Emil yelled for them to stop, as another smaller crack was glittering across the floor.

"We can jump it," Ean proclaimed.

But it was already too late. Steward's other leg disintegrated into chaff, and the paint was still crawling up his torso. In the next moment, it had bisected his length and he was gone. Dahj and the other holos were left staring in horror.

"Dahj," Picard said, tugging on her arm. "Run!"

They both turned and made for the exit, abandoning the artifacts. Every aisle they went down, more destructive cracks were creeping in. Maybe they had stayed too long and wouldn't be able to get out…

A crack suddenly split the aisle and Dahj tried to stop herself but only upended her balance and started to pitch forward into the glowing paint. But Emmett was there and grabbed her arm, swinging her back around and into Ean, who caught her. The momentum, however, made Emmett lose his balance in turn. He threw an arm out to catch himself on the shelf—the shelf that was also covered in glowing red paint. The red instantly transferred to his hand and up his arm, disintegrating it. He howled as he staggered and fell to one knee.

"Emmett!" Dahj yelled.

"Ve!" he gritted out. "Go!"

Emil ushered them all the other direction.

They managed to reach the office where only a few minor cracks had rent the walls. Enoch rushed to grab his ferret from its cage, then turned and shoved the animal into Dahj's hands.

"Look after Mr. Quiggles," he beseeched.

Dahj's eyes widened as she realized the holos couldn't leave. They were trapped with the disintegrating Warehouse.

Emil gave her a grim look. "Go on, love. It was a pleasure."

Ean and Enoch nodded in solemn agreement.

Dahj was left dazed with devastation as Picard grabbed her and dragged her outside.

Seven was on the ground, sweating and writhing, with Agnes kneeling next to her unable to do anything. Dahj looked between them and back at the crumbling Warehouse.

"What happens to Seven if the Warehouse is destroyed?" she asked nervously.

Neither Agnes nor Picard responded, but the grim look they shared was answer enough.

"The Warehouse is out of time."

Rios's jaw tightened, and he reached into his pocket to pull out the Barometer from the USS Eldridge. "I can buy a little more," he said and opened the artifact.

Everything froze. Rios hurried over to Soong. He only had forty-seven seconds before time would resume. Rios yanked open Soong's suit jacket, revealing the Corsican Vest underneath. Muttering an apology to the Warehouse and the artifact, he whipped out his pocket knife and cut the vest down one side, then wrested it off. He then patted down Soong's pockets for the spray paint can. But he couldn't find it.

Time restarted, and Soong blinked in bewilderment to suddenly find Rios in his face. His eyes blew wide as he spotted the vest, and he lunged to grab it.

Rios leaped backwards. "Soji, shoot him!"

She drew her Tesla and fired. This time the electric discharge knocked the doctor out.

Soji gaped at Rios. "What just happened?"

"I froze time for forty-seven seconds," he replied as he fumbled with one hand to get his cuffs out. He then dropped down next to Soong and cuffed his hands together.

"Where's the spray paint?" Soji asked urgently.

Rios searched the man's person again, but he didn't have the can on him.

Elnor grunted from where he sat slumped against the dining counter, and Soji jumped up to rush over to him.

"Oh god," she said and grabbed a bunch of napkins to press against his stab wound.

"The- can-" he said haltingly. "Wouldn't it be- radioactive- as well?"

Soji's eyes widened and she grabbed the tracker again, then fiddled with the knobs in an effort to fine tune it. Rios watched tensely as she turned it this way and that.

"Over here, I think," she said.

She and Rios both went over to a booth and started looking behind the plants and under the table.

"Found it!" Rios proclaimed. He looked between an unconscious Raffi and a bleeding Elnor, then turned to Soji. "Take care of them."

She nodded sharply. "Go."

He ran out of the coffee shop, past the crowd of onlookers, and climbed into the SUV to gun it back to the Warehouse. The others were outside when he arrived.

"I have the can!" he yelled as he climbed out of the car.

"It's too late," Jean-Luc said grimly. "The Warehouse is collapsing."

Rios glanced at the door, his expression hardening. He refused to accept that. Gripping the spray paint can in one hand, he braved running back into the Warehouse.

"Cris!" Agnes yelled.

Rios stumbled over chunks of debris and overturned items as he barreled into the office and out to the landing. As he made his way down the stairs, the railing broke loose and fell, almost taking him with it. But he managed to cling to the wall at his back and continued his way down. At the base of the steps where the anarchy symbol had been painted, Rios uncapped the Berlin Wall Spray Paint and proceeded to paint the peace symbol over the first.

The fulvous red cracks began to turn blue, then spread out. The Warehouse groaned and creaked, then settled as the destructive cracks stopped spreading and fell still in a glittering icy blue. Rios held his breath and waited, but nothing moved. After a few moments, he chanced going back up the stairs and outside.

Seven was sitting up now, with Agnes bracing her.

"Did it work?" Dahj asked anxiously.

Rios nodded, then looked at Seven. "Did it?"

She nodded shakily, and he finally let himself exhale in relief.

"Where's Raffi?" Seven asked.

"Soong had been waiting for us," Rios explained. "Raffi's okay, but Elnor got stabbed. He'll need you," he said to Agnes.

"And Soong?" Picard asked.

"In custody."

Rios looked back at the Warehouse. It was still full of gaping cracks, but it seemed they had once again saved the day in the end.

Rios and Raffi escorted a handcuffed Soong through the Warehouse to the Bronzing section where Jean-Luc and Seven were waiting.

"What are you going to do?" Soong scoffed. "Lock me up in a dungeon? Pretty sure the Warehouse doesn't come equipped with one of those."

"You think the Warehouse doesn't have a way to deal with threats to its existence?" Seven replied, flicking a glance over her shoulder.

Soong faltered when he spotted several bronze statues that looked just like his former Qowat Milat goons.

Jean-Luc walked over to a vertical capsule and slid the door open. Soong struggled as Rios and Raffi manhandled him toward it and forced him inside, sealing him in. Then Seven went over to a control console that was hooked up to it and activated the Bronzer. Gushing vapor filled the capsule, momentarily fogging it up. When it cleared, Soong was nothing more than a bronze statue.

"Forgot to take the handcuffs off," Rios remarked.

"At least Soong will never cause us problems again," Jean-Luc replied.

"What about the mess?" Raffi asked, looking around at the blue-laden cracks.

"The Warehouse is structurally sound," Seven answered. "For the most part. Who knows, it might be time for Warehouse 14 to retire and move to Warehouse 15."

Rios and Raffi both exchanged alarmed looks at that. When a Warehouse moved continents, the agents of the previous one were always retired. Neither of them wanted to lose this place, this family.

But it wasn't up to them.

They headed back upstairs, somewhat glum now despite their victory. Soji was working at the computer with Emil, Enoch, and Ean hovering over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't repair Emmett's matrix. It's like the Berlin Wall Spray Paint actually erased whole segments of coding. I can't even rebuild the gaps." She cast a regretful look over at said hologram, who was missing an arm.

Emmett merely shrugged and started curiously poking at his amputated limb.

"What about Steward?" Ean asked. "So you cannae bring him back?"

Soji's expression pinched. "I'm sorry. I've searched the whole system. He's just…gone."

The holos bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

Rios rolled his eyes but didn't interrupt them.

The door opened as Dahj, Elnor, and Agnes arrived. Elnor was walking very slowly with Dahj lending him an arm.

"Hey, kiddo," Raffi greeted. "You doing okay?"

"I will mend," he replied.

"He will," Agnes confirmed. "As long as you don't pull those stitches."

"I'll make sure he takes it easy," Dahj promised. She guided him over to a chair and helped ease him into it.

Agnes came over to Rios, and he put his arms around her. Raffi and Seven were standing pretty close together too. Mr. Quiggles ran in his ball across the floor, Sirena prancing after him. The ferret bumped into Enoch's feet, and the holo bent down to swiftly pick him up.

Everyone was quiet. This had been a close one, and they'd almost lost everything. While the losses they had suffered weren't that severe, at least to Rios, there was still a solemn air about the whole ordeal. Not to mention the senior agents were now worried over the Warehouse's future…and theirs.

But then the computer pinged with a notification of suspected artifact activity.

Jean-Luc went over to the computer to read out the information. "We'd better get back to work," he said.

Rios and Raffi looked at each other, then the other members of their motley found family. Whatever the future held, that was later. Today, they still had work to do.

"Back to it, then."

THE END