My head was throbbing with pain, my nose stuffed with blood ridden tissue as I stared down at the mess of papers on my desk. Sorrens desk was across from me, where he was also looking at a slew of neatly arranged papers. He glanced up to me from time to time, his expression showing his concern.

“You should rest. You barely-“

“I’m fine.”

Sorrens eyes furrowed slighted and I sighed. “Sorry. I… This just doesn’t make sense.” Changing my mindset hasn’t been easy, but I _am _trying. I got up from my seat, feeling the room spin slightly as I walked over to a holographic bulletin board, pulling up a map of Sypher with notes and red pins.

“The Silence has made their appearance at recent and specific bounties we’ve tried to collect, ones where bounties have had previous associations _with_ The Silence.” I circle two distinct places. “In Syphus, L-351 was taken after being shot down by The Silence, Ruin making a nice appearance for us as well. However, his blood had traced and evidence of Neo, thanks to Min.” I swiped and enlarged a picture, blood splattered on the ground. Small dots and streaks of blue light were scattered in the fluid.

“Minerva confirmed he had Refined Neo., right?” Sorren interjected, pulling out a paper from a folder.

“Exactly. But how did he get it?” I turned to him, tapping a pen in my hands. Sorren thought hard and glanced back down to his desk, his eyes fixating on a couple of things.

“In Serin, L-471, once we found him, they took him before we could even realize what was going on. We don’t know if he had Neo at all, but I assume he did, considering the way they captured him.” I added, circling the location as I spoke.

“The Silence has even shown up in other cases that didn’t involve them.”

I tilted my head, “What?”

“Look. L-736, it was Minnie, you, and me that were assigned to it.” Sorren handed me the paper with the bounties information on it, taking it.

I glanced it over quickly, circling the board to another location, in **_Krevine_**.

“Yeah I remember… This was just an averge bounty. Why go to Krevine?” I muttered, staring at the board.

“L-5621 too, look.” Sorren handed me another paper. I took it from him, my mind spinning from the pain and confusion, I circled another location, **_Akadence_**.

“That was Min, Jax and me. After we delievered him to the districts bounty office, The Silence attacked us.” I stated, writing notes next to the new circle.

“It was the same with L-736. After we took him to Krevines bounty office, they attacked us.

I shook my head, “Are there any other ones?”

“No, not even for R-6134 or R-921, even though they were higher level bounties. Ah, wait.” Sorren rummaged through his papers, “L-312. Min, Raze, you, and me. We almost had him but they took him. _Again_.” He said dejected.

“Where was this?”

“Uh, Casinova.”

I circled it, stepping back as I viewed the board, completely stuck. These weren’t random. There were planned. Targeted.

“L-351. How did he get his Neo?” I muttered again. The only way he could’ve gotten any would be through injection, experimentation.

“The Braizer Trials were destroyed though, no? The labs, the test, everything? It was all over the news.”

“It was. I was there.”

Sorren nodded, “It was said there was nothing left, everything was literally burned. So-“

“Neo needs a host. A viable and compatible body to even function. They only way you could extract it is if-“

“The person already has it.”

The situation suddenly became clear to me. I shook my head and I quickly moved to my desk, rummaging through my drawers.

“The survivors. The few of us that were left. They must’ve gotten to one of them.”

Sorren stood from his desk, “The people you escaped with? How-“

“We stay in touch in secret, to avoid unwanted attention… or things like this.” I replied with a urgent tone, finding a small pager in a drawer. I pulled it out and immediately clicking on it.

Sorren grabbed my hand and looked at me worriedly, “Can’t they track that?!”

I shook my hand and pulled away, “No, these were designed to send long distance code. These were made ages ago, signals no one tracks anymore.”

My heart was racing, as the clicked at the pager rapidly, it beeped soon after my message in response. One… Two… Three… Four… Five…

I awaited the final response, Sorren got up from his desk and stared at me with anticipation.

“How many of you were there?” He said softly.

“Seven.” I stared at the pager, my hands trembling as I waited. Waited. Waited. Nothing.

“Damn it! They found him.” I slammed the pager down on the desk and paced the room. Memories and thoughts flooded my mind, what they’ve done and what could be happening now. The combination of my headache and fear made my stomach churn.

“We have to find the others before it’s too late.” I blurted, grabbing my coat from my seat as I sped walked to the door. Sorren suddenly grabbed my arm, his face was contorted into fear at the holoboard.

“Wait… there’s something we’re missing.”

I shook my head, “There’s no time! We have to move now!”

Sorren let go of me and swiftly walked to the board, focused and calm.

“The Silence. They’ve started to appear not that long ago. Uh..” he quickly grabbed a paper on my desk and wrote on the board.

“April 3. That’s four months ago. But… we’ve been underground, always been covering our tracks since we know more about them then the other syndicates. We’re targets from the get go, so how did they start finding us from then?”

I put my coat down and looked back at the board. He was right. The other syndicates know just the surface of the Silence. My head was still throbbing, my nose started to bleed through the tissue and drip onto the ground. I groaned and went to my desk, grabbing tissue as the blood dripped onto some papers. I cursed under my breath and quickly stuffed my nose with new tissue until something caught my eye. Next to the blood stain on a report. Minerva Barrick. I picked up the paper and glanced at the board. Sorren glanced at me worriedly again, taking a step towards me. “You should sit down. Please.”

I said nothing and looked at the notes on the board, the bounties. L-5621; Jax, Min, me. L-736; Min, Sorren, me. L-471; Zero, me, Min, Sorren. L-312; Raze, Min, me, Jax. My eyes widened as it all started to click.

“When you encountered the Silence with us on the same team… what were they doing?”

“Uh… they were hostile, obviously, but they were trying to capture us. They usually used stun guns and batons, rarely ever…” he paused, the dots starting to connect for him as well, “…using their weapons.”

He turned to me in disbelief, “You were always ambushed, surrounded. You always use your Neo until your overexert yourself until we finally manage to escape all together.” The answer was on the tip of his tongue.

“They wanted **_you_**.”

I nodded. “They know I’m a survivor. And they know there are others. We have to move. Fast. There’s-“

The door clicked open as a girl walked in, looking at me with a shocked look.

“Ren?! What happened?! You look horrible!!”

Minerva run up to me to look at my nose and pale face, putting her hand on my shoulder. My expression softened, my heart racing as anxiety shot through the roof.

“Raze told me you and Sorren barely escaped the Silence. Are you both alright?” She exchanged glances between me and Sorren.

“We’re fine, Minnie, thanks to Renji.” Sorren smiled sheepishly. Minvera nodded and turned to me her gaze completely fixated on me.

“I’m fine, Min.” I replied in my usual cold tone, brushing her off. “Just another Silence mishap.”

Minerva nodded her head. “Alright, alright. Well, we can’t have you looking like that for the next assignment.”

Both Sorren and I looked up at her, “What?”

“Yeah. Taylor just sent me the next bounty. It’s in Cirro, we leave at midnight.”

Sorren looked to me then Min, “But Renjis still—“

“I’m fine. We’ll take it.”

Min smiled and nodded again, “Cool! I’ll come with. Just be ready by then!” She pulled out her phone and turned away, leaving us alone in the room once again. I let out a shaky sigh, leaning onto my desk. Sorren quickly went to my side. “Hey! What’s wrong?!”

I panted softly, my anxiety finally going down. I slowly turned to Sorren, “There’s a Silence spy within our syndicate.”

“_What_!? _Who_?!”

I looked at the door Minerva had just left then at him, “Who was always with me when the Silence engaged with us? Who has always been there to ‘save the day’ when I needed it most? Who… is the only other person I confided in, have been transparent with… who… has always been there for me…”

I went quiet and hung my head over the desk, closing my eyes as my thoughts were going faster then I could process. The face Sorren had was a combination of shock and anger, the puzzle finally coming together.

“But… she…”

“I know. Something must’ve happen. A threat, a scam, something.” I desperately tried to come up with something, anything to defend her. But it didn’t make sense. How could she? My best friend, the person I could trust in, someone who was with me through my darkest times. After the Braizer Trials…

I leaned on the desk, my body still trembling from weakness and anger, Sorren got closer.

“We don’t have to go. If Minnie’s the spy, then The Silence will be there, Ruin too. She knows how weak you are right now, if you go-“

“We’re not going. We’re getting the others.”

“The others?”

I sighed and stood up straight, “The other survivors. They’ve found one of them already, I can’t let them find the rest.”

Sorren rubbed his face, pacing a bit, “Shouldn’t we tell Taylor?! He should know-“

“**_Minerva sold me out, Sorren!! What makes you think she won’t do something worse to the others that know?! Your already in danger knowing!!_**”

My voice echoed the office, Sorren flinched and his eyes widened. I panted softly, I couldn’t think anymore. I felt my eyes started to sting as I stared at him, feeling completely helpless. He sighed and nodded.

“Alright. We’ll go for the others. But what about Minerva?”

“She’ll have to tell her friends their plans are delayed.” I said in a cold tone, standing up straight. Sorren took a deep breath. “But your still weak. What if we run into Ruin before your able to defend yourself?”

I grabbed my coat and headed for the door, motioning to the door, “That’s why your coming with me.”

Sorren scoffed, “I’m a doctor, Renji. Not a warrior. Not like you. I can barely fight against you, what makes you think I can fight against someone like Ruin? Let alone a singular Silence syndicate?”

I hesitated, then glanced at him, “I trained you to be prepared for a worst case scenario.”I took a deep breath and changed my tone, “You being a doctor makes you stronger. You know what can hurt someone, incapacitate someone, **_kill_** someone. You don’t need skills for that. You need intelligence. Half of the syndicates are more brawl then brains.”

Sorrens demeanor changed, his eyes showing a glimmer of hope. He sighed and nodded, “I guess your right.”

“So, you coming with?”

He nodded and followed me as I walked out the door into the cold evening night, heading towards an unknown fate, for the both of us.