SATe [✔]

[22] unfathomable

"Leave off, Bastian." She snapped, one of her arms coming away from the ground to swipe me away. A diluted sadness had replaced her often hostile tone; there was no genuine effort put in to stop me.

"What happened?" I asked, looping my arms around her legs in order to pick her up. In her current state, there was no way she'd be able to get up and even less of a chance of her driving us back to the base. Her fingers had immediately gone to my shirt, gripping tightly at the material as her face contorted in pain.

"Nothing I'm just a little..." She'd slurred, trailing off as her head collapsed into my chest. I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu as I carried her to her car; swiping the keys from her pocket as I did so.

━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━

I couldn't blame Cassiel for jumping up from his seat when I walked into the laboratory with Priestley still half-awake in my arms. She was trying her best to keep her eyes open, not wasting a single ounce of energy on any movements or protests. We'd both been soaked through to the bone, the temporary heating I'd put on in the car doing us no favours; honestly, it seemed to do more harm than good.

"Bastian!" Cassiel had spoken, clearly alarmed. He'd pounced over to me quickly, a hand going to my forehead. He'd tutted before snapping his hand away from my head and down to Priestley. She'd nuzzled into his hand as he pressed it against her skin, clearly feeling more comfortable with him around, "You both look terrible, what happened?"

I inhaled a breath, debating whether this was the right time to explain the entire situation. It didn't seem like we had a lot of time to waste with frivolous details. I looked down at Priestley who'd started to develop tears in her eyes as she writhed in my grasp a little, "I think we need Anne's help here."

Anne was standing in the back of the room, shuffling between paperwork and beakers. She hadn't even looked up at the pair of us when we'd entered the room; as far as she was concerned, we were the bottom rung of the ladder.

"I don't have any time for you right now, Mr Brady. There is so much information for me to sift through in order to get a semblance of an answer to the problems we have in front of us. If I have even the slightest chance of creating some kind of antidote before Marie is found and brought back here it will only be possible if you leave me alone," She'd spoken menacingly, not even pausing to take a breath as she dismissed my plea for help. I'd opened my mouth to reply, but Priestley's hand had gone up to cover it, a slight shake indicating I should go no further.

I exhale a short breath before motioning my head to the door, Cassiel following as we exit. Out of genuine curiosity, I asked, "What's she working on?"

"Something to do with the DNA of the failed bodies. Quite frankly I have very little idea, she refuses to let me do anything but watch. I can't even go out looking for Marie because someone has to keep an eye on her," he'd answered, his eyes lingering on her as we closed the door. The team seemed very paranoid about having her around. It was a wonder they'd picked her at all. I'm sure Alexandria had plenty of options; why choose someone that put them all on edge?

I had to wonder if they'd act the same around everyone. I looked back down at Priestley who'd started to tug on his shirt gently, "I need a test, Cassiel. It seems like she won't be of much help."

"What exactly am I testing for Emie? Got into some trouble?" He'd chuckled. He was trying to keep a steadily positive outlook on the situation, but I could tell he was worried about Emie. She was getting increasingly pale as the minutes ticked on. I didn't want to try to guess what had happened in the time I'd left her alone.

Not that she'd let me guess. She'd started to dig around in her sweatpants, looking for something as she focused on the ceiling above her.

I'm almost certain they've given me the same concoction they gave Marie, just in an ingestible form," She started, pulling a small syringe from her pocket and holding it up to his face. He'd taken it from her grasp quickly, analysing the contents as he picked up the pace, "I think this might help too. Before I noticed it was Banks, I realised a man was lingering near my drink and rushed off when I drank from the glass. I decided I'd take a sample since it was clearly a targeted attack."