Winona walked about the Underground with Clarice. She was tired. All she did at night was toss and turn. The most amount of sleep she got was a few hours. Even so, she was ready to tackle the day's events. She had told Clarice about her suspicions regarding Esme. Clarice just thought she was being paranoid.

"I don't know what it is, Clarice. But there's something not right about her," Winona said. "She's just trying to find her family. Like someone else I know," Clarice said, nudging Winona's shoulder with her own. "Yeah but I'm not willing to risk everyone else's lives like she is. She doesn't even understand the extent of what she's asking us to do," Winona said.

"Tell me this, aren't you willing to do everything that you can to help Elaine?" Clarice asked. "Well yeah, but--" Clarice cut her off. "And before you got to know everyone, weren't you okay with them risking their lives for her?" She asked. "Well, no I wasn't okay with it," Winona said. "But you would've let them," Clarice said.

Winona thought for a moment. "I don't know what I would've done then because I'm not the same person that I was before," Winona said exasperatedly. "She's just doing what she feels is right. Same as you," Clarice said. "So what you're telling me is that I'm a hypocrite?" Winona said.

"No, I'm telling you that you should cut the girl some slack," Clarice clarified. The two entered the room where they were meeting the others. Sage was already sitting at her computer. Winona and Clarice were the last to arrive. "Okay. I've been looking into the Trask lab. This place is out in the middle of nowhere. There is no information on it," Sage began.

"But there is this," she added before tapping a button on the keyboard. A picture of a building popped up and Winona leaned in to get a closer look at it. "A bar? What good does that do us?" John asked. "I cross-referenced credit card activity with places near the lab, and this place is popular with Trask employees," Sage explained.

"I could go in. Pull some information out of a guard or an operations person," Sonya suggested. "That's a good idea. I'll go for protection," Marcos agreed. "No. I will," Lorna objected. "Are you sure, babe? I mean, you haven't really been sleeping well," Marcos said warily. "I'm okay," Lorna assured. The look on his face told her that he didn't believe her.

Lorna stepped away from him and walked forward. "Marcos, if you want to get information from a guy at a bar, you don't send a girl and another guy," she said. "We'll be fine," she added, now standing next to Sonya. Both girls smiled.

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John was leaning forward on a desk in an office when Winona knocked on the door. He pushed off of the desk and turned to the door, surprised to see her standing there. "I need to talk to you," she said, walking into the office. He cleared his throat and folded his arms against his chest.

"About what?" He questioned. "About Esme and this insane idea to break into Trask Industries," she said, coming to a stop a few feet in front of him. John sighed and looked away. "Look, I know it probably seems like I lack faith in us and what we can do. And like I don't want to help my sister or Esme's family. Neither of those things are true. I just have a really bad feeling about all of this," she said.

"We can't leave them in there," John replied. "I know that and I don't want to. But come on, John. Don't you think that this is a little extreme? I mean, breaking into a prison transport bus is one thing. But breaking into a government facility? That's insane," Winona said. "I know that. But what choice do we have? There are people in there, mutants. Mutants that are gonna be turned into monsters just like Pulse. Now I couldn't help him but I sure as hell can help them," John said.

Winona's face softened slightly. "What happened to him wasn't your fault," she said. "I left him there and they turned him into, that," he said. "You thought he was dead, John. You had no way of knowing," she said. He shook his head. "It doesn't change what happened," he replied. Winona looked down.

"Elaine might be in there. Don't you want to take the chance to rescue her and save her from whatever it is they're doing?" John asked. "Not at the expense of innocent lives. She wouldn't want me to do that. She would probably stab me if I did that," she responded. He was mildly stunned. "And, coming here, meeting all of you, it made me realize some things. I thought that Elaine was my only family and now that's changed. You're all my family too. And I don't want to risk losing any of you for a plan that we don't even have and that'll most likely fail anyway. I can't lose anyone else," Winona said.

He shook his head slightly. "You're not gonna lose anyone," he assured. She rolled her eyes, "You don't know that." He opened his mouth but no words came out. He didn't know what to say. So instead, he closed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug, holding her to his chest tightly. Winona was surprised by the action and hesitantly wrapped her arms around him.

The two stood there hugging for a while before Winona decided to pull away. She sent John a lazy smile. "I didn't realize how much I really needed a hug until now," she said. "I'm glad that I could help. I guess," he replied, unsure of himself. Winona nodded and gave him another brief hug. He gave her a questioning look once she pulled away.

"I figured you'd need as many hugs as possible," she said. "And a nap," she added as an afterthought. He smiled slightly before returning to his usual serious look. "Winona, about what happened between us--" He was cut off by a knock on the door. The two turned their heads to see Sage.

"Sorry to interrupt but I need your help with something, John," Sage said. John nodded his head. "All right," he said. He walked to the door and followed Sage out of the room. After he was gone, Winona sighed before leaving as well.

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The next day, the group was discussing what Sonya and Lorna had found out. "Sonya and I have been going through the memories she got from that guard and it does not look good," Marcos informed. "What are we up against?" Asked a pacing John. "Well, the lab is hardened against mutant attack. They have motion and infrared sensors connected to heavy-caliber guns that are mounted all over their building," Sonya answered.

"Guns? I can handle guns," Lorna said. "I know, but it is way too dangerous when there's this many, at this range," Marcos said. "Clarice, can you get us past their defenses?" John asked and all eyes moved to her. "No. It's too far. I don't know the first thing about the inside of that place. I could blink us into the middle of a concrete wall," came Clarice's response.

"Well, there has to be something," Esme said. "I did find one vulnerability. There is a power substation a few miles away. If we took it out, we could get into the lab before their systems came back on line," Sage said. Winona found herself nodding along to the possibility. "So what are we waiting for?" Esme asked impatiently.

She was starting to piss Winona off. "We don't have enough heavy hitters to attack both places at once. And we're checking with the other stations now--" Esme cut Marcos off. "Well, how long is that gonna take, because my family--" Esme was cut off by John. "Esme. Esme. Believe me. This means as much to me as it does to you. But we are gonna get one shot at this. We can't miss," he said.

The blonde looked between John and Marcos before nodding slightly.

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Esme's next bright idea was to use Andy and Lauren to destroy the substation's transformers. Winona was against this idea completely. "We need you to do the same thing to the substation transformers that you did to the prison convoy bus. We know it's a lot to ask, but now we just don't see another way," Marcos said to the Struckers.

"Look, we want to help, but why does it need to be Lauren and Andy?" Reed questioned. "Well, because we need everyone else with combat powers to assault the lab. Except for Winnie who'll go with you guys for protection," Marcos replied, his eyes briefly meeting Winona's. This is when she decided to speak up. "I could always try. You know, with the whole sonic scream thing," Winona said. He immediately shook his head. "No, you're not ready. You've only ever done that once and haven't done it in over a year," he disagreed.

"Well then now's the perfect time to do it," Winona pressed. "If you're not able to actually do it when the time comes then we'd be screwed," Clarice pointed out. Winona sighed, knowing that she was right. But Lauren and Andy were just kids. She didn't want them to get caught up in this. Marcos turned back to the Struckers.

"Now, we think that we can take down that power substation without putting them at any risk," he said. "So exploding high voltage transformers is the safe job?" Caitlin asked in disbelief. "In this case, yes," Lorna responded. "Sage hacked the security cameras. The station only has a handful of guards. Clarice will get everyone in. Sonya will guide them. Winona will be there for back up, in case anything goes wrong," Marcos said.

"Is that my designated job now? Be there to help out in case something happens," Winona stated, leaning forward in her seat. "You're good at that. And you're also good under pressure," Marcos replied. "Debatable," Clarice muttered. Winona lightly kicked her. "We've been through every option. This is the only one that works," John said.

There was a beat of silence. "I'm down," Andy said. "Let's do it," Lauren agreed. Winona sighed and shook her head but said nothing. Caitlin and Reed looked at one another, having a silent conversation. After thinking it over, Reed spoke up. "Okay. But Caitlin and I need to be the ones monitoring the security," he said. "If our kids are there, we are, too," Caitlin added.

"Look, Sage will set you up, show you what to do," Lorna agreed. Winona looked up in time to catch the smug look on Esme's face. Her eyes narrowed at the blonde who didn't notice. "All right, everybody get ready. We move out in an hour," John said. With that, everyone stood and began to disperse.

Winona gave Esme a look and the blonde gave her a fake smile. Clarice and Sonya pulled Winona away to discuss the plan more thoroughly.

°°°°

All right, this chapter is pretty short but I assure you that the next chapter will be longer. It should be a good one. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. Stay tuned for the next one. Bye.