When the doors to the landing bay opened, Frank could only hope his face didn't turn white. It was packed with force soldiers of all ranks. It was like a swarm of insects on leftover rations.

"Fuck." The words had barely left his mouth before Gerard was yanking him back into the hall. The door slide shut and Frank turned to him. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Gerard repeated, "What, did you really expect me to waltz in with you without a plan after seeing that!?" He pulled away from Frank while making sure to keep the small blade on him. "We need to strategize."

"How?" Frank hissed, "I'm not even permitted access there if there wasn't a security threat!" He gestured to Gerard, "How are we supposed to sneak to a vehicle?"

Gerard opened his mouth to speak but, before he could, the door behind them reopened. A force soldier stepped out glaring between them as the door closed. "Problem, boys?" He questioned in a low tone. "Quite a quick in and out you did, if you can call it that."

"No, sir." Frank keep his face lowered, hoping not to be recognized. "Just got a bit turned around with everything going on."

"Quite an easy thing to do." Gerard added, his voice sounding strange as he spoke. "Isn't it?"

There was no response. Frank tilted his head to shift his gaze to Gerard. His eyes had that pinkish glow to them again. "Feeling up to answering?" He asked, attention focused on the soldier.

Frank lifted his head and followed Gerard's gaze. The soldier stood as if he was hung on loose strings. His mouth hung open, allowing a small trail of drool to run down to his chin. His eyes were glazed over with a pink haze similar to Gerard's.

"What the fuck." Frank took a step back from the soldier. "What are you doing to him?"

"Sending our friend about his day as if he never met us." Gerard spoke in the layered voice again, sending a chill down Frank's spine. Had Gerard done something like this to him?

"Go to the bathroom or something and take your sweet time doing it." Gerard instructed. His layered voices sounded strained.

The haze suddenly vanished from the soldier's eyes. He stood at attention and nodded. Without a word, he marched forward. He didn't even seem to notice when he bumped into both Gerard and Frank.

"What was that!?" Frank spun to face Gerard, who was sweating profusely. "You can control people!?"

"Just a bit of... Manipulation." Gerard panted. His voice was back to normal, but he was out of breath. "It's difficult, so I can't do it much."

Frank stepped back. "Why didn't you do that to me?"

Gerard rolled his eyes. "I just said it is difficult. My focus can't be everywhere. That requires a lot of energy and magic. Magic that was hidden from me for awhile thanks to you."

Frank averted his gaze. Guilt squeezed his gut from what he had done. Despite it being for the good of the force, he couldn't unsee the invisible red that stained his fingers.

A pain suddenly spread from Frank's chest, causing him to cry out. He clutched his shirt right over the spot on his chest as he dropped to his knees. It was as if something completely speared its way through him. His breath caught as the pain continued to spread.

"Frank?"

Frank was vaugly aware of Gerard's voice, but his vision was blurring from the pain. There was a red blur just in front of him he thought may have been Gerard.

"Frank, can you hear me?"

There was a grip on his shoulder and, as suddenly as it struck, the pain was gone. Frank couldn't stop himself from falling forward into Gerard.

Gerard cried out, but caught him quickly. "Please don't die, we need to get out first."

Frank groaned, trying to steady himself. "I'm glad you care so much."

Gerard helped push him upright, being careful to not use too much force. Frank clutched his head as he rose to his feet. Gerard swiped something off the floor before rising to his feet as well, holding the small blade on Frank.

"Call it whatever you need to call it." Gerard replied. "I think I have an idea of how to get out."

Frank nodded, waiting for Gerard to explain himself.

"If I can do that," He gestured in the direction that the soldier had disappeared down, "then I might be able to camouflage us long enough to get in there." He took a deep breath before outstretching his hand to Frank.

Frank looked at the palm being held out to him. His chest tingled around his injury.

"Do you trust me?" Gerard raised and eyebrow, "or would you rather get stabbed and trust me while bleeding?"

"Fine." Frank slapped his hand down in Gerard's. He shivered as Gerard gripped his hand tightly.

Gerard inhaled and exhaled slowly. "We won't have much time." He shut his eyes. "You need to guide us to a vehicle as fast as you can."

Frank nodded. He watched as pink glowed from Gerard's closed eyes. It spread quickly over his face and to the rest of his body. When it spread to his hand, the pink also began to coat Frank.

"Gerard..." Frank's eyes widened as the pink continued to spread over him. There was no feeling that moved with it, despite what Frank expected. No tingling or slight temperature shifts, just the pink glow. A soft breath rushed past Frank's lips as it finished encasing him. "Woah..."

"Move now, marvel later." Gerard hissed. His grip on Frank's hand tightened and his arm was beginning to shake.

Frank nodded. He moved to the bay doors again, letting them open once again. He held his breath, feeling frozen where he stood. He wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't ranked to be here. If he was caught... If Gerard was caught...

"Move!" Gerard yanked Frank into the room just as other soldiers began to look to the door with question.

Frank stumbled, but quickly found his footing to keep moving. He took lead point, passing Gerard to move them forward. The force soldiers that had been looking towards the door moved in that direction, completely oblivious to Frank and Gerard moving deeper into the landing bay.

Frank's eyes darted back and forth as he looked between the different vehicles and moved to slip between moving soldiers that nearly walked right into them. He knew Gerard's magic was keeping them invisible, but it didn't stop his chest from tightening with every new soldier that almost crossed their path. He also didn't know how long the magic would last. Gerard had said they didn't have much time. Frank gulped, trying to find a vehicle that they could move quickly.

If they could get out in one at all.

"Hurry up..." Gerard's voice was soft. His grip on Frank's hand was loosening.

"Fuck." Frank locked onto the nearest vehicle to his left. It wasn't as small as he would have preferred, but it was open and close enough. He accelerated his already fast pace to get to it, pulling and swinging Gerard so that he would be concealed by the opening first.

Gerard gasped as his hand slipped from Frank's. Frank watched him stumble forward, but successfully make it into the vehicle. Frank was only seconds behind him, quick to slam his fist against the red button that would seal them inside.

"A warning would have been nice." Gerard groaned. He was on the ground, holding his head. The pink glow was retracting from around him, slowly pulling back into his eyes.

Frank leaned against the wall nearest to him, panting. "You... You said hurry..." He grabbed hold of his chest, feeling a dull pain beginning to rise from the new marking on his skin. He shut his eyes. His heart was pounding, but he couldn't be sure exactly what was the cause. Adrenaline? Anxiety? Fear? Maybe a slice of everything being mixed together. He just knew it didn't help with this new pain rising in his chest.

Metal thumped as Frank could hear Gerard moving around the interior of the vehicle they were now in. "An older model." Gerard mused, "I can work with this. It's just like one of the ones we dismantled moons ago."

"Dismantled?" Frank opened his eyes. Gerard had moved to a compartment further into the machine. Frank, though he moved slow, followed. "How did you even get access to our tech?"

Gerard had made it to the operation station. Upon hearing Frank's question, he snorted. "Not that hard of a thing to do." He looked over the different knobs and buttons before him. "You're people aren't as great as you believe them to be."

Frank pursed his lips. The training they went through. The drills they ran. How could he really trust what Gerard had to say? How could he be sure he wasn't bluffing?

However, he didn't even have the time to give any response because a red light began to flash outside of the vehicle they were in. Frank's heart sank. "Oh, no."

"Oh no?" Gerard turned to him, "What's 'oh no', force boy? Why did you say that?"

Though they couldn't hear it from the interior of the vehicle, Frank knew an alarm was blaring just outside along with the red light. " They know something's up." He moved to the front of the small compartment to get a better view through the windshield. "Either that I'm gone or that people who aren't supposed to be here are here."

Force soldiers were running to different vehicles across the bay. Upon alerts they were supposed to man their vehicles in case of an outer threat. That meant that there would be soldiers trying to get into their chosen vehicle, if they weren't trying already.

"Guess we should make ourselves scarce then." Gerard turned back to the operational panel. "Hope you're lot were at least smart enough to reload the weapon chambers."

Weapon chambers?

Frank was in the process of turning when the vehicle lurching caused him to fall backwards. A loud explosion followed, accompanied by Gerard's laughter. Frank landed hard on the ground, crying out in pain as something sharp stabbed into his arm. The vehicle lurched again, causing him to roll slightly to his side. Pain blurred the edges of his vision as he attempted to steady himself.

"What are you doing?" Frank yelled up to Gerard. The machine vibrated under him, making it hard for him to try and rise. He could still barely make out a sliver of the outside of the vehicle though the windshield. The red light was still flashing and he could almost swear he could hear the accompanying alarm.

Gerard laughed from where he operated the vehicle. "Getting us out. Just hold on!"

Frank was thrown backwards again by the vehicle practically leaping forward. He landed hard against another metal surface, crying out in pain. He tried to push himself forward, but his chest suddenly clenched. Another cry of pain ripped itself out of Frank's mouth, making him double over.

Sound silenced around him. The movement of the vehicle ceased underneath him. He could barely feel his own gasping breaths over the pain that was spreading from where the black mark sat on his skin. So many different sensations of pain crashed against each other, Frank could barely stand it. He couldn't form words to cry out. No sound wanted move past his lips. Darkness was encasing everything around him. He tried to gasp for air, but there was nothing.

The darkness closed in and there was nothing.