Aimee could not feel remorse, even if she tried. She did not feel as though she'd lost someone close to her, because she hadn't. Abba was just a person, a stranger with a familiar face; that was what she had become. Celeste had done what needed doing; she had put an end to her. Still, there were bucket loads of questions to be answered. Nothing was really over.

Undoubtedly, as Aimee and Celeste walked towards the elevator in GINM, they were thinking the same things. One: What happened to everyone; their friends, the AIM agents, Benjamin and Suzanne? Two: How many microchips, used and unused, were still out there? Three: What now?

"I think we should find Janet," uttered Aimee. "We could leave Sylvain with her."

She repositioned him, shifted so that his weight was not all in one place. He was heavier than he looked, and that was saying something.

"Then we find Gavin and Stefan?"

Aimee nodded, pressing a button in the elevator, "And everyone else."

"Have you heard from your parents?" – Aimee shook her head – "You could call them. I want to call Gavin, but I'm scared, you know?"

"I know. I'm terrified."

It was suddenly quiet, all but for the humming works of the elevator. The corridors on the way to Janet's office were dead and desolate and, for a moment, they questioned whether she would be there, but she was. She seemed contented, alone in her nest; nevertheless, she welcomed them in without hesitation and closed the door behind them. Before anything else, she called Stefan.

"Aimee's here, in my office."

"Let me talk to her," he said in an enthusiastic rush. All his anger towards Aimee vanished now that he knew she was safe.

Janet handed the phone over, and helped Celeste lug the stranger to one of the recliners in the office's laboratory.

"Hi," muttered Aimee, and he greeted back. "I thought I lost you for a moment."

"Nah, I wouldn't leave you like that; it'd be rude to die without saying goodbye to you first!" he jested. "I'm on my way, okay? Give me five minutes and I'll be there."

"Okay," she smiled, savouring the sound of his voice until he hung up.

Aimee joined Janet and Celeste, returned the phone. Janet had asked about Sylvain and so Celeste told the story, to the part where they left Abba in the basement with a bullet in her skull.

"I believe you triggered an alarm when you got out; you should stay here until things calm down. Everyone's a little on edge from today's events."

"We never heard an alarm," said Aimee.

"The building's alarms are all silent."

Aimee released a remotely impressed hm.

"Did you know where we were?" Celeste interjected.

"I didn't. Mitchel made a lot of classified orders today. It's the first time I'm hearing of a plan to remove activated chips from bodies."

Aimee ogled Sylvain; there was one inside of him. She wondered what made him choose to have one; he seemed like a benevolent human being, who sought not after everlasting life or power. No matter, he was not her responsibility anymore.

"This morning as well," Janet continued, "Mitchel sent agents to destroy microchips at a pharmacy, a previously unknown secondary hoarding place for chips that were meant to be shipped to AIM."

"Stefan and the others were at that pharmacy. But they weren't there for microchips, they were there for files," her tone placed a question mark at the end of that sentence.

"They must have been a decoy."

Celeste looked at Aimee, at her shock-written expression. Eventually, her shock dissipated, leaving her in understanding. She came to terms with it; she knew that Buckley was a selfish turd. She couldn't stop thinking about Valerie, the state she had been in after that mission. Dominick, he could have lost a leg – he was lucky. And they were just a decoy?

"Did they know?"

"Possibly. I'm not sure."

Celeste's phone started ringing, startling her. As she read the caller ID, her hand cupped her mouth; her eyes were brimming with terror, underlined with a complex of relief and anxiety. She dashed out of the room.

Janet glanced at Aimee, "She shouldn't be alone right now."

"I think she needs to be."

Aimee watched the door for a moment, kept an ear out in case Celeste was to get caught – in a sense, she followed Janet's words. They sat down, Aimee with a sigh, pondering how she always found herself stuck in these waiting-and-hoping situations. Though, it was the perfect opportunity to have that awkward, overdue bonding session with her boyfriend's mother. Except, and this was the reason she had not tried to bond with her before, what was there to talk about? Janet was the silent, brainy type, whose vocabulary and interests majorly included science and words with a minimum of five syllables. At least, that was Aimee's deduction. Janet was also sensitive, the kind of sensitive that was like cracked glass, where one wrong move could leave her shattered. And Aimee often contemplated whether she had always been that way, or if it was the result of her relationship with Buckley or the lack thereof with her son. She spent all her hours at GINM; she had not been home with Stefan for a year, at the very least. Aimee wondered, was Janet worse than Buckley? Pushing Stefan away was Buckley's disposition, he never pretended to care, but Janet did, she claimed to care and yet she treated him like her favourite colleague rather than her only son. Had no one so much as picked up a parenting book?

Tucking her ill thoughts away and gravitating towards a new topic, Aimee asked Janet if GINM had any info on Suzanne. She realised that when she had initially been told about her microchip, she had not asked about Suzanne or if she was still alive or augmented by a microchip like her sister. According to Celeste, she was alive – that much Aimee knew now. Janet rolled her chair into her desk and accessed the records on her computer, knowing where to look, having seen Suzanne's file before.

"This is the one," she said, putting her laptop where Aimee could see it.

There was nothing about her being involved with AIM, other than the assumption that she received envelopes of money from them each month, as well as an allowance from her parents (who Aimee imagined were the type to own a château by some enormous lake). She hadn't had a job for decades, so it made sense. She also had not left Lille since Aimee had last seen her.

Suddenly, there were voices coming from the hallway, muffled voices. Aimee rushed out, ready to tackle anyone in Celeste's proximity, until she heard her name.

His voice was hot chocolate in winter.

Aimee taped him in her arms and kissed his cheek – not the kind of tackle she had in mind, but it was a fine alternative. She probably hurt his battle-worn body further, but he didn't seem to feel any pain.

"That was Kimiko. Gavin passed out in the chopper right after dialling my number, so she picked up. She also said that they're on their way and we shouldn't worry. How did you get here?" Celeste's eyes were turning red from her saltwater tears and ignored Stefan entirely, despite her question being directed at him.

"With my chopper. Do you know there are agents looking for you guys?" he pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

"Yeah."

"Wait," Aimee uttered. "Why did you leave the others?"

"Because he's a selfish little –" Celeste stopped herself. "Sorry."

She retreated back into the office and took her seat beside Sylvain, tapping her foot on the floor as if she was waiting for him to wake up, when he was actually the last thing on her mind.

"I'm sorry; I-I had to make sure you were safe. I left him in good hands, he'll be okay."

Aimee knew that he meant well (he always did), and that Gavin and the others could take care of themselves, she just wished he would have stayed. Wordless, she hugged him – and tried to oust her negative imaginings – and her short, soft peck met and left his cheek. At least their friends were on their way.

"What happened after those agents came in?" she asked, laying her head on his chest.

"We escaped and found everyone at Kimiko's chopper. And we saw Buckley, but he..." he stammered.

"He what? What did he do?"

Janet breathed in deeply and looked away; she had already been burdened with the details of what had happened to him. He never had been a wholly good man, she could not even blame Aimee for the slight hostile undertone in her voice, but his death was tragic.

"He, uh... he didn't make it out."

Aimee could not breathe. There were not enough apologies in the world to heal this. It did not matter how she felt about the man, he was Stefan's dad, and he was gone. She pulled Stefan closer, tighter, running her hand through his hair. She felt his chest clench, like he wanted to cry. The tears left his eyes sparingly; he was fighting them, but barely.

"We should get inside before anyone sees you," he said.

Within the office, Aimee locked the door behind them, and Janet hugged Stefan now. Aimee glanced at them with empathy; they were covered in a blanket of loss. She was grateful, though – she found some happiness in knowing that Stefan still had friends and family – because she had worn such a blanket once before, and she had worn it alone.

Aimee's cellphone vibrated in her pocket. As she claimed it, she almost wished her parents would be the ones calling – almost – but it was Kimiko again, on her own phone this time. She asked if they were all still together, physically as well as mentally (especially Stefan with his lone wolf tendencies, furious outbursts and lack of explanation), and then the conversation drifted once again towards the story of the jail cells, Abba, and Sylvain, with the addition of Buckley. Aimee began to elaborate on all the things they needed to know.

"So, what you're saying is that you almost died, but this Sylvain person saved you, and Celeste also saved you by killing the Abba Whitaker with a single bullet?" Erin's voice bubbled through the telephone. He sounded like some fan boy, it was weird.

"Kind of," Aimee replied.

"And Buckley died in AIM?"

Kimiko uttered something to him in Japanese, and it sounded like she was reprimanding him for asking so many questions so insensitively. It was hard to believe she was only thirteen sometimes.

"Sorry about him."

Aimee glanced back at Stefan. His eyes were void, either because he had heard Erin, or because his mind was pulling him away from the world.

Aimee murmured, "It's okay."

Nothing was spoken for a moment; Erin lowered them onto the roof of GINM. The helicopter's steady shutdown sounded through the phone line.

"Aimee, we're here," Kimiko uttered happily.

"Finally: some good news."

Good news. A facet in Aimee's mind told her that this was good, definite news, and that she had to call Molly and Clifford. She forced herself to ignore it.

Stefan and Janet left to meet the RDAs on the roof. Gavin was back – they were all back – and Celeste could hardly sit still. However much she wanted to leave that room, she remembered the agents that were out there. She could take them, but it would be fatuous to risk losing any more lives. Aimee sat in a recliner beside her, across from Sylvain. She seemed unsettled. In the basement, locked in a cell, she had held Celeste's hand for comfort. Thinking back to that moment, Celeste did the same.

"Stefan will be okay," she reassured her. "Your parents, too."

"I really hope so," her voice rasped. "You know, Stefan acts tough, but he's not really. A part of him hated his dad, but a bigger part loved him."

"He still has you," she squeezed Aimee's shaky palm.

As if on cue, Stefan's voice blasted through every corner of every room in that building. Over the intercom, he sounded enraged and emotionless at the same time.

"Attention, all GINMA. The order to capture Aimee Griffiths and Celeste Williams has been revoked. Any agent seen in pursuit of them will be fired instantly."

Aimee could imagine all the mixed feelings the agents must have been harbouring. This was the first announcement, regarding orders and rules, made by someone other than Buckley himself. Stefan had stepped in and claimed his metaphorical throne, and whether or not his followers deemed him worthy of it was uncertain. Deep down, Aimee knew that his announcement, to him, was nothing more than an announcement. He was not trying to prove himself or his leadership abilities to anyone, he was just upset by the fact that Aimee and Celeste had been encaged in the first place and wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again. He didn't care what his subordinates thought of him now.

Celeste was on her feet, a glimmer in her eye.

"He forgot about Sylvain," Aimee noticed.

"He's a stranger. Aimee, you said you hate waiting, well, our friends are out there."

"You're welcome to go," she whispered. "You should be with Gavin – and the others. I'll stay here, and when Sylvain wakes up, we'll come find you."

Sylvain was a stranger, but he had protected her. She didn't want to babysit him, but she knew what it was like to wake up alone in a strange place, and it was not fair to anyone. She would not let that happen to him; she owed him that much.

"I don't know if I've ever told you this," Celeste said with a smile, drawing near, "but you're crazy."

With that, she hugged Aimee, and was then on her way.