"Hi, again!" Elsa waved in a fake cheerful wave to Jim, dashing over to the desk where Barrett was at. Knowing exactly what was going on. Playing the dumb act was never quite her style anyway.

Of course, her plan was always simple with how well she knew Caera. Probably wasn't too far different from what Starfleet had planned for Issac and Brystal's group. But she was a new woman army and had gone alone.

Appeared at the most populated floors to get a good look at what she was dealing with. Finding the secrets to getting to the level she needed. Eventually, coming in on Issac and Brystal's torture through their earpieces.

Brystal's face knotted into confusion, "What!? What do-do-what are you two talking about?!?"

"Big Guy!" Zach exclaimed, oddly enough his smile looked to the point of overjoyed as he rushed over to Barrett. 

"YOU!!!" Grace, Callum, and Olivia exclaimed, simultaneously.

"Why did you go by Beatrice?" Callum demanded.

"Beatrice?" Issac looked at the four confused, "You do know that's her middle name, right? Elsa Beatrice Engstorm. A real 1980's name!"

"Do you seriously think Starfleet has every single detail in her?" Grace fired back.

"Fair point, but it should say her name," Issac countered before looking to see where Zach was.

To his surprise since he'd been trying to figure out the rest of the groups confusion, he found Zach talking to Barrett. Was this one of the people the kid knew? But he reminded himself what Zach had called Barrett.

A simple nickname of calling Barrett, 'Big Guy.' Though, he knew it could possibly be the case of other kids down there calling Barrett the same thing. He'd learned years and years ago with how hard it is to judge someone right away with how many betrayals he'd faced.

Barrett had been once part of Section Thirty-One, a Starfleet organization that Callius helped take down let ago. He'd run into Arik, joining as a keeper of his secrets. But even though Barrett had tried to kill Recreations, it seemed he'd learned to protect a few and care.

"I did as you said!" Zach announced to his friend, "I found people that could help me! Just like you said."

"That's good kid," Barrett told him, kindly.

"That makes so much sense!" Jim replied to what Issac had said, "I have no idea who would name their kid in this century-"

"Beatrice?" Elsa asked before the sound of glass being broken sent them looking back towards the windows.

The guards were stationed on both entrances, firearms in hand. Arik's orders seemed quite obvious now with the sudden shooting at the glass. It was either they put up a fight and or die trying to do anything else.

The sound of a gun reloading catching Elsa's ear, rushing she grabbed Zach. Not too hard though, but enough to pull him out of view. Before she looked at the others, instead of a sign of fear.....something else shined in her blue eyes.

As if they all had the same mind, they immediately ducked. Gunfire blasting the glass, scattering everywhere around them. Holding back even a noise to make it sound like they weren't there at all.

"Why didn't I just stay on the ship!?!?!" Callum muttered to himself, crawling underneath a desk.

But Elsa had other plans and before the glass continued to pound to the floor. Her hands outstretched to the group, stopping midair before them. Issac and Brystal looking upward at their friend, immediately.

The change in air had caused them to notice one thing different about Elsa.

Years ago, Elsa would've immediately ran into a fight, unprepared. But it seemed for the past few years, she'd learned something better. But a better way to use her powers for the better of others than herself.

"Arik thinks he knows exactly how we are going to lose," Elsa spoke up after some time, "But he forgot about one key detail."

She stood up, a dangerous shade of orange flickered in her eyes. A sign she sent to others when she wasn't about to back down or not put up a fight. Facing towards the soldiers.

"He forgot about me." And with that fire shot out from Elsa's arms, flying straight towards the soldiers in a burning fury. Blasting the guards across the room like a bomb had just gone off in the room.

The glass that had been held in the air were now shooting towards their opponents. It wasn't long before Elsa pulled back, a strand of red hair falling onto her face. Looking to see the guards were injured and not able to move much.

Jim felt his jaw drop in amazement at the event that had just happened. Having only been a person who'd heard stories about Elsa, never much to believe about her. Especially the part about having fire powers.

She then looked to Barrett, "How much time before the second batch of soldiers come?" 

"I-I'd say at least a good few minutes if we don't move positions," Barrett managed to get out after witnessing what she'd done.

"Then, we need to warn those stupid partygoers," Elsa huffed out, grabbing him by the shoulder, "I will need every file and passcode to access those speakers to send them into a panic, and possibly a few large guns, understood?"

Datapad tightly in her hands as Elsa plunged the group down the large holes she created. Manipulating the gravity to allow them to land perfectly in their feet. Unscathed for now, but she didn't have time to keep checking.

Though......she definitely did have a few thousand questions to ask her old friends. On the topics on Brystal's life, Issac and Lyris's relationship was still good, and if Callius was okay. The first friend she'd made that was Starfleet had been Callius.

The booth of the speakers had only to people, but were armed with a gun. The two turned from out looking the partying to the group. Elsa had readied herself, but it seemed that Olivia had a quicker idea.

Taking out her phaser, hitting the guards squarely in their chests. Elsa looked at the lieutenant, who told her, "Stunned them."

"Less fun, but I can live with it," Elsa replied, knowing she'd hoped to hurt a few people who supported Arik.

Barrett didn't wait for an order from Elsa as he grabbed a plug, jabbing it into his datapad. Looking around to make sure that nobody noticed them. But it was clear that everybody was careless to notice a difference in the booth.

"Your plan is an evacuation for others?" Callum asked, "How exactly do you plan on getting everyone out of here?"

"Causing a panic," Elsa answered, "We'll need to grab those kids from downstairs........the rest of my plan.........it's basically a suicide mission for everyone here."

"We've survived many odds," Callum spoke up, "Hell, we've survived more things ever possible. We managed to defeat an alternate universe Borg Queen, stopped Khan, and so many utterly crazy things."

"That was......well spoken.....Callum," Grace sounded a little surprised. She didn't picture him as the type of person to speak of encouragement. Even to make a small speech about the danger the Enterprise had faced.

Wondering how much now he'd change over the years from the biochemistry partner she had in the academy days. The same guy who had small panic attacks and was nervous before tests. The guy standing in front of her sounded a bit more brave, not even a trace of his anxiety in his voice.

Olivia took notice of Grace's confusion, seeing the slight shock on her face. But it only made her want to smile a bit. Even though some people didn't seem to change, didn't mean that they didn't grow a bit in life.

"You're in!" Barrett told her.

"Just turn the damn music off," Elsa ordered.

"You mean the electro beats?" Barrett corrected before he could catch himself. 

"Sorry! I've been gone for a few years! Almost a decade! Really behind on pop culture these days," Elsa feigned offense, noticing a gun right by her. An idea flickering in front of her eyes, hard to read what was speeding through her eyes.

As soon as the music disappeared, Elsa grabbed the large gun. Though she wasn't a gun expert, she knew exactly what she was going to use the weapon for. Everyone below them looked up confused, but the movements of no noise were broken.

Pulling the trigger furiously, Elsa blasted the windows glass open, slightly helped by her fire. Making herself look threatening as she stood up where the windows once were. A few screams shrilled from below her.

"This whole place has been rigged to blow in twenty minutes!!" Elsa yelled, "So if you want to save your pretty asses and dimes, leave!"

And before her eyes, everyone dashed, panicking in fear to the closet exit. She turned back around, tossing the gun to Issac. Who still managed to catch it before it could fumble out of his hands.

He registered what she meant, quickly. Spotting out the guards coming, knowing she trusted him with the better aim. Pulling the trigger as he kept his cover behind a wall, trying to take out the guards by surprised.

"That's your idea of a panic?" Jim questioned.

"Effective, right?" Elsa asked, grabbing out an old device from her pocket. Shoving it into Barrett's hand, "You know how to hook up music."

"Of course," Brystal muttered with a small smile.

"What?" Barrett's eyebrows were woven with confusion.

"Look!" Elsa angrily flashed him a glare, "Can you or not put my music on? Or do I have to rip your throat to shreds or burn you to ashes? Or even fly my ship into your muscular bones?"

"This is the woman you grew up with?" Jim looked to Brystal.

"I know. It explains a lot," Brystal answered with, pulling out her gun to shoot at a few guards as well.

Elsa's eyes landed on the two, wondering what the hell was going on. Slightly, she wished she hasn't disappeared for almost a decade and would need a refresher on events that had happened. Though, she'd only heard of a few big ones.

Events like stopping Khan, taking down the Borg Queen, the death of Christopher Pike and Ava Pike, and Anya's death. She felt like she barely knew what was happening in Brystal's life. But one thing was for sure that she could spot out.

The look they were giving each other........it reminded her so much of Lyris and Issac when they were still dating

"Oh! You two are dating!"

"Was that not obvious?" Olivia asked Elsa.

"Well, sorry!!!" Elsa shouted before a smile split across her lips in a mischievous way, "He's way better than that Connery was."

Her smirk was cut off when the ripping sound of a bullet launched into her shoulder blade. She let out a piercing shriek of pain. Her hand reaching back to cradle the mark where the bucket had plunged into her skin.

Digging her fingers into the wound, touching the around the blood that would heal up soon. Trying to pick out the bullet before her skin covered it. Retrieving it to the point where it was halfway out of her blade.

"ELSA ENGSTORM!" A voice boomed throughout the room.

Her body tensed up, turning around to see a battalion of soldiers waiting below. At least a good fifty people were down there. But the one person that stood out was an older and southern man standing in front of his men.

Arik Soong.

"SURRENDER, FIREBIRD! BEFORE YOUR FRIENDS SUFFER!"

Issac cocked his gun away, pointing it towards Arik. He felt the flickers of rage burn within him for the way he treated Elsa. He wanted to fire his gun, just to put Elsa out of the pain of her tortures from her past.

"Issac, no," Elsa commanded, "You can't kill him, don't forget that. We walk downstairs and make it seem like I'm weak and the same as I was three decades ago."

A wicked smile was all that was on Arik's lips. Watching as the figures, slowly walked up to them with his Firebird in the front. Looking just as young and ageless as ever before him like he'd found her in the 1980's.

The eyes of a poor girl. 

But instead, she stood confidently before him, he could only guess it was faked. She wasn't one to give up so easily. Something he'd learned over the years after his attempts at getting her back from Starfleet.

"I thought you would come to your senses," Arik spoke up, "Hand over the kid."

Zach grabbed ahold of Brystal's hand, comforting him in some sort of way. He'd never felt the feeling of not being used or asked dozens of questions. What was a bigger word for safe? Sheltered, that was it.

But Brystal quickly took his signal from his sudden signal for comfort and safety. He'd found it in Issac and her after the few events they'd shared over the hours. He was showing that he was wanting to depart from Arik.

And though she didn't want to admit it out loud, she wanted to give the kid a better life. Not only that, she cared about him in the few moments they had.

"Zach is staying with us," Brystal told him, seeing the man's smile tighten in fury.

"Barrett," Arik's teeth gritting hard against each other, "Get the kid."

When Barrett didn't respond, a guard almost lunged out of his spot to attack. Olivia was ready to fire, but Elsa signaled otherwise. She was already planning ahead of them with a few options at her will.

'You know?" Elsa spoke up, "She's right. The kid's staying with us."

"Elsa, Z-345 is my creation. He has no rights to leave this place unlike you," Arik told her, "Can't have him ending up like you or Ava. Or even Demitria."

There he was. Trying to get her to fiercely lunge out in anger, try to strike him down with a fiery blast that he'd just get back up on his feet. But she was smarter than that, more than he could ever think.

Demitria and Ava were just like her. They'd run away, doing some good to the world that had made them feel like an outcast years ago. And he couldn't wreck her anymore like he couldn't to her old friends anymore.

"You think reminding me of what you've done is going to work?" Elsa inquired, "It!s been years since the last time we stood head to toe in a game of freedom or chains. And this kid has a name! So don't you dare act like you cared about any of us!"

"I created every single one of you with a new purpose! I gave you those powers! All of you that were made to have powers are my creations! Since it didn't seem like you all couldn't just face that the world didn't want you centuries ago! And they say you were the most powerfully out of the punch when really you are just the same little girl, one that just couldn't accept that she can't love who she loves. A monster out of all of it."

Those words stung, but she stood her ground. Her hands slowly curled into fists, a wave of a golden orange seemed to glow from the tips of her hair. Trying to find the right words before her plan was unleashed.

Images of the people she'd lost before her eyes, fueling every pain he'd out her through. Abused, tortured, whipped, and scarred with bruises made by him. She wasn't ever going to let that happen to another species again.

She wasn't the monster.

He was.

"Are you satisfied then?" Elsa taunted, "I don't give a damn what you think about what I've become. I've been on this ride for the last few centuries and I don't think I'm going to back down. I've succeeded into a powerful being that will never be deceived by your bullshit again!"

And with that a burning inferno of fire consumed her into a valued rage she used. Punching her hand into the floor, the sound of metal crunching underneath her. Fire flying apart towards the soldiers like a tsunami. 

Though everyone had ducked from behind her, Zach was the first to notice an amazing marvel. A ball of fire was protecting them from her fury unleashed at Arik. Golden orange flames burning around the room, it was hard not to marvel at.

Elsa had truly evolved  in how to use her powers over the few years they'd last seen her.  Not even a trace of exhaustion or about to pas sort crossed her body due to using so much power. 

Screams from other soldiers echoed across the room as her glowing inferno almost came o an end. She turned her head enough to look back at the group behind her. Knowing she should probably get the last part of her plan ready.

"Jim, Olivia, Callum, Grace, Zach, and Barrett, you need to grab those kids downstairs. Beam them onto my ship."

"We don't know where your ship is!" Callum argued before the flames placed a communicator in his hands, "......I do now, I think."

"I can't," Barrett answered with.

"What?" Elsa snarled, her hair swayed at her outbursts of rage.

"If I leave this place, Arik's secrets could be in a vulnerable place for other people who want to get their hands on his work. His secrets need to die."

The words catching Zach's ears right away. The word he'd tried to understand a year ago when he was still learning simple words. When a kid of Project Z was killed right in front of him. H head no idea how to handle death in anyway.

"No!" Zach begged, "Big Guy! You can't! I still don't understand how to control or handle what death is!"

"Kid......I was never a good person. These people they-they are much better than I ever could be at keeping you safe from Arik. Take the chance, like I told you to," Barrett told him.

Elsa's body started to hover a few feet above the ground, sending the fire back into her. A golden shroud like a cape covered her. Springing across her back like a pair of golden orange angelic wings.

She searched the room, seeing ashes of guards, but something was off. She would know if she' killed Arik, but something told her she didn't. When she looked up, she saw him on a different floor, meaning he was trying to get away.

But with guard still coming out from doors, they'd have a few battles to fight for now. That didn't mean she was going to let Arik out of her sight. Maybe just think he got the upper hand or the head start.

"Go!" Barrett told Zach, whose eyes felt the sting of tears, "You are the only one who can show them where it is! It's floor 0.8! Remember that!"

Hesitantly, Zach let go of Barrett. The last thing he"d wanted to do was follow yet another order since he'd rebelled against Arik already. There was that feeling that wanted him to stop Barrett, but he knew this was his wish, not his to take.

He knew the whole downstairs like the back of his hand since it was basically where he lived. Barrett was right about that. So, it was all up to him to get all of the kids in Project Z out of the building and off the planet.

"This way!" Zach told the group, pointing towards the elevators, "There's a secret passage!"

"Be careful," Jim warned Brystal, grasping her hand for a split second. He needed her assurance to make sure he'd be promised by her that she'd be safe.

"Sweetheart, I always try my best for you," Brystal assured him before he took that as a good answer.

Issac looked at his two friends before asking them, knowing it had been awhile since they'd fought together, "Just like old times?"

"Just like old times," Elsa smiled.