* * *

Sage found what she could do to help on pack territory, but Remus was thankful for it because he was feeling just as useless as she was at the moment.

The chaos in the infirmary hadn't slowed down the moment Sage demanded their help so early in the morning, any and all people who've worked in the infirmary were called to prepare for those coming back on the truck.

"Luna, goddess please, you need to sit down. You've been running around for the last hour—"

"You don't see the dream. Don't tell me to slow down." Sage said, all while making the final consensus was turned that three needed to be in a room at a time. The pack was large, but not large enough to house forty plus—Even with the main room packed with ten or so beds, it still left little room to spare.

"Luna Sage, as your healer, please...Go sit in my office for ten minutes, Beta Julia will get you some tea." At the mention of tea, she perked her lips and frowned. "You don't play fair."

"No, and if I have to bribe you with tea and maybe a muffin to keep up your energy levels then I will." Kenzie had taken hold of Sage's shoulder and walked with her to the office, letting her sit in the padded chair for the patients.

Course she was out cold close to instantly, and Eli found himself sitting in the room just a few feet away. He and his mate switched out ever so often to get the preparations in order, but neither could've prepared for the fact that Sage felt them cross over the border.

Her eyes shot open as she struggled to get up, and Julia frowned as she linked Eli claiming that the Luna was up.

They crossed over, ten minutes out.

"You link Gigi?"
"Yeah, the kitchen is working up making a feast." Sage nodded, but then she closed her eyes and breathed through her nose trying to calm her aching heart.

"Is it the pup?"
"No. Trying to think what they need, I remember I was confused and hungry when I first come to Crescent Moon." Jules nodded, and jumped in aid as the Luna found herself getting back to her feet.

Sage reminded Kenzie and the team that the trackers would need to be removed first, and when they were at all comfortable then they could be treated with what was needed.

The pack came first, Remus' words did come trickling into her mind, the other issue is—She recalled that some wolves that she met were very untamed, and it was hard to phrase without Blake, but Jules translated well enough.

The truck itself was loud, but seeing the very thing from her dream shot a new sense of reality to her. Remus did not want her to see the insides of the truck, no, he wouldn't put her through that torture, as there was a reason Luke or Liam weren't called.

Nor were their family, they only heard the news because Elenor was called to the infirmary to help. And in came Luke, as he could provide some protection to the healers if they were dealing with a hard patient.

"Where's Sage?" Remus questioned, as the first set of rescues came rolling into the hall in a sequence.
"She's in my office, she took a quick nap and ate. But she hasn't stopped more than that, sir." Kenzie relayed before following after the given categories.

The witches were in one area as the others found themselves separated elsewhere, yet Sage didn't allow herself to leave the room once all of them were accounted for.

And a distraction came in the best form, Hayes was returning her call.

"Bubbles?...It's—Oh goddess is it the pup?! Is the pup coming early?!"
 "No, I have bad dream and—And it comes true, truck has Underground people and...And we send wolves and witches to get them." 
"Sage, that goes against Council policy in—"
"You don't answer phone when I call before, wait for council and they are gone." Hayes growled, knowing his daughter was right, but finalized it with a huff.

"Just like your mama, lil wolf. No wonder Remus is pulling out his hair...Do you need anything on my end?"
"I dunno, they're coming now, I don't meet them...I...I'm scared papa." The burning sensation took over in her eyes as she choked back a sob, and Hayes tried to consult her.

"You can't show that you're afraid hun, you have to wait to think after everything is alright. You sent out this expedition and you solve it until the end, and if you need anything from Mystic Grimm or White Paw, I know your siblings will be willing to help." She sniffed and kept her father's encouraging words right in front of her as she wiped her eyes, she needed to do this.

And she needed to do this right.

She removed herself from Kenzie's office and smelled the hallway, and sweet goddess above she had to slap her hand over her mouth.

It's alright sweetheart.
Go.
Go help those who need it.

Sage found herself darting her head this way and that, the voice was back! Thankfully it was as she had been so close to puking up the small remainder of food that was in her stomach.

Course a blessing found its way in the smallest form, a mask was offered from Blake. Who held his own mask over his mouth and nose.

"The whole truck smells like it." He mumbled behind the medical cloth and so she continued down the hall with him just behind her to see where the majority of the witches were stationed at.

"Luna...You were right, goddess you were right. Your healers are taking out the trackers as we speak and then we're separating them by wolf or witch."
 "Witches on truck too?"
"I smelled a few, yes, but it smells so—Sterilized," Sage grumbled in agreement and turned her head into another direction, a passing nurse claimed that they had gotten through a decent chunk of them and so she went into the first room.

Three she-wolves were already de-tracked, and Sage found herself standing beside them for a short moment each to hold their hand and whisper that they're okay.

Then she switched to the next room, then the next.

She had been the one to separate the witches and wolves, but looking at the women laid in the bed caused her to yell out into the hallway.

"BIRDIE!" Remus' head stood at attention in hearing Sage's scream. And he hadn't been the only one to come to her beckoning call, Remus had been the one to surpass Blake and order him elsewhere.

"Sage what—" She pointed looked like she had seen a ghost, and she had.
"Raven..." The dream had led them to the very witch they had been scouting for months since the Ember Circle gained some new insight on Raven's whereabouts.

Aurelia rushed into the room, her eyes a crystal white color as she looked back and forth. A bit of combatted and red tendrils of energy was at the ready surrounding her hand, but it instantly disappeared as she nodded.

"It's her...It's Raven!" Aurelia was soon followed in by her sister Amelia. The lost Warren had been found and rescued, and Sage stood back in awe as she wiped her eyes.

Remus looked down at his tiny and very pregnant mate as she soaked the masked cloth around her face. "Why are you wearing a mask?"
"It smells like fa-cil-ity." Goddess, even the smell was a trigger, wasn't it?

The witches soon started to segregate the witches for their own sense of healing, and seeking any sort of tattoos or features that would place them into a certain coven.

For the wolves, it would be different to sort through as they needed to be awake and answer the many questions waiting for them.
But all that would be done once they came out of the frozen state they were in.

Sage soon left her mate's side, wandering off to another room where Blake aimlessly followed. The last thing anyone needed was a former prisoner's outburst, but it left her with an even worse discovery.

A pup.
One that couldn't look much older than Casey.

Remus, on the other hand, found himself in Kenzie's office. Hoping to catch Sage when she needed another nap, but instead Eli brought him the list of files.

"How bad?" Remus grumbled, and Eli shivered at the idea. "Sage found the pup of the group. He doesn't have his wolf yet but he's—The test that they were going to perform, was 37 out of the planned however many..." Remus could see that Eli was struggling with explaining it.

"They wanted to harvest his organs and place them into a human, Sir. We did the right thing." Eli's eyes burned, his eyes starting to grow red with the lack of sleep. And Remus knew the feeling, as even he felt his wolf starting to service and shake at the thought.

"One she-wolf, artificial insemination. Another she-wolf they tested if limbs could be regrown."
"That's enough Eli, whatever is needed to be done make sure we're well equipped...The witches will help their own and we need to provide for ours." Both heads turned to the door to see Jack, and he shook his head.

"We need more hands, sir. And supplies...Mrs. Warren said some of her people were going to take runs and the Vampire will have the truck return on its way—He's asking if that's the course of action you still want?" Remus shook his head, claiming that he wanted them to go all around the country.

He wanted them to have their own wild goose chase.

"The Luna received a call from Hayes, if we need any help we can call her siblings."
"We can also call Grey Hallow or Silver Tail." It was clear from that moment how Remus felt about asking for help from them. In his mind he was still in disbelief he asked Hayes to come and assassinate his own father—But now his in-laws would be ready for such a project?

No. He'd ask those closest.

"I'll call them within the next few hours, is there a rush?"
"No sir, not yet—But when they start getting out of the sleep spell I think Kenzie is worried that they might retaliate if they aren't...Strapped down," Blake explained that when did find themselves in a hospital gurney in the Underground, they were either heavily sedated or unable to move.

It made sense every time Sage would wake up in their own infirmary bed and didn't move, she automatically assumed that she was strapped down.

"Have some sitters in the room, where's Sage?"
"Still with the pup, Blake's in there with her." Was it the pup that drew her into the truck?
Was it Raven?

Whatever the case may be, he found the solution of confusing the likes out of the truckers—Evidently letting them take the blame for the missing 'cargo,' perhaps take a few detours here and there. The humans may be smart, but they aren't that smart to deal with the enchantments of witches or fight against a compelling Vampire.

Just as Eli was going to ask another burning question, Remus' phone suddenly began to ring. Course he texted both Chris and Issac to call him when they woke up, but it was still early.

"Hey—"
"Sage isn't picking up her phone, what the hell is going on that dad needed to fucking call me eight times? Hardin's teething."
"We're in the same boat then, your pregnant sister hasn't slowed down."
"I was spammed for you to tell me she was acting like a normal pregnant she-wolf...Gods do I need to fly over to beat your ass again?" Remus growled through the phone but it was met at the same octive on the other end.

"Get to the point, Moon."
"Sage had a dream about moving prisoners from the Underground, we secured the truck but there's more supernatural than we can handle..."
"Goddess, yeah. What do you need? Healers? Supplies?"
"We have witches, they're taking care of their own. We're not prepped for thirty-plus wolves, if—"
"Remus. This isn't something you should be doing alone, let alone Sage. Take them all...How's Sage?"
"It...It was awful, Harlow. We've gathered all we could and took pictures for the council, sure you'll get them once we build a report." Remus looked around the empty room, his eyes burning with contemplation of what to do and what should be spoken out loud.

"It's worse than what we thought."
"I know you didn't see Sage or the Elwood brothers right when they returned, there wasn't a bone I couldn't see on her. If I knew she was my sister, I would've taken her a lot quicker from you, Moon. Remember that." Remus went through the list in front of him, and even Harlow was withering at just hearing it.

"I haven't seen the pup yet, she's sleeping in a bed in the same room with Blake on guard—But I can't—I can't stop picturing it, Harlow. Sage at that age..."
"We have her now, she's safe, she's with her people."
"I didn't want to do it, to go after the truck—It was a dream and it wasn't solid proof. But even the smell got to Blake and her, the fucking smell of the truck." Harlow growled, another reason he didn't want to have this discussion with Sage's brother.

Because it wasn't only Sage who lived through it, the whereabouts of their mother were still unknown.
And Remus stuttered at the thought.

"Fuck, we took their tech—Do you think Sage's file might lead us to Willow?" Harlow stayed silent over the phone, perhaps linking pack members this and that.

"I'm sending techies over too, Remus. Whatever you can—Please keep me updated, don't take this on by yourself. Sage is my sister, this involves my mother...If you can log into their current data net we can find where they're keeping her."
"That doesn't sound like the council will be happy to fund or allow—"
"Fuck the council. They hardly battened an eye about it. Especially if Rogues are working with the Underground. It makes cases like mom's—Who we thought was dead, to be alive and captive." Harlow was right, he would need extra people to go through everything, to record and plan.

"You know what this means?"
"We're going to war." He answered, and Remus found himself breathing out reluctantly, but nodded along. "We're going to war."

He was off in search of Sage, and it was fairly easy to find her when all he had to say was the 'pup' and he was directed to the room. His mate was curled up underneath a blanket in a recliner chair just a bit away from the bed while Blake sat in the corner half awake, though his eyes were drooping as well.

"Get some sleep, Blake."
"Can't. Tried...Sage said I should go home, but I can't leave. I tried." Remus eyed the male in suspicion and smiled slightly.

"What's the chances that Raven wasn't the only person Sage was meant to save here, did you meet all the wolves?" It earned him a single eye to open on Blake's end and he hummed.
"Dunno, I've just been following Sage around here and there and answering the questions I can from the healers."
"I think...When you're able to get some rest, go and see if your mate is here."
"I'd smell them...Wouldn't I?" Remus shook his head, tapping his nose.

"Not if you're wolf is panicking over this awful smell...Could I ask, about the way things were set up?"
"You'd make the 74th person to start out with that line, sir, ask away."
"Is there a number that they identified you with? It couldn't just be a name." Blake chuckled and nodded.

"008-753-298."
"Alright uh...I wasn't—"
"That's how Sage knows numbers, she told me." Remus' eyes went sadly towards Sage, he knew that—He just didn't want to believe it.

"You're not going to like what you find...Don't press play."
"Press play?" It was then that Blake's final eye had peeked open, and the dullest expression he had ever made caused Remus to still.

"They have recordings?"
"Yeah...Maybe not of me, but yeah." Blake shivered again and started to roll his shoulders. The half an hour of sleep was all he was getting it seems. "You want some coffee?" He offered and Remus nodded as they switched seats, waiting for either the boy to wake up or Sage.

And he hoped for the ladder.

He felt her wolf still on guard, and it didn't help that he could see her flinch ever so often from the pup inside her, causing a bit of mischief with all the kicks. But he did feel relieved when seven o'clock rolled around and she was still asleep, and nobody dared to wake her.

Harlow had made well on his promise, techies and a good half of their infirmary staff had arrived. Eli didn't hide his shocked expression well after seeing how ready and willing they all were, and if anything—Mystic Grimm's techies already knew the layout as they fixed the scientist's car.
The one that they stole while escaping.

They took over the meeting room, dozens of computers and an encryption was what made them invisible to the Underground and their data system. Goddess, Remus never felt more like a he was in a war room planning a hacker than watching the dozens of wolves before him trying to work their way into the network.

And it really hadn't taken all that long before the better part of where the shipment was headed, the physical files attached are what really brought the carelessness—As it gave them names, or numbers rather. Remus' first action was to search up Blake's profile, and just like that he was staring face to face with a younger, premature version of Blake.

"Well damn, I looked pretty good back then, huh?" Eyes shot up from the screens and Blake was smirking up a storm as he pointed up to the projection of the main computer. "Yeah, probably seventeen or so."
"It says you're dead, sir." Remus thought it was rather silly of Blake to act with such humor when really he could feel the sorrow filling up both him and Sage.

Even his three males who were here and at the ready to lead, were starting to feel the damned that was about to follow. Remus just hoped they found what they needed without attracting trouble.

______

Date: 09/23/2021

Time: 12:03 (So close!)

Words: 3196

Author's Note:

So much happened this chapter✨

-Mystic Grimm and Crescent Moon starting to work together

-Could Blake's mate be one of the she-wolves they rescued?

-More insight on the Underground, maybe some leads on Willow?

-And let's not forget about Raven, the Warren family is whole again!

T-minus four chapters!

See you Friday🤗