THE FIREFLIES' SAFE HOUSES WERE ANYTHING BUT WARM AND COMFORTING. The Sandra sisters were used to it by now. Traveling through the states, from city to city seeking knowledge, finishing assignments, and delivering messages were routine. Sally doesn't mind the work. In fact, she likes it. Unlike her younger sister Cierra who absolutely despises it. Cierra would do anything to skip the exhausting journey of traveling between bases.

That's why people don't see them together as much anymore. Marlene was sending Sally out of the base more often to send highly classified information to other bases states away and that would leave Cierra alone for weeks, if not months, at a time.

They hated being away from each other, but neither one of them was going to hold the other from doing her job.

But Sally was back today and her presence brought back the rumble of active chats and excited tones to the Firefly soldiers. She was truly the heart of the people, and Cierra was more often than not envious of her sister in that department; how she could easily connect with others and make friends, whereas it would take her weeks to be able to string together a simple form of a sentence to be able to speak to someone.

Sally is the only family Cierra ever knew. With both of her parents dying when she was nothing more than a toddler and with no recollection of them, Sally grew to be the only mother Cierra knew of. And the then-teenager set a wonderful example of a mother to her sister.

Boston was brutal with its transition from winter to spring. The thick layers of pure white snow melted onto the ground, creating mud puddles and tracking the footsteps of everyone who walked on them. Every Firefly soldier was dressed in t-shirts and lightweight pants, jackets and tanktops were on the lucky ones. Cierra and Sally's matching red hair made them stand out between the blondes and brunettes of the base, but they never truly minded, it was such a unique feature the sisters shared. They always prided themselves on being different, this was just another aspect.

"Yo Sandra's!" Someone called for the sisters from across the hall of the building they had taken residents in until further notice. The Fireflies had a plan of attack against FEDRA that would be put in motion as soon as the order is given, by Marlene or whoever she takes her orders from. For now, they were laying low and stocking up on urgent supplies. The building appeared to have once been a hotel of sorts, maybe an inn and Sally and Cierra were sleeping in a single room.

"What's up, rookie?" Sally replied, tucking her thumbs into the straps of her loaded back bag. The boy that called for them, a new recruit that Sally immediately befriended and welcomed into the Fireflies, grinned at the pair brilliantly. "It's good to see you two glued together again." He chuckled.

Sally chuckled, sending a glance at her little sister with a soft smile before wrapping her arm around her, "It's good to be back for a bit. I'll see ya around, Jace."

Cierra frowned, "What do you mean 'for a bit'? I thought Marlene didn't have any more assignments for you?" Sally shrugged, "She said she had one more thing, a simple dropoff, but I don't know when she's giving it to me yet. Don't worry, I'm not leaving this week."

"No, but you just got here. I haven't seen you in weeks, Sally. She can't do this, you can't do this, please." The fourteen years old girl pleaded with her older sister, teary-eyed and all. Sally turned to face her, her hands cupping her cheeks. "Hey, calm down. It's fine. We're fine. I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Sally held eye contact with Cierra, watching as she slowly blinked her tears away before grinning at her. "Come on now, I'm exhausted and need some energy cuddles."

AT THE END OF THE WORLD, FAMILY IS THE ONLY THING TRULY WORTH FIGHTING FOR. Anyone who's seen the Sandra sisters together knows that they would do the impossible for one another. They would cross the ends of the earth if it meant they were safe and together. Even now, when apart, all they could do is think of each other and pray that they were okay.

Sally was going to give Marlene an earful for this stupid assignment. Sending her all the way to the QZ to drop off some extra ammo and explosives for the stakeout squad located in the abandoned mall within the QZ. One of the first boundaries Sally had set when she began working with the Fireflies was that she was not to be sent to the QZs, yet there Marlene goes, sending her off to a QZ and quite blatantly violating one of the few rules she's set for herself.

She was muttering and grumbling to herself the whole way into the mall, trying to find a way deeper into it from the underground tunnels the Fireflies took control of. Once she was up the floors of the mall and in one of the shops, she sighed and dusted her shoulders off. She rolled her eyes when dirt and... grimes she prefers to not think about, flew off her shoulders. "I need a shower." She sighed.

She's almost forgotten how massive malls are. Walking between shops to reach the supermarket the others are holed up in, Sally took the time to actually soak in the sight around her. Everything was shattered and broken, from display glass to doors, covered in algae and mosses, vines reaching to the ceilings. Nature had happily reclaimed the entire place.

Sally was able to get two hours of uninterrupted sleep before being rudely disturbed by Marlene herself to take this assignment. No questions asked, and no back talk. She wasn't given a choice in the matter of taking the assignment or not. She was needed to simply deliver the items to the mall squad and then come back to the base. Easy enough.

What Marlene hadn't thought of though, is that Sally was a curious girl. How do you think she knew of the Fireflies within her own QZ? She asked around. Prodded in places she shouldn't have, but it worked out in her favor. She always gets her answers. This was no different.

The massive Star Market wasn't very hard to find. It stared back at her from the very end of the hall she walked in. She pressed her lips together when she didn't hear a peep from inside and stepped into the store. "Uh- Hello?"

The squeaky floor replied back to her as she stepped further in. "Kevin? It's Sally. I've got the stuff from Marlene." With an annoyed sigh, Sally stomped into the back rooms of the market. "Where the fuck are y'all?"

A door labeled 'MANAGER' blocked her entry into the office. A soft hue of light traveled to her from the small space between the door and the floor. Sally took a single moment before shrugging her shoulders and smacking both hands on the door. "Kevin! Open the fucking door, you dick!" She yelled, and the echo of something crashing to the floor and the yelp of someone made her giggle silently.

"What the FUCK?!"

The door swung open, showing a disheveled and barely dressed Kevin and a Lizzy in a similar state, a makeshift blanket pulled to cover her bare self. Sally's eyes widened staring back and forth between the pair, before bursting into giggles. "Holy fuck. Really? In a mall of all places? Jesus."

Kevin's lips pulled back in distaste as he rolled his eyes, "Good to see you back Sally, what the fuck are you doing here?"

"I got your shit from Marlene. Dress yourselves and meet me out front."

It took Kevin and Lizzy precisely ten minutes to meet up with Sally by the cashier stands, both of them still grumbling and mumbling to themselves. Lizzy pulled a flashlight from her back bag and flashed it to the second floor twice before tucking it back into her bag. With furrowed brows, Sally stared at her then back at where she flashed her light, then saw the two flashes as a response to her. "What's that?"

"It's the regrouping signal."

"Let me guess, y'all part when you two are about to fuck, then signal when you're done? Hilarious."

"Shut the fuck up, Sally."

Finn, one of the guys assigned to the mall squad, made his way down with the two other members; Rory and Gray. "Kevin! congrats on the new record, man. You've officially lasted about... thirty minutes?" He glanced at Gray, who nodded in confirmation with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Thirty minutes! Woohoo!"

With a dropped jaw, Sally glanced back at the couple. "Oh my god, I was right?!"

Lizzy's face turned bright red, and Rory smiled apologetically at her while Kevin rolled his eyes. "Finn, I swear if FEDRA doesn't kill you, I will."

"Woah! Let's keep the murder talk to a minimum, I'm here on business. I'm gonna have to report all of this back to Marlene. You know that, right?"

Kevin's eyes widened in horror, "Wait, what? Come on, Sally-" Rory interrupted him with a giggle, "It's good to have you back, Sandra." Sally only sent her a flirtatious wink. "It's good to be back, Rory. Now, Kev, I won't tell her, but only on one condition."

Lizzy tugged on Kevin's sleeve and nodded when he met her eyes. "Fine," He muttered with a sigh, "What do you want?"

Sally folded her arms, "What are y'all plan to do with the ammo and explosives y'all asked for?"

Kevin glared at her with a scowl, "You know we can't tell you that." The redhead smirked at him and then shrugged, pulling her back bag tighter around her shoulders. "Oh well."

She knew exactly what she was doing. She said she was going to get her answers, and she will. By any means necessary.

Rory couldn't contain the smile at how evil Sally was being towards the hormonal teens, or maybe it was because of her crush on the curly redhead. Whatever the reason was, her heart raced against her rib cage.

"Fuck- Fine, fine! We didn't ask for it, Marlene said she'd send it 'cause the big guns said they wanted to start blowing shit up."

"Blow shit up? This is a FEDRA QZ. There are kids in there, you do realize that, right?"

Lizzy folded her arms, "What do you think the rest of us are here for? We're recruiting them."

Furrowed brows and cold veins, Sally darted her eyes between the members of the group. "What the fuck do you mean 'recruiting them'? They're fucking children." Finn nodded, "Yeah, we know. We don't really have a say though, do we?"

"That's bullshit." She scoffed but never removed her eyes from the younger kids. "Would you want that for your families? Your sisters? Mothers? Girlfriends?"

Their eyes cast downwards.

"Exactly. You do have a fucking choice. You always have a choice. But you've already chosen to be a fucking dog and do as you're told, even when it's fucking wrong."

When they didn't show any sign of hesitation or even consideration for her words, Sally scoffed. She pulled her back bag off her shoulders and pulled out the bag of ammo. She threw it on the counter for them to have then zipped her bag back up. "This is me making a choice because I can. I won't let you hurt those kids. Because even if you don't want to, the Fireflies will. This is me doin' something about it."

Without waiting for their reply, Sally turned and walked in the same direction she came from and down the tunnel system, back to her sister. Her family.

The Fireflies are no different from FEDRA. They enslave kids and brainwash them to believe that they're better, even though they're not. She's not going to let her sister suffer at the hands of these assholes. This is it. She won't be a foot soldier again.