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"I should go check on him," I said, biting my lip. "It's been a while now, and he deserves at least that much. I mean, I'm his sister. If no one else, I should be there to check on him...right?"

"Sorry, Parr, didn't really hear you there," Ronnie replied, now finally turning around to face me. I'd been speaking out without checking if she was even paying attention, and sure enough she hadn't been.

"I said," I began, trying to start explaining what was on my mind all over again. "I said I think I should go back to the central base and check on how Ianto is doing. It's kind of my duty, as his sister. It's not like I'm going to do much of anything to make a difference in it, will I? But it would be good, just to be there. Just for a day."

"Okay, I heard you that time, but I'm not sure I'm getting you clearly. You want to go back to your brother, even after everything that's happened? I think if something changed, they would tell you."

"They didn't tell me he was hooked up to a computer to begin with," I replied, heaving my shoulders up in a shrug. "So maybe they wouldn't tell me if it came to there being some sort of a change. I mean, that would make sense, Tau...right?"

Ronnie crossed her arms and jutted out her hip as she stood before me, her face nearly in a flat line.

"No, Psi. If there was a change, they would've told you. Better or worse, they would've told you."

At this point, I found myself wanting to conflict against Ronnie yet again. I didn't want her to be right. I wanted to go and see my younger brother again, and I wanted to check on how he was. Surely there wasn't anything wrong with that, was there? I just wanted to be a good older sister after everything.

Still, a part of me sent out a reminder that Ronnie was almost consistently right about this sort of thing in the past. This probably wouldn't be the one time she was completely wrong, either. She did have a good point - they weren't hiding anything from me now that I knew about Ianto's condition.

They could easily just tell me about smaller changes, and if anything significant happened they would almost certainly let me know. At the very least, Cecily and Nell were aware of how much this affected me. They would want to tell me whatever happened almost right away.

"But..." I began, trying to find some sort of comeback in my mind to convince Ronnie why I still should go.

"I thought you were all panicked because you wanted to be here in order to continue training. You'd be missing just about an entire day of training - and probably for next to nothing - if you went off to go check on him. I know it's not my decision, Psi, but you should listen to me here."

Now I just stared over at her, wondering if I should let her get to my mind. She'd already wormed a hole in there, causing me to question what I wanted to do, but I really did need to think about whether or not I should listen to her. After all (as she said), it was my decision whether I wanted to go or not.

I could find out if anything new happened to Ianto.

I would miss an entire day of training unless I rushed myself.

I could just see my little brother again.

I might not end up finding anything new, or hearing about any kind of progress.

Ronnie's gaze connected with mine, and so we stayed silent for a few moments as if our only conversing was between our eyes. She really didn't want me to go to Ianto, at least that much was clear in my mind. I guess she thought she had my best interests in mind, but I still doubted it.

"If you really want to know what's happening to Ianto, you can try to message someone," Ronnie suggested.

"I don't have anyone's number," I replied, glancing over to my glass phone as it sat upon the table.

"Why the hell don't you have anyone's number?"

"I didn't think I would need it!"

"Well, now you do," she sighed, bring up a hand to massage her temples. "God, Parr. And you wonder why I'm so stressed out half the time."

"I don't know, I just have this gut feeling that I should go," I replied. "I had a gut feeling last time and you saw what happened."

"Actually, Ianto didn't send his messages for a few days and you flipped out a bit," she corrected. "That's how I remember it."

I said nothing in response at first, pursing my lips slightly. Of course, Ronnie was right. There was no surprise about that much at least. I didn't have any signs at the moment that anything might have changed over with Ianto. In order words, I was being overly paranoid. Perhaps she had a good reason to be irritated with me.

"I don't know, Truitt, it just doesn't...it just doesn't..." I found myself unable to finish the sentence.

"You're still trying to fight against me?" Ronnie asked. "Really? Do you really think that's going to work out well for you, Parr?"

"No," I grumbled in response. "No, I don't think it's going to work out well for me, but you're not making decisions for me here."

"No, I'm not," she agreed. "But I am here in order to make sure you make the right decision. And we're going to get to that point, one way or another. Trust me on that one."

"Is there really something you can say that'll thoroughly convince me to carry on with all of this?" I asked, feeling doubtful.

"Maybe this will be enough to convince you to stay - Alex's been hinting at the fact that we're going to go on the real mission soon. All of the training is getting more intense for a reason."

"You're kidding," I scoffed.

"Do you really think I would kid about something that serious, Parr?" she asked. "No, you've probably missed it these last few days, but he's put in a few comments here and there. Next thing you know, he's going to be announcing our venture out into the world."

Ronnie's tactic to convince me to stay using this new possibility was certainly working - our venture out into the field might ultimately end up figuring out a good portion of the world's future. It might end up just about preventing World War III, at least for a bit longer. It seemed almost too simple, but it certainly wasn't impossible.

I allowed myself a moment to think about something other than Ianto - something bigger.There I was, in what I'd known was enemy territory from the very beginning. To think that I'd been so afraid that those who worked against us had ended up hurting Ianto to begin with - we'd been so safe.

"So basically, if you want to actually just want to get yourself to do the actual revival part of the Intel Intiative, then you better stay here and finish up your training," Ronnie exclaimed after I didn't speak for several moments.

"I still haven't convinced you to stay yet? God, Psi!"

"No, Tau, you've convinced me," I said, lifting my gaze up to connect with hers. "Besides, you probably need a wingwoman to help you out with all your flirting with Zeke. I can't do that if I'm at the central base, now can I?"

Ronnie scowled in my direction, but I could see her smile poking through it like a sun coming out from behind clouds. "I don't need a wingwoman for flirting. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't use you for all of that."

"Fine, fine, fine," I said, raising my hands up in the air. "I'll just leave you alone. Anyways, shouldn't we be starting to head over to training, once and for all? After all, just a few days left until the mission. Apparently."

"Yes, Psi," she said, somewhat exasperated. "That's what I've been trying to say the whole time."

I decided to just follow her, finally giving in to everything she'd been nagging me about. She put quite a bit of sass into each step, making me think she was trying to silently tell me just how much my behavior was bothering her by swinging her hips. Maybe in a few seconds she'd end up turning around and telling me with her words, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to hear all of that.

Instead of waiting for her to say something, I started using these last few moments before training in order to think. Despite having done an extraordinary amount of thinking over the past days, I couldn't help but fall into it yet again. I glanced back in the room, seeing my glass phone lying there. Then a sudden thought came to me and I knew I couldn't go to training just yet.

"No, no, no, wait!" I exclaimed. "I'm a liar - I have Nell's number."

"And is that supposed to change something?" Ronnie replied, turning around to face me once again.

"Yes!" I protested. "I can message her about what's going on with Ianto over at the central base!"

"Then how about you go ahead and do that?" she suggested. "You're always nagging me about being on time to training, and now you're the one who's about to make us late."

"I'll be quick, I promise," I said, murmuring out my response. I did my very best to uphold this, quickly pulling out my glass phone and getting frustrated when the messaging didn't pop up fast enough. But before long, I'd gotten to it and started to make my message to Nell.

"You better be quick," Ronnie warned. "You've struggled against me for long enough."

"I know, I know," I murmured in response, quickly typing out the last few bits of the message. I was messaging Nell, after all, and that meant even a simple message should be to a high standard.

"Come on, Psi!"

"I'm coming, Tau," I said, tossing my phone aside as I rushed out, following right behind her. We were the last two to training as usual, the boys looking at us in a rather entertained matter. I had a feeling they wanted to ask what had been taking us so long (and Ronnie would've been more than happy to explain all of my holdups), but then Alex came out to speak to us.

"This is it - our time is running short, and we're getting to the home stretch. Make this as productive as possible. Focus on your coding and computer skills today - I don't want you all to be too tired out and sore when it comes to actually doing the mission you've been assigned. That's precisely what we need to avoid, so no more wasting time!"

We all nodded dutifully and then headed off in the direction of the computers. I did this with a bit of apprehension - ever since Ianto had been hooked up to a computer, I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach whenever I was around one. Nevertheless, I tried to ignore the feeling and simply go on and about life without any problem.

It was almost like an acting exercise more than anything else, I had to admit. It was a very strange feeling to put on a straight face and type away when I felt far more like sinking down into my seat and never glancing up again.

Instead of doing that, I continued typing and coding, trying out various things as I sat there. In all honesty, I didn't have a real goal to what I was doing. I just continued to type and convinced myself that I was actually being productive - at least to a certain extent.

When I looked up from my screen, I saw Alex gesturing for me to come over and stand beside him. As this had never turned out very well for either of us, I found myself naturally hesitating. But after a while I decided it would be foolish to just resist out of fear it would turn sour. I got up from my computer and walked over to him, finding that he started talking immediately.

"Alia, you've most likely heard that our mission is coming up soon, and that is precisely why I am dismissing you for the rest of the day."

I almost took a step back due to my surprise - this reasoning made absolutely no sense. I could only let a single word push past my lips, though.

"What?"

"I'm dismissing you for the rest of the day," Alex repeated. "You're somewhat distracted, and I think it would be more productive for you to go back to your room and simply give yourself time to rest - mentally and physically."

"Oh," I said, more than a bit surprised by this still. "Are you...are you sure? I mean, we're going out on the mission in just a few days...should we all be practicing to our fullest?"

"There's a time where training hits its peak," Alex explained. "You push any further, and you're going to cause more damage than you do good. Right now, you'd end up causing damage to yourself, and that's not what we want."

"I...I see," I replied. "But I was only working on coding - I don't see how tired out and damaged I could get from sitting in front of a computer."

This tripped Alex up for a few moments, something that certainly bothered him due to his obsession with getting things done in a timely fashion. "Your fingers can get sore as well, and your eyes recieve lots of strain from staring at a computer screen. Trust me. You being somewhat distracted won't help that."

I nodded several times, deciding that I didn't need to hear any more convincing. I'd much rather just head to my room without any more lecturing and call it a day. I hoped that I wasn't attracting too much attention to myself as I left, but I didn't allow myself to turn around and check.

A few minutes later, I collapsed upon my bed and picked up my glass phone. It was pretty much the only thing I had to keep me entertained until I left the room, and I didn't anticipate such a thing happening for quite a while.

I nearly let out a squeal upon seeing there was a new message waiting for me. I quickly calmed down once I realized that the message, being Nell's response to my own message, might not hold good news. I needed to brace myself for the possibilities. My hands shaking slightly at this point, I opened up the message.

I closed my eyes in anticipation, forcing my breathing to be slow and calm. If I was already about to topple before I even read it, then I wouldn't be able to make it through the whole thing. Finally, I began to read.

Nothing is going on here, I must say. There really is nothing to report - no new developments have been made as of late, no changes. I mean, the only thing I can really say is that I've heard our true mission is going to turn up very soon, but I suppose you must already know that.

I nodded down at my screen, as if someone would be able to see it and realize that I'd seen and understood what was going on. Despite all of the pain the situation at the central base had caused me over the past days, I couldn't help but smile a bit. No changes. Nothing had gotten worse.

Then again, nothing had gotten better.

I tried to let this sink in as I laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Then, out of nowhere, the door opening caused me to jump and lose any focus that I'd built up in the past several minutes.

"Sheesh, Parr. I'm not that bad at opening up doors, am I? No need to be afraid of it."

"Truitt? What are you doing back here?"

"What do you think? Same as you - I got dismissed."

"You got dismissed?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

"Yes, but-"

"Well, it's as simple as that," she replied, throwing herself down on her own bed.

"Did Alex just start dismissing everyone?" I asked, blinking several times in confusion. "Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

"Nope. I think it was because I was starting to slow down a bit on my typing and I refused to go any faster."

"And he dismissed you for that," I replied flatly.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" she asked. "Come on, Parr. Don't give me that look."

I couldn't help but feel that Ronnie was lying to me about the reasons she'd been dismissed for the day - going slow and not speeding up did sound like something she would do, but not like something Alex would dismiss her for. Nevertheless, she was one of the best at keeping her lies intact no matter what the situation.

"Then it's just you and me for the rest of the day, until the training is done for Deric and Zeke, that is."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Ronnie replied, giving a shrug. "Not such a bad thing."

"I'm flattered," I said. "Oh! Guess what? Nell sent me a message in response."

"And?"

"Nothing's changed."

"Then I don't see what's got you so excited," she said, shaking her head. "Listen, you need to stop worrying your little head over everything that's going on at the central base. Think about what's here first - if something happens, you'll know."

"I better know," I sighed. "I better."

A/N So the writing of this story has been going surprisingly well as of late and I can't say that's bad at all. Because it isn't bad at all. Basically, I'm very pleased with all of it...but I'm even more pleased with the new cover I've gotten for this story, courtesy of the lovely ameliasraggedydoctor!