"Bev?" Camilla asked, audibly surprised.

Bev would've looked like she just stepped out of a hospital in her dark blue scrubs, if not for the tactical vest she was wearing over it. She, too, looked like she got caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing, and she raised a hand in a tentative wave.

"Hi, Camilla," she greeted innocently.

Camilla had not expected to see Bev at all, and especially not dressed to be in a warzone. After quickly regaining her bearings, she turned to the other guardians.

"All of you, get lost," she ordered.

The crowd of spectators dispersed instantly, all of them with their heads bowed trying not to be recognized. Even Ngo and Donahue ended up helping each other escape as they regrouped with their friends and scurried to safety. Camilla made sure they had all left before approaching Bev.

"What are you doing here?" Camilla asked. She thought Bev was supposed to be working in a hospital in Flagstaff, but here she was in a warzone in Phoenix.

"Promise me you won't tell Elsie," Bev pleaded. "Or anyone in my family."

Camilla shrugged. "I couldn't even if I wanted to," she explained, not mentioning that being unable to talk to Elsie for almost three weeks physically pained her. "All nonessential communication lines are down throughout the entire coast. Have been for weeks."

"Oh..." Bev said meekly, her gaze dropping to the ground. "Right..."

When she didn't continue, Camilla pressed on.

"Your parents don't know you're here?" she asked.

"I told them I would be at the university in Tucson," Bev replied nervously. "The less critical patients are flown there since the hospitals here are over capacity, and a bunch of us from Flagstaff were sent over to help. I left before the lockdowns and curfews were in place, so they were worried but fine with it." She inhaled sharply. "But I ended up volunteering to come here and work in the field."

"That's way too dangerous," Camilla said immediately. "Didn't you hear what happened in Tempe the other day? Exodos blew up an entire college campus. That's not something you want to see, let alone get in the middle of. I would know, I was one of the first ones there."

"We're the same age, you know," Bev argued, suddenly defiant. "And I can take care of myself."

"That's what I told myself too," Camilla replied, keeping her voice low. "But honestly, I would've lost my mind ages ago if it wasn't for your sister."

Bev continued to glare at Camilla sternly, but her facade seemed to waver slightly at Camilla's mention of Elsie.

Camilla sighed. Arguing wasn't going to change the fact that Bev was here, and it wasn't Camilla's place to tell her what to do. Besides, it would take a lot more than a friend of her sister to convince Bev to leave.

"Fine then," Camilla conceded for the time being. "What are you doing at a guardian camp then?"

"I got lost in the dark," Bev admitted, slightly embarrassed. "I couldn't tell it wasn't the medic camp until I got closer, and by that time, that weird Ngo guy spotted me. I figured that since he already saw me, it would be better to be surrounded by people rather than alone in the outskirts in the dark, so I followed him into camp. But I had a taser ready though, just in case he tried anything, so don't worry."

Camilla thought she was going to get a headache just from listening to her.

"Elsie would freak out if she heard you say any of that," Camilla said.

"And you're not going to tell her a word of what I just said, okay?" Bev threatened.

"I'm not making any promises," Camilla said. "But it's too late to head back now. Can you at least stick with me for a while?"

Once Bev begrudgingly agreed, Camilla led the way to the mess. Luckily, the cooks just put out a fresh batch of cookies, and Camilla snagged a bunch and urged Bev to do the same. Just as they left the mess tent though, they were stopped by a guardian dressed in blue. It was a messenger from Senior Chief Ali.

"Captain Camilla Wyatt," the messenger began after returning Camilla's salute. "You and your squad are being reassigned to a new mission." The messenger glanced at Bev before continuing. "Contact the senior chief's office from a secure line as soon as possible."

"Understood," Camilla replied, trying to not let the feeling of her stomach dropping show on her face.

"That didn't sound good," Bev observed once the messenger was out of sight.

Instead of acknowledging or denying anything, Camilla kept moving.

She led the way back to her squad's tent. Until recently, they had shared the space with two other squads, but neither of them had returned from the day's missions, and no one wanted to mention it. There was no reason to when their morale was already bad enough. Only Mack acknowledged Camilla and Bev's entrance while Pala and Caffrey sat numbly in the rack next to him, allowing him to heal their wounds.

"What took you so long?" Mack asked with a grin, but it didn't quite reach his hollow eyes. "Got lost?"

"Discipling a bunch of toddlers," Camilla answered, then nodded towards Bev. "By the way, this is Bev, Elsie's sister. She's working as a civilian medic, and she's going to stay with us for the night."

"Excellent," Mack said, standing to shake Bev's hand. "The more the merrier," he added, but his smile faltered once he glanced at the empty racks behind him, where they once held the belongings of their colleagues up until a few hours ago.

"Thank you," Bev said, then smartly changed the subject. "I was told there was an urgent request for cookies?"

While she left her squad in Bev's company, Camilla headed off to the comms tent. Most of the stations were in use by the on-duty dispatch team, so Camilla sat down at one furthest from the group so as not to disturb them. She dialed the code for the senior chief, and after verifying her identity, she waited.

"Captain Camilla Wyatt," a voice that was not the senior chief answered. It was probably another messenger.

"This is Camilla Wyatt," Camilla confirmed.

"Captain Wyatt," the messenger said. "You and your squad are to depart Phoenix Base Camp at 0500 tomorrow morning. Meet at the landing zone at 0430 for your transport to Yellowstone Camp, where you will receive further instructions. You must arrive by 0600, and the use of flight assist abilities is authorized. While airborne, comms will be secured, so you will have OPCON. Do you understand?"

"Understand all," Camilla replied, and she waited until she closed the comms line to let out an exhausted sigh.

Just because she understood the orders being given, didn't mean she agreed with them. Her squad was nowhere near ready for another large scale mission, regardless of how successful they seemed to be doing. They were exhausted, more mentally than physically, and there wasn't anything Camilla could do to help them. If Lee was around, Camilla would have asked for her opinion, but Camilla hadn't seen her in weeks.

By the time she got back to the squad's tent, Pala seemed to have eaten at least two cookies, while Caffrey was still nibbling on his first. At least Bev's presence from her seat next to Mack seemed to help a little, and Pala kept up a steady conversation with her while Caffrey silently listened from the sidelines. As an added bonus, none of them noticed when Camilla gestured at Mack for a private discussion outside, and he followed her to the dark area between two rows of tents.

"They're moving us out again," Camilla explained as soon as she verified their privacy.

For a while, Mack could do nothing but stare at her in stunned silence. Then, he let out a long sigh and rubbed a hand over his face.

"Seriously?" Mack said, the exhaustion in his voice overwhelming his frustration.

"I know," Camilla said, because Mack's emotions were resonating so strongly and she knew she felt the same way.

"Those kids need a break," Mack continued.

"So do you," Camilla pointed out. "You're wearing yourself thin by just trying to heal the smallest of things."

Mack gritted his teeth and stared hard at the ground. "I need to do what I can."

As opposed to doing what he can't, like helping those that couldn't be saved anymore, Camilla thought to herself. She sighed as well, making up her mind.

"Take energy from me then," she said firmly, holding up her arm between them. "Use some for yourself, and give the rest to Pala and Caffrey."

Mack balked a little at the suggestion as he raised his hands and took a step backwards, attempting to avoid even getting close to Camilla. "Are you crazy? What about you then?"

"I'll be fine," Camilla assured.

But Mack still shook his head. "You need your strength too, Camilla. You're the captain."

"I said I'll be fine," Camilla insisted.

"Not to mention," Mack continued without even acknowledging her, "there are so many ethics violations that we could be breaking right now without even realizing it."

"I consent to you taking energy from me," Camilla said firmly, and held her arm even closer to Mack. "Now do it, before I have to order you."

"Low blow, pulling rank on me," Mack muttered bitterly, but he placed a hand on Camilla's forearm regardless. "You'll at least tell me when you start getting lightheaded, nauseous, or chills, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Camilla said impatiently.

Mack looked like he didn't believe her, but he turned his focus to her arm anyway. After a few seconds, the darkness around them was illuminated by a soft, golden glow emanating from Mack's hand on Camilla's arm.

At first, Camilla didn't feel any different, and she doubted Mack was even doing anything. But just as she was about to chastise him for pretending, a sudden chill swept through her like a cold wind that threatened to blow her off her feet.

Stubbornly, Camilla held her ground and closed her eyes in concentration. Her instincts yearned to replenish the energy she just lost, but Camilla held back, worried that she would end up stealing energy back from Mack. Except it wasn't long before she felt like she couldn't resist anymore; either she had to tell Mack to stop immediately, or she had to pull energy for herself from another source, and she definitely wasn't about to give up.

In her desperation, she reached out around her for anything that could help. And as her need grew greater, the energy around her grew more defined, until she could feel clear sources of energy glowing throughout the entire base camp, then even from some of the city blocks around them.

At first she thought it was electricity, based on the evenly dispersed and structured layout, but that was impossible; electrons were too small for any guardian to control, even her. But the layout was similar, leaving only one other likely option: she was feeling the heat that the electricity was giving off, primarily from lights.

And so she seized it.

All at once, a wave of warm air suddenly rushed at her from all directions, and she felt a surge of energy flowing through her. The change was so sudden that Camilla swore she could hear it buzzing through her, and the noise muffled the sounds of startled yelps and flapping canvas that soon followed. One voice sounded closer than the others though, and it took her a few seconds to realize it was Mack.

"Camilla!" His voice sounded frantic. "Answer me! Are you okay?"

"Keep going," she ordered through gritted teeth.

For a few more seconds, he complied, before Camilla felt herself getting cold again. Knowing it was unlikely she could do the same thing twice, she yanked her arm away, and Mack let go immediately.

Did you get enough? she wanted to ask, but as soon as she opened her eyes the world around her shifted and she felt her legs give out.

"Crap!" she heard Mack exclaim just before he caught her and gently helped her sit on the ground. "Camilla, can you hear me?"

"Mmm," she grunted, slightly irritated that he even asked. And when she saw him reach for her shoulder, she mustered up all of her energy to weakly bat his hand away. After all that, there was no way she was letting him give anything back to her.

"I was just going to give back a little," Mack insisted.

"No return policy," Camilla managed to retort.

Mack sighed. "If you weren't my captain, I'd kick your butt right now."

Camilla merely grunted before closing her eyes again, feeling for any other sources of energy nearby. Her range wasn't as expansive as before, and most of the air in her immediate vicinity was still cold.

Except there was one source of heat that remained, and it was sitting right against her chest: the key from Elsie and her two guardian identification tags, all of them strung on the chain around her neck. The metal from each must have absorbed some of the heat she had drawn in, then retained it even after she had been drained herself. And while the thin tags were already rapidly cooling, the key remained comfortingly warm, and Camilla almost sighed in relief as she claimed the energy for herself. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her to get slowly back to her feet.

Mack stuck close to her as she regained her footing, but just before he could say anything, they both heard footsteps rushing towards them.

"Captain? Mack?" Pala's voice called into the darkness.

"We're here!" Mack yelled back, then glanced at Camilla to make sure she was fine with the imminent company.

Camilla was annoyed, but not at Pala's approaching presence. "What happened to 'Vice Captain'?" she muttered.

"The kids needed a friend, not a superior," Mack whispered back, just as Pala neared.

"Captain, something strange just happened," Pala said, and Camilla noticed how they were subtly hugging their ribs. "There was this huge gust of wind, and then the temp dropped at least ten degrees."

"Don't worry about it," Camilla assured.

"But what if it's an attack?" Pala asked, genuinely concerned.

"It's not," Camilla said a little too quickly.

When Pala gave her a confused look and Mack cringed at her lack of finesse, Camilla sighed.

"Fine, it was just me," Camilla confessed quietly, then warned, "but I'm not telling you what I was doing, and you can't tell anyone, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Pala agreed, surprisingly enthusiastic.

With Pala's curiosity sated for the time being, the three headed back into their tent to rejoin Caffrey and Bev. Mack immediately got to work with healing up the remainder of Pala and Caffrey's injuries, noticeably spending more time on Pala's ribs. As he did so, Bev hovered over his shoulder, watching intently. Initially, Camilla debated on how exactly she should tell Bev to give them space, but both Pala and Caffrey seemed excited about Bev's admiration, as if the two kids were proud to show off their vice captain's abilities.

Camilla was so entranced by the scene transforming in front of her eyes that it took her a moment to realize she was staring. Then, it took her another moment to notice she had been fiddling with the chain around her neck, and rubbing her thumb along the indentations of Elsie's key.

The metal had grown cold as soon as she absorbed the heat from it, but its weight around her neck warmed her in a different way. And as she watched the shiny silver metal wink at her in the light, Camilla couldn't help but smile, and she tucked it back under her shirt where it could stay close to her heart.

---

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting!