Life's Pursuit {Book 2}

Chapter 17: Something More

"Try as hard as you can to remember what you saw." Rambeau's voice coaxed Ellie on, gentle and pleading.

They had returned to the director's office but it wasn't as it had been before. Rambeau was not sitting behind her desk and all formalities had been dropped. This time, Ellie was slumped in a chair, surrounded by Rambeau and her father, trying to regain her bearings after her encounter with the strange crystal. Her head was in a fog. What she saw fought to slip into the depths of her hazy memories as if it had only been a dream that her mind was eager to forget.

"Please, G'iah," Talos spoke, now having returned to his normal human form. "We need to know what you saw. It's alright."

Ellie didn't doubt the status of her wellbeing, however the kind gestures and worries were heartfelt. She was frustrated at how difficult it was to recall the details she had only just witnessed in her mind's eye.

"I saw..." she began, forcing the images to become clearer before they were gone forever. Her head hurt so much. "I saw the people that were murdered. Their faces weren't clear but I knew what I was seeing. They were dressed similarly to myself... and their uniforms held the S.W.O.R.D. symbol." Her eyes squinted and she worked to recall the rest. "I didn't understand everything else. There were these haunting eyes that peered through the darkness... and I saw children imprisoned."

"Do you know what prompted those images?" Rambeau asked, her voice rising in worry.

"I wanted answers to our mystery. That's what I was asking myself." Ellie sat straighter with renewed energy. Recalling the images lessened the pain in her head. "Whatever that thing was that I touched, it answered the questions in my mind, but I don't understand everything."

Talos touched her shoulder, trying to ease her tension, but she broke away and stood from the chair. Walking a few paces from them, she faced a painting on the wall and sorted through those thoughts, her mind racing faster and faster.

Rambeau stood. Ellie's sudden silence worried her. "Do you think what you saw was even real?"

The question churned Ellie's stomach. She closed her eyes in frustration, now unable to stop playing those images over in her head. "They felt like an answer. One that I need to find the meaning to." She pinched the bridge of her nose before turning to face the others again. Her voice rose. "I want to know why I saw the victims dressed in our uniforms and I want to know why S.W.O.R.D. was involved with the horrors that I saw."

"S.W.O.R.D. is trying to uncover this mystery. Our only involvement is bringing justice to these murders."

Ellie let out an exasperated sigh. "But why would I see our victims portraying themselves as fellow agents? It didn't feel like my imagination, it felt like a sign!"

As her emotions continued to come forth as a result, she didn't notice her unwinding into a manic state until Talos had come to calm her down again. She was wound up; but as her father helped to regain her bearings, she could feel the tension releasing from her body. She came to grips with what was in her mind and her renewed energy from before returned.

Talos found an opportunity to speak up. "I mean, if what she saw has caused this reaction, it must be some sort of clue for us."

Rambeau nodded, the pit in her stomach growing deeper. She too wanted the answers Ellie sought but she was worried about directing her agents into more danger than they bargained for. One wrong direction and more innocent lives could be lost. "Agent Sorensen... does this give you anything to work with?"

Thinking about the vision, Ellie wondered what the images could mean until she recollected the lack of clarity when it came to the faces of the Hopes. She knew it was them in her vision but their faces had been blurred, deformed and incomplete to block out their identities. This stood out to her.