Aaron exhaled a long breath when the writhing ceased. But his agitation returned to him once Brant entered his field of vision. "No, I'm not ready to talk!" 

Ace moved to unpocket the black device again, but Aaron slapped it from his hand. Shoving both him and Khemera aside, he raced Brant's way once more. 

Aaron's fingers snaked around Brant's throat and tightened their grip. Great pressure built between his two jaws as he clenched his teeth together. 

Brant stared back at Aaron with a wide-eyed expression full of a complete palette of emotions. Fear was to be found there, accompanied by sorrow, regret, and a seemingly contradictory brand of determination. 

Brant tightened his own jaw and grasped Aaron's fingers with his own. One by one, he peeled the digits away, until his chokehold had been completely removed. He ducked when Aaron swung a punch at him, and with a sidestep, he also evaded a kick. 

"Aaron, I'm sorry!" Brant cried as he blocked another attack, "But stop for a moment to listen!" 

"Listen to what?" Aaron hissed, "Some stupid apology about—" 

"No, idiot." Ace said, "Keira's alive!" 

The brawny man's eyebrows abruptly drew together. He spun on his heel and marched over to Ace. He yanked the man off the ground and stared into his eyes. 

"Don't take me for a fool. What do you mean, she's alive?" 

Ace snorted. "It's obvious. I mean what I said." 

"Keira's alive." Brant said, closing the distance between himself and Aaron, "And so's Hannah. We didn't come here to rekindle your flame of hatred. We came because we figured you'd wanna help." 

"Well, that, and we need to use his stuff." Ace muttered, his words directed over Aaron's shoulder and at Brant behind him. 

Aaron glanced between the two with tightened lips. Then his gaze drifted away to Wendy, who had just removed her helmet and revealed her sullen face. Her blonde hair draped over her head and ornamented her features, the strands' tips ending just at her shoulders. 

Wendy finally met Aaron's gaze, and her lips twitched to match his own. She shrugged at him, and then as if fulfilling an unspoken agreement, they broke eye contact. 

Aaron huffed. "Where are they?" he asked, focusing his attention on Baird. 

With a jerk of his head, Baird prompted Brant to answer. 

"In Ferange." Brant said, "Kookaburra's got them in his palace...a refreshed version of the old parliament building." 

"How can I help?" 

Ace nodded at the opening in the cliff face. "Let's go inside. I'll draw a diagram." 

Aaron shrugged and led the way. He grasped Ace's rope and pulled it down, to the black-jacketed man's visible confusion. The brute then slipped a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A segmented ladder slithered down from the opening above and stopped with a crunch in the sand. 

After everybody had ascended the ladder, they found themselves in a dark cavern. The few rays of the sun that dared venture into the rocky chamber revealed its underwhelming size. It was large enough to accommodate a bed, nightstand, and mid-sized desk, perhaps, but little else. 

"I'm confused." Brant said, "You live here?" 

Aaron shot him a stern glance as he clicked the remote again, prompting the ladder to return to its resting place in the ceiling above. "You know I still hate you, right?" 

Brant bravely retained eye contact. "I do." 

As if to break up the palpable tension between the men, Baird smirked. "Yeah, it does seem a bit diminutive at first, but then wait a moment, and everything makes sense." 

Aaron gravely nodded and clicked another button. A door that had previously been enshrouded in darkness flashed a brilliant red light in the chamber, revealing its true emptiness. Then the slab of metal slid down into the floor below, allowing the newcomers to see the well-furnished living quarters beyond, cozy in atmosphere despite its expansive size. 

"You've changed some things since I was last here." Baird remarked as he stepped over the threshold behind Aaron and Wendy. 

"Yeah..." Aaron replied, "It's sorta my nature." 

"He can't leave a bloody good thing be." Wendy added. 

Baird and Khemera shared a chuckle at the blonde's statement. 

"Now that's a truth." Baird agreed. 

A maple coffee table with a swirling grain pattern and glossy, clear finish stood in the center of the room, surrounded by a pair of couches and another pair of armchairs. The furniture, though mismatched, possessed a charm of its own, like the abode of a busy man who had no time to worry about the appearance of his cushions, so long as they afforded him a comfortable resting place. 

"Alright, get me a piece of paper." Ace ordered as he made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs. He placed his dusty boots on the coffee table as he did, which Wendy promptly removed, setting her helmet down in the spot to prevent their return. 

Aaron's heavy footsteps plodded around the corner. A piece of paper rustled in his hand. He gave Wendy a certain look, and with a sigh, she moved the helmet so he could place the sheet there. 

Ace took a pen from Aaron's hand and leaned forward. He immediately set to scribbling a map onto the paper. After the others finished seating themselves, they watched him work, except for Khemera. The old man folded his hands behind his head and rested on the back of his armchair. 

With a nod, Ace clicked the pen closed and held up his drawing. A satisfied smirk rested on his lips. 

"I don't get it." Aaron muttered, squinting at the scribbled lines. 

"Yeah, that looks like a bloody two-year-old trying to draw a dinosaur." Wendy agreed. 

A laugh burst from Baird's upturned lips. "Trying." 

Ace narrowed his eyes. He slid the paper into the middle of the table and jabbed his pen into a scraggly line near the middle. 

"Okay, so this is the main entrance. And there're three others on each side of the building, along with some minor ones here and there. And some on higher stories. But that's our first problem." 

"I'm not following." Aaron said. 

"Each entrance has a three-stage, six digit code, and they're all different. So letting ourselves in? Not an option." 

Brant leaned forward. "Dare I ask exactly how you know this?" 

Ace glanced up sharply. "I scouted it out. Duh." 

"Wait a minute," Aaron said, "I thought you once told me that you could infiltrate any facility, anywhere." 

"That was before I came across this place. If I could've got in right then, I would've." 

Aaron shrugged. "Fair enough. Continue." 

"What I realized is, there's one weakness in their tight security protocol. One EMP blast could take out their entire power grid. And there's no manual way to control the doors." 

"So we could just force them open at that point?" 

Ace nodded. "Exactly. Problem is, we don't have any EMP weapons, but somebody in this room has the smarts to make one." 

Every pair of functioning eyes in the room snapped to Aaron. 

He smirked. "Well, I already did. I haven't been just sitting around doing nothing, after all." 

"Tell me more." Ace said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat. 

"It's a new ship. I call it the Stingray. It's equipped it with some stealth functionality I've been playing around with lately, along with an EMP cannon attached to the shock tower on the back. I guess it also—" 

Wendy held up a hand. "Nobody but me cares about the details, Aaron. And even I only listen begrudgingly half the bloody time." 

Aaron laughed and ran a hand through her blonde locks. "I know." 

Ace's eyes widened. "Well, that sounds perfect! It fits perfectly with my plan." 

"What was your plan, exactly?" Baird asked, "You've been all preamble and no exposition." 

"True. Okay, so first part of my plan starts here." he pointed the pen at another wiggly line near the bottom of the paper. "The Marna River. My idea is that one of us cross the bridge and walk openly to the front entrance." 

Brant frowned. "What purpose could that possibly have? That's just asking to get caught!" 

"Nailed it." Ace said, "With security focused inward, the next part of the plan should go without a hitch. Next step is to swoop in with this Stingray and blow out the generator, right here." He punctuated his statement with a tap on a box that more closely resembled a parallelogram than a square. 

"So we can bust right in." Aaron said. "What next?" 

Ace slid the pen from the generator to a crudely drawn circle. "Not far away, a confinement tower. One here, one there." 

At the end of his statement, he pointed at a circle the same distance from the generator, but in the opposite direction. The circumferences differed greatly. 

"So, why's one tower larger?" Brant asked. 

Ace rolled his eyes. "Never said it was proportional." 

Aaron cleared his throat. "So, Keira and Hannah are in the confinement towers?" 

"I think so. Or else they're in the dungeons deeper down." 

With a grunt, Aaron rose to his feet. "Well, I'm already sold. I guess we can iron out any remaining details on the way. In the meantime, let's head down to the workshop." 

"If it's all the same to you," Khemera began, "I'll stay up here." 

"But I was planning to set out now." Aaron retorted. 

The old man pulled himself to his feet with a sigh. He followed the others through a door and into a hallway. They stopped in the middle of the corridor, and Aaron stooped near a circular hatch in the floor, rendered nearly invisible by the shadows. He placed his palm down on the circle and held for a second. After hearing a metallic click, he rose, and Wendy took his spot. She laid her hand in the same spot, and with a second click, the hatch slid aside, revealing an opening. 

Aaron led the way and descended a ladder, the others not far behind.

******************** 

A/N: Our plans are set and the rage has been quenched, or at least set aside for the moment. Who's excited for what's to come here? 

(And by the way, please don't forget to vote and comment. I always appreciate it.) 

I haven't got a whole lot to say this morning, so I guess it's down to the random question: What's the best Wattpad story you've read recently? 

(I actually just came over here from reading the end of "The Dark Bounty" by user jpjedi, and I can say with confidence it's one of the best books I've read here period, and it's a Star Wars fanfiction, so that makes it almost even more remarkable. 😂  I would definitely recommend it, especially if you're a Boba Fett fan.) 

Well, that'll be it for me today! Have an awesome one, and I hope to see you tomorrow in the next!