Joy held her head in her hands, her helmet was on the ground next to her and she had thick gauze wrapped tightly around her stomach. Her face was drained of all color and she was drenched in sweat.

She kept shaking uncontrollably, but she had no tears left to cry. She had nothing else to lose except her life, but at that point she didn't even see any point to trying to keep that either. She had hit rock bottom. She didn't move at all other than constantly trembling. She didn't know how much time had gone by, nor did she care. She could just sit there alone for hours and be completely fine with that.

The door opened, but Joy still didn't move. Toni walked in and crossed her arms. When Joy didn't say anything, she cleared her throat. When she still didn't get any acknowledgement, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Joy. You need to at least drink something. You need to eat, sleep, exercise. It's been forty-eight hours. You've had forty-eight straight hours to process." She was trying her best to stay calm, but they finally got a member of Operation Rebirth. Somebody on the inside who could really help them turn the tables for the Rebellion. Unfortunately, all she wanted to do was mope around in her room.

Joy shrugged feebly and Toni barely restrained herself from cursing at her. She told herself not to be too insensitive, but Joy wasn't the only one who had been through a lot. The big difference was that Toni had lost a lot of her teammates. Joy's were still alive and in need of saving.

"Joy, come on! Talk to me!" Toni groaned in frustration. Joy shook her head slowly. Toni sighed and walked over to sit down next to her. "Joy. Talk to me." She ordered more firmly.

"... I should've known." Joy whispered. Toni frowned.

"You should've known?" Toni scoffed. "You should've known how things turned out? Are you some kind of fortune teller?"

Hale knocked on the door briefly and stepped in. He saw Joy's state and sighed. She hadn't gotten any better since she ran into Evan. He looked at Toni and gestured to Joy. Toni threw her hands in exasperation, getting up to stand by Hale.

"She hasn't moved, she hasn't slept or eaten, she barely talks! I know she's grieving right now but we need to make a move and soon! How are we going to make any significant progress if we don't even try to get information out of her?" She whispered furiously to him. Hale nodded and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I hear ya..." He murmured, returning his gaze to the petrified girl. He walked over and kneeled down in front of her.

"Joy, I know you're hurting. I know that everything seems to just be coming crashing down all at once... What you're feeling is normal, but this isn't the way to cope with all of this. You're only making your situation worse by not taking care of yourself." Hale told her gently, but with an edge of seriousness to his tone.

Joy looked up at him and shook her head. "I want... to be alone..." She mumbled.

Hale shook his head. "No, you don't have that AI anymore. You have to get that crap out of your head! What he told you was wrong. You don't need to be alone, you need to let us help you."

Joy looked away, her lip trembling. "I feel so pathetic... I'm tired of crying. I'm tired of being heart broken. I'm tired of being like this! I'm just- just so tired!" She muttered, glaring at the wall.

"I know... but we can't make the pain go away, we can only help ease the weight of it all. Unless you'd rather deal with it all by yourself. I mean, that strategy seems to have worked out really well for you anyways." Hale shrugged. He placed his hand on her shoulder. Joy wanted to find comfort in the gesture, but she was too angry. Too confused.

"Joy, let us help you." Hale repeated. Joy looked back at him and gave him a small nod. He smiled a little and patted her shoulder before standing up.

"Then come on, let's get you some food and a shower."

...

Joy stared at the mirror in the bathroom. She felt a little bit better after filling her stomach and washing her body, but it didn't end up being as satisfying as she expected. Because she hadn't eaten in almost three days, she couldn't have just eaten a bunch of food all at once. She had to take in smaller portions bit by bit. The problem was, once she had a little something to eat, her hunger finally overtook her depressed state of not wanting to eat. She just became hangry.

She brushed out her damp hair and realized it had gotten pretty long. She wondered if she should to cut it again. Would it bring back too many painful memories? She remembered Ella's first reaction to her new hairstyle. She shook her head and wrapped more gauze around her stomach. She then grabbed the shirt and pants that Val was letting her borrow and put them on.

As she wandered around the facility, she struggled to remember where Hale said the debriefing room was. It took a few times of getting turned around before she heard Hale, Toni, and Val's voices from inside a room. She walked in and smiled rather shyly to them. She felt bad for being so stubborn.

"You took your time. Come on in." Val jerked her head, beckoning her. Joy nodded and walked towards the table in the middle of the room. It was silent for a second before Toni spoke up.

"So... What's the plan?"

It took a second before Joy realized the question was directed specifically at her. Hale and Val were looking at her too. Joy frowned.

"Excuse me? The plan?"

Val looked taken aback and looked at Hale and Toni, but they gave her the same look.

"The plan to go save Evan and shut down the people he works for... You know, so that they don't get their hands on anymore Rebirth agents?" Val spoke slowly, as if Joy had merely forgotten.

Joy was infuriated. She crossed her arms and scoffed. When nobody said anything, she realized they were serious.

"Really? Why?" She snapped. She thought that the Nobles were going to protect her from Rebirth and whatever that creepy organization was!

The Nobles continued to stare at her in utter shock. They knew she had been hurt, but they didn't realize she wouldn't want to save her own friends. Joy was growing more frustrated the more they stayed silent.

"I already did that! I went to 'rescue Evan'! I told him to his face that I knew he'd never hurt me! That I trusted him!" She raised her voice, all of the anger and confusion that she had been repressing for two days straight was boiling over.

"HE LOOKED ME IN THE EYES, TOLD ME I WAS LOST AND ALONE, AND THEN DROVE A KNIFE INTO MY STOMACH!" Joy shouted. She leaned back in her seat. She kept telling herself that she had no tears left to cry, but she felt them coming again. She drew in a shaky breath and shook her head.

"So... you'll forgive me if I'm not exactly leaping at the chance to see him again." She finished bitterly.

Val furrowed her eyebrows together. "So you don't still care about him? Or any of your friends?"

Joy was surprised by her question and stammered as she tried to answer. "What? No! I- I mean yeah- mayb- I don't know!"

Toni leaned forward. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I- I left them! I escaped Operation Rebirth but instead of going back to help them I ended up staying in the foster system! And you know what? I would've stayed there if that creepy organization hadn't tracked me down!" Joy ran her hands through her hair.

"But you're not," Toni spoke very firmly, telling Joy to look her in the eyes. "You're here in a position to help them. You have the opportunity to save them and what you just wanna sit here and- and wallow in self-pity?!"

Joy opened her mouth, but suddenly her throat went dry and not words came out. Her eyes started burning, but she wiped the tears away before they could fall. Val chimed in.

"Joy, you're safe. We found you and now you're okay, but your friends? They are far from safe. So you can either stay here and let her guilt eat you up inside or you can make it up to them."

The Nobles were silent for a few long seconds while they waited for Joy's decision. She took a deep breath. She would never be able to forgive herself if she never even tried. She at least owed them that. As much as she would have loved nothing more than to say goodbye to her painful life...

"Alright... there's just no time to die... not yet."

...

Three days earlier...

Joy crept past Hale's bedroom. She had gotten very good at being silent and stealthy, but being light and nimble for her age helped immensely, too. She poked her head around the corner and spotted a camera. It was times like these that she wished she had Charlie around. In fact, it would be great if she had all of her friends around...

But for now, she'd just have to settle with getting Evan back.

The other day, they had pulled Zeta and planned to keep him out of reach--especially from Joy. However, it seemed the Nobles had underestimated her. She had put Zeta back in.

"Zeta. Get ready."

I don't like this, Sota. You should be going back to Rebirth, not going after Agent Pennsylvania.

"Just get ready! You're either going to help me, or I'm gonna get caught and stay here forever! Is that what you want?"

Joy was planning to go back to the Nobles after she had rescued Evan anyway, but Zeta didn't need to know that. She needed him to help her. They didn't treat her like a soldier. They didn't leave her alone.

Zeta was silent, but when Joy stepped out from behind the wall, he activated her suit's ability to turn invisible. She snuck her way out of the compound and stayed invisible whenever cameras were present.

Once she was out, she put a pistol in her holster in case things got messy. Then she was off.

She has gotten intel about the location of the organization that had Evan from the Nobles' database. She certainly was not Charlie or Leo when it came to hacking, but she knew enough. She had arrived at their base in the evening. It took her almost all day to get there.

Still, she felt like she hadn't lost any energy at all. She was getting her boyfriend back.

"Zeta, give me a scan of the place."

There is a lot of security.

"A number, please."

Too many. You should abandon this foolish quest of yours.

"Zeta, I swear-"

Go back to Rebirth, Minnesota!

"Well I can't go back if I'm caught by these guys!" She snapped. "I'm going in with or without you, so are you going to help me or not?" Joy was losing her patience with the AI. He had caused her so much trouble, but she was not going to let him interfere with her chance to save Evan. Zeta paused for a few moments before nodding reluctantly.

I'm detecting about four dozen.

"Small compound..."

Well Rebirth has such elite soldiers that it doesn't need as much security. Now that they have one of the best agents from Rebirth, their other soldiers are probably needed somewhere else.

"Somewhere else? Where? Why?"

Why don't you ask them yourself? And while you're at it, go ahead and give up your weapons and tell them all of Rebirth's secrets.

Joy rolled her eyes and crept closer to the base. It didn't matter what the organization was doing. If there were less people there, then it would just be easier for her to get to Evan.

It took a lot longer than she thought to get inside the base, but with her skills and Zeta to help her... also probably some luck, too... she was able to complete her objective. She heard voices down the hallway so she dashed around a corner just in time to avoid being seen by two soldiers and a young man walking by.

"What is it now?"

"Reports have come back saying that we may have found where Agent Minnesota escaped to."

Joy's eyes widened. The rest of their conversation didn't register to her. The young man was Evan, and they might have just found out where the Nobles were... because of her.

Sota, four hostiles behind you!

"Did you hear something?"

"Yeah, there's something over here."

Joy quickly told Zeta to activate her armor and she slipped away, invisible, as the soldiers looked around for the source of the noise.

She headed in the direction where Evan went and eventually found him standing with a bunch of pretty mean looking people. She watched them talk to each other and frantically searched for an idea to save him. However, with all of the soldiers around, it was going to be pretty difficult.

"It is imperative that this mission is a success. The Noble agents have already caused us enough trouble without having a Rebirth agent working with them." A woman said. One of the soldiers standing next to her turned to Evan and scoffed.

"Yeah. Especially Agent Minnesota. Am I right, Pennsylvania?" He sneered. Joy couldn't see Evan's reaction since his back was turned to her, but the soldier was quickly scolded by the woman. He fell silent.

"If you all are quite done, we have a mission to complete. Let's move, people!" She snapped and they went their separate ways. Joy held her breath as Evan turned around and headed in her direction. She was still invisible, so he passed her. She hesitated.

Then, he stopped half way down the hallway. Xi appeared next to him.

I'm telling you, she's here, Penn.

"Knock it off, Xi. I don't need any distractions right now." He told the AI. He started walked away again. Joy didn't have any other option. Xi had already noticed her, anyways.

"Evan!"

He stopped again and turned around, his expression cold.

"You shouldn't have come here, Joy." He told her in angry exasperation. Joy knew that she didn't have much time before the people around would wonder where Evan was. They were about to go on an important mission. She had to be quick.

"I came here because you need me. You need me to tell you that this- this is not you!" She gestured to the place they were in. "I know you are hurt..."

He had nearly been killed by his sister and his best friend. She also hadn't gone back for him right away after she found out he was alive. She'd never be able to forgive herself, but she could still save him.

"But please listen to me!" Joy pleaded. "You are better than this!"

"Is there a problem?" Suddenly, the woman's voice came from behind Joy. She looked from the woman to Evan, realizing that she was trapped.

"Not at all," Evan replied calmly, his gaze flickering back to Joy. "I'll take care of things here quickly. Then we can go after the Nobles."

Joy shook her head. She couldn't lose him! "No. Evan, I know you won't hurt me." She took a few tentative steps toward him. "All you've done, you've done to protect me." Her eyes welled up with tears. She grabbed her pistol and dropped it on the ground, looking back up at him.

"I trust you. You're not alone, Evan."

Evan looked down at the gun and furrowed his eyebrows together. He glanced back up at her. "You really don't get it, do you?" He scoffed. Joy felt fear begin to creep it's way into her expression. He shook his head. "I'm not the one who's lost, Joy. I'm not alone. You are." He suddenly whipped out a knife and stabbed her in the gut.

Joy let out a pained gasp and stumbled backward. Suddenly she was surrounded by soldiers. Her vision blurred as Evan closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and turned away. He snapped something to the soldiers before walking out.

"... can't lose her."

The pain was overwhelming. She was laying in a pool of her own blood, trying not to choke on it. The soldiers grabbed her and pulled her onto some kind of cart. She yelled in agony as she was rushed off. Tears were trickling down her face, and all she could think about as she went unconscious was the words Evan left her with.

She was lost... and alone.

I've told you time and time again, Agent Minnesota.

Zeta sneered.

You are better off alone.

Tears streamed down Joy's face.

"Evan..."