The forest didn't end so much as it thinned.
At first it was subtle, almost unnoticeable, the trees growing farther apart, the undergrowth less dense, the ground more even underfoot. Then, gradually, the natural rhythm of the place began to break apart, replaced by something stiffer, more deliberate, as if the land itself had once been shaped by human hands and never quite recovered.
Ithilien felt it before she saw it.
A shift.
Not in scent this time, but in space.
The kind of wrongness that didn't belong to the wild.
They slowed without needing to be told.
Adrahill stopped first, his body going still in a way that immediately translated through the rest of the pack, the movement dying around him until only the sound of rain remained. Ithilien came to a halt a step behind, her chest rising and falling faster than she liked, her senses stretched thin between urgency and something colder, more cautious.
Then she saw it.
The building stood partially hidden behind a line of thinning trees, its outline blurred by darkness and rain but unmistakable once your eyes adjusted. It wasn't large, not compared to modern structures, but it carried weight in a different way—low, rectangular, built from concrete that had long since lost its original color, stained by time, weather, and something else that clung to its surface like a memory.
It didn't belong there.
Or maybe it did.
Maybe it had always been part of this place, just forgotten.
Ithilien's gaze fixed on it, and something in her stomach tightened.
"That's not abandoned," Levi muttered under his breath, stepping slightly to the side, his posture shifting from observation to readiness.
Kidd didn't respond immediately.
Adrahill moved first, stepping forward just enough to change the angle, his head lifting slightly as he took in the structure, the air, the silence that seemed to settle too neatly around it.
Then he shifted.
The transition back to human form was quick but controlled, his breathing steady as he straightened, rain running down his skin, his focus never leaving the building.
"Stay sharp," he said, his voice low but carrying easily. "We go in together."
No one argued.
They shifted back one by one, the forest briefly filled with the quiet tension of transformation before it stilled again, leaving them human, exposed, but no less dangerous.
Ithilien barely noticed the cold.
Her eyes were still locked on the structure ahead.
Marco had been here.
She could feel it.
Not just the scent.
Something deeper.
A certainty that made her chest tighten.
Kidd glanced at her once, quick but deliberate, as if measuring whether she was still grounded enough to follow.
She didn't look back.
"I'm fine," she said before he could ask.
It wasn't entirely true but it was enough.
He nodded once.
Then moved.
The approach felt longer than it should have.
The ground flattened as they left the cover of the trees, the space opening up just enough to make them feel exposed, the rain hitting harder without branches to break it. The building loomed closer with each step, details sharpening—cracked concrete, rusted metal framing the entrance, a set of heavy doors that had once been reinforced but now stood slightly ajar.
No lights.
No visible movement.
And yet—
it didn't feel empty.
Ithilien slowed as they reached the threshold, her instincts pulling in two directions at once. Every part of her wanted to push forward, to run through the door and find whatever was left of her brother, but something else held her back just enough to make her hesitate.
Kidd noticed.
Of course he did.
He stepped slightly ahead of her, not blocking her, but positioning himself between her and the entrance in a way that didn't need to be explained.
"Wait," he said quietly.
Zane moved to the side, checking the perimeter without being told, while Levi leaned just enough to look past the open door, his expression tightening.
"Smells worse inside," he said.
That wasn't reassuring.
Kidd stepped closer to the entrance, his hand brushing the edge of the metal door before pushing it open just enough to widen the gap.
The sound echoed.
Too loud.
Too hollow.
Ithilien's jaw tightened.
"Let's go," she said.
He didn't argue.
The air inside hit differently.
Not just stale.
Wrong.
It carried layers—old chemicals, metal, something burnt, something rotting, and beneath it all, something faintly familiar that made Ithilien's stomach twist before she could even name it.
They moved in a tight formation, their footsteps quieter now despite the hard floor beneath them. The corridor stretched ahead, narrow and dim, with only the occasional flicker of dying light casting uneven shadows along the walls.
The place had been abandoned.
But not untouched.
Doors lined the hallway on either side, some hanging open, others sealed shut, all marked with faded labels that had long since lost their meaning.
Ithilien's eyes moved quickly, taking in details without fully processing them—scratches along the walls, dark stains that could have been anything, the faint outline of something dragged across the floor.
"This was active," Levi said quietly. "Not that long ago."
Kidd didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
They all felt it.
The deeper they went, the heavier the air became, as if the building itself resisted being explored, holding onto whatever had happened here with a kind of quiet insistence.
Then they reached the first room.
The door stood open.
Inside—
everything changed.
The space was larger than the hallway, wide enough to hold multiple structures within it, and for a moment Ithilien couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Metal frames lined the walls, some bent, some broken, others intact enough to suggest their original purpose.
Cages.
Her breath slowed.
Not from calm.
From something colder.
"Jesus…" Zane muttered under his breath.
The smell was stronger here.
Thicker.
Blood.
Old.
Layered over itself.
And something else.
Something alive.
Ithilien stepped forward before anyone could stop her, her gaze moving from one enclosure to the next, each one telling a slightly different version of the same story. Some were empty, their interiors scratched to hell, metal warped from the inside as if something had tried—and failed—to get out.
Others—
weren't.
Movement.
Small.
Barely noticeable.
She froze.
In the far corner, something shifted.
Not quickly.
Not aggressively.
Just enough to confirm it was there.
Kidd moved immediately, stepping past her without hesitation, his body blocking her line of sight for a fraction of a second before she shifted to the side again, refusing to be pushed back.
The thing inside the cage lifted its head.
For a moment—
it almost looked human.
Then it blinked.
And whatever illusion had been there disappeared completely.
Its eyes were wrong.
Too empty.
Too aware.
It didn't move toward them.
Didn't react like an animal.
It just watched.
Ithilien felt something in her chest tighten painfully.
This wasn't like Mount Hood.
This wasn't chaos.
This was something else.
Something that had been shaped.
Controlled.
"Don't get close," Kidd said quietly, not taking his eyes off it.
She didn't answer.
She couldn't.
Because she was already realizing what this meant.
If they could do this—
If they could create something that stayed alive, that stayed aware—
Then Marco—
Her stomach dropped.
"No…" she whispered under her breath.
The thing in the cage tilted its head slightly, as if reacting to her voice, and for a split second something flickered across its expression that made her take a step back without thinking.
Not aggression.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Or something close enough to it to be worse.
The room felt smaller.
Heavier.
And suddenly, finding Marco didn't feel like the end of anything.
It felt like the beginning of something much worse.