"This is a big deal and we need to figure out what they know." Teresa was saying as the two beaten Completionists were brought back to the army. "They mentioned The Mall being to the north, not many people know that. How do these guys know?"

"There are more nearby, when I first heard them they were going to tell someone else that we're here." Sarah said. "I don't think we have long, if these two don't show up then that would be confirmation something of interest is out here."

"We also have the same problem as last time." Theo said. His party had been the first to arrive, though they had been too late to be directly involved. "What are we going to do with them? It's not like we have a power suppressing jacket with us."

"A what?" Jim asked, the bodybuilder Completionist from Arconette. Several people were gathered around now, looking at the two badly beaten Completionists on the ground. Teresa had healed them only enough to ensure they wouldn't die.

"Put them in a tent, we cleared it out already." Nikolas said as he ran over, pointing to a tent from The Mall that had been set up. "Theo is right, we need to talk about what's going to happen to them."

"You wait until right after I set them down to say that?" Theo asked jokingly, lifting the two up. They moved away from prying eyes, though it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to hear them anyways.

"Isn't that Henry?" A Completionist said, looking at the unconscious warrior. "Hang on, what are you guys doing with Henry and Sindri?"

"We're figuring that out." Nikolas said as he led the way. The Completionist stopped him, blocking his way.

"Then we can figure that out together. What the hell did you do to them?" The Completionist asked.

"They aren't supposed to be here, and they were clearly scouting us out." Teresa said. "A light warrior type with high Agility and a ranger type with high Perception, if we're being scouted by other people we need to know what's going on."

"I don't like that you think you get to ask them questions, they're our people, not yours." The Completionist continued.

"Where's Ezio?" Teresa asked, looking at Nikolas. She didn't want to say the quiet part out loud, but they needed him to get his Completionists in order.

"Still out looking for Yuki's party. We've only got ten Completionists here including you." Nikolas answered. She didn't ask about the Completionist numbers, but he definitely included that on purpose. If she had to guess, he was telling her that if a fight broke out, they would have to be against nine Completionists. The entire force from The Mall could probably take them in Teresa's opinion, but it would come with heavy casualties and the operation would be screwed.

In other words, for the love of everything do not pick a fight.

"Any sign they're heading back? These guys might know a thing or two about Yuki." Teresa said, hoping that would get the angry Completionist to come around.

"No, they would have seen your flare but-" Nikolas was saying, but he got cut off.

"If they know about Yuki then it should be us who questions them." The Completionist said, scowling. He shoved Nikolas out of the way, using his high Strength stat to knock him to the ground. Multiple people from both Nikolas', Theo's, and Teresa's party all reached for their weapons immediately, but thankfully Nikolas raised a hand to stop them.

"This is a pointless argument, we can all get answers to our questions." Nikolas said, but the angry Completionist stepped forward threateningly.

"What makes you think that you can tell us-"

The Completionist was stopped in his tracks as Jim hit him with a hook to the body, hitting him with enough force to wind him and drop the Completionist to his knees.

"You're making us look bad, shut the fuck up and stop comparing sizes." Jim said, wrapping one hand around the back of the man's neck. At this point, several Completionists and combatants from The Mall were eyeing each other, ready for something to go down.

"Sorry about that, they just know each other." A woman said, another one of the Completionists. She was the one who did most of the work on investigating the bombs. "We can discuss this in a civil manner, we are not enemies."

"I can get behind that." Nikolas said, nodding towards the tent. Theo continued forward while Jim and several other Completionists glared at the angry man who had almost started a pointless conflict.

Several people filed into the tent while the two scouts were laid out on the floor. It was a bit cramped, but depending on what happened next it might be best that they don't do this out in the open.

"What's the plan?" The bomb expert asked, looking between Nikolas and the scouts.

"First we need to know exactly how much information they have on The Mall. If they're launching an attack on us right now, then we may need to call this operation off." Nikolas said.

"I think there are higher priorities right now. We need to know who else is nearby and what they are going to do. That is much more immediate." The woman said.

"That is a good line of questioning to follow, what's your name?"

"Nicole."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nikolas."

"You know everyone's name already, and we all know yours. What's the point of this?"

"Just being polite." Nikolas said, looking back at the scouts. "What are we doing with them after?"

"Depends on what they say."

"Fuck…" Henry the warrior scout groaned as he came to. He tried to move, but grunted in pain as his stirring disturbed his barely healed injuries. Teresa had made sure to heal his mouth enough to ensure he could talk, as that might be difficult with an arrow pinning the bottom of his jaw to the roof of his mouth.

"How many more are nearby?" Nikolas asked, not giving the man any time to get his bearings together.

"What?"

"How many of your people are nearby?" Nikolas reiterated.

"Fuck you."

"Answer the question."

"Suck my dick."

"I would like to remind you that we're in the middle of a radioactive wasteland." Sarah interjected, looking at the man with a menacing gaze. "What we do with you depends on how cooperative you are. You're a Completionist, and there aren't many of those to go around you know. That's why it would be such a shame, don't you agree?"

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"The hell do you know?" Henry asked angrily. "You're not even from here. You think you can just get involved with Arconette's business like this? The Contaminated Zone is the best thing for Arconette in the long term. These rat bastards like to keep the level gap high. They harvest most of the Portals around the city, leaving the common folk nothing to improve against. With the Contaminated Zone, at least Completionists can focus their efforts elsewhere and give the working class their breathing room."

"We know your name is Henry Gunnarsson." Teresa said. "You're a Mobile Skirmisher, you use medium range attacks to distract your opponent and blitz in right behind the attack, using a sword and scimitar to kill your opponent up close. Your friend is Sindri Briem, a Gatling Ranger with a focus on firing numerous projectiles. I'll give it to him though, the smoke thing was new, and that move with shooting an arrow straight up to distract us was smart. Doesn't change the fact we won."

"That's fucking ridiculous, they tell you all about our skills and abilities because we're a different political party? They're authoritarian assholes doing everything they can to grab a shred of power. This government only exists because it was forced to by the System, nobody has any faith in it. I've had water bottles on my desk back home longer than our government has been around, you expect hundreds of thousands of people to just fall in line with them? Fuck off, you're all full of shit." Henry ranted. Teresa noticed a few people glance her way at the mention of the Arconette government being authoritarian, as her stance towards absolute power had been made abundantly clear in the past.

"The Contaminated Zone is a threat to everyone, not just in Arconette but potentially around the entire globe. We don't have the means to contain it." Nicole said.

"Your lot was able to contain the Engorged Bull Portal just fine. Built walls around it and everything, but only a select few are allowed in. How long before that's everywhere?"

"The Engorged Bull Portal is Arconette's first and currently only true Portal farm. It's low enough level to not be a threat, and it spawns swarms of large monsters with a high Vitality. We have to feed two hundred thousand people somehow. That's not even in the same category as the entire Contaminated Zone."

"So instead you guys farmed the Contaminated Zone to gain levels while most of the population was too weak to even attempt it. Now that people are starting to get to that level, you want to destroy it before anyone else can get their own share of experience, then you'll all go back to destroying every Portal you can get your greedy hands on. It's all about the level gap!" Henry shot back.

"You realize your own level, don't you?" Nicole asked.

"Just because I benefit from our current society doesn't mean I approve of it."

Teresa and Sarah shared a look, both aware that they had quickly gotten off topic. The political climate of Arconette had the potential to be really interesting, Teresa was admittedly curious about the concept of a level gap in a functioning society, but that wasn't what they were here for.

"Enough. It's clear he doesn't want to answer our actually important questions, so we need to make him talk." Teresa said, interrupting the argument. Several of those from The Mall had a somber look on their face, but the Completionists gave Teresa an angry look.

"What do you mean by that, Teresa?" Nicole asked, her voice low. Even outside of the tent, Teresa heard multiple people stop what they were doing to listen in.

"I mean torture." Teresa said, her heart sinking as she came to terms with what was going on. "I don't want to, I really do not approve of it, but lives are on the line here and I'm more than a little concerned how he got any information on us in the first place. If I hurt him too badly, I'll just heal him back up."

A moment of silence passed as everyone in the tent processed what she just said. Henry glared at her while Sindri, the ranger scout, began to stir.

"Torture doesn't work." Nicole said after a few seconds. "People will lie and make up information just to make the pain stop."

"Do you see another option?" Teresa asked. "For the record, I am really hoping you see another option here. If there's some way to get information from these guys without torture, I am more than happy to go down that route, but we're down several Completionists and an attack might be coming any minute now."

"We can't torture them." Nicole insisted.

"Unless you see another option, we don't have much of a choice." Teresa replied, feeling sick. This was another compromise on her morals, something she wished she didn't have to do, but nearly fifty lives were on the line. More if one included the number of lives that may end if they didn't stop Chernobyl.

"Ezio wouldn't approve of this."

"Nicole, I don't approve of this and I'm the one saying we have to do it. I don't know what Ezio would say, but he hasn't returned yet and we can't be sure he'll be back in time. Everyone's on alert, our own scouts have all drawn back already, but Ezio, his party, along with Yuki's party are all still missing. If we're going into a fight down nine Completionists, we need every piece of information we can get." Teresa said. Henry remained silent on the floor, glaring at Teresa with a mixture of hatred and fear.

"I hate to say it but she's right." Nikolas agreed. "Every second we waste arguing about this is a second we don't get back."

"Let's vote on it." Jake offered. "Real quick, we'll get an even number of people from each side to vote and get it over with."

"Fine, but if it's a draw we don't do it." Nicole demanded.

"We can agree to that." Nikolas said. They opened the tent and looked around at the people who were obviously listening in on the conversation, including all of the remaining Completionists.

Inside the tent, there were six people from The Mall. This included Nikolas, Theo, and the four members of Teresa's party. There were also two Completionists from Arconette, excluding the captured scouts. That consisted of just Nicole and Jim, so they needed four more to make it even.

After some quick scrambling, four Completionists volunteered to vote. Many wanted to stay out of it, but were still watching to see what would happen.

"Those in favor of doing whatever is necessary to learn what we need to know, raise your hands now." Nikolas called out as he raised his own hand. Those who raised their hands included Nikolas, Teresa, Sarah, Preston, Theo, Jim, and two Completionists from the volunteers bringing the total up to eight.

Opposed were Nicole, surprisingly Jake, and the remaining two Completionists. The vote was eight to four, in favor of torturing the scouts. Nobody looked happy about it, not even those who won the vote.

"Sorry, I just, I couldn't bring myself to vote for it, you know?" Jake said as the vote settled down. "I know it's logical, but-"

"You don't have to justify not wanting to torture someone Jake, I get it." Teresa interrupted. "Don't feel bad about it."

Jake nodded back at her, everyone in the camp was tense. Unfortunately, nobody present knew how the inscription to stop sound worked, so whatever happened next would have to be audible. There might not be enough time to bring them to another location.

Teresa took a deep breath to brace herself as she turned to the tent, ready for what she had to do. Before she could enter, a hand stopped her.

"Let me." Sarah said, steadily matching Teresa's gaze.

"No, you don't have to. I was the one who brought it up, I should be-"

"We were both thinking it. Teresa, I'm sorry but you look like shit, when we won the vote you looked like you wished we lost. I don't think you should be the one to do this, you've already got enough going on and this wouldn't help with that." She insisted.

"It doesn't change the fact I was the one who recommended this in the first place."

"Teresa, I recommended torture back when you got jumped by those bandits. I know you remember, because right before you said anything you looked at me, and I knew immediately what you were thinking. If you hadn't brought it up, I would have."

"Are you sure about this?" Teresa asked. Sarah paused, not making eye contact for a moment. After a few seconds, she looked back at Teresa and nodded.

"If I need you to heal them, I'll ask for you." Sarah said. "Otherwise, I don't want anyone to watch me do this. Please. I can handle them, they're both hurt to shit, but I want to be alone in there for the most part."

"I understand." Teresa said. "We'll be here for you if you need us."

"I said I can handle them."

"That's not all I was talking about."

The two looked at each other for a moment longer. Sarah hugged Teresa, and she could tell that Sarah was doing everything she could to keep herself from shaking. Sarah steeled her resolve and let go, turning to face the tent while drawing an arrow from her quiver.

"Names and numbers, now." Sarah demanded as she entered the tent, closing the flap behind her with an arrow in hand.

"You think I'm scared of you? Like I said last time, suck my dick lady." Henry replied from inside

"That can be the first thing to go." Sarah said, which was followed by the sound of flesh being stabbed, and then screams.

One thing was for certain, Sarah was not wasting anyone's time.

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