The rest of the short trip was filled with silence as the siblings processed what was to them a bombshell. Zack was trying to remember everything he could about the portal at the research facility. He had seen it every day for years and nearly everything was crystal clear in his mind. The problem was, he had never examined it closely. There had been no reason to.

Zara, on the other hand, had remained with the researchers when he went through. They had only tossed her in with him a small handful of times. She had examined the shining unstable surface of the portal so many times it was ingrained on the back of her eyelids. The thickness and number of bands or lines around the edges were clear in her mind’s eyes.

She was determined to keep that information to herself until after they had seen the school’s portal.

They stopped in front of the partially torn-down bunker that had once hidden the portal. People were walking to and from the surrounding buildings, each busy with their own activities and work. No one paid attention to the two teens and the woman escorting them.

The inside of the bunker had been entirely dismantled and emptied out, leaving only the walls as a reminder of what had once been there. Even the ceiling had been removed. There was a single guard at the entrance to the building, ensuring that they kept track of who went inside the portal. That was it.

The level of caution and awe that had once surrounded the mystical doorways to another place had long since faded with time.

Zack felt his feet stutter and stop as the shining, rippling surface of the portal came into the view. It had a thick syrup-like consistency that grabbed onto anything going through it. Strands of it would remain connected for a second or two after it was gone through. It was a feeling he had become intimately familiar with as a child.

Behind him, Zara was shaking as repressed memories from their time as research subjects came to the fore of her mind.

This was a complication that neither of them had thought they would face. They were scared of the portal, or more accurately, they were scared of the memories it caused to resurface.

Steeling his nerves, Zack took a step forward, followed by another, until he had reached the undulating doorway to another world. The memories inside his mind, of the many times he had been thrown through that same surface, began to retreat. They weren’t forgotten, but a wave of intense anger at the thought that the researchers had any influence over him still began to take its place.

The thought that he might be controlled by anything related to those people was anathema to the core of his person.

Zara squeezed George as tight as she could. Suddenly falling into a crouch, as a similar, if not more pronounced, reaction than Zack had gone through occurred with her. Unlike her brother, who had often been gone through the portal, she remembered everything inside the research facility. The lies they had told her brother about how they wouldn’t experiment on her, and then when they did exactly that. She remembered the feel of the needles and scalpels as they went about their sadistic research.

It had gotten to the point that she relished the times she was allowed to go with him and experience the other side. Something that had happened more and more with time.

Even Zack didn’t know how bad it had truly been for her. She had never let him know. Even then, at her young age, she was concerned about what he would do if he learned the truth. Seeing the portal brought all those memories back to the surface, followed by a pained scream as she collapsed unconscious to the floor.

Zack rushed back to his sister’s side. Back at the entrance, the guard was watching them closely, not understanding what was going on.

The specialist quickly took several pictures of the lines on the edge of the portal and ran back to them.

“I think seeing the portal just caused some bad memories to resurface,” Zack told her softly, while he cradled his younger sister. “It did the same to me, but unlike her, I wasn’t stuck with the researchers all the time.”

He had seen the scars that covered Zara’s body when they were first rescued. It was too late for him to do anything by that point. Despite what she believed, he knew they had been experimenting on her far more than they said they would. Thankfully, most of the skin-deep scars had faded over the last couple of years. The mental and emotional trauma was something they were both working on still.

McCleary sucked in a breath, “I’m sorry I didn’t even think of how seeing one again would affect the two of you.”

He waved away her apology and stood with Zara’s light body in his arms. “It’s alright, I don’t think either of us thought of how we would react to seeing it either. Besides, it is better for me to get it done now than with my classmates.”

“I… suppose that is true,” She replied awkwardly. “Well, I have what I need. We should leave before anyone starts asking questions about what just happened.”

He nodded and walked after her. His arms were trembling by the time they reached her Alberitas carriage. Years of malnutrition had long since taken their toll on his muscles and stamina. The last week of good food and exercise had begun to fix the damage and enhance what he lacked. It would take several weeks or even months before it was fully fixed.

Going through the portal, for him at least, would likely shorten that time period. It would really depend on if everything remained the same with his abilities as the first time or did awakening a second time change them.

It was a question he wouldn’t know the answer to until they crossed over for one of the classes.

Carefully, he shifted his sister from his arms to the back seat. He was tempted to sigh when he saw the condition of George’s seams, but held back since he had been expecting it. The old bear had been fixed before, not as many times as Zelda, but the number wasn’t too far off either. It was a good thing they still had some thread from the last time he had needed to sew it together.

“You know, the higher-ups never told the squad what the facilities scientists were doing to you two. Once we were there and found the undocumented portal, everything got swept under the rug. I’m guessing that is at least partly to blame for you being lost in the system and forced out on your own.” McCleary was talking as she drove them back to the dorm. “At your age, you should have gone back to an orphanage, or a special facility equipped to help you both heal. Instead, you were cast aside and forced to almost scavenge to keep yourselves fed. Sorry.”

Zack looked out the window as they paused at the academy gates. “I always wondered what had happened. The commander from back then, I’m guessing, your Major. He promised to keep in touch, that the squad would be there if we ever needed the help.” His teeth ground together as he forced the words out through a haze of growing anger. “He lied. None of you were there when we needed you. I’m grateful that he managed to get us into the academy and away from the gangs before anything else happened. But don’t think for an instant that I trust any of you! The entire situation reeks of politics and back-room-dealings. Who has ever heard of two kids who just rescued getting lost in the system, but still having their housing covered? None of it makes sense.”

The leather wrapping on the steering wheel groaned and flexed under the specialist’s grip. Her knuckles turned white from the pressure, and the veins in the back of her hands bulged out.

“You’re doing it again!” Zara snapped, her hand whacking the back of his head weakly. She had woken up a few minutes earlier.

“I admit mistakes were made,” McCleary said in a strangled voice. “But that does not mean the Major lied! You have no idea what both he and Sergeant Grieves have gone through to find you! The number of favors they were forced to call in, and all of it was for NOTHING!” She yelled, barely stopping herself from hitting the steering wheel. “There was nothing on where you had gone after the rescue. There was a single record of you being admitted at the facility right afterward and then nothing.”

“Why did they try so hard to find us? Anyone else would have simply pretended we didn’t exist and moved on.” Zack asked in a quiet voice, his anger having left as abruptly as it appeared.

“I don’t know, maybe the major felt bad for you, or maybe he thought the research facility had done more to you both than you said. Something different, and possibly game-changing, was going on there. That was plain for all of us to see.” She slowed the carriage to a stop in front of the dorm. “He had his reasons, though, for wanting to find and help you. Never call him a liar again. Especially not in front of a squad member, you’ll be lucky to come out alive if that ever happens.”

It was a promise of the untold brutality that would rain down on him if he wasn’t careful.

“I understand, and sorry. I seem to have developed a bad habit recently of not watching my words as closely as I should.” Zack opened his door while speaking and then turned to bow to her.

She smiled and nodded. “I understand. I was that age once as well.” Her eyes flicked to the back where Zara was climbing out as well. “I’ll see you tomorrow in class. Zara, make sure to keep your brother in line.”