The rebels panicked. They had arrived too late, and now the key to winning their home back, arguably the most valuable person in the ghost zone, the future leader of the infinite realms was in the hands of the most dangerous group of humans they know.

"Skulker. We need to get him out. Now." Sam growled to the mechanical ghost. Said ghost looked from the locator he was studying to glare at the girl.

"And we will. In fact, we have his location right now. We just need to prepare. We will get the whelp by the end of the day." Sam nodded, still tense, but accepting the explanation nonetheless.

"When will we be prepared?" Tucker asked, apparently not okay with waiting any longer.

"Within the hour. Now, go talk to Technus so you know what to do when we bring him back. Understood?" The two kids nodded at the ghost before turning and running off to find Technus.

And as Skulker had promised, approximately forty-five minutes later, over a dozen ghosts with different skill sets were moving through the portal the Wulf had ripped open. It led right outside the GIW facility into the outskirts of the woods.

Some of the ghosts that were going were Ember, Skulker, Wulf, Amorpho, Lunch Lady, Walker, a few other volunteers, and a bunch of Walker's guards. Technus, Sam, Tucker, and the rest of the Alliance watched them off, unable to go for various reasons. As soon as the portal closed behind them, the rest of the ghosts and the two humans scurried off to get ready for the Halfa's arrival.

Skulker and Walker took the point, leading the small rescue squad through the trees to a good lookout point.

After a few minutes, Walker gave the signal and all the ghosts took off to their positions. Checking to make sure no alarms were set off, he slowly made his way to the trees closest to the side entrance.

With a nod to Skulker who was a few yards to his left, the rescue had begun.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Danny sat in the exact position he was in the last time he had been found.

In the corner of the room, he sat as small as possible. He hugged his knees as close to him as he could without aggravating his almost-completely healed ribs. His eyes were clasped tightly closed and he was moving slightly back and forth, trying to distract himself from his fear.

It's not an actual fear of the experiments. Sadly, the young boy was far too used to the inhumane treatment to be honest-to-God afraid, no it was the waiting, the anticipation. He's still a child, one that never was able to mature and grow emotionally, he may have hardened from seven years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours of torture, but he's still a kid.

Then, something amazingly familiar happened. The alarms went off.

He would celebrate, but his senses are going haywire and all he could do was curl up tighter against the wall-his ribs be damned-and try his hardest to block out all the loud noises and flashing lights. Danny let out a whine as he realized his feeble attempt of a barrier doesn't help his senses.

He lost track of time and didn't pay attention to his surroundings until he felt two large hands grab him from under his arms and pick him up. Danny caught a glance at the big white figure and immediately started fighting. The arms held him practically immobile, one arm over his chest and one over his abdomen, pinning both his arms to his sides. As he struggled he didn't notice another figure unlocking the collar from around his neck. As soon as the metal fell to the floor, Danny stopped struggling, instead he let his eyes flicker from one thing to another, not registering anything.

"Calm down! Calm down!" The one holding him whisper yelled. Danny flinched at the sudden voice, but he forced himself to slow his breathing nonetheless and focused on the odd figure in front of him.

The child looked at Skulker with wide glowing green eyes. He let out a nearly inaudible whimper and his lower lip started to tremble. Skulker shot a slightly panicked look up to Walker. The warden just shrugged and motioned with his chin to hurry up.

"Uh, Hey...child....calm down. You're going to be fine....probably." Skulker hesitantly said, looking uncomfortable.Walker glared at him before rolling his eyes. Carefully, the white ghost pressed the sides of his neck until the boy fell limp. Walker gently slid his hand under the boy's knees, the other across his shoulders. He looked back at the mechanical ghost.

"We need to move. We've wasted enough time," he paused, "and next time we're dealing with a scared child, I'm bringing Lunch Lady." He finished, walking away.

<><><><><><><><><><>

They were able to make it in and out of the facility without any problems. They did end up setting the alarms off but managed to evade all the unprepared agents.

When they entered the base, they were immediately bombarded with questions from those who didn't go on the mission. Walker pushed past everyone, not answering any of the questions thrown at him. He went directly to the guarded room they had set up for Danny and carefully placed the young Halfa down on the small cot. He glanced at the child before leaving, nodding at the three guards as he passed. He headed to the makeshift conference room to debrief the rest of the rebels about how to proceed.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Miles away, a large, intimidating figure sat up straight in his throne. A large, dark smile formed under the armor he was wearing.

"He's here."