Episode 1.8 "Needs"

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In the dream, Paul opened the door to see Caroline, wearing a black dress and blood red lipstick. "You." was all he said.

"I only have a few minutes." she said hurriedly, rushing into the apartment and closing the door. "They can't know this body left an engagement."

She dashed into the living room, Paul right behind her. "Are we not fighting this time?" he asked.

"I have a message for you from inside the Dollhouse."

"What? Sit back and wait some more while they dismantle my life?" he grabbed her by the wrists forcefully."I could handcuff you right now and bring the Dollhouse to my door. So you tell me: who sent you?"

"You have something we need." Caroline said urgently. "I have something you need."

"And what is that?"

She cupped his jaw and kissed him. Paul reciprocated for a moment before pulling away. "I'm not a client." he said gruffly. "I don't need that."

"You know you do." she panted and kissed him again. He didn't return it at all this time.

"Caroline?"

She looked at him with big, sad eyes. "Save me, Paul."

Next thing Paul knew, they were kissing passionately on the couch. For how long he didn't know. He was eventually interrupted by the sound of his name. He looked up to see--

"Mellie..."

"I guess I took too long getting back." she said, tears in her eyes. "You're already with..." she caught Caroline's face. "Her?"

"I know this is confusing," Paul said. "For all of us..."

"Don't stop, Paul." Caroline moaned. "I need you."

He kissed her again. "Paul!" Mellie exclaimed. She was crying freely now.

"I'm sorry." he said. "I have something she needs."

"She's not even real!" Mellie protested.

"You feel me." Caroline said seductively, ignoring Mellie. She only had eyes for Paul. "Trust that. I need you to finish what you started."

"Caroline doesn't need anything anymore, Paul." Mellie cried. "She's dead!"

Paul stopped kissing Caroline. She looked down to see her corpse, a powdered blue, unmoving.

"No... Caroline?" He patted her face lightly. "Come back! I won't let anything happen to you. Not again!"

"You let them hurt ME, didn't you?" Mellie said. Paul looked at her. Blood trickled from her forehead.

"No! I tried to stop it!"

"How did they know?" she said, blood gushing.

"I'm trying to stop everything!"

"How did they know what we shared?!"

Paul woke up sweating as Mellie's body hit the floor of his slowly-fading dream.

*

Adelle looked at the cramped employees of the Dollhouse gathered in her office. "We're all aware we've been having recent problems." she began. "Ours is a complicated world. But the world of our Actives must be one of constant certainty--"

"Whoa!" Topher exclaimed, wandering in. "Did you guys start early? I was backing up my primary drives to protect them from... that!"

Topher pointed upwards as the light of Adelle's office flickered. She resisted the urge to strangle him. "As Topher points out, we are currently upgrading our electrical and security systems. We will be instituting other changes as well. We have had an Active go off mission. Another has developed urges, others are still showing signs of cognizance and recognition. Nearly all the Actives exposed to the N-7316 drug experienced a glitch, a random memory thread. This House is out of balance. For the Handlers, the main concern will be identifying behavioural problems that cannot be quelled and reporting them."

"It's easy to become attached to your assigned Active." Laurence Dominic said. "In fact, it's necessary. But don't think of them as children. Think of them as pets."

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Doctor Claire Saunders asked, piping up from her spot in the corner.

"If your child starts talking for the first time, you feel proud." Dominic explained. "If your dog does, you freak the hell out. Any developmental progress an Active makes is dangerous to the House and a possible first step towards another Alpha."

"What about the Alpha that's already an Alpha?" Boyd asked from the couch.

"Whereabouts unknown." Dominic said as the lights flickered again.

"Let's stay on topic." Adelle said. "Topher?"

"I've scrubbed them as much as I safely can." Topher announced. "If we pursued the short-range calcium modulin K2 amplifier, I could advance the protein's corrosion of long-term potentiation."

Adelle nodded. "Done. Whatever that means. Anything else?"

"The sleep cycle." Topher continued, clearing his throat. "The sedative and anti-psychotics we pump into the pods with the O2, the subliminal tone patterns: I THINK I could play with that cocktail a bit."

"Sleeping is there most vulnerable time." Claire protested quietly.

"We could test it out on one chamber if you're stressed about it." Topher offered.

"If you start playing with their meds, it could backfire or damage them--"

"Or solve the problem? I know what I'm doing, Doc."

"So do I." Saunders retorted. "But I also care what you're doing ...to our PETS." she finished, glancing at Dominic.

"I will take it into consideration." Adelle concluded. "I need reports at the end of every shift, detailing your interactions with the Actives. Feelings they express, questions they ask, instincts you observe: everything."

"We can't jump at shadows." Boyd pointed out. "I don't want to report that my Active asked for toast and have her sent to the Attic. We were hired to protect them."

Adelle sat at her desk. "In the field, yes, Mr. Langton." she agreed. "In here, we protect the House. A tide is rising. Until we learn how to turn it back, we pile up the sandbags together. Unless anyone here thinks they have a better idea."

*

That night, Echo went to bed in seconds. She wasn't sure why, and she didn't think about it in her dreams. But soon after, she grew restless, her dreams darker. The voice called to her, tried to stir her. Echo saw her face in a mirror, wearing leather with a bloody lip, collapsed on a pier in a suit with glasses, the voice growing louder, filling her eardrums.

'Caroline. Caroline, wake up..."

Echo went away.

*

She woke up in a tiny bed with blue glass above her. She panicked immediately, not knowing why. She beat against the glass, yelling for help. She ran out of breath and tried to pull the glass down from the top, but yelped as the glass slit her palm open. There was something under her: a pillow. She grabbed it and used it to push the glass down. It slid, allowing her to scramble out. She looked around. A high ceiling, wood-panelled walls, and four identical holes in the floor furnished into beds, just like the one she had emerged from. She heard a panicked voice beneath her. A man's voice, from the hole next to her. She reached for the glass, but it slid down and the man scrambled out. He pounced at her, grabbing her shoulder. "Who the hell are you?!" he demanded.

She slapped his hand away. "Hey, I woke up in a five-stat floor coffin just like you, pal!" He was handsome, burly, with black hair and a square jaw.

"Help! Help me, let me out, let me out!"

They looked around. A woman's voice screamed from another of the coffin beds. The man rushed over, shushing her. "Hey, noise, not helping!" The voice was silenced.

"It doesn't matter."

Echo jumped. Someone had arisen from the fourth pod behind her. He was tall with blond hair: cute in a "dumb jock" way. "They're listening..."

"Anyone hear me over here? Help!"

She rushed to the final pod. "You okay?" she asked, pulling at the glass.

"Who's listening?" the black-haired man asked the blond man. Next to him was the woman he had freed: a bronze-skinned, beautiful woman with dirty blonde hair.

"Aliens." Dumb Jock said numbly, looking around.

She looked up at the roof as the final woman emerged: cute, round-faced, wearing a purple nightdress. "Pervs behind glass, getting off watching us." she decided.

"Yeah, we're in outer space, right?" Handsome said suspiciously. "We're in the nuthoise, more like..."

"What humans do you know build circular pod rooms with stone cavities and peeping windows?" Jock asked Handsome.

"Definitely feeling kinda lab-ratty here." she said, massaging her wounded palm.

"I'm leaving before the electric shock." the blond woman said in an Australian accent.

The final girl, the round-faced one, backed up into the centre of the room, seriously hyperventilating. "Sorry." she gasped. "It's a defence mechanism. I'm just really terrified..."

"Anybody else got anything better than aliens?" Handsome said.

"I'm serious about lab eats--"

"Maybe we're supposed to be here?" the purple nightdress suggested.

"What for?" Aussie asked. "I didn't do anything!"

"Do you know that?" the nightdress asked.

"I don't remember anything." the girl realised, abandoning her attempt to quell her bleeding. "I mean, I know the days of the week, the capital of Nebraska but nothing... about me..."

The girl looked around. She didn't know these people. She didn't know herself, her own name.

"My guess?" Handsome said. "We're prisoners of some sort. We need to assess the situation, formulate a strategy."

"Run!" Aussie exclaimed. Then, at Handsome's look., "Strategically."

"Yeah, and when they come in with guns, what do we fight with?" the girl pointed out.

Jock ran to the lights on the wall. "We take the glass shade off the light fixtures, splinter them. Use them as shivs."

"Deranged millionaire serial killer." Aussie said, looking at a window above. "That's what I think..."

"That's not stupider than aliens?" Jock spat.

"Hey, watch your mouth." Handsome said venomously, giving Jock a slight push. Jock looked pissed, but the girl held him at bay. "Hey, can we all act like humans, not monkeys?

Handsome looked across the room to Aussie. "I know you, don't I?"

Aussie raised an eyebrow. "How?" Handsome looked like he wanted to answer, but didn't know himself.

"I think I have to get to the mountains." the girl said. "Everything's ok there..."

"I lost something." the nightdress said. "Maybe it's here somewhere...?"

"They probably want to study our reproductive systems." Jock observed.

Nightdress recoiled. "Sex with aliens?"

Handsome threw up his hands. "Come on: who doesn't wanna put alien guy back in the box?"

The girl shushed him. There was a noise, quiet but there. Part of the wall behind the Jock was made up of glass and through it, she saw several people, them too dressed in pyjamas. "Whats behind me?" Jock asked nervously: everyone was staring.

"It's ok." the girl reassured him "Just walk towards me."

He did. "Someone's out there..." Aussie breathed.

Handsome nodded. "Lotta someones."

The lights flickered for a moment, the filled the room with light. As darkness left, the door to the corridor with the other people slid open.

"It's been very nice nearly knowing you guys." Aussie said. "Good luck."

She went for the door. Handsome rushed to her. "Hey, hold up. You need backup."

They stepped out. Jock followed them. "I wanna know what they look like..."

"I'm not sure I do..." Nightdress said, backing away.

The girl looked at her: everyone was leaving.

"Hey we gotta get moving." the girl said. "I won't leave you behind. Please."

She took her by the arm and lead her towards the others. They emerged in a corridor bustling with the pyjama people.

"They're people." Jock said. "Like us."

"But so calm." Aussie pointed out.

"Maybe they know why we're here." the girl suggested.

"See?" Nightdress said. "I think they like it..."

"So do we." Handsome said flatly. "Like it, like them. Got it? What you don't want is to get noticed, so until we know what's going on..."

They nodded and began walking. A woman in a white shirt passed them and smiled. "Good morning Victor, Sierra, Mike. Hi November, your clothes are in the changing room. How are you Echo?"

The girl nodded. "Fine, thank you." The woman passed. The girl looked at her group: according to the woman, the handsome man was Victor, the Aussie woman Sierra, the Jock was Mike, the green nightdress was November, and she, the girl, was Echo.

"That's not my name." she told Victor as they walked.

"Not names, codes." he said. "Military."

Echo was perplexed. "Who uses those besides... Are we government prisoners?"

No one answered. They just kept walking.

The corridor led them to a huge open space. It looked like a spa, with the pond and the sliding doors and the general atmosphere. The people roamed freely. A huge office overlooked the entire area.

"Whoa..." Mike breathed.

"Everyone does look peaceful." Echo said.

"Maybe something bad happened to us." November offered. "And they're helping us heal."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Well that makes sense..."

"Good morning." a passing employee greeted them. "We're having banana pancakes for breakfast today."

A blonde woman walked by, smiling happily. "I like pancakes." she informed them.

Victor stared at her, face full of worry. "...we're all gonna die."

*

Paul spent all day looking for the bug. A camera, microphone, anything the Dollhouse might've planted. There was nothing under the table, in the lamp shade, he even tore open his cell phone: nothing. He scanned the room with his eyes, looking for any possible hiding place--

There was an air vent in the top corner. Long shot, but he had tried everything else. Paul grabbed a screwdriver and opened the vent in the space of a minute. Inside was a metal box, no bigger or heavier than a bar of soap. He cracked it open: at least a dozen wires and a big shiny camera lens.

Paul dumped it in the trash before checking the next room.

*

"I like bananas." Tango observed. "They're naturally sweet."

"They're high in potassium." Mike said awkwardly. "So's the earths core."

Tango looked confused. "That's not food."

"No it isn't, Mike." Echo said through gritted teeth. The group had agreed to separate for breakfast to avoid suspicion: Echo had wrapped her hand in one of the dining area napkins. "A food that's naturally sweet?"

"Uhhh... Apples? Cantaloupe, kiwis, mango, mayonnaise--"

"Echo?"

Echo jumped. An employee was standing behind her. "Is there something wrong with your hand?" he asked.

"Um, no, it's fine..."

He smiled. "I don't think so. May I see it?"

Echo gave Mike a worried look before offering her hand. He unwrapped the napkin, revealing the dried blood, covering the jagged cut.

"I'm going to need to take you to see Doctor Saunders now." the man said sympathetically. Echo tried to think of something, but she couldn't object without giving the game away. She stood, feeling Mike's eyes on her. Tango went back to her pancakes.

The man led Echo to a sliding door before leaving. She entered to find a dark office, filled with bookshelves and files but lacking in people. "Hello?" she said, voice filled with uncertainty.

"Echo, what's wrong?"

Echo looked to the corner. A woman in a lab coat was standing beside a bookshelf, disguised by the shadows.

"T-They made me come see you? About my hand?"

"Oh no, what happened?"

The woman emerged from the shadows and rushed towards her. She was pretty, with short, wavy brown hair and--

"Oh my God!" Echo recoiled at the sight of three scars slashed across the woman's face. "Did they do that to you here?!"

The woman looked more afraid of Echo than she did of her. "Echo, please, sit--"

"No, I wanna know. What the hell happened?"

"Don't." she whispered, softly but urgently. "They're watching."

Echo glanced at the ceiling. A single camera rotated above the office.

"You work for them?" Echo whispered, sitting on the exam table. "Who are they? Where are we?"

The woman sighed and looked at the floor.

"Please..." Echo begged.

"I'm not your friend in here Echo." she breathed. "I'm sorry. I can't help you."

Echo sat silently as her bandage was replaced. Then the doctor led her out back into the big spa, where they instantly heard screams of protest.

"I'm happy. I'm happy! Guys, I'm relaxed and I'm happy!"

Echo watched as Mike was dragged across the floor, to the stairs that led to the huge office. "I like banana pancakes!" he yelled. "I want to climb the rock wall now! Isn't that what you want?! Tell me and I'll do it!"

Echo tried to go for him as they dragged him up the stairs, but the scarred doctor held her at bay. "Let me help."

The doctor rushed up the stairs as Mike was brought to the upper level. "Help! Somebody help me! Nooooo!"

Echo felt Sierra, Victor and November join her as Mike was dragged into a room adjacent to the big office with the big window. From down below, Echo got a glimpse of black brick walls before the door shut, and Mike was gone.

*

"Mike screwed up." Victor said flatly. "Got noticed. Nothing we could do."

"He might be okay." Echo said, tugging at her robe collar. "The doctor said she'd help."

"She did?" November said hopefully.

Victor stopped in his tracks. "You told her? She knows we're not like the others?"

Echo shook her head. "She warned me. About the cameras." she cocked her head to indicated one above. "Keep walking."

They did. The attendees led them to a room with a dozen nozzle heads in the centre of the ceiling, kept in by a circular shower curtain. Naked people came and went, some in towels or a robe.

"Co-ed showers?" Sierra said, disgusted. "I don't believe it."

"But we have to do it." Echo said sadly.

"So?" November said, surprisingly perky. "No big deal." she peeled off her robe and handed it to the attendee before walking right into the shower.

Victor looked at the ceiling as he approached, peeled off his robe and entered, distracting himself. "Ok, New York starting lineup, 1986, first base, Keith Hernandez, second base, Wally Backman, shortstop Rafeal Santana..."

"Keep your eyes right where they are." Sierra warned through gritted teeth. Victor gave a small nod.

"Mookie Wilson, left field... Hey! It's Mike!"

They all looked. Just outside the shower, Mike was entering an adjacent sauna. They each hastily grabbed a towel and rushed after him. They found him in the small, heated room, smiling.

"Hey pal," Victor said. "You alright?"

"Yes." Mike said uncertainly. "I'm fine."

"Thank god." November said. "What happened to you?

"I had a treatment."

"What?" Sierra asked as Victor closed the sauna doors. "Just a spa thing, nothing bad?"

"Did you see the doctor?" Echo pushed.

"Doctor Saunders?" Mike said. "She's so nice."

Echo was relieved. "I was trying to tell these guys, I think she's a prisoner like us."

"No cameras here." Victor said, scanning the ceiling. "No one's watching."

Mike looked monumentally confused.

"Mike?" Echo said, leaning forward. "Do you remember me? Lab rat?"

Mile nodded. "Yes. You're Echo."

Echo exchanged a worried glance with the other three. "We woke up together, trapped. We were scared."

"...I like sleeping in the pods." Mike said. He stood.

"Wait, where are you going?" November asked.

"I'm going to swim in the pool." Mike said, as if it was common knowledge. He pulled open the doors and stepped out.

"No, Mike, we're all going to leave." Echo said desperately. "Come with us."

"I do thirty laps every day. It helps me be my best."

Mike left. Echo looked at the others. It was clear Mike was one of the blank people now.

"We lost Mike." November said what they were all thinking.

"We save ourselves," Sierra said resolutely. "And we do it now."

"I'm with her." Victor agreed.

Echo looked at the only people she had left in the world and nodded. "Ok."

*

When Dominic entered Adelle's office, she was beside her desk, looking at the view. "Yes, Mr. Dominic?" she asked, not turning around.

Dominic answered instantly. "I was just informed we have four Actives preparing to escape."

Adelle smiled. "Right on schedule."

"Will you at least allow me to brief the in-house security team?" Dominic requested. "The entire staff thinks they're preparing for an exercise two months down the road. They're not ready."

"Every person in this house should always be ready." Adelle said, leaning at her desk. "For anything. Echo, Sierra, Victor and November need real adversaries, real obstacles. Freedom is to be earned."

"We don't even have the power to end this." Dominic protested, voice rising only slightly. "There's no kill switch, we can't shut it down. What if they make it out into the world and decide to shoot up a liquor store or jump off a roof?"

"Don't be melodramatic--"

"We could lose them all. And there's a limit to what I'll be able to clean up after the fact."

Adelle sat in her chair. "I've made my decision." She turned into her desk and signalled for him to leave. The door closed softly a moment later.

*

"I forgot where the sauna is." Victor told the Handler.

"You told me." the Handler said gruffly, leading him to the back of the shower room.

"I like the sauna."

The Handler opened the sauna doors. "Big surprise there..."

Victor grabbed his towel, wrapped it underneath the man's neck and pulled tightly. The man beat and squirmed, trying to prise the towel away for air, but Victor held on. A few moments later, the man lay still. Victor lay him on the bench and dug around in his suit hurriedly before coming across a key card. He grabbed it and gave the pocket a pat before turning to see two females in towels, staring at him.

"...He's very tired."

The girls smiled in realisation. Victor rushed from the room.

He met Sierra outside the room where they had awakened and walked the hall to a locked door. They waited until a stray prisoner left before sliding the key card over the scanner. It glowed green and the door clicked open. He slipped it into the ficus pot next to the door and they both slipped into a corridor, far different from the spa-like surroundings they had awoken to. It was grey, bland and, most crucially, they were alone.

"So," Sierra said. "The light at the end of the tunnel was..."

"Another tunnel." Victor finished. "Come on..."

*

"No need to be aware of anything but your breath moving through your body..."

Echo listened to the soothing words and watched her child-like counterparts do yoga as she waited for November to appear. Their daring escape was due any minute. Across the pond, the blonde girl from breakfast, Tango, was reading a book as a man in a suit approached her.

"Tango," Echo heard him say. "Would you like your treatment now?"

Tango nodded. "Thank you."

Echo watched as Tango was led up the stairs to the big office and it's side room. That's where Mike got emptied. Now what were they doing to Tango? She was already empty.

Unless that's where they got filled as well.

"It's time," November said, appearing over Echo's shoulder.

Echo looked away. She couldn't get distracted. She had escaping to do.


*

"Come on. In here."

Sierra and Victor crouched down outside a door far down the corridor. "Did something happen to them?" Sierra asked. "What's taking them so long?"

"They're just being careful as all." Victor replied calmly. "We'll give them a little bit more time."

For a moment, there was silence. They each looked everywhere except at each other.

"Why don't you tell me something about yourself?" Victor suggested. Sierra gave a tiny smile. Victor chuckled. "I'm just making small talk."

"We don't remember anything, remember?"

Victor shrugged. "Sometimes I feel like we do."

"The Yankees?"

Victor nodded. "The Mets, but whatever. And you."

Sierra raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Can you tell me anything about me?"

Victor shook his head. "I just got this feeling in my gut that... something bad happened to you."

Sierra shrugged it off. "Probably the same 'something bad' that happened to all of us."

"I don't feel that way about anything else. Just you. Is there any part of you that finds me familiar?"

Sierra smiled and opened her mouth, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

"It's them!" Victor said.

"Thank god..." They scrambled to their feet as Echo and November turned the corner.

"Nobody saw us," Echo said, skidding to a halt. "But who knows what the cameras got..."

"Or who's watching them." November added. Echo passed Victor the key card. In a few moments, they slipped through the door down another corridor. There were voices in a nearby room.

"Sophie. You're off too?"

"After a few hours of paperwork to wrap up the client's file..."

Echo, Sierra, Victor and November put their backs to the wall and approached the door. Echo peeked through the glass to see a gruff, burly man talking to a short woman in a suit. The woman was fiddling with the lock of a metal gate on the wall. Echo noted how the gate covered a shelf full of weapons.

"What kind of engagement were you on?" the burly man asked the woman - Sophie.

"'I can't believe you're cheating on me with that perfect woman you just met. Now I get everything in the divorce.' Easy stuff." Sophie said. "Seems tame next to the crap you've been dealing with."

"Echo's alright." the man said. "They're just giving her a few days downtime. I can use the vacation."

Echo's eyes widened. This man looked after her...?

"If you ask me, she's not gonna last." Sophie admitted.

The man shrugged. "I haven't given up on her yet."

"Look, Boyd," Sophie continued. "You're a classy guy, but you really shouldn't get too attached. It's like Mr. Dominic said: they're pets. Even a good dog needs to be put down sometimes."

Echo felt one of her fellow escapees nudge her. Reluctantly, she ran on.

*

"Stairwell ends this level." Victor said as they raced up. "There's gotta be another."

Victor halted. Sierra had stopped walking down a flight. He rushed down towards her. "Hey, hey, hey. What's wrong?" Her face was blank, miles away. He cupped her face. ""Look at me. Look." She did. "Tell me. What's wrong? Keep an eye on the hall." he ordered the other two above.

"I remember." she said. "Men. They had guns, they took me away." her eyes widened. "I remember the man who put me here."

"Then we'll get him." Victor promised. "Understand? I will get him. But you gotta be strong for me now and go with us, so you can help me find him."

Sierra nodded. Victor offered her hand, and she took it. He led the way up to November and Echo, standing in another corridor.

"Still no windows." Echo noted. "We gotta be underground."

"We need to find another way." Victor said.

They froze at a noise down the hall. People talking, nearing. Echo led the way into the nearest door. They entered a huge room, full to the brim with rack upon rack of clothes.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder..." Victor said under his breath.

"Whoa!" November looked around, astonished.

"What is all this for?"

"Us." Echo said. She grabbed the nearest tag. "These all say 'Echo'. There's a rack for each of us."

"Yeah there is." November said, smiling as she grabbed a floral sundress.

"We can blend in more now." Victor said, scanning for his rack.

Echo slipped on a black shirt. "This fits perfectly..."

"Maybe these are clothes from our former life." Victor said. From his rack, he pulled a hanger containing a pair of jeans with breakaway legs and a bright red thong. "Nevermind!" he exclaimed, stuffing it back in. "Let's go. Right now!"

"Wait, I thought we were getting changed first." Echo said, barely fastening her jeans as she followed Victor. They emerged near the door to see November, bending over an abandoned stroller, misty-eyed.

"I have a daughter." November breathed. "Katie."

Echo and Victor exchanged an awkward look. Echo patted November's shoulder. "Okay. We'll get you out of here."

"What's wrong?" Sierra asked, appearing in a purple top and jeans.

"She has a daughter." Echo informed her.

November looked up at all of her. "Please help me find her. I don't know where she is..."

Echo, Victor and Sierra were saved from
answering by approaching footsteps. "Someone's coming." Victor said urgently. They split, Echo and November racing down one aisle, Victor and Sierra the other. Echo pulled a dress out of the way as she heard the door open. She scurried into the folds of the clothes, followed by November. A man in a suit approached and took a few hangers directly above Echo's head. Then, the steps receded. The door closed.

A moment later, the four of them exited and rushed down a hallway to an elevator with a scanner beside it. "Who has the card thingy?" Sierra asked.

Echo tool the card from her back pocket before running it over the machine. November and Victor approached from behind. "What did you just do?" Victor asked.

"Callng the elevator." Sierra said, wondering what the problem was.

"What if somebody's in it?"

"We don't have a choice, do we?" Echo pointed out.

Sierra nodded. "Go up or go back. Anyone going back?"

There was silence. They waited anxiously as the groaning grew louder. The seconds dragged by.

Them the doors opened, and the elevator was empty. Relieved, they piled in and hit the button. When the doors opened, they were in a sprawling underground car park.

"I can't believe we made it." Sierra breathed.

"Start checking doors," Victor ordered. "See if any of them are unlocked."

They split up but stayed in close proximity, pulling at every door handle.
"We need to tell someone about what's happening." Sierra said. "Should we call the police, the FBI?"

"For all we know this is the FBI." November replied.

"What about everybody else inside that needs help?" Echo pointed out.

"We do nothing," Victor said. "Until we understand what this place is and who we can trust."

The argument was silenced by the sound of tires screeching.

"Guys," Sierra called, looking to the entrance. "A car's coming!"

The four darted for a nearby SUV, crouching down behind it as an identical vehicle came into the car park. From the SUV, out stepped a bored-looking woman in a suit and a man in a military uniform.

"When you wear the uniform, you got to push it all down, bury it." the soldier drawled. "It never happened, right? The good guys lost one today. I had to watch a man die, and I'm just supposed to make it disappear?"

The woman opened a box on the wall and placed the car keys on a hook. She closed it and led the way into the elevator. They were alone again.

"Guys," Victor said, emerging from the SUV. "Wait here." He rushed over towards the box of car keys.

"Did you here that?" November said. "Someone died..."

"He said he was one of the good guys." Echo said hopefully.

"But he went in there." Sierra noted. "How do we know who to trust?"

"We trust each other." Echo said. "We figure this out together. We start with what we know. You know your name's not Sierra. And the guy that put you here, what's his name?"

"I-I don't know..."

"No," Echo said forcefully. "You do know. What's his name?"

Sierra bowed her head in thought. "His name... his name..." She stared at Echo. "His name is Nolan."

"See?" Echo turned to November. "And you know Katie, your daughter. And you're gonna think hard and remember where to find her, right?" November nodded. "And I know a mountain house. It's safe there. I need to go there..."

"Guys!" Victor called, jangling some car keys. "Look sharp, wheels up!"

They ran to the SUV, Victor in the driver's seat as they approached. Sierra slipped into shotgun and Echo and November piled into the back. Victor was about to put the keys in when the elevator doors opened.

"Look out!" Victor hissed, and they all bent down, hopefully out of view. Echo peaked over Sierra's seat to see another suited man exit with a woman dressed in the clothes of a burlesque performer. She babbled a bunch of French to her Handler. "You know I don't understand when you speak French." the Handler said tiredly, taking some keys from the box and leading her to the nearest car. As she raged some more in French, Echo saw her face.

"That's Tango..."

She lifted her head as Tango drove away with her Handler.

"Let's get out of here." Victor said, turning the key.

"Wait!" Echo said. She opened the door and jumped out.

"What you doing?" November asked. "What's wrong?"

"Get back in the car!" Victor said urgently.

"I can't leave." Echo told them. "Did you see Tango, that sweet girl? That is not a costume warehouse we just busted out of, that's a people warehouse!"

"You have to come with us." November insisted.

"The army guy they brought back? They're doing it both ways. They make people go out and do terrible things, and then bring them back and make them go away."

"And you'll be putting yourself back in there." Sierra retorted. "You didn't fight to get out for nothing."

Echo smiled sadly. "Not nothing. You guys are okay now. I go back in knowing that."

"This thing, it's too big." Victor said. "There's too many of them, they got guns, what do you think you're gonna do?"

Echo shrugged. "Try and make a difference."

She gave them one last look before marching into the elevator. The car drive away. The elevator doors closed. Echo braced herself to re-enter Hell.

*

"Echo!"

Echo paused. She stopped bashing the grate holding the weapons at bay with a fire extinguisher and turned. The woman she had overheard, Sophie, was standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, stepping in. Echo saw her reach for her Walkie Talkie.

"Don't touch that!" Echo ordered.

Sophie retracted her hand. "It's ok. I'm just gonna call Boyd. Remember Boyd, your Handler? You know him. You trust him..."

"I said don't touch it!" Echo warned as Sophie reached for her belt again.

"Okay! I'm a friend of his. Maybe I can help? Do you know what you need?"

Echo motioned to the weapons. "Give me the key."

Sophie "No one here wants to hurt you, Echo. I don't want to hurt you. I'm just gonna tell Boyd you're here and he'll come and take you for your treatment? All right?" Sophie unhooked the talkie and put it to her lips--

And Echo pulled the trigger of the fire extinguisher, blasting Sophie with the white powder. Sophie ploughed through and slammed the extinguisher against the grate, trying to prise it from Echo's grasp. She dug it into Echo's side and got a hold on it, lifting it and slamming it into Echo's hip. Echo went down onto a black chest and Sophie dived for the fallen talkie, but Echo half-fisted her in the back of the head, sending her against a table. Echo grabbed her collar, but Sophie flipped over the table, sending Echo sailing. She connected hard with the floor, but spotted Sophie sprawled a few metres away. They both scrambled to their feet and Sophie dived at her, but Echo turned her hip, leading Sophie into the wall. Sophie regained herself and punched, but Echo blocked once, twice, but Sophie kicked her in the gut and Echo stumbled backwards into a pillar. Sophie went for a right hook, but Echo ducked, forcing Sophie to connect with the wall. Echo tackled her and sent her into the table. She grabbed her from behind, but Sophie turned and sent an elbow to Echo's face, sending her to the ground. Echo spied the forgotten talkie on the floor: so did Sophie. Sophie darted, was gonna get there first, but Echo felt something against her elbow: the fire extinguisher. As Sophie reached the Walkie, Echo flung the extinguisher into Sophie's path. Sophie tripped, left the ground and collided chin first with the linoleum floor, unconscious.

Echo, panting, got up and went to her. She turned Sophie over: her face was bruised and gushing blood, possibly a fractured jaw. Echo grabbed a towel from the table and gave Sophie a hasty wipe of fingerprints, took the talkie and dug around in her pockets until she found a set of keys. She unlocked the grate and swung it open, grabbing the first handgun she saw. Giving Sophie a last glance, she ran for the way she had came.

*

"You Jimmy?" Paul asked, approaching the counter of the dark, dingy electronics store.

"Good day to you too." said Jimmy, a weaselly thing in his late 20's, shrouded in darkness.

Paul placed the metal capsule on the counter. "Ever seen one of these?"

"Yeah." Jimmy said, without looking up. "Just now. On the counter in front of me."

"I really hope you don't wanna pretend you don't butter your bread this way, 'cause I'm not in a mood that's gonna care."

Jimmy shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out what kind of business you think you got here."

Paul grabbed Jimmy by the collar and slammed his face into the counter, inches from the capsule. "Look at it. Look!"

"Any closer, and it'll come out of the back of my head." Jimmy protested, his voice muffled by the wood. Paul released him and, after a short glare, Jimmy put the capsule under a magnifying glass and began poking at it with a metal tool. "These don't even exist yet." he breathed.

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning if me and everyone else I know powwowed, we still wouldn't figure this out. It's gorgeous..."

Paul rolled his eyes. "Can I trace where it was transmitting?"

Jimmy nodded. "Absolutely. If you were E.T. It inverts the frequency into white noise. The only way you could find it once it hits the universe is to know exactly which speck of dust you're looking for and tune in on it."

Paul sighed. "What about scrambling it?"

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "Someone put this on you, huh? You're gonna need an RF detector, SMART scrambler and frequency jammer. And to believe in God, 'cause I don't care how big you think you are: they're bigger."

*

"I can't remember which way to go until I see it, but... I'm pretty sure we're almost there." Sierra said.

"You've been saying that for 20 minutes while I've been circling." Victor said.

"I know, I'm so sorry..."

November looked out the window as they spoke. They passed by a corner shop, outside of which a mother was picking up a little girl from a stroller...

"Stop the car."

"What?" Sierra said, looking back into the car at her.

"I know where Katie is."

"You do?" Victor said, eyes on the road.

"That's wonderful!" Sierra beamed.

"Let me out here." November asked.

"Can I take you there after I deal with this guy Nolan?" Victor said. "She says we're almost there."

November shook her head. "I'm going alone."

"We can't just leave you here!" Sierra protested. "Until we figure things out, we should stick together, help each other!"

"I remember my life." November said.

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

Sierra sighed. "All right then. It's why we left. We decide for ourselves now."

Victor pulled over and November exited the car. "Good luck." Sierra said.

"You too." November replied.

"I hope its easy for you to go back home." Victor said. "Whatever it is."

November nodded and gave a small wave as they drove away.

*

"Well let's get a tail on her." Dominic ordered before hanging up and turning to Adelle. "November separated from the group."

Adelle just stared at the security feed. "Is that an Active leaving Doctor Saunders' office? Rewind it..." she grabbed the remote and rewound the footage. In Saunders' office, Echo was hastily scanning a file on the desk before she rushed out. "Oh, my God..."

"She was in the car." Dominic insisted.

"Apparently she's got one step ahead of us. I should've seem this coming. This is Caroline. Minus the memories, but it's her. And this is exactly what Caroline would do."

"Try and take us down by herself? You want me to call it in, round her up?"

Adelle shook her head. "No, there's no harm in letting this play out. Caroline never was very realistic. Apparently this is exactly what--"

At that moment, the lights flickered for a moment before going out completely. The feed went black.

"Damn!"

"Stop her?" Dominic suggested.

"Immediately please." Adelle said as she sat at the desk.

Dominic put his Walkie Talkie to his lips as he left the room. "This is Mr. Dominic. We have a rogue Active. Check the power room first..."

*

"Topher." Adelle said. "Status."

Topher stared out at the Dollhouse main floor. The Actives walked around in pitch black: Topher held a glowstick close to his chest. "Hard to see." he said into the phone. "Some confusion."

"Are the Actives afraid of the dark?" Adelle asked.

"Who knows? They've never seen it. We always leave the lights on. Is this that power thing from yesterday, or..."

"Echo."

Topher nearly laughed. "Really? Did she cut the mainline or did she go for the--"

"Can you find her?" Adelle interrupted.

Topher shrugged. "I'm looking out the window, but am hindered by a lack of illumination."

"Just be ready when they bring her in."

"To do what ? No power, no chair, no wipey. I am, BTW..."

"Am what?"

"...afraid of the dark..." Topher heard a beeping. "Hello?"

Adelle had hung up. He tossed the phone onto the desk, turned towards the Imprint Room--

and jumped as a figure appeared in the shadows, holding a gun. He tried to get a look at them, gasping.

"...Echo...?"

Echo stepped forward, shook her head and pointed the gun at Topher's head. "Not anymore."

*

"We are experiencing a temporary interruption of power." the woman said over the intercom. "We assure you there is no need to worry. Everyone please gather calmly on the main floor."

"We should probably go downstairs like everybody else--" Topher suggested, inching for the door. He stopped when Echo jerked the gun. "I-is that blood on your hands?" he asked, squinting against the dim light. "It's kind of dark, I was hoping that it was--"

"Tell me what you do to people in here." Echo demanded. "They come in one way and when they leave, they're something else."

"Uh... it's complicated, but... I use a process of epifluorescent light--"

"Make it simple!"

"Simple, right!" Topher cleared his throat. "I put them in a chair and I program them."

"You can't program people." Echo snarled. "We're not friggin' computers!"

"Not that different. O-our brains are natural motherboards. Everything we think, feel, do, electrical impulses fired by the brain, I just hack the system!"

"What year is this?"

Topher hesitated. "2009."

Echo'e eyes widened slightly. "How long have I been here?"

"Uh... A little while..."

"A day? A month?"

"Kind of... more."

"My head: why I don't remember things, YOU'VE done it to me. You put me in this 'chair'."

"Uh, it's--"

"Where?" she asked.

"It's..." Topher motioned to the doors behind him, leading to the Imprint Room. Slightly ajar, Echo saw an oddly-shaped, metallic, silver chair.

Echo raised the gun. "Show. Don't tell."

*

"Priya?" Nolan Kinnard said as he opened the office door. He was a skinny man in his forties, brown hair showing grey, face getting lines. "I'm surprised. And confused, is this some kind of frequent buyer reward or--"

Sierra nodded to Victor. "It's him."

Victor pushed him roughly back into the office. He and Sierra followed.

"Whoa! Hey, what's going on? A little blackmail, maybe? I wouldn't put it past you people..."

"What you did to me, putting me in that hell," Sierra spat. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You said no." Nolan said simply. "And nobody ever says no to me."

"Because I wouldn't have sex with you, you took away my whole life?!"

"Do you have any idea how much trouble that was? I mean, all the strings I pulled, and the palms I greased, I could've bought Pierre Island. But... owning you is better than real estate--"

Victor right hooked Nolan across the jaw. He fell to the floor, holding his bloody lip, and laughed. "So, uh, you're not her Handler?" Nolan joked, getting to his feet.

"We got out of that freak show." Victor said. "She's never going back."

"Ah! I get it: you kids hopped the fence. Eh, doesn't matter. You don't exist anymore."

"I'm more of a person than you." Sierra snarled.

Nolan smiled. "Honey, you're programmed to give me and anyone else whatever we want, whenever we want it, which..." He stepped forward, but Victor held him at bay. "You do with pleasure. And sometimes, you even beg--"

Victor backhanded him in the temple. He went down again. Nolan brushed it off as he stood. "Okay. I can afford one hell of a security system, so... I have one, all right? Folks were on their way to grab you up before you hit the elevator, so: Go."

"We gotta go." Victor said.

Sierra stepped forward, eyes tearing up, and glared at Nolan. "You will see me again." she promised.

Nolan smiled. "Yes. And I look forward to it."

They gave him one last look before running from the room for the elevator, but the doors slid open and two burly men in suits appeared. Victor and Sierra turned on their heel and ran down the corridor before disappearing down the stairwell.

Nolan watched them go, smiling. "It'll be even better now..."

*

Echo stared at the Wedge in her hand, gun still focused on Topher. "You put this in and it makes us whatever you want?"

Topher shrugged. "Yes. I mean, you have to have power to do that, electricity, which we don't, so we can't. You should put that down..."

"This is seriously screwed! What the hell's wrong with you people?"

"We're good people!" Topher insisted. "Nice people! We help people become better people by giving them what they need. I don't usually do the sales pitch..."

"You murder people." Echo snarled. "You gut them and use their bodies as playthings! Who was I before you killed me?!" She stalked forward, gun raised, forcing Topher against the wall.

"No no no! You are not dead. Clearly! You... you volunteered..."

"You're lying!" she yelled, jamming the gun into his chest.

"Okay: you don't have your memories! I didn't give them to you, so you don't remember that!"

"In there." she said, indicating the chair. "Last time you put me in there, you made me what?"

Topher paused as the room flooded with light. He turned off the glowstick and threw it onto the floor. "You, as you were when you came here, only without memories, which you will get back when your contract is up, and you leave here and go and do whatever you want. Grow a belly, sew a quilt, spend that TRUCK of money you made having just the time of your life!"

Echo scoffed. "Yeah: this is fun!"

"Isn't it?"

"Why am I not like them?" she asked. "The rest down there, what they're like when you're not pimping them out?"

Topher shook his head slightly: he didn't know. "We're running a test on you."

"I remember a mountain." Echo told him. "Somewhere peaceful. Beautiful. I feel happy there. I want to go there. Is that real? Or is that part of your test?!"

Topher tilted his head. "Real."

"How come it's there if you didn't give it to me?" Echo pointed out.

"It's coming from you." Topher insisted. "It's what you need. I have your memories. You can have them back."

Echo began to drop the gun slowly. "You can do that?"

He nodded at the newly-arrived lights. "Totally."

"But I have to go in there." she said, motioning to the chair.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Okay." she said.

Topher smiled. "Okay?"

Echo flung the gun back up and aimed it between Topher's eyes "You first."

*

"Who are they?" Sierra squealed as she and Victor bounded down the stairwell.

"Maybe Nolan's guys." Victor panted.

"What do they want?"

He shrugged. "Take us back, probably."

They both froze as a bullet whizzed by, barely missing Sierra's head.

"...Or kill us."

They ran down to the bottom floor and emerged into a car park. They flattened against the wall as a police car passed, sirens blazing. It didn't see them. They ran and hid behind the nearest car.

"That's the only way out." Sierra said, indicating the way the police car had gone. Over her shoulder, Victor spotted a utility closet.

"This way." he said, helping her to her feet. They ran in, shut the door and crouched down behind some forgotten boxes. They held their breaths as they heard the stairwell door open.

*

Echo stood behind the chair, Wedge in one hand, gun in the other, the latter focused on Topher as he was forced into the chair. "Hey, it looks like it fits!" she exclaimed as she jammed the Wedge into the slot.

"You can't imprint on top of a fully functional brain," Topher insisted. "It'll implode!"

"Oh, is that why you keep us so simple?" Echo mockingly.

"Yes, yes!"

"Does it hurt when you do it?" she spat.

"Pain in nothing more than nerves talking to your brain. Look, I'm just the science guy!"

Echo nodded. "Up here, looking down on everyone, playing God!"

Topher began hyperventilating. "I can help you with anything you want, you just have to tell me!"

"I want you to let them go." she said slowly.

Topher's eyes widened. "I-I don't have that kind of power..."

Echo pushed the biggest button and went around to the chair, which glowed blue. She jammed her gun in Topher's sternum, stopping him getting up as the chair reclined towards the blue light of the Wedge machine. "I'd pick the chair!" she yelled. "It's just a treatment!"

"No no no!" Topher begged as the chair neared the blue, preparing to turn his brain to mush. "I can't, I swear I can't!"

"I can."

Echo whirled around, gun in hand. Standing there was a prim and proper woman with raven hair, staring calmly. "Stop the imprint please." the woman said calmly in a higher-class British accent.

Echo turned on her heel and fired two rounds into the Imprint machine, which spluttered as sparks flew. Topher scampered out and to the safety of the corner. "My chair!" he yelled, gaping at it.

Echo turned to the woman again. "Did I just kill someone, or should I aim this at her head?"

"She doesn't really understand--" Topher began.

"You wanted to forget." the woman said.

"Who are you?" Echo demanded.

"Adelle DeWitt. I am responsible for this facility and everyone in it."

Echo glared. "Then you are one SICK BITCH!"

Adelle smiled slightly. "I eased your suffering."

"Is that what you think you're doing here?"

Adelle raised an eyebrow. "I'm certain of it."

"Taking away basic human rights, free will? My right to choose, feel, remember?"

"All relinquished by you to our care and discretion." Adelle said, stepping into the room.

Echo's gun didn't waver. "Tell me why I would."

"I can't. I would be breaking a promise I made to you. All I can say is that... you couldn't live with the consequences of your own actions. And you no longer have to."

"You're letting us all go." Echo ordered.

Adelle smiled. "You're free to leave. Who are you to decide for the others?"

"Something you should have been asking yourself." Echo replied.

"I made the same promise to them, to protect them from the unbearable truths that brought them here. I won't return those memories."

Echo turned and fired a round into the computer. She whipped back around and glared.

"So we agree. No one gets in the chair."

*

November pushed open the gate of the school playground and stepped in. All around, children in uniforms danced around, throwing balls and playing. November watched them and smiled. She walked across to the other side and opened the next gate, that led to the place just beside the school.

As she walked, November passed headstones, some both old and worn, others new and crisp. She didn't keep track of how long she walked, but she knew where she was going. She reached the end of the graveyard and knelt down in front of the tiniest headstone of all:

BELOVED KATIE

IN GOD'S CARE

November ran her finger over the letters etched in stone and weeped, for she knew they could not be changed.

That her daughter could not come back.

*

"They'll be back." Sierra said flatly, as the guards' footsteps faded.

"Maybe." was all Victor said.

"I'm sorry." she said. "This is all my fault. If you didn't want to help me, this wouldn't have happened--"

"Exactly." Victor said, taking her hand. "When we were in that place, when we were like what Mike turned into, what the rest of them were, empty... I remembered you."

"What...?"

Victor stared at a nearby crate. "It's like... I'm stuck inside my head somewhere, and some part of me sees and feels... It's like a bad dream I can't get out of. I... I can't talk, I can't move. I can't be stronger than what's taken me over, but I'm there."

Sierra felt her eyes tearing up. "That's awful." she said, voice breaking.

Victor looked at her again. "Somebody hurt you. Like Nolan. I could see it happening... Oh god, I could see his face, but I couldn't stop it."

"I trusted him." she said bitterly. Tears flowed freely down her face. "Why did I trust him?" she asked desperately.

"I'm sorry..."

"Wait." Sierra said, something occurring to her. "Wait, you wait for me, when we go to bed at night, to make sure I'm okay. Right?"

Victor nodded, smiling.

Sierra cried harder. "What have they done to us...?"

"Down this way!"

It came from outside: the guards were coming round again.

"I don't know which to hope for." Sierra said, breathing heavily. "Feels like dying either way."

"No." Victor held her by the shoulders, looked into her eyes. "We'll look for each other like we always do. And we'll finish this. We will."

They nodded and looked at each other for a moment. Then they kissed, and they never wanted it to end.

*

Adelle looks out through the shutters at the wandering Actives.

"You can't take them outside as they are." Adelle insisted. "They'll find the stimulation, the conflict, entirely overwhelming."

Echo approached. "They'll do just fine. Your unbearable truth, lady? You're not as important as you think you are." she raised the gun. "Next one goes where your hear should have been. Now show us out."

*

Echo kept the gun trained on Adelle's spine as the Actives walked down the tunnel. Sunlight was close. Doctor Saunders walked out too. Echo didn't want to leave her in that place. And now they were free, the lost souls had begun to trickle out. Slowly, Echo felt a smile creeping on.

As Echo reached the entrance, something felt wrong in the pit of her stomach. She stopped, metres from the way out. Then, gracefully, Echo fell to the ground.

Adelle turned and looked down at her pitifully. A dozen men in black suits appeared and led the people back inside, back to the prison. One took Echo in his arms. Freedom was so close...

Before she fell asleep, Echo saw the sun, but then it was replaced by darkness.

*

YESTERDAY

"A tide is rising. Until we learn how to turn it back, we pile up the sandbags together. Unless anyone here thinks they have a better idea."

Adelle turned away from the gathered crowd, itching to reach the bar.

"We give them what they need."

Adelle turned back around. "Doctor Saunders?"

Saunders looked around awkwardly at her co-workers as they stared at her. "Closure. If Actives have particularly poignant or reoccurring experiences, these can cause desires, emotional needs, or reactivate old ones that existed before they came here." she said, standing up. "Open loops. If they were able to close those loops, to get some sense of resolve..."

"You're recommending we allow them to take a self-guided journey." Adelle finished.

"Just the priority cases. Let the tide come in." She shrugged. "It's the only way to wash it back out."

*

Boyd stared out the window of Doctor Saunders' office at the catwalk above. He could faintly see the blue light of the chair: Echo was being wiped. "Has the tide turned?" he asked. "Are they better now?"

Claire leaned on her desk behind him. "Each Active's brain was programmed to release a sedative the moment they felt closure. They're all back with us, so I have to assume they've resolved the issues that caused them to glitch."

"November needed to grieve for her daughter, I understand that. And Sierra, she needed to confront the man who took away her power..."

"One of them, anyway." Claire said, smiling faintly. "As I recall, you confronted the other one..."

"And Echo. She wanted to free us all. What about Victor? He wasn't going back to a trauma or need from his past."

Claire gave a full smile at these words. "He had a more present need."

Boyd turned to her, realising. "He needed to get the girl."

Claire shrugged. "He's in love."

Boyd gave a small smile. "When Echo was leading them out... I would've like to have seen that. Even if it was all a game. Your game." Boyd said, turning to leave.

"Do you think I had fun?"

Claire's small voice made him stop: he had obviously sounded more venomous than intended. He looked at her. "I don't know you very well."

"You have to look after Echo. I have to look after all of them. She wasn't leading them to freedom, she was leading them to a world of terror and chaos that would've destroyed them."

Boyd shrugged. "She's not leading them anywhere anymore."

"You should be grateful." Claire said.

"Yeah? I'll work on that."

This time, Boyd did leave, and no words were said to stop him.

*

Echo and Sierra were the last to enter the Pod Room that night. Echo cast a glance to Sierra, who was smiling upon seeing Victor waiting for her from his bed. They all entered their pods without a sound. Echo lay down and fingered the bandage on her hand, realising her face was brushing against dried blood on her pillow. She didn't think anything of it. Victor, Sierra and November went to sleep almost immediately. But Echo was restless. Eventually, she closed her eyes and didn't open them.

As Echo became lost in darkness, she realised it would be a long time before it would be her turn to feel the sun on her face.

*

Paul clicked the memory card into place, finally reassembling his phone. He turned it over and hit the power button. A voice alerted him he had a new voice message. He hit the button, expecting Mellie or Loomis--

"Paul Ballard, this is... You don't know me, but I have a file, and your name is in it, and I think we've met. I know it sounds crazy, but we're here, somewhere underground. I'm trying to get everyone out, but if I can't, please... Please find us."

It dawned on Paul in seconds that he had just heard Caroline. She was alive. She was in the Dollhouse. Trapped, but fighting back.

She was lost, but she was not gone.

*