Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 416: Partner in crime.

A drone hovered above Sunshine, traveling in circles over her head. She could feel the anxious twitching in the wings of the machine.

"Suni....," came Hades’ worried voice.

She waved her hand at the blinking red lights. "All good, breathe Quinn, breathe."

"There is more than one worried Quinn over here." Lisha’s came in response.

Meanwhile, Father Nicodemus took a megaphone and flew up, looking over the people like a god staring at ants. "Your leader is dead...the short man with the big build. I urge the rest of you to put your weapons down and listen to reason. I am a man of God. I choose peace if I can in all circumstances. If you reject peace, I am afraid that heaven itself will close its gates to you and I will be performing all of your last rites."

Sunshine covered her eyes with her right hand.

Major Elio rolled his eyes.

Nimo shook her head. It sounded like the peaceful priest was making death threats. Could he even hear himself?

Most of the fighting came to a stop and the dust finally settled. Fires faded, wind calmed, ice started to melt and the sky stopped rumbling. The echo of the fight faded into silence.

This was all to the great displeasure of the watchers that had been enjoying the battle. Pink and others flew away.

Sunshine stood in the middle of the ruined street, the broken tents and scattered weapons around her, and called out to the people who had been hiding inside houses and behind fallen walls. "It’s over!" she shouted. "You can all come out now!"

No one moved.

No footsteps.

No whispers.

No doors opening.

Just silence. Fearful, heavy, stubborn silence. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Sunshine could feel it. These people had been terrorized by Derone and his group for so long that they were afraid to trust.

She raised her voice again and drones carried it everywhere. "Derone is dead as are most of his people. Others are in our custody. They cannot hurt you anymore. Come out so the registration exercise can continue and you can begin new terror free lives."

Still nothing for a few long seconds. Even her squads shifted uneasily.

Nimo whispered, "They don’t believe you."

Father Nicodemus floated down next to her. "Maybe I should speak to them," he suggested.

"No." Sunshine was quick to reject him. She did not need angel Nicodemus becoming the face of Fortress four.

But then, very slowly, the door of a tiny shack creaked open. A thin old man poked his head out. His hands trembled as if he expected a whip to strike him. Three children came out next, clinging to each other, eyes wide and unsure. More doors followed. More shadows stepped forward.

One by one, then group by group, the people of Westbrook town stepped out into the open, murmuring, whispering, checking behind them as if torture might appear again.

A woman with swollen, tired eyes looked at Derone’s body on the ground and asked quietly, "Is he... truly dead?"

"Yes," Sunshine answered. "He is gone."

A man took off his hat and sighed deeply. "All the suffering he put us through... all that pain. That devil made our lives hell."

Another man rubbed his face in frustration. "If I had known he would die today, I would have stocked more beer. This calls for celebration."

A faint ripple of tired laughter went through the crowd, the kind of laugh that came from people who had run out of tears long ago.

Nimo stepped forward and raised her voice. "It’s over. You are safe now."

But before relief could settle, a middle-aged man walked out from behind a crumbling wall. His steps were slow, dragging, as though his legs carried the weight of ten years of misery. His eyes were red, not from crying, but from grieving something much deeper than tears.

"You are all fools. It’s not over," he said, voice rough. "It is not over until his partner in crime is found and killed too."

The squad members exchanged confused looks.

Grayson frowned and stepped closer. "What partner?"

Elio gave soldiers to soldiers to start accounting for every superhuman and ordinary human from Deron’s camp that was alive or dead.

A woman came forward, her face streaked with tears. The moment she opened her mouth, her voice cracked. "They took our children." She swallowed hard, shaking. "Derone and... that woman. They separated children from parents, especially those of us that resisted. We couldn’t leave the town. If we tried... our children would be killed."

She wrapped her arms around herself. "Most people don’t know this but I sneaked out one night to see my Hillary. That’s when I saw it, they were selling the children." Her knees buckled. Someone caught her before she fell. The woman sobbed painfully. "Please... please... that woman ran away with the children. The one with one eye. The one with the eye patch."

Sunshine’s jaw tightened. "Who is she?"

Some shook their heads. "We don’t know her name,"

A child whispered. "Just her face. Thin lips. Eye patch. Cruel as a monster."

Others lowered their eyes, terrified to even speak the name.

But the man who first mentioned her balled his fists. "Her name is Fifi."

Another man clenched his teeth. "I heard someone call her Quinn."

They glared at Sunshine and she got the message. This was another reason why Fortress four had probably not been welcomed eagerly. They came with boxes and things with the Quinn group logo.

A long silence followed.

Then a voice from the back shouted, "But Fortress Four works with the Quinns, don’t they? We saw it on the boxes and the trucks. The old man is right; we are fools to trust them."

Fear spread through the crowd instantly. People stepped back. Murmurs rose like buzzing bees. Some children hid behind their mothers. Suspicion flared in every pair of eyes.

Sunshine sneered. So it was Fifi Quinn! That useless woman has become a child trafficker? She shook her head.

She wasn’t dead! Of course not. Why would the universe make it so easy? Once again, she regretted not having shot Fifi in the dead outside the gates the first time the woman came to Fortress four.

A few people stared at her, scared to say anything now.

Sunshine raised both hands to calm them. "Listen carefully. Yes, the Quinn group is in charge of many of our relief operations. But Fifi is not part of them. Not anymore. She was banished by the Quinn’s a long time ago. Whatever she is doing, she is acting alone. She has nothing to do with us."

The murmurs slowly softened.

"If we were working together, why would she run away?" Sunshine continued, "because if we had found her here, she would have been arrested immediately. She knows it. That is why she escaped with your children. Which is very unfortunate."

The woman in her arms trembled harder. "My baby... please... my baby..."

Sunshine placed a hand on her shoulder gently. "I promise you..." She looked around, meeting the scared suspicious eyes. "every one of you, Fortress Four will protect you. As long as you live under our protection blanket, nobody will harm you. Not Derone. Not Fifi. Not anyone." She let her voice carry, strong and steady.

"And if we find any information about your children, we will tell you. You have my word. We will issue wanted posters for Fifi, missing posters for your children and do our best to help you search for them. So, when filling in information at the registration points, include the information about your children, descriptions, pictures. Help us so that we can help you."

Slowly, the tension drained from the crowd. Some people nodded. Others wiped their tears. A few even managed weak smiles. They began walking back toward the registration tent, calmer than before, trusting just a little that life might finally change.

Sunshine watched them for a moment, then turned to her squad. "Elio," she said, "send out a search team. Fifi cannot have gotten far. If they find her, she should be executed on the spot."