Iris stumbled out of her room still shaking off the dreams of the night before. Images of battle, of machine and flesh, percolated at the back of her head as she made her way to the kitchen.

She didn't even feel like running today. It was enough that her situation was as confusing and disturbing as it was; did her inner world have to go the same way?

Iris pushed the kitchen door aside to find Willow, sat in the corner. She was reading a book and drinking tea, the crumbs around her providing some evidence of her having eaten. She was weirdly well-put together for 7 a.m., and it took Iris a moment to realise that she was still wearing the clothes from the night before. Weird.

"Are you… okay?" Iris hazarded.

Willow just shrugged. "Are you?"

Iris didn't answer; she didn't know how. Instead, she walked over to the cupboards and started setting up for breakfast. Somewhere in her unconscious, there was an unsettling rumble.

She was definitely going to have to start going to bed earlier.

Iris' day seemed to be filled with tests. In the morning, she'd had several blood tests, along with a brain scan and a physical. She'd had to strip down to the buff in a cold doctor's office, miles under the earth, and put up with poking and prodding from a virtual stranger.

At least everything seemed to be in the right place. They'd have said something otherwise, right?

The infirmary was different, somehow, than the last time she'd been there. That time, everyone had been quiet, businesslike, and scientifically curious of what had happened to Amanita. This time, it was just as quiet, but in a very different way. Doctors and nurses gossiped in hushed tones along the corridors, conspicuously clamming up when they saw Iris coming with something lingering unsaid. It reminded Iris of being the new girl in school: everyone talking to everyone else about you, but nobody talking to you at all.

Maybe that's just what it feels like to be the object of enquiry. Maybe that's how Amanita had felt before.

In the afternoon, she met with Doctor Klein in her office. The office was nothing like she'd expected; weirdly, its disarray reminded her of Amanita's room. But the Doctor's gaze was exactly as she'd come to expect from all of their interactions: cold, clinical, like you were under a magnifying glass. Careful, little bug…

"I've had a look at your results," Klein said. She was sat behind her desk, drinking from a large mug of tea with a pile of reports in her other hand. "You're a very healthy young woman."

It seemed odd to Iris that Klein was the one giving this news. She wasn't a medical doctor — though admittedly, Iris wasn't sure what her exact field was meant to be — so surely, she should've expected to hear it from someone down in the infirmary instead. Why was she here?

Almost as though she'd heard the thought, Klein answered it. "I've not brought you here to discuss your medical statistics, as impressive as they are."

Iris bristled. "Why am I here, then?"

Klein put the documents down on her desk, piled askew atop another pile of papers. "We've been noticing some interesting readings from your unit."

Huh. "Interesting how?"

Iris was cautiously hopeful. She hadn't yet told Klein, or anyone else, about the voice she heard from the Aberrant, or how she'd lost control. She didn't really know why, exactly. Maybe she should've said something before now.

Perhaps this would help her understand what was happening to her.

"During the last mission," Klein said, "you seemed to synchronise with your unit far closer than anyone ever has before. Thanatos functions by redrawing the boundary between the human and their environment, but I'd never—" She cut herself off. "Well, I think congratulations are in order."

What?

"What was it like?"

Iris was taken aback. What could she even say to that? Somehow, words slipped out of her lips. "Kind of… terrifying."

Klein looked up. Clearly that hadn't been the reply she'd expected.

"How do you mean?"

Iris sighed inwardly. How could she explain it to someone without sounding like she was crazy? She couldn't even tell Amanita, let alone someone who'd never been inside a Thanatos unit.

She shrugged.

Doctor Klein gave her a long stare, and sighed. Iris' stomach lurched; clearly Klein knew she was holding something back.

"Well, if you have anything to add to that at any point…"

Iris nodded. "Right. Can I…" She gestured toward the door.

"Of course."

Iris left quickly, not wanting to be under Klein's analytical gaze any longer. She went through the door as quickly as she could without running; she found herself in the bustle of the control room, noise and light buzzing like worker bees, like the milling of a church congregation, like…

Why was she thinking like this?

"Iris!"

Willow's voice cut through the noise; she walked briskly to Iris through the organised chaos of the control room.

"I need to talk to you."

Iris blinked. "You need to talk to me?" she echoed. "Why?"

Willow sighed. "Not here. Follow me."

Willow led Iris out of the control room and down the corridor. Already the number of people were starting to thin out; Iris was glad to have a bit more space to think, but she couldn't help but feel nervous about where she might be being led.

"It's about the Aberrants," Willow explained, once the crowds of people were starting to thin. But before they could start their conversation properly, a familiar voice came from behind them.

"Platt! Reynolds!" It was the Colonel. "I need you in the briefing room!"

"We're doing a what?!"

Maybe predictably, Willow was the one to object the loudest.

"A team-building exercise," Colonel Adler repeated. "It's a part of your testing today, and should also help to improve your cooperation. You're not trained soldiers; you don't have the benefits of a boot camp…"

Iris should have been excited by the prospect of some fun and fresh air. A part of her was. But a larger part of her felt far too tired, too haunted by weird occurrences, to entertain the idea today.

"You don't think we function as a team?" Willow asked. If she'd made any effort to disguise her bitterness, it hadn't worked. "We work just fine as a team, so long as we're told everything we need to—"

"That's enough, Willow!" Klein snapped.

Everyone fell silent at that.

Klein sighed. "I realise this is unusual, but the Thanatos project was never really meant to involve team deployment. There are obvious teething problems to work out."

It made sense. Certainly, Willow wasn't a team player. Who knows, maybe this'd fix that?

"It's partly a co-operative obstacle course," Adler explained. "We also have construction tasks, mental agility tests…"

"A bit like The Crystal Maze," Harry Searl said, leaning on the wall in the corner. He got a joint glare from Adler and Klein for his contribution.

"It's non-optional," Adler stated. And that was that.

But what the hell was a crystal maze?

The course was an hour's van ride away. A military vehicle took the three girls along one of the main roads out of New Gloucester to an Royal Air Force base somewhere in the middle of a wide, open plain. The air was heavy with the smell of livestock, and the sun beat down on them from a cloudless sky. A foreboding sign read "RAF Northampton: No Unauthorised Entry".

Iris was far from home here.

The van parked by a large hangar, and the three girls got out, followed by Lieutenant Searl and Doctor Klein. An RAF man led them into the hangar, to a makeshift changing room in the corner.

"We didn't really want to force you to change with the personnel," he explained.

The hangar was cold and dry, and Iris, Willow and Amanita wasted no time in getting changed into exercise clothes. Iris hadn't changed in front of the others before; she made sure not to let her gaze linger on Amanita, though if she was at all self-conscious about changing in front of two cis girls, it didn't really show.

None of the girls spoke until they were all changed. Willow's exercise clothes were practical, somewhat at odds with her usual mode of dress. Amanita's were just as practical, but somehow incredibly feminine; Iris wasn't sure if it was the pastel colour of the leggings or the cut of the top, but it really suited her. In fact, between the way the Lycra and cotton hugged her slender chest and the way her cushioned trainers made her glide across the floor, she looked almost angelic. Though it was a bit odd to see Willow and Amanita's styles almost swap over.

Willow was the one to break the silence.

"Let's get this over with."

They left the changing room together. Searl, Klein and the RAF man were waiting for them in the cavernous open space of the hangar.

"Right," Searl greeted them with a smile. "So, here's how this is going to work. The lads at RAF Northampton have set up a course for us. Doctor Klein and I will watch you all through some cameras. I'm here to keep her out of trouble."

At that, he winked. Klein rolled her eyes.

"It's not a competition," he went on. "The idea is you've all got to work together. Got it?"

Iris nodded, smiling despite her earlier apprehension. She was actually a little excited: this was definitely her element.

"Great!" Searl said. "Sergeant Harris here will show you where it starts."

The girls then followed Sergeant Harris out of the hangar, to a field behind it filled with all sorts of structures. There was a climbing wall, a few poles with ropes dangling from them, and slopes all over of varying steepness. In the middle of the field there was what looked like a makeshift shack, surrounded by a maze built from temporary wooden palisades. The whole thing was decorated with colourful signs and symbols, few of which Iris could understand. The whole thing was fenced off, with an imposing gate blocking the way in.

Harris spoke into his radio. "All ready with you two?"

The radio crackled, and Klein's voice came over it. "All ready here."

Harris put the radio back on his belt and opened the gate.

"Well," he said. "Off you go."

The obstacle course started easy. The first few challenges were mainly things like tightropes, swings, low walls to climb over, all the sort of thing you could do on your own fairly easily. The first real team challenge came in the form of a rope swing between two high pillars: the rope had a fair bit of slack in it, so in order to use it as a swing properly you needed the other two to pull it taut. Then there was a bridge-building task: all sorts of blocks and shapes next to a gap between two platforms, the challenge being to find a way to put them together that had enough stability to get you across the gap. All fairly straightforward; though Iris and Willow had still managed to have a disagreement about how to proceed.

"No, you've got to put this bit there," Willow had said, gesturing wildly at a flat board that wouldn't, for the life of her, fit where Willow wanted to put it.

"Well, you try putting it there!" Iris had snapped, the words exploding out of her with incredible force. That had shut her up.

Iris felt a bit bad about it; usually, she was a bit more in control of herself. But she was in no mood to put up with Willow's usual bitchiness today.

After that, there were a series of puzzles. Arcane symbols painted on placards next to levers and pulleys, giving some clue of what to do. Amanita was the one to work most of those out, pulling a lever here and a rope there to reveal a hidden key that let them through the door into the maze. Iris and Amanita tag-teamed leading through the maze, Iris using her intuition and sense of direction while Amanita relied on her skills at reading the bizarrely-encoded clues. It didn't feel much like a military exercise; more like a weird sort of game, built from the more obscure puzzles you find at the back of the newspaper.

Eventually, the three girls found themselves at the last challenge of the course. It was just as well. Iris was almost exhausted.

The three girls entered the structure at the centre of the maze, a room built from prefabbed walls and corrugated iron at least ten metres long and wide. Besides the entrance, there was one door. On the other side of the room, far from the reach of the door, there was a button. It was obvious: the door was locked, the button would unlock it, but you couldn't get through the door without pressing the button. Iris could see a camera in the corner of the room: doubtless Searl and Klein were watching, eager to see how they'd solve this puzzle.

"Well, this looks easy," Willow said. "One of us presses the button, and someone else holds the door open."

It couldn't be that easy. Right?

Amanita seemed to share Iris' scepticism. "Too easy."

"Well, let's try it," Iris said. "Worst case scenario, it doesn't work."

Iris went to the door and Willow went up to the button.

"Ready," Iris said.

Willow pressed the button, and the door unlocked with an audible click. Iris grabbed It and pulled it open; it was heavy, but she could just about manage it.

"Got it," she said.

Willow let go of the button, and the door yanked itself out of Iris' hands. It swung shut.

"Ow!"

Iris rubbed her shoulder; it ached, but didn't feel dislocated. But it almost could have been, given how violently the door had jerked shut. How had this passed health and safety?

Willow sighed theatrically. "Seriously? You can't hold a door?"

Iris shot a glare in response. "Okay, you try!"

They swapped places and tried the same trick again. Again, the door pulled itself shut, out of Willow's grasp.

"Fuck!"

"See?" Iris had to admit, she felt a little smug about Willow's failure.

"Okay, fine!" Willow replied. "That clearly won't work."

The three girls pondered the door in front of them for a minute or so. Surely there had to be some way to keep the door open while all three of them got through.

"What if two people try to hold it at once?" Iris wondered.

They tried that: Iris and Amanita held the door as Willow pressed the button. But the door swung shut once again; Amanita ended up falling onto Iris, both girls collapsing onto the floor.

Iris looked at the camera. This had to be entertaining viewing, she thought ruefully; she could just imagine Searl and Klein watching the feed. Though she couldn't really imagine Klein laughing at anything.

She got up and dusted herself off. "Any ideas?"

Amanita stood up, looking thoughtful. "Maybe we need a stick."

Willow scoffed. "Where exactly are we going to find a stick?"

Iris thought. There had to be a solution. They wouldn't make a puzzle that was unsolvable, right?

"Maybe," she said, the thought forming even as she spoke, "one of us has to stay behind."

Willow looked at her sceptically. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe we need to get something from the other side of the door?" Iris tried.

Amanita nodded. "A stick."

"What is it with you and sticks?" Willow muttered.

"Right," Iris said, her voice deliberately raised. Better to head this off at the pass. "One of us opens the door for the other two, who go through and find something to get the last one though."

"Well, I'm not staying behind," Willow replied haughtily. "I'm going through there and getting a nice hot cup of tea from the RAF man."

Iris sighed inwardly. Even after what had to be more than an hour of being forced to work together, Willow was as thickheaded as ever.

"I'll stay behind," she declared. And, before either girl could argue with her, she was pressing the button.

If nothing else, it'd get her some time away from Willow.

Ice crept up the side of Gladstone Tower, crystals webbing themselves between windows and along matte grey cladding on their way up to the top of the structure. Slowly, carefully, the ice collected together into a solid form around its target: a man in a suit, leaning out the window with one hand on the sill. The ice embraced him, enveloped him, contorted and distorted him into something new. The man persisted, changed.

An Aberrant was born.

Willow, Iris and Amanita arrived back at the base via a quick helicopter ride. The alarm had been sounded just as they were finishing their course and so, with no time wasted, they were put into their units and deployed into the field. Iris never did get to find out if her solution was right.

Nor did she get much of a break from Willow.

They deployed quickly. Eden Square had a chilly air, like it was several degrees cooler than the rest of the city, like the corporate towers surrounding it and enclosing it had gifted the square its own microclimate. The square itself was barren, save for the ornamental fountain in the centre that ordinarily would be spurting water down over a host of cherubim and into a pool littered with coins. Today, the fountain was frozen over.

The girls arrived together, Willow at the front with Amanita and Iris close behind.

The Aberrant was obvious, a spindly pillar of ice and flesh snaking from a spot near the fountain up into the sky. Skin and hair webbed between chunks of ice, like something living had been smeared from their place on earth up into the heavens. Or perhaps it was the other way around: from the sky down to the earth. Iris couldn't tell which.

Willow attacked first; she drew her knives and leapt at the base of the pillar, slashing and slashing at it sending shards of ice flying in all directions. Amanita raised her gun and opened fire, unloading round after round into the fleshy parts of the structure. Iris didn't move.

How could she? The memory of the last fight had stayed with her, and she couldn't shake the feeling that this Aberrant might be a living, breathing, feeling being, not just a monster to be destroyed. Maybe it was as scared as she was. Maybe it just needed help. A little part of her wanted her to lose control again, be taken over by something else so she wouldn't have to face the decision in front of her. But it didn't happen.

A tendril of ice shot from the pillar and wrapped itself around Willow's waist; Ice started to spread along the sleek green metal of her unit, consuming her from within. The green chrome of Willow's unit froze over, as quick as a flash.

Fuck it.

Iris raised her gun. She pulled the trigger. Her bullet hit its target; the tendril shattered, and Willow fell back, prone, but thawing free from whatever had been holding her.

"Fuck!" Willow leapt to her feet and dropped her knives. She called to her comrades: "Keep your distance!"

Seeing nothing but red, Iris kept shooting. The Aberrant sent its ice-tendrils this way and that, desperately seeking a new line of attack, a new line of movement, a new line of flight, but she and Amanita shot frantically, cutting each one off as it came. Willow drew her own gun, and joined the fight, targeting the body of the Aberrant, chipping away gradually at the ice.

But the ice was all they were hitting. The creature's flesh remained protected.

"This is useless!" Willow shouted.

The gunfire continued; ice shattered on the floor. Bang, pop. Bang, crack, pop.

"Do you have a better idea?" Iris asked. It came out as a retort, but honestly, she'd take any suggestions she could get.

Bang, pop. Bang, bang, crack, pop. Bang-bang, pop.

"It's a stalemate," Amanita said. "We have to draw it out."

Bang. Pop.

Iris looked to Amanita. "How?"

Amanita stopped shooting.

"What are you doing?!" Iris couldn't keep her eyes away from her comrade.

Amanita lowered her gun, reholstered it, and started to walk towards the pillar of ice. Iris and Willow kept shooting. Bang. Bang. Pop.

"Stop!" Iris cried. What was she doing? She was going to get herself killed!

Willow stopped shooting as well.

"Hold your fire!" she shouted. "You're going to hit her!"

"But…" Iris looked at her gun, and after a moment's thought, released the trigger.

The silence was deafening. Amanita continued walking towards the pillar; tendrils of ice started to form around its edges, chaotically seeking her out as though they were trying to find her by feel more than by sight. Gradually, glacially, the ice-body of the Aberrant reformed as teeth and claws, cutting tools, weapons of war rather than armour. The ice wrapped itself around Amanita's feet and arms. Iris couldn't look. But she couldn't look away.

Amanita managed to let out a squeak before her comms were cut off.

Suddenly, the booming sound of a single gunshot echoed around the square. The Aberrant's ice-limbs cracked, shattered. Pieces flew in all directions as the creature disintegrated, the air suddenly thick with ice crystals and water droplets. The Aberrant was gone.

Willow lowered her gun. All that was left was snow.

"Why did you do that?" Iris asked.

In the little kitchen in the barracks, Iris and Amanita were sitting at the table. They'd not felt like facing the mess hall after their encounter so, after a bit of persuading, Harry Searl had gone out to get them pizza.

Of course, it was cold by the time it'd got to the base, but Iris didn't care. She didn't even care that it was an objectively terrible pizza, all grease and cheese, with hardly any real flavour. Right now, she just wanted to banish the hunger. She'd have to burn off the calories tomorrow.

Amanita took another slice. "Do what?"

"Risk yourself like that," Iris replied. "You could've been really hurt."

Amanita shrugged, took a bite, and chewed on the thought for a while.

"You did it in the obstacle course," she said. "You stayed behind."

"That was different," Iris said. "I wasn't in any real danger… You, you risked your life."

Amanita shrugged again.

How could she be so casual about risking herself like that? It was one thing when they'd just met, when she'd lost her arm like that fighting an Aberrant. It was entirely another to just stand there and wait for an attack while Iris watched, entirely another now they'd been working together for a while, entirely another now that…

Now that Iris was fond of her.

Iris blushed. "I just… I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Amanita stopped eating and stared at Iris, her beautiful hazel eyes wide open. Iris' heart was pounding in her chest; she didn't want anything to happen to those eyes.

"Oh," Amanita replied.

"Just… take better care of yourself, okay?"

Amanita paused for a moment.

"Okay."

Iris couldn't sleep.

She wasn't sure if it was the events of the day, the butterflies in her stomach or the nightmares from last night threatening to return, but something was keeping her awake. She'd counted all the little marks on the ceiling several times, tossed and turned every which way, even tried listening to music, but nothing worked. So instead, she found herself walking the barracks halls at past 1am.

She went to the toilets; she didn't really need to go, but it was something to do. Her reflection in the mirror watched her closely as she entered and shuffled to the cubicles.

"Iris."

The voice was strange. She didn't recognise it, but she had the strangest sense that she should. Had she fallen asleep after all? Was this a dream?

"Iris. We have to talk."

Iris pinched herself. She was definitely awake. But she couldn't tell where the voice was coming from; it was like it was coming from everywhere at once.

"You can't ignore me forever."

Iris came out of the cubicles and saw the mirror. Her reflection looked back at her, and smiled with an alien smile. Its eyes were not her eyes.

It was Thanatos.

Next time:

Desperate for escape, Iris suggests a movie night to Amanita. But can she really escape from her own feelings?

Find out in the next exciting episode. Episode Nine: Signifier!