Alexander opened his eyes to a harsh, blinding glare. He blinked against the sterile light, his vision clearing to reveal a seamless white ceiling and the familiar, pristine walls of a medical bay.

"Looks like you made it back sooner than expected, kid" said the woman.

Alexander dragged his gaze toward the sound of the smooth, sultry voice. Standing beside his bed was the same attractive doctor who had treated him the first time Marcus brought him to this hidden facility. Her lab coat was unbuttoned, and her sharp eyes held a knowing, amused glint.

"Where am I?" asked Alexander, his throat dry and rough.

"You don’t remember this place or me already?" said the doctor, a teasing smile playing on her lips. "How sad."

Alexander felt dead inside, his body a dull ache from head to toe. He had no energy left for games. He stared back at her with a flat, cold expression.

"What place is this?" asked Alexander, his voice dropping into a raspy demand.

"You are at the TMC medical center" said the doctor, her tone shifting into something more professional. "You are safe now. Your disorientation will last a little longer. We had to use much stronger doses this time. You were right on the edge of death."

"Death... death... Aria...!!" muttered Alexander.

The heavy fog in his mind burned away, his tactical memories rushing back into his skull. He tried to sit up, a sharp spike of agony flaring through his chest, shoulder, and leg.

"Where is Aria?" asked Alexander, his jaw clenched against the pain. "What the hell happened? Everything hurts."

"Easy, Agent 815" said the doctor, placing a firm, stabilizing hand on his uninjured shoulder. "I don’t know the specific details of your mission. However, the two women who arrived with you are perfectly fine. They are waiting for you in the lobby right now. They can tell you exactly what happened."

Alexander let his head fall back onto the pillow, his rigid muscles finally relaxing as a long, slow breath escaped his lips.

"Thank you" said Alexander.

"One final check before I can clear you for discharge" said the doctor.

She moved, scanning his vitals and inspecting the clean, high-tech synthetic closures covering his bullet wounds and facial burns. She nodded in satisfaction as the monitors displayed stable metrics.

"Alright, everything looks repaired" said the doctor, stepping back and charting the results. "Take it easy out there. You were so close to dying this time that even our advanced tech almost wasn’t enough to bring you back."

"You already know where the exit is" said the doctor, pocketing her pen and stepping away from the bedside. "You are free to go. Just try to be careful this time."

Alexander grunted in response and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress. His body still carried a dull, synthetic stiffness from the rapid cellular repair, but he stood up, tested his weight on his healed leg, and walked out into the main corridor.

He pushed through the heavy double doors leading to the secure reception area. A row of minimalist leather chairs lined the far wall, where Aria and Victoria were sitting side by side.

"Alex...!!" said Aria, instantly standing up as her face lit up with a mix of relief and exhaustion. "Are you alright?"

Alexander stopped in his tracks, momentarily expecting a far more dramatic reaction to his return from the dead. But a second later, he realized where he was. Both of these women were fully aware of TMC’s existence and its near-miraculous medical capabilities. To them, seeing him walking around as good as new just hours after taking multiple bullets and a C4 blast wasn’t a miracle—it was just standard protocol.

He rolled his shoulder, feeling the seamless tissue beneath his shirt, and looked at them.

"What happened out there?" asked Alexander, his deep voice smooth and direct. "How did we get here?"

"After Victoria handled that last piece of trash on the stairs, we tried to drag you out" said Aria, her voice still holding a slight tremor from the memory. "But you were unresponsive. You were losing too much blood, and your vitals were dropping fast."

"I knew standard hospitals couldn’t handle your profile, and you were seconds away from dying right in front of us" said Victoria, her usual dominant composure fully restored as she stood up and smoothed down her stained black dress. "So I made the executive call. I used my clearance to contact TMC. They dispatched an extraction team to the estate, cleaned up the mess, and brought us all straight here."

Before Victoria could continue, the heavy automated sliding doors at the end of the lobby hummed open. A sleek, sharply dressed man wearing the distinctive silver lapel pin of a TMC regional supervisor strode into the room, holding a digital tablet. He stopped in front of Victoria, his expression flat and corporate.

"Miss Kingsley" said the supervisor, handing her a digital receipt sheet. "TMC corporate insurance has fully covered the medical extraction and restructuring expenses for this incident. However, your account is facing immediate administrative penalties."

Victoria crossed her arms, looking unbothered. "Explain."

"You officially requested a standard Yellow-rank protection detail" said the supervisor, his voice sharp and robotic. "However, the operational environment immediately degraded into a Red-rank war zone. Furthermore, the specific asset you requested for this deployment is registered as a Blue-rank agent. Due to these extreme discrepancy factors, corporate is issuing your family a safety mitigation fine of 1.5 billion dollars to ensure this lack of risk assessment never happens again."

Alexander froze, his breath catching sharply in his throat as the astronomical number echoed through his mind. 1.5 billion. It was an fortune, enough to buy an entire sector of the city.

Victoria didn’t even blink. To her, the massive sum was nothing more than a minor administrative footnote.

"Yes, of course" said Victoria, waving her hand dismissively as she swiped her digital signature across the tablet. "Send my personal apologies to upper management. The situation devolved out of our immediate control."

The supervisor nodded once, taking back the tablet, before turning his cold, analytical gaze onto Alexander.

"Agent 815" said the supervisor, his tone tightening with an unyielding authority. "Remember your protocols. If any corporate client requests tasks that clearly exceed your designated operational tier, you have the right to report the discrepancy and cancel the contract immediately. You do not need to allow yourself to be coerced under any circumstances. The preservation and security of our field agents is the maximum priority of this organization."