Adopted Soldier

Rachel was running through the hallways of the broken base, retracing her steps towards the place she last saw her father. When she got to the place he last saw him, the shutter doors were still closed, but unlike before this thing wasn't going to stop her. Rachel activated her [ability] and punched the shutter doors with burning flames, melting the door. 

...

While Alex and the others were trying to catch up to Rachel, Oliver saw something in one of the rooms. He stopped running, which made everyone except for Alex to stop running as well. 

"Oliver, what's wrong?" Sayaka asked.  

"You guys go ahead, I want to check something out." 

"Are you going to be okay?" Niel who also noticed what was inside those rooms had a few guesses as to why Oliver wanted to look. Knowing how extremely perceptive Niel was, Oliver, nodded his head and answered, "Yeah, I'm going to be okay." 

"I see..." After saying that Niel and the others left, except for Sayaka who stood beside him. 

"You can go ahead, I'll catch up in a bit." Sayaka shook her head and answered, "I'm staying with you Oly. The whole reason I even went here was for you. Of course, I also came for Alex and the others, but my main reason is you and always will be you. Now that I can finally touch you and see you, I'm never letting you out of my sight ever again!"

Oliver looked at Sayaka surprised by her sudden outburst. After the shock passed Oliver smiled at Sayaka and said, "sure, then we'll be together forever from this point onward." 

Hearing Oliver's answer Sayaka hugged Oliver and almost cried. This was close enough that you could even call it a proposal. 

...

While Oliver and Sayaka were having their lovey-dovey moment, Rachel was finally able to destroy the shutter door. As she was about to enter, Alex was finally able to catch up and stood in front of Rachel blocking her path. 

"What are you doing Alex?" Rachel spoke with a bit of annoyance in her tone. 

"Please, allow me to look at it first."

"Why?!"

"Please, just allow me to do this. I just want to check the surrounding area, and see that there's no traps or monsters." 

"You do know, right now I'm currently as strong or even stronger than you."

"You might have gained an [Ability] that enhances your destructive power, but my overall stats are still higher than yours." 

Hearing Alex's answer, and knowing that it was true made Rachel grind her teeth. After a minute as everyone else was finally able to catch up and gathered around Rachel, she sighed.

"Fine, you can go in first..." Rachel reluctantly agreed as she clenched her fist. She understood what Alex was trying to do, but she still felt a bit frustrated.

"Thank you, Rachel." Alex smiled gently at Rachel as he entered the hole she made through the shutter doors. The first thing Alex noticed was the body of his other grandfather, Leon Greyhound.

The body of one of the most talented Greyhound was laying on the ground his head squashed into meat paste. Unlike Richter, Alex actually felt a lot of pity for Leon. This man's whole life was a tragedy, and even in his second try, it still ended in tragedy. 

Alex decided to burn Leon's body later. After he was done checking Leon's dead body he tried looking around for Dan's. Of course, he wanted Dan to be alive but based on all the information he gathered from the others the chances of him being alive were unlikely. 

He noticed that beside Leon's body was a big pool of blood, based on Leon's wounds it was impossible that all this blood came from him. Upon closer inspection, Alex noticed traces of a trail of blood splattered on the ground and the walls. 

He followed the trail of blood and as he walked onward he saw Leon's broken scythe and pieces of something that looked like they came from daggers. Even though Alex wasn't able to witness the battle, he could pretty much guess a bit of what happened after Rachel and the others were cut off from viewing the battle. 

Dan was really injured after the battle, his injuries were so severe it was a miracle that he survived, much less move.

'This might be the effect of using that skill called TRANSCEND.' Even though Alex had little to no information about TRANSCEND he could guess that it must be a stronger version of RELEASE, with even more side effects. 

'So that would mean after TRANSCEND wore off, Instructor Dan should have fainted somewhere here.' Alex looked around the area where the trail of blood disappeared, yet there was no dead or unconscious body to be found. There was nothing here, that indicated where Dan's body could've gone. 

Alex had a few theories of what happened to Dan after walking to this area of the base, each theory being bleaker than the last. After scouring the area. he still couldn't find the body. So Alex couldn't decide if it was alright for Rachel to see this. As he was thinking about what to do next, he heard the footsteps of people coming near his location. 

"Where is he?" Alex turned around and as expected Rachel was there, asking that question. 

"He's not here." 

"I see..." Hearing Alex's answer made Rachel smile. In truth, she like Alex also came to the same gruesome conclusion about her father's death. Now that she knew that his body was no longer here, means that there is a possibility of his survival. Especially now that they had special abilities, Dan might have survived. 

Of course, Alex and Rachel also had other theories of what happened, but Rachel decided to look at this situation in a positive light. Even though there were more reasons that point to Dan's death, Rachel chose to believe otherwise. 

It's not like this was the first time everyone thought he was dead. Rachel felt that not seeing his body was better than finding him. 

"I'll be waiting.... Dad."