The night covered the frozen terrain, only the howling wind and the crashing of ice from the aftershocks. Gamma had retreated. Only one person remained. Margaret Woods.

She walked through the frozen underground corridor, her Delta-05 armor emitting a faint electronic hum as she stepped. Her hand still held the plasma-rifle at the ready, but her heart was strangely uneasy. She had not been ordered to stay. But her instincts told her… someone was here.

Margaret stopped in a scorched room – the old command center. The control panel was cracked, Yautja runes were scratched into the walls. And there, in the darkness, a tall figure was breathing heavily.

Him.

Data: 2m33, armor shattered, left shoulder bleeding green. Bright metallic blue eyes stared straight at her, like a cornered beast. It was the Fugitive Predator – designation R-ΣKΔ-4172, the subject that Delta had been urgently searching for for three years.

Margaret raised her gun. But her hand… didn’t pull the trigger.

“What… are you?” – She asked, her voice low, not shaking but not angry.

The fugitive didn’t answer. He slowly put down the weapon, not roaring, not resisting. It was just… he looked at her as if he had known her for a long time.

---

[Analysis Code – Exogenous Memory Retrieval #556-ZPD]

“…Not the first time…”

“Margaret. A half-blood. A child who changed her mind to join the humans. The one who helped me escape.”

“…You forgot, I didn’t…”

---

Margaret saw something in those eyes – not animalistic, not a killer – but… a soul hunted by her own race. Instinct told her to call Delta. But the heart… wouldn’t listen.

“You need an ambulance.”

“If I save you, you won’t kill me, will you?”

The Fugitive bowed. It was a strange gesture… almost a thank you.

She approached, cautiously, her hand lightly touching the broken armor. He didn’t move. In that moment, the distance between a human and a hunted creature seemed to… disappear.

---

[End Note File – ZPD Overseer Rho-4]:

“That was the first time they met – not in combat, but in silence. A moment that defied our definition of ‘abnormal’.”

“We should have destroyed them both then.”

“But it was too late… They had seen each other.”

The wind blew through the warped metal corridor, hissing like whispers buried alive in ice. Margaret knelt down, pulling her personal first aid kit from her side, her hand still half-guarded. She had never done this for a Yautja before—especially a fugitive—but she did it anyway. Because he was… not what the records said.

“What is your name?”

“Or should I just call you ‘traitor’?”

Silence.

He looked at her intently, then tapped the ground three times with his two unbroken fingers. A signal? Or…?

He opened his torn chest, revealing a scorched symbol—a tribal symbol chiseled away halfway. Margaret let out a small breath.

“They disowned you…”

The Fugitive just nodded. Then—slowly—he touched the ZPD badge on her chest. Not crushing it, not ripping it off. Just… touching it.

She felt a chill run down her spine. The gesture was not one of hatred, but of acceptance. As if he knew that she had been betrayed by her own organization.

---

[PROFILE EXTRACTION – MARGARET WOODS | ZPD CODE_Δ-2315]

Characteristics: Human-Yautja hybrid.

Imprisoned at Facility-09 until age 16.

Recruited directly into ZPD Gamma, then Delta.

Suspected of having an unstable tendency toward anomalies.

---

Her Yautja blood suddenly trembled. Not because of predatory instincts – but because of something deeper… an invisible thread. Between two creatures ostracized by the place they were born. Outside, the sound of engines. Red warning lights flashing.

“Delta is coming back…” – Margaret gritted her teeth – “If they find you here, you’re dead.”

“I have to take you.”

The Fugitive shook his head, then put his hand on her plasma-rifle, pushing it toward his chest. A paradoxical gesture – as if she wanted to finish him off. She pushed back:

“No.” – She looked him straight in the eye – “I will not kill someone who does not want to kill me.”

“We… disappear from their sight together.”

For the first time, he made a sound – low, hoarse, and almost broken:

“Marg…ret…”

She froze.

“Do you remember my name?”

No answer. But Margaret understood. He was not a stranger. He was a survivor… of a memory she had been forced to forget.

---

[CODE NOTES – Overseer Rho-4]

“We once tried to erase Margaret Woods’ memories of ‘mission Omega-12’. It clearly… failed.”

“And the man you saved that day… was the same man who held your hand as you left Experimental Camp 09.”

---

Margaret activated the hidden emergency code – opening an underground exit that led to the third ice layer. She helped him stand up. Even though he weighed almost twice as much as she did, their steps were even.

A person.
An anomaly.
A shattered memory.
A moment that opened the door to the most dangerous escape in the history of the ZPD.