Several gunshots. Yudi's voice yelling out for Aalekh. Everything eerily quiet after that. If that wasn't enough to get the cadets and their mentor worried, the men in masks surrounding them with rifles certainly was. Rajveer, Naina, Huda, Ali, Kamran and Sai were standing almost in a huddled circle facing the men, while their only hope, Pooja, was barely hidden behind a tree a few meters from the clearings. She wouldn't be spotted unless she made a visible move, since it was dark, but not dark enough yet.

"What do you want?" Rajveer asked the man who was behaving like the leader. The reply was a blow on the stomach from a rifle. He stumbled back only slightly, being used to pressure from years of training, but he didn't mind the soft yet firm hands supporting his back. Naina glowered at the man who did it. Seeing this, Rajveer mused that if eyes could kill, no doubt that the man would've been dead.

He bent down slowly, pretending to hold his stomach in pain and wobbling slightly. He turned his head undetectably towards Naina and Huda's direction and winked. They caught on and Naina immediately bent forward pretending to help him and meekly asked the terrorists for aid.

Since the masked men were a bit distracted from Rajveer's convincing groans (so convincing that Naina was worried if they were real or not), Huda pretended to scratch his head, making clear enough signs with his hand to Pooja. She didn't need anymore telling. He winked back at Rajveer when he saw her quietly sneaking behind the guard at the corner in the dark, narrowly forgetting the earlier incidents.

Suddenly, in a flash of a few seconds, time seemed to slow down as a series of things happened like a chain reaction. Pooja snapped the guard's neck inexpertly from the lack of experience, who whimpered out causing the others to notice it, Naina and Ali pounced on the nearest two men while Rajveer, Huda, and Kamran went for the others and Sai ran to the ammunitions box safely hidden away within a bush.

The terrorists seemed to be new at this; they didn't put up much of a fight before surrendering. Soon, they were tied around a tree and gagged tightly. Rajveer turned around to face his students, who were looking at him expectantly for orders about the next move. He shifted his status fully to the teacher mode now.

"That, Cadets, was a different version of the code 'Hootie and the Blowfish'. And now, I'm going to demonstrate how to interrogate without getting physical." He winked at them, and they grinned back.

~*~*~

It was dark, but not quiet. There was a constant sound of pacing nearby, which in a strange sort of way calmed his headache. He tried to open his eyes and groaned. He forced himself to sit up, rubbing his numb arm with the other one. He dazily looked around, and his eyes focused on the source of the pacing.

"Nautanki saala..." he muttered to himself, wincing in pain as he sat up properly against the cold and hard wall behind him. Yudi, his head bleeding, was pacing around the room beside his. Aalekh was hidden from his view because of the wall beside the one he was leaning against. There were bars coming out from the wall, through which Aalekh could see his friend.

"Oye!" he called quietly. The pacing abrptly stopped, followed by a sudden rushing sound. Yudi was gripping the bars as tightly as he could, as if trying to bend them. His knuckles turned white from the pressure.

"Aa - Aalekhh!! Tum! Oh my God... you're..." he gasped. "You're alive!" he exclaimed, but calmed down when he received Aalekh's glare. "Are you OK?" he whispered.

"I fell from a hilltop, was hit by many trees and bushes... do you think I'm OK?" he gritted through his teeth, mostly from the pain than anger. He had never been so glad to be alive before; this time, he had people and reasons to live for.

~*~*~

Rajveer moved some hanging branches out of his way as he walked through the jungle, looking wornout and dirty. He suddenly stopped, turning back and holding his hand out. A feminine hand accepted it. He looked at their entwined hands for a few moments before snapping out of the daze and moving on as quietly as possible.

"Captain Rajveer!" an unpleasant familiar voice called him. He froze on his steps.

Precap - "He hasn't seen you yet! Go, hurry!" Rajveer whispers frustratedly.

"Dude, you're heavy!" Yudi tells Aalekh, who is balanced on his shoulders.