J A K E

It all went to shit as soon as Benny broke away from the group and ran like mad toward Delphinium and Gigi. I saw the latter being forced into the blades of a helicopter that the assassin was controlling. Gigi was about to lose her head. The thought almost made me smile.

I abandoned the others—Kane and Jaxon were brawling on the ground as Arlo screamed at Riley. Finn fought the Imperium agent that Benny brought, his fire creating a haze of smoke and ashes.

Benny was too close to her now. She had to kill Gigi, had to get rid of this threat. I shot an icicle toward Kane's brother and watched it sail through his abdomen. Unfortunately, he'd already reached her. Then Delphinium's attention was turned away from Gigi and her control over the helicopter was lost.

Gigi hurled herself out of the way as the helicopter blades touched the ground and sent itself flying. Pieces of the blades, glass and metal went everywhere. It was quiet and the dust had begun to settle before the entire wreckage exploded. Smoke engulfed all four of us.

When it cleared, Gigi was beginning to get back on her feet. She didn't look good; the assassin had her bleeding from several different lacerations. A large gash on her back told me that perhaps Tesla had pushed her far enough to clip the blades of the helicopter.

"You..." she gasped, seemingly at a loss of words for the assassin, "You bitch. You almost beheaded me."

"Did you expect me to stand here politely while you slowly turned me to a corpse?" Her words were sharp, but she then let out a muted scream and clawed at her body. I had no idea what exactly Gigi was doing to her, but it clearly was painful. A smug Benny watched on as Gigi sated her desire for revenge. Despite Gigi healing the injury I'd given him, he still moved with a slight stiffness.

His dark eyes met mine. "You see, Evans? You'll never win." He was wrong; I'd always come out on top. They simply hadn't gotten it through those thick skulls of theirs yet.

A deep rumbling came from within the earth. Tesla was moving something great with her power. Cracks in the asphalt spiderwebbed outward from where she knelt on the ground.

My attention switched back on her opponent. Gigi was so solely focused on the assassin that I wondered if she even remembered the rest of us existed.

I lunged for Gigi. Dodging two bullets shot by Benny in an attempt to stop me, I found myself right at the side of our former healer. There was no hesitation on my part when I dragged the broken blade in my hand across Gigi's throat.

As she dropped to my feet, I gave Tesla a look. "I told you I'd have your back." The words came out sharp and mocking. I didn't spare Gigi a glance.

She didn't even glance up at me. Both she and Benny stared down at Gigi, crumpled in an odd position on the ground. I thought she was dead. Any wound like that would have cut both arteries.

But there wasn't enough blood. The slice on her neck was getting smaller, closing up.

"Oh, Evans," Benny chided, looking very pleased. "All you've done is make her more angry."

Out of nowhere, the broken, bleeding hand raised off the concrete and grabbed my leg. I kicked her off, still not quite sure how this could be possible. She had to be very powerful to survive a wound like that, especially since she already had so many others.

Gigi sat hunched over like some sort of inhuman creature, her long braids falling wildly all over her face. When she finally raised her head, the wound on her throat was visible, not closed, just slightly healed. She wouldn't die from it immediately, but it was taking a visible toll on her.

"You'll die for that, Evans," she hissed, blood dripping from her mouth onto the concrete. "Right next to Delphinium."

"You still don't understand. To be truly dedicated to revenge, you have to be ready to go down with your opponent."

She gave me a look that told me what I'd said had been a grave mistake. Then it came, the unbearable pain in my chest that Delphinium must have been feeling. It was a squeezing sensation, almost like her hand was actually grasping my heart. My vision was beginning to go dim but I didn't show any sign of weakness.

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Tesla rise and simply stand there for a moment. I'd never seen her so furious. Fire burned in her eyes and she bared her teeth like she wanted to rip out Gigi's throat.

The ground continued to rumble as if an earthquake was arriving. Letting out a guttural roar, Delphinium opened her arms wide and the concrete around Gigi exploded. She hadn't been lying when she'd said her power was increasing.

Soon, Gigi lay in the bottom of a dark chasm deep below us. She began to scream, but it was no use.

Before Benny could make any attempt to harm her, Finn suddenly turned his flames toward the Imperium agent. To avoid being burned to death, Benny stepped back, making him fall into the pit. The other female agent was near Finn, but she made no attempt to harm us.

The three of us stared down into the chasm. Gigi was clawing at the walls like some mad animal while Benny simply sat on the dirt floor and looked up at us.

"I'll get out of here, Delphinium, and when I do, you'd better be saying your prayers. I am coming for you, and I'm sending you straight to Hell." I knew that she was hurting her inside by how Tesla's mouth tightened in pain. She stepped out of Gigi's sight.

"Maybe she'll say hello to your mother for you there," I said, not holding back. The look on her face was priceless.

I heard her say more things about her dead mother, but I didn't stay long enough for her to finally crush my heart in my chest. "This is over," I drawled as I stood over Kane and Jaxon as they brawled on the ground. "Williams. Traversa. You're with me."

"You want her with you?" Arlo asked, jerking his thumb at Riley. "Are you sure?"

Riley said nothing as she left the fight and went to stand somewhere behind me. I glanced down at Jaxon, who appeared to have been so involved in his fight that he hadn't heard me. A wave of my hand and an icy breeze knocked him back on his ass. "Williams, the fight is over. Come on." He looked up at me for a moment, mouth red with blood. For a moment I thought he might try to hit me next. But then he got unsteadily to his feet and wiped his mouth.

"If you two utter another word to another, I'll throw you into the pit with Gigi and Kane's brother," I told Riley and Jaxon, knowing that they were extremely likely to start another fight.

"We're taking the plane," I announced to the remaining members of our crew—if it even was one anymore. Then I gestured at the odd assassin girl who was still staring into the pit with glittering eyes. "And for god's sake, one of you do something about her."

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I jerked my chin toward the plane seat next to me, urging Riley to sit. "We have to discuss a few things, Traversa."

With clear hesitation, she sat. "Do we?"

Delphinium helped Jaxon sit down, his wounds bad but nothing deadly. She began to ask him how he was doing since the fight. I hoped that she wouldn't ask him about his prison time; I knew that it would set him off again in a rage of hurt and betrayal.

"You said that it felt as if Benny pulled the information from your brain. He did."

Riley raised a sculpted eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Benny somehow has the ability to read thoughts. He read yours before you could gain any power over him." I heard Jaxon give a loud, "What?" but ignored him for the time being.

She frowned deeply. "What? How do you...Wait. You knew this and didn't say anything?" Scoffing, she mumbled under her breath, "Kane was right, you were hiding something."

Anger was practically radiating off her but I didn't care. "I can make the others forgive you. I'm willing to tell them about Benny's ability if you'll do something for me."

Riley crossed her arms. "What do you want?"

"All the information you found out. In detail."

She regarded me under a cool gaze. "Fine."

Taking in a deep breath, she began talking. Riley told me everything, from Finn's wanting to be an ONNT soldier to her own childhood of loneliness and criminal activity.

"I also know what Delphinium told me." She stopped talking to watch the assassin speaking animatedly with Jaxon. "She said-"

"I don't want to hear it," I cut in. "Tell me more about this deal with Benny. How did he even approach you while still in the cell?"

She looked reluctant to tell me. "It was during the time that you were gone from the compound. I got a call from Benny about our deal: I would gather information on all of you and he wouldn't harm my old home. The ONNT only let him call me because they were desperate for intelligence from him. They thought I could get it. But he played us all. No one knew about his secret power until it was too late."

"Is it true?" Jaxon broke into the conversation, leaning over Tesla. "Is everything that you just said true?"

Riley and I answered, "Yes," simultaneously.

"You didn't know anything about Benny said? You didn't go through my drawers?"

She shook her head. "Even if I had known, I wouldn't have given him something important like that. I was going to tell him only the bare minimum."

Jaxon's blue eyes shifted to me. "Is she lying?"

I hadn't felt any sudden warmth from a telltale heart beating faster. "No."

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the dark-haired girl beside me for a moment longer. It appeared that he'd forgiven her, or at least would move on past their disagreement.

I leaned back in my chair. Today had given me a lot to think about. Many things had changed and I wondered what that would mean for my future.