J A X O N

Our combined anger was enough to fuel our group's unrelenting strides into the building, ignoring the soldiers gathering around us. They were trying to see what we were doing there, but no one said anything. We were there for Krasowski and her alone.

She'd done this to us. She was the reason we had these powers that set us away from all the other normal people. For all my life, I'd wanted to be normal just so that my family wouldn't have to hide me away like a bad secret. And now that I'd heard the details of what she'd done—experimenting on young pregnant women after they decided against joining her...I'd destroy her.

I knew the others mirrored my rage—for once, Arlo wasn't smiling and both Kane and Jake looked murderous. Finn wore an uncharacteristic scowl, which completely changed his usually sunny disposition. Even Riley, who didn't know much of what was going on, had her fists balled at her sides. Though she'd taken all our weapons, we'd rip Marcella Krasowski apart if she tried to stop us.

The soldiers, now catching on to our goal, tried to stop us from passing through the hallway to Krasowski's office. We simply pushed through their barricade, determined to win this fight. She couldn't push us out. Not this time.

The new secretary was going to say something to us until she saw the looks on our faces. At that, she went silent for a moment too long. Kane forced the office door open.

Inside, I was shocked to see her standing behind her desk as if she was expecting us. And standing next to her was Benny. For once, he wasn't swaggering and smug. In fact, he looked like he'd rather still be unconscious than be subject to the director anymore.

"Whatever you're here for, you're not going to get it," she told us with remarkable calmness. I wanted to see it break.

"We know what you did." I couldn't help but give her a smile dripping with cruel satisfaction. "And soon, everyone will know it too. You'll be ruined. Everyone will see you for the monster you are."

She laughed—actually laughed at that. "Now isn't that a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black? Look at yourselves: thieves, liars, gangsters, killers."

"Take it from me, being a science experiment is the worst kind of torture," Arlo said, voice cold. "You're just as bad as us."

Instead of addressing us further, Krasowski turned to Benny. "Look into their thoughts and tell me where where they got this information. If Damien Hunt's dispelling this information..."

"We'll kill you before you can get to him," I said, knowing we needed the last ally we had in Hunt. "Don't even try."

Krasowski said nothing. Benny was watching us now, staring into our eyes, one by one. It was unnerving, especially when we still weren't sure whether he was turned or not.

Finally, he had his answer and my stomach sunk. If he ratted us out, both we and Hunt would be in large trouble. She'd cut all communication between us and lock us down even further.

But then he opened his mouth. "They went through some of Hunt's old files." He turned to look at her, bored. "Apparently word of your little science experiment was in there."

Nothing about my outward expression changed, but I was surprised to hear him lie. He was covering up for us. I had no idea why, but it changed things.

Having enough of this, Jake cocked the gun I knew he'd been hiding and pointed it at Krasowski's head. "Give me one reason I shouldn't shoot right now." If he was anyone else, I wouldn't have actually believed he would. But he was Jake Evans and I didn't know what to expect.

"Because I'm the only one who knows where Delphinium Tesla is. Isn't she what you want?" She quirked an eyebrow at him, unperturbed by his threats.

"What I want," he mocked, "Is you torn from your position and then killed." But then he turned the gun to Benny. "Where is she."

The agent needed no convincing. "Down the hall from where my cell was. Third door on the left." Soldiers were marching closer...

Benton could have been lying. He could have been leading us into a trap. But Jake looked back to Krasowski for a split second before knocking her back into her chair with an icy wind. Frost grew from the roots of her hair and her face went white. I wished he shot her right then and there, but killing the director of the ONNT would cause an even bigger backlash for us. No, the public had to know what she did to us first. Only then would her death not lead to Delphinium's—or our own.

Whipping around to the doorway, Jake said to Benton, "Follow closely behind."

As Kane's brother moved to join us, I gave him a glare and said, "One wrong move and I'll hit you so hard, you'll wish you were back with Orion." I hadn't forgotten how he'd manipulated our team into a civil war, how he'd helped turn Gigi away from us, how he'd stolen Delphinium away to her greatest fear.

But as Marcella Krasowski screamed for backup far behind us, the smug smile returned. "If you can catch me."

With that, he whipped out a hidden switchblade and I was sure he was about to stab one of us. But then he swung it for an incoming ONNT soldier that was standing in our way. Kane and I exchanged a look. Perhaps Benny really had changed.

It wasn't very hard to fight our way down to where they were keeping Delphinium captive. Because most of the soldiers were on ground floor, they also had to go down countless flights of stairs as we had. But there was no doubt the onslaught would be close behind.

"There." Benny jerked his chin at a steel door to our left. "That's hers."

He turned to give Kane a flat look. "Please, brother, keep your skeptical thoughts to yourself. If I was here to kill her, I would have done it already."

So the strongman turned and ripped the steel door off its hinges, throwing it into three approaching soldiers wearing murderous expressions. "Show off," Arlo murmured under his breath.

Inside, the cell looked identical to the one Benny had been locked in—the platform to get down to the bulletproof glass box. Delphinium was inside with a straitjacket on. History was repeating itself.

The soldiers could be here any minute; we had no time to waste. Finn waged his fire against the cage Delphinium was in, hoping to melt it enough to get her out. The rest of us braced for a fight—Marcella Krasowski wouldn't let us out of here without one. And as for Delphinium herself...she sat with an eerie quiet, like she should be screaming or yelling at us or even moving but wasn't. She just watched.

The metal casing around the glass cell melted first. As soon as it was glowing and molten, the bulletproof glass began to melt down as well. Soon, there was a hole burned in the center, acting as a doorway.

Without a thought, I went inside and faced the assassin. She stared up at me like she didn't know what we were doing here. But when her eyes flicked to something behind me, I knew Jake had entered behind me. She silently watched his every move as he came forward and cut through the straitjacket with a razor-like ice shard. I noticed how he barely touched her.

He straightened and finally met her gaze. "Get up, Tesla." His voice was cold as ever. "We need to go."

She looked away from him and to where our teammates were fighting the incoming soldiers. The stream of men wasn't much now, but it was increasing with every wasted second. And then she said to no one in particular, "What if this is where I should be?"

It shouldn't have been much of a shock; it was obvious she'd be guilty after what she'd been forced to do. All that killing. But did she truly believe she deserved to stay here rotting away in a cell with no human contact?

"We can talk about that later." I shot another glance over my shoulder. "Jake's right, they can only hold off those soldiers for so long."

She kept watching them. "I don't know if I'm worth all this."

"Yes you are. There's a reason we stormed the building to get you." I held out a hand to her. "Come on."

Someone yelled behind us. We were running out of time. Not waiting for Delphinium to take my hand, I took hers and practically pulled her out of the cell. She couldn't stay here; they might kill her to punish us now that they'd gotten what they wanted from her.

I now realized why she was watching the others so adamantly: the bloodshed and fighting was triggering to her time at the fortress. It was too soon to expose her to another battle. "Don't worry, we won't be doing that. Have you ever been invisible before?"

She looked at me like she wasn't quite sure if I was there or not. Perhaps my lighthearted question had hit harder than I'd meant; this whole time, she'd been the opposite of invisible—constantly thrown into the spotlight with the ONNT and now Orion. She'd always been our enemies' primary focus and that was what was destroying her.

I didn't wait for her to answer. I made sure to keep a lighthearted smile on my face, though I'd only tried to make anyone else invisible once before. Myself and small objects were easy. But a whole other living person? I already knew how it would sap my strength.

Focusing all my attention on her mass beside mine, I worked on vanishing her from the soldiers' eyes. It was somewhat easier with her hand in mine, grounding her to my power. One moment she was there and the next moment, we were both gone. Because of my power, I could still see her, but no one else could.

Careful to keep her out of the midst of the battle, I pulled her along the outer edge of the group. Arlo, Riley, Kane and now Jake were pushing the soldiers back to make room for our escape. Finn, who I knew had recently killed an ONNT soldier by accident, was lingering in the back of the group, fighting with a look on his face that let me know he hated everything about this situation. Because the soldiers themselves weren't evil like their leader, none were killed; the others went for the legs to incapacitate them. But still, I could tell it was taking a toll on Finn to remember.

We were close now. The doorway was hectic but we could get out. Just a few more steps—

Delphinium faltered and her hand in mine went frozen. I saw what had made her stop: Benton. He was nearer to us than anyone else and I could sense her fear because of it. He'd been the one to drag her to the fortress. That memory was clearly still in her mind.

"He's fine for now," I whispered to her, hoping it would be enough to get her moving on again. "He's fighting with us to help you escape."

When she still clearly wasn't convinced, I almost pulled her through the doorway. "Delphinium, we won't let anything else happen to you. I won't. But we need to escape now." She thankfully began forward again and pressed closer to the wall on her other side to avoid being close to the battle. Her hands were shaking.

We were in the hallway now. Soldiers raced past us and I had to dodge them to prevent being run into. I pointed down the hall. "We're going to run like hell down there, okay? It's an escape route." It would be the same place Hunt let me out of after being enlisted into the team. That seemed to be a lifetime ago.

This time, she gave a single shaky nod. I took that as the signal to go. Together, we raced down the hallway, far away from the battle, far away from Marcella Krasowski. Doing my best to remember the path I'd taken all those months ago, I directed us down corridor after corridor. I had to be right, or else we'd be cornered and captured together. My strength was fading but I pressed on like it wasn't.

There it was. The exit. I practically ripped the door off its hinges as I shoved it open. So far, no one was following. But they'd soon come with the rest of the team.

I leaned against a nearby street lamp and panted, letting the two of us momentarily become visible again when my weak hand slipped out of hers. At the absence of my touch, she stepped closer to me. In the open sunlight, I could see how pale she still was. She was afraid of what would happen next.

"The others are coming," I told her when some of my energy had returned. "After that..." I trailed off.

After that, we had nowhere to go. Even though we hadn't killed Krasowski yet, there would still be repercussions for our actions. The compound was not ours anymore. Hunt was probably already being watched now. Most of us didn't even have homes to begin with.

But I did. Sort of.

An idea began hatching in my mind. I instantly hated it and wished we had another option, but we didn't. It was either that or be on the run with nowhere to go.

The thought came into my brain at the exact moment the others burst through the exit. Everyone—including Benton—was unharmed just enough to run. So we did what I suspected we'd be doing for a long time now.

We ran for our lives, unsure of what would happen if we were caught.