Only a few of them actually agreed to help me, once I proposed my plan to the other Gifteds, and Varien was definitely not on that list. That threw a brick at my plan.

My idea was to hit the games' power plant - they had a personal generator, so it would only knock out the power for the games and surrounding facilities, and probably not the entire city. No power meant no fights, and that meant I had time to figure out a better way to do this. I needed Varien because even without his power, he was good at blending into the shadows to avoid being seen. With his power, he'd be able to knock out their generators easily.

I quickly ran through who I had on my side: Aaron, an illusionist, earth moving powers, and Sky, though I found it kind of ironic that he could control water. But that was it. We could get the job done, especially with the couple of fireworks I'd bought, but it would be hard and dangerous. I needed someone else with a power that would make things explode.

Even before I approached him, I felt guilty. It had only been two days since his outburst.

I found him sitting on a balcony with Sky, both of them talking in hushed tones. I took a breath to ask my question, and he started to say something - no doubt telling me to go away - but for some reason, he paused. "What?" he muttered instead.

"Leo, I need your help," I said.

"With what?" he grumbled.

I braced myself for what was coming. I knew what he'd say, but I figured I'd try anyway. "I have this idea -"

"I know," he interrupted. "Now you want me to help you, don't you? You want my power."

I shifted nervously. "Yes and no. Nothing I say will change your mind, so I'm not going to say anything."

"How could you ask him to do this?" Sky suddenly demanded, gesturing roughly at his friend. "Look at him! You know what he's done, and now you're going to ask him to put himself in danger like that?"

I hadn't expected Sky to explode. He seemed like such a cool and collected person, and I was caught off guard. "No, I -"

"No!" Sky shouted, his voice cracking. "The answer is no! Leave him alone, Joel!"

My eyes flickered to Leo helplessly. "Do you want to help?" I asked softly.

"No," he mumbled.

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks for listening."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Okay," I repeated. "I'm not going to force you to do anything. Your answer was no. Thanks for listening."

He exchanged a glance with Sky and then sighed almost angrily. "Alright, fine, I'll do it."

"You will?" My hopes rose against my will.

"With you acting all nice, I'll feel guilty if I don't," he grumbled.

"You sure?" Sky asked.

"I guess so." Leo kept his eyes on the ground, staring at the camp miserably. "When do we leave?"

"Tonight," I said proudly. Now we had a chance. Now we had some fire power on our side.

"Yippee," Leo muttered.

...

"Braken, why do you walk like that? Are you hurt?" I asked. He just shook his head, but he was stiff as he moved, and that worried me. I hadn't let him go on this mission with us because I didn't want him to get hurt, but it seemed like he was hurting anyway. "Can I help you?"

He hesitated, and then sighed and pulled me off to a corner, slowly tracing letters on my wrist. BACK HURTS TO DAY.

"May I see?" I asked softly.

Again, he hesitated, but carefully, he pulled his hoodie and shirt over his head, revealing the old bandages. I felt awful as soon as I saw them, as I'd forgotten about them once we'd gotten out of Anna's place and this new mess had started.

I swallowed hard and began to peel the bandage away, squeezing my eyes shut as my vision tipped. The gashes were worse than I thought. They hadn't been healing. They'd almost been getting worse. My memories immediately took me back to that arena, standing out in the rain while the whip snapped down again and again.

"Braken, how long has this been bothering you?" I whispered.

He shrugged. A long time.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He wrote on my wrist again, thinking hard about the words. His face flushed pink as he wrote. YOU WERE WERRYED ABOUT LEO. DIDNT WANT TO WERRY ABOUT ME.

"Braken ..." I looked into his deep blue eyes and sure enough, I could see the pain buried behind a fake smile. I had thought he was happy. I guess I was wrong.

He tried to smile at me, but he bit his lip to keep it from quivering and fought to keep the tears away. IM FINE, he wrote.

"Not you too," I said, growing desperate. "I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong. Please, it's already hard enough with Leo pushing me away. I don't need you to push me away, too." I let my gaze fall to his mangled back. "Come on, let's get this taken care of. I have an hour."

He let me lead him up to the balcony with the medicine, where I'd cleaned Leo up a few days ago, and then he slumped over at the table. There was a striking resemblance between him and his friend, and I hoped desperately that the same thing wouldn't happen to him.

I retrieved the hydrogen peroxide again and carefully began to wash him up. He tensed up in pain, but he didn't move. "Braken," I said, and he glanced at me. "Please tell me if you ever want to cut yourself, or if you feel like you're worthless. I don't want to lose you like I've lost Leo."

He signed something and sighed, resting his cheek on the table top. When he realized I didn't understand, he sighed again and wrote the letters on my wrist. IS HE RELLY GON?

I hesitated to think. Was he really? "Yes," I finally whispered. "I think he is."

I could see the heartache in Braken's expression, his boyish brow furrowed in concern. His blue eyes stayed glued to the wall, glistening with tears, and his fingers tapped the wood as some nervous habit. He chewed on his lip as he stared, and I caught sight of that pale scar again, as well as the one across his nose. Now that he'd been out in the sunlight more often, a few tiny brown freckles had appeared across his nose and cheekbones, but now they were hidden in a flush of red.

He suddenly squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth, his fists clenched and his shoulders shaking. I stopped washing his back and let him cry. This time, his crying was different. He didn't look so helpless or innocent, like he usually did. He looked like a lost, seventeen year old fighter who knew so much was wrong, and yet couldn't do anything about it. He looked older and more mature, and it almost made me sad to think about.

He kept his face buried in his arms, but he let one hand out and signed a few letters, very slowly. I'd tried to learn the alphabet in sign language, but I couldn't get all of the letters - only an O and a Y. After a moment, he sat back up, rubbing his eyes, and put his fist to his chest. Sorry.

"It's okay," I said, pulling up a chair and sitting next to him.

He shook his head and took my hand, hesitating a moment to think and rub his thumb across my palm, and then he began to write, slow and steady. It was a longer message this time, and I was glad I'd gotten good at reading those traced words.

IM SO WERRYED ABOUT HIM. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. He paused, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand again. IM SCARED HES GONNA KILL HIMSELF AND LEEVE ME ALONE. I WANT TO HELP HIM BUT I CANT. He looked up at me, his eyes pleading. TAKE CARE OF HIM TO NITE. And then he rested his palm flat against his heart. Please.

"I will," I whispered. "I promise."

A ghost of a smile appeared across his lips as he signed his thanks, and then he slumped over again on the table, so I could wrap him up again. As I did, I tried not to think about the lashes on his back, or the fact that I was going back to the games tonight to hopefully destroy their power.

I didn't want Braken around Leo anymore. As soon as I thought it, I felt a deep feeling of guilt settle in my heart, but I didn't take it back. I was afraid that his bitter personality and depression was rubbing off on Braken, and that was the last thing I wanted. I didn't want to abandon Leo, by any means, but at the same time ... I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to help him, and I didn't want Braken sucked into the same darkness Leo lived in.

How could I tell him that?

I couldn't. It would destroy him.

...

The streets outside of Refuge were colder than I remembered. I shivered and pulled my hood up over my head to keep the warmth in, and then glanced over at Leo. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets and his own hood hiding his face. He felt my gaze and returned my glance, his eyes almost empty. A little bit of blond hair stuck out from under his hood, falling in his eyes, and the only reason he broke eye contact was to push it away.

My mind replayed the conversation with Braken over and over. I had to take care of Leo, but I couldn't endanger the rest of them. I couldn't be this distracted. I had to make sure everything went according to plan.

The sacrifice of one is for the greater good.

"How close are we?" someone whispered. The one with the earth power - what was his name? I forgot.

"Almost there," I answered.

Sky put his arm around Leo as we picked up our pace. I was freezing and wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. It had started to snow, freezing my nose.

And then - there it was.

The big stadium and arena. It looked like it had once been a sports stadium, but no one cared about sports unless it involved someone killing another. It made me sick.

I was glad I'd been able to rewire my thinking. I knew I was lucky. If I hadn't have had this shift, I probably would have used them to break myself out, and then turn them back in with Anna. I missed Anna, and wished she could've had the same realization as me.

Thinking about Anna made me think about Braken all over again. They were siblings. Who was their father, and why was he so against Gifteds? His own wife and son were Gifteds. I knew he would have never met his son, but he must have loved his wife at least a little, right?

Aaron hit my arm. "Hey. Earth to Joel. We're here."

I blinked as the thoughts vanished. "Oh. Right. Uh ..." I looked around for the generator, and found the building off to the left. We'd have to get pretty close to get it. "Over there," I pointed, and they all looked. "Aaron, you make sure no one is coming. You -" I gestured at the illusionist, because I'd forgotten her name, too. Meghan, I think. "You cover us if someone does." I turned back to the earth Gifted, trying to remember his name. "Um ... you ..."

"David," he said softly.

"Yeah, David. You're going to get the doors open, right?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and the earth shook a little beneath our feet.

"Then Leo's gonna light it up," I said, finishing my plan.

"What about me?" Sky asked, almost angrily.

My mind drew a blank. "Uh ... backup."

"And you?" Leo said coldly.

This time, I knew what I was going to say, even though I desperately didn't want to. "If they find us here, I'll cover you with the fireworks in my bag. I'll make sure you all get away."

"What if you get captured?" Meghan asked.

"I'll try not to think about that." I almost let out a laugh, but instead, it came out as an embarrassing squeal. I cleared my throat, grateful for the darkness to hide my blush. "You guys ready?"

Most of them nodded. Leo stayed staring miserably at the ground.

We moved closer to the building, staying in a tight group, even though I told them we'd just attract more attention that way. The closer we got, the tighter my chest became. I was sweating a river now, even in the freezing air. I wondered if I'd give myself hypothermia.

"Here," I breathed, and we stopped with our backs against the arena. I prayed desperately that we wouldn't get caught.

"Alright," Aaron said, turning to face the opposite direction. "All clear."

I signaled to David and he nodded, taking a deep breath. His hands were shaking as he held them out to command the earth. "I wonder if I can break Willem out," he mumbled under his breath as he gently pushed his hands out.

A ripple of earth bubbled up and then sunk back down, traveling quickly up to the door to the generator building. We waited a second, and then half of the building exploded with a shower of earth.

"Whoops," David said.

Immediately, alarms went off, and all of us flinched. "Hurry up!" Sky whispered.

"Someone's coming," Aaron hissed.

"Leo, you're up," I said. "Meghan, cover us."

"Joel ..." Leo whispered. "I - I can't -"

"Come on, Leo," Meghan said. "I can't hold this for long."

"Please, Leo," I begged. "Why can't you -"

"I don't know!" he shouted, turning to face me. He was shaking and pale, his eyes frantic. "I - I don't know why, I just - I can't -"

"They're coming!" Meghan and Aaron shrieked.

"Leo -" Sky said.

"Hey!" a soldier yelled. There were at least six of them. Maybe eight. We didn't stand a chance.

I swore softly under my breath. I should've just left Leo at Refuge. "Alright, all of you get out of here."

"But what about -" David started.

"I'll be fine." I doubted I would be, but I'd promised none of them would get hurt. I wasn't about to let them down now. "Sky, get everyone out. Do whatever you have to."

He nodded and assumed command. "Meghan, send some illusions. Confuse them. David, knock 'em down. Come on, Leo."

They all took off - except Leo, who stumbled behind. I swallowed hard and stepped into the light, lighting two fireworks. Here goes nothing, I thought, hurling them as far as I could. I wouldn't go down without a fight.

The soldiers scattered, and I took off running in the opposite direction as the Gifteds. In a second, the generator building exploded, much to my surprise. The force knocked me back, the heat blasting in my face. I landed hard on my back, my ears ringing and spots clouding my vision. I tried to pull myself up, but I could barely move. I was shaking too bad. I couldn't feel my left arm.

"There!" another soldier shouted.

Move! I ordered myself, and barely managed to pull myself up onto my hands and knees. This was it. I was going to die. I hoped Leo was safe. It was the least I could do.

And then the soldiers scattered again and someone skidded to a stop next to me.

"Come on, Joel. Stand up. I'll help you."

My whole body hurt - except for my arm. I still couldn't feel that. Everything was blurry now. I couldn't think straight.

"Almost there. We'll get you taken care of. I promise."

And then everything went dark.