Carmen meets us outside the meeting room after breakfast. I'd almost chickened out and decided to skip breakfast when I remembered about the fact that I had to use Edit again, but Chance insisted that I eat.

"Alright," Carmen presses her thumb to a button on a wall, and a hologram pops out. After concentrating for a while and solving all the weird codes and whatever that is that Carmen uses as a protection against intruders, the lasers slowly disappear, and we all step into the room.

"Coffee?" Carmen asks as she heads towards the machine.

I shake my head no, but the boys nod, and Dustin offers to "pay" for it this time. Carmen waves him off and fills three cups. When Chance gets his, he nods at it and then raises his eyebrows at me in a silent question. I shoot him a smile and a slight shake of my head as my answer. Chance nods, before kissing my temple, leaving sparks flying down my spine, and watching as Carmen opens the map.

"Okay," she glances at Chance, "I managed to find out what the sensor is like." She slides a holographic file towards Chance with her index and middle finger, and Chance stops it with his thumb as it reaches him.

Tapping the table, the file returns to a two-dimensional structure, and Chance begins to "flip open" the file like I do with electronic books.

His brows scrunch together. "How the heck do they get so much good ideas? They're just so twisted."

"Glad you found out, Adams," Carmen says sarcastically, earning a bitter laugh from Chance.

"I've brought my notebook, can I see the map again?" Dustin says, drawing my attention back to Carmen.

"Yeah, sure," With another few presses on the table, the map appears, and Dustin takes his time to scrutinize it, sketching out the floor plan.

Then I realise that some lines are uneven and almost all the lines he draws are thick, making it hard to get rid of the mistakes. I itch to help him, but hold back.

After one very messy and crooked floor plan is drawn, Dustin sends his sister an apologetic smile, before turning to me.

"Pretty sure you can do better. Why don't you try?" He passes me his notebook and pencil.

I try tapping the table like Carmen does, but the map remains as a three-dimensional block. Instead, it whirls around, making me dizzy. Carmen laughs, and swiftly changes the dimension of the map, and clicks on the floor plan for level one.

Flipping to a fresh page, I decide to start off with the right side. The floor plan starts to take shape on the paper, although the lines aren't completely straight, and I make a point of shading the exits and entrances. The only difficulty is that there are many people walking around on the campus, and the walls and pillars and stairs are not so distinguishable.

Soon enough, the first level is completed, and I start on the second and the third.

Once I'm done, I pass the notebook and the pencil back to Dustin and glance over at Chance. He's writing something, having obtained a few pieces of paper, but when I try to see,
he quickly hides the papers.

His cut from getting the paper is fresh, and I don't want to risk him getting infected, so I grab a HealStrip from my pocket—I've been making a point to get them now since I have no more healing potions—and paste it on Chance's wound. The HealStrip's neon green colour begins to fade a little, meaning that the healing potion inside it is working. Chance sends me a warm smile that makes my insides melt.

Dustin lets out a low whistle, nodding at the sketches I made. I ignore him, and turn to Carmen, remembering something.

"Carmen, how are we going to get up there, if we don't have a pod? Dustin destroyed his," I say.

"I have Samantha, Xavier, Dakota and Chance on my team," at the mention of his name, Chance looks up, "and as long as we give them time and resources, I believe that they will be able to build something."

"Wait, Dakota Adams?" Chance asks.

Carmen smirks. "Yup, she's here."

Chance pulls a hand down his face. "Carmen, this isn't funny. You know what her family does."

"I do. But she's not like them. Plus, she fights pretty well. She's...very different."

"They know about our plan?" Chance cocks an eyebrow.

"No, not yet. I told them that we're just trying to do some test flying is all. Nothing major." Carmen says, like lying isn't something terrible. Edit lied to us, and look where it has got us now.

Chance nods, and goes back to writing.

"By the way, Chance, have you finished reading the file?"

"Yeah. I'm willing to do it, but you've to give me some time to prepare myself. It's not simple, it seems," he and Carmen wear matching frowns. Chance turns his head and looks at me and, from under the table, takes my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles.

"Chance, if you don't want to—"

"No, it's fine," Chance says, "it's all for the greater good, right?"

And that's when I begin to panic. "What greater good? What's going to happen? Are you going to be safe, Chance?" I grab his arm with my free hand frantically.

Chance gently kisses my forehead. "I hope so. It's a fifty-fifty situation, and I'm just hoping for the best."

I bite my lip, and slowly my breathing evens out. "Okay."

Carmen's eyes jumps between both of us. "You know the risks, Adams. Don't say I didn't warn you."

_________

There's not much to do after lunch—which I skipped because the meeting made me lose all of my appetite—so I decide to explore Headquarters—Chance left me a note telling me he'd be around the Black Hole, not at Headquarters because he needs to scavenge for parts to build a pod, and that he would be away from Edit security, so he'd be safe, and I need not worry about him. He also promised he would be back soon, and told me he loved me.

At the end of the hallway there's a flight of stairs I don't think I've seen before. Taking the steps two at a time, I walk up the winding staircase towards the top of it, wondering where it'll take me.

Then a few people in masks jump out, and one grabs my wrists, forcing them together while another holds my ankles. I writhe in their grasp, trying to scream and shout, but a hand creeps over my face.

What's going on? Who are these people? I continue to attempt to kick and punch, but their grip is just so tight it hurts to move. They bring me down the hallway of that level, and kick open a door.

No. No, I didn't do anything. They must've got the wrong person. Panic seizes my heart, dragging me deep under. I need air, but I can't breathe. The strangers bind me to a steel chair that's attached to a remote.

One of them keeps staring at me, while another taps the wall in front of me and a screen with a projection on it appears. It's a videochat. It starts playing, and a man is seated on a computer chair, his forearms resting on the table, his snake-like coal eyes staring straight at me. He has graying hair and wrinkles around his eyes, looking like any other elderly man.

"Hello, Miss Evans," he says coolly.

"How do you know my name? Who are you, and why am I here?"

The man chuckles. "I know your name because I've been watching you, of course. I've heard that you have been planning something, haven't you?"

He's talking about the plan to take down Edit. "N-no," I stutter, and immediately want to slap myself.

"Hmm, is that so?" The person holding the remote attached to my chair presses a button, and a sharp shock of electricity hits me, making me jerk. The pain that explodes through my body is indescribable. It's like a million, a billion knives hitting me at once, it's like the nightmares of Edit creeping up to me at night...

"Miss Ridelink here has been our very faithful servant for the past few years," the man gestures to his right, and one of the people clothed in black bows.

Carmen. She's been spying on us all along. She's a traitor.

But then again, isn't everyone? No one now in this world is completely innocent or true.

But still, the hurt sears through me, and I glare at the now avoiding-my-gaze Carmen.

"We'd like to seek your co-operation in our plan to stop these rebels, especially one that is very close to you, an notorious," he says, "Chance Adams."

My world freezes. Chance. I'm going to betray Chance.

"No." As the word leaves my mouth, another ripple of electricity cuts through me, making me cry out.

"No?"

"I won't." Another, stronger blast of pain hits me, and I almost fall off my chair.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Something smashes my back, but I know it's just a hallucination. I gag, and white flashes before my eyes.

Then a door is thrown open, and a huge figure is chained to a chair.

It's Chance.

A whimper escapes my lips as I watch him fight and struggle. When his eyes meet mine, he never looks away. The traitor stares at him, before averting her eyes quickly.

"Ah, Mister Adams. Just who we are looking for." The man turns to me. "Well, Miss Evans, if you're going to continue to say no, there's only one thing we can do."

And I watch as Chance spasms from pain and cries out. His yell cuts through me, and I struggle to keep calm.

Then I remember the note. They probably don't even know where Chance is. He's not real. He's not real. But they're putting him right in front of me, and it hurts so badly that I want to scream.

"So what do you say?"

He's not real. They wouldn't bring Chance here, because he would know that I'm going to betray him, and their plan would be useless. But what about after that? I can let them torture holographic-Chance to death, but they'll still find something against me.

"No." Chance's face contorts before he makes so many sounds of pain that I want to run to him and tell him it's okay.

He's not real.

"Amber, p-please," Chance says, his lips scarlet with blood.

"No." Another shock that sends him screaming.

"You can do whatever you want—" a shock, "but I'm not going to do it." Another shock, and "Chance" crumples in his chair. I bite my lip. It's not him.

But my heart aches so hard I may burst at any moment and go mad. In this scenario I know I should be thinking of Chance, but the image of him right here, right now, is about to send me to an asylum.

The man is livid. "Miss Evans, there is one thing you need to know about rebelling," he smirks cruelly, "Edit never takes no for an answer. You used to be a very faithful user, yes? But of course, Mister Ridelink brought you down here and exposed you to its secrets. By the way, we have disposed of him already. There is nothing waiting for you down here."

It hits me like a freight train, over and over. Dustin is dead. Dustin is dead. Dustin is dead.

No, they're just trying to scare you.

But I can see it in my head, the blood, the pain, the torture they put him through. It's just in my imagination.

"So I'm going to give you one more chance. We cannot have these type of people existing. They threaten the Edit system. Will you join us, and take down all the rebels? It's for the greater good, Miss Evans. Think about what it helped you with. Think about your friends who died for the cause. Is it really worth it?"

I say nothing. My heart is pounding at a mile a minute, and I notice that the people who kidnapped me have started to circle the chair, the remote on the floor.

Carmen stands in front of me, her dirty blonde hair sticking out from underneath the black fabric that covers her head. It reminds me of the people who are willing to rebel. We're that little imperfection, about to destroy the perfection of everything. But the perfection is just a mask.

Is it worth it?

"Miss Evans, this is the last time," the man says, "will you join us?"

"Will you join us?" The people echo, over and over again. I can't help but notice Carmen isn't repeating what they're saying.

"No." My voice is clear, standing out among the monotone chanting. "No, I will not." I raise my chin defiantly.

"Great," the man smirks, "dispose of her."