When I awaken from the short nap I had, I look over and see Chance, still asleep soundly.

Careful not to awake him, I get out of bed, and walk out the door, about to find Carmen to discuss our strategy. Instead, I bump into Dustin.

"Hi," he says, giving me a tight-lipped smile. His hands are buried in the pockets of his jeans and he slowly meets my eyes. "Look, Amber-Corinne, whatever-I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I was a terrible person and that I never treated you the way I should and that I kidnapped you down here. But, you have a great potential, one bigger than you think. You can stop this. I know you can."

"And I will," I say, nodding.

Dustin returns the nod and is about to walk down the hallway when I stop him. "Hey, Dustin? By the way, I forgive you." I give him a genuine smile. I know he has always meant well, even when he brought me down to the Black Hole. He's always the same Dustin I know, the boy with the good looks and a good heart.

Dustin's lips stretch into a wide grin, and he spreads his arms. Without further hesitation I walk into his arms and his embrace engulfs me.

"Corinne, until the day you officially become Adams', don't you dare think that I'm going to give up on chasing you." He smiles, and an uneasy feeling rises in my stomach.

And then he presses his lips to mine.

Dustin's kiss is different from Chance's-Chance is sweet and soft and just a little too overprotective, but Dustin's is wild and fast and makes my head whirl. The exact reason why I can't pull away, not now.

"What the heck are you doing?" Someone shouts from down the hall, and I freeze. Dustin pulls away, and I turn to see Chance. His face mirrors his expression-he's absolutely livid, fuming, raging.

"Chance. Chance, wait." I run towards him, but Chance just shakes his head. Hopelessness sinks into my heart. I've messed up, big time.

"I can't believe this, Amber. I can't believe after so much, you're going to forget about us and leave me for him. Have you ever even loved me?" Chance says, running his hands through his hair.

"Yes, Chance, I have," I say, grabbing his hand. He shakes my hand off.

"Hey, wait. It was me. I initiated the kiss," Dustin walks towards both of us, attempting to clear up the mess, but Chance just barks out a bitter laugh, and smashes his fist into Dustin's face.

Horrified, I grab Dustin's arm and asks if he's okay. After he nods a few times and reassures me that he's okay, I turn on Chance.

"What'd you do that for?" I draw my eyebrows together.

Chance looks away, his fists clenching and unclenching, his breathing ragged and heavy. I know that I shouldn't anger him any further, so instead I place my hand on his face, my thumb stroking his skin, and turn his head to look at me.

"Hey," I say softly when his gaze meets mine. His eyes are cold and hard. I guess that's what happens when you've been down here in the Black Hole-it's like Edit, it twists and turns you. That's why Chance is always so angry nowadays. He's never told me what really happened when he was down here.

"I'm sorry," I continue, and his eyes soften for a while. I continue to stroke his cheek, and never break eye contact with him.

"I know you're worried about losing me, Chance, and I know that it was wrong of me to kiss Dustin. I'm not going to pass the buck. I didn't pull away, and that was my fault. I'm really sorry, Chance, and I don't want this to affect us. I'm sorry. I-"

I'm silenced when Chance buries his head in my hair, his nose against my neck. "This doesn't mean I completely forgive you," he murmurs, and I smile into his hair, wrapping my arms around him.

"I know." I say.

He pulls back and stares into my eyes. For a second my heart stops. Then he closes the gap between us, and his lips meet mine. After a while, he pulls back, and smiles. "That does," he grins goofily, and I kiss him again.

Dustin clears his throat from behind us, and Chance shoots him the evil eye. I get on my tiptoes and kiss Chance's cheek again, before he rolls his eyes and looks at me.

"I was intending to look for Carmen," we say together at the same time, and we both laugh together, before pausing. Then we burst out in laughter again, and I shake my head.

"Then let's go," Dustin drawls from in front of us.

And so we do.

____________

Carmen, apparently, is sitting in the meeting room in the underground hallways of Headquarters, sipping on some coffee. Her feet are propped up on the long table, and she's slouching in her comfortable computer chair, looking absolutely bored despite the eerie lighting that makes the room seem like an interrogation room.

"Hello there," Chance says as he walks into the room and Carmen just responds with a yawn and a nod of her head, sweeping her legs off the table and motioning for us to sit.

"You still have some of that?" Dustin gestures at the cup, and Carmen stands up, pouring three other cups of coffee for us. To be honest, I've never tried coffee before, especially since I've heard it's bitter and Troy wouldn't drink it either, so there's no point.

I try not to squirm when Carmen lets her blood drip into the Edit machine next to the coffee machine. My hate for Edit increases tenfold.

As Carmen places the cups in front of us and returns to her seat, she asks, "And why are you guys here?"

I take a sip of the burning hot coffee while Chance watches my reaction. I almost vomit when it slides down my throat. It's bitter and steaming and just simply gross. My face contorts and I gag while Carmen laughs and the boys chuckle.

"Too strong for you?" Carmen says, and I nod.

"We came to discuss our plans on taking Edit down," Chance begins, leaning forward, and Carmen smirks. The lighting and atmosphere really suits this occasion. We might as well be staring in this year's mystery blockbuster.

Carmen taps the table twice with her forefinger, and a holographic map springs out.

"So I've done my research, and it seems that Edit has another base, one that provides them with drafts, because, for goodness' sake, there can't be a hundred thousand people falling into the Black Hole every month or year," Carmen begins, and slides her finger across the tabletop. The map shifts, and soon the layout of the Outer Cities come into view.

"Seriously? The Outer Cities?" Dustin asks, leaning forward, his forearms resting on the table.

"They'd want to choose somewhere no one suspects they would be. So where else but the bright, sunny, normal Outer Cities?" Chance replies, and Carmen points at him and nods.

"So the drafts are people from the Outer Cities?" I ask, appalled.

"Appears so," Carmen replies, mouth twisted into a frown.

"That's...that's..."

"Cruel? Come on, Evans, this isn't your first day living in this world," Carmen sighs.

"So you're intending to get us to the Outer Cities."

Carmen nods, and leans back into her chair.

"Do you have the floor plans of the base there?" Chance asks, after taking a gulp of his coffee.

"Mmhmm." Carmen spreads her index finger and thumb, zooming in to the small red dot she marked out on the map.

"Welcome to camp," Carmen says. From the map, I can see people walking around on campus, and with another few taps on the wood, the pictures become three-dimensional.

"First floor is just the basic. The exits and entrances are marked out in orange," Carmen starts off, and both Chance and Dustin analyze the map closely.

Everyone's faces are bathed in the blue light of the hologram, and for one second it reminds me of the drafts I saw, those with blue skin. I shudder unconsciously, and Chance rubs my arm with his palm, thinking I'm cold. I don't remove his hand, though. Instead, I lace my fingers with his, and neither of us let go.

"Then the second floor are the dorms and the third floor is just all empty rooms, or rather, rooms with equipment where they do 'therapy'." Carmen meets my eyes. "Their 'therapy' is to threaten people by taking their memories."

"What? Why?" I say, my eyes open wide, my heart pounding in my chest. I'm angry, angry and afraid for these people at this Edit base, this camp.

"They don't go there by their own free will, Corinne," Dustin says, "and there are bound to be people who rebel."

Oh, aces.

"So, there. Eventually we'll have to destroy this map, but for now we'll just keep it like this. I don't want anyone to find out, so I'm not going to make notes or anything. By the way, even though you all know this, but what's from this room stays in this room. Got it?" Carmen says as she calls up a hologram from the table, and a keyboard appears.

After typing a few lines of codes, everything disappears and all that's left is the wooden table, plain and simple. Everyone nods.

"When are we going to execute this plan exactly?" Dustin questions, and his sister grimaces, nodding in Chance's direction.

"Whenever he's ready to break another sensor. The new one is already installed, and I guess the lockdown should be over. Chance, this sensor...it's stronger than the last one. You need to be careful. When you're ready you can tell me, and then I'll talk to the rest. How's that?"

Chance runs a hand over his face. "Okay," he replies.

"Good. So let's get dinner?" Carmen suggests, and Chance picks up my coffee cup, downing the rest of it before tossing both of ours into the rubbish bin. Just as we're leaving, Carmen presses a switch on the wall using her thumb, and the whole room is suddenly bathed with red streaks.

"Lasers," she explains, "it'll either set off an alarm or somehow notificate me about the intruder. Also, it destroys all evidence of us being there. Efficient and useful."

I nod, and follow her up to the lobby for our last meal of the day.

______

Samantha slides in next to me, her plate loaded with rice, meat and vegetables. I wince to think of how much blood she had to give for that.

"Hey there," I say, and she flashes me a smile, before looking over at Chance, who's seated with his legs criss-crossed.

"Who's that?" She asks, pointing at him with her fork. "I saw you kissing him, but that's about it."

"Um..." I honestly have no idea. My best friend? But he left me. My friend? We're closer than that. My boyfriend? He didn't say anything about us.

"She's my girlfriend," Chance answers for me, and I stare at him, startled. He smiles, and Sam laughs.

"Okay then," Sam wiggles her eyebrows at me, and begins her meal. I've already finished mine, and grab both Chance's and my empty plate and cutlery, walking over to the counter to return it along with our cutlery.

I've been a little jumpy after our meeting in the meeting room. I'm not sure that it's going to work, and I'm scared for Chance. Carmen said the sensor was dangerous, and much stronger than what it was like previously. If anything happens to Chance, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Returning to my seat, I have a friendly, light conversation with Sam that Chance joins in occasionally, especially when we're on the topic of pods and mechanism-related objects. I know nothing about it, so I let Chance and Sam talk instead.

After dinner, everyone returns to their rooms, and Chance decides to share a bed with me. We take turns to shower, which Carmen is reluctant about because she lost four times of her usual blood payment amount, and the cut has yet to heal. Mine from dinner is bandaged up because my hand was shaking and the knife went in a little too deep. Chance had fussed over me for a few minutes after he found out.

Chance's arms are circling my waist, pulling me flush against him. My knees bend over his, and I feel safe. His head is buried in my neck, and whenever he exhales, I try my best not to start laughing or squirming. He looks angelic in his sleep, and so sweet. I don't kiss him, though, for fear of waking him up.

"Amber, you should go to sleep," he suddenly whispers, his lips moving against my skin, making me jump.

"You're still awake?" I whisper back and he gently kisses me, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear in the process.

After we pull away, he smiles against my lips. "Sleep easy, and sweet dreams. I love you, and don't you dare forget how perfect you are."