"Hello, Dakota," Emily drawls, turning towards her sister and letting go of me, a hand on her hip.

"How did you know so much about us?" Dakota asks, her hands limp at her sides. I'll bet that only people working for Edit have the air-materializing power.

"I'm not stupid, Kota. When they sent you over to the Black Hole, I wasn't going to let it go so easily. I wanted to find out what exactly happened to people who didn't listen to Master and Mistress."

Dakota shudders. "But you hated them."

"Of course I did," Emily rolls her eyes, taking a step forward just as Dakota takes a step back, backing her against a wall slowly.

To my left is a bridge that has no railings. It cuts through the middle of the level, towards a dorm room, for what reason I have no idea, and behind me is the door. I'm sure that there are still guards standing down there waiting for us.

"But I learnt a long time ago, that if you want to live, you shouldn't rebel."

Dakota's face breaks out in a grin. "Amber's going to hate you for that, you know."

Emily turns around, grinning, and her face changes, her dark hair turning to a dirty-blonde.

"Carmen," I breathe, rubbing my neck. If you want to live, you shouldn't rebel.

"Hello," she rolls her eyes, "sorry bout that. Gotta make sure you're really Amber, right? How's your head?"

"It's alright," I say cautiously.

"Okay, let's go," Carmen steps onto the bridge, sending a ripple of blue charging towards the other end.

"That's a distraction," she says, "if you look down, you fall, and that's it."

The bridge is only big enough to place one, maximum two feet, if your legs are exceptionally small at a time on its breadth. It reminds me of a tightrope, something Chance told me existed in circuses, where people would put up exciting performances to entertain the audience, and earn money at the same time.

Dakota gets on next, and her feet send out ripples of pink. Keeping her eyes forward, she manages to cross half the bridge when Carmen is at its end.

"Come on, Amber," Carmen yells, cupping her mouth, and I gulp, placing a shaky leg on the bridge.

I won't fall.

The door bursts open, and I watch as green sprays out from beneath my feet. Carmen hurries and manages to place two blocks on either side of the building, so that the only way to get to us is through the bridge. I take another step, then another, focusing on my front.

The guards start to move backwards, and I know it's Carmen's doings, to buy me a little time. I keep going, but at the halfway mark I look down on accident, and lose my footing. Holding on to the bridge until my knuckles are white, one of my hands slip, and Dakota starts walking towards me, the guards that Carmen can't hold back on the other side.

Catching my arm, Dakota tries to yank me up, and somehow we manage to get to the position where my legs are sandwiching the bridge. Climbing to my feet, I start walking again, the guards right after me.

"Come on, guys, come on," Carmen says through gritted teeth. I'm about one-eight from the end when the bridge starts disintegrating at a supernatural pace.

"Jump, Amber!" On the spur of the moment, I launch myself into the air, and land on the ground, the wind having knocked out of my lungs. The bridge is gone, replaced with emptiness. The guards on the other side start firing at us, and Carmen and Dakota get on their stomachs, and together we slide towards the dorm room.

Upon reaching it, Carmen taps a pattern on the door, and a flap at the top opens.

Darting to her feet, Dakota flashes that person a smile and says, "Dakota Lin and friends. We've gotten Amber. One thing that we both know is that Chance and Xavier are still missing." Her smile evaporates on the last sentence, before she ducks and a bullet lodges itself in the door.

The door swings open, and I climb to my feet, running into the room, narrowly dodging a bullet myself.

I walk through a laser, red and feather light on my skin. "That's supposed to reveal your façade if you have one," Carmen says.

At first sight, I run into Sharlynn's arms and she gives me a reassuring squeeze. The room is simple, witu a white ceiling and tiled floor, two beds, a chest of drawers and two closets. I notice the auburn-haired girl from the carpark-Athena. She smiles at me, and holds out her hand. I can't help but realise she's sitting on a wheelchair.

"Hi there, I'm Athena," she introduces herself, and I shake her hand. "I'm Amber," I reply.

"So I've heard. This is Blake," she gestures at a boy who's wearing spectacles-it's my first time seeing them, but Chance has told me about them before, something that aids eyesight-and has a warm, friendly smile.

"Hello," he stretches his hand and I shake it.

Athena passes around snacks, and I didn't realise that I was starving until I can't stop loading my mouth with food.

"So...I'm guessing that you need your revolution now," he says, and I look around, at the others, before nodding.

"We do. And we have a video to do it too," I say after swallowing.

"Carmen, you have it?" Blake asks, and Caden removes a small chip from his pocket, passing it to him.

"Okay, let me get to work on that." Pulling up a screen, he starts to enter codes and other things I don't understand.

"So in case you were wondering, I have the creepy air trick thing because I used to work for them, so don't shoot me or anything," Carmen raises her hands.

Despite the situation we're in, I manage to laugh.

"And I'm sorry if I scared you just now, Dakota," Carmen turns towards Dakota, wincing. "I didn't know what else to do."

"Yeah, and you had to bring up my past. The past that I never want to relive," Dakota mutters sarcastically.

"People make mistakes," Carmen argues. Dakota refuses to back down, and I see what Xavier has rubbed off on her-his slightly cocky and daring attitude.

Before it can escalate into a full-blown fight, Athena stops them, and says, "We're on the same side."

"I know," Dakota says, looking away.

"Good," Athena says, turning to look at me. "So from the Inner Cities, huh? Heard that it's much more classy than here." She grins.

"I guess you could say so, but it comes with it's cons as well," I shrug.

"Yeah, like this," she gestures to her wheelchair. "Edit just has to go up and destroy everything I've ever known."

She isn't afraid of Edit, it seems.

Athena laughs a little. "Don't look at me like that. I ain't ashamed of my wheelchair. Yeah, I'm half-paralyzed, but who cares? Life goes on, doesn't it? Gotta be thankful for the fact that I'm not completely wasted and Edit property. Last thing I'd want is for me to get my blood sucked out and coloured." She laughs again, but this time it's one of helplessness. I'm sure that Edit doesn't offer her physiotherapy, and isn't planning to, either.

"We're safe here?" I ask, still worried about the guards.

"I'm pretty valuable, it seems." Athena flashes me a lopsided grin.

Sharlynn nods. "We've been here two days, and there's no cameras here or anything. Athena and Blake must mean something special to the Edit team, or else they'd be lying in that room down there already." She shudders, and leans into Caden's embrace. "Edit is the worst, cruellest thing I know of. I can't believe I actually let Shay use it."

"Do you guys know where Xavier or Chance is?" Dustin asks, and I shake my head dejectedly. Dakota's mood visibly dampens, and she looks away.

"We're trying, but no news is good news, right?" Caden attempts to offer some comfort, but Dakota doesn't seem to lighten up at all, only offering a small smile that doesn't even hold any emotion. Sharlynn wriggles out of Caden's arms and wraps an arm around Dakota's shoulders, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"It's halfway done," Blake says, and Athena gives him a high-five.

"You're amazing, Blake, did I ever tell you that?" Athena smiles at him, and a blush tinges his cheeks.

"Uh... uh... no," he stammers, and I almost chuckle.

Everyone except Dakota laughs, sending him into a flustered mess. He reminds me of Dakota, but the mentioned girl is picking at the skin beneath her fingernails, lost in thought.

"Hey," Dustin pats her arm, making her swipe at her eyes before looking up, "you with us?"

Dakota nods.

"We'll find him," Carmen says, then looks at me, "we'll find both of them."

That sends a pang in my chest, before a knock sounds at the door. Raising an eyebrow, Carmen gets up and walks towards it, and slowly opens the door. I hold my breath, getting prepared for an attack. The tension in the room is so thick, I feel as if I might suffocate, and someone pokes his head through the door.

I'm off the bed before anyone else, flinging myself into the guard's arms. Because it's just a disguise and underneath it is Chance, my Chance. He walks through the laser.

"Hey there," he murmurs into my ear as his arms snake around my waist, pulling me to him, and I smile, tears clouding my vision. I'm so relieved he's okay, that he's unscathed, and breathing.

"Do you have any news of Xavier?" Dakota literally throw herself off the bed and grabs his arms, looking desperately into his eyes, a glimmer of hope still alight in her eyes, a fire that she's hoping isn't going to be put out.

"We got separated," Chance frowns, and Dakota steps back as if being struck by the same metal rod that hit Athena. The hope is extinguished immediately, destroyed and crushed and gone. A sob escapes her throat and she presses her hand to her mouth to stifle it, trying to find some way, any way to cling on to that piece of shattered hope.

As Chance steps into the room, he's greeted by nods and quiet greetings, but nothing can erase the darkness of the room, the weight that hangs over all of us.

"I suspect that his father got to him, actually," Chance says as he sits on a bed, eyeing Athena and Blake suspiciously. "Who's that-"

"He was taken?" Dakota's eyes widen in a frenzied panic.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure he was, but there's a chance because we were dangerously close to-" Before he can finish his sentence, Dakota is halfway out the door, but Carmen grabs her arm before she can leave, and stops her.

"Hold up, calm down, Dakota, we haven't confirmed that he has been taken. Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we?" Sharlynn attempts to comfort Dakota, but instead of listening, Dakota begins to pace up and down the room, to the extent that even I get anxious.

"We need to find him. If Xavier's father gets his hands on him, Xavier'll-"

"We will find him," Chance says as he strokes my waist, and I lose myself in his scent. He's so familiar, so near.

"But every second we waste here-" An alarm cuts Dakota off, and Blake's fingers start flying over his keyboard, doing his best to disable the piercing ringing, but to no avail. Then suddenly, the siren is stopped, replaced with a crackling in the centre of the room. A hologram begins forming, a familiar face appearing, and Dakota tenses immediately.

It's Xavier's father.

"Hello there," he says, a grin on his face, "we meet again."

"Where is Xavier?" Dakota demands, her face red.

"He's safe with me. However, he refuses to cooperate with me despite-"

"Don't hurt him!" Dakota screams at the hologram, and Xavier's father laughs.

"Are you afraid that I'll hurt your precious Xavier?" He raises his brows, smirking. "If you are, I'll suggest you come and get him yourself."

•

Hi there! Thank you guys so much for all your reads and votes. However, as school is starting and I will be sitting for a major exam this year, from Chapter Twenty Three onwards, my updates may not be as frequent. Hope you understand and thank you so much!

-NeverEverGiveUp-