When I came to, my vision was blurry and my head was pounding. It took me a minute or two, but when I was finally able to look around, I noticed that I did not recognize my surroundings.

I then felt the ropes tied around my wrists and ankles, and everything came flooding back to me. I'd been knocked out and taken from the spa by Striker, and now I was sitting in a chair with my hands tied behind my back and my ankles tied together.

It was too dark inside the room for me to be able to tell where I was. One lightbulb hung above me, and it was the only light in the entire room. I assumed I was in someplace big, because the light covered a few feet before the rest of the room was engulfed in darkness.

"Hello, my dear," a familiar voice cooed, and I wasn't surprised when I saw Striker emerge from the darkness in front of me. "I'm so glad you're finally awake."

"I bet," I smiled sarcastically.

I then looked down at myself and saw that I was in that short robe that I disliked so much from the spa. For a moment, a feeling of dread and panic washed over me. I had been completely unconscious with Striker, dressed like this...

I didn't feel any different, so I was fairly sure that Striker had not done anything to me while I was knocked out. The robe was still tightly secured around me as well, looking like he hadn't been disturbed at all, so that was something else that confirmed I had been untouched.

But as he was slowly moving closer and closer to me, I was getting more and more uncomfortable. I did not want him near me, especially when I was dressed like this.

"It seems now we are completely alone, my dear," he smiled, suddenly right in front of me. I struggled to free myself from the ropes, but this did nothing but scratch my skin.

"Get away from me," I scowled, as if that was going to do anything to deter him.

He laughed. "You are just so cute, Violet."

He reached out for me, and I did the only thing I could think of to do. I spat. Right in his face.

And much to my surprise, he laughed.

"A little spit doesn't bother me, Violet," he smiled, wiping my saliva away with his sleeve. "Believe me, there are other bodily fluids of yours I want along with your saliva."

I didn't want to know what he meant. I did not want to know what he meant!

When he placed his hand on my knee, I jumped. I looked around, trying to look for anything I could have used my powers to throw at him, but I couldn't see far enough into the room to see any objects that may have been inside.

"Leave her alone, Striker," a new voice sighed from the darkness, and in the next moment, Carmine stepped out into the light, looking completely bored and uncaring about this current situation.

"Or not as alone as I thought," Striker shrugged, disappointed as he pulled away from me.

I never thought I would be so relieved to see Carmine, but I was at that moment. At least she also seemed to think that Striker's interest in me was problematic.

I felt like I was able to breathe a little easier, but I felt stupid for thinking that way, since it wasn't like Carmine was any safer than Striker was. They were both dangerous. Both in the same and in different ways.

Suddenly, the entire room filled with light, and the sudden brightness blinded me for a moment. As my eyes adjusted, I looked over to what I assumed was the entrance to see my friends, ready to attack.

I remembered my phone that I assumed was still in the pocket of my robe.

"How unfortunate. They found us," Striker sighed, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Get away from her!" Dex growled.

"Ooh, and who are they?" Carmine asked, grinning at Lena and Nick, who had joined my teammates in this rescue mission. "A couple of cuties these two are, huh, Striker?"

"Not as beautiful as my Violet," Striker smiled, stoking my hair.

Dex took a menacing step forward. "Don't call her that."

Striker seemed amused with the fact that he could get such a reaction out of Dex, and that only worried me more.

"Hello, beautiful," Carmine winked at Lena, who seemed to be taken aback by having this kind of attention from another girl. "And who might you be?"

"Someone you're leaving alone," Anthony threatened the same time Nick answer with, "None of your business."

Carmine snickered at this, and I could feel how attracted she was to Lena, so much so that it made me feel uncomfortable. It was just like how Dex and Lena had felt toward one another when they had first met, except this time, Lena wasn't interested.

"Unfortunately, it seems like there's competition," Carmine smirked, and I wanted to say that she had no idea. There were a lot more guys that liked Lena than just Nick. It was a price she had to pay for looking the way she did. It was the same for Kristie.

"Just leave her alone," Nick snapped, shooting his arms out toward Carmine to trip her. She was one step ahead of him however, and sped off. He didn't seem to be aware of what her powers were.

She was so quick that as she sped by me, she knocked my chair down, causing me to crash down onto the floor.

I pressed my legs together tightly and hoped for the best. I didn't feel any cold breeze on my lower regions as if I had been exposed, so I was safe.

Aiden, Kristie, and Lena went to attack Striker as Anthony, Dex, and Nick dealt with Carmine.

And there I was. Just on the floor.

I felt like an idiot, unable to do anything to help my friends. I watched as they got electrocuted by Striker or burned by Carmine, all injuries that may have been life threatening to humans, but to superhumans, they were nothing at all but an inconvenience. It affected them for only a moment before they were able to get up and continue fighting. But that didn't mean I liked to see the pain in their face the moments they were hit.

When Dex suddenly picked me up, I was relieved, because I no longer felt like a helpless, flopping fish on the floor. But when he didn't just help take my restraints off and put me down, instead holding me in his arms and dashing off, I was confused.

I wanted to shout at him to not pick me up since I was wearing a short robe, but he seemed to already be thinking ahead of me because he positioned me in a way that my robe would not ride up. He then quickly made his way out of the building before Striker or Carmine could do anything about it, both being too busy fighting with my friends.

It was dark outside now, but I could still see the RV. The ropes used to tie me up were digging into my skin and they hurt badly. I couldn't wait to get them off.

Dex kicked the door to the RV open, getting a very annoyed shout from RV as a response, but Dex ignored him as he placed me down on one of the seats.

"Stay here," he ordered, turning away almost immediately after to make his way out of the RV.

"What?" I squawked, nearly falling off the seat as I tried to stop him from leaving. "You're just going to leave me in here?"

"Just stay," was all he said, and then he was gone, shutting the RV door behind him. I was left there, my mouth agape.

That jerk didn't even untie me!

I didn't know who Dex took me for, but I was not just going to sit in the RV and wait as the fight was fought for me.

He was treating me like some sort of victim who couldn't fight for herself. The last thing I wanted was to wait on the sidelines! I wanted to fight!

"If he thinks I'm going to just wait for the fight to end, he's wrong!" I growled to no one, trying to tug and pull my way out of my restraints, but to no avail. I wasn't strong enough.

"M'lady," RV suddenly spoke up, and I looked up to see a mechanical hand reaching out of the wall, gripping a knife.

"Huh," I blinked. "Well, that's comparatively easier."

RV cut me loose, and I quickly thanked him before nearly jumping out of the RV and running back toward the building, which looked like an abandoned warehouse from the outside. I slammed the door open and entered, but this got none of their attentions, considering they were busy fighting.

But as soon as I hurried my way into the battle, Dex immediately noticed me.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Fighting," I answered simply, bolting away from him to attack Striker.

"Darling, you've returned!" Striker called out when he saw me, and it took every fiber of my being to ignore the nickname. "I was starting to think I'd lost you!"

Using my powers to pick up a stray machine part on the floor, I threw it at him. "You never had me to begin with!"

Of course, I meant it in an emotional sense, since he technically did have me from the kidnapping... But we both knew he hadn't meant the kidnapping anyway.

Striker lunged for me, and before I could even react, Dex was body slamming him across the room and into the wall. I slapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing out loud.

But Striker was laughing, too. Even though that blow clearly hurt, he was still pushing himself up off the ground and laughing about it. This guy was nuts.

I was so focused on my fight with Striker that I didn't notice the gigantic ball of fire that Carmine had sent my way. Luckily, Anthony noticed for me.

"Violet, get out of the way!" he shouted, and in a second he was by my side, scooping me up into his arms like I was a princess.

First, it was strange to have Anthony carry me because I was pretty sure up until he came back from our break, I weighed more than he did. Secondly, my robe was short!

"Idiot! Don't pick me up like that, I'm in a robe!"

But he didn't listen, and I guess I should have been thankful, because he saved me from getting burned. We were most likely going to quick for anyone to see anything anyway, if anything was showing at all. We were moving so quick that I couldn't even tell.

"This is weird!" I shouted, everything around me turning blurry with the sudden speed I was going. I then immediately felt dizzy and queasy. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick..."

Since this was Anthony's power, I was sure that he was seeing something completely different than I was. I was sure he could see our surroundings just like he did when he was normal speed, but since this wasn't what my body allowed me to do, everything was distorted.

But then, suddenly something appeared, something that wasn't blurry that I could focus on. It took me only a moment to realize that it was Carmine, she being the only non-blurry thing because she could move just as quickly as we were.

For a moment, it made me feel a little better and no longer queasy, but then it seemed that Carmine knew the affect this trip was having on me, so she stopped using her powers and disappeared, causing the sick feeling to come right back to me as I stared back into the blur.

"Close your eyes!" Anthony ordered, and I did as I was told until I felt that we had stopped moving.

Anthony put me down, but that run had such an effect on me that I couldn't even stand. Collapsing onto the ground, the whole world still felt like it was spinning around me. It seemed crazy to me that Anthony was able to do that with no side effects.

"Violet, are you okay?" he asked, and I nodded, knowing I couldn't stay down for long. But I wasn't so sure if I was in any state to fight any longer. Kind of ironic that it was because of my own teammate.

Anthony helped me up onto my feet, and I was finally able to regain my balance. I still felt a little shaky, and as I looked around, I could see that everyone else in this fight was losing stamina as well.

We were all tired, and the fight truly looked like neither side was going to back down, and neither side was going to win. Carmine and Striker knew this, so they knew it was time to go.

"We'll meet again, my friends!" Carmine cackled, and it was a very cliche thing for her to say, but I knew that it was true. "See you then!"

And in a matter of seconds, they were gone, zipping out the door and leaving for who knew where.

And the room was filled with silence, except for our heavy breathing as we all tried to catch our breaths. That had been intense, and it was a little worrying that we didn't have the upper hand in a fight between seven and two.

"Well, that was an experience," I sighed, rubbing at the rope burns on my wrists. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the irritation was kicking in. I knew that these marks would be gone in a couple of hours, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt any less right then. "Let's go back to the DAU."

I turned toward the door, but was stopped from going anywhere when I turned right into Dex's chest. I looked up at him, expecting him to be smiling and happy to have me back safe. I expected him to kiss me. But what I saw was the exact opposite.

Grabbing onto my shoulders, his face was twisted into an angry scowl. I couldn't remember a time Dex had ever looked this angry before, and it surprised me.

"I told you to stay in the RV," he growled, his grip on my shoulders so tight that it almost hurt. "Why didn't you listen to me, Violet?"

This was what he was so angry about? Because I didn't stay in the RV? He had to have been kidding me!

But when I looked up at his face and saw the anger in his eyes, I knew he wasn't joking. He was furious.

I shook him off of me, angry myself now. "You can't tell me what to do, Dex," I snapped back at him. "You told me to stay in the RV and not fight when that's what I'm supposed to do."

"That's not what you're supposed to do when these people have an obvious obsession with you," he continued, and I could tell I had really upset him by disobeying what he had told me to do, but I didn't care.

"They're only obsessed with me because I'm an Ender," I reminded him, and even though I wasn't so sure if that helped my argument, it was the truth. And I wasn't about to let it get in the way of me doing what I was supposed to do.

Dex looked unconvinced. "So Striker is obsessed with you only because you're an Ender?"

I didn't know what to say to this, but only because I didn't know why Striker was so interested in me myself. It could have been as simple as him just being a creep, or there could have been a deeper meaning to it. I didn't think I wanted to know either way.

"Why couldn't you just listen to me?" Dex demanded, both pain and anger in his eyes. "Why couldn't you have just stayed in the RV?"

"Because that's not what I'm supposed to do!" I shouted, and I hated that I was getting angry, but I was. "I'm on this team to fight along with you, not cower away in the shadows!"

My other teammates, along with Lena and Nick, were silent, not wanting to get into the argument between Dex and me. It seemed to be the first time Aiden, Lena, or Anthony had ever kept their mouths shut, and I really wished that they hadn't.

"I can take care of myself," I declared, and I was positive that this was something that I had said to Dex before. But obviously he didn't believe that.

"Really, now?" he asked, a wry smile making its way onto his lips. "Then why did you get kidnapped? Why did we need to save you?"

I was starting to get very angry. Just because Striker had attacked and kidnapped me didn't mean that I wasn't capable of fighting and taking care of myself. And the fact that he wanted me to just lay back while the rest of them fought was ridiculous!

"I'm not some damsel in distress," I told him. "I'm not going to sit back and let other people do the work for me."

Dex shook his head. "You couldn't even do what I asked."

I shrugged. "I guess I couldn't."

Dex stepped away from me, clearly tired and fed up. My friends still said nothing to either of us, and the silence was almost deafening. I didn't know if I was supposed to speak, but I didn't want to. I'd done enough talking.

"If you don't want my help, then don't expect me to help you anymore," he announced, turning toward our friends with the same hard expression he had given me. "Let's go."

He started out, and our friends looked unsure whether or not they should have followed. But we had to follow, since we all had the same ride back.

But as I watched his retreating back, pain twanged inside my chest. Dex and I used to fight all the time, but it had been a long while since we'd had an argument. And now it almost felt just like how it used to be, when we hated each other...

"Dex," I called out, still angry with him, but not wanting to fight.

He didn't look back.

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Who's in the right? Violet or Dex?

Also, who do you ship with who? Tell me all of the ships in this story you can think of. xD

This update wasn't too late... Just two weeks. I'm working on faster updates, I promise! It's my other stories that are slowing me down. I want to update them first and not just update this story, but they're more difficult than this one. Especially Return to Neverland. Which I skipped over to write this chapter. Oops.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)