I had just worked through most of my contortion and hand balancing routine when I called for the house lights to be raised. There were a select few people who knew what was about to happen, and Phil looked nervous already. The moment I called for the lights to be turned on, he realised I was the one that was going to need audience participation.

"Thank you all for coming to join us for our inaugural Academy Talent Show. It is sure to be a night full of all kinds of laughs and entertainment. First, though, I have been working on a new trick for a few weeks now, and my volunteers for training it were kind of scary, so I made sure to perfect it quickly. They won't be my volunteers for tonight though. No, tonight I need Phil Roberts, and Mrs Rose as my volunteers," I said with a smile.

Phil and Rose approached the stage, looking unsure, but the enthusiastic cheers coming from the audience gave little room for argument. They made their way up the small staircase and onto the stage. I smiled slightly as their look of trepidation grew, before putting the microphone I had been using back on the stand and walking over to them.

"Don't worry guys, after this I will consider us even for throwing me into a situation with ulterior motives. By the way, we should probably talk about what's going on there soon. Now, you guys wont get to see what's going on, but there is a camera over there that will be projecting your faces onto the screen at the back so that the audience can get a real idea of what's going on. If it makes you feel any better, North and Silas were my volunteers while I was working on this,' I told them.

"I don't know if that makes it better, or worse, given you claim this makes us even," Phil responded.

"Here, I need you to stand on this mark, Phil, and you on this one, please, Rose. Excellent. Now, here, I need you each to hold one end of this rope with your teeth. Please don't try to argue, you'll ruin the show," I smirked.

Once I was satisfied they were holding the rope between them, I turned, winked at the audience, and made my way back to my hand balancing canes. I picked up the bow from beside my set up, and gripped it firmly between the toes on my right foot. I then rested my hands on the canes, lifted my weight and flipped my legs up and over my head, keeping my eyes on Phil and Rose and making sure they didn't move anywhere. I bent my left leg forward and captured a bow between the toes on my left foot, before bringing it up and placing it on the bow, ready to fire.

I smiled to myself as the audience audibly gasped, realising where the trick was heading. Phil and Rose were starting to look more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment they were standing there, yet they still stood. They knew the importance of the show and they had requested that I open it with a bang.

I lined up the bow, using the same technique I had been practicing with North and Silas, and drew back the bowstring. It felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath, waiting to see if I could pull off what I was about to attempt. I released the bowstring and watched as the arrow sailed through the air. The gasps that rang out through the room as the arrow hit its mark, followed by another round of applause, had me wanting to laugh.

Phil and Rose both stumbled backward as the rope they had been holding was split by the arrow. "Please, don't ever do that again!" Phil exclaimed.

"Don't worry," I replied, releasing my grip on the bow and lowering myself back to the floor. "I have Victor set up film equipment to capture the moment. I won't need to do it again, if you don't give me reason to."

Once I was safely back on the ground, I gave Phil and Rose a hug, and a small teddy bear dressed as Katniss as thank you's for being good sports about being my volunteers, and helped them back to their seats. Once they were seated, the real MC of the night took over as I worked to pack away the props I had used to pull off my stunt. I could still hear cheers coming from the table the Toma team were sat at, but didn't want to acknowledge them and was taking my time to get cleaned up and back to my seat. Unfortunately, there were assigned tables for around half of the guests, those that had a hand in the organisation and set up of the show. The rest of the guests occupied the standing room between the tables and the bar.

I packed away my belongings, placing them into the travel storage containers that had been provided. Each person or act participating in the talent show was given a container or set of containers to store their props in after the show, allowing the participants to store their belongings and watch the rest of the show without having to worry about things going missing, or missing parts of the show while removing their belongings to their car.

I changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a Wonder Woman shirt, throwing a black, oversized cardigan over the top, before heading out to the bar and ordering a drink. I stood at the back of the crowd, noticing that the team had moved from the table, I slowly made my way forward.

"Don't be so hard on them," North's voice called from next to me.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I answered.

He led me to the now empty table, which had a perfect view of the stage.

"They went about it all the wrong way and really should have talked to you about it before now," He told me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"They lost a bet. They have to pay up. That's what they've been doing."

"Whatever. I am going to get another drink. You want anything?" I asked him.

"What're you drinking?" He answered my question with a question.

"Ice tea," I smirked, but he wasn't looking.

"Sounds good."

I walked back to the bar, looking over my shoulder to see North leaning on the table, resting on his elbows and fiddling with his phone. Shaking my head while thinking about his advice, I quickly ordered our drinks. Once they were ready, I collected the drinks and moved back to the table, setting North's down in front of him, before taking a sip of mine. I watched on as he took a mouthful of his drink, quickly spitting it back into the glass almost instantly.

"The fuck kind of ice tea is that?" He asked, a disgusted look on his face.

"It is of the Long Island variety," I laughed.

I knew how North felt about alcohol, but the lure of getting him to drink it was just too much to resist when he hadn't been paying attention. He was definitely preoccupied, but I really wasn't sure why. He wasn't the one that had been sneaking around and keeping things from me.

"What was that bet you were talking about?" I asked.

"You should ask Raven. He was the one that made the bet. The others were just pulled along for the ride. Don't worry - if I had lost, my entire team would have been the ones up there instead."

I looked to the stage as the lights dimmed, curious what was to come next. I was definitely surprised, but not at all disappointed when 'You can leave your hat on" started playing and one by one my guys started sauntering their way onto the stage. They were all dressed in fancy looking suits and top hats, complete with gloves and a cane. If it were an ordinary day I would think they looked incredibly dapper. On the stage, with this song, they were downright mouthwatering.

I watched as they all moved with ease and a synchrinosity across the stage, slowly stripping away their clothes. The canes slid to the sides of the stage so no one would trip while they continued stripping. I had to admit, despite the fact that we were in a large room, filled to capacity with people, and North was videoing their performance on his phone, I was finding their performance incredibly sexy and I wanted to help them remove their clothes. Even Corey, who was pushing through his performance with a red blush staining his cheeks.

I was mesmerized by them, as was every other woman in the room. Thankfully they stopped the strip before removing their red g-strings, leaving something for me alone to enjoy later. Of course, that would be after I apologised for being so cold and distant. They also needed to apologise and recognise that they had messed up by not telling me what was going on, even in part. Their actions had led me to believe the worst, when really, it wasn't that bad.

As their performance ended, I excused myself from the table, heading back to the bar to buy a round of drinks for the guys as a sort of peace offering, until we got the chance to actually talk later. I saw them make their way back to the table as the next act started. It was a woman that I wasn't familiar with singing. As the lyrics rang out, shivers ran down my spine. I knew that voice, and I knew she wasn't supposed to be in the country.

"Baby tell me does she love you like the way I love you?

Does she stimulate you, attract and captivate you?

Tell me does she miss you, existing just to kiss you, like the way I do?

Tell me does she want you, infatuate and haunt you?

Does she know just how to shock you, electrify and rock you?

Does she inject you, seduce you and affect you like the way I do?"

She was here, which meant that he wouldn't be far behind. There wasn't much we could do about it now, though. I looked to my table, noticing how uncomfortable and angry they all looked. They knew she was one of the two people behind everything that had happened over the last few months and judging by their reactions when talking with Owen and Victor, and now that they were seeing her, they were more outraged than even I was.

I collected the tray of drinks offered to me by the bartender, and started back through the crowd. As I was passing the back row of tables, I noticed he was walking toward me. It seemed that they came prepared. I quickly adjusted my destination and stopped at Kane's table. I had met him and his team when they first formed. They specialised in security and had been working with Axel to overhaul the Aquarium security in the aftermath of my hospital stay.

"Hi Guys, I got your drinks!" I smiled, emptying my tray onto their table.

They all smiled and thanked me, noticing that something was going on, but not being entirely sure what it was. I thanked them all over and over in my mind, while continuing to smile and picked up the drink tray, moving to turn in the opposite direction of my approaching foe.

"You need to come with me," his voice whispered harshly in my ear, while he grabbed my arm forcefully.

I snatched my arm back, "I don't think so." I responded.

He tried to persuade me to leave with him again, but thankfully he was not prepared for me to fight back. I took advantage of his unawareness and turned, thrusting the bottom of the tray into his chin, snapping his head back. It caused him to stumble, which gave me a greater advantage by allowing me to knee him in the groin, and follow up with a further knee to the temple, laying him out on his back.

Phil, Mr Buble, and several members of the security team were around us in seconds, followed closely by Kayli, who was yelling at me about bruising her Blakey Boy's face. Both Blake and Kayli were immediately rounded up and removed from the premises.

"Don't worry about it, we will take care of it. Go and get the night back on track and we will continue the show. They are in custody now and will not be going anywhere," Phil reassured me.

I made my way back to the guys and we settled in for the show, all the tension of the weeks leading up to tonight were forgotten. Things were back to the way they should be.