Are you ready for it? 😈🎵 Definitely go listen to the Taylor Swift's song to set the mood 😘 (you can find it in the Love Bug playlist)

It's still night. Anastasia is clinging to this fact like to her compass pendant as she can't find her bearings in the dimness of this back street.

This time, she won't walk by the 'We serve and protect' inscription, and it is better this way, in the shadows and eery silence of the night. Although even here, nothing is quiet.

There is a muted rumbling echoing in the air like a tumult happening, which those large walls around are barely containing, unless it is just her shaky nerves growing more and more restless with the tick-tock of the clock?

She is about to find out as Hadi and she arrive at the door, which she knows too well... the shiny metal and the small device on the side, and when the swipe card is in her hand, she takes in how much she is trembling.

She can't even slip the thin card into the slit, and the more she tries to breathe, the more the tremors are spreading until she almost drops the entry pass on the ground.

It takes three attempts before she finally gets the card in with both of her hands gripping tightly the small rectangle, and then, she has to wait for the door to unlock, or not.

That's how these few seconds she has never really paid attention to before become the most excruciating of her life.

She can't stare at the small device and the three dots mocking her, and even less glance around, too afraid to catch sight of what is happening around, particularly in the front of the building.

So she looks at Hadi, her voice quavering more than her hands as she whispers, "Do you think it's possible?"

She has to know. Her mom and Andy are the best to encourage her, but she needs the truth.

"It's impossible."

Maybe she doesn't need the truth, as she is about to collapse on the ground with it and her shaky hope and nerves. Still, she will get inside crawling if she needs to.

"But you proved that if someone can do the impossible, it's you," Hadi continues with the tiniest hint of a smile stretching his lips and the same piercing honesty she would have never thought she would be thankful for in his eyes.

She doesn't get to reply as the beep of the device signals the door is unlocked, though the belief he has given her surely shows in her determined nod when she turns to the door, and he follows her, all their attention going back to the mission.

The second they step inside, the familiarity of the narrow hallway hits her, and if everything has felt hazy in her mind before, now, every detail appears clearly like waking up after a blurry nightmare.

She could almost believe it is just another day of work, if there weren't this ache in her chest and Hadi whispering in his earpiece,

"We're inside."

She switches on her earpiece too, barely catching Andy's reply over the strong beats of her heart.

Her heart, she hasn't felt it since she has discovered Nathaniel's sentence, but just being here, closer, it recognizes his presence, no matter where he can be.

"Sacha is waiting in the ammunition room in the west wing, and Ana, you'll go in the south's one, but first, you need to get out of this part to the main hallway–"

"I know." She leads the way, her feet walking instinctively with each thud vibrating against her pendant, so loudly that she can't even hear Hadi's steps behind.

He's walking behind though, his presence hovering close, while he still keeps a distance to not arise suspicions, as they pass more and more soldiers, and she soon realizes from where the rumbling she has sensed outside is coming.

The main hallway is teeming with people, even more than when it has been plagued with arrest troops yesterday. She has never witnessed so many soldiers in that place. From the corner Hadi and she are entering, it looks like a beehive, her ears buzzing with the same sounds, and they are careful to not walk too close, knowing how deadly a sting can be.

Her gaze, however, is chasing after each of those uniforms, out of habit, when she is well aware he doesn't wear this color anymore, and when she catches sight of a red keyring hanging from the belt of a gray outfit, her heart still jumps helplessly against her constricted ribcage.

"Seriously?! They're having brunch? I'll never get those people..."

Luckily, Hadi's low mutter pulls her attention before her heart can get carried away and take her legs along, and she is brought back to the present when she follows the direction of his cocked eyebrow. 

Indeed, some waitresses are walking near with trolleys full of food, and a woman, who seems to be their supervisor, giving orders about where and when to take them.

Anastasia doesn't even try to look more closely at what the dishes are, as a sour wave of sickness is already climbing up her throat at the mention of 'leaders' and 'dawn', and although she doesn't dare to open her mouth – because being sick in the middle of this hive would attract too much attention and lose time – she agrees with Hadi. 

"Who can eat while watching... that?" His gaze travels away from the trolley with a quick glance at Anastasia before looking down, and it is probably the first time he is mincing his words.

For all that, the silence following is sharper than any harsh truth, and despite the buzzing going on around and the single crunch resonating in her earpiece, the unsaid words are left hovering like a scary shadow at her heels.

At least, it makes her feet go faster, and in no time, they arrive at the end of the hallway, where they have to part ways.

Hadi goes on the right with a discreet nod as they pass another group of soldiers, and she is left alone. Alone with the dozen people entering the elevator and Andy's directions to Hadi in her earpieces, yet it's only on herself that the next step is relying upon.

There is no one to walk by her side, no one to stop her when she glimpses the same detail again, her heart taking off even faster to the keyring, a blue keyring this time, and if it weren't for the elevator doors closing at the exact same instant that her feet are launching her forward, she would have run headfirst.

She would have lost time and risked the whole plan.

By one split-second, every step could have tumbled down under the impact of her heart against her ribcage.

As she blinks at the metal doors, breathless and stunned, it's like she is coming out of a trance, and she realizes everything that could have and would have happened. All of that because of a little detail that reminds her of Nathaniel.

Has she even seen it? Or has she dreamed it? It makes no sense to see an old-fashioned item like that. Yet she can't help the feeling deep in the knots of her guts that she hasn't imagined it and it isn't meaningless.

Whatever the meaning is, she has to push it back when the doors of the elevator open again. She can't let a vague impression ruin their only concrete plan, so she makes sure to not glance at anyone she passes by, focusing on the way her feet are following.

The endless similar-looking hallways and numerous closed gray doors are already enough painful reminders, and she hasn't grasped how many memories Nathaniel and she have there, how many moments they have stolen behind closed doors until now...

As she walks by the janitor's closet where they have made a 'friend' pact, and a few doors after is the room where they have broken it. She treads the dark floor as anxiously as when he has disappeared to run to the college explosions, and she finally stops next to the training room, where he has caught her just in time, saving her, just like in that steam room, which she has avoided enough to know it is a few floors below.

All these times, he always has come at the right time. He always saves the day, and it's her turn to save him.

Thus, she tries to be as heroic as him, as calm, controlled, and fearless, when her shaking hands are reaching for the handle, which of course, is locked.

The large inscription 'Private. Do not enter' has made it obvious enough, but luckily, they have everything planned until the smallest detail in her ponytail, where she pulls out a bobby pin Andy has slid into her blond curls.

She grips it as tightly as she is clutching to her compass pendant when she throws a careful glance around, making sure no one can see what she is about to do.

Being near a corner, there are fewer people in this area, especially since the hallways seem to have cleared since a few minutes already. Whatever the reason is, it is working in her favor, as she can immediately start to force the lock, or at least, try to because her fingers are still trembling terribly. 

"Hadi has joined Sacha."

The bobby pin jumps higher than her heart when Andy's voice echoes in her ear, and if she isn't worried about looking for the organ hammering inside her chest, her eyes are searching frantically for the tiny bar of metal on the floor, a trail of French curses leaving her lips as she kneels down.

"Sorry, did I scare you? Where are you?" Andy asks, and she can hear the concern dripping from his voice, even as she is shuffling around, her focus being on seeing something in the dim lighting before she resolves to feel around, ignoring the protests of her sore muscles.

"No, no, don't worry. I'm at the door, but I dropped the bobby pin."

"What? Where? I don't hear you!"

"What?! I'm kneeling on the floor in front of the door 497," she replies, trying to keep her voice down when even her vocal cords are becoming tense.

"I can't hear you anymore... something isn't normal." Andy's worried tone startles her again, right when she finds the hairpin, and of course, it sends it sliding away again.

"Stupide chaton errant," she curses under her breath as her shaky hands are slowing her down, making the ticking faster in all her nerves, which creates more tremors. It is an endless circle.

Yet she finally manages to grab the small bobby pin. "Oh–"

"Ana– I don't..."

Her victory shout is quickly interrupted by static noises, which are traveling until each of her nerve-endings, and then, nothing. This silence isn't normal, and now, she is really alone. She doesn't have Andy or anyone to watch her back or call for help, and she can feel the stakes falling all on her bruised shoulders.

But she is too close to the generator, too close to accomplish her part of the plan and save Nathaniel. So nothing else matters as her trembling hands reach for the keyhole, without even taking the time to get up – she doesn't trust her legs anyways – and she works fast, remembering Molly's advice.

Fight for it. Fight for Nathaniel, she repeats in her head, concentrating only on the lock in front of her, and when it starts to turn, the relief sparking from the very tip of her fingers is tickling her as much as if Nathaniel was behind that door.

"Allez..."

"Look what we have here..."

The sparks are all put out in a second, and this time, there is no jump, nor her heart, nor the pin; both are frozen at the sound of the voice she recognizes instantly. She may have only heard it on a few occasions, but each time, it has had the same effect.

"The girl with the Italian accent, I knew there was something off about you."

"Pamela." Anastasia turns to the woman, who appears taller and more imposing than in all her memories, surely because she is now kneeling on the floor, weak and paralyzed.

"I'm offended." Pamela tilts her head to the side, grimacing. "That he cheated on me with a simple... cleaning lady."

The stray kitten, Anastasia can only gulp the words, staring up at the gorgeous puma.

Pamela is standing perfectly, not a hint of the chaotic events happening around appearing on her controlled features. Even the gray tailor-made suit she has chosen for today is highlighting her golden skin and dark eyes, whereas no amount of make-up that Andy has applied can hide the strength leaving Anastasia's body like the blood from her face, and neither the despair in her wide eyes.

"I-I'm sorry," she stammers, not searching for smart arguments or ways to fight back for once, and instead, speaking with her heart. "I know what we did was bad. You didn't deserve to be cheated on, and even less lied to."

It's impossible to read Pamela's gaze under the arch of her perfectly painted eyebrows, but when distant voices arise from the other side of the hallway, Anastasia continues without taking a breath,

"You can hate me all you want, I understand. But we both know Nathaniel doesn't deserve this... sentence. He has the kindest heart, and even if he hasn't always made the right things, I know he considers you and esteems you as a great friend."

Nathaniel, she grips her pendant desperately as he is her last strength, and she tries to find the words he would say, the right words.

"So please, I beg you, don't denounce me. I don't ask you to help me, just let me save him," she breathes out, not daring to inhale as Pamela steps closer, and she waits for her sentence like a helpless prey.

"You're probably right."

This sentence would usually be something Anastasia likes to hear, yet the way Pamela pronounces it in her elegant tone makes it feel like the first hammer blow cracking her frozen chest, and she feels it coming already: the final stroke that will leave her shattered in pieces on the floor.

"But it doesn't help my image. I already struggled to fix all the damage he's done and keep my status, so now that I'm becoming the poor betrayed widow and keeping his fortune, I can't risk it all. He isn't my problem anymore."

Not even the fire of anger, disgust, and despair rising sourly along her throat at this instant can make her move. She doesn't have anything to retort as Nathaniel's image flashes in her mind, blurry and far away, engulfed in a dark smoke from hell, and the sole thing appearing clearly is the single rope waiting for him.

So she doesn't react either in front of Pamela's smirk.

"Guards! This woman is trying to force that door. I think she's a rebel."

The last word instantly accelerates everything. At least, on the outside, as loud steps rush in Anastasia's direction, and she doesn't bat an eyelid, only closing them.

If she can't save Nathaniel, then she would rather go down with him and let them rejoice in arresting easily another rebel.

'Rebel', she believes she has been much more: a faithful friend, a loved daughter, a protective sister, a promising student... a lover. But she will proudly end as a 'rebel' if that is all they remember, and she holds her compass pendant tightly over her heart, waiting for this tragic ending as the steps are growing into a hurried rumbling.

A loud thud resonates around, and– another one, and another one.

The heavy sounds are coming one after the other, like the erratic beats of her heart, as there is no tragic ending, no 'ending' at all.

She is still breathing, and there is no blow or rough hands restraining her either. Her wobbly muscles can still move, and they comply in a micro-second as she re-opens her eyes to glimpse the last soldier falling limp on the floor, joining the others surrounding her and Pamela's perfect mask, which tumbles down at the same time that she turns to the silhouette beside her.

"Darrell?!" They both gasp, though their breathless tones hold the opposite emotions.

"Oops!" The blond man's lips stretch into a wide smirk, yet his clear gaze stays as deadly, and Anastasia would have never thought she would be glad to see those piercing blue eyes.

It is surely because his glare, just like his gun, isn't aimed at her.

"What are you doing?" In spite of the semblance of appearance Pamela is trying to keep, Anastasia can catch the nervous twitch of her jaw, as it is her plans that are shattering finally.

"What does it look like? I'm saving my best friend, who 'isn't your problem'."

"I-I didn't–"

"Save your lies. I heard everything." Darrell walks around Pamela, his gun still pointed carefully at her, while he offers his other hand at Anastasia, who is still stunned on the floor.

She can't believe what she is watching; she doesn't dare to. It is hope, and she can feel it spark in all her muscles as she gets up again.

"Don't worry, it's just a sedative gun that will knock you out for a few hours," Darrell adds at a wide-eyed Pamela, who doesn't appear as fierce now that Anastasia is standing on her frail legs and lifting an index finger.

"Can I just?"

Although her voice is still shaky, when Darrell nods with a cocked eyebrow, her movements aren't. She takes everyone aback, including herself as her fist lands in the middle of Pamela's perfect face, and she hisses, "This is for Nathaniel."

The stray kitten can be fierce too, and when her heart is roaring with her love for Nathaniel, she finds strengths she would have never imagined, or as Darrell says,

"Wow! Mean right hook!"

Pamela surely agrees as she is clutching her nose, even if she doesn't let out more than a plaintive whine before he shoots her with his sedative gun, making sure she doesn't draw attention around as she collapses perfectly on the floor without even creasing her designer suit.

"I never liked this bitch."

It's at least one thing Darrell and she have in common, along with being ready to do everything to save Nathaniel. However, if she has known he is a true friend to him since their first encounter, she would have never expected he would help her; he has no obligation to when she is the one responsible for all this chaos. That's why she turns to him with a sincere 'thank you'.

"We're on the same team." He shrugs, nodding at the door she has been about to open.

But before she can work on it again, another voice interrupts her again. "Ana! Are you okay?!"

"Andy!" She jumps once more, except this time, she is gripping the precious bobby pin in her palm, and as Darrell looks at her with wide eyes, she gives him one of her earpieces.

They are on the same team, and if Nathaniel trusts him, she does too, without hesitation.

"I'm fine, I've got help. What about you? What happened?" she asks, her frown directed as much to Andy as to the lock in front of her.

"They've put a jammer to prevent any communication inside the building. But they don't know who they're dealing with. I got around it for your earpiece, and I'm working on Hadi's and Sacha's ones."

Something isn't right. More than the mention of a jammer, it's the lack of pride or smirk passing through the earpiece that awakens all her instincts before he even adds,

"But that's not the important. They've brought forward the time of the..." His voice trails off once more on the cursed word, or maybe it's covered by the light clinking of the bobby pin falling on the floor and mostly, the loud drop of her heart. "They're already taking him to the main courtyard. I think they know the rebellion is preparing."

"What?! The others didn't tell me?!" She vaguely hears the man beside her shuffling around, yet he seems so far away, just like Andy in her earpiece.

"The phones aren't working either."

The curses leaving Darrell's mouth are just a few of the ones she is thinking, and the ones in her head are mainly directed towards herself. She has failed in her mission. She has just had to open a damn door and turn off the power. But she has failed, and she has made everyone lose precious time to help her when they could have saved Nathaniel.

The stray kitten, who always has to be rescued. She may have all the determination in the world, yet she is not the heroine matching up to Nathaniel.

"Where is he exactly?" Darrell asks, and she hasn't realized that he has walked to the nearest window, neither that she has followed him, until she is standing next to him, glancing through the glass.

"He's entering the courtyard."

She immediately spots Nathaniel through the large crowd, the red of his new uniform standing out in the sea of dull colors, although she would recognize him in these hundreds of people even without it, and the gasp she inhales is as shallow as if she hadn't seen him in years, when it has only been excruciatingly long hours.

The marks of those hours are already visible in Nathaniel's light stubble and shadowed eyes, and she can't imagine what has happened when she catches sight of the purple bruise all over the side of his jaw and the dark red along his chained forearms. He is still whole nonetheless, and he could have been worse.

As if to remind her the worst is coming, her gaze trails to the center of the courtyard, where all people are gathered around.

From armed soldiers forming an impregnable circle to various citizens standing, and farther and slightly elevated, the VIP seats with an area that she recognizes as the leaders', guarded like a fortress, they are all watching as if it was an entertaining show. They are all waiting for the finale on the platform, where the single rope is hanging from large metal bars, exactly like she has pictured it in her horror visions.

The end, the tragic ending, Nathaniel may be the one walking to it, but she doesn't see a future after that.

She is already suffocating, stuck with the nightmarish image like she has been too many times today. Every time she has been brought back up to glimpse a happy ending, almost grasping it, to only fall down lower and lower on a dreadful rollercoaster between hope and despair. Yet the crash has never been so close, and as her eyes find their way back to Nathaniel, the same pull that always attracts her to him is stronger than ever.

"They're supposed to read and go over his charges before... So we still have a good few minutes while they do their brainwashing." Andy pulls her out of her trance, his words appearing like another rise of hope in the rollercoaster, when she has been ready to jump and fall, and she realizes that even if she has been thrown in every direction, brought down and shattered in every way, they have not put out her fire.

There is still a spark inside her chest, and as long as Nathaniel's heart is beating, it will blaze. She can feel it growing as her gaze follows his limping figure, her brain burning to find a way to join him on the final line, hopefully alive.

"Okay." Darrell takes a deep breath, his attitude surely more controlled thanks to his trained reflexes, while she is battling to suck in shaky wheezes of air. "All the men with a keyring are on our side. They won't shoot Nate."

I knew it! A small voice exclaims in the back of her head, even if it isn't as loud as her heart echoing the word 'keyring' as she glances back and forth between the window and Darrell.

"I know my best bud, and we'll never let him down. Besides, your Love Bug has done its job through the army too," the latter explains, answering Andy's loud 'what?!' and the unspoken but clear question in Anastasia's wide eyes.

She would jump at his neck or even smile if her muscles weren't crippled under the stakes. Stronger together. Instead, she is gripping her pendant as her eyes narrow to spot all the old-fashioned pieces of plastic or metal, and there are a lot...

"Khloe and Molly also have gathered people outside. We could maybe storm the building?" Andy suggests, making the uproar of all these people fighting with them stronger and stronger in her chest.

Meanwhile, in her head, the doubts are arising even faster than Darrell's question.

"But will it be fast enough?"

Before Andy replies, she knows the answer, though she stays silent, as the wheels are spinning in her head with the images of what is happening outside and the sound of the boys' reflections.

"Yeah, right. The government has already brought everything forward because they know the rebellion is happening."

"And they won't surrender without a fight or a low blow."

"And they will aim at Nathaniel first," she speaks up, her voice much calmer than everything happening inside her body as she throws a glance at Darrell. "The other soldiers would they...?"

"I don't know. We can try to disarm them, but there's still a lot and –"

"We can't risk it." Only one little wrong move, and it is Nathaniel in the crosshairs.

It is an impossible riddle, and once more she is stuck, while this time, it is Nathaniel who is circled.

Yet she refuses to give up, her gaze instinctively traveling from Nathaniel up to the sky for a silent prayer and back down to the keyrings, which means all around the place, as the small and colorful items are scattered everywhere, almost as much as the weapons and the guards particularly in two areas: around Nathaniel and... around the leaders.

"I have an idea!" she exclaims in a breath, her ribcage slightly swelling with hope or maybe just more fire. "We can't risk it with all the armed soldiers. If we do anything, they'll shoot before the rope is even around Nathaniel's neck, but we can find a good argument to prevent them from shooting."

"What do I feel like it's gonna be madness?" Andy sighs, recognizing her determined and stubborn tone.

The same are embedded in her frown, and as Darrell follows where it is directed, he can guess what she has in mind. "It is."

"It's a crazy idea, and it has to work." She squeezes her compass pendant, her eyes going back to Nathaniel's silhouette walking with his head low.

Luckily, the courtyard is wide, and the soldiers are escorting him by a longer way to avoid the crowd, so it gives them just a little bit more time to set up this crazy idea.

Sooo... What do you think of this crazy idea? Possible or Impossible? Will she be able to save Nate now that she has more and more help? 🤔😬

Speaking of help, this chapter is definitely a declaration to my favorite side characters: Hadi and Darrell 😈🤩 Aren't they adorable in their own ways? Did you expect them both to help Ana?

One who hasn't helped is Pamela! Did you expect this from her? Personally, I agree with Darrell! 😅

Well, anyway, I hope you're ready for the last chapter (cuz I ain't 😭) coming next week, since you decided you wanted a little bit more time to spend with Natesia 😉

In the meantime, don't forget to vote ⭐ and COMMENT!!! I love to hear from you, and I need your sweet and funny comments to prepare! We can even share our excitement and tears 🤧😘🌞💕

PS: The French lesson of today is 'stupide chaton errant' = Stupid stray kitten (you might have guessed now that you're almost fluent 😉🤓)