Dedicated to Hannah Davis who is helping me keep patient as I wait for my Hogwarts letter which is five years late.

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'No, hell to the no. Avery stop being ridiculous, she is going back to the base.' Fidelia argued.

'She's okay, she just freaked out. She needs to do this, it's important to her.' Avery argued back.

'Guys, I'm right here.' I held my hands up in frustration. They had been arguing even before I had woken up, which had been ten minutes prior. So yes, I may have freaked out, but Avery was right. I needed to do this.

'It's not safe for her to be here.' Fidelia continued, completely ignoring me. She stepped closer to Avery, and even though he was a full head taller, he still bowed down slightly in submission. I didn't blame him, when Fidelia wanted something. She got it.

But not, today.

Luckily Wyatt and Karoline had joined forces to form the four groups, considering that Avery was too busy shouting at Fidelia.

'Hey guys,' I trotted over to rest of my team. They were all in a circle, surrounding Karoline who started to read out the list. She stepped to the outside and draped her arm over my shoulder.

'I'm glad you made it out of there.' She whispered, and pointed slyly to Fidelia and Avery, who were still fighting.

'Me too, what's the plan?' I smiled at the rest of the group.

'Okay, so we teamed up the people that could fill in the others' weaknesses.' Karoline started to explain. 'Because the team doesn't easily split into four, the team that is going to go for the clue that is furthest and most difficult to obtain has the one person left over. So there are three teams of three, and one team of four.'

'You're in a group with Avery and me.' Wyatt filled in with a grin.

'Of course.' I laughed. I felt awful thinking so, but I was glad that I wasn't with Fidelia or Kermit. I would tread carefully around Kermit, and wouldn't do my best, and Fidelia would tread carefully around me and undermine my abilities (not that I had any.)

Finally Avery and Fidelia stopped bickering and made their way to us. Avery went over to Wyatt and read the sheet of paper with the groups on it. His eyebrows furrowed slightly before a bright smile stretched onto his face. He patted Wyatt on the shoulder and draped his arm around Karoline's shoulder, a gesture that made me bristle with jealousy though I had no idea why.

'Good job guys, these teams are perfect.' He praised. Wyatt's face glowed happily, and he looked up at Avery like he was his world.

Mentor Peter walked up to us with a devilish grin on his face.

'Oh no.' I heard Wyatt mutter.

'You have five minutes to make your way into the maze.' Mentor Peter announced.

'Isn't there a door?' Diego asked incredulously.

'No.' Mentor Peter said sharply before turning on his heel and stalking off to the Mentors' tent.

'This is when we need someone who can fly.' Fidelia huffed.

'That's levitation, and Winona has it. She's on the other team though.' Kip looked down. I smiled at Kip. He was a year younger than me, and hung out with Max and Rufus and Winona, who were all on the other team. He had jet black hair, and piercing blue eyes. He had a scar that ran down his face from his temple to his jaw. He didn't know how he got it; he only knew that he acquired it before he arrived at the base when he was three. Fidelia reckoned that he was abused before he arrived.

I took the time to finally take in my surroundings. It was cold, almost too cold to go swimming without contracting hypothermia. I jogged on the spot sending dust and sand spraying. The ground was covered in dirty brown sand. The maze itself was made of huge, stone walls that towered over us. I couldn't see over the walls, so I didn't know what I would find once I got over them.

I closed my eyes and tried to think of a way to get over the wall when I remembered something that Mentor Christian had said to us before we boarded the plane.

'Sometimes, touch is the most powerful sense, seconded by sight.' I said aloud.

'What?' Avery looked at me.

'Look for something strange about the wall, a key maybe and then touch it.' I commanded excitedly. I surveyed the wall looking for something out of the ordinary. Finally, a darker stone caught my eye, and I leaned forward to inspect it closer. Engraved in it was a flame within a circle, my alm symbol.

'Hey guys, look!' I shouted, and everyone ran over.

I pressed my hand against the stone and nothing happened. I looked down dejectedly. 'Oh.' I breathed.

'Try activating your alm.' Tammy piped up.

'Oh yeah, okay.' I agreed and focussed all my energy into my hand. It started to glow. It was quiet for a second, and I was about to move my hand away when I heard a loud crunching sound, that reminded me of two stones grinding together. It hurt my ears a little. The stone started to crumble away and left a doorway, large enough to walk through.

Karoline squealed and hugged me tightly. 'Well done!'

'You guys first.' I gestured towards the passage.

Vincent, who was closest to the passage stepped forward, but collided with the passage. It was like an invisible wall stopped him. He reached out and pressed his hand against the invisible barrier. It was a force field, but it didn't electrocute, luckily.

'Maybe there's a specific order?' Vincent suggested.

'You try Mags.' Kermit said quietly. I ducked my head and nodded. I didn't know how to address the "Kermit situation" so I decided to stay quiet and let everything unfold naturally.

I stepped into the passage way and put my hand against the force field. There was a droning sound and my hand went through. I pulled it out and repeated the process. The force field made the same sound again.

'Maybe, you each need to find your own passage. This wall goes on for ages so there should be one for each of us.' I told them, and went to walk through the passage.

Avery reached out and gripped my hand. 'Wait, it might not be safe.' He said worriedly.

'Look, you guys need to hurry, maybe the passages can only be activated for five minutes, and then we won't be able to get through.' I said. I slid through passage as soon as Avery let go of me.

There was a crunching sound again, and the passage started to fill up with stones again. I tried to run back through, but the force field was activated and I couldn't get back. I could faintly hear Pansy squealing and Avery's shouts. I hoped that they found their symbols and would get through in time, I didn't want to be left alone.

Most of the others had the same alms as one another, so maybe the wall only let a select few through. I hoped not.

I turned around to face the darkness. It was all dark, only a faint light from the top of the walls managed to fall into the maze. I made a ball of light and let it hover next to me. Instantly, the darkness disappeared and I found myself in a small chamber with no way out. There were four walls and no door, no passages.

I was trapped.

**

Thank god I'm not claustrophobic. I thought as I paced the tiny chamber that I was trapped in. I had roughly calculated that the chamber was ten metres by fifteen metres. It was slightly warmer confined in the four walls, and I found myself relaxing slightly.

'Hello?' I shouted as loud as I could, hoping that someone would hear me. The sound just bounced off the walls and echoed. I set to looking at the walls for a way out.

After a minute or so, there was a crunching sound and I spun around to face the noise. The wall started to crumble down and the passage opened. I ran up to the passage, and pressed my hands and face against it, looking out to see how the rest of my team was coping. There weren't many others, which meant they must have opened their passage. But if so, why weren't they with me. Wyatt's face popped up, and gave me a fright. I stumbled backwards as he slipped through the invisible barrier to join me.

'Oh thank god.' I breathed, glad that I wasn't alone any longer. 'Tell me about the passages, how do they work? Has anyone figured it out yet?' I assaulted Wyatt with questions.

He held his hands up. 'Far out woman, let me take a breath.'

'Sorry.' I mumbled, even though I wasn't.

'It's fine, so we figured out that all the team members had go through to the chamber before the other passage opened through to the actual maze.'

'So if Avery doesn't make it through then...'

'We're stuck here until the end of the exercise.' Wyatt finished, before plopping down on the sandy floor. He picked up a stick and started to draw what looked like the maze. 'We have a half an hour head start on the other team. So realistically, we have about twenty six more minutes until they enter the maze.'

'Why isn't Avery here?' I asked. My head was starting to pound and I was wondering where he was exactly.

'Well, there were a lot of alm double ups, and he didn't know which of his alms was the key to opening the passage. I guess there is a downside to having nine alms.' Wyatt rolled onto his stomach and dragged the stick through the sand.

'What's that?' I asked him, and sat down. I was trying to keep my mind off the fact that we might not be able to take part in the exercise. I really hoped that Avery would come through. He only had a minute or two before the passage into the chamber would seal, meaning that we would be stuck on the outskirts of the maze.

'This is how the chambers mechanisms work I think.' Wyatt said, and placed the stick down. 'The energy from our alm goes through this, which is a conductor. It's metal, hence the different coloured stone.' He pointed to the alm symbol on the stone.

'The energy then travels through to this, the force field. The stone covering the force field is just a hologram. When the energy surges through, it breaks the connection of power between the power source and the hologram and therefore momentarily diverts the image, making the stone fall. Then I don't know what happens that only specifically lets the person through but yeah.'

'You figured all that out?' I asked, amazed.

'Don't you listen in computers?'

'Do I listen in any classes?' I smirked, and rolled over onto my back. I had forgotten that I still had my pack on and I quickly sat up as a canteen or something metal dug into my spine.

'The passage is going to close up any minute now.' Wyatt whispered.

'Shit.' I punched the nearest wall angrily, which resulted in my knuckles splitting and bleeding, and my anger only increasing.

Just then, there was a low crunching sound, and the passage opened. I spun around just in time to see Avery stumble through into the chamber before my light went out and the room was plunged into darkness.

'Mags, where are you?' Avery's slightly panicked voice rang out.

'I'm here, I'm fine. Why isn't the other passage opening?'

'Why is it dark?' Avery sounded increasingly frantic. I mentally slapped myself, remembering his fear of the dark.

'Hold on.' I said, and tried to conjure a light in my palms. It took a while, but I managed to produce a rather pitiful sphere of light. I let it float, and the darkness receded as the pools of light slowly reached the far corners of the chamber.

I could almost feel Avery relax.

'I need to come up with a name for that.' I reminded myself.

'Why did it go dark?' Avery asked.

'Maybe the energy fused the power source or something.' Wyatt offered.

'Hey look!' I pointed towards the wall which had started to change into a door. It's just a hologram. I told myself as I walked up to the door.

'Mags, be careful.' Avery warned.

I ignoring him, I placed my hands on the door and pushed it open. I stumbled forwards through the door and had to shield my eyes. It was really bright, and really warm. The maze was still tall stone walls, but they were covered in vines, and tropical foliage. Birds nested in the trees which sprouted from the dirt banks surrounding the channels. The channels of water nearly took my breath away. The water was crystal clear, and had a lovely ocean blue hue. The sandy bottom was easily visible, as were the small fish that darted in between rocks and colourful seaweed and corral.

'Wow.' Wyatt breathed beside me.

'Wow.' I agreed. I shimmied out of the pants and jacket that I had put over my dry suit and shoved them in my pack. Mentor Christian had said something about the packs being water proof. I hoped he was right because I had put the snickers bars from the plane packs into the front pocket, and keeping those dry was a top priority.

Wyatt did the same as did Avery, and soon we were standing with our toes curled over the edge of the stone ledge of the chamber that I was happy to leave behind.

'It's your favourite colour.' I nudged Avery and motioned towards the sparkling water.

'Yeah.' He smiled.

'Ready?' I asked both boys, and hoisted my pack onto my back. I hoped that it wouldn't affect my swimming.

'Ready.' They both chorused, before diving into the water. I followed suit, and as soon as I hit the water, I was absolutely ready to win.

I opened my eyes and swam down deeper into the water. It was actually really deep, and my ears were starting to hurt as I went down. The fish darted away as soon as I got close enough to see them. I could see Avery's muscled legs gently treading water above me, and I swam up to him. I grabbed his ankle and pulled him under the water. I felt him thrash around and I finally let go before swimming to the surface.

Avery's head popped up just after mine and he spluttered and coughed.

'Mags!' He exclaimed before splashing me.

'Okay, okay stop.' I laughed and wiped the water from my face.

'Are you guys done?' Wyatt smirked and I blushed slightly, although I didn't know why.

'Yeah, let's go.' Avery said cooly and started to swim down the channel.

**

Wyatt stopped at every turn we made to add to his illustration of the map. After an hour of swimming, the maze got darker, and cooler. The banks were almost nonexistent and if anything were just ledges of concrete. The water was murky and when I swum down to the bottom, it wasn't sand. Just rock.

A cool breeze swept through the channel that we were in and I shivered slightly.

'We're not getting anywhere.' I whined. Wyatt was perched on one of the tiny ledges and was scribbling in his notebook.

'As soon as we find a big enough perch we can rest for a bit.' Avery said.

'Come on guys.' Wyatt urged and slid into the water with a splash.

'What are we even looking for?' I asked in between strokes.

'That.' Avery said, and swam over to a red buoy floating on the surface. We rushed over and quickly observed the buoy. It had black writing on it. CLUE NUMBER THREE.

'How do we open it?' Wyatt quizzed.

We each took turns tugging, twisting and beating as we tried to pry it open. Finally we gave up all nice methods and I set to burning the plastic.

The water on my hands and the buoy sizzled and evaporated as it started to heat up. The plastic layer finally started to melt away in a thick red mess. The plastic started to congeal as soon as it touched the cool water.

What was left was a small metal cube which was sitting in the bottom of the buoy which no longer had a top.

I reached down and pulled it out. It had a small button on the top and I pressed it. There was a whirring sound and each of the flaps fell open revealing nothing.

The cube was empty.

'It's empty.' Wyatt huffed.

'No shit.' Avery laughed bitterly.

'Guys, look closer.' I peered at the small cube. The metal had writing engraved into it.

The dark water conceals the light.

'What the fuck is that supposed to mean?' Avery grumbled.

I mulled over the words and tried to figure out what it meant. The dark water, there must have been a reason that the water was dark. Because it was hiding something.

'The water, there must be a passage or something.' I blurted.

'Of course.' Wyatt muttered.

'So, how do we find this passage?' Avery queried.

'Ah, that's the bit I was stuck on.' Wyatt said, chewing his lip.

'Can you make a flare or something?' Avery turned to me.

'A flare.' I smiled.

'Yeah.'

'A flare! Avery you're a genius! That's what I'm going to call it, my alm I mean. Flare, it's perfect!' I grabbed his cheeks in excitement. His eyes widened and I quickly realised how close our faces were.

I coughed uncomfortably and dropped my hands away.

'Uh, yeah, yes, um so can you make a flare.' Avery stuttered.

'I can't put it in the water, it'll go out.' I told him.

'You can glow though right?' Wyatt joined in.

'Oh, yeah.' I remembered that unfortunate side effect of my alm. 'Yeah I can glow.'

'Well, what are we waiting for?' Wyatt dived into the water and I quickly focussed all my energy into my hands and feet as they were the only things that weren't covered by the dry suit. A powerful white beam shot from my palms.

'That's new.' Avery noted.

'Yeah.' I gasped. It was new, the glow had only ever been the colour of ember and now, it was almost blue.

'Is it hot?' Avery asked, as he paddled closer to me.

'No, no its not.' I plunged my hands into the water and the murky darkness disappeared.

'That's... great. Let's go, Wyatt's waiting.' Avery dived down after Wyatt and I followed suit after taking in a deep breath.

The light coming from my hands was strong and the channel floor was made visible. It was a mixture of grey stone and polished concrete. I kicked my legs and swam deeper so my stomach was scraping along the bottom.

My eyes were starting to sting because of the water, and it was strange, because the water had a slightly chlorinated, yet salty and fresh taste.

We still hadn't found anything and I surfaced for air. Avery and Wyatt bobbed beside me as I gulped in oxygen.

'Find... any... thing?' I asked in between gasps.

'Not really, but it seems likely that the passage would be here if it exists.' Wyatt replied. He flicked his blonde hair out of his eyes. It had grown quite long recently.

'If it exists.' I echoed.

'Big if.' Wyatt said before taking a huge breath and diving downwards.

I did the same and swam with my hands out in front of me. I scoured the channel floor, willing a passage to magically appear in front of me.

Something large and dark went past the corner of my eye. I spun around and immediately wished I didn't.

A large shark swam back and forth on top of a passage on the bottom of the channel.

I quickly shut the beams off and sped to the surface, fear spilling into my blood.

'What? What is it?' Avery asked as soon as his head broke the water.

'It's a, oh my god, it's a fucking shark.'

'A shark?' Avery laughed. 'You're kidding.'

'No, I'm not. There's a big, massive shark with big massive teeth that like to rip through flesh and devour it! I can't believe they put us in a maze with a shark!' I spluttered.

'So you're not kidding, and there is a legitimate shark right beneath our feet.' Avery confirmed.

'Yes.' I scrabbled up on to one of the tiny ledges and tucked my knees up to my chin. Avery started laughing at me.

'It's not funny, you won't be laughing when your feet get bitten off.' I huffed. The fear filled adrenaline had started to wear off and I got to thinking that the shark couldn't be real. For starters it only swam back and forth on top of the passage, and it didn't even blink an eye when I swam past. If it was a real shark, no doubt it would have at least chased me, or if it was a scaredy shark it would have swum away.

Wyatt's laughter broke my chain of thought and I turned to give both Wyatt and Avery a glare.

'What's so funny?' I grumbled.

'You,' Wyatt chortled.

'Oh shove off.' I growled and slid back into the water. I turned my beams on high and swam to where the shark, and more importantly where the passage was.

The shark swam back and forth and was a deep grey with a white underbelly. Its eyes glowed red and I scoffed at my own stupidity. It was obviously robotic. I pushed it to the side and felt around on the passage for a handle. I was starting to run out of air, but after a few more seconds I finally found a latch on the side. I tugged it but it wouldn't come loose. My lungs were burning, so frustratedly I kicked upwards and swam towards the surface.

'Did you find something?' Wyatt asked as my head popped up.

'Yeah, I found the passage but the door won't budge.' I sighed dejectedly.

'Do you think that maybe it needs a key?' Avery asked. Water trickled from his dark brown hair down into his eyes and he shook his head sending droplets flying.

'A key, like what?' I furrowed my eyebrows.

'Like the cube!' Wyatt added excitedly.

'Oh yeah, yeah I see. Okay, let's go.' I urged them. The urgency that I felt before wasn't there anymore and I was worried. We had been by the buoy for half an hour and it wasn't going to be long before the other team came swimming through to take our clue off us.

'Okay, we're coming.' Wyatt laughed and with a series of splashes, both boys had followed me down towards the passage.

I used my alm to light up the channel floor as Wyatt and Avery tried to open the passage.

The cube was fitted into a small square slot next to the latch and Avery tugged open the door.

In a flurry of flailing limbs and inhalation of water, all three of us were sucked into the passage. We fell into another chamber below the channel.

Water gushed from the open passage and pounded against us as we tried to close the passage door. The water nailed me to the floor and filled my nostrils and mouth as I tried to scream.

After what seemed like an eternity, the pressure of the water stopped as the passage door was closed. I rolled over onto my side as coughed up water onto the floor. Immediately Avery was by my side, rolling me over and rubbing my back.

'I'm okay, I'm fine.' I wheezed and spat some more water out.

'That was a mission.' Wyatt sighed, and I heard him flop onto the floor next to me.

I sat up and took in our surroundings. Yet again, I was in a chamber, but the roof was see through and I could see the water above me. It was strange, because from the other side, looking down at the chamber, the roof was stone.

'Where are we?' I breathed.

'No idea.' Avery walked along the perimeter of the chamber. His footsteps echoed and seemed to bounce off the walls. 'Uh, guys. You might want to see this.' Avery called out nervously.

I peeled myself from the floor and trotted over to where Avery was standing.

What I saw completely took my breath away. The rest of our team were in clear chambers hanging from the bottom of the channel.

'Holy shit.' I gasped.

'Holy shit.' Avery agreed.

And just like that, I knew that finding our way to the centre of the maze was going to be a lot trickier than what I had thought.

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Authors note:

Well that was a long chapter. I wrote the majority of it on my phone so please excuse the terrible grammar that I'm sure will have smacked you in the face. ITS THE HOLIDAYS OH MY !

I'm not entirely sure what happened with this chapter and I'm not very happy with it so yeah, I apologise. Thanks for reading, I almost have 900 reads which is practically 1000 which is practically 1,000,000 so yeah I'm famous. Just kidding but yeah, I would love to take the time to thank my faithful readers that have supported me through this! You know who you are... Well love you all! Thanks again and don't forget to vote and comment!