Things were the way they'd been back at the beginning of this whole mess: Ivy was alone in a building of other teenagers, unable to control her powers.

Well, unable to use them at all, now.

And this wasn't a boarding school, it was a goddamn juvenile detention center. Ivy looked up from her lunch and met the eyes of the SCI agent assigned to her. He was dressed like the detention center guards to avoid drawing attention from other kids, but Ivy recognized him. Plus, although he stayed at a distance, he followed her everywhere.

He'd been following her for a month. An entire month. She'd been arrested June 28. She'd been a prisoner the whole month of July. Now it was August 1, and she had no answers about what had happened to her friends, if they were even alive.

At least they'd given her back her belongings. She wasn't exactly sure what the necklace Dr. Newman had given her was, but it had to be important. And while most of her clothes had been given to her, seeing as how the rest were at the bottom of the ocean somewhere, Ivy still had what she'd worn the day the ship sank, including her red jacket.

Ivy set her lunch tray down at an empty table and slid onto the bench. She scooped up a bite of whatever the hell the cafeteria workers had given her and glanced up at the television screen.

"The tech company Aquarius has been working with the government agency SCI to develop methods of containing powered kids," a news reporter droned on. "Multiple options are being explored..."

Ivy narrowed her eyes. Why was Aquarius—and by extension, Zodiac—helping SCI? What did Andrew Hale have to gain from it?

Money seemed the most likely reason. With the government funding them, who knew what Zodiac would be able to accomplish?

Ivy slid her food into her mouth and immediately spat it back out. Not because it was gross, but because it was hot.

She'd burned her tongue.

Burned it. That wasn't supposed to be possible. She was immune to heat. But with her powers suppressed...

Ivy sighed. She'd considered the possibility of escaping a thousand times before, but without her abilities, she didn't stand a chance. And she knew for a fact the SCI agent monitoring her had a shock gun. Ivy didn't want to experience the pain of a shocker without her electrokinesis.

"Excuse me, you're Ivy Ackerman, right?"

Ivy looked up, surprised to see a boy about her age addressing her. The other kids at the detention center had avoided her for the most part. She supposed they were afraid of her, even though she couldn't use her powers.

Two other boys, probably friends of the first, stood behind him, snickering. Ivy narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Yeah, I was just wondering what I have to do to get super powers," the first boy said.

Ivy stood up, taking the boy by surprise. He hadn't seemed to realize she was a few inches taller than him. His amused expression quickly became fearful as Ivy leaned in.

"You want powers? It's easy. Just have your entire family die in an accident caused by scientists who will spend the rest of your life trying to exploit your powers."

"I—"

"Now if you'll excuse me," Ivy shot a glare at the other two boys, who were backing away. "I have to go."

She didn't bother grabbing her tray. She crossed cafeteria quickly, drawing the attention of several guards.

"Where are you going?" the nearest guard asked as she approached the door.

"I want to go back to my room," Ivy told him.

"Okay, hold on, I need to get you an escort." The guard grabbed the walkie-talkie from his belt. "West side of the cafeteria, I need an escort..."

The guard frowned and looked down, and Ivy followed his gaze. Her eyes widened. Water was creeping across the floor.

"Hang on," the guard said. "Something's flooding. Anyone know what's going on?"

Ivy looked up and searched for the source of the water. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the lunch line. Maybe a pipe in the kitchen was leaking.

The water level was rising surprisingly fast, though. Ivy swallowed. Her mind kept going back to the Fortuna.

The noise level in the cafeteria suddenly went up. Shouting came from the direction of the kitchen.

A voice came through the guard's walkie-talkie. "Evacuate the cafeteria and tell everyone to go back to the rooms."

Oh great. Evacuating the entire cafeteria at once? That was going to be a nightmare. They usually sent kids out in groups.

Guards attempted to herd kids through the halls in an orderly fashion, but Ivy found herself surrounded by kids fighting not to suffocate in the ground.

"Single file line!" a guard shouted. "Girls follow me to your dorms, boys will—"

Ivy didn't hear the rest of what the guard said. The wall to her left trembled. She found herself frozen, staring at the wall. Kids pushed past her, and it wasn't until one girl almost pushed her over that she snapped back to the present.

"Ackerman," a voice said.

Ivy looked to the right as the SCI agent assigned to her approached. "Stay close," he said. "I'll be escorting you to your room."

Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Must be something going on if you're staying close."

"It's nothing, just a minor leak."

"Sure. No big deal," Ivy grumbled. "The secret agent is just... what? A precaution?"

"There's nothing to concern yourself with."

The wall to the left shuddered once before sheetrock exploded in every direction. Pipes stretched out from the wall and sent a spray of water into the hallway. The kids around Ivy shrieked and yelled. The SCI agent drew his gun.

The corner of Ivy's mouth turned up in a smirk.

A figure erupted from the cloud of dust and swung a pipe at the agent. The pipe collided with the agent's side, and he grunted in pain as he collapsed to his knees.

Ash turned around and his eyes found Ivy's.

"Ash!" Ivy exclaimed. She had no idea where to even begin. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"There's... a lot I have to explain. And I will. But right now we need to get out of here."

"Right." Ivy took a deep breath and tried to clear her head. "Let's go."

They ran down the hall. After Ivy almost slipped twice, Ash held out a hand and cleared a path through the water. When guards arrived to stop them, water surged forward to knock them to the ground.

Ash came to a stop in front of an exterior door, and Ivy stopped next to him.

"Could you burn through the door?" Ash asked. "It's metal, but it seems like it's not too thick."

Ivy grimaced. "I... I can't use my powers right now."

Ash looked like he was going to ask for an explanation, but seemed to realize now wasn't the best time. "All right, then. Stay close to me. Let's hope I can hit this thing hard enough."

He held up his hands, and the roar of water came from the hallway behind them. Ivy turned around and watched, eyes wide, as a massive wave barreled toward them.

"Stay as far from the water as you can," Ash warned. "I'm going to split it so it goes around us, but it's moving with a lot of force. You don't want it hitting you."

Ivy swallowed and nodded. The water came closer, closer...

Then a wall of water was rushing past, the sound deafening. The wave crashed into the door. A thud shook the walls, and the torrent subsided.

Ivy assessed the aftermath. Screws had been knocked out of the door hinges, and the lock seemed to be broken. "Did that do as much damage as you wanted?" she asked.

"It did enough," Ash replied. He kicked the door and it swung open.

They ran out into the yard. Guards moved to stop them, but a few well-aimed blasts of water threw them to the ground long enough for Ivy and Ash to reach the chain link fence. They climbed.

When they dropped to the earth on the other side, Ash spoke. "The jetchopper's not far."

"Good," Ivy breathed. Even though she'd tried to keep up some semblance of a training regimen over the past month, she was falling out of shape. It would take time to build her speed and endurance back up.

"Sorry it took so long to rescue you," Ash said when they reached the chopper. He grabbed the door and pulled it open. "We watched the news pretty much nonstop, but they never said where they were taking you, except that it was a juvenile detention center."

Ivy followed him into the chopper. "How did you find me, then?"

"There's a bunch of blogs on the internet dedicated to trying to track Supers. A bunch of them were convinced they'd figured out where you were. Most were wrong, but we investigated all of the plausible options. Some guy actually got it right." Ash paused by the doorway to the cockpit to catch his breath. He studied Ivy for a moment before asking, "Why can't you use your powers?"

Ivy sighed. "SCI found a way to suppress our abilities with an alterium-based serum. It's only temporary," she assured him. "They had to give me weekly injections. But it'll be a few days before the most recent one wears off. Until then..."

"You've got nothing. Sorry about that."

Ivy shrugged. "They'll come back. I'll be fine."

Ash shook his head as he sat down in the pilot's seat. "Are you sure about that? I mean, you've got three powers now. There's a chance you—"

"John gave most of the other phoenixes at least four or five powers," Ivy interrupted. She slid into the seat next to Ash.

"I guess. But Raven... Raven hasn't been doing well."

"Raven's alive?" Ivy had feared Raven had taken in too much water during the swim to shore.

"For now."

Ivy turned to stare out the window. The last thing she wanted to worry about right now was whether or not she would drop dead when her powers came back. She had a thousand other, more important questions.

"Everything was so crazy when Raven attacked the ship," Ivy said. "Is Claire still in a coma? And did we find anyone who went missing?"

"Claire woke up, actually. She's fine now."

"Really?" Ivy asked. "That's great!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the only good thing that's happened." Ash's hands tightened around the steering wheel. "We have no idea where Tyler is. Or Victoria, or that Malcolm kid."

Over a month and no sign of any of them? That couldn't be good. "I'm guessing you haven't heard anything about the Neutrals SCI captured, either."

"Sorry. We haven't heard anything about your brother."

"Well, according to Leroy, he and the others they caught are either escaped or dead."

Ash didn't respond. Ivy glanced over at him. He seemed to be unsure what to say. After a moment, Ivy asked, "Why are you the only one they sent to rescue me?

"Well, compared to Zodiac, that place was a piece of cake. I mean, one SCI agent?"

Ivy laughed. "True."

"We—they actually planned on me just verifying that you were here. I wasn't technically supposed to go in unless I was confident I'd be able to get out."

"Which you were?"

"Yeah, I suppose. I'm just surprised they let me go. I guess I'm still trying to earn their trust."

Ivy supposed that was fair, but if Ash hadn't turned on them yet, she honestly doubted he ever would. "So, where are we going?" she asked.