I woke up with a gasp, sitting bolt right up but then wincing. Everything just ached all over but the bullet wound in my stomach had fully healed almost as if Josh had healed me. I sighed,  swinging my legs out of the bed and putting on the clothes that had been put on a chair opposite. I looked like some sort of freedom fighter. Well, I guess I was now. 

"Erin?" a voice asked. I drew back the curtain that was sectioning off my bed and was crushed by a hug from Harry. "Oh it is so good to see you not dying anymore," he said.

"Thanks Harry," I laughed, pulling away. "Wow, don't you look professional. And the medals too, well deserved I think." Harry smiled sheepishly and looked away, his cheeks turning bright red. He was wearing military uniform with three shining medals on his chest. A gun was slung over his left shoulder.

"So, where's Charlie?" Harry's face suddenly turned serious and his sparkling eyes dimmed.

"Yeah...about that," Harry said. He rubbed the back of his neck. "You need to come up to the control tower. The General wants to speak to you about...well, about Josh." I froze and looked up slowly.

"What's happened to Josh?" I asked. "Have they found him?"

"Sort of," Harry said. "Look, you're just going to have to come with me." He led me through the corridors then across the tarmac. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was warming me up even then. There were fighter jets lined up and ready to go just by the hangers. This made me worry. It worried me a lot.

Harry and I hopped into an elevator that took us up to the control tower. "Just warning you," Harry said quietly, shifting his gun onto his other shoulder. "You're going to get a lot of attention in there. As soon as Charlie gave his report in, you and Josh became pretty big heroes around here. Everybody knows what Triple did to you guys and what they made you do. The fact you tried to resist makes you guys heroes."

"I'm guessing Austin isn't exactly welcome then," I said, fiddling with Charlie's mother's necklace.

"Not exactly," Harry mumbled. "What I mean to say, Erin is... don't do anything stupid when you find out. We need you."

"When I find out what?" I said. Harry didn't answer. The lift stopped and the doors opened revealing the beating heart of the United Army. Everyone was rushing about, passing papers, working on computers or shouting into phones. Red lights were flashing and alarms going off. It was complete mayhem until they all stopped and stared at me. 

"Umm...hi?" I said. In unison, they turned their faces to the ginger haired man at the back of the room. He was standing with Charlie, leaning on a table which was showing a hologram of a city somewhere. 

"Erin," Charlie said, looking around. "You might want to come up here." I obeyed, with Harry just behind me. Everyone went back to their work but I could see them sneaking glances up at me. 

"See, I told you," Harry said quietly.

"Oh shut up," I whispered. 

"You're Erin, I guess," the ginger haired man said. I nodded and held out my hand for him to shake. He did so a little tentatively. "It would have been nice to have met you in better circumstances but...well, Agent Hunt?"

"Charlie? What's going on?" I asked. I was getting really freaked out now. Charlie gestured to the big screen behind him. It flickered to life, showing a close up of Josh. 

"You found him?" I whispered but I was dreading something else. He didn't look like Josh. His kind expression was gone. The bright twinkle in his eyes was gone. This person wasn't the Josh I knew. 

"I'm...sorry, Erin," a voice said. I turned to see Austin standing in the corner, looking frightened and guilty.

"You can speak now?" I asked in surprise.

"The General...helped me out," Austin said. "It hurts for the time being but...I'm not what's important at the moment."

"From the intelligence I gained from Austin," the General said, "It seems that Josh is under the control of another T11 GE called Lucy. She's become his new partner and is completely in the driving seat. He has no choice but to comply to what she wants."

"So what is she making him do?" I asked.

"Well, take a look," Charlie said. He pressed a button and the big screen zoomed out. Josh was hovering over a huge tsunami wave, directing it's movements to methodically take out parts of the city they were in.

"That's impossible," I said. "Josh shouldn't be able to do that without me. You said it yourself, Charlie!"

"It seems Triple managed to do it," the General said. "My guess is that the Master will use Josh to take out every city in the world. This is just a prequel, a warning."

"The others from T11 will be around as well," Austin said, looking down. "They've waited their entire lives for this. If you and Josh complied, Erin, you would have been their leaders but now...Josh and Lucy are."

"The only way we have a chance of defeating Triple is if we take out T11 before they can cause too much damage," the General said. "Which means..."

"We need to kill Josh, Erin," Charlie finished, glaring at the General. "But that means you're dead too." I slammed my hand down onto the table.

"No!" I shouted. "You can't kill Josh! He's completely innocent and has no idea what's he's doing. You kill him and, if by some miracle I survive, you just made yourself another enemy other than Triple." I turned to Charlie, giving him a death glare worthy of the Master. "You said that the United Army wouldn't kill us. We trusted you!"

"That was before Josh turned into some raving psychopath!" Charlie shouted. "And I'm totally against this by the way."

"Erin, I know how you feel," the General said gently. "I used to be Triple myself. I was their first GE project so I know how it feels to be trapped by them. But you need to understand that this may be the only way to stop this. Whether he knows what he's doing or not, Josh is capable of mass destruction. Do you really want to risk all of those lives to save his?"

"You have no idea what he's gone through," I growled, ignoring all the shocking information he just told me. "He's protected me from every beating, every sanity breaking torture Triple has done to us. I'm not just going to abandon him now."

"There might be a way we can save Josh and stop the Master," Austin said quietly, rubbing his throat. Everybody turned to him. "You're not going to like it though."

"Tell us, Austin," I said. "So far you're the only one who hasn't betrayed me."

"Well...you and Josh are still connected, Erin," he said. "No matter what the Master does, he can't break your bond. Right now, Lucy is using Josh to get to your powers, Erin and is blocking all your contact with Josh. She's effectively a vessel, channelling all of yours and Josh's power for her purpose. You can't even feel her in your mind because of it. If what I'm thinking of works, there's a way we can immobilise one of T11 and get you some powers to fight with, Erin."

"How on Earth can we do that?" Charlie asked. "We have no Triple tech to do that."

"We do, actually," Austin said, pointing to himself. "If I can link myself to Erin, I can fight Lucy from inside Erin's head because I'll also be inside Josh's head. I can fight Lucy from both fronts, Josh and Erin. It will also allow Erin to obtain some telekinesis to fight with as well as my strength to draw on. All we have to do is get Erin close enough to Josh to break him from Lucy's control."

"But what about your partner Adela?" the General asked.

"Adela is no partner of mine," Austin said bitterly. "She was lost to me a long time ago."

"This could work," Harry said.

"No, no way," Charlie said. "Are you listening to this, Erin? He'll kill you."

"I'll do whatever I can to save Josh," I said. "It isn't a full connection, Charlie. It's only temporary." I turned to Austin who nodded. He held out his hand for me to take. I grasped it and closed my eyes, opening my mind up for Austin.

'This won't hurt,' he said in my head. 'Just try to relax. Josh and Lucy will fight me to start off with but I'll get in. Now, relax.'

I took a deep breath as Austin flooded into my thoughts. I could see the battle he was raging on the dark smoke of Lucy. I didn't even realise she was drawing on my powers and strength. Austin was a bright purple ball of light and was sweeping around Lucy, breaking up her smoke.

Suddenly, we both gasped and drew back from each other. "Erin?" Charlie asked. "Are you okay?" I locked eyes with Austin. In unison, we lifted up the cup of coffee on the table.

"Oh yeah," I said. "I'm definitely okay."

"It worked," the General sighed with relief. Austin gripped the table and grimaced.

"Hey, you all right?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said  a little breathlessly. "It's just hard work keeping her out of your head. I'll be all right." I turned to the General.

"You have to get me to Josh now," I said. "I've got some business with the Master to take care of."

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All right then, the final battle coming up for you. I'm going to try and make it as epic as possible. So, what do you think is going to happen?!?!?! I'm so excited to write the next few chapters. Bring it on lol.

So, don't forget to comment and vote!!! I would love to hear your opinions on this one!

Love y'all!

CricketCat