A/N: Orlando Bloom as Flint Lark ;)
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At 01:00 hours, Max and Ariana were on a truck and speeding back towards Oldmere Castle with at least twenty other soldiers. After the battle, the Unity General Lancaster had rounded up all troops whose units had been broken up or destroyed. As Max and Ari's units had been completely taken out by Tobias' and Oscar's handy work, they were both loaded back on a truck and shipped back to regroup and protect the base. At the time, Lancaster was highly stressed, saying that they were all going to retreat over the course of the next few days. Max struggled not to smile at the news. It seemed that Flame were pushing back hard enough to make the Unity retreat back to Oldmere.

By the time they arrived at the castle, it was close to two in the morning. And despite the fact that Max was exhausted, his work was far from done. The moment the men in his barracks had fallen asleep, he was up, sprinting silently towards the girl's barracks. Ari was already there waiting for him, having discussed their plans telepathically on the ride back.

Wordlessly, she joined Max on his run as they practically sprinted through the halls of the castle that they had come to memorise in the weeks they had spent there. Lark's office was in the east wing and was the most protected room in the entire base. Cameras, guards and lasers meant it was pretty much its own fortification. But Max had found its one weakness.

Every night, there was a moment when the entire security system shut down to reboot itself. The cameras, alarms and lasers outside Lark's office rebooted at exactly 4:22am. It was now 4:21am, and four guards were still outside the doors of the office, each with a machine gun in their arms.

From his bag, Max quickly grabbed a stun grenade, pulling the pin and rolling it into the darkness and just below the feet of the soldiers. There was a silent, blinding flash then the tiniest pop and suddenly, all four men were on the floor. He checked his watch.

Exactly 4:22am. The cameras wouldn't have seen a thing.

Quickly running to the door, Ariana dug into her pocket and pulled out her lock pick as Max disarmed the unconscious guards. Within seconds, the office door was open and both of them bundled inside, shutting the door quietly behind them.

The office itself was simple. A large window looking out onto the courtyard and the rest of the town of Oldmere was to the left of the door, the curtains pulled back. There was a desk and a chair facing the window, a computer sitting on top with files stacked up around it. The carpet was worn, as if someone had been pacing along it for years. There were no cameras inside the office itself. Lark liked his privacy, and he was too cautious to put hackable cameras in place. So they had about half an hour before the guards outside woke up and realise that they broke in.

"Okay, we're in," Max said to Ari. "You check the files, I'm going to get into the computer. Take photographs of everything." Ariana nodded, immediately taking a stack of files and flipping through them. Max sat down in the chair, switching on the computer. It took about ten minutes to hack in – it would have taken two if Finn was there but he made do. Once he was in, it was relatively easy to locate and unlock the files that Mr Loop demanded. Drawing his memory stick from his pocket, he began to copy over files on the locations of Unity bases and their planned attacks. With each new file found, he became more and more worried. It looked like the Unity were closing in on Flame HQ – not even Project Midnight knew where that was. He was about to dig further until Ari called out to him.

"Max," she said, her voice tight. "Get over here." He raised his head, rising from his seat to crouch on the floor next to her. She had paper files open and spread out around her, her eyes wide as she looked at them in shock. Max glanced down and suddenly froze.

He saw Tobias' photograph staring up at him. It looked like he was sitting in the canteen in the Mansion, his feet up on a chair as he leaned back against the table, laughing at something. Below the photograph, his name was printed as well as his status:

Tobias De la Rosa – Project Midnight – Active Agent.

"It's not just Toby," Ari whispered. "Lark knows everything about all of us." She pushed more files towards Max and he was suddenly bombarded with photographs of all his friends.

He saw Megan quietly reading in the library, Ariana climbing the rock wall, Finn tapping away at his laptop, Scarlett shadow boxing, Sam cross-country running, Oscar talking with Toby, Danielle practising sit-ups, himself walking hand in hand with Ari. Lark knew everything, even things that they didn't know themselves.

Max pulled his own file towards him, suddenly completely speechless. His real name was Max Thatcher. His parents, the mother and father that he barely remembered, were Olivia and Richard Thatcher – both simple people that just wanted to escape the war. Completely shell-shocked, tears started slipping down his cheeks. This was the life he could have had, if the Unity hadn't torn that away from him. Why did the Flame never tell them about this? Why hide who they were?

"Oh my God," Ariana whispered, her hand going to her mouth. At first, Max was too paralysed to move but slowly, he turned his head to look at his girlfriend. She had pulled a sheet of paper from her own file, her hands shaking as she held it.

"What is it?" Max asked, his voice raw and hoarse. He took the paper from her, skimming through it. It was a report from the Unity General Lancaster, one of Lark's most trusted generals.

"Collinworth Factory," Max whispered. "The one we saw in the control room."

"Keep reading," Ari said, and so he did.

Mission: Collinworth Factory Explosion – Rescue Operation

Date: 13/09/2092

In July 2089, the ammunitions factory known as Collinworth exploded after a meltdown occurred of the highly unstable and sensitive materials recently taken from its mine nearby. The village of Collinworth saw many deaths as the fallout killed all who were within 5km of the factory. Those that were further than 6km away appeared to be unaffected.

However, three years after the explosion there have been reports of a group of children, most of the age of 6 or 7, have developed strange abilities. Their families were moved to an unknown location where they are believed to be still there.

These children have to be of high priority. If they were to fall into the hands of the Flame, they could be indoctrinated into believing that the Flame's evil deeds are right and good. They may well be trained as Flame agents and destroy the Unity war effort. We must rescue these children and their families before it is too late.

General Lancaster.

Added Entry – 17/12/2092

Flame soldiers have located the children before Unity troops were able to get there. They brutally destroyed the village they were found in and killed all there to hide the evidence. Only one boy survived by the name of Marcos De la Rosa – already a very successful Unity spy within the Flame and very much trusted by them. He has claimed that his brother, by the name of Tobias De la Rosa, was kidnapped by Flame soldiers. Marcos was also able to tell us the names of the other children taken:

Sam Parker.
Danielle Shipton.
Ariana Jacque.
Max Thatcher.
Tobias De la Rosa.
Finn Stevens.
Scarlett Keyes.
Megan Eldred.
Oscar Atterbury.

We unfortunately do not have the resources or the man power to rescue the children. Therefore, Marcos shall be put in place to watch them and, when the time is right, liberate them from the Flame.

General Lancaster.

The page fluttered from Max's fingers and to the floor. He felt numb and cold, his brain completely frozen over as if he had magically been transported to the frozen wastelands of the north. His heart was beating so rapidly he thought he was going to faint. Ari didn't look much better, her skin pale and her eyes wide.

"I-I don't understand," she whispered. "It's a lie. It has to be. The Flame...they rescued us, didn't they? The Unity destroyed our homes and killed our families, not the Flame."

"Not according to this," Max said, his voice gravelly. "Why would they lie in their own report? There's no reason they would."

"But that means..."

"The Flame have been lying to us," Max said. "They killed our parents. They don't care about us, they only wanted us because of this Collinworth factory explosion giving us our powers. Ari...we've been fighting for the wrong side all along."

"No," Ari said, rising to her feet and backing away. "No, we don't know that yet. The Unity can still be evil – they've still done awful things!" Max ran a hand through his hair.

"How do we know that, Ari?!" he exclaimed. "All we know is what the Flame has told us. How do we know it wasn't the Flame who did all the awful things we hear about?! We don't."

"Then what do we do?" she demanded. "Leave? Run? Confront them? Either way we're dead."

"You won't be doing any of that," a voice suddenly said from the darkness. Max whipped around to find a gun placed to his forehead, the owner's eyes watching him coldly. He raised his arms in surrender but their attacker stopped him.

"Ah, ah, ah," he said, pushing Max further back. "I'm not stupid. Put those hands by your sides where you can't use those powers of yours. You too, young lady, or your boyfriend becomes splattered brains."

"You bastard," Ari growled, but still did what she was told. "Absolute bastard." The doors suddenly burst open as troops came rushing in, all training their weapons on Max and Ari. Their attacker stepped back behind his soldiers, pocketing the gun.

"Take them to the interrogation rooms," Flint Lark said. "I think I need to have a conversation with these too. Oh, and any funny business, just shoot the girl."

"Max!" Ari yelled as the soldiers grabbed her and began to drag her away from him.

"Ari!" he shouted, desperateness filling his voice. "No, Ari!" But it was no use. They were taken in different directions and disappeared from each other's sight.

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Did you see that one coming?!?!?! Let me know what you think!

Love y'all!

CricketCat