Hi guys! Sorry for the late update but I broke my fingers a few weeks ago so typing has not been kind to me! So progress has been slow going haha.

Enjoy!

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Ariana had been in that room for hours.

Not that it really bothered her – this is something she was very well prepared for. But she just hated that somewhere in this castle Max was also sitting in an interrogation room, maybe being questioned or maybe something worse. How could she have been so stupid? She knew that they needed to be quick the moment they had broken into Lark's office and yet she had let herself get emotional by their findings, distracted by fear and shock. And now Max could be paying the price of that mistake.

Tapping her fingers on the table restlessly, Ariana stared ahead at the glass mirror which she knew was a window to whoever was on the other side. "Can we get on with this?!" she yelled. "I'm on a very tight schedule here! You know, people to see, place to be." There was no answer. "Come on! Just get this over with already!" She was really starting to get impatient. But it didn't stop her mind from spinning.

Loop had lied to them. As much as she didn't want to admit it, everything he had ever told them was a completely fabricated, a rouse to get her to trust him. The only thing was, Ariana didn't know the extent to which the lie went. The Unity seemed to believe that they were trying to rescue them all those years ago but the Flame had always told them that it was the Unity that killed their parents and destroyed their homes. And that left Ariana with a huge problem: who does she choose to believe? If someone had asked her that a month, a week or even a day ago, she would have said the Flame straight away and then punched the guy who dared question her loyalty.

But now...now was different. Now she had evidence that the Flame wasn't what she thought she believed in. Now...she knew...

God, she didn't even want to comprehend what she thought she knew. That would mean something that she just didn't even want to think about. It would mean that what she thought she was fighting for, who she thought she was fighting for, was not what she believed in at all. It wasn't what any of them believed in. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the Unity they should have been fighting.

That certainly didn't mean she trusted them though. They shot Oscar without a second thought. They had still killed hundreds of people. They had tortured Flame agents and anyone else who they wanted information from. Heck, you only had to look at the poor people of Oldmere to know that their home was overrun. The only thing she didn't know if that the Unity were the entirely evil terrorist group that the Flame claimed them to be. And that led Ari to conclude that they were all as bad as each other.

The door suddenly screeched open, cutting Ariana from her thoughts. She sat very still in her chair, her arms crossed in a lazy fashion as she watched with eagle eyes. After a moment, Flint Lark stepped through into the room, a black tablet in his hand. Ariana was shocked at just how tired he looked. In all the photos she had seen, all the security footage and spy cams, and even in real life, he had always look formidable and cold. But now, all of that had melted away, forming a very haggard looking man that was now standing in front of her. He looked at Ariana and sighed, closing the door behind him.

"Well," he said. "You've certainly been making a racket, haven't you? The boys out there tell me you haven't shut up."

"What do you expect me to do when you leave me in here with absolutely no entertainment at all?" she replied. She desperately wanted to know what Lark had done with Max but she held her tongue. Showing weakness now could be catastrophic. "You know, interrogations usually work by someone asking the questions and the other person answering. Or not answering, in my case."

"I suppose that someone as smart as you would get bored easily," Lark said, taking a seat opposite Ariana at the table. "Especially when you're not doing what you've been trained to do." He cleared his throat, placing the tablet on the table in front of Ari.

"What is this?" she asked, all her senses on edge. This wasn't at all how she thought this was going to go. "Where are you going with this?"

"I know it's no use trying to question you and, quite frankly, I already know what you could tell me," Lark sighed, his elbows leaning against the table. "I'm more interested in what you could give to others, to ordinary people." She didn't trust herself to answer for Lark seemed to already to know her motivations. "You've been lied to," Lark continued, his voice soft. "You've been hurt and pushed to your limits. I understand that, Ariana. I really do. I understand you're confused and not likely to trust me. All I'm asking is that you listen to me for just a few minutes. Marcos always said you were a good listener. That's all I'm asking of you now. Just listen."

"Is Max safe?" she asked. "Is he okay?"

"Yes, he's fine," Lark replied. "One of my people, General Lancaster, is telling him what I'm going to say to you. He hasn't been harmed at all.""Okay," Ariana said, deciding that if Max was listening then she should too. "Tell me what you want to say."

"The truth," Lark said. "The truth of what this war is really about."

"I know what this war is about," Ariana said although she was definitely not sure of her words at all. "The Unity wanted power over the royal family. So you killed them all and started the war. But the Flame is going to stop you."

"You would be correct," Lark said, nodding. "Except, it was never the Unity who wanted to take power. I think you know that as well." There was silence. Ariana daren't speak for a moment while she collected her raging thoughts together. There was a part of her, the loyal part, that wanted to flip the table and attack Lark for suggesting such a thing. She wanted to scream and shout and demand that Max be returned to her alive and unharmed. She wanted to run home and confront Loop and Marcos herself.

But the other part of her, the one that the screaming louder, was telling her that Lark was speaking honestly and maybe even desperately. And as much as she didn't want to believe it, she was smart enough to know that there was no other explanation.

"Can I trust you?" Ariana asked. "Can I trust you to tell me the truth. The Unity is not perfect. I know what you have done in the past. You tortured Flame agents. You've attacked people's homes-"

"The Flame have done the same to my people, Ariana, and worse," Lark said, his voice going slightly cold. "In fact, the poor people behind the Flame's lines have suffered a hundred times worse than any person living behind Unity lines. We do our best to take care of them. But this is war, Ariana, and the reality of war is that there will be suffering and tragedy. For everyone. The black and white world the Flame have fabricated for you doesn't exist. If I am going to be honest then you need to open your eyes."

That hit her like a jolt. He was right. She knew that. And she couldn't believe it had taken her so long to realise that.

"Tell me what's going on." Her voice was quiet but firm, and Lark nodded, pushing the tablet towards her and turning it on. It showed a picture of a factory, one that had been blown up and torn apart.

"Your powers were manifested from the Collinworth Factory explosion," he said, wasting absolutely no time at all. "It was a time in the war where both the Unity and the Flame were looking for a push that would give them the edge. At the time, neither of us paid much attention to the accident but a few years later, we began to hear of children that had the ability to communicate with each other using their minds and move objects through the air without touching them. Both sides wanted you, but your parents had hidden you well. They only wanted to protect you."

"Why didn't you find us in time?" Ari asked. "Marcos was already working for you. Surely he would have told you where we were."

"Marcos was a successful Unity spy who was already embedded in the Flame," Lark explained, leaning forwards on the table. "But he was not of a high level in our ranks at that point. He did not know anything of our plans to rescue you. In his mind, your powers, and his brother's powers, were just a freak of nature. Besides, he wanted to protect his brother and so he never mentioned him to us in fear that he'd be used as a weapon."

"Tobias," Ari said softly. remembering the surname in the letters. "His brother is Tobias."

"Yes," Lark said, nodding. "By the time we located you, the Flame had already attacked the village. They killed everyone on sight, burned the buildings. I believe they even burned the nursery that you nine were in until they pulled you out. When we got there, they were already gone and we only found Marcos there. He begged me to put him into a mission to find you and eventually, he got his position at the Compound to train you."

"I remember him arriving," Ariana nodded, thinking of the day when the quiet yet tough instructor had walked through the training room doors.

"By the time he got there, the Flame had already begun work on indoctrinating you," Lark continued, changing the picture on the screen to the Compound. "Some of you were easier to convince than others. Those of you that remembered...well, your memories were wiped of any reminder of the attack on your homes. You were so young...only aware that there was a good side and a bad side but not who was who. Tobias particularly had his memories wiped often. With his brother Marcos being there every day, it served as a constant reminder of what he lost, of what you all lost."

"Our memories were wiped?" Ariana whispered. Lark looked pained but nodded.

"Of any indication that the Flame was wrong," he said. "I'm sorry, Ariana. I really am."

They sat in silence and Ariana got the feeling that Lark was giving her some time to contemplate everything she had learned. She wondered if Max was thinking the same as her. She wondered if Oscar and Sam and Dani and everyone else would think the same as them when they found out. God, she couldn't even imagine how Tobias would react when he found out Marcos was his brother.

"What do I do now?" She hadn't meant to voice the question and even Lark looked surprised when she asked. But it was true. Never before had she felt as lost as she did now. All her life she had worked towards one thing and now that had turned out to be wrong...

"It's up to you," Lark replied eventually. "If you want to leave, I won't stop you. Of course, if you go back to the Flame and fight for them then I cannot let you live after that. But I get the feeling you won't go back there. But I hope..." He hesitated for a moment, standing up and placing a hand on Ariana's shoulder. "I hope that you will fight for us now."

Before Ariana could answer, the door opened and a woman came in, looking extremely nervous. At first, Ariana thought it was because of her and was about to reassure the woman that she was not going to do anything. But the lady whispered something in Lark's ear and his face became expressionless.

"Thank you," he told the woman. "I shall be out in a moment."

"What's happened?" Ariana asked as the woman stepped out again.

"It seems your friends back at the Mansion discovered the truth about the Flame as well," Lark said dryly. "But they have not been as lucky as you. Loop has locked down the Compound. Marcos has been apprehended and all your friends confined with their powers restricted."

"What!?" Ariana asked, rising to her feet. "How is that even possible?! Loop will wipe their memories again. They'll forget that the Flame are lying!" She looked up wildly at Lark. "Please, you have to let me and Max go to rescue them. You don't understand what will happen to them."

"I do understand, Ariana," Lark said. "And that is why I will let you go, but not alone."

"What?"

"We haven't had a chance like this in years," Lark said. "Not only does that Compound contain nine of the deadliest weapons on this planet, but also a whole bank of information on Flame servers. I'll let you and Max go, I'll let you fight, but only if you let me send an army with you. You're going to need it, believe me. There's now a chance to get what we both want."

"I'll help you," Ariana said. "And if we come out of this alive, I'll fight for you too. We all will. Just please, get me and Max to the Compound."

"Okay," Lark said after a moment's thought. "I trust you. I'll bring you and Max to the command centre before you gear up. You'll need to speak to the informant first."

"Informant?" she asked. "But I thought you said Marcos was captured?"

"He wasn't the one who called in," Lark said with a slight wry smile. "But one of your friends has slipped out of the Flames clutches. Apparently, he was rather rude to my communicators too. Something about 'not wanting to call us bastards but unfortunately our sorry arses are the only people open to him right now'?" For the first time in a while, Ariana grinned.

"Tobias."

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Hehehe so we are nearing the end of this story but there shall be a sequel! It will be called 'Operation Twilight' and I will put a blurb at the end of this book when it is completed.

Please comment and vote!

Love y'all!

CricketCat