Free from the stairwell, Deryn and I stood in a hallway branching off the lobby in the remnants of the smoke. It irritated my lungs, but it wasn't so bad I felt the need to cough. Her arm still rested on my shoulders to support her weight.

  "Commander, what time is it?" Deryn asked.

  "Four thirty-seven," he replied. Facing one of his soldiers, he said, "Freyr."

  Hearing her name, she straightened out her back. "Yes, sir?" The woman stood taller than me by a few inches. On her shoulder rested the mark of the Thunder Legion, a small spear with a bolt of lightning. 

  "Join the group upstairs. Find out what they were here for."

  "Yes, sir." 

  It didn't surprise me much that he called in the Thunder Legion. Normally, they were reserved for special cases dealing with those with abilities like mine, and . . .

  This was definitely a special case.

  After another exchange,  Steven turned to us once again. "Are you alright? Injuries?"

  "Bruises. Deryn sprained her ankle," I said. "And well, I burned my hand." 

  I lifted my right hand from its hanging uselessness to show him. The movement burned and made me wince. 

  Steven grabbed my arm and examined the injury. "How did you do this?" 

  With Deryn's help, the two of us filled him in on our fight on the fifth floor. After we had separated, Deryn checked her side quickly and decided to check the central hall. When I shouted and the attackers ran, she cut them off at the stairwell.

  "Sorry. I should've gone to you first," she mumbled.

  "It was more important to catch them," I said then continued the story for her.

  At my account of the man throwing me off, Steven sighed and rubbed at his temples. The action was repeated when I told him about the burning gun. "We need to get this checked out. I'll have Ms. Raxyn come down to see how we'll treat you," he said.

  When I lowered my hand, it brushed against something in my pocket. "Oh yeah, the guy dropped a flash drive." With my left, I pulled the silver drive out of my pocket for the two of them to see.

  Deryn eyed the stick like it might not be real. "You're sure they dropped it?"

  Mr. Steven plucked the drive from my hand and examined it. Holding the silver device between his thumb and index, he asked, "How did you even get this?"

  "They dropped it during our fight, so I picked it up," I said.

  Steven called some more people over and gave them the drive. "Scan this. Find out what's on it and report back." Then he gave them more detailed instructions.

  Deryn leaned over and whispered to me while the adults were talking. "They really just dropped the drive?"

  With a slight groan, I nodded. Repeating the same answer three times in five minutes wasn't much fun.

  "Crane, can you contact Lieutenant Vanel?" Without turning to face us, Steven took some tablet from one of the workers and swiped at the screen.

  "I killed the battery during the fight, sir."

  Steven clicked his tongue before facing us again. "All right. Take Chael with you to the first aiders. They set up on the third floor near the farther stairwell." In the middle of his sentence, he turned away again to another worker. "Chen, contact Vanel. He needs to get back here to--"

  We waited for him to finish his list of instructions for those who came with reports or updates, since he hadn't finished instructing us.

  "Communications are down, sir." An older woman, clipboard in hand, stood like a plank of wood by Steven. 

  "Fix them, stat. Reports from upstairs?"

  Another person a few feet away replied, "A few injured on the lower floors, but no patients injured, sir."

  Clicking his tongue, the commander turned back to the woman. "Alright. Join Freyr upstairs--" Steven paused after glancing back at us "--on the fifth floor." When she left, he gave us an admonishing look like he was scolding two small children. "You should have left to check your injuries."

 Oh. He had finished instructing us.  

 Deryn stiffened. "Sorry, sir. We'll go now."

  "Elevator isn't working. There should be crutches in the closet at the other stairwell. Not the one you came out of."

  Without another glance, he walked off to another group of people. 

  "I'll get the crutches for you," I mumbled. After a quick walk there and back, I helped Deryn onto the crutches before we both made the trip to the stairs.

  With a sigh, Deryn said, "These stairs are going to be a pain."

  Keeping my burned hands off the rail, I took two steps up the stairs then waited for Deryn. Then another two. Then another two. At each pause, her crutches clanked onto the metal steps as she hauled herself up. A brief, one-second rest followed her success, then she maneuvered up the stairs again. 

  We finally made it to the third floor after about ten minutes of my hand screaming at me. I ran ahead of Deryn to open the door, reached out with my right hand, then jerked it back when the cool metal touched my hot skin. 

 After wincing and shaking the pain away, I opened the door with my left, relatively uninjured hand. 

"Thanks," Deryn said.

On the third floor, the first aid workers had set up a small white table outside one of the rooms. Judging by the soft hum, I figured they must have gotten the extra generator for that room working again. Like the ground floor, people filled the hall with low conversations and periodic groans. Mostly, the patients sat against the wall, drank some sort of liquid, then left. 

"Do you know what they're drinking?" I asked Deryn as they approached the table.

Deryn stole a glance at the medicine bottle on the table. "They're using stimulants. Stuff to keep people awake, so maybe they were gassed downstairs. That'd help explain why no one came up as quickly."

A quick rap on the table broke their conversation. "What are your injuries?" the worker asked robotically. 

"Burned hand, bruises," I said. 

"Sprained ankle. Bruises, small cuts," Deryn said.

The worker clicked her tongue. "Are either of you nanobyte carriers?"

"We both are," Deryn replied.

At her response, the worker rushed into the room behind her. When the worker came out again, she held up two syringes, filled with the same liquid that the doctors had tested on me and Deryn earlier. 

"Hold out your hand," the worker told me.

I raised his arm towards the needle. Honestly, the prick wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The green liquid did its job in a few minutes. As my hand stung and pricked from the medicine, the burn marks receded from my skin.

In the meantime, Deryn refused her dose. "It's just a sprain."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're still injured."

"It's just a sprain. I'll get better on my own by tomorrow," Deryn said. "Rather wait it out than inject myself with that stuff."

Not knowing else to do, we waited in the hallway for someone to fetch us or instruct us or something. Everyone seemed to busy running around checking everything for us to ask them what they wanted us to do. We'd probably have ended up sitting in some office somewhere anyway. 

"What do you think was on the flash drive?" I asked. 

Deryn rubbed her injured foot. "Who knows? Probably research secrets or something." She grinned. "Or maybe they're the secret plans for some chicken soup."

"Oh yeah, definitely," I said and laughed. "In all seriousness, we're lucky they dropped it. We can use it to figure out what they want."

And wanted. Even after a few months, no one would tell me what they had wanted with my family. That or they couldn't.

"Hey, you okay?" Deryn asked.

"I'm fine. Was just wondering what these people want with us," I mumbled.

"The Pieris, right? I saw their badges."

"Yeah. They're crazy," I said.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Deryn opened her mouth to speak. Thinking better of it, she shut it as her face contorted in pity or something. She probably meant to say "I'm sorry for your loss" or something like that. But there's only so many times you can say it before it sounds stale in your mouth.

"Man, I don't know how I'm going to explain today to Saorise and Ryder," I said. Leaning my head against the wall, I groaned. "I mean, I can't just tell them the people hunting us barged in here. They'd freak out."

"You are too," Deryn mumbled.

"I think the shock or adrenaline is keeping me from feeling the freaking out entirely," I replied. As I talked, I examined my hand, which was now free from burns or any other injuries. Whatever weird serum the doctors created worked.

Deryn rested her head against the wall. "It's actually your nanobytes. You'll learn this when you get to the academy, but they help cushion the effects of shock and stuff."  Deryn turned her head to say something else, but her attention drifted to something else. Right away, despite her injured foot, the brunette stood at attention for the officer headed our way. 

"Deryn, where is Chael?" the officer asked. 

"I'm here," I said as I stood up. 

"Commander needs to see him right away. I'm here to escort you down to the lower floors." The officer grabbed my arm and guided me to the stairs. 

I wrestled my arm out of his grip and followed. If Steven was sending guards up here, something serious was going on. Possibly, they didn't find the attackers or they suspected another threat.

With many grunts of pain and a limping gait, Deryn hurried after us. "I'm sorry to ask, sir, but why does he need an escort to go down three floors?" she asked.

"I am only here to escort the boy down."

When we got to the stairwell, the guard and I eventually left Deryn behind as she supported herself using the rail. As he ushered me forward, I mouthed an "I'm sorry" to the girl and continued marching down the steps.

Finally, we made it to the lobby, where Mrs. Lindley leaned and cried against Steven's arm. Two soldiers or guards stood by them as sentries, which was odd. The place was full of fighters. Anyone who attacked now would be stupid.

"I brought the boy," the officer who escorted me announced.

At the sight of me, Mrs. Lindley burst into more tears. Her hands clenched into a fist right above her heart as if she were trying to hold it together. Steven looked no better. Without moving his wife, the man placed a hand on my shoulder and sighed. Unnerved, I shifted my weight back.

"Chael, you need to stay calm. These men here will escort you and my wife back home, and they'll watch over you to keep you safe," Steven said. "You need to stay there. I'll follow after you within the next two hours.

Knowing he wasn't finished yet, I just nodded and froze.

Pausing, Steven broke gazes with me before releasing my shoulder. And like the people who told me my parents had died that awful night, Steven wore a look of pity and sorrow. Narrowed eyes holding back tears, softened expressions to deliver the bad news. Then he spoke.

"Saorise and Ryder were kidnapped."

.-.-.-.-.-.