Five skidded back, her boots digging trenches on the silt. She gritted her teeth, pushing back against Electric Blade. Blue sparks scritched against the black edge of her blade when she wedged it forward. He didn't budge, staring her down. A mask covered the lower half of his face, but Five could bet he scowled in effort underneath. She had to at least placate herself about that.

Sixteen burst from the undergrowth, a shriek tearing through the air. She slammed into his back, pushing his weight deeper into Five's dagger. Something cracked. It wasn't the Five's. It seemed Five wasn't the only one pissed at this boy for hurting Ten.

It was a chance. Five angled the blade to press harder into the origin of the cracks. Electric Blade's eyes widened. He lashed out, jabbing an elbow into Sixteen's stomach and swinging a leg towards Five's jaw. Five swung her dagger, leaving a stinging cut on his ankles on her way back. He tucked himself to a roll, bringing his blue blade over his face on his way up.

Five kept her eyes on him. "Get Ten. Get out of here," she told Sixteen whose presence flitted somewhere behind her. "Aim for the fortress. The counter will be over soon."

She didn't check if Sixteen understood because Electric Blade lunged at them again. Another dagger joined her arsenal, crossing her arms over her face like Electric Blade did. They clashed. A shower of sparks and embers littered their feet. She whirled, using every memory her muscles had in dealing with physical barrages like these.

Black and blurred, clanging and recoiling from each other in a letha; dance. She drove a blade farther into his defense just as he sidestepped. A force slammed into her spine, throwing her forward. The boy lowered his leg to await her fall towards his arm. The tip of his electric blade rushed towards her face. She shielded her face with her dagger pointing down. It plunged into the skin.

A howl blared through the clearing. Five twisted away from his space, brandishing her daggers over her nose. Her breaths echoed in her ears.

Electric Blade staggered up, cradling his bleeding arm to his stomach. His jaw clenched, leveling his gaze towards Five, his fists balled. Then, the blue blades retracted to his skin like fish fins. She stepped backward. Another. He didn't follow. If he did, she wouldn't go easy on him. He needed his arms, and Five needed to get her comrades back to the fortress.

She turned and punched through the undergrowth in search of the next clearing. Why in the world did Section X choose to have their base in the middle of nowhere was beyond her. She had to get Fifteen and Four out of there.

Her finger felt the comms on her ear, tapping it once, twice. Come on. Show her an active line. It connected. "Five!" One's voice crackled from the other side. "Where are you? These Section H bugs are everywhere!"

"They're targeting us!" Five screamed back, pulling a dagger and snipping her hair as she ran. "Any word from Thirteen?"

A pause. Then, "No," One answered. Her voice was breathy, as if she was doing a hundred workouts in one session for an hour. "The line is silent on my end too. What's the plan?"

Five stuck the dagger back to her belt, the wind tearing what was left from her bobbed hair. Her fingers molded the strands to what she wished. "Retreat," she said. "Get yourselves out of there. The counter will be finished soon."

She glanced at the watch Thirteen lent her. The numbers displayed all zeroes. It had run out. So why was the alarm still blaring? She craned her head neck up, watching the rustling leaves. No time to admire nature and peace. When the counter finishes, where would they be then?

She tried Thirteen's line one last time. When static met her ears, she tapped it shut. Another stringent shriek replaced it, making her flinch. She scrolled through the lines, looking for who made the feedback. One's voice bled through the line. "Insane! This is insane. They're—"

The line cut. "One?" Five tapped her comm. She took it off and turned the small black bud over to check for defects. When she found none, she slotted it back to her ear. "Are you there? Come in."

More static, followed by faint claps of sounds. Thuds? Whispered curses? Five would never know. She gripped the newest item she crafted in her hand. Fifteen and Four first. She'd figure it out the next step later. They just needed to last until the counter terminated. Which was...when? Another glance in her watch brought a pang in her gut. Thirteen's absence was like his prediction of the counter's duration. She should've gotten the hint from there.

When Section X's headquarters zipped into view, she swallowed against the lump forming in her throat. Her side ached with a dull stab, but she pushed to round the geometric building made of broken glass. She came towards floating shards, both of glass and ice. Fifteen jumped out of the way of a flock of metal darts in her wake. Four rushed by, her own version of darts flying from her fingers. The ice sped towards a central figure by the shade. The figure, a boy with dark hair and burnt sienna skin, raised a hand, meeting Four's ability with his. Ice clashed with metal. It was obvious who won.

Five clicked the safety off then yanked the ringed fuse. She chucked the shell into the air, smoke trailing its trajectory. It coincided with the darts' trajectory. One metal pierced the shell by coincidence. The air boiled as a huge blast swept through the clearing. With ears ringing, Five dove through the haze. Her arms flailed, swatting the fumes from her eyes. She found Four wandering around and grabbed her wrist. Next, she found Fifteen moving the gas particles away from her.

"Let's go." Five jerked her chin towards the vague direction of the fortress.

Forget checking if Section X was gone. If they didn't get out of here first, they would soon be. The darts didn't follow them, implying the boy's aim included visual stimulation. By the time the familiar white-washed walls of the fortress poked into the horizon, the counter's blaring had stopped, leaving them exposed but not quite.

People loitered in the stretch of land beyond the trench. Five counted them in her head, taking stock of everyone. They were all there, thank heavens. Together, they crossed the open maw of soil and rock, dropping into the shoddy lobby. Nobody bothered cleaning it, not when it served no purpose other than to serve as a runway where they cart their battered bodies across.

A small set of footsteps scratched against the dust, and Three's light brown hair poked from the shadows. He rushed towards Ten who sported a gaping wound on her side. Four nursed a broken arm and ankle, while Seventeen, a broken rib. Five, herself, ached all over from the battle with Karrel and Electric Blade.

Three moved through the entire fighting unit, placing his hands on burns, open wounds, and the most minor of scratches. Five was about to stagger away from him when he noticed her when her periphery registered Thirteen.

The boy slunk into the lobby from the hall two floors up, not a shred of shame or guilt coloring his features. He even had his arms crossed across his chest. "The counter lasted longer than usual," he said, beckoning Five to give him something. "I will adjust my extrapolation next time. Not to worry."

"Where were you?" Five seethed, her rage bleeding from the gaps of her lips. She shouldered Three, scaring the poor boy into scampering back to the patients who needed him more. Her boots crunched against the chance dry leaves which blew in from the grounds weeks and months ago. "We need you out there! Karrel and her goons found us, and your line is silent. We could have died!"

Thirteen lowered his arm. His expression stayed flat, never betraying anything he felt and thought inside that pretty head of his. "But you didn't," he pointed out as if it was the most important thing and he couldn't believe she had forgotten it. "What's the matter?"

"You left us to die, you idiot!" One exclaimed, shooting up and stalking towards them. "Where did the 'follow me and you will not die' go? Who would we follow when your orders weren't there?"

Thirteen stepped back, his hands finding their way towards his pockets. Five turned to more people staggering up and joining the hazy circle forming around him. "You told us to trust you," Twelve said, blinking furiously as if to swallow her tears. "Make it easy for us to."

"Can I speak now?" Thirteen snapped. Why was he the one who was angry? What right did he have? When no one blocked his verbal passage, he cleared his throat. "I don't expect you to understand everything I do, but I have your best interest in mind. I will not make a move that will endanger you."

"Being silent when Karrel and her team was pummeling us should have crossed your mind, then," Five interjected.

Thirteen glanced at her. Despite being a foot shorter, he held the higher ground by being the calmest of them all. Did this twig even have emotions, or had he just gotten good at keeping them at bay? "It did," Thirteen answered. "But you're not at all helpless against them. Let's just say today's counter was an experiment. A trial."

"Are you still going to say that when one of us dies?" Four asked. "That our lives were simply experiments and trials for your stupid calculations?"

"No," Thirteen replied. "The fact that you're alive proves otherwise. You proved some interesting variables."

Everyone seemed to have signed off the conversation completely. Thirteen missed the point by confirming the exact thing Four implied. "Now, if there's no more issues to address, I'll be off to review the battle logs," he said. "Good work."

He turned and walked off. Five was never a good judge of character. She couldn't read emotions as well as Thirteen could, but she was sure of a number of things. He didn't say where he went or why he was silent the whole time. And worse...

He lied.