Seven rested his back against the moth-eaten cushion of the chair he found lying around in this building. The dust in this place was atrocious, assaulting his nose and eyes with its sickly spores. Opposite him, Slate perched on an equally worn office chair, her legs crossed.

It had been a few days since Seven's encounter with Thirteen, and knowing how everyone would have an easy time killing him, he decided on his next best course of action. He sought out Slate, the other girl with the stealth ability.

During the last battle with Karrel, when Section H's leader blurted some kind of nonsense about Thirteen stealing abilities, Slate was the first to react. No one from Section M knew what it meant nor what it entailed, but Slate clearly had an idea. In fact, from her rage and immediate claim, she knew more than she let on.

After placing a bait she couldn't refuse, she showed up in a jiffy, looking no worse for wear. Since the final battle and the announcement, she looked as if she had the time to shower, change out of her bloodied clothes, and comb her hair. Now, they both sat in the middle of an unfinished building, about to discuss their terms.

"If not for the information you promised, I won't be here." Slate crossed her arms over her chest, a frown coloring her features. "Spill. I don't have all day."

Seven inclined his head to one side. "The deal specifically calls for information from your end before I give out mine," he said. "If it's not too much of a burden, why not answer some of my questions?"

Slate pursed her lips, thinking. "You have three," she said, holding the same number of fingers up.

"What was the deal you've cut with Thirteen in exchange for your work in the sleeper unit?" Seven asked. "It couldn't have been for free. What did Thirteen promise you?"

A flicker of hurt zipped across Slate's face. Out of all of them, she must feel the most victimized by the devious boy. "We wanted to escape the Game, and he gave us the chance to," she replied. "We wouldn't have to keep on fighting on counters and live our lives inside the city. In exchange...well, he told us to be on call should he have a need for us."

"Let me guess." Seven wagged a finger in the air. "He made you fight in them still?"

"Flint—I mean, the comrade who survived with me in Section J—and I, we agreed to humor Thirteen for a while. He delivered the results he promised he would, and there were brutal counters he didn't call us in." She scratched a spot behind her head and stuck a lip out. "I also understood his desperation during the last counters. Karrel wasn't an easy enemy. Of course, he wanted all the help he could get."

Seven narrowed his eyes. That checked out. Thirteen had an inexplicable ability of twisting people into thinking they owed him a favor and not the other way around. If it wasn't that, then, Thirteen must have exuded an irresistible amount of charisma despite his detachment. "Why did you attack him when Karrel revealed what she did?" he continued. "The one about Thirteen stealing abilities?"

The girl's shoulders tensed. She looked left and right, scanning her periphery for someone who might have been listening. Between the two of them, nobody else had the ability to be in places they shouldn't be. She was safe here.

"It was the foundation of our agreement," Slate admitted. Her hands fiddled with each other, more out of annoyance than shame. It was as if she couldn't wait to strangle Thirteen with them. "To make us disappear from everyone's radar, he proposed we truly kill ourselves."

His eyes widened. "Don't tell me—"

Slate turned her wrist towards him. A horizontal scar ran an inch from her pulse. "He wanted this from us. I suppose he didn't tell you about it?"

"No," he said.

She blew a clipped breath. "Well, inside all of us was a chip. I don't know what it does, but Thirteen must have figured it out by now." She ran a hand down her hair, smoothing the stray strands down. "He wanted to have it, and he reasoned it was the one being tracked by everyone. If we were to remove it while still living, we would disappear from the map. If there was one."

The revelation hit him. That was why Thirteen managed to track all of them long after the congratulatory pins plan fell through. Seven always wondered how Thirteen managed to bounce back from that. This must be why.

He glanced at his own arm. Would he find a chip lodged in his flesh? What would happen if he pulled it out? Would that hide his presence from Thirteen? Add that to the confidentiality his ability afforded him...he'd be unstoppable, even for their former leader.

"Is that why you want to kill him?" Seven asked. "That's my second question."

Slate shrugged. "I've thought about it. I don't want to avenge people I barely know for the sake of some ideal I don't believe in," she answered. "But I would like to see the look on Thirteen's face as he realizes he won't be the one who will win the Game. That would be enough atonement."

The chair's cushion creaked when he settled harder into it. "How do you plan to do that?"

A beat passed. Two. "I'm thinking as I go," she replied. "I've yet to find out where he holed up."

Seven's lips pulled up into a grin. "Lucky for you, that's what I have," he said. "I've got some useful information about Thirteen."

Slate raised an eyebrow. "Spill."

"For a long time, none of us knew what Thirteen's ability was." Seven steepled his fingers. "A few days ago, I had a breakthrough."

"You mean to tell me he won all those counters without using his ability?" she asked. "Doubtful."

Seven bobbed his head and waved his hand in the air. "Your choice to believe me or not," he said. "Most of us betted his ability lay in technology or somewhere in the brain because of how he ran things in our section. Turns out, it was just a hobby made useful. He had an ability, and now's the only time he thought of using them."

"What's the use of stealing abilities, then?" Slate squinted and scoffed. "Why would he need our chips when he proposed the deal with us?"

Seven matched her stance, crossing his legs at the ankles. "Some things we should ask him ourselves," he said. "But it has something to do with speed, I'm sure. I witnessed it the last time we crossed paths. He attacked me, and right as I was about to nail him down, he blinked out of existence."

"Blinked?"

"I can't explain it either." Seven mussed his hair and flattened it on his forehead. Unlike that night, the air today was cool, and he wasn't running around. "But it feels as if he walked out of the situation in a span of seconds, faster than what was humanly possible."

"Enhanced speed, you mean," Slate added. "And? I'm feeling there's something else there."

Seven hummed. "He can't seem to control it well, and it overwhelms him," he recounted. The way Thirteen stumbled and hurried out of the scene was alarming, especially when Seven wasn't really doing anything to maim him. It wasn't out of self-defense. More like...it was to escape. "He seemed weak that night, and he didn't use any of the abilities he has stolen. Otherwise, I would have had a harder time. I might not even be here today."

Slate tapped her chin. "We're not the only ones after him, then."

Seven cocked an eyebrow. " 'We'?"

"Yeah, we." She gestured across the space between them with a confused look on her face. "Isn't that what you called me for? To discuss our alliance?"

He blinked. Right. That was it. "Well, what do you say?" he asked. "Shall we place our first target on Thirteen?"

Slate's nod was the final seal to the deal.