As the sun rose, waking Katrina up from her light slumber, she blinked in surprise. Shaking her head wildly to clear her head of the crazy dream she had last night, Katrina stood up, walking outside to stretch.

Suddenly, a beam of light caught something shiny hanging on her neck. Katrina froze, realization dawning on her as she caught sight of the silver pendant. It wasn't a dream.

"Katrina?"

She spun around, hastily tucking the pendant under her shirt, out of sight.

"Yes, Ted?" she replied nervously, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Katrina wondered whether Ted remembered how he had tried to sneak out after her, and how Celia had drugged him.

"Could I talk to you, please?" Ted asked.

Katrina was spared the need to reply when Celia sleepily exited her hut, yawning. Her eyes seemed to brighten momentarily as she caught sight of the two early birds talking, before returning normal.

"Hey Ted, hey Katrina," she said, acknowledging their presence. "You guys wanna go out on a walk?"

Ted shook his head slowly, looking at her suspiciously. "No, Katrina and I were just going to have a talk." He grabbed her elbow and quickly dragged her away, causing Katrina to stumble a bit before she regained her balance.

"Sure!" Celia skipped along behind them, screeching to a stop when Ted whirled around and glared at her.

"Alone," he elaborated, giving her the death stare.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to do that," Celia alarmingly replied, holding up her hands and backing up slowly. "Geez."

As Ted angrily led Katrina away, she jumped slightly as Celia's voice entered her ears.

"Don't say anything stupid," she ordered. "Remember, if you don't cooperate with the scientists, you could find a couple of dead friends in the near future."

Katrina shuddered at the threat, glancing at Ted's stormy face to confirm that he had heard nothing that the pendant had relayed to her.

In a few moments, Ted stopped suddenly, nearly making Katrina crash into him. He looked at her, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Yesterday."

Ted didn't say anything else as he waited for her to reply. Katrina glared at him right back, unwilling to speak. Finally, Ted broke the silence.

"Why did you sneak off?" he demanded. "And why did Celia drug me?"

Katrina squirmed, looking at the ground. "Uh, you sure it wasn't a dream?"

Ted glared at her. "You know something that I don't. Spill."

It wasn't a request. Katrina hesitated before replying. "It's a long story."

Ted leaned back, raising his eyebrows. "It's a good thing that I have time, then."

"You wouldn't understand," Katrina insisted.

Ted glared at her. "Try me."

Katrina's head spun, looking for a reasonable answer, before deciding to go with the truth. "I can't tell you."

"Is there a reason for that?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Katrina pursed her lips, hating to have to utter the dreaded words. "The raven caws and the owl flies."

Ted nodded slowly, realization dawning on him. "I see."

At a young age, Katrina and Ted had made up a couple of code words for them to use. "The raven caws" meant that one or both of their lives were in danger, and "the owl flies" meant that Katrina could not safely tell Ted anything.

The two made their way back to the camp, where the others were waiting for them, wondering where they had gone. After a quick glance at Ted, Katrina confirmed that neither of them would tell anyone else about what had happened during their talk.

"Hey, Celia," Katrina said. "Don't worry, Ted's not angry at you or anything."

Celia narrowed her eyes, before relaxing as she understood Katrina's message that she had not told Ted anything. "Good." Celia stalked off, going back to where the others were making breakfast.

The rest of the day passed smoothly. Everyone still seemed slightly wary of Katrina's suspicious behavior. However, the longer the day dragged on, the easier it was for Katrina to avoid the others' worrying glances and prying questions.

When Katrina took her midnight guard shift from Ted, he gave her a concerned look.

"Stay safe," he said quietly, brushing past her before entering his cabin. Katrina was relieved that Ted was not going to try and follow her this time, and that he was going to trust her to handle the situation herself. Undoubtedly, Ted would spend the night awake, keeping guard in her place.

Katrina silently creeped over to Celia's cabin and the two walked to the blackberry bushes.

"'The raven caws and the owl flies,'" Celia quoted when they arrived at their destination. "What does that mean?"

"You could hear me?" Katrina asked instead. "Using what? The pendant?"

Celia nodded. "The pendant doubles as a listening device. Now answer my question."

Katrina was prepared for this; she had suspected that it was a listening device and had come up with a couple of explanations. "Ted and I have a couple of code words. The one you heard meant 'I have my reasons.'"

"Why would you have a code word for that?" Celia asked, perplexed.

Katrina shrugged. "You're welcome to go back in time and ask my seven-year-old self."

"Point taken. Ready?" Celia inquired, holding up her pendant.

Katrina nodded, mirroring her motion. Together, the two teleported to the AB where Katrina would receive her first lesson.

As they materialized in the Base, Celia scanned her pendant and the door to the common room opened, allowing them to enter. Katrina hesitantly stepped inside, not knowing what was in store for her. She skimmed the room quickly, her eyes catching on Hades, who was watching her.

"Go to your room and change into a black jumpsuit," he ordered gruffly. "There should be a couple of pairs in the closet."

As Katrina looked to Celia for guidance, she nodded. "Go on, I'll stay here and talk to Mr. Hades as you change."

Katrina quickly walked to her dorm, where she swiped her pendant and entered. In a few moments, she located her closet full of jumpsuits and quickly pulled one on, pulling her brunette hair into a bun.

Katrina exited the room, hurrying back to where the others were waiting for her. As she arrived, she found Thea standing next to Hades, already dressed in her attire.

"You were loud," Hades growled. "I could hear your footsteps."

As Katrina opened her mouth to protest, Hades held up his gnarled hand. "Don't give me that baloney about how you were not concentrating on being silent. A good assassin is always quiet, regardless of whether they are trying to or not."

He quickly stalked off towards the kitchen. Confused, Thea and Katrina exchanged a look before following him. Celia trailed casually behind them.

Mr. Hades stopped in front of a door and unlocked it, holding the door open for the rest of them. They now stood in a large, round room.

Next to the door, there was a stand with a keypad. Hades entered a few commands into the device, and soon, the room shifted before Katrina's eyes.

Instead of a blank, white room, they were standing in the middle of a large city. The sky was dark and flashing lights were everywhere, as well as pedestrians and hoverboarders, talking and laughing.

"Katrina, you have ten seconds to run. Thea, your job is to touch her. If Katrina manages to evade you for an hour, you lose. Go!" Hades said. Katrina looked around, but he was nowhere to be found.

Without further ado, Katrina ran, her muscles burning, quickly blending into the crowd. As each second disappeared, Katrina pushed herself even more.

By the time Thea started tracking her, Katrina slowed down to a walk, quickly stealing a couple of clothes from a nearby shop. She changed into her new jacket and hat and tied her hair up into its signature messy ponytail, trying to act normal.

Katrina kept moving, knowing that it was the safest for her. If this were a real mission, all Thea needed to do was to touch her in order to activate her ability and kill her.

Suddenly, Katrina caught sight of a black-haired girl pushing through the crowd, making them mutter angrily. She moved away and into a shop, where she watched Thea walk right past her.

Katrina's head spun; the city wasn't very large, and it wouldn't be long until Thea found her. Suddenly, as a wanted poster for a runaway Deviant caught her eye, Katrina smiled mischievously. This was going to be fun.

Katrina stepped back outside and activated her clairvoyance ability. From experience, she knew that she could sense people's minds when she concentrated. However, as the pedestrians and hoverboarders here were merely a hologram, it would only make sense if the only minds she could sense were Hades', Celia's, and, of course, Thea's.

A small grin appeared on her face as her theory proved correct. Thea was currently flying through the air on a stolen hoverboard not far from where Katrina was. With some effort, Katrina looked from Thea's perspective.

Katrina couldn't control Thea's eyeballs, so she could only see where Thea was looking. Out of the corner of Thea's eyes, Katrina could see herself standing in the crowd.

Katrina tore herself out of Thea's perspective and quickly eyed the building next to her. The walls were smooth, but as it was an apartment building, she could easily climb up using the balconies.

It took her a couple of minutes, but she managed to get onto the first story's balcony. She smashed through the sliding glass door and into the apartment, where a guy was sleeping. He woke up with a jerk as Katrina stomped through his room.

Katrina paid no attention to his scream as she reached the elevator, slamming on the button to call an elevator. A moment later, the door dinged, and Katrina entered the elevator, going up to the roof.

As the elevator reached her destination, Katrina ran out into the cold, chilly air, once again closing her eyes and searching for Thea's mind. Thea was even closer this time.

Katrina opened her eyes once more and scanned the skies for Thea. She was currently flying, not paying attention to the ground. She grabbed hoverboarders at random to check their face, leaving them alone when a surprised face met hers.

"Hey!" Katrina called, waving her arms. "Over here!"

When that didn't work, she created an illusion of fireworks above her head, which quickly caught Thea's, as well as the citizens', attention.

This time, Thea's eyes met hers. As Thea grinned triumphantly, racing over to her, Katrina stood still, waiting. Suddenly, an illusion of a wall appeared in front of Thea, making her crash into it.

However, as it was an illusion, Thea's hoverboard kept moving, causing Thea to scream.

Katrina chuckled, watching Thea's brain try to make sense of how she didn't crash. If Thea was anything like Ted, Katrina knew that her trick had slowed her down for at least a minute.

"Hey Thea!" she taunted. "I'm right over here!"

In a few moments, Thea located her. She jumped down from her hoverboard, rolling to a stop right in front of Katrina.

Katrina took a deep breath as Thea stood up, reaching out, trying to end the game. She used her clairvoyance ability and entered Thea's perspective, feeling each one of her organs and muscles. With a jerk, Katrina made Thea's muscles stop moving.

Katrina sucked in a breath as she realized that being a clairvoyant allows her to take control of others. The moment of surprise was all Thea needed. She fought against Katrina's control and quickly won, regaining control of her own body.

Unnerved, Thea took a few seconds to relax, momentarily forgetting that Katrina was right in front of her. Katrina took advantage of Thea's hesitation and quickly formed a box around her.

Thea's eyes widened as she realized that she could not escape the box. Her fists pounded on the walls, her words muffled.

"How," Thea grunted, throwing her body against the walls, "is this stupid box not breaking?"

Katrina grinned, watching Thea's fruitless attempts at escaping. She knew that the more Thea tried to escape, the harder it is for that to happen. Her illusions thrived on fooling others' minds, and as doubt planted itself into Thea's mind, Katrina knew that she had almost no chance at escaping.

Katrina glanced at the large clock on a skyscraper, taking note of the time. "Thea, you have ten minutes to escape from that box and touch me."

Thea growled, punching the box one last time before sitting down. "Okay, I give up. How did you do that?"

Katrina relaxed, sitting down as well. "I'm an illusionist and a clairvoyant," she explained.

"You have two abilities?" Thea exclaimed. "Wow- that's just, well, amazing!"

"Not really," Katrina said darkly. "I found that if I use both abilities at the same time, I can control another person or even kill them."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Thea apologized. Katrina nodded as Thea undoubtedly knew how much of a curse the ability to kill was. She quickly glanced up at the clock again: six minutes.

"Hey," Katrina said suddenly. "You wanna have a mini fight?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's only six minutes until the game is over," Katrina replied. "I'll release you from that box, and you can still have a chance at winning."

At the word "winning," Thea's eyes brightened. "Really? You would do that?"

Katrina nodded, and in a moment, Thea was free. The two looked at each other for a moment, pondering what their next move was going to be.

Suddenly, Thea lunged at Katrina. She sidestepped her easily. Thea skidded to a stop, turning to face Katrina once more.

Thea advanced slowly, her eyes fixated on Katrina. Suddenly, Katrina grinned.

"Time's up."

"Wha-"

As Thea's eyes darted up towards the clock, her eyes widening as she found that there was still three minutes left, Katrina spun around and ran. She knew that there was no way she could've won if she had stayed, as the second Thea touched Katrina, she would've lost.

The chase was on. Katrina ran towards the edge of the roof, her eyes tracking the movements of the hovercar. If she had planned it correctly, she could make a successful getaway. If she hadn't... Well, let's just say that it would be very painful.

As the wind flew past her ears, Katrina lunged towards the hovercar, grabbing onto the top with her arms. She scrambled up, turning around.

Thea was staring at her, dumbfounded, as Katrina relaxed on top of the car, waving. Katrina smirked at her; the expression on Thea's face was priceless.

Idly, Katrina wondered if there were cameras around, filming everything that happened. If so, she pondered how much blackmail it would take to get a photo of Thea's face.

The car wasn't moving very quickly, so Katrina wasn't worried about falling off. The passengers in the car, on the other hand, were freaking out a lot. She could hear them screaming at each other, undecided about what to do with their new guest on top of their car.

Katrina watched the clock's hand tick. As the minute hand ticked to the left, Katrina smiled. She had won.

In a moment, the scene shifted again back to the cold room. Katrina glanced at Hades, who were studying the pair.

"Virtual reality?"

Hades nodded, confirming her guess. "It's a common way to train around here."

Celia snorted. "It would be a lot less expensive if you just got Katrina to create the illusion for you."

Katrina agreed. Some inventors had found a way to recreate Katrina's illusionist abilities, so not only could they create an illusion, but could also touch it. If Katrina missed the car and fallen, she would've been injured badly.

"Katrina wouldn't be able to train herself if she had done that," Hades retorted. "And we can't have an illusionist here 24/7."

Celia rolled her eyes as she checked her watch. "Katrina, we need to go."

Katrina nodded gratefully. The workout had left her exhausted, and combined with two sleepless nights, she was looking forwards for a nap. "Okay."

The two bade farewell to Hades and Thea before going back. Katrina quickly changed out of her jumpsuit and back into her old clothes so as to not raise suspicion when they arrived back at the arena.

After Katrina was done, the two teleported to Arena six. They hitchhiked back to the cabins, and Katrina, once again, slept soundlessly. 

...

I hope you liked this chapter! 

Does it feel like I'm info-dumping a lot in the last few chapters? If it doesn't, tell me. If it does, leave a comment explaining why.