Izzy didn't know whether wit was day or night anymore, he could only assume that the van had been traveling for about 4 days now. The man claimed to be named Eric Marus, a director of a secret military operation. The man-Eric barley feed Izzy in the past 4 days, not that he wasn't used to being hungry. Izzy curled up into himself in the very far corner of the van whenever the man stopped to check on him. It had been several hours since the last check when the van came to a sudden stop, Izzy could hear the loose gravel move under a pair of feet.

The van doors slammed open with a bang "Get out kid, I don't want to have to knock you out." Izzy quickly scrambled out the doors in fear of punishment.

"W-where a-are we?" The small boy was a stuttering mess.

The man turned to him and spoke in a deeper voice "Nowhere that you would know of." Eric's response was short and curt, "Move."

Izzy began walking, where? He had no idea, but it was better to follow orders than to be punished. They entered a dark building that he hadn't noticed before, the large iron door opened as Eric placed a card onto a square of some sort. The word on the door that were written in bold said 'St. Cloud Department of Governmental Intel'

'Intel on what? What could I possibly know that would help the government?!" Izzy was in a panicked state as he was ushered down several flights of stairs before being pushed into a large room with other kids inside it, more than 20 kids were there all different ages, ranging from 7-18. The children stared at the new comer in surprise, the black jackets hadn't brought any kids in for months. Izzy stumbled from the force of the push, he quickly gained back his balance before he fell, looking around at all the different faces in wonder.

"Who are you?" his meek attempt at a response to all the stares that he was getting.

At that question all the children began to round of their names "Olivia, Michael, Danny, Kate, Beth, Alexander, Soma, Eliza..." The names ran on forever but the main thing that Izzy noticed was that they all had identical tattoos to him. After the introductions a soldier walked in a yelled "Lights out!"

The next morning the children we awoken by a loud bang from the large metal door, the children scrambled to get out of bed. A guard stepped inside the large room, and all the children seemed to flinch away at each step he took. He walks until he was in the very middle of the room before calling out for all the younger children, ages 7 till 10 to line up into a single file line. The man met up with another, while they were walking Izzy began to look at his surroundings hoping to figure out just where he was and how he could try and escape. When they finally reached a room that had a door that had the word 'Interrogation Room' written in bold letters, Izzy felt his stomach drop after reading those word.

One by one children would walk into the room, and one by one they would come out beaten and bloody, Izzy would stare at them as they were dragged away by soldiers their bodies limp and lifeless. Very soon it was his turn to go inside the dreaded room, as he walked inside he first noticed how oddly bright yet so very dark. There was also a man standing in the very middle of the room in front of a chair and a table, a table filled with various sharp objects.

"Please sit down, I just want to ask you some questions." The man gestured toward the metal chair. Izzy slowly walked towards it only to stop suddenly when he noticed the large amount of fresh blood on the floor.

The man followed his gaze and soon landed on the offending puddle or red liquid "Ah, yes, that's from my last 'talk'. Come along, sit down."

As soon as he sat down the man rushed over and locked his arms to the arm rests. Izzy began to panic.

The man began to talk "Name? Age? Home State? Knowledge of The Hidden Palace?" The man in a black military jacket stood before him staring intently at Izzy as if his answers would define the future of the world.

Izzy stared at the man before answering "My name is Izzy Rayos. I'm 9 years old and I'm from Altana." His answers were short but effective, as the man had started to write down whatever he said.

"Yes~ Well just one more question before we let you go back to you room. What do you know about The Hidden Palace?" Izzy's eyes seemed to glaze over as he said 'The Hidden Palace'

He could remember a time when he was six that his mother was telling him a story of a place where the air was clean, and plants could grow outside, but he could remember the word she spoke next, because they were one of the last word he ever heard her say to him.

"Izzy, honey, I love you so, so much, but you need to understand that the place I've been telling you about is a very special place and that means that if anyone that asks you about it, and they don't have your special mark, never tell them anything."

"But why, momma? Isn't the palace a special place for everyone?" When he was younger he never really understood her next word until now.

"Izzy, sometimes there are bad people in the world that don't like sharing special places like the palace and that means that they try to take it. Do you understand?" On that day Izzy had simply dismissed his mother's word, assuming it was just part of the story.

Now Izzy new exactly these bad people were. Izzy stared back at the man for a few minutes before giving a quick "Nothing."

Izzy's word seemed to anger the man because his face quickly became red before he snapped his fist back and swung down into Izzy's cheek, Izzy's head snapped to the side from the sudden impact, blood trickling from his busted lip.

"Your lying, boy, try again."

"I told you I don't know anything about this palace that you keep talking about!!"

A sickening crack was heard as Izzy was punched in the stomach, at least one of his ribs was broken now.

"Last chance, boy, tell me what you know, otherwise you'll leave here with more than a busted lip and a broken rib." The man's voice was low promising that if Izzy did not comply it would be much more than an empty threat.

Izzy stared defyingly at the man before him "No."

The man stared at Izzy for a moment before a maniacal smile seemed to seep on to his face, he walked to the table inform of Izzy before turning to him holding a small pencil sized knife, he seemed to stare at the small knife before slowly walking towards Izzy. As the man came to a stop in front of Izzy, he felt his stomach drop at the sight of the small knife slowly inch towards his right hand, more specifically his main blood vain. The knife was descending on to the vain too slowly for Izzy's liking, almost as if the man wanted Izzy to talk before he stabbed him.

Just as the small knife was about to come into contact with his main blood vessel an alarm began to blare "Security breach!! All personnel report to the loading deck. All prisoners must be escorted to their cells for containment." An oddly familiar voice yelled.

As Izzy resisted the urge to smile, the restraints on his wrist were quickly removed as he was dragged from the room. Izzy watch as soldiers ran passed him and up the many flights of stair, until he was pulled to a stop in front of the same large door as before.

***

Kit had been walking for over four days now, fortunately the van had stopped at some point near 'East Lake Tohopekaliga' She had barley slept for the past four days, too busy worrying about how she just had to go a little farther, a little farther to get back to Izzy. She had stopped to look at the computer screen, she was close, so, so close just a few more mile that's all the needed to go.

After walking for another 3 hours she finally came up to a large dark building. She stared up at the large words on the door 'St. Cloud Department of Governmental Intel' She stared at those words for what seemed like an eternity, Izzy was in there somewhere and she was going to get him back, she didn't care what it took.

At the sound of tires on gravel Kit's head whipped around 'The is the ticket for me to get in...' She watched as a man stuck out his hand, holding a card tapping it to a scanning pad. The back flap of the trucks was loose, she quickly ran to the back of the truck before hopping into it. As she turned around she only just now noticed the fact of which there were actual at least 6 soldiers seated inside of the van. She stared at the men before her, before deciding that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she wouldn't be able to beat them, her father had only given her the bare minimum knowledge of self-defense.

Then she noticed the lack of uniforms 'Rookies- I can use this to my advantage.'

"Hi! They-uh said that I would have to sit in this van for the rest of the trip because of one of the others-um puking!?" Her lying wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now.

The men in the truck seemed to be in a daze for a few seconds before snapping out of it and going back to staring solemnly at the walks ahead of them. Kit let go of the breath that she didn't even know she was holding, her entire body was tense as she sat staring blankly at the wall behind a man's head. After several minutes the truck came to a stop, after the doors were opened each person walked out in a single file, Kit was last in line meaning that no one would notice if she snuck away. As their group moved pass a large stack of boxes Kit ducked out in to the little group of boxes. Kit had to wait for someone to notice that she was missing, then she would be able to begin her plan, she waited several minutes before finally the man that had been in front of her noticed her lack of presence.

"Excuse me, sergeant, but one of use is missing, the small girl that was sent over." He spoke in a curt voice.

"What girl!? There wasn't supposed to be any girls in this recruitment group!" The sergeant was practically livid.

"Find her!!" He was yelling at every available person near him.

Kit watched with glee as her plan was set into motion, now all she had to do is find out how to seal all these soldiers into this one area or somehow get them all to leave... that gave her an idea. She quickly moved around the edges of the chaos that was in the middle of the loading dock, carefully moving out of the lard double door. As she made it out of the room she immediately began her search of the specific room that would assist her in her rescue mission. After a few seconds of running up a small hall she saw it 'Surveillance and Announcements Facilities' she smiled at the words, Kit slowly opened the door only to be greeted by to men in black military jackets their backs were turned away from her.

Kit slowly and carefully walked up to the men, who weren't too far apart which only made her job that much easier. The came to a stop behind the first man to her left. She snapped her hand back and brought it down on the man's temple, hard enough to knock him out. Unfortunately, the man to her right had noticed the sudden movement to his left. The man quickly stood up nocking his chair down in the process, he tried to back away but ended up tripping on one of the chair legs, hitting his head on the side of one of the computer filled tables.

Kit grimaced at the loud crack that came at the impact of his skull and the hard metal surface. Kit shook her head and smiled when she noticed that every one of the buttons on the panel before her was labeled. She slowly skimmed over all the different labels before finally finding the one she was looking for 'Base wide Announcements' she clicked the small red button and walked over to the small microphone.

"Security breach!! All personnel report to the loading deck. All prisoners must be escorted to their cells for containment." Kit yelled into the microphone, hoping that her acting skills would be sufficient enough to convince the people at this facility.

She quietly waited for a second until she began to hear loud footsteps running the opposite direction that she had come. After a few minutes she carefully peeked her head out of the room, turning her head both ways to make sure that no one would notice her despatcher. Kit new that if she didn't move fast everything that she had just done would come back to bite her in the butt. She quickly ran back down the hall towards the loading docks, as she reached the docks she noticed that the was indeed a large metal door that she could easily swing shut and lock. She moved quickly towards the door pushing it shut with a small thud, hurriedly closing the latch and removed the key from the key hole, but not before locking that too.

She turned to take out her computer, looking at the small screen, she had never been so grateful that this was a military level tracking system, it could tell her exactly how far she would have to go and exactly how many levels she would have to go down or up. She looked at the screen and noticed that the small red dot that was Izzy was about two levels down from her current position. She began to walk to the nearest stair case, quickly hopping down the stairs careful not to trip. She continued down the stairs until the system changed perspectives, meaning that she was at the right level. She walked towards the door that would hopefully lead to the hallway that held Izzy.

She entered the dark and narrow hallway, it was barley illuminated by a small overhead light that was right above a large metal door. She walked over to the door, and slowly unlatched the lock. She walked into the dark room hoping to see the small boy that she had grown to care about over the last few months. The small amount of light that was seeping into darkness from the computer only seemed to make the area even scarier.

"Izzy? It's me, Kit, common out!" Her calls echoed out into the large dark room.

No sooner had those words left her mouth she was tackled by a small bundle of blonde energy. She laughed at how the small boy seemed to have latched to her leg permanently.

"Kit! You came! Never leave me again!!" Izzy's small figure had finally let go of her leg and was now both lecturing her and jumping for joy.

She smiled and simply pulled the small boy into a warm hug. She heard a shuffling sound come from behind Izzy and immediately she let go of Izzy and pushed him behind her ready to protect him at any costs, she stared defiantly at what every lurked in the darkness. She glared into the darkness until she saw what she had been glaring at, children, there were other children here, all of which were holding their wrists out for her to see. Those numbers the same numbers that had been on her skin for the last 18 years of her life.

She stared in astonishment, 'I'm not the only one...' She was quickly broken out of her thoughts when she heard the sirens begin to blare on the background.

"We need to leave, and we need to do it now!" She franticly tried to usher all the children out of the room.

"Common follow me, quickly!" She rushed to the front of the group trying to make sure that all the little kids could keep up.

She pulled out her computer searching for a different exit that wouldn't lead them to the loading docks 'Damn, I should have planned further ahead...'

As she turned a corner she came face to face with the man from her nightmares. Eric Marus, she had done her research. She stared at him for a single moment, before lunging forward snapping her wrist back readying her punch.

This man had taken everything from her, her father, her future, her home... and most importantly her brother. The blow had landed, it wasn't hard enough to do any real damage. Eric's head had snapped to the side at the unexpected impact to his right cheek, he smirked as he slowly lowered his hands into an offensive stance. Kit new that she would never be able to beat a fully trained military operative. Her father had told her that if she ever came to face someone she knew she couldn't beat that she should run, Kit had followed that rule for her entire life, but now, now was the one and only exception.