Hannah had been holed up in her bedroom for nearly thirty hours, having arrived under armed-guard. The family had been waiting up for her to return. She checked to make sure Diana, John and Edward were okay, ignored the fuss Diana was making of her and scurried up to bed. She'd been there ever since. As they hadn't been allowed to leave the house, until Briggs was happy the immediate threat had been, in his words, neutralised.

Hannah looked at her alarm clock. It was now eight o'clock. Now only a few hours later, she reluctantly opened her eyes. Sunlight was burning its way into her room through a crack in the curtain. The family had been awake for an hour already, she'd heard them creep past her room, speaking in hushed voices. She heard movement outside her door and then a knock.

"Hannah, its Zeke, I need talk to you urgently," said the voice on the other side of the door.

She groaned, just what she didn't need. "Just one minute!"

Hannah forced herself to get up, and put on the fluffy pink dressing gown which hung on a hook in her bathroom. Not caring a jot about her appearance any further, she opened the door.

"What!" she asked as she moved back to bed and sat down heavily.

Zeke stood looking into the room warily, reluctant to enter.

"Come in Zeke, you've woken me up for some reason, you might as well get down to it!"

Zeke entered and walked over to the window and threw open the curtains. Bright, garish sunlight flooded the room.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Fine and dandy," she replied. Her tone said otherwise.

"I have to take you to headquarters; Briggs wants to speak to you."

"I have nothing to add to the statement I made yesterday. I was at a party, someone chased me and I escaped. As for that man, I never ever want to see him again. End of."

Zeke sighed and walked over towards her. Her tentatively perched on the edge of her bed.

"How is your face today?" he asked.

Hannah had forgotten about the injury. The amount of blood loss had been disproportionate to the size of the wound. It had taken only five, small dissolvable stitches to fix her. Hannah moved her hand up to her face and gingerly touched it. It hurt a little, strangely she didn't mind.

"It is fine, thank you. The doctor said it will heal quickly and they can laser away the scar tissue if necessary. It'll be like it never happened." She laughed and stopped almost immediately.

"I know you are pissed at me, Hannah. If I'd known what was going to happen, I would never have left. I won't be making that mistake again; that's if I am able stay in my position."

"It doesn't matter Zeke, nothing matters anymore, I've made up my mind, and I am going to go home, back to my real home. There is nothing you or anyone can do about it. I am going to back to living my life, with my real parents. I will get me old job back in time try to forget this bloody experience ever happened. You can go tell whoever you need to, that Hannah Green is not and never will be a pawn in some stupid game that can never be won." Hannah took a deep breath, surprised by her own outburst.

After a pause, Zeke spoke softly. "I can't do that Hannah and neither can you."

"I'm telling you, Zeke, if you push me any farther, I am going to straight to Briggs to tell him this whole sorry story, including everything about you!" Deep in her heart she knew she wouldn't and she thought that Zeke probably knew that too, but she was angry and clutching at straws.

"Hannah, you can't go home... because your home has gone. Briggs has just arrested your parents, along with hundreds more Flawed and has raised the area to the ground."

"No," she cried out.

"Hannah, are you ok?" Diana came running into the room, panic etched across her face.

"Get out of my room," Hannah screamed at her. She jumped up from the bed and flung herself towards Diana. "I don't want you, I've never wanted you. Just leave me alone!"

Diana was momentarily stunned by Hannah's outburst.

"Out!"

Diana let out a sob and fled the room. Hannah slammed the door behind her. She began to pace the floor.

"Why has he arrested my parents? What have they done to deserve this?"

Hannah, they saw Dan, outside the ball last night. They think he has something to do with it. They have taken your mother too and anyone else linked to them. Your neighbour, Roberts was killed in the arrest."

No, not Mr Roberts." Another person she cared about was gone.

"Hannah, Roberts fired back at the guards. They found a huge pile of weapons in his home too, which has only convinced Briggs of their guilt further."

She was puzzled about Roberts, but her parents were innocent. "I must make him see they are innocent. I must make him see this."

"Hannah, he won't listen. He is consumed by rage. The attack last night was the biggest against us since the rebellion. The Top-5 are both furious and scared that this wasn't just a lone action. They are worried there will be further attacks against them."

"But it wasn't an attack on them, it was an attempt to get to me, I'm ok, so no harm done."

"Sadly that's not true Hannah. I asked that nobody tell you last night, so you could try to get some rest, but sadly fifteen people were killed in the assault."

"Oh my god!" she replied, "who?"

Zeke took a deep breath and answered. "Five council members, who were with Briggs at the top table."

"Who else?" feeling sick.

"Three of your group: Naya, Paul and Dan. Christa's currently on life support and Elyas was released from hospital in the last couple of hours. He should be okay. Just a graze, nothing more."

"Who were the other three?" Her voice shook.

"Three of mine. All good men; each with families depending on them."

She knew Naya well enough, but the other two she'd barely even spoken with. In fact, she'd gone out of her way not to socialise with them; they'd been far happier with their promotions for her liking. She felt terrible now for even thinking that.

"Take me to see Briggs, please Zeke. I will tell him everything, I won't mention your involvement though, I promise. This has to stop now before anyone else gets hurt. My Mum and Dad have done nothing wrong."

"Do you honestly think he will listen? It is too late for that Hannah. I've spoken to my leadership and they have advised caution. They are trying their best to stop any further action by the others; we just need to buy a little time."

Hannah paced the floor again, weighing up her options. She was terrified for her parents and, desperately sad for those whose lives were now lost. But she was sick of all of this, sick of being a pawn in a game being played by persons/ groups unknown. If only she could speak to these people and stop it all. Suddenly she jumped towards Zeke, taking him by surprise.

"Ok, I'll go with you to Briggs and make nice. But, first I want to meet your boss, the person pulling the strings." Zeke tried to interrupt, but Hannah continued at pace. "If you don't take me there, so help me I will tell Briggs about everything, including all about you and if anything should happen to my family Zeke, I will kill Briggs myself." Hannah didn't know where those last words came from, but now she had uttered them, she meant every word.

"Get ready quickly, we haven't much time." Zeke quickly walked towards the door. "I'll meet you in the car."

Hannah couldn't believe he'd agreed. She jumped into the shower, the wound on her face smarting as the water fell on it. She washed herself quickly, threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, tied up her towel-dried hair and grabbed a light weight coat from her wardrobe. She bent over to pick up a pair of training shoes and spied the box with Briggs and Eastman's secrets hidden inside, alongside her mother's note and the two pictures. She was gaining quite the collection of artefacts. She hurriedly pulled on her trainers and ran out of the room. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, a voice called to her from the sitting room. In two minds whether to ignore it, she entered the room and was confronted by the Page family. John and Edward smiled at her, Diana- her cheeks flushed- kept her face down. For a second Hannah felt awful about the way she had spoken to her, which quickly evaporated the second John spoke.

"Come in Hannah, we have something important to discuss with you".

"I'm sorry, I can't. I have to go to the Council and see Briggs about last night."

"Oh Hannah, I'm sure General Briggs won't mind on this one occasion." Frustrated, Hannah went to respond but John continued. "I know this may seem inappropriate after the events of the last couple of days, but today is a very special day in the Page household."

Hannah looked up at them blankly. Diana was wringing her hands, Edward was hopping about like an excited child. John walked over the tall mahogany cabinet and took from it a small pink box, with a silver bow tied around it.

"Happy birthday Hannah..." John started. Hannah had completely forgotten about her eighteenth birthday. She should be at home celebrating with her parents, not here. Burning in anger, she refused to let him finish.

"Whatever that is I don't want it. This is not something I want to celebrate with you. Eighteen years ago to this very day you gave me away, discarded me because I wasn't good enough. You can go to hell!"

Hannah stormed out of the house and joined Zeke in the rear of the car.

"Just get me away from here," she instructed the driver, her breathing rapid, and her eyes wild. How dare they think they had the right to share in her special day? Hannah thought back to the carefully wrapped pink box John had tried in vain to give her. Her real parents, Dan and Lynne had always bought her a small, modest present every year, having saved up for months to buy it. Memories of joyful birthdays, shared with them over the years filled her thoughts and threatened to overwhelm her. The driver released the handbrake and the car pulled away slowly, driving round the large ornamental pond complete with stone statues which stood in the middle of the driveway as a turning circle.

"Faster, please," she said impatiently, her voice tight.

Hannah glanced back at the open front door to see Edward staring back at her. In his hands was a small pale-blue box, also tied with a silver ribbon.

"Happy birthday," he mouthed, and gave her an all too familiar smirk and then walked back into the house.

"Zeke" she said, "can you find out when Edward's birthday is?"

Zeke looked up from the message he was reading on his ComDat.

"Err...yes, let me just check."

Zeke began typing into the small, black device. Within moments he responded.

"Today, Hannah, he turns eighteen!"