Y'all were so fucking sweet in the comments last chapter so you motivated me to write up this next one really quickly. Thanks for being the cutest group of readers ever. I read all your comments (even the mean ones haha) so when I see you guys getting excited about updates, it gets me excited too. Love you xxx

ALSO, I FORGOT TO INCLUDE A SUPERNATURAL GIF LIKE I USUALLY DO AT THE END OF A MAKE OUT CHAPTER SO HERE YOU GO 

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"How are you feeling?" Turner asked me as we swiftly made our way through the forest, clutching onto semi-automatic rifles.

I looked towards my gun, then back to him with an eyebrow raised.

"You really wanna know?"

He chuckled darkly to himself. "Sorry. Weird time to make small talk. I was just trying to cut the tension."

It was certainly tense. Leaving our base camp to storm the RFI base in search of Mackenzie while Eric and Cassie went off to set up a bomb certainly wasn't a stress-free concept.

Thinking about them wasn't really helping either. I was trying to focus on the main task at hand. Finding Mackenzie and then getting the hell out of there.

Minutes were ticking by slowly as Turner and I headed toward the right side of the RFI base, knowing that Cassie and Eric would be waiting on the other side.

"We're setting up devices now," I heard Cassie's voice say through the device clipped to Turner's vest.

He pressed a button bringing the thing closer to his mouth. "We're almost there. Just give the signal when you're ready."

I heard the static as he clicked off his device, dropping his hands back to his sides. We continued to walk as quickly as we could. It was hard, as I spent a lot of time darting my eyes around for any sign of someone else.

The gun I'd been given was being clutched so tightly I thought my fingers would fall off. I had no intention of using the weapon unless it was out of self-defense, but that didn't stop me from clinging to it just in case.

Could I really shoot someone if I needed to? Could I even kill someone?

Distraction was suddenly seeming like a good idea again.

"You know," I spoke up, trying to change my thoughts. "It's crazy to think about how much things have changed. Do you remember the last time all four of us went out on a mission together?" I asked Turner.

He looked towards me. "You mean the night we installed surveillance equipment at Kennedy High?"

I smirked. "Yep. Oh how times have changed."

"I'd take fighting two teenage girls over this any day,"

I laughed in agreement. The conversation was helping calm my nerves and I was thankful Turner was with me.  My nerves were feeling jittery and my breathing was already irregular from our walk and the building anxiety I was feeling. 

I knew we were close to the RFI base camp when I noticed a clearing in the distance. My stomach immediately dropped. 

We were really about to do this.

It was that moment the reality of the situation really began to dawn on me. My walking pace slowed as I became more aware of every movement I made. I was terrified of being heard or spotted. If an RFI spy spotted either of us, chaos would likely ensue. 

The same went for Eric and Cassie, who were in an even more dangerous situation. The two of them would be quickly weaving around the base, planting the explosive devices they'd carried in their duffel bags. 

Turner and I crouched behind a bush, still fully alert and constantly checking to make sure no one was nearby. 

"How much longer do you think they'll be?" I asked Turner, my voice as low and quiet and I could possibly make it. 

"Any minute," he quickly muttered back.

My heart rate picked up as I tried to prepare myself for storming their base camp.

God, we were really doing this. 

If there was any moment where I wanted to back out, it would have been right then. But we were way too deep into this to back out now. Everything was final, and only moments away from happening. 

For some reason, my mind decided to completely distract me with random thoughts to make the dreaded moment more bearable. 

Stretch. Mount. Snap-heel turn. Split leap. Handstand. Dismount.

I was going over one of my old gymnast routines. Before a competition, I used to go over all my movements in my head to help get me focused. In this case, I was using it as a distraction. 

I'd forgotten it had been one of my coping mechanisms for nerves and I was finding it surprisingly helpful. I decided to keep doing it. 

Handstand-forward roll. Bridge-kick over. Split leap. Full split. Backward roll. Round-off back handspring.  Smile. 

"Three seconds," I heard Cassie's voice come from Turner's device.

I immediately tensed. The sick feeling grew inside me and before I could even think about throwing up, I was off the ground, quickly following Turner's movements. 

Crouched down low, we moved forward quickly in an attempt to not be seen. I could hear the distant sound of voices and gripped my gun even firmer. We were so close. 

The ground shook at the loud booming sound of the explosion. I jumped in fright, taking a step back. 

Turner was already charging straight ahead and I forced myself to walk alongside him. 

I could hear the gunshots and yelling from the other side of the base, making me briefly think of Eric. I pushed him out of my head. 

There were rogue agents running all over the place and I quickly made my way in the direction of one of the white tents. Turner dove in front of me, and I heard the sound of his gun firing bullets. 

The noise was so loud and frightening that I felt compelled to covered my ears. But instead, I moved quicker, choosing not to look at any of the violence. The sounds were disturbing enough. I didn't even want to picture the bodies of shot spies dropping to the ground.

Instant relief flooded me when I dove inside the tent and Turner was quick to follow. It was empty and I was able to drop my guard for a second to catch a breather. 

"Are you okay?" I asked Turner, wiping at the bead of sweat on my forehead. 

He was breathing heavily but nodded. "I think I took a few of them down."

I didn't respond, feeling stunned by the whole ordeal. Took a few down. He's shot a few of their agents. 

I shook the thoughts out of my head, reminding myself of what I needed to do. Find Mackenzie.

When I looked around at the tent, I realized it was the same one that Eric, Mackenzie, and I had all originally been kept in. The same file cabinets stood at the back of the tent while chairs were stacked in the corner. 

The sound of another loud explosion dragged me out of my thoughts and the ground moved. I turned to Turner with wide eyes. 

"Jesus!" I exclaimed. The noise had been so loud and nearby that I knew it would have caused mass destruction.

"They're moving closer," Turner said. "We need to hurry up. By the time Eric and Cassie reach where we are, they'll be setting off another bomb in this area."

The pressure to hurry up made my heart beat faster as I tesnsed. My eyes drifted to the floor at the memory of Mackenzie kicking the knife across the floor that I used to cut away my restraints. More guilt flooded me at the thought of her helping me escape while I couldn't even find her. 

"Becca, she's probably dead," Turner told me, not bothering to be sensitive. "We have to go."

I glanced at the file cabinet, for a split second wondering if she was inside it. It was physically impossible for her to fit in such a small space but my mind was searching for any hope that she was okay. I needed to find her. 

My eyes dropped down lower as despair hit me. I didn't know if I'd be able to forgive myself if she was killed. I could have saved her, or at least down something more.  

From the corner of the bottom cabinet, something caught my eye. 

I blinked, making sure I wasn't seeing things. "Oh my God," 

Turner turned away from the tent opening to look at me. He'd been standing guard to make sure no one stormed the tent while we were in here. Thankfully, Cassie and Eric seemed to have the rest of the RFI members preoccupied. 

I moved closer to the cabinet at the sight of a shoe and discovered I was right. 

There was a person lying behind the cabinet.

I moved quickly, pushing back the heavy piece of furniture to gasp in horror at the sight.

Mackenzie was covered in blood and bruises. Her face was swelled up as she lied on the ground lifelessly. 

"Oh my God," I started to hyperventilate. My eyes watered up instantly at the tightening of my chest. "Is she dead?"

Turner moved past me, crouching down in front of her body. He leaned in closely, checking her pulse. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand away.

"She's alive, but barely." 

I let out a huge breath of relief. 

"We need to carry her back to our base," Turner instructed. "We can contact the RUA and get medical support for her." 

I nodded in agreement, grabbing Mackenzie by the shoulders in an attempt to drag her towards me. It was taking all of my strength to move her forward by a few inches and I knew there was no way I'd be able to carry her by myself all the way back to base.

"I need your help," I told Turner with a firm grip still on Mackenzie. 

He'd gone back to the entrance, still checking to make sure no one came our way. Reluctantly, he moved away from the opening to help me.

With his muscle, we were able to move her with ease. We lifted her off the ground as the sound of nearby gunshots continued to go off. 

All I could think about was getting her back to our base camp. If I could do that, we would all be safe and she could finally get help. There was a ticking clock and an overwhelming amount of pressure to get this right. 

I was startled by the sound of a voice yelling and footsteps approaching. I looked at Turner and knew we both realized the same thing.

Someone was coming.

I nodded my head towards the tent opening. "I'll deal with this," I told him. "You need to carry her."

He didn't look certain with the plan but I looked at him with determination. There wasn't going to be any way for me to carry Mackenzie. He could. And I could handle this. I reaffirmed  it in my head:

I can do this.

I gently laid Mackenzie back on the ground as I turned to the front of the tent. I clutched my gun as I inhaled a deep breath. 

I didn't want to shoot anybody. That was the last resort. If I could knock them out or at least wound them enough so they couldn't fight back, that was all I needed. Killing was not something I wanted nor was I ready to do. I couldn't. 

When the tent opened and a man ran in, I instantly lowered my weapon. It was only one spy - and he was weaponless. 

I could definitely do this.

Before he had a chance to lunge at me, I ran into him, pushing him back with all my might. He was strong and was able to push me back with ease. But the distraction was enough for me to knee him in the stomach and send a punch flying towards his jaw. 

His head turned with the movement and I could feel the anger burning inside him. He scratched at my arms and was quick to grip at my shoulders. I could feel the stinging pain in my arms but ignored it as I tried to squirm out of his grip. I kneed him again, this time in the crotch, which was enough to get him to loosen his grip on me. 

I wriggled out of it, ready to punch him again. But I froze as the tent opened moved and three other RFI spies entered.  

Nevermind, I could definitely not do this.

"Uh, Turner?" I called out shakily.

He was quickly by my side, leaving Mackenzie lying on the ground as he attacked the first man to come lunging at him. Another joined in and everything began to get chaotic. 

Punches and kicks were flying in every direction. Everything became a blur as I fought men off me, shoving as hard as I could and constantly moving out of the way from the blows they were trying to strike. 

A fist collided with my stomach, causing it to clench up in pain. I ignored it to the best of my ability as I tried to fight back but I suddenly felt my hair being yanked back with a strong pull. 

The sharp pain caused me to yelp out as another person grabbed my legs holding me up. I began kicking frantically, trying to get my footing back on the ground. 

I caught a glimpse of Turner who was busy fighting another man and hadn't even noticed me struggling.

The firm grips on my skin filled me with an agitated disgust as I continued trying to release myself. A helpless feeling was starting to grow inside me as I realized how outnumbered we were. 

The fact that I couldn't defend myself properly was driving me crazy and the unfair fight had my heart beating fast in worry. 

Turner and I couldn't handle this. 

I kicked with all my might, trying to hit the guy who was grabbing me by the legs but is was no use, he had my movements under his control. The other man who'd grabbed my hair now had a firm grip on both my shoulders and was resisting every twist and turn I made to free myself.

The grip on my legs suddenly changed as the man's hands slid down my leg before releasing me completely with a yell. My feet dropped back on the ground and I looked up to see Eric and Cassie were the ones responsible.

Relief flooded through me to see them both okay and my confidence was suddenly restored. With the four of us here, now the fight was even. 

With my feet back on the ground, I turned around and swung a punch at the man behind me. I was angry at him for pulling my hair, and he was about to get payback. 

He was the first to attack, grabbing a hold of me and attempting to throw me towards the stack of chairs. I stumbled back but held my ground as firmly as I could to avoid the collision. 

I charged at him with all my strength, pushing him back. He stumbled back with surprise but I barely gave him any time to process it before I threw another punch, directly at his forehead. 

With the advantage I had on him, I used it to keep throwing punches in his direction, hoping they would be enough to take him down. He was taking them without moving as much as I'd anticipated. He was like a brick. 

I decided to go for the kneeing in the crotch move again, hoping that would cause some damage. 

As soon as I'd done it, he crouched down and let out a noise of discomfort. God, I enjoyed being a girl. 

I was about to go in for one more punch to knock him down but was jolted at the sound of gunshots going off. 

The man dropped to the ground instantly and I turned around in horror to see Cassie holding a gun. She'd shot him. Her face remained relatively calm as she looked away from his body. 

"We need to go now," she urged me. "Those bombs go off in about five minutes." 

It was hard for me to draw my eyes away from the man who was bleeding on the floor in front of me. The blood was pooling in front of my feet and I inched away slowly to avoid it getting on my shoes. 

He was dying right in front of me. The sight was nauseating. 

Cassie pulled at my shoulder and I slowly stepped away, turning back around. I caught sight of Eric which instantly made me feel better. He looked like he hadn't suffered any major injury -though I couldn't say the same for the RFI agents that were lying on the ground. 

He ushered for me to catch up to him, looking impatiently worried about the minutes we had left until this campsite went up in flames. But from what I'd already witnessed, it didn't even seem necessary. How many people had we just taken down?

Cassie and Turner went to lift Mackenzie as I ran towards where Eric was standing. He looked down at the device he was holding. 

"Six minutes," he said. 

I nodded, feeling the urgency to leave the campsite as quickly as possible.  There was a sick feeling in my stomach from everything I'd just witnessed. I knew this was our job. I knew it was necessary. If we hadn't killed them, they would have killed us. 

But that didn't make it any easier. A huge part of me was still against this entire plan. This wasn't the way to take down an agency. Whatever we destroyed, I was certain they could easily rebuild. There had to be a better way than this. 

Eric ushered me out the door with a hand on my back and I picked up my pace. We'd began sprinting as fast as we could, with Cassie and Turner by our side. 

The feeling of doubt wouldn't leave me alone, even in that moment of desperation to get to safety. I knew what this group was capable of. And if we were in a position to take them down and didn't utilize it for all it was worth, things were only going to get harder for us - and this war was only going to continue. 

Violence wasn't going to be the answer. We needed something on them. We needed their identities, their hideout locations, their plans for future missions. We needed to know how to properly take them down. But the only way to do something like that was to have access to that information. 

It wasn't something we freely had. It was the kind of thing that would be kept away in files. 

In a cabinet. 

I halted on the spot. Cassie and Turner were already running ahead as they carried Mackenzie to safety but Eric stopped when he noticed I wasn't next to him.

"What are you doing?" He charged towards me. "We need to go now!"

It all clicked. I shook my head at him. "Eric listen to me," I began hastily. "There's a file cabinet inside that tent. It could have information to help us take down the RFI."

"We are taking down to RFI!" He argued, holding up a device with a countdown clock. Five minutes.  

"No, this isn't going to work," I replied. I could see he was on edge, looking like he was seconds away from grabbing me and carrying me himself to get away from the base. 

"This won't take them down, Eric," I tried to convince. "It's barely a knife wound. They'll bounce back in no time. Those files could contain vital information that could actually help us. You need to take down the entire organization, not just one part of it." 

He looked at me and I stared him in the eyes with a pleading look. I could tell he was not as onboard with this idea as I was, but he still looked like he was debating the idea. 

After another second, he looked back at where Cassie and Turner had run off out of sight and then turned back to me. 

"Quickly," he spoke in a lower tone.

We both bolted back in the opposite direction towards the tent. My feet kicked up dirt as I dug them into the ground with each firm step I took. We were dashing at a ridiculously fast speed, knowing how reckless this was. But I was convinced it was the only thing that would really work. 

When we made it back into the tent, I was greeted with the sight of the four lifeless bodies we'd left on the ground. I tried not to look at them as I stepped over the obstacles to reach the cabinet. 

Eric pulled the drawers open, revealing the same manilla folder's I'd seen when I'd searched these drawers for a weapon when escaping. He quickly shoveled a huge pile of them into his arms while I did the same. 

I took a much as I'd be able to carry, stacking them all on top of each other. Eric was already raiding the drawer below for anything extra he could take. With the pressure of a literal ticking clock and a bomb about to drop, my heart was hammering inside my chest.

When I felt the cold tip of something metal press against my forehead and the sound of a gun clock by my ear, I froze in shock.

"Got you," I heard the familiar Russian voice greet.