"Esa, what are you talking about?" Theo looked over at me, his eyes wide and full of questions.

His gaze caused me to feel nervous. My hands began to fidget. I looked down at my palm and watched as a thin little line of electricity danced. I felt alive right now. I knew I had a past that involved both Earth and Merak, but right now, right here, I was real. I let my other hand clamp down on top and then slowly pulled them apart. A large sword made out of electricity appeared and then disappeared. I looked over at Theo. "I wasn't sure if I could tell you. I'm still trying to figure things out. I'm sorry. I —"

"When did you meet?" Samuel asked, not letting me fully finish my response. I'm sure he was glad to finally have the attention turned away from his own misgivings, but his sudden interest made me pause. I could trust him. I knew I could, but why did he seem so interested?

My entire mouth felt dry right now. I let my tongue run across the front of my teeth. I should have mentioned my meeting with the Regency to the rest of the team earlier in the day. I had known it was the right thing to do, but I was worried Marie would be able to hear our conversation and find us out. I looked back at Samuel. "Just a little bit ago. Right before we found you in the arena."

"How did you find them?" Samuel continued to push. "The Regency is not just walking around granting meetings with anyone who calls."

I bit down on my bottom lip. I wasn't ready to give away all of my secrets. Instead, I said, "the Regency found me. I guess they instantly knew I had Esadore's RaCO in my system. They paid me a visit. I didn't have to find them."

Luther let out a soft chuckle. "You're lying Esa. I can see it on your face."

I shot Luther an icy glare. He needed to watch his words right now. Both of us could play this game. He wasn't entirely safe either. Luther's eyes held my gaze for several seconds before he finally pinched his lips together and nodded his head forward.

I wanted to kill him right now, but instead of attacking him, I softly replied. "I'm not lying. They found me. They knew I had arrived back on Merak. After all, they are the Regency." It wasn't exactly a lie. They had sent Erik to bring me to them.

Samuel leaned back against the wall. "They've been watching us. I knew they would instantly try to connect with us, but Marie figured they would try to stay hidden a little bit longer until they could fully understand why we had returned."

"That's not it," my eyes met his.

"It's not?"

"No."

"Then why don't you tell me where they are at right now," Samuel's chest puffed up slightly.

"Because I don't know, but they're not hiding because they just want to watch. They don't trust Marie. They think she has returned to steal more RaCO and then leave again. They don't want it the RaCO to leave Merak. It's a part of their people."

There was a long moment of quiet that settled in among us.

"I know and I understand," Samuel said. "Sorry, if my questions seem a little harsh, but just like the rest of you, I'm trying to find out the answers to this weird puzzle."

I let out a deep breath. "We should go back to the arena. I'd like to watch the new Ciphers a little bit more. We need to start identifying who are the leaders among the new pack."

Theo winked over at me. "We've already started doing that and while all of the Ciphers are strong, there are a few that have excelled at every one of the assignments they've been given in the arena."

I looked over at Samuel. "Do you think she's giving the Ciphers different doses of RaCO?"

"She might be, but also remember that RaCO is a part of our people. If they were strong in their lives on Merak, then they will be strong as a Cipher."

"Is there anyway to get a list of all of the RaCO that Marie took?"

Samuel laughed. "Yes and no. We had a lot of Meradors die when the evil attacked. Yes, their RaCO was catalogued and then put into storage, but I didn't personally know everyone who passed on. I'm not sure of who all is strong and who isn't. I only know about the five of you because I directly worked on changing you."

I had more questions for Samuel about how they changed us, but right now I needed to understand the present and future. "Should we go back to the arena?"

Samuel nodded. "Yes. Grab onto my hand."

We all obliged and almost instantly we were sitting back along the perimeter of the large space. The Ciphers all wore white suites similar to ours. The only noticeable difference was they had darker skin and all different variations of hair color.

"Samuel, why do they look different than us?"

"They haven't travelled yet. Eventually, the RaCO will change their coloration, but that will take time. The radiation will activate the RaCO and cause the skin to become pale. I'm not really sure why, but that's just what happens. Marie had wanted to find a way to correct it when we were back on Earth so that the Ciphers could blend in better with the human population, but she couldn't figure out that part of the equation."

"I'm not sure I trust her. She may have figured out that math and just decided to leave us as we are so that we stand out and the rest of her army could easily blend in," Luther said.

Samuel looked over at Luther, "That's possible, but I know Marie and she likes to talk about her successes. If she had found the answer, then we would all know about it."

Suddenly, a male Cipher ran down the middle of the arena and jumped onto what looked like a trampoline that sent his body almost to the ceiling. I watched as strands of his hair swooshed against the top of the arena. He easily landed and then ran towards his next challenge. The Cipher looked as if that move had been completely easy.

"Who's that?" I pointed towards the Cipher. His muscles bulged from under his suit.

Theo's eyebrows raised. "That's Luka. He's one of the Ciphers we pegged earlier as being a leader among the group. His capabilities far exceed others, but don't worry, I plan to watch him."

I ignored the obvious jealousy in Theo's voice.

"Samuel, can we find out about the RaCO in Luka?" I asked. "Obviously, he was a top soldier in his past life."

"I'll try, but I'm sure Marie has started to reduce my access to information, especially when it comes to her new team."

Luka's body flew through the air once again. This time, he clapped his hands together, similar to what I had done just minutes before. A large sword appeared in between his two palms.

It was identical to the one I had created just moments ago.

My hand flew to my mouth. The others also looked skeptical as we all continued to watch Luka. He was taller, faster and appeared stronger than everyone else on the floor.

Samuel reached over and grabbed my hand. "Don't worry Esa. I'll find out about Luka. We all saw the sword."

"Thank you," I responded, but I didn't really feel any better. It had to be more than just a coincidence that Luka created a sword out of electricity. There were so many weapons we could create. I had never created a sword before.

"I'm watching you Luka," I mumbled to myself as I let my head fall into my hands. My eyes closed. I welcomed the darkness, but all I could see was his hands clapping together and the weapon emerging. It had to be a message, but what?