Hello, if you are just finding this story, please also check out my Guidance and Singed series The Phoenix Chronicles. You don't have to, but you'll understand this a lot better. Anyways, please let me know what you think. Also, this will be a love story, like my other YJ series. This one is going to be a Bart/OC/Jaime. Tell me who you think you like better, though they aren't in it yet. I'll be asking that a lot. And I know, most people want to see the characters interact first. They will interact, just not yet. I'm just asking who liked who better.

Chapter 1

Propositioned

The Russian Bar is a circus act which combines the gymnastic skills of the balance beam, the rebound tempo skills of trampoline and the swing handstands skills of the uneven and parallel bars. The barre (bar) itself is a flexible vaulting pole that is roughly thirteen feet long, typically made of fiberglass. The genre was first created by the Russian artist Alexander Moiseev, who brought his act twice to the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, winning the Gold and Silver Clown.

In this act, two porters, "Bottom People," one on each side of the barre, control the car and the movement of the "Flyer ("Top Mounter"), guiding them into tempo swings and transitional aerial moved. The flyer will prepare for the bar's catapult when the porters give a "ready" signal. As the flyer is flung into the air, a good deal of height is required to perform this acrobatic act.

With advancements of highly intricate acrobatic -aerial techniques, two or three poles can be secured together, allowing for a height lift and resulting in more air time. At the present height, areal skills such as triple sault, "full-in, full-out" (double twisting doubles) and Miller (triple twisting double) somersaults are possible.

The Russian Bar act requires acrobats to be highly skilled in tumbling and have experience with trampoline and/or sports acrobats. To perform, the act must collaborate on many levels. Additionally, the act requires not only physical skill, but psychological and communicative skills as well.

Conley had never down gymnastics before, other than when she was working on her martial arts skills. That had been one of her favorite things about martial arts though. Being trained in ninjutsu meant she had to be flexible and fast. Her kicks and hits weren't the strongest, but she was fast, flexible and great on the defensive. Her stamina was very high. She usually toyed and played with her opponent until she tired them out.

Those skills made the Russian Bar exciting and a fun trick to learn when she joined Haly's Circus when she was eleven. Conley would have most likely joined the circus if her family hadn't moved to France in 2010.

Conley's father, Seth Corporal, was in the United States Navy which required him and his family to move all over the world. That was how she became so fluent in so many different languages. The girl had lived in America, Spain, Germany, France, England, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Columbia, Russia and Italy. They never stayed there for very long. She was fluent in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Italian.

After getting upset about leaving her hometown of Basil, Minnesota where the girl had been taking martial arts classes by a man she called Sensei, she excepted the fact that she's be moving and promised herself that she'd continue her training on her own. Sensei seemed to think very highly of her when she informed him about that.

So the Corporal family moved to France.

There, Conley met a boy named Elliot, who quickly became her best friend, despite their many differences. One of those differences was their age. At the time that they met, Conley was eleven and Elliot was thirteen. They also were very different. Conley was American. Elliot was born in France despite having his family also in the Navy. His father worked with Conley's. He was also a tech geek. Conley was an acrobatic fighter. For some reason they clicked though.

It was with Elliot that Conley discovered Haly's International Traveling Circus to begin with. It had been the winter vacation of 2010 on December 22. Elliot had taken Conley to Belgium with him. She remembered that day very well.

She had been having so much fun, especially seeing that new act, the Daring Dangers. When that one guy, she believed his name was Dan, had fallen and they managed to save him, her heart pounded. Never had she seen anything more exciting, well, except for when she first saw Sensei fighting. That was just exhilarating!

She had gone to get a snow cone at one point too. She had run into a very nice girl. She looked like she was a couple years older than Elliot. She looked as if she were feeling terrible and as if there was a lot on her mind. In the end, as the girl coughed, Conley gave her the snow cone, to help with the cough.

Elliot had called the girl then back to the show. The two girls parted ways.

However, Conley remembered her perfectly. It was hard not to remember her with how beautiful she was.

But that had been how Conley was introduced to the circus.

That wasn't exactly how she joined though. It had been later that year when she joined the circus. It all ended up that way because Conley's father, the man she looked up to her whole life and that protected her from her horribly abusive older brother, died. It had been on Christmas Day. They told her family that it was a training accident, but Conley didn't really believe that. Her father and his men were too careful for that.

But as her father was no longer present, the girl no longer had protection from her brother and her drunken mother. Conley packed her thing and left. She stopped at Elliot's to tell him goodbye, but witnessed something that she had never expected nor never knew about.

Elliot's father was abusive. She saw him beating up the thirteen year old boy.

After his father was done, she snuck in to see the boy and told him of her plan and admitted everything about her family and what she had just seen in his. Elliot, sick of what he had to go through at home as well, decided to join the girl. He packed his things – more than what Conley packed due to him being a tech geek and he insisted on bringing his gear – and left with the girl.

It wasn't until New Years Eve that they stumbled upon the circus again in Spain. Jack Haly, the man who owned the circus was hesitant to let them join, but wouldn't allow them to go off and live on their own on the streets. First he had to know what they could do to be able to stay and help with the circus. Elliot became a member of the tech crew while Conley was an acrobat.

They were still in training when they ran into someone Conley never thought she'd see again. Sensei had been seated in the audience. Conley had to wait to go out and talk to him. When the show ended, she rushed out and searched for him. She found him by the concession stand with two other people.

Conley remembered that day just as if it were the yesterday.

xXx

Conley, small as she was, stood in the open as people passed her. It was odd to see such as small girl on her own in a place like the circus. She had been standing over by the concession stand staring at Sensei, trying to figure out if it was really him, despite being very sure that it was him.

One of the guys that he was with noticed the girl staring and said something to Sensei. He turned around and noticed the girl. He stared back at her, confused and analyzing for a moment before he smile and took a step towards her. Seeing that, Conley smiled widely and ran towards him, hugging his tightly.

"Sensei!" she exclaimed.

"Conley! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"In Germany or at the circus?" the girl asked.

"Both?" he said, his green eyes looking down at her in amusement.

"Well, I live at the circus," she explained.

"Wait, what?" he asked, standing up straight. "What about your Dad and France?"

Conley grew quiet and looked down at the ground. "Daddy died."
"Oh Conley," he said, kneeling back down. He hugged the girl again. "I'm so sorry. I know how you feel."

The girl pulled back and looked up at him curiously. "You do?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I lost both of my parents a while ago."

"Now it's just Elliot and me," Conley answered. "We live and work here. We get home schooling too."

"That's great to hear," he admitted.

"What about you?" Conley asked. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be back in Basil?"

"I don't live there anymore, Conley," he informed her. "And I would appreciate it if you never told anyone we were here, okay?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I asked you to," he said.

"Something's wrong," Conley deduced

"No, Conley, nothing's wrong," he said.

"You're lying, Sensei," Conley corrected. Despite only being eleven, she was very smart. She had always been able to tell when people were lying to her. She didn't like it when people did that to her. "I promise I won't tell anyone, Sensei. You know you can trust me."

Sensei stared at the girl for a moment before sighing. "Okay, you were my best student, you know that? You were too good of a student."

"There's no such thing as too good of a student. Just dedicated pupils," Conley corrected.

He chuckled and leaned in closer to the girl's ear. "There are some bad people after the three of us that want to hurt us. So we're hiding."

"Why would someone want to hurt you?" she asked.

"You'll learn that you make a lot of enemies in life, Conley," he informed her.

"Why don't you come with us then?" she asked.

"I couldn't do that," he said.

"Sure you could," she pressed. "We only stay in one place for a couple days. We perform. They give us food and shelter and it's like a family. Mr. Jack always needs more people." Before he got the chance to say anything else, Conley continued. "They'll never now you're part of the circus. You'll be wearing masks and stuff."

xXx

And from that day on, Sensei and his two friends had been a part of the Haly International Traveling Circus. They had joined in on Conley's act with the Russian bar.

After a couple of years, Sensei told Conley to stop calling him Sensei, despite the fact that he took up training her again, and was also the choreographer for her moves on the bar. He informed her of his real name, not the name he went by in Basil, Minnesota. However, he was going by Cameron and his two friends were going by Harry and Tom to protect their identities. The only people who knew their true identities were Conley and Elliot.

Cam choreographed all of the martial arts and gymnast things that the circus did, but he didn't perform any of them himself. Usually it was Conley, Harry and Tom. When performing martial arts things, they all did it, but when it was the Russian Bar, the two men held the bar while Conley was the one doing the tricks.

And that was where Conley was in the winter of 2015. The Haly's International Traveling Circus was back home, touring the United States. It was the first time in many years that it had gone back to the US. And for the three shows that they had already done, they were getting amazing turn outs.

The fifteen year old girl jumped off of the bar, sticking her landing for the finale. She bowed and then motioned to Harry and Tom who were standing behind her. They too bowed before the three of them made their leave hearing Jack say, "And that was our very own Mixt Trio!"

Once out of the performing area of the tent, Conley grabbed a bottle of water and went into the make-up area, followed by her two partners. "Great job, guys," she complimented. She started to was off the make-up on her face. It was water proof so it wouldn't come off when she sweat, so she had to wash it off with special remover. She didn't have a lot of time to fix it though; she was supposed to go outside in the open area where all the games and animals were to do contortion things on a podium.

"You need to keep your arms in tighter for that last flip," Cam told her, coming up from behind. She could see him in the mirror as she finished up her make-up.

"Okay," she said with a big smile. "I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong." She stood up and turned towards the door. "I'll see you guys later!"

"Great show, Conley!" Cam called out to her as she ran out. Once she was out, he shook his head and smile. "So much energy. When you guys get cleaned up, why don't we go out and watch the girl in her solo act?"

As the girl rounded the corner to go to the more populated area of the circus layout, she almost ran right into a young man. She was able to turn and roll around him before turning to him and saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going."

The woman that stood before her stared at the younger teenager. Conley was kind of uncomfortable with the attention. It was a different kind of attention that she was used to and she wasn't completely fond of the feeling she was getting from it. She felt as if she was being analyzed and studied.

The young woman had long brown hair, pale green eyes that analyzed not only Conley, but everything around them. She was taller than Conley, but she wasn't any taller than an average woman her age. She had to be in her early twenties. Her skin was pale, but had a red tint to her cheeks due to the chilly November air. However, she wasn't really wearing the proper attire for the weather they were experiencing in Rhode Island. She had a light jacket on, with jeans.

The woman seemed very familiar to Conley, though she couldn't place where she had seen or met her before. It was probably just her imagination. She had seem many people with brown hair and green eyes. She had met a lot of pretty girls with that description. Maybe that was why she was getting the feeling she had seen her before.

"Are you lost?" the young girl asked.

"Are you Conley? Conley Corporal?" the young woman asked, her eyes bearing into Conley's blue eyes.

"Yes, may I help you?" Conley asked.

"Hey, Conley! Shouldn't you be on your way to-" a male voice said, getting louder as it got closer. They stopped talking once they saw the two girls outside the tent though.

Two males stopped and stared for a moment. Conley turned around and looked at Harry and Tom. They seemed to know the woman before them, but Conley had no idea who she was, or how everybody knew one another.

"Guy?" Conley asked. "It's not polite to stare."

"Cody?" Harry asked, his voice sounding very small.

"Hello, Hector, Tony," "Cody" greeted, a small, nervous smile on her lips. "Why don't we take this somewhere private?"

Okay, they know her, and she knows their real names, Conley thought. Who the heck is this girl?

"Come inside," Hector said. They entered the tent. "Carson's gonna flip."

"Carson's here?" Cody asked. Her face paled, her eyes lit up, but were also filled with worry.

"Well, yeah," Hector answered. "Why wouldn't he be?"

Cody shook her head. "We'll talk about it when we're in private," she answered.

So, Cody's just as secretive as them, Conley thought.

They went into the dressing area where Conley had just come out of and sat down. Cody stood by the entrance, her arms crossed over her chest as she made sure nobody was outside. It took a moment before Cam and Elliot, who had gotten there when the rest were gone, to realize that there was another person with them. Conley sat next to Elliot, while Harry and Tom sat across from them at the other vanity.

"Shouldn't you be outside performing, Con-" Cam started to ask as he turned around. He stopped when he recognized the girl. "Cody?" He lunged forward and embraced the younger girl.

Cody looked realized when she had a hold of him. "Carson," she said breathlessly. "Oh my God, you're alive! I thought you were dead!"

"Who is she?" Elliot asked Conley.

"I have no idea," Conley answered, leaning closer to him as they whispered. "But this is interesting."

"Got that right," he said. "She knows his real name."

"She knew my name too," Conley added.

"She did?" he asked, shocked.

"Yeah, nobody ever knows my name."

They, apparently, hadn't been talking as quietly as they thought they had been. Although, everyone in the room, with the exception of Elliot, had trained ears. Everybody knew what they two youngest people in the tent were saying.

"Conley, Elliot," Carson said, getting them to look at him. "This is my sister, Cody."

"You have a sister, Sensei?" Conley asked.

Cody laughed. "It's really weird hearing someone call you that."

"I told you to stop calling me that," he laughed. He turned to Cody and said, "I told her to stop calling me that."

"So, what are you doing here, Cody?" Harry asked.

"Not that it's good to see you, it is, but usually when we do, something bad is about to happen," Tom added.

Cody cleared her throat and moved away from her brother and looked out the door again. Conley realized that Cody was a very paranoid person. That and she had a lot of secrets, along with the rest of the older people in the tent with her and Elliot.

"Have you told them everything?" Cody asked Cam.

"A lot, but not all," he answered.

"Can I tell them everything?" she asked. She got a nod before she went on. "When we were younger, Carson, Tony, Hector and I used to train with a man we know as Master. We were trained to be assassins. A long story short, Carson got away after finding out that's why we were training and left, angry and disappointed in me."

I'm going to have to remember to call them by their real names, Conley thought.

"She didn't know it though," Tony defended for her. "We only continued because we were scared for our lives."

"Right," Carson said. "That was when I went to Minnesota and started to work there. That's where I met you, Conley." Carson turned to Cody and said, "Conley's that girl I told you about, remember?"

"Really?" Cody asked. She looked at Conley and said, "He talked very highly of," she informed her. "You must be a very good student."

"Too good," Carson said.

"Devoted," Conley corrected.

"Anyways, I stayed with them to find out why Carson left. I ended up finding out and they tried to kill me because of it," Cody said. "They killed our parents. I got away, but ended up surviving with amnesia."

"Oh, you poor thing," Elliot said.

"I ended up taking over our family's company secretly," she continued after giving Elliot a small smile. "I started to remember things slowly. Eventually I remembered and joined the "Sidekick" team, though really we don't like being called that."

"I was then found by them," Carson said. "That was when I left Minnesota. I was forced to work for them."

"Eventually, I got the three of them out and save in England. Or so I thought. I tried to contact you guys a couple times, but I never got an answer."

"We had to run. They were close to finding us. I tried to contact you back, but never got a response," Carson said. "But that was about the time we ran into you in, Conley. Cody, we've been hiding since then."

"That's because I was kidnapped by them. I've been stuck with them for almost five years," she told them.

"That's present tense," Tony acknowledged.

Cody sighed and nodded her head. "Right," she admitted.

"Cody!" Hector scolded.

"Listen," Cody said. "What I'm about to tell all of you can't leave here. And you have to trust me. Understood?"

"I don't know," Elliot said. "I don't know you. I know them."

"Carson," Conley said, using her teacher's real name. "What do you say? I say, that what you say, is what I say."

"I trust her with my life," Carson admitted.

"Okay," Conley said, turning to Cody with a smile.

"If Conley says okay, I guess I do too," Elliot said.

"When they first took me in, they tortured me. After a while, they experimented on me, like they did with the rest of the guys." The girl raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A flame appeared as if her fingers were a lighter. "I'm Pyrokinetic now. By that time, it had already been about two years. I stayed with them so I could get my powers under control and to try and to gain their trust. That way, I can feed my old team intel."

"So, you're a spy?" Elliot asked. "007?"

"My project name is P-07," she huffed. "Anyway, that's kind of why I'm here."

Conley's blood ran cold. "Wait," the youngest said. "Is that how you knew my name?"

Cody looked at the girl with sad eyes and nodded. "Our assignment is to capture you so you become the next."

"What?" Elliot yelled, jumping up.

"Calm down, Elliot," Carson said. "Let her explain."

Conley was terrified. She didn't want to go anywhere. She was happy where she was. She liked being who she was. There was no way she was going to go with them.

"Listen," Cody said. She walked over to the young girl and knelt before her. "I'm not going to let what happened to me, happen to you. Got it?"

Conley slowly nodded her head.

"You're brother's here," Cody admitted.

It was Conley's turn to jump up and yell, "What?" Fear surged through her. Never in the years she had been away had she been so scared. "Rich? He's here? No, no, no. You can't let him get me. Please! I beg you!"

"Conley," Carson hushed. "Calm down. It's okay. Look at me, breathe."

Conley was starting to hyperventilate. Carson sat next to her and breathed with her, calming her down a little. However, the tears kept falling down her face. She was still cared, but she had Carson there with her.

"The thing is, I need your help, Conley," Cody admitted. "I have a plan, but I can only follow through with it if you agree. Otherwise, the work I've been doing all these year would have been for nothing. Please, hear me out."

Every looked at the blue eyed girl. She was staring into the green eyes of the woman before her, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not. "Okay, go on."

"I have to take you with me," Cody said. "But listen! Once we get you there, I'm going to give you a flash drive and a detailed plan for your escape. Once you escape, you'll take the information to someone on my old team." Cody paused. She seemed hesitant with what she was going to say. "Have you ever considered becoming a hero?"

Honestly, no, she hadn't. Performing at the circus had been the only thing she had ever really done, other than training, but she never really thought about using any of that. She always saw training as a way to become a better performer. But, she couldn't lie and say that the thought, now that it was brought up to her, didn't seem appealing.

The thought of being able to help people with what she could do sounded nice. Making a difference in lives, sounded wonderful. But was she good enough? Strong enough? There were so many questions that Conley needed answered, but she had to ask one specific one first. "Why?"

"In order for the plan to completely work, you'd have to leave the circus. After you escape, you'll go to an old friend of mine, like I said, but you'll give them a proposition. You'll become a hero, go on missions with them. One said missions, if it involves Master and us; I'll be there to slip you information. You'll then give the information to the team. You'll be the middleman, so to speak."

"And if I say no?"

"Then," Cody sighed. "I'm out of luck. I'll be punished for not retrieving you, but I'll live and you'll get away with these guys. You'll, hopefully, never have to see me again."

"What if she agrees?" Carson asked. "What about us?"

"I can give you the location of some friends of mine," Cody said. "You can figure out some things from there." Cody stood up and said, "Carson, they're not looking for you anymore. They have no need, no desire to have you guys back. If you were to come back out publically, they wouldn't come after you."

"What are you getting at, Cody?" Carson asked.

"You can take the company over," Cody said. "You can come out of hiding. You can do whatever you want."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

If I do it, Carson can finally be free to do what he wants? Hector will be free to go out and party like he wants? Tony can go back to England to the girl he fell in love with? They don't have to hide because of the past anymore? They don't have to stay with Elliot and I anymore? It wasn't that didn't want them around. She did. But if she could do something to make them happy. To free them, she was going to do it. They had been a family to her. It was the only way she could repay them for how loved they made her feel.

"Okay," she said. "I'll do it."

"You will?" everyone in the room asked.

"Yes," she answered. "We have a lot to talk about, but yes. I'll do it."

"Are you sure about this, Conley?" Carson asked. "You don't have to."

"He's right," Cody said. "You can do whatever you want."

"No," protested. "I-I want to do this."

"All right," Cody said. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"