Chapter 1


3 ½ YEARS LATER

FITZ SAT UNDER A DENSE DESERT TREE in the cool, luscious shade next to Biana, shielded from the scorching sun. Specks of brittle dust flew in their faces and Biana's chocolate brown hair was whipping in the humid wind.

Biana was nibbling carelessly at a purple fruit and Fitz had the same kind in his hands, but instead of eating it, he tossed it back and forth between his hands, his eyes scanning the desert-like environment around him. She coughed when some sand got in her mouth and Fitz winced when the sand burned in his eyes. "When do you think they'll be here?" Biana asked, clearly at her wits end with the weather.

Fitz sighed and shrugged, taking off his mask for a second to wipe the sand from his eyes. "Honestly? I have no clue."

She shook her head, biting the inside of her cheek. "Great," she grumbled sarcastically. "Just the reassurance I needed to know that we didn't leave the safety of our city for nothing."

"Look, I understand you think the message was a hoax or that it was not a message at all and just some rumor or lie people were spreading, but-"

"But what?" she snapped.

"But why would it?!" he answered sharply, his patience wearing thin. "What could someone possibly gain from spreading something fake like that?"

She made some annoyed sound - kind of like a grunt mixed with a sigh – but was quiet, leaving the awkward sound of the sand blowing around. However many minutes passed before Biana opened her mouth to say something further, but Fitz cut her off. "I think that's them. Is that them?"

Biana squinted through the sand which was blowing around like a snowstorm, making it difficult for her to see. It settled for a second and she watched the two figures in cloaks approaching them. Words failed her for a second, but she managed to squeak, "I think so."

Fitz was squinting to see the figures. "Man, we haven't seen them in years. Are we for sure?"

"We? You asked me. And I said I think," she pointed out.

It took a couple of minutes–minutes that Fitz personally thought shouldn't be wasted–but the tall figures swallowed by the thick cloaks stood before them. One had their hands shoved in their pockets and Fitz could make out the outline of a smirk underneath the shady hood. Both wore masks, concealing their identities further. Though both were tall, one was a couple inches shorter.

"Finally decided to show up, huh?" Fitz asked.

The one snorted. "You try getting out of the Right Sector undetected, Wonderboy."

Biana laughed. "Well, that remark settles who's who."

"Does the Right Sector have security measure lengths or something?" Fitz asked curiously, peeling off is mask. Biana followed and so did the two figures.

Keefe grinned and shook out his sand-filled hair. "Dude, do you know nothing about the Right Sector?"

"Well, I come from the Left Region, so excuse my lack of knowledge on a city that isn't mine."

Dex mumbled something about "haven't seen you both in years" then went on to question, "Does your division not have security measures?"

Fitz shrugged. "Not really. I mean, obviously we have the whole gigantic wall-fence thing surrounding the division/city like all the others do. And we have a few mandatory guards like the rest, but other than that. . ."

"You would not believe the number of towers we had to blow to get out of there," Keefe laughed.

Fitz smirked. "I see your ways haven't changed, even in the span of years we've been apart," he joked.

"Well, ya know, as they say, 'old habits die hard'."

"Apparently," Biana remarked. She looked around. "Where's Sophie?"

Dex frowned. "She didn't meet up with you guys on your way here?"

"No. We thought she found you guys along the way", Biana said at the same time Fitz observed, "You're the one who sent out the message to her division, right?"

"Well, yeah I sent the message. How do you think we all came to meet up?" Dex spat.

Fitz grunted as he stood, brushing the sand off of him. "Obviously not all."

Keefe shook his head as he outstretched his hand and helped Biana to her feet. "Do you think the Ambi District banned messages?"

"Well, we aren't exactly supposed to be meeting, and if once the message got there, some person in authority read it before Sophie. . ."

"They could have just trashed it and Sophie wouldn't have even known," Fitz grumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"Plus, didn't those randoms in our division say that the . . . weird stuff going on was in the Ambi District?" Biana suggested.

"Whoa – what weird stuff?" Keefe inquired, holding up his hands, his brows pressing together.

"That's why we're here," Dex answered gruffly. "We wanted to get to the bottom of it. We don't exactly know for sure what's going on in the Ambi District, but we do know that Sophie is in there while it's happening."

Keefe snorted. "So, let me get this straight: Foster's trapped in her crazy division and now we have to bail her out?"

"Before it's too late," Dex finished.

Biana crinkled her nose. "It's so weird to hear you call her that."

"What? Foster?"

"Yeah," she clarified. "It's so weird to just . . . be here with you all in general."

Fitz shook his head. "We don't have time for reminiscence. We have to get to the Ambi District and it's a pretty long walk."

Keefe rolled his eyes. "Way to kill the mood. We haven't seen one another in, like, three years. Let up a little, would you?"

"And leave her there?" he growled darkly.

"Whoa, no, geez. I just meant can't we at least have a little reminiscence as we walk?"

"Fine. Have reminiscence as we walk. But let's get going."


"OKAY, THE COUNCILORS SERIOUSLY COULDN'T have just tried to put the divisions a tad bit closer?" Keefe complained.

"Well, they didn't want the Neverseen to do anything like mass murdering or being able to just bomb us off all at once," Fitz explained.

Biana shivered. "I'm so glad that whole thing over."

"You and me both," Dex agreed.

They had already been ambling and trudging through the sandstorm for however long and it went back to the sound of familiar silence. For a span of minutes they seemed to ignore the presences of one another, before Keefe spoke up. "Care to tell let me in on the rumors?"

Fitz gave a gruff sigh before he relented and answered, "A few randoms in our division started spreading gossip about the Ambi District a couple of weeks ago. Said that the whole city has gone downhill."

"How so?" Keefe asked, hacking the dry sand from his lungs. Biana followed in the action. Then she interjected Fitz before he could answer. "They said there wasn't much food left there and that there were tons of rabid, wild dogs and unauthorized deals going around. Said there were randoms who'd gone nuts and others who banded out into rebel groups in the uptown region of the city and drove everyone out, claiming that part of the city was theirs."

"There have also been some stories that some people have died," Fitz addressed softly, swallowing thickly. He tried to keep the visions back, but he couldn't help the gory image that flooded through his head of Sophie dead on some random street, blood spilling out on the ground, her flesh rotting. . .

"Let's hope Sophie was fortunate," Dex croaked in a hushed voice.

Everybody mumbled their agreements.

From there on out, no one could find the words to lighten the bitter mood that hung in the air. The sand coated their tongues with a sour, dusty, vulgar taste that seemed to be perfectly complimenting their sorrowful moods. Every hour the group would take a small break wherever they could find some tree or dead shrub or somewhere at least slightly fit for a rest. The dry, barren land didn't exactly scream "nice".

"I didn't know the whole land had shriveled up while we were locked away in those cities," Biana confessed wistfully, staring at a dead plant as they continued on through the hot weather.

"Me neither."

Another spell of silence before Keefe yelled, "Holy T. Rex, that's it!"

Everyone risked their eyes getting filled with sand to glimpse up to find a colossal sized wall made up of barbed wire and metal and gray stone bricks before them, surrounding a city in a wide-span circular shape. "Where do we go, now?" Biana yelled over the roaring wind.

"Find the front gate!" Fitz called back.

"Should we split up and each go one way around the building? Either way, then we'll meet up eventually."

They stood still as the wind calmed for a second. "I think the wind is going to die down for a bit. We're around the back, so. . ."

"So we do split up and meet each other at the entrance?" Biana clarified.

"I guess so."

Keefe clapped his hands together. "Alright, let's do it, then. We'll get in, get Foster, and leave with a couple of explosions."

Dex rubbed his forehead like the very thought gave him a headache. "We are going to get murdered when we go back to the Right Sector, you do know that, correct?" he barked at Keefe.

"For what?"

"We blew up half of the watch towers!"

"And? They were asking for it. They wouldn't let us out. Honestly, they should have seen a couple of explosions coming."

Dex and Keefe's argument faded as they walked further and further away and soon disappeared around the one side of the wall. "C'mon," Fitz invited, waving his hand toward the opposite direction. "We'll go this way."

Biana followed, babbling incoherent nonsense to herself.

"You okay?" Fitz probed, concerned.

"Could be better," she confessed. "But really? This is the most calm I've been in years. It's just Sophie, right?"

"No, you do have a reason to be jittery," Fitz admitted. "I'm not sure if the guards will let us in or let us see her. Or they could put us in jail or turn us in to our divisions."

"And here I thought I could confide in you and trust you'd make me feel better," she teased.

"Whoops."

Biana laughed. A few minutes later, they rounded the wall and found the vast, towering iron gate. Dex and Keefe had beaten them there and were standing in front of the gate. Keefe's hands were on two bars and he was spewing an angry stream of words to someone on the other side. Dex was running his hands along the bars and sporting a rather good death glare. He adjusted his mask on his face and crossed his arms.

"Finally, they arrive," Keefe grumbled, turning towards the Vackers as soon as he got a moment to pause in his complaints to the mystery person. "Mind helping us with them?"

Fitz looked at Biana and then they both approached the bars. On the other side was an extravagant gateway arch that led into the city. Two elves were posted on either side of the stone arch, looking rather burly and tough, sporting some scars on their faces and arms. One was a female, the other male.

They wore the same black leather clothes as the rest of the Ambi, and each had at least a hint of royal purple thrown in somewhere. For some it was their shoelaces, others socks, some a random scarf or ascot, buttons, etc.

Up against the iron gate blocking Fitz, Biana, Dex, and Keefe from the arch was a man with creamy brown skin and dark, short hair. Well, he wasn't a man. Maybe about eighteen-nineteen, but his height made him look a couple years older.

He had a black leather jerkin on and black pants, black heavy steel-toed boots and denim blue eyes. His hint of royal purple in his outfit consisted of some weird eyepatch over his left eye. They were surprised to see he didn't wear a cape or cloak or even some hood, along with the absence of a mask. But his eyepatch would seem weird with a mask over the top.

"Perhaps you'd like to explain to me why you request entry to our city?"

Keefe kicked a rock angrily and looked at the Vackers. "See? This guy is aggravating! I've already told him why we 'request entry'." He mocked the man's voice in a whiny tone, nothing compared to his actual gravelly voice that sounded rough like he'd taken a bucket of the sand that was outside and ate it for breakfast.

He chuckled darkly back to two guys who stood about a foot behind him, arms crossed. Fitz could see the guards at the arch had smirks tug at their lips. "And why would you simply be her to see a friend?" he asked Keefe. "You're not even supposed to be here, as I recall the rules saying."

"Then get someone here whom we can. . . Speak to. Discuss this with. Someone in charge," Biana begged. "How about one of the Councilors?"

He burst into laughter like it was the most hilarious thing ever. The rest of the people around him joined in and were practically dying. Biana frowned and Dex, Keefe, and Fitz were just as confused. What was so funny about the mentioning of the Councilors?

Once the guy had gotten a grip, he asked, "How about you settle for the Commander?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "The Commander. Sure! Please! We just need to get-"

The man held up his hands. "Whatever. You want the Commander, you save the talk for the Commander. And I suggest you have what you want to say ready. He is not a patient man."

He spun swiftly on his heel and stalked off through the arch and into the city. The four elves eyed the quartet outside the gate suspiciously, but stayed silent. It was like an uncomfortable, intense staring contest. Or maybe it would be known as a glaring contest from the way everyone's eyes were narrowed dangerously.

Fitz, Keefe, Dex, and Biana straightened up when the guy strode back through the arch, another elf a couple strides behind. He was shorter by far, but he was just as intimidating.

He wore the same dark pants everyone else did, but these were tighter and more fit than others. His feet were adorned with heavy boots with royal purple laces and his whole torso was covered with a long thick cloak. The hood was up and covered their head, casting a shadow over their face and he wore silky black gloves. The mask they had on concealed their identity further, but Fitz could make out deep gray-blue eyes.

"Sup, Cheekbones? Nothing? Good." Fitz gaped at Keefe and smacked him on the back, trying to prevent him from continuing. Keefe was annoyed and Fitz could tell. He didn't want him to somehow get them sentenced to jail or exile or whatever. Fitz looked back at the man and he could see why Keefe had called the mystery guy "Cheekbones". He had a sharp, defined bone structure and high cheekbones. "So, listen here," Keefe continued. "We want into your city simply to pay a visit to a friend, that's all. You let us in, we talk to her, and we're out! Okay? Great!"

From faint upward curved lines in the shadows, Fitz could tell that Cheekbones had smirked from under his hood. "And who might you be?"

"Greatest person you've ever met," Keefe answered.

He chuckled, not amused. "Good to know."

"We're not looking for trouble," Dex began. "It's literally just a quick check-in."

"Please," Biana begged.

Cheekbones stayed silent. "I'm sensing there's a little more to the story than you're giving to me. You tell me you're motives behind this visit and you can see your friend."

They all exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"So, is that a no?" Cheekbones taunted.

"No," Fitz snapped. "We'll tell you." He ignored the confused, ticked off expressions of 'what the heck?!' from Biana, Dex, and Keefe. He crossed his arms and stared Cheekbones down where he guessed the dude's eyes would be. "But we'll only tell you in private. No one else hears."

Purple Eyepatch Guy spoke up. "Commander, if I may suggest-"

Cheekbones held up his hand. "Shut up, White. I can handle a bunch of Level Ones."

Keefe rolled his eyes. "Dude, that is, like, the lamest insult."

White balled his fist and pointed a finger at Keefe. "You will learn not to speak with such disrespect to our Commander or the consequences will be dire."

Cheekbones snapped his fingers and White unballed his fists and stepped back. "Your request is granted," he revealed. "You will tell me your motives behind sealed doors. No one else hears. You see your friend; you get out of my city by sundown. Are we clear?"

Fitz's mouth ran dry in surprise. He hadn't really expected the commander to take the deal. Biana nudged him and he cleared his throat. "Uh, clear. Yeah. We're clear."

Cheekbones nodded and White smirked. "Here comes the fun part. White, do the honors?"

White turned around, cupped his hands and shouted something upwards. Only then did Keefe, Dex, Biana, and Fitz notice the selective trio of people on the roof. They obeyed the command to open the gate and started cranking some tool while the gate screeched open. They didn't bother opening it all the way, just enough so they could all squeeze through the small gap before the group on top of the arch closed it again.

White rustled around in his pockets and strung out a couple of royal purple scarves. "Blindfold time."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dex objected, backing up. "Who said anything about blindfolds?"

"Yeah, dude. It's not exactly considered cool to just randomly spring that on someone and go, 'oh, by the way - blindfolds!'."

"You are not permitted to see where we are headed," Cheekbones clarified.

"Then how do we know we're not getting walked into a jail cell?"

Cheekbones smiled. "That's half the fun of it, though, isn't it? It's like a big surprise."

"We're not agreeing to this unless we know where we're going," Fitz warned.

Cheekbones shrugged. "Then I guess the deal's off. Get out of my city."

Fitz glared. "At least tell us verbally where we are going."

Cheekbones swung his hand around, making a loop in the air. "Somewhere. Now, do we still have a deal? Or are you leaving?"

"Oh, no, we're staying," Dex snapped.

Cheekbones nodded. "Huh. . . Alright. Tie 'em, White. And may the Ambi ever be in your favor."


"THIS PLACE SMELLS. . . DISTURBING," Keefe noted as they were led through the Ambi District streets. Fitz could hear whispers and sounds of footsteps as he was led by a rather rough teenage girl through his blindfolded trek.

Keefe was right about the smell: the city was tainted with the scent of burning plastic and rotting flesh. Not a good combination.

He could hear his boots clunky footsteps on the cobblestone streets as he blindly walked, along with his friends and their "escort". He heard the pop and crackle of fire and he could hear a weird scraping sound like someone was stirring a spoon on a bowl. He heard some sort of fabric whipping in the wind and he concurred it wither had to be some clothes drying on a clothes line, or some flags flying in the gusts of powerful wind. He could hear something sizzling and bubbling and suddenly he was hit with a whiff of intoxicating, delicious smells. His stomach growled.

The girl dragging him by the arm laughed. "Suppose you were dumb enough to trek here without food?"

"No, actually," he shot back, struggling when she drug him harder. "I had some fruit a couple miles back."

"Mhmm. . ."

Now that he thought about it, he remembered he hadn't ate it. Biana had eaten some of hers, but he'd been so caught up in looking out for Keefe and Dex so he spent the whole time tossing it around. Dang it.

He nearly fell flat on his face when his boot smacked the edge of something hard. The girl laughed. "Oops. Guess I forgot to tell you we were about to climb some stairs."

"Ya think?"

He stifled many bothered complaints about this little "journey" as he struggled to find his way up the stone stairs. He heard some doors creak open when he reached the top of the stairs and soon he felt his booted feet sink into something a little softer. Carpet. Doors closed behind him and the sound of the people buzzing through the streets left him.

He was led somewhere again until he went through one last door. He felt the girl's hand release its snake-like hold on his arm as he heard Cheekbones say, "You may leave us all."

The doors slammed closed and the sound echoed around the room. "You're allowed to take the blindfolds off, now. We're here."

He heard the rustle of fabric and knew his friends were already working at untying the scarves from over their eyes. Fitz began to do the same.

When the blindfold fell from his eyes, he winced and squeezed them shut when bright light burned his corneas.

"Let them adjust," Cheekbones advised. "You'll be good soon."

"Yeah. I'll be good once I get an eye transplant," Keefe whined, rubbing his eyes. "I think you made me go blind."

Cheekbones snorted. "Sure."

Fitz let his eyes adjust and once everything came into focused, he found he was in a huge, circular room. The circular room was lined with tons or rows of chairs like bleachers and in the middle there was a huge desk with a lifted platform behind it, in which some chairs were seated on.

"Are we in some weird court room?"

"Kind of, yeah. I rather like to call it my office," Cheekbones replied, drawing his attention to him. He was sitting on top of the huge desk and they were in the center of the room before it. "But back to the reason why we're here."

He pulled a silver medler from inside the cloak and started spinning around on his finger by trigger. He grinned when they looked shocked. "Just for extra security measures. After all, I am alone in a room with four others. I don't know what you could try."

"Listen, like you said, we're here to tell you our 'motives', we see our friend, and we go." Fitz decided to leave out the part about taking Sophie with them when they left.

Cheekbones nodded and his hood flapped. "Then get talking."

"We came here because, obviously, we haven't seen our friend in years. We used to be really close before the war pulled us all apart." He swallowed when Cheekbones made some sound of disapproval - almost like he grunted while clearing his throat. "If you made me drag you here and raise suspicion among the residents just trying to go about their everyday lives just to try and sell me some sob story, I will shoot you."

"I wasn't done!" Fitz shouted, holding out his hands in peace when Cheekbones raised the medler. "We also heard some things over in our division that things over hear weren't going well, so we were worried she'd been hurt."

Cheekbone raised a brow. "She?"

Fitz hesitantly looked to Keefe, Dex, and Biana. "Yeah," Dex answered.

Cheekbones slowly lowered his weapon. He sighed. "Still sounds like a sob story," he muttered. "Who are you looking for?"

"Sophie," Biana said. "Sophie Foster."

Cheekbones was silent.

Fitz heart thudded in his chest. She couldn't be. . ?

No.

Cheekbones sighed. He started out slowly, "I. . ." He paused. "I"-he pulled back his hood-"have not been called that in a very long time."


(A/N:) CLIFFHANGER!