Author's Note: The horrendous paraphrasing of Jung is, mostly, intentional. One of Matt's most endearing traits is (in my opinion) his intellectual posturing and pretension coupled with his teenage insecurity and lack of awareness.

Matt

Carl Jung posited that there are personality archetypes passed down to us through our collective unconscious- the part of us made up of inherited collective human experience. Andrew gave in to the shadow. Steve is definitely a hero; selfless and a champion. Me? No idea. I know I struggle with the power we have- it is hard not to feel infallible, above it all. I also know that I am scared a lot. Lost in thought. Slow to react to situations not inherently selfless. Maybe even selfish.

I knew how bad things were at Andrew's house. I knew. It was easier to look away. Easier to blame Andrew for being weird, for being hostile, for being needy and crowding me. Easier to resent my Mum for insisting that I give him a ride to school every day. For using that soft pleading voice when she urged me to look out for my cousin. Easier to roll my eyes than to feel how itchy being responsible for Andrew made me. I knew he needed something from me and I wasn't sure if I could give it. It was the same thing with Casey. She wanted me and I was so sure that I would be a giant disappointment I convinced myself that I didn't want her. That night I did what I had to do but even now that Andrew is alive again, I wish I hadn't had to kill him and I know that I would do it again. There was something pure about that moment. In knowing that I had to make a decision. In having what to do about Andrew be so clear. Let him leave and watch people die. Kill or be killed. There are a million ways I could have stopped us getting to that point but that point is what it took for me to choose. To fight. I've spent the past year on the run- unsure about where to start looking and missing the life I had always pretended to be too good for. I was haunted by the thought of Casey; who I had just started to get to know again. I heard Steve right away but I couldn't allow myself to believe there was a piece of my old life that I could still keep. That and I was scared. I heard Aisha as well; her early days wondering. I did nothing. I looked forward to them turning up to trip me up or make me spill something. It reminded me I was alone. That companionship was an option for me. Once again it took Andrew to make me choose.

And here we are now. I'm driving the getaway car waiting for my friends…. My family to rescue Andrew by mind controlling the guards into letting him go. Andrew who has spent the last few days being relentlessly questioned by government agents so doped up that he couldn't use his powers. They knew what to use to dope him. They can disarm us now.

"He's out" I hear from Steve. It is so strange to be able to identify someone by their 'mind voice'. I wish I still smoked weed. Being high might make how normal this was now feel less abnormal.

A few moments later Andrew staggers out into the clearing where I am parked. He is wearing grey sweats and a grey t-shirt. I rush out to help him into the car. My hands are shaking when I start the car. We agreed not to go back to the apartment to be safe. Aisha and Steve are going to meet me just outside Seattle. Andrew coughs. Aisha and Steve are going to meet us, I correct myself. She put the GPS coordinates in my phone. I take a deep breath and remind myself to drive calmly.

"You okay?" I ask Andrew as I check the review mirror for the tenth time.

" Yeah. They doubled the dose today" He coughs and shakes his head like he is trying to clear it.

"Do you know what it is?" I ask.

"Feels like a roofie. Makes it hard to focus" He answers.

"You can go to sleep, man. We'll be there in an hour"

Andrew falls asleep. I turn on the radio. I try not to think about what happens next. Andrew is fine. No one is following us. I don't let myself think that it'll turn out okay; that is how they get you.

I wake up Andrew when we get to the diner that Aisha picked as the meet up place. When we walk in Aisha nudges Steve and he smiles with relief. They stand as we approach the table. Aisha is the first to come in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. First for Andrew then for me. Steve gives Andrew a hug and then gives me one.

We sit down. The waitress comes over to take our order. I am suddenly starving. I order without thinking then realize I do not have enough money to pay for it.

"I've got it" Aisha smiles at me as the waitress walks away.

"You have to stop doing that" I smile back.

"I don't know how you guys do it at all. I can't control it enough to enter anyone like that" Andrew notes.

"Really, dude? 'Enter'" Steve giggles.

"You know what I mean" Andrew laughs. The burn scars on the side of his face stretch tight when he smiles. He notices me looking and ducks his head self-consciously.

We all dig into our breakfasts hungrily. I notice Aisha quietly telling Steve how is food is laid out on his plate. She is so comfortable with him and she helps him out like it isn't a big deal. I think that is part of the reason Steve can be so cool about everything. He leans in and gives her a quick peck on the cheek. I have to look away and fight the pang of jealousy that rises, hoping no one notices. Andrew catches my eye, he noticed.

I clear my throat. "What are we going to do now?" I ask.

"Well, we made sure the guards don't even remember letting Andrew go" Aisha starts.

"Actually we may have gone a bit overboard. They don't really remember anything from the last week" Steve says "Which may be a giveaway that mind control is on the table now but there isn't a way to trace it back to us"

"Right. And I am trying to make sure that we are as nondescript as possible to people in this café. I had one more concern though. About them maybe tracking Andrew but then I came up with an idea" Aisha says.

She pays the bill and we head outside. She makes us take our phones and stuff and leave them in my car. She then leads us to a dumpster where she fishes out a plastic bag with a…. thing inside it.

"What is that?" Andrew asks before I can.

"A magnet. An industrial strength magnet. If there is a tracker in you most likely its signal will be scrambled by this. I hope. Unless it is weird nano bot organic technology- which isn't supposed to exist yet but this is the government. I don't know" She rambles.

Steve squeezes her hand to stop her.

"We have to do something, right?" He reasons.

She nods and sweeps the magnet across Andrew's body. We all watch waiting for something to happen. Nothing does. Steve looks completely out of the loop.

"Did anything happen?" Steve asks breaking the silence.

"I don't think so" Andrew laughs. He seems much more like himself after getting some food.

"Okay. So they could be tracking us. What do we do now? Go back to your apartment?" I ask.

"I was thinking a road trip. To Arizona. That's where the guy I have been talking to let it slip he is based. He is studying a new crash site there" Aisha suggests.

If we are being followed we cannot lead them back to our parents or to Steve and Aisha's new life.

"I hate to be the boring practical one but what about money?" I ask.

"We'll be okay" Aisha assures me.

"So we go now?" Andrew asks.

"We took the bus. Do you mind if we ride with you?" Aisha jokes.

"Yeah" I sigh, running my hand across my face. Today is getting stranger and stranger "let's go".

Andrew falls asleep again as soon as we get into the car. Aisha reaches forward from the back seat and covers him with her scarf thing. I turn off the radio.

"What's up, man?" Steve asks as if he is reading my thoughts. He probably is. I should practice shielding, even when I am at 100% it is not easy for me to do. Once Aisha and Steve found me it was the easiest thing in the world to get in my head. I just had to try to ignore them.

"Nothing," He knows it isn't nothing and I know it isn't nothing I just don't want to talk about it.

"He's worried it was too easy" Aisha says.

"Stop doing that" I say childishly.

"Stop thinking so loudly" She retorts with a smile. She has a great smile. I think it totally unconsciously but once I have started down that road I cannot stop her skin looks so soft and she has these full but demure lips. Her hair is in millions of tiny little braids.

She catches my eye in the rearview mirror; her expression impassive. Steve's brow furrows however and he reaches out for her hand and clasps it possessively. The silence is so heavy for a moment that I can't move. I focus so intensely on the road ahead that my eyes hurt.

Steve speaks first. I catch a glimpse of his face in the rearview mirror- he looks concerned rather than angry which is such a Steve way to be. And so even as I am worried about what he is going to say I am so happy that he is back.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Steve asks gently.

"No" I try to keep my face impassive as I focus on shielding "Just not that many girls on the LAM. Sorry Aisha" I joke weakly.

"No worries. We'll just check out Arizona for a few days and when we get back Amy will be there" Aisha jokes back.

The trip should take like a day on the road but after a few hours it becomes clear we are going to have to stop. Andrew is too tired to take over from me, I am exhausted and Aisha doesn't have an American driving license and doesn't want to risk getting pulled over. We stop at the nearest motel. We get one double room to save money. Luckily they are okay with us sharing. Andrew is awake and seems more like himself joking with Steve and getting all the details on how he escaped.

"How does it feel to make someone do something?" He asks idly levitating a can of coke flipping and spinning it over his head.

"Weird. Wrong. They are in a lot of trouble because of us" Steve says he is fumbling around with his cane looking restless.

Andrew doesn't answer. Eventually Andrew sets up Aisha's laptop to play a movie on the TV and we order a pizza. I am lying on the bed next to Andrew- in clean clothes thanks to Aisha's foresight to pack for everyone. We start the movie. Aisha is leaning against Steve's chest and he is propped against the headboard. He whispers something to her and she laughs and buries her head in his white t-shirt. We start to watch the movie. Aisha got to pick so we are watching Looper. Steve falls asleep first as he is having real trouble following it. There is a knock on the door.

"Finally, I am so hungry you guys" Aisha grumbles as she heads to the door.

She opens the door and there is a bright light and a crack and crash as the door is kicked in. Aisha is knocked down by the force of the door. I had seen it a million times in movies- the guys in army camouflage and masks break in brandishing weapons. What the movies don't tell you is how quickly it happens and how disorienting it is to go from watching a movie to fending off an invasion. The movie is still playing in the background. Bruce Willis is explaining something to Joseph Gordon Levitt at a café. Steve is up- his eyes are desperately scanning the room. Andrew starts to do something.

"Wait! Andrew they aren't going to kill us unless we try to escape" Steve yells.

Andrew hesitates.

The man in charge walks in. He was expecting more of a challenge than four kids at a slumber party. I hear it as clearly as if he walked in.

Aisha comes to and looks anxiously at Steve. It's okay he projects.

"Hi kids. I'm General Trank. You must be Steve, Aisha, Matt and I already know Andrew. Nice to meet you" He says calmly.

No one says anything. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt are trying to kill each other.

"Steve is right. We don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk. Will you come with us?" He asks with a civility at odds with the weapons pointed at as and the number of soldiers crowded around the kicked in door.

We should go Steve projects.

What? This thought comes in a wave the resistance is equally strong from Andrew, Aisha and I. Our disbelief is indistinguishable.

They found us somehow. He knows who we are. We can get out any time we want. What we need now is information.

We don't know what they have.

They don't intend to kill us NOW. They can still do it later.

The thoughts are coming in so loud and fast I can barely keep up. Then I notice the tremendous energy Aisha is using to keep Andrew calm.

Stop. Andrew warns her.

She doesn't.

It is five minutes that stretch for eternity but eventually the decision is made for us. We are piled into the back of a van. Steve is manhandled roughly; the guards either don't know or don't care that he is blind. There is a pneumatic woosh as the doors close and just as we are wondering why the van needs to be airtight a chemical tang hits the back of my throat and everything goes black.

We are being questioned in shifts. They do not know for sure that Steve and Aisha have powers so they are being questioned about how they know Andrew and I. Steve is worried they are going to look into him or test his DNA and find out who he really is and that the person he really is, is technically dead. Aisha is encouraging us to work on fighting off the effects of the 'roofies'. We practice coming too faster and faster with every dose. We are careful in faking the effects; acting groggy and confused long after the effects have worn off. The hardest part is that there is nothing to do all day. In between meals we are just locked up in our cells. There is a toilet, a sink and a little bench/ bed with a thin plastic coated mattress and a blanket that we are supposed to keep folded up. Everytime I have insisted that I am an American citizen our questioners have responded with blank stares. Apart from General Trank I don't know anyone's name. It shouldn't surprise me that people do not think of their own names very often. I cannot keep the connection long enough to follow anyone home like Aisha or Steve could when they were getting Andrew out. On the third day it changes. I am woken by fluorescent light in my room coming on. I wait to be silently escorted to the shower but instead the guard shows me to a cafeteria and gestures gruffly at stack of empty trays. I pick one up, confused but not going to miss out on a hot meal and the chance to look out the window by asking questions. I approach the bored looking man wearing a hair net and grab some food. Grey looking eggs, hash browns, bacon and coffee. A guard comes in with Steve. He doesn't have a cane and he looks incredibly lost. The guard leaves. He goes to help him. He reaches out and grabs his elbow and Steve stiffens.

"Matt?" Steve asks sounding a little irritated. He looks incredibly tired.

"Yeah, sorry, man it's me" I explain. He lets me take his elbow and lead him to the table. I watch him locate the seat and walk away to get him some food. The guard comes back with Aisha. We watch him leave and she rushes towards me and gives me a hug. I gesture to where Steve is. She runs towards him and looks ready to hurl herself into his arms. Instead she says 'hey' softly so he isn't startled and then she hugs him. Steve turns the hug into a passionate kiss and I turn away and focus on placing food on the plate. Andrew is brought in last. He takes his time serving his breakfast and then joins us.

"This was a brilliant idea" Andrew notes smugly tucking into his eggs.

Aisha opens her mouth to respond but instead she just bursts out laughing

Steve joins in first; his shoulders slump as the tension is released. I could not find this situation less funny but the absurdity of Andrew's observation gets to me. Pretty soon we are all wiping tears away.

I think they are probably listening Aisha telegraphs.

Andrew scoffs.

Can I download what I've learned? She asks

We all agree.

Turns out she has learned a lot. She knows that the General is named Walter. Walter Trask and he was tasked with getting to the bottom of the 'Seattle situation'. That the Seattle situation is being classified as a terrorist attack. That we are all, with the exception of Aisha, considered domestic terrorists. Aisha is being considered an enemy combatant which makes extradition a possibility. There are Guantanamos that aren't Guantanamo. They took our blood to establish what we are. They questioned our families extensively. They consider Andrew the primary threat. They know who Steve is. They do not know if Steve has powers. They do not know if Steve died or faked his death but they are open to both possibilities. They need to figure out a way to permanently eliminate us as a threat. They haven't tried to torture us because they think they know the extent of our powers. Telekinesis and flight. They don't know about the telepathy so we should try to keep that under wraps. The drugs are just sedatives to keep us calm and they have an element that reduces hostility and aggression. They are worried by the time that I spent abroad. Worried about the possibility of us being used by another government. They are considering using us as weapons, imprisoning us or eliminating us. They are ambivalent about the first two and not sure if they can do the third. They do not like that we are friends. That we are friends means that they cannot deport Aisha and practice elimination methods on Andrew and try to turn me into an asset.

So anything could happen? I telegraph my frustration focusing intensely on my bowl of oatmeal.

They had a bio tracker on Andrew. That is how they found us. They last three days. They are mixed in with the sedatives. We need to figure out a way to metabolize them faster. Steve contributes.

I can fight off the sedative in 2 hours now it wears off if you focus. Aisha adds.

An hour and a half. Steve confirms.

2 and a half hours from Andrew

I don't answer and everyone looks at me expectantly.

3 hours I admit.

You're going to have to cut it down if we are going to escape Aisha observes grimly.

She swallows her oatmeal and looks up. She sips some juice before speaking.

"Does anyone know why we are here?" She asks out loud.

"Well" Says General Trask walking into the room and making us all nearly jump out of our skin with fear "I was hoping we could all have a little chat about that."

Reading minds is a strange thing. Sometimes it comes in clear sentences. Some people, like Trask just send out a vibe. Clear as day they project an aura. General Trask is in control. He does not doubt for a second that he knows more than we do, that we are the enemy and that 4 children are no match for the collective might of the United States of America's armed forces.

Good. We can use that against him Steve thinks grimly.

Andrew thinks mercenary and vengeful thoughts. His vibe is predatory. The fact that we have a common enemy right now does not put my mind at ease.

Here we go I think as I put down my hot link and wipe the grease off my chin with my napkin.