WARNING: More mentions of child psychological and emotional abuse, and hints of a child's death. Nothing graphic, and much is mentioned in passing, but if two chapters ago was difficult for you to read you may want to skip this one as well.

A Diamond With A Flaw Is Worth More Than A Pebble Without Imperfections

Ender could hear screaming, coming from downstairs, when he climbed through the bedroom window. The bedroom was empty which meant everyone was doing 'homework'. Ender flinched as the screams continued.

Ender was always surprised the cops weren't showing up every other day with the constant noise racket being made. It was hard to hear exactly what Rebecca was saying, but from the sudden shattering sound of glass, it sounded like she was throwing dishes.

Knowing he couldn't avoid the inevitable the kid slowly crept down the stairs to assess the damage.

"You'll do it till you get it right. When I say twenty I mean twenty." Rebecca bellowed. Ender peaked around the corner and saw Jamie cowering against the kitchen island, evidence of a broken glass askew across the floor.

"My hands hurt." Tears were dripping down the boy's face. The other foster children were nowhere to be seen.

"It's going to hurt a lot more if you don't do it again." The woman hissed.

Jamie had his hands cradled against his chest. Both were wrapped in a piece of gauze around the palm. "I can't do anymore." He looked around desperately, like a cornered animal.

Ender might be young, but he was very intelligent for his age and he'd long ago pegged Rebecca as a sociopath. She didn't care about any of the foster kids, except when it meant she had something to gain. Then in an instant, she was kind and compassionate; cuddling and hugging desperate children starved for love, affection and approval they never received from their biological parents.

It was one thing to know this mentally, but when you lived it day in and day out for over a year put a huge strain on anyone. Eventually you accept the way things are because if not, you receive nothing good from the other person, and something is better than nothing.

Rebecca regarded Jamie for a moment with narrowed eyes. Then suddenly she changed tactics and gave a dramatic sigh.

Her voice was full of hurt and betrayal. "Harold and I feed you kids, we clothe you, take you to the doctors when you're sick, make sure you have a bed to sleep in. We even make sure you have good things like toys to play with, and presents for Christmas and your birthdays."

She gave him a look of deep disappointment, shaking her head sadly. "I just don't understand why you can't do these simple little things for me. It makes me so sad that you don't love me the way I love you."

Jamie was now shaking with sobs so Ender took that as his cue to enter the room. Rebecca loved her mind games. They were probably worse than being slapped.

Ender made sure he made enough noise to make Rebecca aware of his presence when he came in. She whipped her head around at the scuffle of his feet. "Where have you been?" She snapped, temporarily distracted from the other boy in the room.

"Rehearsing," Ender forced himself to make eye contact. "At the park."

Rebecca kept searching his face for any sign of a lie. She was good at spotting lies, but Ender was better. The trick to being a convincing liar was two fold. First you had to build the lie from some piece of truth. Second, you had to believe the lie. If you believed it was true the other person would too. Ender wasn't sure how he knew this but it worked.

"I'm almost ready for Thursday," he told her, doing his best to be placating. It was such a difficult job for a six year old, but someone had to be. "I know the entrance and exit points. We just have to make sure we don't trigger the alarms when we come back out with all the extra weight."

Rebecca motioned for him to come over, with her index finger. She dropped down to her knees and rested her hands on both Ender's shoulders.

"We can't have any problems." She whispered in a soothing voice. "You have to be perfect. You can do that, can't you?"

Ender nodded his agreement. "I'm so proud of how hard you've worked," she told him. "You've done everything I've asked."

As much as he knew she was crazy, Ender wanted to believe she loved him, and he wanted to love her back. Wasn't that what any child wanted? After a moment he threw his arms around her neck and hugged her, telling himself it was okay to believe the lie just this once. Or may be if he really was good enough she would actually love him like she loved her real kids.

Rebecca actually hugged him back, resting her cheek on the crown of his head and rocking a little. Then she reached her hand out to Jamie, but the other boy flinched and jerked back.

She gently tsked, but pulled her hand away. "You know I would never to hurt you, right?" Her voice was deceptively kind. "I yelled because you weren't doing you best. If you listen to me, and always do exactly what I say I won't need to do that."

Neither kid said anything so Rebecca took it as her cue to continue, her grip her Ender's shoulders tightening. "You do this right and we'll have a party with pizza and ice cream afterwards. I'll even take you to the toy store and you can pick out anything you want. How does that sound?" Her face was hopeful.

When both boys quickly nodded, Rebecca smiled. "Let's go back downstairs and practice. There isn't a lot of time left, and you need to make me proud."

The basement was the schoolroom, as Rebecca called it. The entire floor had been converted with a home gym to one side and desks, blackboards and computers for the kids to "learn" on the other. Currently, tacked to the walls, were schematics and diagrams of a New York style skyscraper. Other pictures of complicated electronics also hung there.

Emily and Indigo were at a table checking over some lengths of rope, harnesses, carabineers and other equipment. Indigo was nine, and small for her age. She had jet-black hair, often done up into several braids. Her fingers moved up and down the rope feeling for imperfections and weaknesses.

In the corner Jackson was doing push-ups. He was the oldest at almost eleven and had been with the Martin's the longest. Since he was four. Every once in a while he'd challenge Rebecca a bit just to see what would happen, but mostly he did whatever he was told.

Jamie was nine, like Indigo. He'd been placed with the Martin's a little before Ender. Like the rest of the foster kids he'd learned very early on not to cross Rebecca. Knowing there was no choice he walked back to the pull-up bar, flinching when his raw hands gripped the cool metal.

Ender knew this entire mess began with him, which was one of the reason's he hadn't run away and ever looked back.

Before he was even placed with the Martin's he had learned to take things that didn't belong to him. It started in his second foster home with sneaking food. Sometimes the other kids would take his because he was so little. Desperate for food, he learned to sneak stuff from the fridge late at night, or even pocket food at the store during shopping trips.

By his fourth foster home he could take a person's wallet and put it back without the person ever being the wiser.

The first time Rebecca caught him he thought she'd be angry enough to call to social services. If her world wasn't perfect, she got upset. In fact, he'd been sloppy enough to let her catch him. Pissing off Rebecca was the best way to get out of that house. But instead of getting rid of him, like the last three homes had, she decided to "cash in on her investment."

Her half brother Franklin consulted for a couple security companies. He also helped handled the instillation of several systems for local businesses and organisations included the MET. He provided the security information. Harold Martin worked in construction and had access to lots of detailed building plans. And who would suspect a group of kids would have the know how to break into buildings and rob them.

Ever since Rebecca had developed this scheme with her husband and brother it had been a year of non-stop 'training' to get ready for these robberies. She pulled the kids out of the regular school saying it was to tailor the education to each child's needs. Rock climbing, gymnastics and martial arts classes made Rebecca appear the perfect foster mother, but it was really to provide skills necessary to get in and out of buildings undetected.

When Rebecca first told him what he was going to do for her, Ender told her no. He may steal a few bucks here and there but that was to ensure he had money in case he ever needed to run away. Robbing a building was wrong, completely and totally wrong.

This was Ender's first taste of how vindictive Rebecca really was. She simply called a family meeting and told all the foster kids Ender was doing something that hurt the family and none of them would eat until Ender followed the rules.

Two days later, hungry, bruised and with a broken arm from the other children, Ender finally agreed. Besides, if he didn't do this who knows what else Rebecca might do?

When he first got there Jackson told him about another boy who lived there, Erik. Rebecca was fond of saying Erik ran away, but Jackson confided that Erik said no to her one too many times. Apparently when the other kids went to bed, she kept him up to yell some more. The next day Rebecca called Erik's social worker to say he ran away, but Jackson said Erik wasn't the type to do that. No one knew exactly what happened, but none of the kids really wanted the truth.

So this was now their life. Memorising security systems, opening locks, and physical training. Ender wouldn't have minded it, if Rebecca was truly kind. Getting into a museum was like solving a puzzle and Ender liked puzzles. He just didn't like helping Rebecca.

Ender did most of the B&E and got the art himself. The other kids usually waited at the exit points to get things out of the museums and back to the Martins. Sometimes Ender wondered who he was in a past life that made it so good at this. Not that it mattered, as long as Rebecca didn't hurt the rest of the kids.

For a while Ender didn't understand why Rebecca hadn't cared which art was stolen. Then he realised this was just practice for the robbery that would make the Martin's rich. The final score.

And it was the perfect crime. Even if they got caught no one would think a child was capable of pulling this off, as Ender had learned after meeting up with the FBI. The agents hadn't thought twice about handing him back over to the Martins because he was just a little boy.

Ender wanted to tell them. The only thing that stopped him was Rebecca's threats. Right before the first job she told him if he was ever caught to not say a word. If he did she would make sure all the kids paid for his mistakes.

In the world of us or them with the adults, the other kids were his only friends. Ender didn't want to lose the only people who might care if something happened to him. So instead he left the origami. It was a message, a cry for help. Before the first robbery, Ender had read an article mentioning Agent Burke and Neal. The author said they caught the impossible criminals, the ones no one else could. Surely people like that could figure out his message.

And they had or they wouldn't have shown up at the Frick or the MOMA. Now Ender just needed them one more time. He didn't even care if they dragged him away to jail if he got away from Rebecca. He'd left them three clues this time, more than enough. They would be there, or Ender didn't know what he'd do. He had a feeling once he outlived his usefulness Rebecca might decided he needed to run away too.

A/N: I wanted to use this chapter to explain psychologically why none of the kids have told, and why they would agree to help someone who treats them like this. Sadly there are people like Rebecca in this world who hurt both children and adults, although I by no means think she typifies the average person or foster mother. Not to give away too many spoilers, but she will be punished for her crimes.

Some creative license on whether kids this age could pull off a robbery, but I think it's plausible. Remaining chapters will probably be as intense as this one so be warned if you want to continue reading. I still don't think this story needs an M rating, but if someone has concerns let me know.