I'm not going to say any more but the poll to see who you guys want Bex to get together with just took an interesting turn ^.^

My hands hurt. I looked down to see that I had dug my nails into my palms so hard I made myself bleed, without even realizing. I unclenched my hands painfully, trying to stop them trembling with anger.

"Cammie." Abby said softly.

"Don't. Just don't." It scared me how deadly calm my voice was. It reminded me of when my grandmother got angry at me when I was little. She wouldn't shout at me but I could tell she was furious, and she went into a state of scary-calm, like the calm before the storm. She seemed fine but I could feel the storm bubbling underneath her skin.

I felt scary-calm now, and it was like I was so full of emotion I couldn't let any of it out.

"Call Stephen, Sophia, Katherine, anyone you want. Get them here as soon as possible." My voice didn't even quiver. I looked at the broken computer on the floor, fizzing and crackling. That would be what Sara looked like when I was done with her. Broken beyond repair.

"Cammie, you have a weird look on your face. Maybe you should lie down." Liz said softly, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't feel tired." I told her. "Just call them."

Liz hovered by my shoulder, but walked away after a moment, albeit reluctantly. "Cammie-" Macey started.

"Would everybody just stop "Cammie"-ing me?" I snapped.

"We're just worried about you." Macey's blue eyes looked at me sympathetically. "This is a lot to deal with, and you're-"

"And I'm what?" I stuck my chin out, challenging her to continue.
"We're just worried about you." Macey repeated. "Dealing with all of this- you can't be thinking clearly."

"Oh, I'm thinking clearly all right. I'm going to get everyone together. We're going to make a plan. We're going to take down the Alliance, and I'm going to take down Sara. And for all I care, she can burn in hell."

I pretended not to see Macey's worried looks. I pretended that I couldn't feel every single student and teacher in the room staring at me. I pretended I was thinking clearly, not letting my emotions get in the way, even though I knew I wasn't.

I sat down on one of the sofas, and closed my eyes. No thoughts. No thoughts. Just total darkness.

"Cammie. Wake up." Somebody shook my shoulder to wake me up.

"Zach?" I asked aloud, actually hopeful for a moment.

"Sorry, kiddo. Just me." Mr Solomon handed me a mug of tea. My heart fell. When I heard his voice, my mind immediately recognised it as male and familiar. I had immediately thought of Zach.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked, taking a tentative sip of the tea. It burned my tongue.

"Just a few hours. We didn't want to wake you. Stephen and Sophia have flown over, and they'll be arriving in a few minutes." Mr Solomon helped me up.

"Where did everybody go?" I wondered aloud.

"This place isn't part of the Gallagher school. It's for emergency use only, and it has a power generator that only provides electricity for three days." Joe explained.

"Why not take the students to the sublevels?" I suggested.

"We thought about it, but it's too dangerous. Imagine a group of sixty freshmen, sophomores and juniors in sublevel 6." Joe raised his eyebrow pointedly.

"Fair point." I shrugged.

Mr Solomon typed out a long intricate code into a keypad. Sixteen beeps later, something buzzed and Mr Solomon opened the door. As soon as I stepped inside, I breathed in the familiar smell of Gallagher- cold stone, old oil paintings, faint perfume and the light aroma of Chef's vanilla meringues.

"It's good to be home." I murmured. I followed the scent of roast beef and the sound of light chatter to the dining room, where the students were eating as far away from the tables pushed to the back of the room as possible- the tables where Stephen and Sophia were sat.

All the students needed to know was that Stephen was a Cavan, and because of the incident with Gilly and Ioseph, Stephen was the enemy. Well, to be fair, his ancestor did attempt to kill the president of the United States.

Sophia and Stephen were sitting uncomfortably at the table. Sofia's nails were bitten, and her hands were trembling slightly.

"Liz recovered the data, and we showed them the video chat." Mr Solomon explained quietly. Oh.

I slid into a seat opposite Stephen and Sophia, and stayed silent. I wish this wasn't happening. I wish I could go back a few years and stop this from happening. If I hadn't found out about Blackthorne, I wouldn't have gotten so close to Zach. If I hadn't gotten so close to Zach, I would never be in this position.

Yes, I wouldn't have Zach, but I didn't really have him now, did I? He didn't even remember me, and he thought he was in love with Sara. I would rather not know Zach than let him be Sara's prisoner.

Liz sat down next to me and put a plate piled with food in front of me. "Eat." She ordered.

I started picking at my meal. "Don't worry, it's not like boys aren't allowed." Macey was talking on her mobile. She sat down next to me and stole a french fry off my plate. "Preston, honey, I love you but if you argue even more about this I will personally have to kick your butt all the way to Gallagher." I could hear Preston talking on the other end of the line.

"Preston." Macey's voice went from loving to stern. "No more arguing. Gallagher is a mansion with over 200 rooms. Granted, a few of them may blow your head off if you don't put your handprint on the door panel first, but I'll tell you which ones to avoid. Look, I am out of my mind with worry, and you better hope that you get here before I have a nervous breakdown. You are going to come to Gallagher where you'll be safe, and that is the end of the discussion."

After a moment's pause, Macey rolled her eyes and said, "I love you too." and hung up.

"Don't rub it in." I muttered, pushing my food around my plate.

Macey's eyes widened with horror. "Oh, my God, Cammie I'm sorry, I didn't think."

"It's fine. I'm sorry. I'm not the one who's lost a daughter," I glanced towards Stephen and Sophia, "Or a sister. Or my parents." I looked at Liz, then at Macey, who squeezed my hand in reply.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Stephen asked.

"We can't do anything. Unless you haven't noticed, Sara has the upper hand in just about everything." Liz pointed out.

I sighed, and put my face in my hands. It seemed like every little hill we got over- me and Zach escaping Sara, me getting my memory back, us getting back to Gallagher- wasn't worth it. Every problem we overcame was just met by a new one. It was all getting to be very repetitive.

"That's it." I murmured.

"What?" Liz's prodded me with her elbow.

"I was just thinking, Sara is getting repetitive. Every thing we do, she counters." I started fidgeting excitedly.

"What do you mean?" Sophia frowned.

"Look at the facts- you get your wife back, she takes another family member. I get Zach and my memory back, she takes Zach away and brainwashes him again, we strike against her and she just fights back by turning our victory into dead losses." I explained. "So with this in mind, we can figure out what her next move is going to be!"

"Well, not that that's a solid plan, but half of the Circle were recruited by Sara, and the other half don't want to get involved unless it's absolutely necessary." Stephen frowned.

"And the spy community is practically nonexistent," Liz added. "So even if we did have a plan, we wouldn't have enough people to put the plan into action."

"Erm, excuse me?" A soft voice interrupted from behind me. "We couldn't help but overhear, and well, we want to help." I turned around to find a senior standing at the front of a crowd of mostly juniors and sophomores, with a few freshmen as well. I stood up to face them.

"Look, thanks, and it's not like I- like we- don't appreciate it, but it's too dangerous. You haven't graduated and the person we're dealing with is-"
"A psychopath, we get it. But we still want to help." The senior narrowed her blue eyes in determination. The way she stood reminded me of Bex- her honey coloured hair was slung casually over her shoulder, but her crossed arms and narrowed eyes made her look anything but casual. She looked ready to kick butt.

"Look- what's your name?"

"Meghan."

"Well, Meghan, I know that you want to help, but you need to stay here where it's safe." I told her.

"Cammie, right? You're pretty much famous around this school. You're the Chameleon. I've heard stories about you, sneaking out, getting kidnapped by his people," Meghan glared momentarily at Stephen, "Escaping, doing amazing things that usually spies twice your age dream of doing. If you had stayed here and followed the rules, you be who you are today. So don't tell me- don't tell us- what we can or can't do. Especially not after you broke every rule in the Gallagher rule book, not to mention, you befriended the enemy." Meghan looked at Stephen again.

I sighed. I looked at Macey and Liz. "There's nothing I can do to convince you to stay, is there?" I asked her.

"Nothing." Meghan met my gaze evenly.

"Well then, I'll let you join us. Under two conditions," I warned. "First, you listen to everything me or my friends tell you, and do what we tell you to do without question. I mean it." Meghan nodded enthusiastically. "And second, you're going to have to listen to them too." I pointed towards Stephen and Sophia.

Meghan looked taken aback. "But... they're Cavans. We know the story about Gillian and-"

"I don't care. They're not the enemies anymore. They're our allies." I said firmly. And to some of us, apparently they're blood family as well.

"Fine." Meghan agreed after a moment's hesitation. "So, what's next?"

"You're in luck girls. You're going to see Sublevel 5." I told them. The girls murmured excitedly, and I turned back to my friends.

"We still need to figure out a plan." Macey remarked.

"What's Sara's one weakness?" Liz wondered.

A weird thought struck me. "Wasn't Sara married?" I asked Stephen.

He nodded. "Yeah, she was married to Sylvan Ford's brother, you know..."
"Sylvan Ford was the guy who kidnapped me, Sam and Zach, yeah I remember. But what happened to him? I mean, if Sara's pretending to be engaged to Zach, doesn't he mind or something...?"

"Sara and Eli Ford are sort of... on a break." Stephen began hesitantly. "They're not divorced, but they're getting there. Eli was happy where he was in the Circle, Sara wasn't and when she went rogue he didn't agree with what she was doing."
"So... can't we use that against her?" I asked. "He must know her better than anyone else, and if he's not on her side, he's sort of on our side?"

"Well, it's worth a shot." Sophia said. "I'm willing to try anything to get Lennie back."
"It is a very Bex-ish move." Macey worried at her lip.

"It is, but it just might work." I nodded. "Speaking of which, where is Bex?"

MEANWHILE 5000 MILES OFF THE COAST OF NEW JERSEY

BEX

"Is it just me or is it getting colder in here?" I asked, clenching my muscles to stop myself from shivering.

Sam nodded. "We need to find a way to get the train moving again."

"Are there any repair kits here?" Noah asked Sam. "With all the bullet holes in here, it's not a wonder something got broken, but if there's a spare toolkit somewhere I may be able to fix it."

"God, I hope there's one, but Gabe's the kind of guy who's so sure of himself he won't provide a fallback." Sam rubbed his hands together to keep them warm.

"Are you cold?" Grant asked me quietly. I looked up, surprised.
"No, I'm fine." I told him, even though it was a lie.

"Bex, please." He gave me a look as if to say, I know you too well, and wrapped his padded windbreaker around me.

"Thanks." I gave him a small smile. A loud groaning creak silenced us. It was soon followed by the sounds of metal clanging and cracking. "That sounds a lot like something's breaking." I said nervously.

Grant stepped closer to me, protectively. "Either that, or it's something that's soon going to break." The metal tunnel groaned again, as if it was agreeing with him.