Amy was falling, down… down… down to the rough pavement of Paris, soon to be a grease stain in one of the most romantic places on earth. She was plummeting towards the hard unforgiving earth, towards the rock and stone of the street.

And then she heard the one thing that she didn't expect to hear.

"Grab her!"

"Where? She's hurt!"

"Grab her on whichever arm isn't hurt, then!"

"Both her arms are hurt!"

"Then grab the least hurt one!"

"She doesn't have a least hurt one!"

"Just grab her!"

She felt something momentarily grasp one of her arms, but she slipped and fell out of the person's grip.

"I dropped her!"

"Then grab her again!"

Something grabbed her non-broken arm, almost ripping it out of its socket.

"Oops! Are you okay, Amy?" It was the Holt girls. One of them was steering the paraglider, while the other was holding Amy.

"You idiot, of course she's not okay. Does she look okay?"

Amy gave a little moan. It was the only sound that she could bear to make.

"Mad, she just moaned!"

"Good, I think that means that she's alive!"

"You think?"

As far as Amy could tell, Madison was flying and Reagan was holding her. She had no clue how Reagan was attached to the paraglider, maybe by a second harness.

Madison steered the paraglider around and landed it on the roof of a building, the same one that the branch leaders were on.

When Madison unbuckled them from the harnesses, Regan shot a death glare at the branch leaders. "Idiots! What were you thinking, leaving her with Isabel?" she called out. "Get some medical stuff here! I don't know whether she'll be able to make it!"

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Cora stared at the girl in Reagan's arms. What had Isabel done to her? "Medical support! Now!" she called out to the other leaders.

"Our support is coming."

Cora jumped, not realizing that Nataliya had landed the Shark back on the roof and walked over.

"I… Our support is much more advanced than any other branches."

Cora snorted in disbelief. "Let's continue this discussion later. First things first, what is wrong with Isabel? I mean, I knew that Isabel would treat her roughly, but this?" Cora shook her head. "I think that Isabel has finally snapped."

The two women watched as a helicopter landed on the roof. Out of it streamed Madrigals, doctors and surgeons and nurses who carried Amy onto the helicopter in a stretcher.

Nataliya shook her head. "Isabel was always crazy. She just did a better job of hiding it than most."

"Now that you mention it, I remember one of our spies coming back, babbling about the horrors of the Lucian bases. I, ah, thought that she was exaggerating, but…" Cora shrugged. "Now I may have reason to believe otherwise."

"I shudder to think of what would have happened had the young Kabras and Dan been in the helicopter."

"They were there?"

"Did you think that they would not be?"

"Point taken. How did they escape the explosion?"

"Well," A brief smile flitted across Nataliya's face. "I heard that Amy stepped on Vikram's foot and ran, drawing Isabel along with her. I expect that Natalie simply shot Vikram with one of the new poisons that Nellie gave her."

"Why new poisons?"

"Isabel and Vikram are immune or resistant to most Lucian poisons. If Natalie had shot him with one of her usual poisons, he would simply have woken up within about a minute."

"Ah. And then they ran, and Vikram died when the stronghold exploded?"

"Yes, though knowing him, Dan was a little hesitant about leaving him there."

"Why?" Cora asked. "Even he would have heard about how horrible Vikram was, and maybe even seen it himself."

The last Romanov was silent for a moment. "Your four branches inherited fighting skills. Many different types; sneakiness and strategies, martial arts, battle plans, brute strength. Madrigals, especially children Madrigals, see the best in people, or at least feel that they deserve a chance. While our records show that Amy and Dan could be of all five branches, and don't pretend that your records don't show the same, Cora, we know they do, they are most dominantly Madrigal."

Cora looked sheepish. "That is why I tried to recruit Dan in China. I technically never lied."

Both women were quiet as the Madrigal's helicopter lifted up silently and flew off.

"You know that you should not have bugged Arthur and Hope's house." Nataliya said it as a statement, not a question.

The other woman shrugged. "That was what we did back then. Times are different now. Thanks to them."

They shared another moment of silence.

"Dan knows that it was you that bugged their house."

Cora raised an eyebrow. "How did he find out? He was only four."

Nataliya gave a little laugh. "The bug was on a modern art sculpture. Dan recognized it when you wore a smaller model on your necklace."

"Ah."

Cora and Nataliya were silent again as they listened to the sirens screaming through the city.

"She's going to be alright, you know." To Cora, Nataliya's worry was blatantly obvious.

"Yes. I do know."

The women shared a smile and then were gone.

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First person, Amy's POV

When I opened my eyes, everything was… fuzzy? And white? One of my arms and both my legs were in casts, and my other arm was wrapped in a bandage. Where was I? I tried to think back, but the last thing that I remembered was Reagan, carrying me and shouting… something to the branch leaders. Well, remaining branch leaders. "Uhh…" I moaned. "Where am I?"

I heard the sound of running feet, and a voice shouting, "She's up! Guys, she's awake!"

I heard lots of people coming into the room, and an equal amount of people quickly backing out of the room after somebody, I think it was Nellie, shouted at them to "Give her some air, she just woke up!"

Finally, somebody thought to prop me up against the headboard so that I could see everyone. I couldn't do it. I had barely enough strength left to lift up my hand. After that, I could see Dan, Nellie, Ian, Natalie, Hamilton, Reagan, and Madison standing around by bed. "What happened? Where am I? How did you guys take care of Isabel?"

Nellie laughed. "Slow down, kiddo. First of all, you're at the Madrigal hospital. Where we have all the best stuff. How did you get here? Well, once the twins landed on the roof and you fainted, our 'copter got here and airlifted you to the emergency room. Let me tell you, it was difficult. We almost thought…" she trailed off, a sad expression on her face. "Anyway, that knife that Isabel had had some kind of poison that kept the wound open. You were also dehydrated and starving, burned and bruised all over, and you had a few cracked ribs from all those times that Isabel just dropped you on the floor." she shook her head. "And Amy… we didn't take care of her. She parachuted away, and by the time we figured out where she had landed, she was long gone. We have all the best agents out there, trying to bring her in, but Isabel is a master."

Wow, Amy thought. Cliché in 3… 2… 1…

Mr. McIntyre ran into the room. "They've caught her!" he gasped. "She slipped up in Taiwan, and our agents were able to corner her and knock her out!"

Nellie glanced at the younger people. "I need to go do Branch Leader stuff. Don't break anything. Especially not Amy." She left at a run, following McIntyre.

"Wait a second," Amy blinked in confusion. "Did Nellie just say Branch Leader stuff?"

There was a bit of shuffling and nudging each other with elbows, but finally Dan stepped forward. "So, you know how there are two leaders for each branch, one male, one female, not necessarily married?"

Amy nodded. "So, Nellie's the female Madrigal branch leader."

"Yeah."

"And Isabel was on the run, but we caught her?"

"Yep."

"How long have I been out?" she asked bemusedly. It seems like so much had happened.

Everybody shifted uncomfortably. "Um, well…" Dan's gaze flicked around the room. "Uh… Ian! Why don't you tell Amy."

Ian threw a panicked look at Dan. "Ah… Amy, you see…"

Amy was getting tired. "How long, Ian?"

"Three months."