At first, I thought I was dreaming. Surely, she wouldn't just up and leave with what we're facing, right? When I looked at her in the tree, I didn't see her figure, nor did I hear her breathing. The light filtering through the leaves made my wake-up vision blurry, making me think I was just imagining things. But I was right, she wasn't there. What made it worse was that all of her things were there. Her backpack, her laptop, and a poorly folded up note that I didn't notice until later. Once I realized that I wasn't dreaming, the worse came to mind.

I scraped my legs as I scrambled over, trying to find signs of a struggle. My heart drummed as I eyed every inch of the tree, but I couldn't see anything that indicated she was kidnapped. But I would have heard her if ITex goons grabbed her, unless they drugged me in my sleep? No, I would've heard them then too. It must have been when I took the walk. Damn it! I was so stupid to think that leaving her behind was a good idea. But I saw her in the tree when I got back… was that even Speck?

My throat dropped into my stomach. No, they wouldn't do that. They wouldn't play with me like that… but they were psychos; they could do anything they wanted. I lowly growled. Was this one of their stupid tests again? Oh hell no. They were going to pay for this. Nobody, nobody takes my sister!

I forcefully shoved the laptop back into her bag, grabbed mine, and jumped down with no sense of looking around first. It was early enough that morning joggers were there, and late enough that I didn't see any dog walkers. Once I landed, I adjusted both bags on my shoulder while thinking up a plan to where they could be taking her. But in the rush of putting things away, I didn't zip up Speck's bag properly and pencils started spilling out of it.

"Goddammit," I cursed, dropping both bags and reaching for her supplies. As I reached for her school things, my heart pounded. She wasn't going to finish school; she wasn't even in school and this happens. I blinked a tear away. No, I had to find her. I had to save her. I had to- A piece of paper caught my eye. And my name was on it.

I froze.

No.

No no.

I shakily grabbed it and unfolded the notebook paper. My throat caught and I threw my other hand to hide my open mouth.

Amber,

I'm sorry but I can't stay here anymore. I'm going to join the Doomsday Group. Your wrong about them.

Their good people, I know it. You just need to see it for yourself. I beleive in them. Please beleive in me.

Speck

Tears flowed down my fingers and onto my lap. My eyes blurred and my heart ached so much my body shook. I couldn't believe it. She left. She left me. For them! As much as I was livid, I was more devastated than anything. My breathing picked up as I stared blankly at the ripped-out page.

She left me.

She was gone.

I lost her.

No.

No, no.

No, no, no, no, no.

A sob escaped from me and I closed my eyes shut, knowing this wasn't be real. It couldn't be, because she wouldn't leave me. She said she wouldn't. She said she never could. But she wasn't here. She wasn't next to me. She wasn't cracking a joke or mumbling about being hungry. She wasn't nagging me about doing more schoolwork. She wasn't- I blearily looked around as my heart raced, breathing heavily, but all I could see were joggers in the distance and squirrels scouring the grounds.

She was nowhere.

"Sp-Speck," I blubbered out. I whipped my head around some more, hoping to god she was just hiding behind a tree and just pulling a prank. But even then, I couldn't hear her or sense any lick of her nearby. I relaxed my ears, hoping some animal part of me could pick up her presence.

She was gone.

"No!" I cried out, clutching my heaving chest. I gasped; my lungs couldn't take this. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even stand. My body crumpled to the ground despite my feeble attempt at sitting up. No, I couldn't. What's the point? She was gone, I couldn't do it. She wasn't here. I couldn't. I can't. No-

"Speh-" I wheezed. "Speh-heck." Tears streamed down my face as I pulled myself into a fetal position and put my head between my legs. It was the best I could do from passing out, but honestly that was all I wanted.

I wanted it to be a dream, no, I needed it to be. She can't be gone. She can't be. She can't.

But she wasn't here.

She never wanted to be.

Oh, Speck.

I hugged my arms and cried out, my world fading around me.

She was gone.

I lost her.

Speck…

Please, no.

Speck, please!

Please come back!

I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

I'm sorry!

Once they all agreed on the plan, the gang filed out of the hotel room thinking up cool ideas to show off at the rally. Before Fang exited the room, he glanced back briefly at Max before closing the door behind him. He gently sighed to himself before turning to face Maya leaning against the wall. She looked deep in thought, deeper than she should.

"Are aerial dives not enough?" he half-joked to her.

She lightly huffed and rolled her eyes, "No, they are, I'm just thinking about something else."

He almost asked her what she meant before realizing, "You mean Amber."

"Yeah, like… what do you think will happen after all this? If we can stop the group, does that mean we go back to life as normal?" she blinked down the hall to see Star and Kate whispering to each other. "Would we still be together?" Her last question hinted jut slightly at something more than the gang.

"Why not?" Fang remarked, catching her attention.

"Well," she pursed her lips. "You got the gang together to help kids like us, right? Wouldn't that just mean adding more of us to the group?"

He shrugged, "Is that a bad thing?"

"I guess not…" her voice trailed off and she looked down the hall again, but Star and Kate were already gone. They were probably keeping Ratchet and Holden from dining on the pastries in the lobby.

"Are you worried?" he stepped around her to lean against the wall as well. They brushed shoulders just slightly, and in turn Maya twisted her hair.

"No! Just…" she sighed, not sure how to formulate her words.

He watched her thinking before she said, "Star and Kate have been keeping to themselves a lot recently. Don't you think that's weird?"

"Well, they did come from the same school and have been friends before they met us," he pointed out. He let the facts simmer in his mind. "You're worried Amber and Speck will isolate themselves, too."

She hastily nodded and Fang sighed.

"I guess I see where you're getting at," he muttered. "We could just play that game again when they get here."

"You mean "Never Have I Ever"?" she wrinkled her nose before chuckling. "That could work, but isn't Speck like six years old? I doubt they'd want to do that."

"You never know, plus, it'd be a great way to know them."

Maya shrugged, which was her way of "fine, whatever." Fang smirked before pushing off the wall and proclaiming, "Let's get some grub, I'm starving."

"Right," she began walking but paused on the staircase, blocking Fang from continuing down. "Oh, and another thing." She turned around and looked up at him, admiring the inquisitive look on his face. That was something she liked about him, the thing many people couldn't read but she could. It made her heart flutter just slightly.

"They really do look the same, it's weird."

Fang nodded, "She's definitely his sister, no doubt about it."

I don't know how long it took me to muster up the courage to find her, but once I did my limbs were numb and my fingers were trembling. My eyes felt puffy from all the crying, so I rubbed them to push away the feeling to the best of my ability. I managed to stuff her bag in mine with difficulty and had to move smaller things to my pockets. I didn't care that pencils poked my palms every now and again; it reminded me of who I had to save.

And that was the thing, I wasn't doing this because she was in the wrong; I was saving her because it was the moral thing to do. She is my sister, and I had to act like the big sister in order to save her. Even if I must take her while she's kicking and screaming, I'll do it.

I finally got my fingers hovering over her keyboard, unlocking the laptop, and clicking on the browser to see the last site she was on. To no surprise, it was the Doomsday Group's, and it was highlighting a massive rally by the Buckingham Fountain nearby for those who live in the Midwest. My heart throbbed to think of her being there, mingling and associating with them, but the more I read on the page, I realized it wasn't happening just here. Links leading to rallies for rallies for all parts of the country sat at the bottom, leading the South Westerners to somewhere in Houston, and so forth. Tiny letters at the bottom read "Don't live in the United States?" and I hesitantly clicked it. I gulped.

They were holding rallies everywhere.

Speck was right, this group was bigger than we thought. As I scrolled down the page, the location in Paris seemed the most popular and I hoped she wouldn't have thought to go there. But how? She didn't have plane tickets, let alone the credentials to fly... But something deep within me had a hunch. No, I had to check out the Fountain first. I quickly went back to the first page and looked up the location. It wasn't far, thankfully, but it was starting soon, and I didn't want to be too late.

I shrugged my shoulders and let my wings unfold slightly, stretching them to the best of my abilities and hearing a couple gasps from far away. There was no going back now. Everybody in the country, or at least the right half, knew my face already, so it didn't matter what I did. And if ITex would find me, so be it. I didn't care, I didn't care about my previous goals anymore. All that mattered was getting my Speck back.

I scratched my ears while closing my eyes, listening. I could hear nearly everything, the few birds chirping in the trees around me, a jogger breathing across the path, a cluster of women gaggling together by a restaurant, some talk about the One Light- there. I strained my ears even more to focus.

It sounded like kids were talking about the One Light and excited to make a difference. I couldn't hear Speck among them, but that was fine, that means the rally was about to start. Perfect. I tightened both bags around my shoulders and buckled the straps across my torso. Man, those pencils in my pockets were going to be the worst, but whatever. I took a few deep breaths and thought hard on the location of those voices. I positioned my body correctly and breathed out by the second.

Three, two, one.

My eyes flashed open and I broke off into a sprint. The trees instantly blurred and the sounds around me merged into a mess of sound art. I had to focus. I leaped over a row of bushes with ease as my wings slightly parted; the wind kept me aloft just enough to avoid crashing into the fence on the other side. I pumped my arms and barely dodged a merging car before jumping again. Shouts, startled gasps, and car horns faded behind me. I was going to get there on time, before it started. I just had to keep my eyes peeled and forward.

I side stepped a tree and almost crashed into a lady with a stroller by doing a weird mix of a dodge roll and a jump. She squealed but I couldn't respond with a sorry because my breaths were also swallowed by the wind. Once I got to the major street, I jumped as high as possible and opened my wings, coasting on the momentum I had and tripping in my landing on the other side. I found myself next to the massive crowd and slowed to a stop where my heartbeat finally caught up to me. My chest rose as I stared around the crowd, hoping to spot her trying to hop up to see the platform in front of the lake. The fountain sat on the other side of the road, where I heard several people milling about, but the main action was right next to the water.

I narrowed my eyes, hoping to better my bird vision, but I couldn't see her anywhere. There was at least a thousand people there, and I my heart started to race. Was I wrong? Did she go to a different rally? If she did, how the hell did she get there? And how come so many of these people looked so young? It was like they were-

"Whoa, I love your skin!"

I looked down to see a ten-year-old-ish kid staring up at me with awe in her eyes, though they seemed glossed over the more I analyzed her. She reached out a finger and poked my arm, to which I jumped at and pulled back to my body.

"Uh- uhm thanks?" my cheeks reddened. I hoped she didn't recognize me from the news.

She only beamed at me in response before turning her attention back to the platform. Something about her face made me shiver. It wasn't that her smile was genuine, but that it had that layer of artificialness like that boy from the zoo had. I glanced around the crowd and realized that everyone here was a kid. Nobody had any adult-like features I could notice. What the hell? Shouldn't these kids be in school? Do their parents know they are here?

"Whoa-" I heard another kid say, and I felt one of my feathers get stroked. I quickly pulled in my wings and turned my head, trying to see who did that and reprimand them.

"You- you're one of them-" a boy breathed on me, reaching to grab my shirt. I slapped his hand away just as I felt fingers brush my scales. I glared at the kid, but he looked past my anger and tried to touch me again. I wanted to grab him and shout, but the mic on the platform buzzed to life and everybody turned towards the source.

"Hello, my fellow followers!" a young man called out. "You believe in the One Light, don't you?"

The crowd cheered and I felt my claustrophobia increase. I glanced behind me and gaped; more children crowded stood around me, nearly spilling into the street and pushing to get closer to the guy. He had to be at least twenty years old but was young enough to sway these kids. Surely, he had to be the leader, or at least close to the leader of the group to get these kids away from their homes.

"Then let's start with singing a song!" he broke out into a familiar tune, but the words were altered just slightly, giving a gothic take on it. I was dumbstruck, hearing the kids around me join in and wave their hands to the non-existent beat. But I had to stay focused.

"Follow the One Light!" they horribly chorused as I started pushing through them. I was tall enough to see over most of them, but Speck was small, and her skin was my main way of finding her. I grunted as I squeezed past the kids while their singing resonated in my ears.

"It greatly shines!" a voice I recognized sang nearby.

I spun to see her with her head tilted back to face the sky, "Speck!"

She opened her eyes slightly and I saw the same gloss over them. My blood ran cold.

"Amber!" she cried happily.

I stretched and grabbed her shoulder to which she gripped my wrist. I maneuvered around the kids and finally embraced her. She wriggled in my grasp as I tried to remember what she felt like. Small stature, skinny muscles, and a strength that managed to push me away from suffocating her.

"Speck- oh-" I wanted to hug her again but her expression stopped me. She looked like a porcelain doll, well, one with dots on her skin, since her smile never faltered and she tilted her head just slightly.

"You made it! I'm so glad you're here!"

The deep feeling settled again but only thinly on my already pent-up anxiety. I swallowed, "Are you? You left me in the middle of the night."

"I know, but I had to get here though! I needed to be here!" she let out a little pout, but I wasn't convinced.

"Really? It looks like they have enough supporters."

"Yeah! Isn't it great? We're going to change the world! You should join, you'd love it!" she grinned at me, hoping that her smile was enough to get my vote.

"Right, because I would love joining a group that risks everything for the sake of a 'New World.'" I rolled my eyes, remembering what their website stated. It was all bullshit, promising a better, healthy world where peace was infinite, and everybody would be accepted equally. "It's a cult, and you're brainwashed. We have to get out of here."

"The One Light! One Light, One Light!" the crowd finished in a flurry of shouts and cheers. I could barely hear the man on stage, but he was now moving into pep-rally cheers. The booming sound of the kids was damaging my ears, but I had to drown it out in order to hear her.

"What do you want?" he beckoned with a grin.

"A new future!" the kids responded.

"No! I'm staying, I'm with people who are like me!" her brows narrowed into a stern look I've never seen before. It was kind of scary, seeing her like that.

"Like you? Speck, they're just kids! Naïve kids! And you're being sucked into this madness!" I retorted, waving my arms in hopes of painting a picture for her.

"It's not madness," she laughed in an abnormally high-pitched tone. "It's dedication! And I want to be a part of that."

"I know you do but..." I scrambled to get my thoughts together. "But you're not like them. You're different, and you'll always be different."

"I know I'm different!" she cried back, but with more enthusiasm than I expected. "And they're different too! We're all different, don't you see?" She gestured to the mob.

As much as I wanted to ignore her gaze, I followed and noticed what looked like fins on the side of a kid's head. I blinked, knowing I was just seeing things, but that same kid threw up a webbed hand to the air. No way. My head swiveled around. A girl with dog ears, a boy with two slits for a nose, kids with additional fingers, unrealistic eyes, engorged limbs, and more features I couldn't even comprehend.

They were all mutants, just like us.

I instantly felt like I was back in the cages, seeing kids around me with unwanted attributes carved into their DNA, crying and sobbing and waiting for death to knock on their door. They were miserable, but here, they were at ease, free, and did whatever they wanted. And nobody was batting an eye... except me.

"What do we want?" the man asked.

"To have a new world!" the crowd cheered again.

"Don't you see?" Speck giggled loudly. "They're just like us - like me! I'm happy here, don't you want to be happy too?"

"Of... course I do, but..." She was right. I've always felt alone in a huge crowd of normal people, of standard humans with no mutations, of people who never faced the grueling punishment and tests done to a lab rat, but here, I felt a twinge of acceptance.

"When do we want it?"

"Now!"

I had to keep myself from shouting as well. The feeling from seeing their video online settled in again. I was being warped and wrapped into this fascination. I wanted it. I craved it. But...

"Amber," I looked down at Speck, her expression hopeful yet clouded. "Don't you want to be happy too?"
"Yes, but..." I shook my head. "At what cost?" I had to stay with her no matter what.

"Well that's easy!" she beamed, her dimples showing.

"What do we have to do?" the man shouted.

"Kill the humans!" Speck cheered with the crowd.

Oh no.