I can hear the "minions" as Dr. Harris calls them discussing the plan and what to do in different scenarios. Part of me wishes I hadn't lipped off at the beginning of my stay here, because I would know more of what the plan was. I wish I knew specifically what he was after, why he was doing this, et cetera.

Red's hand around my throat releases and is quickly replaced by the ball gag in my mouth once more. Don't be seen, don't be heard. As Red is putting my hands into handcuffs behind my back, Dr. Harris comes over to explain the rules. If I act up, knock me out. If I'm seen, slit my throat and feed me to Savio.

Part of me still can't believe any of this is happening to me. I really want this to be a dream, and now would be the part I would wake up. I would love that more than anything. What I wouldn't love to wake up in Green Bay, Wisconsin with Mom over me, asking if I wanted to get some ice cream to make me feel better after my nightmares. We would sing along loudly and off-key with the classic rock bands Mom played on her CD player. I was so content with life. I was so happy and took it all for granted.

Am I even Liberty Peregrine anymore?

Red places his hand once again on my throat, but lightly this time. He's not holding me hard, it's more a simple reminder of what he could very easily do. My mind drifts back to what Dr. Harris had said. Slit her throat and feed her to Savio. Savio, the incredibly stupidly tall creepy guy that has yet to say a word to me is a cannibal. Lovely. Fantastic. That's what I wanted to hear.

Speaking of hearing, I tune in just a little too late to hear what Red is saying in my ear. I sit completely still and don't react, and he doesn't get upset. Couldn't have been important then.

From my position, I can see a pretty good part of the room, but I'm pretty well hidden off in a corner so glancing in my general direction wouldn't catch any attention.

Clemson and Savio are standing on either side of Dr. Harris, all three of them just standing there, waiting for the guys to come barrelling in from somewhere. I'm not entirely sure how long we've been waiting. It means one of two things: either they're being super sneaky, or this place is built to keep intruders out.

It doesn't take but another minute, though. Rico jumps into the scene from the ceiling, carrying a flamethrower in one hand and a very large gun in the other. He immediately takes aim with the gun, but Dr. Harris screams "attack" right before he pulls the trigger. All three dive out of the way, and some sort of missile-like thing shoots out of the gun.

Although the three villains have dived out of the way, a bunch of people came out of the woodworks and charged toward Rico. The missile proves not to be useless, though, as it kills several of the minions. But when they're killed, it seems like they multiply by a hundred. I watch with wide eyes as the minions come from everywhere; dropping from ropes on the ceiling, coming up through the floor, barging through the doors of billions of rooms. Dad is next to jump out from a vent, carrying a handgun. Private and Kowalski join him carrying shotguns.

Dr. Harris is back up on the podium, quickly mashing a button. It does nothing at first, but after a second I notice the team struggling to hold onto their weapons. They struggle to hold on as long as possible, but eventually, it's too much. They let go, and the guns fly up into a chute that closes once the guns are collected.

I glance to Liberty, and we wear the exact same expression — fear and anticipation.

"Fifteen minutes, Skipper." Dr. Harris taps on his watch, his eyes dark with a downright evil smirk on his face. "Are you ready to surrender?"

Dad's eyes are hard and stubborn as he stares at the one-eyed man. "Not in your wildest dreams, Blowhole."

The infamous smirk gets larger, and he screams "attack" one last time.

I close my eyes to try and block everything out, but Red forces the knife between my shoulder blades a little harder to remind me that it's still there, but not enough to break the skin. I don't think he wants my blood all over him. The cloth in my mouth and his gangly, disgusting hand at my throat is a bitter reminder that I cannot do or say anything in this situation. I would love to shout out, scream, run into my dad's arms when he's so close and he saves me from this nightmare. But instead, all I can do is sit here and watch everything unfold.

I watch helplessly as Dad and his team, my family members, get beat up and kicked around by Dr. Harris's minions. I watch as a bunch of people pile on top of Kowalski, entirely covering him. I watch Rico knock out a bunch of minions with one punch until one catches him off guard, and he ends up the same as Kowalski. I watch Private attempt to help his friends, but it isn't long before he's under a pileup as well.

I watch as Skipper battles Clemson. The blue-eyed demon has the upper hand with a wooden walking cane, but Dad doesn't seem to mind. I can hear his grunts at particularly hard swings, but he's keeping up pretty well.

I glance over to my counterpart in a cage near the big screen. She's looking around for something to help her get out of her situation. She tries to slip through the bars, wiggle the door unlocked, pushes against it to see if it'll break.

Movement from Dr. Harris catches my eye. Savio is giving Blowhole a gun, one with customisations, one I immediately recognise as my dad's gun.

He's going to kill my clone with Dad's own gun.

I want to scream, but I don't know from what. There's so much going on, that I just wish to scream, get some stress and pressure off my chest and let it out through my vocal cords. I want to scream and let Dad know I'm over here, I want to scream and distract people so the team can get the upper hand. I don't want to be so helpless.

Dr. Harris waits. I don't know what for, but he waits. The gun is raised, cocked, and pointing at my clone. She doesn't seem to notice since she's so busy with trying to find a way out of the metal cage. An involuntary whimper leaves my throat, only to feet Red jab me in the back with the back of his knife as a warning.

CRACK!

The gun goes off, deafening everyone with the loudness of it. The entire room goes silent, the only sound being heard is a light thump of my double's body hitting the bottom of the cage on her back. Nothing happens for what feels like an eternity but is probably only two seconds. Tears brim my eyes as I watch Dad's face turn very pale, then go beet red from anger and fear, which he turns into pure fury.

With the sudden adrenaline, Dad throws Clemson off of him and into a wall, which seems to jar him. Dad then yells my name, to try and get a response, but nothing comes from my clone.

I briefly wonder if she's already dead. Maybe the shot killed her instantly, and I'm spared the painful last words of goodbye. But she moves to cover her wound on her side, and I can already see the amount of blood pouring from her. It would be a miracle if she made it out of here.

Skipper launches himself at Dr. Harris, a battle cry coming from deep within his chest. I hold my breath, biting down on the ball in my mouth, waiting for the death of my captor.

Of course, however, he's thought of this. Dr. Harris jumps out of the way and grabs a remote from his pocket while Savio and Clemson jump to his side. A bubble forms around them as they cackle and laugh, and they're lifted into the air by an unknown force, and they go through an opening in the ceiling that closes as soon as they leave. Dad watches for only about a half a second before he bolts toward the cage.

I wasn't paying attention enough to see when the other team members got out. Rico opens the cage for Skipper very quickly, but they all stand back after that. They know what's about to happen. We all do.

He drags my clone out of the cage as carefully as he can, lightly tapping her face. I could only faintly hear whispering until Red put something in my ear. Somewhere on that duplicate's body is a microphone, and it's picking up what he's saying, forcing me to listen to it through an earpiece.

"C'mon, soldier, stay with me. I know you can do it. You're my kid, and you're tough like your mom, so I know you can do it," I hear Dad practically beg through a choked-up voice. I see him pressing down on the wound, but there's just so much blood. It's not stopping, but he's trying. Tears start to drip down my own cheeks as I watch everything. "You can do it, I know you can. I believe in you. Please, stay with me."

There's so much blood between them, and it happens so quickly. Her hands were pressed over it earlier, replaced by Skipper's, but it's not helping. She's already lost so much blood from the torturing, the amount of pain she's in from the injuries, the hunger pains, everything. So much is stacked against her. She doesn't stand a chance.

"I can't do it. I can't," she whispers to him. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"You can."

"It hurts too much."

"Stay strong, dollface." I can tell Dad is trying to force back tears. "You mean so much to me, Liberty, and I'm sorry I'm not as good of a father as I should be. I suddenly found out I'm a dad to a seventeen-year-old, and I didn't have a clue what to do. I'll make it better, I promise, I'll be better. I'm learning, and I'll help you as much as I can. But in order for me to do all this, you need to be there. Please, stay strong for me. I need you."

At the sound of this, my heart lurches into my throat and more tears flow freely down my face. He truly cares about me. I'm not just in the way and an annoying leach that's been brought into his life. He truly, actually, completely cares about me.

She doesn't say anything. He knows, now, that it's no use. He's stopped putting pressure on the wound to instead hold one of her hands into his. They're both ignoring the blood to hold hands, spend their last moments together.

"Please don't leave me," Skipper begs tearfully. I start to cry harder, sobbing quietly into the cloth ball in my mouth.

"I love you, Dad," she whispers, and her eyes shut as she takes her last breath in his arms.

Skipper allows himself to cry, continuing to hold her hand. Then, ever so softly, I hear something in the earpiece.

"I love you, too, Liberty."

I begin to bawl into the gag as the earpiece is taken out of my ear. The Red Squirrel grabs me and yanks me up, dragging me behind the building of wherever we are.

It's hard to see where you're going when tears are in your eyes.