AN: Does anyone have a preference of who they like Ebony with more; Slade or Jay. I plan to have both in the story at some point but I'm not sure who I should put her with. So I thought that I would leave it up to you guys.

Different Choices- Chapter 3- Staying Together.

"Were you followed?" Ebony demanded once Pride and Lex were safely in the Mall. Amber lowered the gate the moment the pair was in before she made her way back down the stairs to join the others with Brady on her hip.

"We're great thanks for asking." Lex snapped as he threw his sheriff hat off his head and onto the ground before he scanned the room to see the people gathered around the fountain.

"We doubled back and went through the alleyways to get back." Pride answered Ebony's question, "We ran into one of the masked men one the way back. He was alone, so he must have been a scout, but we took care of him." Pride added as he glanced from Amber to Ebony.

"Where is everyone?" Lex interrupted once he notices how many of the Mallrats were missing and more importantly his wife, "Where is Tai-san?" He demanded.

"Tai-san and Trudy left a little while after you did, they went to go find May. Trudy was worried because May ran off after she and Pride got into a fight." Amber answered as Brady began to play with her hair that she had taken out of the Zulu knots after the Chosen, "Bray went after them right after we saw the men jump from the plane."

"So, they're out there." Lex yelled, "Where these men are rounding everyone they see up into trucks. If anything happens to my wife it's on May's head."

"Lex." Amber said in a soft tone in an attempt to comfort the man, "Bray is with them and we both know he knows this city better than anyone. He will keep them safe." Amber promised.

"Now that the dramatics are hopefully over, you said that you handled one of these people. Does that mean that you got a good look at them?" Ebony spoke as she brought everyone's attention to the topic at hand.

"Yeah, they have medial masks that cover most of their face." Pride answered as he tried to focus, but was concerned that May was out there and more importantly it was his fault because of their fight. Pride just didn't have as strong of feeling, as May did for him. That didn't mean that he didn't care for her, because he did. He was just struggling to figure out where they stood.

"We can do better than that. We managed to lure him into an old shop a few blocks away. He followed Pride in and I was able to get the jump on him." Lex added.

"That is good news for us. Where is he? The sooner I see him the sooner I can get my answers." Ebony inquired with surprise that something was at least going their way.

"I'll show you. There is no way that I am going to trust you with our only leverage." Lex responded as he crossed his arms, "Who knows what you would do with the information on your own."

"You don't trust me."

"Of course, we don't trust you. You are always out for number one." Lex laughed.

"That's funny coming from you." Ebony scoffed.

"Enough." Amber declared as she moved to stand between the two, once she passed Brady to Cloe, "This is ot the time to fight between ourselves." She added as she jumped into leader mode.

"Let's get going than." Ebony frowned.

"You're going to leave us." Cloe asked frightened. She was okay staying at the Mall with Amber and KC, when the men were on the outskirts of the city. But now that this tribe was capturing people, she didn't feel safe to be alone, knowing that there was only so much fighting that Amber could do.

"I will leave my men to protect you." Ebony sighed as she looked at the girl, "It's more than Bray was willing to leave."

"No. I trust them, less then I trust you." Lex disagreed as he glanced at the men that surrounded the gate, "This tribe is going building by building to capture people. It's better that they search the Mall, see that it's empty and then it will be safe for us to come back."

"Now, I know you're crazy. You want to bring a baby and two kids in the middle of all that. That can't be good for Amber's condition."

"My condition? You seemed so worried about that when you had Ned kidnap me." Amber raised her voice.

"We are all going together or we don't show you where he is." Pride declared, "Those people are not near our sector yet, we have time." He added before he headed up the stairs and to the café.

"Bray is looking after my woman, so I owe it to him to do the same." Lex added, "You know that we are safer together." He added as he glanced at Ebony.

"I guess I should take comfort that at least we will all be captured together." Ebony scoffed as she ordered on of the men to raise the gate, "Leave it open, we want them to think we've run." She added as Pride came down the stairs.

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"Set up a perimeter and radio if anything comes this way." Ebony ordered her men as the group quickly made their way down the street towards the old clothing store. With the orders the five men quickly took off in different directions, "For the record I am against this." She added as she glanced back to where the others were.

"We are stronger together, we always have been." Amber commented as she quickened her pace so she was next to the city leader, "Maybe it's time that you see that."

"That's always been the Mallrats problem; look at what it has cost you. All the friends that you have lost by doing the right thing." Ebony countered, "Looking out for myself is what has gotten me this far, maybe that is how you should start living."

"That's not living Ebony, there is a difference between surviving and living." Amber continued as she pulled her jacket tighter around her.

"At least it means that I will be alive." Ebony disagreed, "That way of thinking would be helpful to you now. You have a child to think about now, maybe ruthlessness it just what you need."

"You know that I am right. We need to stick together now more than ever." Amber declared as she stopped and waited for Lex and the other to catch up.

"What was that about?" Pride asked as he shifted Brady to his other side as he walked up next to Amber's side as Lex came up to her other side. KC and Cloe were walking between them and Ebony.

"I was just reminding her that we are strong together then we are apart. I was hoping that it might deter her from going off on a crazy scheme." Amber answered, "I hope I don't have to remind you of the same thing." She added as she glanced at Lex.

"I only care about getting our people back if they were taken. I made the mistake of trusting Ebony before I will not make that mistake again." Lex answered as he stopped, which caused the three in front to stop, "This way." He nodded towards the alleyway, "It's the back entrance."

"Let's hope that he is still there." Ebony scoffed as she let Lex lead the way.

"I think that Cloe, KC and Brady should stay out here." Pride offered as he glanced at the kids as the group stood outside the door, "I will stay with them, while you question the prisoner. We will duct into the parking garage if anything happens." He assured.

"Great, now we can get straight to the point and get answers." Ebony smiled as she opened the door and wanted into the shop.

"You okay?" Lex asked as he opened the door for Amber.

"As well as I can be. I have a bad feeling about all this." Amber confided as she walked into the store.

"Bray is going to be fine. Look how many times that Chosen tried to kill him and failed. There is nothing that is going to stop him from getting back to you and the baby." Lex smirked as he placed a hand on Amber's arm as he passed her and walked down the hallway to a storage room.

"I hope so." Amber sighed as he opened the door and let the light into the room. Ebony walked into after Lex and stopped when she saw a blonde haired boy tied to a chair with a medal mask covering his face except for the mouth. Amber stood behind the two as she watched Lex kick the boy's foot, which caused the blonde to snap his head up to look at the three.

"What you're not man enough to finish the job that you had to get your women to do it for you." The blonde sneered as he glared at Lex.

"We have some questions for you and you are going to answer them, if you don't then we are going to have to make you talk." Ebony informed the boy as she dragged a chair over so that she could sit in front of the prisoner.

"Why would I tell you anything?" The blonde snapped, "You tied me up and threatened me."

"You invaded our city and taking our people." Ebony countered.

"I am not telling you anything." The blonde said even more determined.

"Then I will make you." Ebony smirked as she got up from her chair and went over to the corner of the backroom where there was a broken mirror. She ripped an old curtain and wrapped it around the glass so that it wouldn't cut her when she picked it up.

"Ebony." Amber called as she moved to the women's side, "Torture is not going to help us. We have no way of knowing if he would actually tell the truth or not. He might say anything to stop the pain." Amber added as the blonde boy keep his gaze on her.

"I guess some of you are more civilized then others." The boy smirked, "I will talk to her but alone."

"Right, the chance of that happening is the same as the adults all coming back to life." Lex scoffed as he walked up to Amber's side.

"It will happen one way or another. I was just hoping to avoid this." Ved shrugged the best he could with his hands tied as a red flashed appeared from the doorway that lead to the front of the store and hit Lex in the shoulder, which caused him to fall directly into the ground.

Amber quickly knelt down to check on Lex, when she heard footsteps, she turned in shock to see three masked men standing in the doorway as another one shot the same red light from his wrist, only this time it was aimed at Ebony, "I warned them." The blonde muttered as a taller man with the same color hair went over to untie him.

"You're lucky that you have your headset on, we might not have been able to find you then." The older one scolded.

"They didn't search me. You should be thanking me instead of lecturing me." The younger boy nodded as he nodded over to Amber, who was still on the ground next to Lex.

"Make sure the man with the three kids stays up and then are not harmed." The older blonde ordered to the two masked men that stood in the doorway. They nodded their heads and carried out their orders.

"What do you want?" Amber asked as she rose to her feet, only for a sharp pain to stop her. She grabbed her stomach as she bent over to try and relieve the pain.

"We're not here to hurt you, I only wanted to find my brother. Are you okay?" The older blonde asked as he moved closer to the woman, "The blast didn't hit you did it?"

"Not going to hurt me, you shot my friends.'

"We stunned them because they wouldn't listen." The younger one answered as he pulled a chair over for the woman.

"Why not stun me too?" Amber asked as she took a step back from the pair.

"The masks." The older blonde shook his head as he watched the fear flashover her face, "I didn't expect to find you this easy." He sighed as he pulled off his mask, "Why don't you sit down and I will tell you anything you want Amber."

"How do you know who ….." Amber trailed off in shock at the two men standing in front of her.

"Jay? Ved?" Amber questioned as she looked at the two in shock before blackness covered her vison.