Begin!

~Normal POV

"Hey Sunshine?"

"Yes, Trevor," Sunny replied as they stealthily made their way through the tunnels.

"What are we supposed to do if we run into a guard or something?"

She chuckled, "That's easy; we just knock them out."

"Uh, ok... if you say so."

It was pretty clear that Sunny wasn't kidding. She had a fierce look in her lovely brown eyes. She was determined to save her family.

"My phone is buzzing," Sunny said as she pulled it out of her pocket, "It's Duncan! What do I do?"

Trevor shrugged, "Uh, just answer it I'll keep watch around the corner over there."

"But- ok..." Sunny took a deep breath and answered the phone while Trevor went on a little ahead, "Hey Duncan! Are you guys having a good time on your vacation?"

"Yeah we are, thanks for asking," Duncan replied, "How are the kids?"

Sunny felt her stomach churn, "Oh, they're perfectly fine."

There a small pause, "You don't sound so sure."

"No, no, really they're fine! You can tell everyone else that everything is total fine! Anyway, they miss you and they can't wait for you to come home! Bye!" She quickly hung up the phone before he could respond and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She caught up to Trevor, "That was nerve-wracking. Duncan is too good at reading people; he almost saw right through me."

"Yeah if they call again maybe I should answer."

"Oh, that would be way worse," Sunny replied, "Bea and I aren't allowed to have boys over while the rest of the family isn't home."

They started walking again, "You called us over without hesitation when you needed us."

"It was an emergency and we left anyway. Beside they don't have to know you were over."

"Were you planning on not telling your family what happened to their kids?"

She shushed him, "I will get around to it once I'm ready. Now get over here because someone is coming!"

She quickly pulled him aside behind a few rocks and they watched as a masked guard came towards them. He didn't seem to notice their voices. He stopped next to a wall and went through a door that had been built into it. They checked to ensure that nobody else was coming and looked through the window in the door. They saw that nobody was near the door and slowly opened it before crawling inside.

They were now on a metal walkway that had been built into the area. They peer down through the railing to see a horrible sight. Down the stairs, was a set-up of old optometrists' equipment. An older man, who looked to be in his early 50s, was standing by the machine looking like he was working on it. He was dressed as a doctor and under his arm he had a suspiciously familiar walking cane. Sunny instantly felt nervous. She had seen that horrible machine before. The last time she saw it was in Dr. Georgina Orwell's office, back when it had been used on Klaus. She felt her blood boil just looking at that terrible contraption. She glanced at Trevor and made a motion telling him to stay quiet; he nodded his response.

"Aha, it's finally ready," The doctor said after a few moments, "Bring the patient over here and we'll try it again."

The guard went over to the other side of the room and grabbed a small blonde boy who was struggling to get away. The poor child was screaming for help which only made Sunny and Trevor feel worse for having to watch the scene. The boy was forced into the chair and quickly tied down with arm and leg straps. Sunny was enraged. She was about to watch what happened to her brother so many years ago.

"Now sit still you stupid child. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Dr. Winston Orwell," He reached over and pulled the eye examine machine close to the boy, "Now look into the machine and tell me what you see, boy."

The boy softly replied an answer and the doctor nodded in mild approval, "Good now we can begin."

Sunny and Trevor watched in silent horror as the boy was put through the doctor's hypnosis treatment. They were turning this boy into a fire-starter using Dr. Orwell's old machine. They could tell from the phrasing that the doctor was using.

"This place is Hell," Sunny thought bitterly.

After several minutes, the boy was released from the chair. He was calmer now, and seemed unafraid of the scary men around him.

"There we go, that's more like it. Now go put him with the other converts."

The boy was then led away by the guard to another room nearby. From Sunny and Trevor's position they could see the room had at least a dozen other kids inside. All of them were sitting quietly and calm without any fuss.

Dr. Orwell picked up a nearby clipboard and checked off something with his pen, "That's 13 kids so far. I've never had such a high success rate. My dear sister would have been proud if she were here. Now go get me another patient. That boy had a brother get him next."

Sunny and Trevor quickly exited the room and rushed away from the door.

~…

"Where do you think the kids are?"

"I don't know, but I hope they are close."

Beatrice and Hunter quickly traversed the passageway, with many turns and more than a few guards passing by whenever they stopped to hide. Eventually, they found a heavy door blocking their path. Hunter shoved it open and they found themselves in another part of the tunnel. This one looked different though because it had several cages lining the walls. Beatrice felt her heart skip a beat when they started looking through the bars of each empty cage. They must have kept a lot of kids here recently. Before they could speak, the two heard three voices that filled them with utter joy and relief.

"Auntie Beatrice! Hunter!"

Beatrice ran up to the cage, "Oh my god! Nikki, Lizzie, Sam oh, my little darlings you're alright!" The three hugged her through the cage bars.

"How on earth did you find us," Sam asked.

"Don't worry about it kids," Beatrice replied smiling widely, "Hunter help me get them all out. And hurry, we don't know if somebody is going to show up."

She worked to pick the cage lock on their cage while Hunter picked open the other cage beside them with three other kids inside.

"Is that all of them," Hunter asked.

"There was another boy across from us but he got taken away a while ago," Lizzie replied.

"Is Aunt Sunny with you," Nikki asked worriedly.

"Yes she and Trevor are here and we've got an escape vessel ready. Who are these kids?"

"Oh, these are our new friends," Nikki pointed to each of them, "This is Drake, Lucas, and Lily and they want to come with us."

"We hope you don't mind," Sam said.

Beatrice smiled, "Not at all, we're planning to help everyone."

The six kids started following the two teens down the hall as they talked.

"What do you mean by a boy got taken away a while ago," Hunter asked.

"The guard came by and dragged him away. They said it was to use Dr. Orwell's old machinery to turn them into fire-starters," Sam replied, "Do you know what that means Auntie Beatrice?"

Beatrice felt her heart drop into her stomach. As a child that was raised in the V.F.D., she knew exactly what the name Dr. Orwell meant. Thankfully, these kids didn't know just what that would entail. She nodded solemnly and they continued their escape. Beatrice glanced at the kids and noticed something about Lizzie that she hadn't seen before.

"Lizzie, where did you get that book?"

The small girl blushed and put the novel in her pocket, "Lucas gave it to me. He had it with him and he said I could read it since he was finished with it."

Lucas smiled shyly at her and adjusted his black glasses. Beatrice couldn't help smirking a bit. She had also noticed Nikki and Drake smiling at each other.

"Those poor boys... Duncan and Klaus are going to kill them."

Hunter opened the heavy door and checked for any oncoming guards. There were none so the rest of them quickly stepped out into the hall. He pulled out his communicator and called Trevor.

"Trevor, Sunny, we found the kids and they're safe with us. They even made some new friends. Get back to the waterfall entrance we came in from so we can get out of here."

"That's a relief," Trevor replied, "Sunny is talking to Jacqueline right now, they made their way inside through the summit entrance and we just found them. Don't worry about the other kids; she and Larry will get them out safely they promise."

"Got it, we'll meet you guys outside."

~End of Chapter

Yay reunion!