"You never told me your birthday was weeks ago!" Alison said, cornering Emily in the Rec Room.

"What?" Emily asked, looking up from her feeble attempt at a playing card castle.

"Your birthday was on November 19th!" Alison stated, and sat down in a chair across from Emily. While doing so, she accidentally bumped her knee on the leg of the table, which caused a playing card avalanche. Emily's card tower spilled over and onto the table, causing Emily to groan in frustration.

"Thanks," she said, slightly annoyed. She looked up at Alison, "Why do you care so much about my birthday? We don't celebrate birthdays here."

"What? Why not?" Alison asked, shocked.

"Well, I mean we do. It's acknowledged and everything, but it's not like we get something special or a present. It's usually a simple, 'happy birthday,'" Emily explained. "I've gotten some gifts from the girls, but before I knew them I didn't get much. Plus, I was withdrawing in an isolation room on my birthday, so there was never time for celebration."

Emily stood up from the table, after putting the playing cards back in the little box. Alison was stunned, how shitty had Emily's life been? All of this, and now she's learned that she's had no birthday celebration either? Well not properly.

"Would you get mad if I got you something?" Alison asked, reaching out to grab Emily's wrist. "You know like a corny souvenir from Times Square?"

Emily smiled, "You don't have to do that. It's just my birthday."

"Emily, you're eighteen! You're an adult, you have to do something. Pleaseeeeeeeee," Alison begged.

Emily rolled her eyes playfully, "Okay, but whatever you come up with better be under $20 or I'm not accepting it."

"Deal," Alison said, holding out her pinkie.

"Deal," Emily countered, wrapping her pinkie around Alison's.


Alison was sat in a room with Emily, Spencer, and Caleb. It was brightly lit, and almost blinding. They were sat in a line, facing a mirror in silence. None of them knew why they were called to this room in the facility, but were personally escorted by trainers. Alison was the last to be brought into the room, the other three merely glanced up at her. She gave them a confused look, but took the empty seat next to Caleb.

Minutes had passed, and there had been no sign of anyone else that may enter the room. There was no other chair, and the only thing that Alison concluded in the past five minutes was that the mirror was definitely two way glass. There had to be people on the other side watching them, since there were no cameras in the room.

Just when Alison was thinking about speaking up to ask why they were being held in the room, an unnamed man entered the room. He was followed by Ezra, who shut the door behind him. This man had a manilla envelope in his hand, which seemed to have barely anything in it. Alison felt Caleb tense next to her, but said nothing. He looked to be in his early thirties, with a long black crew cut and stern dark brown eyes. He was strongly built, which Alison could tell under his collared shirt and khaki pants.

"Sorry for the holdup," he said, smiling brightly at the four of them. "Left this file back in my office. My name is Agent Marco Furey, and I'm in charge of any deployments and decisions that will be taking place involving NASW."

"Why are we here?" Emily asked, not even missing a beat. Agent Furey had barely finished what he was saying.

Marco held up his free hand in submission, Emily's voice did have a bit of a bite afterall, "Now, now. That's what I'm here to explain, if you'd just give me a minute."

"Emily, Agent Furey has had a lot on his plate today," Ezra said, looking sternly at Emily.

From what Alison had gathered, Ezra was a bit of a father figure to Emily. She hadn't seen much of their interactions, and Ezra was only twenty-four, making him about six years older than them. Despite this, and the fact Ezra had only worked at the facility for three years, the way Emily and Ezra interacted was in a family way. He was in between being like her father and brother, which was probably the closest thing Emily had to a family. This meant Ezra would come by their table during meals, steal one of Emily's carrots or tell her about some swim team they both followed.

"Thank you Ezra," Marco said, before turning back to the four of them. "After countless amounts of research, the board who is also in charge has selected you four as the most highly advanced in terms of your abilities. With this, we plan on sending the four of you off on your first group mission."

"So this is when we stop sitting around on our asses and actually do something," Spencer said, as she crossed her arms over her chest and crossed one leg over the other. "Instead of sitting back and letting all of these bomb threats fizzle out, the United States has actually decided to begin deploying it's superweapons."

"That's what this is about?" Caleb asked, looking from Spencer to Marco. "That bomb in Chicago."

"Wait, there was a bombing in Chicago?" Emily asked, shocked and startled.

"Guys, enough!" Ezra spoke up, his voice loud. It immediately silenced the four of them, and Alison had never seen Ezra as anything less than cheerful. "This is a serious situation that is rising, and we're doing our best to stop it or at least disable it until we can get more of you out there saving everyone."

"Now, there was no bombing, someone reported it and it was disabled before detonation. That doesn't mean that they will try again but right now they have stopped targeting the general public and have switched tactics to corrupted politicians," Marco explained. "Instead of making the public fear them, they want to gain substantial ground by making the public love them. That way they have more supporters, and more people who wouldn't be afraid if they took over."

"So, they want to take out a few bad politicians, why should we stop them?" Alison asked. "We could use a few less people like-"

"No matter how much we hate them or not, that's not what's important," Marco said, handing her the manilla envelope. "What's important is that we prevent this extremist group from gaining more supporters, no matter how corrupt these politicians are. We must put our opinions aside and help the greater good of this country."

Alison opened the folder, which contained a file on one of the senators of New Jersey. Alison recognized his name Michael Winterberry, an older man who was quite unpopular amongst the public. He was someone who had danced his way out of almost seventeen counts of extortion, fraud, and conspiracy. Her dad would rant on and on about how much of a jackass he was, but with the fact he had never been convicted of any of these crimes there had been no impeachment process. They had to save him?

"So someone's trying to assassinate him and you want us to save him, don't you?" Alison said, closing the folder. She didn't break eye contact with Agent Furey, as she handed the folder to Caleb on her left. "How is this a good thing? By not letting this happen he can continue to scam people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own gain. This isn't justice, this is unfair!"

"I told you, you four must understand the longterm consequences that this could have on the public. Listen to you now! You'd be happy if Winterberry died, so would a lot of people! If he is killed and the A-Team takes credit, the public will sympathize with them and it'll be easier for them to get their way," Marco said. "This isn't a nuclear war Alison, you can't just drop bombs on people and expect to get your way. Can't you see? This is a game! A game fabricated by a group that sees their way as right, and America wrong. We have to play this game safe and smart, and some of those choices include letting a corrupted politician walk free."

Alison narrowed her eyes at Marco, "And what if we refuse?"

"Do you wish to see your country fall to shambles, maybe even the world? This is what could happen if the A-Team takes over, there will be no America or anything leftover for you to seek refuge on," Marco said.

By now, Emily had the folder. She read over it, and then looked up at him, "It's not really like we have much of a choice Ali, I'll do it."

"I will too," Caleb said, nodding his head. Alison was shocked, how could they agree to this so quickly.

"Me too," Spencer said, turning to Alison. "Ali, you should agree. It may seem like an injustice, but think of the people we will be saving in the long run by doing this. One bad politician does not equal the amount of those innocent who could lose their lives soon."

Alison looked thoughtfully at her hands, was it worth it? This seemed wrong to let this man walk free, but they were right if they let him die more people would support the A-Team.

"Fine, I'll do it," Alison said. "What's the plan?"

"In a few weeks, there will be a benefit Christmas ball held in Manhattan. There will be a lot of important people there, and we've been tipped off that the A-Team will be deploying someone into that Christmas ball to murder Mr. Winterberry," March explained, and handed them a piece of paper that included all of the details. "They'll be disguised as one of the guests, but we aren't sure who they are. Your job will be to stop this assassin at any cost, even if you have to kill them. At the very least, you must protect Mr. Winterberry."

"So, you want us to actively try to figure out who the assassin is?" Caleb asked, as he read over the paper that he was given.

"Caleb, I want you to stay at most fifteen feet away from Mr. Winterberry. That way if the assassin tries to approach, you can use your force field to protect him but only as a last resort," Marco said. "Spencer, you can survey the area and try to come to a conclusion on who you think this assassin could be. Alison, I need you interacting with guests to also come to a conclusion. Emily, avoid water and listen for Spencer's instructions. You all will have an earpiece to relay messages between the four of you from across the room. I'll also be in as well, helping you in what you do."

"To sum it up, you want us to also act as guests and somehow figure out who this assassin is and kill them," Emily said, causing Marco to wince.

"Not exactly kill, that would be a very last option. Hopefully you can find a way to capture the assassin, so we can take them for interrogation," Marco said, crossing his arms. "In the meantime, the four of you will be training together and doing various exercises that will stimulate instances that may arise while you're there. I, and the board think that you're ready to go into this."

"Wait by why Ali?" Spencer asked, leaning forward slightly. "She's really good, but she's been here for two months and she's the supreme. If she goes, won't they also try to capture her?"

"Not exactly, the only thing that Dr. Rollins told them was that he had encountered the supreme, he never told them who," Marco said. "All they know is that it's one of you, but they don't know which one. Yes, they want Alison, but they have other focuses which include gaining popularity from the public."

"One more thing Agent Furey mentioned doing was filming the four of you during your exercises, both individually and as a group," Ezra said. "After this mission, there will be commercials and such released to the public knowing that there are young people who have some unique abilities that are here to protect them. We won't release your names, but we will have you say a few scripted words to the camera, in order to bring the public back on our side."

"We're basically your puppets," Alison groaned, and sat back in her chair.

"It's all part of the game, Alison," Marco smiled. "You just so happen to have been chosen to play it."

"Wait, so they're going to drop you into that ball and you're just supposed to protect this guy?" Hanna asked, flustered by the news that Alison, Caleb, Spencer, and Emily were telling her. Aria sat next to her on one of the couches, her knees drawn to her chest.

"Pretty much," Spencer sighed, unthrilled with who they were assigned to protect. "They're pulling us from training and having us train together every day until this charity ball."

"God, I don't think I'd be able to protect that guy if it came down to it," Hanna said, looking off into the distance. "Are you going to have to kill the assassin?"

"I'm sure that it can be a possibility," Caleb said, sitting down next to Hanna. "But, I think that's a worst case situation. I don't think they need another repeat of what happened when Emily was sent in alone. I think that's why they've formed a team this time."

"No, that's not what happened," Emily snapped, glaring at Caleb. "My mission was to kill that CEO, not protect him. Look, can we stop talking about this?"

"Caleb," Alison hissed, shooting him an icy glare. He gulped, and looked back at Emily apologetically.

"Well, you have two weeks to do this," Aria said, her finger trailing the scars that patterned her arm. "Hopefully there will be a good outcome."


"Come on you can do one more," Emily said, arms crossed over her chest as Alison came down from a pull up. Alison hung in the air, panting after doing seventy-eight pull ups. Although she had some of Noel's super strength, she wasn't as strong as him and there was clearly a limit on how much she could take.

"I really can't," Alison sighed, preparing herself to let go of the bar.

"Nope!" Emily said, running forward to wrap her arms around Alison's thighs as she fell. The way that Emily was holding on, Alison's belly button came to Emily's forehead. "Let me help you, but you're not done yet. Just a few more."

Alison sighed, and looked down at Emily who was holding her. She huffed, but a smile formed on her lips, as Emily looked up at her expectantly. She was better motivation than the majority of the trainers in the facility.

"Fine, but I'm making you go and get me water once I'm done," Alison said, in which Emily nodded in agreement.

"I can hold you all day DiLaurentis, you have super strength now right?" Emily asked, as Alison began to do more pull ups. She could feel Emily pick her up slightly to help her with the pull ups.

"I do," Alison said, grunting between pull ups. "It's just that I only got a bit of it, I'm sure I can't bend steel poles or something like that."

"True, but you can do five more pull ups," Emily said, continuing to help life Alison so she could get her head over the bar.

Once she had done the five, Alison immediately let go of the bar. Emily still had a firm grip on her thighs, her arms locked around the bottom of Alison's butt. She lowered Alison to the ground by squatting, and helped steady Alison before stepping backwards.

"See! That wasn't so bad," Emily said, smiling as she straightened up.

Alison glared teasingly at her, "Go get me water."

Emily dramatically bowed, "As you command, oh supreme. May you guide us to the path of winning the war."

"Shut up," Alison said, shoving Emily. Emily stumbled backward and fell into a workout machine, but gained her composure quickly. Alison still sometimes forgot that she didn't need to put that much effort into things anymore.

Emily laughed, and walked off towards the direction of the water fountain. Alison watched her with her hands on her hips as Emily walked away. She admired the sweat dripping down Emily's back, which was clearly visible due to the opening Emily had in her jumpsuit for her dorsal fin. Alison licked her dry lips as her eyes wandered up and down Emily's backside, admiring the view she got.

Alison waited impatiently for Emily to bring her back a cup of water. Alison took it from her and gulped it down generously. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Emily tightened her tight ponytail, and Alison saw little beads of sweat run down her neck and disappeared once they reached her jumpsuit.

"Am I done for today?" Alison asked, looking around the workout gym. The people who had been training in the workout room as well had left by now, the only other three people being those from the 14-15 year old age group. They still had a while to go before they'd be used in anything involved with the government, and that was apparent as the whole time they had been in the gym they were messing around.

Emily sighed, "Yeah, you just have one more thing."

"What's that?"

"Beat me to the showers," Emily said quickly, before beginning to sprint towards the doors of the gym.

Before Alison could register what was happening, Emily was halfway towards the open doors of the gym. She crumpled the empty paper cup in her hand, and began to run after Emily.

"Oh no you don't," Alison shouted, as Emily got closer to the open doors. With a slam, the doors to the gym closed as Emily approached them.

"No fair!" Emily shouted, having to slow down in order to reopen the doors. "That's cheating!"

By now, Alison was beginning to catch up to her. Emily got through the doors, and tried to slam the door on Alison so that she'd have trouble getting through too. When she tried, the door stayed open. Alison was in control.

Giving up on the door, Emily ran off down the hall and towards the locker room. Emily was fast, but she was faster in water. Alison was gaining on her, a little over an arms length away from Emily's ponytail. Emily turned her head back slightly, and looked surprised to see Alison catching up with her. It wasn't until they rounded the corner that Alison heard Emily hit something, and fall to the ground.

Alison slowed down, and looked to see what she hit had fallen over too. On the ground in a heep was Lorenzo, who was on his back. Alison's mouth fell open in shock, as Emily sat up and realized who she had collided into. Upon seeing that it was Lorenzo, her face went pale.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Lorenzo asked, his voice seething. "I expected more from the 13-year-olds."

Alison reached her hand out to help Emily stand, who took it gladly as she straightened up. Emily gulped dryly, as Alison was at a loss for words. They both waited for Lorenzo to gather himself, and stand back up.

"I'm sorry, we were just trying to get to the showers before din-" Emily began.

"Come with me," Lorenzo said, and Alison could tell he was holding back his anger. He didn't even tear his eyes away from Emily when he spoke to Alison. "DiLaurentis, go take a shower and get to dinner."

"Wait no, it was my fault too. We were both goofing off," Alison said, trying to defend Emily.

"I am letting you off the hook right now, you should be thanking me," Lorenzo said, his eyes finally turning to Alison. "Go."

Emily huffed, "What are you going to do? Tell Ezra?"

"That can be added to the list now yes," Lorenzo said, as Alison exchanged looks wil Emily. Emily mouthed the word "go," and nodded her head down the hallway. Alison didn't want to leave Emily there, but knew she'd get Emily into more trouble if she stayed.

Lorenzo had always been an ass to Emily, in training and personally. Alison had never experienced the anger from Lorenzo directed at her, but did think it was extremely unfair that Emily was taking all of the heat of the situation. She prayed to herself that when Lorenzo told Ezra, Ezra would help Emily. But, she couldn't be sure. She just hoped Emily would be at dinner, since she had her birthday present she bought in NYC yesterday.


"Are you okay?" Alison asked, as she sat next to Emily on the same couch they shared a blanket on in the Rec Room.

Emily stared forward, her knees drawn to her chest. She had skipped dinner, and Alison didn't expect to see her at all tonight. She didn't mention what had happened with Lorenzo, and Alison thought better than to ask if Emily wasn't going to tell her on her own. Emily seemed upset, although Alison had seen she did a good job of hiding her feelings when she was in public.

"I'm ok," Emily said, her eyes tearing away from the ground to look at Alison. "Thanks."

"I didn't do anything," Alison said, waving her off.

"You tried to take some of the heat," Emily pointed out.

"It was partly my fault," Alison countered, holding out a cardboard box. "Here, your birthday present. I had no idea where to find wrapping paper so I hope this works."

"You didn't have t-"

"Shut up, you said under $20 and this is under that," Alison said, pushing the box towards her. "Come on Em, do it for me."

Emily sighed, and began to unwrap the cardboard box, but was interrupted by Hanna shouting across the Rec Room from where she sat on a bean bag chair.

"Mona!"

Heads shot up all around the Rec Room as a girl entered. Alison's mouth almost dropped open in shock, she looked absolutely awful. Her hair was the same shade as Emily's but looked dull and tangled slightly. There were bags under her brown eyes, and she looked extremely pale. Kind of like how Emily did when she was withdrawing. Alison remembered Noel mentioning her, that she was Spencer's roommate before Alison arrived and was kind of weird.

She watched as Hanna rose from the bean bag chair and ran towards her, quickly hugging Mona as tightly as she could. Mona hugged back, but looked extremely out of touch with what was going on. Alison immediately noticed Mona's left hand, which was bandaged heavily. She could only assume that some very serious burns were underneath the bandaging, and began to wonder just where Mona was when she disappeared.

Emily rose from the couch, and began to walk over towards Mona. She placed her present on the coffee table in front of them, putting it aside for now so that she could go and greet Mona. Spencer and Aria followed too, but stayed back for the most part. It was apparent that Hanna was Mona's closest and probably only friend before she disappeared.

Alison stood up from the couch and moved behind it, leaning on the back of it as she watched the reunion. The girls chattered for a few minutes, and Alison watched as Mona answered them lowly and with barely any emotion. Mona glanced beyond the girls, and locked eyes with Alison. Alison just stared at her, not even smiling politely at her in greeting. Mona's face twisted into a heated glare, as she pushed away from Hanna.

"You!" she yelled, making everyone's conversations stop immediately. Alison barely had time to register the fact Mona was sprinting at her, when she was punched in the face. The force from Mona's blow hit her so hard that the air escaped her lungs and she fell onto the ground clutching her mouth and nose.

There was a loud commotion going on, but sounded muffled to Alison as there was a loud ringing in her ears. She felt herself be pushed over and someone straddled her lap, a hand wrapping around her neck. They were squeezing extremely hard, cutting any air off for Alison to breathe. Alison immediately reacted by putting both hands over the hand choking her in order to pull the hand off. She saw Monda hovering over her, her face angry and determined as she tried to choke her. Alison ripped the hand off of her, just in time as she saw Toby grab Mona around the waist and yank her off of Alison.

Toby alone was able to pull Mona away from Alison, as Spencer and Aria helped Alison stand. Alison's vision was blurred, as she tried to breathe heavily despite blood spilling from her nose and mouth from the punch she had received. She felt it trickling down her chin and onto the floor and the front of her jumpsuit.

"You did this to me!" Mona yelled, as Toby carried her away. She was kicking and struggling in his arms, and Alison felt Spencer put a hand on her back. She saw Emily running out of the Rec Room to go and get help. "You're the supreme, they did this to me because of you! This is your fault!"

Alison spat a mouthful of blood in Mona's direction, as Spencer and Aria quickly held her back from charging at Mona. Alison was blinded with anger, who was this bitch? Who did she think she was?

"I don't know you, you fucking bitch!" Alison yelled back at her, satisfied with her blood getting on Mona's face. "You don't know anything!"

Spencer and Aria managed to restrain her enough and bring her back towards the couches, as Toby got Mona out of the Rcc Room.

"Here," Spencer said, handing her a blanket. "I don't have a towel, but hold this to your face until we can get you down to see Dr. Kingston."

"What the fuck is wrong with that bitch?" Alison asked angrily, yet held the blanket to her face.

"NASW recovered her from being held captive by the A-Team, guess they didn't want her anymore and gave her up easily," Aria said, sitting down next to Alison.

"So the first thing she does is try to kill me?" Alison asked, feeling her teeth and nose. Her teeth were still intact, but her nose hurt like a bitch.

Her eyes glanced over to the cardboard box sitting on the coffee table, the top of a snow globe peeking out the top. The present Emily had not seen yet.


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