CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Maddie Fitzpatrick moved across the apartment, cleaning up the best she could. She didn't have a lot of time before she had to leave to get to work, but she still had to make sure that it was done. When she got back home, she then had to get dinner ready and she would rather not have to worry about cleaning it up later. She had just gathered some clothes that had been scattered about, when the phone rang. Maddie quickly dropped the clothes into an armchair and scurried over to the ringing phone.

She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was her boyfriend, before picking it up. "Hey Julius, what's up?" she asked.

"I need your help with something," Julius replied in a low murmur. Maddie could hear someone saying something in the background and then a shuffling sound before he got back on. "I don't have much time to talk though, so I need you to listen."

"Ok," Maddie nodded.

"Alright, you know how before they left my siblings and I tried to get into my Dad's office?" Julius asked. "I need your help getting in there. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that there's something really important in there that we need. We didn't get far enough to look last time, though."

"What makes you think that we're going to get further in there this time?" Maddie asked in credulously. "I mean, we don't even know how much time we have before the government here starts to go after us. You've seen what's happening in Boston and if it weren't for the fact that we know how strong and determined the others are, I'd think they were dead by now."

"Maddie, just trust me, I know that something is there."

Maddie hesitated. She had seen everything that he had when it came to being an elemental. But it was still hard to think that after everything the others had gone through before to get rid of Gattaca, that everything was falling apart again, that the end was never going to come. That they were never going to be completely in peace. But they weren't going t know for sure unless they tried.

"What have you got?" Maddie asked.

Julius explained to her everything that had happened the last time that Julius and his siblings had gone to the Institution that his father had worked at and tried to get in. They had gotten kicked out almost immediately, but he had a feeling that this time would be different. Maddie listened intently as Julius told her his plan. She agreed to meet him at the institution in about twenty minutes before she hung up and raced to her room.

She grabbed her watch off of the desk and studied it. "I don't know if this is going to work, but you never know with Elemental stuff."

She put the watch on her wrist and left the apartment.

Maddie grabbed the bus and rode down to the Institution. Julius was pacing back and forth in front of the building, looking at his watch every few seconds. When he saw Maddie coming towards him, he grabbed onto her arm and started to pull her towards the building.

"Ok, all I need you to do is-"

"Wait," Maddie planted her feet firmly on the ground. "What's the rush? Don't you think that we should try and think of every possibility to how this can go wrong? I mean, what if we need a backup plan?"

Julius ignored her and continued to try and pull on her arm. "Julius, what's going on? I know that you want to help your brothers and sisters and their friends, but I don't see-"

"Because my Mom and Dad asked me to take care of them in any way that I could think of," Julius replied, his gaze at the ground. "I can't explain it really, but…they came to me in a dream once and they told me that no matter how many times the darkness gets to them or they make bad decisions that I have to be there for them. We don't talk about it much, but I hope that they know that I would give my life for them, even if I have to fight them while they're under the influence of darkness. I know that they're ashamed of the things that they have done sometimes, but they're still my little brothers and sisters."

"I know what you mean," Maddie agreed. "I'd never tell him but I'd do anything for my booger of a brother, Liam. Or for any of the rest of my siblings."

"So, even if I get a little reckless, just help me, please." Julius finally turned to her.

"No problem," Maddie said with a smile and a determined nod.

"I don't think there's any place left in Boston that's a good place for us to hide," Riley said as she moved a curtain back into place and ducked down under a window. She snorted as she looked around. "Kind of ironic, seeing as we hid out here when we were first figuring out about Halo Syndicate."

Reihu made a sound in the back of his throat as he looked around the broken down warehouse. She was probably right when she said that it was the last place that they could go without anyone finding them. It was war about there and both sides were going to pull out all of the stops to be sure that their side was going to win.

If this is what Core took me from my family for, he's got a sick sense of humor Reihu thought as he stretched out his legs and sat down on the floor as well.

"He may have a sick mind but he's not that sick," Rhuben commented, practically reading his mind. Reihu jumped as she slowly slid up from the floor, her head and shoulders appearing first. She placed her hands on the floor and pulled herself out of the shadow the rest of the way before crouching down on the floor. "I saw it in your face," she sat down on the floor next to him and leaned into his side. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologized.

"You didn't," Reihu denied quickly.

"Did you find anything out?" Riley asked, turning to her twin sister.

"No," Rhuben shook her head. "There were people swarming everywhere and I couldn't be in the shadows long enough to get a really good look." She shivered as a chill went through her body. Reihu put his arm around her shoulders. "All I saw was that on the news, they're showing more footage of Crystal and Dricer on the roof of the Tipton. They didn't get a good look at Crys, but a composite is going around so you and I should be so careful too."

"It's probably the only time that you guys hate that your mother and her mother were twins," Cindy commented, crossing her legs.

She, Noah, Caos, Shadow, Ruliyan, Tori, and Tora were in the warehouse with them. When WingzCorp had been attacked by the members of the government, Rhuben had quickly found Reihu, Riley, and Noah and while the three of them were starting to escape, they ran into the remaining members of WingzCorp (No one had seen Kuroko or Kagenui since Koto had died) and they all fled, not stopping until they reached the warehouse.

The members of WingzCorp had been in the furthest wing of the building and would have been caught if it wasn't for the fact that Noah had reminded them that they were there. They didn't have a lot of time and barely managed to get them out before the explosions had started behind them. When they had gotten outside, Rhuben had taken a hold of all of them and maneuvered her way through the darkness to get to the warehouse. Once everyone was inside, she then used her powers to pop back into Boston to see what was going on around there.

"They must be stepping up their patrols," Noah remarked, ignoring Cindy's dig. "I don't think it's ever been that hard for us to actually get somewhere before."

"Hey, I was working under pressure," Rhuben commented, rubbing her temples, closing her eyes. She could still feel the darkness knifing and ripping away at her senses, trying to take over. But she had dealt with it long enough to know how to make sure that things didn't go wrong. It wasn't until she got super pissed or stressed that she started to tap into that power and it took her over.

"Don't worry about it," Caos shook his head. "All of us are working under pressure, especially trying to figure out what's going on. We don't know what's happening or how much time we have left."

"We don't even know when we're going to get something else to eat, stupid," Tori snapped. Her head shot up as a scurrying sound surrounded them. Her dragon wings then sprang out from her shoulder blades and she darted into the corner of the room. "Dammit!" She cried, after a smacking sound was heard. "God, I wish we had some light in here."

"Don't need my element for that," Riley remarked as she stood up. She paused for a second before turning to Tora. "Do you mind circling the building real fast?" She asked. "Just need to check to see on one's around," she then gave a sarcastic smile as she held up the peace sign. "Scout's honor that I'll help ya if someone comes."

Tora looked over at her sister, who still seemed to be groping her way back over to the group and nodded before taking flight out of a window, being carefully to bring her arms to her sides so that she didn't get scratched by some rotting wood. The others watched as her shadow passed the building a couple of times around before she went back inside.

"All clear," she said.

"Cool," Riley got to her feet and walked over to a corner of the room.

Jumping up, she held out her hands and grabbed onto the end of a set of stairs that had been broken. Swinging herself up, she pulled herself up onto the stairs and then walked around a railing and stopped when she reached a lantern that was sitting in the corner. Good thing this is still here. She pulled her lighter out of her pocket and flicked the lid open before igniting it. Her face was illuminated in the glow of the flame before she reached her hand forward and ignited the lantern. She then hung it up on a hook that descended from the ceiling, illuminating the warehouse around them. Riley then sat down on the floor and rested her legs on the railing, her feet swinging back and forth over the air beneath her.

"Home sweet home," she said with a dark edge to her tone.

"It wouldn't have to be our home if Core didn't force us to work for him," Shadow suddenly said. It gathered everyone's attention as he was the kind of guy that usually didn't say anything or questioned Core's orders, now he was speaking his mind. "If he didn't start in on this business in the first place, none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that for sure," Noah said evenly. "The fact that he found out about the Elementals in the first place…if he didn't find it then, he could have found it later. Either way, we don't know for sure."

"We never know anything for sure," Reihu pointed out.

"When are we going to?" Noah shrugged. "Life doesn't work that way, so I don't expect it to be easy for us. Half the time, I'm just expecting a bomb to blow up in my face so we can just get off this god awful planet and not have to worry about it anymore, but we don't have that luxury either."

"I didn't peg you to want to give up like that," Caos said slowly.

"Who said I was giving up?" Noah's eyes hardened. "Maybe being on Earth is the problem. Maybe we have to get to the Element world to get rid of whatever it is that we're supposed to be going against." His eyes studied everyone in the warehouse. "I don't think any of us have thought of that before."

"So what you're saying is that if we go the Elemental world and do…whatever it'll all go away?" Riley asked, now repeatedly opening and closing the lid to her lighter.

"It's just a thought," Noah said.

"It makes sense though," Rhuben brought her knees up to her chest. "Our problems start with the Element world…so it should end there too."

"And how do you propose that we get there?" Tori laughed obnoxiously. "Grow wings, fly, and hope that we don't fry from the sun's rays and lack of atmosphere before we get there?"

Rhuben's hands shook at her side, the urge to knock Tori out quickly getting the better of her. She didn't care that Core had dropped the bombshell that he was really trying to help her father by protecting her and her siblings. She could give a crap about that, she couldn't get over the feelings that she had against WingzCorp and the people in it that quickly. Koto and Reihu had quickly showed her and Riley that they were different in WingzCorp when they used to be a part of it, they, for the most part, never took their assignments too seriously. Then Riley and Rhuben had left with their brothers and their guardians, but the other members of WingzCorp had never forgiven them. Even the times where Koto and Reihu would come back to attack them, trying to capture them (before they knew that Core had been doing it on purpose to try and keep them safe) she could tell that they weren't fighting to their full potential. But now…it was getting to her again, everything that they had gone through before as well as how much she hated wondering if she was going to be attacked at school or at home…it was starting to get to her.

Everything was starting to get to them.

Reihu reached over and grabbed onto her hand, holding it steady in his larger one. Rhuben looked at him out of the corner of his eye and he looked back at her, giving her a small smile, resembling the young-carefree kid that he had been so long ago. Even the things that he had gone through had started to get to him and he seemed to be the kid that never stopped smiling. As sad as it was, at some point, he stopped.

"Whatever," Riley pulled her legs back from the edge of the railing. "We should all get some sleep."

"Wait a minute," Ruliyan snarled, his sharp canines gleaming in the dim light. "We don't have to listen to yo-"

"I said go to sleep!" Riley snapped. She raised her lighter to her face and blew out the flame with a single puff of air.

"So let me get this straight," Sydney said as he slowly kicked his feet back and forth on the bed that he was sitting on.

Unlike his friends and family, when he had been captured, he wasn't thrown in a cell or had been chased out of the building, he was put into, what any of them could say, the lap of luxury. It wasn't like he was in a hotel suite, but compared to how they had been living in the past, the small room with the bed and his own private bathroom was just fine. The only thing that he wasn't so sure about was the two grown men that were wearing army fatigues that were standing over him. He didn't see any guns in their hands, but he knew that it had to be hidden somewhere.

"You want me to help you guys develop your weapon further?" Sydney's right eyebrow rose in disbelief.

He hoped that the front that he was putting on was believable; he was scared out his mind. At the moment, he could see that they wanted his help to make their weapons stronger to use against him. Why in his right mind would he do that? He would be making weapons better that would hurt his friends and family. In some sick way, it was sort of funny.

"Yes, that's exactly what we want you to do," The man on the right said patiently.

"And what makes you think that I'm the one that you need to do it?" Sydney continued to ask, trying to stall for time so he could think.

"We know about you," the man on the right replied. "We know that you're very smart."

"So are Bailey and Cody and Crystal, why didn't you take them?"

"Because they're not certified geniuses, you are," the man on the left insisted. "And we know that the technology that we have…it'll be a piece of cake for you."

"And once again, I ask, what makes you think that I'm the one that you need to do it?" Sydney crossed his arms over his chest. "What makes you think that I'll just go ahead and betray my friends to help you?"

The man on the right then said something under his breath, Sydney couldn't hear him clearly, but he was sure that he had said 'what makes you think that we're not on the same side'? Sydney frowned, not sure if he had been hearing things. It would be a whole new spin on things if the man had been telling the truth, but on the other hand…why would they all be captured like this if, for the most part, none of them were any threat to them at all. They didn't have their powers; they were basically as useless as babies.

"We can ensure that your friends get out safely if you help us," the man on the left moved closer to Sydney. "We can let you all go and act like this never happened."

Sydney stayed silent as he looked away. The man was lying, he could tell by the fact that before he spoke he would always looked to the right; that was a dead giveaway. It didn't help that the man always paused before he spoke, as if trying to find the right words to say so Sydney could believe him. But Sydney had been taught how to lie and learned how to get better at it as time went on.

But…this opportunity could be used to his advantage.

"What if I refuse?" Sydney asked, lowering his voice so that he sounded more like a ten-year-old. It would disarm them, he was sure. "What if I don't want to help you?"

"Then we can't ensure your safety," the man on the left replied. "We can't ensure your life...and we know how precious that is to all of you."

Sydney chewed on his lower lip, continuing to put up the scared front. He was going to do his best to trick them, to try and let them think that he was slowly becoming more and more scared and overwhelmed as the seconds passed.

"I don't want anyone else to get hurt," he whimpered.

"We don't want anyone else to get hurt either," the man on the left agreed. The man on the right studied Sydney carefully, but seemed to believe everything that he was saying.

Perfect.

"Ok," Sydney sniffed loudly. "I-I'll help you."

He turned away under the pretense of wiping his nose, his blue eyes suddenly glowing a brighter shade of blue. And while I'm helping you, I'll be helping myself.

A/N: You'll see more of Julius and Maddie in the next chapter; I just needed to have them come up again. Also, from now on until everyone gets back together, you're going to see a little bit of everyone in each chapter. More battles start again in the next chapter as well.

Cheers,

-Riles