Woah well isn't this a surprise, posting again at a time that isn't nine months after the last. I am determined to successfully finish this story with the next two months at most but that is considering I've got my first important exam in a couple of weeks so if I don't post within two weeks which is the time limit I've given new chapters please don't panic that I've gone into a sudden hibernation again.

Disclaimer: Consider this story disclaimed.

Chapter. 17 – The early trials keep soldiering on.

"What the hell was that all about, Cam, what's going on?" Zach said as if it were nothing more than a general inquiry but he didn't sound impatient or exasperated or have much of the overdramatic attitude he usually obtained in Cameron's presence at least, but then again, now was a circumstance that she considered Zach was smart enough to be treating her as an unexploded bomb that was making worrying noises – especially considering the fact that that last part was true. Cam's head had been suffering one long pang that wasn't enough to distract her of the circus music that was louder than it had ever been before, which annoyingly made it more than enough for Cammie to make a cohort understanding of what she'd just read, but she understood enough and Zach was the one who had reminded her of that fact.

"Goode!" She snapped in a hiss with wide eyes once she finally had shot her head in his direction. Cammie didn't really know specifically why she was close to tears as she said it, very little had ever come in front of her anger before and yet now it was the highest it had ever been and she was finding she just couldn't keep a lid on every emotion she was capable of from spilling out. All she was really certain of was the fact that that name made her want to cry past the anger and yell and sob and hit something, anything. And yet in that moment she wasn't even capable of breathing to a point of success that allowed her to stop hyperventilating.

"…Cammie are you okay?" He still sounded reproachful, apparently Cammie was in enough of a state to actually cause him to dawdle in his inevitable tutting and moving her along with him because she was wasting too much time. It was a dwindle of a thought in Cam's head and she knew it would normally make her exaggeratedly angry, and it still did a little - but all she could focus on was what he had called her.

"That name…I hated that name…for as long as I could remember but it was because I hated it when they said it, like they knew me, I didn't want anyone to call me it and they used it against me…" Cammie rambled but a klaxon was thundering in her head to reminder her that Martin had been an exception there, she had never minded him calling her that, never; which was a word Cammie had recently given a new definition too. She'd always thought he'd been pure enough to use a nickname as innocent as that, and always was also newly defined. Since she'd met him, which she was hazy on when that had ever been at all, he had been whatever light she could draw out of the darkness she'd found herself in even if it was unconsciously done so, but either way, it meant she had always been wrong about him.

"Alright, okay…" Zach stood a little straighter and contemplated the situation he'd found himself as irrelevant enough to dismiss, assuming she was rattling out some other accusation as to the horrid things "his side" had inflicted to her. Cammie didn't expect anything else though, that's exactly what she would have deduced from her from the way she's been, and it didn't help that she didn't know what her emotions made of that fact either, because what were spies? Or humans at all? But beings made up of the facts, truths and lies of their lives? And what were you if you couldn't even make heads or tails of any of yours?

"I get it okay, but we need to move on, there's a crossroad in the path soon where you can leave me, you know – rough me up a bit, make it look like I just couldn't keep you caught and go blab to some of your circle family. But I don't see why I shouldn't tell you that we'll be heading where the majority of them are anyway so you might as well tag along until we find my mom , or Sanders – you tagged along with him, didn't you? And who's that guy – he makes really good waffles, the only thing I was ever inclined to be on some level appreciative of in this place? Austin! Did you ever meet him? And who's your boyfriend? Martin? I'm sure we could find him and then we'll all be dealt with that's your sort of train of thought isn't it?" There it was.

Cammie found herself glaring at him, if she couldn't decide who to trust – neither proclaimed family having ever done anything to really help her – she would just have to make do with siding against who she felt the most clearly angry towards right now.

She slapped Zach across the face. Hard. It was so simple he hadn't seemed to be expecting it from her and so little in the special move department that it didn't even earn anything past a wild glare back from him. Even if it was one that burnt in fires worthy of hell but it was enough for Cammie to vent out with. Before she breathed her argument against him as if it were a breath from a dragon before she stormed past him, dashing through the door without hesitation for him to keep up.

"He's not my boyfriend," Martin couldn't be trusted. "And I'm gonna kill him."

cCc

Bex and Krissy couldn't even see Macey up ahead, even if the corridors were dark – it was probably mainly due to the fact that she had most likely reached the next corridor by now. They strolled carelessly despite this, or because of this, considering it was the whole idea of the plan. Bex had just joined back with the two of them after a minute or so of making sure where they were heading was as safe as it was ever going to be and Macey had taken off for her turn, as was the arrangement. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea, but it was the tactic they were most confident in for travelling through an unknown area.

Krissy halted suddenly, holding up a hand harshly for Bex to do the same as her green eyes glistened widely but Bex didn't need to be told to stop, she already had, and was rather affronted by being assumed as someone who wouldn't have picked up on that faint zipping sound. That faint zipping sound that was steadily growing stronger, harsher and louder. With a single glance to each other the two spies in training looked upwards without a word of confirmation that that was where the sounds source was, and without fail and to expertly prove their point. A large tough figure cropped from a crumbling cascade of a hole in the ceiling too dark for either of them to have noticed it.

It was two against one. The figure- notably male now – who had just dropped in had clearly used a zip line so was therefore out of breath. Also happening to still be attached to the zip line meaning that to all intent and purposes the fight that neither Gallagher Girl hesitated on starting – another factor to their advantage – should have been completely in their hands and successful within a few seconds. It somehow transpired rather quickly, however, that none of these factors meant anything because Bex and Krissy were being pummelled.

It wasn't a painful pummelling, which was only suspicious, just enough to block their attacks and a single insanely strong blow to Bex's stomach that sent her backwards with force enough for the man to grab at her ankle – wrapping the cord to what had attached him to the wire swiftly around it that he had removed unnervingly easily, leaving Bex to be dragged upwards to hang upside down – and knock Krissy back far enough to buy time before she sent a kick with wondrous aim in the direction of his head. She missed, and any student that had sparred with Kristina Solomon would vow that she never missed a kick to the head, but the figure had taken the time he had brought to raise both hands to his head in surrender – taking the untouched gun from his belt specifically to do so – leaving her stumped enough to stop attacking him and stare under a furrowed brow. Much to Bex's upside down distaste.

"You don't want to do that." Martin said in a measured but at least breathless voice. "Look," He gestured a little with his hands but kept them raised in the sign of supposed peace and chucked the gun to the floor and out of his reach, breathing something so convincingly calm and reasonable sounding that Bex would have been much more inclined to comply to if he hadn't hung her from her ankle. "You're gonna need to listen to me."

cCc

Macey held herself before the turn into the first door in the hall she'd reached, there was a second archway at the very end of the stretch of underground Circle base, but those doors were becoming expected – as much as anything was expected when you're almost a secret agent – and even if where she loitered now had a blurred yellow light spilling from the crack that the brown looking oak door allowed, the door itself was the first one she'd seen. It was too dark to be certain of much here, but Macey wasn't relying on her sight then, her other senses were the ones she needed to gather an accurate understanding of what lay behind the thing she couldn't see.

Once she was certain the room was empty she brushed through the gap letting the smell of pine hit her stronger, turning into find herself ambushed by a cosy looking fancy man's office even if it was a little cramped. Macey hesitated, the room was definitely small enough for her to gather anything of immediate value in the glance she took but this was the circle she was standing in an office for, this was the circle that probably had valuable information knocking about in a place like this, this circle took form of someone taking advantage of Macey's hesitation to sneak up behind her and attack.

It was due to Macey's hesitation still, however, that she was so prepared to fight back, having alerted herself to the approaching fight a split second before the one that lurked had moved in– now definitely male but the movements were too fast for Macey to note much else – and yet a split second was a lot shorter time than Macey was used to. Even the fight, that cascaded onto her in a whirl of fast moving limbs, was unprecedented in anything Macey had ever fought and she could fight. Well. She had won against every student that she'd fought most of the time and had held her own successfully over older fighters. Her, Liz and Bex had dared themselves to find ways to best teachers in their subject fields, which had resulted in a bored sounding word with Mr. Solomon about using Liz's experiments to try and drug their teachers and Mr. Morgan had laughed and beat Macey on the sparring mats in 20 seconds flat but that wasn't to say that to start with she had a pretty good idea of how she coped with it (They had since by forgotten why they thought that New Year's resolution had ever been a good idea).

Yet the guy she fought now was someone who managed to make Macey bruise and bleed like she was as helpless against the Circle of Cavan as all the "normal" people were, just being feisty enough to barely keep herself standing. The clutter on the offices desk's clattered as the body speeded at the chance once they had tripped Macey back and she was almost against the wall by the time she felt the knife at her throat, pounding her heart out in human terror as blood trickled from it.

The moment it took for Macey to realise that it really had only been a trickle and that her life wasn't gushing out of her - that the attacker in front of her had frozen with the knife to her throat as if he intended to make a deal of enjoying it, as if Macey wasn't going to take the sick reasons for his time to run - could have lasted an age if Macey had told the story but had been in quick, even if it had been a long time for the usual knife crime that went on between spies.

"Macey?" She hadn't heard the voice in years but had never heard it sounding so incredulous. Letting the newly daunted face focus in to her mind and wrenching her gut up in horror she didn't want to understand.

"Preston?"

"No…" He said it to himself as if he hadn't heard her at all, but Macey was more stuck on the fact that Preston had just bettered her in a fight, Preston was here…and Preston had just tried to kill her…and he'd done it well.

"You almost killed me!" She wasn't sure where she had had it in herself to snap at him like that, as if his presence in the way it had occurred was something they had prearranged since she'd been snapping at him on publicity tours.

"You're one of them aren't you?" His dark eyes were wider as he took in her uniform, darker still under them and his features had sharpened in a way down right terrifying.

"What the hell was that? How can you do that?" Macey ignored the sore at her throat and the awareness of the knife Preston hadn't lowered yet. Meaning that she had a more accurate theory as to the answer to that question than she wanted, even if it was devoid of detail and making her sick.

"A Gallagher Girl." Preston elaborated to himself again but there was a look on his face that was contorted into a disgust that simply made Macey uneasy.

"Tell me what's going on with you Preston! What happened?" Macey demanded; eyes wild and speaking the words carefully. Preston just glanced down to where the small amount of blood he'd drawn without any hesitation was drying and then back directly into her eyes, where his flashed softness. And then he stepped away and kicked Macey backwards crashing over the top of the desk that took up most of the space in the square room, jumping skilfully through the hole behind the chair he knocked over less so, it was made up to be a window; with a ledge and curtains but though it was nothing but the same dark stone that made the walls of the corridors outside.

Macey hit the wall; smashing her head against the door frame hard. Getting a hold of herself, she tried to push herself after Preston, but he had already disappeared through the window which Macey dove herself through, rooted in the office and hand on the stone that was barely a meter away but the only thing that surrounded her was darkness.

Sorry…err…would you look at that? Destroyed the basics of another well loved Gallagher Character…Tell me what you think! The Gallagher Girls seem a little bit of game this chapter don't they? Not too good when you're in a base for the Circle of Cavan, hmm? A little out of their depth are they? A lot happened, I'm feeling a little wicked but let's just discuss it shall we? Please review. (PS my read through was brief, it's late, I'll probably check through it again tomorrow so bear with)