My heart felt like it stopped beating in my chest. It seemed like the room was holding its breath. I don't know how he knew. I did my damnedest to keep them away from her. I had never called my aunt. I hadn't even seen my baby girl in six months because of it.

Damn. He wanted an honest answer. I had to throw them off. I couldn't deny it; he'd know I wasn't under Zach's control. But Thank God for Zach. "You have a daughter?" He asked the question everyone in the room wanted the answer to. Normally, when Zach blurted something out, it sounded blunt and almost harsh.

But the look he gave me now was sincere and curious.

I figured since I was under Zach's 'mind control' I should be answering to him. I nodded, mock happily. "Yeah. She's the cutest little thing. She's ten months old."

I could just see the shock in everyone's face. I would've been shocked if I'd been anybody else. "Where is she?" Abraham's voice echoed in my ears. I had to tell him something. So I gave him the address of my last homeless shelter.

"1832 North East 17th Street, Pasadena." Yeah, that would work.

Abraham smiled. "Release her from your control or you'll be shot."

Zach nodded franticly, gesturing for another hug. "The twin buttons on the console on the left will get us out of here. You got to hit them together." Zach whispered quickly to me, before releasing me.

I pretended to look dizzy, stumbling back a little bit. Abraham caught me once more, standing me upright. "What happened?" Abraham demanded.

"If you gradually break the connection, like when she woke up from being hit on the head, there's no side effects. But if you break the connection suddenly, then she could be dizzy for a few minutes." Zach seemed to say this all on one breath, obviously worried about being shot. I was happy he was watching out for both of us.

Abraham watched me closely as I held onto his shoulder. "Did it work?" I asked, rubbing my forehead. "What's the last thing you remember?" He asked. "Hugging Zach." I told him, blinking a few times.

Abraham smiled and nodded. "Good. We just made you do a few silly little things to make sure the mind control was actually working."

"You didn't make me do anything stupid, right?" I asked, giving a glance to Zach like he would make me jump up and down like a monkey.

"No, no. Nothing stupid." Abraham smiled and looked at the room, obviously telling everyone not to say a word about my baby.

"But, sir-" Zach started and everyone within twenty feet us looked at him. He was trying, and failing, to stand up for me. Zach made a gesture with his chained hand to me.

"What's going on?" I asked, turning back to Abraham. Suddenly, the whole room returned to what they were doing. Four of the guards went to put Zach back into his container and he let them.

"Nothing, child." Abraham said, and even if I really hadn't remembered, his smile gave it all away. "What was Zach trying to say?" I asked him as he turned to walk away. "Nothing, child. Probably just going to warn you that we made you dance." He told me, going back to his duties as Commander.

I looked around curiously for my act, hoping someone would clue me in on the Commander's strange behavior. One of the ladies working the console closest to me motioned with her head to come over to me. I leaned over her shoulder, pretending to examine the screen she was pretending to work on.

She looked around quickly before looked at me. "You told the Commander the location of your daughter. I don't think anybody knew you had a daughter."

I mocked the horror I was feeling to my face. "What? Oh my god. She's just a little girl!" I whispered, trying not to look around frantically, as I mouthed the line I'd stolen from a movie.

The lady gave me a grave look before returning to her actual work. But this was bad. Very bad. I didn't know how long it would take for them to get a car out to Pasadena. Los Angeles was an hour from Maxville, but I didn't know how far from Maxville we were now.

I had to act fast. I had to get this thing on its feet. I aimlessly wandered around the room before ending up near Warren's cylinder. I just stared at him and he did his best show glare. I could tell he knew what my general idea was. I glanced sideways to see Layla yelling, or attempting to yell at me, her hands using motions and gestures I never would have imagined the Hippie knew.

I smirked at her, walking over. "Petty Officer Lynn, would you mind turning on Ms. William's microphone? I'd like to hear what she's trying to say about me." I asked, calling over my shoulder to the Petty Officer having control of the microphones.

She gave me an evil kind of smile and hit the button, turning down the volume as to not bother the entire room like she had down with Warren's.

"You filthy little dirt eater. I hope you get eaten by a bear. All we did was be nice to you and you repay us by shoving us in test tubes like we're animals. You are going to regret every single second you stand there smirking at us. Because believe me you little animal eater, I'm going to wrap you up in vines so much, all they'll find is a blood spot in the dirt!"

Layla's rant made me smirk even more. Even with the fact I was decently sure she knew I was trying to get her out, her little sprout of mean words almost made me giggle. And apparently, when they turned on the microphones for us to hear, the other five in the cylinders could hear whoever was talking as well.

And apparently, Layla's rant was what led the rebellion. Will, Ethan, Magenta and Zach all started yelling. Or what appeared to be yelling, since I couldn't hear them. Warren was exempt. If he was having trouble breathing, I doubt he'd be easily yelling at me.

"Petty Officer Lynn, feel free to turn off Ms. William's microphone at any time." I said with a smile. The Petty Officer gave another evil smirk, turning off Layla's mic in the middle of another session of death threats and supposedly cruel words.

"I thought you were going to play nice with the other kids?" Abraham asked, coming to side beside me. I just smiled. "Did you hear her? I've never heard her say so many dirty words at once."

Abraham smiled. "You're just quite the charmer, aren't you?"

He was saying this as a statement, not a question. So I just smiled. Abraham walked away, going to talk to someone else controlling a console somewhere behind me. I watched Warren as the Petty Officer sitting next to Lynn stood up. She was the one controlling the two red buttons Zach told me about.

I watched Warren, watching the Petty Officer stand up of the corner of my eye. When she was about ten feet away, Warren gave me a head nod. I all but threw myself to the right, throwing both hands over the buttons at the same time.

Everyone was still, watching as the containers lifted themselves. Warren's tornado died; Layla's heat lamp turned off; and Will's stone/metal handcuffs unlocked themselves, as did the hand and ankle cuffs around Zach, Magenta, and Ethan.

Everyone, all at once, ran for the exit, hitting the alarm that sounded the break out. I ran to Warren's side, retrieving my gun as we suddenly went under fire. Half the room had fled, being unarmed. The other half was armed and willing to go down in a blaze of fiery glory; literally.

As soon as Warren had clean air, he was launching fire balls in any direction he could. He knocked down the enemy by almost a third before Will and Layla could even help. Vines grew out of the walls, quickly overtaking the ones in the back of the room who couldn't see it coming.

This gave Will enough of a distraction to bowl over the whole right side of the room as if they were bowling pins. I sounded off three rounds, each hitting the mark they intended.

I briefly thought of my daughter and how she would never be informed of her murdering mother. Granted, they were all evil doers, every single one of them. But I now had blood on my hands.

My train of thought was derailed as I jumped. A piece of cold metal was pressed up against the front of my throat and I figured this to be the expensive Bowie knife Abraham constantly kept on his person.

"Well, well. I figured you were planning something, but I couldn't figure it out. And giving us a fake address." He said, shaking his head.

I couldn't help myself. "Warren!" I called out, being drug away. There were less than a handful of armed men and women in the room now. Warren ceased his barrage of fire to look around for my voice.

I couldn't see him as Abraham dragged me out of his line of vision. I cursed and flailed as best I could without getting myself cut. He pulled me quickly down the hall and to the left. He threw me into a chair and quickly used zip ties to hold me to the chair. I screamed once, but then got a kick in the stomach to silence them.

I heard Warren roar and the door that Abraham had locked blew to splinters, hung only by the bottom hinge, as the top had blasted away from the wall. Abraham moved closer to me, resting the knife against my throat and I took a sharp inhale of breath when I felt the cool metal. It seemed to be constantly a few degrees colder, like it wasn't warming up to room temperature.

Warren took a step towards Abraham, as his arm blazed with fire. "Uh, uh, uh." Abraham smiled, pressing the knife tighter against my throat. "Come any closer and you'll be cleaning her blood off the walls."

Warren stood still, hearing the truth ring out from the man's voice. "Kill him. Warren, kill him." I begged helplessly.

Warren's eyes went from me, to the man holding the knife, and back. "Well, you could kill me." Abraham mussed. "But you'd be killing her at the same time. And think of that poor innocent little ten month old baby without a mother." He gave a mock pout to illustrate his point.

Warren seemed dazed. He remembered how the Petty Officer was told to turn on the microphones on the outside of their containers, so they could hear, but couldn't say anything that would reach the ears of the others.

"I see the look in your eyes, Peace." Abraham smiled. "You love her. How sweet. But think about everything she's ever said to you. It was all a lie." Abraham's evil smile continued as I whimpered. I was helpless and the thought of my baby girl going without a mother, and that I had lied to Warren for so long, made me want to cry.

I could tell Warren just wanted to set the guy on fire, watch him burn alive. But he hesitated; obviously not wanting to risk hurting me. I took a deep breath and gave Warren the same look I'd given him when we were talking about the movies and ice cream in the cylinder room.

He gave me a little bit of a smile.

About the time Abraham looked confused, I decided to throw myself as far to the left as I could, knocking the chair to the ground. This left Abraham completely open.

Warren flung off three balls of fire, each hitting Abraham square in the chest. His blood curdling scream could probably be heard by Will and Layla back in the control room. We watched Abraham kind of bounce around the room, trying to put the fire out, before he threw his shoulder against the window. The window broke from the sudden pressure and heat and he flew away, to land four or so stories below us on the ground.

Warren rushed over to me, frantically untying my hands. I rubbed my head as I sat up. I had knocked myself pretty good falling over. My hands had what appeared to be second degree burns from being so close to Abraham when Warren lit him on fire. I cringed as Warren took my hands and closed his eyes, concentrating.

I watched him as he opened his eyes and pulled his hands away from mine. He had somehow managed to take the heat out of the burns, making them more like a first degree burn. Warren helped me stand up, his hand under my arm.

I cringed again from the pain in my hands. I couldn't look up at Warren and he let me wander out of the room and back into the control room. I heard sirens in the distance as I entered the room. There was blood and bullet holes everywhere. I mean, everywhere. There wasn't a foot worth of wall space that didn't have either a bullet fragment of some kind, or blood spatters.

The scene before me made me take in a sharp breath. I had caused it. I saw the three blood spots on the floor, the ones I'd killed. Layla and Will had managed to simply subdue the rest. They were all handcuffed and escorted out of the room by the city's police force. The blood had come from injuries, not deaths. Except for the three in the center of the room.

I meekly walked over to them, still holding my hands as my knees buckled and sent me to the floor. Tears streamed down my face, leaving little trails as I whimpered. I'd never wanted to kill anyone. I never wanted to shoot a man. What if he had a family? I know he was evil. I know he was trying to kill me.

But what if he had a wife and kids? Was engaged and planning his wedding? Or his daughter or son's school recital was coming up. All these images flashed before my brain and I just wanted them to stop. I heard someone sit next to me and there was a hand on my shoulder, making me cry harder.

I tried weakly to pull away from the hand, but it gripped me tightly and pulled me sideways. I had no choice, my strength left me as soon as I entered the room. I was pulled against a solid chest, their arms wrapping around me and holding me tightly. I had figured it to be Will, containing his strength.

Part of me pictured Warren shaking his head in disgust as he stormed off, seeing the metaphorical blood on my hands. I only cried for about another minute. Somehow, my body wouldn't allow me anymore. I wanted to just sit in Will's arms and cry until I went blind, if that was even possible.

But I couldn't. I pulled away from Will and stood up, attempting to wipe my face off. The bodies had long been moved, leaving a bloody smear on the cement floor. I turned to walk away from him and there stood Will on the other side of the room, holding onto Layla. I turned my head and saw Warren's black and red hair out of the corner of my eye.

Why had he stayed? Why had he held me? "You can go home now. Just forget any of this ever happened. Forget I ever came to Maxville." I told them, Will, Layla, Magenta, Zach, and Ethan watching me closely.

Zach moved forward, and I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye. He wordlessly wrapped me in a hug and I hugged him tightly for a short minute before pulling away.

Then he surprised me. "What's your daughter's name?"

I almost didn't know how to reply to the simple question as I wiped the stray water from my eyes. "Emma. Emma Munroe Cross." Was my simple answer with a little bit of a laugh to myself.

Zach smiled and replied by holding out his hand. "Hi I'm Zach Braun. These are my friends, Will Stronghold, Layla Williams, Ethan Daniels, Magenta Vitz, and Warren Peace." He gestured to each of his friends as he said their names, as if I hadn't been hanging out with them for the last three weeks.

As if I hadn't sold them out to some secret government agency that wanted to test on them.

Zach was giving me a second chance that I didn't deserve. And as I looked around at the others that were smiling at me, so were they. I heard Warren stand and come to position himself kind of next to me and Zach.

I gave a little smile. "I don't deserve to know you guys." I said, wiping my eyes once more. But I took Zach hand, shaking it proudly. "My name is Cora Cross."