Get up. Please get up.

  Just as they had almost ascended too high, Evan could make out the man’s sluggish attempts to stand.

  Luna reached down for the gun that ice man had dropped.

  “What are you doing?” Evan steadied himself, expecting her to turn on him.

  “If those rebels are going to try and kill us, we’ll need the protection.”

  “No. I saved you, we’re doing this my way. No guns, no killing.”

  She glared at him but relented. “Fine.”

  Evan sat himself stiffly on a crate. He couldn’t believe they’d made it this far. So far, in fact, he feared what the rebels would do to him if he was caught.

  A bright whirl of light appeared before Evan.

  Luna kicked at the person that had appeared in the lift, but Blink grabbed the flying leg and swept the other out from underneath the enforcer, sending her hard against the lift’s floor.

  Blink’s face sunk, full of confusion and pain. “What are you doing, Evan?”

  The expression in her voice and face wrecked Evan. Where would he start to explain?

  Luna kicked back at Blink, who teleported just above the enforcer and landed on her stomach. Luna rolled over and moaned.

  Blink ran her hands through her hair… One normal, and one shriveled and corroded. Her nose trickled with some blood that she wiped away.

  “We took you in. You were family. We would have died for you.” She jabbed a finger at Evan.

  “I… I can’t trust them.”

  “You can’t trust me?”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. She had shown him a safety he hadn’t felt since getting his powers, and now he’d betrayed her.

  She squared her jaw, no smile to be found this time. “You’re just another Federation pawn. I’m taking you both back.”

  “Wait, Blink, listen to me!”

  She looked at him expectedly. She could undo everything in a moment by teleporting with her powers. Evan needed her on his side if he was to succeed, but he knew that he treaded on dangerous ground.

  “What would you do if it was your brother who’d been taken?” Evan asked.

  Her face contorted. “Andrea promised she’d help you save Ken. I’d have trusted her. We’re not against you.”

  “How do I know that?” A surge of raw emotion rose in Evan’s voice, despite his best efforts to keep from yelling. “Everyone has an agenda. Vihn wants to use me to get to my father, Andrea does also for that matter. I’m just a means, some tool to fix a problem they can’t deal with on their own. Yeah, maybe they will help me save Ken – or they’ll say they tried. ‘Oh well, now help us kill your dad!’”

  “Evan-”

  “Don’t tell me…” He searched for the words. Please help me convince her, help me save Ken. “Don’t tell me it’s not true. I’ve seen Vihn, and Nyla and their rage. Blink, I’ve seen it in you.”

  She winced at that, and Evan knew he’d hurt her. His statement wasn’t entirely true either – she’d refused to take a gun on his behalf, hadn’t she?

  He ran his fingers through his hair. There couldn’t be much time left before the lift made it to the top, he had to reason with her somehow.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “you’re not like that.”

  She furled her brow but didn’t speak. Evan wished desperately to be able to read minds.

  He continued. “Vihn talked about torturing and killing the enforcers. That’s not who I want to be. I don’t want to win like how they win. I don’t want to be like the Federation, I don’t want to be a monster anymore. I don’t want to keep proving them right about us.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The lift stopped and light from a curious moon bled into the tunnel ahead. Time was up. Evan made one final attempt to convince Blink to let him go. “I need her alive. I need her to tell me where Ken is. I need to save someone, I’m tired of getting the people I love killed.”

  Tears bit at his eyes, but he held them back. He needed his focus in case she hadn’t been convinced. If she turned against him, how would he evade her and get Luna up? How would he make it out of the tunnel without hurting Blink? He could melt the floor underneath her and she’d teleport to safety, giving him the moment to grab the enforcer and run. But for how far?

  Blink’s eyes softened. She approached Evan. “I understand. I’ll help you, Evan.”

  He leaned back, unsure if this was a trick to get close to him. Again, at any moment, she could snatch his arm and whisk him into a prison cell. “You will?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” She smiled, but Evan focused on her eyes. They had a focus to them he hadn’t noticed before… but, it was not a deceptive gaze, but one of pain. She’d trusted him, and he’d broken that. Perhaps he should have talked to her first before trying his stupid plan. It didn’t matter. This is where they were now, and the only choice was to move forward before it was too late.

  Luna stirred.

  Blink said. “If there’s anyone who knows loss, it’s me. We won’t let anyone hurt Luna, and we’re going to save Ken.”

  Luna pulled herself up while cradling her stomach. “Great.”

  Evan believed Blink, if anything, out of hope.

  The lift shook. The three of them stepped off it before it descended back down. The tunnel rumbled as dust billowed inside.

  It’s too late, Evan realized.

  “Alright kid, nowhere else to run. Come on out,” Vihn said over a speaker.

  “I’ll get us out of here.” Blink grabbed Evan and Luna’s shoulders.

  “No, you don’t have to,” Luna said, “I believe you Evan. When I joined the enforcers, I thought I’d be protecting people. But all I’ve done is rip families apart and help kill people who are just trying to survive. You didn’t choose your powers, and neither did your friend. Ken is being held in a Monolith Industries facility somewhere between here and Dogma Isle.”

  Blink studied her. “Somewhere? You don’t know where?”

  The enforcer shook her head. “The only people who do are pilots and higher ups, from what I know. They drug us before we drive to their airfield, and we wake up in the facility’s barracks. No one’s allowed to make contact outside or into the base.”

  Evan asked, “Then how do we get there?”

  “There’s a broadcast–”

  “Fine, we’re coming down to you then,” Vihn snapped.

  Luna sputtered. “Promise they won’t kill me.”

  “I won’t let them,” Evan said.

  “Every Friday, they send out a broadcast or something. If you can find out where it comes from, that might help you find a way into the facility. Your friend is there. I’ve seen him, Evan. They have him and thousands of other Afflicted locked up there.”

  Shadows danced across the tunnel.

  “To do what?” Evan asked.

  “I don’t know. Experiments, tests, fun – they don’t tell us. But there’s Afflicted who’ve been there since the Unification. You’ll find him; if he’s alive.”

  Vihn, Nyla, and Cranston marched down the hallway. Vihn’s eyes glowed and vine tendrils raced from outside, past his feet, straight toward Evan and his accomplices.

  Blink and Evan stepped in front of Luna.

  Nyla swore.

  “What are you doing, Blink?” Cranston asked, shotgun in hand.

  Blink stifled a shaky breath. “She’s helping us. She wants out.”

  “Step aside,” Vihn ordered.

  Evan didn’t budge, though he wasn’t confident that he’d beat Nyla and Vihn. But what good were his powers if he didn’t use them to protect others?

  The six of them faced-off against each other.

  Vihn said, “Kid, you haven’t noticed how Blink isn’t porting you away? Remember her hand?”

  She moved to conceal it.

  “She’s pushed herself too far already. All of us have. You’re going to get the people who care about you killed.”

  “Like you?” Evan retorted.

  “Yes.”

  “Shut up. You don’t care about me. You’re a sociopath with a vendetta against the Federation. You want to use me against my father, that’s it.”

  Vihn shook his head. “The world isn’t good versus evil. It’s evil versus evil. One day you’ll see that. Step aside, kid.”

  “No.” Evan dug his heels down and focused on Vihn’s plants.

  A pointed voice cut the air. “Stop.”

  The six of them turned to the voice that had come from the end of the tunnel.

  Andrea stood there; her white eye illuminated by the moonlight. “Evan is right, he hasn’t had any reason to trust us. We shouldn’t expect him to. I can feel the truth here. The enforcer knows how to help Evan. Let’s uphold our end of the deal.”

  Evan shouted, “I’m not going to help you against my dad. He’s not some supervillain. He’s done everything he can to help me. So, you’re wrong if you think I’m going to follow through with my end of the deal.”

  Andrea walked in between the two groups. “Maybe you’re right. It’s not for me to force you into working with us. But it’s in all our interests to find this facility. If we can find your friend and deal this blow to the Federation, then you would have done enough to help us, and we’d be even.”

  How had she heard about their conversation with Luna? Maybe Blink had been wearing her commlink.

  Evan lowered his guard. “Deal, only if Luna is left alone.”

  “Stupid,” Vihn said.

  Andrea glared at him, and he simply took out his flask and drank.

  “Deal,” she said, “if she tells us everything she knows.”

  Luna nodded. “I will.”

  Nyla groaned and stomped outside. A few explosions rocked the cave. Had she been looking forward to using her powers against them? Evan hoped he’d never find out what it was like to be on the receiving end of her Affliction. Regardless, a weight fell from Evan’s shoulders, because he believed that he had finally saved someone.

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