They sure as shit didn’t advertise the underground holding cells during the campus tour.

  Lauren’s cuffs were released right before two faceless BASTION soldiers shoved her into a small windowless room. Lauren didn’t resist. Not when she was loaded into an armored truck and her cuffs locked to the floor. Not when the truck doors opened again and she was led through security checkpoints into a maze of high-security rooms. Not during the quick shower she was afforded to clean the blood and dirt off. And not now, when a thick transparent wall rose from the ceiling, cutting off the cell from the hallway. She barely bothered to glare at the soldiers just doing their jobs before they left.

  The cell was bare except for a cot, toilet, and sink. She used none of them. Lauren sank directly onto the floor, collapsing in on herself. She hid away from the lights in the hall, shielded her eyes from her surroundings.

  The last friendly face she saw was Lucy’s, right before the truck doors slammed shut. She was frowning, her visage made even more unkind by the mask she wore.

  Lauren had failed her first and truest friend here. She had been too reckless, yet too slow in rescuing Mara. She had let the violence take her again. She wanted retribution against the subterrans. And now Lucy was disgusted by her. She wouldn’t be mounting any sort of rescue or coming to Lauren’s defense. She wouldn’t be waiting with open arms once she was spit back out wherever Dodds released her.

  If only she knew the worse truth. With no one watching, Lauren had stepped into the darkness. She made a selfish choice. And now, if she didn’t make her appointment with Lilith, the sacrifice of it would have been for nothing.

  Lauren kept her eyes closed as she did her best to pretend she was somewhere, anywhere else besides trapped in four sterile walls. She couldn’t keep out the silence. The silence came with voices that didn’t exist outside her head.

  You’re in the lab again.

  She has you.

  You’re back in your cell.

  You never left her control.

  Rachel isn’t here this time.

  This was all a ruse.

  You never made any friends.

  They’re laughing at you.

  This was all an experiment.

  You belong here.

  You monster.

  You killer.

  “I’m in control,” Lauren said to herself. Not even a whisper. It became her mantra in the following silent hours. This was temporary. They’d throw her back onto the streets, where she belonged. She wouldn’t get anyone else hurt. She’d make her meeting. She’d give herself to Lilith, if that’s what it took. Just as long as she didn’t have to cause any more hurt.

  No one came for her the first day. She didn’t lash out. Her claws remained hidden. She wouldn’t cause a scene for her captors to dissect as evidence against her. Eventually the hallway lights dimmed.

  Lauren was being handled before she had a chance to wake up. By the time her eyes opened and her head was snapping around, two guards were hauling her to her feet from where she had fallen asleep on the floor. She resisted the muscle memory to attack them. They wouldn’t make her a beast. She wouldn’t again be reduced to that near-feral state she had been in by the end of her stay at the lab.

  She was walked with two firm hands on her upper arms down the hall, into a metal-doored room. They pushed her inside, the door closing and locking behind her.

  One wall had a one-way mirror. A camera sat in the upper corner, facing a steel table with a chair on either side. An interview room. Or interrogation room. Probably the latter today.

  A hidden microphone clicked. “Take a seat, Lauren.”

  She remained planted on her feet for over a minute. Why, she didn’t know. No one else entered. She collapsed into one of the chairs.

  The door swung open. Pale, curvy, ever-pressed-and-perfect Agent Dodds came into the room. She sniffed and took the other seat. A guard closed the door, not waiting inside with her.

  The agent shuffled papers in front of her, taking her time as if this were some sort of casual meeting. She paid no attention to Lauren as she dissected the information in front of her.

  Tired of the games, Lauren took the bait.

  “How are the others?” Her voice was wretched from a nasal drip. She had kept her emotions tight inside, where they wreaked internal havoc.

  Dodds’ smoky eyes went up to her. Her voice was even, her expression mechanical.

  “Which ones, Lauren? The homeless rabble you dragged into a fight? Your friend missing an arm? Or your cadre of teens you led in open rebellion against the United States government?”

  “Any of them.”

  Dodds set down her papers and laced her hands.

  “I bet you feel very brave when you go out on your little escapades. I bet you tell yourself you do them for the right reasons. It’s reckless when others do it, right? When they charge in to rescue civilians caught in a brazen heist. But not when you go out into the city alone to follow a half-baked lead. Not when you get your teammates crippled because you can’t wait for things to be done the right way.”

  The accusations washed over Lauren, and she knew them all to be true. Dodds couldn’t cram any more self-loathing into her after the past hours of isolation, thinking about what she had done. She was worse than useless. She was sabotaging the efforts of this world having heroes again. The image of Lady Titan’s gut being dug into was still lurid in her mind. It was only a matter of time before she got one of them killed.

  “No defense?” Dodds asked. “Not going to get angry?”

  “I just want to know if they’re okay or not.”

  Dodds leaned in. “I don’t think you care if anyone besides your sister is okay or not.”

  Lauren’s face twitched. Again, she didn’t dispute it. She had no evidence against it.

  Dodds must have seen that she was thoroughly cowed. She tossed Lauren a bone.

  “They’ll be alright. Even Mara. I think we can still shape her into a productive future asset.”

  “But not me,” Lauren said.

  Dodds took her time replying, finding something interesting in her nails.

  “Y’know, the end of your very first week here, Hogan changed his mind about you. He told me he didn’t think you belong here.”

  Lauren snorted, incensed that the agent would try to use Hogan against her.

  “That’s not true.”

  “He told me directly,” Dodds insisted. “He wanted you moved inland for observation. He thought you would jeopardize the security of this school. I vouched for you. After your little stunt, I wanted to give you another chance. I didn’t think keeping you isolated would do you well at all. How do you think that makes me look, now?”

  “You’re lying.” Hogan had trusted her to be here, trusted her to find her own way to Rachel. He saw something in her. He wouldn’t…

  “I’d say ask him yourself, but he hasn’t been very reachable lately, has he?” Dodds inquired.

  “I don’t know.” Lauren glowered. “I haven’t tried since the museum.”

  “Mm.” Dodds confirmed her own suspicions.

  Lauren shoved whatever was happening with Hogan to the back of her already crammed mind. She didn’t want to talk to him anyway. She knew he was hiding something about Rachel. If he had given up on her, fine. Lauren had a way forward.

  “Just dump me back on the streets,” she said to the agent. “I know that’s what you all want to do. I won’t be your problem anymore. I won’t bother your precious students. I’ll disappear.”

  Dodds tilted her head, the smooth rolls in her neck bunching. She glanced at the camera posted in the corner. The red light went off.

  Lauren’s hackles rose. Something happening off the record did not seem good for her. She tensed for the door to burst open.

  Dodds put her hands flat on the table surface, fingers spread.

  “It’s alright Lauren, don’t panic.”

  “What is this?”

  “It’s an honest conversation,” Dodds said. “The first you and I are going to have.”

  Her senses screamed to run, but there was nowhere to run to. She was uncuffed, but attacking Dodds would get her thrown into a real prison. So, she was forced to stay and listen.

  “We both know you don’t belong here, Lauren,” Dodds said. “You’re a wild animal, and this school is a zoo. Actually,” she tilted her head the other way. “It’s more of a processing plant. But no one else knows that yet.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Lauren asked. She was so tightly wound she was practically shaking.

  Dodds remained calm. “I know you’ve been in contact with Lilith and the New Lords.”

  Lauren’s mind froze. Her shaking stopped. “How…?”

  How could she possibly know that?

  Dodds smiled, the first genuine one Lauren had ever seen on her.

  “We’re on the same network. In the same employment, you could say. I’m offering you a way out of this. The same deal Lilith offered, but better. You don’t have to work under her. You don’t know it, but you were put on a sinking ship. There’s no way off this, no way to what you want, by going down the right path. The resources behind me are vast. They got me this far. You can take the lifeboat with me. I’ll have you transported out immediately. It’ll have to look like a correctional transfer. You won’t have time to say goodbye.”

  Lauren lowered her head, trying to process all of this. The shadowy faction Hogan had warned her about. They were here, in this school. Not just in the school, but leading it through Dodds. And no one knew. No one but her, trapped down here.

  “You… want me to be a New Lord?” Lauren asked.

  “Basically,” Dodds said. “But, really, I’m offering you a chance to live. This school is a trap. Another step forward in destroying the yoke of BASTION. We like rebels. We like those willing to do what it takes to protect what they care about. You going back for Mara was the last thing I needed to see to know you would be right for recruitment. I know I put on a strict fa?ade,” Dodds reached across the table and put her hand over Lauren’s. It was clammy. “but I am impressed by you. More than Hogan or Knapp could ever be.”

  Lauren didn’t pull her hand away. She weighed all of what Dodds was saying.

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  “…So I live, I join you, you get me my sister, and everyone else here dies?”

  “Aren’t you tired of them looking down on you?” Dodds said by way of answer. “This little role I played didn’t come from nowhere. Even if you survived what’s coming, there would be a Trish Dodds in your way the rest of your life. You’ll never be seen as a hero in their world. Not with your powers. Not with your mindset. You can be a hero in our new world. You can live at the top of the world with Rachel when we find her. And we will find her.”

  “So you don’t have her? You don’t have Dr. Smythe?” Lauren asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dodds said. She folded her hands again. “We keep things compartmentalized. I’m told what I need to be told. Could be she’s in our employ. Might be independent. But I will find her for you.”

  The pressure built in Lauren’s mind. She broke out into a cold sweat. This was all so much so suddenly. It didn’t seem real. Joining a group who might actually be able to find Rachel. Leaving this school. Was it a real choice? Was she really thinking of this?

  Moments rose to the front of her thoughts.

  Lucy showing Lauren how to stir cookie batter.

  Grace braiding her hair.

  Danielle being a weightlifting buddy.

  The class gathered around the bonfire at night, or hanging in the lounge.

  She thought about the community she felt with them.

  To follow this path, Lauren would have to leave them to whatever deadly plan Dodds had in store. Rachel wouldn’t want that. Lauren may have been selfish, but she couldn’t leave these people who had taken her in to die. Whatever life she had with the New Lords after that would be no life at all.

  She had her answer, then.

  Lauren moved to take Dodds hostage and find a way out of this basement.

  She barely made it to a standing position. Her head and torso slammed into the steel tabletop. She felt so incredibly heavy. It was like gravity had increased fivefold in a second. A tide of nausea rose up inside her too. She was seconds away from barfing. She could barely move her arms.

  Metal scraped against the floor as Dodds stood inches away. She was somehow unaffected by whatever force held Lauren down.

  “I suppose that’s that, then,” Dodds said. She brushed off her skirt. “If you want to waste your potential and die here with them, I think our methods will find something that even you can’t recover from.”

  “Me-mreh…” Lauren could hardly move her jaw.

  “Wondering what’s got you down? Power-dampeners. Targets those with genetic anomalies with waves of deleterious force. I wasn’t sure how much would be needed to keep you down, so I had them crank it up to the max to be safe. I suppose you’ll adapt to even this eventually, but you should no longer be a concern by then.” Dodds patted Lauren’s head. “You’ll spend your remaining days down here, the same conditions as when your life truly began. No contact with Hogan or Knapp or anyone else. Your friends will live out their last week right over your head, none the wiser to what’s coming.”

  Lauren was hardly listening. She was focused on pulling herself up. Willing her cells to change, her muscles to move. Slowly, her nails sharpened into small claws. It took all her body’s might to drag them an inch across the cold steel.

  Faster. Faster. Adapt faster.

  She heard the room door open. Guards marched in. Lauren tried to get her mouth working enough to warn them. But she quickly realized with despair that they were probably part of Dodds’ personal infiltration. Every guard and piece of security across campus could be compromised.

  They clamped something onto Lauren’s back, between her shoulder blades. A more personalized version of the dampening field reverberated through her body as the wider effect faded from the room. She was still left weak and nauseous, but less enough to be guided to her feet.

  They walked Lauren back to her cell. The only resistance she could offer was dragging her feet, which was mostly unintentional. They threw her back onto the floor of her cell, the clear wall again rising. Dodds had followed behind. She looked down on Lauren twitching and shivering on the floor.

  “What a shame,” she lamented. “They tell me you have such potential. If you were the product of one of our labs, I hope they’ll forgive me for sacrificing you in the name of progress. We don’t believe in letting the weak live on. And sentimentality is a form of weakness.”

  Another guard approached Dodds.

  “We need to be careful, ma’am. The Nest is near directly above. I believe we’re under increased scrutiny.”

  Dodds’ eyes were still on Lauren. “That’s to be expected. I’m guessing the Director wants to meet with me after our little rebellion. We’ll sort things out. No one will suspect us before the reckoning comes.”

  The dampener’s effect ended. Lauren gasped. As soon as she could, she reached back to pry the device off. It detached with a sucking pop. She threw the shell-like device across the room.

  The click of Dodds’ heels echoed down the hall as Lauren was left to pound on the thick transparent wall of the cell. The sound soon faded.

  Lauren’s strength returned to her slowly. She kept pounding on the wall. All she achieved was making a dull thud. She needed to find a way out, to warn everyone. It was the least she could do after all the harm she’d done. If she couldn’t save Rachel, there had to be a way to save the others she had come to care about.

  Her strength grew incrementally, but she knew even at her strongest it wouldn’t be enough. A cell like this would be durable enough to hold someone with the strength of Danielle, and probably more. Still, she spent hours pounding on the walls, looking for vents, trying to dig with her bone protrusions, anything that would help. She barely left scratches on the surfaces.

  Her knuckles bled and scabbed over. Streaks of red smeared the clear wall. There was nothing she could do. She leaned against the front of her cell and thought about her life.

  She had once been a daughter. Was she a good daughter? It was hard to remember. Her parents still being alive felt like two lifetimes ago. It was, in a sense. She ate the cheap food they served and did her best to be entertained by the desert landscape around their home. She annoyed her parents sometimes, they both did, that was for certain. But they all loved each other. She hoped, even though she didn’t really believe in anything, that some part of her parents existed out there and were proud of her. She hoped they knew she tried her best.

  Had she done enough as a sister? She had tried to be a good sister. She took orders well, always tried her best on the illicit jobs her and Rachel did. She never spent their money on stupid things. She always kept out of trouble as much as possible. In the lab, she tried to be strong for Rachel. She was the one suffering illness, beyond the stresses the heartless bastards in the lab put on them. They never cured her, despite what they said. If they did at least save her life, it would have all been worth it. Lauren would have stayed behind for her sister to be healthy and free. She hoped one day Rachel would have her freedom and a good life on her own.

  Had she been a good friend? No. She made Lucy worry. Everywhere she stuck her nose into, disaster followed. She could heal from it. The others, not so much. Her last act of freedom had been an execution. She saw the look on Lucy’s face. If she had a way out of this, she’d be a good hero. But Lauren didn’t think any of them had much of a future.

  Her head nodded. She’d take a little nap and try again. There had to be some way out. There was time yet to save her friends.

  Some distant sound echoed down the hall. Lauren snapped back to attention. She turned around to face the hall. More sounds drew closer. Footfalls, and other commotion. Grunts. Then multiple pairs of feet stampeding closer.

  Lucy appeared in her line of sight. Lauren gasped. A smile widened on her face. She wasn’t alone. She was followed by Ike and Thalia. A few of Haint’s little monsters perched on their shoulders.

  “Lucy!” Lauren rose to her feet, filled with fresh energy. “You need to get me out of here, I—”

  “I know, we’re working on it,” Lucy said. She panted, flush with exhilaration. Vines tangled around her body, coiling like snakes. Ike held a concussion pistol. Thalia held her wildstone. Lauren couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her friends had come back for her. They were jailbreaking her. They didn’t even know the truth. They were doing this against all rules of the school. Why would they do that? It didn’t make any sense to her.

  “Jay! Get down here!” Ike called. He kept watch back the way they came.

  Jay, their dark-haired classmate, jogged down the hall. He wore a dark leather jacket over a shirt and a pair of jeans. Wispy facial hair around his mouth. Lauren didn’t know him very well, but he was around. Why he was a part of the rescue, she had no idea. He didn’t seem particularly rebellious.

  “I knew my powers would come in handy…” he muttered to himself. He approached Lauren’s cell, the others giving him space. He put both his hands against the barrier and concentrated. “And… there!”

  Lauren looked to her friends, not really sure what was supposed to be happening.

  “C’mon!” Jay whined. “I phased it out, walk through! I can’t hold this forever!”

  “Oh!” Lauren passed a hand through the wall, then walked out of it. As soon as she was out on the other side, she embraced Lucy.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t come sooner,” Lucy said. They held their hug.

  “What are you doing?” Lauren asked, still confused.

  The two of them spoke at the same time.

  “Dodds is evil and working with the New Lords!”

  They both reeled back, equally confused.

  “How do you know that?”

  “We gotta go! We don’t want to be trapped down here!” Ike said.

  Lucy grabbed Lauren’s shoulder and urged her to move forward. The team took off together down the hall.

  “Reagan, Kenny, and Nathan returned from Adam’s convoy,” Lucy explained quickly as they navigated the hall. “It’s a long story, but Abigail is an independent villain and on her way out revealed that Dodds is the one who sabotaged Adam. They came back and told us. So I kinda started a little insurrection part 2. We were already in trouble, so I figured I might as well take a page out of your book and go all the way.” They reached a switchbacking staircase and jogged up. “Anyways, now a lot of the student body is in conflict with BASTION under Dodds’ control. So... civil war time?”

  Lauren scoffed. She had never been more impressed by her friend. She didn’t think Lucy had it in her. Dodds probably didn’t either.

  They reached the ground floor and burst outside. Right into the chaos.

  White smoke billowed across campus grounds. Alarms blared from the interiors of the other buildings. BASTION soldiers ran for cover, only to be picked up and thrown by an invisible force. Headcase came walking through the cloud, his arms held high. Edward followed, murmuring and shaping the vapor. Haint’s horrors ran this way and that, latching on to panicked agents and working together to bring them down with bites from their over-fanged mouths.

  Lauren took it all in. “Where’s Dodds?”

  “Holed up in administration, we think,” Lucy said from beside her. “It’s locked down tight. We’re dealing with her forces here on campus. Not everyone believed us. Terry’s crew came to her defense. Some are still neutral, holed up around campus.”

  Lauren clutched her head. “Shit!”

  Lucy’s rescue was good, but this was all so sloppy. Dodds was still imbedded in the BASTION hierarchy. Lauren only had her unrecorded word that she was a mole. It was her word against a bunch of rebellious teenagers. They’d quash this with enough numbers, have them separated and locked up, get rid of any evidence, and by the time everything was sorted it might be too late to stop whatever plan Dodds had unfolding.

  Lucy seemed to know what she was thinking. “There’s proof. Dodds accessing the Atlas Foundation security with her credentials. We just need someone higher than her to see it.”

  Lauren nodded. That was something. But how? She didn’t have her phone. All communications off campus were probably locked down right now. She had no idea where Hogan was staying.

  Something came to her. Something said to Dodds while Lauren was still in her cell.

  “Lucy, what’s The Nest?”

  Lucy’s mouth parted. “BASTION’s floating island headquarters. It moves across country. Do you think it’s nearby?”

  “I think its somewhere above us,” Lauren said. That’s what that guard had said. Lauren had to reach the BASTION higher-ups before Dodds clamped down on them and shut their mouths. Then she could get them on their side instead of hers.

  A plan was starting to come together in her head.

  “Where’s Sola?”

  Lucy shook her head. “Held off campus, we think. We couldn’t find her.”

  Shit. Sola was the strong flier. Harper wouldn’t be strong enough during the day. Vivian was always going to remain neutral. Benedict was scrawny. That left one option. Shit.

  “We need to find Grace.”

  They took off as a pack across campus. Lucy led the way, having the better idea of where people were last spotted. More BASTION soldiers poured out of doors onto the field. How many did Dodds have stashed here? It seemed like an unending network. Whether they were truly aligned with her or only following orders, they presented an obstacle. They readied net guns and other tranquilizing weapons, pointing them at Lauren’s group.

  Lauren’s fighting sense tingled behind her eyes, letting her know it was ready to respond to danger. She blinked it back. Not today. She wouldn’t be responsible for more bloodshed. Not now, here on campus. This was going to be a victory done the right way. Lucy’s victory.

  Thalia and Ike peeled off from their group to engage the agents, Thalia bounding on all fours and Ike sprinting while firing his pistol.

  “Don’t hurt them!” Lauren called.

  Lucy nodded, grateful.

  The dorms were up ahead. Most of the doors were closed. Lucy’s vines rooted themselves to the ground, growing to launch her up to the second floor. Lauren simply took her sprint into a leap. She grabbed the railing and hauled herself over.

  They met in the middle at their dorm door. Lauren led the way inside.

  Grace and Cleo were standing at the front window, clearing having been peeking through the blinds at the battle ongoing outside. They both stepped back as the other girls burst their way inside.

  “You two better not be bringing that battle happening in here!” Grace shrieked. “I don’t want any involvement in this.”

  “You are involved! We all are!” Lucy shouted.

  Lauren waved her voice down. They didn’t have time to bicker. The longer this took, the worse their chances of flying off campus. Soon airspace would be locked down, if it wasn’t already. They were about to take a massive gamble if she could get Grace on board for it.

  Lauren stepped forward. She tried to look as sincere as possible. Grace flinched at Lauren’s blood-crusted hands grabbing her shoulders.

  “Why are you always so bloody?” Grace moaned.

  “Grace.” Lauren looked into her eyes. She tried to find some emotional connection with her roommate. Grace held her gaze. “I think you’re a dumb bitch.”

  Grace recoiled. “Fuck you!”

  Lauren held onto her. She needed to be honest if she was going to get through this.

  “But I also think, deep down beneath your big boobs, you have a good heart. You want to help people. You want to be a hero.”

  Grace softened.

  “…You really think that?”

  “I do. And we really need your help. We need you to save the day. So do you want to just look like a hero, or do you want to be a hero?”

  Grace thought about it. Her thinking expression was one of discomfort. “Am I going to get kicked out of Rosewell?”

  “No,” Lauren said. “You’re going to save Rosewell. You’re going to save everybody.”

  Grace bit her supple, glossy lower lip.

  “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

  Lauren really had no fucking idea. She nodded anyways.

  Back on the walkway, they could see the tide turning against their rebellion. More APCs had come through the gate. Students were netted, pinned to the ground. Only a few left on their feet that they could see through the cloud of suppression gas. Ike was retreating with a hand over his mouth and nose, his concussion pistol clicking empty.

  “We need to go now,” Lauren said. She threw her arms around Grace’s neck and hopped up. Grace caught her. Her red, white, and blue energy armor went up. Feathered energy wings grew from her back.

  “Don’t just jump into my arms with no warning! I don’t have strength without my field up!”

  “I’m sorry to leave you with this,” Lauren said over to Lucy. “I’ll be back with reinforcements. I promise.”

  “I know,” Lucy said.

  Grace hopped up onto the railing, cradling Lauren in her arms. Her shining wings went up, then flapped down and propelled them into the air. Lauren’s stomach flipped as the grounds of campus shrunk below. They left behind a trail of sparkling color.

  Lucy’s face shrunk until Lauren couldn’t see it anymore. This time, her last glimpse of Lucy’s expression was one of determined hope.

  Lauren turned her head skyward, looking for their salvation in a floating island.