The day started out normal. Or, what One knew to be normal from her life in the Lab.

One hummed a song she made up to herself as she paced around her room in boredom. She was waiting for the right time to open a portal to Seven. She had just finished her meal and was sure that he would be done soon as well. Like always, she was eager to talk to her friend.

Discussion of escaping had slowly ceased since their big argument several months back, but One sensed that there was still an angry desire burning within Seven's spirit to get out of the Lab. There was a small ping of fear in her gut every time she opened a portal to him that he wouldn't be waiting on the other side. But accompanying that small ping of fear was a small ping of hope that he'd gotten out and found the family that he kept dreaming of.

Today would be different. Today the fear would be real.

When she was confident that the appropriate amount of time had passed, One concentrated on the white wall before her and summoned a whizzing portal to Seven's room. With an excited smile plastered to her face she eagerly peered through the portal for her friend, but what she found instead was a nightmare.

"Calm yourself, Seven," Dr. Brenner hushed Seven's thrashing body as several guards held him down. Light shone off a large syringe in Dr. Brenner's hand as he brought it closer to Seven's neck. "This will help you forget."

One stood petrified in her spot, unsure of how to help. She was no match against Papa and all those guards. Come on, Seven! she urged. Use your powers!

When the syringe was only centimeters from Seven's neck, Dr. Brenner's hand paused. Dr. Brenner looked surprised and angry to find that he couldn't move his hand any closer. It shook as he fought to regain control over it, but it was a losing battle. Slowly the needle began to move in the opposite direction.

Dr. Brenner's eyes opened fearfully wide as Seven made him bring the syringe closer and closer to his own neck. Dr. Brenner was just about to inject himself when One noticed something in the hands of one of the guards behind Seven.

"Seven, watch out!" One screamed through the portal, but she was too late. The guard stabbed a similar syringe into Seven's neck and One watched in fear as Seven's eyes rolled back into his head and his body slumped against the guards who were holding him.

With Seven now unconscious, Dr. Brenner was free from his control and turned to glare at One through the portal. "One," he growled as she quickly shut the portal.

One was so bewildered from the scene that she had just witnessed that she backed into a wall and fell to the floor. So many thoughts were racing through her mind that she couldn't even function.

Was Seven okay?

Were they coming for her?

What was she going to do?

Her thoughts flashed back to the syringe Seven had been injected with. What was in it? Papa had said it would help him forget...Was that why One and Seven couldn't remember their previous lives? Because Papa had been injecting them with some sort of amnesia poison?

She had to get out of there.

She turned to face the wall to open a portal but concentration was nearly impossible. The angry beehive of thoughts and fears swarming in her mind made it too difficult to focus on the smudge she had found on the wall.

Click, click, click.

Her ears picked up on a parade of shoes stomping their way down the hallway towards her room. They were coming for her. Come on, come on, come on!

Think of trees. Think of the ocean. Think of mountains. Just pick something and get out of there! One willed herself.

An image pushed forth from the back of One's mind of a large, open backyard with several trees and crisp, colorful leaves on the ground. A man and a woman were also there, although their faces were blurry. The whole thing felt incredibly familiar but she couldn't tell if it was a memory or a fantasy. She didn't have time to.

Click, click, click.

Focusing hard on the sudden image, One opened a portal to the mysterious place. It looked a little different since it was winter, but One didn't care. She had a way out.

She crawled through the portal, wedging the front half of her body into the idyllic scene before her. Her bare arms tingled from the cold snow but she was too focused on escape to notice.

Looking around at her new surroundings, she was once again overwhelmed with a sense of familiarity. A little brown house sat at the end of the yard coated in heavy blankets of snow. It looked empty, but vivid memories from the back of her brain gave it life. Had she been here before?

Her time to figure it out was cut short by a pair of hands latching onto her ankles. One screamed as she was ripped out of the portal and away from her freedom. The little brown house blinked goodbye as the portal snapped shut from the surprise. She had been so close.

The same hands that grabbed her ankles now grabbed her arms and aggressively pulled her to her feet. They pushed her forward, making her stumble into somebody she had really been hoping to avoid: Papa.

"You've disappointed me, One," Dr. Brenner tutted.

One scrambled back from him, but was mindful to keep a distance from the rough guards behind her.

"You made me forget!" One yelled at him, tears of anger and confusion slipping down her face. "How long have you been making me forget? How much have I forgotten?"

"There, there," Dr. Brenner said with a soothing voice. He reached out to wipe her tears but she jerked away before he could touch her. "We were only helping you."

"How?" One shouted, drawing the guards closer. In a fit of anger and fear at being rough-housed again, One subconsciously opened two portals beneath the guards' feet. She only heard their screams as they dropped into an unknown. Now it was just her and Papa.

Dr. Brenner didn't even flinch as his help was forcefully evacuated. He sighed like he had been keeping a great burden on his shoulders. "Your parents didn't want you," he began to explain.

One nearly choked on her own tears as she took a step back in surprise. "What?" One's voice diminished to a whisper.

"They dropped you off at the Lab the moment you began exhibiting powers," Dr. Brenner continued. "They didn't want a freak for a daughter. So I took you under my wing. Cared for you, grew your abilities. And this is how you repay me? Insolence?"

"You-you're lying," One choked out. She could hardly see him through the wall of tears falling from her eyes.

Dr. Brenner slowly shook his head no and took a few steps towards her. "I'm afraid not."

One felt a weakness tear through her body and numb her to her core. She couldn't move. She couldn't feel. She couldn't think. Everything she feared was true. She had a family, but they had abandoned her. Her world was full of nothingness.

Dr. Brenner took advantage of the situation and wrapped his arms around her in a firm grip. In the moment she felt so hopeless, his grasp was too tight to break out of and she couldn't open a portal to escape because he'd go right with her. Unless...

One thought desperately of somewhere, anywhere else and hoped against hope that there'd be a fall. Something to jolt Dr. Brenner into letting go of her. The only image that came directly to her mind was the room where she cut Mr. Munson's arm in half. It'd have to do. One took a deep breath, summoned a portal, and waited for the fall.

Her portal thankfully hadn't failed her and the two dropped like weights onto the ground from five feet above. Dr. Brenner's grip loosened once they hit the floor and One took her opportunity to wriggle out of his arms.

A small smile worked its way into the corner of her mouth at her cleverness. She had out-smarted Papa! However, her genius was short-lived when she bolted for the door and threw it back to find a disappointing sight: she had inadvertently dropped herself at the same place she dropped the two guards. They smiled menacingly at her through the door frame with a gleam of revenge in their eyes.

One willed another portal but discovered pretty quickly that she was out of juice. Opening so many portals in such a short amount of time had burnt her out and now she faced the two angry guards powerless.

"No more running," Dr. Brenner seethed as he pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled as he took a step forward and directed the guards to grab her. She winced as they crushed her arms with their snakelike grip. They were definitely squeezing harder than they needed to.

One tried her hardest to stand tall and keep a brave face as Dr. Brenner approached her. Even though inside her bones were rattling and her soul was shaking, she would show him that she wasn't afraid of him anymore. "I'm not scared of you," she said with a raised chin, but her trembling lip nearly gave her away.

A manic laugh escaped from Dr. Brenner's throat that sent chills not just through One's entire body, but through the entire room as well. "Just you wait."

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