We follow Jayson down a familiar hallway and stop at the large door Mara pointed out to me when I first arrived, the one with the Hydra head staring back at us. To my surprise he doesn't scan his finger like Kalen did, he just pushes, and the door starts to open. It looks like it weighs a ton with how thick it is, but Jayson only seems to make the minimum amount of effort, the door swinging open to reveal the room beyond it. I guess this is one of the places in the compound without a lock, so everyone can access it easily. Or maybe they've just disabled it for today so that the new trainees who still don't have access, can enter. I wonder who gets clearance for the rooms that are locked.

We step inside, and I'm immediately floored by the size of it. It's probably as big as a soccer field, if not a bit bigger. Young Elites are walking around, looking at the weapons hanging from one of the walls and the large blue mat that occupies the center of the room. Giant pillars seem to stretch to the glass ceiling above, which bathes the entire room in sunlight.

"That's actually not the sky," says Jayson, pointing to what I'm looking at.

"They are lighting panels, disguised to look like the sky. No matter what time it is, this room always feels like its daytime. Its surreal when we come here for late night training."

That makes it even more impressive. I had never seen lighting panels that size before! I had one in my bedroom, but it was about the size of a TekPad. These were huge in comparison!

Two older trainees are stepping off the mat, exiting the room when they see all of us entering. My attention is immediately drawn to the large blue expanse of padding that stretches across the floor.

"That's for practice fights," says Jayson, coming to stand behind me, waving at the two trainees that leave the room. "It's how we train for close combat situations, learning to use our Gifts at close range and how to fight without them, if we ever find ourselves unable to use them."

"How would someone be unable to use their Gift?" Asks Cassie, puzzled.

"Yeah, isn't that physically impossible?" I add.

He shakes his head, gesturing toward the wall with all the weapons.

"Not anymore, you'd be surprised by all the tech that's out there nowadays. People have created machines that can temporarily  turn off, a persons Gift."

He walks towards the wall, Cassie and I following closely behind, and he picks up one of the practice weapons. It looks like a regular old taser, but it has a rounded end connected to a long wire that's tangled around it.

"That's what these are for," he says. "They attack the mutated sequence of DNA, incapacitating it, leaving the affected Giftless for about an hour or so. The scientific term is THV's, but when pronounced it sounds like 'thieves', so that's what we've taken to calling them. It's a fitting name if you ask me."

Wow, I didn't know something like this existed, I never heard about it. I wonder if this was one of the many secrets they kept here, I could only imagine the uproar if the public found out about something like this. But Jayson made it sound like criminals also possessed this sort of weapon, so someone must have learned about them at some point and decided to create their own.

More trainees start to enter the training hall, and Jayson looks up from the little gadget to hang it back up on the wall with the rest of them.

"I should let you to it then," he says, giving us one final trademark smile. "Alexa will be here shortly, so you won't have to wait long. And who knows, maybe we'll see each other soon."

I feel like his words have a hidden meaning, but before I can ask him what he means about that he starts walking towards the door, throwing a 'have fun' over his shoulder before disappearing from sight.

A girl that had been observing us since we entered the training rooms approaches us.

"Wow! You already know one of the tutors? How did you manage that so fast? I barely talked to anyone since I arrived," she laughs at her own comment, and Cassie and I just stare at her, not understanding what she was talking about.

"What do you mean tutor? He's just another trainee like us, isn't he?"

She nods and comes closer, taking Cass's question as an invitation to stand with us. My friend seems surprised at the sudden closeness, at our school people used to go out of their way to avoid us, and yet this girl was just chatting with us as if we'd known each other forever. I smile at Cass. 'See' I try to convey through my eyes 'I told you it would be fine'. She rolls her eyes at me and directs her attention back to the girl.

"He is," she's saying, as I tune back into the conversation, "but I saw him waiting with the rest of the third and noble years that were in charge of helping us get here. I was guided by a girl, but she didn't talk much," she pouts.

"She just dropped me off and left. Basically, after your three first years at the compound, you become a tutor, and help the mentors train the new groups of Elites while still fulfilling your own training."

Was Jayson in his third year? I could have sworn he told us he was here for longer. Mara said she'd been here since she was 9, so she definitely isn't a third year, so I guess Jayson got here around that time as well.

"Huh, that's interesting. How do you know all this stuff?"

"Oh!" she exclaims, twirling the ends of her hair. "My mom told me. She trained at this compound when she was younger, so I know a bit about how it works. I'm Sandra by the way."

Cass and I introduce ourselves, and learn that Sandra actually came with her twin brother, Mark, who was standing a ways away with another boy. They both learned about their Gifts the beginning of last year but didn't get contacted until recently. I wonder how the compound learned about the new Elites, did they have people keeping watch or what? We keep talking until a tall woman enters the room, walking past us to stand on the center of the mat. She's tall and pencil thin, wearing a tight black skirt and leather jacket. He eyes scan the room from behind her glasses, and she gestures to those of us who have noticed her, urging us to come closer.

"Welcome Elites, I am Alexa, one of your instructors," she says, voice resonating throughout the room.

"It's refreshing to see so many new faces."

The few trainees that have only just noticed her join us, as we gather around the matt to listen.

"This is going to be your first year at the compound, and as you all know, your time here depends on how dedicated you are to your training."

That's right, we would only finish when our mentors deemed us safe enough and ready to be reintroduced into society.

"Let me warn you," she says, louder this time. "The first year is always the hardest. You have a strict schedule that you must follow, any absences to one of your classes without a specified reason earns you a warning. Once you get three warnings, you fail the year. Understood?"

We all nod, a few 'understood' or 'yes' coming from the crowd. Basically, three strikes and we're out. Simple enough to remember. Alexa nods at our response.

"Good. Now, don't worry, we aren't going to be working you to death, you will have breaks in between classes, and days where you won't have any classes at all. Those are your free days, and you get to choose what you want to do with them. Before I continue, does anyone have any questions?"

A few hands go up, and Alexa points to a boy just a few spaces away from us.

"My brother used to train here, and he used to tell me about missions? What is that about?"

Alexa nods

"That's a good question Mr..."

"Grey," says the boy. "Lucas Grey."

She nods again. "Thank you Mr. Grey, I was just going to get to that matter."

She clears her throat.

"As you may or may not know, one of the tasks our students must handle while they train here is keeping the public safe. You will be given 'missions' as Mr. Grey so eloquently stated, chosen by us, the instructors."

A few murmurs of excitement erupt from the crowd, but Alexa silences them with a wave of her hand.

"Keep in mind that not all of you will get the same tasks, you will be assigned to missions depending on your strengths. If you could follow me over here."

She leads us to a board on the other side of the room, and we follow her once she steps off the mat. The board is a giant glass slab, with different colored lines decorating it from top to bottom. It almost looks like a messed-up family tree with the way it's structured. Groups of names follow the lines, and as I read through them, I find three familiar ones near the bottom of the board.

Mara Anand.

Kalen Halloran.

Jayson Bosa.

"This is the score board," Says Alexa. "It's where your success rate on your missions gets catalogued. The better you do, the higher up on the board you get placed. The higher you are, the harder the mission, and the more points you get if you succeed. Points help your mentors decide who is ready to 'graduate' from training, so the better you do on missions the more beneficial it will be for you in the future."

So, the higher you were, the better you were?

That doesn't sound very fair. What if something went wrong on a mission and it wasn't your fault? Although I guess that's part of learning how to be on a team. If one of you fails, the rest does as well. It was probably part of learning how to adapt, to work as a group. But then, why were Kalen, Jayson and Mara near the bottom of the board?

"Your names will be placed on the board once you belong to a team or create your own. You can choose the team you want to be a part of, but the original team members need to approve of your joining."

I see a couple kids high fiving themselves, probably already deciding to form a group together. In front of me, another girl raises her hand.

"Excuse me ma'am," she interrupts, "but what do you mean by teams?"

"Well," starts Alexa, "once we judge your strengths and weaknesses and learn more about each of your Gifts, you will be placed in a group with people needing someone with a particular skillset, or with a team that just needs more members. We will test all of you and decide, you all get to choose, but we will make the final decision. Whether you are part of a team or not is up to the original members, and us. You will get to meet the teams in a second."

So, I could choose to be on Maras team? I'm guessing she is the leader, since her name is written first on the board, and she was the one who had arranged my meeting with Christian. But how are they going to test our Gifts?

I raise my hand and ask Alexa, who smiles at me and gestures towards the matt.

"We will have practice duels; your partners will be chosen for you. This way we get to see what your Gifts are and where your specialties lie."

Dueling? A few murmurs are heard around the room, people who are either nervous or excited at the idea of getting to test one another so early on. I on the other hand, am royally screwed.

My Gift gives me no advantage in a fight, and I can't say anything to Alexa because I don't know if she knows about my... special ability. Would my secret be revealed?

Before I manage to freak myself out even further the door to the training hall opens, and in come the teams of Elites. Men and women, boys and girls from all ages enter the room in groups of threes or fives. They line up on the mat, and I smile when I spot Mara walking in, followed by Jayson and Kalen. She sees me and gives me a small wave, and I wave back, earning myself a few stares from my year group. No doubt they were wondering why I already knew two tutors, because these Elites all had to be third years or older, which made them all tutors.

"These are you tutors," Says Alexa, conforming my suspicions. "They will be in charge of helping you throughout your first year of training. If anything happens or you have trouble getting accustomed to this lifestyle, you will go to them. But," she adds, "don't think that your success rests in their hands, that depends solely on you."

She speaks to one of the boys in the first team, whispering something in his ear that the rest of us don't manage to catch. He nods and she smiles, nodding in return and stepping off the matt.

"I will leave you all to introduce yourselves and meet the teams. When I return, we will start your assessment."

With that she takes one final look around the room and heads out, leaving us alone with the tutors.

"I don't know who they are, but I want to be on his team," says a girl to my right, giggling with her friend as they stare at one of the groups of Elites.

I follow their gaze and find myself looking directly at Kalen, who stands stoically at Mara's right, crossed arms defining his the muscles in his biceps, gray eyes staring straight ahead. His black hair is disheveled, like he didn't bother brushing it, and his trademark smirk is plastered on his lips. I wonder if he heard what the girl said, because he looks our way and winks. The girl next to me gives a tiny squeal, and I refrain from rolling my eyes. But as I keep watching him, I find that he was staring at me... and still is. I look away before he sees the blush that is threatening to paint my cheeks pink, but I catch the way his eyebrows raise a bit before the cocky smirk turns into a smile. I avert my eyes and Cassie, who had been watching the whole exchange, laughs next to me.

"Oh, and what was that about?" she nudges me, but thankfully I'm saved from having to answer when the tall boy Alexa had been talking to takes a step forward. He also has dark hair like Kalen, but it's styled in a way that makes the strands look like spikes, and the tips of his are dyed silver. His eyes are like pitch black orbs, he has piercings in his ears, and I see a tattoo snaking out from under his leather clad arms. He claps his hands in front of him, giving us all a smile.

"Well," he says, voice echoing in the room, "where should we begin?"