Y/N L/N watched as Marcus Davenport paced back and forth, back and forth, her eyes following his dark shoes tracking dust along the floor. The two of them stood in the hallway, just outside the room where her world would change forever. Marcus had told her to wait for Douglas, his father and their boss, out here while he went to check on the bionics -- the very people that Y/N had slowly befriended. Yet he hadn't gathered up the courage, either. Both of them were stuck at a crossroads, and the decision they made would change the course of their lives forever.

"Just go check on them," Y/N told him, placing her hand on his arm in a show of comradery. He looked up at her from his gaze at the floor, his steps faltering just slightly. Those dark, familiar eyes of his found hers. They held the confusion that she felt, too, and she knew that he was second guessing everything. "You know I can't do it. Not yet. It has to be you."

"You could reveal yourself, though, Y/N," Marcus breathed out. His eyes widened at his realization, proud of himself for turning the tables, but her stomach clenched at the thought. She couldn't do that. She couldn't face them -- not yet. "Finally tell your new friends that you've actually been working against them this whole time."

"Marcus," Y/N said, shaking her head, "I don't have the courage to do it. Besides, they know that you've betrayed them. Not me. I fear something terrible would happen if I went in there. They might act on emotions because I'm their friend and somehow get out of the cage."

"Hey, I was their friend, too!"

"Yes, but they already know you hate them. They don't think that I have anything to do with this."

"Fine."

Just as Marcus turned on his heel to enter the dungeon, Douglas appeared at the end of the hallway, a frown on his face. His spiky hair nearly reached the ceiling, and he had to bend low for a moment when crossing over to them. "What are you two doing still standing here?" Douglas asked, his voice hard.

"Finding the courage to face our old friends," Y/N answered honestly. 

"You don't need courage, you just need a good shove."

And with that, Douglas shoved Y/N and Marcus through the door into the dungeon. It took a few stumbling steps for Y/N to catch her balance, but when she did, the three of them journeyed deeper into the dungeon together. The first thing Y/N noticed was that Adam, Bree, and Chase weren't stuck in the cage where they had left them earlier. That made Y/N's heart sink in her chest. Where were they, and how did they get out?

"Come out, come out wherever you are," Marcus said, sounding so sinister to Y/N. She hung to the shadows and allowed Marcus and Douglas to stalk to the center of the dungeon, near the empty cage. "You know you can't hide forever in here."

Suddenly, Adam jumped out of the shadows on the opposite side of the room and shoved Marcus and Douglas into the cage, slamming the door shut on them. "Hah!" he yelled, laughing at them. He pointed a finger at them. "I got you! Guys, get out here. We're safe!"

Chase and Bree appeared behind Adam, but Marcus and Douglas didn't look too worried about being stuck in the cage. Instead, Douglas said, "Did you really think you could trap us in our own machine?"

"Well, yes," Adam said matter-of-factly. "I did. And it worked."

"I have a secret weapon that can get us out."

Douglas stared directly at Y/N, and she knew what she needed to do. She needed to let Douglas and Marcus out and help them like they had helped her. Y/N stepped out of the shadows, too, walking closer to the computer desk, but she stopped a few feet away from it, slowly facing her friends.

"Y/N?" Bree asked, confusion spilling out on her face. Both Adam and Chase stopped suddenly when they heard their sister say Y/N's name. "What are you doing here?"

"I work for Douglas."

"No," Adam said, shaking his head. "That can't be true. You are too kind to work for someone as vile as him."

"How do you know that word?" Marcus asked. Everyone ignored him.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I do."

As she reached to press the button that would let Marcus and Douglas out of the cage, Chase turned his anger toward her, and Y/N swore that he couldn't truly see who she was beneath that glare. How couldn't he see the girl that had immediately fallen in love with him when they first met? It was like love at first sight for her. When she looked into those eyes, she knew that this boy was going to be something important to her. 

After they started talking, she realized just how similar they were and how much she desperately wanted to know every little detail about him. And she thought he felt the same about her. She swore that the two of them were meant to be something more. More than that, though, it didn't take long for Chase, Adam, Bree, and Leo to become people so important to her. 

But she worked for Douglas Davenport, their sworn enemy. She couldn't go against him, even if she so desperately wanted to.

Y/N struggled against Chase as he tried to kick her down. She wasn't as strong as him nor was she skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Douglas never trained her in that; he only trained her in the art of deception. She usually would have escaped before a big battle like this, but this time, she couldn't. Even if she ran, she wouldn't be able to outrun her regret and anger at herself, not in a million years.

She grunted when he got a foot on her side. There was no way she could hold her own against Chase. Why wasn't Bree or Adam stopping Chase from hurting her? Were they so angry with her that she had betrayed them where they didn't care if Chase took her out? Did they want to see her get what she deserved?

"Chase!" Bree finally said, catching his arm, forcefully pulling him to a stop. She didn't dare look at Y/N. "Stop it!"

Adam stood next to Bree, a haunted look on his face that broke Y/N's heart. She wished they didn't have to find out that she had betrayed them. She wished she could just escape from this moment.

"Why?" Chase asked her simply. He still held his hands up in front of him, ready to attack her if she made a move closer to him. "Why are you doing this, Y/N? What's in it for you?"

"My protection," she answered. "Douglas promised to protect me from my past if I worked with him. And I couldn't turn that down, Chase. I just couldn't."

"But why would you agree to betray us?"

"I didn't know you then. All I knew was anger and resentment." She stared at the three people she had grown to love in such a short amount of time. They had changed her into the person she was now, and she couldn't ever thank them enough for it. "But you guys taught me what it is like to love and be loved."

"Just let us out!" Douglas roared behind them, interrupting their little conversation. 

"No!" she yelled, shooting a glare at Douglas through the bars of the cage. "I won't! I've done enough against them! They mean more to me than you ever did."

Suddenly, the far wall exploded, and in walked a strange robot-like structure. It towered above everyone, but Adam seemed excited to see it. "Leo!" he shouted happily. Unfortunately for all of them, Leo's robot form broke right through the cage that kept Marcus and Douglas trapped. "Oh, no, Leo!"

Marcus and Douglas took that moment to launch themselves out of the rubble toward Adam, Bree, and Chase. Before she knew what she was doing, Y/N grabbed one of the many weapons Douglas kept on the computer desk and shot a directed laser at Marcus and Douglas. The two of them crumpled to the ground easily.

"I knew there was kindness inside of you," Chase whispered, his voice carrying easily over the silence. "I've always known who the real you is, and I love you for it."

"That wasn't exactly kind," Y/N said, giggling slightly even though there were tears in her eyes. She stared at the two bodies of the people who had taken her in when she needed it the most. But they taught her to focus in on her anger and resentment instead of teaching her how to move on. "Was it?"

She dropped the weapon on the ground as Leo said, "We should probably get out of here before they wake up."

"Good idea," Bree answered.

As they ran into the dark night, Chase held tight to Y/N's hand. Tears blurred her eyes. She didn't know what would happen now that Douglas and Marcus were defeated. The future wasn't mapped out for her like it had been, but the feeling of Chase's hand reminded her that she wasn't alone in this life anymore. She had him and his family. And deep in her heart, she knew that he wouldn't ever leave her side. Y/N had found the true meaning to life in the eyes of Chase Davenport, and she wouldn't ever let go of it for as long as she lived.