Closing my eyes, my hands shot up into the air as though I was trying to reach out for the plane hovering above us, and in a way, I was.

Letting my mind wander up, the headache that was screaming inside my head quietened down as though it knew that I needed to concentrate as much as possible at that moment. It wasn't like that I didn't believe Vulture and Iris, but the fact is, I didn't; at least not completely.

The second barrier promptly broke on contact with the plane, and the field shattered into a million twinkling blue lights which, luckily for us, rained on the outsiders. Using this as cover, I let my mind shot upwards, but it stopped outside the plane, unable to penetrate.

"Your little mind tricks won't work." Vulture snickered, coming up beside me as I lowered my arms, frustrated. "The UGE has developed an electromagnetic field that would disrupt and cancel out any abnormal brain wave. A.K.A any of you POEs from using your abilities to snoop on us."

Resisting the urge to hit him, I reminded myself that he was our ride out of here. I didn't sense any hostility from him or Iris, and against my better judgement, I knew this was our best shot. "Amery, I need you to stay with Aulia." I grabbed hold of the girl, who had reached us by now. Nodding at me, she donned her goggles back on and set off to Aulia, who was only just out of earshot from us, shouting directions for the students to fire the remaining bombs. I turned around to Iris, who was still next to me along with Vulture.

"Is the plane from the UGE?" I asked, trusting her to at least give me a straight answer without half a dozen snarky comments, unlike her buddy there. Iris nodded, tapping on her personal device which immediately projected a holographic display of the captain tapping away on the control abroad the plane. Sighing with relief on the inside, I nodded at her and she actually gave me a smile in return.

"You better round up everyone." She said, looking up from the swirling dust. "We don't have much time."

"Help me get them out safely." I asked, looking into Vulture's eyes and prayed that he could be serious for once in his life. Despite the fact that Iris was more reliable, I knew he was the one calling the shots between the two.

"I will try." Vulture said, a flicker of a normal person surfacing behind his joking façade. I wondered what had happened to him for him to be the way he was. But that was probably a story for another time.

"Everyone gather at the front door!" I shouted, using every bit of my strength to project the message both verbally and mentally. The giant plane was beginning to descend, causing a drift and dust started to blow up everywhere obscuring everyone's view. I glanced towards the now wide open doors, more worried about the people inside missing the commotion than those outside and not making it for the plane.

Leaving Aulia in charge, I reached my mind out the Jared and Diego, making sure that both of them were heading back. So far, so good.

"Gail!" a voice called out from inside the Academy and I looked up to see a boy no older than seventeen running towards me. There was something familiar about him and as soon as I stared into his eyes, I knew that this dark headed boy was Jared. There were about twenty people behind him, and I immediately realised that we were missing the group of youngsters.

"Where's Megan?" I asked, sensing something wrong. Jared motioned for everyone to congregate with the rest where Aulia was rounding up everyone. Vulture and Iris had already moved towards them and were now at the center communicating with the pilot to organise our pick up.

"There's something wrong. The entire corridor was sealed by something and we couldn't get through. The last I checked all the teachers went in with Mr. Andrewson except for Mrs. Tam and Mr. Oscar, then it became a complete dead zone that I couldn't penetrate." Jared spilled the words so fast that it took me a second to fully process what he said. His face was white as ash and I could tell that he had been over-straining himself.

"Hey, deep breath." I instructed, holding him steady with one arm. "It's okay now. You have done everything you can. Go, get on the plane, I can deal with this."

Jared looked torn about what to do, but before he could form a decision himself, I waved one of his friends over and have him dragged the exhausted boy off towards safety. Relatively speaking.

"You are not going back in." Diego and Bradly suddenly materialised beside me through the swirling dust, the former of the two was looking at me sternly.

"You have done enough." Bradly agreed, putting a hand on my right shoulder. "Let me do it."

I looked at Bradly, surprised at how much the boy had changed in the last few hours; he wasn't as confident as he was before, in fact, he looked like an ordinary boy who was lost. It was as though finding out that Carter was a traitor had broken something inside of him.

"Remember what Mr. Andrewson said." Diego whispered, low enough that Bradly wouldn't overhear us. "You already stayed behind instead of fleeing; do you really want to go in there and get yourself in whatever trouble they are in as well?"

I hesitated; Diego knew exactly what to say to stop me from going. I looked back at the plane that was now hovering right above the main building, stabilising and dropping ladders down for the students to climb. I watched in satisfaction as Aulia barked for people to get in line and ascend. That girl was leader material, and a much more mature person than Bradly.

"You can't do everything yourself," sensing my glance, Bradly cut in and I almost rolled my eyes; but there was a grain of truth in it. However, and I could see right now that which situation demand my attention more.

"Are you really just going to trust Vulture and Iris?" Diego asked, running alongside me as I made my way towards the entrance to the POE Academy. Bradly quickly caught up too, and the two of them exchanged an exasperated look. Ignoring both of them, I continued to gain speed and ran towards the building.

"Saralisa is with them, and you both should have more faith in everyone. Combined, they can take down that jet." I answered, eyes and mind darting around the deserted corridor, trying to see if there were any stragglers around.

"Left." Diego reminded me reluctantly as we neared a corner, I nodded to thank him, even though I actually knew the way for once and turned right.

"Where are you going?" Bradly asked as I sprint down the corridor and straight towards the headmaster's office. Whatever happened, Mr. Andrewson was sure to leave a clue behind. And there's no use of me running into the problem head on with no clue whatsoever.

As soon as I entered the room, I came to a stop, because there was already someone inside the office. Someone whom I knew.

"Joan!" I called, and the blonde turned back to face me was the girl that had been so kind to me in the Mental Section. She looked a little different dressed in dark clothes, holding a piece of paper and when I saw the visor resting on the table, I knew.

She was one of them now.

"Gail?" She said my name like it was a question, and for a second I could sense some kind of emotion coming from her before her face turned passive again; she was like a robot. I wanted to check the place where the Time Guardian was hidden so badly, but I knew any movements that I made would be observed by Joan.

"Wait up..." Diego called as Bradly and him stumbled into the room, both of them stopping short when they spotted Joan.

"Diego, Bradly." Joan smiled, as though seeing us here was the most natural thing in the world. "How nice it is to see you."

Making the same connection that I did, Bradly's face turned from surprise to incredulity, and without warning he launched for Joan.

In the blink of an eye, Joan disappeared right in front of our eyes, the piece of paper she was holding drifted to the ground. Unfortunately, we were in an enclosed quarter, so with one long sweep of his arms we saw his left hand made a grab for something and they both fell to the ground.

Gasping, I immediately reached forward and took hold of the paper, but before I could help Bradly subdue her, a crack appeared and blinding blue light begun to fill the room. But unlike last time, the light was causing searing pain on my exposed flesh and I could hear someone screaming.

"Quickly!" Diego grabbed me by the elbow and started tugging me out of the room. This all happened in a split second and before I knew what going on, we tumbled through the corridor and heard what was akin to a small explosion. Losing my footing, I almost fell onto Diego but quickly leaned against the wall for support. Turning around, I caught a glimpse of Bradly was struggling with an invisible Joan before the door swung shut and the Time Guardian's secret door had lodged open.

"Gail! Diego, hurry!" Just as I was about to kick the door open and drag Bradly and Joan out, Aulia and Casey started running towards us and gesturing for us to go towards them. Just as I was about to protest, bricks started to fall from all around us and the ceiling, one narrowly missing my head.

"We need to go now." Diego said, but I saw him cast a worried glance towards the office door. Hauling me up by my right arm, I had to swing him aside just so he wouldn't get hit by the falling light bulb.

"We need to get out of here." Diego said, I could sense that it wasn't an easy decision to make. But even within the few seconds that he spoke, we needed to dodge the rapidly deteriorating building.

It broke my heart to see the place that I just returned to fall apart, but as we ran through the corridor I realised that the damage was localised. Because as soon as we turned the corner back towards the main door, the mayhem stopped.

"What is happening?" I asked, still sprinting to the exit and not taking any chances.

"The building started to collapse in places, and we needed to get you there. Everyone who was on the field are loaded on board, and the pilot said we only have ten minutes tops before they have to clear out. Where is Bradly? Forget it, there's no time." Aulia screamed back, waving for us to follow her.

Jogging to the outside, I could see a lone ladder hanging from the plane and Aulia immediately boast Casey up to grab it. She gestured for me to go next and despite the heavy feeling in my heart at leaving Bradly and Joan, I jumped and started pulling myself up.

As I ascend the rope ladder, I stole a glance at the area surround the Academy and was surprised to see that there was no longer anyone there. The Apocalypse had completely retreated out of sight and I knew that wasn't because the plane arrived. There must be something else. Something related to the incident just now.

As soon as Diego rolled through the door, a guy in navy uniform motioned to someone else and the door started closing. Within seconds, we were flying off.

"Can someone explain to me what just happened?" A voice demanded and I whirled around to see a very angry Casey looking at me, and to my relief, a white-faced but alive Ivan. "Abigail, you just took off! And then school started falling apart. And Jared said something about all the teachers and young students disappeared? And Bradly?"

"We can save that discussion for later." Another voice that came from above said, drawing all our attention up and the chatters between the sixty odd students stopped. "We have more important things on our hands."

"Katerina." Saralisa smiled, emerging from the crowd as they parted either side of her letting her through. Katerina let out a rare smile as well, reaching forward as Saralisa climb up the stairs and the two embraced. It was strangely weird to watch the two interact, now that one knew they had known each other for over three hundred years.

"Abigail, please come with us." Katerina nodded at me, her long navy dress swishing as she turned around and headed to what I assume to be rooms. I was initially surprised at her appearance, but after everything I guessed I should say nothing is impossible.

Climbing up the stairs under the watchful eyes of everyone, I tried to brush off some of the dust gathered all over me in an attempt to not look too bad. My heart was still racing and my brain mush after the series of event that happened. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement.

"Hi Gail." Another face greeted me as I entered the room after Saralisa, this time completely unexpected. Eleanor was smiling at me, and popped out from behind her was Tristan.

"What are you, how?" I was at a loss for word and stood there dumb folded for a second. Words escaped me for the moment as the four faces looked at me and smile.

"As I said, we have a lot to discuss." Katerina said, gesturing for me to take a seat and I obliged. "I think you have something."

Staring at her blankly, I tried to stop my hands from shaking and saw that I had somehow managed to keep hold onto the piece of paper all the way. Katerina gently retrieved it from me and stood to the back of the room. I was too tired to question her, and instead looked out of the small window to the back showing the Academy in a semi-destroyed state. There was a line of destruction, almost like...

"A tunnel!" I exclaimed, slapping my hand on my thigh loudly and standing up, startling everyone. But soon they caught on as they too look out of the window.

"They were a decoy." I said between my gritted teeth, but I couldn't deny the simple brilliance. Elise must have felt them coming, though I doubt she could have done much. They were willing to sacrifice some of their own just to get to us, and I couldn't figure out why.

"Hey." Eleanor called to me and I snapped back to the present. "We need to talk."

"We are making a major breakthrough with the exposure of POE." Tristan blunted, his voice trembling with excitement. "More and more POEs had come forward and the people are in uproar. The UGE and part of the SMS are not happy, but there is nothing they can do about it. We are winning."

This snippet of good news lifted my spirit slightly, but the prospect of more Academy students being kidnapped by the Apocalypse was really bringing me down. The two of them were still looking at me expectantly.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling a little under the spotlight.

"We want to do an interview with you." Eleanor said, "We want you to be the face of the revolution."

"Me?" I retorted, incredulous at what they were asking of me right now. I stole a glance at Saralisa and Katerina out of the corner of my eyes, I had no idea what the latter was doing here, but it certainly can't be for this.

"I don't know..." I trailed off, not exactly comfortable with the thought of putting my face in front of thousands, millions of strangers.

"You are the perfect person to do this." Tristan added, looking at me with a pleading expression. "You don't want us to use Gerald, do you?"

Sighing, I realised that this was a corner that I couldn't turn away from. The Apocalypse already knew who I was, so do the SMS and the UGE. I practically had a target burning on my back. Why not add another?

"Fine." I said, ignoring the cheering from Tristan and Eleanor. "What do you want me to say?"

"Tell us the real story." Eleanor urged, pulling out a small recording device from her pockets. "In your own words."

Taking a deep breath, I gave myself a moment to gather my thoughts and trace back to the beginning.

Looking straight ahead at the camera, I started to have an inkling of how Akram felt when he shot the video for me.

"Hi, my name is Abigail Beckett." I began. "I think it would be wise to fill you guys in with the background details before I start my story, seeing as the version from the government is not true."

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Hey guys - sorry it has taken this long today! I had some major procrastination issue with this chapter trying to find a way to tie everything together. I had to scrap several bits and restart.

Anyway - a few easter eggs (not sure if I am allow to call them that!) in there. You probably won't remember Joan, so I let Gail gently remind you. And I don't know if you can spot this - the last sentence it's the beginning of the prologue of Evolution! She actually said those words on camera. More plot twists (in a way)!

So, you didn't think that life is that easy now did you? Anyway, I better head off to bed so I don't look like a zombie tomorrow. On a side note, tomorrow at 7pm EST i.e. 8am GTM+8 scikickis doing a twitter chat! I won't be 100% on but I will try and be there for as long as I can during my commute before work. So please check it out.

As always - vote, comments, let me know what you think. Do you agree with the decisions that Gail made today? After some chats with the awesome emilitawrites I think it's important for me to show that every choice she makes isn't perfect. She left Ivan, she left Bradly, because she did what she thought is best. If you don't know emiliya - check out her awesome story the Space Academy! I really love it.