We were gone within the first fifteen minutes of our two-hour grace period. I already wasn't a fan of him barging into our place but I guess we just got a taste of what it felt like to be him. Ellie and Adam found us two cars to 'borrow' for our trip back. Sam was nice enough to find the owners from a call and reimbursed them with interest which made me feel a little better about it. He tried to get another of his jets in, because of course he had another one, but they would take the same amount of time to get to us as the drive back to Vancouver, so we took our chances with a good old-fashioned road trip. The whole time this was happening, I called Akari to give her an update on everything. She was shocked and speechless to say the least, but I heard actual happiness from her as she spoke. The first I heard in long while. Needless to say, the entire time I was on that call I was glued to Oliver's side. All the hesitation I had felt before was gone now as I saw things in him that were too small to fake, like the way he pursed his lips when he had nothing to add to a conversation but wanted to get involved. Then there was just the feeling in my heart that I couldn't refute, the feeling of safety that just came over me when I was close. That and the overwhelming urge to slap across the back of his head. I had zero doubts that he was my brother. Once the cars arrived, we split our group for the trip, Adam taking Ellie, Lydia and Sam in one car and in the other was Oli, Juan, Meg, the person who was just fighting my brother a few seconds ago and me.

Juan and I practically forced Oliver to seat in between the two of us for the first leg of the drive while Megan drove the car, screaming her lungs at Cory, as I learned was his name, who taunted her with his feet up on the dashboard. While that was going on, all we could do in the backseat was grill Oliver on everything. What had happened to him, how he was alive, how he knew to be at the safe house when he did. From there he explained very vaguely the last there days of his resurrection. Whenever he was about to say something about his death or how he came back the car would quiet as Cory stared at him from the rear-view, policing his words. All though it wasn't as in-depth as I would have hoped, it was something. Just hearing his voice after months of listening to old audio messages and imagining his voice, just hearing him stumble over a sentence brought me so much joy. It didn't take long before we passed in the back and woke up for the next rotation where Oliver insisted on driving, probably to just get some leg room and space to breathe because Juan and I were rightfully smothering him. On the stop to rotate drivers, Cory just flew off talking about needing breathing room from us, which quite frankly was a win.

We only stopped for food and rotations to make our trip as quick as possible, we managed to avoid Transgress and Vortex the whole time and eventually made it back to Veltrace Island on Christmas eve. The island was quiet on arrival, the moonlight releasing all tension from my soul as we walked from the docks. Oliver looked somewhat giddy to be back on the island, maybe because he missed it or maybe for the safety the island just brought those who entered. Lights in the surrounding houses we out as the silence of the sea's breeze rolled through the trees, guiding us all back up the steps to the main entrance where two people stood waiting under the dim light. Their expressions as we walked up were some of joy and hesitancy. Maxwell was in his papa bear mode already as we brought our lost cub back to the den, unsure of whether to trust that Oliver was who he was. Akari on the other hand had this bright smile, one so radiant and homely, as she watched him walk back.

"The unstable matchstick," Maxwell said softly as we stood under the dim outside light.

"If only you," Oliver replied with a mild grin on his face.

"We should have you punished for the trouble you caused, interfering with a mission, dying, becoming a martyr for rogue Amps, I have a whole shopping list of things that lead back to you somehow."

"Maxwell cut the boy some slack. You can pester him in the morning." Akari said as she went up to him and hugged him. "We all missed you dearly."

"I hope you guys didn't get rid of my room," He joked as he pulled himself from the hug.

"I see you have a friend." Akari pointed out looking to Cory who was zoned out until he realized he was being spoken to. He narrowed his eyes at her in a bitter way as if he knew her already and had the worst experience with her.

"Not friends. I'm going to go find food." He said as he shoulder-checked past her and walked through the door.

"God, I hate him," Adam said as he walked past Akari giving his father acknowledging nod as he followed the boy with Ellie following at his heels.

"Mr Wilstock, I'm glad to finally meet you. Not the circumstances I was hoping for, however." Akari recovered herself, giving her shoulder a rub before extending her hand out to him.

"The pleasure is all mine. Although the circumstances aren't the best I'm happy to be here. Thanks to the team you sent to watch over me, I don't have to be in the hands of Vortex or in legal battles with Transgress. Of course, I won't be here for long though. I'll be on a plane tomorrow morning to not cause you any trouble."

"Are you sure that's wise considering the last time you were on a plane?" Maxwell crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes, it is risky but we have arranged for higher security that my father has handpicked," Sam said trying to sound optimistic but coming off resignedly.

"We can send some people with you if you'd like." Akari insisted.

"Tomorrow's Christmas. I wouldn't want to take any more people from their families."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be too much of a problem."

"No, no. that's quite alright. I think we will be more than enough for the trip." He said with a light smile. "Now if you will excuse me, I would like to get some sleep in an actual bed. Lydia, could you show me the way to a spear room."

Lydia nodded she guided Sam walked past the two people before the door and disappeared inside with her. That just left Meg, Juan, Oli and me with the two leaders of The Foxhole. "Have the Abbas' contacted you yet?" Meg asked.

"They will be arriving sometime time this week, they were hesitant about coming here but after some talking, they seemed more open to coming to here."

"I'm glad they are safe," Oliver added,

"It's thanks to you that they are safe." She said to the two of them. "You all should go rest up, tomorrow we will discuss everything in great detail."

"That works because we have a lot to cover," Juan said with a big yawn.

"Max, if you could walk the others in, I would like to talk to Stephanie."

He gave her a crooked eyebrow but didn't push as he opened the door to let the others through. Oli looked back at me with a calming smile before the door closed behind him. That left Akari and I standing in the cold winter air, the moon breaking through the leaves to give us a little more light. "So, what do you want?" I asked bluntly, as much as I was in a good mood, I wasn't up for Akari's games.

She took a deep breath before placing her hand on my shoulder. "You did good Stephanie. Against the odds, you did what you could and came back with the best possible outcome from all the harrowing situations you were put through."

"No, I didn't. Fisher was killed, Juan was kidnapped, and we lost one of our safe houses. The mission was complete but it by no means was the best possible outcome."

"'Through adversity, the best leaders are made.' Do you know who said that?" Akari asked as she looked up at the moon above.

"I don't know."

"Me, right now." She said with a small smile. "You are going to make a great leader one day Stephanie, but to do that you must accept the losses you take and learn from them. I did not doubt you were capable to handle this."

"Does that mean you are going to stop keeping things from Maxwell and me?"

There was a long silence, one that was carried off by the wind until she met my eyes again "I will try."

The night came and went in a snap. I woke up for the first time in months without the urge to pull out my dagger, it was a weird sensation but it felt relieving. Oliver did not have his old room so he crashed on my floor for the night and it's probably the only time would be happy to hear his obnoxious snoring. It did get very old, very quickly but it was still nice to have him alive. I kicked him awake and got ready for the day. We grabbed breakfast with the others in the flashily decorated mess hall while everyone stared at Oliver. Literally, everyone who saw him just stared and gawked. Some stopped to thank him others just whispered to whoever they could pointing out who he was. I could see Oliver tense up from everyone staring up, some things didn't change it seemed. Adam was the one who got everyone to start minding their own business but it didn't really stop all the staring Oli could feel it. It cut breakfast short but it didn't really bother us that much because Akari and Maxwell wanted everyone from the mission to meet in the meeting room.

Some of the others left before us to get some things ready which left me with Juan and my brother again. We roamed the halls of The Foxhole, showing Oli the things that had changed since he was last been here until we got to the main library. Crowds of people were waiting on the sidelines just staring at the doors waiting for us to appear through them. After the brief moment of disbelief from everyone, what followed was thunderous applause. I hadn't heard the library this loud since Amps were exposed to the world and it was odd to have all those cheers and applause be directed to Oliver. He was as red as his complexion would allow, he looked between Juan and me to look for any hints that we knew that we would find this but we were just as stunned as he was. They parted for us like the red sea, continuing to cheer for my brother and though it was all a good thing, I could feel his anxiety build up. I was never good with this before, helping him with his anxiety, or being there in general but I want to think of this as a great time to start.

I punched him in the arm lightly to snap him out of his trance and when he looked at me I just made a stupid face, just a random dumb face. He didn't even question it and did a dumber face. We went back and forth making faces at each other while walking through these people and all his worries seemed to settle just to make it through the people. Oliver stood on the dais and made a short comment thanking them, assuring them that it wasn't necessary but still appreciated it. He was not one for public speaking so he kept it short and sweet as awkward as it was. They gave one more applause before the crowd dissipated leaving Oli just looking exhausted.

We went to the wall and used the elevator down to the conference room, Oli gasped at the sight of the secret elevator which felt very on-brand. When the doors opened again, the three of us filled in the last three seats as we seemed to be the last people to arrive. Adam, Ellie, Lydia, Megan and even Cory were already seated with Maxwell and Akari having a small conversation in the corner as they waited for us to enter.

"So, which one of you guys orchestrated that?" Oli asked as he flopped into his chair.

"That was all them, we had no hand in that," Adam said as he continuously eyed Cory who had his feet up on the table.

"You have to have realized the effect your death had on everyone around the world," Ellie added.

"Yeah, but everyone has the wrong idea. I just feel like I'm lying to them, I'm not some symbol of rebellion."

"You're going to have to get used to buddy. It's only going to get worse when the news catches wind of this." Juan said to him as he punched him in the arm.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better because it didn't?" He replied with a scowl.

"Where's Sam?" I asked,

"He left earlier this morning," Meg responded. "I was up and he send his thanks to you for everything."

"If everyone is here we should get this started. We all probably have plans for today so we shouldn't hold off much longer." Max said as he sat down close to Adam while Akari sat opposite Oliver and me.

"I think we should start with Oliver, we have a gist of what you've been doing for the last four days but you've kept very vague." Akari started as she looked towards my brother.

"Actually, I think I need to talk about the mission you sent me on," Adam spoke up, he looked unsure about whether he should speak but I could feel the weight of what he was carrying.

"Adam, we can talk about that afterwards," Akari said, trying not to sound harsh but I could feel the essence of her command to the boy.

"No, I think he should speak," Maxwell said, inviting the boy to speak. From the side of his eyes, he gave Akari a vile stare.

"Akari gave me orders to retrieve an item from Alaska, something she had been searching for a while and was able to track it down to some mountain. We went in and found this." He said as he bent down to grab something from underneath the table before carefully setting down a long bundle of slightly tattered but exquisite black and silver fabric with a white snake slithering through the textile. He untied a piece of rope that bound it closed and unfurled the cloth to reveal a katana. The blade was protected by a black sheath, that shared a similar pattern to the cloth that wrapped it also had words written in Japanese using flush silvery ink by the hand of someone gentle and skilled. The guard of the blade reminded me of a four-leaf clover made of black steel with intricate designs painted in silver that have since faded with time. Akari stared at the weapon as if were her child but at the same time with distant foreignness.

"That's the sword from that you're grandmother used." Ellie pointed out.

"Yes. This is Higure, Nightfall." She said as she took the blade in her hands with a tenderness, slowly unsheathing the blade. The light caught the pristine metal within before disappearing within the scabbard. "It's one of two my ancestors made to be passed down through the generations. The other is Yorke, Daybreak, and I've been looking for them just to have a piece of my family. It wasn't very important so I didn't feel the need to disclose what the mission was."

"I find it very hard to believe that you sent Adam to collect an heirloom for you and keep it from everyone." Maxwell pointed out.

"Adam is someone I and I'm sure everyone here trusts and relies on to get something done efficiently."

"What you are describing is a trained dog and that isn't what he is," Ellie said with a little bit of an attitude.

"Obviously, that is not what I am saying." She defended herself.

"That doesn't matter, what matters is the other thing you sent me to retrieve from Madam McGrove's home computer." Adam continued.

"I'm sorry, what did you tell him to do?" Maxwell began to raise his voice. "Akari, we sent them there to boost our relations between us and the Idlites, not destroy any chance of us looking good to the public. What if they had gotten caught?"

A layer of her courteousness shed away, "Adam knows better than to get caught."

"That's what you have to say?" Juan asked. "I didn't see what they found but it was enough to have Adam and Lydia worried."

"What did you guys find?" I asked.

"It's easier to show you," Lydia said as she pulled out a computer and got to project her screen to a screen at the far end of the room. What was on the screen seemed to be several medical documents that denoted a person's name, age, location and whether or not they were an Amp. This turned into a list of names from people all over the world categorized by location and then by if they were an Amp or not. "This is a medical registry from hospitals that Madam Mcgrove has shares in. Legally she should not have any ones medical history nor should the hospitals be giving them out. The parts that are concerning are that their doctors aren't even allowed to disclose whether someone is an Amp, they shouldn't even be looking for that. All of these reports have statements indicating what the patient came in for. It seems that hospitals are taking it upon themselves to document who is an Amp. Then we found this." She said as she showed a document on the screen which seemed to be some kind of contract that allowed this shady activity and it was signed by none other than Major Kevin Colts.

"Transgress? Transgress is getting medical information from hospitals to find Amps without having to wait for them to use their powers." Megan scanned through the document. "How did they even get this to swing?"

"A lot of money, corruption and blackmailing. There were some pictures and documents of powerful people that together would have enough leeway to pull this off silently. This was what Lydia and I found outside of what we were sent for, all Akari wanted was the list."

"How did you even know about the list?" Maxwell turned to the woman in the hot seat.

"That doesn't matter to you, because what you really want to know is why I wanted the list in the first place." Her tone shifted to one more cool.

"It's pretty obvious," Cory said as he stared at her with this terrifying ire. "From what I've seen, you are outgunned with Vortex and Transgress breathing down your neck. You see that chess pieces are falling off the board so what else do you do but find more to stack the board."

"I hate to agree with him, but it does feel like you are trying to build an army," Adam said hoping that she wouldn't agree.

"That's correct," She said confidently.

"Jesus, Akari. Are you kidding me, these people are not soldiers." Maxwell shouted as he pointed at the screen. "We are supposed to be providing people with refugee, not building an army out of them."

"Don't act like that is all we do, we have sent children to fight battles and infiltrate buildings, turned them into murderers and that is only the young ones. The adults have done much worse. We've been doing this since the beginning but we don't want to talk about it. All I'm doing is getting prepared for what is coming."

"You know, don't you?" Oliver asked out of the blue, a pale look on his face. "You know that she's alive."

Whatever colour that Akari had on her face drained away swiftly "I don't know what you are talking about."

"That's why you have the sword, why you are trying to build an army. You know that Eliza is alive."

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Juan asked as if he had just zoned back into the conversation.

"Eliza, like Eliza Rhodes. The person evil Amp, leader of the Society of Power, the woman who nearly enslaved all Idlites. Is that who you are talking about?" I looked at my brother, confused as to what he was trying to get at.

"Do you hear yourself, that's absurd. She has been dead for seventy years."

"I guess this is a better time than any to come clean about everything. Cory's allowed me to tell all of you but this stays here. Regardless of how ridiculous it sounds just know it's all the truth" Oli spoke, his voice slightly hesitant. "I died and went to heaven. When I got there I was told I wasn't meant to die. I decided to try to get back here so I went to Hell and made a deal with the Devil to bring me back to earth on the condition that I find and kill Eliza Rhodes who somehow survived."

Everything in the room was silent as everyone just blinked at him. Quite simply put it was the most bizarre thing I had heard ever. The only thing that stopped me from outright laughing in his face was the seriousness on his face. I could tell that everyone in the room was having a hard time believing him except for Meg who was rather calm about the whole thing. "How does Cory fit into all this?" I asked trying my best to be supportive.

"I'm the demon that Lucifer sent to make sure he gets it done." Cory calmly said.

"Nope, I'm sorry but no. I have entertained the idea that Oliver could have returned to life but this is absolutely ridiculous. Heaven, Hell, demons. There is no logic behind it." Lydia burst out.

"It's him and he's telling the truth, I can stake my life on it." Meg cut in.

"You're life must not mean much to you then. You are being scammed."

"Show me the mark," Akari asked, a question that seemed to catch Oliver and even Cory off guard.

Oliver looked at her, his demeanour souring as he lifted up his shirt up to reveal a tattoo of a seven-pointed star with circles on each end, different symbols in each circle. When Akari saw it she sighed heavily and swore under her breath. "What is happening right now?" Juan asked, seeming to become more confused as more happened and to be honest, I was with him on that.

"Oliver is telling the truth, about all of it. Eliza Rhodes is alive and him coming to life." Akari stated as she sat back in her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"How do you know about the mark?" Cory asked, his voice deathly serious.

"How are you all of a sudden just confident about everything that you were just denying seconds ago?" Lydia pilled on.

"I can't tell you," Akari said simply.

"That answer has become extremely tiring to hear," Adam said calmly.

"I can't tell you because I don't know. I don't remember." Akari said, her voice much sadder as she looked at Maxwell. He looked furious but when she looked at him, he seemed to huff out in exhaustion which lead to him calming down.

"We'll you better remember." Cory kicked his legs off the desk and planted them firmly into the floor, his whole body on edge.

"Cory, please." My brother turned to the demon and gave him a look before turning back. "Obviously there is no way to prove anything we just said but why would I lie and if I had a chance to lie why would I choose this as my reasoning? If I can't convince you of that, that's fine but Eliza is a real thing that I have to deal with."

"You mean we?" I said as a way of trying to encourage him.

"No, he means he has to kill her or he goes back to Hell in one year, nine months, three weeks and two days," Cory said, still staring at Akari intensely.

"You have to hear how stupid this is," Lydia stated but Akari put her hand up towards her.

"If we keep to what is logical then nothing will get done. Every person in this room has a superpower, where is the logic in that? Rather than focus on those things you don't know, focus on what we do know, Eliza Rhodes is alive." Oliver said trying his best to appeal to her.

"We think she's connected to Vortex, they share similar ideals and when we talked to the leader of Vortex she seemed to know something about her," Meg spoke up as she pulled out her bag.

"You spoke to the leader of Vortex!" Maxwell nearly kicked his chair away. "We haven't even been able to scrap an alias off Vortex members. How?"

"The Canary but that isn't important. She wanted us to retrieve something for her before she would help us. It's called Project Heavenly, It's what Dr Abbas found. We don't know why she went through as much trouble as she did to look for this but it has the same mark that Oliver has on his chest inscribed on it."

"So, this thing has something to do with death." Adam tried to piece the connections together.

"Possibly, we don't know. It's just a bunch of gibberish that I don't know."

"Let me see that." Lydia requested while snatching the tablets out of Meg's hands and started to scan through the stones in her hands.

"The least we could do with these is understand what Vortex wants and maybe leverage the information for something about Eliza if they even have any."

"So, it could be a dead end." Ellie pointed out.

"Possibly, but it had something to do with the mark so I'd want to see what can learn regardless," Oliver said.

"I should mention that we learned what happened to the missing people. Vortex is taking Amps and conscripting them to join their cause forcefully." Meg said, her face becoming more sullen.

Oliver looked at her with a troubled stare before he spoke up. "They want Meg."

"What do you mean they want Meg?" I asked.

Meg stared daggers at the boy but he did not seem phased, she sighed "They marked everyone they saw as potential conscripts. The tattoo I have on my back is how they identify us, and they made a strong point of taking me."

"Do you think they are going to start specifically looking for you?" Maxwell inquired.

"Depends on how much we pissed them off," She tried to make light of it but there was some fear.

"All I'm hearing is that they are building an army," Akari spoke up, her facial expressions were that of a stone.

"That doesn't justify going behind my back to steal medical documents to build our own." Maxwell retorted in fury.

"I think it does. If they are coming for us, we need to fight back and we do not have the numbers or enough well-trained Amps."

"Akari, we can't start doing the same thing Vortex is." Ellie tried to keep a steady voice.

"We aren't, it will be their choice."

"So, this is what you've been keeping from us," Maxwell said dejectedly.

"And you see why I kept it from you. Is this the truth you were looking for Stephanie?" She turned to look at me with a glare.

"This is complex, it's a combination of different language morphemes within each word but there's another layer of encrypting that this information has gone through in order to create this. Whoever made this was a genius and did not want just anyone to understand this." Lydia said with wonder in her eyes, seemingly distracting herself from everything.

"Then you should focus on decoding that. Oliver, Meg and Cory, you three can help as this is what you three found. Stephanie and Elaine, I want you two to start recruiting people in this list, delegate as you will but you two will need to take point in this." Akari started to issue orders.

"You can't seriously start dishing out orders like this. This isn't a dictatorship." Maxwell protested.

"Then what do you want us to do? Tell us your plan, Maxwell." She stood up and planted her hands on the desk. Maxwell sat baffled as she stared him down, I'd never seen him speechless but he clearly did not enjoy it as he scowled and clenched his fist, the slight sound of popping muffled within it. His anger spewed off of him. "Until you can come up with something that will help us, then I will be giving orders. Adam, you will be accompanying Juan to find Julietta."

"No," Juan said coldly with no hesitation. Ellie and Adam looked on edge at the sound of the name and even Maxwell tensed up.

"That is not a request."

"Does it look like I give a shit, I'm not going to go look for her." I'd never seen Juan get worked up about anything like this before. He was pissed and that was a sight that I had never seen.

"We need your mother to train the Amps, you are probably the only person who she will even speak to." Akari pushed further.

Juan stood up from his chair and walked towards the elevator, calling it down. "No, end of discussion." He said as the elevator dinged open. Lydia, who had looked away at the tablets when she saw Juan's reaction, gathered the tablets and followed him into the elevator. Maxwell and Adam followed the others into the elevator, Maxwell giving the woman a death stare like no other as the doors closed.

The woman sitting in front of me looked worn to the bone as she fell into her seat. She closed her eyes tightly and reopened them to look at me. "This is what being a leader is." Her words carried a burden that she did not want to exist.

After everything she had said and done, I should only feel anger towards her. For keeping everything from us, for controlling us but when I looked at her, I couldn't help but feel pity for her. Everyone in the room got up from their seats and waited for the elevator to come back down for us, but Akari stayed seated in deep concentration. The burden weighed heavy on her, and I couldn't stop feeling it. Her eyes met mine once more before I lost sight of her through the door, I couldn't read them but I could still feel the pressure of her worry even after I couldn't see her anymore.