It was not windy out, so Ben declared that they decided to have a fire, their wood had been stored in the house so it was dry, they had put a covering over the fire put, so the ground was dry as well.

"Max why don't you go and find some small sticks, we'll use that to start for the fire, then we'll get our wood."

"Okay dad." He headed for the woods to collect sticks, little did he know that something was about to happen. Max walked into the woods, suddenly he was flat on his back. He tried to get up, but he couldn't, it was if something was holding him down. Out of nowhere, a figure appears, in the light of the moon, max could see his eyes, he immediately became frightened as they changed to black and white circles. A voice sounded in his head

"You are calm. Your safe, nothing in this world matters." Max soon stopped struggling and lay calmly. The invisible girl came invisible and stabbed the needle into his a while the hypnotize got a sample of skin from his other arm using a knife. When all was finished, the hypnotize sent another message

"You tripped and fell, your fine, get the sticks and go back your family." With that they disappeared into the night. Max got up and rubbed his arm, there was a trail of blood from where the knife had gone. He gathered the sticks and walked back.

"Alright, so now that we have the sticks and the newspaper, we use the matches and a little bit of wood." Ben was saying as he returned back to the fire pit. The fire lit and then faltered, Ben put more gas on it and then more wood.

"I sure wish fire as one of your abilities Natalia." Opal said with a smile.

"Yeah, it would be helpful. Maybe if we put the lid on." Natalia used her telekinesis and put the lid on. After about five minutes, the fire stayed. Max excused himself and went inside. He seemed down so Natalia followed him. Walking in, she saw him dabbing at blood, he looked up and saw her,

"I tripped, I cut myself on sticks."

"It doesn't look like a scratch though." She pulled his hand away and touched it, immediately her head was thrown back and her eyes turned blank. In the vison, she saw everything, the girl, the boy, but most importantly the eyes. The last part was Lucy. She came back to reality, Max was holding her tight,

"What did you see?"

"Your in danger!" She replied her voice soft.

"What!?"

"It's your mom. She's up to something. She needed your blood and a sample of skin."

"For what?" Natalia deflated against him

"I don't know." She reached up and touched his arm, a white circle encircled her hand, when she pulled back, the skin had healed. He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. Then he grabbed a bag of marshmallows and then they went our side.

"What took you guys so long?" Opal asks. Max held up the bag of marshmallows.

"Good thinking son." The night ended beautifly. The air was filled with laughter and stories. But Natalia' s mind was elsewhere. Her thoughts were on Lucy, what could she possibly need Mac's blood and skin for? When would she be able to stop her? As she lay in bed next to Max, she couldn't wait to see what tomorrow would hold. Would she finally be able to bring Lucy down? She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

At 6:00, Natalia went to the warehouse after an urgent text from Kovais to meet the gang there at the specific time. He told her that he would not be there, but to listen to Quicksilver as he knew the plan. She opened the door and saw Quicksilver in the form of a dog and sleeping. Aquilo making ice daggers and throwing them at the wall, Brier making vine braids and lassoing them around a mannequin. Aquilo stopped throwing daggers as the door closed and she saw her. She cleared her throat and Quicksilver aroused from his nap and blinked his eyes, seeing her he shifted into human form, Brier motioned her over and says

"Right on time."

"Well, I went as fast as I could, the snow is so deep, it's hard to run."

"Yeah, well, we called you over because it's-" Quicksilver started before Aquilo jumped in

"It's time Natalia"

"Time for what?"

"Time to attack." Quicksilver responds

"Are you sure it's time?"

"Yes, she isn't expecting us to fight back at all, she probably thinks we're dead." Quicksilver responds again.

"Are you sure I have had enough training?"

"Yes Natalia, we believe you had had enough. Brier answers sweetly putting a hand on her arm, Kovais has gone back to the lab and has gotten a lot of people to fight with us, we just need to get them out once we get there." They finished their chat and she left the warehouse and went home. Running onto the driveway she started walking to slow down her heart, she saw Opal and Max sitting on the porch sipping hot cocoa with cinnamon she went up to them,

"I need to talk to you guys, privately"

"Oh,what's it about?" Max asks quizzically. Natalia wrung her hands together and said

"Let's go to the barn." They followed her to the barn and up to the loft. They looked at her and noticed that she had a sad expression on her face

"What's wrong Natalia?" Opal asked

Her voice sounded worried, but also had a tint of strong in it "I need you guys to be strong."

"What do you mean?" Max asked grabbing her arm but she pulled away

"Something is going to happen and I need you to be strong." She said tears starting to slip down her cheeks.

"What's going to happen Natalia?"

"Yeah Tali what?" Max asked speaking her nickname

"I've-I've been meeting with some others and were going to-" Max held his hand up

"Others? What do you mean like others?"

"Like me Max, teens, little children, adults, she let out a sigh from the lab Max."

"Oh, please continue."

"Well, I've been meeting with four of them, Kovais, Aquilo, Brier and QuickSilver, we've been meeting for quite some time -"

"Is that why you were always gone running? And not back until hours?"

"Yes, I was in training, they were teaching me how to use my powers more forcefully-to kill."

"Geez, are you going to kill our mom?" Opal asks with disbelief

"No, were not, just taking her down, try to get her to the correction facility."

"So like jail?" Max asks

"Yes, were not sure how they would detain her, but it's our only hope for freedom."

'Well, I think we would all feel better if she wasn't harmed, but at least someplace where she can't hurt people anymore." Opal replies

"I agree." Natalia responds softly

"What else have you been doing?" Max asks curious for answers

"We have been coming up with a plan on how to- to take care of her."

"I see. What does this plan consist of?" Opal replied

"Well, were going to fight her, we've rallied a lot of the ones from the lab, they've been keeping tabs on her for us, she's acquired a lot of new candidates. She has two people who will answer to her because she flipped their switch."

"What do you mean by that?" Max asked

"We all have switches in us, she can connect to us and make us do things for her that we normally wouldn't do on our own."

"Has she flipped yours yet, or will she ever?"

"I don't think she has flipped ine, if she did, I think I would have felt and maybe returned to her. I'm not sure if she will. There is one more thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm the bait."

"The bait! You can't be serious Natalia." Max said his voice getting angry

"Max come on, I know she can do it, although I do wish it wasn't our mother, I can't believe she would do something like this to human beings." Opal said with an exasperated tone

"Thanks Opal, now I need you two to go somewhere safe, I don't know what she is going to do when I strike."

"When are you going to do it?" Max asks

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry, but whatever happens just know that I love you guys and I am so glad that I met you." Natalia hugged Opal and then told her to get to bed. She turned back towards Max who had a few tears dripping down his face she reached up and wiped them away. He pulled her close and touched his forehead to hers and held her tight. They stayed like that for awhile, then they kissed. Finally they let go. Max went inside to bed and Natalia stayed out in the barn waiting until it was her time to strike.

It was 5:00 in the morning when Max heard a scream, leaping out of bed he looked out the window He saw several Men in black grabbing someone in a blue t-shirt, he immediately recognized the shirt as it was his. He bolted out of bed grabbed on a black shirt and jeans. Pulled on his shoes and grabbed a rifle yelling to the dogs to follow him. He shot the gun a couple times, but it was too late, the black Van was out of range. He hopped into his yellow 1970 Dodge Charger and followed the black van closely he wasn't about to lose Natalia, not after all she had done for their family, showing them who and what their mother actually was. After 3 miles, the van veered off and went on a dirt road surrounded by trees, Max turned sharply trying to keep up with it and almost went into the ditch! Correcting himself he slowed down so that the van wouldn't see him. It went through a barred gate he hung back, parked his 1970 Dodge charger and walked the rest of the way, we go to the gate and saw a keypad Crap now what am I going to do? Max walked along the gate looking for a way in. Finally he came to the end of the gate he was now diagonal of the building he looked down and saw that the fence didn't go all the way down. He kneeled down and got on to his stomach and started to army crawl holding his breath the whole time, the sleeve of his shirt got stuck he pulled and heard a ripping sound but kept going. He finally got to the other side he looked down and saw that his sleeve had come off, looking up he saw people coming through a side door right at him he ran towards a big Oak tree and hid behind there once he knew that they weren't coming his way he ran to the side of the building. The door had shut, he tried but it didn't open as it was locked from the inside. Diggging around in his pants pocket, he pulled out a bobbie pin, he put it through the key hole and jimmied the door open. It took him a couple minutes, but once in her looked around, the lights inside of the building were blinking on and off, bodies were strewn everywhere some dead some just unconscious. Max suddenly became scared, he walked forward and stepped over bodies he walked on, he turned a corner and saw a shadow, he stopped in fear, staying as still as possible It might be mom, I'm going to... Something hit him in the back of the head and he blacked out hitting his head hard on the ground. Even though he was unconscious, it was as if he could feel himself being dragged and layed down and being hey tied down, then the distinct clack of heels could be heard.