Lena Matthews

I stared at the two way mirror, trying to stop my hands from shaking. I could see long black hair flying in every direction, and a long white kimono that loomed beneath it. Pitch black eyes were staring directly into my soul. Even though I was wearing a helmet, I had a feeling that she knew exactly who I was.

The yuki onna was being kept in a facility nearly identical to Fuyuko's. There was a switchboard littered with multicolored buttons that were just as dizzying as the ones I had seen before. I could even spot a matching microphone. The only difference here was that the yuki onna's room wasn't furnished.

The walls and floor were padded with off-white colored panels. I scanned the room stoically, noticing that there was a darker section in one of the corners. My eyes wandered back to the yuki onna, searching for a remnant of my friend.

A banging on the door startled me.

"Open up!" someone demanded.

I rolled my eyes and sauntered over to the door. Smiling, I opened it to reveal Finn.

"I got here first." I boasted.

"It's not a race, Lena." Finn reminded me, shutting the door behind him.

"But I still won." I pointed out.

"How did you get in here?" Finn asked, looking around.

"I guessed the password." I answered, shrugging. I didn't want to tell him that it was birthday, or that Dad had probably set the code. "So, how do we break her out?"

"You've got a gun, right?" Finn asked.

"That's your big idea?" I asked.

"Everything else seems to be going okay so far." said Finn. "Carter's pretty good at planning."

"Carter?" I asked. "Wait, was all of this Carter's idea?"

"Can we move on?" Finn asked. He pulled a gun out of his holster and nodded for me to do the same.

I reached into my side holster and pulled out my gun. I loaded the weapon and turned the safety off before aiming it at the glass. The yuki onna retreated, her coal eyes burning intensely.

I met her gaze, my thoughts spiraling in different directions. "Wait." I instructed Finn. I took my helmet off and looked at the yuki onna.

"Lena, what are you-"

It was too late. I was already leaning over the microphone. "I want to help." I told the yuki onna. "I'm here for my friend, but I need you to promise not to kill either of us."

The yuki onna looked at me, then Finn, then back at me again. For the first time, I felt like I could actually communicate with her. I watched her movements carefully until she bowed to me in solidarity. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Now." I told Finn. He nodded.

We held our guns in a practiced synchronicity and let bullets freely launch towards the glass. The mirror splintered, leaving a sickly spider's web across its surface. My weapon clicked pitifully, warning me that I had already lost my ammunition.

I pocketed the gun, and Finn did the same thing, noticing I had stopped.

"That's some thick glass." I muttered, mostly to myself. I stared at the white lines that skidded across the wall that refused to break.

The yuki onna walked closer to the window, her figure fragmented through the lens of cracked glass. Her fingers brushed across the barrier, a shimmer of frost expanding away from her touch. Then she backed away, her gaze refusing to let me go.

I elbowed Finn, my eyes still fixated on the yuki onna.

There was the sound of a singular gunshot, and the glass shattered instantly. I swallowed the bile in my throat. I couldn't see Jane-Anne in the yuki onna, but I couldn't see malice either. This was different from the Night of Shining Stars. It had to be. Otherwise, Finn and I were as good as dead.

I shivered, and backed away until I could feel the metal wall hit my back. Finn had his feet planted firmly on the ground, remaining unafraid as the yuki onna floated out of her confinement and placed her bare feet on the ground. The two of them were mere inches away from each other, locked in a deadly standstill.

Finn dug into his pocket and brought out a tiny lighter. It flickered to life, nearly singeing the yuki onna's kimono.

The yuki onna backed away erratically. "Dame!" she yelled.

My heart pounded as I waited for the yuki onna to attack, but she didn't.

"I think 'dame' means no." I explained to Finn.

"Are you sure?" Finn asked.

"Not really." I admitted. "I don't speak Japanese."

"You had an anime phase in middle school."

"Can we not talk about that?"

The yuki onna had relaxed, but she still kept her distance from us. Her watchful eyes were now focused on Finn instead of me.

"You care about Jane-Anne, right?" I asked the yuki onna. Her head snapped in my direction, and I tried to keep myself calm. "Because we need you to help her."

Finn pulled a ticket and passport out of his pocket and placed it on the switchboard before backing up again. "This is supposed to take Jane-Anne to Bellingham. Then Lena's going to bring her to New York with the rest of the Forbidden. But right now, I need you to get Jane-Anne out of here. Can you do that?"

The yuki onna solemnly.

"Do you think she's actually listening?" Finn asked me.

"Shut up." I replied.

The wind around me began to stir. I slowly walked along the wall, trying to give the yuki onna as much space as possible. Broken glass crunched under my boots, but I could barely hear it over the roaring wind.

As the temperature in the room dropped steeply and ice coated the floor, the yuki onna stayed perfectly calm, her hair and kimono barely moving. Without warning, a gust wind blasted across the room, ice and snow flying with it. I ducked underneath the switchboard, but Finn kept watching with fascination.

The locked door was ripped off of its hinges, and impaled the wall across from it. I covered my head with my arms, my heartbeat accelerating.

"Hey. It's okay." Finn whispered to me, helping me stand. I glanced back at the switchboard, but the documents were gone. "Jane-Anne's going to be fine," said Finn, reading my mind. "Let's get out of here."

I nodded and grabbed my helmet, which had fallen onto the floor. Thanks to the yuki onna, it was now completely trapped in ice. I tried to pull it up, but it refused to budge.

"It's stuck." I told Finn.

"Are you serious?" Finn asked.

"I wouldn't joke about this. Use fire or something." I said, trying to tug the helmet free.

"Let's just make a run for it." Finn suggested. "There's a stairwell down the hall that goes by the entrance."

"This is why Carter was in charge of the escape." I muttered to myself.

"Seriously, I'm not going to risk melting that helmet. If Dad finds something like that, he'll know exactly who overheated the generators." Finn warned.

I looked down at the frozen helmet and kicked it with my boot, but that didn't do anything.

Finn walked to the doorway and checked the entrance before waving for me to follow. I joined him, feeling completely exposed without something to cover my face. Maybe the agents wouldn't recognize me. I probably couldn't recognize myself at this point.

Finn walked around the metal door that had been lodged into the concrete wall in front of us. It was buried almost a foot deep, sending shivers down my spine. I didn't need another reminder of how dangerous the yuki onna was.

Ice lined most of the floor, almost making me trip several times. We didn't find anyone in the narrow hallway, even when we turned the corner. Finn stopped at a plain looking door that nearly blended in with its surroundings.

He opened it quickly, and we both hopped inside.

As the door shut behind me, I froze. Finn was trying to lock the entrance, but I couldn't move. The stairway was pitch black. A silent panic took a hold of my chest before Finn grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"We're going to be okay, Lena." Finn promised me out loud, his voice echoing along the walls.

I nodded, my breaths getting shallow. I knew that it was irrational, but now that it was dark and quiet again, I felt like I was in another cell. Upstairs, there would be a cell waiting for me too. It was never going to end. I was going to be trapped like this forever. One cage to the next. Always.

Finn grabbed my hand tightly, nearly dragging me up the metal staircase. It rattled loudly with our footsteps, threatening to collapse altogether. I kept my hand on the railing, unable to discern the individual steps in the darkness.

This was probably a good moment to summon fire, but Finn seemed intent on avoiding it as much as possible. I tried not to think about it too much.

A loud banging noise sounded from downstairs, making me flinch. Finn held my arm tighter.

"Unlock this door!" someone shouted with a terrifying authority. I nearly tripped over my own feet as I scrambled higher up the staircase.

Fists pounded against the door as I raced across the landing of the staircase and started up the next flight of stairs. The loud thud of a battering ram echoed from downstairs.

"We need to go!" Finn called as if that weren't abundantly obvious. The door broke from its hinges and crashed onto the ground with a deafening clank. Light and agents spilled into the stairwell, getting dangerously close.

My legs moved of their own accord, running through the next door. Finn and I sprinted upstairs together, the intermingled screams of agents and Forbidden bleeding into the background.

The front entrance was already open, and I ran outside, wind rippling through my hair and sun meeting my skin for the first time in months.

The boot that I hadn't fastened all the way started to get loose as I descended the front stairs, so I ripped it off and kept running. My lungs burned with the thrill and exhilaration of being outside again.

My heart directed me into the woods, but I stopped for a moment, realizing that Finn wasn't by my side. I turned around, scanning the Academy for him.

Forbidden were racing towards the woods, some of them flying out. A few were escaping as people, their gray jumpsuits blurring across the field. The agents were struggling to round up as many subjects as possible, a few of them fighting in the drained reflection pool.

"That one's Forbidden!" an agent yelled, pointing in my direction. I paused, suddenly remembering that this wasn't a crazy dream.

"I got it!" Finn yelled, his gun pointed at me. I noticed that he gave me a slight nod. I turned around and dashed into the woods, nature embracing my return.

I ran faster, adrenaline and glee pumping through my veins. Finn sprinted behind me, making sure to stay a few yards away. I headed deeper into the forest, trying to find my tree.

"Stop!" Finn yelled, alarmed.

I caught myself on a nearby elm and turned to see Jessica running, her dark hair flying in the wind and Aaliyah thrown over her shoulder. Despite the fact that she was sprinting across the forest and Aaliyah was clearly fighting to be released, Jessica barely looked like she was exerting herself.

I noticed that Jessica's eyes flashed bright red when she laid her eyes on Finn.

"That's my brother!" I yelled at her. Jessica saw me, a relived smile gracing her face. She ran faster, wrapping me in a stifling hug.

"Hi." I said awkwardly when Jessica let me break free. I looked at her eyes, nearly brimming with tears. There were so many things I needed to tell her, but nothing was coming to mind.

"Let me go!" Aaliyah shouted, breaking the silence. She managed to throw her body backwards and stumble away, clutching her side tightly.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"I'm not supposed to be here!" said Aaliyah. "They want me to find them."

"Find who?" I asked.

"There!" someone shouted at me. A triad of agents ran towards us.

Jessica watched the agents advance, her body tensing. She kissed my forehead quickly before shoving me away. Bullets whistled through the air as I started to run again.

Finn kept up with me as I weaved through the forest. I grabbed onto a low hanging branch, disappearing in my world for a moment before reappearing at the base of another tree.

"How did you do that?" Finn asked, his voice out of breath.

I kept going until I found a large stump at the beginning of a clearing. I glanced down at what remained of Flora's life and took a deep breath. My tree wasn't far away, so I kept moving.

When I finally spotted a Forbidden brand carved into a familiar trunk, I stopped.

"What's that?" Finn asked, seeing the way I was looking at the tree.

"It's my tree." I explained. "Our lives got tied together when I died. The only way to kill me is through that."

Finn's eyes were wide as he stared at the large oak. I watched him solemnly process the reminder that I wasn't human anymore before he pulled a burner phone from his pocket and handed it to me. "I leave for a mission pretty soon. I'll send you my location so we can see each other again."

I nodded, putting the phone in my pocket. We stared at each other for a second before I wrapped my arms around Finn. "I love you." I whispered. I regretted not saying that at the Night of Shining Stars.

"I love you too." Finn whispered back. "You make a pretty cool Forbidden, by the way." I smirked. "Now get out of here!" said Finn.

I turned around to face my tree, and traced its Forbidden brand one more time before plunging into the forest's network. The woods welcomed me with open arms, and I tumbled through the leaves and roots that connected the entire world together. I kept pushing, trying to make it east.

The network around me began to fray as I fought past its boundaries, searching for a way to New York. I had never tested my ability like this before, and as the darkness settled in, I began to fear that I would be stuck here forever.

I tried to picture Central Park, where Taylor was supposed to meet us. A small ring of light flickered to life, breaking the darkness. I extended my hand forward, trying to get closer. Without warning, the ring expanded around me, pulling me into a new network of trees.

I stumbled and fell onto grass, blinking in the sunlight. I looked around frantically, trying to identify where I was. There wasn't anybody here, which was a relief considering my odd attire. I stripped out of the agent uniform and slung it over my shoulder before walking towards the nearby playground, my jumpsuit rustling in the wind.

As the line of trees retreated lower in my line of vision, I could see it- the top of a towering building, shining like it had been sent from heaven itself.

The Empire State Building.

I sobbed uncontrollably, finally releasing the pain of 215 days.

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed the newest chapter! We finally made it to New York! Let's see what new mysteries the Big Apple will reveal later... This next dedication is going to alannagrey28 , my Dreamland buddy and wonderful WP friend. It has been beyond amazing to exchange comments with you these past couple of months, and you have brought so much light to the Forbidden novels. I don't think I can thank you enough for your hilarious comments and unwavering support. I'm so glad to share the Borderverse with you.

QOTD: This is a really important question to me: When you were reading The Gate, what part made you realize you wanted to finish it?