Two weeks of traveling passed and we didn't run into any problems. When night came we set up a small camp in a forest, made a fire as we had every night before, and sat around it.

“We're almost there. Should be able to get to the city tomorrow.” Sylas said poking the fire with a stick.

“Then what?” I ask.

“The whole city is safe besides the outskirts.” Sylas said.

“We going to HQ?” Alex asked.

“HQ probably is our best bet, but there's something I didn't think about. If we go they might find out she's a Riaka. They already know I am one.” Sylas explained.

“So?” Alex asked.

“They might try to create an army of Potentia. When the word gets out most of them will probably agree to it. It will lead to war and there's not much we can do to stop it.” I said.

“Exactly.” Sylas said. The fire danced in his eyes. “They will go to war with the ones who want us killed. It will lead to destruction of cities and the death a many, including the innocent.”

“Come on. You guys are two Riaka.” Alex said. “Can't you just say no?”

“We will be considered traitors.” Sylas said. “In some ways, as long as not too much is lost, this war is for the better.”

“Since when is war for the better?” I ask.

“When it's a war over what's right because the point won't get across any other way.” Sylas replied. “And it's pretty much gotten that way. More and More join their cause every day while we are cast into hiding.”

“He has a point.” Alex commented.

“I know he does.” I said. “Look it's getting late. We should sleep so we can get up early and get moving. We'll talk about this tomorrow.”

“She's right.” Sylas said. “It's better if we talk about this tomorrow.”

With that Alex got into his sleeping bag while Sylas scooted back and leaned back on a tree flipping his hood up and letting it hang over his eyes. I lied on top of my sleeping bag for a long while. Longer then it took for the boys to fall asleep. I sighed and sat up before quietly getting up and climbing a nearby tree to where I could see the sky. After thinking about what to do for a little while I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning.  I thought about climbing down from the tree right away, but then I decided to just think about what we talked about last night.  Sylas did have a point.  If a war was necessary to get the point across, and it didn’t cause too many deaths, it was for the better.  However, I don’t feel like this is one of those situations.  I find this a situation that if we attack, then no matter who started it we will look like the bad guys.  The enemy would make us out to be murderous monsters.  After thinking about out situation a little more I sighed and climbed out of the tree. 

“Hasn't anybody ever told you it's not safe to sleep in trees?” Sylas asked, his hood up and head still down.

“Did you forget I don't move much when I sleep?” I asked jokingly looking over at Alex to see him still sleeping.

“Might want to wake him up.” Sylas said standing up and flipping his hood back. He walked over to Alex and nudged him in the side with his foot.

“I'm up.” Alex said after a grunt. “Why do you guys get up so early? Haven't you guys heard of sleeping in?”

“Nope.” Sylas said.

“Not even when my breaks and weekends mainly consisted of playing video games in my room.” I said.

“Must have been nice.” Alex said getting out of his sleeping bag.  “I haven’t seen a videogame in my entire life.”

“Yeah. Now that I think about it it was.” I said starting to roll up my sleeping bag. “All I wanted was to go out and do stuff. Now, not so much.  Part of me just wants things to go back to normal.  For all of this to be some kind of messed up dream, but then again part of me doesn’t.  I never would have met you or any of the others.  I never would’ve known what it’s truly like outside the wall.  I never would have been able to realize that the government fed us a bunch of lies.”

“Yeah.” Sylas said. “That's how I was. When I got out all I wanted to do was go back. Then after a while I thought I lost all of my family because I got out and they didn't want to risk any of the rest to be different.  By the sounds of it I wanted to go back inside more than you do though.”

“Well I'm the only direct family you got now that we know of.” I said. “Don't you worry, they can't kill me so easily.”

“I wasn't worried.” Sylas said.

“You say that like its past tense.” Alex said.

“It's not.” Sylas said as we finished packing up. “We should get going.”

With that Alex and I shouldered out back packs and we headed out.

“You sure you want to go to HQ?” Sylas asked as we reached the edge of the city. “What about the mark? It's not covered.”

“Is there a shop nearby that sells hoodies?” I asked in response.

“Wouldn't somebody in the store see it if there is one?”

“I know one. It's pretty run down. Not too many costumers. I've gotten in and out without anybody realizing what I am.” Sylas said.

“For some reason I can't imagine you in a tee-shirt.” Alex said.

“Yeah I wonder why.” Sylas said jokingly. “Let’s get going.”

“I actually remember you in a tee-shirt a couple times.” I replied.  “But even inside the wall you almost always had a hoody on.”

“Yeah” Sylas replied.  “It makes it easier to hide stuff.”

“Good point.” I said.

Twenty minutes later we walked out of the store. I found a dark blue hoody with sleeves loose enough to hide some knifes in. Alex waited outside.

“Now I see the resemblance.” Alex said when he saw us. “Well kinda.”

“Kinda?” I asked as we started walking again.

“Yeah. The hoodies have similar makes, but his is all the way zipped up while yours is unzipped.” Alex explained.

“Yeah true.” I said. “How do they hide the HQ in the city?”

“They make it look like a big abandoned building.” Sylas said.

“And that works?” Alex asked.

“Well they also have metal doors with locks on them. You've got an outside part to the building where some people do explore or hang out every once and a while, then you got the doors, then inside is HQ.” Sylas explained.

“How big is this building exactly?” I asked.

“Pretty big. There's a lot more Potentia than you would think.” Sylas said. “Probably enough to fill a small city out here pretty much. Most of the building is underground actually.”

“Yeah that makes sense.” Alex said.

We wove through the city and soon came to a big building about three stories high from the ground.

“This is it.” Sylas said.

“Defiantly looks abandoned.” Alex said.

“Yeah.” I said as we walked through an empty doorway into a concrete hallway. We passed a couple people before turning a corner. There was a metal door at the end of the hall. Sylas walked to the door and knocked on the door three times pausing a second in between each knock. A guy opened the door and looked at Sylas who pushed up his sleeve revealing his tattoo.

“They're with me.” He said pushing his sleeve back down. The guy nodded before opening the door all the way and stepping aside. We walked past him and he shut the door. Sylas led us through the corridors until we came into a large room with a lot of people in it.

“Sylas. So nice of you to come back.” One guy said walking up to us. He looked slightly older then Sylas.

“Ken.” Sylas said in return.

“More of us?” Ken asked gesturing at us. Sylas nodded.

“They are.” Sylas said.

“Well it's nice to meet you guys.” He said sticking his hand out. “I'm Ken encase you missed it.”

“I'm Alex.” Alex said shaking Ken's hand. Ken released Alex's hand and looked at me.

“Jordan.” I said taking his hand.

“You wouldn't be Sylas's sister would you?” Ken asked.

“She is.” Sylas answered for me.

“Well it's nice to meet you.” Ken said. “Come on. I'll give you guys a tour. We did make a few changes sense Sylas here has been gone.”

An hour and a half later we were in a room. Ken left after he showed us our room. It was more of an apartment. There was a main room, two separate bedrooms, and a bathroom. The main room had two couches, a couple chairs, and a table. The bedrooms had beds and small dressers. One room had two beds. The boys would be sleeping in that one if we don't fall asleep in the main room.

“Well that took forever.” Sylas said plopping down on one end of the couch. Alex sat down on the other end.

“No kidding.” I said falling onto the other couch and bringing my feet up.

“You still do that?” Sylas asked.

“Yep.” I said putting my hands behind my head.

“Remember how mom used to scowl at you for that?” Sylas asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

“At least she only scowled. My mom would yell at me. 'Alex stop abusing the furniture.'” Alex said doing an impression of his mom at the last part. We all laughed.

“Jordan quit hanging upside down from the exercise bar.” I said mocking my mom after I stopped laughing. We all laughed more.

“Sylas go get your sister out of the tree. She fell asleep again.” Sylas said attempting to sound like mom. We kept laughing.

“Wait you slept in a tree?” Alex asked.

“Yeah.” I answered. “It was the only way I could get out of the house besides going to and from school.”

“Oh.” Alex said understanding.  “My parents kept me in the house like that for a while.  After all I was born out here, and it wasn’t always this calm.  Those guys were searching at least once a week.”

“I remember they did that for a while after I escaped.” Sylas replied.

“I remember how so many people trust them.  They believe every lie they tell.  Nobody asked questions, they just accepted what was told.”

“Yeah.” Sylas said.  “It’s kinda stupid when you think about it.”

“Kinda?” Alex asked.  “That’s completely stupid.”

“Yeah.” I replied.  “You do have a point.”

“I find it strange Ken was able to label you as my sister.  I don’t recall ever tell him out any of you guys.”  Sylas said.  A red flag went up in my mind, but I decided to ignore it for now.

“Maybe you did and it just slipped your mind.” I said.

“Yeah, I guess.” Sylas replied even though we both knew that hardly ever did something actually slip his mind.

We talked until we all got tired and fell asleep.