Less than a half an hour later, I stood with Dakota, Royce, Saratoga, and Teddy behind opaque glass.

We looked upon the three LACE agents who were all still unconscious aside from Artur who was beginning to slowly stir. Each of them were laid upon large gurneys with their wrists and ankles sealed in metal restraints that were not unlike the ones I had been trapped in only an hour earlier.

The four DCL agents still regarded me with cool reserve which I found suiting. They had no reason to trust me and I had no reason to trust them either. I was a caught criminal and they were still my captors.

However, if we were going to work together to have a chance at taking down LACE once and for all, perhaps that would change.

Director Chandler suddenly entered the room with long strides. "How are the LACE agents fairing?" The Director asked inquisitively.

"They should all live. Their heart rates are all consistent and there's been no adverse effect from the tranquilizer or sedatives thus far," Royce replied with a tablet that was monitoring each agent in hand.

On the other side of the glass, Artur's grey eyes slowly began to open groggily. After the way I pummeled him into the floor I doubt he could even see straight.

He's lucky I didn't break his neck.

"Did you find anything about them in the data system?" The Director asked turning to Saratoga.

She shook her head. "Not much. Their faces don't register anywhere. The only thing I could find were missing children cases in each of their names," she replied with a small glance to where I stood.

"Something isn't right," Dakota announced suddenly in his deep, flat tenor. Several heads turned to him.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning to the taller man who stood stiffly next to me.

Dakota made a simple gesture with his right hand. "These agents are very well trained and valuable. Why would LACE waste such assets?"

I took a moment. The Masters of LACE always had a reason for everything they did. No matter how sinister the motive or plot was.

"These agents are good but they aren't top agents," I replied honestly.

I had been a top agent during my time. Artur had even been a top agent for a while as well since he was one of the first agents to have powerful telekinesis. However, I ended up replacing him due to my stronger ability. The Master's favoritism of me over him only drove him further over the edge.

Saratoga wasn't convinced. "How? That kid over there can't be any older than 20 yet he matches Dakota's skill in hand to hand," she pointed out.

Dakota arched a dark brow in what appeared to be indignation. He obviously didn't enjoy being compared to Callum.

"And that girl could make things explode by just touching them," Teddy added.

I nodded in agreement. "They are powerful, yes. But Callum is very young, he may be fast and a good fighter, but his technique is raw and he is immature. Lia is powerful but LACE wants elusive assassins who can leave a murder scene completely undetected. Being able to explode things doesn't really help that. And Artur is kind of a nutcase. Not to mention, he is pretty old for a LACE agent at forty something years," I listed off evenly.

Director Chandler breathed in this information with ease. I'm sure he coveted Variants like Callum and Leah to be within the midst of the DCL. To him they were probably hopeful assets gone to waste.

Or maybe he simply felt pity for them. I wasn't sure.

"Those are all logical reasons I suppose," Director Chandler noted, not sounding totally convinced.

Teddy stepped forward with his hand at the base of his neck, covering the waxy scar underneath.

"Sir, I don't mean to rush or anything but seeing as some of those agents are waking up. Maybe we should start getting information out of them," Teddy stated. I noticed his voice was uncommonly formal and serious as he spoke to the Director.

Director Chandler nodded in agreement and turned to me "Ms.Sterling, you are a telepath, yes?" He asked.

I nodded in confirmation before Saratoga stepped.

"Director, are you actually considering the possibility that we let Sterling here go in there? They're still her former associates," She asked. I wanted to argue but she was right to be suspicious.

"Right as always Sara, however, LACE will be aware of their failure very soon. It could take days to interrogate these agents ourselves. Our best option is Ms.Sterling I'm quite afraid," The Director replied without the slightest hesitation.

"But sir, how can we trust her?" Saratoga asked, lowering her voice as if she somehow hoped I wouldn't hear her from five feet away.

"You can't. But if any of those agents know where LACE is currently located or where the Masters are, then I will too." I stated confidently. "I just need ten, twenty minutes maybe."

The room's occupants exchanged wary glances at one another.

"Why can't you do it from out here?" Teddy asked.

"She's a contact telepath," Royce answered absently before I had a chance, his gaze still focused on the tablet. I quirked a brow, unused to people speaking for me.

The Director was finished arguing. "You heard her, 20 minutes," Chandler ordered, glancing behind him at the two armored guards at the door.

"But there is one thing I should ask." I added quickly.

"What's that?" The Director asked.

"You don't mind if I leave a few of them brain dead do you?" I inquired casually, as if asking his preference of lunch entrees.

The Director's forehead wrinkled in minute surprise.

"I wouldn't."

"Good," I nodded before walking past him and towards the two armored guards who hesitantly opened the door.

I flexed my fingers in anticipation as I walked into the white four walled room that closely resembled the interrogation room I had woken up in earlier. I went to approach Artur first but stopped as I heard quiet footsteps behind me. I turned to see none other than the ever stoic and strongly featured Dakota Gray right behind me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He didn't miss a beat.

"Providing backup."

I gave a doubtful look to the three agents before looking back at him. "They're all strapped down to tables and sedated. I think back up is kind of unnecessary."

"Then consider me as moral support," He replied simply.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "You're just here in case I decide to do something stupid aren't you?" I asked, matter of factly.

I might have been imagining it but I think the very corner of his lip turned up in what might pass for a smile.

"Those are your words Ms.Sterling, not mine," He claimed in a flat tone.

A small, fleeting smile unwillingly appeared on my face.

"Ok, fine," I shrugged before turning back to the three agents.

Artur had now completely regained consciousness. His grey eyes were wide open and fixated on me. His vascular muscle veins were bulging from under the thick skin of his arm as he pulled against the restraints that didn't budge. His black shirt tightened over his broad chest when he arched his back.

He looked just as he always had with a shaved head, a thick brow bone, and crooked jaw.

He continued to strain against the metal confinements until he finally stopped to glare at me.

"Traitor!" Artur spat as small droplets of spittle escaped from his mouth. At the corners of his thin lips there was an accumulation of white foam that reminded me of a rabid dog.

As a trainee, I had been afraid of Artur. But that was when I was barely a teenager. Now that I was fully grown, trained, and easily more powerful, he was just my old, temperamental trainer that was washed up and growing obsolete.

I gazed down at him with a pity filled expression. Artur was so warped and brainwashed by LACE that he didn't even know he was a lunatic. He would never get another chance at life.

Not like I hopefully would.

And certainly not after I was done with him.

"I'm not going to be the traitor Artur, you are," I replied simply without malice. Artur looked confused for a second until he saw my hands slowly rise. I lifted my hands to his face delicately, as if handling a glass ornament.

Artur's crazed eyes flickered between both of my hands that were now just inches from the tough skin of his face.

He'd witnessed me practice on unlucky victims provided by the Masters during training. He knew exactly what was coming next and struggled even more to get out of his restraints.

"No! I won't! Stop! Get away from me!" He pleaded as he thrashed about but it was all in vain. I placed one hand onto his cheek and the other on his forehead. When my hands came into contact with his sweaty, clammy skin it was game over. He could struggle as much as he wanted but it wouldn't make a difference.

I delved into his troubled mind as soon as my hands came into contact with his temples. My grasp on his feeble mind spanned out like the roots of a plant expanding to grasp firm ground.

The sensation of falling that came from mind linking washed over me and I welcomed it.

Sorting through his memories, emotions, and thoughts was similar to navigating through a massive filing cabinet. It was like flicking through endless folders until I came across what I needed. I analytically went throughout the inner membranes of his subconscious and the varying machinations of his brain. While it was tedious work and seemed to take nearly an entire day to do, I did come away with some interesting results.

As it turns out, LACE currently had a hidden base in the Kaskasapakte mountain range in Sweden. The range was only accessible by either snowmobile or helicopter. The base itself was built into the mountain. I quickly learned the layout of the new LACE facility through Artur's memories including where the entry ways were. I wasn't surprised by this remote and desolate location. When I had been a part of LACE, we had home bases in the glaciers of Greenland, the arid deserts of Mongolia, and even an underground base in the hills of Orgen of which we frequently rotated through.

The Masters never stayed in the same place for too long.

I also found out that agent 4 was currently on an away mission in Venezuela. Apparently, he was looking to assassinate a major drug lord. And Agent 9 was also away in Canada but his mission details were unclear. That meant that Agents 10, 24, 25, and 33 would be the only remaining top agents that I knew of. The DCL could have a chance against them.

Theoretically anyway.

The entire process only took around ten minutes but for me it felt more like a few hours. Thankfully, telepathic invasions didn't take much energy. It was almost second nature for me to invade another being's mind at this point.

I re-emerged into full consciousness after finally releasing Artur from my grasp. The bright lights blinded me before I blinked once to adjust. I took a deep breath before turning to look at Dakota who had been standing there watching me the entire time. He stood tall with his slender hands clasped casually in front of him. His face was still a mask devoid of emotion.

He lifted his chin up in question.

I didn't speak at first as I looked back at Artur who now stared blankly up at the ceiling. His grey eyes were now dormant and oddly at peace as clear drool seeped down his chin.

"No hard feelings Artie," I said softly, giving Artur's shoulder a pat, as if I hadn't just rendered him braindead.

"I trust you found what we need?" Dakota inquired curiously, his left wing twitching slightly. He eyed Artur briefly as the incapacitated man sputtered something unintelligible.

Dakota was probably coming to the realization that I could have somehow done the same thing to him back in the alley way when I had temporarily connected to his mind. I could never cause so much damage in just a few seconds. It took at least five minutes for me to leave permanent damage on another's mind.

"Yes, I got it all," I replied as I began walking to the door but stopped as I passed by Callum.

The only sign that the young boy was still alive was the consistent and slow rise and fall of his chest. His youthful face was pale and marred by two shallow gashes on the underside of his chin that had been closed with butterfly stitches. They must have been from Saratoga and her talon nails.

Callum's ability had always intrigued me.

Most useful, was his electricity stimulus abilities that had been especially enhanced during the experimentation period. He could electrocute someone to death if he wanted too. I had even felt his electrical abilities on occasion myself during training.

However, he could also breath under water and swim well over olympic speeds. It was a shame he never had a chance to compete in the Variant Olympics, which had become a worldwide phenomenon after debuting in 1995. I had no doubt he would shatter any records.

I gently reached out a hand and brushed his curly blonde hair off of his forehead. It was strange that the Masters would send him of all people to detain me. He was undeniably powerful but in a one on one fight, he didn't stand a chance. Artur and Lia sort of made sense but not him

"I wonder if they sent him a message?" I asked mostly to myself with my eyes still fixed on the unconscious Polish boy.

I'd known him briefly at LACE but he'd left an impression. He had been a shy and quiet trainee but also oddly humane. As if the serum could never quite strip him of the boy he used to be.

"What kind of message?" Dakota asked with partial interest in his voice. He stood on the other side of the gurney with his lean but muscular arms crossed over his chest and his wings tucked comfortably behind him.

"I used to be his trainor," I began. Fresh memories of our long afternoons on the sparring mats and in the shooting range came to mind. "The LACE serum could make me do many things but being cruel wasn't one of them. But trainers aren't supposed to be lenient or even humane to trainees and one of the Masters noticed."

"What happened?" Dakota asked blankly with the tiniest sliver of curiosity.

I inhaled deeply through my nose.

"Punishment," I replied simply. "They hurt him because I wouldn't."

Specifically, a prolonged electro shock session. But I hadn't been the one to suffer the pain, Callum did. He was an electro conductor himself but even he can only stand so much. And all I could do was watch.

My chest seemed to grow tight. I hadn't been able to hear his screams through the glass but they weren't hard to imagine. He wasn't able to return back to training for half a week and by then, Agent 10 had been transferred to be his trainer.

Dakota was silent as he registered the sinister information.

"He's a good kid deep down," I added before finally looking away from the youth. I turned to Dakota, recollecting my expression. "Still think I'm the bad guy?"

His forehead furrowed just slightly, his gaze still on Callum. "I never thought you were bad," He claimed before gesturing to Artur. "Dangerous, obviously. But not inherently evil."

I shrugged in agreement.

He wasn't wrong

"We should head to debrief."

Dakota agreed and led the way out of the room where I was once again greeted by the DCL taskforce but this time in a rectangular room.

I quickly relayed all of the information to the Director and the rest of the Variants who listened intently. They seemed most interested in the 'agent breakdown' that allowed them a small insight in what was to come. LACE boasted at least thirty-five Variant Agents but some were more dangerous than others.

Agent 4 - Tall male, slender frame, buzzed blonde hair. Hybrid Taipan - Enhanced smell, hearing and sight including infrared. Venomous bite and poison injection through a retractable agenedge on the underside of his forearms. No cure and undetectable. Extremely flexible. Skin cast. Heavily experimented and serum dosed making him slightly unstable.

Agent 9 - An average sized Japanese male in his late twenties. Reverse Energizer: He absorbs energy rather than expending but only upon physical contact. Contact doesn't kill but it can temporarily paralyze. Do not let him touch you. No skin cast.

Agent 10 - Female, athletic build, early thirties. Morph: Her skin can be replaced by a golden metal alloy on command and can turn limbs into blades and other stabbing weapons. No skin cast but when morphed she can withstand a grenade blast. Extremely Dangerous. Healing Factor.

Agent 24 - Above average sized female, Romanian, dark haired. Super - Incredible strength, speed, durability, senses, and pain tolerance. Skin cast. High intelligence.

Agent 25 - Male sibling to Agent 24, above average size, lighter haired. Super - Incredible strength, speed, durability, senses, and pain tolerance. Skin cast. High intelligence.

Agent 33 - Below average size female. Morph - Skin refraction allows her skin to change into her surroundings, therefore becoming invisible to the visible light spectrum. No skin cast. High intelligence. High twitch speed.

Thankfully, 4 and 9 were on an away mission for now according to Artur's memories.

All Variants are genetically superior to humans but still not equal. The top agents of LACE were not only born better, but amplified to absurd degrees of power. Most of them, similar to me, were only born with half the capabilities they had now.

The Variants of the DCL seemed to believe my every word and were most likely beginning to gage that this was not an in and out assignment. Many would perish in this pursuit and likely me among them.

But what was worse? Living a life sleeping under bridges and eating frozen TV dinners or dying in an attempt to dismantle the league that took away my life?

I'd decided the latter.

Director Chandler decided to send in a small army of agents to take apart LACE in high hopes of a surprise ambush. There was no telling if LACE would still linger at the base in Kaskasapakte. I doubted they would since the Masters were probably aware by now of the three agent's failure. They would be on the tips of their toes, most likely already transferring to a different base.

Regardless, we would still start at Kaskasapakte.

After a few phone calls, the Director told us that both the CIA and DOD would be joining our initial ambush. There was a nervous, but excited, buzz in the air as the agency prepared for the unpredictable mission. The DCL Variants and I would be on the frontlines.

Against my better judgment, I began to feel hopeful. Perhaps there was a chance, a slim one, that we might actually succeed.

By some chance of a miracle.