Waking up with a dagger at your throat is exactly as terrifying as it sounds. It was the dead of night, the time when you are so sound asleep that you think your dreams are reality. In the blink of an eye, I was plunged from that reality when old steel was pressed against the soft flesh of my neck.

"Don't move," a gravely voice whispered harshly.

As if I would, I internally scoffed, and then wondered at my current predicament. This is a secure facility...who could break in?

As if reading my thoughts, the stranger chuckled dryly and released pressure on the knife. "It isn't easy kid, but I've been doing it a long time."

"Doing what?" I asked. He couldn't have guessed what I was thinking...

"Breaking in here," I saw his shadowy form shrug in the meager light from the windows. "And yes I can tell what you're thinking. I'm a mind reader."

"What?" I raised my voice, even more confused. I was still groggy, and shifted slightly to rub my hands over my face and neck. "Where did you come from!"

"The place you were supposed to train at," he replied. "Or at least your companion over there. But now that plan has changed, and we have to break you out of here."

"Harper's been training," I being excitedly. "We were planning an escape-"

"That's great kid, now shut up and follow me. Remember, I'm the expert at these things, so don't try anything stupid," he interrupted and stepped soundlessly over to Harper.

She snapped awake as soon as he approached her bed, and he jumped back a little, obviously not expecting it.

"Hmm, you're more alert than I thought you'd be," he admitted.

"Oh no..." She closed her eyes and groaned. "What now?"

"I'm here to get you out of here," the man said, much straighter to the point than he had been with me.

"But...what?" she appeared as confused as me. "Who are you?"

"First time you asked me that," he snorted, giving me a pointed look. "The name's Finn, mind reader. AAA sent me here to recover our "stolen goods"; in other words you two."

Harper and I exchanged a glance in the dark, but I saw Finn watching us. His eyesight in the dark was probably much better than ours, as we'd both just woken up.

"Do you have a badge?" I asked suddenly. "Because Mr. Wright had one-"

"Of course he did." I suspected Finn was trying to whisper under his breath, but I certainly heard him. "Getting more 'official' every day. Did he tell you he was part of a top secret government project too?"

"Actually...yes," I admitted shamefully. It sounded so naive when I thought about it.

Finn shopping his head and sighed. "We've got a lot of work to do on you kids. But for now, let's just get out of here."

Harper and I nodded, watching him as he reached into a black bag and fished around for something in the dark. "Its gotta be around here somewhere."

"Do you think he's legit?" Harper's whisper surprised me.

"Woah when did you become a teenager?" I asked jokingly, but stopped when I saw her serious face. "Oh. Um...I guess so. I mean, what reason would he have to lie?"

She showed me what she thought of that reason with an incredibly skeptical eyebrow raise. "Oh I don't know...maybe something like Mr. Wright?"

"Oh," I repeated. "Yeah. Well, from what I can tell he seems a lot different from Mr. Wright...I can't quite tell you how but his mannerisms and everything," I tried to explain, but for the first time I couldn't find the right words and ended up confusing Harper even further.

"Aha!" An exclamation from Finn interrupted us and he held up a jar of orange liquid...or at least I think it was orange. It was really quite hard to see the color in the pitch darkness.

Next he shone a flashlight on the bars and took out some gloves of a strange texture, and putting them on, applied some of the liquid to the bars. After a moment or two, we saw the affects where it was beginning to erode the bars, eating away the metal.

"Wow that must be very strong acid," I whispered in awe. "What is it?"

"Hydrofluoric acid. It won't eat through plastic. It will, however, dissolve metal, rock, glass, and ceramic; so there's that. Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water," Finn replied in an almost bored tone.

"How can you find this boring! It's fascinating!" I exclaim.

"Well once you've seen it a thousand times it becomes quite mediocre...and a pain to handle because it's so dangerous," he shrugged. "It can eat through your skin."

Soon the bars were dissolved enough for Finn to break away the remainder. He smudged another substance on top of the remnants to protect us as we climbed out, which I've thought was quite ingenious.

"You've thought of everything," Harper murmured, thinking the same thing.

"No one ever never thinks of everything," Finn replied seriously, staring us both in the face. "That's lesson one."

We managed to shimmy through and found that we were surprisingly on the ground floor. Finn dismissed this as a bad building plan, shaking his head. I had to agree...I mean who puts their prisons on the first floor?

"Next we have to avoid the lasers," Finn said. "Stay here." He crept up to a sensor and waved in front of it, activating the electric red beams of death. He waved us over to him and continued. "Now obviously you don't want to set off one of those or we'll never get out of here, so watch your step and be careful. Also they start to move every so often to throw you off, and in many different patterns so don't just try to memorize the pattern because I guarantee you it will change."

I looked at him in awe. "You've broken in and out of here before?"

Finn laughed. "Of course, many times. They only trust me to do these kind of missions you know. Out organization has gained a lot of new rookies recently and they know that they can only trust me with this one. Alright then, it will be better if you split up, because it will be easier for you too individually dodge the beams.

Harper chuckled a bit and lifted herself up into the sky, over the beams and onto the other side of the fence. She smiled triumphantly at me through the wire mesh and I sighed.

"Right. I'd forgotten she could do that," Finn exchanged a glance with me. "Are you ready, boy?"

I nod, my hands cold and sweaty. I can do this. We have to be together. Slowly I inch forward, copying Finn's movements by ducking and leaping over the irregularly sweeping lasers.

Before I realized it I was halfway through, and that's when I begin to stumble. I tripped over a rock and landed right under one, then sat up recklessly and almost stuck my head into another. I began to panic, thrashing around witjour any sort of plan, which was the worst thing I could have done.

"Stop!" Finn hissed. "Calm yourself and wait." He'd thrown himself down beside me and was gripping my shoulder to prevent me from doing another panicked stumble.

I took a deep breath and stared at Harper who was waiting, worried. I could make this. So I looked up slowly and watched the beams for a moment. When the time was right, I jumped over a low sweeping one and then ducked again before crouching for another look. So far so good.

I could tell Finn was moving slower than he had to, trying to make sure I was alright, so I told myself that I needed to go faster. However, I knew I could not panic again or it would be over, so I had to be careful. It became a pattern of searching, jumping, ducking, and rolling; until it almost felt natural.

When I finally reached the iron mesh, panting, Finn nodded approvingly. "Good job. The last bit was done very well."

"Thank you," I breathed and looked up to see Harper's eyes on the low light, staring at me from the other side of the fence.

She leaned closer. "Aren't you coming over?"

I nodded, glancing up at it and then beginning to hoist myself up. There was barbed wire at the top, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it. When I reached it I stopped, glancing at both Richard and Harper. Suddenly I felt a strange pressure around me, lifting me off the fence and into the air.

"Let...go," Harper grunted, straining against the dead weight of my body.

I complied, and for a moment I was afraid when I was hovering straight over the wire, but I was finally over and landed safely.

Harper collapsed, gasping for breath. I knelt down, worried, but she smiled and choked out that she was alright.

Skeptically I rose and helped her to her feet as we both looked to Finn, who has somehow already scaled the fence without our knowledge.

"We must head to a safe haven," he said. "We can't risk going straight to AAA, especially not at this hour. Tomorrow we'll attempt it, but for tonight we'll have to go to Wexford."

Harper and I exchanged a glance; neither of us knew where Wexford was or how far away it was. All I knew was that we were together, and that was the most important thing of all.

A/N:

Sorry I know it seems like it always ends with the "together" theme but I'm trying to establish his thought process...I apologize of it seems repetitive.

Well this is it, we're halfway through! <33 thanks for all the lovely comments and votes everyone! You're making this process very enjoyable!

Another note: Finn's aesthetic was added today (;

Also I haven't edited yet because I'm pressed for time so if there is typos I sincerely apologize!