When we arrived at Jupiter, Silas was amazed at the sight in front of him. The cave was covered in vines, invisible to those who were just passing by. There was only one way in, and it was to move aside the deep vines in such a pattern that the entrance would become visible, followed by a lock that only those of Jupiter had the keys to.

Oliver and Maya were already at work. They had papers strewn across the ground, along with a giant map. Oliver was writing away on the old blackboard and Maya was studying a book closely, a pen in her mouth.

Both of their heads snapped up when they heard us walk in. They smiled, but their expressions fell when they saw Silas beside me. They shared a look and Maya walked over, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Can I speak to you?" She squeezed my arm a little too hard, her tone urgent. I sighed and followed her, knowing what she was going to say.

"What is he doing here?" She looked over her shoulder at Silas, who was standing awkwardly with his hands tied behind his back, kicking rocks at his feet.

"He won't leave me alone. I tried to leave him with Julia, but he got into the trunk of my car and followed me here," I admitted, realizing how stupid I sounded. Maya tried to keep a straight face, but I could see the amusement in her eyes. It died almost instantly when she finally understood my words.

"How could you let him do that? I—"

She was cut off by Oliver placing a hand on her shoulder. He gave her a look of disappointment, and looked at me apologetically.

"Maya, stop. Since when do we question each other? Especially Zara?"

He was right. The trust between us was unbreakable, but now it became apparent that the fall of the agency was taking a toll on Maya. On all of us. Maya squeezed her eyes shut, hints of regret in her contorted features.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, wrapping her arms around me, "It's just... this is hard."

I shook my head. "Not your fault. C'mon, we have work to do."

»»————-　　————-««

01.05.2017

Zara, I never wanted this life for you.

I hope you know that. There are things that I never got a chance to tell you, and if you're reading this, it means that I'm probably gone.

Sometimes, things don't always work out the way we planned. Your life was never truly yours, and I'm sorry for that. However, I'm hoping that things will change after this.

I started noticing the signs years ago. The way that Harris would keep information from us, the Elite. The other agencies started reaching out to us, something no one's ever done before. They sent us information that made us question G.O.L.D.'s motives.

For years, we've been securing deadly weapons— chemical and nuclear —from other agencies, gangs, and governments. For the longest time, the other Elite and I thought that it was because they were going to misuse them.

We were wrong.

Governments of other countries know we exist. It would be naive to think that they don't; however, in this day, we are stronger than them, so they do not interfere with our affairs.

We've blindsided them.

I'm going to give you all of the information I can before we run out of time.

And when I run out of time, I hope that you carry on what I started.

Rebellion is an emblem of courage and strength, and you will wear it with such dignity that others will fear you.

You should know about The Alliance.

Only the Elite know of it. G.O.L.D., Vector, and Luna signed a discrete treaty decades ago to remain righteous and not intentionally inflict harm on innocent people.

Luna kept its promise. The other two are up to something. They're collaborating, using their powers and resources to serve only themselves.

I'm unsure what their ultimate goal is right now, but I know that they're ready to do whatever they need to in order to gain control of every resource they can lay their hands on.

Including those of governments.

How I've found this information is not important. This is the beginning of my rebellion, and I have a feeling that I do not have much time.

I'll inform the other Elite when I think the time is right. For now, I am alone. And my dear Zara, I'm scared.

This is big. Bigger than all of us. The people we thought were righteous are planning something dire.

There are secrets I've kept from you our entire life, and I want you to know that I had my reasons. I will reveal them to you when I feel the time is right.

Just trust me.

Before you read on, I need you to start with this: speak to Jeremiah Watkins. You don't need to explain yourself to him. He'll know why you're there. I'm leaving his address below.

And Zara...I'm sorry.

»»————-　　————-««

None of us had ever heard of the Alliance, so after I read the first pages aloud, silence dominated the atmosphere. This was just the first entry, and it felt as if I could hear my mother speaking those words to me.

My dear Zara, I'm scared.

Her voice echoed in my head. Never did we realize how urgent this was. We had already wasted so much time, most of it wasting an innocent I'd dragged into this mess. It made me wonder if we were too late.

Oliver took a deep breath. On the board, he messily wrote down: Alliance, followed by the three names: G.O.L.D., Vector, Luna.

The last one seemed oddly familiar. It rang a bell somewhere in the back of my thoughts, but my mind was too numb to distinguish it.

"Woah," Silas breathed from where he sat in the corner. His eyes were wide was awe as he stared at the board, lost in a daze.

Maya rolled her eyes at him and turned to me.

"How many more entries are there?"

Judging from her voice, she was just as concerned as I was.

I flipped through the pages, counting each time a date appeared at the top of a page. "Fifteen total. Fourteen more to go..."

My voice trailed off as my eyes skimmed the pages, seeing random thoughts and fragments of information everywhere. Words swam in my mind but made no sense.

"I think we'll be here a while," Oliver said. He sighed and leaned on the table in front of him, his arms tense. Once again, we fell silent.

Truth be told, there wasn't much to say. It was taking us several moments to process such a small amount of information, which was frightening considering that we had so much more to discover.

From the corner of the cave, we heard what seemed to be a faint gurgling noise. Our heads snapped towards Silas, who sat with wide eyes, his cheeks turning rosy from embarrassment. His hands were on his stomach.

"Uh, sorry..," he whispered, his blush not subsiding.

Oliver smirked as he glanced at the curly-haired boy.

"Someone's hungry," he mused, obviously enjoying Silas's embarrassment. He then ran his hands through his short hair, crossing his arms across his chest, and his face lit up with an idea.

"Since we'll probably be here for an eternity, I'll go with Simon to grab some food. Maybe some energy drinks."

Maya stifled a laugh at his mispronunciation of Silas's name, and I just shook my head in disappointment.

Silas stood up abruptly, dusting his pants off as he pushed his shoulders back. I could've sworn I saw him puff out his chest a little as Oliver walked closer to him.

"Actually," he said shakily, adjusting his glasses, "It's Silas."

It was easy to tell that Silas was intimidated by Oliver. No one could blame him. It wasn't like Silas was scrawny or that he looked weak. The thing was that Oliver towered over him, and his muscles were well over twice the size of Silas's.

Oliver, laughing, dismissed his comment. He patted his head before leaving Jupiter, waving Silas over to follow.

Silas looked at me, unsure of what to do. His stomach growled again and I gave him an absurd glance. Without a word, he stumbled away.

I was curious to know how their little adventure was going to go, but I had other things to worry about.

Maya rushed over to her laptop, typing away almost furiously. I went to her side, trying to peer over her shoulder at the screen. "What are you doing?"

She didn't answer my question. Instead, she moved the computer over so that I could see the screen. She was on a travel website, looking at tickets to Rome. It was already understood that we'd have to go there, but who this Jeremiah was and how he fit into our story was a menacing mystery.

"The jet...?"

Oliver's skill-set was vast, and among those skills was that he was a trained pilot. He had a jet at the G.O.L.D. warehouse about ten miles out.

Maya shook her head slowly, her expression sullen.

"The foreign airports. There are probably G.O.L.D. agents stationed everywhere, waiting for us to fly one of the jets. And who knows if they've placed trackers in them. We can't take the risk."

She was right. We were all fugitives, and we had something that the agency desperately wanted to take a hold of. Agents everywhere were probably ready for us to fly right into their traps, so we had to be careful. We couldn't leave a trace. Not anywhere, which brought another thought to mind.

"No credit cards either. We can't buy tickets."

Maya groaned once she realized that I was right, slamming her laptop shut. We began throwing ideas back and forth, pacing around as our thoughts raced with one another.

"We can see if one of Oliver's connections from Arc can help."

I shook my head.

"We can't trust anyone."

Oliver was still secretly in touch with agents from his former agency, but we didn't know who was on whose side anymore. It was too risky.

"It'll take too long by boat."

"Can't go by train."

I knotted my hands through my hair, frustration overwhelming my mind. I'd taken all of our resources from granted. Now that we were on our own, we didn't have access to anything that we could've taken advantage of. Maya and I finally sat down on the ground. I kept the journal on my lap, ignoring the fiery temptation to flip to the next entry.

There was a reason that Mom told me to find Jeremiah first. I had to trust her.

What snatched us out of our thoughts was the aroma of pizza conquering the air, overtaking the usual scent of dust and rain, making my mouth water. I felt a drift of wind as Oliver and Silas wandered into the cave, bags full of drinks and five boxes of pizzas stacked in Silas's hands. Oliver was holding... well, nothing. I wondered what his strange behavior against Silas was all about, but decided I'd question him later. He wasn't a jerk. Not usually.

Maya ran over to Silas, taking the pizza out of his hands. Not to help him, but probably because she was starving. She acted like she'd never seen pizza before in her life as she set it on the ground, not hesitating to take the first slice.

We congregated to where she sat, devouring the pizza in silence. We had been so consumed in the journal that we didn't realize how hungry we were.

"We need to find a way to get to Rome. Fast."

I spoke between bites, working on my third slice. We all ate shamelessly, already on the fourth box, soft and energy drinks being tossed around.

"If only I had my jet." Oliver grunted as he finished his slice. He reached for another one, but his hand froze when Silas spoke.

"My uncle has one. He's a pilot."

He ate innocently, his eyes fixated on his food. His comment was so naive, so nonchalant; it was obvious that he didn't realize what he'd just done. Oliver and Maya both looked at me, their eyes wide and pleading, asking a question they knew I'd be opposed to.

"No," I said harshly, narrowing my eyes. I set my food down. My appetite was suddenly gone. "We can't get him more involved than he already is."

Silas was still clueless, chugging a can of Red Bull, a content smile on his lips.

Oliver leaned closer, his eyes begging as he grabbed my shoulders.

"We don't have a choice," he whispered. I looked at Maya and she nodded, agreeing with her boyfriend. The three of us watched Silas as he ate away, still unaware. He was so oblivious that it was frustrating.

I knew that Oliver and Maya were right. Going with his uncle would guarantee that we wouldn't leave any traces, but this wasn't his responsibility. The more Silas got involved, the more danger he would be in.

But we couldn't waste any more time.

Finally, I sighed, slumping my shoulders.

"I'll talk to him."

Silas, finally returning to reality, scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, studying my expression. His green eyes searched mine for answers, the frame of his glasses still bent. "Talk to who?"

Maya and Oliver groaned in unison, and I rubbed my forehead in frustration. He didn't belong with us, yet here he was, somehow wiggling his way deeper into our lives. 

(A/N)

AHH! I'm so excited to write the upcoming chapters. If you enjoyed this one, don't forget to VOTE and leave your thoughts below! Thank you for reading, and lookout for a new update coming pretty soon!