One minute Amanda was walking through the forest behind Alex, the next thing she knew, she was sitting on her bed back at HQ. Alex was nowhere to be found, and when she did some digging, she realized he was still in Japan. Satellite imaging showed all of the destruction she'd witnessed was gone. Erased.

She hadn't even had a chance to recover from the shock of seeing so much death before everything was fixed. It was like someone was playing with her, creating horrible memories in her mind and then erasing the fact that they ever happened. Like someone was using the timeline like an etch-a-sketch, except she was forced to remember every terrible thing that happened before it was erased.

Still, she refused to dwell on it. Not yet. Later, she would let the full effect hit her, but for now she would channel those memories into defeating Akram.

Once she figured out the gist of what was going on, she headed for the war room. If Akram was going down, she was going to have to make a plan that would destroy him, and it would have to happen soon.

Someone brushed past her, and she looked up from her tablet to see Ethan. He was dressed in ripped jeans and a white t-shirt, his hair brushed back. He looked nothing like someone who belonged in jail.

"You," she spat. He'd caused Zephyr's death, kidnapped her, threatened her, and yet here he was. Walking free while she suffered the consequences of his actions.

He frowned, a confused look on his face, but she didn't care. All of the emotions she'd tried to hide came to the surface then, exploding in the form of a fiery, boiling cauldron of rage. She slammed him up against the wall, surprising everyone around them. The bystanders cleared a circle to watch, curious to see what would happen next.

"You killed Zephyr!" she yelled, her arm across his throat.

He struggled to break free of her grip but she tightened it, cutting off his air. "I... don't know... what you're talking... about," he gasped.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, you traitor," Amanda said, releasing him.

Ethan tried to move away, but she wasn't done yet. She grabbed his arm and slammed her fist into his stomach, knocking the breath out of him. He sagged in her grip, gasping for air.

She would have kept hitting him, but someone grabbed her arm, dragging her away. "What's wrong with you?" Hawk demanded.

Ethan took the chance to move away from Amanda, who was still fixing him with a death glare. "He's a traitor!"

"Wren, he's been here for a month, and he's still recovering from his escape from Akram and Mersor. If there is a traitor, there's no way he's it," Hawk said gently. "I thought you two were friends."

"So did I," Amanda muttered. "Clearly he didn't agree."

Pulling free of her sister's grip, Amanda stalked away from the crowd and into the war room, locking the door behind her. She needed some time to process things.

She was tired of this. All of it. First Ethan screwed around with her emotions, and then suddenly none of that even happened. The worst part was, he didn't even remember what she did. To him, he'd probably never done a thing to hurt her. But that didn't mean she could forgive him. She didn't know if she could.

Dwelling on things wasn't going to help her, however, so she did the only thing she could do: she planned. She created backup plans, and then backup plans for her backup plans, until she'd mapped out every single possibility she could think of and created multiple plans to take care of things.

By the time she was finished, there was a spiderweb of scenarios projected onto the table in front of her. Then she reviewed her plans. Over. And over. And over again. Until she knew them like the back of her hand.

A knock on the door startled her. She saved the files, burying them deep within a bunch of other strategies, and unlocked to door, cracking it to see who it was.

Hawk and Cheetah stood in front of her, arms crossed. "Can we come in?" Cheetah asked.

She nodded and opened the door wider. They slipped through the crack and she closed it again. "What's wrong?"

Hawk raised a brow. "We were hoping you could tell us," she said. "What was that whole scene with Bear?"

"That... is complicated," Amanda said, sitting on the table and facing her older siblings. "But I'm fine."

"Really? You just blew up at the guy who's had a crush on you from day one. The guy you admitted to liking," Cheetah pointed out.

"Must have been the stress talking," Amanda answered. And I doubt I ever admitted to liking Ethan. Not in a million years.

"We're worried, Wren. Can't you just share for once? I know things have been hard lately, but you don't have to keep it from us. We're family."

They must not know I'm fourteen... fifteen anymore. If anything else had changed, she wasn't sure she could handle it. "Look guys, I promise I'm fine. It was just stress."

Neither of them looked convinced, but they knew they weren't going to get anything, so they let it go. "Fine, but at least show us what it was that took six hours to make," Cheetah answered.

"I was planning," Amanda told him. She pulled everything back up again and showed them.

For a brief moment, she thought Hawk might have looked impressed. "This is extensive," she said.

"No wonder it took six hours," Cheetah muttered. "This is crazy."

"Yeah, well it still needs work. You're welcome to help, if you want."

Hawk nodded. "Of course. If this works... It'll take Akram down for good."