Wren woke up with the sun in her eyes and birds chirping. She sat upand stretched, surprised at how different she felt. She looked aroundand then scrambled out of bed, reaching for her gun, which wasn't onher like it usually was.

She shouldn't even have been in abed. She was supposed to be with Ajax, in the forest, getting theinformation back to Zephyr and making sure the rebellion was doingfine. So where was she, and why was she shorter?

She looked around realized she knewthis place. It was the house she lived in several years before Akramwas elected president. She stared at herself in the mirror andswallowed, trying not to panic. You never panic. You can'tpanic or you won't deal with the situation properly.

Her hair hung in straight, tangled locks over her shoulders, muchlonger than she would have liked, and she was at least five or sixinches shorter than she used to be. She was fully clothed, just asshe'd always slept, even as a child, and around her neck was afamiliar cross necklace.

"Oh... no..." she groaned,resisting the urge to bang her head against the wall. She wasfourteen again. Literally. "But how?" she muttered, sitting downon the bed and forcing herself to breathe normally. You'rea soldier. Well... kind of, I guess. Regardless of what you are rightnow, you can handle this.

She went over her memories, trying to piece together what sheremembered and fill in the blanks on what she didn't. And then itoccurred to her. "If I'm here... truly here, in my fourteen yearold body, then who's leading the rebellion? Who ended up in my bodyin the present?"

"Come eat!" The call came fromdownstairs and she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to sortout her options. It can't hurt to think about it over somebreakfast, she decided, andheaded downstairs to get something to eat.

***

Her main problem, Wren decided, wasthat she simply didn't know how to act like a fourteen year oldanymore. She couldn't remember half of the things she was supposed todo after she ate breakfast and she certainly didn't want to deal withschool. Especially since she now knewthat ninety percent of it would never be of use to her. Still, shehad to pretend, at least, so she went along with everything.

As soon as she finally managed to stumble through the last of herhomework and eat some lunch, she escaped outside into the beautifulsummer afternoon and went on a walk so she could think. She wasn'tused to her siblings as younger people anymore. Kitten had suddenlybounced back to her energetic, happy, and sometimes annoying self.Ajax was no longer the serious 'bodyguard' who went with her nearlyeverywhere to make sure she wasn't going to be attacked or killed,and she'd actually seen River in person. Even if she was a lotyounger and less social than her older self, it was still her, andseeing her safe and not putting herself in danger for the rebelliongave Wren a small sense of relief.

That didn't really matter though,because she still had to figure out how to fix herself. And then athought occurred to her. What if this isn't actually real?Of course supernatural things aren't going to happen to me... somaybe Akram finally caught me and he's decided to trap me in avirtual reality to see what happens. It makes more sense than theidea of me time-traveling or whatever.

Of course, if that was true, itmight make more sensethan time travel, but it still didn't make sense. Akram muchpreferred allowing the Interrogator torture the truth out of peopleand use his ghastly methods to extract information. He wouldn't puther back into some of her happier years of life and expect her tojust give him whatever information he wanted accidentally.

"So what is his angle?" shemused aloud, right before bumping into someone. She looked up andstepped back in surprise. "I am so sorry," she said, "NormallyI pay more attention."

The man she bumped into smiled. "It's perfectly fine. No harmdone," he replied.

She stepped around him and continued, but glanced back at the man.Her hand fell to her side out of habit and she sighed. No fourteenyear old would have a gun. The only weapon she owned was a sharppocket knife, and not the kind you could properly throw either. Itwould, at best, be a defensive weapon. Either way, she wasn't gettingattacked, so it didn't matter.

***

She couldn't find anything interesting to do. Now she understood whyher fourteen year old self wouldn't get off the computer half thetime. She had no friends in her neighborhood to hang out with or playoutside with and there was just her siblings. She had no clue how tohandle them yet, so she sat down at the computer and tried toremember what pin number she would have used when she was younger.

It took a few tries, but an old pattern occurred to her and she typedit in. The computer loaded and she looked at the start menu. Shegrinned. Right there in the middle of the games she rememberedplaying a lot as a child was a 'Learn Morse Code' program. It hadbeen the program she'd used to learn the 'language', although it hadtaken her at least a year to really try. She opened it and set it todo the whole alphabet.

For the next half hour, she decoded random messages in Morse code andlet her mind wander. Eventually she got tired of that and opened herdocuments folder. She had so many unfinished books. She opened oneand shook her head with a small smile, remembering how much she'dwished for adventure as a child.

Well I definitely got that, shethought. A laugh escaped her. Some people try to get intouch with their past and revisit their childhood. I never thoughtthat might be literal.

***

Life. Was. Boring. Very, very boring. Considering she was used torunning a rebellion, it made sense, but she missed having a readilyavailable punching bag for when she got annoyed or just bored. Shemissed the whole gym, really, and the opportunity to go on anassignment if she chose.

The assignment. I hope Ajax got back at least. Someone has to getthe information back.

She sat on the sofa in her room and leaned back, realizing that shehadn't actually thought about her situation much. She knew she wasprobably in trouble, maybe even in some sort of random virtualreality. What she didn't know was how she was supposed to get out.And if this was somehow real, she needed to figure out how to getback.

"Amanda!" the shout came fromdownstairs and she sat up.

"Yeah, Mom?" she called back.

"Dylan is here."

Dylan? Who's Dylan? Wait... I remember Kitten mentioning a newrecruit named Dylan. It would be a really strange coincidence if thiswas the same person. Then again, if this is some sort of VR then thatmight make some sense.

"Okay, I'm coming!"

***

Dylan was a tall sixteen year old with slightly shaggy blonde hairand dark brown eyes that reminded her of chocolate. He had a slightlylopsided grin and carried a big navy blue notebook with him. Hisclothes were simple: just a plain gray t-shirt and jeans.

"Should I take off my shoes?" heasked, meeting Wren's gaze as she walked down the stairs to greethim.

"Sure," she replied. "Justleave them by the door."

"Great. Where are we studying?"

Her mom looked at her and she shrugged. "Um... how about at thekitchen table?" Wren suggested.

He nodded. "Sounds good. Do you have your stuff?"

"I'll go grab it."

She ran upstairs and had to look through half of her notebooks beforeshe found the one with math stuff in it. Then she ventured backdownstairs to continue pretending to be a teenager.

Math wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She rememberedthinking that as a really young girl being introduced to it too, anddecided her view on the subject probably wasn't shared by many. Shedidn't mind learning all of the functions of the graphing calculatoragain or finding x over and over again, but when Dylan scrawled anote on a piece of paper and handed it to her, her guard went up.

I know you remember the future.She frowned and looked up at him, trying to look as confused aspossible.

How would a child respond? Out loud? If they didn't know what theperson was talking about...

"What do you mean?" she asked.

He sighed and glanced over at where our moms sat talking. "See,"he said, pointing to a problem. "They tell you the function of xand give you an equation. If you plug it in, you can solve it."

"I see," Wren muttered. Howdoes he know about me? "So ifI put in say... the wrongequation, I would end up being wrong?"

"Yes. But in this case I know I'mnot wrong."

"I'll have to take your word forit. What's next?"

He crossed his arms and leaned back. "Let's take a break. I need adrink."

"Cups are in the cupboard," shereplied, pointing. "And water's in the sink."

With a shrug, he stood and disappeared into the kitchen. He came backout with two cups of water and an extra sheet of notebook paper,presumably his. Handing her a cup, he sat down and took a swallow outof his. "Look you don't have to admit to anything," he saidquietly, "But I know what's going on with you because I caused it.I promise to explain, but... not with people around."

"That's just the perfect thing tosay in order to get someone alone and kidnap them," Wren saidbefore she could stop herself.

"Now what kind of fourteen yearold thinks that?" he said, cocking his head. "Please at leasthear me out. We can talk right here, but quietly. If you don'tbelieve me, we can go back to math."

 Wren sighed. If she listened, she may as well be admitting that shewas basically from the future, aside from a few minor details, likeher missing thirty-four year old body. "Fine," she said at last."But this had better be good."

~~~

A/N: And here we are back in the past! If you liked this chapter, don't forget to press that star! :D