"Jake Sandell." The man nodded his head, glancing at the other agents around the room nonchalantly. 

I narrowed my eyes at him and prowled closer. "What are you doing here?" 

A beat of silence went by as Ryan avoided my gaze, still glancing around the room. When his eyes landed on Max, he tensed.

"Answer his question, you expired coupon." Tom jabbed his gun into Ryan's flannel covered side. Kara raised an eyebrow at this statement, but let it go as Ryan opened his mouth and spoke. 

"Same thing you are," he nodded his dark head at the picture of the Waters clan. "I'm looking for my family."

Max stepped up, nearly spitting with barely controlled rage. "You stopped being our family the moment you betrayed the team and let us go into an operation under prepared. We were ambushed," his voice broke, and he looked up at the ceiling, biting his lower lip. "Ben was... you know."

Heart thumping in my chest, I watched Ryan's reaction. His brow furrowed, and his blue eyes clouded over with confusion. "What?" 

"What?" 

He sighed, exasperated. "Ben was what?" 

I blinked, taken back. "You don't know?" He didn't know that his own daughter, who he basically set up, had manufactured wings? But that didn't make sense. He was in on the whole let's-get-some-agents-to-experiment-on, right? 

Ryan was clearly becoming frustrated. Tom gripped his hold on him tighter. "No, I don't." 

I exchanged a look with Max. Glancing back at Ryan, I spoke. "Give us minute." Gesturing with my head to the door, I led Max outside, standing near the open trashcans. 

The sky was lit up with stars, and I took a moment to appreciate the cool night wind as Max shut the front door and came to stand next to me.

"He doesn't know." It wasn't a question. I looked at Max. He looked like he was barely keeping himself together, with dark circles under his eyes, and the fidgeting movements of his hands. All of my own problems seemed so small next to his. First, his sister, who he had thought was dead, had come back and was actually alive; then, he arrives at a house to find out that it is his mother's house, and that she and his sister weren't there; finally, his dad, who we thought had helped start the whole entire mess, shows us. And I thought that I had a hard time trying to grasp the fact that my old girlfriend was alive.

"But that means he couldn't have been in league with the scientists, right?" Max furrowed his brow, sighing through his nose. 

"That's what it seems like." I turned to Max. "Then Director Henry must have been doing the whole operation by himself, and just pinned it on Ryan. And we all went along with it because everything happened so fast." I threaded my hands through the hair, tugging at the red. "We're so blind. I can't believe I didn't see that before. I mean, we know that Henry was involved, since the scientists would come up and openly talk about it since they thought that we were going to probably work for them anyway by the end."

I kicked the grass in front of me. "I'm so confused. If they told us all that, they probably were going to kill us, right? So we couldn't tell anyone? But they just talked about experimenting with us, never killing us." My head snapped up and my eyes met Max's wide ones as a thought came spiraling into my head. 

"We were going to have to work for them, and for them to be able to control us entirely..." I trailed off as I let Max finish my sentence with dreadful certainty. 

"They were going to brainwash us." 

My hands fell to my sides as horror slowly came over me. "Ben," I whispered with shock. What if the scientists were, right at this moment, brainwashing her? What if they had already done it? 

"We have to find her, and fast. I can't loose my sister, not again-"

Beep. 

I flinched at the sound coming from the trashcan. Slowly lifting the lid, I let out a soft gasp at the sight of Ben's bag at the bottom. Gently pulling it out, I opened the zipper to find a burner phone with the screen lit up. One new message. Opening the phone, I clicked on messages, waiting for the new one to appear. Max watched over my shoulder with anticipation. 

Eight blind mice. Four birds of prey. Two agencies. One winner. D.H. 

"What the actual hell," Max inquired, staring at the screen. 

D.H. "Director Henry." 

Max nodded his head slowly. "Okay, that makes sense. But eight blind mice? Is that referencing all of us here? Lets see," He counted off everyone that was at the house at that exact moment. "Okay, eight. But blind. What are we missing?" His frantic eyes met mine. "What don't we know, Jake?" 

I shook my head. "I don't know. We can figure that out later with the team. Four birds of prey are obviously the scientists, since there are four of them." 

"Yes, but two agencies. What two agencies? The Umbra and I.B.O.A.. Right? That would make the most sense."

Max looked up from where he was rifling through Ben's bag that he had taken from me. "I guess. Then there's "one winner," He made quotations in the air. "Between who?" He shook his head, brown hair moving with the wind. "There's too many things that we don't know. For now, let's just go back inside and figure out what my dad's doing here."

Going inside, we found the others in the same position as before. Lydia's eyes widened as they rested on the bag. "That's Ben's." She made to grab it, and Max let her, but kept her close to his side. "Where'd you find it?" 

I looked at Ryan, who met my gaze coolly. "In the trashcan, would you believe it. I wonder what it was doing in there, don't you, Ryan?"

He tried to lift his hands placatingly, but it was hard to do with the cuffs on. "I didn't put it there, I swear." 

Kara spoke up from where she was standing in the doorway. "What are you doing here, then?"

Ryan met Max's hard eyes, wincing slightly. "I was trying to help Ben. I knew she was at your agency, and that you would put a tracker on her or in something that she would keep with her. So I accessed your computer data and found the tracker that you were using."

I frowned. "One, how did you know that we would track her, and two, how did you find that tracker?" 

He smiled slightly. "I did help train you, you know. It was standard protocol to put a tracker on a subject that might disappear on you. And two, "WingGirl" is not a very inconspicuous name for the tracker." 

I glared at Tom, who mouthed sorry to me. He winced. "Well, it was easier to track than a random ten digit number, so I had to change it."

I shook my head, about to ask another question when Kara interrupted with a question that had Tom listening intently. 

"Why'd you take Jeremy?"

Ryan's blue eyes snapped to hers. "Did he tell you why?"

Her eyes grew suspicious. "No."

Ryan glanced around the room again, sighing into the tense silence. "I took him to see his mom."

The room was as quiet as the grave. After a few moments, Tom spoke. "His mother?"

The elder man nodded his head. "Yes. She's an... acquaintance of mine, and hadn't seen her son in years. I found out through a source that his agency would be teaming up with the Umbra for a mission, and... made it so he would go on that mission."

Tom gaped at him. "You planned the whole mission. Everything."

Ryan nodded, shrugging. "Basically, yes."

I stepped up. "How."

He raised a brow. "Can't share all my secrets, can I?"

My comeback was once again interrupted by Kara's confused voice. "So you didn't show up because of Agent 5?"

Ryan shrugged again. "No. It was just a fluke that she was also on that mission."

"Then why'd you shoot your own daughter?" My heart lurched in my chest and Max mirrored it by moving forward threateningly. He shot Ben. He shot Ben.

The said "he" glanced warily between Max and myself. "It was the only way that I could get my daughter from following us. I know her. She won't stop and stand by if there's something bad happening. And Jeremy's mom isn't exactly on good terms with the law. I had to make sure the meeting was safe."

Silence crept once again through the house. So that was why Jeremy was tight lipped when we questioned him about the occurrences that happened when he was kidnapped by the infamous ex-director, Ryan Waters.

"They moved, you know."

My gaze went to Ryan's. "What?"

"The scientists. They relocated after you escaped. Even I couldn't find where." He tilted his head at me. "I know you want to go after her." He took a deep breath as I ignored the warmth that filled my cheeks. "And I want to help."

Max scoffed. "Sure you do. All you want to do is "help," dad. And look where that got us."

Ryan's gaze softened. "Max..." He shook his head. "I know that whatever I say won't matter to you anyway."

Max clenched his hands into fists. Lydia moved closer to his side, running a hand up and down his arm comfortingly. "It would have years ago, dad." He swallowed, visibly shaking. "It would have mattered years ago." 

Tom's voice the tense glaring match. "I'm sorry to interrupt, actually, I'm not, but we have mad scientists to find."

I nodded my head firmly. "Tom's right. I just... don't know where to start." 

Liam spoke up from beside Taylor. "I do." He pointed to the floor. "We start here."

Taylor nodded her head. "Yeah. We can set up base here. This was the last known place the Ben visited, so it might be easier if we start here."

Ryan bit his lip. "That's fine, but I need my wife's agreement."

A beat of silence passed before it dawned on me. She was still mad at him, probably for the apparent death of her son.

"Call her, then." Max raised an eyebrow challengingly. "You do still know her number, right?"

His dad considered for a second, then, "Unlock me." After Tom grudgingly unlocked the cuffs, Ryan pulled his phone out of his jean pocket, and quickly dialed a number. Setting it on speaker, we all listen intently for the ringing to stop. When it finally did, we anxiously held our breaths until a tenuous, "Hello?" rang through the room. 

Ryan cleared his throat. "Georgina... it's me. Ryan." 

A gasp sounded from the other end. "You. How dare you have the audacity to call me. After everything that's happened, you still want something from me?" A huff of an unbelieving laugh echoed. "I can't believe it. No, wait, I can." Good grief, she sounded like Tom. 

"Georgina, just hear me out, please-"

"No. I will not. Goodbye, Ryan. For the last time."

"Mom, wait." Max rushed out the words as if the whole world was depending on his mom to hear them. 

Another gasp, louder this time, emitted from the phone. "...Max?"

Max cracked a small smile. "Hey, mom."

"But... but Ben said that you died!" Mrs. Waters sounded close to tears.

"She didn't know I was alive, either. But, mom, I need you help now. Ben needs your help as well. She's... gone, and we need to use your house for a little while to help track her." Max glared at his father as he spoke, as if to say let me take care of this. 

His mother was more than happy to help. "Of course! Please find her, Max. I was just talking to her, not more than half an hour ago, when that awful man came. She told me to leave, and that she'd handle it. I've been so worried."

Max's eyes softened. "We'll find her, mom. Don't worry. Where are you currently?"

Mrs. Waters sighed. "I'm driving to stay at a friends house that is about forty-five minutes away."

Her son nodded his head. "Okay. You should stay there until I tell you that it's safe to come home, okay mom?"

"You got it, honey." Mrs. Waters voice broke. "You be careful, Max. I love you, sweetie."

Max's face reddened, but a soft smile came to his lips. "I will mom. I love you, too." The screen lit up as the call ended. 

Taylor spoke up again. "I'll contact Mia at HQ and tell her about the supplies we'll need."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Good idea. Meanwhile, let's make do of sleeping spaces, since we can't do anything tonight without the necessary equipment."

I soon found a spare bedroom where I could crash for the night. Flicking on the lights, I froze.

It was a room for Ben.

On the wall, there were pictures of her growing up through the years. One was of when she first joined the agency, and the whole team was there, smiling. Another was a professional photo of her. I walked over to it, studying her. Ben was smiling widely at the camera, seemingly without a care in the world. Her blue eyes were twinkling, and her chestnut brown hair shone in the sun.

Looking at the photo reminded me of the first time I realized that I was in love with her. We were sitting at a picnic table outside of Lydia's house, and she was telling me about some mission that she heard about and wanted to do. Her hair was in a bun, and she was laughing, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

I think that was also the first time that I saw Ben as Ben, not as a teammate, not as my best friend's little sister, but as Ben. I remembered leaning closer to her, and, just as she turned to fully face me, I kissed her lightly on the lips. I immediately pulled back, terrified that she would beat me up because I had done it without her consent, and that was not right. But instead, she pulled me forward and continued the kiss. I felt like I was walking on sunshine. And, as they say, the rest was history.

Reliving that moment was what it took for me to remember that I never actually stopped loving Bentley. I guess I flirted with Mia because I was jealous that the others still had someone, but the girl I was in love with was gone.

I groaned, resting my forehead on the wall. I was such an idiot. I had treated her like she didn't matter, and now she was gone again. I didn't even realize the I had someone I should appreciate and love until it was too late. But I'm going to find Bentley. Even if it takes everything I have.

I was going to find her.

At that moment, Max rushed into the room, freezing at the sight of the photos on the wall before shaking it off and meeting my curious gaze.

"There's another envelope," he gasped. "And you won't believe what it says."

I rushed out of the room with him, meeting the others in the living room once more. Lydia handed a lavender colored envelope to me, and my stomach lurched at the worry on her face.

Fingers shaking, my eyes hastily raced over the words, and my vision blurred as I reached the end.

The world was spinning around me. My hearing was static, as if I was on the wrong channel against the whole world.

The words danced in front of my vision once more.

3 weeks. 1 death. Get ready.