Aiden was buzzing all day about the new mission Hank and Nay were giving us. However, when they finally got us all in the meeting room to tell us what it was, he immediately deflated.

"Are you kidding me?" Aiden whined, and Nay looked like she wanted to hit him. "After all these other cool missions we go on, you make us go look for another animal?"

Nay looked like she was going to ripped the picture of the dog she was holding up for us into pieces. I didn't blame her for being annoyed with Aiden; that was how I felt toward him every single day.

"If anyone shouldn't be complaining about this, it's you," I snapped, my arms crossed over my chest so I wouldn't try to slap him. "You're the one that can talk to animals. As soon as we find this thing, all you have to do is say something and then it'll come with us."

"That's if it's a trusting dog," Aiden countered, rolling his eyes at me. "Just because I tell it to come with us doesn't mean it necessarily will."

Hank shrugged. "One way to find out."

"I love dogs," Kristie giggled, and this immediately made Aiden's whole demeanor and attitude change. This wasn't unsurprising.

We made our way out of the DAU and toward the RV, which was already parked outside and ready to go wherever we were supposed to go. I just hoped this mission was short and easy because, even though I hated agreeing with him, Aiden was right. These missions were kind of boring, and I knew we could do better. But this was what training was all about, I guess.

"Hello, hello, hello!" RV called out as we all piled inside. "I always love to see the five of you!"

"Thanks, RV, I feel the love," Hank called out as he and Nay piled into the RV behind us, and RV gasped.

"I didn't know you two were coming along as well!" he defended, and it was still al little odd that someone was having a conversation with an RV. "You two are my favorite pair of stubborn lovers!"

I looked to Nay to see her response. Her left eye twitched.

"Excuse me?" she growled.

"Right behind Dex and Violet, of course," RV continued, and I nearly choked on my own saliva. Dex, meanwhile, looked like he couldn't have cared less. "I remember what happened in here all those months ago—"

I felt my face grow hot. "RV!"

"I can only imagine what's happened outside of here since then!"

This didn't make Nay any happier, but Hank turned to Dex and bro-fisted him as secretly as he possibly could. But no matter how hard he tried to hide it, Nay caught him and ended up punching him right in the arm at the exact moment I did the same to Dex.

"Ah, tough love," RV sighed.

"Shut up!" Nay and I shouted in unison.

The RV began to move, and I almost freaked out before I remembered that we didn't need anyone to drive it because RV could do it on his own. I wondered if I'd ever get used to that.

"We're taking you to the place the dog was last spotted," Nay told us after a few minutes of silence went by. "We're hoping you either find him or find clues to where he may be."

"Sounds simple enough," Anthony shrugged. "We found that cat the last time."

Yeah... But we'd also had found someone else, too.

"Alright, we've paired you up into teams," Hank informed us once the RV came to a stop. "Of course, that means one person is going to have to go out there alone..."

I sighed, already knowing where this was going. "And that person is..."

"Violet," Hank finished for me, even though I didn't need him to say anything to know that it was me that they had chosen.

"I'm alone again?" I questioned, not really surprised by this. "I don't think anything good can really come from me being alone."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "You just want to be with Dex."

I glared at him. "I think we all know who you want to be with—"

"At least I'm not all alone at night—"

"I think I can take care of myself—"

"Will you two stop bickering?" Nay snapped, stopping us before it could get really bad, like it usually did. "These are the pairs that we thought would work best for this mission."

Anthony rolled his eyes from his spot. "You just don't want Dex and Violet together or Aiden and Kristie so you thought up pairs where they wouldn't be together," he said, and I was pretty sure he was spot on.

Nay glared at him, and her left eye twitched again, but she said nothing. I didn't really want to have a conversation about that anyway.

"Anthony and Kristie are teamed up," Nay informed us, getting back to the point of why we were even here in the first place.

"No," Aiden groaned, slinking down in his seat. "That means..."

"Yeah, I'm not really thrilled about it either," Dex scowled back at him as he leaned up against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

I shrugged. "I'd rather go alone than with Aiden."

Our team leader was so bummed out about being teamed with Dex instead of Kristie that he didn't even snap back at me, which he normally would have done in a heartbeat.

"Just get out," Nay sighed, covering her eyes with one hand while pointing at the door with the other. She most likely was starting to get a headache, and our incessant bickering and fighting with each other was not helping.

We made our way out of the RV one by one, leaving Hank and Nay inside. Now, a normal teenager would probably be wary about leaving two adults that clearly had feelings for each other all alone in a big RV, but I was not a normal teenager, Hank and Nay were not normal adults, and they were not inside a normal RV.

Of course, that didn't stop Dex and me all those months ago... But I was still getting used to the fact that the RV was sentient! I didn't know if Dex felt the same way as I did or not, but I wouldn't have been surprised either way.

"I'll take care of your boyfriend," Aiden sneered once we were about to split up, sticking his tongue out at me.

I waved goodbye to him. "Try not to take care of him too well, I'd still like him to be interested in girls when this is all over," I called out after them.

This warranted horrified looks from both boys, but I only laughed and shot up a peace sign with my fingers before darting off on my own in search of the missing dog.

I looked around to see what my surroundings were, a little surprised when I saw the fair going on on around me. This was where the dog supposedly was? In this place with a ton of different people? I would not have been surprised if we didn't find him.

I weaved through the large groups of people, looking around at the ground for anything brown like the dog. I'd see brown pants and brown skirts, but none of them were the canine I was supposed to be finding.

Finally, I was able to push my way through the large crowds and onto a sidewalk with a moderate amount of people. I felt like I was able to breathe again, and I hated that I was going to have to go back in and search for something I was already sure wasn't even there.

That was when I noticed the man staring at me. It was pretty obvious; there weren't that many people around us, and he was only a couple feet away. And he was staring at me and smiling. Like he knew who I was. And that really scared me because I'd never seen this man before in my entire life.

When he made his way up to me, I didn't know if I was supposed to run or scream. There were still quite a lot of people in close proximity, so it wasn't like I was scared that he was going to do something to me. But I still felt afraid. And I didn't know of what.

"Violet King," the man smiled, taking a step forward. I took a step away, not wanting to be close to him. "How long I've been waiting for this day..."

I couldn't help but feel uneasy by the look this man was giving me. He was young, but not as young as I was. He was definitely around the same age as Hank and Nay.

"Who are you?" I asked, and I wasn't so sure I wanted the answer or not.

The man chuckled, and this only made me feel even more uncomfortable than I already was. I had no idea why he wasn't answering my question, but it just made him creepier.

He just smiled at me. It wasn't a nice smile. This man was handsome, but the way he was acting took any good looks he had and just demolished it. He was nothing but a creep. And he was standing too close to me.

"Striker!" a new voice cried, and we turned to see a beautiful young woman with bright red hair making her way toward us.

When she stopped, she placed her hands on her hips and tapped her foot against the cement below us. But all I could focus on was her hair. I'd seen in before. But only for a split second. She'd been in the roller rink the same time my friends and I had been. Did that mean this guy had been there, too?

"Who are you?" I demanded, clenching my fists as I crouched slightly into a fighting stance. The redhead rolled her eyes at me.

"Put the claws away, kitty," she drawled, shoving her hands into her jacket pocket. "I'm not here to hurt you right now."

The words right now rung through my head, and it only confirmed the worried thoughts that I had. This woman was a threat, and it was likely this man was too. And just because they weren't going to try to hurt me right then didn't mean they weren't in the future.

The only reason this scared me is because I had no idea what I was up against. I had no idea what they were capable of. They weren't Lynx or Malicius; I didn't know what powers they had or what exactly they wanted to do. This was all brand new.

"Are you going to answer my question or not?" I asked, unclenching my fists and straightening back up. If they didn't want a fight, then we weren't going to fight. That was the last thing I wanted anyway, especially when I was alone.

"We're the new team from Redrum that's been assigned to yours, clearly," the redhead scoffed with another role of her eyes. "I can't believe you weren't able to figure that out."

I felt my mouth go dry. I guess I should have figured since both members of the original team that we were supposed to be taking care of were dead that we would have to deal with another one. But I wasn't expecting that to happen today.

"She's so cute when she's flustered, isn't she, Striker?" the redhead asked the man beside her, and then let out a laugh. "Of course you would think that, right?"

I didn't like the way he was looking at me. It was a look that no one had ever given to me before, not even Dex... And I didn't like it.

"We'll be seeing a lot of each other," the redhead continued. "I'm glad we were able to have such a nice first meeting."

Well, this was sure coincidental. I'd met Lynx for the first time when I was going off to look for a cat. Now I met these two when I was out to look for a dog. I was starting to think that missions that involved looking for lost pets probably weren't the kind of missions we should have been taking up any longer.

"I'm Carmine," the redhead introduced, and I was a little confused why she was introducing herself to me. Lynx and Malicius didn't do this; we had to learn about them through the database. She now cocked her head to who I assumed was her partner. "And this person you've become acquainted with is Striker."

I just looked back and forth at them, having no idea what I was supposed to say. This wasn't how it was when I met Malicius and Lynx at all. It wasn't as filled with conversation or nearly as laid back.

"He's been going on and on about you ever since he saw your picture in you profile," Carmine continued, and I felt really uncomfortable by this new information. "He says you're, like, the most beautiful girl he's ever seen or some stupid stuff like that."

"Uh..." I didn't know what I was supposed to say to that. I took a step away.

"And you're an Ender, too!" she cackled, and I hated how much she stressed that certain word. "That just makes you the pick of the litter, doesn't it?"

I remembered how Hank and Nay had said that Redrum wanted Enders to join because of their power. If they had all the Enders on their side, or at least the majority of them, they would be unstoppable. It made me wonder how many they already had, how many they'd tried to get, how many they still didn't know about... But mostly, it made me wonder what they were going to do with me.

I hadn't thought about that much in the months that I'd known I was an Ender. But clearly, with the that both of them were looking at me, I knew that was something I was going to have to worry about. It wasn't something that I could just ignore or make go away. I was an Ender. And they were well aware of that.

"Violet," a new voice called out, and I turned to see Dex making his way toward me, my three other teammates right behind him. I was glad that they were there, but at the same time I wasn't.

"Dexter Wolff," Striker smiled wryly as my strong teammate came to a stop beside me. "What a pleasure it is to finally meet you."

Carmine rolled her eyes. "He doesn't like him," she informed me with a smirk. "I'll give you three guesses why."

I didn't want to guess. But I knew either way I was going to dislike whatever the answer was.

"Who are you?" Dex asked the two people standing before us, his eyes narrowing.

"Shouldn't it be obvious?" Carmine laughed. "No wonder you're not the brains of the group."

Anthony scowled from his spot on the other side of me. "Redrum members," he whispered.

Carmine clapped. "And there's the brains!"

"I thought we were through with our share of Redrum," Aiden commented, shielding Kristie slightly with his body. I bit down on the inside of my cheek to stop myself from making a face at him. It wasn't like Kristie couldn't take care of herself.

"You're never done with Redrum, sweetie," Carmine snickered, as if that was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard, and I did kind of agree that it was a pretty moronic thing to think. "As long as this organization is still around, you'll always have to deal with us."

"Hey," Dex suddenly snapped, and I turned my head toward him to see that he was talking to Striker. He took a step in front of me, as if to shield me from him. "Stop looking at her like that."

So I wasn't the only one who noticed the way he was staring at me. I still couldn't describe the look, but Dex clearly knew whatever it meant. That, or he could tell it was making me uncomfortable. Either way, I was going to have to ask him about it later.

"Men can be so childish, can't they?" Carmine sighed, rolling her eyes. "She's not some toy or trophy."

Dex said nothing to this; he only glared at her. Striker continued to smirk.

"We'll leave you, for now," she smirked, waving at us as she took a step back. "This was just a quick, formal introduction. I'm sure you'll learn more about us in the database. We already know so much about all of you."

She was just as creepy as Striker was. No wonder they were on the same team.

"Oh, and that dog that you guys are looking for," Carmine winked as she turned away from us. "You're not gonna find him in a state you'll wanna see."

She and Striker both took off down the street, turning into an alleyway, but this couldn't be the end of this encounter. If they'd taken that dog, then I was going to get it back.

I ran right after them into the alley, wanting to get answers from them before they left.

I stopped dead in my tracks, however, when I was met with something else. They were gone; they'd completely disappeared once they'd turned the corner. What was left, however, was a charred corpse of what I could only assume was the dog we had been looking for.

"Oh, my God," I gasped, slapping my hand over my mouth to stop myself from gagging.

My teammates ran after me, though I wish they didn't so they wouldn't have had to see what I did. The second Dex's eyes landed on it, he immediately grabbed onto me and pressed my face into his chest so I would no longer have to see it.

Kristie immediately started crying, but I actually didn't blame her because I thought I was going to as well. Aiden wrapped his arms around her, shielding her from the sight. Even he looked like he was going to be sick.

Anthony turned to his left, and then turned to his right before letting out a sigh of disappointment. "No one's here to hold me..." he said, and I knew he was just as disgusted with the sight before us as the rest of us were, and he would have loved to have someone there to shield his eyes likes Kristie and I did. "Where's Lena when you need her?"

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I hate myself this took an hour to write.

Hopefully that explains why it's so awful lol.

No literally once I finally got time to write, it doesn't even take me that long to write a chapter. I just need to actually give myself time to write. And honestly, I shouldn't be awake right now. It's two in the morning and I have to get up at six thirty for school. But I love you guys and hate myself so enjoy lol.

I finally finished the outline for this story! I was going to send out a long message on my message board about it but I don't know if I'm going to anymore because I've started writing it like multiple times in the last couple of days but just can't get it all out lol. Basically an outline means more frequent updates as long as I actually get time to write. So this is good! Especially because summer is soon.

But that's also horrifying. Because this book came out last summer. And there's only seven chapters out so far.

I really hate myself.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3