It had taken Paige years to come up with the best plan she could about how to deal with her father's devastating orders. Through the entire time that she had spent as the Banners' adopted daughter, the Biolem girl had known where everything was supposed to lead. For half a decade she had built up a record of animosity between herself and Cassidy. Her real feelings, her wants, none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was what Pittman wanted. He wanted her to kill Cassidy on her seventeenth birthday, so she could be sent to Breakwater to help him escape.

Through all those years of being forced to follow his orders, at least the letter of them, Paige had been working to find a way out of it. For much of that time she had tried to work out a way to disable his control over her completely, a way to turn off his verbal commands, as well as the layers of obedience programming he had left her with. Unfortunately, for all of his many faults, the man was thorough when it came to ensuring she had to do what he ordered. Finding small ways to adjust those orders slightly was one thing. But she still had to carry out the gist of them.

All of which meant she had eventually turned from trying to find a way to disable his control completely, to fulfilling the letter but not the spirit of his master plan. She had to kill Cassidy. There was no way around that. The orders were very clear. She had to do something that would result in Cassidy's death. But nothing in his orders specifically stated that she had to stay dead. It might've been assumed and logical, but there was an inch of wiggle room. And Paige could do a lot with an inch of wiggle room. She could change everything about his plan. She could stop him.

But for all her planning, Paige had been unable to find any way that she could get through what was coming alive. No matter what she thought of, no matter how badly she tried to find a way out of it, everything came out to the same realization. She had to die. If she was going to shut down Pittman's factory after leaving the revived Cassidy safely locked up, she had to physically be there. She had to put herself in that room and destroy the place. There was no other way.

She was willing to accept that. If it meant stopping her father and saving Cassidy's life, after she had failed to save Anthony, she was willing to do whatever it took. She would give up her life, her existence, to make sure Pittman never hurt Cass, her family, or any innocent person.

But then something inconceivable happened, something Paige could absolutely never have even thought was a possibility. Irelyn had found out. The Banners' first daughter had learned the truth, had learned everything. And rather than reject her, rather than turn her in and get her locked up as some sort of science experiment, Irelyn had accepted her. More than that, she had vowed to help. For the first time since Cassidy's memory had been erased, while Paige was forced to watch from the closet, she had someone who cared. She had someone who was actually on her side.

Together, the two of them had come up with a better plan. A plan that would have been impossible to pull off by herself. But she wasn't by herself anymore. She had Irelyn. There was a chance she might actually get through this alive, with Pittman stuck right where he belonged.

The first part of that plan had involved making sure the Banners were safely out of the way, both so they wouldn't cause problems, and so the part of Pittman's plan where they died wouldn't happen. They might have been pretty shitty people, but they didn't deserve to go out like that.

With those two safely locked up for the time being, waiting for the girls to have time to deal with them, it was time to move to the next part of the plan. The new plan, that was, the one that didn't actually involve Paige sacrificing herself. Which, she had to admit, automatically made her like it a fair bit better than the one she'd spent years working on. Yes, she was fine with throwing that part of the plan away. For all the problems in her life, Paige quite enjoyed living, thank you.

It was time for her birthday party. Irelyn was off spreading the word that their parents had left for the evening, making sure Pittman, who would be getting constant updates by that point, would believe they were smart enough to know he intended to kill them and had run off. If nothing else, the thought that they might actually interfere with his plan somehow could potentially distract the man. He might ignore the possibility, or he might just send some of his resources to try to track them down. But it wouldn't matter. The Banners would be safely locked up in that room for the time being.

Whatever he chose to do, any distraction at all would be good, since Irelyn would also be using the time to find any isolated Biolems around the property so she could disable them using the codes Paige had taught her. Codes that Paige herself couldn't use, but had no problem sharing with someone who could. The whole staff had been replaced by dozens of Pittman's creations by that point, and the fewer of those who were still active when this all went down, the better. Not to mention the other thing Irelyn was doing with those disabled Biolems.

Paige, meanwhile, had something else to do. Something just as important as spreading those rumors about the Banners and disabling some of the Biolems. More important, actually, as far as she was concerned. Because her next part involved making sure Cassidy would still be alive when the night was over. And frankly, she would have gone back to the sacrificing herself plan if that was the only way to make that happen. She refused to live in a world where Cassidy died.

Or at least, in a world where Cassidy stayed dead. Even with all of Irelyn's help (and the woman had definitely tried to think of another solution), neither of them had been able to come up with any other way to do this that didn't involve the other girl at least briefly ceasing to be alive. It was an incredibly technical definition, but the only way they could pull this off was by letting Paige fulfill the strict definition of her orders. Cassidy would die for a couple seconds before being revived.

Most of what she needed to pull this off had already been set up long before anyone had arrived for the party. Which was good, because Paige was well aware that she had eyes on her. Even with Irelyn carefully picking off scattered Biolems here or there, there were still plenty left to watch everything Paige did out in the main part of the house and surrounding yard. She had to pull off playing the cheerful birthday girl for the guests, and the dutiful servant who was about to murder Cassidy Evans right in front of an entire crowd for the Biolems watching her. It was a lot.

Fortunately, Paige had a lot of practice playing a role like that. And it wasn't exactly a stretch to let the Biolems see how much she loathed Pittman. Playing happy while simmering with rage right beneath the surface? That was simple. These Biolems would see exactly what Pittman expected them to see from her, and they would report as such to their creator. Right up until it was too late to do anything about it.

Paige played the perfect host. She greeted her guests, all of whom were intended to be witnesses to Cassidy's horrific murder at her hands. Witnesses who would ensure the Evans would have no trouble getting Paige sentenced to Breakwater. Honestly, she wasn't sure why Pittman thought they wouldn't just have her killed for that, but maybe it had something to do with a fate worse than death. Or he had people in place to ensure she was kept out of their hands but still faced 'justice.' Whatever his reasoning, he wanted plenty of witnesses.

And so he had them. The entire room was full when Cassidy was given her fateful gift bag. All those witnesses were watching intently as Paige called the other girl up in front of them and informed her that she had earned that particular gift a long time ago. All of them heard the loud, terrifying bang that followed. And then all those witnesses, all the people Pittman had insisted be in the same room, saw absolutely nothing. Because in all of his instructions, for all the very specific rules the man had laid out about killing Cassidy in a room full of witnesses, he had neglected to ever say that the lights had to be on. The power was cut, the room was cast in complete blackness, and that was when Paige followed through with the strict letter of her orders. She placed the oxygen mask pumping out that special gas right up against Cassidy's face, apologizing to the girl the entire time. Because Pittman hadn't forbidden her from doing that either. Maybe because the concept of an apology had never even occurred to him.

All of that had been part of Paige's original plan, dangerous as it was. But that point was where the original plan changed, because of Irelyn. The original plan had been for Paige to carry her into a safe room in the garage while everyone was confused and blinded by the darkness. Then she would've given her the antidote. But Irelyn had refused to allow the risk of Cassidy staying dead for even as long as one full minute. So, the second the gas mask was pushed against the girl's face and she inhaled, Paige took something else from the gift bag and pressed it against her. It was a one-use emergency teleporter device, courtesy of one of Irelyn's special contacts.

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The teleporter instantly activated, transporting both girls out of the dark room and to the back of a van Irelyn had rented for the occasion. Using her own car would've been too dangerous. It was too likely that Pittman might actually have people on the lookout for it near the warehouse. Especially once he realized something had gone wrong, and that he wasn't getting any more updates. They had to hurry. This would be their only chance to wipe out his resources.

The moment the two girls appeared in the back of the van, Irelyn was already starting to drive, tires kicking up a heavy spray of dust and small stones. The small teleporter device they'd used was only good for just under half a mile, but that had been enough to get them off the Banners' property and onto one of the backroads. Behind the van, back at the mansion, they heard the sound of Paige's own voice, broadcast over the loudspeaker to be heard all over the property.

She wasn't actually speaking right now, of course. What those people were hearing had been recorded earlier. It basically amounted to telling people that the rest of the party was being postponed because they were having some power and lighting issues. The recorded (not that those people knew it wasn't live) words promised to make up for this whole thing later, but that for now everyone should just head home because it looked like the full power wouldn't be restored for a few hours. In most homes, not even seeing Paige or any of her family in person to tell them that might've been an issue. But at a place as large as the Banners' estate, with that many party guests, they would probably just assume that someone somewhere had actually spoken to them in person.

Nor would the rest of the Biolems be an issue. They were, in a word, dumb. Their orders had been very specific, because that was all they could follow. When it came down to it, all they had been told to do was make sure Paige followed her own orders and carried out her mission. Which, as far as they were concerned, she had. All of them could see in the dark perfectly fine, so they had watched as Paige pressed the mask with the deadly gas pumping through it up to Cassidy's face. They had watched as Cassidy collapsed. Their scanners had told them that the girl's heartbeat had stopped. None of the extra stuff mattered, because they couldn't think about that. They couldn't think about anything. Those Biolems weren't meant to think. They were ordered to make sure Paige killed Cassidy, and then wait for further instructions. So they waited.

Of course, with Pittman actively monitoring things from the prison island, they might've received orders very quickly. And in that situation, those orders probably would have involved detaining all those guests to use as hostages until he could sort out exactly what was happening. But that wouldn't be possible for at least a few minutes, thanks to the other thing Irelyn had been doing when she deactivated those solitary Biolems. Namely, inserting the quick and dirty, but effective, virus Paige had created. A virus that triggered at the exact moment the lights had gone out, temporarily disabling the connection all those Biolems in the area had with their creator.

The truth was, it had been an unstable connection to begin with, one Pittman didn't use that often. Most of the time, he was limited to only communicating off the island for short bursts at specific times. But this situation had been important enough for him to want text updates as often as possible. He wanted to be told exactly when Cassidy Evans was killed. Paige didn't bother to wonder why, because that would've left her too angry to focus on what she was doing.

In this case, what she was doing was more important than basically anything else in the world. Because she was reviving Cassidy. As the sound of her own voice loudly echoed through the night air from the Banners' property (rapidly fading in the background as it was thanks to Irelyn's driving), Paige was already pressing the waiting second gas mask with the antidote pumping through it against Cassidy's slack face. The original plan had involved letting the other girl stay 'dead' for around a full minute until she could drag her to a safe location. This new version, thanks to Irelyn, meant she was getting the antidote only a few seconds after going limp. That had to be soon enough. It absolutely had to be. Paige had spent years trying to come up with a way to avoid following her orders. Even with Irelyn's help, she hadn't been able to avoid it entirely. But this… this had to work. She did what she was ordered to, and now Cassidy could live. She had to. She had to live. She had to come back. If she didn't, if she… if Paige had…

With a sudden jerk of motion, the small, helpless form she had been cradling while pressing the gas mask against went upright and started coughing. Paige quickly pulled the mask away and lightly slapped the girl's back a few times, trying to help. "It's okay, you're alright, you're safe." She was well-aware of just how unlikely that was to help in the circumstances. Seeing things from Cassidy's point of view, the girl had been summoned to a birthday party by someone who hated and insulted her for years, called up to stand in front of a crowd, and then… well, then she woke up coughing and sputtering into a gas mask in the back of a van that was driving down a rough back road while that same girl told her she was safe. Unhelpful might have been a bit of an understatement.

Paige had been expecting Cassidy to be upset, confused, scared, and so many other things. That much was obvious. What she didn't expect was just how strong and slippery the other girl was. In a surprising burst of adrenaline, Cass managed to twist herself free of Paige and threw herself to the far side of the van in a posture that seemed… wait, was she in an actual defensive posture? Sure, she would be feeling that fight or flight pressure right then, but unless Paige had lost her mind, Cassidy actually looked like she knew how to fight right then. Which was just… what?

"What the hell!?" Cassidy was snapping her head back and forth, hands raised defensively in front of herself even as she clearly took stock of the situation. Paige could see her notice the van doors nearby, the figure in the driver's seat up front, the tank with the attached gas mask that Paige was still holding, and probably even more. She'd already clearly put together that they were moving. Actually, the girl seemed to be processing and reacting to things much faster than she should've been able to in general. Something strange was going on. Well, it had always been strange, to be fair. But this was a strange thing Paige herself didn't understand. And that was new.

"Cassidy, it's alright." That was Irelyn from up front. She shifted around in the seat, continuing to drive while looking over her shoulder briefly. "I promise, no one's going to hurt you. It's-- it's a complicated story, but you have my word, we're here to help you." Belatedly, she muttered under her breath, "Even if we had to do that in one of the worst ways you could possibly imagine."

In most situations like this, being told something like that from someone Cassidy would only maybe barely recognize as Paige's adoptive older sister probably wouldn't have helped. But Cassidy wasn't looking at Paige's adoptive older sister right then, because Irelyn had changed into her costume while waiting in the van. So Cassidy was seeing Flea, member of the Conservators, tell her that everything was going to be okay. That, at least, might calm her down.

It didn't. Instead, Cassidy snapped her gaze back and forth between Paige and Flea with a look of absolute bewilderment before demanding, "What the fuck kind of kidnapping is this? You paid some girl to dress up like one of the Conservators and then gassed me unconscious? Is this about your supervillain dad!?"

Well that made Paige and Irelyn both do a double-take. The latter almost managed to drive off the road in her surprise before catching herself to make the turn. Paige was the first to find her voice. "Wha-- how do you… wait, wh--"

Cassidy might've answered her. She might've explained her side of things, and let Paige and Irelyn explain theirs. They all might've discussed the whole situation and managed to sort out the whole situation. But right then, just as they were staring at each other in bewilderment, that situation changed more dramatically than any of them could have anticipated.

It started with the van suddenly shaking so hard it felt like the thing might just fall apart. It was enough to make Cassidy stagger forward until Paige caught her. Both of them started to snap something at each other, before they were interrupted by Flea crying out in warning. And then… then the ground under the van disappeared. They all felt the sensation of the vehicle dropping through open air, followed by a hard impact that sent the two girls in the back flying up into the roof of the van, while Flea was jerked violently against her seatbelt. Then it all went dark.

Paige was the first to recover enough to lift her head. The van… the van was on its side. She and Cassidy were lying in a tangled heap together against one of the side windows. The other girl was unconscious again. Just unconscious, Paige assured herself of after a quick check of her vitals.

With a groan, Irelyn came awake. She was still belted into her seat, managing to unstrap herself while groggily asking the other two if they were okay.

"Cassidy got knocked out," Paige informed her. "But what… happened?"

"I don't know," Irelyn replied while standing up on the driver's side door, which was pressed against the ground. "There was some sort of light ahead of us, then…" She had shoved the passenger side door open by then and gave a little hop to get out. Silence followed for a few long seconds, before she gave a heavy curse.

"What?" Paige asked while gently trying to wake up Cassidy once more. "What happened?"

"I think we know what Pittman's backup strategy was now," came the response. "He couldn't get you sent to the prison island legally, so he did it himself."

That made Paige's head snap around, staring up through the broken windshield to see trees and… ocean water beyond. "Oh… wait… no…"

"Yes," Irelyn replied quietly from the side (now top) of the van. "I think it's safe to say that's exactly what happened.

"We're on Breakwater."

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