As I turned my back to the balcony, I heard it.

I heard a woman's voice yelling.

"Mummy?"

But that's not possible. She was on Tyson's back and off the building. She was supposed to be out of harm's way.

I ran to the balcony's edge and there she was. My careless mother hanging off the edge in an attempt to try something she clearly failed at.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked as I reached out to grip onto her arm.

I hauled her arm with all my force and as she flooded back onto the terrace, along with her thoughts.

She quickly brushed me off and began yelling again, "I could ask you the same thing, young lady!"

"I was only trying to get you to safety and away from all of this," I said, gesturing to the pile of dead oagles bodies.

She snorted angrily. "Get me away? Nobody can escape the life they're born into even if they try, Burn!"

"I've just lost my dad and I won't lose my mother too!"

"How dare you?! Who do you think you are to make decisions for who lives or dies? Those kids willingly risked their lives and you wouldn't let them help you! Stop trying to play God and hero!"

"I am not! People shouldn't have to die for me!"I defended aggressively.

"For you? I hate to break this to you, Burn... but this isn't about you," she said slowly. "Those kids are soldiers and they were trained to die protecting for what they believe in and you are restricting them from doing exactly that!"

"But I am in charge here and you jumping off Tyson's back was dangerous!"

My mother looked at me like I'd just slapped her. She began slow but raised to shouting. "I lost my husband today. I won't lose my daughter too."

"You might be an apex but you're still a child! My child!" she added.

Suddenly, she broke into a cry. I followed and soon, I found myself crying into her shirt.

"He was a good man- your dad."

"He sure was," I found myself whispering.

Pictures flooded into my brain like a tsunami. A trail of memories.

Mostly when we first moved into the apartment in Adelaide, and when they adopted Atlantis. It was a blur of that memory but I could easily make out her hair colour.

"Mom, do you still remember Atlantis?" I asked as I pulled away.

She dabbed her eyes. "Who, sweetie?"

"Atlantis," I repeated. It felt as if it'd been years since I'd used that word.

"As in from that Dwayne Johnson movie?"

"Yeah, but you named her after that place."

"Who did I name?" she asked plainly.

"Atlantis, mum," I hissed.

"Who's Atlantis for crying out loud's sake-"

"Stop! This isn't funny, mum. My sister- adopted sister. The one that got stabbed, remember? And died."

Tears were streaming down my face by now. How could she have forgotten Atlantis? Was this a joke?

She came in for another hug but I pushed her away. "No! Tell me you remember her! You- we loved her!"

"Sweetie, I swear on your father's life-" she started.

I think that was the moment that she realised that her husband isn't alive in the universe anymore and she won't ever be able to see him again because she collapsed onto my shoulder.

More memories began flooding in. As I did with Raven's, I navigated through her memories until I found one of Atlantis.

There were images but not one face could be told apart except the ones that were clearly Atlantis because of her rosy cheeks and wide face.

Except they were all blurred.

It was almost as if someone had tampered with her memories. Erased every bit about Atlantis.

But why would somebody have done that? She wasn't special- unless she was.

Special just like mum and dad but somebody had managed to wipe her out.

I breathed heavily. "Nevermind, mom. Right now, we've got bigger problems."

I grabbed her hand and we filed back into the building. No guards luckily.

I watched mum's hand tightened around her gun at every turn we took towards the courtrooms.

"What's the plan, Burn?" mum whispered as she spun around to check we weren't being followed.

What plan? I wanted to say but I knew better.

I had a strong intuition that I wasn't done with the place just yet. The same feeling that I had when I ran into that spaceship on Earth.

I'll find out what I have to do later but for now, I must find Ivory, I told myself. But what if she's dead?

Suddenly, a storm of footsteps erupted in my eardrums. I knew we couldn't outrun them. There were too many.

My first instinct was to protect my mother.

An expression of panic swept across her face. "Burn, we can't hide anywhere. And they've all got guns," she whispered, her bottom lip trembling.

"Mum, just stay behind me-"

She held her gun an arm's length away and aimed it in the direction. "I'll keep them here and you run. You'll run faster than you've ever run," she said as she walked in front of me, shielding me behind her.

The oagles had noticed us and screamed something vulgar in a language that I couldn't comprehend.

This couldn't happen. First, they snatched my dad from me right before my eyes. And these grotesque creatures were slaughtering people from my planet.

I wasn't mad. I was furious. I was not going to let them take my mother too. Not without a fight.

Using the weight of my dead dad on my chest, I roared, "Over my dead body-"

The roar of the bullets banged against my eardrums as they sliced through the guns and towards us.

I stood tall in front of my mother who was wimping behind me. My heart was beating faster than the bullets.

One, two, three- ten. Ten bullets in total sprinting towards us.

I wasn't going to let their bullets take my mum's life. She deserved better.

Wait, I shouldn't even have this long, I thought, I should be dead by now.

I focused my eye on each bullet and it almost seemed as if they were paused on the spot. Then I looked back to the oagles that fired them. Rage filled inside of me.

How desperately I wished those exact bullets would zip through their bodies.

All of a sudden, the bullets obeyed.

They spun on the spot and sliced through the air and into the oagles' orange bodies.

I gasped aggressively and began panicking on the spot. The bullets literally rotated on the spot

"Mum, how did that happen?" I asked, desperately.

"Burn Archer, I think you've discovered your second Curse," mum whispered with fire in her eyes. "It usually occurs when the Apex is feeling strong feelings."

My lips quivering, I managed to ask, "What's a Curse, mum?"

"They're traits that defy the laws of science. The majority of the Apex has several Curses depending on how many body parts are activated," she stated excitedly. "That's what your dad told me anyway."

"What Curse have I just developed?"

She leaned in closer. "It's called Telekinesis."

"So, what part of my body's been activated?" I asked.

She glanced at the pile of dead bodies and stared back at me. "Well, you have telekinesis and you can control emotions?"

I nodded, recalling the events in the courtroom and how I was able to control the guy.

Don't forget that I possess the ability to somehow freakishly access people's brains, I wanted to say.

But I promised dad that I won't ever tell anyone the powers that were the most freakish, I reminded myself.

"Your brain and the heart. You activated the hardest body parts first. The majority of Apex usually develop two of the easier body parts," she stated.

For some reason, all this talk was making me excited. I couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, the ugliest siren entered the hallways, shattering the moment. A siren followed by the voice of Raven's mum over the loudspeaker.

"Burn Archer. In our torture chambers, we have one redhead and two young men." There was a sharp inhale and she continued.

"If you want to see your friends alive, turn yourself in."