I felt like I was in zero gravity.

The dancers around me turned to wind up toys, the air fizzled into a heated cloud, and I myself felt weightless too, except for my head which felt like a boulder. There were not words to explain how it felt now that Axel and everyone else knew that I love him too.

So I, stupidly, stood frozen on the dance floor where Harrison left me, oh so amused with his crafty little trick, in complete and utter disbelief, robbed of the ability to breathe and to think straight.

"Fucking hell I can't get this last door open."

Seriously Blitz? Now? How the hell is a stuck door even remotely close to as relevant as the fact that the entire fucking mission group knows—

"The lockpick isn't working?" Zach asked.

Blitz groaned. "I don't have one."

"What about a regular knife?"

Wow so I guess we're all just ignoring that last conversation?

"It's blunt from cutting all the wires of the bombs, and it's too big for the keyhole. And this door is made of industrial grade fucking steel."

"It can be industrial grade vibranium and you still have to get in there," James said. "That's literally the most strategic position to place a bomb. Without that one, there's a chance Basilone could escape without getting completely blown to bits. We could blow up all the other bombs we've placed and it won't do nearly as much damage as it would if we just blew this bomb up."

Okay okay I get it, the stuck door is important.

"Someone go and help him," Owen commanded.

I tripped over my words for a little bit before I managed to stammer, "I have my lockpick." I scrambled off the middle of the dance floor and towards the entrance of the gala.

"Somebody care to initiate one of those distractions we went over?" I asked hurriedly as I tried to scuttle inconspicuously around all the people. Some of the women were decked out in so many diamonds I was worried if I looked straight at them I'd be blinded.

I heard a crash behind me but unlike everyone else I didn't snap my head up to see where it had come from. Axel or Harrison had probably pretended to be drunk and knocked over one of the champagne serving tables. Classic. Effective.

"James?" I picked up my pace as I neared the open doors.

"On it."

My heart raced as I slipped past the guards, who were furiously speaking into their headsets trying to figure out what the crash was.

"You're good, calm down," James said softly in my ear. "The cameras didn't see anything."

"Thank you."

I hurried around the warehouse and back to where my old clothes were. I took off the dress immediately, and slipped back into my black jeans and t-shirt, leaving the dress on the floor. There was no need to wear it anymore, so I just threw my real clothes straight on. I strapped my handgun and knives back to my thighs, then made sure all my other spying trinkets were clipped onto my belt and in my pockets. I hopped on one foot while weaseling my boots back on and lacing them up tightly, then sliding more knives inside them.

I put my hair back up in a ponytail and glanced up at the closest camera. "Enjoy the show?" I winked at the lens.

"Ha ha," James replied. "I'd love a warning next time, maybe set some music up and play it in slow motion," he said sarcastically.

"You're lucky you have that camera to hide behind Strider," I muttered, before darting towards the door to the stairs that led underground and connected the warehouse and the factory.

Blitz was down here somewhere, ready to place the last bomb. James was right. It was vital that this particular bomb went off, because its position would do the most damage to both the warehouse and the factory.

I slowed my jog and whipped out the lockpick once I spotted Blitz's blond mohawk.

"Took you bloody long enough,"

"Title of your sex tape," I flicked my tongue out the side of my mouth.

"Just give me the damn thing," he snapped.

"You Brits and your weird ways of saying thank you," I snipped back at him.

Blitz rolled his light blue eyes and took the lockpick from me. "Thank you."

He was just about to stick the thin stick inside the keyhole when James suddenly cried out, "shit!"

"What?" Blitz, Owen and I demanded at the same time.

"Guards," James groaned. I bet he was running his hands through his new brown hair. "A whole squad of them, maybe a dozen or so, full body armor, big guns, the whole nine yards. Maybe they saw you come out or something Deera, I don't know, but they're heading your way right now."

"Like, right now, right now?" Blitz and I stared at each other while listening to the frantic tech guy in our ears.

"How long?"

"About 30 seconds."

Blitz turned in a circle and ruffled his blond mohawk. "Jesus fuck James!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize, we can take care of it," I said. I took the lockpick back from Blitz and clipped it to the inside of my pants.

"Like in training," Blitz smiled. "Remember everything I taught you?" He raised his eyebrows.

"You're such a dad sometimes," I rolled my eyes at him.

I pulled the gun out from the holster at my thigh and cocked the safety off. Blitz slid a long knife out from the sheathes on either side of him and twirled them in his hands. The blades were about a foot and a half long each of glimmering steal. Knives were Blitz's specialty, and he had insisted Axel grab them before we broke out of the agency.

The Englishman grinned at his new toys. "I am so glad I get a chance to use these." He glanced down at the shining steel blades and rolled them around his hands again. "It's been so long my pretties."

"Your what now?" Quinn asked.

"Don't call them that," Zach sounded disgusted.

"10 seconds," James said.

"Bullet proof armor?"

"Can't tell. Have fun figuring it out."

We heard the guards before we saw them. Sets of sturdy boots against linoleum floor. Hands against guns. The rustling of thick fabric.

I fired as soon as the first guard's head came around the bend in the hallway. The bullet deflected off his helmet and I groaned. Bulletproof helmets. Fanfuckingtastic. The guard I hit stumbled a little as the speeding bullet knocked him off his balance, but then he kept up his running and aimed his assault rifle at me.

"You really should have brought the stun bullets."

The sound of two guns started firing from behind me and the next three guards that came around the corner went down.

I whipped around. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked Axel and Harrison.

"Helping," Axel replied evenly.

I didn't get a chance to respond before more guards came around the corner. Blitz ran at the next one, slicing at the open places in the guard's armor, like wrists and where their visors didn't completely cover their faces. He switched between using his elbows and legs to kick and hit the guards as well as stab and slash at them.

"Are you gonna help?" Axel snarked at me.

I had to suppress the growl that almost erupted from my throat. "Fuckin' watch me," I snapped back at him.

I ran at the next guard, then ducked down and slid on my knees in between his legs, coming up the other way with my gun up, and shot the guy in the back. I slid around on my knees, coming up on one leg to launch my other foot into the next man's chest. I kneed him in the stomach, grabbed his shoulder with both hands and threw him behind myself and over her knee which was still level with his lower torso. He hit the ground forehead first and I twisted and shot him in the back too. I tripped the next guy, yanked his helmet off and shot him in the head, and then pulled out two of the tasers from my back pocket. I uncapped them and then threw both at one of the next guards. The electric shock knocked him right out and he collapsed on the ground.

Blitz had cut his way past three other guards, but there were still two left running towards me. I pocketed my gun and I ran at them too, grabbing the assault rifle of the first man and slamming it into his face, then kicking him in the groin and knocking him off to the side by bashing his temple with my elbow. I dodged the next guard's swing at me, grabbed the bottom of his helmet and yanked it right off, then slammed it into the side of his head. As he fell to the ground I pulled out my gun and shot him in the back.

I looked up just as Blitz was knocking the last guard in the head with the hilt of his knife.

I glanced behind me at the two undercover boys who were no help whatsoever. "Why are you here again?" I tilted my head.

"Because... we heard there was trouble?" Axel stammered.

"Or," Harrison coughed, "he heard something else? Over the radio? From you?"

"Subtle as a brick Andrews," I said through my teeth.

Axel swallowed nervously. He wrung his hands together and then moved one up to ruffle his dyed hair. "Deera—"

"Why the hell are you guys here?" Blitz asked. He walked towards me and the other two agents, wiping his knives off on his pants.

"Backup."

"Thanks?"

"Listen guys, I just watched that whole thing, and holy hot damn, y'all killed it. Blitz and Deera did. Harrison and Axel, y'all did shit."

"Hey we shot three down that's pretty good!" Harrison's dark eyes flew around the hallway until he found a camera and flipped it off.

"Well you're gonna get your chance again because there's more on their way."

"How long?"

"About another 20 seconds or so."

"You lead with that next time James!" I said.

I frantically pulled the lockpick out from my pants and tried to open the massive door we were standing next to before the next wave of guards came.

I never got the chance.

"That was a lot sooner than 20 seconds Strider!" Blitz yelled as he stabbed one of the guards in the foot.

"Time is difficult on cameras!"

Harrison and Axel yanked out their guns again and started shooting at Basilone's new guards that were tripping over the bodies of the old ones as they swarmed us.

"I really did hear what you said!" Axel shouted over the shooting.

"Care to comment?" I yelled back.

"Is this the right time to say that I knew it?" That asshole had the nerve to smirk, in the midst of a battle, that we were slowly losing, while having the audacity to wear a tux, and somehow being able to have his tongue out the side of his mouth.

I rolled my eyes and shot one of the guards in the arm, and then advanced with my knife. All bets were off, killing was a go. I threw the blade at him and it impaled him right in the chest, and then I yanked it out and slashed him across the gut with it.

I heard a cry and I whipped around and saw Axel drop to one knee when a bullet grazed his calf.

The guard who shot him raised his gun to shoot again but I threw my knife again and it hit him in the chest and he collapsed on the ground.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah just a graze," Axel groaned. He looked up at me, then tossed me his gun.

I caught it, and pulled the trigger before I had even turned all the way around again to shoot another guard.

Axel got to both legs again and I tossed him his gun back. He pulled my knife out of the guard in front of him and skidded it across the floor to me. I had just picked it up when suddenly I was getting strangled from behind. My hands went to wrap around the guard's head, then using that I pulled my legs up to my chest and then swung down and flipped him over me and slammed him into the ground in front of me.

"Why were you being so rude to me?" I shot the man before he could get up.

"Because you were a bitch first!" Axel said.

"Oh bullshit," I rolled my eyes. I pointed my gun at another guard and shot him twice in the chest. I snatched up his assault rifle and started firing. There were a lot more guards than the first time, so many that Harrison, Axel, Blitz and I were starting to back into each other.

"You were!" He complained.

"You called me an attention whore!" I called. "You were being the bitter bitch for getting stuck in the friend zone and you took it out on my like a whiny little boy!"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Axel slow his movements for a second and look at me. Then he got punched in the face.

"You deserve that," I muttered.

"Maybe save the lover's quarrel for later?" Harrison grunted as he got slammed into a wall. He ducked the punch thrown by the guard who pushed him, and twisted the man's arm behind him and threw him against the wall.

"Owen, you want to start getting people out?" Blitz paused to say before kicking a guard in the side.

"On it."

"What the shit Owen!" Jinx cried.

"He did the gun thing?" Quinn supposed dully.

"By the gun thing do you mean randomly pulling out a gun and firing it at the ceiling a bunch of times so everyone panics and starts scattering like rats, yeah, he did the gun thing!"

"Start running Owen they definitely saw you, you ain't slick," James rushed out. "Get Jinx and get to the van."

"As soon as it's clear, get that door open and set the bomb off," Owen directed. His words were clipped as he was probably fleeing from the warehouse gala among a crowd of shrieking rich people. It was always the plan to set the bomb down here off first, and then the force of it would ripple everywhere else and set off all the other ones Cal, Zach and I had placed in the factory, and the ones the inside guys had been subtly placing in the warehouse gala all night.

"Basilone is in the factory right now along with his associates," Owen continued, "but he'll probably hear about the gunfire in the warehouse any minute and he'll run, so do it now!"

"Once you do, go out through the factory," James said. "It's a madhouse in the warehouse right now, everyone is screaming and running around like crazy."

"Adira get the door open!" Blitz yelled, right before he got punched in the face and knocked to the floor. He kicked the guard who had hit him just below the knee cap, and then thrust one of his long knives up into the man's stomach as he fell.

"Axel!" I tossed him my gun. The blond boy whipped around to find my eyes. "Cover me," I told him.

He caught my gun and started firing at the oncoming guards now with a gun in both hands. I got out the lockpick again and went to work on the door. Axel retreated until we were almost back-to-back until I finally got that stupid door open.

"Blitz let's go!" I yelled.

The Englishmen turned around at my call, but as he did got tackled to the floor by a guard. I ran forward and kicked the guard off him and then punched him in the face and yanked Blitz back up to his feet.

"We got it out here," Axel said, "you guys go!"

No sooner had the words left his lips did Harrison's knife fly into the shoulder of a guard sprinting towards his best friend, and Axel yanked it out and used it to stab the same guard in the gut. The two agents tossed knives and guns between them, including the bigger guns of the guards when their own handguns run out of ammo, working together to bring down guard after guard that were still rushing around the corner.

"I'd take their word for it Deera," Blitz said, tugging me into the room and slamming the door shut.

"James, send Zach over. Harrison and Axel will need help keeping the guards away while we plant this last bomb," I said.

There was no reply.

"James?" I touched my earpiece.

"Strider, mate, do you copy?" Blitz tapped the radio in his ear.

"I guess the signal got knocked out during the fight," I figured, wiping sweat off my forehead.

"Ah shit. It's not the only thing." Blitz had pulled out the cylindrical bomb from his pocket to examine it. Red and blue wires had fizzled out and one side of the soup can it was made out of was dented inwards. The toggle had also somehow gotten detached from the contraption and hung limply off the main part by a thin bronze wire.

"You just had it in your pocket the whole time?!" I cried.

"Where else was I gonna put it, a bum bag or something?" Blitz responded dryly.

"No wonder it got fucked up, you just had an explosive casually tucked in your pocket like a rock you collect at the beach." I rubbed my face down with stress, then walked closer to him to take a look at the bomb. "Can you fix it?"

The Englishman turned the invention around in his hands and squinted at the mechanics of it with his blue eyes. "Don't think so. The wireless interface has broken so now all it will do is set off manually."

I licked my lips. "Then what do we do?"

Blitz looked up and sighed. "I'll set it off. You get out of here."

I stared at him blankly. "What?"

"You leave, I'll set it off manually," Blitz said simply.

Then I got it. "What?! No!"

Blitz had the nerve to chuckle. "It's okay."

I shoved him in the shoulder. "No it's fucking not! We can think of some other way, you don't have to be all drastic like that, there's no way I'm letting you do this—"

"Deera," Blitz placed both his hands on my shoulders to steady me. His ocean eyes were clear, no sign of fear or sadness. "Think about it. This bomb has to go off. Basilone and all those other bastards have to die. There is no bloody way we can let guys like him walk around to wreak havoc on the world. That Italian wanker might have even left the factory by now, and that cannot happen. There is no time to fix this, and it has to go off now."

"But—but," I felt my lip tremble. "But you'll die, I don't understand—"

"How it's worth it?" He smiled a little again, "trust me, it'll be worth it."

I started to protest but he shushed me. "Take care of everyone for me, eh?"

"Please don't do that Blitz, not the last words thing."

He sighed and ruffled his slight mohawk hair. "Sacrifice is a pretty honorable way to go, ain't it?"

"No, it's pretty fucking stupid!" I shrugged his hands off my shoulders and punched him in the chest. "Blitzen Theodore Ackley—"

"Cal told you my middle name?" He groaned.

"That is definitely not the point here," I glared at him. "The point is that I can't let you die, come on, that's—that's just... not fair."

My heart splintered a little as I looked him in the eyes and saw how serious he was. He thought it was so simple —sacrifice himself, and the mission was a success. He had realized it so quick, that's how good of a person he was.

He gingerly wiped a tear from under my eye. "You're my family Deera, and I love you. I know it's cheesy but it's true. My real family was pretty shit, and I'm damn lucky to find a new one in this group of dumbasses."

I laughed a little and another tear spilled from my eye. He laughed too, then he pulled me close and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I love you too Blitz," I whispered into his shoulder.