The Rise of Nine was SO amazing that I had to write a sequel! AHHH! It was just so good that I'm still excited:) I seriously was up until 1am reading… yeah, my school orientation didn't go so well that morning, but really people, I had to have my priorities straight. So I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing it!

PS: Sorry to everyone who was following my other story, but it had like zero plot and this one just came out so now I have things to work on! YAY! But sorry again.

"Sam! Guys, what about Sam?" Six yells. I whip my head around and stare intently at Six.

"Six, what are you talking about? I thought he was in West Virginia… do you know where he is?" I ask as my heartbeat rapidly increases.

"Sarah said that he was thrown in a cell with her… right?" Six asks Sarah. Sarah nods, but makes an uneasy face.

"I honestly don't know if it was him or not… I was drugged and tired and injured and it could've easily been Setrákus Ra. I'm sorry," Sarah says as her voice begins to crack. She wraps her arms around herself and walks a few steps back so that she's not near any of us. I can't even imagine what she must have gone through or what she's feeling.

"We have to look! We can't just stand here and do nothing!" Six yells. I see the burning fire in her eyes that she gets when she's fighting; fighting for something she loves. That doesn't happen when she talks about me… and it never will.

"Six… as much as I want to help find your friend, we're in no shape to go battle through the rest of this base. In fact, we need to leave now," Eight says.

"No! We can't leave him again! Not if there's even a small chance that he's here! I will not leave my best friend here with these monsters!" It's my turn to get angry now. I move to stand beside Six, but I hear footsteps. My heart drops to my stomach knowing that we're either in for another fight to possibly find Sam, or that we're going to have to leave him behind.

"Damn it you two, get your shit together! We have to go now!" Nine roars. Nine, Ella, Eight, and Marina all begin to walk towards the door and I know that we have no choice. I glance at Six, but she has already turned around and is storming out the door. My eyes find Sarah's and she looks at me with pure terror.

"Stay on my left, okay? No one is going to hurt you ever again, you understand me?" I say firmly. Sarah nods and walks in front of me towards the door. I grab her hand and we take off running down the hall towards the others. Shots ring out, but I turn and deflect the bullets easily. We run until we reach a garage which contains over fifty Humvees, SUVs, and Jeeps. Nine hops in the closest Humvee as the others pile in. I usher Sarah into the trunk and slide in along with her.

"Go, Nine!" I yell. I can already see FBI agents pouring out of the hallway. He slams on the gas and Sarah and I tumble towards the door. I smack my head up against the side of the Humvee, but shake my head and peer out the back window. There are four Jeeps in pursuit as we make our way towards the edge of the garage that connects with the desert. Bullets ricochet off of the car and I pull Sarah down to the floor with me.

"Keep your head down, okay?" Sarah nods, but continues to watch me. As soon as our wheels hit dirt, I slam the doors shut with my telekinesis. However, the doors move slowly due to their weight and only close on the last Jeep. "Three!"

"I have the one behind us," says Eight. I hear a strange whoosh and then I see the Jeep behind us brake harshly and watch as the following car crash into it. They both erupt into an explosion of flames, but the last Jeep maneuvers around it.

"One more!" I yell.

"I have this one," Six says icily. I watch as a dark cloud forms from the little reminisce of a cirrus cloud in the sky. It turns to an almost black before lightning strikes down and the last Jeep explodes into flames. I watch as only dust puffs in the distance and shut my eyes before slumping against the side of the car.

"Wake up, man! We're here!" I hear Nine say as I'm shoved over. I groggily open my eyes and find myself looking at Sarah curled up on closer to the other side of the trunk. I nudge her with my foot and see her eyes flutter open. We stare at each other for the longest time before the others start to yell. I just can't find the right words to say to her.

We had ended up in Colorado Springs. I'm surprised I had slept that long, but I was exhausted so the sleep did magic for me. Nevertheless, I could still fall asleep again. We get out of the Jeep and walk into a motel that looks pretty cheap and that won't ask any questions. After checking in, we reserve a room for Sarah and me, Nine and Eight, Ella and Marina, and Six. Six needs some time to herself I think, and I hope she gets it.

I walk in silence with Sarah to our room, but as soon as we're in the door, I pull her into my arms. I bury my head into her neck and breathe her in. I feel her small frame begin to shake slightly which makes me hold her even closer. We stand in an embrace for at least five minutes before I pull away to look at her.

"God, I've missed you…" I breathe. I brush my thumb over her cheek and lips as my hands hold her face.

"I missed you too, John. I missed you so much," Sarah says back. I slowly start to lean in, but as Sarah closes her eyes, she backs away and turns around. She wraps her arms around herself and leans her forehead up against the wall.

"Oh, Sarah…" I say apologetically. I reach my hand out to touch her arm, but she flinches as soon as we makes contact. "Hey, Sarah, hey… please turn around. Please." Sarah slowly turns around and I take a courageous step forward. "Nothing will ever hurt you again. This is real, Sarah. It's me, John. Please," I plead. "I love you."

"I love you too," Sarah cries as she flings her arms around my neck. Her lips press to mine and I'm in pure ecstasy. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her as close as possible to me. I feel her tears begin to combine with my own as I taste them on her lips. Her hands are tangled in my hair and there's nothing in the universe that I can concentrate on besides her right now.

"I'm so sorry, Sarah. I'm so, so sorry for everything," I whisper. I lean my forehead against hers and shut my eyes in anger at myself. I should never have left her. I shouldn't have left her unprotected. But nothing is going to separate us now.

"Please don't do that. You had no idea something like this could happen. I don't blame you," Sarah says. She lifts my chin up and looks me directly in the eyes. "It's not your fault."

"I can't help but feel guilty. If it weren't for me, you'd never have been in this mess. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be so hurt right now. If it weren't-"

"John, stop. Please. I really don't want to hear it. Okay?" Sarah pleads. I look at the sadness in her eyes and it breaks my heart in half.

"Okay." We break apart from our embrace and I sigh. "I think I'm going to take a quick shower. After you shower too, let me look at your injuries. Then we can get some food back in you."

Soon I find myself with my eyes closed, my body under the thin sheets of the bed, and my arms holding the girl I love. Her head lies on my shoulder and our hands rest tangled together on my chest. I turn my head to face her and kiss her gently on the temple. I try to make every movement gentle with Sarah. She had more than excessive bruising, a few broken fingers, a fractured wrist, a broken rib, and a concussion before I took her to Marina. I tried to heal her myself, but my new legacy didn't seem to work.

"John? Can you tell me everything that you've been doing since you first left? Last time I saw you… we didn't have time to talk," Sarah says. My jaw clenches at the mention of that night, but I know now that she never turned me in.

I recount the tale of our trip to Tennessee, how we escaped the police pursuing us, and then headed to Florida. I tell her about training and reading Henri's letter. I tell her about Six and Sam. I tell her about how the Mogs ended up finding us and how we split up. I talk about the base in West Virginia and everything that finally went down there. I tell her about my adventure with Nine and how we eventually ended up in Utah. However, I don't talk about how Six and I almost kissed, then kissed at the airport. I'm not sure I want to tell her, but I know the guilt will eat at me soon enough.

"Sarah, what happened the night I came back?" I ask softly. Sarah lets out a breath and rubs her thumb along my hand.

"I never meant for any of that to happen. I mean, the texts were from me and I was so stupid because I knew that they were tapped into my phone, but I was just so excited to see you. Anyhow, as soon as I left my house they were right on me. They injected me with weird chemicals and before I knew it, I was in your arms. You were all I could see. But then it was like I was trapped inside of my body and I couldn't do anything I wanted to. My hormones and feelings sky-rocketed and I knew something was wrong, but it was like they were controlling me."

"After that, they took me into custody. They wanted to know everything, but I wouldn't say a word. After a few weeks I realized that the Mogadorians had basically taken over the government. They gave me these weird drugs and I'm so, so sorry for anything I told them, but the words wouldn't stop coming out of my mouth. I would start repeating conversations we've had word for word and then it just started to become physical. Everything was physical. They would break something and then use the healing stone on me and break something else. I was so scared, John."

I'm actually on the verge of tears by the time Sarah stops talking. I pull her body as close as I can to me and I wrap my arms around her small frame. Her head tucks perfectly in under my chin and I rub small circles on the lower part of her back.

"I can't believe they did that to you. They're gonna pay. I will not be happy until I see those monsters taken down for hurting you. I'm sorry for everything," I say.

"It doesn't matter now that I'm here with you." I feel her head move underneath my chin and her gaze is on my face. I angle my chin away from her so that I can lean down. I capture her lips in my own and it is electricity. It's a kiss I've never experienced before. My head is spinning and I feel as though I can't breathe. I break my lips away from hers and hug her tightly while my lips kiss her hair.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too."

My knuckles are bloodied and caked in dry wall as I retract my fist. Dust and bits of wall fall out of the head-sized hole I just punched into in bathroom wall and gather on the linoleum floor. A flap of wallpaper hangs off the side of the hole.

"Shit," I mutter. I look at myself in the mirror and frown. My now blonde hair is tangled and dirty, my blue eyes are exhausted, my skin is laced with grime, and my muscles are screaming with soreness. I don't see my reflection. The person in in the mirror is not who I am. I rip the mirror off of the wall and throw it into the corner of the bathroom. The glass scatters on the floor and I rake my hands through my hair.

My body slumps against the wall and I find myself doing something I never do. I cry. I wrap my arms around my legs and pull them close to my body. All I can think about is Sam, bloody and bruised, chained up to wall in a room where Setrákus Ra waits for the rest of us.

"God damn it!" I scream. I pound my fist into the floor creating a small dent in the linoleum tiles. My body shudders and my breaths are heavy. Why? Why couldn't we have at least checked? We could've taken them! Now they've probably moved him somewhere else; somewhere worse. I shut my eyes tightly and try not to picture it, but images come flooding in.

"Sam… no…" I whisper to myself. I lean forward and press my forehead against the cold floor. My hands claw at the ground in fury and I clench my jaw. My tears stain the floor and the pressure I'm putting on to the tiles causes impressions to be left. My hands curl into fists and I lean back again. I take in deep breaths and wipe my eyes harshly. I shakily stand and walk out of the bathroom trying to leave everything that just happened in there. I shut the door and go crawl under the stiff sheets of my bed. Sleep comes easily after my break down, but it doesn't last long.

I'm running. I'm in a building made of white walls, a white floor, and a white ceiling. Eerie lights haunt the maze of halls I'm running through. Soon I come to a white door with a small window. A single line of crimson liquid runs down from the corner of the window. My eye follows it and I find myself looking at a blood covered floor. I step to look through the window and see Sam, tied and gagged, up against the wall.

"Sam!" I yell. His eyes find mine through the window and they're filled with pure terror. But they turn quickly to red, then to black and he morphs into Setrákus Ra. He grins evily at me and walks to the corner of the room where the real Sam is slumped against the wall. Each of his limbs is bleeding heavily from an open wound, his hair is soaked in red, and his clothes cling to his beaten body.

"Sam! Sam!" I scream, but he doesn't look at me. His head is against the side of the wall and his chest is barely moving. Setrákus Ra grins wickedly at me as he pulls a sword from his belt. He begins walking over to Sam, but the window on the door starts to shrink. I scream and claw at it, but soon the window is completely gone. I hear a scream, then a groan, and then silence.

"Come save him, Number Six. Come save him and face me yourself."

I bolt straight up in a cold sweat. My chest heaves up and down, and my heart is pounding. I quickly glance at the clock and see that it's 2:14 in the morning. Damn it. No one will be up. Well, John won't be up. I can't talk to anyone else about this. I close my eyes and lay back down trying to flush the dream out of my system. Sleep, Six. You need it.

I wake slowly as the sun streams through the thin window curtains of the motel. My eyes slowly open and I'm confused as to why there's a mess of golden hair in front of my face. Then it hits me: Sarah. I smile and am instantly filled with joy. Everything is real. I scoot my body closer to her, but my movement causes her to stir. She slowly rolls over and looks at me with sleepy eyes.

"Morning," she mumbles. I grin from ear to ear.

"Good morning, beautiful," I say. Sarah curves her lips into a small smile and she nuzzles her head into my shoulder.

"What time is it? I don't wanna get up…" Sarah mutters before she yawns. She snakes her arms around my body and presses hers closer to me. My hand caresses the small of her back while the other strokes her hair.

"It's about 8:45. We need to get up and get on the road soon," I explain. Sarah mumbles something incoherent and I chuckle. I gently tuck her hair behind her ear and lean my mouth close to it. "Sarah," I whisper, "it's time to get up." I leave a trail of kisses from her head, to her forehead, to her temple, and then down to her cheek.

"Mmmm convince me some more." I nudge her face off of my shoulder with my own head and press my lips to her forehead before kissing down to her jaw, purposely avoiding her lips. I kiss her neck down to her collarbone and back up again before hovering over her own lips.

"Now will you get up?" I say softly.

"I still don't know…" Sarah begins to say, but I cut her off by capturing her lips with mine. I feel her smile and kiss me back. I pull away gently and her eyes open fully. "Okay. I'm awake now." I'm about to kiss her again, but I hear a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," I say and reluctantly crawl away from Sarah's embrace. I pull on a plain T-shirt before walking over to the door and pulling it open. Standing before me with tangled hair and bloodshot eyes, is Six.

"John? I don't know who else to talk to… I just need to talk right now. Please," Six pleads. I've never seen her act this way. My heart starts beating a little quicker anxiously.

"Yeah, of course."

"Okay… come with me."