Vanessa felt Leo’s grip tighten around her hilt. Things were not going as he expected, or as she had planned.

It had been of Vanessa’s machinations to ensnare Alison as Leo’s love slave, able to bend as far backwards as she needed to in order to fulfill his desires.

And now it had backfired. Vanessa mentally scowled as she perceived their situation through void sensing.

Both Lena and Alison were gathering photons in their weapons and preparing for a surprise attack, but she couldn’t sense anything from Adrian.

Confused, she searched once more and found nothing there... not even a heartbeat.

Suddenly coming to a realization as the two girls shot forward, she tried her best to warn Leo amidst the flurry of attacks.

Leo, be expressionless when I tell you this, we can’t let them realize that we know about their trump card.

Trusting the woman who had given him power, given him agency, he nodded his head in affirmation after deflecting Alison’s daggers.

That materialization of Adrian is an illusion. Leo was stunned in shock and barely managed to dodge the bullets that fired from Lena’s direction.

What are you talking about!? He has Rob’s sister right there! Leo mentally screamed at his partner, but she merely denounced his assumptions.

He does, and she is real, but he is merely a physical illusion created by either Lena or her friend Jessica. My money is on Jessica since people who have taken the Walker Gene currently show no signs of manifesting anything physical using the void.

“So I guess we just wait for him to show up and screw us over then?” Leo muttered under his breath. Vanessa merely giggled at his complaint.

You know where to go, we’ve been scouting it out for the last few weeks after all.

Coming to a sudden realization, Leo’s eyes widened just as Lena started to close in on him. She held up her guns and fired shot after shot at Leo.

Unlike so many action films he had watched to try to acclimate to human society, there was no slow motion for Leo. There was no higher perception than what he had already acquired, and with the utmost reaction time he could muster, deflected the hailstorm of bullets that came his way.

Leo slumped to one knee, and reveled in Lena’s shocked look. He grimaced as Alison charged him once more. Finally losing his patience, he opened up the void, causing Alison to stop lest she be dragged in and teleported somewhere she could not return from.

To her and even Lena’s surprise, Leo jumped in himself and closed the portal behind him. Stomping her feet in frustration, Lena called, “Adrian, we have a problem!”

Smashing through the ceiling, Adrian stood up in front of an upset Lena and a surprised Alison. “You called?” his baritone voice echoed throughout the destroyed classroom, and Alison did a double take.

“Wait, if this is Adrian then who...?” She turned to face the Adrian holding Katherine and watched in horror as his features started to melt, until he was revealed to just be a giant piece of-

“Clay?” Alison muttered in surprise. Meanwhile, Lena grinned as Adrian shook his head.

“Yes, clay.” She pulled an exhausted Jessica off the ground before giving her a big hug. “I knew you could do it, just like we planned!”

Jessica shoved her overly-enthusiastic friend off of her and into Adrian’s arms. “I need some space, and some time to recollect myself. I thought that bitch was going to kill me.” She walked over to the clay manikin and removed the sack from its outstretched arms.

“I’ll take her with me to our safehouse, you two work on finding Leo, I guess.” Lena smirked as Jessica limped away, causing Lena to smile madly, and send shivers down Alison’s spine.

“You don’t really care about her at all, do you?” Adrian separated himself from the girl and her smile turned into one of madness.

“Oh come now, I wouldn’t say that. I do care for her… as a tool at least.” Alison felt sick to her stomach, and watched in horror as the broken girl turned to her.

“Alison, stay here and out of sight. This is an order.” Alison smiled, a self-deprecating act that slowly turned into a frown.

“An order, huh?” Before Lena could react, Alison was standing behind her, both blades ready to strike, one pressed against Lena’s spine and the other on the base of her neck.

“I don’t take orders from you. Let me be clear, this is just an alliance born of coincidence, nothing more. Instead of sitting back, I will find and torture Leo personally.”

Adrian started to move, but Lena held a hand up to stop him. “But you won’t kill him, huh?” she muttered under her breath. “Oh, poor girl. I just wanted to keep you out of harm's way. Leo has already been checkmated, so to speak.”

Alison just looked confused, and started to speak when a vibration in Lena’s pocket interrupted her. “Oh, I should probably take that. If you would be so kind…”

Alison reluctantly let her go and Lena took out the phone from her pocket before answering. “Hello? Ah, so he’s already cornered? Great, I’ll teleport us all there then.” Alison stood in shock as Lena hung up her phone.

“Who was that? Who can overwhelm Leo so easily?” Alison was confused, but that just fed into Lena’s teasing nature.

“Oh, you haven’t figured it out already, it’s-”

---

Leo stepped out into reality looking down from high above on the streets of New York. “The Empire State Building, huh? Well that was a shit show.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Dantae said in annoyance after coming out of her blade form. "All our carefully laid plans gone to waste because of a single spoiled little girl who couldn’t put herself aside for ten minutes in order to make a power play against Armando. Fuck!”

Vanessa screamed off the edge of the building, causing her curse to echo in the streets below. Leo grinned despite himself, and sat down against the tall guard railings before sighing.

“She worked for him, huh?” Leo’s grin turned into a grimace and Vanessa came over to sit next to him.

“Undoubtedly. We were led to his most loyal subordinate by believing she was his greatest enemy. I wonder how long he’s been thinking of using her as a piece? Since the time he recruited her, or possibly even before that.” Vanessa whistled. “He hates you a lot, huh?”

Leo made a tired laugh before holding his head in his hands. “Dantae, what do we do now?”

Turning to hug Leo, she reassured him, “We do the same thing we’ve done before: move to a different continent and restart our mission for revenge. We can go to my family in Okinawa, they run a school for people like you and me.”

“Plus,” she said, blushing, “It would be a good chance to finally introduce you to my mother.” Leo smiled at the thought, and was about to prepare for long distance void travel when a voice shook him out of his reverie.

“Leo, Vanessa, there you are!” They turned to the voice and saw Angelina step out of the void and run up to them.

Leo’s eyes opened wide while Vanessa stood in front of Leo defensively. To this sight, Angelina sighed and shook her head. “Come on. I know the word ‘overprotective’ describes you perfectly but this is too much.”

Leo’s heart sank. She doesn’t know yet. “Listen carefully Angelina. We’ve been betrayed by Rob, Alison, and Maria. I need you to remain calm and-”

“I’m sorry Leo.” she said, hugging him. “It must have been so tough for you.” Leo blanked out for a moment, and even though he knew she was a clone, he lost himself to Dantae’s scent.

*click*

Leo pushed himself away from Angelina and felt his neck- or rather what was now placed on his neck. Leo tried to open the portal to Okinawa but he couldn’t feel the void, not a single photon. Disoriented, he slumped to the ground as Vanessa charged her clone.

“You bitch, I’ll make you suffer!” Angelina merely laughed at her insult as ten portals appeared in the air between the two identical girls. Laughter, mad and deranged echoed from the top of the tower as clone after clone stepped through the portal and circled Vanessa, who took a fighting stance.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” A voice came from behind the sea of clones and Vanessa perked up her head enough to see Angelina holding her former leader at gunpoint. Grinding her teeth, she held up her hands and let the clones cuff and collar her.

With a satisfied smile on her face Angelina pulled out a satellite-phone from her shirt and spoke into it. “Mission accomplished General. Preparing for a transportation of the prisoners to Liberty Island and it’s army base." She looked at Vanessa and a cruel smile etched itself on her face. "I think the punishment you have selected is quite a nice choice. I’ll personally prepare the players myself, just enjoy the rest of your flight General.”

Leo looked up in horror at the final traitor, a girl he was certain could do him no wrong. “Why-” he tried to ask before a blow to the back of the head robbed his consciousness from him.

“Well, because of a program, if I’m being honest. But don’t worry Leo, it’s nothing personal.” Angelina stroked the back of his head as the mob of clones dragged Vanessa back through the portals they had arrived from. “At least, not for me it isn’t.”