"Alright Mr. and Mrs... Mitchelson," the checkpoint guy said, handing a disguised Quin the two ID's. "Hope the two of you and your kids have fun on vacation."

"Thanks a lot," I said, waving him goodbye.

Quin rolled up the window as we drove through the checkpoint.

"Can you take the magic down now, Hecate?" A five year old Heather asked from the backseat.

"Now now, sweetheart," I said, playing the mother that I'd disguised myself as, "you know I can't do that until the guards can't see us anymore. Isn't that right, honey?" I leaned over to Quin, my hand about to touch his arm.

"Don't touch me and don't call me honey. The guards can't see in the car anymore so you should at least be able to change us back."

"Aww, I kinda-"

"Change us back."

"Yes sir," I replied, saluting. The magic around the four of us fell.

"I don't see why we needed to be a family," Hatchet complained. "Or why I had to be a four year old."

"Cause it's fun to be something new, isn't it?" I asked.

"No," Heather replied.

"And a family is the least suspicious thing going through a checkpoint," I added. "People vacation all the time."

"Hecate," Quin said, getting my attention, "we have two more checkpoints until we reach Sunbury. Another one's in an hour."

"We should stop before we reach Sunbury," I commented, under my breath.

"We don't have time to stop. We can't risk it."

"Wouldn't it be worse for all of us to run in all tired? If all of us get caught then who would save Xavier and us too." I could see him peeking at me from the corner of his eye. "I'm just saying. If you're planning on breaking into a labor camp with a shot up girl and tired soldiers who haven't gotten a real nights sleep in, what? Two days? You should rest up and eat up. Especially if you're not big on me using magic."

"I plan on using as much of your magic as we can without getting every killed," he said. I could see him biting on his lip. "But I see your point. Let's stop for the night when we get passed the last checkpoint."

I nodded, leaning back in my seat again. "So what's for dinner? I vote subway. I love subway, it's the best. I like how you can make your own food and how you can-"

"Do you ever stop talking?" Hatchet asked from the backseat.

"Sometimes, but not a lot. I like talking, it's better than being quiet. When you talk a lot people trust you more too, so it's good for that. And when people hear you talk, they usually talk back. Besides Heather, she's an exception. Really though, Heather, you should let me heal that arm of yours. It won't be easy to shoot a gun with it like that."

She let out a long sigh. "Fine, but just because you won't shut up about it."

"Woo-hoo!" I yelled, throwing my left fist in the air. See? I told you people trusted you more when you talked a lot. No, I'll admit it, Heather was an exception. I really never would've guessed that she'd ever let me heal her arm.

"No getting in my head though," she said, bumping my seat with her knee.

"That's high level magic," Quin said, "and it takes a lot of power to do that."

"Yeah," I said. "And I'd need to touch your head if I wanted to do anything like that. Speaking of, Quin, can I-"

"You're not getting in my head, Hecate."

"Aww, I just wanna know what your little bro looks like so I can find him."

"No."

"Boo."

---

After we went through the last checkpoint, we pulled up to another motel six. I let the illusion drop on the car when I knew no one was watching.

"So," I said, "what're for dinner?"

"Right," Quin said, "dinner."

"Hatchet, you and Heather go get a room. Hecate and I'll get food."

"Why do I gotta go?"

"Because I want to make sure no one sees me when I'm out. Are you coming or not?"

"Yes, Commander Sir," I said, saluting and running back to the front seat of the car.

I waved bye to Heather and Hatchet as we pulled out. My hands went up, pulling a disguise over the car and us too. This time, I turned us into nearly identical twins.

"Why do you still do all that hand waving thing?" Quin asked.

"Habit, I guess. So, what's for dinner?"

"Is that all you think about?"

"I'm a growing girl. I need to eat."

"I though you said you were twenty?"

"We don't need to worry about the specifics."

He sighed, looking forward.

"So...dinner?"

"Whatever we can find at the QT up here."

"Ooh, eating in style."

"Well, we're not exactly rich."

"Food's food."

We rode in silence for a few minutes.

"Hecate, I need to ask you something."

"I already had a room ready for Xavier. You, Hatchet, and Heather can stay too, if you need to. I'm assuming you will though, cause where else would you go?""

He looked at me. I pointed forward to the road. "How'd you know what I was going to ask?"

"It was pretty obvious, wasn't it? That's why you got me out. So you'd have a way to ensure that they'd be safe afterwards. Don't worry about it, I got everything taken care of."

For the first time since I'd met him, he cracked a little smile. "I can't tell if your a genius or if you're crazy."

"Can't I be both?"

"I didn't think so at first but it looks like you found a way."

---

"So, let me get this straight," Hatchet said, going through our loot. "You went out to buy dinner and you can back with over fifty dollars of snacks?"

"Yep," I nodded.

I went through the first bag and pulled out small thing of hot cheetos, next, I grabbed my coke from another, then the gas station hot dog from the last.

"Hold up, Witch," Heather said. "You're not eating until my arm's healed. Get over here."

So enthusiastic for someone who hates magic. I obeyed, obediently walking over to where she was leaning against the bed.

"I'm gonna touch it," I warned taking hold of her arm. She flinched, biting back against the urge to cry out. It wasn't too bad, for a broken arm I mean. When the bullet hit her bone, it wasn't like anything shattered. I concentrated, letting magic flow from me to her.

"Jesus Christ that feels weird," she complained.

I could feel the bone moving under my touch, but she couldn't. All she could feel was the magic flowing through her arm.

"That is weird," she said, watching her arm. "Are you sure it's healing? I can't feel anything."

There was a loud crack, making her jump. The bone was set back in place and was quickly healing. When it was finally done, I let go. She moved her arm testing it out.

"It's really healed," she said, amazed.

"I would've done it faster if you were more used to magic," I said, taking a bite of hot dog.

"Did it hurt?" Hatchet, who cringed when it cracked, asked. "Because it sounded like it really hurt."

"It didn't really hurt, but it felt weird. My arm was all tingly and warm."

"Yeah," I said through another bite, "that was the magic."

"So about tomorrow," Quin cut in, interrupting us, "I think we need to go over the plan."

"Yes, sir," I said, turning to him. "What's going on?"

"Hecate, you get us in by disguising us as soldiers." I nodded "We'll split up then, since Hecate's magic works at long range. Hatchet and I will head towards the cells. Hecate will head to one of the labor areas and Heather will head to another. While we go, we start letting prisoner out and telling them 'The queen say not to kill if you don't need to.' Whoever finds Xavier keeps him close to them. We meet up afterwards at the front gate. Got it?"

"Yes sir," I saluted while the others nodded. I took a sip of my coke before crawling over to the little cabinet and pulling out a pad and paper. I started drawing a glyph circle.

"What do you think your doing?" Quin asked when I started the first.

"You'll see."

I made three of them in total, all nearly exactly the same.

"All of you take one of these. If worst comes to worst, rip it in half. I'll come find you when you do."

"So it's like an emergency signal?" Hatchet asked, taking one.

"Yep, but I'm the only one who knows when it goes off. You see that little squiggly line in the middle? that mean connection. I connected it to myself so I'll always know where you are when you have it."

"Emergencies only," Quin said, slipping it into his pocket. "Hopefully we won't need it at all."

---

I twisted in my little bed on the floor. We called for extra pillows, but only got one, but at least I had a pillow. Heather and Hatchet took the two beds. I would've shared with Heather but, you know, she kinda hates me. Quin was originally on the other half of Hatchet's, but he got kicked out...literally.

Right now, he was leaning against the foot of the bed.

"You know," I whispered, "you should sleep."

"For the tenth time, Hecate, I'm on watch."

"Yeah, but you've been on watch forever."

"It's only been ten minutes."

I peeked at him over my shoulder. Even from the other side of the room, I could see deep black bags under his eyes.

Sighing, I sat up. I crawled, on my hands and knees over to him.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked, when I was less then a foot away.

"Sorry about this," I said, my hand shooting out to grab his arm. He gave a quick jerk back before collapsing on his side. I pulled the thin blanket I was using over him. "You're too tired."

---

"Don't you ever magic me again, Hecate," he said in a tight voice. He was awake now, obviously, and so were the others. "And, not only did you magic me, you felt like staying up all night to what?"

"You wanted me to keep watch, didn't you? Well, you wanted someone to keep watch and since I was the only one awake, I figured, why not? So, I did it. I stayed up all night and watched the door. Ooh, morning report." I saluted. "No one broke in, Commander." I let out a little chuckle under my breath.

"Hecate, listen up. Never use magic on me without my permission again. Understand?"

"Yes sir," I said, my hand still raised to my forehead.

-Authors Notes-

Sorry for the short chapter.

Special thanks to for the cover's I've been switching between.

Another thanks too all my readers who made it this far. I'm honestly shocked Modern Magic made it this far. Anyways, I hope you'll keep reading in the future.

See you soon,~Q