However, instead of pain, Hallie felt happiness and security. The lightning passed through and around her and with her hands free, she was able to manipulate it as she wished. Despite having the power to use lightning, she knew that using Warlen’s own element against him wouldn’t work. However, the surprise control of lightning could be useful in the future, so she decided to fake the pain that would have been inflicted by the lightning instead of showing her immunity. Deciding to play along to avoid suspicion, she quickly shouted out as if in pain. 

After a few minutes of the “torture”, Warlen asked, “Are you ready to give me a different answer?”

Just then, a disheveled Luke rushed into the room. “Is everything okay? I heard screaming and I haven’t seen you since this morning.” Luke said, looking directly at Hallie. 

“She’s perfectly fine,” said Warlen. “She just got a little bit scared when I used my magic to power my machine over here. I forgot how shocking my lightning can be to witness for the first time.”

“She doesn’t look fine, in fact she is really pale. Hallie…” Luke’s voice trailed as he looked at the tubes running from Hallie.

“What are you doing to her? You promised you wouldn’t hurt her and look at what you have done. Unhook her now!” Luke demanded. 

“You shouldn’t worry. Everything is going to be fine. Just trust me. Besides the sacrifice of her life is nothing in the war. The knowledge that we can gain from her will allow us to magnify our magic in a way that makes us invincible. We can conquer the planet! Me and you, fighting our way to the top!” Warlen says enthusiastically. 

“You can’t sacrifice her. Why are you so obsessed with power? You are a totally different person than the one you used to be. I can’t believe I trusted you.” Luke said as he began to disconnect the tubes from Hallie. 

“You can’t do that. I might love you like a son, but if you continue to mess with my experiment, I may have to get you sent to the dungeons.” Warlen cautioned. 

“Send me to the dungeons. Ha. Yeah. You belong in the dungeons. When I tell people what you have been doing, you will be the one in the dungeons.” Luke said confidently.

“Watch out!” Hallie screamed as Warlen sent a lightning bolt aimed toward Luke’s head. Thankfully he managed to duck in time. 

“So that is how it is?”, Luke said as flames rose in each of his palms. 

“You won’t really fight me. I’m a frail old man. You saw me like a dad and I was there for you when your parents passed away. When your brother abandoned you, I took care of you and this is how you repay me?”

“You shot lightning at my head!” Luke shouted angrily.

As the two of them were engaged in their argument, Hallie had managed to remove all of the tubes from all over her body. The last thing she needed to disconnect were the restraints holding her legs. They seemed to be controlled by some sort of magic. Since Luke was unable to see these, I imagine that means that I have some control of this type of magic. Okay, so I need to focus on separating the flow of magic. A rift appeared in the restraint that she was focused on almost immediately. Okay good, and then just to make it wider. This took a bit longer but after about 30 seconds, the rift was wide enough for Hallie’s ankle to slip through. The next one went by even quicker and Hallie quickly stood up.

“... how did you escape? That should be impossible. You shouldn’t have even been able to see the restraints. They were created by the only…” Warlen's speech turns into mumbling as he distractedly turns back to his desk. 

Seizing the opportunity, Luke manages to restrain Warlen in his desk chair, using a rope made out of magical fire. “Why?” he manages to choke out, while looking at Warlen with tears in his eyes. “Why did you betray me? I thought I could trust you, but you seem to be the least trustworthy person I know.”

“There are things that are bigger than me and bigger than you at work here. I follow orders, and sometimes I go above and beyond the bare minimum of my orders. This was one of those times. Hallie is definitely interesting. Just from the results I obtained from my few hours of testing, it seems that she is unlike anything that we have ever seen or documented before in the whole of the kingdom. She has the ability to lead either side of this war. You can bet both sides will be fighting for her at every chance they get.”

“What are you talking about? What is so special about me?”, Hallie asks. 

Before Warlen could answer, the room filled with security guards. “Detain them,” Warlen screams. “Make sure to keep them alive. I need the girl and the boy to work as leverage if we need to force her into anything.”

Both Luke and Hallie look around the room in a desperate attempt to find a way out. Hallie quickly ran over to one of the windows towards the back of the room. Luke followed after her.
“Look, we can jump into the water down there!” Hallie exclaimed.

“It seems to be a bit shallow, but it’s our best hope.” Luke responds as he shatters the glass with some nearby lab equipment.