I slapped a paint brush against the side of the house, a streak of blue trailed behind the bristles. The sudden growl of a powerful engine interrupted my focus, and I dropped the brush. I glanced back to see a red Saleen pull up to the house. A burst of euphoria shot through my veins. I jumped down from the ladder as Katherine got out of her car.

"Hey," I said but halted halfway to her when I saw what she was wearing. It was something anyone could buy at a souvenir shop, a Colorado state flag T-shirt.

“Yeah…I know, but I had to mark the occasion,” she said.

“The occasion?”

She nodded. “It’s official. I am now a Colorado resident. I was just bringing the last box of stuff over when I found something.” She opened the passenger side door and shuffled around a cardboard box. Whatever she grabbed, she held it behind her back and came closer to me. “Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

“Really?”

I shrugged and did as I was told. She put something metal into my hands. When I opened my eyes, the camera that had gone missing from my room rested in my palms. I powered it up to see the video of Katherine sneaking into my room was still on it.

“I was wondering what happened to this.” I smiled as I remembered how terrified I was and how sure I was that I was going to die that night. It seemed so far away and silly in comparison to what had happened recently.

My eyed wandered back to her ridiculous shirt. Part of me was excited that she'd meant it when she said she was moving here. But another part of me was hesitant. Was she doing it because we're friends, or was she trying to keep an eye on me?

"C'mere." She took my hand, and we sat down on the house’s front steps. "Is everything okay?" I rubbed the spot on my chest where I'd gotten hit with the Betrayal's arrow. The skin there seemed to be perpetually cold now. "Are you still shaken up from the fight—which I expect—it's not every day a horde of people tries to kill you."

I watched an ant crawl around the edge of my shoe. "Don't get me wrong, it'll probably be awhile before I stop jumping at loud noises, but that's not the worst part." I pressed my hands together. "That night we got chased through the parking lot, did you know one of them was my dad?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Katherine sighed. “Daniel, you know I had no choice. I was trying to keep you safe. I’m sorry if you’re upset—”

I shook my head. “I’m not. I just want to know.”

A smooth stone appeared in her hand; she flipped it over and over again. "Yes, I knew."

I flinched and buried my face in my hands. “So what she showed me was true.”

“What did the hologram tell you?”

"Doesn't matter…that's not what's been bothering me anyway," I said. "It's the other stuff she told me. Like what she said about you pretending to be my friend." She frowned and her shoulders slowly fell. "To me, that makes more sense because I just don't see what there is to like about me. And it was so easy for you to lie to me once, how can I ever know if you're sincere or not?"

"First of all, I only kept your father a secret because sometimes when people find out that their parents aren't these great people, they think they're condemned to the make the same mistakes. I didn't want you to carry that weight around because it's not true—you decide your destiny," she said.

"You told your superiors that you'd be able to keep me from becoming a threat, so in some way, you knew you'd be able to control me. What better way than to try to be my friend?"

"If I were trying to manipulate you by pretending to be close to you, that plan would backfire the second you found out. You'd automatically distrust everything about me and the ninja and go to the enemy's camp. That's just a horrible plan, to begin with. I hope you know me enough by now to realize I wouldn't do something so sloppily thought out," she said.

A smile tried to wiggle its way onto my face. “Good point. So if that wasn’t your plan, then what was?”

"The truth was always my plan. I knew at some point you'd see that the ninja aren't perfect and the Betrayals can sometimes be right—that there are no absolute villains or heroes. We're a mix, and it's up to us to decide what side we want to try to be the most. The masters didn't want to give you the chance to choose. They thought it was too risky," she said. "But they didn't watch you like I did. They didn't know you because if they did, they'd know you're no risk at all. As I said before, you have a good heart." She hugged her knees and watched a car go past. "And you're wrong by the way."

My brow scrunched up. “About what?”

She placed a delicate kiss on my cheek and whispered into my ear. “There’re plenty of things to like about you.”

Before I could respond, police and ambulance sirens blared from down the road. Katherine stood up and stared off in their direction. "They're going to need help." She jogged down to the sidewalk but stopped to look back. "I'll race you there?"

I grinned. “You’re on.”

The second I blinked she was gone. I heard a loud screeching noise and wondered if a jet was passing overhead. I realized it was Katherine breaking the sound barrier. I ran up the sidewalk as I pulled my mask out of my pocket. Then, I too blasted into a record-breaking speed, off to save the day once more…