By afternoon, most everyone was still asleep. Emma had taken the shift after Joseph, and AJ had woken up with an inspiration to make something. He couldn't go back to sleep, out of fear of losing his idea, so he kept Emma company as the day slowly trudged on.

Daniel and Willow's sleeping bags had rolled closer together as they slept, and Roxanne and Joan had both tossed and turned as they slept, throwing their sleeping bags on top of Rebecca, who seemed to enjoy the extra warmth. Emma pulled the blanket edge up a little closer to Sam's face, and in his sleep he gripped the comforting fabric tighter, his thumb inches from his mouth like a baby.

"What are you making?" Emma asked AJ, the tiny tools from his mini-toolkit laid on the dirty floor in front of his feet.

"Prototype security system."

"In case Roxie's spell doesn't work?"

AJ shook his head. "I don't trust magic."

Emma almost laughed. "You can run what, a hundred miles per second, your cousin can read people's minds and fly, we're traveling with an Alexandrene who can control the flow of water, we just fought a group of magicians, and you don't believe in magic?"

"Precisely," AJ didn't miss a beat, delicately drumming his fingers on his project. "Now if I just had a steady stream of electricity, I could make this work."

Emma bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "You think this'd work?" She snapped her fingers, and sparks of electricity rained down to disappear into the dirt floor.

A smile stretched across AJ's face in wonder. "That... That might actually do it! Here, put some of those sparks on the end of this wire!" He held out some wires, the insulation trimmed off to leave the copper exposed.

Emma pressed her lips together tightly, rolled up her sleeves, and reached out to touch the wire ends.

Seconds before her skin made contact, sparks leaped from her fingertips towards the metal.

AJ's machine came alive with a klaxonlike sound that blared on and on and on, successfully alerting and awaking their companions.

"What in the devil is that!?" Joan screamed, untangling herself from her sister.

Emma's hands were over her ears. "Don't look at me, AJ made it!" She protested, though no one could hear her as the noises got increasingly louder.

AJ finally located the "off" switch, and everyone sighed as the volume returned to normal.

"Think anyone in Glen Haven heard that?" Rebecca whispered, as if there were hordes of townsfolk surrounding the outside of the warehouse, ready to attack them with pitchforks and torches.

"Okay, so maybe it shouldn't be as loud." AJ laughed nervously.

"He's a genius, what a shocking revelation!" Willow exclaimed, crawling out from under the wagon wheel she and Daniel had ducked under.

"Willow, come on. It was an accident." Daniel said gently.

"It was partly my fault, sorry, I should have controlled how much energy I put in there." Emma apologized.

"You just recently got those powers, we don't expect you to control how much you release." Joseph said, as kindly as always.

Roxanne suddenly sat up, seemingly undisturbed by the alarm.

"Oh, is it time to wake up now? I'll go check on my spell." She picked up her bag and almost skipped out the door, as if she didn't notice everyone's wide eyes on her.

Joan rolled her eyes. "She's a heavy sleeper."

Emma wished she could say the same for her brother.

"It's okay Sam, it's all done now," She said soothingly, trying to urge him out from under the sleeping bag cocoon.

"You're terrible at this." Willow huffed.

"Willow!" Daniel scolded his companion.

"Well, she is!"

"How is it that out of the two of us, you ended up being the cynical one?" Daniel scowled.

Willow glared back, folding her arms tightly across her chest. "I wasn't finished, for your information."

"What, were you going to insult her more?" Daniel asked.

Willow straightened her shoulders, standing up tall. "No. I was going to offer to teach her."

"I'll take that offer." Emma said, before anyone could come up with any wild notions that this was a terrible idea and that a mix of fire and wild lightning powers were going to get them all killed. She was more likely to kill someone without any notions of how to control this lightning than she was with it.

"Good, because you really didn't have a choice." Willow said. "Come on, we're going outside."

Emma grabbed a couple fries out of their leftovers, even as Joan began to bark orders like a drill sergeant. She sounded just like Officer Chance did in the middle of a crisis.

"Okay, listen up! Our first job is to finish emptying the place. Rebecca and Sam, clear out the tarps and bedding. Daniel, I want that old wagon in the salvage pile outside. AJ- for the love of Fate put that thing down before you tell every warlock in North America where we are!" The sounds of the others working together to clear out the warehouse faded away as Willow led Emma down to the shore of the lake, not to far from the junk pile of things to rotten and rusted to serve any more purpose.

"First lesson." Willow stopped suddenly, and Emma almost ran into her. She backed up as Willow turned to face her.

"Relax. If you're stiff, that's no good and you'll shock everyone within a ten foot radius."

Emma nodded. She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders and her neck to loosen up.

"Okay, what's next?" She mimicked Willow's stance, feet shoulder-width apart, hands at her sides.

"Don't force it or concentrate too hard. That leads to an outburst. Just let it flow naturally."

Emma's face scrunched up in confusion. "How does "natural" feel?"

Willow stared at Emma blankly. "...Are you joking? Because I really can't tell."

"Hey, you're the one who's got the powers! I just got them, this whole thing is incredibly unnatural for me!"

Willow sighed. She had to admit, Emma was right. "When it's natural, you don't feel exhausted making it happen. Unless you're doing advanced stuff, but that's later. You want it to feel effortless."

"Okay. Effortless." Emma exhaled slowly again.

"Now stretch out your dominant hand." Willow approached Emma, helping her to position her body in a way that would give her the most balance.

"Good," She nodded to Emma's hand, held with her palm facing outwards.

"Now, make some sparks."

Emma closed her eyes to concentrate. She tried not to force it out, while at the same time, willing the sparks to fly out of her hand. Her fingertips fizzed, tiny sparks falling onto the blanket of leaves and pine needles below, too small to start a fire.

"Very good." Willow let herself smile. Just a little bit.

"Now, throw them at that ugly tree over there."

Emma's eyes shot open. She'd never been good at throwing, but she doubted she needed to throw very hard with the amount of power converging on her hand.

Aiming for the tree Willow had identified, Emma pulled her arm back, just like throwing a baseball, and tossed her collection of sparks at the old tree, which ignited in flames.

The force of her throw threw Emma to the ground, and took Willow with her. Willow rolled back to her feet and shouted for Joseph.

Fortunately, the Alexandrene Lord was on his way out to get the water for cleaning anyway. He eyes glowed with bright blue energy as he held out his hand towards the water.

The lake was slightly muddy, dark blue with a hint of brownish-green, but the surface started to glow, the same glow as in Joseph's eyes. It sloshed and roiled for a moment, before a jet of water shot out of the lake and sprayed the burning tree. Some of the water instantly turned to steam, and the rest doused Emma and Willow in a gentle mist.

"Thank you!" Willow waved him off as she coughed, summoning some fire that she could control to dry herself off.

Joseph nodded, summoning more water towards himself. The water arced high over Emma and Willow's heads, held slightly aloft over Joseph as he guided the water with vigorous arm movements, almost like he was dancing.

"Alright, Joey!" Joan shouted, sprinting out of the warehouse with the last of the duffel bags. "Let'er rip!"

Sam shouted and jumped for joy as the water shot into the warehouse, scrubbing away dirt and muck with pure force, getting into all the cracks and peeling the grime off the walls.

The water was barely glowing anymore, as Joseph pulled it out of the warehouse. Everyone could see the filth it had collected, floating within as he guided it back into the lake.

"Now what?" Rebecca asked.

Joan blew some hair out of her face. "I hadn't thought of that yet. I guess we wait until it dries up."

Emma finally gathered her senses enough to make herself sit up. "What if Willow used her powers? The heat could dry it up pretty quickly."

"I don't have that much control," Willow said, "I just have more than you do."

Emma chuckled. "We can agree on that."

"That was good for a first try. Your aim was shaky though." Willow stood up, holding out her hand to help Emma to her feet.

"How do I keep it from being shaky?" Emma asked, sparks still falling from her hands.

"Practice. Balance. Focus." Willow nodded, planting her hands on her hips.

"Practice, balance, and focus." Emma repeated. Using the elastic on her wrist, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. It was still static-y, but at least it wasn't static-y in front of her face anymore.

"Practice." She aimed for the tree again.

"Balance." Willow continued. Emma's feet dug into the ground, bracing herself.

"And focus." The two said together. Palm facing the tree, Emma squeezed her eyes shut envisioning where she wanted lightning to strike the already charred tree.

The air hummed with electricity, like the calm before the storm. Willow checked on more time to make sure Emma's hand was facing in the right direction, and that her breathing was calm and even.

"And now, release!"

They say that lightning never strikes twice, but the poor tree was an exception to the old adage.

By the time Emma felt sure that she had no more energy left in her body, the sun was starting to set. They walked over to their friends, who were still waiting for the warehouse to dry out, and arrived at the same time that Roxanne did.

"Where've you been all day?" Sam asked, smiling.

Roxie sat in between Sam and her sister. "I was expanding the spell. It now includes the lake, and a lot of the surrounding forest. That way, if any of N-corp's people come to town, we don't have to run as far to be safe from them. It gives us a bit more freedom without being detected."

"If Walter Nathaniel's people find Glen Haven, then we have to get out of here, don't we?" Rebecca asked, hugging a pillow to her chest.

"It keeps us from being detected from miles away, too, so that they can't figure out that we're here by tracking Willow and Daniel, or the magic that Joey and I use." Roxanne clarified.

Emma tossed sparks back and forth between her fingertips, and Daniel passed Willow some spare pieces of wood to use to make a fire.

"We should have a plan. You know, in case Nathaniels does find us." Emma said quietly. Willow ignited a fire, making everything in the area surrounding them suddenly get much darker.

"Well, do you have any other abandoned, run-down warehouses like this in mind?" AJ nodded to the warehouse, and Joan checked to see if it was any drier yet.

"No," Emma gave a deflated sigh.

"I could always bring you to Alexandria," Joseph said with a wistful smile. "I am certain my Queen would offer you shelter."

"No offense, Joey, but we're kind of wanted criminals bordering on terrorists," Roxanne grimaced.

"It wasn't that bad!" Rebecca bit her lip, hugging a pillow to her chest, "was it?"

"Still, if someone figured out we were hiding behind the Alexandrian government, it might spark an international incident." Joan agreed with Roxie.

"It's still a good idea," Emma assured Joseph. "We'll keep that in mind."

"Besides, we might not ever have to leave," AJ grinned. He lay on his back, hands tucked underneath his head as he stared up through the tree canopy. "Just spend the rest of our lives living it out here in the woods, perfectly hidden from stupid parents and stupid N-Corp."

"That's a terrible idea!" Rebecca hit her cousin with the pillow she was holding. "We can't stay trapped here forever!"

"Forever?" Sam asked. He turned to Emma, biting his bottom lip.

"Becca's right," Emma said quickly. "Even if they can't find Willow and Daniel, N-Corp will keep kidnapping kids and hurting them until they churn out an entire batch of their own Crusaders. We have to get solid evidence of what Nathaniels and N-Corp are doing, or the real Crusaders will never believe us."

Willow groaned. "I suppose that means there'll be a lot of road trips between here and LA?"

Emma looked between Joseph and Sam at her side "Maybe not. We still have those drives that Sam got to hack." Sam beamed, proud that he'd been able to do something to help.

"Then what are we doing out here in the boonies?" Joan hopped to her feet. "If we get that information to Officer Chance he can arrest Nathaniels on the spot!"

Roxanne tugged on Joan's pants leg, pulling her back down. "It...doesn't quite work that way, Jo."

"Nathaniels has power and money, and he's friends with some of the Crusaders' top members. It needs to be something big. All a few endangered animal rights violations are gonna do for him is set him back a couple million."

"That's pennies coming from a guy like him," Rebecca sighed.

AJ's stomach grumbled loudly. "Uh...Jo, do we have any more leftovers?" He eyed their fire hungrily.

"No. And don't call me Jo," she grumbled.

"Are we gonna have fire-cooked dinners every night?" Daniel asked. "I mean, I guess it's okay, but don't people normally use a stove?"

"Well, yeah, but we don't have a stove." Sam mumbled.

"We can build one!" Rebecca said.

"Even if you could, where would we get the power?" Joan pinched the bridge of her nose, and AJ gave Emma his best evil grin.

"Woah, slow down there, genius, I'm still learning to use my powers. Let's wait a bit to see if I can power a stove." Emma chuckled.

Roxanne sighed as she checked the contents of her purse. "I'm running low on my herbs and spices. If I want to keep this shield up, we need to take a trip into town tomorrow morning."

"Good. We can get food then."

"And new clothes," Willow grimaced, brushing a few fallen pine needles off her skirt.

"And cleaning supplies," Joan checked the floor of the warehouse one more time.

"Well, that's enough patience for me. If we put down the tarps, we should be nice and dry anyway." She shrugged.

The floor did seem to squish under their feet, but the tarps made it more bearable.

Goodnights were sent around the group as they climbed into their sleeping bags one by one. Roxanne checked the shield spell one more time before she finally snuggled up to Joan. leaving Willow and Emma awake.

"Hey, Emma?" Willow asked, hoping everyone else was still asleep.

"Huh?" Emma mumbled, typing out something on her phone.

"If I went to school, I...I'd have Daniel with me, right?"

"Of course you would!" Emma said. "We'd all be there. We're not letting you go in alone."

Willow chuckled softly, "Okay, that does make more sense."

"And...and if you end up wanting to stay here and study on your own, that's fine too. I know we can get you enrolled in some online programs or something. I just thought, if you were looking to get assimilated into this whole new world and pretend to be someone your not, well, there's no better place to do that than in high school."

"You're sure it's safe?" Willow asked.

Emma sighed. "Honestly, after Phoenix threw her lot in with Nathaniels, I'm not so sure what's safe anymore. But we can't stay holed up in here forever."

Willow nodded against her pillow. "Just like the vault."

Emma nodded, and when Willow stayed quiet, she went back to her phone.

"What are you doing?" Willow whispered suddenly.

"Making a list," Emma mumbled, "Just trying to organize what we need to survive out here in the middle of nowhere."

"You should sleep. We can make something like that together in the morning." Willow pointed out.

"Well yeah, but someone's gotta stay up and keep lookout."

"Why do we need to do that if Roxanne has her shield up?"

Emma shrugged, thinking back to her conversation with AJ earlier. "Roxie said herself, it's not one hundred percent secure. It's more of a just-in-case thing."

"Why don't you let someone else do it then," Willow tossed aside her covers, sitting up. She had resigned herself to the fact that she would not be going to sleep, at least for a while.

Emma glanced around. Sam breathed evenly in his sleep, Joseph snored lightly, Roxanne drooled, and Rebecca mumbled something in her sleep.

"I don't wanna wake any of them up, and we didn't really talk about it before we all-"

"I'll do it."

"No, Willow-"

"You've been up longer than anyone else. Come on, get some sleep."

Emma pretended to pout. "Do I have to?"

"Hey," Willow bent over one of the duffels, pulling out a flashlight, "You guys wouldn't be in this whole mess if it weren't for me and Daniel. I owe you all, big. The least I can do is make sure you're all alright."

Emma finally set down her phone. "You sure?"

Willow nodded firmly.

"Alright then," Emma smiled, unzipping her sleeping bag.

"Goodnight, Willow."

Willow stared out the door, into the darkness of the woods outside. If anything got past Roxanne's shield, they wouldn't make it past her.

"Goodnight, Emma."