[color=gray][INDENT][INDENT][i]
[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][CENTER][COLOR=04cf3a][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/COLOR][img]https://i.imgur.com/uxnptlQ.jpg[/img] [/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=04cf3a][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]Academic Quad, P.R.C.U. Campus - Dundas Island, Pacific Ocean[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=04cf3a][b]Take on Me #3.035:[/b][/COLOR] [color=white][I][b]Know Your Enemy[/b][/I][/color][/right][/sup][/indent][COLOR=04cf3a][SUP][sub]____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/SUP][/COLOR][INDENT][sub][color=04cf3a][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]Mary Tyler[/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=2c2c2c][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [color=2c2c2c][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5537475][I]Everything'll be alright, alright[/I][/url][/color][/right][/SUP]

[INDENT]
[color=00aeef]"Hey, I got your text... what do you need, Rory?"[/color] Mary seemed surprised to see Rory in the library, let alone hunched over a laptop in a study room. He had a notebook open to a blank page, ready to take notes. More than any of that, though... there was a strange look in Rory's eyes that she couldn't quite place. He seemed... determined. Angry. Afraid.

[Color=04cf3a]"Right, uh... I..."[/color] He didn't know how to explain what he needed, what he was doing, or why he was doing it. Filling her in on his secret assignment seemed like a bad idea. But Mary knew him well enough to tell when he was lying. Middle path, then, was the best option. [Color=04cf3a]"I'm looking at some stuff from the Trials, and I was warned it wasn't going to be pleasant."[/color]

Mary raised an eyebrow, taking a seat at the small table across from him. She leaned forward, chin in her hands as a small and devilish grin formed on her face. [color=00aeef]"What, too scared to ask Kat-"[/color]

[Color=04cf3a]"No."[/color] Rory's response was quick, and instinctual. Mary pretended to be shocked, but they both knew she had effectively got under his skin. Rory shook his head. [Color=04cf3a]"Besides... a lot happened this weekend. Before it all went bad. I..."[/color] He hesitated. He didn't quite know what to call what he had going on. They never really put a word to it. Last thing he needed to do was rush it, so he'd have to settle for the next best answer. [Color=04cf3a]"Look, Katja's not interested."[/color]

[color=00aeef]"Her loss."[/color]

[Color=04cf3a]"Yeah, thanks."[/color] He rolled his eyes, catching a glimpse again of his laptop screen. A folder full of video files was there, waiting for him. Surely, there were other ways to root out a traitor.

But all other leads were, for the most part, dried up. And with Lorc out of commission, the team all on edge, and morale this low... he needed to narrow the suspects. Besides, it would only be a matter of time before the others found out what he was up to. If he could secure himself a head start before that happened, he'd be set.

[Color=04cf3a]"I should get started..."[/color]

Rory sat in front of his laptop, sliding on an old pair of headphones, and opening up the first video file.

[hr]

It was hard watching someone break down. Mary was lucky she only had to see Rory break. Rory watched all nine. He had to pause frequently to wipe tears from his eyes, or to stand up and pace around the room. By the end, Rory just slammed the laptop lid closed and rested his head on the table. His notebook was filled with the names of everyone, some crossed out and then re-added and crossed out again. His head pounded in his skull, his chest and every muscle in his fiber felt heavier than they ever had before. If he had the energy, he would be angry. Seething. But after watching it all, he just felt tired. He wanted to go home.

Home.

Mary walked behind him, rubbing his back softly the same way he had when they were young. [color=00aeef]"It's over, Riri. It's over."[/color]

Rory shook his head, eyes screwed shut as he hid his face in his arms on the table. [Color=04cf3a]"No... not yet."[/color]

Mary paused her movement. He never let her get away with calling him that. She reached out towards the notebook next to Rory. He panicked, slamming his palm over the notes. He didn't look at Mary, but she got the message. She backed away, leaning against the wall and folding her arms as he shoved the notes into his bag. [color=00aeef]"It's about the Trials, isn't it? Don't tell me you're beating yourself up over-"[/color]

[Color=04cf3a]"They wanted to recruit me, Mary."[/color]

Silence followed for a moment. Neither of them knew how to talk about it... or [i]him[/i] for that matter. Eventually, Mary walked back to her seat and silently sat down, watching him as he pulled the notes out again to clean them up.

There were a few individuals he was fairly confident couldn't possibly side with Hyperion's Children, especially after the footage. The thought of Banjo taking orders from anyone was laughable, especially not the maniacs worshipping the guy who put him in the hospital years ago. Calliope was unlikely... even if the actual shotgun to the leg wasn't real, the odds they would do that to their own was unlikely. Plus, Calliope was just as unlikely as Banjo to follow the beat of their own drum. Her and Banjo had arguments... but no argument would ever drive her to Hyperion. Last on the absolutely free and clear was Haven. He paused as he crossed her name off the list. He wanted it not to be her... but the simulation tried to kill her. The images of her were going to haunt him. Now that he knew what Katja's powers were capable of... borrowing her power before confronting the traitor might be best.

His pen hovered over Katja's name. She suffered more than some in the simulation. Carving into a wall of flesh with your bare hands didn't seem like the kind of thing Hyperion's children would be for. He had never asked Katja much about her past, but what little he could piece together made what he witnessed even worse. The simulation tormented her psychologically almost as much as Haven. It haunted her with her past. But the simulation mocked him too. Did everything it could to break and mold him. And it molded Katja. Katja broke in the simulation, and what he saw wouldn't leave his mind. She was one of two who were truly willing to kill. But kill wasn't the right word. Kill was what Amma did. Katja slaughtered.

Part of his mind settled on Katja's behavior before the Trials, at breakfast. She was off... but confrontational when pushed. Maybe, just maybe, she had known. Was that why she was off that morning?

If Katja was the traitor... would anyone be able to stop her from hurting the team?

Could he stop her from killing Haven?

Had she always been holding back?

Rory moved his pen away from her name. She wasn't his first suspect... but after what he witnessed, he wasn't sure he could trust her.

Rory looked down at Harper's name, sighing as he crossed her name off without much hesitation. Like Haven, the simulation seemed to revel in torturing her in ways he couldn't even imagine. He hadn't seen her the past few days... he felt bad for not noticing the fresh scars when they all got out. He didn't know she had a sister. He didn't know a lot of things about his friends. But he was certain, between the simulation and the way she clocked how Katja was off at breakfast, she couldn't betray the team like that. In the same breath, Rory crossed off Gil's name. He got it worse than Harper did, and his continued presence in the hospital to recover was a sign that he was a clear target to be taken out. The simulation tried to kill him as much as it tried to kill Haven, it seemed.

Rory put a question mark next to Amma's name. Part of him wanted to cross it off entirely, but he knew it would be irresponsible. She had hurt him. She also used that power to save Haven. He didn't understand their interaction fully, but he understood enough. She didn't only act in her own self-interest. For a moment, she was a team player. Of course, then she turned around and hurt him. He had felt what he could only imagine to be a fraction of her power. After having seen what had happened in the simulation, that was her at her weakest. Despite the healing, lines of skin on his arms still felt raw.  But at the same time... it felt like there was something underneath her words and actions that were hesitant. He knew what it was like to play a part, and to wear a mask and hope no one noticed. Even when Amma attacked him, it didn't feel like her. He didn't know how else to put it. He couldn't cross her off, but he would be surprised if it was her.

He hesitated as he hung his pen over Aurora's name, before finally placing a question mark next to it. Aurora was attacked, surely. But the danger she faced was minimal compared to the others. If anything, it felt like the simulation was trying to groom her. The fear she expressed seemed real... but Rory was so jaded at this point her couldn't tell if it was just an act. She seemed to be in a position to say the right thing at the right time for her teammates... but she seemed more devastated at the thought of being abandoned than anyone else. She wasn't his top suspect.

Not when Lorcán was on the list. He, out of everyone, seemed to suffer the least. The scar was nasty, but the tone of how the simulation toyed with him was more theater than anything. Or, more accurately... it felt like how the simulation tried to groom Rory. Aurora was there to seduce him, the evil version of him had a cool name and a scar that it ended up passing on to the real him. It didn't hand him Hyperion's robes, but it might as well have. Compounded with his behavior in setting up for the Trials, his connection to Aurora, his weird vibes with Amma, and the fact he was willing to kill in the simulation. They weren't real, and even Hot Shot could tell that surely. But out of everyone, he was one of the most likely options on his list. Besides Rory, Lorcán was set up as the only other true heir to Hyperion. Him, Rory, Katja, and Amma.

The only person Rory knew wasn't a traitor was himself.

Rory hoped Tad was wrong. Based on the footage, it looked like he was.

Rory closed the notebook, his head pounding as he stood up and shoved everything into his bag. Mary had tried talking to him, but stopped when he wouldn't respond. She had never seen Rory like this. He wasn't just vacant or absent, not even cold.

When Mary looked into Rory's eyes, there wasn't any light in the bright blue eyes.

He looked dead.

[/INDENT][/INDENT][/color]