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[COLOR=tan][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=SILVER][I]PRCU?[/I] - [I]Dundas Island[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b] Human: #5.020 [/B][COLOR=SILVER][I]A Rotten Egg[/I][/COLOR][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][sub][B]Interaction(s):[/B] [COLOR=SILVER][I]Blackjack[/I][/COLOR][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Previously:[/b] [COLOR=SILVER][I]Mourning Dove[/I][/COLOR][/right][/SUP][/INDENT][/COLOR]

[indent][color=gray]Something about the way Rory looked back at the fire told Haven that her apprehension was valid. While she was scared to face the truth of Katja’s betrayal, and what that would do to her already fractured resolve, she was more worried about how this reunion would go if Rory chose to confront her. The team wouldn’t take it well. They were already standing on thin ice as it was, and she was sure this was the final crack in the foundation that would send the Blackjack name under.

All she could do was turn her gaze back to the flames and wait. Her anxiety manifested in the way her muscles began to tense with each heavy footstep taken behind her. One step closer to the pain that the truth would inflict upon the already broken souls around her.

As Harper spoke up, Haven turned empathetic eyes onto her blindfolded sister where she sat nearby. It hurt her to hear Harper’s pain so freely expressed after all the times the brunette had kept her feelings under lock and key. The blindfold was a painful reminder that Harper had also lost something at the dance. It hurt even more that Harper said she didn’t want to be alone, especially after the way her sister had left her a few days ago and hadn’t visited her since.

[i]Another thud against the sand behind her.[/i]

Cleo’s voice saved her from dwelling on her fragile relationship with Harper. Instead she worried what the Foundation might do with someone who had her gifts. Her mind wanted to assume the worst, but she had to remind herself that Cleo wasn’t like her. Cleo wasn’t a [i]sub-class[/i], so she would be safe there… right?

At least Lorcán liked to believe the Scot would be.

She could hardly look at the island boy where he sat across the fire from her. His molten eyes seemed to glow above the flames. This school, this piece of the world, was all Lor had known his entire life. Compared to the rest of the team, this place truly was his home and now he was being forced to leave it. The Roths lost their jobs and their land in one fell swoop. She was aware that there were many reasons that led to the end of Pacific Royal. It probably began a long time before Hyperion came to power. Yet for the attack at the dance to be the final strike upon its name, all because [i]he[/i] had come for her again, it made the guilt on her shoulders feel even heavier.

[i]Thud.[/i]

The strangers that approached them then; what they had to say… It only made Haven shrink into herself. How they had found Amma’s ring, how there were rumors about the attack spreading throughout the lingering student body, how the man’s eyes looked at the injuries among them– looked at the empty space on her back, and how the woman with hair like moonlight wanted to make sure one piece of their lost friend remained with those that had known her best. She tucked her knees into her chest and hugged them to her, her eyes avoiding the glint of the ring as it sat in Gil’s remaining hand.

She felt an ember of anger burn within her at the same time Gil’s fury drove him to leave them.

It was snuffed out the moment Banjo spoke [i]his[/i] name. A spike of fear drove itself into the center of her back and what was left of her wings ached with the memory of being strapped to Daedalus’s operating table. She saw his twisted grin, and she heard the horrible way he cooed her name as if he was standing behind her. She held her breath to keep her heart from racing, and yet her hands still trembled where they clutched her sweatpants.

She’d noticed how Banjo hadn’t looked her way since he arrived. She’d noticed how he was drowning himself in beer. She wasn’t sure what he was grieving, no one had told her of what Banjo went through at the dance, but she heard the anger in his voice as he made the horrific vow to hunt the mad scientist down and bring him to justice. She could hear Gil making plans of his own in the distance. While she couldn’t say the same for Olyphant’s plans, she hoped that Gil would find what he was looking for. He seemed to have been the only one to truly know Amma. To know [i]Ammaranthe[/i]. 

Tears pricked at her eyes, but she simply stared into the fire and let the brightness of it burn her retinas.

[i]Thud.[/i]

She braced herself as Katja finally made it to them. Prepared herself for what Rory might say to her, what he might ask her, and how the truth might break her own heart as it was laid bare. She swallowed as Rory spoke for the first time that evening. Her own head turned to anxiously look up for the tall blonde’s reaction, but what came pouring out of her lover’s mouth was not the truth but a cruel and twisted version of it.

Her jaw dropped, and disbelief was clearly written on her face as she turned her head towards Rory. She no longer cared about how Katja might react to the truth. Not while the kind man she knew so well had suddenly become someone entirely different before her eyes. She gasped as he used what she’d been through against the blonde, her trembling hands reaching for Rory’s where it was white-knuckled on his wheelchair as a silent plea to stop.

Yet all she could think about was the way that Katja had held her hand as they made their way forwards in the trial. The strength behind the grip, as if holding onto her for dear life. How she’d looked at Haven and told her things were going to be alright after the room had burst into flames.

She couldn’t have known, right? She wouldn’t have led them into it knowing what horrors awaited them like that. Haven didn’t want to believe it.

Rory was relentless, though. She’d just barely pressed her hands against his when she felt him push her away. She pulled them back to her like she’d been struck, unable to console him in his anger as he viciously tore into their teammate.

She knew that Rory had cared for Katja just as much as he cared for her before the trial. She understood that the pain of this betrayal was worse for him than it would be for the rest of them. What she didn’t understand was the way the corner of his lips formed a smirk as he prepared his final blow.

What he said left her stunned.

Chaos immediately erupted following his confrontation, but Haven’s wide eyes remained fixed on Rory. This was a side to him she’d never seen before. A cruelness that she hadn’t thought him capable of until now. Her lips parted as she tried to find the words. Something to scold him with. Something to ease his pain. Something to say to Harper, or Aurora, to calm them down as they defended or confronted Katja themselves.

Even Banjo had something to say, while Haven remained speechless.

She could only feel her breath quickening, a thrum of grief and anger filling her ears the more everyone spoke, and the devastation left in the wake of their words. She finally turned her eyes away from Rory, then, looking towards their former teammate as one question finally clawed its way to her tongue.

[color=tan]“Did you know?”[/color] Her voice was breathless as she filled the silence left by Lorcán’s declaration. She stared at Katja with jaded green and golds, her hands still shaking at her sides as her stress manifested physically.

[color=tan]“Did you know that they messed with the trials before you walked with us inside?”[/color][/color][/indent]