Shelby's POV
I woke up, and like usual went to Ross' room. He was still asleep like always. Jin was up wondering the hallways.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"The entity... it showed me something. And I'm not sure I can believe it."
"Believe what?" Adam said walking in with Rex.
"Where were you!" Jin demanded.
"Dude my morning exercises. Gotta stay fit." Adam said and Rex looked exhausted.
"I haven't even eaten! He made me run, with nooooo fooooood." Rex whined.
"Well of course I did. If you had eaten, it would have made you throw up." Adam countered.
"I doubt that." Rex muttered.
"Be my guess and try it." Adam said with a grin.
"Where is Mitch?" Adam asked.
"Patrol with Alex and Deadlox." Jin said.
"No word of Jerome?" Adam asked.
"None." Jin replied.
"Where's Uni?" Adam asked.
"Right here." Uni said with a yawn opening his door. "You guys are so loud." Uni said rubbing his one good eye.
"Let's eat I'm starving!" Rex yelled.
"I wanna get a cinnamon bun." Uni cheered.
We walked together and grabbed some food and sat down. We were talking casually. When a little boy ran up to us.
He quickly grabbed a cookie from Rex's plate, then went to another table and took their cookies, then another and another.
"What the heck! All I did was want to peacefully eat my cookies. Some one needs to teach that kid a lesson." Rex stood up.
"Since when were there kids here?" Jin asked.
Uni just sipped at his tea, and his eyes followed Rex as he walked away to look for the thief.
Rex came back. "Where did that twerp go!" He yelled in anger.
"You can't beat up a kid." I said.
"Psh sure I can." Rex said and pulled down his mask. "I've done much worse then hurt smaller kids."
In the corner of my eye, I saw the little child run to another table and grab someone's milk, he then sat on the floor next to the table.
"There he is." Jin said pointing the child out and Rex got up.
"Stop." Uni said and Rex sat back down.
Uni stared at the kid for a while. I copied and looked at him too.
The child was very dirty and he had red stains on his clothes. His hair was kinda clumped together, and his clothes were torn.
Uni sniffed the air.
"That is a unique smell..." Uni said.
We all soon just started sniffing making loud sniffling noises.
"Smells like ash, or something burnt." Adam said.
"Yeah." Rex said.
We watched the kid wipe the milk off his face and stand up. He then ran around a bit and grabbed some more cookies from someone's plate, which the person did not look to happy about but let it slide.
The small kid then ran to another table and jumped on someone's back. The person laughed then handed the kid some pancakes which the child took great fully.
He then slid underneath the table.
"That is weird." Adam said.
"Hey, isn't that Jerome?" I said as I realised the only person facing us from that table was Jerome. The other two's back were torwards us.
"Yea it is." Adam said and jumped up to run to him.
We got up to follow him, and I noticed Uni and Rex exchange uneasy glances.
"Jerome!" Adam yelled.
"Your spiritual journey is over already?" Jin questioned cheerfully.
"Yeah, about that." Jerome said with a nervous smile.
Uni, Rex, and I froze as we realised Nick and Cory were the ones sitting with Jerome.
There was absolute silence from us.
The kid scampered up from underneath the table noticing our silence.
He looked at us curiously then with a bolt of light Uni and Rex grabbed Nick and Cory into a bear hug.
"I swear if you ever do anything like that again I'll kill you!" Uni yelled in anger but relief.
Cory pried himself from the hug gasping for air. And Uni and Rex stopped.
Nick had a permanent grin.
"Oh come here." Nick said gesturing for everyone to have a group hug.
We gladly all joined pulling Cory in as well, who tried to pull away but fail.
"No physical contact!" Cory whined and broke out the group hug.
Adam and Jin laughed, but Rex and Uni looked concern.
"Who is this?" Jin asked pointing to the kid.
Nick shrugged.
"You don't know his name?" I questioned.
"Why ask if he was just gonna die." Nick accidently blurted out.
Uni and Rex stared at eachother, then at them.
"How did you get out?" Adam questioned.
"Cory shadow jumped us." Jerome said.
"Why though?" Jin asked. "Why didn't you leave sooner?"
"They kept me and Nick separated most of the time. I had no idea where they were holding him. And they always had guards on me. That was until I-I-I..." Cory stopped and looked down.
The little boy looked curiously at him.
"Yeah. You lost control what the heck happened with Ghetto!?" Jin said sternly.
Cory was silent, looking down at the ground. Looking at his past memories. Nick looked at him and shook his head slightly. Only Uni and I seemed to notice.
"Can you please just tell us, what happened, and the plans they have?" Adam asked and Nick nodded.
The little boy stepped forward munching on a cookie suddenly interested in our conversation.
"So! Tell us." Jin said.
"I-I-I don't know where to start." Nick said, but truthfully, he didn't know how he was gonna explain Ghetto torturing him in front of Cory, to get him to do what he wanted.
That was really the only reason they had him, why they kept him alive. As black mail.
As I noticed Nick's loss for words, I stepped in.
"I think we just need to let them rest. They have some re-adjusting to do."
Adam nodded in agreement and so did Uni.
Jin still looked suspicious but accepted that they may be tired.
"Sorry about the arm Jin." Nick said as he got up to hed to the rooms with Cory.
"It's fine now." Jin said with a smile.
Cory and Nick left.
Everyone was silent, still processing there arrival. We all just stared at Jerome for a while then Uni broke the silence when he moved his chair and excused himself.
I eventually left too, and saw Ross heading to get food. I waved to him, and he waved back.
I approached Cory's door and knocked. No answer. I waited a bit, then knocked on Nick's door.
Someone yelled come in, so I did.
Nick, Cory, and Uni were all sitting down on the ground. It took me a while to notice that the little kid was sleeping on Nick's bed.
"Hi Shelby." Uni said with a smile.
I smiled back. "Are you guys okay?"
"They won't budge." Uni stated.
"Why not?" I asked.
"You already know what happened Uni... you have been there." Cory said.
"But things change, don't make me get Rex, he will pun the answers out." Uni said with a grin.
Nick didn't smile. He kept a straight face on.
He looked like he wanted to say something, but was too ashamed to.
"Nick what's wrong?" I asked.
He just stared at the ground wanting to speak but not sure if he could.
"Cory what's happened to Nick?" Uni demanded.
"I don't know, they kept us separated most of the time. I only saw him when they wanted me to do something."
"The trials." Nick whispered. "They had me kill the kids... He-" Nick motioned to the kid lying in bed. " Was suppose to be one of them."
Uni was quite for a bit then spoke, " How many a day?"
"Only one... just one." Nick said looking at the ground. "It started off as those stupid illusions, then with out me knowing he would add a real kid and when I realised what I did... it was already to late. At least it is not as bad as what Cory did."
Suddenly, mine and Uni's eyes darted to Cory, but he was expressionless underneath his mask.
"What did you d-" Uni was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.
"Who is it?" I called out.
"Why wasn't I invited to the party?" Rex said from the other side of the door.
"You can come in Rex." Uni said, and Rex sat down with us.
"So what's up?" Rex asked gleefully.
"Digging." I said with a smile.
Rex cracked his knuckles and Cory seemed to flinch at the sound.
Rex cleared his throat." Cory... I was told you had a nice trip to some fort yes?"
Cory nodded slightly.
"You did the work for them right, you turned those people to dust... you sucked the life out of them, then slaughtered them with your skeletons. That must have been a ton of work."
Cory nodded.
"What method did they use for their training? You would never drain a person after the incident back in Kalá, so why now? They used the repeat method right? They just have you drain the life of random people until they are pleased right?"
Cory was silent.
"I'm gonna take your silence as a yes. But the question is why. Why did you do it, you didn't have to listen to them. So why did you do it. I did what I did, cause I didn't want Uni to die, and there was no escape." Rex paused and looked at Uni.
"So why did you do it?" Rex said.
"They were gonna kill Nick." Cory whispered.
Nick rubbed at his neck for some reason.
"Ghetto was gonna kill Nick, Ghetto was not a good person, he was to far gone. Ashlie, Tommy, and Jason... I think they are still good."
Nick flinched at Tommy's name.
"I think they'll help us, I know Ashlie will. And if she is in, Tommy will be in." Cory said.
"You almost killed them." Uni muttered.
"Ashlie understands why... She isn't that bad, I can tell. I can't speak for Tommy though, he is insane." Cory said.
"He likes puns, I'll give him that." Rex said with a grin.
"Wait what are you planning. You are saying they will help, but help with what?" I asked confused.
"Take down that prison inside out." Nick said with a determined face.
"I just need to talk to Ashlie, Rex... you worked with them before what do you think?" Cory asked.
"I think it's worth a shot. Go inside an enemy base, have a 'nice' conversation with the only sensible one sounds good." Rex said with a grin.
"Great, because I'm taking you with me." Cory said looking up at us.
"No no no no! I'm not going back there Cory. I got out, I'm not going back!" Rex said panicking.
"Rex you know them, fought along side them. They will understand coming from you." Cory said grinning behind his mask.
"What about you Cory, you fought with em too right?" Rex said loosing his patience.
"I almost killed them to be exa-"
Rex interrupted Cory, "Ya know what. What the heck yeah I'll go with you. If you are willing to go back I will too. Just to prove I'm braver then you."
Nick smiled at this.
"You guys this is stupid, you're gonna get caught." Uni said worried.
"If we do, I'll just shadow jump us out in a snap. Besides I know their shifts, and scheduling so I know exactly where, and when to shadow jump." Cory said to reassure Uni.
"Just...come back." Uni said then got up and left the room.
We were quiet then Rex said," Uni was eating himself up when you guys left. Now you are back, and leaving again."
"It will only be for an hour." Cory said.
"I know, it's just... he blames himself for what happened." Rex said with a sigh.
"Blames himself for what?" Nick asked.
"You and Cory leaving, he didn't listen to Cory about the dreams, he blames himself for all those kids I killed, and most of all. He blames himself for us getting kidnapped. "
"But that wasn't his fault, it wasn't any of our faults!" Cory yelled and the kid in the bed flinched.
"Well he thinks it is. He's upset he didn't do more to stop it. Upset he keeps being given the option to stop something, and not taking it. That is why, when you were gonna kill Jason, he stopped you."
"It's not his fault." Cory mumbled holding the crystal of his necklace in his hand.
"I'm gonna get some rest. I suggest you do the same Nick. I don't think any of us have really slept."
With that, we left Nick's room, and headed to our own.