I had mixed feelings about returning to the DAU. Of course, it was the place I felt like I belonged, and I wanted to see Dex more than anything. But I really wasn't in the mood to deal with Aiden and his attitude again.

Though I wanted to see Dex, I was a little nervous to. I'd abandoned him to finish my journey on my own, and though I did it with his wellbeing in mind, I wasn't so sure he'd see it that way. I didn't know how hurt or angry he was. And I didn't really want to find out.

I'd texted Hank and Nay in advance to let them know that I was on my way back. I had turned my phone off so that there would be no way for Dex to track me down once I'd left him, and I was sure that didn't make Hank and Nay very happy since they had told me to contact them at least once every day. But I needed to make sure Dex stayed safe.

They arranged for me to be picked up at the same train station I had been dropped off at when my journey began. I was picked up by men wearing the same suits as the men who had questioned us as Dex's mother's house. The ride home was awkward and silent, but it wasn't like I was expecting for them to strike up a conversation with me. I wasn't really interested in talking, anyway.

They dropped me off at the familiar front gate, but I didn't get out of the car right away. It felt like it had been so long since I'd been there, yet it'd only been a few weeks.

Being handed my duffle bag, I was ushered out of the car. My boots crunched through the snow as I made my way closer to the gate, pressing my hand against the palm scanner so I would be allowed inside.

The gate opened and I trudged inside, the car rolling away behind me. I didn't know where they were going, and I didn't care. There were so many different buildings in the DAU that I didn't even know about, even after being there for over a year. The building we trained and slept in was just one building of many.

As I made my way closer, I saw that there was someone leaning against the closed front door, arms crossed over their chest as they waited. Once I was close enough to see who it was, I stopped dead in my tracks.

It was cold out, and it was snowing, but there he was, dressed in jeans and a plain jacket. Not enough to warm him in this cold weather. But I was used to Dex not really thinking before he decided to do something.

"What are you out here?" I gaped, ready to pull off my heavy coat and wrap it around him if I needed to. If it even would have fit. "You're going to get sick!"

Ignoring my worrisome complaints, he pushed himself up from his spot as he said, "You were coming back."

"And you couldn't just wait inside like everyone else?"

"I wanted to be the first to see you."

Any response I had died in my throat. Dex's green eyes were soft as they locked with mine, and it felt like time stood still. We could have been there for seconds, minutes, hours, days. It all felt the same to me.

Finally, I found my voice. "I'm sorry for just... leaving," I apologized.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry for letting you go."

"Dex..." I frowned.

"You know the four of us can't get anywhere without you," he stated, and even though his tone was honest, and sincere, I still didn't believe that. "We need you."

"Dex..."

"I need you."

I felt at a complete loss for words. Dex normally wasn't so open about his feelings, so I didn't know what I was supposed to say in response to him. I felt like there was nothing I could say to him, while at the same I felt like there was so much.

Blushing, I glanced over at a very interesting rock as it continued to get covered with falling snow. "Dex, you're stronger than everyone else on the team," I reminded him, in case this was something he had somehow forgotten. "Emotionally and physically."

He shook his head again. "Not without you."

Silence engulfed us again, and it wasn't awkward, but comforting instead. Dex's presence was all I needed to feel safe and secure. It was no wonder I felt so uneasy while I was away from him.

It'd only been a week and a half since I had left him on the train, but it had felt so much longer. I never thought that being in love would feel like this, like you always needed to be with them or else it found like something was missing. I was just standing near him and I already felt so much lighter than I had since I'd left him.

"I missed you," I told him honestly, unable to hold it in.

"I missed you, too."

His words were enough to make me feel all warm inside, but I couldn't help but still feel embarrassed. I wanted to tell him I loved him, but had absolutely no courage to do so. I'd be mortified if I'd said it and he didn't say it back to me.

"You didn't try to pick up any other girls while I was gone, did you?" I asked instead, smiling so he'd know I was teasing him.

He didn't smile though; he was completely serious as he said, "I wouldn't even dream of it."

I was caught so off guard that all I managed to choke out was a quiet, "I... I'm glad."

Suddenly, he was right in front of me, wrapping his strong arms around my shoulders and pulling me into his chest. My duffle bag fell to the snow, but neither of us cared as I hugged him back just as tightly.

I'd never understood love. I still didn't. I didn't understand how I still managed to feel safe in Dex's arms, even with everything going on around us. Was that the power of love?

"I was so scared that something bad would happen to you, after you left," he whispered into my hair, his breath tickling me. "I was so... scared."

"I'm alright," I assured, smiling into his chest. "I'm here."

I pulled away slightly to look up at him, giving him a smile. He smiled back at me, but I was barely able to appreciate it before he was ducking his head and pressing his lips to mine.

His lips were chapped and cold from the snow, but I didn't mind. Mine probably weren't any better, yet he kissed me like a parched man who was finally given access to water after a very long time. His hands moved from my shoulders to my hips, bringing me as close as I possible could be to him.

He pulled away, both of us out of breath as he placed his forehead on mine. He smiled, looking so genuinely happy that I thought I could cry.

I thought he was going to be angry... I thought he was going to be hurt. After everything that had happened to his mother, I'd left him to continue on by myself. Even if I was only doing it to protect him, it must have hurt to be left behind.

"I knew you'd come back soon," Dex smirked, flicking me in the nose.

I giggled. "It wasn't exactly easy staying away."

Leaving him was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do. I'd waited to be back by his side, and now that I finally was, I never wanted to separate from him again. I just hoped that we could stay like this forever.

"I guess I should have asked you this when I saw you earlier, but..." Dex began, scratching at the back of his head. "Did you find out anything? About Redrum?"

"I did," I answered, and I felt a little bad because I had known about this while I was traveling with him, but opting out of talking about it until we returned to the DAU. "And it's something important."

"Then I'd like to hear it," a new voice suddenly cut in, and we turned to see the front door was now open, revealing Nay with her arms crossed over her chest. She smiled at me. "Welcome back, Violet."

Looking behind her, I could see that Hank and the rest of my teammates were there, Kristie waving at me as she excitedly hopped up and down to get a better look at me over Nay's shoulder. Aiden, unsurprisingly, looked as bored as ever.

Once we were all in the warmth of the meeting room, my team and mentors stood around me in a half-circle, waiting for me to speak. I suddenly felt lightly uncomfortable now that I had six pairs of eyes on me.

"So?" Aiden demanded, his arms crossed over his chest. "What do you have to say?"

I wished I didn't have to say it in front of all of them. Really, I just wished I didn't have to say it in front of Aiden. I didn't have a problem with talking about this in front of the rest of my teammates, even though I was really just trying to inform my mentors.

But it was too late for be to get out of this. So I just said it.

"Damien Black is alive."

The room was silent, but I was expecting as much. This was a bomb I was dropping, and even I didn't understand the seriousness of it all. The shocked looks on all of their faces—except for Kristie and Anthony, who only looked confused—were completely warranted.

"What?" Aiden squawked, his brown eyes as wide as saucers. "Are you insane? He blew up with your parents! That's what my dad said!"

I winced at his words; I'd never actually heard how my parents had died, and the last person I wanted to hear it from was Aiden.

Noticing my discomfort, Hank changed the subject by asking, "How are you sure he's alive, Violet?"

So I explained how I had met Margaret, and how her partner had been a psychic. As I was relaying the information, however, I realized how ridiculous it must have sounded, that I was basing all of this off of someone else's word.

Aiden seemed to be thinking this as well, because he scoffed. "You're telling me you think Damien Black is alive because you went to see some phony psychic?"

"One thing I did not miss," I glowered, feeling my left eye twitch, "was Aiden's obnoxious comments."

"Uh, sorry to interrupt," Anthony suddenly cut in, and it was strange to see him have the same dumbfounded look as Kristie. "But do you think maybe you could explain who that is?"

I realized then that Anthony and Kristie had no reason to know who Damien Black was. Anthony was the grandson of one of Damien's mentors, but that didn't mean they'd shared that part of the past with him. Dex and I had only found out about him by accident, and we were told to keep it a secret from the rest of our teammates. So, since that was the case...

"How do you know about him?" Ignoring Anthony's question, I spun on Aiden, my hands on my hips as I glared at him. "I only found out about him on accident!"

"When I went home for the summer and I told my dad I was on a team with an Ender, he told me all about him," our leader explained uncaringly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Because he was obsessed with catching them, or whatever."

At that news, Dex suddenly took a protective step closer to me.

"Uh..." Anthony spoke out again, still waiting for the answer to his question.

Hank sighed, finally answering, "Damien Black is the founder of Redrum."

Now Anthony and Kristie's faces matched the rest of their initial shocked reactions, and we gave them a moment to catch up with everything. I hadn't even realized we'd been keeping them in the dark; I'd completely forgotten that we had promised Hank and Nay that we wouldn't tell them Damien Black even existed. But now, it was something we couldn't avoid.

"But Violet thinks he's alive based on what some freaky psychic said!" Aiden continued, and his voice was starting to give me a headache. "How the heck are we supposed some flimsy evidence like that? A psychic!"

"Psychics are real, Aiden," Nay sighed, seeming just as disappointed in him as I felt. "Of course, there are phonies out there. But those are humans. Real psychics are superhuman."

Margaret had told me the same thing when I had been skeptical as well. It was probably common human nature to automatically assume psychics were fake. They didn't really have the best reputations thanks to humans.

"This is a lot to take in." Nay pinched the spot between her eyes, in thought. I'd never seen her so close to being at a loss for words as she was right then. "This is something we can't keep to ourselves. We're going to have to inform the Director and there are going to be investigations that need to take place."

That was understandable. They'd thought this man had been dead for nearly thirteen years now, and to find out such a dangerous threat could still be out there was not something that the DAU was going to take lightly.

"Did the psychic say anything else, or was it only about Damien Black?" Hank inquired, and that question suddenly reminded me of another part of that conversation that I was trying to forget.

Belinda backing away from me, fear in her eyes, as she stared at me and said...

"There's a problem within," I uttered, chills shooting down my spine just at the memory of it. "That's what she said. I... don't really know what she meant. She never explained."

Hank and Nay looked at each other. Dex, Kristie, and Anthony looked just as confused as I felt. Aiden, however...

"A problem within?" he questioned, and I could already tell I didn't want him to continue talking. "Well, it's obvious, isn't it? It's you. It has to be you."

"It could be you, Aiden," Anthony commented, finally speaking up. It was unusual for him to stay quiet for this long. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"Violet's the Ender," Aiden continued, as if that was reason enough to throw me under the bus for having something apparently wrong with me. "She's the one with all the powers we don't even know about!"

"About that," I began, a new thought brewing in my head as I raised my hand to silence Aiden before turning toward Hank and Nay. "Why didn't you tell me I could take and give powers?"

Fear flashed through Hank's eyes for only a moment. Nay froze, squaring her shoulders. They'd hidden this from me on purpose. It wasn't like they had forgotten a little detail that wasn't important. This was the most crucial Ender power of them all.

"You can take powers?" Aiden gaped, sudden fear evident in his eyes.

"Yeah," I answered, taking a threatening step toward him. "So shut up or I'll take yours."

"Maybe you could give his powers to a donkey," Dex suddenly suggested, seeming to be deep in through about the possibility. "There's not much difference between the two. Both are asses."

Now I was thinking about it too, imagining a donkey with the ability to shoot fire from its hooves. I then remembered that fire manipulation was not the only power Aiden had, it was just the one he preferred to use. All the time.

"Do you think then the donkey would be able to talk to all animals, or be able to talk to humans?"

Dex rubbed his chin. "That's a good question."

"You guys," Nay sighed.

Tearing ourselves away from our thoughts, Dex and I grinned sheepishly at our mentors. We may have just been joking around, but stealing Aiden's powers and giving them to another ass was something I'd rather do with my powers than what Damien Black had in mind for them.

"Violet, we didn't want to hide that from you," Hank explained, all conversation about donkeys left behind. "We just... didn't want you to know that was something you could do."

"Why?" I had to ask.

"It's been taken advantage of so much in the past," my female mentor continued. "Whether it be by the Ender themselves, or an outside party, that power gets taken advantage of. We thought that if you didn't know about it, then you wouldn't be bothered by it."

At this explanation, I couldn't help but feel offended by what they were saying. Did they really think that I was going to be like Damien Black, or any of those other horrible people that took advantage of Enders for what they could do?

"Did you... think that I was going to just go crazy and take advantage of it?" I croaked, cursing myself for wanting to cry. I needed to be stronger than this. "Did you think I'd just take people's powers for myself, or give them out to other people?"

Aiden crossed his arms over his chest as he grumbled, "Wouldn't put it past you..."

Ignoring him, my gaze never left Hank and Nay. "You really thought I was capable of something like that?"

"You are capable of it, Violet," Nay frowned, and I felt a pain in my chest because I knew she was right. "But there's a difference between capability and principle."

"It's what's happened in the past," Hank shrugged, and I could tell he was trying to make it not seem like a big deal with lazy body language, but that wasn't about to fool me. "Power like this gets to people's heads..."

"I don't want to take anybody's powers," I whispered, suddenly feeling small and frail and powerless. "I don't want to give anyone powers that they weren't born with."

I understood what they were saying. They didn't think that I'd go berserk with power, but they knew that it was a possibility that I could. I'd seen what it was like for me to go crazy with power. All of them had. I never wanted to go back to that.

I could control my powers now, not like before where just a flick of my wrist or a twitch of my eye could send something flying. My telekinesis was not my issue anymore. And honestly, I don't think it ever really was.

"Is there anything else you found out while you were gone?" Hank asked, his hand over his face. Something told me that my first bit of news had been enough for him for the day, and I didn't blame him.

"Yes," I answered, turning to focus directly on my shapeshifting friend. "But this is about Kristie."

"What?" the redhead blinked in confusion at the same time Aiden demanded, "What?"

"This has nothing to do with you," Anthony informed our leader for me, and Aiden moved to punch him until he remembered that Anthony was now bigger than him.

Ignoring them both, I continued. "I met your sister," I admitted.

"What...?" Kristie's brown eyes were round and wide as she gaped at me. "I have a sister?"

That question broke my heart for both of the Callahan sisters. One had been worried about the other's safety for over a year, while the other couldn't even remember her sister existed. Just what had happened to Kristie to make her this way?

"She was one of the Enders I met in hiding," I continued, wanting to get everything out into the open. "She was so upset when you went missing... Your whole family was. They still don't know what happened to you."

The whole room was silent as Kristie stood there in shock, processing everything I had just her. It must have been a lot to take in, and I suddenly felt bad for just blurting it all out to her. But I wanted her to know everything, because that was what she deserved.

"Where is she?" she suddenly demanded, clutching onto my shoulders and shaking me slightly. "You have to tell me where she is, Violet!"

I was at a loss for words. I remembered the scared faces of the Enders I had met, their words of apprehension as they spoke of outsiders. They were terrified of being found, being used for someone else's personal gain. They wouldn't feel safe until Damien Black was gone for good.

"Kristie..." I stared into her big brown eyes, filled with sorrow as she stared at me in desperation. "I... I can't."

This clearly was not the answer she had been expecting. She dropped her hands from my shoulders, staring at me in shock. "You can't?" she squeaked. "Why not?"

"She's... in hiding..." I stammered, and I felt like an idiot for having to explain all of this to her. "They're all in hiding because they're scared of what might happen to them if they don't stay that way."

I was being a horrible friend, I knew, but I had to look out for the Enders like I promised I would. Katarina had come to terms with the fact that she couldn't see her sister yet, but it was understandably more difficult for Kristie. She couldn't even remember her.

"But it's my sister," Kristie whimpered, her eyes filling with tears. "I finally have something that can tell me about the past I've forgotten and you won't even tell me where it is?"

I felt horribly guilty. Kristie had been feeling this way for so long, and now I finally how the power to stop it, yet I wasn't going to. It just wasn't safe for anybody to know that address as long as Damien Black was still out there.

"Kristie, you need to understand," I frowned. "I can't tell you where they are."

"Just tell her, Violet," Aiden ordered. He was unsurprisingly on Kristie's side.

"Think with your brain for once and not your dick, asshole," Dex snapped, and even though I would have found a more appropriate way to say it, I agreed. "They're in hiding. No one is supposed to know where they are."

"But Violet knows," Aiden pointed out.

"Because I'm one of them!" I shouted back at him. "The only other person who knows where they are is the person who got them the place to stay in the first place!"

Aiden eyed me suspiciously. "And who's that?"

I glared right back at him. "That's probably not information they want to get out either."

"We're your teammates," he asserted, his voice dangerous and low. "You're supposed to trust us."

"It's not my secret to trust others with!" I felt like yanking my hair out, and I noticed this was how I felt almost every time I had to talk to Aiden. "They could be in a lot of danger if someone found out where they were. I'm not telling."

"You're... You're so mean, Violet!" Kristie bellowed, cutting Aiden off before he could say anything else and ramming into my shoulder as she ran by me and out of the room. I didn't try to stop her, because there was nothing I could do to make her feel better.

Of course, Aiden decided to come to her defense. "You just love causing everybody else pain, don't you?" he asked, taking a step toward me. Dex moved closer, but I held up my hand to stop him.

"What the heck are you talking about?" I demanded.

"First Dex, and now Kristie," he explained, and I felt all the air rush out of my lungs at his mentioning of this. "Who's next, Anthony or me?"

I couldn't say anything. My whole mouth went dry, and it was like I was on that snowy hill all over again, Tom's arm rocketing through Dex's mother stomach before either of us could do anything to stop it. I was powerless, completely useless. I'd led Redrum to her door, and then I had let her die. It was all because of me.

I didn't know what exactly our teammates knew about the situation, but they must have knew something, right? Dex's mother's death wasn't something that could be so easily hidden from them. They must have knew, which meant Aiden was saying this on purpose.

"You're the reason his mom got killed," he shrugged to clarify, almost as if it was no big deal.

"Aiden!" Nay snapped before Dex or I could say anything. "Shut. Up."

"What?" Aiden truly seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with what he was saying right then. "I'm not wrong."

Nay's eyes narrowed at him. "Yes, you are."

Waving his hand to dismiss what Nay had said as false, Aiden turned and hurried out of the meeting room, running after Kristie. I said nothing, feeling absolutely empty inside.

Dex's fingers brushed against my arm, causing me to jump. "Violet..."

I couldn't even look at him. Aiden was completely right. It was my fault that Dex's mother had died. How could he even stand to be around me when I was the reason his mother had died?

"I'm going to bed," I muttered, staring at the floor as I made a beeline toward the door, leaving before anyone could say anything to stop me.

Maybe if I just slept, all of this pain and guilt would go away. If I slept, I wouldn't think about how I'd hurt Dex anymore. I just needed to sleep for years.

I could hear Dex's footsteps behind me in the hall, and I knew I wasn't going to get away from him that easily. In a way, I was thankful for this, but at the same time, I really wasn't.

"Hey," he called out after me softly, clutching gently onto my arm, stopping us in the middle of the hallway. "You're just gonna go to bed without saying anything to me?"

I gulped. "I didn't really know if you wanted to talk to me or not."

His green eyes softened. "I always want to talk to you."

He wasn't even trying, and yet I felt horrible once again for leaving him. All he ever did was care for me. And I did nothing but cause him pain.

"Dex..." I sighed, unable to look up at him.

I loved him. I loved him so much. Every time he was hurt, whether it was my fault or not, I wanted nothing more than to take all his pain away and put it on myself. He'd gone through so much and I just wanted to hold him and tell him everything was going to be okay, but I had no right to.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized, the lump in my throat making it painful for me to swallow. "Aiden is right. It's all my fault that your mom died. If I wasn't there... If I hadn't gone there with you..."

"Shh, shh," Dex shushed, cupping my face in his hands and resting his forehead on mine. "Don't say that, baby."

"How can't I?" I sniffed, fighting back tears that were threatening to fall. "They want me, Dex. They never would have found your mother if I hadn't gone there."

Dex shook his head, kissing my nose. Just his presence was enough to soothe me, but that didn't stop all my thoughts of guilt and remorse. I still couldn't understand how he could be anywhere near me.

"I'm the one that took you there," he reminded me. "So if you want to blame anyone, blame me."

I couldn't do that. He hadn't known his mother was there when he had taken us to visit his childhood home. Of course... neither had I. But I should have demanded me left as soon as we'd found out she was there. Maybe then she could have been saved.

"Don't," Dex whispered, kissing a different part of my face between every word. "Blame. Yourself. For. Any. Of. This."

His lips tickled my cheeks, my nose, my eyelids. He slowly brushed over every inch of my face, as if savoring every part of it. Finally, he made it to my lips.

And once again, Dex was the reason I felt better. I'd never get enough of kissing him, and thankfully he seemed to feel the same way.

"I could never blame you, not ever," he smiled. "You're the only reason I was able to make it through all of this."

I wanted him to be by my side forever. I wanted to tell him this, but I had no idea how. The last thing I wanted to do was seem weird or freak him out. This moment was so good and if anything went wrong because of me, I didn't think I'd forgive myself.

"Dex, I..." I started, but trailed off, having so much I wanted to say.

Dex brushed my hair out of my face, softly asking, "What, Violet?"

I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but I just couldn't. Maybe this would have been the perfect time, but I was just too scared. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin this moment with words.

So I kissed him, needy and desperate, trying to portray all the feelings I had for him just through that. But it would never be enough; no amount of kisses would ever be enough to show him how much I loved him.

Maybe this would have been the perfect time physically, but mentally, it was not. I felt so tired and drained and I felt like I didn't even deserve to have these feelings for him. He deserved to be told when I was confident and happy. He deserved to be told when he was confident and happy.

"I'm just so tired," I found myself saying instead, and I could have sworn I saw a twinge of disappointment flash in his eyes. "I just want to sleep and not wake up for a very long time."

"Let me sleep with you," Dex blurted, clutching onto my hands. He cleared his throat, realizing what he'd said and grew embarrassed. "I... I mean actual sleeping. Like we did at my house. I just... want to hold you."

That honestly sounded... so nice. I'd never slept as well as I did when I had Dex beside me, and even though it'd only been a few weeks, I already missed it. And really, we had no idea how many opportunities we'd have to do this, considering I shared a room with Kristie and he shared one with Anthony and Aiden. So I took his hand, continuing down the hall toward my room. Dex said nothing and quietly followed after me, bringing my hand up to kiss mouth and lightly kissing my knuckles.

Blushing, I didn't look back at him and continued toward my room. He seemed to notice I was embarrassed, because he chuckled, squeezing my hand as they dropped back to our sides, still entwined.

As soon as I opened my bedroom door, however, I knew I would be getting no sleep.

I shouldn't have been surprised to see Aiden, as he'd been trying to comfort Kristie as she sat on her bed and he stood above her. I just wished they'd decided to go somewhere else other than our room, because I didn't want to deal with Aiden's snark or Kristie's sadness. There's was nothing I could do to make either of them less upset with me.

"What, did you come in here to make out or something?" Aiden scowled at me, and I immediately regretted walking inside. "You're just going to tell someone heartbreaking news and then play tonsil hockey with your boyfriend?"

"Okay, first of all?" Dex began, holding his index finger up as he spoke. "No one says tonsil hockey anymore."

"Just get out of here," Aiden spat, and I'd never heard such a hateful tone from him before, even after all the fights we'd had in the past. "Maybe if you give yourself to Damien Black, Violet, then the other Enders can be free and Kristie will be able to see her sister."

"Are you seriously suggesting that she give herself up to Redrum?" Dex demanded, seemingly more offended than I was by Aiden's statement. I placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking my head. Aiden really wasn't worth a physical fight.

Aiden could see he was working Dex up and smirked. "And what if I said that that's exactly what I'm suggesting?"

I clutched onto Dex's arm, stopping him from moving any closer to our team's leader. Yes, he deserved to get punched, but then Dex would be the one to end up getting in trouble with Hank and Nay, and it would have been my fault, since this was my fight with Aiden. They needed to stay at least five feet away from each other.

"That's not how it works, Aiden," was what I said instead, wishing the defuse the situation with words instead of violence. "Damien Black wants every Ender he can get his hands on. He won't be satisfied with just one. He wants them all."

"No, all Damien Black really wants," Aiden started, a smirk forming on his face as he spoke, "is your mom."

My breath caught in my throat, any response I had dying with it. The last thing I expected was for him to bring up my mother like this. How did he even know about that? I had to learn from Margaret!

Aiden smirked. "My dad told me about that, too."

I still felt like I couldn't speak, my tongue feeling heavy. I knew that Damien Black had started Redrum because my mother had picked my father over him, but hearing it from someone else, especially someone as nasty as Aiden, hit me in a sensitive spot.

"If she'd just chosen Damien Black, none of this mess would be happening," Aiden glowered, and the fact that he was even talking like this made me feel sick to my stomach. "Redrum wouldn't exist, and who knows? Maybe Kristie wouldn't have lost her memory."

"That's a really bold claim," I snapped. He had no idea if Kristie's lost memories had to do with Redrum; of course there was a possibility, but there was also so many others along with it. "And if my mom chose Damien Black, I wouldn't be here,"

Aiden didn't seem bothered in the slightest. "A shame."

Dex took a step between us. "Hey—"

I grabbed his arm, silencing him and lightly pushing him out of the way. I was happy that he'd stick up for me, but I wasn't going to back down just because I had someone willing to fight for me.

"Even before Redrum, there were evil superhumans out there who did the same exact thing Redrum members do," I reminded him, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he just didn't care enough to remember. "The only difference is now they have their own official organization."

"And because they have their own organization, they're more dangerous," he pointed out, and as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. But that didn't mean his argument was any less stupid.

Aiden was the kind of guy that just had horrible argumentative skills. He didn't always have awful points, but he had no idea how to go about them without sounding like a complete jerk. It was something he needed to work on.

"Start thinking about your teammates for once," Aiden started now, changing the subject back to what he really wanted to talk about.

"And by teammates, you only mean Kristie, right?" I questioned, able to see right through him. "I said it before, Aiden. I can't tell her where her sister is in hiding!"

"How the hell would telling her where she is make any damn difference?"

"You didn't see how terrified they were, Aiden!" I felt like my head was about to explode, but I kept yelling at him. "They're scared! They've been used and abused and mistreated their whole lives and they don't trust anyone!"

Aiden rolled his eyes. "So what?"

"So what?" I repeated, shocked by his response. "I am not going to betray their trust and rob them of the one place they feel safe! I'm sorry, but Kristie can't see her sister until it's safe for her!"

"And when is that?"

"When Damien Black is either incarcerated or dead!"

When Aiden started to laugh, my fists clenched so hard that I could feel my fingernails digging into the palm of my hands. I was itching to hit him, but knew that that would lead me to nowhere good.

"And you think you're going to be the one to kill the man who singlehandedly started his own organization and killed your parents?" Aiden asked, wiping a tear from his eye as he continued to chuckle.

"Maybe!" I spat. "All I know for sure is that I'm going to try."

Aiden scoffed. "You're going to get yourself killed."

That was a big possibility. Fighting Damien Black, a psychopath who had murdered before with no remorse, could be suicide. I could die, and everything would be over, but I wasn't scared. I didn't care.

I shrugged, exasperated. "Then I'm taking him with me."

"As entertaining as this argument is," Dex began, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "maybe it's about time it came to an end."

"You're right," I sighed, finally turning away from Aiden and toward Dex. All of this arguing was really giving me a headache.

"That's right, listen to your little boyfriend and back down, sweetheart," Aiden called out after me, causing me to freeze. "We all know you have to listen to your man."

I spun on him, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. "Maybe you should stop being such a jerk all the time!"

Aiden wasn't about to back down. "Maybe you should start thinking about someone other than your boyfriend!"

"Oh, that's rich coming from you—"

"Just join Redrum already! We all know that's where you belong!"

"I will never join that disgusting—"

"Why not? It's basically your fault it even exists anyway!" The vein in Aiden's forehead was popping out as he continued to yell at me. "Your parents went on to have you!"

"The only reason Redrum was formed was because Damien Black was a squirrelly, slimy lunatic who couldn't take rejection—"

"Well, maybe if your mother wasn't such a whore—"

Before I could even compute what he'd just said, before I could raise my fist and bash it against his face, another hand was beating me to it. I was about to call out to Dex to stop, but then I realized it wasn't Dex who had punched him.

It was Kristie.

"Shut your mouth!" the redhead screamed, hands clenched into fists at her side. I'd never heard Kristie use this tone before. She seemed to notice how sudden her outburst had been, and her eyes filled with tears. "I'm so tired... I'm so tired of all the fighting."

Aiden just stood there, his hand covering his mouth where he had been hit, eyes wide as he stared down at the girl he'd been so infatuated with for the past year.

I reached out for the weeping girl. "Kristie..."

She moved out of my grasp, still addressing Aiden. "You can't say something like that about her mother!" she cried, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. "You don't know what kind of person she was... And that was Violet's mother... Someone she loved... I... I would do anything... to remember my mother..."

She began to cry again, and the soft look in Aiden's eyes was one I'd never seen before. He looked like he was going to reach out for her, but then thought against it and stormed out of the room, leaving the three of us in an awkward, uncomfortable silence.

"Kristie, are you okay?" I asked, inching closer.

"I just want to be alone right now, please," Kristie sniffed, turning away from us and toward her bed. "I have a lot to think about."

Dex and I glanced at each other, but said nothing as we left the room. I'd never noticed before how stressed Kristie's memory loss truly made her, and now I had only made it worse by saying I had found her sister, yet she couldn't see her. No wonder she flew off the handle.

Dex and I stood in the hallway for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say now.

"That was..." I trailed off, unsure what to say.

"Kind of awesome," Dex finished, and I hated to admit it, but he was kind of right.

I couldn't help but think that, in a way, that was exactly what Aiden needed. The only person he cared about, other than himself, was Kristie. So now that he saw that even she was done with his selfish behavior, would he stop?

"Well, she beat me to it," Dex sighed, stuffing his pants in his pants pockets. "If she hadn't punched him, I would've."

I looked down at my hand, flexing my fingers back and forth a little. "Me, too."

Silence fell around us again. I didn't know what we were supposed to do; we couldn't go into my room, and there was no telling where Aiden may have been. It probably would have been a bad idea to bother him.

Finally, Dex broke the silence. "Do you want to go get ice cream or something?"

I gave him a look. "Dex, it's snowing outside."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"... It's a yes."

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It's about time, Kristie.

Character development at its finest, am I right?

I hate this chapter and it's literally so freaking long. Like, it's over twice as long as chapters usually are. I wanted to split this up into two chapters, but my OCD won't allow me to have an odd number of chapters for the finished story unless the number ends with five so I decided to just keep it all in one chapter and leave the number of chapters I have planned the same.

The amount of chapters a finished story of mine can have can only be a number ending in 0, 2, 5, or 8. If you look at my stories you'll notice this pattern pretty quick.

But man oh man the next chapter has something I'm so excited to write about I'm going to laugh my ass off

And then after that...

*cue evil laugh gif here because Wattpad won't let me upload one right now*

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3