Rav, now on his knees, stretched out a hand toward Landon and Camila without even looking back. The pumps of my heart sped up as I glanced at their paper in Landon's hand. The paper that was going to reveal what we'd gone through so much for. What Tali had sacrificed her freedom–and to a large extent, life– for. The one thing that could send all of Mr. Speck's plans crashing down to harmless dust.

   And yet, Landon and Camila didn't appear to share my same hunger though. As time continued to pass with Rav, empty hand in the air, they kept giving each other the strangest looks.

"Landon," My impatience was evident in my whisper. "What are you doing? Hand it over."

   After giving Camila one last glance, he did.

   As Rav placed it next to the other papers, I had to double check to be sure I wasn't drooling from the excitement as I peered down at the inscription on their jet black paper. The floor before us dimmed when we all circled around the pages for a better look.

   My mouth became a desert fast.

   No one said a word and to be honest, that made me feel a bit better because it proved I hadn't suddenly gone insane and that we were all looking at the same blank piece of paper.

   The thoughts of our doom about to flood my mind, however, halted the minute Camila shifted, creating space in our group huddle and causing more rays of the lights in the room to brighten the enclosure we'd formed.

   My hands swooped up the black paper before anyone could blink. I held it up to face some of the bright lights in the room, my suspicion now undisputable certainty when the outlines on the paper became clearer. We should've known by now that Mr. Sacury would write down the solution to our problems in ink that was only visible (barely) when shown the brightest lights.

   The longer I stared at the paper, the more words and phrases I kept considering as a better substitute for 'write down'. Rather than inscribed in a word or words, our solution seemed to stand between an elaborate sketch and a symbol.

   Narrowing my eyes to a squint made it easier to make out what was on the paper. Streaks of lines, ranging from slender and short to long, wavy ones were at its centre. The rough, curved shapes around the lines made the latter appear contained. When I took a step back and held the paper a bit further from my face was the moment I noticed though the curved outer parts barely touched each other, they still had a strangely unique coherence. A coherence that reflected the shape of a lone cloud in the sky on a sun–

   That image in my mind froze when everything suddenly stopped. All that my mind was choosing to see was the drawing on the paper as everything else, including my own hand faded into the blurry background.

   Just as the parts of my brain that pushed through the stillness began questioning what was going on, a buried memory shot through them with a familiarity so impactful that my feet were taken two steps back as the paper escaped from my hand to the floor.

"Beth," I felt Camila's hand rest on me from behind. I realised then that my steps had made me bump into her. "Are you okay?"

   Landon was also at my side, asking something similar.

   But I couldn't pay attention to them even if I wanted to. They were focusing on the wrong person. I wasn't the one who needed to be asked that question.

   The minute my eyes met Dorian's wide, shiny ones, I knew we were thinking about– or rather, remembering–that night. That night where I met Dorian in the basement and he opened up about the sad, dreary parts of his childhood. The night he told me about the institution and about the things they'd done to him. The night he showed me the things they'd done to him.

   And how amidst it all, what stood out the most was the tattoo on his chest.

   The tattoo with a variety of overly concentrated lines that were contained within and surrounded the multiple curves which combined to create a lone, puffy cloud in the sky on a sunny day.

   An exact replica of what was drawn on Mr. Sacury's paper.

   The acceptance of this awful truth came with a broken sob that slipped out of my mouth too fast for my hands to suppress it. I managed to stop the subsequent sobs though, after all, this wasn't about me. I wasn't the one who'd been bombarded with the news that somehow, I had on me the solution to this mind control problem.

   It finally made sense why he hadn't been affected by the Virtuo glasses at the Virtual. Like me with Talise's weird chip, the tattoo that hurt him ended up being the same thing that saved him. Unlike me though, this tattoo was going to be the death of him.

   Shrugging out of Landon and Cami's holds and ignoring their shock, I ran toward Dorian, gathering every inch of him that my arms were capable of the second we were close into the most intimate hug I'd ever given anyone. He clung back in earnest, so much so that I could feel the fast pace of his heart resonating within me while the other blazing parts of his body continued to tremble.

"Okay, what is going on?!" Camila didn't bother whispering.

   Not that I could blame her. Our sudden reaction and she and Landon's ignorance about everything should be beyond frustrating at this point.

   Fortunately, Rav assumed the responsibility of putting them out of their misery. In a low voice that sounded torn between crying and staying collected, I heard him tell Landon and Camila about Dorian's tattoo and its connection to the drawing on the paper. The part about the institution was absent for what thought were though unknown, deliberate reasons on his part.

"Beth?" Dorian's whisper tickled the crook of my neck.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm so scared."

   Rather than sigh and make us both feel worse by agreeing, I made sure his ear was closed as I stroked his hair, muttering, "It'll be okay. It'll be okay."

   Those words didn't seem to get old despite the countless number of times I kept repeating it. I'm not sure how many seconds or minutes passed, but it was nice to eventually find Dorian less tense in my arms. Even though he still trembled from time to time, his heart rate had dropped to a normal pace and his breathing was considerably slower.

   Our focus on each broke as we turned to find out the owner of the third pair of hands rested on our shoulders.

"She's right," Rav said to Dorian, while squeezing our shoulders. "It'll be okay. We'll protect you."

   Dorian nodded in response, his twitching into a smile as he stared at his brother.

   More hands infiltrated our little world. Landon and Cami's hands to be exact.

"We're going to figure this out," Cami murmured with firm conviction. "And Mr. Speck is not going to know until it's too late."

"Yeah." Landon used his free hand to crumple the paper I'd dropped. "What message?"

   I wasn't sure who initiated it, but the next minute we were basking in the pleasant warmth that accompanied every group hug with the best people anyone could ever ask for. I closed my eyes, certain that this treasured moment would leave an indelible imprint on my memory.

   Everyone was grinning when we let go.

   Sure, we were still stuck in this prison lab and had mind-blowing news that would be catastrophic in the wrong hands, but as long as we had each other, a thousand Mr. Specks could not come near Dorian Mathers.

   At that speak of the devil thought, Mr. Speck's voice slithered into the room for the first time since our discovery, "Do you know why despite my prior knowledge that you were going to come here, I didn't put any cameras in this lab?"

"Because you were too busy coining so many ways to fuck with our minds?" Rav asked in a sarcastic tone I didn't know I missed. "Great job on that so far, by the way."

"Charming as always, Aarav." Our principal sounded a bit taken aback that he'd gotten an answer to that rhetorical question, but that lasted for a fleeting moment. The next words that came out his mouth sounded so unfazed that it was almost easy to miss. "But wrong answer. It's because I already have the eyes and ears I need. Always have."

   Almost.

   My heart leaped as what he said pierced through me.

   A faint yet sharp click that barely resonated within the room sent my eyes on a frantic sweep of the lab. That proved fruitless. I was starting to question the sanity of my head for the millionth time today when the click sounded once again, this time, undoubtedly audible.

   And close.

   Too close.

   All I had to do was tilt my head downward to see a shiny metal object in a familiar pair of hands. Before my mind could decide what to make of that, however, a sinister coldness rushed to replace the spot beside me as Dorian was suddenly pushed away from the group with a forcefulness that sent him slamming against the nearest wall.

   By those same hands.

   Their owner beat the rest of us to the chase. Lifting Dorian onto his weakened feet, they put Dorian's hands behind him and placed on his wrists a metal strip that imprisoned them upon contact.

   With the multitude of shocks that had come our way today, one would think I would not be shaken.

   The tightness in my chest, however, was making it impossible to take in the next set of breaths. As what just happened became more obvious and understandable, my sight was a step away from blindness due to the layers of unshed tears that kept threatening to fall.

   But not even my lack of vision could make me unsee the person behind it all. The person who had just been a comforting warmth in the hug we all shared. The person who was supposed to be one of us...

   ...but clearly Mr. Speck's eyes and ears all along.

A/N: Any guesses as to whom the traitor is?

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