I almost back away when I reach Tala's door. It's only the way Aril ended her note that forces me to knock.

I know exactly what will happen if I don't obey her.

I hear voices behind the door then it opens to reveal a bright eyed girl wearing a black singlet and tights.

She looks older than me, but not by much. Seventeen, maybe eighteen. She frowns when she sees me outside, but it isn't a frown of disgust, more a frown of disappointment. The look in her eyes makes me feel weird, so I look behind her into her room.

"Is Tala there?" I ask. It isn't the girl who answers my question though. At that moment, Tala herself appears behind the girl.

"Maedana? What are you doing here?" She asks, and I'm a little hurt by the tone of her voice.

I bite the inside of my lip. "I, kind of, uh..." She stares at me expectantly. "I've been thinking about what you said. About the CD. A few days ago. And I... I came to a decision." I pick my words carefully. "I want to be on the right side of this war."

She studies me for a moment, then nods. "I knew you'd come around to it."

To my relief, she doesn't show any signs of suspicion. She looks out into the hallway, frowns, and looks at the girl who opened the door.

"I'm going to go down with Maedana now. If Tyran comes, tell him he knows where to go." She says and the girl nods.

"Alright. See you later." She says with a sweet tone.

Tala smiles softly then heads out the door and closes it. We start walking down the hall and Tala loses her smile. "Oh gosh, I can't stand that girl sometimes."

I raise and eyebrow curiously, momentarily forgetting about Aril. "Why? She seemed really nice."

She nods. "She is really nice. Like, insanely nice."

I give her a side look to see she seems irritated. "So what's your problem?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. She just gets really.... Annoying sometimes."

I cock my head. "Annoying? How?"

Tala frowns a bit, trying to figure out how to answer. "She... I don't know.. She makes me feel guilty, and she's really... Sensitive." She looks at me for a moment to see that I am looking at her, then looks away. "She's very touchy, but at the same time, a bit submissive. She doesn't really speak her mind that much, or say when you're doing something bad. So yeah, she's really nice, but sometimes, I can't stand her."

We reach the stairs that lead up and down from the dormitories and Tala stops for a moment and runs to look at me. "She's a bit like the opposite of you, I guess. She's submissive, you're headstrong and won't take no for an answer. You always let people know when they're doing something you don't like, and although on some subjects you are a bit sensitive, you pretty much shield your emotions from everyone. Also, you aren't that nice at all."

I nod and we start walking again. A lot of people would be hurt if someone said that they weren't nice at all, but she is pretty much right. I'm never genuinely nice to someone. I always have reasons behind any kindness. I smile softly and Tala frowns.

"Why are you smiling?" She asks.

I grin. "Nothing, I'm just thinking about what you said. About me shielding my emotions. It reminds me of something Tyran said to me earlier. That I'm like a robot."

She gives me a confused look. "And why is that with a smile-worthy piece of information?"

I shrug, still smiling. "I don't know. I just find ironic."

She shakes her head and smiles. "That's not ironic, it just means that you need to be less of a robot."

I grin. "I'll remember that."

The bottom level of the black block is abuzz with life. People sit in the black chairs littering the ground and talk and gossip. I see a lot of the men and women that usually hang around the black bar as well as a couple of the jocks that Reese and Tyran hang around, but the two of them are nowhere to be seen.

"Come on, let's go." Tala says and we head away, out the doors. It is dark without the bright lights from inside the black block but it's strangely calming. Unfortunately, the darkness reminds me of where I'm going, and why I'm doing it.

We walk in silence for a while, then reach the man hole that leads down to the CD. The complex is riddled with them, but most lead down to the sewers below so that blacks can patrol. There are only a few that have been made by the CD to get down there. They look the same, and if you open it, it just seems to lead to darkness like all the rest, except these go deeper and don't lead to the sewer tunnels, they lead to the entrances of the CD.

Tala slides open the manhole and I peek down into the dark. "You go first." She says and I nod silently, taking a deep breath. I slip into the manhole and start climbing down. Tala climbs in above me and closes the man hole. The darkness overcomes us and the air suddenly seems thicker, although it's probably my imagination.

I focus on climbing, feeling each rung under my fingers. I listen to the sounds of Tala's feet above mine and the occasional sound of moving water as we pass pipes.

At one point, I lose my concentration and slip on one of the rungs and almost fall. I manage to regain my footing though, and I keep climbing as though nothing happenned, except a little more careful. Finally, to my relief, I reach the bottom and pull myself away from the ladder.

Tala jumps down a few moments later, and I hear a hissing sound. I see a gas like substance fill the small area and a funny smell fills my nose. It's like a mixture of burnt rubber and rotting fruit. In other words, it really isn't pleasant.

I gag. "Is it always this bad?" I ask Tala, who frowns.

"I guess. You just get used to it after a while." She says and shrugs.

Seemingly a lot quicker than the last time, the door is opened. This time there are just two people behind the door, instead of the full team.

One runs to Tala and wraps her arms around her neck in an embrace.

"Woah, hey Therei." Tala says and Therei pulls away from her. I realise it is the girl I had previously met when she tackled me a few months ago, when I was still training Tyran.

"Hey." She says bubbly to Tala, and then glances at me. "So you got the F down here." She says, still addressing Tala.

Tala nods. "Yeah. She finally decided to stop moping and do something."

I feel a bit like a third wheel of the situation as Therei whispers something to Tala that causes them both to start laughing like loons. I look away to see the other person that came to the door is smiling while looking at the pair of them.

She is tall, with a really pretty smile. She looks maybe in her thirties, or early forties, with dark hair, falling down to her shoulders. She wears white, but on her wrists are black, white and grey bands. She sees me looking at her and gestures to the two, who are still laughing and whispering things to each other. She smiles and mouths something like, 'they're cute'

I look back at them and grin. It's probably the first time I've really seen Tala smile and laugh. A full smile, and a real life. It's kind of beautiful. Unfortunately, at that very moment, Therei sees us staring and loses the smile. With a little bit of an annoyed look, she grabs Tala's arm and pulls her through the door past the woman. The woman watches them walk up the hallway a bit, then turns and beckons for me to go with her. I nod and start walking beside her.

"So you came back to us." She says, smiling softly. "You've grown quite popular since your last visit."

"What?" I ask, frowning.

She smiles. "When you shot at the dome, everyone noticed you. Got you back in our radar. You earned a fair few admirers in doing that."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I might have, but it also caused Aril to kill Calix.

She shakes her head. "Don't beat yourself up about that. Aril had her reasons to kill Calix, and it wasn't your fault."

I frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She sighs. "Nothing. Just that you shouldn't beat yourself up over it."

I want to press further, but from the look on her face I can tell she doesn't feel like talking about it. Another burst of laughing erupts from the two in front of us.

The woman smiles and watches them. I watch too as Therei says something and Tala grins and playfully pushes her away.

"What's the deal with those two?" I ask and the woman smiles.

"They both joined the CD around the same time. When they first joined, they hated each other, but after a while they became friends. Then best friends. Both of them see the best in the other. They became aces together, and generally are always arm in arm. Before, when Tala was in the nursery, they were planning to get the same apprenticeship, dormitory and everything. They were going to go through life hand in hand. But things didn't turn out the way they thought. When Tala rejected the devotion, Therei wanted to become a black too. But everyone, including Tala, knew that would never happen. So Tala told her not to. To keep living her life, do the apprenticeship, and they could see each other in the nights." She looks sad as she tells me this.

"You seem to know a lot about their story." I say.

She nods. "Everyone does. Some think they're just really good friends, but most think their relationship runs deeper than that. We know nothing has happened between them, and that it might never and don't like each other like that but it doesn't stop us from hoping."

I frown. "But... this is the CD. Pretty much the most serious place in the complex. You're supposed to be defying the complex not..."

She buts in. "Setting up romances? Yeah, I know, but that doesn't stop us. Besides, in my opinion, this is defying the complex. It is a strong friendship, if not romance, between an independent and an unstable. If that doesn't defy the complex, I don't know what does."

I look at the two of them and smile. I understand what she means and I can't help but admit they look cute together.

"Where are we going?" I ask her, realising that I don't actually know what was going on.

"To see a man you might remember from your nursery years. Also a man you don't want to get on the bad side of." She says, and Tala and Therei stop in front of us.

I frown as we reach a door with the words 'CD Head' on it in black print. Tala presses a small panel beside it and the door opens with a hiss, the eery silence suddenly replaced by the sound of people talking quietly, phones ringing and just a general buzz. We walk in to find an office, with people milling around and chatting, people looking at computer screens and files and people with blank faces, not really doing anything.

We follow Tala and Therei as they weave through the office, to an important-looking door at the end of the room.

There are no letters on it, yet it somehow seems intimidating. I look around the office and then back at the door and wonder who is inside.

Tala reaches up a hand and presses a panel beside the door, similar to the one she pressed to get into the office. This time though, the door doesn't open straight away and we wait awkwardly beside it for a while.

Finally, with a click, it opens to reveal a small room containing a rack of shelving cupboards, a couple of chairs and a desk. Behind it sits a man I recognise at once. Colonel Howell, from back in my nursery days.

"Oh, hello girls. Sorry for keeping you waiting. I had someone I needed to speak to." His face is as hard as steel and his tone is stern, as though we had done something wrong.

"Who?" I ask and he looks at me, for the first time realising I was there. I expect him to say something like, 'welcome back' or something else, but instead he just raises an eyebrow.

"I see you're still asking too many questions, F." He says in an annoyed voice.

I frown at him. He shakes his head and sighs "Fine. If you want answers here they are."

He stands up and looks at all of us. I notice the woman has left, and for a moment wonder were she went, and when she disappeared. It's then I realise I didn't actually ask what her name was. I wonder about it for a brief second then shake it off and focus my attention to Howell.

He looks at each of us in turn, first Tala, then Therei and his gaze lingers on me before his looks his desk again.

"I would like to ask you girls a question. Have you ever heard the term Civil War?" He asks, looking back at us.

Tala and Therei exchange a glance but shake their heads. I remain silent, not wanting to admit I have never heard it in my life.

He shakes his head. "Didn't think so." He mutters, then clears his throat and speaks louder. "A civil war is a term for a war inside a country. A war with itself."

He checks we are following and continues.

"I shouldn't be telling you this but I was just speaking to Aril Trey over video. She was, to put it bluntly, trying to compromise."

"Compromise?" Therei says with a confused voice.

He nods. "Trying to stop the rebellion."

Tala frowns. "What happenned?"

Howell is silent for a moment, looks at each of us, his face hard. "Girls, I must inform you now."

I look at his lips as he says his next words, unable to comprehend what he means.

"The complex is in a civil war."

We are all silent for a moment, taking in what he said. I am just about to say something when someone bursts into the room. It's the woman that talked to me before. She looks at me sympathetically for a split second then to Howell who looks at her attentively.

"What is it?" He asks in a gruff tone.

She shakes her head. "We've picked up footage of the cemetery girl by the tomb entrance. She doesn't seem too much of a threat but... I think you should see this sir." She says, and glances at me again. She's making me uneasy. The cemetery girl? Was this some kind of ghost story?

I follow her, behind Howell, and Tala and Therei behind me. We walk to one of the office areas surrounded with people muttering. As we approach it, the crowd parts to let Howell through and we slip in behind him and discover everyone is crowded around a screen displaying a dark scene, with a figure looking at the camera anxiously. I recognise them immediately.

"Reese." I whisper.

She stares out of the screen, looking straight into the camera. Her face is full of fear and sadness and it takes me a moment to realise she is speaking.

"What's she saying?" Howell asks. "Turn it up. Rewind it." he commands.

Someone punches something into a keyboard and suddenly there is sound. It's mostly white noise, but you can distinctly hear sobbing. Reese is looking at the camera but not speaking.

Then she opens her mouth. Her voice is full of fear, and her tone is so sad I can tell that something went wrong with her and Tyran.

"Okay... So I know someone down there is going to watch this. Or someone's watching this right now. Whoever is watching this I want you to find someone. You'll know her as the F. I want-" she stutters as people in the crowd glance at me. I try to ignore them and watch Reese. She takes a deep breath and continues. "I want her to keep reading. It will give her the answers she should have. I also want her to know..." Her voice cracks and she lets out a sob. What happened with Tyran? Why was she telling all this stuff to a CD camera instead of my face?

Through sobs, she continues. "I want her to know it isn't her fault. And I want her to keep going. Get through it." Her voice is so full of pain I almost don't catch her words. But suddenly I realise exactly why she wasn't saying this to my face. I realise why she is telling me to get through it. But I can't believe her words. I need to move, and go up there and catch her. Tell her it will be okay. But my feet can't move. None of me can move. I stand frozen in horror as she takes a deep breath and moves her hand to her belt.

"Make sure that she knows I'm sorry."

Her eyes are so morbid as she steps away from the camera. You just see a flash of the gun in her hand as she raises it towards her head before she is out of the veiw of the camera. That is when I spring into action. I sprint towards the door, praying that I can miraculously get there in time. Hoping that I can save her.

But I haven't even gotten halfway there when the sound of the gunshot tears me apart. It shakes me, and I fall. I hit the floor and fear fills my body. I know I'm not injured but it feels as though I'm the one who has been shot.

Shock fills my head. Fear fills me stomach. Sadness fills my heart.

Just one bullet can do so much.