Life, Amanda Potter knew at her very core, was all about balance.

The first eleven years of her life had been spent in terror and pain, and in having nothing but doing everything: cleaning, cooking, and just generally servicing the various needs of her aunt and uncle.

But then, around her eleventh birthday, things had changed.

Strange letters had started arriving, and their arrival had made things at number four, Privet Drive, particularly when it came to her "relationship" with her uncle, so much worse. Worse than she ever could have imagined things could get for herself. That was when the thoughts had started to bubble up in her mind. Thoughts of running, of hiding, of taking a chance outside of number four and living on the streets, or in some orphanage despite all that her aunt and uncle had told her about how lucky she was to have been taken in by them, and how grateful she should have been for it.

And Amanda would have taken those chances, would have acted on those thoughts the moment she started having them, had it not been for the fact that it hadn't just been HERSELF at the time. She'd been pregnant, and just weeks away from giving birth. She'd needed that CERTAINTY in life at number four, no matter how horrible it was, for her baby's sake. What little food she got, what water she stole from the sink or shower in the bathroom, she had needed in order to keep her child alive, growing, and as healthy as it could be under the circumstances.

But after...after her baby had been born - a girl, who Amanda had given the name "Rue" - and after Rue had anonymously been left outside an orphanage for girls by her aunt and uncle (a fact that Amanda had learned only because her aunt and uncle had used it to mentally and emotionally torture her), Amanda had had nothing keeping her from making a decision that would change her life forever (and, she had hoped at the time, potentially save it): she killed her aunt and uncle. Slipped into their room at night after a stop by the kitchen to pick up a cleaver, slit her aunt's throat, and then threw all her weight onto the blade to make sure it went right through her uncle's fat heart.

She'd gone a little overboard, then. Not with horror. With joy. With relief, and with the freedom she had secured for herself. She had taken some time to repeatedly stab her uncle's corpse, counting each one until she finally just LOST count, and her arms had tired, and her hands had gone numb, and only then had she stopped.

Then Amanda had found a return to reason and thought, and she had given a great deal of it to her cousin, Dudley. She had seriously considered killing him, too. In just finishing what she had started that night. But, in the end, she had decided against it. Had decided to let the boy live. He had never done anything to hurt her, despite being a Dursley. He had tended to keep away from her, to go quiet whenever they WERE in the same room, and he never really looked at her. When they had made eye contact...

Sometimes she thought he had known that what was happening to her was bad and wrong. Sometimes she even thought he had even been trying to help her, to be nice to her as best he could. How else could she explain the times Dudley had proclaimed himself full of an ice cream and tossed the half-eaten thing to her?

Maybe that had been wishful thinking on her part. Maybe it still was, because she still thought about him, about those times, even now, even all these years later. Even now, Amanda still wondered whether or not she should be glad she hadn't killed him. That was a rare emotion for her, a rare circumstance, at any rate.

All she had was the hope that, somehow, it had served the balance to let her cousin live. Perhaps he was out there in the world serving the balance himself. Working as a surgeon to repair the damages done to people by others who sought to cause pain and chaos without any regard for the balance.

But if that hope wasn't valid, if Amanda's letting Dudley live had only caused more imbalance in the universe...well, then there would at least be some small balance in all these years Dudley must have spent in agony over the deaths of his parents. Perhaps his suffering was even EQUAL to Amanda's! There would be definite and substantial balance in that.

In any event, the first eleven years of Amanda's life were long over; the life of a slave, a nothing, a doll to be played with, a puppet whose strings were all held by people who really shouldn't have been holding them.

It was over, and it had all balanced out, as was Amanda's belief in the way of the universe, for the NEXT eleven years of her life (past - her twenty-second birthday was coming up in a few days) had been spent in a soft bed, with access to amazing foods in large quantities, books and a television of her very own.

That was balance.

But there was still another balance, a larger balance, that Amanda needed to satisfy - and had not been able to while living in the place she was now; a place where the people who took care of it, and her, wouldn't let her leave.

She'd tried, many times, to do just that over the years, but to no avail.

This balance Amanda was so increasingly desperate to attend to was the one her uncle had started. He had repeatedly raped her, but the balance had come into play and had given her a daughter for her troubles. And now Amanda had to find Rue, had to see her, hold her, raise her. As long as Amanda WASN'T DOING THAT, the balance was tipped much, much too far to one side. So far that it was dangerous, hazardous...agonizing.

Amanda was in agony for every second she wasn't doing what the balance demanded of her, and in even more agony that only mothers could feel.

It was double the pain for her, and it was all because things were out of balance. Triple the pain, really, when she thought - and she tried so hard not to - of Rue, of wherever she was now, and whatever she must be going through without Amanda there for her. Without Amanda there to care for her and to love her.

It wasn't BALANCE, and the ones who kept trying to stop Amanda from leaving, from leaving to go and satisfy the balance, were themselves causing further imbalance, in that by preventing her from leaving, they were depriving Rue of the protection (physical, mental, emotional) and the love that she needed from Amanda, and without these things and without Amanda herself, Rue's life was in constant danger of ending, or, if not ending, existing in a state of only pain and fear, much as Amanda's first eleven years had been.

This was why Amanda took their lives whenever she could. It satisfied that balance; they in their actions risked Rue's life, so Amanda stole from them theirs.

And Amanda would continue to redress this balance until she found Rue, and became the mother to her that she was supposed to be - the mother who could keep the scales leveled more permanently.

But in the meantime, so long as these people were keeping Amanda here in this building, this HOSPITAL (as if she needed fixing), she would continue to take full advantage of everything inside it, as per the balance.

This included the window in her room that looked out onto the sunny and colorful countryside of London, which could be seen clearly in the distance. A window that, while being sufficiently small enough to not allow Amanda to escape through it, was NOT small enough to prevent a snake from coming and going as it pleased - or as Amanda commanded it.

*Come. It is safe for you now.* Amanda had her head out the window, and was looking happily down at the snake in the grass directly below the sill.

*The last time you said that, I almost lost half my tail.* the snake huffed, only reluctantly slithering up to the window.

*You ARE a tail, Sapphire.* giggled Amanda. *There's nothing ELSE to your body BUT tail.*

*Exactly! I almost lost half of ME! Have YOU ever lost half of yourself?*

*Yes.* Amanda said seriously, while Sapphire wound herself around Amanda's wrist and allowed herself to be taken over to the bed, which was all white sheets, white pillows, and white blankets. Amanda took some time to settle herself, cross-legged, on her bed before saying, with a frowning look down at Sapphire, *Where is Emerald? She was supposed to come back with you.*

*We decided on a better plan than yours.* Sapphire replied, almost flippant in her manner. *Instead of the two of us going all the way to London and then all the way back here, Emerald will stay in London - stay to keep watching your young for you - I will stay here with you, and she and I will meet every three days at a point halfway between both locations. She will pass on her news to me, and I will come back here and pass it on to you.*

Amanda considered for a moment. *Wouldn't the wait for me still be the same as if you took the whole round trip?*

*Do you want to hear about your Rue, or do you want to keep questioning my genius?* Sapphire snapped, winding herself so tight around Amanda's wrist that she cut off circulation.

*You're right. It's genius.* Amanda nodded quickly. *Tell me about her.* Sapphire relaxed, allowing blood to return to Amanda's hand.

*She lives at number seventeen, Mulberry Drive.* Sapphire began, her voice dripping with as much smugness as her fangs did venom. *It took some time to find her, even with following your suggestion about the human computer - do you know how hard, how unbelievably SLOW it is to type with your face? - but we did. And from there, the rest was easy. Stow away in her backpack to watch her at school, hide on the very top of the bookshelf to watch her in her bedroom, various cabinets for the kitchen, and under the sofa for the sitting room.*

*I should change your name to 007.* Amanda laughed. *Emerald can be 009.*

*I should be 009.* Sapphire said quickly. *Nine is better than seven.*

*But in a top ten list, seven is better than nine.* Amanda countered.

*We're not a top ten list.* Sapphire scoffed.

*But we could be.*

There was a long silence.

*Okay.* Sapphire said finally. *We're a top ten list. I'm 007, which is better than 009.*

*Okay.* agreed Amanda. She paused. Then, *What did you learn about my daughter? How is her life? How is she? What does she look like? How are her school marks?* She paused again. *What is her favorite food? Does she have friends? What is she good at?*

*Too much for comfort, seems to be good from what I saw of the school papers in her room, happy and healthy, fair skin with your green eyes (but yellow hair unlike your red), average I suppose, pizza, many that I've seen, zoology.*

Amanda smiled and cocked her head at the last answer. *Zoology?*

Sapphire gave a very human nod. *She's a gentle one, and very curious; she found me hiding once, and she treated me quite nicely. Even if she DID take me out of the house.* she added, sounding more amused than offended by the memory.

Overwhelming joy filled Amanda's heart, and with it came a wide smile and a downpour of tears. This was everything she had wanted to hear! Her daughter - HER daughter! - was LIVING. A wonderful life full of friends, happiness, and above all, purity and innocence. Rue did not know what Amanda knew, did not suffer the life that Amanda had suffered.

And it was all thanks to Amanda, and her faithful - and regular - service of the balance. It was also REASSURING for Amanda; reassuring to know that her service was not ineffective, was not going unanswered or unrewarded, because, after all, killing people was hard work.

Hard work she might have to resume in a minute's time, as she heard footsteps and voices coming down the hall towards her room (whether or not they would PASS it was another question entirely).

"...set you up with her in the visitation lounge, but we'll be doubling the guard on her compared to what we usually have when we let her out of her room. No, triple." Ah, Edward. Amanda smiled as she recognized the first speaker. He was her favorite doctor. She had always admired him, honestly, and had never felt any need or desire to kill him - not even in pursuit of the balance. That he took her so seriously like this was just one reason for Amanda's admiration of him.

Triple the guards! Amanda felt giddy at the thought, and wondered just how many she would manage to kill during this unexpected change in her daily routine before they would manage to sedate her.

"Is she really that dangerous?" said the other voice, a young man's voice, full of nervousness and even a bit of fear. "Even now, after all these years that she's been in here?"

But who WAS that other voice? That other young man speaking to Edward as they drew nearer and nearer to Amanda's room? Amanda frowned and shook her head. She didn't recognize it at all. And...she was curious. Why would someone she didn't know at all be coming to visit her, when no one - NO ONE - from the outside had ever come to visit her in all her years of staying here?

"...probably a good thing you didn't bring the wife and baby girl along with you on this, Mr. Dursley - no telling WHAT Amanda would do to them..."

Mr. Dursley? MR. Dursley? Mr. DURSLEY?

In her shock, Amanda's jaw nearly fell all the way off to land on her mattress. With her aunt and uncle long-since dead at her hands - with a certain satisfaction, she might add - there was only one possible person who this "Mr. Dursley" could be: Dudley.

At last, Amanda would learn what she had wondered for so many years now: whether or not she should have killed Dudley along with her aunt and uncle, and whether or not she should kill him now.

But Amanda was insulted, angered, at Edward's insinuation that she would EVER hurt a baby; a CHILD. No, that, Amanda would never do, not even for the balance. Because there WAS no balance in the harming of a child! That was the whole point, the whole LESSON of Amanda's existence! All her years spent under her aunt and uncle's cruel hands had created a gross imbalance, their actions being against the balance in the worst of ways!

Amanda would never lay a finger on a child, and if she ever caught anyone else at it - or even just HEARD about it - she would kill them on the spot.

That was why one Elly Emerson, who had once lived nine doors down from Amanda, had had her neck snapped and her fingers broken by Amanda two years ago in the bathroom.

It wasn't about sadism or cruelty, it was about balance; Ms. Emerson and her fingers had caused irreparable harm to a boy (her own son, from what Amanda had heard in the woman's mutterings), and so Amanda had broken each finger individually, one after the other, as surely as Ms. Emerson had put scars - both mental and physical - on her child, and then ensured that Ms. Emerson wouldn't be able to put scars on any more children in the future.

As for this wife of Dudley's...Amanda didn't see any reason why she should hurt the woman. Surely not for the balance. Dudley had not, after all, killed Amanda's wife (not that she had one - yet; because she knew she WAS going to need one in the future, after she returned to her Rue, because Rue couldn't have a truly balanced life with SOLELY Amanda, with just one parent, just one mother), and so Amanda saw no need to take from him HIS in repayment.

And until such time as Amanda DID find any reason to hurt the wife, she WOULDN'T hurt the wife, because to do so without reason, without NEED, would only upset the balance, and even cause harm to the baby as a side effect, which to Amanda would be an intolerable result.

"'Is she really that dangerous?'" Edward repeated Dudley Dursley's question, his voice very close at hand now - just outside Amanda's door, in fact. "To you, Mr. Dursley, yes, she is. Now, Perkins here is going to take you to the lounge to wait, as well as to ensure all the proper security measures are being taken, and I'll see if I can't get Amanda to come along with this."

Amanda couldn't help but snort at what she was hearing. True, she was QUITE the dangerous young lady, but whether or not she would be dangerous to DUDLEY remained to be seen, and until she had figured that out, herself, she wasn't going to mess up even a hair on his fat, blond head. After all, Amanda would NEVER risk causing imbalance, no matter how small or great.

Two quick, sharp knocks came at Amanda's door, and Edward called in to her, "Amanda? Could I come in and talk to you for a minute?"

"I want to see my cousin!" Amanda called back to him, smiling. "If I allow you in, will you allow me to see him?"

There was silence - a silence in which Sapphire took the opportunity to hiss, *I'll get to hiding.* and slither under the bed to safety - then, "If I promise to allow you to see him, will you promise not to hurt him?"

This was another reason why Amanda rather liked Edward: he knew balance. He respected it, and he understood it.

He understood that everything was about balance, about trade offs and checks and keeping scales leveled.

"Yes, I promise." Amanda said without hesitation, because she could MAKE and KEEP that promise safely, if only for now, and not betray the balance with it.

"Alright, I'm coming in." Edward replied, and not a moment later did the door open, and enter her room he did. He looked as he always did: nice clothes, his name tag pinned to his shirt denoting him as a doctor, his long, sleek black hair slicked back, his chocolate eyes (Amanda loved chocolate) showing that he was relaxed, sincere, and friendly - and sincere in his friendliness.

That was why Edward asked Amanda what he did next, after having come further into her room to seat himself beside her on the bed (though he was sure to keep a foot of space between their shoulders; he knew Amanda hated to be touched, and he knew what happened to anyone - he himself not even being an exception - who did so).

"How did you sleep last night?" he asked in soothing tones, his eyes fixed on her with only concern. "Did you have a dream again?"

Amanda smiled at Edward, paying no attention to the four men standing in her doorway other than an acknowledging, initial glance. "About the snake man, Voldemort, and the magical war for wizarding Britain? The ones that always make THIS hurt?" At "this" she raised a hand to tap the strange, lightning bolt-shaped scar on her forehead.

"Yes." Edward nodded, and returned her smile with an indulgent one of his very own. "Those dreams."

Amanda did not answer. Instead, she looked again to the men in her doorway. Edward didn't fail to miss where she was looking. "Amanda, you seem to be in a good mood today, a really COOPERATIVE mood, and I need you to keep that up if you want to talk to your cousin. No attacking anyone today, okay? No one here is going to touch you, so long as you don't try to hurt them."

"Okay." Amanda allowed, for the truth was, she had no intention of hurting any of the men here with her NOW, because she wasn't STUPID, and she knew that to attack them was to lose her chance to get to her cousin, which, according to the demands of the balance, was a chance that she absolutely could not pass up: the chance to either gain the satisfaction that came with the knowledge of a great balance born of years past, or to CORRECT a great IMBALANCE born of years past.

Either way, she really had to be there.

But AFTER - AFTER ascertaining the results of her years-ago decision, AFTER learning whether or not those results would demand that she kill her cousin Dudley - Amanda WAS going to do her best to kill or maim as many of the guards as she could, so as to maintain the balance between her own captivity and Rue's well-being.

Surely Edward understood THAT.

"No, I need to know that you understand, I need to hear you say it." Edward chided. "I need you to promise me that you won't hurt any of the staff today."

"I promise not to hurt any of the staff today." Amanda dutifully repeated. 'For now.' she added silently to herself, repressing a sigh. Apparently, Edward did NOT quite understand the balance and all that it entailed as well as she had always thought. That was fine, though. She forgave him for his lapse of understanding. This was a big day for Amanda, and a big day for the balance itself, considering she would likely be giving to it her greatest payment yet, doing it the greatest of services she had done to date.

"Good." Edward nodded, though he still looked more wary than relieved. "Now - the dream?"

"I wrote about it in my dream diary." Amanda said simply, raising a slender finger to point at the aforementioned diary, which sat beneath the lamp on her nightstand. "Like always." she added pridefully.

"And that's good." Edward replied, gazing at her warmly. "And I'm going to take it and read all about the dream later - like always - but you know that sometimes more details come back to you after a long break, after having time to think about it. Even just the act of talking about it rather than writing it down can bring back more information about it than you realized you had retained at the time."

"Details are important." Amanda said coyly, flashing a smile.

Alarm passed over Edward's face. "They are." he agreed slowly, and with more wariness than ever. He took a long moment simply to stare at Amanda. Then, "Amanda, I can tell how good a mood you're in, so could I ask you...are you in a good enough mood to play games?"

Amanda blinked in confusion. "Are you asking me if I'm playing games with you?"

"Are you?" Edward said quietly, looking suddenly very intense and serious.

"Sometimes I play games." Amanda admitted with a laugh. "As you very well know, Edward."

"I do know. What about today?" prompted Edward. "Will there be any games today?"

Amanda shook her head, causing her long, dark red hair to shimmer in the morning sunlight coming in through her window. "No games today." she said, seriously and earnestly. And truthfully; today was too important to waste playing games.

Although, when she thought of Sapphire, who at that moment was hidden under her bed (and in a perfect position to crawl up Edward's leg)...

No! Amanda thought to herself very firmly. No games. Not today. Let nothing distract or keep her from what she had to accomplish today.

"If we're done talking about games," she started coolly. "I can tell you about my dream, and then you can take me to my cousin."

Edward shifted another half a foot away from Amanda at her tone. "Right, of course." he said quickly. "Tell me."

"Voldemort told Lucius Malfoy that there was a change on the horizon." Amanda began, recalling her dream as best she could. "He said that the insurrection was finally breaking down, that the Order was finally about ready to give up and hide forever, and that he would finally be completely unopposed once that happened, and that he would be able to start making major strides towards taking the muggle world."

"And...that's all?" said Edward, after a lengthy silence.

Amanda glared. "Yes. I'm keeping my promises, now you keep yours."

"Okay, okay." Edward stood very quickly. "Let's go meet your cousin."

Edward led Amanda out into the hallway, with two of the guards in front, and the other two falling in behind her. Out in the hall, Amanda was met with the sight of four MORE guards, all of whom had tranquilizer guns at the ready.

"Flattering." she commented with a growing smile. They really weren't messing around today, she realized as, in addition, one guard stepped forward to put her in handcuffs (and tighten them so much that she felt the hard metal cutting into her wrists). Usually they waited until reaching her destination to slap her in cuffs.

What was NOT flattering was something Amanda happened to notice while looking around aimlessly and humming the theme to "Star Wars" to herself as she was being escorted through the hospital: one of her rear guards was staring at her, and in a place that, any other day, would have earned him two of her fingers shoved into his eye sockets in repayment for his perversion.

As it was, a different tactic would be needed to put an end to this treatment she had been enduring for likely the past three minutes of walking.

Amanda stopped in her tracks and turned to face Edward with such ferocious speed that her mane of blood red hair whirled out behind her and caught one of her guards in the face, fueled as she was by her fury and disgust; she ignored the bristling of tranq guns that her actions caused.

"My agreement was for my cousin," she said coldly. "not for one of your MEN who can't stop staring at my ass."

Most of the other guards all looked to the offender in shock and disbelief - that he would try and get away with looking at HER butt (HERS, of all people's!) more so than because of the fact that it was an impropriety to do so.

Edward, to Amanda's further admiration, was concerned with the indecency of the treatment alone, and he quickly - after doing some growling, some shouting, and some finger-poking in the chest - sent the offender off before taking the man's place in the formation himself.

'Well,' Amanda thought, as she resumed her course for the visitation lounge. 'that worked out nicely.' True, the punishment had not been what she would have liked it to have been, but still, a punishment HAD been rendered, and so the balance had been satisfied well and solidly by Edward, to the best of his abilities.

When they finally stopped in a wide corridor on the ground floor, and moved through a side door into the visitor's lounge, Amanda was, admittedly, very confused.

There was only a young man - tall, blue-eyed, with tufty blond hair - wearing jeans and a T-shirt with some sports logo on it, sitting around on the sofa and sipping from a glass of water.

This was wrong, this was all very wrong, Amanda thought, becoming panicked and worried now. Where was Dudley? Where was her cousin? Where was he?! The balance- it needed to be- SHE needed to be- where-

'DAMN IT ALL!' she raged, preparing to spin around towards the nearest guard and catch him with a double-fisted uppercut to the jaw PURELY to start off the process of exhausting herself of the raw, overwhelming emotions whirling around inside of her now.

Amanda felt like CRYING, this was so horrible, so- so- how could the balance have FAILED to deliver her the one she needed to be with in order to serve it? How could SHE fail, now, for the first time ever, to satisfy that which was required of her by the balance?

How could this be?

Was it simply Amanda's fault? Was it SHE who didn't understand what the balance wanted of her? But..she had never failed to understand BEFORE! Why now? Why, this time, would she NOT KNOW?

Why-

"Amanda?"

At the sound of her name, Amanda was wrenched from her storming thoughts, and she realized that, first, yes, she WAS crying hot tears, and, second, that the voice responsible for uttering her name had issued from the tall blond man (who had risen from the couch to stand before her), and THIRD, that the voice coming from the tall blond man was the same voice she had heard from the hallway earlier while she had been in her room, all of which meant...

"Dudley?" Amanda choked, looking him up and down as disbelief- no, as downright SHOCK coursed through her slender and curvaceous body. "What HAPPENED to you? You lost 200 pounds! Where- where- where's the rest of you?"

Dudley mirrored her in sweeping his gaze up and down her very changed - and very adult - form, though he, unlike her, seemed to be QUITE fearful and anxious as he did so.

As the two sized each other up, Amanda's not-so-honor guard ringed the perimeter of the lounge, and took up other various positions that would enable them to quickly intervene should things turn ugly between the cousins.

"I grew up. Got over myself, went to college - I just graduated a couple of weeks back, in fact - and got married. What happened to you?" Dudley finally responded, in a timid voice.

"I killed Vernon and Petunia." Amanda answered, after having recovered, as well. She threw herself back into a plush armchair, reclining in it sideways, with her legs dangling over one of the arms, and her back propped against the other arm.

Dudley flinched violently at her mention of the night she had saved herself from a life of torture and abuse, and he made a big show of sitting himself back down on the sofa before reestablishing eye contact with her.

"Why are you here?" Amanda questioned. 'Will I have to kill you, or not?'

Dudley did not immediately respond. He took several deep breaths, looked down at his hands, looked everywhere BUT at Amanda, then, at last, he looked at her once more and said, in a near whisper: "I knew."

Amanda's heart skipped a beat. "What did you know?" she asked, though knowing perfectly well WHAT her cousin was telling her he knew. She wanted to hear him say it, and say it to her face.

"I knew what...what mom and...dad...did to you." Dudley said, pausing and gasping with each word, like it was a struggle to get them out. "All those years...I mean...I...You...You know that my room shared a wall with yours." he finished in a rush, and all in one breath.

"It did." Amanda acknowledged softly, swinging her legs around to sit properly in the armchair - and, even more, to lean forward in it, her handcuffed hands clenched into fists in her lap (every guard in the room visibly tensed at the sight). "So you're telling me...that for eleven years...every single night...you listened to your father raping me...and you did nothing...and told no one; not me, not a neighbor, not a teacher, and not the police. But. Especially. Not. Me." she spat - literally - those last four words. "I could have used the comfort, I could have used the knowledge that someone else knew. I could have talked to you, you could have made yourself useful and given me a hug sometime, or even stood up for me. You could have protected me!"

Dudley had been shaking his head all throughout her speech, looking terrified and ashamed, but now he burst out with, "Amanda, what could I have even done?! I was just a kid-"

"I was just a kid!" Amanda shrieked, launching herself out of her chair and across the room. On reaching Dudley, she pinned him to the sofa with a bare foot on his chest, and bent low over him so as to grab his blond hair in her handcuffed hands and yank his head back so they were nose to nose. "I was just a kid; ME, ME, ME! I was just a kid when your MOTHER beat me over the head with a frying pan! When your FATHER put his hands on my throat and shoved his-" Her words were drowned out by the sounds of firing weapons and the shouting going on around her. "-in my-!" A dozen darts hitting her from all angles caused her to break off her rant, and in the next moment she was being hauled off of her cousin and forced to the floor.

"I was just a kid!" she screamed, struggling against both the guards pinning her down AND the tranquilizers doing their work. "What were YOU?! What were YOU?! I was just a kid, I was just a KID! I was just a...I was...a kid..."

Before all the world went dark for Amanda, she had time for one last thought.

That thought was: 'I'm glad I didn't kill him.'