So, true story, I was actually going to post this chapter exactly on time yesterday but, for those of you who don't know, 's Doc Manager is being super annoying right now so I was just able to post it.

Also: I've purposefully made some parts of the story confusing but this chapter should clear things up, hopefully. If you are still confused then leave me a question in the reviews. If you need a refresher on either Drake and his mom or Diana's brother reread Chapters 9 and 10 respectively.

The summer sun rose rather drearily over Coates Academy the following morning. Summer was drawing to an end ad soon school would be back in session. For now, however, the Academy had a hollow, sort of haunted feel about it. The grounds were eerily silent, partially because most of the students still on campus were all congregating in the school's rec room.

Caine sat at the front of the room in a chair, looking rather like a teacher overseeing an unruly class. He ran a hand through his hair, surveying the group of students before him. These would be the ones that would make up his 'freak army' as Drake referred to it. All, under his supervision and careful coaching, had become exceedingly powerful in the past months.

There was Dekka, who could now remove gravity from an area powerfully enough to lift two or three other teens up in the air. Brianna, who could run three miles so fast that they were constantly nicking shoes from the gym because she would tear up one pair per run. Penny, who had gotten her hallucinations to the point that no one would let her practice on them unless they wanted to have nightmares for the next month. Taylor had been looking exceptionally promising lately; she was able to sneak around where ever she wanted around the school because of her teleportation power.

There were, of course, many other students at this particular gathering. All had powers of one kind or another, all except Jack, who carefully recorded any progress made by the teens in his PDA.

It was here in these instances when Caine missed Diana solely for her power. It would have ten times easier to see each freaks progress if they had a surefire way of measuring strength, like Diana had. Caine would admit it to no one, but he was secretly worried that another four bar would emerge. Absently he lifted a chair from across the room with his power. He already knew he could to it, but the oohs and ahhs his power brought with it pleased him. Reassured him, almost, that he was still very much in charge. Diana or no Diana.

He watched as Andrew sent out his shockwaves and nodded a bit in satisfaction. Yes, these powers would be just what he needed. Scanning the room, he saw Drake enter with a bitter look on his face (the one he always wore when Caine and the others were practicing their powers). Caine motioned the boy over to him.

"I need to talk to you," he said.

Drake's eyes tightened. "You're planning something, I can tell."

"I want to do something big. Something really big."

"Stupidly big?"

Caine raised an eyebrow. "Do I look stupid to you, Drake?"

The other boy crossed his arms. "You don't have to be stupid to make stupid decisions. I think we both know that."

"Look, hear me out and then if you think my plan is stupid you can judge me then."

"Okay. It'll be my pleasure." Drake tapped his foot, sending an obvious 'I'm waiting' expression that painfully reminded Caine of Diana.

"Alright, so tell me how this sounds." Caine got up from the desk to stand opposite Drake. "You and me ruling the school."

Drake snorted. "Don't we kind of already do that?"

Caine smiled. "Ahh, but see, we only of 'kind of' rule. I'm suggesting we get rid of the grownups. Won't that make things ten times more interesting?"

Drake shifted around, but Caine could tell by the look in his eyes that he was interested. "Okay, I'm listening. What are you planning?"

"What am I planning, indeed." Caine paused for dramatic effect. "Let me paint you a picture: Me, ruling over the school with absolute control. You as my right-hand man. We have an army of these mutants with powers on our side so no one can oppose us."

"And the grownups? What about them?"

"Yes, the matter of authority." Caine winked. "Here's what I suggest: high power Benadryll, the most powerful you can get. I seem to remember you having a flair for spiking drinks?" He waited until Drake nodded before continuing. "Good. Then we'll wait until the back to school staff party and load whatever drinks we can find with the stuff."

"What if not everyone drinks at the party?" Drake asked. "What if some drink more than other? Then we've got some teachers passed out for hours and some only drowsy. Your plan is flawed, Caine."

"That's why I've got you," Caine told him. "What do you suggest instead?"

Drake contemplated for a moment before saying, "We could make…brownies and spike them with the stuff. Then we go around selling them, saying that we're selling them for Diana cos her brother died."

Caine laughed aloud. "That's genius! And we can ask them to eat them right then and there so they can tell us whether they're good or not!"

His mind immediately started whirring with possible things they could say, everything they would have to do to convince the teachers to eat the brownies. This was landing back in Caine's field of expertise.

"So what are we doing once they're drugged?" Drake asked, obviously itching to know whether or not he would get to hurt anyone in the process.

Caine felt a smile come to his face. "Once they're good and knocked out, we're going to stick their hands and feet in plaster and lock them in a classroom."

Drake nodded appreciatively. "I like it so far."

"We also get one kid to eat the brownies. Someone useless like Paint or Benno. We plaster them too. Next, you and I rule the school."

Drake squinted and Caine could tell he was trying to catch onto his plan. "So, we're going to do what with the kid?"

"We're going to blame him. We're going to hold the teachers hostage and then we'll tell everyone that the kid plastered all the teachers so we're taking charge. Then we'll rule the school and no one will know that two teenagers are running Coates Academy."

Drake smiled. "So everyone thinks we're the saving angels when really we're the devils ruling the school with no grownups."

"Precisely."

The boys regarded each other; no particularly liking each other but united on their common goal to cause chaos.

0000000000

Drake had been chucking knives at the wall for the past hour and it was doing wonders to clear his mind.

Caine would probably kill him if he knew what he was currently doing. He would say that Drake was being rash and was most likely disrupting their future plans for cementing the faculty, but Drake didn't care. Throwing knives was a perfect release for emotions he had found.

He had gotten the knives from the kitchen. It was slightly disconcerting how easy it was to get a hold of knives in a school full of juvenile delinquents. He had taken them to an empty classroom, which would only be empty for one day more seeing as classes were starting the next morning. For now, however, the knives were a nice reprieve. The large blades were sticking quite nicely to the green chalkboards.

Thwack!

He had gotten it to a nice rhythm now, to where he could watch the blade sink into the wall while picking up his next knife of choice. Every few minutes he would run out of knives and have to go collect them from the wall.

Thwack!

It was nice, because for the first time in months, Drake could think. He could think without Caine chattering in his ear every five seconds about one thing or another. He could think without doctors or psychiatrists asking if he was alright. That was one question was most definitely tired of answering. No. He was not alright. He was a fourteen year old who had tortured several people, had spent three or fours nights in jail, had a tumor eating his brain like his mom, and went to a sort of juvie. But yes, he was just peachy. Thanks for asking.

There was a sound from somewhere else in the room and Drake's next knife missed its target and, bouncing off the wall, it clattered the floor. Drake, shaken from his thoughts, got up to get the knife with baited breath. He wasn't scared of being caught, necessarily, but at the same time he didn't want to put an end to his throwing session, which was sure to happen if the administration found him.

Instead, to his surprise, he found, "Diana?"

"Well don't sound too surprised, I live here practically, you know."

"S'not why I'm surprised. I know your parents don't want to see your face around their house again, I just didn't think you'd be able to tear yourself away from your brothers grave long enough to come back to Coates."

Something flashed in Diana's eyes, but she didn't flinch as Drake had hoped.

Diana Ladris looked awful. And Drake wasn't just saying that because he hated the girl. Where she used to be curvy she was now just skinny, her clothes hung off her body limply. Dark eyes, which had at one time glimmered almost constantly with mischievous energy, now looked dull and vacant. Her hair, which Caine had always been obsessed with, laid rather lack lusterly around her shoulders.

"I'm over it," she said evenly. "That's why I'm back."

Drake raised an eyebrow before chucking another knife at the wall. "I didn't know it was as easy as just saying it out loud."

Diana came up beside him, taking a knife out of his stack and chucking it against the wall with surprising ease. "I'm not just saying it. I'm over it. That's the truth."

"Okay." Drake put down the knife and turned to look her in the eyes. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to make Diana squirm. "Prove it."

She threw another knife before turning to face him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Why'd you do it?" Drake asked immediately, hoping to get a rise out of her.

To his dismay, Diana looked as though he had merely commented on the weather. "Try to kill myself, you mean? That's cos I'm messed up Drake, same as you."

"I don't doubt that," Drake answered. "But then, after that, why did you sit by a grave for practically two months?"

Again, it seemed as though the question didn't faze her a bit. "My brother was the one person I had left in this world that cared about me. We didn't speak for years because of some of the awful things I started to do as I got older. But, especially, when I was younger, he would always look out for me. He was the good child, anyways, so we went our separate ways; him off to his ivy league, Harvard and me to pretty much juvie, Coates. I guess. I guess I went crazy when he died because he was all I had left. Even though we hadn't talked in forever, he was the one good person I had. He was my hope that maybe, even though I had crap jobs for parents, I could make it out of here and go to college…have a life. It kinda sucks to wake up one day and realize that your hope has been taken from you." She shifted her weight and said, still deadpan, "We never said goodbye."

There was a long silence then. The sound of the two teen breathing was all that filled the air.

"I'm dying, you know," Drake finally said.

Diana didn't say anything, but she didn't leave either, so Drake continued, "I've got a tumor, see, growing in my brain. Same way my mom went. I watched it happen. You can cut off your leg or your arm if it's broken, but they can't really do that with your head.

"Said I have two years left, three at most. That's why I collapsed in the shed. They took me to the hospital and figured it out.

"Been doing chemo for the two months you've been in and out. Gonna lose my hair soon."

Something entered Diana's eyes then, and while Drake was sure it wasn't compassion, it reminded him faintly of his mother.

"She would've hated to see me like this. My mom," he said. "She was the only one who could take me out of my sadistic trances."

There was another silence.

"Diana?"

"Yeah."

"You know I hate you, right?"

"Yeah."

"I want you to stay far away from me after today. My mom; she wanted me to change, to overcome whatever is screwed up in my brain. I thought I could do that, and then this happened. The fact I'm going to die, it's been eating away at me for the past few months. I'm going to snap, Ladris. After this I know there will be no going back.

"I'm going to be a sadist, not just a kid who had sadistic thoughts. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay far away from me."

She pursed her lips and studied him for a long time. "So this is it? We come and spill our guts and then go back to hating each other?"

"Ladris, if you cross me again, I might spill your guts more literally."

She gave him one more long look before turning on her heel and walking away. "Bye, Drake."

"Bye, Diana."

He could only hope his mother would have been proud.

So, hopefully this kind of describes why Drake is so completely unhinged in Gone. He was going to try and fight his sadism but once he got diagnosed with cancer he completely lost it. It also kind of explains his hatred for Diana, because, really, they both are in similar positions of despair, but she gets to live, which he despises.

I hope this also explains why Diana did some of the things she did (and explains that she didn't die, which some people thought).

Thanks for reading!