Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, this is probably the longest I've gone between chapters. I've had exams to study for and take over the last month and while I tried to get this chapter out before then it didn't work out that way - obviously; still, this chapter turned out to be much longer than I thought it would which is a plus. Just to warn you though, I am posting this without proof reading it to get it out faster, I'll try to update it with a less error filled version later.

Twenty Second Hour – 34 Students Remaining

"Can you at least promise me that you won't attack anyone unless attacked first, at least not while I'm around?"

"…Sure"

This answer seemed to satisfy her for the moment and for a while both Trina Nichols, a.k.a. G12, and Chael Tovaras, a.k.a. B8, sat together in companionable silence. After maybe twenty minutes the lack of sound was starting to get to Chael, however just as he was about to open his mouth to say something he felt as much as heard something embed itself in the tree he was leaning against.

Fearing that they had been discovered and were now being shot at, Chael spun around to where he guessed the shooter to be. It didn't take him long to spot the person as being the one thing in the forest before him that was not either green or brown and, despite not mentioning her to Trina earlier, he was not at all surprised to see that the one playing the game and attacking them was G13, a.k.a. Madeline Scott; what did take him by surprise however was the fact that she seemed to be carrying a wooden pipe rather than a gun, something that he confirmed when he turned to face the tree next to him and saw not a neat little bullet hole, but instead a dart sticking out from the wood.

She was shooting darts at them. From a pipe. Really?

Turning back Chael could see that Trina had now spotted Madeline, who was now holding an unusual looking axe in one hand, as well and was looking worried. Good, if she was already afraid it would be easier to get her to run; he just hoped her sentimentality wouldn't make her want to stay with him.

"Trina, you need to run, I'll handle this you but you can't stay here", the simultaneously shocked, scared and annoyed look she shot him told him that it wasn't to be as simple as that however.

"You have broken ribs; I can't just leave you here"

A quick glance in the other direction showed that Madeline was only slightly closer to them now; apparently she was taking her time closing the distance for some reason. How kind of her to give him time to deal with Trina first. "Bruised, and I hardly even feel them anymore. Listen, I can deal with this easier if I don't have to worry about you getting hurt in the process. Just leave now, go to the Warehouse like we planned and I'll meet up with you again later, ok?"

"Besides, you made me promise not to hurt anyone in front of you remember?"

It was a few seconds before anything else was said, with Trina looking back and forth between him and Madeline with a concerned expression before she finally seemed to give up. "Fine, just be careful ok?"

Nodding, Chael turned around to face Madeline again as he heard Trina's footsteps retreating into the distance. He was surprised to find that while he wasn't paying attention Madeline had managed to get within ten feet of him and was currently leaning casually against a tree.

"She didn't seem to hesitate too much about leaving you all alone and you seemed pretty eager to get rid of her. You two having problems?" There was a teasing edge to her voice that was all too familiar to him that he tried not to let get to him. It didn't work very well.

"She's not a part of this; this is just between you and me"

"Ha ha, so dramatic. You sure you just didn't want your girlfriend to find out there is a 'you and me'?"

"There was", and I've regretted it ever since.

"Aww, come on now, you can't tell me we didn't have some good times"

"…We did", before you changed.

The park was cold at this time of night, the street lamp only giving enough light to barely illuminate the shivering figure sat on the bench further down the footpath. Madeline Scott pulled the duffel bag which now contained all of her worldly possessions tighter against her body to gain some semblance of warmth as well as to try and ease the sense of uneasiness she had.

What was she even doing out here; alone, at night, in a strange part of town with nothing but a few changes of clothes, some personal items and whatever money she had managed to save up over the years. All because of one more fight with her father. When she thought back she couldn't even remember why she had been saving up so much money, always saying that the moderately sized pile of money was 'for something special'; it was almost like she new she would be doing this sometime down the line.

If that was the case though she'd have expected herself to have a plan, some idea of where to go after the whole running away from home part, and not just to run until she got tired and needed to rest and had no idea where she was and no idea where she was going. Leaving town crossed her mind a couple of times, just get on a bus or train to somewhere far away and start anew? But she didn't want to leave, not really, she just wanted to disappear for a time and not have to deal with her father again, at least not for a while.

She sat on that bench in uncomfortable silence for less than a minute before she suddenly shot up to a standing position. This was stupid, where was she going to run to? Was she just going to just leave her entire life behind? And why; because she had a fight with her father, because he got angry and yelled at her? He'd be even angrier if he found out she had run away, even more so if she ended up just returning home a few hours later. Better to just go back now before anything could happen.

"Hey. What are you doing out here?"

Like somebody finding her. There was a slight, harsh tone in the voice and she wasn't sure if she should hope that it was somebody she didn't know or somebody she did; all of a sudden various images of what could happen to a 15 year old girl alone in a park at night came to mind. Nervously, Madeline turned towards the source of the voice expecting to see some stereotypically shady character; instead what she got was the sight of a very familiar boy around her age. Chael something-or-other; not somebody see actively knew, just somebody she knew from school as always getting in trouble and somebody who Penelope – and inevitably herself – would end up picking on sometimes as being worse off than them. God she hated that girl sometimes.

Chael looked annoyed at the fact that she wasn't answering him; or maybe he just looked annoyed all the time, she could never tell with him. Either way she had already locked eyes with him and he was now walking towards her, no chance to get away now she would just have to stick it out. Maybe he wouldn't have any hard feeling towards her? I mean it was mostly Penelope anyway. Maybe he was just genuinely curious about why she was out so late?

"I said, 'why are you out so late'. Did the princess get lost on her way home?"

Ok, maybe there were some hard feelings. She turned around to look down the path away from Chael; the park was as empty as ever except for the two of them, she could probably just walk away right now, it might be rude but it wasn't like his opinion could get much worse. Of course, the nagging question of 'go where' was still on her mind; escaping the immediate situation wouldn't help her in the long run and by now Chael had taken a seat on the bench she had just vacated and was examining her with a curious expression.

"What's with the bag? Going somewhere?"

Startled by the question Madeline clutched the bag tight to her chest again, thereby giving away its importance. "No, it's nothing"

"Packed bag, nervous look, this far from home; if I didn't know any better I'd say you were running off somewhere"

Madeline cringed at the surprisingly accurate statement; she could tell that it meant to just be a joke, something ridiculous from his point of view, but it hit closer to the truth than she liked.

"… You are aren't you; you're running away from home? Why? Your families rich, you have everything you could want, why would you run away from that?" There was a hint of laughter under Chael's voice that grew stronger with each word until he was letting out little chuckles with each syllable. This reaction both shamed and infuriated her; what did he know about her life, how could he judge her if she wanted to run away from everything?

In a whisper, barely audible, Madeline couldn't help but retort. "You don't know what you're talking about"

"Don't I?" Apparently she wasn't as quiet as she thought, or Chael had good hearing. "Why don't you explain it to me then?"

"You wouldn't –"

"– Wouldn't understand? A bit cliché, don't you think? But you're right, I don't understand what could make somebody give up a life like that"

Madeline held her tongue lest she say something foolish here and give away more than she wanted to; she just knew that if he goaded her into saying something it would all come pouring out.

"I'm asking though, why would you run away? I admit I don't know much about your personal life; but I've seen the expensive clothes you wear. I've seen the luxury car pull up at school each morning, always the newest model, your family even upgrades a couple times a year. What could possibly be so bad about your life?"

That was enough for Madeline and with a surprising amount of aggression she spun around to face the bench and threw her bag next to Chael; he even looked a little surprised himself.

"Fine, you want to know about my life? I have no life, I have no freedom. Every part of my life is decided by my father. My mother left when I was still a child and since then my dad just stopped trying to be a parent, like he'd only been pretending to care as long as she was around. As soon as she was gone he started treating my like one of his employees, ordering me around, dictating every little detail of my life. He even controls what friends I have; you think I want to spend time with that bitch Penelope? I only put up with her because my father wanted to do business with her father and getting us to be friends when we were younger was a way to introduce himself"

Other than the initial shock over her reaction Chael didn't seem that impressed by her 'sob story' so far. "So you have an overly controlling father, so what"

"He's never happy with anything I do; it's never good enough for him. I get anything less than perfect on a test and I get told I should have done better. Less than an A and I can expect lectures and yelling, lots of yelling, about how I'm not studying enough, followed by being literally locked in my room until I've read through every text book I own. Sometimes it takes a couple days before I can come back out if the grade was bad enough. He never says anything if I do something perfect, but he has no problem punishing me if I do less that what he expects"

Madeline seemed to be losing steam at this point, sounding less angry with each word and sadder, becoming quieter and more incoherent until Chael had to strain to hear what she was saying. "I was off sick for a week once; I missed a few important classes and couldn't get anyone to give me the notes. I tried my best on the next test but only got a D. He actually hit me for that, hard as well; I bit clean through my tongue and needed stitches at the hospital"

Now feeling more tired than anything Madeline turned and sat down on the bench with her bag in between her and Chael. She looked down at her hands while she continued speaking, not wanting to look and see his reaction until she was finished.

"I realise it's not as bad as what some people have to go through, he's not really abusive he just has unrealistically high expectations and criticizes me when I don't meet them"

"If he's not that bad then why are you running away?"

That left Madeline fumbling for an answer, not because she didn't know but because her instinctive reaction to defend her father was at war with what she actually wanted to say. "Because, well… that's not…"

"Not what?"

"…I'm afraid of him"

Chael had had his mouth open like he was expecting an answer he could give another retort to, apparently he had been disappointed because he just closed it awkwardly after a second and continued to look thoughtfully at Madeline like he was waiting for her to continue.

"I'm afraid of what he'll do to me if I ever… fail, I guess. If he hits me for one D what will he do if I get an F, or fail a course, or drop out? I've tried to be his perfect little girl, doing everything he says and meeting all of his unrealistic goals for so long that I just can't keep it up anymore. I'm going to slip soon I just know it and I'm… terrified of what he'll do when it happens"

Madeline pulled her knees up to her chest and placed her feet on the bench, wrapping her arms around her legs both to shield herself from the cold and to hide the fact that hot tears were making their way down her face now.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments before either person on the bench made another move but it was Chael who finally broke it, standing up from the bench to stand in front of Madeline. "Do you feel better now?"

"What?" Madeline couldn't help but raise her head at that, any attempt at hiding her tears forgotten in the face of that completely unexpected question.

Chael met her gaze solidly before asking again. "Now that you got that off your chest, do you feel better?"

"… A little bit, hmph, yeah now that you mention it"

"You shouldn't run away from home, it's a big thing to do; do you even have anywhere to go? It's not going to help you in the long run, but you definitely need some time away from that situation. Just spend some time away from home for tonight, blow off some steam, then go home; after that you can decide to stick it out or run away again but this time you could plan it out a little better"

Madeline looked back up at him confused, the idea that she would need to go back home after all this pushed aside for now to focus on other things. "Blow off steam?"

"Like you just did telling me all that, you said you felt better right? You need an outlet, a way to relieve all that stress before it makes you do something reckless, like this for instance. Maybe you just need someone to talk to but personally I think you need to have some fun for once as well"

"And what exactly is your idea of fun?"

"I'll show you", Chael held out his hand to Madeline to help her up though taking it would also mean she was willing to go with him afterwards. Madeline considered it for a second but it wasn't like she had much choice anyway; she had come this far she might as well see what he had to show her before sneaking back home. She reached up to take his hand and felt his fingers close around hers before she felt a weight tugging on her arm and she felt herself being lifted from the bench.

Chael still remembered that night rather clearly since it was first time he had actually seen Madeline as an actual person, as something more than just 'that bitch who insults me from time to time'. For all his talk of showing her a good time they ended up talking about things more along with just spending time together, it was surprisingly nice.

From what Madeline told him a couple of days later she had made it home a couple of hours before her father woke up and he never suspected a thing, thankfully. The incident seemed to have helped her a lot as well, not just the chance to share her burdens but also the fact that, having gotten away scot free, she began to see her father less as the all powerful being he seemed to be in her life and more like an ordinary, fallible person. It made him just a little less scary in her eyes.

Things had developed between the two of them since them even becoming what could be described as a 'fling' at times; they met every weekend, in secret of course, and occasionally during the week as well when they could find excuses to do so. Madeline got somebody she could be herself around and Chael got another friend; it was good for them, while it lasted.

The problem was the more time Madeline spent with Chael the less fearful and excusatory of her father behaviour she became, she stopped being afraid of what her father might do to her and instead of yearning for his approval she began to get angry about what he had done to her instead.

Her feeling before gave way for anger, resentment and even hate towards him and since she couldn't act out any of these new emotions at home they began exhibiting themselves in other aspects of her life. It wasn't much fun being her friend – and inevitable recipient of her anger – after that point. Of course, breaking things off with her didn't exactly make things better.

"This isn't a very good time to be spacing out you know"

Focusing back on the here and now Chael took a closer look at the Madeline standing before him. So different to the young girl sitting on the park bench; taller, broader, more… mature, in places. She was on a higher section of ground as well which only added to the effect, but mostly it was the change in attitude which made the girl in front of him almost unrecognisable compared to his memory of that night.

"I'm serious; you don't know what kind of psychos might be lurking around here. You should try to be more aware of your surroundings"

The confidence in the way she held herself, the coy smile and the dangerous glimmer in her eyes. The bloodied axe was a nice touch as well. With a sigh Chael slid the heavy metal pipe wrench down his arm into his hand, feeling the weight of it settle fully into his palm as he tightened his grip on the handle. "We really have to do this don't we? There's no other way this can go down is there?"

"You're catching on. But be honest…" Madeline did the same with her axe, her grip slipping from up near the axe head to right down at the end, letting Chael see the full length of the weapon for the first time; seemed like she would have the reach advantage in this fight. "… did you expect it to go any other way?"

"No, I guess – woah", Chael leant aside just as Madeline jumped from her perch to close the distance between them and swung her axe diagonally down towards his skull. The blade missed his head, shoulder and then body by a smaller margin each time and he took a couple steps to the side just to get some more distance between the two of them.

Madeline twisted her wrist so that her weapon was held horizontally instead of straight out in front and swept it sideways towards the retreating Chael; he swung his own heavier weapon up to meet it, using his superior strength to deflect the strike and send it back the other way, knocking Madeline off balance. He swung the wrench up, aiming a strike at the underside of her chin only for her to pull he head back at the last second.

Madeline tried to take advantage of Chael's momentary unbalance and charged forward, swinging her tomahawk hard at his exposed side. Hopefully even if the relatively untested blade didn't do much she could still do a fair amount of damage from the impact alone. She only had a moment to be shocked as instead of being hit he simply stepped forward and clamped her arm between his own arm and his side, only a moment because that was just how long it took for him to raise his knee and slam it into her stomach.

He released her arm and she staggered back in pain, regaining her senses just in time to duck another swing at her head from the pipe wrench, this time aimed at her temple. As she did so she couldn't help but think that she shouldn't have been able to do that; if he wanted to Chael could have swung sooner and he could have swung faster, but he didn't. The other swing as well, at her jaw, that was slower than what he should have been able to do as well.

He was holding back, he didn't want to hurt her and he wasn't fighting as well as he could because of that. He was going easy on her, taking pity on her, treating her like that same little girl she was when they first met and she hated that. She had changed a lot since then, something he had witnessed – hell, something he contributed to – and she would be damned if she let him forget it.

"You're holding back. Don't insult me by thinking you can go easy on me", she rushed forward again, swinging the axe with both hands upwards from the right. Chael leant back like she had before and the blade whistled past harmlessly while Madeline almost pitched back from the momentum she put into that swing. He didn't even try to hit her even though she was wide open to an attack. "Don't hold back, I'll kill you if you do!"

"I don't want to fight you, I don't want to hurt you Maddie just–"

She charged again, swinging the axe wildly as hard as she could at any part of Chael that she could reach while he just stepped back and blocked or deflected each swing with his wrench with aggravating ease. Madeline's attack became more and more frantic with each failed attempt and she was now just hammering away at Chael with overhead strikes from both hands while he continued to back away and stop each hit with the solid bar of his wrench between two hands.

The sequence was finally broken when the uneven ground of the forest finally managed to play a part in the fight and Chael stumbled uneasily over an exposed tree root. The near fall was enough to make him lower his arms slight and allow Madeline enough access to get a hit in with the hammer side of the tomahawk. The narrow metal stub cracked down on Chael shoulder sending a searing burst of pain through the muscles around the joint and a tingling sensation all down his left arm.

The axe bounced back from the hit, allowing Madeline to easily flow into the next attack this one coming in horizontally and aimed at the hand holding the pipe wrench. The hammer side of the tomahawk cracked painfully into Chael's wrist with an audible pop coming from the joint as the hand involuntarily let go of the wrench and let it tumble to the ground; or at least it would have if Madeline hadn't managed to catch it with a light kick which sent the weapon flying away several feet.

Madeline watched as the heavy metal object sailed away before turning back to face the injured and panting Chael. "Told you not to underestimate me. Now I'm going to kill you and just for that insult I'm going to go after your girlfriend as well. I think it's only fair she get to know what kind of history we used to have before - Oof"

Stopping to gloat turned out to be a very unwise idea as the previously disabled Chael surged forward with a sudden burst of energy and tackled Madeline to the ground, ramming his uninjured shoulder into her midsection and knocked the wind out of her.

She crashed into the ground with the much heavier Chael soon following on top of her and a scramble began to secure their positions in the results grapple with Madeline ending up decidedly worse off. Madeline lay on her back with Chael looming over her and holding both of her arms down on either side of her head. His injured left wrist seemed to be twitching slightly on her arm but the hold on that arm was strong, not so much gripping her arm and just pressed it down into the ground with her arm. The right arm was not fairing as well, the grip strong but the injured shoulder failing to put any pressure at all into the hold.

"Why are you attacking me Maddie? Why, I never did anything to you!"

"You left me! You fucking bastard you left me! You changed me, you made me a different person and then when you didn't like the new me you fucking abandoned me when I still needed you"

Chael froze up for a second as the truth that Madeline didn't want to reveal slipped out. Madeline tugged hard with her right arm, trying to break Chael's grip so that she could have a free arm to fight back with. Chael tried to keep her arm pinned, not relenting in his grip on her wrist but being unable to keep her arm pressed to the ground; eventually Madeline was able to twist his wrist in such a way as to make him loosen his hold on her and finally pull her arm free from him and immediate set about slamming a fist into whatever part of him he could reach to get the rest of him off her as well.

"Maddie, I'm sorry, I made the wrong decision I'm sorry. Maddie just stop"

"I'm not your Maddie anymore. I told you not to call me that anymore you bastard!"

Her efforts were weak though, her arms tired from swinging the axe around so much and the toll of almost a full day without sleep and the effect of far too many painful remembrances finally taking effect on her body. She didn't find success in making Chael even so much as flinch until her fist connected with the left side of his body, Chael sucking in breath through gritted teeth and wincing as her fist banged against his ribs.

Wondering as to why this might be Madeline found herself flashing back to when they had all woken up in the mess hall at the start of this nightmare. She remembered quite vividly when they had been told what they were supposed to do as well as Barret's 'demonstration' of their collars, but one detailed she had forgotten out until now was when Chael has recklessly tried to attack Barret. He had been hit in the ribs back then and based from Chael's reaction just now and the slight tenderness Madeline could feel in that area even through his hooded sweatshirt he had been hurt more than she though.

Chael replaced his right arm now over her neck, forgoing the hand and just pressing his forearm down on her throat, using his weight to try and hold her down despite his injured shoulder. Even with the pressure nearly choking her however, Madeline smiled as she realised she had found the weakness that would let her win this fight. She reached out with her hand and began feeling around on the ground for something, anything to use as a weapon and as her fingers brushed over the course surface she knew she had found it.

"Maddie" Madeline please just stop for a sec – ahh! Stop!"

She grabbed hold of the object and swung it hard into Chael's side, the boy emitting something between a howl and a scream as the rock slammed into his already fragile ribs, possibly breaking them where Barret's boot had failed.

Madeline found the grip on her arm and throat loosening and quickly pushed the heavier boy off of her and rolled him onto his side where his hands immediately moved to his injured side, apparently forgetting that he was still in danger at this point. With Chael no longer pinning her down she was now free to scramble over to where her axe had landed in the grass and pick it up. She stood up quickly and turned around to see that Chael was still lying in the grass, clutching his side and breathing heavily.

He struck a rather pitiful site compared to how he looked normally; weakened, in pain and slightly pale. Madeline might even have felt some remorse over reducing him to this state had she felt inclined. As it was she instead just strode purposefully over where the boy lay and stomped on his side again.

"Are you going to stay down this time? No more little surprises? Good, now stay still", Madeline raised the tomahawk over her shoulder with both hands and brought it down on the suddenly terrified looking Chael. The boy tired to squirm out of the way and muster some last defence, but all he managed to do was bring an arm up to take the hit from the weapon rather than his neck. A second hit was stopped in the same way, the blade digging deep into flesh, both times cutting down and into bone while blood began leaking from the wide gashes being opened up in the boys forearm which were becoming more numerous with each swing.

Chael's voice was a pleading screech now, almost unrecognisable as that of the normally so calm and stoic brooding teenager he was only a few hours ago. "Maddie please stop! Oh God Maddie stop!"

Madeline ignored him and instead just kicked his now useless arm aside and swung the axe one last time at his neck. The blade sank easily through the flesh and tendons before stopping as it reached the spine; blood left the wound in spurts which became more violent as the axe was pulled free to give the liquid more room to move through.

Madeline backed away several shaky steps before dropping her weapon to the ground and tripping over an exposed tree root to fall against the trunk, sinking down to sit at its base while facing directly towards the now dead Chael. Tears worked their way unbidden down her cheeks; it was supposed to be easier than that, like with Penelope. Just attack him, kill him, get her revenge and just leave. She wasn't supposed to feel anything afterwards; she didn't before, why now? That bastard, he was always good at making her feel things she didn't want to.