Caroline

"Caroline."

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was standing on the beach, listening to the waves crash against the rocks. I looked down at myself and saw that I was wearing a pretty white sundress paired with a thick brown belt that I'd seen once but had been unable to buy, since I'd had no money at the time.

"Care!" Someone called, laughing, and I turned to see Camden standing behind me. He looked just like I remembered, his curly hair unruly, although he was wearing black jeans and a black jacket that he kept zipped up, while I was roasting in my dress. Wasn't he hot?

"Camden." I breathed, and I covered my mouth with my hand, bombarded with so many emotions that I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react. Pressing my lips together, I let my hand drop as I looked around. This beach didn't look like anything you'd find in England, and this heat – there was no way it'd ever be this hot in my country of origin. "Where are we?"

"Bondi." Camden replied. "It's in Australia. Ness showed me a photo of it once."

I looked at him. "Are you even real?"

"Yeah, but Caroline, I need you to listen to me." Camden said, his blue eyes intense. "I need you to keep trying."

"What?"

Camden's eyes snapped to the side, as if someone was coming. "Keep trying to find me, Care. I'm still going. I am . . ." the image of him warped like a computer screen glitching and I cried out, pitching forward and sending sand spraying up my leg.

"Tell Ains . . ." Camden looked back at me. "Tell him Exagora. Just tell him that. Exagora."

I stared. "What – I don't even know – What's happening?"

"Someone's coming. I need to go." Camden said, and then he was gone, the word 'Exagora' whistling in the wind.

When I woke up sunlight was filtering through the closed blinds, and soft lips were pressing kisses to the side of my neck. I smiled and Ains murmured, "Morning," against my skin. I shushed him and pressed my fingers to his lips, although that stopped his kisses as well. "Maybe if we don't acknowledge it, it'll go away."

He laughed, kissing the top of my head. I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "How are you doing with . . ."

"The memories?" he asked, and I nodded, looking up into his eyes as his fingertips danced across my shoulder. "Okay. It's still a bit crazy, remembering everything from that age, but it's not as overwhelming as it was."

I smiled, leaning my head down and pressing a kiss to his shoulder. "I'm going to ask you something and you're not going to like it."

"But you're going to tell me anyway." He said, shifting so that he was more comfortable. "Okay, so tell me."

I pressed my lips together. "I want to go back to Herdeiro."

As expected, he flipped out.

"What? Care, no – "

"They didn't find anything." I said calmly. "But they didn't know Camden like we did."

"Care, you're already going to be in deep trouble for going to find Jazzie without consent – "

"Please." I said. "I know what Oscar said about doppelgangers, but I need to know. I just need to know if there was a body. Whether there is or isn't confirms it either way."

He sighed quietly, looking away briefly. "Fine. But we don't tell Vanessa, and we don't bring Jase. It's not fair to ask him to keep that kind of secret from her."

"Thankyou!" I cried, reaching up and pressing my mouth to his quickly before I climbed out of the bed, grabbing a pair of jeans and a white tank top from my stash of clothes at the bottom of his dresser. Then I grabbed his most comfortable hoodie – a red one that was way too big for me, but it felt soft and warm against my skin, and his scent still clung to the fabric. I could feel him watching me as I put it on, and I turned to face him as I raked a brush through my hair. "What?"

"I love you." He murmured.

I expected ruins, but I didn't expect ruins.

Even though I knew he'd been expecting something bad, Ains sucked in a sharp breath as he looked around. The once mighty Herdeiro, which for the past couple of months had held nearly every nightmare I could imagine, was now a mass of nothing rubble.

And somewhere in here, Camden's body was buried under the collapsed concrete structure.

Moving slowly, I crept away from Ains, stepping carefully over pieces of wall and concrete, keeping my eyes peeled for anything that might even resemble bones. MI9 had apparently cleared all the bodies, but I was convinced that Camden was here. He had to be. If he'd been on the run, he would've found some way to get word to us that he was alive.

The only reason that would explain why he wasn't would be that we had a doppelganger in our midst. If that was the case, that meant my other theory of him somehow managing to invade my dreams might actually have a sliver of truth to it, but I refused to allow that. That sort of thing wasn't even possible.

I was going insane.

"Come on Camden," I murmured, looking around me as I stepped over a jagged piece of glass. As I did, the sunlight hit the glass and I saw a flicker of white beneath it against the charred grass. Breathing heavily and carefully, I knelt down and I gripped the glass in both hands, being careful to not allow the sharp glass to slice the skin that connected my thumb to my finger. I said a silent prayer to whoever cared and swung the glass away, and I heard it shatter against a piece of concrete a couple of metres behind me.

As soon as the glass was gone, I leapt to my feet, covering my mouth with my hand and choking out Ains' name. I heard him shout my name and then he was there, his arms encircling my body to hold me against him. I choked on a sob and turned my face into his jacket, clutching the lapel of it as I fought at the tears that stung at my eyes, trying to forget what I'd seen. This was a mistake. We shouldn't have come.

Ains had gone rigid against me, his hand still against me as I tried to blink the image away – of the charred skeleton with the twisted metal necklace around its neck.

"I was there when he got it," Ains murmured into my hair.

"Got what?" I sniffled.

"That necklace. It had his name meaning on it." Ains took a deep breath. "It's him. It's Camden."

I clutched his jacket harder, my throat squeezing. It hurt. Everything hurt. I should've been glad that the doppelgangers weren't out to get me like everything else was, but I wasn't. I wanted Camden to be alive – even if it was an evil copy.

"Come on," Ains murmured, his hand slipping down to find my shaking one, carefully detaching it from his jacket. "I'll take you home."

Oscar looked pissed off as he folded his arms over his chest and I internally winced. He looked angrier than I'd ever seen him, his blue eyes flashing. "Where are they?"

Vanessa and I exchanged anxious glances before we both stepped forward simultaneously, placing our guns on the table. Oscar gave us a hard look as he slid the guns towards himself, taking the clips out and placing them beside the guns. "I hope it was damn well important." He turned his hard eyes to Ains. "I assume you went with them, didn't you?"

"He didn't." I said, tilting my chin up. "We took Dan with us."

Oscar groaned, tipping his head back. "Of course you did. And what was the reason behind this idiotic – "

"They did it for me." Jase interrupted. "They had my little sister and V and Care went and got her out."

"Okay," Oscar said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning to me and Ains. "But you two went to Herdeiro, didn't you?"

Vanessa's head snapped around to look at me and I tipped my chin down so I couldn't see her eyes. "Yes."

"Why? We have protocols for a reason – "

"Because I needed to know!" I cried. "I needed to see for myself if he was really dead or not!"

Oscar made a soft groaning sound. "And was he? What did you find?"

I dug into my pocket and pulled out Camden's twisted and demented necklace. Swallowing tears, I threw it to him and then ducked my head. Fingers found mine and something unravelled in my chest, and I turned my head into Ains' shoulder, pressing my lips together so no one would see me cry. I faintly heard Oscar say something and Ains started to move his arm around my shoulder, but I shook him off, storming out without even waiting to be dismissed, despite the fact that I was already on thin ice with Oscar. I could deal with whether or not I was suspended or fired later – right then, I needed to get out of there before the stench of grief suffocated me.