Chapter 13: Sleepover (Part 2)

Alice Snow's POV

22:56, Wednesday, May 21

San Diego, CA

"No. No, that can't be right." Juniper shook his head, looking around the room in a sudden frenzy. Lucky, as if sensing his distress, jumped up off his lap and put a paw on his shoulder, but he barely seemed to notice her.

Nico nodded from across the room, his expression as serious as it had been this entire time, but with a twinge of worry. "I'm a photographer. I can recognize a camera from a mile away. Even this," he said, holding up the supposed camera. It was the part of the light that supposedly provided the light, twisting and turning to fit in the spherical bulb. It was maybe the size of a bobby pin.

"But...it's so tiny!" Poeu objected, raising his voice a little bit.

Vanessa shrugged, a strand of her curls that escaped the bun they were in bouncing up and down as she did so. "Well size isn't really a question in the matter. I mean, I read once they could create cameras the size of a grain of sand, so even this wouldn't be extraordinary when comparing it to that."

Juniper played with his earring, pushing it back and forth in his ear. He looked more stressed out than he had looked the entire night, his eyes slowly widening and his breath growing faster by the second, like he was going to have another panic attack.

I reached out and took his hand. He looked up into my eyes. He was shaking.

"Junebug. Look at me. It's okay. Just take a minute to refocus your mind. Imagine you're out on the ocean. Can you try that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible. For a few minutes, as Juniper took deep breaths, the only thing you could hear was the ticking of the clock.

Bridget crawled over to us, dropping the pillow she was holding. She quietly wrapped her arms around Juniper, her long, puffy blonde hair swallowing his entire face in her hug. She closed her hazel eyes and simply breathed for a moment with him.

We sat there, watching them. Maybe it was rude to stare, but we couldn't look away.

"It's okay, hon," Bridget said, rubbing Juniper's now shaking shoulders. "You're going to be alright."

Juniper's voice suddenly sounded so much smaller than it had mere moments ago. "My mothers...my little sisters...they might be watching them too. I may have put my entire family in danger."

I leaned over, wrapping my arms around him too. He smelled like saltwater and...I dunno, peppers or something.

I didn't realize until that moment how much I truly loved the smell of peppers.

"Juniper, it's okay" I reassured him. "The people who are watching you can't know that we discovered them."

"Um, Alice, I hate to break it to you beech, but you're literally talking about them right now." Poeu announced, wincing as he did.

Nico examined the camera thoughtfully, leaving footprints in the carpet as he paced back and forth. "Plus, there's the question of who was watching you." He told Juniper, narrowing his eyes and getting straight down to business.

"Well, there's the first and obvious choice," Vanessa started, getting up and looking at where the camera had been. "The government."

"Yes, but why?!" Nico prodded, running his hands through his curls.

"We can't be sure for right now," Nessa said as she continued to play with the wire. "But we know they would have this kind of technology. And then...there's someone else I've been wanting to mention. As a suspect, I mean."

"Someone?" Juniper asked, getting to his feet and making me jump. He was still crying, but he had this kind of strange fire in his eyes. He was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, but his voice was as commanding as it was before. "Who?"

Vanessa wrung her hands out awkwardly, then pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Well...Juniper...I mean this in no way to offend anybody, but I know your mom has been a bit...well…"

Juniper immediately jumped into action. "My mom?! You're accusing my mother?!"

"Juju, be quiet!" Poeu warned, whisper-shouting. "You might wake up Tabs!"

"I don't care." June said, his gaze darkening. "She basically just accused my mother of stalking me. My mother loves me! She would never do anything to put me or anybody else in danger!"

"Which is why I'm suggesting it's her doing this!" Vanessa said, raising her voice up to the same level as his. I sat there in shock, watching her. In the entire school year I've known her, Vanessa has never yelled at Poeu or I. Or anybody really. This was an entirely new side of her. Her eyes were alight with a vigor I had yet to see in them until this moment. "Who knows what lengths she would go to to keep you safe? She's already barred you from seeing us? What if cameras are next?!"

"I'm starting to think I should be listening to her." Juniper growled, clutching his elbows so hard they started bleeding.

"Alright, enough!" Bridget shouted, jumping to her feet. "If we start fighting each other, nothing gets accomplished!" She took a deep breath to control herself before marching over to the strand of fairy lights and unplugging it. "Now. Would anybody like to help me make sure none of these are bugged?"

After a moment of steely silence, Juniper nodded curtly, wiping unshed tears from his eyes.

So that's what we did for the next hour. Unscrewed every bulb on every strand of fairy lights. When we found none, we checked every other piece of technology in the room, Vanessa taking everything apart using one of my bobby pins as a makeshift screwdriver. June's computer, his phone, the overhead lights (which are barely ever used because the fairy lights are on so often). Nothing.

Nico looked at the pile of dissected technology in front him, shaking his head. "It makes no sense that there wouldn't be more. Keep searching."

I'll give him this; he was right. It just took close to forever to find all the rest. A minuscule, waterproof camera hidden in an aloe plant at the side of his bed. A microphone hidden in a burgundy throw pillow.

"It makes me wonder why you guys spend so much on a security system if people can literally just sneak in here and bug your house," I joked to Juniper as we investigated this old tapestry-looking thing hanging on his wall. It didn't smell very pretty, and was way too Hippie for my taste, but the sun in the middle looked quite nice.

"If it was my mom, she wouldn't even need to sneak in." He stopped looking for a minute, then turned to me. "You don't think it was Erica, do you?"

I stopped, knuckle deep in carpeting. "I'm...I'm not sure. I don't know her as well as you do, do I?"

He sighed before turning back to his work. "I guess not. I've known her- well, basically my entire life as 'Juniper'." He paused before he kept going, his voice taking on a very different tone. "Three days. Three days after I woke up, Erica was called into the hospital to meet me. To tell me she was going to be my foster mother."

"Wow. That quick?" I glanced up at him. His sapphire blue eyes were intensely focused on the tapestry in front of him, checking in between every stitch and seam.

"Yes."

I paused, watching my alabaster fingers next to his deep golden ones work away on the tapestry and biting down on my bottom lip with my two front teeth. "Where was the hospital you woke up in again?"

He thought about it before answering, "Somewhere right outside Phoenix."

"Arizona? I didn't know they were allowed to call in foster parents from out of state."

"Yeah, they are. I guess. I think you have to do a lot of paperwork first, or something."

I nodded, turning my attention mostly to the tapestry, biting down on my lower lip. "Interesting. How did they know to call her in?"

"Well...I'm not quite sure. One of the doctors- I, I think his name was Dr. Mansley or something. He knew my mom. Knows her. They're friends."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he nodded earnestly. "He told his co-workers that she would be perfect for the job. Because she's...well, first of all, she's the most maternal person, like, ever, and second of all-"

I sighed, looking at Juniper. He was grasping at straws, and we both knew it. "Okay, fine. I don't know why they called her in specifically. But I don't think there's anything suspicious about it." He looked me in the eyes, his voice so quiet a whisper I could barely hear it. "She protected me when no one else cared, Alice. It's my turn to protect her now. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "Yes. Yes, I think I do." And then, just there, rooted deep into the tapestry, something hard and small that clung to it like a tick. I yanked, and though several bits of fluff came out with it and a small hole was formed (worse damage was done to poor June's room that night), a tiny, black microphone came out too. Somehow, the absurdity of me pulling a microphone out of his tapestry made him just lose it. He cracked a smile, and it grew until it became a laugh. I chuckled, shaking my head incredulously. If you asked us a week ago where we would be today, neither of us would've said investigating secret government cameras planted around Juniper's bedroom.

"Wow that conversation was electric," Juniper said, twisting his earrings awkwardly.

"Juju Baronet, never thought you were the kind of guy who liked puns."

He shrugged, finally seeming more at ease after his emotional outburst. "Me neither."

"Okay, guys," Poeu called everyone back as quietly as possible, examining the small pile of electronics on the ground in front of him. "Time to see how many we've got." He cringed as he looked at the tapestry on the wall, shaking his head disappointedly. "Also, Alice, seam rippers next time, sweetie."

We all sat down in the small circle with Vanessa at the helm, the electronics practically on her lap. "Okay, so we found twelve bugs in total. I was able to identify three as microphones, Nico was able to identify six as cameras, and this one we're going to assume is some kind of fingerprint reading biometric device. The rest we're not so sure about."

Juniper shivered at the thought of the fingerprint reading device. I took his hand and squeezed it silently, feeling a rush of warmth through my entire body. He relaxed slightly, letting out his breath and nodding along with Vanessa.

"Now, as we're going to forgo asking who placed them there for now, as that seems to be a rather controversial topic," Vanessa said as gently as possible, "I think we should just continue on with our original plan."

I nodded. "So." I looked at Juniper. "You ready to be drowned by mermaids, or what?"

oOoOoOoOo

Juniper Baronet's POV

00:31, Thursday, May 22

San Diego, CA

I rubbed my arms, trying to quell the goosebumps that inevitably came back every ten seconds. Watching the bathtub fill up, slowly, as quietly as possible in the dead of night, was making my stomach roil uncontrollably. Bridget sat on the side of the tub, playing with the water a little bit as Vanessa watched to make sure the water level was high enough to stick my head in comfortably. Poeu was perched on the back of the toilet for some reason, possibly trying to avoid Lucky. It made him look like one of those pictures of adults trying to sit in chairs meant for children, his knees touching either side of his face (Poeu is taller than all of us, almost as tall as Erica, so it's sort of understandable). Nico and Alice sat by the door, keeping watch and making sure no one heard us (water can be quite loud sometimes).

Lucky rested her head on my lap, smiling in a sort of reassuring way. I grinned slightly, rubbing behind her ear. Throughout all of this, she's been consistently at my side. In fact, throughout my entire life as I know it she's been at my side. I got her on Christmas morning and she's been there for me ever since. I hadn't really understood what Christmas was at the time, so I just walked around mumbling 'Merry Chrispses' under my breath and giving people strange and randoms gifts like a crayon or a lime I got off the kitchen counter (all I had been told was that people give presents, I had no idea what kind of presents they meant though).

But when Erica, who I didn't even know was my mom at the time, came up the stairs from the basement holding a puppy, my heart leapt.

Fluffy? I had asked, sitting down on the floor as Erica put the Golden Retriever down in front of me. Fluffy for me?

Yeah, Tabs answered from across the room, where she was sitting next to her mom (she visits during Christmas) and the girls. That's your...fluffy.

She's supposed to help with your seizures. She'll make sure you don't hurt yourself when you have one, or call for help or something. She'll possibly even be able to tell when one is coming. Some research has shown-

Not hearing a word she was saying, I simply scooped Lucky up in my arms like a stuffed animal and rocked her back and forth. My fluffy! I held her in front of me and beamed, before pulling her back into an enormous hug. I love you!

From then on, Lucky became a sort of permanent support system. Sure, she's not the bravest dog ever (she's scared of most car rides), and sometimes she chews on my slippers and socks, but I love her. I really do. Out of the people I really, truly trust, she's the one who I know for sure won't betray me.

I'm glad dogs don't have to worry about things like betrayal, I thought as Lucky put her front paws on either one of my knees. They can just live their lives without the fear of being watched. I'm glad Lucky gets that life.

"June?"

I looked up. My arms were wrapped around Lucky, who turned to Vanessa, panting and smiling. Nessa was now standing in front of me, her glasses misty and her expression a mix of nervousness and excitement.

"I think we're ready."

Trying to swallow my fear, I knelt by the side of the tub. Quietly, everyone gathered around behind me.

"Okay. Here goes nothing." I said, plunging my face into the water. It was cold, freezing cold; not my ideal temperature, but necessary to remember.

However, it took me about ten seconds to realize something was off: nothing was happening.

After a minute or two (I lost track of time underwater), I came up, took a deep breath, and tried to process what had happened. Or rather, what hadn't happened.

Okay. It's okay. Just try again. I took a deep breath before sticking my face in the water. Once again, nothing happened. I waited even longer to come up now, and when I did, Lucky began licking the water off my face, smiling and oblivious to the severity of the scenario.

Meanwhile, sitting on my knees, staring into the water in front of me, I felt this familiar sense of dread. My gut started climbing into my throat and my hands felt all twitchy. My chest ached and it felt like someone in my brain turned the dial that controlled all my senses up to 8000.

"Juniper? You good?" Poeu asked, putting one arm around me. He knows the signs I'm getting a panic attack just as well as I do.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I lied, staring into the water and trying to ignore the thin layer of sweat dripping down my face. "I - I've just never tried to do this on purpose before." I turned to face them, looking into their concerned faces. "You know, every time I've remembered, I didn't know it was going to happen. What if because I'm actively trying to make it happen, it won't?"

Vanessa seemed to be absolutely crushed that her plan wasn't working. Everyone seemed to be shell shocked by what I was saying - except Nico. He nodded as if he completely understood what I was saying.

"So what you mean is that it came as a surprise?" He asked, switching from sitting cross-legged to being on his knees.

"Yeah, yeah, exactly." I said, trying to control my breathing and looking at him directly rather than the group as a whole.

He nodded slowly, with a small, smug look on his face. "So. You better thank me for this." And all of the sudden, he lunged forwards, pushing my face underwater.

I mean, it was a weird strategy, but it worked. The cold, dark water swallowed me, washing down upon me and numbing my senses. At this point, I was almost used to the sensation. I spun around, searching for a light source, something from my past and distant life to latch onto. But I didn't have to. It found me instead.

A hand locked around my wrist, and with a sudden jerk, they started to pull me down into the depths of the ocean in my mind. I didn't struggle. I'm ready, I thought to whatever was pulling me down. I'm ready to know.

You can't be ready unless you let go and accept the truth you cannot face.

In my shock, I opened my eyes prematurely. It responded?! It talked to me?! The voice in my head flipping talked back. And not in the way that it usually does. The voice sounded different. More solid. Like a real person.

I was so stunned that I was taken aback when the person sitting next to me started speaking.

"Dude, don't take this offensively, but this show is kinda stupid. Why can't we watch a hockey game or something?" I looked over to the side and felt my heart stop.

Casey Jones. That's who was sitting next to me. I don't know how I knew. The name just clicked with the face. The freckles, the many missing teeth, the messed-up dark hair. He blankly stared at the television, clearly bored out of his mind. But that didn't matter to me now. What mattered to me was the fact that not only a) this was the boy who had been attacked by a mutant at the docks, but b) this was the first time I had ever seen someone's face in a memory unobscured.

I looked at the tv. It was a cartoon that he was talking about. I watched for a while, recognizing the shaky waves of grainy filtering over the show, the voices of all of the characters coming back to me. On the inside, I smile, but I can feel my past self droop a little bit, probably from Jones' comment.

"Hey, come on!" Someone from across the room called out to us. In the vast, almost-chasm like area, another figure was approaching. He walked with a confident gait, strutting over to us like he was the king of the world. However, that was all I could see before my mind exploded with blistering, hot, searing pain. His face immediately blurred, and I would've screamed if I could've.

I could see a vague outline of him sitting down next to me, throwing an arm around me in a sort of jovial, almost fake manner. "8%74#1 may be a bit of a bizarre, fanatic garbage fire when it comes to this show - but he's our bizarre, fanatic garbage fire."

My past self grinned, snuggling up to him. My eyes burned at the sight of him, the agony dulling my senses. "Thanks dude, I-."

"Don't push your luck," he grumbled all of the sudden, pushing me away. I smiled as I rolled my eyes and looked back to the tv.

"Okay sure your brot-" his voice glitched out, the same syllable being repeated over and over again like a computer program. I tried to cover my ears, willing the terrifying sound to go away, but nothing changed. Then he resumed as if nothing had changed. "...be a fan of the show, but that doesn't change the fact that it's dumb. And totally unrealistic. Like, I've seen aliens, and they look nothing like that."

"Okay, so technically, as the entire universe hasn't been explored - as that would take roughly two hundred and twenty five trillion years - we can't be certain that there isn't some kind of sentient life out there similar to the core crew of -." His voice glitched out, jumping all over the place, just as Casey's had done mere moments before, however this time, he didn't even get a chance to start the word. Someone else was coming up from behind, and a fresh wave of pain came over me. If I could've screamed, I would've. Whoever it was slid into the spot next to Casey Jones, and this time, instead of just the one person getting blurry, now my entire vision

was getting fuzzy.

But when they spoke again, my ears picked up on something. "However, seeing as it takes Casey two hundred and twenty five trillion years to do something as menial as brushing his teeth, we may never know."

As threats were exchanged behind me, I realized how they were familiar. It's them. The person from the crash. The person from the comic book making. Donatello.

"Aw yeah, I love dinosaurs!" Another new voice shouted out as they bounced over to us.

A slight cough came from Donnie, and he turned to look at the person who came to join us. "Mikey, what do dinosaurs have to do with anything?"

"They were on the earth twenty-five trillion years ago. Duh, Donnie, you're supposed to be 'the brains' of the team. Guess like it's up to me, Dr. Brain-einstein, now." He jumped to his feet, racing with his arms out in front of him to another distant door. "Now let me go play in the lab for once!"

Lab. That word sent a parade of shivers down my spine. Lab. Lab. Lab.

Lab.

…

I didn't like that word.

Someone grabbed our new friend by the back of the...shirt? I...I think it was his shirt.

He flung him backwards, causing the newcomer to land on his butt, right on my other side. "Just watch the show before Donnie has another temper tantrum."

"Oh, you wanna talk about temper tantrums, Raphael?" Donnie asked jokingly, poking Raph in the back of the neck. They continued on like that for a while, laughing and smiling, and my past self joked alongside them, but on the inside, I felt something troubling eating me alive. It felt like watching a horror movie and knowing which character was going to die next. I felt like something wrong was going to happen.

Or maybe it already has happened, my brain suggested, and all of the sudden, the vision changed.

Snowflakes were showering down on me - my past self, that is - making me partially blind to the fist that was about to hit my face.

I stumbled backwards, heavy amounts of blood spewing out of my nose. The world was a white tornado of winter, the chill of the weather attacking my skin. I was shaking, but I couldn't tell if it was from the wounds covering my entire body or the chill of the air. I couldn't focus. I couldn't move. I could barely breathe.

But I had to fight. Something in me knew it.

And my past self did. I looked up at my opponent and took them out with a spinning back kick to the head, knocking them over with a single strike. They slipped on the ice and made an almost comical attempt to get back up.

Others were attacking though. All of them were wearing black and blue, with a shiny, red reflection where their eyes should be. Both my past self and I thought it was unnerving. They all held massive guns, which glowed a pale, icy blue when loaded.

Still I charged them, pulling something out from behind me. A weapon.

A pair of weapons.

A pair of katanas.

I wielded them with skill and fearlessness, slashing cuts on the arms and legs of enemies, never going for a lethal blow. They stumbled backwards, their bodies just blurry, inky blotches in the clean white snow.

I looked around as I fought, trying to figure out where I was. It was a city, with tall, looming silver buildings in the distant skyline. They looked like castles compared to the rooftop I was fighting on. Then again, it was significantly higher than most of the buildings around us, only visible by their snowy white peaks. Stars glittered above my head, almost entirely covered up by the enormous black clouds of the blizzard.

Stars… I thought as my past self jumped on top of a ventilation system to achieve the high ground in the fight. My knee flew into their face, and I got to my feet with a near perfect shoulder roll, the form a little hazy because of the snow.

Why are there stars? If this is a city, wouldn't there be too much light pollution to see stars?

My train of thought was interrupted when I felt a hot, intense pain on the back of my neck. It spread like a drop of food coloring does in water, blooming outwards and making my head feel fuzzy. I felt limp and ragdoll-y, unable to move anything except my fingers. While still recovering from the shot to the neck, as I tried to regain my footing, I fell on my side, greeted by the unforgiving cold of the freshly fallen snow.

"21$89!" Someone called out my blocked name from the other side of the rooftop, but I didn't respond.

Two of the masked figures looked over me, and one of the chuckled. "If there's anything good the mafia has done for this country, it's make Mutant-Hunter-Weapons."

"Sir," the other one called as she turned to face the man clearly in charge of the whole operation. "Tell Dr. Wardarc we've apprehended one of them for her project."

"That's great, but what about this one?" Someone shouted from the other side of the rooftop, and when my eyes flitted up, I could see someone fighting. Someone with a bo staff, olive green skin and what looked like a shell on his back.

Mutant.

Donatello is a mutant.

But...the weapon affected me, not him.

He spun his bo staff like helicopter blades over his back before thrusting it into the face of the masked man in front of him. Lightning quick, he turned and swiped it under the feet of the people who had been sneaking up from behind. The long strands of a purple bandana flew out from behind him as he fought, and though I couldn't see his face, I could sense his passion and fury just from his body language.

The guard laughed a little bit, before raising his gun. "Take it out."

"No," I said, trying to shake my head a little bit. My past self started moving again, tightening my grip on my katanas and stumbling to my feet. The snow landed on top of me, but despite the fact it was only tiny droplets of crystallized water, it felt like bricks were hitting me. "No!"

I lifted my head and my swords, but the cold had started to overtake me. My teeth chattered, and when I looked down, I saw that I had left a very impressive, very scary amount of blood in the snow.

Donatello soared in from nowhere, and supported me with one arm while holding his staff in the other. "7^53#? It...it's going to be okay."

But it wasn't. Throngs of other masked figures were pouring out of a truck down below us, filing up the fire escape one by one.

The masked figures in a semicircle in front of us all lifted their guns, except for the one in the front. "She only needs one." Then he lunged forwards, grabbed Donatello by the shoulder and hurled him off the side of the building.

"Nooo!" I shrieked as I fell to my knees, watching helplessly as he fell into the alleyway below. My entire body began trembling with rage, and I leapt to my feet, shaky, but still with purpose. My swords were pointed at the enemy in front of me, and even though I couldn't entirely understand why, I knew that my past self was angrier than he had been in a very long time.

This is where it goes wrong, I thought to myself. Some part of me knew that things were going to get a lot worse.

"Kakatte koi yoi!" I cried, outrage lacing my voice. I pointed my blades at the enemy, waving one of them as a gesture of bringing on their attack.

No, I told myself, not really knowing why. Don't provoke them further.

My past self looked down into the alleyway below, and quick as lightning, slid underneath the legs of the guards I was fighting.

"After him!" One shouted, her voice getting more distant by the moment.

Of course, I thought with realization. I was leading them away from Donatello.

But...why would they even want him in the first place? Or me, for that matter.

Whatever questions I may have had slipped discreetly from my mind as I was suddenly yanked out of the water by a near frantic Bridget.

I stared at her woozily, then looked around at everyone else. She coughed, and with a dry-sounding voice announced, "Um...we thought you'd been in there too long."

oOoOoOoOo

Vanessa Floración-Akili's POV

1:027, Thursday, May 22

San Diego, CA

Our dear friend Poeu Soun was still clearly scandalized by what Nico had done to Juniper.

"You can't just do that!" He whisper-shouted from across the room, where he had gotten one of June's blankets and laid it out on the floor. He flopped down into it and rolled himself into a cocoon. "Like, dude, we all wanted him to remember, but that was just a little much, you know?" Seeing as how we were possibly being stalked by the government, we decided it would be best if we spent the night at Juniper's, dispersed at school in a couple hours, and then came back to discuss possible theories of...well, whatever was going on.

"It's fine, Poeu," Juniper said, his voice present but his gaze distant. He'd told us everything about the vision, and to be honest, none of us had any idea what to make of it. I mean...mutant hunter weapons? Swords? The mafia? And what did that kid Casey Jones have to do with anything?

Alice seemed to have less pressing questions on her mind. "Why are all the people in your visions named after Italian Renaissance artists?" I suppose being the artist she was she would've been the one to notice it. "Like, Donatello, Raphael…." She trailed off as she grabbed a pillow and laid down on the floor without even bothering to take a blanket.

Juniper jumped upright, pointing at the bed. "You can have it, you know. You are a guest."

Alice blushed profusely, biting down on her upper lip with her two front teeth. "N-no, no, it's okay. Really."

Juniper looked a little hurt and confused. "O-okay?" He got up, rubbing his hands together nervously, and locked the bedroom door.

Perhaps I should be worried about being locked in a room with someone who we can't be certain is mentally stable, but honestly, I just feel a little safer, I thought, snuggling into the warm, fluffy, emerald green blanket I had snagged off of one of June's chairs. I mean, we know he can fight, and I like to believe that he's a warrior for good, or something like that...egads, what am I doing? This is crazy!

I looked around the room at everyone else settling into their sleeping positions, and smiled as I realized that I was having more fun than I'd had in years. Sure, this was insane, possibly even on a dangerous level, and I was terrified, but this was a good group of people. Despite the fact I didn't know them well, this was a group of people I knew would have my back.

Nico scoffed and flopped down on the bed as he lacsidazily kicked his shoes off. "If she doesn't want it, I'll take it." Juniper shrugged and laid back down in his little nest of blankets in the corner of the room, staring up at the now destroyed fairy lights. He kept fidgeting, a frustrated expression plastered on his face. After a little while, he finally spoke.

"Hey Nico?"

"Yeah?" Nico didn't even look at Juniper, just staring at the ceiling.

"What did you mean when you said you didn't need to imagine?" Silence from both ends for a couple minutes. Juniper continued. "Earlier you said you didn't 'even need to imagine' what it felt like to have everything you've ever known taken from you. What did you mean?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Screwy?" Nico snapped, barely moving from where he was on the bed. Juniper, sensing defeat, rolled over. There was an awkward silence for the next minute or so. Finally, Nico sighed and gave in.

"I was born in New York City. My-"

"Really?!" Bridget said a little loudly, jumping up from where she was near the door. It was almost like her hazel eyes were glowing. "Have you ever been to Times Square or seen a Broadway show?! Have you- sorry." She blushed when she realized nobody else was gushing out their love for the city. In fact, Nico seemed to be giving her the evil eye. He exhaled, and continued.

"My mom grew up in a penthouse overlooking Central Park, the same one as me. Her father, my abuelo, made billions from oil production. My abuela hated him for it and moved out here. She thought it was the wrong kind of business.

"The thing about my parents' relationship is that it wasn't a very long one. My father runs a technology company in London. He came to New York for a business meeting, met my mom, and only told her about his wife and daughters back in the UK once she told him she was pregnant. It's fine, really. He pays child support and stuff. I've never met him. I've never even seen him in person. I'm just the embarrassing stain on his report card he's trying to ignore. My mother raised me alone in New York. She did pretty good at it, too.

"Until the Kraang attacked. When the Invasion happened, my mother was turned into one of those...Kraang-things. My abuelo, too.

"From January to April, I survived on my own in an apocalyptic New York. Everything I've ever known changed. Almost no one else got away. Those who did were so desperate, so afraid…" he trailed off, still staring at the ceiling. "You would never believe the things I saw people do to stay alive…The things I had to do..." He coughed and continued.

"When the Invasion miraculously ended, I thought things were going to return to normal. And for a while, they did. But my mom wasn't readjusting the way I thought she was. She turned to drinking. Every time I came home from school, she would be sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of vodka in her hands. And if it wasn't vodka, it was some other hard liquor. It got to the point where she was so drunk most nights, she forgot I was there. And then, it was just me on my own trying to survive all over again.

"Eventually, someone else at my school found out. Told the authorities. They sent me out here to live with my abuela. I've only been living here for a couple months. But it feels like it's been years since my mom went to rehab." He coughed a bit, then shrugged. "Yeah, that's it."

Bridget sat up, her puffy blonde hair all zig-zaggy after having been put against a pillow. "Nico, I'm sorry. I never knew."

"It was supposed to stay that way, too," he said before yawning and rolling over so none of us could see his face. "Okay, well, good night." Even after his breaths fell into a light, easy pattern, his shoulders falling and rising calmer than I had ever seen him before, I had a feeling he was still awake.

I stared up at the ceiling, pulling my hair out of its ponytail. I don't blame him. If it were me, I don't know if I would ever sleep again.

But it didn't happen to me, and within mere minutes of my head hitting the pillow, I fell asleep.

oOoOoOoOo

3:19, Thursday, May 22

San Diego, CA

I woke up with my glasses askew and my mouth half open. I lazily opened my eyes and checked my watch before realizing I was drooling more than Lucky.

I wiped my mouth on the sleeve of my orange and white striped t-shirt, hoping nobody had noticed, before I realized most of them seemed to be asleep. Alice was lying on her side, facing away from everyone, but she's a known insomniac, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was still awake and was just trying to hide it. Nico seemed to be actually asleep now, and snoring, so that was good. Poeu had grabbed onto June's hand at one point, possibly in his sleep, possibly while he was awake, but I had a feeling I knew the reason why: Juniper was curled up in a ball and hiding his face, and seemed to be trembling a bit in his sleep.

Propping myself up on one elbow and rubbing my eyes, I smiled to myself. Poeu's smarter than he pretends to be, especially with people. He has it down to an exact science, the way the world works. Comforting others isn't really my strong suit.

Which is why I felt so nervous when I heard Bridget crying right next to me.

I leaned over her, watching tears roll down her face, seeping through her closed eyelids. I wasn't sure what to do; poke her? Ask her what's wrong? Hug her? Get her some water? When she opened them, as if sensing someone, and saw my face hovering over hers, she gasped and sat up so quick our foreheads collided.

"Ow!" I yelped quietly, smacking one hand to my forehead. Unbelievably, that did nothing to solve the problem.

Bridget rubbed her forehead at the same time as wiping tears off of her face. She gave me a small, sheepish smile afterwards, her eyes still puffy and red.

"Hey. Sorry about waking you up," she whispered, pulling her knees up to her chest.

I shook my head frantically, grabbing her hands. "No, no, it's fine. You didn't wake me up. I just happened to be awake."

"Oh. Okay." We sat there in a very awkward silence for a little bit before Bridget spoke.

"Look, I know it'll seem like I'm pitchin' a hissy fit about this whole thing, but...I'm scared. I've never done anything like this before. Not just for myself, but for my older brother, my twin sister, my parents...who knows how many lives are in danger now."

I shrugged, trying to look for a positive light in this whole thing. "Well, we don't know anyone's lives are in danger-"

Bridget laughed a bit, and I saw her tucking a puffy lock of hair behind her ear in the dim light from the moon. "The government is stalking us. I'm pretty sure that means danger."

"Touché," I admitted, leaning back on my elbows.

"I just don't know what I'm doing. I feel like I'm supposed to be here, but I also feel like bad things are going to happen. Like, really bad things. But I feel like leaving would be even more dangerous for everybody."

I shifted so I was lying on one side, looking at Bridget. "You can leave if you want. It's your decision. You don't need to be involved in this mystery if you don't choose to be."

She shook her head, her expression now resolute. "No, no. I'm a part of this now." She smiled abashedly, her cheeks going a pale pink. "I'm sorry, Vanessa. I only met you tonight and now I'm dumping all my emotions on you like a table after a school day."

"It's fine," I waved her off. "I'm just glad you got all of that out of your system. If you don't, you can explode, and honestly, that's the last thing any of us need."

Her face blanched, and she had this weird, taken aback expression on her face. It made her look like a funny sort of bird. "I really hope that's just an expression, girl."

I laughed a bit, before holding a finger up to my mouth. "It is. Now shhh. It's time to try and go back to sleep." Then I laid back down on my pillow and watched the moon, longing for the sunlight to return.

oOoOoOoOo

4:07, Thursday, May 22

San Diego, CA

I blinked awake groggily, feeling a distinct crick in my neck.

I sat up without having really awoken, still in that weird sort of fever-dream state, and saw Alice awake, sitting up and drawing by the light of the moon. At nighttime, she truly looked like a small spirit sent down from the cosmos, her snowy skin missed by the moonbeams and her dark hair framing her face like it was woven out of shadows. Her thin lips and freckles were more accented in light of the earth's natural satellite, and when she looked up, her grey eyes were like true, small mirrors. She tilted her head to the side a bit, smiling softly.

"People are much better muses when they're sleeping. They look so much more peaceful. Go back to bed."

Dazedly, I did so, my head limply forced onto my pillow by the force of gravity, and soon, sleep caught hold of me once more and dragged me into it's deep abyss.

oOoOoOoOo

6:34, Thursday, May 22

San Diego, CA

"Vanessa, get up."

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up, looking around the room. Pale rays of dawn sunlight, a layer of humidity that had settled overnight, and Nico Rodriguez crouching on his haunches at my bedside (well, I say bedside, but it was really just the floor).

I fumbled, trying to fix the positioning of my glasses for a minute or two. "What's going on?" It took me a moment to realize that most of the others were gone. It was just Nico and I sitting there in an empty bedroom.

No. No, the doorway was open, and its frame was definitely not empty. In it, stood two figures: Juniper, who was looking at the floor, his face torn between anger and embarrassment, and Erica Baronet, who had wrapped both of her arms around him in a very tense hug. She had a calm ruse, but I could sense the iciness that was hidden under her mask. She nodded once, tightening her embrace of Juniper.

"Good, you're awake. Now, somebody tell me what the hell is going on here."

A/N

And...done! Well, for this chapter that is.

Guys, this story is one year old on October 16. And cannot say how grateful I am that you followed me through all this! The story will continue, and it will only get better. I love it dearly, and I'm excited for what's to come (a lot more action). I'm going to continue to write (it's one of the things I love to do most), and I hope you'll continue to read. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, as always, if you choose to leave a review, only appropriate ones please. This is a clean site, very much unlike public restrooms. Thank you all very much for reading, the next chapter will be up soon. Keep in touch!

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-TheRealDreadPirateRoberts