Camp Cretaceous: What Do We Do Now?

by Ecaetheerein

We thought it'd be fun… We thought we'd be safe… But we didn't realize the horror waiting for us on the island. Claws, teeth, screaming… so much screaming. But despite the challenges, we survived the night. Well... some of us. And now that we've been left on the island, we're faced with the challenge of surviving until help arrives... If it arrives...

50. Ep50 Corruption

Author's note:

So the wait is over! Chapter 50! Dang, have we come far.

This is a special chapter. For once, no suicidal or self harming warnings. This chapter decided to go a different route... a suspenceful route. (at least, I hope it's suspenceful, lol.)

Unfortunately, Brooklynn's secret is the biggest plot line I'm building up to... there's more that needs to be established before it's revealed... But... a new hint has been dropped in this chapter... One that will become important later on in her journey...

Next chapter will come out March 25th.

Enjoy!

---

"I've never ridden in a helicopter before."

Kenji blinks and shakes his head. "Hmm? What?"

Yasmina looks up from her sketchbook, her left leg crossed over her right, stump bouncing up and down. "I've never ridden in a helicopter before. What's it like?"

"Umm… It's… It's like… riding in a plane, but tinier," he says, unsure how to answer. He was spending the night at Yasmina's house. The next morning, Kenji, the other campers, his father, and Mrs. Bowman would be flying to New Jersey in his father's private helicopter. The preliminary trial would be in the afternoon. Hopefully it wouldn't run too long… He hoped it would be over and done with and he could put the trial behind him. What worried him, though, was the idea that they would go to a trial and he would be found guilty… What if he was found guilty? What if Lydia did too good of a job framing him? What if the fraud evidence was too convincing? What if—

"Kennnnnji," Yasmina says, exasperatedly.

"Yeah, uh huh, totally," he says quickly, sitting up straight and looking at her.

She quirks an eyebrow. "Didn't ask you a question."

"Uhh, I totally agree with your statement," he says, his hands fumbling around in an attempt to act normal.

"So what did I say, then?" she tests him.

"Uhhh…" he trails off.

"Ugh, my gosh, get out of your head," Yasmina groans, sitting up and gently thwaping him on the head.

"I don't think I can biologically do that," Kenji quips.

"I mean, get out of your head and stop being so anxious," the athlete explains. "The hearing will go well. I'm certain."

"I'm not anxious," he crosses his arms.

"You're sitting there, staring at the wall with a pale face," Yasmina frowns. "Yep, totally not anxious. It's not like I've seen Ben with that face… Brooklynn, too… Darius… Me…"

"I'm not anxious," Kenji insists, stubbornly. "I don't get anxiety."

Yasmina starts guffawing. "Oh, sure! Sure!"

"I haven't had anxiety, I have only had one flashback, I don't get nightmares…" he bites his lip. It wasn't exactly true… He had had a nightmare the other night… It was a nightmare about him ending up in prison for a crime he didn't commit… What made it hurt more was Sammy and Mr. Gutierrez rejected him…

His fight with Sammy a few hours ago comes back and he shudders. Had he pushed her too far? She was being particularly stubborn and ridiculous about the whole situation, but it clearly bothered her. Had he done the wrong thing by pushing her to make a decision? She didn't necessarily have to make a decision at that particular moment, Kenji just wanted her to be thinking about it. He wanted to know: was he in or out? What was she going to do? But Sammy was refusing to even think about the subject…

"Have I pushed her too far? Are we never going to be friends again? Have I lost her completely?" Kenji wonders anxiously.

"Oww…" he complains as Yasmina's sketchbook smacks his head over and over again.

"Get. Out. Of. Your. Head!" she insists. "Think about something else!"

"I'm not anxious!" he groans. "I'm fine!"

"It's okay if you're feeling scared, at least admit it and try to move on," she says, planting her hands on her hips.

"Not scared, not anxious, nothing," Kenji crosses his arms.

"I'm not stupid, and you're a bad liar," Yasmina huffs. "Since you came here, you've been jittery and pale. You're distant mentally, and you're getting sweaty. In general, you've been a bit more anxious over the past few days."

"Says who?" he retorts immaturely.

"Says me!" she snaps. "Says Ben! Says Darius! Yesterday you were acting really annoying and purposefully trying to be funny. The day before you were snappy and irritated at us for pretending to sacrifice you, and normally you'd think it was funny. Anytime we bring up the hearing, you get weird."

Kenji's chest constricts. "Nope, not anxious at all," he says stubbornly, standing up and taking off his shirt.

The athlete frowns. "Yeah, showing off your abs will distract me from your anxiety."

Sensing an opportunity to change subjects, he grins. "Why thank you for noticing," he says, patting his stomach muscles and posing like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yasmina rolls her eyes. "You look like pre-buff Captain America."

Kenji barks out a laugh, offended. "Ouch, that hurts. And do you look better?"

The athlete pulls up her shirt long enough to flash her still pretty solid abs, smirking.

"Pffsh, show off," the boy sputters, grabbing his white hoodie from the pile of folded clothes on her bed. He pulls it over his head and fumbles around, trying to find the arm and neck holes. "Dadgum it… Where's the darn… Are these pants?" he mutters, unable to make sense of the strange piece of cloth. Where did the holes go?

Kenji pulls off what he thought was his hoodie and examines it. To his embarrassment, it wasn't even a pair of pants. He had grabbed a pillowcase from Yasmina's freshly washed pile of clothes and had stupidly attempted to wear it.

The alpha male looks up to see the athlete laying on her bed, wheezing silently, face red from laughter. After taking in a semi-deep breath, Yasmina cackles loudly. "Did you… just try… try to… put on… a p-pillowcase?!"

Kenji sputters. "Yeah, yeah, hilarious…" Normally, he'd laugh along with her at his fumble, but he just wasn't feeling humorous that day…

The athlete finally recovers from laughing and sighs. "Oh, Kenji, you're so gosh darn stupid sometimes."

The boy is hit by a wave of fear that felt like a brick wall crashing down around him at those words. His chest hurt. It was hard to breathe. The world was spinning. His heart was pounding. Where was he? What was going on?!

"Kenji?!" Yasmina says worriedly. He feels her grab his shoulder and he grips her hand, not realizing he was falling. "Kenji, talk to me!"

This new, scary feeling of panic freaks him out even more. "Check-ch… is… I… I think… Am I having… h-heart attack?" he panics, holding his right hand to his chest. His heart felt like it was beating irregularly and his chest hurt. "Call a doctor… Yaz!" he cries out, scared he was going to die.

"Calm down, calm down!" she insists as her mother opens the door. "I think you're having a panic attack."

Kenji gasps for air, finding it hard to come by in his panicked state. "M-me?"

"Yes, you, dummy," she sighs. "It's normal to have PTSD, you were bound to have it eventually. Just sit down and try to breathe."

Kenji coughs, choking on nothing physical. He clumsily sits on the bed, closing his eyes tight as fear grips him like steel cold clamps. "Y-Yaz!" he gasps, hyperventilating.

"Breathe," she says insistently, grabbing his right hand and holding it to her sternum. "In… Out…"

"Come on, like this: in… out…" Yasmina's mother takes his other hand and syncs breaths with Yasmina.

Kenji tries to focus more on their breathing and less on his gripping terror. "In… out… In… out… In… out…" Calming his racing heart and breathing deeply was much harder to do when panic was coursing through his veins. He felt like a dinosaur was right behind him. Danger was all around. Adrenaline was racing. His instincts told him to run and hide, to fight and live. But there was nothing for him to fight…

"Kenji, breathe slowly," Yasmina instructs in her usual, stern tone.

Slowly but surely, he synchronized his breathing with the Fadoula's, and his panic attack began to subside. Sighing and sputtering, Kenji flops back on Yasmina's bed, feeling exhausted. It was as if he had ran an entire mile to escape a dinosaur, but he hadn't gone a foot. "How do you guys deal with that…"

"We don't really have a choice," the athlete says, smirking and laying down beside him. Her mother leaves the room to get something.

Kenji closes his eyes shut, tears slipping out. "I don't ever want to have a panic attack again…"

"Eh, none of us do," Yasmina sputters. "But like it or not, we have trauma… Panic attacks seem to go hand-in-hand with flashbacks and PTSD."

He sighs, breaking down his walls a bit. "I just… This wasn't even triggered by the island… How can I have anxiety from something not on the island?"

"You can have panic attacks triggered by anything your mind deems stressful even to cause panic," she shrugs. "It is kind of ironic that your first panic attack isn't related to the island, though… Do you want to talk about it?"

He groans, covering his face with his hands. "It's about the trial…"

"Preliminary hearing," she corrects.

"Yeah, well, it might be a trial," he retorts angrily.

"They'd need enough evidence to convict you and take it to a trial."

"Well, what if they do?!"

"They don't."

"How do you know that?!"

Yasmina sighs. "What evidence could they give?! The timing of everything gives you the advantage. No physical evidence, probably hard to find video or security footage of anything. Plus, who would testify against you? Lydia and her best friend? You've got the teacher who saw her push you into the classroom."

"I think you're underestimating who I'm going up against," Kenji sighs.

"Some b**** who just wants attention and wants to destroy you?" she shrugs.

"I don't think that's Lydia," he shakes his head. "I feel like there's some other motive behind this… If she wanted attention, she could've gotten it some other way… If she really wanted to get back at me, she could've just picked a fight with Sammy… Start spreading rumors about our relationship and make me look like the bad guy… Why make herself look like the victim? She wasn't one to play the victim card…"

"Well, why else would she falsely accuse you?" Yasmina asks.

"I don't know," Kenji groans. "It just doesn't sit right with me… My gut feeling says something… someone else is behind this… And that whoever or whatever it is will drag this out to trial and make me look bad… And make you guys look bad in the process…"

Yasmina's eyes widen slightly. "Think it's Leah?"

"Leah what?" Kenji turns to her.

"Leah running the show to hit Brooklynn from another angle?" the athlete suggests.

The alpha male thinks for a moment. "Hmmm… Leah pays Lydia to accuse me… take me to court… Ruining my rep… and when Brooklynn sticks with me, ruining her rep in the process…"

"Plus, stressing you out and harming you, so then that either stresses out Brook, and/or takes out a vital member in her support system," she growls. "Yep… sounds like a probable answer."

"Do you really think Leah would stoop that low?" Kenji asks.

Yasmina laughs. "Yep, there's nothing too low for her."

He whimpers. "It's just… What if this brands me forever? What if I'm always the bad guy? What if I never clear my rep? What if Sammy's family hates me because of this?!"

"Oh, stop it already," the athlete says, whacking him with her pillow. "Stop it with the bad guy thing. Just because you were a self-absorbed, pompous idiot a year ago doesn't mean you have to be that way forever. Or that you're going to be. You've changed a lot since you came to the island, and you're treating yourself like a villain. Now, unfortunately, this trial might be brought up everytime someone doesn't like you in the media, but that doesn't mean you're a bad person. That just means you were targeted by Lydia and that people will try to use it to their advantage. You don't have to let this accusation define you."

Kenji sighs. "Thanks…" As he tries to fall asleep, something doesn't sit right with him. Well, something else. Something Yasmina said. "Now, unfortunately, this trial might be brought up everytime someone doesn't like you in the media…"

Why did that give him chills?

Try as he might, Kenji couldn't put his finger on the foreboding feeling. He slips into a restless slumber.

---

"28… 27… 26… 25…"

Yasmina's eyes dart around, examining her surroundings as the clock counts down. There was a tan, grassy field laid out in the distance in front of her. Forests surrounded her. Directly in front of her stood the gleaming, metal Cornucopia. The other twenty-three contestants stood on their metal platforms, waiting like her for the clock to finish counting down.

She quickly glances at the other contestants. A few she recognized. Her biological father was a couple pedestals down. Mitch and Tiff were almost hidden from view by the Cornucopia. Doctor Wu was two pedestals to her right. Leah was right next to her. The other girl smirks sadistically before turning her attention back to the clock on the Cornucopia.

Rage makes her tremble. Her eyes land on Ben seven pedestals to her right. He subtly shakes his head.

"3… 2… 1…"

The Hunger Games began.

Yasmina runs towards the mouth of the metal horn. She needed supplies and a weapon. She wouldn't survive in the forests without something.

Something hard hits the back of her head and the next thing she knows, she was spitting out dirt. Yasmina quickly turns around and scrambles backwards as her father advances, swinging around a mace he found in the stuff lying around. The athlete screams and covers her face with her arms.

She hears him grunt and fall over. Looking through her arms, she finds him dead with a knife in his chest. Standing up quickly, Yasmina turns around. Leah stood behind her, an entire arsenal of knives next to her. She smiles at the athlete.

Yasmina turns back to her father in confusion. Leah takes that moment to thrust a knife deep into Yasmina's lower back, eliciting a cry of pain. The athlete elbows the betrayer in the face, grabs a bow and quiver from the pile and stumbles into the forest. She collapses on the ground, clutching her weapon tight as she bleeds helplessly. A guttural growl causes her to lift her head. The Scorpius rex stood in front of her, teeth bared. Doctor Wu stood superiorly behind it, with Mitch and Tiff in tow. The three had clearly formed an allegiance and were hunting down other tributes. Yasmina weakly tries to shoot her bow, but passes out from loss of blood.

The next thing she knows, a gentle hand was dabing her forehead. Yasmina opens her eyes and looks into Ben's gentle blue ones. They were in a cave and he was tending to her wounds. "Where…"

"You've been unconscious for over a week," Ben says. "Most of the other tributes are gone."

Flashes of Ben tending to her wound and her slowly getting stronger go by. Soon, Yasmina is strong enough to race through the woods with Ben, hunting and defending their cave from other tributes. Her muscles were stronger and she felt like a tiger, stalking through the woods after it's prey.

Then the Gamemakers decided to spice things up.

Yasmina and Ben walk through the forest, searching for prey, when the Scorpius rex slams into her. As she's thrown around like a ragdoll by the creature, it tears off her left leg. The athlete screams as her flesh and bones separate painfully.

Disoriented, she turns over on her stomach to find Ben fighting off Wu, Mitch, and Tiff: the Career Tributes. Grunting, the athlete tries to get up, walking on her knees to get to her bow. "Yasmina!" Ben cries out, shoving Tiff away. "Run! Run!"

"Ben!" she shouts.

"Yaz," he pants. "Remember who the real enemy is."

Yasmina gasps as the scene changes in her dream. She was standing at the bottom of a ledge. Standing above her on the ledge was Brooklynn. She was a white ballerina, posed on her toes with her face and arms stretched up to the sun. In it's warm rays, she looked happy and carefree.

As the athlete looked closer, she realized that Brooklynn wasn't a ballerina, but a delicate white flower.

A Primrose.

As she stood on the ledge, the sun dips below the horizon. As her light and life disappears, Brooklynn shivers, the petals of her dress wilting as she sinks to the ground.

"Brook," Yasmina breathes. "Brook!"

The athlete looks to the side. Leah stood behind Brooklynn, a controller in her hand. A device that controlled the game. Leah was the head Gamemaker. She had the power to control everything in the arena.

"You…" Yasmina growls, watching as Brooklynn wilts more and more because of Leah.

The girl cackles sinisterly. "I'm just the Gamemaker," she shrugs. "I control the Games. But I didn't invent it."

She turns away and disappears.

"Brooklynn!" Yasmina shouts, making her way up the ledge to get to her friend.

As she reaches the top, the pinkette looks at her. "Yaz?"

Then the world exploded.

Yasmina twitched in her sleep.

She laid there, smoldering. Her sister… gone…

The dream changed to her laying in a hospital bed. Anger courses through her veins. "I'm… going to f***ing kill her…" the athlete growls vengefully.

The dream changes again. Yasmina was standing in the courtyard of the Capitol. Leah and a man—the President of the Capitol—were chained to two posts: ready for execution. Yasmina's arrow flies swiftly into Leah's heart. While it was satisfying, it didn't soothe her aching heart.

Yasmina turns to the President: the culprit behind Brooklynn's death, ultimately. President Snow smiles. "Oh, Miss Fadoula. I thought we agreed never to lie to each other."

His words chill her. Ben's words come back to her. "Yaz, remember who the real enemy is."

The archer's eyes flick up to where the new president was standing. Where President Coin should've stood, was Charlie.

Yasmina's eyes fly open. She tries to move a muscle, but she was paralyzed. "No… No, no, no, f***, f***, f***!" she thinks, knowing what was about to happen.

The laugh she hears sends a shiver down her spine. Charlie was in the room… and he knew she couldn't escape.

Something heavy sits on her chest, cackling as she suffocates. "Kenji, Kenji help!" she shouts in her head.

There was no answer from her friend.

The weight is lifted temporarily, and Yasmina catches a glimpse of another monster: the Jabba Hutt monster. The ugly little creature cackles. "What if I'm branded by this forever? What if I'm the bad guy?" it says, voice strangely like Kenji's. The anxiety-inducing creature crawls over Yasmina to reach Kenji, and a wave of fear washes over her.

The weight of her sleep demon returns and the athlete suffocates. "You'll never be able to protect your friends," it hisses. "You're useless… Your friends are as good as dead… You'll never be able to help Kenji… You'll never be able to save Brooklynn… You're not good enough for Ben…"

Yasmina shuts her eyes tight, tortured by it's words.

"Think you can save your friends?" the demon asks, tongue flicking and hissing near her ear.

"Then prove it…"

---

The next morning, Mrs. Fadoula wakes Yasmina and Kenji up. Both were pretty grumpy about it—Kenji didn't want to head to New Jersey for the preliminary hearing, and Yasmina was grumpy in general. "You're an athlete, don't you have to get up early to run or something?" Kenji remarks.

The athlete glares at him blankly for a few seconds, contemplating her options, before going through with her decision and slapping him. The alpha male's right side of his face smarted after that, not helping his already depressed mood.

Kenji begins to feel really bad for Ben. The alpha male had had restless sleep the entire night, full of nightmares and hours of lying awake on the bed. His anxiety about the trial left a sick feeling in his chest and it made him want to throw up. Yasmina had had breakfast that morning, but Kenji couldn't eat any of it. "If this is what Ben dealt with all day before the island… No wonder he just curled up in a corner and didn't want to do anything…" he thought.

The six campers, Kenji's father, and Darius's mother board the Kon private helicopter and begin their four hour journey to New Jersey. For at least the first hour of the trip, most of the group was half asleep in their seats. Sammy, on the other hand, was fully awake. "Cheer up, it's gonna be amazin'," she says to Kenji. "They're gonna see the evidence and immediately dismiss the case. Then we can go hang out for a bit before headin' back home!"

"For once, I agree with Miss Walking-on-sunshine," Yasmina says.

Kenji closes his eyes and contorts his face in mental pain.

"... Thanks, Yaz, now I have that song in my head," Darius mumbles. To his mild irritation, Brooklynn starts playing it.

After that, she puts on her pop music, trying to cheer up the drowsy, anxious mood. Despite every upbeat song playing, Kenji still felt depressed and stressed. He didn't even laugh when Sammy mixed up two songs confidently. "That's not the way it goes?" she asks in disbelief.

"No, that's a Tiktok remix," Brooklynn wheezes.

"You can tell how much she listens to Brittany Spears," Yasmina smirks.

"We weren't allowed to listen to her," Sammy protests. "... Or most mainstream pop stars."

"Of course, you listen to Country," the athlete smirks mischievously.

The two engage in a debate over what the best genre of music was as Brooklynn shuffles through her playlists, trying to find something to cheer up Kenji. The pinkette goes through her Kpop list to boost his mood, but BTS and Ateez didn't cheer him up, Itzy and Blackpink didn't distract him, and Stray Kids and Seventeen failed to make him dance. None of it could quell his jumbled nerves. Maybe he'd find the music more enjoyable if Yasmina would get irritated, but she was purposefully silent. The athlete was well aware that her disliked genre was being played solely to cheer him up, so she made her peace with listening to Kpop. Unfortunately, Kenji wished she would get pissed off. Maybe he could find some joy in annoying her.

"Dang, you know it's bad when Thunderous doesn't get him dancing," Brooklynn mutters, giving up.

Brooklynn hands her phone to Sammy, who goes through goofy kid songs from her childhood, watching her friend to see if he would laugh. Kenji smiles weakly, but he couldn't find joy in it.

The pinkette's phone receives a notification. "Who's Mr. Blizzard?" Sammy asks, squinting at Brooklynn's phone, then blinking curiously at her.

Brooklynn quickly leans forward in her seat and motions for her friend to toss her her phone. Sammy does, and the pinkette examines the text. "Who's Mr. Blizzard?" Darius asks, staring at Brooklynn with suspicion.

"My old ballet instructor from my time at Rosefire Ballet Center," she explains, her knee bouncing up and down in the seat. "Mom was just saying something about some production he's putting on."

"Blizzard sounds like a cool villain name," Yasmina remarks, glancing at Kenji to see if he got the pun. He did not; the guy was stuck in his own mind. Sighing, she continues. "He'd be the cousin of President Snow."

"He'd be a chilling villain for sure," Darius grins, joining in. "Just hope he doesn't get cold feet when it comes to the dirty work."

To their disappointment, Kenji stares blankly into the distance, detached from reality in his anxiety.

"What's his first name?" Sammy asks. "Frosty?"

"Major?" Darius snickers. "Major Blizzard?"

"Coriolanus?" Yasmina suggests.

Brooklynn rolls her eyes in annoyance. "Where did you even get Coriolanus?"

"Coriolanus Snow," the athlete shrugs. "I had a dream about the Hunger Games last night, so…" She shudders.

The pinkette curls back her lip in disgust. "No, his first name is Antonius."

"Close enough," Yasmina shrugs.

"No! Definitely not close!" Brooklynn snaps. "Just forget about it, he's not important."

"Bruh, chill," Darius says, chuckling sheepishly as she glares at him.

"You better freeze, Darius," the athlete snickers.

Brooklynn glances between the two, miffed. "Seriously?"

His friend's bickering doesn't faze Kenji. He was detached from reality. His palms were sweaty and cold; he felt numb. His mind was replaying one of the quick nightmares he had received the night before. In his dream, Lydia had been replaced with Sammy, and the cowgirl was testifying tearfully against him. "I told him I was pregnant," Sammy said in the dream. "He immediately turned violent… He ordered me to go through with the pregnancy… He was threatening… choking me… he tried to force me to keep the baby… I couldn't stay with Kenji…"

The idea of him impregnating Sammy and choking her made him nauseous. He blinks back tears as he fights the urge to throw up. Guilt rises up in Kenji. He couldn't look at Sammy, even though he had done nothing wrong to her. Just the mere thought of hurting her revived the fear of being a horrible, abusive narcissist. He thought he had dealt with that fear on the island… He thought it was gone after being accepted into the Gutierrez family… But it came back with Lydia's accusations…

"Ugh! How long until we arrive?" Brooklynn grumbles.

"About an hour," Mr. Kon informs her.

This brings his son back to reality. Biting his lip, he speaks for the first time in an hour. "How do I act…"
"What?" his father asks.

"How do I act…" he gulps. "How do I act in front of the cameras… I… I don't want to cry, but would being stoic come off as cold and insensitive? W-will the public see me as calloused if I pretend not to feel anything? Do I act scared? Do I act indifferent?"

"I'd say just act how you're acting now," Yasmina suggests quietly.

"You seem hollow," Darius says. "It's not embarrassing for you, but not calloused either. You just… kinda seem in shock. Like this is a bad dream and you're trying to figure it out."

Mrs. Bowman gives him some tips and Kenji's nerves settle… somewhat.

The helicopter lands at its destination, and the eight head to the hotel. It was a grand, luxurious hotel; expensive by the looks of it. "Way to flex your wealth," Yasmina whispers to Darius, and the two chuckle.

Ben just about walks into an ornate column as he looks around the place. "This place looks like it would be a palace!"

"I'm scared I'll brush up against something and break something expensive," Yasmina says, carefully limping through with her crutches.

"Woahhhhhhh," Darius says, looking up at the ceiling as he walks.

"The amount of waterin' the workers must do is insane," Sammy remarks, taking in all the plants decorating the place.

Brooklynn smirks. Between all her trips and high-end Youtubers she had collaborated with, the girl was used to expensive hotels. She glances at Kenji, who was staring at his shoes as he followed the group. Had he not been focused on his worry, he wouldn't be in awe, either. The boy was used to expensive hotels due to his father's financial status.

Brooklynn hangs back and slips her hand into his, swinging it like a child would. She smiles at him when he looks at her. "Cheer up, listen to the others. They're so amazed by the place."

Kenji smiles wearily, glances around at the lobby while his father checks in, then shakes off her hand. Brooklynn looks at her hand, confused and a bit hurt. "What's wrong?"

"People shouldn't associate you with me," he mumbles sadly.

"What?" Brooklynn whispers.

"You've already gotten hammered for supporting me," he explains as they step into the elevator.

"Yeah? You telling me to leave you just because some people don't like you?" she asks.

"Er, no…" he stutters.

"We ain't goin' anywhere," Sammy says loyally.

"The haters can go f—screw themselves," Yasmina smirks.

"We're not abandoning you just because the going gets rough," Darius says.

"We stuck with Yaz and Brooklynn through the Leah scandal, we'll stick with you through this, too," Ben smiles.

"I don't want you guys to be targeted just because of these accusations," Kenji says.

Mr. Kon places his hand on his son's shoulder. "You can't really help that. It reflects nothing on you."

"So suck it up and be friends with us in public," Brooklynn says, hugging him from the left side tightly. Darius moves in on the right, doing the same. Ben hugs him from behind.

"I feel like y'all are assaulting me," Kenji chuckles as the elevator door opens and the three refuse to let go. Sammy and Yasmina laugh as the four try to walk with their Kenji sandwich. Kenji looks like the three were kidnapping him as they hug him all the way to their rooms. Mr. Kon had gotten two rooms right next to each other. "So, who's sleeping where?" Mrs. Bowman asks as Darius runs into one room and jumps onto the bed.

"Well, there's two beds per room, so unless someone wants to sleep on the floor, we all have to share," Mr. Kon says from the doorway.

"How about you two get that room, and we all share this one," Sammy suggests with a grin.

"Boys bed, girls bed," Darius says, bouncing a little on the bed.

"Nah, we can all share this bed, Dad and Miss Grace can share the other, and then we can give that room back," Kenji suggests, tackling Darius.

"I am not sharing a bed with Mr. Kon," Darius's mother says. "No offense."

He frowns. "None taken…"

"Where one court case ends, another begins," Yasmina says darkly with a smirk, earning herself a short chastisement from Mrs. Bowman.

"Okay, how about boys room," Ben says, pointing to the wall, "and girls room," gesturing to the room they were standing in.

The eight agree and the guys head into the other room. The girls start changing into more formal clothes for the preliminary hearing. They hear a frustrated groan from the bathroom. "Thanks a lot, Brook!" Yasmina snaps, sticking her head out of the door. "I got that song in my head."

"That could literally be anything," the pinkette says blankly.

"I've got that stupid Kpop song stuck in my head!" the athlete complains.

"Doesn't exactly narrow it down," Brooklynn grins.

"The one Sammy didn't like," Yasmina grumbles. "The one that goes, 'You better run, run, run.'"

Brooklynn laughs. "Yeah, I didn't like that one for a while, either. Then it grew on me after being stuck in my head for hours on end."

"Nope, nuh uh, not letting it grow on me," Yasmina insists, limping out of the bathroom and sitting on the bed. "Who's sleeping where?"

"I don't care," Brooklynn says, using the bathroom to change next.

"How about Sammy and Yasmina share that bed, while Brooklynn and I share this one?" Mrs. Bowman suggests.

"No… oh, wait!" Yasmina goes to protests, then grins. "You can't move your legs, so you won't be kicking me in bed!"

"That's your thing!" Sammy protests.

"Oh, right, I kick and you flop around like a fish," the athlete snickers. "I end up with your feet in my face… Or Kenji ends up getting kicked in the crotch."

"Or I get a nasty whiff of him poppin' a fluffy," Sammy adds, making Yasmina wheeze with her choice of phrase. "Seriously, I'mma get him back for pullin' that Dutch oven on me."

Brooklynn chuckles at their bickering as she undresses and pulls on some nice pants. As she's dressing, she hears Yasmina reading comments off of their videos. "I hope the Camp Fam wins the case. After all they've been through, Kenji doesn't deserve to be accused. Good thing he's got Sammy the Elephant on his side."

"Hey! That's really mean!" Sammy protests. Brooklynn could practically hear her frown. "There's no need for name calling. I'm not even that big!"

"It's not an insult, just a poorly thought out compliment," Yasmina laughs. "It goes back to the Mantah Corp case. In Persian mythology, the Manticore is a terrifying beast, but the only animal it can't kill is the elephant. Someone gave you that nickname after we won the case against Mantah Corp."

"Oh…" Sammy mumbles. "It still sounds bad."

Brooklynn smirks at the conversation, checking the comments herself as she brushes her teeth. While there was a lot of support, there was also a lot of hate… Kenji was right, a lot of hatred was being aimed at her for merely supporting him and featuring him on her channel. Some of the comments were very nasty towards her; her self-conscious, broken self started to take the comments to heart.

She quickly turns off her phone. "I'm not a bad person for supporting him," she tells herself. Most hate comments, she'd take personally. But these ones were mad at her for supporting Kenji… She wasn't going to bow her head and accept shame for that.

"What if Leah is behind this…" a thought asks.

The idea makes her wonder. A lot more hate was being directed at her than one would think… And everyone agreed that Lydia was acting a bit out of character by accusing him, especially since she was the victim in this story… What if she was being paid to do this… Paid by Leah…

This got her guilt going. "Please go right…" she worries, brushing her hair. She taps the ground with her right foot anxiously. "Please don't take this to trial… Not Kenji… Not to destroy me…"

---

"I did not expect this much press to be here," Mr. Kon says as they pull up to the courthouse. The press was not to the extent of the Gutierrez v. Mantah Corp case—for that case got a lot more attention due to the nature of the case and who was involved—but it was still more than they expected.

"Oh, great," Kenji mumbles, stepping out of the car. The others walk around and with him as the press and on-lookers move in.

To his chagrin, it seemed there were more protestors than supporters. Those supporting Lydia were much more vocal about their contempt for him. The cries of anger and hatred mingle together into a chorus of doom for him. "Oh, back off!" Yasmina snaps at one of the naysayers, hissing at him ferally. Ben has to pull Darius back after he lunged for a particularly foul-mouthed protester.

Kenji numbly takes it all in, feeling like he was trapped in a nightmare. The voices and shouts blend together into a distressing and tormenting cacophony. Time feels like it slowed down. He was in a daze, seemingly being pushed along by his friends. His legs felt like they were lead and it was hard to walk. He tells himself to put on foot in front of the other, but it felt like he was trudging through mud. The atmosphere begins to feel heavy, like he was walking through water. Sounds of angry voices echo around his ears, but none of it made sense. Was he hyperventilating? Was he breathing normally? No one seemed to be worried about him. Was he breathing at all?!

Faces blur out as he walks up the stairs. Kenji starts to feel disassociated; his mind and his body were not attached.

One voice stands out from the rest and catches his attention. "Go to Hell, young man!"

Kenji turns to the source of the sound: an old woman being supported by her daughter. "You, and all those who support you, can burn in Hell! You deserve that fate for your sin! And anyone who supports you can suffer the same fate!"

Her harsh words echo around in his head, playing over and over again like a glitching radio. Kenji stares at his feet as he enters the building. Those words hit deeper than he wanted them to.

As they head into the building, a group of teens wave them over. "Yo! Over here!" one particularly vocal girl says.

Still detached from reality, Kenji glances at her for a second before placing her. "Oh… Hi?"

"You remember me, right?" she says, raising an eyebrow in both a judging and humorous manner.

"Y-yeah, I just… didn't expect to see you again," Kenji shakes his head. "Especially here."

"We're here to testify," the vocal girl says.

"Who are you?" Sammy asks hesitantly.

"Ex-girlfriend," she says, pointing to Kenji. "Pippa Stefani. And I've heard all of the name jokes for the record," she says, glaring at Darius as he opens his mouth. He closes it with a sheepish grin.

"Another? You got a lot of those wandering around here?" Yasmina teases.

"Haha," Kenji says lacklusterly. "You've… You've come to testify?"

"Yep," Pippa shrugs. "I was the last girlfriend before the Lydia fiasco… Right?"

Kenji nods.

"I've talked with a couple other girls you dated at the school, and we all agree that Lydia's story sounds out of character," she says. "When I dated you, there was never a threat of abuse. You were… You were a chill guy. Not serious about anything, type of guy. Like, you were dating us because you were bored."

"Ouch," Darius comments.

"Yeah, but I can't ever see you threatening a girl into keeping a baby," Pippa protests. "Everyone I've talked to agreed you'd be the kinda guy to tell her to take care of it and leave. I can't see you wanting to raise a child, much less physically harming a girl to make her keep a kid. That's just too out of character for you."

Kenji sighs. "Ladies and gentlemen, Pippa Stefani," he says, gesturing to her. "The ever brutally candor girl."

She laughs.

"Thank you, though," he says. "As bad as it sounds, it's evidence of my innocence."

"I think it's pretty unfair," Pippa tschs, throwing a couple stray braids over her shoulder. "You were a nice guy, besides not being very committed in a relationship. And even then, I don't think you were in a relationship with her. I can't see you getting angry at her for getting an abortion."

"She argued I'm manipulative," Kenji mumbles.

"Well, if you're the manipulative type, you've got horrible taste in victims," Pippa snorts. "I mean, the majority of the girls I've talked to are very… high spirited. Strong willed. Know what they want and don't take s***. Trust me, if you were manipulative in a relationship, you'd go for someone more submissive and naive."

"That is both comforting and painful to hear," Kenji chuckles wearily, looking over the group. Some faces were more familiar than others, but they all rang a bell. One face in particular felt like a punch to the gut. Victor. Lydia's boyfriend at the time of the scandal. The boy had a cold scorn when he looked at Kenji. But he was in the group supporting him… "What are you doing here?" he asks.

Victor shrugs, hardly any emotion on his face. "I'm mad at both of you, but more so her. You weren't the only guy. You might not have even been the father. She admitted that herself when she came forward about cheating."

Kenji blinks in surprise, then notices another face. "... I saw you at the party," he mutters, unable to remember her name.

"Amanda," the girl says shyly, raising her hand. "Thanks for looking out for me there… And for giving me tips about protecting my food and drinks. It came in handy later… I also overheard your conversation at the party… Lydia's trying to claim you forced her into bed, but that's not what I overheard."

Kenji rubs the back of his neck, shocked and overwhelmed by the amount of people who came out in support of him. "I… I didn't…" "I didn't think anyone liked me…" he thinks.

"I told ya, you've got this," Sammy smiles. "This case will be over before ya know it."

"You're not a horrible person, and you never were," Ben says quietly to him.

"The hearing is starting," Mrs. Bowman informs them.

Kenji blinks back tears of gratitude and heads in with the others.

The hearing takes about two hours to conclude. While most evidence was the testimonies of his character or testimonies from other people supporting Lydia, the evidence seemed to lean in Kenji's favor. The most conclusive piece of evidence was the video taken by Lydia's friend, Macie. It was revealed that she had begun videoing when Kenji confronted Lydia in case it needed to be used as evidence. While it ended up being used for that very reason, she hadn't expected it to be used against Lydia. The video clearly showed everything Kenji had said had happened.

As the hearing progresses, Kenji begins to relax slightly. His anxiety starts to ease and he begins to think that his friends were right.

Maybe the case wouldn't go to a trial and he was overthinking it all.

---

"F***ing BS!" Yasmina snaps, flopping down on a couch in the hotel lobby.

"How can the judge send it to a trial?!" Darius exclaims, sitting down next to her. "Macie's video proves everything Kenji's said, and all of Lydia's evidence can't hold water!"

"I don't know, this is so confusing," Sammy says. "It makes no sense, our lawyer basically proved Kenji didn't do it, and so did Lydia's friend. How can they continue on with the case?

"This shouldn't be how it goes…" Brooklynn murmurs.

"I feel like there's some corruption going on here," Ben mutters darkly. "Why would the judge send this to court?"

"D*** right, there's corruption," Yasmina swears.

Kenji sits down in a chair in front of Darius and Yasmina, still in shock. The image of his accuser sticks out in his mind. When the judge had made his decision, Lydia refused to meet his eyes. In fact, the entire hearing, she had refused to look at him. She almost looked ashamed of herself… "What game are you playing?" Kenji wonders dread weighing down in his stomach.

He sighs. The boy was tired. He had been anxious and worried for days, had his first panic attack, and finally gone through the hearing. Instead of finding closure, though, he found more worry and torment to go through.

Kenji closes his eyes and shakes his head. He was too tired to care at the moment. He would like to think that he'd win the trial, but after the hearing, he was beginning to think he'd end up in prison. Perhaps the judge had been bribed… or maybe he was blind to his own guilt…

"The judge had to have been bribed," Yasmina hisses, bringing Kenji back to reality. "There's no way that sentence is fair and just."

Darius curls his hand into a fist in rage. "This isn't right! She's just trying to ruin your life! I wish I could beat that piece of crap in the face!"

"Knock her teeth out," Yasmina seethes. "Or worse… I should've brought my Great Grandfather's knife."

Kenji looks around at the group, watching their reactions. Yasmina and Darius were completely livid and enraged. Sammy looked like she agreed with them, but wasn't voicing it loudly. Brooklynn and Ben looked deep in thought.

"The judge is either blind or corrupted," Sammy speaks. "But I'm sure the trial will go better than this."

"How? If Lydia can bribe the judge, why can't she bribe the jury?" Darius asks.

"A lot more people they would need to bribe," Sammy shrugs. "Besides, will the list be decided ahead of time? Would Lydia and whoever is helping her be able to contact them? I think it will be harder for them to track down and bribe. Which means a more unbiased opinion that will see the clear evidence. And who knows? Maybe if the news gets a hold of the story, public pressure will help. I'm confident that, despite this setback, justice will be served and Kenji won't be a criminal. He's not, and he never will be."

Kenji smiles gratefully at her. He was so thankful for Sammy. Her support, her positivity. There was a reason he loved her…

His eyes wander before he catches himself. She had on a cream, V-neck blouse with open shoulder sleeves. Lacey embroidery designs lined the edges of the shirt. It was in no way inappropriate or immodest, but Kenji found his attention draw to her curvature—

"No! No, no, no!" he tells himself, forcing his eyes to focus on raging Yasmina and Darius. "Don't go there. Sammy doesn't deserve it, and it's wrong. She doesn't want me to think about her that way yet… Besides, what have you just gone through with Lydia?"

He finds it slightly difficult to put it out of his mind.

Over on the other side of the couch was Brooklynn, mindlessly scrolling through her phone. Next to her was Ben, who was in thought as well. Only thing is, the pinkette was sure his thoughts weren't as dark as her. "Lydia must've been bribed by Leah," she thinks. "There's no way there wasn't corruption in this hearing. And Lydia doesn't really have any motivation to do this other than to ruin Kenji's life… and even then, she didn't seem to want to do that… If she really hated him, she'd have accused him back when it happened. Back when she had the chance to win by faking more convincing evidence. No… Leah must have bribed Lydia into doing this… Made a deal with her… Maybe she's trying to take out Kenji as punishment for what I've done… Or maybe she'll try to strike a deal with Kenji… Drop the charges if he drops me… It'd be better for him if he did… But Kenji won't…"

As Darius, Yasmina, and Sammy discuss the recent turn of events, Brooklynn notices a group of people entering the hotel. She didn't take much concern until she noticed Lydia was one of them. More attentive now, she watches from her spot on the couch. Lydia was in between two bodyguard looking men. A woman—dressed like a secretary—walks in front, leading them towards the desk.

Brooklynn strains to make out the letters embroidered on the back of the woman's jacket as she checks in. "Room 16, floor 5," the lady at the front desk says.

Brooklynn quickly takes a picture of the lady's jacket with her phone as the group heads to the elevator. Looking up from her phone, she notices Lydia spots Kenji. The other girls face is pale as the doors close.

Even more convinced now that Leah and Brooklynn's antagonizers were bribing—maybe even threatening—Lydia into doing this, the pinkette tries to decipher what was on the back of the lady's jacket. No matter how much she enhanced it, the photo was still too blurry to correctly read.

Frustrated, Brooklynn leaves with the others to go back to their room for bed. "Room 16, floor 5," the front desk lady's words come back.

As Brooklynn pulls on pajamas and slips into bed next to Darius's mother, a plan begins to form in her head.

---

"Kenji… Kenji…! Kenji!" a voice cries out.

Kenji wakes with a start. A shiver runs down his spine violently. There was something unnerving about his dream. There were no pictures, no visions, no sights. But the voice… He couldn't place who it was, but he recognized it.. It was a girl… Calling out to him.. She was in trouble… Something was wrong.

Looking around the room, he finds the other occupants sound asleep. Ben was dead asleep silently and Darius was softly snoring next to him in the other bed. His father slept soundly next to the boy. The room was dark and silent…

Kenji strains to hear anything, but other than the snoring of his friend and the city noises outside, there was nothing. Nothing to indicate that someone was in trouble.

He sits up and rubs his face. There was something distressing and anguishing about the voice… He tries to place it. His first thought was Sammy, but her voice didn't sound like that… Yasmina's voice was deeper… Brooklynn, maybe… No, it wasn't her, either. It wasn't any of the siblings, and he was pretty sure it wasn't one of the mothers…

"Lydia," a voice in his head says.

"Why would I have a dream about her crying my name?" he wonders in confusion. "She's the one antagonizing me…"

Against his will, he recalls his memory of her at the hearing. Her face had been anxiously pale, and she refused to look at him. Her movements seemed anxious and flighty, and she was constantly fidgeting… She certainly seemed distressed…

"She was probably faking it for the public," he tries to shrug off his anxiety.

But he knew better. Her anxiety looked real… And the woman she was sitting with… While Kenji had never met her parents, Lydia and the lady she sat with looked nothing alike. He was sure he had seen her parents before, and the lady didn't match his vague memory.

He sits there for a few seconds before sighing and searching up the Andronica family. Her father was a wealthy businessman, and Mrs. Andronica looked nothing like the lady in the picture. "Step-mom, maybe?" he theorizes. "Or maybe her parents died and she was adopted by someone else?"

Google showed no results of Lydia's parents dying, though, or divorcing. It did reveal that her father's business flopped and they went bankrupt.

"Is she hoping to earn money from this case or something? Can she even do that? Get compensation through this kind of court?"

But then, why was she sitting with a woman she wasn't related to? Perhaps the woman was her aunt or a guardian, but why weren't Lydia's parents in the hearing with her…

Had she been kidnapped? Was that why she was in danger? Was that strange woman her captor?

"No, that would be stupid to kidnap a girl, then force her in the public eye…" he rationalizes.

He recalls his conversation with Yasmina the other day. Could Leah truly be behind it? Could she have struck a deal with Lydia? Lydia accuses Kenji and messes with the campers while Leah pays her? Similar to what Mantah Corp did with Sammy?

"What if Mantah Corp is behind this…" he wonders, then shakes his head. They were destroyed; their leaders in prison.

"Relax, you don't even know if Leah has that power… Besides, she's grounded and her parents are really nice," he tells himself, laying back down in bed. "Leah wouldn't have been able to make a deal with Lydia. She's not in danger, and you're just being paranoid."

"But why am I paranoid about her being in trouble if she's my accuser?" a voice asks.

Kenji can't answer that question. "She's fine," he tells himself. "Don't be worried about her."

But he couldn't shake the apprehension that something was wrong…

"Well, there's nothing I can do for her if something's wrong," he reminds himself. "If she is in danger, I have no way of knowing why or how, and I have no way of finding her. I have no idea what situation she's in, or what's threatening her. How can I help her if I have no information? There's nothing I can do…"

"Pray for her…"

The idea was so preposterous that he scoffed out loud. "Pray for her? I don't even like her! And I'm not religious! Why would I pray for her?! No, not doing it."

Kenji lays back down next to his father and tries to put it out of his mind. He tosses and turns as the feeling eats away at him. He had no peace, there was only apprehension, dread, and an urgent sense to help Lydia. He reminds himself that he can't help her because he has no idea where she is or what's wrong. Then the idea of praying for her would arise and he would squash it. That internal argument repeats itself over and over again, getting Kenji nowhere peaceful. On the contrary, he became more frustrated and anxious. The idea of prayer turned into a feeling, which then turned into a strong urge.

Finally, he had had enough. Kenji sits up, glares at nothing in particular, and sighs sharply. "Fine…" he mutters aloud, getting out of bed and heading into the bathroom. "Maybe if I pray, I can finally get some peace," he grumbles. "Clear my conscience, since I can't do anything else… Even though this is silly… Just this once, I am not making this a habit."

Kenji stops and listens, making sure his friends were still asleep. He wasn't sure who he was talking to, but the whole situation embarrassed him. Anxiety over the trial was one thing. But this was an entirely different—and embarrassing—situation.

He recalls living with the Gutierrez's and how praying sometimes helped him collect his thoughts… And also, strangely, made him figure out that Yasmina was suicidal before he got word of it. Maybe this would actually help…

Kenji sinks down onto his knees and clears his throat. "Uhh… God? Lord? I guess people generally call you God… Gah, why am I doing this… Okay… I… I pray for Lydia… I think she's in danger… Please save her or fight for her… Just help her… I don't know what's wrong… Or even if there's something wrong… But there's just something in me that tells me it's not right… It's the same feeling that said the trial wouldn't go as we thought it would… So, I guess I should listen to it…"

He groans, clasping his hands together and bringing them to his forehead. "I just… pray for her… for her… safety, and… and…"

There was a word on the tip of his tongue… "Conscience? No… Bravery? Willpower?"

Thinking for a few seconds, he comes to it. "Courage! I pray for her courage… and conscience… and safety… God, what's going on with her that I'm feeling this way? Why am I feeling this way? I'm not connected to her in any good way, why would I feel anxious about her?"

Sighing for the umpteenth time, he continues. "I know I don't particularly like her and I wish she would get what she deserves for falsely accusing me… But now I'm wondering what her motives behind it are… And as much as I dislike her, I wouldn't wish her to be in harm's way… So if she's in danger, please save her… Give her the courage to run… away…"

He sits there, thinking. Praying for Lydia gave him more questions than answers, but at least he wasn't feeling anxious or the impending sense of dread.

Behind the shower, he can hear a door open. "That's the girls room…" he furrows his brow. Curious, he gets up and heads to the door.

---

"Sammy?" Brooklynn hisses.

"Mooooo…" Sammy mumbles, sleep talking.

"Yaz?" Brooklynn whispers. "Do you hear her?"

There was no answer. Brooklynn turns over in bed to see Mrs. Bowman sound asleep.

The pinkette was glad. Now she could slip out unnoticed…

Since seeing Lydia in the lobby—really since she got to the hotel and wondered if Leah was behind this—worry had gripped her. She was sure Leah and her past were behind this. They had to be. Lydia had no reason to come out against Kenji like that. Most of Kenji's classmates agreed behind closed doors that she wasn't the type to victimize herself. Why bring this up now? She had no reason to, unless she was getting paid to… Unless she was getting paid by someone who wanted to hurt Kenji, or someone close to him…

"Convicting, or even accusing Kenji of assault will taint his name forever… Permanently ruining or making his life harder… And for those of us who support him, we'll always have a red flag above us. When asked if we can be trusted, people will be reminded that we support a guy accused of assault… And people already hate me because I support him, so Lydia's doing a great job of damaging us…"

The more she thought about it while the others fell asleep, the more she became convinced it was Leah and her past behind this. Her foot anxiously taps against the bed. "They don't want me talking about it… They're hurting my friends to punish me… Again, I'm the one harming them…"

Seeing that everyone was asleep, Brooklynn quietly slips out, gets dressed in the bathroom, and slips out of the hotel room. She didn't bring the keycard because she was confident she could hack the lock. "Room 16, floor 5," she mutters to herself, having memorized the number.

The door next to the girls room opens, startling her. Kenji steps out, looking tired and fully dressed. "What are you doing?" he asks, frowning in confusion.

"Why are you dressed?" the pinkette asks.

"Didn't change into pajamas," he says, his eyes never leaving hers. "What are you doing dressed?"

"I thought I'd take a walk around, couldn't sleep," she lies.

"Where's the keycard?" Kenji asks.

"I can hack the door when I come back," she says.

"Then hack mine, too," Kenji says, closing the door and coming closer.

"You don't have to come," she assures him, backing up.

"What, I can't sleep, either," he shrugs. "Why can't I come?"

"I… just want some alone time," she excuses.

Kenji glares down at her, not believing it. "Then I can follow at a distance."

"That's really not necessary," Brooklynn says quickly.

"Yeah, actually, it is," he crosses his arms. "You're not trusted to be alone, especially not in a new place. I'm coming."

"Kenji, please, just go back to bed," Brooklynn groans.

"Why? You know you're not trusted on your own," Kenji reminds her. "It's too dangerous."

"And if I find what I'm looking for, it will most certainly be dangerous…" she thinks.

"Why are you really out here in the middle of the night?" he asks accusatively.

Brooklynn chews on her lip, tapping the ground with her right foot. On one hand, this involved him. She was searching for Lydia to figure out why she had accused him and what was going on. Part of her knew he had a right to know what she was doing.

On the other hand, it involved her big secret… If who she thought was behind it, he would want to know what was going on. She couldn't tell him… No, she had to deal with this on her own. Her past was coming back to haunt her, and she had to face this ghost on her own. She had already dragged her friends into enough trouble. She didn't want them knowing her secret and her past… That would put them in too much danger. If they knew, then they were a target. Better to keep her friends innocently in the dark.

But… Kenji wouldn't give up… And now she couldn't sneak out on her own…

What if he did find out? What if Kenji found out what she had done? What if he found out her secret? Would he leave her? Would he disown her as a friend? Maybe finding out her secret and realizing that was the reason he was being put through all this would be enough to push him away…

Or maybe she could genuinely take a walk with him and pretend like her lies were true… But then she'd waste her time and never find out what was happening…

"Brook, what's going on?" Kenji asks, concern etched in his face.

Deciding it was better to find out the truth and perhaps—painfully—push away Kenji with the truth, she sighs. "I saw Lydia today."

"At the trial?" he questions, looking even more concerned.

"No… in the lobby," she hisses. "Earlier while Yaz and Darius were ranting. Her and three other people went up in the elevator. They're staying here tonight."

"So, what are you doing?" he whispers, suspicious.

"I heard their room and floor number," Brooklynn informs him. "Something fishy is going on, and I wanna find out what."

She half expected him to stop her, tell her she was crazy, when he grabs her wrist. "Stay behind," he orders quietly. "I'll check it out."

"What? Why?" she hisses.

"This could be dangerous, and I'm the one involved," he explains. "I don't want you putting yourself in harms way for information."

"Psht, what makes you think I'm not involved?" Brooklynn retorts, before realizing she might have said too much.

To her surprise, he blinks. "You think Leah's behind this, too?" Kenji asks.

Brooklynn pulls back in surprise. "You think so?"

"I mean, Lydia doesn't really seem to have a motive, other than her parents going bankrupt…" he mutters. "So maybe Leah is paying her to attack me and indirectly attack you…"

Brooklynn crosses her arms and sighs. He thought the same thing as her, but didn't know her secret… This was risky, but she couldn't afford not knowing what was going on. "Yeah… I wanna talk to her and find out what's going on. There was something written on the back of the lady's jacket. The one walking with Lydia. I couldn't figure out what it said, but it looked like a logo."

"Who did Leah hire…?" Kenji murmurs.

"Only one way to find out," she says.

Kenji sighs, tired. "Alright… guess there's no stopping you, and I'm as curious as you are."

The two take the stairs up to the fifth floor. The hallway was dimly lit and gave off an ominous feeling. Kenji and Brooklynn quietly creep down the hall, making sure to stay as silent as they could. They didn't want to attract the attention of guests, employees… or worse.

Brooklynn counts in her head as she reads the room numbers. They were on the other side of the building, so the two had many corners to pass. Each time they came to a fork, they would carefully look around the corner. The adrenaline of their mission, the knowledge of the danger they would be in, made them feel anxious. The dimly lit halls and feeling of dread brought back feelings from Isla Nublar. The two half expected a raptor to stick its head out from a door or from behind them. Once, Brooklynn could've sworn she heard a reptilian hiss behind her.

Finally reaching the stretch of hallway that led to Lydia's room, Kenji gulps. "How are we going to get in? We can't just break in?"

Before she could answer, the woman Brooklynn saw comes around a corner from up ahead. The two quickly duck behind the wall, carefully peeking out to watch her.

The woman with the jacket knocks on a door and it opens. Light illuminates her and she quietly speaks to someone inside before heading back the way she came. The door was still open, and the two could hear voices coming from inside.

Brooklynn and Kenji look at each other, nod, and quietly stalk closer. As they close the gap between them and the door, the voices become more clear and they get snippets of the conversation. "I hate this…" a girl said. Lydia. "... I couldn't care less about Kenji… No, he wasn't the worst guy, I don't care… Go after any guy, it'd be… I just want to forget this…"

Another person—a woman—spoke. "... It's hard to remember… But this is important…"

"Can we just drop the charges?" Lydia asks. By now, the two campers had come within listening distance and were able to hear the whole conversation. "Damage has already been done to him and the others. Do we have to continue? I don't want to remember this… I don't want to be the victim… Can we just drop them before it goes to trial? You could spin it like he bribed us into being silent for all I care…"

The woman speaks again. "You agreed to this."

"Only because you guys left me no choice after hearing that I knew him…" Lydia mumbles, almost hard to understand.

A familiar voice speaks, sending chills down Brooklynn and Kenji's spines. "Yes, we could pretend that they paid us to be silent, but it would not inflict maximum damage."

"Is that?" Brooklynn mouths in horror.

The two carefully peek around the door frame into the room. Lydia was sitting in a chair, a gray, oversized hoodie pulled tightly around her. The woman they heard was standing beside her. The two guards Brooklynn saw stood with their backs to the door.

There, to their horror, was Doctor Wu standing in front of her. "Believe me, Miss Andronica, I do not want to be here anymore than you do. I would much rather be in my lab than here overseeing this hearing. But the credibility of the children must be tainted as much as we possibly can. They have knowledge that I would not like to be released to the public. If we can paint them as liars or unreliable, we have a greater chance of surviving any accusations they might make."

Brooklynn and Kenji pull back in horror. The pinkette backs up in shock. She steps back into a wooden stand with a porcelain vase. The vase wobbles and tips over. Panickedly, she fumbles to catch it. To her relief, she saved the vase and put it back, sighing quietly.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

"What was that?" Doctor Wu asks.

Kenji and Brooklynn's eyes widen. The boy quickly grabs her hand and pulls her with him, sprinting down the hall back the way they came. The two just reach the fork as one of the guards looks out the door. As they turn the corner, they catch a glimpse of the guard pulling out an object.

A bang sounds and they instinctively duck. A bullet speeds just over their heads and leaves a mark in the wall as they run. Brooklynn gasps in shock as they race down the hall. They can hear the guard chasing them.

The two run as fast as their legs would carry them, turning corners whenever they can to have cover and avoid gunfire. The guard did not try to shoot them again until they came to a particularly long stretch of hall. "Run! Run! Run!" Kenji hisses, looking over his shoulder to see the man turning the corner. They had about fifteen feet to cove before they could turn another corner.

As they reach the corner, the guard shoots again, making Kenji wince and Brooklynn yelp. The two reach the stairs and immediately run down as fast as they can. Kenji's foot slips out from under him and he falls down on his backside, sliding down the stairs to the bottom.

"Come on!" Brooklynn hisses, grabbing his hand and practically pulls him down the next flight of stairs as their assailant begins his descent down the stairs.

The two reach the bottom floor and sprint again. Kenji grabs her upper arm and pulls her into the kitchen. Knowing that some cooks were still working late at night, the two quietly moved through, ducking down as they ran to avoid being seen. Finding a cart with a tablecloth thrown over it, the two duck under it and hide in it. Kenji grabs the sides of her face and looks over her. "Are you hurt?" he mouths, having heard her yelp when the gun was fired.

Brooklynn shakes her head, heart pounding.

The two hear the door open and heavy footsteps. They quiet their breathing, waiting anxiously for him to pass by.

The guard passes the cart and stops, looking around. He had on a dark gray T-shirt and a black, padded vest. He had pocketed his gun in his light gray cargo pants. His brown/black hair was cut short at the top, with the back and sides fading into a buzz cut. He had long sideburns and a grizzly beard. His features were chiseled and angry.

That's when the campers realized that only two sides of the cart were covered by the cloth.

The two grit their teeth in fear and pray he doesn't see them.

---

"Yasmina!"

Her head snaps to attention, frantically looking around for the source of the sound.

"Yasmina!" it calls out again.

"Brook!" the athlete shouts.

"Yasmina, help me!" Brooklynn screams in distress.

"Brook!" she shouts, running through the dark alleyway. She comes to the street and finds white-clad men dragging Brooklynn away. "Yasmina!" she yells.

"Brooklynn!" Yasmina shouts, running towards her, only to run into nothing. A clear, glass wall separated them. "No! No!" the athlete shouts, banging on the glass and watching as the men throw her friend on the hard concrete.

Yasmina wakes with a start. She freezes for a minute before tentatively moving her fingers. They were moving… She moves her hand up to her face and sighs with relief. She wasn't paralyzed.

Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she glances over at Sammy, still fast asleep. Turning to her right, she notices Brooklynn is gone from her spot next to Mrs. Bowman. A sense of fear rises up in her. "She's probably in the bathroom," the athlete tells herself, grabbing her crutches and hobbling to the bathroom. The door was open and no one was inside…

She kneels down and finds Brooklynn's pajamas in a pile on the floor. "She changed into regular clothes, I assume…" Yasmina thinks.

Approaching the balcony door, she peeks out and doesn't see Brooklynn out there. "She left the hotel room," Yasmina realizes. Dread begins to course through her as she quickly pulls on a bra and quietly opens the door. She didn't care if she was in pajamas and short shorts; Brooklynn might be in danger.

She closes the door slowly, taking the welcome card she found in the room and sticking in between the door and the wall so that she could come back in later.

The door next to her opens and Darius steps out. "Have you seen Kenji?" he asks, closing the door.

"Do you have the keycard?" Yasmina asks.

Darius flashes the key to the room before putting it back in his pocket. "What are you doing out here?"

"Brooklynn's missing," Yasmina hisses.

Panic flashes in the boy's eyes before they harden. "Where do you think she could've gone?"

"I don't know," the athlete mutters, standing back up. "Do you think her and Kenji went for a walk or something?"

"I hope so," Darius sighs. "Let's check the lobby."

The two take the elevator down to the first floor and look around the lobby. "I don't see them," Yasmina murmurs to him. The lights were still lit as the employees went about their late night business, but the two missing campers were still not in sight.

A man in a business suit approaches them. Darius steps back closer to Yasmina and wraps an arm around her middle; he didn't trust the guy. What was he doing up so late at night?

"What are you kids doing up so late?" the man asks the same question Darius had in mind. He had a pretty full face that seemed like it would look better with a smile, but when he smiled, it felt a little sinister. Blue gray eyes with glasses, and the beginnings of a beard. His hair was slicked back and a light brown shade. He gave off the feeling of a man who seemed nice and genuine, couldn't fight to save his life, but had a dangerous power about him.

"We don't talk to strangers," Darius says, using the excuse ingrained in him from when he was a child.

"Well, we've never met before, but I shouldn't be too much of a stranger to you," the man says, looking behind them.

Yasmina and Darius turn and see two burly men approaching them. They did not look friendly.

"What do you want from us?" Yasmina growls, gripping Darius's shoulder.

"We don't want to harm you, don't worry," the business man says. Somehow his statement didn't soothe them. "We just want to talk with you. Would you please walk with us?"

"No thanks," Yasmina sniffs.

"I didn't ask," the man says, both gentle and chilling at the same time.

"Yeah, well you phrased it like a question," the athlete quips.

"I would be careful what you say," he suggests as one of the guards steps closer and places a meaty hand on her shoulder.

Yasmina stiffens.

"We'll walk," Darius growls, shoving the guard's hand off of her and gently pulling her along. The two follow the stranger out of the hotel and around the water fountains. The threatening guards stick close to them, and the campers stick even closer to each other.

"Believe me, I'm not here to harm you," the business man says. "That's not my job."

Yasmina and Darius glance at each other. "But it is someone's," she whispers, barely audible.

"Who are you?" Darius asks suspiciously.

"I can't tell you that until I know I can trust you," the man says, turning around and stopping.

The two campers stop as well. Yasmina snorts. "And how can we know that we can trust you?"

The man sighs. "I can't exactly assure that…"

"So, basically, neither party can trust each other, and you're still here talking to us," Darius frowns.

"Why can't you trust us? We're a bunch of kids," Yasmina questions. "Are we dangerous, or are you sketchy?"

"A bit of both," the man admits. "Well, my company isn't sketchy. We just prefer to work in the shadows."

"A.K.A. your actions are illegal," Yasmina sets it straight.

"What company are you fronting for?" Darius narrows his eyes.

"I cannot say until I can trust you," the mysterious mister says.

"Then what do you want from us?" Yasmina asks.

"My company would like you and your friend's assistance in… a little project," he says vaguely.

"You want help from us, but you can't tell us your name OR who you work for?" Yasmina says. Her and Darius look at each other and fall on the same page. "Nope, sorry, can't do," she says.

"We're still kids, we can't make informed decisions yet," Darius says, faking a grin as he throws an arm around her torso.

"You'll have to talk to our parents if you want to recruit us," Yasmina shrugs, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

"Did your parents make the decisions for you on the island?" he asks. "Because you kids made some smart decisions there. I mean, you are all here to tell the tale."

"No thanks to big cooperation like you with your little secret projects," Darius snaps.

"The Indominus was not—is not our goal," the mysterious man corrects himself.

Yasmina narrows her eyes. "You work for InGen, don't you?" she accuses.

The guards step closer, confirming what she had said. "What do you really want from us?" Darius asks.

He gives up, taking off his glasses. "We would like your assistance in a possible project," he says, emphasizing one word with distaste. "We've heard of what you and your friends accomplished on the island."

"Just lay it out for us, Mysterio," Yasmina snaps. "Stop wasting our time and we might stop wasting yours. You're making another hybrid, aren't you?"

The man she dubbed Mysterio sighs sharply. "Alright. Yes, we are hoping to work on another hybrid project. Nothing is in the works right now due to… licensing difficulties. But should we get it up and running, InGen would like you two and your other friends to assist us in training them."

The athlete barks out a harsh laugh.

"You said during the Gutierrez v Mantah Corp case that your group found and raised the Indoraptors," Mysterio continues. "Did you not?"

The two stay silent.

"And I was informed you supposedly fed the five to the Tyrannosaurus rex," he says, eyes darting between the two. "Is that true? Or is all of this a lie?"

"We did raise them, then let Rexy eat them to keep them out of your hands," Darius says, keeping up with his lie on the island.

"And if we searched the island, would we find them?"

Darius smirks. "Well, have you found their bodies yet? I suggest searching in Rexy's waste if you wanna find them."

Mysterio pinches the bridge of his nose. "Regardless of what you did with the million dollar hybrids, my offer still stands. If everything you say about you raising them is true, you all have skill and knowledge. We could use that in the lab. Evident by the fact that you survived, your group had some sort of skill or knowledge that you used to tame them. Something we don't seem to possess, as shown by our Scorpius rex."

Yasmina's chest tightens at the name. Darius glares at the man. "You guys couldn't control it, could you? So you froze it."

"More or less," Mysterio nods.

"No," Darius scoffs. "We're not helping you with this."

"Now hold on—" he starts to say.

"You hold on, Rafe Spall," Yasmina quips. "We raised the Indoraptors to keep them from attacking us and attempt to prevent them from being threats to the rest of the world. InGen and all the other greedy companies trying to make dinos haven't learned from your mistakes and you keep making them! How many times will the dinos have to break out before you stop?! Making these dangerous hybrids is only causing more trouble! You're killing people! You're giving others like us PTSD and trauma! You're causing yourselves billions of dollars in lawsuits! And you still keep making them!"

"There are benefits to these hybrids," Mysterio argues.

"They don't outweigh the cons, and you're greedy," Yasmina snaps.

"Were the Indoraptors bad?" he asks, silencing them. "You all seemed attached to the dinosaurs you had on the island. The hybrids couldn't be all that bad."

"Because we raised them," Yasmina mumbles.

"So perhaps if you raised these hybrids, they wouldn't be a disaster," Mysterio suggests. "Think of the world. You might be able to prevent another hybrid disaster and raise up highly intelligent hybrids who could improve the world. Would you really want to turn this down all because you don't trust us?"

"You haven't given us a reason to trust you," Darius snarls. Despite his anger, he felt the guilt the InGen manager tried to push.

Mysterio shrugs. "Worth a shot."

"Why are you giving us so much information?" Yasmina asks suspiciously. "We already knew enough to be dangerous, but now… now you might have to kill us."

"Oh, you won't go telling everyone else," Mysterio says certainly.

"What makes you so sure?" Darius hisses.

He smiles, danger underlying it. "Why, because your friends reputation is on the line. As is his future."

Darius and Yasmina look at each other. "What are you saying?" the athlete growls.

"If you two stay silent about InGen, and keep your friends in line, we'll let Mr. Kon off the hook," he states. "If you're good, we can offer you favors. For a price, of course."

"What favors?" Darius draws back his lip in disgust.

"Covert, sketchy favors," Mysterio says. "Like old friends offering help to each other in tight situations."

"You got the Mafia on your side or something?" Yasmina asks, her voice a little hollow.

"We don't need your 'charity,'" Darius spits. "We don't need your sketchy company to lend a hand in our protection. We survived the island just fine without it. I can protect my friends without calling on you."

Yasmina bites her lip. "... We're not taking your deal. We'll just fall into another Gutierrez v Mantah Corp scandal, wouldn't we?"

"And will you keep our little secret?" Mysterio asks. The guards step closer, looming over the two. "We can call off the Andronica v Kon case if you do. Besides… You're in no power to protect yourselves right now."

He glances down at Yasmina's visible amputation.

Yasmina pulls her leg in closer and leans towards Darius, wishing she had worn more clothing than her pajamas and a bra.

Darius bristles. His pride said he could take all three on… But he knew he couldn't… and as strong as Yasmina was, he didn't want to put her in danger… Plus… They had the chance to end the trial right then and there…

"Fine," he growls. "We'll keep your d*** secret." "For now," he thinks.

Mysterio smiles. "Alright, I'll call off the trial. Here is the number you can call if you change your mind about the hybrids or favors." He hands the two each their own card with a phone number on it. "Escort them back to the lobby," he nods to the guards.

Darius and Yasmina walk with the guards as the mysterious man makes a phone call. The two are silent for most of their way back. Once in the lobby, the two guards disperse, leaving the campers to head back to their hotel rooms. "Rafe Spall?" Darius questions as they take the elevator.

"Actor from a horror movie I saw," she explains. "I thought he looked like him."

---

Brooklynn and Kenji sit in silence, hyperventilating silently as their assailant stands there, scanning the kitchen. He knew they had run in there, but it was silent… The two were in hiding and he knew it.

Kenji slowly slides his arm around her back, ready to protect her in case the guard found them. Brooklynn carefully, quietly moves into a crouch, ready to make a run for it.

Hours felt like they had passed. The guard's phone rang, making them start. They bite their lips to keep from yelping.

He answers it. "Yeah?"

"Stand down, Hawkes," the voice on the other end says, just audible enough for the campers to hear some of it. They were pretty sure it was Dr. Wu. "Mi... has called off the trial. … them go."

"They heard and saw us," the guard, Hawkes, growls.

"Stand down," the other man insists. "Return to the room."

The guard's face contorts in anger. "Fine…"

Ending the call, Hawkes storms out of the kitchen, missing the relieved campers.

Brooklynn and Kenji relax and sigh with relief. The pinkette clutches her heart. "That was a close one," she whispers.

The boy nods. "Yeah…"

"Who called off the trial?" Brooklynn hisses. "Mi something…"

"I don't know, I couldn't hear it properly," Kenji mutters. "Mill? Milfred? Milton?"

The two jittery balls of nerves erupt into giggles, finding something to break the tenseness as they carefully head back to their hotel rooms.

---

"Gah!" Ben exclaims quietly, sitting up in bed. He was sweaty and shaky; he had had a nightmare that left him in cold sweat. Now… suddenly, he couldn't remember the dream…

He rubs his eyes, still trembling. The foreboding feeling wasn't leaving. He couldn't shake the idea that something was very wrong. Something terrible was taking place… Something… Something… Something important and life-changing was going down… Someone was in trouble…

He had had this feeling before… Anxiety… The sense that danger was imminent… But he hadn't had that feeling in a while… And while every time he felt it, he was sure something bad would happen… This time, he was really sure.

"Oh God… Oh my God… What is wrong?!" he cries out in his head, panicking. What was happening?!

"Darius," he hisses, turning to his left. The bed was empty. "Kenji?!" he whispers, turning to the other bed. Only Mr. Kon laid in it.

"Guys!" he hisses, getting up and checking the bathroom and balcony. No one was there.

Fearful, Ben walks out of the room in his pajamas and looks around. Heading down one path at random, he scans the halls. "Where are they?!" he shouts in his head. He was panicking internally. Were they kidnapped? Taken away? Why were his friends missing?!

Ben comes around the corner and almost bumps into Kenji. The two yelp and jump into a defensive stance. "Kenji?! What are you doing out?!" Ben whisper shouts.

"We'll talk tomorrow," Brooklynn sighs, coming out from behind Kenji. "It's been a long day and night."

Confused, Ben walks with them back to the hotel room. Brooklynn picks the lock on the girls room, then begins to pick the lock for the boys. It opens before she can. "Brook?" Darius blinks.

"Where were you?" Ben hisses. "I woke up and both of you were gone!"

"Long story," Darius says vaguely. "Let's go to sleep."

Feeling angry and left in the dark, Ben grumpily climbs back into bed with Darius. "What the heck happened tonight…?"

---

"Good news, albeit confusing," Mr. Kon says, approaching the table. The campers and the parents had seated themselves in a corner in the dining area and were eating breakfast. "Our lawyer said the prosecutor is going to drop all charges."

Kenji does a spit take with his water, irking Ben who was sitting directly in front of him. "What?"

"Can they do that?" Brooklynn asks, pausing mid bite.

"Stay here while we discuss things," Mrs. Bowman instructs, rising from her seat and heading off to a quieter spot in the room with Mr. Kon.

"Why would they drop the charges now that they've got me going to trial?" Kenji asks in confusion.

"Maybe because they know we know?" Brooklynn suggests, shoving a bite of French toast into her mouth before the others could interrogate her.

"They know we know what?" Sammy asks.

"Uhhh… Brooklynn and I might have snuck out last night and overheard a secret conversation…" Kenji mumbles.

"Huh?" Yasmina quirks an eyebrow, plugging one ear with her finger to drown out noises.

Brooklynn swallows and gives further explanation. "I saw Lydia checking in, so we traveled to her room to see what was going on. When we got there, we could hear their conversation. Lydia wanted to drop the charges and forget about the whole thing… But the ones truly behind this wouldn't let her."

"Who's truly behind this?" Ben whispers.

The group leans closer. "Doctor Wu," Brooklynn hisses. The others widen their eyes. "We saw him there in person. He wants to inflict damage to all of our reputations to discredit anything we possibly say about InGen. That's why they're having Kenji charged. They want to place doubts that we're credible and believable."

"Did they notice y'all were there?" Sammy asks.

Kenji purses his lips sheepishly. "Uhh… They kinda sent a guard after us… He shot at us… Twice…"

"In the hotel?!" Yasmina gaps.

"I was wondering why I overheard people suggesting shots were fired last night," Ben narrows his eyes.

"How did people not wake up and panic?!" Darius questions.

"It wasn't as loud as you'd think," Kenji says. "Imagine the sound of an encyclopedia being dropped from high up. It was about that loud."

"He probably had a suppressor on it," Sammy guesses.

"He chased us into the kitchen until Wu called him and told him to back down," Brooklynn continues. "Said someone called off the trial."

"Oh, yeah!" Kenji sighs, resting his head in his left hand. "I remember that now… I was tired last night."

"Same," Brooklynn nods. "I don't know why they called it off, though… I still think it's because we know what they're doing."

"Hold, we only have half the story," Ben says, glaring at Darius. "Where were you last night?"

Darius and Yasmina exchange a glance. "I think I might know why they called the trial off," Darius mutters.

"What happened? I woke up and both you and Kenji were gone," Ben explains.

"I noticed Kenji was gone, so I went to look for him," Darius explains. "Yasmina noticed the same with Brooklynn and we both went to the lobby. A guy approached us there and told us to come with him. Two guards came up behind us and made it hard to say no. He refused to say who he was or who he worked for. The only reason we know who he worked for is because Yaz guessed correctly."

"Lemme guess, InGen," Brooklynn says.

The two nod. "He said InGen is impressed with us taming the Indos," Yasmina continues. "They want us to join another hybrid project and train them to be easy."

The rest scoff and protest the idea.

"Our exact reaction," Darius tschs. "What he really wanted was our promise that we wouldn't say a word about them. They'd drop the charges if we agreed."

"And you guys did?" Ben asks in disbelief.

"For now," Darius growls.

"Man, I slept through everythang," Sammy sighs.

"If they're creating another hybrid, we need to stop them," Ben says.

"I'm not so sure it's happening right now," Yasmina argues. "He said they can't go through with it right now due to licensing issues. Not sure what that means…"

"Doctor Wu is being charged with bio-ethical misconduct," Brooklynn says, on her phone. "Also violations of the Gene Guard Act. Investigations are going on right now."

"That must be what he meant," Darius says. "If they incriminate Wu, that would stop any plans for new hybrids."

"Shouldn't we come forward and talk about their future plans as evidence of his misconduct?" Sammy suggests.

The whole group is silent. "If we do, they'll come after us again… Possibly worse than their accusations against Kenji," Darius thinks. He knew that they needed to report them, but did they really have to? InGen had caused so much trouble for his friends already… Did he really want to put them in more danger? InGen had just proved they were able to stoop down to accusing teenagers just to protect their secrets. How much farther would they be willing to go if the campers spoke up? They had their hybrids and genetic power… They had guards or mercenaries or whatever the heck Kenji and Brooklynn ran into. What could InGen do to them? Would they kidnap them? Take them to the lab and experiment on them? Sell them? Merely kill them? Darius didn't want the world to be ravaged by InGen's power, but he was really hesitant now to place his friends in danger…

"We can't draw any more attention from big corporations to ourselves…" Brooklynn thinks. "They've already got a target on their backs because of me…" She was already dealing with Leah and her past… Did she really want to be a part of yet another struggle against evil powers? Did she want to see her friends get involved? There were already in grave danger because of her… They had already dealt with InGen… Did they want to go up against them again?

"We should come forward…" Ben thinks. "But they've probably got other employees coming forward… Would we make a big enough difference to warrant another dangerous encounter with InGen?" It was their duty to come forward… But they were also children. How far should they stick their necks out? They were already so traumatized… Where did they draw the line? What was the difference between doing their job to help protect the world, and needlessly risking their lives?

"We've been through so many trials now…" Sammy thinks. "I think another one would be stressful… But would we be wrong to keep this information a secret?" They had already been through two trials… Did they really want to be a part of another one? It was extremely stressful and time consuming… Besides, there were so many other witnesses involved. Did they really have to be there? They had already told their story numerous times… Wu was already being investigated. Was it worth it to go and speak against him? Countless others would be doing so. Were they required to? They had already taken down Mantah Corp… It wasn't that she didn't want to stop InGen, but were they necessary to do it? Was their action necessary?

"Trial number three within a couple months…" Kenji thinks. "Do we really want to go through with the InGen trial? These things are expensive… But is it selfish to not say anything? Claire Dearing would be involved, right? Owen Grady, too… We'd just be another voice in the crowd…" They had already spent so much time and money in taking down Mantah Corp, then scrambled to take on the accusations against him. Did they want to go to war with InGen as well? Would it be better to stay out of it unless absolutely necessary? They weren't required to go after Doctor Wu… And they weren't even adults. They needed a break from saving the world every now and then! Besides, he knew Claire Dearing and Owen Grady and other good people would be on their side. Would they really let Wu get away with his crimes? They'd make sure he was incriminated… They weren't really needed, right?

"If our information is vital, we could stop another Scorpius rex or Indominus…" Yasmina thinks. "But if we aren't vital, then we could be placing ourselves in unnecessary danger… If all else fails, we could go on an assasination mission and kill the hybrids and Wu…" Yasmina wanted to stop him. She wanted to exact revenge and destroy Wu and his terrors. But was it worth the risk? Was it worth targeting everyone they loved? Surely, InGen would retaliate. They had already attacked Kenji through false accusations. How much farther would they go? Perhaps they would release dinosaurs on them… Frame it as an accident or a wild animal attack… She shudders at the thought of the Scorpius rex being released… Maybe it was better to go along and do what they said… But then more monstrosities could be created… They'd be created anyway… Maybe her and Darius should've agreed to help raise the hybrids…

"Maybe we should hold off on saying anything for now," Darius speaks their thoughts. "Right now, it seems like Wu won't be able to go through with this. InGen will be stopped if they're incriminated with this violation. This trial is expensive and tiring for us… If it looks like they need more evidence to incriminate Wu, we'll come forward. But right now, I don't think we'd make any major contributions to the prosecutor's side."

The others nod, agreeing with him.

"Oh, he also offered to give favors if we called him," Darius rolls his eyes. "Sketchy favors, he said. For a price, of course."

"He really wants us to work with them, doesn't he?" Ben sighs.

"I told him we wouldn't ever need his number," Darius pulls out the card.

"Throw it away, you don't ever want to owe a sinister company like them," Sammy shudders.

"Yeah, we don't need this," Darius scoffs, pulling out the card and heading towards a trash can.

Yasmina gets up and follows him. Inside, there was a little war going on. "What if we need this later? What if we do need their help… What if we should try our best to stop the monsters being made from the inside… Or what if we need the number for something else?"

Inside, her conscience told her to throw it away and be done with the number. Like Sammy said, they didn't need to be in bondage to InGen. But darker temptations told her to keep it… She might need it later… Maybe they could use it to incriminate InGen if necessary.

The latter thought made sense to her, so she stomached the queasy, guilty feeling and hid the card in her bra, having no pockets in her pants. Then she follows Darius back to the table, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

"I just wonder if we can drop the charges right now or if we have to go through a convoluted process," Brooklynn sighs.

"I hope it can just end right now…" Kenji says, trailing off as his gaze is caught. Lydia was standing on the other side of the room, staring at him. She had on the same gray hoodie she wore the night before, and she was wringing her hands guiltily. Tentatively, she motions for him to come over.

A snarl surprises him, and he throws a piece of scrambled egg at Yasmina. "Stop it," he chastises. "I don't think she's the enemy here."

Ben smiles approvingly while Sammy stares at Lydia. After a moment, she turns back to her food and queasily swallows.

"I'll see what she wants," Kenji says, getting out of his seat. As he passes by Sammy, he gives her a pat on the shoulder, seeing the way she tensed up.

Approaching her, he could see how much she had changed since the last time they interacted. He had seen her at the hearing, but he couldn't take in too much. Lydia looked a lot different; a little more depressed and dark, in his opinion. She liked black and was still wearing it, but gray replaced any other color. Her hair was it's natural black color with nothing added to it. Makeup was minimal, if any. The only piercings that were filled were her earrings. She still had the holes, though. Her sweatpants, flats and oversized hoodie said she didn't put as much effort into her appearance as she used to. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Hey," Kenji says, frowning as he stands before her.

"I… I'm sorry," she mumbles. "For… for accusing you and taking you to court… And lying about everything… I still don't think you had a right to say what happened… But I guess you had a right to be curious and all… But I have been lying and making you seem worse than you were… You didn't deserve that…"

"Why?" he asks calmly, over any anger he had towards her now that he knew InGen was truly behind it. "Why did you come against me?"

Lydia tenses, crossing her arms defensively. "I… You… Um… You just… You don't deserve the attack, and I'll tell the truth and leave you alone…"

"Why did you do it?" Kenji asks again. "Why are you working with InGen?"

"I'm not," she says quickly.

"I overheard some of your conversation last night," he reveals. "You didn't sound like you wanted to do this."

"Stop being nosey, you don't have any right to know what goes on," Lydia hisses, getting defensive. "Just accept the apology and move on already. Stop trying to humiliate me…"

"Blink twice if you're in danger," Kenji whispers. "We know what it's like to be beholden to an evil corporation."

Despite whatever she was going through, Lydia couldn't let down her pride and accept help. Either that, or she was in more danger than he thought. "Just take the apology and go!" she snaps, pushing him back and storming out of the dining room, tears brimming.

Kenji watches her go. All she reminded him of was Sammy. Sammy becoming a spy for Mantah Corp to save her family… Sammy going against her conscience and lying and stealing… Sammy carrying around the guilt of her actions and the guilt weighing heavily on her heart…

"Let her go, she's refusing help, there's nothing you can do," a voice sadly says.

Knowing there wasn't much he could do, the boy resigned to heading back to his table. "What happened?" Sammy asks worryingly.

"She apologized for accusing me," he sighs, hugging her from behind before sitting down. "I tried to ask if she needed help with InGen and she got defensive and left. I'll mention that she's in trouble to my father, but I don't know what else we can do…"

"Seems wrong to just ignore her problem and leave her in their hands," Brooklynn says.

"What can we do?" Sammy asks. "Who knows? They might be holding her family captive."

"Her father went bankrupt," Kenji informs them.

"I know if y'all tried to stop me from working with Mantah Corp, I would've gotten mad," Sammy says. "I was convinced my family would go bankrupt if I didn't spy for them. It was a family matter for me. If she's doin' this to save her family, there's not much we can do for her that she'll allow. I wish we could help her, but if she's not allowin' us, there's not much we can do."

"Best to let it go for now," Darius says. "We have no idea how to help, and we don't want to worsen the situation. Let's just focus on the good right now: Kenji's free."

"Welp, you're not going to trial anymore, and you're not a bad person, so why don't we celebrate?" Brooklynn suggests.

"You just want my syrup, don't you?" Darius smirks at her. He had a little bit left, while she had used hers up.

"Possibly," she grins sheepishly.

"Let's have a dance party!" Sammy exclaims, throwing her hands in the air. A piece of egg lands in Brooklynn's coffee cup as she goes to drink it. The pinkette glares at the cowgirl as the others laugh. "Sorry," Sammy cringes, smiling despite herself.

The group starts dancing in their seats to whatever tune was in their head, giggling. "Yeehaw!" Sammy exclaims, grabbing her imaginary cowgirl hat and winking at Kenji.

He laughs, captivated by her. The way she moved was so fluid and beautiful. She was so full of life and spirit. Her smile was extremely contagious, as was her joy.

Laughing, Sammy shimmies her shoulders like a salsa dancer. Unable to help it, his gaze moves downward. Kenji mentally chastises himself, but now that was all he could think about. She was wearing a graphic T-shirt that was a bit smaller than it should be, and unfortunately, showed off her figure. To his chagrin, his thoughts began to wander elsewhere. "I apparently told her she had a great a** while under anesthesia…" he unhelpfully reminds himself.

"Nope, nope, nope, don't think about it," he tells himself. Still, he sneaks a few glances at her shirt…

After a quick, shameful glance, he sees Sammy looking at him. Stuttering, he thinks of an excuse for why he was looking at her chest. "Uh, wh-what does your shirt say?"

Sammy's mouth twists in a humored way; she knew. "Casting Crowns," she says, acting like nothing happened. "It's a Christian band my family listens to."

"Same," Darius grins.

"Ooh, I loved them as a kid, still do," Ben jumps in on the conversation.

"Oh boy," Yasmina rolls her eyes.

Sammy listens to the conversation, but really her mind was somewhere else: Kenji. She had seen the way he was glancing at her. She watched the way his eyes would dart down before moving away quickly in a guilty way. The boy was pointedly having a staring contest with Yasmina to keep his eyes off of her…

She wasn't sure how to feel about it. It wasn't unusual for someone to look at her in an interested way. That was kind of the way of the world. But there was something unusual about this situation… Normally, if it was a guy she wanted to date, she would notice him checking her out early on in their unofficial relationship, most of the time from the beginning. Sammy had never caught Kenji looking at her in that way… And she had almost never found a guy who looked this ashamed… At least, not before they saw she knew.

No, Kenji was different. He wasn't looking away because he was caught. He was looking away out of respect for her… He had fallen for her personality first, looks second. It was impossible for her not to smile at the thought. The idea that he was looking away to respect her made the smile grow even more.

She wondered what was going through his mind… Was it fleeting thoughts of 'She looks really nice today.' Or where they thoughts of something else… The latter thoughts made her simultaneously uncomfortable and intrigued. On one hand, she was still single and completely fine with keeping romance for her future marriage… On the other hand… She was curious by nature… Curious about what she was feeling and curious about him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sammy, hold up," she thinks to herself, amused at where her mind was going. She had thought other guys were cute and wanted a family, but never really considered that aspect of the relationship… at least, not without making a face.

Still… She was a bit flattered that he was thinking about her in that way. After meeting his ex-girlfriends—who she found much more attractive than her—and having their little fights recently, she was elated to know he still found her enticing. She was relieved; he did find her attractive, even if she herself didn't see it. Kenji was also attracted to her personality, so maybe he wouldn't leave her…

Cheekily, Sammy stretches her arms to the ceiling and leans back, staring at the picture on the wall just above Kenji's head. In her peripheral vision, she could see him glance at her again. There was something inside her that felt powerful. With such a subtle movement and simple clothing, she could control his mind, make him lose focus and have difficulty thinking of anything else. She was captivating and hadn't even tried to be. The thought gave her a strange sense of power… A power she knew could get the two of them in trouble depending on how she used it.

"Well, the trial is off," Mr. Kon says, coming back with Mrs. Bowman. "You're off the hook. We're heading back."

The campers rejoice and after finishing breakfast, jump back into the helicopter, ready to be over the whole ordeal. "Thankfully, all InGen's corruption didn't break us in the end," Brooklynn says quietly to the group as they jump back in.

"Yeah…" Ben nods.