Dear Reviewers:

LolliPopsAreTears: Wow, thank you! You're a great writer too, I mean, even in that last review, "Fiona is like her shadow, wherever she runs the dark figure follows slyly beside her…" That's good, you should use that! :)

MlynnBloom: Hmm…Jacky and Kit…how are they connected…hmm…;)

Lady Emily: Thank you and, um, thank you!

Phoenix72389: Gasp! Hurry, Sunny! Before it's too late! –Screams and runs away-

PinkyChik27: Yes, we all have those moments. ;) But anyway, I'm glad you like it so far!

NewbiaTheElf: Yeah, I guess I made it kinda confusing when I had both Fedora and Fernald wear wide-brimmed hats that covered their faces. In the 2nd chapter I think, I described Fedora as "probably not much older than Klaus," and Fernald is a lot older than Klaus, but I guess I didn't emphasize it enough that they are two different people. But anyway, thanks for the tip. So you know about the vial, huh? You're the first, I guess, since I haven't heard about it from anybody else. And I'll think about a Sunny fic. I've got some ideas, but don't expect to read it any time soon.

QQuagmire: Yup, yup, yup. Thanks! :)

QuigleyRules: Thank you! And don't you worry…

Chapter 10: When a W r o n g is R i g h t

Dinner had ended. Conversation had ceased. The children had dispersed. The room was empty, save two children who still sat next to each other at the table. Fiona had gone up to the tower room.

And the weight of the stolen objects in Sunny's pocket had gotten heavier.

"You were real quiet during dinner," Jacky remarked.

Sunny didn't respond. She sat and stared into her almost empty bowl of pasta with puttanesca sauce, her expression remaining unchanged.

Jacky thought for a moment, pondering what could have happened to Sunny in the tower room. "What did you find?" he asked.

Sunny finally turned and looked at him. There was something in her eyes, something different from before. It was almost like a mixture of regret and fear, a blend of mercy and hate. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the photograph she had found.

"She wasn't always like this, Jacky," Sunny said quietly. She held it out for him to see.

Jacky took the old picture with faintly trembling hands, staring at the people in it with wide, icy eyes. He gently ran his thumb over Kit and Fernald's faces, and Sunny thought she saw tears begin to pool in his eyes when he looked at Fiona.

"She's different there," Sunny remarked. "But I guess something changed."

Her friend looked up at her and didn't say anything for a long time. Finally, he opened his mouth and hugged the photograph to his chest. "Can I have this?" he asked, his voice not much louder than a whisper.

Sunny blinked in surprise, wondering why Jacky wanted to keep a picture of Fiona and two other people he probably didn't even know. But it seemed so important to him.

She nodded. "Sure."

Jacky smiled weakly and pocketed the photograph. The two gathered their dishes and were about to dump them in the sink when they heard the sound of heavy footsteps racing down the stairs.

The tower staircase door swung open and slammed against the wall beside it. Jacky and Sunny whirled around and found themselves facing Fiona, her eye burning with rage.

She immediately grabbed Jacky by the collar of his shirt. "Where is it?" she roared. "Tell me now!"

"Where is what?" Jacky choked, struggling to keep himself from being strangled by Fiona's fierce grip.

"Don't give me that! You know what I mean! Now tell me what you've done with it or else I'll hurt you!" Fiona shouted.

Sunny stumbled backwards and pushed herself into the far corner. Just remain unseen. Don't look guilty.

"I don't know what you're talking about! Really!" Jacky said, tears beginning to form at the corners of his eyes.

Fiona threw him against the table, knocking over a chair. Jacky quickly stood up and darted around to the other side, making sure to keep a distance between them. She didn't follow him. She placed her hands on the table and glared across at him.

Sunny looked from Fiona to Jacky. She hadn't mentioned the vial she had found. Was that what Fiona wanted?

Fiona straightened herself and calmly peered at him with her one frosty eye. "Aye. Of course you're not going to make this easy, are you?"

Jacky swallowed and wiped tears off his face. "I'll tell you what I know." His voice was slightly yielding, as if he had been through this before and already knew what to do to avoid punishment.

Fiona smiled coolly. "Aye. Good boy." She casually sauntered over to the counter and traced her finger through some spilled flour. "Talk," she commanded.

Jacky frowned as he racked his mind for something to say. Sunny noticed his worried expression and took a small, hesitant step forward. Jacky couldn't really tell her anything, Sunny knew that. But Fiona didn't. What would she do when she found out?

"But I…I don't…know anything," he stammered. He cringed and braced himself for Fiona's reaction.

She turned and scowled at him. "No?"

Jacky shook his head.

After pausing for a moment to figure out what she would do next, Fiona meandered back to the table and leaned forward against it, as if she wanted to get a good look at the fear in his eyes.

"Jacky?" she said.

"Yes, ma'am?" he timidly answered.

"Do you remember why I let you stay here?"

Jacky silently shook his head again.

"Because," Fiona began, "I thought you were exceptional. Aye, you are exceptional, compared to the others. But lately you've been…I don't know what it is. You're different. Cocky. Too smart for your own good. Are you following me Jacky?"

Although Sunny could tell he wasn't, he nodded.

"I thought you could be a great Volunteer, Jacky. You've got it in your blood. Inherited it." Fiona took a step away from the table and drew herself up to her full height. A sinister scowl returned to her face. "And that's what I don't like about you."

Jacky's eyes narrowed, and he sneered back at her. This was something they've argued about before, Sunny could tell. She took another defiant step towards her friend.

"Why? Why exactly? Is it because I know about your secret?" Jacky asked, voice rising.

"Aye, maybe that's it!" Fiona shouted. "Maybe it's about time I've done away with you. You're useless to me anyway. You've become too much like-"

"Like who? Like my father?" Jacky yelled. "He warned me about you! I should have listened to him! Maybe I wouldn't be in this mess! He told me-"

"Your father knows nothing!" Fiona yelled. With an infuriated growl, she snatched a knife from the counter and hurled it at Jacky. It stuck into the table inches away from where his hand would have been if he hadn't fallen over backwards at her outburst. Sunny dashed to his side and helped him up.

Fiona pointed a long, slender finger at Jacky, as if accusing him for some crime he had committed by saying what he did. "Don't you ever mention him again! He's a foolish, idiotic traitor who doesn't even know what's good for him! Aye! I don't want to hear his name, I don't want to hear you talk about him, I don't want you to ever say or do anything that has to do with him!" She walked up to him and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Do you understand me?" she snarled.

"Let go of him!" Sunny shouted.

Fiona dropped Jacky and turned to stare at Sunny. Her eye was wide and there was genuine surprise in her expression, as if she hadn't noticed Sunny at all. She straightened her back and smoothed down her red-brown hair.

Clearing her throat, Fiona looked down her nose at Sunny. Her jaw fixed in a rigid frown as she let her icy gaze pierce the girl's soul. "Don't you be getting any ideas either," she murmured. She then turned and began to climb up the stairs.

Her hand on the eye-shaped doorknob, Fiona suddenly stopped and looked back over her shoulder at the two, her glare directed mainly at Jacky. "Don't think I won't find it," she said. There was an eerie, calm tone in her voice, a voice that would haunt the children for years. "I will."

She shut the door behind her and retreated to her tower room.

After standing there in silence for several minutes, Jacky turned and, without a word, climbed up another set of stairs to the children's bedroom.

And Sunny was alone.

Again.

She looked sideways at the knife that still protruded from the table. The knife that could have taken the one ally she had left in the world. Sunny was letting Jacky bear the consequences for a wrong she had done. And he didn't even know it.

But it was a wrong against Fiona. Fiona was the enemy. Did that still make it wrong? Or did it make it right? Could two wrongs actually make a right?

Sunny could almost hear their voices echoing, reverberating off the ceiling high above her.

I should have listened to him! Maybe I wouldn't be in this mess!

Sunny stuck her hand in her pocket. She felt the smooth glass of the vial against her fingers. The weight was lighter without the guilt of the stolen picture.

Yet it had still grown heavier with the guilt of betrayal.

Oh Klaus, Sunny thought. I should have listened to you.

She stared at the doorknob of the tower door, the lock she had picked just the day before. And it was only to get herself into so much more trouble. Jacky had been worried for a good reason, it turned out.

Maybe I wouldn't be in this mess.

And the doorknob stared back.