"Robin… you have to let me see him." Kennis pleaded.

Robin looked up; she was a wreck, her long hair matted, her eyes red and swollen from having spent the past couple of hours crying. Just the thought of Kennis crying made Robin want to hurt Jeremy so bad, but he was better than that, he wasn't going to lower himself to that level.

Kennis was clearly distraught not only because of what Jeremy had done but because she still had to tell her brother that his hero was a coward and a rapist.

"This is a really bad idea hasn't he upset you enough already? Just go back to your room," Robin told her as he held her by the wrist and tried to lead her away.

"I need to see him". Kennis argued pulling her arms out of his guiding hands and turning to confront him.

"Ed ordered me that nobody was to see the…" He paused not really sure what to say. Raping bastards sprung to mind but if he called them that it would just upset Kennis further.

"He won't find out not unless you tell him". "Please I just need to find out why he did it. I need to understand". Kennis pleaded somewhat defeatedly.

Against his better judgment Robin led Kennis down one of the now disserted corridors and stopping in front of what had once been an office he unlocked the door and motioned for Kennis to step inside the dimly lit room. He closed the door behind her and waited silently seething with himself for giving in to Kennis and letting her do something that would surely cause her more pain.

Jeremy was staring blankly at the bare walls as he sat slumped on an old office chair in the darkened room. He looked up as the door closed and jumping from his chair he wrapped his arms tightly around Kennis. For an instant she relaxed allowing herself to be comforted by his touch one last time, then suddenly overwhelmed with revulsion she pushed him quickly away, he sat down abruptly, a stunned look upon his face.

"Don't touch me…" She yelled her voice unusually cold but at the same time laden with tears.

He noticed the change in her voice first, then her eyes they were red and sore where she had been crying.

"Kennis, what's going on?" He asked although he knew what the answer would be.

She stared at him incredulously before replying.

"How could you?" She demanded. "How could you do something so awful, so barbaric, so disgusting"?

Kennis started to cry for what seemed like the millionth time in the last couple of hours and for the first time since they had met nothing Jeremy could do or say was going to make her feel any better.

Jeremy buried his head in his hands. He didn't know what to tell her. And then he just let the one word answer spill from his lips, "Choy."

Kennis frowned with disbelief. "You're blaming all this on Choy?"

Jeremy said nothing; there was no excuse.

"Let me guess, Choy made you look like a coward, a loser, a little boy? What exactly did he say Jeremy, because I'm dying to know how he convinced you that you should rape that girl." She yelled angrily as she furiously wiped away the tears with the back of her hand.

"Well since you know me so damn well then you already know the answer Kennis." Jeremy yelled in response his blood beginning to boil for the second time that day.

"What happened out there Jeremy? Because god knows I've been defending your sorry arse for far too long, and now people laughing at me for being such a fool, for defending a damn rapist." Tears were threatening to pour from her eyes once more because there was no doubt in her mind that she'd be losing a friend, her best friend, the boy she'd loved for so long before this nightmare was over.

"He made me so angry, he goaded me into it, I saw red and I lost control, I didn't know what I was doing". Jeremy tried in vain to defend himself against the undefendable.

"I had control over something for once, for the first time since we came here".

"You abused your power, don't try and defend yourself or blame this on anyone else, they were words, just words, nothing else and you let them get to you". Kennis fumed.

"I had control…" he started again, ignoring her. Kennis just stood there, he was in a state of mind that she'd rarely seen him in, but she knew it all too well. She just couldn't believe that he had done this terrible thing and that he was trying to convince her that it wasn't his fault.

"You abused your position, the Elites position on this island; you belittled everything they have given us, everything that they have done for you, Travis and me".

Jeremy's eyes flashed, "The Elite hold me down…I feel like I'm a prisoner and have to ask permission to take a damn piss on my own."

"The Elite saved us, or did you forget that?" Kennis demanded. "They've given us a home, friendship, the food in our bellies, the clothes on our backs, a purpose, a chance to make a difference, to be somebody. The life we have now is so much better than our old ones".

"The Elite…" Jeremy began.

"Saved our lives, if we hadn't come here we'd be starving, living on the streets or worse we'd be dead". Kennis argued passionately.

Jeremy closed his eyes. "That's right Jeremy, you remember, sleeping rough on those freezing cold nights in an alley way, with no food, no water and no protection. That was how it was, how it would have been if we hadn't have come here".

Silence.

Jeremy knew she was right, and couldn't bear to raise his head to look her in the eye.

"You can't even begin to understand, I loved you, Travis idolizes you, we traveled across nearly half the world together, I thought we were a family".

Jeremy looked up.

"You're a good person Jeremy, I know it, at least I thought I knew it. We've been best friends for how long? We've seen each other through everything and I've always stood by you, but you raped her Jeremy, and not because you're a bad person, but because you're a coward, because you wanted to look like a big man and that's the worst kind of person." She sobbed in anguish.

The tears were pouring out of her eyes. Jeremy stood up and reached out to her wiping the pads of his thumbs across her cheeks, brushing away the teardrops in an intimate gesture. "I'm sorry…" he muttered.

"Why are you apologizing to me? I'm not the one you raped". She screamed pulling away from him once more, turning so that her back was facing him and he couldn't see the pain that his betrayal had caused her etched across her tearstained face.

"They're going to make you leave you know, that's if they don't kill you." She told him sadly.

Jeremy backed away, "I know…"

"Travis and I are staying…"

"I don't blame you…"

"Blame me for what?" Kennis asked turning angrily towards him once again.

"Abandoning me". He said turning away. Kennis grabbed hold of his arms and spun him around so that he was looking directly into her eyes.

"I'm not abandoning you, you abandoned us, you abandoned me and Travis the moment you let Choy hit that nerve". She spat.

"I wish things were different". He said, realizing for the first time just how badly he had messed up.

"Me too, but when it comes down to it, you screwed up, you screwed up so badly this time that it can never be fixed."

"I know. Don't you think I know that?!" He shouted.

"Damn it Jeremy!" Kennis yelled back as she her fists pounded his chest, "I love you, why are you doing this to me? Playing games the whole time, doing shit like this!"

"I love you too" he said grabbing her wrists, "You know that I love you".

"Don't you think it's a bit to late for all this? To finally tell me that you love me, I've waited like forever to hear you say those words and now they don't even matter, they leave a bitter taste in my mouth". Kennis admitted, her arms going limp in his grasp.

"But I do…" He began.

"But you won't ever love me the way I loved you, the way I wished, every night that you would love me, the way I needed you to love me."

Jeremy was stunned.

"You ruined our lives, mine, Travis', yours, enjoy the mess you made". She sobbed.

"I'm sorry". Jeremy was crying too now.

Sorry for betraying me? Travis? The Elite? Sorry for letting yourself be provoked into raping that poor girl? Sorry that you got caught on camera? That there's no way for you to wriggle out of this? No way for me to save your sorry arse even if I still wanted too? Sorry that you're going to be punished? That you'll go to hell because of what you've done? She asked despondently.

She turned and looked at him one last time before leaving the room and Jeremy, who sat there, all alone and started to imagine what his life would be like without the only two people who had ever given it meaning.

Kennis closed the door behind her, wiping her eyes as she stepped aside allowing Robin to lock the door. She stared across the hall blankly her eyes full of grief and pain. Robin dropped the keys into his pocket and inched closer to her.

"You okay?" he asked.

She tried to put on a brave face and smile as she nodded in response. "I just came to say goodbye". She told him as they turned and walked away, down the corridor together.