The feeling of somebody gently stroking her hair woke Anna up out of a light sleep. It was so light that she didn't even dream, which was very unusual for her. Her eyes fluttered open to see trees around her, and it took her a second to come to her senses and remember where she was when she dozed off. She was lying on her side and felt whatever her head was on shift a little, and that's when she realized her head was on Ben's body, and he was the one stroking her hair.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty." He teased. She groaned much more dramatically than she need to, but couldn't hold back her smile as she sat up from her lying position, much to Ben's dismay. He followed her movements.

"Hey, ass hole." She teased back and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Long enough for me to decide that we should probably head back to camp and get some real sleep."

He got to his feet, but to his surprise, she didn't follow.

"You coming?"

"Not right now. I kind of wanna just sit here for a bit, you know? We're probably not going to be here much longer, and I want to enjoy this place. I'll be there in a few minutes, I swear." She smiled at him.

"Alright, but don't you disappear on me again!" He joked, then gently kissed the top of her head and left her alone.

She knew what he meant by 'don't disappear on me again'. He was talking about when she was kidnapped a few months ago, but that wasn't exactly her voluntary choice.

Not too long after Ben had left her alone, she heard rustling in the bushes behind her, followed by the sound of cracking branch. At first, it gave her the chills because the sounds resembled those Austin made before he tried to murder her. She was in the same place that it happened too, so she became very uneasy, but tried to assure herself that it was only Ben coming back to beg her not to be alone out here.

But when she turned around, she didn't see Ben at all.

"Hello, Anna."

It was Karen.

Just like on that dreadful day with Austin, she froze in her spot as she faced the evil human-turned-alien. Mixed emotions rushed throughout her entire body.

One part of Anna felt blazing anger, an anger that wasn't easily obtained by any human let alone somebody who was as reasonable as Anna. The menacing bitch in front of her had done so many horrible things to these people that she loved, her family here at the 2nd Mass as a whole. Karen had directly tortured all of the Mason men and considering one of them was Anna's boyfriend only made things that much worse.

Another part of her felt fear. Fear of the power Karen possessed, and what she was planning to do with her and with what type of force she would use to achieve that plan. She had no idea how many alien reinforcements were lurking in the forest around them. And as good of a skitter fighter as Anna was, she was only one 16-year-old girl carrying just a simple handgun. She was truly scared and with this fear came regret. Regret that she couldn't just keep herself out of danger for once and didn't go with Ben when he asked her to.

But then there was a part of Anna that surprised her. A part that felt empathy for Karen for a very complicated yet simple reason. She was just like her. Before their kidnappings, they were skilled fighters of the 2nd Mass. with a Mason brother by their sides. They were both knocked out during combat and were the only ones taken for reasons still unknown to everyone. They quickly moved up in the alien ranks and weren't just normal harnessed children but important assets to the aliens, whether they liked it or not. The only difference was that Karen just couldn't find that strength to break free and because of all this, Anna empathized with her. No matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to deny that she feels for her. Karen and Anna's pasts are mirror images of each other.

"Where are your manners, Anna? As your fatherly figure, Tom wouldn't be very happy with your loss of respect at the moment."

"You're right, Tom wouldn't be happy. But your reasoning for his unhappiness is wrong. He would be disappointed in me for just standing here rather than shooting you right between the eyes where you deserve it."

The angry side of Anna took over at the mentioning of anyone in her resistance family. Karen merely chuckled calmly.

"You know, he wouldn't be the only one begging for my death. I can hear Karen in the back of my mind, your Karen, pleading for you to shoot me, even though she's aware that she would die, too. You resistance fighters are all the same. So quick to give up your lives for each other."

Empathy washed over her again at the mentioning of the real Karen. She was trapped in there, and Anna's heart ached for her from being completely aware of the pain she's in mentally. It's truly a horrible thing, much more than anyone could ever imagine, not that they should want to.

"We do it because we love each other, not that any of you fish head freaks know anything about love." Anna snapped at her, expressing more emotion than she had wanted and too much for Karen to miss. Of course, she hopped right on the boat to take advantage of the opportunity.

"You humans are so naïve. It's not because of love, it's because you're a fragile species. So vulnerable, so… weak. Your weapons and tactics may hit us with blows that are no doubt devastating but in the end, none of you are mentally strong enough to win this war. You may've been able to break through the connections of a harness, but it wasn't because you were strong like you all think. It was because you were afraid of where you were and desperate to get out. You were angry at us for doing such things to you and to the people you care about. Your emotions were doing all of the work because you are emotional. Emotional and weak run hand in hand."

"No, again you're wrong. I may be emotional, but I am not weak. Love brings about all of these emotions, and love is strong. I am strong." She assured herself just as much as she was assuring Karen.

"Are you, Anna? Are you really? Does a strong person get too nervous to kiss a boy she's obviously dreamed of kissing for months, maybe even from the second she got to know him? No, they don't. And want to know what else a strong person doesn't do? A strong person doesn't avoid the town their family might be in because of the fear of seeing them dead. A strong person would go no matter what in hopes that they're still there waiting to be rescued. But no, you're too afraid, too weak."

Karen spat those last words at her, and for the first time, Anna had nothing left to say. The anger bubbling up inside of her was about to overflow, and she was sure that if she opened her mouth flames would come out of them. Karen took her silence as an opportunity to continue pushing Anna over the edge.

"You're wondering how I know all of this? Well, I can still connect to you through your spikes because despite what Dr. Glass tells you, they aren't going away and they never will. I can see everything you see through your spikes, everything you feel, because you're not strong enough to fight back against me."

Out of everything she had said tonight, this was the most incorrect statement of all. Seconds after those words left her mouth, Anna found herself pouncing on top of Karen and putting up a real fight that would end this shit once and for all.

This was for her old friends back home who were killed during the invasion at school.

This was for her real family.

This was for her 2nd Mass. family that changed her life for the better.

This was for the real Karen trapped inside such a miserable life with no way out.

Ben had already entered camp and was making his way over to speak with his father. He planned on asking him if Anna could sleep in his tent with him and he wasn't sure what Tom was going to say. Obviously they weren't going to do anything crazy or take things too far, but it would still put him in an uncomfortable position.

"Hey dad, can I ask you something?" Ben asked Tom once he had reached him.

"Yeah, of course, Ben. What's do you need?"

"I don't know what you're going to say to this but I really want your permission to-"

Hal ran over to them frantically and stopped him in mid-sentence. Ben wasn't sure whether he was angry about his brother's rude interruption or happy that he had just saved his ass from asking a very awkward question.

"Dad, you need to hear this."

"Is it important or can it wait?"

"It definitely can't wait."

Tom looked at his middle son to make sure that this was alright. Ben was now interested in what Hal had to say, so he nodded and motioned for him to go ahead and continue.

"Okay, well, obviously I've had a bit to drink tonight, but I'm sober enough to think straight. And I'm certain I just saw a blonde girl walking along the outskirts of camp with a harness strapped onto her back. Sound familiar?"

Tom nodded, his mind of full alert now. "Karen's been lurking around our camp."

"And from what I could see, she was alone."

"Alone? Why would she ever go anywhere without a skitter or a Mech?"

Hal shrugged. "I don't know. But I do know that she was headed west."

"Towards the river?"

"Yeah, something must be there that she needs to take care of. I say we keep an eye out for now but leave it alone for the most p-"

"Anna there." Ben blurted out unexpectedly in the midst of the conversation, leaving his family confused.

"What?"

"Anna's by the river right now. Dad, what if Karen's-"

As if on cue, multiple gunshots fired in the distance, causing the whole camp to go into a panic and Ben's skin to go as pale as a ghost.

Weaver and all the sober fighters they could wrangle up followed Ben to the oh-so-familiar clearing in the forest to find nothing but a fresh pool of red seeping into the ground. Maggie walked over to it, sticking a finger in and observing it.

"It's definitely blood, and from what I can see, a lot of it."

Hal leaned over to his dad. "You don't think…" He whispered, trailing off because of his refusal to jump to such a morbid conclusion.

"No… no she couldn't be." Tom refused to believe that Anna could've been killed after everything she has lived through already.

"Alright, we're gonna set up a search party. Hal, Maggie, you two head down to the river. Pope and Anthony, stay here and keep watch. Tom, Ben, and I will check the forests surrounding us. Understood?" Weaver commanded, purposely stationing Ben with him so he could keep a close leash on him, and everyone scattered out to follow his orders.

Thankfully, it wasn't long until Maggie and Hal had found Anna on the ground at the edge of the river.

"Anna! Thank god you're alright, you scared the shit out of us!" Maggie exclaimed, relieved.

When she didn't say anything in return, they went to approach her, but as soon as they did, she turned around. Her appearance caused them to stop dead in their tracks.

Her face was starting to bruise and swell and her busted lip was stained with dried blood. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, and her hair was a complete mess. But what frightened them most was that her hands and clothes were covered in blood.

"Anna, whose blood is that?"

"I needed to help her. We have to help her." Anna stuttered out in a panicked tone, completely ignoring Maggie's question, and the spikes on her back lit up blue.

"What's going on with your spikes, why are they lighting up?" Hal asked, but as soon as he did, they stopped glowing.

Anna shook her head quickly. "I don't know, I really don't. But we have to help her." She repeated, obviously only interested in one thing.

"Who?"

To answer Hal's question, she stepped to the side to reveal an unconscious and quickly bleeding out Karen on the ground. Completely stunned, Hal's feet were glued to the floor, but Maggie kneeled down next to the harnessed girl to check for a pulse.

"She's still alive as of right now, but I don't know how much longer that's going to last."

"We need to take her back to the med bus. Dr. Glass could help her."

"Why do you want to help her, Anna? Don't you understand how much pain she's caused the 2nd Mass.? Look what she did to you! To Ben! We should just leave her here, or better yet, put her out of her misery right now." Maggie ranted as she pulled out her handgun and aimed it at Karen, but Anna stepped in front of her.

"NO! None of that was Karen, not the human Karen at least! Maggie, I need you need to trust me when I say that the real Karen's still trapped in there. I've asked for your trust before and I didn't let you down then, so I'm begging you to give me that trust one more time." Anna pleaded with her friend.

Maggie looked back-and-forth between a girl she loved dearly and a girl she truly hated, completely torn. Her mind was telling her to do one thing, but her heart told her to do the other.

"Please."

"Come on, Maggie, we have to trust her." Hal teamed up with Anna, making the choice feel much easier to her.

"Fine. But I'm not taking her back, nor will I be hanging around to see if she's okay because quite frankly I don't care. If it wasn't for Anna, she'd have a bullet through her head to join the one's Anna made in her chest." Maggie huffed, before walking back to inform Weaver on the finding of not just Anna, but Karen, too.

Hal finally freed himself from his frozen state and walked over to Karen, bending over so he could wrap his arms behind her back and knees to lift her up bridal style. Anna followed his lead through the woods and back to camp in silence.

Meanwhile, Anna's spikes still keep turning on-and-off. She had a few suspicions as to why, but right now, her focus was on Karen. Not the evil, alien-worshipping Karen who did all those things to harm the 2nd Mass. like Maggie had mentioned. But the Karen that was trapped inside the consciousness of that evil being. Anna prayed that Dr. Glass would be able to heal her of the gunshot wounds she had created from their fight and remove the harness so that maybe, just maybe, everyone could have the Karen everyone used to love back. And Anna hoped that she would be given the chance to grow to love her, too.