Chapter four:

Mello makes his way to the orphanage sneaking towards it. He still kind of can't believe that his plan actually ended up working. He peers through a bush to try to see if he can see anyone who might be able to provide him with further information about Ra-Ra. He slightly ducks further back when two orphans stroll over.

"I still can't believe that Ra-Ra left." One of the girls mentions which does catch Mello's full attention.

"I know! They just decided to transfer her just like that? Seems a bit cruel." The other girl slightly shakes her head.

"Well there isn't much we can do."

The two girls try to go through the bush and yelp in shock at finding Mello who quickly gestures to ask them to be quiet.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Mello puts on a warm smile to the startled girls. "Ra-Ra actually transferred to my orphanage. And it seems that one of the orphans there actually knows her. I wanted to see what information there is that is about her. My friend won't tell me where he knows her from. And it seemed like they had some bad blood between them or something. I just want to know if it is something I should worry about."

The girls relax at hearing Mello's story about Ra-Ra having bad blood with someone.

"Well there's no way you could have known that from listening to us. We never mentioned that." One girl mentions getting Mello hopeful that this might work. "So you should be telling the truth." She gestures for Mello to follow them and the three of them head to a large pipe left in the woods with nature growing around it.

The three of them settle to sit on the surprisingly dry mossy floor of the pipe.

"Ra-Ra wasn't here long but we befriended her while she was here." One of the girls begins to explain to the blonde. "She admitted that she had done something terrible. Something that she wishes that she could have taken back though couldn't." She takes a breath. "Please don't blame her or anything. She beats herself up enough about what she did to her childhood friend."

Mello nods then crosses his heart. "I promise. I just want to know what is going on. Be able to be there for my friend while Ra-Ra is there." He sees them look glad that he promised them that. He truly wonders what could have been so bad that Near would hate her.

"When they were little Ra-Ra had a friend who she was really close with. They did everything together. Even their family became friends. Ra-Ra loved helping her friend's little sister with doing her hair to be all pretty." The girl lowers her head. "But one fateful day things changed. Her father was given a new medicine to help the town with a small sickness that was hanging around. They were promised that it would help stop it and keep it away. So Ra-Ra was asked to help present it to everyone. She trusted her father's decision to go with this drug. So she even got her friend to help out. Little did they know that this wasn't a normal healing drug. The government managed to trick them into spreading a deadly virus. One that was never seen before." She shudders at this "It spread through their small town like wildfire. Her friend's family all died from it while they were trying to figure out what it was and trying to find a cure with some local adults. Her friend was devastated to lose his two siblings and his only parent, his mother, to this illness. When it was found out that it was in the drug that was distributed her friend got really upset at her. Vowing to never forgive her for tricking him into helping to spread this sickness. The government that did this came and with no respect took all the data they could before dropping a bomb to wipe the village from this Earth. Along with the illness. The two of them were rescued by a man who sacrificed himself to lead the government officials chasing them away from where he hid the two. They split up and even though they were both given the code for a special orphanage Ra-Ra said that her friend could use it and she will figure herself out. Which is what she did. When she was discovered she was brought to all sorts of places as she jumped between families and orphanages since then. She only told us because she believed that she would never see her old friend again. And even if she did he probably wouldn't want to have her anywhere near him."

Mello sits there for a moment to digest all of this. He feels understanding for Near's anger towards Ra-Ra due to that story. He thinks that if Near was willing to hear Ra-Ra out then they could make amends since it wasn't really Ra-Ra's fault. He will have to ponder what he is actually going to do with this information. "Thank you. I can see why he would be angry. He still is. It shocked us all because he never has outbursts like that."

"He probably suppressed the memories if I had to guess." One of the girls blinks sympathetically at Mello. "Then when Ra-Ra appeared they all hit him once more. Some trauma victims do that to help heal. Though it doesn't really help as you never really get over the trauma that way."

Mello decides right then and there that he should go to talk to Near about this whole thing. He might be able to get more about this from said other, or perhaps do something about it. He isn't so sure that he really wants to force all that bad parts onto Near now. He may be Near's rival however he isn't a heartless monster. "Thank you." He gets up. "I really appreciate what you did. Maybe I will be able to help my friend heal from now on." He is starting to get sick of calling Near his friend.

"Good luck." The two girls wish him goodbye and with a promise to tell Ra-Ra that they said 'hi' he heads off on his way.

Mello gets back to the orphanage sneaking inside. He goes straight to Matt finding the other is engrossed in his game.

Matt nearly jumps out of his skin when Mello taps his shoulder. "Holy shit man!" He pauses his game to give Mello his full attention. "So. What did you find out?"

Mello sits down and tells everything to his best friend. He watches his friend's face fall in sad shock at the story of what had happened.

After the story is shared the two fall silent for a few long moments.