Four days and three painful nights later, Carmen found herself laying on a rug next to the couches, Zack and Ivy on either side of her with Shadowsan perched on the armrest. The red laptop, which rested on the coffee table, showed Player's tired face. In her fever induced haze, the thief had started to talk about random things to the siblings, and once Shadowsan and the young hacker had joined them, the conversation quickly turned to the one thing Carmen wouldn't open up about.

Her recent miserable stay with VILE.

Even in her sick and weakened state, the Latina's mind had cleared almost instantly when Ivy hesitantly asked for a full account of what happened.

"Of... wh-what happened, huh?" she choked out, attempting to force a smile.

Ivy must've seen the fear behind it, because she rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. "I know you don't want to talk about it, Carm, but you need to rip the bandaid off. We're..." She trailed off, then cleared her throat and whispered, "We're always here for you."

Carmen gave a shuddering sigh and closed her eyes. The medicine she had taken earlier was just now setting in, and a part of her relaxed as the heat rolling over her was dulled. "No, you're right, Ivy. It's not like I've healed at all yet, you know, mentally. Reliving it won't reverse any progress, because there is none. There's no point in not talking," she muttered bitterly.

"If you're not ready, no one here is forcing you. It's just... not gonna get easier any time soon."

"No, it's fine." And besides, I do have to talk. "What do you wanna know?"

Shadowsan spoke up, his voice sad. "Start at the beginning. That night in France."

Carmen sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out as slowly as she could if only to stall for a bit longer. "You all saw what happened. I'm fighting, VILE shows up, they threaten Zack, Ivy, and the entire Louvre Museum-"

"And you, Red," Player says, interrupting the rising anger in her words. "They held your life at gunpoint. Remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," she mumbled somewhat darkly. "Doesn't mean I care."

Silence.

The thief closed her eyes again, refusing to make eye contact. "They knocked me out once I agreed to their terms, and the last thing I remember from that is-" She paused to swallow. "The look of pure rage on Ivy's face."

The Bostonian squeezed her hand from where she sat on her right.

"When I woke up -oh, I dunno, hours, maybe days later- I was shackled to a table. Coach... Brunt  Dr. Bellum came in, talking about an 'operation'." She shivered just thinking about it. "At one point Bellum tried to straight up cut open my arm, and when I freaked the scissors cut my hair instead. So, yes, this was an accident." Carmen attempted at a half-hearted laugh, the sound lifeless and empty. "Anyway, I kept being a stubborn pain-"

"Like always," Zack said lightly.

"Yes, like always," the thief agreed. "They got tired of that real quick, and Bellum got out a paralyzing injection, and, uh..." She paused, gulping in deep breaths of air, voice lowering. "I couldn't move. They put a microchip in my arm. They never bothered to keep it clean or to numb it or anything. Honestly, I wouldn't have expected anything different from VILE."

Ivy tensed, cheeks slightly flushed with anger. "That's why you can't even move it anymore?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna kill them," she seethed.

Carmen winced, the images and scene of her last stand off against Brunt circling and burning her closed eyes. "Don't worry, I took care of that for you."

Ivy's eyes widened as she realized what she'd said, and she hurriedly snuggled closer as Zack did the same. "Sorry, Carm. I- I'm sorry." She buried her face in the thief's sweatshirt hood, trying to keep the waver out of her voice as she whispered, "It's okay. I'm sorry."

Carmen bit back the trembling she could feel in her bones and and gripped Ivy's hand tighter. "It's fine."

Shadowsan furrowed his brow. "Continue," he encouraged quietly.

And so she did. She recounted the beatings. The mind wipe. The taunts of McKenzie Wolfe. The constant lies, and confusion, and pain.

The sorrow of being purely and utterly alone.

The terror of never knowing if she'd live through the next day.

And then the haunting realization when she no longer cared.

The acceptance from herself that she had simply given up.

Ivy listened silently as Carmen told them of her time at VILE, her anger and sadness battling each other in her heart to be the strongest. In the end, neither won, for her horror beat the two back as the thief's story came to a close.

"It made sense. Remove the microchip, and I'd be able to leave. But I had to make the cut myself, and it had to be deep enough for me to reach it." Carmen's gray-blue eyes had yet to open, and she only screwed them tighter as tears formed on her dark lashes. 

It was the hitch in her words that proved Ivy right.

This hurt Carmen so much more than she was ever willing to admit.

"You guys know the rest, I'm assuming. I removed the chip, VILE tried to stop me, and Coach Brunt confronted me..." Carmen winced and sat up, her eyes wild and brimming with tears.

Ivy followed, startled, as the red head pushed herself shakily to her feet and stumbled to a wall, crumbling against it as sudden heavy sobs shook her feverish body.

"I can't, I can't, I can't," Carmen whimpered, hiding her pale face behind her good hand and tucking into a ball. She was shivering violently, sweat beading along her brow as tears rolled down her flushed cheeks. "I can't, I can't, please," she repeated, the words dissolving into haunted wails. "I can't."

The world is spinning. Fire is eating away at my flesh as I feel my self cry, huddled up in a corner. My heart hurts. It hurts so much.

"I can't."

Everything hurts.

"I killed her."

My soul is throbbing in my gut.

"I can't do this."

My own heart is screaming at me.

Murderer. Murerer. Murderer.

"Why did you leave VILE if you were just going to end up killing in the first place?"

I don't know.

I don't know.

I can't let them see me broken like this. They need me to be strong. I have to be strong. They don't know what to do anymore.

I don't know what to do anymore.

So I'll just... smile for them.

Tomorrow.

I feel myself sink into this pit, one that I've been avoiding for as long as I can remember. It's comfort and darkness, similar but different to the one that swallowed and almost killed me at VILE. Except this time... I'm falling with a promise to myself. 

To show them all what they want.

There's a soft click in my brain as I fall limp against the wall, my body shutting down. I hear them talking to me, but I don't listen.

Because tomorrow, everything will be OK.

I've almost convinced myself, even.

Welp.

This chapter literally sucked. 

Thanks for sticking around so long, guys. Means a lot to me.

Happy late Easter!

And sorry for updating so late, my school just got cancelled the rest of the year and I'm PISSED.