10 DEC 33AE, 1800 MT

Yellowstone Camp, Squad Quarters H08

The only thing Camilla could feel was numb as she stared at the remains of her squad's tent strewn across the ground at her feet, slowly being buried under the falling snow. It felt like only a few minutes ago that they were getting ready to turn in after another long day of fighting, until a set of a dozen or so blasts threw them and multiple other squads all off their feet like ragdolls.

She wanted to be angry with Team Three for letting Exodos slip by their defenses completely undetected, but she knew she couldn't do that. If anything, she should be mad at herself for not reacting faster. But after spending the past hour ripping herself apart with self-hatred, she was having trouble feeling anything at all.

"Cap?" a timid voice called from behind her.

It took awhile for the single syllable to sink into Camilla's brain, and even longer for her to respond to it. When she finally did, she saw Caffrey watching her, nervous.

"I—I know you said to stay at the med tent," Caffrey said. The bandage on his forehead showed a little red that had soaked through the gauze, and one of his hands fidgeted with the brace on his other wrist. "But... they said we could see them now. I thought—I thought you'd want to know."

Camilla felt herself nod, but it took her feet a moment longer to actually move. In a daze, she made her way back to the med tent with Caffrey trailing behind her.

As expected, the medical tents were bustling with activity as both meta and non-meta medics rushed in and out in a hurry. Outside, several guardians were gathered off to the side, some visibly nervous while others looked just as numb as Camilla felt, their eyes as glazed as ice. They paid no mind to Camilla and Caffrey as they walked by, headed towards the tent where they last left the other two members of their squad.

As they got closer and closer, Camilla couldn't help but remember the words of a group of guardians as they gossiped about her after the Barracks attack.

If she ever becomes a captain, she would probably get her entire squad killed.

Her body tensed with the memory, but she did her best to shove the thought from her mind. She had more important things to worry about at that moment, like making sure the rest of her squad was okay, and she didn't have the time or energy to worry about herself. So once they reached the entrance to one of the med tents, the only thing on her mind was her squad.

A few medics rushed out of the tent just then, and Camilla and Caffrey stood back to let them pass, not wanting to get in the way. They entered once the coast was clear, and Camilla immediately scanned the room, searching.

Mack's muscular figure at the back of the tent was easy to spot, even though the bandages scattered over his body made him look smaller than normal. In the bed next to him, Pala looked scrawnier than ever, and their dark skin looked abnormally pale under the washed-out lights in the tent.

As they made their way to the back of the tent, Camilla and Caffrey dodged the activity around them before safely sliding themselves between their two squadmates. If it hadn't been for the injuries that covered them, Mack and Pala both looked like they were peacefully sleeping.

Suddenly, Camilla felt a slight tremor coming from beside her, and she turned just in time to catch Caffrey before he collapsed to the ground. From beneath her hands, she could feel his body shaking uncontrollably with his ragged breaths, and while his eyes were wide, she doubted he was actually seeing anything. Camilla steered him towards Pala's bed and had him sit on the edge, then she knelt down to meet him at eye-level.

"Caffrey, focus," she urged, trying to get his attention as painlessly as possible. "Caffrey, focus on my voice. Just listen. Can you do that?"

But Caffrey's mind was long gone, and nothing Camilla was saying could bring him back.

The kids needed a friend, Mack had said. Not a superior.

"Caffrey," Camilla tried again, before switching tactics. "Finn. Finn, can you hear me?"

Finn's eyes moved ever so slightly, but Camilla wasn't sure if that was a coincidence.

"Finn, focus on my voice," Camilla said. "It's me... Camilla, okay? Just focus."

His breaths became a bit deeper, but nothing else changed.

Camilla looked around them, then took Finn's injured hand that was clenching Pala's bed sheets until his knuckles were white. When he refused to let go, Camilla gritted her teeth in frustration. She couldn't have him injure himself any more than he already was.

"Finn, you have to let go," Camilla insisted. "Your wrist, you're going to make it worse."

Of course, none of her words made any difference.

"Pala... Nakia needs you, okay?" Camilla tried. "You can't help if you don't let go."

That seemed to do the trick, and Finn's eyes slowly came into focus.

"Nakia?" he whispered softly, his voice strained.

Camilla nodded, and once Finn loosened his grip on the sheets, she guided his hand towards Nakia's motionless fingers. For a few seconds, Finn looked nothing but dazed. Then something in him broke, and tears began streaming from his face. With his injured hand still holding Nakia's, Finn crumpled forward, and Camilla caught him once more, letting his head fall against her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him in what she thought was an awkward hug, but Finn didn't seem to mind as his other hand moved to clutch the back of her uniform tightly.

"They saved me," Finn choked through his tears. "Mack and Nakia... I didn't know what was going on, but they did. They protected me. They... they got hurt because of me."

"They're going to be fine," Camilla assured, trying to forget about all the blood she had seen soaking into Mack's clothes. "They protected you because they care about you."

"I'm so useless," Finn sobbed.

"You're not." Camilla pushed Finn back so she could look into his eyes. "You're anything but. We would have been much worse off if not for your quick defense in battle, and you've protected all of us too many times to count. Finn, do you understand?" She waited until Finn nodded before continuing. "You're not useless. You never were."

Camilla felt like a hypocrite trying to convince someone else of their worth, but she didn't care. All that mattered was seeing Finn nod at her words, and she got back to her feet.

"I have some things to take care of," Camilla said, but in reality she didn't know how much longer she could stand being surrounded by so much pain and suffering. "Can you watch over them?"

Finn nodded immediately. "I'll protect them," he said, sniffing a little as he wiped away his tears.

Camilla patted him on the shoulder before slipping out of the tent, ignoring the medics that called after her to wait there to get treated. She didn't stop walking until she could no longer feel the pain of the injured, and the agony from the friends of the deceased.

At some point, she had unknowingly ended up in a dark part of the camp. And after a quick glance at her surroundings, she realized she was near the communications tent, briefing tent, and chief's quarters. She was definitely not mentally prepared to deal with higher-ups just then, so Camilla immediately turned to head back the way she came.

Suddenly, a sharp burst of energy caused her to freeze in her tracks, and Camilla spun around instinctively, ready for another attack. But it must have been her paranoia that made the abnormality seem stronger than it was, and once she grew accustomed to it, the energy began to feel more like a gentle stream instead of a cracking gunshot.

Regardless, its presence was still strange. The energy seemed to flow constantly through a set path in the air, going from somewhere around the communications tent to somewhere off in the distance. It wasn't exactly uncommon for metas to make energy flow in such a manner; what made it strange was that it seemed to be flowing in both directions at the same time.

Curious, Camilla mustered up some of her own energy to investigate. But just before she was about to infuse it with the air around her, she remembered what she had heard a week ago, when their attack first began.

They know there's a mole.

Maybe that's how Exodos had begun to turn the battle in their favor over the past few days. Maybe that's how Exodos was able to slip past Team Three undetected. Maybe the unusual energy was coming from a traitor.

The thought steeled Camilla for battle, and she held onto her energy to prepare for an attack. While it would've been safer for her to scope the area out with her abilities, there was a high chance her energy would end up getting detected before she could get a visual on the mole, and they could easily escape. At least if she challenged them face-to-face, they'd still be identifiable even if they got away.

But just as she took a step closer to the source, Camilla heard footsteps running up to her from behind, and she turned just in time to see the elder Pala viciously grab onto her. Camilla's instincts screamed at her to defend herself, but she held off once she sensed how the other captain's anger and hatred only masked her fear and sadness.

"You!" Pala said, showing more emotions than Camilla had ever seen from her. "You were supposed to protect them! You were supposed to protect Nakia!"

Her accusation was what Camilla had been telling herself ever since the attack, but hearing it from someone else still caught her off-guard.

"You..." Pala said, and even though her grip on Camilla's uniform tightened, her voice began to waver. Eventually she dropped her head, defeated, and she released her grip to weakly hit Camilla's shoulder.

Nakia and Mack were your responsibility, a voice said, and Camilla realized belatedly it was her own voice ringing inside her head. After you were given all of this power and all these opportunities, how could you let this happen? How could you be such a failure?

That's right. Everyone always said Camilla was powerful. So how could something like this happen under her watch? She didn't have an answer for that, or any words of consolation for Pala. All she could do was stare numbly at the quiet tents in front of her, listening to Pala's helpless sobs, as the energy flowing through the air behind her disappeared into the night.

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