Camilla

27 AUG 34AE, 0925

When Camilla had agreed to help the Alliance uncover the ugly truth within the Org, she had a vague idea of what would be required from her. But now that she stood just outside the briefing room, moments away from having to dredge up memories she would rather not think about, she wasn't sure if she could do it anymore. She hardly liked talking about herself with people she considered to be her friends. How was she supposed to recount her most painful memories with strangers?

"You can still change your mind, if you want," Elsie's reassuring voice sounded from Camilla's side. "You don't have to tell them anything."

But she did. After what happened at Farallon, Camilla's hands were far from clean. If she wanted the chance for some form of repentance, this was the best way.

Except it would be pointless to tell Elsie that. If she did, Camilla knew Elsie would just reassure her that the lives she took were not her fault, that their deaths were on Hester and Stein and the Org. And she would probably be disappointed that Camilla didn't feel the same way.

Besides, the rest of their friends weren't aware of exactly what Camilla had done yet, and they were all waiting patiently behind her, ready to follow whatever decision she made with their perplexing sense of loyalty to her. Sure, they would probably find out the truth eventually, but Camilla wanted to put off the inevitable for as long as she could. Whatever good they still saw in her, she wanted them to keep it for a little while longer, even if it was a lie.

"If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't catch its cub," Hitomi said sagely in Japanese from Camilla's other side.

The fact that her cousin was quoting idioms made Camilla briefly more irritated than anxious, and she shot her cousin an annoyed glare. In contrast, Hitomi shrugged nonchalantly.

"You know I'm right," Hitomi continued in Japanese. "If you want to take that bitch down, you're going to have to take some risks first."

"I know, I know," Camilla muttered in Japanese before taking a deep breath.

As much as she hated to admit it, Hitomi was right. Risking her friends' faith in her was a small price to pay to protect other people from the Org's corruption. Besides, her friends deserved some explanation as to what they risked their lives for, Hitomi especially.

So before Camilla could change her mind, she opened the door and entered the briefing room.

The layout was akin to a small lecture hall and was similar to the ones at the Org base but on a lower budget. The seats were made of stone, as if they had been carved out of the mountain at the same time the room itself was excavated, and they were already occupied by dozens of Alliance metas chattering with each other. At the sound of the door opening though, they turned, and a sudden hush briefly filled the small space.

"Captain Wyatt," Senior Chief Ali's annoyingly calm voice filled the void. "Right on time."

Camilla turned to Senior as she sat at the front of the room, holding a tablet that she must have just been reading. Her brother was standing at her side, and he eyed Camilla with a mixture of wariness and annoyance. In return, Camilla shot a glare in his direction, then to his sister.

"I'm not a captain anymore," Camilla let herself say without thinking.

"You still are in my book," Senior said, not at all perturbed by Camilla's rudeness. "Have a seat wherever you want. We'll get started in a minute."

Camilla didn't have to look at the seating area to know there were no openings large enough to accommodate her entire group, so she merely stepped to the side and kept herself positioned next to the exit. As she did so, Elsie and Hitomi kept their spots on either side of her, and the rest of her group followed suit. She could hear Jordan's whispered commentary and Mack's patient replies behind her, accompanied by Minyoung's annoyed sighs. She could make out snippets of Finn's curious questions to no one in particular, Nakia's hissed shushes, and Bev's stifled chuckles.

Would they all still be there after Camilla came clean?

"Thank you all for coming here today," Senior Chief Ali began a moment later. "I know you've all been hard at work trying to settle into these new accommodations, and your efforts have been commendable. I know I've said this before, but I am truly grateful that all of you are here to support this cause. Each and every one of you has shown exceptional bravery and a commitment to justice just by being here, and I couldn't have asked for a better team."

At her last words, Senior made a point to look at Camilla directly. Camilla returned the woman's grateful smile with a cold stare.

"Now, to business," Senior continued, unperturbed. "I know most of you know why we're here: there are people within the Org that take pride in abusing their power, and we have the responsibility to stop them and bring them to justice. For years, we have been watching from the sidelines, helping where we could. Recently, we've amplified our presence, and now we've even made our dissatisfaction with the current Org known to the public."

Suddenly, Senior paused, and the deep breath she took was loud enough to echo in the silence.

"But as much as I appreciate all of your efforts, I'm afraid it may not have been enough. And only I am to blame.

"When my brother and I started the Alliance years ago, we thought it would be enough to be patient. We wanted to bide our time to collect information, and to only reveal ourselves once we had enough evidence of all the corruption. And while this was definitely the safest course of action... I won't deny that many innocent lives were affected in the process, while we stood by and did nothing."

At that moment, Camilla felt the back of Elsie's hand gently brush against her own. It wasn't until then that Camilla realized she was fidgeting with her fingers again, running her thumbnail along each of her fingertips.

How Elsie noticed Camilla's anxiety before she did was a mystery, but Camilla didn't bother to dwell on it just then. Instead, she relaxed her hand and gently brushed it against Elsie's in return, then intertwined their fingers. It was only a small comfort when Elsie squeezed her hand reassuringly, but at least it was better than nothing.

"As all of you may be aware," Senior continued. "Recent events have highlighted a particular area of concern that was much more dire than we originally anticipated, and I believe the Alliance has the responsibility to make this our highest priority. But before we proceed... I also believe that it is time I share some information with all of you regarding this issue. Some of what I'm about to say may already be common knowledge, but other parts are more... personal."

Again, she made eye contact with Camilla, but this time, Camilla felt herself tense under her gaze.

"Still, I feel like you have the right to know," Senior said to her, and there was nothing Camilla could do but stare blankly back.

A second later, Senior tapped her tablet a few times, and an image appeared on the wall behind her. For a moment, Camilla froze at the sight of Hester's cold eyes looking back at her, but Elsie's unwavering presence at her side helped her let out a shaky breath.

"This is Doctor Bridgette Hester," Senior announced. "Most of you probably recognize her from the Academy where she worked. For years, she has led the public to believe she was an exceptionally gifted scientist who only used her talents to help this country. The Org has supported this image of her, and I'm sure most of you may have looked up to her at some point in your lives. But as I'm sure you're all aware of now, this version of Hester is a fabrication without an ounce of truth to it.

"Twenty-six years ago, Hester became a member of the Academy's first graduating class, at a time when all things related to meta-humans were still in their infancy. Even though she was only eighteen years old then, she was extremely intelligent, and was already in college with the intention of studying meta-humans and abilities. And because the Org desperately needed to emphasize their research on meta-humans, they allowed Hester to continue her classes while she was enrolled at the Academy, and even exempted her from field work once she became a guardian to pursue her doctorate.

"Once she did that, the Org had her continue her research, and even funded her experiments. They had her work with the privately-owned genetics lab known as Zenipro, who they contracted out to pursue meta-science research. This is where Hester met Doctor Zachary Stein, a research psychologist."

Again, the next image that Senior flashed onto the wall behind her made Camilla tense, but this time she was more angry than nervous at the sight of Stein's stoic face.

"Hester and Stein were part of the team that figured out how to detect the presence of the meta-human gene in a person as young as thirteen years old," Senior explained. "It was their team that developed the meta-human test that we and the rest of the world still use today, and is the only reason that Academies everywhere can begin training students before their meta-abilities are even apparent.

"After their research was published, the group divided to pursue their own areas of interest. And in Hester's case... her interests lacked morals. Officially, she continued to cooperate with some of the Zenipro scientists to predict meta-abilities in greater detail. For example, what abilities would a person develop, or how powerful would their abilities be.

"Unofficially, she was doing her own experiments with seemingly no real goal in mind. But then... eventually, one of her experiments went horribly wrong, and the Org was forced to step in. They halted Hester's experiments and revoked her guardian status indefinitely. But they still needed Hester and her knowledge, so she was reassigned to teach at the Academy until they could figure out what to do with her.

"For the fifteen years she worked there, first as a teacher then as the headmaster, we don't have many details on her movements, and it's likely that the Org actively tried to cover her tracks. In fact, we only have two pieces of concrete evidence that hinted at suspicious activity.

"First, Hester was able to use her connections to have Stein employed at the Academy as a psychologist, despite him only having experience in psychological research. Second, she abused her power as headmaster to blackmail at least one student into taking unapproved substances for over five years, at the recommendation of Stein who has no medical license."

There was no question that the second piece of evidence involved Camilla's experiences with Hester, and she steeled herself from the inevitable glances from the other metas in the room. Almost immediately after her outburst a week ago, Camilla had regretted revealing how Hester had her medicated, but she wasn't going to let everyone else know she was having second thoughts. Instead, Camilla hardened her expression to a firm neutral and kept her eyes fixed on Senior.

"It wasn't until a few years ago that I had Hester's guardian status reinstated," Senior continued, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "At the time, I had a feeling that Hester was still continuing her experiments, and she was using her position at the Academy to gain test subjects.

"To test this theory, I assigned Hester to Farallon where she would be cut off from the general population. Unfortunately, removing Hester from the Academy gave the higher-ups the opportunity to reassign her to suit their own needs. They had her lead a black ops squad with free reign across the entire west coast and everyone that lived there.

"Since then, my brother and I have been gathering guardians that have a strong sense of justice and are willing to fight to protect the innocent—that's all of you. And this is where we are now. We suspect Hester has been conducting experiments on meta-humans for years, with the Org's approval and funding. We know she's hurt innocent people because of it, and we have the power to stop her and whoever else is helping her.

"Now, I know that was a lot of information," Senior said. "So before we continue with this brief, does anyone have any questions?"

Camilla half-expected no one to say a word. All Senior did was give a history lesson, not critical mission details. Under normal circumstances, any questions on background information were asked to similarly-ranked guardians after the brief or not at all. It was an unspoken rule that no one was to bother chiefs or higher on such trivial matters, and it was something that even trainees would know fresh out of the Academy.

So it was surprising when a vice captain in the stands raised their hand almost immediately.

"Could you tell us more on what made you suspicious of Hester?" the vice captain asked.

"Excellent question," Senior replied. "Our suspicions stem from a series of events that happened involving the Academy during Hester's reign as headmaster, starting with the Exodos attack on the Academy. While it was a terrible tragedy, it did allow the federal government to direct more funds towards the Org. While the additional amount the Academy received wasn't suspicious, especially considering the repairs that needed to be made, we determined there was a different line of money secretly being routed to Zenipro from those additional funds.

"Several months later, the Academy ordered a health check for the entire student body, something that had never happened before. Not only that, but part of the health check required a blood sample, which is the same requirement for the meta-human test administered to all thirteen-year-olds in the country. And almost immediately after, police records show a sudden spike in missing person reports. While this number quickly leveled out again by the following year, the timing was suspicious.

"Our guess is that Hester and other researchers at Zenipro used the funding to develop another type of test for meta-humans. And, with whatever results they got, they needed subjects for their experiments, hence the disappearances. Over the years, we did manage to rescue a few people that we believed were Hester's targets, and a few had or ended up having meta-abilities—some of them even stayed to help us as part of the Alliance. Unfortunately, there were many more disappearances that we failed to prevent. Did that answer your question?"

After the vice captain nodded and thanked her, Senior scanned the room for other inquiries. It didn't take long before another hand rose into the air, this time belonging to a captain.

"Forgive me if this comes off as rude, Senior," the captain began. "But you mentioned at the beginning that this was personal. Was that because you were the one that had her reinstated?"

If Senior found the question to be disrespectful, she didn't say so. Instead, she was silent for a moment, carefully contemplating her next words, before she answered.

"While that is a part of the reason, it's not all of it," Senior eventually said. "Hester and I attended the Academy together; we were in the same class. And for years, I thought of her as one of my trustworthy allies."

"We all did," Chief Ali unexpectedly added as he placed a hand on his sister's shoulder. "I was in her class too. We all trusted each other, and Hester, with our lives."

Senior nodded, seeming slightly comforted by her brother's reassurance. "Shortly after we graduated, I was involved in a mission that went sideways. It looked terrible for the Org, and I knew I needed to strengthen my abilities so it would never happen again.

"And Hester knew what I was thinking. So when she approached me with the promise to make me stronger, I decided to cut corners and accept her offer. I trusted her. And as a result..." Senior took a deep breath. "I lost the ability to walk. And while I can still heal others, I lost the ability to heal myself. I was the subject of her experiment that went wrong."

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