Camilla

After all of the information that came to light in the morning's meeting, Camilla's group was understandably exhausted as they blindly followed Camilla to her room. Once there, the metas scattered themselves throughout the space to mull over the news in their own ways, while their non-meta friends stayed close for moral support.

Camilla and Elsie sat together on their bed, with Camilla wedging herself securely in the corner against the walls. While Camilla wasn't in the mood to talk, she welcomed the gentle touches that Elsie provided her, from gently holding Camilla's hand to running her fingers slowly through Camilla's hair. The saving grace was that the brief hadn't gone too deep into "forbidden territory" as Camilla feared it would. Had they delved further into what Stein's experiments entailed, she wasn't sure where her mind would have gone.

At the opposite corner of the bed, Mack kept mostly to himself as he slumped over on the floor, leaning against the mattress with an exhausted sigh. Naturally, Jordan sat on the bed behind Mack, and he immediately began massaging Mack's shoulders and neck while striking up a conversation with Minyoung about how the room smelled much better than their own. Without anything else to do, Minyoung grumpily continued the conversation, taking the seat next to Hitomi on her bed when she offered.

Hitomi, as expected, was unfazed by what the meeting had to offer. She had already known the gist of what happened to Camilla at Farallon, and she never had much faith in US politics to begin with. As a result, she was happy to chime in to Jordan and Minyoung's conversation, offering her own commentary whether they wanted it or not.

Bev and the kids trailed in last. Nakia seemed the most out of character, and they immediately climbed up to the bunk above Camilla and Elsie's without a word. They had approached Senior immediately after the meeting was dismissed, desperate to know more about their sister. Nakia looked heartbroken when Senior confirmed that Captain Pala condemned Camilla's squad and everyone else that deserted the Org, and there was nothing Senior could do to convince her otherwise without risking the safety of the entire Alliance.

But while Nakia was silent and reserved, Finn wouldn't stop talking. As he continued to ramble about things like how it was possible for the Org to get away with their crimes for so long, or if they were all destined to be part of the zombie army, Bev did her best to keep him in line and relatively subdued. She sat on the floor in the middle of the room, and Finn automatically followed, not stopping from expressing his theories on the likelihood that other countries were doing the same thing as the US.

As expected, it didn't take long for the feeble conversations to wind down, leaving only silence. What Camilla didn't expect was how much she disliked the lack of chatter that normally came so easy between her friends. A year ago, she would have preferred the quiet and anti-social atmosphere; now, it made her uncomfortable.

"They can't keep getting away with this," Camilla suddenly announced. Immediately, all eyes turned towards her, somewhat surprised, but she continued. "If Hester's really trying to make a brainwashed army, and the Org is willing to sacrifice guardians and innocent civilians to do it... we have to stop them."

After a moment of silence, it was Mack that answered first.

"AJ had mentioned there were dozens of other metas that went through Farallon that she lost track of. Who knows how many metas are still under Hester's control?"

"But where do we even start?" Finn asked, worried. "Even with the Alliance, we're up against the rest of the Org guardians and potentially a zombie army. Not to mention, the whole country thinks we're fugitives."

"We need to find more evidence," Hitomi said, then let out a long sigh. "And if what your Senior Chief says is true, then that will be hard to come by."

Hitomi's blunt reality check was enough to fill the room with silence again, and no one spoke until the sound of someone's stomach growling echoed loudly. It was enough to startle subdued laughter from most of them, and they wordlessly agreed to set aside their worries until after they got some lunch.

But when they returned from the cafeteria, they were met by an unexpected visitor waiting outside the door: it was Senior Chief Ali, alone.

"Sorry to bother you," Senior began with a small smile. "I know it's been a long day, but I remembered that I had to give you something, Captain Wyatt."

Camilla's eyes glanced at a small cardboard box on Senior's lap before returning her gaze.

"What is it?" Camilla asked, trying to keep her curiosity from sounding in her voice.

Before answering, Senior glanced at the door to Camilla's room, as if she wanted to continue their conversation in a private area. But Camilla preferred it if Senior was uncomfortable, and she made no move to relocate their conversation. Eventually, Senior gave in and continued.

"After Hester took you, the Org searched your room in Miss Bates's condo," Senior explained. "They took everything as evidence. Thankfully, one of our own was part of the investigation and managed to get ahold of one of the items."

She opened the package on her lap. Inside, was a black metal box, slightly taller than a shoebox, and carefully cushioned by packing paper. When Senior removed it from the package, Camilla recognized it immediately, from the small scratches and dents to the small Japanese characters engraved on the lid in gold. It was her dad's box with a few of his belongings, the one that had been recovered from the Barracks, and the one she had snuck out of her childhood home in San Francisco.

"We did look through it, just to let you know," Senior admitted as she held out the box to Camilla. "We were hoping it had clues about Hester and Stein, but we couldn't find anything."

Camilla took the box and examined the exterior. It looked just as it did when she last saw it, and she ran a finger along the engraving of her dad's name, writing the characters stroke by stroke.

"You want to see if I can find something useful," Camilla said, not bothering to phrase it as a question.

"That would be helpful, yes," Senior confirmed. "It's possible that he left a clue that only you would understand, especially if he already knew that someone was after his work."

Camilla took one last look at the box before tucking it under her arm and turning her gaze back to Senior. "I'll take a look at it. Is that all?"

Senior had probably wanted Camilla to examine the box then and there, but she managed to conceal her disappointment so that it was barely noticeable.

"At the moment, yes," Senior said.

Camilla waited until Senior was out of sight before going into her room, and everyone quickly followed. Their exhaustion from the meeting was long gone, now replaced by excited curiosity, and they all huddled around Camilla as soon as she sat at the edge of her and Elsie's bed. Evidently, Senior wasn't the only one interested in finding out what secrets her dad had hidden, if any at all.

The box had a small lock on it whose key had been misplaced long before the box had left San Francisco. It had been no problem for Camilla's abilities before, and her late Academy classmates had helped her before her powers manifested, but things were different now. Thankfully, whoever opened it last had left it unlocked, and Camilla gently lifted the lid with ease.

While the contents were slightly jumbled from what she last remembered, everything appeared to be accounted for. The first thing Camilla pulled out was a stack of envelopes bound together with string. Hitomi immediately accepted them as soon as Camilla handed them to her, both of them already knowing what they were. They were the letters that Camilla's dad received from Hitomi's mom, and Hitomi began looking through them without a word.

Just below it was another envelope filled with pictures. A couple of the pictures were from Hitomi's mom, including one of her dad and Hitomi's mom when they were kids, and of Hitomi when she was a baby. The rest of the pictures had a baby Camilla in each of them, some by herself and others with one or both of her parents. She handed the entire stack to Elsie, who immediately began grinning at Camilla's younger days while Bev and Finn cooed from beside her.

The last items in the box were books. One was a leather-covered journal her dad had used as a sketchbook. When he needed to clear his mind, he would take the journal with him for a walk and roughly sketch his surroundings such as buildings and parks. What all of the drawings had in common was that each of them were incomplete—as soon as an idea would come to him, he would immediately return to work, leaving his drawing unfinished.

The rest of the books were his favorite comics, each of them well-worn and obviously read multiple times. Camilla handed these to everyone else to look through, and she kept the journal for herself.

For hours, the group searched through Ken's belongings, trying to find anything that didn't seem right. A few times, they would approach Camilla with a possible clue, only for Camilla to solemnly turn it down. Regardless, she started making a list of each suggestion, hoping maybe they would all make sense at the end.

Eventually, they all grew weary again, and everyone agreed to break until they had dinner and a good night's rest. As disappointed as Camilla was, she knew there was no point in continuing their search just then, not when she was tired enough to overlook even the most obvious details. Her disappointment must have shown clearly on her face, because when she glanced at Elsie next to her, Elsie gave her a comforting smile and pulled her into a gentle, one-armed hug.

"We'll get back to it in the morning, first thing," Elsie promised. "I'll even wake up early to help."

Camilla's huff of laughter came easy to her, and she nodded slowly, her exhaustion already threatening to put her to sleep.

But as tired as she was, Camilla couldn't silence her mind long enough to go to sleep. Even when she was wrapped in Elsie's arms, and she could feel Elsie's fingers stroking gently through her hair, Camilla couldn't stop thinking.

She couldn't stop thinking about her dad, and how he would show her his comic books and make sound effects to accompany the pictures, and how he said the heroes in the stories were the guardians in real life. She remembered how he always became animated when he talked about his work, even though young Camilla couldn't understand a word he was saying.

She thought about what Senior had said, about how her dad was possibly murdered for the work that he loved. And she thought about his black metal box, and how it could contain the clues to finally figuring out what really happened to him.

When Camilla finally did drift off to sleep, she even dreamt about the box. She knew it was a dream because she was back in her childhood home, rifling through the box as she sat in the basement where she had originally found it. In her dream, she pulled out each item one at a time, turning it over in her hands before setting it gently back into the box.

Until she reached the journal. Like the other items, she ran her hands over it, but something about the front cover made her stop. Again, she brushed her hand over the leather. Her hands didn't feel anything unusual, but another part of her did, as if there was something right in the center.

Camilla placed her fingers in that spot and concentrated, trying her best to "feel" what she couldn't actually touch. She could "feel" the leather and all the fibers that it contained. She could "feel" a thin layer of cardboard beneath the leather, but it cut off unexpectedly after that. Confused, Camilla focused harder, determined to figure out what was in that empty void.

At first, she struggled. But she wasn't going to let herself give up. And after a few more seconds, she "felt" what it was. It was alive somehow, even though it was embedded within the cover. And that wasn't all. The mysterious material surrounded another object: a small rectangle made of plastic and metal. An object that closely resembled a thin memory stick.

Camilla awoke with a gasp, and she began panting as if she just sprinted a mile. Belatedly, she registered the sound of Elsie yelping in surprise beside her, and Elsie had scrambled upright in an instant.

"Camilla, are you okay?" Elsie quickly asked. Her voice sounded like she was trying to be calm and gentle, but she was failing miserably.

But Camilla couldn't answer. Her mind kept replaying her dream over and over again, remembering how she "felt" the journal's secrets. No, she didn't just "feel" it—she sensed it with her abilities. Except that was impossible; she hadn't been able to use her abilities properly for ages now. Or rather, she could use her abilities, just not on command. Instead, she had only used them when she wasn't thinking about it.

That was it. She had used them when she was feeling, not thinking. And maybe she had just used them again without meaning to.

"Mitaka, talk to me," Hitomi's voice rang through her thoughts in Japanese.

Suddenly, Camilla realized that Elsie and Hitomi were both hovering over, a worried look on each of their faces. As Camilla glanced between the two of them, she even saw AJ in the background, looking exhausted but equally concerned. How long had she been ignoring them for?

"Journal," was all Camilla could manage—she was still out of breath.

"Camilla, what's wrong?" Elsie asked nervously.

At the same time, Hitomi spun around and rushed off, returning a second later with Ken's journal in hand.

As soon as Camilla took it, she quickly ran her fingers over the cover, just like how she had done in her dream. She couldn't feel anything, and she couldn't get her abilities to work again, but she had a different feeling her dream had been right. She had her intuition.

Camilla opened the journal and inspected the cover. There was paper glued to the inside, and Camilla immediately went to work peeling it off.

"You think... there's something inside?" Elsie guessed tentatively.

But Camilla didn't answer. She couldn't, not when she wasn't sure if she was right or not. Instead, she kept working, trying her best not to completely ruin her dad's book.

Beneath the paper was a piece of cardboard, held down at the edges by the leather. Camilla pried off the leather with a little more urgency than she had given the paper, but she was getting impatient. It didn't help that once the cardboard was separated from the leather, she also had to separate it from another piece of cardboard, and Camilla irately peeled the two layers apart slightly more vigorously than she needed to.

When she was about halfway through, she finally saw something: a thin, dark green envelope embedded between the sheets of cardboard.

As soon as she pried it out, Camilla set the rest of the journal aside, unable to take her eyes from the small packet. Whatever it was made out of, it wasn't anything Camilla had ever seen. The material felt warm under her fingertips, and even slightly damp.

"I do not think this is regular cardboard," Hitomi commented, and Camilla glanced over to see her examining the journal cover that Camilla had just dismantled. "It could be made with lead, to hide the contents from x-rays."

"And this?" Camilla asked, handing the envelope to Hitomi.

As soon as Hitomi touched it, her eyes widened, and a few seconds passed before she spoke.

"That..." she began before having to pause again. "I do not know what that is, but it is alive. It feels similar to the organisms used in bio-batteries."

When she handed the packet back, Camilla took it nervously. Senior was right. Her dad left her a clue, a clue only Camilla could easily find.

With her hands trembling ever so slightly, Camilla opened the packet. Inside was something small and thin, and Camilla poured it out into her open palm. Just as she felt in her dream, it was a small memory stick. Not only that, but it had something written on it in Japanese, in her dad's familiar handwriting:

I'm sorry, Mitaka

---

NOTES

I have to admit, I had fun imagining up the secret of Ken's journal!

Who remembers the textbook excerpt from the Interlogue at the beginning of Phase Two? That was Ken's textbook, and he references a study he conducted with Hester and Stein.

As always, thanks for reading and voting!! 🥰