A soft sound woke him up, at first he wondered where he was. And why he was sitting in some chair instead of laying down in his bed. But then everything came back to him, how the boys, and he, were attacked by mister Dixton and his man. How this girl with blazing red hair saved him and patched him up. How she started to shake all of a sudden, and right after that collapsed. She was laying in bed, her beautiful face contorted. He jumped up, was she in pain?

"No, no, don't leave me." she said softly in her sleep. He took a deep breath, the girl just had a nightmare. Then he saw the tears. "No, Maek, Allia. I am sorry, I am so sorry. Please do not leave me, I do not want to be alone anymore." Mychaell sat down on the bed, the sobs were heartbreaking. She spoke those name with so much love, and then again with so much pain. "No!" Her eyes flew open and she pushed herself up. Gasping for air, looking wildly around her. Tears streamed freely, her gasps for air were rapid and shallow. She had a panic attack.

"Easy, easy." he whispered to her, her eyes snapped towards him. But somehow he got the sense that she was not seeing him, the fear was too much for that. "You are in Maraud, you are safe. No one around here is going to hurt you." She slowly nodded, but there was something inside him that told him that she heard him. But not fully understood what he was saying. "Am I allowed to hug you?" he asked, she again nodded. He moved closer, and wrapped his arms around her. At first, she tensed up, but then relaxed. He moved a bit so that he was sitting next to her on the bed. She turned her face towards him and started to weep violently. "He killed them, he killed Meak and Allia." Mychaell made a mental note towards himself to ask Rycharde, not her, who these people were. "I fought him off, and he killed them to punish me." He wanted to know who 'he' was. But somewhere he had the feeling that he already knew who coursed her to have so much pain. "He killed them."

"I know, I know," he whispered. While moving his hand up and down her back, she grabbed his shirt with both hands and sobbed even harder. Repeating over and over that someone had killed Meak and Allia. It took a while before the sobbing stopped, and she was fast a sleep once more. He was not able to catch a wink, after that happened. He didn't let go of her, either. Not that he could move, she was holding him tight. Jessica entered the backroom just when the early rays of golden sunlight crept through the windows.

"Mychaell, what are you doing?" she asked. Looking from the girl to him and back.

"She had a night terror," he explained. "Nightmare, panic attack, she kept saying 'he killed them, I fought him off, and he killed them to punish me'." Jessica's gaze softened a bit, and she slowly took a deep breath.

"She told Vanessa and me, about what happened to her. And I promised her that I wouldn't share it with anybody else. But all I know is that Genevieve was the best Freedom Fighter in Benevolence, right after Justin, which made her a thread. But she loved him, and he used it to his advantage." Jessica said, and Mychaell nodded. He had seen the signs. "I also suspect that Rycharde lied to you about him being in mourning. I believe those night terrors are the real reason why he stayed at home." That was something he didn't understand.

"Care to explain?" he asked. She nodded and sighed.

"Well he might be in mourning, Justin was his son. But he also was a piece of shit, and Rycharde knows that. Now why I think the night terrors are the main reason. Well, you said it a couple of days back that Genevieve sleeps a lot. Although night terrors do not happen every time, they happen fragrantly. And there are some instances where people who suffered from a night terror hurt themselves. I think Rycharde wants to be there to protect her from this." Jessica said, he slowly nodded, this made a lot of sense. But why dies Rycharde not say that, why hide behind a lame excuse? Was this also to protect her? To protect her from what? From them, the city, or other things that might hurt her? There were too many questions, and not enough answers. "But all I know is that she is still a Freedom Fighter at heart."

"And why do you think that?" he asked. He really wanted to know why she thought that. Jessica, besides himself, was one of the toughest person he knew. And she wouldn't say stuff like that on a whim.

"She jumped right into action when she heard that you were in trouble. She sent us to Derick and Joshua, and she herself went after you. She didn't ask any questions, or directions. Meaning that she studied the city map, and when I say studied. I mean studied, she knows all the districts and alleyways. She knew which path you were one, and she went straight towards it." Jessica said, that indeed spoke volumes. But how did she know what their start point would be? He closed his eyes, Rycharde and he spoke about it right after she arrived here. She must have overheard their conversation. He looked at the sleeping girl that currently used him as a pillow.

"Jessica, I was wondering, do you know who Meak and Allia are?" he asked. She nodded.

"Does where adoptive parents." She replied. "Also, do not worry about Joshua and Derick, they are both fine. And I suspect that they would arrive here at any minute." Her adoptive parents, so she was an orphan, which made the murder more heartbreaking.

"Please, keep everybody away. Let's give her all the rest she needs. And to be fair, I can use some shut-eye myself. Haven't gotten any sleep after her episode." he said, Jessica nodded. And left them behind. He could hear his friends stumbling in, he heard Jessica warning them and ordering them to get to work. He smiled, he was happy to know that his friends were alright. They might be a bit banged up, but no major injuries. He was glad to hear feint sounds of them fooling around, his eyelid grew heavy and he nodded off.

*****

Genevieve didn't know at first why her pillow was this hard, or why it was moving. But it felt so good, warm and safe. And that was something she hadn't felt in the last three years. It was also great to jump into action, to save someone's live, to fight for something that was right instead of enforcing someone's rule. She sighed and moved her head slightly, yes, this felt so nice.

"It seems to me that you are finally waking up," the pillow vibrated together with the deep voice. Her eyes flew open, she was laying on someone's chest. Her knuckles were white while holding this person's t-shirt for deer live. Quickly, she let go and pushed herself up to look this person in the eye. It was the man she rescued, and patched up. His black hair hung slightly for his dark blue eyes, what was he doing inside her bed? "You had a night terror, I helped to calm you down with a hug. Only you fall back asleep right after that, using me as your personal pillow." The gaze inside the dark blue eyes was soft, not judgmental at all. Something she wasn't used to, but then again she didn't know this man. She didn't know his intentions, all she knew was that he was part of Rycharde's new Freedom Fighters. She slowly pushed herself up, but slipped and fall back down on his chest. He gasped for air, and maybe released a curse under his breath. She couldn't quite hear it.

"I am so sorry," she muttered. Again pushing herself up and got up from the bed. Quietly looking around to find her bearings, she was in the back of Rycharde's apothecary. Which was used as the headquarters of the Freedom Fighters. A large stack of files was placed on a desk, awaiting to be examined. She grabbed a rubber hairband and tied up her hair. She didn't know how late it was, but the sun was up. So there was no way, that she was able to sneak out of here to get back to Rycharde's apartment. So it would be better if she made herself useful.

"What are you doing?" he asked her, he was also standing next to the bed. His gaze was following her every move. She sat down behind the desk, started up the computer.

"First I am going to do Rycharde's job, by getting these," she placed her hand on the stack. "Of your desk, while I let a useful program that one of my ..." her voice died, "someone I knew, created." she swallowed. "She created it to hack into other computers and to find all sorts of information." She took her shoe, and slid off the heel. In there was a flash drive, she placed it in the computer. "What was the name of that piece of garbage?" 

"Mister Dixton," he said, while he walked over to the desk. He stood next to here, while she typed in the name and as soon as she pressed enter the program did its thing. She took the first file and looked it over. "No," she took another. "Absolutely not. Not worth your time. This will be a nice job for Vanessa and Jessica." So she went from one file to the next, until there were none left on the desk. The man with dark blue eyes, she believed that his name was Mychaell was starting at her with his mouth ajar. "I have never seen someone, not even Rycharde work so fast through those files." She smiled and shrugged.

"That is why I quickly became responsible for handling that. Justin didn't know how to deal with it, either." She said. Her mood soured a bit when she said his name, but there was no turning back now. He nodded towards the computer.

"Why does Rycharde not have this program?" He asked and she closed her eyes.

"The one that created it, joined the Freedom Fighters right after he left. It took her a year to complete it. But as soon as it was done, she gave the program to me. Justin killed her right after she lied that she failed to complete the program." She said, the results of the search jumped open on the screen in one document. "She was the first one I cared about that was killed by him, my adoptive parents were killed two days later." She quickly went over the information, she gasped for air when she saw something familiar.

Benevolence industries

That was one of Justin's secret projects, why was this piece of garbage connected with them. 

"What is wrong?" Mychaell asked, and shock her head.

"There is nothing." She replied, because she truthy hoped that it was indeed nothing. "I will print it out, so that you can study it." she got up and walked out of the office, leaving Mychaell behind. She grabbed a weapon, she didn't care which kind it was, and started training. She needed to get the name of that cursed company out of her mind. She needed to get the whole past out of her mind as well. Mychaell told her that she had suffered from a night terror, was that one of the reasons why Rycharde stayed at the apartment with her? Probably, he always said that he was trying to protect her. She had wondered from what, now she knew the answer. He was protecting her from herself. She went through the motions with the knife, she just noticed that it was a knife instead of a sword or axe. She rather would grab a gun, and shoot all the rounds. But she knew that Rycharde didn't like guns, which was understandable. It was a shame that the bad guys do not share that sentiment. She closed her eyes, in the hope that she could give in to the motions. Only to be met with terrifying memories, all the times that she looked in someone's eyes, and they knew they were about to die. Either by her hand, or that of Justin. Justin's smug grin when he forced her to do something, or to tell it was her fault. Her fault that her adoptive parents were killed, that the others that she loved were killed. That a mission failed, that his father left, everything was her fault and she needed to pay the price for those mistakes.

 "That is not true," someone close by said. "Those things were not your fault." She opened her eyes and Mychaell was holding her arm with the knife. Why was he doing that, did she attack him? She opened her hand, and the knife fall with a lot of sound on the ground. "Rycharde is a grown man, who made the decision to leave. And that was not your fault." Mychaell said. "And I am pretty sure that all that other stuff, was also not your fault." Had she said all of it out loud?

"But, I.. I.." she started, not knowing what to say next.

"You were the strongest Freedom Fighter, besides Justin. Which made you a clear thread, so when he took power he needed to find ways to cut you down, without killing you. Because you were also very useful to him, so he made you feel small. Responsible, but without any form of control." Mychaell said, it sounded so logical. She lowered her arm, and her head, ashamed of the fact that she was so weak. "No, no, don't do that. You let him win if you do." She didn't understand what he meant by that. "Let me put it this way, when you heard that the guys and I were in danger, do you think for a second that it was either of us that failed?" She shook her head, no, these men had guns. "Do you think that I am weak, because I needed you to save me?" Again she shook her head. From what she heard, the other guys were held at gunpoint. So he was afraid that if he did something stupid they would be killed. And if she remembered correctly, he was still worried about them, until she told him that Vanessa and Jessica were on the job. "Well, the same could be applied to you. You are strong and smart, and yes, you are no longer the same girl that Rycharde left behind three years ago. And you shouldn't be." Tears started to sting, and she sank towards the ground. Ready to break down, to cry her heart out. He let her go, and after a few seconds he wrapped his arms around her. And once again she felt safe.