Dawn's POV

We had been in Sebastian's office for some time now.

Sebastian took Alyson right away and started checking some of her vitals to make sure nothing serious was going on as she was passed out. Xavier, Kaiden and I stood off to the side and watched curiously as he did his work.

Walking back to his office had been a nightmare. People had been bombarding us with questions as Xavier carried Alyson's limp body with Kaiden and I following closely behind. I myself hadn't stopped shaking until we had gotten back into Ground Zero, and Xavier had a permanent look of worry on his face since he burst out onto the rooftop.

Sebastian had finished doing his work on her and eventually came over to talk to us.

"Everything seems to be good," He explained to us, but mostly to Kaiden. "She should wake up soon, and that's when you should probably talk to her Sir."

Kaiden nodded at him with a sigh. "Thank you Sebastian," he said with a frown.

Sebastian looked over to me and nodded. "How are you feeling after a scare like that?" he asked as he seemed to be examining both of my eyes.

I shrugged as I took a deep breath. "As good as I could be I guess," I said not sure how to answer. "I'm still a little shaken up by the whole thing."

Smiling at me he chuckled a little. "That's to be expected. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out that it should pass in the next few hours."

Laughing a little I smiled. "Yes, I figured that out," I said.

Sebastian walked away from us and over to his counter covered in medical supplies. "You know you don't all have to stay in here. At the most only one of  you really needs to be in here."

Kaiden looked at Xavier before turning to look at me. "Xavier can stay," Kaiden said as he nodded his head over at him. "I need to talk to Dawn about some things."

Xavier nodded absently and walked over to sit down on a chair Sebastian had placed by the table Alyson was on. "Sounds fine by me," he said as he got comfortable and began to watch Alyson.

Turning to me, Kaiden nodded and walked past me and out of the room. I quietly followed, not sure what else to say to Xavier or Sebastian.

I followed Kaiden through the small waiting room and over to the door. He opened it for me and I quickly walked out into the hall with Kaiden following closely behind.

Walking to the opposite side of the hallway, I turned around to see Kaiden shutting the door before he gave me a small smile and walked closer.

"So now that Alyson is being taken care of," He said quietly. "Can you tell me what happened Dawn?" he asked me.

Nodding I gazed up at his blue eyes. "I knew about it from a few days ago," I started to tell.

Kaiden looked surprised. "Knew about what? Her planned suicide attempt?" he questioned me while crossing his arms.

I shook my head vigorously. "No, Xavier had told me that he'd been worried about the way she'd been acting," I explained.

"Did she have any symptoms?" he asked.

"Symptoms?" I repeated him.

"Yes symptoms," he said almost slightly annoyed. "Depression, violent thoughts, mood swings," he listed.

Confused as to how he knew the exact things Xavier had told me I nodded. "Yes, all of those things. How'd you know?" I asked him.

He quickly looked down both ends of the hall to make sure no one was there. "Because there's been one other case like this before," he said while looking at me with a pained look in his eyes.

"What do you mean there's been....."

Kaiden grabbed my arm and I stopped talking. "Not here," he said as he started pulling me down the hall.

I let him pull me all the way down to single door resting in place on the wall. Kaiden looked down at both sides of the hall again, before quickly opening the door and ushering me inside as fast as he could.

Stumbling into the bright room, I quickly turned around as Kaiden rushed in and took a deep breath after the door was closed.

"Why did we need to come in here...." I started to say until Kaiden held his hand up at me.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before staring at me seriously.

"Two years ago, I had to close down that large section of dorms and classrooms, and really most of our trainee program," he said while looking away from me and at the blank back wall. "A trainee committed suicide by jumping off the same roof that Alyson was going to."

Seeing that he was going some place deep in his mind, I nodded slowly not wanting to interrupt.

"I was still in training myself," he started slowly. "We were almost done with the second week and our final exam was coming up," he dove further into the story. " We were a close knit group, seeing as the trainers were more strict because there were a lot more of us to handle."

He looked down at the floor, he seemed to be getting really emotional about the whole thing. Knowing that Kaiden wasn't an emotional being most of the time, I knew it was serious.

"Her name was Megan," he said quietly. "She was happy and outgoing, but the day after all of us went out on a pre-final mission it all changed."

I started to frown as I pictured it all happening. The saddest part was that I knew the ending.

"Now at training sessions she was sad instead of happy, and she kept to herself more than usual," he continued to tell quietly. " I noticed it right away, and so did the other trainees. But when I tried to ask her about it, she brushed it off with a smile and said she was okay."

I started to shake my head as I looked down at the ground. It sounded almost like Alyson, except with this Megan girl it seemed was more public.

"A few days later I was walking back to my dorm because of curfew. I caught Megan walking out of her room, and I stopped her of course," Kaiden said even quieter than before. "I asked her where she was going, and she just said the bathrooms. I didn't have any reason to doubt her, so I said goodnight and went to my dorm."

Kaiden was visibly distraught at this point. I could almost see the two pools of sadness clouding up his blue eyes as he glanced up at me.

He moved his eyes away from mine and moving them to another wall. "The next morning her room mates had reported her missing, and they thought she had just left the room early until they found a note under her pillow."

Frowning more, It was making me quite uncomfortable that my leader was so emotional about this story. It must've been a really hard time for him.

"Three simple words were on it," he continued while looking back at me. "Check The Roof".

My eyes widened as a realized the whole event was so sudden. She was there one moment, and gone the next. Why would she leave a note under her pillow like that though?

Me and a few others sprinted out onto the roof while someone went to go get help," he said before choking up a bit. "We didn't know what we were going to find."

I shook my head faster than I had before, my heart sinking for this girl, and even more so for Kaiden.

"Once out there, no one found anything until someone stopped and looked over the side of the building." Kaiden looked down at the ground. "Megan's body was sprawled out on the concrete below. And that's when I realized that she had said goodbye to me the night before instead of goodnight," he said while looking back up with sadness in his eyes. "I could've been the one to save her and I didn't," he whispered while shaking his head.

My mouth dropped as I fully understood what was really going on and why Kaiden was so emotional about the whole story.

He thought it was his own fault this Megan had died. He blamed himself.

Taking a step towards him, I placed my hands on each of his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Kaiden I know what you think and it's not your fault. You had no idea what she was going to do, and you just happened to be the last one to see her," I said with a sympathetic smile.

Kaiden took a small step back, moving away from my hands. "You don't get it do you Dawn," he said quietly while looking away. "I wasn't close to Megan like I was with the other trainees, I..." he choked up a bit at the end, not able to finish. "I cared about her a lot." he said while looking back at me.

My stomach dropped the moment I processed what he was saying. Speechless, I stared at him not sure how to react. Somehow, even though this story would tear others apart, Kaiden was still the strong person that I knew. Only with just a little more emotion showing.

He looked up at the glass ceiling while rubbing the back of his neck. "A few days later we took our exam and I was assigned to be an apprentice to my father, to learn how to be the next leader," he said as he looked me in the eye with what looked to be determination. "A few months after that, my father  was killed by another gang during a pathetic scrap," he growled, now changing his distress into anger instead. "They cornered him and killed him because they could. It was an act of sheer cowardice on their part."

Shaking his head he closed his eyes before slowly opening them and staring at me, the normal Kaiden coming back to light. "I took over leadership and I've been leader ever since," Kaiden said to finish up the story. "I closed down that training area, revised the training rules so we have less trainees, and hoped that nothing like that would ever happen again. I was unlucky with hoping," he said quietly.

I nodded at him in understanding. "I guess we'll just have to watch Alyson and try and get her feeling better. I'm just thankful that I was able to get up there in time for me to save her."

Kaiden sighed and nodded at me. "I was thinking that Xavier could watch over her for awhile. I have a feeling he's been doing it anyways, so might as well make it official."

Chuckling a bit I smiled knowing that Xavier had been like Alyson's private bodyguard, at least to a certain extent.

"Anyways," Kaiden said, seemingly back to normal."We should get back to work some stuff out and see if anything has changed," he finished saying before walking back over to the door and opening it.

I started to walk over towards him, when I realized that I hadn't really given him the feedback I wanted to about what he had chose to do with the training program because of Megan.

"Oh and Kaiden," I said while stopping halfway to the door.

He raised his brow at me in an icy curiosity as he held the door open.

"I think you did the right thing about fixing the training program back then Kaiden, and I'm just really sorry that.."

"Does it sound like I need your pity or opinion on the matter?" Kaiden growled at me in a sudden outburst.

Severely taken aback by his sudden hostility and harsh words I took a step back from him, and gave him a bewildered look.

His face immediately softened as he saw my reaction. He opened his mouth slightly but no words came out. His mouth closed shut for a moment before he opened it and seemed like he was going to say something. I didn't want him to, so I eliminated that possibility.

"We need to get back to Sebastian's office," I said impassively as I quickly passed him and walked out into the hallway.

Not waiting for him, I walked down the hall towards Sebastian's office. I didn't hear the door click shut until I was halfway down the hall, and that's how I knew Kaiden was giving me some space.

Opening the door and walking into the waiting room, only two things were whirring around my mind.

The first being that I wasn't sure how I felt about Kaiden now. He was sweet one minute, and a cold-hearted black soul the next. Not to mention Megan's suicide was obviously a traumatic thing that happened to him, and psychologically he probably blocked out any possibility of caring about someone like that again. So even if I did have feelings for him...

I violently shook my head in the attempt to throw the thought out of my head.

Kaiden was my leader and more important than me. I was just a lowly insignificant trainee. Not to mention that idea was about as far fetched as someone miraculously surviving the virus without a vaccine.

Leaving the thought behind, I walked into Sebastian's examination room, not caring whether Kaiden was behind me or not.

Walking in, Xavier was sadly watching Alyson laying on the table while Sebastian was organizing his counter of tools. I walked over to Xavier and put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to make him feel a little better about the situation.

Examining Alyson, she seemed to almost be sleeping. As if she was a completely normal person, one who didn't have a battle going on inside of their head.

Shaking my own head I closed my eyes  and took a deep breath.

I was thankful I didn't have problems. Not mentally, physically, I was lucky to be given the chance to only have to worry about the world around me and not the world and myself.

Opening my eyes, I watched Alyson breathing steadily. I sighed as I took a seat on the floor and leaned on Xavier's legs as he sat still in the chair.

I was lucky enough to be given a hell of a chance for survival in this world.

*********************************

Hi everyone! Surprise,surprise! I bet you had no idea any of this was coming....

I know you're probably getting sick of reading this every time, (if you're even still reading these that is) But thank you so much for reading! I appreciate it so much! I'm not sure how else to put it in words!

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did please consider giving it a vote! The more the merrier and I know people are actually liking the book!

Yes I know I say this every time too, but please feel free to leave me your thoughts or even feedback in the comments! Not many people have, so it'd be nice to hear from you guys!

- Delaney :)