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( 52 一 CREATOR, DESTROYER. )
Clara had made her way to the computer room. Ruby was still going at the map, the crowd watching in awe. Clara ignored them and walked over to Nico who was standing in the crowd.
"Did you complete the virus while I was away?" She asked him. Nico looked at her before nodding, pulling a USB attached to a lanyard from under his shirt.
"Let me guess, Ruby's planning on going in alone?"
"Yeah. I tried to tell her it should be me but she didn't budge," Nico said quietly to ensure the kids around them didn't hear. Clara snorted, "Well she's right about that, there's no chance we would let you go back there."
Nico sighed at her words, "Clara I need to fix the mistakes I've made. This is the only way for me to do that."
Clara looked at him for a moment before pulling him into her side, her arm around his shoulders. "Nico, we all know you've made mistakes, that's no secret. But getting yourself killed isn't the way to fix them."
Nico didn't respond, leaning into Clara as they watched Ruby annotate the map. It was strange, seeing everything you knew for almost a decade printed onto a single piece of paper. The fact that a place that had such an extensive devastating effect was only a mile wide was baffling to Clara.
"Thurmond was so small when we were there," Nico said quietly. Clara nodded at his words, holding him tighter. "So small yet it was our entire world for so long," he finished.
The door clicked open and in walked Dr. Lillian Gray. In a minute Nico had scrambled across to the other side of the room, back with his computer. Clara sighed, training her eyes on the frail woman being helped by Senator Cruz.
The woman walked over to Ruby, looking over the map. "This isn't Thurmond," she said. "Thurmond was only one building, I saw it myself
Ruby didn't stop her work when she responded, "Once they moved the initial research programs out they rapidly expanded to house more kids." Clara remembered watching the cabins being hastily built, the garden being dug and the control tower constructed. It had been so confusing to her then.
Dr. Gray turned to Ruby tentatively, "You're like my son, are you not?"
"Yes," Ruby said, "but not in the way that matters."
"Were you there while he was?" Dr. Gray asked her. Ruby shook her head, turning to look at Clara who was standing behind her. Dr. Gray followed her train of sight to Clara.
"I was there with him, don't you remember me?" Clara asked scathingly. She watched as Lillian's eyes scanned her, focussing on her head and the scars that resided there.
"You were... you were the Orange with my Clancy, weren't you?"
Clara scoffed at her, "Yeah, I'm the Orange they tortured with Clancy. It was your program wasn't it?"
