"I think I have it," Zaira said, and Eniola stepped away from the boiling pot of rice cooking on the stove.

Elisa latched onto Zaira, in place of her parents. Elisa didn't talk to anyone other than Zaira. Maybe it was the comforting arms she first fell into that made her want to latch onto Zaira. Theo slept on the floor last night so that Elisa could take his bed.

Everyone else had been on edge. Keone loomed behind Zaira as she finished copying the source code of Enigma and created the flaw. He was being helpful, giving little pieces of advice Zaira may or may not have taken.

It at least distracted him so that Keone couldn't be next to her. If he was in the living room, Eniola was in the bedroom or on the opposite side. Her body wouldn't forget the invasive way he made her feel.

Zaira sighed once, and everyone turned to her with nervous anticipation. What Zaira was doing now was the difference between the fate of the world. And it felt like a simple project to her. That didn't throw off Eniola at all.

Zaira spoke up. "I have the fake flaw that I'm going to infiltrate Enigma. The only problem is that I need to introduce the flaw to its systems."

"What about SCOPE?" Keone suggested.

"What do you mean?" Theo asked.

"Thinks of it like this," Keone began. "Enigma is the disk, and we are the players. The flaw is our weapon. What if we put the source code of the flaw into Enigma through a SCOPE game? It's a format that we already know of."

Jay opened his mouth defensively, then closed it. "That's a rational idea."

"Yeah," Keone agreed. "It's something everyone, minus Zara, knows about. We have an advantage."

Eniola almost let a laugh burble from her throat. She'd never thought she'd live to see that day where Keone and Jay would agree. Woah? A bad gut feeling still swelled in Eniola. Jay didn't know what Keone had done again.

"It makes sense," Iris replied. "We can all do it. I miss playing SCOPE, even though it's only been over a month since we've played."

"But SCOPE only works in the arenas," Eniola said. "If we wanted to copy over the signal, we'd have to be near the arena."

"Then maybe we can go," Theo said. "Someone can do it."

"But I need to find an Enigma signal to hack through," Zaira said. "I won't have time for both. And Elisa needs to find her parents again."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I've done the research," Iris said, reading from side to side. "Citizens in Australia have been moved into safe houses in bigger cities by the government. At least what's left of it. Sydney has ten of them. I've used facial recognition to hack into and found where this girl's parents are. She's in Western Sydney, which is farther than where we are."

"It's going to take us forever to do these things, and in case you haven't noticed, we don't have time," Lucia cut in.

It was true. The more they waited, the more Kain's Enigma was let loose on the world and corrupted it. Eniola didn't want to stand here in fear when she could do something. A lot of time needed to be dedicated to those things.

"Maybe that's what we shouldn't do," Zaira said. "We should split up."

The words "split up" did something to Eniola. A chill trickled down her spine. This entire journey she'd been with her friends. Eniola didn't want to split up because she thought that if she could somehow be with them, they'd be okay.

"Isn't that how all the white people died in old horror movies?" Jay pointed out. Theo and Iris traded a glance. "In case you haven't noticed, we're basically in the middle of an apocalypse without proper technology and in a completely different county. Splitting up should be that last thing we do."

"We don't have a choice," Keone pointed out. "We can't do everything at once. It's going to be more effective if we split up tasks and then meet at once."

Jay sighed. "Alright. So, how are we going to do this?"

"I think Iris and Eniola should collect the SCOPE signal because Iris can hack through things and Eniola is observant," Zaira said. "Jay and Lucia, you two should help Elisa find her parents. I think you two can find the safe house."

"What do I do?" Theo asked, uneasily. Eniola peered at him. Theo had always been the one to delegate, but he had never been the delegatee.

"Theo and Keone, you two are both big, so you can protect me as I try to find an electro-signal to infiltrate the Enigma," Zaira asked. Keone and Theo gave each other the strongest side-eye Eniola had ever seen.

"So it's settled," Lucia said. "We're going to split up."

It dawned on Eniola the moment Lucia said that. They had to split up to save the world. It seemed so daunting, yet so trivial. Eniola didn't feel like she had to save the world. She thought at this point some dramatic soundtrack would play in the background and she'd have this realization moment. But it didn't happen. Eniola was numb.

"Wow," Eniola mumbled.

"What?" Jay asked.

"This might be the last time we all see each other," she pointed out.

"Don't," Theo began quietly. "Don't say that, okay? We can't think that way, especially right now. We just can't."

"But we've been through so much together," Eniola said, as a tear dropped down from her eye and rolled down her cheek. She brushed it away.

"That's because we're Rogue," Iris continued. "We'll always get through moments like these together."

Eniola laughed a sob out before they all seemed to join in a feverish hug. Eniola didn't just hug them, she hugged in the memories they've shared and are yet to share, the moments in between everything that made them Rogue. She hugged in the laughter and the sneaky moments. Zaira and Elisa join them, and they make room for them. Zaira was the new friend they encountered on this journey and will keep outside of this journey. Eniola hugged all of it.

The only person not in their circle was Keone. When they broke, he stood, eyes purposely averted to the ground with his arms crossed. His face was blank. Of course, it was.

"Put away your sentimentalism," Keone snapped. "We have a world to save and I'm sure you're all pissing yourselves ready to turn me into the law, although that might have to wait because the law is currently being chucked out of the window."

Suddenly, Jay moved forward to Eniola before grabbing her face and pulling her into a kiss. Eniola melted into his touch as he kissed her hard like it might be their last. All of her emotions spilled out into a burning passion. He pulled away with a click, eyes burning into hers. Eniola rested her forehead on his chest.

"What a goodbye," Iris mumbled, and Eniola exchanged another smile before melting into a hug. She caught sight of Keone, who suddenly found the floor interesting. Her lips caught into a smirk.

He moved down to her ear. "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied, before pulling away, suddenly feeling the lack of a warm embrace.

Suddenly, someone back hugged her in an aloof and warm way. Eniola instantly knew who it was. "I'm going to miss you."

"We'll see each other again," Eniola replied to Lucia. "I promise."

Eniola turned back to face Lucia before giving her an extended hug.

"I think we need to go," Theo said, hugging Lucia from the side before pulling away. He reached forward and opened the door, and Jay and Lucia both slipped out of the door before Theo, Keone, and Zaira followed out from behind them going their separate ways.

"Eniola," Iris snapped her out of her thoughts. "Let's go."