After trials and errors, Octavia masters the broom and dustpan. She uses her hands at first to pick up big pieces of food but abandons this method once she cuts her fingers on the glass. Hatchette is unsympathetic and gives her nothing for her injuries until she finishes cleaning. Then, Octavia is given bandages and a small amount of alcohol to tend to her wounds - something she learned to do from dramas she watched on the Net. She suppresses cries as the alcohol set the wounds on her hands and ankle on fire. With gritted teeth, she proceeds to bandage her hands and rebandage her ankle. Hatchette watches unamused over Octavia the entire time.

The supplies are all returned to Hatchette and Marque. Marque volunteers to take care of everything – getting the trash, checking the cell to make sure Octavia didn’t stash anything, and returning the supplies from where he had gotten them from earlier. Hatchette keeps sharp eyes outside of the cell in his absence.

Octavia is glad Hatchette keeps her attention outside of the cell so she cannot see Octavia's pained expression. Her stomach growls. The empty turning in her stomach aches. Her mouth and throat are drying out. Suppressed cries seemed to crack and burn them more. Her hands still faintly buzz from their contact with the alcohol. The bandage might be done too tight, but she is too exhausted to move from the bunk. Her arms and legs weigh more than ever. The events of today catch up with Octavia's body, and she has no food or water to help it recover. She won't until the day after tomorrow. And this length of time is already longer than any time in the past she has gone without food.

Heaviness lurks in her brow. One thing not taken from her is sleep. She hopes to sleep this foodless time away.

Octavia wakes with jitters. Her mind instantly goes to food and is tortured by the fact she can't obtain any. She instinctively wants to walk to the fridge in her house and grab something - smooth strawberry yogurt, crunchy carrot sticks, bitter-sweet German chocolate cake... All these things she can taste and vividly see in the fridge but can't reach it. The urge hits her again to run to the sink and stick her face under it, but turning it on earlier, there was not a drop to come out. Sandpaper and cotton sensations coat her mouth down her throat - all sealed with cracked, splitting lips. A feeling she could get no relief for until tomorrow.

Another growl from her stomach reaps a groan from her. Her throat doesn't appreciate it.

"Are you that miserable?" Hatchette says.

Octavia doesn't respond. She rolls over on her bunk.

"Ya really are a spoiled princess, y'know?" Hatchette speaks without looking at Octavia. "Wastin' food rations we don't have to give to you brats. Acting like ya haven't eaten in weeks when it's maybe been a day. There're those in your picture-perfect country who go days, weeks without real food. Clean water, too. Some here feel that too since your folks love depriving people even beyond their borders."

"That's not true," Octavia says.

"Oh? Enlighten me," Hatchette says.

"We have programs to help those in need. Poverty levels continue to drop."

Hatchette laughs. "Oh, I'm sure they do drop. I'm sure."

Octavia wanted to question the meaning and tone of Hatchette's statement, but she is too tired to argue. Despite having slept, she is still tired but can't sleep anymore. She stares at the blank wall and imagines foods and drinks alleviating her growing misery.

The rest of the day drags on. Octavia does her best to conserve energy and keep her mind distracted. Marque continues to display his discomfort around Hatchette. Octavia watches them for a while, trying to get amusement from Marque's discomfort but bores of it. She takes to scraping rust off the ankle chain, counting scratches in the bunks, making pictures in her mind out of the scratches, and daydreaming. Turbulent sleep comes and goes during the time between events. When night falls, she can't sleep and sees the guards switch out for the first time. Marque and Hatchette are replaced by two men who spare her a glance of brief surprise at her being awake but take their place and pay no mind to her the rest of the time. She soon continues her bouts of falling in and out of sleep.

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Through the night, her fitful sleep brings dreams mixed with pleasantries and nightmares - many dealing with her sister. She relives the thrills she would get sneaking out at nights to go on 'joyrides', as Aurora would call them. They would go to nearby parks and ride her wheelchair or hoverchair, whichever one the girls were in the mood to use, and choose big hills to ride down. There were many giggles and many crashes. The worst crash they had broke Aurora's hoverchair. Luckily, Octavia had brought Aurora's regular wheelchair with them that night so they could move around more easily. The girls snuck to Xander's house to see if he could repair it. He did, and the girls were never caught. Aurora always got along better with Xander who treated her well, and that is the reason Octavia tolerates him.

But her dreams turn bitter as she's thrown back to the day of the explosion. Confusion and fear made her cling to her mother. Screams tore through the covered arena. Booms of the explosions ring her ears again. Rattles turned to roars as the arena caved. But the sound that terrified her the most was her mother screaming. This was the only time she ever heard this desperate sound from her. Her mother, a lieutenant general at the time, screamed Aurora's name as her six-year-old sister was swallowed by the arena's concrete crumbling beneath her. Octavia tore herself from her mother to go back for Aurora. Her mother yelled at her to come back. Octavia doesn't remember much after except for more screams, a metallic taste, being pulled from rubble, flashes of light, and waking up in a hospital room without hair and the entire left side of her head being bandaged as well as having her left arm and ankle casted. For a week following the explosion, Octavia sobbed uncontrollably until she was able to see her sister. Joy washed over her when she was brought to her sister, and she saw her awake.

The last time she saw her sister was not as joyful. They argued over going on a joyride. Aurora complained about how they hadn't gone on one in a long time. The joyrides had been getting riskier over the years as Octavia's ocular implant continued to malfunction under intense emotions and strenuous activity. Joyrides involved both, and the constant malfunctions made their parents suspicious of her activities. Constantly covering up bruises and scratches didn’t help in making her appear less suspicious, either. Octavia lied, saying she would experience nightmares from the explosion and would use makeup and clothes to hide little injuries, but her parents remained suspicious. Also, at the time of the argument, Octavia was preparing for a speech to present at their father's last rally before elections. Success on the speech's delivery would ensure more responsibilities Octavia was anxious to take on. Aurora knew and understood this, but joyrides were one of the few things the sisters got to do anymore as Octavia gained more public eyes and responsibilities. Octavia couldn't help agreeing with Aurora yet was stuck. So, she told Aurora to go head out on a joyride on her own, and she would catch up with her, though she wouldn't be able to participate like in the past. Aurora agreed because she wanted to spend some sort of time with Octavia. But shortly after Aurora left, Octavia's exhaustion from studying and practicing all day caught up with her, and she fell asleep. She woke with dread and a sense of unease the next morning and learned her sister went missing. Aurora would not be found until about a month later - disfigured and dead with a note attached.

Aurora's face was nearly unrecognizable from bruising, swelling, and gashes. Her body dressed in torn clothing was twisted in unnatural ways, blood spattered all over her. The note attached to her, written in her blood, was from the Chromies and warned against reelecting Prime Minister Rhinehart. And what the NetNews described as ‘questionable metal shavings’ were sprinkled over Aurora. But, Octavia knew what they were - smashed pieces of a locket she had given to Aurora for her twelfth birthday just a few weeks before the tragedy.

Images of the scene wake Octavia with a nauseating jolt. A loud gasp widens her eyes. Acidic claws of guilt tear through her throat, chest, and stomach. The pain, intensified from dehydration, causes her body to quake. Her panting echoes through the cell as she struggles for breath. Urges to cry swell and burn her eyes but there is no moisture in her body to. Quiet, tearless sobs are what she can manage while she hugs herself. She feels the same as she did when she admitted to Squad Detectives what she and Aurora had been doing and how what they did broke trespassing and curfew laws. She had become the textbook example of why the laws are in place. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty over breaking the law, even though it is ultimately what led to Aurora's death. This added pressure to her suffocating guilt, but she could never regret those times with Aurora. She only regrets not being there for her like she said she would and not being there to help or be by her side.

Had she screamed for her? Did she cry out for her with that ridiculous nickname she only allowed Aurora to call her? Was she able to scream for anyone to help? Though she was out of range of cameras in the area, how could no one have been able to be around to help Aurora? Why couldn’t she have been there for Aurora?

The guards outside tap the cell's bars.

"You alright in there?" one of them asks.

Octavia answers him with venomous eyes. How stupid, how insane of a question after what the Chromies did to Aurora. Her sister's killers are somewhere among these walls unless Dae-jun was her killer. But his assassination brought her no satisfaction. The Chromies survived their former leader’s death thanks to Shard taking over, and Dae-jun’s death couldn’t reverse Aurora’s.

The guards turn and leave her alone.

Octavia curls up, buries her face in her arms, digs her fingers in her scalp, and whispers herself to sleep. "I'm sorry, Aurora. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, Ari. Ari..."