[ She needs to sit, she thinks as she rubs her face with her hands. They come away a little damp - she hadn't realized that her vision was blurring. She's back there now, grabbing Maite's hand as Miss Alvarez herds them out quickly and quietly because they'd heard something crash.

There's a crate set against the wall that looks sturdy enough, so she sits down just to give her legs a rest. ]

The lights went out first. They said it was because something had caused the transformer down the street to blow.

[ She says something but she knows. She overheard what the adults said later, after they'd been saved. After the monster went away. It's still out there. She thinks that's why she still has nightmares. Why she told Brigade and Captain J that she wanted to learn how to fight, even if everyone says that she's not to pilot a havezen until she graduates. ]

We didn't-- [ lips pressed together now ] --we couldn't walk on the first floor. We had to find another way around. The water was warm in the high school building. But none of the teachers could get to the breakers.

[ Her school was old. Built decades and decades before the hundred year war. The buildings were all still connected -- except for the newer ones like the gym. ]

We didn't think it would scale the walls. But maybe we should have. It was built like a squid or an octopus except it's tentacles were made of bone.

[ She wipes furiously at her tears. She's fighting her need to cry. She doesn't know why she's telling him these things.

Kaya always told herself that she didn't want to forget. But that doesn't mean that remembering doesn't hurt. ]