The occupancy of the island had been significantly cut down by the mission that the unassigned had been sent on. She wouldn't know what it was until everybody came back - and she hoped that was in one piece. But that also meant most of the accusing faces were gone. The concerned looks, the people who had somewhat gravitated around her... she didn't deserve any of that, and she'd been fully aware of that. More than aware of that, so the more sympathy she got the worse it made her feel. She hadn't even seen Robert since the incident with Petra, but she knew she shouldn't expect any warning from him when he did catch a sight of her.

She was walking with a target on her back, and he wasn't the only hunter who wanted a piece of her. Several had stopped her to let her know she was numbered, that the fact she was injured may have been the only reason why she wasn't being attacked right off the bat right then. Or perhaps she was going to be given more of a sporting chance than she'd given. She didn't know.

She didn't care. All she knew was that she'd started a cycle. Because if - when - Robert got revenge on her, Marcus would get revenge for her, and it would just keep going. As it was, she felt the best way to fix the problem was to just be scarce. She wouldn't be covering anybody's back, she wouldn't be anybody's weapon, she just...wouldn't be anything but the gopher she'd been turned into. Staring at monitors, papers, and bad crayon drawings all day.

But the emptiness of the island allowed Cass to pull on her shoes, leave her coat-of-shame draped over the back of a kitchen chair in front of that laptop, and go out on a walk. She had only one place she wanted to go right then. It was a slow walk, and she spent most of it looking at her feet and avoiding eye contact. Even down the stairs, even down the long hallway that was semi-familiar. She found herself pausing to look at a pod every now and then, tapping on the glass, before she'd keep walking. Away from the pods that were often plugged into, as far away from the door as she could go. Off to where she'd woken up from her Sleeping Beauty. All she needed was an empty one.

She just had to keep browsing until she found one that was empty, desolate, and maybe nobody would be checking it for the next few hours. She didn't even code in as she took her shoes off and settled into the seat, curling her legs up underneath herself and leaning her side against the back of the chair, reaching out only once to pull the door shut behind her with a small sigh. Solace. Solitude.

And maybe if she was lucky, nobody would come looking for her back there for a while to let her just sob in peace. Sobbing that didn't make her feel better. She was a fool. An idiot. No Division deserved to have someone awful like her in it. She was the worst example of a hunter. She didn't deserve to be a hunter ever again.

Maybe after she'd served out her 'sentence', they'd just put her to rest in that pod for good. Would Marcus forgive her for leaving him in that way? She'd promised him forever, and now she likely wouldn't be able to give that to him. Not even laying with him cradling her made her feel any better. No sweet words were going to convince her that somehow the island had owed her some 'healing'.

There were no excuses.

She couldn't even put her own mind into perspective. She couldn't understand it. She couldn't even understand what had triggered it, and this whole experience just reminded her that trying to trust authority figures hurt. It was easier to just take stress, pain, and unhappiness onto herself and wait for things to get better. Sometimes, it would just be smarter to withdraw. Maybe she should have done that.

Because she just wasn't coping and she just didn't trust herself anymore and she'd just stay there in that pod until someone made her leave.