Me. I was going to be punished. I had no doubt it was because of my stunt - saving Braken with my sword. What would they do to me? I remembered seeing Leo's back, all his scars, and I was hit with a wave of nausea.

"Isn't this punishment enough?" Leo demanded, pointing forcefully at Braken's cell.

"Ah, yes." The soldier smiled, gazing into Braken's cage thoughtfully. "The beating Friday night. But that's not enough to teach him a lesson, is it, silent boy?"

Braken just let out a small whimper. He was laying down now and I couldn't see him from here.

"Is it, silent boy?" the soldiers repeated, opening the cell and holding the spear out aggressively.

"Leave him alone," Leo said, his voice wavering. I quickly scrambled up to the bars to see what was going on.

The soldier jabbed Braken in the ribs with his spear, and he let out a shriek, curling up. "Get up," the man demanded, prodding him again. The electricity snapped and crackled, and Braken shrieked again, quickly scrambled up to his feet. He stood on one foot, attempting to relieve some of the pain from his broken ankle, but he had a hard time balancing. The swelling looked even worse today.

The soldier grabbed the board on his hands and yanked him over to Leo's window. "Burn it," he said.

"Wh-what?" Leo blinked in surprise.

"The wood. Burn it off."

"But won't that burn him?" I asked softly.

"He's used to that now, isn't he?" The soldier laughed, seizing Braken's blistered and bleeding hands. The Unnatural let out a cry of pain and tried to pull away, but the man kept a firm grip on him. "Now burn it."

Leo backed up. "No. I don't want to hurt him."

The man gave him a dark, wry smile. "You will do it, or I will get it off in a far less pleasant way. I'm sure Rogue would let me borrow his sword."

Braken shook his head wildly and tried to say something, but nothing came out.

"He's going to cut his hands off," I murmured.

"Clever boy," he said, nodding.

"Leo, just burn it off. It'll be better for him in the end," I said quickly.

Leo looked like he wanted to argue, but he finally squeezed his eyes shut and laid his hands on the wooden board. After only a moment, the smell of smoke filled the air. Braken twitched, but he didn't make a sound.

The board crackled as it burned, the flames eagerly consuming the wood, and Braken bit his lip to keep from crying out. Leo gripped the board and then finally snapped it in half, after it had weakened enough. Braken immediately yanked his hands back and held them up against his chest. I could see a bright red ring around his wrists, burnt from the fire and rubbed raw and bleeding from the board itself.

"Good job," the soldier said, laughing. "I'll see you again in a few hours, silent boy." He gave him a shove and stalked out of the cage.

Braken hit the wall hard and fell over, trying to grab the bars, but the second he closed his fingers around them, he yelped and yanked his hands back. He dropped to his knees and rubbed his wrists, grimacing.

"I'm so sorry," Leo said. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Braken shrugged and gave him a little smile, though it was still filled with pain. He gave the same two signs he'd used earlier, and Leo shook his head.

"Stop staying it's okay. It's not okay. None of this is okay." He slammed his fist into the bars and let out a yell of anger.

Braken stood back up and rested his elbows on the window. He sucked on his swollen lip again and dropped his eyes, looking as if he wanted to say something. His face flushed pink and he took Leo's arm, holding him with just his forefinger and thumb to reduce the pain, and then he traced a few words on his wrist.

"Don't say that," Leo said softly.

"Say what?" I asked.

"He said he might not have a lot of time left," Leo translated, his voice cracking. "He wants to tell me something."

Braken released Leo's hand and rubbed his wrist again with the back of his hand. He held his hand up and licked his lips nervously. Slowly, he lowered his third and fourth fingers, leaving his others up, and then, once the sign was formed, he dropped his hands behind his back, his blush darkening.

"I'm ... I'm sorry," Leo said. "What does that mean?"

Braken winced and kept his eyes on the floor, rubbing his face with the back is his hand. His face was bright red, the bruises seeming a lot darker.

Leo turned back to me, giving me a worried look. "Do you know what he's saying?" I shook my head, and he returned his attention to Braken. "Here, write it for me." He stuck his hand through the bars, but Braken shook his head quickly and turned away, covering his face in embarrassment.

"Hey, it'll be okay," I said, but he shook his head again.

"Come on, Braken. You can sign it. Why won't you tell me?" Leo asked, the hurt apparent in his voice.

"Are you embarrassed?" I asked, and he nodded.

The rain was beginning to stop, bringing with it the dark feelings of fear and anticipation. Once they determined it was dry enough, I'd get my punishment. Would it be like Braken's, with burnt hands and a brutal beating? Or would it be like Leo's, however he got his scars? My mind drifted away from Braken and focused only on the future. I was terrified. My hands and knees shook and I could barely stand. I sat down with my head between my knees, praying I wouldn't pass out.

A few hours later, the soldiers came back - three of them. They opened my cell first, dragging me out by the back of my neck, and then grabbed Braken, avoiding his hands. He didn't move to touch them, though I wondered why. He could save us both if he killed them.

And then a thought hit me. No one had the nerve to touch him - at least, not before this. Suddenly, they weren't afraid to handle him as roughly as the rest of us. They'd figured out they could hold him. What did that mean?

This time, Leo didn't say anything as they took us away. He just watched with terror in his eyes as they dragged us up the steep steps. I tripped again, in the same spot as last time, but they kept pushing me forward. Braken limped along behind me, and though I couldn't see him, I knew he was fighting to keep his pain in. I could hear the electric spears whenever they'd poke him to go faster, but he never made a sound.

We came out into the arena, the dusty ground now covered in reddish brown mud. It stuck to my shoes in clumps and splashed up my legs, but I didn't complain. Braken was barefoot.

There were a few other Unnaturals, one of which was Aero Chord. His wings were gone, and it took me a moment to remember the tattoos on his back - the ones that transformed into his wings, and hid them from sight when he wasn't using them. I tried not to stare at him, but just like Leo, he'd been one of my favorites.

There was a long metal pole in the middle of the arena, with a thick rope looped through a chain link at the top. It reminded me of the gallows I'd seen in a movie, and I swallowed nervously. They weren't going to kill us ... were they?

Each Unnatural had one soldier to guard him - I noticed that they were all male - but a few more came out a minute later. One of them had a long whip. My eyes widened and my back tingled furiously.

The leader, a rather fat man, called the first's name, and he was shoved forward. They put his hands in the loop at the bottom of the rope, tightened it, and then pulled it up so that his arms were forced straight up over his head, with his back to us. He made a small noise of distress, and they hit him on the head with a laugh. The fat man grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked it down, tearing it open. "Ten," he said, and with a crack, the whip snapped against the Unnatural's skin, ripping a gash across his shoulder blades. He let out a yell of pain, again and again as they hit him ten times.

I squeezed my eyes shut, as if hiding myself from the pain and the fear, though I could still hear the whistle, the snap, and his cries of pain. One of the soldiers prodded me with his spear, the electricity shocking me, and I jumped. "Watch," he said, "or you'll get more than your punishment."

I nodded quickly and forced myself to watch, flinching every time the whip came down. When they'd finished with the first, they did the same to the second. "Twenty," the fat man said.

I glanced over at Braken, wondering if he was just as scared as I was, but he was watching with a blank expression on his face. "Braken," I whispered, and his eyes flickered over to me. "Braken, what did you tell Leo?"

He hesitated, and then lifted his hands up against his chest, as if hiding something there. He waited to answer until the soldiers stopped staring at his movement, and then pointed at himself, and then pointed at me.

"You told him?" I whispered, and he nodded.

He pointed back at himself and then made a little heart with his hand, his face turning red again.

"You told him ... you loved him?" I asked in surprise, struggling to keep my voice low, and he nodded again, ducking his head in embarrassment. "You ..." I let my voice trail off, unsure what to say. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, starting to cry. "Hey, don't cry," I murmured. "I think that's great. It's nothing to be embarrassed by."

He tried to say something, paused, and took my hand, writing something very slowly on my palm. L-I-K-E M-O-M.

"You love him like ... a mom? Like ..." I was confused, but I tried to understand. I didn't want to make him any more embarrassed than he already was. "Like ... protective? Like a family?"

He nodded, and smiled a little, mouthing the word family, as if he'd never heard it before.

"Shut up," a soldier snapped, hitting both of us with the spear.

They were on to the fourth prisoner. I was next. My throat closed up and my stomach twisted itself in a knot, and I glanced Aero Chord, who was the one just finishing his punishment. The tattoos on his bare back were torn up and bloody, and his fists were clenched in pain.

"Open your wings," the fat man ordered, untying his hands.

Aero Chord slumped over, and after a moment, his wings unfurled, as ripped and tattered as his tattoos. I let out a gasp and quickly slapped my hand over my mouth.

The fat man looked at me and started to laugh, coming toward me. I backed up and earned myself a stab in the back, and he grabbed me, dragging me forward.

"Hello," he said darkly. "My name is Howell. You must be the human everyone's talking about."

This was Howell. My mind immediately went back to all the things Leo had said about him, and I felt as if a blade of ice was digging into my heart.

"Please," I whispered. "I'm one of you. I'm human. I'm human."

He yanked me over to the pole and roughly pushed the rope knots over my wrists, tightening them until I could barely feel my fingers. The ropes were wet with blood. "I should give you twenty, no, thirty for that stunt you pulled during Braken's rounds," Howell said as he worked, pulling the other end of the rope down and forcing my hands up over my head.

I barely heard him. The blood was roaring in my ears, my breathing was fast and shallow, and my heart was thumping loud and hard against my ribs.

"But I'm assuming you've never had such a whipping before, and we can't have you dying on us, now can we?" Howell started to laugh, pulling my jacket off and ripping my shirt away from my bare back. "So I'll give you ten. Your other twenty will go to your friend over there. Your partner in crime."

Braken.

"Before we begin," Howell continued, brushing his hand down my back, "I have some very specific instructions for you. You will count off each one of them as they come, or we will repeat them. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," I breathed, the terror crushing my chest.

"See that you do."

Suddenly, the whip cracked against my back and I screamed, the fire of agony consuming me, shooting through the open wound and across my chest. My knees buckled, but my hands kept me up in a standing position. I'd never felt anything like this, and it scared me.

"One!" Howell said. "I told you to count!"

It cracked against me again, ripping open another wound. "One," I choked out.

With a whistle and a snap, it hit me again and again, and I started to cry, screaming out at the cloudy sky.

"Two ... three ... four ..."

I felt like I was dying. The pain was unbearable, lighting across my shoulders, down my spine, into my chest. I couldn't take it. I just wanted it to be over.

Someone was laughing, but I couldn't tell who. I couldn't do anything but wail pathetically and writhe in agony like a fish on a hook, arching my back and silently pleading for relief. I could barely breathe, but still, I managed to count each one of them.

"Seven ... eight ... nine ..."

"Good boy," Howell said, laughing. "One more."

This one hit my neck in addition to my back, and I almost couldn't get the word out. "T-ten," I whispered, and then they loosened the ropes from around my wrists and I slumped to the ground.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" the fat man taunted, pulling me up to my feet. I staggered, wrapping my arms around my waist, and squeezed my eyes shut. My vision tunneled in and I almost passed out, right then and there. "Come on. Stand up. We still have one more to punish."