"Zoe, It'll be alright. Let's sit down." I said, guasturing to the wall.

Tears were running down her face while she desperately tried to push them away. Sky and Zoe must have been closer than I thought.

"Everything will shape up, trust me." I said with a nod as I started to sit with Zoe.

Like someone had snapped their fingers the wall folded in. I heard a wave if noise fall over us. I caught a glimpse of Zoe's eyes before the wall hit.

She was scared. I could see the quiver in those big circles that were unfamiliar to me. I saw the focus on me before we passed out.
.                                 .                                .
I was walking along the sidewalk in the community. No one else was there. I turned a corner, standing in front of Lukkas' house. It stood pale against the dark night.

Lukkas opened the door and walked over to me calmly.

I tried to speak but couldn't. Lukkas didn't say a word either, but kept walking. I followed him.

After several blocks of cookie cutter houses we turned left again, this time at Quinn's house. He did the same, joined us without talking.

After miles of walking I was standing  in a small circle, surrounded by friends. Lukkas, Quinn, Zoe, Chad, Sky, Huddson, Lila, all my closest friends were standing with me.

I finally found I could speak. "Why we you all here?"

"We are the people you are afraid you will lose." Said Lukkas. It wasn't his voice, not the way he spoke. It was a choppy sentence lone of contractions.

I glanced at Huddson. Even if he had made some bad decisions, he was my friend and I didn't want to see him die.

"Where's Robin?" I asked.

"That isn't important." Zoe answered, smiling. "He will be okay. You need to be with us."

"You will wake soon." Murmered Quinn.

"I'm sorry for what I did." Whispered Sky.

"I'm sorry I left." Lila Said. "Tell Corwin I love him."

"Rain." Chad said, stepping forwards and breaking the circle and taking my hands in his. "Tell Zak I love him." The sadness in his eyes doubled mine. "Please. Tell him I love him."

Chad rejoined the circle around me. "Don't worry Rain. Everything will be clear. You're clear. You're clear." They all whispered together. "Clear."
.                                 .                                .
"Clear!" a voice yelled above me. I bolted up, startled.

"She's up let's get those moniters back." I heard Corwin yell as people rushed around me.

I could recognize the Base medical center. I was lying on one of the cots, hooked to several beeping machine.

"Lukkas?" I called out. "Where's Lukkas?"

"I'm right here. You can't get rid of me that easily." I could barely make out a face popping above mine. A smile was blocked from view by the blinding lights.

"What happened?"

"The community. They're here to try and start a war. We aren't ready for it. Corwin lead us here before anyone was caught." He explained briefly.

"Where's Chad?" I asked, only met by silence. "Lukkas? Where's Chad?"

I felt a hand wrap around mine. "Rain... Chad was killed in the explosion. They found him dead under a beam of concrete. His body's in a room somewhere."

"No he wasn't. I talked to him. He's alive." I said, more to myself than to Lukkas.

"I saw it with my own eyes Rain. I'm sorry. He's dead." I heard rustling as Lukkas crouched to be more level with me.

"He wants me to tell Zak he loves him." I murmered as my eyes slowly adjusted.

"Alright," said Lukkas, not asking how I knew, which was perfectly fine with me.

I stood up quickly.

"You need to rest." Lukkas said, standing with me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I have to talk to someone..." I said trailing off into absent mindedness.

"Rain, you have to stay." He protested.

I sprinted out the door, trying to find him. There was blood dripping from the sting in my arm which I assumed was from an iv.

"Rain?" Said a voice coming around the corner.

I slammed into them and we tumbled to the floor. "Are you okay?" he said quickly standing up.

"Y-yeah. Actually I need to talk with you." I stood with Huddson.

He nodded, reminding me of the old him. Calm and serious instead of annoying.

I lead him to an empty storage room. It had stacks of musty brown boxes labeled with different pieces.

I sat on a box, watching him do the same.

"What's wrong?" He asked evenly.

"It's starting to get to me." I looked down at my fingers that were flicking back and forth.

"What is?"

"Everything. Being here, away from my family and Robin and Sky just died and Chad..." I trailed off.

I thought Huddson was going to speak but he stayed quiet.

"I'm not even sure if I would've left if I knew what it meant." I confessed.

Huddson cleared his throat. "You've done nothing wrong. What they're doing out there is sick. Keeping us from books and poetry like that. Forcing us to be with people. It's all sick."

"That's the thing. It worked didn't it? We were happy training with Echo. I'm not sure anyone else even feels that way. I'm alone." I stopped abruptly.

Almost a minute of silence passed before anyone spoke again.

"No. You aren't." Huddson murmered quietly.

His hand ran along my arm, down to my hand. I could almost feel the dirt cakes onto his hand. It cupped around mine, protecting it.

"I'm sorry I acted like that Rain. I just couldn't bare both being with you. I never should have..." He trailed off, running his free hand through his black hair.

"I understand. We did grow up together." His hand still covering mine, warming it.

"But I can't love you." He said, and I was so shocked that my head bolted up. "You deserve Lukkas. Not me. I'm not half the man he is Rain, never will be." He stood, leaving my hand. "I'm sorry I bothered you by coming here."

He left, closing the door quietly. I never would have expected Huddson to admit... Deafeat? Maybe it was defeat. No, he wasn't defeated, he was growing stronger for coming face to face with me like that.

"You're Rain right?" A head poked through the door. His voice had an odd accent and his chin was covered in stubble.

"Uh, yeah." I frowned. "Why?"

"Not sure exactly. Something about a kid named Robin?" He scrunched his face.

I leapt up, pushing past him, heart fluttering. I sprinted down the long hallway that seemed to go on forever.

"What's going on?" I yelled at a crowd of people who were standing around a wall of moniters.

The group split to let me through as I rushed to see what was happening.

"Rewind it Dr. Williams."

The tape went in reverse, stopped, the continued moving ahead. I could see three four people standing on stage. The Seantor, Ally, Robin, and Gib.

Robin was only wearing shorts. His ankles were chained to the floor and his wrists to the ground behind them. He had to arch his back to accomidate. Next to him Gib had a hand on the top of his head, holding him still.

The sound came through cristyal clear.

"Traitors must pay for what they've done Rain. Turns out, your filthy brother was no better than you were. He was planning to leave when we found him. He'll regret that soon enough." Said the Senator. "I'd give up if I were you."

My heart pounded. I wanted to look away, but I knew I had to watch.

"I'm not sure she has a motive." Ally smiled up at the Senator who didn't notice.

"Wonderful idea."

Ally walked over to Robin as the camera zoomed in. I could only see their heads and torsos. Ally held a knife to the screen.

"You know Rain, this was the same knife that gave that boy of yours his new look. Is he doing any better?" She taunted.

I looked over at Lukkas, seeing the scars that ran across his face. I clenched my fists, looking back at the screen.

Gib's fingers stretched it and moved Robin's hair away.

My stomach crumpled as I watched the knife cut into Robin's forehead. His scream was to clear, too loud and streams of salt left my eyes. I watched him try to twist away. Ally laughed while she cut even deeper.

Blood ran down Robin's face, covering a good part of his right cheek. He was only twleve at the time.

After Ally finished she laughed again, dropping the stained knife.

"You'll be killed just like your traitor sister will be. And Rain, don't worry. We won't go too fast." She put a hand on the side of his head and three it into the floor.

Robin's eyes fluttered as the camera zoomed in on his face. Glimmering blood fell from his head into the ground. His eyes blinked before they closed unconcious. I could almost see the younger version of him.

Only now, there was a symbol of disobedience carved into him forever.

Kid you not, this was the hardest chapter to write. I did get a good laugh from thinking about how mad everyone will be though.

Kidding! Sort of. As much as I love to write, I simply do not let myself fall in love with my characters because then I can't torture the <insert reason for being grounded here> out of them.

I know that might sound just slightly concerning (slightly) but think of it like this: an author's job is to make the readers feel emotion. The readers job is to feel impacted and to either love or hate the author.

Right now I'm assuming it's the latter.