[ 10 ]

Cade walked out of the bedroom after a good half hour, adjusting his pants, and leaving what appeared to be the corpse of Violet Raine sprawled on the bed. The soldiers that had bunched up at the door made way for him, all of them grinning with excitement at his showing of power over a simple violet girl. Some of them patted him on the back to congratulate him, others cheered with sickening comments about the girl who was now presumed to be dead. Cade looked around, searching for his colleague. His second in command. But he was nowhere to be found. 

Cade felt his heart sink in his chest, as he knew what it probably meant. He had promise to spare and save Ruby. But at the moment, she was no doubt being defiled in one of the military cars by his colleague Paisely.

Still, he asked the other soldiers. "Where is Paisely?"

One of the other soldiers gestured to the last military truck parked on the muddy empty streets. Everyone was too scared to come out of their houses. But Cade could feel the burn of their eyes on him as they watched him through their windows. All curious eyes watching three a legion of soldiers going into the house, and taking three people prisoner. They had all no doubt heard the deafening gun shot that rang through the house. 

The general walked over with quick steps and as he approached the car, he could hear crying. The car moved slightly under their weight and the crying was soon joined by grunts and groans, then threats of violence if she didn't do as she was told. Cade stood outside the car, torn between his duties tot he king and the kingdom, and his loyalty to Violet. He sucked in a breath and knocked on the window. "Kree," Kree Paisely. He called him by his first name, hoping to appeal to him as a friend rather than his first in command. "Its getting late and these parts of town aren't safe for us right now. We should probably get going."

His friend shouted back. "Just give me a few more minutes. Gather the troops first."

Cade heaved a sigh and walked off. He wanted to help Ruby Raine, but this was a small sacrifice to make if she wanted to continue living. He walked off to where the rest of the legion was waiting, and he gave them instructions to get into their cars and wait for his and Paisely's order to leave. They all nodded and scattered off to their respective vehicles. Cade waited outside for Paisely, since they had arrived together. 

When Paisely finally opened the door for his friend to come in, the stench of sex filled the air and Cade had to roll down the windows for a breath of fresh air. Inside the car, Paisely was adjusting his military uniform pants. Ruby Raine was in her school uniform. The straps were torn and the bottom end had been pushed up to make way for the Lieutenant in between her legs. Her eyes were red and puffy, almost matching her crimson irises, from all her crying. Her hair was a mess and she held the top half of her uniform together with her arms. And she flinched away in fear as Cade stepped into the car, sitting across from them. 

The ride to the air base was a short one, and there they had Ruby join her family in being bound and gagged. The family noticed that Violet wasn't present, but none of them dared to ask where she was out of fear of hearing that she was dead.

From there, they were headed to Crown City, where the king was already waiting to announce his victory over the rebel forces. Cade and Paisely had already called in advance to inform him that they were on their way. Paisely had been so distracted with Ruby Raine that he hardly noticed that they were missing one person of the family. But Cade would deal with that later on. He would have to come up with something convincing to tell the king.

-

Violet woke up hours later. She was confused, groggy, and alone in her bedroom, with a massive headache. There was nothing but silence heard within the walls of her small house.

She reached up to her forehead and felt a painful bump there, but she wouldn't dare to look at it. But she feel the dried blood. She sat up and looked around her bedroom, it was getting dark in the Porpra and she knew she had to make her escape at night if she didn't want to be seen. If she were caught, they would take her to the king where she would get both herself and Cade in trouble.

Violet got off her bed, straightening out her purple school uniform. She wasn't really sure what to take with her, and wanting to make her escape as soon as possible, she decided it was best if she didn't take anything.

Her feet walked the ugly streets of her poor town, trying to stay in the shadows. Everything was so old, nothing compared to the pictures she had seen of Crown City. The buildings were run down and the painting on the walls was chipped and faded. She wondered how the king could ever allow these sort of living conditions to exist in his empire. But he was selfish, and didn't care for anyone else's needs but his own.

By this time, the streets were already empty. The only things visible were pieces of trash being pushed around by the wind. Added to the control the king had over the country was a mandatory curfew. Everyone was to be back in their houses by the time the sun set and anyone spotted outside would be punished.

After walking for a while, she didn't know where she was going, but she decided to stop for the night when her violet eyes saw the old steel maker's warehouse in the outskirts of town, where no one ever set foot. She felt like her legs were about to give out on her and she collapsed on the ground as soon as she shut the heavy metal door behind her.

As she laid on the cold hard ground, she thought about her family.

In the beginning, Vesperia wasn't an official country. There still existed separate nations and it was said that everyone lived peacefully. It was until a young man, the first King of Vesperia came along, claiming that Vesperia was destined to be united under his reign through divine power and the separate countries became a single kingdom.

Vesperia was divided into five provinces; named according to their natural resources, except for the Crown City. The king soon established a class system, placing himself and all other blondes at the top. From then, people were moved around the country to be housed in a province based on their hair color. The king had cleverly made it so than no one could ever improve their social status or wealth. The only way was to marry into wealth, but that never happened in Vesperia. If one was born poor, they'd stay poor until they died.

Letting a sigh escape her lips, she laid there in silence for what felt like hours until she finally took the time to notice her surroundings. There was old factory equipment unused and rusted, a large machine with a conveyor belt attached, but what really caught her eye was a smaller and odd looking machine in the back.

She slowly lifted herself off the ground and made her way toward it with curiosity. There was an old sign on top of it that had the number '3000' on it. The machine was composed of a black platform that had the build of a circular stage. It had rails on the sides and a small flight of stairs to get onto the platform. To the left of the platform, there was a control panel but hundreds of buttons and Violet started to play around with some of the switches.

The machine lights started to flash in different colors and the panel showed the numbers '07. 07. 2013'. She didn't know what was happening or what the numbers meant, and she climbed up to the machine's platform to see if she could find out what would happen.

Suddenly, a black hole opened up from beneath the platform and she fell in. Her eyes closed tightly, thinking this was the end when she landed with a light thud, about fifteen seconds later, on what felt like warm mush.

Opening her eyes, she saw that it was actually warm sand beneath her. She looked around, making sure that no one had seen her fall from the sky and got back on her feet. She noticed that she had landed on an unfamiliar beach and there were no other people to be found. She walked in the opposite direction of the ocean until I saw a big white house which was only a few steps off the beach.

It was one of the biggest and most beautiful houses she had ever seen in her life. It had two floors, and Violet knew it must have belonged to someone with money.

As her bare feet carried her closer across the burning hot sand, she saw a garden full of beautiful flowers of all types and colors and she was tempted for a second to cut one and take it home. She had only ever seen flowers in pictures. Her town didn't have any, as bright colors weren't allowed anywhere outside of Crown City. The only closest thing she had ever seen to a flower were the weeds and dandelions that grew in patches of yellowing grass after the rainy season.

Paying more attention to the rest of her surroundings, she saw a dirt path circular driveway and behind the house she could see a vast back yard full of lush green grass that looked soft enough to touch.

She walked up the driveway, close to the front porch and saw a small sign that read, "Sunflower Fields Estate. Aransas Port, New South Wales."

Suddenly, her attention went towards the back yard when she heard the laughing of what she assumed were teenage boys. Laughter and happiness were two other things that were foreign to her. Wanting badly to see what happiness looked like, she let curiosity get the better of her and she tiptoed, with her back against the wall, to the back yard of the big house.

She stole a peek to see there were four handsome boys, kicking a checkered black and white ball around.

When one of them kicked the ball too hard, sending it across the large patch of grass and hitting her on the shoulder, one of them jogged over to get it. She remained hidden, but sprinted toward the front yard again when she saw him approach.

"Hey! What are you doing out here? This is private property!" She heard a voice saying from a bit far off and turned to see a young man with the odd checkered pattern ball in his hands. He was looking right at her, eyes full of curiosity.

Her heart froze. She had been caught.

The boy was about twenty feet away from her and was beginning to walk in her direction, saying, "Do you need something? Are you lost? Are you a fan?"

Startled at the many questions he was asking, the first thing she could think to do was run away.

He was dressed very strangely, different than the way people dressed in Vesperia, bringing her to the conclusion that she had somehow gone to another planet or somewhere other than her home country. Everything about it was foreign.

"Who are you?" He asked once more, taking her in. Her oddly colored violet hair was a tangled mess, on her face was etched a look of worry, and the material of her purple school uniform that burned her ivory skin under the sun.

When she saw him come closer, she started running toward the ocean at full speed, which seemed to be her best option and only form of escape. As she ran, she turned and looked back to see him still coming closer, picking up the pace when she started to run.

The second she reached the water, she jumped in and began swimming frantically.

"Wait! What are you doing? I just want to know who you are! I'm not trying to scare you." She heard him say when she was already several few feet into the ocean, followed seconds later by the sound of him jumping in to the salty waters to follow her. "You'll drown out there, come back!"

She snuck a glance at him in fear, her arms beginning to tire at her futile efforts to get away.

On the shore, she could see another boy, one that had been in the back yard as well. He was tall, wearing a black sleeveless shirt and tight pants of a fabric she couldn't recognize. His curly golden hair was stuck out from under a bright red piece of fabric he had tied around his head. He watched as Calum swam after the violet haired girl.

About twenty feet into the ocean, far away from him as she could possibly go until the pull of the ocean got too strong, she yelled back, "Too late! You've already scared the life out of me."

Calum watched her as she took a deep breath and slipped her head into the water, below the current of the waves. She closed her eyes tight, hoping it was all just a bad dream and that she would wake up soon.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back on the machine's platform, soaking wet and still scared out of her mind. But at the same time, she felt a sense of relief that she was back from that unknown place by the ocean.

-

so i have another update for you all. 

most of it is from the story i had orignally written. i just added some stuff at the beginning. from here on out, i think i will use most of the material that you all remember from 3000. so make sure to give it a read and check it out.

thank you all for the support. i will try to post another update for you all tomorrow, since i don't have to go to work.

have a nice night, everyone!

-clary