[ 11 ]

Ruby traveled with Paisely and Cade to the province's airport, almost at the other end of the province. From there, she was taken to a cold military van where she was bound and gagged, and seated next to her parents who had been knocked unconscious by the other soldiers. The way to Crown City was a dark one for her, as she wasn't able to see a thing. The capital wasn't for her crimson eyes to see, as she was not worthy to even breathe their same air or walk the same ground as them. Once arriving at the king's palace in Crown City, she was then led through a back entrance with her hands tied behind her back, to the basement cells, where criminals of the kingdom were kept. 

She and her parents were shoved into one cell where she fell to her knees onto the concrete with a thud. They were kept there without food and water for what felt like hours before someone came in to see them again. She heard one set of slow footsteps, followed by the heavy leather boots of many more behind him. The person stopped in front of their cell door and regarded them with hatred. Venom spewed in his words as he spoke. "I finally have the people guilty for the death of my family, in my hands. A life for a life sounds fair to me." There was satisfaction dripping from his words. Ruby could hear it well. Her heart beat against her chest in fear and she noticed the way he sounded young, no older than she was, probably. 

The young king counted the people in the cell and his eyebrows furrowed in anger at the realization. "There are only three? Where are the other two--Violet and Indigo Raine?" He asked the soldiers around him and they all trembled at his question, as they didn't have an answer for him.

One of them answered bravely, or at least as much as he could muster up. "General Hood and Lieutenant Paisely only handed us these prisoners, your majesty."

"Summon General Hood and Lieutenant Paisely to the throne room immediately." The king's blue eyes looked on at the three people in the cell with disdain--first at Mauve Raine, then Scarlet Raine, until his eyes fell upon their sixteen year old daughter Ruby Raine. His breath caught in his throat and his heart started beating madly against his chest at the sight of her. He had never seen a girl so beautiful, despite her disheveled appearance from having been taken out of her home in the middle of the night. If even for a filthy red who wasn't even worth the dirt on the bottom of his shoes, she was absolutely beautiful. If he had ever heard of love at first sight, then it was exactly this.

Seeing her for the first time reminded him of the time his mother told him stories, of how she met his father Mer Hemmings. They were only teenagers, sixteen when they met. His father was a young prince, an only son destined for the throne of Vesperia, and his mother was a noble from the mostly lowly ranking blonde families. It was unlikely that the two would ever meet, much less fall in love with each other. But it happened one day, when his father was practicing archery in the forest and he fell in love with a beautiful girl whose voice was so lovely that all the creatures in the forest who had ears were drawn to her singing. For the young prince, it had been love at first sight, and for her too. 

This was the same as what their son was feeling, even all those years later.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he knew he needed to be subtle about it, or push away his feelings completely. The nobles and the court would never allow him to show such leniency to a red. It was unheard of--a blonde and a red together. With voice unfaltering and cold, he gestured to the soldiers about Ruby Raine. "Take that one to my sleeping quarters. I will be joining her tonight, after my briefing with General Hood and Lieutenant Paisely."

The soldiers nodded and two went to retrieve Ruby Raine from the cell, while the others scurried off to find their superiors. Anyone else who wasn't needed at that moment was to return to their post and await instructions. 

Ruby struggled against the hands of the soldiers tearing her away from her parents, but they were much stronger than her. They half walked and half dragged her to another unknown place. But this one was different than the cold stone walls of the cells beneath the castle. This was warmer, but still not inviting to her. She could feel the glares and hear the snickers of people as they whispered about her. What was a filthy red like her doing in the castle, among them? If she wasn't a servant, she wasn't welcome there, breathing their oxygen and walking the same ground that they walked on. She was nothing more than a bug that could be squished at any moment.

The sixteen year old was taken into a room, and pushed onto the bed, still at a loss of sight, and without the use of her hands. The soldiers left the room and shut the door behind themselves, leaving her there alone to sit and wait. She didn't know what would happen to her next, but she knew it couldn't be good if the king was going to come to her. Her heart felt wrenched in her chest. Her delicate emotions could not handle another pair of hands touching her in that way, degrading her. Taking away a part of her as though she didn't matter at all. She sobbed quietly to herself, fearing for herself, for her parents, and her sister. 

In the throne room of the castle, Ciel Hemmings was already waiting for the two military men who were being summoned by him. One of them was Kree Paisely, and the other was Cade Hood. The moment they saw him, and the look on his face, they knew something was wrong, and they were going to get hell for it. Folding his hands together on his desk, the king began to speak in something of a casual tone. "If I may know, gentlemen, why are two people missing in the basement cells? Care to explain? Cade? Kree?" He looked from one to the other, awaiting an answer.

Paisely gulped back in fear, as he hadn't even noticed the absence of Violet Raine until that very moment. Through stuttering words, he tried to explain to the king, "Your majesty, I can explain. Indigo Raine is still on the run from the army, we have a legion of our best soldiers hunting him down as we speak. And Violet Raine--" He stopped himself short, as he didn't know what to say. He had nothing to account for her absence. He had been too distracted with Ruby Raine to even realize that Violet was missing. The brunette lieutenant looked to his friend and general for help, eyes widened in a panic.

Cade immediately stepped in, not for his friend, but for Violet's own safety. "I had needs, your majesty." Again, the boy king flinched at his best friend's use of the words your majesty. Why couldn't he just call him Ciel, like he wanted him to? Even in front of Paisely, or in front of anyone, he would allow it. The only one he would allow such informality to. "She would not submit to me, so I had to kill her. I left her body to rot without a proper burial, as any traitors of the empire should be dealt with. I apologize if I stepped out of line." He bowed his head to the king.

In Vesperia, it was common practice for criminals or traitors of the empire to be executed. Then as a bigger show of their strength and power, their bodies were left to rot and be eaten by animals without a proper burial. The king of the time had declared that they were not worthy of being disposed of with such an honor. 

The king gave a quick shake of his head. "Don't apologize Cade, you have done nothing wrong." His annoyance softened at his general's explanation. Paisely looked on, from one to another, with envy. The king had so many considerations with Cade Hood. The general had always been given special treatment without even so much as lifting a finger. Paisely didn't know or care that Cade trained harder than anyone else and tried his best not to accept any special treatment from the king. "I would like you to go back and retrieve the body. That way I can have it on display when I do my broadcast, so that the filthy rebels can see that they will never win against me."

Cade nodded. "Yes, my king."

But he knew that upon his return to Porpra, Violet Raine would be long gone.

-

She breathed, eyes trained on the ceiling above. "That was...strange."

Violet slowly picked herself up and walked over to the panel with all the buttons spread out across it. The machine was something interesting to her, especially because she had never seen anything like it in her life. Everything that had to do with advanced technology was exclusive to Crown City. She saw some buttons labeled with numbers and clicked random numbers to see what would happen next. The numbers: '12. 19. 2013' flashed on the small screen and she climbed back onto the platform.

She closed her eyes when she saw the black hole starting to open up again and waited to see what would happen next. When Violet opened her eyes again, she saw that she had fallen into a small room that was dimly lit and cramped.

"Where am I?" She groaned a question to no one other than herself, getting up and rubbing her backside to ease the pain of falling on the hard floor of the room.

In the small room, she saw many uniforms, for both men & women. They were clean, and looked nice and warm, in contrast to the chill of the room. In a second, she decided to trade her ugly purple school uniform for the nice warm clothes in the closet. She didn't know if she was in a cold place or if she only felt cold because she had been in the ocean and was soaked to the bone, but Violet felt all the more of an urge to change her clothes.

She changed into the female staff light blue, button down blouse and black, skin tight pencil skirt and black two inch pumps. She fixed her hair, which was a mess from falling into the room out of nowhere. Her fingers raked through the damp strands in order to organize her appearance a bit.

Violet then walked out of the small closet to see that she was in a hotel, though she only knew the word hotel by definition because she never saw one in real life. No one ever visited her part of the country and if someone important ever came by, there was an embassy mansion in the middle of town, surrounded by guards, for the person to stay in.

The people at the hotel were wearing outlandish clothing, like the young man near the ocean earlier and her surroundings seemed oddly elegant and nice, clean even, but she knew him the instant her eyes saw him.

Violet could recognize him anywhere since his face was all over the news back home. Vesperian army posters and propaganda always featured one of two people--Ciel Hemmings or Cade Hood. They were the two most powerful and well known men in all of Vesperia. One cold and calculating, the other warm and kind. They were opposites, yet they were best friends. It made Violet wonder if maybe Ciel wasn't as bad as he seemed, to be friends with Cade. Or perhaps Cade wasn't as nice as he seemed. There had to be something they had in common that united them as friends.

Suddenly glad she knew someone that cared about her from back home, she went over to the young man and threw her arms around him, hugging him from behind, "Cade! You found me!" She exclaimed, a sense of relief filled her. She thought that maybe she had been sent to a place by Crown City, though none of the people there looked like the ones she saw on tv. Also, people at Crown City would have quickly antagonized her for her purple hair. These people acted as though she were just another regular person.

The young man turned around instantly to look at her, taken by surprise and said awkwardly, "My name isn't Cade. Sorry, I think you're confusing me with someone else..." 

-

so violet meets the boys for the first time. 

this chapter, with the stuff i added and edited, turned out to be over five thousand words. but obviously that was way too long, so i split it and the rest of the chapter will be posted after this one.

a big thank you to those of you still reading and supporting this story. it means the entire world to me.

have a wonderful day everyone!

-clary