[ 8 ]

For the next week and a half, Cade didn't hear of Violet and her family. Ciel's paranoia had subsided, as he had a busy week, touring the country, and giving speeches about how the crown would be avenged. Cade accompanied him to every location. The first was a location in Crown City. From there, they went to appeal to the greens and oranges of Province of Harvest, in their capital of Verde Valle. From there, they headed to Province of Livestock where the yellows lived, in their capital of Groga. 

As he went down the line of provinces, the people were less enthusiastic to see their king. The further the province was from the capital, the more poor the people were. Province of Freshwater was the third stop where the blues lived, in the capital Blau. There, they had military personnel present, forcing the people to be present. The blues resented their king because they were most similar to him, in eye color at least, yet they were lower in social class to the greens, oranges, and yellows. The last to be visited were the Province of Industry, or Province of Badlands as everyone else in the country knew them. That was where the reds and violets lived. 

The king and his trusted general visited Porpra. Both businesses and schools were forced to shut down for the day so that everyone could go watch the speech. There, he had a bullet proof wall shielding him off from the crowd, but no one would dare do anything to him. They only stared at him with a deep resentment. In each province, he had stayed for at least a day, enjoying the beauties it had to offer. But in Province of Industry  he was reluctant. The best they had was an old run down theater, and their hotels were far below what he was used to. Even the mayor's house was rubbish compared to his palace in Crown City.

He left on a jet for the capital that very same night. 

Violet had watched on the big screens from the back of the crowd, the king giving his speech about making the country thrive. Sitting on a chair on stage not far behind the podium, was Cade, Violet recognized him immediately. The king's most trusted general, he had been introduced that way, practically royalty himself. Yet on more than one occasion he had helped Violet out of trouble. He couldn't be like king Hemmings, it was impossible.

On the way out, everyone was handed meal pills by military officers, which everyone took gladly. If all shops would be closed for the afternoon, they needed something, anything, to fill their stomachs and give them that fake illusion of food. Violet felt like a hypocrite, but she took some too. It was the least the king owed them for wasting their time, and then for filling the local teenage girls with a glint of hope that they could be queen. He had announced that there would be a trial for his hand in marriage in the upcoming weeks. The winner would get to marry him and be queen. But Violet knew better than anyone that he would probably be marrying another blonde like himself. Maybe a brunette, but that was as low as he would go.

The local girls who knew nothing about their cruel king and his empire swooned at the thought. Many of them also whispered about the handsome general sitting behind him. They wondered if he would host a trial as well. 

After ten days of touring the country, they returned to Crown City, where Cade returned to his military work--training the new recruits and then working in the labs with the gadgets they were developing. It wasn't until about the second week without seeing her that the general was summoned again by the king, given as assignment that once again involved the Raine family. 

"I need you to arrest them all and bring them to me." The king said through clenched jaw and gritted teeth. 

They were in the security room with one screen playing footage from the day his parents and brother were murdered. One by one, their lifeless bodies fell to the floor before his very eyes. The shooters had escaped, and barely grazed Ciel in the shoulder instead of in the heart, an injury which he survived. His family had not been so lucky--his father and brother shot in the head, his mother in the heart. His blue eyes burned with hatred as he paused the footage on a clip where you could see something on the shooters' wrist. All of them had it, a simple tattoo of a violet. It was mostly covered up by the black gloves they wore, but both Cade and Ciel could see them. It still didn't prove the Raine family was involved, but it did prove that the culprits were violets themselves. 

"Bring them to me alive. I want to see them admit it to my face, and ask them if it was all worth it. I want them to die slow and painful deaths knowing they were unable to take us down. Unable to topple my glorious empire." His heart had been filled with poison, and he had every right to feel that way. The life he had always known was taken from him in the blink of an eye that day. Now he was king, but he was alone, with only Cade to keep him company.

Cade could only stand there and watch. How would he be able to save Violet now?

"Take Paisely and as many other soldiers as you need." Ciel said to him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

The brunette general only gave a nod of his head. He could not refuse. He was a general and obeying the king was his job. He had to submit if he didn't want to suffer the same fate as the Raine family. "As you wish, my king." He said with a bow and then went to excuse himself to leave the room.

"I trust that you will not let me down." The king said, his eyes stinging with tears.

-

The violet haired girl and her family hid in the underground shelter of their home the second they heard the soldiers trying to take down the front door to take them prisoner.

Already earlier that day, a neighbor who was part of the resistance had come by to drop off a food container. It was their way of communication with the underground, sending and receiving messages in a covert way to prevent the king seeing them. Inside the container was a scrap of paper with a note for them.

Hide.
The army is coming. After
the commotion passes
meet us where you know &
we will help keep you safe.

Instead of being signed, the signature on the note was a drawing of a violet, the same as the tattoo that her parents had on their wrist. It branded them as part of the freedom and equality movement. Her brother Indigo had gotten it when he turned eighteen, just before leaving for the army, to remind him of home. Violet was planning to get it after turning eighteen as well, as did her sister Ruby.

Now the family found themselves hiding in the shelter underneath Violet's bedroom.

She remembered an instance when she was a little girl, she and her sister Ruby used to pull away the floor boards in her bedroom closet and went down the ladder to the secret place her parents had created in case of an emergency. It used to be a nice place, a friendly place where they had fun. Today its purpose served to shield the Raine family from soldiers who didn't believe in their cause.

Her parents had always been against the family who ran the country and had been planning with other people who thought the same way. They waited until Violet and her sister were old enough so that they could run away and fend for themselves if their parents were to ever get caught. They were leaders of what they named the "Violet Revolution."

They heard footsteps come into the room and the four of them fell even more silent, if even possible.

"Check everything." Violet heard one of the voices command the others and her heart started racing furiously. It was a voice she recognized. A voice she had heard several times in the past few weeks. A voice, that though she knew she shouldn't care about, sent her heart racing. She felt like she shouldn't even breathe at that point because the slightest sound might let them know they were down there, but she was able to expertly contain her emotions for the moment. "King Hemmings wants the Raine family's heads in his palace by tonight."

Ciel Hemmings was her country's current King. Named after the blue of the skies. His name meant sky, and his eyes were a vibrant blue to match the name. 

Before him, it had been his father King Mer Hemmings IV who was in power, along with his wife Terra Hemmings. Together they had two handsome sons--Mer V, and Ciel. Violet had always rolled her eyes at their names, like the family was entitled to rule everything and had the names to match. Ciel the youngest son's name meant sky, Mer the king and future king's names meant ocean, and Terra the queen's name meant land. It was all they controlled as rulers of the country after all. Sky, ocean, and land.

At only sixteen years of age he was already the most powerful person in the Verperian Empire. He was a handsome young man on the outside with his fair skin and striking ocean blue eyes, but he was also one of the toughest rulers Vesperia ever had. His family had been in power for over two hundred years.

The Hemmings family had gone into power saying that they had a divine right over the country because John Hemmings, the first King of Vesperia claimed that he met God in person and that he was chosen to lead the country to greatness. At first, people thought it was a good idea for him to lead everyone, but as time passed, he became drunk with power. 

Before the reign of the Hemmings family, the people all ran themselves in their own little tribes. People lived in peace with each other and the idea of a government wasn't wanted after the failure of a country once called the united States of America failed, every other country in existence failed shortly after that. The people were better off on their own, they had been over five hundred years, until John Hemmings came along in the year 2697. He had set his family at the top with cruelty.

"There's nothing. The whole house is empty." They heard a different voice saying. This was a voice she did not recognize, and she was a tad relieved that it seemed Paisely wasn't there. She had a previous run in with him and the two had clashed. The lieutenant was just aching for an excuse to execute her or at least punish her. The commander an leader of the group, who she assumed was General Hood growled, he knew they were there. He just didn't know where they were hiding. 

He said to them in a bellowing voice that made them shake with fear, "Tear the whole fucking house apart. They have to be here! All our heads will roll if we don't have them there by tonight. So find them, or I'll kill you all myself!"

The very words made a shiver run down her spine and his own words echoed in her mind. Just because I'm not here to hurt you doesn't mean I'm no monster.

King Hemmings hated the Raine family for starting a revolution against him, but he was only after Violet's parent's heads, according to his Vesperia Broadcasts on the television and the speeches he had given all over the country just weeks earlier. For their two daughters he had other plans; he was going to torture Violet and Ruby and use us as slaves because he knew it would be more painful and degrading for their parents. He blamed them for leaving him without parents, and he wanted to do the same to their daughters.

They left the room, their voices getting fainter and fainter as they moved on to a different part of the house for their search. Violet climbed up the ladder and took a peek through the floor boards. The coast was clear, for now.

She went back down and whispered to her family, "Mum, dad, they're gone."

Her father sighed heavily, burying his face in his hands. He didn't want that for his daughters. He just wanted to help forge a new country where they wouldn't be considered trash because of their hair color, as though that defined them. "I think your mother and I need to turn ourselves in. You and Ruby need to stay here until they take us away to the king."

"No!" Violet protested with a shake of her head. "You can't do that. The people of Vesperia need you two alive, it will keep them motivated to keep fighting against the injustice they've been forced to endure for years. Without you, there is no revolution."

But her parents wouldn't listen and decided to turn themselves in. "The revolution lives on whether we die or not." Her mother insisted.

Her parents explained to her that their deaths would make the people stronger because they would have one more reason to fight for their rights, rights that belonged to them and were taken away when the Hemmings family stepped into power.

Between quiet sobs and tears, Ruby and Violet tried to stop their parents from turning themselves in. The two sisters watched them go up the ladder and move the floor boards out of the way. They put the floor boards back in place before they opened the bedroom door and they heard the soldiers coming closer.

"They're here!" Said one of them, his voice filled with what was recognized as relief.

-

now i'm actually using the chapters from before. but i also added, and edited a bunch of stuff. so it might be a bit different than what you all remember. half of it is new though, the first part.

i will try to post another chapter tonight, before i go off to work.

thank you all loads for reading and supporting me. i have to get going because i have some errands to run with my mom.

-clary