The rebel looks at me in surprise, moving his eyes across my face multiple times before even reacting. Two other rebels with guns make their way through the crowd in an uncertain fashion towards me and stand either side of me.

"Watch her while I call Crow." It appears to be that they were not expecting this outcome. Even the rest of people in the room seem stunned by this. I guess I would be if I were just spectating like them.

"Crow, the Willow has landed if you get what I'm saying." The rebel speaks into something that resembles an old style walkie talkie. It takes an awful lot of strength not to laugh at his code sentence, obviously not a lot of thought went into it.

He walks away, back towards the ladder which leads to the trap door. I have the two other rebels holding onto my arms with a very heavy grip. There is definitely no way out of here for me to escape.

People are risking their lives by looking over at me. I see a few fleeting glances in my direction but as soon as I make eye contact, they look away. No one says anything, the bunker is too quiet. I do not think that silence is down to fright, but instead confusion. I do not think that people were expecting me to actually be here. We always think it will happen to someone else, never ourselves.

"MOVE NOW IF YOU ARE NEAR THE LADDER. HURRY UP AND MOVE!" The rebel who I exposed myself to shouts to the crowd. Shuffling away in fright, people move away from ladder while the rebel points his gun at them. It does not take long for there to be plenty of space around the ladder.

All at once, the trap door open and figure begins to crawl down. To begin with, all I can make out is the basic shape of the person but as they crawl further down the ladder, I can soon see what they are wearing and the colour of their hair.

The light blonde hair is the first thing I recognise about this person, shorty followed by the clothes. It was not that long ago since I saw this exact same outfit, the same black trousers followed by the grey tee shirt he wore in front of the whole camp. He certainly got here fast enough anyway.

"Where is she?" Crow snaps the rebel before he has even put his foot on the floor. "Never mind, I see her." He turns around and gazes my way.

Automatically the crowd splits into two, making a clear pathway for Crow to get to me. Instead of walking towards me though, he stays exactly where he is. For what feel like an eternity, Crow just stands there and watches me, cocking his head from side to side, a grin forming on his face. I have nothing to do but watch him in return. His cold eyes look to be calculating something.

"Hmm I honestly can't believe that you're here, your highness." He spits in my direction and mockingly bows, never breaking the eye contact between the two of us.

"My mother was beginning to suffocate me. Besides, every teenager goes through a rebellious stage, do they not? Surely you know a lot about being rebellious, Crow?" I mock back at him.

I watch as Crows lips curl into a grin even more. "Oh I certainly do princess." He sends a shiver down my spine when he calls me 'princess'. I have become so used to Jasper and Max calling me that, that I have begun to like it as a nickname. Crow is using something that is personal to me.

"Now why did it take you so long to show yourself? I made it very clear what the deal was in my little speech back there, you come forward and the attacks stop. As simple as that. By the way, the next hour is almost up and as I haven't actually got the princess where I want her, shoot who you want."

"NO!" I yell at him, struggling against the two rebels who have a tight hold on me.

"I've not finished talking to you yet princess. We are staying right here, you should have come forward earlier if you didn't want to see a bullet go through someone else's head.

'Now then, tell me exactly why you left the palace and ended up here. I can just picture the queens face when she finds out that her beloved daughter has been hiding out in rebel camps, the same rebels that want to bring her down."

I hesitate before answering, wondering if giving Crow the silent treatment would be worth it but then I decide it probably will not be. There will be more than one bullet flying though people's heads if I decide to do that.

"Like I said beforehand, my mother was suffocating me. The whole palace was my own dungeon, there were guards everywhere, I could never get away. My mother, the queen, never listened to my ideas. We had a meeting about the attacks in the Cold Lands and I wanted to arrange a meeting with you to find out what it was you are not happy with. My mother wanted to throw a ball instead. She would never listen to my suggestions, even when they made more sense." I tell him honestly.

"That doesn't explain why you left the palace in the first place though." Crow then goes onto saying.

"I wanted to see how people actually live. I know that I have lived a privileged life, even if I have not liked all of it, but that also means I have a rose tinted view on life. I have learnt that so much has been hidden from me, from the unspeakable disease to the amount of homeless people on the street. I feel like I know how to help more people now." I explain to Crow who just stands at the opposite side of the room, not saying anything.

Risking it, I take a look around the bunker at everyone else. Confusion is splashed across a lot of their faces after hearing what I have just said but no one says a word. They are probably to scared to say anything which is understandable.

Even Crow himself looks rather confused as if this was not the answer that he was expecting.

"Hmm so it was a little more than just teenage angst then?" he questions, raising his eyebrows at me.

"You could say that." I reply bluntly.

"What about the two men you have been apparently travelling. The whole country knows about Jasper Caine, thanks to his aunt, but there are new reports of a second man as well. How do they fit into all this?"

"They are just friends of mine. I met them while I was travelling and they offered to help me. They showed me more of this world than what I thought was possible. That is all."

"They seem very close with each other, Jasper and Max, wouldn't you say princess?"

"As close as brothers." I answer without missing a beat, guessing that a question like this would appear with the mention of Jasper and Max.

"It's time." Crow says which confuses me because it does not relate to the answer that I had just given him.

The next thing I know, the grip on my left arm tightens as the rebel pulls me closer to him so with his other hand, and he can reach his gun. He raises it, with his finger hovering over the trigger and points it around the crowd, causing screams of fear to escape from people's mouths. Last time they decided to shock the crowd by randomly shooting someone through the head without them even realising, this time, everyone is very aware that their life could be taken.

"Stop showing off Smythe and just shoot. I haven't got time for these kinds of games." Crow angrily says and turns his back against us all. Smythe no longer points the gun around the ground, instead he aims at a father who has a child hiding behind him. The bullet flies straight through his head before he even has time to scream. The child, who must have been his son breaks down into loud sobs of tears. "Oh for goodness sake, someone shut him up!" Crow exclaims, waving his hand at the little boy.

Smythe begins to point his gun at the small boy until Crow actually stops him.

"I said one life an hour and children were never part of the deal." There must be a small heart hidden somewhere in him if he is sparing the life of the little boy.

"Now let's talk about what I really want, I want you to come with me." Crow begins to explain to me.

"Where would I be going?"

"I am not going to tell you that now am I? What I will tell you is that if you come with me, then all of this will stop. Right now I will get in touch will all of my rebels in all the bunkers and the people in the plans above and call everything off. You just have to say that you will come with me, it is as simple as that."

"Blackmail that is your strategy? My life in order to save theirs..."

"It has proved very effective in the past. What do you say princess?"

What do I say? I really do not want to go with him but I also do not want all these people to die and then it all is my fault but what other option is there?

"No, I will not do it." I say without even realising. Once again the room is stunned into silence and the evil grin returns on Crow again.

"Interesting... I certainly respect the fact that you prefer your own life compared to everyone else's. Explain why."

I breathe in, wondering how many breaths I will have left in my life, I cannot imagine there are going to be that many. "I am starting to think that it is best for the human race if it all ends now. Nothing is going to change otherwise. You can kill me and keep all these people alive but you will also keep trying to attack the palace until you get what you want and I know my mother and I know that she will not give in. This vicious cycle is never going to end so no, I will not go with you." I take another deep breath before looking down at the floor.

"You are stronger than what I was expecting, or maybe stubborn is the word I am looking for. I honestly though that you would give yourself up straight away. You know it was that little girl Macy who informed us that she thought you were here. She was naïve; she told the doctor that she saw you and that you're not a bad person. What a shame that the hospital her and her brother were in was the first place to be attacked. How many more children are going to die like that just because you said no?"

"You can try and guilt trip me but I will not go with you Crow. I stand by with what I said. Kill them all, kill the whole world and then maybe there will finally be peace on earth because none of this is working." I cry out in frustration, thinking of poor little Macy and her brother.

I risk looking up at the people in the room and see their disappointed faces. Even though they may have seen themselves as rebels at one point, they were still counting on me to save them, after all, one day I will be the leader of this country, the country that they live in. Guilt builds up in the pit of my stomach, making me want to back out of everything that I have just said but then how would I look? The princess of Strongway would be then known as a coward so instead I have to stand by what I said.

Crow begins to walk forward, through the path that the crowd created earlier. He makes an emphasis on each step he takes, slowly placing each foot on the ground in a dramatic fashion. He only stops when his face in only centimetres away from my own.

"Such a shame that you won't come easily. I very much counted on that and now I have lost a bet. You owe me princess. Well I guess now we will have to do things the hard way." He says, not explains any further.

"What do you mean Crow?"

"You'll see. Do what you have to do." He says and starts to walk away.

For a minute, I just stand there, feeling confused. What does he mean by the 'hard way'? And then it hits me, literally hits me as Smythe band his friend both hit me over the head with both of their guns.

Everything then goes black.

A/N: welcome to another #RoyalWednesday. I hope you are all well. I just want to say thank you because since the last chapter I posted the story has gained over 400 reads! Thank you for that.

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