Contradicting Worlds

"Leo." I run to him and embrace his furry neck, earning a low chuckle from him. Or at least that"s how I hear it.

"Good to see you too," he said. I pull back a bit just enough to look in his eyes, but then I forget that he"s ginormous so instead, I am met by his fluffy furs.

"Do you need me here?" I ask him, tilting my head up to see him. He looks at me and shakes his head slowly.

"You need us, Rebecca. That"s why you"re here." I inhale sharply through my nose and think back to the things that have happened currently.

"I don"t know." I sigh heavily. "I am scared," I admit, finally.

"What are you afraid of?" I look down at my hands, fascinated that they"re there. Okay, now I"m crazy.

"When you told me that the past might be scary, I believed you and you were right. It was scary but... the secrets are terrifying. I thought to go through that, I mean going through the past will give everything including the untold. But..."

"It didn"t unfurl the secrets you want to know, instead, it causes more secrets to spark up." He finished for me. I nod quietly, now looking at the ground. "You are afraid of what those secrets will reveal." I nod again, biting my lower lip as shame sinks in. "It"s okay, we are all afraid of secrets. Who wouldn"t? Secrets may be bad and they can be good and I guess that"s why we are afraid of it. Because it might be the cause of change and we are not so sure whether that change can help us or destroy us. But you have to take the risk because at the end of the day taking the risk is the only thing we can do. And you will find yourself gaining without losing a thing."

I gulp loudly at his words. "I"m also afraid of what will happen next. My friends and everyone who knows that I am a royalty is hanging on me that I will save the world. What if I don"t know what next step to take? What next move should I do?..." I continue to ramble on him but I trailed off because he got that look on his face. It"s pretty ridiculous because, with all the furs and everything, he still managed to have that kind of face that tells you to shut the fudge up.

"You"ll know what to do," his tone is firm with finality but I refuse to shut up.

"Will you teach me?" I sound hopeful. Okay, maybe a little too hopeful for my part.

"You"ll know, Rebecca. It"s not my obligation to teach you. Even I, don"t know how only the One up above knows." That didn"t help much but it"s okay if he says, he says. "It"s time for you to go. We only have one meeting left before the big day."

"Wait. What?" But I was already being hauled from my dream and into the nightmare that awaits me in the real world.

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*NATHANIEL"S POV*

Knees bend, arm raised, weapons ready, the three of us (Clain, Stewart, and I) unhurriedly make our way towards the camp. Down the south, the camp is called the dungeons but here we call it, well, that way, but it serves the same purpose, to hold exiles. The camp is a building that has cells exclusively just for criminals, and when I say criminals that means exiles. Because when you"re an exile you are a criminal.

The gra.s.ses are as taller than us so we don"t have very much trouble hiding our body and the fact that it is almost midnight makes our mission easy. To make it easier the wind helps to cover the rustle of the leaves our bodies making. We chose to operate at night because that"s the only time that the defenses of the warriors are down. They don"t take too much serum at night because attacks are unlikely to happen at that time of day so we take it for granted.

We wear masks so our eyes are the only visible parts of our faces. The first four warriors guarding the gate leading inside came into view. My grip on my knife tightens as we get near our first kill. Their backs are not onto us but they can"t see us through the tall gra.s.ses so we take our time.

Like lions silently waiting for the right chance on their prey, we crouch down to the gra.s.s, our breathing even but I am sure that our hearts are pounding so hard in our chests. I took the energy from the lights so they diminish a bit.

"Stewart," I whisper yell to him and he nods in understanding. A mild explosion came from somewhere in the building but it"s enough to awake the sirens and to have the warriors running towards it.

Once they were out of the view, we stand up and run towards the building. Clain puts his hand on the wall and a giant portal appears. We stepped through it and then we"re inside. The sirens continue blaring, sending signals to the warriors, which I know, are now responding and running to us.

I wrinkle my nose when the smell of rust, blood, and rotten bodies invade my sense of smell. "It smells like death in here," Stewart says.

"Let"s just hurry," Clain says, his voice is m.u.f.fled by the sleeve of his cloth.

Stewart makes quick work of bursting the cells" doors into pieces.

Exiles from each cell come out slowly, most of them look like they"ve encountered death and had gone to h.e.l.l. They are filthy and they are shivering, which I know, is from hunger.

"Hey folks, we"re here to get you out of here so if you want your a.s.ses to be saved, you better start walking to us now so we can help you escape." Clain"s voice bounced through each wall and the exiles near to us look at us.

The ruffling of feet, running and walking filled the silence. When almost everyone is right in front of us, Clain opens up another portal and we all step through.

We come to an abrupt stop when we found what awaits us outside. Countless warriors are aligned in a half-moon formation. I deduce that they will use their ability to us so before they use it I already made my move. Surprise flicker in their expression but they mask it instantly. Swiping so many warriors from their abilities brought me to my knees.

I know that swiping their abilities would weaken me but I didn"t have a choice because it"s the only way we can come out of here and save these exiles. Clain and Stew came to my aid the moment my knees buckle, they brought my arm around their shoulders. Clain stomps his foot on the ground and portals appear on the ground, making the warriors fall through it, their screams were silenced by the closing of the portals.

"Come on. This way." Clain shouts to the exiles. With the warriors stuck gone, we ran because we know that more of them are coming. We don"t look back, we just keep running in the endless woods with the exiles in our trails.

Minutes later we were running out of breath, we are already heaving for air or oxygen so we stop for a bit. I look back to see that most of the exiles made it and they look as exhausted as we are. I shift my attention to our environment, questioning myself how the h.e.l.l is we going to live up the night since we are far away from Clain"s house and there"s no way that that house can take these too many people. And we are starving. We have no food in here. Nothing. And our water is running out, we have kids for fudge"s sake.

We planned to go to the abandoned building near the boundary so we can meet Rebecca there in an instant but that changes when those warriors are on our trail and I am so sure now that search parties are looking for us and since we are way too many, they will easily find us. Think, Nate, think. What would Rebecca do if she"s here? She"ll blow this forest off and tell those warriors to fudge off. Shoot, I can"t do that.

My shoulders tense as well as Clain and Stew when we heard trample of feet on the ground. At once, we all move in sync but the voice cuts us off. "Stop right there! Put your hands behind you and slowly turn around." We do as he said and the exiles follow suit. They are circling us now. If we can only unleash all of what we can do, we can make it out of here but that"s not the case. We have kids and this is the thing we are avoiding. We don"t want them to be comprised and we don"t certainly want a blood bath but right now I am thinking it"s the only way out.

Clain looks at me, an unspoken question pa.s.ses between us then I look at the scared faces of the exiles and I shake my head. He creases his eyebrows in question that I don"t know the answer of. The warriors are approaching us and our circle is growing smaller by each step they make. I estimate their number and shoot they are way larger than earlier, 200 more or less. I unsheathe my dagger and I saw Clain and Stew do the same at the corner of my eye. "Take your weapons down. Now!" The officer in charge shouts at us but neither one of us backs down. "I won"t repeat it. Now!" Again, he is dealing with stubborn kids.

He raises his gun, aims at us and for a moment I thought this is it. We"re gonna die. But some miracle happens, preventing him from pulling the trigger. A gunshot resonates then his body lands on the ground with a loud thud. Everything was suddenly in slow motion. I watch as some of the warriors who have their weapons drawn point it at their fellow warriors and fire. A series of body falling echoes around the woods. I can feel my eyes widen at the sight and my heart is banging its way out of my chest when the a.s.sa.s.sins turn to us and I point my dagger at them without a second thought. But they are already putting their guns in their holster. "Whoa whoa whoa," the one in front of me said. I realize that I am still gripping my dagger and pointing it directly at him. My eyes must be sending death glares at them because their eyes widen a little and amus.e.m.e.nt dance in them. He approaches me, hesitation is clear in his moves and I push my dagger to him. His eyes turn cold and deadly. "Drop it, kid. We"re not going to hurt you." Although his word meant to soothe me, there"s a command in it.

I rake my eyes over him and for the first time since they"ve made their a.s.sault, I let myself study him. He"s a guy in his mid-thirties, his forehead wrinkles as his brows bunch together. He"s tall but not taller than I am. He has muscles in all the right part and his aura emits control and authority. "Nathaniel. Drop it." The moment my name--my real name--rolls off his tongue, I tense. He must have realized it because his eyes went to my shoulders. But he doesn"t elaborate instead he shakes his head. "I don"t have enough time to explain things right here. And you probably don"t remember me but I do remember you. Look, we don"t have enough time and the warriors are on their way so we better go."

"How?" Disbelief laced in my voice. And I know Stew and Clain are weighing the pros and cons in their minds too.

"I just told you we don"t have enough time. You wanna trust me or you wanna wait here and get you and your fellas here killed?" I eye him for a bit, stalling us. But the hesitation flew away when I heard a little boy"s voice behind me shouts, "Brother!"

I whirl around just in time to see a kid--close to eleven--runs in the waiting arms of his brother. I watch as his brother tightly hugs him to him as if nothing else matters in the world. My eyes dart to Clain and Stew and they are watching me. I look from the kid to the man in front of me, one of his eyebrows is raised, then back to the kid again who"s watching me with a hopeful expression. My heart can"t help but melt and I turn to the man again and nods at him. "This better not be a scam," I state and warn at the same time. But he just nods solemnly at me, not unnerved in the tiniest bit. I"m starting to like this man.

"Trust me. Treachery is the last thing I"m gonna do. Considering the state we"re in."

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*REBECCA"S POV*

"I thought you weren"t going to come back and we have to send search parties for you," Annie said, smiling wild I"m worried that her cheeks might hurt. She strives to us, her arms wide along with many others. They greet us in ecstasy, jumping, and squealing with joy.

I hug Annie tight. "I thought Haida said she wasn"t planning on sending out search parties?" We pull back and I raise an eyebrow. She shakes her head at me, still smiling.

"You know her. Her actions are always opposite to what she says. I tell you she was frantic when--" A throat clearing stopped her mid-sentence. We both look behind her and there, Haida is standing with her hands clasped behind her. I mockingly look at her in awe.

"Aww, Haida is what she true?" I step back from a grinning Annie and hold my arms out for Haida. "Come give me a hug, your favorite subordinate."

Her eyes narrow into slits but I know that she"s fighting back a grin so she did what I expect her to do. She swivels and said in a trained control voice, "We"re happy you made it." With that, she walks away and we can"t help but snicker behind her. I sigh deeply in thought, it"s good to be back again.

We were met with cheers and claps when we were inside--the real inside. A look from Haida made them stop and they went back to their rooms quickly. "You need to cut some slack Hades," Isabella said.

We turn to Haida who is behind us with that serious look on her face that tells us that joking time is done. "Go straight to the room after you"ve changed. You stink." I press my lips together as Haida ambles. We all look at each other and Annie shrugs because we all know that this is going to be a lengthen session.

"D*mn that woman," Avery said and the tension in our groups immediately rolls off replaced by laughter. We don"t know how or where to start when we finally tell Haida everything. I just wish that they will listen to us and they"ll trust whatever the h.e.l.l we say.

Once done bathing and changing, we all went to "the room", our shoulders slump and we are huddled together like we"ve committed some sort of crime. We push the door open and we all take our sits with Haida at the head seat and the other team leaders aligned with us. Avery, Riley, Dani, Aimee, and Lie stand somewhere behind us. "Report." Haida"s stern voice broke the silence.

We didn"t say a thing instead we all look at each other, asking ourselves who"s going to do it and where and how to start. Haida seemed to sense our uncertainty because her eyes narrow again and she"s studying us now making us all squirm in our seats. "Okay, where do you want us to start?" Mica is the one who spoke and we had a silent agreement that it"s better to let her do the talking since she"s the best talker among all of us.

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We were encountered by dead silence the moment Mica stopped explaining. No one dares breathe and the air in the room seemed to thicken at every tick-tock of the clock. Finally, after the longest silence in my life, Haida speaks, "So what you are saying that the world is under some sort of experiment lead by Sarah--the head--for unknown reasons."

"Yes," Mica said. Gone is the confident Mica who talked earlier, right now there"s just doubt in her features.

"And you want us to help you, get this person talk as to why she"s doing this without raising a b.l.o.o.d.y war? You want us to go against the government without causing fatalities? That would be impossible."

"I"m sorry," I said, shaking my head for a second before speaking again. "But, what are you saying? That it would be impossible for you to help us? Or it would be impossible for us to wreck the city without having a blood bath?"

"The latter part," she answered, her voice closing to being bored.

I glance sideways to Isabella, who sitting two chairs away from me. "We just told you that there are chips installed in your necks that altered your memories. And we told you that there"s an ongoing experiment being lead by Sarah. And we also told you that we need to remove your chips for you to have your memories back and for you to fully help us without doubting our words. And...you"re not having second thoughts? You didn"t even ask questions!" I gush at her while staring at her in disbelief.

She sighs and focuses her eyes on me. "I know that there"s something big going on around the world for years now. But I don"t have any leads. For years, we try going inside the city to find out what is happening, we even have spies in there, but none of them brought news, none of us can figure out what"s happening. From the moment we woke up in the middle of the woods, fighting to survive, we"ve been an exile since then with no idea why or how. All we know that people are going after us to kill us. And soon I found out that it"s, maybe, because of our abilities, that maybe they are afraid of us so they are killing us, I establish this organization. This organization has been established to go against the government, for fighting for what"s right. That"s why I am not having second thoughts. As to why I am not asking questions--I do have one but we can discuss it later--like I"ve said earlier, I"ve known that something big and bad has been going on around the world for a while now so it doesn"t surprise me the fact about the experiment. For the part about you being gammas, and there are categories around us, it doesn"t surprise me either. Why? Because the moment I saw Samantha and you, Ellie, I"ve felt it. I"ve felt the power inside you, that"s why I know that the two of you were meant to lead us." Her gaze moves towards Avery, Riley, and Mica. "Same goes for the three of you. I am not surprised to find out about the chips because," she gives us a look and we know in an instant what she"s talking about. "I know that something or someone is messing with our brains."

No one speaks at first and I am pretty sure I can"t hide the amus.e.m.e.nt in my face as well as my friends. "What is that one question you talk about?"

"Ah, that. Well, I"m wondering if she is doing this kind of experiment then why does she also keep the population in check? I mean if you look at the statistics, it goes down, yes, there"s no doubt about it but you can see that the change between the population rate each year is not that farther apart. So you know that she"s still keeping the human race intact. But why though? You said that she has this laboratory to which the main purpose is to conjure babies. And then they will be trained and when they"re of the right age, they will be sent in either the city or in the woods. So why? Why have all this when she"s still keeping an eye on the population? This means that we are missing something. Something that I am afraid will change the course of events." My breath hitch in my throat and I find it hard to breathe not that it is news to me but I don"t want to state that particular fact so hearing it coming out from Haida"s mouth made it sound terrifying enough I might flee.

"That is what we yet to find out," Mica spoke for me and I look at her with grat.i.tude. She knows how secrets affect my train of thought.

"When you get her to talk." Haida nods. "So what do you need us to do?" Shoot, that"s what it takes to convince her?

"Uhm. Nothing at first, we need to find certain people first then we"ll come back. But for now, you"ll regain your memories."

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We"ve stayed at the hunters" camp for a few weeks. After the meeting, we slept because we are too exhausted, two days later we start telling the whole camp about everything, again we left out about royalties, so the only alpha and betas who know about it are Daniella, Aimee, and Lia. They"ve kept their mouth shut to which I am grateful. Three days after telling them all about that, we went to work on their memories which left us in great fatigue. Why? Well, I don"t know why, because the camp has way too many soldiers for our liking?

It takes us a week before we finally got everybody their memories back. Ever since then, everyone looks at us in awe and admiration which made me a little bit uncomfortable. Having their memories back made them realize how fudged up our world is so they are more than ready to fight with us. And having their memories back made them control their abilities more. We teach them what we learned from Roderick for a few weeks and after that we find ourselves in the woods again, searching for allies.

We run in the woods, attentive at any signs of warriors, and at the sign of any exiles, we can recruit. We are not fond of the thought going into different parties so we chose to just stick together. I stiffen and I felt it before I see it so I was prepared when an arrow came to pierce my behind. I turn around and stopped the arrow just in time. I heard someone gasps in my group but I"m more focused on finding where the a.s.sailant could be. I"m surprised to find no one or nothing, not even trails or something. "Guys," I said and we step closer to each other, making a circle with our backs to each other.

But the moment my foot felt something, I immediately hate our formation. I let out a startled yelp when I feel myself being lifted viciously and a whoosh filled my ears, the next second my head hit something rough and hard and everything went black.

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Red and black spots blurred my eyes as I try to open them. Light? Was that light? No. It"s fire. As my vision turns clear, I realize that it"s already in the dead of night. And I"m still hanging upside down, with my feet both tied up above me. I can feel the rush of blood in my head and it"s making me dizzy.

I lick my dry lips and gulp my saliva to aid my hydration. I can feel my back is settled on a hard and rough surface and I realize that I am almost attached to a tree. I look around and find my friends to be in the same position as me. They are slowly waking up when their eyes find mine, I put my finger to my lips and gesture for the group of people hanging around the bonfire. "Exile Hunters," I mouth at them and they nod in understanding.

Exile hunters are the hunters who hunt--of course--exiles. Most of them are dressed as warriors. They do this for money and free food. They hand whoever they caught to the officials and they will be paid handsomely. Some of them do this for fun and pleasure. Why? I don"t know. But I know that they are a bunch of psychos.

I turned the fire into ashes and we were engulfed by darkness. That would"ve been easy if they don"t have someone who has the fire ability with them. As soon as the fire lit up again, one of them stood up, her eyes scanning us and when they land on me, it turns into slits then as if she figures out that I"m the one who did that, she says, "You b*tch." She grabs her ax and I know what she"s about to do. I struggle to reach my rope but when I did, it turned into ashes and I land on the ground with a grunt just as her ax went flying and piercing through the tree.

Her companions" eyes went as wide as saucers and they mimic the movements of their leader (I think so). Not good.

I watch as my friends cut their ropes with their abilities--though Avery needed a little help--and land on the ground. We stand slowly and ready ourselves.

Their first shot was a fire that we dodge easily. The next was flying arrows that we splintered into pieces with our daggers. The third thing was ice. We are scattered in a way that we kind of has a one-on-one fight. Then as if our opponent sensed something was wrong, they"ve had a silent meeting that they have to take us down by teamwork.

Seconds later, we fall in a heap of fighting bodies. Everything went in a blur, abilities are now coming right after each other and overlapping each other. We are not in a disadvantaged position because seriously? We are gammas, duh. But we"re not in the advantage position either because they move freaking fast that we don"t have time to react at all. And to think I thought I was fast.

This time I saw it in slow motion. An arrow is flying towards Avery"s back and she can"t sense it because she"s busy fighting another one of them. The arrow moves so fast that I don"t have time to help her at all and my insides churn at the thought of having one of my friends die again. Then a miracle appears.

Literally. A figure fell before the arrow, and her dagger comes in contact with it then it flew meters away. My eyes widen as I watch her move between all of us. If I thought these people are fast, she is a freaking lightning bolt. We can"t see her at all. And the fact that she"s wearing a robe with hood didn"t help us at all. We all stop to watch her defeat all 5 of them, blood is sputtering everywhere with every strike she makes and her robe is getting strains because of it.

I gasp as I comprehend that she"s not using an ability at all, she just used her dagger and before I knew it she"s done. The 5 bodies lay on the cold ground, b.l.o.o.d.y and lifeless, their eyes are open in a terrifying expression. As if they were surprised. h.e.l.l, I can"t blame them, we were surprised too.

Her shoulders are moving up and down as if she"s breathing hard but she"s not, she"s just inhaling thoroughly. She turns to us and I went from being amazed to fight mode. Her face is still hidden in the shadow of her hood but when she pulls it off we can"t help but gasp.

"I"ve been waiting for all of you. Your friends are with me. Come on. I know you are searching for allies and I have enough. I also know you have questions but save it for later because I"m starving." Mice said.