Differences Aside, ?

Chapter Forty Two

He stopped completely for a moment before raising his wrist to his mouth. There was no device there, so I had to assume that whatever he was relying on had been surgically placed under his skin.

"Call in the troops. It's over." He said weakly.

As if on-demand, the fires around me slowly began to extinguish, disappearing in billowing clouds of grey smoke.

"So what, are you going to kill me anyway?" Das said, his face planted against the floor. My dagger had not moved from its position.

"No." I admitted calmly, "Maddox can decide what to do with your followers, but Das, you will be imprisoned for life in the palace dungeons. I feel like that would be much more torturous for you then a quick and simple death. You will be constantly reminded of your failure. Every. Single. Day."

I looked up and noticed and Epsilon who was currently wearing his uniform, it was covered in badges. I beckoned him over,

"Take this man to the palace dungeons. The worst possible if you might." I asked, "Feel free to bang him up a little on the way."

He nodded his head, lowering his body in a respectful bow before taking Das from my grip and dutifully escorting him away.

People were beginning to fill up the centre, but Haven and Faith were already gone. I just hoped that they had managed to find someplace safe to hide.

I didn't want to experience losing someone like Verity ever again.

There was blood on my hands, staining some areas of my skin the lightest of pinks.  I could feel something wet on my cheek, my arms were covered in it too. I grimaced before trying to rub it off. That only made it worse. I loosened my fingers for a moment before starting to walk. My first objective was to find someone I knew, then it was to find Maddox, who, undoubtedly, would be extremely mad at me.

I began to walk, slowly pushing my way through the streets towards. It was almost strange to think about how quickly everything had ended, it had been so short that it almost felt wrong. I suppose that's why the humans had never uprised before this point.

They really truly didn't have a chance.

I saw Maddox, he was standing with a group of young children, all huddling around him with tear stricken faces.

One of the children must have noticed me and called out, I was too far away to hear, but I saw Maddox's head lift up. His whole face dropped, his eyes going wide. He wrapped his arms around one of the children who had been sitting on his lap and placed her on the floor. He quickly whispered something to them before standing up and striding in my direction. I gulped, a feeling of nerves rushing over me. He didn't look angry per say, but he didn't look happy.

"Please tell me that you haven't been out here the whole time." He growled, looking down on me.

I bit my lip, "No?"

He groaned, "I locked that door for a reason!"

I placed his hand on my neck, "I went to the city centre. I found Das. He should be in the holding cells right now. I sentenced him to life imprisonment. I know that he deserves death for his crimes, but I figured that imprisonment was worse. He has five accomplices, main operators for the cause. I can give you names but I figured that you could decide their punishment."

He looked stunned, "Did you get hurt?"

I shrugged, "Not sure, we'll find out when the adrenaline wears off."

Maddox dropped his head, pressing a kiss to my forehead, "You need to stop getting in danger. These past few weeks have been unbearable."

"I need to tell you," I took a deep breath, "Verity, Haven and Faith, they had been taken as hostages of sorts. Verity, she was- she didn't make it." I stopped talking before I started crying again.