Hello lovelies :3

Thank so much to all of you for the awesome reviews! They mean so so so much!

Theoneforever: OMG thank you! I'm glad ch. #1 made you feel the feels!

Parisismydream: Thanks so much! You have no idea how amazing that is to hear about my writing style XD

And thanks sooooooo much to the three guest reviewers too! All of your reviews were so nice to read!

So I'm updating MUCH sooner than I thought I would. I was just in the writing mood ya know? Just don't expect me to update this quickly on a regular basis. I'm leaving in a few of days to go on vacation and then school starts (along with midterms and finals *gags*) as soon as I get back. I hope to get one more chapter in before I leave but no promises. I'm hoping normally I'll be able to update at least once a month if not more frequently than that.

I went back and read the last chapter I posted and I'M SO SORRY FOR ALL THE TYPOS THEY WERE SO HORRID (like... there was a typo where I was saying sorry for all the typos) D: I read through this chapter like five times before posting it so... *crosses fingers* and I'm also going back to edit the first chapter after I post this.

Please keep reviewing! All the reviews good and bad mean so much to me! They mean that someone has taken time to seriously consider my work and give me feedback to help me improve and that is all I can ask for! (just please don't be mean. There is a difference between being constructive and being mean.)

Of course all the rights go to the most wonderful Kiera Cass ^0^

Well... I've talked your ears off so... without further ado... I present to you...

Chapter two ^w^

We drove for what felt like hours. I was blinded by the piece of cloth the rebel had tied around my head, so I had no way to tell how much time had passed. There must have been a divider between me and whoever was driving because I could hear no one talking or even breathing.

Unfortunately the long drive and complete silence gave me plenty of room to think. What was going on back at the palace? I wondered. Had any of the rebels stayed behind? Were they hurting anyone? Had the real guards made it past the barricades? Was my family all right? My mind was spinning with a million different questions that were unanswered.

Eventually I began to think back to what the leader of the rebels had said when Maxon had stood up. Oh, Prince Maxon, I'll speak with you later. What could he have possibly meant by that?

And what could they possibly want with me? I couldn't think of any way that I could be of use to them. I had just been made princess twenty minutes before they attacked; it's not as if I knew any of the palace's secrets. If they had wanted intelligence they should have captured the king or the queen or Maxon or-

Oh no.

And suddenly I knew why they wanted me. Not because they could get any information out of me, but because they thought they could get information from Maxon in exchange for me. And they probably weren't wrong.

Maxon had done stupid things to protect me before like taking beatings from his father instead of just eliminating me from the selection. I just had to hope that this time he would be smart. I had to hope he would realize that my life was not worth whatever they wanted of him. I wasn't worth telling them about Gregory Illéa's diaries or whatever else Maxon knew. I wasn't worth the safety of our people. He had to realize that.

But then I began to understand that if Maxon did the right thing here, I was going to die.

I was going to die. Without having said goodbye to my mom or May or Gerad or Kenna or Maxon or anyone. I was going to die without marrying Maxon, without becoming queen, without having children, without watching them grow up, and without growing old with my love. An entire life was being robbed from me. The only reason I stayed in the selection and the only reason I fought so hard for us- that we both fought so hard for us- was for those years to come. Those years filled with inside jokes and picnics and board games and holidays that somehow made all the heartbreak worth it. But now I could never have them.

And I began to cry. I wept for those lost years and lost goodbyes. I sobbed wishing for one more day, one more hour, one more second. Just one chance to say goodbye. And I cried knowing that this chance would never come.

Tears streamed down my face and soaked the blindfold. My hands were tied behind my back so I could not use them to wipe my face. I tried to use my shoulder to clear some of the tears but it hardly helped and I couldn't do anything about the blindfold.

I was suddenly stuck with how pitiful I must look: face red and puffy, with tears flowing down my cheeks. I knew then that I would never allow myself to look this pathetic in front of these monsters. If they wanted to break me they would have to try a lot harder.

I began to take inventory of what I knew, which wasn't much. This had to be the southern rebels. The northerners wouldn't do something like this with the alliance we had formed. So most likely I was being taken to a base somewhere in the lower part of the country. But that piece of information wouldn't help me by itself. I had to find out all that I could about these people. Even if the palace wouldn't give up the information the rebels wanted, I wouldn't go down without a fight. I would find a way back on my own.

Just as I decided this I felt the van pull to a stop. Doors opened and then slammed shut as the driver got out of the vehicle. I heard the back door of the van open and heard someone step into the back with me. I clenched my muscles ready to kick anyone who came near, but before I could I felt a needle pierce my arm. Whatever medicine they had in it was strong. Almost as soon as they injected me with it I felt my eyelids droop heavily. I tried to fight it, to stay awake but the effects of the drug were too strong. I felt someone pick me up and carry me out of the van before I finally succumbed to the drug and fell into a deep sleep.

I awoke to an intense splash of cold covering my whole body. I sat up quickly and looked around. I was in a cell lying on a thin mattress on the ground. The room was made of gray stone, and there were no windows, only a small metal door. The light in the room was very dim, the only source coming from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling by a thin cord. I was no longer wearing the dress that I had on when Maxon proposed, but instead I had on a thin gray shapeless dress. I had no memory of changing and shuddered to the thought of any of them touching me while I was asleep.

The gray smock was sopping wet and I realized that it must have been water that woke me. I looked up and saw a woman, probably in her thirties, glaring down at me. She had long dark hair that she wore in a ponytail, plain work clothes, similar to those that the man at the palace had worn, and a large blue bucket in her hands. The woman had a thin but curvy figure and carried and aura of power.

I tried to stand up but a tug at my wrist prevented it. I looked down to see that my hands were chained to the wall. There was enough room for me to move my hands, but to stand I would have had to hunch over.

"Stay where you are," said the woman. She had a strong and commanding voice only adding to the sense of authority she held.

"Wh-who are you?" I stammered, still slightly dazed form the drugs they had given me.

"I'm the leader of the southern rebels. And you and me, we need to talk," she responded.

"You're the leader? But I thought-," but before I could finish she interrupted me.

"That the old man from the palace was our leader? That's only what we wanted you to think. That way you would take us seriously without endangering our entire operation. We don't go sending our leaders into dangerous positions like that. The resistance needs me alive." She turned the bucket she held upside down and sat down. "Now I bet you're wondering why you're here."

"I already know why I'm here," I spat.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because you want to use me to get information. You think they'll turn something over for me."

"Well I must say, Ms. Singer, you are more intelligent than you look. However, you weren't completely correct"

I wasn't correct? What else could they want from me? "You would have to be stupid to believe that I know anything or that I would ever give anything away."

"You misunderstand me, Ms. Singer. You were right in saying that we wanted to use you to get something from the palace. You were just wrong about what we want from them."

My mind was spinning. The effects of the drugs still hadn't worn away entirely, and I couldn't concentrate. What else would they want? They had enough supplies to plan and execute massive attacks and enough coordination to have organized themselves and appointed leaders. What did they need besides information?

"Then what do you want?" I asked.

"Are you familiar with the theory of social movements in the field of sociology?"

I shook my head.

"Well, the theory states that there are three steps a social movement must take in order to get to the fourth and final step of institutionalization, that is, seeing the change wanted put into place in society. If all three steps are never completed then the movement will never reach the final goal."

"How does this have anything to do with me?" I interrupted.

"Patience. Now, the southern resistance has completed two of those steps: agitation, or the people recognizing a problem, and bureaucratization, or the movement developing a formal leadership and organization system. We completed these two steps on our own, but we are having a bit of trouble with the last step."

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Legitimation," she responded, "or when people outside of the movement begin to take notice. When they begin to realize that this means something. That is the part we need help with."

"I still don't see-"

"Stop interrupting! God damn it, for a princess you sure can't hold your tongue. Now as I was saying, your despicable king keeps covering everything up. Sure people know about us, but everyone thinks we're just a nuisance, that we're just a couple of rebels. And we need your prince, dear, to let them know that we're not."

"Maxon will never give in to these demands."

"Oh of course he won't," she said, mocking me. "Not unless he knows that his poor dear is suffering during her time with us. If he sees you hurt there isn't anything he wouldn't do to save his America."

"I will never tell him that I'm suffering. I would never hurt him like that."

"I know you won't. Do you really think we haven't thought these things through? We needed you two love each other more than anything. That's why we waited until after he proposed to capture you. Just to make absolutely sure that we had the right girl. And now I can see that we do. And since you love him too much to tell him how you're hurting, we figured that we would just have to show him."

And with that, she walked to the door and opened it. Two men who were waiting outside walked in. The smaller of the two carried a tripod and a video camera and began to set it up on the opposite end of the room, facing me. The other, larger man carried and evil looking knife and had a whip wrapped around his shoulder.

"We're going to record this little session of ours once every day and send it directly to your prince until they give us what we want," she said and pointed to the man with the camera indicating for him to begin recording.

The woman looked into the camera and began speaking. "Hello your majesty, my name is Jade Smith and I am the leader of the southern resistance. I know that one of our commanders told you at the palace that he would be speaking with you, but unfortunately he is quite busy at the moment, so I thought I would take his place instead. Now, before I tell you what we require I thought I would show you what will happen if you don't comply."

When she finished speaking the man turned the camera to face me and Jade kept talking off to the side, "I'm sure you recognize your beautiful fiancé, congratulations by the way, and I am very sure that you wouldn't want her to feel any more pain than is absolutely necessary."

I tried to put on a brave face. I didn't want Maxon to see how truly terrified I was, but I had a good idea of what was coming. With Jade talking about showing Maxon how I was suffering and then the man walking in with a knife and whip, I was fairly certain of what they were about to do.

Jade nodded her head at the man with the weapons.

And then the pain began.

So what'd ya think? Please tell me in the reviews!

And just so ya know I'm not going to have the next chapter get to graphic so no worries!

Hopefully I'll talk to ya soon :3 HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL YOU LOVELIES! (I said that in my goodbye last chapter but still.)

-actuallymaddy :3