A/N:

Heey! I know it's been forever since I last updated, and I'm really sorry, but it couldn't be helped. I've been super busy lately and that probably isn't going to change any time soon so just bear with me, here. I tried to make this chapter pretty long, due to the fact that it's been a while, but that also means that the next chaoter may take even longer (Sorry again! ;() but I haven't stopped writing. Also, the first elimination is in the chapter! I'll explain why this person was eliminated in the A/N after this chapter, but it still killed me. More eliminations will be coming up so I'd find it exremely helpful if you guys would keep telling me who your favorite/ least favorite characters are. Enjoy.

-M

Cecily was jolted awake by Indie, golden hair braided over her shoulder and hanging over Cecily's face. "What?" She mumbled, rolling over and pressing her face into the pillow. Yeah, she was not a morning person, not even for Indie.

Her twin poked her in the sides playfully. "Nia's on a date with the prince! Can you believe it?" Indie jumped up and down in excitement. She was obviously very happy for her friend, which meant that she didn't have her heart set on Happily Ever After in the Selection. Relieved by this, Cecily finally managed to smile.

Sitting up in bed, she realized that she had greatly underestimated the number of people in her room. Sera and Camille were also present. Yawning, Cecily ungracefully got out of bed and smoothed her moonlight hair to the best of her ability. Only then did she notice what they were wearing.

Sera's dress was light blue and flowed to her ankles, barely showing her high heels and was made entirely of scraps of different materials that had been tossed. Part of a curtain, light silk, lace, and other bits of fabric made up the dress. It was beautiful, and unique… and it was putting use to material that otherwise would have been tossed away. Camille's outfit was the same, but she was wearing a white T-shirt and a black, mostly leather, skirt that just about reached her knees. Her wild hair was curled to perfection and she wasn't wearing any makeup apart from some dramatic red lipstick and black eyeliner. She looked overall completely bad-ass. Indie was also sporting a dress made of scraps, the top all beige- colored and then an explosion of blue scraps that took up the skirt, the same length as Camille's. Her hair was braided over her shoulder, just like she always did it at home, and Cecily suspected that she had done it herself. She had lot's of star-shaped studs in blue and white colors and different sized in her ears and one simple silver hoop and was wearing a ring. That was kind of odd…

Grinning, Indie held up a dress that was obviously meant for Cecily. Again, made of scraps, it was a midnight blue with pearls randomly sewn into it. Thankfully, it would reach her ankles and was long-sleeved and it would even hug all of her curves nicely without being revealing. And, quite frankly, it was the first dress that Cecily had ever really wanted to wear.

Suddenly wide awake, she jumped out of bed and allowed herself a full two minutes to gawp at the gorgeous dresses before Indie pushed her into her walk-in closet with the dress so she could change. Cecily did so happily, feeling absolutely on top of the world. Heavens, what a dress could do for a girl's spirits was amazing.

Feeling like a super-model, Cecily emerged from the closet and her friends all applauded. Not used to all the attention, she quickly changed the topic away from herself. "Where did you get these dresses?"

Obviously ecstatic that her twin liked the dress, Indie grinned impossibly wider. "I made them myself!" For a second, Cecily's jaw hit the ground, but then she caught herself. Indie had always had a knack for these kinds of things, but Cecily could never have guessed that she was that good. "I even made them out of scraps, because…" for a split second, Indie got a faraway look before covering it up with a neutral expression, probably because that was all she could manage- Cecily had an idea of why she had made the dresses out of scraps. "Because all the civilians we saw on that carriage ride had nothing, and I can't help feeling guilty dressing in finery."

Camille cleared her throat loudly, obviously not comfortable with the direction the conversation was going. That made two of them. "Yeah, she also managed to get me a new pair of boots." Cecily's gaze went down to her feet. She had never really paid much attention to Camille's boots, so she hadn't noticed at first that they were even different at all. They were still thigh-length, with a little bit of heel, and brown leather but they did look… newer? So, she wasn't good at noticing when something changed about someone's appearance. No one's perfect.

"Why? What happened to the last pair?" Sera asked, obviously about as good at noticing footwear as Cecily was. Indie also looked at Camille questioningly, as if to say, 'why didn't you mention this before?'

Making herself at home, Camille lounged on the bed, and Cecily couldn't help but give a little disapproving frown. She had just made that bed. "One of the little boys from the village said he liked them, so…" Camille just shrugged, as if it was obvious. Did noble gestures come easily to everyone but Cecily?

Sera smiled at Camille kindly. "That was very generous of you. You seemed very attached to those boots. Where they from home?" Camille just nodded, her voice apparently not working and Sera nodded with understanding. Cecily wondered if her friend had been acting so glum because of something from home. Before the interviews, she kept avoiding Nia and barely spoke. Vowing to ask about it later, Cecily forced herself back to the present.

To be honest, it had never occurred to her that all the other girls must feel terribly homesick. There was nothing waiting for Cecily back home but her abusive father, seeing as she had Indie here with her, so she didn't have anything to miss. But these girls had loving families and siblings who missed them. She wondered if Indie missed home. Of course, Cecily's twin ad no idea what a monster her father was, so she didn't know to be afraid of him. Who am I really protecting by keeping his true nature a secret? Cecily wondered. And for the first time, she didn't know what to think about keeping her secret from Indie. Was she being selfish by hiding the truth? And, really, how long was that going to last? She hadn't been able to keep it from Sera for very long, what was stopping her from telling Indie? Cecily pondered for a moment before coming to the obvious conclusion: she was afraid that Indie would see her as the broken shell of a person that she was.


Waving goodbye, Camille walks down the hall towards her room, enjoying the sound of her new boots against the flooring. At the halfway point, she noticed a guard posted outside her door. Blonde hair a complete mess, he stood staring at the wall, fidgeting with the sleeve of his uniform. Rolling her eyes, Camille stopped in front of him and put her hands on her hips. The guard didn't even blink.

Her good mood quickly evaporating, Camille grit her teeth. "What are you doing outside my room?" Slightly disappointed at er inability to keep her annoyance and frustration out of her voice, she watched as the guard turned to look at her with a bored expression on his face.

Of course, even with the slight heel in her boots, he was taller than her, so he looked down at her. "The king requested that I be posted here, Lady Alverez."

Camille's jaw dropped. The king requested that a guard be posted outside her door? How dare he? What, was he afraid that she would attack him or something? Thinking back to the fiasco in the Great Hall, Camille realized that that was actually a reasonable fear. She couldn't believe that he had tried to send Indie away just for being kind to the civilians of that town. And, besides, if that was a crime, every one of the selected were guilty.

Forcing herself back to the present, Camille clamped her jaw shut. "Well, thanks, I guess, but you can leave now." The sooner this guard left his post, the better Camille would feel.

Amusement in his eyes, the guard replied, "You may be one of the Selected, Lady Alverez, but the king's orders are still more important than yours." He hadn't even been subtle about calling her insignificant.

Hands balled into fists, Camille resisted the urge to storm off to her room. No doubt he would find that childish and get a good laugh out of it. "Whatever. And stop calling me 'Lady Alverez'. My name is Camille."

The guard turned back to the wall, and it was as if she didn't exist until he said. "Alright, but only if you call me Lucas." He finally looked her in the eye again, and Camille though that she even saw the beginning of a smile before his expression became bored again and he stared back at the wall.

With an annoyed snort, Camille went into her room without a word. It cost her much to let Lucas have the last word, but she hadn't known what to say. Collapsing onto her bed with a dramatic sigh, she stared up at the ceiling and waited for some sort of movement from Lucas. Having a guard posted outside of your bedroom was no fun.


Sera watched Camille leave soon after Indie and almost followed her, but it felt like her feet were too heavy to lift. Cecily was sat in a chair next to her now messy bed, nose in a book. On an impulse, Sera rushed over to close the door, then turned to face Cecily. The twin looked up from her book and raised one eyebrow in question. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Cecily set the book down on her bedside table and folded her hands in her lap, patiently waiting. Seeing as the bed was already messy, Sera saw no harm in sitting on it, so she perched on the end across from Cecily.

"I know that you've noticed that something's been up, and you're the best person to talk to…" Still slightly hesitant, Sera swallowed and wrung her hands nervously. "Before I came here, I lived with my parents and my two sisters, Zizi and Clara. Zizi hadn't filled out a form to be Selected because she had been dating someone-" Sera snorted at the thought of Brian- "but Clara had, though I hadn't known at the time. So when I got Selected, Clara thought that I had stolen the chance of a lifetime from her… I guess I had…" Shifting to a more comfortable position, Sera continued. "Right before you had told me about...you know…" Cecily's frown told Sera that she did know, so she didn't bother mentioning any abusive fathers or horrid boyfriends. "I got a letter from my family that said that-" he voice cracked a little- "That she had run away… and now we don't know where she is."

Cecily's frown was replaced with a concerned wrinkle on her forehead. "Don't worry; she can't avoid her problems forever, or hide what she's going through." She cocked her head a little in thought, gazing at her door. "No one can." Perhaps not, but they can postpone for quite some time… and who knows what could happen in that time.


Nia rested her hand in her lap and crossed her legs with a smile as she settled into her seat. Unable to believe it, she started thinking about what her family would think if they knew that she was having breakfast with a prince. No doubt her sister, Charlotte would be squealing and jumping up and down and gushing about her own boyfriend and what their meeting was like, Aunt Kay would probably wink at her and make some joke, her mother would take her hand and squeeze it with a knowing smile. Grandma Tia would most likely give her a set of rules to follow and boss her around about how to act around him. It was common knowledge in her family that she harbored a crush on Prince Ethan. Whenever the Report was on, Nia would be the first in front of the TV.

Across from her, Prince Ethan took a swig of his beverage, looking like he was trying to come up with something to say. He obviously didn't have much experience with this. "Nice dress. Very unique." The sweetheart-neckline dress was indeed unique, being made completely of light green scraps of material, it barely reached her knees as it fanned out from her waist.

Nia was impressed that he would even notice what she was wearing, and did her best to fight off an oncoming blush. "Thank you." Then, as there was a brief moment of silence, she continued, "Actually, Indie made it." But she desperately didn't want this conversation to be about Indie, or any of the other Selected, so she changed the subject. "So, what's it like? Being a prince, I mean. There must be a lot of pressure for you to deal with." Nia frowned sympathetically at him.

Prince Ethan just gave an amused chuckle and set down the fork he had been using to tap the table with. "You know, you're actually the second girl to ask me that."

Suddenly rigid and starting to get annoyed, Nia forced a friendly smile to her face. "Oh, really? I thought I was being original. Who else asked?"

Not noticing her discomfort, Prince Ethan leaned back in his chair, a charming smile lighting up his face and making his unusual gold-hazel eyes shine. "Indie." You don't say… Nia thought, doing her best not to grit her teeth in jealousy. Was Prince Ethan already setting his sights on another girl? That was hardly fair, seeing as he hadn't yet given her a chance. How could he already be so enraptured with one of the Selected? They hadn't even been there very long…

She didn't have time to come up with an answer because in that moment, a guard interrupted their date. "Your Highness!" he gasped, seemingly out of breath, ignoring Nia and instead focusing on Prince Ethan. "The rebels- they're here!" Rebels? Looking towards her date, he seemed as shocked as she did, face suddenly very pale. "I must get you to the safe rooms," the guard continued, still ignoring Nia and reaching to help Prince Ethan stand, but he wasn't having any of it.

"What of the Selected?" he asked instead. Nia had just enough time to think about how sweet it was of him to care so much about their safety before the doors burst open, letting in at least a dozen guards. Quickly, Nia and Prince Ethan were escorted out of the room they had only minutes before been eating breakfast in, Nia's heart pounding, pulse racing, and a lump building up in her throat.


Bellamy was rushed into a huge room lacking furniture, light, windows, soft flooring, and any sort of comfort by a guard that had been posted outside of her door. The large metal door closed behind her with a loud thud and Bellamy had to blink several times for her eyes to get used to the light. Once they did, she saw at least 20 of the Selected before her, huddled in corners with makeup streaked on their faces and red eyes from crying. Prince Aaron and Prince William were also present. Prince Jaxon, Prince Ethan, and the King and Queen were nowhere to be seen.

Sera and Cecily were trying to find Indie and Nia, Eira was doing her best to look stony- faced, and Camille was fiercely arguing with one of the guards, trying to get him to let her out to fight. Eliza was holding the little boy from the village in her arms, stroking his dark curls with one hand and murmuring things that were probably comforting in his ear. Bell couldn't see Alda anywhere. She didn't know the girl very well yet, but she had made conversation with her on the carriage ride and she had hoped that they could become friends.

Pushing her worry for Alda to the back of her mind, she went over to speak with Eira, who was standing still in the middle of it. Bell had yet to hear Eira speak one word, but perhaps she was just shy. She decided that it was worth a shot. They both needed to distract themselves from the destruction being wrought on the palace.

"Are you alright?" she asked when she was in listening distance. Eira lowered herself down to her knees without answering, staring at the hard ground. The attack had taken it's toll on everyone, including her. Not knowing what else to do, Bell sat down next to her. Eira turned her head towards her and blinked, as if she had just realized that she had company. Bell would never forget the look in her eyes in that moment. She had never seen anyone look so scared or so lost as Eira did. But just as soon as that little window to her soul was exposed, it covered up by dark curtains. Unnerved by what she had just seen, and positive that she hadn't been meant to see it, Bell rose to her feet and was about to walk off when Eira did the same.

Her gaze suddenly became steely and unfeeling as she said. "Oh, I'm fine," her voice quiet enough that only the two of them heard it. "But are you?" Confused by her question, Bell didn't get the chance to come up with an answer before Eira continued. "Because you don't seem fine." Smirking, she never missed a beat. "Poor little Bellamy Sinclair. Never good enough for her parents, always third best. Used to being ignored no matter what she did because it was never enough." Bell was shocked into silence, a lump building up in her throat and preventing her from asking how on Earth Eira knew all of this about her. How she knew that her family rarely ever treated her like family, and that it ate away at her every day. "Your sisters always stole the spotlight from you, didn't they?" She leaned in a little, her voice lowering and suddenly sounding dangerous. "Tell me, Bellamy, if you weren't good enough for your own parents, what makes you think that you'll be good enough for the prince?"

Something in Bellamy snapped then, and in a moment of weakness and blind anger, hatred, and hurt, she slapped Eira hard, sending the other girl sprawling to the floor. With the worst timing humanly possible, the door opened to reveal Prince Ethan and Nia. Eira looked up at Bell, somehow making her light, blue-grey eyes well up with tears, her long chestnut hair coming undone from a complicated- braid. And for the second time since they had met, Eira Havillard looked vulnerable, but this time Bell knew that she was faking it.

Sera and Cecily had to be the only ones that didn't notice, as they were too busy fussing over Nia. Well, Sera did the fussing. Cecily just tried to get answers about her twin's disappearance from her. Camille was also quite busy, briefly welcoming Nia back and then taking full advantage of the chaos by slipping out of the door unnoticed. As Nia wandered off with her friends, Ethan eyed Eira, who hadn't gotten up yet, but instead sniffed and murmured quietly to Bell, "What did I ever do to you?" her eyes full of fear and betrayal. In the silence, everyone could hear them, so Bell had to refrain from replying, 'you deserve and Oscar for this performance, Eira. Bravo.' She doubted that doing so would do her much good.

Prince Ethan, obviously thinking exactly what Eira wanted him to think, walked towards the two of them and helped Eira to her feet, ignoring Bell for the moment. Even though she wasn't really that hurt, Eira leaned heavily on Ethan, poor guy, and whimpered slightly for effect. "Bellamy Sinclair?" Bell forced herself to look him in the eye, hoping to God that he would see that she was innocent. Unfortunately, he wasn't looking for innocence. "Once this attack is over, you may return home." With that, he helped a limping Eira over to the rest of the Selected. And, as always, Bell was alone.


Fiddling with the silver ring on her right index finger, Indie tried to wait patiently in the palace gardens for Jaxon to appear. She'd been out there for half an hour, and was starting to get seriously worried. Deciding that she shouldn't make a habit of twisting the ring that Jax had given her, Indie's hand moved from her finger up to her ear, only to remember that she had given all of her earrings to the civilians of the village they had visited. She never wore necklaces, bracelet, or anklets, either. The only piece of jewelry that she was wearing was the leafy-patterned ring. Swallowing nervously as the realization set the butterflies in her stomach to panic. Was this grey-eyed prince going to forever be on her mind? If she was choosing her jewelry based on what she thought Jaxon would like, then she really was far gone. Maybe she had reached the point from no return.

Perhaps it was because that thought terrified her, but she suddenly couldn't wait in the gardens any longer, so she ran back towards the palace, her dress of scraps trailing behind her and her carefully braided hair falling apart. Halfway there, she slowed down, noticing that there were no guards posted outside like there usually was. Deciding not to question her good luck, she sped up again and arrived at the glass double doors. Once she entered, and quietly closed the doors behind her, she heard the sound of gunshots, and her heart started racing, remembering the 'civil unrest' that had been mentioned in the Great Hall. Without thinking, she ran in the opposite direction as the shots, abandoning caution and kicking off her white heels for her convenience, hoping that she would be able to find them later.

She was so focused on getting rid of her shoes that she didn't notice that someone was behind her until he grabbed her wrist, pulling her backwards until he pressed her back up against his chest and wrapped his right arm around her to trap her arms at her sides, using his free hand to cover her mouth, muffling her surprised shriek. Going still, Indie was sure that her attacker could hear her heart trying to beat it's way out of her chest. Instead of a gun to her head, she felt his chest rise quickly as he gasped. "Cecily?" The mention of her twin gave Indie enough courage to stomp on his foot with the foot that was still in the deadly heel. It wasn't enough to do him any harm, but she did manage to escape his grasp, slipping out of the heel at the same time and sprinting off down the hall, wondering the whole way why a rebel would know her sister. Apparently there were more secrets in these palace walls than she could have guessed, but from her sister? Her twin? Sisters weren't supposed to keep secrets.


Cradling Zeen's head in her lap, Eliza scanned the crowd for Lia, worry building in her chest when she didn't see her. Zeen stirred slightly, and Eliza smiled down at him when she realized that he had fallen asleep. Ever since the child had informed her of his lack of parents, she had known that she would be his new family; she knew what it was like to lose a family member. It was nothing as dramatic as a tragic death, but her parents had gotten in a divorce, and unfortunately it wasn't humanly possible to be in two places at once, and Eliza was only human.

Silence fell upon them and all of the Selected stared towards the middle of the safe room, where it looked like Bellamy had ust slapped Eira. Zeen lifted his head from his lap and studied the two girls with his intelligent bottle-green eyes. "She was provoked," he piped up. "Bellamy didn't mean her any physical harm." Eliza coaxed him back to sleep before he could witness Bellamy's harsh elimination, sure that he would try to speak up but knowing that it probably wouldn't do the any good. They were lucky to be there at all.

Soon after, Nia and Prince Ethan appeared in the doorway and Eliza's lap was once again abandoned as Zeen's head lifted up to observe his surroundings. This time it took her a little longer to convince him that sleep was necessary. After ten minutes of calm, Eliza decided that it was safe enough to try to fall asleep herself, but the peace was -as usual- short-lasting.

One of the Selected stomped her foot rather loudly and placed her hands on her hips, clearly very annoyed about something. Eliza remembered that her name was Sera, the one that hung out with the twins. "Unbelievable!" she exclaimed. "As soon as we find one of our friends, another one disappears! I swear, once I find Camille-" One of the other girls managed to get her to calm down, but the damage was already done.

"Boxing- girl left?" Zeen sat up, blinking rapidly and covering his mouth as he yawned. The child needed his sleep, and all these restless Selected girls weren't helping.

"Yeah, but she'll be fine. Camille's a bad-ass. You should go back to sleep." Not taking no for an answer, Eliza pushed his head back down to her lap, and he went willingly, too tired to fight back. Not five minutes later, the heavy metal door opened once again and Lia stepped into the safe room, only one shell left in her hair, which had come out of it's crown braid and her shoes missing. As soon as she spotted them, she walked over towards Eliza and Zeen.

"Hey, Z," she said, ruffling his hair and settling down next to Eliza and Zeen mumbled something, swatting away Lia's hand half-heartedly. "God, he really is tired," Lia observed helpfully. "Honestly, Eliza, what have you done to the child to deplete his energy so?"

Zeen sat up again, and he looked none too happy about Lia's presence. "I'm not sleeping with her. She always messes up my hair." Eliza shot Lia a quick glare, warning her not to point out that his hair was always messy anyway.

Lia wasn't going anywhere. She leaned back on her palms and grinned at Zeen. "Yeah? Well, I'm not leaving, so I guess you're going to have to live with it." She finished with the very mature act of sticking out her tongue.

"Okay, I officially give up," Eliza said, leaning back against the wall and throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Getting Zeen to sleep peacefully is absolutely impossible." She was starting to get grouchy from being in a dark room for over three hours and, really, could you blame her?

Cocking her head, Lia gave her a puzzled look. "Excuse me?" Eliza simply waved her question away and prayed for some sleep herself. Happy to let it go, Lia simply shrugged and got up to ask one of the guards for food. Pausing once she was on her feet, she glanced down at Eliza. "Why can't the fight be over in, like, five minutes? Either you win or you don't, right?" But Eliza knew that things weren't always so black and white.

A/N:

So... Bellamy got eliminated. She was the kind of character where opinions varied greatly (you either loved or hated her or just didn't really care) I don't usually on purposely upset people, but I am sorry to those of you who liked her. Also, her creator wasn't reviewing very often, so... Unless you want the same thing to happen to your character, review! The next chapter will introduce another character to take the place of Bellamy (which I don't mean in a bad way) but I'm taking away the option for another extra character, because nobody seems interested. By the next chapter, all SYOC characters will have been introduced. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review!

-M