Author's Note: Yet another Friday and now a full year since I began posting this story over on AO3 (the first place it was posted)! :) The story has taken on quite its own life since then, and as many of you know by now, I never actually expected it to take up this many chapters (and still going on with no definite number in sight). Don't worry, though, I'll only stop once it's all done, and I do have the story all planned out right until the end ;) meaning you can comfortably stay tuned without fear of this being abandoned! Hope you'll all continue to enjoy the story - however long it may last! ;)
Caesar
It took them another week of following the soldiers before they reached the snow-covered mountains that lie far northwest of the forest the apes once called their home.
For now, they still weren't far behind the unsuspecting military group, though it was getting steadily more difficult to follow their tracks in the thickening layer of snow. Even Storm was beginning to have a hard time with it unless she ran directly behind the horses, which the dog seemed to greatly dislike.
And the canine wasn't the only one dissatisfied with the snowfall.
The Ape King himself was quite troubled by it, as he feared he and his group would lose their target in the wild, white flurry or simply not be able to sustain themselves long enough for the soldiers to lead them to their destination. Food was scarce up in the mountains at this time of year, and even Lydia, with Storm's help, was having a tough time yielding any results from her hunts now.
Caesar pursed his lips, rocking with his horse's movements as it trotted briskly through the snow.
At least he and Lydia were on speaking-terms once more. Had been ever since that night the Ape King had finally pulled himself together and apologised. He knew he had done so rather gracelessly, unceremoniously walking up to Lydia in the middle of the night and demand she follow him, but he had been at his wits end by then. Had felt like it had been the only way.
He was still giving her some space, though, even if, on most nights, all he wanted to do was to reach out for her and keep her close. To ground himself with her presence. The night was the only time he had ever been able to do so – ever since they had first become mates. Right now, however, Caesar knew he needed to give her some room to breathe, which he was more than willing to do if it meant they could go back to normal once this was all over.
Besides, he was as hell-bent as ever on finding the Colonel and bringing him to justice, which made it easier to ignore the coldness the Ape King felt without his mate's touch. At least in this instance, his mission proved a welcome distraction.
Caesar didn't get to dwell too much on this as suddenly, through the whirling snow, he spotted the red taillights of the soldiers' vehicles in the distance, unmoving. He could hear the humans' voices as they shouted to each other, though he couldn't discern whether it was in anger or fear, or just the usual barking of commands.
He pulled the reins on his horse and signalled for the group behind him to stop.
Something wasn't right.
He squinted as the wind lashed at his face and pointed towards the commotion.
"They stopped…" The Ape King spoke softly, confused and worried about what the Colonel's men were up to. They had never stopped like this before, in the middle of the day and with little to no warning.
Had they discovered they were being followed? Perhaps they were preparing to lure the apes into a trap?
But before Caesar could finish that thought, gunshots suddenly sounded from where the soldiers were, frightening the horses and prompting the entire group to dismount and run for cover.
"Get down!" Caesar yelled at them all as he himself jumped down from his steed and, out of instinct more than anything else, placed himself in front of Lydia as the entire group moved to stand by an exposed, jagged rockface not far from where the group had stopped.
The little girl stood cradled in Maurice's arms with her back against the wall of rock, gasping with fright at each gunshot, muffled by the furious winds.
Lydia, who had placed herself in front of the orangutan and his charge, crouched down beside Caesar, doing her best to soothe Storm, who stood with her hackles raised by her owner, growling angrily and flashing her formidable canines in response to the sounds.
"Shhh, Storm, be quiet now." Lydia spoke as calmly as she could, though Caesar could easily discern the worry in her voice.
"What are they shooting at?" Rocket moved forward to ask, releasing breathy gibbers as he did so.
But Caesar couldn't tell any better than he or any of the others could, squinting once more against the vicious snowfall. Even without this flurry, it would have been impossible for him to tell what was happening over there – the trees and vehicles were also in the way, blocking him from seeing what exactly seemed to have the soldiers so riled up and trigger-happy.
And so, Caesar answered the only way he could, soft and breathy against the wind, sounding more as if speaking to himself rather than his second-in-command.
"I don't know…"
And it would take an excruciatingly long time before they were able to find out for themselves, not daring to go and take a closer look until several hours after the soldiers' vehicles had left the scene. It had been Lydia who had urged them to wait and instead scout the area to make sure this wasn't some sort of morbid trap that had been set up for them to walk right into.
It was unlikely, as they had been keeping a considerable distance between themselves and the soldiers – at this point more due to the fact that their horses' movements were hampered by the thickening snow rather than Caesar wanting to play it safe.
In any case, the group didn't make an approach until the weather had settled down, giving way to a calm, bright, winter-white sky that reflected almost blindingly against the snow-covered ground.
The Ape King, as always, lead the way towards the place the soldiers had made their stop, his gun in hand as Rocket and Lydia came up right behind him, the latter with her customary bow strung tight. Luca, together with Maurice and the girl, made up the rear of the group, with Storm prowling protectively beside the young human.
"What the-…?" Caesar heard his mate's faint voice as they all moved closer to the grim, yet curious scene that met them as they walked past a large boulder.
Three human bodies, all dressed in soldier attire and partially covered by snow, lie on the ground off to the side. Above the head of each individual, a few branches tied together to form an X-shape stood as a mark of the respective soldier's grave, accompanied by yet another branch with a helmet resting on top of it.
Even with these details in place, Caesar still had a hard time thinking of what he saw as three graves. Sure, the bodies would have been impossible to bury properly in a time and place like this, with the frost making the ground as hard as a rock – the Ape King knew this well enough, but...
No, it was the fact that all three bodies each had one large, easily recognisable gunshot wound in their chests, the blood having painted the once pristine snow and unsettling shade of crimson.
This… this wasn't a gravesite.
This was the site of an execution. That was what they had heard – the gunshots from before. It had been the soldiers, killing three of their own.
But why?
With a mixture between curiosity and horror coursing through him, Caesar stepped forth and crouched down by the first body, peeling off the large hood that covered the human's face.
It was a woman, the gentle slope of her brows and the small, feminine nose a tell-tale sign of that.
But it was what seemed to have come from said nose that really caught Caesar's attention: copious amounts of dark red blood, coagulated upon her cheeks and upper lip.
To his side, Rocket moved over to the next body to examine that too, and Caesar looked on as his old friend pulled up the hood to reveal a man's face, his naturally red beard standing out starkly against his pale skin as well as the white snow. He too had blood coming from his nose, which had flowed down to dye his moustache.
Storm growled lowly as Rocket removed the hood from the man's face, but the group didn't get the time to react to her behaviour before, suddenly, the soldier's eyes opened wide and he drew a deep, heaving breath as if starved for air.
"Shit!" Lydia gasped beside Caesar, getting up from her crouched position and pulling her bowstring taut as she aimed down at the man with her arrow.
Caesar, Rocket and Luca did the same with their guns, releasing shocked gibbers and chuffs as they eyed the injured human, each of them sporting an aggressive grimace.
Storm was barking now, taking a defensive stance in front of Maurice and the little girl, the latter cowering behind the startled orangutan.
The soldier didn't seem to care much either way, though, as the moment he had drawn in his first gulp of breath, he released it from his lungs once more with an agonised shout of pain. He grasped for his right shoulder, writhing on the ground as blood seemed to gush forth anew from his wound.
Then he began gasping in fright as his pale blue stare once again found the apes and he reeled back in fright.
Caesar's first thought was to protect his companions – his mate in particular, even if he knew this man most likely posed no threat to her. Not to any of them, really, if his wounds were anything to go by.
How had he even survived this long, lying here like that?
The growling grimace that had appeared on Caesar's face was soon exchanged for one of confusion as his eyes connected with the human male's, who seemed to be calming down rather quickly from his initial bout of terror.
Now, the sounds coming from him were pained gasps of breath – the only noise to be heard as the apes and two human females grew silent. Even Storm had quieted down once more, standing there now with her ears flattened against her head as she stared apprehensively at the injured soldier.
The initial aggression and fear subsided quickly from the Ape King as he looked down at the helpless human, and he went forth to crouch by him. He cradled the man's head in his hand and pulled him, as gently as the ape could, into a more elevated position in the hopes that it would allow him to better ignore his pain. The man shouted in pure agony anyway, slightly gurgling on some blood stuck in his throat.
Caesar's features softened as he looked down at the suffering man.
"Why did they shoot you?" His voice came gently. More so than he ever thought he would be able to when faced with a soldier. One of the Colonel's men.
But this man… He clearly wasn't one of them. Not anymore, anyway.
But why? Why?!
The human seemed to want to tell them. His blue eyes full of intent as his mouth opened to speak – began to move as if forming words.
Only none came forth.
Only raspy, nonsensible huffs and mumbles.
Caesar felt how his face contorted into a mixture of confusion and disbelief as he looked down at the man.
The way he tried so hard force his voice through but couldn't. The way his hoarse gasps seemed just short of enough to allow him to communicate…
Realisation slowly crept onto Caesar's face as he turned back towards the little girl they had brought with them, who looked both frightened and confused as she stared between them all.
Maurice seemed to understand, his small, green eyes widening as he stared back and forth between the Ape King and the girl.
"Like her!" He signed with shock once it all seemed to slip into place for him as well. "He cannot speak!"
What was going on?
But before Caesar could even begin to further contemplate that – something he wasn't even sure he really wanted to do – he noticed Maurice looking down at the human male with a sombre expression on his dark face.
"He will die of those wounds." The orangutan pointed out and the Ape King immediately knew what he was implying by those words.
This soldier, this human, was in for a slow, excruciatingly painful death and he was clearly already in great pain. Unlike the girl, this was one person they couldn't save, even if they had wanted to – but what they could do was give him a quick, painless death.
A show of mercy, as it were.
Caesar turned to look down at the man once more, watching and silently contemplating as the human's eyelids seemed to flutter halfway shut.
Yes, he could give this man mercy. He was not the Colonel Caesar was after. He wasn't even part of the group that obeyed him anymore. This man was a reject, cast aside for reasons the Ape King wasn't even sure he wanted to contemplate.
He lowered the man's head back onto the ground, receiving a soft, pained grunt in reply.
He was about to get up when Lydia's voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Wait…" She spoke up as she stepped over to crouch down by Caesar, ignoring his stare, as well as everyone else's, as she began to speak to the dying soldier.
"You really can't speak?" She asked him, her voice gentle as if she was talking to an ape child frightened of the dark.
The man, seemingly calmed by Lydia's tone, or perhaps by the mere fact that it was a fellow human who spoke to him, shook his head in reply to her question. No, he couldn't speak.
"Is that why they did this?" She pressed on, her dark, slender brows knitting together.
He nodded his head and his eyelids fluttered shut again for a brief moment, but it was clear he was determined to keep up with the conversation and answer Lydia as best he could.
Neither Caesar, nor any of the other apes, did anything to intervene in this moment. None of them dared. The man's eyelids looked to be getting heavy as he started to relax. To give in to his wounds. But he did his best – Caesar couldn't fault him for that.
"Is it- Is it a… a disease?" The woman seemed to have a hard time getting that question past her lips, and for good reason. Caesar felt his heart still for a moment, fearing the answer to his mate's inquiry.
And much to the Ape King's regret, the soldier nodded once more. The look he shot Lydia as he did so almost seemed to be one of pity.
The hairs on the back of Caesar's neck rose, and not at all because of the chill in the air around them.
The Ape King laid a hand on Lydia's shoulder, doing a subtle shake of his head once she turned her head to look at him. He knew he didn't need to speak for her to know what he was trying to convey.
Don't dig deeper. For your own sake and for everyone else's. Don't ask questions to which the answers will only cause us worry and pain.
Lydia pursed her lips as she stared back at him, though he could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't about to argue. She was processing what she had just had confirmed. Gathering herself before she did a heavy exhale and nodded her head.
Then, she rose beside Caesar, casting one last glance down at the dying human male, whose eyes seemed full of apology as he watched the woman back off.
As soon as she was out of his limited, peripheral vision, the soldier's eyes turned back to stare at the Ape King, and the large chimp was almost floored by the gaze he was met with, so pleading and apologetic.
"Luca…" Caesar's voice came quietly as he inclined his head towards Maurice and the girl.
It was time to give this man a merciful end. It seemed only appropriate, given the circumstances.
The silverback understood and turned to gently guide them away, shielding the child from having to watch what was about to take place. Over the past week, Caesar had thought hard on what Lydia had said, and in turn he had slowly begun to see the little human for what she truly was: An innocent child, a leaf caught in the cruel winds of the adults' world. Of the soldiers' world.
And as that thought started to stick with him, the Ape King had found himself to be more comfortable around the child, sharing the water from his gourd with her as they rode and keeping an eye on her when they stopped to make camp – no longer because he feared she would run off to the soldiers, but because he was genuinely trying to keep her safe.
Lydia was right. Human or not, this was only a child.
And she didn't need to see this.
The Ape King heard Rocket give a gentle chuff and noticed out of the corner of his eye how the balding chimp put his large hand on Lydia's arm, inclining his head towards the others as they left. Caesar knew she had elected to stay without having to turn and witness the exchange. He could quite well imagine how Lydia would have shaken her head softly at Rocket before turning her gaze back to the man on the ground, electing to bear witness to this rather than leaving.
Perhaps it was a way to show respect to a man who had been betrayed by his own kind – something Caesar knew Lydia was quite familiar with herself. Or maybe it was to make sure the Ape King would go through with it at all and not just pretend that he shot the soldier in the others' absence and leave him to a slow death out of spite?
The thought had occurred to him, Caesar would admit, but that had been before the man had tried to speak. Before the ape had caught a glimpse of what was going on.
And before the human male had looked at him with those eyes…
Lydia needn't worry about him not going through with this.
He chose not to turn back and argue with her about whether this was something she should witness or not. Lydia had seen death before. Had dealt it herself on more than one occasion and was ready to do so again if the need arose.
Besides, Caesar had an unnerving suspicion that the death of this man wasn't what was going to occupy his mate's mind once they would leave this grim scene behind.
The Ape King readied his gun, looking down at the soldier calmly and seeing the dying human's eyelids flutter one last time as he nodded at Caesar. He understood what was about to happen – had asked for it himself without words, only with the look in his blue eyes.
They weren't the same clear, deep blue as Lydia's eyes. No, this man's eyes were darker, less stark than the woman's…
But they were just as intense as hers when he had stared at Caesar, trying to explain what had happened and why, but lacking the ability to do so… A fact which struck the Ape King like a resounding slap to the face.
And it was that intense stare, even as the human male closed his eyes, accepting death, which flashed across the Ape King's mind as he finally pulled the trigger, ending the man's life with a pullet through the brain.
Plain and simple.
Quick and painless.
A merciful death.
It was something Caesar never thought he would ever be able to give one of the Colonel's men. Something he had never thought any of them could ever deserve after what had happened.
But this man… This man had been betrayed by the Colonel. By his fellow soldiers.
No, he hadn't been one of them. Not anymore.
He had just been a man. A sick man.
Like Will had been…
It had been a long time since anything had reminded the Ape King of his adoptive father. The world had changed much since his passing and everything that Caesar had once connected with Will, Charles and Caroline had either been forgotten or deliberately left behind.
It almost startled him when the thought crossed his mind as he stared down at what he had done just now. The result of the mercy he had provided. A mercy he could never have provided Will all those years ago.
Would his adoptive father have wanted something like this? For someone to end his suffering?
Would Caesar have been able to give it? And with such relative ease as he had done with this man?
What if Lydia would end up like this man? Or like Will?
Bile rose in the back of the Ape King's throat at the mere thought and he quickly turned away from the corpse, pointedly avoiding the eyes of Rocket and Lydia as he walked away, back to the horses.
It was time they moved on.
"I'm proud of you." Lydia spoke to him afterwards as they rode on, away from the bodies, following the now mostly-obscured tracks in the snow. "For what you did back there."
She hadn't needed to elaborate, but the Ape King appreciated her words nonetheless.
The deed hadn't been as satisfactory as he had expected something like that to be – to get to kill one of the people who had fought him and his apes for so long.
Then again, maybe it wouldn't matter how many soldiers he killed, or if they were deserters or loyal forces. Maybe the only kill that would ever matter, would quench Caesar's thirst for vengeance and justice, would be the Colonel himself.
His men didn't matter. His deserters didn't matter.
They were merely a means to an end.
The Colonel's end.
Caesar didn't say any of this to Lydia, of course, just as he hadn't shared what had gone through his head after having killed the soldier earlier. He merely offered a nod of acceptance and a soft look in her direction. It was good to know that she approved of what he had done – that didn't happen often these days, much to Caesar's regret.
Other than this, however, the human woman had been eerily quiet for most of the day after that, a far-off look in her eyes as they rode, though she performed her usual tasks just the same as she had always done, now with little hindrance from the gunshot wound the Colonel had dealt her.
At least there was that, Caesar supposed.
Two weeks after it had happened, it had begun to close up and where there had once been a brutal-looking gash in her flesh, there was now light pink, new skin surrounding a thin, dark tear which was still on its way to seal up. It was an immense relief to the Ape King that his mate's wound hadn't become infected – especially seeing as they were on the road practically from dawn till dusk, leaving little time to tend to the injury.
He figured he should be especially grateful to Maurice for his insistence on helping Lydia rebandage the wound from time to time as well – the woman could be frustratingly dismissive of her own injuries. The chimp knew it was an attempt on Lydia's part not to make people around her worry, but all it really did at the end of the day, at least in Caesar's case, was make him fret even more.
And now, just as her wound was healing up and the large chimp thought he could let his mind fully return to his quest for revenge, something new had turned up, posing a potential threat to his mate.
Caesar felt his jaw clench as he stared straight ahead once more, his brow furrowing against the onslaught of snowfall, which had begun only an hour after they had left the solders' bodies behind.
It forced the group to make camp without having caught up with the Colonel's men later that evening, all of them huddling together, sheltered by a sizable nook in a cliffside Rocket had managed to spot through the whirling snow.
The girl, swathed in the cloak Lydia had made for her, had managed to fall asleep with Maurice's huge arm wrapped around her for warmth, while the four apes and the human woman still sat, wide awake, around the small campfire.
It was a good thing their little shelter faced downwind – otherwise it would have been impossible to keep the flames alive.
"Do you think the soldiers left because of it?" Rocket questioned, looking between Caesar, Luca, Maurice and Lydia interchangeably. "The… disease?"
They hadn't talked much about the subject and truth be told, the Ape King preferred not to even think about it. It was like a new enemy had appeared – and one Caesar didn't know how to fight at that.
Something ominous and out of his control.
And if there was one thing that unnerved the Ape King, it was not being in control. Not having a plan. Not being able to protect the ones he loved.
But after what they had come across today – the knowledge they had obtained – the subject was the obvious elephant in the room (that was the phrase, right? At least that was how Caesar remembered it said).
Anyhow, it needed to be discussed, whether he liked it or not.
Lydia didn't seem to have heard the question, or if she had, she hadn't acknowledged it in any way. The woman was sat on a stump in front of the fire, huddled in all the clothes she owned and with her elbows resting on top of her knees, her folded hands obscuring her mouth as she stared into the dancing flames.
Caesar couldn't help letting his concerned gaze stray for too long in his mate's direction, though at least he could take heart in the fact that it wasn't just him who was giving her worried, sideways glances.
"I don't know…" Maurice signed thoughtfully, his brow furrowed as he considered Rocket's inquiry. For once, the orangutan seemed to be at a loss for words, which only served to underline the mystery surrounding this new piece of the soldiers' puzzle.
"Winter said they were going to meet with another army up north. He mentioned nothing about this. Nothing about humans not speaking." Luca pointed out, and despite his attention being divided between Lydia and the discussion he was having with the three other apes, Caesar easily noticed the careful look in the gorilla's eyes at the mention of Winter.
Truthfully, the Ape King didn't care much for the traitorous white gorilla. He was dead and gone – had been for over a week now, and Caesar had moved on. The only thing that Caesar still regretted about that incident was the way he had ended the ape's life, but not the fact that he had died in the first place.
He had betrayed his own people and submitted himself to the enemy. He had chosen the coward's way out, and it had resulted in Blue Eyes' death.
That had been unforgivable. He had been deserving of what he had been dealt in return.
The Ape King pursed his lips at Luca's words nonetheless, thinking hard on it. It was true, Winter had made no mention of this supposed disease.
"He may not have had the time to tell us." Caesar spoke his next thought out loud. "Or he simply did not know."
Maurice nodded at that. He hadn't been with them when they had infiltrated the military camp and interrogated Winter, but he had received a full recount of what had been said and done.
Lydia, meanwhile, remained quiet.
"That might be true, but why kill soldiers just because they can't speak?" Rocket signed with a small, confused pout as his heavy brow lowered, almost obscuring his eyes entirely. "Don't they need their men?"
Caesar had wondered about that too and yet the answer still eluded him.
As far as he could tell, nothing about these humans not speaking would prevent them from performing their duties, and they seemed perfectly capable of understanding spoken words, even if their own voice had been lost. In fact, there had been a very human spark of intelligence in the dying soldier's eyes, Caesar remembered, and the girl they had brought along still had it as well.
That was another thing that made this all the more puzzling. Why kill capable warriors? A workforce which Caesar knew the Colonel needed, even if another army would be joining him soon.
The Ape King knew that the humans of the past had invented sign to speak with those who could not communicate by conventional means. Be they deaf, like Lydia's younger brother had been, or mute like the girl sleeping by Maurice's side. Mute like Caesar himself had been before he had found his voice that fateful day at San Bruno's all those years ago.
Why couldn't the soldiers just teach some basic signs? Or invent their own, like the apes had had to do as they had faced things in the world that they hadn't known the words for?
What was it about this condition that made the soldiers fear it so much that they were willing to shoot their own kind – especially in a time of war?
What exactly was the Colonel's plan in all of this?
"There's one other thing I don't understand." Lydia spoke quietly, joining the conversation for the first time that night. Her voice had been so unusually soft and vulnerable that all four apes immediately felt compelled to listen, and they were now staring at her with a sense of quiet foreboding.
"If it's like the soldier said… If it is a disease and it's affecting both this girl and the soldiers… Why haven't I felt anything yet?" Lydia asked, lifting her deep blue eyes to stare at each of the apes in turn, though her gaze rested the longest on the Ape King.
As if he might have an answer.
As if he might protect her from this newfound threat.
They all knew he couldn't…
The question itself had everyone on edge – and no one more so than Caesar himself. But it was Lydia's stare that made his insides grow cold with a fear he hadn't felt since the night Blue Eyes had died.
It reminded him of the way the dying soldier had looked up at Lydia after she had asked her final question. The open expression of equal parts compassion and pity he had regarded her with, as if he had felt truly sorry for her.
As if he thought it was only a matter of time before she would fall victim to it as well.
The image that appeared inside Caesar's mind sent an almost violent chill rolling down his spine, feeling as if it bounced off each vertebra as it went, intensifying the sensation.
The Ape King was barely able to resist the urge to bite his lip in anxiety.
That image… Lydia's face, wide-eyed and begging like the soldier had been doing, with blood coming from her nostrils and her mouth opened as she tried, and failed, to speak to him.
Why haven't I felt anything yet? Her words echoed inside his mind, hollow and haunting.
Why indeed…
And how long would it remain that way?
